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Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 14:18:34 +0000
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Subject: [WASAN] FW: AF Digest 6/11-#2



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Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 07:12:05 EDT
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Subject: AF Digest 6/11-#2

Troops Arrive in Congo to Restore Order

By RODRIQUE NGOWI
.c The Associated Press

BUNIA, Congo (AP) - More French troops arrived Tuesday in northeast Congo to
lead an international force aimed at restoring order in a region where
tribal fighting has killed hundreds of people and forced thousands to flee
their homes.

A detachment of about 100 troops, armed with assault rifles, emerged from
two cargo planes that arrived in Bunia from neighboring Uganda. Another 50
were expected to reach the town later in the day, said Capt. Frederic
Solano, a spokesman for the detachment.

Several dozen French special forces began securing Bunia's airport, four
miles west of town, on Friday and about 700 other troops remain at the
airport in Entebbe, Uganda, to prepare for the last leg of their deployment.

Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, is the center of fighting between the
rival Hema and Lendu tribes, who both seek to control the town.

Bunia is controlled by the Hema, who fight under the name of the Union of
Congolese Patriots. On Saturday, hundreds of fighters using assault rifles,
rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns clashed on the muddy
streets of the town.

A French-led, French-majority force of some 1,400 troops is under a United
Nations and European Union mandate to restore order. More than half will be
combat troops, while the remainder will have support roles, said the force
spokesman, Col. Gerard Dubois.

French Mirage jets based in Gabon and Chad will support the force, Dubois
said.

``Europe is starting to sense an affinity and responsibility for this area,
and this operation is an expression of that,'' he said. ``You see a lot of
French uniforms here today. This is because France was the first asked to
help and was ready to get troops here very quickly.''

Speaking in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, at the beginning of a U.N.
Security Council visit to the region, France's U.N. ambassador Jean-Marc de
la Sabliere said ultimately peace in Congo depends on the Congolese.

``But it is equally important that the countries in the region exert a
positive influence,'' he said, referring Uganda and Rwanda, which back rival
tribal groups in Ituri.

The multinational force, which is expected to be deployed for three months,
is supposed to reinforce some 750 U.N. troops, mostly from Uruguay, in the
town.

The U.N. troops are part of a mission to Congo to monitor a 1999 cease-fire
and are mandated to protect U.N. installations and personnel. They can fire
only in self-defense and have not attempted to halt the violence.

The international force will be authorized to shoot to kill and is supposed
to secure Bunia and the airport and protect aid workers and civilians.

``It's a real soldier's mission. The mandate is very precise, and I have
forces tailored specifically to the mission,'' force commander French Brig.
Gen. Jean-Paul Thonier said.

The force does not have a mandate to disarm tribal fighters, many of them
children, who roam the streets on foot or in battered vehicles.

Nor will the French-led force be deployed in areas outside the town and
airport, even though violence affects many other parts of Ituri, roughly
twice the size of New Jersey.

The composition of the remainder of the force, which does not operate under
U.N. command nor wear the hallmark blue helmets of U.N. peacekeepers, has
not yet been confirmed. But Canadian and Belgian forces are in Entebbe to
provide air and logistical support, Dubois said.

Lt. Col. Ejaz Kahoon Abid, one of four Pakistani officers who visited Bunia
Tuesday, said his country could contribute 200-300 troops, but the details
have not been finalized.

The war in Congo erupted in August 1998 after Rwanda and Uganda sent troops
to back rebels attempting to oust then-President Laurent Kabila. Zimbabwe,
Angola and Namibia sent troops to support Kabila.

The foreign troops have all withdrawn, but rebel groups and tribal militia
in eastern Congo still are supported by Uganda and Rwanda.



06/10/03 17:40 EDT
--------------------
U.S. Hails Failure of Mauritania Coup

.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States welcomed the failure of a coup by
disgruntled military officers in Mauritania and President Maaouya Sid'Ahmed
Ould Taya regaining control in the Arab-dominated west African nation, the
State Department said Tuesday.

``We are pleased the attempted coup has failed and that President Taya has
regained control,'' department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said.

Taya and forces loyal to him were in charge of Nouakchott, the capital, and
there were no reports of rebel activity outside the city, he said.

A 34-member U.S. military assessment team has arrived in the city to augment
security at the American Embassy and help in case Americans are evacuated,
Reeker said. One private American citizen remains unaccounted for.

Earlier, the department advised U.S. citizens to reconsider any plans to
travel to Mauritania, where disgruntled military officers attacked the
government on Sunday.

Although Westerners are not being targeted, U.S. citizens already in
Mauritania should stay close to home and ``review their personal security
situations,'' the department said.

The situation is fluid and uncertain, although government forces have
regained control of Nouakchott, said a statement released Tuesday.

The department also said the U.S. Embassy may suspend its operations from
time to time.



06/10/03 15:52 EDT
------------------
S.Africa seeks UK deal to curb medical brain drain


CAPE TOWN, June 10 (Reuters) - South Africa is seeking a deal with Britain
to curb the estimated hundreds of South African doctors and nurses who
stream to rich nations each year, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
said on Tuesday.

"Brain drain" is an increasingly serious problem for South Africa's health
sector -- which is struggling to cope with the world's highest AIDS caseload
and extend medical services in poor areas.

"We have already had extremely fruitful talks with Britain's minister of
health, and a team...will visit the United Kingdom this month to pursue
discussions on this subject," Tshabala-Msimang told parliament.

"We have consistently taken the view that we would have no wish to restrict
the freedom of health workers to work abroad. We are more concerned,
however, about the exploitative recruiting tactics of certain international
operators."

Tshabalala-Msimang said the proposed deal followed a code of ethics signed
by Commonwealth nations at a recent World Health Organisation Assembly in
Geneva, and could pave the way for similar agreements with other developed
countries.

A British High Commission official said the deal was aimed at promoting
exchange of medical personnel, allowing South African medical professionals
to gain short-term experience in Britain while sending British doctors and
nurses to work in South Africa on limited contracts.

Over the past few years, Western countries like Britain have aggressively
recruited South African doctors and nurses, who are lured by better pay and
working conditions.

While Britain's National Health Service does not recruit in South Africa,
private companies are allowed to seek medical staff there -- a practice
which would not be affected by the proposed government agreement.

Earlier this year, Tshabalala-Msimang announced planned measures to keep
doctors at home, including salary increases and improved working conditions.

Tshabalala-Msimang said South Africa would pursue similar agreements with
Canada, New Zealand and Australia -- the countries where most of the
country's health workers flock.



06/10/03 13:30 ET
--------------------
Sudan to send extra forces to fight in west-paper


KHARTOUM, June 10 (Reuters) - Sudan will send military reinforcements to the
troubled western area of the war-torn African country where a new rebel
group has recently taken up arms against the government, a newspaper said on
Tuesday.

The government-owned Al-Anbaa newspaper quoted Interior Minister Major
General Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein as telling parliament that 12
battalions, equipped with 364 vehicles, were ready to move to Darfur, one of
Sudan's most arid areas.

Darfur's Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), which has been fighting
government forces since early February, accuses Khartoum of excluding the
remote region from development and state power.

Analysts say the SLM/A appears to be emulating southern rebels who are now
negotiating a peace deal with Khartoum to end a 20-year-old civil war,
mainly fought in the south. But Khartoum has said it will not negotiate with
the western group.

Al-Anbaa said the interior minister "revealed a new plan whose
implementation has already began to resolve the security situation in
Darfur."

It quoted him as saying that government forces already in the Darfur area
were being rearmed "to enable them to play their role."

The SLM/A came to light in early February when it seized Gulu, the capital
of Darfur's Jebel Marrah province, although it may have been active since
last year.

Clashes between African farming communities and Arab cattle herders are
frequent in Darfur and are fuelled by rivalry over dwindling water resources
and pasture caused by desertification.



06/10/03 07:56 ET
--------------------
Zambia boosts security after Congo warrior attacks

By Manoah Esipisu

JOHANNESBURG, June 10 (Reuters) - Zambia has sent troops to its northern
border after attacks by Congolese tribal warriors threatened yet another
conflict in the vast central African region, Vice President Nevers Mumba
said on Tuesday.

Mumba said Mai Mai fighters -- who wear magic amulets to ward off bullets
and fight with spears, bows and arrows and guns -- occupied villages 15 km
(10 miles) inside Zambia in the last week but were defeated by Zambia after
intense skirmishes.

"The situation continues to be a source of concern. We have sent heavy
reinforcements to the area where the Congolese militia have been operating,"
Mumba told Reuters in a telephone interview from Lusaka.

Zambia shares a long border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to
the Mai Mai.

The Democratic Republic of Congo plunged into civil war in 1998. A separate
tribal conflict is raging near the eastern Congo town of Bunia, forcing tens
of thousands of people to flee.

Mumba, a television evangelist appointed vice president last month, had no
casualty figures although Zambian security sources said as many as a dozen
Mai Mai warriors had been killed in intermittent skirmishes over three
weeks.

Mumba said the motive for the Mai Mai's incursions into Zambian territory
was unclear. The Mai Mai are traditional tribal warriors loosely allied to
the Kinshasa government in Congo's many-sided war.

Last month, Zambian officials said they believed the Mai Mai wanted to
launch assaults on Congolese government positions from inside Zambia, but
could not say why the militia might want to attack its erstwhile Kinshasa
ally.

Mumba said he planned a trip to Kinshasa for talks on how to stabilise the
border. He gave no date for the trip.

Zambia is home to some 200,000 refugees, with as many as 30,000 of them
Congolese who fled civil war in their country, according to government
statistics.

The skirmishes in the last three weeks were reported near the towns of
Kaputa and Pweto as well as the village of Kawama, about 1,000 km (600
miles) north of the capital Lusaka.

The Mai Mai have been active since conflict broke out in 1998, first
appearing to side with the Rwanda-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy
before switching allegiance outright to Kinshasa.



06/10/03 07:50 ET
------------------
Angola says ready to provide Congo peacekeepers

By Zoe Eisenstein

LUANDA, June 10 (Reuters) - A U.N. Security Council mission touring central
Africa on Tuesday won pledges of full support from Angola, including
provision of peacekeepers, to press Congo's warring factions to stop
fighting, diplomats said.

Mission leader and French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said it
was crucial that all fighting stopped and a transitional government took
root in the Congo, where new outbreaks of bloody tribal warfare have killed
hundreds in recent weeks.

"Angola plays an important role in the peace process," de la Sabliere said
after talks with Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and senior
members of his administration on the second leg of the mission's central
African tour.

"We examined with the president the situation taking place in the Congo. The
feeling of the members of the council, and I think the president shares the
feeling, is that the peace process is at a critical, perhaps a historical
phase," he said.

Angolan ambassador to the United Nations, Ismael Martins, told reporters his
country had pledged to offer troops for the existing U.N. peacekeeping
mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC.

In 1998 Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe sent thousands of troops to bolster the
Kinshasa government's positions against eastern Congo-based rebels backed by
Rwanda and Uganda.

Asked whether the earlier involvement might mean that Angola would not be
viewed as a neutral country in the conflict, Martins replied: "Bygones are
bygones. Angola's role has been positive and we are prepared to play a
positive role."

The long civil war in the Congo has killed an estimated three million people
since 1998 and at one time drew in troops from at least six countries.

Though most foreign troops have now withdrawn under an international peace
plan, fighting is still raging among rival tribes and rebel groups in the
remote Ituri region of northeastern Congo, an area seen as one of the last
remaining obstacles to peace.

The U.N. mission agenda includes a stop in the northeastern town of Bunia,
where a separate new French-led multinational force has begun deploying to
reinforce the U.N. peacekeepers already in the area and put an end to a
recent wave of killings.

The mission, the fourth to the region, has already been to South Africa and
will also visit Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda before returning to U.N.
headquarters in New York on June 16.



06/10/03 07:40 ET
---------------------
Thousands march to denounce Mauritania coup bid

By Ahmed Salem

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (Reuters) - Thousands of Mauritanians marched through
the capital Tuesday, noisily denouncing a failed attempt to overthrow their
pro-Western president who has locked up Islamists and courted Israel.

President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya returned overnight to his palace,
briefly occupied by renegade soldiers during the most violent attempt to
seize power since the northwest African country won independence from France
in 1960.

The failed coup came in the wake of the arrest of dozens of Islamic leaders
following the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but one detained Islamist condemned the
rebels in a message from his cell. The plotters never had a chance to state
their grievances.

"The death of civilians and the innocent for whatever reason is prohibited
by Islam," Cheik Mohammed Hassan Ould Dedew wrote in a note sent out of the
prison through his brother.

Thousands of the president's supporters marched through the streets,
chanting and bearing his portrait above their heads.

"We were in deep trouble for 48 hours. Now it's over and we are happy," said
Si Hamadou, one of the impoverished desert state's many unemployed.

Doubt hung over the fate of suspected coup leader Sala Ould Henena, who had
been fired from the army after stirring opposition to the Israeli ties. Some
officials believed he was dead, while others said he might only have been
wounded.

Soldiers said they were still hunting for any rebels who had escaped. One
man they detained led them to an arms cache near the central market, but
army officers said some 1,500 weapons were missing after the uprising.

The timing of the coup attempt, after the arrest of 32 Islamists charged
with threatening national security, has led to speculation of a link.

But Mauritania, an almost entirely Muslim country, has many other divisions
that fuel internal rivalries -- the black African and Arab populations are
divided into tribes and clans.

Henena's known anger at the links with Israel is shared by many. In 1999,
Mauritania became only the third Arab League state to establish full
diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, which provides some economic
aid. Diplomats say Israelis advise Taya on security.

Some Mauritanians suspect Taya, who took power in a 1984 coup and has since
won elections as a civilian, also courted Israel as a way of appearing more
moderate to the West after backing Iraq in the first Gulf War.

Politicians linked to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have been
detained since Saddam was ousted in the Iraq war.

(Additional reporting by Matt Bigg)

06/10/03 18:43 ET
------------------
Liberians suffer under Monrovia's deadly crossfire

By David Clarke

MONROVIA, June 10 (Reuters) - Shops are closed, petrol is scarce, tension is
rising and so are food prices. Liberia's capital Monrovia is in the grip of
a rebel assault and scores of wounded people have inundated city hospitals.

Refugees in their thousands have crowded schools and sports stadiums but are
unable to find clean water. Monrovia's civilians find themselves caught in a
crossfire of bullets, suffering and rocketing prices.

International aid workers say victims with gunshot wounds are swelling the
main hospital while fleeing civilians tell of bodies in the road -- men,
women and children, killed by heavy fighting near the port.

"There have been quite a lot of casualties. It's been quite intense and
there have been a lot of operations," said Dominique Liengme, head of the
International Committee of the Red Cross in Liberia.

"In the past three days we've had about 100 people injured by gunshot
wounds, and that's just what we've had in the J.F.K. hospital," she told
Reuters, mentioning a hospital named after the former U.S. president.

A cup of rice has more than tripled in cost, vegetable oil and fish doubled
and many residents simply cannot afford to pay.

These are the victims of a brutal civil war in this dirt poor West African
country where rebels have finally broken down the gates of Monrovia after a
three-year struggle.

For days now civilians have been shaken by constant bursts of heavy
machinegun fire just five km (three miles) from the heart of the city, as
government troops battle rebels bent on ousting President Charles Taylor.

Regional diplomats are flying into Liberia on Tuesday in a last-ditch
attempt to find a way out of the crisis, which has swept hundreds of
thousands of people -- already traumatised by years of war -- into the
coastal capital.

DIRTY WATER TO DRINK

In the Matilda Newport High School in central Monrovia, refugees are
flooding into the cramped grounds where the only source of water is a dirty
well.

"They are risking drinking dirty water," said camp organiser Benedict Gray.
He says 5,365 people have crowded here in the past three days.

While a few international aid agencies are still operating with a skeleton
staff, the vast community of foreign humanitarian workers that has been
helping war-weary Liberians for years has vanished.

Taylor called for the displaced to congregate at the soccer stadium, but
there are virtually no facilities and ever more people are turning up.

Local workers for British-based medical aid group Merlin said by Monday
12,000 people were huddling by the stadium, seeking shelter from nightly
rain deluges while waiting for fresh food and water to arrive from
somewhere.

"There is a great humanitarian need," said Merlin's Boakar Ngaima. "We're
seeing malaria, we have acute respiratory infections in under fives and
diarrhoea."

These are the people they can reach. Thousands of other civilians are
trapped by fighting at a camp in Clara Town, unable to move and completely
cut off.

"I feel pity, I feel pity," said Vladislav, a doctor from Belarus, who was
evacuated on Monday along with 535 foreign nationals. "Liberians deserve a
better life."



06/10/03 07:13 ET
-------------------
US boosts embassy security in Mauritania, Liberia


WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - Small groups of U.S. armed forces have been
sent to Mauritania and Liberia to bolster security at U.S. embassies in the
troubled African states and to help evacuate U.S. citizens if necessary, the
White House said on Monday.

An estimated 34 U.S. troops were due to arrive in Nouakchott, Mauritania on
Tuesday and about 35 U.S. military personnel arrived in the Liberian capital
of Monrovia on Monday, U.S. President George W. Bush said in a letter
formally notifying Congress of the deployments.

"Their mission is to augment the embassy security forces and to aid in the
evacuation of American citizens if required," Bush said.

In addition, the White House said the United States had positioned several
aircraft and crew in Dakar, Senegal, to shorten the response time should an
evacuation from either Liberia or Mauritania be required.

Bush said that although the U.S. forces were equipped for combat, in both
cases, the deployments were made solely for the purpose of protecting
American citizens and property.

"United States forces will redeploy as soon as it is determined that the
threats to the embassy compounds have ended or an evacuation, if necessary,
is completed," Bush wrote.



06/09/03 23:25 ET
---------------
Soccer-Brazil return to Africa to preserve 100 pct record

By Mark Gleeson

JOHANNESBURG, June 10 (Reuters) - World champions Brazil, on their eighth
trip to Africa, play Nigeria in Abuja on Wednesday seeking to maintain their
100 percent record against African opposition.

It will be the 14th time that Brazil play against an African country since
their first contact with the continent in 1960, when they beat Egypt 3-0 in
Cairo.

Brazil's unbeaten record also includes wins at the World Cup finals over
Algeria, Cameroon and Morocco. They have scored 37 goals and conceded just
six.

Only South Africa have come close to beating Brazil, leading 2-0 at halftime
when they first met in Johannesburg in 1996 and then watching in awe as
Mario Zagallo's young side came back to snatch a 3-2 win.

Added to their successful record in Africa is a 2-0 win for Brazil over
Portugal, with goals from Jairzinho and Rivelino, in a friendly played at
Lourenco Marques, then part of the Portuguese east African colony, in June
1968.

Today the city is known as Maputo and capital of an independent Mozambique.

On Wednesday, the world champions play at another cavernous venue, Nigeria's
national stadium built for the All-Africa Games to be staged in October.

Nigeria, meeting Brazil for the first time at senior level, have played
three times at the new stadium, beating Ghana, Cameroon's Olympic team and
Malawi who were crushed 4-1 in an African Nations Cup qualifier last
Saturday.

Brazil have rested most of their top players for the Nigeria match and their
journey to the Confederations Cup in France.

(editing by Robert Woodward)

06/10/03 07:16 ET
----------------------
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