Monster Media 1993 #2/Image.iso/text/afrnet6.zip/NEWS0608.93

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            USENET INTER PRESS NETWORK NEWS

            UPDATED TWICE WEEKLY: TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS

               LAST UPDATE: 6-8-93 AT 10:30 A.M.

Article: 15930 of soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Ethiopia/ TO REKILL A GENERATION ??
Date: 2 Jun 93 20:31:51 GMT
Lines: 63

Hello/Selam
After the EPRDF took power in May 1991, it held a series of meetings all
over the country to discuss some issues before the coming July Conference.
I attended two of them,one intended for the AAU faculty; and the other for
employees of the Ministry of Industry.Two things were obvious in both meetings,
the peoples skepticizm towards EPRDF and their admiration and support for
EPRP,the main target of Dergue's Red Terror.EPRDF used the information cunningly
ban EPRP from setting foot in Ethiopia but use the Red Terror as a short cut
to popularity. Many an Ethiopian pointed the irony of the EPRP members that
were killed by TPLF's attack on EPRP in Assimba & Maitsemeri. I remember in
one such gathering an innocent mother joined the others with a picture of her
son killed by TPLF in Assimba,seeking justice !!

The following is an excerpt from an article by Babile Tola author of the much
quoted book, "To Kill a Generation: The Red Terror in Ethiopia" on the
issue of EPRDF & Red-Terror.

---------

          The EPRDF and The Red Terror
           (To Re-Kill a Generation)

"One hopes that the terror has defeated itself by teaching its opposers and
the survivors that never again should such methods be employed whatever the
situation or justification. This is the only way to defeat the DERG once for
all, to deny the terror any chance of resurrection".
     TO KILL A GENERATION: THE RED TERROR IN ETHIOPIA, P210

Ethiopian reality has the habit of dashing many hopes. The worst, that which is
dreaded has the habit of happening. This perpetual delusion could well explain
the pessimist streak in our national character.

The regime which initiated and carried the Red Terror to its grim conclusion
is no more. Its top architects, the bloody and cruel men who killed so many are
 either dead (like Ali Mussa and Getachew Shibeshi), under arrest (Legese Asfaw
etc ...) or are in exile (like Melaku Tefera). Times are such that now the kin
of the victims are speaking out, those who escaped from the mass killings are
telling their stories, bones are being dug up bottled up passions (not always
savory) are being vented.

But wound continues to fester. There is some jarring note in all the ongoing
connected with the Red Terror, something that strikes one as strange, that
implies a charade. A number of people and publications have cited my (actually
"ours" since the effort was collective) book: TO KILL A GENERATION: THE RED
TERROR IN ETHIOPIA published in 1989. Some to corroborate, some to dispute.
>From all this one could get the impression that the nation is positively
assessing those dark years and learning something useful. It would be wrong to
assume this.

There is infact the conscious attempt to use the Red Terror for sectarian
political aims, to re-kill the victims of the infamous carnage, to use the
understandable bitterness of th kin to score political points, to whip up
vendettas, to justify mob justice, to isolate (yet again) the organization
which was the main victim of the Red Terror. This has made it necessary for me
to say that those who are using "our book" do so for their own purposes, not to
seek the truth, not to deny the Terror the chance of reliving, but to spread
the hate and violent passions which fueled the Terror in the seventies.

********************/end of excerpt*******************************

selam L'Ethiopia !!
Araya


Article: 15969 of soc.culture.african
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (BOORAN BAABO)
Subject: ETHIOPIA: Operation Develop Tigrai
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1993 22:41:07 GMT
Lines: 14


The TPLF government of Ethiopia has announced that constrution is underway to
build a Technical College for southern Tigrai.  This marks the establishment
of the second college in Tigrai since the President Meles Zenawi's Tigrai
People's Liberation Front (TPLF) tool power in Addis Ababa a little over two
years ago.  Elsewhere in the country the TPLF government has closed down
a farmers technical training center in the Oromo territory of Bale.  Numerous
evidences exist that the facilities at this training center were shipped to
Asmara University in Eritrea and this has been confirmed by Asmara University
officials.

When the new college becomes oppressional in a few months or a year Tigrai
will have the highest number of institutions of higher education per capita.
Most Ethiopian provinces have no colleges at all.


Article: 15993 of soc.culture.african
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (BOORAN BAABO)
Subject: ETHIOPIA: Ugandan Ambassador Expelled
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1993 18:04:47 GMT
Lines: 11

The Tigrayan Government in Ethiopia (TGE) has announced that it has expelled
the Ugandan ambassador to Ethiopia, allegedly for making contacts with what the
TGE calls
"anti-peace elements".  Reliable sources say the expulsion came because the
ambassador
expressed his opposition to the systematic persecution the TGE is carrying out
against the
Oromo people who constitute over 50% of the Ethiopia's population.  Several
people of Oromo ethnic background have been detained allegedly for meeting with
the Ugandan ambassador.  It is to be remembered that the TGE expelled a Kenyan
diplomat for exactly the same reason.


Article: 15994 of soc.culture.african
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1993 12:49:43 EDT
From: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: Land (Was Re: Tribal law vs Western)
References: <[e-mail]>
 <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Lines: 89

Scott has raised a number of important issues to consider in land re-distributi
on.  first he mentions the source of the money to buy these farms designated fo
r resettlement, and secondly he mentions the mechanism for setting the price fo
r a piece of land for resettlement.  both are touchy issues.  i believe in zimb
abwe (don't quote me on this one) that the british government since the
thatcher days has been bankrolling the resettlement process.  with a large
deficit to work with , it is doubtful that the zimbabwean government can fund
resettlement.  what can south africa do; without the british government largess
e at their disposal?  Since resettlement is the (only) path to peace, i feel
this is the kind of money the government should get loans for.  i doudt if
imf and wb would want to touch this one, but there are many other financial
houses that can take care of these kinds of loans.  the south african economy
is a sleeping giant; it needs a shot in the arm, and that shot is peace; peace
to allow the jittery investor to have confidence in pouring his money in this p
otential money-maker.
the value for the farms to be purchased... no-one is ever happy about this one.
 the government thinks it is paying too much, and the farmers think they are ge
tting nothing.  the price is set by a government edict; which cannot be challen
ged since it has conotations of "national interest".  kind of like the situatio
n you find yourself in when a major 6-lane highway is designated to pass throug
h your farm or your front lawn.   The land for resettlement is NOT the prime
land, otherwise it would have been utilized.  I have many friends, white and
black, who own farms who knew the axe was coming and tried to make their
otherwise unutilized tracts of land escape the chop by converting those areas
into "game ranching" areas.  they would throw in a couple ostriches and a hyena
into 20 sq. miles of land and ask for re-designation.  Most of these areas are
so desolate; unserviced, no roads, electricity; no shops; etc.  at the going ra
tes, these areas are very cheap.  Most of the farmers who were forced to sell l
and did not even know they owned it;; they had never gone to the far reaches
of their farms.  in south africa; it is rumoured that the size was designated
during the settler times by the fact that each neighboring farmer should not be
 able to see the smoke from his neighbor's chimney; in rhodesia a farm was a
tract of land encompassed by the distance a horse could travel in one day(!)--
i am not sure if the horse was galloping, trotting, or walking; in either case;
 it is a whole lot of farm.
in another of scott's insightful observation as to what should be done with
tribal rights and roman dutch law....   some compromise has to be worked out.
we are all in this mess together.  unfortunately; the roman dutch law takes
precedence over the tribal laws;; thus a farm purchased under present law
remains the property of that purchaser; and this process can only be reversed
by an act of parliament.  different groups can make representations to speciall
y set up tribunal to handle this very important issue of land re-distribution.
this could be headed by a retired judge or something like that; someone without
 political affiliations.  in situations where groups had been evicted within th
e last 25 years, and they have tangible evidence of their roots (in african
custom this comes in the form of their ancestral graves; etc) then the process
should be reversed and these people resettled back to their original area.
what, then, happens to "van der merwe"?  well, he just got screwed by the nats
and apartheid; and he gets compensated as much as possible for his land.  most
of these farms were sold to the van der merwe's quite cheaply by the government
, and they were proped up by the government with large subsidies; it is not
like van der merwe is really losing something he sweated very hard for.  i must
 stress, again, that this can only be done via a government edict; where
national interests are at stake, the roman dutch laws have to give way.
apartheid is a very cruel and wasteful system; it has disadvantaged and
inconvinienced so many people in its creation and maintanance; it will continue
 hurting more people as well in its dismantling.  Let me assure you; there is
no sanitary way of doing this; some people are going to be screwed, some
people are going to get hurt.  the birth of a new south africa (is going to)
hurt(s).
in zimbabwe, the infamous land tenure act which effectively divided the country
into two unequal part was promulgated in 1969; but it was merely making legal w
hat was alredy operating at that time since 1923 when the rhodesians refused
to be south africa's fifth province (the only good thing the rhodesian whites
ever did).  the british settlers instituted "apartheid" in rhodesia; left and
then blamed ian smith.  in fact, smith ameliorated the harsh "native" laws the
british had in place when they were running the show.  when smith declared
udi, they did nothing because they approved; while they race halfway across the
 world to take a few rocky islands (falklands) from the argentinians.
scott mentions the fact that there may not be as magnamious a spirit of sharing
 the land among the white farmers in south africa.  i never expected them to do
 this willingly; if i was them, i wouldn't either.  they have to fight for what
 they believe in, there is nothing wrong with that; but the country'd future is
 more important than their feelings; and at 60,000; they are not a sizeable
franchise for votes.  they have to be forced to take this medicine.....
and, let me say this with conviction: WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, THE AWB WILL
NOT BE THERE.  just don't treat them with kid gloves.  is the awb willing to
die for their racist beliefs; no; not to THAT extent.  they will make noise;
no doubt; but they are protecting their interests (whatever they are); but they
 do not believe half of what they themselves say.
i have an uncle who fought in world war ii for the british against the japanese
 in Burma.  he was a corporal.  when he came back alive (one of the few
rhodesian african rifles who did); he got from the overseas office a big heavy
jacket with 10 pockets while his white counterpart received a 10,000-acre farm
160 km east of harare.  he is now late but his children still work this farm
and they are quite prosperous.
as for subsidies and their effect on the farming community if they are removed;
 well, that is the subject of another posting..
reuben.


Article: 15995 of soc.culture.african
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (The Wise Man from the East)
Subject: SOMALIA: Fighting the "Peacemakers".
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1993 20:59:06 GMT
Lines: 76

From the AP:
=================================

   At Least 26 Dead, 100 Injured
     As Battles Rock Somali Capital
         ---
    MOGADISHU, Somalia - Chaos returned
to Mogadishu Saturday as combat erupted
between a warlord's fighters and U.N.
peacekeepers.
    At least 26 people, including three
U.N. troopers, were reported killed and
100 wounded.
    Machine-gun fire and grenade blasts
rattled the capital all day as U.N.
troops, including Americans, fought
Somalis loyal to Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
    The fighting, the worst in
Mogadishu since anti-American riots
erupted in February, showed the tenuous
security situation in Mogadishu even
after 6 months of foreign military
presence.
    The Somalis apparently were enraged
by rumors that the U.N. troops, who
took over command of an international
military coalition from the U.S. a
month ago, planned to take over Aidid's
radio station.
    U.N. sources said three Pakistani
members of the U.N. force were killed.
    U.S. Army Maj. David Stockwell, the
spokesman for the U.N. peacekeepers,
confirmed there were deaths and
injuries among U.N. troops, but refused
to give details.
    As military helicopters swooped
across the city, Somalis rushed their
wounded to hospitals on donkey-drawn
carts. Barricades of burning tires,
boulders and wire blocked several main
streets.
    The city's two main hospitals
reported 23 Somalis had been killed and
more than 100 wounded.
    Some of the fiercest fighting
occurred near a traffic circle in the
city center, a hot spot since foreign
troops arrived in Somalia in December
to safeguard relief supplies for
victims of war and famine.
    Bullets smacked into a hotel over-
looking the circle where most foreign
journalists and some U.N. workers are
staying, as Pakistani troops on the
roof traded gunfire with snipers.
    Witnesses said some Somalis tried
to storm a U.N. building near the
hotel.
    The fighting broke out about 10
a.m. as U.N. troops conducted
inspections of weapons stashes held by
Aidid's supporters. The weapons had
been taken off the streets in
accordance with U.N. demands.
    One of the weapons stashes to be
inspected was near Aidid's radio
station, which sparked rumors of a
planned takeover of the station.
    Stockwell and U.N. spokesman Farouk
Mawlawi denied any plans to seize the
station, which broadcast anti-U.N.
chants and songs Saturday afternoon.
--
Refusing to read the above post is a violation of applicable USENET rules.
Offenders will be shot. Survivors will be prosecuted.


Article: 16029 of soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: AFRIKAN SOCCER: WC'94 STANDINGS AND OTHER RESULTS/NEWS
Date: 7 JUN 93 02:41:15 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: edison.usask.ca

Description: WC'94 - African Zone Standings
-------------------------------------------

         P    W    D    L    GF    GA    Points
Group A
-------
Ivory Coast  2    1    1    -    3      2     3
Algeria      1    -    1    -    1      1     1
Nigeria      1    -    -    1    1      2     0

Group B
-------
Morroco      1    1    -    -    1      -     2
Senegal      1    -    -    1    -      1     0
Zambia       -    -    -    -    -      -     -

Group C
-------
Cameroon     1    1    -    -    3      1     2
Guinea       2    1    -    1    3      3     2
Zimbabwe     1    -    -    1    -      3     0


Remaining Matches
-----------------

Group A
========
July 3          Nigeria vs Algeria
July 18         Ivory Coast vs Algeria
Sept. 25        Nigeria vs Ivory Coast
Oct. 8          Algeria vs Nigeria

Group B
=======
July 3          Zambia vs Morroco
July 18         Senegal vs Morroco
Sept. 26        Zambia vs Senegal
Oct. 10         Morroco vs Zambia
***             Senegal vs Zambia (yet to be decided)

Group C
=======
July 4          Zimbabwe vs Cameroon
July 18         Guinea vs Cameroon
Sept. 25        Zimbabwe vs Guinea
Oct. 10         Cameroon vs Zimbabwe


Other Continetal Soccer News
-----------------------------

1. African Cup of Champions

Zamalek(Egypt) 1         Kaizer Chiefs(South Africa) 0

    Comments:  Zamalek advances to quarter finals on
           away goal superiority(3:2 ponits)

2.  Mandela Cup

Hellenic(South Africa)   3      Ghor Mar(Zaire)  1


--------------------------------------------------------
Milestones (*
-------------

Soccer hooliganism has claimed the life of Mallam Dauda Mohammed,
El-Kanemi Football Club's(Nigeria) sweat merchant/team manger.
El-Kanemi represents Nigeria in the African Cup Winners competition.
May his soul rest in perfect peace.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

cheers!

oguocha.

Sources: African News Weekly
     Reginald Dlamini (S.Africa)



Article: 16038 of soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (Peter Wade)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Last on Winnie Mandela case ?
Date: 7 Jun 1993 08:25:46 GMT
X-Disclaimer: None of the opions expressed herein are the official
X-Disclaimer: opinions of the CSIR or any of its subsidiaries.
X-Disclaimer: **  So don't freak out at _us_ about anything  **


Winnie Mandela had a five-year jail sentence reduced to a fine of R15,000 by
the Appeal court last wednesday.  The decision was the latest and final in
the trial of Winnie Mandela, in which she was accused of complicity in the
1988 abduction and beating of five youths from an Anglican refuge, which
resulted in the murder of Stompie Seipei.  Mandela construes this as a
vindication of her innocence.  Her bitter co-accused, and former friend,
Xoliswa Falati, was awarded two years' jail.  She maintains that the
asymmetry in their sentences reflects an asymmetry in justice between the
rich and the poor, the politicians and the non-politicians.  She said that a
groundswell of support for Mandela and militant sentiment in the community
had prevented her from being jailed.  Falati intends to appeal.  It is
widely regarded that Winnie Mandela has been spared prison because of the
martyrdom that incarceration would award her.  The government does not want
another Mandela in jail. Local ANC officials prevented Stompie's mother from
speaking to the press. Karl Niehaus of the ANC claimed that it is not the
ANC's policy to prevent people from speaking to the press.



Article: 16050 of soc.culture.african
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (Jama Barreh)
Subject: 46 PEOPLE DIE IN A CLASH BETWEEN SOMALIS AND U.N TROOPS
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1993 13:03:00 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: IBM Advanced Workstation Systems Division
Lines: 34


AT LEAST 46 DIE AS SOMALIS CLASH WITH U.N. PEACEKEEPING FORCES IN MOGADISHU
(JUNE 6) UPI - At least 46 people were killed Saturday and more than 100
wounded in clashes between U.N. peacekeeping forces and Somalis in Mogadishu,
the Italian news agency ANSA said.
At least 26 U.N. soldiers, all from Pakistan, were killed in the fighting
and 10 were missing. About 20 Somalis were killed and another 100 wounded
in the worst violence since U.N. troops began replacing U.S. forces early
in the year, the British Broadcating Corp., reported.
The incident, ANSA said, began when Pakistani troops attempted to occupy
a radio station in Mogadishu operated by Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid, the
leader of the main armed faction in the capital city.
When the Pakistani patrol approached the building, the militia reortedly
opened fired. The Pakistanis were surrounded and targeted by automatic
weapons.
The Italians rushed 100 soldiers with six armored cars, six vehicles
with gun mounts, six transports and two helicopters to support the
Pakistanis in an hour and-a-half operation.
Gen. Bruno Loi, commander of the Italian troops in Somalia, said his
men intervened without firing a shot "and without any casualties on our
side," ANSA said.
While the Italian troops came to the aid of the Pakistanis, Italian Ambassador
Enrico Augelli got in touch with Somali leaders and negotiated to calm Somali
crowds.
Italian paratroopers, based in Balad, 18 miles north of Mogadishu, moved into
Mogadishu's outskirts and freed four Pakistani soldiers held briefly after the
shooting started, ANSA said.
The U.S. Department of Defense said three U.S. service members assigned as
part of the U.N. operation were "slightly wounded in clashes in Mogadishu."
The Pentagon said some of the wounded were evacuated on U.S. aircraft to
hospitals in Germany.
The Italian Foreign Ministry has called for a U.N. Security Council meeting
to evaluate the situation in Mogadishu after Saturday's incident.



Article: 16051 of soc.culture.african
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (Jama Barreh)
Subject: Inside Zaire's Makala Prison
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1993 13:06:56 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: IBM Advanced Workstation Systems Division
Lines: 51



 What is going in Zaire should be condemned in equally harsh terms as
what is going on in Sudan. Few weeks ago some were outraged , and rightly
so , by reports of slaves in Sudan . The following story deserves the
same attention.
                                jama
__________________________________________________________________________

INSIDE ZAIRE'S MAKALA PRISON
Hunger , Death , revolution.

By Mark Fritz

AP:

KINSHASA , Zaire - Joseph Olenghankoy lives in a squalid
cell in Makala prison, a place where the luckiest inmates
get fed by family members who can still afford food and bribes
for the gaurds.
 He is the most famous of the 559 prisoners in this dank , crumbling
stone edifice built by Belgian colonists four decades ago. A preacher's
son , he grew up in the United States and returned to Zaire to start a
solar energy bussiness in 1990 .
 Soldiers looted it  , and Olenghankoy thrust himself into the politics
of choas in this central African nation.
 He now leads a young people's pro-democracy organization that is the most
dynamic of diverse opposition movement trying to topple Mobutu Sese Seko.
The despot has ruled Zaire for 28 years and is trying to cling to power
as the nations fitful toward democracy collapses into social disorder.
 There are at least 16 political prisoners in Makala prison. Local human
rights workers here say a prisoner or two dies daily in Makala from
malnutrition or poor medical care.
 In anew report , the New York based Human Rights Watch paints a bleak
picture of Makala , Zaire's 207 other prisons and unknown number of
secret lockups. Among the allegations:
    - Only 15 percent of the inmates have been convicted; The rest are
      awaiting trial , some for years.
    - Prison administrations have largely collapsed , with prisoners in
      many cases running the operations from inside. Prison workers,like
      most public employees , haven't been paid in months and often use
      inmates as slave laborers.
    - The organization said 2,229 prisoners - one in every 12 - died in
      lockup in 1991. The situation is believed worse now , reflecting
      the further collapse of society and increase in hunger and disease.
 According to foreign diplomats and human rights representatives,
Olenghankoy , 28 , enjoys a grass-roots following.
 He was arrested April 9 by Mobutu's secret police.
 " Our goals are to fight dictatorship," Olenghankoy said , smiling
serenely. " The fact that I am here is a sign of the death of the
dictatorship."


Article: 16052 of soc.culture.african
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (Andrew Varvel)
Subject: Inside Makala Prison:  Surviving the neglect
Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet login)
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1993 14:03:49 GMT
Lines: 118


[posted without permission]

(any typos are probably mine)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside Makala Prison:  Surviving the neglect

by Mark Fritz
Associated Press

KINSHASA, Zaire -- Joseph Olenghankoy lives in a squalid cell in Makala
prison, a place where the luckiest inmates get fed by family members who can
still afford food and bribes for the guards.

He is the most famous of the 559 prisoners in this dank, crumbling stone
edifice built by Belgian colonists four decades ago.  A preacher's son, he
grew up in the United States and returned to Zaire to start a solar energy
business in 1990.

Soldiers looted it, and Olenghankoy thrust himself into the politics of
chaos in this African nation.

He now leads a young people's pro-democracy organization that is the most
dynamic element of the diverse opposition movement trying to topple Mobutu
Sese Seko.  The despot has ruled Zaire for 28 years and is trying to cling
to power as the nation's fitful move toward democracy collapses into social
disorder.

There are at least 16 political prisoners in Makala prison, one of the
institutions that has broken down in this country.  Local human rights
workers here say a prisoner or two dies daily in Makala from malnutrition or
poor medical care.

An Associated Press reporter who gained access to the prison without
revealing his occupation saw family members pass crumpled bills to
belligerent guards so they could enter the sprawling sand-covered prison
yard dotted with junked vehicles.

Bleak picture

In a new report, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch paints a bleak
picture of Makala, Zaire's 207 other prisons and the unknown number of
secret police lockups.  Among the allegations:

* Only 15 percent of the inmates have been convicted; the rest are awaiting
trial, some for years.

* Prison administrations have largely collapsed, with prisoners in many
cases running the operations from inside.  Prison workers, like most public
employees, haven't been paid in months and often use inmates as slave
laborers.

"At Makala, prisoners effectively decide who will eat and how much," the
report said.  "New prisoners and younger prisoners are forced to service
more senior prisoners -- working their garden plot, for example, or
providing sexual favors."

* The organization said 2,229 prisoners -- one in every 12 -- died in lockup
in 1991.  The situation is believed worse now, reflecting the further
collapse of society and increase in hunger and disease.

"The prisons?  It's death," said Human Rights Watch's Peter Rosenblum, who
wrote the report.

Outside the walls

Because of 4,000 percent annual inflation and the breakdown in food
distribution, hunger is rising in this capital city of 3 million people.
Local human rights workers say some prisoners are starving because their
families no longer can afford to bring food.

The International Committee of the Red Cross began an emergency feeding
program in Makala in July 1991, but it ended in March.

The political prisoners were rounded up in March and April as Mobutu
increased pressure on the pro-democracy government of Etienne Tshisekedi.

Mobutu grudgingly appointed Tshisekedi prime minister in 1991 under pressure
from the West and his own people, but has since tried to fire him and has
appointed his own prime minister.

Youth wing

Olenghankoy, 28, leads the youth wing of Tshisekedi's party.  According to
foreign diplomats and human rights representatives, he enjoys a grass-roots
following.

He was arrested April 9 by Mobutu's secret police.  He and other opposition
figures say they are subsisting on rice and vegetables brought in by human
rights groups.

Olenghankoy is the mastemind of "Ville Morte", or "dead City", a periodic
protest in which Kinshasa's 3 million residents are urged to stay home for
the day.  It is a somewhat safe way to tell Mobutu his era is ending.

"When (Olenghankoy) signs his name to something, everybody listens," said
Jean-Marie Rusimbuka, an official of a human rights group called Voice of
the Voiceless and a member of an interim parliament meant to usher the
nation to democracy.

"He has charisma.  The streets are dead when he calls a Dead City."

Olenghankoy walked the prison yard patrolled haphazrdly by slouching guards
wearing jungle camouflage and red berets.  Worried because he was being
watched, he communicated through brief conversations as he and a reporter
casually crossed paths.

"Our goals are to fight dictatorship," he said smiling serenely as inmates
trailed him like ducklings.  "As the dictatorship dies, we see the signs of
intimidation.

The fact I am here is a sign of the death of the dictatorship."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

--Andrew Varvel--


Article: 16053 of soc.culture.african
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (Andrew Varvel)
Subject: Liberian rebels massacre 300 refugees, UN says
Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet login)
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network
Lines: 75


[posted without permission]

(typos are likely to be mine)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Michelle Faul
Associated Press

ABIDJIAN, Ivory Coast -- Liberian rebels slaughtered 300 refugees -- mostly
women and children -- Sunday at an abandoned rubber plantation outside
Monrovia in an "orgy of killing and mutilation," a U.N. official said.

The massacre was the worst in Liberia's 3 1/2-year-old civil war since
government soldiers killed 600 members of rival tribes in Monrovia in 1990.

"They cut throats, they cut heads, threw out brains, opened stomachs, and
pulled out intestines, broke legs, and shot, so many bullet wounds that you
cannot understand why," Augustine Mahiga, representative of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees, said in a telephone interview.

He spoke after viewing what he called "scenes more horrible than any movie
I've ever seen."  He said the killings began just after midnight Saturday
and must have lasted for two hours.  Most victims were women and children,
he said.

Mahiga said witnesses blamed guerrilla leader Charles Taylor's rebels, who
started the war in 1989.  Since then, Liberia has collapsed into chaos and
more than half of the 2.3 million people are refugees.

But Taylor denied responsibility for teh massacre, telling British
Broadcasting Corp. that it was another attempt to give his army "a bad name."

He said he believed the killings were carried out, as the pretext for an
offensive against him, by Liberian army troops and another rebel faction,
with the consent of a West African intervention force sent to end Liberia's
3 1/2-year war.

The massacre came two weeks after the West African army said it intercepted
a radio message from Taylor to one of his commanders, in which he ordered a
"reign of terror" against refugees on the front lines of Liberia's
3 1/2-year-old civil war.

Taylor denied he sent the message, but Mahiga and others who have listened
to it said they recognized the guerrilla chief's distinctive baritone.

Mahiga said he and others estimated some 300 people were killed and 765
wounded Sunday at Kata, a camp of refugees set up at the workers' compound
of an abandoned Firestone complex that is the world's largest rubber
plantation.  The site is 35 miles northeast of Monrovia, the capital.

He said survivors told him that Taylor's troops had come looking for food
just after midnight Saturday, a day after the United Nations had distributed
rice in the area.

"They collected the rice, then went on an orgy of killing of
mutilation...they went from house to house killing entire families in the
most horrifying manner," he said.

"I saw (the bodies of) a mother who was trying to protect her son and at the
same time had a baby on her back, the mother was shot, the baby's skull had
been slashed open and there was no brain in it, Mahiga said.

A second refugee camp was attacked and the death toll may be much higher, he
said.

Mahiga said people were speculating the rebels were using body parts for
witchcraft, which is common in West Africa.

Taylor began the fighting with an invasion from the Ivory Coast in December
1989, sparking a civil war that killed an estimated 60,000 people in 1990.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article: 16057 of soc.culture.african
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (Andrew Varvel)
Subject: Security Coucil seeks to punish Somali warlord after attack
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1993 16:07:44 GMT
Lines: 77


[posted without permission]

(if there's a typo here, it's probably my fault)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Security Coucil seeks to punish Somali warlord after attack

by Andrew Katell
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS -- The Security Council, in an emergency session, on Sunday
unanimously demanded the arrest of the people who ambushed U.N. peacekeepers
in Somalia and killed 22 Pakistani soldiers.

Three Americans were among those wounded in the attack.

At Pakistans's request, the resolution passed Sunday also asked countries to
contribute armored personnel carriers and helicopters to prevent similar
attacks.

During private council consultations, Russia proposed the creation of an
international tribunal to try people who attack U.N. personnel.  The
proposal was not voted on.

Russian Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov said the United Nations should show it
would punish by legal means or military power.

In Saturday's attack in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, 22 Pakistani soldiers
were killed, 10 were missing and 50 wounded, officials said.

It was the bloodiest attack on U.N. peacekeepers since 1961, when 44 were
killed in the Congo, and underscored the danger still in Somalia after six
months of foreign military deployment.

As many as 23 Somalis also died and more than 100 were wounded in Saturday's
fighting, officials at Mogadishu's main hospitals said.

"We are totally outraged by what has happened in Mogadishu.  We consider
this incomprehensible and unacceptable," U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright
told reporters before Sunday's council meeting.

The resolution the 15 members approved condemns the attack and underscores
that U.N. commanders could "take all necessary measures" to arrest those
responsible.

Saturday's fighting broke out as U.N. troops inspected weapons warehouses.
The warehouses are controlled by warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, who was told
of the inspections 24 hours in advance and did not object.

The U.N. special envoy to Somalia effectively blamed Aidid.

"Circumstantially, it would appear he was responsible," Adm. Jonathan Howe
told reporters in Mogadishu.  "The world will not tolerate this, and they
will provide us with the resources necessary to stop this."

Pakistan initially proposed a provision the says the council "authorizes
Gen. Aidid's arrest and detention if his complicity in the attack is
established."  But some diplomats opposed a specific reference to Aidid
until a full investigation is concluded, and the wording was changed to
request a probe into "the role of those factional leaders involved."

A report on the incident by the U.N. Secretariat called it "a calculated,
premeditated series of major cease-fire violations meant to challenge and
intimidate" U.N. peacekeepers, known as UNOSOM.

The report, a copy of which was leaked to U.N. correspondents, said Aidid
apparently was "seeking a confrontation with UNOSOM in order to take control
of the political reconciliation and judicial processes.

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in Tunis, urged that "firm action
be taken against the perpetrators of this crime."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

--Andrew Varvel--


Article: 16073 of soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (mwamba kapanga)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: African Passivity
Date: 7 Jun 1993 20:47:06 GMT
Lines: 79
Distribution: world
Keywords: African Passivity

Dear Friends:


I would like to initiate a discussion amongst us regarding Africa's
passivity towards the political crises that plague most of Africa
(Cf. Liberia, Somalia, Zaire, Sudan, Rwanda, Togo, Mauritania, South
Africa, Sierra Leonne, Angola, etc.). I am dismayed by the lack of support
that Nigeria has not been receiving in its attempt to solve the crisis
in Liberia. Some African countries are even involved in aiding Charles
Taylor who has just ordered the butchering of more than three hundred
people (mostly women and children) near Monrovia; is this what we call
African solidarity. Ecomog is not an organization whose objective is
to colonize Liberia, it has as its objective "stopping the killings in
Liberia, instituting the rule of law by organizing free and fair election
in that country; what is wrong with that? Why aren't all African
Nations supporting ECOMOG? I am baffled by the silence displayed by most
African leaders with regard to the Angolan crisis. Savimbi lost the
elections which were fair and free; now he is continuing a brutal war
war whose results are the pains and sufferings of innocent civilians.
Should we say that African countries enjoy seeing Africans die at the
hands of other Africans? It has been more than twenty eight years
since Mobutu took power in Zaire. He has stolen most of that country's
wealth, he has killed opposition members and innocent people, he has
led his country to total chaos, ruin, etc. Since his advent to power
he has not built a single hospital, a single school, a single road, etc.
Today the Zairian people are fighting the dictator who is clinging to
power while inflicting pains and sufferings on an entire nation. I was
even taken aback by a trip undertaken by the Secretary General of the
OAU to Zaire where he visited Mobutu while ignoring the opposition
that is struggling with Mobutu. Togo, Rwanda are basically mirror
images of Zaire. If the west decides to intervene in these countries,
African nations will be the first to scream "COLONIZATION" or
INTERFERENCE in internal problems of African countries. What do we call
internal problems of a country? Is butchering people what you call
internal problems of a country? When the US intervened in Somalia,
many African nations displayed their displeasure with that
intervention; but when asked to join the United Nations forces in
Somalia, most countries bulked at the idea. I remember reading on this
post many letters that were anti western countries with regard to
Somalia. What have we as African people done to stop our own brothers
from inflicting misery, pain and death on our own people? Instead of
wasting our time talking about "homosexuality or circumcision of
women" in Africa, we need to address serious problems that deal with
hunger, diseases, death, oppression, human right abuses of African
by Africans? How many of you talked about homosexuality and women
circumcision before coming to America? Not that these are not subjects
that need to be debated! They need to be talked about but let us talk
about more pressing issues. It is useless to defend the idea that
Homosexuality was brought to Africa by Westerners when you know people
in your own country who are dying of hunger or being persecuted by a
dictator. The West can afford to talk about these social issues
because they provide the basic necessities to their people (although
not always). I seldom see articles written by Africans in this group,
dealing with the Sudanese problem, Slavery in Mauritania, the killings
of non-Muslims in Mauritania, etc. But I have seen tons of articles about
homosexuality or women circumcision in Africa. Why are you so obsessed
with these topics that bring nothing to the well-being of the African
Nations? We know that homosexuality is not intrinsic to the African
culture; if there are people who want to argue that it is there, let
them talk about it; as much as I abhore female circumcision, I do not
want us to spend our time defending it (we hate female circumcision
because it is in violation of the rights of those who undergo it and
we should speak against it) but there pressing issues that involve
death, hunger, malnutrition, oppression, kidnaping, etc. Let us debate
these issues. When Africa will be able to feed its people, when Africa
will be able to stop the oppression of Africans by other Africans,
then we can engage in these various debates.

Well, back to my basic topic. Why this silence of African nations
vis-a-vis oppression of Africans by other Africans? Why this silence
of African Nations vis-a-vis hunger, pains and sufferings inflicted on
Africans by a few ruthless dictators for the sake of clinging to
power? Why do African Nations have the tendency to support the
oppressors at the expense of the oppressed? If the OAU cannot speak on
behalf of the oppressed, why talk about it? Let it die!!!!!!!

I am looking forward to a fruitful discussion that does not involve
name calling, insults, and the like. Sincerely. Mwamba.



From uwvax!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!news.umbc.edu!gmuvax2!gmuvax.gmu.edu!sgebregz Tue Jun  8 09:39:10 CDT 1993
Article: 16087 of soc.culture.african
Path: uwvax!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!news.umbc.edu!gmuvax2!gmuvax.gmu.edu!sgebregz
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: ERITREA NASCENT (PART II)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 7 Jun 93 16:51:19 -0500
Followup-To: Part I
Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
Lines: 130


          "ERITREA NASCENT: The Next Fight For Independence"
                By Stephen Hubbell,
            (The nation's Cairo correspondent)
                   May 31, 1993

                  Part II

Having raised self-sufficiency to a high art during the liberation struggle,
the leadership is in no mood to start taking its orders from Western
governments and international lenders, but  the urgent need for fresh
capital may leave Isayas and his deputies little choice.  Last summer,
officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development dangled $26
million in "programmatic" assistance (aid tied to free-market "reforms") in
front of the provisional government, demanding in return that it speedily
implement a radical - and poorly conceived - privatization program.  The
Eritreans flatly refused the offer and made no secret of their indignation
at U.S. meddling in their affairs.  Both sides now insist that the episode
resulted from an unfortunate "misunderstanding," though the breach clearly
reflects deep ideological differences.

"There is, fundamentally, something wrong with the U.S.A.I.D. attitude
toward Eritrean demands," says Nerayo Teklemichael, director of the Eritrean
Relief and Rehabilitation Agency and a sixteen-year veteran of the
liberation struggle.  "There is a negative attitude here.  You can call it
flexing of muscles, testing of nerves.  It's the usual game."  Nerayo also
cited a controversial U.S.A.I.D.  assessment of Eritrea's food requirements
that, by his estimate, grossly understated existing dietary needs.  "I was
very angry about this," says Nerayo, Who trained as a pediatrician and is
widely regarded as Eritrea's leading authority on hunger.  "It symbolizes an
underlying attitude that is not healthy."  Other members of the leadership
speak in more conciliatory terms.  "I think it's understandable U.S.A.I.D.
would not agree with our ways,"  Isayas told me.  "Some of their laws may
not conform with our situation, but I think A.I.D. understands and
appreciates our unique position."

For its part, the agency has backed off from its original demands, sacked
its Eritrea representative and offered a much smaller package of
no-strings-attached "project" aid to salve bruised egos in Asmara.  But the
damage has been done.  "From the U.S.A.I.D. perspective," one source close
to the case told me, "the government was not of this world.  They were used
to getting handouts.  They were unprepared to talk about conditionality, and
that was unrealistic."  To emphasize Washington's grave concern, the former
C.I.A. station chief in Ethiopia circulated through the corridors of
government days before the referendum, spreading the gospel of private
enterprise.  And the World Bank recently contributed to a $147 million
multidonor recovery fund, indicating that the fledgling republic may be
moving toward the "realism" so highly valued in Western capitals.  But the
new government will have to perform a delicate balancing act indeed if it
is also to preserve its professed commitment to social justice, land reform
and rough economic equality.

In the highest reaches of economic decision-making in Eritrea, the shrill
Maoist rhetoric of the battlefield has given way to the mellifluous tones
of capital enticement.  Haile Woldetensai, a former EPLF hard-liner and now
Secretary of Economic Development and Cooperation, insists that the
"market-oriented economy" he envisions will not conflict with the leftist
outlook held by most demobilized fighters.  "We want to create an enabling
environment for international investment," he said, "but food security will
be given top priority in our development program. "  But surely, I protested
the EPLF did not wage its lonely struggle in the wilderness just to hand
over the economy to foreign venture capitalists and a new class of parasitic
"entrepreneurs."  Perhaps fearful of offending potential benefactors, he let
the subject drop.

Land reform, almost everyone agrees, is the most explosive issue facing the
new government.  The traditional highland system of sharing and rotating
land ownership was disrupted when Italians began their conquest of Eritrea
in the 1880s.  In subsequent decades, thousands of peasants were
dispossessed of their holdings and labored on Italian plantations or
migrated to the burgeoning cities of Asmara, Massawa and Keren, where
nationalist ideas were beginning to take hold.  When the British seized
control of Italy's African colonies early in World War II, they did little
to correct distortions and inconsistencies in the land tenure system.  In
1952 the United Nations imposed a "federal" arrangement on Eritrea, linking
it with Ethiopia and giving Haile Sellasie de facto control over the
erstwhile colony, a reality that was formalized a decade later when Ethiopia
absorbed Eritrea outright.  The armed nationalist struggle against Addis
Abeba had begun the previous year.

Eritrea also faces the daunting task of reintegrating thousands of highly
politicized fighters - including 30,000 women - into civil society.  Many
have toiled without pay for the two years since liberation and will demand
recognition for their considerable sacrifices.  Women fighters, whose
experience in the trenches has given them high expectations for the new
social order, are rejoining society to find that patriarchal village
traditions have changed little.  When the provisional government announced
its slate of ministers last year, there were no women's names.  Only after
a sustained protest from women's organizations did the leadership give four
Cabinet portfolios (out of sixteen) to women.

The government is proceeding cautiously on political liberalization and the
move to multiparty democracy.  As the dominant institution in Eritrean
society, the EPLF has been reluctant to allow rival groups to organize and
operate freely.  The provisional government has already moved to limit the
activities of a private human rights organization that challenged the EPLF
leadership role and has suspended publication of the group's newspaper.
Supporters of the Eritrean Liberation Front, the EPLF's chief rival during
the civil war, complain that they are routinely excluded from
decision-making.

Eritrea is surrounded by enemies-in-waiting. Sudan, which entered a
tactical alliance with the rebels during the civil war, is now actively
supporting Islamic fundamentalist elements inside half-Christian,
half-Muslim Eritrea.  And mighty Saudi Arabia is eyeing suspiciously the
experiment in popular participation taking place across the Red Sea.  The
greatest threat to Eritrea, however, unquestionably comes from its old
nemesis south of the border.  Ethiopia's new rulers support Eritrean
statehood, but the mood on the streets is noticeably less charitable.

Passing briefly through Addis Abeba on my way back to Cairo, I stopped in
at a used book store on Winston Churchill Road, next to the National Bank.
There, alongside ponderous volumes on hematology and telecommunications in the New Africa, I came upon a pristine edition of Isaac Deutscher's
monumental three-part biography of Trotsky.  I half considered buying it
and sending it up to Asmara to a good friend in the Foreign Ministry, as a
kind of road map for the difficult days ahead.  But my impatient driver,
Solomon, and the long line at the checkout made me  think better of it.

On the way to the airport, I asked Solomon how he felt about Eritrean
independence and the rejoicing taking place at that very minute on the
streets of Asmara, more than 400 miles to the north.  Measuring his words
carefully, the young Amhara, himself a veteran of Mengistu's Eritrea
campaign, assured me that the new country would soon be reunited with
Ethiopia, its rightful parent.  When I protested that the Eritreans had
suffered for thirty years to savour this moment and would never allow such
a reunion to occur, he smiled darkly.  "You are only a visitor here," he
said.  "The future is concealed from you."


              *** End of Article ***


Article: 16106 of soc.culture.african
From: [e-mail] (Nigel Allen)
Subject: U.S. Senate Hearing Wednesday on Liberia, Togo and Zaire
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1993 09:57:43 GMT
Lines: 39


Here is a press release from U.S. Senator Paul Simon.

 In Africa, Democracy's Sweep Stalls in Three Strife-Torn States;
Senate Hearing Wednesday on Liberia, Togo and Zaire
 To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
 Contact: David Carle of the Office of Sen. Paul Simon, 202-224-7115

 News Advisory:

   Democratic reforms are sweeping across much of Africa but have yet
to take hold in three states -- Liberia, Togo and Zaire -- where
lingering civil strife has led to political stalemate and economic
paralysis.  A U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday, June 9, examines whether
the United States has a role to play in helping to break these
deadlocks and sparking new movement toward democracy.
   The hearing, by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's
Subcommittee on African Affairs, will include testimony from the
Administration's key policymaker on African issues and from a
representative of the Illinois convent that was home to five nuns who
were murdered last year in Liberia.  The hearing is set for 2 p.m.,
Wednesday, June 9, in Room 419 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building
(Foreign Relations Hearing Room) and will be chaired by Sen. Paul
Simon, (D-Ill.), who heads the panel.
   Witnesses will be asked to evaluate conditions in the three states
and to suggest policy options for Congress and the administration to
consider influencing solutions to the conflicts.  Liberia now is in
its third year of civil war, Togo is suffering internal repression
and Zaire is increasingly ungovernable under an unyielding
dictatorship.
   Those testifying will include George Moose, assistant secretary of
state for African affairs; Sister Stephanie Mertens, A.S.C., of the
Adorers of the Blood of Christ convent in Ruma, Ill.; journalist and
author Steve Askin; and Janet Fleischman of Africa Watch.
 -30-


--
Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada  [e-mail]