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Reporting
on Human Rights, Democracy & Development
Vol. 1 No. 4 Jan. 12, 2001
This is the West Africa Newsletter, a new source for reporting on human
rights, democracy and development news and networking. Produced and distributed
free of charge by the International Center, 731 8th street S.E., Washington,
D. C., and the Liberia Institute of Journalism, in Monrovia, Liberia,
West Africa. Our goal is to be a source of information for people that
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In
this week of West Africa Newsletter:
Ivory Coast Parliamentary Elections
Who killed US Diplomat in Niger?
Army on Alert West African Gas Pipeline Project Sparks Health fear
Sierra Leone Refugees to be repatriated from Guinea
Human Rights Void at the Heart of the Global Economy
Burkina Faso: President Concerned about Ivorian Situation
Canada Announces Debt moratorium but excludes Liberia
Ivory Coast Parliamentary Elections
In the aftermath, of an aborted coup on Monday, in this West African Country, the Government of the Ivory Coast has put the Army on the Alert. Parliamentary elections that were abandoned in December because of opposition protests will take place January 14, Interior Minister Emile Boga Doudou said. The December 10, elections were part of the process of restoring democratic rule after a military coup in December 1999. But the opposition Rally of the Republicans Party boycotted the vote after its leader, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, was barred from running because of doubts about his nationality.
Who killed the US Diplomat
Police in Niger said that car thieves, not terrorists, as early believed had killed US Diplomat William Bultemeier in Niamey on December 23. Army on the Alert Guinea-Bissau, a West African country once colonized by Portugal, army has gone on the alert in the north of the country, according to Reuters news agency quoting military sources. Separatist rebels from neighboring Senegal killed 13 Guinea-Bissau soldiers in a weekend raid. Members of the Southern Senegal separatist movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), disguised as local people tapping palm wine, attacked an army patrol on Saturday, killing 13 soldiers and wounding 20 more. The source said. The attack took place 110 miles northwest of the capital Bissau, near the town of Erame. The attackers were thought to be members of an MFDC faction led by Salif Sadio, an associate of Guinea-Bissau's former military junta leader Ansumana Mane. Mane was shot dead in November after he led an uprising against President Kumba Yalla. http://www.africa.com/news
West African Gas pipeline project sparks Health fear
The multi-million dollar
West African Gas Pipeline is up and running. According to Newslink Africa.
But there is growing concern that it is a health hazard to the people and
the environment. The Environment Rights Action however, assures that this
is not the case and there are profits and dividends of good will from this
project. An information booklet that unravels hidden facts about the environmental
hazards that could result from this proposed West African Gas pipeline Project
(WAGP), has been released by the Environment Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth, Nigeria. ERA explains that it decided to publish the booklet titled:
Pipe Dream: the West African Gas Pipeline Project and the environment, to
provide information and tools for organizations and individuals of conscience
around the world working against the WAGP in its present form and to challenge
the picture put out by Chevron and its Partners The 32-page booklet contains
a profile of the WAGP as presented by its sponsors, the various actions taken
by them since the project was conceived 10-years ago. The fears of the communities
and past actions of chevron and other oil companies. Pipe Dream shows that
environment degradation of the monumental proportion, communal conflicts and
dislocation of local economies is looming over West Africa should WAGP continue
as presently conceived. Says NewslinkAfrica.
http://www.adlinkint-newslinkAfrica.Com/news
Sierra Leone Refugees to be repatriated from Guinea
The International Organization
for migration and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
plan to begin repatriating 20,000 Sierra Leonean refugees from Guinea beginning
on Monday, the immigration officials have said. http://www.oneworld.org/africa
Human Rights void at the Heart of the Global Economy The rules of the global
economy leave little or no room for human rights standards to be enforced
around the world, says Human Rights Watch, in a new report calling for tougher
International action to tackle the problem.
http://www.humanrightswatch.org/press
Canada Announces Debt Moratorium but excludes Liberia
The Canadian finance Minister announces that from January 1, 2000 Canada will apply a moratorium on debt repayments from eleven of the poorest countries in Africa and Latin America. These countries last year paid $13-million to Canada in debt service, and were scheduled to pay $50-million in 2001. But the moratorium will not apply to other countries on the list that owe money to Canada, such as Liberia, in West Africa because of their poor human rights records. Canada was the first of the G7 to pledge cancellations of 100% of the debts of the 41 Heavy Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), once they have completed the HIPC program. Since that announcement all G7 countries have made similar pledge. But the World Bank and IMF have cancelled only one-third of the debts owed to them. http://www.jubilee2000.uk.org/main
Burkina Faso: president Concerned about Ivory Coast
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore expressed concern on Tuesday that his country was being made a scapegoat for political instability in neighboring Ivory Coast. "We do not know what to say, today, concerning the situation in the Ivory Coast without being involved in one way or another or either side", he told reporters in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Detained Journalists Freed Two journalists of an Ouagadougou weekly arrested by Burkinabe gendarmes while investigating the shooting of a 12-year-old schoolboy were released on Tuesday. Newton Ahmed Berry and Germain Nama, reporters for L'Independent, were investigating the death of Flavien Nebie whose corpse was found in Bousse, a locality 50km north of the capital in Ouagadougou. He died in a student demonstration against what students union said were selective reforms at the University of Ouagadougou. "They did not say why they had kept us neither the reason for our release", Berry said on Wednesday.
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