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IRIN Update 1050 of events in West Africa

UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
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e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci

SIERRA LEONE: Women need greater donor help - UN official says

Sierra Leonean women, particularly the internally displaced, need more help form donors because their plight has been worsened by 10 years of civil strife, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said on Tuesday.

"The donor community is not responding appropriately," she said at a Freetown news conference ending her week-long visit to Sierra Leone.

Problems confronting women in Sierra Leone included their use as sex slaves, rape, drug abuse, harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and discriminatory inheritance laws. She also expressed concern about the level of the country's commitment to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, to which Sierra Leone is a signatory.

During her visit, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reported, she met UN officials, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and senior members of his government, foreign diplomats, the Revolutionary United Front high command and several women's organisations. She also visited the towns of Kenema, Bo and Makeni where she heard testimonies from female victims of psychological and physical atrocities perpetrated during the war, UNAMSIL reported.

SIERRA LEONE: Police arrest woman with suspected "blood diamonds"

Police detectives arrested a Freetown woman on Tuesday and seized 179 stones suspected to be diamonds obtained illegally, Inspector Khrushchev Kargbo told IRIN. "The stones have been sent to the Gold and Diamond Office for investigation," he said on Wednesday.

Police acting on a tip-off raided and arrested Salamatu Kamara at her home, 105 Kissy Road, Freetown. Kargbo also said that two weeks ago a Lebanese businessman was arrested at Lungi International Airport, just north of Freetown, with stones suspected to be diamonds in his wallet.

On 10 July, Kargbo added, police arrested another Lebanese, Mahoud Bittr of Freetown Highway, Bo, with five stones also thought to be diamonds. Bittr told the police that he was a courier for another Lebanese, Hussein Kesel, who wanted the stones delivered to an unidentified person in Freetown. Kargbo said these stones weighed 7.10 carats with a street value of US $1,000. Both men have been charged to court for unlawful possession, Kargbo said.

Although police have been able to apprehend suspects in the Freetown area, they have not yet deployed to the diamond-producing eastern district of Kono to continue their campaign against the illegal mining and sale of diamonds, which helped fuel Sierra Leone's 10-year rebel war.

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL launches TRC web page

Sierra Leone Web, a US-based news service provider, has agreed to host a web site for the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) to make first-hand information on a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Sierra Leone accessible from anywhere in the world, UNAMSIL reported on Tuesday.

"We commend the support and collaboration of Sierra Leone Web in reinforcing our efforts to reach Sierra Leoneans living abroad and all those interested in Sierra Leone," Behrooz Sadry, the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Sierra Leone, said in Freetown.

"Sierra Leone Web was launched in February 1996 to be an independent, objective and comprehensive source of news on Sierra Leone at a time when news of the country was all but impossible to obtain outside of its borders," Peter Andersen, the creator and owner, told IRIN.

Behrooz said efforts to popularise the commission were crucial to the peace process, UNAMSIL reported. UNAMSIL's role, he said, was to help the government and the civil society inform the public about the commission's provisions and mode of operation.

UNAMSIL launched its sensitisation drive about the proposed commission in May, when it opened its first regional human rights office in the eastern town of Kenema. Since then, UNAMSIL's Human Rights Section, headed by Rodolfo Mattarollo, has organised several sensitisation workshops across the country. UNAMSIL reported that these workshops have involved ex-fighters, traditional leaders, women's organisations, and law enforcement agents.

Material for the sensitisation programme is produced by UNAMSIL, the National Commission on Democracy and human rights groups operating under the umbrella of the National Forum for Human Rights. They produce leaflets, booklets, T-shirts and caps with inscriptions in English and Krio - one of the local languages - as support materials for the programme.

The TRC web site can be accessed at: www.sierra-leone.org/trc.html

LIBERIA: NGOs denounce private radio station ban

Liberian non governmental organisations denounced on Monday a decision by President Charles Taylor not to allow anymore shortwave stations except the three which are currently licensed, AFP reported.

In a press statement, the Movement for the Defence of Human Rights (MODHAR) described Taylor's decision as a constitutional violation. "Compelling the nation to listen to a party-controlled radio station is an abuse of political power and the people's right to be informed, AFP reported MODHAR as saying. Child rights advocacy group FOCUS described the ban as a violation of children's rights to be informed, according to AFP.

Taylor, who made the announcement on 23 August, said that he would only allow his private Liberia Communications Network (LCN), the state-owned Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) and the religious station ELWA to operate on shortwave. LBS, established at the behest of the Nigerian government in 1991 to promote the Liberian peace process, does not have a transmitter at the moment and ELWA has been carrying out "test transmissions", leaving LCN as the only station operating frequently, a humanitarian source in Monrovia told IRIN.

Meanwhile Liberia's Roman Catholic church has filed a suit against the government for banning its radio, Veritas, from airing services on shortwave, AFP reported a church official as saying on Tuesday. The church had wanted to resume the shortwave transmissions of Veritas, out of service for two years due to technical problems, but was prevented from doing so in late July by the government, AFP reported.

Taylor defended his action arguing that shortwave radio was not a right but a privilege.

GUINEA: Medecins du Monde worried about abuses against refugees

Medecins du Monde has expressed concern about rights abuses in Guinea's Forest Region, where an emergency mission from the medical NGO has been working since January. "It would appear that several human rights and international humanitarian law problems are having dramatic consequences for the refugees in Guinea, particularly for women," it said in a newsletter issued on Tuesday.

It said the women were victims of violence by the Sierra Leonean rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), accused of making incursions into Guinea since late last year. The NGO said "the systematic nature of these acts tends to make them a crime against humanity". It added that "a number of excesses have been committed by the Guinean authorities and civilians inside the (refugee) camps." All this has led many refugees to run the risk of returning to their country, Medecins du Monde said.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Rights league welcomes interior minister's dismissal

Guinea-Bissau's human rights league has welcomed the dismissal of Interior Minister Artur Sanha, announced on Tuesday by President Kumba Yala.

Yala gave no reason for the move, which came just days after the Liga dos Direitos humanos da Guiné Bissau said it suspected Sanha of involvement in the death of a woman with whom he allegedly had a romantic relationship, according to RDP, a Portuguese radio station.

The league believes the move resulted from the pressure it put on Yala to have the circumstances of the woman's death clarified, RDP reported. It quoted the league's vice president, Jo=E3o Vaz Mané, as saying on Wednesday that its first objective had been attained with Sanha's dismissal.

Just a few months ago, Yala had resisted pressure from his ruling Partido da Renovacao Social (PRS-Social Renovation Party) to choose Sanha as prime minister amid calls by the PRS for the dismissal of then premier Caetano Intchama, eventually replaced by current head of government Faustino Imbali.

NIGERIA: More communal violence in Bauchi

Renewed fighting between Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria's Bauchi State over plans by the government to introduce strict Islamic law has claimed several lives, witnesses said on Wednesday.

The latest outbreak of violence in the Tafawa Balewa local government council is between the mainly Christian Kutaru and the predominantly Muslim Zwall. "Fighting broke out last week and no fewer than 15 people have been killed while many more have been injured," Musa Kaltung, a bus driver who travelled through the area en route to Lagos, told IRIN.

Tafawa Balewa has also seen fighting between Christian Jawaras and Sayawas and Hausa-Fulani Muslims which claimed more than 400 lives and displaced over 22,000 people in June-July, according to the Nigerian Red Cross.

[See separate item titled 'NIGERIA: Renewed Christian-Muslim clashes claim lives']

NIGERIA: Ex-military rulers yet to agree to appear before rights panel

A body set up to investigate human rights abuses spanning more than three decades in Nigeria winds up its public hearings in September, but one key question remains unanswered: Will three former military leaders invited to appear before it heed its summons?

The three, all generals, are Muhammadu Buhari, who seized power after sacking an elected government in 1983, Ibrahim Babangida, who ousted him in 1985 and ruled for eight years, and Abdulsalami Abubakar who succeeded the late Sani Abacha in 1998.

[See separate item titled 'NIGERIA: IRIN Focus on summons on former rulers by rights panel']

NIGERIA: More former ECOMOG peacekeepers released

Fifteen out of 25 Nigerian soldiers convicted of mutiny in December 2000 were released last week, bringing to 17 the total number freed, AFP reported on Wednesday. The French news agency quoted their lawyer as saying that he was trying to obtain the release of the eight others.

The 25 soldiers had been wounded while serving with ECOMOG, the West African peacekeeping force, in Sierra Leone and were sent to Egypt for medical treatment. However, they staged a protest, claiming that they were not given adequate medical care and demanding special overseas allowances, which the military authorities refused them on the grounds that they were only for personnel on military training courses abroad.

The protesters were court-martialled and convicted of mutiny. They were originally sentenced to life imprisonment but their terms were reduced to between one and five years.

Abidjan, 29 August 2001; 18:25 GMT

[ENDS]

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