THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER # 540 - 05/09/1992

SOMALIA MAPPING OUT THE CONFLICT The United Nations Security Council decision on August 28 to send an additional 3,000 UN troops to Somalia, to protect food aid convoys in the country, is the boldest move the organisation will have made in Africa for years. (...). [Total : 792 Words]. (8,2USD)

KENYA CHANGES IN PARASTATAL REFORM BODY The Kenyan Parastatal Reform Committee (PRC) that was created last year to prepare for the restructuring of parastatal companies, and chaired by vice-president and finance minister, George Saitoti, underwent some noticeable changes last week. (...). [Total : 285 Words]. (4,7USD) ETHIOPIA ACQUISITION OF TWO CARGO SHIPS Ethiopian Shipping Corporation (ESC) has decided to acquire two new and modern cargo ships to transport containers. This investment is valued at between 60 and 80 million birr (from about four to six million dollars at current dollar prices). (...). [Total : 184 Words]. (4,7USD) ZIMBABWE FRENCH INVOLVED IN AIRPORT PROJECT Aéroports de Paris (ADP) and the Office Français d'Exportation de Matériel Aéronautique (OFEMA) signed a contract with the Zimbabwe authorities on September 1, for a series of studies and supervision of work on new buildings at the international airport in Harare, due for completion in 1997. (...). [Total : 211 Words]. (4,7USD) ETHIOPIA MAJOR CIVIL AVIATION PROJECT The general manager of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA), Bekele Serbessa recently revealed the outline of a two billion birr (about 144 million dollars) airport investment programme, to be carried out over the next twenty years. (...). [Total : 211 Words]. (4,7USD) SEYCHELLES FINGERS CROSSED FOR OIL While the withdrawal of the British oil company, Lasmo's offshore permit to prospect for oil in the Seychelles that the firm recuperated after taking over Ultramar, is on the cards, another British company, Enterprise Oil is expected to start a prospection drilling operation in 1993 on its Seychelles permit. (...). [Total : 184 Words]. (4,7USD) MADAGASCAR MINING COMMITTEE ALREADY UNDER FIRE The 72-member national mining committee, half of whom have fixed seats, that was appointed last month by energy and mining minister Ratafika, is already being disputed. (...). [Total : 167 Words]. (4,7USD)

MOZAMBIQUE PRESIDENT CHISSANO'S WORRIES Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano, received on August 31, the director of the Catholic Churches of Southern Africa's refugee bureau, Father J. (...). [Total : 156 Words]. (4,7USD) DJIBOUTI REFERENDUM BOYCOTT The main opposition forces in Djibouti have called for a boycott of the President Hassan Gouled Aptidon's referendum slated for September 4. (...). [Total : 318 Words]. (4,7USD) COMOROS ISLANDS HOSPITALS PARALYSED BY STRIKE ACTION A strike called by the Syndicat National des Infirmiers et Agents de Santé (SNIAS - the national nurses and health employees trade union) in the Comoros Islands, has completely paralysed hospitals on Grande Comores and Anjouan for the last three weeks. (...). [Total : 251 Words]. (4,7USD) SEYCHELLES IMPATIENT FOR CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE The leader of the delegation of the Seychelles People's Progressive Front(SPPF), and minister, Joseph Belmont was elected unanimously as chairman of the constitutional committee formed after the elections in July, at the committee's inaugural meeting in Mahe on August 27. (...). [Total : 172 Words]. (4,7USD) SUDAN RELATIONS WITH EGYPT TENSE AGAIN Tension between Sudan and Egypt in their border dispute that had appeared to have dissipated somewhat during the month of August since the visit to Cairo by the first secretary to the Sudanese foreign ministry, Mohamed Osman Yess on July 20, is on the rise again. (...). [Total : 430 Words]. (4,7USD) MAURITIUS MORE DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS ? In a recent interview published by Mauritian weekly magazine, Week End, the foreign minister, Paul Bérenger, and secretary general of the island's MMM party, says he is not entirely in agreement with some of the decisions made in the past to set up Mauritian diplomatic missions abroad. (...). [Total : 180 Words]. (4,7USD) KENYA HOW TO BECOME PRESIDENT New constitutional measures on the upcoming presidential election in Kenya came into force last week with their official publication. Under the Constitution of Kenya Amendment Act 1992, the winner of the election will have to carry at least 25 percent of votes in five of the eight regions of the country. (...). [Total : 347 Words]. (4,7USD) ETHIOPIA RESHUFFLE REPLACES OLF MINISTERS According to Ethiopian radio, the provisional parliament, the council of representatives, approved on August 29, a ministerial reshuffle. Six new ministers were appointed and a new ministry has been set up, the ministry of development of natural resources and environmental protection, under Mesfin Abebe. (...). [Total : 234 Words]. (4,7USD) ERITREA REFERENDUM SUPERVISION BY UN A delegation of representatives from the United Nations led by Horacio Boneo, head of the election section in the UN's office of political affairs, went to Eritrea last week to meet the President of the provisional government, Issayas Afewerki, the foreign minister, Mahmoud Ahmed Mahmoud, known as Sherifo, interior minister Ali Said Abdalla and the refugees commissioner, Ahmed Tahir Badoury. (...). [Total : 305 Words]. (4,7USD) TANZANIA HOSPITAL PROTESTS The on-call duties boycott by doctors and auxiliary medical staff that began on August 17 at the Tanzanian hospital of Bugando in Mwanza, in the north west of the country has spread to the Muhimbili Medical Centre in the capital, Dar es Salaam. (...). [Total : 367 Words]. (4,7USD)

ZIMBABWE The chief of the Zimbabwean police force, Augustine Chihuri and one of his former assistants, James Ndove, were charged with corruption on September 1, by a regional court, in connection with a affair concerning stolen vehicles in South Africa, that they covered up despite being aware of the true facts. (...). [Total : 50 Words]. (1,5USD) MADAGASCAR One of President Didier Ratsiraka's bodyguards died this week and was to be buried in Tulear. (...). [Total : 81 Words]. (1,5USD) MOZAMBIQUE In the past few weeks over 100 Mozambican refugees from the region of Ermelo in South Africa, east of Johannesburg, have been expelled. (...). [Total : 66 Words]. (1,5USD)

ERITREA MOHAMED SAYEED NAWID The Eritrean Liberation Front-United Organisation (ELF-UO) held in August a national council meeting when it was decided that Mohamed Sayeed Nawid would become the president of the movement. (...). [Total : 249 Words]. (4,7USD) SOUTH AFRICA DEREK KEYS South Africa's minister of finance is to lead a large delegation to the upcoming International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington from September 18 to 24. (...). [Total : 78 Words]. (FREE!) UNITED STATES/SOMALIA PETER JON DE VOS Former ambassador to Liberia, Peter Jon De Vos was appointed by President George Bush in May to the post of United States ambassador to Tanzania. (...). [Total : 136 Words]. (4,7USD) SOUTH AFRICA/MADAGASCAR RAY FERGUSSON Following the publication of an article in the Mauritian press, associating businessman Ray Fergusson with the South African diplomatic representation office in Madagascar, his relations with the Pretoria authorities have apparently deteriorated. (...). [Total : 132 Words]. (4,7USD)

MOZAMBIQUE AFONSO DHLAKAMA The leader of the Mozambican rebel Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama was received in the South African capital, Pretoria on September 2 by President De Klerk, and the minister of foreign affairs, Pik Botha. (...). [Total : 64 Words]. (1,5USD) MOZAMBIQUE SEBASTIAO MABOTE Former chief-of-staff of the Mozambican armed forces, Sebastiao Mabote, accused of conspiracy against the State, and whose trial opened on August 17, told the court on August 31, that "right-wing opportunists" within the Mozambican ministry of defence were behind the charges brought against him. (...). [Total : 44 Words]. (FREE!) MADAGASCAR LIVA RAMAHAZOMANAMA Arrested with the man she claims is her husband, a French man known as Bruno, after the occupation of the premises of Radio Malgache on July 29, Liva Ramahazomanama went on hunger strike on August 30. (...). [Total : 36 Words]. (FREE!) MAURITIUS CASSAM UTEEM President of the Republic of Mauritius, Cassam Uteem last week expressed his concern over the high level of drug trafficking in Mauritius and called on the Island's security forces to coordinate their efforts and to stamp out this trade. (...). [Total : 39 Words]. (FREE!) UGANDA INNOCENT BISANGWA-MBUGUJE Personal secretary to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Innocent Bisangwa-Mbuguje was arrested in the United States last month, along with two former officers from Egypt and an local consultant for having illegally attempted to trade military equipment. (...). [Total : 65 Words]. (1,5USD)