THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER # 669 - 29/04/1995

UGANDA AT LOGGERHEADS WITH KHARTOUM Last week's massacre near Gulu, in northern Uganda, of more than a hundred civilians, including wives of Ugandan army soldiers, by members of the Khartoum-backed rebel movement Lord's Resistance Army headed by Joseph Kony certainly weighed heavily in Kampala's decision on April 23 to break off diplomatic relations with Sudan. (...). [Total : 582 Words]. (8,2USD)

KENYA / EUROPEAN UNION TEXTILE FRAUD The European Commission's latest report on fighting fraud and counterfeiting reveals that forged certificates of origin have been used for some European imports of textiles and finished clothing from Kenya. (...). [Total : 231 Words]. (4,7USD) MAURITIUS BIG FAT CONTRACTS AHEAD Mauritius' ministers of finance (Rama Sithanen) and energy (Swaley Kassenaly) are expected to be in Paris next week for a meeting with international fund donors (including Abu Dhabi Fund, African Development Bank, BADEA, Kuwaiti Fund, Nordic Fund, Saudi Fund, and World Bank) which hopes to find the finance required (about US$80 million) to build the Midlands dam which is projected to supply water for the northern part of the island. (...). [Total : 450 Words]. (4,7USD) MADAGASCAR CONTROVERSIAL CALL The Malagasy government has followed a call from head of state Albert Zafy to cancel the Call for bids issued for a management contract on the Andilana Beach hotel complex at Nosy Be for Société Malgache de Tourisme et d'Hôtellerie (SMTH), a company associated in this project with the French group Accor. (...). [Total : 389 Words]. (4,7USD) UNITED STATES/AFRICA TALLY OF US AID IN 1996 The Republic of South Africa would top the list as most-aided nation with more than US$132 million in development aid if US president Bill Clinton's request to the US Congress to authorize just over one billion dollars in aid to African countries in 1996 goes through. (...). [Total : 257 Words]. (4,7USD) SOUTH AFRICA NOT THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS Sun International, the South African casino, resort and hotel group founded by Sol Kerzner, is in final negotiations to build a US$280-million casino and hotel complex on a Indian reservation in the north-eastern United States. (...). [Total : 231 Words]. (4,7USD) SOMALIA DOLE DUCKS THE QUESTION Representatives of five Somali banana producers associated with exporter Somalfruit appeared in a Venice (Italy) court recently and accused Ahmed Duale Haaf and his brother-in-law Mohamed Farah Badane, who are both linked with Somalfruit's competitor Sombana-Dole, with being responsible for the operation which resulted in the death of an Italian journalist, Marcello Palmisano, in Mogadiscio on February 9 (ION N° 660). (...). [Total : 345 Words]. (4,7USD) ETHIOPIA FINCHAA FALLOUT SPRINKLES USA The construction project for a sugar refinery in the Finchaa Valley, 285 km north-west of Addis Ababa, which was originally put up in 1987 but subsequently mothballed, has been given a new spell of life with the recent award of a construction contract to the US firm Serv-Tech, in Texas. (...). [Total : 252 Words]. (4,7USD)

COMOROS ISLANDS TAKI TRIES TO LEAVE HOME The leader of Union Nationale pour la Démocratie aux Comores (UNDC, opposition) and a former failed presidential candidate Mohamed Taki Abdul Karim recently attempted a sortie from his natal village after voluntarily retiring there several years ago and leaving the mainstream of political life. (...). [Total : 281 Words]. (4,7USD) SUDAN BEHIND AN ISLAMIC CONFERENCE Behind the scenes of the popular Arabic-Islamic conference held recently in Khartoum, there were discreet meetings between leaders of the N IF headed by Hassan al Tourabi and delegates of militant groups which were not listed on the official conference programme. (...). [Total : 265 Words]. (4,7USD) MOZAMBIQUE ARMY AT HEART OF THE DEBATE Under contradictory pressure as much from the international community as from the military hierarchy, head of state Joaquim Chissano has decided to maintain general Lagos Lidimo (former head of intelligence for the FRELIMO political movement) and general Mateus Ngonhamo (former head of intelligence for the government RENAMO party) at the head of Mozambique's renovated army. (...). [Total : 330 Words]. (4,7USD) SOMALIA BACK TO SANAA The conference on culture and peace in Somalia, organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Sanaa from April 17 to 20, brought in more than sixty Somalis of various factions. (...). [Total : 243 Words]. (4,7USD) ZIMBABWE BIGGER, MAYBE BETTER, BUT NOT WIDER The expected nomination of Ariston Chambati as finance minister in place of ailing incumbent Bernard Chidzero (ION N° 642, p.8) is seen by most observers as one of the most positive aspects of the post-election government reshuffle ordered by head of state Robert Mugabe on April 20. (...). [Total : 343 Words]. (4,7USD) REUNION ISLAND CHIRAC HEADS FIRST-ROUND BALLOT Although in Metropolitan France, Gaullist presidential runner Jacques Chirac has been outdistanced by socialist candidate Lionel Jospin, on Reunion Island the horses arrived in a different order: (...). [Total : 237 Words]. (4,7USD) MAURITIUS NEW POLITICAL TURNABOUT Although the leader of Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD) and tourism and industry minister Xavier Luc Duval was in South Africa, his party's central committee this week adopted a motion calling on him to withdraw from the coalition government. (...). [Total : 303 Words]. (4,7USD)

SUDAN The leader of Southern Sudan Independence Movement, major Riak Machar, announced in Nairobi on April 26 that an agreement had been reached between his movement and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army headed by colonel John Garang on a permanent cease-fire between the two rival factions in the southern Sudan conflict. (...). [Total : 105 Words]. (1,5USD) UGANDA / KENYA Colonel Ronald Kawuma, who deserted from the Ugandan army in March, has turned up in Nairobi announcing he has rallied to the Federal Republican Movement/Army, a new rebel group calling for the establishment of a federal state in Uganda. (...). [Total : 116 Words]. (1,5USD)

MOZAMBIQUE / FRANCE MARCELINO DOS SANTOS The name of Marcelino Dos Santos has been suggested as a possible candidate for the post of Mozambique's ambassador to France, taking over from Murade Isaac Miguigy Murargy, who has been appointed principal secretary in the presidential office in Maputo (ION N° 663). (...). [Total : 143 Words]. (4,7USD) MADAGASCAR PATRICK RAJAONARY The chairman of Papeteries de Madagascar since 1990 Patrick Rajaonary has been elected chairman of the Syndicat des Industries de Madagascar, which forms part of Groupement des Entreprises Malgaches headed by Charles Andriantsitohaina (ION N° 668). (...). [Total : 127 Words]. (4,7USD) ZIMBABWE STANISLAUS MUDENGE The appointment of Stanislaus Mudenge as foreign affairs minister in head of state Robert Mugabe's new government (see of "Bigger, maybe better, but not wider" on page 4 of this issue) looks like a snub to his predecessor Nathan Shamuyarira, who held the post for nearly ten years. (...). [Total : 196 Words]. (4,7USD) ISRAEL / MAURITIUS MENASHE ZIPORI Israel's new ambassador to Mauritius Menashe Zipori recently presented his Letters of Credence in Port Louis after arriving in Nairobi in September as ambassador to Kenya. (...). [Total : 136 Words]. (4,7USD)

SOUTH AFRICA / EUROPEAN UNION FAIZEL ISMAIL A South African trade and industry department spokesman, Faizel Ismail, said this week that the Republic would reject the European Union's offer of a bilateral trade agreement allowing South African goods preferential access to the European market for a ten-year period since it meant a reciprocal opening of the South African market to European goods. (...). [Total : 117 Words]. (1,5USD) SEYCHELLES PAUL CHOW Democratic Party (opposition) MP (and insurance broker) Paul Chow failed in two bids to be elected to top posts in the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (...). [Total : 65 Words]. (1,5USD) JAPAN / DJIBOUTI KOICHIRO MATSUURA Japan's Koichiro Matsuura, who has been ambassador to France since March 1994, was recently accredited to Djibouti as well. (...). [Total : 62 Words]. (1,5USD) MOZAMBIQUE / PORTUGAL AGUIAR JONASSANE MAZULA Mozambique's defence minister was in Portugal this week and met the head of state Mario Soares and a number of senior government officials. (...). [Total : 39 Words]. (FREE!)