THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER # 785 - 01/11/1997

ETHIOPIA DAWIT ON POLITICAL FISHING TRIP The Speaker of Parliament (and leader of the pro-government Amhara National Democratic Movement) Dawit Yohannes posted two messages on Internet last week criticizing the Ethiopian opponents living in exile in the United States who founded the Ethiopian National Congress early last month (ION N° 783). (...). [Total : 590 Words]. (8,2USD)

MOZAMBIQUE MOZAL TAKE-OFF IN MARCH Construction of the South African Mozal aluminium plant project near Maputo (ION N° 779) should get off the ground in March 1998. (...). [Total : 234 Words]. (4,7USD) KENYA TOURISM MAYBE LOOKING UP Kenyan tourism ministry permanent secretary Sam M. Mbova headed the Kenyan delegation on a tour of European capitals (France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland) last week, leaving his minister, Protas K. (...). [Total : 351 Words]. (4,7USD) ERITREA IT'S HARD TO BE KIND Although several state-owned enterprises (Eritrea Shoe Factory, Gash Cigarette Factory (now ceded to Rothmans International), and Red Sea Soap Factory) have found buyers in the framework of Eritrea's privatization programme, the government has tried everything - but failed - to interest a United States company in taking over Asmara Brewery. (...). [Total : 215 Words]. (4,7USD) SOUTHERN AFRICA ADB COMES UP WITH MORE LOANS Zimbabwe is to receive three credit lines totalling a little more than US$234 million from African Development Fund (ADF, a subsidiary of African Development Bank) over the next few months. (...). [Total : 275 Words]. (4,7USD) TANZANIA CHOP-CHOP ATC Another attempt has been uncovered to chop up Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC). This one would benefit Alliance Air, which is controlled by South African Airways under the banner of African Joint Air Services (AJAS) owned by South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. (...). [Total : 396 Words]. (4,7USD) AFRICA NORWEGIAN AID DECLINES Uganda (with US$10.7 million) and Malawi ($5.7 million) will be the only African countries to see their bilateral aid from Norwegian increase in 1998. (...). [Total : 207 Words]. (4,7USD) UGANDA INDIA WON'T SPARE THE ROD Uganda's first attempt to be let off the hook by one of its creditors not belonging to the so-called Paris Club has flopped. (...). [Total : 240 Words]. (4,7USD) MADAGASCAR TWO HOTEL PROJECTS French financier Michel Louvet is putting up two small hotels, one in Antananarivo (due to be completed by the end of the year) and the other in Morondava, on Madagascar's western coast. (...). [Total : 316 Words]. (4,7USD)

REUNION ISLAND / MAYOTTE ISLAND FRENCH MINISTER COMES ALONG French junior minister for overseas territories Jean Jack Queyranne is expected to visit the territories of Reunion Island (November 4 to 7) and Mayotte Island (November 7 to 9). (...). [Total : 195 Words]. (4,7USD) DJIBOUTI WHAT PRICE THE ETHIOPIAN ARMY The French military command in Djibouti is turning a deaf ear to continuing complaints from sources close to Front pour la Restauration de l'Unité et de la Démocratie (FRUD, Afar rebellion) of operations by Ethiopian government armed forces aimed at cleaning out Afar rebels on Djibouti territory. (...). [Total : 459 Words]. (4,7USD) SOMALIA BOSASO... OR CAIRO Somalia's conference of reconciliation, due to have opened on November first in the north-eastern Somali town of Bosaso, has again been shelved to a later date. (...). [Total : 207 Words]. (4,7USD) SUDAN ANTI-KHARTOUM LOBBY AT WORK Delegates from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda attending the ACP/European Union joint commission (in Lome from October 27 to 30) joined with MPs from Christian Democrat, Liberal and Socialist groups to step up pressure on the Sudanese authorities. (...). [Total : 239 Words]. (4,7USD) SUDAN KADHAFI FLIPS Libyan head of state colonel Muammar Kadhafi has moved closer to a Sudanese opposition party in a move which an Arab diplomatic source believes could signal the end of his present friendly policy towards the regime in Khartoum. (...). [Total : 362 Words]. (4,7USD) COMOROS ISLANDS ANJOUAN'S REFERENDUM A 94 percent turnout of the 143,606 registered voters produced a massive 99.88 percent of "Yes" votes in last Sunday's referendum on whether Anjouan Island should secede from the Comoros federation. (...). [Total : 230 Words]. (4,7USD) COMOROS ISLANDS FORBES PRESSES ON The boss of the US group Forbes T Co, Lucien Edward Forbes, signatory in May 1996 of an agreement with the Comoros Islands government for a grandiose project on Anjouan Island (ION N ° 720), does not give up. (...). [Total : 549 Words]. (4,7USD)

FRANCE / AFRICA JACQUES BOURGERIE The manager of the Caisse Française de Développement office in Port Louis took up his new functions on the French overseas territory of Reunion Island, where the Mauritius office of CFD was transferred on October 15. (...). [Total : 104 Words]. (1,5USD) SOUTH AFRICA ALEC ERWIN South African minister of trade and industry Alec Erwin, who is generally well thought of by foreign investors, startled some analysts by backing a controversial government Bill on medicaments which has just had its second reading in parliament. (...). [Total : 73 Words]. (1,5USD) MOZAMBIQUE / FRANCE JOAQUIM CHISSANO At the end of a meeting with French head of state Jacques Chirac in Paris on October 29, Mozambican head of state Joaquim Chissano said that Chirac had promised to help Mozambique, particularly on the debt question. (...). [Total : 51 Words]. (1,5USD) SUDAN BATTLING FOR POSITION Peace discussions between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army headed by colonel John Garang got under way in Nairobi on October 29 to scenes of jockeying for the position of government delegation leader. (...). [Total : 152 Words]. (1,5USD) DJIBOUTI VISAS FOR FRENCH NATIONALS Djibouti's council of ministers has extended the requirement for entry visas to "all foreigners without exception". (...). [Total : 124 Words]. (1,5USD) UGANDA MUSEVENI OFFERS REBELS AMNESTY On his return from the Commonwealth summit of heads of government in Edinburgh, Ugandan head of state Yoweri Museveni announced in Kampala on October 29 that his government would table a Bill in parliament offering an amnesty for all anti-government rebels and their leaders. (...). [Total : 135 Words]. (1,5USD)

UGANDA JAMES OGOOLA Former International Monetary Fund legal adviser James Ogoola has taken up his assignment as judge on the newly-created commercial court, part of Uganda's High Court. (...). [Total : 158 Words]. (4,7USD) COMOROS ISLANDS / UNITED STATES LUCIEN FORBES The head of the US group Forbes & Company recently complained privately of the extreme diplomatic prudence of the US State Department on the Comoros Islands question. (...). [Total : 218 Words]. (4,7USD) COMOROS ISLANDS ANJOUAN GOVERNMENT In the exuberant victory of the "Yes" vote in Anjouan Island's referendum on self-determination on October 26, island chairman Foundi Abdallah Ibrahim designated an interim government with six ministers and seven secretaries of state. (...). [Total : 154 Words]. (4,7USD) MADAGASCAR THIERRY RAJAONA The executive secretary of Madagascar's technical secretariat for privatization, Thierry Rajaona, is believed to be on the point of being fired by the Malagasy government. (...). [Total : 156 Words]. (4,7USD)