THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER # 812 - 23/05/1998

MADAGASCAR A COMPLETELY NEW SCENE Madagascar's May 17 general election confirms the country's amazing political struggle but should also produce a government majority in the national assembly. (...). [Total : 539 Words]. (8,2USD)

SUDAN HI-TEC PROTECTION FOR PIPELINE For just over a month, a large foreign labour force has been built up in the petroleum-rich region of Bentiu, in Upper Nile Province, near the wells Unity and Heglig. (...). [Total : 433 Words]. (4,7USD) ZIMBABWE IMF SETS DECISION FOR JUNE The International Monetary Fund management committee meeting which was due to debate a possible loan of US$176 million for Zimbabwe has been postponed again, this time until June first. (...). [Total : 152 Words]. (4,7USD) MAURITIUS SETTLING DEBTS WITHOUT CASH Mauritius Marine Authority (MMA) is in the eye of a storm over anonymous accusations of corruption coming, probably, from its own officials. (...). [Total : 340 Words]. (4,7USD) ETHIOPIA REDOING THE ADDIS-JIMMA HIGHWAY The EDF committee grouping the fifteen member-states of the European Union has just given its approval to the project (85 million ecu) to repair the tarmac highway linking Addis Ababa to Jimma, the largest town in Oromiya Regional State and located 342 km south-west of the Ethiopian capital. (...). [Total : 344 Words]. (4,7USD) SOUTHERN AFRICA FRENCH LOANS Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and its subsidiary for private sector loans Proparco are to authorize nearly FFr.300 million in loans to three countries of Southern Africa. (...). [Total : 139 Words]. (4,7USD) UGANDA LAND AT HEART OF DEBATE The new Land Bill that the Ugandan government would like to see adopted by Parliament in July is encountering convergent reluctance, for a number of reasons, from the World Bank, the Roman Catholic church hierarchy, and Baganda landowners, the principal tribe in the country. (...). [Total : 316 Words]. (4,7USD) MADAGASCAR AMF GETS INTO THE MINES Texas-based US company America Mineral Fields (AMF) this week signed an agreement with Australian firm Madagascar Resources NL (MRNL) under which AMF takes control of the Australian's subsidiary, Madagascar Resources Ltd (MRLTD) via an exchange of AMF shares estimated at A$1. (...). [Total : 196 Words]. (4,7USD) KENYA RAILWAY TO PRIVATIZE During his official visit to Kampala this week, Kenyan head of state Daniel arap Moi launched the idea of handing over management of the railway linking Kenya and Uganda to a private company. (...). [Total : 266 Words]. (4,7USD)

ERITREA / ETHIOPIA HT FRONTIER High tension remained the norm this week along the Eritrean-Ethiopian frontier with reports from several points of Eritrean troop concentrations. (...). [Total : 135 Words]. (4,7USD) ETHIOPIA / ERITREA US MEDIATION DON'T WORK The mediation by Djibouti head of state Hassan Gouled Aptidon in the name of InterGovernmental Authority on Development and by US under secretary of state for African affairs Ms. (...). [Total : 421 Words]. (4,7USD) SOMALILAND EGAL'S VIEW OF THE REGION Somaliland president Mohamed Ibrahim Egal used a recent discussion with local journalists to outline his views on the current situation in the Middle East and Horn of Africa. (...). [Total : 302 Words]. (4,7USD) COMOROS ISLANDS TAKI'S ABOUT-TURN Head of state Mohamed Taki Abdul Karim on May 19 called a grand gathering of his full government in Moroni, plus members of the Ulemas council, the High Council of the Republic, senior figures in the government party, and important personalities on the island and told an astounded audience that his government policy had flopped. (...). [Total : 398 Words]. (4,7USD) TANZANIA A LITTLE LONG IN THE TOOTH Tanzania's foreign ministry is swamped under files of ambassadors who are well past retiring age but are still clinging fiercely to their glorious posts. (...). [Total : 317 Words]. (4,7USD) TANZANIA AMOUR STARTING OUT EARLY Zanzibar president Salmin Amour is believed to want to tinker with the island constitution to allow him to stand for a third term as president in the general election in Year 2000. (...). [Total : 326 Words]. (4,7USD) MOZAMBIQUE LITTLE GAMES AT HCB The question of the senior management of Portugal's state-owned Hidroelétrica de Cabora Bassa (HCB), which runs the hydroelectric barrage of the same name in Mozambique, has become a real headache and a subject of sharp polemics for the government in Lisbon. (...). [Total : 205 Words]. (4,7USD) UGANDA EXIT A GENERAL Head of state Yoweri Museveni proceeded on May 15 with his most ambitious ministerial changes since 1994, chopping the number of ministers to seventeen (from twenty-one) but upping the number of junior ministers to forty-one. (...). [Total : 274 Words]. (4,7USD)

SOMALILAND IBRAHIM MOHAMED EGAL The president of Somaliland fired minister of commerce Mohamed Qasim and deputy foreign minister Mohamed Awale Fareed on May 17 but did not immediately name successors. (...). [Total : 51 Words]. (1,5USD) KENYA ASIF M. KHAN Kenyan police arrested a Pakistani businessman in Nairobi last week whom the US Justice Department said was wanted for alleged drug trafficking and terrorism. (...). [Total : 85 Words]. (1,5USD) MAYOTTE ISLAND HENRY JEAN BAPTISTE Mayotte Island's UDF MP (and leader of Mouvement Populaire Mahorais) Henry Jean Baptiste announced on May 17 after an MPM congress that party officials wanted Mayotte Island, a French overseas territory, to have a statute of "départementalisation adaptée" (adapted form of departmental administration). (...). [Total : 84 Words]. (1,5USD) SOUTH AFRICA DOWNSIZING A GOVERNMENT A presidential commission of twelve experts which has been running a tape measure over South Africa's administration for the past two years came up with its report last week. (...). [Total : 78 Words]. (1,5USD) DJIBOUTI TROUBLES OF AN OIL MAJOR Using the port of Djibouti for all Ethiopia's imports of petroleum is going to bump up the activity of Djibouti-based petroleum companies. (...). [Total : 114 Words]. (1,5USD)

CHINA / ZIMBABWE HUANG GUIFANG The People's Republic of China's new ambassador to Tanzania, Huang Guifang, is a career diplomat. Born in Fujian Province in 1939, he was posted in Southern Africa as embassy attache and third secretary in Kampala (1973-1979). (...). [Total : 109 Words]. (4,7USD) UGANDA NASSER NTEGE SEBAGGALA The new mayor of Kampala is the first of the sixteen dignitaries who have held this office to be elected by universal suffrage. (...). [Total : 311 Words]. (4,7USD) MOZAMBIQUE GRAÇA MACHEL The widow of the late Mozambican president Samora Machel has been appointed as the African member of the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, formed early this year thanks to the one billion US dollar donation of US citizen Ted Turner, who owns the international television network CNN. (...). [Total : 92 Words]. (4,7USD) CHINA / MADAGASCAR MA ZHIXUE The People's Republic of China's new ambassador to Madagascar, Ma Zhixue, is not on unknown territory. He had earlier been second embassy secretary in Antananarivo between 1984 and 1987. (...). [Total : 114 Words]. (4,7USD)