THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER # 957 - 07/07/2001

MADAGASCAR Madagascar: Against All Odds Elected by a hair's breadth in 1996 after having been toppled by a popular revolt in 1991, and severely weakened by growing eyesight problems, President Didier Ratsiraka seems nonetheless in a position to win the presidential election in December. (...). [Total : 657 Words]. (8,2USD) 4

SOUTH AFRICA/PORTUGAL Crime Brings Gauteng Minister to Lisbon Gauteng province's safety and liaison minister headed for Lisbon this week to meet Luis Amado, Portugal's secretary of state for foreign affairs and cooperation, as well as Eduardo Cabrita, the deputy secretary of state for justice. (...). [Total : 291 Words]. (4,7USD) ZIMBABWE/UNITED STATES U.S. Pressure on Mugabe President Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zanu-PF party have been charged with being responsible for Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis by the United States' new assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Walter K Kansteiner. (...). [Total : 289 Words]. (4,7USD) DJIBOUTI/FRANCE The Ambassador Wants a New Home Ambassador of France to Djibouti, Patrick Roussel is quite adamant that the enlargement of his residence be completed before he is transferred elsewhere. (...). [Total : 237 Words]. (4,7USD)

ARABIC GUM US Opens Investigation on EU Exporters In late June 2001 came what was announced by The Indian Ocean Newsletter almost a year ago (ION 913): American importers of Arabic gum filed an anti-dumping complaint against their French and British counterparts. (...). [Total : 227 Words]. (4,7USD) OIL PRODUCTS Shell Opens Pipeline to South Africa's Thebe To conform to the law that oil companies must open their doors to black business by 2010, Shell is to turn over 25% of its sales of downstream oil products marketing business in South Africa to Thebe Investment, a consortium close to the African National Congress (ANC). (...). [Total : 102 Words]. (4,7USD) CEMENT WORKS Lafarge Stony-Faced Before Tanzania Workers Since Lafarge and Blue Circle joined forces in late 2000 to buy the Pan African Cement company (based in Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania) from CDC Capital Partners (formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation), a struggle has pit it against the 300 employees of Tanzania's Mbeya Cement Factory and their union. (...). [Total : 206 Words]. (4,7USD)

UNITED BASALT PRODUCTS A New Supermarket in Mauritius United Basalt Products Ltd (UBP) is considering the building of a supermarket on a piece of land it owns on Mauritius. (...). [Total : 130 Words]. (1,5USD) UGANDA TELECOM New Boss Wanted in Kampala Headed since it was privatized by an engineer from the German Detecon company, an affiliate of Deutsche Telekom, Uganda Telecom Ltd (UTL) is to undergo a change in the director's seat. (...). [Total : 125 Words]. (1,5USD) RENAULT VEHICULES INDUSTRIELS Luckier in Tanzania than in Kenya Renault Véhicules Industriels (RVI) has had better luck in Tanzania than in Kenya. (...). [Total : 128 Words]. (1,5USD)

ZIMBABWE A Nkomo Ranch for the Landless Bowing to the pressure from veterans of the war of national liberation and from landless peasants occupying a vast Nuanetsi ranch, the Zimbabwe government has accepted to include that property belonging to the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ) in the list of farms to be redistributed to black farmers. (...). [Total : 307 Words]. (4,7USD) MADAGASCAR Ismaïl Cousins Hit the IFC Jackpot A World Bank affiliate just can't say "No" to the Ismaïl cousins, two important businessmen on Madagascar's fishing, textile, and aquaculture markets. (...). [Total : 282 Words]. (4,7USD) MOZAMBIQUE Banco Austral to Be Privatized Again Plagued by cash problems and non-refunded loans, the Banco Austral is to be privatized for a second time. The Mozambican authorities have already initiated negotiations for the bank which was borne of an earlier privatization, that of the Banco Popular de Desenvolvimento (BPD), and which on April 3 came under the direct control of the central bank (Banco de Moçambique). (...). [Total : 212 Words]. (4,7USD) KENYA Odinga Wants Fellow Luos in Power The head of the Luo-dominated National Development Party (NDP) who doubles as minister of energy is aching for Luo officials to be promoted to the head of important national companies such as the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) and the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB). (...). [Total : 349 Words]. (4,7USD) 1 MADAGASCAR Sea Import Tax Hits Another Bump Launched on June 11 (ION 954) after being put off last year (ION 920), the new tax on Madagascar imports via the sea has run into another obstacle. (...). [Total : 261 Words]. (4,7USD)

COMOROS ISLANDS Admission to Air Safety Agency Asked Examination of the request by the Comoros to be admitted to the Agence pour la Sécurité de la Navigation Aérienne (Asecna) in Africa and Madagascar was on the agenda during the air safety organization's meeting in Yaoundé between June 12 and 15. (...). [Total : 170 Words]. (1,5USD) MADAGASCAR The World Bank's Costly Headquarters While the transfer of the World Bank's offices in Antananarivo to a new building has already occurred, the official inauguration is to take place in a few weeks' time. (...). [Total : 125 Words]. (1,5USD) UGANDA The World Bank's Latest Electric Power Project The World Bank's approval, on July 3, of the Power IV project and its $62 million brings to $470 million the sums the institution has invested in Uganda's electricity in the past few years. (...). [Total : 105 Words]. (1,5USD) 1

ETHIOPIA Ehiopia: War of the Words It appears that two of the dissidents excluded in late March from the central committee of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the hard core of the ruling EPRDF, discreetly backed the mid-May launching of a periodical defending their positions. (...). [Total : 238 Words]. (4,7USD) 2 COMOROS ISLANDS Mister Bolero Goes to Washington After participating in a United Nations AIDS conference in New York last week, Hamada Madi "Bolero" flew to Washington so that the American partners of the ComoreTel company could present the Comoros prime minister to a handful of U. (...). [Total : 295 Words]. (4,7USD) 2 SUDAN Omer's Failure Hides Politicizing The secretary general of the ruling National Congress (NC), who replaced Hassan al Turabi when the latter turned dissident and created the opposition Popular National Congress (PNC), has decided to relinquish his post. (...). [Total : 309 Words]. (4,7USD) UGANDA/RWANDA Defecting Officers Head for Kigali By providing shelter to some 50 officers of the Ugandan army (Uganda People's Defence Force or UPDF) who have fled their country to seek refuge in Rwanda, Kigali is getting back at its Ugandan neighbor whom it accuses of tolerating Rwanda opponents on its territory. (...). [Total : 432 Words]. (4,7USD) 1

SEYCHELLES Opposition Prepares for Early Vote The Seychelles National Party (SNP) seems to be preparing for early elections. (...). [Total : 179 Words]. (1,5USD) 1

FRANCE/INDIAN OCEAN Gérard Cros Replacing Jean Didier Roisin as the French foreign ministry's director for Africa and the Indian Ocean is France's current ambassador to Indonesia. (...). [Total : 155 Words]. (4,7USD) SEYCHELLES Radley Weber Radley Weber has resigned as managing director of the Indian Ocean Tuna (IOT) company, a canned tuna factory based in Victoria and owned jointly by Heinz Foods and the Seychelles government. (...). [Total : 151 Words]. (4,7USD) UNITED STATES/MADAGASCAR Wanda L Nesbitt A specialist of Central Africa's Great Lake region has been selected by President George W Bush to be the United States' next ambassador to Madagascar. (...). [Total : 232 Words]. (4,7USD) EAST AFRICA/UNITED STATES Marc P Mealy The Afro-American who gave a conference on the WTO at Kampala's Centre for Basic Research on June 28 is a very active consultant in the Great Lakes region. (...). [Total : 156 Words]. (4,7USD)

FRANCE/ETHIOPIA MICHEL DROBNIAK France's new trade adviser to Ethiopia is a specialist on Asia. (...). [Total : 35 Words]. (FREE!) MOZAMBIQUE/PORTUGAL JOAQUIM CHISSANO The linguistic talents of President Joaquim Chissano brought him into trouble during the Lisbon conference celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Socialist International (SI). (...). [Total : 58 Words]. (1,5USD) FRANCE/DJIBOUTI LAURENT MERER France's former maritime préfet of the English Channel and the North Sea has been named commander of the Indian Ocean/Djibouti sea zone. (...). [Total : 76 Words]. (1,5USD) COMOROS ISLANDS/FRANCE ASSOUMANI AZZALI According to information obtained by The Indian Ocean Newsletter, President Assoumani Azzali has asked France's cooperation ministry to extend the contract of the current military attaché in the French Embassy in Moroni. (...). [Total : 124 Words]. (1,5USD)