In the News Page 5 January, 2001

All articles listed in chronological order
Click on the links listed with each news item to view the whole article

Guinea to Receive Us$800 Million In Debt Service Relief
Conte calls for vigilance and dialogue to overcome differences
Guinean defense minister sacked 
Guinea head blames neighbours
Taylor's "Legitimate Concerns" & Conte's Hard Choices
L'acces aux ressource seme la discorde entre Guineens et refugies
Aid staff flee Guinea fighting
[HEALTH] MINISTER DECRIES GUINEA'S POOR HEALTH FACILITIES
GUINEA'S FIRST DIVISION [SOCCER] CHAMPIONSHIP KICKS OFF
[JUSTICE] MINISTER WANTS TO DISSOLVE [RPG] OPPOSITION PARTY
FAO SUPPORTS FISH FARMING IN GUINEA
LE GOUVERNEMENT SUBVENTIONNE LA PRESSE PRIVEE
Guinea crisis 'worst in world'
Border Security Worsens, Refugees Trapped In War Zone
 

http://allafrica.com/stories/200101020239.html

Guinea to Receive Us$800 Million In Debt Service
Relief

World Bank 
PRESS RELEASE
January 2, 2001 

Washington 

The World Bank Group's International Development Association (IDA)
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to support a
comprehensive debt reduction package for Guinea under the
enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

Total debt service relief from all of Guinea's creditors is worth about
US$800 million, corresponding to about US$545 million in Net
Present Value (NPV) terms, which is equivalent to about 32 percent of
total debt outstanding after the full use of traditional debt relief
mechanisms.

Source: Radio Guinee, Conakry, in French 0645 gmt 2
Jan 01.
BBC Worldwide Monitoring/ (c) BBC 2001. 

Text of report by Guinean radio on 2 January

The year 2001 was celebrated in the utmost peace in Guinea. Peacefully
welcoming this new year, which is also the beginning of a new century, the Guinean people first praised the merciful God. Then they paid tribute to our brothers who fell in active duty
defending the nation.Last, they commended all and sundry for their
sacrifices. In his New Year's address, the head of state, General Lansana
Conte, urged the Guinean people to work hard constantly and
especially to persevere in the face of the current crisis along our borders.
The head of state recalled that one of the enemy's strategies is to
try and disrupt the normal pace of our country's developmental activities. Let us listen to
Gen Conte.

[Conte - recording] I wish to draw our fellow citizens' attention to a
danger that should be warded off, that of work absenteeism. I consider
it a war effort for each and everyone to work even harder in his field
of activity. As a matter of fact, the enemy's activities on our borders
are aimed at distracting us from our daily activities. This would
curtail our economic activities and have (?unpredictable) consequences.
If we fall into such a trap, we will, thereby, contribute to our own
destabilization. However, hard work should be combined with vigilance at
every level to uncover and root out all the criminals from our midst.
[End recording]

Mr President, Guinea is a family. Nothing will ever again affect our
social fabric - the foundation of our material and moral assets. Thanks
to this national solidarity, the recent destabilization attempts along
our borders have failed. In the same address to all the nation's social
strata, Gen Conte called especially for constructive dialogue to overcome our internal differences which, by the way, are only artificial compared with our common interests.

[Conte - recording] On this exceptional occasion, when the people come
together in a popular fervour to defend the endangered nation, it is
advisable for all our brothers who have been manipulated or deceived
into going astray to return to the national family.Meanwhile, I would like to revisit a key issue: national dialogue. I often urge Guineans to resort to it because it is a factor of progress in a
country. Since democracy was instituted, free and contradictory debates have been going
on at all levels. That is how constructive dialogue can be made the
indispensable basis for democracy.

Guinean defense minister sacked 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1101000/1101840.stm

Friday, 5 January, 2001, 10:01 GMT 

Hundreds of thousands have fled fighting
Guinean President Lansana Conte has removed
Defence Minister Dorank Assifat Diasseny, as
instability continues on Guinea's borders with
Liberia and Sierra Leone. 

State radio announced that Mr Diasseny was
to become political adviser to the president,
but no replacement as defence minister was
named. 

Guinea head blames neighbours
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1102000/1102574.stm

Saturday, 6 January, 2001, 01:23 GMT 

Hundreds of thousands have fled fighting
Guinea's president has accused a "syndicate of
African leaders" of supporting armed incursions
into his country from neighbouring states. 

In an address broadcast by state radio and
television, President Lansana Conte said that
neighbouring leaders had been attracted by his
country's mineral wealth. 

Taylor's "Legitimate Concerns" & Conte's Hard Choices

http://allafrica.com/stories/200101090206.html

The Perspective (Smyrna, Georgia)
ANALYSIS
January 9, 2001

Tom Kamara
Atlanta

More than 1600 West African troops may be deployed along the
forested and chaotic Liberian-Sierra Leonean and Guinea borders in
a dream to halt bloody cross-border incursions wiping out towns and
villages and creating infinite refugees within the region.

There are now over 300,000 refugees and displaced Guineans
wandering with no where to turn, and the fantasy is that these 1600
poorly equipped and hungry soldiers will protect them.

This is an excellent, but long opinion piece. I recommend you click on the link to read the whole pice -Webmaster

L'acces aux ressource seme la discorde entre Guineens et refugies

- In French

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/010110/1/ttes.html

KOLOMBA (sud est de la Guinée), 10 jan (AFP) - L'accès et la gestion des ressources naturelles commencent à semer la discorde entre les populations locales et les centaines de milliers de réfugiés en Guinée forestière où des signes de tensions sont apparus entre les deux communautés, a constaté un correspondant de l'AFP.

A Kolomba, petite localité guinéenne aux confins de la frontière avec la Sierra Leone, les réfugiés qui se sont installés depuis près d'une dizaine d'années "pillent les ressources naturelles et dégradent l'environnement", accusent des représentants des Communautés rurales de développement (CRD, association villageoise).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1118000/1118891.stm
Monday, 15 January, 2001, 23:52 GMT 

Aid staff flee Guinea fighting

Many refugees have fled wars in neighbouring countries
Aid workers have suspended work in southern
Guinea following renewed rebel attacks and an
army counter-offensive. 

They said they saw the severed heads of
suspected rebels displayed on stakes around
the town of Guekedou after it was recaptured
by the Guinea army. 

The aid workers were withdrawn to the safer
southern town of Kissidougou. Some 200,000
refugees, most of whom have fled wars in
neighbouring countries, are now without
humanitarian assistance. 

[HEALTH] MINISTER DECRIES GUINEA'S POOR HEALTH FACILITIES
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101220057.html

Panafrican News Agency 
January 22, 2001 
Posted to the web January 22, 2001 

Conakry, Guinea 

Health facilities in Guinea are obsolete and understaffed, according to
the country's health minister, Saliou Diallo.

The minister made the remark at the weekend as he concluded a tour
of health and medical facilities in several towns in upper Guinea.

Talking about the disparity between various centres, the minister said
the Prefecture of Kouroussa had only one doctor for a population of
14,000 while Sigui Prefecture had 10 doctors for 60,000 people.

GUINEA'S FIRST DIVISION [SOCCER] CHAMPIONSHIP KICKS OFF
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101220062.html

Panafrican News Agency 
January 22, 2001 
Posted to the web January 22, 2001 

Conakry, Guinea 

Fourteen clubs divided into two groups are taking part in Guinea' 2001
first division national football championship, which kicked off Sunday
in various towns.

Teams that have qualified to play in African club competitions would
use the championship to prepare for their continental encounters.

The Guinean Football Association has allocated an unspecified
amount of funds as subsidies to assist the teams involved in the
various African cups.

[JUSTICE] MINISTER WANTS TO DISSOLVE [RPG] OPPOSITION PARTY
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101210132.html

Panafrican News Agency 
January 21, 2001 
Posted to the web January 21, 2001 

Conakry, Guinea 

The Guinean Justice Minister, Maurice Zogbelemou Togba, has said
in Fria, 100 km north of the capital Conakry, where he was on tour, that
he would soon decide to dissolve Alpha Conde's Guinean Peoples'
Rally (RPG) party.

The private weekly, l'Independant, quoted Togba as saying that fresh
evidence given by captured rebels in Kissidougou, Macenta and
Gueckedou areas confirmed his "firm conviction" that the RPG,
elements of the national army and the administration, worked together
with some neighbouring African leaders to destabilise Guinea.

FAO SUPPORTS FISH FARMING IN GUINEA
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101200002.html

Panafrican News Agency 
January 20, 2001 
Posted to the web January 20, 2001 

Conakry, Guinea 

The Food and Agricultural Organisation has granted Guinea 300,000
US dollars to support a fish farming project, FAO sources said.

The money would be used to develop fish farming as a means of
contributing to food self-sufficiency in Guinea.

The Guinean minister for fisheries and the FAO representative in the
country signed the funding convention Friday in Conakry.

LE GOUVERNEMENT SUBVENTIONNE LA PRESSE PRIVEE
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101210201.html

Panafrican News Agency 
January 19, 2001 
Posted to the web January 21, 2001 

Conakry, Guinée 

Le gouvernement guinéen a annoncé jeudi, l'octroi d'une subvention
de 300 millions de francs guinéens (environ 160.415 dollars) pour
appuyer les efforts d'information de la presse privée du pays.

Le gouvernement a, au cours d'une rencontre avec les éditeurs de la
presse indépendante, annoncé que le volet subvention à la presse
figurera désormais dans le budget de l'Etat.

Wednesday, 24 January, 2001, 01:21 GMT 
Guinea crisis 'worst in world'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1132000/1132796.stm 

The refugees are trapped between warring factions
The United Nations refugee agency says that
the security situation in southern Guinea is
deteriorating on a daily basis. 

The UNHCR now describes the situation as the
most dramatic faced by the agency anywhere
in the world. 

A UNHCR spokesman in Guinea, Peter Kessler,
told the BBC that 250,000 refugees lie trapped
in the area where the army and rebels 
 

http://allAfrica.com/stories/200101240380.html 

Border Security Worsens, Refugees Trapped In
War Zone
All Africa.com 
24 January 2001 

The security situation in southern Guinea is deteriorating, with another
reported attack on Tuesday, 23 January, in the border town of
Gueckedou, which is just a few kilometres from the Liberian border,
and more than 700 kilometres southeast of the capital, Conakry.
 
 

Several stories from Allafrica.com

http://allafrica.com/stories/200101260144.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/200101260126.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/200101240398.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/200101260067.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/200101250062.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/200101260021.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1138000/1138408.stm