In the News Page 2 April - May, 2000

 

Guinean opposition leader on trial
BBC 4-13-00

By West Africa correspondent Mark Doyle

The trial of a leading opponent of the military government in Guinea has opened in the country's capital, Conakry.
The defendant, Professor Alpha Conde, is accused of plotting a coup d'etat. He denies the charges. Professor Conde was arrested over a year ago as he was challenging the head of state, General Lansana Conte, in presidential elections. General Conte was eventually declared the winner despite widespread allegations of electoral fraud. Test for democracy The trial of Alpha Conde is an important test for democracy in Guinea - a country which has been under military rule for most of the time since
 ndependence from France over 40 years ago.

 Mr Conde, a former professor of politics at the Sorbonne University in Paris, denies plotting a coup d'etat. Independent human rights groups allege that the charges against him are politically motivated. He appeared in court looking as though he had lost weight in prison, but
he flashed a victory salute to his supporters and even gave an interview to journalists in the court room. Alpha Conde was arrested in 1998, shortly after presidential elections which the opposition said were rigged in favour of General Conte.

--BBC

Debt has hit Zambia's schools hard
The Catholic Church in Italy has set up a charitable fund to pay off
debt
owed to Italy by two of the poorest African countries, Guinea and
Zambia.
Private individuals and business institutions will be asked to
contribute to
the fund, which will then be used to re-pay the Italian government about
10%
of the total sum owed to it by the two countries.
This is the estimated market value of the debt.
The organisers say that Guinea and Zambia will be asked to set aside an
equivalent sum to be spent on local development.
Don Mario Operti of the Italian Episcopal Conference said the Catholic
Church
wanted to make a concrete gesture to help poor countries.
Vatican blames US Congress
The move follows Vatican criticism last week of the United States and
the
European Union for failing to honour promises on debt relief to
developing
countries.

The secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,
Irish archbishop Diarmuid Martin, complained that US funds for poorer
countries were being blocked by Congress.
He said the EU "refuses to allocate its own funds if the Americans do
not
assume their responsibilities."
But the poor countries must also play their part, he said, by putting
economic reforms into effect and not indulging in costly purchases, such
as
expensive private aircraft for their presidents - as happened recently
in
Uganda.
Italian Catholics give about $1bn every year in voluntary contributions
for
third world development.
The Church says that, if every tax payer in the industrially-developed
countries contributed $4 a year for 20 years to the relief of the
developing
world, there would be sufficient funds to repay the accumulated foreign
debt
of the world's 52 poorest nations.

GENEVA, May 9 (Reuters) - Some 265 people from Sierra Leone -- including
deserting government soldiers -- have fled to Guinea over the past four
days
amid escalating fighting between rebels and the army, the United Nations
refugee agency said on Tuesday.

The refugees, from the Kambia district north of Freetown in western
Sierra
Leone, reported that many others were prevented from fleeing by the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels who control the border area,
according to Kris Janowski, spokesman of the United Nations High
Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR).

``Most of the people who arrived from the western end of Sierra Leone
were
males. Some of them arrived in uniforms, lightly armed, and were
disarmed or
surrendered their weapons and ammunition to the Guinean authorities,''
Janowski told a news briefing in Geneva.

``They were basically soldiers of the government forces fleeing that
area
which means that the rebels must have established control in that
area,'' he
added.

The army and rebels in Sierra Leone battled on Tuesday for a town that
controls a highway to Freetown, prompting thousands of civilians to flee
towards the capital from where British troops are evacuating foreigners.

Rebels apparently unwilling to abide by a July 1999 peace agreement
captured
up to 500 U.N. peacekeepers last week after a dispute over disarmament.

The new arrivals in Pamelap, in Guinea's Forecariah prefecture, were
transferred to Kalako refugee site, UNHCR said. Camps in Forecariah
already
hold 25,000 Sierra Leone refugees who fled civil war which raged for
much of
the 1990s.

Rebels were reportedly also blocking eastern Sierra Leone's border with
Guinea, according to the UNHCR. Some 305,000 Sierra Leone refugees who
fled
previously are in Guinea's Gueckedou area.

The Geneva-based agency has one remaining staff member in Freetown
following
a U.N. order to evacuate most humanitarian employees from the West
African
state.

13:05 05-09-00

                                            Panafrican News Agency
                                            May 23, 2000

                                            DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) - A road project linking Guinea and Mali is to receive funding amounting to
                                            24 million Units of Account (31.66 million US dollars) in the form of a loan from the African
                                            Development Fund, the soft loan affiliate of the African Development Bank group.

                                            The bank said in a press release that the board of directors of the fund approved the amount in Abidjan
                                            last week.

                                            It said Guinea would get 10.36 million Units of Account while Mali would receive 13.64 million Units of
                                            Account for the construction of their sections of the Kankan-Kouremale-Bamako road.

                                            The objective of the project is to open up the north-eastern part of Guinea and the south-west
                                            regions of Mali, thus establishing a permanent road link between economic and administrative centres of
                                            Guinea and Mali in order to promote economic activities in the project area.

                                            "The project will involve the construction of a 344-km new road, of which 217 km will be on the
                                            Guinean side and 127 km on the Malian side.

                                            "The road will comprise a 7-metre pavement with two shoulders of 1.50 metres each. It will also
                                            involved all necessary hydraulic works, including two bridges across the rivers Tinkisso and Niger, as
                                            well as parking bays at population centres through which the road passes," the release said.

                                            The total cost of the project is estimated at 101.57 million Units of Account (about 133.99 million
                                            dollars).

                                            "This project is consistent with the Bank strategy that promotes rural development and accessibility,
                                            human resource development and strengthening of economic integration among member countries," it
                                            said

                                            The ADB group operations in Mali and Guinea started respectively in 1970, and 1974.

                                            To date, the group has committed in Mali a total of 453.47 million dollars on 49 projects out of which
                                            about 391.92 million dollars have been disbursed.

                                            In Guinea, the bank says it has committed 520.50 million dollars on 49 operations out of which 436.30
                                            million dollars have been disbursed.

June 12, 2000

    Springsteen Song About Diallo Prompts
          Anger From Police

          By JULIAN E. BARNES

               Bruce Springsteen will begin a string of
               sold-out performances tonight in
          New York City, with fans -- and
          new-found foes -- waiting to hear if the
          Boss sings a song deploring the killing of Guinean
          Amadou Diallo by four police officers.

          The new song, "American Skin," begins with Mr. Springsteen repeating
          the words "41 shots," the number of times Mr. Diallo was shot in front of
          his apartment in the Bronx, and includes lyrics like, "You can get killed
          just for living in your American skin."

          Although the song has not been formally released, controversy has built
          around it since Mr. Springsteen first performed it June 4 in Atlanta during
          his current tour. Mr. Diallo's mother has praised Mr. Springsteen's work,
          saying she took it as a sign people cared about her son, but police
          officers have frowned on it.

          Today, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard
          Safir added their voices to the critics. The Patrolman's Benevolent
          Association has attacked the song for labeling the shooting of Mr. Diallo
          a case of racial profiling. The four New York City officers were
          acquitted of murder and other charges in February.

          Pat Lynch, the president of the police union, has asked officers to
          boycott the concerts, and Bob Lucente, the president of the New York
          State chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, called Mr. Springsteen a
          "dirtbag."

          Despite the recent criticism, Mr. Springsteen has long been a favorite of
          police officers. Mr. Springsteen's songs speak to the life experiences of
          many officers and he has performed benefit concerts for the families of
          slain officers, said Eric Alterman, the author of a 1999 book about Mr.
          Springsteen called "It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive."

          Since Mr. Springsteen first played the song, bootleg copies have been
          posted on the Internet. WCBS-AM, the news radio station, played a clip
          this morning.

          Mr. Diallo was shot on Feb. 4, 1999, as he stood at the front door to his
          apartment building. He was approached by the four officers, who thought
          he was reaching for a gun. Mr. Diallo was unarmed and was apparently
          reaching for his wallet, a fact Mr. Springsteen focuses on the song.

          "Is it a gun?/ Is it a knife?/ Is it a wallet?/ This is your life," Mr.
          Springsteen sings.

          Officers reading the lyrics of Mr. Springsteen's new song have reacted
          most strongly to the chorus: "It ain't no secret/ The secret my friend/ You
          can get killed just for living in your American Skin."

          Mr. Giuliani said today some of the comments deriding Mr. Springsteen
          were inappropriate but said he understood why the officers were angry
          about the song.

          "There are still people trying to create the impression thatthe police
          officers are guilty and they are going to feel strongly aboutthat," Mr.
          Giuliani said.

          Mr. Safir, speaking at the same news conference, said while officers
          should not denigrate Mr. Springsteen with racial, ethnic or sexual
          innuendos, they have a right not to like his music.

          "I personally don't particularly care for Bruce Springsteen's music or his
          songs," Mr. Safir said.

          But Mr. Alterman said he found much of the political controversy around
          the song silly. In the new song, Mr. Springsteen is not so much
          condemning the officers, or arguing they should have been convicted, Mr.
          Alterman said. Instead, Mr. Springsteen is taking artistic
inspiration from social injustice, as he has done in countless songs, Mr. Alterman said.

          "Bruce is saying there is something wrong with a society that you can be
          shot for taking out your wallet," Mr. Alterman said. "He is saying an
          injustice was committed against this man and this man's family."

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company

GUINEA: Low turnout in local elections

ABIDJAN, 26 June (IRIN) - A low turnout and isolated incidents of
violence
marked municipal elections in Guinea on Sunday, a media source in
Conakry
told IRIN on Monday. The country was mostly calm. However in Boke, some
165
km north of Conakry, the capital, six members of former prime minister
Sidya
Toure' opposition Union des forces republicaines (UFR) party, were
injured
by soldiers and one later died, the source said.

At least 10 members of the Rassemblement du peuple de guinee, headed by
detained presidential hopeful Alpha Conde, were arrested in Zerekore,
some
900 km southeast of the capital. Minor incidents of violence were also
reported in the centre of Conakry, news organisations reported.

AFP reported that supporters of the ruling Parti de l'unite et du
progres
harassed opposition candidates and, prior to police intervention, tried
to
stop them from entering five voting stations in Conakry. Eight of the 46
approved political parties presented candidates in the election, the
third
such multiparty poll in the country since independence in 1958, AFP
reported.
 

Wednesday, 28 June, 2000, 23:34 GMT 00:34 UK
Violence follows Guinea elections
At least five people have been killed and dozens injured in clashes
between
protestors and security forces in the West African state of Guinea.
The protests follow Sunday's municipal elections in the country where
members
of the opposition Union for Progress and Renewal -- the UPR -- have
accused
the authorities of vote-rigging.
The UPR says the official announcement of the election result has been
delayed so it can be rigged in favour of President Lansana Conte's Party
for
Unity and Progress -- or PUP.
Violence has been reported in the towns of Mamou, Fria and Boke, all in
the
west of the country.
Correspondents say the situation in the country is tense.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

Peace Corps Enlisted in HIV Fight

 

All Peace Corps volunteers now serving in Africa, as well as new
recruits assigned to work on that continent, will be trained as AIDS
educators as part of a new effort to help Africans fight the epidemic,
the organization announced yesterday.

The initiative marks the first time that the Peace Corps has decided to
commit all volunteers in a region--not just those specializing in
health--to combating a specific disease. It reflects U.S. officials'
deepening concern over the catastrophic impact of AIDS in sub-Saharan
Africa, where 22.5 million people have been infected with the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and 14 million have died.

"We know the best way to combat AIDS is by working at the community
level," said Sandra Thurman, director of the White House's Office of
National AIDS Policy. "That is why I believe the Peace Corps is ideally
suited to fight and to make a difference."

Volunteers will work to improve AIDS awareness and prevention and to
help communities address some of the social and economic problems
created by the epidemic, such as the need to grow food for people living
with AIDS.

Peace Corps Director Mark L. Schneider said AIDS training will initially
be provided to the 2,400 volunteers serving in 24 African countries and
to another 1,200 volunteers to be sent there during each of the next two
years. In addition, the Peace Corps plans to send 50 new volunteers to
eastern and southern Africa to work exclusively on AIDS-related
projects. It also hopes to recruit 200 former volunteers who served in
Africa to return there as members of the Crisis Corps, working in AIDS
care and prevention for up to six months at a time.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has agreed to provide $1.5
million over the next five years to support the initiative, said USAID
Administrator J. Brady Anderson. Some funding will also come from the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation, Schneider said. The program is to focus on Africa but will
include some AIDS-related activities on other continents.

In the audience at yesterday's news briefing were 29 new volunteers who
are scheduled to leave today to begin Peace Corps training in
Mauritania, a West African country. Several expressed enthusiasm about
the initiative.

Denise Cole, a prospective teacher, said she hopes the AIDS training
will allow her "to provide more education to the children and parents."

Karen Pilliod, who worked as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1996 to 1998
in a village in Guinea, recalled that her initial attempts to involve
local people in discussions about AIDS fell flat. Many of them "maybe
didn't believe that it existed or didn't believe it was a problem for a
rural village," she said.

So she began to focus on teen pregnancy, which the villagers agreed was
a serious problem, and included AIDS education as part of her effort to
address it. "I found the discussions more fruitful," she said. "I
believe that, from the Peace Corps, we can make an impact with a disease
that is really killing off a huge population of Africans."

In recent years, Crisis Corps volunteers have been dispatched as relief
workers to the Caribbean and Latin America in the wake of hurricanes and
other natural disasters. "There is no more lethal and prolonged a
natural disaster than HIV/AIDS," Schneider said.

THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
June 28, 2000 Wednesday, METRO
SECTION: LOCAL & STATE; Pg. D3
LENGTH: 410 words 

HEADLINE: Orlando woman joins Peace corps Battle against AIDS in Africa

BYLINE: By Christina Adkins of The Sentinel Staff
 

BODY:
Just before her 13th birthday, Emmanuela Jeune wrote in her diary, "My
desire is to be a missionary and go all  over the world."  Now 26, the
Orlando resident will make part of her childhood ambition a reality when she
leaves for Africa today.

Jeune and 28 other volunteers will be among the first trained as
disease-prevention educators in the Peace Corps' new campaign to combat
AIDS. Their assignment is in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on the northwest coast
of  Africa.

The initiative announced Tuesday by Peace Corps director Mark Schneider
enlists volunteers in three areas.

First, the 2,400 volunteers doing Peace Corps work in Africa now will take
on the additional task of teaching HIV/AIDS prevention. As well, former
volunteers who worked in Africa will be asked to return for up to six months
as part of the agency's 200-member "crisis corps."

The program includes plans for 50 more volunteers to work exclusively on
the AIDS program in Africa, where 22.5 million people are infected with HIV
and where AIDS is the leading cause of death in some areas.

Schneider decided to mobilize Peace Corps workers in the fight after he
witnessed the devastation firsthand during a tour of the continent earlier
this year, Lori Robinson, assistant press director for the Peace Corps,
said.

For Jeune, who will spend two years in Islamic Mauritania, the program is
also an opportunity to learn. "I loved  to study cultures, people, learn
about languages," said Jeune, who was born in Haiti and moved to the United
States when she was 10.

Jeune, who often writes down her dreams, recalled one three years ago in
which she looked down from a plane and saw the world passing beneath her, a
dream she suggested may have forecast her trip to Mauritania. "I started to
think, 'Maybe it's a calling,' " she said.

Then last year Rachelle Jeune, who knew of her sister's desire to travel,
proposed joining the Peace Corps. Rachelle Jeune, who also has volunteered,
will learn later in the summer where she will serve.

Emmanuela Jeune doesn't know if her sister will be sent to Mauritania, but
she said their faith will ease the two-year separation. "My family, we have
a very strong belief in God. They know God is going to take care of me."

Jeune was a family service worker with the state's Healthy Start
program for infants. After serving in Mauritania,  she hopes to return to
Haiti with her cousin, who is now in medical school, and open a hospital.
 

Mr Taylor has denied arming Sierra Leone's rebels
The Liberian government has sent reinforcements to its north-western
border
following an attack from neighbouring Guinea, according to reports on
state-controlled radio.
A defence ministry statement read on President Charles Taylor's private
radio
station said the attack took place on Saturday morning in Koryamah, a
border
town near Voinjama in northern Liberia.
"The ministry of defence believes this attack is purely diversionary
with the
aim of attacking Liberian territory from Sierra Leone," the statement
said.
"This brings to three the number of attacks emanating from Guinean
territory."
There were no reports of any casualties.
Tensions have steadily grown between Mr Taylor and the governments of
Guinea
and Sierra Leone. The three countries regularly accuse each other of
sponsoring attacks on each other's territory.
The defence ministry statement said the Liberian government was to
"shortly
issue a formal protest to the Guinean government, Ecowas (the Economic
Community of West African States) and the United Nations," about the
latest
reported attack.
In the meantime, the statement said Liberia would do all it could to
prevent
the conflict from spreading.
British 'guise'
The first two attacks in the same area by unidentified insurgents from
Guinea
took place in April and August 1999.
About a month ago, the Liberian government said several thousand
dissident
troops were poised to launch attacks from Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra
Leone into Liberia.
Security reports at the time blamed members of former factions from
Liberia's
civil war of being behind the planned attacks.
Sierra Leone has on several occasions accused the Liberian government of
arming and supplying fighters to the rebel Revolutionary United Front.
The
claims have been denied consistently by the Liberian government,
although
President Taylor is allied closely with the RUF.
Mr Taylor's government said a "massive influx" of British weapons,
"under the
guise of arming the so-called Sierra Leone government forces", were
raising
tensions in the West African region, the Liberian station reported.
The UK has sent military advisers, training teams and weapons to help
Sierra
Leone's government fight the brutal Revolutionary United Front rebel
movement
which has systematically killed and maimed tens of thousands of
civilians.
There was no comment from British officials on Sunday.

Go to:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_841000/841786.stm
or
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns224828

Text:
Fly trap cuts river blindness

              Swarms of flies are commonplace in some regions
              A cheap trap made from plastic pop bottles
              and dung has significantly cut the number of
              cases of trachoma - a major cause of
              blindness.

              The simple homemade devices were invented
              by a retired professor from the Institute of
              Child Health in London.

              Trachoma, also known as river blindness,
              affects approximately 14m people worldwide,
              mainly in developing countries.

              It is thought to be spread from person to
              person by the thousands of flies which swarm
              in certain regions.

              In Africa's Rift Valley, for example, there could
              be as many as 32,000 flies gathered in just
              one house.

              Studies have suggested that simply by
              reducing the quantity of flies, the risk of
              transmission of the infection could also be
              reduced.

              Past strategies have involved intensive
              spraying with insecticide.

              However, Professor David Morley developed a
              fly trap which can be built simply from two
              transparent plastic bottles, based on his
              observation that flies, following feeding, tend
              to fly upwards towards the light.

              Fly feast

              The lower bottle is plastered with mud to make
              it dark inside, and then filled with a mixture of
              goat droppings and cow urine - guaranteed to
              prove irresistible to flies.

              After a fine meal, the flies pass up a plastic
              tube into a second bottle, left transparent to
              lure them. Here they die from exhaustion and
              exposure to UV light.

              The bottle went on trial in 300 Masai homes in
              Kenya over a year.

              The fly population was reduced by an
              estimated 40%, and more importantly, the
              number of trachoma cases fell by more than a
              third.

              Professor Morley told New Scientist magazine:
              "Local children have been making the traps at
              school - the teacher made it part of the
              homework."

              There is still controversy over whether fly
              population reduction is the key to preventing
              trachoma cases.

              Professor David Mabey, from the London
              School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine, said
              that it was likely the traps would catch many
              more ordinary "houseflies" than "bazaar" flies,
              which are blamed for spreading the infection.

              He said: "Although I haven't seen this
              particular research, I find it hard to believe
              that this method could be very effective."

              Earlier research, he said, had found that the
              bazaar flies liked breeding in human waste -
              but not if found in a latrine.

              Latrine solution

              So encouraging villagers to build and use
              latrines might reduce their numbers.

              Professor Mabey is investigating the possibility
              of treating whole villages simultaneously with
              one-dose antibiotics to wipe out the "reservoir
              of infection".

              This means that, in theory, there would be no
              source of infection for the flies to pick up and
              pass on to others.

              Trachoma is the leading single cause of
              preventable blindness in the world. It is caused
              not by just one infection, but the legacy of
              repeated infections over the years.

              These cause inflammation on each occasion,
              and eventually the cumulative damage causes
              the eyelid to tighten and bend in on itself,
              prodding the eye with its own lashes and
              scarring the cornea.

              Infections respond well in general to
              antibiotics, although there are concerns that
              the bacteria which cause the disease may be
              becoming resistant to drugs.

              Other techniques involve a simple 10-minute
              operation which turns the eyelid back round
              the right way, halting the damage.