CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC AMNESTY BILL PASSED

The Central African Republic’s parliament has passed an amnesty aimed to allow the conclusion of peace talks between government forces and rebels. The law covers both rebels and government officials in CAR.

One rebel leader, whose group had earlier rejected the amnesty, was quoted as saying he would have to study the detail of the text. Meanwhile, another rebel group was reported to have seized control of a village in the north near Sudan.

About 20 armed men from the Forces for the Unification of the Central African Republic (Firca) took over Am Dafok, east of Birao, a police official told AFP news agency.

The Firca splintered from the Union of Democratic Forces for the Rally (UFDR), which signed a peace deal with President Francois Bozize in April 2007.

The APA news agency said the amnesty covered violence from 15 March 2003. Acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes would be excluded, it said.

The law calls for an immediate ceasefire and for armed groups to hand in their weapons. Jean-Jacques Demafouth, the exiled leader of the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD), told AFP he wanted “to see the text in detail before making a decision about it”.

The APRD pulled out of peace talks at the beginning of August because of the draft amnesty and other grievances.

The government resumed talks with rebels in Gabon earlier this month.

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SOMALI MILITANTS RAZE CHURCH

An Islamist group in Somalia has destroyed a derelict church in the southern port town of Kismayo, an eyewitness has told the BBC. The destruction took place after prayers to mark the Eid al-Fitr festival at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The al-Shabab group took control of Kismayo in fierce fighting last month. They say they will build a mosque on the site of the colonial-era church, which has not been used for many years.

Almost the entire Somali population is Muslim. Some Christian groups have complained about persecution. In 2005, an Islamist group dug up graves from an Italian colonial cemetery in the capital, Mogadishu, and built a mosque on the site.

An al-Shabab spokesman has said they wanted to destroy the church in retaliation for the destruction of a mosque in Ethiopia. Al-Shabab is fiercely opposed to the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia.

It refuses to take part in peace talks unless a deadline is set for them to leave the country. The Ethiopians intervened in Somalia to help government forces oust Islamists two years ago.

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UGANDA WANTS FOOD BLOCKADE FOR LRA REBELS

Uganda’s government has urged aid agencies to stop supplying food to the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Minister for Disaster Preparedness Tarsis Kabwegyere said this would increase pressure on the group to sign a peace deal to end their 20-year war.

He said the LRA should be starved out of its camps in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The LRA refused to sign an agreement in April because of international arrest warrants against its leaders.

Mr Kabwegyere said rebel leader Joseph Kony had manipulated peace talks to gain access to food and medicine. “Whoever is giving food to LRA should say: ‘We’re giving you food only when you can sign,'” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

The government had not given up hope on peace, he added. “Kony [should] know that ending the war is the best thing to do.”

His fighters have relocated to camps on the Sudan-DR Congo border over the past two years of peace negotiations. Last week, Catholic aid agency Caritas said some 75,000 people had fled recent LRA attack in DR Congo.

The LRA has led a rebellion for more than 20 years which has displaced some two million people in northern Uganda.

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ETHIOPIA WANTS UN PEACE KEEPERS IN SOMALIA

Ethiopia demanded on Monday that the U.N. Security Council deploy peacekeeping troops soon in neighboring Somalia, where a conflict has killed and displaced thousands of people since last year.

“We urge the United Nations Security Council to discharge its responsibility by deploying a peacekeeping mission in Somalia as soon as possible or, at least, to allocate the necessary resources to strengthen AMISOM,” Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin told the U.N. General Assembly.

He was referring to the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, where 8,000 civilians have been killed and 1 million uprooted since early last year in fighting pitting transitional government and Ethiopian forces against Eritrea-backed Islamist rebels.

The Security Council recently rejected a request from Somalia to send a U.N. peacekeeping force, saying it might do so when conditions there had improved. But it asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to step up contingency planning for such a force.

The foreign minister of Ethiopia’s longtime rival Eritrea, Osman Saleh, said Addis Ababa and its ally, Washington, were largely to blame for the humanitarian crisis.

“The tragedy in Somalia is another extremely grave humanitarian situation that has been exacerbated, if not brought about, essentially because of wrong U.S. policies,” Saleh told the U.N. General Assembly.

“U.S. warplanes occasionally pulverize Somali villages in the name of the war on terrorism,” Saleh added.

Some 850,000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu since early 2007, according to U.N. figures.

AMISOM had authorized the deployment of 8,000 troops to Somalia but now has only 2,600 on the ground.

Mesfin praised the deployment of troops from Uganda and Burundi in AMISOM and urged others to follow suit.

He said his country was encouraged by the latest positive political developments in Somalia. A peace deal was signed in August at U.N.-led talks in Djibouti but it has been rejected by hard-liners and did not stop the fighting.

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SA PROSECUTORS FILE GRAFT CHARGES AGAINST JACOB ZUMA

South African prosecutors on Tuesday filed an application to appeal against a ruling that dismissed corruption charges against ANC leader Jacob Zuma, a spokesman said.

Earlier this month a judge threw out the charges against Zuma and suggested there had been high-level political interference in the case, spurring the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to oust President Thabo Mbeki.

“We’ve filed our papers today in the (Pietermaritzburg) High Court,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Tlali Tlali told Reuters.

The ANC, dominated by Zuma supporters, says the judge’s indication of high-level political meddling in the case justifies ending the pursuit of Zuma, the frontrunner to become president after a general election expected around April 2009.

The argument has failed to sway prosecutors, who have spent years investigating Zuma, first for his role in an arms scandal and later for his relationship with a financial adviser who was convicted of fraud and other wrongdoing.

Mbeki was replaced as president by Kgalema Motlanthe.

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END TO ZIMBABWE’S CABINET IMPASSE NEAR

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Monday he expected a unity government to be formed by the end of this week, ending an impasse with the opposition over cabinet posts.

An outline agreement signed this month between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai brought hope that political stability could reverse Zimbabwe’s economic chaos. So far, Zimbabweans have seen little benefit from the deal.

“We discussed the ministries before I left. Only four remain, but there is no deadlock,” Mugabe told reporters on his return form a U.N. General Assembly meeting. “We will be setting up government this week, towards the end of the week.”

Tsvangirai, who is set to become prime minister under the deal, called on Saturday for the formation of a power-sharing government “in the next few days” to help end the crisis.

Under the deal, Mugabe retains the presidency and chairs cabinet, while Tsvangirai will chair a council of ministers supervising the cabinet.

Arthur Mutambara, who heads a small faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is also taking part in the negotiations and is set to be one of two deputy prime ministers.

The opposition will have a combined cabinet majority, with Tsvangirai’s main MDC faction controlling 13 cabinet posts in the new government, Mugabe’s ZANU-PF 15 and Mutambara’s breakaway MDC faction three.

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SOMALI PIRATES WAR AGAINST EACH OTHER

There has been a shoot-out between Somali pirates on a hijacked cargo ship loaded with 33 tanks, the East African Seafarers’ Association says. The maritime group’s Andrew Mwangura told the BBC three men were shot in a row over tactics.

Pirates seized the Ukrainian ship last week and have demanded a $20m (£11m) ransom to release it. Mr Mwangura said the situation is very tense with the ship, the Faina, surrounded by US navy vessels.

US navy spokesman Lt Nathan Christensen said on Monday that destroyers and cruisers have been deployed within 10 miles (16kms) of the hijacked ship. Meanwhile, Malaysian shipping company MISC Berhad says two of its oil tankers hijacked in August have been freed.

Company chairman Hassan Marican said ransoms were paid for MT Bunga Melati 2 and MT Bunga Melati 5, but declined to name the amount. He said paying ransoms was against company policy, but necessary to obtain the release of its crew.

Somalia has been without a functioning central government for 17 years and has suffered continual civil strife, with rival armed clans and groups fighting for control.

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IVORIEN TOXIC WASTE DUMP TRIAL BEGINS

Twelve people have gone on trial in Ivory Coast accused of dumping toxic waste blamed for 17 deaths and led 100,000 to seek medical treatment. Some 500 tons of chemical waste from the oil industry were dumped two years ago in the biggest city, Abidjan.

Those on trial include the head of a local company, Tommy, that signed the deal to treat the waste with the Dutch multinational, Trafigura. They are accused of charges including poisoning and complicity to poison.

Also on trial are a number of port and customs officials. The BBC’s John James reports from Abidjan that families of the victims are happy the trial has begun, but there is anger that no-one from Trafigura is in court – nor some of the more senior government and port officials accused of turning a blind eye.

Soon after the waste was dumped, people began complaining of breathing problems and rashes. In an earlier out of court settlement, Trafigura agreed to pay the Ivorian government about $200m (£108m) in one of the largest payments of its kind.

The company never admitted liability, saying the payment was made out of sympathy for Ivorian people. It also disputes whether the chemical slops were the cause of the large number of medical complaints.

The firm says it contracted Tommy to handle the waste in good faith. Two years on, much of the waste remains where it was dumped and people still complain of illnesses and abnormal births linked to the waste.

The trial is expected to last at least two weeks.

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SAYS CHILD-SOLDIERS, RAPE VICTIMS ON THE RISE IN DRC

A Democratic Republic of Congo minister has challenged a report claiming a rise in the recruitment of child soldiers and rape in the east of the country. Defence Minister Chikez Diemu said authorities were tackling the problems, arresting suspects and trying them in military courts.

The report by Amnesty International said that for every two child soldiers released, five were being recruited. The report cited victims of conflict in North Kivu province.

DR Congo’s army has been battling fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda in the east of the country, causing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

The report said that some child soldiers who had been demobilised were being re-recruited by armed groups. It also said government security forces had “unlawfully detained and in some cases tortured and ill-treated captured children, and continue to rape and sexually abuse women and girls”.

Mr Diemu told the BBC’s Network Africa programme he knew of no reports that the armed forces were recruiting children.

“I wouldn’t see for which reason [the army] would be recruiting kids,” he said.

With renewed fighting in eastern DR Congo, the report said child soldiers who attempt to escape are killed or tortured, sometimes in front of other children.

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3 KILLED, 6 INJURED IN ALGIERS BLAST

A suicide attack east of the Algerian capital, Algiers, has killed three people and injured another six, the state news agency has reported. The attack took place at Dellys, about 100km (60 miles) east of Algiers on Sunday, APS news agency said.

Reports said a suicide car bomber hit a checkpoint there at the end of iftar, the meal that breaks the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Algeria has suffered regular suicide attacks by rebels linked to al-Qaeda.

Sunday’s bombing was the first reported since attacks on 19 and 20 of August killed dozens of people east and south-east of Algiers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The bombing of a barracks in Dellys in September 2007 killed at least 28 people and injured a further 60.

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