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Make check payable to: Africa Report and send to: (REPORT Africa Report Subscription Services / P.O. Box 3000, Dept. AR / Denville, NJ 07834 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1994 AMERICAS VOLUME 39, NUMBER 1 LEADING MAGAZINE cflFRICfl ON AFRICA A Publication of the (REPORT African-American Institute The Letters to the Editor 4 African-American Institute Update 5 Chairman Editor: Russell Geekie Maurice Tempelsman Angola President The World's Worst War 13 Vivian Lowery Derryck By Cindy Shiner The Siege of Cuito 18 Publisher By Mercedes Sayagues Steve McDonald Editor-in-Chief Interview Margaret A. Novicki George E. Moose: Clinton's Policy Priorities 21 The U.S. and Africa By Margaret A. Novicki Associate Editor Page 21 Joseph Margolis Burundi Assistant Editor The Death of Democracy 26 Russell Geekie By Catharine Watson Editorial Assistant Rwanda Marks Chabedi An Uneasy Peace 32 By Scott Stearns Contributing Editor Andrew Meldrum Somaliland Art Director Struggling to Survive 36 Kenneth Jay Ross By Julie Flint Advertising Office Kenya 212 350-2958 Pressure for Change 39 Interns The Killing Fields By Binaifer Nowrojee Laura J. Brooks Page 26 Juliet Hayes Algeria Mary Oling-OttOO The Batlle of Algiers 42 Kathleen C. Patten By Alfred Hermida Rick K. Tange Mauritania Ethnic Cleansing 45 Africa Report (ISSN 0001-9836), a non-profit magazine of African affairs. By Janet Fleischman is published bimonthly and is sched- uled to appear at the beginning of Nigeria each date period at 833 United Nations Plaza. New York, NY. 10017. The Army Calls the Tune 47 Editorial correspondence and adver- By Paul Adams tising inquiries should be addressed to Africa Report, at the above ad- dress. Subscription inquiries should be AIDS addressed to Subscription Services. Orphans of the Storm 50 P.O. Box 3000. Dept. AR. Denville N.J V 07834. Subscription rates: Individuals: Suffer die Children ByB.J.Kelso USA $30, Canada $36, air rate over- Page 50 seas $54. Institutions: USA S37, Malawi Canada $43. air rate overseas $61. Second-class postage paid at New The Army Factor 56 York, NY. and at additional mailing By Richard Carver offices. POSTMASTER: If this maga- zine is undeliverable, please send address changes io Africa Report at Interview 833 UN Plaza, NY, NY 10017. Tele- Chakufwa Chihana: Dissident for Democracy 59 phone: (212) 350-2958. Copyright© 1994 by The African-American Insti- By Francis A. Kornegay, Jr. tute. Inc. Soudi Africa After Victory, What? 62 By Patrick iMurence Photo Credit: The cover photograph of the The Land Inequity 65 aftermath of the siege of Cuito, By Anne Shepherd Angola, was taken by Sam Dawn of Democracy Kiley/Sygma. Page 56 1993 Index 68 To the Editor: widely rumored to be the most pro- toring Unit (NEMU) alone could base Further to Makau wa Mutua's arti- government of the international con- its conclusions on the evidence of cle, 'Ticking Time Bomb," (Africa tingent, deplored one day later "the some 5,000 poll watchers and was Report, July-August 1993), and the widespread perception of a lack of able to compile statistical evidence of exchange of opinion over the conduct real commitment on the part of the irregularities during voting and count- of the December 1992 Kenyan elec- government to the process of multi- ing. This broad basis led NEMU to tions that followed in your November- party politics" exemplified, for exam- conclude in its final report, "that the December 1993 issue, I would like to ple, by "the harassment and intimida- December 1992 elections were not add further evidence. In his letter, tion of candidates and voters right up free and fair" although they "could be Richard H.O. Okwaro defends the to polling day." said to be the most competitive elec- Kenyan election results by bluntly These expressions of doubts about tions in independent Kenya's history." stating that they were observed by "a the freeness and fairness of the elec- Rather than blaming the opposition large number of international toral process and the commitment of for losing a rigged election, NEMU observers" who concluded that "the the government to democratic reform criticizes them for having "unwitting- elections were free and fair, and rep- were subjected to an almost total ly, perhaps, allowed Kanu the oppor- resented the will of the Kenyan peo- turnaround one day later, when the tunity to pour scorn on multi-partyism ple." This assertion, which has gained three main opposition parties and to manipulate the electoral pro- some currency, needs urgent clarifi- announced their intention to reject cess to its advantage." cation. the elections on grounds uncannily It is at once sad and encouraging The election coverage by interna- similar to the complaints voiced by that in Kenya, it was Kenyans who tional observers was not as pervasive international observers. Only a few applied to their elections democratic as Okwaro likes to make out. Some hours later, the Commonwealth standards closest to what might be 160 persons attached to a plethora of group released its conclusions which held to be internationally accepted. distinct observer groups were on contradicted its opinion barely 24 Ultimately, international observers polling day faced with over 7,000 hours earlier: The results suddenly inspired the confidence of the Kenyan polling stations with a total of 10,500 reflected "the will of the people" and government—such as its foreign min- polling streams spread over an area represented "a giant step" toward ister who in September 1993 in an more than double the size of Britain. multi-partyism. Subsequent state- interview with the BBC expressed his The largest team of just over 50 ments of observers and diplomats certitude thai since Kenya's donors observers managed to visit no more confirmed that the reaction of the had believed that the 1992 elections than 2.3 percent of polling stations in opposition had turned into the most were free and fair, they would also a quarter of all constituencies. The decisive factor in the international believe that his government's human international coverage of election assessment of the elections—it was rights record is without blemish. phases other than voting, such as the suddenly their lack of unity and their Given the escalating ethnic clashes registration of voters or the counting lack of responsibility towars the elec- which are said to be governmen-insti- of the vote, was even more patchy or torate, rather than unwillingness of gated victimization campaigns against non-existent. the government, that had compro- ethnic groups held to be sympathetic The conclusions of international mised the elections. The chairman of to the opposition, international observers were, moreover, by no the Commonwealth group went so far observers might still learn that in means as uncontroversial or uniform as to tell the press that the opposition their endeavor to safeguard Kenyan as Okwaro would have us believe. could after all also win an election that national security, they hunted the Two weeks prior to the elections, the was not free and fair, and that there- wrong witch. As a final irony, the observer group of the International fore "the emphasis which is being put international observers, prior to the Republican Institute (IRI), for exam- on the freeness and fairness of elec- election initially rejected, and then ple, considered the electoral process tions is a bit too heavy." scorned and obstructed by the ruling severely damaged by the govern- Even more worrying, however, is party and members of the electoral ment's "centralized and systematic that the rather different conclusion of commission as pro-opposition agents, manipulation of the administrative a large number of Kenyan observers are now praised by the same forces as and security structure of the state to has continued to be completely their most powerful defense. the ruling party's advantage." Two ignored. The domestic monitors, in —Gisela Geisler, days after election day, the IRI did not contrast to their international counter- Chr. Michelsen Institute rule out the possibility that the delays parts, performed impressively. Bergen, Norway and lapses that marked the counting Between 7,000-10,000 Kenyans of the vote were systematic and that observed polling and counting and [Editor's Note: Ms. Geisler was a there "may have been efforts to their organizations monitored all member of the Scandinavian-Canadi- manipulate the process." Even the phases of the controversial electoral an election observation team for Commonwealth Observer Group, process. The National Election Moni- Kenya's 1992 elections.] Africa Report N THE NEWS Legacy of Cote d'lvoire's 'Old Man' Is Uncertainty die d*Ivoire is orphaned. The But Bedie's constitutional claim to ed to the PDCI, however. The country's one who has embodied our peo- the presidency was challenged long main opposition party, the Ivorian Pop- c ple for almost half a cen- before Houphouet-Boigny's death.