FORMER Western Cape premier Hernus Kriel, who had a heart attack at his holiday home in Kleinmond in the Western Cape on Saturday, is recovering in the Panorama Heart Clinic in Cape Town. Kriel (57) is reportedly feeling much better.
SAAF TO MARION’S RESCUE
THE South African Air Force is to dispatch a C-130 transport aircraft to Marion Island on Wednesday to drop emergency supplies. In a statement from Pretoria, the SAAF said the weather station on the southern Indian ocean island lost the roof of its living quarters in a storm last month. “Due to the extreme weather situation in the area, the temporary repairs by the team on the island are inadequate and the building is in danger of total destruction,” the SAAF said. The supplies will include canvas, ropes, hammers, nails, food, and equipment for temporary accommodation. The island does not have a runway long enough to take a C-130, so the equipment will be dropped by parachute. Permanent repairs to the weather station will be done at the end of April, after the arrival of the supply ship Agulhas on its annual provision run to the island.
‘ETHIOPIA ABOUT TO ATTACK’
ETHIOPIAN troops will launch attacks against Eritrea in three directions between mid-January and mid-February, the Eritrean government declared on Tuesday. In a foreign ministry communique, the Asmara government based its statement on “news leaked by various sources, including western intelligence sources”. The two countries went to war in May last year over their ill-defined border, about 1000km long. Several thousand people are reliably reported to have died in early battles. The two armies have avoided fighting at close quarters since June, but in November Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said artillery duels were occurring almost daily.
BURKINABE PM REINSTATED
BURKINA Faso Prime Minister Kadre Desire Ouedraogo has been reinstated as head of the government, a presidential communique said, without giving further details. The statement, released late on Monday, said Ouedraogo was returned to office in a decree signed by President Blaise Compaore. The premier and his government resigned on Friday, in the follow-up to Compaore’s victory in November 15 elections, which were boycotted by the opposition. Ouedraogo, originally appointed in February 1996, did not have a specific political affiliation, but has since joined Compaore’s Congress for Democracy and Progress party.
BURUNDI SANCTIONS MAY BE DROPPED
A REGIONAL summit might take place on January 23 in Tanzania to lift economic sanctions imposed on Burundi in 1996. Mediator Julius Nyerere “will be looking to the regional heads of government to take a formal decision on January 23 in Arusha [Tanzania],” said a United Nations official. The former Tanzanian president made the statements on Monday during a donors meeting to discuss the peace process in Burundi, the official said. Asked if the suspension was almost a done deal, the official replied, “I think so,” but pointed out that the sanctions will not be lifted but rather suspended.
PERKS FOR MOZ WAR VETS
MOZAMBICAN President Joaquim Chissano proposed giving the country’s estimated 500000 war veterans special citizenship status and government perks on Tuesday. Speaking in the central city of Chimoio at a National Veterans’ Association conference, Chissano said veterans deserve special perks for having sacrificed so much during the country’s 16-year civil war and its earlier struggle for independence from Portugal. Chissano, who is chairman of the association, warned however that the perks will be limited by the impoverished state’s financial constraints.