KM News August 11, 2003

CIA 'loots' villa where Saddam's sons died Family shot dead by panicking US troops
Firing blindly during a power cut, soldiers kill a father and three children in their car

Israeli companies scope out business opportunities in Iraq

Rumors have been circulating in Baghdad regarding the recent arrival of an Israeli business delegation to the Iraqi capital. A group of Israeli industrial representatives have seemingly made the trip in order to scope out business opportunities related to the reconstruction effort, reported Al-Hayat. Full Report

ONGC Helicopter Crash Kills 2, 24 missing

MUMBAI - A helicopter transporting employees of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) from an oil rig crashed off the Mumbai Coast, leaving at least two dead and 24 missing. The private MESCO Airlines' helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea soon after take off from the Sagar-Kiran offshore rig, 70 km from the Mumbai Coast, ONGC spokesperson Narayani Mahil said.According to report quoting ONGC officials, three people -- driller A J Mhatre, assistant executive engineer V S Mandloi and an unidentified man -- had been rescued from the sea and taken to hospital while divers also recovered two unidentified bodies from the scene of the crash.

The Navy and the Coast Guard, which have a heavy presence in the oil-rich sea belt because of its proximity to Pakistan, immediately fanned out to look for survivors. Rough seas in the monsoon-hit coast and tides because of a full moon day tomorrow, however, made their job all the more difficult. The helicopter reportedly sank immediately after the crash unlike a similar accident earlier in which the chopper had floated for at least half-an-hour, enabling rescuers to save all the eight people on board.

The chopper -- a multi-role MI 72 twin-engine Russian helicopter -- was bringing the ONGC workers back at the end of their shift when the pilot was forced to ''ditch'' the aircraft. The fate of the four crew was not yet known. ONGC is the country's largest exploration company which produces two-thirds of its oil at the Bombay High offshore fields. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik rushed to Mumbai from New Delhi and is scheduled to visit the accident site, said an ONGC source.

Ailing Indian Airlines Seek Government Aid

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Rajiv Pratap Rudy has sought Government subsidy to continue with the 50 per cent discount for senior citizens in the Indian Airlines flights as the State-run carrier was struggling with huge loss burden. In an interview to New Delhi Television(NDTV), Mr Rudy has said it was difficult for the airline to afford a loss of Rs 40 crore a year. ''It is desirable if the Government could subsidise the cost of a social cause.'' He said he was taking up the matter with the Prime Minister. Mr Rudy said in the interview that the I A should be allowed to be a force in the market and for all the social causes that an airlines has to undertake, there could be a factor of cross-subsidisation or the Government giving subsidy to make things better.

ZAMBIA: Public workers' strike begins

LUSAKA, 11 August (IRIN) - Zambia's public sector workers on Monday launched a three-day nationwide strike to force the government to honour a wage increase agreement.

The unions ignored an appeal by President Levy Mwanawasa on Sunday, who feared strike action would damage the economy and cripple the government. "I am making a passionate appeal for you not to strike so that we can find other ways of resolving this matter," Mwanawasa said.

Secretary-General of the Civil Servants Union of Zambia, Darrison Chaala, told IRIN that the unions were prepared for a series of strikes until the government bowed to their demands.

"The nationwide strike by government workers starts today and ends on Wednesday, when we hope the government would have agreed to pay better wages and give workers their housing allowance. If they don't act on our demands, we shall go on strike again for a week and if, after a week, the government of President Mwanawasa does not react positively, the strike will be indefinite and operations of the government are bound to suffer greatly," Chaala said.

Martha Banda, 25, has one child and works for a government department that pays her 200,000 kwacha (about US $40) a month, making her one of the lowest paid workers in the country. She fully supports the industrial action.

"Surviving on such little money is tough ... especially if you have a child to look after, like I do, it is extremely difficult," Banda told IRIN at the Pamodzi Hotel in the capital, Lusaka, where almost 1,000 public workers gathered to kick off the strike.

The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, which collects monthly cost of living statistics, estimates that a household of six needs to spend up to $160 on basics alone.

After protracted negotiations with union leaders in April, the government agreed to salary increases and housing allowances for the 120,000 public workers to help cushion the impact of the cost of living. The lowest paid workers would earn $123 and the most senior $220.

However, the administration was forced to renege on the pay agreement when the International Monetary Fund demanded that the government tackle a projected budget overrun of about 600 billion kwacha ($124 million) and withheld $100 million in aid.

The IMF, World Bank and bilateral Western donors fund almost half of Zambia's national budget. In order to access aid and debt relief, the government is expected to cut spending and fight corruption.

Union leaders, however, argue that the sacrifices should not come from their members, but from within Mwanawasa's bloated 66-member cabinet, with an end to expensive trips abroad and ministerial perks like expensive vehicles.At the Pamodzi Hotel the workers sang: "When we are hungry and say we want money or better conditions, we are told there's no money, but ministers simply dream up better perks or trips and the next day they are turned into reality ... this cannot go on."

DRC: Priest appeals for safety of orphans trapped in Fataki, Ituri

NAIROBI, 11 August (IRIN) - A Roman Catholic priest has called for the protection of some 30 orphans trapped by fighting between ethnic militias in the village of Fataki, 80 km north of Bunia, the main town of the embattled Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Missionary Service News Agency, MISNA, reported.

"When Lendu militias attacked the orphanage, two nuns and four nurses fled with the 31 children," the Reverend Protect Dhena, the priest, was quoted as saying. "They are now barricaded in the Sisters of Carmel convent, where they have nothing left to eat. The children are very small: the oldest is only three."

In his appeal on Friday, Dhena also said that the children, accompanied by nuns, had taken refuge in a building in Fataki following the most recent fighting there that erupted on 2 August. Witnesses said that armed men, who appeared drugged or drunken, pillaged then destroyed the local orphanage, hospital, market, church and convent.

Dhena said that he and three other priests were hiding in the Fataki seminary.

Fataki, primarily inhabited by the Hema and Gegere people, was the scene death for some 80 civilians on or about 20 July. MISNA has attributed the attacks to Lendu militias. Independent verification, however, was not possible, owing to lack of access.

Due to prevailing insecurity, the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, has been unable to deploy outside Bunia, while the EU-led mission sent to reinforce MONUC is not mandated to operate beyond the confines of the town. However, the UN Security Council recently adopted a resolution giving MONUC a stronger mandate and increasing its authorised strength from 8,700 to 10,800 troops. The council also extended the mission's mandate for another year, until 30 July 2004.

Strife in natural resource-rich Ituri between Hema and Lendu militias prompted between 200,000 and 350,000 people to flee when fighting intensified in May, humanitarian sources reported. None of the ethnic-based militias fighting for control of Ituri is signatory to the national power-sharing accord that led to the installation on 30 June of a transitional government led by President Joseph Kabila.

ETHIOPIA: First ever cardiac centre to be built

ADDIS ABABA, 11 August (IRIN) - Ethiopia is to build its first ever state of the art cardiac centre to tackle "rampant" heart disease in the country. Dr Belay Abegaz, the country's only paediatric heart surgeon, told IRIN on Monday that the first operations could begin as early as next year.

Heart disease is a major killer in Ethiopia and is compounded by massive overcrowding in urban centres. Dr Belay estimated that as many as 200,000 new cases of heart disease occur each year in the country.

"Yes children are dying from malnutrition, lack of immunisations, poverty, you name it," said the surgeon. "But even then heart disease ranks as a top killer in the country. Unfortunately treatment is beyond the reach of parents and the government."

Ethiopia not only lacks the facilities and funding to perform heart operations, it also has just a handful of skilled staff.

There are currently less than 10 surgeons who can perform heart operations in the country - and Dr Belay is the only doctor able to operate on children.

He said the centre, which is being supported by Addis Ababa University, would also act as a training institute and at least one or two operations could be carried out a day.

"So we hope to do something about it until the government or country can afford to take on this problem themselves," he added.

Dr Belay, the board chairman of local charity Children Heart Fund of Ethiopia, currently raises money for children to have heart operations.

The Fund has been sending children with serious heart diseases abroad for surgery over the last 13 years. In that time, it has treated and saved the lives of over 550 children with heart disease, Dr Belay said.

The charity is looking to raise up to US $1.5 million to establish the centre and has already secured funding to start building the unit.

The foundations are expected to be laid in a matter of months within the grounds of the country's largest hospital, The Black Lion hospital.