PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH

Afghanistan Afghanistan unveils long-delayed draft constitution, key step on country's road to recovery

Chechnya Eight soldiers die in Chechnya, Grozny residents protest disappearances

Congo U.N.: Congo rebels hampering investigation of alleged Rwandan troop deployment in east

Georgia/Abkhazia Shevardnadze accuses opponents of taking advantage of electoral flaws to destabilize Georgia

Pakistan welcomes India's proposals to improve relations, but seeks U.N. monitors for Kashmir

Kosovo Five former ethnic Albanian rebels are arrested for war crimes in Kosovo

Liberia Liberia's new leader vows accountability, transparency in power-sharing government

Serbia & Montenegro German chancellor supports Serbia-Montenegro's efforts to join the EU

Somalia United Nations Resident Coordinator deeply concerned about deterioration of humanitarian situation in Sool Plateau, Somalia

Peace Negotiations Watch is prepared by the Public International Law and Policy Group in cooperation with American University and is made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Afghanistan unveils long-delayed draft constitution, key step on country's road to recovery

Afghanistan unveiled a post-Taliban draft constitution Monday, a historic milestone on what has been a bloody, bumpy and often tragic path to recovery after decades of war. The draft starts by declaring that "Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic," then later creates the posts of president and vice president, as well as envisioning two houses of congress. The White House hailed the draft constitution, with press secretary Scott McClellan telling reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Waco, Texas, to Birmingham, Ala., that it "marks an important milestone in Afghanistan's political development."

The president would be a strong executive who will serve a five-year term and act as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He also would have the power to appoint judges, military officers, police and national security officials. There is a two-term limit. The draft reflects the government's desire to bring the country together under the banner of Islam, which is practiced by the vast majority of Afghans. However, the hardline Islamic law enforced by the former Taliban regime is not expected to be a part of Afghanistan's future.

Under the Taliban, men were forced to grow beards and pray, women were banned from schools and almost all public life, and music was forbidden. Executions were carried out before large crowds at Kabul's sports stadium. "The religion of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam. Followers of other religions are free to perform their religious ceremonies within the limits of the provisions of law," the draft states, according to an English translation provided by the government.

While avoiding direct mention of Shariah, Islamic holy law, the draft states that "in Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam and the values of this Constitution." The position of prime minister - included in previous versions - was cut from the final draft. Many feared a strong prime minister could have emerged as a political and military rival to the president, a major concern in a country that has known little but war for a quarter-century. "The most important thing that a country like Afghanistan needs is stability," said Jawid Luddin, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai. "This constitution is made for Afghanistan for the next 100, 200 years."

Under the draft, considerable power will be invested in the president, who will appoint one-third of the members of the upper house of parliament. Of those, half must be women, the draft says, guaranteeing Afghan women a permanent role in the country's leadership for the first time. In the lower house, at least one woman must be elected from each of Afghanistan's 32 provinces. The draft must still be debated at a grand council, or loya jirga, next month. Ratification of the document by the loya jirga will set the stage for nationwide elections scheduled for June.

A rash of violence by suspected Taliban insurgents and fighting among powerful warlords that control large swaths of the country have raised fears of the security of holding a vote in June, and officials say privately it is possible the election might be delayed. Karzai is widely expected to win the election. A red-bound copy of the long-awaited draft constitution was handed to former King Mohammad Zaher Shah, Karzai and Lakhdar Brahimi, special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, during a ceremony at Kabul's Presidential Palace. "I hope this will be acceptable for the people and will direct people toward peace, security and democracy," said the 88-year-old Shah. The constitution enshrines Shah as the ceremonial "father of the nation," but he has no official political role and the title will not be passed along to his son.

Karzai made no comment during the unveiling ceremony. The draft constitution was handed out in Dari and Pashto, and the English-language version was later released by e-mail. The draft allows political parties to be established as long as their charters "do not contradict the principles of Islam" and sets other conditions such as not having any military aims or foreign affiliation. It sets Pahsto and Dari as the official languages, but the national anthem will be sung in Pashto.

While not specifying gender, the draft states "any kind of discrimination and privilege between the citizens of Afghanistan are prohibited. The citizens of Afghanistan have equal rights and duties before the law." Women suffered greatly under the former Taliban regime and in conservative Afghan society are usually given fewer rights than men. Many still wear the all-covering burka robe, and husbands don't allow wives to be seen by male guests.

A variety of divisive issues sparked heavy backroom negotiating between various factions, and the release of the draft constitution has been delayed several times over the past month. The constitution, which has 12 chapters and 160 articles, was drafted by a 35-member Constitutional Review Commission that started work a year ago after two months of delays. The constitutional loya jirga has also already been pushed back two months. After criticism that the constitution was being written in secrecy, the commission sent 460,000 questionnaires to the public and held meetings in villages across the country seeking input.

US President George W. Bush Saturday told Azerbaijan's newly-elected leader Ilham Aliyev he was committed to partnership with the oil-rich state but expressed concern about presidential elections which were marred by irregularities and violence. The remarks came in a telegram from Bush to Aliyev which was released by Azerbaijan's state news agency. The telegram was the first direct communication between the two leaders since Aliyev's election last month.

"I confirm the commitment of the United States to the development of a strategic partnership with a democratic, stable, sovereign and successful Azerbaijan," Bush said in the message, which was released in Azeri. "The United States is proud of its firm friendship with Azerbaijan. I will try to deepen our bilateral relationships with the president of Azerbaijan and with the Azeri people."

But Bush added that he was "concerned" about reports of ballot-rigging during the October 15 election, and about violence between police and opposition supporters in the election's aftermath. "I hope that Ilham Aliyev will make decisive efforts to secure the primacy of the law and to ensure that Azerbaijan continues its development along the path of democratic politics, pluralism and respect for human rights." "Our aim is a lasting and multi-faceted partnership based on democratic principles," the telegram said. The message did not include any words of congratulation to Aliyev on his election. Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic of eight million people, holds strategic importance for Washington.

Western oil majors are developing Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea oil fields, the country has helped with military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it is seen as a buffer against its neighbour, Iran. Some critics have said the Bush administration has not been strong enough in its condemnation of the Azeri elections, alleging that the administration has put its strategic interests before democratic principles. Azerbaijan's new head of state, who was sworn in on Friday, is the son of former leader Heidar Aliyev. His election is the beginning of the former Soviet Union state's first political dynasty.

Burundi's president and the country's main rebel leader signed a peace agreement Sunday, amid an upsurge in fighting between Tutsi-dominated government troops and a renegade Hutu rebel group that threatens efforts to end a decade-long civil war. Peter Nkurunziza, leader of the rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy, said Sunday that the deal with President Domitien Ndayizeye could lead to a cease-fire with all rebel groups in Burundi. At least one other group has resisted any agreement with the government and rebel forces have skirmished with government troops in recent weeks.

"We look forward very much to work with our brothers who were our enemies yesterday," Nkurunziza was quoted as saying by the South African Press Association. "I hope the agreement signed today will be implemented in the very, very near future so we shall indeed be one," Ndayizeye said. South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who helped broker the deal, said the agreement signaled an end to Burundi's long-running conflict. "I believe with this agreement Burundi's problems are over," Zuma said. "This is an agreement you can defend, own and implement."

The agreement calls for Nkurunziza's rebels to be included in the military and allows them to form a political party. Members of both the government and rebel groups will be granted temporary immunity from prosecution. Fighting in Burundi has continued, however, with the latest flaring up last week as the Hutu-dominated National Liberation Force rebels clashed with the Tutsi-dominated army. Thousands fled their homes outside the capital Bujumbura.

The National Liberation Force is the only group that has refused to hold direct talks with Burundi's transitional government. Two smaller rebel factions signed cease-fires last October 2002. Later Sunday, after the peace deal was signed, a former member of the National Liberation Force called on former South African President Nelson Mandela to intervene, South African state-run television reported.

"They prefer to do the war themselves. It will be no use no one comes because there will be no progress in this peace process," said Ishmail Bivahagu, who is now a member of the Burundi transitional government. More than 200,000 people, most civilians, have been killed since the war erupted in October 1993. Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected leader, a Hutu. Ndayizeye, a Hutu, heads a transitional government that took office in November 2001. His predecessor was a Tutsi. Tutsis are in the minority in Burundi, but have effectively controlled the country for all but a few months since independence in 1962.

Eight Russian soldiers were killed in rebel attacks in war-ravaged Chechnya over the past day, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said Tuesday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four servicemen were killed and five wounded in 18 separate rebel attacks on Russian military outposts over the past 24 hours. Two other soldiers died when their jeep was ambushed near the town of Shali. Another Russian serviceman was killed when rebels blew up a train carrying oil. Two cars derailed, but there were no reports of fire or other injuries. The eighth soldier died in a shootout near the village of Tsa-Vedeno.

Rebels have staged almost daily small attacks on Russian positions throughout the four-year war in Chechnya, the second in a decade. Russia's heavily armed forces pound rebel positions with regular air and artillery attacks in response. Russian forces took control of the republic's flat northern reaches early on in the war, which began in September 1999, but have failed to uproot rebels from the mountainous south or from the capital, Grozny.

Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya in 1996 at the end of a ruinous 20-month war, but returned three years later after Chechnya-based insurgents mounted an incursion into the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan and after some 300 people died in apartment block bombings that officials blamed on the rebels. Some 200 people were detained in security sweeps, conducted almost daily by Russian forces. Human rights groups and civilians have denounced the sweeps as brutal and say many young men who are seized are never seen again. Police dispersed about 100 protesters in the Grozny suburb of Pobedinskoye after residents blocked a road leading to the neighboring Russian province of Ingushetia demanding the release of four young men detained October 22. Protestors plan to rally outside the main government administration building on Wednesday.

Alexander Nikitin, deputy prosecutor in Chechnya, said his office was "considering" some 1,500 alleged criminal cases of disappeared people, including abductions and people taken from their homes by "unknown persons," the Interfax news agency reported. Khedoi Saratova, head of the Chechen public organization Vozvrashchenye claimed at least 4,000 people had disappeared since the war restarted, Interfax reported. Nikitin denied any involvement by the military or officials in disappearances. Meanwhile, residents in Chechnya's capital struggled to get by without electricity after rebels fired on a central power station. Government buildings remained lit, powered by backup generators.

Most of the 1,500 kidnapping cases under investigation in Chechnya are the result of criminal activity, with few linked to operations by Russian military and special services, a senior prosecutor in the southern Russian republic said Tuesday. Chechen Deputy Prosecutor Alexander Nikitin said that "more than 1,500 criminal cases of disappearances of peaceful citizens are under consideration by the prosecutor general's office" but rejected the widely held view that many of these had been carried out by Russian troops and their local auxiliaries.

"Every case with a possible involvement of military or power structures is transferred to the military prosecutor's office for investigation. But the percentage of these cases is very small," the Interfax news agency quoted Nikitin as saying. The official said that around 2,000 people in Chechnya were currently believed missing as a result of criminally-motivated abductions since October 1999.

Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov said last month, before his election on October 4 and while he was still the republic's administrative chief, that more than 2,000 Chechens had been reported missing since the start of the Russian anti-insurgency campaign launched four years ago, and that a commission was to be set up to investigate them.

Most civilian disappearances have been attributed by relatives to Russian troops and members of pro-Russian Chechen militias. The abductions are usually carried out by men who appear to be able to move about freely through the wartorn republic, travelling in armoured vehicles of a kind not available to Chechen rebel separatists. But Kheda Satarova, head of the Chechen non-governmental organisation Vozvrashenie (Return), said the number of people missing or abducted since October 1999 was between 3,000 and 4,000. Her group, created last August with the purpose of tracing the missing persons, had already collected the names of 1,000 abducted people, based on data provided by relatives, she told a news conference in Moscow.

"The abductions generally follow the same pattern: people are taken away by unknown persons wearing masks and unmarked army fatigues," she said. The abductions have continued unabated this year despite the launch by Russian authorities of a political process including a constitutional referendum and a presidential election that, they say, represent a return to normality in the southern republic. Satarova said she did not expect any help from Kadyrov in tracing the kidnapped citizens.

U.N.: Congo rebels hampering investigation of alleged Rwandan troop deployment in east

Congolese rebels are preventing U.N. observers from investigating allegations from residents that Rwanda has sent troops back into the country's restive east, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday. Insurgents of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, supported by Rwanda during a five-year war that officially ended this year, turned U.N. officials away from a military camp and prevented them from speaking with fighters in Ruwangabo in North Kivu province, said Hamadoun Toure, U.N. spokesman in Congo.

Rebels hampered the U.N. military observers, who were "verifying information relative to the presence of Rwandan troops on Congolese soil," he said. Rwanda pulled its roughly 30,000 troops out of eastern Congo after a July 2002 accord. In return, Congo agreed to disarm and repatriate former Rwandan Hutu fighters who took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, which killed at least a half-million people.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande visited Kinshasa this month, but complained earlier that Congo was not doing enough to contain the Rwandan Hutu fighters. Congolese residents had told U.N. officials they believed Rwandan troops were in the area and asked them to investigate. Rwanda maintains all its soldiers were withdrawn last year. Rwanda sent troops into Congo in 1998 to back Congolese rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila, sparking a war that drew in half a dozen African countries.

The conflict has since been declared over and this year, Congo launched a new power-sharing government that includes rebel leaders in a bid to ensure peace. The vast central African nation's north and east remain volatile, however, with deadly attacks and ethnic fighting. In Kanyabayonga, in eastern Congo, rival governors of an eastern Congolese province met Wednesday in a U.N.-backed effort to build trust and, eventually, unite the province of North Kivu - one of the main battlegrounds in the civil war in this vast central African nation.

The meeting between the two former rebel leaders was arranged by the U.N. mission to Congo and intended to get their two groups, which are sitting together on the other side of the country in the capital of Kinshasa in a transitional government, to work together in North Kivu, said Lena Sundh, the deputy head of the U.N. mission.

Despite the peace agreement, North Kivu and other eastern provinces remain split between two former rebel groups - the Congolese Rally for Democracy, or RCD, and the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement, or RCD-ML. Local fighting in June between the two almost derailed the installation of the transitional government intended to end the civil war. North Kivu has been relatively quiet since then.

Ngomo Road, a dirt track linking villages in this mountainous region of Congo bordering Rwanda and Burundi, provides one of Africa's most beautiful drives. But so many people have been raped and slaughtered along this road, and so many villages - just tiny clusters of thatched huts holding onto 3,000-foot slopes - have been set on fire, that many in this region call it the road through hell. Built by the Chinese in the early 1970s, Ngomo Road is barely wide enough for two cars. It connects Bukavu in the north to Uvira about 60 miles south, and it runs through one of the most war-ravaged territories in a country crippled by five years of civil war. "This used to be a good place to live. There were goats, chickens, cows, coffee, and many farms, but now people are just trying to survive," said Bombe Kitabo, 30, a pastor at the Jerusalem Gospel Church in Ishamba Ruduha, a village of about 4,000 people about 17 miles south of Bukavu.

Rural villages have suffered the most in Congo's war, which has claimed more than 3 1/2 million lives in the past five years. In the three months since this country's main rebel groups agreed to a cease-fire as part of a peace agreement, some people have returned to their villages and are once again traveling this mountain road to sell crops - mainly cassava and bananas - in cities like Bukavu. But the Congolese have learned to distrust peace deals and cease-fires, especially in a conflict that involves at least six rebel armies, proxy militias from neighboring Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, and dozens of splinter groups. The soldiers, typically unpaid and poorly trained, prey on people in unprotected rural villages - like Ishamba Ruduha - where most of the nation's 56 million people live.

Soldiers from the Rally for Congolese Democracy, known as RCD, the largest and most organized rebel army, have attacked Kitabo's village five times. Accusing people here of ties to the Mayi Mayi, another armed group comprised mainly of forest dwellers, RCD rebels have burned more than 200 huts, destroyed the health clinic - the only one within a day's walk - and raped more than 300 women and girls, witnesses said. "What the rebels didn't take they burned or destroyed. Their plan was to make us suffer and we are," said Kitabo, who every Sunday leads about 150 worshipers, less than half the number of people since before the attacks began. Several times, RCD soldiers used his church for their headquarters.

Of the women and girls abducted in the attacks over the past three years, Kitabo said only six have returned to the village. He suspects that some of them are dead, some have fled to the cities after their husbands rejected them - which is common for Congo's rape survivors - and others are being kept as concubines for the soldiers. Mami Moro, a 17-year-old from Uvira, said Interahamwe soldiers from Rwanda forced her into sexual slavery for nearly a year. The Interahamwe are Hutus who, after carrying out the 1994 massacre of more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda, fled to the Congo to escape retaliation by Rwanda's Tutsi-led army or convictions for war crimes by UN-backed courts.

"The whole time I was thinking they killed my mother and father, and when I tried to escape they beat me," said Moro, whose father was killed by the soldiers after refusing to have sex with her. "I was forced to be a wife to three of the soldiers, and they would argue about who would be the first to sleep with me. I was thinking that I would kill myself." Instead, Moro made the three-day journey by foot to a hospital in Goma, near the Rwandan border. Moro is educated and energetic, but her hope of becoming a journalist has given way to more immediate concerns: She's seven months pregnant with a child fathered by one of the soldiers.

Many women and girls living along Ngomo Road have similar stories. There are no precise figures for the number of women and girls who have been attacked, but according to a report Wednesday to the UN Security Council, at least tens of thousands of them, and possibly hundreds of thousands, were sexually assaulted during the civil war. The data was collected by the UN peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo, other agencies, and local communities.

The fear of abduction and rape has made many women - the backbone of the Congo's labor force - reluctant to seed and harvest their fields, which often are situated outside the villages. With fewer farms being cultivated, people are becoming malnourished and more vulnerable to disease. These are the secondary effects that have caused most of the deaths in Congo's war. About three miles north of Ishamba Ruduha, women carrying woven baskets of firewood and produce on their backs walk cautiously past a half-dozen RCD soldiers at a checkpoint. They avoid making eye contact with the soldiers, who relax in a roadside hut, warming their hands over a smoldering log.

The soldiers often stop cars and cargo trucks to extract bribes, a task made easier by the presence of three or four camouflaged soldiers carrying machine guns. "The people here know that we're not going to harm them," said Captain Patrick Safari, the RCD commander for the checkpoint and the nearby outpost. "With the peace process reaching the highest levels, we are more interested in keeping the peace. Our goal is to keep the population safe."

The villagers are unconvinced. In rural northeastern Congo, skirmishes between rebel groups continue despite the cease-fire, as does the looting of villages already suffering from starvation. Like hundreds of other women in this region, 50-year-old Nyadeux Lurahgwa sells dried cassava along Ngomo Road, using the money to buy soap, clothes, and salt from the Bukavu street markets. She's from Buhozi, a village less than 10 miles south of Bukavu. "The soldiers aren't coming out to the fields anymore, but when they pass us on the road we have to give them something," said Lurahgwa, who speaks Swahili, the predominant language in this region. "But the biggest problem now is that the prices in the market are too high and we can't afford to buy what we need."

Shevardnadze accuses opponents of taking advantage of electoral flaws to destabilize Georgia

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze accused opponents on Monday of trying to destabilize the situation in the country in the run-up to next week's parliamentary election. Shevardnadze did not name the alleged perpetrators, but said they were taking advantage of flawed voter rolls to stir up trouble. "Let nobody try to threaten us, saying they'll take people to the streets should they fail to achieve their goals in the elections," he said. The Georgian president said the government has provided its citizens with "unique opportunities" to make sure that they could freely vote, and that the only problems were of organization.

Election watchdog organizations and opposition parties have expressed concern that the voter registration rolls contained many inaccuracies, which could open the way to fraud, and that there was insufficient time to correct them before the Sunday election. The Central Election Commission announced Sunday that it was extending the deadline to revise the rolls, which had been Oct. 19, to Thursday. Neighboring Armenia agreed Tuesday to donate 1,000 transparent ballot boxes to Georgia for use in the election.

"Transparent ballot boxes don't guarantee transparent elections, but they considerably reduce the probabilitry of falsification," said Nodar Eremidze, chairman of Georgia's Central Election Committee after accepting the donation in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. Shevardnadze said the election process was not flawless. But "there are courts and other legal means" to correct mistakes, the president said.

The EU special representative for the South Caucasus, Heikki Talvitie, will visit the capital of Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia Sukhumi in January 2004, the self-declared republic's foreign minister Sergey Shamba told Prime-News. Shamba said that Sukhumi deemed it expedient to extend the format of the Georgian-Abkhaz negotiations on the settlement of the Abkhazia conflict to include the European Union in the process. Shamba also noted that there could be other forms of EU involvement in the process as well, such as implementation of economic projects in the conflict zone.

The Finnish diplomat Heikki Talvitie served as co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group for mediating negotiations on the Nagornyy Karabakh issue. He was appointed to the post of EU special representative for the South Caucasus this summer.

The House of Representatives on Monday called for a thorough evaluation of the implementation of martial law in the restive province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam so as to determine the policies to be implemented in the province in the future. "Whether we will extend martial law or reduce it to a state of civil emergency, or lift the state of emergency altogether, will depend on the evaluation made by the government," House Speaker Akbar Tandjung said in his speech marking the beginning of the new legislative session here.

The House call comes just weeks before martial law is due to expire on Nov. 19. It also comes after widespread allegations of abuses committed by government troops and separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels. President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed a decree on May 19 imposing martial law on Aceh for six months, thereby providing the legal framework needed for the Indonesian Military (TNI) to embark on an all-out war against GAM. The rebels have been fighting for independence for the natural resource-rich province since 1976. Over 10,000 people, mostly civilians, had been killed since then.

The TNI claims that close to 1,000 GAM rebels have been killed since the government launched what it calls a "joint operation" in Aceh on May 19. On top of that, at least 304 civilians and 34 police and military personnel have been killed since May 19. Some 1,800 alleged separatist rebels have also surrendered or been captured. Those rebels are now being subjected to legal proceedings but have been denied access to lawyers. The decision to declare martial law in Aceh was taken by Megawati's administration after consulting the House.

Military leaders have called for an extension of the operation which based on the military's own figures has managed to incapacitate only one-fourth of the 5,000-strong GAM fighting force. The TNI has deployed around 35,000 troops to Aceh, and up to 14,000 police are also stationed in the province. Akbar said on Monday that the entire nation was hoping for a peaceful and prosperous Aceh under the banner of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia. He claimed that the integrated operation in Aceh -- which according to the government consists of security restoration, law enforcement, bureaucratic improvement, and humanitarian operations -- had brought benefits to the Aceh people.

He added that the government's decision to launch the security operation in the resource-rich province had been taken to maintain the nation's unity. "The separatist movement in Aceh must be defeated or otherwise it will endanger national unity and bring misery to the Aceh people," he said. Separately, martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said he planned to remove convicted Aceh separatist rebels out of Aceh and North Sumatra. "We will the convicted GAM members to detention centers outside Aceh and North Sumatra so that they cannot disseminate separatism in Aceh," he was quoted by Antara as saying on Monday. Endang said he would discuss his plan with Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He said that convicted GAM members must be moved out of Aceh and North Sumatra because the two provinces were the areas where GAM was active.

Apart from that, Endang said that the prisons in Aceh were unable to accommodate the number of GAM members currently in detention. GAM members were being held in the same prisons as common criminals due to a lack of suitable accommodation. Meanwhile, the warden of Keudah Prison in Banda Aceh, Hendarmin B. Cip, said there were far too many prisoners in his jail. Despite having a maximum capacity of 156 prisoners, the jail was now home to 185 prisoners.

An Indonesian soldier has died and five others have been wounded during battles with Acehnese guerrillas, the military said Saturday ahead of a cabinet decision on whether or not to extend martial law in the province. The soldier died and three of his colleages were wounded during a firefight with Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels late Friday afternoon in the Banda Alam area of East Aceh, said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Yani Basuki.

That deadly battle followed a mid-afternoon firefight in East Aceh's Idi Rayeuk area that left two government soldiers wounded, Basuki said. On Monday the cabinet of President Megawati Sukarnoputri is to discuss whether or not to extend the martial law status imposed for six months on May 19 when government forces began an all-out offensive to crush GAM. The military has suggested that its operation, the biggest since the 1975 invasion of East Timor, should continue. In other violence a suspected rebel, Bahar, 45, died during an exchange of fire with government troops in West Aceh on Thursday, Basuki said.

Also, humanitarian workers recovered the bodies of three unidentified men in Aceh Besar district on Friday, one of the volunteers said. Two of the corpses with signs of severe beating were found in a river, the volunteer said. More than 900 guerrillas and 67 police or soldiers have been killed during the operation, according to military figures. More than 1,800 rebels have been arrested or have surrendered, the military says.

Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law and Policy Group.

Click here to access the Aceh Peace Module prepared by the Public International Law and Policy Group.

Presidents John Kufuor of Ghana and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria appealed here Thursday for former Ivory Coast rebels to resume participation in a new national reconciliation government for the war-torn west African state. “All those who are part of the government must rejoin it so that the country progresses towards a better future," they said in a statement to the press here following a 90-minute meeting with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. Ivory Coast was plunged into civil war in September last year betweeen government and rebel forces.

It remains divided despite the creation of the national reconcilation government after former rebels decided last month to suspend participation in protest at what they insist are deliberate attempts orchestrated by Gbagbo to thwart implementation of peace agreements. The two heads of states of Nigeria and Ghana arrived Thursday in Abidjan for talks with Gbagbo on the stalled peace process. They were accompanied on the brief visit by Mohammed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The visitors said they had heard a report on progress achieved in Ivory Coast and had made suggestions on the way forward towards transparent elections in 2005. The civil war that officially ended in July, although the country remains effectively split in two with rebels still controlling the north.

Gbagbo has recently paid visits to both Ghana and Nigeria to discuss ways to unblock the peace process and boost the economy of the world's largest cocoa producer. Obasanjo and Kufuor, who also serves as head of ECOWAS, have held talks with former rebel leaders as well as main opposition leader Alassane Ouattara. Leaders of the "New Forces," the group of ex-rebels who signed an agreement on a reconciliation government, have meanwhile been on their own west African tour that has also taken them to Senegal for talks with President Abdoulaye Wade. The former rebels plan further stops in Benin and Mali and have asked the heads of state and ECOWAS to take greater roles in helping to bring peace back to Ivory Coast, once considered a model of stability and progress for the region.

The west African regional grouping ECOWAS is to hold a summit later this month to get the peace deal that ended fighting in Ivory Coast back on track, diplomatic sources said here Saturday. The meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra on November 10 and 11 will bring together heads of state and government from the region as well Ivorian political parties, officials, and representatives of rebel forces.

Ivory Coast, a former French colony and the world's largest cocoa producer, was plunged into civil war in September last year. It remains divided despite the creation of the national reconcilation government as agreed under a January peace deal brokered by Paris. The former rebels decided last month to suspend participation in protest at what they insist are deliberate attempts orchestrated by President Laurent Gbagbo to thwart implementation of the peace agreements. Ghanaian President John Kufuor, who also serves as head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria travelled to Ivory Coast on Thursday to appeal to the former rebels to resume participation in the government.

The leader of Indian Kashmir's main separatist alliance said Wednesday there should be no pre-conditions imposed on proposed talks with India, days after New Delhi said the discussions would focus on the "decentralisation" of power. There should be "no pre-conditions imposed", Molvi Abbas Ansari, chairman of the Parties Hurriyat Conference, an amalgam of 27 separatist parties, told AFP. Last week in a surprise move, India said Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani would hold talks with Ansari. New Delhi has previously refused to talk to the Hurriyat and the move was seen as a major breakthrough in attempts to solve the dispute over Kashmir, where a 14-year Islamic insurgency has killed thousands of people.

But two days later Advani said the talks would be on the "decentralisation" of power and India would not compromise on the country's sovereignty and integrity. In the past New Delhi has hinted it could consider giving Kashmir's administration more powers, except in key areas such as defence, finance and foreign affairs. The Hurriyat is still preparing an official response to India's offer, but Ansari said talks on decentralisation would not resolve the Kashmir issue.

"Talks between Delhi and Kashmiri leaders on sharing powers will not lead to the settlement of the Kashmir dispute," he said. Former Hurriyat chairman, Abdul Gani Bhat, said talks should be on how to solve the core dispute of Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state. "We do not find any rationale behind a dialogue on decentralisation of powers which will neither restore peace in the troubled state nor resolve the core Kashmir issue."

He said the Hurriyat leaders had reason to "suspect the sincerity of Delhi" if it started imposing conditions on the talks. "If Delhi was keen to discuss decentralisation of powers why did it not discuss it with the National Conference (NC) when it was in power till a year ago, when the same party had adopted a resolution in the Kashmir Assembly seeking restoration of greater autonomy?"

The NC, which ruled Kashmir until it was defeated in state elections last year, had asked for greater autonomy for the state, but this was rejected by New Delhi. Bhat also said any talks should involve India, Pakistan and representatives of the people of Kashmir. The Hurriyat itself is divided, with the authority of Ansari, who is supported by moderates, rejected by hardliners headed by pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani.

Meanwhile, the People's Conference (PC) party, which supports Ansari, said the Indian talks offer was historic. "The invitation is truly historical and carries multi-dimensional significance," the release said. "It is for the first time in the entire history of the Kashmir dispute that the offer of talks have come from the highest level in the Indian political establishment," the statement said. "It is by far the most explicit admission of accepting the Kashmiris as a party to the dispute." The insurgency in Kashmir has claimed more than 39,500 lives, according to Indian security forces. Separatists and Pakistan put the death toll between 80,000 and 100,000.

Pakistan welcomes India's proposals to improve relations, but seeks U.N. monitors for Kashmir

The measures proposed by India and Pakistan to ease travel restrictions and open the war-blocked frontier in Kashmir to civilian traffic are helping to normalize relations and lead to a solution of larger issues, Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said Thursday. "India wants negotiations. We also want a solution of disputes through negotiations," Jamali said, a day after Pakistan accepted a list of Indian proposals aimed at increasing contacts between the two peoples. It also made suggestions of its own.

"Confidence-building measures will play an important role in normalizing relations," Jamali said at a book-launching ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore. "We are moving toward solution of the Kashmir dispute, because Kashmir is the real issue between the two countries." Last week, New Delhi announced a series of proposals to ease tensions with Pakistan after a December 2001 attack on India's parliament brought the South Asian neighbors to the brink of war. India accused Pakistan of sponsoring the attack, a charge Islamabad denied.

In the most startling advance, Pakistan accepted India's offer to reopen the road between Srinagar to Muzzafarabad, the capitals of Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. The road has huge symbolic importance to Kashmiris, where many families live on both sides of the cease-fire line that divides the Himalayan region. Both nations claim the former princely state in its entirety; they have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir. However, Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar, announcing Pakistan's response Wednesday, said the frontier crossing must be manned by United Nations personnel, and Kashmiris who use the highway should use U.N. travel documents - a condition likely to meet with resistance from India.

The gradual peace process has done little to silence the routine exchanges of gunfire and shelling across the cease-fire line in Kashmir. One woman was killed and a man was wounded Thursday by Indian fire on the village of Haripur, just across the so-called Line of Control with India, the military reported. "The cross-border shelling by India into civilian areas continues," said military spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan. Analysts in New Delhi dismissed the suggestion of a U.N. role on the border in Kashmir.

"The Pakistan proposals are full of mischief," said S.K. Singh, formerly the top Indian diplomat in Pakistan. "Pakistan is bringing in Kashmir not in a workmanlike negotiating manner, but in a way which is teasing and irritating, deliberately in order to get the proposals rejected."

The United Nations has had a small number of military observers - 45 at the present time - on the India-Pakistan border since January 1949, the end of the war that followed the partition of the subcontinent. But it has great difficulty operating because it must get permission from both sides. Pakistan has allowed the monitors to visit its side of the border, but India has not. Pakistan has asked for U.N. action to help resolve the Kashmir dispute, but India has said the matter should be settled bilaterally. Retired Pakistani diplomat and analyst Najmuddin Shaikh said most of the proposals had been anticipated, essentially returning relations to where they were before the parliament attack in New Delhi. "This is the first step toward a dialogue," he said.

At U.N. Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Annan welcomed proposals to improve relations. "He has called for the resumption of dialogue between the two countries to resolve their differences, including Kashmir," she said. Khokhar rejected India's demand that Pakistan end what it calls "cross-border terrorism" - its alleged support for militant groups fighting the Indian army in Kashmir for nearly 14 years - before agreeing to substantive talks on Kashmir. "We have done just about everything possible" to stop infiltration, he said. "There is just no way any country can seal its borders 100 percent. It cannot be done."

U.N. police and NATO-led peacekeepers have arrested five former ethnic Albanian rebels charged with war crimes in Kosovo, officials said Tuesday. The five were arrested Monday in the town of Kacanik, 58 kilometers (36 miles) south of Pristina, said Squadron Leader Chris Thompson, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo. They have been charged by a local U.N.-run court with the illegal detention, torture and killing of four fellow ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with Serb authorities during Belgrade's 1998-1999 crackdown on Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, local media said. They are also charged with torturing a fifth victim who survived.

All five were low-ranking members of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, which battled Serb forces during the war. One of them is a member of Kosovo's police service, media said. Also Tuesday, Serbian government officials in Belgrade reiterated demands that former ethnic Albanian rebel commanders be investigated and indicted for atrocities allegedly committed against Serb civilians in Kosovo.

Belgrade officials also demanded that Agim Ceku, a former rebel commander who now heads the province's lightly armed Kosovo Protection Corps be replaced because of his alleged role in the atrocities committed by former KLA fighters. Ceku was briefly detained at an airport in Slovenia last week on an international warrant initiated by Serbian authorities. He was released 12 hours later after the top U.N. official in Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, said the warrant was invalid because Kosovo falls under his - and not Belgrade's - jurisdiction.

Also Tuesday, Serbia's Justice Minister Vladan Batic claimed that two former KLA commanders are being investigated by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Batic said Serbia had given the court evidence against the two unnamed commanders and said a failure to indict them would represent "a defeat of the United Nations." The arrest of the five ethnic Albanians in Kosovo was the second time a U.N.-run court in the province moved against the former rebels and their alleged involvement in war crimes committed in the province.

Earlier this year, a court in Pristina convicted and sentenced four former rebels to prison terms ranging from five to 17 years for ordering the killing, illegal arrest and torture of fellow ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serbian regime of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and NATO since June 1999, following the alliance's bombing campaign which ended the crackdown of Serb forces on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

Security has "vastly improved" across most of Kosovo, but too many people silently tolerate ethnic violence in the U.N.-administered region where almost 60 percent of the people are unemployed, the top U.N. official in Kosovo said. Harri Holkeri, in a report Thursday to the Security Council after 11 weeks on the job, said "security and the rule of law remain my highest priority." Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and NATO since June 1999, following the alliance's bombing campaign that ended the Serb crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

Holkeri said a fatal attack on two Serb youths swimming in a stream during the first 30 minutes of his administration "may well have been intended to be a message for me. However, it only strengthened my resolve to start my mission." Four other youths were wounded in that attack, the worst this year against Kosovo's beleaguered Serb minority, which has been targeted by ethnic Albanian revenge attacks since the United Nations took control of the province following the NATO military intervention in 1999.

Holkeri, who has vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice, said in his report that investigators have "run up against a wall of silence, due to fear and intimidation. Far too many people tolerate ethnically based violence," he said. "This must be opposed." Unemployment remains at 57 percent and is even higher for women and young people, he said, adding that "privatization is essential and certainly the only hope in addressing the challenge." Security, however, is improving, he said. "The overall security situation has vastly improved across most of Kosovo, but the dramatic advances being enjoyed by the majority community have not been felt by all," he said. "The rule of law is being openly flouted in many places around Kosovo."

Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law and Policy Group.

Liberia's new leader vows accountability, transparency in power-sharing government

Liberia's new leader Gyude Bryant declared an end to "business as usual" in the war-shattered country on Saturday, saying his power-sharing government meant to end 14 years of near-constant war won't tolerate the murky use of public proceeds. Meantime, officials of a U.N. peacekeeping mission announced the contents of a shipping container seized at Liberia's airport in the waning days of ex-President Charles Taylor's embattled rule: 22 tons of illegal mortars, rockets, guns and bullets.

Bryant said in a nationwide address that his government is lowering the price of gas and rice, Liberia's staple food, and that he will dismantle a system of exclusive concessions controlling their import and sale - widely seen as benefiting Taylor. "Fellow citizens, there shall be no business as usual," Bryant said. "Every penny of your taxes shall be accounted for in this government. On this issue, there shall be zero tolerance," he said. "All of us will be monitored and assessed by the highest standards of transparency and accountability," he said. Western and U.N. diplomats have said breaking Taylor's control of the economy and directing taxes into government coffers is crucial to rebuilding a country ruined by more than a decade of strife and misrule by Taylor, currently in exile in Nigeria.

Bryant was inaugurated Oct. 14 as leader of a transitional government arranged under an Aug. 18 peace deal signed by rebels and the government one week after Taylor ceded power to his deputy and flew from the country. Taylor launched Liberia into crisis with a 1989-1996 insurgency before winning the presidency in 1997 - rebels took up arms against him in 1999 and battled to his doorstep in June. During a series of deadly June-August attacks, rebels drove into the heart of Taylor's government-held Monrovia. More than 1,000 civilians died in the back-and-forth fighting.

Only days before Taylor quit Liberia, West African peacekeeping officers newly in charge of Liberia's government-held airport confirmed that a Boeing 707 arrived from Libya on Aug. 7 and that its cargo had been seized. Nigerian soldiers were seen at the time guarding two navy blue shipping containers. One lay empty and the other was locked - but widely believed to be containing arms for a last-ditch government push against the rebels.

On Saturday, the United Nations - now directing a peacekeeping mission expected to grow to 15,000 international troops - confirmed that the plane landed a vast trove of war materiel, flouting a U.N. arms ban on Taylor's regime. The 40-foot container held two 60mm mortars, 149 boxes of mortar ammunition, 67 boxes of rocket-propelled grenades, 299 boxes of AK-47 assault rifles and about 699,000 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, the U.N. said in a release. The weapons are slated for immediate destruction, the U.N. said. Bryant - a Monrovia businessman chosen by all parties to the peace deal - is expected to arrange elections for late 2005 and cede power to a new democratic administration in early 2006.

The prime minister announced Saturday that he has replaced four Cabinet ministers, citing their alleged ineffectiveness at improving the economic situation in the impoverished country. "It is a fact that we haven't had good results in our fight against unemployment," Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski said, referring to his decision to dismiss the four ministers. He also said the government has "left an impression of indecisiveness, slowness and unwillingness to take risks."

At a news conference in the capital, Skopje, Crvenkovski revealed that he had replaced the ministers of justice, finance, economy and transport and communications. The government reshuffle must still be formally approved by parliament, which is due to take up the matter next week. The announcement follows days of negotiations between Macedonian and ethnic Albanian coalition partners. The two sides formed the government together last year as part of Western-backed efforts to promote reconciliation after a six-month ethnic war in 2001.

Two of the dismissed ministers are Macedonian and two are ethnic Albanians. Their replacements come from the same political parties - and ethnic communities. Macedonia is still trying to recover from the conflict, which erupted after ethnic Albanian rebels staged an insurgency to demand more rights. The clashes ended in August 2001 with a Western-brokered peace deal, but tensions still persist.

Moldova

OSCE, mediators offer compromise in Moldova's peace talks

Agence Presse France, 11/1/03

Mediators in Moldova's peace talks with the breakaway region of Transdniestr have offered the two warring sides a compromise deal, chief of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)'s mission in Moldova said. "The two sides called on us to make a compromise. We did just that, making recommendations regarding the new constitution, possible division of authority and guarantees for the conflict's resolution," William Hill said late Friday.

The mediators, which include the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine, "hope that these suggestions may help resolve the Transdniestr problem," Hill added. However, any new order "must have the majority's support on both sides of the Dniestr. Otherwise there is no hope of success," he warned. Transdnestr, a predominantly Russian-speaking region, unilateraly declared independence from Moldova in 1991, then engaged in armed conflict with Romanian-speaking Moldovans between 1991 and 1992, with the loss of some 700 lives.

The Security Council unanimously extended the mandate of the U.N. mission in Western Sahara on Tuesday, hoping to get Morocco to accept a peace plan for the disputed territory by Dec. 31. The U.N. plan would give the mineral-rich desert region on Africa's Atlantic coast immediate self-government and require a referendum within five years on whether it should become independent or remain part of Morocco.

In a surprise move in July, the Polisario Front rebel group, which seeks independence and has been pressing for a referendum, dropped its opposition to the plan. But Morocco opposed it on grounds that it could end the country's sovereignty over the territory. The peace plan was put together by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's personal envoy to Western Sahara, former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III. "The ball is in the court of Morocco and no one else," said Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Baali, whose country supports the Baker plan. "As far as we are concerned, the problem is between Morocco and the United Nations."

In a report to the Security Council last week, Annan urged Morocco to accept the peace plan by Dec. 31, saying the acceptance by the Polisario Front "offers a window of opportunity for solving the longstanding dispute." "I urge Morocco to seize the opportunity and positively engage in the process by accepting and implementing the plan," Annan said. The Baker plan would have three options for the referendum on Western Sahara's future: integration into Morocco, self-government or independence.

Baker recommended that the Moroccans be given more time to respond to the plan after a meeting with the country's Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa and Interior Minister Fouad Al El Himma in Houston, Texas, on Sept. 17. The Moroccan ministers said they needed more time. The brief Security Council resolution extended the mandate of the U.N. mission until Jan. 31, as Annan requested. The mission comprises 222 military staff, 16 police officers, 160 international civilian staff and 112 local civilians.

The dispute over the Western Sahara dates to 1975, when Spain abandoned the territory and Morocco annexed it, moving in settlers. Some 200,000 local Saharawi people fled into exile and still live in refugee camps in Algeria. The fighting ended in 1991 with a U.N.-negotiated cease-fire that called for a referendum on whether the territory would become independent or part of Morocco. U.N. efforts to identify voters have been frustrated by disputes over who is eligible.

Exploratory talks ahead of formal peace negotiations between the government and the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which were supposed to start Tuesday 28 October in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, have been postponed. Michael Mastura, a member of the MILF peace panel, said Malaysian authorities informed the secessionist group about the postponement. The exploratory talks are aimed at threshing out some issues and drafting the agenda for the formal peace negotiations, the schedule of which is still being worked out by Malaysia.

"We were told they (the Malaysians) were still busy after the recently concluded OIC and APEC summits," Mastura said in a radio interview here. Defence Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the government peace panel was ready for the resumption of the peace talks. "When Malaysia says so, then off we go to Kuala Lumpur," he said.

Mastura, a former Maguindanao congressman, said that even if the exploratory talks were resumed, the formal peace negotiations would have to wait until after the government fulfilled some previous commitments. He said the government had agreed during the September round of exploratory discussions to reposition its troops in the Buliok complex, an MILF territory overrun by government forces, and drop all charges against MILF leaders in connection with bombings in Mindanao. Mastura said the military has done neither.

The peace talks between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government could face another delay as the leaders of the secessionist group demanded a new set of preconditions before the resumption of the talks in Malaysia. Diplomatic sources said the MILF has reiterated their demands that the charges against their top leaders be dropped and that the military immediately withdraw from the Buliok mountain complex, the captured MILF stronghold in Central Mindanao. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu stressed that the withdrawal of the troops from the Buliok Complex is part of the previous agreements between the MILF and the government.

The rebels are also insisting that the criminal charges filed in two separate courts in Davao against top MILF leaders be dropped. The government had earlier agreed to withdraw the warrants of arrest the Davao courts issued for MILF leaders before they resume the peace talks to be held under the auspices of the Malaysian government. "They will not agree to the talks unless the charges filed against their leaders in two other courts will be dropped and that the military will pull out from Buliok, which is a former MILF stronghold," according to a diplomat privy to the talks.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said last week that the Malaysian government has assured him that the peace talks will resume within the month but no definite date has been set. "Malaysia is willing to facilitate the talks, but it cannot start unless this conflict is resolved by both parties," the source said. "They fear that they could be arrested anytime so they want the charges against them to be dropped."

The MILF said they expected the withdrawal of the charges along with the issuance of safe conduct passes to MILF negotiators as a token of good faith on the part of the government. However, the government has maintained that the peace talks should be undertaken "without any preconditions" and that negotiations must be pursued from a "posture of strength".

Ople said he expects the third party cease-fire monitoring team from Malaysia to arrive in Mindanao before the resumption of the peace talks to see if there are any violations committed by both sides. But, aside from the criminal charges and the military withdrawal from the Buliok Complex, the looming retirement of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as well as the Muslim observance of Ramadan is also expected to delay the peace talks. The government is hoping to end over two decades of hostilities between them and the MILF with the resumption of the peace talks.

Gerhard Schroeder, the first German chancellor to visit Serbia and Montenegro in 18 years, on Wednesday supported the country's bid to join the European Union. "The perspectives of this country are in the European Union," Schroeder said after talks with Svetozar Marovic, the president of Serbia and Montenegro. "This won't happen soon, but time must not be wasted."

During his brief stay, Schroeder attended an opening session of the Germany-Serbia and Montenegro Economic Council, established to promote economic ties between the two countries. "Our political relations are without major problems, but economic ties could be better," Schroeder told reporters. "Serbia and Montenegro is potentially an important market for Germany."

Germany is Serbia-Montenegro's biggest economic partner after Russia. German exports to Serbia and Montenegro are worth €866 million a year, while imports are estimated at €320 million. Germany - a traditional Serb foe since World War II - was considered Serbs' biggest enemy by the regime of former President Slobodan Milosevic because the German government supported Croatia and other Serb rivals during the wars of the 1990s.

Since Milosevic's ouster by the pro-Western government in October 2000, Serbia's leaders opened up toward Germany, which responded with a large share of the millions of dollars of aid that has been sent to the embattled Balkan country. Relations between the two governments were especially close during the rule of the late, German-educated, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who was assassinated in downtown Belgrade in March. The Serbia-Montenegro visit was Schroeder's second stop on a tour of three Eastern European countries. On Thursday, Schroeder is to visit the Croatian capital, Zagreb, for meetings with the country's leaders and to take part at the inaugural session of German-Croatian chamber of commerce.

Serbia's chief presidential contender warned Sunday of unrest in the police and army ranks if four top Serbian generals indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal are handed over for trial. In an interview with the Belgrade-based Fonet news agency, Dragoljub Micunovic conceded the country "has to find a solution" to the extraditions demanded by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The court recently added the four to its list of suspects wanted for alleged atrocities committed during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

The four top officers had served under former President Slobodan Milosevic - ousted in a popular revolt in 2000 and later extradited to The Hague along with several associates - but the generals have "shown great loyalty to the new, democratic government," Micunovic said. "In the case of the four latest indictments, we have to find the best possible solution in order to avoid unrest among members of the police and army forces," Micunovic said.

U.N. prosecutors insist on the prompt and unconditional extradition of former army chief Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic; his ex-deputy, Vladimir Lazarevic; police Gen. Vlastimir Djordjevic; and deputy Interior Minister Gen. Sreten Lukic. "We cannot leave to fate the people who very actively took part in the reform of the police and the army" since Milosevic's ouster, Micunovic said. Micunovic is now speaker of the parliament of Serbia-Montenegro, the two-republic union formerly known as Yugoslavia. Nominated by Serbia's ruling coalition, he leads the field for the Nov. 16 presidential race, which also includes Tomislav Nikolic of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party and three minor candidates.

The top job has been vacant since a Milosevic ally stepped down in January and joined his former boss in The Hague. Two earlier attempts to fill the post failed because of insufficient turnout. Micunovic urged voters to come out in large numbers and "help stabilize Serbia," where the pro-democracy leadership has been plagued by internal feuds that Milosevic supporters and other nationalists are trying to exploit in a bid to return to power. Hard-liners recently initiated a parliamentary debate on the alleged corruption and incompetence of the current Cabinet, which could lead to a no-confidence vote and an ouster of Serbia's first democratic government since World War II.

Balkans peace broker David Owen will provide an inside glimpse into the negotiations in the Balkans in the 1990s and the influence of Slobodan Milosevic when he testifies on Monday at the former Yugoslav president's war crimes trial. Owen, a former British foreign minister, was the European Community's peace envoy to the former Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1995 while the wars in Croatia and Bosnia were ongoing. The former European envoy is the latest in a string of high profile political and diplomatic witnesses who have shed light on the chain of command in the Balkans. Former Yugoslav president Zoran Lilic, top international envoy for Bosnia Paddy Ashdown along with William Walker, the US head of the international monitoring mission to Kosovo and Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova have all appeared in court.

Milosevic has been on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) here since February last year. He faces over sixty charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1990s wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo that tore apart the Balkans. For the bloody war in Bosnia that left over 200,000 people dead, he faces a separate charge of genocide. Prosecutors have been trying to show that Milosevic controlled rebel Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia during the 1991-95 wars and thus can be held responsible for atrocities committed there.

In a written statement submitted to the court in September, Owen said he thought that Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic distanced himself from Milosevic in 1993. Before that time, Milosevic treated the Bosnian Serb leader "as someone largely under his control". "After May 1993... I felt a change in Karadzic. He progressively became more independent of Milosevic," Owen said in the statement. Owen wrote that in August 1993 it was "obvious that Milosevic's influence among Bosnian Serbs had waned... and (Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko) Mladic was increasingly difficult to control".

His testimony could bolster Milosevic's claims that he had no influence over the Bosnian Serb leadership at the time of the slaughter of thousands of Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995. The Srebrenica massacre is an important element of the genocide charge against the former Yugoslav president. But Owen's testimony will also help the prosecution's claim that even though Milosevic was only the president of Serbia at the time of the wars in Bosnia and Croatia he held control over the federal Yugoslav presidency and the Yugoslav army implicated in several war crimes in Croatia.

From 1993 onwards "those who held office in the federal Yugoslav government... had no influence on Milosevic because they were, to all intents and purposes, appointees and toed the Serbian president's line," Owen said in his statement. He also notes that the Yugoslav army was supplying Mladic with ammunition, fuel and spare parts. Unlike the other witnesses, Owen was not called to give his evidence by the prosecution but by the trial chamber itself. In a statement the former negotiator said he wanted to be called by the court instead of appearing as a witness for the prosecution so as to preserve the impartial position of international negotiators. Owen, 65, is now a member of the House of Lords, the British upper chamber of parliament. His testimony is expected to take at least two days.

United Nations Resident Coordinator deeply concerned about deterioration of humanitarian situation in Sool Plateau, Somalia

United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Maxwell Gaylard is deeply concerned that the potential failure of the current short season Deyr rains in the Sool Plateau of Somalia could precipitate a humanitarian disaster affecting 15,500 pastoralist families. "We are already facing an acute humanitarian crisis, in particular in the Sanaag and Sool regions of the Sool Plateau, due to four years of consecutive drought", said Mr. Gaylard. "With the current rains apparently failing again, we can expect that most remaining livestock will die, the local economy will collapse and this could trigger large-scale population movements to towns that would adversely affect the health and welfare of the communities, in particular children."

The United Nations Food Security Assessment Unit for Somalia (FSAU), supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS-NET) have also expressed grave concerns about worsening malnutrition and deteriorating food security if immediate action is not taken. The September-October Deyr season has passed with no rainfall, and precipitation forecasts indicate only a marginal likelihood of significant rainfall this season in much of the Sool Plateau, further impoverishing families already struggling to survive.

A recent United Nations and non-governmental organization (NGO) assessment of the affected area - which spans the Sool, Sanaag and Bari regions of the Sool Plateau - found that livestock herds, especially camel, were already decimated by starvation and disease, which has further impoverished pastoralist families almost entirely dependent on the sale of animals and their milk for income. Those livestock still alive are in too poor a condition to sell. At the same time, food and water prices have increased to such an extent that most households cannot afford to purchase even the most basic necessities for survival.

As a result, many have begun cutting trees to sell as charcoal, causing environmental damage and reducing fodder for camels. Many have also borrowed large amounts of money from traders to purchase food and water, increasing their long-term vulnerability. In the unlikely event that some rains do come, the crisis will continue for at least another six months - the time necessary to help restore livestock to a condition that can support the local population.

In response to the crisis, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have already launched emergency programmes - as well as increased their monitoring and surveillance activities - in the affected area. They and other United Nations agencies and NGOs are currently expanding activities designed to meet both the immediate and long-term needs of the affected population.

"To avert a full-scale disaster", said Mr. Gaylard, "we need donors to urgently and generously support emergency interventions designed to save the lives of the most vulnerable while, at the same time, rebuilding their capacity to be self-reliant". The agencies that participated in the assessment mission include the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), FSAU/FAO, UNICEF, WFP, FEWS-NET, the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization (Horn Relief) and Veterinaires Sans Frontieres Switzerland (VSF Suisse).

The government will file suit in Spain's highest court against a plan to convert the Basque region into an autonomous state associated with Spain, officials said Friday. Government lawyers have concluded the blueprint devised by nationalists who govern the troubled northern region violates the Spanish constitution, Justice Minister Jose Maria Michavila said after a Cabinet meeting. Michavila said the plan violates the constitution in five areas, including the division of power between the central government and Spain's 17 semiautonomous regions. The government will file suit with the Constitutional Court, the minister said.

"In a tenacious, conscious and deliberate way, the plan aims to break with and unilaterally mutilate the constitution," Michavila said. The plan was approved last Saturday by the Basque Cabinet but has not yet gone before the regional parliament. The blueprint calls for giving the wealthy, three-province Basque region - already the one with most autonomy in Spain - even more powers, including its own courts and separate representation at forums like the European Union. Barcelona-based constitutional law expert Marc Carrillo said Friday the central government can't file suit because the plan is not a law that is in force, rather just a proposal.

"A suit like this is not possible," he told Cadena Serradio. The Basque government said Friday the planned lawsuit amounts to a "state of exception" in Spain's democracy and that the central government is opposed to dialogue about a legitimate political project backed by most Basques. The Constitutional Court will probably throw out the case, Basque government spokesman Josu Jon Imaz said in San Sebastian. Basque President Juan Jose Ibarretxe's idea is for the Basque Parliament to vote on the plan late next year, after which a six-month window for negotiations with the Spanish government would open.

Such talks are seen as unlikely by many. But even if there are no talks or no agreement, Ibarretxe wants to hold a referendum in the region on his plan, in 2005 at the earliest. A key condition for holding it is a halt to violence by the armed separatist group ETA. Pro-autonomy groups control 43 seats in the 75-seat regional legislature. But the main parties in opposition - the Popular Party and the Socialist Party - are also the main groups in the national legislature. The region, with a population of 2.1 million people, gained autonomous status in 1979 following Spain's transition to democracy with the death of dictator Gen. Francisco Franco. In 1968, ETA launched its violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland. Since then, its gunmen and bombers have killed more than 800 people.

Sri Lanka will consult minority Muslims on a landmark power-sharing plan Tamil rebels are due to unveil Friday as part of efforts to end decades of ethnic bloodshed, the government said. The government's chief peace negotiator G. L. Peiris said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will meet with the main Muslim leader Rauf Hakeem in London on Saturday to discuss the Tamil Tiger proposals. Hakeem is in London studying devolution models as Sri Lanka prepares to develop a federal constitution to address Tamil demands for greater political autonomy without dividing island into two separate states. "The prime minister will hand over a copy of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) proposals to Mr Hakeem in London," Peiris told reporters here Thursday.

He said the government on Saturday will make a brief statement on its initial response to the LTTE's plan for an interim administrative council for the island's war-torn northern and eastern regions. The support of Muslims is seen as crucial for the success of any peace deal with Tamils, the island's largest minority. Muslims are the second largest minority, comprising 7.5 percent of the population. The government has a slender two-seat majority in parliament and depends on the support of 12 Muslim legislators. After meeting Hakeem, Wickremesinghe will travel to Washington for talks with US President George W. Bush on the island's Norwegian-brokered peace bid. The United States, which considers the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group, has pressured the rebels to end their boycott of peace talks and return to the negotiating table.

The Tigers suspended their participation in talks in April after accusing the government of failure to deliver on promises made at six rounds of talks held since September last year. Peiris said Thursday the government expected Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, who is due here on November 10, to arrange a meeting with the Tigers to finalise dates for the seventh round of peace talks sometime early next year. In their historic power-sharing plan to be unveiled Friday, the Tigers will seek a six-year term for an interim council "that would take over the virtual administration of the northeast" before a final deal is concluded, a press report here said Sunday.

The rebels would not decommission their weapons or disband ther combat units until a new constitution is enacted, the privately run Sunday Leader newspaper said, quoting a draft. The report said the LTTE envisaged a system under which it could negotiate direct foreign loans and have greater control over the use of land. These concessions were offered by Colombo in previous peace plans. The Tigers wants to offer representation in the 100-member interim council to the Sinhalese, who are a minority in the rebel-dominated areas, and to Muslims, the report said.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have unveiled an eight-page power-sharing plan aimed at ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed in the island. Here are the highlights of the proposals:

-- NAME: The Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) for the Northeast of the Island of Sri Lanka.

-- TERRITORY: Districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee and Vavuniya in the island's north-east.

-- EFFECTIVE PERIOD: ISGA to have elections in five years conducted by an independent election commission set up by the ISGA.

-- COMPOSITION: Members appointed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the government of Sri Lanka and the minority Muslim community. The number of members to be determined later, but to ensure an absolute majority goes to appointees of the LTTE.

-- JURISDICTION: Law and order, revenue and taxes, control over state land and all civil administration matters currently exercised by Colombo through a system of provincial councils.

-- FINANCE: The ISGA to prepare annual budgets, negotiate and receive direct foreign funding, including loans. All government of Sri Lanka spending in embattled areas to be channelled through the ISGA.

-- REHABILITATION FUNDS: Foreign funding, including the World Bank administered North East Reconstruction Fund (NERF), to be under the control of the ISGA.

-- POWERS TO BORROW AND TRADE: ISGA to borrow internally and externally, provide guarantees and indemnities, receive aid directly and engage in or regulate internal and external trade.

-- ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING: The ISGA to appoint an Auditor General. Money received from abroad to be audited by an internationally reputed firm appointed by the ISGA.

-- DELEGATION: The ISGA to enjoy powers to delegate authority to district committees to be appointed by it.

-- OCCUPIED LAND: The government of Sri Lanka armed forces to immediately vacate privately owned land it currently occupies.

-- MARINE/OFFSHORE RESOURCES: The ISGA to have control over the marine and offshore resources of the adjacent seas and the power to regulate access.

-- NATURAL RESOURCES: Existing agreements for the exploitation of natural resources such as mineral sand to continue, but new agreements or renewing agreements to be done by the ISGA.

-- WATER: The ISGA and the Sri Lankan government to enter into internationally recognised arrangements for sharing of river water.

-- ARBITRATION: Three-member panel with one member each appointed by the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers and the third by both. Arbitrators to be acceptable to all parties, including the Norwegian peace brokers. In the event of disagreement, the parties to ask the chairman of the International Court of Justice to appoint the head of the three-member arbitration panel.

The landmark power-sharing plan by Sri Lanka's Tiger rebels has left a window for manoeuvring and raised hopes of ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed, politicians and diplomats said Sunday. The Tamil Tigers unveiled Saturday their first ever blueprint for peace under which they seek a majority in an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) for the war-torn northeast and announced an end to their boycott of peace talks.

With the release of an eight-page document outlining its vision of a political settlement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said it was keen to resume negotiations suspended since March. Sri Lanka's second largest minority, the Muslims, will make counter proposals within two months, said a spokesman for the main Muslim party here, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. "There is no proper Muslim representation in the LTTE's proposals, but we are not bothered by that," the spokesman said. "We will be making our proposals within two months." Muslim backing is critical for the success of any peace deal with Tamils, the island's largest minority. Muslims are the second largest minority, comprising 7.5 percent of the population.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government has a slender two-seat majority in parliament and depends on the support of 12 Muslim legislators. European Union ambassadors to Colombo welcomed the LTTE proposals as an "important step forward in the peace process." "The EU Heads of Mission emphasise the linkage between assistance by the international donor community and substantial parallel progress in the peace process," the ambassadors said in a statement. Diplomats said Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen will visit here November 10 to help arrange a face-to-face meeting between the Tigers and the government.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga who is opposed to the cohabitation government's handling of the peace process did not react immediately, but officials said she was meeting with party stalwarts to discuss the proposals. Officials noted that Kumaratunga's support was crucial as the government led by her arch-rival Wickremesinghe did not have a strong enough legislative majority to implement the proposals.

But Dharmalingam Sidhathan, an MP from the Tamil minority, said the peace plan would not allow any dissenting voices in the northeast where the Tigers have fought for decades to ensure their supremacy. The guerrillas are proposing that they nominate a majority of members to the self-governing authority while the Sinhalese-dominated Colombo government and Muslims would have minority representation. "This is something that is definitely against democracy and pluralism," Sidhathan said. "But, we still welcome this (the proposals) as something that can meet the aspirations of the Tamil people." A Sinhalese nationalist party, the Sihala Urumaya, or Sinhalese Heritage party, rejected the power-sharing proposals while the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, said it was a first step towards separation.

The government's chief peace negotiator, G.L. Peiris, admitted there were differences between Colombo's offer of devolution and the Tiger demands, but said they could start negotiations. Western and Asian diplomats said they saw the LTTE proposals as "reasonable" and leaving room for negotiations. "What is also important is the tone of the preamble and the tone in which the Tigers released the document," a Western diplomat said. "There was no venom and the rhetoric was muted." The Tiger proposal envisages the self-governing authority raising taxes, maintaining security, controlling trade and negotiating foreign loans and funding in a federal set-up. There was no mention of the role of LTTE's combat units or how their own "police" and "courts" would function under the self-governing authority. "These are matters that could be discussed," a government official said.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his top diplomat for Africa on Tuesday urged Sudan's warring parties to hold firm to a commitment to reach a final peace agreement by the end of this year. "Time is of the essence for the war-weary people of Sudan," Powell said in a opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. "They have an opportunity for peace. "This is an opportunity that must not be lost," he said, recalling his visit to peace talks in Naivasha, Kenya last week at which Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang pledged to end Africa's longest civil war by December 31.

To encourage them, Powell reiterated US President George W. Bush's invitation for Garang and Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to the White House after a deal is reached. And, he reminded Khartoum that once an agreement was forged, Washington "will begin normalizing our bilateral relations with the Sudanese government."

Sudan is now designated by the State Department as a "state sponsor of terrorism" and is subject to penalties under that and five other US sanctions regimes. Powell said last week that the United States would review all of those sanctions as incentive for Khartoum to make peace with the SPLA. Meanwhile, Walter Kansteiner, the outgoing assistant secretary of state for African affairs who is stepping down to return to private life, said the two sides were "in striking distance of a peace deal."

"I am optimistic," he told reporters on his final day in office. "I think they can do it. Don't let the momentum die ... stay the course and get it down." Sudan's war erupted in 1983 when Garang's SPLA took up arms against Khartoum to end domination of the mainly Christian and animist south by the Arabised, Muslim north. More than 1.5 million people have been killed and more than four million people displaced in the conflict. The last round of talks in Naivasha adjourned on Sunday after Powell's visit on October 22 for a break over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with both sides acknowledging progress.

The next round is to resume on November 30 with an eye toward reaching agreement on the status of the three central regions claimed by both sides -- Southern Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains and Abyei -- and on how to share power and wealth, notably Sudan's oil reserves. Previous rounds of negotiations have already produced crucial agreements on a six-year transitional period of self-rule for the south, followed by an internationally supervised referendum, and on the security arrangements to be put in place during this period.

In the United States, rebel leader John Garang learned soldiering and economics, skills he took with him back to his native Sudan, home to Africa's longest-running civil war. The imposing 58-year-old has used his skills in the war, and may soon apply them as vice president of Sudan if the warring parties agree to a power-sharing deal as part of a U.S.-backed peace plan.

"My background in the military is by force of circumstance," Garang told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "Of course it's been worth it, especially now you see Sudan transforming." There is little doubt that Sudan must be transformed. The country has only known a brief period of peace since independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956 and more than 2 million people have died from fighting and war-related famine and disease since the latest conflict began its latest phase in 1983.

Garang, who describes himself as an "Episcopalian-stroke-Lutheran," has spent most of his adult life battling the predominantly Arab and Muslim government in Khartoum to seek greater autonomy for the largely animist and Christian south. The conflict also is fueled by competition for oil, land and other resources. Garang's followers address him either as "doctor," because of his Ph.D. from Iowa State University, or "chairman," for his position in the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army. At a recent press conference after discussing 15-month-old peace talks, Secretary of State Colin Powell called him simply, "Dr. John."

Powell, who has said ending the war in Sudan is a top priority for the Bush administration, met with Garang and Sudanese government officials last week in neighboring Kenya and announced that the warring parties had agreed to remain in negotiations and "conclude a comprehensive settlement no later than the end of December." Sudan, with a population of 30 million people, is listed by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism. Osama bin Laden lived in Khartoum, the capital, in the early 1990s and had numerous business interests in the country. Sudan has, however, been credited with cooperating in the war against terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The government has been accused of supporting slavery and bombing aid groups and civilians in the conflict, but human rights groups also have criticized Garang. "Their human rights record is poor because of the lack of accountability," said Jemera Rone of Human Rights Watch. "That has led to a lot of abuses that have never been punished, including summary executions, disappearances, prolonged arbitrary detentions, corrupt transactions and the taking of food from civilians."

Garang, who spoke outside his residence in this rebel town, dismisses the allegations. "A movement that has lasted 20 years will have its critics," he said. "Which leader never gets criticized? ... Our (human rights) record is available for scrutiny by history." The articulate rebel leader gives little away about himself - except that he reads war classics, from Sun Tzu to George Patton. A member of southern Sudan's largest tribe, the Dinka, Garang was born in an impoverished village, and at 18 left high school in Rumbek to join the first southern rebellion in 1963. But he said guerrilla leaders urged him to finish school, which he eventually did in Tanzania.

He later attended Grinnell College in Iowa, graduating in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, after which he returned to Africa with a fellowship to study at Dar es Salaam University, Tanzania - then a hot bed of radical thinking. There he met Yoweri Museveni, who would later lead a rebellion in Uganda from 1981-1986 and become a key ally.

Garang returned to southern Sudan in 1970 and was integrated into the government army two years later when a peace deal was reached. During the next 11 years, Garang attended the U.S. Army infantry officer's course at Fort Benning, Ga., and earned his doctorate at Iowa State University. But some southerners, including Garang, felt the peace was doomed and formed a covert group to organize another rebellion.

In May 1983, then Col. Garang was visiting troops in the south when the army attacked a battalion he'd once commanded. Suddenly the second war was under way, months earlier than the rebels intended, he said. As the most senior officer, Garang assumed leadership. With peace on the horizon, he now hopes to use his nonmilitary skills to turn the "liberation energy" toward development. But the warring parties still have to resolve some key issues, and Garang said he's learnt to "keep expectations modest." "The situation is sufficiently complex that you don't want to overextend your emotional resources," he said. "I don't get easily excited."