PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH

Armenia/Azerbaijan Azeri Karabakh Movement to Picket US Embassy Over Washington’s Stance

Burundi/Rwanda Hutu leader says Burundi has something to learn from the outcome of presidential election in neighboring Rwanda

Burundi rights group opposed to law granting temporary immunity to war criminals

Congo DRCongo National Assembly Speaker defines role of five transitional institutions

Georgia/Abkhazia Russia, Abkhazia discuss implementation of agreements with Georgia

Abkhazia must establish legal framework for recording return of refugees to Gali, according to Georgian minister.

Indonesia Malaysia Will Not Grant Political Asylum to Acehnese Illegals, Says PM

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast arrests top members of ousted military junta in assassination plot

Ethnic killing continues, with no solution in sight; Kosovo / Four years later

Liberia U.S. senator calls Liberia a security interest; women plea for peacekeeper deployment

Warner visits, says too soon to decide whether US troops should remain in country.

Morocco Self-rule plan puts Rabat on spot and gives renewed hope to Sahrawis

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka's Tamil teachers to strike if army does not vacate schools

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.

The Azerbaijani non-governmental Organization for the Liberation of Karabakh plans to picket the US embassy in Baku. Akif Nagi, head of the organization, explained this decision to Interfax on Thursday (28 August) as a result of the embassy's unwillingness to declare Washington's official position on the Karabakh settlement. "We sent a letter to the embassy on 20 August asking them to comment on the recent visit of American congressmen to Nagornyy Karabakh without Baku's prior notification and their meetings with representatives of the local separatist regime. There still has not been an answer," Nagi said.

The request to explain press reports about the alleged recognition of Nagornyy Karabakh as a historical Armenian land in a report made by the CIA has also remained unanswered, Nagi said. "This lack of reaction should be regarded as confirmation of the United States' disrespect for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which is impermissible, especially since it is a mediator in the Karabakh settlement," he remarked. The Organization for the Liberation of Karabakh has asked the Baku City Hall for permission to hold a protest in front of the US embassy building on 3 September. Nagi said they would hold the protest with or without permission. The US embassy in Baku has not commented on the situation.

Burundi/Rwanda

Hutu leader says Burundi has something to learn from the outcome of presidential election in neighboring Rwanda

The president of main political party representing Burundi's Hutu majority said Tuesday that his country had much to learn from the election of incumbent President Paul Kagame in neighboring Rwanda. Jean Minani, who heads the Front For Democracy, or Frodebu, and is also speaker of parliament in Burundi's transitional government, said the victory of Kagame, a member of the Tutsi minority, could serve as a lesson as Burundi moves towards democratic elections.

"Elections on the level of those in Rwanda will stabilize Rwanda, and in stabilizing Rwanda, they will also stabilize Burundi," Minani said. Kagame, who has been in a national unity government set up after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, won 95.05 percent of the vote in the country's first real presidential election since independence from Belgium in 1962. His main opponent, Faustin Twagiramungu, won 3.62 percent of the vote.

Burundi and Rwanda, which were administered as the single territory of Ruanda-Urundi in the colonial era, first under Germany and then Belgium, have similar a ethnic composition with Hutus making up the great majority, and Tutsis around 15 percent of the population. But both their pre-and post-independence history has been quite different. In Rwanda, the Hutus overthrew the Tutsi king shortly before independence and ruled the country until the genocide, which was orchestrated by extremist Hutus. In Burundi, a Tutsi monarchy ruled the country until 1966 and was then replaced by a series of Tutsi military rulers.

Maj. Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi who had taken power in a 1987 coup, agreed to multiparty elections in June 1993, which he then lost to Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu who won 64 percent of the vote as the country's first democratically elected president. Four months later, Tutsi paratroopers assassinated Ndadaye, plunging Burundi into a civil war that has cost more than 200,000 lives and displaced more than 1 million people. After two years of talks involving political parties and the government, Burundi agreed on a three-year transitional government that began in November 2001. Buyoya served the first 18-month term and has been followed by a Hutu, Domitien Ndayizeye.

But fighting and attacks on civilians have continued because the government and one Hutu rebel group have not respected the cease-fire they signed last December, while the other Hutu rebel group has yet to agree to a cease-fire. Minani said electing a president from the minority group in Rwanda should serve to reassure Tutsi political parties in Burundi that reject democratic elections out of fear that no leader of the minority community could be elected.

"A population which has recently come out such a horror (as the genocide) but whose population can elect a president who is from the minority group shows that elections shouldnt be a threat to anyone here in Burundi," he said. "Elections must not be a threat anyone, and politicians have to realize that elections must be based on a political agenda and not on a individual's ethnicity," Minani said. "If in Rwanda a Hutu can vote for a Tutsi, we see that in Burundi it can also be possible for Hutu to vote for a Tutsi or vice versa."

Burundi rights group opposed to law granting temporary immunity to war criminals

After the anti-genocide and self-defence PA-Amasekanya described as a private Tutsi militia said that "legally speaking, it is not proper for criminals and/or their accomplices to grant themselves immunity from prosecution , even for a limited period of time", it is now the turn of the of the Burundi League for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights, Sonera, to strongly protest - in a declaration published today - against the law granting "political leaders returning from exile temporary immunity from prosecution" sanctioned on 27 August by the National Assembly sitting at Kigobe Palace.

Sonera says it is enraged that the said amnesty puts a stop to legal proceedings against offenders accused of political crimes while "the political leaders making the decision are among those suspected to be the authors of bloody crimes against babies, children, women, the elderly and indeed fetuses". Sonera bitterly states that "the National Assembly voted for a law granting amnesty to suspected authors of genocide in Burundi, in violation of the universal human rights declaration that protects the right to life, that Burundi ratified".

For all these reasons, it demands that the National Assembly apologizes to the Burundi people and revokes the decision to ratify the amnesty law that plans to hide the crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Burundi. Sonera urges the public to protest against the implementation of this law, which has no other goal but to perpetuate "the diabolical cycle of impunity and privately sponsored retribution acts in Burundi"

Congo

DRCongo National Assembly Speaker defines role of five transitional institutions

On 28 August at 1300 gmt, the democracy-enhancement institutions were officially introduced to the National Assembly and Senate, the two chambers of the transitional parliament, both of which endorsed them at the Kinshasa People's Palace in compliance with the spirit and letter of the global and all-inclusive accord. The official inauguration of these institutions will take place within 30 days. Each institution has eight members, including a chairman, three vice-chairmen, a rapporteur, and three deputy rapporteurs. Each entity, except the political opposition, has appointed one member to the institutions' bureaus.

On the occasion, Speaker Olivier Kamitatu stated that the introduction of those institutions is the continuation of the process started on 22 August with the inauguration of both the Senate and National Assembly. The official investiture of the five institutions will take place following the adoption of laws determining their organization, functioning, and responsibilities, under Article 169 of the transitional constitution and the presidential decree relating to the convening of the present extraordinary session, Kamitatu said, before defining the institutions' roles as follows:

The Independent Electoral Commission, chaired by Abbot Malu-Malu, should guarantee neutrality and impartiality in organizing free, democratic, fair elections. As for the Media High Authority, chaired by Modeste Mutinga Mutuishayi, it should ensure the neutrality of the media. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Jean-Luc Kuye, will consolidate national unity through a true reconciliation among the DRC people.

The Ethics and Corruption Prevention Commission, chaired by Pamphile Badu wa Badu, will encourage the practice of moral standards and republican values. Finally, the National Human Rights Observatory, chaired by Michel Innocent Mpinga, should promote and protect human rights. Earlier, Senate President Bishop Marini Bodho stated that given the noble role of these institutions, the laws organizing them have to be adopted urgently. The five chairmen of the institutions mentioned above hold the rank of ministers.

Click here to access the DR Congo Role Play prepared by the Public International Law and Policy Group.

Georgia/Abkhazia

Implementing the understandings reached by the presidents of Russia and Georgia and the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia at their meeting in Sochi in March 2003 topped the agenda of the Russian-Abkhaz consultations held in Sukhumi on Monday 1 September. Valeriy Loshchinin, Russian first deputy foreign minister and presidential envoy for a Georgian-Abkhaz settlement, told this to Interfax following his meeting with Abkhaz leaders. His meeting with Abkhaz Prime Minister Raul Khadzhimba and Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba was held behind closed doors.

"We are about to agree on the need to step up implementation of the understandings about, above all, the Inguri hydroelectric power station, where joint activities are under way, and having the railway resume operations. The working groups on these issues are doing their best," Loshchinin said. Returning refugees to Gali District is another major issue, he said.

This issue has largely been resolved, Loshchinin said. "Quite a few refugees have returned. Their return must be recorded in documents. Conditions for their stable and dignified residence must be created. Before everything, the Abkhaz authorities must set up a legal framework, while international organizations must provide help," he said.

Abkhazia's residents who are Russia's citizens will duly obtain Russian passports, Loshchinin said. "This issue is being dealt with in the framework of Russian legislation," he said. Loshchinin said that Tbilisi is responding very emotionally to the issuance of passports to Russian citizens in Abkhazia. He said that it would be untrue to say that all of Abkhazia's residents will hold Russian passports.

Indonesia

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today that Malaysia will not grant political asylum to the Acehnese who fled to Malaysia from the Indonesian province. He said that they would be regarded as illegal immigrants and action would be taken against them as Malaysia would against any other illegal immigrants. "We don't grant political asylum to those fleeing Aceh. They will only remain as illegal immigrants and they will be placed under detention," he told reporters at a joint media conference with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri here. The leaders of the two neighbouring countries earlier held their annual consultations.

The Malaysian authorities rounded up 232 Acehnese attempting access to the premises of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 19. Several of them were reported to have intended to seek political asylum while the rest have fled Aceh in search of jobs. Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, when met later, welcomed Malaysia's stand. "Malaysia as a sovereign nation has taken a stand that foreign nationals staying illegally in Malaysia will be deported to their countries of origin. In this context, Indonesia will also act likewise against the illegal immigrants," he said.

Asked whether any of those detained were members of the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka-GAM), Hassan said that the principal issue was whether or not they entered Malaysia illegally. "As far as Malaysia is concerned, certainly whether they are GAM (members) or not, the issue is that if there are foreign nationals staying illegally in the country, they will be deported," he said. Hassan said that whatever the circumstances, the presence of the Acehnese was "not because there is an integrated operations currently carried out in Aceh." "As such, there is no correlation between the two issues," he said.

Click here to access the Aceh Role Play 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.

Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast arrests top members of ousted military junta in assassination plot

Two top members of Ivory Coast's deposed military junta were arrested for allegedly participating in what authorities said Friday was a plot to assassinate President Laurent Gbagbo, raising fears that civil war may re-ignite. A top government official said on condition of anonymity that the former junta leaders are among more than 60 people detained since the weekend in Ivory Coast and France, where authorities said they blocked the assassination attempt by arresting 10 people in Paris. The alleged plot involved attacking Gbagbo's convoy with a rocket launcher as he traveled to his presidential palace in this former French colony either Wednesday or Thursday, the official said.

France said Friday it was holding 13 suspects. Most of those detained in Ivory Coast were key figures in a 1999 coup, members of Gbagbo's own guard and northerners, who long have been viewed with suspicion by the southern-based government. On Thursday, former junta army chief of staff Soumaila Diabagate was arrested at his office at the Defense Ministry in Abidjan, the government official said. Abdoulaye Coulibaly, the former No. 3 figure, was detained late Thursday after flying home from France, authorities and his family said. Ten members of Gbagbo's presidential guard were arrested earlier Thursday.

The government crackdown fueled fears of more turmoil in Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer and West Africa's key port and economic hub. The country's civil war, which was declared over in July, began in September with a failed coup. Armored vehicles rolled through the streets of the commercial capital, Abidjan, while security forces guarded bridges and intersections and police stopped drivers to check their identification. "You have the impression it can blow at any time," one frightened woman said as she drove about town, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear for the safety of her husband, a northerner.

Nigerian vegetable trader Amadou Souleyman was, like millions of West Africans, attracted to prosperous Ivory Coast for its economic promise. "We're all afraid that war will kill us," Souleyman, 23, said.

Although the civil war officially was declared over, a power-sharing government has never taken hold and officials on both sides say the peace process is deadlocked. The country remains divided, with rebels controlling the north and the government controlling the south. In Bouake, rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate accused Gbagbo's supporters of manipulating news of the coup plot and arrests to put blame on the insurgents. Gbagbo's party is "trying to cut off the peace process," Konate said. "They want to decapitate national reconciliation."

The arrests started over the weekend in Paris, when French officials said they detained 10 people allegedly en route to Ivory Coast to carry out the plot. Those 10 suspects include Ibrahim Coulibaly, who led the 1999 coup that plunged the country into lasting turmoil. Coulibaly turned over power to a military junta led by Gen. Robert Guei. But Guei was ousted in October 2000 as he tried to steal presidential elections and Gbagbo, a politician, replaced him. Conflicts since the 1999 coup led to the civil war between the north and south. Northerners accuse Gbagbo's regime of fueling ethnic, political and regional hatreds.

On paper, Ivory Coast's war is over - peace declared in West Africa's economic hub nearly two months ago, and rebels and loyalists united in a power-sharing government. On the ground, armored vehicles are on the roll again through the commercial capital, Abidjan. With fears of a new conflict on the rise, fighter jets roared over the city's lagoons and skyscrapers last week as security forces rounded up scores of people suspected in an alleged plot to assassinate President Laurent Gbagbo. As for unity - 10 newly erected iron gates, bolted shut and guarded by armed rebels, block the main road that had linked this prosperous country's north, now rebel-held, to the south, the base of the government.

Eight feet high, the gates formalize and fortify the split in divided Ivory Coast. "It's still a front-line, and we can guard it as we see fit," rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate insisted in Bouake, Ivory Coast's second city and de facto capital of insurgent territory. "As for me, I'd prefer to guard it with our soldiers and iron gates. It's more secure that way," Konate added.

On July 4, Gbagbo shed tears at a ceremony marking the official end of nine months of civil war - raising hopes that years of instability in the world's top cocoa producer might be over. But signatures and handshakes have since given way to angry words, surging rumors of new uprisings, and heightened military measures, as each side appears to brace for any return to conflict. A French-brokered peace accord in January laid the groundwork for the war's end, outlining a disarmament plan and setting up a power-sharing government to guide the former French colony to presidential elections in 2005.

France contributed 4,000 peacekeepers, which proved vital to stopping fighting. Ivory Coast, with its cocoa wealth and a key port, had been West Africa's single-most stable and economically developed nation until a shattering 1999 coup. Years of new uprisings, plots and escalating political, ethnic and regional hatreds followed. Rebels, who started the civil war in September with a failed coup attempt against Gbagbo, have suspended participation in the new power-sharing government. Insurgents are demanding the right to approve candidates for the key ministry posts of defense and security.

They accuse Gbagbo of arming civilian militias to torment northerners living in the government-controlled south. Accusations are widespread of massive weapons shipments to rearm the government side for a return to fighting. Gbagbo loyalists, meanwhile, demand the insurgents lay down their weapons and yield control of the northern half of the country. They allege rebels have sneaked into Abidjan, hiding out and waiting for the right moment to strike.

Last week, authorities in France arrested at least 13 suspects who allegedly were on their way to Abidjan to carry out what Ivory Coast officials claim was a plot to attack Gbagbo's motorcade with a rocket launcher. That was followed by a roundup in Abidjan. Those detained included members of Gbagbo's own guard and northerners, who like millions of regional migrants working in Ivory Coast, have long been viewed with suspicion by the southern-based government.

"It's making all us foreigners tired," said Oumar Taherou, 40, who is from Niger and sells plastic sandals on the Abidjan streets. "This country is rotten and everyone's afraid. I watch with my eyes and try to keep my mouth shut."

In Abidjan, the warning signs of trouble are everywhere - familiar to all now in the jittery city. Soldiers and paramilitary police - helmeted, heavily armed and tear gas in-hand - have been patrolling in greater numbers and checkpoints have multiplied. Armored personnel carriers patrol the streets, and warplanes scream overhead in what is widely seen as a show of force by the government. At rebel-held Bouake, 210 miles to the north, the scene is far calmer - after passing through the iron gates, that is. Rebel rule is settling in at the city, after the immediate aftermath of the fighting left it littered with burned-out cars, patrolled by trigger-happy rebels, and nearly paralyzed by a destroyed transportation system.

The market, full of bounties of yams, rice and other foodstuffs, is in full swing. Children don their uniforms and march off to schools reopened with the help of locals and aid groups. Roadblocks in the city are few and far between. Support for the rebellion appears enthusiastic and overwhelming. A rally last week drew tens of thousands shouting for Gbagbo to step down.

"I'm with the rebellion, Gbagbo's got to leave," said Ali Balde, 28, at his shoe stand in the market. "Give us our ministers or the war will start again." As calm as life in Bouake might be, the front-line is still volatile and tense.

"I'm the boss here, and you'll do what I tell you," shouted one rebel fighter, pistol at his side, as he stopped vehicles heading deeper into Ivory Coast's rebel-held north. Fearing surprise attacks by government forces, rebels consult by telephone with superiors each time before swinging open the eight-foot-high gates to let through a car. Several miles to the south, government soldiers man sandbag bunkers - their AK-47s and grenade launchers trained north.

Ivory Coast and its former colonial master France Monday deepened their investigation into an alleged coup plot in the west African country, as the former rebel chief and alleged mastermind of the plan was ordered held in Paris. A Paris court on Monday ordered the former rebel leader Ibrahim Coulibaly, arrested in France on August 23 for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Laurent Gbagbo, to remain in custody pending investigation of the charges.

Coulibaly spearheaded Ivory Coast's first-ever coup in 1999 and was also a driving force behind the rebellion last September which plunged the country into civil war. Around 40 people gathered outside the Paris court to demand his release, following a similar demonstration by thousands of people in his hometown of Korhogo in northern Ivory Coast on Sunday. The ex-rebel leader's detention sparked a wave of arrests in Ivory Coast and sent accusations of complicity in the plot flying between members of the unity government, set up early this year to heal the country's post-rebellion wounds.

Seven other people are being held in France as part of the probe being handled by French anti-terrorist authorities, while another 20 to 30 people are reported to have been arrested in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's economic capital. Several of the suspects in custody in France have told counter-intelligence agents they had been hatching a plot to assassinate Gbagbo, prosecutors said. The Ivorian state has been named as a party to the French investigation against Coulibaly, while the president was also to be named on Monday, his French lawyer, Pierre Haik, told the Ivorian newspaper Le Temps. "I am standing by the republic of Ivory Coast and its president to try to understand the motives of those placed under investigation, including those who have been detained," Haik told the paper.

Meanwhile, a former Ivorian junta leader, General Abdoulaye Coulibaly, arrested last week as he returned from France, was released on Monday after appearing before a military tribunal in Abidjan. Coulibaly -- no relation to the detained rebel leader -- was arrested on Thursday in Abidjan as he stepped off a flight from Paris. "He was heard by the court and released," said chief military prosecutor Major Ange Kessi. "There are no outstanding charges against him."

Abdoulaye Coulibaly was third-in-command in a junta set up after the 1999 coup, and was among those accused of attempting to topple the late general Robert Guei, the junta's leader, in a failed putsch the following year. He was later acquitted of the charges. Sources close to the general said he had travelled to France in the past six weeks after obtaining permission from the French defence ministry. He decided to fly back as planned to Ivory Coast last week -- despite the tense atmosphere caused by the wave of arrests -- to ward off any suspicion of his own involvement in the alleged plot, the sources said.

In a separate development, the suspected killers of two French peacekeepers shot dead in Ivory Coast last week were also due to appear before the Abidjan military tribunal. The two men, whose identity has not been revealed, were arrested by the French force in Ivory Coast on Thursday in connection with the deaths of two soldiers, shot while patrolling near the central town of Sakassou. Ivory Coast's biggest former rebel group condemned the incident, which has been blamed on "uncontrolled elements" of the former insurgent movement.

The soldiers were the first killed among a 4,000-strong French peacekeeping force deployed 10 months ago to monitor a truce in the former French colony. Their deaths had fanned tensions in the already charged atmosphere in Ivory Coast, which remains divided nearly a year after the September 19 rebellion that sparked the civil war.

Kashmir

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrived amid tight security in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar Wednesday for a national conference, after an early-morning bomb and a general strike that shuttered businesses. Vajpayee, accompanied by deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani and other ministers arrived in a special plane at the army airport, Kashmir government spokesman Kulbushan Jandial told AFP. He said the officials were transported by helicopter to army headquarters, where they were received by Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and India's top representative in the region, S.K. Sinha.

They were to be driven from there to the state-owned International Convention Complex -- the lakeside venue for the two-day interstate council meeting. "Ultra-tight security" was blanketing Srinagar, where an anti-Indian rebellion by Islamic guerrillas has claimed more than 38,000 lives since 1989, a police spokesman said.

Vajpayee will inaugurate the conference, which gathers chief ministers and security officials from India's 28 states, with the sensitive topic of New Delhi's relationship with the provinces atop the agenda. He and Advani were to chair the event. The choice of divided Kashmir as the first-ever venue outside of New Delhi for the annual conference was seen as politically significant. Vajpayee at a rally in Srinagar on April 18 extended a "hand of friendship" to rival Pakistan, ending a 17-month standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbours that brought them to the brink of war over the Himalayan region divided between them and claimed in full by both.

Analysts said tapping Srinagar to host the important national conference was a signal to Pakistan that despite ongoing South Asian peace initiatives, Kashmir is regarded as an integral part of India. Security concerns were compounded by both Wednesday's blast in an abandoned house in the Chattabal area and twin car-bombings Monday in India's main commercial capital Bombay, which killed 52 people and injured 150 others.

The high-impact explosion early Wednesday destroyed an abandoned house in the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir and shattered windowpanes in at least 10 neighbouring homes but caused no casualties. "We have put the police and paramilitary on alert for the high-security event, and their vigil has been intensified given the twin blasts in Bombay," said the police spokesman. Advani on Tuesday pointed fingers at Pakistan and militant groups behind the insurgency in Kashmir for the Bombay bombings.

A spokesman for India's federal Press Information Bureau (PIB) said the conference would focus on administrative relations, emergency provisions and the deployment of the army and paramilitary troops for state peacekeeping operations. "Issues relating to contract labour, contract appointments and good governance will also be discussed," said the PIB spokesman.

Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said he was delighted that Kashmir was hosting "yet another historic event." "Such national-level conferences will help in normalising the situation and boost economic development in Kashmir," said Sayeed. Kashmir earlier this year hosted a meeting of chief ministers of the opposition Congress party. Meanwhile, separate general strikes called by Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, and hardline leader Syed Ali Geelani closed down shops and businesses in Srinagar, witnesses said.

Little traffic plied the roads. "Conducting conferences in the state will not change the nature or status of the Kashmir problem," a Hurriyat statement said. Geelani said the strike, supported by all rebel groups, would show the world that Kashmiris opposed the "Indian occupation."

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Serbia's parliament on Wednesday declared Kosovo an integral part of the republic, triggering angry reaction from the province's independence-seeking ethnic Albanians. Kosovo has been administered by NATO- and the United Nations since 1999, though the southern province officially remains part of Serbia and Montenegro, the loose union that replaced Yugoslavia earlier this year. Kosovo, the medieval cradle of Serbia's statehood, is a sensitive issue for Belgrade authorities.

The resolution adopted by the parliament also calls for the return of some 200,000 Kosovo Serbs who have fled the southern province since NATO's 1999 bombardment, which forced then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end his bloody crackdown on the province's majority Albanians. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian prime minister, Bajram Rexhepi, said Serbia's Kosovo declaration would do nothing but increase tensions in the volatile province. "We won't deal with daily declarations, but we can't ignore such acts either," Rexhepi said.

Izabella Karlowicz, a U.N. spokeswoman in Kosovo, said the province's final status remained open and would be decided only by the U.N. Security Council. "No unilateral decision about the final status can have any impact," Karlowicz said. The document is expected to serve as the Serbian base position in Western-backed talks with the province's ethnic Albanian leaders that are expected to start later this year. Nebojsa Covic, the Serbian government envoy to Kosovo, called on the assembly for "a historic reconciliation" between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in the province.

He blamed Milosevic's policies in Kosovo in the 1990s for the lingering ethnic conflict there. Milosevic's 1998-1999 crackdown left up to 10,000 dead and hundreds of thousands expelled. Most of the victims were ethnic Albanians. A pro-democracy movement toppled Milosevic in 2000 and replaced his autocratic regime. Milosevic is now on trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal for his alleged links to atrocities committed in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s. Nearly 200,000 Serbs fled Kosovo after the war, fearing revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians. Minority Serbs who stayed live mostly in isolated enclaves, guarded by NATO and fearful of their ethnic Albanian neighbors.

In parliament, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic criticized the NATO peacekeepers for failing to provide for a safe return of Serb refugees to Kosovo. He pointed to the slaying this month of two Serb boys, shot while swimming in a river in western Kosovo. "What we see daily in Kosovo is terrorism, daily pressures and incompetence," Zivkovic said. "Hopefully, the international community will drop its stereotypes of ethnic Albanians as victims or Serbs as devils incarnate."

Ethnic killing continues, with no solution in sight; Kosovo / Four years later

The Bystrica River is not much of a stream in the heat of mid-August, just a weed-slicked trickle over smooth white stones that forms a pool in front of some old tires and a discarded refrigerator. Local young people would come daily to swim here, relief from the boredom that hangs over this tiny Serbian enclave in the Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo. But earlier this month, it proved a fine place for a killing when an unknown gunman or two stood behind some brush on the Albanian side of the stream and emptied two clips of Chinese-made bullets from a Kalashnikov automatic rifle into a group of Serbian youngsters cooling off in the quiet waters.

Within seconds, 19-year-old Ivan Jovanovic was dead on the riverbank and 11-year-old Pantelja Dakic lay dying in a pool of blood nearby. Several other children were wounded. Minutes later Italian peacekeeping soldiers arrived from their base in the enclave, and Kosovar and United Nations police were on the scene, evacuating the wounded to hospitals.

Detectives found several dozen spent cartridges, and tracker dogs followed a scent from the site to a spot outside the nearby Albanian village of Poqeste. But there the trail stopped. There were no more clues or witnesses. The shooting has again raised a pressing question: How long can Kosovo remain in its current limbo, an uneasy United Nations protectorate still claimed by Serbia and still far short of the independent Albanian-led state that its majority population would like to see?

Four years after the end of the American-led NATO bombing campaign against Serbia, Kosovo remains a land divided between the ethnic Serbs who once ruled the province and the Albanian majority, who now run it under United Nations auspices. Sit in the cafes of Pristina, the capital and largest city of Kosovo, and you will hear every possible theory as to who killed the two youths and why, including a belief that it was Serbian special forces, who want the United Nations to let the Serbian police and soldiers return to the enclaves, or the thoughts of those who blame extremists from the shadowy Albanian National Army.

In Pec, the police investigating the murders say the local Albanians have done little to help reassure their Serbian neighbors. The gunmen were probably Albanians, police officials said, because they managed to vanish in an Albanian neighborhood. But bound by local codes of silence and fearful of the politically connected crime gangs in the region, no one will talk.

"That's the normal situation here," said Uwe Fleck, a German detective who is leading the joint United Nations and Kosovo police investigation. The killings came an hour after the new UN chief administrator in Kosovo, the former prime minister of Finland, Harri Holkeri, arrived to take up his post, and it was the third time since November that a violent incident had occurred as an international figure visited.

The purpose, one senior UN official said, was clearly to force the question of Kosovo's final status to the top of the agenda. The options are clear: independence for an Albanian-dominated Kosovo, some form of loose union with Serbia, splitting off the Serbian enclaves into either Serbia proper or an autonomous part of Kosovo, or continued international stewardship of Kosovo. The problem is that none of these solutions will satisfy everyone, and any redrawing of existing borders could set off a move to change borders elsewhere in the Balkans.

"I know what's impossible; what's possible, I don't know," Shkelzen Maliqi, director of the Center for Humanistic Studies said as he contemplated a strong cup of espresso in a cafe in Pristina. "It is impossible to push Kosovo back into Serbia. Everything else is possible." The United Nations argues that before Kosovo's final status is determined, the public, both Serbs and Albanians, must show itself capable of governing a peaceful, law-abiding, multiethnic country. Standards before status is the catch phrase.

Kosovo's prime minister, Bajram Rexhepi, says that simply will not work. He wants independence. The people, he says, will give up on the government and turn to extremists if they do not see a reasonably quick fix to their dire poverty and soaring unemployment. "We could expect a social explosion if there is no economic hope," Rexhepi said in an interview. "No one can continue with the status quo. The only real option is independence." At the root of the problem, Rexhepi said, is the failure of the United Nations-supervised police force to solve any of the major crimes of ethnic violence and the United Nations not allowing Kosovo to take the next step toward self-rule.

With Serbia expecting parliamentary elections next year, the Gorazdevac incident and others are fueling the claims of Serbia for greater control over the enclaves. Earlier this week, Serbia persuaded the UN Security Council to discuss the return of Serbian troops to the enclaves. The question was diplomatically sidestepped. The United Nations is already cutting its presence, as is the international military force, with its American contingent. But Rexhepi said that might just bring more fighting.

"The exit strategy is not enough, without final status," he said. "We need the presence of NATO troops and the European Union. Not in big numbers, but they may have to stay a long time in Kosovo, like 10 or 20 years." In fact, the United Nations has had some success bringing Serbs back to Kosovo. In July, members of 25 Serbian families returned to the town of Belo Polje to begin rebuilding their homes. But the Gorazdevac shooting and an attack by local Albanians on Gorazdevac Serbs who were taking wounded child to the hospital in Pec have left these Serbs ready to pack their bags, said Alistair Livingston, who is working with returnees for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Inside Gorazdevac, the 1,000 or so local Serbs live by the rhythm of the sun and the seasons, guarded by Italian soldiers and the Kosovo police. They venture into Pec only under armed guard. There are few shops and little money in Gorazdevac, where residents live by farming small plots and receiving subsidies from the Serbian government in Belgrade. Many are afraid to venture across the Bystrica to fields they once tilled, and life is dull. In Serbia proper, where unemployment is over 40 percent and the country is still reeling from a decade of Balkan war, no one wants the Kosovo Serbs.

Click here to access the Kosovo Role Play prepared by the Public International Law and Policy Group.

Liberia

U.S. senator calls Liberia a security interest; women plea for peacekeeper deployment

Chanting "No more war," Liberian women marched by the hundreds on the U.S. Embassy and West African peace force headquarters Thursday, appealing for quicker deployment into the nation's unsettled and starving countryside. Visiting Liberia, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services committee for the first time called a stable Liberia in the security interests of the United States - suggesting that terrorists could use failed African states such as Liberia as bases.

Sen. John Warner, who has repeatedly expressed doubts about U.S. military involvement in this American-founded country, said it too soon to decide on a U.N. request that American forces stay on to train a new national army for Liberia. However, "there is no cut-and-run in this operation," Warner, in flak jacket, helmet, and surrounded by U.S. Marines, promised. He spoke in a partially looted World Food Program warehouse in Monrovia's port, heavily fought over in 2 1/2 months of rebel sieges on the capital.

Warner's visit was the first by a senior U.S. official since an Aug. 18 peace deal here. The trip comes as concerns rise over the month-old West African peace mission's slowness in spreading into the interior, and as West African and U.N. diplomats urge the U.S. military to stay involved in peacekeeping efforts. While calm holds in the capital, refugees continue to stream from the north by the thousands. Many of them holding emaciated babies, refugees spoke Wednesday of nightly explosions and gunfire around cut-off north-central towns despite the peace accord.

About 1,500 West African peacekeepers, most from Nigeria, have landed. Peace force leaders say they are waiting for contingents from Mali, Senegal and Ghana before they can deploy in numbers outside the capital. Surrounding an armored personnel carrier at the high-walled West African force's compound, scores of women waved rain-wilted signs whose slogans urged, "Total peace, not half peace," "War everyday" and "Our sisters in Liberia are dying."

"We're asking them to speedily deploy to the countryside to stop the killing of our people in the bushes," said Leymah Gbowoe, 31, a march organizer. In driving rain, the march grew to 250-strong as it moved to the U.S. Embassy. The women presented an embassy deputy with an appeal for America to use its considerable influence here to speed the West African deployment. "We want peace like U.S.A.," the women sang, dressed in African print cloth and white T-shirts to symbolize peace. "We're the same people as you," they sang. "We're the same nation as you."

Watching, U.S. Marine Maj. Billy McGowan said, "I think this is a good thing. This shows Liberians are willing to go the extra mile for peace. They don't just want others to do it for them," said McGowan, of Land O Lakes, Florida, and one of a 30-member U.S. military liasion team for the West African peacekeepers. The United States pulled its only fighting force for the mission, a 150-member rapid-reaction team, back to warships off Liberia on Sunday after 11 days. U.S. President George W. Bush, pressured by African, European and U.N. leaders to intervene here, has said any U.S. role in Liberia would be limited and end by Oct. 1. A U.N. force is due to take over from the West African-led mission in months.

U.N. envoy Jacques Klein has asked the Americans to take charge of remaking Liberia's rag-tag, looting- and rape-prone armed forces. Klein insisted Liberia, which provided at the time-vital strategic aid to the United States in World War II and the Cold War, was owed U.S. help. Warner had repeatedly expressed skepticism whether the United States has proven any current vital strategic interest in Liberia - and said Washington should not commit troops until it does.

On Thursday, he conceded pariah states such as Liberia under Taylor were a concern. "Basically we ask ourselves, is this in the vital interest of the United States, by putting our forces in harm's way?" he asked. "I come back again to the worldwide fight on terrorism, that fact that if areas in Africa such as this are subject to prolonged turmoil, and if they cannot control their territorial sovereignty, they can become potential havens for those who wish to reach out from this land to other nations and direct their harmful intentions," Warner said.

"I carefully didn't use the word 'vital' - but it seems to me that it's in the security interest of our country," he said. Some security officials have contended that al-Qaida and other violent Islamic groups have trafficked West African diamonds in Taylor's Liberia as a way to launder funds. Authorities say no such link has been conclusively shown. Warner came by helicopter off a three-ship battle group off Monrovia. He stressed that the U.S. Marine rapid reaction force likewise remained a 20-minute helicopter ride away if needed as back-up for West African forces. Any decision on American training of Liberian forces should wait until a transitional Liberian government is in place, he said.

Taylor, a warlord who launched Liberia into 14 years of conflict in 1989, turned power over to Vice President Moses Blah when he took up a Nigerian offer of asylum. Blah is due to cede control to an independent transitional government in October, leading the way to elections in 2005.

Tens of thousands of war-weary Liberians gave Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo a warm welcome Monday as the key mediator who paved the way for the ouster of strongman Charles Taylor visited Liberia. Cheering residents chanted "We want peace, no more war" as Obasanjo and Liberian President Moses Blah's motorcade drove through Monrovia en route from the airport. The Nigerian leader delighted locals when he got out of his car three times to greet the masses of people who had turned out to catch a glimpse of him.

"This is my first time in 25 years to see a foreign head of state walking the streets of Monrovia," said one jubilant elderly man.

"A president is not a bogey man as Charles Taylor made himself to appear," added another, referring to the former Liberian leader who left the country three weeks ago to make way for a transitional government, aimed at ending nearly a decade and a half of war.

Blah later hosted a luncheon at the presidential mansion, during which the Liberian government bestowed upon the Nigerian leader the title "Paramount Chief of Liberia". Blah described his Nigerian counterpart as "the true saviour of Liberia," hailing the positive role he played in pushing the Liberian peace process forward. Obasanjo, who convinced Taylor to step down and go into exile in Nigeria, was also instrumental in getting his west African partners from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to send a peacekeeping force to Liberia.

"President Obasanjo has proven himself to be a saviour of the Liberian people," Blah said to loud applause, alongside UN Special Representative to Liberia Jack Cline, US Ambassador John Blaney and other foreign diplomats and government officials. Blah, Taylor's former deputy and interim president until next month, thanked ECOWAS and the Nigerian government for sending the peacekeepers to Liberia, and urged all parties to the conflict to welcome the soldiers.

He reiterated his resolve not to stay to go down into history as a peace maker saying he will not stay "one day in power after October 14". Obasanjo, who also went to Liberia on his one-day visit to assess the situation of the Nigerian peacekeeping contingent -- some 1,500 mainly Nigerian soldiers are already on the ground -- said the country still had a difficult road ahead before a lasting peace could be established.

The 3,200-strong ECOMIL force is tasked with trying to maintain peace in Liberia as an interim government prepares to assume authority next month under a ceasefire accord signed in Accra between the govenrment and rebels. Obasanjo reminded the Liberian parties -- the two rebel forces known as LURD and MODEL and government forces -- that ECOWAS had done their best to push the peace process thus far, noting that without the "right attitude ECOWAS' work would go in vain."

"We still have a long way to go. We had a comprehensive and general peace agreement which is expected to be observed by all signatories.” Not all signatories however seem to be observing the agreement. That is not good enough. We have to ensure that the agreement is observed and kept in its totality," Obasanjo noted. Despite the peace accord last month, fighting has continued in some parts of the country, adding to an already dire humanitarian situation which has displaced nearly half a million people, many of whom still face acute shortages of food, water and medicine.

Obasanjo called upon the international community to contribute to the peacekeeping force as it was the only way to establish a long-term ceasefire and moves towards democracy. However "peace alone is not enough. There must be economic and social programs that will ensure that peace becomes enduring and sustained. If there is no peace in Liberia, there will be no peace in West Africa, if there is no peace in West Africa, there wil be no peace in Africa, and if there is no peace in Africa, there be no peace in the world. It's that simple."

Macedonia

Macedonian police units Wednesday released two officers who were kidnapped by an ethnic Albanian rebel commander in northern Macedonia, near the border with the UN-run Serbian province of Kosovo, a spokeswoman said. Interior ministry spokeswoman Mirjana Konteska said no one was injured during the police action, while the two officers were released without problems. "The operation continues to arrest the kidnapper," Konteska said.

Two officers, one ethnic Albanian and one Macedonian, who had been off-duty, were kidnapped by rebel leader Avdil Jakupi, near northern town Kumanovo, some 40 kilometers (24 miles) north from the capital Skopje. Jakupi demanded the release of another ethnic Albanian, currently detained pending trial for setting off an explosive in Kumanovo high school last year, which killed one person and injured several others, the police said in a statement.

Former commander of the ethnic Albanian rebels fighting the government forces in 2001, Jakupi, known by his nom-de-guerre Cakala, is reportedly one of the leaders of an ethnic Albanian extremist group, the Albanian National Army (ANA) that operates in Kosovo and Macedonia. The little-known ANA, which has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks in Kosovo, southern Serbia and Macedonia, has been declared a "terrorist organisation" by the UN mission in Kosovo. Two years after the signing of a peace pact, tensions persist between the Macedonian authorities and ethnic Albanians, who staged a seven-month uprising in 2001 to press for civil and political rights.

Macedonian authorities say they will not withdraw troops encircling a northern village until they capture a fugitive rebel leader - ignoring demands by a shadowy ethnic Albanian militant group to end the siege. Hundreds of ethnic Albanian villagers have fled from their homes in Vaksince since the operation began Sunday, fearing clashes similar to those that shook the tiny Balkan nation in 2001.

The clashes between government forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents ended in a Western-brokered peace plan, but tensions persist. Troops and police have used helicopters, trucks and roadblocks to surround Vaksince, about 10 miles northeast of the capital, Skopje. "There will be no negotiations, no consideration of any demands or ultimatums with the self-styled rebel commanders," said Saso Colakovski, Macedonia's government spokesman. "The government is determined to carry on without any compromise in a struggle to isolate these criminals."

Macedonian forces have massed troops around Vaksince in the search for Albanian militant, Avdil Jakupi. It was not clear if Jakupi was in the area, but reporters visiting Vaksince on Monday saw armed men in the almost empty village. Jakupi is believed to be a leader of the self-styled Albanian National Army, or ANA, which has taken responsibility for several armed attacks in Macedonia since the peace agreement took force.

Fears of clashes have risen in recent weeks, following grenade attacks on government buildings in Skopje. Late Monday, ANA issued an ultimatum to the Macedonian police forces to withdraw from around Vaksince. In statement posted on its Web site, ANA gave a 24-hour ultimatum, expiring Tuesday afternoon, to Macedonian troops to pull out or its members would "use any means available to accomplish a patriotic duty."

The group said in a fresh statement Tuesday that its forces were on standby for the "liberation of (ethnic Albanians) ... and unification of ethnic Albanian lands in a single state." International officials in Macedonia, meanwhile, searched for a solution to defuse the standoff. Ethnic Albanian parliament members and deputies from the northern Kumanovo region, where Vaksince is located, agreed to accompany representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to Vaksince to negotiate an end to the standoff.

Morocco

Still reeling from the suicide bomb attacks that hit Casablanca last May, Morocco could have done without the diplomatic setback it recently suffered at the United Nations over the Western Sahara issue. Western Sahara is a small, thinly populated territory with rich fishing, phosphate and possibly oil resources. Since 1976 the future of the former Spanish colony has been disputed by Morocco, the occupying power, and the pro-independence Polisario Front, which has taken refuge in Algeria.

Morocco has made the "recovery" of its "southern provinces" a sacred national cause. It is something to which all Moroccan political parties subscribe. It monopolises foreign policy and is a financial burden on the state. Anyone in Rabat who questions Western Sahara's "Moroccanness" is liable to end up in prison.

For decades the UN has striven to find a solution to this conflict. The Maghreb countries have everything to gain from a negotiated settlement, which would help achieve a rapprochement between Morocco and Algeria, and at the same time give life to the Arab Maghreb Union.

A referendum on self-rule would be the most natural way of deciding on the future of the territory. The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso), which consists of 500 soldiers and civilians, has been working for years on its practical implementation.

But its efforts have so far been in vain because the two main players have failed to agree on who should be allowed to vote on whether the territory should be integrated with Morocco or become an independent state. It is not easy to define who is a Sahrawi and who is not in a society largely made up of nomads with a mainly oral culture. The issue is further complicated by the question of Moroccan civilians who have settled in the territory with Rabat's encouragement, and whose numbers are difficult to determine. Should they take part in the referendum or not?

Since fighting between Morocco and the Polisario Front ended 12 years ago, there has been a series of unsuccessful UN plans. Cold-shouldered by leading world nations, but recognised by several dozen third-world states, the Democratic Saharan Arab Republic (DSAR) is trying to broaden its international support, while Morocco is playing for time.

The losers in this tug-of-war are the Sahrawis. Those who have taken refuge in Algeria live off international charity in makeshift camps, while those who have stayed at home can do nothing to stem their gradual population decline. The UN continues to finance the Minurso, whose usefulness is beginning to be questioned. It has so far swallowed up some Dollars 500m.

The logjam may have been removed by the announcement of a new peace plan devised by UN secre tary general Kofi Annan's special envoy in the region, James Baker, a former US secretary of state. Baker's plan is not all that different from earlier versions. It proposes to set up a semi-autonomous regime within Morocco for a transitional period of four to five years, after which a referendum will be organised. The territory's inhabitants will have to choose between independence, integration with Morocco or the continuation of a semi-autonomous regime.

During the transition an administrative body, the Western Sahara Authority (WSA), with an elected president and parliament, will take control of the territory.

To get round the problem of who is entitled to vote, the plan proposes a radical and original solution whereby any Sahrawi or Moroccan over 18 and living in the territory since the end of 1999, or those entered on lists already established by the UN, will be entitled to vote.

This broadening of the electoral base is undoubtedly in line with Moroccan demands. Yet, to everyone's surprise, the Polisario Front and its Algerian ally supported the UN plan, while Rabat rejected it. As a result, Rabat's position seems to have been weakened at the UN, where the Baker plan enjoys widespread support. This was evident from a unanimous security council resolution in July on the renewal of the Minurso's mandate.

The resolution stated that the council "supported" the Baker plan, which it described as "the optimum political solution", and went on to call on both parties to work "with each other towards acceptance . . . of the peace plan".

Admittedly, the initial version presented by the US was more radical in that it suggested that the Baker plan should be "endorsed". A French threat not to vote in favour of the resolution enabled Rabat to avoid the worst. But the fact remains that Morocco is seen to be the party whose intransigence is blocking any settlement of the Western Sahara problem. If it wishes to end its present isolation, Rabat will now have to come up with counter-proposals.

Somalia

A UN-appointed independent expert on human rights for Somalia has said the more attention given to human rights at the Somali peace talks in Kenya, the greater the scope for peace. Dr Ghanim Alnajjar arrived in the region this week on an 11-day mission. It is his third visit since his appointment by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in June 2001, according to a press statement from the UN Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator's Office for Somalia.

"Right now a lot depends on the peace process," Alnajjar said the statement. "The more human rights are considered at the talks, the higher the chance of peace. It is an opportunity for Somalis to show their commitment to human rights." He went on to note, however, that the current state of human rights in the country was "not promising". "Northwest Somalia [Somaliland] and northeast Somalia [Puntland] had shown improvement last year, but [the issue of] human rights in Somalia is complicated as some regions improve one year while others deteriorate," he said.

During his visit, Alnajjar is due to meet diplomats, local authorities, civil society representatives and international organisations in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and in various regions of Somalia. He will look into a variety of human rights issues "including the state of the judicial system, law enforcement and prison conditions, the challenges of demobilisation and child soldiers, economic and social rights, the status of women, human rights education, difficulties faced by tens of thousands of internally displaced persons, and related matters", the statement said.

Sri Lanka

Ethnic Tamil teachers in Sri Lanka's northeast will go on strike unless the army vacates school buildings that have been occupied during a protracted civil war, their labor union said Monday. The army has taken over many schools, government offices, civilian centers and even Tamil homes. It is one of the sensitive issues that has clouded attempts to reach a peace deal between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels. The two sides signed a cease-fire agreement in February 2002, and are now trying to find a political solution to end the conflict that has killed 65,000 people and displaced 800,000 Tamils during the past two decades. The Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union said it has given the government a mandatory one-month notice of their strike plan. They want the troops out of the schools by Oct. 1.

The union also wants the government to fill the vacant posts of 5,000 Tamil teachers in the northeast. During the civil war, education suffered in the region, home to most of Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamil minority. The teachers' strike threat follows a decision by some Tamil civilians to go to Sri Lanka's highest court to get the army to leave their homes. The government says it will have to keep 40,000 troops in the northern Jaffna Peninsula until the peace process is complete.

The rebels started their campaign to create a separate state for minority Tamils in 1983, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination. The Norwegian-brokered 2002 truce paved the way for peace talks, in which the Tigers agreed to settle for autonomy. But the rebels withdrew from the talks in April, accusing the government of not doing enough to help those displaced by the conflict.

Sudan

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Sudanese Organization against Torture, a member of the OMCT network, of the arbitrary detention and alleged ill-treatment and torture of twenty-five Sudanese men suspected of supporting the Sudan Liberation Army in Western Darfour, Sudan.

According to the information received, from August 5th to August 19th, 2003, twenty-five Sudanese men from the Four tribe were arrested without official charge, under suspicion of supporting the Sudan Liberation Army in Darfour. In early August, Abaker Ismaeal Adam, Alsadig Sideag, Ismaeal Mohamed Abdella, and Soulieman Adam Musa were arrested in the town of Mokjar, detained incommunicado, and then transferred to the security office in Nyala on August 5th. Three men from Zalingy, Abu Baker Tambour, Hayder Tambour, and Ahmed Mandy, were similarly arrested and transferred on August 19th to the Nyala security office.

On August 19th, the security committee in Kass Province of Western Sudan issued an emergency code to arrest and detain eighteen others for three months, who have now been detained in Nyala prison since August 14th without any official legal charges. These men are Alhaj Tyrab Mahmoud, Abaker Adam Mohamed Sho, Moubarek Yagoub Salih, Ishag Izel Dean, Ibraheam Musa Abdel Majead, Ammar Alnemairy, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Shabab, Hashim Mohamed Abu Albasher, Mohamed Adam Tor, Easa Mohamed Abdel Bary, Abdel Aziz Ahmed Musa, Yaya Abdel Jaleal, Alhady Ishag Abdel Kaream, Abu Algasim Ahmed Abdel Bagy Tilib, Nour Aldean Jibril Abdel Mawla, Ismaeal Mohamed Haroun, Mohamed Easa Boukhary, Tijany Abdella Mahmoud.

The detainees have been forbidden to bring personal effects into the prison, including food or bed-covers, despite the fact that they are not provided with many of these basic needs within the prison. The prisoners are reportedly kept in unsanitary conditions with little to eat, and are refused visitors from outside the prison, giving rise to fears that they may again be subjected to torture during detention. The detainees have all reportedly already been subjected to torture and five of them are seriously injured, but have not had access to appropriate medical assistance.

The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of the persons who are being detained given the reported ill-treatment and torture to which they have been subjected by the security forces in Nyala. OMCT calls on the authorities to guarantee the personal integrity of the prisoners, including the immediate access to appropriate medical assistance as required, and to release all persons who have been arrested in the absence of legal charges that are consistent with international law and standards. OMCT is gravely concerned about the Darfour Special Forces' use of arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, ill- treatment and torture. OMCT therefore calls upon the authorities to launch an immediate and impartial investigation into these events, in order to identify those responsible, bring them to justice and award adequate reparation to the victims.

Peace Negotiations Watch is prepared by the