PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH

Volume II, Number 16

(Monday, April 21, 2003)

Contents:

Armenia/Azerbaijan      Armenian government to pay compensation for land turned into mine fields

Land heavily mined during conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian minister calls on Azeris to show "political leadership" as BSEC chair

Azerbaijan asked not to discuss contentious issue of Nagorno-Karabakh in economic cooperation group.

Burundi                        President, Vice-President Meet to Choose Next Vice-President

Session, first step in process of selection, lasts ten minutes.

Chechnya                     Putin's rights representative for Chechnya promises commission to investigate crimes against civilians

Representative denounces claim by Human Rights Watch that 1,123 civilians were killed in the region last year.

Congo                          Chaos in Congo Suits Many Parties Just Fine

Op-ed discusses history and possible beneficiaries of war in Congo.

Georgia/Abkhazia         Georgia rejects Abkhaz reasons for boycotting joint security forum

Abkhaz demand a settlement regarding the Kodori gorge, claiming that Georgia maintains troops there.

Breakaway authorities in Georgia deny that main airport is being repaired

Airport used for operations by UN military observers’ helicopters.

Members of mine-clearing organization robbed in Abkhazia

$95,000 reportedly stolen.

Indonesia                      War or peace, Indonesians stand at crossroads in Aceh

At least 35 people have been killed in nine days in Aceh.

Indonesian soldier stabbed to death in Aceh market

Soldier patrolling market stabbed in head. GAM and government have agreed to meet in Tokyo to discuss the peace agreement.

Ivory Coast                  Ivory Coast rebels accuse army of continuing helicopter-gunship attacks

Attacks come despite rebel leaders taking office as government representatives in Abidjan.

Ivory Coast govt troops say attacked by rebels in west

Attacks carried out by at least 1,500 rebels.

Kashmir                       Indian premier's Kashmir tour brings relief to many, frowns to some

Kashmiri population has mixed emotions about premier’s visit.

Macedonia                   Macedonian PM's party attacks idea of territorial exchanges, greater Albania

Prime Minister feels move would harm Macedonia and hurt its economic stability.

Philippines                    Philippines Mulls Peace With Moro Rebels, Four More Held in Davao Wharf Bombing

President Arroyo looks for peace, despite violence.

Serbia & Montenegro   IMF, World Bank gives Belgrade nearly 150 million dollar credit

Money to be used to privatize state-owned institutions.

A Marriage of Inconvenience: Montenegro 2003

New International Crisis Group report suggests that holding Serbia and Montenegro together at all costs may not be the best solution.

Somalia                        Deputy Premier Opposed to Idea of Holding Parallel Peace Talks

Some delegates to talks in Kenya return to Mogadishu for consultations with the president.

Transitional Government Welcomes Somaliland Presidential Elections

United Democratic Party declared winner in election.

Spain                            ETA militants reject Basque autonomy plan

ETA still demands full independence for Basque region, despite efforts made by moderate Basque official with Madrid.

Sri Lanka                     Peacemaker for Sri Lanka

Japan expects to play a large role in the resolution of the conflict in Sri Lanka.

Sudan                           Sudan likely to escape US sanctions due to peace progress: senior official

President Bush expected not to levy sanctions on Sudan under the Sudan Peace Act.

Sudan foes end peace talk round without agreeing on security issue

Fourth round of peace talks end. Fifth round to begin May 2.

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.

Armenian government to pay compensation for land turned into mine fields

Associated Press, 4/18/03

The Armenian government agreed Friday to pay compensation to local communities for land that was heavily mined during the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The government will pay around 18 million dram (about US$30,000) to regional governments in the Gegarkunik, Tavush and Syunik regions, said Kamo Areian, Armenia's deputy minister for territorial administration. He said that 31,000 hectares (76,601 acres) of land were so heavily mined that they remain useless today, affecting about 49 communities in this former Soviet republic. Most of the land is located in the Tavush region, about 230 kilometers (143 miles) west of the capital Yerevan.

Azerbaijan and forces backed by Armenia fought a 1988-94 war over Nagorno-Karabakh, a largely ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan. More than 30,000 people were killed and a million driven from their homes during the conflict. The Armenian-backed forces won control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Despite a cease-fire, the two countries continue to face off across a heavily fortified no man's land, and shooting occasionally erupts.

Armenian minister calls on Azeris to show "political leadership" as BSEC chair

Ayastani Anrapetutyun, (Yerevan), via BBC, 4/19/03

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadquliyev has told a news conference in Yerevan that Azerbaijani-Armenian economic cooperation can only resume when Armenia changes its position on Karabakh. His Armenian counterpart Vardan Oskanyan in turn called on Azerbaijan, as next chair of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC), to refrain from "steps which run counter to the principles of this organization", to demonstrate political leadership and not to raise obstacles against Armenia. The following is an excerpt from a report by Tsovinar Nazaryan, "'Everything depends on Armenia's position'" says Azerbaijani foreign minister", published by Armenian newspaper Ayastani Anrapetutyun on 19 April:

On 16 April the meeting of the BSEC Council ended in Yerevan. Azerbaijan became chairman of the organization at the Yerevan meeting. After the meeting a news conference by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers and Georgia's BSEC executive secretary was organized at the Armenia Hotel, and naturally Armenian journalists could not miss the opportunity to ask Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadquliyev questions.

Asked about the prospects for initiating Armenian-Azerbaijani economic cooperation, Mammadquliyev gave the official answer adopted by the Azerbaijani party, that as long as the Azerbaijani territories are "occupied", this was impermissible. On the other hand, he expressed readiness to cooperate with Armenia in the multilateral (but not bilateral) international arena, to participate in civil initiatives and other programmes which, he says, are "beneficial" for Armenia as well as for Azerbaijan.

Here Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan expressed the wish that, within the framework of the BSEC, our country's cooperation with Azerbaijan and Turkey "could be more extensive and deeper, as these multilateral relations provide the political roof under which it will be possible to take the first steps in our cooperation."

Asked if there will be any movement on the matter of the Karabakh issue settlement after this year's elections, the Azerbaijani foreign minister replied: "Our position is that everything depends on Armenia's position. We think that the conflict should be regulated on the basis of the main principles and norms of international law, and first of all, on the principle of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. If Armenia also has such a will, I think we can expect progress."

According to Mr Mammadquliyev the last ten years have demonstrated that Heydar Aliyev is the guarantor of Azerbaijan's domestic stability and peace. He did not miss the opportunity to outline his country's achievements during the past ten years, pointing to at 10-per-cent annual economic growth. The journalists here interjected that Armenia has a 12-per-cent growth rate.

Vardan Oskanyan was obliged to recall that the BSEC was the theme of the news conference. We tried to get clarification from Mammadquliyev, as the official representative of the country which has taken up the chairmanship of the BSEC, what sort of activity favourable to Armenia will be undertaken, in particular in the sphere of transport and communications, but everything was again linked to Armenia's position.

The Armenian foreign minister mentioned that the format of multilateral relations provides an opportunity for the two countries to be above politics, to enter the sphere of bilateral relations and cooperation, thus facilitating the settlement of serious political problems. He called on Azerbaijan, as the chair country, to remain devoted to all the principles of the BSEC, which "by its very name foresees cooperation especially in the economic sphere". Vardan Oskanyan also called on Azerbaijan "as the chairing country, not to take steps which run counter to the principles of this organization, to demonstrate political leadership, and at least with small steps to join regional cooperation, raising no obstacles against Armenia or any other country.

President, Vice-President Meet to Choose Next Vice-President

ABP News Agency (Bujumbura), via BBC, 4/16/03

The president of the republic, Pierre Buyoya, the vice-president Domitien Ndayizeye and bureaus of the two parliament chambers (National Assembly and Senate) met on Friday 18 Apr evening in a session aimed at pre-selecting candidates for the post of vice-president of the second phase of transition in conformity with article 99 of the constitution and two days after the failure by the G10 Group of 10 pro-Tutsi parties to reach a consensus on the candidate.

At the end of the session which lasted 10 minutes, the rapporteur who is also the minister for institutional reforms and relations with the parliament, Mr Alphonse Barancira, told journalists that the group had acknowledged two Curriculum Vitae (CV) from the Uprona (Union for National Progress) candidate and Abasa (Burundi-African Salvation Alliance). The same group is due to meet on Monday to chose and designate the vice-president...

Putin's rights representative for Chechnya promises commission to investigate crimes against civilians,  Yuri Bagrov, Associated Press, 4/15/03

President Vladimir Putin's envoy for human rights in Chechnya denounced reports of widespread killings of civilians and promised Tuesday that a commission to investigate crimes committed by Russian servicemen and rebel fighters will be established after the region elects a president. Abdul-Khakim Sultygov described reports from human rights groups and Western media about mass killings in Chechnya as part of a "planned action" aimed to justify efforts among some Europeans to establish an international tribunal for Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported.

He spoke a day after Human Rights Watch said leaked statistics from Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration showed that 1,123 civilians were killed in the region last year, a murder rate at least 10 times higher than in Moscow. Human Rights Watch said another report showed 70 people were killed and 124 civilians disappeared in the first two months of this year. Sultygov denied the existence of such government reports and denounced Human Rights Watch. "Rather than a human rights organization, it is an extremist organization spreading totalitarian notions about Europe's democratic values," Interfax quoted him as saying.

Officials in Russia and Chechnya's administration have sharply criticized a call by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights body, for an international war crimes tribunal for Chechnya, saying Russia can prosecute the crimes. Sultygov said a commission to investigation crimes by rebels and Russian servicemen will be set up after a president is elected. "I am confident that the creation of this commission will be the first priority of the republic's president," he said.

In a March 23 referendum, voters in Chechnya approved a new constitution that solidifies the region's status as part of Russia and legislation setting the stage for presidential and parliamentary elections. No date for the votes has been set, but officials have raised the possibility of holding them alongside Russian elections in the coming year. Russian and Chechen officials have called the referendum a step toward peace and stabilization, but fighting and violence against civilians persist.  Over the previous 24 hours, 11 Russian servicemen were killed and 16 others wounded in rebel attacks, firefights and mine explosions, an official in the Moscow-backed administration said Tuesday on condition of anonymity. The official said Russian forces shelled suspected rebel positions in southern Chechnya and detained at least 150 people in search operations.

Federal forces pulled out of Chechnya in 1996 after a disastrous two-year war that left the separatists in charge of the mostly Muslim region in southern Russia, but returned in 1999 after rebel attacks in neighboring Dagestan and apartment-building bombings in Russian cities that the Kremlin blamed on rebels.

Despite Sultygov's angry comments, an official in Chechnya's government said Tuesday that thousands of civilians have gone missing in Chechnya, and a Russian prosecutor acknowledged that disappearances persist amid an overall drop in murders and other serious crimes in the region. "Unfortunately, people continue to go missing in large numbers. Some of them have been abducted by rebels," Interfax quoted Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky as saying. Rights groups say Russian troops are responsible for most of the disappearances. Movsur Khamidov, a deputy Chechen prime minister overseeing security agencies looking for missing people, estimated that more than 2,500 people have gone missing during the two wars, including 1,500 since the current war began in 1999, Interfax reported.

Chaos in Congo Suits Many Parties Just Fine

Adam Hochschild, The New York Times, 4/20/03

As in the Sherlock Holmes story about the dog that didn't bark in the night, sometimes silence says more than words. About one of the great tragedies of today's world, the silence is telling indeed. In Congo, according to an International Rescue Committee report released earlier this month, at least 3.3 million people have lost their lives in four and a half years of civil war. They have perished in combat, in massacres of civilians (the most recent occurred on April 3) and, most of all, in the disease and famine that strike when millions of desperately poor people are forced to flee their homes. This number does not include the estimated 2.8 million Congolese who have H.I.V. or AIDS, some of it spread through mass rapes by marauding bands of soldiers. Nor does it encompass the misery of having to live for years in refugee camps that turn into fields of mud during the rainy season. The war has been marked by a series of ineffective peace agreements among three major factions, one of them the national government in Kinshasa, and several smaller groups. And a token force of United Nations observers is now on the scene. But Congo's separation into rival segments continues, and last week one faction boycotted talks that are supposed to form a power-sharing government. Few Americans, however, seem to care about stopping a conflict with a death toll larger than any since World War II. Why?

American interest in Africa is erratic, but there is a larger reason that few countries have put much effort into ending this war. Simply, Congo's current situation -- Balkanized, occupied by rival armies, with no functioning central government -- suits many people just fine. Some are heads of Congo's warring factions, some are political and military leaders of neighboring countries, and some are corporations dependent on the country's resources. The combination is deadly.

To begin with, the warlords of most of Congo's factions are happy to divide up its vast treasure of mineral wealth while spending little on public services. The few schools open are mainly run by the Roman Catholic Church. The continuing turmoil also suits the various countries nearby, above all Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, whose troops have long propped up one or another side in the conflict. In return, they have received a stream of timber, gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt and columbium-tantalum, or coltan, a valuable mineral used in cellphones, computers and many other electronic devices. At its peak price a few years ago, coltan was selling for $350 a pound. Such riches have made the war self-supporting, with profits to spare. Despairing Congolese say they would be better off if they were not so rich.

Finally, the Balkanization and war suit the amazing variety of corporations -- large and small, American, African and European -- that profit from the river of mineral wealth without having to worry about high taxes, and that prefer a cash-in-suitcases economy to a highly regulated one. An exhaustive report to the United Nations Security Council last year detailed the dozens of companies now making money from Congo's conflict, based everywhere from Ohio to Johannesburg to Antwerp to Kazakhstan. As a result, neither the United States nor any other nation now seems to have much interest in seeing a strong Congolese central government keep profits from the country's patrimony -- the word the White House uses about Iraq's oil -- mostly at home. When Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first and last democratically chosen leader, threatened to do just that after taking office in 1960, the Eisenhower administration secretly sought his overthrow and assassination. Emboldened, Congolese and Belgians then carried out the job.

Congo's current disorder grows directly out of a long, unhappy history. Ethnic groups speaking more than 200 different languages live in the territory. For centuries, it served as raiding grounds for the Atlantic slave trade and the equally deadly slave trade from the east coast of Africa to the Islamic world. When the colonial era began, the land became the privately owned colony of King Leopold II of Belgium. His army turned much of the male population into forced laborers, working many to death. First the laborers gathered ivory -- Joseph Conrad gave an unforgettable image of this in "Heart of Darkness" -- and then a still more lucrative crop, wild rubber. During Leopold's rule and its immediate aftermath, the territory's population was slashed roughly in half. Belgian state colonialism followed; it was less brutal and more orderly, but still the profits flowed overseas. In 1965, five years after independence, Joseph Mobutu seized power in a military coup, encouraged by Washington. He renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko and his country Zaire, and ruled as a dictator for 32 years, receiving more than $1 billion in American aid and repeatedly being welcomed at the White House. Meanwhile he looted the national treasury of an estimated $4 billion. Small wonder that his ravaged country has been having a hard time ever since. It has not helped that in the 1990's the United States supplied more than $100 million in arms and military training to six of the seven African countries that have been involved in the fighting of the Congo war.

Even in a magical world where great powers always had good intentions, no outside intervention -- whether by American, European, African or United Nations forces -- would be likely to solve Congo's problems. "Nation building" by outsiders is inherently arrogant and risky, and there are few success stories. More than 28,000 NATO-led troops are currently keeping the peace in Kosovo; Congo's population is more than 25 times as large as Kosovo's, and its land area more than 200 times bigger.

THERE are other problems as well. In Africa, loyalty to the extended clan or ethnic group is often far stronger than to the nation-state. These divisions have allowed Congo's plunderers to profit so much for so long. In the immediate future, factional leaders, generals and politicians from surrounding countries, and various Western companies are likely to continue making money. What hope is there for an end to Congo's misery? The United States made one surprising step forward earlier this month when Congress approved American participation in an international agreement not to trade in "conflict diamonds" -- the gems coming from anarchic, war-torn areas like Congo. More than 50 other countries have already signed on. The pact will be hard to enforce -- but so was the ban on the Atlantic slave trade in its early years. And if conflict diamonds can be made taboo, why not conflict gold or conflict coltan?

Georgia rejects Abkhaz reasons for boycotting joint security forum

Interfax-AVN Military News Agency (Moscow), via BBC, 4/16/03

Tbilisi, 16 April: There are no regular units of the Georgian armed forces in the Kodori gorge, the only Abkhaz region controlled by Georgia after the armed conflict of 1992-1993, Georgian Deputy Defence Minister Gela Bezhuashvili told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday 16 April. "If needed, sappers of the Defence Ministry are temporarily sent to the gorge for mine-clearance operations, but no servicemen of the ministry are stationed there permanently," Bezhuashvili said. "There are border guards and local militia in the Kodori gorge, but this does not contravene any agreements," he noted.

Bezhuashvili qualified as "strange" the statement made by the Abkhaz Defence Ministry on Tuesday. The statement says that Abkhaz officials are not going to join the first working group on security in the framework of the UN Coordination Council until a comprehensive settlement is reached in the gorge. According to Abkhazia, the Georgian authorities are keeping an army grouping in the upper part of the Kodori gorge, regardless of all commitments. Abkhazia says that negotiations can be resumed only after stabilization in the gorge, primarily after the withdrawal of all Georgian armed units.

Breakaway authorities in Georgia deny that main airport is being repaired

Interfax-AVN Military News Agency (Moscow), via BBC, 4/16/03

Sukhumi, 16 April: The Abkhaz authorities on Wednesday 16 April denied reports that they are repairing Sukhumi airport, that has been out of action since the Georgian-Abkhaz armed conflict of 1992-1993. "The airport is being used only by UN military observers, who have three helicopters for patrolling the Kodori gorge," Abkhaz presidential aide Astamur Tania told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday. According to him, "due to international legal problems with the status of Abkhazia, restoration of air communications with Sukhumi is out of the question at the moment."

"The airport is being protected by the Abkhaz army, there are no Russian peacekeepers at the site." Guerrillas of the White Legion and Forest Brothers gangs who call themselves Georgian partisans told Georgia's Rustavi-2 television yesterday they will stage a series of terrorist acts near the airport if it turns out that it has restarted operations. The guerrillas claimed that Russian peacekeepers with a CIS mandate are guarding the repair of the airport's airstrip and infrastructure.

Members of mine-clearing organization robbed in Abkhazia

Associated Press, 4/17/03

Two members of a British-based humanitarian group that removes land mines were robbed on Wednesday in the former Soviet republic of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia province, an official said. Nobody was hurt. The Halo Trust staff members were in a car in the region when masked people stopped them and forced them to drive to another location, where they were robbed, said David Frederick, the organization's desk officer for the Caucasus region, speaking from its headquarters in Scotland.

Frederick said Halo Trust was working with authorities to find the thieves and prosecute them. Frederick would not comment on the amount of money that was taken, which Russia's Interfax news agency, citing police in Abkhazia, said was US $95,000. Abkhazian separatists won control over the Black Sea shore province after driving Georgian government forces out in a 1992-93 war. The separatist government is not recognized internationally.

War or peace, Indonesians stand at crossroads in Aceh

Zhai Jingsheng, XINHUA News Agency, 4/18/03

Despite the fact that the Indonesian government and the separatist group Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed the Cessation of Hostilities in Aceh last December, they are still standing at crossroads to make a new option: go to war or return to peace. According to the latest reports from the troubled province, at least three suspected GAM rebels and one military personnel were killed in armed encounters between the government troops and the separatist group earlier this week, indicating that peace was waning quickly in Aceh. At least 35 people have been killed in the past nine days in the province. On Wednesday, two military helicopters were fired on while hovering above Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, to monitor the situation there, a local military spokesman claimed. But the pilots managed to make safety landing. Security continued to get worse over the last few weeks with the government persistently accusing GAM of reneging on the peace accord signed on Dec. 9, 2002 in Geneva. For security reason, international peace monitors were pulled out from the field offices last week.

Jakarta has called for a meeting of the Joint Council (JC), a final arbiter on the peace agreement, and warned that it will launch an all-out military operation to wipe out the rebellious group if the peaceful solution fails to reach its goal. The JC groups the Indonesian government and the GAM leaders with mediators from the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre (HDC), which is a broker to have the two sides to agree to a date and place for the meeting. Although the GAM has expressed its willingness to attend the proposed JC meeting, the government side has begun to make preparations for a military operation in Aceh.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri held a closed-door meeting with Vice President Hamzah Haz and her top security officials to discuss the situation in Aceh, considering optional solution -- go to war. Before that, major leaders of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), including Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, all expressed hard-line warnings for possible military operations in the oil-rich province. A company of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) soldiers arrived in Aceh on Tuesday to replace another company which had been withdrawn earlier. Nearly 2,000 combat troops arrived in North Aceh on Wednesday as a part of steps taken by the government to beef up the security as the situation deteriorated there. Meanwhile, some other sides, including political analysts and religious leaders both in and outside Aceh, have opposed any military operation as it has been proven in the past and in other regions that such an approach would not solve the complex problems.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the State Palace here on Thursday, calling on the government not to launch another war in Aceh, but seek for a peaceful solution instead. Afridal Darmi, director of the Aceh Legal Aid Institute, also warned the central government not to hastily resort to a military operation in the province as it would only victimize Acehnese people. He told the daily Jakarta Post that the peace deal has reduced violence significantly in Aceh, and therefore, there was no reason to abandon it. Afridal said that most Acehnese, particularly the ordinary people, supported the peace deal as they had been able to enjoy normal lives since its signing.

People's apprehension is understandable. Apart from the failure of military manoeuvres to crush GAM between 1989 and 1999 under the Soeharto administration, other military operations had met with similar fates in Papua and East Timor, now an independent country. And despite years of security operations in the troubled Maluku and Poso, the sectarian conflicts in these two regions are still far from being settled.

The GAM had been fighting for an independent Islamic state in Aceh since 1976. Jakarta agreed to let the local people run a highly autonomous administration, which was accepted by the GAM. But due to lack of mutual trust, the cessation of hostilities was maintained only for a short period last December, real peace is still far away. In the past decades, over 10,000 people have been killed in armed conflicts and violence in Aceh, mostly civilians.

Indonesian soldier stabbed to death in Aceh market

Deutsche Presse Agentur, 4/20/03

An Indonesian soldier was stabbed to death at the weekend while patrolling a market in Aceh province, where violence is on the rise again, news reports said on Sunday. Private First Class Sukri, a member of the Army Infantry Battalion 144/Sriwijaya regional military command, was stabbed in the back of the head by three assailants Saturday afternoon as he patrolled the Glumpang Payong market in Aceh's Biruen town, 1,620 kilometres northwest of Jakarta. After knifing the soldier, who died two hours later in a nearby hospital, the assailants stole his rifle, said the state-run Antara news agency.

It was the latest of more than a dozen violent deaths reported in Aceh, where a 4-month-old peace pact between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian government is showing signs of unravelling. Aceh Operation Task Force spokesman Major Eddy Fernandi blamed the attack on the GAM, which has been fighting for the independence of Aceh province from the Indonesian archipelago since December 1976.

GAM and the Indonesian government, in a deal brokered by the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre, signed a peace agreement on December 9, 2002, to end their 26-year-old confrontation. The agreement has been strained in recent weeks by GAM's refusal to forfeit their independence struggle and the Indonesian military's reluctance to demobilise their troops as essential steps in the ceasefire. Both sides have reportedly agreed to meet for a joint council in Tokyo on Friday in an attempt to salvage the peace pact and avoid a resumption of full-scale hostilities, which have already claimed more than 11,000 lives - mostly civilians - in the past two decades.

Ivory Coast rebels accuse army of continuing helicopter-gunship attacks

Austin Merrill, Associated Press, 4/16/03

Government attack helicopters continued bombarding rebel positions on Wednesday, Ivory Coast's insurgents said, even as their top leader took up his ministerial post in a new unity government meant to end the six-month conflict. Government gunships bombed a market, post office and police station at Vavoua, 60 kilometers (36 miles) north of Daloa in Ivory Coast's cocoa-rich west, rebel spokesman Antoine Beugre said in a statement.  It was the third straight day of government strikes, which have left at least 17 dead in the region, Beugre said. Ivory Coast army spokesman Lt. Col. N'Goran Aka said of the allegation: "It's not true."

Meanwhile, the remaining four rebel representatives named to ministerial posts in the new unity government traveled to the former French colony's government-held economic capital, Abidjan, and officially assumed their duties, Beugre said. Rebel leader Guillaume Soro arrived to take an oath of office - his first trip to Abidjan since rebels captured the north and much of Ivory Coast's west following a failed attempt to oust President Laurent Gbagbo in September.  Gbagbo's unity government - comprising representatives of his party, opposition parties and rebel forces - was established in a January French-brokered peace accord and is expected to govern until 2005 elections.

The presence of the nine rebel ministers in Abidjan sets the stage for a complete meeting of the 41-member transitional government, scheduled for later this week.  Efforts to complete the unity government have increased along with reports of fighting in western Ivory Coast over the past week. The rebels and government forces have repeatedly accused each other of instigating the fighting, much of which has occurred near the border with Liberia.

Soldiers drawn from a regional block, together with more than 3,000 French troops, are guarding an oft-violated cease-fire line.  On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council expressed concern over recent cease-fire violations in Ivory Coast, and in a statement "called on all parties to respect the commitments they made and to immediately end attacks that undermine the continuation of peace and reconciliation." A U.N. committee monitoring the peace process in Ivory Coast recently issued a report accusing both rebel and government sides of violating the cease-fire.  The world's top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast has been plagued by instability since a 1999 coup shattered its decades-long reputation as West African economic powerhouse and bastion of peace.  The current conflict has killed more than 3,000 people, according to government estimates, and has displaced more than a million.

Ivory Coast govt troops say attacked by rebels in west

Agence Presse France, 4/19/03

The Ivory Coast army said Saturday rebels had attacked government troops in the west of the country, which has been crippled by civil war since September last year. "On Friday April 18 at 4:45 pm, the towns of Binhouye, Toulepleu, Para, in the Tai region, were the target of violent attacks launched by rebels from MPIGO and MJP," said army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Aka N'Goran, referring to two rebel groups active in western Ivory Coast.

The attacks were carried out by at least "1,500 rebels who came from Liberia, Danane, Man and Bouake," he said. Liberia is Ivory Coast's western neighbour, Danane and Man are key towns in the west, and Bouake in the centre is the headquarters of the main rebel group, the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement (MPCI), whose rebellion last September sparked the now seven-month war. N'Goran said it was not possible to give a toll for the fighting because "we are still engaged in combat."

In central Ivory Coast, meanwhile, the Ivorian army said it has regained control of the town of Belleville, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the cocoa town of Daloa. One government soldier died in the fight for Belleville, which had been seized by rebels on Thursday.  The MPCI has denied that any of the three Ivorian rebel groups, had launched attacks in the west, blaming the offensive on "armed groups of Liberians."

Liberia has repeatedly been accused of sending soldiers and mercenaries to fight in Ivory Coast.  But the head of the Ivorian People's Movement of the Far West (MPIGO), Felix Doh, told AFP in Paris by satellite phone that his troops had routed Ivorian army soldiers near Toulepleu. "I recaptured two villages and entered Toulepleu. We killed at least 300, and among them, I saw the bodies of white mercenaries," said Doh.  The rebels were able to get the upper hand on government forces because "they are no longer using Mi-24 combat helicopters, since these were banned by the United Nations," said Doh. "Without the helicopters, they are amateurs. I'm better than they are," he boasted.

The rebels have accused government forces of launching five attacks against towns under their control, mainly in western Ivory Coast, with Mi-24 combat helicopters, killing at least 16 civilians.  French peacekeepers, who have been deployed in Ivory Coast since last October to police a ceasefire, said they had no information about the latest fighting, and recalled that they are not deployed in the affected region.

On Friday, the head of the French peacekeeping operation, General Emmanuel Beth, condemned the use of helicopter gunships in fighting in France's former star west African colony. "The attacks... by combat helicopters are scandalous and disastrous, and I am certain, from a military point of view, that they are ineffective," Beth, who is also military adviser to a committee following-up a peace pact reached in January, told AFP.

"We have so far recorded 55 violations of the ceasefire since January 13," said army spokesman N'Goran. The UN Security Council on Tuesday said it would ask the Ivory Coast government to stop using its helicopter gunships against rebel-held areas.  "We have been asked to ground our helicopters, but our patience has its limits and, given the turn of events in this war, we will soon be obliged to launch limited attacks on military targets," N'Goran said.

French-brokered talks in January resulted in a peace pact -- agreed to by the rebels, Gbagbo's party and the political opposition, and endorsed by the president -- under which a unity government was set up in a bid to end Ivory Coast's war. On Saturday, rebel chief Doh said: "It's a pity, all this fighting and all these deaths, even as we are taking part in a government of reconciliation.   "We need peace in this country."

Indian premier's Kashmir tour brings relief to many, frowns to some

Izhar Wani, Agence Presse France, 4/20/03

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's two-day visit to restive Kashmir has generated reactions in the divided Himalayan state ranging from relief to dismay. Vajpayee at the end of his tour of the insurgency-hit region on Saturday said New Delhi was ready to talk to Islamabad provided Pakistan stopped the infiltration of Islamic rebels from the Pakistani zone of Kashmir into the Indian side. Pakistan, however, said it has done its best to stop rebels from crossing into Indian-administered Kashmir but that the mountainous terrain makes it impossible to halt all insurgency -- which in any case, it says, is largely indigenous.

Leading Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah welcomed Vajpayee's conciliatory comments. "I think the prime minister has set the tone for a dialogue and it is high time for the parties to ... resolve Kashmir." He said India and Pakistan should open their diplomatic channels and, prior to starting talks on major issues such as Kashmir, discuss the problems that are acting as irritants in negotiations.  Shah, like the region's main separatist alliance, wants tripartite talks, involving India, Pakistan and Kashmiri representatives. He said, however, there should be no pre-conditions for the talks.  Vajpayee said his recently appointed interlocutor on Kashmir, N.N. Vohra, would be visiting the region soon to talk to elected representatives and other sectors of society.

Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, said it will soon meet to discuss Vajpayee's offer of talks, and whether it would hold parleys with Vohra. "We will take up the offer (of talks) with caution and calculation," said Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat.  Vohra's paid advertisements have been appearing in the local newspapers urging people to contact him should they wish to set up appointments. Hurriyat did not meet with former pointmen, maintaining that it alone should represent Kashmiris.  "The Kashmir problem is not child's play that you invite everyone for talks," said Shah, referring to Vohra's paid advertisement.

Shokwet Ahmed, a Kashmir analyst, said Vajpayee's remarks in Kashmir, in particular the offer of friendship to Pakistan, was a welcome change in Indian thinking, given the recent hardline stand by two Indian ministers. India's defence and foreign ministers have been saying Pakistan is a "fit case" for pre-emptive strikes like Iraq, evoking sharp criticism by Islamabad, and pleas of restraint by US.  Ahmed said Hurriyat had responded positively to Vajpayee's talks offer by withdrawing the call it had made for a general strike on Saturday to protest against the Indian premier's visit.

"For the first time there was no anti-Pakistan bashing in Kashmir by an Indian leader, so much so that Vajpayee did not mention the massacre of 24 Hindus in his speeches," Ahmed said.  India had earlier blamed Pakistani militants for the March 23 massacre in Kashmir. But Vajpayee said he did not want to "annoy any side or stir emotions" by referring to the massacre.  The region's main militant alliance, the United Jehad Council (UJC) based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, has termed Vajpayee's offer of friendship to Islamabad "diplomatic maneuvering".

"Kashmir is neither a border dispute to be solved by two countries, nor an internal problem that can be resolved between Kashmiris and India," UJC chairman Syed Salahudin said.  He said before announcing any dialogue, India should accept Kashmir as a "disputed territory".

During his visit Vajpayee also announced the creation of 100,000 jobs by the central government within two years, and announced loans for people associated with the tourist trade in Kashmir, including houseboat owners. "This tour of Vajpayee has been very encouraging -- unlike last time," said Imtiaz Hussain, 24, an unemployed science-graduate.  "I am hopeful I will get a job now," he said.

However, houseboat owner Ghulam Ahmed said he did not want a loan, he wanted a relief package. "How can I repay the loan where there are no tourists?" he asked.  Vajpayee's previous visit to Kashmir in May 2002 came amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan.   "The time has come for a decisive battle," he said in his address to the troops on Kashmir's borders last year.

Macedonian PM's party attacks idea of territorial exchanges, greater Albania

MIA News Agency (Skopje), via BBC, 4/18/03

Skopje, 18 April: "The ideas, promoted by VMRO-DPMNE Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity leader and former prime minister Ljubco Georgievski, are a typical example of an anachronism, seen and promoted in this region and our neighbourhood before more than a decade," the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM) says in its comment of Georgievski's column "Theses for Survival of the Macedonian Nation and State", published in today's Dnevnik.

"The danger derives from the fact that these theses, with extreme delay, are promoted now as new by Macedonian politicians, despite the common knowledge that such ideas were a reason for wars, casualties and displacement of people in our neighbourhood, bringing luck to nobody," SDSM says.

Georgievski says that creating of "Great Albania" is the salvation formula for Macedonia and Balkan stability, while dividing of Macedonia in two territories and giving up from its territorial integrity and sovereignty will rescue the Macedonian people. All of this, Georgievski says, should be done under the auspices of the international community, which in his column is also blamed for her significant role in everything that has happened to Macedonia.

SDSM underlines that promotion of such ideas by the VMRO-DPMNE leader is taking Macedonia away from its road to peace, stability and integration with the EU and NATO. "Macedonia has set its own road and development, based on its territorial integrity and sovereignty, building of a democratic and prosperous society with interethnic understanding and without further divisions of this kind," the SDSM commentary reads.

Macedonia will keep cooperating with the international community in order to turn the country and the Balkans into a European region of democracy, peace, human rights and economic development. "The basic constitutional provisions and significance of agreements reached between the political parties and the international community on Macedonia's future should not be undermined by statements, texts or threats like this presented by Ljubco Georgievski, but to serve as a foundation for further peaceful and safe development of the country," SDSM says.

Philippines Mulls Peace With Moro Rebels, Four More Held in Davao Wharf Bombing

The Philippine Star, via BBC, 4/17/03

President Arroyo again waved the olive branch to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) even as three more witnesses surfaced and identified the suspects in the bombings in Davao City that left a total of 38 people dead in less than a month. "It is a time to contemplate the message of peace and to look into our own powers of self-redemption to wage the peace even amidst the consistent signals of conflict," Mrs Arroyo said.

Her statement came a week after authorities announced the arrest of four suspects in the bombings. The bomb attacks prompted Mrs Arroyo to place Davao City under a "state of lawless violence" and ordered the immediate arrest and prosecution of the suspects. Authorities later identified some of the suspects as MILF guerrillas.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye also said the state of lawless violence will be lifted as soon as Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, as crisis manager, submits his recommendations to the president. "The time frame was only temporary. I guess, it's a matter of time before this (is) lifted," Bunye said.

"I don't know if it will be that soon. If it will be next week. But if conditions continue to improve then, maybe there would be an urgency in this declaration," he said.  National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the latest incidents of sporadic clashes in central Mindanao, particularly in areas identified with MILF guerrillas, would be dealt with by the government's efforts on the peace process...

Mamalangkas, an alleged MILF guerrilla, was identified by the witnesses as the leader of the group which carried out the attack.  Aside from Mamalangkas, four other suspects - Totoh Esmael Akmad, Tohami Bagundang, Jimmy Balulao and Teng Idar - were arrested last week and charged with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder. MILF chairman Hashim Salamat and 198 other key leaders of the separatist guerrilla movement were also included in the new charge sheet.  Bagundang and Balulao reportedly admitted their participation in the 2 April bombing and pointed to Mamalangkas and Akmad who used them to carry out the mission.

Bagundang, for his part, admitted placing the bomb, stuffed inside a black shoulder bag, under one of the tables in a row of chicken barbecue stalls located outside the gates of the ferry terminal.  Balulao separately admitted his participation in the airport bombing. Balulao's confession prompted the police to amend the criminal charges and move for the inclusion of the other suspects in the March 4 airport blast...

IMF, World Bank gives Belgrade nearly 150 million dollar credit

Deutsche Presse Agentur, 4/17/03

The World Bank on Thursday approved an 11 million dollar credit to back banking reforms in Serbia and Montenegro, hours after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released 137 million dollars in a three-year standby facility. The 20-year, interest-free World Bank loan is a part of a 200 million dollar package earmarked for Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. The IMF loan is part of an 889 million dollar standby credit agreed last year to support reforms until 2005.

The credits are to help the cash-strapped Balkan country liquidate its troubled financial institutions and privatize those still in state ownership. Earlier Thursday, the local IMF office said that it had found Belgrade's economic reform and stabilization effort "impressive". "The IMF commends the authorities of Serbia and Montenegro for the impressive further progress in stabilization and reform achieved in 2002," the IMF bureau in Belgrade said in a statement.  IMF praised Belgrade's macro-economic policy which "contributed to rapid deflation, strengthening of foreign reserves and a continued recovery of output and exports".

"Equally welcome is the renewed commitment to reform of the new government following the Premier (Zoran) Djindjic's tragic assassination," it said.

About 94 per cent of the funds are intended for Serbia, the rest for the much smaller Montenegro, local media said.  IMF and World Bank had delayed the aid for several months. Serbia and Montenegro appointed a so-called fiscal agent their representative in international financial institutions earlier this week. "There was no other reason," the official told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa. "We're pleased with the reforms, but we needed a fiscal agent."  The new fiscal agent became necessary when Serbia and Montenegro replaced their Yugoslav federation with a new, looser union two months ago.

A Marriage of Inconvenience: Montenegro 2003

International Crisis Group, 4/16/03

Efforts to promote regional stability in the Balkans have been hampered by an unnecessary obsession with keeping Montenegro and Serbia in a single state. The formation of the new state union of Serbia and Montenegro is an interim solution that lacks legitimacy with the citizens of the two republics and is unlikely to be functional in practice. It takes no account of the status of Kosovo, notionally still an autonomous province of Serbia but in practice a UN protectorate. As long as Kosovo’s future remains unresolved the union does not represent a stable solution for the territories of the defunct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. International assistance can be better used to promote real change in the way Montenegro is governed than in trying to keep the republic in a union with Serbia at all costs.

Click here for the full report:

http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/balkans/montenegro/reports/A400945_16042003.pdf

Deputy Premier Opposed to Idea of Holding Parallel Peace Talks

Qaran (Mogadishu), via BBC, 4/20/03

Some delegates of the Transitional Government of Somalia attending the reconciliation talks in Kenya yesterday returned to Mogadishu. The delegates included the deputy Speaker of parliament, Muhammad Abdi Yusuf, Deputy Prime Minister Eng Usman Kalun, Minister of the Presidency Husayn Salah, MP Abdi Farah Jama. According to well-placed sources, the delegates are in Mogadishu for consultations with President Abdiqasim.

Addressing a press conference yesterday, Eng Usman Kalun said they had come for consultations. Kalun said the prospects for an accord at the talks were good. "The Mbagathi Nairobi, Kenya meeting will establish a parliament in June and I do not believe it is right to hold a parallel meeting," Usman Kalun said.

Transitional Government Welcomes Somaliland Presidential Elections

Zog-Ogaal (Mogadishu), via BBC, 4/20/03

Yesterday, At 4.p.m. local time , the ruling UDUB United Democratic Party party was provisionally declared the winner of the Somaliland's presidential elections. Following this announcement, President Dahir Riyale Kahin will be the president of Somaliland in the next five years, while Mr Ahmad Yusuf Yasin will be his vice-president. The party has defeated the opposition Kulmiye United party, lead by Mr Ahmad Muhammad Silanyow, with less than 80 000 votes as published .

Meanwhile, the high court committee on elections will soon officially declare the winner of the Somaliland presidential elections.  However, there is serious dissatisfaction with the provisional result on the part of opposition Kulmiye party supporters... The interior minister and Mayor of Hargeysa city have appealed to the public to observe law and order, while the security forces have been put on high alert. The leader of opposition Kulmiye party, Ahmad Muhammad Silanyow, has reportedly disappeared from his home...

While commenting the Somaliland elections, the interim Somali government official, Mr Usman Kalun, has welcomed the Somaliland presidential elections.  "There is nothing like north and south. Somalia is one nation and it is the responsibility of Dahir Riyale Kahin to work on how to bring together the greater Somali people. "The Somaliland election is proof to the fact that there will be no body from Mogadishu who will rule Hargeysa in future, while somebody from Hargeysa will not rule Mogadishu as well", he said.

ETA militants reject Basque autonomy plan

Agence Presse France, 4/20/03

The armed separatist organisation ETA Saturday rejected proposals for the future of Spain's northern Basque Country which would give it a greater measure of autonomy. ETA, held responsible for hundreds of deaths in a campaign of violence over more than three decades, said the plan was just an "obstacle and a brake on independence." The plan had been put forward by Juan Jose Ibarretxe, moderate nationalist regional head of government in the troubled Basque Country. Ibarretxe wants sovereignty to be shared in a "free association" between the Basque region and the Spanish state, allowing Basques to set their own rules for internal government.

But in a statement quoted by the Basque news agency Vasco Press, ETA said: "There will be no peace until the rights of the Basque Country are acknowledged."  ETA wants full independence for the entire Basque region, which straddles parts of northern Spain and also neighbouring southwestern France. In the statement ETA reaffirmed its commitment to armed struggle.  Ibarretxe has insisted there can be no public consultation on the project until ETA has renounced violence.

The plan drew criticism from Spain's central government in Madrid when it was first presented, with the ruling Popular Party (PP) describing it as "a plan for a complete break with democratic and constitutional Spain".  Ibarretxe has defended the plan to the Basque regional assembly, saying that recognizing the Basque population's right to self-determination was the key to bringing Basque politics back to normal.

Peacemaker for Sri Lanka

Keizo Nabeshima, The Japan Times, 4/21/03

Japan plans to play a leading role in rebuilding strife-torn Sri Lanka. Peace talks are under way to end more than 20 years of ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese (Buddhist) majority and the Tamil (Hindu) minority.

An international conference on Sri Lankan reconstruction and development is scheduled for June in Tokyo. Japan's international diplomacy aims at the "consolidation of peace," as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi declared in a speech last May in Sydney. A Foreign Ministry source says Sri Lanka will be the first case in which official development assistance is used to bring about peace, not just promote development.

In the case of Afghanistan, for which Japan hosted an international donors meeting in Tokyo in January last year, reconstruction aid followed the ouster of the Taliban regime. In Sri Lanka, however, peace talks and recovery support will be intertwined. The Sri Lanka issue, therefore, will likely open a new vista for Japanese diplomacy, as ODA becomes an integral part of the peace process. In this sense, the coming Tokyo conference will test Japan's new diplomatic strategy of using ODA as a means of consolidating peace.

The civil war in Sri Lanka, involving the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and government forces, has cost more than 65,000 lives. The Tigers are seeking to build an independent state in the northern and eastern region of the country. In February 2002 - following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the debut of peace advocate Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister in the December 2001 general election - a ceasefire agreement was reached between the new government and LTTE through the mediation of Norway.

Japanese government sources say the LTTE agreed to a truce for fear of inviting U.S. military intervention if they continued the fighting. With the U.S. military engaged in a cleanup operation against Abu Sayyaf Muslim insurgents in the Philippines, the Tigers are blacklisted by the U.S. government as a "foreign terrorist organization."

Japan plans to contribute substantially to peace consolidation in Sri Lanka through active involvement in peace and reconstruction efforts. Foreign Ministry sources say ODA will be used to support the peace process even before peace is achieved so that it can serve as a "model case" in which concessionary government aid is used as the catalyst for building and consolidating peace.

In 2000, Japan, the largest aid donor to Sri Lanka since 1986, provided 68 percent of the total aid given to that country by members of the Development Assistance Committee, a group of developed donor nations. As such, Japan is in a position to take the lead in establishing peace and promoting reconstruction in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. As a step in this direction, the government in November appointed former U.N. Undersecretary General Yasushi Akashi as envoy in charge of peace building and reconstruction in Sri Lanka. In December, during a visit here by Wickremesinghe, agreement was reached on holding the sixth round of peace talks in Japan in March and an international reconstruction conference in Tokyo in June.

The peace talks were held in mid-March in Hakone, with LTTE representatives attending. Diplomatic sources here have quoted Sri Lankan government officials as saying that the Tamil group attended the meeting because it was concerned that its absence might worsen its image here and adversely affect the Tokyo meeting. According to the Foreign Ministry, Akashi has called on both parties to the peace negotiations to make further efforts, saying that lack of substantial progress would have a negative effect on international aid commitments at the June meeting. He has also emphasized, they say, "linkage" between international pledges of support and ways of implementing them, on one hand, and the progress of the peace process, on the other. The ministry highly regarded the outcome of the March peace talks, saying the LTTE deepened its understanding of the linkage. This is "of great importance to the Tokyo conference in terms of promoting the peace process," a ministry official has said.

Another important achievement of the latest session was an agreement that a "road map" on human rights would be adopted at the next (seventh) session late this month. The two sides also agreed to work out a framework for resolving political problems under the principles of a federal system. The protracted civil war has ruined the domestic economy, forcing the Sri Lankan government to the inevitable conclusion that peace is essential and can be achieved only through development. A statement of national priorities titled "Regaining Sri Lanka" sets poverty reduction as the central goal. More specifically, the strategy calls for (1) creating 2 million new jobs over the next few years, (2) overcoming crippling debt, (3) finding resources to rebuild the country and (4) increasing income levels through higher productivity and increased investment.

Recently the World Bank decided to supply Dollars 800 million to Sri Lanka in support of that strategy. Colombo welcomed the decision as an "important development." The Japanese government, meanwhile, decided in March to provide Yen 33.6 billion (Dollars 280 million) in easy-term yen loans as part of its assistance aimed at peace consolidation. The money, earmarked for projects such as rural development and power generation, brings Japan's cumulative total of yen loans to Sri Lanka to Yen 622.5 billion.

An opinion survey by a Sri Lankan think tank finds that seven of 10 people want Japan to play a key role in the reconstruction and development of northern and eastern Sri Lanka. To meet this expectation, Japan should lead international cooperation in these efforts. The lead-up to the Tokyo meeting is a crucial period for Japanese diplomacy to send a clear-cut political message of peace.

Sudan likely to escape US sanctions due to peace progress: senior official

Matthew Lee, Agence Presse France, 4/15/03

Sudan is unlikely to be hit with new US sanctions when a six-month review of its cooperation with regional peace efforts is presented to lawmakers next week, a senior State Department official said Monday. "I would not expect that," the official said when asked whether US President George W. Bush would exercise his authority to impose sanctions provided under the Sudan Peace Act which he signed in October.

The legislation allows Bush to levy the sanctions if he finds Khartoum is not negotiating in good faith with southern rebels to end a bloody 19-year civil war. The first six-month review of Sudan's compliance with the law is due on Monday and the State Department official said the peace process had thus far made substantial progress.

"Obviously, I feel that the IGAD process has produced some very real results," the official said, referring to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development which groups Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia. The official cited recent progress made on humanitarian access to large portions of the country and power-sharing in the context of the so-called Machakos Protocol which was negotiated in Kenya.

And, the official described as a "touchdown" the stated desire of both sides to reach a final peace settlement by the end of June and lauded the work of chief mediator Lazaro Sumbeiywo, a Kenyan general. "If he pulls it off, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize," the official said of Sumbeiywo. "This guy is working it hard."  The Machakos Protocol provides for a six-year period of autonomy for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)-controlled south ahead of a referendum on the region's political future.

Sudan's civil war has since 1983 pitted the Khartoum government, representing the mostly Islamic Arab north of the country, against the SPLA, based in the mainly Christian and animist south.  The conflict is estimated to have claimed 1.5 million lives and displaced four million people since 1983. A ceasefire agreement was signed in Machakos, Kenya, last October.

Under the Sudan Peace Act, the US president must evaluate every six months whether the government and the rebel SPLM/A are pursuing peace talks in good faith.  If he finds that the government, but not the SPLM/A, is acting in bad faith or has "unreasonably interfered with humanitarian efforts" in the south, then Washington will vote against multilateral loans to Sudan and consider downgrading or suspending diplomatic ties, the resolution says.

The United States will also try to prevent Sudan from using oil revenues to acquire weapons, and seek a UN Security Council resolution imposing an arms embargo on Sudan's government.  The legislation also authorizes the administration to spend 100 million dollars a year in fiscal years 2003, 2004, 2005 to improve conditions in areas of Sudan not under government control. Sudan is already subject to some US sanctions as it is designated as a "state sponsor of terrorism" by the State Department, although officials in Washington have noted progress in Khartoum's record on that front.

Sudan foes end peace talk round without agreeing on security issue

Agence France Presse, 4/16/03

Sudan's government and SPLA rebel group ended a 10-day round of peace talks in Nairoibi on Wednesday without settling the key issue of military security arrangements during a six year transition period, according to AFP journalists.

According to Nhial Deng Nhial, the lead negotiator for the rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), which rose up against Khartoum in 1983, the government sought in vain to convince the rebels to integrate their forces into the national army during the transition period. "We can say there was a deadlock. I would like to sincerely express the regret that we have not been able to make the progress expected during this phase of talks," he said.

Under agreements reached during previous rounds of talks in Kenya, southern Sudan will enjoy a six year period of autonomy before a referendum is held to determine whether or not it remains part of Sudan. "The failure to make progress in the security arrangments is a major setback in the talks because it is a safety valve of the whole talks," said Nhial.

Ahmed Dirdeiry, Khartoum's top diplomat in Nairobi, was less pessimistic. "This is the first time we are dealing with a thorny and most complex issue in the peace process. We cannot say that it was a deadlock. We laid firm foundations for future talks on the same issue," he said.

No date has been set for further talks on this subject. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an international organisation playing the role of mediator, was even more upbeat. In a statement, IGAD described this fourth round of peace talks as "useful and constructive negotiations." A fifth round of peace talks, on wealth and power sharing, is due to begin on May 2.