Peace Negotiations Watch
Monday, April 11, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 13)
Contents:
Burundi/Rwanda
Bush
to Host Rwandan President Next Week
Bush has urged the
international community to bring to justice those responsible for the genocide
Congo
Leader
of Hutu rebel group agrees to cooperate with criminal court for Rwanda's 1994
genocide.
Rwanda invaded Congo to
hunt down the rebels twice, in 1996 and 1998
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR
Congo Negotiation Simulation.
Georgia/Abkhazia
Georgia
FM hopeful on Abkhaz talks
The resumption of the
negotiations "should certainly be viewed as a positive sign
Separatist
bosses in former Soviet states call for alliance
Senior
officials from three splinter territories in the old Soviet Union said Monday
they were ready for closer military cooperation as a result of the pro-Western
peaceful revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia
Indonesia
Indonesia
and Aceh rebels to hold third round of peace talks in Helsinki
The six-day discussions
will start next Tuesday on the outskirts of Helsinki
Indonesia
hopes to sign Aceh peace deal by July: report
Mediators have been more
guarded about prospects for the Helsinki talks
Aceh
Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Aceh
Negotiation Simulation.
Ivory
Coast
Peace
deal ends Ivory Coast war: Mbeki helps draft agreement after thousands killed
in conflict
The agreement is expected
to end the hostilities which have split Ivory Coast between the government-held
south and the rebel-controlled north
South
African president hosts Ivory Coast leaders for crisis peace talks
Top level talks between
Ivory Coast's leaders entered a third day Tuesday
U.N.
Security Council extends peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast for one month
The Security Council voted
unanimously to extend the peacekeeping mission's mandate until May 4
Kashmir
Bus
and Bridge Reunite Kashmiris Long Kept Apart
Peace talks over the last
year have yielded few tangible results other than the bus link
Pakistanis
welcome peace bus but say Kashmir problem remains
Heavy security surrounded
the departure of the buses
Kashmir
Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Kashmir
Negotiation Simulation
Kosovo
Germany's
Fischer 'optimistic' on Kosovo status talks
The province in
Serbia-Montenegro has been under U.N. control following the 1998-99 war
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo
Negotiation Simulation.
Liberia
Liberian
rebels who fled to Sierra Leone in 2002 return home
Liberia has started
repatriating some 300,000 civilian refugees
Macedonia
Greece
says U.N.-proposed name for Macedonia can be basis for negotiations
Greece said Friday that a
name proposed by a United Nations envoy for Macedonia "does not fully
satisfy" the Greek side in the decade-old dipuste, but said it could form
the basis for further negotiations.
Morocco
Despite
thaw, reopening frontiers between Morocco and Algeria could take months
Algeria announced Saturday
that Moroccans would no longer need visas
royal power grab
Nepal
Nepal's
ousted politicians step up efforts to restore democracy
Nepal
has been under house arrest along with several of his senior party colleagues
since the February 1
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Nepal
Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
Philippines
Malaysian
FM to meet MILF leaders after ASEAN meeting: official
Peace talks between the
Philippines government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are
expected to resume in Malaysia on April 16
Serbia &
Montenegro
EU,
Serbia and Montenegro reach deal to end constitutional crisis
The breakthrough was
necessary for Serbia and Montenegro to win a positive feasibility study from
the European Commission
Somalia
Delegation
visits Mogadishu to negotiate Somali government move to the capital
Somalia's last effective
central government collapsed in 1991
Exiled
Somali MPs press for peace in war-torn Mogadishu
Warlords controlling the
capital and their allies are opposed
Sri Lanka
Truce
monitors to begin investigations into suspected rebel attack on Sri Lankan
naval ship
Monitors have raised the
incident with the rebels' political office, though they are still unable to
confirm if the Tigers were behind the attack
Hiccups
hold up tsunami aid deal with Tigers in Sri Lanka
Both sides had broadly
agreed to establish a federal state in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri
Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Sudan
Militia
groups threaten new-found peace in southern Sudan
Already, there has been
resistance
Sudan
to use deal with south to end conflict in Darfur
Khartoum and the SPLM hope
the model can be used to bring peace to Darfur
Sudan
Rejects U.N. Resolution on Darfur
The resolution was the
first time that the Security Council had referred a case to the International
Criminal Court
Bush
to Host Rwandan President Next Week
Associated
Press, 4/8/2005
President
Bush plans to host Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the White House on April 15
and discuss peacekeeping efforts in Sudan as well as trade, development and
stability in Africa's Great Lakes Region.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan announced the meeting on
Friday. The Great Lakes Region of Africa
- an area bordered by Congo, Rwanda and Burundi - has been unstable since the
1994 genocide in Rwanda that left more than 500,000 dead. The genocide ended
when rebels led by Kagame ousted the extremist government on July 4, 1994.
President Clinton and the United Nations have apologized for failing to
intervene. Bush has urged the international community to bring to justice those
responsible for the genocide, calling it "one of the most horrific
episodes of the 20th century." The slaughter in Rwanda - and the
international community's failure to intervene - was retold in the
Oscar-nominated film "Hotel Rwanda." Bush invited Paul Rusesabagina,
the hotel manager portrayed as a lifesaver in the movie, for a White House
visit in February after seeing the film.
Return to Index
Leader
of Hutu rebel group agrees to cooperate with criminal court for Rwanda's 1994
genocide.
Eddy
Isango, Associated Press, 4/4/2005
A
Rwandan rebel leader operating in eastern Congo said Monday his group would
cooperate with an international court prosecuting people accused of the 1994
genocide in his country. Ignace Murwanashyaka, president of the Democratic
Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, denied his Hutu group was involved in the
killings of some 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus, but said
it was willing to collaborate with officials from the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda, a U.N. court based in Tanzania.
"This is not to say that we are genocidaires or that we accept everything
people say about us," Murwanashyaka said by telephone from Rome. "If
there are suspected genocidaires among us, they must surrender." Since it was set up in November 1994, the
court has convicted 21 people and acquitted three. He spoke after his group
announced in Rome last week that it would end its decade-long armed struggle
against Rwanda and return home from eastern Congo, following talks with Congo's
government organized by the Sant'Egidio Community, a Catholic group that
mediates world conflicts.
Murwanashyaka said his group, better known by its French acronym FDLR, would
transform from ragged rebels lurking in the forests of eastern Congo to a
legitimate political party.
On Saturday, two days after the Rome announcement, Congolese soldiers in
Miliki, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of GOma, were attacked by Rwandan
rebels, according to North Kivu Gov. Eugene Serufuli. There was speculation,
however, that the late-night firefight was a clash between two units of
government soldiers. No casualties were reported.
Hutu rebels fled into eastern Congo following the bloody 100-day pogrom ordered
in 1994 by Rwanda's extremist Hutu government. The killing stopped only after
Tutsi rebels - led by current Rwandan President Paul Kagame - pushed the
killers out of the country. The announcement by the Hutu rebels could possibly
halt nearly a decade of war and viciousness that has plagued Congo in the wake
of the genocide.
Rwanda invaded Congo to hunt down the rebels twice, in 1996 and 1998, sparking
a devastating five-year war in Congo that sucked in six African nations and
killed nearly 4 million people, aid groups say. In December, Rwanda threatened
to invade a third time, and Congo sent thousands of soldiers to the border in a
tense face-off.
The United Nations estimates about 10,000 Hutu rebels remain in Congo, but it
is not clear how many fall under any central command. Until last week, few in
Rwanda or Congo had even heard of Murwanashyaka. One Hutu rebel commander in
eastern Congo, Augustin Nsabimana, indicated his fighters would obey him.
"Some of our combatants on the ground accused the political headquarters
of badly negotiating our return to Rwanda," said Nsabimana, reached on a
cellular telephone at his base in Lubero, 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of
Goma. "But because the military branch wouldn't have political support if
we continued on, we finally joined their position."
Rwandan officials say the Hutu rebels may have buckled under severe pressure
from U.N. peacekeepers, who recently began aggressively dealing with thousands
of Congolese militia. The United Nations gave them until last week to surrender
their weapons or confront the full force of their mission, and followed up the
threat Saturday with an hours-long battle in which they said they killed 18
militiamen at a camp where hundreds refused to disarm.
So far, more than 8,000 militia have surrendered their weapons in northeast Ituri
province, in a campaign U.N. peacekeepers plan to pursue with the Hutu rebels. Tim
Reid, leader of the U.N. disarmament program in Bukavu, said U.N. peacekeepers
were waiting for negotiations in Rome to end before making any formal plans.
"They're telling us they'll go home as a group," Reid said by
telephone. "We'll have to wait to decide what to do with those who decide
not to go home." Associated Press writers Bryan Mealer in Kinshasa and
Jack Kahora in Goma contributed to this report.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR
Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
Return to Index
Georgia
FM hopeful on Abkhaz talks
UPI, 4/6/2005
Georgia's
foreign minister Wednesday welcomed the reopening of talks with leaders of the
breakaway Abkhazia region. Foreign
Minister Salome Zourabichvili told journalists the April 7 resumption of Geneva
talks with the Russian-backed region on the Black Sea was a good sign, Interfax
said. Progress in the talks "might facilitate the opening of a United
Nations human rights mission in the Gali district and the launching of the
activities of international police under U.N. auspices there,"
Zourabichvili said.
The resumption of the negotiations "should certainly be viewed as a
positive sign, although they might not produce any specific result," she
said.
Separatist
bosses in former Soviet states call for alliance
Agence
France Presse, 4/4/2005
Senior
officials from three splinter territories in the old Soviet Union said Monday
they were ready for closer military cooperation as a result of the pro-Western
peaceful revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia. "The revolutions in Georgia
and Ukraine have created a new geopolitical situation," said Valeri
Litskaya, external relations chief for Moldova's Russian-speaking separatist
republic of Transdniestr.
Litskaya said he feared "growing pressure" on the secessionist
republics by Georgia and Moldova, which form part of a regional association
that also includes Ukraine and Azerbaijan. "We have common interests,
common threats and a historic common destiny that pushes us to come together
and unite," said Sergei Chamba, external affairs head of Georgia's
breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Litskaya said a meeting of leaders from the breakway territories and from the
Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh would meet in Abkhazia's main city of
Sukhumi later this month. Chamba said that in preparing for the meeting,
"we discussed the possibility of cooperating in the military domain."
The president of Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia, Dmitri Medoyev,
said that if his region is attacked, it would count in support from
"brother peoples" in North Ossetia, Transdniestr and Abkhazia.
Return to Index
Indonesia
and Aceh rebels to hold third round of peace talks in Helsinki
Agence
France Presse, 4/8/2005
Indonesia
officials will meet separatist rebels from the tsunami-hit province of Aceh for
a third round of peace talks in Finland next week, a mediator said Friday, but
there was slim hope of progress. The six-day discussions will start next
Tuesday on the outskirts of Helsinki, according to Meeri-Mariia Jaarva of the
Crisis Management Initiative, a non-government group that has organised the
talks.
Rebels of the Free Aceh Movement have been fighting for 28 years for a separate
homeland in the western province, accusing Jakarta of plundering the region's
mineral wealth while leaving its people trapped in poverty.
The last formal ceasefire between the two sides broke down in May 2003 as
Indonesia launched a major military assault to crush the rebels, placing the
province under martial rule and barring foreign press and aid workers. But the
conflict took a new turn in the wake of the December 26 tsunami, which killed
more than 126,000 people in Aceh and destroyed vast areas of coastline, when
both sides agreed to return to the negotiating table.
The first two rounds of discussions, also in Helsinki, have focused on a
government offer to grant Aceh special autonomy, with the rebels indicating
they may drop demands for full independence if certain conditions are met. "The
next talks will cover similar issues as the previous talking rounds: the
special autonomy, security arrangements, economic relations, amnesty, outside
monitoring etc.," Jaarva said in an email from Helsinki.
She said that while the willingness from both sides to return to the table was
a positive sign, it could take some time to resolve more than a quarter century
of fighting. "We are pleased that both sides have agreed to continue the
process of negotiations, but as the conflict has been going on for such a long
time, and there are many difficult issues to be settled, one should remain
realistic about the outcome of the talks," she said.
Demak Lubis, head of the Aceh desk at Indonesia's security ministry, said the
schedule for next week's talks was tentative and Jakarta was unwilling to give
new ground to the rebels, known by the Indonesian acronym GAM. "Our
position is clear that the only solution to the Aceh conflict is special
autonomy and that GAM should return to the fold of the unitary state of Indonesia,"
he said.
Indonesia
hopes to sign Aceh peace deal by July: report
Agence
France Presse, 4/9/2005
Indonesia
hopes to sign a peace deal ending three decades of conflict with separatists in
Aceh province in July, its vice president said in an interview published here
on Saturday. Vice President Yusuf Kalla expressed optimism over the peace
process ahead of a third round of talks due to get under way in Finland next
week.
"If all substance can be moved and then principally agreed, we hope in
July we can finalise the whole principle of the agreement," Kalla said in
an interview with the South China Morning Post. "Of course now we hope at this meeting we
are going to discuss the substance. We're hoping we can discuss the substance
of the peace."
Mediators have been more guarded about prospects for the Helsinki talks, which
start on Tuesday. "We are pleased that both sides have agreed to continue
the process of negotiations, but as the conflict has been going on for such a
long time, and there are many difficult issues to be settled, one should remain
realistic about the outcome of the talks," Meeri-Mariia Jaarva of the
Crisis Management Initiative, a non-government group that has organised the
talks, said in an e-mail on Friday.
Rebels of the Free Aceh Movement have been fighting for 28 years for a separate
homeland in the western province, accusing Jakarta of plundering the region's
mineral wealth while leaving its people trapped in poverty. The last formal
ceasefire between the two sides broke down in May 2003 as Indonesia launched a
major military assault to crush the rebels, placing the province under martial
rule and barring foreign press and aid workers.
But the conflict took a new turn in the wake of the December 26 tsunami, which
killed more than 126,000 people in Aceh and destroyed vast areas of coastline,
when both sides agreed to return to the negotiating table. The first two rounds
of discussions, also in Helsinki, have focused on a government offer to grant
Aceh special autonomy, with the rebels indicating they may drop demands for
full independence if certain conditions are met.
Aceh
Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Aceh
Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
Return to Index
Peace
deal ends Ivory Coast war: Mbeki helps draft agreement after thousands killed
in conflict
Andrew
Meldrum, The Guardian, 4/7/2005
The
Ivory Coast's government, rebels and opposition leaders agreed in Pretoria
yesterday to end the hostilities which have ravaged the world's top
cocoa-producing state, killed thousands of people and left millions homeless
since 2002. All the parties agreed to "solemnly declare the immediate and
final cessation of all hostilities and the end of the war throughout the
national territory", their statement said.
President Laurent Gbagbo, the rebel leader Guillaume Soro, and the opposition
politicians Alassane Ouattara and Henri Konan Bedie signed the declaration. The
South African president, Thabo Mbeki, chaired the talks and helped draft the
final agreement. "All the parties
stayed up until nearly 3am to reach this agreement and then President Mbeki
worked with them to draft the agreement," Mr Mbeki's spokesman, Bheki
Khumalo, said. "We think it is a decisive breakthrough that will bring
lasting peace, which is what the people of the Ivory Coast deserve.
"All sides are ebullient and buoyant. All sides agreed to a cessation of
hostilities and steps for disarmament." The agreement gives a more
prominent role to the prime minister, Seydou Diarra, who is seen as much more
moderate and conciliatory than President Gbagbo. The most difficult part of the
talks was the question of eligibility to stand for the presidency. In the 2000
election the opposition leader, Alassan Ouattara, was disqualified on the
grounds that his parents were not born in Ivory Coast.
The final decision has been left to Mr Mbeki, who will consult the UN secretary
general, Kofi Annan, and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, who heads the
African Union. The agreement is expected to end the hostilities which have
split Ivory Coast between the government-held south and the rebel-controlled
north.
The rebels, known as the New Forces, seized the north after a failed attempt to
depose President Gbagbo in September 2002. A French-brokered peace deal was
signed in January 2003 but was not fully implemented, although 10,000 French
and UN peacekeepers now patrol a buffer zone. The 18-month truce was broken in
November when President Gbagbo's air force bombed the rebel north, accidentally
killing nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker.
The French retaliated by destroying the air force. Anti-foreigner riots in the
southern coastal city of Abidjan prompted an airlift of thousands of French and
other expatriates. Since then the county has teetered on the brink of war. "Above
all . . . this was an agreement between Ivorians . . . we really worked and
iden tified the problems and sought to resolve them," Mr Gbagbo said after
signing the accord.
The two sides have agreed several times to end the war, but their previous
undertakings were handicapped by mutual distrust, because neither was willing
to compromise on key demands. The
Pretoria talks were regarded as the last chance to salvage peace in the former
French colony, which had been for years a prosperous island of stability in the
otherwise turbulent West African region.
Cocoa prices in London and New York fell after news of the agreement was
announced, easing the fear of that further disruption of supply. Ivory Coast
produces 40% of the world's cocoa beans. Both parties said that they were
determined to hold a presidential election in 2008 and that the UN would be
invited to take part in the work of an independent electoral commission.
The New Forces said they had agreed to a government of national reconciliation
based in Abidjan. The rebels and the Ivorian army are due to meet soon in the
rebel stronghold Bouake, in the north, to discuss disarmament and plans to form
a unified army and a police force which will include 600 rebels.
South
African president hosts Ivory Coast leaders for crisis peace talks
Alexandra
Zavis, Associated Press, 4/5/2005
Top
level talks between Ivory Coast's leaders entered a third day Tuesday, as
President Thabo Mbeki tried to revive a flagging peace process in the
war-divided West African nation. Mbeki canceled his other commitments to try
and drive the talks - initially scheduled to last two days - to a conclusion,
presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said. He declined to say what was causing
the delay.
"They will continue for as long as necessary," Khumalo said. Mbeki
joked at the start of the meeting Sunday in Pretoria that his defense minister
would not allow the participants' planes to take off again until there was a
successful conclusion. Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo, Prime Minister
Seydou Diarra, chief rebel leader Guillaume Soro, former President Henri Konan
Bedie and opposition leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara are meeting face to face
for the first time since the country's more than 2-year-old civil war flared
again in November.
The talks follow international warnings that the country - once a bastion of
stability in West Africa - is sliding back toward all-out fighting. No new
agreements are expected, but South African officials say Mbeki is looking for
ways to ensure all sides implement deals they have already signed off on. Ivory
Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, has been split between the
rebel-held north and loyalist south since a failed coup attempt in 2002. A May
2003 cease-fire has been repeatedly violated, and there are growing doubts the
country can hold planned presidential elections in October.
Mbeki has made little headway since the African Union asked him to mediate in
Ivory Coast after Gbagbo sent his newly built-up air force on bombing runs in
the north in November. One airstrike killed nine French peacekeepers and an
American aid worker. French troops retaliated by destroying the air force,
sparking anti-foreigner riots that caused thousands to flee and brief, unprecedented
battles between French peacekeepers and Ivorian forces in the streets of
Abidjan.
Last month, pro-government fighters attacked a checkpoint in a rebel-held
northern village, prompting insurgents to declare the peace process dead. Insurgents
claim government troops are now deploying for new attacks, and U.N.
peacekeepers say they have seen a buildup of armed men in western
government-held towns along a buffer zone they patrol.
A Human Rights Watch report has accused the government of recruiting fighters -
including child soldiers - from Liberia. And the government's feared militia is
demanding that French peacekeepers leave the country. Counter demonstrations
have been organized behind rebel lines, calling for the French, Ivory Coast's
former colonizer, to stay.
On Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said a New Zealander
held by Ivory Coast rebels on accusations of being a mercenary hired by the
government had died. It refused to comment on the circumstances of his death. Last
week, Britain urged scores of its citizens in Ivory Coast to leave, saying it
was closing its embassy and would be unable to evacuate them in an emergency.
The U.N. Security Council on Monday extended the mandate of its peacekeeping
mission in Ivory Coast for a month to give more time to South Africa's
mediation efforts. If the talks don't succeed, the council is weighing punitive
sanctions to complement an arms embargo in place since November.
U.N.
Security Council extends peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast for one month
Nick
Wadhams, Associated Press, 4/4/2005
The
U.N. Security Council on Monday extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping
mission in Ivory Coast for a month to give more time for negotiations between
the government and rebels embroiled in a crippling three-year conflict. The
negotiations, mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, began Sunday in
Pretoria and were continuing on Monday. If those talks don't succeed, the
council may impose strict sanctions to complement an arms embargo in place
since November.
The Security Council voted unanimously to extend the peacekeeping mission's
mandate until May 4, and urged both sides in the West African country to use
the South African talks to find a solution. The extension was necessary because
the Ivory Coast mission's first yearlong mandate ended Monday. Council members
said they did not want to commit to another yearlong mandate now because they
may make changes depending on the results of the Pretoria talks.
Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, has been split between the
rebel-held north and loyalist south since a failed coup attempt in 2002. A May
2003 cease-fire in Ivory Coast has been repeatedly violated. Tensions have
mounted recently, with reports of a buildup of armed men and munitions along a
buffer zone which is patrolled by the U.N. and French troops.
Council members say that elections set for October could be jeopardized unless
the situation improves. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has also recommended
that the council add some 1,200 peacekeepers to the 6,000-strong force
currently in place. The council is still weighing that request.
Return to Index
Bus
and Bridge Reunite Kashmiris Long Kept Apart
Somini
Sengupta, NY Times, 4/8/2005
On
Thursday afternoon, Kashmiris took their first steps where a bridge was
destroyed more than 50 years ago in a battle between their countries. As they
did, they were garlanded with marigolds and offered plates of sweets. One man
coming from the Pakistani side to the Indian side fell to his knees and kissed
the ground. This crossing had been
closed since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, and the India-Pakistan
war that accompanied it. Until Thursday, it had been extremely difficult, if
not impossible, for Kashmiri families living on either side to get visas and to
make the trip. Relatives have missed weddings and funerals and been unable to
visit even though they are separated by a drive of only a couple hours.
The 220-foot-long bridge, now called the Peace Bridge, was rebuilt two weeks
ago. On Thursday morning, the paint was still wet. The first crossing came at 1:30 p.m. Indian
time, when 30 Pakistanis walked across from west to east to board buses for a
reception in Salamabad in Indian-held Kashmir and on to Srinagar. About three
hours later, 19 Indians made the reverse crossing, east to west. They boarded
buses bound for Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
Hundreds of spectators stood dotting the hills on the Pakistani side of
Kashmir. In the evening, as buses loaded with visitors wound through Indian
Kashmir, people on the sidelines waved and whistles even as darkness and rain
began to fall. ''Azadi,'' or freedom, some chanted; ''Long live Pakistan,''
shouted others.
The bus rides, laden with fear and nostalgia for the passengers and potentially
a great deal of political mileage for the government officials behind the
arrangement, came a day after a brazen attack in Srinagar by militants. On
Wednesday, they stormed a government tourism compound where Indian officials
said scheduled passengers were being housed as a protective measure after
repeated threats. The militants exchanged gunfire with Indian security forces
and set the compound ablaze.
Between the threats and Wednesday's attack, 10 people from the Indian side
pulled out of the bus trip. Violence on Thursday was limited to an unsuccessful
grenade attack roughly midway between Srinagar and the Line of Control. Indian
military officials and passengers said the buses were untouched. ''This is my
country,'' Begum Zamrooda Sharif, a woman in her mid-60's with a heart
condition, said shortly after making the crossing in a wheelchair from the
Pakistani side to the Indian side.
Born in Jammu, Mrs. Sharif left for Pakistan in 1948, thinking she would return
in two or three months. ''Now I'm coming back after 57 years,'' she said. ''I
feel like laughing and crying at the same time.'' She said she was here to
visit her brother-in-law. Headed in the opposite direction, Ghulam Fatima was
on her way to see a daughter in Muzaffarabad after 16 years. ''I'm going to
meet a piece of my heart,'' she said just before the crossing. Her daughter
married into a family living in Muzaffarabad in 1989. Mrs. Fatima and her
husband, Mohammed Abdullah Butt, would be seeing their four grandchildren for
the first time.
''From Home to Home,'' read a billboard on the Pakistan side of the bridge, and
then, farther down the road, a line from the Koran: ''There is no God but one
God.'' On the Indian side was a billboard containing a verse from Muhammad
Iqbal, one of the subcontinent's most celebrated poets. ''No religion teaches
you to hate one another,'' it read.
The divided families of Kashmir are meant to be the principal beneficiaries of
the bus link. They also stand as a metaphor for the bitter relations between
their countries. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir. For 15
years the Indian side of the province has been engulfed in an insurgency. India
calls it a proxy fight by Pakistan, but Pakistan says its support for the
rebels is moral and political, not military. Peace talks over the last year
have yielded few tangible results other than the bus link.
Whether the link can be sustained -- the buses are to run every two weeks --
remains to be seen, considering the security threats. Whether it will lead to
deals on deeper, thornier issues, like the status of Kashmir itself, is the
bigger question. ''A door has opened,'' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India
said as he inaugurated the bus service in a cricket stadium in Srinagar.
Pakistan and President Pervez Musharraf in particular ''have helped us open
this door. This is the beginning of a new phase.''
In Pakistan, which has taken a low-key approach to the bus link, Sardar Sikandar
Hayat Khan, the chief minister of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, sent off the
buses from his side by saying, ''No artificial wall can keep us divided.'' On
the Line of Control three years ago, troops from each side stood eye to eye in
anticipation of another war.
On Thursday, Irshad Ahmed Bucch, 66, was gushing after crossing that frontier.
''I cannot believe that I am here,'' he said. He had left Srinagar at age 14
and managed to visit his brothers back home only once since then. ''This is a
two-and-a-half-hour distance and I couldn't get a visa for 35 years,'' he said.
This time, his nephew's wedding had been scheduled to coincide with his visit.
Al-Haj Mohammed Qureshi, 55, stuck his head out of a bus window and declared,
''This is a mission accomplished, a dream fulfilled.'' He was on his way to
visit his sister in Indian-administered Kashmir. Shamim Qureshi, who left
behind a wife and children in Srinagar 20 years ago, said he was unsure what he
would find. ''Twenty years is a lot of time,'' he said as he waited to board
the bus at Muzaffarabad. ''Time will tell how they behave with me now that I
will face them.''
Private emotions aside, Ms. Sharif took pains to point out that the hard work
of peace-building was still left undone. ''The bus is a small step, but it is
not enough,'' she said. ''Both the governments should talk and keep the guns
aside. We need to make a fresh start.''
Pakistanis welcome peace bus but say Kashmir problem remains
Agence
France Presse, 4/8/2005
As
the tears of joy began to dry, Pakistanis began asking Friday what the historic
trans-Kashmir bus service really meant for relations with India and for the
future of the divided territory. Pakistani newspapers and politicians focused
on whether the link launched on Thursday would help resolve the rancorous
58-year-old dispute with New Delhi over Kashmir, which has already caused two
of their three wars.
"This is the first concrete manifestation of repeated declarations by
leaders in India, Pakistan and Kashmir that they want the LoC (Line of Control,
the de facto border in Kashmir) to become a line of peace," said an
editorial in Dawn, Pakistan's oldest English language newspaper. "At the same time, such gestures cannot
be a substitute for a determined political effort to tackle the Kashmir problem
and other knotty issues that divide Pakistan and India."
The News, another major national daily, was more positive, headlining extensive
coverage of the event: "Peace wins the day". It hit out at militant
attempts to sabotage the bus service, and praised the Indian and Pakistani
governments for pushing ahead with the link despite threats of violence. "It
will send an unambiguous message to the shadowy groups that there will be now
bowing to terrorism," it said.
Heavy security surrounded the departure of the buses after suicide attackers
struck a passenger shelter in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-held Kashmir, on
Wednesday, the day before the buses set off. But they failed to prevent
Kashmiris from both sides crossing the Line of Control and enjoying emotional
reunions with loved ones.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri described the bus service as a
"landmark development", but added that "more such measures are
needed for the lasting solution of the Kashmir problem." The bus is the
most high-profile in a series of so-called confidence building measures
launched by New Delhi and Islamabad as part of their 14-month-old peace
process.
Others have included the restoration of diplomatic ties and other road, rail
and air links, many of which were severed when the two countries came to the
brink of war in 2002. However there has been no substantive progress on their
arguments over Kashmir, which India and Pakistan hold in part but claim in
full.
"The start of the bus service has renewed the focus on the core issue of
Kashmir with the world print and electronic media highlighting this latest
development," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid was quoted as saying by
the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.
Kashmir
Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Kashmir
Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
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Germany's
Fischer 'optimistic' on Kosovo status talks
Llazar
Semini, Associated Press, 4/5/2005
German
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Tuesday he was "optimistic"
about resolving the status of Kosovo, but that the province needed first to
ensure minority rights. The province in Serbia-Montenegro has been under U.N.
control following the 1998-99 war that left about 10,000 people dead. NATO
bombed Serb forces to end Belgrade's crackdown on majority ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo.
"We are at the beginning of discussion of Kosovo's future status,"
Fischer said after attending a meeting of Balkan foreign ministers. "We
believe that the international community and the parties on the ground will
stick to the spirit of compromise and reconciliation. We are optimistic." Kosovo's
majority ethnic Albanians seek full independence from Serbia, while Belgrade
insists Kosovo should remain within Serbia-Montenegro, the successor to the
former Yugoslavia, but enjoy broad autonomy.
The meeting Tuesday in Durres, 33 kilometers (20 miles) west of Tirana, was
attended by foreign ministers from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia,
Macedonia, Serbia-Montenegro and Germany. The U.N. mission in Kosovo has said
status talks can start only when the province's administration complies with EU
standards on minorities and governance. Violence and tensions persist in
Kosovo, with attacks often targeting the dwindling Serb minority and
threatening to deepen the ethnic divide.
Also at issue is the fate of hundreds of people still missing from the war, the
return of Serb refugees and energy supply issues. "The regional and direct
neighbors can and must play an important role in improving the Kosovo
standards," Fischer said. Vuk Draskovic, foreign minister of
Serbia-Montenegro, said: "The solving of the Kosovo issue is the most
important for the stability of my country, of the western Balkans and of all
states in the region."
Belgrade will promote a "very intensive" dialogue with Albanian
authorities, he said. "We want international guarantees for the present
status of our borders." Albania Foreign Minister Kastriot Islami repeated
Tirana's stand of abiding by the solution chosen from the international
community on Kosovo, also respecting the will of the Kosovo people.
Reading a joint press release, Islami said the meeting had confirmed all
participants "share the same views on the necessity to deepen the overall
reforms for the fulfillment of the required standards for NATO and EU
membership." Earlier Tuesday, interior ministers and top officials of
Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania,
Serbia-Montenegro and Turkey met in Tirana to discuss a common platform on
migration, asylum and refugee issues.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo
Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
Return to Index
_____________________________________________________________
Liberia
Liberian
rebels who fled to Sierra Leone in 2002 return home
Jonathan
Paye-Layleh, Associated Press, 4/6/2005
Scores
of Liberian rebel fighters forced to flee into neighboring Sierra Leone three
years ago returned home across the Mano River Bridge Wednesday, greeted by
crowds of dancing and cheering Liberians. United Nations and Liberian officials
welcomed 144 rebels who arrived by truck at the border town of Bo, 120
kilometers (72 miles) northwest of Monrovia, the capital. They are the first of
nearly 500 Liberian fighters to be repatriated this month.
Jacques Paul Klein, the U.N. special representative to Liberia, said their
country was becoming stable after 14 years of civil war and strife and that
they should prepare for elections scheduled in October. "You will be
voting for the first time in a quarter of a century," he said to lengthy
applause from the group. Klein thanked the government of Sierra Leone for being
"a government that rather than close its doors opened them" to the
fleeing people.
One of the returning fighters, 41 year-old Alex Roberts, said his group was
coming home with skills learned at camps in Sierra Leone. "Let me assure
you that postwar Liberia can now boast of strong, viable and competitive
entrepreneurs," he said, adding that the fighters had learned carpentry,
masonry, soap-making and tailoring to help them return to civilian life.
Roberts said most of them had fought for Charles Taylor, who started Liberia's
war in 1989, made himself president and then fled into exile as other rebels
besieged the capital in 2003. "We have come as peace ambassadors to turn a
new page; war is never the answer or the solution," said Roberts, wearing
a T-shirt promoting disarmament.
Liberia has started repatriating some 300,000 civilian refugees who fled to
Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast.
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Greece
says U.N.-proposed name for Macedonia can be basis for negotiations
Associated
Press, 4/8/2005
Greece
said Friday that a name proposed by a United Nations envoy for Macedonia
"does not fully satisfy" the Greek side in the decade-old dipuste,
but said it could form the basis for further negotiations. Athens has argued
that the country's use of the name Macedonia implies territorial claims toward
Greece - which has a northern province with the same name.
Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis said American diplomat Matthew Nimitz, a
U.N. special envoy and mediator in the dispute, proposed that the two sides
agree on the use of "Republica Makedonija-Skopje" for Macedonia's
representation in the United Nations and other world bodies. He said that, under the proposal, the name
would not be translated.
"This proposal does not fully satisfy our wishes and aims,"
Molyviatis said after briefing Greek party leaders. He said there were several
points in the proposal that needed to be clarified. "In these negotiations
we are willing with a positive and constructive spirit," Molyviatis said.
"We believe that it forms the basis for negotiation."
Macedonia, which gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, joined the United
Nations in 1993 under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to
sidestep Greek objections. Athens uses the U.N. acronym FYROM, as do international
organizations. Macedonia also expressed doubts Friday over the U.N. proposal,
with Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski saying the country's official position
remained the same - "Republic of Macedonia" for international use and
a "mutually acceptable solution for bilateral communication with
Greece."
"Our position is clear. The double formula is on the table ... It's a
bigger compromise than the one which Greece is now playing games with,"
Buckovski told reporters in Skopje. Greece has warned it would block Macedonia
from joining NATO or the European Union unless the dispute is resolved. Greece
is both a member of the EU and NATO.
Return to Index
Despite
thaw, reopening frontiers between Morocco and Algeria could take months
Associated
Press, 4/5/2005
Reopening
the land border between Algeria and Morocco could take months, even though both
sides have lifted visa restrictions as part of a thaw in relations, the
Algerian president said Tuesday. Algeria announced Saturday that Moroccans
would no longer need visas, a "good will" gesture responding to a
similar Moroccan announcement last year covering visas for Algerians.
Nevertheless, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is visiting France,
said that reopening the frontier between the two North African neighbors
"will require many months." Morocco unilaterally imposed visa
requirements for Algerians after a 1994 attack that targeted a Marrakech hotel.
Morocco accused Algerian secret services of involvement. Algeria responded by
closing the land border.
Behind the dispute was another decades-old disagreement over the Western Sahara
territory, which Morocco annexed in 1975 and claims as its own. Polisario Front
rebels, based in southern Algeria, have declared it an independent state. Bouteflika,
who spoke after lunching with French President Jacques Chirac, reiterated
Algeria's position that the Western Sahara should be dealt with via the United
Nations.
Bouteflika and the king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, took a step toward easing
tensions by meeting late last month on the sidelines of an Arab summit in
Algeria.
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Nepal's
ousted politicians step up efforts to restore democracy
Shusham
Shrestha, Agence France Presse, 4/5/2005
Efforts
by Nepal's ousted politicians to restore democracy will be put to the test from
Wednesday when three days of protests are planned against the King Gyanendra's
sacking of the government and imposition of emergency rule. Ex-prime minister
Sher Bahadur Deuba, the president of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) (NCD),
who was released from house arrest last month, tried Monday to meet the general
secretary of the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML)
Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Nepal has been under house arrest along with several of his senior party
colleagues since the February 1 royal power grab. Security guards kept Nepal
inside his house and Deuba failed to meet him, but he vowed to pursue his
efforts and to consult across the political spectrum. Police forcefully removed journalists at the
scene, tearing up notebooks and erasing video recordings.
"I am going to launch a strong protest against the undemocratic practices
and I will consult all the party leaders in this connection," Deuba told
reporters. The king dismissed his four-party coalition government for failing
to hold general elections and to tame the Maoist insurgency that has claimed
more than 11,000 lives since 1996.
On Sunday, Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, also a former prime
minister, and Deuba held talks for the first time since the royal takeover. They
agreed to set up a joint mechanism to re-unite the two parties, a party source
said. Deuba's party split from the Nepali Congress in May 2002 after the king
dissolved the 205-member elected parliament on his own recommendation.
"The two leaders agreed to unite without any pre-conditions and push
forward the democratic movement," the source said. "If they unite, it
will be an effective force to resolve the current political crisis in
Nepal," said political analyst Surendra Bahadur Pradhan. Securitymen
arrested the vice president of the Nepal Student Union (NSU), Pradip Poudel,
and student leader Dharma Khanal when they tried to meet Koirala.
Koirala, 82, Saturday used his first day of freedom after two months of house
arrest to demand the king restore democracy immediately if he wanted to defeat
the Maoist insurgency. "The parliament must be reinstated by the king
which will activate the constitution and, after that, an all-party government
can be formed which will tackle the Maoist problem," Koirala said at his
first press conference since his release Friday evening.
Koirala said the king should reverse his decision to sack the government and
accept a role as a constitutional monarch as outlined in the country's 1990
constitution. "Now what we want is a complete democracy," Koirala
said. Koirala's Nepali Congress and the
NCP-UML, both part of the sacked government, said they would join hands with
three opposition parties -- the Nepali Congress (Democratic), the People's
Front Nepal, and the pro-India Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) -- to
protest the king's takeover.
The five parties Saturday announced three days of mass demonstrations in
Lalitpur on the southern outskirts of the capital Kathmandu from Wednesday to
Friday. In his first speech since February 1, the king on Monday justified his
power grab and rallied the Nepalese army to the fight the insurgency "Terrorism cannot be an alternative to
democracy," the king told new officers in the Royal Nepal Army at
Kharipati on the eastern outskirts of Kathmandu.
He said the army had been mobilized to maintain and guarantee the
constitutional and fundamental rights of the people and to control terrorism
amid a general strike by the Maoists that has forced the government to impose a
curfew on some highways and ban travel on major roads without armed escort.
Return to Index
Malaysian
FM to meet MILF leaders after ASEAN meeting: official
Agence
France Presse, 4/8/2005
Malaysian
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar will meet senior leaders of the Philippines'
largest Muslim separatist group in southern Mindanao next week, an official
said Friday. "The foreign minister hopes to gather (a) first hand view of
the situation on the ground during his meeting with MILF leaders," a
government official familiar with the plan told AFP.
The official said the meeting was scheduled for April 12 in Cotabato city in
Mindanao immediately after the Southeast Asian foreign ministers meeting in the
central resort city of Cebu. Peace talks between the Philippines government and
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are expected to resume in Malaysia on
April 16. A ceasefire was signed last year between Manila and the MILF.
The MILF has been waging a separatist rebellion for an independent Islamic
state on southern Mindanao island since 1978 but opened preliminary peace talks
with the government in 2003. Syed Hamid would also meet with the international
monitoring team in Mindanao which began its ceasefire monitoring duties last
October. The 64-member mission is led by Malaysia. It also includes Brunei and
Libya.
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EU,
Serbia and Montenegro reach deal to end constitutional crisis
Agence
France Presse, 4/7/2005
European
Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the leaders of Serbia and
Montenegro reached an accord Thursday to overcome a constitutional crisis in the
loose union, a key condition for the Balkans country to move forward on its
path towards EU membership. The agreement foresees changes in the union's
Constitutional Charter so the mandates of incumbent deputies in the federal
parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, which expired in March, can be extended
until new elections are held.
The parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, a EU-backed loose union that replaced
former Yugoslavia in March 2003, was elected indirectly by member states for a
two-year mandate. But leaders of Serbia and Montenegro have failed until now to
agree when and how to elect a new one. The
breakthrough was necessary for Serbia and Montenegro to win a positive
feasibility study from the European Commission, due next week, which then would
open the doors for negotiations on a Stabilization and Association agreement
with the EU, the first step towards full membership.
"In the last period of time we had to overcome a good number of
difficulties to begin the process of getting Serbia and Montenegro closer to
the EU," Solana told reporters after the accord was signed. "I think
that today we have overcome one that will be the last," he added. Under
the agreement, new deputies for the 126-seat parliament of Serbia and
Montenegro will be elected separately in two republics, at the polls held for
their parliaments.
Regular parliamentary elections in Montenegro are due in early 2006, and in
Serbia in late 2007. By reaching the accord "we have proved full
commitment to our European goals and made another step forward towards European
integrations and a positive feasibility study," said the union's president
Svetozar Marovic.
Along with Solana and Marovic, the accord was signed by the presidents of
Serbia and Montenegro, Boris Tadic and Filip Vujanovic, as well as by prime
ministers of the two republics -- Serbian Vojislav Kostunica and Montenegrin
Milo Djukanovic. The timetable of new elections was a matter of dispute between
Serbia and Montenegro, as Podgorica insisted the polls be held after a referendum
on independence, allowed by the constitutional charter three years after the
establishment of the union.
Under the 2002 EU-brokered accord, Serbia and Montenegro agreed to stick
together in a new union called "Serbia and Montenegro" but give their
respective goverments much wider powers of autonomy. Under the deal,
Montenegro's pro-independence leadership agreed to remain in the union with
Belgrade until at least 2006, after which time it may opt out.
Serbia and Montenegro have been uneasy partners in what was left of Yugoslavia
following the bloody breakup in the 1990s of the federation that once also
included Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia. Montenegro has a
population of 650,000, compared to Serbia's eight million.
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Delegation
visits Mogadishu to negotiate Somali government move to the capital
Osman
Hassan, Associated Press, 4/6/2005
A
delegation from Somalia's interim parliament arrived in Mogadishu on Wednesday
on a fact-finding mission to determine if the new government can relocate from
neighboring Kenya to Somalia's battered capital. Hundreds of women and children
welcomed the delegation, led by deputy speaker Osman Elmi Boqorreh, while
dozens of battle wagons filled with armed men provided security at the airport,
just outside Mogadishu.
Two cabinet minister and 24 members of the parliament, which has been based in
Nairobi, Kenya, were in the delegation. After
years of negotiations, Somalia's warlords, clan leaders and business people
formed a new parliament and government in October 2004. But they have been
unable to move from Nairobi to Mogadishu because of security concerns in the
anarchic capital.
Somalia's last effective central government collapsed in 1991 when clan-based
militias overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The militia leaders, though,
turned on one another and the Horn of Africa nation has been divided into warring
fiefdoms. Most of the warlords have taken up key posts in the new government,
but disagreement over whether it should return to Mogadishu, or set up in
another town, along with questions over deploying foreign peacekeepers, have
already divided the new parliament.
Mogadishu-based parliamentarians have already negotiated for the use of the one
remaining building in the capital capable of housing the new government, the
420-room Socialist Party headquarters occupied by Barre prior to his downfall. The
next step is to guarantee the new government's safety, Boqorreh said. "We're
working for the improvement of the security situation in the capital so that
our government can have a peaceful environment," he added.
The majority of people in Mogadishu belong to the Hawiyeh clan, which has
created concern among militia leaders who belong to other clans. The
Ethiopian-backed president and allied lawmakers have proposed taking the
government to the towns of Baidoa and Jowhar. President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed
has also proposed bringing in African peacekeepers to protect his government
and disarm the militias in Mogadishu, another proposal adamantly opposed by
some warlords.
A militia opposed to the Baidoa plan violently took over that town last week
and Islamic fundamentalists have threatened to attack any foreign peacekeepers
who enter Somalia. Boqorreh, however, remained optimistic. "These
differences are not major ones, they can be solved," Boqorreh said.
"We can manage our people and then welcome the rest of the Somali
government ministers and members of parliament in Mogadishu."
Exiled
Somali MPs press for peace in war-torn Mogadishu
Agence
France Presse, 4/6/2005
A
delegation of Somali MPs arrived in Mogadishu Wednesday to press warlords in
the bullet-scarred capital for an end to the violence that is preventing the
country's transitional government from relocating here from exile in Kenya. "Our
mission is to support the peace effort to pacify Mogadishu and help the
complete relocation of the government to its capital after a long stay in
Kenya," said delegation leader Osman Boqore, the deputy parliament
speaker.
His 29-strong team came to the city amid a fierce dispute within the government
and parliament over where the administration should set up shop when it
eventually moves from Nairobi after numerous unmet deadlines to do so. President
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and prime minister Mohammed Ali Gedi have proposed moving
the government to the towns of Baidoa and Jowhar due to continued insecurity in
Mogadishu.
But warlords controlling the capital and their allies are opposed and last
month a fist-fight broke out in parliament over the matter which has
complicated an already controversial African Union-backed plan to support the
government with a regional peacekeeping force.
Last week, after Mogadishu's chief warlords pledged to disarm their armed
militia and send them to demobilisation camps, another delegation of Somali MPs
made a visit similar to Boqore's but no results have yet to be seen. The Horn
of Africa country has been in chaos without any functioning central authority
since the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned the nation into
a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by warlords.
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Truce
monitors to begin investigations into suspected rebel attack on Sri Lankan
naval ship
Associated
Press, 4/6/2005
European
cease-fire monitors said Wednesday they will visit eastern Sri Lanka, where
Tamil Tiger rebels allegedly fired on a navy ship violating a three-year truce.
Military officials said the rebels Tuesday fired at a ship carrying a truce
monitor close to a key harbor in eastern Sri Lanka. There were no injuries. Helen
Olafsdottir, a spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, said
investigators on Thursday will visit the site of the shooting in Upparu, in
eastern Trincomalee district, 230 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of the
capital, Colombo.
She said the monitors have raised the incident with the rebels' political
office, though they are still unable to confirm if the Tigers were behind the
attack. An insurgent Web site Tuesday denied involvement in the shooting. The
guerrillas began fighting in 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic
minority Tamils, who accuse the majority Sinhalese of discrimination. The
conflict killed more than 65,000 people before the 2002 cease-fire.
Hiccups
hold up tsunami aid deal with Tigers in Sri Lanka
Agence
France Presse, 4/7/2005
Sri
Lanka's warring parties have yet to agree on how to disburse millions of
dollars in foreign aid for tsunami survivors more than three months after the
disaster, a senior minister admitted Thursday. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar
said there was no deal so far on a mechanism to handle tsunami relief in the
island's embattled northeast and the government awaited a response from the
rebels.
The government had to work with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) in the troubled regions because the writ of the state did not apply
there on a "day to day basis," the minister said. "In this situation, we have to deal with
an organisation (LTTE) that you would not normally like to deal with,"
Kadirgamar told reporters.
He said the government's own machinery could not function freely in rebel-held
areas without the approval of the guerrillas. Kadirgamar said some of the rebel
leaders who were handling the proposed "joint mechanism" were out of
the country. "We would have to wait for them to return." He said
donors wanted an equitable distribution of the aid and the government had no
intention of hijacking the relief work. The December 26 tsunamis killed nearly
31,000 people and left a million homeless in Sri Lanka.
Kadirgamar had announced two weeks ago that efforts with the LTTE following the
tsunamis were focused on relief rather than reviving the Norwegian-brokered
peace talks stalled since April 2003. Both sides had broadly agreed to
establish a federal state in Sri Lanka to resolve the long-running separatist
conflict which had claimed more than 60,000 lives between 1972 and 2002. But
the negotiations remain inconclusive.
Despite the suspension of face-to-face discussions in April 2003, the two
parties are abiding by a ceasefire arranged by peace broker Norway and put in
place from February 23, 2002. Norway had expected a tsunami relief deal in
February or March, but the two sides had failed to agree on the wording of an
agreement, diplomatic sources said.
Kadirgamar said the proposed aid mechanism was merely to handle relief
operations and would not have legislative, executive or any political
authority. "There would be no sell out to the LTTE," he said. International
donors and several governments do not want to give aid directly to the Tigers
who are designated a foreign terrorist organisation in the United States,
Britain, India and several other countries.
Sri Lanka has received foreign aid commitments worth 1.5 billion dollars, about
the same amount international lending institutions say it will cost to rebuild
the infrastructure damaged by the tsunamis.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri
Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
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Militia
groups threaten new-found peace in southern Sudan
Bogonko
Bosire, Agence France Presse, 4/8/2005
Militia
groups in southern Sudan are threatening to wreck a fragile peace that has
emerged nearly three months after Khartoum and the region's main rebel force
inked a deal to end 21 years of war, residents and aid workers said Friday. About
30 such groups, unaffected by the January 9 peace deal signed by Khartoum and
the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), continue to terrorize
Upper Nile state, attacking villages here, collecting illegal taxes and
abducting locals, they said.
"Peace has been signed, but the presence of militiamen disturbs us,"
said John Kuol Nhial, who was tortured by the fighters in 2001 as they battled
the SPLA for control of this town on the River Zerati, a main tributary of the
White Nile. "They are a threat," he told reporters in Old Fangak,
opening his mouth to reveal missing teeth that he said were removed by the
militia during the struggle in which two of his three children were killed and
the other fled.
"These are very dangerous people, they can eliminate you," said
Father Antonio Labraca, an Italian missionary who has lived in Sudan for 20
years working on educational and development projects. Under the
Khartoum-SPLM/A peace accord, the two sides have a year from the signing day to
integrate southern Sudan's militia into their respective armies and
organizations but there are fears the move will fuel inter-clan conflicts in
the south.
Already, there has been resistance. In February, gunmen loyal to militia
commander Gabriel Tanginya briefly evicted the SPLM/A from Akobo town, a dusty
outpost near the Ethiopian border, but were then routed leaving behind scores
of dead and wounded and horrific destruction. And residents say militia
checkpoints where transportation taxes are demanded dot the 120-kilometer
(75-mile) stretch of cratered road between Old Fangak and the government
garrison town of Malakal.
As there are few vehicles, the roadblocks make the already difficult trip -- a
three-day walk usually with livestock to pay for goods, medical services and
bribes -- even more treacherous. The checkpoints also compound problems
stemming from far worse militia activity: the abductions and conscription into
their ranks of villagers who are forced to serve as fighters, porters and human
shields.
"Others are lured in with promises of mosquito nets and blankets,"
said Peter Nut, a middle-aged Nuer herder who explained that people were
susceptible to such tricks due to the dangers posed by malaria. As he spoke
with visible fear of the militia, others nodded gravely in agreement. "They
use the captives as human shields should somebody attack militia
positions," said Labraca the missionary, adding that even if the hostages
are rescued they often remain isolated from their families.
Several Old Fangak residents said their wives and children were abducted by the
militia in 2001 and, though later freed, refuse to return home from the
relative safety of Malakal fearing they will be recaptured en route. "They
are scared to come back," said Peter Ruai, who has not seen his wife and
child for the past four years and has communicated with them only through
letters delivered by the International Committee for the Red Cross.
Klaus Stieglitz, a human rights worker with the German charity Sign of Hope
that does work in Old Fangak and other areas of southern Sudan said the
continued presence of the militia here amounted to abuse. "Restricting
freedom of movement by imposing fear amounts to violation of human
rights," he said. "Something should be done about the militia if the
implementation of the peace deal is to be effective."
However, retired Kenyan army general Lazaro Sumbeiywo, who mediated the
north-south peace negotiations, urged patience in nurturing the agreement,
arguing that an end to militia activity in southern Sudan, like other elements
of the accord, would require hard work. "It is like a baby, you have to
nurture him until he grows and behaves well," he told AFP.
Sudan
to use deal with south to end conflict in Darfur
Agence
France Presse, 4/7/2005
Sudan's
ruling party and its former enemies in the southern Sudan People's Liberation
Movement pledged Thursday to use a peace agreement signed in January to end the
conflict in the western Darfur region. They
made the pledge during a reception in Khartoum that Vice President Ali Osman
Taha of the ruling National Congress party held in honor of an SPLM delegation
visiting Khartoum to discuss how to implement the deal.
"We are determined to protect and implement the peace agreement,
strengthen our partnership with the National Congress and work together to find
a solution to the Darfur problem on the basis of what has been agreed upon in
the peace agreement," said SPLM Secretary General James Wani. The agreement Khartoum signed with the SPLM
addressed many of the grievances of the south and contained specific mechanisms
for power- and wealth-sharing as well as granting greater autonomy to
southerners.
Khartoum and the SPLM hope the model can be used to bring peace to Darfur,
where some 300,000 people have died and nearly 2.4 million displaced in more
than two years of conflict with ethnic minority rebels. "The Darfur
problem can be solved through peaceful negotiations if there is the
determination that has contributed to reaching the peace agreement for the
south," said Wani.
Taha agreed and reiterated his government's "resolve and seriousness in
finding political solutions to all problems of the Sudan, including those of
Darfur and the east". Like their counterparts in Darfur, ethnic minority
rebels in the eastern states of Red Sea and Kassala complain of marginalisation
by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.
Taha said the peace agreement with the south "has become a basic document
acceptable to all sectors of the Sudanese people and approved by all of the
country's political institutions". He added: "We are resolved to
reach a peaceful settlement to the Darfur problem through negotiations." Khartoum
and Darfur's two main rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the
Justice and Equality Movement have held at least two rounds of unsuccessful
talks under the auspices of the African Union.
Sudan
Rejects U.N. Resolution on Darfur
Mohamed
Osman, Associated Press, 4/4/2005
The
Sudanese government on Sunday rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution that
empowers the International Criminal Court to prosecute the alleged perpetrators
of atrocities in the Darfur conflict. President Omar el-Bashir led a Cabinet
meeting that denounced Friday's resolution and appointed a committee to work
out "how to deal with this situation," acting Information Minister
Abdel-Basit Sabdarat told state-run Radio Omdurman. El-Bashir will head the
committee, he added.
While government officials and the ruling National Congress party had condemned
the resolution, Sunday's announcement was the first time the government had
given its official view since the Security Council passed the resolution by
11-0 votes with four abstentions. The western Sudanese region of Darfur has
been the scene of what the United Nations has called the world's worst
humanitarian crisis. An estimated 180,000 people have died in the upheaval and
about 2 million others have been displaced since the conflict began in February
2003.
The resolution was the first time that the Security Council had referred a case
to the International Criminal Court, a tribunal the United States opposes. The
resolution was carefully worded to secure a U.S. abstention instead of veto. U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised the passage of the resolution as lifting
"the veil of impunity that has allowed human rights crimes in Darfur to
continue unchecked."
Sudan argues it is capable of bringing to justice those responsible for rights abuses
in Darfur. But the world does not accept this, partly because a U.N. panel that
investigated the conflict found the government itself was implicated in mass
killings in Da