PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, August 2, 2004
(Volume III, Number 30)
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, August 2, 2004
(Volume III, Number 30)
Contents:
Afghanistan
Most Afghans sign up to vote Over 90 % of eligible Afghans are registered for October election.
Mutinous
Former Burundian rebels rejoin government two months after pulling out of transitional administration Most rebel demands have been met.
Russia vows fair Chechnya vote after barring top challenger Alkhanov preferred candidate of Putin.
Security Council extends peacekeeping mission in Congo for two months Security Council deeply concerned by continuation of hostilities.
Security Council criticizes lack of progress toward peace between Georgia, Abkhazia Abkhazia criticized for refusal to discuss basic principles.
Georgia, South Ossetia accuse each other of starting overnight gunfire 80% of South Ossetian residents hold Russian passports.
New clashes kill seven in
Ivory Coast peace process back in the spotlight with Accra summit Annan encourages leaders to give up individual ambitions.
Ivory Coast's warring parties recommit to peace process at Ghana talks New target dates for implementation of peace deal set.
Violence was to bring
Kosovo
Government advises Kosovo's Serbs to boycott October parliamentary elections Serbs discouraged from voting because of security concerns.
Kosovo ex-PM in exile accuses government of corruption Bukoshi takes note of nepotism in Kosovo government.
One last roar: Ex-president's pet lion leaves war-scarred Liberia Lion handed over to British charity.
Opposition lawmakers accuse government of planning to artificially change ethnic makeup of capital Law would give ethnic Albanians more autonomy.
Government calls for postponement of local elections in
Moldova's language dispute raises fear of new fight with separatists Orphans at boarding school in Transnistrian capital worried of future.
Small change helps US fight terror in southern Philippines USAID funding small projects in
Milosevic, prosecutors reject simplifying his war crimes trial to speed it up Judges may force Milosevic to accept defense lawyer, to speed up case.
Serbia-Montenegro requests extradition of key suspect in prime minister's assassination Milenkovic captured in
Local vote in
Peace talks mediator calls for sanctions against Somali warlord Sanctions would deny warlord access into any IGAD country.
Sri Lanka says it's willing to discuss Tamil rebels' self-rule demand Norwegian envoy disturbed about recent violence.
Tigers accuse
Sudan government on alert, vows to resist any Darfur intervention Agriculture minister vows war if international soldiers enter
Text of U.N. Resolution on Sudan Draft resolution sponsored by US and
Sudan cabinet to give Khartoum's response to UN resolution on Darfur Sudan would have thirty days to settle conflict in
Peace Negotiations Watch is prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group in cooperation with American University and is made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Most Afghans sign up to vote
Victoria Burnett, Financial Times (London), 8/2/04
More than 90 per cent of eligible voters in Afghanistan have registered to take part in October's presidential election, but persistent security problems in the southern provinces still threaten to prevent ethnic Pashtuns in parts of the south from taking part in the historic vote. The United Nations, which began wrapping up voter registration at the weekend, said 8.7m Afghans, from an estimated voting population of 9.6m, had signed up to vote on October 9 when the country will hold its first direct election for president. About 40 per cent of registered voters were women, the UN said. "Participation has been amazing," said David Singh, a spokesman for the UN in Kabul. "There was a lot of scepticism at the beginning. . . but I think there has been a healthy response."
A violent campaign by militants loyal to the ousted Taliban regime has hindered election workers' access to parts of the south and east, kindling concerns that some of the region's largely ethnic Pashtun population will be left out on election day. Militant attacks, which have killed nine election workers, were a factor in delaying the presidential vote from June to October and putting off parliamentary elections until spring. One of the provinces worst affected is Zabul in the south. It is plagued by guerrilla attacks and clashes between militants and the US-led coalition or pro-government forces. Fewer than 18,000 people from an estimated voting population of 112,000 have registered, though registration rates reach 60 per cent in some Pashtun areas. Afghan officials and western representatives have warned that low Pashtun participation could aggravate an ethnic division between the north and south that came to the fore at a loya jirga to create a new constitution in January.
Analysts say President Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun, who has strong US backing, needs the southerners' vote to win a solid victory, especially since two of his most prominent rivals - Yunis Qanooni, an ethnic Tajik who resigned as his education minister last week, and Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek commander - will draw support from northern minority groups. More than 20 candidates have registered to compete for the presidency. Aykut Tavsel, a spokesman for the joint UN-Afghan election commission, said voter registration sites would continue to operate in areas that have fallen behind, despite the official end of registration. The proportion of women registered in the south ranged from 6 per cent in Uruzgan province to 34 per cent. The average across the country was 40 per cent.
South Africa's Zuma vows to continue Burundi talks on power-sharing
Agence France Presse, 7/27/04
Despite repeated setbacks over agreeing a new power-sharing constitution for Burundi, South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma said Tuesday talks with Tutsi party representatives would continue. Zuma, the chief mediator in bringing about an end to more than a decade of war in the central African country, made the announcement after meeting officials from the main Tutsi party, the Union for National Progress (UPRONA). UPRONA had last week rejected Zuma's power-sharing formula as favoring the majority Hutus, who make up 85 percent of Burundi's population, during talks in Pretoria. On Monday five Tutsi parties, among them UPRONA, walked out of a meeting with Zuma in Bujumbura, accusing Zuma of not listening to them. Zuma has been in the capital since Monday in an attempt to explain the Pretoria discussions, which involved Burundi's three main parties, among them UPRONA.
"They do agree with what we call a global agreement, but there are specific issues which to them are outstanding," he told a news conference. "They (UPRONA) need engagements still with other parties and the facilitator, and we've agreed that," he added. Party president Jean-Baptiste Mawangari said he welcomed the fact that dialogue would continue, telling AFP "this is what we've asked for all along." Burundi is trying to put a decade of war fuelled by ethnic rivalries between its Tutsi minority and Hutu majority behind it. The conflict has claimed more than 300,000 lives and devastated the country's economy and infrastructure. Only one rebel group is still active.
Mutinous Burundi prisoners threaten a leading political party
Esdras Ndikumana, Agence France Presse, 7/31/04
A group of prisoners taking part in a jailhouse revolt in Burundi to protest at prolonged detention, often without trial, have warned a leading political party of dire "revelations" about its role in ethnic massacres. Thirty-three of the thousands of protesting inmates at six of the country's 11 jails wrote to Jean Minani, the head of the main party representing the Hutu majority, threatening "revelations which ... will have very serious consequences for the current peace process".
Their letter, a copy of which was sent Saturday to AFP, told the president of the Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) that if the party failed to help them they would reveal what they called the truth about the massacres that plunged the country into civil war almost 11 years ago. "We hope that you're going to take a responsible attitude and plead in our favour (...), otherwise the revelations we are going to publish will have very serious consequences not just for the current peace process, but also for the political future and even the lives of some senior officials," said the letter, dated July 25.
"We have been in prison for 10 years, some us sentenced to death like me, but we have tightly kept the secret of who ordered the massacres in October 1993," Deo Nshimirimana, a former district administrator jailed in Bujumbura told AFP by telephone. About 80 percent of Burundi's 7,350 inmates have been jailed in connection with the civil war between Hutu rebels and the mainly Tutsi army, in which some 300,000 people have been killed, mostly civilians. The Burundi Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees (APRODEH) says most of the prisoners are locked up without trial in preventive detention, some for as long as 10 years.
These detainees consider themselves to be "political prisoners" and began the mutiny early last week to demand their release and protest at getting different treatment from politicians granted immunity under a peace pact signed in 2000. "Those who killed women and children should answer for their acts," FRODEBU spokesman Jean de Dieu Mutebazi said Friday. "FRODEBU will never defend anyone who has committed crimes." "We defy anyone to show that FRODEBU was responsible for the massacres that followed the death of president Ndadaye," he told AFP.
Nshimirimana responded that "the FRODEBU spokesman is mocking us; he should be trembling, him and FRODEBU, because today we're ready to let it all out of the bag." "We'll give them a few more days," he added. Since July 20, the uprising has spread to six of the small central African country's 11 jails. On Friday, four prisoners were injured and at least two arrested by paramilitary gendarmes who stormed into Bujumbura's central prison behind a cloud of tear gas to quell unrest, a prison source and a local rights organization told AFP.
The civil war was triggered by the assassination on October 21, 1993, of Burundi's first elected Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye. His murder was immediately followed by the massacre of tens of thousands of Tutsis by mobs, which led in turn to a brutal military crackdown. Tutsi parties have since accused FRODEBU of committing genocide in 1993, but the party has consistently denied it. The conflict swiftly became a civil war, which largely came to an end last year when the main rebel force reached a peace deal with the transitional government set up under an accord signed by politicians in 2000. However, a smaller rebel force remains active in the province around the capital.
Former Burundian rebels rejoin government two months after pulling out of transitional administration
Michel Rwamo, Associated Press, 7/28/04
Former Burundian rebels have taken up Cabinet posts and parliamentary seats two-months after they pulled out of the country's transitional government, saying the terms of a peace deal were being implemented too slowly. The Forces for the Defense of Democracy ended its temporary pullout from the government Tuesday because most of its demands, like more government jobs for former insurgents and the release of prisoners of war, had been met, said the group's Secretary General, Hussein Rajabu.
"It is due to this significant step forward that we resume our activities in the government and National Assembly," Rajabu said. Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesman for President Domitien Ndayizeye, said the former rebels' return to government was positive and significant because Burundi was going to start the groundwork for elections soon. The rebel group suspended its participation in Burundi's transitional government on May 3. Forces for the Defense of Democracy was Burundi's largest rebel group until last November, when it signed a comprehensive peace deal. Under the accord, the rebels, drawn largely from Burundi's Hutu majority, and agreed to integrate its forces in the a new national army and join the transitional administration, which is made up of Hutus and minority Tutsis.
Minority Tutsis have effectively run Burundi for all but a few months since independence in 1962. War broke out in 1993, when Hutus took up arms after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a Hutu. Two small rebel factions have also joined the government. A fourth rebel group, the National Liberation Forces, has refused to join the peace process, but has made pledges to halt attacks. However, fighting has continued between those insurgents and the army. Some 260,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations. But relative peace has been restored in most of the country since the Forces for the Defense of Democracy stopped fighting.
Russia vows fair Chechnya vote after barring top challenger
Agence France Presse, 7/30/04
A top pro-Moscow Chechen official vowed Friday that a fair presidential vote will be held in Chechnya next month, just a week after the Kremlin candidate's top rival was barred from the race. Seven men will contest the August 29 poll to replace Akhmad Kadyrov -- the controversial pro-Moscow leader who was killed May 9 in a bomb blast claimed by Chechen separatist rebels. Moscow's choice is the Alu Alkhanov, the republic's interior minister. He was received by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and such meetings are seen as a vital stamp of approval in Chechen elections that have been condemned as fixed by Western observers and rights groups. "There has been no censure from either the central election commission, local officials or the government," said Moscow's acting head of Chechnya, Sergei Abramov, Interfax reported. The comments from Abramov, who is not standing in the race and wields limited influence in the republic, came one day after the official start of the Chechen campaign.
The 47-year-old career police officer Alkhanov received the Kremlin's nod in mid-June and since then has been regularly appearing in news broadcasts on state controlled television, both nationally and inside Chechnya. His path to victory was made all the more certain after the central election commission in the republic barred his most serious challenger Malik Saidullayev from running in the poll. Saidullayev, a multi-millionaire who enjoys wide popular support for his humanitarian work with Chechen refugees, was also barred from standing in last year's disputed elections that were won by Kadyrov. None of Alkhanov's six challengers are widely known in Chechnya. Moscow is relying on an ally to bring the Muslim republic -- where a guerrilla war continues to simmer and claim lives on nearly a daily basis despite Kremlin statements to the contrary -- firmly under central rule. Separatists have been fighting pro-Moscow forces in Chechnya for most of the past decade. After being forced to retreat its troops at the end of the first war in 1996, Russia sent in troops again in October 1999.
Security Council extends peacekeeping mission in Congo for two months
Barbara Borst, Associated Press, 7/29/04
The Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to extend by two months its peacekeeping mission in the central African country of Congo, where violence has continued in the eastern region despite a peace agreement. The resolution said the council is "deeply concerned by the ongoing tensions and by the continuation of hostilities in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo." The mission, authorized in 1999 and known as MONUC, currently deploys more than 10,600 troops, military observers and civilian police, primarily in eastern Congo. It is the third-largest U.N. peacekeeping force, after missions in Liberia and Sierra Leone, both in West Africa.
The mission is authorized to participate in a joint verification effort announced by the presidents of Congo and of neighboring Rwanda, which has been a party to Congo's conflict, and to aid Congo's transitional government in regaining control and preparing for elections that could be held in less than two years. The mission extension follows a council decision earlier this week to continue its arms embargo on Congo for another year, until July 31, 2005.
The arms resolution asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to re-establish within 30 days a committee to investigate any violations of the embargo and said the panel should report to it before Dec. 15. The Security Council also has reiterated calls for neighboring countries not to provide "direct or indirect assistance, especially military or financial assistance," to armed groups opposed to a multiparty transitional government. U.N. experts have accused Rwanda of giving direct support to the renegade troops. Congo's war started in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda backed Congolese rebels in a bid to overthrow Congo's government, accusing it of harboring Hutu militias responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Congo has made steps toward peace, but tribal fighters still clash in the northeast Kivu and Ituri provinces. Armed factions from Hema and Lendu tribes are battling for control of land and resources, including gold, timber and coal. Large-scale fighting between the two groups in May and June 2003 killed at least 500 people, prompting the United Nations to beef up its deployment and give it an expanded mandate allowing the use of force to protect civilians. The council has banned the sale or transfer of arms and military equipment "to all foreign and Congolese armed groups and militias operating in the territory of North and South Kivu and of Ituri (provinces)."
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Security Council criticizes lack of progress toward peace between Georgia, Abkhazia
Barbara Borst, Associated Press, 7/29/04
The Security Council on Thursday called the lack of progress toward peace between Georgia and the breakaway Black Sea province of Abkhazia "unacceptable" and extended the small U.N. mission to the country for six more months. The council unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Russia, the United States, Britain and others that criticized Abkhazia on a number of points, notably its refusal to agree to a discussion on the basic principles for a settlement put forward by international mediators. Abkhazia has had de-facto independence since separatist fighters drove out Georgian forces in the mid-1990s. Some 16,000 people were killed in the war over Abkhazia and 300,000, mostly ethnic Georgians, were forced to flee their homes. The U.N. mission, first authorized in 1993, includes more than 100 troops and civilian police. The council authorized its continuation until Jan. 31, 2005.
The United Nations has spearheaded negotiations on reasserting Tbilisi's control over the region while also granting Abkhazia wide autonomy. Under the proposal, after both sides sign a nonaggression agreement, Abkhazia would rejoin Georgia but retain the right to set up its own central bank, print its own currency and have its own budget. Defense and foreign policy issues would be Georgia's prerogative. Thursday's resolution, which notes that the United Nations does not intend to dictate any specific solution, commends U.N. peace efforts backed by the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General - Russia, Britain, France, Germany and the United States - and by Georgia-Russia summit meetings. The resolution says the council "deeply regrets" Abkhazia's refusal to discuss the substance of the basic principles and regrets the province's failure to participate in the recent meeting of the United Nations and the Group of Friends.
It stresses "the urgent need for progress on the question of refugees," says Abkhazia bears particular responsibility to those returning to the area and calls on Abkhazia to improve law enforcement. The council welcomed "the commitment by the Georgian side to a peaceful resolution of the conflict" and called on both sides to dissociate themselves from militant rhetoric. The council also reaffirmed its commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and the need to define the status of Abkhazia within it.
After he won Georgia's presidential election by a landslide in January, President Mikhail Saakashvili pledged to reunite the impoverished ex-Soviet republic. He managed to bring back the restive province of Adzharia earlier this month after its authoritarian leader fled to Russia amid an increasingly heated stand off with Saakashvili. However, observers say Saakashvili will have a tougher time reining in the people of Abkhazia and another breakaway province, South Ossetia, which are linguistically separate from Georgians and have enjoyed over a decade of independence.
Georgia, South Ossetia accuse each other of starting overnight gunfire
Misha Dzhindzhikashvili, Associated Press, 7/30/04
Georgia and its separatist South Ossetia region blamed each other Friday for a night of gunfire that stoked tensions in the region. South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said the shooting in an around the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was the beginning of "a well-planned aggression" by the Georgian government, which has vowed to regain control of the region, the Interfax news agency reported. South Ossetia broke off from Georgia in an 18-month war that ended in 1992. Since then, it has been de-facto independent and has cultivated close ties with neighboring Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday issued a sharply worded statement blaming Georgia for escalating tensions. "This is dangerous playing with fire," the statement said. "Russia cannot remain indifferent when there is the issue of the security of its citizens," the statement continued. Some 80 percent of South Ossetia's residents hold Russian passports and the region's leadership wants to unite South Ossetia with Russia's neighboring republic of North Ossetia. The statement called for urgent negotiations. It didn't say if it was proposing Russian participation in such talks.
Recent weeks have seen gunfire, border blockades and the detention of Georgian policemen by South Ossetian forces. The violence Thursday night appeared to be some of the heaviest in recent weeks. Irina Gagloyeva, a spokeswoman for the South Ossetian government, accused Georgian forces of beginning the exchange by firing from Tamarasheni, a village near the capital. Four people were wounded she said. But a spokesman for Georgian police in South Ossetia, Col. Alexander Sukhitashvili, told The Associated Press that two villages came under "large-caliber weapons" fire from Tskhinvali. Two police officers were wounded, he said.
The villages are ethnic Georgian settlements that are technically within South Ossetia but are under Georgian police control. Kokoity claimed that Georgian forces, using grenade launchers and mortars, had tried to enter the northern part of Tskhinvali but were turned away, Interfax reported. He said several apartment buildings had been damaged in the firing. "Georgia is provokes the beginning of a big war, making us take responsive measure in order to accuse South Ossetia of launching a new conflict," Kokoity was quoted as saying early Friday. The head of a contingent of Russian peacekeepers, Gen. Svyatoslav Nabzdorov, told The Associated Press there was firing back and forth between Tskhinvali and Tamarasheni but there were no armed attempts to enter Tskhinvali.
New clashes kill seven in Indonesia's Aceh province
Agence France Presse, 7/27/04
Five suspected separatist rebels and two civilians have been killed in the latest violence in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province, the military said Tuesday. Two of the five Free Aceh Movement (GAM) fighters were shot dead in separate encounters on Monday, said Aceh military spokesman Asep Sapari. Troops seized an automatic rifle and ammunition from the pair, Sapari said, adding six other rebels surrendered to the military the same day. He also accused GAM of shooting dead two civilians in North Aceh district on Monday.
Soldiers shot dead three other guerrillas in Aceh Jaya district on Monday, said Candra Purnama, another Aceh military spokesman. He said troops found 30 homemade grenades and rebel flags during a raid on Monday. There was no immediate comment from GAM officials. According to military and police figures, about 2,200 rebels have been killed since May 19, 2003, when the military launched a huge operation to crush GAM after a brief truce broke down. GAM has been fighting for independence since 1976.
Separately, acting security minister Hari Sabarno said he had appointed Aceh police chief Bachrumsyah Kasman to replace suspended governor Abdullah Puteh as the top civil emergency adminstrator in the region. Puteh was questioned earlier this month by an anti-corruption commission as a suspect in the alleged mark-up in the purchase price of a 12-billion-rupiah (1.3-million-dollar) Russian helicopter for Aceh. He denies any wrongdoing.
The province bought the helicopter about two years ago for twice the price the navy paid for a similar machine, the commission says. Police have said Puteh is also being questioned as a witness over a suspected mark-up in the provincial government's 30-billion-rupiah purchase of generators. Aceh is rich in oil and gas and other resources but is one of Indonesia's poorer provinces.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Ivory Coast peace process back in the spotlight with Accra summit
Lauren Gelfand, Agence France Presse, 7/29/04
Ivory Coast's political foes will be asked to put aside personal interests to revive the flagging peace process in the west African state at a UN-sponsored summit here Thursday attended by key players from around the world's poorest continent. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and African Union chief Alpha Oumar Konare, backed by heads of state from Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, aim to build on progress made during the recent AU summit in Addis Ababa and steer the world's top cocoa producer towards free and fair elections set for October 2005.
"It is extremely important that the leaders who are coming here put their nation first and come determined to patch up their differences and forget individual ambitions," Annan said Wednesday ahead of the two-day closed-door meeting at Accra's La Palm Hotel that is also to touch on the fledgling peace in Liberia. "If they come with that spirit, I think they may surprise themselves," said Annan. Such optimism could be quashed by protagonists who seem unwilling to abandon their entrenched positions, which have destabilized the country that had until recently been a beacon of stability and economic prosperity for a troubled region.
An armed uprising against President Laurent Gbabgo in September 2002 plunged the country into war. Though guns have been mostly silent since a peace pact was signed in January last year, Ivory Coast remains divided and mired in unrest as the rebels refuse to surrender control of the country's north, with thousands of UN and French peacekeepers patrolling a so-called "confidence zone". The split has paralyzed a government of national unity that aimed to enact legislation addressing catalysts of the rebellion including the question of national identity and land ownership.
Repeated interventions, led by the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have been met with mostly-unfulfilled promises of political and military reconciliation. Such belligerence on all sides led the International Crisis Group think tank to warn in a report this month that without concerted efforts to engage Ivory Coast diplomatically there was a real risk of continued violence that could bleed across its borders, an untenable prospect for a region that has been wracked by more than a decade of brutal war.
"Gbagbo must accept that he has to share power," said Sidiki Konate, a spokesman for the rebel movement known as the New Forces. "If the UN demands that the rebels disarm without acknowledging that the president has not fulfilled his obligations, then the UN has failed to understand the situation." With an eye towards the elections, Gbagbo's ruling Ivorian Popular Front has also dug in on the question of eligibility for presidential candidates, hoping to head off a challenge by Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister who is enormously popular in the north.
Questions about his parentage that have lingered for nearly a decade have barred Ouattara, known popularly as ADO, from the last two presidential elections, including the 2000 vote that brought Gbagbo to power. Gbagbo himself was determinedly upbeat Wednesday about Ivory Coast on a short visit to the Congo Republic, though he moved to diffuse his own accountability for the tensions by hinting at a broader problem within ECOWAS. Such refusals to take responsibility will be unlikely to endear Gbagbo to his neighbors, who have begun to publicly take a tougher line in encouraging him to implement the peace accords.
A recent visit by a UN Security Council delegation hinted that targeted sanctions could be imposed should progress fail to materialize, while the possibility of an international intervention to help judge the most violent events over the past two years has not been ruled out. Though it was Gbagbo who said that the summit, known as Accra III as it is the third meeting hosted by eastern neighbor Ghana since September 2002, was the last of its kind, he was adamant Wednesday that it not be a last desperate remedy to restore peace. "When you treat a sick man, you shouldn't yell that this is the last medicine," he said. "So long as there's no healing, the treatment goes on. We are providing treatment."
Ivory Coast's warring parties recommit to peace process at Ghana talks
Akwasi Sarpong, Associated Press, 7/31/04
Parties to Ivory Coast's moribund peace process have recommitted themselves to knitting their war-divided country back together, setting new target dates for implementation of their peace deal at a summit in Ghana. In a communique published late Friday, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and the rebels behind a 2002-2003 war to overthrow him laid out specific dates for the resumption of a national-unity administration and the implementation of political reforms and a disarmament process.
"I hope the (Ivory Coast) public will force the leaders to accept this very genuine and liberal agreement and enforce it so the country will be restored to normalcy," said Ghana President John Kufuor after hosting two days of talks. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and African leaders brokered the talks in Ghana's capital, Accra, after Ivory Coast's January 2003 peace deal all but broke down this year, threatening a nascent peace spreading across West Africa. Rebel ministers have boycotted the Gbagbo-led power-sharing government and retreated to northern strongholds they captured after war sprang from a failed September 2002 attempt to oust Gbagbo.
The France-backed accord largely ended fighting and spelled out political and social reforms meant to cobble the world's largest cocoa exporter back together before 2005 elections, but little progress has been made amid traded charges of bad faith. On Friday, Gbagbo, rebel ministers and members of Ivory Coast's political parties agreed to restart the Gbagbo-led transitional government, scheduling a cabinet meeting for next week. Gbagbo promised to finally hand greater powers to his prime minister, chosen by consensus with the rebels last year, and will turn to the crucial question of electoral eligibility by the end of September.
A disarmament process to take weapons from the insurgents and government-allied paramilitary groups will begin by Oct. 15, according to the communique. A new group will monitor Friday's Accra deal, with staff drawn from a regional bloc headed by Kufuor, the African Union and the United Nations, and send biweekly reports to their organizations. From its 1960 independence from France till its first coup in 1999, Ivory Coast stood as a relative paragon of stability and economic advancement in war-riven West Africa. As nearby Liberia and Sierra Leone return to peace, giving the region its best shot at lasting peace in a decade and a half, fears are mounting that a return to all-out war in Ivory Coast would plunge the region back into crisis.
Violence was to bring Kashmir to world attention: ex-rebel chief
Izhar Wani, Agence France Presse, 7/30/04
When Javed Mir took up arms with a few other young Kashmiris in 1988 to turn Kashmir into an "independent country", he felt it was going to be a long battle. He was right. Sixteen years later, the scenic Himalayan region continues to be racked by deadly violence, despite separatist leaders like Mir having renounced bloodshed and turned to politics to pursue their cause. "We knew India was a big power and we couldn't match its army," he told AFP in an interview in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, for the 16th anniversary of the start of the conflict.
"The purpose of taking up guns was to bring the issue of Kashmir out of cold storage -- our goal was to bring world attention to Kashmir," he said. "We've succeeded in what we wanted. Now every country talks about Kashmir and presses for its resolution." But this success has come at a cost: at least 40,000 dead in rebel-related violence by the official tally and more than 90,000 killed according to the separatist toll. Mir was among nearly a dozen Kashmiris who in 1987 dodged Indian troops to cross over to Pakistan-administered Kashmir for training in a militant camp set up by the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
The following year the fighters were ready to begin their violent campaign in the Indian Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir. On the night of July 31, 1988 two bombs planted by the JKLF exploded at a telegraph office and recreation club in Srinagar. "This heralds the beginning of the freedom struggle in Kashmir," the JKLF said, claiming responsibility for the bombs that grabbed public attention but caused no casualties. The revolt did not get fully under way until late 1989 as the level of violence rose and India deployed more soldiers to suppress unrest in the region.
The spark for the insurgency is widely seen as the 1987 Kashmir state polls that even Indian government officials now acknowledge were rigged in favour of the then ruling National Conference Party. The opposition cried foul and Mir and other young separatists turned to violence. The ex-commander, who once figured on the Indian security force's list of "most wanted militants" and says he has stared death in the face at least half-a-dozen times, gave up arms in 1994, the year he was arrested in Srinagar. After his arrest, the JKLF also announced a ceasefire and vowed to wage its independence struggle on the political front. Mir, who was jailed for two years, wants unification of the Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir followed by its independence, which both South Asian nations oppose.
Kashmir was independent before the end of British colonial rule in 1947 when Britain split the subcontinent into mainly Hindu but secular India and Islamic Pakistan. After partition, Kashmir's Hindu ruler wanted the region to remain independent. But confronted with an invasion by Pakistan-backed Muslim tribesmen, he acceded to India, a move seen by critics as a betrayal of his Muslim subjects. The two nuclear rivals now hold Kashmir in part but claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over its ownership and nearly waged another two years ago. "We consider both parts of Kashmir as one," Mir said. "We don't recognise any border or Line of Control," he said, referring to the military line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
But Mir's goal of an independent, secular Kashmir looks elusive. Soon after the revolt took flight in 1989, it came under the influence of militants who wanted Indian Kashmir to be part of Pakistan. All rebel outfits now active in Indian Kashmir want it to be folded into Pakistan. Still, Mir said, he believes militant violence would cease if India "accepted Kashmir as a disputed territory and takes steps to resolve it according to the wishes of Kashmiris." But until then, he said, peace will remain elusive. India and Pakistan have begun a peace effort over Kashmir but Mir said the two nations must sit together with Kashmiris to resolve the issue under the "supervision" of a third country. "Until a third country is involved, there can be no serious talks on Kashmir." India, which sees retaining Kashmir as central to its secular identity, has consistently rejected third-party involvement.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Government advises Kosovo's Serbs to boycott October parliamentary elections
Jovana Gec, Associated Press, 7/29/04
The Serbian government urged Kosovo's minority Serbs on Thursday to boycott October parliamentary elections in the U.N.-run province because of lack of security for their dwindling community. The announcement by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica follows a series of meetings between Kosovo Serb leaders and Belgrade officials, who still play a decisive role in Kosovo Serb decision-making though they have had no control over Serbia's southern province since 1999. Kosovo's U.N. administrators gave no immediate comment to the Serb move. A Serb boycott of the Oct. 23 general elections would deal a blow to international officials struggling to create a multiethnic society.
Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since a 1999 alliance air war against the former Yugoslavia ended a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. About 10,000 people were killed, mostly ethnic Albanians. Kosovo remains tense, with some 100,000 ethnic Serbs living mostly in isolated enclaves and facing daily harassment by revengeful ethnic Albanian extremists. More than 200,000 Serbs and other minorities have fled Kosovo since the Serb defeat in 1999, according to U.N. estimates. International efforts to persuade them to return have produced few results.
In the latest violence, ethnic Albanian mobs attacked Serbs in March, burning down Serb houses and Orthodox churches. That violence claimed 19 lives and injured more than 900 people. Earlier this week, New York-based Human Rights Watch blamed the United Nations and NATO for failing "catastrophically" to protect the Serbs during the March rioting. The group accused NATO-led peacekeepers of failing to intervene to stop ethnic Albanian mobs from attacking Serbs.
On Thursday, Kostunica also accused the international administration in Kosovo of "a policy of inertness, irresponsibility and non-antagonizing the extreme ethnic Albanians." He added that a Serb boycott of the elections would force international officials to face the fact that they are creating a "monoethnic" society in Kosovo. "The Serbs have been discouraged from taking part in these elections," Kostunica said. The Serbian government has put forward a proposal that Serbs be given local self-rule in Kosovo municipalities where they form a majority. That plan has been rejected both by international officials and ethnic Albanian leaders as a de facto division of the province. Kosovo's Serbs and ethnic Albanians are deeply divided over the future status of the province. Ethnic Albanians want to turn it into an independent state, while Serbs insist it remain part of Serbia-Montenegro. The United States and its allies have said that Kosovo's final political status will be decided only after a democratic society is established in the province.
Kosovo ex-PM in exile accuses government of corruption
Agence France Presse, 7/31/04
A former prime minister in exile of Kosovo accused the government of the United Nations-run Serbian province of widespread corruption in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel to be published Monday. "All the major government parties, that of president Ibrahim Rugova too, have a structure which manipulates contracts or privatisations and is based on family connections," Bujar Bukoshi claims.
Bukoshi was a co-founder of Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and was a former prime minister of the government-in-exile of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. After the withdrawal of Serbian troops in June 1999 he returned to Kosovo. In April 2002 he founded his own party, the Kosovo New Party (NPK). "When a minister employs 200 members of his family in the state machine, he is ensuring his electoral base," Bukoshi said.
"Everywhere bribes are paid, especially for the smuggling of oil... If our justice system was working, most civil servants and ministers would have to resign." Bukoshi said the UN kept quiet "because it wants to keep the peace and not run any risk. But the main responsibility lies with our own politicians: incompetent, divided and corrupt."
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
One last roar: Ex-president's pet lion leaves war-scarred Liberia
Jonathan Paye-Leyleh, Associated Press, 7/30/04
Dethroned, deported and then declawed: What a difference a year has made for Liberia's exiled ex-President Charles Taylor. As Taylor gave up his presidency and flew from Liberia's rebel-besieged capital, Monrovia, last August, he left behind hundreds of thousands of Liberian refugees, tens of thousands of filled graves and one African symbol of his erstwhile strength: a pet lioness, Ma Juah. As Taylor's fortunes shifted and he settled into asylum in Nigeria's southern jungles, Ma Juah, age 6, stayed behind on a farm in government-controlled central Liberia.
After months sharing the privations of Liberia's 3 million people - including hunger and the death of a family member - Ma Juah joined Liberia's lucky few on Friday. Unable to care for her, Taylor's family officially handed custody of Ma Juah to a Britain-based charity, the Born Free Foundation, ceding control of an animal whose fangs and claws symbolized Taylor's power during his reign. The charity was expected to fly Ma Juah to nearby Ghana by overnight courier DHL on Friday, before sending her on to an animal sanctuary in South Africa.
"Liberia has been through a process of war, and Ma Juah got lost," said Taylor's wife, Jewel, at an official handover ceremony at Ma Juah's farm late Thursday. "My family and I are very pleased ... that she will be properly taken care of because we do not have the ability to do so anymore," she said during the festivities, repeatedly drowned out by Ma Juah's roars. Missing from the ceremony at Totota, 90 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of Monrovia, was the ex-Liberian leader, whose asylum agreement with Nigeria prohibits him from traveling home. Taylor launched Liberia into crisis in 1989 when he and a small band of followers invaded Liberia from neighboring Ivory Coast.
Taylor's movement soon splintered and Liberia became the battlefield for a brutal factional fight that would kill tens of thousands and spread into surrounding countries. In 1996, Taylor emerged the strongest warlord and in 1997 won elections arranged under a peace deal. The next year, the president of Niger gave Taylor two lion cubs, putting him in a pantheon of African leaders who associated themselves with powerful African animals. While Taylor raised Ma Juah and her brother, Philip, he enjoyed the opulent perks of Liberian leadership - fancy cars, large villas and overseas travel - as the country crumbled, fueling popular discontent. Rebels, including many former Taylor loyalists, launched their own fight in 1999. By early 2003, the insurgents had captured much of Liberia, Africa's oldest republic and until the mid-1980s one of the continent's wealthiest nations.
As the rebels shelled Monrovia and world leaders called for him to step down, Taylor capitulated Aug. 4, taking up Nigeria's offer of protection. A week later, rebels signed a peace deal as international peacekeepers deployed in the city. Nearly one year later, Liberia has grown calm and raised hopes that nearly 15 years of crisis may be in the history of a country founded in the 1800s by freed American slaves. But with Liberia in tatters - electricity and water grids smashed, schools ruined, government buildings crumbling - the population continues to suffer. Some 250,000 are estimated killed in the years of fighting. One-third of Liberia's people have been forced into relief camps. Illiteracy, AIDS and hunger thrive.
The lions, too, went hungry, Ma Juah's saddened Liberian caretakers say. After going unfed for 24 days in September, Philip died, leaving Ma Juah the sole feline on the farm. Neighbors ultimately found her, weakened and starving, and were able to get her aid, caretakers say. Ma Juah's handover ceremony drew a small crowd from a nearby relief camp swelled with tens of thousands of Liberians who fled their homes during fighting. James Kollie, one of the displaced, looked on. "This lioness and the male represented not only the power of the former president, but our traditional heritage," he said. "People who cared for it should have come here to improve the conditions in which it was living, instead of taking it away."
Opposition lawmakers accuse government of planning to artificially change ethnic makeup of capital
Konstantin Testorides, Associated Press, 7/28/04
Opposition lawmakers Wednesday accused the government of planning to "artificially" change the ethnic makeup of the capital as Macedonia's parliament debated a law that would give minority Albanians greater autonomy. A proposed law to decentralize power in Macedonia gives ethnic Albanians control in 16 of Macedonia's municipalities. The law has deeply divided the Balkan republic, sparking riots and clashes. But enacting the law is a condition for Macedonia's eventual membership in NATO and the European Union.
Angry ethnic Macedonians claim the draft, which also envisages the number of municipalities be reduced from 123 to 80, would lead to a de facto division of the country along ethnic lines. The decentralization law is in line with key provisions of the 2001 peace deal for Macedonia that ended ethnic clashes between Albanian rebels and government security forces. The rebels had agreed to disarm in exchange for more rights for their community. Ethnic Albanians make up about one-fourth of Macedonia's 2 million people. They live mostly in northwest of the country. The decentralization law would grant them self-rule in areas where they constitute a majority.
The parliamentary debate on the draft started on Monday amid heavy security and opposition protests. The parliament's approval is necessary for the draft to take effect. One of the disputed points in the draft law is a proposal to make Skopje, Macedonia's capital, a bilingual city by extending its boundaries to include several nearby ethnic Albanian villages - effectively increasing the city's expanding Albanian population from 15 percent to 20 percent.
"The government wants to artificially change the ethnic structure" of Skopje, opposition leader Nikola Gruevski said during the debate. "We don't want artificial ethnic enclaves, this proposal destroys Macedonia's multiethnicity." But Boris Kondarko, an official from the ruling Social Democrats, responded by challenging the opposition to come up with another solution that would be acceptable to all. "What do you want?" Kondarko asked. "Tell us openly that you don't want to live with ethnic Albanians. Give us a solution."
Apparently hoping to stall law's approval, opposition deputies in the assembly have lodged some 200 amendments, accusing the ruling ethnic Macedonian politicians of making concessions to the ethnic Albanians for political gains. The government hopes the law - which is backed by the EU and NATO - would be approved by Aug. 7, when the date for upcoming municipal elections is to be set. The opposition protests on Monday drew thousands of people who braved heavy rain to attend the rally in the capital Skopje.
Another demonstration last week, in the western town of Struga - which is to undergo an expansion like Skopje's, with rural areas to become predominantly ethnic Albanian - turned violent, resulting in 15 injured protesters and 24 injured policemen. Police have filed 52 criminal charges in connection with the demonstration. On Tuesday, police said additional 12 charges were filed against those believed to be behind the violence. Later Wednesday, police broke up a highway protest staged by ethnic Macedonian villagers from Oblesevo, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Skopje. Under the plan, their municipality would be included in an adjoining one. Police said they also removed village women and children who were lying on the motorway as part of the protest. It was not immediately known if anyone was hurt or detained in the action.
Government calls for postponement of local elections in Macedonia until decentralization law approved
Konstantin Testorides, Associated Press, 7/30/04
The government urged legislators Friday to postpone Macedonia's local elections from October, as the opposition stalled approval of a law to decentralize power and give ethnic Albanians more control locally. The government has been struggling to convince Macedonian opposition parties that the draft law is essential to stability, after ethnic clashes in 2001 left the country tense. The law would give ethnic Albanians control over 16 municipalities and declare the capital, Skopje, a bilingual city, while safeguarding minorities' cultural rights, including education in their own language.
Opponents argue, however, that the changes would lead to the de-facto ethnic division of the Balkan republic by giving ethnic Albanians and ethnic Macedonians control in municipalities where they form a majority. The coalition government - comprised of both ethnic Albanian and Macedonian parties - approved the measures after a six-week deadlock. Ethnic Albanians make up about one-fourth of Macedonia's 2 million population, and live mostly in the northwest of the country. The decentralization draft law would reduce the number of municipalities from 123 to 80, in some cases redrawing borders to include ethnic Albanian villages in Macedonian-dominated municipalities. In two towns, the new borders would give ethnic Albanians majority control.
The opposition has criticized the government for "artificially" changing community boundaries, and has stalled the draft's approval in Parliament by lodging some 200 amendments to the proposal. Parliament began debating the draft Monday, and had gotten through only one-fourth of the amendments by Friday, making it unlikely it would be passed by Aug. 7 - the legal deadline for the bill's approval to take effect ahead of the local elections, which take place every four years in the third week of October. The government urged Parliament on Friday to postpone the municipal vote for one month, spokesman Saso Colakovski said. There was no immediate comment from opposition. Decentralizing powers to local levels is a key provision of a Western-brokered peace plan, which ended the 2001 ethnic clashes that erupted when ethnic Albanian rebels took up arms to fight for more rights.
Moldova's language dispute raises fear of new fight with separatists
Vasile Botnaru, Associated Press, 7/30/04
Young Igor Dabija, abandoned by his parents as a child, is fighting for his home - risking eviction by militiamen along with dozens of other orphans who've holed up in their boarding school to protest its closure. The school, home to 300 orphans and needy children, is at the center of a new outburst in a decade of tension between Moldova's central government and leaders of a pro-Russia breakaway enclave. The struggle pits Dabija and other students against Russian speaking authorities who want to shut down Moldovan-language education in the separatist enclave of Trans-Dniester. Language is the main issue, but the tussle reflects a larger struggle between Slavic separatists and the rest of Moldova, which views the rebels and their self-declared republic as illegitimate. "I have to defend my school because this is where my future is," said Dabija, 15, brushing tears from his eyes.
"I don't have anything more precious in life," he said in television footage broadcast in Chisinau, the Moldovan capital. Dabija is one of about 60 students between the ages of 7 and 16 who broke into the building in the city of Tighina on Tuesday to protest its closure the night before. The breakaway region is dominated by Russian speakers drawn to Moscow instead of Chisinau and opposed to Moldovan as a language of instruction. Tensions heightened earlier this month, when leaders of the enclave shut down two of Trans-Dniester's seven Moldovan-language schools, including Dabija's, and announced they would soon shutter the rest.
The new friction has raised worries of a return to the deadly conflict of the early 1990s and has added fuel to the bigger question of Trans-Dniester's status. Valery Litskai, the enclave's self-declared foreign minister, warned from Moscow on Wednesday that Trans-Dniester may seek a referendum on whether it should join Russia. The president of neighboring Romania Ion Iliescu has asked Russia to intervene in the crisis, calling the situation "intolerable," his office in the Romanian capital Bucharest said Friday. Iliescu said he was appealing to Moscow because Russia has influence over the separatist leaders.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday calling for calm and urging both Moldova and Trans-Dniester separatists to resume negotiations. Moldova was part of Romania until it was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. It gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed. Fears that Moldova would reunite with Romania led to a 1992 war between Moldovan government forces and separatists in Trans-Dniester in which some 1,500 people were killed. Moldova and Trans-Dniester signed a peace agreement 12 years ago. Negotiations between the two started officially in 1994, involving mediators from Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
In a further escalation Thursday, militiamen broke into a high school in the northwestern city of Ribnita and arrested six teachers and parents - among the dozens of people holed up inside - for questioning. The troops then uprooted a sign designating the school as teaching in the Moldovan language and replaced it with a sign saying it taught in Russian. Besides that institution and Dabija's school, students and teachers are also occupying another school in Tighina, 45 kilometers (30 miles) east of Chisinau.
Food is delivered to all three schools by the OSCE and the United Nation's mission for children, UNICEF, and sanitary conditions are good. Still, Thursday's raid - and the presence outside the schools of militiamen and women wearing gray, Soviet-style uniforms - kept anxieties high. It was not clear if the militia members, who serve as security forces in Trans-Dniester, were armed. Leaders of Trans-Dniester have declared Moldovan a foreign language in their enclave, where 58 percent of the population speaks either Russian or Ukrainian. As such, they say, the targeted schools must register themselves as private institutions offering instruction in foreign languages. Moldovan has a Latin alphabet and is akin to Romanian, whereas Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Even though a third of Trans-Dniester's 700,000 people speak Moldovan, the schools prepared to obey the new rules. Still the closures began, without explanation. That has sparked outrage in the rest of Moldova - even in the communist government, which is usually careful not to upset Moscow.
Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin says the separatists "have all the characteristics of an international criminal group." Western and Moldovan officials have accused the enclave's authorities of illegally trading arms, gasoline and cigarettes via Ukraine. The dispute has spread past Moldova's borders. The usually diplomatic OSCE - a 55-nation organization that groups the United States, Canada, Russia and Europe's nations - speaks of "linguistic cleansing," and the Council of Europe says human rights are being violated. Moscow is a strong presence in the breakaway region - it has 1,300 troops there, a remnant of units sent during the 1992 separatist revolt. Russia has not kept a pledge to the OSCE that it would withdraw the troops and empty a Trans-Dniester depot containing 26,000 metric tons (28,660 tons) of ammunition there by 2002. Like others in his school, young Igor Dabija has no other home. His fight thus goes beyond education to an even more basic right - a roof over his head. "If this institution is closed the children will literally be out on the street," said Lidia Postarenco, the school's deputy director.
Small change helps US fight terror in southern Philippines
Cecil Morella, Agence France Presse, 7/28/04
In the US-aided battle against terrorism in the southern Philippines, victory may well turn on what the Americans call "chump change" -- small amounts of money spent on winning the hearts and minds of poor farmers. A scheme dubbed "Growth with Equity in Mindanao" focuses on small-scale projects funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) aimed at winning over the four-million Muslim minority on Mindanao island. Nestled among reed thickets and irrigation ditches, Kibayao is adjacent to the town of Carmen, which is hosting a small contingent of US military advisers training Filipino troops how better to fight Al-Qaeda linked militants.
In one recent project, US assistance of 230,000 pesos (4,100 dollars) built a modest, rectangular cemented dais the length of a basketball court that gave poor farmers in this mud-encased remote interior of Mindanao a "solar dryer" for their rice and maize harvests. The newly completed post-harvest facility should boost the annual income of 35 year-old Butch Basalon by 3.75 percent to 33,200 pesos (about 593 dollars), due to dried corn seeds fetching more at market than young corn.
The difference may only represent around 20 dollars a year for Basalon as well as for his 400-odd neighbors, but the amount is worth a week's wages in these parts and goes a long way in a country where half the population live on two dollars a day per capita. It also means he can store seed stock for his three-hectare (7.4-acre) spread, instead of having to buy seeds come the next planting cycle. "Before we had this solar dryer, we were forced to sell our fresh produce at eight pesos (1.4 US cents) a kilogram (2.2 pounds)," the Muslim father of four told AFP.
The US-funded scheme aims to help bring about and consolidate peace in Mindanao, and to assure that as many people as possible benefit from economic growth, according to the US embassy in the Philippines. A special project component lends seed money to 23,000 "unemployed-- and probably unemployable" members of the separatist Moro National Liberation Front that signed a peace treaty with Manila in 1996, said US ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone. The funds aim to help turn the former guerrillas into commercial farmers in corn, rice or seaweed culture. Washington is offering a similar project for the island's other armed guerrilla force, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, once it turns its back on rebellion. USAID extends about 70 million dollars a year to the Philippines, some of it going to Mindanao, Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said.
"They are good projects but very limited." The bigger part of US assistance to its cash-starved ally and former colony goes into helping the Philippine military. American financial and military muscle convey a soft-power/hard-power approach to draining Mindanao, a tropical island about the size of Indiana and home to around 20 million, of the swamp of poverty and separatist rebellion that makes some of its inhabitants easy recruits of militant groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
The group behind the 2002 Bali bombings and other deadly attacks across Southeast Asia has turned the interior of Mindanao into a terrorist training ground, according to the Pentagon as well as the Brussels-based security think-tank International Crisis Group. Philippine authorities suspect the extremist influence is spread through foreign Islamic religious missions that run schools and charities on the island. "The southern Philippines is like a carbon copy of the Middle East," said Norberto Gonzales, the national security adviser of President Gloria Arroyo.
"Every major country in the Middle East is funding missions in the Philippines which carries the persuasion of the particular group," he added. "It is clear that they are also being subverted," said Gonzales. A case in point is a Mindanao charity run by a brother-in-law of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, which was shut down in the 1990s due to suspicion of being a conduit for terrorist funds.
Milosevic, prosecutors reject simplifying his war crimes trial to speed it up
Toby Sterling, Associated Press, 7/28/04
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and U.N. prosecutors have rejected the idea of splitting his war crimes trial into smaller parts in order to speed it up, according to written statements filed Wednesday. Milosevic's epic trial on 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide, began in February 2002 and has stalled at the halfway point because of Milosevic's heart problems. Judges at the Hague-based tribunal have raised the idea of breaking his trial into one or more parts to separately cover conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The Judges believe that Milosevic, who is defending himself, could focus more effectively if he were to concentrate on Kosovo, where the case against him is the least complicated. Milosevic says he is innocent, but if he were convicted on some charges, it would make it easier for the court to justify keeping him detained during his long legal process. All of the tribunal's charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. But prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said Wednesday that breaking up the case didn't make sense, given that there was "the same background in each part" and many of the same witnesses would be called to testify. Ultimately, she argued, the case would take even longer.
Independent lawyers assigned to ensure Milosevic gets a fair trial said they had consulted with him and he also opposed splitting up the trial, partly because of the way the prosecution has presented its case. In their filing, they said prosecutors have based their case on the idea that Milosevic had a long-term plan to create an ethnically cleansed "Greater Serbia - a centralized Serbian state encompassing the Serb-populated areas of Croatia and Bosnia."
Therefore, they said, Milosevic "must be allowed to meet that case and call evidence that directly contradicts the way in which the case has been put." Judges are expected to rule on the idea when Milosevic's trial resumes Aug. 31. The Judges will also rule on another proposed way to speed up the process: forcing Milosevic to accept a defense lawyer. Prosecutors have long advocated that idea, but Milosevic opposes it bitterly.
Serbia-Montenegro requests extradition of key suspect in prime minister's assassination
Associated Press, 7/29/04
Serbia-Montenegro lodged a formal extradition request with Greek authorities Thursday for the return of a key suspect in last year's assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, a top official said. Dejan Milenkovic, also known by his underworld name, "Bugsy," was arrested earlier this month in the Greek port of Thessaloniki after more than 15 months on the run. Milenkovic, 34, is one of 13 paramilitary figures and crime bosses who were charged with carrying out the fatal attack on Djindjic in March 2003 in front of government headquarters in downtown Belgrade. The suspects are being tried by a Serbian special court which is handling high-profile cases. The alleged mastermind of the assassination, paramilitary commander Milorad Lukovic, surrendered to police in May.
Serbia-Montenegro Human Rights Minister Rasim Ljajic, whose ministry is handling extradition demands, told the Beta news agency that 100 pages of documentation were sent with the extradition demand to Greek authorities. Ljajic expressed hope that the Greek judiciary will be "efficient" in handling Milenkovic's case. Under Greek law, Milenkovic has the right to appeal any extradition motion. Milenkovic is believed to have been a member of the so-called Zemun Clan, the largest criminal group in Serbia. The gang allegedly controlled the drug and prostitution trade in Serbia before many of its members were arrested in a crackdown that followed Djindjic's assassination.
Milenkovic also is suspected of taking part in an earlier failed attempt to assassinate Djindjic in February 2003, when he allegedly tried to drive his truck into Djindjic's motorcade. The indictment against Djindjic's alleged assassins claims that the aim of the killing was to topple his pro-Western government, which was fighting organized crime, and to bring back to power allies of former President Slobodan Milosevic, who allowed criminal gangs to flourish.
Local vote in Serbia set for September
Associated Press, 8/1/04
Serbia's parliament speaker on Sunday scheduled municipal elections for Sept. 19, setting the stage for a key popularity test for Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's government. The popularity of Kostunica's Cabinet - which depends on the support of former President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party in the republic's parliament - has steadily declined since it took office after December general elections. Although shaken by internal rifts among coalition partners that have undermined his hold on power, Kostunica recently declared that his Democratic Party of Serbia is "ready" for the municipal vote. The last local elections were held in September 2000, when Milosevic was still in power. His opponents won most of Serbia's towns and cities.
Milosevic was toppled in a popular uprising in October 2000, and extradited the following year to the Netherlands-based U.N. war crimes tribunal. He is on trial on war crimes charges stemming from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Voters will be electing council members and mayors in most of Serbia's 161 municipalities. Mandates in municipal elections are for four years. Council members are elected by a proportional system while mayors get elected in a simple majority vote.
Peace talks mediator calls for sanctions against Somali warlord
Agence France Presse, 7/27/04
The chief mediator of the Somali peace talks in Kenya condemned Tuesday the activities of a Somali warlord and appealed to the countries of the region to apply sanctions against him for refusing to rejoin the peace process. "We call upon the whole region to apply smart sanctions against General Mohamed Siad Hersi 'Morgan', which would deny him entry into any Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) countries," IGAD Facilitation Committee chairman Bethwell Kiplagat said in a statement. Kiplagat said that repeated warnings and calls to Morgan by IGAD to rejoin the Somali National Reconciliation Conference, currently going on in the Kenyan capital, appear to have gone unheeded by the general. "The Facilitation Committee, therefore, condemn in the strongest terms possible the absence and activities of Morgan and call upon the whole region to apply smart sanctions which would, inter-alia, deny him entry into any of the IGAD countries," Kiplagat added.
He cited IGAD, African Union and UN Security Council resolutions and declarations calling upon all Somalis to participate fully in the conference and work towards peace and security and to desist from any activities running counter to the interest of reconciliation, peace and stability in Somalia. Morgan, a former strongman in southern Somalia's Juba Valley region, was deposed by the rival Juba Valley Alliance militia in 1999, but is currently believed to be organising a counter-attack to regain the region. He is the only major warlord, who signed the Somali ceasefire accord in Kenya in 2002, to be absent from the final phase of the Somali peace talks in Nairobi. He quit the Nairobi conference four months ago. Somalia has not had a recognised government, and has been ruled by clan warlords, since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
Sri Lanka says it's willing to discuss Tamil rebels' self-rule demand
Shimali Senanayake, Associated Press, 7/29/04
Sri Lanka's government took a key step toward restarting stalled peace talks with Tamil rebels on Thursday when it dropped a longstanding refusal to discuss the guerrillas' self-rule proposal, a day after a peace envoy warned new warfare could break out. The Norwegian peace envoy, Vidar Helgesen, departed Sri Lanka on Thursday after failing to revive the talks and warning that a cease-fire signed in 2002 was in jeopardy. President Chandrika Kumaratunga has repeatedly refused to hold talks with the rebels on their proposal to set up a self-rule interim authority in Tamil-majority parts of the country in the east and north unless they were linked to a final peace settlement. But Jayantha Dhanapala, the government's top official handling the peace process, said the government was now willing to discuss the rebels' demand for an Interim Self-Governing Authority, or ISGA.
"The president is willing to discuss the ISGA along with government proposals to set up an interim authority," Dhanapala told The Associated Press in an interview. There was no immediate reaction from the rebels to the government's announcement. Sri Lanka's fragile peace process is facing the biggest test since Norway brokered the truce and comes after the Tamil rebels warned that the island nation was on the brink of war. Peace envoy Helgesen said he was "disturbed" about recent violence that was confined mostly to Sri Lanka's east but spilled to the capital earlier this month with the first suicide bombing since the truce. On Sunday, eight people believed to be supporters of a renegade leader were gunned-down in their sleep in suburban Colombo. The Tigers' pulled out of peace talks in April 2003 accusing the then-government of not doing enough to resettle people displaced by the war and reconstruct ravaged areas.
Dhanapala said Kumaratunga recognized the urgent humanitarian needs for people in the north and east and hoped an interim authority would meet them. "Clearly a transitional mechanism is required," Dhanapala said. Since pulling out of the talks, the insurgents have said they were only willing to resume them if they were to discuss their self-rule proposal. "We are not certain if this rigid position on the agenda is because of their insecure position in the east," Dhanapala said. The Tigers accuse the government of exploiting an unprecedented split in the rebel group in March to weaken them. Since then, sporadic violence in the east has killed dozens.
Meanwhile, the main opposition party Thursday pledged rare support to Kumaratunga to open talks. "We are prepared to give her unconditional support in and out of parliament to resume talks immediately with the Tigers," said lawmaker Rajitha Senaratne. "We urge the president to draw courage and go ahead with peace talks based on the ISGA." Kumaratunga's minority-government is propped-up by a Marxist party opposed to any concessions to the Tigers. The Tigers began fighting in 1983 to create a separate state for minority Tamils, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination. The war left 65,000 people dead before the truce.
Tigers accuse Sri Lanka of gearing for war as peace hits rock bottom
Amal Jayasinghe, Agence France Presse, 8/1/04
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have accused the government of gearing up for a fresh war following the failure of Norway's latest shuttle diplomacy to revive the island's moribund peace bid. The pro-rebel Tamilnet website quoted a Tiger political wing leader, C. Ilamparithi, accusing President Chandrika Kumaratunga of strengthening her security forces to renew hostilities despite the Norway-brokered truce that has been in place since February 2002. "We are certain of victory if the Sri Lanka government launches a war to occupy our traditional homeland," Ilamparithi said over the weekend.
"Sri Lanka's president is not keen on maintaining the current peace environment. Her deeds and words are leading Sri Lanka to renewed hostility and war." No comment was immediately available from the government on the Tigers' allegations but media minister Mangala Samaraweera last week rejected rebel reports that the island was slipping back into ethnic war. The statements came as police accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of gunning down a rival Tamil rebel, Kandiah Yogarasa, in the capital Colombo Saturday. Police said Yogarasa, 41, was a top informant for the military and had been in contact with a renegade Tiger leader, V. Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, who led a split in March and went underground five weeks later.
The Tigers have accused the government of trying to crush their organisation by using the breakaway leader Karuna whose whereabouts are unknown. "She (Kumaratunga) is also involved in creating divisions within the Tamil community by using the renegade Karuna who is now a virtual prisoner with the Sri Lanka intelligence division," Ilamparithi said. Western and Asian diplomats said they were concerned about the internecine clashes and the absence of any movement in the peace process aimed at ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed that has cost more than 60,000 lives. Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen left here last week after failing to secure an agreement on reviving peace talks which have been stalled since April last year.
Helgesen ended his latest shuttle diplomacy between Tigers and the Colombo government with a warning there could be a resumption of war unless leaders on all sides salvaged the faltering process. Helgesen said Sri Lankans appeared to have taken peace for granted after an Oslo-brokered truce went into effect in February 2002. "The ceasefire agreement is not a peace agreement. It only means the war has been frozen," Helgesen said. "Today, a frozen war is melting at the edges. It's not a good situation." However, he said President Kumaratunga appeared committed to pushing the peace process, but noted that given the minority government she was leading, she needed more support from other constituent members. He said the past two and a half months had been the "most dangerous period" for the Norwegian-backed peace process.
"People want peace, but they don't want to support the peace process," Helgesen said. "People must realise that nothing comes free." The main opposition United National Party offered Kumaratunga an unexpected prop last week, saying it would support her minority government to discuss a controversial self-rule plan of the Tigers. The LTTE's proposal to set up what is known as an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) in the island's embattled northern and eastern regions was earlier rejected by Kumaratunga as a stepping stone to a separate state. However, Colombo in recent weeks agreed to talk about the ISGA but faces opposition from its own Marxist ally, the JVP, or People's Liberation Front which has threatened to pull out of the government.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Sudan government on alert, vows to resist any Darfur intervention
Mohammed Ali Said, Agence France Presse, 7/27/04
Sudan put its government institutions on alert Tuesday as it vowed to face down any foreign intervention in the crisis in the strife-torn Darfur region. "The government will appropriately deal with any soldier who sets foot on Sudanese territory," Agriculture Minister Majzub al-Khalifa Ahmed told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting. The hardening of the Khartoum government's position came as French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier visited Darfur and the international community continued to step up pressure on it to end a 17-month conflict between rebels and Arab government-backed Janjaweed militias that has cost up to 50,000 lives.
But US Secretary of State Colin Powell, on a visit to Cairo where Darfur was high on the agenda, said it was too soon to talk of military intervention in the crisis. The Sudanese cabinet ordered the "political and strategic mobilisation of all government institutions", Ahmed said. They also decided to "strongly resist all (UN Security Council) resolutions calling for despatching international forces to Darfur," said Ahmed, who is Khartoum's pointman in the bloody conflict in the west Sudanese region.
"The government will from now on harden its attitude in rejection of any foreign intervention in Darfur and will notify the international community of this position," the minister warned. Mobilisation will also include public protest demonstrations against foreign intervention, Ahmed said. The cabinet's announcements followed a stark warning from Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail that Khartoum was prepared to face down any foreign intervention in Darfur, by force if necessary. "We are not looking for confrontation, and we hope that we will not be pushed to that," he told reporters during a visit to Ankara.
"But, if we are being forced to do so, if we are being attacked, definitely we are not going to sit silent, we will retaliate or we will hit back. But we hope that we are not going to reach that situation," said Ismail. Sudan undertook earlier this month to disarm the Janjaweed militias, facilitate humanitarian action and work for a political settlement of the crisis, as the United Nations and the United States have demanded. But in recent days there has been growing international pressure on Khartoum and some states have spoken of the possibility of military intervention on humanitarian grounds.
Britain, France, the United States and other countries have been exerting increasing pressure on the Sudanese government to rein in the Janjaweed militias which have been accused of systematic rape and other atrocities against the indigenous black Africans living in Darfur. An estimated 1.2 million people have fled their homes. But Powell said talk of military intervention was premature. "Some nations have gone further and started to talk about other actions of a military nature but I think that's premature," he told the travelling press en route to talks in Cairo. "We should not underestimate what a difficult choice that would be in a sovereign country when there is no UN resolution for any such action and where the government, I believe, still has the ability to take action to bring this violence under control," he said.
Washington has led efforts at the UN Security Council to internationalise the conflict in Darfur, which the world body has described as the worst current humanitarian crisis. Cairo has been a leading opponent of such a scheme. Britain has said it could send 5,000 troops to the region if required, and Australia said it was considering a UN request for military personnel to join any mission deployed there. The United States is expected to present a new version of its draft resolution on Darfur to the UN Security Council Tuesday, and is hoping for a vote before the end of the week, diplomatic sources said in New York. The Arab League meanwhile urged the UN Security Council to "avoid precipitate action" in the crisis and to give the Sudanese government time to honour its commitments to the world body.
The French foreign minister meanwhile met in Darfur with top regional officials as well as observers from the African Union tasked with overseeing a largely-ignored ceasefire deal reached in April. He said the crisis could only be resolved with Khartoum's help. "France is convinced we will not get out of this crisis (in Darfur) without Sudan, and even less likely by working against Sudan, but that we need Sudan's" help, he said. He was to leave Darfur later Tuesday to return to Ndjamena, capital of neighbouring Chad, where 200,000 refugees have fled.
Text of U.N. Resolution on Sudan
Associated Press, 7/31/04
Text of the draft resolution on Sudan:
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and United States of America:
The Security Council,
Recalling its Presidential Statement of 25 May 2004 (S/PRST/2004/16) and its resolution 1547 (2004) of 11 June 2004 and its resolution 1502 (2003) of 26 August 2003 on the access of humanitarian workers to populations in need,
Welcoming the leadership role and the engagement of the African Union to address the situation in Darfur and expressing its readiness to support fully these efforts,
Further welcoming the communique of the African Union Peace and Security Council issued 27 July 2004 (S/2004/603),
Reaffirming its commitment to the sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, and independence of Sudan as consistent with the Machakos Protocol of 20 July 2002 and subsequent agreements based on this protocol as agreed to by the Government of Sudan,
Welcoming the Joint Communique issued by the Government of Sudan and the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 3 July 2004, including the creation of the Joint Implementation Mechanism, and acknowledging steps taken towards improved humanitarian access,
Taking note of the Report of the Secretary-General on Sudan issued 3 June 2004 and welcoming the Secretary-General's appointment of a Special Representative for Sudan and his efforts to date,
Reiterating its grave concern at the ongoing humanitarian crisis and widespread human rights violations, including continued attacks on civilians that are placing the lives of hundreds of thousands at risk,
Condemning all acts of violence and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties to the crisis, in particular by the Janjaweed, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, rapes, forced displacements, and acts of violence especially those with an ethnic dimension, and expressing its utmost concern at the consequences of the conflict in Darfur on the civilian population, including women, children, internally displaced persons, and refugees,
Recalling in this regard that the Government of Sudan bears the primary responsibility to respect human rights while maintaining law and order and protecting its population within its territory and that all parties are obliged to respect international humanitarian law,
Urging all the parties to take the necessary steps to prevent and put an end to violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and underlining that there will be no impunity for violators,
Welcoming the commitment by the Government of Sudan to investigate the atrocities and prosecute those responsible,
Emphasizing the commitment of the Government of Sudan to mobilize the armed forces of Sudan immediately to disarm the Janjaweed militias,
Recalling also in this regard its resolutions 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women, peace and security, 1379 (2001) of 20 November 2001, 1460 (2003) of 30 January 2003, and 1539 (2004) of 22 April 2004 on children in armed conflict, and 1265 (1999) of 17 September 1999 and 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict,
Expressing concern at reports of violations of the Ceasefire Agreement signed in N'Djamena on 8 April 2004, and reiterating that all parties to the ceasefire must comply with all of the terms contained therein,
Welcoming the donor consultation held in Geneva in June 2004 as well as subsequent briefings highlighting urgent humanitarian needs in Sudan and Chad and reminding donors of the need to fulfil commitments that have been made,
Recalling that over 1 million persons are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, that with the onset of the rainy season the provision of assistance has become increasingly difficult, and that without urgent action to address the security, access, logistics, capacity and funding requirements the lives of hundreds of thousands of persons will be at risk,
Expressing its determination to do everything possible to halt a humanitarian catastrophe, including by taking further action if required,
Welcoming the ongoing international diplomatic efforts to address the situation in Darfur,
Stressing that any return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes must take place voluntarily with adequate assistance and with sufficient security,
Noting with grave concern that up to 200,000 refugees have fled to the neighbouring State of Chad, which constitutes a serious burden upon that country, and expressing grave concern at reported cross-border incursions by Janjaweed militias of the Darfur region of Sudan into Chad and also taking note of the agreement between the Government of Sudan and Chad to establish a joint mechanism to secure the borders,
Determining that the situation in Sudan constitutes a threat to international peace and security and to stability in the region,
Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
1. Calls on the Government of Sudan to fulfil immediately all of the commitments it made in the 3 July 2004 Communique, including particularly by facilitating international relief for the humanitarian disaster by means of a moratorium on all restrictions that might hinder the provision of humanitarian assistance and access to the affected populations, by advancing independent investigation in cooperation with the United Nations of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, by the establishment of credible security conditions for the protection of the civilian population and humanitarian actors, and by the resumption of political talks with dissident groups from the Darfur region, specifically the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement and Sudan Liberation Army (SLM/A) on Darfur;
2. Endorses the deployment of international monitors, including the protection force envisioned by the African Union, to the Darfur region of Sudan under the leadership of the African Union and urges the international community to continue to support these efforts, welcomes the progress made in deploying monitors, including the offers to provide forces by members of the African Union, and stresses the need for the Government of Sudan and all involved parties to facilitate the work of the monitors in accordance with the N'Djamena ceasefire agreement and with the Addis Ababa agreement of 28 May 2004 on the modalities of establishing an observer mission to monitor the ceasefire;
3. Urges member states to reinforce the international monitoring team, led by the African Union, including the protection force, by providing personnel and other assistance including financing, supplies, transport, vehicles, command support, communications and headquarters support as needed for the monitoring operation, and welcomes the contributions already made by the European Union and the United States to support the African Union led operation;
4. Welcomes the work done by the High Commissioner for Human Rights to send human rights observers to Sudan and calls upon the Government of Sudan to cooperate with the High Commissioner in the deployment of those observers;
5. Urges the parties to the N'Djamena Ceasefire Agreement of 8 April 2004 to conclude a political agreement without delay, notes with regret the failure of senior rebel leaders to participate in the 15 July talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as unhelpful to the process and calls for renewed talks under the sponsorship of the African Union, and its chief mediator Hamid Algabid, to reach a political solution to the tensions in Darfur and strongly urges rebel groups to respect the ceasefire, end the violence immediately, engage in peace talks without preconditions, and act in a positive and constructive manner to resolve the conflict;
6. Demands that the Government of Sudan fulfil its commitments to disarm the Janjaweed militias and apprehend and bring to justice Janjaweed leaders and their associates who have incited and carried out human rights and international humanitarian law violations and other atrocities, and further requests the Secretary-General to report in 30 days, and monthly thereafter, to the Council on the progress or lack thereof by the Government of Sudan on this matter and expresses its intention to consider further actions, including measures as provided for in Article 41 of the Charter of the United Nations on the Government of Sudan, in the event of non-compliance;
7. Decides that all states shall take the necessary measures to prevent the sale or supply, to all non-governmental entities and individuals, including the Janjaweed, operating in the states of North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur, by their nationals or from their territories or using their flag vessels or aircraft, of arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, whether or not originating in their territories;
8. Decides that all states shall take the necessary measures to prevent any provision to the non-governmental entities and individuals identified in paragraph 7 operating in the states of North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur by their nationals or from their territories of technical training or assistance related to the provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of the items listed in paragraph 7 above;
9. Decides that the measures imposed by paragraphs 7 and 8 above shall not apply to:
supplies and related technical training and assistance to monitoring, verification or peace support operations, including such operations led by regional organizations, that are authorized by the United Nations or are operating with the consent of the relevant parties;
supplies of non-lethal military equipment intended solely for humanitarian, human rights monitoring or protective use, and related technical training and assistance; and
supplies of protective clothing, including flak jackets and military helmets, for the personal use of United Nations personnel, human rights monitors, representatives of the media and humanitarian and development workers and associated personnel;
10. Expresses its intention to consider the modification or termination of the measures imposed under paragraphs 7 and 8 when it determines that the Government of Sudan has fulfilled its commitments described in paragraph 6;
11. Reiterates its support for the Naivasha agreement signed by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, and looks forward to effective implementation of the agreement and a peaceful, unified Sudan working in harmony with all other States for the development of Sudan, and calls on the international community to be prepared for constant engagement including necessary funding in support of peace and economic development in Sudan;
12. Urges the international community to make available much needed assistance to mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe now unfolding in the Darfur region and calls upon member states to honour pledges that have been made against needs in Darfur and Chad and underscoring the need to contribute generously towards fulfilling the unmet portion of the United Nations consolidated appeals;
13. Requests the Secretary-General to activate inter-agency humanitarian mechanisms to consider what additional measures may be needed to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and to report regularly to the Council on progress made;
14. Encourages the Secretary-General's Special Representative for the Sudan and the independent expert of the Commission on Human Rights to work closely with the Government of Sudan in supporting independent investigation of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Darfur region;
15. Extends the special political mission set out in resolution 1547 for an additional 90 days to 10 December 2004 and requests the Secretary-General to incorporate into the mission contingency planning for the Darfur region;
16. Expresses its full support for the African Union-led ceasefire commission and monitoring mission in Darfur, and requests the Secretary-General to assist the African Union with planning and assessments for its mission in Darfur, and in accordance with the Joint Communique to prepare to support implementation of a future agreement in Darfur in close cooperation with the African Union and requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council on progress;
17. Decides to remain seized of the matter.
Sudan cabinet to give Khartoum's response to UN resolution on Darfur
Agence France Presse, 8/1/04
Sudan's cabinet was expected Sunday to bow to a UN Security Council resolution giving the government 30 days to bring under control the situation in its humanitarian crisis-hit Darfur region. Khartoum has been under growing international pressure to rein in its forces and its militia allies accused of mass killing, rape and other atrocities which have sent thousands fleeing into neighbouring Chad during a 17-month-long revolt in Darfur.
Initially Sudan rejected the UN resolution which warned Friday of international measures against the country -- the largest in Africa -- if it failed to meet the Security Council's demands. In a defiant gesture, Khartoum had warned it would send troops to oppose any foreign military intervention in the region. But as international pressure grew, officials finally reluctantly accepted the UN resolution. "Although we don't like the resolution, we are already committed to the implementation of its measures on the basis of the agreement that was concluded with (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan," the minister of state for foreign affairs, Neguib al-Kheir Abdul Wahab, told AFP on Saturday.
Abul Wahab was referring to an agreement between the government and the United Nations earlier in July under which Sudan agreed to implement a series of measures in Darfur, including lifting restrictions on humanitarian aid and facilitating access to the region. He added that the cabinet's official response would come on Sunday. In neighbouring Chad, French troops began on Sunday to secure the border with the Darfur region in Sudan as part of their mission to aid relief efforts to refugees.
"The troops are already in place in Abeche," said France's ambassador to Chad, Jean Pierre Bercot. French troops began on Saturday to fly relief supplies into the border town, located some 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Chad's capital Ndjamena. Some 200 French troops "will patrol the entire length of the border in agreement with Chad's national army," Bercot told AFP. Up to 50,000 people have been killed and 1.2 million people forced from their homes in Darfur, according to the United Nations. In the diplomatic flurry over the crisis in its southern neighbour, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit renewed an appeal for Sudan to implement the UN resolution.
"I hope the Sudanese government deals positively with the latest UN resolution," Abul Gheit told reporters upon returning to Cairo from a brief visit to Khartoum and Darfur. Abul Gheit confirmed on Saturday that Cairo was sending military officers to join African Union-led observers monitoring a ceasefire between Sudanese government forces and rebels in Darfur. On Sunday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current African Union (AU) chairman, left for Sudan to meet authorities here.
The 53-member African Union appeared set to dispatch a 308-strong force to Darfur this week to protect a ceasefire and an observer mission in the region of western Sudan. The force would have been deployed by the end of July, but lack of transport planes and accommodation camps for the troops held up the plans until the Netherlands stepped in.
Obasanjo said a fact-finding mission to Darfur had reported the situation had worsened since the start of July. In Addis Ababa, Sudan's ambassador to the AU, Osman Elsayed Fad Elsayed, said Saturday: "Unlike Israel, which dumps UN resolutions, we are going to implement the resolution. "Indeed, we are going to do all we can to end the crisis by disarming the militias and all illegal armed men and women in the area." He said the Khartoum government has dispatched a force of 6,000 police to Darfur to support the government force stationed in the vast region and to improve security.