Peace Negotiations Watch
Monday, May 2, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 16)
Contents:
Afghanistan
Afghan president presses for extended UN
stay
Annan also
supports extension of UN mandate.
Burundi/Rwanda
Rwanda, Burundi seek to ease row over
thousands of fleeing Hutus
Various
people fleeing to avoid gacaca trials.
Chechnya
Chechen deputy PM: Rebel warlord Basayev
must be killed by May 9
May
9 anniversary of assassination of father of deputy prime minister.
Congo
Human
rights group says six journalists held by Congo militia fighters
Journalists supposedly being held
without any explanation.
EU urges balance of power in future DR
Congo constitution
Solana has met with Kabila to
discuss constitution, claiming it gives too much power to president.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR
Congo Negotiation Simulation.
Georgia/Abkhazia
Georgia promises Russia it will not host
any foreign military bases
Saakashvili to seek legislation barring
foreign bases, including NATO, from Georgia.
Indonesia
Indonesian troops kill four rebels in
tsunami-hit Aceh province
Parties in
Aceh conflict to meet again later this month.
Foreign aid groups in Indonesia's Aceh to
pledge not to interfere in domestic affairs
Government
afraid aid may encourage sympathy toward Acehnese rebels.
Aceh
Negotiation Simulation
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here to access the Aceh
Negotiation Simulation.
Ivory
Coast
Ivory
Coast edges near settlement
Mbeki described as a miracle worker for
his role in conflict resolution.
Ivory
Coast sets long-awaited presidential elections for Oct. 30
Top opposition leader praises Gbagbo
government for allowing him to run in election.
Kashmir
Kashmir bus service brings relatives
seeking property lost in partition
Bus service
has helped reunite families caught between Pakistani and Indian zones.
Kashmir
Negotiation Simulation
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here to access the Kashmir
Negotiation Simulation
Kosovo
Families of Srebrenica war victims to meet
with survivors from Kosovo conflict
Meetings hoped to show solidarity among victims.
Shaky Balkans need 'new strategy,' panel
says
Report critical of all parties in Balkan conflicts.
Politics & Policies: Kosovo still
disconnected
Op-ed says Albanians and Serbs must work
together.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo
Negotiation Simulation.
Liberia
Ex-rebel
leader in Liberia declares he'll run in October presidential poll
Conneh says supporters talked him
into running.
U.N. peacekeepers sexually abused and
exploited women and girls in Liberia
UN Liberian mission head planning
to step down at end of month.
Moldova
Moldovan
President Calls for withdrawal of Russian troops from province
Voronin says
talks over Transnistria have been inefficient.
Morocco
UN extends peacekeeping mission in
Western Sahara
Mission extended by unanimous Security
Council vote until October 31.
Nepal
Censorship, protest ban still in place
after Nepal's emergency lifted
Kathmandu
Post still unable to publish stories critical of takeover.
Student strike shuts schools and
colleges across Nepal
Security
forces shot and wounded three students in western Nepal.
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
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Negotiation Simulation.
Philippines
US diplomat calls for vigilance in
troubled southern Philippines
Mindanao
risks becoming like Afghanistan, according to American charge d’affaires.
Serbia &
Montenegro
President says war crimes issue
shouldn't block Serb integration in Europe
Marovic insists country is
cooperating with Hague tribunal.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Marxists warn
tsunami aid deal could split island
Member of ruling coalition fears
aid plan could lead to Tamil homeland.
Prominent
Tamil journalist slain near Sri Lankan capital
Japanese ambassador adamant killing
will not hamper peace plan.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
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Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Sudan
UN peacekeepers launch deployment in Sudan
10,000
peacekeepers to enforce January agreement between north and south.
Sudan says its prosecutors view UN list of 51
alleged Darfur war criminals as only a guide
Over 180,000
have been killed and over 2 million people displaced as result of Darfur
conflict.
Sudanese factions start
talks on interim constitution
January peace
deal made rebel leader Garang a vice president.
Afghanistan
Afghan president presses for extended UN
stay
Agence France Presse, 4/26/05
UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan has backed an extension of the United Nations
mandate in Afghanistan beyond next March, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday. Karzai spoke to Annan at the Asia-Africa
summit in Jakarta "about the continuation of the UN role in Afghanistan so
that after the parliamentary elections they help Afghanistan in all walks and
stay in Afghanistan," he said. Annan
said he was pleased with the UN's role in Afghanistan and would be ready to
continue working on rebuilding the war-shattered country, Karzai told a press
briefing.
The
United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) played a key role in
organising presidential elections in October and helping the fledgling Afghan
government rebuild its institutions. UNAMA's
current mandate lasts until March 2006 and it will be up to the UN Security
Council to decide whether to extend it. Afghanistan's parliamentary elections
have been delayed until this September. Karzai's
trip to Indonesia marked Afghanistan's first attendance of the summit in 50
years, despite being one of its 29 founders, after a quarter-century of
conflict.
The
Afghan president said he had used the opportunity to urge the world not to turn
its back on Afghanistan once again. "We
explained why we need a guarantee from the world for long-term cooperation, and
the reasons why we asked the United States for a long-term cooperation
guarantee," he said, referring to a request made to visiting US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this month. He
said that he had also used the opportunity to meet with neighbouring countries
and other countries in the region. "We
got the chance... to have effective, long discussions about Afghanistan and
about their experiences about reconstruction and the reconstruction of
Afghanistan, its political moves and the developments," the president
said.
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Rwanda, Burundi seek to ease row over
thousands of fleeing Hutus
Agence France Presse, 4/26/05
Top
officials from Rwanda and Burundi will meet this week in a bid to ease an
escalating row over thousands of Rwandan Hutus who have fled to Burundi in
recent weeks to escape genocide trials at home, officials said Tuesday. Ministers from the two central African
nations are to meet in northern Burundi on Wednesday, the officials said as
Burundi reported the number of Rwandan Hutu refugees had jumped to 5,000, up
3,000 in just the past 10 days.
"The
two delegations will discuss the asylum seekers who are still arriving in
Burundi," said Colonel Didace Nzikoruriho, chief of the refugee department
at Burundi's interior ministry. Public
Security Minister Salvator Ntihabose is to head Burundi's delegation to the meeting
in Ngozi near the country's northern border with Rwanda where many of the
fleeing Hutus have crossed the frontier, he told AFP. Officials in Kigali said Rwanda's delegation
would be led by Minister for Local Administration Protais Musoni.
Kigali
has reacted angrily to Bujumbura's decision to treat the fleeing Hutus as
refugees and not fugitives from justice as it claims they are. Rwanda has criticized Bujumbura's initial
decision to relocate the fleeing Hutus to refugee camps, saying it is encouraging
suspects to flee prosecution for their roles in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. "We want countries which accept them to
take note that they are fugitives from justice," Johnston Busingye, a
senior official in Rwanda's justice ministry told AFP on Tuesday.
Burundi
temporarily halted the transfers over the weekend but Nzikoruriho denied that
Bujumbura had anything other than humanitarian motives for starting it in the
first place, noting that UN agencies had said they could not provide assistance
to the refugees while they were at the border.
He said that reasoning would be explained to the Rwandan delegation on
Wednesday.
"This
is a temporary suspension," Nzikoruriho said. "We will listen to the
Rwandan officials and calm them. Rwanda must understand that we do not have any
ill intentions when transferring these people further from the border. "Burundi has no intention to offer
asylum to killers, but our country must respect the international conventions
which it signed," he added. Over
the past month, some 5,000 Rwandan Hutus have fled their homes into Burundi for
fear of facing unfair genocide prosecutions by a system of village tribunals
that began hearing cases in March.
The
number has jumped sharply since mid-April when the first waves of fleeing Hutus
totalled only a little more than 2,000, Nzikoruriho said. In addition to those in Burundi, about 1,500
Hutus have fled from Rwanda into Uganda since the beginning of this month,
according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Other UN sources in the Great Lakes region
told AFP on condition of anonymity that another 1,000 Hutus have sought refuge
in Tanzania in the same time-frame.
The
grassroots gacaca (pronounced "gachacha") courts were set up in an
effort to clear a crippling backlog of genocide-related cases in Rwanda's
formal judicial system. They are
expected to try some 800,000 suspects accused of participating in the 1994
genocide in which an equal number of people, mostly minority Hutus, were
slaughtered by Hutu extremists.
Return to Index
Chechen deputy PM: Rebel warlord Basayev
must be killed by May 9
Associated Press, 4/29/05
Chechen
Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said in an interview published Friday that
he and his security service had set the target of killing rebel warlord Shamil
Basayev by May 9, the first anniversary of Kadyrov's father's assassination in
a bombing at a Victory Day parade in the Chechen capital Grozny. Basayev has claimed responsibility for the
explosion that killed Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov last year, as well as a
long series of other attacks.
"I
must avenge my father; that's the way it is here (in Chechnya)," Ramzan
Kadyrov told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily. "Let him be brought to
justice in the other world." Kadyrov
said that five people had carried out the assassination, and that all but one -
who he said was among the workers who had carried out construction on the
stadium - had been killed.
He
said that according to his information, Basayev was in the southern Russian
region of Dagestan, which borders on Chechnya.
Also Friday, the Interfax news agency reported that unidentified gunmen
had stopped a Chechen police car and stolen 1.6 million rubles (US$57,600; €44,450),
which had been intended to pay police salaries. The gunmen also made off with a
police assault rifle and pistol in the Thursday attack, Interfax said.
Return to Index
Human
rights group says six journalists held by Congo militia fighters
Associated Press, 4/27/05
A human rights group said Wednesday it's working to
secure the release of six journalists being held without explanation by militia
fighters in southeastern Congo. Congo-based
rights group Voice of the Voiceless said Mayi Mayi militiamen seized the
Congolese journalists Sunday in the Katanga province as they covered
disarmament efforts arranged under peace accords to end Congo's 1998-2002 war. The group said in a statement it has contacts
with the Mayi Mayi and is working to free the reporters.
While the Mayi Mayi have given no reason for why
they're holding the journalists, Voice of the Voiceless said it suspects the
abduction is linked to the April 8 arrest of their leader by Congolese
authorities. The leader, known as Chinja
Chinja, is accused of massacring civilians and committing acts of cannibalism
during skirmishes in two Katanga villages in February 2004. Mayi Mayi militia fighters allied themselves
with Congo's government during the ruinous war, which drew in the armies of six
countries.
A postwar power-sharing government in the capital,
Kinshasa, is trying to project its rule across the vast nation and efforts are
underway to disarm Congo's disparate fighting groups or knit them into the
national army.
EU urges balance of power in future DR
Congo constitution
Agence France Presse, 4/30/05
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) future
constitution must ensure a balance of power in the government, EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana said Saturday.
In a meeting with the President Joseph Kabila, Solana stressed the
importance of "a balance of power in the Congolese constitution,"
which is now being reviewed by the country's National Assembly, said Jiri Laas,
a spokesman for the EU leader.
Both the EU and the United Nations have raised
concerns about the proposed constitution, claiming it gives too much unchecked
power to the president. The DRC, which
emerged in 2003 from five years of civil war that left more than three million
people dead, is struggling to hold this year its first democratic elections
since independence in 1960 as well as adopt a permanent constitution. The draft constitution, which has already
been approved by the Congolese Senate, gives the president the authority to
name and remove from office the prime minister, to dissolve the assembly, and
to legislate by decree.
Solana also argued for a proportional electoral law
in the multi-ethnic country and for more transparency in government, especially
with regard to paying civil servants and the military, Laas said. The EU foreign policy chief also met with
three of the DR Congo's four vice presidents and reaffirmed EU support for the
country's transition. The South
African-brokered peace accord signed in 2002 that ended the civil war calls for
elections to be held in the DRC by June 30, but the DRC's independent electoral
commission has called for delaying the vote, and are likely to be held in the
second half of the year.
Solana and the EU Commissioner of Development and
Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel also made a joint statement expressing the EU's
support of the DR Congo transition. "Free
elections, based on a constitution which reflects a balance of power between
political institutions, is the main objective of this effort," said the
statement. "The EU is by far the
main political and financial support of this process and intends to maintain
its engagement to the very end."
Solana and Michel were present Saturday at the
launch of a new 1,000 strong police force for the DRC capital and an
accompanying mission to mentor and monitor it, financed by the EU. Since the start of the transition in the DR
Congo the EU has contributed 300 million euros to the efforts, including 80
million euros to finance an electoral process.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR
Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
Return to Index
Georgia promises Russia it will not host
any foreign military bases
Associated Press, 4/30/05
Georgia's
President Mikhail Saakashvili said Saturday he would pass legislation to bar
foreign military bases from the country's territory, bidding to reassure Russia
that closing its Georgian bases would not open the door to a NATO presence. "Some in Russia are concerned over
whether bases of NATO or any other foreign states will be allowed in Georgia. I
want to inform them that NATO bases or bases of any countries will not be
deployed on our territory," Saakashvili told the Rustavi-2 channel.
Foreign
ministers from Russia and Georgia said Monday that Russia could start
withdrawing from its two Soviet-era bases in Georgia beginning this year, in
what would be a significant step forward for relations between the two former
Soviet republics. The dispute over the
Russian bases has contributed to tense relations, which worsened after
Saakashvili and his pro-Western administration came to power in Georgia in
2004.
Saakashvili
is seeking to join Western security and economic organizations, such as NATO.
His administration had demanded the Russian troop withdrawal be completed
within two years, but Russia insisted it would take at least three years and
possibly even a decade. Moscow also has
demanded several hundred million dollars (euros) in compensation.
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Indonesian troops kill four rebels in
tsunami-hit Aceh province
Agence France Presse, 4/27/05
Indonesian
troops have killed four separatist rebels in tsunami-hit Aceh province, the
military said Wednesday. Three Free Aceh
Movement rebels were killed in a gunfight on Tuesday in Aceh Besar district
while another was gunned down in the east of the province on the same day, Aceh
military spokesman Ari Mulya Asnawi said. Soldiers also arrested two other rebels and
confiscated several firearms, he said.
Asnawi
said rebels had meanwhile abducted two junior high school students -- the son
and a nephew of an Indonesian military officer -- from a Rikit Bur village in
Southeast Aceh. The rebels could not be
reached for comment. Aceh, the region
hardest-hit by the December 26 tsunami disaster, has since 1976 been the scene
of a violent struggle between separatist rebels and Jakarta. More than 12,000 people have been killed in
the resource-rich Aceh since rebels of the Free Aceh Movement launched their
campaign for independence.
The
conflict intensified in May 2003 when a truce collapsed and Aceh was put under
temporary martial law, but the December tsunami prompted Jakarta and the rebels
to reopen a dialogue. Representatives of
the two camps met for a third round of informal talks in Finland this month and
agreed to meet again in May.
Foreign aid groups in Indonesia's Aceh
to pledge not to interfere in domestic affairs
Niniek
Karmini, Associated Press, 5/2/05
Foreign
aid groups that want to continue working in tsunami-hit Aceh province will have
to pledge not to support the region's separatist movement or "interfere in
the country's domestic affairs," a government official said Monday. The announcement underscores Jakarta's
sensitivity to international involvement in Aceh, which was closed to
foreigners before the Dec. 26 tsunami struck. The military, which dominates
public life in the region, fears the influx of aid groups could lead to
increased international sympathy for guerrillas in the Free Aceh Movement.
The
government is preparing a "memorandum of understanding" that aid
groups wanting to remain in the province will have to sign, said Komet Mangiri,
an adviser to Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab, who is in charge of the aid effort. "The MOU contains the procedures and
conditions that must be fulfilled by the Non Governmental Organizations, such
as not interfering in domestic affairs and not working for separatist
interests," said Mangiri. Mangiri
said that the document would be circulated to aid groups this week, and a list
of "eligible foreign NGOs" would be announced in two weeks.
The
government welcomed foreign help in Aceh in the early days of the disaster,
which killed more than 128,000 people in Aceh and other parts of northern
Sumatra Island, but a series of vague announcements since then has led aid
groups to fear they may not be welcome for much longer. Last month, Jakarta announced that only aid
groups directly working in the "reconstruction sector" would be
allowed to stay in the province and set a deadline.
Sections
of Indonesia's political and military elite blamed international aid groups and
the U.N. for East Timor's break from Jakarta-rule in 1999. Most of the 4.2 million people in Aceh have
welcomed the foreigners, saying the government alone is unable to rebuild the
battered province on the northern tip of Sumatra.
Rebels
in Aceh have been fighting a low-level war for independence since 1976 in which
more than 12,000 people have been killed. The separatists have welcomed the
spotlight the tsunami has thrown on their movement. Human rights groups have accused the Indonesian
army of executions, kidnappings, torture and collective punishment of
civilians. They say most of the victims of the fighting have been villagers
caught up in army sweeps.
Aceh
Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Aceh
Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
Return to Index
Ivory
Coast edges near settlement
Gus Constantine, The
Washington Times, 4/28/05
Government, rebels plan for cease-fire and inclusive
elections
Faced with the threat of U.N. sanctions and
presented with a mediated way out of a civil war that is in its third year, the
government of Ivory Coast and its rebel challengers appear to be moving quickly
toward a settlement.
A negotiating breakthrough, achieved largely through
mediation by South African President Thabo Mbeki, led to an accord signed in
Pretoria, South Africa, on April 6. It calls for a permanent cease-fire,
followed by elections with all parties to the underlying dispute participating.
In a telephone interview with The Washington Times
this week, Philippe Djangone-bi, Ivory Coast's ambassador to the United
Nations, praised Mr. Mbeki as a "miracle worker" who "understood
the essentials of the dispute and offered a fair solution that should be
acceptable to all parties."
A Washington observer of events in Ivory Coast, who
declined to be named, also praised Mr. Mbeki, and said he was "surprised
the South African leader came up with a solution that had eluded earlier
negotiators."
Late Tuesday, Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo
announced that he would allow his main rival, former Prime Minister Alassane
Ouattara, and other presidential hopefuls to run in October elections. That
announcement removed a huge obstacle on the road to peace.
Until the announcement, Mr. Gbagbo had refused on
constitutional grounds to let Mr. Ouattara run for president. The Ivorian leader also had words of praise
for Mr. Mbeki. Shortly before the
Tuesday announcement, the latter had written to Mr. Gbagbo, asking him to find
a way that would permit an open election. Mr. Mbeki was named mediator by the
African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The conflict in Ivory Coast pits a northern, largely
Muslim rebel movement against a southern-based government in power since 2000. The civil war has devastated a country once
considered an oasis of peace and prosperity, thanks to its primacy in cocoa
production and to a previous government that sought to accommodate the
country's more than 60 ethnic groups.
The main grievance of the northern rebels, led by
Guillaume Soro, is that they were treated as second-class citizens by Mr.
Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front. A further irritant was the determination of the
government to prevent Mr. Ouattara, a northern Muslim, from running for
president. Mr. Ouattara had once served
as prime minister, and later as a top official at the International Monetary
Fund. The government cited a clause in the constitution barring any candidate
whose father or mother was not born in Ivory Coast.
That was particularly galling to Mr. Ouattara's
supporters because in the days of French colonialism, French West Africa was
ruled as a single entity. There was no independent Ivory Coast, and internal
borders in the vast French-ruled region mattered little. Any legitimate
resident could move to other parts of the region in search of work.
Mr. Mbeki's mediation began after a compromise
negotiated at Marcoussis, France, failed to end the conflict. He is no novice
in the diplomatic arena: When racial apartheid was the law in South Africa, he
was the prime contact with foreign governments from his exile headquarters in
Lusaka, Zambia.
His proposed solution, worked out in Pretoria and
signed as an agreement this month, has three essentials:
* A permanent cessation of hostilities.
* Disarmament, starting with both sides
decommissioning heavy weapons and the cantonment of military forces pending
creation of a unified army.
* An October election that includes all political
parties and movements that signed the peace accord.
Signatories included Mr. Gbagbo, Mr. Ouattara, Mr.
Soro, former President Henri Konan Bedie and Prime Minister Seydou Diarra,
appointed under an earlier accord as a gesture of national reconciliation. The political turmoil in Ivory Coast began
after the death of independence leader Felix Houphouet-Boigny in 1993. In
contrast to Mr. Houphouet-Boigny's government, which included important figures
in power-sharing arrangements, his successors - Mr. Bedie, Gen. Robert Guei and
Mr. Gbagbo - excluded from power virtually all except members of their own
ethnic groups.
In 2000, Mr. Ouattara, leader of the Rally of the
Republicans (RDR), was prevented from running for president. "The constitution will not be changed
unilaterally by the president, but all signatories to the Pretoria agreement
chosen by their political organizations will be allowed to run in the October election,"
Mr. Djangone-bi told The Times.
Mr. Gbagbo's announcement came one day before the
heavy weapons decommissioning was to be completed. The government is storing
its decommissioned weapons in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast's upcountry capital,
and the rebels are storing theirs at Bouake, their northern headquarters.
The decommissioning of heavy weapons is a salubrious
development to the extent that it puts a cap on potential carnage. But it is
not equivalent to demilitarization. Although there are 4,000 French
peacekeepers and more than 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, there has
been talk in Abidjan, the former capital, that fighters are being recruited
from Liberia and elsewhere to bolster local forces, which adds to the need for
a quick settlement.
Ivory
Coast sets long-awaited presidential elections for Oct. 30
Associated
Press,
4/28/05
Ivory Coast's government announced long-awaited
presidential elections will be held Oct. 30, and the top opposition leader said
a government decision allowing him to run in the poll was a crucial step toward
democracy in the West African state. Alassane
Ouattara, a former prime minister barred from presidential elections in 2000
because of a controversial nationality clause in the constitution, offered
reserved praise Thursday for President Laurent Gbagbo, his political rival.
Gbagbo reversed the ban Tuesday, allowing Ouattara
to stand in the elections, a key demand of rebels who control the northern half
of the country. The move comes after
South African President Thabo Mbeki brokered a peace deal earlier this month to
end the Ivory Coast crisis, calling for a nationwide disarmament campaign
that's been proposed to begin in mid-May.
The ban on Ouattara's candidacy helped spark a
crisis that led to war in Ivory Coast, which exploded in 2002 when a failed
attempt to oust Gbagbo sparked a civil war that has left the country divided in
between the government and rebels. "It's
an important decision, an incontestable first step toward democracy in Ivory
Coast," Ouattara told French daily Le Monde in remarks published Thursday.
"But all problems aren't solved, far from it," he said.
Government spokesman Hubert Oulai said the Oct. 30
election date had been set during a Cabinet meeting. Ouattara said his candidacy would represent
"an act of national reconciliation."
He was barred from running for president under a clause in the
constitution that requires presidential candidates be second-generation
Ivorians. Ouattara denies government claims that his mother, whose family was
from neighboring Burkina Faso, is not Ivorian.
Mbeki, who is the African Union mediator in the
conflict, has met repeatedly with government representatives and rebels to try
to push through a peace plan brokered earlier this month. The West African nation has been split into a
rebel-held north and loyalist south since a September 2002 coup attempt
propelled the world's largest cocoa grower into civil war. Both sides signed
peace accords but failed to carry them out.
Return to Index
Kashmir bus service brings relatives
seeking property lost in partition
Agence France Presse, 4/28/05
The
resumption of a bus service between the Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir
has united divided families but it has also raised questions about who owns
homes and land lost more than 50 years ago.
Thousands of families fled homes and businesses in the violence of the
partition of the state in 1947, leaving a legacy of abandoned property. Now some families see the prospect of peace
between Pakistan and India -- which are working for a soft border in Kashmir --
as a chance to take care of unfinished business.
One
of the first bus passengers from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Fareeda Ghani,
has led the way by filing a claim on her father's property in Indian Kashmir's
summer capital Srinagar. Ghani's
prosperous politician father was forced to leave Indian Kashmir for the
Pakistani zone in 1949 amid "growing political enmity." Ghani was only three when the family migrated
to other side of the divide in Kashmir leaving behind several houses and
hundreds of acres of land.
Many
families elsewhere in the subcontinent lost property in partition, especially
from the divided Punjab state. The current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
hails from what is now Pakistan and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was
born in New Delhi. Ghani made her appeal
to the custodian department in Kashmir, which was set up to sort out the
ownership issues unique to the state and holds 79,000 hectares (195,000 acres)
of land and thousands of houses that belonged to people now living across the
heavily-militarized ceasefire border known as the Line of Control.
"I
am claiming what has been ours and what should be ours," said Ghani, who
arrived in Srinagar on the first bus on April 7, and left on April 21, after
filing a lawsuit to reclaim her father's property. Ghani's lawyer Abdul Khaliq is optimistic his
client will "get back what belongs to her." "How long it will
take I can't say," he said. "The
government in these cases serves as a caretaker. The law says that once the
rightful owner claims and establishes his or her title, he or she is entitled
to all the property rights," says another lawyer, Mushtaq Ahmed.
Three
of Ghani's old homes now house a state-run school, a small factory and an
official residence of the head of Kashmir University. Thousands of other houses and land holdings
have been occupied since the state split with tenants paying monthly rents or
living on the property for free. Indian
Kashmir's deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma has called for abolition of a
law under which the properties can be reclaimed.
In
the Jammu region, from where Sharma hails, there are thousands of houses
belonging to Muslims who migrated to the Pakistani zone in 1947. India's junior home minister Sriprakash
Jaiswal says the property claims would have to be analysed by the state
government or India's foreign ministry. "Property
claims will have to be examined," he said.
But a senior state minister said the bus may bring with it a headache
every fortnight if people start crossing to reclaim ancestral property.
"It
is definitely going to uproot many families and that is worrying. We need to do
something," he said. The issue may
also come up in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
There are thousands of Kashmiris, mostly Hindus and Sikhs, who fled the
Pakistani portion and settled in Indian Kashmir. "I want to visit Muzaffarabad to reclaim
my property," says Ram Lal, whose family left the capital of Pakistan-administered
Kashmir in 1947.
A
Sikh family in Srinagar said it owned hundreds of acres of land on the other
side that it wants to reclaim. "My
late father left everything behind when he migrated to Srinagar. We now want to
visit that part with the only goal of claiming our property," the head of
the family said.
Kashmir
Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Kashmir
Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
Return to Index
Families of Srebrenica war victims to meet
with survivors from Kosovo conflict
Samir Krilic, Associated
Press, 4/28/05
Families from the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica were
visiting Kosovo on Thursday to participate in a commemoration ceremony for
Kosovo's war victims. Representatives
from Srebrenica left for Kosovo on Wednesday and participated in a
commemoration of the 374 victims killed in a village in Kosovo in 1999. Three family associations of victims of the
Srebrenica massacre "will show their solidarity and sympathy for the
suffering of the Kosovo families," the International Commission on Missing
Persons said in a statement.
The 1995 Srebrenica massacre - in which Bosnian Serb
forces overran the eastern enclave, a declared U.N. safe zone, and killed about
8,000 Muslim men and boys during 1992-95 Bosnian war - was worst civilian
massacre since World War II. And in
neighboring Serbia-Montenegro, thousands were killed in a 1999 war in the
province of Kosovo. Thousands are still
missing in both former Yugoslav countries.
"Another objective of the visit is raising
public awareness about the missing persons issue in the region and the need for
further efforts to clarify their fate," the ICMP said. On Thursday, they will meet with their Kosovo
counterparts to discuss planning annual commemorations, memorials and how to
deal with such issues as the identification process, remains found in mass
graves and cooperating with government authorities, the group said.
Shaky Balkans need 'new strategy,' panel
says
Judy Dempsey, The
International Herald Tribune, 4/28/05
A high-powered International Commission on the
Balkans has issued a scathing critique of EU and UN policies in the Balkans,
accusing both organizations of hindering democratic growth and warning that
bleak economic and political conditions may lead to renewed instability. "The red lights could soon start
blinking if we don't take stock of the reality on the ground," said Alex
Rondos, former Greek ambassador at large and member of the commission.
"The region is not as stable as the EU makes out."
The commission asserts that democracy has been
stifled in Bosnia "by the coercive authority" of Paddy Ashdown, the
EU's high representative. The
international representatives, the commission says, "dabble in social
engineering but are not held accountable when their policies go wrong. If
Europe's neocolonial rule becomes further entrenched, it will encourage economic
discontent and European electorates would see it as an immense and unnecessary
financial and moral burden."
The commission challenged the European Union to
formally offer Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia, Macedonia and the province of
Kosovo a timetable for admission to the Union, warning that failure to do so
could lurch the Balkans into another period of instability and leave the EU
mired in the region. The recommendations
by the independent commission, made public in Europe's main capitals over the
past few days, propose that in late 2006 the EU should sponsor a summit meeting
"that aims to present all Balkan countries with their accession road
maps."
Once the countries have met the EU's criteria on
respect for human and ethnic rights, implementation of the rule of law and the
introduction of a functioning market economy, the commission says these
countries could start accession negotiations around 2009-2010 and be ready to
join by 2014-2015. The commission's main
argument is that the EU and United Nations, two of the biggest international
players in the Balkans, must start devising a long-term strategy that will move
beyond the 1996 Dayton accords that stopped the five years of brutal civil and
ethnic wars between Serbs, Croats and Bosnians.
It says Dayton, brokered by the United States, is
inappropriate for tackling unemployment, building strong state institutions,
reviving political life and getting rid of a culture of dependence created by
largely unaccountable international protectorates in Kosovo and Bosnia.
"The Balkans need a new strategy if it is to
translate Brussels' stated political aim to integrate the region into
reality," says the 64-page report. "The commission acknowledges there
are no quick and easy solutions for the Balkans and that ultimately it is up to
the people of the region to win their own future. But we are convinced that the
international community and the European Union in particular have a historical
responsibility to face and a decisive role to play in winning the future of the
region."
The commission which includes Richard von
Weizsacker, a former German president; Giuliano Amato, a former Italian prime
minister; and Kiro Gligorov, a former Macedonian president pulls no punches in
criticizing the UN and EU's performance in Kosovo and Bosnia. In Kosovo, where
the NATO military alliance intervened in 1999 to stop the ethnic cleansing
carried out against ethnic Albanians by President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia,
the commission says the international community "has clearly failed in its
attempts to bring security and development to the province."
It says that UN Mission in Kosovo, the protectorate
that is supported by the EU and is known as Unmik, has failed to give the Serb
minority any stake in the province. "Serbs in Kosovo are living imprisoned
in their enclaves with no freedom of movement, no jobs, no opportunity for
meaningful integration into Kosovo society."
Over the past few years, argues the commission,
"Unmik has on several occasions been actively involved in a policy of
reverse discrimination in Kosovo. Under Unmik's leadership, the number of Serbs
employed in the Kosovo Electric Co. has declined from more than 4,000 in 1999
to 29 now, out of a total over 8,000 employees."
Additionally, the commission says it is time that
the EU and Unmik tackle head on Kosovo's status with Serbia, of which it is
still constitutionally a province. "Kosovo's independence will not solve
all the territory's problems, but we are concerned that postponing the status
talks will lead to a further deterioration," says the report.
Politics & Policies: Kosovo still
disconnected
Claude Salhani, United
Press International, 5/2/05
In some ways my idle laptop, unable to connect to
the outside world, offered an appropriate analogy to the current political
situation in Kosovo. The usual flurry of e-mails -- about 400 a day -- were not
trickling into my computer, leaving me frustrated -- as many Kosovars I am sure
must feel about political stagnation in their region. Both of us were waiting
for something to happen. And in both instances, it felt as though the world was
passing us by.
The direct Internet connection promised in every
room of my hotel in Pristina, the not-so pristine capital of Kosovo, offered a
fitting window into the state of affairs of the rebellious former Yugoslav
province, now seeking independence from Serbia.
Last week found me back in Pristina to lecture
Kosovar journalists and police officers on ethics at a seminar arranged by the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The OSCE is one of the
main international bodies that manage Kosovo's day-to-day government, police,
security and judicial affairs, among other duties. Although the province has an
elected president, parliament and prime minister, they are answerable to the
U.N.-appointed administrator; "an international," and one of the many
thousands who make Kosovo run, or sometimes, not.
For the uninitiated, Kosovo is the disputed region
over which ethnic Albanians and Kosovar Serbs have been fighting since, well,
suffice to say several hundred years. And the conflict is still unresolved.
The region, now administered by the United Nations
Interim Mission in Kosovo -- UNMIK -- which since its inception in 1999 has
been trying to solve the issue of "final status." Acting under the
authority of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, the international community
is trying to solve the longstanding issue and decide whether Kosovo should be
granted independence from Belgrade or stay part of Serbia and Montenegro, the
two remaining republics of the once larger Yugoslavia.
Kosovo's population is largely ethnic Albanian, who
makes up about 92 percent of the region's population of roughly 2 million,
according to one estimate. Kosovar Serbs, the largest minority in the autonomous
region, make up about 7 percent of the population. Before the war their number
was higher, but many fled and others killed. The rest are comprised of a mix of
Rom (Gypsies) and other smaller groups. A whopping 70 percent of the population
remains unemployed.
Back in the Kosovo hotel room the porter handed me a
new, shining red cable that he pulled out of the night-table next to the bed,
telling me it would connect my computer to the Net. He handed me the cable with
great pride, as though offering me the keys to the city. But once plugged into
my laptop and to the outlet that hung precariously on two razor-thin wires
sticking out of the wall, nothing happened. The computer idled. Just like the
province I was in. The red cable taunted me, just as the idea of statehood
taunts Kosovars. Both are there, within easy reach, but somehow still
unattainable and waiting for something to happen.
Repeated calls to the front desk were answered with
vigorous promises of looking into the problem. Twice the front desk dispatched
a "technician" to "fix" the problem. But again, mirroring
the political situation in Kosovo, as an "international" (meaning a
foreigner) I knew far more about the problem than he did. Or at least I
pretended to, and he, a Kosovar, accepted my pretense. In the end, it mattered
little, as we were both unable to solve the problem.
Promising he "would work on it," the
technician sauntered away. Still the problem remained unsolved. Three days
later and just hours before my departure from Pristina, the hotel manager
showed up at my door with a long cable in his hand. One end of the wire ran out
of sight, under a door at the far end of the hallway from where three other
similar cables, but of different colors, snaked their way under other hotel room
doors.
The manager, explaining that he had "just been
apprised of the problem," laid the coiling cable across my room, connected
it to my laptop. As if a magic wand was suddenly waved, I was finally connected
to the world via the wonder of the World Wide Web. The manager laying down cables across his
hotel floor was Kosovo's own way of fixing the problem.
Again, one can draw on the analogies of the two
situations. It was not until the manager took it upon himself to act that the
issue was resolved. Similarly, all the international help from the United
Nations, the European Union and the plethora of internationals working in
Kosovo will help the province limp along, with promises of the problem being
addressed, but without any real resolution. Meanwhile unemployment remains at
frightening levels.
Like my Internet cable, it will only be when the
managers of the province -- the people of Kosovo and their leaders, Serbs and
Albanians alike -- take their future into their own hands, lay down the cables
connecting them to the outside world -- that Kosovo can get on the road to
nation building. Until then, it will sit
idly as my computer did in a room in Kosovo, as the line from the great film
Casablanca goes, "waiting, waiting, waiting."
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo
Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law &
Policy Group.
Return to Index
_____________________________________________________________
Liberia
Ex-rebel
leader in Liberia declares he'll run in October presidential poll
Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Associated Press, 4/26/05
A former rebel leader in Liberia announced Tuesday
he would run for president in elections due in October. Sekou Conneh, 44, headed the now-disbanded
Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, one of two rebel movements
that rose up against ex-President Charles Taylor, who was forced to step down
and go into exile after a 2003 peace deal brought an end to years of fighting. Conneh told The Associated Press at his home
in an eastern district of the capital, Monrovia, that his supporters had
pressed him to run in the Oct. 11 vote.
"They have confidence in me, and they are
depending on me, and they want me to stand in the elections," Conneh said.
"We have to live by the will of the people, we are not imposing anything
on the people." In November, rebels
and former army commanders once loyal to Taylor announced they had disarmed and
disbanded their forces, marking a milestone in a quest for peace in this
battered West African nation after nearly 15 years of war. On Monday, Liberians began registering to
vote for the election, a process scheduled to last until May 24.
The nation of 3 million is currently lead by
transitional head of state Gyude Bryant.
Election officials say the registration process could be hampered by
poor roads to remote villages and the hundreds of thousands of Liberians who
live in relief camps around the country, far from their voting precincts. Taylor launched Liberia's civil war in 1989.
He won elections arranged under a mid-1990s peace accord but insurgents soon
took up arms against him.
Taylor fled into exile in Nigeria in 2003 as rebels
besieged Monrovia. A peace deal was signed following Taylor's flight and a
15,000-strong U.N. force now secures the peace and has disarmed about 90,000
fighters in the war-ruined country. Taylor's
departure last year paved the way for a transitional government that gave top
rebel officials ministerial posts.
U.N. peacekeepers sexually abused and
exploited women and girls in Liberia
Leyla
Linton, Associated Press, 4/29/05
U.N.
peacekeepers sexually abused and exploited local women and girls in Liberia, a
U.N. spokesman said Friday. Stephane
Dujarric said a preliminary investigation by the U.N. mission in Liberia
indicated that some allegations against its personnel could be substantiated
while others could not. "The
allegations range from the exchange of goods, money or services for sex to the
sexual exploitation of minors. The peacekeeping department here in New York as
well as the mission on the ground are taking appropriate follow-up
action," he said.
A
U.N. official speaking on condition of anonymity said the total number of
allegations could eventually total 20. The official said four U.N. nations
contributed to the Liberian mission but declined to name them. The head of the mission in Liberia, Jacques
Paul Klein, is to step down when his contract expires at the end of the month,
a U.N. spokesman announced Thursday. His deputy, Abou Moussa, will temporarily
take over.
The
allegations in Liberia are just the latest to be leveled against U.N.
peacekeepers who have been accused of sexually abusing the very people they
were sent to protect in missions from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor
and Congo.
"The
United Nations treats this issue with the utmost seriousness, and as we
continue to clampdown on misconduct throughout all peacekeeping missions it is
very likely that the number of these allegations will increase," Dujarric
said.
Last
month, a U.N. report on peacekeeper sex abuse said the world body's military
arm was deeply flawed. The report, written by Jordan's U.N. ambassador, Prince
Zeid Al Hussein, recommended withholding salaries of the guilty and requiring
nations to pursue legal action against perpetrators.
Currently,
U.N. troops and employees accused of wrongdoing are sent home to be dealt with
by their own government but are often never punished. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
commissioned the report after more than 150 allegations of sexual exploitation
of girls as young as 13 by U.N. peacekeepers in Congo surfaced.
Return to Index
Moldova
Moldovan
President Calls for withdrawal of Russian troops from province
Associated
Press, 4/27/05
Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin called for more
international help to resolve a separatist crisis affecting his country and
repeated a request that Russian troops be withdrawn from the region, the
president's office said Wednesday.
"We will do everything to guarantee the external
security of Moldova, which is one state, independent and sovereign,"
President Vladimir Voronin said during an international conference about
Moldova's ties to Europe. Trans-Dniester,
a Russian-speaking province on the border with Ukraine, broke away from Moldova
in 1992 after a war which left over 1,500 people dead.
No nations recognize Trans-Dniester as a country, but
the province receives strong support from Russia, which considers it a
strategic location. Russia also maintains about 1,800 troops in the region,
despite requests from Moldova to withdraw them.
Voronin also called on the United States, the European
Union and Romania to join talks between Moldova and Trans-Dniester. Currently,
only Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe are mediators in the conflict.
"The experience of 12 years of useless talks on
Trans-Dniester shows the inefficiency of the current format of the talks,"
Voronin said. He said tension in the
Trans-Dniester province was a threat to the security of the region. Moldovan authorities have called on Ukraine
to monitor its border with Trans-Dniester, which they say is a heaven for
smugglers. Last week, Ukrainian
President Viktor Yushchenko pledged to provide joint customs controls on the
border with OSCE observers.
Return to Index
UN extends peacekeeping mission in
Western Sahara
Agence France Presse, 4/28/05
The
UN Security Council on Thursday extended by six months its peacekeeping mission
in Western Sahara and called on Morocco and rebels in the desert territory to
help resolve the fate of people who have vanished during their conflict. The 15-member council voted unanimously to
prolong the mission until October 31.
Deployed
to oversee a UN-brokered ceasefire reached in 1991 between Morocco and the
pro-independence Polisario Front, the UN mission (MINURSO) includes 222
soldiers, two police officers, 121 international civilian personnel and 113
local civilian personnel. Morocco
annexed Western Sahara after former colonial ruler Spain pulled out of the
large, phosphate-rich desert territory in 1975. The Polisario Front took up
arms for independence the following year.
Security
Council Resolution 1598 "affirms the need for full respect of the military
agreements reached with MINURSO with regard to the ceasefire." The resolution urges "the Polisario to
release without further delay all remaining prisoners of war in compliance with
international humanitarian law and (calls) upon Morocco and the Polisario Front
to continue to cooperate with the International Committee of the Red Cross to
resolve the fate of persons who are unaccounted for since the beginning of the
conflict." The council also
"calls on Member States to consider voluntary contributions to fund
confidence building measures that allow for increased contact between separated
family members."
Return to Index
Censorship, protest ban still in place
after Nepal's emergency lifted
Shusham
Shrestha, Agence France Presse,
5/1/05
The
lifting of Nepal's state of emergency has done little to restore press freedoms
and other civil liberties suspended after King Gyandendra seized power earlier
this year, journalists and officials said Sunday. Nepal's government continues to clamp down on
critical media reports and ban public protests or mobile phone use as it also
struggles to combat an increasingly violent Maoist insurgency in Nepal's
countryside.
Bowing
to international pressure, the king lifted the emergency late Friday that he
imposed on the tiny Himalayan kingdom in February after sacking the government,
which he accused of not doing enough to fight Maoist rebels.
But
army troops continued to patrol the capital Kathmandu Sunday in a bid to quash
any demonstrations, witnesses said, while journalists and politicians
complained that the media remained fettered and political prisoners arrested in
the wake of the king's power grab had not been released.
"Scores
of Nepalese journalists and political party leaders are still under detention
and I don't see any reason for their detention anymore," senior journalist
and vice president of Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Gopal Budhathoki,
said. "The emergency has been
lifted only on paper but not in practice," he said.
The
Ministry of Information and Communications on February 1 issued a six-month ban
on the publication of interviews, news and opinions that go against "the
spirit and letter" of the king's takeover proclamation "and
encourages the activities of the terrorists directly or indirectly". After the power grab, the government halted
news radio broadcasts and sent monitors to newspaper offices -- a move some
editors protested against by leaving blank spaces on editorial pages.
"The
people and the press still feel terrorized and they are scared and until the
restriction on the press is lifted, how can anyone feel safe and say the emergency
has been lifted," Budhathoki said. The
English-language daily newspaper, the Kathmandu Post, wrote Sunday that it was
unable to publish stories critical of the king's takeover, even after the
emergency was lifted.
"Though
his majesty King Gyanendra lifted the state of emergency late Friday evening,
curbs on press and political activities in the capital will remain in
place," it said. "Along with
these new restrictions on political activities, the government has also
retained the earlier restrictions imposed on the media." The king continues to rule without an elected
government, Budhathoki said.
As
well, the monarch has extended the term of a controversial anti-corruption body
with broad powers to arrest and punish that was set up after the government of
deposed prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was dismissed. "Fundamental rights ... have not been
restored," said Sahana Pradhan, a senior leader of the Nepal Communist
Party-United Marxist Leninists, one of the parties in the sacked coalition government.
The
lifting of the emergency "has no meaning because opposition leaders are
still under detention," she added. An
Amnesty International report said last week 3,000 people were detained after
the king seized power, based on reports by local human rights groups, and 1,000
remained in detention. The main
beneficiaries of the king's latest move appear to be city shops that can now
remain open late into the night instead of being forced to close at dusk. Nepal, one of the 10 poorest countries in the
world, relies on a steady flow of tourists to feed its markets, hotels, casinos
and restaurants in the capital.
Student strike shuts schools and
colleges across Nepal
Agence France Presse, 5/2/05
Schools
and colleges across Nepal closed Monday at the call of seven student unions
after security forces opened fire and wounded three student leaders in western
Nepal, officials said. "Most of the
colleges and schools in Kathmandu and outside have shut down today," said
Kiran Paudel, general secretary of the Nepal Student Union (NSU).
The
NSU is the student wing of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) party. "Seven unions called for the closure of
educational institutions across the country on Monday to protest the firing by
the security at the All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU) primary
committee meeting Friday evening," Paudel said.
Three
students were injured in the shooting at Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur district, in
the far southwest of the kingdom. The
unions condemned the shooting, demanded those responsible be brought to book
and compensation provided to the injured students. They also called for the immediate release of
the injured students, who were detained and whose condition was not known.
"State
terrorism has now crossed its limits and our party deplores the shooting and
demands the government investigate the incident and severely punish those
involved," said Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist central
secretariat secretary Pradip Nepal.
Security
officials said the army had tried to surround the college suspecting Maoist
activity. The army, saying it had reports that Maoists were planning to
imprison students and teachers inside the college, approached the premises
firing into the air. The Maoist rebels
have been fighting to overthrow the monarchy in Nepal since 1996 in a conflict
that has claimed more than 11,000 lives.
Return to Index
US diplomat calls for vigilance in
troubled southern Philippines
Agence France Presse, 4/29/05
US
embassy Charge d'Affaires to Manila Joseph Mussomeli called Friday for
vigilance in the southern Philippines to prevent the spread of armed Islamic
militancy that threatens both governments.
Mussomeli said the allies must not neglect the Mindanao region, which
Washington considers a key training base for Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim groups, and
deliver on official commitments of development aid. Failing these, "we will lose this
war," he said in a speech to about 200 Filipino and US soldiers who
completed a short anti-terrorist training course.
Mussomeli
was making his first public appearance in the Philippines after he provoked a
diplomatic protest from Manila with comments comparing Mindanao to Afghanistan. Interviewed in early April by Australia' SBS
television, Mussomeli had warned of the flow of foreign militants to Mindanao,
the hotbed of a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion.
In
his comments posted at the US embassy website, he said the country's second
largest island was fast becoming a "mecca" for terrorism and risked
"becoming like an Afghanistan situation". The joint military training exercise was held
on the small southern island of Basilan, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, an Al
Qaeda-linked kidnap group that features on the US State Department's list of
foreign terrorist organizations.
The
Abu Sayyaf killed two US citizens in a year-long hostage crisis in the southern
Philippines that ended with the rescue of a third American captive in June
2002. "We must remain vigilant and
committed," Mussomeli said Friday. "This struggle is really far from
over."
Return to Index
President says war crimes issue
shouldn't block Serb integration in Europe
Jan
Sliva, Associated Press, 4/26/05
Serbia-Montenegro's
president called on the European Union Tuesday not to use the issue of war
crimes suspects to obstruct the country's efforts to join the EU. In a speech to the Council of Europe, the
continent's leading human rights body, Svetozar Marovic insisted his country
was cooperating with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. "No representative of Serbia harbors any
illusions we can achieve anything without full cooperation with the
Hague," Marovic said. "It's a prerequisite for any further involvement
of Serbia in Europe. Let's not invent borders or barriers for Serbia using the
Hague as argument."
The
European Union and the United States have said political and financial support
for Serbia-Montenegro, the successor state to Yugoslavia, is conditional on the
extradition of all suspects. Top
suspects still at large include former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic
and the wartime Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic. Mladic is
believed to be hiding in Serbia, while Karadzic is likely somewhere in Bosnia. Serbia said on Tuesday that it will intensify
its hunt for Mladic and will allow foreign monitors to observe the operation.
Marovic
highlighted the recent voluntary surrenders of more than a dozen suspected war
criminals to the U.N. tribunal. Since
October, 14 Serb suspects have surrendered to the court, which is seeking to
finish all trials by 2008. "The
recent results were very convincing for all those with benevolent intentions
for Serbia," Marovic said. "Serbia-Montenegro fully cooperates and
wants to cooperate. There is a commitment regarding the Hague. Of course, some
issues are remaining," he said, referring to Mladic and Karadzic.
Government
officials in Belgrade have said all suspects will be in The Hague by early fall. Earlier this month, the EU said
Serbia-Montenegro has made enough progress to open negotiations on an
association agreement with the 25-nation bloc, but talks on full membership
won't start for at least another few years.
"Europe is our future, it's a goal worth risks and
sacrifices," Marovic said.
EU
membership negotiations for another Balkan country, Croatia, have been delayed
because of the war crimes issue. The EU is pressing Zagreb to send former Gen.
Ante Gotovina to the Hague for trial, but Croatian authorities maintain they
cannot find him and believe he is abroad.
Marovic also ruled out independence for Kosovo, the troubled Serb
province run by the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers since the end of a
1998-1999 war between Yugoslav army forces and ethnic Albanian separatists.
"No
one in Serbia can accept the independence of Kosovo at this moment,"
Marovic said. "Kosovo is not an issue of rhetorics, it's an issue of
survival. Confidence must return, cultural identity of all citizens must be
protected." Serbs consider Kosovo
to be a the birthplace of their statehood and insist it remain part of Serbia,
but the ethnic Albanian majority in the province wants independence.
NATO
bombing of Serb forces in 1999 forced them to halt their crackdown on the
separatists and turned the province into an international protectorate. "We need a peaceful, multiethnic society
there, which we don't have at present. Kosovo must be peaceful, Kosovo must be
European," Marovic said.
Serbian
president appeals to Bulgarian counterpart in case of arrested army officer
Katarina
Kratovac, Associated Press, 5/1/05
Serbia's
president Boris Tadic appealed Sunday to his Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi
Parvanov, to help resolve the case of an army officer from Serbia-Montenegro
arrested earlier this week in Sofia. In
a letter, Tadic urged Parvanov to intervene on behalf of "good neighborly
and friendly ties" of the two Balkan nations and assist in finding a
"just solution" in the case of Col. Cedomir Brankovic. Brankovic, who was part of a visiting
Serbia-Montenegro military delegation, was arrested at a Sofia hotel on Tuesday
on an Interpol warrant issued at the demand of Croatia, where he has been
indicted for alleged war crimes committed in 1991.
The
commander of a Yugoslav army battalion fighting on the Croatian Serbs' side
during the war in Croatia, Brankovic had been suspected of attacks on the area
around the town of Novska in August 1991 which led to the deaths of 21
civilians. He has also been charged with
participating in robbing and torching of Roman Catholic churches and Croatian
homes and property in villages in the area. According to Bulgarian police,
Croatia has submitted an official demand to Sofia for his extradition.
After
his arrest, Brankovic was brought handcuffed and shackled at the ankles before
a Sofia court, where he claimed his unit was located in a different region
during the Novska shelling and that he was innocent. The Bulgarian court on Thursday released
Brankovic, citing his diplomatic immunity as member of a visiting official
delegation under the Vienna Convention. But
Brankovic has remained stranded at the Serbia-Montenegro embassy in Sofia
pending a possible appeal by the Bulgarian prosecutor's office.
In
the letter, made available to media, Tadic said the Serbian public was
"particularly shocked" at the images of the chained officer, images
"frustrating to both citizens and officials in Belgrade." Tadic also reminded Parvanov that under
international conventions, the only overriding authorities in Brankovic's case
would be those of the International Criminal Court or the international war
crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Neither court, located at The Hague,
Netherlands, is seeking Brankovic.
Tadic
concluded by saying Serbia-Montenegro "does not seek to escape
accountability for war crimes committed by its citizens" and added
"there are no reasons why Bulgaria should get involved in this case and
thus negatively impact our good relations, which have never been better."
Return to Index
Sri Lanka Marxists warn
tsunami aid deal could split island
Agence France Presse, 4/26/05
A key member of Sri Lanka's ruling coalition Tuesday warned that a proposed
deal with Tamil rebels to
jointly handle tsunami aid with the government would lead to the creation of an
ethnic homeland. The Marxist JVP, or
People's Liberation Front, said they were against the "joint
mechanism" proposed by peace broker Norway to handle millions of dollars
in foreign aid for tsunami survivors in the island's rebel-held areas. JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe told
reporters here that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had not given up the idea of a separate state
in the island's northeast and would use a tsunami aid deal to achieve that
goal.
"This joint mechanism is only a bridge to the ISGA (interim self-governing
authority)," Amarasinghe said, referring to the LTTE's self-rule plan
which was unveiled in October 2003 but rejected by the current ruling party. The JVP had earlier warned President
Chandrika Kumaratunga that they will pull out of the coalition government if
she agreed to a deal with the Tiger rebels on tsunami aid. But Amarasinghe declined to comment Tuesday
on any steps his party would take if Kumaratunga agrees to a tsunami aid deal. Kumaratunga's ruling coalition depends on the
39 seats of the JVP for stability in the 225-member assembly where the
government has a narrow majority.
Amarasinghe also accused the international community of not putting pressure on
the rebels to accept democracy and give up the demand for a separate state. The rebels during peace talks with the
previous Sri Lankan administration in December 2002 agreed to accept a federal
solution to the island's drawn-out Tamil
separatist conflict which has claimed over 60,000 lives. The rebels and the government have observed a
truce since February 23, 2002 though face-to-face peace talks have been stalled
since April 2003.
The December 26 tsunamis initially raised expectations that both parties would
work together to help victims, but squabbling for distribution control of the
international aid has added new tensions.
Some 31,000 people were killed in the giant sea surge and more than two
thirds of the victims were in the island's northeast controlled by the rebels. Diplomatic sources close to Sri Lanka's
faltering peace process said both sides were expected to agree on a joint
mechanism to disburse tsunami aid by the end of next month.
Prominent
Tamil journalist slain near Sri Lankan capital
Shimali Senanayake, Associated Press, 4/29/05
A top Tamil journalist whose articles favored the
mainstream Tamil rebels over a breakaway faction was fatally shot hours after
attackers seized him at a restaurant in the capital, police and colleagues said
Friday. Dharmeratnam Sivaram, 46, a
board member of the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site and a columnist for Sri Lanka's
English language newspaper, the Daily Mirror, was abducted by four unidentified
men in Colombo late Thursday and taken away in a jeep, witnesses said.
His body was found Friday with gunshot wounds to the
head in a shrub near a lake, police officer Ashoka Gunasekara said. A colleague
and family members confirmed the identity of the body, which was bound and
gagged with a napkin. There was no claim
of responsibility.
"We got an anonymous call saying a body was
lying by the lake," said H.A. Somaratne, a police officer at the scene. A
spent cartridge from a 9 mm pistol was found near Sivaram's body in Talangama,
about six miles outside Colombo. The
government condemned the killing and ordered an investigation, vowing to
capture the perpetrators. Japan, a major
aid donor to Sri Lanka which has pushed for peace between the Tamil guerrillas
and the government, said the killing will not hamper peace efforts.
"Whatever the background of the perpetrators,
such a heinous act should not be tolerated," Akio Suda, Japan's ambassador
to Colombo, said in a statement. He added he was "shocked and extremely
disturbed" by the incident. "This
murder ... is a blatant attack on democracy and the freedom of speech ... such
despicable acts will not hinder the efforts of promoting the peace process in
Sri Lanka," the statement said. Japan's
government had selected Sivaram for a monthlong journalistic training program
in Tokyo. He had been set to fly there next month.
Sivaram was Sri Lanka's best-known Tamil Internet
journalist and had been attacked and threatened in the past. In December 2001,
he was stabbed and beaten by a group of men at his office in the eastern city
of Batticaloa. No arrests were made. His
TamilNet Web site became popular for its reporting on the Sri Lankan civil war
and the peace process after a 2002 cease-fire.
But the process has been complicated by an
unprecedented split in the Tamil rebels in March 2004 when a former senior
commander broke away with some 6,000 fighters, alleging that the mainstream
faction discriminated against his eastern forces. Scores of people have been
slain in connection with the rivalry.
Although Sivaram was from the east and close to the
breakaway faction's leader, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, his articles favored
the mainstream Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam or LTT. Amirthanathan Adaikkalanathan, a lawmaker for
the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance, said Sivaram's last article in the Tamil
daily Virakesari was critical of Muralitharan.
"He was under threat from various quarters," said Sivaram's
wife Bavani. Lalith Alahakoon, chief
editor of the Daily Mirror, said Sivaram - a columnist at the paper since its
inception in 1996 - was "a very outspoken person and he did it within the
parameters of freedom of expression.
"I have to condemn the killing, whoever may be
responsible. He had been a good political analyst and had had a huge
audience," he said. Sunanda
Deshapriya, spokesman for Sri Lanka's Free Media Movement, said the killing
"brings the internecine violence into the fray and shows it targeting top
journalists."
Sivaram's death marks the "latest in a series
of violent acts and political killings" since the 2002 cease-fire, the
government statement said. Several Sri Lankan journalists have been killed in
recent years, but none of the attackers have been brought to justice. Sivaram leaves behind a wife, two daughters
and a son.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri
Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
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UN peacekeepers launch
deployment in Sudan
Agence
France Presse, 4/27/05
Advance parties have arrived in Sudan
of a 10,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force being deployed to support
a January 2005 peace agreement between Khartoum and southern rebels, a UN
spokesman said Wednesday. "The
first six troops arrived with their equipment last Sunday and another six
arrived on Wednesday," George Somerwill of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) told AFP.
"The deployment takes place quite slowly," he added. "Other
troops are expected in the next days."
All 12 troops hail from Nepal and have taken up position in the city of
El-Obeid in central Sudan, he
said.
The UN Security Council on March 24 approved the deployment of 10,000 UN
peacekeepers to shore up the January 9 peace agreement which put an end to the
21-year-old north-south civil war in Sudan,
Africa's largest country. The war pitted
the mainly Christian and animist south against the Muslim-dominated central
government based in the north, killing an estimated 1.5 million people with
four million others displaced.
Sudan says its prosecutors view UN list of 51
alleged Darfur war criminals as only a guide
Mohamed Osman, Associated
Press, 4/28/05
Sudanese prosecutors will regard the U.N. list of 51 suspected pepetrators of
Darfur atrocities as no more than a guide, the minister of justice has said,
according to official media. The list of
51 names, including senior government officials, was drawn up by a U.N. panel
that investigated atrocities in the west Sudan region of Darfur, where a two-year conflict has led to the
death of an estimated 180,000 people and the displacement of 2 million others.
The panel reported in February that the Sudanese government and
pro-government militia had committed acts of mass killing and other atrocities,
and recommended the prosecution of 51 individuals. Their names have not been
published. Earlier this month, the U.N.
Security Council mandated the International Criminal Court to pursue those
suspected of war crimes in Darfur.
The government rejected the council's resolution, vowing it
would not surrender any Sudanese citizen for trial abroad. Justice Minister Ali Mohammed Osman Yassin
decided Thursday to inform the International Criminal Court that Sudan would form its own court, headed
by the chief justice, to look into alleged cases of atrocities in Darfur, the
official Sudan Media Center
said. Yassin said the prosecutor of this
special court would regard the list of 51 individuals as a "guide and not
obligatory," the Sudan
Media Center reported. Sudanese
President Omar el-Bashir, meanwhile, has reiterated Sudan will not deliver to the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, any
national indicted for war crimes.
Speaking at a meeting of the ruling National Congress Party on Wednesday night,
el-Bashir said Sudan did not
fear the world powers. "Those
people who tremble and spread rumors think that we fear America and its wrath,
Europe and its might, the United Nations and its violations. But we tell them that
he who fears God, fears no one but Him," el-Bashir said.
The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 when rebels took up arms against
what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of
African origin. The government responded with a counter-insurgency campaign in
which the Arab-speaking Janjaweed militia committed wide-scale abuses against
the African population.
Sudanese factions start
talks on interim constitution
Mohamed Osman, Associated
Press, 4/30/05
Sudan's president said the talks
that began Saturday between the government and their former rebel foes on
drafting a new constitution mark the start of the most critical period in the
history of Africa's largest country. President
Omar el-Bashir addressed more than 500 officials, rebel leaders and foreign
diplomats inside Khartoum's Friendship Hall for the opening of the National
Commission for the Reform of the Constitution, a step called for by January's
peace agreement that ended Sudan's
21-year southern civil war.
Outside, hundreds of dancing supporters of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which battled government forces in
a war that claimed more than 2 million lives, celebrated the launch of the
talks, which are expected to continue for several weeks. El-Bashir said a new Sudanese government
comprising members of SPLA's political wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, must be formed by July 9. But
before that can happen, the six-year transitional constitution must be drawn up
and ratified by the existing Sudanese parliament and the SPLM.
"This is the most critical stage in the history of our homeland,"
el-Bashir said. "This is the phase which paves the way for a real
participation in construction of both our soul and soil." The war pitted the Arab Muslim-dominated
government in Khartoum against rebels fighting for greater autonomy and a
larger share of the country's wealth in the largely African animist and
Christian south. But January's peace
deal signed in Kenya made rebel leader John Garang a first vice president,
cleared the way for the drafting of a new constitution and gave southern states
the opportunity to vote on secession in six years.
The SPLM also will take 30 percent of seats in a transitional national
government. The interim constitution
will pave the way for the sharing of power and wealth. SPLM official Nihal Deng delivered an address
on behalf of Garang, expressing hope that the Sudanese people will make use of
the six-year period to reconcile differences and build a nation based on justice
and equality.
Many hope efforts to draw up a new constitution, which will replace the
Islamic-oriented one in place since 1998, will spur attempts to reconcile
warring sides in Sudan's western
Darfur region, where a conflict that broke out more than two years ago has
killed some 180,000 people, mainly from war-induced hunger and disease,
according to U.N. estimates.
"I call on all factions carrying arms to resume negotiations with the aim
of realizing peace and uniting the national ranks," el-Bashir said in an
apparent reference to rebel groups and government-linked militia groups
fighting in Darfur.
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