PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, July 11, 2005
(Volume III, Number 25)
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, July 11, 2005
(Volume III, Number 25)
Azerbaijan to hold parliamentary elections November 6
Opposition inspired by Ukrainian Orange Revolution.
President congratulates opposition on election victory.
Next election to be held on August 19.
Russian minister restates vow not to send conscripts to Chechnya
Contracted soldiers to be sent to Chechnya, according to defense minister.
Riot by vengeful soldiers leaves one dead in western Congo
Soldiers remnants of integrated rebel organization.
U.N. peacekeepers try to drive militia fighters from eastern Congo
Military spokesman declines to give timeline for driving out militia fighters.
DR Congo opposition leader says transition has ended
Organizations are protesting failure to hold elections.
Georgia detains Turkish ship headed for separatist region
Cargo ship planning on delivering building materials to Abkhazia.
Aceh peace talks may stall over Indonesia's refusal to grant self-rule
December 2004 tsunami acted as a catalyst in driving peace talks.
Hopes high for peace in Indonesia's Aceh as talks with rebels near end
Indonesian lawmakers not thrilled with proposed EU monitoring mission.
Security Council demands compliance with new timeline for Ivory Coast peace plan
Security Council takes note of June 29 agreement mediated by Thabo Mbeki.
Ivory Coast army, rebels agree to start disarming before October election
Presidential elections to be held October 29.
Suspected Muslim rebels kill five in Indian Kashmir
Two Indian soldiers among those killed.
Fresh violence in Kashmir as Hindu pilgrimage begins
Landmines defused before state minister travels along road.
Kosovo
Albright honoured with medal in Kosovo
Former American Secretary of State awarded by President Rugova.
Unnamed group claims responsibility for Kosovo blasts in text messages to newspaper
Messages do not contain clear demands.
Liberia justice minister seeks to revisit Taylor exile agreement
Taylor believed to have interfered in Liberian politics since going into exile.
Prime minister says Kosovo deal must respect Macedonia's territorial integrity
Upcoming political status talks lead Macedonian leadership to remind Kosovo over border matters.
Activists expelled for trying to observe trial.
Philippine governors look at breaking away from Manila, forming republics
Arroyo Cabinet crisis complicates separatist conflict.
Serbian president to pay tribute to Srebrenica massacre victims
Tadic to travel to Srebrenica on tenth anniversary of massacre.
Somali president announces plan to move to southern Somalia
President Yusuf fails to give date for government move.
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels commemorate suicide bombers
Suicide bombers commemorated with parades.
U.S. says it won't contribute to joint government-rebel Sri Lanka tsunami fund
Tamil Tigers still on U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Sudan's government, Darfur rebels sign another agreement aimed at calming war-struck region
Three page declaration of principles signed by groups.
Sudan Leader, Ex-Rebel Chief Join Forces
Garang sworn in as vice president.
Azerbaijan to hold parliamentary elections November 6
Agence France Presse, 7/4/05
Azerbaijan will hold parliamentary elections on November 6, President Ilham Aliyev's office announced on Monday.
Voting to the 125-seat single-chamber parliament, or Milli Majlis, will for the first time be entirely on the basis of electoral districts, rather than by proportional representation, following constitutional changes in 2002.
The vote comes against a backdrop of unrest that has continued sporadically since a riot in the aftermath of Aliyev's presidential election victory in 2003, when two people died in rioting.
A pre-election report published last month by the prinicpal Western election monitoring body, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, outlined several problems that it advised the authorities to address in order to ensure fair polls.
Ten thousand demonstrate against government in Azerbaijan
Agence France Presse, 7/10/05
Some 10,000 opposition members, many dressed in orange, demonstrated Sunday in the centre of Azerbaijan's capital Baku to call for fair parliamentary elections in November.
Participants at the rally, organised by the opposition Azadlyg (Freedom) Bloc, shouted: "freedom" and called on President Ilham Aliyev to ensure that the November 6 poll is free.
Many wore orange clothing, a symbol inspired by last year's "orange revolution" that brought pro-Western opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine.
Isa Gambar, head of the opposition party Musavat, told the crowd that "this year we will free the country from the Aliyev regime." Aliyev, who took over the presidency from his father Heydar Aliyev in controversial 2003 elections, has only recently allowed opposition protests to take place.
Burundi president says ex-rebels' election win should be respected
Agence France Presse, 7/6/05
Burundi's President Domitien Ndayizeye on Wednesday urged Burundians "to accept the will of the people" after his party lost this week's legislative elections to the war-ravaged country's main ex-Hutu rebel group.
As the former rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) prepared to form Burundi's first post-transition government after 12 years of conflict, he congratulated the victors of Monday's polls and called for their win to be respected. "I ask all political actors to accept the will of the people," he told reporters at a news conference held shortly after state radio reported that the political wing of the FDD, the CNDD-FDD, won nearly 60 percent of the country's lower house.
"I congratulate the CNDD-FDD for its victory and I invite it to lead the country for the good of all Burundians, those who for voted for it and those who did not," Ndayizeye said.
According to official final results announced by the country's electoral panel, the FDD clinched an absolute majority by winning 59 out of 100 seats in the national assembly.
Legislators in Monday's polls alongside senators elected by municipal councillors will select Burundi's first post-transition government next month.
The former rebels, who are now part of the transitional government, trounced Ndayizeye's Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), which took 24 seats, while the main party of the Tutsi minority, UPRONA, won 10 seats.
Late Wednesday, the FRODEBU said it accepted the result.
"The FRODEBU party accepts and respects the verdict of the people expressed at the polls, despite numerous irregularities," its president, Jean Minani, told a news conference. "We accept the result for the good of Burundians, for Burundi and for the ongoing peace process."
Two smaller parties, one Hutu allied with the FDD and one Tutsi, won a total of seven seats.
In his comments, the outgoing president also acknowledged that Monday's polls were orderly and "went well," a sentiment shared by Mamadou Bah, the African Union's envoy to Burundi and European election observers. "The AU is satisfied with the way in which Monday's legislative elections were prepared and run," Bah told AFP, adding that Burundi could serve as an example for other African countries in conflict like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Ivory Coast.
On Tuesday, the victorious CNDD-FDD said it would work with other parties to form the country's next government which will be sworn in August. "We will not govern alone," said FDD spokesman Karenga Ramadhan. "What we are interested in now is the management of this victory."
The CNDD-FDD victory on Monday means they are set for Burundi's leadership as they have the majority the lower house and will have the majority in the senate when its members are chosen later this month by municipal councillors whose ranks are dominated by members of the ex-rebel group.
The parliament is to select a new president on August 19, setting the stage for the formation of a new government and its swearing in a week later, according to the regionally backed peace plan for the tiny central African nation.
Under Burundi's power-sharing constitution, overwhelmingly approved in a February referendum, the new government will be formed by all parties that have won at least five percent of the votes cast in parliamentary elections.
In addition, the government will have a 60-40 split between majority Hutus, who make up 85 percent of the population, and minority Tutsis, who account for 14 percent.
Six of the country's seven Hutu rebel groups have laid down their arms as part of the peace process and participated in the election while the lone remaining insurgent faction, the National Liberation Forces (FNL) did not disrupt the polls.
Burundi is still emerging from its ethnically driven war that erupted after the assassination of an elected president from the Hutu majority by the Tutsi-led army and has claimed some 300,000 lives.
Former Burundi rebel leader proposed for president
Agence France Presse, 7/10/05
The former leader of the main Burundian rebel movement has been selected by members of his political party as their candidate in the presidential election to be held next month.
Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the Hutu Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), 41, is almost certain to win as his party swept the board in recent local and parliamentary elections which will give it a decisive majority among those choosing the president. "This July 10 is a decisive day for members of CNDD-FDD (National Council for the Defence of Democracy, the political wing of the FDD) and for all Burundians," he said.
"There are no reasons for fear, we are sure to win the election on (August) 19."
The CNDD-FDD's 428 members chose Nkurunziza in a vote in which he was the only candidate.
Nkurunziza, a member of the majority (85 percent) Hutu community, was the minister responsible for good governance and ranked third in the administration that followed the entry of the former rebels into the transition government established at the end of 2003.
"The presidential (vote) will be a simple formality because we have already won the communal and parliamentary elections," he said.
The constitution of the country says the president is chosen by an electoral college made up of senators and members of the lower house of parliament.
The CNDD-FDD won an absolute majority in parliamentary elections and is assured of a majority in the senate as it won local elections and senators are chosen by local councillors.
Nkurunziza stood down as party president and was replaced by the party's chief political theorist Hussein Radjabu, formerly party secretary general.
"When we signed the peace agreement with the government on November 16 2003 we had two aims: the creation of new defence and security bodies and the organisation of elections," Nkurunziza said. "The new army and the new police force are already in place and elections are in the process of being organised which should endow Burundi with institutions that are the outcome of the popular will," he said to applause.
The killing in 1993 of the country's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, during a coup attempt by the army, dominated by the Tutsi community that makes up 14 percent of the population, plunged the country into 12 years of civil war.
Only one rebel group is still active.
Russian minister restates vow not to send conscripts to Chechnya
Agence France Presse, 7/7/05
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov restated Thursday an earlier promise by President Vladimir Putin that conscript soldiers would no longer be sent to Chechnya -- a promise that human rights campaigners say has repeatedly been broken.
"The 42nd Motorised Infantry Division is already deployed in Chechnya and it will be supplemented by soldiers hired under contracts.
Young men called up will no longer be sent to Chechnya," Ivanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying on a visit to the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
So far this year, 51 soldiers have been killed as a result of separatist attacks, shoot-outs and mine blasts in Chechnya, Ivanov said.
The Russian defence chief also acknowleged the problem of deaths among new recruits -- said by human rights groups to result from brutal hazing rituals and to number dozens each year.
Hazing is the beatings of new conscripts by senior army officers.
Since the beginning of the year "we have found instances of deaths as a result of the unlawful behaviour of certain commanders," Ivanov said.
"We will look into each case and punish those responsible," he said.
Putin first made the promise not to send conscripts to Chechnya in 2000, a year after Russian forces moved in to retake the territory from separatist forces.
Human rights groups have consistently made far higher estimates of the numbers of soldiers killed in Chechnya than shown by official figures.
Amid continued public pressure, military prosecutors have recently become more outspoken in demanding explanations for suspected hazing deaths.
Riot by vengeful soldiers leaves one dead in western Congo
Eddy Isango, Associated Press, 7/4/05
Rioting and looting by a gang of soldiers has left one person dead in western Congo, a government official said Monday.
One woman died after being hit by a stray bullet in Mbandaka - 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of the capital Kinshasa - on Sunday, when 100 soldiers rioted after discovering one of their colleagues hacked to death, said Yves Mobando, governor of Equateur Province.
The group of soldiers raided the local armory and obtained weapons, then began looting homes, beating people and shooting through the streets, said Mobando.
At least 26 people were injured in the violence, mostly from stray bullets, Mobando said.
It wasn't clear who killed the soldier whose death caused the riot, or why he was murdered.
The looting spree caused many people to flee the area, the United Nations said on Sunday.
Calm was restored late Sunday after some soldiers persuaded the rioters to return to camp, Mobando said.
"We were able to neutralize the mutineers and get back some of the weapons," said Mobando. "The town is now completely secured."
The soldiers were former militia from the group People's Armed Forces of Congo, who had been recently integrated into the national army - part of a power-sharing deal made between rebels and government at the close of Congo's 1998-2002 war.
The militia operated in the northeastern Ituri Province, where armed, ragtag gangs kill and pillage at will. The group has been accused by human rights groups of a litany of offenses, including torture, murder, rape and kidnapping.
The United Nations says most of the militia has since laid down their weapons and either gone home, or been integrated into the army.
Some 15,000 militia in Ituri have disarmed since last September, part of a massive U.N.-led campaign to tame the lawless east.
U.N. peacekeepers try to drive militia fighters from eastern Congo
Eddy Isango, Associated Press, 7/5/05
Using special forces troops and attack helicopters, U.N. peacekeepers have launched an operation to rid eastern Congo of armed militia, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.
Operation Falcon Sweep began Monday in the forest-covered mountains of South Kivu province, a dense region controlled by several militia accused of raping, killing and kidnapping hundreds of residents every month, said U.N. military spokesman Thierry Provendier. "The aim is to secure the civilian population in this area," said Provendier. "If these armed groups refuse to leave, we will use force to chase them out."
Provendier declined to estimate how long it would take peacekeepers to drive out the militia.
Small units of Guatemalan special forces and Congolese troops are meeting with militia commanders, telling them to relinquish control of the area and leave, said Provendier.
Proviender said any militia holdouts would face elite soldiers and attack helicopters. Operation Falcon Sweep will continue until all armed groups are out of the area, Provendier said.
Last month, the U.N. general in charge of peacekeepers in eastern Congo said the operation had been planned for months, with Pakistani and Guatemalan peacekeepers carefully training and planning how to maneuver in the dense forests, where ambushes by militia are expected.
Much of the mountainous region is controlled by about Rwandan Hutu rebels from the group Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, who fled into eastern Congo after the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda.
Elements of Mayi-Mayi and Rasta militias are also being targeted by peacekeepers. In May, Rasta militiamen killed and mutilated 18 people.
In March, Hutu rebel leader Ignace Murwanashyaka said his 8,000 troops - many of whom admit killing in Rwanda's genocide - were ready to disarm and return to Rwanda after a decade living in the bush.
The United Nations has volunteered to help lead the repatriation, but the process has been slow. Rebels say they fear being imprisoned or killed upon returning, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been reluctant to give guarantees of amnesty.
Rwandan Hutu rebels have been a massive stumbling block in the path of peace in Congo. Rwanda invaded Congo twice, in 1996 and 1998, to drive out the rebels, who they claim were planning another slaughter across the border in Rwanda.
The 1998 invasion sparked a five-year war that killed nearly 4 million people, mostly from starvation and disease, aid groups say.
DR Congo opposition leader says transition has ended
Agence France Presse, 7/9/05
The leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo's main opposition party, Etienne Tshisekedi, on Saturday reiterated that the political transition process in the central African country had ended. "The transition ended at midnight on June 30," Tshisekedi, the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), told a rally of 15,000 supporters in central Kinshasa.
Tshisekedi was speaking in public for the first time since June 30 when police broke up opposition rallies in a number of cities, killing 10 people according to the government and 26 according to the UDPS.
The rallies were held to protest the failure to hold elections as originally planned under a pact signed by the government and rebel groups in 2003 that ended a disastrous five-year war.
Last month the large central African country's parliament voted to extend until December this year the political transition period, that was initially meant to be completed on June 30.
The decision, taken by a large majority, came as the country was preparing to hold elections that were meant to have completed the transition to peace and democracy by June 30.
The transition process was initiated in June 2003 as the DR Congo emerged from years of deadly conflict. Major unrest is still going on in the east of the resource-rich country.
The delay was called for by the independent electoral commission in view of the difficulty in organizing voter registration in a country five times the size of France, and that has few roads and other infrastructure.
The UDPS is boycotting the registration process because of alleged fraud and the lack of independent supervision.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Georgia detains Turkish ship headed for separatist region
Agence France Presse, 7/4/05
Georgian coastguards detained a Turkish cargo ship carrying eight Turkish passengers as it prepared to dock in the breakaway region of Abkhazia in defiance of a Georgian ban on docking there, officials said Monday.
The Taric Guner was detained outside the port of Sukhumi on Sunday and was escorted with its passengers on board to Poti, a port under the control of Georgia's central authorities in Tbilisi, chief coastguard Koba Bochorishvili said. "When the signal to stop was issued, the Turkish vessel changed course and tried to leave in the direction of the Russian port of Sochi," he told AFP said.
"Building materials were found on board marked for delivery to Abkhazia," Bochorishvili said.
The ship's captain had previously received a warning from Georgian coastguards after docking illegally in Abkhazia on a previous occasion, he added.
The incident comes after Georgia's foreign ministry in late June issued a reminder of the ban issued last August on landing on Abkhazia's coast without Tbilisi's permission.
The pro-Western leadership of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has made a priority of regaining control of Abkhazia and another breakaway territory, South Ossetia, since coming to power in a "rose revolution" at the end of 2003.
Both territories are centres of illicit trade and are widely seen as propped up by Moscow.
Negotiators meeting to discuss conflict with breakaway Georgian region
Associated Press, 7/10/05
Georgian, Russian and other negotiators were meeting Sunday to discuss efforts to resolve the conflict over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
The conference, which began Saturday, is being held near the southern Georgian city Batumi was attended by European, U.S. and other officials, but South Ossetian authorities refused to participate.
South Ossetia broke away from central government control during a war in the 1990s. Tensions remain high, with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili vowing to bring South Ossetia and another region back into the fold. South Ossetian authorities want to unite with their brethren across the border in Russia.
"We intend to achieve resolution of a conflict with aggressive peaceful initiatives. At the same time, we will not allow (the conflict) to remain in a frozen condition or keeping the current status quo," Saakashvili told participants at Saturday's session.
Georgy Volsky, deputy state minister for conflict resolution, said the forum would focus on economic projects in South Ossetia as well as compensation for groups displaced by the fighting, ITAR-Tass reported.
"The conference is designed to create favorable conditions for launching negotiations on full-scale peaceful settlement," Volsky was quoted as saying by ITAR-Tass.
Boris Chochiyev, a representative of the unrecognized South Ossetian government, dismissed the forum as a public relations stunt. "The Georgian side is doing PR to show the West that they are making some kind of steps toward resolving the conflict," Chochiyev told AP. "It's some kind of children's game."
Aceh peace talks may stall over Indonesia's refusal to grant self-rule
Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press, 7/7/05
Upcoming talks on a peace agreement for the Indonesian province of Aceh are seen as the best chance to bring peace to a region that has been riven by conflict for 130 years.
But Indonesia's refusal to allow a political role to the separatists who have been fighting government troops threatens to derail the process, even as it appears the sides are closer to an agreement than they've been in years, participants and analysts say.
The conflict over the oil- and gas-rich tip of Sumatra island - recently ravaged by the Asian tsunami - has been bitter, and the talk is still tough. "If Jakarta continues to insist on ruling Aceh as part of a colonial Javanese empire, there will be no agreement," said Damien Kingsbury, an Australian academic who is an adviser to the Acehnese delegation at the talks in Helsinki, Finland. Javanese dominate the government bureaucracy in Indonesia.
And Indonesia's Vice President Yusuf Kalla said the alternative to an accord was "all out war" in Aceh.
The long, intractable conflict is the result of a series of broken promises by Jakarta to grant the Acehnese meaningful autonomy and control over the province's substantial natural resources. Historically, the Acehnese have always fiercely resisted outside rule - they fought the longest anti-colonial war in history against Dutch forces.
Paradoxically, the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 130,000 people in Aceh served as the catalyst for the current peace process.
As Aid workers poured into the formerly closed province after the disaster, it led to international pressure on Jakarta to halt the violence in the province, particularly from the United States and the EU. Eventually the government and exiled leaders of the Free Aceh Movement, known as GAM from its Indonesian acronym, agreed to talks under the auspices of former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
Next week's meetings are to be the final round. Both sides have reported progress in the previous four rounds, leading to hopes of a breakthrough. An advance party of EU monitors has already visited Aceh to determine where hundreds of observers could be deployed. "There has been tangible progress, I am optimistic that an accord is within grasp," said Budimir Loncar, a former Yugoslav foreign minister who mediated previous negotiations that collapsed in 2003.
Experts say that if a peace formula can be found for Aceh, it could help defuse separatist tensions that have threatened to tear Indonesia apart since the ouster of dictator Suharto in 1998 and East Timor's secession a year later. It would also provide a blueprint for resolving another secessionist crisis in Papua, at the other end of Indonesia's vast archipelago.
An accord would represent a political success for President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono, whose administration has been sharply criticized by lawmakers for "internationalizing" the war by agreeing to the talks.
But a number of unresolved issues continue to jeopardize progress toward peace in the province of 4.1 million people.
While the rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire after the tsunami, security forces continued to conduct combat operations. Then, in the past month, the guerrillas have hit back in attacks that have caused heavy government losses.
In February, the rebels made a major concession by shelving demands for full independence in return for broad self-government. They also suspended their demand for an independence referendum like the U.N.-sponsored one that ended Indonesian rule in East Timor.
But the government has not reciprocated. It refused to allow amendments to the constitution which prohibits locally based political parties; rejected proposals to move up elections for a provincial legislature - now scheduled in 2009 - which GAM presumably would win; and dismissed the rebels' call to demilitarize the province. "If the Indonesians are not able to move some way from their positions, there will be no agreement," Kingsbury said.
Independent analysts have expressed skepticism about an accord. "There are no confidence-building measures contained in the process that can overcome half a century of distrust," said Ken Conboy, a Jakarta security expert.
Aceh, once a fiercely independent sultanate, was invaded in 1873 by the Dutch who attached it to their East Indies colony - which gained independence as Indonesia in 1949. The result was almost constant warfare, as guerrillas battled the Dutch, Japanese invaders during World War II and later Indonesian rule.
The latest hostilities broke out in 1976. Although many Acehnese want an end to the bloodshed, there is general support for independence because of abuses by Indonesian security forces. Human rights groups accuse the army of executions, disappearances, torture, rape and collective punishment of civilians.
A six-month truce collapsed two years ago when the army kicked out foreign observers, declared martial law, arrested rebel negotiators and mounted an offensive in which more than 3,000 people died.
Although the about 50,000 Indonesian security forces in Aceh outnumber the rebels 10-1, they have proven incapable of prevailing in the war, which is also a drain on Jakarta's faltering finances. Last month, parliament approved a supplemental US$500 million (€420 million) to pay for the war for the next few months - a huge sum for a country whose defense budget is only US$3 billion (€2.52 billion).
Hopes high for peace in Indonesia's Aceh as talks with rebels near end
Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Agence France Presse, 7/10/05
The Indonesian government and separatist rebels from the tsunami-hit region of Aceh will meet this week in Helsinki for a final round of informal peace talks amid high optimism that an end to three decades of conflict is in sight.
With both sides apparently willing to give ground over their claims to the prized western province, it is hoped a genuine settlement can be reached within weeks, offering a silver lining to the disaster that struck last December. "We are conscious that ending a conflict that has been running for so long will not be easy," said Sayed Fuad Zakaria, chairman of Aceh's provincial parliament, which will play a key role in implementing any accord reached.
"But we have high hopes that the Helsinki negotiations will enable the long-awaited peace in Aceh to finally materialise," he told AFP.
Almost 15,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Aceh since the rebel Free Aceh Movement, known as GAM, began its independence bid in 1976, with accusations of widespread rights abuses levelled at both sides.
An uneasy peace agreement was struck in 2002, but collapsed early the next year as the government launched a major operation to crush the rebels, placing the resource-rich region under temporary martial law.
At its height, the conflict seemed intractable, with the rebels unwilling to relinquish claims to what was once a fiercely independent sultanate until its capture by Dutch colonists who last century ceded to a sovereign Indonesia.
But in the wake of last year's tsunami, which killed more than 131,000 people in Aceh, both sides agreed to enter a new dialogue mediated by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari's Crisis Management Initiative.
Four rounds of talks, against a backdrop of ongoing violence in Aceh and often ambivalent support from Jakarta and the separatists, made slight progress with the rebels willing to accept broad autonomy but the government refusing their demands for political representation.
The dialogue has also been overshadowed by grumblings within Indonesia's parliament among lawmakers unhappy with a proposed EU monitoring mission and the global attention being accorded to what they deem a domestic issue.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's wilful military has shown little interest in pulling troops from a region it has fought so hard to gain control of, let alone meeting rebels' demands for a ceasefire.
Yet in the days running up to the final talks, the process has been injected with a new optimism as Indonesia's president drummed up support to make political concessions to the rebels and army brass mooted a withdrawal.
Jakarta officials have already floated a mid-August date as a possible deadline to endorse a peace deal, with a draft agreement already waiting for formal approval. "If there is no peaceful settlement, that would mean a war to the end... If that happens, do the people want this?" Indonesia's powerful Vice President Yusuf Kalla said last week, driving home the new pro-peace message.
Even the rebels seem eager to abandon their usually deep reservations about surrendering their guns should a deal be struck.
"Both sides have nothing to lose or be embarrassed about, we are looking at a win-win solution," Tengku Kafrawi, a rebel spokesman in Aceh, told AFP. "If a decision is taken by our leaders we will accept it. We are ready to lay down our arms if our leaders make that decision."
Observers, however, remained cautious about the prospect for peace, mindful of earlier failed attempts and the risk that unruly rebel and military factions will try to scupper the process.
"I am optimistic that the negotiations will be able to bring peace to Aceh, but only if the two sides are really committed to ending the conflict and upholding the people's interests," leading Aceh rights activist Rufriadi Ramli told AFP.
He said impartial monitoring would prove crucial. "Otherwise, peace will be shortlived, once again," he warned.
But for ordinary Acehnese, struggling to rebuild their lives after so many of their loved ones were swept away, such political infighting is of little concern. "What the people want more than anything else is no more war in Aceh, so that Aceh can be at peace and secure," said Ismail, a coffee stall operator in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Security Council demands compliance with new timeline for Ivory Coast peace plan
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 7/6/05
The U.N. Security Council demanded Wednesday that Ivory Coast's warring sides adhere to a new timeline for implementing a stalled peace plan and threatened to impose sanctions against anyone who doesn't comply.
The council noted "with interest" the June 29 agreement on a new timeline brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who was mediating on behalf of the 53-member African Union.
Rebels have controlled the northern half of Ivory Coast since a failed coup attempt in September 2002 sparked a civil war in the world's top cocoa producer. A French-brokered peace deal in January 2003 failed and a cease-fire four months later has been repeatedly violated.
A peace deal brokered by Mbeki and signed April 6 required the warring parties to end hostilities and disarm in preparation for new elections in October. But the peace process was dealt a blow when the June 27 deadline for the start of disarmament passed with no efforts by either side to lay down their weapons.
Leaders of the government, rebels and political opposition recommitted themselves in the June 29 agreement to holding the October vote. They also agreed to an Aug. 20 deadline for the dismantling of pro-government militias and pledged to start gathering combatants from both sides at disarmament, demobilization and reintegration sites from the end of July.
In a resolution adopted in early June, the Security Council threatened the parties with sanctions if they didn't implement the April peace agreement. In November, the council authorized a travel ban and asset freeze against any individuals and groups blocking peace efforts.
The statement adopted by the council on Wednesday and read by Greece's U.N. Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, the current council president, demanded that all signatories and all the Ivorian parties concerned "implement fully and without delay all the commitments taken ... and comply scrupulously with the timetable agreed on June 29, 2005 in Pretoria."
The council said in the statement that "it stands read ... to implement individual sanctions ... against those who do not comply with these commitments or constitute an obstacle to their full implementation."
Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo in April reversed a ban that would have kept opposition leader and former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara out of the elections. Though Gbagbo's move met a key rebel demand, Ouattara accuses him of not doing enough to ensure voting will be fair.
Mbeki said the government had agreed that necessary legislative reforms should clear Parliament by July 15. If not, he said he would step in and take "exceptional measures" to ensure the legislation is approved.
All sides also agreed to resolve matters relating to the security of rebel ministers, including their leader Guillaume Soro, by July 7 so they can take up their posts in a transitional government.
Ivory Coast army, rebels agree to start disarming before October election
Serme Lassina, Associated Press, 7/10/05
Army and rebel officials in Ivory Coast have agreed to begin disarming by late September, just one month before crucial Oct. 30 presidential elections, officials said Sunday.
The two sides came to their agreement, including a timetable for laying down weapons, after three days of talks ended Saturday in the capital, Yamoussoukro.
Officials declined to make the schedule public, apparently fearing it wouldn't be met. However, rebel delegation member Inza Diomande told The Associated Press on Sunday that all parties decided disarmament would begin Sept. 28 and end by Oct. 8.
A day earlier, the head of the national disarmament commission, Alain Richard Donwahi, was more vague, saying only that both sides had agreed to disarm and that "peace is truly on the rails so that elections can be held Oct. 30."
Army officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Both sides have repeatedly missed past disarmament deadlines - the last on June 27.
Rebels are demanding that parliament pass key laws on nationality and ensure a yet-to-be formed national electoral commission includes rebel representatives.
At the Yamoussoukro talks, all sides reaffirmed their commitment to disarm pro-government militias by Aug. 20, as was agreed at separate talks earlier this month in South Africa.
In late April, both sides pulled back heavy weapons from front lines that have divided the nation between a rebel-held north and a government-held south since a failed rebel coup attempt in 2002.
About 10,000 U.N. and French troops have been deployed to the West African country to bolster security and help prevent all-out war.
Suspected Muslim rebels kill five in Indian Kashmir
Agence France Presse, 7/6/05
Suspected Islamic militants have shot dead five people in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir, two of them Indian soldiers guarding the de facto border with Pakistan, police said Wednesday.
The soldiers were killed during a clash with militants late Tuesday near the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, a police spokesman said.
"The soldiers were on routine patrol near the LoC in (northern) Machil sector ... when militants ambushed them," he said.
Two other soldiers were injured in the fighting.
Police said the rebels managed to escape under cover of darkness.
Two Muslim civilians suspected of being informers were meanwhile shot dead overnight by suspected rebels in the district of Pulwama, south of Indian Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, police said.
In other violence, a former rebel was shot dead Wednesday in the district of Baramulla, also by suspected militants, police said. The former rebel had taken a job as a taxi driver after being released from jail.
None of the dozen rebel groups fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir has claimed responsibility for the latest killings.
Violence has continued in the region despite a 19-month-old peace process between India and Pakistan to resolve their pending disputes, including the vexed question of Kashmir.
The two neighbours hold the region in part and claim it in full.
More than 44,000 people have died in Kashmir since the eruption of insurgency against Indian rule nearly 16 years ago.
Fresh violence in Kashmir as Hindu pilgrimage begins
Agence France Presse, 7/9/05
Three people were killed and three wounded in Indian Kashmir Saturday while troops defused three landmines on a road the state's chief minister was set to use, police said.
Three members of India's Border Security Force (BSF) were wounded when suspected rebels attacked them with hand grenades in Sopore town, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the summer capital Srinagar, police said.
The area was later sealed off and a search was launched for suspected militants, police said.
Earlier Saturday BSF troops recovered three landmines on a key highway in the Nihalpora village, 27 kilometers north of Srinagar, police said. "The bombs were defused later," police said.
Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was scheduled to travel on the road which links Srinagar to the northern town of Baramulla to take part in a public function at the village of Kreeri, police said.
Indian troops Saturday recovered bullet-riddled bodies of three militants, including the chief commander of the hardline Jaish-e-Mohammed rebel group and his deputy in southern Pulwama district, defence spokesman Vijay Batra said.
Troops identified the commander as Jamal Bhai and his deputy as Mullah Naseer.
Batra said the militants had sustained injuries during an encounter with troops in February but had escaped.
"Their bodies were found today (Saturday) inside a snow-clad cave hideout," he said, adding either they had died of their wounds or intense cold due to unprecedented snowfall this winter in Kashmir.
Elsewhere police said Indian troops shot dead two more militants, while suspected rebels shot dead a civilian.
More than 44,000 people have died by official count since the eruption of insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir in 1989.
Nuclear-rivals India and Pakistan hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over control of the region.
The neighbours started a peace process 19 months ago.
The fresh violence came as an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath started Saturday from a traditional route, a police spokesman said.
He said some 300 pilgrims were allowed to proceed towards the cave shrine from southern Nunwun base camp, near the famous picnic spot of Pahalgam.
Pilgrimage on the shorter but riskier Baltal route started June 21.
Most of the pilgrims prefer the traditional route though it takes five to six days to complete the return journey as compared to one day via Baltal.
Security is tight for the pilgrimage as the procession has been attacked by the militants in the past.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Albright honoured with medal in Kosovo
Agence France Presse, 7/5/05
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was presented with a golden Medal of Liberty during a ceremony in the Kosovo capital Pristina on Tuesday.
President Ibrahim Rugova presented the medal in honour of Albright's efforts to end a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in the breakaway Serbian province in 1998-1999.
The war ended after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces under then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw. Kosovo is now a UN protectorate but its ethnic Albanian majority still demands independence. "She will always be respected and loved," Rugova told reporters after the decoration ceremony.
Albright also addressed the provincial assembly Tuesday as part of her visit to promote democratic values. "Your name commands respect throughout Kosovo. Without you the world would be completely different and Kosovo wouldn't have brought its dream to fruition," parliamentary speaker Nexhat Daci said in his introductory remarks.
Albright stressed economic stability, the rule of law and minorities' rights as the biggest challenges that Kosovo would face in the coming years. "Six years ago you gained your liberty. In the time since, you have made good use of that freedom and in the years to come you will be tested continually by the demands of democracy," she said. "Your future is up to you, as it should be," she added in the speech which was broadcast live by Kosovo's two main television channels.
It is Albright's first visit to Kosovo since 1999 and she would have been impressed by the Kosovo Albanians' lingering affection for former US president Bill Clinton, whose name adorns everything from hotels to shopping malls.
Kosovo Albanians see Albright's efforts as crucial to the international intervention, which went ahead without United Nations approval and in the face of opposition from Russia.
Albright arrived Monday on a three-day visit to the province in her capacity as chairwoman of the National Democratic Institute, a non-profit US-based organization.
Six years after the UN took control of Kosovo the province remains economically paralysed and wracked by ethnic hatreds, with the Serb minority in need of constant protection from NATO peacekeepers.
Unnamed group claims responsibility for Kosovo blasts in text messages to newspaper
Associated Press, 7/6/05
An unnamed group has claimed responsibility for weekend bombings in Kosovo that targeted a U.N. headquarters and a government building, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
A series of 11 short cell phone text messages were sent to the Kosovo daily Express, in which the group - which did not identify itself by name - claimed it was is behind the Saturday blasts and threatened more attacks.
The messages contained no clear demands. But the group warned Kosovo's institutions not to compromise on ethnic Albanian demands for independence as the province nears talks to determine its future status, the newspaper report said.
The messages also mentioned the dire economic situation in the province, lack of job opportunities for the young and last week's visit by Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister as being among its reasons for staging the blasts.
No one was injured in the three explosions, which targeted buildings housing the U.N., the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and a Kosovo government office. The group claimed to have warned passers-by before the blasts, Express reported.
The province's institutions and Western diplomats have condemned the attacks.
Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since the end of the war in 1999. It has an elected parliament, president and government but the ultimate responsibility remains with the U.N. overseers.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Liberia justice minister seeks to revisit Taylor exile agreement
Agence France Presse, 7/8/05
Liberia's justice minister said he will seek a revisiting of the exile agreement granted to Charles Taylor, amid mounting accusations that the warlord turned president has repeatedly violated terms of his asylum.
In a letter to UN special envoy Abou Moussa, a copy of which was seen Friday by AFP, Justice Minister Kabineh Janeh said Taylor was "not only active" in Liberia but "deeply involved in political activites as well as endeavors calculated primarily for the destabilization of Liberia and the sub-region".
"The preponderance of evidence of Mr. Taylor's interference ... combines to provide compelling legal necessity for a review of that internationally brokered exit agreement," wrote Janeh, a former leader of the main rebel group that rose in 1999 to oust Taylor, triggering four years of civil war. "The ex-president cannot continue to be a beneficiary of this agreement in the face of increasing compelling evidence of his notorious violation of that self-same agreement."
Under strong international pressure, Taylor took exile in Nigeria in August 2003 to end the civil war, with the caveat that should he be found to be meddling in Liberia, his asylum would be nullified.
The UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone has indicted the US-educated lay preacher on 17 counts of war crimes for aiding and arming rebels in their decade-long war in exchange for blood diamonds, and has boosted calls for his extradition to face trial.
War court prosecutors have alleged that Taylor has links to the Al-Qaeda terror network and was involved in a purported assassination attempt against Guinea President Lansana Conte in January, as part of their effort to dislodge the former president from his comfortable but isolated Nigerian exile.
Nigeria has so far resisted international pressure led by the United States and Britain -- who were among the strongest advocates of Nigeria taking Taylor in the first place -- and says it will only hand Taylor to an elected Liberian government.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo complained this week at a summit of the African Union in Libya of the "harassment" suffered by Nigeria at the hands of some sectors of the international community. "Without substantiated new allegations against Charles Taylor since he came to Nigeria for wrongdoing in his country or in another country, we are being pressured, harassed, blackmailed, intimidated and even threatened to hand over Charles Taylor contrary to the terms of his voluntary departure from his country," said Obasanjo, also the president in exercise of the AU.
Abou Moussa, head of the 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia, said that until he had evidence of Taylor's interference in Liberia, he could not respond to Janeh's letter. "I have reports on my desk talking about Taylor's involvement in daily events in Liberia, but no one has yet given evidence," he told AFP. "I am not saying that Taylor does not interfere in the affairs of Liberia, but I need evidence," he said, adding that he did not want to "get involved in any media debates with the Liberian minister of justice."
In a sign of how politicized the post-war reconciliation of the conflict-torn country has become in the run up to presidential elections set for October 11, a spokesman for transitional chairman Gyude Bryant said that the executive branch of government was not party to the letter to the UN envoy. "The minister of justice's statement does not reflect the view of the government," Bernard Warity told AFP. "The government will soon come out with its own statement on Charles Taylor's interference in Liberia."
Prime minister says Kosovo deal must respect Macedonia's territorial integrity
Associated Press, 7/8/05
Macedonia's prime minister warned visiting U.N. envoy Kai Eide on Friday that any agreement on neighboring Kosovo's future status must respect Macedonia's territorial integrity.
Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski expressed concern over the border in talks with the senior Norwegian diplomat, who is traveling the region before compiling a report on the province. Kosovo officials have argued that a 2001 border agreement between Macedonia and the former Yugoslavia deprived the province of some 2,000 hectares (4,950 acres) of land and that it should be returned.
Kosovo, which officially remains a province of Serbia-Montenegro, has been administered by the United Nations since 1999 after NATO launched a 78-day air war to stop a crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
The province's ethnic Albanian majority wants Kosovo to become independent, while Serbs are demanding it remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the successor state that replaced the former Yugoslavia.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Eide to evaluate the situation ahead of talks expected on the future political status of the region.
Ethnic Albanians want Kosovo to be independent, while Serbs want it to remain part of Serbia-Montenegro.
Norwegian human rights activists expelled from Western Sahara
Associated Press, 7/5/05
Police stormed into hotel rooms in the Western Sahara, dragging out Norwegian human rights activists who had gone there to observe a trial and then driving them through the desert to be expelled from Morocco, their group and Norwegian officials said Tuesday.
The five-member delegation from the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara was in the main Western Sahara town of Laayoune to observe the trial of 16 local human rights campaigners.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Eirik Bergensen said Norwegian diplomats were trying to find out why they were detained, and to be sure they were not harmed. "They have reported rough treatment and dangerous driving," he said.
The activists told the Norwegian news agency NTB that at least 25 police officers stormed their hotel rooms late Monday.
Ronny Hansen of the Western Sahara committee said six of the police officers grabbed him, and about the same number grabbed his colleague, Rolf Wermundsen, while the three other delegates were allowed to walk out peacefully. "We were physically thrown out. By force," he told NTB by mobile telephone as they were being transported across the desert.
He said a Spanish photographer for the Madrid newspaper ABC was also there, and that police confiscated his cameras.
Western Sahara, with a population of about 250,000, was a Spanish colony until 1975. After Morocco annexed the vast mineral-rich territory, Polisario Front rebels based in camps in southern Algeria waged a desert war to gain the territory's independence. The fighting, which pitted 15,000 Polisario guerrillas against Morocco's U.S.-equipped army, ended in 1991 with a U.N.-negotiated cease-fire that called for a referendum on the region's future.
The referendum has never been organized, in large part because Morocco and the Polisario failed to agree on who could be counted as voters.
The Norwegians were in Western Sahara to attend the trial of 16 young Saharan activist who were on trial for demonstrating against Morocco.
Bergensen, of the Foreign Ministry, said they were being transported by car, with a police escort, from Laayoune to the capital, Rabat, a trip that normally takes 10 to 12 hours.
They were expected to arrive in Rabat sometime Tuesday, he said.
Philippine governors look at breaking away from Manila, forming republics
Agence France Presse, 7/10/05
As embattled Philippine President Gloria Arroyo tries to shore up her government, several provincial leaders are considering breaking away and forming their own republics in the wake of the latest political crisis.
On Tuesday a meeting of governors, congressmen and mayors from the southern island of Mindanao will be held in Davao City to discuss the future of what is potentially one of the richest corners of the Philippines.
Governors from the western, central and eastern Visayas, in the central Philippines, are also talking of forming a federal Visayas republic. They and some mayors will meet in Cebu the same day to discuss the concept further.
The prospect of the Philippines breaking up is extremely remote. But analysts said the meetings reflect frustration over how political feuding in Manila is holding back regional development.
The governor of North Cotobato on Mindanao island, Emmanuel Pinol, told AFP Tuesday's meeting would be the first of its kind. "No one has done this before. With Manila in turmoil we need to get some sort of consensus on where we (Mindanao) are going," he said.
He said three issues will be discussed: forming a Mindanao republic, a State of Mindanao in a federal system and a proposal by former president Fidel Ramos to change the constitution from a presidential to parliamentary system.
Oriental Negros governor George Arnaiz, who is also chairman of the Central Visayas Regional Development Council, said the idea of forming a Visayas republic emerged spontaneously during a meeting of governors in Manila last week.
He told the Philippine Daily Inquirer the meeting was born out of "frustration" over how events in Metro Manila affect the rest of the country.
"We have been removing presidents since the time of Ferdinand Marcos. If they themselves cannot respect the constitution, how can we respect it?" he told the paper.
He said while it would initially be difficult for the Visayas to stand on its own, the bulk of the income would be its collections from international ports like Cebu.
According to Arnaiz the idea has gained the support of local executives down to municipal level.
Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he would support the creation of a separate government for Mindanao if Arroyo were ousted through violent means.
Former transportation and communication secretary Pantaleon Alvarez said: "It's about time Mindanao made a stand and created an independent state since the national government had been a failure in addressing the economic woes of the entire country."
Serbian president to pay tribute to Srebrenica massacre victims
Agence France Presse, 7/10/05
Serbian President Boris Tadic said Sunday he was going to pay tribute to the victims of the Srebrenica massacre and show that the people of Serbia do not support crime, becoming the first Serbian official to do so. "I am going to Srebrenica to pay tribute to the innocent victims of the crime that occured there and -- as president of Serbia -- to show how Serbia treats war crimes committed against Muslims," Tadic said in a statement.
The people of Serbia "did not back the crime. We have to show the difference between the people and the criminals. Serbia's future depends on it," he added.
Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb rebel forces and irregular Serbian police units overran the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.
Tens of thousands of people and a number of international dignitaries are expected to gather near the Bosnian town on Monday to mark the 10th anniversary of Europe's worst massacre since World War II, and also to bury the remains of some 600 victims. "It is a virtue and strength to condemn a crime committed on our behalf against another nation and that is why I am going to Srebrenica," Tadic said.
Separate delegations from Montenegro and the state union of Serbia-Montenegro are also expected to attend the ceremony.
Two Serbian television stations said they would broadcast the commemoration live, also a first in 10 years.
In Serbia itself, demonstrations were to be held late Sunday and on Monday by non-government organizations to commemorate the Srebrenica massacre.
Serbia and its political leaders have been divided for a long time over how to reconcile the country after atrocities were committed by Serb forces in the wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
A survey released last month showed that half of Serbia's 10 million people deny the Srebrenica massacre took place, while the Serbian parliament failed to adopt a proposed resolution condemning the killings. The alleged masterminds of the slaughter -- Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his former army chief, Ratko Mladic -- remain on the run in Serb-dominated parts of the former Yugoslavia, where they are seen as heroes by Serb nationalists.
Somali president announces plan to move to southern Somalia
Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press, 7/6/05
President Abdullahi Yusuf said Wednesday that he will leave northern Somalia to go south to join his prime minister and firmly establish his government in the Horn of Africa country.
Yusuf did not give a date for his move but he told local radio stations that he will do it when Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi returns from an African Union summit in Libya that ended Tuesday.
He said that he will gather militiamen as he travels from Garowe, the capital of the semiautonomous northeastern region of Puntland he used to control, to Jowhar, 90 kilometers (56 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu.
Yusuf did not say what means of transport he will use to get to Jowhar but said the militiamen are to provide security for his government.
Gedi returned to Somalia on June 18 and began work to set the country's transitional government in Jowhar. The government had been based in neighboring Kenya for seven months.
The country has been without a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Warlords then turned on each other, plunging the country of 7 million into chaos.
Since last year, when Somalia's parliament and government were formed after two years of peace talks, they had been based in Kenya because Somalia was considered too unsafe.
Yusuf has said Mogadishu is still too unsafe. Parliament Speaker Shariif Hassan Sheikh Aden and the city's main warlords disagree, arguing they have begun disarming their militias and will be able to secure Mogadishu.
Yusuf was in Yemen in June to resolve differences with Aden but failed to agree on where the Horn of Africa's transitional parliament and government should be based and whether there is a need for peacekeepers to be deployed in the country to help the government establish control of Somalia.
The president returned to Somalia on Friday and has been in Garowe, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of Mogadishu, since then.
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels commemorate suicide bombers
Associated Press, 7/5/05
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday honored hundreds of suicide bombers who since 1987 have killed a president, an Indian prime minister and dozens of others.
Reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was expected to pay tribute to the 241 suicide soldiers - including 64 women - who have died for their cause, at an undisclosed location in the rebel-controlled Wanni region in northern Sri Lanka.
Parades and remembrances were held across Sri Lanka's predominantly Tamil northeast.
In the restive eastern town of Batticaloa, a large float carrying portraits of suicide bombers paraded the streets and stopped near schools for children to offer flowers.
A split in the rebel group last year has resulted in factional killings in the town, 225 kilometers (135 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.
The rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi was decorated with red and yellow rebel flags and senior rebels joined parents of the suicide bombers - known as the Black Tigers - for a public ceremony.
The first suicide attack came on July 5, 1987, when a rebel - known as Captain Miller - drove a truckload of explosives into a military camp, killing 40 soldiers.
Since then, 240 other rebels have blown themselves up in attacks that have killed Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and dozens of others.
Gandhi died in 1991 when a Tamil woman blew herself up in southern India as she bowed to touch Gandhi's feet in a traditional gesture of respect.
Premadasa was killed in 1993 when a bomber on a bicycle approached him at a May Day parade. In 1996, bombers drove an explosive-laden truck into the Central Bank in Colombo, killing 91 and damaging the nearby 37-story World Trade Center.
Hundreds gathered to pay tribute to Captain Miller in the northern town of Nelliady, in the main Tamil heartland of Jaffna, where he attacked the military camp. Traditional bands beat drums while others carried posters of Miller.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils, accusing the majority Sinhalese-dominated state of discrimination.
About 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before the two sides signed a Norway-brokered cease-fire in 2002. Peace talks came to a halt a year later, however, over disagreements on postwar power sharing.
Peace has largely held despite occasional violations.
U.S. says it won't contribute to joint government-rebel Sri Lanka tsunami fund
Associated Press, 7/8/05
The United States said Friday it will not give money to a tsunami relief fund managed jointly by the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels, but encouraged other donors to participate. "Because of legal restrictions, the U.S. will not be contributing to the trust fund," the U.S. Embassy in Colombo said in a statement.
The Tamil Tigers are on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, which prohibits Washington from giving financial support to the guerrillas.
The statement said the U.S. supports the aid pact, adding that it can improve the lives of those affected by the Dec. 26 tragedy, and encouraging other donors to participate.
The fund is part of a controversial aid-sharing deal between the Sri Lankan government and the rebels to jointly distribute aid in the Tamil-majority north and east - parts of which are under guerrilla control. The Indian Ocean tsunami killed at least 31,000 people in Sri Lanka and affected a further 1 million.
Sri Lanka's government says the deal could help end the country's two-decade civil war, but critics argue that it raises the rebels' legitimacy internationally, boosts their separatist agenda and threatens national security.
A Norway-brokered cease-fire in 2002 halted the fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the government which had killed nearly 65,000 people. Subsequent peace talks are now deadlocked.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Sudan's government, Darfur rebels sign another agreement aimed at calming war-struck region
Adigun Aiyegbokiki, Associated Press, 7/5/05
Sudan's government and two Darfur rebel groups ended their latest round of peace talks without a comprehensive peace deal to end the deadly two-year conflict that has left tens of thousands dead in Sudan's western region.
Representatives from the government, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement all signed a three-page "declaration of principles" on Tuesday aimed at helping bring peace to Darfur as mediators announced the end of the fifth round of peace talks among warring parties.
Negotiators at the talks venue in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, agreed to broad, generalized commitments, including respecting the unity of Sudan, upholding democracy and "justice and equality for all, regardless of ethnicity, religion and gender."
The document also proposed "an effective devolution of powers" to regional authorities and that Darfur's people should be ensured of a role in all levels of government.
The parties would agree on how best to share power and wealth in Darfur at a later date, according to the document. Mediators said the talks are scheduled to begin again on Aug. 24.
Insurgent and government representatives have signed numerous cease-fire and other pacts during past rounds of peace talks, but none has yet calmed the crisis in Darfur.
The document fell short of the comprehensive peace agreement originally hoped for when the latest round of peace talks began last month, but negotiators were sanguine nonetheless.
"By adopting the Declaration of Principles, you have demonstrated your own determination that you will not let down the people of Darfur ... and you will not let down our friends in the international community," Salim Ahmed Salim, the African Union's special envoy for Darfur told negotiators. The 53-nation African Union is hosting the peace talks, now in their fifth round.
Rebels from black African tribes took up arms in Darfur in February 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan's Arab-dominated government. The government is accused of responding by backing a scorched-earth counterinsurgency by Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed.
War-induced hunger and disease have killed more than 180,000 people and driven more than two million from their homes, according to U.N. estimates.
Sudan Leader, Ex-Rebel Chief Join Forces
Tanalee Smith, Associated Press, 7/10/05
Two former enemies joined forces Saturday to sign into being Sudan's new constitution while pledging to promote peace and renewal in a nation scarred by two decades of civil war.
John Garang, an ex-rebel leader who has returned to Khartoum for the first time in 22 years, was sworn in as Sudan's first southern and Christian vice president.
Garang's longtime foe, President Omar el-Bashir, who came to power in a 1989 coup, was again handed the presidency under the terms of a U.S.-backed interim constitution.
The charter, which was passed by the Sudanese parliament this week as part of a peace agreement reached in January, calls for wealth and power sharing, democratic elections within three years and a referendum for southern Sudan secession after six years.
It also widens political and religious freedoms and ends a state of emergency in place for most of the years el-Bashir has ruled.
The two leaders are expected to form their coalition government by Aug. 9.
"From here on, Sudan for the first time will be a country voluntarily united in justice and the free will of its people," Garang, 60, told local leaders and foreign dignitaries including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Undersecretary of State Robert Zoellick.
Zoellick urged the new government to work to end the crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where a separate civil conflict has raged for over two years.
"This new government of national unity creates a new opportunity for the government of Sudan to take on these challenges in a way that demonstrates that they're trying to create opportunities for all the people of Sudan," said the U.S. envoy, who visited Darfur on Friday.
Garang, the former Sudan People's Liberation Army chief, said Sudan will be "a country where there is full respect for human rights, freedom and dignity for all people regardless of their race, regardless of their religion, regardless of their agenda."
Southern rebels, comprising mainly Christians and Sudanese of animist beliefs, had fought the Islamic-oriented government's forces since 1983. The conflict killed more than 2 million people, mainly through war-induced famine.
The civil war also ravaged infrastructure in oil-rich southern Sudan, a vast region that saw little or no development during the war. Annan said during an April donor's conference in Norway that Sudan needed $2.6 billion over the next 2 1/2 years to help rebuild the south.
El-Bashir and Garang also urged opponents of the peace deal to back efforts to rebuild the south and resolve ongoing conflicts in the western Darfur region and eastern Sudan.
"We call on them to join in so that we could move on in our rehabilitation and building our homeland," el-Bashir said.
Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, who as vice president was one of the major brokers of the peace accord that paved the way for Saturday's ceremonies, was sworn in as vice president. Though Garang will be second to the president and have veto power, Taha will still play a powerful role as the second-highest ruling party official after el-Bashir.
The constitution moves away from complete Islamic rule, saying those in the mainly Christian and animist south will not be held to Muslim laws. It also removes a requirement that the president be Muslim.
Annan called it "a day of great hope for the Sudanese people, who have suffered so long."
Darfur rebels and government negotiators also signed a declaration of principles this week in Nigeria, but insecurity still reins over the region where war-induced hunger and disease have killed more than 180,000 people and driven more than 2 million from their homes.
Rebels from black African tribes took up arms in Darfur in February 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan's Arab-dominated government. The government has been accused of responding by backing a counterinsurgency by Arab militia known as the Janjaweed that provoked international outrage. Khartoum denies involvement in the violence.
The political breakthrough in southern Sudan was widely approved by war-weary Sudanese. "Now Sudan is on a new path, the way of diversity, the way of religious freedom," said human rights activist Ghazi Suleiman. "We have to go forward. There is no other way." Bashir Adam Rahman, secretary for political affairs in the opposition Popular Congress Party, said his movement was mostly pleased with this weekend's events.
"It ends the war, it answers questions about the relationship between different groups," he said. "With the constitution, everything is settled."
But his party and others were unhappy with the allocation of power, which gives el-Bashir's ruling National Congress Party 52 percent of government and parliament seats. Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement will have 28 percent and northern and southern opposition parties will take the remaining 20 percent.
Still, Rahman approved of Garang's veto, saying it was "a security valve for the implementation of the peace agreement and constitution."