PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, July 18, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 26)
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, July 18, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 26)
Contents:
Afghanistan
Rights groups calls for Afghanistan to hold war criminals to account
Some September 2005 parliament candidates may be war criminals.
International negotiators hopeful of progress in Nagorno-Karabakh dispute
OSCE mediators meet with Nagorno-Karabakh parties.
Hard work still ahead on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, Russian mediator says
Nagorno-Karabakh president hopeful of progress in continued talks.
Rebel forces accused of executing fourteen civilians.
Burundian radio station defies latest ban and continues broadcasting
African Public Radio criticized for election coverage.
Military helicopter crash in Chechnya kills eight
Russian military officials say helicopter was probably shot down by Chechen rebels.
Leaders of Angola, Congo, Gabon meet for talks with DRCongo
Kabila meets with leaders and transitional government officials in Kinshasa.
Indonesia's government and Aceh rebels agree on peace deal
Draft accord sent to Jakarta to President Yudhoyono for approval.
Indonesia and Aceh rebels to sign peace agreement on Aug. 15
Deal to help facilitate reconstruction aid after December 2004 tsunami.
At heart of Ivory Coast conflict: Who has the right to citizenship?
Presidential elections to be held October 30.
Ivory Coast president enacts laws easing way toward October elections
Security Council tells parties to enact a new timeline for peace implementation.
Pakistan militant camps endanger peace process, says India
India encourages Pakistan to take stronger steps against terrorism.
Kosovo
Serbian president: conditions 'not right' for Kosovo Serbs to join province's institutions
Kosovo Serbs not pleased with progress made on ending attacks.
German opposition leader calls for negotiations on Kosovo's status
Angela Merkel calls for prompt negotiations, after meeting with Rugova and Jessen-Petersen.
UN rights boss favors Taylor handover to Sierra Leone war crimes court
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty encourage handover to tribunal in Freetown.
Moldova's president presents new proposal for settling Trans-Dniester conflict
Voronin deal may allow Transnistria ability to seek full independence.
Ukraine's Yushchenko meets head of Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region
Smirnov invited to meet with Yushchenko in Kiev.
West Sahara rebel leader warns EU against fishing deal with Morocco
West Saharan leader views agreement as threat to sovereignty.
UN envoy says "urgent" solution needed to Maoist problem in Nepal
Brahimi leads fact-finding mission to Nepal.
Freedom is gateway to the future: The republic is looking beyond uneasy union with Serbia to the European Union
Montenegrins continue call for independence from Serbia along road to EU membership.
EU Commission seeks mandate to negotiate pre-membership deal with Serbia-Montenegro
Belgrade ready to begin talks on Stabilization and Association Agreement.
Somali officials appeal for U.S. help to modify U.N. arms embargo
Officials call for U.S. help in rebuilding the war-torn country.
Rebel deadline passes, threatening fragile Sri Lankan truce
Suspected Tamil Tigers rebels attack police post after deadline passes.
Tamil Tigers demand direct tsunami relief after aid-sharing deal scuttled
Sri Lankan Supreme Court rules out deal, saying it is unconstitutional.
Sudanese journalists cautiously hopeful as lifting of state of emergency promises no more censorship
Sudan Press Council to continue to hand out newspaper licenses.
Rwanda begins dispatching soldiers to Sudan's Darfur region
Nearly 1,800 Rwandan troops to be sent to Sudanese Darfur region.
Rights groups calls for Afghanistan to hold war criminals to account
Rachel Morarjee, Agence France Presse, 7/17/05
Afghanistan must call officials and commanders accused of war crimes to account for their violations of human rights, a rights group said Sunday weeks ahead of the country's landmark parliamentary elections.
In a report which documents war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1978-2001 period, the Afghanistan Justice Project called on the Afghan government and the international community to take greater steps to bring war criminals to justice.
The crimes documented included massacres, disappearances, and summary executions of tens of thousands of civilians, indiscrimate bombing, torture, mass rape and other atrocities.
"In September 2005, Afghanistan will hold parliamentary elections. The candidates for parliamentary seats include persons against whom there is credible evidence of responsibility for war crimes," the group said in a 167-page report based on hundreds of interviews.
Afghanistan will hold its first post-Taliban parliamentary elections on September 18, but only 11 candidates, out of a total of 208 who were investigated for their links with illegal armed militias, were struck off the ballot paper.
Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf, a radical Islamist commander who currently advises Karzai and exercises major political power over the Afghan judiciary, has been implicated over a slew of rights violations but remained on the list.
Under the Afghan constitution, candidates cannot be disqualified unless they have been convicted of a crime in a court of a law -- but no functioning courts existed to deliver such convictions during the country's 23 years of war.
While the Afghanistan Justice Project acknowledged the country still lacked the mechanisms to bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice, the group called for greater steps to be taken in that direction.
"If Afghanistan's political transition is to be guided by principles of good governance, including transparency, there is no need to bury the truth," the report said.
Speaking to reporters in Kabul, Patricia Gossman, director of the project called the failure to question commanders for their rights violations "a missed opportunity.
Electoral authorities had pushed aside "serious questions over who should be disqualified" from standing for the elections and had appointed many people with records of rights abuses to senior government positions, she said.
Gossman said the recent appointment of an ally of Sayyaf, Shir Alam, as governor of the southeastern province of Ghazni was "appauling given the amount of information that is already available about him and well-known to the international community."
The report comes 10 days after US-based Human Rights Watch said many of those linked to the carnage that erupted from April 1992 to March 1993 in Kabul after the collapse of the Soviet-backed Najibullah government are now defense or interior ministry officials, or advisors to Karzai himself.
"From the very start the argument was put forward that inclusion of these people was the best way to prevent further bloodshed... but we are three-and-half-years into that what we have seen is that inclusion has not led to greater stability," Gossman said.
Over 650 people have died since the beginning of the year in political violence, mainly in the country's restive south and east.
International negotiators hopeful of progress in Nagorno-Karabakh dispute
Associated Press, 7/12/05
International mediators on Tuesday expressed hope of a settlement surrounding the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh following talks with top Azerbaijani officials.
Representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are trying to resolve the long-running conflict over the mountainous enclave, which was seized by ethnic Armenian forces in a war with Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. "We believe that much is possible in the foreseeable future if we can count on the goodwill and the desire of the Azerbaijani and the Armenian people to achieve a realistic and stable settlement," U.S. diplomat Steven Mann said.
The United States, Russia and France co-chair the OSCE peace mission. Mann and his French and Russian counterparts met Tuesday with President Ilham Aliev and other Azerbaijani officials.
The Russian envoy, Yuri Merzlyakov, said that the mediators were working on broad outlines of a peace plan.
However, he said that it was unlikely the negotiations would be completed in time for a meeting of the rival nations' presidents in August on the sidelines of an informal gathering of ex-Soviet leaders in the Russian city of Kazan.
A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the enclave's final political status has not been determined and shooting breaks out frequently between the two sides, which face off across a demilitarized buffer zone.
Aliev last month said there were signs of progress in efforts to resolve the dispute.
The OSCE delegation later was to travel to Armenia.
Hard work still ahead on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, Russian mediator says
Avet Demourian, Associated Press, 7/14/05
A Russian mediator cautioned that hard work lies ahead to resolve the long-running conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and settle the status of the disputed enclave.
Yuri Merzlyakov, speaking late Wednesday after meeting with officials in Nagorno-Karabakh, said that "the two sides are still very far from reaching an agreement to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."
Russian, French and U.S. envoys from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are trying find a solution to the dispute over the mountainous region, which was seized by ethnic Armenian forces in a war with Azerbaijan in the 1990s.
Merzlyakov said that months of painstaking work would be required to bring Armenia and Azerbaijan closer to a compromise.
French diplomat Bernard Fasier said many difficult issues remained but praised the constructive attitude of the rival Caucasus nations.
"We consider important the spirit of the negotiations and the relations between the two sides, which are developing positively. This really is a help to us," he said.
The self-declared president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkady Gukasyan, told the envoys that although a deal was not yet in the making, "there is still a great hope of progress," his press service said Thursday.
A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the enclave's final status has not been determined and shooting breaks out frequently between the two sides, which face off across a demilitarized buffer zone.
The diplomats from Russia, the United States and France held talks Wednesday in Nagorno-Karabakh's main city, Stepanakert, before returning to Yerevan for more talks.
The OSCE mediators on Tuesday met with officials in Azerbaijan, whose president, Ilham Aliev, last month said there were signs of progress in resolving the dispute.
The international community has become increasingly keen to reduce tensions in this part of the former Soviet Union as energy-rich Azerbaijan and other countries in the region have exploited vast reserves of oil around the Caspian Sea.
About 1 million people were displaced by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and their resettlement as well as the future status of the territory are among the major issues to be resolved.
Five killed as Burundi's last rebel group raids central province
Agence France Presse, 7/13/05
At least five members of Burundi's lone remaining rebel group were killed and two captured overnight as the insurgents launched their first raid in the center of the country, the army said Wednesday.
The fighters from the National Liberation Forces (FNL) were killed in a captured during clashes with security forces in the town of Bukeye in Burundi's central Muramvya province, army spokesman Major Adolphe Manirakiza said. "The FNL attacked last night in Bukeye," he told AFP. "Five rebels were killed and two others were wounded and captured. We had one civilian and three soldier injured on our side."
No one from the FNL -- whose main area of operation are two provinces immediately outside the capital to the west and south, Bujumbura Rural and Bubanza -- could be reached for comment.
Manirakiza said the raid was the first time since Burundi's civil war began in 1993 that the FNL had attacked in Bukeye, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Bujumbura. "We think that the FNL want to extend the war to other provinces," he said.
On Tuesday, Burundi's army accused the FNL of executing at least 14 civilians in Bujumbura Rural and Bubanza provinces since July 4 legislative elections passed without major incident.
The attacks come despite a tentative truce reached in May between the government and the rebels, the only one of the country's seven Hutu rebel groups not to have signed on to a peace deal aimed at finally ending the 12-year war that has claimed some 300,000 lives.
The small central African nation has been locked in a series of elections since June 3 as part of an extended peace process and transitional period aimed at bringing an end to the conflict and revised power-sharing arrangements for the Tutsi and Hutu peoples.
The FNL announced last week it was ready to resume talks on cementing the ceasefire and possibly joining the peace process but only after 600 of its detained supporters are released and the government halts attacks on its positions.
It also wants the international community to condemn what it claims are repeated violations of the May 15 tentative truce by the government.
Burundian radio station defies latest ban and continues broadcasting
Aloys Niyoyita, Associated Press, 7/15/05
An independent radio station went on air Friday in defiance of a ban issued by Burundi's communications council after the broadcaster allegedly insulted the council.
The director of African Public Radio, Alexis Sinduhije, said the ban was invalid, as the National Council for Communication's tenure had ended in February 2004 and the government had not renewed or extended it. "We received the order, but we do not recognize it," Sinduhije said. "I have already asked our lawyer to bring the case to court."
Officials from the commission were not immediately available for comment.
Earlier Friday, the council issued the ban after it had criticized African Public Radio for its election coverage, prompting the station to insult the council and its members, council chairman Jean Pierre Manda said. "The director of (African Public Radio) made insults and inflammatory statements for three days on his radio, saying council members are incompetent and ignorant of journalism because they never studied it," Manda said in the order to close the station indefinitely.
"The director's statements offended the council and brought prejudice against it," he said.
After July 4 parliamentary elections, Manda said that African Public Radio's campaign coverage had been biased in favor of the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, which provisional results showed won the ballot.
Friday's order by the council marks the third time the government has closed African Public Radio. It has also jammed the signal in the past.
Augustin Kabayabaya, chairman of the Burundian Association of Journalists, said that while the council's ban was harsh, the council was still a legal entity as it had not been replaced by the government. "The law on press is clear - if the president delays to appoint a new body, the incumbent one carries on until new members are appointed," Kabayabaya said.
In February, the council closed African Public Radio for two days, saying the station had broken the law by broadcasting details of the rape of an 8-year-old girl.
In September 2003, the information minister closed the station for two days for defying a government ban on interviewing rebel officials. A second independent station, Radio Isanganiro, was also ordered to cease operations for a week.
Military helicopter crash in Chechnya kills eight
Sergei Venyavsky, Associated Press, 7/16/05
An air force helicopter crashed in mountainous southern Chechnya Saturday, killing eight people. The cause of the crash was unknown, but Russian military officials said it was unlikely it had been shot down by Chechen rebels.
Officials initially said there were four people aboard the Mi-8 helicopter, but an air force official who declined to give his name in line with Russian practice said there were nine aboard and that eight were killed. Russian news agencies quoted air force spokesman Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky as saying the same.
The crash killed three crew members and five border guards who were passengers, Drobyshevsky said, according to the reports. He told NTV television that the surviving passenger - who NTV reported had accompanied a fuel shipment to a border post in southern Chechnya - was flown to the main Russian military base in Chechnya and hospitalized with burns and head injuries.
The helicopter crashed in the Itum-Kale district while preparing to stop on the way back to the Russian base at Khankala near the capital, Grozny, after picking up the border guards at the Tuzkhoroi settlement, Russian news agencies quoted Drobyshevsky as saying. Tuzkhoroi is the site of a border post near the Georgian frontier.
The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Drobyshevsky as saying the pilots of two Mi-24 helicopters escorting the Mi-8 saw it slam into a mountain and suggesting that the crash was an accident - not the result of rebel fire.
Chechnya's southern mountains are a rebel stronghold, and militants have shot down several Russian helicopters over the region during the two wars there in the past decade, sometimes using shoulder-held missile launchers. Others have crashed because of technical problems or pilot error.
Interfax quoted unnamed military officials at Khankala as saying that the surviving passenger, who was in serious condition, said the helicopter did not come under attack, and that the crash was probably caused by pilot error or a technical problem.
However, it also quoted unnamed officials in the military prosecutor's office for the region including Chechnya as saying investigators believe the most likely causes were an attack or a technical problem.
A downing by rebels would be embarrassing for President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials, who say the war in Chechnya is over.
In Russia's worst military aviation catastrophe, an overcrowded Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter was shot down by a shoulder-fired missile as it prepared to land at Khankala in August 2002, killing 127 people. A rebel Web site claimed militants downed an Mi-8 that crashed after hitting a power line this March, killing 15 people, but officials denied it.
Following a withdrawal after a 1994-1996 war that left Chechnya with de facto independence, Russian forces rolled back into the region in 1999. More than five years later, large-scale battles are rare, but deadly violence occurs daily and Chechnya is plagued by abductions blamed on Russian troops, rebels and Kremlin-backed Chechen security forces.
Four people were abducted Friday in Grozny by armed, camouflage-clad men in two separate incidents police believe may have been the work of a single group, Russian news agencies reported.
Also Saturday, Russia news agencies reported that two suspected militants accused of taking part in a June 2004 raid in Ingushetia, adjacent to Chechnya, have been detained; one in Siberia and one in North Ossetia, which borders Ingushetia. Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the raid, which targeted law enforcement authorities and left some 90 people dead.
Leaders of Angolo, Congo, Gabon meet for talks with DRCongo
Agence France Presse, 7/16/05
The presidents of three African states -- Angola, Congo and Gabon -- arrived Saturday in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for talks on the country's transition process after elections were pushed back to later this year.
Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola, Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Congo et Gabon's Omar Bongo "came to give their support to the transition process in the DRC" on behalf of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), according to the DRC president's office.
The DRC leader Josepeh Kabila was holding talks with the three African heads of state in Kinshasa.
Also participating in the meeting were the four vice-presidents of the DRC transitional government, the leaders of the two houses of parliament, representatives from the United Nations and the European Union, as well as the head of the independent electoral commission.
The DRC, previously Zaire, has not known a free poll for more than 40 years and currently has an interim government including former rivals in the country's last, 1998-2003 war.
The electoral commission has set the first poll -- a constitutional referendum -- for November 27, with the rest next year. The timetable provides for legislative elections and the first round of the presidential election on March 20, 2006, and the presidential run-off on April 30.
The first election was originally expected on June 30 but the commission called for a delay because of the difficulty in organizing registration for 28 million potential voters in a country five times the size of France, which has few roads and other infrastructure.
DRCongo is also faced with security problems as fighting continued with rebel groups in the east of country where 30 villagers were burned to death on July 9.
Angola has been involved in forming DRC's new army and police force, while the leaders of Congo and Gabon have been called on on several occasions to assist the Congolese government in the transition period.
A joint statement is expected to be released after the mini-summit of the African leaders.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Indonesia's government and Aceh rebels agree on peace deal
Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press, 7/17/05
Indonesia's government and Aceh rebels have reached a peace deal to end a 29-year insurgency in the tsunami-devastated province, a top Indonesian official said Sunday.
A draft peace deal submitted by the rebel Free Aceh Movement was approved Saturday by the government in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, said Indonesian Communications Minister Sofyan Djalil, one of the lead negotiators at peace talks in Finland.
The peace deal will facilitate the delivery of international reconstruction aid to the province of 4.1 million inhabitants which was devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed at least 130,000 people in nearly a dozen Indian Ocean countries.
Negotiators for the Indonesian government and separatist rebels said Saturday they had reached a tentative agreement to end one of the world's longest-running wars. The draft accord, which hinged on an agreement to allow the separatist Free Aceh Movement to form its own political party, was sent to Jakarta for approval by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
"The president has agreed to the draft submitted by GAM about political parties" Djalil said Sunday morning, referring to the Free Aceh Movement by its Indonesian initials. "Finally we have reached common understanding about the issues we discussed last night."
The two sides are to meet Friday to initial the deal seen as the best chance yet of ending the three decades of fighting that has killed 15,000 people in Aceh, an oil- and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra Island.
The peace accord is to be signed in mid-August at a formal ceremony in the Finnish capital.
The deal reportedly allows the separatists to field individual candidates in local elections next April for town mayors. The government has also reportedly agreed to change a law banning local political parties - a key rebel demand - within 18 months.
The draft agreement also provides for the withdrawal of most of the 50,000 Indonesian troops and paramilitary police deployed to the province, and the disarmament of the 5,000-strong guerrilla force. This is to be overseen by about 250 European Union observers and at least 100 monitors from the association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Damien Kingsbury, an Australian academic who is part of the Acehnese delegation in the Finnish capital, called the government's acceptance of the deal "fantastic."
"It's encouraging to know that the administration in Jakarta has taken this process seriously and supports the work of its own negotiators and the agreement they have reached with the Free Aceh Movement," he said.
Experts say that the formula set by the peace deal would 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.
The accord also represents a political success for Yudhoyono, whose administration has been sharply criticized by nationalist lawmakers for "internationalizing" the Aceh conflict by agreeing to the talks held in Finland under the auspices of former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
The peace process was restarted immediately after the Dec. 26 disaster, when both the Indonesian administration and the Acehnese government-in-exile in Sweden came under intense international pressure to end the long-running war.
Prior to the tsunami, the province had been a closed military area. But thousands of foreign troops and relief workers were allowed in to provide aid and help rebuild the province following the disaster.
The two sides have since met five times in Helsinki. The current, final round of talks opened on Tuesday.
Indonesia and Aceh rebels to sign peace agreement on Aug. 15
Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press, 7/17/05
The Indonesian government and Aceh rebels agreed Sunday to sign a formal peace agreement next month, vowing to end a 29-year conflict that has killed 15,000 people in the tsunami-ravaged province.
The peace deal will be signed Aug. 15 in Helsinki, the two sides said after wrapping up the fifth and final round of talks in the Finnish capital.
The deal will enable reconstruction aid to be given to the victims of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed 130,000 people in Aceh. The disaster and resulting international pressure on the warring sides to end the conflict were the main catalyst for the peace process.
In a joint statement, the two sides said the agreement covers the governing of Aceh province and rebel participation in the political process. It also deals with an amnesty for the rebels and the establishment of an Aceh monitoring mission consisting of European Union and Southeast Asian observers.
"I assume a number of observers will be there (in Aceh) when the signing takes place," said former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who mediated the talks. "The observers will be unarmed and their task is to monitor the commitment of the parties to this agreement."
Ahtisaari said the details of the accord would not be released before the formal signing and urged both parties to cease hostilities by then. "All hostilities have to end with the signing," he said. "They're unfortunately still going on."
The two sides said they were committed to a peaceful and sustainable solution to the conflict in Aceh, an oil- and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra Island. "The parties are committed to creating conditions within which the government of the Acehnese people can be manifested through a fair and democratic process within the unitary state and constitution of the Republic of Indonesia," the joint statement said.
The deal will facilitate the delivery of international reconstruction aid to the province of 4.1 million inhabitants devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed at least 130,000 people. "We are very satisfied. We are very happy with the result," said Hamid Awaluddin, Indonesia's minister of justice, who headed the government delegation.
The deal, which was initialed by both sides Sunday, reportedly allows the separatists to field individual candidates in local elections next April for town mayors. The government has also reportedly agreed to change a law banning local political parties - a key rebel demand - within 18 months.
In Jakarta, Indonesia's vice president Jusuf Kalla said parliament will have to agree to changes in the law to allow the rebels to form their own political party.
Under the peace deal, Indonesian army troops deployed to Aceh will be cut from 35,000 to 13,000 and the number of police will be reduced from 15,000 to 10,000. That will leave 23,000 Indonesian security forces in the province. The reduction is to be overseen by about 250 EU observers and at least 100 monitors from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Damien Kingsbury, an Australian academic who is part of the Acehnese delegation in the Finnish capital, called the government's acceptance of the deal "a workable agreement."
"This whole process, this whole agreement is a leap of faith. It is working on the assumption that the Indonesian government is honest, and sticks to its promise," he said. "In that case it is not important how many troops there are for external defense."
Kingsbury said the return of the rule of law to Aceh would include the possibility that those responsible for war crimes would be prosecuted. Human rights groups have accused the Indonesian military of numerous abuses during the fighting.
Experts say the formula set by the peace deal will 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.
The accord also represents a political success for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose administration has been sharply criticized by nationalist lawmakers for "internationalizing" the Aceh conflict by agreeing to the talks in Finland.
The peace process was restarted immediately after the tsunami, when both the Indonesian administration and the Acehnese government-in-exile in Sweden came under intense international pressure to end the long-running war.
Before the tsunami, the province had been a closed military area. But thousands of foreign troops and relief workers were allowed in to provide aid and help rebuild the province following the disaster.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
At heart of Ivory Coast conflict: Who has the right to citizenship?
Todd Pitman, Associated Press, 7/13/05
Two years after Ibrahim Kone applied to renew his national identity card, he found it by chance - floating down a river in this rebel-held Ivory Coast town.
Kone believes the laminated document was dumped there with a box full of others by authorities who doubted he was Ivorian, and "never had any intention of issuing it."
The question is at the heart of what sparked war in this once-mighty West African nation with a migrant population so large it accounts for more than one third of the country's 17 million inhabitants: Who is Ivorian? And who has the right to be?
The issue, taken up by opposition politicians and rebels, has become more contentious as Oct. 30 presidential elections approach. South African-mediated peace accords call for the matter to be resolved by Friday, but parliament has made little progress on making changes rebels have demanded to nationality laws.
The proposed changes would allow those born in Ivory Coast before independence in 1960 to claim citizenship, even if their parents were foreigners. Foreigners who marry Ivorian women would also be able to apply for citizenship two years after marriage. Before, they were not entitled to citizenship at all.
President Laurent Gbagbo could use his executive powers to adopt the laws if parliament does not.
Under international pressure, Gbagbo stepped in on one prominent nationality case, that of the main opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara.
Gbagbo employed executive powers to temporarily reverse constitutional clause barring Ouattara from standing in the upcoming poll - a key rebel demand. The constitutional clause, which requires both a candidate's parents be Ivorian-born, remains in place.
Ouattara was banned from past elections amid allegations he and at least one of his parents are from neighboring Burkina Faso, allegations Ouattara denies.
Ouattara is believed to have strong support among northerners, many of whom complain they've been marginalized: denied jobs, citizenship and identity cards, harassed because their names easily give away their northern roots. Those living in the north are also predominantly Muslim, though sectarianism hasn't been a serious issue so far.
"They think we're sub-citizens," said Yaya Kone, 49, sitting in a flowing robe at his cafe in rebel-held Bouake. "They treat us as foreigners in our own country."
Kone said both his parents were Ivorian. He says he showed authorities birth certificates to prove it.
"Every time I went to ask for it, they shook their heads," said Kone, a warrant officer who quit the national army in 2002 to join rebels. "They always told me, 'Come back later. It's not ready yet."'
At one entrance to the rebels' military headquarters in Bouake, 121 names are tacked on a piece of paper on the wall. Kone said they were names of people whose ID's had been found in dust-covered boxes in government offices, after rebels took over the town following a September 2002 coup that split the nation in two. "If I'm not Ivorian, where am I supposed to be from? Kone said.
Richer and more fertile than its neighbors, Ivory Coast welcomed millions of West African immigrants for decades, particularly poor laborers from neighboring Burkina Faso, Mali and Ghana who came to work on cocoa, coffee and cotton plantations.
When commodity prices declined in the late 1990s, the welcome began wearing thin.
There are no reliable statistics to clarify exactly how many people in the north are immigrants from neighboring nations - though estimates run as high as 40 percent.
Birth on Ivorian soil does not automatically translate to citizenship - a right reserved in most cases for those who can prove at least one parent was also born in the country.
Blurring the issue further, many native Ivorians have family ties that stretch across borders that were drawn by European colonizers in the 19th century.
Many immigrants in Ivory Coast do not want Ivorian citizenship - despite being born here, or having worked in the country for decades.
Before he was toppled in the country's first-ever coup in 1999, President Henri Bedie seized on the issue, popularizing the nationalistic concept of "Ivoirit'," or "Ivorian-ness" - pure Ivorian heritage.
Bedie used it for political gain against Ouattara, a former prime minister, barring him from standing in the 1995 vote. Gbagbo did the same five years later. Hard-line supporters of Gbagbo now fear rebels and their opposition allies will try to register millions of immigrants as Ivorians instead in a bid to secure millions more votes for Ouattara, who is immensely popular in the north. "That's all he wants, because if those laws are passed, he'll get 3 million more votes," said Appiah Kabran, an intensely nationalistic member of parliament.
Yves Fofana, an opposition lawmaker, said the proposed changes in the laws would only affect about 700,000 people, and there was no way to know how they would vote. Regardless, they would new citizens wouldn't be able to cast ballots for five years, he said. "We'll vote for these (laws) because we want peace," Kabran said. "But let me be frank - nobody will enforce them. Ivory Coast belongs to Ivorians, not foreigners."
Ivory Coast president enacts laws easing way toward October elections
Parfait Dekacou, Associated Press, 7/16/05
President Laurent Gbagbo enacted a broad slate of laws demanded under peace deals for war-divided Ivory Coast, using special presidential powers to ease the way toward scheduled October elections.
In a televised address late Friday, Gbagbo said he had employed powers accorded to him under Ivory Coast's constitution to bypass the legislature and make laws to adhere to peace deals meant to knit the country back together after a 2002-2003 civil war.
Gbagbo met key rebel demands by announcing the creation of an independent electoral commission and other new laws, including rules governing the financing of political parties, ahead of elections scheduled for Oct. 30. "Today nothing more stands in the way of disarmament, the reunification of the country and the organization of general elections in October 2005," Gbagbo said.
On July 6, the U.N. Security Council demanded 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 failed to comply.
Gbagbo's decision to create new rules by presidential decree appeared to keep to the new June 29 agreement, Ivory Coast's latest attempt to broker peace, signed in the presence of South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Mbeki said Ivory Coast's government had agreed that necessary legislative reforms should clear Parliament by July 15. If not, he said he would take "exceptional measures" to ensure the legislation is approved.
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.
Some 10,000 French and U.N. peacekeepers are patrolling Ivory Coast, a French colony until its 1960 independence.
An earlier April 6 peace pact required the warring parties to end hostilities and disarm in preparation for October elections. But 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, but many Ivorians are skeptical the balloting can be arranged in a matter of months.
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.
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 decision met a key rebel demand, Ouattara accuses him of not doing enough to ensure a fair vote.
Pakistan militant camps endanger peace process, says India
Agence France Presse, 7/13/05
India warned Wednesday that Pakistan must dismantle militant training camps and curb infiltrations into the Indian zone of divided Kashmir or risk endangering the countries' fledgling peace process.
"Time and again this government has said that there is infrastructure of terrorism across the border which has not been dismantled," India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told reporters in New Delhi. "There are training camps across the border which have not been dismantled and attempts at infiltration continue from across the border and this of course will impact the peace process," Saran said.
Improved ties would benefit both the South Asian neighbours, who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since the subcontinent's independence from British rule in 1947, he said. "There are strong reasons and sound logic for the two countries to engage themselves in the peace process," he said regarding dialogue initiated in January to resolve long-running disputes between the estranged neighbours.
Some 44,000 people have died in disputed Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan, since the launch of an Islamic rebellion in the Himalayan territory in 1989.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Kashmiri guerrillas. Islamabad denies the charge but openly extends diplomatic and moral support to militants spearheading the anti-Indian rebellion.
Saran rejected suggestions that the ongoing peace process was at the behest of the United States and warned that India's Congress party-led government would deal sternly with militant groups in Kashmir.
"Let it be clearly understood that peace process can only be taken forward if it has the public opinion support and this support is precisely linked to what happens to cross-border terrorism. "If the international community has a role to play in this, it has to address to the issue of terrorism," he said. "The (Indian) government is very focused on dealing with terrorism," he added.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Serbian president: conditions 'not right' for Kosovo Serbs to join province's institutions
Associated Press, 7/12/05
Serbia's president asked world leaders to do more to help Kosovo's Serb community, arguing it made little sense for them to take part in local institutions until their situation improves.
President Boris Tadic said more must be done for the dwindling Kosovo Serb community, who are largely reduced to living in NATO-patrolled enclaves scattered across Kosovo. Serbs have boycotted the institutions in Kosovo, arguing the ethnic Albanian majority has done little to prevent attacks targeting Serbs.
"Serbia is asking for a more active policy by the international community and guarantees for the Serbs from the local (ethnic Albanian) authorities," Tadic said. "Without this, the Serbs' participation in Kosovo institutions would make no sense."
Tadic's comments came one day after U.N. envoy, Kai Eide, urged Serbia's leaders to use their influence to persuade Serbs to join the local governments to improve their lives.
Eide's visit to Belgrade was part of a fact-finding mission to probe whether Kosovo has fulfilled U.N.-set standards for democracy and human rights before negotiations could begin on the province's final status.
A senior Norwegian diplomat, Eide was appointed last month by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to head the probe. He is expected to submit his recommendations on Kosovo by the end of summer.
Kosovo officially remains a province of Serbia-Montenegro, but has been administered by the United Nations since June 1999, following a NATO air war that halted a Serb crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians. Serbs want Kosovo to remain part of Serbia while its ethnic Albanian majority insist on full independence.
German opposition leader calls for negotiations on Kosovo's status
Garentina Kraja, Associated Press, 7/15/05
German opposition leader Angela Merkel called Friday for prompt negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, but noted the issue was closely linked to upholding standards on human and minority rights in the disputed province.
Merkel, the conservative challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in elections expected later this year, spoke as she met with some of the 2,600 German soldiers in the town of Prizren, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Kosovo's capital Pristina.
German soldiers were sent to Kosovo six years ago, following a NATO air war that halted Serb forces' crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians and put the province under U.N. administration.
Merkel called for "status negotiations as quickly as possible."
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority seeks full independence, while Belgrade insists Kosovo should remain part of Serbia-Montenegro - the union that replaced Yugoslavia - but enjoy broad autonomy.
"Compromises are necessary from all sides," Merkel said, adding that there could be "a solution only in agreement with the neighbors."
Talks to determine the province's disputed political status are expected later this year if Kosovo meets internationally set standards on democracy, rights of minorities and rule of law.
"Everyone in Kosovo must know that complying with the standards is linked very closely with the status question," she said.
Tensions between the ethnic Albanian majority and the Serb minority persist in Kosovo, with attacks often targeting the dwindling Serb minority, threatening to deepen the ethnic divide.
Lawmakers in Germany last month overwhelmingly approved the participation of German troops for another year in the 17,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
Merkel also held discussions with Soren Jessen-Petersen, the top U.N. official running the province. She also conferred with President Ibrahim Rugova, Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi and urged them to take up the reforms so status talks could begin.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
UN rights boss favors Taylor handover to Sierra Leone war crimes court
Agence France Presse, 7/13/05
UN human rights chief Louise Arbour added her voice Wednesday to mounting calls for former Liberian president Charles Taylor to face trial, saying his swift handover to Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal was in the best interests of Liberia. "I have always been of the view that Charles Taylor should be in Freetown to address the charges against him," the high commissioner for human rights told AFP in Monrovia before boarding a plane for Sierra Leone, the last leg of a three-country west African tour.
"I think it's the world community, particularly the whole of the African leadership, that should encourage Liberia ... and that is to transfer Taylor to Freetown," she said in remarks to reporters on arriving in Sierra Leone, adding that Taylor would figure "highly" in her Freetown talks.
Taylor faces 17 counts of war crimes for having mounted a rebel army in Sierra Leone including heavily drugged child soldiers who waged a brutal decade of war marked by the rape and hacking off of civilians' limbs in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in blood diamonds.
Despite allegations that he has repeatedly violated the terms of his asylum with continued meddling in Liberia's political affairs, Taylor has so far evaded trial in his exile in Nigeria, a reward for quitting the presidency in August 2003 to end Liberia's own civil war, its second since 1989.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has thus far faced down a firestorm of international pressure to hand Taylor over, complaining on July 4 of "harassment and blackmail" being brought against Nigeria in an effort to pry the US-educated lay preacher away.
Arbour acknowledged the unfair position in which Nigeria found itself but said it was incumbent on both Obasanjo and his African counterparts to do for Liberia, which is facing presidential elections in October, what it was not yet capable of doing itself. "It will be very unfair for the new government in Liberia to have to bear the political burden of calling for Charles Taylor's transfer to Freetown," she said. "But it is also in a sense very unfair to have called on President Obasanjo to have done the right thing two years ago and to now put pressure on him to go back on his word," she added.
"The African leadership should stand by Obasanjo and convince him to send Taylor to court; it is not one man's decision."
Arbour's remarks likely came as comfort to a coalition of African rights advocates backed by international watchdogs Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, who urged in a statement Wednesday that she use her time in west Africa to push for Taylor's extradition.
"Bringing war criminals to justice is one of the best strategies for ensuring human rights protection today and in the future," said Sulaiman Jabati of the Sierra Leonean Coalition for Justice and Accountability.
Added Ezekiel Pajibo, director of the Center for Democratic Empowerment in Liberia, said: "Mrs. Arbour recently said there is a link between the pursuit of justice and the restoration of peace and order. Nigeria's refusal to surrender Charles Taylor to the Special Court stands squarely in our path to stability and the rule of law."
Moldova's president presents new proposal for settling Trans-Dniester conflict
Associated Press, 7/13/05
President Vladimir Voronin on Wednesday proposed offering broad autonomy to its Russian-speaking province of Trans-Dniester to settle a 13-year separatist conflict.
Under Voronin's new proposal, Trans-Dniester would become a republic within Moldova and would have the right to pursue full independence.
His proposal, which has been submitted to Parliament, also calls for holding internationally monitored parliamentary elections in Trans-Dniester, supervised by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Trans-Dniester broke away from Moldova, a former Soviet republic, in 1992 after a war that left more than 1,500 people dead. The province has been ruled since 1992 by authoritarian leader Igor Smirnov. It is not recognized internationally but receives strong support from Russia, which considers it a strategic location in its area of influence.
On Wednesday, opposition lawmakers said Voronin's plan offered too many concessions to the separatists, and they criticized it for not stipulating the withdrawal of Russia's 1,500 troops from Trans-Dniester.
"We don't get an answer to what happens to the Russian army and whether Ukraine is ready to stop rampant smuggling on its border with Trans-Dniester," said Iurie Rosca, the deputy speaker of parliament and head of the opposition Popular Christian Democratic Party. He said his party would try to kill the proposal.
Lawmakers with the ruling Communists' Party have declined to comment on Voronin's proposal.
Moldova has clashed with Russia in recent months over the presence of Russian troops in the region. Moldova's government says Russian troops are there illegally since a deadline for their withdrawal expired in 2003.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Moldovan authorities of boycotting efforts to renew negotiations over Trans-Dniester, which were halted in October 2003 when separatists forcibly closed two Moldovan-language schools operating in their region.
"One gets the impression that the Moldovan authorities have set a goal of doing everything possible, not only to block a Trans-Dniester settlement ... but also to further spoil Russian-Moldovan relations," Lavrov told reporters.
Voronin did not comment on Lavrov's statement. The Moldovan president once was a strong ally of Moscow but now favors closer ties with the West.
Ukraine's Yushchenko meets head of Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region
Mara D. Bellaby, Associated Press, 7/14/05
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko discussed his proposal to settle the 13-year separatist conflict in neighboring Moldova during talks Thursday with the breakaway province's leader amid tentative support from Russia for the plan.
Yushchenko held closed-door talks with Igor Smirnov, head of the Trans-Dniester region, who came to Kiev at the Ukrainian leader's invitation.
Trans-Dniester broke away from Moldova, a former Soviet republic, in 1992 after a war that left more than 1,500 people dead. The province, which borders Ukraine, is not recognized internationally but receives strong support from Russia.
Yushchenko, who is seeking a bigger regional role for Ukraine, proposed a seven-point peace plan in May that envisions granting broad autonomy to Trans-Dniester but keeping it within Moldova's borders. The plan calls for holding internationally monitored elections to the Trans-Dniester parliament and transforming Russia's 1,500-strong peacekeeping operation there into an international observer mission.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Russians were willing to use Yushchenko's plan as a starting point, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
"We are currently working together with our Ukrainian colleagues on Yuschenko's plan," Lavrov was quoted as saying. "It is based on many principles, which have been already approved by different parties."
Yushchenko's office did not give details about talks with Smirnov, saying only that the two men discussed "a number of questions of a political and economic character." Earlier, however, Petro Poroshenko, head of Ukraine's National State Security and Defense Council, expressed hope that the talks would help advance the peace plan.
On Wednesday, Lavrov had accused Moldovan authorities of boycotting efforts to renew negotiations, which were halted in October 2003 when separatists forcibly closed two Moldovan-language schools operating in their region. As Russia's relations with Moldova's Communist President Vladimir Voronin have soured, Yushchenko has cultivated ties, taking advantage of Voronin's fresh interest in closer links with the West.
Repeated efforts, however, to settle the separatist conflict have failed. In 2003, a peace plan drawn up by a senior Kremlin aide, Dmitry Kozak, was rejected by Voronin, who warned it could lead to the disputed region becoming a state.
According to that plan, Trans-Dniester, which is mainly populated by Russians and Ukrainians, would have enjoyed complete autonomy and been named the Moldovan Dniester Republic.
Lavrov insisted Thursday that a future agreement must still be based on Kozak's proposal, RIA Novosti reported.
West Sahara rebel leader warns EU against fishing deal with Morocco
Ciaran Giles, Associated Press, 7/12/05
The leader of the Western Sahara rebel group Polisario urged the European Union on Tuesday to refrain from signing any fishing deal with Morocco that might affect the disputed territory.
Earlier this year, the EU and Morocco resumed negotiations for a fisheries agreement, after their previous deal to allow Spanish and other fleets to fish in Moroccan waters expired in 1999. A fisheries subcommittee held a first meeting earlier this year in Rabat.
Polisario leader Mohammed Abdelaziz said, however, that an accord with Morocco could affect the disputed Western Sahara region, which was annexed by Morocco in 1975 after Spain abandoned the colony.
Since then, Polisario Front rebels have argued for independence. The rebels fought Moroccan troops after the annexation, but stopped fighting in 1991 under U.N. peace deal. They now have bases to southern Algeria, along with some 200,000 Saharawi refugees who have been in desert camps for decades.
"We call on the European Union not to sign any fishing accords with Morocco which affect the sovereignty of the Western Sahara territory, because it would be violating international law," Abdelaziz told a gathering of politicians, business representatives and journalists in Madrid.
"We urge European businesses not to sign economic accords with Morocco that affect the Western Sahara or its seas until the conflict is resolved," he said, noting a U.S. free-trade agreement with Morocco that excludes Western Sahara. The United Nations also issued a report saying Morocco had no right to sign petroleum deals in the vast mineral-rich territory.
Nevertheless, some countries and companies have signed accords with Morocco to exploit Western Sahara resources. "This sacking of Western Saharan resources helps reinforce Morocco's occupation," Abdelaziz said.
Years of U.N. efforts to organize a referendum on self-determination so far have been fruitless, largely because Morocco and the Polisario have failed to agree on who could vote. Polisario has threatened in recent years to restart the war unless progress is made.
Abdelaziz urged Spain to take a more active role in supporting the referendum and in denouncing what he described as the "brutal repression" of Saharawi citizens. "We don't consider as acceptable the current government's position or that of any party which observes these inadmissible practices in silence," Abdelaziz said, alluding to the detention Monday of a Saharawi citizen who staged a sit-in at a former Spanish cultural center in the region to protest dozens of Saharawi arrests following riots last month.
"The latest incidents ... demonstrate in an eloquent manner the urgent need for a just and definitive solution to this conflict before the dynamics of action and reaction degenerate into a bloodbath," Abdelaziz said.
He also denounced Morocco's refusals to let Spanish delegations visit the Western Sahara to check on human rights conditions following the riots, which started as protests against Moroccan rule.
UN envoy says "urgent" solution needed to Maoist problem in Nepal
Agence France Presse, 7/15/05
UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday the Maoist crisis in Nepal was dire and called on the rebels and the government to do everything possible to find an urgent solution to restore peace. "One does not need to tell the people of Nepal that they are facing a very serious crisis, but it should be noted that a solution is not beyond reach," Brahimi told a press conference after a week-long fact-finding mission to the Himalayan nation.
The UN envoy welcomed a Maoist offer for talks on resolving the country's crisis, but said the rebels must also end their violent campaign and lay down their weapons.
"The commitment made by the Maoist leader Prachanda and the party leaders is a positive development in finding a solution to the prolonged Maoist problem. "We welcome it as a positive development and it should be backed up by giving up violence to resolve the crisis," he said.
Later in the press conference, he added, "the Maoists should back up their actions by giving up arms, stopping violence and extortions."
Maoist rebels have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 and the uprising has so far claimed nearly 12,000 lives. "The Nepalese are also conscious that this situation should not be allowed to continue. A solution is needed urgently," Brahimi said. "That solution rests on three critical elements-a return to constitutional order and multi-party democracy, an end to hostilities and an inclusive national dialogue towards a negotiated solution to underlying causes of conflict.
"The UN believes that the Nepalese are capable of developing the necessary process which would allow them to achieve a peaceful solution," he said.
The rebels and the government have met twice to solve the problem without success.
The last time the talks failed was in August 2003 after the rebels insisted on holding constituent assembly elections to redraft the constitution.
Asked if the UN would agree to mediate between the Maoists and the government, Brahimi said: "We don't do such jobs on our own but if all the parties and Maoists request us, it may be possible."
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Freedom is gateway to the future: The republic is looking beyond uneasy union with Serbia to the European Union
Eric Jansson, Financial Times (London), 7/12/05
Many Montenegrins wonder what kind of world they will wake up to if, as their political leaders expect, their small former Yugoslav republic next year declares full independence from neighbouring Serbia.
Milo Djukanovic, the prime minister who has masterminded Montenegro's independence strategy since 1997, predicts that most of the 620,000 people living in this gem of natural beauty on the Adriatic coast will feel "joyous and fulfilled".
He says: "Independence will mean a safe future. All healthy human beings share a natural need to be in control of their future. It is human nature."
Coming five years after the putsch that toppled the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, talk of another newly independent state in the western Balkans strikes some outsiders as anachronistic or even dangerous.
But local unfinished business is not confined to Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo, with which Montenegro shares a border.
Mr Djukanovic and his partners in a ruling coalition of political parties calling themselves For a European Montenegro say their country stopped short along the "Balkanisation" road travelled by Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina a decade ago.
"This process of dissolution finally must be brought to an end," says Filip Vujanovic, Montenegro's president, a close ally of Mr Djukanovic.
Neither in Podgorica, the capital, nor in Serbia's capital Belgrade do leaders expect Montenegro to travel backwards toward a unitary state with Serbia. That is also the view in western foreign ministries.
Many Serbs would welcome such an idea but Montenegro already possesses too many accoutrements of independence to entertain it. Most obvious among these is the country's euro-ised economy, using the euro as the official currency rather than the Serbian dinar. Montenegro also boasts independent taxation and customs regimes, border police, a foreign ministry and much else.
"To be honest, my biggest worry is that if we do vote for independence, I will wake up the next morning and think, 'So what? Nothing has really changed'," says one government worker.
No one predicts the uproar over independence seen elsewhere in the Balkans in the 1990s. "We are not going to make trouble to win respect. We want to behave. We want to earn respect with patience and democratic resolve," says Miodrag Vlahovic, the foreign minister. "Montenegro is the only country in the region to have avoided the Balkan style of independence. The Balkan style is nationalist, nostalgic, romantic, in some ways very evil."
Some Montenegrins' first experience of full independence therefore could prove anti-climactic. Many have grown accustomed to viewing their country as a victim and underdog in Serbia's shadow. Some may comprehend only after a successful vote for independence how independent they already are. Once independent, they will no longer have Serbia to blame for political and economic disappointments.
The average Montenegrin worker's after-tax salary remains less than Euros 200 per month, in spite of a recent upswing in wage growth. With official unemployment at about 20 per cent, many Montenegrins like to complain. But they find it difficult to know who to blame.
Upon Yugoslavia's final collapse in 2003 and under heavy pressure from the European Union, Serbia and Montenegro formed a loose union. The arrangement postponed Mr Djukanovic's plans for a referendum on independence. Since then, the two republics share only a union-level army, foreign ministry and a ceremonial presidency occupied by Svetozar Marovic, a pro-independence Montenegrin.
According to union rules, either republic may choose to break away after three years. Mr Djukanovic promises Montenegrins that his government will call their long-awaited referendum in April unless he can persuade Serbia to scrap the union and form a different "union of independent states" similar to the diffuse Commonwealth of Independent States in the former Soviet Union.
Mr Vujanovic, the president, says full independence is the only viable option. "To be in any kind of state with Serbia can only jeopardise relations, whether it is a federal model or a union."
Many in Serbia also point to complications in the union model, a compromise brokered four years ago by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief. Like Mr Vujanovic, Serb critics reason that two republics that are so dissimilar - Serbia is the most populous former Yugoslav country, Montenegro the least populous - cannot pretend to be equals.
The rules of the fledgling union, mockingly nicknamed Solania in both Podgorica and Belgrade, stipulate that the two republics must share power equally. Blatantly they do not.
Gordana Djurovic, Montenegro's minister for European integration, carries a list of complaints about the union. At the top is the Euros 41m Montenegro pays annually into the union budget. This money is wasted on a union army and foreign ministry that serve Serbia first, she says.
Predrag Bulatovic, a fiery opposition leader in Montenegro's parliament and the most senior anti-independence campaigner, admits that the union is dysfunctional but lays the blame at the prime minister's feet. "Djukanovic is playing a cunning game of delay and obstruction, creating impatience within Serbia toward Montenegro," he says.
Mr Bulatovic contends that Mr Djukanovic's star is fading, more than a decade after he rose to power. The prime minister, aged 43, admits he has grown "very weary of politics".
The prime minister's allies acknowledge that, as standard-bearer for the independence movement, his career must enter a new phase once the independence question is answered decisively.
Ranko Krivokapic, speaker of the parliament and a key coalition partner of Mr Djukanovic, suggests that a broad "national unity government" might be formed immediately after a referendum. Mr Krivokapic said long-time rivals such as Mr Bulatovic's opposition could be included "to encourage stability and help us move faster with reforms."
Leaders across the political spectrum note the EU's magnetic effect. Polls show that at least 80 per cent of Montenegrins want to join the EU. Mr Vujanovic and Mr Krivokapic say they would go further and try to join Nato "immediately" after independence. The parliamentary speaker floats the idea of offering Montenegro's ports to Nato vessels.
Such suggestions highlight the underlying reason why Serbia and Montenegro struggle to work together. The republics' political cultures have diverged in the eight years since Mr Djukanovic split with Serbia.
Serbia went on to fight a losing war against Nato in 1999, over Kosovo, and consequently few Serbian leaders speak enthusiastically about the military alliance today. Montenegrin leaders take a different view. Faced with a choice between a winner and a loser, they prefer the former.
EU Commission seeks mandate to negotiate pre-membership deal with Serbia-Montenegro
Associated Press, 7/12/05
The European Commission asked EU member governments Tuesday for a mandate to open talks with Serbia-Montenegro on a cooperation agreement designed to prepare the Balkan nation for eventual membership in the bloc.
The 25 governments are expected to grant the mandate, having agreed in April that Serbia-Montenegro was ready to open talks on the Stabilization and Association Agreement. "Serbia's future lies within the future of the European Union," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the EU presidency. Straw, speaking at the European Parliament said the EU "had to keep the magnet (of expansion) on."
Serbia's hopes of joining the European Union depend on it extraditing all war crimes suspects sought by a U.N. court and undertaking substantial economic, political and judicial reforms.
Serbia also faces increasing skepticism among citizens of nations about the prospects of the bloc's further expansion.
The Serbia-Montenegro parliament last month passed a resolution declaring the Balkan republic's strategic goal is EU membership, and Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus has suggested 2012 as a possible date for entry.
The agreement to be negotiated will promote economic and trade relations and aim to regulate issues such as migration and capital movements.
Croatia and Macedonia have already signed such agreements, which were designed to draw Balkan nations closer to the European mainstream after the violence of the 1990s and to prepare them for possible EU membership.
Albania is also negotiating an agreement with the EU, and Bosnia hopes to start talks soon.
Supporters say the agreements and the prospect of EU membership will help establish democracy, human rights, economic progress and peaceful cooperation in the volatile region as they did among nations of former communist Central and Eastern Europe before they joined the bloc last year.
However, many in Western Europe fear further expansions will over-stretch the EU, sending employment and money eastward and threatening jobs with imports of cheap labor.
Somali officials appeal for U.S. help to modify U.N. arms embargo
Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press, 7/13/05
Officials from Somalia's transitional government are seeking an exemption from a 13-year-old U.N. arms embargo so they can get peacekeeping and security forces in place. "This U.N. Security Council action is necessary immediately to prevent the spread of terrorism in the Horn of Africa and to create peace and security," Dahir Mirreh Jibreel, chief of staff to Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, said in an interview Wednesday.
The Somali transitional government was formed in neighboring Kenya last year and moved into Somalia last month. The administration has failed to relocate to the capital, Mogadishu, because the city is considered unsafe.
Jibreel met with Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota on Wednesday to press his case. Another participant was Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Minnesota is believed to have the largest Somali population of any U.S. state.
"The government is struggling to relocate and develop an infrastructure and deny a haven to terrorists," Jamal said. Analysts say terrorists have taken advantage of the collapsed state in Somalia for bases, recruitment and training.
Through a U.S. public relations firm, Yusuf issued a statement from his home city Galkayo, Somalia, urging the Security Council to act quickly to modify the sanctions regime. "It is imperative that the U.N. facilitate our goal of making Somalia a stable nation," the statement said. "We are not looking for a permanent removal of the arms embargo, rather seeking support and the resources necessary to deploy our national security force and international peacekeeping mission."
Somalia, in east Africa on the Indian Ocean, has been without a central government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other and plunged the Horn of Africa nation of 7 million into anarchy, and the clans still have weapons from the virtually perpetual wars of the last two decades.
In a statement, Coleman said he is asking other members of Congress "to help bring greater U.S. support for a stable and democratic government in Somalia." He did not deal with whether an exemption from the embargo should be granted, and his office would not elaborate on the statement.
Marie Okabe, deputy spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the Security Council's Somalia sanctions committee has forwarded the government's request to the full Security Council, which is scheduled to discuss the country at a meeting on Thursday. "The matter concerning the request to lift the sanctions is expected to come up," Okabe said.
Jibreel said it was regrettable that the arms embargo makes no distinction between illegal weapons and legitimate security forces.
In addition to the embargo issue, Jibreel said, his government wants the United States to help rebuild the country. "I bring a personal message from President Abdullahi Yusuf that we want the United States to lead an international effort to create peace and security inside the country," he said.
Rebel deadline passes, threatening fragile Sri Lankan truce
Shimali Senanayake, Associated Press, 7/14/05
Sri Lankan rebels signaled the government had missed a Thursday deadline to meet their security demands, risking a return to civil war.
The rebel Tamil Tigers are expected to make their dissatisfaction known in a crucial letter to the government on Friday, according to rebel spokesman Daya Master.
Suspected Tiger rebels on Thursday attacked a police post and tried to shoot a group of navy personel, government spokesmen said.
The attacks came hours after President Chandrika Kumaratunga said she was "deeply concerned" about the escalating violence and appealed for restraint.
European ceasefire monitor spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir said the recent spate of attacks on police and the army is the most intense since Norway brokered a ceasefire in 2002. "The situation is a nightmare and most dangerous," she said Thursday.
Military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake said there have been at least 10 attacks on security forces since Tuesday, wounding more than two dozen security forces and civilians.
Sri Lankan security forces went on high alert Thursday, military officials said, a day after after rebels shut down political offices in government-controlled areas, accusing the government of failing to protect rebels traveling through those areas.
The rebels gave the government 14 days before Thursday's deadline to improve security - or risk a return to civil war. "The LTT (Tamil Tigers) is very serious about the deadline," Joseph Pararajasingham, a lawmaker of the Tamil National Alliance - considered a proxy party of the rebels - told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Pararajasingham linked the two-week ultimatum to the two-week warning the rebels are obliged to give the government before withdrawing from the 2002 cease-fire agreement. He declined to elaborate.
Other sources close to the rebels said the Tigers may not withdraw from the truce, but are instead likely to use their own armed escorts while traveling through government-controlled areas - a violation of the cease-fire that could lead to a confrontation with government forces and the collapse of the truce.
The Tigers have demanded better protection since a bomb narrowly missed a bus carrying 41 rebels last month. Subsequently, two senior rebels were gunned down. The rebels blame the military. The military blames factional fighting.
Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on Thursday attacked a police post in eastern Sri Lanka, sparking a gunbattle, police said.
The rebels fled after a 10-minute exchange of fire, said eastern police chief Rohan Abeywardene by telephone from the scene in Weeramunai, Ampara, about 220 kilometers (130 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.
None of the 15 policemen at the detachment were hurt, but rebel casualties were unknown, Abeywarnede said.
The rebels control pockets of jungle on the outskirts of Weeramunai.
The attack took place hours after a suspected rebel was gunned down when he attempted to shoot at a group of navy personnel, police said.
The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for minority ethnic Tamils in the country's north and east, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The conflict killed nearly 65,000 people before the 2002 cease-fire.
Post-truce peace talks have been stalled since 2003 over rebel demands for wide autonomy.
The government on Monday agreed conditionally to increase the Tigers' security escorts, but the guerrillas were not satisfied.
Tamil Tigers demand direct tsunami relief after aid-sharing deal scuttled
Agence France Presse, 7/17/05
Sri Lanka's Tiger rebels Sunday urged foreign donors to fund their tsunami relief efforts directly as peace broker Norway ruled out immediately reviving aid talks after a court ruling scuttled a crucial aid-sharing deal.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they were no longer interested in sharing the three billions dollars of assistance pledged by foreign donors with the Sri Lankan government after Friday's ruling.
On Friday Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, citing constitutional issues, blocked the deal to share foreign aid between Colombo and Tiger rebels who have waged a separatist war that has left more than 60,000 dead since 1972.
The deal, reached with the help of Norway almost six months after tsunamis devastated the island nation, killing nearly 31,000 and leaving one million homeless, is now in limbo.
The LTTE's political wing chief S.P. Thamilselvan was quoted by their website as saying they were "not concerned any more" about the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) set up to bring relief to hundreds of thousands still suffering the effects of the tsunamis.
"He said that they will be putting greater effort into informing the international community about the ground reality and request them to make the decision to deliver aid directly to them," the website said.
Sri Lanka's international donors had insisted on the joint aid mechanism, as many can not give money directly to the LTTE because of the group's designation as a foreign terrorist organisation by many states.
The collapse of the tsunami aid deal has increased tensions in the country's volatile northeast, and is seen as a major setback to the peace process and fragile truce in place since February 2002.
A government representative involved in the peace process said they were awaiting a response from the LTTE on the Supreme Court ruling. "We want to see how they react and if they are willing to move forward with some other arrangement," said the representative, who declined to be named, while Norway ruled out any more discussions.
There are "no plans for any visits", a Norwegian embassy official, who declined to be named, said, denying a report in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times newspaper that two envoys would be sent next week to discuss the crisis.
The Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, led the court challenge to the aid deal after it withdrew support that left President Chandrika Kumaratunga's government with a minority in parliament.
"The agreement is now like a bus without wheels," JVP leader Wimal Weerawansa said Saturday at a press conference. He said the party would continue to protest any effort to revive the aid deal.
Diplomats had hoped the aid deal signed three weeks ago would become a stepping stone to resume Oslo-brokered peace talks that have been stalled since April 2003.
"The unfortunate fallout of this is the strengthening of the LTTE's claim that they cannot function under the Sri Lankan state," a Western diplomat close to the peace process said amid a spike in violence in rebel-held parts of Sri Lanka.
Eight people have been killed and 25 wounded in clashes over the past week.
Tamil politicians also fear that the court ruling could encourage the Tigers to abandon the truce completely and return to war.
"The court ruling is a good excuse for the LTTE to go back to war," Tamil politician Dharmalingam Sidhathan said, while pro-rebel Tamil legislator Joseph Pararajasingham added: "I think we are in a more dangerous situation today than we were last week".
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Sudanese journalists cautiously hopeful as lifting of state of emergency promises no more censorship
Tanalee Smith, Associated Press, 7/11/05
Sudanese newspapers proclaimed a new era of freedom of expression on Monday, saying they had been promised press restrictions would stop now that the African country's state of emergency has been lifted. "Lifting censorship from newspapers," read a large red headline that ran above the Al-Ayam newspaper's masthead. "Freedom of movement, association and press guaranteed from today onwards," The Juba Post promised in its first edition since being shut down three weeks ago for allegedly not properly registering.
The weekend's signing of a new constitution paved the way for President Omar el-Bashir to end restrictive state of emergency laws in place for most of the years since he took power in a 1989 coup. A prime target of the laws were the country's newspapers, particularly those critical of the government.
But some wary journalists - long accustomed to officials vetting stories and closing newspapers - aren't celebrating yet, instead hoping the restrictions and harassment of the recent past will not return sometime soon.
Sudan has a history of suspending newspapers and detaining journalists and el-Bashir's promises to end censorship have never been enacted. As recently as Saturday, security officers inspected reports at Al Sahafa, a leading Arabic newspaper, and banned several articles and a column from being printed, columnist Zuheir Mohamed Ali Abdel-Meguid said.
Security men would come to the paper nightly between 10 p.m. and midnight to make their checks on what stories were going to run in the next day's editions, Abdel-Meguid said.
Providing a freer Sudanese press has been a persistent demand by international media watchdogs and the United States, which has welcomed the new constitution but tied its normalizing of relations with Khartoum to a set of issues - including the treatment of journalists.
After el-Bashir decreed the end of the emergency laws across most of Sudan, the National Security Organ issued a statement affirming its commitment to upholding el-Bashir's orders. The media "should play their national role without the need of putting any restrictions on them," the security agency said.
In the first Sudanese news report on government press restrictions, Al-Ayam ran a small front-page commentary Monday saying security authorities used to come to its offices "lifting news items, essays and columns that do not fall in line with the view of the security organ."
"It is a new era," Abdel-Meguid said. "But anything can happen. I think they will enter a period of hibernation but come back."
The media's new promise follows other historic changes in Sudan.
On Saturday, southern Christian and former rebel leader John Garang was sworn in as first vice president in a new government of national unity. The constitution he and el-Bashir signed laid out freedoms of religion and expression as human rights. It also guaranteed freedom of publication and the press "without prejudice ... as regulated by law."
Though the wording could allow for a monitoring body to interpret what the "law" may allow, it is more open than the previous constitution. That had said press freedom was "subject to restrictions necessary to security, public order, public safety, public morals."
Ali Shummo, head of the regulatory Sudan Press Council that issues newspaper licenses and monitors newspapers, said dailies "are free to publish anything, provided they do not spread hatred or incite religious or ethnic intolerance."
The council can still suspend newspapers for up to seven days, but disputes must be resolved in court.
One case already in court involves the Khartoum Monitor, an English-language newspaper focussing on southern issues that has been repeatedly closed. Its license was suspended in early June so the court could review a 2003 case finding it guilty of crimes against the state for publishing a story about slavery in southern Sudan. The newspaper successfully appealed the decision but is in court again.
"The new Sudan is the old Sudan," managing editor William Ezekiel said. "They lifted the state of emergency, but where are we now?"
But Ezekiel said fellow southerner Garang's appointment has given him a "glimpse of hope" because "he has been fighting for the cause of freedoms."
A newspaper to have already benefited from the changes is The Juba Post, which printed its weekly edition Sunday after being closed July 23. Three of its journalists were also temporarily detained.
Senior reporter Joseph Aligo Kenyi said the southern Sudan-based paper had been unfairly closed even though the National Press Council had issued it a license. But its Sunday edition went ahead because of Garang's appointment and its newsworthiness to the south. Kenyi remained unsure if next week's issue would come out. "We need a free press," said Kenyi. "We don't need people to tell us what to print."
However, press council head Shummo said a written apology by the Post had resolved the conflict and it would receive its license soon.
Al-Fateh Al-Sayed, secretary-general of the Sudanese Journalists Union, said ending censorship restrictions comes at a time when Sudan needs a free and responsible press. "This will help in cementing the peace agreement and play a role in informing the public and pointing out the shortcomings of the government," he said.
Rwanda begins dispatching soldiers to Sudan's Darfur region
Agence France Presse, 7/17/05
Rwanda on Sunday deployed the first 95 soldiers of nearly 2,000 assigned to Sudan's troubled Darfur region as part of an African Union (AU) reinforcement mission, military officials said.
Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Charles Karamba said the country would send a total of three batallions to Darfur, which has been wracked by two years of war that has claimed between 180,000 and 300,000 lives and displaced 2.4 million people.
"Ninety-five soldiers are leaving today (Sunday)," Karamba told AFP. "In total, three batallions of 1,756 Rwandan soldiers will be sent."
Karamba said the deployment would be completed before August 9.
The tiny central African nation currently has some 392 troops in Darfur who are providing security to the AU mission there.
The troop deployment to Darfur, Rwanda's first-ever peace mission, will be supported by some 150 US soldiers and military officials, said Ergibe Boyd, US spokesman for the Rwanda mission.
In April, the AU agreed to increase the size of its Darfur mission from the 3,320 to be deployed by the end of May to 7,731 by the end of September and appealed to the AU's 53 members to support the operation with troops and cash.