PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH: 20 June 2005

Peace Negotiations Watch

Monday, June 20, 2005

(Volume IV, Number 22)

Contents:

Armenia/Azerbaijan

Turkey denounces polls in Nagorno Karabakh

Turkey disagrees with elections in disputed region.

Burundi/Rwanda

All Rwandans seeking refuge in Burundi sent home, minister says

UNHCR spokesperson says Rwandan asylum-seekers have all been sent back to Rwanda.

Truth Commission Recommended for Burundi

Commission supported by Annan and Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs.

Chechnya

Security forces in Chechnya clash with militants holed up in house

Police and military troops destroy home with suspected militants.

Chechen Rebel Blamed in U.S. Journalist's Death

Analysts are skeptical of charge.

Congo

Congo to hold constitutional referendum in November, no presidential vote this year

Presidential elections must be held by June 2006.

U.N. peacekeepers, struggling to pacify Congo, turn to warlike methods

Dutch general in charge of over 12,000 UN peacekeepers in violent eastern Congo.

Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.

Georgia/Abkhazia

Georgian premier links restoration of Abkhazian rail traffic to safe return of refugees

Georgia believes safety of displaced persons returning to Abkhazia questionable.

Saakashvili: Belarusian leader has no understanding of democracy

Saakashvili has harsh words for Lukashenko.

Indonesia

Indonesia's FM hits out at growing criticism of Aceh peace talks

Indonesian Foreign Minister reminds critics that talks are a process.

Lawyer arrested for bribery bid to overturn conviction of Aceh governor

Governor sentenced to ten years in jail.

Aceh Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation.

Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast rebels accuse government of preparing to relaunch hostilities

Rebel spokesman fails to give evidence showing why government would re-launch hostilities.

Ivory Coast president appoints military governor for violence-torn west

Rebels suggest they will not follow through with plan to disarm at end of month unless government disarms as well.

Kashmir

Kashmir separatists return upbeat from historic Pakistan trip

Separatist leaders say they are ready for new round of talks with New Delhi.

Kashmir Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation

Kosovo

U.N. envoy arrives in Kosovo to begin review of province's progress on key reforms

Crisis Group analyst warns that negative report by Eide could lead to break down in talks and violence.

International envoys criticize Kosovo leaders on slow pace of reform

Kosumi says government has taken steps to improve minority rights.

Court convicts Serb paramilitary in Kosovo massacre retrial

Retrial confirms twenty-year sentence handed down last year.

Kosovo Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation.

Nepal

Nepal's political parties ready to seek talks with communist rebels

Current head of the Nepali Congress says that a negotiated settlement is the only means to end conflict.

Nepal's top court orders the release of dissidents jailed by king's government

Nepali government not following orders of top court.

Nepal Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation.

Philippines

Philippine political squabble won't affect Muslim peace talks: spokesman

Government reminds public that disagreement with Philippine opposition will not impact talks.

Serbia & Montenegro

Serbia-Montenegro condemns Srebrenica massacre ahead of anniversary

Tenth anniversary of massacre to occur on July 11.

Special U.N. envoy for Kosovo promises detailed study on troubled province

Draskovic confident review in Kosovo will be done impartially.

Somalia

Kenyan president hosts farewell ceremony for Somali leaders relocating to their country

At least one-third of legislature has already moved to Mogadishu, despite disagreement.

Sri Lanka

Kumaratunga meets with political rival seeking support for tsunami deal with Tamil rebels

Wickremesinghe holds off on giving government support.

Sri Lanka's governing coalition breaks up over tsunami aid deal with Tamil rebels

Deal would create joint body between government and Tamil rebels to distribute aid.

Sri Lankan officials try to sell aid deal with rebels to country's influential monks

Norwegian official to meet with government and rebel representatives.

Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation

Sudan

Sudan insists it will try Darfur suspects at home, but Amnesty says efforts doomed to fail

Court not a substitute to International Criminal Court, according to UN envoy.

Khartoum and opposition alliance sign reconciliation agreement

Negotiators to remain in Cairo to finish final details of agreement.

Peace Negotiations Watch is prepared by the Public International Law and Policy Group in cooperation with American University and is made possible by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ploughshares Fund.

Armenia/Azerbaijan

Turkey denounces polls in Nagorno Karabakh

Agence France Presse, 6/17/05

Turkey said Friday that upcoming parliamentary polls in Nagorno Karabakh, a breakaway enclave claimed both by its close ally Azerbaijan and its arch-foe Armenia, were illegitimate and contrary to international peace efforts in the region.

"Turkey believes that such unilateral initiatives... will not help efforts for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem and considers those elections as illegitimate," foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan said in a statement.

Nagorny Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians and effectively controlled by Armenia, declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991, sparking a conflict that, according to differing estimates, claimed between 25,000 and 30,000 lives and displaced up to a million people. The elections are being held in the face of opposition from Azerbaijan, which still claims sovereignty over the territory, but was beaten back by Armenian forces in the 1988-1994 war.

Armenia is the only country to recognize Nagorno Karabakh as an independent state. Turkey is one of Azerbaijan's staunchest allies, with which it also has close ethnic bonds. It has refused to establish formal diplomatic ties with Armenia out of solidarity with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict but also because of Armenia's campaign to have the World War I massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire internationally recognized as genocide.

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Burundi

All Rwandans seeking refuge in Burundi sent home, minister says

Agence France Presse, 6/14/05

Burundi said Tuesday that all Rwandans who had sought refuge in the country rather than face trial in connection with the 1994 genocide had been sent home, in spite of objections by the United Nations. "I can announce that we have just closed the last site housing these people; there are no more illegal Rwandan immigrants on Burundian soil," Burundian Interior Minister Jean-Marie Ngendahayo told AFP.

On Tuesday several dozen Rwandan and Burundian trucks were sent to sites at Mugano and Mukoni in the northeast and Rutana in the east, where respectively 494, 120 and 212 Rwandan asylum-seekers were housed, to repatriate them, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Burundi. "It all went well, people went home voluntarily...," Ngendahayo said

"We were able to be present at the departure of people who were at Mugano today," said Catherine Lune Grayson, a UNHCR spokeswoman. "It went off peacefully because people had been told yesterday that they had no choice but to go and that we (the UNHCR) were going to stop helping them." Sunday and Monday Burundian and Rwandan authorities forcibly repatriated several thousand asylum-seekers. According to Burundi about 5,000 people were sent home from a camp at Songore in the north. The UN had estimated that the site, which was completely evacuated, had a population of about 7,000.

"After the closure of Songore yesterday and the three sites today we can officially state there are no more Rwandan asylum-seekers in Burundi," Grayson said. Earlier the UNHCR had criticised the deportations saying the Burundian and Rwandan governments had breached a longstanding international treaty protecting asylum-seekers. Ron Redmond, UNHCR spokesman, noted that staff from the agency had been barred from Songore ahead of Monday's deportation operation.

"The decision to deny UNHCR access while the return operation was being conducted prevented us from communicating directly with the asylum-seekers to establish whether their return was indeed based on a truly voluntary decision by each of them," Redmond told journalists. "The circumstances in which the return operation was conducted lead to the conclusion that the asylum-seekers had no other option but to return." "Therefore, UNHCR cannot consider their return as voluntary, and hence it constitutes a violation" of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which both Rwanda and Burundi have signed.

Authorities in Burundi have maintained that all those who left had done so voluntarily but witnesses said convoys of trucks carrying the Rwandans had been accompanied by Burundian troops to prevent possible escapes. Many witnesses also said the Rwandans had only boarded the trucks after being threatened by Burundian security forces. "The decision to describe these people as illegal immigrants is a decision of sovereignty for Burundi," Ngendahayo said.

Some 8,000 Rwandans, mainly majority Hutus, have fled to Burundi since March fearing prosecution by grassroot gacaca (pronounced "gachacha") courts trying suspects in the 1994 genocide during which some 800,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis, were slain by Hutu extremists. Their presence in Burundi angered Rwanda which demanded their return, accusing them of being fugitives from justice and, in April, both governments agreed on a plan for their voluntary repatriation, provoking criticism by UNHCR.

Truth Commission Recommended for Burundi

Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 6/16/05

A U.N. mission has recommended establishing a truth and reconciliation commission and a special chamber to prosecute alleged war crimes in Burundi, which has been embroiled in repeated ethnic violence since independence in 1962. Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Ralph Zacklin told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants the U.N. Secretariat to proceed with implementation of the recommendations.

Burundi's Justice Minister Didace Kiganahe said his government supported the recommendations but was concerned about the risk of overlap between the commission and the trial chamber. The government also believes that reconciliation should be at the heart of peace and national unity - and felt this was not adequately emphasized in the proposal, he said. After a 12-year civil war that has killed 250,000 people, most of them civilians, Burundi is in the throes of a peace process meant to return democracy to the central African nation.

The civil war began in 1993 after Burundi's first democratically elected president, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi paratroopers and pitted the Tutsi-dominated army against rebels from the Hutu majority. Despite being in the minority, Tutsis have effectively controlled Burundi for all but a few months since independence from Belgium in 1962 - and there have been interethnic killings in 1965, 1972, 1988 and 1991 as well as 1993.

A series of peace deals led to the creation of a transitional government in 2001 and only one rebel group now remains outside the peace process, though it has agreed to a cease-fire. Local government elections were held last week, members of the lower house of parliament will be elected July 4, and the new legislature will then elect a new president Aug. 19. Zacklin presented the report of the U.N. mission which visited Burundi last year to consider establishing an international judicial commission of inquiry, as called for in the 2000 peace agreement signed in Arusha, Tanzania.

Because of Burundi's deeply divided society and history of violence, he said, the mission recommended a dual effort "to clarify the historical truth, investigate the crimes and bring to justice those responsible." The truth and reconciliation commission it proposed would be established under Burundian law and have five members - three international and two national, he said. "The mandate of the commission would be to establish the historical facts and determine the causes and nature of the conflict in Burundi, classify the crimes committed since independence in 1962, and identify those responsible," Zacklin said.

If the commission was established quickly, the results of its investigation could be shared with the prosecutor of the special chamber that the mission proposed be established in Burundi's court system, he said. "It is envisaged that the 'special chamber' would have the competence to prosecute those bearing the greatest responsibility for the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Burundi," Zacklin said.

The mission called for a majority of international judges and an international prosecutor, but Zacklin stressed that the Burundian people must feel a "deep and genuine" sense of national ownership of both the truth commission and the special chamber.

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Chechnya

Security forces in Chechnya clash with militants holed up in house

Sergei Venyavsky, Associated Press, 6/17/05

Security forces in Chechnya on Friday used heavy weapons fire to raze a home where five alleged militants had holed up after an armed standoff, regional police officials said. More than 140 police and Interior Ministry troops backed by armored vehicles surrounded the house in Chechnya's Noviye Atagi region Thursday night after receiving reports that the fighters had holed up in the vacant home.

Police exchanged sporadic gunfire with the militants, the press office for the regional Interior Ministry said. They then demolished the house with heavy weapons fire, the press office said. Police and security forces found the five suspected militants' bodies, said the press center of the Russian forces in Chechnya. Much of Chechnya continues to be wracked by violence from separatist fighters and criminal gangs as the region suffers through the fifth year of war.

Russian forces launched the war in 1999 after Chechen rebels raided a neighboring Russian region and after a series of apartment house bombings blamed on the rebels. The Interfax news agency reported that dozens of unidentified men dressed in camouflage broke into the houses of policemen in the village of Kurdyukovskaya on Thursday morning and stole Kalashnikov assault rifles, pistols and hundreds of cartridges.

The Rosneft oil company confirmed Friday that its representative in Chechnya, Ilyas Magomadov, had been abducted on Thursday as he was returning to his home village from the capital, Grozny. Rudnik Dudayev, head of the Chechen security council, said that the abductors had demanded ransom of US$200,000 (€165,000).

Chechen Rebel Blamed in U.S. Journalist's Death

David Holley, The Los Angeles Times, 6/17/05

A Chechen separatist leader ordered the contract killing in Moscow last year of prominent U.S. investigative journalist Paul Klebnikov, Russian prosecutors said Thursday, a charge that drew immediate skepticism from analysts.

The Russian prosecutor general's office said its investigation concluded that Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev, a onetime deputy prime minister of Russia's southern republic of Chechnya, ordered the killing. He and two other suspects were being sought in the case, it said. Two more are in custody.

"Nukhayev offered payment to members of a criminal group for killing Klebnikov, as the journalist negatively referred to Nukhayev and criticized his remarks in his book titled 'Conversations With a Barbarian,' " the prosecutors' office said in a statement carried by the Russian news agency Interfax.

However, analysts quickly questioned whether the Chechen was involved in the attack on Klebnikov, editor of Forbes magazine's newly launched Russian edition at the time of his slaying. "Some mass-media sources assert that Nukhayev has a dark criminal past. This, of course, together with him being a Chechen, provides the prosecutors with a seemingly convenient theory," said Alexei Mukhin, director of the Center for Political Information, a Moscow think tank. "But I think they will have a very hard time proving this."

Mukhin added that the book "gave Nukhayev so much publicity that he should be grateful to Klebnikov for providing this free political promotion rather than conspiring to kill him." Klebnikov was gunned down on a Moscow street after he left work July 9, 2004. At the time, many observers thought the attack might have been related to his critical reporting on wealthy Russians, although some also mentioned the possibility that it was linked to his 2003 book about Nukhayev.

The book, based on interviews with the Chechen, was critical of its subject as well as Islamic extremism. Nukhayev was part of Chechnya's pro-independence government before a separatist war that lasted from 1994 to 1996. Chechens exercised self-rule in their Caucasus republic after defeating Russian troops. But Russian forces returned in 1999 and have been battling separatist rebels ever since.

Nukhayev was living in the Middle East state of Qatar two years ago but reportedly returned to Russia in late 2003 to help channel weapons to Chechen guerrillas. His whereabouts are unclear, although the prosecutors' statement described him as a resident of Chechnya. The four other men accused in the case are suspected of being the gunmen and their accomplices. They were part of a Moscow criminal group formed in 2002 that specialized in extortion and contract killings, the prosecutors' statement said.

Members of the group have been accused of killing Yan Sergunin, a former pro-Moscow Chechen deputy prime minister, in Moscow last year, the prosecutors said. "The murder of Klebnikov raised a lot of questions, including some pretty uncomfortable questions for the authorities, and I can understand why the prosecutors were in such a hurry to declare that they solved this murder," said Andrei Kortunov, president of the Moscow-based New Eurasia Foundation. "I can also understand that the Chechen-involvement theory may seem the most convenient for the prosecution."

Kortunov said he found it difficult to believe, however, that Klebnikov had been killed over a book, even one so critical of its subject. "In our country, so much is written on a daily basis about 'Chechen mafia' and 'Chechen terrorists' -- and in such a no-holds-barred light -- that if the characters of these publications were so touchy about what's written about them and so vengeful, scores of journalists would be dead already," he said. "But they are not."

Times staff writer Sergei L. Loiko contributed to this report.

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Congo

Congo to hold constitutional referendum in November, no presidential vote this year

Eddy Isango, Associated Press, 6/15/05

A nationwide referendum on Congo's new constitution will be held Nov. 27, but the country's first post-war general elections won't be held this year, authorities announced Wednesday. If popularly adopted, the new constitution, which parliament ratified last month, will replace a transitional constitution arranged under a peace deal brokered in 2003 by South African President Thabo Mbeki, which ended Congo's 1998-2003 war. The new constitution lowers the minimum age for presidential candidates from 35 to 30 - allowing incumbent Laurent Kabila, 33, to seek re-election.

Kabila now leads a power-sharing administration that includes former warring parties. "According to the consultations we had with the National Independent Electoral Commission, the referendum will be held on November 27," said Raphael Luhulu, parliament's general rapporteur. No date has been set for the presidential and legislative election, but the constitution says presidential elections must be held by June 2006. "The elections cannot be organized before the end of the year," Luhulu told The Associated Press.

Registration and identification of 55 million prospective voters will start June 20 in the capital, Kinshasa, commission chairman Apollinaire Malumalu said. The exercise will then begin 45 days later in the rest of the country, to allow officials to send registration materials to the remotest areas, Malumalu said. The entire process is expected to last one month, he said. The new, 226-article constitution limits a president to two five-year terms in office, and promises free primary education to all children.

It sets up a system of checks and balances between the president, prime minister and parliament, and recognizes all ethnic groups living in Congo at the time of independence in June 1960. Congo's transitional government is attempting to piece the country back together after the latest war - a conflict that aid groups say killed nearly 4 million people, mostly through hunger and sickness.

U.N. peacekeepers, struggling to pacify Congo, turn to warlike methods

Bryan Mealer, Associated Press, 6/17/05

Cigar in hand, the U.N. general slipped off his blue peacekeeper's beret and rubbed his temples. "Peacekeeping is far more difficult than war fighting," Patrick Cammaert, the Dutch general in charge of over 12,000 U.N. troops in Congo's violent east, said in an interview this week. "I find that I'm losing sleep."

As massacres, rapes and attacks by militia spiral out of control in eastern Congo, the six-year-old U.N. peacekeeping mission is increasingly using intelligence gathering, special forces and helicopter gunships, tactics that have never been used by U.N. peacekeepers, said Cammaert. Cammaert was the former military advisor to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former commander of U.N. forces deployed to Ethiopia and Eritrea following the years-long war between the two countries.

With Congo's extreme violence forcing peacekeepers into peace-enforcing roles to protect civilians, Cammaert said the United Nations must also change. The intense demand for peacekeepers in the east outweighs manpower, and the peacekeepers are often hamstrung by their mandate, he said. "The organization has to come to terms with these facts, has to come to terms with rules and regulations that might not fit these kind of operations," he said. "And to change those rules and regulations in order to make us operate effectively is one of the other tasks."

Congo is emerging from a five-year, six-nation war that left nearly 4 million people dead, most through strife-induced disease and hunger. The war ended in 2002 with the formation of a transitional government a year later that has struggled to extend its authority to the long-ungoverned east. The U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo is showing a more aggressive face after being accused for years of being ineffectual. The mission also has been tainted by a sex scandal, with allegations peacekeepers have raped scores of young woman and traded money and candy for sex.

Since February, ambushes and fire fights with militia have killed 12 peacekeepers, who in turn have killed scores of the ragtag militia. Now U.N. troops are preparing for their toughest deployment - along the Rwandan border, where dense, unfamiliar jungle is ideal for ambush. Cammaert recently ventured into Nindja territory, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, where militia had massacred 19 people on May 23 with macabre flare, chopping off feet and disemboweling their dead.

U.N. officials believe the killings were committed by a group calling themselves Rastas: renegade Congolese soldiers, Mayi-Mayi militia and Rwandan Hutu rebels from the group Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR. The Hutu rebels - who fled by the thousands to Congo after participating in the 1994 genocide across the border - look to be the greatest challenge Congo peacekeepers have had to face.

The rebels recently announced they would disarm and return home to Rwanda, a country whose army has invaded Congo twice in the last decade under the auspices of rooting the rebels out. The last invasion in 1998 sparked the five-year war. The United Nations is in charge of facilitating the repatriation efforts - a process that could bring long-awaited peace in the east. However, residents say the Hutu rebels, along with Rastas, continue to kill, rape and pillage in the area, displacing thousands of people.

In order to protect civilians, the U.N. troops may have to fight the militia they are trying to help repatriate. Peacekeepers also hope to use Congolese troops to fight the militia. But in many areas, the poorly paid government soldiers have made common cause with the Hutu rebels. "It is an extremely complex situation," said Cammaert, "You can imagine the challenges on our plate." Landscape may prove one of the biggest obstacles, said Cammaert. Nindja territory is the Hutu rebel's stronghold, a lawless frontier controlled by neither U.N. peacekeepers or Congolese government troops.

"That forest is very much on my mind," said Cammaert, sipping a glass of wine as Whitney Houston pounded over a restaurant's speakers. "You have dense tropical forests, rivers, and an opponent who is very familiar with that area. And we are not." In order to map the territory and gather intelligence, a unit of Guatemalan special forces - soldiers experienced in war fighting in jungle settings - will work alongside some 3,700 Pakistani peacekeepers.

Cammaert said the U.N. troops will "dig in" several places, deploying peacekeepers to village markets and gold mines controlled by Hutu rebels - thus cutting off their means of income. "The Pakistani and Indian brigades are total professionals," said Cammaert. "I'm convinced the FDLR and Rasta will get a hard time. The sooner we can engage them the better."

Operations in Nindja territory will closely resemble those already taking place in Ituri province in the northeast, where peacekeepers and special forces units stage military operations every two days against rogue militia. But unlike Nindja, the landscape in Ituri is open, allowing Indian peacekeepers to use attack helicopters and keep a close eye on opponents. Even with this advantage, militia have managed to kill 12 peacekeepers since February.

Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.

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Saakashvili: Belarusian leader has no understanding of democracy

Mara D. Bellaby, Associated Press, 6/16/05

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili lashed out at his Belarusian counterpart on Thursday, saying the ex-Soviet republic's leader had no understanding of democracy. "The people of Belarus are no different in their aspirations and their dreams, just like all of us they deserve to be free," said Saakashvili, who led the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia. "Now as never (before), they need our solidarity."

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have worsened in recent weeks. Belarus' opposition has said that President Alexander Lukashenko fears democratic activists are trying to spur a popular uprising similar to Georgia's, which brought Western-leading Saakashvili to the presidency. Saakashvili slammed last week's decision by Belarus to impose visa requirements on Georgians.

Lukashenko "said he wants to prevent the spread of terrorism," said Saakashvili. "Apparently for Lukashenko, terrorism and democracy are the same thing." Saakashvili was speaking at the World Economic Forum on Ukraine, another ex-Soviet republic where the opposition came to power after last year's mass protests, dubbed the Orange Revolution, against the ruling government.

The two-day forum brought together presidents and business leaders to discuss ways to help Ukraine's new pro-western leadership. "What I hope is that next year or ... I don't want to set a date, that we can have a new conference on what we can learn from the Belarusian democratic experiment," Saakashvili said to applause from the packed auditorium.

Estonian President Arnold Ruutel said that the Belarusian people need to make their own decision about achieving democracy. But, he added, that he was "confident the people of Belarus are ready to go together with those who have made their way toward democracy." Lukashenko has ruled Belarus for more than a decade with an iron fist, quashing dissent, intimidating opposition parties and closing down independent media outlets.

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Indonesia

Indonesia's FM hits out at growing criticism of Aceh peace talks

Agence France Presse, 6/13/05

Indonesia's foreign minister Monday defended peace talks between Jakarta and Aceh separatists amid growing criticism from lawmakers and the army, saying that other efforts to deal with the rebels had failed to bring peace to the province. In an interview in Tempo's weekly magazine, minister Hassan Wirayuda urged patience with the negotiations between the government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, who have so far completed four rounds of talks.

"People tend to simplify a process. If they are thinking, how come the Aceh talks have not yet concluded, they have to realize that peace requires a process" to unfold, Wirayuda said. The peace talks, mediated by the Crisis Management Initiative of former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, have appeared to make progress, raising hopes that a fifth round of dialogue in July will end the fighting that has killed 14,000 people during the past 30 years.

But the peace process has been undermined by a growing chorus of dissent, with Indonesian lawmakers and military officials denouncing efforts to negotiate with the rebels. Indonesia's senior security minister Widodo Adisucipto said last week that Jakarta would not bow to rebel demands for political representation, a key point in the peace talks. Following that, the military rejected rebel calls for a post-tsunami ceasefire in the province, which was devastated by the December 26 waves.

Both sides only agreed to go back to the negotiating table after the tsunami, following a massive military offensive begun in 2003 that failed to bring the rebels to heel. "The need for both sides to negotiate must have been based on an acknowledgement that other means have failed to solve the problems," said Wirayuda, who served as Indonesia's chief negotiator during Jakarta's ceasefire talks with the rebels that broke down in May 2003.

"If there is a feeling that weapons could bring success, why bother negotiating?" Rebel leaders have reacted furiously to Jakarta's refusal to compromise, further endangering peace efforts in Aceh. The rebel group's military commander, Muzakkir Manaf, has launched a scathing attack on the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, accusing it of bad faith. "It becomes terribly clear that Jakarta has no intention of taking the slightest step forward," a statement from Manaf said. The rebels have agreed to drop demands for independence or even a plebiscite on sovereignty in favour of a government offer of limited autonomy, provided they are given a political voice in future elections.

Lawyer arrested for bribery bid to overturn conviction of Aceh governor

Agence France Presse, 6/16/05

Investigators in Indonesia arrested a lawyer Thursday for allegedly bribing a court official in a bid to overturn the conviction of the governor of Aceh province in a high-profile corruption case. Tengku Syaifuddin Popon was arrested while handing 250 million rupiah (26,300 dollars) in bribe money to a Jakarta High Court official, said Corruption Eradication Commission investigator Tumpak Panggabean. The money was found in a bag hidden under the desk of the court official, Syamsu Rizal Ramadhan, who was also arrested along with another unnamed colleague.

"Basically they were caught red-handed," Panggabean told AFP, adding that the arrest followed a tip-off. Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh, who was arrested prior to the December 26 tsunami disaster in his province, was jailed in April and fined 3.8 billion rupiah (400,000 dollars) for his role in marking up the price of a Russian helicopter to line his own pockets. His corruption trial was viewed as an acid test of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's war on graft.

The Jakarta High Court on Thursday also rejected Puteh's sentence appeal, declaring that his 10-year jail issued by a lower Jakarta court was "warranted." A judge with the high court, As'adi al Ma'ruf, was quoted by the Detikcom online news as saying he and he colleagues deemed Puteh had "clearly abused" his job by engaging in graft as governor of the resource-rich province.

The 10-year jail term, far below the maximum life sentence carried by the charges but two years more than prosecutors had demanded, was seen as a triumph for the country's newly established anti-corruption court. Yudhoyono has pledged to intensify the drive against corruption in an effort to lure back the foreign investment needed to boost growth.

Scores of current and former legislators at city, district and provincial levels have been dragged to court over corruption. On Tuesday a court in West Sumatra province jailed 13 former councillors for four years for embezzling 800,000 dollars in public funds.

Aceh Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.

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Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast rebels accuse government of preparing to relaunch hostilities

Parfait Kouassi, Associated Press, 6/13/05

Rebels in Ivory Coast accused President Laurent Gbagbo's government of preparing to relaunch hostilities in the war-divided nation and vowed they would not disarm until pro-government militias lay down arms and legislative reforms are carried out. An aide to Gbagbo dismissed the allegation, saying rebels were only making excuses to derail a disarmament campaign that's officially due to begin June 27.

There are "risks hostilities could restart anew," Amadou Kone, a spokesman for rebel leader Guillaume Soro, told reporters in the main city, Abidjan. "President Gbagbo is preparing to restart hostilities." Kone gave no proof to back the allegation, saying only that Gbagbo was currently on a visit to Angola, a military powerhouse in Africa. Last week, rebel officials said recent violence in the government-controlled west that killed up to 70 people could delay disarmament plans.

Both sides have accused each other of being behind the violence in Duekoue, a western town nominally controlled by the government where pro-government militias are active. Kone said 10,000 people had fled into rebel zones from the area. "We cannot disarm as long as there is insecurity and the militia aren't disarmed," Kone said. Sylvere Nebout, a communications adviser to Gbagbo, dismissed the rebels' allegations. "We're used to these statements. They're saying that to cover their desire not to disarm," Nebout told The Associated Press.

The rebels, who control the northern half of the country, also want the national assembly to adopt new legislation that would make it easier to prove nationality, Kone said. Many people, particularly Muslims from the north, have been denied passports - or forced to pay bribes by corrupt officials to get them - on the grounds they could not prove citizenship. The government likens them to the millions of people from neighboring nations who've have flocked to once-prosperous Ivory Coast to find work in the agricultural sector. Ivory Coast is the world's leading producer of cocoa.

Rebels have controlled the northern half of Ivory Coast since a failed September 2002 coup attempt plunged the nation into months of civil war followed by peace deals which left the country divided. Around 42,500 rebels and thousands of pro-government militias are supposed to lay down their weapons under an April peace deal brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki.

"We never committed to a date for disarmament," Kone said, referring to May talks between warring parties in the capital Yamoussoukro at which the national disarmament commission said disarmament, repeatedly delayed in the past, would finally begin June 27. "We never committed to a date for disarmament," Kone said.

Ivory Coast president appoints military governor for violence-torn west

Associated Press, 6/20/05

President Laurent Gbagbo appointed a military governor for volatile western Ivory Coast, where up to 70 people were hacked or shot to death in recent violence, part of new security measures meant to restore calm in the war-divided nation ahead of October elections.

In a speech late Friday, Gbagbo announced the appointment for the Moyen Cavally region, which comprises the cocoa-growing town of Duekoue where bloody violence has flared between immigrant farmers and local landowners of the Guere ethnic group over the last several weeks. Gbagbo also said he had set up a rapid intervention force in the main city Abidjan, saying "insecurity and violence have become insupportable" there.

"Security is the best way of assuring that elections go ahead as the constitution of our country prescribes," he said. "What happened in Duekoue is morally, politically and militarily unacceptable." Ivory Coast has been split between a rebel-controlled north and a government-controlled south since a failed September 2002 coup attempt plunged the nation into months of civil war. A series of peace deals followed, but the country has remained divided and tense ever since.

Both sides have accused each other of being behind the violence in Duekoue, a western town nominally controlled by the government where pro-government militias are active. Last week, rebels accused Gbagbo's government of preparing to relaunch hostilities, allegations the government denied. They also vowed not to lay down their arms as scheduled June 27, until pro-government militias lay down arms and legislative reforms are carried out. On Friday, Gbagbo also promoted Ivory Coast army chief Phillipe Mangou to the rank of general.

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Kashmir

Kashmir separatists return upbeat from historic Pakistan trip

Agence France Presse, 6/16/05

Moderate separatist leaders from Indian Kashmir returned home Thursday from a historic trip to Pakistan in upbeat mood, saying they were ready to hold a new round of talks with New Delhi on the future of the troubled Himalayan region. The eight leaders, who have been on a two-week visit to Pakistan, arrived on the new bi-monthly trans-Kashmir bus service at Kaman Post on the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing mainly Muslim Kashmir between India and Pakistan, early afternoon.

They were to continue their journey to Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, in a motorcade under tight security by India's security forces. "It's been a very successful trip for us," said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, leader of the moderate faction of Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. "We're ready for talks with New Delhi but it's for them to decide when they want to talk," Farooq told AFP shortly after crossing back into the Indian zone. New Delhi had previously forbidden separatist leaders from travelling to Pakistan and refuses to negotiate with them, despite a peace process launched by India and Pakistan in 2004.

The South Asian rivals have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which they each hold in part but claim in its entirety. The moderates, who are demanding that Kashmiris be included in talks between India and Pakistan on resolving the decades-old dispute, held two meetings with India's government early in 2004 but the talks stalled when the Congress party won power in May 2004. "The biggest benefit from the trip is that Kashmiris are being accepted as a party to the dispute," Farooq said.

Separatist leaders in Indian Kashmir seek a three-way dialogue with the Indian and Pakistan governments to sort out the region's future. "Our triangular approach has been appreciated in Pakistan and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir," Farooq added. During their visit, the Hurriyat leaders held talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and a host of other leaders, including Syed Salahuddin, chief of a broad alliance of groups battling Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.

"We spoke to Syed Salahuddin about how to consolidate the ongoing peace process," Farooq said. Musharraf said Thursday during a trip to Australia that there was "light at the end of the tunnel" in the dispute but warned flexibility was needed on both sides to resolve the issue. An insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir has left more than 40,000 people dead by official count since 1989. Separatists say the toll is twice as high.

Hundreds of supporters were waiting at the town of Uri near the Kaman Post crossing to greet the returning separatists, who have asked for a low-key welcome out of respect for 15 people killed Monday by a powerful car bomb in the southern Kashmiri town of Pulwama. Their visit was the first-ever to Pakistan and the region of Pakistan under Islamabad's control and was seen as another sign of warming ties between India and Pakistan.

Hardline separatists refused Pakistan's invitation to visit, saying Islamabad has offered too many concessions to India over Kashmir without getting anything in return. Also arriving from the Pakistani zone of the divided state Thursday were 53 other Kashmiris, while 17 went in the other direction. The bus service was launched in April as part of a peace drive by the two nations.

Kashmir Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.

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Kosovo

U.N. envoy arrives in Kosovo to begin review of province's progress on key reforms

Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press, 6/13/05

A U.N. envoy dispatched to Kosovo Monday began a review of Kosovo's progress in strengthening democracy and guaranteeing minority rights - key requirements before talks on the province's future status. Kai Eide, a senior Norwegian diplomat who was recently appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to initiate a wide-ranging review, said looking at the implementation of reforms is only one component of the task he has undertaken. "I will look at this in a much broader way, which is a task given to me" by Annan, Eide said after landing at Kosovo's airport. "(We will) try to get the feeling as to what is going on on the ground as well as we can."

He said a key element to his venture would be to see and talk to people across Kosovo and hear what they have to say. Eide will review implementation of a set of U.N.-sponsored standards that include establishing functioning democratic institutions, protecting minorities, promoting economic development and ensuring rule of law, freedom of movement and property rights in Kosovo.

He is expected to present the report to the United Nations by September. A positive review will pave the way for possible negotiations between ethnic Albanians and Serbs on whether Kosovo becomes independent as demanded by the provinces ethnic Albanian majority or remains part of Serbia-Montenegro.

A negative outcome of the review would slow down the political process of finding a solution for the disputed status of Kosovo and that might result in violence, warned Nicholas Whyte, the Europe Program Director for the Brussels based International Crisis Group. "I am not sure that Kosovo's political scene can take that," Whyte said. "But that is not to say that Eide should not do fair reporting."

The U.N. Security Council on May 27 endorsed Annan's recommendation for a special envoy to review Kosovo's compliance with the standards. In a report to the council, the secretary-general stressed that none of the standards has been achieved and warned that the outcome of the review "is not a foregone conclusion." Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia. It has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a 78-day NATO-led air war that halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.

One attempt to bridge the ethnic divide proved elusive Monday when a key Kosovo bridge symbolizing the division in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica was shut after a Serb protest on the day it opened for civilian traffic.

Over the past six years, the bridge has been the scene of periodic violent clashes between members of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, who live south of the river, and the Serb minority living north of it. Last week, NATO peacekeepers handed over control of the bridge to the U.N. police. The bridge had been closed to traffic since March 2004, when mobs of ethnic Albanians attacked Serbs and their property in violence that killed 19 people and left some 900 injured.

International envoys criticize Kosovo leaders on slow pace of reform

Garentina Kraja, Associated Press, 6/15/05

Senior international envoys told Kosovo's leaders Wednesday to speed up the reform of local government and improve freedom of movement for minorities, the prime minister said. Bajram Kosumi said the government has already begun the process which is aimed at giving minorities more power in running their affairs, a key condition Kosovo must meet before talks on its future can commence later this year. A number of smaller municipalities are to be created to give local authorities more power and ensure ethnic minorities have a greater say in areas where they live.

However, the process has been plagued with delays following criticism by the province's opposition parties, who argue that the way the government is carrying out the reforms might lead to the division of Kosovo along ethnic lines. The issue was debated in the meeting with diplomats from the so-called Contact Group, which includes the United States, the European Union, Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Germany. The group has been meeting periodically as they try to steer the disputed province toward its final status.

Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia. It has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a 78-day NATO-led air war that halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999. The province's majority ethnic Albanians want full independence, but the Serb minority insists Kosovo remain part of Serbia-Montenegro.

The meeting comes as a senior U.N. envoy Kai Eide was dispatched to Kosovo to begin reviewing province's progress in strengthening democracy and guaranteeing minority rights, part of the conditions to be met before talks on the province's future status.

A positive review would pave the way for possible negotiations between ethnic Albanians and Serbs on whether Kosovo becomes independent or not. Eide is expected to present a report on his findings to the United Nations by September. About a dozen ethnic Albanians protested outside of the venue where the meeting was held Wednesday, demanding answers on the fate of some 2,700 people missing since the end of the war. The diplomats were to travel to Belgrade after their meetings in Kosovo.

Court convicts Serb paramilitary in Kosovo massacre retrial

Katarina Kratovac, Associated Press, 6/17/05

A Belgrade district court on Friday found a former Serb paramilitary guilty of a 1999 massacre in Kosovo in a retrial that confirmed the original 20-year sentence handed down last year. Sasa Cvjetan, from the notorious Scorpions unit, was convicted of killing 14 ethnic Albanian civilians, mostly women and children, when his unit stormed the northern Kosovo town of Podujevo in March 1999. Cvjetan, 40, had received the maximum sentence under Serbian law at the time of the crime, but last year's ruling was later overturned by Serbia's Supreme Court for alleged procedural trial violations.

The retrial in Cvjetan's case - which in 2004 was seen as a key test for the Serbian judiciary to handle war crimes cases at home - lasted less than two weeks. After reading the final verdict, Judge Biljana Sinanovic said the most compelling evidence against Cvjetan was the fact that witnesses and survivors of the Podujevo massacre had recognized him. During the hearings, Cvjetan again denied he took part in the Scorpions' rampage in Podujevo that killed 14 and wounded five, claiming he was chosen to be a "scapegoat."

After an outburst last week in which he kicked courtroom furniture and accused the presiding judge of "manipulating the truth" and turning him into a "monster and villain," Cvjetan was removed and banned from the court until the final verdict. "I fought honorably and fairly for this country," Cvjetan said Friday as he stood to hear the verdict.

Cvjetan's case was back in focus following the airing this month of gruesome footage showing a 1995 execution of six Muslim civilians from the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica, allegedly by other Scorpions. The video sent shock waves throughout Serbia and forced the politicians to acknowledge that Serb troops committed war crimes against civilians during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Also on Friday, Serbia's Interior Minister Dragan Jocic declared that the Scorpions were never part of the republic's regular police force. Jocic added that they were a paramilitary unit, but offered no detail about who controlled and financed it. Cvjetan's retrial further shed light on the span and role of the Scorpions in alleged war crimes not only in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war there but also in Kosovo during the province's 1998-1999 war.

Thousands of ethnic Albanian civilians were killed during the conflict in Kosovo. NATO bombing forced Serbia to relinquish control of the southern province to the United Nations and NATO in mid-1999. Another alleged Scorpions member was charged with the Podujevo massacre along with Cvjetan. The suspect, Dejan Demirovic, is currently in custody in Canada pending a ruling on his appeal there against a deportation order.

Kosovo Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.

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_____________________________________________________________

Liberia

Annan says Liberia still needs UN force

Agence France Presse, 6/13/05

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Monday that despite making progress, Liberia was not stable enough to allow the withdrawal of a UN mission deployed in the West African country. In a report to the UN Security Council, Annan said that Liberia's transitional government "has continued to take steps towards meeting the conditions contained in paragraphs 5, 7 and 11 of resolution 1521." However, he pointed out it was impossible to consider lifting an arms embargo against Liberia or sanctions taken against individual until a peace accord that ended 14 years of civil war was fully implemented.

The requirements that remain to be fulfilled, said Annan include "the holding of national elections, a new Liberian government assuming office and the laying of the foundations for sustainable development and good governance." Delays in the restructuring of the national army and the process of reintegration of former combatants into society make it "very difficult to devise a viable exit strategy for UNMIL" as the UN force is called, Annan pointed out.

The UN secretary general also pointed out that Liberia was not yet ready to fully meet conditions for the removal of restrictions imposed on its timber and diamond trade, but expressed hope Liberia could become part of of the internation Kimberley certification process. Annan propsed extending the mandate of the UN force.

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Nepal

Nepal's political parties ready to seek talks with communist rebels

Nirmala George, Associated Press, 6/14/05

Nepal's political parties are ready to talk to communist rebels to draw them into the political mainstream and end nearly 10 years of violence in the Himalayan nation, a former Nepalese prime minister said Tuesday. A negotiated settlement is the only way to end the Maoist insurgency, said Girija Prasad Koirala, three-time premier and current leader of Nepali Congress, the country's largest political party.

"The international community says the crisis in Nepal cannot be solved militarily. If a political solution has to be found, it is the political parties that have to take the initiative to bring the Maoists to a dialogue," Koirala told journalists in New Delhi. Koirala said the parties had not yet formally contacted the Maoist rebels but that they wanted to talk to the top leaders of the movement, Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai.

The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have been fighting since 1996 to topple Nepal's monarchy and establish a socialist republic. The insurgency has claimed more than 11,500 lives. On Feb. 1, Nepal's King Gyanendra seized absolute power, saying the move was necessary because the elected government had failed to quash the rebellion. Since the takeover, the military has intensified its campaign against the communist rebels, combing rebel territory and raiding suspected hideouts.

"The king and the Maoists carry their campaign through force of their guns. Our protests are through peaceful agitation," Koirala said. Koirala, 80, who was placed under house arrest for two months in a crackdown on dissent immediately after the king's power grab, came to New Delhi to muster support for demands by Nepal's seven main political parties for parliament to be reinstated and an interim government established to draft a new constitution.

He said the king's role should be purely ceremonial, while an elected government should again rule the country. "This is a fight between modernity and feudal forces represented by the king. Democracy represents the forces of modernity. In this fight, democracy will prevail," Koirala said.

Gyanendra has denied all proposals offered by the political parties since he seized power. Hundreds of politicians, journalists and activists remain detained and the king has imposed curbs on the media. Koirala, who is scheduled to return to Nepal on Wednesday, said the parties would step up their campaign of street protests against the royal government in the coming weeks. "People cannot be defeated," he said. "Ultimately the king will be defeated."

Nepal's top court orders the release of dissidents jailed by king's government

Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press, 6/16/05

Critics of Nepal's royal government on Thursday demanded that it obey the Supreme Court after police re-arrested one of three leftist party leaders freed by the panel, prompting the two others to flee into hiding. The case highlights tensions between the royalist government and the top court, which has frequently sided with dissidents who have been jailed by King Gyanendra's government since he assumed direct control over Nepal in February.

"The government is going against the Supreme Court despite repeated warnings. This is a direct insult to the highest legal body," said Indra Lohani, secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association. The three leaders of the People's Front Nepal - a small leftist group that joined a seven-party alliance that protests the king's actions - were among hundreds of politicians arrested since February. Most were freed in recent weeks after Gyanendra lifted a three-month emergency, but some remain in jail.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon ordered the release of one of the party leaders, Navraj Subedi, saying he was being held illegally. But he was re-arrested by police at the party's office in Katmandu just hours later. The government did not give any reason or cite any law in re-arresting him.

Later Wednesday, the court ordered the release of the two other party leaders, Amik Sherchan and Lilamani Pokhrel. Afterward, unmarked police vans tailed the men, but they were able to elude the officers and now are hiding because they fear they will be arrested again, party official Pari Thapa said. Family members of the two men said they have not heard from them.

"It is illegal for the government to disobey the orders of the Supreme Court. It shows that the government does not abide by the law," Thapa said. Government officials refused to comment on the issue. Last month, the Supreme Court summoned Home Minister Dan Bahadur Shahi and ordered him to obey the court's orders to release dissidents. The government had earlier re-arrested several politicians after the court ordered their release.

The king seized control of the Himalayan nation on Feb. 1, fired the government and imposed a state of emergency, saying the restrictive measures were needed to quell an anti-monarchist communist insurgency. He suspended civil liberties, including freedom of the press, and jailed hundreds of political prisoners.

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Philippines

Philippine political squabble won't affect Muslim peace talks: spokesman

Cagayan De Oro, Agence France Presse, 6/18/05

Opposition moves to embarrass and unseat Philippine President Gloria Arroyo will not affect peace talks with Muslim separatists in the south, a rebel spokesman said Saturday. Eid Kabalu, spokesman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said the controversies raging in Manila were just "internal matters to be resolved by the government". "We are taking a hands-off stance," he told reporters in this city in the southern island of Mindanao. "We are not interfering on the issues that are besieging the Arroyo administration. We will not take part in it."

He was referring to recent opposition charges that Arroyo cheated to win elections last year and that her family was involved in illegal gambling. Arroyo has shrugged off the charges and said she will not attend congressional hearings to probe the allegations. She has accused the opposition of sabotaging the economy in their efforts to topple her. Kabalu said the MILF was not concerned with the survival of the Arroyo administration as the gains made in previous peace talks with the government "would not be lost".

"Whoever sits in Malacanang (presidential palace) is only incidental. We believe that they will continue to honor and respect the agreements already made as these are official acts of the government," he said. He remarked that third parties like the governments of Malaysia, Brunei and other member-countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had fostered the talks, ensuring existing agreements would be respected.

Kabalu said the opposition had not approached the MILF leadership for help in unseating Arroyo but conceded that they could approach individual MILF commanders without informing anyone. The 12,000-member MILF, founded in 1978, is the last major Muslim separatist guerrilla group in the southern region of Mindanao, a resource-rich but troubled area about twice the size of Belgium.

The Philippine government has sealed a truce with the rebels and peace talks are reported to be in "the final stages," but isolated clashes continue. Arroyo hopes a peace deal with the MILF would isolate Islamic militants with alleged ties to the Al-Qaeda network who have used the lawless region as a sanctuary and training base.

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Serbia & Montenegro

Serbia-Montenegro condemns Srebrenica massacre ahead of anniversary

Agence France Presse, 6/15/05

Serbia-Montenegro on Wednesday condemned the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslims in Bosnia, and announced a delegation would attend the 10th anniversary ceremony in the town on July 11. The statement, Serbia-Montenegro's first explicit condemnation of Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, comes a day after nationalist parties in the Serbian parliament shot down a similar resolution about the massacre. "The council of ministers strongly condemns the crime committed against prisoners and Bosnian civilians in July 1995 in Srebrenica, during the war in Bosnia," Serbia-Montenegro's council said in a statement.

Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb forces and irregular Serbian police units backed by Belgrade overran the UN-protected enclave in July 1995. Announcing the first official visit by a delegation from Belgrade to the site of the massacre, the council of ministers said the crime committed by Serb troops should not be forgotten. By sending the delegation, Belgrade wanted to show that it "does not forgive and forget".

"No crime should be forgotten, no matter who the criminals or victims are," the statement said. Serbia-Montenegro is the loose union of neighbouring Balkan republics which replaced the former Yugoslavia in 2003. Each of the constituent republics however remains largely independent with its own parliament.

"Those who killed in Srebrenica and those who ordered and organized that massacre did not represent Serbia or Montenegro, but a non-democratic regime of terror and death, resisted by the majority of citizens of Serbia-Montenegro," the council said, referring to the nationalist regime of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, ousted from power in 2000.

The massacre has led to genocide charges against Milosevic, who is standing trial for war crimes in The Hague, as well as against war-time Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic. Karadzic and Mladic remain on the run in Serb-dominated parts of the former Yugoslavia, where they are seen as heroes by Serb nationalists. "Criminals cannot be heroes and any defense of the crime, under any excuse, is also a crime," the council's statement warned.

A recent survey showed that half of Serbia's 10 million people deny the Srebrenica massacre took place, despite physical evidence including scores of mass graves. Montenegro has a population of only some 650,000. Serbia-Montenegro's political leaders have long been divided over how to reconcile the country to the atrocities committed by Serb forces in the wars that tore the former Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s.

Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic has previously condemned all war crimes and called for suspects to be handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. But powerful nationalist parties continue to block such official recognition by the Serbian parliament. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica is also reluctant to cooperate with the UN tribunal, which he says is anti-Serb.

Special U.N. envoy for Kosovo promises detailed study on troubled province

Associated Press, 6/17/05

A U.N. envoy on Friday promised a detailed review of troubled Kosovo's progress toward a democracy ahead of possible talks to determine its political fate later this year. "We will take the time we need ... we shall travel as much as possible and see as much as we can," senior Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide said as he rounded off his first, weeklong visit to Serbia-Montenegro.

Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia, but it has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a NATO-led air war halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999. Eide said he would meet representatives from both sides of Kosovo's Albanian-majority and Serbian-minority divide. He said he planned a tour across Kosovo early next month to "try to get the feeling as to what is going on on the ground."

Judging accomplishments and shortcomings in the U.N. administered province "will not be easy," Eide said, but promised a "fair and credible" report. Eide was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this month to review how far Kosovo has come in reaching a list of U.N.-set targets for democracy and minority rights. His report is expected to be completed by September. If favorable, it would be the first step toward possible negotiations on the disputed province's final status.

Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said after meeting Eide that he was confident the Norwegian would conduct the review with "objectivity and maximum honesty." In talks Thursday with Eide, Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic stressed what he called "burning problems" for Kosovo Serbs, such as refugees failure to return to their destroyed homes in the province and lack of basic security. Earlier in the week, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders in Pristina, the provincial capital, also pledged support for Eide's review.

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Somalia

Kenyan president hosts farewell ceremony for Somali leaders relocating to their country

Tom Maliti, Associated Press, 6/13/05

Somalia's government-in-exile officially wrapped up business in Kenya Monday, though its journey home remains troubled. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf played down divisions within his government about its relocation plans. Yusuf has said he wants to establish his government in Baidoa, 225 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, the traditional capital. But at least a third of the parliament has already moved to Mogadishu, insisting the government relocate there.

The speaker of the transitional parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, refused to participate in Monday's ceremony in Nairobi, sending a message that he was too busy preparing Mogadishu for the parliament. Somalia 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 nation of 7 million into chaos. The Somali government has been based in Kenya because its home country has been considered too unsafe.

Yusuf planned official trips to Qatar and Yemen this week before returning to Somalia to establish his government there next week, his spokesman Yusuf Ismail said. Ismail declined to say to which Somali town Yusuf would go. Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki wished Yusuf well during a ceremony at Kenya's State House.

Kibaki said that some of the challenges facing Yusuf and his government are that about 70 percent of Somalis live on less than a dollar (euro) a day, 90 percent of school buildings have been destroyed and only 17 percent of children of school-going age are in school. Yusuf said, "In spite of all the tangible progress towards a peaceful and governable Somalia, we can not become complacent."

Relocating to Somalia, "is going to be tough-going, but it has to be done," the African Union Special Envoy to Somalia Muhammad Ali Foum told The Associated Press. The current parliament has been in Nairobi for seven months, attempting to negotiate the end of 14 years of anarchy in the Horn of Africa nation.

In addition to the dispute over the capital, the new government has split over whether African Union peacekeeping troops should provide security for the government, with many militia leaders opposed to the idea. Radical Islamists have also denounced the government and have promised to fight any foreign troops who come to Somalia.

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Sri Lanka

Kumaratunga meets with political rival seeking support for tsunami deal with Tamil rebels

Dilip Ganguly, Associated Press, 6/13/05

President Chandrika Kumaratunga sought support from her chief political rival for a plan to share tsunami aid with Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said, as police fired tear gas to stop 5,000 protesting students from reaching her house. Kumaratunga's coalition partners, the Marxists, have threatened to withdraw - possibly causing the government to collapse - if she does not renounce the rebel plan by Wednesday night.

Critics say the aid deal threatens the country's sovereignty and helps the Tigers in their quest to carve out a separate state. The president's spokesman, Harim Peiris, confirmed she had met Monday with her archrival, former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, but declined to comment on the outcome of the talks. Sources close to Wickremesinghe's United National Party said he told her to go ahead with the plan for her government to join with Tamil Tiger rebels to distribute billions of dollars in aid to tsunami survivors.

But Wickremesinghe, whose government signed a 2002 cease-fire with the rebels that halted Sri Lanka's 19-year-old civil war, declined to give his blanket support, saying he would watch her moves and support them on their merits, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

The Tigers are demanding a say in how aid gets distributed to rebel-controlled Tamil-majority areas following the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed at least 31,000 people in Sri Lanka. They have complained that assistance has not reached Tamil areas fast enough since the disaster.

Kumaratunga has promoted her government's plan for a joint council to disburse the aid as a golden opportunity to forge peace with the guerrillas. Police fired tear gas shells and baton-charged students Monday who tried to break the security cordon around Kumaratunga's Colombo residence. At least 20 student protesters who were arrested were later released.

A Buddhist monk, Dambara Amila, who is fasting to protest the deal, and the secretary of the National Clerics Front, Kalawelgala Chandraloka, warned Monday that their protests could be expanded drastically. "If the president thinks that one life is not enough, we can offer thousands of lives," Chandraloka said.

The Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate state for ethnic Tamils, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination. The two sides signed the cease-fire in 2002 after the conflict claimed 65,000 lives, but peace talks have stalled since 2003.

Sri Lanka's governing coalition breaks up over tsunami aid deal with Tamil rebels

Shimali Senanayake, Associated Press, 6/16/05

Marxists lawmakers quit Sri Lanka's governing coalition Thursday over the president's plan to share tsunami relief with ethnic Tamil rebels, weakening the ruling party's hold on power, although it was not expected to cause an immediate collapse. The deal supported by President Chandrika Kumaratunga would set up a government-rebel body to ensure billions of dollars in aid is distributed to all tsunami-hit areas, including in the Tamil-majority north and east, parts of which are controlled by the rebels.

The Dec. 26 tsunami killed more than 31,000 Sri Lankans and displaced about a million. While a 2002 cease-fire is still largely holding, the rebels have complained that tsunami assistance has not reached Tamil areas quickly enough. The People's Liberation Front opposed the joint aid plan, arguing it would legitimize the rebels' agenda for a separate Tamil homeland on this island nation just off India's southern tip.

"We leave with a sense of deep regret for work not completed," Somawansa Amerasinghe, the Marxist party's leader, said in announcing the decision to drop out of the governing coalition. "Our earnest request to safeguard the integrity of the country fell on deaf ears." The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam began fighting in 1983 for an independent homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, claiming discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.

Kumaratunga contends the aid deal presents a golden opportunity to forge a lasting peace with the guerrillas and permanently end a war that killed about 65,000 people. Senior presidential officials said Kumaratunga planned to refer the aid-sharing proposal for a vote in Parliament as early as next Wednesday.

The Marxists' withdrawal of 39 lawmakers left the ruling coalition with just 81 votes in the 225-member Parliament. h institute, said the UNP probably would wait at least until November, when the next budget is to be presented to Parliament. But he said no major government business will get done, which could hurt the tsunami recovery effort.

The UNP urged Kumaratunga on Thursday to go ahead with the aid-sharing deal, although it declined to say whether it would vote for the plan. "She must have the courage to follow her convictions," said the party's spokesman, G.L. Peiris.

Sri Lankan officials try to sell aid deal with rebels to country's influential monks

Krishan Francis, Associated Press, 6/17/05

Sri Lanka's ruling coalition tried Friday to win over the country's influential Buddhist monks to a plan to share tsunami aid with the Tamil Tiger rebels - a crucial bid to win support for the controversial deal that has threatened to bring down the government. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, government ministers and lawmakers addressed hundreds of monks - many of whom have publicly rejected the deal - in the capital Colombo to explain it in detail.

Kumaratunga has promoted the creation of a joint group with the rebels to ensure fair disbursement of tsunami foreign aid to Tamil-majority northeast, parts of which are controlled by the guerrillas. The attempt to sell the plan began amid a crisis within the ruling coalition that was triggered by Thursday's pullout of a key Marxist party from the government over objections to the deal.

Critics, led by the Marxists and Buddhist monks, say the joint group will give the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam international recognition and help in their quest to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils. "Some sections question how a sovereign government could have dealings with a terrorist organization ... but why can't we give them (Tigers) an opportunity to reform themselves," Kumaratunga told the monks.

"Peace is right before us to see. It will be a major blunder if we don't take this opportunity just because a few oppose it," Kumaratunga said referring to the aid deal. "If we are not willing to take the Tigers on board, international aid donors may fund them directly. Only this will strengthen them," River Basin Development Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.

Kumaratunga has vowed that her government would survive the Marxist pull out. The formal withdrawal on Thursday of the Marxist People's Liberation Front's 39 lawmakers left Kumaratunga's coalition with a minority of 81 seats in the 225-member Parliament.

The Marxists had demanded that Kumaratunga renounce the relief-sharing plan by Wednesday midnight. The front's chief, Somawansa Amerasinghe, said the government's hold on power would "vanish within weeks" after his party left. But Kumaratunga insisted she had the backing of most Sri Lankans.

"I wish to say that the government will not shake because of this. There is no such instability," she said. "The government has enough strength and conviction to do it." The Dec. 26 tsunami killed more than 31,000 Sri Lankans and displaced about a million more. Kumaratunga says the joint aid distribution deal presents a golden opportunity for the government and rebels to move closer to permanently ending hostilities.

The Tigers began fighting in 1983 to carve out a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's minority ethnic Tamils, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The conflict left 65,000 dead before a Norway-brokered cease-fire in 2002. Peace talks have broken down due to disagreements over rebels' demand for self-rule, and the Tigers say aid has not reached tsunami survivors quickly enough.

Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen was scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka on Monday for talks with Kumaratunga and the Tiger leaders, said Norwegian Embassy spokesman Tom Knappskog. He will also get an update on the political situation. The peace brokers have been pushing for the joint aid distribution deal, which is expected to feature strongly in talks that Helgesen will have next week.

The opposition United National Party's spokesman, G.L. Peiris, had earlier urged the president to sign the aid-sharing deal. But he declined to say whether his party would support the measure. Senior presidential officials have said Kumaratunga plans to refer the aid-sharing proposal for a vote in Parliament as early as next Wednesday.

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Sudan

Sudan insists it will try Darfur suspects at home, but Amnesty says efforts doomed to fail

Mohamed Osman, Associated Press, 6/14/05

The U.N.'s special envoy to Sudan on Tuesday welcomed the government's decision to prosecute those accused of crimes in Darfur, but said the Sudanese tribunal was no substitute for the International Criminal Court. Sudan has rejected efforts by the international court to investigate war crimes in Darfur, and announced Saturday it was setting up its own court to try cases in the violence-wracked region.

"I consider the special courts to deal with perpetrators of crimes in Darfur as an answer to what was asked from the government ... last year: try the perpetrators yourself and bring them to justice yourself," U.N. envoy Jan Pronk told reporters in Khartoum. "The government was late but they now do it." However, he stressed, "it cannot be a substitute for the ICC."

Amnesty International, meanwhile, said Sudan's special court was doomed to failure. In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press in London, Amnesty said it feared the tribunal "may just be a tactic by the Sudanese government to avoid prosecution by the International Criminal Court."

Last week the Netherlands-based international court announced the start of an investigation into alleged war crimes in Darfur, where more than 180,000 people have died and 2 million been displaced during two years of violence. But Sudan insisted it would not hand over its citizens, saying its own alternate tribunal would begin work immediately.

"Sudan is a sovereign country and this means that all those violating the law inside its national territories be tried therein," Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin said Monday. Yassin denied Sudanese authorities were protecting allies involved in crimes in Darfur, and said 160 suspects had already been identified, most accused of murder and waging war against the state.

Yassin said Sudanese law and international agreements would be sufficient to try the cases, and insisted Sudan was committed to upholding international law. "This is not a rebellion against international law, but Sudan's right to try its subjects within its own national territories has to be observed," he said. Human rights groups claim Sudan's courts cannot be trusted to investigate crimes committed by militias allied to the government.

Amnesty said Sudan's government continued to control the judiciary and intimidate its critics. It pointed to the closure this week of the Khartoum Monitor, an English-language newspaper that has written articles critical of the government. Pronk criticized he closure of he newspaper. "I deplore it and it is a bad sign," he said.

Amnesty also criticized the arrest of two employees of aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, who were charged with spreading false information after the group published a report documenting alleged rape cases in Darfur.

"What we have here is a court system that is willing to silence newspapers and aid workers who are attempting to speak the truth about human rights violations in Sudan," said Amnesty's Africa director, Kolawole Olaniyan. "How can we trust that same system to bring to trial those accused of these violations?" Amnesty called on Sudan to reform a legal system it said allows for indefinite detention, torture and the death penalty.

Darfur's crisis erupted when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin. The government is accused of responding with a counterinsurgency campaign in which the ethnic Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, committed wide-scale abuses against ethnic Africans.

The latest round of so-far unsuccessful peace talks is currently taking place in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Pronk said he believed peace in Darfur was possible, and that the situation there was "difficult" but improving. He said closed-door talks between the government and rebels would have a better chance of success than the current African Union-sponsored talks. "You don't negotiate in a Big public room with everybody present and many cameras," he said. Pronk said the conflict was "a domestic fight, so countries should exercise restraint ... Other countries should not complicate matters by trying to get their own interest in one way or another."

Khartoum and opposition alliance sign reconciliation agreement

Agence France Presse, 6/18/05

Khartoum and Sudan's largest opposition bloc on Saturday signed a landmark reconciliation agreement that officials said would boost efforts to bring peace back to Africa's largest country. But an opposition leader told AFP that despite the signing, all issues had not been resolved and negotiators would remain in Cairo to iron out the final details of the agreement. Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani, who chairs the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha signed the document during a ceremony at a conference centre in Cairo.

"We are starting a new era where Sudan is free of struggle... Let us work hand in hand to offer the Sudanese the prosperity they have been lacking," said Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir. "This latest agreement clinched today will be the backbone of Sudanese unity," he added after the signing, which was also attended by his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak. The agreement was widely seen as the most significant development in Sudan since the January 9 North-South peace deal and comes amid growing international pressure for a solution in war-torn Darfur.

"The Sudanese people are the main beneficiary of this agreement, which heralds a new era in which all of us have to cooperate to achieve global peace, strengthen the march towards real democracy," Mirghani said. "A sense of trust has been regained between the different partners in Sudan... This is a historical day for the Sudanese people," said Taha. However, NDA vice-chairman General Abdel Rahman Saeed told AFP "two problems remain on the fate of NDA forces and the power-sharing quota granted to the opposition in the interim institutions."

The NDA came to Cairo hoping to have its forces assimilated in the regular army and the share of power it was granted in the January North-South agreement increased significantly from its current level of 14 percent. "We have an agreement on the fact that the reconciliation agreement signed today will only be effective when a written deal is reached on both these issues," Saeed said. Saturday's signing ceremony comes less than six months after Khartoum signed a peace agreement with southern rebel leader John Garang, ending 21 years of civil war that killed and displaced millions.

Garang, whose Sudan People's Liberation Movement is also an NDA member, praised Egypt's role in brokering Saturday's deal and urged the Arab world to assist reconstruction efforts. All the participants also voiced their hope that the end of the 16-year feud between the NDA and Beshir's regime would boost chances of a breakthrough in ongoing talks to solve the crisis in Darfur. "We are very hopeful that efforts under way in Abuja will now be crowned with an agreement for the stability and security of the people in Darfur," Beshir said.

The main Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement, is officially a member of the NDA but has been engaged in its own round of stop-and-start negotiations with the government in Nigeria. The movement welcomed the Cairo agreement but warned Sudanese unity would not be achieved until the conflict in Darfur was solved.

"We welcome the signing of this agreement but we stress that there can be no global peace in Sudan unless our people in the East, in Darfur and in Kordofan (centre) obtain their fair share of the country's power and resources," SLA/M chairman Abdel Wahed Mohammed Ahmed Nur told AFP. The NDA was formed by 13 parties that united in 1989 to oppose the regime only weeks after Beshir seized power in a military coup.

Besides the SPLM, the NDA includes Mirghani's Democratic Unionist Party, one of Sudan's oldest political movements which draws support from the powerful Khatmiya brotherhood, as well as the communist party. Saturday's agreement involves the subsequent dissolution of the NDA in its current form and will eventually bring some of its members into the interim executive.

The current parliament, dominated by Beshir's National Congress party, is due to be dissolved in the coming days, after it ratifies the North-South peace agreement. While members of the future interim parliament and government will be appointed in accordance with quotas still to be finalised, the political process mapped out in January provides for free elections in three years.

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