Peace Negotiations Watch

Monday, June 6, 2005

(Volume IV, Number 20)

Contents:

Burundi/Rwanda

Fighting breaks out on outskirts of Burundi's capital between government troops and rebels

UN calls upon parties to respect May 15 ceasefire agreement.

Burundi begins forced transfer of fleeing Rwandans

Nearly 8,000 Rwandans have fled into Burundi since March, avoiding trial for 1994 genocide.

War-torn Burundi heads to the polls for critical municipal elections

Elections first since successful Arusha peace process.

Chechnya

First official group of Chechen refugees return to Russia from Georgia

Georgian government says approximately 2,000 Chechens are living in lawless Pankisi Gorge.

Congo

U.N. relief mission arrives at site of Eastern Congo massacre

Militiamen killed nineteen people and forced thousands to flee.

U.N. peacekeeper succumbs to wounds after gunbattle with militia in eastern Congo

Nepalese peacekeeper dies in hospital in Ituri province.

Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.

Georgia/Abkhazia

Saakashvili calls on Georgia's separatist provinces to end isolation

Saakashvili wants reintegration of South Ossetia and Abkhazia into Georgia.

Saakashvili hails 'historic' Russian bases withdrawal decision

Russia to have fully pulled out of Georgia by end of 2008.

Indonesia

Aceh peace talks reconvene in Finland between Indonesian government, rebels

Talks begin with the decision upon an agenda for the talks.

Aceh mediator to draw up draft for peace deal at Helsinki talks

Documents to be completed and sent to the parties by next round of talks in July.

Indonesian military may wreck Aceh peace effort, rebels warn

Indonesian military spokesman denies claims made by Acehnese rebels.

Aceh Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation.

Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast pro-government militia begin dismantling forces in keeping with deal

Militants symbolically hand over rifles to military chief.

Ivory Coast presidency, rebels trade accusations over ethnic clashes

Rebels claim that killings benefited Gbagbo.

Kashmir

Kashmir hardline separatist declines invitation to visit Pakistan via bus

Separatist leader not pleased with Musharraf position on Kashmir.

Kashmir separatist leaders arrive in Pakistan on historic visit

Hardline separatists claim Musharraf is offering too many concessions to India.

Kashmir Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation

Kosovo

Prince George's County Prosecutor Joins World of Kosovo Justice

Washington, DC-area prosecutor going to Kosovo to assist court system.

UN mission in Kosovo a dangerous 'facade': ICG

Brussels-based International Crisis Group believes UNMIK a source of instability in Kosovo.

U.N. chief in Kosovo 'committed' to border deal with Macedonia

Talks to resume June 9; Jessen-Petersen believes deal can be reached before Kosovo final status.

Kosovo Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation.

Liberia

Wanted for war crimes, Liberia's ex-president hunkers down in Nigerian exile

U.S. suggests that Taylor be handed over to UN tribunal.

Macedonia

U.S., EU welcome Macedonian move to allow minority symbols

Ethnic Albanians to have greater freedom in displaying symbols.

Moldova

Moldovan dissident's wife asks Romanian president to help free her husband

Husband has been held by authorities in Transnistria region.

Morocco

Polisario calls for UN action following clampdown in Western Sahara

Senior Moroccan official denies claims of clampdown made by Polisario rebels.

Nepal

U.S. diplomat warns confrontation between king and political parties will benefit rebels

American ambassador urges parties to work together or else Maoists may benefit.

Nepalese politicians may meet with Maoist rebel leaders in India

Potential meeting would be first between Maoists and senior Nepalese political officials.

Nepal Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation.

Philippines

Muslim separatists meet over call to end southern Philippines rebellion

Thousands of Muslim separatists meet to discuss upcoming peace talks.

Philippine Muslim rebels in show of force ahead of final peace deal

Advisor to Arroyo impressed with MILF ability to mobilize large group.

Serbia & Montenegro

Serbian president speaks to nation after arrests of men reportedly from execution footage

Amateur video footage shows Serb troops killing Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica.

Ultranationalist leader contends video of Srebrenica killings is part of anti-Serb campaign

Radical Party leader claims individuals are responsible for killings, not Serbia, itself.

Serbian PM re-elected head of his Democratic Party of Serbia

Kostunica re-elected to chair party after unsuccessful no-confidence vote bid.

Somalia

Official says exiled government will return, despite fighting

Various warlords have suggested setting up government away from dangerous Mogadishu.

Sri Lanka

International donors cancel aid meeting with Tamil Tigers after top military officer slain

Military officer believed to have been killed by rebels.

Tamil-majority northeast shuts down, demanding withdrawal of Sri Lankan troops

Violence follows the construction of a Buddha statue in multi-religious town in eastern Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation

Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation

Sudan

Red Cross says growing lawlessness in Darfur makes quick return of 2 million refugees unlikely

Peace talks beginning on June 10 in Abuja do not address inter-tribal conflicts.

Darfur peace talks to resume in Nigeria Friday: official

International Criminal Court to look into cases of 51 suspected war criminals.

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.

Burundi

Fighting breaks out on outskirts of Burundi's capital between government troops and rebels

Aloys Niyoyita, Associated Press, 5/27/05

A gun battle between Burundi's last rebel group and soldiers broke out Friday on the outskirts of the capital, with gunfire echoing in the city and apparently putting an end to a cease-fire agreement reached earlier this month. There were no immediate reports of casualties in what an army spokesman called an attack on Bujumbura at 11:30 a.m. (0930 GMT) from the southwest. The rebels were turned back, he added.

"The army tried to stop a group of rebels coming from the hills," said Adolphe Mairakiza, the army spokesman. He said the army was also pursuing another group of rebels northeast of the capital. A rebel spokesman said the attack was in retaliation for operations by the army. "The army declared war on us, so we are fighting a war," rebel spokesman Pasteur Habimana said.

On Thursday, the Burundian army said it would launch attacks against the National Liberation Front following a mortar bombardment of the capital that left three soldiers and two civilians wounded on Wednesday night. Known by its French acronym, the FNL is the only rebel group that has not joined Burundi's power-sharing government. FNL leader Agathon Rwasa and President Domitien Ndayizeye signed a cease-fire agreement May 15, which many had hoped would end the Central African country's civil war.

Burundi's civil war broke out in 1993 when Tutsi paratroopers killed the country's first democratically held president, a Hutu. Leaders of the Hutu majority formed several rebel groups and fought the Tutsi-dominated army, leaving more than 250,000 people, mostly civilians, dead. The United Nations has called for both sides to respect the May 15 cease-fire.

Burundi begins forced transfer of fleeing Rwandans

Agence France Presse, 5/29/05

Burundi authorities have begun to forcibly transfer thousands of Rwandan refugees to a camp near the border between the two central African nations after refusing them asylum, Burundian and UN sources said Sunday. The up to 8,000 Rwandans, mostly Hutus who fled Rwanda in April fearing prosecution for taking part in the 1994 genocide, were being held in seven camps in Burundi. As of Saturday, authorities began to direct them to a camp in Songore, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Rwandan border.

Colonel Didace Nkikoruriho, in charge of the refugee issue at the interior ministry, said 575 were transferred from the Cankuzo camp in eastern Burundi on Saturday. The camps of Mihigo and Gatsinda holding some 1,700 each in northern Burundi "were emptied (Saturday), and the people were ordered to go to Songore or to return to Rwanda," an official said on condition of anonymity. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed that some of the 3,400 Rwandans headed toward Rwanda.

UNHCR spokeswoman Catherine-Lune Grayson said the agency was helping the transfer "against its will." "The UNHCR considers that Songore is not ready to host all these asylum seekers," she said. At one site, "witnesses said Rwandan soldiers destroyed dozens of shelters and beat the asylum-seekers into attending an awareness session," Grayson said. "The shelters that we were allowed to build just a week ago were dismantled," in Mihigo and Gatsinda, she added. Nkikoruriho denied that the Rwandans were being forcefully repatriated.

"This is not a forced transfer to Rwanda, we are only moving them from one corner of Burundi to another corner of Burundi," he said. According to UN and other officials, between 7,000 and 8,000 Rwandans have crossed into Burundi since March to avoid trials at village tribunals set up to judge those suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide during which some 800,000, mainly minority Tutsis, were slaughtered.

They say they are also fleeing rumored threats of massacres. Burundi at first said the Rwandans could be entitled to refugee status but this stance infuriated Rwanda and the two countries reached an accord last month in which Burundi agreed not to treat the Rwandans as refugees and assist Kigali in convincing them to voluntarily return home.

War-torn Burundi heads to the polls for critical municipal elections

Agence France Presse, 6/1/05

Just over a decade since Burundi plunged into bloody ethnic turmoil, voters in this tiny central African nation head to the polls this week for local elections seen as a key test of stability. In a country long riven by tribal rivalry between minority Tutsis and majority Hutus, Friday's election of municipal councillors -- the first in a series of polls -- will be a bellwether for the prospects of concluding a five-year-old peace process. "The hour of truth has come," said Astere Kana, a Catholic priest and spokesman for Burundi's National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI).

Friday's voting will mark the first time Burundians elect their own leaders since the start of the 1993 civil war between the Tutsi-dominated army and Hutu rebels that has claimed some 300,000 lives. It will also be the country's first exercise in democracy since the overwhelming approval in a February referendum of a power-sharing constitution, a hallmark of the Arusha peace process now signed on to by all but one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups.

Just two days before the campaign for Friday's elections began on May 18, the lone remaining rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), and Bujumbura signed a truce intended to lead to formal peace talks. But the FNL, which is accused of launching several post-truce attacks, will sit the polls out. With the ethnic divide particularly pronounced in the countryside where the vast majority of Burundi's seven million people live, the choices of the rural peasantry on Friday are perhaps the most important in a series of five elections to be held by August 19 to end an extended transition period.

More than 3.4 million registered voters in 129 constituencies are expected to cast ballots for candidates from 31 political parties, including six former rebel armies, and 19 independents. The winners of Friday's elections will on July 29 choose members of the Senate, who, along with members of the National Assembly elected in July 4 legislative polls, will select a new president. But analysts say the real contest will be between the dominant Hutu parties: President Domitien Ndayizeye's Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) and its chief rival, the ex-rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD).

Since independence from Belgium in 1962, Burundi's politics have been dominated by the Tutsis, who account for only 14 percent of the total population, but the power-sharing constitution has altered the equation. "Right from the start, this looks like a duel for supremacy among the Hutus," said Charles Ndayiziga, head of Burundi's Center for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CENAP). "Whoever wins the municipals will be on the presidential path in August," he told AFP, noting the FDD's antipathy toward Ndayizeye, whose plans to extend the transition until August it publicly opposed.

FRODEBU and the FDD have engaged in a blistering and tense, but largely peaceful campaign, which began shortly after the two parties ended a bitter dispute over the appointment of a new interior minister. Despite the importance of polling day itself, the aftermath of the election and the atmosphere created for the forthcoming votes will be perhaps even more critical, given the disastrous fallout from the country's 1993 election. Within four months of those polls, the country was at war after the winner, Burundi's first democratically elected president and first Hutu leader, Melchior Ndadaye, was assassinated by members of the Tutsi-dominated army. "The greatest stake is peace," one Bujumbura-based diplomat told AFP. "And it is the post-election management that will determine whether Burundi has emerged from chaos or not."

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Chechnya

First official group of Chechen refugees return to Russia from Georgia

Misha Dzhindzhikashvili, Associated Press, 5/28/05

A busload of Chechen refugees left Georgia's Pankisi Gorge on Saturday, the first official group of war refugees to be returned to Chechnya after years of effort by Russian authorities, officials said. The 19 refugees were among thousands of ethnic Chechens who have camped out in squalid conditions in the rugged gorge, escaping the persistent fighting in Chechnya across the border to the north. Russian officials have long insisted that normalcy is returning to Chechnya and pushed for refugees to return.

Edilbek Uzuyev, who headed an official Russian delegation seeking to persuade the refugees to leave, said in a televised interview that more than 300 Chechens were trying to return home, but re-entry documents for only a small group had been completed. Another 100 were expected to receive re-entry papers soon, he said.

International humanitarian groups and the Georgian government say some 2,000 Chechen refugees are in the gorge; the Russian Embassy in Georgia, however, has counted only 500. Russian officials in Georgia say more than 250 Chechen refugees have returned to Russia on their own over the past two years. Human rights groups say many Chechens are reluctant to return to Russia, due to continued fighting and rampant kidnappings in Chechnya. Many also say they could be targeted by regional law enforcement for allegedly having ties to rebel fighters.

"Most refugees fear that they might be persecuted in Chechnya because of their relatives who might have been in Maskhadov's army," human rights activist Aslambek Abdurzakov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. Aslan Maskhadov was a rebel warlord and former Chechen president who was killed by Russian security forces in Chechnya on March 8.

Complicating efforts accurately tally the population are the presence of thousands of Kistins - close ethnic kin of the Chechens, many of whom have lived in the gorge in northern Georgia since the outbreak of fighting in 1994. Russia has refused to allow them to move to Chechnya.

The gorge has long been known for its lawlessness and violence and separatist fighters are known to be based there. Russian-Georgian relations have been strained over Georgia's refusal to let Russia flush out the rebels. Georgia launched an operation in 2003 to search the gorge for suspected militants, but Moscow called the operation largely useless. Chechnya has been at war for most of the past decade, with separatist fighters based largely in the southern mountainous areas waging hit-and-run guerrilla attacks on Russian forces.

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Congo

U.N. relief mission arrives at site of Eastern Congo massacre

Bryan Mealer, Associated Press, 5/27/05

The United Nations sent its first relief mission into the dense forests of Eastern Congo Friday, four days after militiamen massacred 19 people and forced thousands to flee, a U.N. spokeswoman said. A U.N. rapid-response team arrived in mountainous Ninja territory Friday morning to aid the estimated 6,400 people who fled their homes after militia attacked the area Monday with machetes and axes, said Rachel Scott-Leflaive, spokeswoman in Congo for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.

Most of the displaced fled to the village of Ihembe, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province. The team will distribute food, blankets, soap and plastic sheeting, along with establishing a camp for long-term stay, said Leflaive. "Most of the displaced we're encountering are women and children," she Leflaive. Thousands of people currently live in squalid displaced camps all over eastern Congo, which has been plagued by fighting and massacres, despite an official end to Congo's 1998-2002 war.

On Monday, groups of militia calling themselves Rastas swept in from the mountains and began hacking people to death with machetes and axes, severing the hands and feet of their victims. Congo's government says the attackers included Rwandan Hutu rebels, who have been living in Congo's forests since fleeing neighboring Rwanda following its 1994 genocide. The U.N., though, says the two sides may have been fighting each other and civilians were caught up in the violence.

In March, the Hutu rebels vowed to disarm and return to Rwanda, but no date has been set. U.N. officials say Hutu rebels attacked the Rastas last week, in an attempt to disassociate themselves from the group and clean up their image. The Rastas retaliated on Monday, officials say. "As always, when these groups go at one another, civilians are caught in the middle," said Leflaive.

Neighboring Rwanda and Uganda have invaded Congo twice, in 1996 and 1998, under the auspices of driving out the rebels, who they feared were plotting another slaughter of Tutsi across the Rwandan border. The 1998 invasion sparked a five-year war that sucked in six African armies and killed nearly 4 million people, mostly from war-induced sickness and hunger, aid groups say.

U.N. peacekeeper succumbs to wounds after gunbattle with militia in eastern Congo

Bryan Mealer, Associated Press, 6/3/05

A U.N. peacekeeper wounded in a gunbattle with militia in violent northeastern Congo has died, a U.N. spokesman said Friday. The Nepalese peacekeeper died from gunshot wounds Thursday night in a hospital in Bunia, capital of Ituri province, said U.N. spokesman Carmine Camerini. The gunbattle took place Thursday in the village of Rapka - about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Bunia - when militiamen ambushed a departing helicopter carrying a U.N. human rights investigation team.

A unit of 36 Nepalese peacekeepers - who were present to provide security for the human rights team - returned fire, sparking a near three-hour gunfight that saw two U.N. helicopter gunships firing rockets and cannons, U.N. officials said. Four peacekeepers were wounded in the exchange and evacuated to Bunia. Two later were airlifted to a hospital in Pretoria, South Africa. U.N. officials said the gunmen belonged to the ethnic Lendu militia Nationalist and Integrationist Front, who've been accused of massacring thousands of people in Ituri in recent years. Casualties among their ranks weren't known.

The human rights team had been investigating alleged rapes in April by militia in the nearby village of Lugo. Fighting between ethnic Hema and Lendu militia has killed more than 60,000 people in Ituri since 1999, aid groups say. Neighboring Rwanda and Uganda armed and trained both militias during and after Congo's 1998-2002 war, mainly as proxy forces to maintain control of Ituri's vast mineral wealth. The United Nations has 16,700 peacekeepers in Congo.

Since February, 11 peacekeepers have been killed in gunbattles with Lendu militia, and peacekeepers have killed at least 75 militia. Peacekeepers have mounted an aggressive campaign to rid Ituri of rogue gunmen, and have successfully disarmed over 12,000 militia since last September.

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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Georgia/Abkhazia

Saakashvili calls on Georgia's separatist provinces to end isolation

Agence France Presse, 5/26/05

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, attending a major military parade celebrating independence Thursday, called on two separatist regions in the ex-Soviet republic to end their isolation and reunite. Against the backdrop of a march past by 10,000 soldiers through the centre of the capital Tbilisi, Saakashvili told the people of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, and South Ossetia, at the foot of the Caucasus mountains, that their future lay within Georgia.

"Nothing separates us. All that we have, including this army, is also yours. The time of isolation is over. We must live together," Saakashvili said. Saakashvili said Georgia would only "be fully free" when independence day celebrations also took place in Sukhumi, capital of Abkhazia, which like South Ossetia ousted Georgian authorities in separatist wars in the early 1990s after the Soviet collapse. "I promise you that will happen," he said.

Saakashvili, who came to power in the "rose revolution" of 2003, has made reuniting Georgia a central theme of his presidency. However, the Russian-backed rebel leaderships in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are adamant that they are independent from Tbilisi. Georgia's army is widely considered too small and poorly trained to retake either region by force, although units being trained by U.S. military advisors were prominent in the Tbilisi parade.

Georgian officials frequently complain about Russian support for the separatist republics. Saakashvili said in his speech that he wanted "friendly, but equal relations" with Moscow.

Saakashvili hails 'historic' Russian bases withdrawal decision

Agence France Presse, 5/31/05

Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili hailed an agreement reached by Moscow and Tbilisi Monday on the closure of Russian military bases in the country as "historic," pledging friendship to Russia. “This is a very important political event, it is a historic moment for our country, as it puts an end to Russia's 200-year military presence in Georgia," Saakashvili said late Monday following the signing of the deal in Moscow.

"This is the first precedent for such serious and hard talks to end fortunately, with the interests of all sides respected," the Georgian leader said, adding his assurances that "we want friendly, neighborly relations, we will never create any problems for Russia." Under the accord signed by Russian and Georgian foreign ministers, withdrawal of heavy weapons will begin this year, with September 1 the deadline for removing 40 pieces of armour, including up to 20 tanks.

The last heavy weaponry must have left Akhalkalaki by the end of next year, and from all Russian installations by the end of 2007, with the final pullout of the last men and materiel by the end of the following year. The agreement also says that "part of the personnel and technical means and infrastructure" from the Batumi base will be used to set up a Georgian-Russian anti-terrorist centre.

Russia's refusal to make a speedy withdrawal from the two bases has contributed to tense relations with its neighbor since the collapse of the Soviet Union, especially since Georgia's pro-Western president Mikhail Saakashvili came to power in the "rose revolution" of November 2003. Russia has hoped to stem an erosion of its influence in the Caucasus, where the United States has become an increasingly important player.

Georgia has applied for membership in NATO and hosts a small contingent of US military trainers. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently cleared the way for an end to the row over the bases, saying that Moscow could not drag its feet.

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Indonesia

Aceh peace talks reconvene in Finland between Indonesian government, rebels

Matti Huuhtanen, Associated Press, 5/26/05

Peace talks between the Indonesian government and Aceh rebels resumed in Finland on Thursday amid reports of new violence in the tsunami-ravaged province. The fourth round of talks, convened by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, began with the parties deciding an agenda for the six days of closed-door meetings at an isolated mansion outside Helsinki. Subjects include a possible amnesty for the rebels, ways of integrating them into the local society and economic issues.

"The meetings began as planned and will last until this evening when the two parties will dine together," said Maria-Elena Cowell, a spokeswoman for Ahtisaari's office. "We will hold a news conference on Tuesday when this round of talks is scheduled to end." Just hours before the talks started, a gunbattle in Aceh killed three suspected separatist rebels and a policeman. Police raided a house in Aceh's Bireuen District early Thursday, surprising three rebels and sparking the firefight, witnesses said.

Representatives of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, and the Indonesian government have met three times in Finland since January to try and bring peace to the oil- and gas-rich province where 12,000 people have been killed as rebels have struggled 27 years for a separate homeland. At the end of the previous round of talks on April 16, Ahtisaari said the parties made a breakthrough and that substantive issues would next be discussed, including local administration, security and elections.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE, that the army - with 35,000 troops in the area - will not leave Aceh before an agreement is reached at the talks. "It's the duty of the government to protect the people. The military is there until we can solve all the problems," Kalla said, adding that the government hoped for a solution by July or August. "If we can finalize (an agreement) in July or August, I think it's better because we cannot spend too long to make negotiations," Kalla told YLE in Jakarta on Wednesday.

GAM leaders, who have been based in exile in Sweden - some for more than 20 years - said they were satisfied with the outcome of the third round of talks, but did not comment on the new negotiations. Earlier this week, they talked to businessmen, teachers and students from Aceh to get a sense of "what people in the area actually want," said Thomas Hammarberg of the Olof Palme Center, which organized the meetings in Sweden.

Previous peace talks in Finland have centered on limited self-government for the province and the integration of the rebel movement into society, but they have also discussed the collection and allocation of revenues between the central government and Aceh.

The head of the Indonesian delegation, Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin, said in April that his government approved of attempts by Ahtisaari to ask the European Union for peacekeepers for the region, adding that Jakarta was willing to request the same from the regional Asian organization, ASEAN.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said Jakarta would never allow Aceh province to separate from the rest of Indonesia, but that a government plan to give the region a greater say in running its affairs must be implemented.

Aceh mediator to draw up draft for peace deal at Helsinki talks

Agence France Presse, 5/31/05

Finnish mediators are to draw up an outline of a long-sought peace deal between Aceh separatists and the Indonesian government after winding up a fresh round of talks here Tuesday, they said. Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, a career diplomat who mediated the talks, told reporters that his Crisis Management Initiative had been asked to prepare "basic documents that could form the basis for the eventual agreement". The documents would be sent to both sides for consideration before the next round of negotiations in the Finnish capital starting July 12.

They would form a basis of discussion for those talks, which officials hope could reach a deal to end one of Asia's longest-running conflicts, which has left more than 12,000 people dead over three decades. Ahtisaari said he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached between the Jakarta government and representatives of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). "If I didn't believe there was a chance to find a negotiated settlement I would blow the whistle immediately," he said.

"I think we have reached a stage where we can talk through the most difficult issues, which is the only way we can reach a deal," he said. Aceh, a province on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, has been a battleground since 1976 when GAM began its campaign for independence, angered by what it said was Jakarta's exploitation of oil and gas resources. Any peace agreement would have to include the thorny issues of "decommissioning of arms of GAM and militias plus the withdrawal of national forces and police," Ahtisaari said.

Indonesian officials attending the talks were also upbeat about the possibility of a deal. "Hopefully after one or two more meetings the settlement of the issue of Aceh within the republic of Indonesia will be all set up," Communications Minister Sofyan Jalil said. GAM, which has already given up its demand for full independence in exchange for self-government, agreed that the discussions had been "positive and constructive". But spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah stressed that there were still many outstanding issues.

He cited the "timing of elections (in Aceh), establishing of political parties and the withdrawal of the special autonomy law to be replaced by self-government." The six-day meeting in Helsinki focused on self-government, political participation, economic arrangements, amnesty and reintegration into society, human rights and justice, security arrangements and how to monitor any peace deal that might be reached. Any agreement would ease reconstruction in the troubled province after the December 26 Indian Ocean undersea earthquake off the coast which triggered tsunamis that killed 128,000 people in Aceh alone.

Four rounds of talks have been held in Helsinki since January. But despite the positive atmosphere coming out of the talks violence has continued on the ground. On Monday, Indonesian soldiers shot dead three more separatist rebels during a raid in the northern Aceh area of Bireuen, a stronghold for rebels. Ahtisaari said he had appealed to the two sides "to do their utmost to restrain their parties in the field during the negotiation process". An EU team of experts was invited to the latest round of talks in Helsinki to discuss a possible role in monitoring any peace deal.

Ahtisaari said there was "no commitment from the EU side" yet, but stressed that any observers sent to the region would monitor the "undertakings in the agreement" and not be peacekeeping forces. The Finnish diplomat also underlined that any peace deal had to include an agreement on political participation in the region allowing for the creation of new parties. The Aceh separatists are unable to meet the existing requirement of nationwide representation. "If you cannot solve this issue, you cannot have an agreement because the existing parties are not an option," he said.

Indonesian military may wreck Aceh peace effort, rebels warn

Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press, 6/6/05

Separatists in Indonesia's Aceh province warned on Monday that Indonesia's powerful military may try to destroy an emerging peace deal to end the bloody, 30-year rebellion. The army denied it had any such intention. "If any armed group is going to stop the agreement from working in the field or at the table, it will be the Indonesian military," said a statement by the Free Aceh Movement. The warning comes just days after a fourth-round of talks between the separatists and the Indonesian government concluded in Helsinki, Finland. Indonesian officials said that negotiators had resolved 90 percent of the issues involved in establishing a lasting peace in the province.

However, Indonesian army chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto on Saturday warned that combat operations against the rebels were ongoing and dismissed the importance of a peace deal. The guerillas proclaimed a unilateral truce in the wake of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 130,000 people in Aceh. The rebel statement said the generals had "economic, political and psychological" reasons for holding on to Aceh, a natural gas-rich region on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

"Aceh is a source of income, a place to loot. The tsunami is a godsend for them, the foreign aid is a new source of loot. A peace agreement would deny them that loot," the rebels said. Human rights groups say the military has extensive legal and illegal business interests in Aceh, like elsewhere in the archipelago.

In 2003, the army scuttled a previous deal to end the war that started in 1976, calling off a 6-month cease fire by launching offensive operations and arresting Acehnese negotiators. At the same time, a militia working closely with the army attacked foreign observers and forced them to abandon the province.

The Indonesian army's "creation of armed militias and the massacre of thousands in East Timor in 1999 should warn us all of what could happen," the statement said. About 2,000 East Timorese were killed and most of the country was devastated by rampaging Indonesian troops and their militia proxies after voters overwhelmingly opted for independence in a U.N. referendum.

Aceh military spokesman Lt. Col. Eri Soediko said the rebel charges were baseless. "This is only a fabrication," he said. "We are here to guard the whole of Aceh province from the rebels so the people can conduct their daily activities without any problems."

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 pro-government militia begin dismantling forces in keeping with deal

Pauline Bax, Associated Press, 5/25/05

Four government-allied Ivory Coast militia groups began dismantling their forces on Wednesday, with militants symbolically handing firearms to an army officer in keeping with the latest peace deal meant to calm the civil-war divided nation.

In a ceremony in the government-held western Ivory Coast town of Guiglo, leaders from the militia groups each proffered a single Kalashnikov rifle to Ivory Coast army chief Phillipe Mangou, signifying their intent to disband their forces, witnesses said.

"We invite (the militias) to join the new peace process and ask them to do everything so that peace will return to the region," Army spokesman Jules Yao Yao told the Associated Press. "These self-defense groups have to hand in their weapons."

Northern-based rebels cautiously welcomed the ceremonial gesture. Militia dissolution is stipulated in a recent South Africa-brokered peace deal to reunite the west African nation still divided after its 2002-2003 civil war. It's not known how many government-allied militia exist, or how many are armed.

Rebel spokesman Amadou Kone cautiously praised Wednesday's ceremony, saying it was a positive sign that the militias handed in their weapons. "It's a good thing that the militias are going to be dismantled," Kone said by telephone. "But we don't know how efficient the dismantling will be, so well have to wait and see."

Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer and a regional economic powerhouse, fell into crisis in Sept. 2002, when a failed coup against President Laurent Gbagbo spiraled into civil war. A 2003 French-backed peace accord officially ended the war, but failed to knit the country back together and Ivory Coast remains split between a government-held south and rebel north. A buffer zone separating warring factions is patrolled by 6,000 U.N. troops and 4,000 French peacekeepers.

Ivory Coast presidency, rebels trade accusations over ethnic clashes

Agence France Presse, 6/4/05

Ivory Coast's presidency and rebels have traded accusations of blame for ethnic clashes that killed at least 70 in the west of the country earlier this week, as people in the violence-hit region slowly began resuming their daily lives on Saturday. Tensions soared in the cocoa-growing west in the two days of violence, which stirred fears that a fragile peace will dissolve in the former French colony.

The killings in the western region of Duekoue on Wednesday and Thursday benefited President Laurent Gbagbo, a rebel spokesman claimed late Friday. "It's to avoid proceeding to the dismantling of militias in the west" who support Gbagbo, Sidiki Konate of the rebel New Forces claimed. But Ivorian presidency spokesman Desire Tagro hit back, accusing the rebels who control the north of the country of being behind the violence. These killings "bear the hallmark of rebels", he said.

Voicing concern for the consequences, a diplomat in Abidjan on Saturday warned: "Such accusations are extremely serious and may at any moment lead to a kindling, bringing a fatal blow to the dismantling of militias and to the disarmament of combatants." Foes in the Ivorian crisis agreed an accord on the dismantling of militias and disarmament of fighters in Pretoria on April 6 but the long-overdue effort, set to conclude by October 30 elections, suffered new setbacks this week.

Another diplomat commented that with tensions in the west militias were unlikely to disarm now. "It's obvious the machine is now seriously jammed, the militias will not disarm and as a consequence, the rebels neither," the diplomat commented. Meanwhile, shops and traders reopened for business on Saturday in Duekoue, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) west of Abidjan, after three days of virtual paralysis following the clashes. "The lack of incident during the night has certainly helped defuse in part the situation," one local resident told AFP.

However, the resident added that there was still some tension between ethnic Guere farmers, who for decades had co-existed peacefully with the economic migrants known as Dioula from northern Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali. Butchers had set up their stalls in the central market, while the Ivorian army and Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers were patrolling the town. Some service stations had also reopened and at the bus station, services were almost back to normal.

Trade in Duekoue, at the heart of the cocoa belt, is mostly in the hands of the Dioula, originally Muslims from northern Ivory Coast or neighbouring countries, as well as a small Lebanese community. Over two days many people, both Dioula and Guere, left Duekoue to flee the violence but on Saturday the flow of residents leaving the town had reportedly slowed. Some 4,000-5,000 Guere, from nearby villages, were however still holed up in the Roman Catholic mission guarded by Ivorian army soldiers.

Meanwhile, "lookout and defence" committees were set up overnight in districts that are predominantly inhabited by Dioula who claimed they were needed to prevent possible Guere attacks, young Dioula members said. "We are afraid of revenge, that's why we have set up these committees," one said. About 10 Dioula were killed overnight to Thursday in Duekoue in a reprisal attack for the killing a day earlier of about 60 Guere in two villages close to the town, Guitrozon and Petit Duekoue. The Guere were reportedly themselves victims of a revenge attack for the deaths of four Dioula several days earlier, according to inhabitants.

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Kashmir

Kashmir hardline separatist declines invitation to visit Pakistan via bus

Agence France Presse, 5/29/05

Indian Kashmir hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani said Sunday he has declined an invitation from Pakistan to travel by bus to visit its zone of the divided Himalayan state along with other separatists later this week. "Pakistan's present leadership is deviating from that country's basic stance on Kashmir. We have decided not to go to express our resentment over it," Geelani told reporters after a six-hour meeting with supporters.

Last week, Islamabad invited the moderate and hardline factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a Kashmiri separatist umbrella group, to make their first visit to the Pakistani zone of the divided territory using a bus service launched April 7 as part of a 16-month peace process between the South Asian rivals. The invitation was for Thursday's fifth run of the bus service. Moderate separatists led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq accepted the invitation, as did Yasin Malik, head of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.

The Hurriyat, Kashmir's main separatist alliance, is split between moderates who seek independence for Kashmir and hardliners such as Geelani who seek a merger with Pakistan and who had previously opposed the new bus service linking the two zones. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf met with both factions in New Delhi in April during a visit to discuss Kashmir with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Musharraf urged them to "use your brains" to become part of the peace process.

Hurriyat leaders have long expressed their desire to visit Pakistan to discuss the Kashmir dispute. They have also demanded to be included in talks between India and Pakistan over the territory which is held in part but claimed in full by both countries. India has been reluctant to let separatists travel to Pakistan. In the recent past it has refused to issue passports for the journey. However, travel by bus between Srinagar, the Indian summer capital of Kashmir, and Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani zone of Kashmir, only requires a state-issued permit.

The separatists also wanted to visit cities in Pakistan, but have been warned by the Indian government the bus travel permit is invalid for travel outside Kashmir. Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna was quoted in local media last week as saying New Delhi had no objection to Hurriyat leaders travelling to Pakistan-administered Kashmir. But he said they could not visit Pakistani cities, a policy Geelani called unacceptable.

The bus service is the first link in nearly 60 years between the two sides of Kashmir, over which nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars. The two initiated peace talks in January last year to normalise relations, and "the atmosphere between India and Pakistan is congenial and I am satisfied with the talks so far even though difficulties still remain," prime minister Singh told reporters Sunday.

"I do not rule out increasing the frequency of the bus service if the need arises." More than 40,000 people have died since an anti-India insurgency erupted in Kashmir in 1989, according to an official count. Separatists say the toll is at least double the number.

Kashmir separatist leaders arrive in Pakistan on historic visit

Agence France Presse, 6/2/05

Muslim separatist leaders from Indian Kashmir were given a rousing welcome when they crossed the heavily militarised ceasefire line here Thursday on an historic visit to the Pakistani zone of the disputed Himalayan region. The prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Sardar Sikandar Hayat, and other senior politicians hugged the leaders as they arrived in this town near the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.

A police band played national tunes while a crowd released pigeons and hundreds of multi-coloured balloons. The Indian Kashmir leaders walked across the Kaman Bridge on the Jhelum river, which forms part of the LoC, and then drove to Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan-administered zone of Kashmir. The entire 58-kilometre (36-mile) route from Chakothi to Muzaffarabad was decorated with welcoming bunting and banners.

The visit of nine moderate leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the main separatist umbrella group engaged in a 15-year campaign against Indian rule in Kashmir, is their first to the Pakistani zone. The trip is part of a peace process between India and Pakistan to end a bitter dispute over divided Kashmir, the Himalayan region that has sparked two of three wars between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Delegation member Bilal Gani Lone said he was happy and excited to be in the Pakistan portion of Kashmir.

"There is a hope and today's journey is the first step," he said. "Let us hope this first step brings peace and best hopes for the people of India, Pakistan and especially the people of Kashmir," he said. "The visit shows that both India and Pakistan have realised that involvement of Kashmiris is essential in resolving the dispute between the two countries," a senior Hurriyat leader, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, said. Another Kashmir leader, Fazlul Haq Qureshi, said: "We are in our home. We are among our brothers. We wish success to the peace process".

The Hurriyat leaders will hold talks with the political leadership in Pakistani Kashmir on Friday. "The visit is a major breakthrough in the ongoing efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue," said Raja Farooq, political advisor to the state government here. They are also expected to meet President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday, a foreign ministry official said in Islamabad. The Hurriyat leaders travelled in private cars from Srinagar to the Pakistani zone, before boarding a fortnightly trans-Kashmir bus near Salamabad town, 10 kilometers (six miles) from the LoC.

The delegation arrived around 5:00 pm (1200 GMT), more than two hours behind the schedule. Sources on the Indian side said thousands of people in villages dotting the winding mountainous route turned out to greet the convoy, at times forcing it to stop so they could shower the leaders with rose petals and shake their hands. India gave the green light to this unprecedented trip after Pakistan last week invited leaders of the grouping made up of two dozen political groups, as well as other prominent leaders seeking Kashmir's merger with Pakistan or independence.

The hardliners declined the invitation. They are angry over what they see as Pakistan offering too many concessions to India over Kashmir without anything in return from New Delhi. "Pakistan's present leadership is deviating from the country's basic stance on Kashmir. We've decided not to go to show our unhappiness," said hardline faction leader Syed Ali Geelani. Before leaving, the head of the moderate faction, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, cautioned against expecting miracles from the tour.

"Our efforts will be to meet all and try to reach a consensus on Kashmir. Going to Pakistan is a big step forward. India and Pakistan have realised that the peace process is incomplete without the inclusion of Kashmiris," he said.

Kashmir Negotiation Simulation

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

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Kosovo

Prince George's County Prosecutor Joins World of Kosovo Justice

Avis Thomas-Lester, The Washington Post, 5/25/05

Prince George's County prosecutor Robert L. Dean has spent almost 30 years on the front lines prosecuting criminals in Maryland. He tried Maryland's first case in which a defendant was found guilty under the state's hate crime law. He made history in Montgomery County more than a decade ago when he used DNA to connect a crime scene to a killing, even though the victim's body was not found. As deputy state's attorney in Prince George's, he has spent seven years handling the most egregious cases, including homicides and police corruption.

Now Dean will take his prosecutorial acumen into the international arena. He is set to join a group of lawyers named by the United Nations to help establish a criminal justice system in Kosovo. Dean will spend the next six months prosecuting defendants accused of ethnic killings, war crimes, organized crime and terrorism. He will also help set up a program that will allow Kosovars to assume responsibility for such cases, authorities said. "I admire the U.N. for undertaking this difficult task," Dean said as he packed up his Upper Marlboro office and prepared to head overseas. "I'm excited about getting an international perspective on something I've been doing for 28 years. ... I thought this would be a wonderful experience in my career."

Dean will be one of 10 prosecutors from the United States, Canada, the Philippines and Europe handling everything from theft to crimes associated with the war in Yugoslavia. Dean has not been assigned a task or a territory yet, but it is likely that his responsibilities will revolve around war crimes, corruption and major financial crimes prosecution, said Thomas Hickman, a former Carroll County state's attorney who has been an international prosecutor in Kosovo since 2000.

Hickman recently prosecuted a case in which 12 defendants were accused of killing a police officer and his family to keep the officer from reporting their alleged involvement in organized crime, he said. The defendants were found guilty last month and sentenced to 185 years in prison.

Stefanie Frease - director of programs for the Coalition of International Justice, a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy, legal and technical assistance to various international criminal tribunals - said the international prosecutors work on the toughest cases. "Organized crime cases are very difficult to try in any environment, but in an environment like that, judges have been subjected to threats, and even the international prosecutors are under tremendous pressure," Frease said.

Michael J. Dziedzic, a program officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said the international law enforcement officials working in Kosovo face a daunting task. The country went practically without law enforcement for a year after Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic withdrew his security forces following the NATO bombing in 1999. The international community came in and established a police force of 4,000 officers. Judges and prosecutors were also brought in so that Albanians and Serbs charged with crimes were treated equally.

"Kosovo Albanian judges have not proved to be able to evaluate evidence in an impartial manner and mete out justice accordingly," he said. International law enforcement officials are provided with protection but have not faced the same threats and violence that Yugoslav jurists and witnesses have, Dziedzic said. Dean said he realizes that there will be danger and pressure, but he is excited about the challenge. After 28 years as a prosecutor, he had been thinking of taking a sabbatical to "reflect and re-energize a bit." Hickman, a longtime friend, contacted him last fall and told him about his work in Kosovo, Dean said.

"He asked if I would be interested in an assignment over there, and I asked what it would involve," Dean said. Later, Dean filled out an application and received a 6 a.m. conference call, during which he spoke with German, British and American prosecutors. "They said, 'When can you start?' I don't know if this is a sabbatical, but it certainly fits the bill of what I had in mind."

Two days before he was to leave, Dean still had no idea where he would be living or working or what cases he would be assigned. He has been reviewing the Kosovo criminal code and briefing papers sent by international prosecutors. His training will include instruction on "appropriate safety protocol." "A lot of this is in the dark for me," but that's not been an issue, he said. "Whatever I'm assigned to do, I'll do it."

UN mission in Kosovo a dangerous 'facade': ICG

Agence France Presse, 5/27/05

The United Nations democracy-building mission in Kosovo is a "facade" which is sowing the seeds of renewed instability in the flashpoint Serbian province, a think-tank said Friday. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said the UN administration (UNMIK) in the mainly ethnic Albanian province lacked credibility and was scrambling for an "escape strategy". The report came as the UN Security Council is expected to hear a debate about Kosovo later Friday, ahead of talks slated for later this year on the province's final status.

The ICG said that rather than marching towards multi-ethnic democracy six years after the end of the 1998-1999 war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatists, Kosovo was a tinderbox ready to explode. "Recent weeks have seen an escalation in tension between (the two main ethnic Albanian political parties) so bitter that it risks spiralling into killings," the report seen here said.

Without a "great deal" more effort from the international community, "Kosovo is likely to return to instability ... and again put at risk all that has been invested in building a European future for the Western Balkans". It said UNMIK, which has administered the province since NATO intervened to end the conflict, had been in a "six-year holding pattern" in which it had turned a blind eye to major challenges to democracy and the rule of law.

"Rather than state-building, UNMIK is now mainly working on its own escape strategy, passing on unresolved problems that will haunt Kosovo for years to come," said ICG Kosovo Project Director Alex Anderson. "Corruption is being transferred intact."

The report said: "Problems that will come back to haunt Kosovo like tolerance of widespread corruption and of powerful, unaccountable partisan political intelligence agencies are being swept under the carpet rather than addressed." It said the UN had been coddling ethnic Albanian politicians to the point of denying the existence of rival "party intelligence structures" which threatened to erupt into unrest as soon as the UN washed its hands of the province.

"UNMIK is devoting most of its energy to producing a sufficiently convincing facade ... to allow Kosovo to pass the test that will open the final status process," it said. "That facade does include some genuine progress and solid work, but it does not represent the comprehensive effort needed for democratic practices to take root." Kosovo remains technically part of Serbia but its ethnic Albanian majority demands complete independence.

The ICG said the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague should consider granting bail to indicted former Kosovo Albanian prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, accused of rape and other atrocities, in order to calm mounting tensions in the province. "Kosovo Albanians' present peace with the international community is highly conditional ... " it warned. "Most areas are calm, but Haradinaj's home municipality of Decan is a tinderbox, full of angry armed groups, and isolated from the rest of Kosovo."

U.N. chief in Kosovo 'committed' to border deal with Macedonia

Associated Press, 6/2/05

The top U.N. official in Kosovo said a border dispute with Macedonia could be resolved as early as this month, helping clear the way for talks on Kosovo's final status. Soeren Jessen-Petersen, who met late Wednesday with Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski and Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva, said a deal could be struck before talks open on whether Kosovo should become independent or remain part of Serbia.

Kosovo 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. Kosovo officials argue that a 2001 border agreement between Macedonia and the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia deprived the province of some 2,000 hectares (4,950 acres) of land. "(We) are committed to resolving the border issue, so we can move on to status talks as soon as possible," Jessen-Petersen said Wednesday. "We will meet on June 9 in (Kosovo's capital) Pristina and I hope we will discuss this technical matter."

The U.N. official also sought to allay Macedonian fears that Kosovo could impose travel or customs restrictions on visiting Macedonian nationals. Skopje was angered after the U.N. Mission in Kosovo hinted it might tighten border controls to fight organized crime. "Macedonians who want to travel to Kosovo will not require visas," Jessen-Petersen said. Prime Minister Buckovski said Macedonian and Kosovo officials will meet next week to prepare a free trade agreement.

Kosovo Negotiation Simulation

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

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_____________________________________________________________

Liberia

Wanted for war crimes, Liberia's ex-president hunkers down in Nigerian exile

Daniel Balint-Kurti, Associated Press, 5/31/05

Wanted on war-crimes charges, Liberia's former President Charles Taylor is keeping out of sight as he nears a second year of exile in a jungle-encircled African city. His host country, Nigeria, is under increasing pressure to expel the one-time warlord from his all-expenses-paid purgatory and hand him to a U.N.-backed tribunal to be tried on accusations he meddled in another country's civil war - Sierra Leone's. The U.S. said Tuesday that "the time has come for this to happen."

Taylor's spokesman, Vaani Paasawe, denies allegations by the Sierra Leone-based court that Taylor is plotting fresh turmoil in West Africa, where he has long been accused of playing a central role in the region's mayhem. The U.N.-backed tribunal has increased calls in recent weeks for Taylor to be immediately handed over for trial, accusing Taylor of violating his asylum agreement by meddling in the affairs of Liberia and its neighbors. Prosecutors accuse him of ties to al-Qaida.

The United States helped arrange Taylor's flight as rebels besieged his capital, Monrovia, in August 2003. Then, the world applauded Nigeria for granting Taylor asylum, saying that was the only way to bring peace to Liberia. Now, the United States is among those who say Taylor should be extradited. "We believe that justice will not be complete until Charles Taylor appears before the court to answer the charges against him, and believe the time has come for this to happen," said Rudolph Stewart, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria.

He said that President Olusegun Obasanjo had not gone far enough by offering to hand Taylor over to Liberia, rather than the court in Sierra Leone, if the government that results from October elections requested it. "We have asked them to expedite this timetable. We do believe that Taylor will be transferred to the court," said Stewart in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The anti-Taylor chorus has heightened its pitch in recent months as the U.N.-backed court, based in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown, said it has new evidence showing Taylor was behind a January attempt to assassinate Guinea President Lansana Conte - himself accused of backing the rebels that fought against Taylor.

The war crimes court accuses Taylor of backing rebels notorious for hacking off hands and arms in the 1991-2002 Sierra Leone civil war, allegations Taylor denies. After assassinating Conte, Taylor hoped to relocate to Guinea, where he is already forming a new rebel group, the court says. Sierra Leone's government would be attacked next, and the war crimes court "disrupted," according to an internal document, which says all this is scheduled to take place by the time of Liberia's Oct. 11 presidential elections.

Sierra Leone for the first time last week called for Taylor to be handed to the war crimes tribunal. Until then, it had kept quiet so as not to be seen as trying to influence the court. Taylor triggered Liberia's descent into violence when he launched an insurgency from neighboring Ivory Coast in 1989 - hastening a cycle of violence across West Africa. The peace deal under which Taylor left Liberia brought an end to 14 years of conflict, in which an estimated 250,000 died. The country's fragile peace is now monitored by 15,000 U.N. troops.

Taylor vowed upon his departure to return to Liberia but Paasawe says a return to power is the last thing on the former ruler's mind and denied all the allegations. "He has told me categorically, he does not want to be president," Paasawe said. "He would like to return to Liberia, certainly - as a former president. He has finally realized that he has served his time." Paasawe also said Taylor would break a long media blackout and hold a press conference Aug. 11 - two months to the day before elections in his homeland.

A spokesman for the Nigerian president, Femi Fani-Kayode, said media interviews are not allowed under an unwritten asylum agreement with Taylor, and that Taylor has not informed Nigerian authorities of the planned statement. "He is being monitored very closely and we certainly won't tolerate a situation where he operates outside the conditions. If necessary, extra steps will be taken," said Fani-Kayode.

Taylor himself was unavailable to speak to The Associated Press during a recent attempt to visit him in the verdant southeastern Nigeria town of Calabar. The government has provided him with a cream-colored villa overlooking a winding river and forest as far as the eye can see. Armed Nigerian police guard his hillside road near the Cameroon border. Some 200 family members and wards are in Calabar with him. Paasawe was unwilling to say if Taylor - accused of surreptitiously slipping from Nigeria to conspire against his many foes - was even home.

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Macedonia

U.S., EU welcome Macedonian move to allow minority symbols

Konstantin Testorides, Associated Press, 5/27/05

The United States and European Union on Friday welcomed a proposal made in ethnically tense Macedonia to allow the greater display of national symbols among the country's ethnic Albanian minority. The draft legislation, submitted to parliament, is one of the final reforms granting greater local autonomy, worked out after an ethnic Albanian rebel insurgency in 2001. "We welcome the government's draft law on the use of community symbols," a joint statement from U.S. and EU representatives in the former Yugoslav republic said.

"It reflects a constructive spirit of political cooperation," the statement said. The statement was signed by special EU representative Michael Sahlin and U.S. Charges d'Affaires Paul Wohlers. Macedonia, which gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, is seeking membership in NATO and eventually in the European Union, and has implemented dozens of reforms aimed at guaranteeing equal rights for the ethnic Albanian minority and Macedonian Slav majority.

As part of those reforms, Macedonia held mayoral elections in March using a redrawn municipal map designed to give greater autonomy in minority areas. International observers, however, cited widespread polling irregularities, caused mainly by supporters of two rival minority parties. Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of Macedonia's 2.1 million population. Tackling the highly contentious symbol issue, the draft legislation grants the right of ethnic communities to display their flags on public buildings in municipalities where it makes up at least 50 percent of the population.

"This law provides rules for where flags can be placed," government spokesmen Saso Colakovski said. As a result, the flags of Macedonia and Albania will be jointly displayed in 16 municipalities, mostly in western part of the country. Violations of the law would result in fines between €1,000 and €3,000 (US$1,250-3,750).

"Parliamentary adoption of the law would demonstrate a move away from ethnic crisis and will be a significant step toward the Euro-Atlantic community", the joint statement said. "The draft law fully respects and preserves the integrity of the state flag in defining the official use of community symbols."

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Moldova

Moldovan dissident's wife asks Romanian president to help free her husband

Associated Press, 5/27/05

The wife of a Moldovan dissident who has been held for 13 years by separatists in eastern Moldova appealed Friday for Romania's president to free her husband and another man. Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa, two pro-Romanian dissidents were arrested in 1992 by Russian-speaking separatists in Trans-Dniester, a Russian-speaking breakaway region. Ivantoc's wife, Eudochia told Basescu in an open letter that she felt inspired by the way Basescu worked to free three Romanian journalists who were held captive in Iraq for nearly two months.

"I watched Romania's actions in the case of the journalists and I understood that you made an enormous gesture," she said. "For us the hopes are even greater because they are not held in Iraq, but in Moldova. I beg you, please help us free them." Last year, the European Court for Human Rights ordered Russia, which backs Trans-Dniester, and Moldova to work for the release of Petrov-Popa and Ivantoc. The two are being held in a Trans-Dniester prison with sentences ending in 2007. Two other dissidents who were held by the separatists -Ilie Ilascu and Alexandru Lesco- were released.

The Strasbourg, France-based court ordered the countries to pay the four €750,000 (US$952,000) in compensation for the deprivation of their freedom, torture and inhumane treatment while in custody. Trans-Dniester authorities have refused to carry out the court's ruling, claiming the two were "terrorists."

Moldova, which was part of Romania until annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed. However, Russian troops remained in Trans-Dniester, where the war broke out over fears that Moldova would reunite with Romania. Some 1,500 people were killed in the fighting. About 1,800 Russian troops are still based in Trans-Dniester, guarding an estimated 26,000 metric tons (28,660 tons) of Soviet-era ammunition.

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Morocco

Polisario calls for UN action following clampdown in Western Sahara

Agence France Presse, 5/29/05

A senior Moroccan official Sunday denied a claim by the Polisario Front independence movement that dozens of people had been arrested and 50 injured in a campaign of "fierce repression" by Moroccan authorities. Mohammed Elgharabi, the Wali or district administrator for Laayoune, the principal town in the vast Moroccan-ruled region, said 32 people had been arrested for "acts of vandalism." Most were minors of age, he said.

However, he denounced what he called the actions of "a minority of separatists." The Polisario Front called on the United Nations Sunday to step in urgently to protect the people of Western Sahara. "The United Nations and the security council must intervene rapidly to put an end to the repressive practices of Moroccan authorities against the defenceless Sahrawi people," Mohamed Ould Salek, in charge of foreign relations for the armed independence movement, told the Algerian APS news agency.

"The fierceness of the repression was such that it has so far led to tens of injured, arrests and disappearances in Laayoune, Ad Dakhla and Es Semara," he said. Sahrawi sources said the protests in Laayoune, the main city of the disputed region, left some 50 people injured and dozens arrested. Sources in Laayoune said the protest began as a protest against the removal of a prisoner from a local jail to Morocco. Moroccan authorities said Saturday they were opening an inquiry into the clashes.

Morocco's Al Ahdath Al Maghribia daily said on Friday that 17 people had been injured and 21 detained. Morocco annexed Western Sahara after former colonial ruler Spain pulled out of the large, phosphate-rich desert territory in 1975, despite a World Court ruling in favour of autonomy for the territory. The Algerian-backed Polisario Front took up arms to fight for independence a year later. The United Nations brokered the 1991 ceasefire, but there has been no progress on a UN plan to give the territory autonomy during a five-year transition period before a referendum on independence.

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Nepal

U.S. diplomat warns confrontation between king and political parties will benefit rebels

Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press, 5/25/05

A U.S. diplomat warned Wednesday that Maoist rebels in Nepal could advance their violent campaign to establish a communist state if a bitter confrontation between King Gyanendra and political parties is not resolved.

"If Nepal is not careful and people make a series of mistakes, if they refuse to reach out and work together against common threats, then you could end up with situation where the state of Nepal that we know as of today does not exist," American Ambassador to Nepal James Moriarty said.

The United States was Nepal's biggest financial supporter in fighting the rebels until Gyanendra seized absolute power earlier this year. The Bush administration has since urged the king to restore democracy and to work with political parties to resolve the insurgency.

The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have fought since 1996 to replace Nepal's constitutional monarchy with a communist state. More than 11,500 people have been killed. "The confrontation between the king and the political parties will make it much easier for the Maoists to make advances," Moriarty said.

Nepal's constitutional monarch assumed absolute power, fired the political government and imposed a state of emergency on Feb. 1. Shortly after, the king suspended civil liberties including freedom of the press and ordered that hundreds of politicians, students and activists be imprisoned. The United States responded by suspending military aid to Nepal, although it has continued supplying non-lethal aid.

Moriarty said while the U.S. welcomed the king's decision last month to lift the state of emergency, it wants the release of all political detainees and the restoration of other civil liberties. He said Gyanendra and the political parties must reconcile and work together to combat the Maoist rebels. The rebels, whose activities were limited to a few districts just a few years back, now have a presence in 70 of Nepal's 75 districts, and control large chunks of the countryside. "The king and the parties need to work together. Both sides have to forget what they have said in the past about the other side and it is time to unite for the good of the country," he said.

Nepalese politicians may meet with Maoist rebel leaders in India

Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press, 6/2/05

Two senior Nepalese politicians currently in northern India may have traveled there to meet with exiled Maoist rebel leaders, a newspaper reported Thursday. Bamdev Gautam and Hari Parajuli from the Communist Party of Nepal left the Himalayan nation over the weekend and were heading for the town of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh state, the Kantipur newspaper reported, quoting unidentified local politicians and eye witnesses.

A party official in the capital Katmandu who declined to be named confirmed that the two had left for India but refused to elaborate. The rebels have reported that senior rebel leaders Baburam Bhattarai and Krishna Mahara are also currently in India, but these reports could not be independently verified. The Communist Party of Nepal is the second largest party in the country, but it follows different ideologies and policies to the Maoists, who have been fighting since 1996 to abolish Nepal's constitutional monarchy and set up a communist state. More than 11,500 people have died in the insurgency.

Nepal's King Gyanendra sacked the elected government and seized absolute power on Feb. 1, claiming the move was necessary to curb rampant corruption and bring an end to the Maoist insurgency. The king has since come under pressure from Nepal's seven main political parties and other countries - including the United States, a major donor - to restore democracy. Indians and Nepalese do not require visa or travel documents to cross into each other's territories because the two countries share an open border. Maoist rebels routinely travel to India to escape Nepalese troops. A handful of them have been arrested by Indian authorities but most are believed to just mingle in northern Indian cities.

If a meeting takes place, it will not be the first between senior members of the party and the rebel leadership. Last year the Communist Party of Nepal's general secretary, Madhav Nepal, met with rebel leaders in Lucknow. The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have refused the king's latest offer for peace talks and have not met for negotiations with the government since failed peace talks in 2003.

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Philippines

Muslim separatists meet over call to end southern Philippines rebellion

Agence France Presse, 5/29/05

Thousands of Muslim guerrillas met at a jungle camp on the southern island of Mindanao Sunday to discuss a government proposal to end a 30-year separatist rebellion ahead of talks with Philippine negotiators. Young Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters in mismatched military fatigues and civilian clothes raised their fists and sang religious songs as they passed through military checkpoints unimpeded and streamed into Camp Darapanan on the outskirts of Cotabato city.

International ceasefire monitors, mostly from Malaysia and Libya, joined the meeting, which is expected to go on for the next two days. President Gloria Arroyo's peace negotiating panel, as well as former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, Islamic bloc diplomats and representatives from the US embassy in Manila, are also scheduled to visit the camp during the meeting, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told AFP.

Arroyo has vowed to sign a peace treaty with the MILF to deny sanctuary to foreign Islamic militant groups known to train with some rebel Muslim factions in their various camps in Mindanao. "Representatives of various sectors will be allowed to talk. We will reconcile what they tell us and we will be coming out with a resolution," Kabalu said.

"We are committed to a peaceful solution to the problem," he said, adding that the rebel leadership, which has been in talks with the Arroyo government for the past two years, was now prepared to agree to certain concessions and drop their demand for a separate Muslim separatist state.

Kabalu said the meetings will tackle the thorny issue of ancestral land rights for the Muslim minority on Mindanao, the mineral-rich southern third of the southeast Asian archipelago where the MILF launched its rebellion in 1978.

The MILF contends that the whole of Mindanao is the Filipino Muslims' "ancestral domain" and that they should be entitled to a share of proceeds from economic activity there, including mining and logging. But he added: "Of course, we can't just take the whole of Mindanao. We are now more realistic (about) the fact that we are now a minority." Both sides claimed a breakthrough in peace negotiations in April, when they agreed in talks in Malaysia to define areas in Mindanao that would fall under the Muslims' ancestral domain.

A new meeting is set in Kuala Lumpur next month to determine these areas, with a view of signing a final peace agreement by the end of the year, chief government negotiator Silvestre Afable said earlier. Libyan ambassador Salem Adam, who joined the meeting Sunday, said he hopes the talks would be a "trust factor" for both sides, with the MILF clearly showing its openness to invite foreign dignitaries to its camps and dispel persistent suspicion of links with Islamic militants.

"It is a good sign that the MILF is hosting this conference and a good sign for the peace process," Adam said. MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim, who rose to lead the 12,000-strong rebel group last year when its founding leader Salamat Hashim died of natural causes, is expected to address the assembly.

Philippine Muslim rebels in show of force ahead of final peace deal

Agence France Presse, 6/1/05

Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines have staged a large but peaceful show of force in recent days aimed at strengthening their hand ahead of talks on a final peace deal with the government, analysts said. For three days, tens of thousands of battle-hardened Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas, along with their families, converged on the rebels' base at Camp Darapanan near Cotobato City from across the main southern island of Mindanao.

They put up colorful tents, organized traffic flow and brought in truckloads of food and water. Ambulances and female nurses covered by black traditional veils attended to weary travellers, while a media tent situated in a clearing surrounded by coconut trees and rice fields was equipped with computers and printers putting out press releases. A sound system boomed out Koranic verses, triggering shouts of "Allah is Great" from the crowds patiently sitting under the tropical sun. The MILF fighters, except for a select few, were also unarmed, their guns under lock and key as they welcomed foreign dignitaries with snappy salutes.

The MILF, which has been waging a separatist rebellion since 1978, sought during the gathering a fresh mandate from the Muslims in the south for peace talks with government that have now entered their final stage. "This is a show of the MILF's political strength," Zainudin Malang, director of the Center for Moro Law and Policy Concerns, told AFP. "Their success in bringing together peacefully a huge crowd of supporters legitimizes the MILF in the eyes of the Muslims as a group with a capacity to lead and organize," he said.

"Organizationally, now the government will see that they are far more sophisticated than it realizes," he said. The MILF's leadership style of consulting the masses before making decisions is appreciated by Muslim communities in the south, which often rely more on them for security assistance than the police or military. This policy closely follows "Mushawaraah Mufikkal", an Islamic theological concept of consensus building, Malang said. The gathering also underscores MILF chief Murad Ebrahim's growing influence among the mainstream Muslim leaders of Mindanao, many of whom visited the camp to pay their respects.

"It is not so easy to organize such a huge event in less than a month. This shows that Alhaj Murad has political clout," said Abu Said Mansur, a former professor at Mindanao State University and now head of the civic group Bangsamoro People's Consultative Assembly. "Another important matter is that the gathering showed the confidence of the Muslims, not just the MILF members, in the leadership style of Murad," Mansur said.

President Gloria Arroyo's adviser on the peace process, Teresita Deles, said she was impressed with the MILF's ability to mobilize such a huge crowd peacefully. "I was impressed by the numbers, the discipline, the managing of the numbers. Its hard to do that these days," Deles said. "They showed a lot of discipline and commitment to make this particular exercise a show of support for the process," Deles said.

Flanked by security guards in freshly-starched bush jackets, Murad looked more like a politician than a guerrilla leader. He thanked government officials and diplomats for attending, and appealed to the majority Christian community to cast aside mistrust. "We do not find any reason to slacken in our struggle should the peace process slip from our grasp," Murad told the crowd. "But I see no reason to (be) pessimistic. I can say with an air of confidence that peace in Mindanao is achievable."

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Serbia & Montenegro

Serbian president speaks to nation after arrests of men reportedly from execution footage

Katarina Kratovac, Associated Press, 6/2/05

Serbia's pro-Western president addressed the nation Thursday, hours after the arrest of at least eight men allegedly seen in a video of a 1995 execution of Bosnian Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica. "Serbia is deeply shocked," President Boris Tadic said. "Those images are proof of a monstrous crime committed against persons of a different religion. And the guilty had walked as free men until now." Rasim Ljajic, head of the Serbia-Montenegro government body in charge of cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal, told reporters earlier that the arrests were prompted by the screening of the footage Wednesday at the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands.

The footage was introduced by the prosecution during hearings in the trial of former President Slobodan Milosevic, indicted for his alleged role in atrocities committed during the Balkan wars, including the 1995 massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica - Europe's worst carnage since World War II.

The amateur footage, apparently made by Serb troops, showed six civilians taken from a truck, hands tied behind their backs and lined up on a hillside. Then, four were shot one by one in their backs. Two other prisoners were ordered to carry the bodies into a nearby barn where they, too, were killed.

According to U.N. prosecutors, the killings were carried out by the notorious Serb paramilitary unit known as the Scorpions, somewhere on Mount Treskavica near the wartime Bosnian Serb capital Pale. The Scorpions were allegedly under orders from Serbian police in Belgrade and the link could directly tie Milosevic with the crimes committed in Bosnia. The footage, also broadcast late Wednesday by several television channels in Serbia, sent shock waves through the Balkan republic.

Tadic said the crimes at Srebrenica "were carried out in the name of our nation." "But crimes are always individual and the perpetrators of these monstrous crimes must be caught and punished," he said, urging all institutions in Serbia to speak up about the footage and pledging to visit the Srebrenica massacre site in Bosnia to "bow to the memory of the innocent victims."

"The killers had walked freely among us, on our streets, behaving as if they were ordinary, honorable citizens," Tadic said. "All those who committed war crimes must be held accountable; only in this way will we be able to have a future. We must not close our eyes to the cruelty that took place."

According to Ljajic, all arrested in the police sweep were identified as the executioners shown in the footage. Their names were not provided, but Ljajic said the police would "continue the sweep until all suspects are in custody."

Earlier Thursday, during a visit to Belgrade by U.N. Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica announced that "several suspects" from the footage shown at The Hague court were detained. Del Ponte praised the arrests as a "brilliant operation."

Ultranationalist leader contends video of Srebrenica killings is part of anti-Serb campaign

Katarina Kratovac, Associated Press, 6/5/05

An ultranationalist leader from Serbia's Radical Party on Sunday contended that a video showing the 1995 killing of Bosnian Muslim prisoners by Serb paramilitary forces in Srebrenica was made public as part of a campaign to shame Serbia. Aleksandar Vucic, the party's general secretary, said Serbia should not be blamed for the actions of individual soldiers. Vucic called the video's release part of a "campaign in the media against the Serb nation and state." He did not say who he believed was behind the alleged campaign.

The footage was first introduced Wednesday by prosecutors at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands during the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who has been indicted for his alleged role in atrocities committed during the Balkan wars, including mass killings in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.

The video shows members of the Serb paramilitary force known as the Scorpions shooting six young Muslim prisoners in their backs. The slain men were among as many as 8,000 Muslim men and boys slaughtered in Srebrenica after Serb troops overran the town in July 1995.

The footage, which was aired unedited on Serbian TV, jolted Serbia and forced the Balkan republic's leaders to acknowledge for the first time that war crimes were committed in the Bosnian war by Serb troops from Serbia, and not just by local Bosnian Serb forces. Four suspects, identified as some of the troops who appeared in the tape, were arrested Thursday. Vucic, while condemning the killings as "cold-blooded murder" and demanding the killers get the "harshest sentences," also rejected allegations that the Scorpions were under orders from Belgrade.

The U.N. prosecutors contend the paramilitary force was set up by Milosevic's state security and police and dispatched to Bosnia to assist Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic, a top fugitive wanted by the U.N. tribunal. Vucic suggested Serbia was being unfairly singled out and said others should be held accountable for crimes committed during the war.

"All crimes must be condemned, those against Muslims in Srebrenica as well as those against Serbs," Vucic said. "Crimes must be condemned, not the Serbian state or the Serbian nation." Vucic also accused U.N. prosecutors of using the footage to try to expand an indictment against Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj - who is awaiting trial before the tribunal for his role in fomenting the Balkan wars - to include crimes committed by the Scorpions. "They want to implicate him in something he had absolutely nothing to do with," Vucic added.

Serbian PM re-elected head of his Democratic Party of Serbia

Associated Press, 6/6/05

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica Monday was re-elected head of his Democratic Party of Serbia, further strengthening his position on Serbia's political scene. In a vote early Monday, Kostunica won overwhelming backing as head of the conservative DSS party, which is the leading force in Serbia's coalition government. Kostunica has been the sole leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia since it was formed in mid-1990s', and throughout its rise to power in the years that followed the ouster of former president Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

The center-right party was allied with the pro-Western reformists in ousting Milosevic - who was succeeded by Kostunica as Yugoslav president - but later turned against the rest of the bloc and helped overthrow the first post-Milosevic government in late 2003. In early 2004, Kostunica formed a four-member minority coalition Cabinet, which has ruled Serbia thanks to the parliamentary support of Milosevic's Socialist Party. Critics accuse Kostunica of slowing down reforms in Serbia and cooperation with Milosevic's allies.

In a speech at the Democratic Party of Serbia assembly Sunday, Kostunica however, praised the achievements of his government saying it has moved Serbia forward, toward establishing closer ties with the European Union. Kostunica's government recently survived a no-confidence bid by the opposition in the parliament.

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Somalia

Official says exiled government will return, despite fighting

Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press, 5/31/05

Somalia's government will not abandon plans to return from exile, a presidential spokesman said Tuesday, a day after militias loyal to rival Somali lawmakers fought for control of the town where the government wants to set up base. Somalia's transitional government is pursuing a peaceful solution to the conflict between militia loyal to a lawmaker opposing government plans to relocate to Baidoa, a major trading town, and another supporting the move, presidential spokesman Yusuf Mohamed Ismail said.

Ethiopian-backed Somali warlords - now lawmakers - and Ethiopian-backed President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed have suggested setting up the new government in Baidoa and in Jowhar because the capital, Mogadishu, is too dangerous. Yusuf has also called for Ethiopian and other regional peacekeepers to protect the new government.

Warlords, lawmakers and other Somali leaders who consider Ethiopia an enemy have rejected both proposals, causing a split among the warlords who took part in the peace process to form the new government. Mediators have said that, while a government was formed, reconciliation efforts have stalled, endangering the peace process.

Militias led by a Somali warlord and lawmaker opposed to the plans took control of Baidoa on March 27. Rival fighters supporting the relocation plan attacked the town Monday, triggering street battles in which more than a dozen of people were killed.

More than 100 lawmakers and warlords-turned-Cabinet-ministers condemned the raid on Baidoa during a meeting in Mogadishu on Tuesday, saying the attack was sponsored by Ethiopia in an attempt to support the Somali president. The presidential spokesman, however, said the leader was not involved in any way in the attack.

"The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia will not change at all its relocation plan. It will go ahead," Ismail said. "The president, prime minister and leaders of federal institutions are sincerely sorry about what happened, especially for the loss of human lives." "There is an ongoing political initiative by the government to pave the way for the administration to relocate temporarily in Baidoa, Jowhar and then Mogadishu," he said, refusing to provide details, citing the delicate nature of the initiative.

Somalia has been without a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Warlords then turned on each other, plunging the Horn of Africa nation of 7 million into anarchy. Its government, formed in exile in 2004 with hopes of one day leading the country to peace, is opposed by Islamic extremists and some of the dozens of warlords in the country.

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Sri Lanka

International donors cancel aid meeting with Tamil Tigers after top military officer slain

Shimali Senanayake, Associated Press, 6/2/05

International donors have called off a key meeting with Tamil Tiger rebels to protest the assassination of a senior military officer, officials said Thursday. Chief representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, U.N. Development Program and the International Monetary Fund in Colombo, were to fly Friday to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi to meet with the head of the Tigers' political wing, S.P. Thamilselvan. The meeting has been put off indefinitely as the murder this week of Maj. Nizam Muthalif made it inappropriate to hold the talks, senior officials said on condition of anonymity.

Muthalif was gunned down Tuesday in Colombo as he sat in his car. The government suspects rebels in the attack. Residents in Tamil-majority areas controlled by the Tigers have complained that international aid has been slow to reach them since the devastating earthquake and tsunami of Dec. 26 killed more than 31,000 people in the country and affected 1 million others. International donors, who pledged nearly US$3 billion (€2.37 billion) to Sri Lanka, have been reluctant to give any funds directly to the guerrillas, who are listed as terrorists by the United States, Britain and India.

But the talks Friday were to discuss Sri Lanka's plan to jointly coordinate tsunami aid with the rebels in the Tamil-dominated north and east. The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east of the country, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The conflict killed nearly 65,000 people before the cease-fire, which has largely held despite sporadic violations and a breakdown in peace talks in 2003.

Following the truce, Sri Lanka's military started offering air transport to top rebel leaders as part of confidence-building measures. But after Muthalif was gunned down, his body riddled with bullets, the government for the first time refused air transport to several key Tamil Tiger guerrillas asking to fly from Kilinochchi to eastern Trincomalee, said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the European cease-fire monitoring mission.

Tamil-majority northeast shuts down, demanding withdrawal of Sri Lankan troops

Krishan Francis, Associated Press, 6/3/05

Grenade attacks wounded at least eight people in northeastern Sri Lanka on Friday, as schools and businesses closed to demand the withdrawal of government troops from a restive city after clashes between ethnic Tamils and Sinhalese, officials and residents said. About 2,000 extra military personnel and police were deployed in the eastern port town of Trincomalee following the last month's ethnic violence over the construction of a Buddha statue in the heart of the multi-religious town.

Trincomalee has been volatile, with many residents demanding that the security forces leave. Six people were slightly wounded when unidentified attackers lobbed a grenade into a vegetable market near Trincomalee, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of the capital, Colombo, said police officer Neville Wijesinghe. Separately, two suspected Tamil Tiger rebels threw a grenade at air force troops at a security checkpoint in Trincomalee, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake. The grenade didn't explode, but the two men were shot when the air force personnel fired in self-defense, and both were hospitalized, Ratnayake said.

Also Friday, suspected Tamil Tigers hurled another grenade at an army vehicle in the same region but it exploded prematurely and caused no damage, the spokesman said. Area residents wanted the extra security forces out. "We only want these additional troops withdrawn as promised. They are blocking normal life," said lawmaker Kanagalingam Sivajilingam of the Tamil National Alliance, a political party backed by the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka's government had promised to withdraw the extra security forces immediately in return for the postponement of a strike by Tamils, Sivajilingam said. There was no immediate comment from the government.

About 70 percent of Sri Lanka's 19 million people are Sinhalese Buddhists. Minority Tamils are mostly Hindu. However, Trincomalee - where Sri Lanka's navy has a base - has roughly equal numbers of Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. Tamils opposed the construction of the Buddha statue in the city, and held a five-day protest strike in Trincomalee last month. Violence broke out and a grenade, thrown by an unidentified attacker, left one person dead.

The Tamil Tiger rebels began an armed insurrection in 1983, demanding a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka's northeast. More than 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before a 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire was signed. Peace talks have been suspended since 2003 due to disagreements over power-sharing. Tamils have longed claimed to have suffered from discrimination by the Sinhalese.

Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation

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

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Sudan

Red Cross says growing lawlessness in Darfur makes quick return of 2 million refugees unlikely

Uta Harnischfeger, Associated Press, 6/2/05

Growing lawlessness and tribal hostilities in Darfur make it unlikely that the 2 million people who have fled their homes in the Sudanese region will be able to return soon, the International Red Cross said Thursday. Although there is now less violence, the refugees are reluctant to return home because they may not be able to reclaim land they own, said Dominik Stillhart, Sudan chief at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"The fact that the people can't go back to work their fields that they used to have ... is going to be the real issue in Darfur," Stillhart said. "There is hardly any fighting between government-armed militia on the one and Darfur rebels on the other side ... but there is an increasing disintegration of the conflict and lawlessness." The growing lack of law and order in Darfur and lingering conflicts among the 30 to 90 tribes in western Sudan are preventing refugees from returning home, he said.

Stillhart said that planned peace talks, set for June 10 in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, are insufficient because they do not address intertribal conflicts in the region. The talks, mediated by African Union and Chad officials, will bring together the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels to negotiate terms of a settlement.

"Tribal reconciliation is imperative in order to find a peaceful solution to Darfur," he said. Two years of fighting in Darfur, in which government-aligned Arab militias have ransacked villages, has created what the United Nations labels the world's worst humanitarian crisis. An estimated 180,000 people have died in the conflict. But Darfur's tribes also have a long tradition of fighting over scarce resources such as land for cattle-grazing or farming and these tribal rivalries have been exacerbated in recent years by growing polarization between Arabs and Africans in the region, Stillhart said.

"I don't think that this situation is conducive to massive returns," Stillhart said, adding that refugees will not return to their Darfur homes until more work is done to improve security, particularly in rural areas. Stillhart also said access to food remains a problem for hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. Since May, the ICRC has been providing food aid to up to 320,000 each month, a 25 percent increase from the beginning of the year.

Also on Thursday, the U.N. World Food Program said it had received only US$290 million (€238 million) to provide food in Darfur from its overall appeal for US$563 million (€461 million). "The situation has not improved," said Holdbrook Arthur, the agency's regional chief for Central and West Africa, who just returned from a visit to Darfur. "The numbers that we are supporting are going up."

Darfur peace talks to resume in Nigeria Friday: official

Agence France Presse, 6/6/05

African Union-mediated peace talks on the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region are set to open in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Friday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's spokeswoman said Monday. "I confirm that the talks will resume June 10 in Abuja," Oluremi Oyo told AFP. The announcement of renewed peace negotiations came the same day that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague said it would launch a war- crimes probe into atrocities committed in Darfur.

Peace talks, which began in Abuja last August, were suspended in December to allow for more consultations among the parties concerned in the conflict after the rebels in Darfur and the Khartoum government traded accusations of violating the ceasefire. A high-level AU team visited Darfur last weekend to assess the humanitarian situation in war-torn western Sudan. The visit came on the heels of a tour by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who warned that the world was running "a race against time" to resolve the conflict.

Between 180,000 and 300,000 people have been killed and about 2.4 million made homeless in Darfur since a rebel uprising in early 2003 prompted Khartoum to unleash the Janjaweed Arab militias on a scorched-earth campaign. Humanitarian officials warned that the situation in Darfur was growing more desperate. There was not enough funding to meet the crisis caused by drought, famine and the long-term effects of conflict.

The World Food Programme (WFP) chief for east and central Africa, Holdbrook Arthur, told journalists that the organisation has received only half of the 563 million dollars (459 million euros) of funding from donor governments for relief work in Darfur. Nigeria's leader Obasanjo, who also is AU chairman, said late Sunday on television in Abuja that his country has sent food relief to Darfur.

The AU announced late last month it had received 292 million dollars in donations. But it wants more than 460 million dollars in cash, military equipment and logistical support to boost the AU force monitoring the Darfur truce from the current 2,700 soldiers -- from Nigeria and Rwanda -- to more than 7,700 by September.

On Friday, the AU and the United States said that the level of security in Darfur remains "unacceptable" and must be improved with the deployment of additional AU troops. Paying separate visits to the war-ravaged area, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and AU Peace and Security Council Commissioner Said Djinnit agreed that boosting humanitarian aid alone would not stabilize the situation.

Meanwhile, the ICC will look into 51 suspected war criminals provided by the UN following an international investigation into abuses in Darfur. A UN inquiry in January found that Sudanese government forces and militias had committed abuses including murder, torture, rape and pillage in suppressing the two-year ethnic minority uprising in Darfur. It established that war crimes and human rights violations had been committed in the western province, while falling short of the definition of genocide.

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