PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, August 8, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 29)
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, August 8, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 29)
Contents:
Each major political party to select two women to fill eight seats.
Crimes occur from April through to June.
Parliament elections in Chechnya 'last chance for peace': opposition
Former Putin opponent encourages free elections in Chechnya.
Mbeki scraps Congo visit for emergency AU summit
Emergency summit to address potential for African veto on UN Security Council.
Georgia's president says EU expansion depends on Turkey membership
Saakashvili notes that Georgian membership in the EU may depend upon Turkey.
Georgian, Abkhazian officials hold talks on refugees, security
A preliminary agreement on refugees may lead to peace talks between Georgia and disputed region.
ASEAN, EU monitors discuss peace monitoring mission in war-torn Aceh province
International peace monitoring in Aceh expected to be a sensitive matter.
US congratulates Indonesia on reaching draft peace deal with rebels in Aceh province
Peace accord may make military ties between Washington and Jakarta easier.
Ivory Coast rebels say they won't immediately disarm as deadline passes
Disarmament remains contentious issue between government and rebels.
Official: Peace talks between India and Pakistan reducing violence in Kashmir
Attacks reduced by one-quarter in first half of this year.
Kosovo
Swiss foreign minister favors independence for Kosovo
Calme-Rey believes returning Kosovo to Serbian sovereignty would be unrealistic.
Moldovan president wants closer ties with NATO
NATO to develop individual action plan for Moldova.
Nepal capital safer but protests continue six months after royal coup
Analysts warn that not much has changed in the rest of the country.
Washington remains 'considerably concerned' over terrorism in Philippines: U.S. official
American assessment of conflict in Mindanao has not changed since April.
Arroyo calls for honest, peaceful elections in Moslem region
Arroyo calls upon Muslims in Mindanao to vote in elections.
Serbs remember their dead and missing on 10th anniversary of exodus from Croatia
Anniversary of Operation Storm brings tensions between Serbs and Croats.
UN envoy urges dialogue among rival Somali leaders
Various Somali leaders and warlords against plan to move capital away from Mogadishu.
Norwegian mediator puts work in Sri Lanka on hold
Solheim to put work on hold until after Norwegian election.
Garang successor urges calm in southern Sudan, vows to pursue development
General Kiir insists upon provision within peace agreement that may allow southern Sudan to secede in 2011.
Why Darfur Can't Be Left to Africa
Op-ed encourages international, not just African, intervention in Darfur.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG Report.
Burundi expands senate to 49 seats in order to guarantee 30 percent of senators are women
Aloys Niyoyita, Associated Press, 8/3/05
Burundian officials and political parties agreed Wednesday to expand the senate by eight seats to 49 in order to guarantee that 30 percent of the body is made up of women.
Eight women have been selected to fill the new seats, with each major political party choosing two, Paul Ngarambe, the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, said. All of the parties agreed to the adjustment.
The new constitution, which requires the senate be at least 30 percent female, and government are part of a peace deal to end Burundi's civil war. The war began in October 1993 after Burundi's first democratically elected president, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi paratroopers.
The former Hutu rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy took all but four of the 34 seats contested in last month's senate elections. Its closest rival, the mainstream Hutu-led Front for Democracy in Burundi, won three seats. A third Hutu-led party won one seat.
Four former presidents automatically have seats in the Senate, while the minority Batwa will have three senators appointed to represent them.
The Forces for the Defense of Democracy also controls most of the lower house of parliament and local elected bodies, and appeared poised to take the presidency. Senators will join members of Burundi's National Assembly, the lower house, to choose the country's president before Aug. 19.
UN alleges 129 'summary executions' in Burundi in three months
Agence France Presse, 8/4/05
A total of 129 people were victims of "summary and extrajudicial executions" in Burundi carried out by the army or rebels between April and June, the United Nations said in a report published Thursday.
The report on the human rights situation in the country, which is struggling to achieve a stable democracy after years of ethnic conflict, also alleged 127 cases of rape, arbitrary and illegal arrests, abductions, torture or lynching.
Most of the abuses happened in the province of Bujumbura Rural and Bubanza, the main areas of activity of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), the only remaining rebel group, said the UN mission operating in Burundi (ONUB).
The mission's human rights chief, Ismael Diallo, told a press conference, that "the authors of attempts on life are not always identified, and in these cases the other side tends to point the finger at the FNL."
"When the authors are identified, they are often from the armed forces, and in these cases we have never been able to bring them to court because the military has refused to cooperate."
Diallo regretted "the persistent impunity in Burundi," while expressing hopes that the situation would improve with the establishment of elected bodies.
Military spokesman Major Adolphe Manirakiza retorted: "We categorically reject these accusations, the army does not kill civilians and if people are arrested they are handed over to the judiciary."
The main former Hutu rebel group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), has swept a series of local and legislative elections that ended last month and its leader Pierre Nkurunziza will be the only candidate when the FDD-dominated parliament votes for a new president on August 19.
Most rebel groups of the Hutu majority, which fought the army dominated by minority Tutsis for 12 years in a conflict that killed more than 300,000 people, laid down their arms and joined a transitional government under a 2003 peace deal aimed at producing a government and army reflecting the ethnic balance.
Only the FNL is still fighting, despite a nominal ceasefire and talks aimed at producing a settlement.
Parliament elections in Chechnya 'last chance for peace': opposition
Agence France Presse, 8/2/05
Elections to a local Chechen parliament scheduled this November are a last chance for peace in the war-torn republic, liberal Russian opposition politicians said Tuesday, announcing a united front for the campaign.
The poll "is a last chance for a serious peace process in Chechnya," Irina Khakamada, a liberal opponent of President Vladimir Putin in the 2004 national presidential elections told reporters.
Another liberal leader, Vladimir Ryzhkov, a member of the lower house of the national parliament, said "peace in Chechnya is unreachable" without free and fair elections to a Chechen parliament.
A coordinating committee has been formed to unite the fractious liberal camp under the flag of the Republic Party.
Ryzhkov said Our Choice and the Social Democrats had agreed to share the party list in the elections pencilled in for November 27. The Union of Rightist Forces are also in talks with the coordinating committee.
The committee states its goals as transferring power in Chechnya from the armed forces to civilians, fighting mass unemployment and poverty, ensuring control over notoriously corrupt local finances, and combatting both criminals and abuses by security forces.
"We want to end the chaos that has existed for the last 15 years," committee chairman Musa Sadayev said.
Chechen political analyst Abdula Istamulov said that a freely elected parliament would at last provide ordinary Chechens with a forum. Currently, many people feel they have no recourse other than "to take up arms and go into the mountains" with the rebels, he said.
The liberal leaders promised to push for intense monitoring of the vote.
However, Khakamada said there were worries over threats to the safety of opposition candidates, particularly from armed groups loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov, a warlord named as Chechnya's deputy prime minister. "This danger can take any form of destroying an opponent, including physically," she said.
Chechnya, a mostly Muslim region in the mountainous North Caucasus, was devastated by a separatist war against Russia in 1994-1996.
A second war started in 1999, when Russian forces again moved in to restore control over the republic. The conflict continues in the form of guerrilla war, terrorism, and kidnappings -- many of them blamed on Russian and pro-Russian Chechen units.
Mbeki scraps Congo visit for emergency AU summit
Agence France Presse, 8/2/05
South African President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday cancelled a state visit to Congo to attend an emergency African Union summit on the continent's demand for permanent seats on the UN Security Council.
"The scheduled state visit to Congo-Brazzaville has now been postponed on account of the extraordinary summit of the AU" in Addis Ababa on Thursday, a foreign ministry statement said.
Mbeki is currently on a state visit to Gabon, from where he was expected to travel to Congo on Wednesday.
The foreign ministry said the Addis Ababa summit had been called to "ratify recommendations of the AU and G4 (India, Brazil, Japan and Germany) ministers held in London recently on the question of the extension of the veto for new permanent members as well as an additional seat for Africa in the proposed reformed UN Security Council."
"The implication is that Africa will now call for two permanent seats, one extra non-permanent seat whilst sharing an additional seat with other developing regions in the reformed UN Security Council," it said.
The UN Security Council is currently composed of 15 members, of whom five -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- have veto power, while 10 non-permanent seats are elected for a two-year term.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Georgia's president says EU expansion depends on Turkey membership
Mattias Karen, Associated Press, 8/1/05
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Monday that his country's hopes of someday joining the European Union depend on whether Turkey is first granted membership in the bloc.
A successful EU bid from Turkey is "absolutely decisive" for a further expansion of the union that could include former Soviet republics like Georgia and Ukraine, Saakashvili said during a panel discussion at an international forum held in the lakeside town of Tallberg in central Sweden.
"If you tell them (Turkey) they have no chance, I think it would be a major risk for all of Europe," he said.
The Georgian president, who came to power after the so-called Rose Revolution of 2003, has championed pro-Western policies and closer ties with the United States, the European Union and NATO.
After the panel discussion, which also included Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka, Saakashvili told The Associated Press that Georgia and Ukraine's recent moves toward Western democracy should not be seen as an attempt to distance themselves from Russia.
"On the contrary, we want to engage Russia much more and be on good terms with them," he said. "And I think engaging them based on principles is the way to deal with Russia. ... President Putin wants to be part of the civilized world, he wants to be part of some kind of Western club."
Earlier Monday, Saakashvili met with Sweden's prime minister Goran Persson to discuss Georgia's prospects of joining the EU, Persson's spokeswoman Anna Helsen said. She said Persson was positive toward Georgian membership in the EU, but "in a very long perspective."
The two leaders met at Persson's summer residence in Harpsund, 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of Stockholm, and also discussed Georgia's relations with Russia, Helsen said.
Georgian, Abkhazian officials hold talks on refugees, security
Associated Press, 8/4/05
Georgian officals met with representatives of the breakaway region of Abkhazia Thursday for talks on security and returning refugees displaced by war more than a decade ago, the foreign minister said.
Abkhazia has run its own affairs since 1993, when the separatists drove out Georgian government troops. The Black Sea region is not recognized internationally, but has cultivated closer ties with Russia.
Georgi Khaindrava, Georgian minister for conflict resolution, said the talks also paved the way for a meeting between President Mikhail Saakashvili and Abkhazia's leader, Sergei Bagapsh.
Khaindrava said such a meeting would be possible if he and Sergei Shamba, foreign minister for Abkhazia's government, were able to reach some sort of preliminary agreement on refugees.
The Georgian government estimates, 300,000 people fled Abkhazia as a result of the separatist war, including 240,000 ethnic Georgians. Between 40,000 and 50,000 ethnic Georgians have returned, the government says.
Shamba said negotiators needed to work out exactly how many people are seeking to return, and the reasons why. He said officials needed also to guarantee security for the returning refugees.
Also attending Thursday's U.S.-sanctioned talks were representatives from the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Britain.
Since coming to power in 2004, Saakashvili has vowed to reunite his fractured country, bringing Abkhazia and another renegade province, South Ossetia, back under central control.
ASEAN, EU monitors discuss peace monitoring mission in war-torn Aceh province
Associated Press, 8/1/05
EU and ASEAN officials met with Indonesian ministers on Monday to discuss how best to monitor an upcoming peace accord in Aceh province, where three decades of fighting has killed more than 15,000 people.
The deal, due to take effect in Aug. 15, is scheduled to be overseen by between 200 or 300 monitors from the European Union and five Southeast Asian countries.
It will be a sensitive mission. A short lived truce in Aceh in 2003 ended when military-backed mobs chased out international monitors overseeing that deal.
"We are talking about the technical arrangements, such as the number of monitors and their location in the province," said Indonesian Information Minister Sofyan Djalil ahead of the two-days of discussions.
Government negotiators and representatives of the Free Aceh Movement agreed in Finland last month to end the war in the province, which lost some 130,000 people to Dec. 26 Asian tsunami.
The deal calls for most Indonesian troops to withdraw from the province by mid-September. The rebels must give up their demand for independence in return for some form of political representation in Aceh.
Djalil said the disarmament would take place concurrently with the troop withdrawal, and the monitoring team would start work the day after the deal was signed.
While the accord has been praised as the best opportunity for decades for peace in the province, analysts warn disagreements over its implementation in the field and hardliners on both sides may well scupper it.
US congratulates Indonesia on reaching draft peace deal with rebels in Aceh province
Associated Press, 8/3/05
The United States congratulated Indonesia Wednesday for reaching a draft peace deal with rebels in Aceh province, and said the accord would make it easier for Washington to resume frozen military-to-military ties with Jakarta.
The U.S. Congress severed most military links with Indonesia in 1999 after military-led violence in the former Indonesian province of East Timor led to the deaths of 1,500 people.
Rights groups have urged Washington not to restore ties because of the army's continuing record of abuses, especially in Aceh province.
The government and Acehnese rebels plan to sign an accord to end the 29-year-old war in Aceh on Aug. 15 after agreeing to the deal at talks last month in Helsinki, Finland. "Our congratulations go to the government and president and vice president on what appears to be an agreement in respect to Aceh," said Brig. Gen. John Allen, director for Asian and Pacific affairs at the U.S. Defense Department.
Allen said the deal, along with the internal reforms within the Indonesian military and cooperation in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, "were important indications for the future" restoration of ties.
"We are very encouraged by all these developments in Indonesia," Allen told reporters after two days of meetings between Indonesian and U.S. defense officials aimed at strengthening their relationship.
The Bush administration is lobbying Congress to drop the ban, arguing Washington should be strengthening its ties to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation and a key battleground in the war on terror.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Ivory Coast rebels say they won't immediately disarm as deadline passes
Pauline Bax, Associated Press, 8/1/05
Northern-based rebels refused Monday to immediately lay down their weapons, saying Ivory Coast government-allied militia are still armed as the latest in a series of disarmament deadlines passed.
Rebel Spokesman Antoine Beugre said rebels would not disarm because laws introduced by Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo last month were improper and government-allied fighters remain armed.
Under a peace deal brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, rebel fighters were to begin gathering Sunday at cantonment sites before laying down their guns at a later date.
Beugre called on Mbeki to intervene again in the long-delayed disarmament drive. "We have informed (Mbeki) weeks ago and we are still waiting for a reply. As long as we don't have a reply, there will be no disarmament," he said by telephone.
Beugre said laws Gbagbo introduced July 15 by presidential fiat - circumventing legislative approval - flouted tenets of a Jan. 2003 France-brokered peace deal that calmed the fighting which followed a failed September 2002 attempt to oust Gbagbo.
Rebels quickly seized Ivory Coast's north, while government forces maintained control of the south and most of the rich farms in the world's largest cocoa producer.
Repeated attempts to take arms from fighters and knit the country back together have so far failed. Nearly 10,000 French and U.N. troops patrol front lines, keeping the warring parties apart.
Elections are scheduled for late October, but many Ivorians wonder if they'll take place in the divided west African nation still awash in guns and wracked by violence.
Official: Peace talks between India and Pakistan reducing violence in Kashmir
Mujtaba Ali Ahmad, Associated Press, 8/4/05
The top elected official in India's Jammu-Kashmir state said Thursday that peace efforts between India and Pakistan had led to a drop in violence in the Himalayan region that has been plagued by a 16-year insurgency.
The number of attacks in Jammu-Kashmir was down by 25 percent from January to July compared to the same period last year, dropping from more than 1,600 to just over 1,200, said the state's chief minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
"We are reaping the dividends of the peace process in Kashmir," he told reporters.
From the start of year through the end of July, 335 civilians were killed along with 156 security force personnel and 606 militants, Sayeed said. During the same period last year, the government says 482 civilians, 198 Indian security force personnel and 626 militants were killed.
Suicide attacks by suspected rebels were down by 48 percent, he said. "Despite some ups and downs, the process of reconciliation between India and Pakistan has had an impact on the atmosphere in the state. The process needs to be strengthened and continued," Sayeed said. More than a dozen rebel groups have been fighting for the region's independence or merger with Pakistan since 1989. The conflict has left more than 66,000 people dead, most of them civilians.
A recent thaw in India-Pakistan relations has led to peace talks between the neighbors and seen a restoration of severed transportation links and diplomatic ties. The two countries' leaders have declared the peace process "irreversible," although the talks have made little headway in resolving the Kashmir dispute.
"The important thing is that people of the state have developed a stake in peace, which undermines the role of violence," Sayeed said. India has long accused Pakistan of giving military support to the rebels. Pakistan denies the allegation, saying it gives only diplomatic and political backing.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Swiss foreign minister favors independence for Kosovo
Garentina Kraja, Associated Press, 8/1/05
Switzerland's foreign minister said Monday that Kosovo should not return to Serbia's control and should move toward independence.
Although Micheline Calmy-Rey has no special authority outside Switzerland, her remarks were a rare case of a Western leader taking a firm stand on Kosovo's political future.
Belgrade, which insists the province is part of Serbia, did not immediately respond.
Calmy-Rey, who is on a four-day visit to the disputed province, told reporters that the status quo in Kosovo, which has been under U.N. administration since mid-1999, is unsatisfactory. "We think that return of Kosovo to Serb sovereignty is neither desirable, nor realistic," Calmy Rey said after meeting with the province's President Ibrahim Rugova.
"The evolution toward formal independence of Kosovo must happen under close international monitoring as well as through discussions and negotiations with Serb authorities in Belgrade," she added.
Kosovo officially remains a province of Serbia-Montenegro. It has been administered by the United Nations for the past six years following NATO's air war aimed at stopping the crackdown of Serb troops on the province's separatist ethnic Albanians.
Since then, Kosovo has remained split between ethnic Albanians who want it to be independent and ethnic Serbs who want it to remain part of Serbia.
Some 200,000 Serbs and other minorities have left Kosovo in the aftermath of the 1998-1999 war fearing attacks by ethnic Albanian extremists. Many Albanians want revenge for the killing of an estimated 10,000 of their ethnic kin by Serb forces during the crackdown.
The Serbs who remain live mainly in isolated enclaves, some guarded by NATO-led peacekeepers.
U.N. officials have proposed a set of reforms meant to improve the life for minorities and stabilize the province. If those standards are met, talks to solve the contentious issue of the province's political future could start later this year.
Calmy-Rey said Serbs and other minorities living in Kosovo should have equal access to public infrastructure, social services, economic opportunities, education and security.
Later on Monday, Calmy-Rey will join some 220 Swiss soldiers stationed in Suva Reka, a southern Kosovo town, to celebrate the Swiss national day.
The soldiers are part of the 17,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force which has patrolled Kosovo since the end of the conflict.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Moldovan president wants closer ties with NATO
Associated Press, 8/5/05
Moldova's president Vladimir Voronin called Friday for closer ties with NATO, saying he hoped for support from the Western military alliance in resolving a separatist crisis.
Voronin said NATO has agreed to develop an individual action plan for Moldova in its Partnership for Peace program for nonmember states. He said he received a letter from NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, saying the plan could be signed in 2006.
Voronin said Moldova would benefit from closer political and military ties with NATO without giving up its neutral status.
The cooperation with NATO will "lead to modernizing Moldova's military and enable the country to contribute to fighting international terrorism and stopping weapons smuggling," Voronin said.
Once strongly pro-Russian, Voronin has made a complete turnaround in his foreign policy since 2003, over the Kremlin's support for a Russian-speaking separatist province in eastern Moldova.
Trans-Dniester broke away from Moldova in 1992 after a short war which left more than 1,500 people dead. Russia supports the separatists and maintains about 1,500 troops in Trans-Dniester despite the Moldovan government's request that the troops be pulled out.
Nepal capital safer but protests continue six months after royal coup
Shusham Shrestha, Agence France Presse, 8/2/05
Six months after he seized power to combat a Maoist rebellion in Nepal, security has improved in the capital but King Gyanendra is still bitterly criticised for removing democracy.
While tight military controls have reduced violence and brightened the business climate in Kathmandu, analysts warn that little has changed elsewhere in the country.
"Though Kathmandu seems to be okay and closures don't affect it, those areas and highways outside the capital face closures every day," said Subodh Pyakurel, president of the Informal Sector Service Centre human rights group, referring to military shut-downs prompted by security alerts. "Despite the king's pledge of maintaining peace and security in the country, (the) law and order situation is turning from bad to worse except in Kathmandu," said political analyst and professor Lok Raj Baral.
Gyanendra sacked a four-party coalition government on February 1, pledging to restore security and improve services in the impoverished Himalayan kingdom where a Maoist insurgency has claimed around 12,000 lives since 1996.
The move drew sharp condemnation from around the world and isolated Nepal diplomatically, with India, Britain and the United States reviewing supplies of military and humanitarian aid.
Six months on, protests demanding a return to democracy continue almost daily, Nepal's once vibrant media remains under stringent censorship and political opponents including the deposed prime minister are in jail. "During this period, all the institutions of the country changed from bad to worse," said Baral. "Nepal is now a collapsed state," Pyakurel said. "If it had been a failed state, it could have been revived or repaired but now it has gone beyond that stage."
The nation of 27 million people saw an initial dramatic drop in tourism, a mainstay of the economy, and stepped-up violence by Maoist rebels including a bus bombing which killed 38 passengers in June.
Maoist leader Prachanda later said the rebels would not target civilians and called the bus bombing a mistake.
Now tourists from neighbouring India, who shunned Nepal after the takeover, are starting to return but European arrivals remain down. "Those countries who had earlier issued negative travel advisories asking their citizens to keep away from Nepal are more relaxed now," said Nepal Tourism Board media consultant Sharad Pradhan.
He said that in June, tourist arrivals by air increased one percent to 18,840 people compared to the same month a year ago. Indian visitor numbers increased by five percent but European arrivals were down by 12 percent.
Gyanendra drew further fire when a royal anti-graft commission sentenced deposed prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba late last month to two years in jail for corruption.
The king now faces a possible alliance of Maoist rebels and disgruntled political parties campaigning for an early return to multi-party democracy.
However, the king remains defiant and says he has a three-year plan to restore democracy and stability.
And some residents and business leaders appreciate the lower levels of violence in the capital. "I arrived here only recently so I don't really know about the past but right now I think Kathmandu seems to be safe. I can even go out late at night these days with my family and friends," said Rajani Mukhiya, principal of Rupy's International School.
An executive with a leading insurance company in Kathmandu, who declined to be named, said business was better because Maoist arson attacks were down. "In comparison to the situation prior to the royal takeover, it is much better now. We are doing good business," he said.
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Washington remains 'considerably concerned' over terrorism in Philippines: U.S. official
Jim Gomez, Associated Press, 8/1/05
The United States is concerned about the presence of foreign terrorists and local Muslim militants in the southern Philippines, a U.S. diplomat said Monday.
Outgoing U.S. Charge d'Affaires Joseph Mussomeli repeated a controversial statement, first made in April, that parts of the southern Mindanao region could potentially turn into another Afghanistan.
At the time, his remarks unleashed a flurry of condemnation from politicians and militant groups, some of whom called for his expulsion. The Philippine government summoned Mussomeli to protest his remarks; he refused to apologize.
"Nothing has changed in our assessment of Mindanao," Mussomeli told a news conference. "We still see both considerable hope and considerable concern for what might happen there. "There are a lot of things that disturb us - the enormous poverty, the lack of education, the dearth of employment possibilities ... and the fact that there are foreign terrorists running around through the porous borders of certain portions of Mindanao. None of that has changed," he said.
U.S. officials have expressed concern over the presence of terror training camps run by al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, saying they could produce militants capable of striking anywhere. The U.S. military has been providing training, weapons and equipment to Filipino troops battling militants in the south.
Mussomeli did praise the government for not losing focus in the fight against terrorism despite a political crisis hounding President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over vote-rigging allegations.
While the crisis riveted most of the nation, Filipino troops have been engaged in a weekslong U.S.-backed offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, a small group also linked to al-Qaida, in southern Maguindanao province.
The United States has allocated a considerable chunk of aid to projects in conflict-affected areas to help ease conditions that foster rebellion, Mussomeli said.
He also said that Filipino soldiers receiving U.S. military training are vetted to make sure they are not linked to human rights violations. "If you're training people who are abusing human rights, you're going to be breeding more terrorists and if not more terrorists, at least more terrorist sympathizers," he said.
Arroyo calls for honest, peaceful elections in Moslem region
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 8/7/05
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Sunday called for honest and peaceful elections in the country's autonomous Moslem region, which are being held amid a political crisis sparked by vote-rigging allegations against her.
Thousands of security forces have been placed on alert amid concerns of violence and fraud during Monday's regional elections in the Autonomous Region in Moslem Mindanao (ARMM).
The United States and member countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference have dispatched dozens of observers for the elections, considered as a "litmus test" to the country's electoral system amid the fraud charges against Arroyo.
"I call on the voters of the ARMM to freely exercise their right to suffrage in Monday's elections," Arroyo said in a statement. "The democratic power of the people lies in freely choosing their leaders."
Arroyo assured voters that the military and the police would safeguard their votes as well as remain "non-partisan and fair" during the elections.
She also urged teachers who serve as election officers during the vote, volunteers and candidates "to protect the integrity of the polls."
"Let us have an election that is free from goons, guns and gold - one that will strengthen autonomy, reject extremism, bring pride to our people and result in the election of leaders who will bring the ARMM to new horizons of peace and prosperity," she said.
The ARMM covers the impoverished provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur - home to most of the country's 2.41 million Moslem population.
The region is considered rich in mineral, marine and agricultural resources, but remains impoverished due to neglect from the national government and more than three decades of Moslem insurgency.
Threats from local and foreign terrorist groups, which reportedly train in several ARMM areas, have also plagued the region.
Security officials have identified 115 hotspots in the ARMM where violence could erupt during the elections of the region's governor and vice governor as well as 24 members of its legislative assembly. "We have placed our policemen on full alert," said police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil. "We have to ensure peaceful elections."
Some 1.2 million people will vote in the polls, while a total of 114 candidates are vying for the 26 posts at stake, including seven vying for the gubernatorial post.
The region last elected its officials in September 1996. Elections were supposed to be held every three years, but they were often postponed due to security concerns and lack of funds.
Incumbent Governor Parouk Hussin, a leader of the Moro National Liberation Front which signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996, withdrew from the race after his call for postponement of the polls was rejected by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
"I believe pursuing the scheduled August 8 ARMM elections will do the country more harm than good," Hussin said in his letter of withdrawal sent to the Comelec last Thursday.
Hussin argued that the government and the Comelec might not be able to ensure credible elections amid a political crisis sparked by vote-rigging allegations against Arroyo.
The crisis erupted in June with the release of wiretapped conversations allegedly between Arroyo and a senior election official about fixing the May 2004 presidential polls.
ARMM provinces were mentioned several times in the wiretapped conversations as areas where alleged vote-shaving and vote-padding operations were conducted in favor of Arroyo.
The vote-rigging allegations have plunged the Arroyo government into its worst political crisis, triggering persistent calls for her resignation.
Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos said it was already too late to postpone the elections saying too much time and money have already been spent.
Abalos added that all elections officials in the area, especially those mentioned in the wiretapped conversations have been relieved of their poll duties and officials from outside ARMMwere being used to ensure a credible and honest elections.
Task Force Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections (Hope), a local election watchdog accredited by the Comelec, vowed to do its best to block "flying voters" from casting their ballots.
"We will limit the number of voters in a precinct to about 10 to 15 at a time to allow officials to ferret out flying voters," said Hope Chairman Mohammad bin Dolorfino.
Dolorfino said much was at stake in the ARMM elections in the wake of the allegations of massive cheating there in the 2004 polls. "This is a litmus test since everyone will be watching us," he said. "If we are successful, the elections will have a stabilizing effect (on the political situation). We cannot afford to fail in this electoral exercise, since the stakes are high."
Serbs remember their dead and missing on 10th anniversary of exodus from Croatia
Jovana Gec, Associated Press, 8/4/05
Serbia accused Croatia of intentionally purging its Serb population in a 1995 military blitz, as Croatian Serbs remembered their dead and missing Thursday on the 10th anniversary of the campaign.
Hundreds of Croatian Serb refugees, holding pictures of their loved ones, placed roses in front of the Croatian Embassy in Belgrade and demanded answers about the fate of the hundreds of people still unaccounted for from the military operation.
The head of Serbia's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle, held a religious ceremony at a Belgrade church. President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica were among top Serbian officials who attended the ceremony. "Serbia and the whole Serb nation today remember thousands of innocent people who were killed and hundreds of thousands of Serbs that were expelled from their homes," Kostunica said in a statement.
"A whole nation ... was rooted out in just a few days," he added. "The column of refugees ... was a horrific crime ... and the biggest ethnic cleansing since World War II."
Tadic also told the Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that "what happened was an intentional and contrived purging of citizens of a different faith and national identity."
The ceremonies in Serbia stood in sharp contrast with the victory celebrations in Croatia, illustrating deep divisions that still plague relations between the Balkan neighbors.
The Serb-Croat war erupted in 1991, when Serbia backed Croatian Serbs' rebellion against the country's independence from the ex-Yugoslavia. The Serbs then took control of about one-third of Croatia, forming a self-styled rebel state, with the backing and support of Belgrade.
But in August 1995, Croatia launched a massive military operation to recapture the lands and did so in just a few days, sending convoys of Serbs in cars and on horse-drawn carts toward Serbia. Only dozens of elderly Serbs stayed behind and many were killed or faced harassment by Croat troops.
Ten years later, tens of thousands of Croatian Serbs still live in Serbia, many in refugee camps, unable to return to their homes in Croatia, despite Zagreb's proclaimed willingness to have them back.
The Croatian Serb refugees tried to hand a list of the missing to Croat diplomats in Belgrade on Thursday, but no one appeared in front of the embassy. They instead placed the list on the pavement, along with some 2,600 roses for the dead and the missing.
In Zagreb, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that "we are proud of those days because we liberated the occupied territories."
He, however, added that "the victory obliges us to remove from it any shadow of anyone's individual undignified or revengeful act."
At cemeteries across Croatia Thursday, people laid wreaths for thousands of their kin killed by rebel Serbs during the war. On Friday, Croatian leaders will attend the main ceremony in the southeastern city of Knin - once the seat of rebel territory - marking the country's liberation 10 years ago.
The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, has indicted several Croatian generals for the crimes committed against the Serbs. The top Croat suspect, former Gen. Ante Gotovina, remains at large, blocking Croatia's integration into the European Union.
Croatia's EU bid also hinges on its willingness to allow the return of its Serbs and return of their property.
Kostunica said in his statement that the return of the Croatian Serbs to Croatia is "the only way that leads to true peace, justice, reconciliation and the European future."
UN envoy urges dialogue among rival Somali leaders
Agence France Presse, 8/3/05
The UN special envoy for Somalia on Wednesday urged rival Somali leaders to engage in dialogue to break a bitter stalemate over the seat of the country's transitional government that threatens nascent efforts to restore stability to the anarchic nation. "They need to talk to each other and overcome differences as requested by the UN," said the envoy, Francois Fall, who met here with influential Somali parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden.
Aden, along with some government members and the powerful warlords who control the Somali capital Mogadishu, are vehemently opposed to transitional plans by president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi to set up shop away from the city.
Yusuf and Gedi insist that for security reasons the government must base itself in the town of Jowhar, where they are now holed up about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Mogadishu after moving to Somalia from exile in Kenya last month.
The split has prompted threats of renewed widespread conflict in the country and effectively stalled efforts to restore governance in Somalia which was plunged into anarchy after the ouster of strongman Mohamad Siad Barre in 1991.
Fall's trip to Mogadishu on Wednesday was his second to Somalia this week aimed at selling a new UN plan to overcome the divisions that was greeted cooly by Gedi in Jowhar on Monday. "The first task of the mission is to minimize tensions and create an atmosphere of trust among the Somali leaders," Fall said after wrapping up talks with Aden with whom Yusuf met last month in Yemen in an unsuccessful bid to bridge the gaps.
Aden had welcomed Fall's visit and said his faction was "ready to support his mediation efforts to bring together the Somali federal institutions that are divided since its formation in Kenya."
"This is a government of reconciliation and we have to accept our responsibility to bring the government together in order to bring Somalis together," he said.
On Monday, Gedi maintained that reconciliation was primarily the job of the government and could not be delegated to outsiders, but accepted the value of UN input in resolving the crisis.
Asked about that stance, Somali Internal Security Minister Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, an ally of Aden, said in Mogadishu on Monday that the rift had to be healed somehow that any attempt to undermine UN mediation would be seen as sabotage.
"I and those who share common ideas with me will use their muscles to bring peace," he told AFP. "We will not accept peace to be held hostage by a few people."
Fall's plan proposes Jowhar as the seat of the federal government, the formation of a national security council to oversee the drafting of a new ceasefire agreement, disarmament and the formation of the police and army.
While agreeing on Jowhar as at least the temporary home of the government, Yusuf and Gedi have expressed reservations about the remaining parts of the proposals, saying they already have plans in place for those issues.
The UN proposal also calls for a high-level meeting between the government, parliament and the international community to strengthen the government and stabilize Somalia.
Norwegian mediator puts work in Sri Lanka on hold
Agence France Presse, 8/1/05
A leading Norwegian mediator in the ongoing peace process in Sri Lanka said on Monday he would put his mediation work on hold to participate in Norway's general election campaign next month.
Erik Solheim, who headed up Norway's Socialist Left Party between 1987 and 1997, will halt his work on the Sri Lankan peace negotiations from Monday until after the Norwegian elections on September 12 in order to contribute to his former party's campaign.
This sabbatical comes at a time when a ceasefire agreed upon by the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in February 2002 appears to be on shaky ground amid increased violence in the country since February.
Tensions rose further after the Sri Lankan Supreme Court last month decided to block a landmark aid sharing deal aimed at helping victims of last December's devastating tsunami, which left nearly 31,000 people dead in the island nation and one million homeless.
The court, citing constitutional issues, blocked the deal to share foreign aid between Colombo and Tiger rebels who have waged a separatist war that has killed more than 60,000 people since 1972.
Solheim insisted that his break from the Sri Lankan mediation work would not have a negative impact on the peace process. "I have been working in Sri Lanka for five years, and a six-week absence is not likely to change much," he told AFP, adding that "if a situation arises in which I would be useful, of course I will return to my assignment".
While rumor in Norway has it that Solheim is aiming for a ministerial position in a possible leftist coalition government after the elections, he insisted that it was too early to speculate. "It's not reasonable to talk about a ministerial position at this time. At the moment, this is about doing everything possible to ensure that our electoral campaign is a success," he said.
"Regardless of the election results, I will be ready to return to my role in Sri Lanka after the vote," he added.
Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen is meanwhile scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka this week for talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and LTTE leaders in an attempt to get the tsunami aid deal and the peace process back on track.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Garang successor urges calm in southern Sudan, vows to pursue development
Agence France Presse, 8/2/05
The new leader of southern Sudan's ex-rebel group on Tuesday urged calm after the weekend death of John Garang and vowed to pursue his predecessor's commitment to the landmark peace deal signed with Khartoum in January.
As he stressed the need of following through on the agreement that ended 21 years of north-south civil war, General Salva Kiir also made clear the importance of a provision in the pact that allows southern Sudan to secede if it wants in 2011.
In his first comments to international journalists since replacing the late Garang as head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) late Monday, the 54-year-old Kiir called on the country not to let Garang's death compromise peace.
"The message is to remain calm and peaceful," he told a small group of reporters here at the SPLM/A base where the body of the charismatic Garang was brought after it was recovered from the wreckage of a Ugandan helicopter that crashed Saturday.
"There cannot be any development when there is no peace," Kiir said, expressing dismay at reports that Garang's death had sparked deadly riots between north and south Sudanese in Khartoum and violent protests in parts of the southern Sudan.
He said he sympathized with southern Sudanese who believe the passing of the charismatic and respected Garang has jeopardized the peace deal but counselled patience, maintaining that they would see great benefits over time. "They have right to say that they have lost hope, but they are wrong to rush to such a judgment," said the bearded Kiir, his face pocked with traditional scarring, wearing a gray shirt and trousers with flip-flops and a maroon cap.
"If we start implementing the articles (of the peace agreement) one by one, they will regain hope," he said, adding though that "it is not a matter of 24 hours. It will take time to rebuild the country."
Garang died just three weeks after being sworn in as first vice president of Sudan and president of southern Sudan, which under the January 9 peace deal, will be autonomous for six years before holding a referendum on secession.
As his longtime deputy and successor, Kiir is expected to take over those duties sometime after Garang's funeral on Saturday in Juba, the town that will soon be the capital for the autonomous region of southern Sudan. "John Garang has been my comrade for a very long time," he said, recalling their first meeting in 1970 at the tail end of the Sudan's first civil war from 1955 to 1972 after which their rebel army was integrated into the Sudanese army.
Despite the peace then, southern Sudan continued to suffer, prompting Garang and Kiir to return to the bush in 1983 to launch the second war, he said. "What motivated us? Nothing was improving," Kiir said. "Things went from bad to worse ... injustice, inequality, no development, no employment in the south. When the D-day came, we went to the bush and established the movement."
Kiir said he remained a firm supporter of the painstakingly negotiated agreement that ended the latest 21 years of north-south conflict, Africa's longest-running civil war, and is seen by many as a possible template for a settlement to the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region.
"The agreement ... can restore the dignity of the people of Sudan," he said, stressing that it gives the southern Sudanese the "right of self-determination" after the six year period of autonomy is over that began on July 9. "We will have to stay for six years in an interim period and after, southern Sudan will be asked to determine if Sudan remains a united counry or if they opt for their own country," Kiir said.
"It is the decision of the people that matters," he said outside a small building here where mourners were filing past Garang's flag-draped coffin. "If they want to break away, that's their decision and it should be respected."
Asked whether independence was his objective, Kiir replied in the same enigmatic that Garang often used in answering similar questions. "Let us cross the bridge when we reach it," he said.
Why Darfur Can't Be Left to Africa
Susan E. Rice, The Washington Post, 8/7/05
When South African President Thabo Mbeki visited President Bush in June, he sought to silence any suggestion that non-Africans contribute troops to halt the genocide in Darfur. "It's critically important that the African continent should deal with these conflict situations on the continent," Mbeki declared. "And that includes Darfur. . . . We have not asked for anybody outside of the African continent to deploy troops in Darfur. It's an African responsibility, and we can do it."
Mbeki was reflecting the laudable desire of many African governments to chart their own future and clean up their own messes. Part of their motive is pride and self-reliance, though there may also be reluctance to admit that the nascent African Union (A.U.) still lacks the robust military capability to which it aspires. There may also be fear of antagonizing the Sudanese government with the prospect of Western intervention. Finally, as one African ambassador explained to me, following the Iraq war and Abu Ghraib, many African leaders are skeptical of U.S. intentions and the effectiveness of our forces in dealing with Muslim populations.
Whatever its mix of motives, the African Union has absolved reluctant Western countries of any responsibility to consider sending their own troops, and the U.S. government is undoubtedly grateful.
But the conspiracy of absolution is starting to unravel. At a recent press conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Senegal's Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio declared the situation in Darfur "totally unacceptable." Moments earlier, Rice had stated: "We have worked hard, and we have been able to avert some of the humanitarian disaster that was forecast." To the secretary's evident irritation, Gadio lectured: "Madam Secretary, you know, you have to deal with the facts on the ground. . . . Those militias, they're still very active . . . killing people, burning villages, raping women."
Then Gadio exploded the myth -- perpetuated by African and Western leaders alike -- that the A.U. troops alone can stop the killing in Darfur. Senegal, with its long record of effective peacekeeping, is slated to join the A.U. force. Still, its foreign minister confessed: "We are totally dissatisfied with the fact that the African Union . . . has asked the international community to allow it to be an African solution to an African problem, and unfortunately the logistics from our own governments did not follow." Now, he said, "The U.N. Security Council, the European Union, the African Union, the United States -- we should all come together in a new way of dealing with the suffering of the people of Darfur . . . . We have to do something."
By some estimates, the genocide in Darfur may have already claimed as many as 400,000 lives. Almost 2 million people are internally displaced, many languishing in crude camps where they are unable to plant crops or return to their burned-out villages. The government of Sudan, along with the militia it has armed and trained, is responsible for the genocide. While the pace of the killing has diminished in recent months, since there are few villages left to burn, the Sudanese government continues to support the militias that prey on vulnerable civilians, especially women. As Rice affirmed during her recent trip to Africa: "By our accounts, it was and is genocide."
To date, the primary U.S. response has been to combat this genocide with humanitarian assistance. The United States and Europe also support A.U.-led negotiations to end the conflict, which preceded the genocide, and have partially funded the A.U. military mission. NATO is airlifting additional African troops into Darfur and will conduct map exercises for A.U. headquarters personnel.
The sum of this policy is to pass the military buck to the African Union. The A.U. guards this buck jealously and has done its best on the ground in Darfur. But the unfortunate truth is this: the African Union's best is not yet good enough. Where it is deployed, the A.U. has performed heroically and greatly increased security for civilians. But the A.U. force is critically undermanned and has an impossibly weak mandate, limited to monitoring rather than enforcing the nonexistent ceasefire and protecting only those people facing an imminent threat within the force's immediate vicinity. Because the Sudanese government retains primary responsibility for protecting the same civilians it is targeting, innocents continue to be killed with impunity.
More than one year after it took on the Darfur mission, the African Union has deployed only roughly 3,000 troops to cover an area the size of Texas. The A.U. has committed itself to increasing its force to 7,700 by late September, but U.S. officials doubt it will meet that target. Even if the A.U. force reaches full strength on time, it will still be too small to protect many of the displaced persons scattered across more than 100 camps and insecure areas. The A.U. is considering further increasing its force to 12,000 by the second quarter of 2006 but has made no firm decision to do so. The additional troops are not yet identified, much less available.
Since African governments alone cannot quickly muster the troops needed to halt the killing in Darfur, the rest of the international community cannot sidestep this mission. The International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent nongovernmental organization and a leading authority on Darfur, estimates that at least 12,000 to 15,000 NATO troops, with a new enforcement mandate, are needed to adequately protect civilians at risk. ICG suggests that NATO deploy a "bridging force" consisting of a brigade or two to bolster the A.U. mission. The force should include at least a small U.S. presence and remain in Darfur until African governments can deploy, with NATO assistance, at least 12,000 capable, well-equipped troops.
African Union resistance will be great, but may be mitigated if the NATO troops wear the blue helmets of the United Nations and receive the blessing of and funding from the U.N. Security Council. The government of Sudan will vigorously oppose a strengthened mandate and the inclusion of Western forces. China may use its Security Council veto to protect its oil partner, Sudan, from a U.N. force. But by what twisted logic should the perpetrators of genocide be allowed to engineer a veto of international action?
In the end, what matters isn't merely a matter of NATO logistics or U.N. mechanics. The bigger issue is whether countries such as the United States and international groups such as NATO and the A.U. embrace an emerging international norm that recognizes the "responsibility to protect" innocent civilians facing death on a mass scale and whose governments cannot or will not protect them. This norm should prevail preferably with U.N. assent, but without it if necessary. That's why NATO was right to act in Kosovo, even when Russia prevented U.N. authorization. If Sudan opposed NATO participation in Darfur, the alliance would have to make more of a military commitment than just back-stopping the A.U., but Sudan is hardly Serbia. Unless we are prepared to accept that African lives are less important than European lives, why would we do less in Sudan?
Never is the international responsibility to protect more compelling than in cases of genocide. Genocide is not a regional issue. A government that commits or condones it is not on a par with one that, say, jails dissidents, squanders economic resources or suppresses free speech, as dreadful as such policies may be. Genocide makes a claim on the entire world and it should be a call to action whatever diplomatic feathers it ruffles.
Americans and Europeans can make several excuses for continuing to watch from the sidelines, but none is entirely persuasive. U.S. and NATO forces are overstretched in Afghanistan and Iraq, but NATO announced last October that its Response Force has reached 17,000 troops and is "ready to take on the full range of missions." Western military intervention in another Muslim country could create a new front for jihadist attacks. However, it is hard to see how allowing this fear to deter us from saving Muslim lives would salve anti-American hostility in the Muslim world.
U.S. and European officials have also hailed the new national unity government in Khartoum, which has incorporated southern rebel leaders, as offering hope that the genocide will soon end. This was an optimistic assumption even before the tragic death last weekend of John Garang, the popular southern Sudanese leader and newly inaugurated first vice president. Now it seems even less likely. The Khartoum government is still run by individuals complicit in this genocide. The newly incorporated southern leaders are unlikely to be informed of, much less able to stop, government-backed militia activity in Darfur.
The ultimate excuse for European and U.S. inaction remains the unconvincing notion that the African Union, by itself, can halt the killing quickly.
One day in the not distant future, the A.U. and sub-regional African organizations may indeed have the capacity, as Mbeki envisions, "to deal with conflict situations on the continent." They are already doing much to bring peace to the conflict zones of West Africa and Burundi. (Wealthy donor countries can expedite the establishment of strong African intervention forces by investing even more in building five regional A.U. brigades.)
In the meantime, we should not lose sight of the fact that conflict and genocide are fundamentally different phenomena, even though they may occur in tandem as in Darfur and Rwanda. Genocide, as distinct from conflict, is a crime against all humanity regardless of race, religion or region, and it is the obligation of the entire world to stop it. In Rwanda, humanity -- the U.N., Americans, Europeans and Africans -- failed to halt the killing. In Darfur, despite the African Union's belated best efforts, the world's nations are still failing. This time, our failure lies in accepting the dubious proposition that halting genocide against Africans is solely "an African responsibility."
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
Click here to access the Report prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.