PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
(Volume V, Number 21)
Contents:
Domitien Ndayizey stripped of his parliamentary immunity before arrest.
Russian soldier,
two rebels killed in Chechnya clash
In an operation to arrest the two rebels.
Chechen government
says rebel leader Doku Umarov has surrendered
Terms of surrender of Chechen rebel leader still unclear.
Security to tighten for long-awaited DR Congo election result
With a second round presidential run-off looking highly likely, security
increased in Kinshasa on Sunday.
DRCongo toll
rises to five, Kinshasa reported calm
UN reports that the deaths resulted from gunfire in a series of incidents
in Kinshasa.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.
Identification documents with symbols of an independent state are currently
being distributed.
Georgia confirms
report of gun attack on UN observers in Abkhazia
Shootings aimed at armored UN vehicles, resulted in no injuries.
Building permanent peace in Aceh; One year later
Peace and hope are now seen as the rule rather than the exception in Aceh.
Indonesian president
calls for acceptance of initial Aceh law
In his state-of-the nation address to parliament, Yudhoyono says the law
will be a base "to build a more prosperous future in Aceh."
Aceh Negotiation Simulation Click
here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation.
Five 'rebel infiltrators' killed in Indian Kashmir: army
Islamic militants shot dead by Indian soldiers after they snuck across
the de facto border from the Pakistani zone.
Main Kashmiri
rebel group ready for talks but won't leave guns
But Prime Minister Singh has said New Delhi won't talk to a militant group
unless they first renounce violence and disarm.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation.
Kosovo
Annan selects new U.N. Kosovo envoy
Joachim Rucker says his main task will be to support Serb-ethnic Albanian
talks to decide who will govern the province and preparations to end the U.N.
mission's term.
New U.N. administrator
appeals to ethnic Albanians to help Kosovo's Serbs
Rucker says that minority communities in Kosovo, especially Serbs, need special
reassurances.
Gruevski says his cabinet that will stimulate the stagnant economy and fight
corruption and organized crime.
Arms rift keeps Maoists out of government; United States urges Nepali rebels
to change
Under June agreement, Maoists should have been in the interim government
by mid-July.
The plan hinges on whether the transitional government and the Islamic courts
group can agree on easing political tensions.
U.N. envoy pushes
for government and militants in Somalia to start talking
Francois Lonseny Fall urged UN's Security Council to compel transitional
government and the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts to pursue talks.
Somali Islamic
leaders condemn plans for peacekeeping mission to Somalia
Senior Islamic leaders ask their supporters to reject plans by a regional
African group to send in a peacekeeping mission.
Rights fears as Sri Lanka ceasefire team faces major cut
After LTTE ordered EU members to leave the state, the foreign team monitoring
the ceasefire will be almost halved.
U.S. and Britain introduce resolution to transfer peacekeeping
in Darfur to larger U.N. force
Resolution faced strong opposition by Sudanese government.
US warns Sudan
of consequences if it rejects UN peace force for Darfur
Possibility for a stepped-up international probe on alleged war crimes in
the war-torn region unless the Sudanese government complies with US-British
resolution.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG
Report.
Burundi's ex-president arrested over alleged coup plot
Esdras Ndikumana, Agence France Presse, 8/21/06
Burundi's former president Domitien Ndayizeye was arrested Monday in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the country's less than year-old government, officials said.
Ndayizeye, a serving lawmaker and Burundi's last transitional head of state before 2005 elections brought in a new power-sharing administration, was stripped of his parliamentary immunity before being detained, they said.
"He was summoned this morning by the Senate which withdrew his parliamentary immunity and then he was arrested by police," said Euphrasie Bigirimana, secretary of Ndayizeye's Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) party.
Bigirimana told AFP Ndayizeye was in custody and being questioned by police who have already arrested eight other suspects, including senior opposition officials, over the alleged plot to oust President Pierre Nkurunziza.
"We condemn the arrest of Domitien Ndayizeye. He has been arrested for an imaginary coup d'etat. It is ploy by the government to silence us," protested FORDEBU's chief Leonce Ngendakumana.
Officials said the government ordered the former president's arrest for suspicion of playing part in the alleged plans for the coup, which the UN mission here demanded a clarification.
"Ndayizeye was arrested on the orders of the attorney general," a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "He is suspected to have participated in the plot to destabilise the government."
A secret service official told AFP that the former president was "leading its preparation."
UN Mission in Burundi (ONUB) chief Nurreldin Satti called "for strict respect of the law and dignity of Domitien Ndayizeye."
"Once again we call we demand total clarity on this coup d'etat," Satti added.
At least 50 armed police were deployed around the attorney general's office where the ex-president, who led the tiny central African nation between May 2003 and August 2005, was questioned before his transfer to prison, an AFP correspondent said.
In addition to Ndayizeye and those already detaineed, several other suspects in the alleged plot are still being sought by the police, including Ndayizeye's former spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye and ex-protocol chief Isaie Simbare.
Details of the alleged plot remain sketchy and the arrests have been criticized by human rights groups after allegations of police mistreatment of those arrested thus far, although authorities have denied those charges.
Ndayizeye was succeeded by Nkurunziza in a complex series of polls last year after the adoption of a new constitution under a peace process aimed at returning democracy and stability to Burundi after more than a decade of war.
Ndayizeye, a Hutu, took over from then president Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, in a move aimed at redressing ethnic imbalance between the Hutus who make up 85 percent of the population and the Tutsis who account only for 14 percent.
He handed over power to Nkurunziza -- also a Hutu, and leader of the ex-rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy -- under the current power-sharing arrangement in which the two main ethnic groups have a 60-40 split.
Burundi has suffered several coups and attempted coups since it won independence from Belgium in 1962 and is currently struggling to emerge from its latest 13-year ethnically driven conflict that has claimed some 300,000 lives.
The war began in 1993 with the assassination of the country's first democratically elected president, a member of the Hutu majority, by elements of the then Tutsi-dominated military.
Burundi's main Tutsi party, UPRONA, has accused the government of using the alleged coup plot to divert attention from corruption scandals that are now dogging the administration.
Despite the election of the new administration that was hoped to return the country to peace after years of turmoil, Burundi continues to be plagued by insecurity, particularly raids by its last active Hutu rebel group.
South African-mediated peace talks between the government and the National
Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels being held in neighboring Tanzania are currently
deadlocked.
Russian soldier, two rebels killed in Chechnya clash
Agence France Presse, 8/17/06
A Russian soldier and two rebels were killed during an operation by security forces in Chechnya's largest city Grozny, the interior ministry said Thursday.
"During a special operation one soldier of the Zapad (West) battalion was killed," said Grigory Susarin, an interior ministry official at the Khankala army base in Chechnya.
The soldier, a member of the Zapad battalion formed from members of the Chechen population, was killed during an operation to arrest the two rebels, Susarin said.
"The two bandits were then killed," he told AFP.
One of the rebels, 26-year-old Dzhambulata Sadayev, was a local leader of the Chechen independence movement while the other, a 31-year-old, had been an informer for the police, he said.
Russian forces and the local pro-Moscow military continue to suffer regular losses in Chechnya seven years after Russian forces launched a full-scale assault on the territory in 1999 to defeat a rebel administration.
Chechen government says rebel leader Doku Umarov has surrendered
Kazbek Vakhayev, Associated Press, 8/18/06
The Chechen government said Friday that Doku Umarov, leader of Chechnya's separatist rebels, has surrendered.
Umarov took over the leadership of the rebel movement in June, following the killing by Russian forces of Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev. Umarov's importance to the rebel movement further increased in July after warlord Shamil Basayev, the most feared of the rebels, was killed.
Umarov turned himself in at the residence of Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov in Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city, Chechen government spokesman Lyoma Gudayev said.
Further details, including the terms of the surrender, were not immediately available. But Russia last month announced an amnesty for all fighters who turned themselves in.
Although Umarov did not have the charisma of Basayev, who was notorious for masterminding terror attacks including the 2004 Beslan school hostage seizure, his surrender would likely be a significant blow to the separatist movement that has been fighting Russian forces for most of the past dozen years.
Following Basayev's death July 10, nearly 120 insurgents turned themselves in under the amnesty, Russian officials said. The Chechen rebel forces were estimated to number only around 500.
"It's natural that he has given himself up, because he realizes there are no prospects and it's better to turn himself in than to keep fighting," said Alexei Malashenko, an authority on Chechnya at the Carnegie Endowment's office in Moscow.
Chechen separatists began fighting Russian forces in 1994. That war ended after 20 months when rebels fought the Russians to a standstill, forcing them to agree to a pullout that left the small region de-facto independent.
After the pullout, Chechnya elected rebel commander Aslan Maskhadov as president. But the republic became essentially lawless, plagued by ransom kidnappings and the rise of fundamentalist Islamic insurgents led by Basayev.
Russian forces stormed back into Chechnya in September 1999. Major offensive actions died down after about two years as Russian forces took firm control of most of the republic. However, rebels remained strong in Chechnya's mountainous south and clashed with Russian forces in small skirmishes and with booby-trapped explosives.
Maskhadov was killed in 2005 and Sadulayev took over, only to be killed himself about a year later, after which Umarov was chosen as president of the Chechen rebels' self-declared government.
Chechnya is under the administrative control of a civilian government backed
by the Kremlin. The government was elected in balloting widely criticized as
fraudulent.
Security to tighten for long-awaited DR Congo election result
Agence France Presse, 8/20/06
Security was to be tightened in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital Kinshasa on Sunday evening for the release of provisional presidential election results, with a second round presidential run-off looking highly likely.
After a fraught three-week wait for the results, the streets of Kinshasa were calm a few hours ahead of the long-awaited outcome, and no disturbances were reported in the vast central African nation.
Security sources said a "light reinforcement" would be put into place later on Sunday in Kinshasa, with police set to patrol the main arteries and public buildings of the capital, one of sub-Saharan Africa's largest cities.
Despite a substantial lead, results published by the country's Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) on Sunday indicated that incumbent President Joseph Kabila has failed to earn more than 50 percent of the vote that would have guaranteed an outright win.
As a result the election is widely expected to go into a second round run-off between Kabila and his closest rival, vice-presidents and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba.
Figures based on 85 percent of the ballots cast gave Kabila 48 percent, while Bemba was in second place with 17 percent.
The figures were compiled by AFP based on results from each district published by the CEI.
Results were still due from around 20 of DRC's 169 voting districts, mostly in the centre of the country and in parts of the capital Kinshasa.
"It is evident today that there will be a second round," a Western diplomat said on the condition of anonymity.
A European Union election observer, Jean-Michel Dumont, said it was no longer possible for Kabila to win outright, considering which districts still had to file their results.
"A second round seems certain," he said.
Several election observers have expressed relief that a run-off would be held, as an outright win for Kabila could have stoked violence, particularly in western regions and Kinshasa, where support for Bemba is strong.
"Tension would have been very high without a second round," the western diplomat said.
The electoral commission is due to announce full provisional results of the July 30 poll, the country's first free multi-party ballots in 46 years which fielded 32 candidates, late on Sunday.
The definitive outcome of the presidential and parliamentary election will be announced by the Supreme Court no later than August 31 after examination of possible objections.
If results confirm that no one has won outright, the country's 25 million voters will be called back to the urns for a run-off round on October 29.
The DRC's Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba on Saturday appealed to the 32 presidential candidates to "accept the verdict of the ballot boxes" or use legal methods only to lodge an objection.
"The Congolese people have suffered so much from the throes of war. ... It is time to stop the destruction of this country," Mbemba said.
The parliamentary and presidential election three weeks ago were the first free multiparty polls in the former Zaire since it gained independence from Belgium 46 years ago.
It is hoped that the polls will cement a fragile transitional period following the country's brutal five-year war which ended in 2003 after drawing in six foreign armies and killing more than three million people.
In the event of a second round, Kabila and Bemba will try to woo supporters of the lesser candidates, notably those of veteran politician Antoine Gizenga, currently in third place with 11 percent, and Nzanga Mobutu, son of the country's former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was fourth with five percent.
Kabila, Africa's youngest head of state, came to power in 2001, aged just 29, after the murder of his father, President Laurent-Desire Kabila.
He was immediately accused by critics of being insufficiently Congolese due to his long years in exile and his poor grasp of both French and Lingala, the language of the capital and western DRC.
But the boyish Kabila has slowly won over the Congolese and Western leaders by helping to restore peace to a country on the brink of disintegration and producing its first multi-party polls in 46 years.
Bemba, a fiery 43-year-old wealthy businessman, is the former head a rebel group backed by Uganda in the war. As economy and finance minister, he prides himself on having brought inflation under control and returned the country's economy to growth.
DRCongo toll rises to five, Kinshasa reported calm
Agence France Presss, 8/21/06
At least five people are now known to have died during the night in gunfire in a series of incidents in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said Monday.
But according to the UN mission in the Congo (MONUC) Kinshasa was calm after the violence Sunday night, when provisional results of the July 30 presidential poll were announced.
"Our security services have reported five deaths, but that toll remains to be confirmed and could rise," said MONUC's deputy spokesman Jean-Tobie Okala.
MONUC and police sources reported that the dead included a soldier from the bodyguard of vice-president and presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba, and a member of the bodyguard of incumbent President Joseph Kabila, who were killed in a shoot out near Bemba's headquarters.
A civilian was also killed near MONUC headquarters, a member of the security forces was killed near a military camp, and an unidentified Japanese man was killed in front of Kinshasa's central post office.
Intensive localised firing was heard in several areas of central Kinshasa from early evening and lasted for several hours.
It died down around midnight when armoured vehicles from MONUC and the regular DRC army deployed in the city.
There was little traffic in Kinshasa Monday morning.
Provisional results announced Sunday evening by the independent electoral commission gave Kabila a little under 45 percent of the vote and Bemba just over 20 percent.
The two men will face each other in a run-off election on October 29.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here
to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International
Law & Policy Group.
Unrecognized South Ossetia starts distributing national ID
RIA Novosti, 8/15/06
MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Identification documents with symbols of an independent state are being distributed in South Ossetia, a self-proclaimed republic in Georgia, the republic's information and press committee said Tuesday.
The majority of people in South Ossetia, where the leadership has stated its ambitions to join the neighboring Russian republic of North Ossetia, already hold Russian passports and the ruble is widely used.
"A passport with symbols of an independent state is one of the most important
attributes of the South Ossetian Republic," the state committee said. "Proposals
to introduce national ID were made back in the 1990s, but they were unfortunately
ignored by the republic's leadership at that time."
Alan Pliyev, the unrecognized republic's deputy foreign minister, said besides
the practical purpose, the sense of patriotism and respect for the homeland,
the internal passport sent a message to the global community, which he said
was calling on the republic to form a single state with another territory.
South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, sparking a bloody conflict in the region. Russia mediated ceasefire agreements between the sides, and Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the conflict zones ever since. But the current Georgian leadership is determined to bring the separatist region back into Tbilisi's fold.
Georgia confirms report of gun attack on UN observers in Abkhazia
RIA Novosti, 8/17/06
TBILISI, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - The chief Georgian military observer confirmed Thursday a report that UN military observer vehicles had been fired on in the zone of a conflict between Georgia and its breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Abkhazian secret services previously said that assailants had fired from automatic weapons on two UN observers' vehicles.
Valery Japaridze said, "I can confirm that a patrol in the Gali District
[of Abkhazia] was shot at. UN patrol vehicles are armored, so no one was hurt."
The Georgian observer said an investigation into the incident was under way.
"It is not yet clear who shot at the cars. UN observers themselves do not know who shot at them," he said.
Abkhazian law enforcers earlier said the shots could have been fired by Georgian sabotage groups. But Japaridze dismissed the idea as ridiculous.
The Georgian leadership has repeatedly pledged to bring Abkhazia under its control, a stance that has created tensions with neighboring Russia, which continues to have close links with the region.
Abkhazia declared its independence in 1992, which led to a conflict with Georgia that ended with a ceasefire two years later. Thousands died during the fighting.
On July 27, Georgian authorities said Abkhazia would be given a new "legitimate
government" based in the Kodori Gorge in northern Georgia, the only part
of Abkhazia that remains under Tbilisi's nominal control.
Building permanent peace in Aceh; One year later
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, The International Herald Tribune, 8/15/06
On Tuesday, Indonesians and especially the people of Aceh mark the anniversary of a momentous event. A year ago, the Aceh peace deal signed in Helsinki ended a vicious conflict that had divided and bled Aceh for three decades.
The conflict in Aceh was very difficult to resolve. Its dynamics seemed to deteriorate and harden every year. The positions of the Indonesian government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement, known as GAM, were so diametrically opposed they seemed insurmountable. Until the end of 2004, the prospects for peace seemed far away.
On Dec. 26, 2004, tragedy struck. A terrible tsunami destroyed much of Aceh, killed more than 200,000 people and left 500,000 homeless survivors. When I saw the destruction the day after the tsunami, I knew that long-term reconstruction would not be possible without peace.
I also saw that the Acehnese were now totally uninterested in the political conflict, which did not help their sufferings. So I immediately ordered that all military offensives be stopped to enable us to focus on relief operations. I also called on GAM to forget the conflict and to work together with all parties to help tsunami victims. A window of opportunity was created for the government to initiate renewed talks with GAM, which the separatists eventually accepted.
The first round of negotiations, facilitated by the Helsinki-based group Crisis Management Initiative, began in January 2005. In seven months the two sides reached a comprehensive political settlement, which centered on special autonomy arrangements within the context of a united Indonesia.
Today, Aceh is very different. The guns are silent, the hostilities are gone. In exchange for amnesty and full political, economic and social rights, GAM fighters have come down from the hills to become normal citizens.
Nonlocal soldiers and police officers have left Aceh. GAM leaders have returned from abroad. Former enemies are praying in the same mosques and playing soccer together. Recently, as required by the Helsinki Accord, the Indonesian Parliament passed a law that allows former GAM members to run for political office. In short, peace and hope are now the rule rather than the exception in Aceh.
The work is far from over, however. For what we seek is not any peace, but a permanent peace built on human security, political reconciliation, social unity and economic reconstruction. The absence of any of these elements would undermine peace.
As Aceh enters the crucial peace-building phase, its political elite must learn to work together in the new political framework. The process of give-and-take that emerged from the peace talks has to be emulated throughout Aceh's larger political society. Aceh's people are counting on the wise guidance of their leaders. They will need plenty of this in the next local elections, which will shape Aceh's political order in the years to come. Once Aceh gets passed that election, permanent peace will come closer.
A year after the peace accord was signed, several lessons can be drawn.
Perhaps the most important is that every conflict is amenable to a peaceful political solution. As Indonesia's president and a retired general, I knew that a military solution would not bring permanent peace to Aceh. The peace accord achieved what no military campaign could ever deliver: an immediate end to the fighting, the surrender and destruction of arms, the elimination of GAM as a military threat, security for our citizens and social cohesion, all without firing a bullet.
The other critical lesson is that no political solution can be lasting unless both sides stand to gain. In Aceh, a win-win solution was only obtained through hard bargaining based on a spirit of compromise.
The quest for peace involves great political risk, sometimes more risk than the waging of war. I have always believed that a permanent peace has to be supported in Jakarta and in Aceh. Without broad support, peace will not succeed. That is why in fighting for peace, leaders must project courage, determination and sincerity. And they cannot miss windows of opportunity, which come very rarely and like the tsunami sometimes in the deceptive form of a crisis.
Ultimately, peace is worth the effort. The Acehnese now stand before a new beginning. Neither side won the conflict, yet both sides have won the peace.
Indonesian president calls for acceptance of initial Aceh law
Agence France Presse, 8/16/06
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Wednesday a law cementing a year-old peace deal with separatist rebels in Aceh was a base that could be built on in the future.
Responding to criticisms among many Acehnese that it short-changed them on the autonomy they were promised under the historic peace pact, Yudhoyono said the law passed last month was a beginning.
"I call on all sides to accept this law well, as a base to build a more prosperous future in Aceh," Yudhoyono said in his state-of-the-nation address delivered to parliament on the eve of the country's 61st independence day.
He said the law had gone through a democratic and transparent debate and legislators had worked hard to produce it.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Aceh's capital Banda Aceh to mark a year of peace in the province. But they also urged the government to draft amendments to the law to bring it fully into line with the pact.
Critics say several articles effectively curtail the power of the local administration in areas such as natural resource management, while the role of the Indonesian military in Aceh remains unclear.
State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra told reporters at parliament that revisions and amendments could always be made.
"There are no perfect laws. There will always be those who are satisfied and dissatisfied. The law on governance in Aceh is an optimal result and it's better to implement it first," he said according to the state Antara news agency.
The law went through heated debate at parliament, with opponents saying that the government had given too much to Aceh.
The pact was signed in the wake of the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which slammed into Aceh's coastlines killing some 168,000 people. It ended 29 years of fighting in the province at the westernmost tip of Sumatra.
One of Asia's longest running separatist conflicts saw the death of an estimated 15,000 people, mostly civilians.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here
to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International
Law & Policy Group.
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast rebels, opposition join forces against Gbagbo
Agence France Presse, 8/17/06
Leaders of Ivory Coast's main opposition parties and rebels on Thursday jointly rejected anew President Laurent Gbagbo's attempts to extend his mandate beyond an October deadline set for elections.
In a statement at the end of talks the country's main opposition parties and the New Forces (FN) rebels controlling half of the country roundly accused Gbagbo of wanting to seize power.
The leaders "denounce and condemn the intentions affirmed by the head of state ... to confiscate state power without resorting to elections," said the statement.
The meeting included the FN rebel leader Guillaume Soro, former president Henri Konan Bedie and ex-premier Alassane Ouattara.
The leaders at the meeting sought a common stance on the pre-election process and the contentious issue of when the president's mandate should end, with just 10 weeks to go before a deadline to hold a leadership poll.
Leaders of two smaller parties -- Albert Mabri Toikeusse of the Union for Democracy and Peace in Ivory Coast (UDPCI) and Innocent Anaky of the Movement of Future Forces (MFA) -- also attended the talks at Bedie's residence in this central town.
They "firmly denounce and condemn the many obstacles to the peace process caused by the head of state" and again reject "any idea of extension" of his mandate beyond the date fixed by the UN for the organisation of presidential elections, according to the statement.
The leaders said they wanted to see the UN-backed pre-election registration exercise of undocumented Ivorians continue.
The pre-electoral population identification scheme of some 3.5 million undocumented Ivorians has stirred major disagreements between the pro-Gbagbo camp and the opposition in the war-divided country.
Gbagbo has hinted he wants to stay on until the next elections. His mandate was extended last year by the United Nations as part of peace efforts after elections failed to take place because of insufficient progress.
The UN set October 31 this year as a fresh deadline for elections, but given the slow progress in the peace process so far, a further delay in the polls looks likely this year.
The UN is due to discuss Gbagbo's mandate next month.
Ivory Coast, once an economic powerhouse and bastion of stability in west Africa,
has been split between a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north
since a failed coup against Gbagbo in September 2002.
Five 'rebel infiltrators' killed in Indian Kashmir: army
Agence France Presse, 8/16/06
Five Islamic rebels were shot dead in Indian Kashmir by Indian soldiers on Wednesday after they sneaked across the de facto border from the Pakistani zone, the Indian army said.
The deaths came a day after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed to "neutralise and smash" militants and urged Pakistan to crack down on "cross-border terrorism" in his Independence Day address to the nation.
"By killing the five, we've foiled a major militant infiltration attempt," an army spokesman said in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir where a revolt has raged against New Delhi's rule since 1989.
Soldiers were still battling militants in Kashmir's northern Machil sector after the fighting erupted late Tuesday, the spokesman added.
India accuses Pakistan of arming rebels and pushing them into Indian Kashmir across the Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region. Pakistan denies the charge, saying it gives only moral support to the insurgency and insists it is doing its best to prevent rebels from crossing into Indian Kashmir.
A peace process aimed at ending decades-old hostility between nuclear-armed rivals has stalled amid Indian police speculation that a series of train blasts in Mumbai last month that killed 183 people were the work of "elements" in Pakistan opposed to New Delhi's rule in Kashmir.
Separately, two young men died in crossfire late Tuesday between security forces and militants in southern Anantnag district, enraging locals who poured on to the streets in protest, police said.
Afterwards police said they wounded a man and three women when they opened fire on residents of Khandaypora village protesting the youths' deaths.
Police said they began firing after the demonstrators tried to break through a security cordon thrown around the protest.
The army has ordered a probe into the police firing.
The insurgency in Indian Kashmir has left more than 44,000 people dead since 1989 by official count. Separatists say the toll is at least double.
Main Kashmiri rebel group ready for talks but won't leave guns
Izhar Wani, Agence France Presse, 8/17/06
Indian Kashmir's largest Islamic militant group, Hizbul Mujahedin, said Thursday it was not "scared" of talks with New Delhi but insisted there be no conditions such as laying down arms.
Hizbul's comments came as the region's top separatist political figure, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said he would visit Belfast next month to study the Irish Good Friday peace deal to see if it could help resolve the Kashmir dispute.
"Hizbul Mujahedin was never scared of talks in the past nor is it against the process today," the group's spokesman, Junaid-ul-Islam, told local news agency Current News Service.
But he said if Indian leaders "were sincere they should not have put preconditions like renouncing of guns by Hizbul before the talks."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said New Delhi is willing to hold talks with any militant group as long as they first renounce violence and disarm.
"When India held talks with Naga militants such a condition was not there," said Islam, referring to a group active in Assam state.
"Hizbul wants to make it clear that the armed struggle will continue until India accepts the reality (that Kashmir is a disputed state)," Islam said.
Farooq urged talks between New Delhi and the militants but said neither side should set preconditions. He added, however, that four rounds of talks held by his moderate faction of Kashmir's separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, with New Delhi had yielded "nothing substantive."
Farooq said Hurriyat was conducting an "extensive study" of peace agreements around the world to see if any could help resolve the Kashmir dispute.
Farooq, who is also head priest or Mirwaiz of the region's main mosque, said he planned to visit Belfast in early September to study the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which largely ended political violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
"I will try to meet the parties involved and try to understand if there are any similarities between the Irish and Kashmiri problems and if that agreement can help in resolving the Kashmir dispute," Farooq said.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan each hold Kashmir in part but claim it in full. A revolt against New Delhi's rule since 1989 has claimed over 44,000 lives by official count and at least double that number according to the separatists.
A peace process aimed at ending decades-old hostility between the rivals has stalled amid Indian claims that militants responsible for deadly train blasts in Mumbai last month were helped by "elements" in Pakistan.
Pakistan, which has offered to help in India's probe into the blasts which
killed 183 people, has demanded proof of the allegation.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International
Law & Policy Group.
Annan selects new U.N. Kosovo envoy
United Press International, 8/15/06
The new U.N. envoy to Kosovo said Tuesday he will support efforts to smooth the future of Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian province by the end of the year.
Joachim Rucker, the newly appointed chief of the U.N. civilian mission in Kosovo, told reporters his main task will be to support of Serb-ethnic Albanian talks to decide who will govern the province and preparations to end the U.N. mission's term in Kosovo, Belgrade's Beta news agency reported.
Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, on Monday selected Rucker to replace Soren Jessen-Petersen as the U.N. mission's chief in Pristina.
Kosovo, the U.N. administered territory since Serb-ethnic Albanian armed conflicts in 1999, is formally part of Serbia.
Ethnic-Albanians, who make 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, insist on independence from Serbia's government in Belgrade, while the Serbian authorities and Kosovo's 100,000 Serbs are offering limited autonomy for Kosovo.
New U.N. administrator appeals to ethnic Albanians to help Kosovo's Serbs
Garentina Kraja, Associated Press, 8/15/06
The newly appointed U.N. administrator of Kosovo appealed Tuesday to ethnic Albanians to reach out to the province's Serb minority.
Joachim Ruecker, a German diplomat, was named to the post by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday. He pledged to make it his priority to give Kosovo's 2 million people "a clear perspective," and expected to be the last U.N. official running Kosovo.
"Minority communities in Kosovo, especially the Kosovo Serb community, need special reassurances," Ruecker said. "The majority population has an obligation and responsibility to reach out to the minorities more than ever before."
Ruecker has been in Kosovo since 2005, as the top U.N. official in charge of the province's economic development and the privatization of hundreds of socially owned enterprises most of which are dilapidated after years of mismanagement and neglect in hopes of boosting investment in the impoverished province.
His appointment comes at the most sensitive time for Kosovo.
The province is as divided as ever. Ethnic Albanians and Serbs remain entrenched in opposing positions on the province's future status. It also remains one of the poorest regions in Europe, with an unemployment rate estimated at more than 50 percent.
U.N.-brokered talks on the future status of the province are under way, with former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari seeking to find a solution by the end of the year between ethnic Albanians, who are seeking full independence, and Serbia, which is offering autonomy for the province.
There are fears that tensions will rise between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority, especially in the northern part of the province where some local Serb leaders have warned of partition if Kosovo gains independence.
Ruecker said he will support efforts to find a solution for Kosovo's status in 2006 and focus on developing stable institutions, securing minority participation and providing a secure environment for economic development.
As the head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo, Ruecker will also oversee the reduction in size of the U.N. mission, which has administered Kosovo since mid-1999 when a NATO air war halted Serb forces' crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
Ruecker said his ambition was to be the last U.N. official running Kosovo and have "a relatively short period of tenure."
"I think it will last until the U.N. mission in Kosovo switches off the
lights," he said of his contract.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
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Macedonian PM-designate unveils his cabinet
Associated Press, 8/15/06
Macedonia's prime minister designate announced his future cabinet Tuesday, and sought formal approval from parliament for his conservative coalition government.
Nikola Gruevski, 35, leads the VMRO-DPMNE party, which won the most vites in the July 5 elections, and will form a coalition which includes the ethnic Albanian DPA party and two other smaller parties.
After weeks of negotiations, Gruevski said he chose a cabinet that would stimulate Macedonia's stagnant economy as well as to fight corruption and organized crime.
It includes two U.S.-educated executives who were named as deputy premiers: Vele Samak, a marketing manager at Microsoft, and Gligor Taskovic, a senior executive at the Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corporation, AMBO.
"The government's priority is economic recovery. This is going to be a long, difficult and painful journey, but we have a team of able and honest people who will give (their) maximum effort," Gruevski said.
Fifteen years after Macedonia split peacefully from Yugoslavia, unemployment is at a crippling 36 percent. The country is also still recovering from a 2001 insurgency by rebels from the country's ethnic Albanian minority which makes up about a quarter of the country's 2.1 million population.
Gruevski's choice of the DPA as coalition partner infuriated the rival minority DUI party, whose supporters staged a week long road blockades.
The DPA was handed the ministries of health, education, culture and the environment.
Arms rift keeps Maoists out of government; United States urges Nepali rebels
to change
Chitra Tiwari, The Washington Times, 8/19/06
Maoist rebels in Nepal should have been in the interim government by mid-July, under a June 16 agreement between the governing Seven-Party Alliance and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, but a gap in the accord quickly led to a loose interpretation regarding the disposition of arms of both the Royal Nepali Army, now renamed the Nepali Army by proclamation of the reinstated parliament and the Maoist People's Liberation Army.
The government side, under pressure from lawmakers and some party leaders who complained the June 16 agreement was made "in haste," began to interpret the arms issue as "decommissioning" the Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA), while the Maoists took it to mean the cantonment of their forces and sending the Nepali Army back to barracks during elections to the constituent assembly.
Foes of any agreement between Nepal's government and the Maoists were heartened June 27 when U.S. Ambassador James F. Moriarty announced that the United States has a law prohibiting "any material support to a terrorist organization."
Mr. Moriarty said the Maoists must "change their actions before we can provide assistance to Maoists in any way, or to a government which they are a part of." He warned that Nepal would lose U.S. support if Maoists are included in the government while still armed.
Underlining Mr. Moriarty's position, Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said during a visit Aug. 11 the Maoists could be removed from the U.S. list of terrorist groups if they give up their weapons and abide by democratic principles. He added that if the Nepali government certifies that Nepal's Maoists no longer fit in the definition of terrorists, they could join the government.
'Terrorist' tag hit
Critics say Washington's continued characterization of Maoists as "terrorists" is misplaced, because the Nepali government has stopped referring to the Maoist party in such terms and considers it a political force it must deal with.
Emissaries from Japan, India, the European Commission and other foreign governments voiced concern about including the Maoists in the interim government unless they are disarmed.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on July 2 seeking the world body's help in decommissioning Maoist weapons. The Maoists denounced the letter as violating the eight-point agreement of June 16. Maoist leader Prachanda wrote separately to the United Nations, registering his party's objections and saying he can't consider decommissioning the PLA while keeping the Nepali Army on active duty.
The Maoists insist they are no longer "rebels" after the April democratic revolution that brought the Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) to power, and argue that the PLA in essence is the backbone of the SPA government.
They contend it is the Nepali Army that needs to be restructured and merged into a new national army with the PLA after a new constitution is promulgated by the constituent assembly.
'Cautious optimism'
The United Nations sent a fact-finding mission to Nepal in early August led by Staffan de Mistura of Sweden as Mr. Annan's personal representative. It returned to New York with "cautious optimism" after meeting government as well as Maoist leaders and asking both sides to come up with unanimous suggestions so that the United Nations can begin to do its work.
The June 16 deal had raised hopes for peace in Nepal, but the talks deadlocked for nearly two months over what to do about weapons how to manage Maoist arms, whether the Maoists must surrender their arms before joining the government, and whether the Nepali Army's weapons would be subject to similar monitoring.
The Maoists as well as other groups began to accuse the United States of meddling in the internal affairs of Nepal, leading to delays in negotiations. The Maoists have been critical of the U.S. role since late in 2001 when Washington began to help the Royal Nepali Army in its counterinsurgency operations against the Maoist rebels.
Prachanda accused the SPA of coming under "American influence" to urge the rebels to give up arms before joining the interim government. "America termed the eight-point deal 'a Maoist agenda,' India hesitated to endorse it and leaders of the SPA came under their influence," the Maoist leader said, adding, "there have been several attempts to compel us to return to war."
U.S. meddling cited
Hisila Yami, a powerful female leader and member of the Maoist party's Central Committee, charged that Mr. Moriarty, the U.S. ambassador, was playing a "villain's role" and jeopardizing peace in Nepal by seeking to persuade the SPA to cancel understandings and agreements reached earlier with the Maoist party.
Dina Nath Sharma, a member of the Maoist negotiating team, accused Mr. Moriarty of pressuring Mr. Koirala and preventing him from signing a joint letter with the rebels that was to be sent to Mr. Annan on Aug. 7.
He said Mr. Koirala refused to sign a letter to the United Nations agreed to after 12 hours of talks between government and Maoist negotiators after receiving two telephone calls from Mr. Moriarty.
"The U.S. does not want peace in Nepal," said Mr. Sharma. "They want to consolidate their base in South Asia and Nepal, because of its strategic location between China and India offers them a unique vantage point.
"It's part of a long, well-planned strategy," Mr. Sharma said, adding: "That is why the American ambassador has been opposing first the 12-point agreement we reached with the seven parties last year, and now the eight-point pact signed by both sides in June."
Deadlock broken
The deadlock was broken as Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai warned Aug. 7 that the peace talks were on the verge of collapse, and threatened to start an urban-based movement to force the government to stick to its earlier commitments. He also accused the prime minister of speaking for the U.S. ambassador.
The government yielded to the Maoist position on Aug. 9, and in a letter to Mr. Annan, the government and the Maoists jointly asked the United Nations to send civilian monitors to oversee the arms and armies of both combatants confined in barracks and temporary cantonments, monitor the human rights situation, and observe the constituent assembly elections.
Analysts say the joint letter to the United Nations seems like a breakthrough that might lead to discussions over other issues identified in the June 16 agreement, such as formation of an interim government with Maoists in it, dissolution of the old, reinstated parliament and election of a constituent assembly.
However, language used in the letter saying that "modalities of the arms management of the Maoists will be sorted out by the parties and the U.N." leaves gaps for loose interpretations and is likely to cause further delays.
Journalist Yubaraj Ghimire said: "This does not ensure immediate inclusion of the Maoists in the government, because the international community as well as the prime minister are very clear that without arms and combatants being separated, the Maoists cannot join the interim Cabinet."
Monarch's role debated
Other issues that may require protracted negotiations are the role of the monarchy and composition of the interim parliament to be included in the interim constitution. Mr. Koirala says the monarchy, too, should be given a role, but the Maoists say the monarchy should be abolished altogether or suspended in the interim constitution, leaving its fate to the constituent assembly.
The government is under pressure from many interest groups.
While it continues to face pressure from the Maoists as well as popular opinion to follow the letter and spirit of the eight-point June 16 agreement stipulating creation of an interim government with Maoists in it, and creation of an interim parliament by dissolving the reinstated parliament that has no Maoist representation, it also faces pressures from foreign donors, especially the United States, not to allow the Maoists a share in the government until they are fully disarmed.
Analysts say the SPA faces a predicament: How to address international concerns while keeping faith with the Maoists who brought the SPA to power by helping push out the absolute monarchy last April.
Observers of Nepali political developments say a failure to pay the piper would
invite certain disaster, since the people have been radicalized and the Maoists'
threat to lead an urban-based revolution if the government continues to prevent
the Maoists from sharing power and announce a date certain for constituent assembly
elections next April or May.
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
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Top African military experts devising tentative plan to send peacekeepers
to Somalia
Anthony Mitchell, Associated Press, 8/17/06
Top African military officials on Thursday were devising a tentative plan to send as many as 3,500 peacekeepers by October to Somalia, where fundamentalist Islamists appear to be wresting more control of the country from the increasingly weakened transitional government.
The plan, however, hinges on whether the 2-year-old transitional government and the Islamic courts group now controlling most of the country's south can agree on easing political tensions in Somalia, officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media.
Military officials are meeting under the auspices of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which mediated the peace talks that led to the formation of the transitional government two years ago.
The Somali transitional government and Islamists began Arab League-sponsored talks in June following the rise of the Islamists talks that have been postponed because of divisions within the government and the Islamists' objection to Ethiopian troops on Somali soil as reported by many ordinary Somalis.
Both the Somali and Ethiopian governments deny the troops' presence in Somalia.
A new round of talks between the Somali government and the Islamists is set for Aug. 31 in Khartoum, Sudan, officials said. Any peacekeeping plan needs approval from the seven-nation group's foreign affairs ministers, officials said.
Somalia's transitional government in the past has called for peacekeepers to help it establish a hold on the country, with parliament endorsing a security plan drawn up by President Abdullahi Yusuf's government that includes a role for a regional peacekeeping mission.
The Islamists, however, oppose peacekeepers.
Somalia has not had a national army or police since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, pulling the country into anarchy.
In June, Islamic militiamen took over the capital and then seized control of much of southern Somalia. Yusuf's government has been unable to assert its authority beyond the city of Baidoa.
Military officials said Uganda and Sudan are likely to send as many as four battalions to the northeastern Kenyan town of Garissa for training by the end of September.
The aim is to send four battalions into Somalia, but Uganda and Sudan initially may send a smaller number, the officials said.
Both countries have agreed to fund the first 90 days of such a peacekeeping mission, which is expected to cost about US$34 million (euro26 million) a month, the officials said.
Discussions continued late Thursday.
Kenyan Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula told reporters earlier Thursday that any decision on a peacekeeping mission would depend on the political situation in Somalia.
"The earliest that we can have a peace support mission on the ground in Somalia is a couple of weeks or months, but it will require a lot of money," he said.
"It is important to recognize that dialogue between the transitional federal government and the Union of Islamic courts is of paramount importance in order to improve conditions for possible deployment," he said.
A Western diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of damaging relations with the seven-nation grouping was skeptical about who would pay for the peace mission and whether the force could even be mustered.
"We wish to underscore that the troops expected to be deployed will not be an occupation force but rather a force that will assist Somalis realize peace and work closely with the Transitional Federal Institutions and relevant Somali actors," Wetangula said.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development first drafted a plan for a peacekeeping mission to Somalia in March 2005, but could not implement it because of a 1992 U.N. Security Council arms embargo on Somalia.
The grouping has made several calls for the embargo to be eased. In recent months, however, senior European officials have indicated that they could push for such a measure if the Somali government and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development come up with a clear plan for a peacekeeping mission.
Francois Lonseny Fall, the U.N.'s top envoy to Somalia, told journalists Wednesday that he had advised the Security Council against making any changes to the arms embargo and, instead, said they should push for more talks between the government and Islamists on the rise in the country.
U.N. envoy pushes for government and militants in Somalia to start talking
Associated Press, 8/17/06
The international community must support the U.N. arms embargo against Somalia if stability is to return to the ravaged nation, the senior U.N. envoy to Somalia said Wednesday.
"I have asked the council not to take any provocative measures and to press for dialogue," Francois Lonseny Fall told reporters after a closed-door briefing to the U.N. Security Council.
He said he also urged the United Nation's most powerful body to compel Somalia's weak transitional government and the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts the armed Islamic militia that has gained control of the capital and the south in recent months to pursue talks.
Though more than two years have passed since the U.N.-backed transitional government was established in Kenya, the country continues to teeter on the brink of war. In the last year, the situation has escalated with Muslim militants establishing Islamic courts in the south.
These courts are led by Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, described by the United States as an extremist, who has repeatedly emphasized that an Islamic government is the only solution for Somalia.
In late July, the crisis reached a tipping point when residents of Baidoa, where the transitional government has its temporary seat, reported seeing hundreds of armed Ethiopian troops arrive in armored vehicles. Though news accounts have confirmed the entry of these soldiers, the governments of Ethiopia and Somalia continue to issue strong denials.
Fall said he had heard the reports "but my office has no monitoring capacity to confirm them."
Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, said all the reports he had received confirm that Ethiopian soldiers had infiltrated Somalia. "I am very confident that this is the truth," he said.
On July 22, the second-in-command of the Islamic courts issued a warning that the presence of Ethiopian troops could lead to all-out war.
"We will declare jihad if the Ethiopian government refuses to withdraw their troops," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said.
Fall said he had been informed by the sheikh that negotiations with the Somali government would not proceed while Ethiopian soldiers remained on Somali soil. He said he regretted that talks between the government and the militants had been postponed yet again.
Jamal said the United Nations' current policy of non-interference in Somalia is ill-advised.
"The Security Council is not doing enough to make sure that the transitional government can function effectively," he said. "It is obvious that Somalia is not a priority for the U.N."
Jamal warned that if not handled properly, the already strife-torn Horn of Africa country could descend into civil war.
A recent report by the Belgium-based International Crisis Group, an advocacy organization working for conflict prevention, echoed these concerns.
The report titled "Can the Somali Crisis be contained?" described the situation as urgent and said it "threatens to escalate into a wider conflict that would destabilize peaceful territories and possibly involve terrorist attacks in neighboring countries."
The crisis group joined Fall in insisting that maintaining an arms embargo is crucial.
Another worry for the international community is the possibility of terrorist groups mushrooming in Somalia.
The United States has repeatedly accused the Islamic militias of sheltering al-Qaida leaders involved in the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Jamal said widespread terrorist networks are probably already operating in the country.
"It's no man's land in Somalia right now," he said. "And if we don't watch out, it could develop into a Taliban-style government."
The crisis group suggests that U.N. Security Council counterterrorism committees begin seeking the cooperation of the Islamic Courts and Somalia's transitional government in investigating international terrorist networks in the country.
Somalia has not had stability since warlords brought down longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, pulling the country into anarchy.
Somali Islamic leaders condemn plans for peacekeeping mission to Somalia
Salad Duhul, Associated Press, 8/18/06
Senior Islamic leaders on Friday criticized plans by a regional African group to send a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, calling on their supporters to reject such a force.
The leader of the Islamic courts that have taken over most of southern Somalia, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said any peacekeeping mission in Somalia would fail. He cited previous peacekeeping missions, indirectly referring to the U.S. and U.N. missions in Somalia in the mid-1990s.
At Friday prayers in the capital, Mogadishu, Sheikh Omer Iman Abukar, another top leader of the Islamic courts, urged thousands to reject any peacekeeping mission sent to Somalia.
Their statements followed a Thursday meeting of top African military officials in neighboring Kenya to work out details of a possible peacekeeping mission.
Such a force would be sent under the auspices of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which mediated the peace talks that led to the formation of Somalia's transitional government two years ago.
Somalia's transitional government in the past has called for peacekeepers to help it establish a hold on the country, with parliament endorsing a security plan drawn up by President Abdullahi Yusuf's government that includes a role for a regional peacekeeping mission.
The Islamists, however, oppose peacekeepers.
Somalia has not had a national army or police since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, pulling the country into anarchy.
On Thursday, Kenyan Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula told reporters on the sidelines of the military officials' meeting that such a mission would take time and money and would depend on the political situation in Somalia.
Aweys responded by calling Kenya "an enemy of Islam."
"I had respected the Kenyan government for its neutrality (in Somali affairs), but when I heard what the deputy foreign minister announced, I realized that Kenya is an enemy of Islam," Aweys told The Associated Press by phone Friday from his base in central Somalia.
Aweys also questioned whether peacekeepers can restore stability in Somalia.
"The foreign troops cannot restore stability and peace in Somalia. We know that thousands of peacekeepers from many countries were deployed in this country. The troops failed all their operations. Therefore, we can restore security through talks and reconciliation," Aweys said.
In the mid-1990s, the United States and U.N. sent peacekeepers in Somalia, particularly Mogadishu, to shore up a fledgling interim government after warlords overthrew Barre in 1991.
The peacekeepers' deployment sparked some of the worst fighting in Somalia, and they eventually withdrew after coming under attack from militiamen controlled by clan-based warlords.
"There are many meetings on how to send peacekeepers to Somalia. Do not accept foreign troops," Abukar told followers outside a Mogadishu mosque.
Military experts developed a tentative plan to deploy as many as 3,500 Ugandan and Sudanese peacekeepers by October, depending on whether the Islamists and the transitional government troops agree to ease political tensions in Somalia following the rise of the Islamists.
Uganda and Sudan have agreed to fund the first 90 days of such a peacekeeping
mission, which is expected to cost about US$34 million (euro26 million) a month,
officials have said on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to
speak to the media about the proposals.
Rights fears as Sri Lanka ceasefire team faces major cut
Paul Peachey, Agence France Presse, 8/20/06
A foreign team monitoring Sri Lanka's crumbling ceasefire will be almost halved after Tamil Tiger rebels ordered members from European Union states to leave the country, the group said Sunday.
The team will be reduced from a full strength of 57 members to 30 next month after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) demanded that three nations pull out after the EU branded the rebels a terrorist organisation.
Up to 30 monitors from EU members Denmark, Finland and Sweden will leave the country by the end of August amid fears of worsening human rights abuses in the three-decade conflict that has left some 60,000 people dead.
Iceland and Norway will increase their numbers to compensate, but it will not be enough to plug the gap, said Thorfinnur Omarsson, a spokesman for the monitoring team.
"We're concerned that we cannot monitor at full power. That speaks for itself," said Omarsson.
"It might have the effect that we'll not be able to monitor all the incidents that we're aware of. We will have to wait and see."
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was created four years ago with headquarters in Colombo to carry out patrols to monitor the ceasefire established in 2002 between rebels and the government.
Next week it will name a replacement for the current Swedish head of the team, Brigadier General Ulf Henricsson, and close some of its six district offices.
A surge in fighting since December has left more than 1,500 dead although the monitors say the ceasefire still holds, at least on paper.
Human Rights Watch said earlier this month the pull out was a "devastating blow" to the protection of civilians caught up in the bloody conflict.
Attempts by the EU and the monitors to change the minds of the Tamil Tigers, fighting for a homeland for the country's Tamil minority, have failed and they have agreed that EU members will leave by the September 1 deadline.
Relations between the Tamil Tigers and the EU have disintegrated since Brussels designated them a terrorist group in May.
The demand for the pull out came after SLMM asked to beef up its monitoring team, a move that the rebels rejected.
Iceland has agreed to boost its presence from four to 10 and Norway, which has been the key player in trying to end the ethnic bloodshed, will double its team to 20, said Omarsson.
The SLMM has investigated claims of ceasefire violations between the two sides including rebel charges last week that a government airstrike killed 55 people including 51 children on what they said was an orphanage.
The government maintained it targeted an LTTE military training centre but the monitors found no evidence the victims were combatants or undergoing military training. A monitor from the group saw only 19 bodies.
On Saturday, the government welcomed the move by Norway and Iceland to continue monitoring but slammed the Tamil Tigers withdrawal of security guarantees to the EU members.
"The government calls upon the LTTE to desist from using extraneous political and propaganda issues to undermine the operations of the SLMM," the information ministry said in a statement.
Both sides have been accused of rights abuses. And the United Nations said Friday that nearly 170,000 people have fled their homes since April because of the latest spike in fighting, and demanded access to refugees because of fears of dwindling food and other essential supplies.
The EU and a senior US envoy last week called for both sides to return to the
negotiating table to try to end the fighting.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
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U.S. and Britain introduce resolution to transfer peacekeeping in Darfur
to larger U.N. force
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 8/17/06
A U.S.-British draft resolution introduced Thursday would transfer peacekeeping in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region from the African Union to a much larger and better equipped U.N. force despite the Sudanese government's strong opposition.
The financially strapped African Union has requested to hand over peacekeeping to a more robust U.N. mission but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir remains staunchly opposed and has warned that Sudan's army would fight any U.N. forces sent to Darfur.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry stressed that no U.N. force will deploy in Darfur without the consent of the government.
"We know that the agreeement of the government of Sudan is quite crucial," he said. "Our hope is that as we negotiate this text there will be clarity from the goveernment of Sudan that ... a U.N. operation should take place, and that we should transition as soon as possible."
With the security situation in Darfur worsening and violence escalating, Jones Parry said he hopes the resolution can be adopted by the end of August.
U.S. deputy ambassador Jackie Sanders said the Sudanese government's consent is not required by the resolution, but "practically speaking it's going to be useful to have the government on board to get this accomplished."
The resolution would replace the 7,000-strong African Union force with a U.N. peacekeeping mission of about 22,600 comprising up to 17,300 troops, 3,300 international police officers, and 16 police units trained in riot and crowd control totaling about 2,000 officers.
Britain and the United States introduced the draft resolution at a closed Security Council meeting following a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi, who told members that the security situation in Darfur had worsened since late June.
Annabi urged the council to consider re-engaging the Sudanese government about a U.N. force "given the urgency of the situation on the ground," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Sanders said a number of "high-level dialogues" are taking place, including from the United States, and Britain is sending an envoy to Khartoum to talk to al-Bashir.
Ghana's U.N. Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng, the current Security Council president, said he has invited all the major players to come to New York to meet the council. The Arab League and Organization of Islamic Conference have accepted in principle and he is waiting for replies from the African Union and Sudan's foreign minister.
The AU has said it cannot handle long-term peacekeeping in Darfur and wants its force replaced by better-equipped and better-funded U.N. peacekeepers. The AU's mandate runs out on Sept. 30 and its chief negotiator in Sudan, Sam Ibok, said earlier this week that the African Union would need more international funding and support if it is to stay in Darfur.
The draft resolution calls for the U.N. force to start to deploy by Oct. 1. In the interim, it asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan to strengthen the AU force, including with additional aircraft and ground transport.
Sudan's deputy U.N. ambassador Omar Bashir Manis questioned the Security Council's motives and said the resources to deploy a U.N. force should instead be spent on beefing-up the African Union force.
"I think the sending of the (U.N.) troops in itself is becoming the objective, not the stabilization and assistance of the Sudanese people to improve the situation in Darfur," Manis said. "The way we see (it), give the resources to the AU ... (which) was doing a good job."
A May peace agreement signed by the government and one of the major rebel groups was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. Instead, it has sparked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.
Aid groups, the United Nations and beleaguered AU peacekeepers say rebel factions are seeking to gain advantage before peace upsets the status quo in a region where more than 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government.
Annabi told the council that signatories and non-signatories were violating the peace agreement, and the Sudanese government's plan to bring stability to Darfur "appears to show determination to pursue a major military offensive in the region," Dujarric said.
Jones Parry stressed that a U.N. force would be deployed to support implementation of the peace agreement and the government's efforts "to bring an improvement to the humanitarian situation and thereby to the political development of Darfur no other motive whatever."
The section of the draft resolution dealing with the U.N. force is under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which authorizes the use of "all necessary means" including military action to implement its mandate.
The draft would authorize the U.N. force, under Chapter 7, to protect U.N. personnel and facilities, "to prevent disruption of the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement by armed groups," to protect civilians under threat of physical violence, and to seize and dispose of arms that are in Darfur in violation of the peace agreement.
The United Nations already has a peacekeeping force in southern Sudan monitoring a January 2005 peace agreement that ended a 21-year civil war between the government and southern rebels. It has a similar mandate with just one section under Chapter 7 but the government vehemently opposes any Chapter 7 reference regarding Darfur.
Jones Parry said Khartoum's perceptions of Chapter 7 "are not soundly
based but the fact is they have concerns."
US warns Sudan of consequences if it rejects UN peace force for Darfur
P. Parameswaran, Agence France Presse, 8/18/06
The United States warned Sudan Friday of potential consequences if it continued to resist UN peacekeepers in Darfur, hinting of stepped up moves for an international probe on alleged war crimes in the war-torn region.
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has warned that his country would confront any UN-sponsored forces sent to Darfur, which he said would become a "graveyard" for the blue helmet peacekeepers.
Beshir's threat came as the United States and Britain presented a draft resolution to the United Nations Thursday outlining the deployment of 17,000 peacekeepers to Darfur despite his opposition.
A senior US State Department official warned Friday about "the reality" facing Sudan if it "confronted with a unified international community" and a UN resolution that was "the will of the international community."
Referring to Beshir's threat, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, asked: "Do they want to defy that, and if they do, then what are the potential consequences for them?"
"Don't forget there is a process in The Hague going on in terms of investigations of potential war crimes," the official said, referring to demands by the international community that Darfur war crimes suspects be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Rebels and militias backed by Sudanese troops have reportedly killed some 300,000 people and displaced two million others in Darfur since 2003. The combined effect of the war and famine has displaced more than two million.
The ICC has said it has enough evidence of killing, rape and destruction in Darfur to warrant bringing suspects to trial.
But the Sudanese government has vehemently maintained its right to handle the case domestically, and established its own special court last June.
The United Nations on Friday expressed its extreme concern over the deteriorating situation in the war-shattered Sudanese region despite a peace accord between rebels and Sudan's government.
"We are extraordinarily concerned," Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown said in New York. "We are extremely worried about the deterioration in the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur and the absence of a clear political path to the deployment of the UN force. ... Something very ugly is brewing there."
The US-British draft UN resolution proposes the UN troops take over from ill-equipped and under-funded African Union peacekeepers, who have proved unable to prevent the unchecked killings, rapes and internal displacement of civilians in the region.
Deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that the Sudanese government had "both a need and an obligation" to accept the UN force as part of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed by the Sudanese government on May 5.
"And I do think that we need to let them see this resolution pass and then we'll be looking for a real answer from them on their acceptance of this force," he said.
The US-based Human Rights Watch meanwhile urged the United Nations Security Council to reject a Sudanese government plan to send 10,500 new government troops to Darfur, saying it violated the peace deal.
"The Sudanese government's plan is a recipe for inflicting even more abuses on a devastated civilian population," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"Khartoum wants the UN to endorse a plan that would throw out the Darfur peace agreement. It wouldn't help protect civilians from constant attack or make it safe enough for them to return home," he said.
The Security Council has issued 10 resolutions on Darfur since mid-2004, but there has been little improvement regarding civilian protection.
Genocide
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