Contents:
Three members of
Yeni Fikir received prison sentences ranging between 4 and 7 years.
Government and FNL officials still
at odds over basic issues.
Seven others wounded during attack.
Russian defense
minister hails death of Basayev, 'our bin Laden'
However Basayev's death does not signify an end
to the Russian fight against Chechen rebels.
Chechnya's Separatists Weakening; Fighting Had Waned
Before Rebel's Death as Terrorism Spread
Chechen prime minister ridicules the waning
strength of the rebel forces.
Elections give
Congo's war survivors hope
Many hope the vote will mark the beginning of an era
of democracy and legitimate rule.
DR Congo opposition says foreign firms fund
president's election bid
Coalition of Congolese Democrats calls alleged
donations "morally reprehensible."
Georgia lawmaker seeks UN force in breakaway
Abkhazia
Seeks to replace
Russian peacekeepers.
Mixed reactions over
autonomy law in Indonesia's Aceh
GAM remains skeptical about the law, while other
groups are more optimistic.
In Aceh, a year of peace but ex-rebels
fear for future
Ex-rebels find
no jobs and few prospects in Aceh.
Gbagbo supporters oppose
voter identification scheme in Ivory Coast
Hard line supporters claim the plan will pave the way
for fraud.
Ivory Coast president says UN soft on
rebels
Gbagbo criticizes
peacekeepers in broadcast speech.
Series of grenade attacks hits Indian
Kashmir's main city
Islamic
militants also wound more than two dozen in the attack.
Kosovo
Serbia lashes out at Kosovo negotiators for lack
of progress
Delegates claim a
resolution by year-end is unrealistic.
An independent Kosovo would threaten stability:
Serbian PM
Kostunica claims
Kosovo would become "a hotbed of chronic tension in the
region."
Ethnic Albanian leaders to take part in top Kosovo
status meeting
Delegation
will go to Vienna on July 24 to discuss the province's future
status.
EU vows to uphold
European prospect for Macedonia, demands reforms
EU foreign ministers urge Macedonia to speed up
internal reforms to meet accession criteria.
Separatists in
Moldova sets date for independence referendum
Referendum slated for September 17,
2006.
Nepal high-level peace talks next
week
Maoist rebels will meet with Prime Minister for second
round of talks.
Nepal
slashes funds for royal household in post-crisis budget
New
government slashed the royal palace subsidy by almost 71% in its annual
budget.
Independent Montenegro to hold general election on
Sept 10
Voters will elect
local authorities and 81 members of parliament.
Arrests of Karadzic, Mladic crucial for Balkan region,
top Council of Europe official says
Van der Linden asked Montenegrin lawmakers to do
their best to help arrest the two former Bosnian Serb leaders sought on genocide
charges by The Hague.
UN to consider
sending peacekeepers to Somalia -- diplomats
Security Council will consider a proposal that could
authorize the deployment of peacekeepers as requested by the
AU.
UN okays proposal to ease arms embargo on
Somalia
Security Council makes
endorsement in preparation for possibility of peacekeeper
deployment.
Sri Lankan navy destroys rebel boat in
northern sea, killing 4 rebels, military says
Rebels say they will not tolerate intrusion into what
they call their territorial waters.
Fighting intensifies between Sri Lankan troops, Tamil
rebels, killing at least 16
Fighting marks an upswing in intensity of
violence.
Darfur rebel chief reaffirms faith in peace
accord, denies his group is behind latest fighting
Minni Minnawi also said he would accept the position
of senior assistant to Sudan's presidency if offered.
Sudan takes first step toward
appointing rebel leader as head of Darfur administration
SLA nominated Minnawi to the
post.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG
Report.
Opposition activists jailed in Azerbaijan for alleged attempt to
seize power
Associated Press, 7/12/06
Three Azerbaijani opposition youth activists were convicted Wednesday of attempting to forcefully seize power in this ex-Soviet republic and two of them were jailed, in a case government opponents condemned as politically motivated. The three members of the Yeni Fikir, or New Thought, youth group were arrested in August and September in the run-up to last year's disputed parliamentary elections and charged with attempting to stage a coup. Yeni Fikir leader Ruslan Bashirli and his two deputies, Ramin Tagiyev and Said Nuriyev, were accused of cooperating with intelligence services from Armenia, Azerbaijan's longtime foe.
A court in the capital, Baku, sentenced Bashirli to seven years in prison, Tagiyev to four years and Nuriyev to a suspended sentence of five years. The court dismissed charges of evading taxes on foreign grants and conducting illegal financial activity. Human rights groups and the opposition have accused the authoritarian government in Azerbaijan of using the case to crack down on its political opponents. All three denied the charges. "We hoped, although we didn't believe in it, in a just decision of the court. But we didn't get justice. Of course this trial is a way to pressure young people who oppose the government," Nuriyev told The Associated Press.
Bashirli told the court that he had been beaten and offered money in a bid to persuade him to confess. "But I didn't plead guilty and I remain true to my beliefs even now," he said. Isak Avazogli, a spokesman for the opposition People's Front of Azerbaijan, denounced the case against the activists as an attempt "to intimidate democratically minded youth." President Ilham Aliev's government maintained its grip on parliament in November's elections, which handed the ruling party a majority in the 125-seat legislature with the support of government-affiliated independent lawmakers.
Western observers criticized the polls as flawed, but the United States and European countries have not endorsed opposition demands for new elections, fearful of upsetting stability in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation, which borders Iran.
Burundi peace talks in limbo: officials
Agence
France Presse, 7/13/06
Peace talks aimed at bringing a final end to Burundi's 13-year civil war hung in limbo Thursday with the government and rebels still at odds over basic issues, officials said. The stalled negotiations had been set to resume on Thursday in Tanzania's commercial capital of Dar es Salaam after a one-week suspension called by South African mediators. But it was unclear by mid-day whether they would restart with the chief mediator, South African security minister Charles Nqakula, not expected in Tanzania until at least Friday, according to officials in Pretoria. Burundi's Interior minister Evariste Ndayishimiye told AFP he was leaving for Dar es Salaam on Thursday with a technical team charged with dealing with military matters.
Officials with the rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL) could not immediately be reached for comment but their delegation has been in Tanzania for several months. The talks broke down shortly after the two sides failed to meet a self-imposed July 2 deadline for signing a permanent ceasefire to pave the way for a negotiated peace accord with each blaming the other for the stalemate. The FNL has been demanding the dissolution or at least major reform of Burundi's military while Bujumbura has argued that such issues are premature in truce discussions. South African and Tanzanian officials have been urging the FNL to drop the demand and Ndayishimiye said the Burundian government hoped the mediators had convinced the rebels to do so.
"We had explained that we did not want to return to Dar es Salaam for nothing," he said. The FNL is the only one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups to have refused to sign onto a 2000 peace process that last year saw the election of a new power-sharing government headed by a former Hutu guerrilla chief. Burundi's war has claimed some 300,000 lives since it erupted in 1993 with the assassination of the country's first democratically elected president, a member of the Hutu majority, by members of the minority Tutsi-dominated army.
Burundi says three killed in rebel attack as peace talks founder
Agence France Presse, 7/13/06
At least three civilians were killed and seven wounded in an attack by Burundi's last active rebel group, the army said Thursday as peace talks failed to resume as planned in Tanzania. Deputy army spokesman Cimana Clement said the casualties were the result of a looting raid staged late Wednesday by National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels north of Bujumbura near the Kibira forest. "It was an operation to restock supplies that the FNL often carry out from Kibira forest," he told AFP, referring to a hideout used by the guerrillas for about two years."They killed three civilians and wounded seven others."
The attack came as stalled negotiations aimed at bringing end to Burundi's 13-year civil war foundered anew as the talks failed to resume as scheduled in Dar es Salaam after a week suspension called by the South African mediators. The chief mediator, South African security minister Charles Nqakula, was not expected in Tanzania until at least Friday, according to officials in Pretoria, and a Burundi government delegation expected to leave Bujumbura did not depart.
A member of Bujumbura's team said the group could leave by the weekend but stressed that any serious negotiations would not begin until at least Monday. "We are preparing to leave," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "I think that we may have finished preparations by (Friday) or Saturday. "All the same, serious issues will only start on Monday." Officials with the rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL) could not immediately be reached for comment but their delegation has been in Tanzania for several months. The talks broke down shortly after the two sides failed to meet a self-imposed July 2 deadline for signing a permanent ceasefire to pave the way for a negotiated peace accord with each blaming the other for the stalemate.
The FNL has been demanding the dissolution or at least major reform of Burundi's military while Bujumbura has argued that such issues are premature in truce discussions. South African and Tanzanian officials have been urging the FNL to drop the demand and Burundi Interior Minister Evariste Ndayishimiye said the government hoped the mediators had convinced the rebels to do so. "We (do) not want to return to Dar es Salaam for nothing," he said. The FNL is the only one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups to have refused to sign onto a 2000 peace process that last year saw the election of a new power-sharing government headed by a former Hutu guerrilla chief.
Burundi's war has claimed some 300,000 lives since it erupted in 1993 with the assassination of the country's first democratically elected president, a member of the Hutu majority, by members of the minority Tutsi-dominated army.
Russian defense minister hails death of Basayev, 'our bin Laden'
Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press, 7/11/06
Russia's defense minister on Tuesday hailed the killing of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev as a just retribution to "our bin Laden," but said his death doesn't mean an end to the fight against rebels. Speaking on a trip to the Chechen capital of Grozny, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov compared Basayev to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and said he was the last of a string of Chechen rebel leaders who had initiated a separatist drive for the Caucasus Mountains region nearly 15 years ago. "Basayev's death is a landmark event," Ivanov said in remarks broadcast by state television. "He was our bin Laden." Basayev, the ruthless warlord who orchestrated Russia's worst terrorist attacks, including the bloody 2004 Beslan school siege, was killed Monday when a dynamite-laden truck in his convoy exploded in Ingushetia, a Russian province west of Chechnya. There were different explanations for the cause of the explosion that killed Basayev, 41.
Russia's security chief told President Vladimir Putin that Basayev had been killed in a special operation, while a rebel-connected Web site said Basayev had died in an accidental explosion. Ingush authorities said the explosion occurred mistakenly during a special police operation against rebels. The ITAR-Tass news agency, citing an unidentified law enforcement official in southern Russia, reported that Basayev had been killed by a missile that homed in on his cell phone the method used to kill Chechen separatist president, Dzhokhar Dudayev, in 1996. Russian television showed charred remains of the truck that exploded and two damaged cars next to a wrecked building. A corpse, apparently that of a rebel, lay on the ground with the clothes in shreds. T
he village is two miles east of Nazran, Ingushetia's biggest city. Ingush Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev said Basayev's body had been identified "through some of the fragments, including his head," the Interfax news agency reported. Ivanov said Basayev's death would help stabilize Chechnya, but added that authorities must continue their hunt for the rebels.
"The killing of that terrorist doesn't mean that the fight against militants is over," he said. "There is still work to do, and it's being done." Ivanov also said that the federal government would strengthen efforts to normalize conditions in the region and shortly allocate funds for rebuilding the war-shattered city of Grozny. More than $37 million had been earmarked for the purpose, he said. Oleg Orlov, the head of the Memorial, a leading Russian rights group that has been active in Chechnya, said that Basayev's death would weaken rebels but wouldn't end hostilities.
"The situation will not change drastically," Orlov said, according to Interfax. The inability to hunt down Basayev was a long-standing embarrassment for Russia, and analysts said his death was a huge propaganda coup for Putin as he prepares to host President Bush and other leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations at a weekend summit in St. Petersburg. "It will help boost Putin's image," said retired Gen. Gennady Yevstafyev, a security affairs analyst with the Moscow-based PIR-Center think tank.
"Putin now has something to boast about unlike Bush, who hasn't tracked down Osama bin Laden yet." Basayev was the most notorious of the Chechen warlords, eluding Russian forces despite Kremlin vows to hunt him down and an offer of a $10 million reward and plastic surgery to anyone providing information leading to his death. He terrorized Russia with savage attacks that observed no limits targeting hospitals, a theater and, in his most infamous plot, schoolchildren in the southern Russian city of Beslan. The September 2004 attack on School No. 1 in Beslan shocked Russia and divided the rebel movement because civilians, including women and children, were taken hostage. There were 331 children killed in the siege.
The June 1995 attack on a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk, in which some 1,000 people were taken hostage and about 100 killed, was Basayev's first major terror attack. Dozens more were killed when Russian troops unsuccessfully stormed the hospital.
Chechnya's Separatists Weakening; Fighting Had Waned Before Rebel's
Death as Terrorism Spread
Peter Finn, Washington Post,
7/12/06
Just before the killing Monday of the Chechen guerrilla Shamil Basayev, the pro-Kremlin prime minister of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, was ridiculing the strength of the rebel forces that at one time fielded tens of thousands of men to battle Russian forces in two brutal wars. Basayev, said Kadyrov, had only 20 men. Another leader of the guerrillas, Doku Umarov, has 13 fighters. And, Kadyrov said, there are 60 to 70 foreign mercenaries operating in Chechnya. Even allowing for exaggeration, Kadyrov's mocking of the insurgents reflects an essential truth.
The Chechen separatist movement has been severely weakened. Chechen forces loyal to Moscow, many of them former rebels, now control much of the territory in the republic, which tried to break away from Russia in the early 1990s. The Kremlin has turned much of the governance and policing of Chechnya over to Kadyrov, the son of a former rebel and Chechen president who was assassinated on Basayev's order in 2004. And Kadyrov has coaxed hundreds of fighters out of the hills and into his paramilitary formation, which has been blamed by human rights groups for hundreds of murders and disappearances in a ruthless drive to stamp out extremism. Chechnya, over the last two years, has been the site of less and less serious fighting. "There is no war there today," Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week. "There are outbreaks of terrorism there but no war.
All law enforcement issues, 80 to 90 percent, are dealt with primarily by the law enforcement agencies of the Chechen Republic, which are almost 100 percent manned by Chechen residents." But as the war has been contained in Chechnya, terrorism has spilled across the republic's border. Basayev was killed in neighboring Ingushetia, an internal Russian republic increasingly plagued by bombings and assassinations. And violence has roiled other majority Muslim republics, such as Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria, where Chechen guerrillas were joined by youths from the previously quiet republic in an assault on government and police building in October 2005, which left 60 people dead. The spreading violence reached its bloody height in the 2004 Beslan school siege in predominantly Christian North Ossetia, a Russian republic that borders Ingushetia.
The taking of the school, an act organized by Basayev, led to the deaths of 331 people, 186 of them children. The killing of Basayev, Russia's most-wanted man, is unlikely to be the kind of decisive victory that some Russians and Chechens proclaimed it to be Monday. "Basayev's death, from a psychological point of view, will be a very serious blow," said Alexander Golts, a journalist and expert on military affairs. "The resistance in Chechnya has been weakened but the rebel movement is spreading all over the North Caucasus and it's very possible another Basayev will appear." Fueled by poverty, repressive police tactics, corruption and intolerance for anything but the officially sanctioned version of Islam, violent discontent has been bubbling up across the North Caucasus.
Yet support for Islamic extremism is still relatively marginal, according to a recent survey of men ages 16 to 39 in Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and North Ossetia. The survey was conducted in May and June by Moscow's Yuri Levada Analytical Center on behalf of two American scholars. "We do not find much evidence that the socio-economic environment of this region has, to this point, generated unusual levels of hostility towards government institutions, Russians or Westerners nor has it produced a widespread desire for the Islamization of politics, support for the Chechen cause, or animosities among local ethnic groups," wrote Theodore P. Gerber, of the University of Wisconsin, and Sarah E. Mendelson, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, in a paper published this month.
The death of Basayev, who had divided Chechen fighters with his ruthless targeting of civilians, coupled with a population that is principally concerned about the lack of economic opportunities, suggests that the Kremlin may have an opportunity to sideline the potential of extremists in the region if it promotes better governance, economic growth and more responsible policing. "Basayev wanted to see this as one holy war inflaming the whole region, but you have to pause and question the conventional wisdom," said Mendelson. "When we look at young males, we don't see seething ethnic hatred. There is more opportunity than we expected. It's going to be whoever gets there first -- it could be radical Islamists under guise of providing social services or the Russian government and Western donors delivering jobs and socials services."
Elections give Congo's war survivors hope
Anjan
Sundaram, Associated Press, 7/12/06
Posters clamor for space above a busy road that runs past a Kinshasa slum. Speakers on a passing pickup truck blare: "Look no further, your perfect candidate is here," to a pop tune. With the vote two weeks away, the campaign has come to a hundred or so war survivors camped in the capital, who see a sliver of hope as Congo prepares for its first democratic presidential and legislative elections in four decades. "The future will be better, we just have to keep trying," said Elisa Bosenjo, a 54-year-old resident of the ragtag tent village of people who found refuge in the capital from fighting in the countryside. Her deteriorating tent was surrounded by stagnant gutters. She waved away mosquitoes as she squatted on a low rock and sipped from a large blue plastic mug of sugarless tea the day's breakfast and lunch. A few meters (yards) away idled some policemen who had threatened to evict her community unless they received a bribe, she said. "I want to get out of here and go home. But I'm too scared to return after the war," Bosenjo said. Her settlement had last been moved from one spot to another in Kinshasa by police eight months ago. "We will probably have to move again soon, but maybe things will change after the elections."
Over 25 million people have registered to vote in the election that follows back-to-back wars between 1996 and 2002 that killed millions in Congo, most from hunger and disease. The July 30 vote will come after a troubled four-year transition to democracy that reconciled Congo's warring factions and united them in a transitional government. In December, Congolese approved a new constitution paving the way for this year's elections. Many said they hoped the vote would mark the beginning of an era of democracy and legitimate rule after decades of crippling dictatorship and political infighting. Bosenjo said she was illiterate and too poor to own a radio, but that she had taken the initiative to learn about the vote from more-educated neighbors and friends. Bosenjo said she hoped to elect a representative who would find her hapless community a decent residence in Kinshasa, or even help them return to their faraway homes.
"Maybe the new parliament will help us leave this place," echoed 68-year-old neighbor Lewis Bekwa, a father of eight who has been homeless for the eight years after he fled war in the port-city of Kisangani. "After elections the government has to do something for us," he said, clutching a bottle of murky water to drink as he hobbled out of his clumsy cloth home. His tent shook in the wind. Behind the cluster of tents glinted thousands of steel roofs in Africa's most populous capital home to an estimated 8 million people. Kinshasa's population, which largely escaped the destructive effects of Congo's wars, swelled by as many as 2 million during the conflicts, said Daniel Augstburger, head of the U.N.'s Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Congo. Thousands are still stranded in the capital largely because they are unable to pay for the boat or plane ride to homes hundreds of kilometers (miles) away, say aid workers. Augstburger said at least 1.6 million people are displaced across the vast Central African country.
A further 450,000 fled Congo as refugees during the conflicts, according to the U.N. Of those, 60,000 have since returned. "Easily 10 percent of Congo's population has at some point been displaced by fighting," Augstburger said. While the U.N. and humanitarian organizations have bustling operations in Congo's east, from where the majority of Congo's displaced fled, Augstburger said several communities like Bosenjo's languished in the capital with little or no help at all. "Kinshasa is wild territory. People are immediately plundered after they receive any kind of aid," he said. "I don't think we will be able to assist people in Kinshasa unless security is improved." Bosenjo hopes her new government will provide that security.
Just three doors down her shabby alley, where dirty children kick a deflated pink football, Mashaka Mapatalo was skeptical. "Big politicians drive by our tents every day in their black Mercedes, but they never even stop for us. Not even a single gesture," said the 37-year-old unemployed driver, wearing an oversized suit and carrying a briefcase. "They only promise. After the elections nothing will change." But Mapatalo and others said they would still vote. "We need democracy so we can speak without fear. So we can ask for our basic human rights," said Bosenjo, who said she hid in the forest and watched as rebels shot her pro-government family and threw their dead bodies into the Congo river four years ago. "Our people have suffered too much. We can be strong, but we need a little time and some peace," she said.
DR Congo opposition says foreign firms fund president's election
bid
Agence France Presse, 7/13/06
An opposition coalition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) accused President Joseph Kabila on Thursday of receiving "enormous" funding from foreign businesses to fuel his presidential campaign for this month's elections. The Coalition of Congolese Democrats (CODECO) in a statement alleged "complicity of certain international businesses and organisations in favour of the candidate Joseph Kabila by the granting of enormous sums and by material assistance." It branded "morally reprehensible" the gifts of money allegedly made ahead of the presidential and legislative polls set for July 30 -- the vast central African nation's first democratic elections in more than 40 years. Non-governmental organisations have accused the presidential camp of interference in the allocation of mining contracts in Kabila's native southeastern region of Katanga.
The Global Witness rights group accused DRC authorities of profiting from mining contracts granted to foreign firms including American and Canadian ones. And a Dutch body, the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa, alleged the pro-Kabila PPRD party was funded by the state mining company Gecamines. An expert mining source in Katanga speaking on condition of anonymity said that big mining companies wanted Kabila to win reelection as president so that their lucrative contracts in DRC would be guaranteed. Meanwhile the opposition bloc CODECO also accused DRC police of "excessive brutality" in crushing a demonstration by opponents of the government on Tuesday in Kinshasa.
The coalition, headed by Pierre Pay Pay, a former official under the regime of the country's ousted dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, has fielded 900 candidates for the legislative polls, in which it looks likely to win seats in Kinshasa and eastern DRC. United Nations observers in DRC on Wednesday also said "irregularities" such as arrests and intimidation had disrupted campaigning for the elections. Separately, the French army general heading a European Union force charged with ensuring security at the poll arrived in the country on Thursday, with around 100 of his officers. General Christian Damay made no statement to reporters upon arrival at the military airport of Ndjili which lies around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Kinshasa. Security at the polls is being ensured by a 800-strong European Union force within DR Congo, a 1,200-strong rapid reaction EU force in neighbouring Gabon, joining 17,600 UN peacekeeping troops already present.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation
Simulation
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here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
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Georgia lawmaker seeks UN force in breakaway
Abkhazia
Agence France Presse, 7/11/06
The speaker of Georgia's parliament on Tuesday called for a UN force to replace Russian peacekeepers in Georgia's breakaway territory Abkhazia, accusing Moscow of extending its influence in the area."The Russian influence in Abkhazia is consistently increasing. No political decision or appointment of a high-ranking official takes place without Russian directives," Nino Bujanadze told the UN Security Council. "All we want is to resolve this conflict peacefully and release the Abkaz side from the political pressure of Russia's policy," she said. "Having a truly independent international peace operation in the conflict zone is one of the main preconditions to achieve this goal." One of main problems is "the presence in the conflict zone of CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) peacekeepers - entirely comprised of Russian military forces," she said as she called for the deployment of UN international peacekeeping forces.
But Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin retorted that his country was not a party to the conflict between the Georgian government and Abkhazia separatists. "I think Mrs Bujanadze made a big mistake with this kind of diatribe against Russia", he said, calling her remarks "unacceptable and counter-productive". Churkin drew a parallel between Kosovo's bid to break away from Serbia and the Abkhazian separatist struggle. He warned a precipitous move by the international community in the direction of Kosovo's independence "would create negative consequences in other areas, including Abkhazia."
"What we are against is the double standard... Our preference is maintaining the territorial integrity in Serbia, Georgia and other places," the Russian envoy added. Georgia, a former Soviet republic, has accused Moscow of tacitly backing the efforts of both Abkhazia and another Georgian region, South Ossetia, to achieve independence. Russia officially recognizes Georgian sovereignty in both territories. Tensions have been high in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which attempted to split from Georgia in bloody clashes following the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse.
Mixed reactions over autonomy law in Indonesia's
Aceh
Ahmad Pathoni, Agence France Presse, 7/12/06
Former separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh insisted Wednesday that a new law giving the province greater self-rule falls short of provisions in last year's peace pact and warned they may complain. The law, passed by the national parliament on Tuesday, clears the way for local elections to be held in the tsunami-lashed province, where 29 years of conflict had left around 15,000 people -- mostly civilians -- dead. "It is clear from the draft that there are things that are not in line with the Memorandum of Understanding," a spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Munawarliza Zain, told AFP, referring to the peace pact. The pact was signed in Helsinki last August, spurred on by the devastating 2004 tsunami which left some 168,000 Acehnese dead. GAM agreed to drop its demand for independence in return for, among other concessions, the right to form local political parties which are banned elsewhere in Indonesia. Zain argued that the new law's provisions on the role of the central government were prone to multiple intrepretations, giving Jakarta room for interfering in Aceh's regional affairs. "It says the government has authority over matters related to national interests. We fear that many of the powers of the Acehnese government will be stifled under the pretext of national interests," he said.
Former GAM members were studying the law and would announce a formal stance in a few days, he said. Zain also said GAM would allow its members to run as independents in the upcoming elections but would set up a political party to contest regional seats in the 2009 national elections. Another GAM spokesman, Bakhtiar Abdullah, said the law gave the central government a major role in the management of Aceh's rich natural resources, including oil and gas. "This is one of the sources of dissatisfaction among GAM and the Acehnese people," he said. Abdullah said his group would lodge a complaint to the European Union-led Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), which is tasked with overseeing the peace pact and mediating any disputes, if it agreed the pact was violated. Representatives from the government, GAM and the AMM would meet later Wednesday to discuss the new law, he added.
The AMM, which ends its mission in September, said Tuesday that it was studying the law's content. Other Acehnese were optimistic about the new legislation. "I think the law is a good step forward. Of course it is not perfect and GAM will never get everything they want, that's why they need to compromise," said Azwar Hasan, coordinator of the Aceh Revival Forum, a non-government organisation focusing on tsunami recovery. Food vendor Abdullah said he was hopeful for a peaceful future now the law -- which under the pact should have been passed by March 31 -- was passed.
"Today I read a newspaper story about the passing of the law. I'm grateful to Allah and pray that Aceh will remain peaceful for a better future," he told the state Antara news agency. Vice President Yusuf Kalla said he was confident that the law would be accepted by most Acehnese. "I'm sure everything will go smoothly. This law will enable the local government to function," he was quoted as saying by the Detikcom news website. A report released in March by the International Crisis Group warned that the law had been diluted by the home affairs ministry and that the toughest times were ahead for the pact.
In Aceh, a year of peace but ex-rebels fear for future
Agence France Presse, 7/17/06
Former separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh have enjoyed a year of peace but, as they slowly try to build new lives for themselves, they are worried about the future. In the village of Lambaro Neujid, nestled at the foot of stunning mountains outside the provincial capital Banda Aceh, ex-rebel Syahir has just been married, with comrades Bunaiga and Marzuki in attendance. A modest tent for the wedding guests has been erected in front of a semi-finished house built to replace one lost to the 2004 tsunami which lashed Aceh's shores, killing some 168,000 people here.
Syahir and his new bride remain in the house, as tradition dictates, while the guests line up for local goat ragout with heart of banana tree. Just over a year ago, Bunaiga and Marzuki were members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), fighting for the province's independence from Jakarta as they hid in the mountains. While they have been welcomed back with open arms to their home village, they have no jobs and few prospects. Marzuki, 28, entered the separatist movement at an early age so he did not complete his schooling and now lacks employable skills. "Many of us left school to join GAM, so it's difficult to get a job once you're back without qualifications," he tells AFP. Shaven-headed, chain-smoking Bunaiga joined the rebels when he was only 17.
Six years later, he is making do with small jobs buying sand or stone needed for the many houses being built by foreign aid agencies here. "But it's only for three or four days a month," he complains, lighting another cigarette. Bunaiga lost his entire family in the tsunami, so he relies strongly on his former comrades for help and work. "Although we have all left the mountains," he says, "we still have a strong sense of solidarity". As part of a peace pact GAM signed with the Indonesian government in August last year, some 3,000 former fighters have left the mountains to settle back into their respective communities, according to the European Union-led Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM). Another 2,000 political prisoners have been amnestied, the AMM says.
The agreement ended a 29-year-old conflict that killed 15,000 people, mostly civilians. The peace process is not yet complete, with the Indonesian government only passing an autonomy law for the province last week. Ex-rebels are studying the law and have warned they may complain to the AMM over some provisions. To help them start over, former GAM members have each been given economic assistance packages worth four million rupiah (about 400 dollars). The government has also poured 600 billion rupiah for 2006 into the new Aceh Reintegration Body (BRA), which is dealing with the issues faced by ex-combatants and conflict victims.
But Marzuki is impatient. "It's been three months since I filed a proposal to start a carpentry workshop, but I still haven't had any reply so far," he complains. According to BRA head Yusni Saby, frustrations from ex-rebels stem from a misunderstanding of the body's mechanisms. "We don't deal with personal proposals anymore, except those coming from families of deceased, handicapped persons or people who lost their homes because of the conflict," he explains. "The rest are dealt with through community-based assessment. Every village will get a certain amount of funding from the 600 billion rupiah to review proposals directly." Lahmuddin, 30, used to command one of the regional GAM regiments around the southwestern town of Blang Pidie. He also fought around this village, where he met his wife Marlina. He has a sense of belonging to the place, a feeling perhaps strengthened by the giggly six-month-old son he holds in his arms. But still, he still misses some of the times since he entered GAM in 1994. "Even though we had to hide, our mind was at peace. Now all we worry about is finding a job and money," he says. "It has turned into an obsession."
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Gbagbo supporters oppose voter identification scheme in Ivory Coast
Agence France Presse, 7/13/06
Hardline supporters of Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo Thursday expressed opposition to a crucial scheme to issue identity documents ahead of planned elections, claiming it would pave the way for fraud. Gbagbo's Popular Front of Ivory Coast (FPI) complained that there had been no communication with cabinet on the operation which was scheduled to begin Thursday to identify millions of undocumented Ivorians before preparing electoral lists. The FPI branded the scheme a process "to prepare electoral fraud" and called on the head of state to "stop this process" in a statement issued Thursday.
The identification process was due to open Thursday according to the ministry of justice. However AFP journalists noted that the exercise did not take off as planned in the commercial capital Abidjan, in the government-controlled south. The justice ministry said the hearings would "definitely" begin Friday in Abidjan. The process, designed to distinguish between Ivorians and immigrants mainly from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, is vital for determining who is entitled to vote in United Nations-sponsored elections due in October. The question of who exactly is Ivorian has been a major source of conflict in the formerly wealthy and stable country of 16 million people and was one of the causes of the 2002-2003 civil war.
The UN mission in Ivory Coast Thursday welcomed the formal launch of the identification scheme. Pierre Schori, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative, said the local hearings marked a "solid start to the decisions taken in Yamassoukro with the secretary general". In a bid to get the moribund electoral process moving, African leaders and Ivory Coast's political actors agreed last week that at least 50 of the identification teams must be up and running by Saturday. Gbagbo's loyalists are concerned that rebels who control the north might capitalise on the identification programme to claim citizenship for millions of foreign immigrants in Ivory Coast, and possibly tilt the vote against him.
The UN has set a deadline of October 31 for presidential and parliamentary polls that are designed to consolidate the country's fragile peace process. Rebels claim millions of Ivorians from the north of the country have been regarded as foreigners and hence failed to acquire identity documents. Officially it is estimated that around 3.5 million of Ivory Coast's 16 million inhabitants have no identity documents. In all, 150 teams are to fan out across the country and issue birth certificates and identity cards to all undocumented Ivory Coast nationals over 13 years old who can prove they were born in the country. During talks with Annan last week the rebels and the faction loyal to Gbagbo also agreed a timetable for the disarmament of their fighters -- another key step towards the elections and the reunification of the cocoa-rich country. The New Forces (FN) rebel movement has controlled the mostly Muslim north of the country since a failed attempt to oust Gbagbo in 2002. The rebels are now members of Ivory Coast's transitional government alongside Gbagbo's supporters.
Ivory Coast president says UN soft on rebels
Agence
France Presse, 7/16/06
Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo hit out at United Nations peacekeepers in a speech broadcast on Sunday, accusing them of being soft on rebels in the divided west African country. "What (the UN) should understand is that they are here because we want them," Gbagbo told a rally of young supporters in a speech made on Saturday but broadcast on national radio a day later. "They are zealous in denouncing the Young Patriots (a pro-Gbagbo group) but they keep quiet when it comes to demanding the disarmament" of rebels, he said. Ivory Coast has been divided since rebels took control of the north of the country in 2002. National elections are due to take place by October 30.
Series of grenade attacks hits Indian Kashmir's main city
Mujtaba Ali Ahmad, Associated Press, 7/11/06
A series of grenade attacks killed eight people and wounded more than two dozen in the main city of Indian Kashmir on Tuesday as Islamic militants pressed their fight against New Delhi's rule over the Himalayan region, police said. Two of the five attacks targeted the region's vital tourism industry and killed at least seven visitors from other parts of India. The attacks came as violence surges in Kashmir despite peace efforts between India and Pakistan, which both claim all of the predominantly Muslim region that is divided between them. The deadliest single attack Tuesday took place when suspected militants tossed a grenade into a minibus carrying Indian tourists through Srinagar, the summer capital of India's part of Kashmir, said police officer Farooq Ahmed.
Five of the tourists, including four women, were killed in the blast and two later succumbed to their wounds while being treated at a hospital, he said. Another 12 people were wounded. Blood stained the streets at the scene of the attack, which took place around noon, and shards of shattered glass and the debris of small, colorful souvenirs shattered by the explosion were scattered throughout the area.
About an hour later, three more grenade attacks hit the city in quick succession. One targeted police patrolling a crowded shopping area, wounding four passengers in a car nearby, Farooq said. Another grenade hit a four-wheel drive taxi, killing one passenger and wounding six people, including bystanders, he said. Tuesday's fourth blast took place in a small residential neighborhood and injured five people, including two Americans of Kashmiri descent who were visiting family in Srinagar, said police officer Javed Koul. The mother and daughter from the San Francisco area both had splinter injuries, although niether was seriously harmed, he said.
The fifth attack took place later in the afternoon when an assailant threw a grenade at a pavilion where tourists find taxies and book hotel rooms, injuring six people, he said. But unlike the other attacks, security forces managed to apprehend the alleged assailant before he could flee, Farooq said. More than a dozen rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 to wrest Kashmir from India, a largely Hindu country. The conflict has killed more than 67,000 people. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's violence, the militants often use grenades to attack crowds insurgents killed five people Saturday, including a well-known local politician, when they threw a grenade into the courtyard of a Muslim shrine.
Militants also have on five previous occasions this year targeted tourists from other parts of India, a pattern that a top tourism official in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, Naeem Akhtar, called "a dangerous development." Militant attacks are usually most frequent in the summer when Kashmir's high mountain passes are clear of snow and a drop in violence last year was hailed as a dividend of the India-Pakistan peace process. But attacks are up more than 20 percent in the first five months of the year compared to same period in 2005, authorities say. Attacks in recent days have also challenged a claim made by officials last week that the capture in June of two top militant leaders would quell the violence.
The arrests of Manzoor Wani and Yasin Itoo, both of the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen group, had "solved" the spike in violence, Kashmir's Director General of Police Gopal Sharma told reporters on July 4. Kashmir was divided between India and Pakistan in war after they gained independence from Britain in 1947, and they fought another full-scale conflict over the region in 1965. But even as the two nuclear rivals have talked peace in the past two years, New Delhi has continued to accuse Pakistan of training, arming and funding the militants. Islamabad insists it only offers the rebels diplomatic and moral support.
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Serbia lashes out at Kosovo negotiators for lack of progress
Agence France Presse, 7/11/06
Serbian delegates Tuesday lashed out at international negotiators for the lack of progress on the future of Kosovo and warned it was unrealistic to expect a resolution on the breakaway province by the end of the year. "The inflexibility of the Kosovo Albanians and of the international community" were to blame for the state of the UN-sponsored talks, the head of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, told journalists in the Austrian capital. Raskovic-Ivic also accused the international community of ignoring the humanitarian situation in Kosovo, saying over 900 people had been killed since the UN intervention started in 1999, without anyone being held responsible.
About 250,000 non-Albanians have also fled the disputed Serbian province since 1999 and attacks against Serbs in the province have increased since talks were first agreed on last autumn, Raskovic-Ivic added. The head of the Serbian delegation to the talks, Aleksander Simic, said he was disappointed with the lack of results during negotiations and added it was "not realistic" to expect a resolution by the end of the year. "We are interested in a compromise," he said, adding however that if talks led nowhere, they should be conducted at "the highest political level."
Belgrade sent a letter Tuesday to the UN chief negotiator on Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, demanding a "clear procedure" in the talks, with a proposal for four round-table discussions on a constitution for Kosovo, security, decentralisation and economic and legal issues, Simic said. The Serbian delegate also criticised Ahtisaari's Austrian deputy Albert Rohan who has conducted several rounds of the talks. "He led the discussions poorly and was ill-prepared," Simic told the Austria Press Agency, adding the Kosovo talks in Vienna have been "a theatre performance rather than real negotiations." "It should be about making an effort to find a compromise and not about showing that a compromise is not possible," he said. Legally still a province of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999 when NATO drove out then-Yugoslavia forces to end repression of the province's restive ethnic Albanian majority.
An independent Kosovo would threaten stability: Serbian PM
Agence France Presse, 7/12/06
An independent Kosovo would threaten regional stability and Serbia's fledgeling democracy, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in a letter published Wednesday by The Washington Post. Serbia's legal arguments against independence are "simply irrefutable," and giving in to the threat of violence from the province's Albanian majority is "impermissible" morally and historically, he said, warning that appeasement can only lead to "more and even greater violence."
Kostunica's commentary was published on the eve of his speech Thursday before the UN Security Council in New York within the framework of UN-sponsored talks on Kosovo's future status that began in February. The prime minister said an independent Kosovo would become "a hotbed of chronic tension in the region" because of the province's "economic inviability," widespread crime and the risk of setting a precedent for new territorial demands. In addition, Kostunica made a case for keeping Kosovo within Serbia's fold to prevent the country's fledgeling democracy from falling apart as people lose faith in rules, which could appear to be "applicable to one nation but not to others."
In order to keep Kosovo as an integral part of its territory, Kostunica said Serbia was "prepared to accept any form of compromise that does not entail independence," offering the Albanian majority "the greatest possible autonomy, including all legislative, executive and judicial powers." Kostunica met Tuesday in Washington with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to whom he also relayed his government's position that independence for Kosovo was "out of the question."
The UN-sponsored talks on Kosovo's future status began in February, but have produced no concrete results so far. The next round of talks -- so far focused on technical, religious and cultural issues -- is to be held later this month in Vienna. Kosovo, legally still a province of Serbia, has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when the alliance's air strikes ended a crackdown by forces loyal to then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic against Albanian separatists.
Ethnic Albanian leaders to take part in top Kosovo status
meeting
Agence France Presse, 7/17/06
Ethnic Albanian leaders in a Kosovo negotiating team on Monday accepted to join a top Albanian-Serb meeting about the province's future status, official said. "The Kosovo negotiating team will go to Vienna on July 24, not to negotiate but to prove once more the view that Kosovo's independence and full sovereignty of the country ... are a vital solution, which should be confirmed by the international process for definition of the status," Skender Hyseni, the team's spokesperson, said.
"The Kosovo negotiating team will defend the position that Kosovo's independence is non negotiable." The UN-sponsored talks on Kosovo's future status, which began in February, are taking place in Vienna but have produced no concrete results so far. The UN special envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, said last week he hoped to have the first high-level Serb-Albanian meeting on the territory's future status in Vienna before the end of the month. Leaders of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority are pushing for independence, a demand the Serbian government firmly opposes, offering instead wide autonomy to its southern province. Kosovo, legally still a province of Serbia, has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when the alliance's air strikes ended a crackdown by forces loyal to then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic against Albanian separatists.
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EU vows to uphold European prospect for Macedonia, demands
reforms
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 7/17/06
EU vows to uphold European prospect for Macedonia, demands reforms Brussels European Union foreign ministers Monday vowed to continue supporting Macedonia on its way to EU membership, but urged the country to speed up internal reforms aimed at meeting the bloc's accession criteria. Macedonia's newly-elected government must "work resolutely" on the European reform agenda, ministers said in a statement.
Recent parliamentary elections in Macedonia have been conducted in a "generally peaceful" and democratic way, they added. However, shortcomings such as violent incidents at the start of the electoral campaign must be investigated, ministers said. The EU accepted Macedonia as a candidate state last December, but warned the country to work on urgent reforms in the police, the rule of law, the environment and its administration. Skopje must also speed up efforts to bring national legislation in line with EU rules, the bloc demanded.
Separatists in Moldova sets date for independence referendum
Associated Press, 7/12/06
Lawmakers in the pro-Russian separatist province of Trans-Dniester voted Wednesday to hold a referendum on independence from Moldova on Sept. 17, the province's official Olvia Press news agency reported. Trans-Dniester's legislature, the Supreme Soviet, approved the measure, which was introduced by the region's leader, Igor Smirnov. The territory's separatist leaders decided to go ahead with the ballot in hopes of following the example of Montenegro, the Balkan republic that separated from Serbia in a referendum in May.
Trans-Dniester broke away from Moldova in 1992 after a short war that left more than 1,500 people dead. The province, whose independence is not recognized internationally, relies on strong support from Russia, which considers it strategically important. In the referendum, the province's estimated 400,000 voters will be asked whether Trans-Dniester should formally break away from Moldova. In a separate question, they will also be asked if they want to later unite with Russia. Voters will not be asked whether Trans-Dniester should remain part of Moldova. "We are witnessing today the final dividing up of the former Soviet territory," Smirnov said after Wednesday's vote. Moldovan government officials dismissed the planned referendum, saying that Trans-Dniester's voters are unable to express their wishes because the region is ruled by an undemocratic regime.
The government says it will ignore the referendum if it is held. "The results of this so called referendum cannot be taken into consideration, because it will not be organized in democratic conditions," said Moldovan Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan at the end of June. He added that European officials also consider that "this referendum will not be legitimate and will have no political base." Stratan said Trans-Dniester should focus instead on settlement talks with Moldova, which have been interrupted several times over the past few years. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has criticized Trans-Dniester in the past for lack of democratic freedoms, such as press freedom.
Nepal high-level peace talks next week
Agence France
Presse, 7/14/06
Nepal's Maoist rebels are slated to meet the country's prime minister next week for a second round of high-level peace talks aimed at ending a decade-long bloody insurgency, their leader said Friday. "We have agreed to hold high-level talks between the top leaders of eight parties next Friday," Prachanda told journalists as he left a talks session near the capital.
The rebels and new government have been observing a ceasefire for over two months and have agreed to draft a temporary constitution that will allow the rebels to join an interim government. Prachanda, whose given name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and his second-in-command Baburam Bhattarai met with leaders Nepal's two largest parties, the Nepali Congress party and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) for seven hours on Friday. "There had been crisis of confidence among the seven-party government and the Maoists in the effective implementation of the eight-point agreement. Today's meeting sorted out the differences that had cropped up and rebuilt confidence," Bhattarai said as he left the meeting.
The leader of the NCP (UML), Nepal's second largest party, was equally upbeat about Friday's meeting. "The meeting has created a favourable environment for putting the Maoist-seven parties deal in action without any disputes," said Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of the CPN (UML). King Gyanendra was forced to end 14 months of direct rule in April after sidelined political parties and rebel Maoists organized nearly three weeks of bloody protests. Since the royal climbdown, the king has been stripped of his political role and control of the 90,000-strong Nepal Army.
The rebels and interim, multi-party government have agreed to hold constituent assembly elections to form a body to redraft Nepal's constitution, and probably remove the king from politics permanently. At least 12,500 people have died and some 200,000 have been internally displaced since the rebels began their "people's war" in 1996.
Nepal slashes funds for royal household in post-crisis budget
Agence France Presse, 7/12/06
Nepal's new government slashed the royal palace subsidy by almost 71 percent in its annual budget Wednesday which outlines almost two billion dollars in spending, the finance minister said. For the fiscal year started July 1, 2005, the royal government had allocated 10.6 million dollars for King Gyanendra's household. But this would be cut to three million dollars in the current fiscal year under the first budget to be presented to parliament in four years, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said in a speech to legislators "This allocation is lower by 70.7 percent of the total expenditure," Mahat said.
The new government came into power after Gyanendra was forced to end 14 months of direct rule in April following mass protests by sidelined political parties in alliance with Maoist rebels. Gyanendra, who had suspended parliament in 2002 and sacked a federal cabinet in Febuary 2005, has since been stripped of his political powers and control of the 90,000-strong army. More than half, or 1.1 billion dollars, of this year's budget of 1.9 billion dollars will be supplied by government revenue streams and 556 million will come from foreign loans and grants, Mahat said.
Military spending "cannot be decreased" Mahat said. Last year the military budget was around 257 million dollars, according to government figures. "The defense expenditure cannot be decreased unless the number of Nepal Army cadres, which has been increasing for the last four years, is reduced to a given level," said Mahat. He added that a budget shortfall of 307 million dollars will have to be financed. The new government, which has agreed to a key rebel demand for the holding of elections to a body that will rewrite Nepal's constitution, slated 17.1 million dollars for that purpose, Mahat said. "The present government... has accorded foremost priority to hold the election of the constituent assembly in a free, fair and fearless environment," said Mahat. Mahat said a ceasefire between the rebels and government since May in a decade-long insurgency that has ravaged the economy and claimed more than 12,500 lives bodes well for the business outlook. "The closed factories and businesses will reopen in the peaceful environment.
Private sector investment will significantly increase in the country," Mahat said. He predicted economic growth of five percent in the next year and inflation averaging six percent. In the last four years, economic growth has been around two percent and inflation has spiked to double digits because of frequent strikes and rebel blockades of highways. The new government intends to ramp up investment in rural areas, the heartland of the rebel Maoists where around 75 percent of Nepal's 27 million people live. "The foundation for inclusive economy can be laid only be increasing public investment in underdeveloped areas and for backward groups and communities," Mahat said during two-hour address.
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Independent Montenegro to hold general election on Sept
10
Agence France Presse, 7/11/06
Montenegro's president, Filip Vujanovic, on Tuesday called a general election for September 10, the first such ballot since the tiny Balkan republic became independent, his cabinet said in a statement. Voters will elect 81 members of parliament to replace the current 75. The country's 480,000 voters will also cast ballots to choose new local authorities. Montenegro proclaimed independence on June 3 following a referendum in which more than 55 percent of voters supported separation from Serbia.
Arrests of Karadzic, Mladic crucial for Balkan region, top Council of
Europe official says
Associated Press, 7/11/06
The arrests of wanted U.N. war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are crucial for the war-torn Balkans, a top Council of Europe official said Tuesday. Rene van der Linden, the head of the council's Parliamentary Assembly, told Montenegrin lawmakers that all countries in the area should do their best to help arrest the two former Bosnian Serb leaders sought on genocide charges by the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands.
"Their trial is essential for the justice and the rule of law and the prerequisite of the democratic future of your country," said van der Linden, adding that he has delivered the same message throughout the region. "It is a common duty for all regional countries to put these two in jail." Van der Linden spoke on the 11th anniversary of the Srebrenica killing, when 8,000 Muslims were executed by the Bosnian Serb troops in what became Europe's worst carnage post-World War II.
The ex-Bosnian Serb political leader, Karadzic, and his military commander, Mladic, both are wanted on genocide charges by the court in The Hague for allegedly orchestrating the Srebrenica killings and other war crimes of Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Karadzic is a Montenegrin by origin and is believed to have occasionally crossed to this mountainous republic since his 1995 indictment. Mladic allegedly is hiding in neighboring Serbia. Van der Linden said that "there is no indication that Karadzic and Mladic are here," but warned that "Montenegro ... must take care that no indicted war criminal sought by the international tribunal would try to seek shelter in Montenegro." Montenegro in June declared independence from Serbia, after its voters supported the split in a May referendum. Van der Linden urged Montenegro to boost fight against organized crime and corruption, and step up efforts to build democratic institutions.
UN to consider sending peacekeepers to Somalia -- diplomats
Agence France Presse, 7/12/06
The UN Security Council is to consider Thursday a proposal that could authorize the deployment of international peacekeepers in Somalia as requested by the African Union (AU), diplomats said Wednesday. The British proposal addresses an AU request for an exemption to the 1992 UN arms embargo on Somalia "to pave way for a possible deployment of a Peace Support Mission (PSM) and to help facilitate the re-establishment of the national security forces of Somalia." The non-binding text, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, noted that the 15-member council would be willing to give its green light for the PSM if "it would contribute to peace and stability in Somalia", on the basis of a detailed mission by the AU and the seven-nation East African-region Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
A Western diplomat told AFP that the British text was "delicately balanced" to take into account the reticence of some council members about deploying foreign peacekeepers in volatile Somalia. Plans by IGAD to deploy peacekeepers to help Somali President Addullahi Yusuf Ahmed's largely powerless transitional government have faced opposition from the powerful Islamists, who control large swathes of southern Somalia including the capital. In addition, IGAD officials have complained that the international community, notably western powers, have been non-committal on the Somali conflict, thus complicating regional efforts to restore a functional government, which collapsed in 1991 with the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The British proposal would also express the council's readiness to ease the arms embargo to enable Somalia's transitional federal government to building effective security forces. It however stresses the arms embargo's "continued contribution" to Somalia's peace and security and calls on all countries to comply with it. It says the council "reiterates its intention to consider urgently how to strengthen the effectiveness of the arms embargo."
Meanwhile the UN special representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, on Tuesday told the council that the rise of "hardliners" within the Islamic courts in Somalia poses a serious threat to the Somali peace process. He said expectations raised by last month's meeting in Khartoum between three main leaders of the transitional government and a delegation of the Islamic courts had been quickly eroded by ceasefire violations. He said finding a compromise during a second round of talks scheduled in Khartoum on Saturday would be difficult. Fall also said the humanitarian situation in Somalia remained grave, with some 250,000 Somalis now internally displaced within Mogadishu itself.
A transitional government, set up in neighboring Kenya in 2004 and now based in the town of Baidoa northwest of Mogadishu for security reasons, has been wracked by infighting and unable to assert control over much of the country. It has watched warily as the Islamists have moved to fill the power vacuum, defeating the US-backed warlords in months of bloody fighting, extending their reach and imposing strict Sharia law in areas they control. Wednesday, the Islamists tightened their grip on Mogadishu, taking control of its main port and demanding that all government property be turned over to them.
UN okays proposal to ease arms embargo on Somalia
Agence France Presse, 7/13/06
The Security Council on Thursday endorsed an easing of the UN arms embargo on Somalia to allow the possible deployment of foreign peacekeepers in a move aimed at bolstering that country's weak transitional federal government. The council adopted a British-drafted statement that approves an AU request for an exemption to the 1992 UN arms embargo on Somalia "to pave way for a possible deployment of a Peace Support Mission (PSM) and to help facilitate the re-establishment of the national security forces of Somalia." The non-binding text said the council would be willing to give its green light for the mission if it "would contribute to peace and stability in Somalia," on the basis of a detailed mission by the AU and the seven-nation East African-region Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The statement, read out by French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere -- the council president for July -- expressed the 15-member council's readiness to ease the arms embargo to enable Somalia's transitional federal government to building effective security forces. It however stresses the arms embargo's "continued contribution" to Somalia's peace and security and calls on all countries to comply with it. It says the council "reiterates its intention to consider urgently how to strengthen the effectiveness of the arms embargo." A Western diplomat said Wednesday that the British text was "delicately balanced" to take into account the reticence of some council members about deploying foreign peacekeepers in volatile Somalia. Idd Beddel Mohamed, Somalia's deputy UN ambassador, hailed adoption of the statement Thursday as a sign of support for the beleaguered Somali transitional government. "It sends a very strong message to the Islamic courts that they are not a legitimate entity in Somalia," he told AFP. Plans by IGAD to deploy peacekeepers to help Somali President Addullahi Yusuf Ahmed's largely powerless transitional government have faced opposition from the powerful Islamists, who control large swathes of southern Somalia including the capital. IGAD groups Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea and nominally Somalia. The Islamists are seeking to impose strict Sharia law across the country and have vowed to resist the deployment of any foreign troops on Somali soil, particularly from Ethiopia, which they accuse of hostile meddling. Their rise is seen by many as a threat, including some in the Somali government and the United States, which accuses them of harboring Al-Qaeda terror suspects and other extremists, and backed an alliance of warlords against them. The transitional government, set up in neighboring Kenya in 2004 and now based in the town of Baidoa northwest of Mogadishu for security reasons, has been wracked by infighting and unable to assert control over much of the country. The Horn of African country has been without a functioning central authority since strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. During the 16 years of violence and chaos that followed, warlords seized control of government buildings and property.
Sri Lankan navy destroys rebel boat in northern sea, killing 4
rebels, military says
Bharatha Mallawarachi, Associated
Press, 7/11/06
The Sri Lankan navy destroyed an attacking Tamil Tiger boat Tuesday, killing four rebels, the military said. The rebel boat fired at three navy boats patrolling in the northern Kilaly lagoon, prompting the navy to retaliate, the Media Center for National Security said. There was no immediate comment from the rebels, and no independent confirmation on this attack. The rebels, who want to carve out a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's 3.2 million ethnic Tamil minority, often fight with the Sri Lankan navy to protect their supply lines.
The rebels say they will not tolerate intrusion into what they call their territorial waters. The issue of sea rights has been at the heart of deteriorating relations between the rebels and the government. More than 700 people half of them civilians have been killed since December when violence escalated, threatening a return to all-out civil war. Separately, a bomb exploded in Sri Lanka's northern city of Jaffna on Tuesday, killing one person. The bomb detonated near a Hindu temple, the military said on its Web site. The identity of the victim wasn't immediately known. In the northern town of Vavuniya, a grenade lobbed at a group of policemen guarding passengers on a train destined for the capital Colombo missed its target. No one was hurt. The military blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Vavuniya is 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Colombo and the northernmost government-held garrison town before rebel-held territory. The violence came as President Mahinda Rajapakse on Tuesday invited Tamil Tiger rebels to join discussions aimed at reforming the country's constitution to enable devolution of power to the ethnic Tamil-majority northeast. The Tamil Tigers began fighting for a homeland in 1983, alleging discrimination by the Sinhalese. The two sides reached a cease-fire in 2002. About 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before the cease-fire.ldiers were reported missing and four were injuries after rebels attacked them with mortars.
Fighting intensifies between Sri Lankan troops, Tamil rebels, killing
at least 16
Associated Press, 7/15/06
Fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels killed at least 16 people, the Red Cross and rebels said Saturday, while the guerrillas said the clashes indicate Sri Lanka is fast heading back to a full-scale civil conflict. Of 13 government soldiers reported missing, as many as 12 may have died in the clashes in a rebel-held village in eastern Batticaloa district on Friday, military spokesman Brig.
"I am not able to confirm that until we get the bodies. So far as we are concerned, we have listed the soldiers as missing," Samarasinghe said. He said Friday another four soldiers were wounded. A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said he expected the soldiers' remains would be returned to the military later Saturday. "We have been told that there are 12 bodies of Sri Lankan soldiers and we are getting ready to receive them" from the Tamil Tigers, Sukumar Rockwood said. Samarasinghe said he had information that at least 10 Tamil rebels were killed in Friday's clashes, but there was no independent confirmation of that claim. The pro-rebel Web site TamilNet reported Friday that four rebel fighters were killed.
A spokesman for a Nordic cease-fire monitoring mission confirmed the fighting in Kulathumadu village, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) east of the capital, Colombo. Samarasinghe denied that troops had knowingly entered the rebel-held area, saying there was no way of knowing they had left government-held territory. Under a Norway-brokered cease-fire signed in 2002, both sides are prohibited from entering each other's territory with arms. More than 750 people have been killed in escalating violence, especially in Sri Lanka's north and east, since December, raising fears that the island nation could plunge back into full-blown civil war.
"Friday's incursion ... marks a degree of escalation in the long-running 'low intensity war' between the (rebels) and the Sri Lankan military," TamilNet said Saturday. The Tamil Tigers formally named the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have fought the government since 1983 for a separate homeland for the country's 3.2 million ethnic Tamil minority, accusing the 14 million Sinhalese of discrimination. More than 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before the 2002 truce.
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Darfur rebel chief reaffirms faith in peace accord, denies his group
is behind latest fighting
Associated Press, 7/11/06
The most significant rebel leader to have signed a peace deal for Darfur reaffirmed his faith in the partially implemented agreement Tuesday and denied his forces were responsible for a surge in fighting and atrocity allegations in western Sudan. Minni Minnawi of the Sudan Liberation Army also said he would accept the position of senior assistant to Sudan's presidency a post that would make him head of an autonomous authority for the Darfur region if his group nominates him for the job in the near future.
"If I am nominated, I will accept it," Minnawi told a press conference in Cairo. Under the May 5 Darfur Peace Agreement, the authority is to run Darfur as an autonomous part of Sudan, but all militia must be disarmed in the war-torn region for the deal to come into effect. The agreement sought to bring to an end three years of fighting between several rebel groups and pro-government forces that has killed 200,000 people and displaced another 2 million. Minnawi signed the accord, but a breakaway faction of the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement rejected it.
The agreement is not popular in Darfur's refugee camps, where many people have tribal links to the leader of the breakaway SLA faction and argue that the peace terms are inadequate. Violence has continued in some areas. Last month Minnawi threatened to withdraw from the agreement unless more was done to enforce the cease-fire. But on Tuesday, he said: "We are fully committed to implement this DPA." He acknowledged the agreement had yet to transform the lives of Darfur's people.
Asked to name its benefits, he said "the only thing" he could point to was that the cease-fire was holding in some parts of Darfur. "(In) some of the area now, there is a cease-fire 100 percent. The government respected the cease-fire and also our troops are respecting the cease-fire," he said.
On Sunday and Monday, situation reports issued by the U.N. mission to Sudan said people in the region claimed there were nine cases in the past week where Minnawi's faction of the Sudan Liberation Army had attacked North Darfur settlements under the control of the rival SLA faction led by Abdelwahid Elnur. The U.N. cited the claims but did not confirm them. "This is not true," Minnawi said Tuesday. "Our faction is not going to attack any civilian," he said, insisting his forces respond only when "bandits" attack civilians and NGOs in Darfur. Minnawi also dismissed allegations quoted in the UN reports that members of his faction committed rapes and kidnappings. Minnawi said his faction continued to have dealings with former colleagues and other rebels who had refused to sign the peace accord. He said he could not give details to the media, "but we have relations, and they are our friends, our brothers, and also we have (the intention) to make our relations more close."
Sudan takes first step toward appointing rebel leader as head of
Darfur administration
Mohamed Osman, Associated Press,
7/12/06
Sudan has taken the first toward appointing a Darfur rebel leader as head of the administration that will run the western region once peace has been restored. The Sudan Liberation Army, the only rebel group that signed the Darfur Peace Agreement on May 5, nominated its leader, Minni Minnawi, to the post of senior assistant to Sudan's president in meeting with a presidential adviser on Tuesday night, state media reported. Once endorsed by President Omar al-Bashir considered a formality the position will make Minnawi the head of what will be the Darfur Authority, the administration that will run Darfur as an autonomous part of Sudan once the terms of the peace accord have been implemented.
"This is a historic day for our country," Samani al-Wasilah, the state minister for foreign affairs, told the official Sudan Media Center after the SLA delegation handed the nomination to presidential adviser Majzoub Khalifa. "Sons of the homeland have come together to cement the pillars of peace and work together to implement the Darfur Peace Accord." But the DPA is in trouble. It has failed to stop the fighting, and its provision for the disarmament of militia has not been implemented. People continue to report killings, rapes and kidnappings to the United Nations, and refugees continue to arrive at Darfur's camps for displaced people. The UN chief envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, expressed "concern" Wednesday about the ongoing harassment of civilians and attacks, but he did not blame any specific group.
Pronk told reporters in Khartoum that even the rebels who do not support the May 5 accord such as a breakaway faction of the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement were obliged to observe the cease-fire signed in 2004. Minnawi himself told reporters in Cairo on Tuesday that the only achievement of the DPA was that the cease-fire was holding in some places. "(In) some of the area now, there is a cease-fire 100 percent. The government respected the cease-fire and also our troops are respecting the cease-fire," he said. Speaking before the Tuesday night meeting, Minnawi said he would accept the nomination if it were made, and that he would soon return to Sudan. He did not give a date. After the president has endorsed Minnawi's appointment, it will have to be ratified by Sudan's parliament, but this is considered a mere procedure.
The DPA sought to put a stop to three years of fighting between several rebel groups and pro-government forces that have killed 200,000 people and displaced another 2 million. The agreement is not popular in the refugee camps, where many people have tribal links to the leader of the breakaway SLA faction and argue that the peace terms are inadequate.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
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