Contents:
State court adds war crimes to existing charges against Momcilo Mandic.
Current discussions will focus on how to "bring FNL troops into the
fold."
Mediators express optimism that two sides will reach an agreement.
Chechen rebel leadership denies peace offer
Denied "manifesto for peace"
issued by exiled foreign minister issued Saturday.
Chechen president proposes alternate
amnesty deadline for militants Jan. 1
Alu Alkhanov asks for extended
deadline for rebels and fighters to lay down their weapons.
UN condemns irregularities in DR Congo election campaign
But mission says that it remains
"generally satisfied" with campaigns.
UN says 4,000 rebels disarmed in DR Congo
UN Mission reports that fighters from various groups in
Ituri have joined the national disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation
process
Georgian leader rules out independence referendum for breakaway regions
Also opposed any other internationally
sponsored process that would lead to Abkhazia or South Ossetia's independence.
Breakaway
Georgian region denounces call for withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers
Abkhazia's leadership says the
withdrawal would ruin chances of resolving its dispute with the central government.
Breakaway region's
fate in limbo as Tbilisi and Moscow tussle for control
South Ossetia's rebel president claims that Georgia is preparing
for war.
In Aceh, a year of peace but ex-rebels fear for future
Worries about employment plague
ex-rebels in the region.
UN official: Ivory Coast's ruling party is stalling peace process
Top election supervisor claims
Gbagbo's party is increasing the "feeling of insecurity and instability"
by encouraging demonstrations and delaying national ID program.
Ivory Coast's largest city faces blockade
by pro-government militants
Protestors blocked major routes
in opposition to the proposed identification program.
Top Kashmir separatist urges India, Pakistan to continue talks
Farooq urges leaders to not allow events like the Mumbai
bombings to derail talks.
Kosovo
Serbian, Kosovo leaders to take part in Vienna talks
Meeting will be the first since 1999 NATO bombing
campaign.
Kosovo independence could lead to secession of Serb-populated
north
Serbian government representative claims northern
Kosovo will "never be part of an independent Kosovo."
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor appears in court for pretrial hearing
Taylor complains about food and
access to telephones at first appearance at The Hague.
Nepal Maoists pledge ceasefire extension, seek "lasting peace"
Rebel leadership scheduled to meet Prime Minister last Friday for a second
round of talks.
EU urges Nepal's
Maoists to disarm before elections
During a trip to the country, 7-member EU delegation met with leaders of
rebels and mainstream political parties.
U.N. to send
high-level team to Nepal to assist peace process
Headed by Staffan De Mistura, the team arrives in Nepal on Wednesday for
negotiations on U.N. assistance for the peace process.
10 communist rebels, four soldiers slain in southern Philippines
Philippine army says fighting stopped planned guerrilla
plot to raid a town in Mindanao.
Ethiopia Enters Somalia to Back Government
Move could give U.S.-backed Somali
government chance at curbing growing power of Islamic militia.
Somali Islamists
vow 'fight to death' against Ethiopian troops
Islamists demand immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.
Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels stick to their demand for withdrawal of
EU peace monitors
Rebels argue that since the EU listed the LTTE as a terrorist group,
they could no longer be neutral
World Powers Press Sudan on Peacekeepers
Asked Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeeping force to
relieve African Union troops.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG
Report.
Former Bosnian Serb justice minister indicted on war crimes charges
Associated Press, 7/18/06
Bosnia's state court added war crimes to the charges against a former Bosnian Serb minister on trial for allegedly embezzling millions and helping war crimes fugitives, the court said Monday. Momcilo Mandic was justice minister in the wartime government of the most wanted war crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic. As justice minister, Mandic was responsible for correctional facilities in the territory of Bosnia controlled by the Serbs.
Some of the facilities had "all the elements of a camp where many non-Serb civilians were illegally imprisoned," a statement from the court said in announcing the latest charge. Toward the end of the war, Mandic moved to Belgrade, where he became a wealthy businessman. He was arrested in August in Montenegro and transferred to Bosnia for detention after he was charged with embezzling millions through his own bank and funneling the money to war crimes suspects on the run, presumably to Karadzic, authorities say.
As the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Karadzic is accused of having masterminded Bosnia's 1992-95 war along with former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who died earlier this year in his prison cell in The Hague, Netherlands. The war killed tens of thousands and left another 1.6 million people homeless.
Karadzic and his wartime military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, are the two most-wanted suspects sought by the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague. Since his indictment on genocide charges in 1995, Karadzic has been on the run and is believed to be evading arrest by NATO troops thanks to a strong network of supporters who are allegedly financing and otherwise facilitating his hiding.
Burundi peace talks in trouble over army status: mediators
Agence France Presse, 7/18/06
Peace talks aimed at bringing a final end to Burundi's 13-year war faltered Tuesday as the government and the country's last active rebel group refused to change key demands, mediators said. A day after the stalled negotiations on permanent truce resumed here after a week-long break amid hopes for a breakthrough, the discussions were effectively deadlocked and at "a very tough stage," they said.
Lead mediator, South African Security Minister Charles Nqakula, said it was unclear when or if the stalemate between Bujumbura and the National Liberation Forces (FNL) over the status of the national army could be resolved. "Negotiations are still going on, but we are in a very tough stage," he told AFP. "We made some progress on Monday, but the army issue is still a problem. We are now discussing how to bring in the FNL troops into the fold."
Nqakula returned to Tanzania's commercial capital of Dar es Salaam on Monday after his team held separate talks with both sides at the weekend and came up with proposals that mediators hoped could end the impasse. He had called the week-long break after the two sides failed to meet a self-imposed July 2 deadline for a permanent truce, agreed on two weeks earlier when they sealed a temporary ceasefire.
The FNL has been demanded the dissolution or at least major reform of Burundi's army as a condition to enter into a permanent ceasefire, while Bujumbura has rejected that stance as inappropriate for truce negotiations. Despite slight modifications to their position, the FNL are still insisting on significant changes and security guarantees in exchange for dropping their weapons and beginning any sort of reintegration process, Nqakula said. "The snag is that the FNL wants, when their troops get back, the government army to be confined to its barracks and international security forces to take charge," he said. "This simply means the FNL rebels do not trust the Burundi army and the government," Nqakula said. "I am not sure when we are going to conclude the talks."
In addition, the FNL, the only one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups to remain outside a 2000 peace process, want the army to reflect the country's ethnic makeup, mediators said. That would give the 85-percent Hutu majority vast superiority in numbers to the 14-percent Tutsi minority, which had dominated the government and armed forces since independence until the adoption last year of a power-sharing constitution. Representatives of Burundi's government could not be reached for comment, but mediators said Bujumbura was refusing to alter the 50-50 Hutu-Tutsi ethnic composition of the army called for in the new charter.
FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana blamed the stalemate on Bujumbura, accusing its negotiating team of being too "rigid" in its position. "Government delegates are very rigid on their stand on the army," he told AFP. "They are against any proposals touching the army."
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 then minority Tutsi-dominated army.
Burundi's army kill rebel fighter as mediators offer new cease-fire plan
Aloys Niyoyita, Associated Press, 7/19/06
Burundi's holdout rebel fighters have attacked a military check point near the capital, triggering a brief gunfight in which one insurgent was killed and a soldier was wounded, an army spokesman said Wednesday. The clashes occurred Tuesday in Muyira, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the center of the capital, Bujumbura, said Capt. Clement Cimana, adding there were no civilians casualties.
The rebel National Liberation Force attacked the army one day after mediators offered a new version of cease-fire proposals to government and rebel negotiators attending peace talks in neighboring Tanzania. "We redrafted the cease-fire document, hoping that both sides will accept and sign it," Dineo Khama, spokeswoman of the South Africa-led mediation team, said by telephone from Tanzania's commercial capital of Dar es Salaam. "We haven't reach any agreement yet, but we continue to talk. We remain optimistic that the two sides will finally reach an agreement," she said, declining to provide details of the proposed cease-fire plan.
The new proposals were intended to break the deadlock caused by rebel demands
for the government to disband the army and re-negotiate key details of the peace
agreement that led to democratic elections last year that established a new,
power-sharing administration. The deal was agreed by the main rebel groups,
but rejected by the National Liberation Force. Burundi's conflict has killed
more than 250,000 people, most of them civilians who died of disease and hunger.
The war started in October 1993, when Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's
first democratically elected president, a Hutu.
Chechen rebel leadership denies peace offer
Agence France Presse, 7/19/06
The Chechen separatist leadership denied Wednesday that rebels were ready to drop their demand for independence in exchange for peace in Chechnya, according to a statement on rebel websites. The "presidential administration" of the rebel government denounced a statement titled "manifesto for peace" that Akhmed Zakayev, the exiled foreign minister in the fugitive leadership, issued Saturday. "Any acts putting into doubt the state sovereignty (of Chechnya), or any attempts to discuss the sovereignty are state crimes," the administration of rebel president Doku Umarov said on two rebel websites: www.chechenpress.info and www.kavkazcenter.com. "The leadership does not intend to offer peace or talks with the aggressor until there are real conditions for this."
Zakayev, who represents the more moderate wing of the 15-year-old Chechen independence
drive and lives in exile in London, wrote in his manifesto that the rebels were
"ready for the necessary negotiations" on peace and that independence
was no longer a pre-condition. Umarov became the rebels' president after the
killing by Russian forces of his predecessor Abdul-Khalim Saidullayev on June
17. Umarov is thought to be in hiding in or near Chechnya, where guerrillas
maintain low-level resistance against a huge Russian military presence.
Chechen president proposes alternate amnesty deadline for militants Jan.
1
Associated Press, 7/19/06
Chechnya's Moscow-backed president called for separatist rebels and fighters
in neighboring North Caucasus regions to be given until Jan. 1 to lay down their
arms and take advantage of a proposed amnesty, a Russian news agency reported
Wednesday.
Alu Alkhanov's appeal came a day after Russia's security chief said authorities
were planning to offer amnesty to militants who give up their fight by Aug.
1 a bid to decrease rebel resistance following the death last week of Chechen
warlord Shamil Basayev.
The Interfax news agency quoted Alkhanov as saying that extending the deadline until January would give militants "time to contemplate their decision and make use of a chance to become free and return to peaceful pursuits for the well-being of their Motherland." Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, the regional prime minister who is likely to succeed Alkhanov as president, called Tuesday for setting a Sept. 1 deadline.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to negotiate with Chechen rebels
during more than six years in office, but authorities have lured militants into
the fold with pervious amnesties and promises of leniency. Many in the security
forces of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed government are former rebels. Basayev, the
Chechen warlord behind Russia's deadliest terror attacks and battles with police
and military forces, was killed by an explosion last week in what Russian authorities
said was a well-planned operation. Separatist representatives said his death
was an accident.
UN condemns irregularities in DR Congo election campaign
Agence France Presse, 7/19/06
The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) Wednesday condemned "inappropriate acts" in the campaign leading to elections at the end of this month. Lamenting clashes between rival supporters and attempts to bribe voters, MONUC said however that it "remains generally satisfied" with the campaign for legislative and presidential elections to be held on July 30, now in its third week. But MONUC deputy spokesman Jean-Tobie Okala condemned a number of incidents and irregularities nationwide at a news conference in Kinshasa.
These included clashes Saturday at a stadium in Kinshasa between backers of Oscar Kashala, one of 33 presidential candidates, and young stone-throwers who were beaten up, and the banning of an opposition march in Goma in the east of the country. Cases of physical attacks and destruction of posters and banners were reported in several places.
At Kananga in western Kasai province, the Congo Liberation Movement (MLC) of Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba and the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), which backs sitting President Joseph Kabila, were accused of noting down the numbers on voter identity cards. They then handed out T-shirts and showed the symbols of the party they wanted those participating at rallies to vote for. In some cases, the numbers of voters' cards went into a lottery which handed out prizes, UN observers said. In another region, arguments between PPRD and MLC backers turned into pitched battles.
MONUC's human rights division condemned the "nitpicking" and "threats" from political parties or government officials targetting human rights activists and journalists as the elections drew nearer.
UN says 4,000 rebels disarmed in DR Congo
Agence France Presse, 7/19/06
Almost 4,000 militia fighters have laid down their arms in the Ituri region of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since June, the United Nations mission in the country said on Wednesday. Fighters from various groups in the volatile province "joined the national disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation process" as war-scarred DRC prepares for milestone elections, said Stephane Lescoffit, military spokesman for the mission (MONUC).
As well as demobilising, the fighters surrendered 2,141 weapons between them, Lescoffit said. Despite the successful disarming of more than 15,000 militia fighters last year, thousands opposed to the national disarmament drive remain active in Ituri, preventing some 200,000 internally displaced people from returning home. DRC military authorities invited local militias resisting disarmament to join them in talks.
Peter Karim, a rebel leader in charge of a force of 1,000 fighters in the northeastern Nioka region, recently announced he would join the disarmament and rehabilitation process. Karim's group -- mainly comprising former members of his Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) -- is suspected of involvement in a recent kidnapping of UN peacekeepers and an earlier attack on a UN helicopter.
The DRC army meanwhile has wrested control of several positions southwest of Ituri's regional capital Bunia from fighters formerly belonging to the Ituri National Patriotic Resistance Forces rebel group. The militia still control their regional stronghold of Tchei, however, which they seized from the DRC army last month, driving thousands of people from their homes to displacement camps near Bunia. The UN's Word Food Programme said in a statement on Wednesday it had given 37 tonnes of food to some 8,900 displaced people sheltering in the Dele camp near Bunia.
The UN has 17,600 peacekeeping troops stationed in the DRC, 80 percent of them in the east, where local militia and foreign fighters continue to fuel a climate of insecurity. A European Union military force of 800 troops is being deployed in Kinshasa, with an additional 1,200-man EU rapid reaction force over the border in Gabon ready to intervene should violence erupt during elections set for July 30. The polls -- the country's first multi-party elections in more than 40 years -- aim to end a fragile period of political transition following a five-year civil war.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation
Simulation
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to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International
Law & Policy Group.
Georgian leader rules out independence referendum for breakaway regions
Associated Press, 7/17/06
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has emphasized his opposition to a referendum or any other internationally sponsored process that could lead to independence for the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "We will not submit even to hints of the possibility of using any sort of international mechanism that in the end would lead to the separation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia," Saakashvili said in televised comments late Sunday.
Russia has suggested recently that residents of the two breakaway regions should have the right to determine their future status. Saakashvili said Georgia's position on the issue has strong international support, adding, "I am sure that sooner or later such statements ... will stop being made in Russia." Abkhazia and South Ossetia have run their own affairs since wars against Georgia's central government in the early 1990s and have support from Russia, which has granted the vast majority of their residents Russian citizenship.
Like other countries, Russia does not officially recognize the sovereignty claimed by the two regions, but in the wake of an independence vote in Montenegro and amid international discussions of Kosovo's status, Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have emphasized the right of self-determination and suggested the possibility of referendums. Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said Monday he expected the parliament to pass a resolution soon demanding that Russian peacekeepers withdraw from both rebel provinces.
Russia's relations with Georgia have steadily deteriorated since the 2004 election of Saakashvili, who pledged to take both rebel provinces back into the fold and sought to build close ties with the United States. The United States has funded a program to train and equip several Georgian military units, and another Georgian infantry battalion on Monday started training under the program. Saakashvili on Sunday called talk of a referendum in Abkhazia a "provocation," and indicated Georgia would only consider one after the return of ethnic Georgians displaced from the region by the war.
Amid repeated accusations from the separatists that Georgia is planning to seize control by force, Saakashvili said that his government is committed a peaceful resolution but will not accept the existing situation forever. "We do not intend to resign ourselves further to the status quo and to attempts to drag out the settlement process," he said.
Breakaway Georgian region denounces call for withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers
Associated Press, 7/19/06
The separatist leadership of Georgia's Abkhazia region Wednesday denounced the Georgian parliament's call for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces, saying it would shatter chances for a resolution of its dispute with the central government. Abkhazia's President Sergei Bagapsh considers the parliament's initiative "the most destructive political decision" since Georgia and Abkhazia began efforts to settle their differences following an early 1990s war that left Abkhazia in separatist hands, Bagapsh spokesman Kristian Bzhania said.
Georgian lawmakers passed a resolution Tuesday calling on the government to start a process that would lead to the pullout of Russian peacekeepers from Abkhazia and another separatist region, South Ossetia. Both regions run their own affairs, but are not internationally recognized. Bzhania said that a decision to demand the pullout of Russian peacekeepers would require approval from Abkhazia's leadership. A unilateral effort to force their withdrawal would require Georgia to abandon existing agreements, leading to a "total cessation" of settlement efforts, he said.
The parliament resolution angered separatist leaders and added to the tension between Georgia and Russia, which has granted Russian citizenship to most of the two regions' residents. Georgia accuses the peacekeepers of siding with separatists, and Russia of using its sway in the regions to destabilize the country.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has final say on whether to implement the resolution and press for a Russian withdrawal. He said Tuesday that the government's final decision on peacekeepers would "depend on consultations with our Russian partners and the quality of our relations." Saakashvili is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow later this week. Relations between Russia and its much smaller neighbor have worsened significantly since the 2004 election of Saakashvili, who has sought to decrease Moscow's influence on Georgia and align his country with the United States and Europe.
Breakaway region's fate in limbo as Tbilisi and Moscow tussle for control
Simon Ostrovsky, Agence France Presse, 7/20/06
To Radion Gazzayev, the latest rekindling in tensions between Georgia and Russian-backed rebels in South Ossetia has meant the death of his little brother and being forced to use a crutch. Two separate, unsolved explosions targeted separatist officials in the province last week, one killing the local security council chief, the other two passersby -- Radion's brother Ibrahim and another teenager.
Georgia's parliament on Tuesday followed up the most recent flare-up in violence in this troubled corner of the Caucasus with a resolution calling for Russian peacekeepers to be replaced by an international force in South Ossetia and in a second rebel Georgian province, Abkhazia. Georgia's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili is expected to bring up the assembly's demands at talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this weekend. But Ossetians say Georgia is stirring the violence, including the bomb which exploded in a tree in the center of Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital, as Radion and his brother were helping a neighbor load smoked fish onto a truck.
Shrapnel downed 19-year-old Radion, hitting his arms and piercing a leg while the blast wave threw Ibrahim into the air killing him a few moments later. "The Georgians did this because they want Tskhinvali to be theirs," Radion said as he leaned on a crutch at his brother's funeral on Monday. Georgia denies it planted the bombs. The speaker of parliament, Nino Burjanadze, blamed Russian security services and warned of more such "provocation." "There will be serious complications with Russia after the parliament's decision," Burjanadze told AFP, adding that she expected Russia to "heat up" the situation in Ossetia to create excuses for the peacekeepers to stay. Burjanadze said that though Ossetians are against the departure of Russian troops, a neutral international police force was needed to guarantee the safety of both ethnic-Ossetian and Georgian living in the conflict zone.
Georgia also wants the Russian contingent, which it says acts like an occupying power, to be replaced by an international force, breaking the uneasy status quo that has held since Tbilisi ended its disastrous war with the Ossetians in 1992. "We will not allow Russia to annex the territories of Georgia and we will use all civilized methods to do this," Georgian Conflict Resolution Minister Giorgi Khaindrava told AFP.
There is hostility to this among the Ossetians, who say that the Russian presence is the only guarantee of continued autonomy from Tbilisi. "What kind of peacekeeping mission do they want here? Afghan or Iraqi? We don't need any other force besides the Russians," the region's rebel president, Eduard Kokoity told AFP in a recent interview in his office.
The latest parliamentary move came amid a backdrop of growing tensions between Russia and its tiny neighbor Georgia, with whom already poor relations further cooled when the US-educated Saakashvili came to power in 2003. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which mediates the conflict, said an escalation followed Russia's closure of the main road between Russian and Georgia recently, ostensibly for repairs.
Traffic between the two countries was diverted through the separatist region, which is dotted with dozens of ethnic-Georgian and Ossetian villages, while both sides have been making "strong" verbal exchanges, an OSCE diplomat said. Combined with the recent bomb blasts and the cancellation of scheduled talks, "this makes for a very tense situation," the diplomat said while expressing hope that progress could be made at talks that have been rescheduled for a month from now in Moscow.
Saakashvili has vowed to bring both Ossetia and Abkhazia back into the Georgian fold. But this goal is complicated by the fact that most of the citizens of the breakaway regions have been granted Russian citizenship.
The Russian ruble is in circulation and the Russian flag is prominently on display throughout both Abkhazia and Ossetia.
South Ossetia is also ethnically linked to the North Ossetia region in Russia, whose leaders have vowed to throw their weight behind Tskhinvali in the event of a new war with Georgia. "Georgia must gather up the political will to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia. We are not the aggressors, we are the victims," Kokoity said. But Tbilisi sees the regions as conduits for contraband and organized crime and as it boosts its military, with US support, it has undertaken the construction of a new army base just outside of rebel-controlled territory.
This has lead Tskhinvali as well as Moscow to accuse Georgia of preparing to take over the province. "Georgia is intensely readying for war," Kokoity said, "they have launched terrorist attacks against our leadership," he said in reference to the recent bomb blasts. Georgia has denied it is planning an attack, instead saying Russian media were stoking tensions in a smear campaign timed to coincide with a Group of Eight leading nations meeting in Saint Petersburg last week.
In Aceh, a year of peace but ex-rebels fear for future
Lambaro Neujid, 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."
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
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to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International
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UN official: Ivory Coast's ruling party is stalling peace process
Franz Wild, Associated Press, 7/18/06
The United Nation's top election supervisor in war-divided Ivory Coast accused President Laurent Gbagbo's ruling party of stalling the peace process. Gerard Stoudman said Monday that the president's party is increasing the "feeling of insecurity and instability" by pushing young loyalists toward violent demonstrations in the streets and slowing the move toward peace by delaying a national identification program.
Stoudman's comments came a day after Gbagbo accused the United Nations of being partial to rebels who have occupied the north of Ivory Coast since the world's largest cocoa producer was split by a civil war in 2002. Stoudman criticized foot-dragging by the party on a program to provide identity papers to millions of potential voters ahead of presidential elections set to occur by Oct. 31.
Starting Monday, 50 mobile courts were scheduled to open across the country to provide birth certificates to the estimated 3.5 million residents without identity papers. People who have at least one Ivorian parent could also get a nationality certificate, necessary for the identity card that will allow them to vote. Gbagbo's party has demanded that the start of any such program be accompanied by disarmament by the rebels and the mobile courts have only opened in some areas.
Stoudman argued that the first stage of disarmament the move of rebel forces back to their barracks is underway. "There has been progress in regroupment, although it's not perfect. No process is perfect," he said. Gbagbo loyalists have said that rebels are trying to manipulate the identification program to commit an elaborate fraud, getting Ivorian nationality for millions of foreigners, who would then vote for Gbagbo's rivals in presidential elections scheduled for October 31.
Ivory Coast's largest city faces blockade by pro-government militants
Franz Wild, Associated Press, 7/19/06
Hard-line supporters of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo blocked major routes in the country's largest city Wednesday to protest an identification program that they say rebels could exploit to skew upcoming presidential elections. It was unclear how many people were involved in the protest, though a senior U.N. peacekeeper, Col. Omar el Khadir, said there were barricades across the city. Similar protests took place in nearby towns and the blockade kept some commuters from reaching work. "There are Young Patriots all over Abidjan. Everything has been blocked off," said the leader of one of many loosely affiliated Young Patriot groups, Hia Bibah.
The demonstrators object to a program aimed at distinguishing who among an estimated 3.5 million people in the West African nation without birth certificates can claim Ivorian citizenship. Gbagbo supporters fear rebels who have controlled the north of the country since 2002 will use the program to fraudulently gain citizenship for hundreds of thousands of people who are not Ivorian and secure illegal, extra votes for Gbagbo's rivals in elections set to occur by the end of October.
Rebels and opposition leaders with roots in the north have demanded the program, saying authorities have discriminated against them by denying them national identity papers and treating them as foreigners in their own country.
Gbagbo's followers also want the rebels to disarm, a process Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny who was appointed as a neutral mediator has said is well under way. But the protesters claim disarmament has barely started, if at all. Bibah said some protesters were outside the prime minister's office and planned to stay until "he listens to us." "There is no violence planned for the moment," Bibah said. "All we want is for disarmament to start at the same time as the identification process."
As police watched over the main rally downtown, protesters in the suburbs used
tables and chairs to barricade major road crossings. "We are only letting
doctors through and those who live in the neighborhood," said Alfred Djedre,
who was manning a roadblock in the Abidjan suburb of Angre with 20 comrades.
An export consultant in Abidjan, a major port for the world's largest cocoa
producer, said he had to halt all operations for the day. "Nobody could
get to work," Dominique Mirebeau said. Shops in a few remote areas remained
open and Eric Treno, who runs an Internet cafe in the suburbs, said he was receiving
his usual customers.
Top Kashmir separatist urges India, Pakistan to continue talks
Agence France Presse, 7/17/06
A top Kashmiri separatist Monday urged India and Pakistan to continue with their peace process and not to allow events such as the Mumbai train blasts to derail talks. "If India pulls out of the peace talks it will prove beneficial to the elements who want to wreck such a process," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the head of moderate faction of the region's main separatist alliance, told reporters.
India indicated Saturday that peace talks with nuclear rival Pakistan, expected later this week, would be delayed in the wake of the July 11 blasts in India's economic hub that left 182 dead and nearly 900 wounded. The high-level talks, aimed at reviewing progress in the slow-moving peace process, were thrown into doubt after Indian authorities said Pakistani-based Islamic militants could be responsible for the well-coordinated attacks. Militants have denied their involvement.
The two countries, who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947, have been involved in talks since January 2004 to resolve pending disputes, including the one on Kashmir. They hold the scenic region in parts but claim it in full. "Discontinuation of the peace process at this stage will be very unfortunate for the people of Kashmir," said Farooq, who has been criticised by hardline separatists and militants in the past for starting talks with New Delhi.
His faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference has held several rounds
of talks with New Delhi, including with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "The
two countries should continue talks and foil evil designs of people who want
to derail it," said Farooq, who is also the head priest at the main mosque
in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. Elements in India, Pakistan and Kashmir
want to scuttle the peace process, he added, without elaborating. Separatists
variously want Kashmir incorporated into Kashmir or to be independent of both
countries.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
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Serbian, Kosovo leaders to take part in Vienna talks
Agence France Presse, 7/21/06
Serbia's president and prime minister will attend UN-sponsored talks with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders in Vienna on Monday, the first such meeting since the 1998-1999 Kosovo war, Belgrade confirmed Friday. The Kosovo Albanian delegation would be led by President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku, officials in the provincial capital Pristina said.
Monday's meeting will be the first between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian troops to pull out of the province and end a crackdown on armed ethnic Albanian separatists. The one-day meeting in Vienna, chaired by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, is expected to tackle for the first time the core issue of Kosovo's future status and the ethnic Albanians' demands for full independence. "Kosovo is one of the most important issues for Serbia," government spokesman Srdjan Djuric told Beta news agency.
Djuric said either President Boris Tadic or Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica would be present at each of the rounds of talks that would follow the session on Monday. Serbia has "for long supported the idea of direct talks... as a best way to find a compromise solution." "We believe that Ahtisaari will help bring about a compromise," Djuric said.
Kosovo Albanian negotiators met earlier Friday in Pristina to finalize their delegation, which would include, beside Sejdiu and Ceku, parliament speaker Kole Berisha and opposition leaders Hashim Thaci and Veton Surroi. "We are going to Vienna to offer arguments in favour of the independence of Kosovo," Sejdiu said after the meeting. "We will not step back from this position."
Talks on the future of Kosovo were launched in February under the auspices of the United Nations, but have failed to produce any concrete result so far. The Kosovo Albanian majority wants independence for the UN-run southern Serbian province, but its demand has been rejected by Belgrade and Kosovo's minority Serb community.
Kosovo has been administered by the UN and NATO since the end of NATO's 78-day bombing campaign.
Kosovo independence could lead to secession of Serb-populated north
Ismet Hajdari, Agence France Presse, 7/23/06
As Kosovo status talks were to resume at the highest level on Monday, Serbs in the north of the province warned this region along the border with Serbia proper would secede if independence was granted to Pristina. "Northern Kosovo will never be Albanian and it will never be a part of an independent Kosovo," warned Momir Kasalovic, a representative of the Serbian government in this region. "If there is no choice and independent Kosovo becomes a reality, we will do everything possible to keep this region," he insisted.
Kosovo, legally still a province of Serbia, has been run by the UN and NATO since mid-1999, when the alliance's air war drove out forces loyal to former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic over a crackdown against the separatist ethnic Albanian majority. The UN-sponsored talks on Kosovo's future status began in February, but have produced no concrete results so far. After eight rounds of talks, the UN special envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, invited leaders of Serbia and Kosovo for the first high-level meeting in Vienna.
The ethnic Albanian majority, which makes about 90 percent of the province's population, is pushing for independence, a demand the Serbian government and Kosovo Serbs firmly opposes. "Albanians want too much even though this territory has always been Serbia. Living with them is impossible, as it was before," said Vlada Zdravkovic, a refugee from the capital Pristina. Zdravkovic, who fled his hometown in 1999, fearing reprisals from ethnic Albanian hardliners, nowadays works as a taxi driver in Zvecan, populated mostly by the Serbs. "People here lost their will to live with Albanians -- there is no trust between us, after so many bad things have happened," said Zdravkovic, failing to hide his belief that the northern region should be linked with Serbia proper.
Seven years after the war, the UN Mission in Kosovo has failed to enforce its mandate in the Serb-dominated north and sever Belgrade's influence. The Ibar River, which runs through the volatile and ethnically-divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, separates and marks the boundary between the biggest Serb-populated area in Kosovo with about 60,000 inhabitants and some two million ethnic Albanians in the rest of the province. Four northern municipalities are wedged deeply into Serbia and Belgrade has implemented policies designed to integrate this area and hinder all conections with the rest of Kosovo.
Education, health care, social security, justice and other institutions in the north are sponsored by the Serbian government. Phone and power companies are linked with the Serbian ones, and Serbia's official currency the dinar functions here, with many civil servants being paid by Belgrade. Many cars have no licence plates at all, rather then to use Kosovo number plates. Kosovo Albanian newspapers can not be found in the north. All these visible signs, combined with an absolute political loyalty among the Serbs to Belgrade, makes UN authority here almost invisible.
In June, Serbs in the north proclaimed a "state of emergency", cutting off their relations with Kosovo institutions, a move considered to be a first step towards the partition of the province. The decision, strongly opposed by the Kosovo Albanian and UN authorities, came after a series of armed attacks against the Serbs, including the murder of a young Serb man. The Serb leaders called upon their citizens not to support Kosovo police, but Kasalovic insisted they only "advised people to be careful" and denied any supervision from Belgrade for such measures.
But even some Serbs do not believe that Belgrade is not involved in the political life in the north. "The north is better controlled by the Serbian authorities then the very centre of Belgrade. You can pass there unnoticed by the intelligence services, but not here. No way," a local Serb journalist said.
A prominent think-tank, the International Crisis Group, estimated in its 2005 report that Serbia "has retained northern Mitrovica as a brake on UN and Albanian control of Kosovo and a card to play on final status." Fearing possible risks of a unilateral Serb move towards partition if independence is granted to Kosovo, the UN mission has increased security in the north, while NATO-led peacekeepers reopened their base in Leposavic, near the border with Serbia proper.
But for Branislav Pantovic, there seems to be no other option than to prevent Kosovo independence even by force. "I will be the first one to prevent anyone who tries to proclaim independence here," warned Pantovic, a restaurant owner.
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Former Liberian President Charles Taylor appears in court for pretrial hearing
Miker Corder, Associated Press, 7/21/06
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor complained Friday about "Eurocentric" prison food and limited access to telephones at his first appearance before a war crimes tribunal since being flown to the Netherlands for trial. The former warlord faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly overseeing the murder, rape and mutilation of thousands of people during Sierra Leone's bloody 10-year civil war, many hacked to death with machetes. He has pleaded not guilty, and faces a life sentence if convicted.
Taylor, wearing a gray double-breasted suit and tie and looking relaxed, sat flanked by two U.N. guards in a courtroom of the International Criminal Court that is being rented by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The U.S.-trained economist listened intently to lawyers discussing the case, but did not speak during the 50-minute hearing aimed at paving the way for his trial. His attorney, Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, complained about poor food in the "draconian" U.N. cell block where Taylor is being held. It was not clear what food Taylor gets in the Hague prison, but traditional Dutch meals include meat, potatoes and at least one vegetable. Khan only described the fare as "Eurocentric."
The U.N. detention unit in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, where Taylor was held before being transferred to The Hague in June, served prisoners a local favorite a stew made of cassava or potato leaf. Other meals included roast chicken and fruit juice. Khan also complained that staff shortages at the U.N.-run detention center meant Taylor was sometimes locked in his cell for up to 16 hours a day and was unable to make the same number of phone calls he could while detained in Sierra Leone. The detention system in The Hague, Khan said, is "far more draconian ... than operates in Freetown." Taylor is being held in a cell block operated by the International Criminal Court in a wing of the same maximum-security Dutch prison where former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died in March while on trial for genocide and war crimes.
Herman von Hebel, deputy registrar for the Sierra Leone court, described the complaints as "startup issues" for the detention unit and said he would visit Taylor next week to ensure they are ironed out as soon as possible. Khan also angrily denounced U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for allegedly referring to war crimes suspects as criminals during a July 3 visit to Sierra Leone. Khan described Annan's comment as "not just unseemly; it is repugnant to justice."
Presiding Judge Richard Lussick assured Khan the tribunal would ignore Annan's comments. "We are totally uninfluenced by what people might say outside the courtroom," he said. Prosecutors had hoped to start the trial early next year, but Khan said that was unlikely. "For a case of this size and magnitude, particularly given the geographical displacement of this court from Sierra Leone. ... I do think that the earliest this trial can properly start is around July of next year," Khan said.
Taylor was flown to the Netherlands in June amid fears that staging his trial
in Sierra Leone could trigger fresh unrest in the war-scarred African nation.
The charges against Taylor stem from his alleged backing of Sierra Leonean rebels,
who terrorized victims by chopping off body parts. Taylor also launched a Liberian
insurgency in 1989 and won elections that handed him the presidency in 1997.
Rebels took up arms against him three years later, and he fled to Nigeria in
2003 at the end of Liberia's 14-year civil war. In March, he was captured as
he attempted to slip out of Nigeria after the country agreed to hand him over
to authorities seeking his prosecution.
Nepal Maoists pledge ceasefire extension, seek "lasting peace"
Agence France Press, 7/19/06
Nepal's Maoist rebels pledged Wednesday to extend a ceasefire in a bid to "establish lasting peace" in the Himalayan nation. "As the peace process has moved in a positive direction, the three-month ceasefire will definitely be extended," Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP. The spokesman did not reveal how long the ceasefire, which is slated to end in just over a week, would be extended but said the Maoists wanted "to establish lasting peace in the country."
The Maoists declared a ceasefire April 27 after King Gyanendra was forced to end 14 months of direct rule and reinstate parliament following weeks of pro-democracy protests. The protests, which left 19 people dead and hundreds injured, were organized by political parties and Maoists who formed a loose alliance last November. The rebels have pledged not to return to war and said they will return land and property that they seized during the 10-year conflict. Both sides have agreed to hold elections to a body that will redraft Nepal's constitution and formally remove the king from politics.
On Friday, the rebel leadership is scheduled to meet Nepal's Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala for a second round of high-level peace talks. After the first round June 16, the two sides announced they planned to draft a temporary constitution, dissolve the recently reinstated parliament and form an interim government that would include the rebels. Since the rebels began their "people's war" in 1996, at least 12,500 people have been killed and some 200,000 displaced.
EU urges Nepal's Maoists to disarm before elections
Agence France Presse, 7/21/06
The European Union on Friday urged Nepal's Maoist rebels to disarm before constituent assembly elections due next year. "No political party can go to elections with a gun on its shoulder," Neena Gill, leader of the European Parliament Monitoring Mission to Nepal, told a media conference here. "The Maoists are not keen to disarm before elections to a constituent assembly, but we have found that they are keen to join a multi-party system. The European Union would encourage them not to carry arms," Gill said at the end of a six-day trip to the troubled Himalayan nation. During its trip, the seven-member European delegation met with rebel leaders, the heads of mainstream political parties, civil society leaders and members of the diplomatic and aid communities.
Nepal's Maoists and its recently reinstated government have been observing a ceasefire for nearly three months and have agreed on elections to form a constituent assembly, which will rewrite the country's constitution. The government plans to hold the vote before the end of April 2007, a letter from Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said. But a second round of high-level peace talks between the government and the rebels was postponed Friday due to a lack of groundwork, a rebel spokesman said.
Nepal's King Gyanendra imposed direct rule on the country in February 2005, leading sidelined political parties to forge a loose alliance with the rebels. The alliance organized huge protests over nearly three weeks which forced the king to end direct rule in late April.
The Maoists have been fighting a bloody "people's war" since 1996. At least 12,500 people have died in the conflict. The rebels and the government have tried to hammer out peace deals twice before, in 2001 and 2003. The attempts failed, plunging Nepal back into bloody conflict.
U.N. to send high-level team to Nepal to assist peace process
Associated Press, 7/21/06
The United Nations will send a high-level delegation to Nepal next week to discuss proposed support for peace negotiations between the new government and communist rebels to end a decade-long conflict in the Himalayan nation. Headed by Staffan De Mistura, who recently worked as the U.N. deputy envoy to Iraq, the assessment team will arrive Wednesday for negotiations on U.N. assistance for Nepal's peace process, the U.N. said in a statement received Friday. "Through consultations with all concerned, the mission will seek a common understanding of the nature and scope of responsibilities the United Nations could undertake in the peace process," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan was quoted as saying. This U.N. team will remain in Nepal until Aug. 3, it said.
Nepal's government had sent a letter to Annan asking for support to end the civil war with Maoist insurgents. Both the rebels and the government agreed to allow U.N. supervision over a cease-fire at a June 16 meeting between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koira and rebel leader Prachanda, who goes by only one name. The rebels declared a cease-fire and entered peace talks in April when a new government took office after weeks of protests forced King Gyanendra to give up his authoritarian rule.
The guerrillas have pledged to join an interim government that would include
members from the seven-party alliance that is now running the administration.
More than 13,000 people were killed after the rebels began fighting government
troops in 1996.
Nepal Negotiation
Simulation
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10 communist rebels, four soldiers slain in southern Philippines
Agence France Presse, 7/20/06
Ten communist guerrillas and four soldiers were killed in a clash in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao, a military spokesman said Thursday. The fighting on Wednesday stopped a planned New People's Army (NPA) guerrilla plot to raid the town of Kapalong, said Colonel Francisco Simbajon, spokesman of a Philippine Army division operating in the area. Residents tipped off the military, who set up a checkpoint on the town's outskirts, intercepting about 30 guerrillas riding two trucks.
A 30-minute firefight followed, after which the guerrillas retreated toward the neighboring town of Asuncion where they were ambushed by another military unit, Simbajon said. Among the 10 guerrilla dead was Verino Antolihao, who the military described as leader of the area's guerrilla front. Four soldiers were also killed and two others were slightly wounded, Simbajon added. The 7,400-member NPA is one of the world's oldest Maoist movements still waging a guerrilla war. President Gloria Arroyo shelved talks with the group two years ago.
Ethiopia Enters Somalia to Back Government
Associated Press, 7/20/06
Hundreds of Ethiopian troops in armored vehicles rolled into Somalia on Thursday to protect their allies in this country's virtually powerless government from Islamic militants who control the capital. The move could give the U.S.-backed Somali government its only chance of curbing the Islamic militia's increasing power. But Ethiopia's incursion could also be just the provocation the militia needs to build public support for a guerrilla war. "We will declare jihad if the Ethiopian government refuses to withdraw their troops from Somalia," a top Islamic official, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, told The Associated Press.
The neighboring countries are traditional enemies, although Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has asked Ethiopia for its support. Thousands of Somalis have taken to the streets in recent weeks to denounce witness accounts of Ethiopian troops along the border. The United States urged Ethiopia to exercise restraint and said the U.S., European Union, African Union, Arab League and others in an international contact group on Somalia will meet soon to consider the volatile situation. "We are watching the situation very closely," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday in Washington. "We would urge the Ethiopian government to exercise restraint."
Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law. The government, which includes some warlords linked to the violence of the past, was established with the support of the United Nations to help Somalia emerge from anarchy. But the body wields no real power, has no military and only operates in Baidoa, about 100 miles east of the Ethiopian border. The Ethiopians, wearing their national military uniforms, deployed Thursday at the airport outside Baidoa and set up a fenced compound near the transitional president's home in the city, witnesses said.
The Islamic militia of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council stepped into the power vacuum in recent months, seizing the capital of Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia. On Wednesday, the militia reached within 20 miles of Baidoa, prompting the government to go on high alert. The militia began pulling back Thursday as more than 400 Ethiopian troops entered Baidoa. The soldiers smiled and waved to residents before setting up their camp, according to the witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The United States has accused the Supreme Islamic Courts Council of links to al-Qaida that include sheltering suspects in the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In a recent Internet posting, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden urged Somalis to support the militants and warned nations not to send troops here. The Islamic militia has installed strict religious courts, sparking fears it will become a Taliban-style regime.
Ethiopia's defense, foreign and information ministries repeatedly denied Thursday that their troops had crossed into Somalia. Ismail Hurreh, one of Somalia's deputy prime ministers, also dismissed the reports. But late Wednesday, Ethiopia's Minister of Information Berhan Hailu told the AP his government would intervene to prop up Somalia's transitional government. Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia in 1993 and 1996 to quash Islamic militants attempting to establish a religious government. In the absence of his own force, President Yusuf, a staunch secular leader who has condemned radical Islam, has apparently chosen to rely on his longtime ally, Ethiopia, for protection and to give him greater leverage at the bargaining table.
But Yusuf's reliance on Ethiopia appears to make him beholden to the country's traditional enemy and hurts his legitimacy. Anti-Ethiopia sentiment still runs high in much of the country, which is why the government and Ethiopia, a mostly Christian nation, want to keep the troop deployment quiet. If the competition for power should become violent, there is little doubt that Ethiopia has the superior fighting force.
This week's developments could disrupt peace talks scheduled for Saturday and aimed at negotiating some kind of partnership between the government, which has access to international support and funding, and the Islamic group, whose authority in Somalia is undeniable. At the first round of the Arab League-mediated talks in Khartoum, Sudan, the government and the Islamic group agreed to stop all military action though the Islamic group has been engaged in clashes and military deployments since. The government had at first balked at a second round, but agreed to resume talks under pressure from the contact group of foreign governments and international organizations.
Somali Islamists vow 'fight to death' against Ethiopian troops
Ali Musa Abdi, Agence France Presse, 7/21/06
Somalia's powerful Islamist movement on Friday vowed a fight to the death against Ethiopian troops who have moved into the town of Baidoa to protect the country's weak government. The Islamists, who have taken control over much of southern Somalia, demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Ethiopians after residents reported the arrival of more of Addis Ababa's military vehicles overnight.
"The Somali people are ready to defend themselves from the acts of aggression by Ethiopia," said Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chair of the executive committee of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS). "What the Ethiopians have done is an act of violence that undermines the sovereignty of Somalia," he said in a local radio broadcast. "The Somali people have to defend themselves and (we) are ready to spearhead that defense." "We will fight and die to defend Somalia from an Ethiopian military attack," Ahmed said from Mogadishu, where the Islamists seized control from a US-backed alliance of warlords last month.
Ahmed said Ethiopia had refused to help the Somalis when the country was being ravaged by warlords, who divided the country into a patchwork of unruly fiefdoms. "Ethiopia gave no military support to the people of Somalia when they needed them during the violence that was created by the warlords," he said.
In Baidoa, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, residents said at least nine more large Ethiopian military vehicles carrying supplies, but no troops, moved into the town early Friday. "Nine big trucks arrived in Baidoa carrying logistics for the Ethiopian troops," Baidoa resident Hassan Moalim Ahmed told AFP. "There were no soldiers in the lorries, but they had food and military items." These followed an initial convoy of more than 100 trucks with several hundred Ethiopian soldiers that witnesses said rolled into Baidoa and surrounding areas Thursday, after Islamist militia advanced on a nearby town. The Islamists pulled back on Thursday but not before Somali prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi accused them of plotting to attack Baidoa and the transitional government in violation of a truce and mutual recognition deal.
The Islamists have repeatedly denied they were planning or are planning to attack Baidoa, but their success in taking Mogadishu and asserting control elsewhere is a challenge to the largely powerless government headed by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, himself a former warlord who ruled the northeastern region of Puntland.
Neighboring Ethiopia, which is dominantly Christian, along with some western countries fears the rise of a fundamentalist Islamic state in Somalia, which has been without a functioning central government for the past 16 years. Ethiopia has said it will defend the transitional government from attack by the Islamists, whom it and the United States accuse of harboring extremists including Al-Qaeda members wanted for attacks in east Africa. Despite numerous eyewitness accounts of uniformed Ethiopian soldiers in Baidoa, however, Somali government officials and Ethiopia continued to deny their presence in the town -- or anywhere else in Somalia. "This is absolute propaganda from the Islamists," Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Mohamed Nur Dinari said. "There are no Ethiopian troops in Baidoa. Anybody with the evidence should come forward."
A senior Somali government security source said "a few" Ethiopian troops were in Baidoa, although he insisted they were there to train Somali troops and were not an occupying or protective force. "A few Ethiopian officers here to help the government train security forces have arrived," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. He insisted that the numbers were small and maintained the situation had been exaggerated. "The media and Mogadishu-based Islamists have blown the matter out of proportion," the security official said. "No Ethiopian troops are here to occupy Somalia."As a friendly neighboring country, they will assist the government to form its own forces," he said. The tension has kept prospects for peace talks between the government and Islamists uncertain, amid growing international worry about a potential resurgence of fighting.
On Thursday, UN chief Kofi Annan added his voice to the chorus of concern,
calling for all parties involved "to refrain from actions that could further
strain relations." The United States and European Union have voiced similar
sentiments. Somalia has been wracked by lawlessness since the 1991 ouster of
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, which plunged the nation of about 10 million people
into anarchic bloodletting.
Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels stick to their demand for withdrawal of EU peace
monitors
Vincent Jeyan, Associated Press, 7/21/06
A Swedish diplomat met with top Tamil Tiger officials Friday, but failed to persuade the guerrilla leadership to drop a demand for the withdrawal of European Union peace monitors, the rebels said. The Tigers oppose the inclusion of EU members in the team that oversees their 2002 cease-fire with the government after the European Union designated the separatists a terrorist group. The issue is the latest flash point in already strained relations between the rebels and Sri Lanka's government.
Anders Oljelund met with S.P. Thamilselvan, the political head of the rebels, and Seevaratnam Puleedevan, the head of the rebels' Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi, the rebel stronghold in the north. After the meeting, Thamilselvan told reporters that there was no change in the rebels' position that EU monitors should leave by Sept. 1. Earlier, government chief spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, said in Colombo that Oljelund was "... trying to persuade the LTTE not to insist on their demand that the EU member states should quit the monitoring team."
The rebels argue that since the EU in May listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, as a terrorist group, monitors from Finland, Sweden, and Denmark could no longer be neutral. Norway and Iceland are also part of the monitoring mission, but are not EU members. Oljelund arrived in the capital Colombo on Wednesday. He will return to Sweden on Monday.
During their meeting, Thamilselvan also asked Oljelund to press the government to stop alleged harassment of Tamil civilians living in the northeast, the traditional homeland of ethnic Tamils. No comment was immediately available from Oljelund. Earlier, government spokesman Rambukwella said the administration wants the EU to continue its role as peace monitors. "Our stand is clear that the EU member states should remain in the monitoring team," he said.
The Tamil Tigers demand comes amid a surge in violence between the insurgents and the government, threatening the four-year-old cease-fire and raising the prospect of all-out civil war. More than 750 people have died since December with both sides accusing the other of violating the truce. About 65,000 people were killed between 1983 and 2002, when Norway brokered a cease-fire. The rebels have fought the government demanding a separate homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils saying they can only prosper away from the domination of majority Sinhalese.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
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World Powers Press Sudan on Peacekeepers
Paul Ames, Associated Press, 7/18/06
World powers pressed Sudan on Tuesday to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur province to replace over-stretched African Union troops who have struggled to protect civilians from rebels and pro-government militias. "Those who have signed the Darfur peace agreement are not implementing it, and there remain two important parties who continue to refuse to sign it," said European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "Meanwhile the people of Darfur continue a third year of suffering."
A daylong international conference on Sudan increased pressure on the two Darfur rebel groups that rejected the May peace deal and on the Sudanese government, which is refusing allow in a U.N. force to replace the AU peacekeepers. "We will have to consider a series of questions today, including consolidating the Darfur peace agreement and possible sanctions against those who violate the cease-fire," Solana told the meeting, according to notes distributed by his office.
Solana and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged international donors to urgently provide funding, equipment and other support to the 7,300-strong AU force. Delegates expressed hope the Sudanese government was edging toward dropping its opposition to a U.N. force with a stronger mandate and resources to replace the AU mission at the end of the year. "We are closer probably to having a change in that position," Solana said after talks with Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol.
Since 2003, some 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict and 2 million have fled their homes. The violence erupted when non-Arab tribes revolted against Sudan's Arab-led government, which is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as the janjaweed, which have been blamed for the worst atrocities. "The current situation requires immediate action," Solana said. "Darfur is, by far, the worst conflict in Africa today."
The United Nations and African Union have threatened targeted sanctions against those who obstruct peace efforts in Darfur. However AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit acknowledged the organization lacked "mechanisms on the ground" that could verify cease-fire violations. Djinnit said the AU needed $85 million to keep its peacekeeping mission going at current levels until September and a further $355 million to beef up the force and maintain it on the ground until the end of the year. The United States is pushing for the handover to a U.N. force to be carried out as soon as September. "The key here is to move forward rapidly," said Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs. She said Washington was ready to provide $116 million to fund the AU mission.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
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