PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, June 26,
2006
(Volume V, Number 14)
Contents:
President Alieve claims talks are ineffective because parties can't obtain a result.
FNL and government to resume talks in Tanzania.
Resumption of Burundi peace talks delayed
Unclear as to when talks will resume.
Burundi's government, rebels begin negotiations on a permanent cease-fire deal
With talks finally underway, negotiators now focusing on figuring out key provisions of the deal.
Algerian sentenced to 20 years in prison for fighting in Chechnya
Having allegedly joined Chechen rebel forces, Kamel Burahli convicted on a number of charges.
Europe security force promises 'impartiality' in DR Congo elections
General argues that EU force does not back a particular candidate.
Armed clash with Georgia feared; Disputes center on Moscow's support of separatist regions
Russian trade embargo and huge increase in Georgian arms spending create fear of further conflict in the region.
Georgian breakaway region threatens to mine border if Tbilisi expels Russian peacekeepers
Abkhazia's leader said troops in South Ossetia and Trans-Dniester would replace Russian forces if necessary.
Explosion in southern Russian province wounds two traffic policemen
However, caused only minimal damage.
EU-led Aceh monitoring mission likely to end in September
Current extension likely the last one, however EU will likely send election observers.
Two killed, 17 wounded in Kashmir violence
Two separate grenade blasts kill police and civilians.
India says no to Musharraf's latest proposal to "demilitarise" Kashmir
Defense minister cites recent violence as reason to not reduce number of troops.
Kosovo
Belgrade's "isolationist" attitude toward Kosovo Serbs unhelpful, envoy says
Jessen-Petersen says Serbia's policies make Kosovar Serbs make difficult decisions.
Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor leaves Sierra Leone, bound for war crimes trial.
Left West Africa Tuesday for the Hague.
Senior ethnic Albanian leader shot in Macedonia
However, wounds not life-threatening.
Western Sahara separatists seek UN intervention
Polisario leader pleads with U.N. to secure release of political prisoners held by Morocco.
Nepal's Maoists refuse to disarm, but accept UN arms supervision
Government argues formation of interim government
Rebels and Nepali army could be merged: Maoist leader
Prachanda argues this may be a way to handle arms management.
Serbia and Montenegro establish diplomatic relations
Foreign ministers sign protocol forming official ties.
Somali Islamic leaders prepare to leave for talks with transitional government in Sudan
Arab League mediated the talks.
Somalia's Gov't, Militia OK Recognition
Non-aggression pact signals a move toards international acceptance for the militia.
Sri Lanka rules out war with Tamil rebels
Foreign minister claims civil war is not an option, despite persistent violence.
Tamil tigers get ready to defend what they see as their country
Preparing for anything, including the possibility of renewed war.
U.N. head of peacekeeping seeks troops to calm Darfur
President vows never to let peacekeepers into Darfur.
Battle for Darfur; Sudan War Spills Into Chad; Despite peace efforts in Darfur, a key rebel force is regrouping across the border, recruiting among refugees.
Refugee camps serve as recruiting grounds for Sudan Liberation Army.
Genocide in Darfur: A
Legal Analysis Click here to access
the PILPG
Report.
Negotiations between Burundi, last rebels to resume Wednesday
Agence France Presse, 6/19/06
Talks between the Burundian govermment and the last remaining rebels group on a ceasefire will resume this week in Tanzania, sources in the two sides said in Bujumbura Monday. The goverment and the central African country's last active rebel group, the National Liberation Front (FLN) signed a deal on Sunday in Dar es Salaam to stop hostilities, paving the way to a permanent ceasefire after 13 years of civil war. Under the deal signed in the Tanzanian capital, the two sides agreed to a cessation of hostilities for two weeks, during which time they would negotiate a permanent ceasefire deal. Talks will resume Wednesday in Dar es Salaam about the ceasefire after a 48 hour breathing space. The FNL, which has between 1,500 and 3,000 fighters, is the only one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups not to have signed a 2000 peace deal. Burundi's war erupted in 1993 with the assassination of the country's first democratically elected president, a Hutu, by members of the Tutsi-dominated army. More than 300,000 people have been killed.
Resumption of Burundi peace talks delayed
Agence France Presse, 6/22/06
The resumption of peace talks between Burundi's lone active rebels and the government has been delayed and officials were on Thursday unclear when delegates would reconvene to start discussing a permanent ceasefire. A Burundi government official said the talks would resume in Dar es Salaam on Friday, but facilitators from the Tanzanian foreign ministry said both sides would meet over the weekend to start talks on a lasting truce. "The negotiations have been postponed once again to Friday," said the official, who accused the National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels of engaging in delaying tactics to prolong the talks. No FNL official was available for comment. "Delegates were supposed to meet after a 48-hour break, but I am not aware why they have not met and I do not know when they will meet," said Namfanelo Kota, spokeswoman for South Africa's Defence Minister and chief mediator Charles Ngakula. "All I know is that both sides are committed to the peace process," Kota told AFP. The talks were initially set to resume Wednesday after the two sides signed a temporary ceasefire last weekend, but were then postponed to Thursday. Both sides opened direct talks on May 29 under South African mediation in a new push to reach a lasting peace in Burundi which is emerging from the devastation of more than a decade of civil strife. Of Burundi's seven former rebel groups, the FNL is the only one shunning a 2000 peace deal and the government elected last year under a power-sharing constitution.
Burundi's government, rebels begin negotiations on a permanent cease-fire deal
Aloys Niyoyita, Associated Press, 6/23/06
Burundi's government and the country's holdout rebel group began negotiating details of a permanent cease-fire agreement on Friday, the latest attempt to end the 12-year civil war in the small central African nation, a senior official said. The talks began four days after the foes agreed on principles of cessation of hostilities in neighboring Tanzania, said Home Affairs Minister Brig. Gen. Erneste Ndayishimye. Negotiators are now trying to work out details on where rebel troops will assemble during the cease-fire, how the fighters will be demobilized and integrated into national security services, and the obligations for each side to ensure the truce is effective, Ndayishimye told The Associated Press. The National Liberation Force, or FNL, is the only rebel group rejecting a series of peace deals to end civil war between the Hutu ethnic majority and the minority Tutsis, who have dominated Burundi's government, economy and military since the nation's independence from Belgium in 1962. The conflict has killed more than 250,000 people, most of them civilians dying from conflict-induced disease and hunger. A series of peace deals led to democratic elections last year and the formation of a power-sharing government between members of the two communities. Burundi's war started in October 1993, when Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a Hutu.
Algerian sentenced to 20 years in prison for fighting in Chechnya
Sergei Venyavsky, Associated Press, 6/19/06
A court in Chechnya on Monday sentenced an Algerian man to 20 years in prison for fighting alongside Chechen rebels, officials said. Kamel Burahli was convicted of involvement in illegal armed units, illegal crossing of state borders and participation in hostage-takings, the regional prosecutor's office said in a statement. They said that Burahli traveled from London to the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan and illegally crossed into Russia in 2001. They claimed that Burahli joined a rebel unit that was led by Saudi-born warlord Abu Walid and fought Russian forces for nearly three years. In 2004, Burahli was wounded and secretly brought for treatment to the Russian province of Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, where he was arrested, prosecutors said. Chechnya's separatist movement initially was rooted in nationalist sentiment, but it has taken on a growing Islamic cast and attracted militants from other nations after the second war in Chechnya began in 1999.
Russian authorities have said that al-Qaida emissaries, including Abu Walid, who was reportedly killed in 2004, coordinated rebel actions in Chechnya and plotted terrorist attacks. Most large-scale fighting ended in Chechnya shortly after Russian forces re-entered the region in 1999, but rebels continue to stage regular hit-and-run raids and detonate land mines and explosives, targeting federal forces and local collaborators. Police in Chechnya on Sunday detained two rebel suspects accused of involvement in a raid on Russian forces earlier this month in which one police officer was killed and another one wounded, the regional branch of Russia's Interior Ministry said in a statement. Neighboring regions of Russia's North Caucasus also have seen increased violence recently, leading to fears that militants are spreading the fight beyond Chechnya's borders. An alleged militant was killed and four law-enforcement officers were wounded Sunday in a clash in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya to the west, local police said Monday.
Europe security force promises 'impartiality' in DR Congo elections
Agence France Presse, 6/22/06
Leaders of a European military operation due to bolster security during elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) assured the country of the force's "impartiality" on Thursday. "We will demonstrate our impartiality and will make sure that the elections unfold well," said Karlheinz Viereck, the general in overall charge of the EUFOR European Union operation due to deploy in DRC next month. The force's mission is to support an existing 17,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping presence (MONUC) in the country, he told journalists here. Elections scheduled for July 31 will be the first democratic polls in the former Zaire since those held on independence from Belgium 45 years ago. "We are convinced that the Congolese people deserve these elections... We are there for you," Viereck said. The EU's special representative Africa's Great Lakes region, Aldo Ajello, also gave reassurances to the DRC, saying the EU had "no hidden agenda". "The force is not here to... back any particular candidate. It is the Congolese people who will choose their leaders," he said. "We are only there to prevent things getting out of control and discourage all potential troublemakers." The 2,000-strong European force is due to be deployed for the duration of the electoral process -- presidential, local, and legislative polls -- scheduled to last for four months from July 29.
Around 800 troops will be posted in the DRC, with 1,200 in neighbouring Gabon to act as a rapid reaction force ready to deploy in DRC if there is trouble. The huge country is still prey to violence, particularly in the east, in the wake of a five-year war that dragged in neighbouring countries and only ended in 2003, opening the way to a political transition whose success is still uncertain. Most of the troops deploying directly in DRC as well as EUFOR's general staff will be stationed at Ndolo airport in the capital Kinshasa, with around 100 soldiers at Ndjili international airport, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the city centre. The EU force will not deploy in the violence-plagued east of the country where there are already 12,000 UN troops, Viereck said. The operation headquarters is in Potsdam near Berlin, while French troops will control a command centre on the ground in Kinshasa. In the event of attempts to disrupt the elections, EUFOR soldiers would observer "very strict rules of engagement," said Christian Damay, the French general in command of the contingent due to deploy in Kinshasa. General maintaining of order would remain the duty of the Congolese police, he said, and his troops would use their weapons only in circumstances of "absolute necessity". A first group of Polish military police left Monday for the DRC as part of the EU force. After French and German soldiers, a 131-strong Polish contingent will be the third biggest in the EU deployment which will officially begin its mission next month. The EUFOR leaders' comments followed an announcement on Thursday by the German army that one of its units due to go to DRC had been barred from the mission because of a scandal over certain sexual practices in its ranks.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation
Simulation
Click
here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Armed clash with Georgia feared; Disputes center on Moscow's support of separatist regions
Michael Mainville, Washington Times, 6/21/06
Growing diplomatic tensions, a Russian trade embargo and a massive boost in Georgian arms spending are raising fears of conflict in the volatile Caucasus region along Russia's southern border. Analysts say a meeting last week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili failed to defuse the tension and that Russia's open support for the leaders of Georgia's separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is pushing the limits of Georgian patience. The tension is expected to be discussed when Mr. Putin hosts heads of state from the Group of Eight club of wealthy nations in St. Petersburg next month. It also will be discussed in Washington July 5 when Mr. Saakashvili meets with President Bush, who has accused the Kremlin of bullying pro-Western states in the former Soviet Union. Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent, Moscow-based defense analyst, said Russia and Georgia appear to be laying the groundwork for an armed conflict. "What we've been seeing is an exchange of prewar statements," he said. "We could see military action in the coming weeks and months." Georgian political analyst Alexander Rondeli agreed by telephone from Tbilisi that Russia-Georgia relations "have become truly bad. .. Russia is treating Georgia as a second- or third-class country through its support of separatist regions." Mr. Saakashvili has made reunification with Abkhazia and South Ossetia which broke away from Tbilisi in the 1990s a key goal of his presidency. But Moscow has supported the separatists by installing Russian peacekeeping forces in the region, giving many residents Russian passports and supplementing the regions' budgets.
Georgia tried earlier this month to prevent a fresh rotation of 500 soldiers from entering South Ossetia, saying they were required to have entry visas. But Russia's Foreign Ministry dismissed the demand, saying Georgia had no control over South Ossetia and stressing the region's right to self-determination. Buoyed by Montenegro's recent independence from Serbia, separatist leaders have stepped up efforts to break away from Georgia. At a meeting last week in the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi, the presidents of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Moldova's separatist region of Trans-Dniester announced plans to establish a joint security force to defend their independence movements. Russian officials, meanwhile, accuse Georgia of preparing to retake South Ossetia by force. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters on June 13 that a significant increase in Georgian military spending last year caused "unquestionable concern." In its annual report on global arms buying, released June 12, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Georgian defense spending surged more than 140 percent to $146 million in 2005 the biggest increase worldwide last year. Adding to the tension, Georgian officials on Saturday accused a Russian citizen of plotting to kill an opposition leader in order to discredit Mr. Saakashvili's government. Officials did not blame Russia directly, but accused "foreign secret services" of organizing an attempt on the life of opposition leader Koba Davitashvili.
They said the purported assassin had traveled to Tbilisi through Russian-controlled territory and had fled to Russia when Georgian police uncovered the plot. Relations between the two countries began deteriorating after Mr. Saakashvili rose to power in Georgia's Rose Revolution, promising to boost relations with the West and to push for Georgian membership in NATO and the European Union. In a move that critics say was designed to punish Georgia for these aspirations, Russia earlier this year imposed a ban on the country's largest imports, wine and mineral water, citing public health concerns. Mr. Felgenhauer said Russia's goal is to undermine Mr. Saakashvili's popularity and eventually install a pro-Kremlin leader in Tbilisi. "They're hoping that if they can destabilize the country it will lead to internal strife and the collapse of the Saakashvili regime," he said.
Georgian breakaway region threatens to mine border if Tbilisi expels Russian peacekeepers
Associated Press, 6/21/06
Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia threatened on Wednesday to pull out of negotiations with Tbilisi and mine its border with the rest of the country if the former Soviet nation expels Russian peacekeepers. Abkhazia's leader Sergei Bagapsh said Abkhaz troops and soldiers from South Ossetia, another Georgian separatist region, and from the breakaway Trans-Dniester region in Moldova would replace the Russian forces if necessary. "I can assure you that the attitude to the border will be quite different from what it is today, it will be entirely mined and fitted out in accordance with international standards," said Bagapsh. Georgian Minister for Conflict Resolution Georgy Khaindrava criticized the Abkhaz leader's comments, saying they represented "a direct threat to stability in the region." "These kind of statements are aimed at wrecking the peace process which has been revived with great difficulty," he told The Associated Press. Georgia's pro-Western leadership accuses the Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia and South Ossetia of siding with the separatists, and there are mounting calls for their departure. Russia, for its part, has rattled Georgian nerves recently by stressing the regions' right to self-determination statements seen in Tbilisi as a step toward formal Russian support for their separatist claims. Moscow officially recognizes South Ossetia and Abkhazia as Georgian territory, but has granted most of their residents Russian citizenship. The two regions have run their own affairs since breaking away from central government control in wars that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse. Separatist leaders have repeatedly rejected proposals for broad autonomy from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who has been seeking to reunite his fractured country since he was elected in 2004, and tensions remain high.
Explosion in southern Russian province wounds two traffic policemen
Sergei Venyavsky, Associated Press, 6/25/06
Three small explosions hit the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz on Sunday, but they caused minimal damage and no casualties, regional police and emergency response officials said. The first explosion targeted a cellular communications transmission tower on the outskirts of the city, near the village of Kurtak, early Sunday morning, said Roman Shchekotin, spokesman for the southern Russian regional department of the Interior Ministry. Many such towers have been targeted in recent months in nighttime attacks by unknown assailants, which authorities have attributed to business disputes. Another blast occurred near a warehouse in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the North Ossetia region, and the third outside the regional headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said a duty officer at the southern regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry. The last explosion left a strong smell of TNT and a small amount of mercury on the sidewalk, the duty officer said. No one claimed responsibility for the blasts, which authorities blamed on forces trying to sow panic in the region. Elsewhere in restive southern Russia, a bomb explosion Saturday in the capital of the Dagestan region injured two traffic policemen, the regional Interior Ministry said. The blast occurred at an intersection near the regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry, where traffic police officers usually stand, and the site has been the target of previous attacks including an explosion that killed a top Interior Ministry official in March. Two traffic police officers suffered concussions in the Saturday night blast, spokeswoman Anzhela Martirosova said. Dagestan has seen attacks on dozens of police and government officials in recent years, as unrest increasingly spills over from Chechnya, where Russian troops have been battling separatist rebels for more than a decade. A Russian military officer and a servicemen were wounded Saturday by the explosion of a small, homemade bomb planted on a roadside in the mountainous Vedeno district of southern Chechnya, the regional Interior Ministry said. Eight suspected rebels, including two from the band led by the new Chechen separatist leader, Doku Umarov, were detained on Saturday in three different districts of Chechnya, the Interior Ministry said. Another alleged rebel was detained in the neighboring Russian region of Ingushetia and handed over to Chechen law enforcement authorities, Shchekotin said.
EU-led Aceh monitoring mission likely to end in September
Agence France Presse,
6/20/06
The European Union is unlikely to extend beyond September a peace monitoring mission in the Indonesian province of Aceh but will send election observers, the head of the mission said Tuesday. "Unless I get completely new guidance from the (EU) ambassadors here, this extension has been the last one and we think that this is sufficient," Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) head Pieter Feith told reporters in Brussels. "The two parties seem to share this view," he said, in reference to the Indonesian government and the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which signed a peace agreement on August 15, 2005. Under the peace pact, prompted by the devastating 2004 tsunami which killed 168,000 people in Aceh, the GAM agreed to drop demands for independence in return for partial self rule, ending three decades of conflict. Nearly 200 monitors were initially stationed in Aceh after the pact was signed, but about 100 left in March when the mission was scaled back. Feith said the EU would send observers, possibly in September, to help monitor local elections which are likely to take place in October at the earliest, once the Indonesian parliament has passed a law on governing Aceh. "This (AMM) mission has had the right duration, although there is a bit of nervousness about the campaign period," he said. He said the mission would soon transfer responsibilities to the local authorities and gradually begin withdrawing from the province to avoid what he called a "cultural dependency" on the monitors.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here
to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International
Law & Policy Group.
Two killed, 17 wounded in Kashmir violence
Agence France Presse, 6/23/06
Nine policemen and eight civilians were wounded Friday in two separate grenade blasts in Indian Kashmir, while the army shot dead two Muslim rebels in the restive region, police said. The blasts were triggered by suspected Islamic militants in two busy markets shortly before Friday noon prayers. "Ten people have been shifted to hospital for treatment after a grenade explosion in Batamaloo locality," a police spokesman said, referring to a commercial district in the summer capital Srinagar. "Six of the injured are Central Reserve Police Force men," he said, adding that the rebels had lobbed the grenade at a CRPF bunker in the market. In a separate attack, three CRPF men and four civilians were wounded when a grenade was thrown at a police patrol in a marketplace in southern Doda town, 170 kilometers (105 miles) south of Srinagar, police said. Police said government troops shot dead two rebels in separate incidents in south and central Kashmir on Friday. On Thursday, two people were killed and 21 wounded in an attack on the house of a prominent dervish in north Kashmir. Indian army chief General J.J. Singh said Thursday nearly 1,600 rebels were operating in Indian Kashmir. "As per the intelligence inputs there are some 1,500 to 1,600 militants operating in the state," Singh told reporters during a visit to the Kashmir valley. He said the army would use an "iron hand" to deal with the insurgency. Kashmir, divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, is in the grip of a 16-year-old insurgency against Indian rule that has so far left more than 44,000 people dead by official count. The two nations have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. Singh said rebels were continuing to infiltrate from across the Line of Control -- a de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. "There is no decline in infiltration. It is going on and our jawans (soldiers) are countering it. Many infiltration attempts were foiled by our troops (this year)," he said. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of funding and arming the rebels, a charge denied by Pakistan.
India says no to Musharraf's latest proposal to "demilitarise" Kashmir
Agence France Presse, 6/25/06
India's defence minister Sunday rejected a call by Pakistan for troop cuts in Kashmir to push forward a slow-moving peace process, citing a recent spiral of violence in the region. "With the present situation, I am not confident that we can reduce troops," India's Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the CNN-IBN TV channel. Infiltration and attempts at infiltration have also increased, Mukherjee said. The minister's comments came after Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf on suggested demilitarisation as a solution to the decades of dispute between India and Pakistan over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. "I have proposed demilitarisation as a ... final resolution. Demilitarise Kashmir, give self-governance to people of Kashmir with a joint management arrangement on top. This is an idea I am proposing," reports quoted Musharraf as saying. Earlier this year, Musharraf had urged India to reduce troop numbers in the Kashmir towns of Srinagar, Baramulla and Sopore to speed up peace talks between the two nations that began in January 2004. Each country holds part of Kashmir but claims it in full. Some 60,000 frontline troops are posted along Indian Kashmir's ceasefire border with Pakistani Kashmir while hundreds of thousands of paramilitary troops and police personnel are deployed in the Muslim-majority region. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic rebels battling Indian rule in Kashmir -- administered in parts by the two but claimed in full by both. Pakistan denies it gives military help to the separatists. In another interview to the NDTV news channel telecast Sunday, Mukherjee said Islamabad has allowed militant training camps to operate from its zone of Kashmir. He said taking steps to halt violence would produce results from India in the peace process.
Kashmir Negotiation
Simulation
Click
here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Belgrade's "isolationist" attitude toward Kosovo Serbs unhelpful, envoy says
Nick Wadhams, Associated Press, 6/20/06
The Serbian government has left minority Serbs in Kosovo isolated and unable to make informed choices, a tactic that can only complicate negotiations on the tiny province's future, a U.N. official said Tuesday. Belgrade bars the 100,000 ethnic Serbs in Kosovo from joining the province's government and sometimes forces them to choose between taking a salary from Serbia or from Kosovo, top U.N. envoy Soren Jessen-Petersen told the U.N. Security Council. "I do not see any merit to Belgrade's isolationist policy from the point of view of Kosovo's Serbs," Jessen-Petersen told the Security Council. The briefing was Jessen-Petersen's last before he steps down June 30 as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative for Kosovo, which has been under U.N. stewardship since 1999.
Talks are under way to determine whether Kosovo becomes an independent state or remains attached to Serbia. They have stumbled because Kosovo insists on full independence, while Serbia says it will only allow the province greater autonomy. A key stumbling block has been the fate of the ethnic Serbs who make up less than 10 percent of the population. Jessen-Petersen was briefing the council on a report in which Annan said neither the ethnic Albanians or Serbs will benefit unless they show more willingness to make concessions in the talks on Kosovo's future. Yet Jessen-Petersen said Kosovo is making progress and its leaders showed a "far greater willingness" to reach out to minorities, particularly the Kosovo Serbs. The problem, he said, is that Serbs are left "confused, exposed and isolated" because of the messages sent by the Serbian government. Many of them want to take part in Kosovo's administration but are barred from doing so. He suggested that Belgrade makes Kosovo Serbs feel that crimes against them are always motivated by ethnicity, an unfair characterization that "perpetuates a climate of insecurity."
Serbia's representative at the meeting, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, rejected Jessen-Petersen's remarks, saying that Kosovo Serbs should only participate if they can do so in a meaningful way. Raskovic-Ivic stressed that Belgrade believes Kosovo Serbs face grave danger from the ethnic Albanians there. "The very right to survival of Serbs and non-Albanians, a definite minority in the province, has been threatened," she said. The current talks on Kosovo's future are being held under the auspices of the United Nations, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Russia and Italy. That group has said it wants a solution by the end of the year. Kosovo's ethnic Albanians took up arms in 1998 to secede from Serbia, triggering a brutal government crackdown which led to NATO military intervention in 1999 that eventually forced Serbia to hand over authority of Kosovo to a temporary U.N. administration and NATO peacekeepers.
Kosovo Negotiation
Simulation
Click
here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Western Sahara separatists seek UN intervention
Agence France Presse, 6/20/06
A group demanding independence for Western Sahara Tuesday called on the United Nations to intervene urgently to secure the release of Western Saharan political prisoners held by Morocco. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mohamed Abdelaziz, leader of the Polisario separatist group, condemned the recent arrest by Moroccan authorities of four Sahrawi human rights activists and what he claimed was the kidnapping of a fifth whose whereabouts remained unknown. "The current repression has reached unprecedented proportions since it has started targeting human rights activists," said his message, published by the Algerian press agency APS. The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara was annexed by Morocco in 1975. The UN has been trying since 1992 to organise a referendum on self-determination. Abdelaziz also alleged that Moroccan repression had continued despite a visit to refugee camps in neighbouring Algeria by a delegation of the UN human rights High Commission last month. "We believed that Morocco would end the brutal repression and the intensified cruelty committed against the civilian population of Western Sahara," Abdelaziz wrote. "The events which accompanied and followed this (UN) visit, especially overwhelmingly violent reactions by the Moroccan authorities which spare no sector of Western Saharan society, have destroyed all these hopes." Polisario said last year when it released the last of the Moroccan prisoners it had been holding that Morocco still held 150 prisoners of war and 35 political prisoners, plus a further 500 persons who had officially disappeared but were, Polisario claimed, being held in secret.
Nepal's Maoists refuse to disarm, but accept UN arms supervision
Agence France Presse, 6/22/06
Nepal's Maoist rebels said Thursday they are not prepared to disarm but are willing to put their army and their weapons under the supervision of the United Nations. The new government and the Maoists reached a landmark power-sharing agreement last week, but Nepal's home minister has said that the interim government cannot be formed until the Maoists lay down their weapons. "We are not going to disarm. But to create a conducive environment for constituent assembly elections we are willing to neutralise our weapons and our army under UN monitoring," rebel spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP. Under last week's agreement parliament will be dissolved and power shared in a new interim government, which is due to come into being within a month. In the longer term the government has pledged to hold constituent assembly elections to form a a body that will permanently rewrite the constitution, and most likely remove the king from politics permanenetly. King Gyanendra was forced to give up 14 months of direct rule in April after weeks of often bloody protests organized by political parties and the Maoists. Mahara said the rebels would not use arms during the constituent assembly elections and called on the army to match the move. A ceasefire is currently in force. "We are expecting UN monitoring and technical assistance for the management of arms from both sides," he said. The question of the rebels laying down arms was not addressed in their eight-point agreement. But Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula said on Wednesday the issue must be addressed before the power-sharing arrangement comes into effect. "Formation of the interim government is not possible without settling the Maoists' arms issues," Sitaula said. The Maoists have been fighting to install a communist republic for the past decade at the cost of more than 12,500 lives.
Rebels and Nepali army could be merged: Maoist leader
Agence France Presse, 6/24/06
Nepal's Maoist rebel leader Prachanda has said his guerrillas and government troops could join forces to form a single army ahead of elections to a constituent assembly, media reported Saturday. "The Maoist army and the Nepali Army could be merged before constituent assembly elections after the formation of the interim government through an interim constitution," the rebel leader told local journalists Friday at Dhangadi in western Nepal, state-run daily The Rising Nepal reported. Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also said that the issue of arms management could be achieved through discussions between the Maoists and the new government. While not prepared to disarm, Maoist rebels said on Thursday they are willing to put their army and their weapons under the supervision of the United Nations to create a stable environment for the constituent assembly polls. The two sides have been observing a ceasefire for nearly two months and have agreed to hold elections for a body that will rewrite Nepal's constitution, probably removing the king permanently from political life.
King Gyanendra relinquished direct rule in April and handed back power to parliament after mass protests against him. He had sacked the government and assumed direct control in February 2005, in a widely criticised move, that he said was justified as political parties were corrupt and had failed to stem the decade-long bloody insurgency. Last week, the rebels and new government reached a landmark power-sharing deal and agreed to dissolve the new government and establish an interim body that includes the rebels. A committee formed to draft a temporary constitution that will pave the way for the rebels to join an interim government has started informal talks with the Maoists and civil society leaders, an official said. "The official work will begin in the next two days. It will take at least 15 days more to draft the interim constitution after beginning our work formally," Laxman Prasad Aryal, coordinator of the committee, told AFP on Saturday. "The interim constitution will be a temporary arrangement to hold a constituent assembly election," said Aryal, former justice of the Supreme Court. At least 12,500 people have been killed in the impoverished Himalayan nation sandwiched between regional giants India and China since the rebels launched their insurgency in 1996.
Nepal Negotiation
Simulation
Click
here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Somali Islamic leaders prepare to leave for talks with transitional government in Sudan
Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press, 6/22/06
Somalia's president and representatives of Islamic leaders who are consolidating control over the Somali capital and much of the south traveled to Sudan for Arab League-mediated talks with the country's transitional government. Sudan, current chair of the Arab League, was mediating and hosting the talks, said Abdi Rahiin Iise Adow, an official with the Somali Islamic group. Many Somalis expect little from the initiative because their weak transitional government and the Islamic leaders have taken sharply opposing positions. Somalia's transitional president, threatened by the military and political ascendancy of the Islamic group, has charged it was backed by international extremists, echoing U.S. accusations that some of its leaders are linked to al-Qaida. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden flew to Sudan late Wednesday for talks with the Islamic group after meeting in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, embassy officials said. A 10-man Islamic delegation left Somalia aboard a plane sent by the Arab League. The team was lead by Mohamed Ali Ibrahim and included the deputy head of the Islamic Courts Union, Sheikh Husein Mohamud Jumaale, said the group's chairman, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. "We have to make concessions for the common good of Somalia," Ahmed told The Associated Press, adding, however, that his group will not accept government plans to deploy peacekeepers to stabilize the country.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on one another. The transitional government established in 2004 has the support of Somalia's neighbors, the African Union, U.N., U.S. and European Union, but wields little power and includes some of the warlords blamed for the country's disintegration. The Islamic leaders portray themselves as a new force capable of bringing the order for which many Somalis long. But the extremism of some of its members and the terror allegations have sparked international concern and a diplomatic flurry. Militias under the umbrella of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union, a group with members ranging from moderate Muslims to fundamentalists who want to establish Quranic rule, took Mogadishu earlier this month after sporadic battles with an alliance of U.S.-backed warlords that had gone on for months and killed 330 people, most of them civilians. On Tuesday, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf said in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa where he had gone to meet with African Union officials that the union may be less interested in negotiating with his government than in pursuing its own, unknown agenda. "Yes, the Islamists' forces have an international reach and they have many collaborators from around the world ... They are in the thousands," Yusuf said after discussing the Somalia crisis with African Union Commission Deputy Chairman Patrick Mazimhaka. Yusuf said he would only meet with the Islamic leaders once they recognized his government and showed a commitment to democracy. He also has said he would only open talks with the Islamic group after it withdrew its militias to Mogadishu, laid down arms and accepted the transitional constitution. The leader of the Islamic group, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, on Monday rejected the conditions and added his group would not talk with the government if it continues to press for peacekeepers to be deployed in Somalia.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer was in East Africa this week for discussions with regional leaders about Somalia. She met with Yusuf, his prime minister and the speaker of parliament before they left Nairobi, Kenya for Khartoum. She called on the leaders of an Islamic militia in Somalia to turn over men accused of being al-Qaida terrorists. "It is very clear that there are foreign terrorists in Somalia," she said, adding that the U.S. has brought up the issue with the U.N.-backed transitional government. "We are making the same call on the Islamic Courts Union." Frazer said there were many suspected terrorists in Somali, but the most wanted included three men under U.S. indictment for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They include a Comorian, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese. "The best way to get America's support to the Somali people in a way that doesn't undermine our interests and their interests is for them to give up these foreign terrorists," she said.
Somalia's Gov't, Militia OK Recognition
Nasser Nasser, Associated Press, 6/23/06
Somalia's largely powerless government and the Islamic fighters who control the country's capital agreed Thursday to stop military action and recognize each other. The nonaggression pact signed in Sudan is a move toward international acceptance for the militia, which the U.S. has accused of harboring al-Qaida and wanting to impose a Taliban-style theocracy throughout Somalia. The militia has said, however, that it does not want to control Somalia's government, and appeared to confirm that by recognizing the two-year-old interim administration backed by the United Nations. The government based in Baidoa, 155 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, agreed in exchange to recognize the religious justice system that the Islamic Courts Union militia has operated for years in much of southern Somalia. The militia became the dominant military force in Somalia after it defeated secular warlords and seized control of Mogadishu and much of the south this month in battles that killed hundreds, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire. The agreement did not include the warlords who were driven out of Mogadishu, and their fighters are not bound to respect the cease-fire. While the Islamic militia did not directly fight the interim government, it has up to now refused to recognize the authorities in Baidoa as the national government. "The parties have committed themselves to cease all verbal provocation and all military action," the secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said at the signing ceremony, which was presided over by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. "
The two parties agreed to reach a compromise that preserves the unity and integrity of Somalia," Moussa told reporters. The U.N.-backed government "recognizes the reality and existence of the Islamic Courts," Moussa said. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the agreement and thanked the League of Arab States for facilitating the talks, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement from New York. He urged the two sides to "remain engaged in dialogue to promote peace and national reconciliation," the statement said. Both parties also agreed to prosecute war criminals and to reconvene on July 15 in Khartoum to negotiate a full peace agreement without preconditions, Moussa added. "We have no interest in shedding any blood, and we will seek every possible way to preserve the life of the Somalis," said Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf, who attended the signing ceremony. Foreign Minister Abdallah Sheikh Ismail signed the agreement with the chief delegate of the Islamic Courts, Mohamed Ali Ibrahim. The two men hugged each other afterward. Al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, hailed the accord as "reviving hope" for Somalia, which has undergone more than 15 years of conflict. Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each another.
Tamil Tigers get ready to defend what they see as their country
Matthew Rosenberg, Associated Press, 6/21/06
Every map in Sri Lanka is about one of two fantasies. The official one in the south shows an undivided nation, the picture-postcard tropical paradise of white-sand beaches and Buddhist shrines. Up where the Tamil Tiger rebels reign, maps show the island's north, along with much of the west coast and all the east coast as "Tamil Eelam," the homeland of the Hindu Tamil minority. It's a stretched reality, but not without some truth. In swaths of the north and east carved out during 18 years of fighting, the rebels have created a country part real and part imagined, one where women warriors stamp forms at border crossings while suicide bombers train at hidden bases. Now they are readying for the possibility of renewed war. "We must be prepared to protect ourselves," said Markanbu Anandan, a 48-year-old Tamil mason who, like many others in Kilinochchi, the de facto rebel capital, spent Tuesday in his dusty yard digging a bomb shelter, a six-foot-deep trench covered with wood planks and sandbags. Here, school principals are lecturing students to be extra cautious, elderly women are learning to use weapons and international aid workers scurry into cement bunkers at the sound of fighter jets roaring overhead. On the other side of the frontier, the Sri Lankan military is also shoring up its defenses. It is buying new weapons, strengthening military bunkers and recently recruited 5,000 Sinhalese villagers to help protect the area bordering Tiger territory. Discrimination against the 3.2 million Tamils, most of whom are Hindu, led the Tigers to take up arms in 1983. The spark was anti-Tamil riots, and the resulting war on this island of 19 million people nearly three-quarters Sinhalese, most of them Buddhist left more than 65,000 people dead before a 2002 cease-fire. But four years of uneasy calm have given way since April to a back-and-forth of bombings and shootings. Nearly 700 people have died and many say Sri Lanka is sliding back into ethnic conflict. Both sides say they want peace. But their demands remain as far apart as their maps, leaving little hope for compromise. "We want to live amicably," said Thramathy Sivasabranmaniam, a 35-year-old Tamil. "But we want a separate Tamil Eelam. The government does not want this." The government made that clear Monday. There is not, it insisted, a de facto State of Tamil Eelam. "This remains a myth," a government statement said. But facts on the ground are hard to dispute. And the facts say "state."
There is a border with immigration officials and customs officers who seize banned goods, such as pornography. There is a police force, an education system and tax collectors whose work, along with money raised from the Tamil diaspora, helps keep everything running. At Tamil Eelam's heart lies Kilinochchi, a town that seems like it could be swallowed by the bush and forest that surrounds it. Mildew stains the sides of buildings, many of them pockmarked with bullet holes. The tallest building is four stories. Monuments to "martyrs" Tigers killed in the war dot the town. The Tigers go to great lengths to show they are not running a lawless state. Ask to see Tiger soldiers, and you get a few minutes with traffic police who wield nothing more than a radar gun to catch speeders. The conversation is banal, mostly talk of how the radar gun has helped control traffic in a town with one main road. Even the Tigers' elusive leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has gotten a makeover. His picture is omnipresent in Tiger country, and in newer ones, he has traded in camouflage fatigues for civilian clothes. As for rebel soldiers fighters so disciplined and loyal they have been known to swallow cyanide rather than be captured alive they are nowhere in sight. It's a stark contrast to the other side of the border, where troops are dug in behind sandbags, barbed wire and land mines. For the most part, the image projected along Kilinochchi's single commercial strip is normalcy.
There are uniformed schoolchildren, offices for government agencies like the Sports Council of Tamil Eelam, and the Bank of Tamil Eelam, which boasts a shiny new glass facade. The rebels advertise it as a modern state albeit one where most are poor farmers who live with a spotty power supply and phones that barely work. But it is governed with an old-time morality that borders on the puritanical. Adultery can mean jail time, and premarital sex is taboo. People are expected to take their lead from the Tigers, who don't drink or smoke. "It's not part of our traditions, and our movement reflects Tamil traditions," said Daya Master, the rebel spokesman. Tamils unhappy with the high taxes on cigarettes and alcohol are not willing to openly complain, an indication of the fear with which they regard the rebels who have been known to torture and kill dissenters. One woman in Kilinochchi said she did not want to live under Tiger rule because they are "mean." Still, she insisted the rebels "do nothing I can find to criticize." But she did not want to give her name.
Sri Lanka rules out war with Tamil rebels
Ashiok Sharma, Associated Press, 6/22/06
Sri Lanka's foreign minister said Thursday that renewed civil war with Tamil rebels is not an option despite escalating violence in the island nation. During a visit to the Indian capital, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraveera told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that "war was not an option and that (Sri Lanka) remained committed to a political solution to the ethnic issue," according to a statement released by India's External Affairs Ministry. India asked the Sri Lankan government to strengthen the 2002 cease-fire accord with Tamil rebels and expeditiously address the legitimate aspirations of all sections of society, the statement said. Singh also told Samaraveera that his government should work toward a package to restore ethnic harmony in the island nation. Samaraveera paid a daylong visit to New Delhi on his way home from Oslo, Norway. Renewed attacks by government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels have raised fears that Sri Lanka is slipping back into a civil war, amid the collapse of the cease-fire accord. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka since 1983, accusing the majority Sinhalese of discrimination in education and jobs. India is home to 56 million Tamils who have traditional and family ties with Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamils. In 1987, New Delhi sent peacekeeping troops to Sri Lanka, but withdrew them three years later after more than 1,100 Indian soldiers died in clashes with the Tigers. The fighting in Sri Lanka left more than 65,000 people dead before the 2002 cease-fire accord between the government and the LTTE.
Sri Lanka Negotiation
Simulation
Click
here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
U.N. head of peacekeeping seeks troops to calm Darfur
Alfred de Montesquiou, Associated Press, 6/22/06
The head of U.N. peacekeeping downplayed the Sudanese president's rejection of a U.N. mission for Darfur Wednesday, saying it was not the end of the story. President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday accused Jewish groups of pressing for the U.N. mission, and vowed never to let U.N. peacekeepers into Sudan's western region of Darfur. "Obviously, we would like to hear a different opinion," U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Gehenno told The Associated Press shortly after meeting al-Bashir. "We want to believe that this is not the end of the road." Gehenno was ending a two-week visit to Darfur and Khartoum with some 40 U.N. and African Union experts to plan for a large U.N. force to take over peacekeeping in Darfur from the AU's poorly equipped 7,000 troops who have been unable to halt more than three years of violence. Nearly 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than 2 million displaced since members of ethnic African tribes rose in revolt against the Arab-led Khartoum government in early 2003. Sudan's government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as the janjaweed who have been blamed for the worst atrocities. Khartoum denies any involvement, but has committed to disarm the janjaweed under the peace deal. Gehenno said he had assured the Sudanese president that the UN had no "hidden agenda." "There are many misunderstandings about the U.N.'s goals in Darfur that we are trying to solve with the Sudanese government," said Gehenno. The U.S. and Europeans have been pushing for a large U.N. force to replace the African Union's poorly equipped 7,000 troops, who have been unable to halt the near daily killing, raping and looting of refugees in the remote region of western Sudan where more than 200,000 have died in the last three years. Gehenno said the priority would be to strengthen the 7,000-strong AU force. He confirmed that the U.N. still hoped to send its own peacekeeping mission by early 2007.
The chief peacekeeper also insisted that U.N. peacekeepers would "only go to Darfur in full cooperation from the Sudanese government." There has been "a slight improvement" in the situation since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement last month between the region's main rebel group and the government, Gehenno said. But he said the situation was precarious and infighting among rebel factions had cut off over 100,000 people from humanitarian assistance. Presidential adviser Majzoub Khalifa said the government believes letting in the U.N. could destablize Sudan. "We do not want Darfur to become a new Iraq," he said, claiming tribal leaders in Darfur had warned authorities they would form insurgency groups against U.N. peacekeepers. President Bush, who has called for the United Nations to take over peacekeeping in Darfur, reiterated Wednesday that he viewed the government-backed attacks on civilians there as genocide. "I care deeply about those who have been afflicted by these renegade bands of people who are raping and murdering," he said at a summit with European leaders in Vienna. In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli pressed for Sudan to accept the U.N. force. "As long as violence continues in Darfur, the Sudanese Government is going to be held responsible, regardless of the circumstances," the spokesman said. Deploying U.N. troops is crucial to salvaging the brittle peace deal signed by the Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel movement, which has warned the agreement will collapse without the peacekeeping force. Sudan's president said Monday he would personally lead "the resistance" if foreign troops come to Darfur. "If we return to the last demonstrations in the United States, and the groups that organized the demonstrations, we find that they are all Jewish organizations," al-Bashir said Tuesday, referring to rallies held in New York and Philadelphia earlier this year. The U.N. peacekeeping chief said a new cycle of violence threatened Darfur and that solving the crisis was "an emergency." The suffering "can leave no one indifferent," Gehenno said. "History will judge us harshly if we do not prevent it," he said.
Battle for Darfur; Sudan War Spills Into Chad; Despite peace efforts in Darfur, a key rebel force is regrouping across the border, recruiting among refugees.
Los Angeles Times, 6/19/06
At first glance, the hillside plateau above the Sudanese border here in eastern Chad appears to offer little more than prickly scrub brush and grazing cattle. It would be easy to drive past without noticing much at all. But look closer and the desolate terrain begins to come to life, slowly revealing a massive encampment. Those piles of rocks dotting the mountain? Man-made reinforcements for a network of foxholes. Peek into the bushes and Sudanese rebel fighters peer back. Shade your eyes against the sun's glare, and the silhouettes of rifle-wielding watchmen appear along the mountaintops. The camp is the newest training ground of the Sudan Liberation Army, one of the main Darfur rebel groups that have been battling the Sudanese government since 2003.
In less than two months, the camp has become home to more than 2,000 rebels, mostly recruits who spend their days learning the basics of warfare. A world away, the United Nations and the United States are pushing a controversial peace agreement to end the bloodshed in Darfur, the vast western region of Sudan. But here this ragtag army of skinny men with plastic sandals and AK-47s is mobilizing for war. "I'm learning to be a soldier so I can go and kill the \o7janjaweed\f7," said Gamar Ahmed Aden, 18, who joined the SLA a month ago from a refugee camp near Farchana, Chad. He said his family was driven from Darfur last year when the \o7janjaweed\f7, as Sudan's pro-government militias are known, attacked his family's village. Out here in the bush, hatred and distrust of the Sudanese government remain high, and nearly everyone rejects the proposed peace deal as providing insufficient protection and compensation for Darfur refugees. Rebel factions are divided over whether to accept the agreement, sometimes attacking one another. It's a reminder that despite diplomatic efforts to reach peace, the conflict is only getting worse -- and has spread beyond Darfur. First the militias began crossing into Chad, attacking villages and driving an estimated 50,000 people from their homes. Now the Sudanese rebels are also moving over the border, establishing training camps, joining up with the Chadian military and aggressively recruiting inside Darfur refugee camps, sometimes using force. The cross-border activities are threatening to complicate the volatile relations between Chad and Sudan, who many analysts say are already engaged in proxy war through their support of rebel groups in each other's land. Chadian President Idriss Deby, who comes from the same Zaghawa tribe to which many Darfurians belong, has long been accused of secretly backing the SLA in its battle against the Sudanese government in Khartoum.
In recent months, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir reportedly retaliated by backing Chadian rebels trying to overthrow Deby. "It's a dangerous situation that could spiral out of control," said a diplomat in Chad, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. The rising tensions have been a boon to the Darfur rebels, and the new training camp is one of the best examples. "We could never have done this before," said Abakar Tula, who heads the SLA's growing activities in eastern Chad. "Before, there were better relations between Chad and Bashir. But now we share the same enemy." Officially, the Chadian military and some SLA leaders deny any cooperation. "There are no Sudan rebels in Chad," said Mohammed Suliman, commander of Chadian troops in Adre, a key border town about 60 miles north of here. "We don't need their help." But humanitarian workers say the town is now protected jointly by Chad military and SLA troops. But in several east Chadian towns, the SLA presence is undeniable. Commanders freely roam the streets, sometimes stopping to exchange pleasantries with local police. SLA fighters routinely visit and sleep inside the dozen refugee camps in Chad, taking advantage of the food aid and other supplies. Darfur rebels are helping defend the border, sharing intelligence, prisoners and occasionally weapons with the Chadian military, according to interviews with SLA commanders and fighters. The Chadian government recently supplied the rebels with 50 pickup trucks, according to one report by a Western aid group. Training camps, such as the one near Ade, operate openly. Convoys of heavily armed rebels can travel between cities without interference. During one recent trip, nearly two dozen rebels piled into a camouflaged Land Cruiser with a sawed-off top. Loaded with supplies, weapons and armed fighters, the truck tore through several Chadian towns, its rocket and grenade launchers bouncing against the side. Tula had little concern that his convoy of armed Sudanese would raise alarm among Chadian officials. His biggest worry was whether two journalists traveling with him had the proper Chadian travel permits. The rebel camp, which stretches for more than a mile, is home to a mix of big and small fighters. Some recruits are as young as 16, others wrinkled and graying. Life here isn't easy. They eat stewed tomatoes from cans and dry strips of lamb on the branches for homemade jerky. Water is scare. Once or twice a day, fighters scramble around a truck delivering a few precious barrels of water, which they must share among hundreds.
By dawn, hundreds of recruits are already exercising before the afternoon temperatures surpass 100 degrees. They gather in giant square-shaped formations, practice frog jumps and one-legged stands, and march with exaggerated Soviet-style arm and leg raises. For relaxation, the men kick around a soccer ball, play cards or practice karate. After several weeks of physical training, the recruits will graduate to guns, learn how to assemble weapons and aim. Then there's a 15-day "political" training, during which they break into small groups to learn about the history of the Darfur struggle, which pits tribes who view themselves chiefly as Arabs against those who think of themselves as black or African. It has left more than 180,000 people dead and millions displaced. The political lessons reinforce an already deep distrust of Arabs and emphasize the suffering and marginalization of the darker-skinned people in Darfur. Though most SLA fighters have little or no formal education, those who have completed the training voiced similar-sounding rhetoric when asked why they had joined the movement. "The Arabs see black people as slaves," said Jamal Idriss Heroun, 27, who joined three years ago. "There is no justice for Darfur. No schools. No healthcare. They have taken our land." When pressed, a few fighters discussed the personal struggles that led them to join the rebels. Hassan Abubaker Dehie, 23, was a graduate of the Koranic university in Khartoum and dreamed of becoming an attorney. But the eldest son came home from school in 2004 and discovered his hut was in ashes and his family gone. He searched for several weeks, quizzing villagers, visiting refugee camps and contacting the Red Cross for help. He never found his family, but said he believed they were still alive, perhaps in some remote village. Now the SLA is the only family he has. "These are my brothers," Dehie said. "I would give them my shirt." All of the SLA fighters interviewed said they had lost family to attacks by the militias or Sudanese government. Many said they saw brothers, sisters and parents being gunned down. "It's the anger that drives them to join the movement," said Abubaker Ahmed, a camp leader and SLA recruiter at the Djabal refugee camp in Chad. In recent months, however, SLA leaders have been criticized for infiltrating refugee camps and recruiting young men through a combination of force and patriotism. In March, SLA fighters carrying sticks and guns, and wearing scarves around their faces, swept up nearly 1,000 men over three days at the Bredjing camp in eastern Chad. "They told me they had a job for me to do and that I had to struggle to win back my land," said Osman Suliman Mohammed, 27, who married last year and has a 9-month-old boy. Mohammed said he and several hundred other camp residents were marched through the bush for three days to a camp, where they were ordered to dig a well and occasionally practice military formations.
Their captors appeared unprepared to feed and shelter them, he said. Finally, under intense criticism from aid groups and refugee camp leaders, the faction responsible for the sweep released most of the men or allowed them to escape. An SLA leader involved in the recruitments contended that the men and boys, some as young as 14, were not forced. "They came freely," he said. Bertrand Bazel, who works for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees at Bredjing, said the SLA activities at the camps threatened to put the facilities at greater risk of attack by the \o7janjaweed\f7, who will begin to view them as SLA breeding grounds. The sweep also infuriated and confused many Darfur refugees, who had long viewed the rebels as their freedom fighters. "But they're not ready to let the rebels recruit their children," Bazel said. "You don't liberate someone by mistreating them." Back at the training camp, there's little sympathy for recruits who run away. Issak Omar joined the rebels when he was 16 after the militias killed his brother. Dressed in camouflage, the introverted teenager spends his spare time jotting down poems in Arabic. His mother lives 50 miles away in a refugee camp, but he hasn't seen her in three years. "First comes the struggle," he said. "After that, I will return to my family."
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
Click
here to access the Report prepared by the Public International Law & Policy
Group.