PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, February 6, 2006
(Volume V, Number 2)
Contents:
Putin claims Chechnya brought back fully into constitutional fold
Local government structures mark the republics return to the status of other Russian regions.
Security Council extends UN force mandate in Georgia
UN unanimously extends mandate for monitoring force between Georgia and Abkhazia for two months.
New Aceh law may spur fresh demands but no serious threat: analysts
Peace process proceeds with draft Aceh law that grants unprecedented autonomy.
Ivorian Prime Minister tells rebels peace must get a chance
New government leader reaches out to rebels in the northern region.
More than 3,000 Pakistanis rally to call for end of Indian rule in Kashmir
In Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, rallies mark Kashmir Solidarity Day.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation.
Kosovo
Stalled Kosovo talks set to resume on Feb 20: PM
Final status talks will continue following death of Kosovo's president.
Separatists put up barrier outside Moldovan village blocking residents' access
New barrier in Trans-Dniester violates agreement between Moldova and separatists.
Violence marks day two of Nepal political strike
Suspected Maoists rebels disrupt upcoming elections.
Philippine Muslim rebel leader tells followers to silence guns
Detained rebel leader attempts to ensure peace.
Serbia urges EU to rule on Montenegro independence vote
Prime Minister Kostunica calls for a clear stand on rules for participation in upcoming referendum.
Del Ponte warns Belgrade over hunt for Mladic
UN war crimes prosecutor visits Belgrade to increase cooperation in search for war criminal.
Somali premier opposes proposed parliamentary meeting in Somalia, saying more talks needed
Prime Minister Gedi suggests talks around the country to gather a greater consensus on convening a parliament.
Breakthrough in Sri Lanka peace bid, Geneva talks on
Norway instrumental in facilitating first peace talks in three years for this month.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation.
U.N. moves closer to peacekeeping duty in Sudan's troubled Darfur area
African Union agrees in principle to transform peacekeeping force in Darfur into a U.N. peacekeeping force.
Darfur rebels accuse Sudan of destabilising Chad with incursions
Calls for a stabilizing force gains strength as Darfur conflict spills across border to Chad.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG Report.
Hopeful Signs Appear in Solving a Post-Soviet Impasse
New York Times, 2/2/06
Negotiations for a peace settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh, the contested region in Azerbaijan that slipped into war as the Soviet Union collapsed, have gained ground recently after years of stalemate, raising the possibility of an agreement this year, diplomats familiar with the talks say.
Fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh killed at least 18,000 people and displaced more than one million others in the early 1990's. The region, an ethnic-Armenian enclave within the borders of Azerbaijan and a fortified area around it, has been under military occupation by Armenian-backed forces since a cease-fire in 1994, creating a formidable military front in the western mountains of Azerbaijan.
The territory has remained a source of violence and lingering social costs, with expelled civilians living in grim conditions away from the front. Commercial and social contacts between the populations are almost nonexistent, and the conflict has dragged down the region's economic development and threatened its stability.
The International Crisis Group, an independent organization that assesses conflict areas, said in a report last year that the occupied region, nearly 12,000 square miles, holds ''one of the world's most militarized societies'' and risks sliding back to war.
But diplomats involved in recent negotiations say there is now a possibility of a settlement. They have been preparing for a meeting in France of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Robert Kocharian of Armenia on Feb. 10 and 11, with hopes they will agree to a comprehensive plan.
The United States, France and Russia lead the so-called Minsk Group, a body of mediators working under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, under whose auspices the cease-fire was reached. Representatives of the three countries were scheduled to visit Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, on Wednesday, for more meetings with Mr. Aliyev. Similar meetings are planned with Mr. Kocharian in Yerevan, Armenia's capital, on Thursday.
No one as yet is predicting success, and Azerbaijan signaled reservations before the mediators' arrival. But several diplomats said there remained the potential for agreement.
''There has been a mass of very thoughtful negotiations that have brought us to this stage,'' said a senior State Department official who is familiar with negotiations. ''We are now at the point where the presidents need to turn the corner from negotiations to decisions, and close the remaining gaps.''
The official, like several others, spoke on condition of anonymity because both sides have sought to keep much of the contents of negotiations out of the public discourse.
Several people familiar with the talks, however, said a document summarizing the core issues had become the basis for proposing a two-stage process: first an agreement in principle, then a working out of the details.
One possible plan would involve a withdrawal of Armenian-backed military forces from much of the territory around Nagorno-Karabakh, accompanied by international security guarantees and an international peacekeeping force. At a later date, the diplomats say, a referendum could be held to determine Nagorno-Karabakh's political status.
The first step toward settlement, the diplomats said, would be for Mr. Aliyev and Mr. Kocharian to endorse a broadly defined plan based roughly on these proposals. If the presidents were to agree, delegations from both countries would work with mediators on details, including the timing and chronology for troop withdrawals. All involved said any referendum would be years away.
Keith Jinks, a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the proposal also covered other issues, including the creation of a secure corridor in and out of the area, return of displaced civilians, reconstruction of infrastructure and clearance of land mines.
While talks have become more constructive in recent months, the diplomats said, the presidents still disagree on critical issues.
For Azerbaijan, a central issue is territorial integrity, and restoration of control over a region within its internationally recognized borders.
''We stand for the reintegration of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, while Armenia wants to disintegrate Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan,'' Araz Azimov, Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister, said in a telephone interview. ''Azerbaijan understands that all territory should be returned.''
Armenia, which maintains that Nagorno-Karabakh is historically Armenian, contends that the region's fate and political affiliation should be determined by its inhabitants.
''That is the core issue -- because of that the conflict erupted,'' Vartan Oskanian, Armenia's foreign minister, said by telephone from Yerevan.
Because so much complexity remains, diplomats familiar with the proposals also cautioned that even were Mr. Aliyev and Mr. Kocharian to reach an agreement, working through details would require at least several months, and might lead to a fresh impasse.
''Once we begin to work on a compromise document, I think new problems will continue to emerge,'' Mr. Oskanian said.
Still, diplomats say 2006 offers a window for negotiations.
There are no national elections in Armenia or Azerbaijan this year, allowing negotiators to work without the pressures of a campaign.
Azerbaijan is also expecting surging revenues from oil and gas pipelines scheduled to come on line late this year, and Mr. Aliyev is using new income to strengthen the military. This has raised concerns that Azerbaijan could be preparing for war -- and raised hopes for a settlement before more militarization could occur.
The senior State Department official also said the mediators had tried to impress upon both sides that new fighting would be a catastrophe. ''An attempt to bring about a military solution would not succeed, and it would have disastrous humanitarian and economic effects,'' the official said.
Mr. Azimov said renewed fighting was not in Azerbaijan's plans. ''We are not interested in a war solution,'' he said. He added, ''But war does not recognize any normal logic, and it happens when no one expects it and regardless of what people want.''
Sabine Freizer, the author of the International Crisis Group's report, said the Azerbaijani position has hardened as the country has gained wealth and frustration has grown. ''There is a level of belligerence that is just incredible, because they think that ultimately they can win,'' Ms. Freizer said.
Exiled Chechens sacked in rebel 'government' shakeup
Agence France Presse, 2/6/06
Chechnya's underground separatist leadership has announced a reshuffle of its exiled ministers in what rebel websites said Monday was a step to consolidate their scattered forces.
The measures, announced in decrees by fugitive rebel president Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, target several of the best-known rebel figures, including London-based exile Akhmed Zakayev, who is sacked as deputy prime minister.
Sadulayev ordered the reshuffle "so that our enemies' propaganda does not speak of a 'government in exile,'" according to a statement on the rebel-run website www.chechenpress.co.uk.
In a smuggled audiotape message, Sadulayev also explained the changes as a crackdown on Zakayev and the now sacked information minister, Movladi Udugov, following a recent bitter exchange of statements by the two men on rebel websites, chechenpress.co.uk said.
More than a decade since the start of guerrilla war between Chechen separatists and Russian forces in the tiny North Caucasus province, the rebel leadership has gone into deep hiding.
Sadulayev, a former Islamic cleric, and his top military commanders, including Russia's most-wanted man Shamil Basayev, are believed to be based in Chechnya's mountains.
Others, such as Zakayev, a former actor who took part in fighting early on in the war, have won political asylum in the West -- to the intense anger of Moscow, which has unsuccessfully attempted to secure their extradition.
Aslan Maskhadov, the former rebel leader elected president in elections backed by Moscow and the West as part of a peace deal in 1997, was killed during an attempt at his capture by Russian forces last year.
Moscow has also installed a loyal Chechen government in the devastated capital Grozny.
According to the decrees reportedly signed by Sadulayev, who is barely known to the outside world, all government ministers must now reside in Chechnya itself."Activities of all structures of the ministerial cabinet... must move to Chechen territory," one decree said.
Exceptions, the decree said, are the ministry of culture, which remains headed by Zakayev, and foreign ministry, which is headed by Ilyas Akhmadov, living in political asylum in the United States.
Udugov, long the rebels' propaganda mastermind and living in hiding abroad, is no longer a minister, but named head of a "national information service."
Umar Khanbiyev, another longtime presence in the rebel hierarchy who now lives in exile in France, is sacked as health minister.
Georgia's U.N. ambassador accuses Russia of genocide in Abkhazia
Associated Press, 2/1/06
Georgia's U.N. ambassador accused Russia on Wednesday of taking part in genocide and ethnic cleansing in the breakaway Abkhazia region, the latest in an escalating war of words between the two nations.
Ambassador Revaz Adamia repeated past claims that Russian peacekeepers have sided with separatists in Abkhazia and accused Moscow of seeking independence for the tiny province, which has run its own affairs since 1993.
He pushed the rhetoric up a notch, however, saying that Russian troops participated in ethnic cleansing and genocide because more than 300,000 ethnic Georgians have been expelled from Abkhazia and some 10,000 were killed during fighting there.
"I'm sure there was genocide and ethnic cleansing," Adamia said, later adding: "Russia participated in that with their militaries (and) mercenaries."
The remarks come as leaders in Georgia have sought closer ties with the West and traded barbs recently with Russia. Georgia accused Russia of involvement in a pipeline explosion last month that cut supplies of natural gas during a cold snap, while Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the Georgian leadership was "spitting" on Russia and warned their action would backfire.
New Aceh law may spur fresh demands but no serious threat: analysts
Agence France Presse, 2/5/06
Indonesia's parliament is set to scrutinize a draft law granting war-torn Aceh unprecedented autonomy, which may spur demands from other regions for similar deals but poses no serious threat, analysts say.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that are home to people speaking hundreds of languages, has battled separatist grumblings in its far-flung corners since it proclaimed independence from the Dutch in 1945.
The contentious Aceh law, the next stage of a peace process hurried along by the 2004 tsunami tragedy which killed some 165,000 Acehnese, sees Indonesia make the greatest concessions yet in order to preserve its borders peacefully.
After nearly three decades of bloody separatist conflict, Indonesia signed a peace pact with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) last August guaranteeing the staunchly-Muslim province at the tip of Sumatra island sweeping autonomy.
GAM agreed to drop its demand for independence in return for, among other concessions, the right to form local political parties -- something that is banned elsewhere in the archipelago to discourage separatism.
But not everyone was pleased with the deal, to be codified in the draft law. Parliament is due to form a commission to discuss it on Tuesday.
Opposition has been fierce among some lawmakers, whose feathers were already ruffled by the government's failure to consult them over the August pact. They say Jakarta may have gone too far in its compromises.
In particular they fear that provinces such as resource-rich Papua, at the opposite end of Indonesia thousands of kilometres away, could try to use the pact as a model for themselves.
"It's very possible. (The law) could have effects on other regions," Sidharto Danusubroto, a member of the nationalist opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, told AFP.
He said his party, led by former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, was "meticulously studying the draft law to make sure it will not go against our national laws and constitution."
Amir Santoso, from the University of Indonesia, agreed that the passage of the law, not yet fully revealed to the public, could "see other regions queuing to make similar demands."
Papua was only incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s. Pro-independence sentiment, fueled by rights abuses and annoyance over funds from resources flowing to Jakarta, mean it remains a potential flashpoint."Our nation is still politically immature and this is where the problem may lay," Santoso warned.
Nationalists are still smarting from the 1999 loss of East Timor, which voted for independence in the tumultuous aftermath of the resignation of ex-president Suharto, who ruled with an iron fist for more than three decades.
Syamsuddin Harris, a political researcher at the Indonesian Institute for Sciences, said that while other regions may be encouraged to make demands, none have as strong a case to make as Aceh for special concessions.
Besides a history of resistance stretching back centuries -- including nearly 40 years of battling the Dutch -- the province was granted special territory status in the early 1960s. It proved to be a paper concession.
And, Harris said, the Aceh pact involved the mediation of foreigners and has the support of the international community."And this makes honoring the pact a national obligation," he said, adding that a 2002 autonomy law, which decentralises much of Jakarta's power to local administrations, should be enough to address grievances elsewhere.
Azyumardi Azra, chancellor of the Higher State Institute for Islamic Sciences, said this 2002 law covers most points disputed in the Aceh bill.
One exception is the article on local political parties.
Under Indonesian law, parties must be based in Jakarta and have branches in more than half the country's 33 provinces but Aceh will be exempted from this."What everyone should remember is that, if there are separatist aspirations, they will clearly not be because of the existence of the local political parties, but rather to injustice and inequalities in policies," Azra said.
The University of Indonesia's Santoso added that with or without Aceh, greater autonomy needs to be granted to the regions under the law in any case."For a country as large as ours, I don't think greater autonomy for the regions will break up our unity. On the contrary," he said, noting that areas where separatist sentiment could flare now enjoyed autonomy -- at least in laws on paper."Just implement them to the letter," he added.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Ivorian Prime Minister tells rebels peace must get a chance
Agence France Presse, 2/3/06
New Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny on Friday began his first visit to Ivory Coast's rebel-held north by telling the New Forces led by Guillaume Soro of "a second chance at peace" with strong world support.
"I've come as a messenger of peace, a craftsman of peace," the former banker, named by international mediators to reunite a nation divided by more than three years of conflict said in the rebel headquarters town of Bouake.
The government chief, appointed to the post as a consensus figure acceptable to all parties in the conflict, was warmly greeted with full military honours on his trip out of the south, the stronghold of President Laurent Gbagbo.
"I've never seen a government as strongly supported as the one we lead," he said in Bouake in an address to the military and political chiefs of the New Forces (FN), as well as town officials."The whole international community is behind us, this is the government of hope," he said."Give us a second chance at peace... I'm full of hope, coexistence is indispensable, we have a great wish to live together and that's why I took up the job."
Soro, who is number two in the government but has yet to take up his place, first met Banny in a small town, Djebonoua, where the prime minister arrived by road from the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro, under the escort of United Nations peacekeepers.
The rebel leader renewed his group's support of Banny and of a transitional government "driven by the desire to end the crisis and head towards genuine peace.
Banny stressed "it is necessary that we disarm and identify all our people" to which Soro said progress had been made to disarm in "heart and in spirit."
"As for peace we subscribe to the UN resolution... although it contains some contractions," said Soro. "We shall together achieve peace if the major and essential challenge of identification of our population and our combatants are taken up."Soro again appealed for the initiation of dialogue between the government army and rebel forces, wishing Banny success in the work entrusted upon him by the international community to end the Ivory Coast crisis.
The hardnosed former banker named on December 28 to speed up conflict resolution and have elections held, received the military honours while children chanted "we want peace".
The trip came as African Union mediators stepped up diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis after anti-UN riots and violence late in January and ahead of presidential elections due to be held no later than October 30.
Banny has been shuttling between African cities meeting the AU's new chairman, Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso, and the pan-African grouping's mediator South African President Thabo Mbeki.
His trip to South Africa was immediately followed by a visit to Abidjan by Mbeki's envoys early this week. They met most parties to the conflict, but not Soro's.
Two weeks ago the UN base in Abidjan and UN peacekeepers and aid agencies in the west were attacked by militias aligned to Gbagbo. They were angered by a recommendation from UN-backed mediators to scrap parliament since its mandate ended in December.
Soro's New Forces condemned the clashes and Gbagbo's subsequent unilateral decision to prolong the parliament's lifespan.
The clashes forced the UN mission in Ivory Coast (ONUCI) to relocate hundreds of staff to Gambia, and send an assessment team to the west to decide if it was safe for aid workers to return, together with Bangladeshi soldiers who were pulled out after five people died in clashes.
Under UN Security Council resolution 1633, the transitional prime minister is tasked with putting the country with its mainly Christian south and Muslim majority north firmly on the path of reunification following years of civil strife.
He also has authority over all security, electoral and financial matters, and will be in charge of a programme to disarm and integrate militias.
Security Council okays modest reinforcement of UN mission in Ivory Coast
Agence France Presse, 2/6/06
The Security Council on Monday gave the green light for transferring a small mechanized unit from the UN mission in Liberia to Ivory Coast until late March to beef up security for beleaguered UN personnel there.
The 15-member council unanimously passed a resolution authorizing UN chief Kofi Annan "to redeploy immediately a maximum of one infantry company from UNMIL (the UN mission in Liberia) to the ONUCI (the UN force in Ivory Coast)" until March 31 in order to provide extra security for UN personnel and property.
A Western diplomat said the reinforcement would involve 200 Nigerian soldiers, 14 armored vehicles and 18 support vehicles from the 17,772-strong UNMIL.
ONUCI currently has 7,000 troops, backed by 4,000 French troops.
Annan had asked the council to quickly authorize the deployment of a 850-strong mechanized battalion and a police unit to deal with any renewed anti-UN violence in Ivory Coast, his spokesman said Sunday.
"Some members states have always problems with the expansion of the peacekeeping operation and you have to find the right balance in order to get a consensus," Greece's UN ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis told reporters.
He said Washington felt a battalion "was too much."
The resolution, however, said the council planned to review the redeployment by March 31 in light of developments in Ivory Coast and Liberia and "to keep under review possible additional redeployments of troops from UNMIL to ONUCI."
The resolution said the redeployment was decided "without prejudice to any future (council) decision" concerning the renewal of the mandate and strength of UNMIL. That mandate expires on March 31.
It also expressed "serious concern at the persistence of the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and of obstacles to the peace and national reconciliation process from all sides."
Annan's spokesman said Sunday that the secretary general was "still deeply concerned" about the restive situation in Ivory Coast, "as threats continue to be issued against United Nations personnel and plans of violent demonstrations and attacks are being reported."
UN officials fear renewed anti-UN violence as the world body prepares to slap targeted sanctions against three politicians seen as obstacles to the peace process.
In a report released early last month, Annan had asked for the temporary deployment of some 3,4000 troops to help ONUCI provide better security until presidential elections, set to take place in the former French colony before late October.
But the United States, which finances 27 percent of UN peacekeeping operations and which is one of the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council, made it clear it would not approve such an increase.
Fears of renewed anti-UN violence have been fueled by the imminent implementation of targeted UN sanctions against two southern leaders of the nationalist "Young Patriots" loyal to Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo: Charles Ble Goude and Eugene Djue.
A third politician, a commander of an armed rebel group from northern Ivory Coast, is also targeted.
The sanctions, including a travel ban and a freeze on assets, should be enforced Tuesday if no Security Council member objects.
Two weeks ago, the UN base in Abidjan, UN peacekeepers and aid agencies in the west were attacked by "Young Patriots" to protest a decision by a UN-backed international mediation group to have the parliament, dominated by Gbagbo's party, stand down because its five-year term had ended.
Gbagbo defied the UN group and on January 27 decided to extend the parliament's mandate.
Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa producer and once one of Africa's most prosperous and stable states, has been split since fighting broke out in 2002 between Gbagbo's government and rebels, who control the largely Muslim north of the country.
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India pulls 5,000 troops out of Kashmir
Agence France Presse, 2/6/06
India has moved out 5,000 troops from Kashmir following an ebb in militancy in the disputed territory, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Monday, inisting however it was not a withdrawal.
The troops would be sent back to the divided state if violence again escalates, Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a military conference in New Delhi.
"It is not withdrawal but redeployment of forces from Jammu and Kashmir to the northeastern (states) as (the) violence level has come down," he said.
Mukherjee insisted the withdrawal was a "routine exercise" and dismissed suggestions that it was a gesture ahead of a planned visit to India by US President George W. Bush next month."The redeployment is a regular exercise undertaken after review of the situation in the state and last year we reduced troops voluntarily," Mukherjee said.
Military sources told AFP that at least 6,000 combat troops were pulled out of Kashmir in 2005.
Up to 400,000 combat forces are deployed along the borders of Kashmir, which is claimed both by India and Pakistan.
Islamabad earlier this month asked New Delhi to demilitarise three Kashmiri towns to add momentum to their two-year old peace process.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over Kashmir and came dangerously close to a fourth conflict in 2002 after an attack by gunmen on the Indian parliament which New Delhi said was sponsored by Islamabad.
However, a peace process started two years ago has seen the relaunch of transport links between the two countries, including in Kashmir, and has reduced tension in the Himalayan territory.
More than 44,000 people have died in insurgency-linked violence in Kashmir since 1989 when Islamist guerrillas launched an anti-Indian rebellion in the disputed zone.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Stalled Kosovo talks set to resume on Feb 20: PM
Agence France Presse, 2/1/06
Talks on Kosovo's future status, delayed after the death of the province's president, are now likely to resume on February 20, Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi said Wednesday.
Kosumi, a member of the team representing Kosovo's independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in the delicate negotiations, made the statement after meeting the deputy UN special envoy for the talks, Albert Rohan.
The negotiations were postponed from last week after the death on January 21 of Kosovo's president Ibrahim Rugova, who was to have led the Albanian team but for whom a replacement is yet to be found.
"It is the position of all the members of the negotiating team that Kosovo has no time to lose in the matter of its final status," said Kosumi. "We ... are working with all our power to prepare documents for the Vienna meeting," said Kosumi, adding the talks were likely to be held in the Austrian capital on February 20.
Kosovo, still legally a province of Serbia, has been administered by the United Nations and NATO since the alliance's 1999 air war forced an end to a crackdown by forces loyal to former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic against separatist ethnic Albanian rebels.
The status of the province is still being contested with the ethnic Albanian majority demanding independence from Serbia, which Belgrade and its people firmly oppose.
During a three-day visit to Kosovo ending Wednesday, the UN's Rohan met top international and local officials including representatives of the ethnic Serb community that makes up less than 10 percent of Kosovo's population."The interest of all is to have the negotiations as soon as possible. The Serbian party is ready and now we are waiting to see the willingness of the Kosovo side to start these negotiations," said Rohan."We have no deadlines. This all depends entirely on the Kosovo delegation."
One of the most important issues that the Austrian diplomat discussed during his visit was decentralisation, which was to top the agenda for last week's postponed meeting.
Kosovo leader to attend UN Security Council session for first time
Agence France Presse, 2/3/06
A leader of Kosovo's independence-seeking ethnic Albanian majority will take part in a meeting of the UN Security Council for the first time this month, the United Nations said Friday.
"There is an agreement among the members of the Security Council that Kosovo prime minister (Bajram) Kosumi would be allowed to attend the forthcoming open meeting on Kosovo," said Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of the UN mission in the breakaway Serbian province (UNMIK).
Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since mid-1999 when the alliance's air war drove out Serbian forces loyal to ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic over a crackdown against separatist Albanian rebels.
It is legally still a province of Serbia, however, Kosovo's ethnic Albanians who make up more than 90 percent of its population have never been represented at a meeting of the Security Council, the most powerful UN body.
The decision to invite Kosumi was announced on the same day the UN mission said it expects a replacement for late Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova, who died of lung cancer on January 21, to be found.
"We expect the president of Kosovo to be elected during next week," said UNMIK chief Petersen."It is important for me to be here and it is also very important that I can go to New York and inform the Security Council about this important event," the Danish diplomat added.
Kosumi, for his part, said he accepted the invitation "with pleasure".
"It is very important that the Kosovo prime minister attend the next meeting of the Security Council," he said.
The death of Rugova, whom Kosovo Albanians saw as the "Father of the Nation", forced the United Nations to postpone the first face-to-face talks on the future status of Kosovo with the Albanian leadership and Serbia.
The government in Belgrade remains strongly opposed to losing the province, which Serbians and Kosovo's minority Serbs consider as the birthplace of its history and culture.
Recent media reports in Kosovo suggest Rugova's successor is likely to be 54-year-old Fatmir Sejdiu, the secretary general of the late president's Democratic League of Kosovo party since it was founded in 1989.
British Foreign Office's political director says Kosovo's independence conditional
Associated Press, 2/06/06
A senior British official said Monday that Kosovo's quest for independence from Serbia is conditional on it becoming a democracy that respects the minority rights.
John Sawers, Britain's Foreign Office political director, said also that the future of international military and civilian presence in this disputed province will be a matter of negotiations in the upcoming talks on Kosovo's future.
"The more the leaders of Kosovo can reach out to the other communities and to show that Kosovo is a mature democracy, the more fully an independence can be delivered," Sawers said after meeting the ethnic Albanian negotiators.
Talks on the future of the disputed province are expected to start around Feb. 20 in Vienna, the Austrian capital.
The first round of discussions will deal with the reform of local government aimed at giving Serbs and other minorities greater say in areas where they live.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority want the province to be fully independent, while Belgrade wants to retain at least some control over the region Serbs considered the cradle of their statehood.
"We want to ensure that the final status of Kosovo reinforces the stability of the region," Sawers said, adding that that solution should be reached by the end of this year.
Last week, diplomats and envoys dealing with Kosovo's status met in London, where they called for a resolution to Kosovo's status before the end of the year.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Separatists put up barrier outside Moldovan village blocking residents' access
Associated Press, 2/1/06
Separatists put up a metal fence outside a Moldovan village, forcing its residents to cross the frozen Dniester River to reach the rest of Moldova, authorities said Wednesday.
The village of Cocieri, in the Dubasari region, is located on the eastern bank of the River Dniester along with the breakaway region of Trans-Dniester, while most of Moldova is on the west river bank.
To reach the west bank, Cocieri villagers normally crossed a bridge near a Trans-Dniester hydroelectric plan. But on Tuesday, access to the bridge was blocked by a 2-meter-high (7-foot-high) fence erected outside the plant, apparently to keep nonworkers away.
The move was seen, however, as an attempt to limit the villagers' movement, as Trans-Dniester has said Cocieri should be part of its region.
Authorities in Trans-Dniester have made no comment on the barrier situation.
Cocieri villagers wanting to reach the western side have been forced to walk across the frozen river, which is dangerous, said Grigore Policinschi, the government representative for the Dubasari region, according to state television.
Reintegration Minister Vasili Sova said the barrier contravened a 1992 agreement between Moldova and separatists, adding that authorities were working to resolve the situation.
Trans-Dniester, a region inhabited largely by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, broke away from Moldova in 1992, after a war that killed 1,500 people. It is not recognized internationally, but receives strong support from Russia, which maintains a force of about 1,500 troops there. Representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe traveled Wednesday to the barrier to examine the situation. The OSCE is one of the mediators in talks in Moldova aimed at resolving the dispute between the government and the separatists.
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Philippine peace deal could limit JI threat: EU anti-terror coordinator
Agence France Presse, 2/6/06
A peace deal between the Philippines and one of the region's biggest Muslim insurgent groups could limit the capability of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah to launch attacks, the EU's anti-terrorism coordinator said Monday.
Negotiators from the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government were to begin the next round of talks in Kuala Lumpur Monday aimed at ending the group's 28-year separatist rebellion.Security experts say the MILF has been training Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants in its camps on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
But EU anti-terrorism coordinator Gijs de Vries said that while the JI remained a "very dangerous organization," its capabilities could be lessened by a peace accord between the Philippines and the MILF."I have expressed the hope that significant progress will be made in this peace process," de Vries said in a press briefing here."It is not good for the Jemaah Islamiyah to still be having the possibility to train people in Mindanao. It is important that these facilities be choked off," he said."We must all work together to deny them the possibility of training that they still currently have. I express the hope that the peace process will contribute to that," he said.
He said the European Union placed great importance on strengthening cooperation in the region, stressing that the JI was a "major threat to the stability and security of the region."
The JI is Southeast Asia's tentacle of the Al-Qaeda network and has been blamed for deadly bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and last year.
Security experts say key JI operatives are known to operate out of Mindanao, where the MILF has been waging a rebellion.
The MILF has denied providing sanctuary to JI militants, but has admitted to coddling foreign militants in the past.
While authorities in the region have made strides in combating the group, the JI remains a "very capable, nimble network" under whose umbrella smaller Islamic militant groups can operate, de Vries said."JI officials have been travelling through the region to engage in their deadly trade. It is important that we do everything we can to stop them and bring them to justice," de Vries said.
The Philippines is the last stop of de Vries' Southeast Asian tour which included Indonesia, Thailand and Australia.
In Manila, he met with top security officials, diplomats and legislators.
Serbia urges EU to rule on Montenegro independence vote
Agence France Presse, 2/3/06
Serbia's prime minister on Friday urged the European Union to make a clear stand on conditions for union partner Montenegro's planned independence referendum.
Vojislav Kostunica said the 25-nation bloc should come to a conclusion about rules on participation levels for the vote, which the Montenegrin government hopes to hold in April this year."It's up to the European Union to say now and in advance ... that the necessary and natural majority in the referendum on Montenegro's independence can only be an absolute majority, namely at least 50 percent of registered voters," the Serbian leader said in a statement received here.
The EU stance on the matter would make it possible "to draw aside all misunderstandings and controversies" concerning the vote, which is the subject of talks between Montenegro's government and opposition.
Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic hopes to lead his people to independence from the tiny Balkan state's loose union with Serbia in the referendum, while local opposition parties are opposed to breaking away.
"It is essential that the EU shows that the European countries cannot be dissolved so easily and certainly not by means of a relative majority," said Kostunica, a moderate nationalist Serbian leader.
His statement was issued a few days ahead of crucial talks between the government and opposition on holding the referendum in a process that has been overseen by the European Union.
Kostunica went on to say that defining the necessary majority for the vote was essential in order to "prevent any suspicions about the result".
"In a referendum to decide the destiny of a state, it is necessary and logical that this decision should be voted on by the majority of the voters registered on electoral rolls," said the Serbian PM."Any majority below this figure would be not only unexplainable, but unnatural," he added.
His Montenegrin counterpart Djukanovic has said the bid for independence was motivated by a desire for the tiny state of 650,000 inhabitants not to be dominated by Serbia, which has a population of more than eight million people.
In November last year the European Union invited Montenegro to organise its independence referendum according to "international standards".
Del Ponte warns Belgrade over hunt for Mladic
Agence France Presse, 2/6/06
Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte warned Belgrade here on Monday that she needs "concrete results" in the hunt for fugitive former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic.
The visit to Belgrade came after Del Ponte and the United States turned up the heat on Serbia-Montenegro to capture Mladic, wanted for crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, and hand him over to The Hague-based court.
"I had lots of meetings here to see what is being done to obtain full cooperation," which was currently insufficient, said Del Ponte adding, "I hope that the authorities will do more. I must say that I received (guarantees) from the authorities that I met today that the cooperation will be implemented," she told journalists after meeting with leaders of the loose Balkan federation.I hope it will be done, but I need concrete results. Implementation is not enough if concrete results are not (delivered)," she said.
Del Ponte earlier held talks with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Serbia-Montenegro Defence Minister Zoran Stankovic and Human Rights Minister Rasim Ljajic, who heads the National Council for Cooperation with the UN tribunal.
The main point of her visit was believed to be talks on increasing cooperation to track down Mladic, his wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and the four other ethnic Serb war crimes fugitives, said local reports.
They were expected to talk about the possibility of applying the model of cooperation that led to the arrest in December of one of the top three most wanted war crimes suspects from the Balkans conflicts of the 1990s, former Croatian general Ante Gotovina.
This included creating a team to coordinate the hunt for Mladic, Serbia's chief war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic indicated in the Blic daily.
The UN prosecutor, who announced Gotovina's arrest on her last visit to Belgrade, recently demanded that the European Union halt initial talks on closer ties with Serbia unless Belgrade located and gave up Mladic, who she has always insisted is being sheltered by elements of the Serbian army.Serbia-Montenegro's top military body, the Supreme Defence Council, revealed last week that army officers helped to hide Mladic until June 2002, in the first such admission by authorities in the two Balkan states.
The United States responded by saying the admission was long overdue but that it remained "disappointed" about the lack of progress on the apprehension of Mladic despite assurances from Serbia-Montenegro.
Mladic and Karadzic were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia more than 10 years ago.
They face charges relating to an estimated 18,000 deaths from the 43-month Sarajevo siege and the Srebrenica massacre of Muslim males at the end of Bosnia's war.
Del Ponte is due to visit Sarajevo on Tuesday, where she will meet with the new top international envoy in Bosnia, German diplomat Christian Schwarz-Schilling, before traveling to Rome for talks with Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
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Darfur rebels accuse Sudan of destabilising Chad with incursions
Deutche Presse-Agentur, 2/6/06
A member of Darfur's largest rebel movement said Monday that a recent report by a US-based human rights group has accurately portrayed the deteriorating security situation in Sudan's western Darfur region and neighbouring Chad.
Human Rights Watch released a report Sunday saying the Darfur conflict is spilling over the Sudan border into Chad threatening the lives of civilians.
The report accused Darfur-based militias of launching consistent attacks on Chadian villages, with the help of Sudanese government helicopter gunships.
"Destabilization of Darfur means destabilization of Chad," said Izzedin Abdul, co-founder of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) office in Khartoum. "The next step is for the United Nations to send troops to Darfur. Otherwise people will die," he added.
The report painted a bleak picture of deteriorating security in the region."You may have thought the terrible situation in Darfur couldn't get worse but it has," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director for Human Rights Watch, in the report.
The report called for an expanded international force to be extended along the Chadian border.
Chad and Sudan have been at odds since December, when Chadian rebels launched an attack on the border town of Adre from Sudanese territory. Chadian President Idriss Deby accused Sudan of arming and harboring rebels.
African Union special envoy to Sudan, Baba Ghana Kingibe told reporters last week in Khartoum that there was no evidence to support Deby's claims and blamed most of the recent fighting on the SLA prompting rebel fury."The AU is good for nothing. They are eating and driving in big cars," said Abdul, SLA co-founder."If Chadians run away from the war and come to Darfur, we will have to protect them," added Abdul.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
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