Neighbours Armenia, Azerbaijan trade accusations
Agence France Presse, 3/7/06

Azerbaijan accused neighbouring Armenia Tuesday of breaching a ceasefire in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and causing the death of an Azeri soldier, in the latest round of feuding between the rivals.

Armenia quickly denied the charge and responded with counter-accusations that Azeri troops had killed an Armenian soldier last week. The Azeri defence ministry said Armenian soldiers had opened fire early Tuesday. A second soldier was said to be seriously wounded.

Nagorno-Karabakh, the focus the dispute, is a largely Armenian populated enclave on Azeri territory. When the two former Soviet republics became independent, they fought a war over the region that claimed around 25,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands. It ended in a tense ceasefire in 1994 with Armenian forces in control of most of the enclave and seven surrounding Azerbaijani regions, but Karabakh's status remains unresolved.

The Armenian side quickly denied Tuesday's accusation."The information from Azerbaijan about the death of a soldier does not correspond to the facts," a spokesman for the defence force in Karabakh told AFP. "We are also tired of Armenia's periodic violations of the ceasefire."

The Armenian defence ministry in Yerevan had previously issued a statement saying Azeri forces had opened fire on March 3 in the direction of northern Armenia causing head wounds to a 19 year-old soldier who had later died in hospital. The Armenian ministry claimed Azerbaijan had violated the ceasefire on March 4,5,6 and 7.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said last week talks on Nagorno Karabakh enclave were at a dead end and signalled that his country should prepare for renewed war with Armenia."The Armenian side is stalling for time and the fact that the negotiating process has reached a dead end is the fault of the Armenian side," Aliyev said. "We are the victimized party and this gives us the right to resolve the issue by any means. We must get ready and the population must be mobilized," Aliyev said.

DR Congo women should go into politics: UN envoy
Agence France Presse, 3/8/06

The head of UN peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday urged women to run for office ahead of the first polls planned as free elections in over 40 years.

"The future of the country is in your hands," the peacekeeping chief, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said during an address in a Kinshasa stadium aimed at persuading women to present candidates to stand in the polls. "You have an important role in changing things.... The United Nations will always be there to help and ease the way to full participation of women in elections," Guehenno said in his International Women's Day speech to about 1,000 women gathered in the Martyrs' Stadium. The DRC, formerly Zaire, has not known duly elected political institutions since independence from Belgium in 1961.

Guehenno told a news briefing that he had "discussed the electoral law with the head of state (President Joseph Kabila) who has assured me it will very soon be promulgated. This means an electoral timetable can be drawn up."

The current interim parliament of the country, where Kabila has overseen a postwar political transition since 2003 to restore democracy, passed the new law on February 21, but then a number of parties concerned lodged complaints that required judicial consideration.

Asked about the June 30 deadline by which the electoral process should be complete under a series of peace and political accords underwritten by the United Nations, Guehenno urged that the process be speeded up but stressed the most important thing was holding credible and valid polls "in good conditions".

At present, the DRC's independent electoral commission has set June 18 as the date for a first round of presidential elections contingent on the swift promulgation of the electoral code.

The UN official congratulated women on the effort they had made to persuade participants in the rival sides to the 1998-2003 civil war, each backed by foreign armies, to come to the peace table. "You paid a high price, and you kept your families safe," Guehenno said, adding that he especially deplored the ongoing practice of rape and mutilation carried out against thousands of women by men in different armed militias still at large in the east of the country. The United Nations will do all in its power to stamp out these abominable crimes and fight impunity, ensuring that all those who commit them are brought to justice," he told the crowd, which also included government officials and members of political parties.

On Monday, the head of the UN's refugee organisation, Antonio Guterres, said poorly paid soldiers in the regular DRC army were part of the problem, on his return to Geneva from a trip to the region with two other relief agency chiefs. "What we see in DRC at the moment is that the armed forces are a major part of the problem with insecurity," thought to be responsible for many of the estimated 25,000 rapes last year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.

He added donor nations should ensure the army is "paid, well nourished, disciplined, to make sure that they don't try to solve their own problems looting populations and massively violating rights, especially the rights of women and children."

The UN mission in the DRC is the biggest in the world at more than 17,500 military, police and civilian staff deployed in the years since the end of a conflict that embroiled the armies of more than half a dozen African nations. The UN Security Council has extended its mandate and the electoral period to a maximum to ensure peace and democracy in the vast, mineral-rich but war-devastated central African nation.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.

Ivory Coast's Gbagbo tells French daily he's hopeful about fall elections
Associated Press, 3/8/06

Ivory Coast's president said in a published interview that he is hopeful that elections in his war-divided country can take place in October or possibly sooner.

"I will do everything I can so that elections take place," Laurent Gbagbo was quoted as saying in an interview to be published Thursday in French daily Le Figaro. An early copy was provided to The Associated Press. Peace talks to end the crisis in Ivory Coast began Tuesday in an effort to boost a stalled peace process and put the country on the road toward elections due to be held by October 2006. "We are going to hold positive talks," Gbagbo said.

Gbagbo said he was "optimistic" that the election date would be met, adding: "I would even agree that we go for elections before that date." Gbagbo canceled elections scheduled last October, blaming rebel forces for failing to disarm. Both sides, including government militia, have repeatedly failed to lay down arms despite agreeing to a U.N.-backed nationwide disarmament plan.

Tens of thousands of U.N. and French peacekeepers are providing security in Ivory Coast and attempting to move the country toward an elusive peace foreseen under several accords. Gbagbo supporters in southern Ivory Coast deeply distrust the roughly 4,000 French forces, and accuse France of backing the rebellion and stopping loyalists from regaining control of rebel-held territory. France denies the accusations and says it troops deployed here are neutral, and only trying to separate the warring parties.

Gbagbo said French-Ivorian ties must change, adding that French forces in the country "have become some of the least popular in Ivory Coast." "The French must be committed to the side of Ivory Coast against the aggressors, who come from Burkina Faso and Liberia," he was quoted as saying. "We have to keep the cooperation, but renew it."

U.S. president says Kashmir dispute best settled by India and Pakistan
Associated Press, 3/4/06

U.S. President George W. Bush said Saturday that the best way to resolve the territorial dispute over Kashmir would be for the leaders of Pakistan and India to negotiate a settlement over the future of the Himalayan region.

Pakistan has been encouraging more U.S. involvement in the issue of Kashmir, which has sparked two wars between Pakistan and India, which both claim the divided region in full. But at a news conference Saturday, Bush gave no indication that Washington was ready to be more involved in ending the bitter dispute. He said it would be better if Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh brokered a deal.

"The best way for Kashmir to be resolved is for the leaders of both countries to step up and lead, and that's exactly what President Musharraf has done, and that's what Prime Minister Singh has assured me he wants to do," Bush said.

The Pakistani leader, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has been dealing with the issue longer than Singh, who took office in May 2004. Musharraf has proposed some power-sharing proposals for Kashmir that have elicited little response from India. Formal talks have also yielded little progress.

Bush said confidence-building measures are needed, and Pakistan and India have recently been doing things that help cooperation. He said such measures include increasing trade and transportation links. "The role of the United States is to continue to encourage the parties to come together," Bush said.

Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.

Ex-guerrilla commander elected Kosovo PM
Agence France Presse, 3/10/06

Kosovo's parliament on Friday elected Agim Ceku, a former guerrilla commander whom Serbia accuses of war crimes, as the province's prime minister.

Parliamentary deputies in the 120-seat assembly endorsed Ceku's candidacy and his new government by 65 votes for, while 33 were against the decision. Five deputies abstained. "The parliament of Kosovo, with 65 votes, elected Agim Ceku as new prime minister of Kosovo," parliament speaker Kole Berisha said at the session.

Ceku, who led ethnic Albanian rebels against Serbian forces during Kosovo's 1998-1999 war, was nominated prime minister last week after Bajram Kosumi was forced into resigning by his own party. The 45-year-old's appointment comes a week before the resumption of UN-backed talks to determine the future status of the province, whose ethnic Albanian majority is seeking independence from Serbia against strong opposition from Belgrade and Kosovo's Serb minority. His nomination had received the backing of local Albanian leaders and senior international representatives including Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of the UN mission that has run Kosovo since the war.

Kosovo was put under UN administration in mid-1999 after a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces loyal to then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic that were cracking down on the Albanian rebels. The international community has insisted Kosovo's political changes were an internal matter, but Ceku won the key support of Western diplomats because they believe he is the man that can best push through democratic reforms in the province.

Ceku has supervised the demilitarisation of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas he once headed and its transformation into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), becoming its commander and opening the door for Serbs to join the force. But Ceku's confirmation as Kosovo prime minister on Friday is likely to further upset Belgrade, after his formal nomination by Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdu on March 2 prompted an angry statement from the Serbian government.

Speaking in Salzburg, Austria, on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers the bloc's foreign policy chief Javier Solana called on the new Kosovo leader to reach out to Belgrade. "He's not the most appreciated man in Belgrade. Therefore he will have to make an effort to reach out. If he's not willing to do that in a very very determined manner he will have some problems," he said. In a statement, Solana added that Ceku's new government "assumes responsibility at a crucial moment for Kosovo."

In last week's statement, Serbia said it was "deeply concerned" about Ceku's nomination, and urged UN representative Petersen to use his wide powers to prevent him from becoming prime minister. Belgrade, which had already indicted Ceku for war crimes in 2002, said its justice authorities had launched a new investigation against him for alleged atrocities committed during Kosovo's war.

The parliamentary session was convened a day after Ceku completed consultations on the makeup of his cabinet. The vote had been expected to be a formality because Ceku has won the backing of Kosovo's ruling coalition parties, which have a comfortable majority of 66 votes in the 120-seat parliament.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in Salzburg that Kosovo's movement towards independence is "almost inevitable," and said Serbia may have to accept that reality. "We know about concerns by the Serbian government against possible independence," he said. "But there is a reality which I'm afraid the Serbian population in the end may well have to accept which is that a big majority of people in Kosovo are likely to be in support of independence."

Liberia and Nigeria in talks on Taylor: minister
Agence France Presse, 3/8/06

Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria have discussed the fate of exiled former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, a Nigerian minister said Wednesday.

"The government of Liberia and the government of Nigeria are working jointly to arrive at a decision on the Charles Taylor issue," Information Minister Frank Nweke said, refusing to elaborate. Previously, Nigeria had maintained Taylor's asylum had not been discussed at Saturday's breakfast meeting between Sirleaf and Obasanjo, and Nweke's statement will feed rumours that the former warlord might be extradited. The former Liberian president and warlord has lived in exile in southeastern Nigeria since August 2003, when he left office and fled his besieged capital Monrovia, despite demands that he face war crimes charges in Sierra Leone.

Obasanjo's government has always maintained it would only hand over its guest to Liberia following a formal request from a Liberian government.

Sirleaf has in the past said that Taylor's fate was not a priority for her post-war administration, but both Liberia and Nigeria are under international pressure to ensure he faces justice. The Liberian leader was in Abuja on Friday and Saturday for talks with Obasanjo, but at the time a Nigerian spokeswoman insisted that Taylor was not on the agenda. Nweke, however, confirmed that the issue had indeed come up.

International prosecutors at the UN-backed special tribunal in Liberia's neighbour Sierra Leone want to charge Taylor with crimes against humanity for his part in supporting a brutal rebel movement there in the 1990s. Taylor, a Libyan-trained guerrilla leader who fought his way to power then intimidated voters into endorsing his rule, fled Monrovia in 2003 after rebel movements surrounded the capital. Obasanjo agreed to give him asylum in return for him leaving Liberia peacefully and allowing the start of a UN-backed peace process which eventually led to Sirleaf's election as Africa's first female president.

Breakaway Transdniestr pulls out of peace talks with Moldova
Agence France Presse, 3/7/06

The separatist province of Transdniestr Tuesday pulled out of internationally mediated peace talks with Moldova, after neighboring Ukraine instituted new customs regulations that the unrecognized statelet denounced as an "economic blockade".

"Under these conditions, the negotiations are cancelled," Igor Smirnov, head of the predominantly Russian-speaking province, was quoted by the local Olvia Press news agency as saying.
The move came after Ukraine, which shares a 460-kilometre (285-mile) border with Transdniestr, began requiring last week that all commercial traffic from the separatist province have a stamp from Moldovan customs in order to cross the border.

Separatist authorities say the move hands control over the province's exports to Moldova -- a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania. Transdniestr, which exports metals, electronic goods and textiles, broke off from Moldova after a brief war that killed hundreds of people in 1992. Russian troops now patrol a buffer zone.
Peace talks have been ongoing since 1993 and now involve the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Moldova, Transdniestr, Russia and Ukraine, as well as observers from the European Union and the United States.

"It's hard to expect successful negotiations when Ukraine -- one of the mediators and guarantors -- is openly siding with Moldova," Smirnov said. After talking with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on the telephone, Smirnov suggested that the Ukrainian leader was "unsufficiently informed of what is really happening" and said that a Ukrainian government commission would come to Tiraspol "shortly," the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Ukraine said the new regulations were aimed at legalizing exports from Transdniestr, which houses a Russian military base and is a notorious smuggling route, and urged Transdniestr against pulling out of the international peace talks. "The goal of the new customs rules... is to normalize international trade and integrate Transdniestr business into a legal structure," said a Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman in Kiev. "We hope that our decision will speed up finding a constructive decision acceptable to both sides" of the dispute, he said. "Stopping the negotiating process is a road to nowhere."

Yushchenko and Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin late Tuesday pledged to bring the process of legalization of Transdniestr's economy to completion in telephone talks, Voronin's press service said, as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

Last week, the OSCE announced that talks had been suspended until further notice and a high-level Russian delegation arrived in Transdniestr on Tuesday to monitor the situation.

"I do not exclude that the current crisis could make it very difficult for everyone to return to the negotiating table," said Valery Nesterukhin, Russia's special envoy to Transdniestr.

The new customs rules have caused massive traffic jams at Transdniestr's main transit points with Ukraine. Separatist authorities say 90 percent of transit is blocked and movement across the border will be entirely stopped within three days. The European Union is keen to see the dispute between Moldova and Transdniestr resolved, as Romania's accession to the bloc, scheduled for 2007, would bring the simmering separatist conflict to its borders.

Polisario destroys mines in W Sahara as "peace move"
Agence France Presse, 3/3/06

The Polisario Front has begun destroying the more than eight million landmines in the Western Sahara as a peace move to end a 31-year conflict between the territory's independence movement and Moroccan forces, the Front's ambassador in Algiers said on Friday.

"The destruction of these mines is a peace message. This initiative shows Polisario's willingness to go all out to find a peaceful solution," ambassador Mohamed Beissat told AFP. Polisario destroyed some 6,000 mines before international delegations on Monday on the margins of festivities in Tfaritiy to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Beissat said. The devices were among the more than eight million mines that Polisario estimates were buried by Morocco along the 2,000-kilometre (1,250-mile) defensive wall it erected in the 1980s on the northern boundary of the Western Sahara to prevent armed attacks by the Front.

Polisario announced the creation of the SADR on February 27, 1976, a year after Morocco annexed the phosphate-rich region when it was abandoned by Spain. The Front's guerrilla war against Rabat's forces ended with a UN-sponsored ceasefire in 1991 that was supposed to be followed by a referendum on self-determination. That referendum has never taken place so the post-colonial legal status of the 266,000 square kilometres (90,000 square miles) of desert flatlands on Africa's northwestern coast remains unresolved. Tfaritiy is in what Polisario calls the "liberated territories" of the Western Sahara and Morocco terms the "buffer zone". It is located between the border with Algeria and the defensive wall built by the Moroccans.

Monday's mine destruction ceremony took place in the presence of delegations from the United Nations and the governments of eight African and Latin American nations, Beissat said.

It was also attended by the head of Geneva Call, a humanitarian organisation that encourages non-state parties, whose status prevents them signing the international Ottawa Convention banning landmines, to proceed with a ban of their own.

Morocco has not signed the Ottawa Convention and has refused to join the pan-continental African Union because it recognises the SADR, as do around 70 governments across the world. At least 40 Saharwis have been killed by Moroccan landmines in the last five years, according to Polisario.

Nepal parties urge Maoists to call off strike and shun violence
Agence France Presse, 3/6/06

Opposition parties in Nepal Monday announced a new protest programme against the royal government and urged rebel Maoists to call off a planned blockade and general strike and to shun violence.

King Gyanendra plunged Nepal deeper into crisis just over a year ago when he sacked the government and took direct control, claiming that politicians had failed to tackle a deadly decade-long Maoist insurgency and were corrupt. "To intensify our peaceful joint movement against the autocratic regime, active protest programmes will be held in the capital from April 8," said a statement by the leaders of the seven-party alliance after a meeting.

The Maoist rebels have announced plans for a one-week blockade of the capital and other major cities from March 14 and have called for an indefinite general strike from April 3.

"...taking into account the planned seven-party demonstrations, and the hardship caused to the general public, we appeal to the Maoists to call off their general strike and blockade," the statement said. Details of the protest programme would be released soon, it said. The opposition parties and Maoists entered a loose alliance last November and signed a 12-point understanding which the parties urged the Maoists to respect. "We have found that the Maoists have not fully implemented the understanding in actions as they are continuing killings, abductions, extortion and forced recruitment in various parts of the country. We want to draw serious concern of the Maoists to shun such acts," the statement said.

Since the rebels ended their four-month unilateral ceasefire in early January, at least 200 people have been killed. Gyanendra had called on political parties to enter dialogue with the royal government but this call was rejected by the leaders of the alliance. "We are aware that the king's call for dialogue...and his recent political consultations were a ploy to freeze the pace of the movement," said the statement, signed by leaders of seven opposition parties.

Local media has reported recently that King Gyanendra has been meeting pro-royalist politicians in the tourist town of Pokhara. The last time opposition parties tried to organize mass protests against a controversial local election held on February 8, the royal regime detained hundreds of activists, banned demonstrations, cut mobile telephones and placed senior political leaders under house arrest. The crackdown brought strong international criticism for Gyanendra. Since 1996, Nepal's Maoists have been fighting to establish a communist republic. At least 12,500 people have been killed and between 100,000 and 200,000 have been displaced.

Serbia challenges U.N. court's right to try it for genocide
Associated Press, 3/8/06

Serbia on Wednesday challenged the right of the U.N.'s highest court to hear a suit by Bosnia accusing the former Yugoslav republic of genocide, in the first case of a country standing trial for humanity's worst crime.

Opening their defense, lawyers for Serbia-Montenegro, the successor state for the defunct Yugoslavia, also argued to the International Court of Justice that the Balkan wars were waged by ethnic groups Serbs, Muslims and Croats not countries. "This dispute is between two sovereign states, neither of which existed when the conflict began," Tibor Varady said. "It was an ethnic conflict, and the dividing lines between the warring parties were ethnic lines" that did not coincide with the states carved in the aftermath, he said.

Bosnia-Herzegovina is seeking a precedent-setting decision from the 16 justices that would hold a state Serbia responsible for genocide for the first time, rather than individuals. Bosnia concluded 10 days of arguments on Tuesday, and Serbia will now have equal time to respond. A ruling in Bosnia's favor could open the way for claims of billions of dollars in compensation. Croatia has a similar case pending before the U.N. tribunal, also known as the world court.

Serbia tried to distance itself from the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, which orchestrated the wars in the early 1990s that killed an estimated 200,000 people. Milosevic was ousted in 2000 and extradited to the U.N. war crimes tribunal, a separate court that also sits in The Hague. His trial for genocide and other war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo has gone on for four years.

"I find myself in a paradox. I must defend a regime to which I was opposed," said Radoslav Stojanovic, the head of the legal team, repeatedly referring to his country as "democratic Serbia." Stojanovic said the court, which adjudicates disputes between U.N. member states, is not empowered to hear Bosnia's suit because Serbia was not a U.N. member at the time.

The United Nations suspended Yugoslavia in 1992, and Serbia-Montenegro regained entry in 2001. Bosnia submitted its suit to the world court in 1993. In a preliminary ruling three years later, the court struck down Serbia's challenge to its jurisdiction, but said Belgrade could raise the issue again at a later date.

Stojanovic urged the parties to abandon the legal proceedings and seek a "diplomatic solution," arguing that any ruling by the court would inflame tensions. "I fear this will result in an increase of political extremism," no matter what the court decides, he said.

Varady told the judges in the century-old Peace Palace that the case brought by the government in Sarajevo did not represent all of Bosnia, which comprises a Muslim-Croat federation and an autonomous Serbian Republic. The Serbian Republic opposes the suit. Serbia's lawyers also began chipping away at many of Bosnia's allegations of mass murders, calling them exaggerations and reports based on unreliable witnesses, although they acknowledged that crimes were committed.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia already has ruled that genocide occurred in Bosnia. Two army officers have been convicted of complicity in genocide for the massacre of 8,000 Muslims at the U.N.-declared safe zone at Srebrenica in July 1995. The world court, however, is not bound by the rulings of other courts and must decide the genocide issues for itself.

Summing up Bosnia's case on Tuesday, Thomas Franck told the court his country was not seeking collective punishment for the people of Serbia. But "when the state commits a great evil, it cannot be allowed to escape responsibility by the punishment of a few leaders," he said.

Serbia-Montenegro relations must remain 'special,' Serbian president says
Associated Press, 3/9/06

Relations between Serbia and Montenegro must remain "special" regardless of the outcome of an upcoming referendum on Montenegro's independence from the union of the two ex-Yugoslav republics, Serbia-Montenegro's president said Thursday.

Svetozar Marovic also said he believes the two republics would retain "mutual and common functions" even if Montenegro decided to break its union with its much larger partner. Montenegro, an Adriatic republic of 600,000 people, remains split over possible independence. The question in the May 21 referendum will read: "Do you want Montenegro to be an independent state with full international recognition?"

"The relations between Serbia and Montenegro must remain special regardless of the outcome," Marovic said after meeting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "Serbia and Montenegro must remain friends connected in their mutual efforts toward the stability of the region." Marovic said negotiations on the future set up should start immediately after the referendum.

Serbia and Montenegro were the only two republics that stayed together after the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia. But ties between the two have gradually deteriorated. Montenegro can break its union with Serbia if at least 55 percent of voters who cast ballots opt to make their tiny republic a sovereign state, according to EU guidelines. Montenegro's pro-independence Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic has said he is confident of winning a majority to split his republic from Serbia.

Marovic said 2006 will be a difficult year for Serbia, which faces a freeze of its talks with the EU on future membership, if it does not hand over war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, by an end-of-March deadline set by the European Union.