PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, March 27, 2006
(Volume V, Number 6)

Burundi's main opposition party pulls out of power-sharing government
Associated Press, 3/26/06

Burundi's main opposition party has suspended its participation in the country's unity government, saying the governing party has refused to give it five Cabinet posts as required under the power-sharing constitution.

The Front for Democracy in Burundi has ordered its three ministers to stop attending Cabinet meetings, its chairman, Leonce Ngendakumana, said Saturday. Ngendakumana said party officials hoping to resolve the dispute with President Pierre Nkurunziza have been refused access to him. The opposition is also unhappy that the ruling party has removed several of its leaders from key positions following last year's elections, he said. "We will return to the Cabinet only if president agrees to negotiate with us," Ngendakumana said.

Parties that won at least 20 percent of the vote in last year's election were guaranteed at least five seats in the Cabinet under a law meant to help reconcile Burundians after a 12-year civil war. The conflict erupted after paratroopers from the Tutsi ethnic minority assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, from the Hutu majority.

Senior U.N. officials arrived Sunday to work out details on plans to set up a truth and reconciliation commission and a special tribunal in Burundi's judiciary to determine responsibility for crimes under international law and to prosecute the perpetrators. The initiatives will include local and international representatives. U.N. experts want to support Burundi's efforts to set up the "necessary conditions for establishment of transitional justice," said U.N. Under Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicholas Michel.

Amnesty International's U.S. chapter called for members of the justice initiatives to be independent of executive authority and for their mandate to cover abuses committed before independence from Belgium in 1962. "By seeking to establish the truth, and providing justice and reparations to victims of human rights violations, the Burundian authorities can finally start to tackle impunity effectively, engage in a successful reconciliation process and build the foundations for lasting peace," Amnesty said in a statement Saturday.

Chechen strongman defends talks with separatist rebels
Agence France Presse, 3/22/06

Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov defended his policy of negotiating with separatist rebels in his war-torn province in a long interview with the Russian government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily published Wednesday.

"We really have engaged in and are engaging in with talks with those who were or still are in the woods," said Kadyrov, the province's 29-year-old pro-Moscow prime minister. "It's useful and very effective, because it's better to return them to civilian life than to fight," said Kadyrov, seen as a likely choice for president of Chechnya when he reaches the minimum age for the post of 30 later in 2006. In the interview, Kadyrov emphasised his control over the whole of Chechnya and the extent of reconstruction work going on in the province, as well as his close cooperation with Russian federal troops.

Links with separatist rebels are controversial in Russia, which has suffered around 10,000 military casualties as a result of the conflict and where militants are regularly referred to as "terrorists" by the media.

Asked whether cosy arrangements with local separatists meant militant leader Shamil Basayev, who has claimed dozens of deadly attacks against Russian civilian and military targets, was able to remain in hiding, Kadyrov said: "It's not true." "They're not hiding in any woods," he said of Basayev and other separatist leaders, casting doubt on whether the warlord was in Chechnya at all.

Russian forces stormed Chechnya in 1999 after defeat in a 1994-1996 separatist war against the rebel province. A guerrilla war is ongoing, with Russian authorities estimating the number of remaining rebels at several hundreds.

Kadyrov leads up a security force made up of several thousand men, many of them former separatist rebels, that stands accused by human rights groups of widespread abuses against civilians and using torture and kidnapping to bring rebels to heel. Ramzan is a son of Chechnya's late pro-Moscow leader Akhmat Kadyrov, who was assassinated in a bomb attack in Grozny's stadium in May 2004.

UN chief welcomes possible EU support in DR Congo
Agence France Presse, 3/25/06

UN chief Kofi Annan on Saturday welcomed the possibility of EU support for UN work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as landmark elections there loom.

"The secretary general warmly welcomes the decision of the European Union to start planning and preparation for a possible EU support to the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC)," Annan's spokesman said in a statement. "Consultations between representatives from the European Union, the UN and the Congolese authorities are presently under way." Annan "very much appreciates the continuing close cooperation between the United Nations and the European Union in support of peace operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and throughout Africa," the statement added.

In Brussels, the European Union on Thursday approved a military plan to send 1,250 troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help the United Nations provide security for elections starting in June. EU leaders, in conclusions from a two-day summit in Brussels, said the Union plans to send 400 to 450 soldiers to Kinshasa and put a further 800 rapidly deployable troops on standby outside DR Congo. They confirmed that Germany would command the operation, to help with the impoverished central African country's first free elections in four decades, and that its headquarters would be in Potsdam, near Berlin. The EU leaders also gave a green light for plans for police support.

The conclusions did not specify how long the mission would last or when it would begin, but the German defense ministry said Wednesday that it should be in place by May or June, and officials have said it may run for four months. The EU will have to wait for the United Nations, which requested the force late last year, to give it a mandate and for parliaments in those countries taking part to ratify the deployment.

Germany and France are expected to contribute the majority of the troops -- some 500 personnel each -- with Belgium, Poland, Spain and Sweden also playing a significant role. Austria, Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal may also take part.

The polls, the first democratic elections in the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo since it gained independence from Belgium in 1961, are due to start on June 18 with the first round of presidential elections.

Leader of breakaway Georgian region seeks to join Russia
Associated Press, 3/22/06

The leader of Georgia's Moscow-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia said Wednesday that his territory will ask to be recognized as part of Russia.

"We intend to shortly lodge a petition with the Russian Constitutional Court because there are historical documents about Ossetia's status as part of Russia," Eduard Kokoity said in comments shown on Russian state television. Speaking on a visit to North Ossetia, which is a Russian region, he said that Ossetia as a whole had historically been part of Russia since the 18th century.

South Ossetia has run its own affairs since breaking away from Georgian control in an 18-month war that ended in 1992. South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, have close ties with Moscow, which has granted Russian citizenship to many of their residents. Georgia's pro-Western leadership repeatedly has accused Russian peacekeepers, deployed to both provinces since the early 1990s, of siding with separatists, and has vowed to bring the two breakaway regions back under central government control.

Georgy Khaindrava, Georgia's minister for conflict resolution, dismissed the separatist leader's call. "Today is the 21st century, not the 18th. In the world of real politics, there are such concepts as international law and Russian-Georgian relations," he said in televised comments.

UN troops return to Ivory Coast's west after riots
Agence France Presse, 3/23/06

UN peacekeepers have started returning to bases they abandoned in the Ivory Coast's western region after fatal clashes with backers of President Laurent Gbagbo, the UN mission (ONUCI) said Thursday.

"A mixed unit made up of Bangladeshi and Beninese Blue Helmets deployed in Toulepleu last Sunday," ONUCI military spokesman Moroccan Colonel Omar El Khadir told a news conference. Khadir said high-level contacts were going on in preparation for redeployment in other western localities of Duekoue, Bloelequin and Guiglo.

Five people were killed during anti-UN demonstrations by militias claiming loyalty to Gbagbo, when Bangladeshi troops in the volatile area opened fire in self-defence on coming under attack. The UN soldiers then had to pull out under Ivorian army escort. Hundreds of UN civilian staff and aid agencies were also evacuated from the violence-prone part of the divided west African country, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) west of Abidjan and close to the border with Liberia. Some of the relief agency premises in the region were ransacked and razed.

Denis Maho Glofiei, head of the Guiglo-based Front de Liberation du Grand Ouest (FLGO) militias, had on Tuesday demanded official condolences from the UN for the five people killed in January as a precondition for UN's return to the west. The United Nations has some 7,000 troops assisted by some 4,000 French troops to oversee the country's fragile peace process.

Ivory Coast has been divided into two since a September 2002 uprising by the rebel New Forces which not control the north of the country. Under a UN plan, the country is supposed to hold elections before the end of October this year after it has gone through the process of disarming armed groups and undertake a new identification process of the Ivorian population.

President Gbagbo has meantime named a retired police general, Gaston Ouassenan Kone, to coordinate the national disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme (PNDDR). The disarmament process will involve some 42,500 FN rebel combatants, 5,000 regular army troops and 12,000 pro-Gbagbo militias, predominantly found in the west of the country.

Pakistan welcomes new peace initiative by Indian prime minister
Associated Press, 3/27/06

Pakistan on Monday welcomed a recent peace initiative by Indian prime minister, but indicated that a friendship treaty between the archrivals was only possible after the resolution of their dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week offered a "treaty of peace, security and friendship" to Pakistan as a new step in a two-year dialogue aimed at burying a half-century of hostile relations. On Monday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry welcomed Singh's overtures but underlined that the resolution of the Kashmir dispute "would usher in an era of good neighborly relations between the two countries." "That environment would also be conducive to the conclusion of a treaty of friendship," spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a weekly news briefing. Singh, however, said Friday that the two countries should not wait until Kashmir is resolved before normalizing ties.

Pakistan and India each control parts of Kashmir but both claim the region in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two wars in the conflict since their independence from British rule in 1947. In January 2004, leaders of the two countries began a series of negotiations to resolve Kashmir and other issues. The two countries have restored diplomatic ties, restarted severed transportation links, increased trade and eased cross-border travel. But they have made little headway on Kashmir.

Aslam said Kashmir lies "at the heart" of issues between Pakistan and India. She denied news reports that the two countries may be close to an agreement on resolving their dispute over Siachen, a snowbound glacier at the northernmost corner of Kashmir, known as the world's highest battlefield.

Officials from the two countries will hold talks on Siachen in New Delhi in May, Aslam said. Aslam also said Pakistan would only reciprocate India's grant to Pakistan last year of "most favored nation" status after India removed barriers to trade from Pakistan. Her comments came as senior Commerce Ministry officials from the two countries began three days of talks in Islamabad to discuss ways to boost trade.

UN urges West to ignore Serbia's arrest warrant for Kosovo prime minister
Associated Press, 3/22/06

Kosovo's top U.N. official has urged Western powers to ignore an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia against the province's prime minister, in a letter obtained Wednesday.

Soren Jessen-Petersen, the chief U.N. official in charge of running the province, said that his mission did not recognize the validity of the warrant issued in Serbia against Agim Ceku, a former rebel commander who became Kosovo's prime minister earlier this month. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Jessen-Petersen cited the U.N.'s sole legal jurisdiction over Kosovo and said that Serbia's warrants against Ceku and Hashim Thaci, another senior former rebel leader-turned-politican, "breaches this principle."

Ceku and Thaci were both leaders of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, the guerrilla group that fought Serb forces during province's 1998-1999 war. Both are now part of U.N.-sponsored talks to resolve the future status of the disputed province. "Given the need for both Prime Minister Ceku and Hashim Thaci to be able to move freely, including in order to be part of the status process, it is important that the Interpol warrants against them be put aside as soon as possible," Jessen-Petersen said. The circumstances were explained to Interpol, "so far without effect," he said.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since mid-1999, when NATO's air war halted Serb forces crackdown on ethnic Albanian majority, forcing Belgrade to relinquish control over the province.

Serbian authorities have said they are investigating Ceku for war crimes, including genocide, against Serbs. He has not been formally charged, but they have issued an international warrant for his arrest. Ceku denied wrongdoing and has called the charges politically motivated. Both ethnic Albanian leaders have been detained in Slovenia and Hungary based on those warrants and were released only after U.N. officials intervened. The U.N. officials have said they requested the Serbian authorities to withdraw the warrants, but claimed that Serbia did not act on their demand.

Kosovo officials meet in Albania to talk about minority rights package
Associated Press, 3/27/06

Kosovo officials met Monday in Albania to develop a minority rights package ahead of their U.N.-sponsored talks with Serbian officials.

Kosovo's Consultative Group on Communities, made up of ethnic Albanian officials and representatives of minority groups, convened in the port city of Durres, 33 kilometers (20 miles) west of Tirana, the capital. The participants will discuss what to present in the next round of talks on Kosovo, where 90 percent of the population demands full independence from Serbian control. The talks are scheduled to begin on April 3.

Philip Goldberg, the top U.S. diplomat in Kosovo, and a representative of a Germany-based think tank the European Center for Minority Issues were also taking part in the meeting, said a statement from the Ora political party, which coordinated the gathering.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since mid-1999, when a NATO air war halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians and forced Belgrade to relinquish control of the province. Ethnic Albanians, who comprise about 90 percent of the province's population of 2 million, insist on full independence. But Serbia, and Kosovo's Serb minority, say Belgrade must retain some control over the province. The two sides have held two previous rounds of talks that ended without any clear agreement, but pledged to meet again on April 3 to discuss reforms that could give Serbs more of a say in areas where they live.

Nigeria Pressed by U.N. Court To Arrest Liberia's Ex-Leader
The New York Times, 3/27/06

Pressure mounted Sunday on Nigeria to arrest Charles G. Taylor, the former president of Liberia who is under indictment for war crimes in connection with his role in the brutal, decade-long civil war here.

Mr. Taylor apparently remains in Nigeria, where he has been living since 2003, when a deal brokered by Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, sent him into exile. But security around the compound where he is living has been lax, according to local news reports and Human Rights Watch, leading to fears that Mr. Taylor may try to flee.

Desmond de Silva, the chief prosecutor of the United Nations special court set up to try those accused of atrocities in Sierra Leone's civil war, which ended in 2002, called upon Nigeria to arrest Mr. Taylor immediately. ''Until the indicted war criminal Charles Taylor is in the hands of Liberian authorities, to whom Nigeria is making Taylor available for collection, the spotlight of the international community will be upon Nigeria,'' Mr. de Silva said Sunday in a statement. ''In particular, the watching world will wish to see Taylor held in Nigerian detention to avoid the possibility of him using his wealth and associates to slip away, with grave consequences to the stability of the region,'' he said.

If Mr. Taylor is brought to Sierra Leone, he will be the first African head of state to face international prosecution for war crimes, a precedent that will surely resonate on a continent where a fraternity of presidents has traditionally protected its own, no matter how grave their alleged crimes, with comfortable exile rather than the jail cell that awaits Mr. Taylor here.

Mr. Taylor had been living in a seaside villa in Calabar, a resort town on the eastern edge of Nigeria's coastline, with dozens of relatives and close associates -- an exile supplemented by money he is suspected of having stolen from the Liberian treasury while he ruled the country, from 1997 until his ouster in 2003. That wealth, with his long history of wiggling out of seemingly impossible jams, only increases the need to secure his arrest immediately, said Corinne Dufka, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Dakar, Senegal. ''There is an international arrest warrant for Taylor, so we are asking Nigeria to honor the arrest warrant,'' Ms. Dufka said.

In 1985, Mr. Taylor escaped a Massachusetts jail, where he was awaiting extradition on charges he embezzled at least $1 million from the Liberian government. The circumstances of his escape have never been fully explained. Backed by Libya and other regional powers, Mr. Taylor unleashed a cycle of civil war in Liberia and its neighbors during the 1990's. He was indicted by the court in Sierra Leone in 2003 on 17 charges in connection with his role in this country's war, which killed 50,000 people, displaced millions and left thousands maimed.

Nigeria has been under pressure, particularly from the United States, to turn Mr. Taylor over to Liberia. Although he is not under indictment in that country, the United Nations has authorized his transfer to Sierra Leone. Mr. Obasanjo had said he would comply only with a request from an elected Liberian government. During a visit to the United States this month, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's newly elected president, requested that Mr. Taylor be turned over, and on Saturday, Nigeria's government indicated that it would comply. Mr. Obasanjo is due to visit the United States this week.

Nigeria rebuffs call to detain Taylor, says: 'Our job is done'
Agence France Presse, 3/27/06

Nigeria on Monday dismissed calls from war crimes prosecutors for it to detain the exiled former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, saying he was free to leave if he wished.

President Olusegun Obasanjo's spokeswoman Remi Oyo told reporters that Nigeria had not received any formal request for Taylor to be detained, and added: "Taylor is not a prisoner here." On Saturday, Nigeria announced that Liberia was "free to take former president Charles Taylor into custody". But Oyo said Nigeria was unaware of calls from human rights groups and prosecutors at the UN-backed special court in Sierra Leone for Nigeria to step up security around Taylor's luxury villa or to detain him and send him home.

Oyo said Obasanjo had told Liberia's President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, who last week called for Taylor's return, that "our job is done, and it is done." Of the prosecutors' demand for Taylor's arrest, she said: "We read of the request in the pages of newspapers, it hasn't arrived here."

In August 2003, Obasanjo invited Taylor to step down as president of Liberia and accept exile in Nigeria in order to allow a 14-year-old civil war to come to and end and enable a UN-backed peace process to begin. Since then, however, he has come under increasing pressure to send Taylor to Liberia's neighbour Sierra Leone, where he stands accused of sponsoring a bloody series of human rights abuses by a brutal rebel army.

On Saturday, Obasanjo said he would honour a request from Taylor's elected successor Sirleaf to suspend the asylum deal, but he has not offered Liberia any assistance in taking its former leader into custody. Meanwhile, officials close to Taylor say he has remained in his luxury villa in the southeastern Nigerian city of Calabar.

NATO Secretary General stresses importance of fair elections for Macedonia
Associated Press, 3/22/06

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told Macedonia on Thursday that elections this year will be crucial to the Balkan nation's hopes of joining the Western military alliance.

He told Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski the elections should be "110 percent" free and fair. "These upcoming elections are a very important and never-to-be-underestimated litmus test," de Hoop Scheffer told reporters. Macedonia, Croatia and Albania are hoping for early invitations to join NATO. The alliance has refused to set a date, but says its expansion will be a key feature of a summit scheduled for 2008. De Hoop Scheffer praised reforms undertaken by the Macedonian government to prepare for membership.

After pulling back from the brink of civil war in 2001, Buckovski said Macedonia has become an example of stability in the Balkans. He said his country would seek good relations with Kosovo and Montenegro should they achieve independence from Serbia.

Moldovan foreign minister criticizes Russian ambassador for comments about separatists
Associated Press, 3/23/06

Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan on Thursday criticized Russia's ambassador to Moldova for "offensive" comments about a pro-Russian separatist republic in eastern Moldova.

Stratan was referring to remarks made Monday by Russian Ambassador Nikolai Reabov, who said that new customs rules adopted by Ukraine on its border with the separatist province of Trans-Dniester could destabilize the region. Reabov also said that Moldova was responsible for the Trans-Dniester conflict, and blamed Moldova for stalling talks to find a settlement. He said Russia would work to find a peaceful solution in Trans-Dniester. Stratan called the Russian ambassador's comments "unacceptable" in an interview with Moldovan public radio. "This is not the only time that the ambassador of Russia has said things which are not real and are offensive to Moldova," he said.

Moldova's relations with Russia have worsened in recent years, mainly because of Russia's support for Trans-Dniester. Ukraine began to implement new customs regulations on March 3 with Moldova, under which all exports from Trans-Dniester must be certified by Moldovan authorities.

Russia, which has 1,500 troops in the region, has protested the measures, which are aimed at curbing rampant smuggling. The European Union has endorsed the new customs rules and dispatched dozens of observers to monitor the border. While Russia does not officially recognize Trans-Dniester's independence, it has provided support for the separatists, claiming the need to protect Russian interests in the region. Trans-Dniester broke away after a short war in 1992, which left over 1,500 people dead. Russia, which had tens of thousands of troops in Trans-Dniester at the time, was blamed for supporting the rebels during the war.

Stratan wrote to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to complain about Reabov and to call for an explanation.

President Tadic says Serbia doing all it can to capture war crimes fugitive Mladic
Associated Press, 3/27/06

Serbian President Boris Tadic said Monday that Serbia is doing everything in its power to capture top war crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic ahead of a deadline imposed by the European Union.

The EU has given Belgrade until the end of March to find Mladic and hand him over to a U.N. war crimes tribunal or face a suspension of talks, set for April 5, on building closer ties with the bloc. "We are receiving so many messages from the European Union that we have to solve this problem by April 5 and we are doing everything in our power to solve this problem," Tadic told reporters during a visit to Sweden. "We have to finalize this process of collaboration with the EU and there is no doubt about it that we have to solve the Mladic problem," he said.

The Bosnian Serb wartime commander is sought on genocide and war crimes charges by the U.N. Tribunal at the Hague. Mladic, along with Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, was indicted for genocide in the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Bosnia Europe's worst carnage since World War II.

Tadic also said that he will not interfere in an upcoming referendum on Montenegro's independence from the union of the two ex-Yugoslav republics and that he will respect the outcome. "At the same time, I say that I am for a state union between Serbia and Montenegro, because this is a more functional way toward integration into the European Union," he said. Sweden's Prime Minister Goran Persson said the two leaders also agreed to continue economic cooperation "because there are extremely promising conditions for Serbia to grow economically in the coming years."

Tadic was accompanied by a trade delegation representing 26 Serbian companies, which will take part in a business seminar on Tuesday. Tadic was also to meet with Development Aid Minister Carin Jamtin, Trade Minister Thomas Ostros, Defense Minister Leni Bjorklund and King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Calm returns in Somali capital after days of clashes
Agence France Presse, 3/26/06

Calm has returned to Mogadishu after four days of factional fighting engulfed the northern part of the lawless capital of Somalia, claiming 52 lives and wounding hundreds, religious leaders and residents said Sunday.

The Karan district north of the capital, where rival gunmen had been engaged in heavy fighting since Wednesday, remained peaceful as elders held talks with the feuding sides in a bid to reach a ceasefire, they said. "Today there is calm and both sides are willing to cooperate in achieving a ceasefire," said a cleric, who was part of the truce talks in a religious centre. Residents said there was no gunfire in the strife-torn district while doctors in Mogadishu's main hospitals reported no casualties on Sunday.

The fighting erupted when militia leader Abukar Omar Adan attempted to grab a piece of land attached to the Aisaley airport north of the capital which is controlled by rival warlord Bashir Raghe Shirar. Adan is allied to the Islamic courts of Mogadishu, which control pockets of the lawless capital, while Shirar is a co-founder of the newly formed Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) which is opposed to the growing influence of the Islamic courts. Seizing control of the disputed piece of land would give Adan control of the roads leading to Elmaan, which became the country's busiest port after the closure of Mogadishu's main port in 1995 over a dispute among warlords.

Last month, at least 33 people were killed, hundreds wounded and thousands displaced when similar groups clashed in southern Mogadishu. Somalia has been wracked by internecine fighting since the ousting of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the country into lawlessness, with warlords and rival militias fighting for control of unruly fiefdoms.

Sri Lanka government says peace talks to go ahead despite Tamil rebel concerns
Associated Press, 3/23/06

The Sri Lankan government reaffirmed its commitment to the peace process Thursday after the Tamil Tiger rebels suggested the government was not fulfilling its obligations agreed at the last round of talks. The two sides were scheduled to meet for a second round April 19-21 in Geneva, Switzerland.

"As far as we are concerned, we are committed ... and (the talks) will go ahead as planned," government spokesman Anura Yapa told reporters in the capital Colombo. At the first round of talks in February, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam demanded that the government disarm paramilitary groups opposed to the guerrillas, in particular a renegade faction that broke away from the LTTE mainstream in 2004 who they claim are supported by government forces. "Instead of taking measures to wipe out terrorism perpetrated by the paramilitaries working with the military ... the government is seemingly engaged in a process of retarding the entire process," the rebels' political chief S.P. Thamilselvan said in a statement.

Separately, unidentified gunmen killed a prominent Tamil businessman and one of his staff members late Wednesday near the town of Vavuniya 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Colombo. But police were unwilling to blame Tamil Tiger rebels for the latest in a recent series of slayings in the troubled region. "We are still investigating those killings and at this moment, we cannot make any comment," area police chief Gamini de Silva said.

Meanwhile, a man whose body was found Monday in the eastern Sri Lanka's main city of Batticaloa was identified as an ex-member of the LTTE who left the group to get married after being with the rebels for nine years, police and the pro-rebel Tamil Net site said. No other details were available.

The guerrillas have been known to target other Tamils who cooperate with the ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government, or who back rival Tamil militant groups. Tamil paramilitary groups opposed to the mainstream rebels are known to be active in Vavuniya, which has a military garrison and is close to rebel-controlled territory. Tamil Tiger rebels began fighting in 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka's north and east. More than 65,000 people died in the conflict before the government and rebels signed a Norway-brokered cease-fire in 2002. Talks to strengthen the increasingly fragile truce began in Geneva last month.

Security Council urges faster planning for UN force in Darfur
Agence France Presse, 3/25/06

The UN Security Council has called for faster preparations for the African Union (AU) to hand over its peacekeeping mission in Sudan's western Darfur region to the United Nations.

The 15-member body unanimously adopted Friday a resolution that also decided to extend for at least six months the mandate of the UN mission in south Sudan (UNMIS). The text directed UN chief Kofi Annan, working with the AU and in consultations with the council "to expedite the necessary preparatory planning for transition" from the AU force known as AMIS to a UN operation. This would include options for how UNMIS can provide transitional assistance -- such as in logistics, mobility and communications. The council move was welcomed in Washington as a step toward ending he violence in Darfur.

"We are very pleased that the Council's resolution also recognizes the African Union's recent decision to support the transition of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) to a UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack in a statement. "In support of the transition to the UN force in Darfur, the United States has already provided military experts to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations to assist in the planning," he noted.

Early this month, AU foreign ministers agreed in principle at a meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to transfer the AU mission in strife-torn Darfur to the United Nations. They also extended the current AMIS mission for six months. The AU reached the decision despite spirited opposition from Khartoum, which argued that the transfer would risk worsening the situation in Darfur.

Friday's resolution also called on Annan to report to the council by April 24 "on a range of options for a United Nations operation in Darfur" and to continue to provide "maximum possible assistance to AMIS." It asked Annan and the AU to consult with international and regional bodies and member states "to identify resources to support AMIS during transition to a United Nations operation." The text also strongly condemned activities of militias and armed groups such as Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), "which continue to attack civilians and commit human rights abuses in Sudan."

Under pressure from Ugandan troops, LRA rebels have fled to southern Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ugandan troops have permission from Khartoum to pursue the rebels on southern Sudanese soil.

Sunday Annan appealed for Sudanese cooperation in the handover of AMIS peacekeeping duties to the UN as security deteriorates in Darfur. "The situation in Darfur is deteriorating. We must do everything to help the displaced people and those in need of assistance," he told a press conference at the end of a visit to the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. "I hope we will have the cooperation of the Sudanese government," he added.

In February, the Security Council approved contingency planning for a UN takeover in Darfur and Annan suggested that Western countries help by providing logistical support and air assets for the new UN force. The 7,000-strong AMIS force, which was deployed in 2004, has been suffering from poor funding and inadequate resources to contain the escalating bloodshed. The United States has been lobbying for the sending of a UN-led force, backed by NATO, and probably double the current AU deployment, to take over peacekeeping in Darfur.

War in Darfur broke out in February 2003, when black ethnic groups launched a rebellion against Khartoum that was brutally repressed by the Arab Islamist regime and local militiamen, the Janjaweed. Both sides have been accused of violating a truce signed in April 2004. The combined effect of the war and one of the world's worst humanitarian crises has left up to 300,000 people dead and an estimated 2.4 million displaced.

 

Rights groups urge Arab summit to support UN force in Darfur
Agence France Presse, 3/27/06

The Arab League should support calls for the deployment of a UN force in Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur and encourage Khartoum to accept the motion, rights groups urged Monday.

"The Arab League has rightly condemned attacks on civilians across the region, but it has remained silent about Sudan's atrocities in Darfur," a coalition of Arab and international human rights groups said. "This time, Arab leaders must put the interests of Sudan's people first and support the transition to a UN force in Darfur," the coalition, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on the eve of an Arab summit in Sudan. It appealed to Arab leaders to "urge the Sudanese government to accept promptly and without conditions, a transition to the UN mission in Darfur." The statement further called on the Arab leaders to "condemn violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the Sudanese government, government-backed militias and rebel groups in Darfur."

Arab leaders, it said, ought to "insist that the Sudanese government cease attacks on civilians support to abusive militias." They must "call upon Khartoum to cooperate with efforts to hold accountable those responsible for serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Darfur, including by cooperating fully with and providing free access to the international Criminal Court, which is investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur," the rights groups urged.

War broke out in Darfur in February 2003 when rebel groups revolted against what they say is the political and economic marginalization of the region's black African ethnic groups by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum. The government responded by unleashing the Janjaweed militia, a force of horse-mounted gunmen, which has been blamed for many atrocities including systemic rape and the burning of villages.

The African Union on March 10 extended the mission of its forces monitoring a fragile truce between government forces and rebel fighters in Darfur until September and agreed in principle to turn over the mission to the UN. The 7,000-strong AU force, which was deployed in 2004, has been hampered by poor funding and inadequate resources, and has been unable to contain the escalating bloodshed in Darfur, an area roughly the size of France.

Calls have been growing for the UN to take over from the cash-strapped AU despite stiff opposition from Khartoum. Arab foreign ministers adopted a draft resolution on Sunday to be presented to the summit that refused to endorse any deployment of UN troops in Darfur without the approval of the Khartoum government.