Contents:
Explosion occurred near line of control separating Azerbaijani and Karabakh
forces.
Burundi police battle rebel splinter faction
This was the first such attack since truce signed with FNL in September.
Although neither side has violated the ceasefire, implementation deadline
has already been breached.
Chechnya's Kremlin-backed prime minister says he could become president,
blasts Russian Cabinent
Also bluntly accused the federal government of "stealing" Chechnya's
oil money
UN deploying special patrols ahead of DRCongo vote
Patrols will enforce commitment to keep Kinshasa gun-free.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.
In remarks carried on Georgian television, Saakashvili made statements before
ceremony to inaugurate the pro-Georgian Abkhazian government's seat in Tchkhalta.
Russia
calls emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to address Abkhazia tension
Security Council to address Georgia's arrest of 5 Russian officers on accusations
of spying.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation Click
here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation.
Seven killed in Indian Kashmir violence at start of Ramadan
Kashmir traditionally sees a rise in violence during Ramadan.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation.
Kosovo
Serbia's foreign minister says independent Kosovo would bring
trouble in region
Draskovic suggested Kosovo should have full autonomy but not be allowed
to hold separate membership in the United Nations and NATO.
Serbia's
new constitution warns against Kosovo independence: experts
Proposed constitution sends a message to the international community that
Serbia will always consider Kosovo part of its territory.
Liberia
U.N. envoy to Liberia: peacekeeping force reduction may begin in 2008
Head of the U.N. mission said Liberia has achieved significant
improvements in restoring peace and building democracy since inauguration of
President Sirleaf.
Longing for a Russian hug, breakaway region feels the pinch of isolation
Despite recent referendum, Russia doesn't seem eager for unification
with Trans-Dniester.
Nepal Maoists demand referendum on monarchy, talks uncertain
Rebels accuse Prime Minister of being too soft on the monarchy.
Crucial
Nepal peace talks delayed by at least a week
Talks postponed until end of the Dasain festival.
The only roads between Ethiopia and central Somalia pass through the seized
village.
Islamic
official: Ethiopian incursion into Somalia a declaration of war
For first time Islamic militia acknowledged getting help from foreign Muslims.
Sri Lanka troops, Tigers fight heavy sea battle
Conflicting casualty figures reported- from 3 to 70 killed.
Peace hopes
rise as Sri Lanka says Tigers agree to talk
Sources say the government was also ready to enter talks, but would not
stop retaliatory strikes against LTTE.
African Union head says no peacekeeping troops
should go to Darfur without Sudan's approval
AU has announced that it will stay on for the rest of the year, following
Sudan’s opposition to UN forces.
UN,
Sudan discussing deployment of UN advisers to boost Darfur peacekeepers
Hoping to avoid a standoff that could deepen the crisis in the region.
UN
humanitarian chief in Sudan says situation worsening in Darfur but aid workers
will remain
Aid workers are getting less access to those in need.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG
Report.
Officials: 7 Azerbaijani soldiers wounded in mine blast near disputed
territory
Associated Press, 9/28/06
A mine blast near the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory wounded seven Azerbaijani soldiers, officials said Thursday. The explosion occurred in the Agdam region not far from the so-called line of control separating Azerbaijani and Karabakh forces, federal de-mining agency spokeswoman Sabina Jalalova told The Associated Press. She said she could not immediately provide further details. The Defense Ministry could not be immediately reached for comment.
Local television channels reported the blast took place Wednesday night and the soldiers have been hospitalized.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous territory inside Azerbaijan, but it has been controlled along with some surrounding areas by Karabakh and Armenian forces since 1994. A shaky cease-fire in 1994 ended the six-year conflict, in which 30,000 people were killed and about 1 million driven from their homes. The lack of resolution over Nagorno-Karabakh's final status has hampered development in the strategic South Caucasus region.
Burundi police battle rebel splinter faction
Agence France Presse, 9/27/06
Burundi police shot and killed an insurgent during a clash with a splinter faction of the country's last active rebel group in the west of the tiny central Africa nation, officials said Wednesday. In the first such attack since the government signed a truce with the main faction of the National Liberation Forces (FNL) this month, police shot dead the man late Tuesday in a skirmish with the group's dissident wing.
Interior Minister Evariste Ndayishimiye said that in addition to the death, the police had disarmed dozens of rebels loyal to Jean-Bosco Sindayigaya who broke away from the group's hardline leader Agathon Rwasa last year. "A group of (Sindayigaya's) FNL attacked people at Giko in Bubanza province," he said. "Police intervened and an FNL fighter was killed as he prepared to throw a grenade at the security forces." "The other about 60 who were with him were disarmed without much resistance," Ndayishimiye added.
Sindayigaya broke ranks with the main FNL group in November citing differences with its Rwasa and favouring peace talks with the government and announced a unilateral ceasefire. Since then, however, the group has not entered peace talks with the government while Rwasa's faction changed course and earlier this month inked a ceasefire at tempestuous South African-mediated negotiations in Tanzania. That deal is a step toward forging a final settlement and which calls for Rwasa's rebel faction to gather at a camps to eventually disarm or be integrated into the army.
The September 7 accord has yet to be fully implemented because a joint verification and follow-up commission, comprising representatives of Bujumbura, the FNL, the African Union and the United Nations, has not been created. Still Rwasa's forces are gathering at the camps and some 800 of Sindayigaya's men have attempted to join them, but have been rebuffed by the government, which says they are not parties to the ceasefire.
Burundi is emerging from the devastation of a 13-year ethnically driven civil war that began with the assassination of the country's first election president, a member of the Hutu majority, by elements in the then minority-Tutsi dominated military. The conflict has claimed some 300,000 lives and the FNL is the only one of seven Hutu rebel groups not to have signed on a 2000 peace process that last year saw the election of a new power-sharing government headed by a Hutu ex-guerrilla chief.
Landmark truce with Burundi rebels chokes on delay, terms
Esdras Ndikumana, Agence France Presse, 10/1/06
Nearly a month after Burundi's lone active rebels inked a landmark truce with the government, delay in its implementation and fears the accord failed to address the insurgents' key demands may cloud efforts to end the country's civil war. Although neither side has violated the September 7 ceasefire deal, a requirement that its implementation begin with the formation of a joint committee a week after the signature has not been respected and the deadline has already been breached. Observers say that National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels have been shortchanged under the deal, which principally calls on the insurgents to assemble in camps from where they will either be integrated into the army or police force or demobilised.
Initially the FNL had demanded 60 percent of slots in the army, which they earlier wanted disbanded, and significant representation in the power-sharing government during tempestuous South African-mediated talks held in the Tanzanian commercial capital of Dar es Salaam. Yet those key demands have not been encompassed in the ceasefire, which is considered as a critical step in returning stability to the tiny central Africa nation that is emerging from 13 years of civil strife that has thus far claimed some 300,000 lives. Neither was it clear how both sides reached an agreement to exclude those positions, particularly on the army which was considered a stumbling block to the peace talks.
"What is happening is typical. The FNL signed the accord under duress," a western diplomat told AFP on conditions of anonymity. "The FNL did not get anything concrete in terms of sharing politcal or military power; it is thus logical that they dither," added the diplomat. Those demands are considered important after the country elected a power-sharing government last year that includes all the former seven rebel groups but the FNL. Under that arrangement, the majority Hutus have a 60-40 split of government representation with the minority Tutsis as well as a 50-50 percent share in military positions.
The delay in setting up the joint verification and follow-up commission, comprising representatives of Bujumbura, the FNL, the African Union and the United Nations, will make the October 7 date for the rebels to demobilise or disarm and either join the army or police unrealisable. However, South African special envoy to the Great Lakes region Kingsley Mamabulo said this week that the team will be put in place within the next two weeks. Despite the setbacks, Interior and Public Security Minister Evariste Ndayishimiye has expressed satisfaction with the agreement and hailed the cessation of hostilities. "Since the accord was signed, there is no longer violence on the ground," Ndayishimiye told AFP. "We even see brotherly relations between the soldiers and the combatants." "This time there are high chances the agreement will be respected and that Burundi will finally achieve a lasting peace," said the diplomat. "But this depends on what the rebels get."
Burundi's war erupted in 1993 with the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, a member of the Hutu majority and the country's first democratically elected president by elements of the then minority Tutsi-dominated military. And despite the ceasefire, many in Burundi remain cautious about prospects for peace as President Pierre Nkurunziza's government has come under intense criticism for laxity in tackling corruption and human rights violations.
Chechnya's Kremlin-backed premier says he could become president, blasts
Russian Cabinet
Steve Gutterman, Associated Press, 9/27/06
Chechnya's Kremlin-backed prime minister, who heads a militia widely accused of abducting and abusing civilians, said Wednesday he could become president of the war-ravaged region if people want him to take the job, and he bluntly accused the federal government of "stealing" Chechnya's oil money. Ramzan Kadyrov, who is considered more popular and powerful than incumbent President Alu Alkhanov, has been widely seen as the Kremlin's favorite to lead the region, which has been battered by two wars against separatist rebels in the past dozen years. He did not run for election in 2004 because he had not reached the minimum age of 30 an age he will reach Oct. 5. Alkhanov's term expires in 2008, but an early election could be called if he resigned or were disabled; Alkhanov's predecessor Akhmad Kadyrov, who was Ramzan's father, was assassinated in 2004.
The younger Kadyrov told reporters Wednesday that he wasn't ready to become president "because I must be sure that I can ensure completely all the rights of people in the republic" but "if it is the will of the people ... we must agree with them." He spoke at a boxing club that is part of a sports complex named after him in Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city. Kadyrov insisted that he was not power-hungry but wanted "to continue the work my father began: to end the war and revive the republic."
Portraits of Kadyrov and his late father adorn streets of Gudermes and other Chechen cities and villages, signaling a growing personality cult being created around the energetic premier. Kadyrov's widely feared paramilitary unit has been blamed by rights groups for abductions and other abuse against civilians, and he reportedly controls a large chunk of Chechnya's oil wealth. Dressed in black pants and black open-necked shirt and wearing a massive gold-plated watch, Kadyrov admitted that Chechnya remains plagued by abductions, but angrily denied that forces under his control were responsible for any of them. He claimed many human rights activists are working for "enemies of Russia."
Two alleged militants accused of involvement in abductions were detained overnight in the southern village of Avtury, the Chechen branch of Russia's Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
Kadyrov praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as "the only person who can save Russia" and repeated his call for Putin to stay in office indefinitely. But he strongly criticized "those who run around him, certain ministers and bureaucrats," saying Moscow hasn't come through with its financial promises and refuses to give Chechnya a fair share of profits from its oil. "If the federal center had given what it owes to the people (of Chechnya), we would have revived this republic long ago," he said. "They steal everything from us gas, oil, light." The bold statement underlined an uneasy relationship between the federal authorities and an increasingly assertive Kadyrov. Some observers say the Kremlin has effectively surrendered control over the region to the boisterous Chechen premier.
Kadyrov also criticized an amnesty approved by the Russian parliament for Chechen rebels who surrender and Russian servicemen accused of crimes during the conflict there, saying it would be difficult for any former Chechen fighters to qualify, and threatened to seek international legal recourse if Russian generals who carried out human rights abuses are not brought to justice. Large-scale battles in Chechnya ended years ago, but the Kremlin needs Kadyrov and his forces to uproot remaining rebels who still mount regular attacks against federal forces and local authorities. Russia recently has scored major successes in its hunt for top rebel leaders.
Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who masterminded the most cruel terror attacks in Russia's history, including a 2004 school hostage-taking in Beslan, was killed by an explosion in July which officials said was a well-planned operation but rebel representatives claimed was an accident. The longtime president of the Chechen rebels' self-declared government, Aslan Maskhadov, was killed last year and his successor, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, was killed in June.
UN deploying special patrols ahead of DRCongo vote
Agence France Presse, 9/27/06
The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said Wednesday it would deploy mixed street patrols to enforce commitments by candidates in a presidential election to make the capital a city free of guns. The UN mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, said mixed patrols of DRC civilian and military police plus MONUC personnel would be on the streets in the next few days to check on violations, reduce tensions and disperse rumours.
When a first round of presidential election results were announced on August 20, clashes broke out in the capital Kinshasa between the presidential guard of incumbent leader Joseph Kabila and the forces of his challenger, vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba. Fighting lasted three days and killed at least 23 people. Last Saturday representatives of the two candidates signed a document committing the candidates to ensure that Kinshasa would be a "city without arms". The second voting round in the presidential election is scheduled for October 29.
There has been a state of uneasy calm here since the two sides ordered their armed followers back into barracks in August.
MONUC also said Wednesday it was seriously concerned at the apparently arbitrary
arrest by DRC police here last week of 800 people including 181 children. A
spokesman said the detainees had been taken to police headquarters and "detained
irregularly". It was only after repeated requests by children's protection
agencies that all the minors were finally taken to centres until they were returned
to their families. "The legal justification for these mass arrests has
still not been provided to MONUC," the spokesman said. Kinshasa's police
chief said the arrests had been because of a recurrence of gangsterism and violence
in the capital where about 20,000 youngsters live on the streets.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
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to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International
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Georgian leader vows to retake Abkhazia
Agence France Presse, 9/27/06
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili vowed anew to bring pro-Russian Abkhazia back under Tbilissi's control, during a visit to the Kodori gorges near the breakaway northwestern province Wednesday. "We are going to launch the process of returning Abkhazia (to Georgia) because our people will never resign themselves to the loss" of the region to separatists, Saakashvili said in remarks carried on Georgian television. The President spoke ahead of a ceremony on Wednesday to inaugurate the pro-Georgian Abkhazian government's seat in Tchkhalta.
The town is in the Kodori Gorge region which is not under the control of the separatists although historically part of Abkhazia and just 25 kms (15.5 miles) from Sukumi, the Abkhazian capital. Since the end of the conflict between Georgia and its rebel province, which erupted with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 leading to the region's de-facto independence in 1994, the government had been living in exile in Tbilissi.
Saakashvili also said that the Kodori Gorge would henceforth be called "upper Abkhazia" -- and that the international diplomatic corps should pay its respects to the "legitimate Abkhazia administration" in Tchkhalta. The United States, the European Union and major international organizations consider Abkhazia part of Georgia.
But Saakashvili's remarks did not sit well with Moscow, where the Russian Foreign Ministry suggested in a statement that visits by foreign diplomats to Tchkhalta "will bring nothing but new tensions in relations between Abkhazia and Georgia." The statement also called on the former Soviet republic to pull its troops from the Kodori Gorge.
In July, Georgian troops mounted an operation in Kodori Gorge ostensibly to stamp out a local rebellion. Abkhazians and their Russian allies, however, consider the action a first move by Georgia to take control of the breakaway province. For his part, Saakashvili Tuesday accused Moscow of hiding the rebellion's leader, Emzar Kvitsiani. "According to our information, Kvitsiani is in Moscow," he said. Moscow did not comment.
On Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Pourine made a surprise visit to the Russian-Georgian border near Abkhazia, theoretically to inspect a frontier post. Russia has about 1,900 soldiers stationed in Abkhazia and has handed Russian citizenship to a large number of Abkhazians.
Russia calls emergency U.N. Security Council meeting to address Abkhazia
tension
Associated Press, 9/28/06
Russia called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to address Georgia's arrest of five Russian officers on accusations of spying, a spokeswoman said. Earlier Thursday, Russia recalled its ambassador from Georgia and announced a partial evacuation of Russian personnel and their families from the former Soviet republic. The Security Council was expected to meet in the afternoon to discuss the issue, said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia's mission to the U.N. "The situation there is getting worse and worse every day and we have to manage it," Zakharova said. "This is a real emergency." Zakharova would not say what the council planned to do. But if its 15 members agree, the council would likely do no more than release a statement expressing concern about the situation.
Georgian authorities detained the five officers Wednesday on accusations that they were spying. Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have become increasingly tense since President Mikhail Saakashvili came to power following Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution, pledging to take the Caucasus nation out of Russia's orbit. Georgian officials have accused Russia of backing separatists in Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and trying to undermine the government allegations Russia has denied.
Polls in Indonesia's Aceh should not hit peace pact: analyst
Agence France Presse, 9/28/06
The challenge of staging polls in Indonesia's Aceh this year should not derail a peace pact signed in 2005 between separatists and the government, an analyst said Thursday. The province is set to hold its first-ever gubernatorial elections on December 11 under the pact, which was signed last August by Jakarta and the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM). The agreement ended nearly three decades of conflict. Voters will also select the heads of Aceh's 19 districts and mayoralty.
"At this point of time, I don't think there is anything significant enough (related to the polls) to derail the peace process," said Sidney Jones, the Southeast Asian director of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank. She told a public discussion about the polls that one of the main reasons why was that only individuals could run and not political parties, which under the peace deal will have to wait until the next electoral cycle begins in 2009.
Local political parties are outlawed elsewhere in Indonesia, but are to be permitted in Aceh under the deal.
"The safety valve that is built in is the notion that it is actually the 2009 elections that are really important for GAM," Jones said. "There will be irritation, disappointment, frustration, resentment, all of the above, if they come out with nothing from the local elections, but because of the higher goal of 2009, it may not have a particularly destabilizing effect," she said. Jones also noted that GAM had now split into two rival groups mostly due to differences over who to nominate as a candidate for governor. One centered around ex-leaders who were exiled in Sweden and the other around leaders here. Their rivalry -- which was "getting really, really down and dirty now" with both sides trading insults and accusations -- reduced the prospect of violence, she said. Other elements, such as the Indonesian security authorities, would have more scope to throw money and support behind one candidate and spread disinformation on others than to engage in open violence, Jones added.
The peace pact was spurred by the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed some 168,000 people in Aceh. GAM agreed to drop its demand for independence in return for partial self-rule. Aceh, located at the northernmost tip of Sumatra island, was racked by a violent separatist conflict for 29 years that claimed the lives of some 15,000 people, mostly civilians.
Ivory Coast
Mbeki, Gbagbo in Burkina Faso for talks on I.Coast crisis
Agence France Presse, 9/26/06
South African President Thabo Mbeki who is trying to jumpstart the stalled peace process in Ivory Coast, travelled to Burkina Faso on Tuesday along with President Laurent Gbabgo for further talks, sources said. An AFP reporter at Ouagadougou international airport saw Mbeki and Gbagbo arrive in their respective planes from Abidjan for talks with Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore, who currently chairs the African Union (AU) peace and security council. The Ivorian press, citing presidential sources had indicated earlier Tuesday that the two leaders were due to meet here with Compaore.
Mbeki, who is the African Union's chief mediator on the Ivory Coast crisis and Gbagbo were tight-lipped on Monday after a two-hour meeting in the Ivorian capital on the blocked peace process. This is Mbeki's first direct meeting with Gbagbo since the United Nations -- the main sponsor and overseer of the faltering peace process -- admitted last month that a deadline for holding elections would be missed for the second time in as many years. Gbagbo had snubbed talks between the main parties to the conflict last week at the UN headquarters in New York on grounds that the peace process had "failed".
Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo and a host of other African leaders have expressed fears that Ivory Coast could become a regional crisis. Once a model of prosperity and stability in west Africa, the former French colony has been divided into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled south since a brief civil war that broke out in 2002 when rebels tried to topple Gbagbo.
Mbeki last December appointed former regional central bank governor Charles Konan Banny as transitional prime minister to oversee the disarmament of rebel and pro-government factions to be followed by elections. But the UN-brokered peace process has ground to a halt, with the main parties now conceding that elections expected for October 31 will not take place. The 15-member regional grouping ECOWAS is due to hold talks early next month, followed by the AU meeting in Addis Ababa before the UN Security Council takes a decision on October 17 on the fate of the country.
Seven killed in Indian Kashmir violence at start of Ramadan
Agence France Presse, 9/25/06
Seven people including a policewoman were killed by suspected Islamic insurgents in Indian Kashmir in a deadly start to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, police said Monday. Kashmir traditionally sees a rise in violence during Ramadan, which began on Monday in the scenic Himalayan state. The policewoman was killed when militants threw a grenade at a police jeep and wounded another woman constable, two policemen and a civilian, a police spokesman said.
Militants also killed four Muslims, including a 55-year-old woman, in the south late Sunday and early Monday, the spokesman said. Two more Muslim men were shot dead Monday by rebels in the Pulwama and Anantnag district, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the summer capital Srinagar, the spokesman said. None of the dozen or so rebels groups in Kashmir claimed responsibility for the killings. Militants often kill people they suspect of working for Indian security agencies or who belong to pro-India political parties.
Residents of the Indian part of the state, where a separatist insurgency against New Delhi's rule has claimed at least 44,000 lives since 1989, had hoped militant attacks would abate during the holy month of Ramadan. The Muslim-majority state is divided between India and Pakistan which have waged two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over the territory.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
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Serbia's foreign minister says independent Kosovo would bring trouble
in region
Associated Press, 9/25/06
Serbia's foreign minister has warned of possible renewed conflict in the Balkans if the province of Kosovo becomes independent without the Serbian government's approval, according to comments published Monday. Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic suggested Kosovo should have full autonomy but not be allowed to hold separate membership in the United Nations and NATO. "Kosovo's independence would produce trouble in the region, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia," Draskovic was quoted as saying in the Kosovo Albanian daily Epoka e Re. "You know that no border in the Balkans has been changed with an agreement," he said. "Borders have always been changed with wars, and that (Kosovo's independence) would naturally bring such a trouble."
The United Nations has been organizing talks on the province's future and hopes to resolve its status by the end of the year, but talks have stalled with both sides unwilling to compromise on their demands. Ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, insist they should be free from Belgrade's authority. Serbia, as well as the Serb minority in Kosovo, says Kosovo is the heart of Serbia's ancient homeland and should remain within its borders. "You know very well that Kosovo is not only a territorial issue, but also a spiritual one because Serb spirit and culture were born there," Draskovic said.
Belgrade and Serb leaders in the province worry about the safety of Kosovo's 100,000 Serbs, most of whom live in small, scattered enclaves. Few of the 200,000 Serbs who fled Kosovo during and after the 1998-99 war have returned.
Meanwhile, Daniel Fried, U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, met with top Serbian officials to discuss Kosovo and other issues. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica reiterated Serbia's rejection of the possible secession of Kosovo. Kosovo has been a U.N. protectorate since 1999 when NATO air raids forced Serbia to halt its crackdown on the separatists and pull its troops out.
"Kosovo has always been and will remain part of Serbia," Kostunica stressed in a statement. He reiterated Belgrade's proposal that Kosovo enjoy self-rule and broad autonomy, without a change of borders. The chief U.N. envoy for Kosovo, Maarti Ahtisaari, said last week he had no "fixed deadlines" in the Kosovo status talks, though he is expected before the year's end to present the U.N. Security council with proposal for Kosovo's future.
Serbia's new constitution warns against Kosovo independence: experts
Agence France Presse, 10/1/06
Serbia's proposed new constitution claiming sovereignty over Kosovo will be an obstacle but cannot hamper ongoing talks about the future status of the UN-administered province, its government said Sunday. "The authorities are sending a message to the international community that Serbia will always consider Kosovo part of its territory," prominent Belgrade law professor and human rights activist Vojin Dimitrijevic told AFP. "I doubt that Serbia has the strength to do more than send such a message or that anyone outside Serbia will be deeply impressed by it," he added.
The Serbian parliament unanimously approved the constitution late Saturday as a signal that it would not give up the southern province ahead of a decision on Kosovo's final status expected later this year. Lutfi Haziri, deputy prime minister of Kosovo, told reporters Sunday that "this is a unilateral decision which will create problems in the future in normalising the relations between an independent Kosovo and Serbia," but, he added: "I don't think the decision will be an obstacle for the status talks."
The Serbian lawmakers also decided that a referendum on the new constitution would be held on October 28-29. Serbia's leadership urged citizens to go out and vote as more than 50 percent of the electorate must agree on the constitution for it to be adopted. However, about one million ethnic Albanian voters will not be allowed to vote although they constitute 90 percent of the population in Kosovo. Pro-independence ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have boycotted all elections in Serbia since 1990 and in the last six years have not been included on the electoral list of 6.5 million Serbian voters. "This will not change," Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Saturday.
The text was drafted in only a couple of weeks and without public debate in a rush to preempt the international community potentially granting the province some kind of independence. "The province of Kosovo is an integral part of Serbian territory, has a position of substantial autonomy within the framework of the sovereign state of Serbia, and from such a position is derived the constitutional obligation of all state institutions to protect the interests of Serbia in Kosovo in all internal and foreign political relations," the preamble to the proposed new constitution reads. Slobodan Vucetic, chairman of Serbia's constitutional court, said the preamble was "a symbolic warning to the international community" related to Kosovo's status.
The parliament vote came despite ongoing talks between Serbian officials and the ethnic Albanian leadership in Kosovo over the future status of the province currently administered by the United Nations. The international community has insisted these UN-sponsored talks are concluded by the end of the year, but so far neither side has shown any signs of compromise. "I see no reason to wait for Kosovo's status to be solved first," Kostunica told the media earlier on Saturday. "For Serbia, the issue of Kosovo is solved by the fact that it is an integral part of Serbia and that international law confirms this." "I am assuring you that this constitution will not be changed, no matter what the outcome of the talks on the future status of Kosovo," he added.
Kosovo has been an international protectorate since June 1999 following the
end of the conflict between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian separatist fighters.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
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U.N. envoy to Liberia: peacekeeping force reduction may begin in 2008
Anna Dolgov, Associated Press, 9/26/06
U.N. peacekeepers in Liberia may begin a gradual drawdown of their forces in 2008 if the situation in the west African country continues to improve and security risks are reduced, the top U.N. envoy to Liberia said. Alan Doss, head of the U.N. mission in Liberia, said the war-ravaged nation has achieved significant improvements in restoring peace and building democracy since President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inaugurated early this year. But peace remains volatile, and violations of a ban on sexual exploitation by aid workers remain a concern, he said Monday. "We do underline that the situation remains fragile," Doss told a news conference after briefing the Security Council at a closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly ministerial meeting. "This is a country that's just emerging from a quarter of a century of growing instability that culminated in a 14-year civil war. And that's not going to be overcome in a few months." Doss also presented to the council a recent report by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who visited the country this summer. He noted recent achievements, but stressed that much remains to be done.
Harvard-educated Sirleaf Africa's first elected female chief of state was sworn in last January for a six-year term to take charge of Africa's oldest republic, founded by freed American slaves in 1847, but ravaged by coups and a bloody civil war. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is in a maximum-security prison in the Netherlands, awaiting trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly overseeing the murder, rape and mutilation of thousands of people during a civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.
The U.N. mission has proposed a set of benchmarks to evaluate improvements in Liberia, Doss said. If the pace of progress matches the criteria, a gradual drawdown of a 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force is expected to begin in 2008, he said. "We are in a consolidation phase now, which we expect to last basically until the end of next year, and all being well, security conditions permitting, we will then move into a gradual drawdown phase," Doss said. "But it's early days yet," he stressed. "The president has been in office barely eight, nine months, so we have to be cautiously optimistic as we move forward." Security is the top concern, underscoring the need to "deal robustly if threats emerge within the country or externally," he said. Doss conceded that recovery efforts are also undermined by reports of violations by international aid workers of export embargoes, which the United Nations put on Liberia during Taylor's rule, to stop government revenues from being used to fuel civil war.
Amid progress made under Sirleaf, the U.N. has lifted timber sanctions against Liberia to spur economic growth, and has eased an arms embargo to allow the rebuilding of security forces but sanctions on diamond exports remain. "The issue of exploitation abuse is a constant concern," Doss said. "It has to be. We have a zero tolerance policy, so we have to ensure that policy is respected, both by preventive (measures), as well as if, sadly, people don't respect that policy by sanctions." "It's a big job, I have to say," Doss conceded. Some 30,000 military and civilian personnel are employed by the U.N. mission, "and it takes just one case to create a sense that we are not doing what we should be doing," he said. All reports of sexual exploitation are looked into by an independent investigation unit, and if appearing accurate, are followed up by the military of the troop-contributing countries, or, in cases involving civilian staff, by the U.N. mission's internal disciplinary procedures, Doss said. "I think we're doing a great deal," but "obviously we need to strengthen this," he said. "We need to deal with this in a comprehensive fashion, in a country that is emerging from a dreadful civil war, where, frankly, human rights and abuse of authority and impunity reign. So it is part of a broader strategy to deal with the issue of violence, gender-based violence, and abuse of exportation in the country," he said.
Longing for a Russian hug, breakaway region feels the pinch of isolation
Mara D. Bellaby, Associated Press, 9/30/06
The Kvint Distillery with its smooth, wooden casks full of honey-colored brandy is so revered in Trans-Dniester that it graces the 5-ruble bank note. But like this breakaway republic, it exists in isolation. The bottles chugging down the assembly line to be filled, corked, stamped and boxed for shipment once traveled easily around the Soviet Union and the rest of the Communist world. Not anymore. Lately they have faced barriers entering two of their biggest markets, Russia and Ukraine. The parallels aren't lost on the 550,000 people of Trans-Dniester. The territory, having broken away from Moldova, is recognized by no one. Its passports, holdovers from when it was part of the Soviet Union, are useless. Its smugglers have saddled it with a reputation as an outlaw state, of potential use to terrorists. Foreign visitors are so rare that an American journalist visiting a school was besieged for autographs.
It has just voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to seek unification with Russia, but Russia doesn't seem eager to have it. Meanwhile, as Trans-Dniester looks east, Moldova, like neighboring Ukraine and nearby Romania, is looking west, to the democracies of the European Union. Of all the broken pieces and sharp edges left by the breakup of the Soviet Union nearly 15 years ago, few are as unusual as this ragged ribbon of land, 125 miles long by 10 miles wide, wedged between the Dniester River and Ukraine. The Soviet crackup gave birth to 15 new nations, but it also left millions of ethnic Russians in limbo, stranded in countries suddenly turned foreign and in many cases eager to shake off Moscow's heavy hand.
In the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, ethnic Russians complain of discrimination against their language. In Ukraine, they are a powerful political force engaged in a constant tug-of-war with pro-Westerners. The ex-Soviet republic of Georgia is carved up by two pro-Russian separatist regions. Kaliningrad is a Baltic Sea enclave of 1 million Russians, 350 miles from home soil and surrounded by EU countries. Chechnya has been waging a separatist war for a decade.
Trans-Dniester, about twice the size of Luxembourg and comprising one-eighth of Moldova, has never stopped yearning for Russia's embrace. Its leader, Igor Smirnov, who has Russian citizenship, hails Russia as the natural home for his people. Trans-Dniester declared itself independent as the Soviet Union began to show signs of crumbling, fearing Moldova would seek to reunite with Romania. Pro-Western Moldova, backed by the European Union, wants it back. The Kremlin, while at odds with Moldova and sympathetic to the separatists, has reacted coolly to the idea of absorbing the impoverished territory, and says the two sides should negotiate a settlement.
So the Sept. 17 referendum, which voted 97.1 percent yes to the government's goal of union with Russia, is dismissed by political analyst Viorel Cibotaru of Moldova's Institute of Public Policy as a feel-good measure and nothing more. "It's like a circus: you see something, but it's an illusion. Because the truth is, Trans-Dniester is an empty idea, it's going nowhere," he says. Not so, insists Smirnov. Trans-Dniester and Moldova simply have nothing in common, the president declared to his people after the vote. "We choose Russia, and they choose the European Union and NATO. All these 16 years, they have tried to impose on us an alien point of view ... but today, that's history."
History weighs heavy here. Once known as Bessarabia, the entire region has a rich ethnic mix, with parts of it falling under the Lithuanian, Czarist Russian, Romanian and Soviet empires. Today, the scrambled geopolitical jigsaw puzzle left by the Soviet collapse is highlighted by the 109-year-old Kvint distillery in Trans-Dniester's capital, Tiraspol. Caught on a bureaucratic merry-go-round, its wines and cognacs are frozen out of Russia because the Kremlin considers them Moldovan, and has an embargo on Moldovan alcohol. And they were frozen out of Ukraine for two years because they weren't considered Moldovan enough the plant didn't have the right Moldovan business registration. Its export certificate is still only temporary.
Critics claim Trans-Dniester is a paradise for smugglers, bandits and traffickers in weapons and drugs. "The Trans-Dniester problem is reflecting negatively on the entire criminal situation in Moldova and Ukraine," Ukraine's interior minister, Yuriy Lutsenko, complained recently. The EU has deployed border police of its member states to help stem the flow of contraband through the deserted, hilly roads that connect Trans-Dniester to Ukraine.
Trans-Dniester has responded to criticism with a charm offensive on the Web. http://www.pridnestrovie.net offers "10 things you didn't know about Europe's newest country," including that it has twice the population of Iceland, 35 national groups and a market economy. It also claims to have made giant inroads into the smuggling problem, and quotes EU and other Western watchdogs as saying "there is no evidence that Pridnestrovie (Trans-Dniester) has ever trafficked arms or nuclear material." That's a reference to reports that circulated in 2004 claiming Trans-Dniester could be a marketplace for weapons of mass destruction left over from when the Soviets had arms factories here.
Smirnov, the president, has suggested that Trans-Dniester suffers in part because of his unconcealed nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Trans-Dniester and Moldova both elect their presidents. But while Moldova is on a reformist, pro-Western course, Trans-Dniester keeps its Soviet habits and discipline. The streets are largely empty, but everyone uses crosswalks and waits for the lights to change. Slogans endorsing Soviet-era solidarity and cooperation are freshly painted on walls and buildings. After school, teenagers gather along the left bank of the Dniester River to strum guitars and talk about what they'll do when they get out to Moscow, to Kiev, to Odessa, wherever. "Moscow is a big city and that's where the opportunities are," said Aleksandra Luchkova, 16, in fluent English.
The population has fallen 20 percent in 16 years; in 2004, 5,000 babies were born, down from 12,000 in 1992. The wait for Russian citizenship and a passport can be two years. Meanwhile, to get in and out requires passing through five separate checkpoints.
For the referendum, Dmitry Soin, head of a state security committee, whipped up the youth vote to burn Moldovan flags and ride giant American tractors through Tiraspol's streets under banners of Che Guevara. "We are waking up Trans-Dniester youth," said Soin, 37, sipping espresso in a dimly lit cafe. "I'm not going to say we don't have a problem with youth migration, but I don't think it's so unusual. Youth, the world over, are very mobile and dream of escaping to somewhere new." The students set up a tent camp with the help of a pro-Kremlin youth group brought in from Russia. But on referendum day, the tents were empty and blown away by the wind.
Soin, who played a key role in 2004 efforts to close Moldovan-language schools in Trans-Dniester, doesn't leave the territory because he is wanted by Interpol for premeditated murder in connection with two killings in 1994 and 1995 while serving in the Trans-Dniester security service. He says Moldova is pushing the charge as punishment for his independence efforts. Moldova accuses him of stirring ethnic hatred and creating paramilitary organizations.
Analysts say it's hard to know what is really going on because so little is revealed and business deals are murky. A giant sports complex that reportedly cost around $200 million went up a few years ago on the outskirts of Tiraspol. Its owner, the Sheriff company, also manages supermarkets and gas stations, and is one of the few businesses that are allowed to trade openly in dollars rather than in Trans-Dniester's weaker ruble currency. The company is reportedly linked to Smirnov's family, an allegation the president and his entourage deny. Smirnov is driven around in a humble Skoda, and generally, wealth is not flaunted in Trans-Dniester, where many residents survive on $50 a month, though officials insist the average salary is three times higher. "There has been a big, and not unsuccessful, effort to keep people satisfied with their salaries and pensions," Cibotaru, the Moldovan analyst, said.
On a bright Sunday afternoon, people packed a main street pizza parlor, 7th Day, and streamed in and out of Mickey's, which advertises 16 types of hamburger toppings. "It's not correct to say that life here is bleak," said Valentina Beslar, 45, as she waited for a trolley bus near a monument to fallen soldiers. "But, of course, everyone dreams of better and for us that means joining Russia, if they'll have us."
Nepal Maoists demand referendum on monarchy, talks uncertain
Agence France Presse, 9/27/06
Nepal's rebel Maoists on Wednesday demanded a referendum on the future of the monarch in the Himalayan nation, as high-level peace talks slated for this week looked increasingly unlikely. "On the question of monarchy, it should be suspended and a referendum held. This is our bottom line," the rebel's second-in-command, Baburam Bhatterai, told AFP. "The people's movement in April was directed against the monarchy," he said of the mass protests that forced Nepal's King Gyanendra to end 14-months of direct rule. The monarchy, Bhatterai asserted, "is one of the main stumbling blocks in this peace process."
A seven-party coalition was reinstated following the April protests and the rebels held one round of high-level peace talks in June, when they agreed to work on a temporary constitution allowing the Maoists to join the government. But the parties in the coalition have yet to reach a consensus and Thursday's talks may not go ahead, one politician said. "We are working on preparations for the talks, but have not reached any agreement on political issues," said Jhalanath Kahnal, a standing committee member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). "I doubt that it will be possible to hold the talks tomorrow," Kahnal said.
A rebel spokesman echoed the view that the talks may be postponed. "The talks are likely to be postponed as after holding informal talks today (with the government) there is still a lot of preparation to do," said Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a rebel spokesman and member of the peace talks team.
A government minister told AFP that the weekend helicopter crash that killed a minister and 23 others at the weekend could also delay the talks. "The talks could be postponed as (Thursday) is the funeral of the minister who died in the recent crash," he said on condition of anonymity. If the talks do not take place as scheduled, they will likely be delayed by a week as Friday marks the start of Dasain, Nepal's most important holiday when government offices close for at least seven days.
Since King Gyanendra gave up the reins, the new government has stripped most of his powers and terminated his command of the 90,000-strong Nepal Army. But the rebels accused Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala of being too soft on the monarchy even though he agreed to their key demand, namely to elect a body to rewrite Nepal's constitution and observe a ceasefire. "G.P. Koirala, with the encouragement of India and the United States, has reached an understanding with the king," Bhatterai told AFP.
This is the third time the rebels and government have tried to hammer out a peace deal. The failure of the two previous attempts, in 2001 and 2003, plunged the impoverished country back into conflict. Since the rebels began their "people's war" in 1996, at least 12,500 people have been killed.
Crucial Nepal peace talks delayed by at least a week
Agence France Presse, 9/28/06
The leader of Nepal's Maoists held a brief meeting with the country's prime minister Thursday and both decided to delay crucial peace talks by at least a week, a top government official told AFP. "As the Dasain festival begins Friday, talks have been put off for at least a week," said the official, who asked not to be named. Dasain, a Hindu festival celebrating the victory of good over evil, is Nepal's biggest annual holiday. A senior Maoist official also confirmed the delay following the meeting between Maoist leader Prachanda and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, and said both sides would issue statements later Thursday.
Senior officials from both sides had been set to meet Thursday for what would
be a second round of formal talks, but the process has been hit by ongoing disputes
between the seven parties in the coalition government. State media attributed
the delay to the funeral of a government minister killed in a weekend helicopter
crash. The rebels and government have observed a ceasefire for the last five
months following mass protests that forced King Gyanednra to end his 14-month
period of direct rule. At least 12,500 people have been killed since the rebels
launched their "people's war" in 1996.
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Somalia's Islamic militia says it has seized a strategic village near
Ethiopian border
Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press, 9/30/06
Somalia's Islamic fighters have seized control of a strategic village near the Ethiopian border, the group said on Saturday. Fighters loyal to the radical Union of Islamic Courts group routed pro-government militia from the village of Jawill, some 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Ethiopian border. The only roads between Ethiopia and central Somalia pass through the village. "The militiamen who controlled this village had a good relationship with Ethiopia so we decided they were an obstacle to our control in the region," said Hassan Abdirahman, whose Islamic fighters carried out the operation. Some 200 fighters carried out the attack, he said.
Local resident Abdi Risaq told The Associated Press by telephone that three pro-government militiamen and one fighter with the Union of Islamic Courts were killed during Friday's gunbattle for the village. The militia loyal to the virtually powerless government fled across the Ethiopian border, according to eyewitnesses and the Islamic forces who captured the village.
Later Saturday authorities in the semiautonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia said they were banning all flights from areas under the control of the Islamists in southern Somalia. Currently three flights a week leave Mogadishu for Puntland. The ban was imposed because radical clerics were flying to the region to try to recruit members for the Islamic courts, according to the deputy police commander Abdiaziz Saed Ga'amey. He claimed authorities had intercepted a letter dated Sept 25 from hardline cleric Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, whom the U.S. has linked to al-Qaida, urging Somali clerics to recruit militia with a salary of US$100 per month and then to install an Islamic Court in Puntland.
On Friday, the U.S State Department said it was worried by a surge of Muslim fundamentalism in Somalia. "Some of their behavior is a source of concern," department spokesman Sean McCormack said of reports that fundamentalist militia had seized control of much of the African country.
Kenya has already also put its troops on high alert because of the deteriorating security in neighboring Somalia. Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy. The government has struggled to assert authority, while the Islamic movement seized Mogadishu after fierce battles with secular warlords in June and now controls much of the south. Ethiopia has been accused of deploying troops to prop up the government, which it denies.
Analysts fear a regional conflict if Islamic militias and Ethiopian forces clash. The Islamic group's strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan's Taliban, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida fighters. Washington has accused Somalia's Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden has said Somalia is a battleground in his war on the West.
Meanwhile militia loyal to the country's defense minister, Col. Barre "Hirale" Aden Shire, have begun fortifying their positions, fearing an attack from the Islamic courts, local journalist Mohamed Ali Siyad told the AP. Col. Shire, whose forces had controlled the strategic seaport of Kismayu until its capture by Islamic fighters on Sunday, reassembled his militia in the town of Baardheere, 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Baidoa, where Somalia's weak government is based. Islamic forces who chased him out of Kismayo on Sunday have left the seaport and are now at Bu'aale, 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Baardheere, a traditional elder, Sheik Salah Mayow, who lives in Bu'aale, told the AP.
The Islamic courts cemented their authority over southern Somalia Saturday when they were handed control of the fertile lower Shabelle region, an area just south of the capital, by an ally, Yusuf Indahaadde. The national security chairman for the Islamic courts had governed the region since 2003.
Islamic official: Ethiopian incursion into Somalia a declaration of
war
Mohamed Sheikh Nor, Associated Press, 9/26/06
Fears of regional conflict soared with the loss of a strategic port to Somalia's radical Islamic militia, which faced angry demonstrations that erupted into deadly violence, and for the first time acknowledged getting help from foreign Muslims. Ethiopian forces, meanwhile, arrived to support the internationally recognized government in its face-off with the radicals. Witnesses saw about 300 Ethiopians in a convoy of 50 armored trucks in Bardaale, 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baidoa, the only town held by the weak government. Islamic forces believe Ethiopian troops aim to cut off their route between Kismayo and Mogadishu. "The incursion of Ethiopian troops into Somali territories is a declaration of war on Somalia," Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, national security chairman for the Islamic group, told The Associated Press by telephone Monday from Mogadishu. "We call on the international community to urge Ethiopia to withdraw its troops from Somalia. If that doesn't happen the consequences of insecurity created by Ethiopia will spread to neighboring countries and to East Africa as a whole."
As it has established authority in the capital and across much of the south starting in June, the Islamic group's strict interpretation of Islam has sparked comparisons with Afghanistan's Taliban. The United States has accused the Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden has portrayed Somalia as a battleground in his war on the U.S.
Several thousand demonstrators protested against the Islamic militia Monday in Kismayo, 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of the capital, Mogadishu. The militia seized Kismayo, one of the last remaining ports outside their control and Somalia's third largest town, a day earlier without a fight. Islamic militiamen with white bands on their heads opened fire on the protesters. Kismayo resident Abdiqadir Filibin said he saw the 13-year-old killed. Two other children were injured, witnesses said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Sporadic gunfire could also be heard in other parts of the town.
"They are ... al-Qaida and we do not want them," said Halimo Mohamed, one of the protesters in Kismayo. "Theirs is not a religion. They are terrorists." But some Somalis have welcomed the order the Islamic group has brought to a country where the transitional government has struggled to assert authority since if was formed in 2004 and where there has been no effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.
Hassan Turki, leader of the Islamic militia, told a demonstration in support of his group in Kismayo earlier Monday that foreign fighters were helping his fighters. Turki, who is rarely seen in public, is on the U.S. and U.N. lists of suspected terrorists for having alleged ties to al-Qaida. In an interview with the AP Monday, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said "terrorists" dominate the Islamic group. Gedi, speaking in neighboring Kenya, called on the U.N. to partially lift an arms embargo to allow for the deployment of African peacekeepers, a move the radicals oppose.
The African Union has endorsed a plan by eastern African states to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia to protect Gedi's weak, internationally recognized government. The U.N. Security Council was expected to meet in New York Monday to discuss a partial lifting of the embargo. The Islamic group and Gedi's government have agreed to a cease-fire, but the Islamic fighters have continued to advance across the country. Gedi accused the Islamic group of violating the nonaggression agreement.
Gedi would not comment on reports of Ethiopian troops entering Somalia, but did say he expected neighboring countries to protect his government. Witnesses had reported several deployments of Ethiopian troops in support of the government in recent months, and U.N. officials have confirmed the presence of a small number of Ethiopian troops around the town of Baidoa, saying the force was intended to defend the government and Ethiopian interests in Somalia. But Ethiopian and Somali officials have repeatedly denied any Ethiopian troops have crossed the border into the country. Ethiopia on Monday repeated earlier denials its troops were in Somalia.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka troops, Tigers fight heavy sea battle
Agence France Presse, 9/25/06
Sri Lanka's navy and Tamil Tiger rebels fought a fierce sea battle on Monday,
with both sides giving conflicting casualty figures ranging from three to 70
killed. A navy vessel detected several boats of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) off the coast of Mullaitivu sparking a battle that both sides said
lasted nearly five hours. "On completion of the confrontation only 14 craft
were seen fleeing... nine sank along with the crew," Sri Lanka's defence
ministry said, adding it was "believed more than 70 Sea Tigers were killed
and many were injured."
The LTTE said only three of its fighters were killed and that no boats were lost. "On our side, we lost three of our cadres killed," LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan told AFP from the Tiger offices in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi in the island's north. He said the Tigers damaged two naval craft. "Both naval craft had to be towed away," Ilanthiriyan said, adding, "we don't know navy casualties." He also denied naval claims that the Tigers were operating a flotilla transporting supplies and cadres to the eastern district of Batticaloa and said they were on a routine patrol. "Nobody can take away our right to patrol the waters of our motherland," Ilanthiriyan said. "We will not stop that. Nobody can stop us either."
The defence ministry said that one of its own craft was "slightly damaged" and "five sailors suffered injuries and one was transferred to Colombo for further treatment". Sri Lanka has suffered an upsurge in bloodshed since December that has left more than 1,500 people dead by official count and a 2002 ceasefire in shreds. The island's three-decade separatist ethnic conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
The LTTE also denied forcing minority Muslims to quit the coastal town of Muttur, where 17 local aid workers from a French charity were massacred last month and which is situated in the same area as where the sea battle erupted. Local residents said dozens of families had fled to public buildings fearing attacks after they received handbills warning of an impending rebel attack on the area. But the LTTE blamed government forces for what it described as a misinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the guerrillas and diverting attention from a recent massacre of 10 Muslim men elsewhere in Sri Lanka. Truce monitors accused government forces of killing 17 aid workers in Muttur earlier last month. The government vehemently denied the charge and has called for an investigation backed by Australian forensic experts. Ten Muslim men were hacked to death in the district of Ampara last week and local residents blamed speicalist police commandos, but the authorities denied responsibility and blamed Tiger guerrillas.
Peace hopes rise as Sri Lanka says Tigers agree to talk
Amal Jayasinghe, Agence France Presse, 9/27/06
Hopes for peace in Sri Lanka rose Wednesday after the government revealed Tamil Tigers have agreed to resume face-to-face negotiations and end a seven-month deadlock in talks. Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has told Colombo he is committed to resuming talks on ending a decades-old separatist conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives, government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said. "We need concrete positive commitments from the leader of the LTTE to resume talks," Rambukwella, also Policy Planning Minister, said. "He has given that."
Political sources close to the government said it was also ready to enter talks, but would not stop retaliatory strikes against Tamil rebels, fighting for a separate homeland in the Sinhalese-majority country. Norway's special envoy for the peace process, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, welcomed the developments and said he would travel to Sri Lanka next week to consult with the two sides. "We see this as a very positive development and we are hopeful both parties will meet for talks as soon as possible," Hanssen-Bauer told AFP in Oslo. Norway hopes to arrange a meeting in Oslo in October and halt an upsurge in violence in the last 10 months that has claimed more than 1,500 lives, despite a truce signed in 2002. A fierce sea battle this week claimed the lives of up to 70 rebels.
There was no immediate reaction from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but they have earlier made it clear they would enter talks without preconditions. Asked if the 51-year-old LTTE leader had given the assurance in writing or verbally through Norway, Rambukwella said: "I will tell you after I discuss it with the president."
President Mahinda Rajapakse had insisted that any resumption of talks, following an aborted meeting in June, should come after Prabhakaran gives a guarantee that he is serious about negotiations and that violence must stop.
Rambukwella also said last week's visit to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi by Norway's ambassador here, Hans Brattskar, had proved positive. "He came back with certain positive suggestions," the minister said. "The president will look at it in the next few days."
The new Norwegian head of Sri Lanka's truce monitoring mission, Lars Solvberg, also visited the rebel-held town on Wednesday and held talks with Tiger political-wing leaders. The LTTE said in a statement that they discussed opening the main road to the northern peninsula of Jaffna, which has been cut by heavy fighting, and left the local population living in virtual siege conditions. Truce monitors blamed the Tigers for launching an attack on the de facto front line in Jaffna on August 11 which sparked the relentless fighting.
Military officials said the airforce hit new targets Wednesday in the rebel-dominated district of Mullaitivu, just south of Jaffna, but there were no details of casualties. Wednesday's developments came a day after India, Sri Lanka's closest neighbour, called for "special efforts" to end the upsurge of violence and break the deadlock in the peace process.
An Indian minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, said his country supported moves for
a "devolution package that could command consensus among the major political
parties, restore ethnic harmony and expeditiously address the legitimate aspirations
of all sections of Sri Lankan society." Over the past three decades more
than 60,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's drawn out ethnic conflict.
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Sudan
African Union head says no peacekeeping troops should go to Darfur
without Sudan's approval
Associated Press, 9/25/06
Peacekeeping troops should not be sent to Sudan's troubled Darfur region without the Sudanese government's approval, the president of the African Union said Monday. Sudan's government has faced international pressure to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force to enter the Darfur region, where ethnic fighting has killed at least 200,000 people and chased 2.5 million from their homes since 2003. "No soldier should go to Sudan without the permission of the Sudanese government because it's not about making war with the Sudanese people but helping them," AU head Alpha Oumar Konare told the Caracas-based television station Telesur during a visit to Venezuela.
The current AU peacekeeping force was scheduled to be replaced by a larger U.N. force this month, but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir opposes U.N. intervention in the Darfur region and the AU has announced it will stay on until at least the end of the year. Konare's comments came as al-Bashir, in Sudan, lashed out at the U.S., saying Washington's plans to create a "new Middle East" were behind an international push to replace AU peacekeepers with U.N. forces in Darfur. "They want to use the Darfur issue to re-colonize Sudan," said al-Bashir, who accused the United States and Britain of wanting to reshape the region in Israel's interests.
Some rebel leaders warn that the Sudanese government is reinforcing the Janjaweed, a pro-government militia of Arab tribesmen that has been blamed for much of the atrocities against ethnic African villagers in Darfur. The Sudanese government denies those allegations and has pledged to disarm the Janjaweed.
UN, Sudan discussing deployment of UN advisers to boost Darfur peacekeepers
Alfred de Montesquiou, Associated Press, 9/26/06
The United Nations and Sudan are discussing the deployment of U.N. military advisers to reinforce the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, hoping to avert a standoff that could deepen the crisis in the war-torn region, officials from both sides said Tuesday. The proposal appeared to be gaining momentum amid fears violence could escalate. The United Nations has demanded Sudan accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in the region, but Khartoum has fiercely deposed it, insisting it will only accept strengthening the current African Union mission. The African peacekeepers' mandate runs out in late December. If no new arrangement is reached, they could withdraw, opening the door to even worse violence in the vast western region of Sudan, where some 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes by fighting since 2003.
At the same time, a Sudanese government offensive and a spate of attacks by rogue rebel groups have left relief organizations with less access to the suffering in Darfur than at any point in the war in the devastated region, according to the U.N.'s head of humanitarian affairs there. An estimated 50,000 people fled their homes during the government offensive this month, said chief Manuel Aranda Da Silva said.
The Sudanese government's top official on Darfur, Majzoub al-Khalifa, said in an interview with the Associated Press that Khartoum was willing to accept a compromise involving U.N. advisers, first raised in public last week during the U.N. General Assembly gathering in New York. "There is a third way ... Why not let the U.N. place its men, command expertise and materiel at the service of the AU mission," al-Khalifa said.
Bahaa Elkoussy, a U.N. spokesman in Sudan, said the two sides were negotiating over sending U.N. advisers "to facilitate the deployment of the AU." "There are ongoing discussions to provide the AU force with support, pending a future decision from the U.N. Security Council," he told The Associated Press. He would not elaborate. But other U.N. officials in Sudan, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the proposal was to send more than 100 U.N. military advisers and dozens of police and civilians to reinforce the AU mission. Elkoussy said U.N. personnel was ready to be sent to Darfur in the coming weeks "as soon as there is a solid agreement with the (Sudanese) government."
The African Union's 7,000-member force has long been overwhelmed in Darfur, too short-staffed and underequipped to prevent violence that has only increased since a peace deal was signed in May between the government and one Darfur rebel group. The AU force's mission had been due to finish at the end of September, but it was extended three months amid the continued deadlock over a U.N. force. The African Union is now struggling to beef up the peacekeeping force. The AU confirmed Tuesday it was planning to send up to 4,000 more African peacekeepers to Darfur, though it lacks the gear and the cash to schedule their deployment.
"At least 1,300 troops are immediately available, we are negotiating with our partners for the funds to send them in," said Noureddine Mezni, the AU spokesman in Sudan. The AU has had little effect in preventing atrocities in Darfur, but Mezni said this would change under the force's new "concept of operations," which sets out more robust tasks for the peacekeepers.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir refuses to let blue helmets take over, calling any U.N. peacekeeping force a U.S.-led ploy to recolonize Sudan. The U.N. cannot legally lead the mission without Khartoum's consent, and al-Bashir has said this would "never" happen. But during the annual General Asembly session last week, al-Bashir gave his backing to the idea of sending U.N. advisers and other support to assist the African Union mission. Later in the week, a U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United Nations was prepared to provide 200 advisers at a cost of US$22 million over the next four months. Another official said the U.N. could help arrange contracts for food, fuel and water for the AU mission. The U.N. and aid groups say that a large military campaign against rebels refusing the peace deal is causing a new crisis. At least 350,000 people are cut off from any kind of aid in North Darfur because of the violence, which has made at least 100,000 more people refugees in the past three months, UN officials say.
Al-Khalifa denied these reports. "We have squeezed the rebels into the extreme north of the region, and 90 percent of Darfur is now secure," he said. He also said that Khartoum has begun to disarm the Janjaweed, a pro-government militia of Arab nomads accused of most of the atrocities against African villagers during the conflict. Al-Khalifa said an "integrated force" of 20,000 soldiers and police blending government troops with former rebels will also be ready to deploy in Darfur within a month to keep the peace. U.N. officials and aid workers have expressed worries that such a Sudanese government deployment will only worsen violence.
UN humanitarian chief in Sudan says situation worsening in Darfur but
aid workers will remain
Alfred de Montesquiou, Associated Press, 9/26/06
Aid workers are getting less and less access to those in need in the war-torn Darfur region even as 50,000 people fled their homes amid a government offensive this month, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in Sudan says. Manuel Aranda Da Silva said the situation in Darfur had never been so bad for aid workers' access since August 2003, the start of the conflict that has since killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million in the vast region of western Sudan. "There have been new, huge difficulties and aid groups have had to pull out from large areas," he told The Associated Press in an interview Monday in Khartoum.
The U.N. estimates 100,000 people have been displaced by violence since May, and Da Silva said half of those fled in September when the Sudanese army launched a major offensive against rebels in North Darfur province, one of three that make up the region. U.N. agencies in the field estimate that hundreds of soldiers and rebels have been killed in the campaign. Da Silva also feared that indiscriminate aerial bombardments of villages hosting rebels could create more civilian casualties. Aid organizations have been unable to operate in North Darfur, meaning they cannot deliver medical or food aid to some 350,000 in need.
Throughout Darfur, banditry is on the rise, as is violence between pro- and anti-government tribes in the south, making regions there dangerous for relief agencies to work in, da Silva said. Top U.N. officials have warned that the recent peace agreement was "in a coma" and that aid workers would have to leave if security further deteriorates. However, da Silva said aid agencies and non-governmental organizations were committed to staying on. "We have a humanitarian responsibility toward the people of Darfur, we are not considering to leave," said Da Silva, the deputy head of the U.N. in Sudan and the humanitarian cooordinator.
Aid workers would only pull out if ordered to do so by the Sudanese government or if the level of violence renders any effort useless, he said. The Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 when mainly ethnic African rebel groups, complaining of discrimination by the Arab-dominated government, launched their revolt. The government responded with a military assault, and pro-government militias known as the janjaweed launched a campaign of violence against villagers. Da Silva said there has recently been a strong increase in attacks on humanitarian groups, and that 11 aid workers had been killed over the past three months. More than 25 vehicles were stolen at gunpoint, mostly by rebels. Rogue rebel chiefs who have resorted to looting have become the greatest danger to aid work, da Silva said. "Not only do they steal cars, but we have to re-negotiate access on a near daily basis," said da Silva. He said humanitarian groups have pressured rebels to return stolen goods and to allow safe-conduct by addressing their families and tribes, who also benefit from the aid.
The recent casualties among aid workers were Sudanese nationals, who make up all but 1,000 of the 15,000 humanitarian workers in Darfur, he said. The latest death was a Sudanese nurse from the International Rescue Committee who was killed by a pro-government militia in a hospital in North Darfur earlier in September. Because of the increased danger, aid groups are changing how they operate in much of Darfur.
"We have to reconfigure our means of assistance, becoming less present on the ground," da Silva said. He said this mobile assistance would rely more on helicopters, partnerships with community leaders and small units briefly stopping in villages to provide emergency help. Da Silva said such plans had been made in anticipation of the possible withdrawal of the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.
The current AU force was scheduled to be replaced by a larger U.N. force this month, but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir opposes U.N. intervention in Darfur. The AU has announced it will stay on until at least the end of the year. On Monday, the president of the African Union said U.N. peacekeeping troops should not be sent to Darfur without the Sudanese government's approval. "No soldier should go to Sudan without the permission of the Sudanese government because it's not about making war with the Sudanese people but helping them," AU head Alpha Oumar Konare told the Caracas-based television station Telesur during a visit to Venezuela.
Konare's comments came a day after al-Bashir lashed out at the U.S., saying Washington's plans to "re-colonize Sudan" and create "a new Middle East" in Israel's interests were behind an international push to replace AU peacekeepers with U.N. forces in Darfur. Many fear a security vacuum will emerge should the AU force leave without being replaced. Most refugees say they will return to their villages as soon as these are deemed safe, and da Silva worried about recent talk in government circles to send people back by force. "I've seen how government handles security in Darfur," he said. "If the army goes into the camps, there will be unpredictable violence."
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