Contents:
Foreign ministers will meet with co-chairmen of OSCE Minsk Group to outline
resolution of territorial dispute.
Government and leader of National Liberation Force sign permanent cease-fire.
Blast at
Russian base in Chechnya kills one, wounds 20
Cause is still under investigation.
Republic
of Nokhchiin? Chechnya's president proposes renaming war-torn region
Nokhchiin is Chechen name used previously by residents.
DR Congo tense as legislative election results emerge
Partial legislative election results gave parties loyal to President Joseph
Kabila a commanding lead.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
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Alert raised after shooting at military helicopter: forces later returned
to normal state of readiness.
Abkhazia,
Georgia agree to resume talks
Parties agreed to resume negotiations along with UN and peacekeepers.
Peacekeepers
deny increasing number of watch posts in Kodori
Report that Russian peacekeepers have only two observation posts.
EU extends monitoring mission in Aceh
Government and GAM have indicated their support for an extension until December
15th.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation Click
here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation.
Troops hunt rebels who freed militant in Indian Kashmir
Altaf Malik who escaped was facing trial over 2004.
Musharraf:
Past Indian aggression justifies stronger Pakistan defense 'at all costs'
President also emphasized Pakistan’s nuclear and missile capabilities.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation.
Kosovo
EU expansion chief calls for stronger commitment to
Kosovo's reconstruction after status talks.
Asks EU governments to commit to long-term backing to ensure the province’s
rehabilitation.
Tadic says
answer for Kosovo in not independence but "maximum autonomy"
Serbia President says he is prepared to offer “the strongest autonomy
in the world,” but not independence.
Moldovan separatist leader says he will step down when region is recognized
Smirnov vows retirement if Trans-Dniester becomes internationally recognized.
Tens of thousands of Maoist supporters bring Nepal capital to standstill
Protesters attended massive rally to promote workers’ rights.
Philippines
Philippines
troops battle rebels
Fighting broke out Monday in western Mindanao when government forces launched
an offensive.
Serbia
& Montenegro
Montenegro,
world's newest country, holds first elections since independence
Parliamentary elections were held on Sunday.
The issue of peacekeepers will be discussed at a meeting of leaders of Intergovernmental
Authority on Development.
Somalia's
government, Islamic militia sign agreement to eventually form unified national
army
Deal did not specify when the agreement would take effect.
Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels warn of retaliation against Sinhalese
Tiger’s political head says that Tamils were suffering “absolute
misery” because of weeks of government airstrikes and shelling.
Sri Lanka
says scores of rebels, soldiers killed in latest fighting
Government spokesman claims that troops killed 150 Tiger guerrillas during
the long-range battles last week.
Darfur rebels say government on offensive, Cabinet
asks AU to leave
Government launched a major attack after rejecting a U.N. Security Council
resolution for the deployment of a 20,000-strong U.N. force.
Sudan calls
for talks after Annan Darfur warning
Government sys that it is open to talks with international community after
rejecting UN peacekeepers.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG
Report.
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Azeri, Armenian FMs may meet over Nagorno-Karabakh Sept. 13
RIA Novosti, 9/6/06
BAKU, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia may meet in London September 13 to outline principles for resolving a long-running territorial dispute, the Azeri minister said Wednesday.
The conflict between the two former Soviet republics over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, first erupted in 1988 when it claimed independence from Azerbaijan to join Armenia. Over 30,000 people were killed on both sides between 1988 and 1994, and over 100 died following a 1994 ceasefire. Nagorno-Karabakh remained in Armenian hands, but tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia have persisted.
"There are plans to meet with [Armenian minister Vardan] Oskanyan and co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group in London on September 13," Elmar Mamedyarov said. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group was created in 1992 to encourage a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. The group is co-chaired by U.S., Russian and French representatives. Mamedyarov said Thursday he spoke by telephone with Bernard Fasier, the French co-chairman of the Minsk Group, who suggested the next round of conflict-resolution talks could be held in Paris September 12-13, or in London September 14-15. Mamedyarov said he agreed to meet with his Armenian counterpart and was discussing the format to be adopted for the talks.
Azerbaijan and Armenia held the latest round of Nagorno-Karabakh talks June
13 in Paris.
Burundi's last rebel holdouts sign comprehensive peace deal with the
government
Ali Sultan, Associated Press, 9/8/06
Burundi's government and the country's last rebel group have signed a permanent cease-fire as the central African nation emerges from 12 years of civil war.
The agreement was signed Thursday by Agathon Rwasa, leader of the rebel National Liberation Force, and Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, said Dieno Khama, a South African mediator. "We are moved by their efforts. It's something to be proud of," Khama told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the ceremony in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Experts believe Thursday's cease-fire is vital to long-term peace in Burundi, a former Belgian colony and one of the world's poorest countries.
The two sides signed a tentative deal in June. Details on Thursday's agreement weren't released, but an associate of Rwasa, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said the government agreed to incorporate rebels into the national army.
Burundi is still reeling from civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people, most of them civilians who died of disease and hunger. The war started in 1993, when Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a Hutu. All of Burundi's main rebel groups from the majority Hutus have signed peace deals, leading to democratic elections last year that established a new government. Only the FNL had opted out.
Although the country's civil war has ended, political troubles are rampant. Several people, including the former president, were arrested recently in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Critics say the government fabricated the plot in order to arrest opposition members. Earlier this week, a leading member of Burundi's ruling party resigned, citing government corruption and human rights abuses. On Thursday, a human rights group said patients are routinely detained in Burundi's hospitals, sometimes for months, if they cannot pay their bills. "Detaining poor patients because they can't pay a bill punishes the poor and violates international human rights law," said Juliane Kippenberg of Human Rights Watch. Jean Paul Nyarushatsi, an official in Burundi's Health Ministry, acknowledged that there have been such detentions, but he said the report "exaggerates."
Most of Burundi's 7 million residents live on less than US$1 a day. The tiny, mountainous country produces tea and coffee.
Tanzania was hosting the peace talks because its former President Mwalimu Julius
Nyerere was the first mediator of the Burundi peace process. After he died in
1999, South Africa took over the mediation. South Africa's first mediator for
the Burundi peace process was Nobel Peace laureate Nelson Mandela.
A ceasefire between Burundi's government and the country's last active rebel force is to begin Sunday, and the ex-rebels are to be progessively reintegrated into the national army, under an accord signed this week. The deal -- signed Thursday in Tanzania by Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza and the National Liberation Forces (FNL) chief Agathon Rwasa -- is intended to herald an end to more than a decade of bloody conflict in the tiny central African country.
The peace accord, a copy of which was seen by AFP late Friday, envisages "the implementation of the ceasefire on J+3", with J day being the date of the signing of the agreement. From "J+14 to J+21", the FNL fighters will be taken "to the demobilisation centre." The FNL fighters "can choose between integration into the armed forces or demobilisation." The process of reintegrating the ex-rebels into the army is to be concluded 30 days after the accord, according to the text.
A monitoring body is also to be set up seven days after the accord comprising representatives of the government, the FNL, the African Union and the United Nations. The FNL was the only one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups to remain outside a 2000 peace process that last year saw the election of a new power-sharing government.
But despite the accord, many in Burundi remained cautious about the prospects for a final and lasting peace after 13 years of ethnically driven war that has ravaged Burundi's economy and infrastructure and claimed some 300,000 lives. The two sides remain far apart on issues critical to a comprehensive peace agreement and Nkurunziza's government has been jolted in recent weeks by internal divisions after the break-up of an alleged, ill-defined coup plot. On Tuesday, Burundi's second vice president, a member of the president's party, resigned in protest against crackdowns on the alleged coup plotters and suspected FNL members, some of whom have reportedly been killed or tortured.
More than 1,000 civilians, many of them from Bujumbura Rural province, have been rounded up in recent months as the government has intensified its campaign against the FNL. Before Nkurunziza's election last year, the FNL had signed a truce with an interim government but the deal collapsed amid mutual recriminations.
And Thursday's South African-brokered deal formalised a June 18 temporary ceasefire that was itself repeatedly violated with deadly rebel raids and counter-attacks.
Burundi's war erupted in 1993 with the assassination of the country's first
democratically elected president, a member of the Hutu ethnic majority, by elements
of the then minority-Tutsi-dominated military.
Blast at Russian base in Chechnya kills one, wounds 20
Agence France Presse, 9/4/06
A blast in Russia's principal military base in Chechnya on Sunday killed one serviceman and wounded 20, though the cause is still under investigation, a local prosecutor told AFP Monday.
"Between 10:00 am and 11:00 am local time (0600-0700 GMT) yesterday, an explosion took place at a guard station located in Khankala. As a result, one federal penitentiary service employee was killed and about 20 were wounded," said Nikolai Kalugin, Chechnya's assistant prosecutor. The reason for the blast in Khankala, a sprawling base just east of the capital Grozny, was still being investigated, Kalugin said. "A terrorist act has not been ruled out, though the reason may have been careless handling of an explosive device," he said.
The Interfax news agency quoted Alexander Sidorov, spokesman for the federal penitentiary service, as saying: "It is 99.9 percent likely that it was an accident rather than any kind of terrorist act."
Attacks on federal forces and local officials are a frequent occurrence in
this restive, war-torn republic in southern Russia's North Caucasus region.
A separatist conflict dating back to the early 1990s has killed tens of thousands
of civilians and, according to official figures, about 10,000 Russian servicemen,
although independent estimates put the number at least twice as high.
Republic of Nokhchiin? Chechnya's president proposes renaming war-torn
region
Associated Press, 9/4/06
Just the word "Chechnya" can conjure images of guerrilla warfare, mine explosions, rampant kidnappings and, for many Russians, wily merchants out to fleece law-abiding citizens.
Chechnya's Kremlin-backed President Alu Alkhanov wants to change that by changing the region's name. Not only does "Chechnya" evoke associations with war and rampant crime, it has no legal basis, Alkhanov said in televised comments during a visit to St. Petersburg. "Chechen" is a Russian word. In the Chechen language which is part of the Caucasian language group the term the people use for themselves is "Nokhchii."
Therefore, "let it be the Republic of Nokhchiin," Alkhanov said. "This is the way Chechens called their republic previously. I think it would be reasonable to give this name sole legitimate status," he was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti agency. Alkhanov instructed the region's information and press minister to meet with experts and representatives of public organizations to research the name change, Russian news agencies reported.
Alkhanov's proposal, which is unlikely to be received with any great affection in the Kremlin or among Russian nationalists, is the latest idea to rename parts of the war-wracked republic. During the short period of de-facto independence in the 1990s between the region's two wars with Russia since the Soviet breakup separatist leaders called it "The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria." Last year, Chechnya's parliament, comprised largely of Moscow-backed lawmakers, proposed renaming the provincial capital Akhmad-Kala in honor of the region's assassinated president, Akhmad Kadyrov. The idea was later shot down by President Vladimir Putin and Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, who said the capital should keep its current name, Grozny.
Several streets in Grozny, meanwhile, have been renamed in honor of the late Chechen president as part of the Kremlin-backed campaign to lionize him. The name Grozny, for its part, is a Russian word meaning "terrible" or "threatening." The name was given by Russian imperial forces that guarded the 19th-century fortress once located where the city stands now.
Some linguists theorize that the name "Chechnya" itself derives from a village in the North Caucasus where soldiers from the czarist-era first encountered local inhabitants.
Chechen lawmaker Ruslan Yamadayev, who is also a member of Russia's national parliament, said Monday it was reasonable to rename the region because of what the Chechen people call themselves. "Some people think the move is untimely, but I disagree," he said in comments on Ekho Moskvy radio.
The word "Chechnya" has a widely pejorative connotation for Russians, not only because of the wars and the terrorist attacks by Chechen separatists, but because many Russians regard Chechens as unscrupulous in business.
After the two devastating wars between Russian forces and separatist rebels over the past 12 years, large-scale fighting has died down, though rebel fighters continue to carry out small-scale, hit-and-run attacks. Violence has increasingly spilled over into neighboring regions, however.
Meanwhile, Chechen law enforcement said Monday that an explosive device detonated
at a Russian military base, killing one official and injuring at least 13. The
Sunday blast occurred on the Khankala military base outside Grozny, in a building
used by prison guards, Chechnya's Interior Ministry said. The head of Russia's
federal prison agency was quoted as saying that carelessness not terrorism was
suspected. "Unfortunately, incidents involving fatalities do occur in places
where large amounts of weapons and explosives are stored," Yury Kalinin
was quoted by Interfax as saying.
DR Congo tense as legislative election results emerge
Agence France Presse, 9/4/06
Partial legislative election results released Monday in the Democratic Republic of Congo, beset by transport and teacher strikes, gave parties loyal to President Joseph Kabila a commanding lead.
The 31-party Alliance of the Presidential Majority, headed by the 35-year-old president, gained 169 out of the 340 parliamentary seats for which results have so far been counted, according to the results published on the electoral commission's website and added together by AFP. The Rally of Congolese Nationalists (Renaco), the opposition bloc supporting Kabila's main rival Jean-Pierre Bemba, was in second place with 47 seats. The national assembly hold 500 seats altogether.
Similar results two weeks ago from the first-round of presidential voting -- giving 44.8 percent to Kabila and 20 percent to Bemba -- sparked violent clashes between the rival camps and left 23 people dead. The bitter political rivals signed an accord to remove their troops from the city center and to establish ground rules for the October 29 run-off vote, but have not met face-to-face since the deadly clashes on August 20, 21 and 22.
A hoped-for meeting between Kabila and Bemba, which observers say could ease sharp tensions in Kinshasa and elsewhere in the country, could take place as soon as Tuesday, said a source in the UN MONUC peacekeeping force. MONUC, which has 17,600 troops stationed across the vast Central African country, and the 1,000-strong European EUFOR force in Kinshasa, had not taken any special measures ahead of Monday's announcement, but continuing to patrol the capital. There were no clashes reported Monday, but the city remained tense as public and private transport workers, along with school teachers in Kinshasa and other major cities, went on strike. Teachers were calling for high pay, while mini-bus and taxi drivers stayed away from work to protest what they described as police extortion and racketeering.
The remaining legislative seats tallied Monday have gone to independents and smaller parties, including one led by the country's ex-central bank governor, Pierre Pay Pay, who had garnered 24 seats. "We are going to meet to examine the official records of all the circumscriptions and then start our deliberations," the president of the electoral commission, Apollianire Malu Malu, told AFP. Malu Malu added he was not yet sure that all results would be published on Monday.
Ballots remained to be counted notably in Kinshasa, which accounts for 58 seats and where Bemba enjoys strong support, as well as in the western province of Bandudu. "According to our estimations, Kabila's camp will be clearly in the lead but will not obtain an absolute majority. Bemba's camp will be second," a Western diplomat in Kinshasa said Sunday.
The July 30 elections -- the country's first multi-party polls in 46 years -- were a key step in the political transition of the vast central African nation after it emerged in 2003 from a bloody five-year civil war.
Kinshasa has been relatively calm since the two rival camps agreed to the billeting of their troops, although the deal has not been completely adhered to. "There are too many armed men" circulating in Kinshasa, the EU special representative for the African Great Lakes region, Aldo Ajello, told AFP on Friday.
Meanwhile, on Sunday a top official warned that the scheduled formation of
a new DRC army including former soldiers and rebels was well behind schedule,
leaving thousands of troops loyal to rival private armies. "As long as
we have not completed demobilization, there will be instability," said
Daniel Kawata, head of the country's National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization
and Reintegration (Conader). Kawata estimated that between 50,000-60,000 troops
still had to be demobilized.
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Separatist South Ossetia briefly puts forces on high alert amid tensions
with Georgia
Paata Kurushvili, Associated Press, 9/4/06
Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region briefly put its forces on heightened alert Monday as tensions rose a day after its forces shot at a military helicopter carrying Georgia's defense minister. The alert was called after a Georgian military column was seen moving toward the region, Anatoly Barankevich, defense minister for South Ossetia's separatist government, told The Associated Press. He later said the forces later returned to their normal state of readiness.
Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili said he was aboard a helicopter that came under fire Sunday afternoon as it flew over South Ossetia. The aircraft was damaged but landed safely in Georgian-controlled territory and no one was hurt, Okruashvili said. South Ossetian officials initially said its forces fired at the helicopter with heavy-caliber machine guns after repeatedly warning the aircraft that it wasa violating South Ossetian airspace. However, the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Barankevich as saying the helicopter fired on South Ossetian forces first.
The incident sharply aggravated tensions between the Georgian government and the authorities who have run South Ossetia during more than a decade of de-facto separation from Georgia. South Ossetia seeks to become part of Russia, which has close contact with the separatist government but does not formally recognize it. Russia's ties with South Ossetia and another separatist Georgian province, Abkhazia, are a perpetual sore point in relations between Tbilisi and Moscow. Russia has peacekeeping forces in both regions, and the Georgian government accuses them of siding with the separatists.
Georgia's Ministry for Conflict Resolution issued renewed criticism Monday. Sunday's shooting "once more confirms that the mechanism of the peacekeeping operation, under complete Russian control ... single-mindedly serves not a full political resolution and reconciliation of a divided society but the preservation of a mechanism of unleashing provocations and military actions," it said in a statement.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said the incident marked the 13th time since July 1 that Georgian military helicopters violated airspace in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone. Such flights are "provocations" and show the Georgian government is "openly laying the ground" for a forceful resolution of the dispute, Kamynin said in a statement.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to use peaceful means to resolve the conflict, but Givi Targamadze, head of the parliament's defense and security committee, said the Georgian government's patience is running out. "The Ossetian powers have several months to accept Georgian proposals on the peaceful settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict," he said. "However, we won't wait for ever. If (South Ossetia) doesn't reconsider its policy aimed at confrontation, we'll adhere to the forceful methods of solving the conflict."
Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili told The Associated Press that the government sees the incident as "a provocation and an attack, as well as a threat," and suggested "Russian organizations" were behind it. Speaking after Saakashvili met with foreign diplomats, Bezhuashvili said Georgia wants other nations to treat the incident as a terrorist act and react accordingly.
Tensions have grown since the January 2004 election of Saakashvili, who has vowed to establish control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. His government accuses Russia of supporting the separatists in a bid to prolong its centuries-old domination of Georgia, which is courting the United States and NATO.
Abkhazia, Georgia agree to resume talks
RIA Novosti, 9/9/06
SUKHUMI, September 9 (RIA Novosti) - Abkhazia's foreign minister and Georgia's state minister for conflict resolution agreed Saturday at a meeting in the UN mission headquarters in Sukhumi to resume talks. "The sides agreed on the necessity to resume the negotiating process both as part of four-party meetings [Georgia, Abkhazia, UN and peacekeepers] and in the framework of the Coordination Council of the Georgian and Abkhazian sides under the UN aegis and with participation of the Russian Federation and the Group of Friends of Georgia," Abkazian Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said.
The negotiating process was interrupted after Georgia's secret services launched
a special operation in the upper part of the Kodori Gorge. "At the meeting
the Abkhazian side spoke for demilitarization of the upper part of the Kodori
Gorge and withdrawal of all armed units of Georgia's Defense Ministry,"
Shamba said.
Peacekeepers deny increasing number of watch posts in Kodori
RIA Novosti, 9/9/06
SUKHUMI, September 9 (RIA Novosti) - The commander of the collective peacekeeping force in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict Saturday denied reports in Georgian media that the number of observation posts in the Kodori Gorge had grown. General Sergei Chaban said Russian peacekeepers deployed in the gorge still had only two observation posts. He said they conducted routine monitoring of the lower part of the gorge together with UN military observers. Chaban said that if Tbilisi agreed, Russian peacekeepers were ready to take part in monitoring the upper part of the Kodori Gorge, controlled by Georgia.
Russian troops remain in Abkhazia as part of a peacekeeping mission from the
former Soviet republics, but Georgia has accused them of supporting the self-proclaimed
republic's separatists. The Kodori Gorge in northern Georgia marks the de facto
border between Abkhazian and Georgian-controlled territory. The lower part of
the gorge is controlled by Abkhazia, and the upper part by Georgia. Georgia
previously agreed to UN monitoring of the Kodori Gorge, but with a minimal Russian
presence.
EU extends monitoring mission in Aceh
Xinhua General News Service, 9/7/06
The European Union (EU) agreed on Thursday to extend the EU-led monitoring mission in Aceh, Indonesia by three months until Dec. 15 this year. The European Council said in a statement Thursday that both the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have indicated their support for such an extension.
The mission was set up on Sept. 15 last year by the EU and five countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to monitor implementation of the peace agreement set out in the memorandum of understanding signed by the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement in August last year. The EU will earmark 1.53 million euros (about 1.96 U.S. dollars) for the three-month extension, the council said.
Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, welcomed the decision to extend the Aceh monitoring mission. "In view of the remarkable progress in the Aceh peace process, which we have helped to achieve, it seems clear that it is our obligation to respond positively to the request from the government of Indonesia, with the full support of the Free Aceh Movement leadership, to a final extension of the joint EU-ASEAN mission in Aceh until December," he said.
Continued implementation of the memorandum of understanding signed in August
last year becomes more important now as the people of Aceh are preparing for
their first ever direct and democratic local elections to be held on Dec. 11
this year, Solana said. The EU will further support these elections by sending
an election observation team to conduct the monitoring of the elections, he
said.
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Ivory Coast
ICoast political rivals meet again to untangle blocked peace
Agence France Presse, 9/5/06
Ivory Coast political rivals met Tuesday to overcome differences and unblock the country's long-delayed and faltering peace process, but there were few signs of progress. Transitional Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, tasked with steering the divided country out of its crisis, was locked behind closed doors with President Laurent Gbagbo, rebel leader Gillaume Soro and opposition leaders Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara. The five men were seeking to make headway on the contentious issue of voter registration which has stalled the peace process, which also sets out the disarmament of warring parties and new elections.
Sources close to the talks and analysts were skeptical of any breakthrough, with some suggesting the meeting was merely a face-saving move by Banny ahead of two crucial international meetings on the crisis. "I do not think that it is going to solve the main problem because the blockages are intense," said a close aide of opposition leader Ouattara. "This meeting appears organised just to show the Ivorians political will to the UN," added the source.
A UN official said Banny seemed keen to show the United Nations that he still had cards in his hand and that the peace process had advanced. "This meeting is in the interest of Banny," Gilles Yabi a specialist on Ivory Coast with the global think-tank International Crisis Group (IGC) told AFP in Dakar. "The Prime Minister is the one who wants to have something to present to the international working group (which meets on Friday)," Yabi said. "I will be surprised if there is going to be an important decision."
The outcome of the Yamoussoukro talks will be scrutinised by the panel of international power brokers on Friday in Abidjan. The five men will meet again in New York on September 20 when the UN will pressure them to reach a deal after four years of deadlock and backsliding.
Rebel spokesman Sidiki Konate said during a break in the talks that Banny had promised that he had solutions to certain obstacles. "We will hear what he has to say to us," said Konate.
Yabi said the most that could be expected was an agreement over issuing national identification certificates that has impeded a scheme to register some 3.5 million undocumented Ivorians before the polls.
Despite a series of peace deals, little has changed since September 2002 when an unsuccessful coup split the country into a government-held south and a rebel-controlled north. The UN had to admit two weeks ago that the October 31 deadline it had set for presidential elections would be missed due to delays in poll preparations. The elections were already pushed back by a year last October, giving Gbagbo another year in office.
Faced with this stalemate the UN has trod a difficult path between wanting
to get things moving at the risk of reviving tensions, or letting the main Ivorian
players work out their differences and seeing the process continue to bog down.
Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny has deferred naming his new government to next week to allow time to consult and finalise its composition, he said late Thursday. "I believe that I can say the government will be set up as of next week within the (national unity) framework which we tried out in December," he told a news conference.
Banny had been given until Thursday afternon by President Laurent Gbagbo to
form a new government one day after the surprise mass resignation of his entire
cabinet over a pollution scandal that left three people dead and some 1,500
others poisoned.
Troops hunt rebels who freed militant in Indian Kashmir
Agence France Press, 9/8/06
Indian security forces were hunting Islamic militants who freed a rebel prisoner from a high-security court compound in Indian Kashmir, police said Friday.
The handcuffed prisoner, Altaf Malik, was on the lawns of the court compound in southern Pulwama district late Thursday when a constable guarding him was shot at close range and badly wounded, police said. "After the shooting the detainee managed to escape in handcuffs," a police statement said, adding it was unclear who shot the policeman. Confusion followed as militants outside the compound hurled a grenade which exploded against a wall and the militant escaped, a police official said.
Malik was facing trial over the 2004 murder of an engineer and his brother involved in building the first railway in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley. The detainee, also known as Pintoo, belongs to the powerful rebel group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which claimed responsibility for freeing him in telephone calls to local media, police said. Malik was a "divisional commander" of the group before his arrest, police said. "We have launched a hunt to find them," the police official said, adding all security agencies, including the army and paramilitary forces, were alerted.
Kashmir is in the grip of a 17-year-old separatist insurgency against Indian
rule that has so far left more than 44,000 people dead. The separatists say
the death toll is at least double.
Musharraf: Past Indian aggression justifies stronger Pakistan defense 'at all
costs'
Associated Press, 9/6/06
Pakistan's president said on Wednesday that an attack by archrival India 41 years ago made his Islamic nation realize that it should strengthen its defenses "at all costs." "Pakistan is a nuclear and missile power," President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said in a statement released to mark Defense Day. "We are now a country having an impregnable defense."
Defense Day commemorates a 17-day war with India over Kashmir. Islamabad claims victory in the 1965 conflict, saying its forces foiled an attack by a much larger Indian army. India says Pakistan started the war in the disputed Himalayan region.
"The aggression that we faced 41 years ago made us conscious about the need to strengthen the defense of our country at all costs," Musharraf said. "We realized that big countries seeking to impose their hegemony pay little heed to international laws and could violate the sanctity of borders of smaller neighbors with impunity," the military leader said.
Pakistan and India share a history of hostile relations mainly because of their dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. The nuclear-armed rivals separately control parts of Kashmir but each of them claims the whole of the region. The two countries have fought two wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947.
In January 2004, Pakistani and Indian leaders began a series of negotiations aimed at resolving the issue of Kashmir and other minor disputes. While the efforts for peace by the two countries have seen them restore severed travel links, normalize diplomatic ties and ease travel across their heavily militarized border, they have made little progress on Kashmir.
Pakistan's Dawn newspaper on Wednesday quoted Musharraf as saying that good
ties between Pakistan and India depended on settling Kashmir. "Improved
ties between India and Pakistan will not be possible until the two sides resolve
their differences over Kashmir," Musharraf was quoted as saying in a meeting
Tuesday with Sardar Attiq Ahmed Khan, prime minister of Pakistan's portion of
Kashmir.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
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here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International
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EU expansion chief calls for stronger commitment to Kosovo's reconstruction
after status talks
Associated Press, 9/6/06
A top European Union official called on European Union governments Wednesday to commit to long-term financial backing of Kosovo to ensure the province's rehabilitation does not fail. "The EU has a major responsibility in the future of Kosovo," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told the European Parliament, adding that the 25-nation bloc will have to take "the lead" in Kosovo reconstruction efforts after current international negotiations on the Serbian province's future status are agreed upon.
Those talks are entering a critical phase in determining whether Kosovo will stay part of Serbia or become an independent state. The talks, which aim to get a deal by the end of the year, have pitted Serbia and Kosovo's minority Serbs against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian community, which wants full independence. "The success of the status process will depend on the considerable degree on the willingness of the EU to respond rapidly and quickly," Rehn said. "The EU has to give a clear signal that it will stay in Kosovo ... and to support its long term EU perspective."
Rehn criticized moves by EU governments to cut EU staff at the European Commission and not to consider funding for Kosovo's future. He said that his office would be unable to carry out EU commitments in the Balkans without staff needed to provide expertise and guidance to Kosovo in areas such as economic reform, policing, administration and justice issues.
Kosovo has an estimated 50 percent unemployment rate, and many people live in poverty, making it the province the poorest region in the Western Balkans, according to EU figures. The economy has mostly been kept afloat by international aid in reconstruction projects. Kosovo has failed to attract much foreign investment due to the unresolved political status and fears of instability.
Formally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been under U.N. rule since mid-1999 when NATO's air war halted a crackdown by Serb forces on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
Rehn said the European Commission was already working with the World Bank and other international institutions to prepare a new reconstruction strategy for Kosovo. He said the EU would organize a donors' conference after the status talks concluded. "It is better to cover costs of economic and social development than sending more soldiers to the Balkans," Rehn said.
Tadic says answer for Kosovo in not independence but "maximum
autonomy"
George Gedda, Associated Press, 9/7/06
While rejecting independence for Kosovo, Serbian President Boris Tadic said Thursday his government is prepared to offer the territory the "strongest autonomy in the world" as part of a settlement over the region's future. Tadic said decisions in U.N.-mediated negotiations on Kosovo will have implications for the entire Balkan region and beyond. Tadic spoke to a gathering at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group. He is here for talks with President George W. Bush and other senior officials as part of a campaign to keep Kosovo as part of Serb territory.
He pointed out that there are many national groups in independent countries in the Balkan region, citing Macedonia and Bosnia as examples. Granting independence to Kosovo, he said, would only encourage breakaway movements through out the region, creating widespread instability. "We are not only defending Kosovo's sovereignty but stability in the whole region," Tadic said. At another point, he said that any imposition of independence for Kosovo "would be a clear and present danger for democracy in the world."
Earlier, Tadic joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in signing an agreement at the State Department that establishes a basis for U.S. military personnel to hold regular exchanges, training exercises and other types of cooperation in Serbia. Rice said the United States "looks forward to the deepening of our defense relationship and indeed the deepening of our friendship."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States believes that "a stable, democratic Serbia in the Balkans is important, not only for Serbia and the Serbian people but for the stability of that region." He also expressed support for closer Serbian ties with European institutions. He noted that the European Union is insisting on Serb cooperation with the war crimes tribuanl in the Hague as a condition for membership.
In his comments at Heritage, Tadic also reaffirmed his support for the arrest and extradition of Radko Mladic, a Serbian former military commander, to the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia. He called it a "legal and moral obligation." "Mladic must be found and arrested immediately," Tadic said, supporting a view long held by the United States. Under Serbia's vision for Kosovo's future, Tadic said the territory would be allowed to join international financial institutions and thus receive loans for development and financial stability. He added that Serbia has offered to provide oil to Kosovo to ensure homes in the region are heated this winter. "We are not going to govern Kosovo-Albanians," he said. "We are respecting their rights but we are respecting the rights of Serbs in Kosovo as well."
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Moldovan separatist leader says he will step down when region is recognized
Associated Press, 9/5/06
Separatist leader Igor Smirnov said he will run for leadership of Moldova's breakaway province of Trans-Dniester and would only step down when it gains international recognition, in comments published Tuesday. "When we are recognized, then we can retire," he was quoted as saying Monday by Trans-Dniester private news agency Lenta PMR. Leadership elections are to be held in December.
Smirnov, 64, has run the breakaway region since 1991, when it broke away from Moldova over fears Moldova wanted to reunite with neighboring Romania. Moldova was part of Romanian until 1940, but Trans-Dniester was never part of Romania. A Russian citizen, Smirnov moved to Trans-Dniester in 1986 to run a Soviet electric company.
On Sept. 17, Trans-Dniester will hold a referendum asking citizens whether they want to unite with Moldova, with Russia or to be independent. Some 400,000 people are eligible to vote. Trans-Dniester gets strong support from Russia which has troops and weapons there. Trans-Dniester is not recognized internationally and the referendum will not be recognized.
Tens of thousands of Maoist supporters bring Nepal capital to standstill
Agence France Presse, 9/6/06
Tens of thousands of Maoist rebel supporters brought the centre of Nepal's capital to a standstill Wednesday with a massive rally at which union leaders pledged to protect workers' rights in a new democracy. The crowds, carrying banners proclaiming "Long live the Maoists," chanted anti-monarchy slogans as they assembled at an open-air threatre for a general meeting of the All Nepal Trade Union Federation (Revolutionary), a group affiliated with the rebels.
"Even after democracy has been restored, the workers are still exploited and live like second-class citizens," federation vice chairman Badri Bajgai told the peaceful crowd. "We will fight collectively for their rights and our movement will continue until we see positive changes," he said. The crowd listened to the trade unionists' speeches under the gaze of a couple of dozen riot police who made no effort to prevent the meeting.
Later Wednesday, Nepal's King Gyanendra was expected to make a rare public appearance at a religious festival in the capital, but all traffic in the centre had been brought to a stop by the massive crowds.
A ceasefire has been in effect in Nepal since the Maoists and mainstream political parties spearheaded protests forcing Gyanendra to give up absolute rule in April and hand power to an interim multi-party government. Under a peace process launched soon after Gyanendra handed back power seized from lawmakers in February 2005, a power-sharing government of Maoists and political parties is to be created until elections to a constituent assembly can be held next year. The assembly will rewrite the Himalayan country's constitution to at least formally remove the king from any political or military role. The rebels want the monarchy abolished.
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Philippines troops battle rebels
United Press International, 9/6/06
Three days of fighting between Philippines troops and Abu Sayyaf guerillas reportedly has left more than 80 rebels dead, the Manila Times said.
Military officials said Wednesday that the fighting broke out Monday in western
Mindanao when the government forces launched on offensive in the Jolo Island
area. The Manila Times said the objective was the capture of rebel leaders tied
to the 2002 bombings of a resort in Bali. Government casualties were pegged
at six with military operations continuing.
Montenegro, world's newest country, holds first elections since independence
Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press, 9/10/06
Voters in the world's newest country, Montenegro, were voting Sunday in the first parliamentary elections since their tiny Balkan nation became independent from Serbia. The vote for the 81-seat assembly is key to Montenegro's aspirations to join the European Union and NATO, and the new parliament will be charged with drafting and passing a national constitution.
The governing coalition, which led the nation to independence after a May referendum, has campaigned on promises to lead Montenegro quickly toward the EU and NATO. The pro-Serb opposition parties which together are backed by about 32 percent of Montenegro's ethnic Serbs pledged to coordinate the country's path closely with Serbia's.
Some 480,000 people, out of a 620,000-population, were eligible to vote at Montenegro's 1,111 polling stations, which opened at 8 a.m. (0600GMT) and close at 9 p.m. (1900GMT).
"I expect a victory of those who have given us the free Montenegro," said Radmila Avramovic, an employee of a state-run company, as she cast her ballot in capital, Podgorica, on a sunny and warm morning.
The ruling leftist Democratic Party of Socialists, headed by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, and its allied Social Democrats enjoy 45.1 percent support among voters, according to a poll last week by the Montenegro-based Center for Democracy and Human Rights, or CEDEM.
Djukanovic, who spearheaded Montenegro's separation from Serbia, said the vote was "crucial for Montenegro" as it determines its "road toward Europe and NATO." His main rivals a group of right-leaning, pro-Serbia parties have 18.8 percent support, according to CEDEM's poll which questioned 1,003 voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
The pro-Serb parties have said that, if they won, they might hold another referendum on re-establishing a joint state with much-larger Serbia. Goran Danilovic said his Serbian List opposition coalition would work toward "forming a union again with our Serb brothers."
Ranked third in the poll with 16.6 percent support was Movement for Change, a think-tank that recently registered as a political party to challenge Djukanovic with pledges to fight corruption and improve the economy. "We want to end Djukanovic's 17-year rule of incompetence and corruption," Movement's leader Nebojsa Medojevic said of the longest-standing leader in Europe. "If Montenegro wants to join Europe, this government has to be removed."
The Movement was expected to emerge as a kingmaker from the vote, with neither the pro-Serb faction nor Djukanovic's coalition expected to win the outright majority needed to control government. Srdjan Darmanovic, and independent election analyst, said Djukanovic's camp would likely forge a postelection alliance with a smaller party to secure parliamentary support and retain government.
Parallel to the parliamentary elections Sunday, voters were also choosing local
council members in 13 of Montenegro's 21 municipalities.
Somalia's Islamic militia ask government to reverse call for peacekeepers,
officials say
Malkhadir Muhumed, Associated Press, 9/4/06
Islamic militants who control much of southern Somalia have given the country's virtually powerless government a list of demands, including that the administration reverse its call for international peacekeepers.
The Associated Press acquired a copy of the document the Islamic group gave to government negotiators after the talks began in Khartoum on Saturday. Awadh Asharah, a spokesman for the government negotiating team, said the administration has issued a response to the militants, but he offered no details.
Somalia's virtually powerless government in the past has called for peacekeepers to help it establish a hold on the country. Parliament has endorsed a security plan drawn up by President Abdullahi Yusuf's government that includes a role for a regional peacekeeping mission. The issue of peacekeepers will be discussed Tuesday at a meeting of leaders of the seven-nation Intergovernmental Authority on Development, senior Kenyan foreign affairs official Thuita Mwangi said Sunday in Nairobi.
Ibrahim Hassan Adow, the Islamic group's foreign affairs chief, said over the weekend that foreign interference would be "a recipe for the renewal of civil war," alluding to reports that Ethiopian troops had taken up position in three Somali towns to protect the government.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, pulling the country into anarchy. The current government was established two years ago with the support of the United Nations, but it has failed to assert any power outside its base in Baidoa, which is 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital, Mogadishu. On Monday, five people were killed in Baidoa when government forces took control of the airport from a clan-based militia, government officials said.
Clerics and militiamen set up a network of Islamic courts in a bid to restore order by enforcing Islamic law, sparking fears of an emerging Taliban-style regime. In June, they swept through Somalia, seizing control of much of the south, including the capital, Mogadishu.
The Islamic group has restored a semblance of order, allowing Mogadishu's main seaport to reopen in late August after 11 years. The U.N.'s World Food Program made a shipment to the port Sunday for the first time in more than a decade. The shipment followed a series of meetings on security and other issues between officials of the U.N. and the Islamic group. "The reopening of the port makes it easier for us to reach more than 1 million people across the country who rely on our assistance," said WFP Somalia Acting Country Director Leo van der Velden.
Somalia's government and the Islamists held talks in June, but failed to resume them in July as planned amid divisions within the government about how to handle the Islamic courts' ascendancy in Somalia. Islamic leaders initially refused to attend after reports that Ethiopian troops had entered Somalia. The Islamic courts later reversed their position, however, saying they wanted to discuss the Ethiopian presence with the government directly. Ethiopia has denied sending troops to Somalia.
Yusuf's representatives have said they are open to the Islamic leaders being
part of the government but only under a clan-based formula that was used to
form the government and parliament. The formula was not based on what territory
leaders held but on what clan they belong to.
Somalia's government, Islamic militia sign agreement to eventually form
unified national army
Malkhadir Muhumed, Associated Press, 9/5/06
Somalia's virtually powerless government and an Islamic militia that has seized control of much of southern Somalia have signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army, officials said. The deal late Monday, which came after two days of peace talks in Sudan, did not specify when the agreement would take effect. Talks were to resume Oct. 30 in Khartoum.
"The Islamic courts have met the expectations of our people," said Abdullahi Sheik Ismail, one of several deputy prime ministers in the government. Both sides also agreed to form a peace committee in order to determine how to implement the plan. Ibrahim Hassan Adow, who signed on behalf of the Islamic courts, said: "We are pleased we came to this agreement within two days."
Another major point was that the Islamic courts will not take any more territory and will instead wait for the Oct. 30 talks. Both sides also agreed to stop the use of propaganda against each other.
It was the first time they agreed to form a national army.
Somalia's parliament has endorsed a security plan drawn up by President Abdullahi Yusuf's government that includes a role for a regional peacekeeping mission. A coalition of east African nations will discuss peacekeepers in Somalia on Tuesday at a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The group, known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, mediated talks four years ago that led to the formation of Somalia's government.
Adow, the Islamic group's foreign affairs chief, said over the weekend that foreign interference would be "a recipe for the renewal of civil war," alluding to reports that Ethiopian troops had taken up position in three Somali towns to protect the government. Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, pulling the country into anarchy.
The current government was established two years ago with the support of the United Nations, but it has failed to assert any power outside its base in Baidoa, which is 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital, Mogadishu. On Monday, five people were killed in Baidoa when government forces took control of the airport from a clan-based militia, government officials said.
Clerics and militiamen set up a network of Islamic courts in a bid to restore order by enforcing Islamic law, sparking fears of an emerging Taliban-style regime. In June, they swept through Somalia, seizing control of much of the south, including the capital, Mogadishu. The Islamic group has brought a semblance of order to a country that has seen little more than anarchy in years. Mogadishu's airport and seaport have reopened after 11 years, and on Sunday the U.N.'s World Food Program sent a ship carrying cereal, oil and other staple foods. "The reopening of the port makes it easier for us to reach more than 1 million people across the country who rely on our assistance," said WFP Somalia Acting Country Director Leo van der Velden. The shipment followed a series of meetings on security and other issues between officials of the U.N. and the Islamic group.
Somalia's government and the Islamists held talks in June, but failed to resume them in July as planned.
Yusuf's representatives have said they are open to the Islamic leaders being
part of the government but only under a clan-based formula that was used to
form the government and parliament. The formula was not based on what territory
leaders held but on what clan they belong to.
Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels warn of retaliation against Sinhalese
Cassie Biggs, Associated Press, 9/7/06
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have warned that the majority Sinhalese would pay the price for the "absolute misery" ethnic Tamils have suffered due to weeks of government airstrikes and shelling.
Sri Lanka has been convulsed by three decades of conflict between the Sinhalese-dominated state and ethnic Tamil rebels who have been fighting for a separate homeland for the country's Tamil minority in the north and east. The conflict one of Asia's longest running killed about 65,000 people before a 2002 cease-fire that has all but shattered amid the last six weeks of tit-for-tat shelling and bombing in the north and east.
The recent battles, including the military's capture Monday of a Tiger-held enclave in the east, have killed hundreds more and forced about 220,000 people from their homes, according to the United Nations. Most are now living in squalid refugee camps in the Tamil-majority northeast where food and medicine is running low and movement across rebel and government lines has been curtailed.
S.P. Tamilselvan, the Tiger's political head, told Norway's ambassador on Wednesday that Tamils were suffering "absolute misery," and criticized the international community's lack of action, the rebels' peace Web site said. He warned that the majority Sinhalese would have to "face the consequences soon." Tamilselvan's comments were the clearest indication yet that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were preparing to retaliate for the government's capture of the key rebel enclave.
Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella, responding to Tamilselvan's comments, said the rebels "have not been saints for the past 25 years and they have done much more damage to the civilian population in the past." "Killing people is part of their strategy," he said.
Senior rebel leader Seevaratnam Puleedevan earlier told The Associated Press that unless the army withdraws from Sampur, it would be considered an act of war. "By attacking and occupying our territories, the Sri Lankan government has disrupted the whole (peace) process and their actions have brought the cease-fire agreement to the brink of collapse," Puleedevan said.
Meanwhile, a breakaway faction of the Tigers widely believed to have military backing said it had overrun four camps belonging to the mainstream rebel group in the east. The Karuna faction is now in total control of rebel-held areas in eastern Ampara district, T. Thuyavan, a spokesman for the group, said in a phone call to The AP on Wednesday. The Tigers control vast swaths of the north and hold pockets of territory in the east along with the government and Karuna. Karuna was a powerful Tiger leader credited for many of the rebels' victories over security forces. He broke away in 2004 and maintains a stronghold in the southeast where his fighters, estimated to number only a few hundred, regularly attack the Tigers. They are also widely believed to be backed by the military, although the government strongly denies this.
Sri Lanka says scores of rebels, soldiers killed in latest fighting
Amal Jayasinghe, Agence France Presse, 9/10/06
Sri Lanka said Sunday that its troops had killed scores of Tamil Tiger rebels in fierce weekend fighting in the northern Jaffna peninsula that also left 28 soldiers dead. Mortar and artillery duels along a de facto frontline on the contested peninsula killed the 28 and left 125 wounded, a defence ministry spokesman said. The rebels suffered 115 dead and "many more wounded," he said. Earlier, a ministry spokesman claimed that troops has killed 150 Tiger guerrillas during the long-range battles at the weekend. Both sides are known to exaggerate the other's casualties in the absence of independent verification.
There was no immediate word from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) but the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said there had been no rebel casualties except for four killed on Friday.
The government launched an offensive at the weekend including intense air attacks and shelling of Tamil Tiger positions south of the army's defence lines, military officials said. The defence ministry spokesman said soldiers were consolidating an area they wrested from rebel control in Jaffna amid sporadic fighting on Sunday. "Troops are digging in at their locations but there are sporadic mortar attacks this morning too," the spokesman said.
The rebels, who claim the Jaffna peninsula as a cultural capital in their fight for a separate Tamil homeland on the Indian Ocean island nation, offered stiff resistance including new artillery attacks Sunday, military sources said. A new wave of fighting erupted in Jaffna last month when the Tamil Tigers staged a major artillery and mortar bomb attack against military positions within the peninsula, but most of the battles died down after two weeks.
Security forces staged the latest action to strengthen defences and push back Tiger artillery that targets the main airbase in Jaffna, military sources said. The fighting has also effectively cut off the only road access to the peninsula where about 8,000 civilians, including a large number of foreign nationals of Sri Lankan origin, are believed to be trapped. The Sri Lankan navy on Saturday moved 795 civilians in a military ship to the northeastern port town of Trincomalee.
Sri Lanka and international aid agencies have used ships to bring supplies to Jaffna and evacuate civilians but food and fuel are reportedly scarce after weeks of fighting. However, the government was arranging for more food and fuel to be sent to Jaffna this week, the essential services department said.
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.
Separately, police and troops maintained a high state of alert in the capital amid fears of rebel retaliatory attacks, a police official said Sunday. The rebels warned last week that they could strike in Colombo.
In attacks elsewhere, three soldiers were killed and two wounded Sunday when
suspected Tamil Tiger guerrillas lobbed a grenade into the vehicle in the northern
district of Vavuniya, military officials said. They also said two Tigers were
killed elsewhere in the island's embattled northeast when they tried to attack
an army foot patrol.
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Darfur rebels say government on offensive, Cabinet asks AU to leave
Mohamed Saeed, Associated Press, 9/4/06
Rebels in Sudan's ravaged Darfur region said that government forces backed by bombers were pursuing a week-old offensive and African Union peacekeepers reported continued fighting. And the government significantly raised the stakes in Khartoum's standoff with the international community, calling on Sunday for the AU to withdraw its troops from all of Darfur.
The rebels said that aircraft were carrying out daily bombing raids as government troops seek to drive guerrillas from the National Redemption Front from their strongholds north of Darfur's provincial capital El Fasher.
The government, which on Thursday rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution for the deployment of a 20,000-strong U.N. force in troubled Darfur, about a week ago launched a major attack reportedly involving thousands of troops and Janjaweed militias in the northern part of Darfur.
The Sudanese news agency SUNA, meanwhile, quoted President Omar al-Bashir as saying U.N. attempts to deploy peacekeepers was a bid by the international community to take over his country. "The call for deployment of international forces in Darfur is part of a comprehensive conspiracy for confiscating the country's sovereignty and imposing guardianship on the Sudanese people," al-Bashir said. "Our decision is decisive rejection (of the U.N. resolution) then preparation for the confrontation (with the UN forces)," SUNA quoted him as saying.
Also Sunday, the government issued a call for the AU to pull its forces out of Darfur before Sept. 30. State media reported the Cabinet said it would take over Darfur security, which "has improved, except for some violations perpetrated by the National Redemption Front which has refused to sign the agreement." Northern Darfur is controlled by the rebels, who did not sign a U.S.-brokered peace deal in May aimed at ending a three-year conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.
Rebel commander Abubakar Hamid Elnur said by satellite telephone from northern Darfur said that there were many civilian casualties. "The government is still bombing with aircraft. It is very difficult for us to protect our civilians, especially from the air," he told The Associated Press. Many civilians have fled their villages for the hills and valleys, according to the rebels.
Elnur said that the government forces were concentrated in the area of Um-Sidir and that heavy fighting had been taking place in recent days between Um-Sidir and Kulkul, a base abandoned by the rebels at the start of the current Sudanese offensive, which lies some 50 kilometers (about 32 miles) north of El Fasher. A government armed forces' spokesman denied any aerial bombing of villages in northern Darfur and described current army activities in the area as administrative operations. "The allegation that the army used military aircraft and bombed the area is false and unfounded," said the spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "The rebels are interpreting in their own interest ordinary administrative operations the army is conducting in the area," he added.
The ill-equipped AU force of 7,000 troops has been unable to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur, where the peace deal signed by the government and one of the ethnic African rebel groups operating in the region has had little effect.
An AU spokesman said its forces' command in Darfur had received reports about ongoing clashes since Aug. 28 in Kulkul, Sayeh and other areas in northern Darfur. Noureddine Mezni said the nearest AU military unit was investigating the fighting and will submit a report to the AU Cease-fire Commission. A top AU official in Khartoum overseeing the May peace deal, Sam Ibok, said Friday that more than 20 civilians had been killed and more than 1,000 displaced since major clashes started early in the week according to reports from the affected areas.
The African Union has called for the U.N. to take control of the peacekeeping force, whose formal mandate expires on Sept. 30. But al-Bashir has maintained steadfast hostility to the presence of the U.N. force, instead offering to send 10,000 government troops to Darfur.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday released a letter he had sent to al-Bashir urging him to accept a U.N force in Darfur, saying only an impartial peacekeeping force could implement the May peace deal. Annan also expressed alarm over the recent deployment of large numbers of Sudanese troops in Darfur.
Earlier this week, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, warned "a man-made catastrophe of an unprecedented scale" loomed within weeks in Darfur unless the Security Council acted immediately. Egeland said there could be hundreds of thousands of deaths if aid operations collapsed. The operations are already at grave risk because of rising attacks against aid workers and massive funding shortfalls.
The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government. The government is accused of unleashing Arab militiamen known as janjaweed who have been blamed for widespread atrocities.
Sudan calls for talks after Annan Darfur warning
Agence France Presse, 9/9/06
Sudan on Saturday maintained its stance of rejecting UN peacekeepers in Darfur but said it was open to talks with the international community after UN chief Kofi Annan warned its leaders could be held to account. "I confirm the refusal clearly and categorically by Sudan of this unjust resolution," Beshir said during a speech in the Libyan city of Syrte at a festival to mark the seventh anniversary of the African Union (AU). He was referring to a UN Security Council resolution that approved the deployment of up to 20,000 troops to take over from the AU mission in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region.
Earlier, Khartoum had said it remained open to talks with the international community. "Sudan did not close the door on dialogue with the international community" concerning the situation in Darfur, the spokesman for the Sudanese foreign affairs ministry, Jamal Mohamed Ibrahim, told AFP.
Ibrahim described as unjustified comments by the UN secretary general in New York on Friday about a possible deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Darfur, a region hit by war and famine. Warning that the situation in Darfur was "serious, desperate," Annan said the Sudanese leadership "may be held collectively and individually responsible for what happened to the population" there.
The people of Darfur have been suffering for more than three years because of a civil war and associated famine that has killed up to 300,000 and made more than two million homeless.
Sudan said Annan's remarks were based on an assumption that Khartoum wanted to remove AU peacekeepers, leaving a lack of security for Darfur's people. "Sudan did not ask the AU to withdraw its forces and even if the African organization decides to leave Darfur, there will be no security vacuum because the Sudanese government has its own plan to ensure safety in the area," said Ibrahim.
On Monday, the Sudanese government said it would ask the AU forces to leave by the end of the month if it could no longer continue its mission. The announcement was seen as a fresh act of defiance after the August 31 adoption of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a UN force to take over from the ill-equipped and cash-strapped AU mission in Darfur.
In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Saturday that he was in contact with the UN and African Union to maintain the current force until the end of the year. Gheit told reporters that in speaking to members of the UN Security Council and their AU counterparts, he had "underscored the importance of pursuing the AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur until the end of the current year." He said the delay was needed to allow time for "an accord between the Sudanese government and the UN".
Ibrahim said Sudanese government officials awaited a delegation of African Union officials to discuss the mission. The delegation would come to Khartoum "before the meeting of the foreign ministers envisaged in New York" on September 18, Ibrahim said. At the meeting, AU diplomatic chiefs would make a final decision on whether to continue or abandon their Darfur mission at the end of the month, he added.
The United States had indicated Wednesday that it expected the African Union to decide to maintain its force in Darfur. "We're in very close contact with the AU. They are going to have to make some crucial decisions about their force in Darfur," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres warned Friday that a major catastrophe was
brewing in Darfur that could destabilize the whole region. "If things don't
improve, we're heading for a major catastrophe," said Guterres, the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, in a statement underlining the impact of worsening
violence in Darfur. Guterres underscored the threat of a further massive displacement
on top of the 2.2 million people who have already fled their homes, including
200,000 refugees in neighboring Chad.
Genocide
in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
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