Contents:
U.S., French, and Russian mediators met with Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministers separately.
Deal with National Liberation Force seen as a vital development toward long-term
peace.
Burundi
rebels leave hideouts after ceasefire deal: official
Hundreds of National Liberation Force fighters are fulfilling terms of the
ceasefire deal.
Authorities
arrest 4 militant suspects in Chechnya, Dagestan
Suspects found in possession of weapons and explosives.
Rival security
forces clash on Chechen border, seven dead
Violence started when Ingush traffic police stopped Chechen paramilitary
police at the border of Chechnya and Ingushetia.
DR Congo elections must continue peacefully: Solana
EU foreign policy chief held a series of meetings with representatives of
the international community and Congolese leaders.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
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EU external relations commissioner says a settlement will only work with
"support of interested players."
Foreign peace monitors scale back presence in Indonesia's Aceh
EU led monitoring mission made announcement following last week’s
extension of mandate.
Indonesian
president says Aceh peace that got him nominated for Nobel Prize still needs
work
Yudhoyono says peace must be followed with economic development, better
social integration and improved welfare for citizens.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation Click
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Annan deplores
Gbagbo's decision to boycott New York meet on Ivory Coast
Gbagbo claimed four-year peace process in his country had failed.
Peace within reach in Kashmir: Pakistani president
Musharraf challenged India to seize opportunity to end the conflict.
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Kosovo
Serbia's new constitution to declare Kosovo part of
republic, lawmakers say
Planned constitution refers to the disputed province as an "integral"
part of Serbia, regardless of U.N.-led negotiations.
U.N. envoy
says progress on Kosovo talks looking 'increasingly slim'
Official says that "talking alone" will not resolve the dispute.
Macedonia
Skopje hopes to get date for talks on joining EU in 2007: PM
Macedonia was made an official candidate in 2005.
Voters in Trans-Dniester approve region's bid to eventually join Russia
Only 2.3% of voters voted against the referendum.
Rebels accuse Nepal's army of arms transport from India
Maoists refuse to accept denials by ceasefire monitors and the military.
Nepal's
rebel chief meets PM to discuss peace process
Meeting focused on arms management and finalization of the interim constitution.
Philippines
EU
chief announces more aid to spur Mindanao peace process after talks with Philippine
president
European Union preparing a new aid package for the region worth 25 million
euro.
AU’s Peace and Security Council expected to renew support for the
deployment of regional peacekeepers, whom the Islamists have vowed to fight.
Italian
nun, teen among five killed in day of Somalia bloodshed
Violence occurred amid fury over comments by Pope Benedict XVI and a crackdown
on western entertainment.
Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers agree to hold peace talks
Talks will be without any pre-conditions.
Sri Lanka
says navy sinks ship ferrying arms to Tamil Tiger rebels
Ministry official said LTTE was smuggling weapons on the unregistered ship.
Promises in Sudan Peace Deal Said Not Met
Annan said that while parties are observing their security commitments,
the implementation of several other major provisions of this agreement has fallen
behind schedule.
Sudanese
VP and former rebel leader supports U.N. troops in Darfur
Mayardit said Sudanese government was incapable of protecting civilians
in Darfur.
Sudan's
Beshir increasingly isolated over Darfur
Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement's split from President on the
issue of peacekeepers is one of the most serious cracks in the unity government
since its inception last year.
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Report.
Armenian foreign minister, mediators hold talks on Nagorno-Karabakh
dispute
Associated Press, 9/13/06
Armenia's foreign minister met with U.S., French and Russian mediators in Paris for talks on the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, officials said Wednesday. The mediators met with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian Tuesday evening in Paris, and were to meet with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in London on Wednesday. The French Foreign Ministry and embassies of the United States and Russia confirmed the Paris talks took place but would not release details.
Mediators from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's so-called
Minsk group have been trying for years to reach a settlement to the dispute
over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan populated largely by Armenians.
Armenian and Karabakh forces have controlled the territory since a shaky cease-fire
in 1994 ended a six-year separatist war that killed some 30,000 people and drove
1 million from their homes.
Burundi says last rebel group will disarm by the end of the month
Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press, 9/11/06
Disarming Burundi's last rebel group, which just signed a permanent cease-fire after more than 12 years of civil war, will take until the end of the month, officials said Monday. Burundi and the rebel National Liberation Force known by its French acronym, FNL signed the agreement Thursday in Tanzania, more than a year after the country's other rebel groups agreed to lay down arms. The deal was seen as a vital development toward long-term peace in Burundi, a former Belgian colony and one of the world's poorest nations.
"This very week a commission will start studying how FNL former combatants will be assembled and demobilized," Brig. Gen. Evariste Ndayishimiye said. He said disarming the rebels would likely take until the end of September, although he did not say when or where the process would begin. "We (the government and FNL negotiators) want this work to be done very quickly," he said. Burundi is still reeling from a civil war that 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.
A dozen years of conflict ensued between the majority Hutus and the minority Tutsis, who have dominated the government, economy and military since independence from Belgium in 1962. All of Burundi's main Hutu rebel groups have signed peace deals, leading to democratic elections last year that established a new government with a Hutu president. The terms of the FNL's deal weren't released, but the group had been demanding that it be incorporated into the national army.
Although the civil war has ended, political problems here are rampant. Several people, including the former president, have been arrested recently in connection with an alleged coup to overthrow the government. Critics say the government fabricated the plot in order to arrest opposition members. Human rights groups also allege widespread abuses and corruption.
Most of Burundi's 7 million residents live on less than US$1 a day. The tiny,
mountainous country produces tea and coffee.
Burundi's last active rebel fighters have begun assembling in different provinces across the country in conformity with a ceasefire deal reached with the government last week, officials said Tuesday.
Army spokesman Adolphe Manirakiza said hundreds of National Liberation Forces (FNL) fighters were fulfilling the terms of the ceasefire which calls on the combatants to be either integrated into the army or police force or demobilised by October 7. "From yesterday, we were informed that several FNL fighters had gathered in Bujumbura Rural province and the movement is continuing today," Manirakiza told AFP, referring to the rebel stronghold region west of Burundi. He said that "hundreds of fighters" had left their hideouts and that the movement was "a true sign that the FNL were implementing the ceasefire agreement."
The agreement, brokered by South African mediation last week and which entered into force over the weekend, is hoped to usher lasting stability in the tiny central African nation that has been convulsed by more than a decade of civil strife. It also calls on the rebel fighters to assemble in demobilisation centres by the 21st day after the signature from where they can choose between integration into the armed forces or demobilisation.
The FNL was the only one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups to remain outside
a peace process that started in 2000 and that led to the election of a new power-sharing
government last year. 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 the economy and infrastructure and claimed some
300,000 lives.
Authorities arrest 4 militant suspects in Chechnya, Dagestan
Associated Press, 9/12/06
Authorities have detained four suspected militants in Chechnya and the neighboring Caucasus province of Dagestan, officials said Tuesday. Police in Chechnya have detained three suspects accused of killing police officers and local residents, the regional branch of Russia's Interior Ministry in southern Russia said in a statement. The suspects were found in possession of weapons and explosives. And police in the province of Dagestan between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea said Tuesday they had detained another suspected militant.
While large-scale battles in Chechnya ended years ago, the region and other neighboring provinces are plagued by regular clashes.
Also in Dagestan, a border guard who fled his unit Sunday shot himself dead
with his Kalashnikov rifle when authorities tracked him down Monday, police
said.
Rival security forces clash on Chechen border, seven dead
Agence France Presse, 9/13/06
A chaotic clash between Russian-backed Chechen special forces and traffic police in neighbouring Ingushetia on Wednesday left at least seven dead and numerous wounded, police sources said. Police officials in war-ravaged Chechnya and Ingushetia said the bloodshed started when Ingush traffic police halted a column of Chechen paramilitary police at the border of the two provinces near the town of Sliptsovsk. Seven people died and between 16 and 20 were wounded, several sources said.
The scale of the clash marked a new low in tense relations between Chechen security forces and the authorities in neighbouring Russian provinces, which have often accused the Chechen police of lawlessness.
An Ingush police source told AFP that Chechen OMON special forces and criminal investigators were returning with a hooded prisoner from a raid in Ingushetia. "The police noticed there was a man with a hood on his head in one of the cars and demanded to be shown his documents," said the source, who would only identify himself by his last name, Khadziyev. "The Chechens refused, saying he was a criminal and that they were taking him to Chechnya for investigation. "A shouting match turned into a punch-up, then a shootout. The Ingush side called reinforcements and the shootout became a battle. Six Chechens died and seven were wounded. On the Ingush side, one died and nine were wounded."
A spokesman for the Chechen interior ministry, which oversees the police, confirmed
to AFP that the incident began when the column of Chechen security forces was
stopped at the Chechen-Ingush border. He said that five Chechen OMON were killed
and 11 wounded, while two Ingush police were killed and nine wounded. One of
those badly injured was the deputy commander of the Chechen OMON, he said.
DR Congo elections must continue peacefully: Solana
Agence France Presse, 9/12/06
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana issued a plea in Kinshasa on Tuesday for the electoral process in the Democratic Republic of Congo to continue peacefully, his entourage said. Solana held a series of meetings on Monday morning with representatives of the international community and Congolese leaders, on his first visit to the country since deadly fighting broke out in the capital Kinshasa last month.
On August 20, as preliminary results from the first round of voting showed presidential rivals President Joseph Kabila and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba neck and neck in the polls, fighting between their rival forces left 23 people dead in the DRC capital Kinshasa.
A spokeswoman for Solana said meetings with William Swing, head of the UN mission in DRC, the head of the electoral commission Appolinaire Malu Malu, and the vice presidents, Bemba and Azarias Ruberwa, had been "constructive and positive". "Mr. Solana underlined the importance of the transition process in DRC and reaffirmed the support of the EU in the process," said the spokeswoman, who did not wish to be named. "He recalled that the elections had been held in good conditions. After the violence of August 20 to 22, we are analysing the situation and looking ahead. We have to reach the end of the process peacefully," she added.
The European Union is the main supporter of the elections in DRC, which it is funding to the tune of 165 million euros (210 million dollars).
Solana will meet Kabila on Tuesday before heading to the base of the European force Eufor in Kinshasa. Eurfor intervened for the first time when the fighting broke out in Kinshasa, deploying armoured vehicles in the capital's business district, where soldiers loyal to Kabila and Bemba were engaged in armed battle. An uneasy calm has reigned in the capital since August 22. Solana praised the "work achieved" by Eufor, in support of the UN troops, when he arrived in Kinshasa, the spokeswoman said, adding that the diplomat would comment further later in the day.
International monitors on Monday called for troops loyal to the two leading
candidates to return to barracks in a bid to ensure the country's first democratic
presidential elections in over 40 years are not marred by violence. In a statement,
CIAT, the international committee overseeing the DRC's transition to democracy,
called for "the reduction and the confinement to barracks" of forces
controlled by Kabila and Bemba.
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EU says Georgia talks with South Ossetia, Abkhazia "crucial"
in move toward peace
Associated Press, 9/14/06
The European Union's external relations commissioner said Thursday direct talks between the Georgian authorities and two breakaway provinces were "crucial" in the drive toward peace.
"We welcome the intention to develop direct talks with Abkhazia and South Ossetia," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner after talks with Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili. "It is a testing moment. In the end, a settlement will only work if it has the support from both interested players," the EU Commissioner said.
Tension between Tbilisi and South Ossetian authorities have risen in recent weeks, most recently when South Ossetian forces fired on a helicopter carrying Georgia's defense minister. Georgian police also exchanged fire with forces in the tense breakaway province over the weekend. "I cannot disguise that we are concerned about the current atmosphere," Ferrero-Waldner said. "We think that restrained dialogue is very important." She added direct talks with the breakaway provinces were needed as soon as possible. "We think this is crucial."
Georgia in June announced a plan to resolve the long-standing conflict that would make Georgia a federal state, offering broad autonomy and providing aid to develop the economies of the two provinces as well as ensuring the return of refugees. Separatist leaders have repeatedly rejected proposals for broad autonomy from Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who has been seeking to reunite his fractured country since he was elected in 2004. For his part, Bezhuashvili said he was seeking an increased EU commitment to the region. "We would like to see the EU role increased as a facilitator, as a guarantor of the commitments undertaken by both sides," he said.
Foreign peace monitors scale back presence in Indonesia's Aceh
Agence France Presse, 9/11/06
A European Union-led peace monitoring mission in Indonesia's Aceh will scale back its presence this week after announcing it would extend its stay until after elections in December. The EU last week formally extended the mandate of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) by three months to December 15 after landmark polls were pushed back to the same month. The AMM, which also includes members from five Southeast Asian states, was set up in August 2005 to monitor a peace deal between separatists and Jakarta that called for the elections. "As a consequence of the remarkable progress achieved by the parties and with a view to completing the handover of ownership of the process to the parties and the people of Aceh the AMM will reduce its presence in Aceh," the mission said in a statement.
It said that 36 monitors would continue to monitor the peace pact, down from a current 85. All would be based in Banda Aceh with district offices being shut from Monday, it said. "Thereafter, mobile monitoring from Banda Aceh will be available for deployment throughout Aceh as needed," it added. The AMM said it would not observe the elections, slated for December 11, as it did not fall within its mandate but a separate mission from the European parliament and European Commission had been invited by the government to do so. The Aceh elections were delayed in line with the belated passage of a crucial autonomy law by the national parliament.
Under the pact, prompted by the devastating 2004 tsunami which killed 168,000 people in Aceh, the rebel Free Aceh Movement agreed to drop its demand for independence in return for partial self-rule, ending three decades of conflict. Nearly 200 monitors were initially stationed in Aceh but more than half left in March when the mission was first scaled back.
Indonesian president says Aceh peace that got him nominated for Nobel
Prize still needs work
Doug Mellgren, Associated Press, 9/13/06
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday said there is still much work for him to do in the war-scarred province of Aceh even though he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the peace accord there. "I am humbled to be nominated for that Nobel prize but my test and my work is now ensuring the ongoing peace process in Aceh is moving well," he said at a news conference. He said peace has to be followed by economic development, better social integration and improved welfare for the people of Aceh.
Yudhoyono was on an official visit to Oslo, a month before the Norwegian awards committee announces the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. The timing was coincidental.
The five-member Nobel awards committee works in deep secret, give no hints about a possible winner and refuses to say who has been nominated, only that this year there are 191 candidates. In early speculation, Yudhoyono, as well as former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who was mediator in the Aceh peace process, figure heavily for their role in ending the 30-year conflict that claimed 15,000 lives.
The Australian bookmaker Centrebet on Wednesday made Yudhoyono favorite, with odds of 4-1, with 5-1 for Ahtisaari. Third on the list was Chinese human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer at 11-1.
The committee has a strong tradition of honoring both sides of a conflict when they seek peace, meaning that an Aceh-related peace prize could be shared with a rebel official. Yudhoyono declined to express any preference about who that might be. "I don't want to go into that arena," he said. "The credit must be given to all parties, to everybody ... being part of this peace process."
Malik Mahmud, at the time an exiled leader of the Free Aceh Movement, signed the accord in Helsinki, Finland, in August 2005. However, Hasan di Tiro founded the movement, although he has been ill and not spoken in public for many years. It was not clear whether either had been nominated by the strict Feb. 1 Nobel deadline.
During his visit to Oslo, Yudhoyono held talks with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, met Crown Prince Haakon at the Royal Palace and was giving a lecture on the Indonesian peace process.
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Ivory Coast
Sanctions against two Gbagbo loyalists in Ivory Coast to be effective
Monday
Agence France Presse, 9/16/06
UN sanctions against two close aides of President Laurent Gbagbo accused of hampering the peace process in Ivory Coast are to become effective Monday, diplomats said here Friday. The UN sanctions committee late Wednesday received an official request from four members of the Security Council to add former prime minister Pascal Affi N'Guessan, the head of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front, and the speaker of the Ivorian parliament Mamadou Coulibaly to the list of Ivorian personalities targeted for sanctions, they said. The proposed sanctions involve a travel ban and asset freeze against the two who were accused of instigating violent disturbances in Ivory Coast in July. But the committee forwarded the request to council members only the following day, triggering a so-called 48-hour silence procedure which expires Monday morning due to the weekend. Under the procedure, the sanctions go automatically into effect if none of the council's 15 members express opposition by Monday.
A third politician, close to Ivorian ex-rebels, was also expected to face sanctions, but not until later next week pending approval from US Treasury autorities, according to a diplomat.
Last February, a UN Security Council panel slapped a 12-month travel ban and asset freeze on three other Gbagbo loyalists, including Charles Ble Goude, the head of the nationalists "Young Patriots", viewed as obstacles to peace. Sanctions are called for under a 2004 Security Council resolution designed to punish individuals deemed responsible for obstructing the peace process, incitement to hatred or violations of human rights and the arms embargo imposed on Ivory Coast.
Under a UN-drawn calendar, Ivorians must go to the polls before the end of October to elect a president. Gbagbo has hinted he wants to stay on if elections are not held by October 31. The UN extended his mandate last year as part of peace efforts after elections failed to take place because of insufficient progress. It set a new deadline of October 31, but given the slow progress in the peace process so far, a further delay in the polls looks likely.
Annan deplores Gbagbo's decision to boycott New York meet on Ivory Coast
Agence France Presse, 9/15/06
UN chief Kofi Annan urged Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo to reconsider his decision to boycott next week's meeting in New York on his country's political crisis, his office said Friday. Annan hoped that Gbagbo "will respond positively to his invitation to join regional leaders as well as Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and other Ivorian political leaders, at the high-level meeting in New York on September 20 to discuss the way forward," the office said. The UN chief was "deeply concerned about the increase in inflammatory rhetoric (in Ivory Coast), which is fueling serious tension as the country approaches the end of the transition period in the end of October," the statement added.
Annan deplored remarks by Gbagbo Thursday rejecting the peace process and voiced concern that "these and other similar statements "could further aggravate the situation in the country, with unpredict able consequences."
Gbagbo said he would not attend next Wednesday's New York meeting, pointing out that the four-year-old peace process in his country had "failed." "I will not go in protest at the cavalier and impolite way in which the GTI (an international panel of diplomats working to end the political crisis) treats my country's history," he said in a speech addressing some 2,000 Ivorian soldiers.
On Friday the panel had suggested strengthening Banny's powers in an attempt to inject movement into the west African country's stalled peace process. The proposal would reduce Ggabgo's powers and recommends targeted sanctions against those deemed to be hampering efforts to reunite the country. In a statement at the end of a final round of talks, the panel expressed "deep concern at the numbers of profound and persistent blockages which impede the implementation and decisions" in the peace process.
Ivory Coast has been divided into a rebel-held north and a government-controlled
south since an attempted coup against Gbagbo in 2002. The United Nations had
set October 31 as a deadline for presidential elections in the Ivory Coast but
it has since admitted that the date could not be maintained because of inadequate
preparation.
Peace within reach in Kashmir: Pakistani president
Lorne Cook, Agence France Presse, 9/12/06
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday that peace was within reach in the divided region of Kashmir and challenged India to seize the opportunity to end the bloody conflict. "I sincerely believe that today opportunity exists and it must be seized to resolve the dispute through peaceful dialogue," he said at a conference on the disputed region at the European Parliament.
He said that improved relations between India and Pakistan, as well as a "conducive international environment," could help improve dialogue over Kashmir if regional leaders are sincere, flexible and bold. "Leaders who cannot grasp fleeting opportunity are no leaders," he said.
Musharraf's remarks come ahead of his planned meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) talks in Havana, Cuba later this week.
Both countries claim the scenic Himalayan region, which has been the source of two of their three wars since 1947. At least 44,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of an Islamic insurgency in Indian Kashmir in 1989.
Musharraf said he believed the best way forward would be to introduce confidence-building measures and increase the involvement of the Kashmiri region's leaders, before finally focusing on a settlement. He praised Singh as "a man of sincerity" with "a flexible approach" and said he hoped the Indian premier would show the courage needed to resolve the conflict between the two nuclear armed neighbours. But, likening the talks to a high-stakes poker game, the president insisted that Pakistan is "only prepared to be flexible on how to move forward" from its stance if India also plays a card.
Ahead of their talks, the Indian premier has said he would remind Musharraf of his promise to rein in Islamic militant groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba which are battling Indian rule over part of Kashmir.
However, the president suggested he had little sway with the militants, whom he said were also "trying to kill me" and that the heart of many of the two countries' problems were linked to Kashmir. "Let us have the motivation for everything by moving forward the Kashmir process toward a resolution and then everything will fall in line, even those terrorists," he said. This week's meeting in Cuba will be the first high-level contact between the two countries since multiple blasts on commuter trains in India's financial capital Mumbai in July stalled a peace process between them.
India and Pakistan launched peace talks aimed at resolving their dispute in January 2004, two years after retreating from the brink of their fourth war. The rivals had completed three rounds of talks when New Delhi abruptly suspended the dialogue following the July 11 Mumbai attacks which killed 183 people and wounded more than 800. India blamed Islamabad and a Pakistan-backed Islamic rebel group for the blasts, while Pakistan's foreign ministry rejected allegations that it was harbouring terrorists who carry out attacks in India.
The EU parliament conference on Kashmir is part of Musharraf's four-day visit to Brussels -- the first-ever by a Pakistani president -- which also includes talks with senior EU and Belgian officials
He was also due later Tuesday to field questions from the EU assembly's foreign
affairs committee.
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Serbia's new constitution to declare Kosovo part of republic, lawmakers
say
Misha Savic, Associated Press, 9/12/06
Serbia toughened its stand on Kosovo on Tuesday as parliament decided that a planned new constitution would refer to the disputed province as an "integral" part of Serbia, regardless of U.N.-led negotiations under way on Kosovo's status. Lawmakers voted 219-5 in favor of declaring Kosovo a "historic and integral part of Serbia" effectively ruling out Belgrade's consent if the international talks on Kosovo should result in a decision that the province should gain independence.
The talks began this year to try to resolve the future of Kosovo, which has been an international protectorate since 1999, when NATO bombing halted Serbia's crackdown on the province's independence-seeking ethnic Albanians. The Serbian lawmakers also overwhelmingly adopted a report by Serbia's negotiators in the talks, who warned that independence for Kosovo would risk creating a precedent that would encourage separatist movements beyond the Balkans. Serbia's government has offered Kosovo a broad autonomy, instead of independence.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told the assembly "we are requested to give up Kosovo ... we are being asked to humiliate ourselves as a state." He did not name countries pressing for Kosovo's independence. Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party, urged Kostunica to prepare Serbia's army for a war over Kosovo. "I want to know what our armed forces will do," Nikolic said in the parliament. "If we don't have enough motivation and weapons (to go to war), then don't tell us that Kosovo is part of Serbia."
Both Kostunica and pro-Western President Boris Tadic have ruled out new armed conflicts over Kosovo, pledging to defend it only by legal means.
Most Serbs consider Kosovo their heartland and the cradle of their history and culture. About 100,000 Serbs still live in Kosovo. Twice as many have fled from the ethnic Albanian-dominated province since 1999.
Also Tuesday, the government announced it would invest euro32.6 million ($41.4
million) in Serb enclaves in Kosovo over the next 15 months to help the embattled
minority living among the ethnic Albanians. The funds are to create jobs for
the dwindling Serb community, build roads and other infrastructure, and improve
their education and health care.
U.N. envoy says progress on Kosovo talks looking 'increasingly slim'
William J. Kole, Associated Press, 9/16/06
U.N.-brokered talks on the future status of Kosovo are in jeopardy, the deputy United Nations envoy warned Friday at negotiations clouded by a car bombing that targeted the interior minister of the ethnically divided province. "We're approaching a moment where by talking alone we won't accomplish the goal," said Albert Rohan, the U.N. official overseeing Friday's latest round of talks in Vienna. "We could talk for another 10 years and not change anything."
Serbian and ethnic Albanian negotiators discussed how to decentralize power in Kosovo to give its minority Serbs more of a voice. But the session like the eight others that have preceded it ended in a stalemate, increasing the likelihood that an impatient U.N. Security Council will impose a solution by declaring Kosovo independent. That could trigger a showdown with Serbia, which considers the province the heart of its ancient homeland and insists it should remain within Serbian territory.
Martti Ahtisaari, the chief U.N. envoy for Kosovo, heads to New York this weekend to brief key members of the Security Council on the progress or lack of it in talks that began in February to reach a negotiated settlement. "The prospect of progress in these talks is increasingly slim," Rohan told reporters. Asked when he would be prepared to call it quits, Rohan was evasive. But he conceded it was increasingly unlikely that a solution would be reached by the end of the year the target when the negotiations began.
Underscoring the tensions and lawlessness that still plague Kosovo, a bomb exploded beneath the Kosovo interior minister's car in the province early Friday, but did not injure him. It was not clear whether the attack was meant to kill the recently appointed minister, Fatmir Rexhepi, or whether it was carried out by Serbs or by Rexhepi's ethnic Albanian political opponents. Kosovo's parliament speaker, Kole Berisha, said he considered the explosion directed against the talks to undermine stability at a decisive moment. Deputy Prime Minister Lufti Haziri, who led the ethnic Albanian delegation in Friday's round of negotiations, condemned the bombing but played down its impact on the talks.
The United Nations has administered Kosovo since 1999, when NATO air strikes drove out Serb troops who had carried out a bloody crackdown on its independence-seeking Albanian population, which accounts for 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million population. About 16,000 NATO-led peacekeepers still patrol the province.
U.S. and EU envoys who visited Kosovo this week pressed ethnic Albanian leaders to provide more guarantees that the Serb minority would be protected from violence and discrimination.
An estimated 200,000 Serbs fled Kosovo after the 1988-99 conflict, fearing
revenge attacks. Today, only about 100,000 remain, most living in small, isolated
enclaves scattered around the province.
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Macedonia
Skopje hopes to get date for talks on joining EU in 2007: PM
Agence France Presse, 9/12/06
Macedonia's government hopes the European Union will set a date next year for the Balkan country to start negotiations on joining the bloc, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said Tuesday in Brussels. The EU made Macedonia an official candidate in December 2005, but the 25-member bloc has yet to open accession talks, amid a climate of growing hostility among existing members towards enlarging their club.
"Of course the main target of our government will be to do and finish all obligations which are necessary... and to be granted a date for negotiations next year," Gruevski told journalists after meeting EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. The commissioner was non-committal about naming 2007 as the start date for the negotiations, which are likely to take years, but said he was pleased with Skopje's EU ambitions. "I find it is very useful that the government sets a target for its European accession process," he said. However, Rehn also added: "We need results from the reforms before we can consider any further steps in the process".
Gruevski, on his first visit to Brussels as prime minister, came to power after
July 5 elections won by his moderate nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party and its coalition
partners.
Voters in Trans-Dniester approve region's bid to eventually join Russia
Mara D. Bellaby, Associated Press, 9/18/06
An overwhelming majority of voters in Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region approved the separatist government's bid to eventually join Russia, election officials said Monday. Pyotr Denisenko, head of the Trans-Dniester Central Election Commission, said that 97.1 percent of voters had voted in favor of the region's 16-year-old independence course with the ultimate goal of union with Moscow. Only 2.3 percent voted against in Sunday's poll, he said. "I congratulate you," Denisenko said as election officials and Trans-Dniester journalists applauded.
Moldova and the West have vowed not to recognize the referendum, just as they have refused to acknowledge the Russian-speaking region's de facto independence. They have called on Trans-Dniester to return to talks with the Moldovan government in Chisinau, aimed at giving the region broad autonomy but keeping it in Moldova.
Voters were also asked whether they wanted to abandon independence and reunite with Moldova, with whom separatists fought a 1992 war that killed 1,500 people. Denisenko said 94.6 percent voted against a union with Moldova, and 3.4 percent supported it. "We should have done this a long time ago," said Larisa Lanka, 55, as she strolled past a giant statue of Lenin that crowns the separatist region's city center. "We belong in Russia." Lanka's sister lives in Russia, but Lanka still only has a Soviet-issued passport, which doesn't allow her to cross national borders. She has applied for a Russian passport, but has been told she won't get it until next year at the earliest. "If this referendum doesn't change anything, the disappointment will be enormous," she said.
Russia has also given no indication that it intends to gobble up the impoverished slice of land, home to about 550,000 people, one-fifth of whom are already Russian citizens. Trans-Dniester shares no border with Russia, and the Kremlin has been cautious about assigning significant legal meaning to the referendum.
Igor Smirnov, the regional president who has Russian citizenship, said he would initiate bills on further bolstering ties with Russia. His remarks, delivered to Russian state television, seemed aimed at building pressure within Russia for Moscow to take a stronger position. "I'm drafting bills on the harmonization of Trans-Dniester laws with Russian laws in financial, economic, tax, customs, social sphere and education," Smirnov said. "I have also asked the republic's bank to study the issue of entering Russia's ruble zone."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych warned that the vote wouldn't be recognized internationally and would only exacerbate problems. He said that Trans-Dniester should accept the status of autonomy within Moldova, the Interfax news agency reported.
Critics have warned that the vote could set a precedent for pro-Russian separatists in other ex-Soviet republics. A similar plebiscite is planned for November in Georgia's pro-Russian breakaway region of South Ossetia.
The predominantly Russian-speaking area had existed as a small autonomous region in the Soviet Union before Stalin snatched the Moldovan lands from Romania and united them with Trans-Dniester to form the Soviet republic of Moldova. Unlike the rest of Moldova, which was part of Romania until 1940 and where most residents speak Romanian, the thin slice of Trans-Dniester has always identified more with Russia. The affinity is even greater today as residents of Moldova which has one of the lowest standards of living in Europe seek protection from Russia, the regional economic powerhouse.
Nearly 79 percent of Trans-Dniester's 390,000 registered voters cast ballots in the Sunday election, which was aggressively promoted in this region. Posters were plastered around the city calling on residents "to remember we are not Moldova," and during election day, loudspeakers broadcast constant reminders to vote throughout the center of the capital, Tiraspol.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe refused to send observers to monitor the vote, which it said would be neither free nor fair. It accused the authoritarian leadership of constructing the questions in a way that would ensure the result Tiraspol wanted.
The results are final, but still must be officially certified, Denisenko said. The election commission had refused to release any preliminary figures, but exit polls conducted by pro-Russian political parties had indicated that support for an eventual union with Russia would be overwhelming. Campaign materials have suggested that a "yes" vote to an eventual union with Russia will lead to Russian citizenship and access to Russian social services, such as its pension and educational systems. But Moscow has made no promises.
Rebels accuse Nepal's army of arms transport from India
Agence France Presse, 9/13/06
Nepal's Maoist rebels on Wednesday accused the country's army of transporting arms from India, refusing to accept denials by ceasefire monitors and the military.
"We believe arms and ammunition have been brought from India. The vehicles were brought in last night (Tuesday) so the army might have hidden it," said Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the Maoist's spokesman. "If the vehicles contained weapons, it could have a serious impact on the peace process," Mahara warned.
The rebels and Nepal's government have observed a ceasefire for nearly five months amid a fledgling and fragile peace process. Ceasefire monitors drawn from government and Maoist ranks inspected the vehicles after they entered an army barracks near Kathmandu late Tuesday. "There were 15 trucks, seven armoured personnel carriers, five jeeps and two local trucks -- none contained weapons," said Charan Prasai, a member of the ceasefire code of conduct monitoring team who inspected the vehicles.
The Indian government issued a statement on the issue in New Delhi, calling the Maoists' allegations "baseless". But demonstrators protesting over the alleged arms shipments blocked traffic and burned tyres in Kathmandu, eventually dispersing when police arrived, witnesses said. The army, which is under the control of a coalition interim government, denied any weapons had been transported.
"It was a regular convoy that came from different parts of the country," said Major Tanka Bhatta, an army official from the camp 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of Kathmandu where the vehicles were parked. "There are no weapons being transported," Bhatta said.
Nepal's mainstream political parties and the Maoists, who were once foes, formed a loose anti-royal alliance and staged mass protests that in April forced King Gyanendra to end 14 months of direct rule. Since the restoration of parliament, the two sides have agreed to draft a temporary constitution that will allow the rebels to join the interim government. Elections to a body that will rewrite Nepal's constitution have also been agreed. But the peace process has dragged, with only one meeting held between rebel leaders and Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
At least 12,500 people have died in the Maoist insurgency, which began in 1996.
Nepal's rebel chief met with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Sunday to inch out the growing differences between the government and the Maoist rebels and speed up the fledgling peace process, a senior minister said. "The meeting between the two leaders (Koirala and Maoist chairman Prachanda) focused on arms management and finalization of the interim constitution," Home Minsiter Krishna Prasad Sitaula told AFP.
Just one formal meeting between PM Koirala and rebel leader Prachanda was held in June when it was announced the seven-party interim government would be scrapped and a new one formed to include the rebels. "The meeting has been crucial in developing mutual trust between the government and the Maoists," the minister said. "The second round of high-level talks will possibly be held before Dashain festival and both the leaders have agreed on sorting out key political issues in the upcoming talks."
Dashain, the biggest festival of Hindus in Nepal, starts on September 23 and lasts for two weeks.
The rebels have accused the government of stalling over talks and have warned of mass protests in the capital if key political issues are not addressed. Both sides have been observing a ceasefire for nearly five months after weeks of violent protests forced King Gyanendra to give up absolute rule in April.
At least 12,500 people have died in the Maoist insurgency, which began in 1996.
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European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed moves by the Philippines on Tuesday to resume peace talks with Muslim rebels from the southern Mindanao region, adding that the European Union was preparing a new aid package for the region worth euro25 million (US$32 million).
"As the peace process moves ahead, we are ready to consider what more we can do," Barroso told Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who made her first visit to EU headquarters. The new aid will add to euro90 million (US$114 million) already sent in aid to Mindanao over the last decade, Barroso said. Arroyo welcomed the new aid. "I'm confident that the support will be very useful ... Social economic stability is a sustainable foundation for peace," she told reporters.
Mindanao is home to a Muslim minority in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation of about 85 million people. It has also been the scene of a bloody, decades-long insurrection by Muslim groups such as the MILF fighting for self-rule there. The peace talks are regarded as crucial by the Philippine and U.S. governments, which hope to constrict the areas where smaller al-Qaida-linked groups such as the Abu Sayyaf and an unspecified number of Indonesian militants can operate.
The two leaders also announced that negotiations would start in October on a new bilateral partnership and association agreement between the EU and the Philippines, which aims to boost political and economic ties between the two, offering better trade conditions for two-way trade. "The Philippines views the European Union as a strong and steadfast partner," Arroyo said. "I'm encouraging the European Union to increase the level of trade and investment in my country, especially in the areas of energy, mining and business outsourcing."
Barroso also praised efforts by Arroyo to abolish the death penalty but urged
her to end extra-judicial, politically motivated killings. Arroyo announced
in August the establishment of a special commission to investigate the rash
of killings of left-wing activists and journalists, help prosecute suspects
and recommend policies to end politically linked violence.
AU set to endorse contested Somalia peacekeeping plan
Agence France Presse, 9/12/06
The African Union plans this week to endorse a proposed peacekeeping force for turbulent Somalia, despite fierce opposition from powerful Somali Islamists, a senior AU official said Tuesday. The pan-African body's Peace and Security Council is to meet on Wednesday and is expected to renew support for the deployment of regional peacekeepers, whom the Islamists have vowed to fight if they are sent, the official said.
Council commissioner Said Djinnit told AFP he foresaw no problem with backing the plans as the African Union had endorsed a similar proposal last year to support Somalia's largely powerless interim government. "The council will meet tomorrow to study and ratify IGAD's deployment plan to Somalia," he said, referring to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a seven-member east African grouping that will supply the troops. "The council should give a green light to the deployment because it had already given IGAD a mandate to send a peace force to Somalia," Djinnit said.
Last week, over the objections of the Islamists and some of its own members, IGAD adopted plans to send nearly 8,000 peacekeepers to Somalia, the vanguard of which are to be in place by the end of the month, and asked for AU support. The mission faces tough challenges, notably a lack of funds and an interim peace deal signed between the Somali government and the Islamists that appears to preclude any foreign intervention in Somalia.
Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since 1991 and the
government, the latest in more than a dozen internationally-backed attempts
to restore stability, has been crippled by infighting. It has been further challenged
by the rise of the Islamists, who seized Mogadishu from warlords in June, and
have rapidly expanded their territory to much of southern Somalia, imposing
strict Sharia law in areas they control. Hardline clerics in Mogadishu and elsewhere
have vowed to turn Somalia into a "graveyard" for any foreign troops
who set foot in the country.
Italian nun, teen among five killed in day of Somalia bloodshed
Agence France Presse, 9/17/06
An elderly Italian nun and a teenage soccer fan were killed in the Islamist-held capital of Somalia on Sunday amid fury over comments by Pope Benedict XVI and a crackdown on western entertainment. In addition to the violence in Mogadishu, at least three people were killed and seven wounded as gunmen loyal to the lawless nation's powerful Islamic movement and local militia clashed near a key southern port, witnesses said.
Two gunmen shot and killed the Catholic nun and her bodyguard in an ambush at a children's charity hospital in the city's Huriwa District after a prominent Somali cleric said Muslims should avenge the pontiff's remarks. "They came into the compound and shot the nun and then ran away," said Abdimalik Mohammed Khalif, a senior medical officer at the Austrian-funded SOS hospital. "We don't know who they were." "From the timing of the attack, it looks like they were waiting for her," he told AFP, noting the movements of the woman, believed to be around 70, were well-known and she had been shot while leaving a scheduled medical class.
The Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) quickly condemned the killing as "barbaric and contrary to the teachings of Islam" and said it had detained one of the attackers, who was cooperating in their investigation. "We are hopeful we will capture the second killer, he has nowhere to hide," SICS deputy security chief Sheikh Muktar Robow told AFP. He said no motive had been ruled out for the attack, which came less than two days after a hardline Mogadishu imam told Muslim faithful at a mosque in southern Mogadishu to "hunt down" and kill those who insult Islam.
Shortly before the nun was killed on Sunday, the pontiff said he was "deeply sorry" for the outrage his remarks about Islam and violence, particularly with reference to jihad, or "holy war," had triggered in the Muslim world. The head of the Vatican press office, Federico Lombardi, said the nun's slaying in Mogadishu was "horrible" and hoped it would remain an "isolated act," Italy's ANSA news agency reported.
The Italian foreign ministry confirmed the nun's death but did not give her name. The Somali Human Rights Defenders Network identified her as Sister Leonella, saying she was shot three times -- in the back, chest and stomach. Officials in Italy said two other sisters of her missionary order are currently in Mogadishu and had opted not to leave.
Somalia, a Horn of Africa nation of some 10 million mainly moderate Muslims, has been wracked by instability for the past 16 years but has recently seen the rise of fundamentalist Islamists who seized the capital from warlords in June. Since taking Mogadishu they have rapidly expanded their territory and imposed strict Sharia law, fuelling fears of a Taliban-style takeover of Somalia by requiring Muslims to pray under penalty of death, flogging drug offenders, banning music and shutting makeshift cinemas.
On Sunday, Islamic militia shot and killed a 13-year-old boy while breaking up a crowd watching an English Premiership football match in southern Mogadishu, witnesses said. Muslim gunmen stormed the Duale Cinema cinema in Bulo-hubey district where hundreds had gathered for the Chelsea-Liverpool game and opened fire, killing the boy and wounding three, they said. "I saw armed men pouring into the cinema hall and minutes later, they opened fire," witness Idris Abdi Taqtar told AFP, adding that his younger brother was among those wounded.
Islamist officials confirmed the death but blamed the fans for sparking the violence when they tried to prevent the closure of the cinema. "They tried to prevent the Islamic courts from carrying out its duties by making violence, so we dispersed them with gunfire," said Islamist commander Ise Mohamed.
Meanwhile, at least three people were killed and seven others wounded near
the southern port of Kismayo on Sunday when Islamist gunmen fought with local
militia near the southern port of Kismayo, officials and witnesses said. Kismayo
is held by the Juba Valley Alliance (JVA), a militia led by the minister of
defense in Somalia's weak interim government, the limited authority of which
is increasingly challenged by the Islamists.
Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers agree to hold peace talks
Agence France Presse, 9/12/06
Sri Lanka's warring parties have agreed to unconditional peace talks next month, the battle-scarred country's international dialogue partners announced in Brussels Tuesday. The decision by the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was discussed at a meeting of the island's main foreign aid donors here, top Norwegian peace broker Erik Solheim told AFP. "The government of Sri Lanka said it was ready for talks without any pre-conditions and the LTTE has said the same," Solheim said. "We will have the talks in the first week of October in Oslo."
The country's main donors, the European Union, United States, Japan and Norway welcomed in a joint statement "the expression of willingness of the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to come to talks unconditionally". "The parties should cease all violence immediately," the four co-chairs of the Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka added.
The announcement came as Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse told visiting Commonwealth finance ministers in Colombo that he wanted the Tigers to enter peace negotiations as soon as possible. "I reiterate my call to the LTTE to renounce terrorism and enter into negotiations to promote peace and development for the benefit of all segments of our citizens," the president said.
The LTTE rebels have been fighting for a homeland for the island's Tamil minority in the northeast of Sri Lanka. The country has witnessed an upsurge in bloodshed since December that has left more than 1,500 people dead by official count. Around 60,000 people have died during the three-decade separatist conflict.
The political challenges of the north and east cannot be resolved through war, the international mediators said. "The co-chairs urge the parties to resume negotiation and show real political commitment to achieve a political solution." The peace talks should begin urgently in Oslo at the beginning of October, the statement added.
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, who attended the talks here, welcomed the diplomatic breakthrough. He said that everyone was "trying to take advantage of any opportunities that appear, including the willingness of the parties to sit down again for talks, which has of course to go from a willingness to a reality." It was important also to make clear that "they need to make other steps to improve the situation".
"We rejoice at the announcement conveyed by both the government and LTTE to our Norwegian facilitator that they are willing to come to talks without any conditions," echoed Japan's peace envoy to Sri Lanka Yasushi Akashi.
There were also warnings from the international partners. "Both parties must stop further violations of fundamental principles of humanitarian law and human rights. "The co-chairs condemn the numerous violations, such as the disappearance and feared killings of large number of Muslims in Mutur, the murder of 17 aid workers from the French NGO Action Contre la Faim, the claymore attack on a civilian bus in June and the bombing of the school in Mullaitivu in August," their statement said. "The co-chairs are particularly concerned that even major cases of human rights' abuses are not successfully investigated or prosecuted".
The international partners also called on "moderate forces" to work for peace in the country warning that "failure to cease hostilities, pursue a political solution, respect human rights and protect humanitarian space could lead the international community to diminish support".
Solheim said the island's main financial backers expressed the hope that both sides would halt violence. "Failure to cease hostilities, pursue a political solution, respect human rights and protect humanitarian space could lead the international community to diminish its support," the donors said in a two-page statement.
The Tigers and the government had a round of talks in February in Switzerland to save a truce struck in 2002 and agreed to meet in June, but the second meeting, in Oslo, was aborted.
Earlier peace talks aimed at ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed came
to a halt in April 2003 when the Tigers walked out. At a meeting in Oslo in
December 2002, both sides agreed to work towards a federal solution to end the
island's drawn out Tamil demand for greater autonomy, but the talks remain inconclusive.
Sri Lanka says navy sinks ship ferrying arms to Tamil Tiger rebels
Agence France Presse, 9/17/06
Sri Lanka's defence ministry said that navy gunboats and war planes Sunday attacked and sank a ship off the northeast coast that was carrying weapons for Tamil Tiger rebels. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are fighting for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka, were smuggling in weapons aboard the unregistered ship, the ministry said in a statement.
The statement made no comment on any injuries or casualties. "When ordered
by navy patrol craft to sail towards (the port of) Trincomalee for checking,
the vessel opened fire," the statement said, adding that fighter jets were
called in to attack the ship.
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Promises in Sudan Peace Deal Said Not Met
Nick Wadhams, Associated Press, 9/13/06
Many of the most important promises made under a peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war in Sudan's south have not been met, threatening to plunge the long-suffering region back into violence, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Tuesday. The dire assessment of the situation in Sudan's south said the Khartoum-based government and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army, which signed the deal with great fanfare in January 2005, have fallen well behind on plans for elections and are not sharing power and wealth as called for. "While they are observing their security commitments reasonably well, the implementation of several other major provisions of this agreement has fallen behind schedule," Annan said in the report. "Disappointingly, implementation of the (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) provisions appears to be selective."
There has also been little progress in establishing human rights commissions and disarming fighters. Sudan's parliament has shown little inclination to pass a raft of legislation necessary for the peace deal to be carried out fully.
Nonetheless, Annan recommended that the U.N. Security Council extend the mandate of the U.N. Mission in Sudan, or UNMIS, which was set up to monitor and support the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The force also facilitates the return of refugees, conducts de-mining and monitors human rights. Throughout the 14-page report, Annan criticized Sudan's government for its behavior toward civilians and the peacekeeping force itself. For example, Annan said that the government had refused to release items destined for UNMIS including food rations and communications equipment from its Port Sudan customs point.
"UNMIS has protested many times, and at many levels, to the Government about this issue," he said. "The situation has now slightly improved, however UNMIS communication equipment has yet to be released."
Police in Sudan's north have also repeatedly raided camps for displaced people, the report said. In mid-August, they evicted some 12,000 displaced in one camp near Khartoum and destroyed 3,500 homes.
There was some good news: Some 10,000 displaced have returned to south Sudan thanks to road repairs, which also allowed for the delivery of food aid and a polio immunization campaign. South Sudan's economy also continues to improve, Annan said. However, international donors have only provided about 56 percent or US$896.5 million of the money called for to rebuild south Sudan. Pledges for more are also well below the amount needed, Annan said. In the report, Annan said lasting stability would be impossible unless the government also agrees to implement deals to end the fighting in western Darfur, which has been plunged into humanitarian crisis because of unrelenting violence between rebel groups and government-backed militias.
The government so far has stymied U.N. Security Council plans for UNMIS to
take control of a peacekeeping force in Darfur that is now run by the African
Union. The A.U. force is undermanned and underfunded, and has been largely unable
to stop the violence in Darfur.
Sudanese VP and former rebel leader supports U.N. troops in Darfur
Mohammed Osman, Associated Press, 9/16/06
One of Sudan's two vice presidents said in remarks published Saturday that he would accept the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit, head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement a former southern rebel group that now shares power in Khartoum was quoted by the independent Al-Sudani daily as saying the Sudanese government was incapable of protecting civilians in Darfur, and called on the United Nations to intervene. "The aggravation of the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur necessitates intervention of international forces to protect civilians from the atrocities of the Janjaweed militias so long as the government is not capable of protecting them," Kiir was quoted as saying at the close of an SPLM politburo meeting held in the southern city of Juba late Friday.
The U.N. wants to take over Darfur peacekeeping from a largely ineffective African Union force something the Khartoum government has refused. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, in an opinion piece to be published Sunday, urged Sudan to accept the peacekeeping force and push ahead the political process. "There can be no military solution to the crisis in Darfur," Annan wrote in an item sent to newspapers around the world for publication Sunday, when non-governmental organizations across the globe are planning activities to raise public awareness on Darfur.
"All parties should have understood by now, after so much death and destruction that only a political agreement, in which all stakeholders are fully engaged, can bring real peace to the region," Annan wrote in the item that the U.N. e-mailed to The Associated Press.
Sudan's junior foreign affairs minister, Al-Samani Al-Wasila, told Sawt Al-Arab (Voice of the Arabs) Radio on Saturday that the best thing the international community could do for Sudan was to support the Darfur Peace Agreement instead of planning to deploy international forces. He also stressed that peace must be achieved by the people of Sudan themselves, not outside forces.
The Darfur conflict began in early 2003, when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Khartoum government, which was accused of unleashing Arab militiamen blamed for rapes and killings. At least 200,000 people have died. The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed in May in Abuja, Nigeria, calls for a cease-fire, disarmament of militias and a protection force for civilians but does not specify the composition of such a force.
Last month, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding a better-funded, larger and more well-equipped U.N. mission take over Darfur peacekeeping duties from the African Union. But the resolution was unlikely to take effect without the consent of the Sudanese government, something nations including the United States have worked without success to acquire.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir says a switch in command would violate the country's sovereignty and has warned that his army would fight any U.N. forces sent to Darfur.
In a meeting in Washington in June, U.S. President George W. Bush pressed Kiir to accept a U.N. force in Darfur. But the SPLM leader sidestepped the issue, saying only that "we are sure that we are going to solve the problem so that we don't hear about rapes and killings in Darfur." On Friday, Bush said it could be time to send international peacekeepers into Darfur over the objections of the government in Khartoum. "What you'll hear is, well, the government of Sudan must invite the United Nations in for us to act," Bush said. "Well, there are other alternatives, like passing a U.N. resolution saying we're coming in with a U.N. force in order to save lives."
Kiir's group signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in January 2005, laying down its arms after 21 years of civil war Africa's longest war. Some see that peace deal as a model for resolving the Darfur conflict. Kiir participated in the Abuja talks that led to the signing the Darfur Peace Agreement, and his organization is believed to have influence over the Darfur rebels, though their conflicts were not related.
The newspaper also quoted SPLM Secretary-General Bagan Amom as calling on al-Bashir's National Congress Party to "accept deployment of U.N. forces in Darfur to avert clashes with the international community." Amom said the SPLM would "work at convincing the National Congress (Party) to agree to the deployment of U.N. forces in Darfur."
The January 2005 peace accord provided for an autonomous south with its own army, national power and wealth-sharing, religious freedom and a new constitution during a six-year interim period. After those six years, the 10 southern states will hold a referendum on independence.
Sudan has a unity government, in which Kiir now serves as first vice president, in addition to his post as the south's president.
The southern government's Cabinet has 70 percent representation from the SPLM, 15 percent from al-Bashir's northern ruling National Democratic Party and 15 percent from other southern parties.
Sudan's Beshir increasingly isolated over Darfur
Mohammed Ali Saeed, Agence France Presse, 9/17/06
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir finds himself increasingly isolated as his peace partners rally the growing consensus in favour of a UN peacekeeping force for Darfur, analysts said Sunday. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which formed a national unity government with Beshir's long-ruling National Congress after signing a landmark peace deal last year, confirmed its acceptance of UN troops in Darfur.
After a three-day meeting in the southern capital of Juba, the former rebel movement's leadership justified its position by saying Sudan needed to "avert confrontation with the international community."
SPLM leader Salva Kiir, also Sudan's first vice president, was quoted in a Sudanese paper Saturday as saying a UN deployment was needed to "protect civilians from the atrocities" of the pro-government Janjaweed militia. "The government of Khartoum will face an internal crisis in the coming phase as a result of disagreements with the SPLM over the deployment of international troops in Darfur," independent Sudanese analyst Mohammed Abu Sid told AFP.
The SPLM's split from Beshir on the issue of peacekeepers is one of the most serious cracks in the unity government since its inception last year.
The cabinet formed by the former foes is the centrepiece of the January 2005 peace agreement that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.
Beshir "is definitely isolating himself," said Monika Thakur, an Africa expert at the American University in Cairo. "But Sudan has always pursued its own agenda," she said. "In terms of regime survival it makes sense," Thakur added.
Another of the veteran leader's peace partners broke ranks recently over the issue of a UN deployment when Darfur rebel leader Minni Minnawi also said African troops in the troubled western region needed to be replaced. Minnawi had signed a peace deal with Khartoum in May, creating a schism among the rebel movements which have fought the central government and its allied militias since early 2003.
Brian Thomson, of the London-based research centre Chatham House, argued that the SPLM's call on Beshir to accept the UN's plans may do little to inflect the Sudanese strongman's position. "The Beshir government is used to being isolated," he said. "In terms of the government's policy in Darfur, the track record is that it only acts when there is serious pressure," said Thomson. "But right now, (Beshir) may have made the calculation that the United States is busy with other things." Beshir has consistently rejected international calls for a UN deployment in Darfur, where three and half years of war and famine have left up to 300,000 people dead and some 2.5 million displaced.
Next week, US President George W. Bush heads to the United Nations to seek new action to quell the violence in Darfur. The UN Security Council adopted a resolution late last month calling for a UN deployment. On Sunday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to the European Union to apply heavy pressure on the Sudanese government and rebels to stop the civil war in Darfur. And on Friday, European Union ministers, meeting in Brussels, urged Sudan to allow UN troops to replace the cash-strapped AU mission whose mandate expires at the end of the month.
World diplomats have found the support of an array of celebrities in their efforts to restore peace in Darfur. Hollywood star George Clooney and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel pleaded with the Security Council last week, while the latest initiative came from a group of British pop stars including Elton John and Annie Lennox. The singers signed an open letter calling on the British government to "move Darfur to the top of its priority list until a UN force is deployed and the people of Darfur are protected."
Beshir remained defiant however, reiterating his allegations that the UN's deployment plans are a US-engineered ploy to invade his country and plunder its resources. "Sudan is (one of) the first African countries in Africa south of the Sahara to get independence, (and) we are not ready to be the first to be re-colonised," he said last week.
Sunday, which was declared the "Global Day for Darfur" by some 30 international human rights organisations, was welcomed in Khartoum by a demonstration denouncing a "Jewish conspiracy" engineered in Washington.
Genocide
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