PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Thursday, January 25, 2007
(Volume V, Number 34)

Contents:
Armenia
Azerbaijani military says soldier killed by Armenian fire near Nagorno-Karabakh zone
Armenian authorities denied that their forces were responsible.

Armenia, Azerbaijan hold fresh talks on Nagorno Karabakh

Burundi
Burundi: Party leader hides in S African embassy
Hussein Radjabu feared for his safety after his police bodyguards were changed unexpectedly.

Chechnya
Two die in Chechnya clash
Suspected rebel fighter and a policeman were killed.

Russia's highest court confirms closure of rights group critical of crackdown in Chechnya

Democratic Republic of Congo
DR Congo ends mammoth election process with Senate vote
In one of the final stages in the process, 108 members of the country's new Senate were voted in.

UN troops must stay in DR Congo: UN general

Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.

Georgia
Georgia-Abkhazia tensions could boil over
New International Crisis Group report says that hostilities could erupt again this year between Georgia and Abkhazia unless both sides resume talks and cooperation.

Russia, S. Ossetia call for Georgian cooperation to end conflict

Ivory Coast
West African leaders meet on Ivory Coast crisis
Eleven presidents discussed measures to reunite Ivory Coast and hold elections.

Ivory Coast president announces direct talks with rebels

Kashmir
Moderate separatist leader from Indian Kashmir calls to give up armed struggle
The remarks by chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference likely to draw criticism from political opponents and Islamic militants.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation.

Kosovo
Kosovo independence to have positives for Serbs: PM
Kosovo leader says that the plan for independence offers Serbs “positive discrimination.”

UN envoy to deliver Kosovo plan to Serbs, Albanians

Kosovo Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation.

Nepal
Maoists hand over more weapons in Nepal
UN Officials say the weapon registration process is going smoothly.

Nepal Maoists dissolve parallel governments
People’s governments and courts dissolved per terms of peace agreement.

Protester killed in clashes with Maoists in Nepal
Protesters object to the interim constitution, which paved the way for the Maoists to join the legislature as a legitimate political party.

Somalia
Somali parliament votes out speaker linked to Islamic movement
EU and US say move could hurt reconciliation process.

Top U.N. envoy says Somali government needs protection in Somali capital
UN Representative to Somalia met with Somali president; says UN needs to facilitate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.

Sri Lanka
Air force bombs Tamil rebel bases in northeast
Airstrike targeted camp where the military and LTTE have been locked in a fierce fight for territory.

Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation.

Sudan
African Union hopes partnership with U.N. and regional dialogue can solve Darfur crisis this year
Regional talks aimed at bringing together rebel leaders, tribal chiefs and government officials to "address the political, economic and governance issues.”

African Union confirm Sudanese bombing of North Darfur villages in breach of cease-fire
Sudanese military denied the bombing raids.

Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
Click here to access the PILPG Report.

Peace Negotiations Watch is prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group in cooperation with American University and is made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ploughshares Fund.

Armenia

Azerbaijani military says soldier killed by Armenian fire near Nagorno-Karabakh zone

An Azerbaijani soldier has been killed by Armenian forces near the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh zone, Military officials said Friday. Armenian authorities denied their forces were responsible. Warrant Officer Shakin Aliyev was killed late Wednesday apparently by sniper fire near the so-called line of control separating Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Col. Seiran Shuvarian, spokesman for Armenia's Defense Ministry denied it, saying Armenian forces were fulfilling the cease-fire agreement.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous territory inside Azerbaijan, but it has been controlled along with some surrounding areas by Karabakh and Armenian forces since 1994.

A shaky cease-fire in 1994 ended the six-year conflict, in which 30,000 people were killed and about 1 million driven from their homes. Attempts to resolve the conflict have failed.

Armenia, Azerbaijan hold fresh talks on Nagorno Karabakh

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan held talks in Moscow on Tuesday but there was little progress in resolving the dispute over Nagorno Karabakh, an Armenian member of parliament said. "We didn't achieve concrete results but we established good ground on which to build on in future negotiations in Baku, Yerevan and Stepanakert," Voorujan Nerssessian, president of Armenia's foreign affairs parliamentary committee, was quoted as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

Nagorno Karabakh's break from Azerbaijan in 1991 precipitated a full-blown war between fellow former Soviet republics Armenia and Azerbaijan, claiming some 25,000 lives before ending with a ceasefire in 1994. The region's status remains unsettled, despite years of diplomatic talks.

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Burundi

Burundi: Party leader hides in S African embassy

The chairman of Burundi's ruling party, Hussein Radjabu, said yesterday he had spent the night in the South African embassy, fearing for his safety after his police bodyguards were changed unexpectedly. His CNDD-FDD party is facing criticism after five people, including the former president Domitien Ndayizeye, were acquitted last week of plotting a coup. Critics said the plot, in which seven suspects were accused of conspiring to kill Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundi's president, and overthrow his government, was invented by the ruling party to quash dissent.

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Chechnya

Two die in Chechnya clash

A suspected rebel fighter and a policeman have been killed during a clash in Russia's devastated province of Chechnya, the local interior ministry said Tuesday. "During a police operation against a group of five or six rebel combatants late Monday, one policeman and a rebel were killed," a spokesman for the Chechen interior ministry told AFP by telephone. "Four other police were injured."

The clash took place in the eastern Kurchaloi region of Chechnya, a tiny province home to approximately one million Chechens, where separatist rebels have been battling Russian forces since 1994.

Resistance has largely been quelled and most of the major leaders killed, but small scale clashes continue in the forested mountains of the south. As many as 100,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed in Chechnya, along with some 10,000 Russian soldiers.

Russia's highest court confirms closure of rights group critical of crackdown in Chechnya

Russia's highest court on Tuesday upheld the decision to close down a rights group which has been fiercely critical of the government's handling of the military campaign against separatists in Chechnya and alleged human rights abuses there.

Rights advocates and critics have denounced the closure of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society based on extremism charges as the Kremlin's attempt to silence opposition of its conduct in the violence-torn southern region and rein in civil rights.

The Supreme Court upheld the October decision of the highest court in the central Russian Nizhny Novgorod region, where the group is based, to order its closure, Supreme Court spokesman Pavel Odintsov said.

The group's head Stanislav Dmitriyevsky said the decision was illegal and violated one's right to freedom of speech and association, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Dmitriyevsky could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

The non-governmental organization has vigorously campaigned against the more than decade-old conflict against separatists in Chechnya and published reports alleging torture, abductions and murder of civilians by Russian forces and their pro-Moscow Chechen allies. The group successfully fought off an attempt to close it two years ago and has faced increasing pressure from the authorities in recent months. In February 2006, a court convicted Dmitriyevsky of inciting ethnic hatred and gave him a two-year suspended sentence.

London-based Amnesty International criticized Tuesday's ruling as a "double blow" one to freedom of expression and another to civil society. A law passed last year imposed government oversight of NGOs' work and financing, giving the authorities scope to close down groups whose activities are perceived to contradict their stated goals or harm state interests.

It provoked a tide of criticism from Western governments amid concerns that it could herald a tightening of state control over non-governmental organizations.

President Vladimir Putin has been accused of stifling media freedoms and rolling back post-Soviet democratic freedoms since coming to power in 2000.

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Democratic Republic of Congo

DR Congo ends mammoth election process with Senate vote

The Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday began one of the final stages in the mammoth election process that began in July 2006, voting for the 108 members of the country's new Senate. The senators are being elected by the 690 members of the DRC's 11 equally new regional assemblies. In all 1,127 candidates are seeking a seat in the upper house of parliament.

The Independent Electoral Commission, which said voting had started late in several of the 26 polling stations dotted around the vast central African country because of organisational hitches, is expected to announce provisional results on Saturday.

The Senate election is one of the final stages in a gigantic election process that started on July 30, 2006, with voting for a president, a lower house of parliament and the 11 newly created regional assemblies. The landmark polls were the first in the war-shattered DRC for more than four decades and the first since independence in 1960 to be considered free and fair.

National election observers and witnesses from political parties said voting on Friday was generally peaceful. But there were minor incidents in the capital Kinshasa and in the southeastern province of Katanga.

In Kinshasa, voting was delayed by a minor stampede that occurred when around 100 election observers, journalists and candidates' supporters tried to crush into the small room in city hall that was being used as a polling station. In the ensuing panic the members of the provincial parliament walked out, saying their safety could not be guaranteed, and the CEI "temporarily suspended the vote (to) reorganise the room".

In Katanga, which has sought to break away from the DRC shortly after independence, voting in the provincial capital Lubumbashi was delayed when protesting demobilised soldiers tried to enter the polling station. The demonstrators were demanding a bonus payment.

UN troops must stay in DR Congo: UN general

The 17,600-strong UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo must stay in place to protect civilians until the country's military can be overhauled, the force's commander said Monday. "The problem is that of reforming the army," said General Babacar Gaye of Senegal in an interview, adding that the solution depended, in part, on enhanced financing. "Until this army is more solid, there are clearly risks in letting it secure territory on its own," especially in the far east where local militias and renegade forces have terrorized civilian populations, leaving thousands dead.

Gaye's comments came five days ahead of a scheduled visit by Ban Ki-moon to Kinshasa, the new UN Secretary General's first stop on an African tour.

The general pointed out that MONUC -- the acronym for the international force, the UN's largest anywhere in the world -- had improved overall security for civilians.

UN forces played a critical role in maintaining order during a three-year interim government and were joined by European Union troops in the run up last year to general and presidential elections. MONUC has made particular progress in demobilizing militias, especially in the regions of Katanga in the southeast and in Ituri in the northeast, Gaye said. "It was military pressure that led them to see that the only way out was political." "But there is still violence," he said, pointing out that the peace process set in motion in 2003 after a brutal five-year war across the vast central African country was not yet complete. Some of the continuing violence comes from the regular army itself, he pointed out.

"The FARDC" -- the army of the DR Congo -- "are among the worst violators of human rights in the country," he said. "The difference with the armed groups is that they (the army) are not acting on orders. The lack of discipline and the violence come from individuals." "Soldiers who are malnourished, poorly paid, without uniforms -- it is a difficult army to command," he added. MONUC has played a role in reforming the country's military through joint training exercises, and has the full logistical backing of FARDC, Gaye said.

At the weekend, the regular army announced that it had begun integrating dissident soldiers loyal to a renegade general, Laurent Nkunda, after clashes which left more than 170 dead in Nord-Kivu province at the end of December. The fighting also displaced more than 40,000 people in the eastern region.

Congolese officials have spoken of a "political or judicial solution" over an arrest warrant out for Nkunda for war crimes allegedly committed by his troops in 2004 during a siege of the town of Bukavu, the capital of the neighbouring province of Sud-Kivu.

UN forces were accused of being slow to respond on that occasion, but Gaye pointed out that when insurgent troops marched on Nord-Kivu's capital Goma in November last year, "MONUC implemented its mandate in a very robust way to protect civilians," with ground forces and attack helicopters. "You have to establish priorities, and the priority for MONUC is the (civilian) population," the general said.

Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.

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Georgia

Georgia-Abkhazia tensions could boil over

Hostilities could erupt again this year between Georgia and the breakaway entity of Abkhazia unless both sides resume talks and cooperation, a new report says.

Georgia and Abkhazia should focus this year on confidence building and practical cooperation rather than seeking solutions to sticky political issues which have little hope of success in the current political environment, according to an International Crisis Group report released Thursday.

Fourteen years of negotiation have done little to resolve the conflict, and the stalemate has solidified each side's distorted, negative view of the other, the report says. "The eye-for-an-eye approach that both sides have followed has only perpetuated the stalemate," says Sabine Freizer, Crisis Group's Europe Program director. "Unless they start treating each other as legitimate and equal partners who both gain by working together, there's a real chance that the region could backslide into hostilities."

Diplomacy has been stalled since mid-2006, when Georgia launched a military operation in the Kodori valley. ICG argues that neither side should take steps that could be interpreted by the other as provocative or undermine the little trust that exists in the present fragile climate.

Abkhazia insists on recognition of independence after working for years to build its own institutions, but the international community unanimously considers it part of Georgia, and Tbilisi sees secession as a threat to national security and economic development.

More than 200,000 internally displaced persons live in Georgia under harsh conditions, according to the report, while the Abkhaz suffer from tough economic, trade and travel restrictions, which leave them dependent on Russia for military and economic security.

Russia, S. Ossetia call for Georgian cooperation to end conflict

Russia's foreign minister and the president of South Ossetia expressed their concern at talks Friday over Georgia's unwillingness to sign a document with its breakaway region to end military activities, the ministry said. "The lack of positive dynamics in this issue could become a destabilizing factor for South Ossetia and the whole region, and lead to aggravated confrontation, including armed, in the conflict zone," the ministry said in a statement following Sergei Lavrov's meeting with Eduard Kokoity.

The sides expressed concern over Tbilisi's unwillingness to sign a document on the non-resumption of military activities with South Ossetia, confirmed their readiness to continue close cooperation through the Joint Control Commission (JCC), and called on their Georgian partners to renew joint work under the existing talks format.

The JCC, comprising Georgia, South Ossetia, Russia, and its Republic of North Ossetia, was formed to find a solution to the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia. Lavrov had earlier welcomed Kokoity's peace initiatives voiced at a meeting of the Joint Control Commission on December 27, 2006.

South Ossetia and Abkhazia declared their independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, sparking bloody conflicts in the region. Russia mediated ceasefire agreements between the sides, and Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in the conflict zones ever since.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who swept into power on the back of the 2003 "Rose" revolution, has vowed to bring the rebellious provinces back into the fold and accuses Russia of siding with the separatists.

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Ivory Coast

West African leaders meet on Ivory Coast crisis

Eleven west African presidents, including Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo, met Friday in Burkina Faso to discuss measures to make progress in reuniting Ivory Coast and holding elections. "The crisis that started in 2002 in Ivory Coast unfortunately continues to affect this brother nation and to concern ECOWAS," the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, Niger's President Mamadou Tandja, said to open the summit.

Tandja urged the international community and African organisations "not to give way to weariness" about Ivory Coast, where an international working group last week reported a "total impasse" in implementing a UN Security Council resolution aimed at having elections held this year.

Gbagbo's government has controlled the south of the one-time economic hub of west Africa, which is still the world's leading cocoa producer, while the rebel New Forces established their rule over the north and parts of the west after a foiled coup bid in September 2002.

The working group, jointly run by the UN Operation in Ivory Coast and the African Union, meets every month to assess progress in reuniting the country across ceasefire lines monitored by UN and French troops.

On January 12, it reported a "total impasse principally due to the refusal by some Ivorian parties to accept and implement" the UN resolution of November 1 and threw the problem back at ECOWAS and the African Union, urging them to turn up the heat on rival political forces in Ivory Coast.

At Friday's meeting in Ouagadougou, the 15-nation regional economic group was due to consider recommendations to the pan-African organisation based in Addis Ababa, which in turn is scheduled to discuss Ivory Coast on January 29 and 30, and make recommendations to the United Nations by February 1.

The UN Security Council has twice in two years accepted a postponement of elections, but last November it resolved to strip Gbagbo of some of his powers and strengthen the hand of Charles Konan Banny, a former international banker turned prime minister in charge of a transitional government.

The ECOWAS leaders are also due to name a successor to Tandja, who was elected chairman of the group in 2005 and re-elected last year. Officials close to the proceedings said Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore could get both the ECOWAS job and the chairmanship of the eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union, which holds its own summit in Ouagadougou on Saturday.

Ivory Coast president announces direct talks with rebels

Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo said Monday that he will later this week hold direct talks with rebels in the west African country to promote a stalled peace process. "This very week, I shall begin direct dialogue," Gbagbo said at a New Year's ceremony with the army, broadcast on national television. "This is an important year for Ivory Coast. Our diplomatic efforts are paying off little by little."

Officials in Gbagbo's entourage, contacted by AFP, were unable to give any precise date or place for such talks with the leadership of rebels who have held the north of the divided west African country since September 2002.

Guillaume Soro, leader of the rebel New Forces, last week met representatives of the political opposition, who back the proposal for direct talks.

Soro was due on Tuesday to go to neighbouring Burkina Faso for discussions with President Blaise Compaore, who last Friday became the new chairman of the Economic Community of West African States during an ECOWAS summit where the 15-nation bloc encouraged the principle of direct dialogue.

A peace process in the world's largest cocoa producer and former economic hub of the region began in January 2003 and has thus far led to the formation of a transitional government headed by ex-banker Charles Konan Banny, after the deployment of UN and French peacekeepers on ceasefire lines. However, the tasks of disarmament, voter registration for planned elections and national reunification have been blocked for more than two years, with each side accusing the other of creating obstacles.

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Kashmir

Moderate separatist leader from Indian Kashmir calls to give up armed struggle

A separatist leader from India's portion of Kashmir called for giving up the armed struggle in the disputed Himalayan region to pave the way for a negotiated settlement, a news report said Saturday.

The remarks by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference were likely to draw criticism from his political opponents and Islamic militants at home and in this Islamic nation. "We have already seen the results of our fight on the political and military fronts, which have not achieved anything other than creating more graveyards," it quoted him as saying Friday at a dinner in his honor the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

APHC is an alliance of 23 separatist groups based in Indian Kashmir, and Farooq's visit touched off a protest by some 3,000 relatives and friends of militants who are opposed to abandoning their fight.

Mostly Muslim Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed in its entirety by both. More than a dozen militant groups most based in Pakistan have been fighting in India's part the territory, seeking independence for Kashmir or its merger with predominantly Islamic Pakistan.

The insurgency, which began in 1989, has killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians. Earlier Friday, Farooq met with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who shared his views about ongoing talks with India to resolve the Kashmir conflict.

The two nuclear-armed nations have fought two of three wars over Kashmir since 1947 when they gained independence from Britain. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of backing Islamic militants operating in Kashmir. Pakistan denies the charge saying it extends only moral, diplomatic and political support. Relations have improved in recent years, and they have held three rounds of talks since 2005 when their leaders agreed to resolve all problems through dialogue.

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

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Kosovo

Kosovo independence to have positives for Serbs: PM

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian prime minister, Agim Ceku, says the time has come for the province's independence in which there will be many benefits for minority Serbs. In an interview with AFP, Ceku said Serbs should not fear Kosovo's independence from Serbia, a form of which is expected to be announced within weeks by special United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari. "We've got some momentum now. The time has come for the Kosovo people to govern themselves. It's time for the decision about the independence of Kosovo," said Ceku.

The Kosovo leader said that granting the ethnic Albanian-dominated province independence from Belgrade "wasn't a sign for an emergency among local Serbs." "No one is going to knock on their door to say Kosovo is independent and you have to leave. We have everything to reassure and to accommodate them in Kosovo," said Ceku. "We are even offering them 'positive discrimination'.

"Eighty-two percent of Kosovo Serbs will live in Serb-majority areas and in their municipalities. They will be able to make decisions about themselves and basic things that mean a life for them." Kosovo has been run by a UN mission since mid-1999, when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces repressing ethnic Albanian civilians in a fight against an armed independence movement.

Since then, some 200,000 Serbs have fled the province, fearing reprisals by ethnic Albanian extremists, while most of those who remain -- some 100,000 people -- live in small enclaves and remain fearful for their lives.

There are concerns in some quarters that Kosovo's possible independence could lead to another humanitarian crisis with thousands more Serbs taking flight. Ahtisaari, a Finnish diplomat who chaired nine months of UN-backed talks between Pristina and Belgrade last year, will unveil his plans for Kosovo's future status some time after Serbian general elections on Sunday.

Ethnic Albanians are seeking independence, while Belgrade and Kosovo Serbs consider the province as the cradle of their history, culture and religion and are only willing to offer them broad autonomy. Backed by Russia's stance that the only acceptable solution for Kosovo is one approved by both Pristina and Belgrade in more talks, Serbia seems intent on dragging the issue out for as long as possible.

Ceku said the chances of a negotiated settlement on Kosovo had been exhausted, and that it was now up to the international community and the UN Security Council to decide on the matter. "We are waiting for Ahtisaari. This whole process of negotiating has proved that there is nothing to come up from it. They will seek their position and we will seek our position," he said. "We just can put on a show (in further negotiations). Nothing will be achieved from this, except if Serbs change their mind and start to be realistic."

There is widespread belief among international observers that delays would make the situation in Kosovo difficult to manage, because of the local population's thinning patience for independence.

The think-tank Crisis Group said in its latest report that postponing Kosovo's status might cause Albanians to lose confidence in the international community and lead to a possible explosion of violence. However Prime Minister Ceku ruled out the possibility of any turbulence if Kosovo goes deeper into 2007 without its status settled.

"There is no risk of violence. We are not a country of violence. Kosovo people don't need violence and they are tired of violence," said Ceku. "This is a joint process and project with the international community. The international community has helped us to rebuild our country and they have invested a lot of money here," he added. "They and we are all interested in making Kosovo a success story."

UN envoy to deliver Kosovo plan to Serbs, Albanians

A UN envoy will deliver his Kosovo status proposal to Belgrade and Pristina in 10 days, beginning a process widely expected to lead to the independence of the long-disputed province, officials said Tuesday. Martti Ahtisaari will travel to the Kosovo and Serbian capitals on February 2 to present the rival camps his recommendations to resolve the most sensitive issue left over from the bloody Balkan wars of the 1990s, they said.

It is widely anticipated that the veteran UN negotiator will propose granting Kosovo a form of independence, as sought by the province's ethnic Albanians but fervently opposed by Belgrade and most Serbs. He is expected to offer minority Serbs that live in Kosovo enclaves protection under an international presence, and possibly a form of local autonomy.

Word of Ahtisaari's visit to the disputed Serbian province was received in a letter to Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, said Skender Hyseni, a member of the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team. "We still don't know what the content of the UN envoy's package is. What we know, and what we believe, is that the process is designed to lead to independence of Kosovo," said Hyseni.

A similar letter was sent to Serbian President Boris Tadic and outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, a fervent opponent of Kosovo's possible independence, officials said Tuesday. "The president has received a short letter from Ahtisaari notifying him that he would come on February 2 to present the plan," an official from Tadic's cabinet told AFP. "The same letter was also sent to Kostunica," the official added.

Legally still a Serbian province, Kosovo has been administered by a UN mission since 1999, when NATO bombing drove Serbian forces out over a crackdown against ethnic Albanian citizens in a fight against separatist guerillas. Ahtisaari is also scheduled to present his plans for Kosovo to European Union foreign ministers behind closed doors in the Austrian capital Vienna on Friday.

The former president of Finland began negotiations in February last year between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders aimed at defining the future status of the province. He suspended the talks in October, however, saying there had been very little common ground between the two sides on the key issue of Kosovo's future status.

Ethnic Albanians, who comprise about 90 percent of Kosovo's two million people, are seeking independence, a demand Belgrade staunchly opposes, instead offering them broad autonomy. Belgrade and most Serbs who consider the southern territory as the cradle of their history, culture and religion.

Hyseni said Ahtisaari's trip to Kosovo "proves that the process will not be kept as a hostage of the different combinations in Belgrade after the elections." "It is up to the Serbian people to elect their leadership ... but the process in Kosovo can't be held as hostage of the events in Belgrade. "The diplomat decided to postpone his announcement from late last year until after Serbia's general elections on Sunday for fear it would rouse nationalist sentiment during the poll.

In spite of Ahtisaari's decision to postpone his plan, initial results from Serbia's general elections show the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party won the most support with around 29 percent of votes. After Ahtisaari presents his plan to Belgrade and Pristina, the Kosovo issue is expected to be taken up by the UN Security Council, where Serbia's traditional ally Russia has warned it will use its veto if the decision is imposed and unacceptable to either side.

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

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Nepal

Maoists handed over more weapons to United Nations monitors on Thursday, the second day of a process that is a key element of a peace deal in Nepal, former rebel leaders said. The handover began Wednesday at two sites and is due to be carried out at 28 camps, UN officials said. "The UN has registered 750 of the 6,500 Maoist soldiers and verified their weapons in the camp so far," said Maoist division commander Samthing Buddha.

He was speaking by telephone from a camp at Chitwan, 200 kilometres (120 miles) southwest of the capital, Kathmandu. "By Thursday evening, we estimate that as many as 1,500 PLA (People's Liberation Army) soldiers will be registered," he said. "Each of our PLA soldiers are distributed a form to fill out their details and are photographed by the UN officials for their records. "The registration process is going smoothly."

From a second camp at Nawalparasi, another Maoist commander called Pratikchhya told AFP more than 250 former rebels registered with the world body on Thursday.

"Our party wants to request the UN to speed up the registration process, as there are 5,200 PLA personnel in our cantonment site in Nawalparasi," 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of the capital, he said.

Weapons were being stored in UN containers, but media have not been allowed to witness the handover.

The total number of soldiers and weapons registered would not be revealed until the end of the process, said Ian Martin, personal representative of the UN secretary general in Nepal." We expect that the Nepal Army will be positioned to quickly store an equal number of weapons," Martin told a press conference. The rebels claim to have 35,000 soldiers in their PLA, but independent estimates put their numbers at closer to 12,000.

Apart from those needed to protect Maoist camps and leaders, the rebels are to place all weapons in the containers monitored by the UN. Under the peace deal reached late last year, the Nepal Army is due to be confined to its barracks and place the same number of weapons as the Maoists under UN supervision.

As part of the peace deal that saw Maoist MPs sworn in earlier this week, the rebels will keep a key to the locked-up weapons. Once bitter foes, the Maoists entered a new parliament with the seven main political parties late Monday after a new temporary constitution was approved.

King Gyanendra was stripped of his status as head of state and lost control of the army. Nepal's previous parliament was dissolved Monday. King Gyanendra restored the legislature after weeks of bloody mass protests forced him to abandon direct rule in April 2006. At least 12,500 people have been killed since the rebels launched their "People's War" in 1996 to install a communist republic.

Nepal Maoists dissolve parallel governments

Nepal's Maoists dissolved on Thursday their "people's government" which had controlled large swathes of the Himalayan nation, as part of a peace deal to end a bloody decade-long insurgency. "As per the agreement reached with the government, our party declares that the people's governments and people's courts run by our party in the past have been dissolved from today," Maoist chairman Prachanda said.

The announcement followed the entry by the Maoists into parliament alongside the seven main political parties on Monday, after a new temporary constitution was approved stripping King Gyanendra of his status as head of state.

Under a historic peace pact in November, the Maoists agreed to end their "people's war" to install a communist republic, in which at least 12,500 people were killed, and join mainstream politics.

Protester killed in clashes with Maoists in Nepal

A 16-year-old boy was shot to death in southeast Nepal and a dozen vehicles were torched by protesters opposed to the Maoist's success in joining the government, police said Saturday. The boy died of gunshot wounds Friday after the Mahadhesi's Janadhikar Forum, fighting for land rights in the southern plains, stopped a vehicle carrying former Maoist rebels who then opened fire, police said.

The incident happened in Lahan Bazaar, around 350 kilometres (218 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, police said. "As the violence flared up the local administration decided to impose a 10-hour-long curfew to bring the situation under control Friday night," he said.

The group objects to the new interim constitution passed this week by Nepal's parliament that paved the way for the former rebels, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), to join the legislature as a legitimate political party.

A government that came to power after King Gyanendra gave up direct rule in April 2006 following mass protests reached a peace deal with the rebels to end a decade of civil war that claimed more than 12,500 lives.

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

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Somalia

Somali parliament votes out speaker linked to Islamic movement

The Somali parliament stripped the speaker position from a top lawmaker who was closely associated with the recently ousted Islamic movement, and the United States and the European Union said the move could hurt reconciliation efforts in the restive country.

Diplomats said the fired speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, was capable of pulling together moderate elements in Somalia's Islamic movement. Wednesday also saw the government's disarmament efforts receive a boost with three major warlords handing over vehicles and men.

Deputy Speaker Osman Ilmi Boqore announced the move against Aden in proceedings broadcast live on HornAfrik Radio. Lawmakers cited his public criticism of a proposed African peacekeeping mission that parliament had endorsed and his meetings with Islamic movement leaders without authority from parliament. Boqore said only nine of the lawmakers present voted against the motion. Voting in favor were 183 lawmakers 44 more than required in the 275-member parliament

Aden's actions have been in "total violation of our transitional charter," lawmaker Mohamoud Begos told The Associated Press by phone from Baidoa, where parliament is based. Speaking from Rome, Aden said the lawmakers who voted against him were not acting freely.

"They have been ordered to vote me out by the president, Abdullahi Yusuf, who wants to rule Somalia through Ethiopian forces and through this parliament. The president wants to crack down on all those who are against him," Aden said in a telephone interview. "I have been seeking reconciliation all over the world and this vote tries to destroy the very thing we have been looking for: reconciliation." Aden had made several freelance peace initiatives with Somalia's Islamic movement before government forces backed by Ethiopian troops ousted them in December from the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia.

In Belgium on Wednesday, European Union spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tadio expressed disappointment at the Somali parliament's move against Aden, who held meetings with EU officials in Belgium earlier this week. "We saw him as a someone who could make a bridge with the moderate elements," Altafaj said. "We had encouraged him to go back to Mogadishu to carry out his job and bring together as many political players as possible."

At a seminar on Somalia in Washington Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said the action by the parliament was likely to have a negative impact on efforts to promote dialogue in Somalia. At the U.S. State Department, deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the new authorities in Mogadishu should be reaching out "not only to those that are already participating in the government, but to others more broadly." In the past year, Aden has differed with the president and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi over the location of the government and whether peacekeepers were needed. According to Somalia's transitional charter, parliament has to vote on all major government decisions before they can be implemented.

On Wednesday, Gedi told parliament he ruled out peace talks with the Islamic movement and hoped to see the first African peacekeepers in Somalia by month's end. Ethiopia has said it can't afford to keep its troops in Somalia much longer. At the Washington seminar, an Ethiopian diplomat said his country's forces would begin to withdraw in the coming days.

The hope is that regional peacekeepers move in quickly to fill the void the Ethiopian withdrawal would leave. But so far only Uganda has committed to contributing troops and few others have shown enthusiasm for a proposed 8,000-strong African mission to bolster the government's attempt to create law and order. A peacekeeping mission could face violence, something that may deter many countries from committing soldiers.

There has been sporadic fighting since the government took over Mogadishu on Dec. 28. Leaders of the Islamic movement have pledged to carry on a guerrilla war as long as Ethiopian troops remain. A U.N. peacekeeping operation in Somalia in the 1990s saw clashes between foreign troops and Somali warlords' fighters, including the notorious downings of two U.S. military Black Hawk helicopters in 1993. The U.S. withdrew from Somalia in 1994, and that was followed a year later by the departure of U.N. peacekeepers.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other, reducing the Horn of Africa nation to anarchy and clan-based violence. The Yusuf-Gedi government emerged from regional, U.N.-backed talks in 2004 and has since struggled to assert authority. On Wednesday, three warlords who once held sway over parts of Mogadishu handed over at least 40 pickups fitted with machine-guns to the government.

One warlord, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, said 700 of his militiamen had agreed to be absorbed into government forces. Another, Muse Sudi Yalahow, said his militiamen had also agreed to join government forces, though he declined to say how many. The third warlord, Interior Minister Hussein Aided, said he had handed over pickups and his militiamen had joined government forces but did not say how many.

The U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Eric Laroche, urged quick action to prevent a power vacuum in Somalia." We need to resume as soon as possible high-impact projects in the capital that support stabilization and make a visible difference in peoples' lives," Laroche said in a statement released in Nairobi, where U.N. agencies working in Somalia are based because of insecurity in Somalia.

Top U.N. envoy says Somali government needs protection in Somali capital

Salad Duhul, Associated Press, 1/18/07

A top U.N. envoy said on Thursday that Somalia's government needs protection following its relocation to the capital after ousting an Islamic movement that had held Mogadishu for six months. The U.N. Secretary General's special representative to Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, arrived in Mogadishu for his first meeting with President Abdullahi Yusuf in the capital. "To see the president in Villa Somalia (the official presidential residence) is a very important step. We have to move step by step and we need all efforts to get this country rebuilt," Fall told journalists before going into a closed-door meeting with Yusuf.

After a 30-minute meeting with Yusuf, Fall told journalists that now the government had relocated to Mogadishu, "we need to protect them and also facilitate the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. This is what everyone expects."

Government forces backed by Ethiopian troops ousted Somalia's Islamic movement in December from Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia. The Islamic movement, formally known as the Council of Islamic Courts, had controlled much of southern Somalia since June.

Ethiopia has said it can't afford to keep its troops in Somalia much longer. At a seminar on Somalia in Washington Wednesday, an Ethiopian diplomat said his country's forces would begin to withdraw in the coming days.

The hope is that regional peacekeepers move in quickly to fill the void the Ethiopian withdrawal would leave. But so far only Uganda has committed to contributing troops and few others have shown enthusiasm for a proposed 8,000-strong African mission to bolster the government's attempt to create law and order.

A peacekeeping mission could face violence, something that may deter many countries from committing soldiers. Seeing a powerful warlord, Mohamed Siad Hersi, better known as General Morgan, in talks with Yusuf was "a good indication," that reconciliation in Somalia was making progress, though, "the road is still long," Fall said.

The transitional government continued to find it difficult to assert its authority, with clan differences emerging as a major obstacle.

Thursday, Yusuf ordered that Somalia's second port, Kismayo, be closed after the defense minister refused to allow presidential appointees to take it over. Defense Minister Col. Barre "Hirale" Aden Shire complained that Yusuf had failed to appoint members of clans with strongholds in the port area, a government official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Yusuf ordered one of his loyalists to send militiamen to close the port. Ethiopian troops intervened to try to calm the tense situation, but the port remained closed, the official said. The U.N. envoy said that Wednesday's parliament's vote on Wednesday to fire Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden as speaker was "unfortunate."

The United States and the European Union said that Aden's ouster could hurt reconciliation efforts in the restive country. They said Aden was capable of pulling together moderate elements in Somalia's Islamic movement. Aden had made several freelance peace initiatives with Somalia's Islamic movement before their ouster. Somalia's transitional parliament voted on Wednesday 183-9 in favor a motion of no-confidence against Aden.

Lawmakers cited his public criticism of the proposed African peacekeeping mission that parliament had endorsed and his meetings with Islamic movement leaders without authority from parliament.

Speaking from Rome, Aden said the lawmakers who voted against him were not acting freely. "They have been ordered to vote me out by the president, Abdullahi Yusuf, who wants to rule Somalia through Ethiopian forces and through this parliament. The president wants to crack down on all those who are against him," Aden said in a telephone interview. "I have been seeking reconciliation all over the world and this vote tries to destroy the very thing we have been looking for: reconciliation."

In the past year, Aden has differed with the president and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi over the location of the government and whether peacekeepers were needed. According to Somalia's transitional charter, parliament has to vote on all major government decisions before they can be implemented.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other, reducing the Horn of Africa nation to anarchy and clan-based violence. The Yusuf-Gedi government emerged from regional, U.N.-backed talks in 2004 and has since struggled to assert authority.

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Sri Lanka

Air force bombs Tamil rebel bases in northeast

Sri Lanka's air force bombed a Tamil rebel camp in northeastern Sri Lanka, killing a "large number" of insurgents, a military official said, amid an intensified government campaign to flush Tamil Tiger rebels from their strongholds.

The air strike targeted a camp just north of eastern Batticaloa district, where the military and Tamil Tiger rebels have been locked in a fierce fight for territory. "We took the decision to bomb the target ... an identified Tiger terrorist gathering point," military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said Monday. "Air force sources confirmed that a large number of Tiger terrorists were killed." But a spokesman for the rebels, Rasiah Ilanthirayan, said no Tiger camps had been hit.

Fighting between the Tigers and security forces has escalated in the past few months as the government stepped up attempts to rout insurgents from parts of the north and east, where they want to establish their separate Tamil homeland.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for independence for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority following decades of discrimination under the majority Sinhalese-dominated government. A 2002 truce still exists on paper, but has virtually collapsed since the resurgence of large-scale fighting last year.

Rebels ambushed a military post in eastern Sri Lanka, killing at least two soldiers, officials said Monday, days after soldiers captured several major Tiger bases in the east. Samarasinghe said the rebel attack took place in Batticaloa district's Vavunativu village late Sunday. The area is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Vaharai, a rebel-held coastal village that the military overran at the weekend.

The government says the Tigers used Vaharai as a transit point to smuggle drugs and arms into the country, and as a base for naval attacks. Tamil Tiger spokesman, Ilanthirayan, confirmed the military had advanced into rebel territory, but dismissed its significance. "Acquiring some real estate does not mean much," he said.

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

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Sudan

African Union hopes partnership with U.N. and regional dialogue can solve Darfur crisis this year

The African Union has high hopes for Darfur in 2007, planning an ambitious political dialogue among warring parties and striving to build a strong U.N. partnership on peacekeeping. But more than two years into the AU's mission, prospects for peace in Darfur remain eclipsed by the worsening chaos with new government air strikes and militia raids, rebel infighting, tribal clashes, and now, leprosy among refugees.

The AU is determined to remain optimistic, saying it hopes to enforce a solid cease-fire with U.N. help by the end of the year and is planning a regional peace conference in the coming months.

The year 2007 is "the year of laying foundations for the future, so Darfurians can begin healing their many wounds," said Abdul Mohammed, the head of the AU's planned conference, called the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation.

Mohammed told The Associated Press that the regional talks would aim at bringing together rebel leaders, tribal chiefs and government officials to "address the political, economic and governance issues at the root of the Darfur conflict." But he cautioned that such a conference was "entirely dependent" on the security situation improving. "Darfur isn't a problem of located violence anymore, it's a generalized conflict," Mohammed said. "Disturbances spread across the region very fast. It's the domino theory."

More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003, when rebels took arms against the central Sudanese government, charging it with neglect. In response, Khartoum is accused of massively bombing civilian villages and arming the Arab nomads' janjaweed militias who are blamed for the worst atrocities in the conflict.

Violence has only worsened since the government signed a peace agreement with one rebel group in May, and U.N. aid agencies warn that humanitarian efforts to save some 4 million vulnerable people in the region including 2.5 million refugees will be "irreversibly jeopardized" if insecurity keeps spreading.

Some 7,000 ill-equipped and under funded AU troops charged with the daunting task of pacifying a region nearly the size of Texas have been in Darfur since June 2004. Sudan has come under increasing international criticism for opposing a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the AU troops to be replaced with 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers and police though it recently agreed to allowing a trickle of U.N. staff and gear into Darfur to support the African force.

The AU said it expects a U.N. "heavy support package" to arrive later this year and still hopes a full-fledged "joint operation" of combined African and U.N. forces will eventually take over in Darfur despite the mixed messages coming from Khartoum. "A re-energized cease-fire and new political dialogue ... are the two key pillars for a real peace in Darfur," said AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni.

Mezni pointed to several signs that the African peacekeepers were gaining momentum in Darfur. For example, AU police have begun patrolling refugee camps again after months of absence due to attacks and the refugees' hostility, he said. Also promising is the pledge by several rebel leaders to stick to a cease-fire brokered by AU force commander Maj. Gen. Luke Aprezi in late December, Mezni said. "Achieving unity among rebel movements is in everybody's interest," Mezni said. Despite the progress and upbeat 2007 predictions, violence and disease continue to ravage Darfur.

The U.N. confirmed Thursday that 150 tribesmen were killed over the past two weeks. Some 200 people from other tribes also died this month in similar fighting, the Sudanese justice minister has said. Competition for the region's scarce resources is one of the root causes of the Darfur conflict that regularly pits Arab nomad tribes against African farmers.

Meanwhile, the pro-government janjaweed militias haven't ceased their raids against civilians, and the AU said this week it is investigating two new reports of government bombings. The U.N. mission also said 64 people from remote villages destroyed near Sudan's border with Chad were diagnosed with leprosy after they fled to an overflowing refugee camp. While there have been "a few pockets of leprosy" endemic in Darfur, the new refugees who arrived in the Zaleingi camp are one of the largest diagnosed groups, World Health Organization workers said. "They have been settled separately from the rest of the camp and are receiving medication," WHO's doctor Mohammed Abdi said on the telephone from West Darfur.

Further complicating the AU's task, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is hoping to take the rotating AU chairmanship when African heads of states meet to pick the new chief at the end of the month.

Though largely honorary, this position would put al-Bashir in the paradoxical position of being a party to the Darfur conflict and chief of the regional body meant to solve it. This "will have a catastrophic impact on the AU role in Darfur," the National Redemption Front said in a statement. The hard-line Darfur rebel group warned that if al-Bashir takes over as chairman, it would end all cooperation with the AU and "treat the AU peacekeepers as partisan forces."

African Union confirms Sudanese bombings of North Darfur villages in breach of cease-fire

Sudan's air force bombed Darfur villages in violation of a recent cease-fire, hindering African and American attempts to unite rebel groups under a common leadership that can commit to peace, the African Union said Monday.

The AU comments were the first independent confirmation of reports from rebel leaders about the air raids in northern Darfur last week. The Sudanese military on Sunday denied the bombing raids. "Preliminary investigations by (the African Union) have confirmed that the aerial bombings indeed took place" against the village of Anka and in the region of Wadi Korma last week, the AU said in a statement.

The AU did not mention any casualties. But the United Nations mission to Sudan said it received reports that two people were killed in other bombings in Ein Sirro, also in North Darfur province. Rebel leaders said the air raids also killed a large number of cattle and destroyed stocks of crop.

The bombings, which breach U.N. Security Council resolutions and a peace agreement, came after the Sudanese government vowed to adhere to a new truce brokered by visiting U.S. governor Bill Richardson and others earlier this month.

The AU deplored that the government bombed North Darfur "when efforts are being made to reenergize the peace process" by broadening support among rebels for the Darfur peace accord signed last May.

The United States and African Union are trying to get Darfur's fractious rebel groups to unite and enter peace talks in a bid to end the continuous violence in the war torn region of western Sudan. The government signed the peace deal with one insurgent leader, but other rebels refused and the AU says there are now at least a dozen rebel factions in Darfur.

Several rebel leaders said last week's bombings caught them as they were returning to their North Darfur bases from a meeting in neighboring Chad with Andrew Natsios, the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, who urged them to agree on negotiations with the government.

A previous gathering of rebel chiefs was bombed late December, and the U.S. embassy in Khartoum, along with the AU, are urging Sudanese authorities not to further prevent a meeting of Darfur's many splintered rebel groups to prepare for new peace talks.

The National Redemption Front, Darfur's main rebel coalition, said in a statement Monday that its leaders and Natsios "were in accord" on most issues discussed in their talks. "The NRF reaffirmed its absolute readiness to embark on peace talks at the earliest opportunity and whenever the (Sudanese government) decides to make (a) negotiated peaceful settlement," the rebel statement said.

More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million fled their homes in Darfur since 2003, when rebels took arms against the central government, accusing it of neglect.

Khartoum is accused of having responded with indiscriminate air raids against civilian villages, and by unleashing the janjaweed paramilitary groups blamed for the bulk of the conflict's atrocities.

The U.N. said that two people working for the World Food Program and an international aid group were held hostage for a day by janjaweed in North Darfur before being released Monday.

Humanitarian workers are increasingly threatened and harassed in Darfur, and 12 were killed over the past six months while 400 had to be pulled out for security reasons.

Sudanese police and security officials raided the compound of an aid group on Friday in the South Darfur capital of Nyala, the U.N. said in a statement Monday. Some 20 people working for the U.N., the AU and aid groups were arrested, some subjected to physical assault and verbal abuse, the U.N. said. "Several of the detained staff sustained serious injuries, some of which required treatment" at a U.N. clinic, the statement said.

Sudanese media said the humanitarian workers and the peacekeepers were arrested for drinking alcohol, which is prohibited under the strict Muslim law enforced by the regime.

The U.N. said it would "officially protest to the Government of Sudan the assault of the staff by local police, in violation of basic principles of rule of law and due process."

Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
Click here to access the Report prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.

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