PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Friday, April 27, 2007
(Volume VI, Number 11)
Contents:
Armenia
Armenian official says deal on disputed territory
close, Azerbaijan less upbeat
Armenian FM said latest blueprint for a settlement was
more realistic and balanced than previous proposals, and that the two sides
had agreed on the majority of issues to be resolved.
Azerbaijan postpones high-level U.S. visit over wording on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Azerbaijan said State Department report "distorts the essence of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
Chechnya
Rights group says
European response to Russian abuses in Chechnya inadequate
Human Rights Watch
accused the Council of Europe of yielding to pressure from
Moscow.
6 police officers injured in attack on checkpoint in Chechnya
Up to four gunmen carrying automatic weapons drove up in a car and opened fire.
Democratic
Republic of
Congo
DR Congo at 'critical
juncture': UN
UN Deputy Secretary
General stressed that the government needed to work with the opposition if
true democracy was to be established.
DRCongo's Kabila pledges to work with UN
Specifically he said his government would work with the UN in "dealing with issues of security sector reforms that involves the army, the police and the judiciary.”
U.N. agencies: Renewed fighting in eastern Congo displaces thousands
More than 64,000 people in province in the far east of Congo were pushed into the bush or makeshift camps.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.
Kashmir
Prominent Kashmir separatists spurns New Delhi
talks
They said that the “Kashmir roundtable” would be
pointless without the participation of Pakistan.
Separatists
stay away as Kashmir talks begin in New Delhi
Significant progress
at the roundtable was not likely because of the separatists’
boycott.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the
Kashmir
Negotiation
Simulation.
Kosovo
Russia says U.N. plan
for Kosovo 'has failed', warns of imposed solution
Russian FM likened
the U.S.-backed Kosovo plan to the failed Cyprus plan.
Kosovo leaders to show 'new reality' to U.N. assessment mission
Hope to convince them that the province should split from Serbia.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation.
Prosecutor says some witness identities in Charles Taylor trial to be secret
And some may have to move to new homes to escape retribution from the former president's supporters.
Moldova
A thaw in the river;
Moldova and Russia
In a declaration to be
signed jointly with the Transdniestrian leader, Moldova will for the first
time recognize Transdniestria's government and leadership as legitimate
entities.
Morocco
Security Council
"enthusiastic" about negotiations on Western Sahara, council president
says
Secretary General Ban
recommended that members call on Morocco and the Polisario “to enter into
negotiations without preconditions.”
Nepal
UN demands probe over
Nepal ethnic massacre
UNOHCHR also wants a
government investigation into the violence in the south of
the country.
Philippines
US, Australia warn of
fresh terrorist attacks in Philippines
Embassies warn of a
"very high threat" of terrorist attacks, including
kidnappings.
Somalia
U.N. Chief Urges End to
Somalia Fighting
Ban’s urging comes
after
three
days of fighting killed at least 113 civilians.
Somalia facing humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee capital
Mogadishu and the surrounding towns have devolved into scenes of ghastly despair.
Sri
Lanka
Sri Lanka says
Norwegian envoy must cancel trip to rebel territory for security
reasons
Government’s decision came as the military kept up its pressure on the insurgents with air raids against a rebel base and a moving column of guerrillas.
Sri Lanka rebels claim second air attack
Two light aircraft of the LTTE dropped bombs on a military air base in the Jaffna peninsula.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation.
Sudan
Sudan
Flying Arms to Darfur, Panel Reports
UN reports
that Sudanese
government
painted military planes white to disguise them as UN or AU
aircraft.
Britain and U.S. propose new U.N. sanctions for Sudan, but face opposition on Security Council
Russia, China and South Africa opposed any new sanctions.
Sudan Accuses U.N. Panel of Lying
Government said UN fabricated claims that the government was conducting bombing raids in Darfur and disguising planes to look like U.N. aircraft.
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.
Armenian official says deal on disputed territory close, Azerbaijan less upbeat
Associated Press, 4/20/07
Armenia's foreign minister said Friday that his country was close to resolving a bitter dispute with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, but Azerbaijani officials were less upbeat.
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, who met Thursday with his Azerbaijani counterpart, said the latest blueprint for a settlement was more realistic and balanced than previous proposals, and that the two sides had agreed on the majority of issues to be resolved.
"We are close to a resolution of the conflict," he said, but cautioned that it was still too early to say if Thursday's meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov had brought any progress.
The two foreign ministers held talks on the sidelines of an energy summit of Black Sea country diplomats in Belgrade, Serbia.
Oskanian said lingering disagreements would have to be discussed between the countries' presidents, though a date for that meeting has yet to be scheduled.
"Only after that will it become clear whether the process is moving forward or not," he said, without specifying which issues were still unresolved.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous territory inside Azerbaijan, has been controlled by ethnic Armenian forces since a six-year war that ended with a shaky cease-fire in 1994. Tensions remain high between Armenia and Azerbaijan, former Soviet republics in the Caucasus.
The head of foreign relations department in Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's administration, Novruz Mammadov, cast doubt on Oskanian's comments, and suggested they could have been motivated by internal politics before parliamentary elections in Armenia.
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim also was less upbeat, suggesting Thursday's talks were tense. "Azerbaijan always comes forth with ... constructive suggestions, while Armenia must put the ideas it announces into practice," he said.
Azerbaijan postpones high-level U.S. visit over wording on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Aida Sultanova, Associated Press, 4/22/07
Azerbaijan said Sunday that it postponed a high-level visit to the United States because of what it claimed were changes in U.S. wording describing its dispute with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory.
The Caspian Sea coast nation's Foreign Ministry warned that the issue "may become a serious impediment to further security-related cooperation between our countries" a possible reference to Azerbaijan's contribution to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
The government postponed the two-day visit for security talks, which was to have started Monday and to have included high-level officials from several ministries, because of "changes to the provisions" on Nagorno-Karabakh in the State Department's 2006 report on human rights abroad, a ministry statement said.
The changes "distort the essence of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict" and their introduction "puts in doubt the U.S. position of the 'honest broker' in the resolution of the conflict," the statement said.
It did not offer details, and officials were not available for comment after the statement's release.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a territory inside Azerbaijan that has been controlled by Armenian and local ethnic Armenian forces since a six-year war that ended in 1994. Tension remains high between Armenia and Azerbaijan, ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus.
There was speculation in Azerbaijan that the government was angry at the absence, in the State Department's country report on human rights practices in Armenia, of a statement saying that Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia.
The country report on Azerbaijan, posted on the State Department Web site, states that in 2006 "Armenia continued to occupy the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories" wording that is apparently acceptable to Azerbaijan.
The report on neighboring Armenia, however, says: "Armenian forces occupy large portions of Azerbaijani territory adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian officials maintain that they do not 'occupy' Nagorno-Karabakh itself."
The Azerbaijani statement said resolution of the conflict "based on the territorial integrity of ... Azerbaijan, with Nagorno-Karabakh as its inalienable part, is a primary and foremost element" in its security cooperation with the United States.
The United States said its policy had not changed.
"Any interpretation that our policy regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has changed is not correct," State Department spokeswoman Nancy Beck said Sunday. She said the U.S. was aware of Azerbaijan's statement announcing the postponement and was in contact with its government.
"These talks are important and we look forward to them taking place at the earliest date," Beck said.
On Friday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also said there had been no change, adding: "The United States reaffirms its support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and holds that the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh is a matter of negotiations between the parties."
The United States, Russia and France, under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have been encouraging Azerbaijan and Armenia to resolve the conflict for more than a decade.
Rights group says European response to Russian abuses in Chechnya inadequate
Associated Press, 4/18/07
The head of Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused the Council of Europe of yielding to pressure from Moscow and failing to respond to documented Russian civil liberties violations in Chechnya.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York-based rights group, said European institutions have been inefficient in defending civil liberties despite countless monitoring bodies set up solely for this purpose.
The council, the continent's premier human rights body, can order Russia to amend its laws to prevent human rights abuses, but has no efficient follow-up mechanism to enforce sanctions on Moscow in case of continuing violations.
"The clearest example is the Council of Europe's striking failure to respond effectively to the continuing, pervasive impunity for grave human rights violations in Russia's Chechnya," Roth told the council's parliamentary assembly, a group of 315 European lawmakers, during a debate on the state of human rights and democracy in Europe.
"The problem cannot be chalked up to a lack of information about conditions on the ground. A range of Council of Europe bodies have extensively documented atrocities in Chechnya. ... Shockingly, Russia has faced no adverse consequences," Roth said.
The council's anti-torture committee said in a report earlier this year that Chechnya continues to be plagued by torture and unlawful detentions, with human rights violations rarely investigated. The European Court of Human Rights, which is administered by the council, has blamed the Russian government for the disappearance and presumed killing of several people in Chechnya, and has ruled against Moscow in other cases concerning fighting in the restive province in the last 12 years.
But Roth said there has been little concrete action to curb these human rights abuses. He blamed pressure exerted by Russia a Council of Europe member state and the council's decision-making system, which requires unanimity to act against any of its 46 members.
The council acts mostly by peer pressure, and its responses to human rights crises are often slow. Russia has faced no sanctions for human rights abuses in Chechnya, apart from being ordered to pay several hundred thousand euros (dollars) to relatives of some of the victims.
"A system that allows any single member state to stand in the way of the defense of human rights is a recipe for weakness. Europe allows itself to be led by its most reluctant members," Roth said.
Rene van der Linden, chairman of the parliamentary assembly, said that while the council has no permanent presence in Chechnya due to security concerns, monitoring of the province continues from the outside.
"I cannot accept that this has to do with pressure from Russia," he said.
6 police officers injured in attack on checkpoint in Chechnya
Associated Press, 4/19/07
Gunmen attacked a checkpoint in the Chechen capital of Grozny, seriously wounding six police officers, the regional Interior Ministry said Thursday.
Up to four gunmen carrying automatic weapons drove up in a car late Wednesday and opened fire on the checkpoint, located near a former radio factory, police said. The injured officers were part of a detachment from the northwestern Russian region of Karelia.
Tensions between residents of Karelia and Chechens have run high since a restaurant brawl in the Karelian town of Kondopoga between local residents and ethnic Chechens in August left two dead, and triggered several days of mob violence against Chechens and other immigrants from the Caucasus region.
Separatist militants have fought two wars in Chechnya in the past 13 years, first to gain autonomy and later to create an Islamic state. Large-scale fighting has become rare in recent years, but rebel fighters continue to stage hit-and-run attacks on Russian forces and allied Chechen paramilitary groups.
DR Congo at 'critical juncture': UN
Agence France Presse, 4/22/07
The Democratic Republic of Congo is at a "critical juncture," eight months after the country's landmark elections, UN Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro said during a visit on Sunday.
"Now that the government is in place, the challenge is for the Congolese people to realise the benefits of the great sacrifices that they made in the cause of peace," Migiro told journalists at the start of a three-day trip to Kinshasa.
Last year an arduous three-year post-war transition culminated in the massive central African country's first democratic vote since independence in 1960.
During a visit to Kinshasa in January, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the progress made in DRC, but emphasised that "much more needs to be done."
Migiro on Sunday said DRC had made more progress since then, but stressed that the government needed to work with the opposition if true democracy was to be established in the country.
"As far as the secretary general is concerned, he would like to see that the process of democratisation takes root, and in order for this process to take root, there has to be a working together between government and the opposition," she said.
Tensions have been running high since government troops clashed with opposition leader and failed presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba's guard last month, leaving between 200 and 500 people dead.
Following the clashes, which were sparked by plans to integrate Bemba's guards into the army, his opposition Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) walked out of parliament over security concerns.
Bemba has since flown to Portugal, officially for medical treatment.
Migiro was set to meet with President Joseph Kabila and Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga on Monday morning, before meeting with national assembly president Vital Kamerhe.
Migiro, a former Tanzanian foreign minister, insisted Sunday that "the stability of the DRC is not only important for the Congo itself but also for the region."
Migiro was to leave Kinshasa Wednesday morning for Brazzaville, where she was scheduled to participate in a UN Development Programme (UNDP) meeting on Africa.
DRCongo's Kabila pledges to work with UN
Agence France Presse, 4/23/07
President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo Monday said he was committed to working with the United Nations, which has deployed 17,600 peacekepeers in the central African nation.
"The president has said that it's important to continue working together with the United Nations ... in realizing the goals of development, the provision of basic services to the people," UN Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro told reporters after meeting Kabila.
Migiro said the president also underscored that his government would work with the world body in "dealing with issues of security sector reforms that involves the army, the police and the judiciary system."
"The president has also assured us of his resolve to continue the process of democratisation in the country, to strengthen the various organs in the parliament so that they can play their role," she said.
Last year an arduous three-year post-war transition culminated in the massive central African country's first democratic vote since independence in 1960.
During a visit to Kinshasa in January, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the progress made in DRC, but emphasised that "much more needs to be done."
Tensions have been running high in the country since government troops clashed with opposition leader and failed presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba's guard last month, leaving between 200 and 500 people dead.
Following the clashes, which were sparked by plans to integrate Bemba's guards into the army, his opposition Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) walked out of parliament over security concerns.
Bemba has since flown to Portugal, officially for medical treatment.
Migiro said that the UN, for its part, had pledged its "continuing support and solidarity with the government and the people of the DRC".
The UN force in the DRC, MONUC, comprises 17,600 soldiers and is currently the organisation's biggest peacekeeping mission.
U.N. agencies: Renewed fighting in eastern Congo displaces thousands
Eddy Isango, Associated Press, 4/24/07
Renewed clashes between militia and government forces in Congo have forced more than 64,000 people to flee their homes in recent weeks, U.N. agencies said Tuesday.
The fighting in North Kivu province in the far east of Congo has pushed people into the nearby bush, or into makeshift camps, the U.N. World Food Program and the High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.
The violence-plagued Central African country has been struggling to re-establish government authority since multiparty elections led to the installation of its first democratically elected leader in January after more than four decades.
A major part of the effort has been an attempt to integrate numerous local militias into the national army.
North Kivu province has been the scene of sporadic skirmishes since late last year first as warlord Laurent Nkunda resisted combining his forces with the army and then as army brigades mounted operations against local armed groups.
Congo army officials said they are trying to root out Rwandan fighters thought to be behind the neighboring country's 1994 genocide.
"The objective of the operation is to push back these Rwandan combattants to uninhabited zones and secure access routes and villages," Col. Delphin Kahindi said by phone from the regional capital of Goma.
The unrest in the east has contributed to a lower than expected number of returns of Congolese refugees from neighboring countries, the U.N. refugee agency said, citing concern among refugees about difficult living conditions back home.
The new government of mineral-rich Congo has scrambled to gain control of militias loyal to former warlords even as their leaders have joined the government.
Violence has also erupted in the capital. Last month, two days of fighting in Kinshasa between army troops and those loyal to a failed presidential candidate left at least 155 dead.
More than 1.1 million Congolese are displaced within their own country a sprawling nation the size of western Europe by conflict or persecution, the agencies said.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Prominent Kashmir separatists spurns New Delhi talks
Agence France Presse, 4/19/07
A prominent separatist in Indian Kashmir said Thursday he was boycotting direct talks with New Delhi, saying such a meeting would be pointless without the participation of Pakistan.
The so-called "Kashmir roundtable" is due to be held in New Delhi on April 24, the third such meeting aimed at easing tensions in the revolt-hit state, which is divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan.
"We are not against talks. But talks should involve mujahedin (militants), leaders from India and Pakistan and both parts of Kashmir," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said.
Farooq heads the region's moderate faction of main separatist alliance, the Hurriyat Conference, pushing for total independence for Kashmir.
"Talks cannot be held with everybody," he also said, referring to pro-India political groups which have accepted India's sovereignity over Kashmir and are also involved in the talks.
"Talks can only be held with the heirs of martyrs," he said.
The first two meetings last year were attended by pro-Indian parties only with those opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir staying away.
Hardliners are also boycotting the roundtable, arguing that bilateral talks between New Delhi and Kashmiri parties -- an idea of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- will not resolve the dispute as Pakistan was also an "important party" in the dispute.
India and Pakistan hold parts of Kashmir, but claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over the scenic region since getting independence from Britain in 1947.
The roundtable process is different from a "composite dialogue" launched by the two nations in January 2004.
The Farooq-led Hurriyat has held talks with India in the past, but has declined to share the platform with pro-India Kashmiri groups.
The insurgency in Kashmir was launched in 1989 and has left more than 42,000 people dead by an official count. Human rights groups put the toll at 70,000, including 10,000 people who have disappeared and are presumed dead.
Separatists stay away as Kashmir talks begin in New Delhi
Tripti Lahiri, Agence France Presse, 4/24/07
India's prime minister opened talks with politicians from revolt-hit Kashmir on Tuesday in a bid to ease tensions in the divided state, but little progress was likely with separatists boycotting the meeting.
The "Kashmir roundtable" has been billed as an internal peace process for the region and the talks are the third such meeting for groups in the Indian-administered part of the area, which is divided between nuclear-rivals India and Pakistan.
"There are two dimensions to the problems of Jammu and Kashmir. One is an internal one and the other an external one, involving Indo-Pakistan relations," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the start of the talks.
"It is our intention and sincere desire to advance on both fronts towards resolving the problems through a process of dialogue."
A peace process with Pakistan, known as the composite dialogue, was started by the two nations in January 2004.
Approximately 25 representatives of political parties and other Kashmir groups were present at the one-day talks at the prime minister's sprawling colonial residence in New Delhi, an aide said.
But separatists in Indian-held Kashmir, where an insurgency against Indian rule has raged since 1989, say that the internal dialogue can go nowhere without the presence of the militants and of Pakistan.
"It (the roundtable) is a futile exercise," Yasin Malik, a former militant who is now a separatist politician heading the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, told AFP Tuesday.
"Talks should be held exclusively with the people who question India's authority over Kashmir and not with those who already swear by the Indian constitution."
Even moderate separatists have dismissed the talks as a waste of time.
"We are not against talks. But talks should involve militant leaders from India and Pakistan and both parts of Kashmir," moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said last week.
Farooq heads the region's moderate faction of the main separatist alliance, the Hurriyat Conference, which is pushing for total independence for Kashmir, and has held separate talks with India and Pakistan.
Hardline separatists want the region integrated into Pakistan.
India and Pakistan hold parts of Kashmir, but claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over the scenic area since getting independence from Britain in 1947.
India also accuses Pakistan of backing the militants waging a violent struggle against New Delhi while Pakistan in turn accuses India of thwarting the Kashmiri people's desire for self-rule.
But self-rule and autonomy were not on the table Tuesday, with the prime minister instead suggesting the discussions focus on ways "to find pragmatic, practical means of improving the quality of life of the people" of Kashmir.
These included relief for those affected by the conflict, including a displaced minority Hindu group known as Kashmiri Pandits, and easier travel across the Line of Control ceasefire line that separates Indian and Pakistan-held Kashmir.
"But this is an open meeting. Anybody could raise any issue," an aide to the prime minister said.
A political analyst called the meeting a "feel-good" exercise likely to have little long-term impact.
"If I have not met relatives for 30 years and if I can meet them once or twice, that is relief," said Ajai Sahni, director of the Institute of Conflict Management.
"But if you think that is leading to some sort of permanent solution to Kashmir you are deluding yourself."
The insurgency in Kashmir has left more than 42,000 people dead by an official count. Human rights groups put the toll at 70,000, including 10,000 people who have disappeared and are presumed dead.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Russia says U.N. plan for Kosovo 'has failed', warns of imposed solution
Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press, 4/19/07
Russia's foreign minister said Thursday that a U.S.-backed plan granting independence to Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo "has failed," and warned that imposing the solution "would have most serious consequences."
Sergei Lavrov said that "just as the plan proposed (for Cyprus) by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has failed, so has Mr. (Martti) Ahtisaari's plan" for Kosovo.
Lavrov said that the independence plan for the southern Serbian province, drafted by the senior U.N. envoy, did not take into account the interests of one of the sides Serbia.
"I hope that those who will help continue the negotiations will consider this," Lavrov said after meeting Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
"Any solution for Kosovo must be in accordance with the international law and what the two sides agree to," Lavrov said. "Imposing a solution would have most serious consequences," he added, without elaborating.
The stability in the region "can be jeopardized by attempts of unilateral recognition of the independence of Kosovo," Lavrov said, reacting to suggestions by U.S. officials that they may recognize Kosovo even without consent by the U.N. Security Council.
Lavrov's meetings in Belgrade are being held before a crucial session of the Security Council expected next month which will consider the U.N. plan that proposes international recognition for Kosovo.
The plan envisages granting internationally supervised independence to Kosovo, which would remain under EU and U.S. supervision.
Serbia staunchly opposes formally losing 15 percent of its territory.
"Any form of an independent Kosovo is absolutely unacceptable for Serbia," Serbian President Boris Tadic said after meeting Lavrov. "Serbia rejects the Ahtisaari plan."
Russia, which is a permanent member of the Security Council and holds veto power, opposes the U.N. plan. It says the proposal would set a dangerous precedent for separatists elsewhere by dismembering a sovereign U.N. member against its government's will. It wants the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo to continue negotiating to reach a compromise agreement, something that the U.S. and Ahtisaari say is impossible to achieve.
Hashim Thaci, the leader of Kosovo's second largest party and a former rebel leader, said the Security Council is expected to vote on the U.S.-drafted resolution by the end of May or in early June.
"Immediately after this, Kosovo's parliament will declare independence," Thaci told The Associated Press in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
Russia was prepared to take any action necessary to block a U.S.-drafted resolution that will be offered to council, Russia's U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin said in Moscow Wednesday. Churkin stopped short, however, of saying Moscow would veto the proposal.
Asked if Russia will veto the plan, Lavrov said: "For now, there is nothing to veto."
"Once there is a draft resolution, we will make that decision," Lavrov said.
Washington insists that the Security Council must act quickly in the next weeks to finish the job by helping to lead Kosovo to independence.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said earlier this week the U.S. considers independence the only option for Kosovo and has suggested that Washington may recognize Kosovo's split from Serbia, even if Russia vetoes the U.N. plan when it comes to a vote at the Security Council.
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a 78-day NATO-led air war that halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.
Ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, are seeking independence from Belgrade. But Serbia and Kosovo's Serb minority say the province is the heart of Serbia's ancient homeland and should remain within its borders.
Kosovo leaders to show 'new reality' to U.N. assessment mission
Garentina Kraja, Associated Press, 4/20/07
Kosovo's leaders want to show a visiting U.N. delegation "the new reality" of the predominantly ethnic Albanian territory in hopes of convincing them that the province should split from Serbia, the prime minister said Friday.
The U.N. mission will be dispatched next week to gather information before the Security Council makes a final decision on a proposal to grant Kosovo internationally supervised independence.
During the eight years since the end of the war between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serb military forces, Kosovo has been under international administration. Tension between the two communities remains, and ethnic Albanians say Kosovo can never again be under any Serbian control.
"We will present the new reality created in Kosovo, and I believe that following this visit some members of the Security Council will take the right decision and endorse a resolution for Kosovo," Prime Minister Agim Ceku said.
"We have nothing to hide," he said.
Kosovo has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a 78-day NATO-led air war that halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.
In revenge attacks that followed, many minority Serbs fled or were forced from their homes in Kosovo. Those who remain live in isolated enclaves in the north of the province.
The plan for Kosovo's future, drafted by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, envisages independence, to be supervised by the international community for an initial period. Kosovo would also get its own army, flag and constitution.
The U.N. delegation, which will be led by Belgium's U.N. ambassador, Johan Verbeke, will go to Kosovo and Serbia for a firsthand assessment. It will first stop in Brussels on Wednesday for briefings by the European Union and NATO and in Austria, where Ahtisaari is based.
The visit "will allow the U.N. Security Council to have an informed understanding of the political, social and economic situation in Kosovo," the Belgian office in Kosovo said in a statement, adding that the mission will report its conclusions to the council.
While the U.S. and key European nations strongly support eventual independence for Kosovo, Russia, South Africa and other council members are sympathetic to keeping the province part of Serbia.
Serbia staunchly opposes losing 15 percent of its territory.
"We expect this visit to contribute to a quick resolution of Kosovo's status and not to cause complications," Ceku said. "I'm optimistic that at the end of May we will have an independent Kosovo on the basis of a U.N. resolution."
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Prosecutor says some witness identities in Charles Taylor trial to be secret
Mike Corder, Associated Press, 4/18/07
The identity of most witnesses who testify against Charles Taylor at his war crimes trial will be kept secret and some may have to move to new homes to escape retribution from the former Liberian president's supporters, the lead prosecutor said Wednesday.
Trial witnesses include former "insiders" once close to Taylor, said Stephen Rapp, chief prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
"People are fearful," Rapp told The Associated Press.
As a result, up to 95 percent of prosecution witnesses will likely be granted protective measures, including the right to use pseudonyms while testifying in court, he said.
After the trial, some may have to move to new homes to stay safe, he said.
"All witnesses could be at risk after testimony, but insiders particularly can be viewed as traitors who deserve punishment for their treason," Rapp said. "We have to deal with the potential for relocation of individuals."
Taylor, 59, is to go on trial June 4 on 11 charges, including terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery, mutilation and recruiting child soldiers. He has pleaded innocent and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.
Taylor was flown to the Netherlands in June amid fears that staging the trial in Sierra Leone, where the Special Court usually sits, could trigger fresh unrest in the war-scarred African nation.
The case, being heard in a courtroom rented from the International Criminal Court, is expected to last about 18 months.
Due to the complexity of convicting Taylor for masterminding atrocities carried out by rebels in the chaotic and bloody conflict in Sierra Leone, the prosecution planned to call witnesses to try to establish a clear link between Taylor and the rebels, Rapp said.
"At the end of the day, we think Taylor planned and knew exactly what was going on," said Rapp, an American lawyer who previously was chief prosecutor at the U.N. war crimes tribunal for Rwanda. In 1993-2001, Rapp was a U.S. attorney for the northern district of Iowa.
Prosecutors said in a pretrial brief outlining their case that after Taylor became Liberia's president in 1997, rebels carrying out atrocities in Sierra Leone were in almost daily contact with "White Flower," Taylor's residence in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
In exchange for diamonds smuggled out of Sierra Leone, Taylor provided rebels with arms, ammunition, communication equipment, as well as alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, prosecutors allege.
Rapp said prosecutors would rely on transcripts of witness testimony at previous trials in Sierra Leone to prove atrocities such as rapes, mutilations and hacking off limbs.
But some victims would be brought to The Hague to testify, he said.
"There will be crime victims amputees, others who were involved," Rapp said.
Sierra Leone's conflict was notorious for child soldiers hacking off the limbs of civilians.
Prosecutors say Taylor's proxies in Sierra Leone deliberately recruited children because they obeyed orders so well, and rebels set up "Small Boy Units" and "Small Girl Units," which Taylor allegedly used for his personal security.
They were also used as guards in Sierra Leone's Kenema and Kono districts where hundreds of villagers were rounded up and forced to work at gun point in diamond mines operated by the rebels, prosecutors say.
The conflict in Sierra Leone also was characterized by widespread rape and sexual enslavement.
In Kono district, hundreds of women and girls were raped and beaten. Some were taken to camps where they were "distributed among the forces and used as sexual slaves and forced labor," prosecutors allege.
Defense attorneys are due to file a pretrial brief outlining their defense later this month.
A thaw in the river; Moldova and Russia
The Economist, 4/21/07
A settlement in Transdniestria is bad news for Moldova—and the West
ITS consequences may be disastrous, but a deal on the worst territorial dispute in Europe's poorest country was still too tempting. Moldova, sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, has been split ever since a brief civil war in 1992. Its industrialised part—a strip of land to the east of the Dniester river—maintains an unrecognised independence, propped up by Russia's cheap gas and its contingent of "peacekeepers".
Transdniestria, as it is called, is a black hole. It makes weapons, ranging from cheap submachineguns to high-tech missile parts. The customers are unknown. It also has lucratively porous borders: one common scam is to smuggle American chicken-meat in and out of Ukraine's protected home market, at a profit of some euro700 ($950) per tonne.
Previous attempts to broker a peace deal have got nowhere. Transdniestria's rulers have close ties with business-minded counterparts in Ukraine, Russia and even in Moldova proper. And Russia is unwilling to give up a sliver of its former empire. Last year it imposed a punishing embargo on Moldovan wine. But now Moldova is shifting its position. Last week President Vladimir Voronin set out a new approach that suits the Kremlin—but will dismay Moldova's friends in the West.
In a declaration to be signed jointly with the Transdniestrian leader, Igor Smirnov, Moldova will for the first time recognise Transdniestria's government and leadership as legitimate entities. Voters on both sides will elect a new Moldovan parliament. Transdniestria will keep its Supreme Soviet and have top deputy ministers in the national government. By 2009 Russia's troops will be replaced by unarmed international monitors.
American and European Union diplomats found out about all this only when Vladimir Socor, a Munich-based analyst, published a leaked version last week. Now officials in Washington, DC, and Brussels are urgently seeking clarification. They hope it is an idea, not a real plan, but they fear the worst. Even unencumbered by Transdniestria, Moldova's economy has been lacklustre. Of its 4.4m people, at least 400,000 have emigrated; the country survives on their remittances. A dose of Transdniestrian politics is likely only to strengthen all the darkest forces in Moldovan public life.
And what guarantee is there that the deal will stick? "Russia tends to take agreements as the basis not for implementation, but for further negotiation," says one cross official. The Kremlin has twice ignored previous deadlines for withdrawing troops. Suppose that, in a year's time, it finds pressing reasons for staying on?
A third question concerns the Transdniestrian KGB. Closely linked to Moscow, it is run by Vladimir Antufeyev, who was involved in a failed Soviet crackdown in the Baltic states in 1990. Many think it is he, not Mr Smirnov, who runs the show. The Moldovan minister for Transdniestria, Vasile Sova, insists Mr Antufeyev and his pals must leave. Will they?
But the biggest puzzle is the timing. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, may have convinced Mr Voronin, a naïve ex-baker, that the moment was ripe for a deal. Russia may have wanted a quick fix to contrast with the wrangles at the United Nations over the future of Kosovo, Serbia's breakaway province. Yet if the Kremlin was in such a rush, why was it Moldova that had to make concessions?
Crony capitalism could be triumphing over other differences. A top Moldovan politician's scrap-metal business sells mainly to a steel mill in Transdniestria. The son of another has a chain of fast-food restaurants that operates in the separatists' capital, Tiraspol. In theory, cash from the West should counteract any pull from the east: foreign donors have pledged more than $1.2 billion to Moldova in the next three years. But much of this depends on reforms that the country's lethargic and corrupt administration is loth to embrace.
It will be hard for outsiders to block the deal; they may not even bother to try. If they did, they might be called wreckers, given that both sides want it. Yet Mr Voronin's plan means that Russia has, for once, trumped the West. Who might be next?
Morocco
Security Council "enthusiastic" about negotiations on Western Sahara, council president says
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 4/21/07
Members of the U.N. Security Council enthusiastically support negotiations between Morocco and Polisario Front rebels on the future of the long-disputed Western Sahara region, the council president said.
Last week, Morocco proposed that the mineral-rich territory govern itself while remaining part of the North African kingdom, while the Polisario reiterated its demand for a referendum that would offer Saharawis a choice of autonomy or independence from Morocco.
In a report to the council this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended that members call on Morocco and the Polisario "to enter into negotiations without preconditions, with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara."
Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the current council president, told reporters after a closed-door meeting Friday that "the members of the council are enthusiastic that there should be negotiations between the parties."
He said there are questions about what the basis of those negotiations should be, but he expects council experts to work out the text of a resolution that would address the issue and extend the mandate of the U.N. mission in Western Sahara within the next eight days.
Morocco and Mauritania split Western Sahara after its Spanish colonizers left the territory in 1975. Full-scale war broke out the following year, and Morocco took over the whole of Western Sahara after Mauritania pulled out in 1979.
The fighting, which pitted 15,000 Polisario guerrillas against Morocco's U.S.-equipped army, ended in 1991 with a U.N.-negotiated cease-fire that called for a referendum on the region's future. But the vote has never happened.
After 15 years and more than $600 million, the U.N. has been unable to resolve the standoff between the Polisario Front and the Moroccan government. The current mandate of the 225-member U.N. mission in Western Sahara expires on April 30.
Jones Parry said "there is common ground" that the mission should be extended, but the length is still being discussed.
Britain believes that renewal of the mandate "should help a process of negotiation between the parties directly so that that would lead to an involvement process of self-determination," he said.
South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo recalled that the Polisario Front was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity, and its successor the African Union, which view the Western Sahara as still in a process of decolonization.
"We made it very clear that autonomy is not self-determination," Kumalo said, stressing that independence must be an option in any resolution of the dispute.
UN demands probe over Nepal ethnic massacre
Agence France Presse, 4/20/07
Nepalese police failed to stop the massacre of at least 27 Maoist supporters by ethnic activists last month, the United Nations human rights body said Friday.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) also called for a government investigation into the violence in the south of the country, which has cast a shadow over the country's peace process.
Police "failed to stop the violence when it broke out. They failed to protect those who came under attack, and they failed to carry out any arrests," the UNOHCHR representative in Kathmandu, Lena Sundh, said.
The violence on March 21 broke out when supporters of both the Mahadhesi People's Rights Forum (MJF), an ethnic activist group, and Maoists tried to stage a rally in the southern town of Gaur.
Clashes broke out, and the outnumbered Maoists were attacked by mobs of people armed with split bamboo poles and sticks. Most of the victims were beaten to death, and two Maoist supporters remain missing nearly a month after the attack, the UN report said.
The Maoists, who struck a peace deal with central government last year and ended their 10-year insurgency, have said that the attack on their supporters was premeditated, and involved armed groups from neighbouring India.
Maoists have also accused King Gyanendra and his supporters of backing the ethnic group in an effort to undermine the peace deal, which could see the country ditch the monarchy.
The UN found that hundreds of MJF supporters had armed themselves with lengths of split bamboo, prior to the clash with the former rebels.
"The OHCHR was not able to substantiate allegations that the killings themselves were pre-planned but this cannot be ruled out," Sundh told reporters at the release of a UN report into the killings.
Although the government has announced that it will investigate the killings, to date, little has been done to bring culprits to justice, Sundh said.
"A prime obligation of the state is to carry out immediate and thorough investigations into the killings," the rights official said.
At least 60 people have been killed in unrest since January in Nepal's southern plains region bordering India.
Home to around half of Nepal's population, the Terai region is known as the country's bread basket and has traditionally been under-represented in national politics.
Mahadhesi protests escalated in January after Maoist activists shot and killed an MJF supporter who was imposing a road blockade.
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Philippines
US, Australia warn of fresh terrorist attacks in Philippines
Agence France Presse, 4/21/07
Australia and the United States have warned of an impending major terrorist attack in the southern Philippines, where Al Qaeda-linked militants recently beheaded seven Christian hostages.
In an advisory to its citizens circulated late Friday, the US embassy said the attack could take place anywhere on Mindanao, the country's main southern island.
"The embassy has information that a terrorist group may be planning to carry out bombing attacks in central Mindanao over the next several days," the travel notice said.
It asked Americans to "carefully consider plans" to visit the area, keep a low profile and avoid going to public places, including a national sports festival scheduled in Koronadal city from April 22 to 28.
Australia also warned its citizens against travelling to Mindanao and the adjoining islands of Basilan, Jolo and Tawi-Tawi, where Al Qaeda-linked militants are operating.
"Recent credible information indicates terrorists may be in the advanced stage of attack planning," it said. "The attacks may be imminent and could occur at any time, anywhere in Mindanao."
It said there was a "very high threat" of terrorist attacks, including kidnappings.
Philippine troops have been engaged in a two-pronged counter-terrorism offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on Jolo.
MNLF rebels led by Islamic firebrand Habier Malik last week shelled an army base, killing two soldiers and a civilian and triggering heavy government reprisals.
Elsewhere in Jolo, troops are also on the trail of an Abu Sayyaf faction which on Thursday beheaded seven Christian workers seized three days earlier.
The MNLF was the country's main Muslim separatist group until it sealed a peace pact with Manila in 1996.
Despite settling for limited autonomy, implementation of the agreement has been fraught with difficulties, with many hardline MNLF commanders still controlling armed units that constantly engage the military.
The government said there appeared to be evidence that Malik may have joined forces with the Abu Sayyaf, which, like the JI, is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organisations.
Several Indonesian JI militants, including two wanted for deadly bombings in Bali, Indonesia in 2002, are believed to be fighting alongside Abu Sayyaf militants on Jolo.
Somalia
U.N. Chief Urges End to Somalia Fighting
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 4/21/07
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Friday for an immediate end to fighting in Somalia and talks between rival clans to end 16 years of violence and instability.
Three days of fighting this week between Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian troops have killed at least 113 civilians, a Somali human rights group said Friday.
"There is an immediate need to secure an end to the fighting, possibly through a declaration on a cessation of hostilities and a commitment to peace by the transitional federal government and all or at least a majority of the armed groups and communities in the capital," Ban said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the poverty-stricken Horn of Africa nation of seven million into chaos.
The rout in December of the Islamic fundamentalist movement that controlled most of Somalia by Somali government troops and Ethiopian soldiers allowed the country's weak U.N.-backed transitional government to enter the capital, Mogadishu, for the first time since it was established in 2004.
On Feb. 20, the U.N. Security Council authorized an 8,000-strong African Union force to help stabilize Somalia, but the AU has only received pledges for about half the troops and just two battalions from Uganda have been deployed at Mogadishu airport.
The Security Council asked Ban to assist the transitional government in convening a national reconciliation conference and promoting an ongoing all-inclusive political process. It also asked the secretary-general to send an assessment mission to Somalia to report on the political and security situation and the possibility of a U.N. peacekeeping operation to replace the AU force.
A U.N. team went to the region from March 15-26 and found "significant support" for a reconciliation conference, but many observers believed "it would be unrealistic to bring some 3,000 participants and provide for their security in Mogadishu," Ban said.
"Insurgents are reportedly regrouping and may increase their activities against the transitional federal government and Ethiopian troops," the report said.
"Active combatants against the government in Mogadishu are estimated to number about 3,000 including foreign fighters. In addition, small arms, heavier caliber weapons, surface-to-air missiles and ammunition are widely available in Somalia and continue to flow into the country," the report said.
The secretary-general said the assessment team found "wide consensus that a phased withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and the rapid deployment of the African Union mission at full strength would help build confidence among Mogadishu's population and help ease tensions to enable reconciliation."
Somalia facing humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee capital
Salad Duhul, Associated Press, 4/24/07
There are no more hospital beds available in this bloodstained capital, and barely enough bandages to patch up the wounded. Even the bottles of medicine are running dry.
But still the patients keep pouring in and they are the lucky ones, having survived another day of gunfire and mortar shells as Islamic insurgents battle troops allied to Somalia's fragile government.
"Even the shades of the trees are occupied at this point," Dahir Dhere, director of Medina Hospital, the largest health facility in Mogadishu, said Monday. "We are overwhelmed."
Battles rocked Mogadishu for the sixth straight day Monday as Somalia heads toward one of the worst humanitarian crises in its history, with civilians getting slaughtered in the crossfire. A local human rights group put the death toll at 1,000 over just four days earlier this month, and more than 250 have been killed in the past six days.
More than 320,000 of Mogadishu's 2 million residents have fled since heavy fighting started in February.
Ahmed Mohamed, 32, was not one of them. A mortar shell hit him over the weekend, crushing his right leg.
"The doctors told me I would die unless they cut off my leg," Mohamed said, tears streaming down his face in the city's Keysaney Hospital, which was packed beyond capacity with nearly 200 people. "So I have to let them do it."
Somalia Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said Monday his interim government was winning the battle against the insurgents, but called for greater support from the international community.
"If we do not get international support the war may spread throughout the region and Africa," Gedi said. "These terrorists want to destabilize the whole region."
The government and its Ethiopian backers have been facing mounting pressure from the U.S., European Union and United Nations over the mounting civilian death toll and appear determined to bring order to the city before a planned national reconciliation conference in June.
But the fighting has decimated Mogadishu, already one of the most violent and gun-infested cities in the world. At least 18 civilians were killed Monday, said Sudan Ali Ahmed, the chairman of the Elman Human Rights Organization group. A 6-month-old baby was among those wounded, said a witness, Khadija Farah.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against each other. The western city of Baidoa, where the Somali Parliament is based, was dubbed "City of Death" in the 1990s during a searing drought and famine there. Mogadishu, once a stunning seaside capital, is now a looted shantytown teeming with guns, with no functioning government or institutions.
A national government was established in 2004, but has failed to assert any real control.
Last month, troops from neighboring Ethiopia used tanks and attack helicopters to crush a growing insurgency linked to the Council of Islamic Courts. The movement had controlled Mogadishu and much of the country's south for only six months in 2006, but those were the most peaceful months since 1991.
The group was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces, who have accused the group of having ties to al-Qaida. The militants reject any secular government, and have sworn to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic emirate.
Meanwhile, the capital and its surrounding towns have become scenes of ghastly despair. Women and children flee on foot with little more than their clothes and some cooking pots, then sleep by the side of the road. In Afgoye, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, fights were breaking out over a spot of shade beneath a tree.
"Everyone wants to sit in the small area under the tree," said Asha Hassan Mohamed, a mother of seven who reached Afgoye last week but returned to Mogadishu because she couldn't find any food.
"It's so crowded because there is no shelter."
The United Nations said the fighting had sparked the worst humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country's recent history, with many of the city's residents trapped because roads out of Mogadishu were blocked.
Catherine Weibel, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, said many of those who haven't fled the capital are simply too vulnerable to do so.
"All the people who are sick, in wheelchairs, disabled," she said, "they cannot leave."
Sri Lanka says Norwegian envoy must cancel trip to rebel territory for security reasons
Matthew Rosenberg, Associated Press, 4/23/07
Sri Lanka has ordered Norway's ambassador to cancel a routine trip to the rebel-held north for security reasons, an embassy spokesman said Monday, raising fears that a military offensive against the insurgents is imminent.
The decision to keep Norway's envoy the mediator of the country's all-but-defunct peace process away from the Tamil Tiger's northern strongholds came as the military kept up its pressure on the insurgents with air raids against what the defense ministry said were a rebel base and a moving column of guerrillas.
Western diplomats said they found the cancellation of the trip alarming and were alerting their respective capitals. The diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because they didn't want to harm their relationships with Sri Lankan officials.
Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar was to have left Monday for the overnight trip to Kilinochchi, the headquarters of the Tamil Tiger rebels, to meet with the insurgents.
"We got a call from the government last evening telling us it was not advisable to go due to security concerns and that the trip had to be canceled," embassy spokesman Erik Nurnberg said Monday.
He said officials refused to detail the security concerns, and no new date had been set for the trip.
Norway helped broker a 2002 cease-fire between the government and rebels, and the Scandinavian country has continued to serve as a mediator as sporadic fighting has degenerated into all-out war in the past 18 months.
The cease-fire has remained officially in place as fighting has intensified, and both sides insist they respect the truce and are only responding to the other's aggression.
"We try to go up there every five or six weeks to sound them out in the same way we have regular contacts with the government," Nurnberg said of the now-canceled meeting.
The rebels, officially known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, confirmed the trip had been canceled but offered no further comment.
Sri Lanka's foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona, said officials told the Norwegians that the trip was "inadvisable under the current circumstances." He did not elaborate.
The government has already ousted the insurgents from bases in eastern Sri Lanka, and officials say they soon plan to make a push against the Tiger's heartland in the north, where the rebels run a mini-state state complete with border guards, schools and traffic police.
The territory has in recent weeks come under near-daily air strikes and artillery fire from government forces.
Monday's strikes targeted a base of the Sea Tigers, the rebels' naval force, near the town of Mullaitivu in the north, and a moving group of insurgents near Batticaloa in the east, the defense ministry said. Details of the attacks were not immediately available.
The consensus among diplomats, aid workers and analysts is that it's a matter of when not if the government will attack the Tigers in the north. The rebels, who have launched more than 200 suicide bombings in the past quarter-century, have vowed to respond to any such move with their "full capacity."
The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's 3.1 million Tamils, a largely Hindu minority concentrated in eastern and northern Sri Lanka.
The Tamils have faced decades of discrimination from the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese, who make up a majority of the Indian Ocean island nation's 19 million people.
At least 65,000 people were killed before the 2002 cease-fire. Air raids, bus bombings, suicide attacks and jungle clashes have left an estimated 4,000 more dead since December 2005.
Meanwhile, an official said Monday that Sri Lankan soldiers recovered 105 anti-personnel land mines during a search for Tiger operatives near the volatile frontier separating government and rebel territory in the north.
The mines were found Sunday hidden in several places in the government-controlled village of Tampane, about 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Colombo, said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse, a defense ministry spokesman. Soldiers defused the mines, he added.
Sri Lanka rebels claim second air attack
Agence France Presse, 4/23/07
Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday carried out only their second-ever air attack on Sri Lankan government troops, a guerrilla spokesman told AFP.
Two light aircraft of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) dropped bombs on a military air base in the Jaffna peninsula just after midnight, spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said.
"We have carried out our second air attack... on the Palaly air field and their military stores," Ilanthiriyan said by satellite telephone from northern Sri Lanka.
A Sri Lankan military spokesman said he was checking on the report.
Ilanthiriyan said their pilots saw flames after dropping bombs on the Palaly complex, the main airbridge to the Jaffna peninsula, a former Tigers bastion that was captured by troops in December 1995.
The rebels, whose drawn-out campaign for an independent state for the island's ethnic Tamil minority has left more than 60,000 people dead, carried out their first-ever aerial attack on Sri Lankan forces last month.
In that attack, the guerrillas flew two aircraft over the island's main military air base, which shares a runway with Sri Lanka's only international airport, and dropped six bombs. Three airmen were killed and 17 wounded.
The aircraft flew for more than an hour to return to rebel-held territory in the island's north without being challenged either by military aircraft or troops on the ground.
Since then, the Sri Lankan military has acquired night-flying capabilities and said it has bombed several suspected Tiger targets, including guerrilla naval assets, communications facilities and training camps.
Sri Lanka's military had also stepped up its air defences and set up a telephone hotline in case citizens notice any unidentified aircraft.
Hours before Tuesday's pre-dawn attack, a roadside bomb killed three people and wounded 35 in Vavuniya, which is next to a rebel-held area, the defence ministry said earlier.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Sudan
Sudan Flying Arms to Darfur, Panel Reports
Warren Hoge, New York Times, 4/18/07
A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.
In one case, illustrated with close-up pictures, the report says ''U.N.'' has been stenciled onto the wing of a whitewashed Sudanese armed forces plane parked on a military apron at a Darfur airport. Bombs guarded by uniformed soldiers are laid out in rows by its side.
The report says that, contrary to the Sudanese government's earlier denials to United Nations investigators, the freshly painted planes are being operated out of all three of Darfur's principal airports and used for aerial surveillance and bombardments of villages, in addition to the transportation of cargo.
The report was compiled by a five-person panel responsible for helping the Council's sanctions committee monitor compliance with resolutions on Darfur, the war-ravaged region in Sudan. It was made available by a diplomat from one of the 15 Council nations, which believes that the findings ought to be made public.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.3 million have been uprooted from their homes, largely by repeated attacks from Arab militias supported and equipped by the Sudanese government.
But while the report focuses much of its attention on the government, it says that rebel groups were also guilty of violating Council resolutions, peace treaty agreements and humanitarian standards. It recommends a tightening of the arms embargo imposed by the Security Council and other restrictions on activities involving illicit weapons, regardless of who is responsible.
The report covers recent conduct, from September 2006 to March 12, 2007, and emerged a day after Sudan announced it was dropping its objections to large-scale United Nations assistance to the overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. Sudan said Monday that it would agree to a force of 3,000 military police officers, along with six attack helicopters and other aviation and logistics support.
Left uncertain was whether Sudan would drop its longstanding resistance to a proposed 21,000-member joint African Union-United Nations force, to replace the 7,000-member African Union force that has said it cannot curb the violence there.
Sudan signaled its willingness to accept the interim force at a moment when at least two countries on the Security Council, Britain and the United States, were threatening tough new sanctions because of Sudan's stalling tactics.
Diplomats say those measures include further curtailing the flow of illegal arms, broadening sanctions against individuals who undermine the peace process and imposing a no-fly zone that would put an end to the government's aerial campaign against its citizens.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked Council members last week to hold off consideration of further sanctions, to give diplomacy a chance to proceed. But on Monday, Margaret Beckett, the British foreign secretary, and Alejandro D. Wolff, the acting American ambassador, held out the possibility that tougher measures might have to be adopted at some point.
Mr. Wolff expressed doubts about whether Sudan would carry out the agreement announced Monday, adding that he sensed a rising frustration and a diminished tolerance toward Sudan among Council members that could cause them to ''consider the need for other measures.''
Gerard McHugh of Ireland, the coordinator of the five-person panel that has traveled widely in the region since its creation in June 2005, said he could not comment on the specific findings since they were still confidential, but he said they should be published now. ''It's actually the view of the panel that certain actions could be taken that would actually enhance the peace process rather than holding them back,'' he said. To make the report a public document requires the agreement of all 15 Council members.
Marcello Spatafora, the United Nations ambassador from Italy, which leads the sanctions committee, said he had circulated a letter among the other 14 members asking if there were any objections to releasing the document.
Barring objections, he would be free to make the report public in 48 hours, he said.
In the past, China has objected to tough actions against Sudan, and in a closed meeting about Darfur on Monday, China was adamant that talk of sanctions would set back the peace process and lessen the chances of Sudanese compliance with the Council.
The panel report said the Sudanese government had done little to disband armed groups, in particular the government-supported janjaweed militias, which the report said still carried out attacks on civilians across Darfur.
It described a night attack by men wearing Sudanese armed forces uniforms and traveling in 60 Land Cruisers mounted with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns to a village that they burned. A 105-year-old man was burned alive and three girls were abducted, raped and sent home naked, the report said.
Sudanese officials also were not enforcing the travel ban and assets freeze imposed on four individuals accused of war crimes -- a Sudanese Air Force officer, an Arab militia leader and two rebel commanders -- last year by the Security Council, it said. ''The panel believes that any undue delay in the implementation of the resolution could embolden the designated individuals to carry on their acts and could also encourage others to commit violations without any fear of sanctions from the United Nations,'' the report said.
The report said that the Sudanese government was shipping small-caliber weapons, heavy weapons, artillery pieces, ammunition and other military equipment into Darfur on cargo planes, using airports at El Geneina, Nyala and El Fasher.
It reported that one of the planes crash-landed on Feb. 24 during a trip from Khartoum to El Geneina, and Sudanese Army officials guarded it on the ground for a week while soldiers unloaded howitzers and up to 50 wooden boxes painted in olive drab that, the panel suspected, contained arms and ammunition.
On the painting of the planes, the report said, ''The panel believes the use of white aircraft by the government of the Sudan constitutes a deliberate attempt to conceal the identity of these aircraft.''
The panel said that the government was refusing to give advance word, as it was directed to do by the Council, of any introduction of weapons and related equipment into Darfur. When challenged to explain its action, the government said ''it does not feel obliged to request permission in advance from the Security Council,'' the report said.
The report said various rebel groups fighting the government were also illegally shipping weapons, regularly violating border controls between Sudan and Chad, extending lawlessness in the immediate region and attacking peacekeepers and aid workers. ''Organized crime and acts of banditry have now become a source of livelihood for the many groups operating in Darfur and in other neighboring states,'' it said.
It said that in addition to jeopardizing the work of the United Nations and the African Union by disguising its aircraft, the government was permitting and sometimes aiding attacks and harassment of people representing the two organizations.
''The prevailing insecurity in Darfur and the raised level of harassment of humanitarian personnel have conspired to seriously curtail humanitarian operations through Darfur,'' the report said.
Britain and U.S. propose new U.N. sanctions for Sudan, but face opposition on Security Council
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 4/18/07
Britain and the United States said Wednesday they will propose new U.N. sanctions to pressure the Sudanese government and rebels to stop the fighting in Darfur, but Russia, China and South Africa opposed any new measures.
The push for new sanctions was announced after a confidential U.N. report charged that Sudan's government has been flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and is impeding peace efforts by using aircraft with U.N. markings.
President Bush warned that the U.S. will tighten economic sanctions on Sudan and impose new ones on its own if Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir doesn't move quickly to stop bloodshed in Darfur, where African peacekeepers reported 62 more people killed in new fighting.
Diplomats from Russia, China and South Africa, which are all on the U.N. Security Council, said it was the wrong time to raise the threat of new sanctions because Sudan just agreed to the first significant deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.
They also noted the U.N. and the African Union are intensifying efforts to get Sudan's government and all rebel groups to the peace table.
"It would be very strange," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters. "After a long while, we have this positive development in the dialogue between the U.N. and Khartoum, and all of a sudden to come back with some sanctions would not be good."
Since Russia and China are veto-wielding permanent members of the council, their opposition signals a major hurdle for the U.S., Britain and France in trying to pass a new sanctions resolution. Other non-permanent council members who generally object to sanctions, like Qatar and Indonesia, are also likely to oppose new measures against Sudan.
On April 2, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the United States and Britain to refrain from pushing for tougher sanctions, saying the U.N. needed time to promote political negotiations and to persuade Sudan to accept the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.
After five months of stalling, Sudan sent a letter to Ban on Monday giving a green light for a U.N. force of 2,250 soldiers, 750 police and six helicopter gunships to reinforce the beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission already in Darfur.
Poorly armed and funded, the AU force has not been able to calm the vast Sudanese region, where 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been chased from their homes by four years of fighting between rebels based in Darfur's ethnic African communities and nomadic Arab tribes.
China's deputy U.N. ambassador, Liu Zhenmin, told reporters Wednesday that U.N. peacekeeping officials said it would take "until the end of the year" to get all of the new U.N. force to Darfur.
The 3,000-strong mission is the second phase of a U.N. plan that Sudan's president agreed to in November, but then backed off. Ban and African Union chief executive Alpha Oumar Konare said Wednesday that they wanted that force to be quickly followed by deployment of the accord's final phase a 20,000-strong "hybrid" U.N.-AU force.
Ban and Konare said getting more peacekeepers to Darfur was part of "a two-track approach" being pursued alongside intensified efforts to work out a political settlement.
In Washington, Bush said he would give Ban time to pursue diplomatic efforts, but added that the U.S. could impose financial and other sanctions if al-Bashir did not move quickly. Bush did not say how long he would wait.
The secretary-general welcomed Bush's announcement and "is intensively working to expedite the political process and the hybrid operation for Darfur," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
The president also said he would direct Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to prepare a resolution for new U.N. sanctions targeting Sudan's government and people found to be violating human rights or obstructing peace.
The resolution would also call for an expanded embargo on arms sales to Sudan, prohibitions on Sudan's government from conducting offensive military flights over Darfur and a strengthening of the U.N. ability to monitor and report violations, Bush said.
The Security Council adopted a resolution in March 2005 authorizing an asset freeze and travel ban on four men accused of orchestrating killings and other abuses in Darfur a former air force commander, an Arab militia