PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Thursday, March 29, 2007
(Volume VI, Number 7)
Contents:
Chechnya
Moscow jury convicts
two in bomb blast that hit Chechnya-Moscow train
Two men found
guilty of terrorism for June 2005 blast that injured 15
people.
Reports: Chechen president opposes separation of powers treaty with Moscow
Kadyrov says the agreement is unnecessary.
Democratic
Republic of
Congo
Congo's army chief
says government has regained control of Kinshasa
After two days of
intense fighting former warlord's militia has reportedly
retreated.
Bodies clog morgues after Kinshasa clashes
More than 120 died during the two days of fighting.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.
Georgia
Georgia blames South
Ossetia for ‘provocation’ that left two Georgian police dead
South Ossetia said
that the two men were killed as they tried to block a main road in the
province.
Kashmir
Indian ruling party
ally presses for troop cuts in Kashmir
Indian PM Singh
met with the leader of his regional ally in Kashmir, who had threatened to
withdraw support if New Delhi rejected the demands for troop cuts by
mid-year.
India puts Kashmir unrest toll at 42,147
Latest
statistics on the 17-year-old conflict report that a third of casualties have
been civilian.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation Click here
to access the
Kashmir
Negotiation
Simulation.
Kosovo
UN envoy urges independence for Kosovo
Ahtisaari contends that supervised independence is the
only option to resolve the dispute.
Serbs bitter as world welcomes Kosovo independence plan
President Boris Tadic said “any form of independence for Kosovo is unacceptable for Serbia.”
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation.
Macedonia
U.N. envoy to help solve Macedonia dispute
Diplomats have been quoted as saying the UN should work
out a new proposal on the name of Macedonia by the end of the year.
Nepal
Talks fail to end
anti-Maoist strike in Nepal
Business leaders want
a commitment from the government that peace and security will be
restored.
Maoists threaten revenge after south Nepal bloodbath
One Maoist leader says they will start retaliatory action if the government does not ban the Mahadhesi People's Rights Forum.
Somalia
Somali, Ethiopian
troops fight insurgents for second day
At least four people were killed and
six wounded during fighting between Islamic insurgents and
Somali and Ethiopian troops.
Elders say they remain committed to truce in Somali capital
Elders of the dominant clan in Mogadishu will continue talks to broker a lasting peace.
Sri
Lanka
Sri Lanka rebels bomb
military base in first air raid
The night-time mission
forced the temporary closure of Sri Lanka’s international
airport.
Suicide bombing at Sri Lanka army camp
Heavy casualties resulted.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation.
Sudan
UN
humanitarian chief blocked from Darfur refugee camp
Holmes said he can now understand what the NGOs in
the region have been experiencing.
UN aid chief warns of humanitarian collapse in Darfur; EU calls for tougher measures on Sudan
Holmes reports the humanitarian effort in the region is fragile.
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.
Moscow jury convicts two in bomb blast that hit Chechnya-Moscow train
Associated Press, 3/21/07
A Moscow jury on Wednesday convicted two men for a June 2005 bomb blast that derailed a train traveling from Chechnya to Moscow, injuring 15 people, a court spokeswoman said.
The blast marred a national holiday and damaged Kremlin efforts to revive the train route and show that life in war-wracked Chechnya was returning to normal.
The jury in the Moscow Regional Court found Mikhail Klevachev and Valery Prilepskogo guilty of terrorism and other charges, said court spokeswoman Yekaterina Gurskaya. The court will meet on April 2 to consider sentences.
RIA-Novosti said both pleaded not guilty.
RIA-Novosti also said an earlier jury had acquitted the two, and quoted a former juror as saying that officials had clearly pressured the jury to convict the two.
"I'm convinced that there was already a guilty decision for the suspects and if these (jurors) had given an acquital, then they would have also dismissed them," Alexandra Salamatina was quoted by the news agency.
Reports: Chechen president opposes separation of powers treaty with Moscow
Associated Press, 3/21/07
Chechnya's president said he opposed a separation of authority agreement between the war-wracked region's government and Moscow, saying it was unnecessary, a Russian news agency reported Wednesday.
The agreement, whose drafting dates back to assassinated Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, father of newly installed President Ramzan Kadyrov, called for broad economic autonomy for the North Caucasus region, including allowing it to keep substantial revenues from its oil wealth.
"The agreement is not necessary," Ramzan Kadyrov was quoted as saying by RIA-Novosti. "We propose to forget about this agreement. I am against its signing."
There was no explanation for Kadyrov's announcement, but it comes a month after a similar separation of authority agreement with Tatarstan another oil-rich, Muslim region was rejected by Russia's upper house of parliament.
The Tatarstan agreement reaffirmed local authorities' grip on its mineral wealth, among other things and its rejection by the Russian parliament, dominated by Kremlin-backed parties, appeared to indicate the Kremlin's desire to keep Tatarstan's ambitions at bay.
Two wars over the past dozen years between Russian forces and separatist rebels who increasingly voiced militant Islamic ideology have left much of Chechnya in ruins. Major offensives ended several years ago, but small clashes continue and rebels attack Russian forces with booby-traps and remote-detonated explosives.
Kadyrov, who was prime minister before being tapped to become president by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has overseen a reconstruction program that has been at the heart of a Kremlin strategy to crush rebels.
Critics and rights groups, however, say Kadyrov's security forces and Russian and Chechen forces commit widespread rights abuses, severely undermining attempts to bring order to the region.
Congo's army chief says government has regained control of Kinshasa
Eddy Isango, Associated Press, 3/24/07
Security forces have regained control of Congo's capital after two days of intense fighting against a former warlord's militia, the head of the army said in a nationally televised address.
Order had been restored in Kinshasa and the army of ex-rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba retreated, Lt. Gen. Sungilanga Kisempia said Friday on state-run RTNC television. He urged members of the militia to turn themselves in at the headquarters of the U.N. mission in Congo.
"We will pursue them to the very end" if they do not, he said.
Sporadic gunfire could still be heard in the capital late Friday, but the intensity had significantly decreased from earlier in the day when mortar rounds set fire to buildings, including a nearby oil refinery.
Hospital officials said at least 12 people had been killed and as many as 47 were wounded in the two days of fighting between security forces and Bemba's personal guard, thought to number in the thousands.
An Italian citizen was among the wounded, the Italian Foreign Ministry said. The ministry gave no details about the Italian, who the Italian news agency ANSA said was hit by a bullet when he leaned out a window.
Bemba, who was recently elected senator, came in second in last year's presidential election, the country's first in over 40 years which pitted formal rebel chiefs against each other. After losing the landmark run-off, he promised to disband his army, but has repeatedly missed deadlines to do so, most recently last week.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo welcomed the return of order, but added that it "deeply regrets the fact that force was used in order to resolve a situation that could and should have been settled through dialogue ... The immediate losses and damage are plainly evident," the statement said.
A total of 94 members of Bemba's army had turned themselves in at the U.N. base in the capital, according to a U.N. mission official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The street fighting erupted Thursday near Bemba's home and appeared to ease by Thursday night, only to resume Friday. Bemba sought refuge inside the South African Embassy, even as Congo's chief prosecutor issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of high treason.
Bemba accused the government of starting the violence and said he had asked his men to stand down, but stressed that he no longer commands them. "I am not in control," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
Chief prosecutor Tsaimanga Mukenda said that neither Bemba's immunity as a senator nor the fact that he had sought refuge in the embassy would stop him from seeking his arrest on charges of high treason.
"He has caused serious infractions by organizing a militia and by ordering looting ... his actions amount to high treason and we will pursue him wherever he is," Mukenda said, adding he would ask parliament to strip Bemba of immunity.
During the height of the fighting, mortar rounds landed as far as 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away in Brazzaville, the capital of the neighboring Republic of Congo, damaging the home of that country's defense minister, government spokesman Alain Akouala said. In Kinshasa, the Spanish Embassy was hit and thick black smoke poured out of a damaged oil refinery.
Twelve bullet-riddled bodies were brought to the capital's central morgue, its director Toussaint Itali said. At Kinshasa's General Hospital, chief surgeon Dr. Tombe Diabeno said the hospital was treating 27 wounded people. Three had to have their feet amputated because of the severity of the wounds, he said.
Another hospital, the Ngaliema Clinic, said 18 people were being treated, according to Dr. Pierre Sengi Ntamba, while in Brazzaville, the state-run television channel showed footage of two people who were hurt when a shell fell near their taxi.
Embassies began making plans for the evacuation of foreign nationals after the Zimbabwean Embassy was looted. The Portuguese Foreign Ministry said it has a military unit ready to be deployed to Congo to evacuate Portuguese citizens living in the country in case violence escalates. The ministry said 960 Portuguese live in Congo, 500 of them in Kinshasa.
The European Union called on factions in Kinshasa to settle their differences through dialogue and to ensure civilians were not caught up in the violence.
"The international community, and the European Union in particular, will not allow democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a major success for the entire African continent, to be compromised," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana added in the statement issued in Brussels.
This week's fighting is the first in the capital since Congo installed Joseph Kabila as president on Dec. 6, making him the nation's first freely elected president since 1960.
Bodies clog morgues after Kinshasa clashes
Sofia Bouderbala, Agence France Presse, 3/25/07
Two days of clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital between the army and opposition forces left more than 120 dead, aid groups said Sunday as more bodies arrived in hospital morgues.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said there could be "hundreds of fighters and civilians dead and wounded" from the fighting Thursday and Friday as former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba refused to let his personal guard be integrated into the army.
"There were dozens of dead bodies left lying at the roadside, many of them civilians. It was a distressing sight," Max Hadorn, head of the Red Cross delegation in Kinshasa, said in a statement.
At least 90 bodies packed the morgue at Kinshasa general hospital by Sunday morning and more arrived during the day, hospital sources told AFP.
The Caritas charity said there were 20 bodies at the Kintambo hospital, six at the Ngaliema clinic and two at St Joseph hospital.
The charity reported 148 people seriously wounded at the hospitals following the clashes around Bemba's residence.
Bemba, a fierce opponent of President Jospeh Kabila, has taken refuge in the South African embassy in Kinshasa, according to diplomatic sources.
The government laid "treason" charges against Bemba on Friday for keeping a private militia.
About 2,000 troops fought Bemba's 700 fighters in the Gombe district of the capital on Thursday and Friday.
The government had given a provisional toll of 60 dead on Saturday.
Kinshasa general hospital reported critical shortages of blood, dressings, gloves, surgical thread and even food for the wounded.
Many victims were in critical condition because they were trapped for several hours in the street fighting and could not be treated.
At the Ngaliema clinic, one woman told AFP how she had to hold her intestines in her stomach for four hours until someone could rescue her.
She was hit by a bullet as she rushed to collect her children from school and the ambulance that came to collect her was riddled with bullets.
Most families have not been able to visit or bring food to those injured because of insecurity or lack of transport, said Guy-Marin Kamandji, Caritas spokesman.
He said a shortage of formalin in morgues as bodies began to decompose was an urgent problem, as well.
Members of the military have sought to keep journalists and aid workers from taking photos of victims and from entering certain areas where dead bodies have been stored.
The Congo capital was calm again Sunday after most of Bemba's fighters had fled or agreed to join government forces.
The United Nations said 107 Bemba fighters have taken refuge at the UN mission. Many are said to fear they will be killed if they are handed over to the authorities.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has dispatched a plane carrying a surgeon and supplies. Some 25 ICRC volunteers have been sent to help collect bodies off the streets, and more were expected to arrive Sunday.
The Red Cross also said it was seeking to provide protection for those who have been arrested in connection with the violence.
Bemba, who lost the presidential election in October to Joseph Kabila, had refused to have his vice-presidential bodyguard integrated into the regular army, arguing that his personal security could not be guaranteed.
"The government will now have to show it can be responsible," said a western diplomat in Kinshasa, speaking on condition of anonymity. "If you are going to have a rule of law the opposition must be allowed to exist without being threatened or fearing a witch-hunt."
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
Georgia blames South Ossetia for 'provocation' that left two Georgian police dead
Associated Press, 3/26/07
Georgia on Monday blamed officials of separatist South Ossetia for the shooting deaths of two Georgian policemen.
South Ossetia's internationally unrecognized government said Sunday that two men who it claimed were Georgian agents were killed as they tried to block a main road in the province.
But a statement from Georgia's Ministry of State accused South Ossetia of conducting "an armed provocation, the victims of which were two Georgian police."
South Ossetia has been under the control of an unrecognized separatist government since the end of fighting with Georgian troops in the mid-1990s. Sporadic clashes break out in South Ossetia, with tensions stoked by separatists' contentions that the government of President Mikhail Saakashvili is preparing an invasion to regain control of the province.
Saakashvili has vowed to bring South Ossetia and the other separatist region, Abkhazia, back under control of the central government.
Indian ruling party ally presses for troop cuts in Kashmir
Agence France Presse, 3/22/07
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday met the leader of his regional ally in Kashmir over the party's calls for a drastic cut in troop levels in the disputed territory, officials said.
Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's regional People's Democratic Party (PDP), a key partner of Kashmir's Congress-run administration, has threatened to withdraw its support if New Delhi rejected its demands for troop cuts by mid-year.
Details of Singh's one-on-one meeting with Sayeed were not immediately known, although officials said the regional politician was also expected to demand the repeal of a tough law that gave sweeping powers to the army in Kashmir.
"The PDP leader is also likely to press for the withdrawal of military presence from civilian property in Jammu and Kashmir," an official from the premier's office told AFP.
The two parties swept into power in local polls in 2004 which saw a historic 80-percent voter turnout in Kashmir.
The state was ruled by the PDP for the first two years after the legislative elections as part of its agreement with the Congress party.
An estimated half a million combat troops and paramilitary soldiers are deployed in Indian Kashmir, where an armed Islamic insurgency has claimed more than 44,000 lives by one official count since 1989.
Militants and residents says at least 65,000 people have lost their lives in the unrest.
The PDP argues that since the number of guerrillas in the Himalayan state has shrunk from several thousands a decade ago to less than 1,000, the presence of such a large force was not necessary.
The PDP's demand has been initially rejected by both Prime Minister Singh and Kashmir's Chief Minister Ghulaam Nabi Azad, also from the Congress party.
Pakistan, which has fought two of its three wars with India over Kashmir since 1947, has linked the region's demiliterisation to lasting peace between the two South Asian nuclear-armed arch-rivals.
India puts Kashmir unrest toll at 42,147
Agence France Presse, 3/26/07
Indian Kashmir's 17-year-old insurgency has left 42,147 people dead, more than a third civilians, according to official figures released Monday by the revolt-hit region's police.
But the latest report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, did not include the people who have disappeared in the region since the unrest began in 1989 and a prominent human rights group immediately said the real toll was far higher.
The government says between 1,000 to 3,900 people had disappeared in the Indian side of the Himalayan region, while rights groups say up to 10,000 are missing -- the majority of them after their arrest by security forces.
According to the report's figures, which cover the period from January 1990 to February 2007, some 20,647 rebels have died during the period, mostly in gunbattles with Indian troops.
During the same period 16,476 civilians were killed, most of them listed as either being slain by militants or caught in cross-fire during gunbattles.
Among security forces, 5,024 were listed as killed in clashes with the dozen-plus rebel groups active in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The region's leading human rights group, the Coalition of Civil Society, said the real toll stood at more than 70,000 dead.
"Our figures are based on a proper survey conducted by our activists," senior group official Khurram Pervez said.
"We will be happy if we are proven wrong," he said, adding that police wanted to "downplay the figures, while anti-India separatists want to exaggerate the same."
Kashmiri separatists say nearly 100,000 people have died in the unrest.
Pervez said his figures included about 10,000 people believed to have disappeared after their arrest by security forces.
Police in Kashmir are probing five cases where innocent civilians were detained and killed, and then passed off as Islamic militants. Eight policemen have already been arrested and charged with murder.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, and in 1999 fought a two-month pitched battle in the peaks of Kargil, a northeastern sector of Indian Kashmir.
The figures, however, highlighted a dip in violence in Kashmir since India and Pakistan -- which both hold the region in part but claim it in full -- started a peace process in January 2004.
Last year 200 Indian security force personnel were killed in attacks by militants, the lowest toll since 1992, the figures showed.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
UN envoy urges independence for Kosovo
Gerard Aziakou, Agence France Presse, 3/26/07
UN chief mediator Martti Ahtisaari on Monday recommended supervised independence for Kosovo as the only option for the breakaway Serbian province, an idea immediately hailed by Kosovo's president but rejected by Belgrade.
"Independence is the only option for a politically stable and economically viable Kosovo," Ahtisaari said in his long-awaited report on the future status of the ethnic-Albanian majority province in southern Serbia.
"Only in an independent Kosovo will its democratic institutions be fully responsible and accountable for their actions," he added.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders immediately hailed Ahtisaari's plan but Serbia, which views Kosovo as the birthplace of its civilization, remained bitterly opposed to it.
Kosovo Albanians make up 90 percent of the province's population of two million.
The United Nations has administered the Serbian province since 1999, after a NATO bombing campaign helped to drive out Serb forces carrying out a brutal crackdown on the majority ethnic Albanians.
Some 10,000 ethnic Albanians died and hundreds of thousands fled Kosovo during the 1998-1999 conflict.
"It is a historic day for Kosovo," President Fatmir Sejdiu said in a statement, adding the independence proposal would resolve the last remaining unsolved issue in the war-torn Balkans region.
"Any form of independence for Kosovo is unacceptable for Serbia," Serbian President Boris Tadic countered in a statement after a telephone conversation with US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.
Tadic said Belgrade was ready to "constructively engage" in more talks on the future status of Kosovo.
Ahtisaari's contentious plan is to be debated next month by the Security Council, which must approve Kosovo's future status.
The German presidency of the European Union, the United States and Britain threw their support behind the independence plan.
"The presidency of the European Union strongly supports the proposal put forward by the former president of Finland," the EU presidency, currently held by Germany, said in a statement.
In Brussels, Burns said Washington would issue a statement later in the day stating that "we fully support Martti Ahtisaari's proposal."
Burns said that a UN Security Council resolution on the province's future status could be adopted "in April or May."
Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Council, has however objected to the independence proposal, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling for more efforts to reach a compromise.
Burns remained cautious when asked how objections voiced by Russia would be handled.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett welcomed Ahtisaari's recommendations, saying they would give the province "clarity over its future."
UN chief Ban Ki-moon, currently on a Middle East tour, also expressed 'full support" for Ahtisaari's proposals in a statement issued by his office here.
In his report, Ahtisaari made it clear that in the initial phase, international supervision of an independent Kosovo would be required.
"While independence for Kosovo is the only realistic option, Kosovo's capacity to tackle the challenges of minority protection, democratic development, economic recovery and social reconciliation on its own is still limited," he noted.
"I therefore propose that the exercise of Kosovo's independence ... be supervised and supported for an initial period by international civilian and military presences."
That international "supervisory role would come to an end only when Kosovo has implemented the measures set forth in the settlement proposal," the UN mediator added.
After 13 months of negotiations led by Ahtisaari, both Belgrade and Kosovo Serbs earlier this month rejected independence for the province, calling instead for more negotiations.
Pointing out that "a return to Serbian rule over Kosovo would not be acceptable" to the Albanian majority, Ahtisaari said: "Autonomy of Kosovo within the borders of Serbia ... is simply not tenable."
Under the scheme, the province would adopt a constitution within 120 days of its new status being confirmed, by which time the mandate of the current UN mission in Kosovo will end.
General and local elections are to be held within nine months of the new status being introduced.
An international civilian representative, who will be a European Union representative, would oversee the implementation of the plan while having no direct role in administering Kosovo.
He will be aided by a NATO-led military mission and an EU police force which will "monitor, mentor and advise on all areas related to the rule of law."
Serbs bitter as world welcomes Kosovo independence plan
Agence France Presse, 3/26/07
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders hailed Monday as "historic" a UN plan to grant the Serbian province independence, but despite widespread world support Belgrade remained bitterly opposed to the idea.
"Any form of independence for Kosovo is unacceptable for Serbia," Serbian President Boris Tadic said in a statement after a telephone conversation with US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.
Tadic said Monday he "strongly disagreed" with the United States' support for UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari's recommendation to grant Kosovo independence.
Tadic said Belgrade was ready to "constructively engage" in more talks on the future status of Kosovo, a southern Serbian province with an ethnic Albanian majority.
"I am convinced that there is room for further dialogue and that the special envoy ... Martti Ahtisaari did not exhaust all possibilities for an agreement," said Tadic.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels earlier Monday, Burns disagreed, saying Washington supported Ahtisaari's proposal to give supervised independence to Kosovo.
"We are going to issue today a declaration that says we fully support Martti Ahtisaari's proposal," Burns said. "The US does support the proposal by Ahtisaari to offer independence under supervision."
Anger in Belgrade could not have contrasted more with the obvious elation in the Kosovo capital Pristina.
"It is a historic day for Kosovo," President Fatmir Sejdiu said in a statement, adding the proposal would resolve the last remaining unsolved issue in the war-torn Balkans region.
"I want to stress that Kosovo's independence would serve all the citizens of the country, the Albanian majority and all the minority communities in Kosovo as well."
UN chief Ban Ki-moon, currently on a Middle East tour, expressed "full support" for Ahtisaari's proposals in a statement issued by his office.
Ahtisaari's proposals were also welcomed in London, where Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said they would give the province "clarity over its future", "It would enable the Balkan region as a whole to draw a line under the conflicts of the recent past and move towards a future based around full integration with European and Euro-Atlantic structures," said Beckett.
The EU presidency, currently held in Germany, agreed, saying the plan would provide stability.
Ahtisaari's plan "contains wide-ranging provisions intended to secure the future of all communities in Kosovo, including notably the Kosovo Serbs," said a statement issued in Berlin.
"It lays the foundation for sustainable economic and political development in Kosovo and will enhance stability throughout the region," the statement added.
Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since mid-1999, when a NATO bombing campaign helped to halt a brutal crackdown by Serb forces on ethnic Albanians.
After 13 months of negotiations led by Ahtisaari, both Belgrade and Kosovo Serbs earlier this month rejected independence for the province, calling instead for more negotiations.
Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, also slammed the independence proposal, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling for more efforts to reach a compromise.
But Kosovo Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the province's population of two million, have accepted the Ahtisaari plan and reject any links with Belgrade.
The UN Security Council is expected to debate the Ahtisaari plan next month.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click
here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public
International Law & Policy Group.
U.N. envoy to help solve Macedonia dispute
United Press International, 3/22/07
A U.N. official is trying to help the governments in Athens and Skopje resolve their row over the name of Macedonia.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis at the United Nations Wednesday discussed issues relating to Cyprus, Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province and Macedonia, the Greek English-language newspaper Kathimerini reported Thursday.
Kathimerini quoted diplomats as saying the United Nations should work out a new proposal on the name of Macedonia by the year's end. Lynn Pascoe, U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, has been appointed the official in charge of trying to solve the problem.
Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have been in dispute over the Macedonia name since the northern neighbor won international recognition in 1991.
Macedonia is the name of a northern Greek region and Athens, arguing the name might imply territorial ambitions, demands the Skopje government calls its state the FYROM, the name under which it joined the United Nations.
Talks fail to end anti-Maoist strike in Nepal
Agence France Presse, 3/21/07
A strike in Nepal over mafia-like Maoist violence entered its third day on Wednesday as business leaders said talks with the Himalayan nation's government had failed to ease their fears.
Businesses were again closed across the capital, Kathmandu, as Internet service providers continued to cut Web access in response to Sunday's abduction and beating of a hotelier who failed to give cash and free rooms to the former rebels.
"The talks have not been positive," Chandi Raj Dhakal, the chairman of the Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told AFP after a meeting with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
"We want a written commitment from the government and the eight parties giving assurances of peace and security," he said.
Nepal's Maoists had publicly pledged to end violence when they signed a peace deal with Koirala last year, but accusations of intimidation, extortion and violence persist.
The former insurgents have admitted that two members of a Maoist-affiliated trade union had been involved and that they had been suspended.
In his first response to the strike, Maoist leader Prachanda told reporters and business leaders that he wanted to "sort out problems through dialogue."
Prachanda, whose name means "the fierce one," also admitted that some cases of extortion had continued after the signing of the peace deal, but said he was addressing the issue.
"Some mistakes have occurred on our part and we are ready to correct them," he vowed.
But business leaders say their patience has run out, with hotels threatening to shut up shop and turf out tourists. Internet connections in Nepal are also being cut for two hours a day.
The coalition government is expected to meet with the Maoists later Wednesday, and has promised to act against those responsible for the beating.
"I have already directed police officials to take action against those who abducted and thrashed the owner of the Woodland Hotel," Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula was quoted as saying by the Himalayan Times newspaper.
The Maoists and the government signed a landmark peace deal in January that ended a decade of civil war in which more than 13,000 people died.
Under the deal, the Maoists agreed to register their fighters and weapons with the United Nations and enter the political mainstream.
Maoists threaten revenge after south Nepal bloodbath
Sam Taylor, Agence France Presse, 3/23/07
Nepal's Maoists placed 25 bloodied corpses on display in the capital on Friday and warned of possible retaliation for the killings of their comrades by an ethnic group earlier this week.
"If the government does not ban the MJF (Mahadhesi People's Rights Forum) and take action against its leaders we will be compelled to start retaliatory action," Maoist number two Baburam Bhatterai told thousands of supporters.
Maoist leader Prachanda placed orange flower garlands and draped communist flags on the stinking corpses in an open air theatre in the heart of Kathmandu after the bodies were airlifted from southern Nepal.
The leftists were apparently killed by ethnic activists in clashes Wednesday that have cast a cloud over the nation's peace deal, which officially brought an end to ten years of civil war between Maoist rebels and the government.
"We have not lost our patience at this critical moment, but if the government stays quiet on this matter it will have to bear the responsibility of the consequences," Bhatterai told the crowd.
Following the mourning rally, the former rebels led a silent procession through Kathmandu to take some of the victims for cremation at Pashupatinath temple, and others for funerals in the capital's main mosque.
At least 29 people were killed and dozens injured in the violence in the town of Gaur, situated 90 kilometres (57 miles) south of Kathmandu and near the border with India.
Journalists and human rights workers said local residents told them of horrific scenes earlier this week of rape, burnings and stabbings during what the local media has dubbed a "bloodbath."
"Locals said that around 10 of the victims were severely beaten and then set on fire while they were still alive," said Subodh Singh, a reporter at the Nepali language daily newspaper Kantipur.
"I saw the body of a naked woman with one of her breasts cut off. Locals told me they thought she was raped before being killed," he said.
Nepal's Maoists have said that the unrest in Nepal's Terai is part of efforts by monarchists to undermine Nepal's peace process, a claim repeated Friday.
The area in the southern plains, known as Nepal's bread basket, is dominated by the Mahadhesi ethnic group, whose activists have been staging a series of deadly protests since January in a bid to win greater representation in national politics.
"Royalist forces are trying to derail the peace process and push us back into war," said the Maoist's second-in-command.
"It was not a clash between the two sides. If that was the case then why were only Maoists were killed? It was a planned conspiracy of the palace and international forces," said Bhatterai.
After an emergency cabinet meeting Friday afternoon, the government formed a four-member committee to investigate the attacks, Pradeep Gyawali, Nepal's tourism minister told AFP.
"They will produce a report of their findings in 15 days," said Gyawali.
The Maoists have demanded that their dead comrades be "declared martyrs" and called on the government to provide compensation of one million rupees (14,000 dollars) to the families of each victim who died on Wednesday.
Curfews were slapped on two towns in southern Nepal on Thursday to prevent any more violence.
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Somalia
Somali, Ethiopian troops fight insurgents for second day
Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press, 3/23/07
Hundreds of residents fled their homes during a second day of fighting between Islamic insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops in which at least four people were killed and six wounded.
In the southern port town of Kismayo unidentified gunmen threw a bomb late Thursday at a police station, killing one person, an official said.
Government officials vowed Thursday to continue fighting the insurgents in Mogadishu who they said are led by the newly chosen head of Somalia's al-Qaida cell, Aden Hashi Ayro. The suspected al-Qaida leader is one of the people the U.S. targeted in a January airstrike in Somalia.
Unidentified gunmen threw a bomb at the main police station in the southern port town of Kismayo, said Mayor Ibrahim Mohamed Yusuf. One woman was killed and another woman and her two children were injured in the blast because the bomb missed the station building and hit a wall separating the station from a private home, Yusuf said.
Police have sealed off the station area.
In Mogadishu, gunfire could still be heard intermittently Thursday evening, but the fighting seemed to be less fierce than the previous day's battles, during which at least 21 people were killed and more than 120 people wounded.
Residents leaving their homes Thursday boarded minivans or taxis, with the poorer ones carrying their belongings on their heads and in plastic bags. They were moving to safer parts of the city or leaving Mogadishu altogether.
One woman said she was forced to leave behind her husband and two of her seven children because they were too weak to travel. Hadija Mad Osman said her husband was injured by shrapnel when a mortar exploded near them, and the children had diarrhea.
"I have left my husband and two of my children lying in a makeshift house near the football stadium," Osman said. "I do not know where I am going."
Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine-guns and government troops responded with artillery and machine-gun fire in the battles in northern and southern parts of Mogadishu, witnesses said.
Other witnesses counted four bodies in different parts of the city and Dr. Ali Bile of Keysaney Hospital said the hospital had received six wounded.
"The fighting has meant the end of my life and happiness. I lost two sons in 1993 when the U.S. troops fought battles with Somali militia and now I have lost the last one," said 37-year old Shamsa Abdikadir Wehliye, whose son was killed in Wednesday's fighting.
She spoke at Medina Hospital as she tended her 50-year old husband, who was injured by shrapnel from the previous day's fighting.
Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said the Somali government had gathered intelligence that Ayro, a top leader of the ousted Islamic courts, had been directing the insurgency in Mogadishu and was recently named the head of the al-Qaida cell in Somalia.
He said the government had reports that Ayro was in Mogadishu.
Counterterrorism experts believe Ayro, who is in his mid-30s, received al-Qaida training in Afghanistan. U.N. officials have linked him to the killings of 16 people. Counterterrorism officials also believe he was involved in a plot never carried out to bring down an Ethiopian airliner.
U.S. officials said on Thursday they have managed to see an American, Ameer Mohamed Meshal, who has been in Ethiopian custody for the past three weeks after being caught in Kenya and deported on suspicion of being a supporter of Somalia's ousted Islamic movement.
Meshal reported to a U.S. Embassy official who visited him Wednesday that he was well and had not been mistreated while in Ethiopian custody, said Tom Casey, deputy U.S. State Department spokesman.
In Washington, Deputy U.S. State Department spokesman Casey said that Ameer Mohamed Meshal was first detained in Kenya and deported to Somalia without the U.S. embassy being notified. Later Meshal was deported to Ethiopia.
"We understand that the Ethiopian Government is planning to have a hearing soon on his status. As long as he remains in custody, we will continue to provide appropriate consular support to Mr. Meshal in the same way that we would provide these services to any American citizen arrested or detained in a foreign country," Casey told The Associated Press.
Kenyan and Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment.
Wednesday marked some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since a radical militia known as the Council of Islamic Courts was driven from the capital in December after six months in power. But the group has promised to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and mortar attacks pound the capital nearly every day.
The leader of the Council of Islamic Courts, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Somali service that the insurgents and residents of Mogadishu are justified in fighting the Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies, but denied he was involved.
Speaking late Wednesday, Aweys said he and other Islamic leaders were safe and living in Somalia, though he declined to disclose his location. He said he considers African Union peacekeepers already in the country to be enemies.
"We were invaded and no one respected us while we were in power and were ready to negotiate. Even the United Nations, which we expected was an impartial organization, helped the invasion against us. So we see the African troops as an enemy and not a friend," Aweys said, speaking on a satellite phone.
Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled said that the government is determined to restore law and order in Mogadishu within a week despite any resistance it meets.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation, said the government's offensive was focused on parts of the capital controlled by the Habr Gedir clan, which was a major supporter of the more radical elements of the Islamic courts and remains opposed to the government.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The current administration has failed to assert control throughout the country, and the African Union has deployed a small peacekeeping force to defend it.
But daily violence has continued in the capital, with civilians caught in the crossfire bearing the brunt of the violence.
Elders say they remain committed to truce in Somali capital
Mohamed Olad Hassan, Associated Press, 3/26/07
Elders of the dominant clan in the Somali capital remain committed to a truce negotiated with Ethiopian military officials here backing the government, and will continue talks to broker a lasting peace, a spokesman for the elders said Monday.
The reaffirmation came as an al-Qaida militant, in a new video posted Sunday on the Internet, called on militants in Somalia to fight the Jihad, or holy war, with street and gangland-style fighting against government troops.
Mogadishu's truce has held since it took effect Friday. On Saturday, talks between Ethiopian military officials and elders of the Hawiye clan to thrash out details of the truce reached an impasse, threatening the deal.
"We agreed ... to maintain the cease-fire and continue talks toward peace and stability," said Ahmed Diriye, the Hawiye clan spokesman.
In a statement released late Sunday, the elders also called on the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and asked that the Somali government troops leave Mogadishu for northern Somalia until a national army is formed.
Some hold that the Somali government troops are dominated by members of President Abdullahi Yusuf's Darod clan, the main clan in the northeastern semiautonomous region of Puntland that Yusuf led before becoming president of Somalia.
The elders did not threaten any action if their demands were not met and seemed to be willing to negotiation on the points. On Saturday, the elders had said that they wanted first to discuss political issues with Yusuf before any further disarmament of Mogadishu residents takes place.
The transitional government welcomed the elders commitment to the truce and will address complaints they have raised, said Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled.
"They are the traditional leaders and we are the political leaders of the country. We make a perfect match," Guled said.
After being ousted from Mogadishu in December, remnants of the Council of Islamic Courts promised to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and mortar attacks had pounded the capital nearly every day until Friday.
On Thursday, Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said the Somali government had gathered intelligence that Aden Hashi Ayro, a top leader of the ousted Islamic courts, had been directing the insurgency in Mogadishu and was recently named the head of the al-Qaida cell in Somalia.
In the second video released this week by Abu Yahia al-Libi, who broke out of the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, in 2005, the al-Qaida militant urged Somali militants to, "stick to the gang wars."
"Slam them with one raid after another, set ambushes against them, and shake their soil with land mines and shake their bases with suicide attacks and car bombs," said al-Libi. "The goal of your fight and the purpose of your Jihad is the expulsion of the occupier and his helpers and the establishment of an Islamic state in the land of Somalia."
When Somali government soldiers went on the offensive last week, officials said they focused on parts of the capital controlled by a clan that is a major supporter of more radical elements of the Council of Islamic Courts. That clan is the Habr Gedir, a branch of the larger Hawiye clan.
The Council of Islamic Courts controlled the capital and much of southern Somalia for six months before Somali government troops, backed by Ethiopian forces, ousted them in December.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The current administration has failed to assert control throughout the country, and the African Union deployed the small force of Ugandans to defend it.
Sri Lanka rebels bomb military base in first air raid
Amal Jayasinghe, Agence France Presse, 3/26/07
Tamil Tiger rebels carried out their first ever air raid Monday, attacking a military base on a daring night-time mission that forced the temporary closure of Sri Lanka's international airport.
At least three airmen were killed and 16 others wounded in the raid on the Katunayake airbase next to the airport north of Colombo, officials said.
A spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) warned of more attacks after the raid, which follows days of intense battles in the north and east of Sri Lanka that have forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee.
The Tigers were known to possess light fixed-wing aircraft and an airfield in the rebel-held northern Wanni region, but they had not used planes before in a combat mission.
The Bandaranaike international airport was not damaged but authorities temporarily shut it down as a precaution, reopening it after nearly three hours.
Aviation officials said that at least four inbound flights were diverted to India's southern city of Chennai as authorities sought to bring the situation at the base under control.
"One of the LTTE aircraft had flown over the airbase and dropped some explosive items," airforce spokesman Ajantha Silva said, adding that damage to the military facility was "minor."
Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan warned of more attacks in the group's struggle for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority.
"This mission was undertaken to reduce the air capability of the Sri Lankan airforce," he told AFP, adding: "We will undertake similar missions to prevent the airforce bombing civilians."
Military sources said an unidentified aircraft was spotted on radar in the island's north about 40 minutes before the attack.
At least four explosions were heard from the direction of the base, local residents said.
The defence ministry said no fighter aircraft were damaged, but two bombs hit the airforce's aeronautical engineering department. Two parked helicopters were also damaged.
Sri Lanka's foreign ministry spokesman Ravinatha Aryasinha said operations at the airport were not affected.
"There is no damage to the international airport or the runway," Aryasinha said. "Flights were suspended only as a precautionary measure."
Passengers on board flights ready to take off were asked to disembark after the airport was shut and military warplanes took off to search for the enemy, officials said.
Roads leading to the airport were closed and people trying to catch flights out of the country were turned back by police, residents said. The roads later reopened once the airport was back up and running.
Motorists and residents said they heard gunfire and several blasts near the international airport, 35 kilometres (20 miles) north of Colombo, triggering fears of a repeat of a deadly July 2001 attack on the base.
Tiger rebels infiltrated the base on July 24, 2001, destroying more than a dozen military planes before attacking six civilian jets at the international airport. They then detonated explosives strapped to their bodies.
Around 20 people were killed. Passengers at the international airport were not affected, but it has remained on alert ever since.
There are severe restrictions on the number of people allowed inside the terminal buildings. Huge walls were built around the terminals and the control towers to shield against impact from car bomb attacks, while large numbers of security personnel were stationed along the approach roads.
The LTTE has been waging a 35-year campaign for an independent homeland in this majority Sinhalese nation. More than 4,000 people have been killed in a wave of fighting since December 2005, despite a February 2002 truce.
The LTTE also operates a sea-going wing known as the Sea Tigers. The rebel "navy" is a rarity among the world's guerrilla forces.
Suicide bombing at Sri Lanka army camp
Agence France Presse, 3/27/07
Tamil Tiger rebels detonated a tractor and trailer packed with explosives in an army camp in eastern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, causing heavy casualties, a military official told AFP.
The vehicle crashed into the Chenkaladi army camp in Batticaloa district, where government forces have been conducting intensive operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"Several vehicles have rushed to evacuate the casualties from the army camp," a military official in Batticaloa said.
The attack came a day after Tamil Tigers carried out their first ever air raid, bombing a military airbase beside Sri Lanka's international airport.
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UN humanitarian chief blocked from Darfur refugee camp
Agence France Presse, 3/24/07
UN emergency relief coordinator John Holmes was blocked Saturday by the Sudanese army from visiting a camp for the displaced in war-torn Darfur during his first visit to the country, a UN spokeswoman said.
After meeting with non-governmental organisations in the northern Darfur town of Kutum, Holmes' convoy was stopped by a military checkpoint from reaching Kassab refugee camp, said Dawn Blalock of the UN's Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"Mr Holmes said he was very frustrated and quite annoyed and he can understand now what the NGOs are experiencing," she said, adding that he had had all the necessary permits and security clearances.
She said that Holmes will bring the matter up before high-ranking Sudanese officials.
The British diplomat succeeded Norwegian Jan Egeland on March 1 and arrived in Sudan on Wednesday for his first visit to the country where he met with government officials before heading off to Darfur.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol said after meeting Holmes Friday that his country would work to facilitate humanitarian operations in Darfur.
The United Nations and non-governmental organisations have repeatedly complained of difficult working conditions in Darfur, blaming both Sudanese troops and rebel groups for the violence.
In a report published this month, the OCHA said that on January 1, the number of people internally displaced by the conflict had topped two million.
On Wednesday, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) warned that camps for internally displaced persons were nearing maximum capacity, with 3,000 people uprooted in February alone.
"We simply cannot absorb any more displaced," said UNICEF country representative Ted Chaiban, after a visit to Darfur.
Holmes' trip comes amid strong international pressure, mainly from the United States, to get Sudan to accept UN troops in Darfur, a proposal Khartoum has rejected.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ali Sadek, reiterated on Wednesday Khartoum's position to "defend its sovereignty," and said Sudan would not bow to the US threat of sanctions.
The United States "as a world power should use diplomacy to establish security in the world," Sadek was quoted as saying by the official SUNA agency, adding that "Sudan is open to dialogue over the Darfur crisis."
The UN envoy's blocking comes at the start of new mission from UN and African Union envoys, Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim, aimed at finding a political solution to the Darfur rebellion.
On Saturday the two envoys met with Akol and Majzoub al-Khalifa, one of President Omar al-Beshir's assistants, and described themselves as moderately optimistic on the chances of restarting a dialogue between the government the rebel factions.
UN aid chief warns of humanitarian collapse in Darfur; EU calls for tougher measures on Sudan
Alfred de Montesquiou, Associated Press, 3/25/07
European leaders called Sunday for new international sanctions on Sudan over its treatment of civilians in Darfur, where the new U.N. humanitarian chief warned that humanitarian efforts were at risk of collapse.
Humanitarian chief John Holmes said efforts to aid refugees could fail if the situation deteriorates and aid workers are prevented from doing their work. He spoke in a refugee camp on his first tour of Darfur since becoming the U.N.'s top humanitarian official. Some 45,000 people in the camp have taken refuge from the region's spiraling violence.
"This humanitarian effort is fragile," he said. "If the situation deteriorates, it could collapse."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for a new U.N. resolution expanding sanctions against Sudan, and said a no-fly zone over its Darfur region should be considered.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the suffering of people in Darfur is "unbearable" and stronger sanctions against the Sudanese government for not stopping violence in the region should be considered
"We need to get a new resolution in the United Nations which extends the sanctions regime," Blair told reporters after a European Union summit. "We need to consider in my view a no-fly zone," he said, adding that "the situation in Darfur is intolerable."
Holmes, who met with delegates of international aid groups on Saturday and Sunday during his two-day visit to Darfur, said problems such as obstruction from Sudan's government and insecurity on the ground have created an environment where "morale is fragile" and could push aid workers to pull out.
"The risk is high," he said. "It is not imminent, but if things deteriorate, people may not want to maintain their efforts."
Because humanitarian needs are "so huge," Holmes said that aid groups obviously do not want to pull out of Darfur.
"But if there is a big incident, for instance, people could be fed up," he added.
In need of aid are some 4 million people in Darfur, whom the U.N. says have been caught in the midst of fighting between rebels, the government and the pro-government janjaweed.
"Even today, our thoughts are with the people in ... Darfur. The suffering there is unbearable," said Merkel, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. "And I say openly: we must consider stronger sanctions."
More than 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in four years of fighting, and janjaweed Arab militias are accused of widespread atrocities against ethnic African civilians.
The U.N. says the conflict has chased another 86,000 people from their homes so far this year and blames the vast majority of these new refugees on violence perpetrated by central Sudanese government forces or their allied janjaweed militias.
Former rebels aligned with Minni Minawi, who signed a peace deal with the government last May and has now joined forces with Sudan's central government, are also increasingly blamed for the violence.
Es Sallam, the refugee camp visited by Holmes, is one of three camps near the town of El Fasher. It is overspilling with people, and aid workers are currently negotiating space for a fourth camp to meet the incoming flow of refugees.
Holmes said people in the camp were not starving and health conditions seemed decent.
"This shows the enormous humanitarian effort that has been made for three years," he said, referring to the international aid effort in Darfur, which is the largest in the world with over $1 billion spent and some 14,000 aid workers in the region.
Holmes had been turned away the day before by Sudanese military police when he tried to visit a refugee camp. On Sunday, the governor of north Darfur extended apologies to Holmes for the incident.
Holmes said he accepted the apology but would nonetheless raise the issue with Sudanese officials because it illustrated the near-constant problems faced by relief workers trying to deliver aid to Darfur's population.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
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