PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, September 19, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 34)

Contents:

Armenia/Azerbaijan
Armenia threatens to quit Nagorno-Karabakh talks with Azerbaijan if Baku raises issue at UN
Foreign Ministry spokesman says raising issue at UN would violate agreement.

Congo
DRCongo armed forces capture 47 rebel soldiers
Rebel forces arrested in the eastern region of Sud-Kivo.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.

Georgia
Russia expresses alarm over alleged NATO rearming of Georgia
Russia alarmed over Czech government's ammunition donation to Georgia.
Shooting in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia wounds one
Shooting in Tskhinvali dampens South Ossetia's independence celebration.
New military chief of U.N observer mission in Georgia hopes to ease separatist tensions
U.N military observer hopes for conflict resolution in Abkhaz.

Indonesia
EU hails formal start of peace pact in Indonesia's Aceh province
Peace deal formally starts as rebels begin to disarm in Aceh ending a 30 year war.
Aceh rebels surrender more weapons to end first phase of disarmament
Weapons surrender proving successful as first phase of disarmament ends.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation.

Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast rebels reject mediator's suggestion Oct. 30 elections could be postponed
Rebels reject South African mediator suggestion of election postponement.
Ivory Coast president calls for calm after mandate ends
Gbagbo calls for calm as he resasserts his refusal to step down after the October 30th mandate ends.
Eye on calendar, Ivory Coast rebels mark anniversary.
Ivory Coast rebels relying on October 30th deadline for Gbagbo to resign.

Kashmir
India-Pakistan meeting generates hope in Kashmir
Singh and Musharraf promise to pursue peace in Kashmir.
Hundreds of villagers protest in India's Jammu-Kashmir after killing of civilian
Death of civilian caught in cross fire sparks protest in Kashmir.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation.

Kosovo
Serb, Kosovo officials meet for first time in two years
Senior officials of both Serbia and Kosovo meet to discuss political future and settle differences.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation

Macedonia
Macedonian opposition holds rally to protest delays in joining NATO
6,000 people protest the delay in joining NATO.

Nepal
Nepal's Maoists release 60 soldiers
Maoist rebels release 60 soldiers to Red Cross officials.
Rebel arms shouldn't be stumbling block to peace: Nepal Maoist leader
Maoist rebel leader calls for UN mediation to end conflict.

Serbia & Montenegro
Serbia-Montenegro government freezes disputed army purchase deal
Army purchase deal stopped amid allegations of corruption.

Somalia
Ballot fraud rocks Somaliland ahead of maiden elections
Security officials probe ballot fraud schemes in upcoming parlimentry elections.
Breakaway Somaliland hopes vote brings world recognition
Somaliland hopes for international recognition upon completion of upcoming parlimentary elections.

Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebels call for immediate truce talks
Sri Lankan rebels call for truce talks to save ceasefire.
Tamil Tigers say election should not stop talks
Rebel group hopes that upcoming presidential election will not delay peace talks.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation.

Sudan
Sudan government, Darfur rebels to launch new round of peace talks
African Union officials eager to begin 6th round of Darfur peace talks.
Sudanese peace talks under threat as rebels allege attack
SLA and SLM leader accuses Sudanese government of breaching ceasefire.
Darfur rebels split on participation in peace talks
SLM faction does not recognize talks in Abuja.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG Report.

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

Armenia/Azerbaijan

Armenia threatens to quit Nagorno-Karabakh talks with Azerbaijan if Baku raises issue at UN
Associated Press, 9/14/05

Armenia on Wednesday threatened to break off negotiations with Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh if Baku raises the issue this week at the U.N. General Assembly. Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Gamlet Gasparyan said it would violate an agreement between the two rivals.

If it ignored the warning, "Azerbaijan will be obliged to pursue negotiations directly with Stepanakert (Nagorno-Karabakh's capital)," Gasparyan said. Tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains high more than a decade after a 1994 cease-fire ended a six-year war that left Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, in Armenian hands.

Azerbaijan last month said it intended to raise a point "on the situation in occupied territories in Azerbaijan" at the U.N. summit marking the international body's 60th anniversary. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Tagizadze declined to comment on the plans to bring up the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but he denounced the pressure from Yerevan.

"One has to remember that making threats is the last resort of a side which lacks arguments," he said. Russian, French and U.S. envoys from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are trying find a solution to the dispute over the mountainous region, which was seized by ethnic Armenian forces in a war with Azerbaijan in the 1990s.

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Burundi

Burundi rebels attack after rejecting peace talks
Agence France Presse, 9/14/05

Burundi's last active rebel group made an attack on the capital, in which at least one person was killed and property destroyed, after rejecting peace talks with the government, the army said Wednesday.

The National Liberation Forces (FNL) attacked a military position in northern Bujumbura late Tuesday with mortars, grenades and automatic weapons, killing a civilian with a shell that landed in a nearby residential district, the army said. "A group of FNL attacked a military position in Kamenge around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT)," army spokesman Major Adolphe Manirakiza told AFP. "One civilian was killed by a rebel shell fired near some homes in the area."

Explosions and shots could be heard throughout the capital from the attack that came less than a day after the FNL rejected overtures from the war-ravaged nation's new power-sharing government to enter into peace talks. Burundi is struggling to emerge from a 12-year ethnically driven civil war that has claimed some 300,000 lives. Last month, a new president was elected under the terms of an extended peace process that provides for power-sharing between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis.

On Saturday, the new president, Hutu former rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza, announced the creation of a commission to negotiate with the FNL, the only one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups not to have signed on to the peace process.  But late Monday, FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said the group did not recognize Nkurunziza's government and ruled out any prospect of negotiating with the panel of four civilians and four soldiers.

The rejection came despite appeals from the United Nations and African Union for the FNL to accept Nkurunziza's olive branch as a way to bring a final end to the conflict that erupted in 1993, after officers in the Tutsi-dominated military of the time assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a Hutu.  In May, the FNL and Burundi's transitional government reached a tentative ceasefire but the rebels have continued to launch attacks, mainly on the outskirts of Bujumbura and adjacent regions to the west and south where they are strongest.

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Chechnya

Grenade attack on Grozny ministry injures 10

Agence France Presse, 9/13/05

Some 10 people were injured in a grenade attack on the Chechen interior ministry in Grozny, officials said. Automatic grenade launchers were fired at midday (0800 GMT) in the centre of the Chechen capital, ministerial spokesman Ruslan Atsayev told AFP. He did not specify whether those injured were police officers or passers-by. Chechen police are hunting those behind the attack, Itar-Tass news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

In December 2002, two car bomb attacks on the seat of the pro-Russian Chechen government in Grozny killed more than 80.Russian troops stormed Chechnya in October 1999 to try to re-establish control, following defeat in a first war against separatist guerrillas in 1994-96.  Although major clashes have become rare, Russian forces and local Chechen allies continue to suffer casualties virtually every day.

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Congo

DRCongo armed forces capture 47 rebel soldiers

Agence France Presse, 09/15/05

Democratic Republic of Congo armed forces have captured 47 rebel soldiers implicated in an uprising last year led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, a DRC military official said on Thursday. The arrests in the eastern region of Sud-Kivu, near the Burundi-Rwanda border were confirmed by the MONUC United Nations peacekeeping mission in the regional centre of Bukavu.

The armed troops are suspected of involvement in a short-lived takeover of Bukavu in June 2004, led by Nkunda and dissident colonel Jules Mutebusi who said they sought to stop alleged massacres of ethnic Tutsis.  Both are the subject of international arrest warrants for insurrection.

Among the arrested group were medics and a number of officers, including "Mutebusi's former right-hand man Colonel Eric Rurihombere", a DRC military official in Sud-Kivu told AFP. The soldiers were intercepted by rebel Rwandan Hutus after crossing the border from Burundi before DRC armed forces took them into custody Wednesday at Lemera, near the frontier, the official said.  They were transferred to a military base and would be brought to Bukavu in coming days, the official said.

The rebels probably decided to return to the RDC because their leader Mutebusi, who fled to Rwanda after government troops regained control of Bukavu, was under house arrest in the national capital Kigali, a MONUC official said. However, Nkunda is understood to be still at large in the Nord-Kivu region.  On Tuesday, he released a statement saying he did not intend to "relight a war" in the country's eastern regions except in legitimate self-defence. He said he was clarifying a previous declaration that aroused fears of renewed conflict in a country scarred by cycles of civil war that claimed about three million lives between 1998 and 2003.

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

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Georgia

Russia expresses alarm over alleged NATO rearming of Georgia
Associated Press, 9/13/05

Russia on Tuesday expressed alarm over a Czech government decision to transfer ammunition to Georgia, saying it was only the latest instance of NATO states arming the former Soviet republic. The Foreign Ministry said that the purported arms shipments were taking place "against the background of a headlong growth" in Georgia's military expenditures and a difficult economic situation in the country, and that they could whet Tbilisi's appetite to use force against the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to bring them back under Tbilisi's control.

In addition to destabilizing the situation in the Caucasus region, the arms could fall into the hands of international terrorists, "with their subsequent proliferation about the region and, it cannot be excluded, beyond its boundaries," the ministry warned.  "All of this cannot but provoke concern," the ministry said.

Georgia's Foreign Ministry had no comment on Russia's statement or the Czech ammunition deal. But Kote Gabashvili, head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, accused Russia of double standards.  "Why isn't the Russian Foreign Ministry concerned ... that weapons reach Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Russia?," he asked.

"Yes, Georgia is buying weapons, yes, it has increased its military budget. It's doing that so its armed forces will meet NATO standards" Gabashvili continued. Moscow "is doing everything to blacken the reputation of Georgia, which is trying to strengthen its sovereignty and restore its territorial integrity, and which has expressed its aspiration to integrate into Europe."

In response to a Georgian request, the Czech government approved a donation of unneeded ammunition worth 468,729 koruna (US$19,757, [euro]16,007) to Georgia on Aug. 31, but said the donation should first go through a regular licensing process. If and when a license is issued, the shipment will be made by a Czech company chosen by the United States, which will pay for transport.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have long been tense over Russian allegations that Tbilisi allowed Chechen rebels and international terrorists to transit its territory and Georgian accusations of Moscow's intention to interfere in its affairs. Ties have become even more fraught as Saakashvili has repeatedly voiced his commitment to having his nation join NATO - intensifying Russia's jitters over the prospect of NATO bases on its doorstep.

Moscow would have to "reconsider" its relations with Georgia and Ukraine if they join NATO, "and not just in the sphere of defense and security," the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying in Berlin on Tuesday, the eve of a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council that is charged with ironing out relations between Moscow and Brussels.

New military chief of U.N observer mission in Georgia hopes to ease separatist tensions
Associated Press, 9/15/05

The new military chief of the U.N. observer mission in Georgia said Thursday that the peacekeepers hoped to help in ease tensions between Tbilisi and the separatist province of Abkhazia.

Maj. Gen. Niaz Muhammad Khan Khattak of Pakistan met with Abkhaz leaders as he took up his post.  "The U.N military observer mission's work in the future will assist in a resolution of the conflict and in preventing an escalation of the situation in the region," the Pakistani general said.

The U.N. observer mission has been deployed in Georgia since 1993 to monitor a ceasefire between central government and Abkhaz forces and includes 120 military observers and 12 civilian police.

Abkhazia has run its own affairs since 1993, when the separatists drove out Georgian government troops. The Black Sea region is not recognized internationally, but has cultivated closer ties with Russia. Since coming to power in 2004, pro-Western Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to reunite his fractured Caucasus Mountain country, bringing Abkhazia and another renegade province, South Ossetia, back under central control.

Shooting in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia wounds one
Associated Press, 9/19/05

Shooting broke out early Monday in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, wounding a 65-year-old man, the regional spokeswoman said.

Irina Gagloyeva blamed the gunfire in the region of the capital Tskhinvali on paramilitary units loyal to the Georgian defense minister, and said it was presumably timed to dampen Monday's celebration of 15 years of South Ossetian independence. The Georgian Defense and Interior Ministries denied involvement.

South Ossetia broke away from central government control during a war in the 1990s. Tensions remain high, with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili vowing to bring South Ossetia and another region, Abkhazia, back into the fold. South Ossetian authorities want to unite with their brethren across the border in Russia.

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Indonesia

EU hails formal start of peace pact in Indonesia's Aceh province

Agence France Presse, 9/15/05

The European Union on Thursday hailed the formal start of a peace deal to end almost 30 years of war between Indonesian troops and separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. The statement from Straw, whose government holds the rotating EU presidency, came as rebels in Aceh began handing over their guns Thursday under deal signed between Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement in Helsinki on August 15. "The peaceful settlement of the internal conflict in Aceh will be of great benefit to Indonesia and the people of Aceh, as well as providing a very positive example regionally and internationally," Straw said.
 

"It will greatly assist in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Aceh following the tragic tsunami there last December," said the statement released by the foreign ministry."The EU stands ready to do what we can in support of the peace process, and will do so with full respect for Indonesia's territorial integrity."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also stressed the EU's committment to the peace process in a meeting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the sidelines of a historic UN summit of world leaders in New York. "I told him that the EU is pleased to be able to support the implementation of the peace agreement in Aceh and is committed to making it a success," Solana said a statement released in Brussels. "Reports suggest that the process is going well and I thanked the president for his cooperation and for that of the Indonesian authorities," he added.

In what the Indonesian government termed a "historic event", members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) handed over Kalashnikov rifles, handguns, a machine gun and a rocket propelled grenade launcher to monitors from Europe and southeast Asia. It was the first in a series of weapons handovers scheduled until the end of the year. Under the peace agreement, the government will withdraw non-local troops and police.

Thursday's ceremony marked the start of work by the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) created under the agreement, which comprises about 240 observers from the EU and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is the EU's first peace-monitoring venture in Asia."We are participating in the Aceh Monitoring Mission, at the invitation of the government of Indonesia," Straw said. Straw said that, with formal monitoring having started, "we are looking forward to working closely with ASEAN and other contributing country partners."

He added that the EU "is also ready to support the implementation of the peace process financially and through the provision of technical assistance."The launch of this mission also marks a new departure for European Security and Defence Policy," he said. "This will be its first mission in Asia, its first in cooperation with ASEAN partners, and its first to carry out monitoring of this kind," he said.

"With its wide range of security instruments, the EU is uniquely placed to make a significant contribution to international conflict resolution and crisis management," he said.

Aceh rebels surrender more weapons to end first phase of disarmament
Agence France Presse, 9/17/05

Separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province on Saturday said they were handing over weapons in one of their strongholds to end the first phase of disarmament under a pact designed to end nearly three decades of war.

The handover in Pidie district is the third following the surrender of 188 firearms in the capital, Banda Aceh, on Thursday and in Bireuen district on Friday under the peace agreement between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian government signed in Helsinki on August 15.

The weapons were being surrendered for destruction by members of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), which was established under the Helsinki agreement. AMM press officer Faye Belnis, speaking later Saturday, said the rebels had handed over more than 270 weapons since Thursday. "Over the last three days, from September 15 to an including September 17, a total of 279 weapons surrendered and the AMM disqualified 36," she told AFP.  But Belnis said Indonesia only recognised 226 of the total weapons surrendered.

AMM comprises about 240 observers from the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is the EU's first peace-monitoring venture in Asia. GAM handed over 78 weapons on the first day of disarmament Thursday in Banda Aceh. An AMM source said another 110 weapons were surrendered in Bireuen.  Irwandi Yusuf, a GAM official, has said a total of at least 210 weapons, or a quarter of the rebel's declared arsenal of 840, would be turned in to the AMM during the first phase. Further disarmament is to take place in three stages before December 31. The military and police will, in return, proportionately reduce to zero their troops which were sent to Aceh from elsewhere in the country. They will leave behind 14,700 soldiers from Aceh-based units and 9,100 local police.

Observers see the Helsinki pact as the best chance yet of ending the conflict which has claimed about 15,000 lives, most of them civilians. GAM began its struggle for an independent state on the western tip of Sumatra island in 1976. Earlier truces in 2000 and 2002 collapsed and led to a massive government offensive in 2003. There was a renewed push for peace after the death of about 131,000 Acehnese in last December's earthquake and tsunamis. In addition to supervising the disarmament, the AMM is tasked with monitoring the demobilisation of 3,000 GAM guerrillas and the pullout of non-local military and police units. The AMM has the authority to investigate and rule on alleged violations of the peace agreement.Under the Helsinki agreement, GAM dropped its long-held demand for independence in exchange for a form of local government in Aceh, a province of about four million people.

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

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Ivory Coast

 Ivory Coast rebels reject mediator's suggestion Oct. 30 elections could be postponed

Associated Press, 9/16/05

Northern-based rebels on Friday rejected a South African peace mediator's suggestion that crucial Ivory Coast elections scheduled for Oct. 30 could be postponed.

South Africa's Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, a key figure in efforts to end a yearslong standoff between Ivory Coast's government and insurgents, said Thursday that "it is quite possible to postpone the elections to the following month or something of this nature."

Rebels, who say balloting on Oct. 30 is impossible and demand President Laurent Gbagbo stand aside for an interim government if elections are not held on that date, rejected Lekota's idea on Friday. "The South African mediation may take their dreams for reality. But it can't decide against the wishes of Ivorians, who want a transition to give the chance for credible elections in the country," said Sidiki Konate, a rebel spokesman.

But Gbagbo's spokesman, Desire Tagro, described Lekota's comments as "a declaration that conforms to the constitution and we welcome it."

With rebels still armed, the country divided and voter rolls incomplete, few believe elections can be organized in six weeks' time. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has also acknowledged preparations won't be completed in time to hold the vote in October as planned. Rebels, whose long-stymied campaign to oust Gbagbo sprung from a failed Sept. 2002 putsch, say Ivory Coast's constitution dictates that Gbagbo step down when his five-year mandate ends Oct. 30, unless he is re-elected that day. Gbagbo supporters say he should stay in office and organize balloting, as foreseen in peace deals signed by government officials and rebels.

Lekota said Thursday that a transitional government would not work in Ivory Coast. "You can only introduce chaos and huge disruption of society if you want to remove the present arrangement," he said. "There is no need to make a fresh start." Rebels have said they would reject future mediation efforts by South Africa, accusing the South Africans of bias.

Lekota was dismissive of that Thursday, saying the rebels sent South Africa a letter objecting to its efforts that did not specify their concerns. He said that if the rebels wanted South Africa to withdraw, they should make the request through the African Union, which had appointed South Africa to intervene.

The failed 2002 coup attempt in Ivory Coast sparked months of civil war and left the northern half of the world's top cocoa producer in rebel hands.

A buffer zone separating the warring factions is patrolled by 6,000 U.N. troops and 4,000 French peacekeepers. Both sides have signed a series of peace agreements and committed to elections, bringing an end to major fighting. But neither side has disarmed as required by the latest deal brokered in April by South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Ivory Coast president calls for calm after mandate ends
Agence France Presse, 9/18/05

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo called Sunday for calm when his mandate officially ends on October 30 despite his refusal to relinquish power.

”Either there are elections on October 30 and there will be a new president or there are no elections and we will fix another date and we'll see," said Gbagbo according to a report on national television.

"I would like all Ivorian politicians to lower the tone, to calm down, there must be calls for Ivorians to remain serene and calm," the president said. "They (Ivorians) must understand that our destiny is in our hands... after October 30, there will not be a civil war, there will be nothing at all," Gbagbo said.

There has been a major political debate in the Ivory Coast after the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on September 8 that the October 30 elections could not be held because of the lack of cooperation among political leaders and raised the prospect of sanctions against the country.

Rebels and the opposition, including former president Henri Konan Bedie, who this month returned to the country with plans to run for office again for the once all-powerful Ivory Coast Democratic Party, have called for a renewed transition government but without Gbagbo. Advisors to Gbagbo have repeatedly said he will remain in power should there be any delay in the election.

Ivory Coast, once a haven of stability in west Africa, has been split in two since a failed coup against Gbagbo in September 19, 2002, pitting rebels from the Muslim-dominated north against the government in the Christian-populated south.

Eye on calendar, Ivory Coast rebels mark anniversary
Agence France Presse, 9/19/05

Still smarting from their failed coup attempt three years ago, Ivory Coast's rebels are banking on the passage of time to do what force could not: bounce President Laurent Gbagbo from office. Gbagbo, elected in 2000 in polls fraught with controversy and violence, is due to stand down at the end of October, with new elections originally set to take place on the 30th. But from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on down through the ruling classes to the increasingly impoverished streets of the west African state, there is mounting resignation that those polls will not take place, and Gbagbo has made clear his intention to remain in power.

Gbagbo's intentions seem barely to register in plans by the New Forces leaders plotting their strategy here, in Ivory Coast's second city and the stronghold of the rebellion.Having lived through the last three years of bickering and conflict, the rebels are no strangers to political limbo. But what is to follow on from October 30 -- either a reprise of fighting or a political breakthrough -- remains a mystery, with all sides bracing for the worst.

Under their interpretation of the Ivorian constitution, the rebels believe Gbagbo must step down from the presidency on October 30, ushering in yet another transitional government. They have threatened to again quit the current government of national unity, which has been in tatters almost since the day it was formed under a January 2003 peace pact.

A source close to the rebel leadership says lawyers have their constitutional arguments in hand, confident he will be stripped of authority on November 1. "For us it is now clear. All the lawyers we've consulted agree that after October 30 the Ivory Coast does not have a president," the source told AFP. Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, who has been accused of collusion with the rebels, would be an ideal candidate to step in as president until elections take place, the source added.

Gbagbo himself has shown no signs that he will step down, pleading for calm Sunday in an appearance on national television in which he intimated he would remain in office until polls can be held.

In the meantime, with one eye fixed on the calendar, the New Forces run their northern fiefdom, relying on income from cotton and contraband that has powered their economy in the three years they have been cut off from cocoa and coffee revenues that had gilded Ivory Coast for decades.

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Kashmir

India-Pakistan meeting generates hope in Kashmir
Associated Press, 9/15/05

Moderate Islamic separatists and ordinary people in Kashmir, the territory at the core of the India-Pakistan rivalry, were cautiously optimistic Thursday following a meeting between the countries' leaders - but hard-line militants called the peace process a "staged" drama.

Militants have been fighting since 1989 for India's portion of Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority, to become independent from predominantly Hindu India or merge with mostly Muslim Pakistan. Both countries claim all of Kashmir, a Himalayan territory divided between them by a cease-fire line.

On Wednesday, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said they would continue to pursue peace in Kashmir. The two leaders' meeting on the sidelines of a U.N. summit in New York came just days after Singh met moderate Kashmiri separatists and pledged to decrease the number of Indian troops in the area if violence abates.

The moderates who met with Singh are not involved in the armed insurgency. One of them, Shabir Shah, said Thursday that he supported the India-Pakistan dialogue over Kashmir, but said "the talks must lead to change in the ground situation" - a reference to separatists' demands for a reduction in Indian troops in Kashmir.

A Jamiat-ul-Mujahedeen rebel group commander, Abdullah, dismissed the talks, saying in a statement Thursday that they "are nothing but a drama staged to mislead the international community."

"There has been no change in India's stand and its soldiers continue to kill Kashmiris," Abdullah, who uses one name, said in a statement faxed to the Kashmir News Service news agency.

The rebel groups oppose any dialogue that does not include a discussion of self-determination for Kashmir - an unlikely prospect. India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed, have fought two wars over Kashmir since its their independence from Britain in 1947. The insurgency in Kashmir has killed more than 66,000 people, most of them civilians.

The mother of the one victim spent Thursday at her son's grave in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, praying for peace. Niyaz Shah was a 16-year-old rebel in 1992, when he was slain in battle with Indian soldiers. "I saw on television that India and Pakistan are trying to solve Kashmir," said his mother, 55-year old Raja Begum, as she showered flower petals on her son's tombstone before kissing and hugging it.

"If things improve it will be good for everyone. At least my son's sacrifice will not go waste," she said, starting to cry. "I hope it all settles down. And mothers do not have to suffer the agony of weeping over their sons' graves."

Hundreds of villagers protest in India's Jammu-Kashmir after killing of civilian
Associated Press, 9/15/05

Hundreds of angry villagers protested in India's Jammu-Kashmir state on Thursday after a civilian going to offer prayers was killed in firing during an army ambush, police said.

The villagers said the military mistook Mohammed Hanif for a militant and opened fire on him as he walked through a maize field. But police said the man was caught in crossfire between security forces and rebels during an army ambush in Thanna Mag village, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of Jammu, the state's winter capital.

A separatist insurgency raging in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir since 1989 has killed more than 66,000 people, mostly civilians.

They often are caught in crossfire between the Islamic insurgents and security forces or killed by bombings and grenades when rebels aiming for military vehicles miss their targets. A large number have also disappeared after being taken away for questioning by security forces, human rights groups say.

Local journalists said hundreds of residents assembled on the streets in the area, demanding the withdrawal of the army deployed in the area. Police denied that the man was directly targeted. V.K. Singh, deputy inspector-general of the area, said Hanif was going for his morning prayers when he walked into an ambush laid for militants by the army and police. "We had placed an ambush. We were fired at, we fired back, and he was caught in the crossfire," said Singh.

Almost a dozen Pakistan-based militant groups have been fighting Indian security forces for 16 years to seek independence for Kashmir or its merger into Pakistan. India says the militants get support from the Pakistan government, but Islamabad denies the charge.

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Kosovo

Serb, Kosovo officials meet for first time in two years
Associated Press, 9/16/05

Senior officials from Serbia and Kosovo narrowed differences on unresolved issues from the 1998-1999 war in a U.N.-backed session Friday seen as a prelude to talks on the disputed province's political future.

The six-hour session, which was described as businesslike and civil, focused on some of the less-contentious issues that have prevented a lasting peace in this province, such as local government reform and the return of tens of thousands of Serbs and other minorities who fled the province after the war.

The leaders also discussed the return of property records, which Serb authorities took when they relinquished control of the province to NATO-led forces and the U.N. administration, officials said. The session was considered significant in that the face-to-face talks were the first between the parties dealing with political issues - rather than technical matters such as restoring electricity.

"It was very constructive," said Lutfi Haziri, the top ethnic Albanian negotiator. "We just decided to continue to discuss these issues."

Serbia's minister of local government and administration, Zoran Loncar told the Tanjug news agency that the Serb delegation suggested they should devise a joint document, including elements from the Serbian government platform for Kosovo, which broadly outlined self-rule for Serbs enclaves.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and Serbs have disagreed on the extent of that self rule and the size of the administrative units, claiming that the Serbs are trying to divide Kosovo along ethnic lines. Belgrade and the province's Serbs demand broad-reaching autonomy in the areas where they constitute a majority. Kosovo's government has put forward a plan that envisages new municipalities run by Serbs, albeit in smaller units than they have demanded.

Kosovo awaits the conclusion of a report by the special U.N. envoy, Kai Eide, on whether it is ready to start talks on its future later this year. Eide helped organize the Vienna talks, government officials said, on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. His involvement is significant because it suggests the United Nations envoy is taking a more active role in reaching a settlement.

Local government reform giving Serbs and other minorities more say in areas where they live and the return of the refugees are among the issues on which Kosovo's progress will be judged before status discussions begin. Kosovo, formally a province in Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia, is being run by a U.N. mission following a NATO air war in 1999 that halted a Serb crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians. Ethnic Albanians are demanding an independent state, while the Serbs insist Kosovo should remain within their borders.

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Macedonia
Macedonian opposition holds rally to protest delays in joining NATO
Associated Press, 9/15/05

Macedonian opposition parties staged a protest rally in central Skopje late Thursday, calling on the government to resign over delays in the country's bid to join NATO.

Up to 6,000 people took part in the peaceful demonstration outside the main government building displaying banners criticizing the government that said: "No Europe, no NATO with you." The rally coincided with the governing Social Democrats' third anniversary in office. Opposition parties, led by the conservative VMRO-DPMNE, accused the government of failing to pass reforms necessary for the country to be accepted as a member of the alliance. "The government itself has become a problem for the country, instead of handling the problems," senior VMRO-DPMNE official Antonio Milososki told reporters. "If the government had any understanding of popular sentiment, it would resign and call early elections." But Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski said earlier Thursday his cabinet "has no reason to be ashamed of anything."

The rally followed last week's announcement by U.S. officials that any further NATO expansion should wait until at least 2008. Macedonia had hoped to receive an invitation for full NATO member status next year, together with Croatia and Albania. Macedonia, north of Greece, has a population of around 2 million.

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Nepal

Rebel arms shouldn't be stumbling block to peace: Nepal Maoist leader

Agence France Presse, 9/13/05

The weapons being toted by Nepal's Maoists should not be seen as a stumbling block to peace in the violence-torn Himalayan kingdom, rebel leader Prachanda said in a rare interview published here Tuesday.

Speaking to a Times of India reporter at a secret jungle location in Nepal, Prachanda, or "the fierce one", also repeated a call for United Nations mediation in the conflict.More than 12,000 people have killed since the rebels in 1996 launched a bid to overthrow the monarchy and instal a communist republic in Nepal.

"We want the involvement of the United Nations to create an atmosphere of confidence so that the possession of weapons by us does not become a stumbling block in the peace process," said Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal. "As proof of this we have already declared a unilateral ceasefire now." 

Prachanda on September 3 declared a three-month unilateral truce in what he said was a bid to pave the way for talks with political parties on forming a united front against February's seizure of power by King Gyanendra. The monarch sacked a four-party government on February 1, accusing it of failing to tackle the rebellion. Nepal has been in turmoil since Gyanendra seized power, cracked down on dissidents, rounded up hundreds of activists and clamped down on the media.

Asked why he now wanted to resolve the conflict through negotiations, Prachanda replied: "Ours is not a dogmatic party. We chalk out our action plan after analysing a subject in the context of the prevailing situation."The rebels, he added, had not shifted from their "road map for peace" -- the formation of a constituent assembly "that will allow the people to draw their future and destiny themselves", followed by the establishment of an all-party government and finally "formation of a democratic republic".

Peace talks between the former government and the rebels foundered on the Maoists' insistence of the formation of a constituent assembly. Asked if there was any possibility of dialogue with the king, the bespectacled rebel leader replied, "We can have it only on one condition, that he should announce that he will return the people's power to the people."

Prachanda also hit out at the United States, Britain and India for supplying arms to the Nepalese army, saying this was prolonging the conflict in the world's only Hindu kingdom. "Nepal would have become a democratic republic by now if big countries like the US, India, and the UK had not extended military support to its tottering feudal rulers," he said. "India should not help the king's army," he added. "It should extend moral and political support to the democratic stir in Nepal ... If India believes in democracy, it should free our leaders detained in various prisons. "He denied reports that the Maoists of Nepal were trying to form a broad united front with rebels across the border in India.

"We have only ideological ties with Indian Maoists. We have no plans to lead a joint armed struggle against India. We do not consider people's war as a commodity of export and import."

The reporter who conducted the interview said he had been taken on a circuitous route through forests for more than 10 kilometres (six miles) to a small room in a desolate village for the rare meeting with the 51-year-old geurrilla leader, whose party has been outlawed by Nepal and India.

Prachanda, whom the reporter described as having the demeanour "of a small town school teacher", said he had evaded arrest for the 26 years since he went underground through his "simple lifestyle." "I do not stay at one place," he added. "Nor will I ever remain holed up in a cave like (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein."

Nepal's Maoists release 60 soldiers
Agence France Presse, 9/14/05

Nepal's Maoist rebels have set free 60 soldiers taken captive after a fierce battle with security forces, private news channel Nepal One said Wednesday.

"Nepal's Maoist rebels set free the 60 soldiers taken captive after the fierce battle with security forces, at Pili in Kalikot (far western Nepal) on August 7," the report said. "The 60 soldiers were handed over to officials from the Red Cross," it said. It did not give further details.

At least 43 soldiers and 26 Maoists were killed in the battle, the fiercest since the King took control of the country in February 1. The King sacked the four-party coalition government for failing to curb the Maoist insurgency.

The Maoists have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 and the uprising has already claimed more than 12,000 lives.

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Philippines

Philippines arrests leader of Muslim kidnap gang

Agence France Presse, 9/14/05

Philippine soldiers have captured a Muslim rebel-turned-gangster who was allegedly behind the abduction of an Italian priest and five Chinese engineers, the military announced Wednesday. Nurham Amil, also known as "Commander Ramsey," a leader of the so-called Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom group, was nabbed late Tuesday at an army checkpoint in Leon Postigo town in the southern island of Mindanao, army chief Lieutenant General Hermogenes Esperon said.

Amil was one of the most wanted fugitives in the Philippines and had a bounty of 500,000 pesos (8,930 dollars) on his head. His gang is composed of former Muslim separatist rebels who have turned to crime. It is known mainly for kidnapping Christians and foreigners and holding them for ransom in Mindanao.

Esperon said operations would continue against both the Pentagon and the Abu Sayyaf, another Muslim kidnapping gang active in the south. Amil is believed to have been behind the abduction of Italian priest Giuseppe Pierantoni from his convent in Dimataling town in October 2001, holding him for several weeks until a ransom was paid.

The Pentagon group also snatched five Chinese engineers working on a government irrigation project in Carmen town in 2001. Two of the Chinese died during a rescue attempt. The United States has included the Pentagon group in its list of "foreign terrorist organizations".

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Serbia & Montenegro

Breakaway Somaliland hopes vote brings world recognition

Agence France Presse, 9/15/05

Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland holds parliamentary polls later this month with the hope the exercise will boost its chance of world recognition as a state independent of a nation in chaos.

An island of relative stability in region blighted by conflict since it unilaterally declared independence in 1991, Somaliland will on September 29 conduct its third multi-party elections since 2000, as the rest of the Horn of Africa nation founders in lawlessness despite the creation of a transitional federal government.

With a growing dispute over the seat of that government hampering efforts to restore a functional administration to end 14 years of disorder elsewhere, people of Somaliland in the northeast see the polls as a way to show their political maturity. While Somaliland's ruling party and opposition traded accusations on the campaign trail ahead of polling day, Finance Minister Awil Ali Duale said he believed the region deserved a reward for its commitment to democracy.

"Our elections are more transparent than many countries in the region," he told AFP. "I hope the world will give us the right of recognition. Recognising Somaliland is like promoting democracy in Africa." "The world should give us the place we deserve," Duale said. "Somaliland should not be left at the cold for nothing, we are free people who deserve better treatment from the outside world.

"Please give us credit for being disciplined, self-administering people. It is unfair to keep us away from the world until the warlords in Somalia agree on something. Bringing back Somaliland to former Somalia is like attempting to bring back the former Soviet Union."

Despite such appeals, the international community has repeatedly spurned Somaliland's quest for recognition, fearing this could exacerbate instability in the already highly volatile Horn of Africa. The demand for international recognition is one of the few issues on which the ruling Union of Democrats (UDUB) party and the two main opposition groups agree.

All sides claim credit for Somaliland's decision to secede from the fractured larger state in May 1991 after the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged much of the country into a patchwork of unruly fiefdoms run by fractious warlords and their militias.

On other matters, the UDUB and its political foes -- the Hisbiga Kulmiye (Solidarity Party) and Justice and Welfare Party (UCID), which lost in the 2003 presidential elections -- rarely see eye-to-eye. Since the campaign began last month, the Hisbiga Kulmiye and UCIDuently accused the UDUB of using state resources to buy votes.

have freq
"It is unfortunate to see the government using the public funds to promote its single-party interest," said Kulmiye leader Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo. "This is illegal, unconstitutional and is decaying our democracy." "Our hard-won peace in Somaliland should be respected by all parties," he told AFP from the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa.

UCID leader Faisal Ali Warabe accused the Somaliland Electoral Commission (SEC) of failing to follow up opposition complaints that government vehicles were being used to ferry ruling party activists to campaign stops. "UDUB is breaching laws of the country and we already reported the matter to the electoral commission (which) is slow to act on our complaints," Warabe lamented. Nonsense, protested Information Minister Muhamoud Duale, a powerful ruling party operative.

"Maybe some of our brothers in the opposition sense a message of defeat," he said. "I urge the opposition to wait for the verdict of the people and stop these unwarranted charges."

An SEC official also dismissed the opposition claims. The election board estimates more than 800,000 voters -- out of Somaliland's population of some three million people -- will cast ballots in the polls in which 246 candidates, including five women, are vying for 82 parliamentary seats. The next presidential election is to be held in 2008 and the next local elections in 2007.

The Serbia-Montenegro government on Monday froze a disputed army purchase deal which has led to tensions in the shaky Balkan union. The purchases, for a military force of about 28,000 soldiers, included orders for items such as 500 pilots' jackets for an air force of only 75 pilots, or 69,000 flak jackets and 74,000 helmets, and prompted allegations of corruption.

The Serbia-Montenegro Council of Ministers said Monday that it had "delayed implementation" of the August decision to purchase the new gear from a private company. Officials in Serbia - the larger republic in Serbia-Montenegro - claimed that prices in the deal were inflated at the cost of the state budget.

Each republic in the loose union of Serbia-Montenegro has wide autonomy, but the two maintain some joint bodies, foreign and defense ministries and a common military. Serbian Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic last week accused Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic, Defense Minister Prvoslav Davinic and other officials of corruption in connection with the deal. Marovic and Davinic have rejected Dinkic's allegations.

The affair has led to tensions within the joint state, as Montenegro sided with Marovic - a Montenegrin - and accused Dinkic of attempts to impose full control over joint institutions. On Sunday, Montenegro's Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic threatened to withdraw the republic's staff from the Serbia-Montenegro administration in response to Serbia's criticism of Marovic.

It was not immediately clear whether the government decision to freeze the disputed agreement could ease the tensions. Serbian officials have promised to take the matter to the courts. Also Monday, the head of the security committee in the Serbia-Montenegro parliament, Borislav Banovic, said the committee will hold a meeting on the military purchase affair by the end of the month.

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Somalia

Ballot fraud rocks Somaliland ahead of maiden elections

Agence France Presse, 9/19/05

The electoral panel in the Somali breakaway region of Somaliland said Monday some candidates in the this month's parliamentary polls had printed fake ballot papers in a bid to rig their way to victory.

The Somaliland Electoral Commission (SEC) said the fraud was being done in collaboration with crooked Somaliland printing merchants, but it was not clear the extent of the scam. Some "candidates gave the ballots to printing houses in Somaliland after obtaining the sample when commission conducted civic education for voters," SEC chief Ahmed Haji Adami said in a brief statement.

The panel said the scam, which was unearthed by Somaliland security officials, was being probed. Attempts to sneak fake ballot papers into the electoral boxes during voting on September 29 will result to immediate disqualifaction of candidate, Adami warned. In addition, the panel urged members of the public to "confront those attempting to use the fake ballots", during the first parliamentary polls in Somaliland since the region declared its independence from Somalia proper in 1991. The SEC warned that a ballot paper was a legal document and any trader faking it might lose his licence.

Officials said the genuine ballot papers were printed in Britain with a security water mark, unlike the fakes which were printed in backstreets in the capital Hargeisa. The election board estimates more than 800,000 voters -- out of Somaliland's population of some three million people -- will cast ballots in the polls in which 246 candidates, including five women, are vying for 82 parliamentary seats.

The next presidential election is to be held in 2008 and the next local elections in 2007. Lawmakers who made up the first Somali parliament that followed the secession in 1991 were appointed by elders.

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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebels call for immediate truce talks
Agence France Presse, 09/17/05

Columbo has insisted that any discussions take place in Sri Lanka but the two sides have so far been unable to agree on a location. The focus of talks would be on how to preserve the ceasefire that ended decades of civil war which claimed 60,000 lives. They would be the first top-level discussions between the two sides since peace talks aimed at ending the ethnic conflict collapsed in April 2003. 

Tamil Tigers say election should not stop talks
Agence France Presse, 09/19/05

Talks to shore up a shaky ceasefire between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government should not be deterred by an upcoming presidential election, the political leader of the rebels said.

"The election in the south must not under any circumstances deter the implementation of the ceasefire," political wing chief S.P. Thamilselvan told AFP in an interview in the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.

The two sides have attempted to hold talks to review the ceasefire after the assassination of foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, which the government blames on the rebels. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) deny any role in the assassination. But Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, who is running for president, has pledged to review the entire peace process if elected, leading to LTTE concern that there will be no talks before the vote in late October or November.

"Our reading is that Mr Rajapakse is entering pacts with groups and people who have professed Tamil bashing openly and have extreme positions when it comes to the peace process," Thamilselvan said.

Rajapakse signed pre-poll pacts with two nationalist parties to pledge a review of the peace process if he wins, particularly an agreement to grant the Tamils federal authority in areas they control. Rajapakse's rival, former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, who signed a truce agreement with the LTTE when he was in power in 2002, has vowed to revive the Norwegian-brokered peace process.

But Thamilselvan said the LTTE, which will not participate in the voting, does not plan to rally the minority Tamil community for or against either candidate.

"Both have victory as their objective and want to use the conflict of the Tamil people for their advantage -- one wants to bash Tamils and get the (majority) Sinhala vote while the other wants to be seen as a moderate and win the minority vote," Thamilselvan said. "The executive presidency has not helped the Tamil people in the northeast and therefore our interest in the outcome of the election is minimal," he said.

Sri Lanka's Tamils have a voting bloc of more than 650,000 in areas of the island's northeast that could help tip the scales in a close election in Sri Lanka, an island nation of 19 million people. The rebel official also said the ceasefire signed in 2002 should endure even as talks to end a civil war that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972 have been stalled since April 2003. "We are anxious to start the talks immediately ... even in the next minute," Thamilselvan said.

Norway has tried to arrange a neutral venue for the talks since Kadirgamar's assassination stoked fears of a return to civil war, but the two sides have failed to come to terms on a location.
Thamilselvan said the rebels had suggested an overseas venue, while the government wants talks in the country. The Tigers earlier turned down the international airport as a possible neutral site.

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Sudan

Sudan government, Darfur rebels to launch new round of peace talks
Associated Press, 9/15/05

Sudan's government and Darfur rebels launched a new round of peace talks, the African Union's latest attempt to end a crisis that has left tens of thousands dead and millions forced from their homes.

AU officials addressing delegates of the warring parties in the western Darfur region expressed hopes Thursday for a breakthrough in a sixth round of talks."This round may turn out to be a turning point for the long suffering people of Darfur," Baba-Gana Kingibe, the AU special representative to Sudan, told delegates attending talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The rebels, though, are fighting among themselves, further undermining a difficult peace process that has seen earlier peace efforts fail and cease-fires repeatedly violated.

Darfur's main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army, has split into factions, one led by its secretary-general, Minni Minawi, and another led by its chairman, Abdel Wahid Nur. Mahgoub Hussain, a spokesman for Minawi, said his faction would not attend the Abuja talks until the split was resolved at an internal conference he said was scheduled to start in Darfur on Sunday.

But Abdul Latif, a Nur loyalist, was in Abuja as a Sudan Liberation Army delegate. He said his main objective was "to see our people returned to their own original villages." Moussa Hamani, an AU spokesman, said earlier the issue of refugees and the displaced was not on the agenda. He said the open-ended talks were instead to focus on power and wealth sharing and security.

After decades of low-level clashes over land and water pitting nomads and villagers against one another in Darfur, rebels from ethnic African tribes launched a large-scale conflict in early 2003, accusing the Arab-dominated central government of neglect. The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militias known as Janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages.

At least 180,000 people have died from hunger and disease in the ensuing chaos, and millions fled their homes. There are no firm estimates for the number killed in fighting and Janjaweed attacks. In an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said his government may have reacted too harshly to the Darfur rebels, but he rejected characterizations of the conflict as ethnic-based.

Darfur rebels split on participation in peace talks

Agence France Presse, 9/16/05

 
A bitter split in the ranks of the main rebel group fighting in the Sudanese region of Darfur boiled over in public Friday as African Union mediators attempted to coax the movement into peace talks. Relations appear to have broken down between two factions within the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) over whether to sit down with the Khartoum government at the Abuja talks and discuss ways of ending a 30-month-old war.

An SLM group led by its secretary general Mani Arko Minawi issued a statement in Cairo insisting that the movement does not recognise the talks and has not mandated anyone to negotiate there on its behalf. But at the conference, the most senior member of a delegation endorsed by the SLM's chairman Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nur dismissed Minawi's faction as "looters" who cannot speak for the party as a whole. Both groups insisted that they control the majority of the SLM's armed militants, known as the Sudanese Liberation Army, on the ground.

"We definitely have the mandate of the movement to participate in the negotiations in Abuja," said Suleiman Marajan, an SLM field commander, speaking through a translator at the Abuja conference venue.
"We are ten field commanders who come from the battlefields and we represent all of our fighters. There are ten of us here as against seven who attended the last talks," he said.

"As far as Mani is concerned, he represents a tiny faction in the field. We have told the international community very clearly that Mani and his group are not really relevant, but they have rather been looters for the last decade.

"They want to perpetuate the chaos in the region," he said.Marajan said that the SLM team in Abuja was still waiting for some more senior delegates to arrive but would participate fully in peace talks. African Union officials have said that they recognise the delegation as speaking for the SLM. In a statement faxed to AFP's office in Cairo, Minawi's faction said: "The movement has not mandated anybody to participate in these negotiations."
 

Minawi, who also claims to enjoy the support of the movement's military wing, has been at loggerheads with Nur over participation in the Abuja talks. Minawi and his supporters wanted the talks put off until after the convening of the SLM's general conference scheduled to open on September 25 in Darfur, but Nur's faction insisted on going to Abuja before the gathering.

"The movement, represented in its military and political institutions, does not recognise any agreement or discussions... in Abuja before the convening of its general conference," the statement said.
"Everything that happens will mean nothing to the movement," it warned. The launch of the rebel uprising in February 2003 in Darfur prompted a scorched earth campaign by the government, which unleashed Arab militias against minority villages suspected of supporting the rebels.

Up to 300,000 people have died and more than two million displaced during the conflict, which the US Congress has termed a "genocide". Whilst praising the government's good intentions for the talks, AU brokers have expressed increasing irritation at rebel violence and division ahead of what was initially billed as the final round of peace talks.

Sudanese peace talks under threat as rebels allege attack
Agence France Presse, 09/19/05

The latest round of peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels from the Darfur region ran into trouble Monday when insurgents accused a state-backed militia of breaching a ceasefire and killing 30 people. African Union ceasefire monitors said they had launched an investigation into the alleged raid, but had so far found no evidence to support the insurgents' claim.

"As is the case with every other round of talks, the government of Sudan is violating the ceasefire agreement," said Abdulrahman Musa, head of the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) delegation to an African Union peace conference in Abuja.

Speaking on the sidelines of a preliminary seminar on power-sharing, Musa told reporters that his group and a second rebel force, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), had lodged a complaint with AU ceasefire monitors and conference mediators. The representative of the AU commission monitoring the Darfur ceasefire, Babagana Kingibe, told reporters that the allegation was being investigated.
"We've asked our troops to verify," he said. "They have made a preliminary survey and so far they have not found any evidence of any attack."

"We have asked the SLA to give us the coordinates of the position where this attack is supposed to have taken place. They are going to provide us the coordinates and we shall send a team to investigate whether such an attack indeed took place or not," he said.

Ambassador Kingibe said that the insurgents had warned mediators that the group was "considering" pulling out of the talks but had agreed to wait for the outcome of the inquiry.
Previous rounds of talks on ways to end a 30-month-old conflict which has left some 300,000 dead have been disrupted and in one case all but aborted by accusations that one side or the other had breached the ceasefire.

"During the past week the government of Sudan, through the Janjaweed militia, attacked the positions of the Sudanese Liberation Army. They killed, burned and looted in many areas and also raped many women and young ladies," Musa alleged. "In the area around the Jabal Mara mountains, 17 were killed in Korbia in north Darfur on September 17 and 13 were killed yesterday in western Jabal Mara. The fighting is continuing in the area," he said.  "In the final analysis this violation will not create a conducive environment to reach a settlement during this round of talks," he said.

The spokesman for the Khartoum government at the talks, Amin Omar, was dimissive about the allegations. "They are just using the meeting here to portray themselves as victims," he said of the rebels. But he would not directly address the question of whether the Janjaweed had launched any attacks in the Jabal Mara area, saying that it was a matter for the AU joint ceasefire commission.

Musa heads a delegation of leaders from the SLM and its military wing the SLA, which is thought to be loyal to the movement's chairman Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nur. A second faction, under SLM general secretary Mani Arko Minawi, has already boycotted the talks. Both groups claim to represent SLA fighters on the ground.

Last month the rebels were themselves accused by the African Union peacekeepers of breaching the ceasefire with a bandit attack on a camel caravan. AU mediators have divided the government and rebel delegations in Abuja into groups to debate a series of issues -- power sharing, wealth redistribution, security and government organisation -- ahead of full political negotiations next weekend.

The launch of the rebel uprising in February 2003 in Darfur prompted a scorched earth campaign by the government, which unleashed Arab militias such as the Janjaweed against minority villages suspected of supporting the rebels. Up to 300,000 people have died and more than two million been displaced during the conflict.

Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
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