PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, November 21, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 42)
Contents:
Bosnians say Dayton outdated, in need of new constitution
E.U. ministers agree to start association talks with Bosnia
Stablility and Association Agreement marks begining of formal talks between Bosnia and EU
Burundi Captures a Senior Rebel Chief: Army
Army caputres Aloys Nzabampema, a top commander of National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels
Burundi's government has accused the UN mission in the country of negligence after UNOB uniforms were recovered
Ten Russian soldiers and a pro-Russian Chechen policeman have been killed in the latest Chechan violence
Rebels killed in UN-army sweep in DR Congo
More than 20 rebels and a government soldier were killed during a joint operation by the DR Congo army and UN peacekeepers
Congo militia fighters kill religious figure in southeast, U.N. radio reports
Militia fighters have killed a clergyman who had been working as a peace mediator in southeastern Congo
Annan vows to step up UN efforts on breakaway Georgian region
Indonesia pulls 2,250 more troops out of Aceh
Indonesia pulls out over 2,000 more troops as part of peace deal
Ivory Coast sanctions committee chief says he warned rival factions of new sanctions
Mbeki in Ivory Coast to unblock peace process
Key rebel group condemns wave of deadly bombings in Kashmir
Indian Kashmir's most powerful Muslim rebel group condemned a wave of bombings that killed ten civilians and injured 120 others
Kashmir resolution could be India's quake 'donation': Musharraf
Pakistani President calls on India for resolution to Kashmir conflict
Kosovo
Kosovo independence could harm Balkans: analysts
Granting Kosovo independence from Serbia could stir up separatist movements among ethnic Albanian minorities in other parts of the Balkans
UN envoy arrives for Kosovo talks amid tensions
UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari arrived in Kosovo Monday to begin long-awaited status talks amid tensions in the province
Liberia at a Crossroads
Morocco extends detention of 17 linked to Al-Qaeda
Morocco has extended for another four days the detention of 17 men arrested earlier this month on suspicion of having ties to Al-Qaeda
Maoists willing to give up violence: Nepalese political leader
Montenegrin government says it may consider postponing independence until June 2006
Mogadishu warlords agree to talks with Somalia president
Warlords controlling Somalia's capital Wednesday agreed to hold talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed
New Sri Lanka president wants direct peace talks with rebel leader
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, elected the new president of Sri Lanka, says he wants to hold face-to-face peace talks with theleader of the rebel Tamil Tigers
AU welcomes Sudanese government approval to deploy more Canadian APCs in Darfur
Sudan approved the deployment of 70 Canadian armored personnel carriers in Darfur
Two Sudan troops to hang for Darfur murder
Two Sudanese soldiers have been sentenced to death by a special court for murdering a civilian in Darfur
U.N. chief warns of complete lawlessness and anarchy in Sudan's volatile Darfur region
Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that Sudan's volatile Darfur region faces an increasing threat of complete lawlessness and anarchy
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG Report.
Bosnians Feel Peace Deal Needs Remake
Associated Press, 11/20/05
Ten years after Bosnia's bloodshed ended in a peace accord reached 5,000 miles away in Dayton, Ohio, a bunch of Bosnian teenagers set out to determine why their country is still dysfunctional.
They soon discovered what a new generation of Bosnians has learned the hard way: Dayton was a roadmap to peace, not a blueprint for the future. So they have written a new mock constitution for a nation with an unwieldy power-sharing system that is designed - but often fails - to satisfy everyone."Dayton may have worked at the time to stop the war, but its shelf life has expired," said 15-year-old Senad. "On the state level, we have three presidents and they don't get along. Such a country cannot work."
The high schoolers' work has drawn the attention of the U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, Douglas McElhaney, who says he will take it to Washington, where negotiations are under way for changes in the existing constitution. But the negotiators face many of the same problems that bedeviled the authors of the Dayton accord - rival claims, rooted in ancient historical, ethnic and religious grievances, over a corner of the Balkans smaller than West Virginia.
Brokered by the United States in the privacy of Wright-Patterson Air Force base, the accord was announced on Nov. 21, 1995, in Dayton and signed in Paris three weeks later. It ended a 1992-95 war among Muslims who call themselves Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Roman Catholic Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes.
The accord recognized Bosnia, formerly a piece of an imploded Yugoslavia, as an independent country. NATO deployed 60,000 peacekeepers to keep its armies apart. Now a force of 7,000 European Union troops busies itself with fighting organized crime and illegal logging in Bosnia's lush forests. Bosnia's own army, 13,000-strong and multiethnic, is being formed.
More than 1 million refugees have returned to their homes, and this week Bosnia is expected to sign an agreement to prepare it for its cherished long-term goal of joining the prosperous, democratic EU.
"The peace stabilization has been a miracle," said British diplomat Paddy Ashdown, Bosnia's international administrator for the past 3 1/2 years. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. diplomat who brokered the Dayton deal, says: "It is hard to think of any other peace process in the last decade - anywhere in the world - that has done nearly as well as this one."
Bisera Dzidic, a 46-year-old news editor, says of Bosnia's new army: "I never expected soldiers who shot at each other 10 years ago in such a brutal war to now be serving a unified army under one flag. That's truly amazing."
The Dayton accord divided the nation of 3.2 million into two ethnic mini-states with broad autonomy, a shared parliament and government and a three-man presidency. But the power to impose laws and fire officials is in the hands of a foreigner, currently Ashdown. A consensus has emerged that Bosnia has outgrown Dayton. "The current constitution of Bosnia is not really sufficient. If they want progress with Europe, they have to amend it," said European analyst Tomas Markert.
Parallel or overlapping agencies compound Bosnia's problems of poverty, corruption and 40 percent unemployment. Sixty-two percent of Bosnia's youths want to leave, a recent U.N. study found.
But Senad and his friends who spent their summer writing a constitution are resolved to stay and wear clothespins on their collars to symbolize the effort to hold Bosnia together."Our constitution erases the mini-states, foresees one president and does not separate 'us' from 'them,"' he said."I swear now that I will stay here and fight for my dream to come true," he added, his voice rising to a shout. "Please help me!"
There are other harbingers of changing mindsets.
The country is still run by its wartime parties, but more flexible leaders are ready to talk and make small steps forward. The old nationalists have been removed from the leadership or even put on trial for war crimes, mismanagement or corruption.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, wanted since 1995 for genocide and crimes against humanity by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, still eludes capture. Yet there are signs that some of those who once lionized him as a hero now disparage him as a burden.
Graffiti urging the former psychiatrist to surrender has appeared even in fiercely nationalistic Serb regions such as Mount Romanija. "Hospital in The Hague urgently needs a psychiatrist," says a slogan sprayed on a billboard.
E.U. ministers agree to start association talks with Bosnia
Deutsche Presse-Agentur 11/21/05
European Union foreign ministers Monday gave the green light to opening negotiations on a new cooperation treaty with Bosnia-Herzegovina, setting the formerly war-torn Balkan nation firmly on the route to full E.U. membership.
In a statement marking the tenth anniversary of the Dayton peace accords which ended the three-year Bosnian war, E.U. ministers said negotiations on a so-called Stability and Association Agreement (SAA) with the E.U. was a recognition of the country's efforts to join the European mainstream.
"The opening of negotiations marks an historic moment in Bosnia and Herzegovina's development, as the first important step towards its establishment of contractual relations with the E.U.," the ministerial statement said.
The pact was a strong sign that the "future of the Western Balkans lies in the E.U.," it said, adding that the speed with which Bosnia-Herzegovina moves closer to the E.U. would depend on how quickly it implemented the reforms necessary for it to become a fully functioning and viable state.
The E.U. was particularly interested in the development of Bosnia-Herzegovina's legislative and administrative capacities, the implementation of police reform, the adoption and implementation of public broadcasting legislation and the country's full co-operation with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal.
The E.U. also expected Bosnia-Herzegovina to take "decisive action" to ensure that all fugitive war crimes suspects, notably Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are finally brought to justice, the statement added.
"Full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is essential to achieve lasting reconciliation in the country and the region, and to lift a fundamental obstacle to E.U. integration," the E.U. foreign ministers said.
The ministers also pointed to the E.U.'s "changing relationship" with Bosnia-Herzegovina, saying they expected the E.U. to play a greater role in the country's development.
The current E.U. police mission in Bosnia would be replaced with a new operation which would be "more proactive" in fighting organised crime and in reforming policing, they said.
There would be no immediate changes to the E.U.'s military operation in Bosnia, code-named Althea, which would continue for six months at current force levels of about 6,500 troops.
The operation would be reviewed thereafter in view of progress made towards a Stability and Association Agreement and the impact of elections in 2006, the ministers said.
The E.U. was determined to help Bosnia-Herzegovina to "overcome the remaining legacy of the war" and enjoy "a brighter future" as a modern European democracy, the statement said, noting country's authorities must "play their full role in this process". dpa si cb
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Burundi Captures a Senior Rebel Chief: Army
Agence France Presse 11/17/05
The Burundian army said Thursday it captured a senior rebel commander of the country's lone remaining rebel faction that has reiterated its unwillingness to enter peace talks with the government.
Army spokesman Adolphe Manirakiza said the soldiers last week captured Aloys Nzabampema, a top commander of National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels, at the residence of a former legislator and paraded him to the press.
"This is an important catch because this man is the commander of FNL's main zone of operation," Manirakiza said.
The rebels have been operating from the country's western Bujumbura Rural province for at least a decade now, from where it continues to carry out attacks against civilians and government targets.
Last week, the army said it had arrested nearly 30 FNL insurgents in western Burundi while Manirakiza said they have been arresting an average of 50 rebels each month since July.
Meanwhile, the FNL reiterated on Thursday that it would not negotiate with the government and maintained that there was no split its ranks contrary to last month's reports that the group's chief had been replaced.
"There is no government in Bujumbura. There is no president," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said. "Who do you want us to negotiate with?"
"We are asking Tanzania to seek a solution to the issues we have with Bujumbura," he added.
In June, the Tanzania government hosted the last round of talks between the rebels and Bujumbura, but were indefinitely postponed.
Earlier this month, President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would resolve rebel problem within two months.
This declaration follows an end-of-October ultimatum for the rebels to forcefully or willingly enter peace talks with the government, which expired without any consequence.
The FNL, the only active rebel group remaining in Burundi, refused to participate in the 2000 peace process which brought a new power-sharing government to power this August aimed at bringing an end to a bloody 12-year civil war.
Burundi is still recovering from an ethnically driven conflict that erupted in 1993 with the assassination of the country's first democratically elected president, a member of the Hutu majority, by officers of the minority Tutsi-dominated military.
Burundi Accuses UN Mission of Negligence
Agence France Presse 11/18/05
Burundi's government has accused the UN mission in the country of negligence after its peacekeepers' uniforms were recovered from the country's only active National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels.
Defence Minister Germain Niyoyankana made the accusation late Thursday after army officials displayed the uniforms belonging to South African and Nepalese troops of the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB).
"I would not say that there is cooperation between ONUB and the FNL, but this organisation is guilty of negligence," Niyoyankana said in an interview with state television.
ONUB spokesman Penangnini Toure aknowledged the military apparel belonged to the mission.
"If it is proven that ONUB soldiers gave out these uniforms, disciplinary measures would be taken," Traore said.
But Niyoyankana said Thursday's recovery was not the first time the army found military equipment on the rebels, explaining that in 2003 they also recovered 81 mortars belonging to the South African contingent from the insurgents.
ONUB's chief Carolyn McAskie said she was "surprised" by the recovery of the mission's uniforms from the rebels, but termed the accusation as baseless.
To talk of complicity between rebels and the mission "constitutes a serious accusation without basis and it is prejudicial to the ONUB mission and to Burundians as well as the government in one part and the UN on the other," McAskie added.
"We have recently witnessed a strong media campaign against ONUB's presence. It seems that there are some influential people who, for one reason or another, want the mission to leave," a senior ONUB official told AFP on conditions of anonymity.
The ONUB has some 5,611 troops in the tiny central African nation that is still recovering from 12 years of civil war that has claimed some 300,000 lives.
On Thursday, the army said it had captured a senior FNL commander whom they paraded to the press.
However, the insurgents refuse to aknowledge the country's new government installed in August and continue to with deadly attacks against civilians and military targets.
Ten Russian soldiers, one policeman killed in Chechnya
Agence France Presse 11/21/05
Ten Russian soldiers and a pro-Russian Chechen policeman have been killed in the latest violence in Chechnya, while nine soldiers were wounded, an official with the Russian-backed government there said Monday.
Six soldiers were killed and five wounded in 18 attacks on Russian positions by Chechen separatist rebels over a 24-hour period, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
In a separate incident, three soldiers were killed and three were wounded when their armoured vehicle ran over a mine in Chechnya's southern Vedeno region.
Also in southern Chechnya, one soldier was killed and another was wounded in clashes with Chechen separatist fighters that also left one rebel dead.
And in the Chechen capital Grozny, one police officer was shot dead on a street market. The assailant ran away, but some 20 people were arrested.
Russian troops entered 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 daily.
Rebels killed in UN-army sweep in DR Congo
Agence France Presse 11/15/05
More than 20 rebels and a government soldier were killed Tuesday during a joint operation by the Democratic Republic of Congo army and United Nations peacekeepers in the country's lawless northeast, a UN military spokesman said.
"At least 20 militiamen were killed in a MONUC-supported DR Congo army operation in Similiki," Lieutenant-Colonel Thierry Provendier, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force known by its French acronym MONUC, told AFP.
One DR Congo soldier was also killed and three others seriously hurt during the sweep in the Ituri region involving more than 1,600 government troops and more than 300 UN peacekeepers backed by combat helicopters, he added.
"We have retaken Similiki and we now control the entire border with Uganda along Lake Albert," Provendier said.
"It was vital to stop the movement of militiamen between the two countries and to cut their supply chain," General Bob Ngoie Kilubi, commander of the DR Congo forces in Ituri, told AFP.
"Many militiamen fled the fighting and crossed the lake. About 150 of them have been arrested by the Ugandan authorities," he added.
The operation would continue for several more days and government troops would be "permanently deployed in the area", General Ngoie said.
Congo militia fighters kill religious figure in southeast, U.N. radio reports
Associated Press 11/18/05
Militia fighters have killed a clergyman who had been working as a peace mediator in southeastern Congo, U.N. officials said Friday.
U.N. spokesman Kemal Saiki said Congolese troops found two charred corpses Thursday in mineral-rich Katanga Province and that one was that of Francois Kikuji, a preacher-turned-mediator missing since August, when he went to negotiate a dispute among Mayi-Mayi militiamen.
The other corpse belonged to one of Kikuji's followers and both were killed by Mayi-Mayi fighters, U.N.-run Radio Okapi reported, citing witnesses.
The Mayi-Mayi militia holds sway across large swaths of the region despite a government drive to oust them and regain control of the region ahead of next year's elections, meant to put Congo on the path to democracy and peace after its 1998-2003 war.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Annan vows to step up UN efforts on breakaway Georgian region
Agence France Presse 11/19/05
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pledged Saturday during a visit to Georgia to step up efforts to find a peaceful solution over the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
"We work very closely with the new Abkhazian government to find a solution of this conflict," Annan said at a joint news conference with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.
"We are going to activate our efforts to reach a peaceful settlement," he added.
Abkhazia gained de facto independence after fighting a war with Tbilisi in the early 1990s in which thousands were killed and a quarter million people displaced.
Russia has had a peacekeeping force in Abkhazia since the war. But while Moscow officially recognises Georgian sovereignty in Abkhazia, Tbilisi accuses Russia of backing, arming and financing the rebels.
Tension between Tbilisi and Abkhazia has risen recently as Saakashvili has vowed to bring separatist regions to heel, and Georgian lawmakers have threatened to vote to eject Russian peacekeepers.
Georgia has repeatedly called upon the UN to strengthen its presence in Abkhazia, which includes a small force observing the ceasefire between Georgian and Abkhazian fighters.
Indonesia pulls 2,250 more troops out of Aceh
Agence France Presse 11/21/05
Indonesia on Monday withdrew more than 2,000 troops from Aceh as part of a pact aimed at ending a separatist conflict in the tsunami-hit province.
A total of 2,252 soldiers left on board a navy ship from Krueng Geukeuh port near the town of Lhokseumawe, said Aceh military spokesman Ari Soediko.
The pullout is part of the third of four planned withdrawals under a historic peace pact signed on August 15 in Helsinki between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian government.
Soediko said a total of 5,696 soldiers would be withdrawn from Aceh in the third phase of redeployment. The last batch in this phase is to leave on Friday.
Some 12,000 troops were redeployed from Aceh in the two first phases of the withdrawal.
The remainder of the 24,000 non-local troops and a large contingent of military police will follow once GAM fulfils its commitment to hand over a total of 840 weapons, its declared arsenal, by the end of the fourth stage in December.
Observers see the agreement as the best chance yet of ending the conflict which has claimed about 15,000 lives, most of them civilians, since GAM began its struggle for an independent state in 1976.
Under the accord 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.
The peace pact was spurred by the December 2004 tsunami disaster, which left 131,000 people dead in Aceh.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Ivory Coast sanctions committee chief says he warned rival factions of new sanctions
Associated Press 11/16/05
The head of the U.N. sanctions committee on Ivory Coast said Wednesday he warned all factions during a recent visit to the war-divided west African nation that it may face strict sanctions if peace efforts don't succeed.
Greece's U.N. Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis said he urged government and rebel leaders to go "the extra mile" to reach an agreement on an interim prime minister and move toward elections next year.
"Otherwise, the committee has no other alternative but to assess the individual situation of each one of them," he said.
Asked how the government and rebel leaders reacted, Vassilakis said, "each one of them said the others are guilty."
Ivory Coast has been split in two since rebels launched a failed coup bid in 2002.
The African Union and the Security Council have tried to help resolve the country's latest crisis, backing the prolongation of President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate for a year and calling for the appointment of a new, more powerful prime minister to help lead the country toward elections within one year.
That plan, however, immediately spurred heated argument over who would be prime minister and how much power the post would command.
Vassilakis said before the sanctions issue is discussed, a prime minister needs to be named.
"If the prime minister is not named, assuming in a week's time, then you will hear the (Security Council) president ringing a bell," he said.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov, the council president for November, said members will discuss all aspects of the crisis in Ivory Coast, including the political uncertainty and possible sanctions violations, in "the nearest future," possibly next week.
He said after a briefing to the council by the Greek ambassador that the situation in the west African nation "is very vulnerable and very uncertain" because rival factions have been unable to agree on a new prime minister.
"It's a big problem, and arms smuggling and sanctions is only one element," Denisov said.
If peace efforts don't make progress, the council has said it may impose strict sanctions to complement an arms embargo in place since November 2004.
Denisov stressed that any sanctions "must be more precise ... and must be more effective."
A U.N. report by experts monitoring the arms embargo, which was issued this week, said Ivory Coast's government has begun rebuilding its air force, one year after it was mostly destroyed by French forces in retaliation for an air raid that killed nine French soldiers.
It said that a 10-man team of technicians from Belarus and Ukraine was in Abidjan under contract by the Ivorian Defense Ministry to repair the aircraft.
Gbagbo's defense adviser, Kadet Bertin, said that only civilian aircraft were under repair, intended for use by Gbagbo and visiting heads of state. Ukraine denied any involvement in rebuilding the air force.
Vassilakis said the committee had made no determination that there had been a violation of sanctions.
He said the Ivory Coast had not asked the Security Council's sanctions committee for "any kind of exemption, any kind of permission to do anything."
Asked whether the Ivory Coast could replace its air force since it had one before the embargo, Vassilakis replied, "once the embargo is imposed, then there is an applicability all the way."
Mbeki in Ivory Coast to unblock peace process
Agence France Presse 11/21/05
South African President Thabo Mbeki, the chief mediator in war-torn Ivory Coast, and Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo will visit Abidjan on Tuesday for talks on choosing a new prime minister to unblock the peace process.
"The visit ... comes within the context of the mandate given to both presidents at the African Union's Peace and Security Council ... to continue to assist the people of Cote d'Ivoire find a comprehensive and lasting solution to their current challenges," a foreign ministry statement said Monday.
"In addition, Presidents Mbeki and Obasanjo will assist in the process of appointing a new prime minister as agreed at the 5 October meeting," it said.
Under a United Nations resolution, the Ivory Coast is to be given a consensus prime minister "with full powers" to run the government and organise a presidential election by October 31, 2006.
The election was supposed to have been held by the end of last month, but was abandoned after it proved impossible to organise polling with half of the country controlled by rebels and President Laurent Gbagbo determined to cling on to power.
Gbagbo is now expected to remain in office until another vote can be organised, but his supporters, the rebels and the mainstream opposition have so far been unable to agree on a prime minister and the peace process appears once more to be deadlocked.
According to UN resolution 1633, the prime minister should have been named by October 31, but that date was moved to November 15 and the deadline has now passed.
Meanwhile, Ivory Coast opposition leader Alassane Ouattara held a second day of talks Monday with Mbeki in Pretoria, his adviser told AFP.
"We met South African authorities and President Mbeki for one hour yesterday and held a final round of talks today," Adama Toungara said.
Key rebel group condemns wave of deadly bombings in Kashmir
Agence France Presse 11/17/05
Indian Kashmir's most powerful Muslim rebel group Thursday condemned a wave of bombings that killed ten civilians and injured 120 others this week in the revolt-hit region.
On Wednesday a suicide bomber travelling in a car blew himself up at a busy intersection in the summer capital of Srinagar killing four civilians and injuring 60 others, eleven of them women.
A little-known rebel group, Al Arifeen, claimed responsibility for the explosion in a telephone call to the Kashmir News Service. Police said it was a front for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
A day earlier suspected rebels attacked the rally of a former tourism minister in northern Baramulla district, killing six and injuring 60 others. No group claimed responsibility for that attack.
"We condemn both the incidents. Our group is against incidents in which civilians are killed," Hizbul Mujahedin said in a statement carried by the Kashmir News Service. "The motive of such acts is only to defame the ongoing freedom struggle. Our outfit is against the attacks which are carried out at crowded places," it said.
Hizbul is one of the main rebel groups fighting for Indian Kashmir's secession from New Delhi. It wants to join the scenic Himalayan region with neighbouring Pakistan.
The two nations hold the region in parts but claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of arming and funding Muslim rebels waging a 16-year-old insurgency in Indian zone of the disputed region that has claimed more than 44,000 lives by official count.
Islamabad denies the allegation but says it renders diplomatic and political support to the unrest.
Hizbul has been supportive of a peace process launched by India and Pakistan in January 2004. Hardline groups like Al Arifeen have opposed the peace process saying it was aimed at "giving too many concessions to India".
The two countries have also cooperated on providing relief to survivors of the devastating October 8 earthquake in the region and opened five relief points on the de facto border dividing Kashmir.
But the two countries have yet to allow Kashmiris to cross the frontier to help relatives and friends on the other side.
They say the lists of people wishing to cross still need to be approved and no date had been announced for civilians to start crossing over.
The quake killed more than 73,000 people and left millions homeless in Pakistan and its part of Kashmir while 1,300 died in Indian Kashmir.
Kashmir resolution could be India's quake 'donation': Musharraf
Agence France Presse 11/19/05
President Pervez Musharraf urged India Saturday to work with Pakistan to resolve their dispute over quake-hit Kashmir, saying it could be New Delhi's "donation" to the earthquake relief effort.
Musharraf made the appeal at an international donors' conference called to raise money for the recovery effort after last month's quake, which killed nearly 74,000 people, most of them in Pakistan's zone of Kashmir.
"Let us together solve the Kashmir dispute once for all," Musharraf said in an address to the conference, which included a ministerial-level delegation from India.
"Let this be the Indian donation to Kashmir," he said to applause from about 300 delegates.
He spoke as 30 Indian Kashmiris were set to cross to the Pakistani side of the state, which was divided by the Line of Control in 1949, to search for surviving relatives of the October 8 disaster.
The earthquake, which also killed 1,300 people in Indian Kashmir, led the estranged neighbours to open all five border posts on the de facto frontier for the first time, but initially only for the exchange of relief goods.
The six-week delay in allowing civilians to traverse the border to help relatives and friends, with the suspicious neighbours wanting to vet those allowed to make the crossing, angered Kashmiris on both sides.
Musharraf said the earthquake had provided a rare "fleeting opportunity" to heal the relationship between the two South Asian nations.
"If leaders fail to grasp fleeting opportunities, they fail their nations and they fail their people.
"Let good and success and let happiness emerge from the ruins of this catastrophe, especially for devastated people of Kashmir," he said.
"I sincerely and genuinely believe that the challenge of this earthquake can be converted into an opportunity of a lifetime that was never available to India and Pakistan to improve its relations," the military leader said.
The Indian representative at the conference, State Minister for External Affairs E. Ahmed, reiterated India's commitment to confidence-building measures between the neighbours.
"The spontaneous outpouring of support and goodwill for the victims of the earthquake gives us the strength and motivation to work (towards) confidence-building measures between our two countries," Ahmed told the meeting.
"On Kashmir our position is well known ... (to live) in an atmosphere free of terrorism and violence," he said, in an apparent reference to Islamic insurgency in Indian Kashmir.
India pledged 25 million dollars towards the quake assistance effort at a conference in Geneva on October 26. International donors at that meet promised 580 million dollars in assistance.
Pakistan and India, both nuclear powers, each hold part of Kashmir but claim the Himalayan state in full. They have fought two of their three wars over the territory.
Pledges at Saturday's meeting were roughly 5.4 billion, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said, exceeding the 5.2 billion dollars Pakistan said it needed for reconstruction and relief after the tremor.
Aid agencies have said it is urgent to step up the relief operations before the harsh Himalayan winter claims more lives.
Tensions between India and Pakistan have been exacerbated by the 16-year insurgency by Islamic militants against New Delhi's rule in the Indian zone.
The violence has claimed more than 44,000 lives, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting the militants, which Islamabad denies.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Kosovo independence could harm Balkans: analysts
Agence France Presse 11/18/05
Granting Kosovo independence from Serbia could stir up separatist movements among ethnic Albanian minorities in other parts of the Balkans, analysts said ahead of the start of talks on the province's future status.
Some leaders in the fragile region, where ethnic tensions have led to a series of wars since 1991, fear another change of borders could provoke separatist demands by ethnic Albanian minorities in countries surrounding Kosovo.
"All Kosovo politicians, including President Ibrahim Rugova, should sign a declaration that would exclude any possible unification of territories with majority Albanian population in the region," said Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski.
Macedonia, which borders Serbia and its province of Kosovo, offered shelter to tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanians fleeing the province in 1999 under repression of the regime of then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
But only two years later, its own ethnic Albanian minority -- which makes up one quarter of the ex-Yugoslav republic's population of two million -- took up arms demanding more rights for its community.
The fighting ended after seven months with a peace deal brokered by the international community, and one of the main rebel leaders is now a member of the ruling coalition government.
"Ethnic Macedonians have serious fears of possible Kosovo independence, based on their own experience with ethnic Albanians," analyst Ljubomir Frckoski told AFP.
A recent poll in Macedonia showed a "majority of Albanians support the independence of Kosovo, while most Macedonians are sceptical towards it," said Dane Teleski of a local think-tank "Skopje."
"But Macedonians are not against independence if there are firm guarantees by the international community that it will not have any impact on the territorial integrity of the country," he said.
Such a stance was echoed by Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski, who said recently that Macedonia "is neither afraid of an independent Kosovo, nor of Kosovo within Serbia-Montenegro."
"What we want and insist is for Kosovo to be a territory with established legal order that will respect all international standards," Crvenkovski said.
Frckoski warned the "almost non-existent borders between Kosovo and Macedonia make the area a grave zone dominated by organised crime that can lead the region into chaos."
Fears of another armed conflict have also been spread with on-and-off presence of the Albanian National Army (ANA), an underground militant organisation grouping former Kosovo rebels and favoring unity of the ethnic community in the Balkans.
In 2001, ANA fighters were said to have joined ethnic Albanian rebels of the Macedonia-based guerrilla group National Liberation Army (NLA), clashing with Skopje security forces.
The ANA, listed as a "terrorist organisation" by the UN mission in Kosovo due to a number of armed attacks, has said it wants to set up a state grouping all ethnic Albanians in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and southern Serbia and Montenegro -- if needed through a war.
Ethnic Albanian politicians in the region have denounced ANA demands, but vowed support for Kosovo independence.
"The will of Kosovo citizens for independence should be respected, and thus the whole region would be stabilised," said Rafiz Haliti, top official of the ruling Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).
Ethnic Albanians living in southern Serbia -- a scene of armed clashes between Serb forces and the separatist rebels in 2001 -- have stopped short from backing Kosovo's independence, being warned both by Belgrade and the international community that their problems are not the same.
But they warned their own requests for more rights would have to be put on the agenda soon.
"Belgrade, Pristina and the international community have to discuss the status of Kosovo, but at one moment, we will also have to be involved in this process," said local Albanian leader Reza Halimi.
And tiny Montenegro, whose leadership has also called for independence from Serbia, has managed to calm separatist claims by its Albanian minority by improving their political and civil rights and involving the community in state and local affairs.
UN envoy arrives for Kosovo talks amid tensions
Agence France Presse 11/21/05
Top UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari arrived in Kosovo Monday to begin long-awaited status talks amid tensions in the province whose Albanians are demanding independence from Serbia.
The start of the delicate negotiations, which are expected to last several months, comes just days after an armed Albanian group threatened the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), and a bomb blast in a mainly Serb populated town. Ethnic Albanians, who exceed Serbs and other minorities in Kosovo by more than nine to one, are demanding their right to break away from Serbia despite firm opposition from the government in Belgrade and the Serbian people.
Some 20 protestors from an ethnic Albanian pressure group named "Self-determination" gathered in front of UNMIK's Pristina headquarters ahead of Ahtisaari's fact-finding mission, but were dispersed by police.
Ahtisaari was to meet UNMIK chief Soren Jessen-Petersen and Giuseppe Valotto, the commander of the NATO-led forces (KFOR) that have kept the peace in Kosovo since its 1998-1999 conflict.
During his visit, which is expected to last several days, Ahtisaari also plans to meet the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team and ethnic Serbs.
In Pristina, he will also hold talks with the so-called Contact Group of foreign powers -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- which has overseen peace efforts in the Balkans since the wars of the 1990s.
Following the Kosovo leg of the trip, he is due to head to Serbia, its union partner Montenegro, neighbouring Albania and Macedonia.
Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, said last week the objective of the visit was to "listen to the parties (and) collect impressions".
The talks were expected to be held in the form of shuttle diplomacy between Belgrade and Pristina in a bid to build confidence ahead of direct talks.
Legally still a province of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO-led forces since the alliance's air strikes ended a crackdown by ex-Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic's forces against ethnic Albanian rebels.
"By moving forward and launching the process of solving the last puzzle of the Balkans, I hope we walk towards the final step -- returning the Balkans to normalcy and the European agenda," UNMIK's Jessen-Petersen told journalists ahead of Ahtisaari's arrival.
The peace deal that ended the conflict was brokered by Ahtisaari, who convinced Milosevic to withdraw Serbian troops and police from the province in June 1999.
Meanwhile in Belgrade on Monday, Serbian deputies passed a resolution spelling out the government's framework for the talks. The motion was approved by 205 MPs, while 29 abstained. None was against the resolution.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told the deputies the "resolution will represent an obligation for the government and the negotiating team".
"It has been adopted in a decisive moment for Serbia, when the negotiations on future status of Kosovo are to begin," Kostunica said at the end of a lively parliamentary debate.
"Kosovo is a part of Serbia. It is not only our history but also our present and our future. Serbia is ready, able and determined to find a compromise and historically justified solution for Kosovo," he said earlier during the sitting.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders have said Serbia has no say on the independence of Kosovo, while Belgrade says it will only offer Pristina "more than autonomy but less than independence".
The beginning of the negotiations comes after an armed Kosovo separatist group calling itself the Army for Kosovo Independence on Friday threatened to attack UN institutions in the province.
A bomb blast at a market in the mainly Serb populated central Kosovo town of Strpce injured three Serbs and an Albanian on Thursday, according to media reports. Later reports said one Serb was injured.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
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Liberia at a Crossroads
The Boston Globe 11/17/05
BY MAKAU MUTUA
THE ELECTION last week of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the Harvard-educated former World Bank economist as president of Liberia, is a milestone. She will become the first woman African head of state and give her tormented country the only real opportunity in more than a generation to emerge from the ashes of a savage civil war. But these rays of hope will be extinguished if George Weah, her vanquished opponent, becomes bellicose and stokes violent conflict.
It is virtually impossible to imagine a place on Earth where life has been more hellish than Liberia. For almost three decades, Liberia has been in the grip of brutal dictatorships or ruthless warlords. Before then, a tiny authoritarian Americo-Liberian elite a political class descended from freed African-American slaves who founded the state in 1847 ruled with an iron hand. Until the end of the Cold War, the United States exacerbated these pathologies by supporting despotic Liberian regimes.
Liberia reached its nadir in 1980 when Samuel Doe overthrew the Americo-Liberian regime and introduced a rein of terror. In 1990, Doe was killed by rebel forces led by Charles Taylor and Prince Johnson, two equally ruthless warlords. Liberia remained lawless until 1997 when Taylor intimidated his compatriots into electing him president.
But rather than pursue peace and reconstruction, Taylor instigated coups and civil wars in neighboring states. He sold arms in exchange for diamonds to Sierra Leone rebels who cut off the limbs, ears, and noses of opponents. In 2003, Taylor was forced to resign but was granted refuge in Nigeria in spite of an indictment for war crimes by the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone. His forced departure paved the way for last week's elections.
The election of Johnson-Sirleaf notwithstanding, history will repeat itself unless the international community acts resolutely. Although Weah has lost the election to Johnson-Sirleaf 60 to 40 percent, the former has refused to concede defeat, charging fraud and other irregularities. International monitors have categorically stated that there is no evidence to bolster Weah's allegations of cheating or bias.
Weah's threat to the democratic process should not be taken lightly. Liberia has been down this path before. Easily the most famous Liberian, 38-year-old Weah is a former international soccer star who draws most of his support from dispossessed urban youth, former child soldiers, and scores of warlords. A product of the slums of Monrovia, the barely literate Weah's rags-to-riches story resonates with poor youth. In contrast, the 67-year-old Johnson-Sirleaf is from the privileged Americo-Liberian elite.
Even so, most Liberians seem to have voted for experience and technocratic competence over glamour. The belief is that Johnson-Sirleaf, with her connections and legitimacy in the world of global finance and capital, stands a better chance of leading Liberia to economic recovery and international demarginalization. The silver lining for Weah is that he has established himself as a powerful political force and the man likely to succeed Johnson-Sirleaf.
Liberia has not known a modern democracy. Weah can change that dismal history if he accepts the election results and joins a government of national unity or plays the role of a legitimate democratic opposition. What the country needs is not another warlord or a senseless conflict whose main victims are women and children but a massive reconstruction effort to build democratic institutions.
But Weah's support from unsavory characters, including Taylor's backers, should give everyone pause. There are indications that Taylor himself maintains an unhealthy interest in Liberian politics from exile. It is unlikely that Liberia will know peace until Taylor is held accountable for the atrocities he committed in office. Weah should join those democrats and reformers who have called for Nigeria to turn Taylor over to Sierra Leone's Special Court.
Unless Weah makes these commitments and openly renounces confrontation his backers are likely to revert to violence. Yet, it is his supporters who must be socialized and rehabilitated for this election to relaunch Liberia. The 15,000 UN peacekeeping forces cannot allow the situation to deteriorate. Nor should the UN and the international community permit thugs to reverse the freely expressed will of the Liberian people.
Finally, the United States must recognize its special responsibility to Liberia. The country was established by Americans and enjoyed an unusually close relationship with Washington until the end of the Cold War. Successive administrations treated Liberia like an unofficial vassal of the United States. That is why Washington bears some responsibility for Liberia's woes. US material, diplomatic, and logistical support is crucial if Liberia is to emerge from its long night of privation.
Makau Mutua is professor of law and director of the Human Rights Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Morocco extends detention of 17 linked to Al-Qaeda
Agence France Presse 11/21/05
Morocco has extended for another four days the detention of 17 men arrested earlier this month on suspicion of having ties to Al-Qaeda, a defence lawyer said Monday.
According to Abdelfettah Zahrach, the detention of the alleged radicals, arrested in Rabat and Casablanca, was extended Saturday for 96 hours "for additional judicial investigation".
"The prosecuting authorities have nonetheless promised that the suspects would appear before the Rabat anti-terrorist court by the end of the week, probably Tuesday," he said.
It had previously been reported they would appear in court Monday.
"The Moroccan security services have just dismantled a terrorist structure as it was being formed," a statement said Sunday.
The network was "composed of 17 elements linked to the radical Islamic movement having connections with small groups emerging at the Iraqi border and maintaining close ties with senior members of the Al-Qaeda organisation," it said.
Zahrach said that the statement "did not say clearly who arrested our clients."
"We want to have details about these security forces to know who is interrogating the 17 detainees."
The defence lawyers are concerned about the fate of Redouane Chekkouri, once held in the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, whose name was not listed Sunday as one of those arrested.
With two other Moroccans once held at Guantanamo, Brahim Benchekroun and Mohamed Mazouz, he was arrested on November 15 for having helped infiltrate an Al-Qaeda member into Morocco, according to a police source.
The arrests were followed by a security alert at airports, harbours, train stations, shopping centres and embassies throughout the country.
Ten days previously, a group calling itself the Islamic Tawhid Wal Jihad Group of Morocco, a name formerly used by Al Qaeda's Iraq frontman Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, announced that it had declared war on the Moroccan state and King Mohammed VI.
Security officials dismissed the declaration as not credible.
The names of Benchekroun and Mazouz were given in the police statement.
"Why does the name of Redouane Chekkouri not appear in the statement? What has become of him?" asked Zahrach.
One of the arrested was named as Mohamed Reha, a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, who was "known to have stayed in Syria and maintained close ties with North African Islamists in Europe".
Moroccan security services said they had been interested since March in the activities of Moroccan national Khaled Azig, a former theology student in Syria who made repeated trips between there and Turkey.
Azig returned to Morocco in June and was joined by Reha on September 29, in order to "recruit members for a terrorist cell," said the statement.
The security forces said the pair recruited extremists, including Benchekroun and Mazouz.
"Khalid Azig and Mohamed Reha have in effect recruited individuals impregnated with extremist ideas," a police source said.
Maoists willing to give up violence: Nepalese political leader
Agence France Presse 11/18/05
Nepal's Maoist rebels are willing to accept multi-party democracy and give up their armed struggle which has claimed thousands of lives since 1996, a visiting Nepalese political leader said Friday.
Madhav Kumar Nepal, head of the Communist Party of Nepal-UML, told AFP the Maoists had also agreed not to terrorise political opponents and to cease their demand for a one-party state in Nepal.
"They have responded positively to all the points we raised when we met them two to three weeks ago. It will be a historic leap forward if they abide by these decisions," Nepal said.
He said an international observer would oversee their pledge to lay down arms and give up violence, provided a political understanding was reached with all parties.
King Gyanendra sacked Nepal's four-party coalition government and seized power in February to stem the Maoist rebellion that has claimed more than 12,000 lives since 1996.
His move earned international condemnation and a suspension of arms sales from India and Britain.
"We think the understanding we have reached with the Maoists will lead to an understanding between them and the seven political parties, which are all waging a peaceful struggle against the autocratic monarchy," Nepal said.
He also said the parties would boycott municipal elections on February 8.
"We are going to boycott the farce of municipal elections. We think that in the absence of a democratic environment and proper security, any sort of elections will not produce positive results," he said
"What we want is an immediate end of absolute monarchy, a comprehensive solution of armed conflict and only after that the elections will be meaningful," Nepal added.
Last month the king also directed the Election Commission to hold general elections by mid-April 2007.
Nepal said the political parties plan to stage mass rallies soon involving tens of thousands of people against the monarchy.
"At least 50,000 people will participate in each of the rallies. Our programme will be a united one of seven political parties. We want to send a clear message that the people are firmly behind us," he said.
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Montenegrin government says it may consider postponing independence until June 2006
Associated Press 11/18/05
Montenegro's government said Friday it could agree to an eventual EU demand to delay a formal break with Serbia if its people vote for independence in an upcoming referendum.
A postponement would provide time for the U.N.-mediated talks on the future of Serbia's province of Kosovo - expected to begin next month - to get well under way, the Montenegrin government said in a statement.
The statement, made available to The Associated Press, makes clear the government expects the outcome of the referendum - tentatively set for April - to favor independence from Serbia, with which Montenegro has remained in a loose union after other four states of the former Yugoslavia declared independence in the early 1990s.
But ties between the two have deteriorated over the years as a Montenegrin drive for independence gained strength.
"Montenegro is ready to consider a postponement of the implementation of its referendum vote," should the European Union request it, the statement said, adding that the declaration of independence could be put off until June, 2006.
This "could be important" for the U.N.-organized talks that will determine the final status of Kosovo, it noted.
Montenegro's pro-independence leaders claim Serbia, with its 8 million inhabitants, is stifling the tiny republic of 600,000 people and are determined to hold the vote that could dissolve the union by April 2006. But Montenegrins themselves are deeply divided between supporters and opponents of independence.
The EU repeatedly has tried to talk Montenegro out of opting for secession, fearing the move could trigger new Balkan tensions. This month, EU warned Montenegro its future ties with the bloc will depend on the level of democratic standards applied in the referendum.
Kosovo, which is inhabited mainly by independence-seeking ethnic Albanians, formally remains a province of Serbia but has been run by the United Nations since the end of the 1999 NATO air war that halted Serb forces' crackdown on the separatists.
U.N.-supervised talks between the leaders of Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians and Belgrade and the Serb side are expected to begin next month.
Mogadishu warlords agree to talks with Somalia president
Agence France Presse 11/16/05
Warlords controlling Somalia's capital Wednesday agreed to hold talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in a bid to plug the gaps that have scuppered efforts to restore a functional government in the war-torn African nation.
Led by influential parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, the warlords and nearly 100 MPs said they are ready to explore a lasting solution in a country that has lacked an effective government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
"We agreed to engage in a direct negotiations process with our counterparts in Jowhar," the Mogadishu faction said in a statement released here Wednesday.
Yusuf and his prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi face huge opposition from the warlords over their plan to base the central administration in Jowhar, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of the capital.
The pair argue that Mogadishu, the center of violence that has ravaged Somalia for the past 14 years, is too unsafe.
The warlords, who are also ministers in the splintered government, said they agreed to negotiations after a recent meeting in Mogadishu that discussed ways of ending division in Somalia.
The date and venue are yet to be fixed but the warlords said the talks will take place at a mutually agreed venue -- either in Somalia or abroad, while their foes in Jowhar insist the parley will take place at home.
"We urge our neighbour countries to play a positive and neutral role in bringing together the Transitional Federal institutions (TFIs) to restore the Somali State," the warlord's statement added.
They were apparently referring to Ethiopia which has backed Yusuf's faction.
In addition, they called on the international community, which has shown fatigue over Somali affairs, to continue supporting efforts to restore nomalcy in the shattered nation, home of nearly 10 million people.
The last attempt to restore peace in Somalia ended in Kenya last year with the election of a president, parliament and formation of a government, but it has remained divided.
New Sri Lanka president wants direct peace talks with rebel leader
Associated Press 11/18/05
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, elected the new president of Sri Lanka by a slim margin, said Friday he wanted to hold face-to-face peace talks with the secretive leader of the rebel Tamil Tigers in an effort to end two decades of civil war.
Throughout the campaign, Rajapakse took a hard line on the rebels, and his victory in Thursday's vote clearly was aided by a Tiger boycott that kept thousands of minority Tamils, who overwhelmingly supported his dovish opponent, away from the polls.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Rajapakse said he wanted to hold talks with Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
It is a pledge that Rajapakse made throughout the campaign, but one that may be easier said than done - Prabhakaran rarely sees anyone outside a tight inner circle and makes only a single public appearance a year on Heroes' Day, a Tiger holiday honoring guerillas killed in the civil war.
Still, asked about his plans for Sri Lanka's stalled peace process, Rajapakse said: "I am ready to talk to the (Tigers), and I am ready to meet Prabhakaran."
Soon after unofficial results became public, opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe's campaign demanded re-votes in key northern districts where many Tamils did not vote, said party secretary N. K. Weeragoda. However, party officials later said the request had been rejected.
Rajapakse received 50 percent of the vote, compared with 48 percent for Wickremesinghe, election officials said.
"I will bring about an honorable peace to the country respecting all communities," Rajapakse said after being declared the winner.
The Prime Minister's Office appealed to the Sri Lankan people "to behave peacefully and celebrate the victory without harming opponents."
Balloting was smooth Thursday in western and southern parts of the island nation, and overall turnout was 75 percent, election officials said.
But in the north and east - territory of the feared rebels - grenade attacks, roadblocks and intimidation kept many Tamils from voting. Others heeded a boycott called by pro-rebel groups, which complained that neither of the main candidates would help them win a Tamil homeland in northeastern Sri Lanka.
The Tamils make up just under 20 percent of Sri Lanka's 19 million people but were potential kingmakers in the tightly contested election.
Wickremesinghe's softer line on peace talks with the rebels won him wide support among Tamils, a largely Hindu minority. He had signed a cease-fire with the rebels in 2002 as prime minister and had promised to strike a peace deal by granting Tamils a degree of autonomy.
Rajapakse's election as Sri Lanka's fifth president was "a setback for the peace process as you have a very polarized society," Wickremesinghe told reporters. "There will be a lot of question marks and uncertainty."
Officials said roadblocks and intimidation kept most of the 200,000 Tamils living in rebel territory from voting, and that many of the more than 2 million Tamils in government areas also stayed away from the polls.
Turnout was less than 1 percent in and around the northern Tamil city of Jaffna - the lowest ever in any of the Indian Ocean country's 22 districts.
That clearly helped Rajapakse, who turned 60 Friday.
From the campaign's outset, Rajapakse promised peace but pledged to take a tough line on the rebels, saying he would never allow the establishment of an autonomous Tamil homeland in the northeast or share $2 billion in tsunami aid with the insurgents. He has said the tsunami relief effort should be run by the government.
The Dec. 26 tsunami killed at least 31,000 people in Sri Lanka and swept away the homes or livelihoods of 1 million others. The Tigers want to run relief efforts in their territory and have repeatedly demanded access to some of the promised tsunami aid.
The Tigers took up arms in 1983 over discrimination against Tamils by the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Nearly 65,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
The 2002 cease-fire ended major fighting, but peace talks stalled in disagreement over the Tigers' demands for broad autonomy, and clashes - especially between the Tigers and a breakaway faction - have intensified.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
AU welcomes Sudanese government approval to deploy more Canadian APCs in Darfur
Associated Press 11/15/05
Sudan approved on Tuesday the deployment of 70 Canadian armored personnel carriers in the troubled western Sudan region of Darfur to help peacekeepers there, after U.S. officials criticised the Khartoum government of holding up the move.
The APCs are aimed at helping some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur who have been unable to stem an increase in violence because they lack the means for rapid movement and other hardware and don't have enough troops.
Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim announced the approval in a statement published Tuesday in the al-Rai al-Amm and Al-Adwaa newspapers, underlining "the Sudanese government's commitment to facilitate the AU mission in Darfur to bring peace to the region."
An African Union spokesman in Khartoum, Noureddine Mezni, welcomed the approval, saying the 70 APCs being donated by Canada were expected to reach Darfur in five weeks. Some of them will be deployed in el-Fasher, the capital of northern Darfur, and in Nyala town in the southern part of the region, he said.
Thirty-five other Canadian APCs have already been approved for deployment in Darfur, but the remaining 70 were delayed. Earlier this month, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi E. Frazer told a House subcommittee that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was responsible for the holdup, bringing sharp criticism from congressmembers.
Ibrahim appealed to donor nations to help in improving the airports in Darfur which cannot handle heavy planes bringing needed equipment and gear to the AU troops.
The United Nations estimates that 180,000 people have died, mainly through famine and disease. Several million more have either fled into neighboring Chad or been displaced inside Sudan. The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when two African rebel groups took up arms against the Sudanese government amid accusations of repression and unfair distribution of wealth.
Two Sudan troops to hang for Darfur murder
Agence France Presse 11/16/05
Two Sudanese soldiers have been sentenced to death by a special court set up to try crimes in the country's western strife-torn Darfur region for murdering a civilian there, SUNA news agency said Wednesday.
The special tribunal in Al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur, found Lance Corporal Bekheit Mohamed Bekheit and Lance Corporal Abdel Malik Abdallah Mohamed guilty of the premeditated murder of Adam Idriss Mohamed Hamid.
The soldiers arrested Hamid in Darfur last year on suspicion of involvement with the Darfur rebellion. Witnesses said they saw the troops beat Hamid severely after which he died.
The men have two weeks to appeal the sentence of death by hanging.
The Special Criminal Tribunal, which began work in June, was set up to avoid cases of alleged human rights violations carried out in Darfur being brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Darfur rebels have little faith in the courts set up by Khartoum, saying they will only try common law cases, such as murder, rather than cases of alleged crimes against humanity.
Rebels in Darfur launched an armed uprising against Khartoum in early 2003, demanding greater political and economy from the central government.
Successive rounds of African Union-sponsored peace talks have so far failed to end the conflict, which has left some 300,000 people dead and displaced nearly 2.6 million, with Washington labelling the conflict there "genocide".
U.N. chief warns of complete lawlessness and anarchy in Sudan's volatile Darfur region
Associated Press 11/21/05
Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Monday that Sudan's volatile Darfur region faces an increasing threat of complete lawlessness and anarchy, and said it is crucial that the government and rebels conclude a peace agreement by the end of the year.
In his monthly report to the U.N. Security Council, Annan said "a dangerous increase" in violence in Darfur that began in September, and continued in October, is seriously affecting the delivery of humanitarian aid, and has claimed the lives of civilians and five members of the 6,700-strong African Union peacekeeping force.
"Civilians were again displaced from their villages, in some cases for the second or third time," Annan said. "Moreover, the looming threat of complete lawlessness and anarchy draws nearer, particularly in western Darfur, as warlords, bandits and militia groups grow more aggressive."
Annan said a further deterioration of the security situation can be averted only by rapidly consolidating the progress made at the sixth round of peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels which ended in October.
A new round of peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, was scheduled to begin on Monday but the Sudan News Agency reported Sunday that the talks had been postponed.
Majzoub Khalifa, the Sudanese negotiator, was quoted as saying he was told by the African Union that the talks could not resume Monday and a new date would be set. No reason was given for the postponement.
Annan's report, written before the announcement, stressed that "a political solution is paramount."
To reach a political solution, Annan said, the Sudanese and the international community must coordinate their efforts towards two goals.
"First, they need to lay the groundwork for a successful conclusion to the forthcoming seventh round of the Abuja talks," he said.
"This round should be final," Annan stressed. "It is crucial that a framework peace agreement be concluded before the end of the year."
It is also imperative that the international community, in coordination with the Sudanese parties, start planning immediately for the programs and assistance that will be needed to ensure the successful implementation of any peace agreement, he said.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when rebel groups took up arms against the government, accusing it of neglect and repression of Sudanese of African origin.
The government is accused of supporting a counterinsurgency led by an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, which has been blamed for widespread killing, rape and arson. The Sudanese government denies backing the Janjaweed.
The United Nations estimates that 180,000 people have died in the conflict, mainly through famine and disease. Several million more have either fled into neighboring Chad or inside Sudan.
Annan reported a sharp increase in violence in September, and "a continuation of this extremely worrying trend" in October. He accused both the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement and the government of continuing "to show a chronic disregard for both the letter and the spirit of the ceasefire agreements they have signed."
The poor security situation in western Darfur also risks internationalizing the conflict to neighboring Chad, Annan said.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
Click here to access the Report prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.