PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH
Monday, November 28, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 43)
Contents:
President Kocharian warned Azerbaijan that Yerevan could officially recognize the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh if status negotiations fail
Bosnia to create a stronger national government; U.S. demands handover of war criminals
Leaders of Bosnia's three major ethnic factions agreed Tuesday to consolidate power in a stronger national government
Human rights groups criticize upcoming vote in Chechnya
War-ravaged Chechnya chooses a parliament as Kremlin pushes for stability
Chechens voted Sunday in their first parliamentary elections since Russian troop occupation
Georgian president foresees NATO membership by 2008
Georgia seeks support for reforms two years after 'rose revolution'
Former Aceh rebels complete third phase of weapons surrender
Former separatist fighters in Indonesia's Aceh province on Tuesday handed over more weapons for destruction as part of peace pact
Aceh needs economic boost for sustained peace: former Indonesian diplomat
Indonesian government must improve economic opportunities for Acehnese to break from the poverty that has spurred violence in the past
African leaders leave war-divided Ivory Coast after talks, no prime minister named
India says no let-up in rebel infiltration from Pakistan
India said there had been no let-up in the number of militants sneaking into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani side despite pledges by Islamabad to seek to halt the flow
Pakistan quake should have been 'healing moment' for Kashmir: Bhutto
Despite earthquake, Kashmir politics have hindered relief efforts says Bhutto
Kosovo
Ethnic Albanian leaders insist on independence for Kosovo
Ethnic Albanian leaders told the chief U.N. negotiator they will not back down from their demands for full independence for Kosovo
International community cannot cut and run from Kosovo: UN envoy
The international community will be required to maintain a presence in Kosovo no matter what the outcome of talks on the province's future status: UN envoy
Protesters demand release of ethnic Albanian rebels tried by UN court
Thousands of ethnic Albanians rallied Monday to demand the release of three former Kosovo rebels tried for war crimes by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague
Macedonia good example for Kosovo: UN envoy
UN chief welcomes pact between Nepal parties, Maoists
UN chief Kofi Annan welcomed an accord between Nepalese opposition parties and Maoist rebels aimed at restoring democracy in the kingdom
Nepal politicians say king in "panic" over pact with Maoists
The government named by the king denounced late as "unholy" the alliance struck this week between the seven-party coalition and the Maoists
Montenegrin premier: future of Kosovo, Montenegro should be resolved by June
Tamil Tigers ease war fears in Sri Lanka as president renews talks offer
Tamil Tigers gave the new government of President Mahinda Rajapakse until year's end to come up with a "reasonable" political settlement or risk a war for full independence
Sudan's Darfur parties gather in Nigeria for new round of peace talks
Two rival faction of the main Darfur rebel group will both be represented at a new round of talks aimed at ending the fighting in the western region of Sudan
The New Rwanda
World's governments slow to react to Sudanese genocide
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis Click here to access the PILPG Report.
War-ravaged Chechnya chooses a parliament as Kremlin pushes for stability
Associated Press, 11/27/05
Chechens voted Sunday in their first parliamentary elections since Russia sent troops back to the Caucasus region six years ago to crush a separatist insurgency.
Moscow has touted the vote as the latest step toward restoring normalcy in the violence-wracked southern republic, but critics fear the new parliament will amount to a rubber stamp for the Chechnya's Kremlin-backed governing elites.
Few international observers were monitoring the election for flaws that have marred three previous votes.
Some 24,000 troops and police guarded 430 polling stations, with more patrolling most crossroads in western Chechnya and in the capital of Grozny.
Many of the republic's 600,000 voters said they hoped the new parliament would cement stability in a region plagued by widespread unemployment, a shattered infrastructure and lingering violence between separatist rebels and Russian forces.
"We're voting so that none of this ever happens again," said 52-year-old Bella as she waited at a Grozny bus stop with her 6-year-old granddaughter. She declined to give her last name out of fear for her safety.
There were 350 candidates vying for 58 seats in the two-chamber parliament, with most of Russia's main national political parties fielding contenders.
Rights activists fear the assembly will be packed with supporters of Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of late President Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in a May 2004 bombing. Ramzan Kadyrov, 29, controls a feared security force accused of abuses ranging from robberies to kidnappings, and he holds vast business interests in Chechnya's oil industry.
Electoral authorities said preliminary turnout was 57 percent, the Ekho Moskvy radio reported. But the pro-separatist KavkazCenter Web site claimed turnout was dramatically lower - between 5 and 7 percent - and denounced the elections as a "farce." The Web site did not indicate how it arrived at its figure.
In Grozny, rows of blasted-out apartment blocks and piles of scrap and rubble serve as reminders of the heavy fighting that nearly razed the city of 1 million people in the early 1990s. In some areas, new, multistory buildings stand out with bright paint, modern exteriors and neat landscaping.
"We are sick of this," said Salambek Imolayev, a 45-year-old Grozny resident who earns $220 a month as a water delivery man and lives in a crumbling one-room apartment with his wife and three children. "The elections give us something."
An estimated 100,000 civilians, soldiers and rebels have died in two wars in Chechnya since federal troops first swept into the region in 1994 to crush its bid for independence.
Russia's forces withdrew after a humiliating defeat in 1996 but stormed back three years later after Chechen rebels raided a neighboring Russian region and were blamed for a series of deadly apartment building bombings.
Moscow hopes Sunday's elections will serve as a catalyst for peace.
The Kremlin says three previous votes since March 2003 - two for president and one a constitutional referendum - show a return to normalcy, as do a recent rock concert, the construction of a new water amusement park, Grozny's successful professional soccer team and a boxing tournament opened in September by Mike Tyson.
"You can't just stand in one place. Life goes on," said Supen Tachoyev, 47, in the village of Alkhanyurt, west of Grozny. "God willing, things will change. You have to hope for something."
Other Chechens doubted the vote would improve their lives in a land of at least 60 percent unemployment, regular attacks on troops and police and skirmishes between feuding criminal gangs vying for some of Chechnya's substantial oil wealth.
Fueling fears are rampant abductions blamed on gangs, Russian troops and paramilitaries. Nearly 1,700 people kidnapped in recent years are still missing, government officials say.
Marina Makhchiyeva, 59, said two of her sons were killed during the region's second war and her third son died after being beaten by suspected paramilitaries."I'm sick of burying my children," she said, selling onions, cigarettes and dried fish in Assinovskaya, a village 30 miles west of Grozny. She planned to vote later Sunday, but said "nothing is going to change. This is Chechnya, nothing ever changes."
Georgia seeks support for reforms two years after 'rose revolution'
Agence France Presse, 11/23/05
Georgia appealed Wednesday for international support for its political reforms as the country marked the second anniversary of its "rose revolution," the first popular revolt to produce a change of national government in the former Soviet republics.
"The political processes in Georgia after the 'rose revolution' are going to develop," Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said in a speech before an international conference in Tbilisi on new democracies in Europe."We have today a unique historical chance to support our fragile democracy. Georgia's success depends on our strengths and abilities, but at the same time we need your support," Bezhuashvili told the conference attended by politicians, diplomats and academics from eastern and western Europe.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his counterparts from Ukraine, Estonia and Romania marked the occasion by laying the first stone in a new monument of the country's patron Saint George on Freedom Square.
Saakashvili, who led the peaceful revolt overthrowing former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze and was then elected president in January 2004, also called on Western institutions to help Georgia's integration and to "enlarge the zone of democracy."
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who on Tuesday was celebrating the first anniversary of his own country's "orange revolution," congratulated "the Georgian and Ukrainian people who got off their knees." He added that Kiev's West-looking policies "are not aimed against anybody."
Bezhuashvili said that while Georgia was a small country it was also one of strategic importance due to its geographical location at the heart of the Caucasus region bordered by Russia to the north, Turkey to the west, Iran to the south and the Caspian Sea and Central Asia to the east.
In a reflection of thorny relations with Russia since the pro-Western revolution, parliament has begun considering a withdrawal by Georgia from the Moscow-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States.
"We are unhappy with what is happening in this organisation. Agreements reached within the CIS are not being fulfilled," parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze said, stressing Georgian concerns about the role of Russian troops in the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The troops patrol under a CIS mandate but are accused of siding with the separatists against Georgia.
Former Aceh rebels complete third phase of weapons surrender
Agence France Presse, 11/22/05
Former separatist fighters in Indonesia's Aceh province on Tuesday handed over more weapons for destruction as part of their historic peace pact with the government.
The ex-rebels met their commitment to hand over 75 percent of their arsenal by the end of the third of four disarmament phases, the military said.
The members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) handed over 57 weapons in the town of Takengon, bringing the total weapons surrendered in the third phase to 386."With this handover by the GAM, 75 percent of the (weapon) destruction has been completed," said Aceh military commander Supiadin.
Under the pact signed in August in Helsinki, GAM will hand over its total arsenal of 840 firearms for destruction.
In return the government will proportionately pull out all its non-local military and police units, leaving only 14,700 soldiers and 9,100 police.
The fourth and final phase will take place in mid-December.
The conflict had claimed about 15,000 lives, most of them civilians, after GAM began its struggle for an independent state in 1976.
Under the accord, GAM dropped its demand for independence in exchange for a form of local government in Aceh, a province of about four million people.
Some 3,000 former guerrillas have received state financial aid to help them reintegrate into society, foreign peace monitors said.
The "economic facilitation packages" were distributed by local governments to former fighters throughout the province, the Aceh Monitoring Mission said in a statement.
The packages, worth one million rupiah (about 100 dollars) each, were granted by the government as part of its pledges under the peace deal. The assistance follows earlier support for prisoners who were released under an amnesty.
The statement also said Jakarta had recently agreed to a proposed budget for longer term support in Aceh. It provides funds for land, housing and job training for former combatants and prisoners.
Support for a wide range of other victims of the conflict is also included in the budget, as well as some investment in new schools, roads and religious buildings in the worst hit areas.
The peace pact was spurred by the December 2004 tsunami disaster, which left 131,000 people dead in the province.
Aceh needs economic boost for sustained peace: former Indonesian diplomat
Associated Press, 11/23/05
Indonesia's Aceh province needs jobs in addition to the peace agreement reached between separatist rebels and Jakarta in August to put a conclusive end to 29 years of conflict, a former senior Indonesian diplomat said Wednesday.
The Indonesian government must improve economic opportunities for Acehnese to break from the poverty that has spurred violence in the past, said Wiryono Sastrohandoyo, who two years ago represented Indonesia in failed peace talks with Aceh's separatist rebels.
"The peace agreement is there, but if the people's stomachs are not filled and the pockets are not filled," a state of peace would be hard to sustain, Wiryono said at a seminar in Singapore."So job creation is very important, the economic life has to be restored, and investment has to come," Wiryono said. "It's not enough only to work on the agreement."
Separatists have said their struggle was triggered by economic exploitation by the central government, as well as torture and other heavy-handed tactics by the Indonesian military.
Under the peace accord signed in August in Helsinki, Finland, the government will withdraw 24,000 police and soldiers in exchange for the handover of 840 weapons by the rebel Free Aceh Movement. Both commitments must be completed by the end of the year.
On Tuesday, former Aceh rebels completed a third round of weapons decommissioning as part of the deal. The Indonesian government plans to complete its third round of troop withdrawals by Friday.
Also outlined in the Helsinki pact was the granting of wide-ranging autonomy to Aceh, with promises the Indonesian government would consult and cooperate with Acehnese authorities when making decisions or entering international agreements that affect the region.
Peace efforts picked up speed after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck the area on Dec. 26, 2004, killing 131,000 people in the province and leaving half a million others homeless. Another 37,000 are missing and presumed dead.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Pakistan quake should have been 'healing moment' for Kashmir: Bhutto
Agence France Presse, 11/27/05
The earthquake in Pakistan could have helped break the political stalemate with India over disputed Kashmir, former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto said Sunday.
Bhutto criticised the response of President Pervez Musharraf's military regime to the October 8 disaster as too slow and claimed a civilian government would have been "more responsive" to people's needs.
"When the earthquake took place in ... a political faultline (Kashmir), the Indian government offered to help Pakistan but initially we refused the help," Bhutto told BBC television."Now, when people are dying, you don't really look at who's offering the help. You take it. The first issue should be to help the people."
India and Pakistan agreed last month to open five border crossing points along the UN-designated Line of Control dividing Kashmir between the two countries.
The accord -- signed after the 7.6-magnitude quake that killed more than 73,000 people in northern Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir and left millions homeless -- also allowed aid convoys to access the region.
Bhutto -- who governed Pakistan between 1988 and 1990 and again from 1993 to 1995 -- drew comparison with earthquakes in Turkey, when Greece was swift in offering help.
Stating that the Pakistan earthquake should have been a "healing moment" for Kashmir, she said of the developments on the border: "It was too little, too late".
"Not enough advantage was taken of the momentum for bringing people together that could have taken place."
Bhutto said a military regime was concerned primarily with security whereas "a political regime believes in peace, so the borders aren't tense and they can really use the resources of the state on the poor people".
"There are dangers inherent in a military regime which make it difficult to be responsive to the needs of the people."
Bhutto -- who lives in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai and is currently facing money laundering allegations, which she strenously denies -- also called for an increased aid effort to affected regions as winter sets.
She also expressed fear that if not enough was done, extremist groups could fill the "vacuum".
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Ethnic Albanian leaders insist on independence for Kosovo
Associated Press, 11/22/05
Ethnic Albanian leaders told the chief U.N. negotiator Tuesday they will not back down from their demands for full independence for Kosovo, even as they prepare for crucial talks on the province's political future.
The leaders presented Martti Ahtisaari with a document outlining their positions ahead of the status negotiations, setting independence as the ultimate goal but also outlining their willingness to cooperate with the international community and eventually join the European Union and NATO.
Kosovo, legally part of Serbia-Montenegro, has been administered by the U.N. since 1999, when NATO's aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia halted a Serb military crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province.
Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, is mediating between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, which wants independence, and the Serb minority, which insists the province remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia. About 100,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, in a population of about 2 million people."I insist in the direct recognition of Kosovo's independence that will calm down the region," Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova said after Tuesday's meeting. "The time has come to wrap up this business."
The talks are likely to increase tensions in the deeply polarized region and there are fears extremists could try to disrupt the U.N.-sponsored process.
The meeting, held in Rugova's residence, was also attended by Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi, two opposition leaders and the parliamentary speaker.
The document presented to Ahtisaari also speaks of securing guarantees for minority rights and reforming local government in order to guarantee minorities can have a say over their affairs, Rugova said.
Ahtisaari, who is to end his visit to Kosovo on Wednesday, is also scheduled to meet Serb religious leaders in the province later Tuesday at the 14th century Orthodox monastery in Decani, a World Heritage Site and one of the best preserved Serb religious monuments.
He also plans to travel to the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and neighboring Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro in the coming days.
Ahtisaari, appointed by the U.N. earlier this month, has been tasked to mediate the process that is expected to close the final chapter on the ethnic and sectarian wars that shook the region following the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
So far, no timeline has been set for the talks. Ahtisaari will set up an office in Vienna by January to administer the peace process, which will involve shuttle diplomacy between Pristina and Belgrade, before he attempts to bring the two sides together around the same table.
A handful of protesters from an ethnic Albanian youth group opposed to the talks with Serbia spilled fake blood outside the entrance of Rugova's residence and surrounded it with yellow "crime scene" tape, implying that a crime was taking place by negotiating Kosovo's future.
The red paint was meant to represent the blood of the ethnic Albanians who died in the 1998-1999 war with Serbia.
International community cannot cut and run from Kosovo: UN envoy
Agence France Presse, 11/26/05
The international community will be required to maintain a presence in Kosovo no matter what the outcome of talks on the province's future status, a UN envoy said Saturday.
Whether it gains independence for its ethnic Albanian majority or remains part of Serbia, the UN-administered province will continue to need international assistance in the years ahead, Martti Ahtisaari said."Whatever the status is going to be I think we all recognise that there is going to be a presence of the international community in Kosovo for quite some time from now," he told a press conference here.
Ahtisaari, the UN's point man for the difficult talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian negotiators, was speaking after meeting Montenegrin leaders including President Filip Vujanovic and Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.
Montenegro is tied in a loose union with its larger sister republic Serbia, an arrangement that forms the last vestige of the Yugoslav federation that collapsed in a series of inter-ethnic wars in the 1990s.
The 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict between separatist ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Serbian security forces under then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic cost some 10,000 lives.
It ended with a NATO bombing campaign to force the withdrawal of Serbian troops and allow the establishment of a UN administration in the province, which remains technically part of Serbia.
Ahtisaari said UN-set standards of democracy, particularly the protection of ethnic minorities such as Serbs, had to be achieved for the talks to succeed.
Kosovo's Serbs complain that since the arrival of NATO peacekeepers they have been the targets of constant harassment and violence from the ethnic Albanian majority.
"In order to make progress in these talks it is important to make progress on the standards and that is why so many actions by the Kosovo Albanians are needed, but also the cooperation of the minority groups including Serbs," he said.
Ahtisaari praised the consultative role of the Albanian government in the talks."I think it's very appropriate the role the Albanian government has played, I am very pleased about that," he said."The Albanian government is active but not an actor and that gives a good chance for me to consult with the government on the basic situation and how they expect us to proceed".
Ahtisaari is on his first trip to the region, which has already involved talks with top Serbian and Kosovo officials.
On Wednesday the UN envoy, appointed to head the talks earlier this month, ruled out a time limit for the negotiations and said it was too early to begin face-to-face discussions between the opposing camps.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership demands unconditional independence but Belgrade insists the province is an inalienable part of Serbian territory and culture.
Protesters demand release of ethnic Albanian rebels tried by UN court
Associated Press, 11/28/05
Thousands of ethnic Albanians rallied Monday to demand the release of three former Kosovo rebels tried for war crimes by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, just days before the verdict in their case is to be handed down.
The protesters marched through the center of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, carrying banners in support of former rebel commander-turned-politician Fatmir Limaj and two other former members of the now-defunct Kosovo Liberation Army.
The three face charges of imprisonment, torture and murder of civilians at the Lapusnik prison camp during the 1998-99 war with Serbia's security forces. The defendants - Limaj, Haradin Bala and Isak Musliu - were all arrested in February 2003 and have pleaded innocent to those charges.
The case marks the first time the tribunal has tried ethnic Albanian rebels who operated as NATO's auxiliaries during the 1999 war with Serbia. The tribunal announced it will deliver the verdict in their case on Nov. 30.
The protest was organized by war veteran associations and student unions. Over the past few days, the groups have put up posters with Limaj's picture and slogans of "awaiting freedom" throughout the city.
During their hourlong march, protesters held flags, banners and chanted the names of the accused.
"We are convinced of their innocence," said Faik Fazliu, one of the organizers of the protest. "The accusations against them are politically motivated."
The conflict in Kosovo - a Serbian province with a majority ethnic Albanian population - erupted in 1998 after years of inter-ethnic tensions.
The fighting ended after NATO's 1999 bombing campaign against government forces forced former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to pull his troops out of the province of two million people.
Although Kosovo technically remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that has replaced Yugoslavia, it has been administered since the NATO airstrikes by a U.N. mission and patrolled by NATO-led peacekeepers.
The U.N. war crimes court so far brought charges against six ethnic Albanian rebels, including Kosovo's former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, who faces 36 counts for his wartime role.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kosovo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Nepal politicians say king in "panic" over pact with Maoists
Agence France Presse, 11/24/05
Nepal's opposition party alliance said Thursday that King Gyanendra has been thrown into panic by its pact with Maoist rebels aimed at restoring democracy in the Himalayan kingdom.
The government named by the king denounced late Wednesday as "unholy" the alliance struck this week between the seven-party coalition and the Maoists in which the rebels said they were willing to join the political mainstream.
King Gyanendra nine months ago dismissed a coalition government and seized executive power in what he said was a bid to quell an increasingly deadly revolt by the Maoists aimed at toppling the monarchy.
"The unholy 12-point alliance-Maoist compact frames an agreement to abolish the monarchy through elections to a constituent assembly," said the government statement carried by the official RSS news agency.
The state-run newspaper Rising Nepal carried the statement in its Thursday edition while the independent Himalayan Times called the pact a "historic development" in an editorial.
"The government has started to panic now," said Krishna Prasad Sitaula, spokesman for the Nepali Congress, the largest political party.
"The government wants to prolong its undemocratic regime. It's not serious about ending the conflict," added Minendra Rijal, a leader of the Nepali Congress-Democratic, part of the four-party coalition sacked by Gyanendra.
Striking a more conciliatory note following the official government statement, the vice-chairman of the council of ministers, Kirti Nidhi Bista, later said "the parties' and the Maoists' agreement should be praised."
Speaking to reporters at a function in Kathmandu, Bista said the government was seriously studying the agreement and would make its view public."Everybody must make efforts for peace. If they [the alliance and the Maoists] contribute to the peace process, there is nothing objectionable about it," Bista said.
On Tuesday the opposition alliance and rebels announced plans for a joint campaign to end the king's direct rule. But the parties said they would wait for the Maoists to follow through with a pledge to lay down arms before launching the movement.
Under the agreement the Maoists, who have been fighting to turn Nepal into a one-party communist state, would lay down their arms under UN or other international supervision while a new constitution was drafted.
Various details of the deal still must be worked out but UN chief Kofi Annan has welcomed the accord and urged the Maoists to continue a three-month unilateral truce they declared in September.
Gyanendra's power grab in February drew international condemnation and sparked widespread protests across the nation, one of the world's poorest, where the Maoist insurgency has claimed more than 12,500 lives since 1996.
"The government is annoyed peace has a chance in Nepal now," Rijal said.
Jhalnath Khanal, a leader of the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist, said the government's initial response showed it "is very scared."
Lok Raj Baral, who teaches politics at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University, called the government's hostile official reaction "natural." "The pact is against the regime's interests because the government is not elected," said Baral. "It's quite natural from their side to criticize the pact since they don't represent the people."
Maoist leader Prachanda, or "the fierce one", said in an statement this week the rebels were "fully committed to bring the armed conflict to an end and establish permanent peace after ending the autocratic monarchy." The parties so far are not demanding an end to the monarchy but want its powers curbed.
Prachanda said the Maoists were committed to joining "a new political mainstream."
Krishna Khanal, politics professor at Tribhuvan University, said the pact could be a turning point."Before, the Maoists were engaged in insurgency and the parties were fighting for democracy through peaceful means. But now the two forces have come together to make democracy their common agenda," he said.
If "the government takes the pact positively, then there may a way out. Otherwise, it will be a decisive confrontation," Khanal said.
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Montenegrin premier: future of Kosovo, Montenegro should be resolved by June
Associated Press 11/24/05
Montenegro's pro-independence Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said Thursday both the issue of Kosovo's final status and independence for his Balkan republic should be resolved by next June.
Djukanovic's spoke on the eve of his meeting with chief U.N. mediator for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, currently visiting the region for his first round of talks with the two sides.
Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president appointed to mediate between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and Serbia, is expected in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, on Friday evening, after meetings with officials in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
Djukanovic said he would tell Ahtisaari that although Kosovo and Montenegro are "not firmly connected issues, they should both be resolved preferably by the first half of next year, to ensure stability in the Balkans."
Djukanovic also reiterated an earlier offer by his government, saying Montenegro could delay a formal break with Serbia until June 2006, if its people voted for independence in a plebiscite next spring.
On Thursday, Djukanovic told reporters the ballot would under no circumstances be delayed - just the ceremonial proclamation of independence for this republic of 600,000.
"A delay of a couple of months would not be such a huge sacrifice for Montenegro," he said. "It would show our readiness to cooperate and take into account European strategic interests."
Montenegro remained in a loose union with Serbia after other four states of the former Yugoslavia split in early 1990s but ties between the two have since deteriorated, with Montenegro's leaders pushing for independence. The EU has tried to talk Montenegro out of opting for secession, fearing it could trigger new Balkan tensions.
Kosovo, inhabited mainly by independence-seeking ethnic Albanians, formally remains a province of Serbia but is administered by the United Nations.
In Kosovo on Wednesday, Ahtisaari gave no time limit for when Kosovo's status would be resolved, saying that depends only on how fast the two sides move forward in the negotiations.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.
Sudan's Darfur parties gather in Nigeria for new round of peace talks
Associated Press 11/28/05
Two rival faction of the main Darfur rebel group will both be represented at a new round of talks aimed at ending the fighting in the western region of Sudan, an African Union official said Monday.
A split in the Sudanese Liberation Movement has been blamed for an upsurge in violence in Darfur and had proved an obstacle during the last round of AU-mediated talks, which ended in October. The new round was initially scheduled to resume on Nov. 21 but was postponed until Tuesday.
Both factions resolved at a meeting in Chad over the weekend to attend the talks with one common negotiating platform. But both factions' leaders - Minni Minnawi and Abdel Wahid Nur - were in Abuja for the talks.
"It was agreed that the two factions should be represented," said AU spokesman Nouredinne Mezni.
Earlier this month, Minnawi organized a congress at which he was elected president, removing Nur as chairman. Since then, both have claimed leadership. U.S., U.N. European and AU officials have pressed the factions to resolve their differences, saying they are undermining the peace process and risk losing international credibility and support.
The Sudanese government delegation was expected in Abuja later Monday in preparation for Tuesday's talks.
On Monday, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir urged all parties to the conflict to work toward peace.
"We believe that time is now ripe and it is imperative that the coming round of (talks) in Abuja be successful," al-Bashir said during a speech at the inaugural sitting in Khartoum, Sudan of the country's new unity parliament.
The Sudanese parliament includes former southern rebels and was established under an agreement struck in January to end more than two decades of north-south war. That war was unrelated to the Darfur conflict, but its resolution fueled hope that fighting in the west also could be resolved at the peace table.
After decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water 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. The central government denies links to the Janjaweed.
The New Rwanda
The New York Times 11/28/05
Who says George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have nothing in common? Just as President Clinton did on Rwanda, President Bush is doing precious little to try to stop a genocide in Darfur. Indeed, this entire generation of world leaders has a dismal record at intervening in this kind of wholesale murder, and now they are failing to stop the elimination of entire African tribes in the Sudan countryside.
Obviously, most of the blame here can be laid squarely at the door of Sudan's government. Sudan has armed and supplied the militia groups who have been going from village to village, hut to hut, and systematically raping and murdering women, men and even children.
The Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reports that last month, members of the janjaweed militia attacked the village of Tama in southern Darfur, killing 37 people, with another 12 still missing. In one particularly gruesome case, the marauders yanked 2-year old Zahra Abdullah from the back of her mother, Fatima Omar Adam, as Ms. Fatima tried to escape with her children. They bludgeoned the little girl on the ground in front of her screaming mother and sister. Ms. Fatima eventually escaped with two of her children, but was forced to leave Zahra to die at the hands of the janjaweed.
In another column, Mr. Kristof wrote that Arab men in military uniforms gang-raped Noura Moussa, saying, ''We cannot let black people live in this land.'' Ms. Noura said the men called her a slave and added, ''We can kill any members of African tribes.''
The shocking fact is, apparently they can. The Sudanese government is enabling them, and the rest of the world isn't doing much to stop it. It's the same old Rwanda story, with the same indifference from the world's governments.
Genocide in Darfur: A Legal Analysis
Click here to access the Report prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.