Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH 

Thursday, February 19, 2009 

Volume VIII, Number 7 

In this issue: 

Afghanistan 

Deadly assault in Kabul 'troubling' 

Agence France Presse, 2/11/09 

Bombs kill Afghan district chief, four police 


Amnesty for 60 Taliban 


Armenia 

Head of Azerbaijan's air force killed 

Aida Sultanova, Associated Press, 2/11/09 

Armenian position on Karabakh doesn't help settlement process 

Interfax news Agency, 2/12/09 

U.S. OSCE Minsk Group co-chairman's remark on N. Karabakh premature 


Learn about PILPG’s work in Armenia 

Bosnia and Herzegovina 

Serbia protests suspension of war crimes trial 

Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press, 2/12/09 

Serbian minister predicts Mladic's arrest this year 


UN judges approve new Karadzic indictment 

Mike Corder, Associated Press, 2/16/09 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Bosnia and Herzegovina 

Burma 

Burma extends detention of deputy opposition leader 


UN human rights envoy visits Burma's Karen state 

Associate Press, 2/15/09 

US looks for better way to sway Burma 


Learn about PILPG’s work in Burma 

Burundi 

Burundi parliament approves new electoral commission 


Chechnya 

4 police, 3 insurgents killed in Russia clash 

Sergei Venyavsky, Associated Press, 2/12/09

Chechen murder threatens torture case against Kadyrov 

Luc Andre, Agence France Presse, 2/14/09 

Chechen rebel returns and denounces insurgency 

Jim Heintz, Associated Press, 2/17/09 

Cyprus 

EU lawmakers urge Turkey to speed Cyprus cooperation 


Cyprus talks can succeed 


US senator offers help in Cyprus peace talks 

Menelaos Hadjicostis, Associated Press, 2/17/09 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Cyprus 

Democratic Republic of the Congo 

Peace before justice, Congo minister tells ICC 


Rwandan Hutu rebel commanders surrender 

Aimable Twahirwa, Agence France Presse, 2/13/09 

US praises operation against Hutu rebels in DR Congo 


Access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by PILPG 

Georgia 

Russia remains 'dangerous enemy' of Georgia 


UN extends Georgia cease-fire observer mission 

John Heilprin, Associated Press, 2/13/09 

Russians, Georgians resume security talks 


Learn about PILPG’s work in Georgia 

Indonesia 

Former rebel gunned down in Indonesia's Aceh 

Associated Press, 2/13/09 

Access the Indonesia/Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by PILPG 

Ivory Coast 

I Coast president's ex-secretary jailed for fraud 


Kashmir 

Police say clashes wound 18 in Indian Kashmir 


Kashmir opens airport to international traffic 

Izhar Wani, Agence France Presse, 2/14/09 

US envoy's India visit focuses on Pakistan 

Elizabeth Roche, Agence France Presse, 2/16/09 

Access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation prepared by PILPG 

Kosovo 

Serbia okay on Kosovo in financial bodies 


Serbia insists that Kosovo is not a country 

Jovana Gec, Associated Press, 2/170/9

Kosovo marks 1 year of independence from Serbia 

Nebi Qena, Associated Press, 2/170/9 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Kosovo 

Liberia 

Liberia's president apologizes to nation 

Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Associated Press, 2/12/09 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Liberia 

Macedonia 

EU mulls economic support for crisis-hit Balkans 


Former war crime suspect to run for Macedonian president 


Moldova 

Transdniestria rejects settlement documents proposed by Moldovan leader 


Some Transdniestrian officials banned from entry into EU 


Learn about PILPG’s work in Montenegro 

Morocco 

UN envoy to head for Western Sahara talks 

Gerard Aziakou, Agence France Presse, 2/17/09 

Nepal 

US may take Nepali ruling party off terrorism list 

Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press, 2/11/09 

Small bomb hits UN office in Nepal 


Learn about PILPG’s work in Nepal 

Philippines 

2 Filipinos charged with aiding top terrorists 

Jim Gomez, Associated Press, 2/12/09 

Philippines calls on MILF to return to peace table 


Learn about PILPG’s work in the Philippines 

Somalia 

Overcrowding at Kenya refugee camp must be tackled 


Somali parliament endorses new prime minister 


Learn about PILPG’s work in Somalia 

Sri Lanka 

Sri Lanka elections back govt offensive on rebels 


Sri Lanka rebels sign up child soldiers for final battle 

Amal Jayasinghe, Agence France Presse, 2/17/09 

Tamil MPs say Sri Lanka ignoring civilian safety 

Bharatha Mallawarachi, Associated Press, 2/17/09 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Sri Lanka

Sudan 

Drilling in the dust changes lives in south Sudan 

Peter Martell, Agence France Presse, 2/15/09 

Sudanese anxious over possible Beshir genocide charges 

Guillaume Lavallee, Agence France Presse, 2/15/09 

Sudan, Darfur rebel group sign peace framework 

Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press, 2/17/09 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Sudan 

Uganda 

Congo town mounts own defense against rebels 

Michelle Faul, Associated Press, 2/13/09 

LRA fighters trapped 


7,000 Congolese refugees flee to Uganda 


Peace Negotiations Watch is a weekly publication detailing current events relating to conflict and peace 

processes in selected countries. It is prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) 

and made possible by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ploughshares Fund. 

Afghanistan 

Deadly assault in Kabul 'troubling' 


A wave of deadly attacks on government offices in the Afghan capital are "troubling" and the 

latest sign of a Taliban bid to undermine the Kabul government, a Pentagon spokesman said 

on Wednesday. 

"These attacks were somewhat bold and brazen and troubling," Bryan Whitman told 

reporters. 

He said the US military would be "taking a look at these type of activities for any patterns." 

The coordinated suicide bomb and gun attacks on three Afghan government buildings on 

Wednesday killed at least 26 people and wounded 55 others in violence that spread panic 

across the city. 

"I'm sure the Afghan government will be taking a look at all aspects of this attack to find out 

why it was as successful as it was," he said. 

"It was clearly a tragic series of attacks that took place." 

He said that "terrorists have the advantage when you have people willing to kill themselves."

Whitman said he could not discuss possible security steps taken by NATO forces in 

Afghanistan in response to the assault by Taliban militants. 

He added that the Taliban was seeking to sabotage the Afghan government. 

"I think we've seen activity in the last several weeks that demonstrates the Taliban is still 

making attempts to go after the successes of the (Afghan) government." 

The assault came after a report issued earlier this month by the Defense Department that 

warned US-led forces lacked the troops and resources to control the south of the country, and 

that a rejuvenated insurgency was gaining momentum. 

The report to Congress predicted the insurgents would most likely try to stage a high-profile 

attack, similar to the failed assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai in April 

2008. 

Bombs kill Afghan district chief, four police 


A roadside bomb killed a district chief in eastern Afghanistan Saturday while four policemen 

died in another blast blamed on Taliban insurgents in the volatile south, police said. 

The bloodshed came as new US envoy Richard Holbrooke was due to meet President Hamid 

Karzai in Kabul as part of wide-ranging talks to review the US role in the effort to defeat 

Taliban violence. 

A bomb was remotely detonated to explode as the chief of Nadir Shah Kot district in eastern 

Khost province left his home, a provincial police officer, Gul Dad, told AFP. 

The chief, Batiul Zaman Sabari, died of his wounds in a US military hospital, he said. His 

driver and a guard were also wounded. 

Sabari was attacked while on his way to a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the 

withdrawal of the Soviet army, the police officer said. 

It was not known who carried out the attack. Eastern Afghanistan, however, sees regular 

violence blamed on Taliban insurgents. 

In the volatile south, where a Taliban insurgency is also intense, four policemen were killed 

Friday in a bomb blast 10 kilometers (six miles) outside of the city of Kandahar, police said. 

"This was the work of the enemies of Afghanistan," Kandahar police chief Mutiullah Qateh 

told AFP, using a term that refers most often to the Taliban.

Roadside bombs are a key Taliban weapon against government and international forces in an 

insurgency that has gained pace since the hardliners were removed from government seven 

years ago. 

Amnesty for 60 Taliban 


The Afghan government announced Tuesday it had given amnesty to nearly 60 Taliban 

fighters who had agreed to lay down their weapons, as some of them claimed they were 

misled into jihad or "holy war". 

The men who received amnesty from the government's Commission for Peace and 

Reconciliation were the latest of nearly 7,680 over the past three years to agree to not fight 

the government, a commission official said. 

It comes after President Hamid Karzai again called last week at a security conference in 

Germany for Taliban who are not part of Al-Qaeda to give up the insurgency against his 

government, backed by thousands of foreign soldiers. 

Most of the men in the latest group covered their faces with large Afghan shawls at a 

ceremony at which they handed certificates of amnesty in return for pledges to not fight. 

The head of the commission, former Afghan president Sebghatullah Mujaddedi, urged them 

to stand by their commitment and not return to the militants, adding that the fighting was 

hurting mainly civilians. 

"It is the civilians who die every day here in suicide attacks or by government or foreign 

forces' bombing," he told the ceremony. 

Among the 7,680 who had accepted amnesty were 781 men who had been freed from 

detention at US military "war on terror" camps at Bagram in Afghanistan and Guantanamo 

Bay in Cuba, said commission official Mohammad Akram Mirhazar. 

One of the men at Tuesday's ceremony said he had been a Taliban for four years after being 

told by religious circles in Pakistan, where he had lived, that he should fight jihad in 

Afghanistan because of the presence of foreign troops. 

Qari Shair Wali also alleged that Pakistan's intelligence service was funding militant training 

centers in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. 

Afghans regularly make such allegations against the Inter-Services Intelligence bureau but 

they are rejected by the Pakistan government. 

Another man, Abdul Ghafar, also said he was misled by religious circles into calling for 

jihad.

"Now that we have realized this is an Islamic government, we gave up violence and joined 

the peace process. We call on other Taliban as well to give up fighting," he said. 

In the seven years since the Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led invasion, the insurgency 

has worsened despite the presence of thousands of international troops leading to calls for a 

non-military solution including peace talks. 

Return to Table of Contents 

Armenia 

Head of Azerbaijan's air force killed 

Aida Sultanova, Associated Press, 2/11/09 

A gunman fatally shot Azerbaijan's air force chief Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said the 

highest-level killing to hit the oil-rich country's armed forces in peacetime since the Soviet 

collapse. 

President Ilham Aliyev in televised comments called the slaying a "terrible crime" and said 

he would take personal control of the investigation. 

"I demand the law enforcement agencies find and hold responsible those who carried out and 

ordered this terrible crime," Aliyev said. 

Azerbaijan's chief military prosecutor, speaking from the rain-soaked site of the shooting 

outside Lt. Gen. Rail Rzayev's home in the capital, Baku, said authorities did not know the 

motive. 

Strategically located between Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan is a crucial link in Western efforts 

to reduce reliance on Russian energy exports and a target in Moscow's tug-of-war with the 

United States over regional influence. But there was no immediate sign of a link with that 

struggle. 

Tension with neighboring Armenia remains high 15 years after a cease-fire in a war that left 

Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh territory in ethnic Armenian hands. Ruled for most of the 

past 15 years by members of a single family, Azerbaijan has a rich history of alleged coup 

plots and political machinations. 

According to chief military prosecutor Khanlar Veliyev, Rzayev's driver told investigators 

both men were outside the general's home and the driver was throwing bag of garbage away 

at the request of his boss when he heard a gunshot. Veliyev said it appeared Rzayev died of a 

single gunshot wound to the head.

Rzayev had gotten into his car to be driven to work when he was shot, the private television 

station Lider reported. Veliyev said investigators were looking at security-camera footage 

from the home and searching the area for clues, but were hampered by the heavy rains that 

fell all night. 

Rzayev, 63, was a longtime Soviet military officer who became head of Azerbaijan's air force 

shortly after the country gained independence in the 1991 Soviet collapse. 

As air-defense forces chief, he had represented Azerbaijan in talks with Russia and the U.S. 

on Moscow's 2007 proposal to make a Soviet-built radar station in Azerbaijan part of a joint 

missile shield to protect against potential threat from, Iran. 

The Kremlin proposal failed to persuade the U.S. administration to abandon plans for missile 

defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Russian officials contend are 

actually aimed to weaken their country. 

Moscow uses the Gabala station as part of its early-warning system. It is renting the Gabala 

station until at least 2012, but is building a radar station in southern Russia as a potential 

alternative once that lease expires. 

The United States and European Union have cultivated warm ties with Azerbaijan because of 

its oil riches and its location on an energy export route bypassing Russia and Iran, and 

Azerbaijan is one of the few mostly Muslim countries that have sent troops to Iraq. But the 

U.S. and Europe have expressed concern over government treatment of opponents and 

independent media under Aliyev, who succeeded his long-ruling father in 2003 after an 

election the opposition said was rigged. 

Armenian position on Karabakh doesn't help settlement process 


The opinion of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan that there are no legal grounds to restore 

Azerbaijani jurisdiction over Karabakh does not help resolve the Karabakh problem, 

Azerbaijani Foreign ministry spokesman Khazar Ibragim told Interfax. 

"I do not know which notions the Armenian president implies, but Karabakh is an 

Azerbaijani territory from the legal and historical points of view," he said. 

"Azerbaijan does not bargain with its lands. It does not plan to waive an inch of its lands 

either," he said. 

"There is no Karabakh people. There is a Karabakh population made up of the Azerbaijani 

and Armenian communities," Ibragim said. 

As for another statement by Sargsyan, which proclaimed the absence of alternative to peace 

settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Ibragim said that Azerbaijan adhered to the same 

principle.

"However, the aforesaid statements by the Armenian president minimize the peaceful 

settlement potential. Azerbaijan has a full right to self-defense. If Armenia does not quit the 

position based on the aggression against another state, which, by the way, contradicts any 

laws, Azerbaijan will naturally use its right," Ibragim said. 

U.S. OSCE Minsk Group co-chairman's remark on N. Karabakh premature 


The Armenian Foreign Ministry believes recent remarks by Matthew Bryza, the U.S. cochairman 

of the OSCE Minsk Group mediating in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh 

conflict, was premature and could hamper the negotiating process. 

Bryza said in a recent interview that the drafting of an agreement settling the conflict was 

nearing completion. He suggested that the agreement should be based on the territorial 

integrity principle and should mention nations' right to self-determination and non-use of 

military force. 

"The purpose of this statement is unclear. You get the impression that such a commentary 

could have been made only to hinder the negotiating process on the Madrid proposals, which 

are based on three equally valuable principles of international law, such as non-use of force 

or a threat of such use, the right to self-determination, and territorial integrity," Armenian 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said. 

"Armenia has said repeatedly that a key issue of the conflict is the recognition and 

enforcement of the Nagorno-Karabakh people's right to self-determination. The negotiations 

are now being held on principles of settling the conflict, and there is no agreement on them 

now. 

Therefore, it is too early to talk about such an agreement," Balayan said. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Armenia 


Bosnia and Herzegovina 

Serbia protests suspension of war crimes trial 

Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press, 2/12/09 

Serbia on Thursday protested the U.N. war crime tribunal's suspension of the trial of 

ultranationalist Serb leader Vojislav Seselj.

The government committee for cooperating with The Hague tribunal said in a statement that 

the suspension will strengthen the perception among Serbs that the court is biased. 

Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal voted Wednesday to suspend Seselj's trial after 

the prosecution said its case was being undermined by witness intimidation. 

The decision plunged the long-running case against one of the U.N. court's most senior 

suspects into legal limbo. 

The Serbian committee said that it has no knowledge of the witness intimidation and that the 

tribunal has not notified it about the allegations. It called on the tribunal to wrap up the trial 

"in a reasonable timeframe." 

Seselj surrendered to the tribunal in 2003 and has pleaded not guilty to charges of using hatelaced 

speech to incite atrocities by Serb forces in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s. He is 

leader of the large, right-wing Serbian Radical Party. 

Seselj's trial started in 2006 but was almost immediately suspended because he was on a 

hunger strike. The case got under way a year later in November 2007. 

Seselj could get a maximum life sentence if convicted on charges of murder, persecution, 

inhumane treatment and wanton destruction of property, including religious buildings. 

After the suspension, Seselj demanded to be released and compensated for spending six years 

in jail. 

Serbian minister predicts Mladic's arrest this year 


A Serbian minister said he was confident that fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic 

would be captured this year, in remarks published Sunday that marked a departure from past 

government statements. 

"It would be a big surprise if this job (Mladic's arrest) was not accomplished over the course 

of this year," Rasim Ljajic, the minister charged with cooperation with the UN war crimes 

tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia, told the Blic newspaper. 

"I can't reveal to what extent we are nearer or farther from Mladic, but we certainly have 

more arguments to be optimistic over these last months," he said, adding the "amount of 

information on Mladic is increasing." 

Ljajic's remarks differ from past declarations by Serb authorities, who generally claim 

Belgrade is doing its best to arrest Mladic whose whereabouts are unknown. 

The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has 

indicted Mladic for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The court has linked the former Bosnian Serb military chief to some of the worst atrocities in 

Europe since World War II. They include the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 

Bosnian Muslims and the siege of Sarajevo that claimed more than 10,000 lives. 

Cooperation with the ICTY -- including the capture of war crimes indictees -- is a 

precondition for Serbia's hopes of closer relations with, and eventual membership in, the 

European Union. 

Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic was captured in July in Belgrade. 

He now is awaiting trial in The Hague. 

In December, Serb police also carried out several raids in Belgrade and a spa town south of 

the capital in pursuit of evidence to lead them to Mladic. 

The same month, the ICTY's chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz praised Serbia's improved 

cooperation with his office. 

UN judges approve new Karadzic indictment 

Mike Corder, Associated Press, 2/16/09 

Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal confirmed Monday a new streamlined indictment 

against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic that includes two genocide counts 

instead of one. 

The new indictment covers the same allegations as the existing charge sheet but reduces the 

number of crime scenes from 41 to 27 in an attempt to speed up what is expected to be a 

lengthy trial. 

Karadzic was first indicted in 1995, together with his former military chief Gen. Ratko 

Mladic, for allegedly masterminding Serb atrocities against Muslims and Croats during 

Bosnia's 1992-95 war. 

According to Monday's decision, the first genocide count covers ethnic cleansing campaigns 

throughout Bosnia and the second refers only to the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre where 

Serb troops and paramilitaries rounded up and murdered some 8,000 Muslim men. 

The mass summary execution at the Srebrenica U.N.-protected "safe haven" in eastern 

Bosnia was the worst single massacre on European soil since World War II. 

Karadzic will be asked to enter pleas to the new indictment at a Feb. 20 hearing. He faces a 

maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. 

He refused to enter pleas when he was brought before the tribunal's judges last year after his 

arrest on a Belgrade bus in July ended 13 years on the run from international justice. The 

court entered not guilty pleas on his behalf. No date has yet been set for his trial to begin.

Karadzic had appealed to judges to further cut down his indictment or risk a drawn-out case 

like that of his political mentor former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, whose trial 

lasted more than four years before being aborted when he died in his jail cell in 2006. 

"This is the Tribunal's first and best opportunity to demonstrate that it has learned the lessons 

of the Milosevic trial," Karadzic wrote in a motion. "By approving only a limited amended 

indictment, the Trial Chamber will promote the interest of a fair and expeditious trial for all 

concerned." 

But in approving the new indictment, trial judges said they were satisfied the changes, "will 

not have an impact that could be considered significant upon the accused's right to be tried 

without undue delay." 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Bosnia and Herzegovina 


Burma 

Burma extends detention of deputy opposition leader 


Myanmar's military regime has extended for another year the house arrest of Tin Oo, vicechairman 

of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, a party spokesman said Friday. 

The 82-year-old Tin Oo was arrested with Suu Kyi in May 2003 after an attack on their 

motorcade during a political tour. He was transferred to house arrest by the ruling junta the 

following year. 

"We have been informed that the authorities have extended Tin Oo's house arrest for another 

year," Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy 

party, told AFP. 

The NLD launched a name-signing campaign calling for the release of political prisoners 

including Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo on Thursday, the 62nd 

anniversary of Myanmar's Union Day. 

Aung San Suu Kyi also remains under arrest at her house in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city. 

She has spent most of the last 19 years under detention by the junta that has ruled the country 

since 1962. 

Her NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 that the junta refused to recognize.

The military regime has promised to hold elections in 2010, but critics have dismissed the 

polls as a sham. The regime has also handed out heavy jail terms to a number of prodemocracy 

activists in recent months. 

UN human rights envoy visits Burma's Karen state 

Associate Press, 2/15/09 

A U.N human rights envoy traveled Sunday to Myanmar's eastern Karen state, a diplomat 

said, a day after a reported attack by ethnic Karen rebels on a town there. 

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Myanmar's military regime of committing 

atrocities against the state's ethnic Karen and rebels who have been fighting for autonomy for 

six decades. 

U.N. envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana went to the eastern state's capital, Hpa-an, about 70 miles 

(110 kilometers) northwest of the town into which the rebels reportedly launched four shells 

Saturday. 

Quintana, who is on a six-day mission, will evaluate the human rights situation in the state, a 

diplomat said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. 

It was not immediately clear what allegations Quintana was investigating or whom he would 

meet in Hpa-an, 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of the country's main city, Yangon. 

On Saturday, rebels from the Karen National Union launched four mortar shells into the town 

of Myawaddy, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported. No casualties were reported. 

The newspaper said two shells landed near a hotel and a monastery. Two more landed 

outside of the town, it said. 

The KNU is the only major ethnic rebel group that has not concluded a peace agreement with 

Myanmar's military government. 

David Thaw, a spokesman for the KNU in neighboring Thailand, could not immediately be 

reached for comment. 

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The United Nations and human rights groups 

say over the years the military has burned villages, killed civilians and committed other 

atrocities against the Karen and other ethnic minorities. 

Quintana's visit comes less than two weeks after a visit by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim 

Gambari and follows a judicial crackdown on pro-democracy activists. 

There have been no signs of progress since Gambari's visit, which was aimed at promoting 

democracy and securing the freedom of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The 

Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been under house arrest for more than 13 of the last 19 years.

The U.N. said Quintana has asked to meet government officials, political prisoners and 

leaders of political parties, a clear reference to Suu Kyi, whom he was not allowed to see on 

his last trip. He also requested to travel to three states Karen, Kayin and Kachin. 

It said Quintana would also bring up political prisoners, legislative reform to protect human 

rights, and independence of the judiciary in his meetings with government officials. 

Myanmar's current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy movement 

and killing as many as 3,000 people. It called elections in 1990 but refused to honor the 

results when Suu Kyi's party won overwhelmingly. 

US looks for better way to sway Burma 


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday US President Barack Obama's administration 

is looking for a better way to bring change to military-ruled Myanmar and help the country's 

people. 

"We are conducting a review of our policy," Clinton told a Tokyo University student from 

Myanmar who asked whether there was an alternative to sanctions in order to promote 

economic and political freedom in the country. 

"We are looking at what steps we could take that might influence the current Burmese 

government and we are also looking for ways that we could more effectively help the 

Burmese people," she said. 

Clinton, speaking at a town-hall type meeting with students at Tokyo university, used the 

term Burma, the country's name before the military junta changed it to Myanmar. 

Recalling a speech she gave to the Asia Society in New York last week, Clinton said: "We 

want to see a time when the citizens of Burma and the Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi 

live freely in their own country." 

Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy party, has spent most of the past 19 

years under house arrest by the junta that has ruled the country since 1962. 

"I've spoken with many people already who are strong supporters of the Burmese people who 

have said 'let's look to see if there's a better way', so we are doing that," the chief US 

diplomat said. 

"And I hope we will be able to arrive at a policy that can be more effective." 

A day after Obama took office a senior official in Yangon said Myanmar hoped that the new 

president would change Washington's tough policy towards its military regime and end the 

"misunderstandings" of the past.

Former US President George W. Bush's administration strengthened decade-old sanctions 

against Myanmar while his wife Laura was an outspoken critic of the country's ruling junta. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Burma 


Burundi 

Burundi parliament approves new electoral commission 


Burundi's parliament on Friday approved the revised line-up of the electoral commission 

after rejecting an earlier proposal last month on the grounds that it was biased in favor of the 

president. 

"The list sent by the president has just been approved by 108 MPs for to four against," Pie 

Ntavyohanyuma, president of the national assembly, told AFP. 

The commission's five members were also approved by the senate, he said. 

On January 20, the senate rejected the proposed commission, arguing that its members had 

been cherry-picked by President Pierre Nkurunziza, who is widely expected to run for reelection 

in 2010. 

The main opposition party Frodebu said Friday it was "satisfied" that its concerns had been 

addressed in the new line-up. 


Chechnya 

4 police, 3 insurgents killed in Russia clash 

Sergei Venyavsky, Associated Press, 2/12/09 

Four police officers and three insurgents were killed Thursday during and after a shootout in 

Russia's restive southern republic of Ingushetia, a regional Interior Ministry spokesman said. 

The clash in Nazran ended when the three rebels apparently committed suicide by detonating 

explosives in the house in which they had taken shelter, the spokesman said on customary 

condition of anonymity.

The insurgents had shot and killed four policemen and injured three others in the preceding, 

hour-long gunbattle, the spokesman said. One of the rebels had also died in the crossfire. 

No part of the house had apparently been left standing. 

Television pictures on Russia's state networks showed piles of rubble next to an overturned, 

six-wheeled truck with several redbrick, two-story houses standing untouched and 

surrounding the debris. 

The bodies of two other fighters were found in the rubble of the exploded house, according to 

Russian news reports citing ministry officials. 

The autonomous republic of Ingushetia is adjacent to Chechnya along Russia's mountainous 

southern fringe and has been plagued for years by violence that spilled over from Chechnya 

after two recent wars. 

Many believe insurgents were squeezed out of Chechnya into surrounding regions after often 

brutal postwar crackdowns led by pro-Moscow president Ramzan Kadyrov brought a 

semblance of stability. 

Bloody clashes between rebels and security forces are a daily event in Ingushetia despite 

federal counterinsurgency efforts that recently included a change of leadership in the 

republic. 

Hope had been high among residents who took to the streets to celebrate the October 

resignation of leader Murat Zyazikov that peace may finally come to the beleaguered 

republic. 

Residents saw Zyazikov, a former KGB agent, as a corrupt official whose repressive policies 

fueled the violence. 

But Zyazikov's successor, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev 

on the back of promises to bring order to Ingushetia appears yet to do so. 

Chechen murder threatens torture case against Kadyrov 

Luc Andre, Agence France Presse, 2/14/09 

The murder of a Chechen man in Vienna on January 13 threatens to derail a torture case 

against Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in Austria, in which the victim was a key 

witness. 

The 27-year-old Umar Israilov, a former anti-Russian guerrilla later forced to join Kadyrov's 

security forces, said he had himself seen the Chechen president and his men torture 

opponents, in an interview with the New York Times last December.

"How can we go on without the main witness?" said a representative of the European Centre 

for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which filed a complaint last June in Vienna. 

"The names of other witnesses appear in the claim, we can only hope they will be able to 

come to court," he added. 

The Berlin-based centre tried in June to have Kadyrov arrested, following rumors that the 

soccer fan planned to attend a European football championship match in Austria. 

The ECCHR filed its complaint in a hurry on June 13, based on the UN Convention against 

Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 

But the prosecutor's office in Vienna replied there was no justification to have the pro- 

Russian leader arrested. 

"I was told that the complaint was based on Israilov's allegations and that he had already 

made them when he requested asylum," said Israilov's lawyer, who refused to be named and 

who is now under police protection. 

"And yet, he was deemed credible enough to be given refugee status," she noted with 

astonishment. 

"The authorities' attitude was much too cautious," added another judicial source close to the 

case, who said she also feared reprisals. 

"If it had been an average person, this would have been enough to arrest him. And Israilov 

could still be alive," she said. 

The authorities meanwhile seem confused as to whether Kadyrov ever ventured onto 

Austrian soil last summer. 

According to the interior ministry, the Chechen president "did not come to Austria," while a 

prosecution spokesperson in Vienna claimed that by the time Israilov's lawyers had filed their 

claim, Kadyrov was no longer in the country. 

Moreover, there have been several official blunders in this case. 

Early on, Interior Minister Maria Fekter said Israilov had refused all police protection, before 

having to go back on her words. 

A letter and an exchange of emails, of which AFP received a copy, show that the former 

rebel had made several requests for protection from July 2008 until a few days before his 

murder.

Israilov, who was finally shot dead by a pair of gunmen near the Vienna flat where he lived 

with his wife and three children, said he had noticed men watching his home and following 

him in the street. 

Worse still, the police admitted they had been contacted in June 2008 by a Chechen man, 

nicknamed Arbi in the press, who said he had been sent to kill Israilov. 

He offered to fake the murder and proposed that Israilov be given a new identity but instead, 

he was charged for delivering threats and sent back to Russia. 

"We could use the murder trial to denounce torture," noted the ECCHR. 

But a month after the murder, investigators say they have no new evidence to reveal in the 

case. 

Chechen rebel returns and denounces insurgency 

Jim Heintz, Associated Press, 2/17/09 

A top rebel returned to Chechnya and denounced its insurgency Tuesday, according to a 

rebel Web site and the regional president who has been lauded for reconstruction but accused 

of rampant rights violations. 

The return of Bukhari Barayev could be a substantial propaganda boost for Chechen 

President Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been leading the rebuilding of the war-shattered region 

with tens of millions of dollars from the federal government. 

But it could also raise new suspicions that Kadyrov is putting unbearable pressure on exiled 

rebels or buying them off. Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Chechen authorities 

of killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and other abuses. 

Such suspicions gained wide attention last month when a dissident former bodyguard of 

Kadyrov's, Umar Israilov, was gunned down in Vienna. Austrian authorities said last week 

that Israilov had filed a criminal complaint against Kadyrov, accusing him of torture and 

other abuses in Chechnya. 

Barayev also lived in Vienna, where he acted as European envoy for the Chechen rebels, and 

had attended Israilov's funeral where he accused Kadyrov of murder in a speech, according to 

the rebel Web site Kavkaz Center. 

Barayev's son Movsar led the 2002 seizure of some 900 hostages at a Moscow theater by 

Chechen rebels; the siege ended in the deaths of at least 130 hostages, most of them from the 

narcotic gas that Russian police pumped into the theater to disable the attackers. 

His brother, Arbi, had been one of Chechnya's most feared warlords before he was killed by 

Russian forces in 2001.

"I don't want to be on the side of those people whose names will be eternally cursed by my 

people," Barayev said, according to a statement from Kadyrov's office. He urged the rebels to 

"unite with your people and begin a peaceful life." 

Kavkaz Center claimed that Barayev had made a clandestine visit to Chechnya several days 

after Israilov's funeral and then returned to Vienna to try to encourage other Chechen 

refugees to return. But he was unable to attract others and he departed again, leaving his wife 

and son "in extreme anxiety and fearing for their safety," the Web site said. 

The Chechen armed insurgency, which began in 1994, has been characterized by shifting 

ideologies and loyalties. It began as a largely secular separatist movement, but became 

increasingly infused with fundamentalist Islam after Russian forces retreated in 1996 and left 

the republic de-facto independent. 

Russian forces swept in again in 1999 in a massive and brutal offensive that left the capital 

Grozny largely in ruins. Major offensives died down years ago and many rebels have laid 

down arms. Kadyrov himself is a former rebel, as are many members of his security corps 

whom activists accuse of abductions, torture and executions. 

Kadyrov, who became Chechen president two years ago, has undertaken measures to 

emphasize Chechnya's Islamic identity, apparently aiming in part to undermine Islamist 

support for the rebels. 

On Tuesday, he ordered that sale of drinks with more than 15-percent alcohol content be 

banned during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and otherwise sold only from 8 to 10 a.m. 


Cyprus 

EU lawmakers urge Turkey to speed Cyprus cooperation 


European lawmakers warned Turkey Wednesday that its failure to open up its ports to ships 

from Cyprus could undermine its hopes of joining the European Union. 

In a resolution adopted by 65 votes to one, with four abstentions, the European Parliament's 

foreign affairs committee expressed regret that an EU-Turkey customs accord had still not 

been extended to member state Cyprus. 

"The nonfulfilment of Turkey's commitments by December 2009 may further seriously affect 

the process of negotiations," the resolution warned.

In December 2006, the European Union froze eight of the 35 policy chapters that nations 

must negotiate to join the bloc because of Ankara's failure to open its ports and airports to 

Cypriot ships and planes. 

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey seized its northern third in response to an 

Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the Mediterranean island with 

Greece. 

Ankara refuses to endorse the island's internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government 

and instead recognizes the breakaway Turkish Cypriot statelet in the north. 

The division has remained a major obstacle to Turkish membership of the European Union, 

which Cyprus joined in 2004. 

Turkey's EU accession talks are expected to last a decade with no guarantee that the mainly 

Muslim but secular country will ever be allowed to join at the end of it all. 

Cyprus talks can succeed 


United Nations special envoy Alexander Downer said on Monday that peace talks to reunify 

the divided island have every chance of success because of the determination of the two 

leaders to forge a solution. 

Cyprus President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have 

been engaged in direct negotiations since last September with few signs of tangible progress. 

But former Australian foreign minister Downer, speaking to reporters, was upbeat about the 

negotiations process. 

"There has never been a moment's hesitation in terms of the commitment of the two leaders 

in Cyprus to succeed in the process of direct negotiations," Downer said after meeting 

Christofias. 

"If you have leaders determined to succeed, they can succeed. That's what we in the UN want 

and that's what is happening, so I think that's good." 

If the leaders are given the "time and space" to negotiate complex issues there would be a 

positive outcome, he added, although declining to give an indication of when this could be. 

Downer said the international community was still very engaged in the process despite the 

long grind. 

"There is so much support for the leaders coming not just from the UN but more generally 

from the EU of course, from major powers like Russia, the US, Britain and China and 

France. It's very encouraging."

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said on Friday the talks provided a "unique chance 

this year to reunite Cyprus and bring to an end this long standing conflict on European soil." 

He added: "This chance must be taken and not missed." 

The EU, Rehn added, would offer legal and technical advice to broker a deal for Cyprus and 

for the "sake of Europe." 

The lack of a Cyprus settlement is also harming Turkey's bid to join the 27-member bloc. 

A UN reunification blueprint was approved by Turkish Cypriots but rejected overwhelmingly 

by Greek Cypriots in 2004 just a week before the island joined the European Union, leaving 

only Greek Cypriots enjoying the benefits of EU membership. 

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied the island's northern third in 

response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece. 

The next round of negotiations will resume Thursday under Downer's stewardship. 

US senator offers help in Cyprus peace talks 

Menelaos Hadjicostis, Associated Press, 2/17/09 

A U.S. senator made an unofficial offer Tuesday to help the leaders of Cyprus' rival 

communities in peace talks to reunify the divided island. 

Sen. Richard Durbin said he has offered assistance to President Dimitris Christofias, a Greek 

Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. He did not elaborate. 

"We don't have a specific offer. I mean, what we said was we're available to help. And again, 

it is for both sides to decide what that help might be," the Illinois Democrat told The 

Associated Press after talks with Christofias. 

Durbin, who will travel on to Greece and Turkey this week, said his three-day Cyprus visit is 

not as an official representative of President Barack Obama. 

But he added he will convey to both the U.S. president and Secretary of State Hillary 

Rodham Clinton the message that the peace talks are "an opportunity in history that we 

shouldn't miss." 

"We should do everything we can if we're asked or called on to make this work," he said. 

Cyprus was split into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and an internationally-recognized 

Greek Cypriot south in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by supporters of 

union with Greece.

Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only Greek Cypriots enjoy the bloc's 

benefits. 

Numerous U.N.-sponsored initiatives to reunify the island have failed over the last 35 years, 

including the most comprehensive bid in 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected and Turkish 

Cypriots approved a U.N.-backed plan. 

Christofias and Talat ended a four-year stalemate last year when they agreed to restart peace 

talks. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Cyprus 


Democratic Republic of the Congo 

Peace before justice, Congo minister tells ICC 


The Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday justified a refusal to hand over a former 

rebel chief for trial by a world court on the grounds that domestic peace was best served by 

his remaining free. 

The country's justice minister, Emmanuel-Janvier Luzolo, told a press conference that "in the 

judicial practice of any state, there are moments when the demands of peace override the 

traditional needs of justice." 

The International Criminal Court, based The Hague, wants to try Bosco Ntaganda for alleged 

war crimes in the country's northeastern Ituri region, particularly enlisting child soldiers in 

2002-2003. 

But Ntaganda, the head of general staff of the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the 

People (CNDP), on January 16 went over to Kinshasa's side in a conflict that has wracked the 

eastern region for years. 

When President Joseph Kabila on January 31 stated that he sought "peace and security" in 

the Nord-Kivu province, where hundreds of thousands of people were uprooted by 

successive conflicts, his remark was already a strong hint that he would not turn Ntaganda 

over to the ICC. 

Luzolo acknowledged Thursday that "justice is an intrinsic element of peace" and also 

warned critics against "dragging the DRC through the mud" despite his remarks.

"Have I said that Bosco Ntaganda has been pardoned?" he asked, without detailing what fate 

awaited the former rebel leader. 

Ntaganda's defection dealt a massive blow to one of Kinshasa's toughest adversaries in the 

eastern Kivu provinces, renegade general Laurent Nkunda, who was arrested in neighboring 

Rwanda on January 22. 

Since then, CNDP forces have started rallying to the national DRC army, the FARDC, which 

is engaged in joint operations with Rwandan troops and with UN logistic support to quell 

strife in the region. 

When it came to Nkunda, Luzolo said that his extradition from Rwanda was in hand and said 

that he would be tried within the DRC, but gave no precise details of when and how except 

that the renegade leader would get a regular trial with a right to defense. 

International watchdog Human Rights Watch on February 5 urged Kabila to hand over 

Ntaganda to the ICC, a court set up in 2002 for try cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes 

against humanity. 

The eastern provinces of the vast central African country, which has great mineral wealth, 

have been particularly scarred by successive conflicts before and after a 1998-2003 war that 

embroiled more than half a dozen African armies, with Rwanda then fighting Kinshasa. 

A long peace process began before the end of the war, but aroused concern in human rights 

and judicial circles when former war crimes suspects on all sides in the DRC appear to 

benefit from a waiver of justice on being integrated into the new national army. 

Rwandan Hutu rebel commanders surrender 

Aimable Twahirwa, Agence France Presse, 2/13/09 

Top commanders from Rwanda's Hutu rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of 

Congo have surrendered to a joint military offensive by Kigali and Kinshasa, the Rwandan 

army said Friday. 

The operation's command simultaneously announced that 40 other members of the group, the 

Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), had been killed in an air raid on 

Thursday. 

The Rwandan army said Lieutenant Colonel Edmond Ngarambe, the FDLR's spokesman, 

turned himself in with other rebel fighters on Wednesday, while the government-run Radio 

Rwanda aired an appeal purportedly read by Ngarambe urging his forces to lay down their 

arms. 

"Lieutenant Colonel Michel Habimana (Ngarambe's real name) has surrendered to the forces 

of the joint operation," army spokesman Jill Rutaremara told AFP.

"He found himself surrounded and eventually surrendered to Congolese troops" with several 

other fighters, the Rwandan army spokesman said. 

Ngarambe and his men are currently being held in a transit camp for demobilized combatants 

in Rwanda's Rubavu district, near the border with DR Congo. 

According to Radio Rwanda, other senior FDLR commanders -- including Vital 

Uwumuremyi and Pontien Nkeramihigo -- are among those who were captured with 

Ngarambe. 

A statement read by a man presented by the radio as Ngarambe urged remaining FDLR 

fighters to "immediately lay down arms and peacefully return to Rwanda." 

"We have lost time that will never come back. Our children have not been to school in a long 

time and we have been powerless to help our families," the radio appeal said. 

"I launch a special appeal to (Ignace) Murwanashyaka and (Sylvestre) Mudacumura to 

authorize FDLR combatants to return to Rwanda. The Congolese regime and people are now 

against the FDLR." 

Murwanashyaka is the Germany-based chairman of the FDLR and Mudacumura is the rebel 

group's commander in chief. 

There was no immediate confirmation of the group surrender by the FDLR. 

The FDLR have been operating out of the eastern DRC since the aftermath of Rwanda's 1994 

genocide against the Tutsi minority. Some of its members are accused of being among the 

main perpetrators of the massacres. 

Kigali had long accused Kinshasa of sheltering the FDLR and even using them as proxies in 

the eastern Kivu region but the two governments launched a surprise joint offensive last 

month. 

In a statement issued earlier this week, the FDLR's Paris-based secretary general Callixte 

Mbarushimana, accused the Congolese army of abducting Ngarambe and his men. 

The statement condemned "the kidnapping of an FDLR delegation led by Lt Col Edmond 

Ngarambe... in a neutral zone in the Masisi to hold talks with a Congolese delegation." 

"The kidnapping of a delegation of the FDLR in a neutral zone and on peaceful mission is 

not only a serious violation of international humanitarian law but also a clear sign that the 

authorities of the armed Rwandan-Congolese coalition... are neither interested in peace nor 

sensitive to the plight of civilian populations," the statement added. 

The joint military offensive on Congolese soil by Rwanda and the DRC was officially aimed 

at rooting out the FDLR, which until last month was believed to count some 6,000 fighters.

The first victim of the operation however was Laurent Nkunda, the renegade Congolese 

general who had been fighting Congolese government forces in the region with Rwanda's 

backing. 

Nkunda, leader of the National Congress for the Defense of the People, was captured last 

month and is currently being held in Rwanda. 

US praises operation against Hutu rebels in DR Congo 


Washington's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday praised the joint 

Congolese-Rwandan offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country. 

"The joint DRC-Rwanda military operations in the east of Congo are showing real 

successes," William John Garvelink told reporters. 

The Rwandan rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) had lost 

ground and would not pose the same threat that they had in the past, he added. 

Neighbors DR Congo and Rwanda have put past differences behind them to launch the 

military operation against the FDLR, some of whose members have been implicated in the 

1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda. 

The FDLR, estimated at around 6,500 men, crossed over into the east of DR Congo after the 

Tutsi forces chased them out of Rwanda in 1994. 

Garvelink also praised another joint operation against the Ugandan rebel force the Lord's 

Resistance Army -- this time by Congolese, Ugandan and south Sudanese forces -- in 

northeast Congo, which borders Uganda and Sudan. 

The three countries launched that operation on December 14, but they have so far failed to 

capture the movement's leader, Joseph Kony. 

Access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by PILPG 

Return to Table of Contents

Georgia 

Russia remains 'dangerous enemy' of Georgia 


Georgia continues to be confronted by a "great and dangerous enemy" six months after its 

war with Russia over the rebel South Ossetia region, President Mikheil Saakashvili said 

Thursday. 

In a state of the nation address to parliament, Saakashvili warned that Russia, which sent 

troops and tanks into Georgia last August, remained a threat to his ex-Soviet republic. 

"A great and dangerous enemy confronts Georgia's sovereignty," Saakashvili said. 

"We must have no illusions. This is an enemy whose most important and well-known goal 

is... erasing Georgia from the world map," he said. 

The conflict dealt a heavy blow to Georgia's economy and most of Saakashvili's address 

focused on government efforts to tackle problems in the economy, which has also suffered 

from the global financial crisis. 

In the face of growing opposition criticism, he called for political stability in order to save 

the economy. 

"All of our efforts must be directed not towards internal political strife, but towards 

overcoming the economic crisis. Today we have one foremost priority: the improvement of 

the economy and increasing employment," Saakashvili said. 

Russian forces poured into Georgia in early August to repel a Georgian military attempt to 

retake South Ossetia, which had received extensive backing from Moscow for years. 

Under a European Union-brokered ceasefire agreement, Russian forces later withdrew to 

within South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, which Moscow recognized as 

independent states. 

Critics, including some former allies, have accused Saakashvili of mishandling the war and 

called for early elections. 

UN extends Georgia cease-fire observer mission 

John Heilprin, Associated Press, 2/13/09 

The U.N. Security Council agreed Friday to a four-month extension of the peacekeeping 

mission monitoring a cease-fire between Georgia and the separatist Abkhazia region. 

The council's 15-0 vote gives the U.N. until mid-June to assess whether to continue involving 

its 400-strong mission in the wake of the Georgia-Russian war.

The five-day war and Russia's subsequent recognition of the breakaway republics of South 

Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations further strained Moscow's relations with the 

West. 

Major powers on the council agreed with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's assessment that 

last summer's conflict and Russia's recognition of both breakaway areas changed the context 

in which the U.N. has operated for the last 14 years. 

"We want to find a more durable arrangement that reflects the situation on the ground," 

British Ambassador John Sawers told reporters after the vote. 

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the council had approved a "very important 

resolution because it does not only extend the mandate for the mission but also sends a 

number of very important signals." 

For the first time, Churkin said, the terms of the European Union cease-fire brokered by 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been "expressly welcomed" and accepted by the 

international community. 

The Black Sea province of Abkhazia has been independently run since 1993, when two years 

of fighting with Georgian troops ended with a U.N.-monitored cease-fire. 

The recent war began last Aug. 7 with a Georgian offensive to regain control of South 

Ossetia. Neighboring Russia responded by sending in troops to Georgia, a former Soviet 

republic, and quickly routed the Georgian military. 

Ban's staff had reported to the council that Russia's military had affected the situation in the 

area of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict and beyond, with thousands of troops and hundreds of 

armored vehicles taking part in its operation. 

Under an EU-sponsored cease-fire deal, EU monitors were deployed to Georgia and Russian 

forces were to leave Georgian territory. But Russia has been keeping thousands of troops in 

South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, a presence that U.S., NATO and the EU say violates its 

obligation under the cease-fire. 

Ban has said that there is "little clarity" about the future status of the areas where the U.N. 

observer mission, known as UNOMIG, operated. 

Russians, Georgians resume security talks 


Russia and Georgia resumed talks in Geneva Tuesday on security arrangements in the wake 

of their conflict last year, the United Nations said, two months after they failed to wrap up an 

agreement.

The latest meeting, which is due to last two days, was being held under the joint auspices of 

the UN, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 

A UN spokeswoman confirmed that it had got underway with all sides present. 

UN special representative to Georgia Johan Verbeke said shortly after the last meeting in 

December that the Russians and Georgians had moved closer to a deal, in contrast to the 

fragile start to the talks a couple of months beforehand. 

Verbeke said only two out of the ten issues on the table, related to a mechanism to prevent 

and resolve security incidents, still needed to be resolved. 

However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gregory Karasin has described those issues as 

"obstacles," while acknowledging an improved climate of understanding in the talks. 

A first attempt at dialogue last October collapsed when Russian and Georgian delegates 

failed to even sit down in the same room. 

A month later they accepted informal sessions, allowing the presence of representatives from 

Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Moscow-backed breakaway regions which were at the 

centre of the conflict last August. 

On Friday, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the UN 

mission in Georgia for four months, pending the security arrangements for Abkhazia. 

Russian sent its army deep into Georgia in August to push back a Georgian offensive to 

regain control of South Ossetia from Russia-backed separatists. 

Russia later withdrew to within Abkhazia and South Ossetia under an EU-brokered ceasefire, 

but Tbilisi remains furious at the continued presence of Russian troops in the two breakaway 

regions. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Georgia 


Indonesia 

Former rebel gunned down in Indonesia's Aceh 


A former rebel whose wife is contesting regional elections in Indonesia's Aceh province has 

been fatally shot, raising fears the April polls could descend into violence, police and party 

officials said Friday.

Tengku Syamsuddin, a spokesman for the former rebels, said assailants gunned down Taufik, 

the local head of the rebel-founded Aceh Party, at his home Thursday. 

Taufik, who like many Indonesian goes by a single name, was shot five times in the chest, he 

said. 

Police were still investigating and did not announce any suspects. 

Syamsuddin urged authorities to quickly find the perpetrators to create "a smooth and 

peaceful environment" ahead of the elections. 

The motive for the shooting was unclear. It followed two grenade attacks on Aceh Party 

offices in recent weeks in which no one was hurt. 

Indonesia holds general elections on April 9 to pick members of national and regional 

legislatures. Taufik's wife is seeking a regional seat for the Aceh Party. 

Aceh has been relatively calm since the government signed a peace deal with separatists in 

2005, ending a 29-year rebellion in which more than 15,000 people died. 

Access the Indonesia/Aceh Negotiation Simulation prepared by PILPG 


Ivory Coast 

I Coast president's ex-secretary jailed for fraud 


Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo's former secretary was sentenced to five years in jail 

on Wednesday for pocketing 100,000 dollars from a mobile phone operator intended for 

charity. 

Emilienne Gome, who had already lost her job over the same case, was accused of 

defrauding the firm MTN-CI of a donation of 65.5 million CFA francs (99,850 euros / 

129,000 dollars) by claiming the money was intended for poor people in a disaster zone. 

She was also fined 300,000 CFA francs, deprived of her civic rights for 10 years and banned 

from residing for three years on any part of the west African country's territory apart from her 

birthplace. 

The prosecutor had asked for a year's prison term for fraud.

As a civil party in Gome's case, Gbagbo was awarded a symbolic franc for the "insult to his 

honor and probity." 

MTN-CI had earlier announced that its chief executive, Aimable Mpore, had left the Ivory 

Coast on Monday after being expelled for allegedly trying to "discredit" the president in 

connection with the same case. 

Mpore, a Canadian of Rwandan origin, was ordered to leave the west African state for having 

allegedly made a "gift" of about 65.5 million CFA francs to the Ivorian presidency. 

Gbagbo himself asked that Gome be tried for having "damaged his integrity". 


Kashmir 

Police say clashes wound 18 in Indian Kashmir 


Protesters who took to the streets of Indian Kashmir to mark the 25th anniversary of the 

execution of a militant leader clashed with security forces Wednesday, leaving at least 13 

civilians and five police injured. 

Hundreds of Kashmiri Muslims threw rocks at Indian authorities during protests in several 

neighborhoods of Srinagar, the largest city in Jammu-Kashmir state, said senior police 

official Javed Afadul Mujtaba. Security forces fired tear gas in response. 

The protesters were calling for the remains of militant leader Maqbool Butt to be returned to 

Kashmir. Butt was a leader of the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, which spearheaded a 

violent campaign for Jammu-Kashmir, India's only Muslim majority state, to secede from the 

predominantly Hindu country. 

Butt was hanged on Feb. 11, 1984, for the 1965 murder of an intelligence agent in Kashmir 

and was buried in New Delhi's Tihar Jail. 

The group gave up its arms in 1994 to launch a political campaign calling for independence. 

Nearly a dozen insurgent groups have been fighting for Kashmir's secession from India or its 

merger with Pakistan since 1989. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the conflict. 

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over control of Kashmir, since they 

won independence from British colonialists in 1947. A cease-fire line divides the Himalayan 

territory between the rivals who claim it in entirety. 

Kashmir opens airport to international traffic 

Izhar Wani, Agence France Presse, 2/14/09 

Revolt-hit Indian Kashmir opened its high-security airport to international traffic Saturday in 

a move officials hope will lead to a tourism boom. 

The upgraded airport terminal, equipped with modern features including escalators, aerobridges, 

central heating systems and lifts, was inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi, the chief of 

India's ruling Congress Party. 

Minutes later the inaugural flight, from Dubai, landed at summer capital Srinagar's 

international airport with over two dozen passengers. 

Gandhi received the passengers as they disembarked from an Air India plane. 

"It is a very happy moment for all of us," said Gandhi, adding that the new airport would 

"boost tourism and help the locals." 

Around 30 Kashmiris were to fly to Dubai later Saturday. 

The project to upgrade the airport was approved by the Indian government in January 2005, a 

year after India and Pakistan began a peace process to resolve their disputes, including one 

over Kashmir. 

Initially, there will be a flight between Dubai and Srinagar every Saturday, India's civil 

aviation minister Praful Patil said. 

"We will surely extend the service to other parts of the world," he said. 

Violence has declined sharply in Kashmir since the start of the peace process, prompting 

India to unleash a wave of economic plans to win over Kashmiri Muslims, most of whom 

favor an independent Kashmir. 

In October, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gandhi inaugurated the first train service 

in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. 

It took four years to upgrade Srinagar's dilapidated airport, which is heavily guarded by 

police and military after being stormed by rebels. 

Kashmir was a major tourist destination before an Islamic insurgency against Indian rule 

began in 1989. The unrest has so far left more than 47,000 people dead, according to an 

official count.

State officials say they hope to see tourists return to the scenic Himalayan region as it enjoys 

a period of relative calm following the start of the peace process. 

"This will surely put Kashmir on the global tourism map," said Farooq Ahmed Shah, region's 

tourism chief, welcoming international flights to Srinagar. 

"It will help us in attracting more tourists from the Middle and Far East countries," he said. 

Muslim rebels are believed to have targeted foreign tourists in the region only once, in 1995, 

when six were kidnapped. One escaped, another was beheaded and the fate of the other four 

was never known. 

Many foreign governments, including the US and Britain, advise their citizens against 

making trips to the region. 

"It was great to be part of the inaugural flight. I wish more people would use the service," 

said passenger Manzoor Wangnoo, who sells rugs in Dubai. 

US envoy's India visit focuses on Pakistan 

Elizabeth Roche, Agence France Presse, 2/16/09 

Senior US diplomat Richard Holbrooke met Indian leaders on Monday for talks that focused 

on the global threat from Pakistan-based militants in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. 

Holbrooke, the new US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, was in New Delhi at the end of 

a regional tour that included visits to Islamabad and Kabul. 

"India, the United States and Pakistan all have a common threat now," Richard Holbrooke 

told reporters in New Delhi after meeting Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee. 

"For the first time in 60 years since independence, your country (India) and Pakistan and the 

United States all face an enemy that poses a direct threat to our leadership, our capitals and 

our people." 

His comments came on the day the Pakistan government signed an agreement with Islamic 

hardliners to enforce sharia law in Pakistan's northwestern Swat valley. 

Holbrooke was appointed to implement a new US strategy in South Asia under President 

Barack Obama, who plans to boost troop numbers in Afghanistan and to force Islamabad to 

eradicate Al-Qaeda safe havens inside Pakistan. 

India has labeled Pakistan the "epicenter of terrorism" in the region and has accused it of 

sheltering Islamic groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is widely blamed for November's 

attacks on Mumbai.

New Delhi has noted with strong approval that Holbrooke's tour coincided with Islamabad's 

admission that part of the Mumbai attacks, in which 165 people were killed, was indeed 

planned in Pakistan. 

"Until the Mumbai attacks, the perception in Washington was that the US is fighting the 

global war against terror and that India was fighting a local war against terror," said Lalit 

Mansingh, former Indian ambassador to Washington. 

"But that has changed. Now there is a better understanding that there is little difference 

between so-called global and local terror groups." 

New Delhi was also reported to have warned the US over military aid to the region. 

Pakistan is seeking billions of dollars to combat the Islamist threat from its northwestern 

tribal belt that became a stronghold for extremists who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban fell 

in 2001. 

Pakistani commanders say they need helicopters, drones and an array of new military 

equipment to tackle the Taliban fighters, but India is skeptical about their intentions. 

"We have heard that Pakistan's wish list for fighting terror includes precision-guided 

missiles. We have our doubts about whether Pakistan intends to use them to hunt down 

insurgents," said one diplomatic source. 

Since independence in 1947, mutual suspicion has characterized ties between nuclear-armed 

rivals India and Pakistan, who have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region 

of Kashmir. 

According to reports, Islamabad told Holbrooke it would be better able to focus on the 

Afghanistan-Pakistan border if the issue of divided Kashmir was resolved. 

But India is adamant that Kashmir remains "a bilateral issue" with Pakistan. 

Pakistan has been a vital US ally since former president George W. Bush invaded 

neighboring Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime for sheltering Al-Qaeda after the 

September 11, 2001 attacks. 

But relations have soured, not least after dozens of suspected US missile strikes against 

militants inside Pakistan. 

Holbrooke will report back to Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after leaving 

India on Monday having completed his first tour of the region in his new capacity. 


Kosovo 

Serbia okay on Kosovo in financial bodies 


Serbian President Boris Tadic said Thursday his government did not object to Kosovo's 

membership in global financial institutions, despite having opposed its independence. 

"Serbia does not wish in any way to stop ... the process of accession of Kosovo to certain 

international financial institutions," Tadic said at the end of a meeting with EU enlargement 

chief Olli Rehn. 

"Serbia is ready to participate constructively in the establishment of stability in the entire 

society of Kosovo," Tadic told a media conference in Belgrade. 

Tadic was apparently referring to plans by the leaders of ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo to 

apply for membership in the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. 

The pro-Western president added that Belgrade would not object to the development of trade 

links between Kosovo and its Balkan neighbors. 

Speaking at the same conference, Rehn said: "It is important that Kosovo be able to 

participate with very pratical engagement in regional trade an regional political cooperation. 

"Our goal is to facilitate social end economic development of Kosovo so to avoid Kosovo 

becoming any kind of a black hole in terms of crime end trafficking," he said. 

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008. It has been recognized by 

54 nations including the United States and most EU members. Serbia still considers the tiny 

landlocked Balkan region as its province. 

Serbia insists that Kosovo is not a country 

Jovana Gec, Associated Press, 2/170/9 

Serbia dismissed Kosovo's statehood as "virtual" on Tuesday, but ruled out using force to try 

to regain the territory that declared independence a year ago. 

"Kosovo is not a country," President Boris Tadic said in a statement, vowing that Serbia will 

never recognize the independence of its former province. 

But Tadic also dispelled fears of a new conflict over Kosovo, saying that Serbia will defend 

its "legitimate rights by legal and diplomatic means, not force." 

Also Tuesday, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic described Kosovo's declaration of 

independence as an "illegal act" and an "attempt to create a virtual state on Serbia's territory."

Serbs consider Kosovo to be the heartland of their nation. In 1998, Serbia launched a brutal 

crackdown to curb a separatist rebellion by Kosovo's Albanian majority. The war ended in 

1999 when NATO bombed Serbia to force it to relinquish control over Kosovo to the United 

Nations. 

The region declared independence last year winning swift recognition from the United States 

and most EU nations. 

In Serbia, the declaration triggered a wave of anti-Western protests when nationalist 

extremists set on fire parts of U.S. and other Western embassies. 

On Tuesday, several hundred extremists took to the streets in the northern city of Novi Sad, 

chanting nationalist slogans and carrying banners reading "Kosovo is Serbia." 

Kosovo marks 1 year of independence from Serbia 

Nebi Qena, Associated Press, 2/170/9 

Jubilant ethnic Albanians poured into the streets Tuesday to celebrate the first anniversary of 

Kosovo's independence from Serbia, as nationalist Serbian lawmakers joined their ethnic kin 

in northern Kosovo to try to undermine the tiny country. 

The twin moves highlighted the division that has plagued Kosovo and threatens to split it 

along ethnic lines. It also underscored the challenge Kosovo's authorities face in asserting 

control over areas where Serbs live. 

In the capital of Pristina, thousands of people sang, blared traditional music, and waved flags 

and banners that read "Happy Birthday Kosovo!" The mostly ethnic Albanian territory 

declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, 2008. 

One newspaper plastered its front page with a photo of 1-year-old Pavaresi Sopa under the 

headline: "She grows." The child, whose first name means independence, was the first ethnic 

Albanian born after last year's declaration. 

In Serbia, President Boris Tadic was quick to dismiss Kosovo's statehood. 

"Kosovo is not a country," Tadic said in a statement, pledging not to recognize the 

independence of its former province. But he dispelled fears of a new conflict over Kosovo, 

saying Serbia will defend its "legitimate rights by legal and diplomatic means, not force." 

Serbia considers Kosovo part of its territory and has vowed to block its quest for 

international recognition. So far, 54 countries have recognized Kosovo including the United 

States and many European Union nations but that's just half the number that Prime Minister 

Hashim Thaci had predicted a year ago. 

Still, there was no dampening the mood Tuesday in Pristina.

Friends and families took photos in front of national monuments honoring ethnic Albanian 

fighters killed during the 1998-99 war. Other people climbed on top of cars adorned with 

American flags while patriotic music blared from the speakers. 

Mustachioed men wearing traditional white hats donned black leather jackets and blood red 

shirts the colors of the Albanian flag as they drank free beer. 

"It's getting better by the minute," said Abaz Meha, 70. "Serbia will not let us be, and their 

leaders can make all the statements they want, but there is no turning back." 

Tensions were high, however, in the ethnically divided north, home to most of Kosovo's 

minority Serbs. 

Nationalist lawmakers from Serbia which, backed by Russia, refuses to recognize Kosovo's 

statehood joined Kosovo Serbs in a declaration rejecting the country's independence and its 

new constitution. 

"That is no state," said Nikola Blagojevic, a 22-year-old Serb resident of Mitrovica. "It is a 

fake state." 

But many nations, including the United States, sent congratulations on the anniversary. 

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband hailed the "huge progress" in Kosovo over the past 

year comments echoed by U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid. 

"If you look back at where we were 10 years ago, I think there's no doubt that Kosovo now is 

much more stable and is on the road to creating that multiethnic democracy," Duguid told 

reporters in Washington. "However, problems remain. One cannot paper over the problems 

that do remain." 

Since the declaration, Kosovo's authorities have set up an intelligence agency and are 

working with NATO to train a lightly armed security force. Kosovo's parliament enacted a 

new constitution, and U.N. administrators handed over supervision of the fledgling country 

to a 2,000-member EU mission of police officers, judges and advisers. 

The EU force is yet to fully deploy in northern Kosovo, where Serb leaders have called for 

the torching of EU-run customs points between Kosovo and Serbia. 

Leaders on both sides have ruled out carving the territory in two, a point Thaci underlined 

Tuesday when he addressed Kosovo's lawmakers in a solemn ceremony.

"The key to our success is in unity," he said. "Kosovo will continue to be united as a country 

and as a nation." 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Kosovo 


Liberia 

Liberia's president apologizes to nation 

Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Associated Press, 2/12/09 

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf apologized to her nation Thursday for the role she once 

played in supporting the man who launched the country's 14-year civil war. 

Sirleaf, speaking under oath before the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said 

she was fooled by Charles Taylor and sent him money in the early years of Liberia's civil 

war, which began when Taylor's army invaded in 1989. 

Taylor is currently on trial at the Hague for crimes against humanity. The 14-year conflict he 

unleashed was one of the continent's most brutal, marked by gruesome acts of cannibalism 

and the widespread use of child soldiers. 

Sirleaf, a Harvard-trained economist, has been a darling of the international community ever 

since her election in 2005, when she became Africa's first democratically elected female head 

of state. She has been credited with luring foreign investors to Liberia and partially erasing 

the country's debt, as well as cracking down on corruption. 

But while her image continues to shine abroad, questions have repeatedly surfaced at home 

about her role in the country's conflict. 

The nation's truth commission, modeled after a similar commission in post-apartheid South 

Africa, aims to give both victims and perpetrators a chance to clear their chests in the hopes 

of fostering reconciliation. The commission has long sought to have Sirleaf testify and she 

was expected to appear late last year, but then canceled unexpectedly. 

"If there is anything that I need to apologize for to this nation, it is to apologize for being 

fooled by Mr. Taylor in giving any kind of support to him," said the 70-year-old president as 

she sat before the flag of Liberia. "I feel it in my conscience, I feel it everyday." 

Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia, or NPFL, invaded Liberia from Ivory Coast in 

December 1989. Six months later, the rebels brought the war into Monrovia, the capital.

Sirleaf said she and other expatriates sent money to Taylor to fund his rebellion. In addition, 

she said in May 1990, she visited Taylor in the Liberian town of Gborplay, where Taylor had 

made his base. 

"There were some of us who agreed that the rebellion was necessary. And I will admit to you 

that I was one of those who did agree that the rebellion was necessary," she said. "But I was 

never a member of the NPFL." 

The rebellion was aimed at overthrowing President Samuel K. Doe, an illiterate soldier who 

came to power in a 1980 coup. Doe, a member of the Krahn ethnic group, openly promoted 

his kinsmen and discriminated against the Americo-Liberians, the country's former elite who 

are descendants of the U.S. slaves that colonized Liberia in the early 1800s. Both Taylor and 

Sirleaf are Americo-Liberians. 

Jerome Verdier, the commission's chairman, said he was pleased she had finally submitted to 

the process. The commission has been holding public hearings for nearly a year and some of 

the biggest names in the conflict have appeared before the televised panel, including Prince 

Johnson, now a senator, who videotaped himself as he ordered his men to torture Samuel K. 

Doe. 

"All we want from witnesses is to explain their roles and share their experience," said 

Verdier. 

The 14-year conflict had a momentary lull when Taylor ran for office in 1997 and was 

elected president. Many say they voted for him because they were afraid of the chaos that 

would follow if he lost. 

One of the campaign slogans at the time was, "He killed my Ma, he killed my Pa, but I'll vote 

for him anyway." 

Fighting soon resumed and Taylor was forced into exile in Nigeria in 2003, where he lived 

until his arrest in 2006. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Liberia 


Macedonia 

EU mulls economic support for crisis-hit Balkans 


The European Union is considering a package of financial support to help Balkan states deal 

with fallout from the global economic crisis, EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn said on 

Thursday. 

"The whole of Europe including Serbia is undergoing very difficult times because of the 

economic and financial crisis," Rehn said in Belgrade after meeting with Serbian President 

Boris Tadic. 

"The European Union has taken initiatives to counter this recession by an economic recovery 

programme and our neighbors rightly wish to benefit from the stability and solidarity of the 

European Union in these very testing times. 

"That's what we also do with the Western Balkans and Serbia," said the EU enlargement 

commissioner. 

"As a concrete sign of our support in these times of economic crisis, the European Union is 

currently considering a proposal to put forward a budgetary support facility to help Serbia to 

overcome this crisis." 

Serbia had earlier appealed to the 27-nation bloc to provide aspiring members in the region 

with assistance in the face of the widening impact of the global financial and economic crisis. 

Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic made the request at the end of an economic meeting in 

Belgrade also attended by officials from Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and 

Montenegro on February 4. 

The countries asked the EU to allocate as soon as possible 120 million euros of pre-accession 

funds to regional projects, particularly for energy and infrastructure. 

All of them aspire to join the European Union, but only Croatia and Macedonia are official 

candidates for eventual membership in the 27-nation bloc. 

Former war crime suspect to run for Macedonian president 


A former war crimes suspect is among seven candidates for the presidency of Macedonia in 

next month's elections, an electoral official said Monday. 

Former interior minister Ljube Boskovski will run for the job after having been released from 

the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in July 2008.

The tribunal's prosecutors are appealing after the court found him not guilty of warcrimes 

charges allegedly committed during the 2001 ethnic Albanian insurgency in Macedonia. 

Boskovski is still on trial in a Croatian court, charged with having ordered the murder of 

seven South Asian immigrants in Macedonia in 2002. 

Earlier this month the trial in the northwestern Croatian town of Pula was adjourned as 

Boskovski failed to appear before the court. 

Boskovski was among seven candidates who lodged papers with the electoral commission 

(DIK) before the deadline at Sunday midnight, DIK spokesman Zoran Tanevski told AFP. 

Latest opinion polls suggest that the leading candidates are Gorge Ivanov of the ruling 

VMRO-DPMNE party and Ljubomir Frckoski of the opposition socialists (SDSM). 

Neither is expected to win an outright majority in the first round of voting on March 22, 

which would mean a second-round run-off between the two top candidates two weeks later. 

The incumbent, President Branko Crvenkovski, has decided not to run for another five-year 

term. 


Moldova 

Transdniestria rejects settlement documents proposed by Moldovan leader 


Tiraspol has turned down the draft law on the Transdniestrian status presented by Moldovan 

President Vladimir Voronin to Transdniestrian leader Igor Smirnov, Transdniestrian Deputy 

Foreign Minister Alexander Malyarchuk told a Monday press briefing. 

"On Monday the Transdniestrian Foreign Ministry posted to all participants in the Moldovan- 

Transdniestrian settlement negotiations an official response to the draft law on the 

Transdniestrian status and the draft political declaration suggested by the Moldovan president 

to Igor Smirnov in Tiraspol on December 24, 2008," he said. 

The drafts are unacceptable by their political and legal form and content, the diplomat said. 

"The draft law is an internal document of the Republic of Moldova. 

Hence, it cannot be a foundation of the political dialog," Malyarchuk said.

"As for the content of the documents, they do not take into account the will expressed by the 

Transdniestrian people in referendum 2006. 

Judging by the draft law and declaration, the Republic of Moldova continues to ignore 

Transdniestria as an equal partner in the negotiations," he said. 

At the same time, Transdniestria is ready to develop relations with Moldova on principles of 

amity, neighborliness, non-violence, mutual respect and equality, he said. 

Apart from Moldova and Transdniestria, the settlement negotiations involve guarantors 

(Russia and Ukraine), an intermediary (the OSCE) and observers (the European Union and 

the United States). 

Some Transdniestrian officials banned from entry into EU 


The EU Council of Ministers extended by one year the ban for Transdniestrian leadership to 

enter the European Union, up until February 2010. 

The list includes 19 persons similarly to the last year including the president of the 

unrecognized republic Igor Smirnov and his two sons, the head of the customs committee 

Vladimir Smirnov and the leader of the Patriotic Party of Transdniestria Oleg Smirnov, the 

EU mission to Chisinau said on Tuesday. 

The list includes state officials who are responsible for the absence of progress in 

Transdniestrian settlement and for organizing a campaign for closing down Moldovan 

schools that have used Latin alphabet and Moldovan programs, the EU said. 

The EU adopted restrictions against Tiraspol leaders in late February 2003 and has extended 

them annually. The ban is explained by "the reluctance of the regime to support the efforts of 

the international community on Transdniestrian settlement," the EU said. 

The ban was supported by the U.S. and new EU members. 

In response to EU actions, Transdniestria banned the Moldovan leadership from entering 

Transdniestria from February 2003. Following the meeting with Igor Smirnov in April 2008, 

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin promised to appeal to the EU that it should lift 

restrictions against Transdniestrian leadership if the negotiating process intensified. Smirnov 

said he had sent this appeal to the EU and Transdniestria had lifted a similar ban for the entry 

of Moldovan leaders to Transdniestria. 


Morocco 

UN envoy to head for Western Sahara talks 

Gerard Aziakou, Agence France Presse, 2/17/09 

The new UN envoy to the Western Sahara was to embark on his first trip to the region 

Wednesday to sound out prospects for resuming stalled talks between Morocco and the 

Polisario independence movement. 

Christopher Ross's week-long tour was to begin in Rabat to meet Moroccan leaders and 

would include stops in Tindouf, in the southwestern Algerian desert, for talks with Polisario 

chief Mohamed Abdelaziz, and then in Algiers, according to UN spokeswoman Michele 

Montas. 

Montas said in a statement that Ross, a former US ambassador to Syria and Algeria, would 

leave Algiers February 25 for Madrid and then Paris, capitals of two countries belonging to 

the Group of Friends of Western Sahara. 

The Group of Friends also includes Russia, Britain and the United States. 

For more than three decades, Tindouf has been home to Sahrawi refugees from the Western 

Sahara, a phosphate-rich territory which was annexed by Morocco in the 1970s following the 

withdrawal of colonial power Spain. 

That sparked a war with the Polisario. The two sides agreed a UN-brokered ceasefire in 

1991, but a promised self-determination referendum never materialized. 

UN officials cautioned though against expecting too much from Ross's tour, which they said 

was aimed at sounding out the parties about the prospects for resuming the stalled UNmediated 

talks in the New York suburb of Manhasset. 

Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario have held four fruitless rounds in Manhasset 

since June 2007. 

Ahmed Bujari, the Polisario's UN representative, said last week that his group reiterated to 

Ross, who took up his post last month, that "we are dealing with an issue of selfdetermination 

in the framework of UN Security Council resolutions." 

"It's up to the people of Western Sahara to choose their future," he added. 

In Rabat, Moroccan government spokesman Khalid Naciri meanwhile told AFP Tuesday: 

"Ross will find in Morocco the same openness of mind and the same good faith requested by 

the (UN) Security Council to move the negotiation process forward." 

That process, he added, "must pick up from where his predecessor (Peter Van Walsum) left 

off."

The UN Security Council has called for talks "without preconditions and in good faith" 

between the parties to achieve "a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution." 

Meanwhile France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, whose country is a close ally of 

Rabat, said it was significant that Ross planned to stop in Paris. 

"We will listen to him. We believe that the Manhasset process must continue," he noted. "We 

believe that the Moroccan proposals are interesting and we call for a direct dialogue between 

the parties." 

Van Walsum, whose UN mandate was not renewed after it expired on August 21, was 

accused of favoring Morocco after stating that independence for Western Sahara was "an 

unrealistic option." 

Rabat has offered a form of autonomy for the territory under Moroccan sovereignty, while 

the Polisario wants a referendum on self-determination that would include the option of full 

independence. 


Nepal 

US may take Nepali ruling party off terrorism list 

Binaj Gurubacharya, Associated Press, 2/11/09 

A senior U.S. official and Nepal's prime minister on Wednesday discussed removing the 

country former rebels who have laid down their weapons and now lead the government from 

a terrorism blacklist. 

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher told reporters that taking the United 

Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) off the U.S. list was among the tropics he addressed with 

Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. He did not elaborate. 

The U.S. was among the last nations to establish contact with the Maoists even after they 

gave up their armed revolt in 2006 to join a peace process. It was only last year when U.S. 

officials and diplomats met Maoist leaders. 

U.S. officials have repeatedly said Washington is concerned about continued reports of 

violence by groups affiliated with the Maoists. 

The Maoists contested elections in May 2008 and emerged as the largest political party. They 

now head a coalition government.

Small bomb hits UN office in Nepal 


A small bomb was thrown at a United Nations human rights office in southwest Nepal late 

Friday, but the minor explosion caused no casualties, police said. 

"Some unidentified people hurled the bomb at the regional office of the OHCHR but the blast 

caused no damage," senior police officer Sudhir Raj Shahi told AFP from Nepalgunj town, 

400 kilometers (250 miles) from Kathmandu. 

"We don't know who is behind this blast" at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human 

Rights, the police official said, adding that search operations had been intensified in the area. 

Nepal's south has been the scene of sporadic violence since a peace deal was reached 

between former rebel Maoists and the government in late 2006. 

Large numbers of armed gangs have emerged in the south, cashing in on the instability since 

a wave of ethnic unrest started three years ago. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Nepal 


Philippines 

2 Filipinos charged with aiding top terrorists 

Jim Gomez, Associated Press, 2/12/09 

Philippine troops have captured two local militants accused of helping top al-Qaida-linked 

foreign terrorists gain a foothold in Muslim rebel strongholds in the country's volatile south 

and plan deadly bomb attacks, officials said Thursday. 

Authorities say Omar Venancio helped a member of the militant group Jemaah Islamiyah 

buy explosives intended for a suicide bombing at a Roman Catholic cathedral in southern 

Davao city and other attacks in nearby beach resorts, said Eduardo Ermita, who heads the 

government's Anti-Terrorism Council. 

Army troops and intelligence agents separately arrested Mokasid Dilna, who allegedly 

headed the Al-Khobar group blamed for bombing passenger buses and business 

establishments since 2007 for rejecting his extortion demands, Ermita said. 

The arrests were significant because they could sever some of the crucial links between 

foreign terrorists and at least two local Muslim groups the violent Abu Sayyaf and the larger

Moro Islamic Liberation Front which could provide sanctuary and training grounds in 

southern Mindanao region. 

"It's very significant," Ermita said, "The U.S. counterparts were very happy." 

Venancio and Dilna, their arms cuffed and restrained by military escorts, looked confused 

when paraded by anti-terrorism officials during a news conference in Manila. Both had 

earplugs on, apparently to prevent them from reacting to journalists' questions. 

Venancio, a Moro Islamic Liberation Front member, was arrested last month in southern 

Cotabato City with receipts for the explosives. He described the plans for a suicide bombing 

in Davao and other attacks during interrogation, Ermita said. None of the attacks took place. 

He was described in an anti-terrorism council statement as Jemaah Islamiyah militants' "most 

trusted local" since 2005 in Mindanao, the southern region where a Muslim separatist 

rebellion has raged for decades 

Venancio allegedly helped move funds for top Jemaah Islamiyah figure Umar Patek and also 

acquire guns and explosives for the Indonesian group's militants hiding with Abu Sayyaf on 

Jolo Island, Ermita said. 

Patek, an Indonesian, is wanted along with another Indonesian named Dulmatin in the 2002 

nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people in Southeast Asia's worst 

terrorist attack. 

The pair allegedly fled to Mindanao in 2003. They have reportedly provided bomb-making 

and religious training to the Abu Sayyaf, which has been included in a U.S. terrorist blacklist 

for its links to al-Qaida and involvement in several bombings, kidnappings for ransom and 

beheadings. 

Dilna, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Badrin, was trained in explosives and unspecified 

types of weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan at about the same time as Patek in the early 

1990s. When he returned home, he passed on the skills to Filipino and foreign militants, 

Ermita said. 

He has also given refuge to Dulmatin, Patek and other Jemaah Islamiyah militants, he said. 

Philippines calls on MILF to return to peace table 


The Philippines on Tuesday called on Muslim separatist rebels to return to the negotiating 

table to end six months of large-scale hostilities. 

Avelino Razon, the country's chief peace negotiator, said the government will work towards 

putting "confidence-building measures" on the ground, including reactivating a joint task 

force that goes after criminals and terrorists.

"There's no alternative to peace, that is why I'm calling (on) the MILF (Moro Islamic 

Liberation Front) leadership to go back to the negotiating table to resolve our differences 

peacefully," Razon said in statement. 

He said the government was also committed to "review and propose enhancements to the 

nature and structure of the facilitation process." 

Razon did not elaborate, but the MILF had said previous government negotiators were not 

prepared to address key rebel demands, including the proposed expansion of a Muslim 

autonomous area that was to have fallen under its control. 

That proposed land deal was blocked by the courts late last year, leading to subsequent 

attacks by two MILF commanders across several towns and provinces on Mindanao island. 

President Gloria Arroyo subsequently cut off peace talks, and demanded that the MILF 

surrender two of its commanders. That demand was rejected by the MILF. 

The fighting that followed led to the displacement of over half a million people and the 

deaths of some 300 rebels, soldiers and civilians. 

On Monday, the government said 124 people, mostly children, had also died in squalid 

evacuation camps. 

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Monday both sides should focus 

on reaching an interim ceasefire since a "broader settlement of the conflict seems out of 

reach" until Arroyo's six-year term ends in 2010. 

"As it stands, the two sides are too far apart, the potential spoilers too numerous and the 

political will in Manila too weak to hope for a negotiated peace anytime soon," said Sidney 

Jones, the ICG's senior adviser in Asia. 

The ICG said however that it was possible for both sides to move towards restricting 

movements of the commanders involved in the attacks, while at the same time agreeing to a 

ceasefire. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in the Philippines 


Somalia 

Overcrowding at Kenya refugee camp must be tackled 


The UN refugee agency said Friday that the population of one of the world's largest refugee 

camps in Kenya, home to nearly 250,000 people, needs to be be reduced because of health 

risks. 

The comments by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees came after a cholera outbreak in 

north-eastern Kenya's Hagadera, one of the three sites that form the sprawling and 

overcrowded Dadaab camp that houses mainly Somalis. 

"Hagadera itself was designed for 30,000 people but now holds some 100,000 refugees and 

that's really overstretching water and sanitation," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said. 

"Doctors at the camp saw extreme overcrowding at the settlement poses major health 

problems," he said. "We need to get the camp decongested." 

Redmond said there was not even enough space to build new latrines while water supplies 

were insufficient to cope with the continuing flow of Somali refugees. 

About 8,000 have sought refugee in Dadaab so far this year. 

Fourteen cases of cholera were confirmed in the outbreak since January 29, including a three 

year-old boy who died after recently arriving from Somalia. 

Redmond said all but one of the patients were discharged from hospital after swift action to 

tackle the outbreak. 

Somali parliament endorses new prime minister 


Somalia's parliament in exile endorsed Saturday the choice of Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, a 

dual Canadian and Somali national, as the war-torn country's new prime minister, assembly 

speaker Aden Mohamed Nur said. 

Nur said the parliament, meeting in Djibouti, approved Sharmarke's nomination by President 

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, by 410 votes in favor, with nine against and two abstentions. 

The new prime minister, the son of a former president but a relative newcomer to Somalia's 

political scene, will face the daunting task of forming an inclusive government and restoring 

stability to the Horn of Africa country.

Sharmarke, 48, has worked with the United Nations in Sudan and Sierra Leone, holds 

Canadian citizenship and obtained degrees in political science and political economy from 

Carleton University in Ottawa. 

He is a member of the same Darod subclan -- the Majarteen -- as former president Abdullahi 

Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned late last year. 

According to Somalia's transitional charter, the president, the prime minister and the 

parliament speaker have to belong to three different major clans. 

Sheikh Sharif, a young Islamist cleric who was elected as president by parliament late last 

month, is a member of the Hawiye clan. 

The incoming prime minister's father, Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, was the last 

democratically-elected president of the Horn of Africa country. 

He was assassinated in October 1969. Days later, Mohamed Siad Barre took power in a 

bloodless coup and remained there until his overthrow in 1991 plunged the country into 

anarchy. 

Sharmarke replaces Nur Hassan Hussein, who had led Somalia's transitional federal 

government since November 2007 and lost in the presidential election held last month in 

Djibouti. 

According to the charter, Sharmarke will have a month from the moment of his official 

appointment to pick a cabinet, which will in turn have to be approved by parliament. 

Mohamed Abdi Yusuf, a human rights activist in Mogadishu, said: "This is an opportunity 

that Somali people should benefit from because the nominated prime minister comes from a 

well-known political dynasty and I hope he won't miss chances to succeed peace." 

"The nomination is the right choice because his father was a fair president so that I hope the 

son will follow him and will lead the country in the path of peace and prosperity," a resident 

of the capital, Amina Mohamed Issa, added. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose forces backed the government in driving an 

Islamic regime out of Mogadishu at the end of 2006, has greeted the the appointment of 

Sharif and Sharmarke with caution. 

"The new Somalia president has assured as that his intention is to promote peace within 

Somalia and with its neighbors," he told journalists late Friday in Addis Ababa.

"We are happy with that," he said, "but it will be foolhardy to base state policy on some 

statement at some particular time by some individual (...) I don't think that anything Sheikh 

Sharif said can be taken as a final guarantee". 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Somalia 


Sri Lanka 

Sri Lanka elections back govt offensive on rebels 


Sri Lanka's ruling party has won widespread public support for its war against the Tamil 

Tigers, local election results showed on Sunday, as the military braced for a final assault on 

the rebels. 

President Mahinda Rajapakse's Freedom Alliance easily won two provincial councils which 

went to the polls Saturday, according to provisional counting. 

Rajapakse had turned the vote into a referendum on his military campaign to crush separatist 

Tamil Tiger guerrillas who are cornered in the north-east of the island. 

"The results showed that the people supported the government's war effort," defeated main 

opposition candidate S. B. Dissanayake said. 

The president has said he hoped to defeat the Tamil Tigers within days, ending the island's 

decades-long ethnic conflict. 

Officials said the air force on Sunday destroyed at least three boats of the Tamil Tigers off 

the coast of Mullaittivu district, where the fighting is concentrated. 

The state-run Sunday Observer reported that the elusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran 

was still in Sri Lanka and has been preparing his fighters to launch a last-ditch counter attack. 

Prabhakaran, 54, and his eldest son Charles Anthony have blended in with about 100,000 

civilians trapped in the conflict zone, it said. 

The report said two guerrillas arrested last month disclosed that their leader had not fled 

despite widespread speculation he had escaped by sea. 

"Tiger leader and his son are still living among the civilians in Puthukkudiriruppu and are 

engaged in making more and more terror plans to reverse the military victories," the 

Observer quoted the two rebels as saying.

Last month, Sri Lankan military commanders said Prabhakaran may have left the island as 

his retreating forces were driven back into a small area of jungle. 

Sri Lanka's navy has stepped up patrols along the island's north-eastern coast to track 

attempts by rebel leaders to escape, while India and Malaysia have put ports on alert. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) here said they were preparing to 

evacuate another batch of wounded and sick from Mullaittivu on Monday. 

ICRC spokeswoman Sophie Romanans said they had already helped bring out 745 war 

wounded, other patients and carers last week. 

The ICRC had said a "humanitarian catastrophe" was unfolding in the region where the 

government says thousands of civilians are held as a human shield by the Tamil Tiger 

guerrillas. 

The United Nations, the US and Britain have asked the Tigers to allow civilians to leave the 

conflict zone while urging the Colombo government to declare a temporary truce. Both have 

rejected the call. 

On Saturday, the defense ministry accused the Tigers of a grenade attack that killed a woman 

and wounded 13 people who were trying to flee the shrinking area still under rebel control. 

Claims by either side can not be verified as the government severely restricts access to the 

war zone. 

Sri Lanka rebels sign up child soldiers for final battle 

Amal Jayasinghe, Agence France Presse, 2/17/09 

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers have stepped up conscription of child soldiers, the United Nations 

agency for children said on Tuesday, as the rebels prepared for a final onslaught by the 

military. 

Government troops are on the verge of crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam 

(LTTE) and ending their 37-year campaign for an independent Tamil homeland after a series 

of victories across the northeast of the island. 

"We have clear indications that the LTTE has intensified forcible recruitment of civilians and 

that children as young as 14 years old are now being targeted," Philippe Duamelle, 

UNICEF's chief in Sri Lanka, said. 

The Tigers, who are encircled in a small patch of jungle, have a long record of using child 

soldiers, and have recruited more than 6,000 since 2002 according to UNICEF.

"With a growing number of children being recruited by the LTTE and scores of children 

being killed or injured in fighting, UNICEF today expressed its gravest concerns," the agency 

said. 

The Tigers pledged 10 years ago to end enlisting child soldiers but have repeatedly failed to 

fulfill the promise. 

The rebels did not immediately react to UNICEF's charges, though they did lash out after 

being accused on Monday of shooting civilians who try to escape the bloody conflict. 

The United Nations said "a growing number of people trying to leave have been shot and 

sometimes killed" as they sought safety by fleeing rebel territory to government-controlled 

areas. 

A Tamil party allied to the government said 288 non-combatants had been killed in the past 

week, marking a spike in civilian casualties, and urged President Mahinda Rajapakse to take 

measures to ensure civilian safety. 

A front organization for the Tigers said they were not responsible for killing civilians saying 

the UN had failed in its duty to protect innocent people. 

The UN was "withdrawing even the remaining few local staff from the conflict zone (and) 

completely shedding its responsibility of caring for the civilians trapped here," said the 

Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO). 

The TRO, which is outlawed in several countries, including the US, said in its statement the 

UN was trying to hide "their own failures". 

Tiger leaders have always denied charges that their fighters kill civilians or are holding 

thousands of them as "human shields". 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that families were arriving at 

a designated "safe zone" inside rebel territory "in a state of utter exhaustion and despair, 

hoping to be treated and rescued". 

"But the reality is that there is an almost complete lack of medicine and relief items there," 

said Paul Castella, head of the ICRC in Sri Lanka, on Tuesday. 

"We did save lives today but many people remain behind, helpless and anxiously waiting to 

be evacuated. It is now a matter of life and death." 

The UN, the United States and Britain have asked the Tigers to allow civilians to leave the 

conflict zone while urging the government in Colombo to declare a temporary truce. Both 

have rejected the calls.

On Saturday, the defense ministry accused the Tigers of a grenade attack that killed a woman 

and wounded 13 people who were trying to flee the shrinking area still under rebel control. 

In fresh fighting, security forces captured the bodies of 23 Tiger rebels on Tuesday, the 

defense ministry said, adding that security forces had taken more territory. However, it did 

not say if troops suffered casualties. 

Tamil MPs say Sri Lanka ignoring civilian safety 

Bharatha Mallawarachi, Associated Press, 2/17/09 

Tamil politicians accused the Sri Lankan government Tuesday of ignoring the safety of tens 

of thousands of civilians in its campaign to wipe out the Tamil Tiger rebels, saying more than 

2,000 noncombatants have been killed in the recent fighting. 

The accusation came as UNICEF accused the rebels of stepping up their forcible recruitment 

of child soldiers to aid in the fight against the military onslaught. 

In recent weeks the military has pushed the rebels to the brink of defeat, ousting them from 

their administrative capital of Kilinochchi and trapping them and an estimated 200,000 ethnic 

Tamil civilians in a small strip of land along the coast where artillery and gunbattles 

routinely erupt. 

Government officials say they are on the verge of crushing the rebels' quarter-century war for 

a breakaway state for the nation's Tamil minority. 

Independent information on the fighting is not available because the government has barred 

journalists and most aid workers from the war zone. 

The pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance political party said it had managed to compile a list of 

the civilians killed using the Tamil media, witness accounts and reports from medical 

authorities in the war zone. 

According to its count, more than 2,000 civilians have been killed since December and more 

than 4,500 wounded, said Rajavarothayam Sambanthan, a lawmaker from the party. 

"The situation is getting worse by the day. More and more people are killed and wounded," 

he said. 

"The government is only concerned about its military victory against the LTTE," he said, 

referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels. "The government is completely 

unconcerned about the safety and security of civilians." 

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara denied the allegation. 

"We are concerned about the civilians and that's why the military campaign has slowed 

down," he told The Associated Press.

Dr. Thurairaja Varatharaja, the top health official in the region, said fighting has abated in the 

past two days with fewer wounded patients seeking treatment. 

The government and human rights groups accused the rebels of holding the civilian 

population in the area hostage. Civilians evacuated from the area said the rebels shot at some 

of those who tried to flee, while medical authorities in the north accused the government of 

indiscriminate shelling in heavily populated areas. 

Sambanthan said the conflict was devastating for the civilian population in the area. 

"The government claims the war is conducted to liberate the Tamil people, but thousands of 

people are living under trees for weeks, their properties have been destroyed, they are 

starving, they are exposed to weather," he said. 

Meanwhile, the rebels have been increasingly turning to children as young as 14 to fill the 

ranks of their fighters, UNICEF said. 

"These children are facing immediate danger and their lives are at great risk. Their 

recruitment is intolerable," said Philippe Duamelle, the Sri Lankan representative for the 

U.N. Children's Fund. "Child soldiers suffer physical abuse, traumatic events and face death. 

Instead of hope, fear defines their childhood." 

The rebels have a long history of recruiting children and UNICEF said it has recorded 6,000 

such cases since 2003. 

Rebel officials could not be contacted for comment because most communication to the 

conflict zone has been severed. However in the past rebel officials had told UNICEF they 

would halt child recruitment and release all child combatants. 

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for the ethnic Tamil 

minority. More than 70,000 have been killed in the fighting over the years. 

Aid groups say some 200,000 civilians are trapped in the combat zone and could be caught in 

the crossfire. Last week Varatharaja the chief doctor at a makeshift hospital in the coastal 

village of Putumattalan said about 40 people were being killed every day. 

The Red Cross also expressed concerns about the civilians in the northern war zone, 

especially the sick and wounded at the makeshift hospital. 

"Families continue to arrive in Putumattalan in a state of utter exhaustion and despair, hoping 

to be treated and rescued. But the reality is that there is an almost complete lack of medicine 

and relief items there," said Paul Castella, the head of the Red Cross delegation in Sri Lanka. 

The aid group on Monday carried out a third sea evacuation from the hospital, taking 440 of 

patients and their families from the war zone, he said in a statement.

"But many people remain behind, helpless and anxiously waiting to be evacuated. It is now a 

matter of life and death," he said. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Sri Lanka 


Sudan 

Drilling in the dust changes lives in south Sudan 

Peter Martell, Agence France Presse, 2/15/09 

It seems such a simple task: pumping the handle of a water borehole up and down until the 

clear and cool liquid splashes into the plastic container. 

And in the dry and dusty southern Sudanese village of Mirindanyi, they have been 

celebrating doing just that since their pump was installed last year. 

But it was not always this way. Beforehand, "it took two hours to the river to collect the 

water, then two hours back," said Floris Fazir, pausing to heave a 20-litre container on her 

head. 

"In the dry season, we got the water from a scraped well on the river bed, and that was dirty. 

We would get sick often. But water from the borehole is sweet to drink." 

Southern Sudan, an oil-rich but grossly underdeveloped region about the size of Spain and 

Portugal, is slowly recovering after years of bloody north-south civil war. 

Four million people were displaced from or within south Sudan during the 21 years of battle, 

according to assessments made after the 2005 peace deal which joined the southern rebel 

leadership with the Arab-led northern government. 

Some 1.7 million people have since returned, according to the International Organization for 

Migration (IOM), but the lack of services remains dire. 

Provision of drinking water "remains the top priority in all areas of returns," the IOM said in 

a January report, warning that almost a quarter of villages surveyed relied on river water as 

their main source. 

But for communities such as Mirindanyi -- a typical farming settlement some 190 kilometers 

(120 miles) west of Juba, capital of semi-autonomous southern Sudan -- even river water 

vanishes during the dry season from December to March.

Without a borehole, water was collected from shallow and dirty wells scraped into the river 

bed. 

"Before, the school would close in the dry season because the children would be collecting 

water all day," mother of eight Grace Justin said of the thatched classroom by the borehole. 

She and her family could carry back just 40 liters a day -- for 10 people. Basic World Health 

Organization sanitation guidelines say people should have at least 20 liters a day each, and 

that the source should be less than a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the home. 

"We had only enough for cooking and drinking, not for washing," Justin said. 

Mirindanyi was a frontline zone during the civil war, with rebel and government forces 

battling back and forth through the remote bush, and villages in the area were abandoned for 

years. 

Development has always been a rarity in the region. Residents say the long and rocky track 

to the village has been untouched since the British colonial authorities ordered it built before 

Sudan's independence in 1956. 

"We want to provide a good water supply close to every village," said Helen Turkie, area 

head of the Southern Sudan Refugee and Rehabilitation Commission, the government 

authority supporting humanitarian development. 

"Along with schools and health centers, these are what the people need." 

But boreholes do not come cheap. 

"Each costs at least 13,000 dollars (10,000 euros) -- more if it is deep," said Augustino Buya, 

local program manager for the British aid agency Oxfam which funded the Mirindanyi 

borehole, one of 340 it has drilled in south Sudan since the war ended. 

Demand is also heavy, and huge areas remain without clean water supplies. "Each is 

designed to cater for 500 people, but many are being used by even 3,000," Buya added. 

The presence of boreholes has already had an impact on health, reducing sickness including 

water-borne diseases, officials say. 

In the local community health centre at Dosho, volunteer worker Godwin Jimma scanned 

down the neat ruled lines of the register. 

"There has been a decrease in diarrhea since we stopped collecting the water from the river," 

Jimma said. 

"Fewer children are dying now," he added, pausing by the baby-weighing scale hanging in 

the simple tin-roofed building.

Maintenance is a major problem, however. The metal pumps are basic designs, and heavy 

use in tough conditions puts great strain on them. More than 40 percent of boreholes in 

villages assessed by the IOM were not working. 

In nearby Wanpi, women walked wearily through the dry grass. Their pump was broken, 

dozens of people had descended on the village for a celebration, and now they faced hours of 

back-breaking work fetching water. 

"I check everything is working fine and do regular maintenance, but I can't do complicated 

repairs," said Bullen Tio, trained as a "water caretaker" by Oxfam. This time an engineer 

must be called out to fix the broken Wanpi pump. 

Water carrying is women's work, and while the borehole in Mirindanyi has cut down the 

hours needed for that, there are always other tough tasks they must do such as tending the 

crops, washing, gathering firewood and cooking. 

"It has helped them," said elder Supana Juruba, lay priest of the village's thatched-hut church, 

nodding towards one woman pumping water. "Now there is more time for them to do other 

work." 

The boreholes are changing lives. 

"Carrying water was such hard work. Now I get to lie in the morning in bed -- more time 

with my husband," said grandmother Monica Elizai with a big wink and a toothless laugh. 

Sudanese anxious over possible Beshir genocide charges 

Guillaume Lavallee, Agence France Presse, 2/15/09 

Sudanese in Khartoum are awaiting possible International Criminal Court (ICC) charges 

against President Omar al-Beshir, including accusations of genocide in Darfur, with both fear 

and uncertainty. 

Beshir "might be a criminal but we don't know what will happen if he's charged," says 

computer technology graduate Abdel Rahman. 

According to the United Nations, 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have 

fled their homes since rebels in the western region rose up against the Khartoum government 

in February 2003. 

Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000. 

"We're on the president's side because we think the Darfur conflict is primarily a tribal matter 

that Westerners have blown out of proportion via the media," says Ossama, sipping tea at an 

improvised cafe on a Khartoum pavement.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that ICC judges in The Hague had decided to 

issue an arrest warrant for Beshir for alleged genocide and war crimes in Darfur. 

Commenting on the report, an ICC spokeswoman told AFP: "At this moment, there is no 

arrest warrant." 

Many Sudanese believe that formal charges against Beshir -- which would be the first ever 

issued against a sitting head of state -- would plunge the country into chaos. 

The authorities have predicted major demonstrations in Khartoum and around the country if 

Beshir is charged, but that does not mean the people will take to the streets in large numbers. 

"It's not clear what's happening in Darfur because the local media are controlled by the 

government," says Awad, a newspaper seller on the banks of the Nile in downtown 

Khartoum. 

Demonstrations in the wake of ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's initial call for 

charges against Beshir last July brought barely 1,000 people out onto the streets of the 

capital. 

Since then, Beshir has been deploying diplomatic contacts abroad aimed at stymieing 

potential charges and trying to present an image of unanimous support for himself from the 

population as well as opposition parties if he is charged. 

"The regime will be even more intolerant towards any kind of opposition," said one Western 

diplomat, requesting anonymity and citing the case of Beshir's former mentor and political 

opponent, Hassan al-Turabi. 

Turabi was arrested in January after he said that Beshir was "politically responsible" for the 

situation in Darfur and should hand himself over to the ICC. 

"People are afraid to express themselves on this matter because the intelligence services and 

the president's (National Congress) Party are very powerful," says Sadig, a lawyer. 

"Some people will be very happy to hear it if the president is charged by the ICC" because 

they "suffer" under the current NCP-controlled system, says Sadig's friend Ahmed, wearing a 

traditional Sudanese white gown. 

"The country is divided in two, those who are with the government and those who are not," 

says Younis, stirring his tea at the Arab market. "Me, for instance, I support international 

justice."

Sudan, Darfur rebel group sign peace framework 

Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press, 2/17/09 

Sudan's government and Darfur's most powerful rebel group agreed Tuesday to launch 

negotiations on ending the six-year war in Darfur. But they failed in talks this week to seal a 

cease-fire or lure other rebel groups into the process, signs of how distant peace remains. 

The week of negotiations in the Gulf state of Qatar ended with a two-page statement of 

"good intentions" by Khartoum and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement promising to 

hold negotiations next month, aiming to reach a peace deal in three months. 

The two sides have yet to tackle the toughest issues of Darfur, such as wealth and power 

sharing, and even if a deal is reached the absence of other rebels from the table raises doubts 

over its effectiveness. Tuesday's announcement fell short of hopes for a truce between the 

two sides, whose forces clashed in Darfur as recently as last week. 

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, called the deal "potentially a modest 

first step, but it is not itself a cessation of hostilities." 

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the agreement a "a constructive step" but also 

urged the parties to move quickly to a "cessation of hostilities" and to come up with a more 

"detailed and explicit agreement on the scope of comprehensive and inclusive talks," U.N. 

spokeswoman Michele Montas said. 

The U.N. Security Council welcomed the deal, but "beyond this, we really want to see that 

the fighting and the hostility must come to an end" and other rebels brought into the process, 

said council president Yukio Takasu, Japan's U.N. ambassador. 

Khartoum and JEM touted the agreement as significant progress a reflection of the heavy 

political stakes they have in the process. 

Khartoum is hoping that by showing seriousness about peace, it can avert international 

prosecution of President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur. The Hague-based 

International Criminal Court is expected to issue an arrest warrant against al-Bashir within 

days over accusations he orchestrated atrocities against Darfur's ethnic Africans. 

Rice, however, said there was "no linkage" between the prosecution and the Doha talks and 

that delaying the ICC case was "unwarranted." 

JEM is trying to assert its leadership of Darfur's highly fractured rebel groups. A year ago it 

launched an unprecedented attack on Sudan's capital, demonstrating that it is the most 

organized of the rebels. Now it hopes to show it can win concessions from Khartoum to bring 

other rebels behind it.

The talks mediated by Doha are the first between Khartoum and any rebel group since 2007. 

Other rebels rejected the talks, saying they only reinforce the Khartoum's policy of "divide 

and rule" in Darfur. 

Sudanese government spokesman Rabie Abdel-Attie said Tuesday's agreement demonstrated 

Khartoum's sincerity. "The door is now open more than any other time for all rebel groups to 

join the peace process," he said. 

The war in Darfur began in 2003, when ethnic African rebels rose up against the Arab-led 

Khartoum government, complaining of discrimination. Khartoum responded with a military 

crackdown and is accused of unleashing Arab militias who carried out atrocities against 

ethnic African civilians. More than 2.5 million Darfurians have been driven from their 

homes. 

An earlier peace agreement, in 2006, was signed only by one rebel group, the Sudan 

Liberation Movement, which promptly fractured. Only a single faction stuck by the 2006 

deal, which is now defunct. 

In the "good intentions" statement signed Tuesday, Khartoum and JEM agreed that peace is 

"the strategic priority" in dealing with the Darfur conflict. They set a three-month deadline 

for the next round of talks to address the core problems of the war. 

The sides agreed in principle to exchange prisoners. At least 50 JEM members are being held 

on death row for their role in the attack on Khartoum. 

The rebels immediately pledged to free an undetermined number of government prisoners 

they hold. The government made no such promises at the signing ceremony in Doha, but 

officials in Khartoum said the government is ready to release prisoners, which would require 

a presidential pardon. 

JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim said "there is a genuine desire to reach a comprehensive and just 

solution to this war and to prevent the outbreak of another war." 

Abdel-Attie, the government spokesman, said the talks are not aimed at averting ICC 

prosecution of al-Bashir. But "if a breakthrough is realized, those who want the international 

court to proceed to the end, will find themselves going down the wrong lane, and will be 

forced to consider that peace is better followed," he said.

Al-Bashir would be the first sitting head of state to face charges of war crimes. The 

government denies the charges against him and says it doesn't recognize the court and will 

not deal with the prosecution. 

AP correspondent Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. 

Learn about PILPG’s work in Sudan 


Uganda 

Congo town mounts own defense against rebels 

Michelle Faul, Associated Press, 2/13/09 

Rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army sent torture victims including a man whose back 

was sliced with a machete to warn the people of this Congolese town they would be next. 

The town's three policemen fled and there was no response from the military and U.N. 

peacekeepers to the increasingly panicked pleas for help. That's when residents realized they 

were on their own. 

"We were sending warnings and begging for help practically every day for two weeks. And 

nothing happened," said community leader Nicolas Akoyo Efudha. "We finally understood 

that we were abandoned in danger and without protection." 

So Akoyo called a town meeting and told everyone to bring whatever weapons they had: pre- 

World War II rifles, homemade shotguns, lances, swords, machetes, hunting knives, bows 

with sheaths of poisoned arrows. 

The women came armed with kitchen knives and log-sized wooden pestles used to pound 

yams into flour. 

Since then, the residents of Bangadi have successfully driven off two attacks by the Ugandan 

rebels, who have killed at least 900 people in this remote northeastern corner of Congo over 

the past seven weeks. 

News of Bangadi's success and the lack of military protection have spurred hundreds of 

villages to form self-defense groups, according to Avril Benoit, a spokeswoman for 

Medecins Sans Frontieres. 

The ragtag groups are filling a security vacuum as Congo tries to recover from back-to-back 

civil wars that devastated the Central African nation over nearly a decade.

Aid workers and human rights activists are watching the phenomenon with trepidation. In a 

part of Congo with dozens of militias and rebels, they fear these self-defense groups could 

transform into a menacing force. 

Congo's army, cobbled together from various rebel groups and the defeated troops of ousted 

dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, has never been cohesive and has suffered repeated defeats at the 

hands of the rebels. The United Nations has 17,000 peacekeepers in Congo, but it has been 

largely ineffective in a country more than twice the size of California and Texas combined. 

The Lord's Resistance Army has been waging an insurgency in northern Uganda for more 

than 20 years, and the conflict spilled over into Congo about five years ago. 

Before dawn on Oct. 19, Bangadi became the rebels' target. 

They descended first on the former abbey on the outskirts of town, killing its residents. 

But as the fighters tried to advance, they were surprised by more than a half-dozen ambushes 

by residents armed with makeshift weapons, some hiding in ditches. Before the rebels 

reached the central market, they had been defeated and took flight. 

Akoyo said residents counted 43 rebels who came into town. Seven got away and the rest 

were killed, he said. The civilian toll was 16 dead. 

Today, the abbey is abandoned. Survivors, along with thousands of people from surrounding 

villages, are camped in Bangadi; its population has exploded from 15,000 to 35,000. 

About 20 miles (30 kilometers) outside Bangadi, lies evidence of what happens when there is 

no one to resist an attack by the Lord's Resistance Army: More than a mile (About two 

kilometers) of huts along a dirt track have been burned to the ground. 

For months after the October attack, the rebels steered clear of Bangadi. Then, after a 

combined military operation by forces from Congo, Uganda and Sudan began in December, 

aid groups say the rebels began massacring civilians in retaliation. 

In coordinated attacks on three towns, the rebels killed hundreds of people in just three days, 

according to aid workers and the U.N. More than 900 have been killed since Christmas in the 

region of Haut-Uele, in northeast Congo. 

Bangadi residents were particularly alarmed by the story told by the sole survivor of a 

massacre in a village where rebels locked people into the church, Akoyo said. The rebels 

saved their bullets and brought the victims out two by two. Some were bludgeoned to death 

while others had their throats slit with machetes, said the man, who escaped death because he 

was busy in his field and arrived at the church service late.

Last month, maimed victims of rebel attacks began arriving again in Bangadi. Again, 

residents sent out urgent calls for help, using the town's sole satellite phone and its highfrequency 

radio. 

There had been no response by Jan. 22, when the rebels struck Bangadi for a second time. 

By then, the self-defense group had swelled to 350, including Teke Mbanga, a 20-year-old 

refugee from Kana village whose parents, 13 siblings and other family members were 

slaughtered by the rebels. 

The townspeople chased the rebels out, pursuing them for more than a half-mile (about a 

kilometer) until they disappeared into the savannah. There were no civilian casualties and the 

group even managed to rescue six abducted people. 

One man bragged of skinning one of the rebels. Asked if he was alive at the time, he looked 

sheepishly away. 

"It was the people's anger that led to this revenge. We had the bodies of our families scattered 

about us," said the man, who didn't want his name used for fear of rebel reprisals. 

The rebel's body was burned in a public ceremony in the middle of the main road; the site has 

been marked with a pile of stones topped by a red cross. 

On Jan. 24, the army finally sent troops: 175 soldiers came to Bangadi. 

Their presence is more of a worry than a reassurance, said Akoyo: The soldiers' rations have 

run out and they haven't been paid. There's little food at the market because people fear going 

to their fields. Nearly every day, there are reports of rebel attacks on surrounding villages 

from refugees who continue to stream in. 

"This is a dangerous situation," Akoyo said. "They haven't started yet, but soon, if they don't 

get provisioned, they'll start requisitioning the little food we have." 

LRA fighters trapped 


The remnants of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army are trapped by opposing forces 

in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and will have to surrender, a Congolese 

government spokesman said Saturday. 

"We think that Joseph Kony is with them," he said, referring to the head of the LRA, the 

target of a joint operation by Congolese, Ugandan and south Sudanese forces launched in 

December. 

"The hard core of the Lord's Resistance Army is in a swampy forest in the Garamba national 

park," spokesman Lambert Mende told AFP, putting their numbers at about 250.

"They have no way out of these swamps except to surrender," he said. 

Mende said the rest of the LRA had surrendered or disbanded, adding that the aim of the joint 

operation against the rebels had almost been achieved. 

He said that Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri 

Museveni would meet on the border between their two countries before the end of February 

to assess the situation. 

Meanwhile, two LRA commanders who reportedly were to surrender failed to appear at a 

rendezvous in southern Sudan near the Congolese border, a United Nations official said. 

Okot Odhiambo, believed to be Kony's number two, and his deputy Dominic Ongwen, had 

been in negotiations to hand themselves in. The UN peacekeeping force in Sudan, UNMIS, 

had been preparing their return to Uganda. 

But "for reasons that remain unclear none of the combatants had presented themselves at the 

designated rendezvous point as of Saturday afternoon," David Gressly, UNMIS regional 

coordinator for southern Sudan, said in a statement. 

Odhiambo and Ongwen are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for a 

raft of war crimes charges, including raping, killing civilians and forcibly enlisting child 

soldiers. 

Contacted by telephone from Kampala, the Ugandan spokesman for the joint operation in 

Congo said it was "just a matter of time" before the LRA was finally defeated, but refused to 

say how long it might take. 

"Operations will... go on until Kony terrorists are routed out of DRC," Deo Akiiki said, 

adding that "reviewing will only occur where necessary." 

The "LRA's capacity to abduct and kill has been gravely reduced since the ground forces 

took control of the situation," he said. 

"They are being starved and no longer have time to sit or plan as our forces reduce their 

numbers daily," he said. "We are sure we now have got all and it is a matter of time till we 

stop LRA madness once and for all." 

Operation Lighting Thunder was launched on December 14 after Kony repeatedly balked at 

signing a peace agreement already inked by Kampala in April 2008. 

The LRA began its rebellion against Kampala more than two decades ago and is accused of 

committing atrocities against civilians in northern Uganda, south Sudan, northeastern DR 

Congo and the Central African Republic.

The operation has been criticized for sparking revenge attacks by the rebels against 

unprotected civilians in the remote border region. 

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said Tuesday that the LRA had carried out attacks of 

"appalling brutality," calling the situation "very worrying." 

The UN said late last month that 130,000 people had been displaced in northern Congo after 

fresh LRA attacks. 

7,000 Congolese refugees flee to Uganda 


More than 7,000 people uprooted by violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo 

have crossed into Uganda since the start of the year, the UN refugee agency said Monday. 

Recent clashes and a joint Rwanda-DR Congo offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the 

region has caused a surge in the number of refugees fleeing into neighboring Uganda, the 

agency's spokeswoman in Kampala said. 

She said last month's arrest of Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda had caused panic 

among residents. 

"This, and the joint offensive of Rwanda and Congo created a fear among people that they 

might get caught up in the fighting," Vanessa Akello said, adding that the number of 

Congolese crossing each week has doubled from an average of 600. 

More than 45,000 Congolese have entered Uganda since August 28, when a tenuous 

ceasefire between Nkunda and the Kinshasa government broke down. 

On January 20, Congolese and Rwandan soldiers launched a joint offensive in the eastern DR 

Congo against the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of 

Rwanda (FDLR). 


Prepared by Craig Berry

Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

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