Peace Negotiations Watch- Volume V, Number 17, July 26, 2006

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the program to fraudulently gain citizenship for hundreds of thousands of people who are notIvorian and secure illegal, extra votes for Gbagbo's rivals in elections set to occur by the end ofOctober.Rebels and opposition leaders with roots in the north have demanded the program, sayingauthorities have discriminated against them by denying them national identity papers and treatingthem as foreigners in their own country.Gbagbo's followers also want the rebels to disarm, a process Prime Minister Charles KonanBanny who was appointed as a neutral mediator has said is well under way. But the protestersclaim disarmament has barely started, if at all. Bibah said some protesters were outside the primeminister's office and planned to stay until "he listens to us." "There is no violence planned for themoment," Bibah said. "All we want is for disarmament to start at the same time as theidentification process."As police watched over the main rally downtown, protesters in the suburbs used tables and chairsto barricade major road crossings. "We are only letting doctors through and those who live in theneighborhood," said Alfred Djedre, who was manning a roadblock in the Abidjan suburb ofAngre with 20 comrades. An export consultant in Abidjan, a major port for the world's largestcocoa producer, said he had to halt all operations for the day. "Nobody could get to work,"Dominique Mirebeau said. Shops in a few remote areas remained open and Eric Treno, who runsan Internet cafe in the suburbs, said he was receiving his usual customers.KashmirTop Kashmir separatist urges India, Pakistan to continue talksAgence France Presse, 7/<strong>17</strong>/06A top Kashmiri separatist Monday urged India and Pakistan to continue with their peace processand not to allow events such as the Mumbai train blasts to derail talks. "If India pulls out of thepeace talks it will prove beneficial to the elements who want to wreck such a process," MirwaizUmar Farooq, the head of moderate faction of the region's main separatist alliance, told reporters.India indicated Saturday that peace talks with nuclear rival Pakistan, expected later this week,would be delayed in the wake of the <strong>July</strong> 11 blasts in India's economic hub that left 182 dead andnearly 900 wounded. The high-level talks, aimed at reviewing progress in the slow-movingpeace process, were thrown into doubt after Indian authorities said Pakistani-based Islamicmilitants could be responsible for the well-coordinated attacks. Militants have denied theirinvolvement.The two countries, who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independencefrom Britain in 1947, have been involved in talks since January 2004 to resolve pendingdisputes, including the one on Kashmir. They hold the scenic region in parts but claim it in full."Discontinuation of the peace process at this stage will be very unfortunate for the people of
Kashmir," said Farooq, who has been criticised by hardline separatists and militants in the pastfor starting talks with New Delhi.His faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference has held several rounds of talks with NewDelhi, including with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "The two countries should continuetalks and foil evil designs of people who want to derail it," said Farooq, who is also the headpriest at the main mosque in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar. Elements in India, Pakistan andKashmir want to scuttle the peace process, he added, without elaborating. Separatists variouslywant Kashmir incorporated into Kashmir or to be independent of both countries.KosovoSerbian, Kosovo leaders to take part in Vienna talksAgence France Presse, 7/21/06Serbia's president and prime minister will attend UN-sponsored talks with Kosovo's ethnicAlbanian leaders in Vienna on Monday, the first such meeting since the 1998-1999 Kosovo war,Belgrade confirmed Friday. The Kosovo Albanian delegation would be led by President FatmirSejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku, officials in the provincial capital Pristina said.Monday's meeting will be the first between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders since 1999,when a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian troops to pull out of the province and end acrackdown on armed ethnic Albanian separatists. The one-day meeting in Vienna, chaired by UNspecial envoy Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, is expected to tackle for the first time the core issue ofKosovo's future status and the ethnic Albanians' demands for full independence. "Kosovo is oneof the most important issues for Serbia," government spokesman Srdjan Djuric told Beta newsagency.Djuric said either President Boris Tadic or Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica would be presentat each of the rounds of talks that would follow the session on Monday. Serbia has "for longsupported the idea of direct talks... as a best way to find a compromise solution." "We believethat Ahtisaari will help bring about a compromise," Djuric said.Kosovo Albanian negotiators met earlier Friday in Pristina to finalize their delegation, whichwould include, beside Sejdiu and Ceku, parliament speaker Kole Berisha and opposition leadersHashim Thaci and Veton Surroi. "We are going to Vienna to offer arguments in favour of theindependence of Kosovo," Sejdiu said after the meeting. "We will not step back from thisposition."Talks on the future of Kosovo were launched in February under the auspices of the UnitedNations, but have failed to produce any concrete result so far. The Kosovo Albanian majoritywants independence for the UN-run southern Serbian province, but its demand has been rejectedby Belgrade and Kosovo's minority Serb community.
Page 2: Breakaway region's fate in limbo as
Page 7: CongoUN condemns irregularities in
Page 11 and 12: Traffic between the two countries w
Page 13: Ivory CoastUN official: Ivory Coast
Page 17 and 18: In June, Serbs in the north proclai
Page 19 and 20: The Maoists declared a ceasefire Ap
Page 21 and 22: SomaliaEthiopia Enters Somalia to B
Page 23 and 24: early Friday. "Nine big trucks arri
Page 25: implementing it, and there remain t

Peace Negotiations Watch- Volume V, Number 17, July 26, 2006

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