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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN Weekly Round-up 4
23 - 29 September 2000



CONTENTS:

HORN OF AFRICA: Gulf states join livestock ban
SOMALIA: Libyan agreement qualified and denied
SOMALIA: Call for truth commission
SOMALIA: President moves to form new government 
DJIBOUTI: Locust Control in huge debt 
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Deployment of observers completed
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Demining programme to be launched
SUDAN: Peace talks continue while SPLA claim new victory
SUDAN: President meets opposition leaders, invites Isayas
SUDAN: Election date set


HORN OF AFRICA: Gulf states join livestock ban

Five Gulf states - Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Yemen - and the United Arab
Emirates have emulated Sudan in banning livestock imports from eight Horn
and East African countries following the first outbreak of Rift Valley
Fever (RVF) outside Africa. None of the countries included in the ban -
where RVF is endemic - have reported recent RVF epidemics, and exactly how
the disease has spread has yet to be established, humanitarian sources
told IRIN. The countries affected by the ban are Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti,
Uganda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Nigeria. 

SOMALIA: Libyan agreement between Abdiqasim and Aydid, later qualified and
denied

Interim President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan has signed a "memorandum of
understanding" with Mogadishu faction leader Husayn Muhammad Aydid in
Libya.  Sources close to Abdiqasim told IRIN that the president had met
and held talks with Aydid in Libya and that the memorandum was "a basic
understanding of cooperation". According to the source, Libyan leader
Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi said he accepted Abdiqasim as the president of
Somalia, and told Aydid that he too should recognise the newly appointed
leader. 

However, Aydid was later reported by AFP as saying he did not recognise
Abdiqasim as a national president, but only as a group leader. 

Another signatory to the agreement, faction leader Husayn Haji Bod, called
a press conference in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, during which he said,
according to the 'Qaran' newspaper, that his signing was "merely an
affirmation of what our delegation promised the Yemeni president", which
was to resolve Somalia's problems through talks. 

SOMALIA: Call for truth commission

The newly elected Somali government should prosecute war criminals in
court, or set up a truth finding commission. Hassan Shire Sheik,
co-director of the Dr Ismail Juma'le Human Rights Centre, based in
Mogadishu, told IRIN that it was essential for the new government to
establish accountability, as a matter of credibility. According to the
organisation, a truth finding commission should have the ability to
question "everybody without immunity, whether parliamentarian, or
minister, or president". He said that a UNESCO-organised workshop in
Djibouti had presented new parliamentarians with the issue and had mainly
been met "with a good response".  But Hassan Shire said that some of the
newly elected parliamentarians "fear the very word human rights" because
they had committed abuses in the former regime or during the 10-year civil
war. "Some of the parliamentarians are known war criminals, people who
have committed crimes against humanity", he said.  According to Hassan
Shire it was essential for the new government to prosecute crimes and
establish a "healthy environment where rights are respected... so that we
don't fall backwards in the transitional period to civil and political
rights abuses".

SOMALIA: President moves to form government

After ending his visit to Libya, interim President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan
travelled to Djibouti, where he held consultations with the clan-based
Transitional National Assembly (TNA) on forming a government. He invited
the parliamentary clan groups to submit two names as candidates for the
post of prime minister by 30 September, sources close to him told IRIN.
After choosing a prime minister, subject to a vote of confidence by the
parliament, Abdiqasim will then announce ministerial posts and the
cabinet. 

DJIBOUTI: Locust Control in huge debt

The regional Desert Locust Control Organisation for Eastern Africa
(DLCO-EA), meeting in Djibouti, must grapple with US $17 million in unpaid
contributions from member states. In the opening of its 45th regular
session of the Council of Minister, members states were told that only 36%
of the annual budget of US $701,953 had been paid. Delegates represent the
seven member countries, Djibouti, Eritrea. Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan Uganda
and Tanzania. Headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, DLCO carries out
vital pest control operations in the region, including monitoring
crop-destroying plagues of locusts, army worms and Red-billed Quelea
birds.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Deployment of UN observers completed

United Nations military observers are now in place in four locations on
both sides of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The UN Mission in
Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said in a statement released from the
Eritrean capital, Asmara, that this marked the successful launch of the
Mission's second phase of operations. The 40 observers travelled by road
and air to arrive at the sites simultaneously from Asmara and Addis Ababa.
On the Ethiopian side of the border, the teams are positioned at Inda
Silase, Adigrat, Zela Anbesa and Manda. On the Eritrean side, the teams
are in Barentu, Adi Kwala, Adi Keyih and Assab. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Demining programme to be launched

The UN is initiating a demining programme in Ethiopia and Eritrea, in
compliance with a Security Council Resolution adopted during the
authorisation of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).
Diplomatic sources told IRIN that the governments which had offered
support for the programme included Britain, Belgium and Japan. Kenya and
Slovakia have offered engineers, said the source. A Mine Action Office
will be established within the UNMEE structure, which will supervise
emergency mine-action operations. There are significant numbers of land
mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the recently contested occupied
areas in Ethiopia and Eritrea, humanitarian sources said. The presence of
of UXO is of great concern now, said the source, as with the deployment of
peacekeepers, the withdrawal of troops and a cessation of hostilities,
civilians who fled their homes during the fighting are likely to start
returning soon.

SUDAN: Peace talks continue while SPLA claim new victory

Peace talks under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLA), which opened last week at a hotel on Lake
Bogoria in western Kenya, are continuing. The meeting was opened by
Ambassador Daniel Mboya, the head of the IGAD permanent secretariat. The
government delegation is led by Ibrahim al-Tahir, the presidential adviser
on peace affairs, while Nhial Deng is representing the SPLM. 

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), meanwhile, claimed it had
captured the garrison town of Tahajulbolis on the main Kaduqli-Dilling
road in south-central Sudan. In a statement issued by Sudanese opposition
radio Voice of Sudan on 22 September, the SPLA said it had inflicted
"heavy loss of life and equipment" on government forces and a number of
government soldiers had been killed and wounded. It said Tahajulbolis was
the second garrison to be captured by the SPLA around the regional
capital, Kaduqli, within the space of three weeks. No independent source
has confirmed the capture. 

SUDAN: President meets opposition in Eritrea and invites Isayas

President Umar al-Bashir arrived in Asmara last Tuesday accompanied by
ministers and senior officials. During his visit he met Eritrean President
Isayas Afewerki, with whom discussed ways of strengthening bilateral
relations. Bashir also met Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, the leader of the
opposition Democratic Unionist Party, according to AFP. During the meeting
they agreed to resolve issues by way of dialogue as opposed to military
means. It was the first meeting between the two since 1989 when Bashir
seized power in a military coup. Sudanese state media quoted government
spokesman Ghazi Salah al-Din Atabani as saying that President Isayas
Afewerki would make an official visit to Sudan. 

SUDAN: Election date set

The chairman of the electoral commission, Abd al-Mun'im Zayn al-Nahhas, is
reported by AFP as having announced that elections would be held in the
country's 26 states from 11 to 20 December with the results to be
announced on 24 December. 


[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: 
irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]


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