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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 29
17 - 23 March 2001


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopian troops cause "setback"
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Eritrea submits crucial mine information
ETHIOPIA: Sackings and dissent in ruling party
ETHIOPIA: Mengistu extradition unsuccessful
ETHIOPIA: Meningitis still a threat
ERITREA: Food stocks depleting rapidly
SOMALIA: UNESCO man fined over leaflets
SOMALIA: Islamic court prisons condemned
SUDAN: Aid workers held in Khartoum
SUDAN: Conditions given for new talks
SUDAN: Government denies oil "atrocities" 


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopian troops cause "setback"

Ethiopian armed units have returned to the buffer zone on the disputed
border with Eritrea, the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
(UNMEE) said on Thursday. UNMEE said it had asked for the immediate
withdrawal of forces from the area. Three companies of Ethiopian soldiers
had been sighted approximately six km inside the proposed zone, southeast
of the southern Eritrean town of Senafe - despite the UN having previously
verified Ethiopian redeployment on 7 March.

UNMEE said it had presented the information to Ethiopian military
authorities on 17 March, who agreed to investigate the matter. A
reconnaissance made by a joint group of UNMEE military observers and
Ethiopian military officers on Tuesday confirmed the presence of the
Ethiopian units. The Ethiopian military authorities later informed UNMEE
that they would not withdraw their forces from this area, which UNMEE said
was a "setback". According to the statement released by UNMEE, the
Ethiopian authorities "acknowledged that the area had not been included in
the redeployment plans previously presented to UNMEE". The Mission is
stepping up its patrols in the area and said it would "closely monitor the
situation".

Both Ethiopia and Eritrea now have armed units in the proposed Temporary
Security Zone (TSZ) on the disputed border, despite a previous agreement
to redeploy troops and facilitate the peacekeeping mission.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Eritrea submits crucial mine information

Eritrea has submitted detailed minefield information to the UNMEE. UNMEE
Force Commander Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert said that the Mission "welcomes
this important development, which is so critical for the purposes of
peacekeeping and for humanitarian objectives".  The data covered
significant front lines, and included details of antitank and
antipersonnel minefields laid by the engineering corps of the Eritrean
Defence Forces (EDF), an UNMEE statement said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Eritrean government said it had continued reservations over
an operational map drawn up by the UNMEE. Brig-Gen Abrahaley Kifle told
IRIN that Eritrea had not agreed to any changes made to the political map
in a meeting of the Military Coordination Committee of UNMEE held in
Nairobi, Kenya, on 6 February. The newly drawn map "puts areas that were
supposed to be in the TSZ in Ethiopian hands", said Kifle, who is the
Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Commission for Coordination with UNMEE.  
Eritrea "will not continue with the rearrangement of its forces until the
issue has been resolved", a government source said. UNMEE spokesman Lt-Cdr
Albert Wong told IRIN that both Ethiopia and Eritrea had agreed to a
political map at the 6 February meeting.

ETHIOPIA: Sackings and dissent in ruling party

Key members from the Meles Zenawi's Tigray People's Liberation Front
(TPLF) have been dismissed following internal dissent within the party.  
Ethiopian government sources told the BBC that Meles's position was not
under threat, but admitted that there had been "internal dissent" over the
past few weeks. Division among leaders and politburo members of the ruling
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF) - of which the
TPLF is the leading political party - had centred on criticism of the
prime minister's policies. Key members of the TPLF opposed Meles's
reforms, and accused him of "selling out to capitalism and bowing to
western powers", rather than remaining loyal to the Marxist ideology that
brought the TPLF to power, the BBC said. The row between pro-Meles
reformists and the conservatives also focused on Meles's handling of the
conflict with Eritrea, and access to ports. The government has made no
official comment on the sackings, but the BBC said anonymous government
sources had said that the dissenting members were "free to return to the
committee".

ETHIOPIA: Mengistu extradition unsuccessful

The former Ethiopian dictator, Mengistu Hailemariam, has been granted
permanent residence in Zimbabwe, despite appeals by the Ethiopian
government that Mengistu - wanted for war crimes - be extradited.
Zimbabwean Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo this week granted Mengistu and
seven members of his family permanent residence, the Zimbabwean daily,
'Financial Gazette', said on Thursday. Mengistu's new status means that he
and his family members can no longer be deported unless they are convicted
of serious criminal offences in Zimbabwe. Mengistu fled Ethiopia in 1991
after a notorious 17-year rule, and is being tried in absentia for crimes
against humanity.

ETHIOPIA: Meningitis still a threat

The meningitis outbreak in Ethiopia had claimed the lives of 141 persons
in nine of the country's 11 regions by 1 March, according to reports
reaching UN World Health Organization (WHO) in Ethiopia, Mulugeta Gebru, a
WHO Emergency officer, told IRIN. The strain affecting Ethiopia was the
Sero-A type, the most virulent strain of meningitis, and "the major cause
of epidemics", Gebru said. Some 80 percent of all those affected are under
30 years of age.

The Ethiopian government issued an appeal for vaccines on 27 February to
combat the deadly epidemic. A total of over 8 million doses of vaccine
were needed. So far, 766,000 doses have been received, plus 425,000
requisitioned from last year, according to WHO. With another 3.3 million
doses pledged, there is a shortfall of 3.9 million doese.

ERITREA: Food stocks depleting rapidly

Food stocks in Eritrea have depleted quickly, and food insecurity could
worsen for target groups unless pledges from last year arrive soon.  The
USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS) said the food
security outlook would depend on a number of factors, including rain
conditions in the coming season, the situation in conflict-affected
territories, and the outcome of the Ethiopian-Eritrean peace process. In
its February update, FEWS said the implementation of the peace process was
important to enable people "to return on time to start their normal
productive lives again".  If the peace process was not implemented as
expected, many of the people displaced by conflict "will remain in camps
and host communities and will depend on relief aid for some time to come".  
More refugees may arrive in the country from Sudan under the UNHCR
voluntary repatriation programme.

SOMALIA: UNESCO man fined over leaflets

A United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) staff member was fined US $500 for allegedly "holding
anti-government propaganda" by a court in the self-declared autonomous
region of Puntland, UN sources told IRIN.  The fine followed the man's
arrest on 26 February when Puntland police said they found anti-Puntland
leaflets in a raid on his hotel room. He was kept in jail until 1 March
when he was released on a US $1,000 bond, and ordered not to leave
Puntland. The incident was confirmed by the UNESCO office in Nairobi,
Kenya.

SOMALIA: Islamic court prisons condemned

The Mogadishu-based Dr Isma'il Jumale Human Rights Organisation (DIJHO)  
said on Wednesday that the Islamic court had committed human rights abuses
against some 200 prisoners. Some of the prisoners had been tortured and
denied due judicial process, said DIJHO co-director Maryan Awreye in a
statement. Some 245 prisoners have been crammed into seven cells. The
organisation appealed for the release of eight prisoners, who had spent
between 14 and 27 months in cells without a court appearance, and said
that most of those convicted by the Islamic courts had no rights to a
defence lawyer, or an appeal. The case of a 14-year-old Ethiopian boy,
Binyam Tesfay, was highlighted, and international human rights
organisations urged to take action. DIJHO said the boy, suspected of being
an Ethiopian agent, had visible burn marks from torture.

Human rights lobby groups were urged to condemn the situation in prisons
in southern Somalia generally. The DIJHO has close ties with international
human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
and is considered Somalia's biggest human rights organisation.

SUDAN: Aid workers held in Khartoum

Four aid workers with the Adventists Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)  
are being held in a government house in Khartoum, a humanitarian source in
Sudan told IRIN. Aid agencies have had no access to the group, nor has
there been any explanation from the government as to why they are being
held. "We are hopeful that they will be released soon, but also concerned
for their wellbeing," the source said.

The four aid workers - two Kenyans, one Ugandan, and one Sudanese - were
abducted on 8 March in Kajokaji, southern Sudan, by pro-government militia
loyal to Gordon Kong Chuol.  Their release was secured on 16 March, after
the Sudanese government sent a team to negotiate with the militia, the
source said.

SUDAN: Conditions given for new talks

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Sudan People's Liberation
Army (SPLA) said a fresh round of talks with the government could only be
held if certain conditions were met. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN
that the conditions included the release of all political prisoners, the
lifting of the state of emergency, and the suspension of clauses in the
1998 constitution relating to Islamic Shari'ah. Other conditions include
the lifting of the Public Security Act, and removing the ban on political
parties, Kwaje told IRIN.

The southern-based SPLA and the NDA - which brings together northern
opposition groups - have set the conditions in relation to talks proposed
by an Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative. Kwaje said the new initiative did
not involve the Inter-Governmental Authority of Development (IGAD), which
held the last round of unsuccessful talks.

SUDAN: Government denies oil "atrocities"

The Sudanese government has denied claims by the British development
agency, Christian Aid, that atrocities are being committed by the
government in areas around oilfields. In a report released on 15 March,
the agency said the oil giants, BP and Shell, should divest their shares
in companies whose parent corporation is "complicit in atrocities" in
Sudan. The report presents new eyewitness testimonies about government
attempts to clear the land of civilian populations for oil exploration. It
said there had been thousands of deaths and displacements, and that oil
companies "can no longer justify doing business in Sudan".

The Sudanese government has rejected the allegations and termed them as
"part of a smear campaign against the Sudanese government", Deputy Head of
Mission in the Sudanese Embassy Mohamed Dirdiery told IRIN. He said the
Canadian Foreign Ministry had sent a "fact-finding mission" to Sudan on
this issue and found "the allegations were baseless".

Dan Collison, head of Christian Aid's Sudan programme, told IRIN that a
deliberate government policy of displacement around the oilfields had
begun in earnest in 1999 - "that's when the government adopted a scorched
earth policy to exploit oil". He said rebel activity also affected
civilian populations, with the oil factor "making a bad situation worse".  
Long-term conflict between southern-based rebels and the government, and
between southern parties, had always affected civilians, he said, but the
"oil war" had intensified suffering.

According to Collison, Christian Aid had contacted oil companies directly
involved, particularly Canada's Talisman Energy and Sweden's Lundin Oil.  
He said Talisman's response was that oil revenue would benefit the
country, and that it had put human rights monitoring mechanisms in place.  
"Our response is that those mechanisms are not working, because
displacement is greater than ever," Collison told IRIN. [For full text of
report see www.christian-aid.org.uk]

Nairobi, 23 March 2001


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