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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 30
24 - 30 March 2001


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Two aid workers still detained
SOMALIA: MSF says attack "unacceptable"
SOMALIA: Prime Minister condemns Ethiopia
SOMALIA: Chairmanship of opposition council to rotate
ETHIOPIA: Meles wins out over dissident threat
ETHIOPIA: OLF warns peace agreement threatened
ETHIOPIA: IMF approves US $112 million
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopia signs forces agreement
SUDAN: Murahilin militia steps up attacks
SUDAN: Human rights observer "not warranted"
SUDAN: "No deals" with Turabi
SUDAN: Moi and Bashir discuss peace summit
 

SOMALIA: Two aid workers still detained

Two UN aid workers were safely evacuated to Nairobi, Kenya on Friday, UN
spokeswoman Sonya Lawrence Green said. Pierre Paul Lamotte of UNICEF, and
Muhammad Muhamadi of the World Health Organisation (WHO) had been caught
up in an attack on the Medicin Sans Frontieres-Spain (MSF) compound on
Tuesday morning in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Negotiations continue
over the fate of remaining UN security officers, Bill Condie and Roger
Carter. Green said the UN had been reassured they were safe, but was
demanding to establish direct contact.

The two UN staff members were part of a team of nine expatriate staff
caught up in a heavy shoot-out at the MSF compound in north Mogadishu on
Tuesday morning. The attack was launched by militia loyal to opposition
faction leader, Muse Sudi Yalahow, who said he wanted to prove that the
capital was unsafe. Five of the aid workers, including three MSF aid
workers, were evacuated to Nairobi on Wednesday.

SOMALIA: MSF says attack "unacceptable"

MSF condemned Tuesday's attack on its compound and humanitarian aid
workers in north Mogadishu, and said it had suspended operations in the
capital. A statement released on Thursday said "cholera victims are now at
risk of dying in Mogadishu north, because supplies have been looted and
destroyed." It called the security incident "the worst of its kind" since
the organisation began work in Mogadishu in 1991, when the former
government collapsed. MSF Medical Coordinator Elena Grandio saidthe
targeting of aid workers was "totally unacceptable, and only harms the
very people we are trying to help". Grandio was evacuated from Mogadishu
on Wednesday night.

SOMALIA: Prime Minister condemns Ethiopia

Interim Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh said in a letter to the UN
Security Council that Ethiopia was interfering in the internal affairs of
Somalia, with the aim of preventing the re-emergence of a unified and
peaceful Somalia. In the letter, dated 21 March, Galaydh said Ethiopia
posed "a clear and present danger to our unity, territorial integrity and
political independence". He pointed to Ethiopia's current hosting of
Somali opposition groups, and the "occupation" of southern Somali towns in
Gedo, Bay and Bakol regions. Ethiopia had "justified ominously, on the one
hand, the illegal occupation of Somali territory on the imperatives of its
own national security needs and, on the other hand, blamed Somalia... for
publicising the presence of troops deep inside Somali territory". He also
accused Ethiopia of recruiting and arming militia in southern Somali
regions.

Galaydh also complained that the Ethiopian government was accepting
passports issued by the administration in the self-declared state of
Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, and had agreed to allow an Ethiopian
bank to operate there. Despite pursuing a policy of constructive dialogue
with opposition groups, the TNG was being deliberately undermined, Galaydh
insisted. "The level of political violence is almost non-existent in
Mogadishu now, but... we are bracing up for destabilisation activities
engineered by our neighbours."

The Ethiopian government has strenuously denied accusations that it has
troops inside Somali territory, or that it has interfered in the internal
affairs of Somalia.

SOMALIA: Chairmanship of opposition council to rotate

Southern faction leaders opposed to the Mogadishu-based TNG have
established the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), news
agencies said. The new grouping has a presidential council, consisting of
five co-chairmen, and a first secretary, according to the pro-Ethiopian
government Walta Information centre. Opposition leaders meeting in
Ethiopia since 2 March include most of the main southern faction leaders.
 
The chairmanship is to rotate on a monthly basis among the five
co-chairmen. The five co-chairmen are: Husayn Aydid of the Somali National
Alliance (SNA); Hilowle Iman Umar, from north Mogadishu; General Adan
Abdullahi Nur Gabyow, of the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM); Hasan
Muhammad Nur Shatigadud of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA); and
Abdullahi Shaykh Isma'il of the Southern Somalia National Movement (SSNM).  
Husayn Aydid has been chosen as the first chairman, with a mandate for six
months. Aydid said in a press conference in Addis Ababa that, within this
period, the SRRC aimed to convene a national reconciliation conference
inside Somalia. He said the new conference would lead to a broad-based
government. Opposition leaders who did not appear in the line-up for
chairman include two prominent Mogadishu-based faction leaders, Muse Sudi
Yalahow, and Usman Ali Ato.

ETHIOPIA: Meles wins out over dissident threat

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said the ruling Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has effectively foiled a disruption
attempt by a group of central committee members. The central committee
members of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - Meles's own party
- walked out of a meeting convened to assess the performance of the front
over the last 10 years. According to the pro-government Walta Information
Centre web site, 15 out of the 28 members of the TPLF central committee
voted that "the greatest threat that Ethiopia was facing was corruption
and undemocratic tendencies". Meles said the remaining, dissenting members
had at that point insisted that the meeting be aborted and a general
meeting of the TPLF called. Addressing a press conference for local
journalists, the prime minister said the confusion caused by the splinter
group had "posed a grave danger to the country", but this had been
resolved, according to Walta. Meles said the move by the group was "a
violation of democratic principles and the statute of the front". Flanked
at a press conference by Kuma Demeksa, leader of the Oromiya Regional
State, and Abate Kisho, leader of the South Ethiopia Nations'
Nationalities' and Peoples' Regional State, Meles said the triumph over
the dissenting members represented "a new political tradition in
Ethiopia". He was also accompanied by Dr Kasu Ilala, deputy prime minister
and economic adviser, and Adisu Legese, chairman of the Amhara National
Democratic Movement and vice-chairman of the EPRDF. Meles also retains the
support of the chief of staff, Tsadkan Gebretensae. Walta said the
dissenting TPLF central committee members constituted some of the most
senior in the leadership of the TPLF and the EPRDF, including former
defence minister, Siye Abraha Hagos, Tewolde Woldemariam, Gebru Asrat,
Alemseged Gebreamlak and Abay Tsehaye.

Meanwhile, a statement by the International Committee of Tigrayans for
Democracy (ICTD) has accused Meles of defending Eritrean interests at the
expense of Ethiopia's national sovereignty and stability. "Meles has
single-handedly carried out a coup and overthrown the democratically
elected regional government of Tigray... [to] enable him to rule Ethiopia
unchallenged, and attract his Eritrean wolves back," the diaspora
opposition group said.

ETHIOPIA: OLF warns peace agreement threatened

The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has said the split in the Tigray People's
Liberation Front (TPLF) has exposed the lack of agreement within the
ruling party on the peace agreement with Eritrea. A statement released on
Monday said the crisis in the TPLF, the dominant party in the ruling
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had "exposed the
absence of a consensus within the ruling party regarding the very
agreement concluded to achieve lasting peace between the two states". It
said the problem within the leadership was based on a lack of democracy
and a wish to "form a dominant relationship outside the borders of
Ethiopia". The OLF called on the international community to put pressure
on the Ethiopian government to "close the books on its futile practice of
dominating other peoples... and commit itself to a comprehensive
resolution of conflicts in Ethiopia".

OLF spokesman Lencho Bati told IRIN that the leader of the group opposing
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi represented the 'Greater Tigray' group. "The
Siye Abraha group dreams of the greater Semite empire... and was key in
the mishandling of the conflict with Eritrea," Bati said. He said when the
OLF was in the coalition government in 1991-92, it had "rough" relations
with Siye Abraha, then minister of defence, who "was responsible for the
military campaign in Oromiya". However, Bati said Meles was not absolved,
because he had put Siye on a Tigray war council, consisting of eight
people, charged with handling the Eritrean conflict. Bati said the effect
of Siye's defection would be to make peace more fragile, as he would try
to attract support from Ethiopian nationalists in relation to the border
war, particularly among the Amhara opposition - which had always opposed
Eritrean independence.

The Ethiopian government told IRIN that it considered the OLF a terrorist
organisation, and that the spokesman was not proven to be representative
of any interests in Ethiopia.

ETHIOPIA: IMF approves US $112 million

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it had approved in principle a
three-year arrangement for US $112 million to support Ethiopia's economic
programme. In a statement on 20 March, IMF Acting Chairman Shigemitsu
Sugisaki said a final decision on the granting of interim relief would be
taken later this year "once Ethiopia has established a performance record
under the new PRGF [Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility]." The IMF said
it was important that Ethiopia maintained public finances on a sustainable
path, improved monetary management and the functioning of financial
markets, and carried out structural reforms. It particularly called on the
Ethiopian government to "improve governance, transparency, accountability,
and public sector efficiency".

Ethiopia's progress with market-oriented reforms from 1996 to 1999 had
been "notable, although uneven", said the IMF. It said severe drought and
the border conflict with Eritrea had had an increasingly negative impact
on the economy, alongside poor terms of trade associated with lower coffee
export prices and the steep rise in petroleum import prices. Ethiopia
resumed its economic reform efforts after progress was made with the peace
agreement with Eritrea, late in 2000. According to the IMF, the
government's immediate strategy was to redirect resources from
defence-related expenditures towards poverty-reducing outlays, while
addressing the need for postwar reconstruction and demobilisation.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopia signs forces agreement

The United Nations and the Ethiopian Government have signed a
Status-of-Forces Agreement (SOFA) concerning the United Nations Mission in
Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), an UNMEE press statement said on Tuesday.  
The agreement with the Ethiopian government was signed at the UN
Headquarters in New York on Friday. SOFA outlines the rights, privileges
and obligations between UNMEE and the host country (Ethiopia), within a
legal framework. Special Representative for the Secretary-General Legwaila
Joseph Legwaila said it represented a step forward. "We believe this is a
significant and positive step forward in the continuing peace process."
The agreement allows freedom of movement for all UNMEE staff, both
civilian and military. Taxes for locally purchased goods for official use
are also waived under the agreement, UNMEE said.

SUDAN: Murahilin militia steps up attacks

Residents of the southern Sudanese city of Wau, capital of the western
Bahr al-Ghazal region, complain they have come under renewed attack from
the Murahilin Arab militia. The Murahilin had recently abducted dozens of
women and children, and carried out robberies and attacks in the Wau area,
the BBC said on Monday. Residents told the BBC that "some 3,000 men"  
arrived in the city three weeks ago on trains and horseback and carried
out the attacks. The Sudanese military - which has a large garrison in Wau
- had been criticised for failing to act against the Murahilin, said the
BBC. The military denies this.

Humanitarian sources told IRIN that the area around Wau had experienced
recent attacks, as well as two recent raids near Aweil. Allegations of
abductions were difficult to confirm until security in the area improved,
said the source.

SUDAN: Human rights observer "not warranted"

The Sudanese government has rejected recommendations by the UN Human
Rights Commission that a human rights observer be appointed for Sudan.  
Justice Minister Ali Muhammad Uthman Yasin held a news conference on
Sunday and said the government was firm in its decision to reject the
observer, but would accept the input of an international human rights
expert on a provisional six-month programme, official media said.  
According to Yasin, the expert would work as a consultant under the
auspices of UNDP and would advise on developing activities for national
capacity-building to strengthen and protect human rights. In rejecting the
appointment of an observer, Yasin said. "We are convinced that our
religion respects, honours and fully preserves human rights."

A Sudanese official told IRIN that a human rights observer was "not
necessary" and that the situation in Sudan did not warrant such
appointment. Muhammad Dirdiery, deputy head of mission in the Sudanese
Embassy in Nairobi, told IRIN that the agreement with the Commission to
appoint an international expert showed that Sudan was prepared to
cooperate with the international community on ways to improve human
rights. Dirdiery said the expert would advise the government.

SUDAN: "No deals" with Turabi

The Sudanese government has denied media reports that the government was
close to an agreement with former Speaker of parliament Hasan al-Turabi,
that will lead to his release. Muhammed Dirdeiry, Sudanese Embassy deputy
head of mission in Nairobi, told IRIN that Turabi was still in jail and
the treason case was still "moving forward." "There is no room for
political deals, and the criminal case will follow the laid down
procedures," he said. The former Speaker of parliament and leader of
opposition Popular National Congress was arrested last month, after he
signed an agreement with the leader of the southern-based Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM). The Memorandum of Understanding signed in
Geneva, on 19 February said Sudan was "on the verge of collapse under the
regime's totalitarian and high-handed approach", and recommended that
"peaceful popular resistance must be stepped up".

SUDAN: Moi and Bashir discuss peace summit

Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi flew to Khartoum on Thursday to hold
talks with Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir on the peace process in Sudan
and Sudanese-Kenyan relations. A Sudanese official said the meeting would
focus on reactivating the peace process in Sudan, and the negotiating
mechanism of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD), Sudanese state radio said on 29 March.  Kenya was the seat of the
IGAD secretariat on peace, and President Moi was expected to discuss ways
of reactivating its work, the radio said. Moi has said he hoped the
meeting with Bashir would lead to a peace summit on Sudan.

Nairobi, 30 March 2001


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