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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 43
23 - 29 June 2001


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Corruption scandal hits TNG
SOMALIA: Police operation provokes fighting
SOMALIA: Puntland administration gets extension
SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: Faction leaders condemn fighting
ETHIOPIA: President expelled from ruling party
ETHIOPIA: OLF says president's expulsion heralds trouble
ETHIOPIA: Meles says postwar crisis over
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopia rejects UN map
ETHIOPIA-SUDAN: Sudan becomes key oil provider
SUDAN: WFP highlights water scarcity
SUDAN: Resource shortages limit food aid
SUDAN: "Outlaws" in Darfur face death penalty
DJIBOUTI: Hopes to "open up" north

SOMALIA: Corruption scandal hits TNG

Two MPs have accused the Transitional National Government (TNG) of
embezzling donor funds, news agencies and local media said on Thursday.  
Finance Minister Sayyid Ahmad Shaykh Dahir confessed to being part of the
scandal when the misappropriation of US $3.5 million was discussed in
parliament on Wednesday. He admitted to putting US $200,000 to personal
use, AFP said. Quoting MP Hasan Ahmad Sadiq, AFP said the finance minister
had told parliament on Wednesday that Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh
had obtained US $1 million from the national kitty. The finance minister
reportedly also told parliament that the head of the recently established
central bank, Ahmad Muhammad Ulusow, also obtained US $750,000. Some US
$770,000 allocated for the payment of MPs' allowances was also handed over
to Ulusow, while parliamentarians failed to receive their dues, AFP said.
Dahir was unable to explain how a further US $780,000 had been spent.
Earlier this month, the TNG told parliament it had received US $11 million
from Saudi Arabia and another US $3 million dollars from Qatar this year.

Ulusow subsequently denied that he had been involved in misappropriation
of funds. He told IRIN on Friday that the accusations concerned use of a
fund for the auction of dollars "to fight inflation". The auctions were
managed by a committee consisting of the central bank, the finance
ministry, the commerce ministry and members of the business community. All
proceeds from the auctions were "in the government accounts and controlled
by the finance ministry", Ulusow insisted. Local sources told IRIN there
had been some friction between the finance ministry and the central bank
over who should control government funds.

Reacting to the reports of corruption, one member of the business
community - which has been of critical support to the TNG from the
beginning - told IRIN that there was concern about President Abdiqasim
Salad Hassan's "almost total lack of involvement in the management of
donor funds". "He is the one who went out to beg for this money, so he
should show more interest in how it is spent."

SOMALIA: Police operation provokes fighting

An ongoing police operation by the Transitional National Government (TNG)
to "remove illegally built structures" in Mogadishu, which was launched on
24 June, provoked fighting on Thursday, after attempts were made to erect
a roadblock near the compound of faction leader Husayn Aydid.
Confrontation between the TNG forces and militia loyal to Aydid left to
five dead and at least 10 wounded, AFP said. By late afternoon, the police
had been forced to withdraw the checkpoint, local sources told IRIN. Heavy
machine guns and antitank rockets were used by the police during the
battle. More than 100 people were arrested, and a number of streets
cleared and structures removed, before the fighting erupted at midday
local time on Thursday. [For more details see IRIN separate SOMALIA:
Fighting flares over police cleanup]

SOMALIA: Puntland administration gets extension

Traditional elders meeting in Garowe, capital of the self-declared
autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, on Monday approved
the extension of the of the mandate for the Puntland administration, a
senior Puntland official told IRIN. Isma'il Warsame, Chief of Cabinet of
the Puntland president, said an "overwhelming" number had approved the
extension of the current administration, which was due to expire on 30
June. "Almost 90 percent of the elders attending the conference have
supported the government's request" to extend its mandate, he said.

The elders' meeting, which had been going on since 13 June, was reportedly
split into two camps, one supporting and the other opposing the extension,
Muhammad Deq Abdiqadir, editor of 'Sahan' newspaper, told IRIN. Warsame,
however, denied that there was a split, and said there were only
differences on "how to extend and who has the right to extend".

The Puntland House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the extension
of the administration's mandate by three years, a senior Puntland official
told IRIN. Isma'il Warsame, the chief of cabinet, said 42 members voted
yes for the extension. Fifty-nine of the 66 members of the house were
present, and the motion only needed a simple majority to pass, Warsame
said. However, opposition presidential candidates have challenged the
legitimacy of the recommendation, and saying that an increasingly
unpopular administration had manipulated the vote. [For more details see
IRIN SOMALIA: Puntland votes while opposition cries foul]

SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: Faction leaders condemn fighting

Somali faction leaders currently gathered in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, have continued talks with Ethiopian officials. Muhammad Ibrahim
Habsade, the second deputy chairman of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army
(RRA), said the southern-based opposition grouping of the Somali
Restoration and Reconciliation Council (SRRC) condemned the fighting which
flared up in Mogadishu on Thursday as a result of the TNG police
operation.  He called it "provocation by the Arta group [TNG]". Habsade
denounced it as an attempt by the TNG to seize areas in Mogadishu under
the control of the SRRC. "If this continues, the SRRC as a group will join
the fighting to assist Husayn's [Aydid's] forces" he told IRIN. Habsade
said some of the faction leaders in Ethiopia, including Husayn Aydid, were
out of Addis Ababa "on a work-related trip".

According to Habsade, who spoke to IRIN by telephone from Addis Ababa,
discussions in Ethiopia were focusing on holding "all-inclusive
reconciliation talks". However, he said that the SRRC would not talk to
the Mogadishu-based TNG for so long as it claimed to be a national
government. "We will sit down with them only as one faction meeting
another faction," he said.

ETHIOPIA: President expelled from ruling party

Ethiopian President Dr Negaso Gidada was expelled from the ruling
coalition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) on 22
June, in a move seen as the effective resignation of the largely
figurehead leader, Reuters news agency said. On that day, Negaso had
walked out of a meeting of the EPRDF council after complaining of pressure
from the chairman, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the pro-government Walta
Information Centre said on 22 June.

Negaso was also expelled from his Oromo People's Democratic Organisation
(OPDO) party, which is part of the ruling coalition. The government-owned
'Ethiopian Herald' said on 23 June that Negaso, who has been president
since 1995, could no longer "represent OPDO in any form". The OPDO
leadership accused the president of helping dissidents of Meles's own
Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) of preventing the "renewal of
democracy"  in the EPRDF, AFP said. The EPRDF denied that the president
had been put under pressure, and said he had left because he refused to
discuss reforms, including an anti-corruption drive, at the highest
levels. A group of 10 Tigrayan dissidents opposed to the policies of Meles
were suspended from the TPLF central committee three months ago. Nine of
them lost their parliamentary mandate, and two of them face prosecution
for corruption, AFP said.

ETHIOPIA: OLF says president's expulsion heralds trouble

The expulsion of President Negaso Gidada would not solve the crisis within
the ruling TPLF and heralded trouble in the largest ethnic region in
Ethiopia, Oromiya, a spokesman from the armed opposition Oromo Liberation
Front (OLF) said. Spokesman Lencho Bati made the remarks after the OPDO
expelled Negaso. Lencho told IRIN that Negaso, an Oromo, had held a purely
ceremonial post that did not give Oromos representation, but rather
"symbolised the Oromo alienation from the leadership - he was seen as a
puppet". Lencho, speaking from the US, said Negaso's party, the OPDO, had
itself been weakened by recent TPLF split. He said OPDO and Oromo affairs
had been "run by assigned TPLF members", and that there had been a lot of
"firings, reshufflings, bringing in and throwing out" of OPDO members. He
said the OPDO was split over issues concerning Oromo rights, the role of
the TPLF, the need for more autonomy, unequal economic development, and
human rights abuses in the Oromo region. According to Lencho, Negaso had
been "unhappy for the last couple of years" and uncomfortable with the
position he had been given.

The Ethiopian government has said it considers the OLF a terrorist
organisation, with an exiled leadership, and that it is not representative
of opinion in Ethiopia.

ETHIOPIA: Meles says postwar crisis over

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in an interview with the BBC, has said he is
unhappy with the number of deaths that occurred during recent student
riots. "The situation got out of hand very quickly. I am not happy that
there were so many deaths... but at that time we had to restore law and
order." Regarding the students who had fled into neighbouring Kenya, Meles
said no students had recently been arrested or detained, and denied that
the government had intimidated opposition parties. He said those who had
been arrested during and immediately after violent protests in April were
"detained under the law of this country [and included people] who had
mountains of criminal records in the past. It so happened some of these
unemployed youths were members of certain opposition parties." Meles said
"around 5,000" had been picked up.

Answering questions about the firing of former Chief-of-Staff General
Tsadkan Gebretensaye, Meles said there had been an attempt to "clean up
the system". He said "many of us are not satisfied with the way he
conducted himself during ... the crisis after the war". Meles said Tsadkan
had not conducted himself appropriately "during the split, and before the
split in the movement", in reference to the split in his own TPLF. He said
he was convinced that the armed forces were behind him, and dismissed as
"wild rumours" reports that there were damaging splits in the army. In
relation to his future, the prime minister said he was sure there was "no
possibility of my being ejected by extra-constitutional means". He said:
"I think what has happened is that a bit of dust had been gathered in the
movement, particularly during the conflict with Eritrea." He said of the
war with Eritrea that he felt, "like many others, it was in the best
interests of our country to kill ourselves to resist aggression". He said
he was confident that his position was secure, but that in the future he
could accept a constitutional vote against him as an "achievement... that
democracy has been achieved".

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopia rejects UN map

Ethiopia has rejected a UN map of the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) at the
disputed border, which was designed to separate the Ethiopian and Eritrean
forces and facilitate the UN peacekeeping mission. Ethiopian Foreign
Affairs spokesman Yemane Kidane said the map was "incorrect and therefore
cannot be accepted by the Ethiopian government", the BBC said on
Wednesday. He said the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) should
withdraw it immediately and "come up with a new one". According to Kidane,
there were two main points on the map that were of concern to the
Ethiopian government. Firstly, the Bure (12.36N 42.16E) front, near Assab
port, in the eastern sector, included eight kilometres of Ethiopian
territory which should not be in the TSZ, as they were "positions Ethiopia
occupied before the war", the BBC said. Secondly, Kidane questioned a 12
km-deep zone in the northern area of Irob, and said it should be 25 km, as
dictated by the artillery range distance. Kidane said the map violated the
Algiers peace agreement signed by Ethiopia and Eritrea, which halted the
two-year war that began in May 1998.

ETHIOPIA-SUDAN: Sudan becomes key oil provider

The Khartoum government has agreed to provide Ethiopia with 85 percent of
its oil requirements from 2002, Ethiopian Television (ETV) reported on 21
June. ETV quoted the general manager of the Ethiopian Petroleum
Organisation, Sisay Gebretsadik, as saying at the signing ceremony in
Khartoum that Ethiopia would save US $7 million annually by importing fuel
from Sudan rather than relying on imports from outside Africa. Ethiopia
currently spends US $20 million buying oil from the international market.  
According to the agreement, Sudan will export 120,000 mt of oil and a
further 36,000 mt of kerosene to Ethiopia annually. Ethiopia would also be
allowed to build a fuel depot inside Sudanese territory in order to ensure
a steady supply of oil and kerosene by road, ETV said. Sudan began
exporting oil in 1999, and is currently producing about 220,000 barrels
daily.

When the map was presented, UNMEE spokesman Chris De Bono said it in no
way prejudged or prejudiced the outcome of the commission working on
establishing the final borders, and appealed for both parties to "live
with it" in order to create confidence, and keep the forces apart.  
Establishing the boundaries on the disputed border had been one of the
main obstacles in the peace process, diplomatic sources said.

SUDAN: WFP highlights water scarcity

Water scarcity remained a serious problem in the Darfur and Kordofan
regions, despite late efforts to rehabilitate wells and water resources,
with most open, hand-dug wells having dried up, WFP reported on 22 June in
its weekly emergency update. On average, household members travelled eight
hours a day to fetch water, and the difficulties involved in providing
sufficient water for livestock had resulted in livestock owners either
selling or moving their animals, it added. "There is an increasing
movement of people in search of food and water, especially in Darfur and
Kordofan," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies reported last week.

Targeted WFP food distributions which started in May in Northern Darfur
and Kordofan regions had had a rapid effect on the cereal market, with
prices having dropped from 7,500 dinars (about US $29.3) to 6,000 dinars
(about $23.4) in Darfur, the WFP report stated. The agency had succeeded
in getting 90 mt of relief food into Buram (10.51N 25.09E), southern
Darfur, by road, and food distributions were scheduled to resume there on
Sunday, targeting 4,250 internally displaced people (IDPs) in three
schools, according to officials.

There were currently 25,000 or more people displaced by fighting in the
Western Bahr al-Ghazal areas of Raga and Wau heading towards Ed Daein
(Al-Duwaym: 14.00N 32.19E), and another 9,000 heading Kafia Kingi and
Buram, according to statistics cited in an alert from Action by Churches
Together (ACT) on Friday. ACT wanted to assist the transport of the most
vulnerable to safe places, as well as to help with food, according to the
alert. Transportation of the displaced, shelter and food were the most
urgent humanitarian needs, it said. Relief agencies needed to devote
increased effort to rehabilitating water sources, restoring some measure
of food self-sufficiency through seed distributions, and health
interventions - especially those related to communicable and water-borne
diseases - in Darfur, the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies said in an operations update last week.
       
SUDAN: Resource shortages limit food aid

Food distributions in both northern and southern sectors were
significantly down on estimated requirements in May, as they had been in
March and April, due to shortfalls in the food pipeline, Fridays WFP
emergency report stated. In May, WFP delivered 6,795 mt of food by air and
transported 5,232 mt of food aid by road, representing an increase of
about approximate 48 percent on April tonnage, it said. The agency had
estimated the country's food delivery requirements for May at 28,531 mt.

The humanitarian situation was now deteriorating rapidly in the
drought-affected areas of central, western and southern Sudan, the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported
last week. After poor donor response to both the UN Consolidated Appeal
and the Red Cross appeal, the impact of severe underfunding could now be
found in rising malnutrition rates and increasing distress migration, with
a resulting impact on security, notably tribal clashes and robbery, it
said. "The possibility of diseases spreading from contaminated water
sources is [also] increasing," it added.

SUDAN: "Outlaws" in Darfur face death penalty

Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir has warned that armed robbers and
"outlaws" operating in the Darfur states in western Sudan face amputations
and hanging if caught, the official news agency, Suna, reported on Monday.  
"The authorities will deal decisively with everyone who attempts to
intimidate people," he was quoted as saying at a public rally in
al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur State. "We will apply the
Islamic shari'ah on those outlaws who seek to spread anarchy and
corruption," he added. Bashir was quoted as saying that armed robberies
were hindering the delivery of badly needed food aid to the area. An
estimated 30,000 people had fled fighting in neighbouring Western Bahr
al-Ghazal following an offensive by the SPLA, and were seeking sanctuary
in Southern Darfur State, the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) said on 13 June.

According to the human rights organisation, Amnesty International, Sudan's
penal code is based on the government's interpretation of shari'ah law,
and includes punitive amputations, death, and death followed by
crucifixion. The normal sentence for armed robbery is cross amputation,
where the right hand and left foot are amputated. The international human
rights group said five men from Darfur state were convicted of armed
robbery and punished by cross amputation on 25 January and 27 January 2001
at Khartoum's Kober prison. According to government figures published in
April, some 300 soldiers and 1,781 civilians have been killed in northern
and southern Darfur states in clashes with armed robbers.

DJIBOUTI: Hopes to "open up" north

The recently signed peace agreement between the government and the armed
wing of the Afar-based Front for the Restoration of Democracy (FRUD) may
lead to the opening up of the northern districts, humanitarian agencies
said. With improved security after 11 years of armed conflict, agencies
said they hoped to open up some of "the most needy districts" in the
underdeveloped north, the WFP said in its weekly emergency report on 22
June. The WFP said it had distributed 1,002 mt of food to some 72,000
drought-affected people, including the southern districts of Dikhil and
Ali-Sabieh, as well as to drought victims in the Djibouti-Ville periphery.

Nairobi, 29 June 2001


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