U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 44
30 June - 6 July 2001


CONTENTS:

HORN OF AFRICA: Regulated livestock trade now "expected"
SOMALIA: Puntland president sworn in
SOMALIA: Faction leaders head for OAU summit
SOMALIA: Somaliland to improve relations with Djibouti
SOMALIA: Committee to investigate financial practices
SOMALIA: Minister denies corruption charges
SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: Faction leaders may talk with TNG
ETHIOPIA: President "will stay" as head
ETHIOPIA: Detained opposition members released
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UNMEE map rejected
SUDAN: Khartoum accepts Libyan-Egyptian peace initiative

HORN OF AFRICA: Regulated livestock trade now "expected"

The lifting of the Rift Valley fever (RVF) ban on exports from the Horn of
Africa by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in May has meant livestock
exports have resumed in earnest from Somalia. The regional livestock
coordinator for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Dr Paul
Rossiter, told IRIN that the lifting of the ban had precipitated an
"exodus of livestock out of Bosaso [in the self-declared autonomous region
of Puntland, northeastern Somalia] going across to Dubai at a very hot
time in small dhows". He said that, as a result, many of the sheep were
not in very good condition when they arrived. "They were accepted, but
unfortunately there has been such an oversupply, market prices crashed in
Dubai."

He said in an interview that experts who have worked with humanitarian
agencies to get the RVF ban lifted by the Gulf states, nevertheless felt
the ban was justified. "The expert committee feels it is absolutely
justified to impose a ban on the livestock when there is a big epidemic of
RVF." The country which provides by far the largest market for Somalia and
the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia, lost some 200 people to RVF last year,
and Yemen more than 100. Rossiter said the most important action would be
to regulate the trade in livestock from Somalia [from where livestock from
other areas of the Horn of Africa is exported] so that internationally
accepted certification was put in place, and disease surveillance. He
warned that importing countries had a wide variety of other options for
purchasing livestock: "Somalia must learn to compete in that market, first
by improving the quality of its animals in terms of health and body
condition, and also by putting in place a regulated trade." He said
Somalia needed to put in place a regulated trade system "which will be
expected of it now, anyway".

A series of meetings in a UNDP-supported project had resulted in a set of
scientifically based recommendations which would be presented soon to the
importer countries, in the hope that agreement could be secured on
accepted procedures. Rossiter said the process would have to be
"importer-driven", in terms of whether vaccinations were required or not.  
"If they don't want vaccinations, they will want some kind of early
warning system to pick up the kind of meteorological signs that might
suggest serous outbreaks of RVF", he said. [see IRIN Interview with Dr
Paul Rossiter, FAO]

SOMALIA: Puntland president sworn in

The president and vice-president of the self-declared autonomous region of
Puntland, northeastern Somalia, took the oath of office on Wednesday, a
senior Puntland official told IRIN. President Abdullahi Yusuf and
Vice-President Muhammad Hashi were sworn in for a three-year term of
office, Isma'il Warsame, chief of cabinet of the Puntland president said.

Puntland Chief Justice Yusuf Haji Nur, who on 1 July issued a decree
claiming to be "the legitimate authority in Puntland as of 1 July", told
IRIN on Wednesday that he had started the process of calling a general
congress of all Puntland regions to be held on 30 July. Yusuf said he had
sent invitations to all regional governors and traditional elders to
"select and name their representatives" to the congress. Isma'il Warsame,
however, dismissed talk of a general congress being organised. The
government had issued a decree last week banning all unauthorised
meetings, he said. "We don't anticipate such a meeting, and we will not
allow it," Warsame said. Local sources told IRIN that commanders of the
Puntland security forces had reportedly came out in support of the
extension of the mandate, thus making it virtually impossible for the
chief justice to challenge Abdullahi Yusuf.

SOMALIA: Faction leaders head for OAU summit

A delegation of the opposition Somali Reconciliation and Restoration
Council (SRRC) was on its way to the Zambian capital, Lusaka, for the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit, a radio controlled by faction
leader Husayn Aydid reported on Wednesday. The delegation is led by the
current chairman of the SRRC, Abdullah Shaykh Isma'il, and includes Husayn
Aydid. The SRRC delegation was going to Lusaka to brief African leaders
gathering there for the OAU summit on the real situation in Somalia, the
radio said.

On Tuesday, the delegates arrived in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, from
Ethiopia, where they had been holding talks with Ethiopian officials.  
Before leaving for Lusaka, they briefed Kenyan government officials on
their talks in Addis Ababa, the radio reported.

SOMALIA: Somaliland to improve relations with Djibouti

The president of the self-declared independent state of Somaliland,
northwestern Somalia, Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, has called for improved
relations with Djibouti, the BBC reported on Wednesday. Egal, who was
speaking at the opening of the eighth Somali studies conference in the
Somaliland capital, Hargeysa, said Somaliland was ready to open a new
chapter in its relations with Djibouti. Egal told the gathering that the
two sides should resume the cooperation and fraternal relations which had
previously existed between them. He said he was going to name a council of
traditional elders to go to Djibouti, but was waiting for Djibouti's
response, the BBC said.

Bilateral relations soured following Djibouti's hosting of the Somali
peace talks, which led to the establishment of the Transitional National
Government (TNG). The Somaliland administration boycotted the talks and
accused Djibouti of interfering in Somalia's internal affairs. 

SOMALIA: Committee to investigate financial practices

The TNG has set up a cabinet committee to look into reported differences
between the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, a senior TNG
official told IRIN. The differences are over whether the ministry or the
bank should have overall control of government funds, local sources told
IRIN.

The TNG director of information, Abdirahman Dinari, said the seven-member
committee, headed by Minister of Reconstruction and Resettlement Abdullah
Ga'al Abdi, was set up on 28 June, to look into the "division of labour" 
between the bank and the ministry. It has three cabinet officers and four
financial experts, Dinari said, and was expected to make recommendations
on how the two government departments should work together. A member of
the Mogadishu business community told IRIN that there was "hope that the
committee will recommend that either the governor or the minister should
go, if not both." The TNG could not afford to retain top officers who were
unable to agree on what their responsibilities were, he said.

Local sources told IRIN that the problem began when Finance Minister
Sayyid Ahmad Shaykh Dahir, insisted that all government cheques would be
issued by the ministry as opposed to the bank, as under the last Somali
government. The differences surfaced last week after members of the
National Transitional Assembly (TNA) accused the TNG of corruption in
connection with money reportedly missing. The finance minister is said to
have told the TNA that US $3.5 million had been misappropriated,
implicating himself, the prime minister and the governor of the Central
Bank. The accusations have subsequently been denied.

SOMALIA: Minister denies corruption charges

The finance minister of the TNG, Sayyid Ahmad Shaykh Dahir, denied making
accusations of corruption to the TNA last week. He said the controversy
centred around a cheque for US $1 million dollars given to Prime Minister
Ali Khalif Galaydh. Dahir told IRIN he had not accused Galaydh of taking
the cheque for personal use, but that he had told the TNA that it had been
issued for "the settling of government bills, including the hotel bills
accumulated since October last year, and other items of government
expenditure approved by the TNA and the cabinet".

Sayyid Ahmad said his address to the TNA had been "misinterpreted"  by
local and international media. It was reported that he had said Galaydh
had obtained a cheque for US $1 million from the treasury, which was
unaccounted for, while the governor of the Central Bank, Mahmud Muhammad
Ulusow, had received US $750,000. Sayyid Ahmad said the governor of the
Central Bank had received the US $730,000 to cover the requirements of the
auction of dollars to bring down inflation. Another US $300,000 had been
spent on repaying a loan to the TNG by the Barakat Bank. He told IRIN the
finance ministry was prepared to open its books to anyone wishing to
examine them, and that he intended to issue a list of all the finance
ministry's items of expenditure in conformity with the relevant vouchers. 

Meanwhile, the prime minister's office also denied the accusations of
corruption. Umar Qadi, the head of policy planning in the prime minister's
office, told IRIN on Tuesday that the prime minister had physically showed
the cheque in question to the TNA on 28 June, and explained what it was
for. 

SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: Faction leaders may talk with TNG

A high-level delegation of the SRRC has ended a visit to meet Ethiopian
officials to discuss Somali peace talks, an Ethiopian government statement
said. The faction leaders were in Ethiopia from 24 to 28 June. The
delegates, who met Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin and other
Ethiopian officials, had agreed to "engage in a constructive dialogue in
order to promote peace and national reconciliation in Somalia without
preconditions", thestatement said. The SRRC had earlier said it would not
sit with the TNG for so long as it claimed to be a national government.
However, the spokesman of the Ethiopian foreign ministry, Yemane Kidane,
told IRIN that he "hoped and believed" that the SRRC would now sit with
the TNG without preconditions. 

ETHIOPIA: President "will stay" as head

Ethiopian President Negaso Gidada has said he is resolved to continue
serving as head of state despite a campaign to discredit him. He said he
would continue to serve as a member of the Oromo People's Democratic
Organisation (OPDO) and as head of state, despite a campaign of "false and
negative propaganda" against him, the pro-government Walta Information
Centre reported on 29 June. He would, however, reconsider his position if
the propaganda targeting him continued, Walta said. In an open letter to
the OPDO, the president defended his walkout from a meeting of the ruling
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) council, saying
his action had been in accordance with the country's constitution. 

President Gidada was expelled from the EPRDF and his own OPDO on 22 June,
after walking out of an EPRDF council meeting, complaining of pressure
from the chairman of the council, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Walta said. 
The president called on Ethiopian Television to broadcast the complete
proceedings of the council meeting of 18 to 22 June, and complained that
the portion shown had been deliberately chosen as a means to discredit
him. 

ETHIOPIA: Detained opposition members released

The Ethiopian government has released 22 opposition Democratic Party (DP) 
members arrested in April for allegedly instigating students riots, AFP
reported on Thursday. The released men were delivered by police vehicles
to their party offices. 
 
Two of those released, Kinfe Awbichew and Wondosen Gulte, complained of
rough treatment during their 75-day incarceration in Choa-Robit, northeast
of the capital, Addis Ababa, said AFP. The health of DP Secretary General
Lidetu Ayalew, who was rearrested on 24 June, was said to be
deteriorating, said AFP. The authorities have accused the DP and two other
opposition groups, the All Amhara People's Organisation (AAPO), and the
Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) of sparking the April student
riots, which left some 30 dead and 253 injured. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UNMEE map rejected

Spokesman for the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), Chris de
Bono, reiterated in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on 29 June that the UN
map of the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) was only temporary. Responding to
the Ethiopian rejection of the map, he said it was for the "independent
neutral Boundary Commission to demarcate and delineate the boundary
between the two countries". He said the temporary map recently issued by
the UN was needed so that the two governments could "build confidence and
maintain calm" while the Boundary Commission completed its work. De Bono
said the UN Security Council had asked the two parties to agree to work
with the map "in a statement which is second only in strength to a
resolution". Answering questions by journalists, the spokesman indicated
that the UN would insist on working with the map, rather than withdrawing
it. "We believe that trying to address the concerns of the two parties
about a temporary map will slow down our work and the peace process." 

However, the Eritrean commissioner in the Commission for Coordination with
the UNMEE, Andeberhan Woldegiorgis, said Eritrea had not accepted the
latest map issued by the UNMEE, and had officially protested against it.
The commissioner said it was wrong for UNMEE to issue a map of the TSZ "to
suit the weyane's [Ethiopians'] demands", official Eritrean radio said on
Tuesday. Andeberhan also complained that Ethiopia still had troops inside
the TSZ, and had failed to hand over mine-field maps, which, he said,
delayed the peace process and hindered the return of displaced people.

SUDAN: Khartoum accepts Libyan-Egyptian peace initiative

The government of Sudan on Wednesday announced that it had fully accepted
all the points of a joint Libyan-Egyptian memorandum - which has not been
made public - on their peace initiative for Sudan. At a press conference
in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il
urged the two countries to take all the necessary measures to implement
the initiative, Sudanese television reported. The leadership of the ruling
National Congress (NC) party, including its chairman, President Umar Hasan
al-Bashir, had approved the memorandum at a special meeting on Tuesday
night, the official SUNA news agency reported. NC Secretary-General
Ibrahim Ahmad Umar called on all Sudanese political forces to accept the
Libyan-Egyptian paper, it added. 

It had previously been reported that the government of Sudan was opposed
to a Libyan-Egyptian proposal to have a transitional government of all
political parties to undertake implementation of the agreement, hold a
national conference for revision of the constitution and organise general
elections. Although the Libyan-Egyptian memorandum was not publicly
released, Sudanese media reported that it included principles insisting on
Sudanese national unity; recognition of ethnic, religious and cultural
diversity within the country; the need to introduce a pluralist democracy; 
the guarantee of basic freedoms and human rights; citizenship as a basis
for rights and duties; the need for a decentralised rule of law; and the
pursuit of a foreign policy that guaranteed national interests while
respecting good neighbourliness. The memorandum also provided for an
undertaking by all parties on an urgent cessation of violence under
military observation, they added. 

The opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is reported to
have accepted the memorandum in principle, but to have some reservations
about a perceived bias by the Libyan-Egyptian mediators towards the
Sudanese government. The NDA chairman and leader of the Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP), Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, called for the
integration of the Libyan-Egyptian peace initiative with that of IGAD (the
regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development) "so that the
Sudanese issue does not become an Arab versus African issue", according to
the Sudanese 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm'. Mirghani also accused the government of
trying to assimilate the opposition into its institutions as part of its
efforts to retain power, it added. 

Meanwhile, Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) official
Mansur Khalid said his movement did not oppose the formation of a
transitional government which included members of the other opposition
parties and the ruling party, "provided prior agreement is reached on
setting the duration of the transition phase, amending the constitution,
revoking the emergency laws and the single-party state, and preparing for
new legislative elections," according to the British-based Sudanese
newspaper 'Al-Zaman'.

The Libyan-Egyptian initiative differed from that of IGAD in including all
the Sudanese parties to the conflict, including northern opposition
forces, rather than just the government and southern-based SPLM/A,
according to regional analysts. It also insisted on the unity, or
indivisibility, of Sudan, as opposed to the IGAD principles, previously
accepted by the Sudanese government, which included the right of
self-determination - and therefore at least the possibility of secession -
of the south, they said. 

Nairobi, 6 July 2001


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001
 

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