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Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 89
11 - 17 May 2002


CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Ethiopian civilians repatriated
ETHIOPIA: Major anti-HIV/AIDS campaign to be launched
ERITREA: HRW demands "immediate release" of detained journalists and
dissidents
SOMALIA: Renewed outbreak of fighting in Bulo Hawa
SOMALIA: No formal administration in Garowe
SOMALIA: Radio station launches satellite channel
SUDAN: Danforth recommends US continue to push peace process
HORN OF AFRICA: EC to support peace initiatives in the Horn

ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: Interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, head of VSO at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27786

ETHIOPIA: Focus on the Afar people at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27812

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Ethiopian civilians repatriated

One Hundred and eighty-five Ethiopian civilians were repatriated from
Eritrea on 10 May, according to a press statement from the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It said the operation took place under
the auspices of ICRC at a crossing point on the Mereb river between the
towns Adi Kwala in southern Eritrea and Rama in northern Ethiopia. "Acting
in its capacity as a neutral and independent intermediary, the ICRC
carried out this operation in accordance with its standard procedures,"
said the statement. "Volunteers from the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and
the Red Cross Society of Eritrea also assisted in the operation, in
particular by providing drinking water and food on their respective sides
of the border."

The civilians were met by a team of ICRC delegates based in Ethiopia, who
then handed them over to the Ethiopian authorities, the statement added.
The ICRC said that it "will continue to assist any person affected by the
recent international armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and to
promote the application and respect of rules and principles of
international Humanitarian Law, in particular the Geneva Conventions of
1949".

The ICRC has repatriated around 56,800 Ethiopians from Eritrea since the
end of 2000. But hundreds of prisoners of war and detainees are still held
in both Ethiopia and Eritrea almost two years since the end of their
bloody border war. Just days ago, the vice-president of the ICRC, Jacques
Forster, expressed concern over the slowdown in prisoners of war being
allowed to go home.

ETHIOPIA: Major anti-HIV/AIDS campaign to be launched

A major campaign aimed at providing young people with HIV/AIDS counselling
and testing is to be launched in Ethiopia. The country has one of the
largest populations living with HIV/AIDS in the world, according to
statistics from the health ministry. About one million children have been
orphaned by the virus.

Four main towns across the country where the rate of HIV/AIDS infection
among the youth is almost one in six, or about 16 percent, are to be
targeted. "Young people make up a third of Ethiopia's population and are
the most affected by HIV/AIDS," said Mirgissa Kaba, acting head of the
HIV/AIDS section of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
"Providing youth-friendly, confidential counselling and testing is an
essential part in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Young people themselves are
important agents of change to combat the spread of this epidemic."

UNICEF, the National AIDS Council Secretariat and the Family Guidance
Association of Ethiopia (FGAE) will mount the campaign. The three
organisations signed an agreement on 10 May to provide 29,000 young people
with voluntary counselling and testing services in the capital, Addis
Ababa, Dire Dawa, Gonder and Jijiga.  The project also provides for the
diagnosis and treatment of an additional 96,000 people exposed to sexually
transmitted and other opportunistic infections. Skills training will be
made available to those who test HIV-positive.

UNICEF is providing US $587,000 for the project from funds donated by the
government of Norway. "The Norwegian government has been a consistently
strong partner in supporting UNICEF's work in Ethiopia," said Abdelmajid
Tibouti, UNICEF Senior Programme Officer. "Their support will help the
youth of Ethiopia combat the spread of HIV/AIDS." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27762]

ERITREA: HRW demands "immediate release" of detained journalists and
dissidents

The New York-based rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has called
on the Eritrean government to free immediately nine journalists detained
in September 2001 following the government's imposition of a ban on all
private and independent publications in the country, HRW said in a press
statement on Thursday. The independent media were closed down after being
accused of engaging in activities that "endangered national security and
unity". They were accused of carrying the opinions of government
dissidents, 11 of whom are also in detention.

The nine, who were reporters, editors and publishers of Eritrea's private
press, began a hunger strike in late March to protest against their
detention without charge and, on 3 April, "were transferred from Police
Station One in [the capital] Asmara to an undisclosed location", said the
HRW statement. HRW noted that international human rights law recognised
the fundamental principles that detainees were entitled to be free of
torture and mistreatment, and that no-one should be subjected to prolonged
arbitrary detention by the government.

"The Eritrean government should immediately release the journalists and
political dissidents or charge them with a recognisable criminal offense.
They should be held in an acknowledged, legally established place of
detention pending release, with access to relatives and lawyers. The
government should also lift the ban on the independent press," said the
statement. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27800]

SOMALIA: Renewed outbreak of fighting in Bulo Hawa

Renewed fighting has reportedly broken out in the border town of Bulo
Hawa, in the north of Gedo Region, southwestern Somalia, humanitarian
sources in the Kenyan border town of Mandera told IRIN on Wednesday
morning. "There is an exchange of heavy weapons fire in Bulo Hawa as we
speak, with stray rounds landing in Mandera," one of them said. "What
little of its population was left in the town has now crossed over to the
Kenyan side." According to the source, Bulo Hawa, with an estimated
population of 20,000, "is now like ghost town. People have been streaming
out of the town, since early this morning."

It is not clear what brought about this fresh bout of fighting, which
started at around 09:30 a.m. local time (06:30 GMT) on Wednesday, and
continued until midday. According to the sources, the fighting is between
an alliance of the Marehan sub-clans of Rer Hasan, Hawarsame and Habar
Ya'qub, which are supported by the opposition Somali Reconciliation and
Restoration Council on the one hand, and on the other hand by sub-clans
sympathetic to the Transitional National Government. The Marehan clan
dominates Gedo Region.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
had on Tuesday sent extra staff to help relocate Somali refugees
originating from Bulo Hawa who had been living in Mandera since the
beginning of April, the UNHCR spokesman, Peter Kessler, told reporters in
Geneva on Tuesday. The refugees, mainly women, children and old people,
fled inter-clan fighting in Bulo Hawa after fighting first broke out there
among rival factions of the Marehan clan. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27778]

SOMALIA: No formal administration in Garowe

There is now no formal administration in charge of Garowe, the capital of
the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, a
local journalist told IRIN on Monday. "Garowe is peaceful with no reported
security incidents since Col Abdullahi Yusuf left it last week," said Adan
Abdirahman Dolar of the Garowe-based Nugal Times. "There is no one from
the camp of either Abdullahi Yusuf or Jama Ali Jama running the town's
affairs", he said. "The locals are running their own affairs.".

However, Isma'il Warsame, Abdullahi Yusuf's chief of cabinet, told IRIN
that Garowe was not functioning satisfactorily, but neither was it "a
no-man's-land". "Garowe is not as normal as it should be, but it will soon
resume its functions as Puntland's state capital," he predicted. "The
president will soon reshuffle his cabinet. Once that has happened, he will
return to Garowe."

Abdullahi Yusuf left Garowe early on Monday morning, leading between 600
and 800 militia, along with 30 "technicals" - pick-ups mounted with heavy
weapons. On Wednesday he captured the economically important port of
Bosaso, the commercial capital of Puntland. According to Dolar, since
Abdullahi's departure, militia loyal to his rival, Jama Ali Jama, have
taken control of the checkpoint south of the town, so "Jama loyalists now
control both the southern and northern entrances to Garowe".

Meanwhile, Jama Ali, who had been in Las Anod town, Sool Region, since his
forces were defeated in Bosaso, reportedly left for Djibouti on his way to
Libya, a local source in Las Anod told IRIN on Monday. Sool Region is
geographically part of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, but is
ethnically and politically linked with Puntland. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27730]

SOMALIA: Radio station launches satellite channel

The Mogadishu-based Somali Television Network (STN) radio and television
broadcasting station has officially launched a radio satellite broadcast,
an official of the station told IRIN on Tuesday.

Abdiqadir Abdi Ali, the STN operations manager, said that "after a
two-month trial period, we are on 24 hours a day". According to Abdiqadir,
the channel targets Somalis in the diaspora, "who have difficulty
accessing news from home". "They will get up-to-date information about
Somalia", he said. He said the channel would initially reach Somalis in
Europe, Asia and Africa. "We plan to add north America before the end of
the year," he added.

The network would provide a blend of news, business and cultural
programmes and inform its listeners about political, economic and social
trends at home, Abdiqadir told IRIN. The channel would broadcast in
Somali, but "plans are under way to introduce within a short period,
English, Arabic, Amharic and Swahili language services", he said.
Abdiqadir said STN "will welcome organisations, business establishments,
government and NGOs, media houses and individuals who would like to
participate in our programmes, or wish to have a working or business
relationship with STN".

SUDAN: Danforth recommends US continue to push peace process

In a new report submitted to US President George W. Bush, US Envoy for
Peace in Sudan John Danforth has recommended that the US continue to serve
as an intermediary between the warring parties in Sudan. In the report,
released on Tuesday, Danforth recommended that participation by the US in
the search for peace must be "collaborative and catalytic", as well as
"energetic and effective". At the least, this would mean the US should
enhance its presently "light" diplomatic presence in Sudan in order to be
effective an participant in a sustained, intensive peace process, Danforth
recommended, as well as strengthening the number of Washington-based
personnel dedicated to the country.

Danforth said the principal conclusion of his mission was that the war
between north and south was not winnable by either side in terms of
achieving their present objectives. "Therefore, this is the time for a
major push for a compromise settlement," he said. "I believe that both the
government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement have given
sufficient indications that they want peace to warrant the energetic
participation of the United States in a long-term peace process," he
added.

During April 2002, Danforth said, both sides had offered proposals to the
Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) suggesting "a
rethinking of previously held positions", and that both sides had shown
that it was possible to agree on contentious issues and to permit
international monitoring of the implementation of their agreements. [Full
report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27779]

The international aid agency Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and HRW both
welcomed the report produced by Danforth, while simultaneously expressing
reservations about specific points in it. In a statement issued on
Wednesday, CRS applauded the progress made by Danforth, but urged for
greater attention be paid to the right of self-determination and the
destructive role of oil exploitation in Sudan. The agency said the report
addressed the issue of self-determination in "a limited manner".

"Many Sudanese churches - key actors within civil society - strongly
believe that unity cannot come at the price of sacrificing justice, and
that the full exercise of the right of self-determination by the people of
Sudan is the only true means for promoting justice and facilitation of a
lasting peace," CRS stated. "The war must end in peace with justice. Our
suffering people should therefore be allowed to freely determine their
political status and pursue their economic, social, and cultural
development," CRS quoted a statement issued in March 2002 by Sudanese
church leaders as saying.

HRW said the Danforth mission had resulted in "major steps towards
improving the human rights crisis in Sudan", and that it had made human
rights recommendations crucial to the future of the country. One
shortcoming of the report, however, was that in discussing strategies for
the future of Sudan, it elevated freedom of religion above other basic
rights, said HRW. "This approach fails to come to grips with the broad
nature of human rights violations that are the root causes of the
19-year-old civil war." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27801]


HORN OF AFRICA: EC to support peace initiatives in the Horn

The EC has allocated 2.6 million euros (about US $2.3 million) to support
peace initiatives in Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia under its Rapid
Reaction Mechanism. An EC statement on Thursday made available to IRIN
said the aid "is to provide rapid support to the negotiations on the
future of Somalia, to assist in the demarcation of the Eritrean/Ethiopian
border and to finance emergency mine-clearing operations to support the
ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan".

The EC statement said the programme included a financial contribution to
the initial phase of the reconciliation process in Somalia, which would
start with an inclusive conference to be organised in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, in May/June 2002. The EC's contribution would cover the main
expenses for the first conferences, including possible technical
assistance.

The programme would also include a contribution to a UN trust fund for the
demarcation of the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and as a first
contribution towards mine-clearing operations, and emergency mine-clearing
operations in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan aimed at providing access to
cities and water wells. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27798]


IRIN-CEA
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