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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 76
09 - 15 February 2002


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Fighting in Bardhere leaves 18 dead
SOMALIA: Reconciliation conference set for April
SOMALIA: Premier in dilemma over cabinet
SOMALIA: Faction leader threatens to quit TNG
ETHIOPIA: UN ambassador rejects idea of "greater Somalia"
ETHIOPIA: Help needed to tackle AIDS
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Religious leaders meet for first time in Asmara
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Slovak peacekeeper killed
SUDAN: Khartoum says food drop bombing was a mistake
SUDAN: Medical centre in Bentiu area "systematically looted"
SUDAN: British envoy to join wider push for peace

ALSO SEE: ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: IRIN Interview with Legwaila Joseph Legwaila
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20668


SOMALIA: Fighting in Bardhere leaves 18 dead

The town of Bardhere, 400 km west of Mogadishu, is reported to be
generally calm two days after heavy fighting broke out there, local
sources told IRIN on Thursday. The fighting, on Tuesday, pitted forces of
the Juba Valley Alliance (JVA), which supports the Transitional National
Government (TNG), and those of the opposition Somali Reconciliation and
Restoration Council (SRRC), led by General Muhammad Sa’id Hirsi Morgan.
According to the sources, the town is relatively calm "with most of the
businesses open". "There is less military activity today than yesterday,"
one source said.

The JVA was holding at least 68 SRRC prisoners in Bardhere, he added.
"Most of the prisoners belong to the Rahanweyn and Biyamal clans." The
confirmed death toll now stood at 18, including "one child and one woman
killed in crossfire inside the town", and the rest combatants, the source
told IRIN.

The SRRC forces were said to be regrouping at Qansahdhere town, 120 km
northeast of Bardhere, while the JVA forces had taken up defensive
positions at Shanqoley village, 35 km northeast of Bardhere, the source
said. "Both sides are waiting for reinforcements and ammunition," he
added. "Everyone here is expecting another bout of fighting in the near
future, if not in Bardhere, then somewhere else in the region." [Also see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20858]

SOMALIA: Reconciliation conference set for April

Regional ministers meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have agreed to
set up a technical committee to prepare for a Somali reconciliation
conference, set for the second half of April. A communique, issued at the
end of day-long talks on Thursday, said Kenya would convene the conference
which would include Somalia's TNG and other Somali parties. The meeting,
which brought together ministers of the regional grouping
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), decided that the
technical committee would comprise the states bordering Somalia - namely
Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. Its mandate includes drawing up the terms of
reference for the conference and deciding on participation.

According to the statement, the ministerial committee meeting expressed
"grave concern" over the situation in Somalia over the last decade. "While
noting that the frontline states had borne the socioeconomic fallout of
the crisis, it further noted that the conflict in Somalia had resulted in
an exodus of refugees to neighbouring countries and that arms destined to
factions had contributed to illicit trade and proliferation of small arms,
leading to insecurity," the statement said. "It was noted that a worsening
of the security situation in Somalia could have a disastrous impact on the
precarious humanitarian situation in the country," it added. [Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20941]

SOMALIA: Premier in dilemma over cabinet

The prime minister of Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG),
Hasan Abshir Farah, is having difficulties in naming his cabinet, a senior
TNG official told IRIN on Monday. The problem seems to be divisions within
clans and "a crisis of representation within the clans", he said.
According to the official, in one instance, a clan which had been allotted
two cabinet posts sent a list of 26 nominees. Had Hasan Abshir proceeded
to choose two names from the list, "he would most definitely have annoyed
those within the clan whom he had set aside".

The list had been returned for the clan to propose a more realistic number
of nominees. This situation indicated that "the clans are unable or
unwilling to take the necessary decision, so they are telling the prime
minister: you make the choice for us," the official said. "Unfortunately
the clan has been the Achilles heel of Somali politics," he added. [Full
report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20514]

SOMALIA: Faction leader threatens to quit TNG

A prominent faction leader, Muhammad Qanyare Afrah, has threatened to quit
the interim government. Qanyare, who is the minister of fisheries and
marine resources in the Transitional National Government (TNG), told IRIN
on Tuesday that he would leave the TNG if it failed to abide by agreements
reached. Qanyare denied reports that he had already left the government,
saying: "I did not quit, but will do so unless all the agreements between
us are fulfilled." He complained about the TNG's sluggishness in
implementing agreements it signed. "No one is against the government, but
they have to fulfil their part of the agreements," he added.

Qanyare, a member of the Mursade subclan of the main Hawiye clan, and one
of the most prominent faction leaders in Mogadishu, joined the TNG last
year. A regional analyst told IRIN that Qanyare's departure from the TNG
would be a severe political blow if it transpired. [Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20638]


ETHIOPIA: UN ambassador rejects idea of "greater Somalia"

Ethiopia's ambassador to the UN, Abdul Mejid Hussein, has rejected the
possibility of a "greater Somalia", along with other senior political
leaders from Ethiopia's Somali National Regional State. "There should be
no ambiguity on the issue of being Ethiopian," Ambassador Hussein, former
head of the Somali People's Democratic Party, told a press conference in
Addis Ababa on Tuesday. "The vision of the new Ethiopia is one that
Somalis in Ethiopia should be very clear about, and there should not be
any confusion about being part of what is being called the greater
Somalia."

"We are not part of a greater Somalia," he stressed. He was speaking after
Somali faction leader Hussein Aideed was accused of calling for a greater
Somalia. In a recent interview with IRIN, Aideed said he wanted to "bring
back" Ethiopian and Kenyan Somalis, otherwise "you have a population
divided who are in the same family". Hussein said Aideed was a guest of
Ethiopia. "He is welcome of course, so long as he does not interfere in
our affairs... Those who still believe that they would like to join
Somalia can do so constitutionally, they can do so peacefully, we have no
objection to that." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20684]

ETHIOPIA: Help needed to tackle AIDS

Ethiopia can never defeat AIDS alone and needs the help of the
international community, the deputy Speaker of the country’s House of
Representatives admitted on Wednesday. Dr Petros Olango said the only way
to overcome the devastating effects of the virus was through a united
front. "We are all aware that millions of children are becoming orphans
due to HIV, and this is a great challenge to the nation," he told a
workshop on HIV/AIDS in Addis Ababa. "Something has to be done." Dr Petros
told the workshop that Ethiopia had one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS
prevalence in the world and the third highest number of people living with
the virus. "From our previous experience we have learnt that the national
response to epidemics cannot be done in a scattered and fragmented way...
It requires a true partnership to work together to overcome HIV/AIDS in
the country," he said.

Petros said that in Ethiopia, around three million people were living with
HIV/AIDS, and that 250,000 children under five had the virus. "We lack
capacity as well as knowledge on how to properly implement projects and
utilise the available funds at all levels," he stressed. "Therefore we
need the support of our genuine partners in order to raise our capacity
for a quick and proper response to this epidemic." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20823]


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Religious leaders meet for first time in Asmara

Religious leaders from Ethiopia arrived in the Eritrean capital, Asmara,
on Wednesday for peace talks with their Eritrean counterparts, Eritrean
radio announced on Thursday. Although the talks - mediated by the
nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) - have taken
place in third countries, this is the first time the religious leaders are
meeting in each other's capitals. NCA said the move represented a
breakthrough in peace-building between the two countries, following their
two-year border war. The NGO believes that religious leaders are important
stakeholders in the peace process.

The ceremony in Asmara was opened by the first Patriarch of the Eritrean
Orthodox Church, Abuna Philipos. Addressing the gathering, Eritrea's
Muslim leader, Shaykh Al-Amin Uthman, said the Ethiopian visit
"demonstrates the love and respect the Ethiopian people have towards the
people of Eritrea". The Ethiopian religious leaders - including Patriarch
Abuna Paulos of the Orthodox Church, Abuna Berhaneyesus of the Catholic
Church, and Muslim leader Shaykh Abd-al-Rahman Husayn - along with their
Eritrean counterparts, delivered a message of peace to the people of the
two countries. The ceremony was attended by Eritrean government officials,
ambassadors and other diplomats.

Eritrea's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Teweldemedhin Tesfamariam, said the
meeting in Asmara was a "very positive development" towards peace. "These
meetings between religious leaders can serve as a bridge for
people-to-people contacts [from the two countries]," he told IRIN.
Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Sayyid Abdallah, who met the Ethiopian
religious leaders on Thursday, said his government supported any peace
initiative that benefited the people of the two countries. The religious
leaders were due to leave for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, later on
Thursday.

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Slovak peacekeeper killed

A Slovak member of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) was
killed in a car crash on Monday, bringing to three the number of UNMEE
peacekeepers killed since the mission was deployed in September 2000.
Corporal Vladimir Kollar, 24, served with the Slovak de-mining detachment
in the mission's Eastern Sector of the buffer zone between the two
countries, an UNMEE press release said. He died while delivering water to
fellow peacekeepers.

He was one of 195 Slovak peacekeepers in the mission, 40 of whom worked in
the Eastern Sector along with the Kenyan contingent in mechanical and
manual de-mining, UNMEE said. There are up to 4,200 international
peacekeepers operating within UNMEE.

SUDAN: Khartoum says food drop bombing was a mistake

The Sudanese government has expressed its "profound regrets" for the
aerial bombardment of a food distribution site in Bahr al-Ghazal, southern
Sudan, on Saturday, 9 February, which killed two children and has been
strongly condemned by the United States government and the United Nations
World Food Programme (WFP). The bombing was a deplorable mistake, the
result of a technical error and not a premeditated act, and the Sudanese
government extended its "profound regrets", according to government and
media sources.

"The Sudan government would like to express its sorrow over this
regrettable incident, which took place as a result of an unintended
technical fault," the pro-government Akhbar al-Yawm newspaper quoted a
government statement as saying, in a story picked up by Reuters news
agency on Thursday. "If it has been done and it is intentional, then we
will bring those who did it into court," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa
Uthman Isma'il had told journalists in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on
Wednesday.

On Saturday, a Sudanese air force Antonov aircraft dropped six bombs on a
WFP drop site for emergency food aid in the town of Akuem at 5 pm local
time (1400 GMT), with three of the bombs landing directly on the drop zone
and three falling in the surrounding area, according to diplomatic and
humanitarian sources. WFP had just finished distributing 77 mt of food
relief to 18,000 people suffering from drought and insecurity. [Full
report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20914] [Also see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20877]

SUDAN: Medical centre in Bentiu area "systematically looted"

The entire village of Nimne in western Upper Nile (Unity State), including
a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) medical centre, was "systematically
looted" last week after troop movements had forced inhabitants to flee the
village, according to the nongovernmental health agency. "This is a
targeted act of violence against the community in Nimne," Arjan Hehenkamp,
MSF head of mission for southern Sudan, said in a statement on Monday.
"Now they have lost their food stocks, it's unclear whether the patients
in our programme will be able to stay in Nimne - and there are not many
safe alternative places to go in western Upper Nile these days," he added.

The residents of Nimne, numbering between 1,000 and 1,500, were advised to
leave on 2 February by representatives of the Relief Association of South
Sudan, the humanitarian wing of the rebel Sudan People's Defence Force,
after "many soldiers" had been seen heading towards the village, MSF told
IRIN on 6 February. It was unclear whether the troops moving close to
Nimne were loyal to Sudanese government or rebel forces, the agency
stated. Families had been forced to run from their homes in fear of being
killed, and had crossed cold, deep, crocodile-infested rivers through the
night, the MSF statement said.

On Thursday, 7 February, an MSF team returned to Nimne, situated some 25
km east of Bentiu, the capital of Unity (or Wahdah) State, to make an
assessment of health and security. It found that personal possessions and
food stocks had been taken from the homes of Nimne residents, and that the
MSF medical centre had been looted, the agency said. "It was a complete
shock for us to see the mindless destruction which was carried out," said
Jan van't Land, project coordinator for the programme. "They took what was
valuable, but they also deliberately damaged the laboratory equipment," he
added. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20686]

SUDAN: British envoy to join wider push for peace

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has announced his government's appointment
of Alan Goulty as the new UK Special Representative for Sudan, saying that
it demonstrated "Britain's determination to play its full part in a
coordinated international push for peace in Sudan". Goulty was the British
ambassador to Sudan from 1995 to 1999, having previously served in the
country from 1972 to 1975, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated on
Tuesday.

"Peace is the prerequisite to development in Sudan, Africa's largest
country," said Straw, commenting on the appointment. "Britain is
determined to help Africa achieve its potential. Tackling conflict - the
main root cause of poverty - is an essential part of this. The
international community now has the best opportunity for many years to
help the Sudanese to reach a truly just and lasting peace," and Britain
was intent on playing its part, he added.

Sudan had welcomed the British decision to appoint a special
representative, with the presidential peace adviser, Ghazi Salah al-Din,
promising to cooperate fully with all sincere efforts to achieve peace,
Reuters news agency reported on Sunday, 10 February. In a statement, Salah
al-Din said Sudan was pleased to note "a positive change" in British
policy towards Sudan, and that a recent visit by International Development
Minister Clare Short had convinced Khartoum that Britain could play a
constructive role in bringing peace, the report added. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20913] [Also see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20494]


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