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 96
29 June - 05 July 2002


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: Oromo rebels deny "annihilation" by government troops
ERITREA: Demobilisation pilot phase completed
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Boundary Commission rejects Ethiopian review request
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Addis claims "victory" over border request
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Hague meeting to "set the pace" for peace process
SOMALIA: Food insecurity affecting tens of thousands in Gedo
SOMALIA: Over 20 killed in fresh fighting in Baidoa
SOMALIA: Annan urges sides to overcome differences
SOMALIA: TNG urges intervention by foreign troops
SUDAN: IGAD under fire over conflict escalation
SUDAN: Rights group concerned over death sentences in Darfur


Also see:

SUDAN: Focus - Increasing conflict sparks fears of humanitarian crisis:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28623

ERITREA: Focus - US-Eritrea military ties:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28639

ERITREA: Feature - Conversion to eco-friendly traditional stoves:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28576

ETHIOPIA: Focus - Looming drought in East Shewa:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28596


ETHIOPIA: Oromo rebels deny "annihilation" by government troops

The rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) on Friday denied claims by the
Ethiopian army that it had "completely annihilated" separatist forces in
the west of the country. "This is not the first time the Ethiopians have
claimed total victory against our forces," OLF spokesman Lencho Bati told
IRIN. "Our forces are intact." He admitted that OLF troops had sustained
casualties in the fighting which has been raging in the Gambela region for
the past two months when the OLF launched an offensive in the area. "Their
blood will water the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom," Lencho
added. "Our struggle will continue."

On Thursday, Ethiopia's Major General Bacha Debele who commands troops in
the west, said the fighting was now over. He claimed that the army had not
been fighting the OLF as such but "groups of terrorists" which, he
alleged, had been trained and equipped by Eritrea to "infiltrate" Ethiopia
via Sudan. Eritrea on Friday strongly denied any involvement in the
fighting. "The state of Eritrea has nothing to do with internal war and
civil strife in Ethiopia," said Teweldemedhin Tesfamariam, Eritrea's
deputy ambassador to Kenya. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28665]

ERITREA: Demobilisation pilot phase completed

Nearly 3,600 female soldiers were discharged from the Eritrean army last
week, bringing to an end the pilot phase of the national demobilisation
and reintegration process (DRP). The soldiers, who were mostly employed in
national service jobs in government ministries and schools, were given
their discharge papers in five different centres across the country.  Dr
Tekeste Fekadu, the head of the National Commission for Demobilisation,
told IRIN that more than 5,000 soldiers had been discharged during the
pilot phase, which started one month ago. "It has gone very well so far
and we would like to proceed with the rest of the programme as soon as
possible," he said. The 5,000 male and female fighters are the first of
200,000 who are due to be discharged over the next two years, following
the end of the border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia. "The pilot
phase was a test for the main programme, so we must first do an assessment
of how it went, to see if we need to make any changes to our procedures
before we start," Tekeste told IRIN. The assessment would begin
immediately, he added. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28597]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Boundary Commission rejects Ethiopian review request

The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) has said Ethiopia's
request for a review of the border ruling, issued earlier this year, is
"inadmissible". In a statement, received by IRIN on Monday, the EEBC said
no further action would be taken on Ethiopia's "Request for
Interpretation, Correction and Consultation" of the border decision which
was announced on 13 April. Ethiopia issued its request on 13 May and this
was subsequently passed on to the Eritrean government for its
observations, which were received by the EEBC on 14 June. Following the
border ruling, both sides claimed they had been awarded the disputed
village of Badme where the border conflict erupted in May 1998, leading to
a bloody two-year war which cost tens of thousands of lives. After the
ruling, the two countries had 30 days in which to seek any clarification
from the EEBC which is based in The Hague. In the Algiers peace accord of
December 2000, both sides agreed to accept the border decision as "final
and binding". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28580]


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Addis claims "victory" over border request

Ethiopia has expressed satisfaction over the response of an independent
Boundary Commission to its request for a review of the ruling on the
border with Eritrea, issued earlier this year. In a statement on Tuesday,
the Ethiopian foreign ministry said the reply of the Eritrea-Ethiopia
Boundary Commission (EEBC), which is based in The Hague, allowed for
"further discussion" of the border issue. On 13 May, a month after the
EEBC announced its border decision, Ethiopia submitted a "Request for
Interpretation, Correction and Consultation". It claimed that mistakes had
been made in identifying geographical features and in the demarcation of
rivers. But the Commission this week rejected Ethiopia's request as
"inadmissible" and said no further action would be taken. However, it
added that the request would be kept on record and "some of these matters
may be considered further during the demarcation". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28620]


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Hague meeting to "set the pace" for peace process

Ethiopia and Eritrea are to meet at a key summit which should "set the
pace" for the peace process, the United Nations said on Friday. The two
countries, which fought a bitter two-year war, are due to meet in The
Hague later this month where the crucial border ruling over their disputed
boundary was first announced.The conference at the Ethio-Eritrea Boundary
Commission (EEBC) will aim to thrash out the complex physical demarcation
of the 1,000-kilometre border. It is the second time Ethiopia and Eritrea
have met in The Hague since the border decision was announced on 13 April.
The acting spokeswoman for the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE),
Gail Bindley Taylor-Sainte, told a news conference the meeting on 16 July
was "very important". "[It] will probably set the pace for whatever
happens in this next phase," she said. Sainte added that UNMEE was
awaiting the outcome of the high-level talks to determine its role in the
demarcation process. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28575]

SOMALIA: Food insecurity affecting tens of thousands in Gedo

Up to 200,000 people in Somalia's southwestern Gedo Region are considered
to be vulnerable to food insecurity, a report has warned. The report,
produced jointly by the UN-EU Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU) and
USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS), said the
worst-affected areas were the districts of Luuq, Dolo and Belet Hawa, in
the north of the region. Prior to the outbreak of recent fighting in
northern Gedo in March, the population in the area had already been food
insecure due to "three consecutive dry years", which undermined crop and
livestock production, the report said. The situation had worsened in
May/June 2001 when herders from north Gedo were forced to move most of
their livestock to neighbouring regions and across to Ethiopia due to
water and pasture shortage, thus denying the remaining household members
access to livestock and milk - "both key income earners". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28648]

SOMALIA: Over 20 killed in fresh fighting in Baidoa

Fresh fighting erupted in the town of Baidoa on Thursday in which at least
20 people were killed, local sources told IRIN. The fighting between two
factions of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which controls much of
the Bay and Bakol regions of southwestern Somalia, started at 09:00 a.m.
local time (06:00 GMT) "and is still continuing", the sources said. It
follows two days of relative calm after clashes on Monday in which seven
people died. The fighting is pitting forces loyal to the chairman of the
RRA, Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, against those loyal to his two
deputies, Shaykh Adan Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade. According to
the sources in Baidoa, the renewed fighting was not unexpected because
there had already been a number of skirmishes between the two sides in the
outlying areas of Bay Region. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28644]

SOMALIA: Annan urges sides to overcome differences

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the various sides in Somalia not
to let their differences prevent the attainment of a peace settlement. In
a report to the Security Council on Monday, he noted that the regional
peace effort for Somalia was currently at an impasse because of
differences on how to proceed with national reconciliation. "Such
differences will only complicate the already difficult task of
peacemaking," Annan said in his report. He said the contending Somali
groups and leaders were at risk of adopting "inflexible positions on
national reconciliation so as to safeguard their interests and weaken the
influence of those Somalis who want an end to violence and the restoration
of peace in the country". He noted that a national reconciliation
conference, due be held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in April, had not
yet gone ahead. "The environment of apparent suspicion, both among
regional countries and inside Somalia, needs to be defused urgently if a
productive conference is to take place," he stressed. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28594]

SOMALIA: TNG urges intervention by foreign troops

The Transitional National Government (TNG) of Somalia has called for the
deployment of foreign troops to disarm and demobilise armed militias, TNG
Information Minister Abdirahman Ibbi told IRIN on Monday. The decision to
call for foreign troops was reached on Saturday by the Council of
Ministers, and was ratified by the Transitional National Assembly (TNA),
on Sunday, he said. "The proliferation of weapons in the country has
reached such proportions that the interim government cannot on its own
manage to disarm the militias and collect the arms," he stated. "Somalia
is asking for the same kind of assistance, in both military and financial
terms, that countries with similar problems, such as Sierra Leone and
Bosnia, received from the international community." According to Ibbi, the
forces should come from "friendly countries with no political or military
agenda in Somalia". They would help disarm the factions which had so far
opposed the TNG, he said. The UN should not be afraid of deploying its
forces in Somalia, because "Somalis will this time welcome and work with
anyone who comes to remove weapons from their streets", he added. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28579]


SUDAN: IGAD under fire over conflict escalation

Kenyan legislators and civil society groups have criticised the regional
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for its "failure" to
successfully broker Sudanese peace talks currently underway in Kenya.
Mwandawiro Mghanga, the coordinator of the Kenya-Sudan Friendship Society
told IRIN on Thursday he doubted IGAD's ability to "bring peace" to Sudan
if it was "unable to bring pressure to bear on the Khartoum government to
halt the killing of civilians". "The Kenyan government [which currently
chairs IGAD] and IGAD, are both not serious," he said. "They should be
able to tell the Sudanese government that bombing civilians in the south
is unacceptable." He added that it was "morally wrong" to talk peace "when
a government is murdering its own people". "It has destroyed any level of
trust that can be used as a basis of holding talks," he stated. Analysts
had hailed the talks, which began on 17 June, as a decisive opportunity
for negotiators to push forward the peace process between the
Muslim-dominated north of the country and the mostly-Christian south.
Sticking points, such as self determination for the south and the
separation of religion and state, have hitherto held up the process.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28651]


SUDAN: Rights group concerned over death sentences in Darfur

International human rights groups have expressed concern over what they
describe as a "sharp increase" in death sentences this year in the Darfur
region of western Sudan. The London-based human rights organisation,
Amnesty International (AI), on Friday said it considered the Sudanese
penal code, which is based on the Islamic [sharia] law as "cruel, inhuman
and degrading". Punishments under sharia include limb amputations and
death by crucifixion. The organisation said this was inconsistent with
international human rights law. According to AI, at least 19 people have
been executed in Darfur since the beginning of this year, without being
given the opportunity to defend themselves, as required by international
law. "Many more run the risk of losing their lives unless this alarming
trend is halted," it warned. "This is state-sanctioned killing at its
worse, with those suspected having little or no recourse to defend
themselves," AI said. "The judicial authorities in Sudan must ensure that
all prisoners are guaranteed every opportunity to defend themselves,
including the right of appeal to a higher tribunal, and to seek
commutation of the sentence." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28581]


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