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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 118
07 - 13 December 2002


CONTENTS:

AFRICA: Plea to ban landmines on the continent
HORN OF AFRICA: Rumsfeld discusses terror threat during whirlwind tour
ETHIOPIA: World Bank announces US $3.6 billion credit
ETHIOPIA: Premier launches relief appeal
ETHIOPIA: Premier notes steps taken towards alleviating poverty
ETHIOPIA: EC pledges 70 million euros for food aid
ETHIOPIA: EU warns against stifling opposition
ETHIOPIA: Violence-wracked camp off limits to aid workers
ERITREA: Preliminary report into mining accident released
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Military delegations meet in Nairobi
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Pledge to ensure speedy border demarcation
ERITREA-SUDAN: Bilateral normalisation talks may materialise
SOMALIA: Urgent measures needed to save peace talks, says report
SOMALIA: Security Council welcomes peace talks

ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: Interview with Carol Bellamy, Ececutive Director of UNICEF at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31313

ETHIOPIA: Feature - Saving the pastoralists at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31356



AFRICA: Plea to ban landmines on the continent

African leaders must ensure that landmines are banned on the continent, a
UK government-funded international conference in the Ethiopian capital,
Addis Ababa, heard on Wednesday. The International Campaign to Ban
Landmines said the continent must comply with a 1997 treaty to ban mines.
Despite many countries in Africa pledging to ban antipersonnel mines, only
a handful of countries have destroyed their massive stockpiles. Mihreta'ab
Mulugeta of the Ethiopian foreign ministry said important steps had been
taken to prevent the use of landmines, but "enormous" challenges lay
ahead. Ibrahim Jabr, the head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in
Ethiopia, said that while mines took minutes to lay, they took decades to
remove. He added that the devastating effects were seen years after
mine-disposal experts had left. Tilahun Kidan, the head of Rado, an
Ethiopian organisation which aims to raise mine awareness, pointed out
that a third of the world's landmines were found in Africa. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31331 ]

HORN OF AFRICA: Rumsfeld discusses terror threat during whirlwind tour

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Tuesday, said both countries should
work closely to counter terrorist activities. Rumsfeld was on a 28-hour
whirlwind tour of the Horn of Africa, visiting Eritrea, Ethiopia and
Djibouti. Meles said terrorist activity in the region was on the rise.
Earlier this week he accused a Somali-based Islamic organisation,
Al-Ittihad, of being behind last month's twin bomb attacks in the Kenyan
holiday resort of Mombasa. He said the organisation was linked to the
Al-Qaeda network. Rumsfeld began his Horn of Africa tour in Eritrea
earlier on Tuesday, where he met President Isayas Afewerki. At a press
conference following the talks, Rumsfeld said the US considered Eritrea an
important partner in Africa, with invaluable experience in fighting
terrorist organisations within its own borders. For his part, Isayas
offered to allow the US to use strategically-placed Eritrea in the fight
against global terrorism. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31329 ]

Rumsfeld's last port of call in the Horn was Djibouti where he visited
some 1,000 US troops stationed there. "We need to be where the action is,"
he told them. "This part of the world is an area where there is action."
He also held talks with President Ismail Omar Guelleh and said he was
satisfied with that country's cooperation. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31355 ]

ETHIOPIA: World Bank announces US $3.6 billion credit

The head of the World Bank in Ethiopia urged a greater role for private
industry as the country was pledged US $3.6 billion towards tackling
poverty. Ishac Diwan said Ethiopia - one of the world's 10 poorest
countries - faced immense challenges in overcoming poverty. He noted,
however, that responsibility for the situation did not rest solely on the
shoulders of the government, and that the international community would
therefore have to play its role in finding a solution. "The government has
a lot on its plate, and so do we," Diwan said in a speech delivered to
delegates at a high-level meeting on addressing poverty in Ethiopia. "We
will need to work harder together to find innovative solutions, to keep
improving local systems, and to put ideas into action. We are on the cusp
of a rare African success story. Let us seize the moment and make the best
of it for the benefit of effective pro-poor development." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31317 ]

ETHIOPIA: Premier launches relief appeal

Meles on 7 December launched an international appeal for help in averting
a looming famine threatening millions in the country. He spoke out as his
government revealed that more than 11 million Ethiopians would need food
aid next year; a further three million were at risk from the prevailing
drought unless they received help - in total over 1.5 million mt of food.
Meles warned that thousands who would otherwise die could be saved if the
rest of the world took the scale of the mounting crisis seriously. He went
on to say that adequate mechanisms to deliver aid were in place to prevent
famine, and that what was needed now was food. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31293 ]

ETHIOPIA: Premier notes steps taken towards alleviating poverty

Meles has declared that the country stands on the brink of sustained
poverty alleviation. Addressing a high-level meeting with donors last
weekend, he said united action by the international community and the
Ethiopian government would lay the groundwork. "This is an important
moment in the history of Ethiopian development, he said. "After a decade
of political and economic reform, I believe that the moment has come when
our efforts can begin to make a sustained impact in alleviating poverty
and increasing the economic opportunities of our people. This will be so
if government and donors together forge a new partnership to take
committed and decisive action. But we are also clear that although the
goals are shared, the means of achieving them must be adapted to national
conditions and contemporary political realities." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31349 ]

ETHIOPIA: EC pledges 70 million euros for food aid

The EC has pledged 70 million euros (US $68.6 million) towards providing
food for millions of Ethiopians facing starvation. The pledge, which
follows an international appeal by the government for help, brings the
total value of EC emergency aid to Ethiopia to 97 million euros over the
past year. The latest pledge equates to about 260,000 mt of food, and is
expected to help meet needs for the first half of 2003. According to the
Ethiopian government, some 11.3 million people will need food aid in 2003,
rains having failed in many parts of the country. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31315 ]

ETHIOPIA: EU warns against stifling opposition

Ethiopia's ruling coalition is stifling opposition groups in the country,
which is leading to increased ethnic violence, the EU has said. It said a
"remaining challenge" facing the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front was to advance democracy in the country. In a speech, the
current president of the EU in Ethiopia, Greek Ambassador Spyros Aliagas,
warned that stifling opposition voices could lead to violence. "The
overwhelming majority of the ruling party coalition at all levels of
government does not facilitate a major role of the opposition in
parliament and outside," he said. However, despite the criticism, he added
that important strides had been made in improving democracy in the
country. He also described the country as a "a reliable partner in
securing peace and stability in the Horn". The speech by Aliagas was made
last weekend during a high level donors' meeting addressing Ethiopia's
poverty reduction plan. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31332 ]

ETHIOPIA: Violence-wracked camp off limits to aid workers

A refugee camp in western Ethiopia where 41 people were massacred during a
spate of ethnic clashes is still off-limits to aid workers, according to
the UN. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also
said that looting had taken place within Fugnido camp, close to the
Sudanese border. "Over 200 terrified refugees have fled Fugnido and sought
refuge in a compound housing the offices of UNHCR and ARRA [the
government's Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs], just
outside the camp," UNHCR said. "Their huts have reportedly been looted in
their absence." It also said schools in the camp had been looted. The
refugee agency said "security concerns" meant that aid workers and UNHCR
staff had been unable to return after having been pulled out for their own
safety. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31350 ]

ERITREA: Preliminary report into mining accident released

A preliminary report released on Thursday by HALO Trust, a British
humanitarian demining organisation, has concluded that an accident which
killed four of its deminers last month involved an antitank mine missed by
demining dogs in an area previously believed to have been cleared. Eight
HALO Trust employees were in the vehicle that detonated the mine. One team
leader and three manual deminers - all Eritreans - were killed in the
accident. The four were part of a team responsible for clearing a one-sq
km area in northern Eritrea used for cotton cultivation and animal
grazing. "Close analysis of the methodology of clearance of the site has
led us to conclude that the Land-Rover our employees were driving
detonated an antitank mine missed by demining dogs," said Alan Macdonald,
programme manager of HALO Trust's operations in Eritrea. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31352 ]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Military delegations meet in Nairobi

The Military Coordination Commission (MCC), which brings together military
leaders from Ethiopia and Eritrea, met in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on
Wednesday after an eight-month gap, the UN announced. The 14th MCC
meeting, chaired by Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, the head of the UN Mission
in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), discussed the peace process between the
two countries following their 1998-2000 border war. Participants focused
on the military situation in the buffer zone between the two countries,
known as the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). They discussed coordination
issues and ways of "preventing and responding to potentially disruptive
incidents" on the border areas and inside the TSZ, the UNMEE statement
said. They also held discussions on the demining process ahead of the
physical demarcation of the new border, due to start next year. The MCC
will reconvene for its next meeting on 29 January 2003 in Nairobi. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31367 ]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Pledge to ensure speedy border demarcation

Ethiopia and Eritrea have said they will leave "no stone unturned" in
enforcing speedy demarcation of the new border, the UN's newly appointed
Force Commander announced on Friday. Major General Robert Gordon said that
military leaders from both countries had committed themselves to ensuring
swift implementation of the 1,000-km border demarcation. He added that the
two countries were also preparing plans for raising awareness among border
communities about demarcation and territorial changes. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31373 ]

ERITREA-SUDAN: Bilateral normalisation talks may materialise

The Sudanese government has agreed in principle to a proposal by the
African Union (AU) that the Khartoum government meet its Asmara
counterpart, according to Sudanese radio. The radio said on 6 December
that the AU had invited the two governments to meet and discuss ways of
reducing bilateral tension, which has been high for the past two months
following accusations by Sudan that Eritrea was backing rebel forces
fighting the government of President Umar al-Bashir. Eritrea has not yet
responded to the AU's invitation, issued earlier this month, but has
repeatedly denied backing anti-government rebels in Sudan's 19-year civil
war. Several Arab journalists who visited eastern Sudan shortly after a
rebel offensive in October reported no evidence of any Eritrean presence
in the area. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31296 ]

SOMALIA: Urgent measures needed to save peace talks, says report

The Eldoret peace process represents Somalia's best chance for peace in
many years, but still faces considerable difficulties, says a report
released this week by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG).
Based on a number of visits to Eldoret in November, the ICG calls for
urgent measures to save the peace process from what it describes as the
verge of collapse. The report urges visible and sustained international
political support for the conference, including willingness to enforce the
arms embargo and to impose sanctions on faction leaders who hinder the
peace process. It says that rivalries between regional powers will have to
be addressed, and that conference management must be improved. The talks
are taking place under the auspices of the regional body
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Kenya, Djibouti and
Ethiopia make up the IGAD technical committee which is piloting the talks
under Kenyan chairmanship. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=31351 ]

SOMALIA: Security Council welcomes peace talks

The UN Security Council has hailed ongoing regional efforts to reach a
lasting settlement to the situation in Somalia. In a statement read out on
Thursday by the current president, Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso of
Colombia, the 15-nation body indicated its firm support for the "unified
approach of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to
national reconciliation in Somalia". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31369 ]


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