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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 160
27 September - 03 October 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN tells Ethiopia to implement border ruling
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Eritrea warns of "explosive" situation
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN alarmed over Eritrean stowaways
ETHIOPIA: Pledge to slash defence spending
ETHIOPIA: Vital medicines arrive to combat malaria
SOMALIA: Ethiopia says Djibouti pullout will have no impact
SOMALIA: More twists in peace process
SOMALIA: RRA factions reconcile
SOMALIA: UN sanctions committee to tour the region
DJIBOUTI: Emergency aid distributed to stranded immigrants
SUDAN: Widespread insecurity in Darfur despite ceasefire
SUDAN: Shuttle diplomacy before peace talks restart



ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN tells Ethiopia to implement border ruling

The UN Security Council has rejected calls by Ethiopia for a new body to
rule on contested areas of the border with neighbouring Eritrea. In a
one-page response, the UN body expressed "deep regret" at the move by
Ethiopia and urged it to implement the controversial April 2002 border
ruling. "The members of the Security Council therefore wish to convey to
you their deep regret at the intention of the government of Ethiopia not
to accept the entirety of the delimitation and demarcation decision as
decided by the boundary commission," the letter said. "They note in
particular, that Ethiopia has committed itself under the Algiers
Agreements to accept the boundary decision as final and binding." The
letter also stated the Council's "serious concern at the continuous and
abnormal absence of political dialogue" between both countries. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36979]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Eritrea warns of "explosive" situation

Eritrea has warned of an "explosive" situation in the peace process with
Ethiopia and called for action from the international community. In his
address to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Eritrean Foreign Minister
Ali Sayyid Abdallah accused Ethiopia of a "wholesale assault on the
fundamental principles of international law". He was referring to a letter
sent last month by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to the Security
Council saying an independent Boundary Commission - set up to rule on the
border between the two countries - was in "terminal crisis". Meles called
for a new body to rule on contested areas of the border.

Speaking a day earlier, his Ethiopian counterpart Seyoum Mesfin said the
situation had reached a point "when the United Nations would have to take
greater interest to ensure that the hopes of the Algiers agreement are
fulfilled and the promises held up by that agreement are met". "The
Algiers agreements were designed to lead to durable peace between Ethiopia
and Eritrea," he said. "It was not meant to punish the victim of
aggression. That is why Ethiopia has felt it necessary to call on the
Security Council to help us achieve the hopes contained in the Algiers
agreement." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36972]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN alarmed over Eritrean stowaways

The UN expressed alarm on Thursday at new allegations of Eritreans
crossing the contested border into Ethiopia, stowed away aboard UN
peacekeeping vehicles. Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte, spokeswoman for the UN
Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said they were "extremely
disturbed" by the latest allegations that four men had crossed into
Ethiopia last month. They are said to have stowed away in a vehicle
belonging to UNMEE. An investigation by UNMEE has revealed "loopholes" in
its security procedures. Sainte said that earlier this year, nine
Eritreans had stowed away among UN peacekeepers to cross the border. "What
we have done since then is to make sure, based on the report, that we
close those loopholes," Sainte told journalists at a weekly video-linked
press briefing. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36945]

ETHIOPIA: Pledge to slash defence spending

Ethiopia has pledged to limit its defence spending to just two percent of
its GDP. In its recently released Foreign Affairs and National Security
Policy, the country says defence spending must be curbed so economic
growth is not hampered. It acknowledges that the spending levels must be
"flexible" in the face of a national threat to the nation. The 156-page
policy document argues that a lean professional army with a reserve force
would be more cost effective. "If we stockpile weapons and boast of an
invincible army of hundreds of thousands of troops without financial means
our economy would collapse," it said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36946]

ETHIOPIA: Vital medicines arrive to combat malaria

Vital anti-malaria medicines to combat a looming epidemic in Ethiopia have
been released from customs, officials told IRIN on Friday. The medicines,
worth US $700,000 arrived in the country on 18 August and were released on
2 October. They will be distributed to hard hit areas early next week. A
spokesman from the Ethiopian Customs Authority told IRIN: "The drugs were
subject to urgent clearance. We got them out as soon as possible." Malaria
is the third biggest killer in the country and claims around 250 lives a
day. Some 40 million people in the country are at risk of infection.
Christiane Rudert, head of health and nutrition at the UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF) in Ethiopia, said the drugs were vital in combating the potential
emergency. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36968]

SOMALIA: Ethiopia says Djibouti pullout will have no impact

Djibouti has pulled out of the Somali peace talks saying the technical
committee, which is meant to steer the conference, is no longer neutral.
The technical committee of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) grouping - which is mediating the talks - is made up of
Somalia's neighbours: Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. Ismail Goulal Boudine,
Djibouti's ambassador to the Somali peace talks which have been underway
in Kenya since October 2002, told IRIN on Monday it was "very clear" that
the peace process had "deviated from its original objectives". But his
Ethiopian counterpart, Ambassador Abdulaziz Ahmed told IRIN he did not
understand why Djibouti had withdrawn from the process. "We are supposed
to work together," he stated. "But it really doesn't matter who pulls out
of the technical committee at this stage. We have entered the phase of
power-sharing, and the process is in the hands of the Somalis themselves.
The technical committee is not so much involved any more and their
[Djibouti] withdrawal will not have an impact." [Full story at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36867]

SOMALIA: More twists in peace process

Members of Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG) attending
peace talks in Kenya have called on the conference organisers not to
accept "obstruction and delaying tactics". Prime Minister Hassan Abshir
Farah, Speaker Abdallah Derow Isaak and other delegation members said they
welcomed attempts to heal the rift in the talks by bringing back key
leaders who had walked out. But, they said, in a letter to conference
chairman Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat of Kenya, if the leaders refused to
return "we should not accept obstruction and delaying tactics intended to
derail the conference". The TNG is effectively split into two factions
after President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan returned to Mogadishu, unhappy
over the adoption of a transitional charter which will serve as a
blueprint for future Somali institutions.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36944]

SOMALIA: RRA factions reconcile

There has been a realignment of positions within the Rahanweyn Resistance
Army (RRA) which governs the southern Somali town of Baidoa after its
chairman Hasan Muhammad Nur "Shatigadud" reconciled with one of his rivals
Shaykh Adan Madobe. "We have agreed on a ceasefire and a cessation of
hostilities," Shatigadud told IRIN on Thursday. "We have also appointed a
committee to implement the agreement on the ground." Shatigadud and his
two deputies - Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade - split in July 2002 as
a power struggle tore apart the RRA which controls much of the Bay and
Bakol regions. Fierce fighting broke out in Baidoa and the town changed
hands several times, creating a severe humanitarian crisis. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36941]

SOMALIA: UN sanctions committee to tour the region

Members of the UN Security Council committee overseeing sanctions against
Somalia will visit the region later this month in a bid to boost
enforcement of the arms embargo. According to a UN report, the two-week
trip is due to begin on 12 October and will include experts from all 15
Council members. The group, led by committee chairman, Ambassador Stefan
Tafrov of Bulgaria, plans to visit Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Yemen and Somalia itself - security conditions permitting. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36919]

DJIBOUTI: Emergency aid distributed to stranded immigrants

The Red Cross and Red Crescent have distributed emergency relief supplies
to thousands of people stranded at a refugee camp in Djibouti. According
to a statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
the one-off distribution of water and sanitation equipment and basic
non-food items was carried out on Monday and Tuesday at the Aour Aousar
camp, some 100 km southwest of Djibouti Town. About 9,000 people - from
Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, Sudan, Rwanda and Iraq - have converged
on the camp in recent weeks following a Djibouti government order
expelling more than 100,000 illegal immigrants. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36920]

SUDAN: Widespread insecurity in Darfur despite ceasefire

About 300,000 people have been displaced by the conflict in Darfur's three
states since August, as a result of widespread burning, looting and
killing in their villages by Arab militias, humanitarian sources said on
Friday. The "conservative estimate" of 300,000 is in addition to some
200,000 in south Darfur who were displaced by drought and conflict before
the militia attacks escalated in March, the UN Area Coordinator for
Western Sudan told IRIN. There are no reliable figures for the numbers
killed. The conflict pits farming communities against nomads who have
aligned themselves with the militia groups - for whom the raids are a way
of life - in stiff competition for land and resources. The militias, known
as the Janjaweed, attack in large numbers on horseback and camels and are
driving the farmers from their land, often pushing them towards town
centres. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36982]

SUDAN: Shuttle diplomacy before peace talks restart

Both the government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A) group are engaging in shuttle diplomacy this week to brief their
constituents and supporters about breakthroughs in the peace process. SPLA
Chairman John Garang has returned to southern Sudan to brief his
commanders, and was welcomed by thousands of cheering and ululating people
in Rumbek on Tuesday. "The road to peace is irreversible," he told them,
but warned that unity was needed among southerners in order to implement a
final agreement. Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, who was also
welcomed by thousands of people at the airport when he returned to Sudan,
met the main political parties in Khartoum on Tuesday to brief them on
developments. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36921]


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