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 151
26 July - 01 August 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: "We don't want another Cyprus", says UN
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: No demarcation unless ruling changed, say Tigrayan
  officials
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Handover of bodies "step towards peace" - UN
ERITREA: UNMEE told to be "more courageous"
ETHIOPIA: Regional task force set up to combat disaster
ETHIOPIA: Threat does not come from outside, charity warns
SOMALIA: Talks on course says Kenyan mediator
SOMALIA: Talks "will not stop" despite president's walkout
SOMALIA: Draft charter should be scrapped, says independent survey
SOMALIA: Think tank favours recognition of Somaliland
SOMALIA: Fire again sweeps through Bosaso camp
SUDAN: Flooding in Kassala kills four
SUDAN: Widespread insecurity reported in Darfur
SUDAN: Government sets out priorities for peace process


ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: Interview with Prof Jeffrey Sachs, UN special adviser on
Millenium Goals at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35634



ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: "We don't want another Cyprus", says UN

A lack of dialogue between Ethiopia and Eritrea could endanger peace
between the two countries, the United Nations said on Thursday. Legwaila
Joseph Legwaila, who heads the UN peacekeeping Mission in Ethiopia and
Eritrea (UNMEE), said it was essential that talks take place to prevent
misunderstandings. He told a press briefing in Addis Ababa it was vital
for the international community to "persuade" both countries - who fought
a bitter war from 1998-2000 - to start normalising relations. "The status
quo, that is the non-communication between the two governments,
complicates the situation," Legwaila said. "When you don't talk to each
other, misunderstandings can lead to conflict." He said the 4,200-strong
UN mission - which costs around US $250 million a year - was still in
place because the two countries had not implemented last year's ruling by
an independent boundary commission. "If, immediately after the decision
was rendered last year, the boundary commission had been able to demarcate
the border, we would be packing our suitcases to go," he stated. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35710]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: No demarcation unless ruling changed, say Tigrayan
officials

Senior Tigrayan officials have said they will not allow demarcation of the
border between Ethiopia and Eritrea to go ahead unless changes are made to
the controversial ruling. Dr Solomon Inquai, the speaker of Tigray's
regional council told IRIN on Thursday that "no-one in their right mind"
would allow officials from the independent Boundary Commission to
construct the new 1,000 km border. "They cannot come," Solomon said
bluntly. "We will not let them. Nobody in their right mind will let them
demarcate, because everybody is against this." His defiance comes after
the president of Tigray, which borders Eritrea, said on Wednesday the
regional government would not accept the boundary ruling. Tsegaye Berhe
told a meeting of the regional council that the decision was a "grave
mistake", and reiterated warnings that potential trouble could flare up if
the ruling was not changed. The independent Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary
Commission (EEBC) ruled in April 2002 on a new, internationally-recognised
border, which both countries said they would accept as "final and
binding". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35709]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Handover of bodies "step towards peace" - UN

The UN has refused to let a row over 220 soldiers killed in the war
between Ethiopia and Eritrea overshadow the ceremony to repatriate their
bodies. The UN peacekeeping Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said
that the "simple and dignified" military ceremony, which took place last
Friday, was a step towards ensuring lasting peace for the two countries.
"They did their duty and they made the soldier's ultimate sacrifice," the
UN's force commander Major General Robert Gordon told the ceremony, which
took place at the border town of Bure in the eastern sector. "May they
now, at last, rest in peace," he added. Ethiopia agreed to bury the
remains of the dead soldiers on "humanitarian" grounds, but claimed on
Friday that they were actually Eritrean. Asmara is adamant that the bodies
are Ethiopian, and accused Addis Ababa of wanting to "hide its losses and
casualties". UNMEE has also stated that three Ethiopian military officials
identified most of the bodies - which have lain on the battlefield where
they fell for three years - as Ethiopian. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35632]

ERITREA: UNMEE told to be "more courageous"

Eritrea has called on the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) to be
"more courageous" in providing the secretary-general with "actual facts on
the ground". In a statement on Thursday, Eritrea's Commission for
Coordination with UNMEE expressed "reservations" over Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's latest report on the situation in the two countries. The
statement was issued after top military officials from both sides met in
Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday as part of the regular Military Coordination
Commission (MCC) meetings, under the auspices of the UN. "The Eritrean
delegation pointed out that the secretary-general's summary report had
been soft in its nature, lacking strict measures and applying the same
standards to both the aggressor and the aggressed," the statement said. It
urged UNMEE "to be more courageous in providing the secretary-general with
concrete and factual information with regards to the actual facts on the
ground". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35730]

ETHIOPIA: Regional task force set up to combat disaster

An 11-nation African regional task force is being set up to combat
disasters and help ward off terrorism in the region, a top US military
official said on Wednesday. John Abizaid, the US Central Command chief,
said the African disaster management team which is backed by the US
military, would ensure greater stability in the region. "We seek
stability, we seek a defence against the terrorist attacks that have been
active, not only throughout this region but also throughout the world," he
told a news conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "We know
that we can only defeat terrorism collectively," he added. Burundi, DRC,
Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania
and Uganda are all backing the initiative to combat man-made and natural
disasters. Under the plans, drawn up over the last two days in Addis
Ababa, the regional task force will be set up to ensure a collective
response to emergencies. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35682]

ETHIOPIA: Threat does not come from outside, charity warns

America's aid policy to famine-stricken Ethiopia has been labelled as
"flawed" by the US charity Save the Children, which warned that the
greatest threat to Ethiopia comes from within. The US was accused of
pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars of food aid, while failing to
tackle the root causes of the massive recurring crisis. "This is the
greatest national security threat that Ethiopia faces," warned Save the
Children president Charles MacCormack, during a visit to Ethiopia. "If
Ethiopia is destroyed it will not be by an outside enemy," he told a news
conference in Addis Ababa on Monday. "It will be by illiteracy, hunger,
disease and AIDS." Ethiopia is reeling from a food crisis that has
affected 12.6 million people and which aid agencies and the government say
is unprecedented in the country's history. The US has poured in around US
$500 million, but only a fraction has been spent on combating the causes
of the crisis such as lack of water and poor education. "To spend hundreds
of millions of dollars on emergency relief every four or five years and
then not do enough in between is a flawed approach," MacCormack said.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35660]

SOMALIA: Talks on course says Kenyan mediator

Ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat, the chairman of the Inter-Governmental
Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee and Kenya's special
envoy to the Somali peace talks, told a press conference on Friday that
the Somali peace talks were on course and a new Somali government should
be formed soon. Kiplagat said any government formed at the conference
would be universally accepted. "We are confident in our efforts that the
government formed here will obtain prompt international acceptance and
diplomatic recognition." He said "the final draft version of the charter"
had been distributed and "will be submitted to the delegates on Saturday"
for debate and discussion. He denied suggestions that the draft charter
would lead to the dismemberment of Somalia. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35731]

SOMALIA: Talks "will not stop" despite president's walkout

The UN Secretary-General's representative for Somalia, Winston Tubman, has
said Somali peace talks will continue despite Wednesday's walkout by the
president of the Transitional National Government (TNG), Abdiqassim Salad
Hassan. "His absence will make the exercise difficult, but the talks will
continue and will not stop," Tubman told IRIN. Abdiqassim told IRIN on
Wednesday he was suspending his participation in the Kenya talks "until
issues of concern to us are addressed satisfactorily". He said he had
taken the decision because the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD) technical committee, which is steering the talks, "has ignored and
trivialised our concerns". In a separate press statement issued on
Tuesday, Abdiqassim accused some members of the technical committee -
which comprises Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti - of becoming "part and
parcel of the problem" and of having "overtly and covertly supported the
division of the TNG".  The TNG prime minister, Hasan Abshir Farah, and the
speaker of parliament, Abdallah Derow Isak, are still in Nairobi and have
opposed Abdiqassim's decision to withdraw.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35681]

SOMALIA: Draft charter should be scrapped, says independent survey

An independent assessment of the draft Somali charter, which is supposed
to act as a blueprint for the transitional period, has dismissed the
document as a "mongrel" and recommended discarding it completely. The
critique - commissioned by the Dutch NGO, NOVIB, which supports civil
society participation in Somalia's peace process - says the document is
"such a flawed piece of draftmanship", that it does not deserve to be
called a charter. "The mere act of discussing this draft, let alone
considering its adoption, would be a bitter insult to those involved and
would amount to washing down the drain, the months of gruelling work that
have gone into the negotiations for the rebirth of the Somali republic,"
the report said. It noted the "contradictory" nature of the document,
highlighting for example that "in one breath, it professes secularism, and
proceeds right in the next to enact Islamic sentiments". The critique
describes the transitional framework contained in the document as "hazy"
and says the "grammatical goofs throughout the text of the draft are
shocking, if not an outright shame".  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35680]

SOMALIA: Think tank favours recognition of Somaliland

NAIROBI, 29 Jul 2003 (IRIN) - The demand of the self-declared republic of
Somaliland for recognition presents the international community with stark
choices, says a report released this week by the Brussels-based
think-tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG). "The question
confronting the international community is no longer whether Somaliland
should be recognised as an independent state, but whether there remain any
viable alternatives," the report said. It added that the international
community could either "develop pragmatic responses to Somaliland's demand
for self-determination or continue to insist upon the increasingly
abstract notion of the unity and territorial integrity of the Somali
Republic". It warned that the latter course was likely to lead to a new
round of civil war in Somalia. Somaliland, a former British protectorate,
declared unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, but has
received no international recognition. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35658]

SOMALIA: Fire again sweeps through Bosaso camp

Over 150 dwellings are reported to have been destroyed when a fire swept
through a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Bosaso, the
commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland.
Muhammad Sa'id Kashawito of the Bosaso-based Midnimo Radio told IRIN the
fire broke out at the Buulo Elay camp on Wednesday morning and raged for
about two hours. "At least 150 families have lost their shelters and what
few personal belongings they had," he said. The cause of the fire has not
yet been established, but Kashawito told IRIN it was probably due to
cooking fire or a burning cigarette end. "The dwellings are made of a very
flimsy material which can easily catch fire," he noted. He added this was
the second time this month that fire had broken out at the camp. In the
first, five people were killed and over 1,200 families displaced. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35708]

SUDAN: Flooding in Kassala kills four

Flooding this week in Kassala state, northeastern Sudan, has destroyed an
estimated 680 houses, leaving about 3,000 people homeless and killing four
people. The river Gash, which flows from Eritrea and runs through Kassala
city, flooded its banks due to heavy rains which started on Monday,
Guadalupe de Souza of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs in Khartoum told IRIN. On Wednesday, the situation became
"critical", she said, adding that water levels in Eritrea remained high on
Thursday, leaving little hope for relief in Kassala. De Souza said there
was no water or electricity in the town, and communications systems were
down. A hospital in the city also had to be evacuated, while the homeless
were forced to shelter in local schools. Three ambulances of relief items,
including medical supplies, were being sent to Kassala by road by the
government, UN agencies and NGOs in Khartoum on Thursday. On Friday, an
air and road assessment was planned to establish the full scale of the
damage and the numbers of casualties, she added. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35713]

SUDAN: Widespread insecurity reported in Darfur

Insecurity in Darfur, northwestern Sudan, is said to be deteriorating
rapidly with widespread looting by the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel
group and retaliatory attacks by the Sudanese government, coupled with
increased local banditry and ongoing conflicts between different ethnic
groups. SLA rebels regularly attacked and looted villages taking food and
sometimes killing people, humanitarian sources in contact with the region
told IRIN. On 19 July they attacked Tawila town, 60 km from El Fasher,
killing two policemen and two civilians. Last Friday, unknown armed
raiders attacked a grain bank, health unit and local market in Mado
village in the Sayah area, looting food, furniture and medicines, the
sources said. The attacks present a real threat to people's food security
and livelihoods, by preventing them from planting and accessing markets to
buy food, the sources added. Grain prices have increased by as much as 200
percent in some areas and livestock prices have decreased especially in
Kutum, Kebkabia and Jebel Si. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35684]

SUDAN: Government sets out priorities for peace process

The government of Sudan has said that a new draft framework agreement is a
precondition to the resumption of peace talks in Kenya on 10 August, the
latest date put forward by the mediators.  "If we're going to have a fresh
draft we would be willing to sit down again to negotiate, but if we are
asked to renegotiate the same draft from Nakuru, I think we would find it
very difficult to sit with the SPLM and discuss it," Mohamed Ahmed
Dirdeiry, Sudan's deputy ambassador to Kenya and resident delegate to the
peace talks, told IRIN in a wide-ranging interview. Ongoing peace talks
between the government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A) reached their lowest point on 12 July when the government accused
mediators from the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD) of siding with the rebels in the draft, which was presented to both
sides in the Kenyan town of Nakuru. Dirdeiry said it would be "unwise" to
ask the government to renegotiate the same document because "it led us
nowhere". "In fact it really deepened the crisis and cleavage between the
parties," he added.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35657]

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