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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 201
3 - 9 July 2004


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Gov't commits to immediate disarmament of Janjawid in Darfur
SUDAN: US threatens sanctions over Janjawid
SUDAN: UN should impose arms embargo on both gov't and militias, says AI
SUDAN: AU warns over continuing crisis in Darfur
SUDAN: Ugandan rebels kill over 100 villagers in the south
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Kofi Annan urges resolution of border dispute
ETHIOPIA: Country living on the edge, says UN adviser
SOMALIA: New factory employs hundreds in Mogadishu


ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Interview with UN's Jan Egeland on the situation in Darfur at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41994


SUDAN: Gov't commits to immediate disarmament of Janjawid in Darfur

In a joint communique with the UN, the Sudanese government on 3 July
formally committed itself to the immediate disarmament of Janjawid
militias operating in the western region of Darfur. It was issued at the
end of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's three-day visit to Sudan and
Chad.

At a press conference in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, 2 July, Annan
said: "My message, on behalf of the UN, to the government and other
parties to the conflict is therefore clear: The violence must stop, the
Janjawid militia must be disarmed and demobilised and the ceasefire
agreement must be respected by all parties. The government has made a
commitment publicly, and I've also indicated that we are setting up a
high-level monitoring system, which also shows the seriousness with which
those commitments were made."

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said: "We made these
commitments voluntarily. We are not thinking that we made them by
pressure, but we made it quite clear that we made them voluntarily,
because we feel we should do it. We will implement whatever we have
decided to do."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41990 ]

On Tuesday, however, a UN spokeswoman, Marie Okable, told journalists in
New York, as quoted by UN News, that "military personnel, uniformed men
and 'unidentified persons on camels' had stopped and attacked clearly
marked convoys of humanitarian workers in the west and north of Sudan's
volatile Darfur region." In Southern Darfur, meanwhile, civilians were
still being displaced by tribal fighting and attacks by the Janjawid.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42049 ]


SUDAN: US threatens sanctions over Janjawid

The US government has threatened to impose sanctions on Sudan very soon,
unless it disarms militias in Darfur. "We are talking about days," the US
ambassador to the UN, John Danforth, told reporters in New York on
Wednesday. "What we wonder is whether the government of Sudan is just
using more words, more promises, with the view that delay means more
death," Danforth was quoted by international news agencies as saying. "The
government of Sudan is clearly on a short leash."

Danforth spoke as the UN Security Council started considering a draft
resolution proposed by the US calling on the Sudanese government to fulfil
the commitment it had made publicly to end military attacks and to protect
civilians in Darfur. Calling for "sustained pressure" on the Sudanese
government to find a solution to the Darfur crisis, Council members
"reserved the right to take tougher action if Khartoum does not match its
commitments to end human rights abuses and restrictions on aid workers",
UN News reported. It said the 15-member Council would consider adopting a
resolution on Sudan "in the coming days".

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, briefed the Council via a satellite link
from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and urged it to adopt a resolution "as
soon as possible to help bring an end to the deadly violence and ethnic
displacement wracking" Darfur.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42079 ]


SUDAN: UN should impose arms embargo on both gov't and militias, says AI

Amnesty International (AI) has called on the UN Security Council to impose
an arms embargo on the Sudanese government and militias allied to it, who,
Amnesty said were deemed to be responsible for many of the atrocities
committed in western Darfur region. In a report released on 2 July, AI
urged the UN to impose the arms embargo on the government and the Janjawid
militia "until full respect for human rights can be ensured". The report,
it added, was based on satellite images showing the scale of the
destruction of villages in Darfur.

"We have seen ample evidence that the Janjawid are armed, funded and
supported by the Sudanese government. Therefore, any resolution for the
suspension of transfers of arms used to commit human rights violations
must be directed not only against militias but also against the Sudan
government. This suspension should be imposed immediately and should
continue until human rights are secured," AI stressed.

AI said the satellite images of a small area in Western Darfur taken in
March 2003 and May 2004, "vividly demonstrate the pattern of destruction
of villages in Darfur by the Janjawid". In the photos, at least 155, or 44
per cent, of the villages show signs of having been burnt between March
2003 and May 2004. It added that over the past 15 months it had
interviewed hundreds of villagers who had fled from the area shown in the
satellite images, and the experiences they had related "of death,
destruction, rape and flight" had served to illustrate what the images
depicted.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42028]


SUDAN: AU warns over continuing crisis in Darfur

An armed protection force being sent by the African Union (AU) to the
western Sudanese region of Darfur "would not sit by idly" while atrocities
persisted, the chairman of the AU Commission warned on Thursday. Alpha
Oumar Konare also called for an end to the bombardment of villages in the
strife-torn region. The AU, he said, would send 300 troops to allow
refugees to return home and to protect AU observers monitoring the shaky
ceasefire signed on 8 April between the government and rebels.

"We have asked for an immediate stop to the bombing," Konare said. He
added that the Sudanese government had been asked to create the "necessary
conditions" for renewed peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa,
on 15 July.

The AU force is expected to consist of 120 soldiers from Nigeria and 120
from Rwanda. Tanzania and Botswana may also send additional peacekeepers.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42092 ]


SUDAN: Ugandan rebels kill over 100 villagers in the south

More than 100 people were recently killed in southern Sudan by Ugandan
rebels belonging to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in raids on villages
around the towns of Torit and Juba, a relief worker in the area said. "I
have been in southern Sudan, and the reports we got indicate that the LRA
attacked people in the villages and in the fields. They [the LRA] killed
many of them," the relief worker told IRIN.

Saying the dead numbered more than 100, he added: "The villages are
situated between Torit and Juba, [and] are remote and inaccessible,
because some are either in areas controlled by the SPLM/A [Sudan People's
Liberation Movement/Army] or the government forces."

The Equatoria Defence Forces, a local militia group allied to the SPLM/A,
said in a statement issued on Wednesday that 122 had been killed. It said
the LRA, which has bases in southern Sudan, had killed the villagers
between 25 June and 27 June.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42073 ]


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Kofi Annan urges resolution of border dispute

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Eritrea and Ethiopia to resolve
their border dispute, saying international peacekeepers could not remain
in the region indefinitely. Speaking on 3 July in the Eritrean capital,
Asmara, Annan said he was "optimistic" despite the deadlock over the
border dispute. "Let me, in all seriousness, say that our presence here
has made a difference. We have stabilised the situation, but it is not our
intention to stay here indefinitely," he said.

"We came here to do a job. We intend for it to be limited. [...] So we're
going to do whatever we can to encourage the parties to cooperate, move on
with it, and allow us to get our job done so that we can move on to other
challenges," he added. Annan met Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki on 3
July before flying to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Some 4,200 UN peacekeepers patrol a 25-km wide security buffer zone along
the 1,000-km frontier that separates the two countries. The mandate of the
mission, which costs more than US $200 million a year, is due for renewal
in September when, observers say, the UN Security Council will look to
"streamline" costs.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41993 ]


On Monday, Maj-Gen Robert Gordon, the UNMEE force commander, told senior
military officials that the border situation had seen some improvement.
The recent visit Annan to the region, he added, had also brought "a high
level of international attention" to the stalled peace process.

Speaking at a Military Coordination Committee (MCC) meeting hosted by the
UN, Gordon said: "It is fair to say that the number of incidents has been
reduced, as has the military rhetoric." The MCC was attended by military
delegations from both countries. "At the same time, the level of
cooperation with UNMEE is better than in the period before the last MCC
meeting. All this is positive," Gordon said.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42047 ]


ETHIOPIA: Country living on the edge, says UN adviser

Ethiopia needs US $5 billion a year in foreign aid if it is to have any
chance of meeting global anti-poverty goals, a top UN official said on 4
July. Prof Jeffrey Sachs, the special adviser to the UN secretary-general
on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), also said rich nations must
pay far more.

"This is a country living right on the edge," Sachs, said in Addis Ababa
during the launch of the MDG report for Ethiopia. The report launched was
the first-ever assessment made on achieving MDG targets.

Ethiopia currently receives $900 million in aid a year - one of the lowest
per capita aid levels in Africa despite being the third-poorest country on
earth. Sachs said rich nations should be ashamed of their inaction, and
must meet the commitment they made in 1970 to pay 0.7 percent of gross
national product to overseas aid. "With the level of financing going on,
it is impossible to defeat poverty. You can't win with a $1 billion a year
here - it is impossible," he said. "I think it is reckless of the rich
world to say 'well we will give a little bit and see how it goes.' I will
tell them how it goes: it goes badly," Sachs said.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42005 ]


SOMALIA: New factory employs hundreds in Mogadishu

A new Coca-Cola soft drink factory was inaugurated in the Somali capital,
Mogadishu, on Monday, marking the largest investment in the strife-torn
country since the collapse of the central government in 1991. Somali
investors had put US $8.3 million into the setting up of the production
line, which had already employed 150 people. At least 70 other people had
found work with distributors, Abdirazzaq Ise, the chairman and chief
executive of the United Bottling Company told IRIN by telephone from
Mogadishu. The factory was currently producing 36,000 bottles of soft
drinks per hour, he added.

"It is a 100 percent Somali investment," said Ise. He said he did not have
any major security concerns, saying the investment had the "goodwill of
the people". "This is our country; We have to create confidence in our
country," said Ise. He said the company, which had a franchise agreement
with the US-based Coca-Cola multinational, would expand and that it would
in the near future be able to supply the entire country, which relied on
imported products, with soft drinks.

The old Coca-Cola factory in Mogadishu was destroyed in the factional
warfare that took root in Somalia following the overthrow of the regime of
Muhammad Siyad Barre in 1991. Other Somali entrepreneurs have invested in
mobile telephone companies, internet cafes and radio stations despite the
insecurity.


IRIN-CEA
Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
Email: IRIN@ocha.unon.org

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
     Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                    guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Horn of Africa                   www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/hafrica