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 203
17 - 23 July 2004


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: US Congress unanimously defines Darfur violence as "genocide"
SUDAN: Darfur peace talks break down before they start
SUDAN: Government officials implicated in supporting Janjawid militias
SUDAN: Gov't trying to force Darfur's displaced to return home - UN
   agencies
SUDAN: Rights watchdog reports abuses in Shilluk Kingdom
ETHIOPIA: Rainfall, timely food aid deliveries improve humanitarian
   situation
ERITREA: Hundreds of thousands of children living in extreme poverty
SOMALIA: Transitional parliament to be inaugurated on 30 July - mediators
SOMALIA: High child malnutrition and mortality due to food shortages


SUDAN: US Congress unanimously defines Darfur violence as "genocide"

The US Congress on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution declaring the 
human rights abuses in western Sudan's Darfur region as "genocide". By a 
vote of 422 to zero, the House of Representatives, with "the Senate 
concurring", passed the resolution, which stated that the violence 
appeared to be particularly directed at a specific group based on their 
ethnicity and appeared to be systemised, Agence France Presse reported.

The resolution also reportedly urged the US government to call the 
atrocities by their "rightful" name and "to seriously consider 
multilateral or even unilateral intervention to prevent genocide should 
the United Nations Security Council fail to act".

John Prendergast, the special adviser to the president of the 
International Crisis Group, told IRIN on Thursday that new evidence 
suggested that Khartoum's role in genocide in Darfur was now indisputable. 
"The government's complicity is no longer in doubt, thus meeting the 
conditions as outlined in the Genocide Convention for culpability in this 
greatest of crimes." [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42347 ]


SUDAN: Darfur peace talks break down before they start

Peace talks aimed at ending the conflict between the Sudanese government 
and two rebel groups, convened in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in 
the Darfur region broke down on 18 July before negotiations had even 
begun. The talks, which were aimed at finding a political solution to the 
conflict, had opened two days earlier, on 15 July. The African Union (AU) 
mediators held separate consultations with the Sudanese government 
representatives and the rebels, after an initial meeting ended in what was 
reported as a mutual "shouting match".

The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement 
(JEM) rebels put forward a number of preconditions to holding political 
talks: disarmament of the Janjawid and the removal of those of them 
absorbed by the police and army; respect for the 8 April ceasefire; an end 
to impunity for the perpetrators of crimes and an inquiry into allegations 
of genocide; unimpeded humanitarian access; release of prisoners of war; 
and a "neutral" venue for future talks, which did not include Ethiopia.

The coordinator of JEM, Ahmad Jugod, told IRIN that unless these basic 
demands were met they would not engage in a political dialogue with 
Khartoum. A spokesman for the Sudanese government, Ibrahim Ahmad Ibrahim, 
said "the demands of the rebels are unacceptable". He said the demands 
showed "disrespect to the African Union". "It is a delaying tactic, the 
rebels are not serious," he added. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42241 ]


SUDAN: Government officials implicated in supporting Janjawid militias

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday it had obtained documents showing 
that Sudanese government officials had directed the recruitment, arming 
and support for Janjawid militias in Darfur. The confidential documents, 
obtained from the civilian administrations in Northern and Southern 
Darfur, implicated high-ranking government officials in "a policy of 
militia support", HRW added in a news statement.

The government of Sudan has admitted arming the militias to fight a 
rebellion in the region, but has consistently denied supporting them with 
its army, and has never accepted responsibility for the widespread human 
rights abuses they have committed. It was not possible to immediately get 
a comment from the government on the HRW report.

HRW and other groups have accused the militias and Sudanese government 
forces of being responsible for crimes against humanity, war crimes and 
ethnic cleansing involving aerial and ground attacks targeting civilians. 
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42251 ]

On Monday, Amnesty International (AI) accused the Sudanese government and 
militias allied to it of using rape as "a weapon of war" in Darfur. "The 
rapes are not mistakes by undisciplined militia members," Polyanna 
Truscott, AI's Darfur crisis coordinator, told reporters in the Kenyan 
capital, Nairobi. "The rape that is ongoing appears to be part of a 
systematic dehumanising of women and destruction of their communities."

It was not immediately possible to get a comment from the Sudanese 
government, which denies condoning the activities of the militia in 
Darfur, on the statements by AI. The rapes were mainly committed by the 
Janjawid, AI said, while the army was either involved or a direct witness 
in almost all the cases recorded by AI. "The Janjawid have acted with full 
impunity and with the full knowledge or acquiescence of the government 
army." [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42250 ]


SUDAN: Gov't trying to force Darfur's displaced to return home -UN 
agencies

The Sudanese government is increasingly bringing pressure to bear on 
internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur to return to their homes, 
despite the fact that it has not fulfilled its commitment to improve 
security, according to UN agencies.

Small-scale forcible relocation of IDPs had already started with the 
movement of about 4,000 people from al-Meshtel camp to Abu Shawk camp 
outside Al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur State, just hours before 
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited on 2 July. A second incident 
involved the movement of 7,000 people from Nyala, the capital of Southern 
Darfur, to Kalma camp, the UN reported.

On 17 July, agencies received "alarming" reports that the governor of 
Western Darfur State and the local humanitarian aid commissioner were 
planning to relocate 25 percent of the IDPs, or 1,000 families, from 
Murnei to "predestined relocation sites". Murnei, one of Darfur's biggest 
camps, is home to about 80,000 IDPs. Following protests by various 
agencies the move was suspended, the UN reported. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42264 ]


SUDAN: Rights watchdog reports abuses in Shilluk Kingdom

Government-allied militias conducted "extensive campaigns" of destruction 
in the Shilluk Kingdom of southern Sudan in March and April 2004, 
destroying homes and in some cases whole villages, according to the US-led 
Civilian Protection Monitoring Team (CPMT).

Village elders in Datang told CPMT investigators that militiamen from 
Warjok garrison had begun burning the homes of suspected sympathisers of 
the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army and associates in the 
garrison town of Datang on 28 March, said a report issued last week. 
Numbering between 700 and 800, and supported by two machine-gun-mounted 
Land Cruisers, they had also burned grain stocks and medical stores.

On 1 April the militias returned to the village to engage in further 
looting. "Numerous" civilian witnesses had corroborated the sequence of 
events in Datang, said the CPMT. They had "emphatically" identified 
government militia troops under the command of army officers and militia 
commanders as their attackers, saying they were mostly Nuer from Warjok 
military garrison, but also included some Shilluk. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42284 ]


ETHIOPIA: Rainfall, timely food aid deliveries improve humanitarian 
situation

Recent rainfall and increased distribution of aid have improved the 
immediate humanitarian situation in the country, but additional pledges 
are still required to cover an 11 percent food shortfall in the 
June-December period, a famine alert network has reported.

The USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net), however, 
said an estimated 50 percent of humanitarian needs for the peak shortage 
months of September to November was yet to be obtained. "Only 36 percent 
of the non-food sector's emergency requirements have been met. At a 
minimum, already-pledged resources must be delivered and distributed on 
time in order to reduce uncertainties for food-insecure households and to 
help them retain productive assets," FEWS Net said in its July update for 
Ethiopia.

It said food aid distribution had improved because of the increase in 
pledges. Between January and June 2004, the Ethiopian Disaster Prevention 
and Preparedness Commission's, UN World Food Programme and NGOs had 
managed to distribute 386,110 mt of food, equivalent to about 68 percent 
of the total required amount, and 10 percent higher than the cumulative 
deliveries between January and April. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42270 ]


ERITREA: Hundreds of thousands of children living in extreme poverty

Hundreds of thousands of Eritrean children are living in extreme poverty 
due to prolonged drought, the aftermath of the border conflict with 
neighbouring Ethiopia and its impact on the country's economy, the UN 
Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported. UNICEF said in a humanitarian update 
that an estimated 425,000 children under 14 years of age were affected, 
mostly in families that were largely dependent on and headed by women.

It added that malnutrition rates were still high, with all regions 
reporting over 10 percent of children under five experiencing acute 
malnutrition. Among women, malnutrition was on the rise in the central 
Maekel Zoba Region, which previously had low levels, indicating food 
shortages due to market instability.

UNICEF said a recent report by the Eritrean health ministry showed that 
under-five mortality had risen to 15 children out of 100,000 per day in 
some parts of the country. In Debub Region, where six out of eight dams 
had dried up in the past year creating acute water shortages for a large 
number of people, deaths from diarrhoea had increased. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42261 ]


SOMALIA: Transitional parliament to be inaugurated on 30 July - mediators

Somalia's proposed transitional federal parliament will be inaugurated on 
30 July in Nairobi, mediators announced, saying that all clans must 
complete the process of nominating their representatives by Tuesday. The 
foreign ministers of member states of the regional Inter-Governmental 
Authority on Drought and Development (IGAD), who met in Nairobi on 15 July 
and 16 July, called for transparency in the process of distributing seats 
and selecting members of the proposed Somali Transitional Federal 
Assembly.

Each of Somalia's four major clans has been allocated 61 seats in the 
proposed parliament, while an alliance of minority clans will have 31 MPs. 
A Speaker and two deputy Speakers to be elected from among the 
parliamentarians will preside over the election of the president.

"The peace process should come to its logical conclusion in the next two 
weeks, during which the members of parliament shall have been selected," 
the ministers said. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42240 ]

However, a day after the deadline for all Somali groups to show mediators 
at the reconciliation conference how they would share seats in a proposed 
parliament, delegates from two of the country's four major clans were 
still haggling over how to distribute the posts, sources close to the 
mediators said. "If the Darods and Dirs don't present their distribution 
lists [to IGAD mediators] by Thursday, the Arbitration Committee will be 
asked to do it for them," the source told IRIN. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42311 ]


SOMALIA: High child malnutrition and mortality due to food shortages

Deteriorating food security has resulted in high malnutrition levels and 
child mortality rates in both southern and northern Somalia, according to 
the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Five rapid nutrition 
assessments carried out by various humanitarian agencies in the southern 
Juba riverine zone since September 2002 had revealed serious malnutrition, 
much of which manifested as oedema and high mortality rates, FAO's Food 
Security Analysis Unit said in its nutrition update for June and July.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported 
last month that widespread and severe food shortages had continued to 
affect people in the northern pastoral and southern agricultural areas of 
Somalia as a result of prolonged drought.

The drought had affected about 200,000 people in the north, of whom more 
than 93,000 were in humanitarian crisis, following a total collapse of 
their livelihoods. It had been hoped that the long rains this year would 
provide relief to the pastoralists, who had undergone seven seasons of 
inadequate rainfall, but the season ended early with poor precipitation in 
May and June, OCHA said. [Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42262 ]


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