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Wednesday 24 August 2005


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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 236 for 26 March - 1 April 2005

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Security Council refers Darfur crimes to ICC
SUDAN: Gunmen ambush AU monitors in South Darfur
SUDAN: Lack of clean water as thousands return to the south
DJIBOUTI: No challengers for Guelleh as presidential campaign kicks off
SOMALIA: Ministers unable to reach Baidoa due to fighting
ETHIOPIA: Fraudulent voter registration reported
ETHIOPIA: Gov't troops committed crimes in Gambella, says HRW

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SUDAN: Security Council refers Darfur crimes to ICC

The UN Security Council decided on Thursday, after weeks of deliberations, to try the suspected perpetrators of human rights abuses and war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur in the International Criminal Court (ICC), a UN spokesman said.

"The Secretary-General welcomes the adoption today of Security Council resolution 1593 [2005], which refers the situation in Darfur since 1 July 2002 to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court," Fred Eckhard, spokesman for the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said in a statement on Thursday.

Annan commended the Council for using its authority "to provide an appropriate mechanism to lift the veil of impunity", which had allowed human rights crimes in Darfur to continue unchecked, Eckhard added

The resolution was made possible by last-minute concessions in the text, including assurances that would bar the ICC, or other courts, from prosecuting citizens within Sudan from countries that were not a party to the ICC, including the US.

The US, a staunch opponent of the international court, had threatened to veto the resolution for fears that Americans could become targets of politically motivated lawsuits.

"This historic step by the Security Council offers real hope of protection for people in Darfur," Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program of the advocacy organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement on Thursday.

While welcoming the abstention of the US in the vote, the advocacy group opposed the exemption given to non-ICC states, however, as it violated long-established principles of jurisdiction.

Full report

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SUDAN: Gunmen ambush AU monitors in South Darfur

Unidentified gunmen wounded two African Union (AU) monitors on Tuesday near the town of Niteaga, northwest of Nyala, the capital of the western Sudanese state of South Darfur, an AU spokesman told IRIN. The monitors' sector team leader, an officer from Mali, was shot in the neck during the ambush, said Nourreddine Mezni.

Meanwhile the UN Security Council decided on Tuesday to freeze assets and impose a travel ban on those believed to have committed human-rights abuses, or violated the ceasefire agreement, in Darfur. The resolution also extended the current ban on the sale or supply of military equipment to non-governmental entities or individuals involved in the Darfur conflict to include the Sudanese government.

It further demanded that the government immediately cease conducting offensive military flights in the region. However, the Sudanese representative to the UN, Elfatih Mohamed Ahmed Erwa, said the Council had adopted an "unwise resolution" that might aggravate the situation in Darfur.

A committee, consisting of representatives of all Council members, was established to specify which individuals would be subject to the restrictive measures, and to monitor their implementation. In addition, the resolution requested UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a four-member panel of experts based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to assist the committee for six months.

According to relief agencies, over 2.4 million people have been affected by the conflict in Darfur between Sudanese government troops - and militias allegedly allied to the government - and rebels fighting to end what they have called the marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. Almost 80 percent of those affected have either been internally displaced or forced to flee to neighbouring Chad.

Full report

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SUDAN: Lack of clean water as thousands return to the south

Civilians returning to southern Sudan will put serious pressure on the region's water resources, which can supply only 30 percent of southerners with clean water as it is, the UN warned on Thursday.

"No amount of food and medicine will keep people well if their water supply and environment are contaminated," Ben Parker, communications officer for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN from Yambio, southern Sudan.

After decades of civil war in the region, some 500,000 refugees and an estimated four million internally displaced persons (IDPs) are expected to start returning home, now that a peace agreement has been signed. According to figures released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Sunday, approximately 1,500 IDPs have been returning to southern Sudan every week. As more and more Sudanese begin to move, health risks related to water and sanitation are becoming an increasing concern.

Lack of clean water had led to "terrible social costs", according to a statement by Wendy Chamberlin, acting United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Tuesday. These have included an increased risk of sexual assault for women forced to fetch water from unguarded locations, and higher rates of disease due to the consumption of dirty water.

Much of southern Sudan consists of semi-arid land, and water-related problems occur throughout the year - flooding during the rains and water shortages in the dry season.

Full report

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DJIBOUTI: No challengers for Guelleh as presidential campaign kicks off

Campaigning for Djibouti's forthcoming presidential election officially began at midnight on Friday, as stipulated by the country's constitution, despite the fact that incumbent President Ismael Omar Guelleh is the sole candidate.

Nonetheless, the election is expected to take place on 8 April as scheduled. Sources in the capital, Djibouti City, said pro-Guelleh posters and other campaign materials were being plastered on walls and circulated throughout the city on Friday.

Guelleh was elected as the second president of the tiny Horn of Africa nation in 1999, taking over from his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had ruled the country since it gained independence from France in 1977. Aptidon was forced by international pressure to introduce multi-party politics in 1992, ending 15 years of one-party rule in Djibouti, which has a population of just 712,000, according to the UN.

Parliamentary elections were most recently held in 2003, with Guelleh's Union for Presidential Majority coalition winning all 65 seats amid opposition claims of widespread rigging.

The main opposition coalition, the Union of Democratic Alliance (UDA), has called upon all its members to boycott April's election.

Djibouti served as an operations base during the 1990-1991 Gulf War, and France continues to have a significant military presence in the country. More recently, the US has stationed hundreds of troops in Djibouti as part of its effort to counter terrorism in the region.

Full report

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SOMALIA: Ministers unable to reach Baidoa due to fighting

Insecurity in Somalia's south-central town of Baidoa, one of the two proposed seats of the transitional government, has prevented a ministerial delegation visiting the town, sources told IRIN on Tuesday.

The group of five ministers and two Members of Parliament instead went to Huddur, a town 100 km further north, after fighting erupted in Baidoa at the weekend. They had been sent by Somalia's transitional federal government (TFG) to assess the security situation in Baidoa.

The fighting involved militiamen loyal to two rival leaders of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army faction - Mohamed Ibrahim Habsade and Hassan Muhammed Nur "Shatigudud" - both members of the recently created TFG. Shatigudud, a minister in the TFG, was in the group that went to Huddur.

Clashes first erupted on 24 March, but the violence later died down - only to flare up again on 26 March. Several people were killed, dozens wounded and scores fled their homes. Reportedly, the fighting was sparked by a demonstration organised by supporters of Shatigudud, who backed the Somali cabinet's recent decision to temporarily relocate from its current base in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to Baidoa and Jowhar. Habsade had reportedly opposed the move to relocate the new government.

Militiamen from both sides shot at each other during the demonstration and later engaged in full-scale warfare. They used rocket-propelled grenades, heavy artillery and assault rifles to pound each other's positions, according to residents contacted by telephone.

Full report

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ETHIOPIA: Fraudulent voter registration reported

The head of Ethiopia's National Election Board (NEB) said on Monday that although over 25.6 million people had registered to vote in the country's third-ever democratic ballot, some abuses of the registration process had occurred.

Kemal Bedri, the NEB's chairman, told reporters at the board's headquarters in the capital, Addis Ababa, that irregularities had been reported in the south. Children had been registered to vote, and multiple ballots had been given to some people.

An election official was now facing criminal charges, he added, after handing out bundles of registration cards to children. "Because of that, we cancelled the registration in that locality, and a new registration will be carried out," Kemal announced.

The incident took place in the district of Hadiya, 200 km southwest of Addis Ababa, where the 2000 national elections had to be rerun because of similar abuses.

Thirty-five political parties are due to contest the 15 May parliamentary elections this year. Elected Members of Parliament will then choose a prime minister. Of Ethiopia's 71 million population, 30 million are thought to be of voting age by the NEB. Thus over 85 percent of possible voters have registered - apart from the Hadiya rerun, registration has now closed in the rest of the country. Some 1,845 candidates - 271 of them women - will stand for elections, with almost half of them running for the EPRDF.

Full report

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ETHIOPIA: Gov't troops committed crimes in Gambella, says HRW

Ethiopian troops committed widespread killings, rape and torture against the indigenous Anyuak population in an oil-rich western province, a rights group said on Thursday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said numerous attacks by soldiers and civilians from other ethnic groups killed more than 500 people in the Gambella region in 2003 and 2004, bordering Sudan.

However, the government dismissed the report. "The situation in Gambella is settled and everything is peaceful now," government spokesman, Zemedkun Teckle, told IRIN. "The people there are living peacefully right now. We are very surprised [and] do not understand why Human Rights Watch is now trying to ignite this issue."

The allegations come in a 64-page report entitled, "Targeting the Anyuak: Human Rights Violations and Crimes against Humanity in Ethiopia's Gambella Region". It details the killing of more than 400 Anyuak in December 2003, adding that the killings and rape continued into mid 2004. More than 100 people were killed after the initial fighting.

The violence erupted after Anyuak gunmen allegedly ambushed a government vehicle, killing eight people. The Anyuak were then targeted in reprisal killings.

Gambella, which has a total population of 228,000, is ethnically diverse with people from the Nuer, Anyuak, Majanger, Komo and Opo tribes. HRW said the abuses detailed in the report could amount to crimes against humanity, a claim rejected by the Ethiopian authorities.

Full report

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[ENDS]

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