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Sunday 18 December 2005


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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 293 for 3-9 September 2005

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

CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Annan recommends extension of UN mission's mandate
ETHIOPIA: Ruling party named winner in final result of disputed poll
SOMALIA: UN official urges restraint amid rising tension
SOMALIA: Media watchdog alarmed at threats against journalists
SOMALIA: Dozens drown in failed immigration to Yemen
SUDAN: Arbitrary detentions remain widespread - HRW
SUDAN: Gender-based violence prevalent in Darfur, says UN report
SUDAN: AU condemns rebel attack against nomads in Darfur

ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Trying to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS
Full report

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Annan recommends extension of UN mission's mandate

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended that the UN Security Council extend the mandate of the peacekeeping mission on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border until March 2006 and has stressed the need for both governments and the international community to do their utmost to ensure the border stalemate is resolved, as it "inherently destabilizing".

"I would like to call on the international community to spare no effort in bringing the parties together to engage in constructive dialogue aimed at moving the peace process forward and normalizing bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea," Annan said in his latest report to the Council on Ethiopia and Eritrea. "I reiterate that the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea have the primary responsibility to bring durable peace and security between their two countries," he added.

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ETHIOPIA: Ruling party named winner in final result of disputed poll

Ethiopia's ruling party has retained power after winning a majority of seats in national elections marred by violence and alleged fraud, according to final results released by the election board on Monday. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling coalition, which has held power for 14 years, took 327 seats, winning another five-year term, the National Election Board of Ethiopia said. The results meant the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front now controls 59 percent of the 547-seat parliament, losing around 150 seats during the polls.

Opposition parties took 174 seats - 32 percent of the seats - with the largest opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, taking 20 percent of the parliamentary seats. Opposition parties won only 12 seats during the last elections in 2000. Ethiopia's elections were marred by controversy, with the European Union saying the 15 May ballot had failed to meet international standards in key areas.

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SOMALIA: UN official urges restraint amid rising tension

The UN Secretary-General's special envoy for Somalia urged members of the split transitional government to exercise restraint on Thursday amid reports of militia movement in the town of Jowhar, where the president and the prime minister are based. "I am concerned at the escalation of tensions in Jowhar and Mogadishu, and appeal for restraint from all parties whatever their differences," Francois Lonseny Fall, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Somalia, said in a statement.

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi and their supporters decided to set up Transitional Federal Institutions (TFI) in the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, in June. They said Mogadishu was not secure enough to be the seat of government.

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SOMALIA: Media watchdog alarmed at threats against journalists

The media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, expressed concern on Monday over alleged threats by gunmen in Somalia against local journalists and appealed to the country's interim government to help stop the intimidation. "It is getting more and more difficult for Somali journalists to work," the press freedom organisation said in a statement. "Pushed around by warlords, Islamic courts and businessmen, they chose to defend themselves by setting up an exemplary, democratically-run organisation, and this is now being targeted," it added.

Threats, it noted, had been directed against the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) both before and after its annual general assembly in Mogadishu on 29 to 31 August. "We appeal to the Transitional Federal Government and its international partners to use their influence to get these threats stopped as soon as possible," the statement said.

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SOMALIA: Dozens drown in failed immigration to Yemen

At least 58 people drowned and some 150 others were missing when armed men smuggling would-be immigrants to Yemen in two boats forced them overboard several kilometres from the shore, sources said on Monday. The boats had set sail on 30 August from a coastal village some 25 km from northeastern Somalia's port town of Bossaso, the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, Abdinasir Mire Adan, a reporter for the Bossaso-based Midnimo Radio, told IRIN.

The boats, he added, had been carrying 250 people, many of whom were women and children. The acting Somali Consul-General, Husayn Haji Ahmad, told IRIN by phone from the Yemeni port city of Aden that as of Sunday, 37 people had been found alive.
He said the smugglers, out of fear of interception by Yemeni coastguards, had on Friday afternoon forced people - at gunpoint - to jump into the sea some five km from the shore.

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SUDAN: Arbitrary detentions remain widespread - HRW

Arbitrary arrests and detentions remain widespread in Sudan despite President Omar al-Bashir's promise to release all political prisoners and lift the nationwide state of emergency, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday. "The government promised [on 30 June] that the north-south peace accord would usher in a new day in Sudan, but we have yet to see it in the field of human rights," Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at the international advocacy organisation, said in a statement.

"Beyond the conflict in Darfur [where the state of emergency remained in place], Sudanese across the country still remain at risk of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture," he added. Death sentences, the statement noted, were often carried out without notice, and many of the trials leading to the sentences lacked basic fair-trial protections for the accused.

Full report

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SUDAN: Gender-based violence prevalent in Darfur, says UN report

Women and girls continue to experience sexual violence in the strife-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur and more needs to be done to prevent such crimes, a joint report by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Children's Fund said. "Sexual violence was consistently reported during attacks on villages but was reported to be continuing even at the time of the study - especially when women and girls left the camps," the report said.

By conducting a large number of focus group discussions with internally displaced persons, the report, published on Monday, aimed to gain a better insight into the ways the conflict had affected the health and well-being of women and girls, and to better understand indigenous coping mechanisms.

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SUDAN: AU condemns rebel attack against nomads in Darfur

The head of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, condemned the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) on Friday for its lack of cooperation in restoring calm to the strife-torn western region of Darfur.
"Kingibe expressed disappointment that one week after the intervention of the AMIS to diffuse the tense situation between the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Arab nomads in the village of Malam, 50 km north of Nyala [the capital of South Darfur State], the SLM/A remains intransigent," the African Union (AU) said in a statement.

The SLM/A attacked the nomads on 25 August, killing a number of them and abducting seven nomads and 3,100 camels. Kingibe urged the nomads to continue to resist the temptation of taking the law into their hands, warning it would only lead to the further deterioration of the security situation on the ground. He demanded that the SLA/A immediately release the abducted persons and camels.

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent HORN OF AFRICA reports:

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 305 for 10-16 December 2005, 17/Dec/05

UNMEE monitoring tense border despite setbacks, 16/Dec/05

UN relocates expelled staff from Eritrea to Ethiopia, 15/Dec/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 304 for 3-9 December 2005, 12/Dec/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 303 for 26 November-2 December 2005, 2/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 305 for 10-16 December 2005, 17/Dec/05

MIDDLE EAST: Appeal to Arab world to give more to world’s poorest, 16/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 16/Dec/05

ZIMBABWE: Health budget fails to address brain drain, 16/Dec/05

CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 309 10-16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

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