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Wednesday 21 December 2005 |
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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 296 for 24-30 September 2005[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]CONTENTS: ETHIOPIA: Main opposition coalition merges to form party The four parties that make up Ethiopia's largest opposition alliance, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) have merged to form one party, an official of the coalition said on Thursday. The All Ethiopia Unity Party, the Union of Ethiopia Democracy Party, Rainbow Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Democratic League announced their unification on Saturday. Members of the new party elected Hailu Shawel to continue as chairman of the new party and Birtukan Mideksa to serve as vice-chair. "This merger means a strengthening of the opposition, added force to the opposition," Hailu Araya, CUD spokesman, told IRIN. "Our vision is eventually to unite all the opposition parties in Ethiopia, but in the immediate future we are focused on consolidating the CUD alliance," he added. Hailu said the opposition demonstration to protest against the results of the 15 May national elections - planned for 2 October - was still "on schedule" but was dependent on the administration of the capital, Addis Ababa. Full report ETHIOPIA: Opposition members arrested ahead of planned demo An unknown number of opposition party supporters have been arrested in Ethiopia ahead of a planned demonstration scheduled for Sunday in the capital, Addis Ababa, to protest against the results of the 15 May general election. "I can't give you a precise figure, but the number of those arrested in several regions runs into hundreds," Merera Gudina, first vice-chairman of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), said. "Several opposition offices have also been closed." Information Minister Bereket Simon said the police had arrested 43 people in the Amhara region on the grounds that opposition parties - notably the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and the UEDF - were preparing to "continue the violence they started earlier on in the year". However, Gudina said the government was detaining the opposition supporters on trumped up charges. Full report SOMALIA: Somaliland voters go to the polls Voters in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, went to the polls on Thursday to elect 82 members of parliament. Candidates from the opposition Kulmiye (Solidarity) and the Welfare and Justice parties are challenging those from the ruling party, the Union of Democrats. Some 246 candidates are vying for the parliamentary seats. Some 800,000 of Somaliland's estimated 3.5 million people are eligible to vote. The polls are Somaliland's third since it declared unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in May 1991, following the collapse of the administration of former President Muhammad Siyad Barre. Somaliland conducted municipal elections in December 2002, which were followed by the presidential poll in April 2003 in which the incumbent, Dahir Riyale Kahin, retained his post. On Thursday, voters started lining up at the territory's 985 polling stations well before they opened officially at 0600 (0300 GMT). Full report SOMALIA: Journalist detained over report on graft in local prison Security officials in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland arrested a radio editor on Monday over a story on corruption in a local prison, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. Awale Jama Salad's detention without charge is the second time in recent months, CPJ said on Tuesday, quoting the Somali Journalists Union (NUSOM). He was arrested in Bossaso, the commercial capital of Puntland in northeastern Somalia, over the story that highlighted conditions in the local prison. The arrest follows Jama's reports in July on his previous imprisonment, according to NUSOM. The reports, broadcast on STN radio and reproduced up by some local newspapers, alleged that officials at Bossaso prison were taking bribes to free prisoners, and that conditions in the jail were so bad they were causing the spread of diseases. Full report SOMALIA: Mogadishu-based leaders meet near Jowhar A group of powerful faction leaders, who are members of Somalia's divided Transitional Federal Institutions [TFIs], held a meeting in the town of Bal'ad, 60 km south of Jowhar, on Sunday, drawing accusations from their rivals that they were engaging in provocative activities. Sources at the meeting said the gathering by the Mogadishu-based group was intended to demonstrate to the TFI wing led by President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Muhmmad Gedi, who are based in Jowhar, that they were a force to be reckoned with. "They were simply showing Yusuf and Gedi that they could meet at their door step," one source said. A spokesman for the Jowhar-based TFG, Abdirahman Dinari, denounced the meeting as provocative, saying it came at a time when efforts were being made to end the rift within the TFIs. "Such meetings and provocative statements that came out of them do not help the ongoing reconciliation efforts," Dinari said. Full report SUDAN: Southerners get new assembly The Interim Legislative Council of Southern Sudan, which brings together many former military and political adversaries, was officially inaugurated on Thursday in Juba, the southern Sudanese capital. The establishment of the new parliament constitutes a milestone in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed on 9 January by the Sudanese government and the former southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). It also represents an important step in fulfilling the southerners' aspirations for greater political autonomy and the decentralisation of power, for which the SPLM/A fought during a 21-year war that claimed two million lives. "This is clearly a significant and historic moment. This is what people have been waiting for since the signing of the CPA, and probably for the past 20 years," David Gressly, the UN deputy resident and humanitarian coordinator for southern Sudan, told IRIN at the ceremony. Full report SUDAN: Violence hindering aid effort in Darfur, Egeland says Continuing violence in the western Sudanese region of Darfur is hindering humanitarian efforts and creating a chaotic situation there, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, said on Wednesday. "As we speak, we have had to suspend action in many areas. Tens of thousands of people will not get any assistance today because it is too dangerous, and it could grow," Egeland told a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Noting that Darfur was a continuing crisis in spite of very effective humanitarian work, Egeland said the level of violence had escalated sharply in September. If the violence continued to escalate and it continued to be so dangerous to unarmed humanitarian workers, the UN might not be able to sustain its operations for 2.5 million people requiring life-saving assistance there, he added. Full report SUDAN: Disarm Janjawid militia, UN official urges The Janjawid, a militia group allegedly allied to the Sudanese government, must be disarmed if peace is to return to the country's western region of Darfur, a senior UN official said on Monday. "The disarmament of the Janjawid would help the government reach a peaceful solution," Juan Mendez, the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, said in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. "Without disarmament of the Janjawid, there is no possibility of reaching a positive solution to the Darfur crisis," he added. Since the start of the conflict in February 2003, the Janjawid militiamen have been accused of the massacre of the region's non-Arab inhabitants. Despite the US stating in September 2004 that genocide had occurred in Darfur, a UN-appointed commission of inquiry concluded in January that violence in the region did not amount to genocide. Instead, it said, mass killings of civilians had occurred. Full report [ENDS]
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