February 2004 News Monitor - Prevent Genocide International

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Prevent Genocide International

News Monitor for February 2004
Tracking current news on genocide and items related to past and present ethnic, national, racial and religious violence.
See also Selected news reports on the Stockholm International Forum on Preventing Genocide (Jan. 26-28, 2004)

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The East African (Nairobi) 9 Feb 2004 ANALYSIS Africa's Own Security Council Means No More Pariahs Peter Mwangi Kagwanja Nairobi This is "more than a dropping of one letter", quipped BBC World Affairs correspondent, Paul Reynolds, on the historic transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU). Now African states have passed yet another milestone by ratifying the protocol relating to the establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. The protocol, adopted by the inaugural meeting of the AU held in Durban on July 9, 2002, came into force on December 26 when the Charg d'Affaires of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, L.K. Iyanda, deposited his country's instrument of ratification. The approval of the protocol, which required the ratification of 27 out of a total of 53 AU member states, closes nearly 18 months of vigorous lobbying on what is perhaps one of the most innovative and revolutionary of the African Union documents. The protocol heralds the dawn of a new era of commitment to peace, security, good governance and respect for human rights, rule of law and human dignity on the continent. It also brings to a close the grim interlude in African history when pariah regimes stalked the continent and hid behind the fortress of sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of states enshrined in the OAU Charter to brutalise their citizens and trample upon democracy. One of the most revolutionary aspects of the protocol is its effort to redefine the benchmarks of the sanctity of state sovereignty for the greater good of human life, dignity and freedom. For instance, the protocol gives power to the Assembly of the African Union to make a decision to intervene in a member state in such grave circumstances as war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. In a sense, this ensures that the African Union does not find itself in the same predicament as its predecessor, which stood by and watched as such unspeakable dictators as Idi Amin (Uganda) and Jean Bedel Bokassa (Central African Republic) committed crimes against humanity with abandon, and as Rwanda descended into a genocide that claimed nearly a million lives. Another groundbreaking aspect of the protocol is that it empowers the PSC to impose sanctions in situations where unconstitutional change of government has taken place in a member state, as provided for in the Lome Declaration. It also allows the Peace and Security Council to take appropriate measures where the independence and sovereignty of a member state is threatened by mercenaries, among other acts of aggression. This sounds the death-knell for the unlawful takeover of governments by soldiers and mercenaries. In spite of this revolutionary remit, the Council is hardly likely to turn out a rogue elephant. It is, on the contrary, expected to abide by the principles of peaceful settlements of disputes and conflicts. Its immediate task is to realise a common African defense policy and an African Standby Force. It is also expected to implement the OAU treaty on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism and to harmonise and co-ordinate international, continental and regional treaties on terrorism. Not only is the Peace and Security Council cast in the mould of the UN Security Council, it is also based on the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, it appears less hegemonic and more equitable and representative than the UN Security Council - where the US, Britain, France and the Russian Federation are accused of undermining global democracy by continuing to hold veto votes and permanent seats. For instance, such leaders as Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Algeria), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria), Abdou Wade (Senegal) and Thabo Mbeki (South Africa) - the driving forces behind the "African Renaissance" that led to the formation of the AU and Nepad - have not sought for their countries either a veto vote or a permanent seat on the AU Peace and Security Council. When fully operational, the PSC will be composed of 15 members, 10 elected for a term of two years and five elected for a term of three years to ensure continuity. Election to the PSC will be carried out on the basis of equal rights, and equitable regional representation and rotation. The elections for the PSC take place in March to pave the way for its inauguration in April. The protocol provides for a powerful Panel of the Wise, a remarkable innovation in continental governance. Comprising five highly respected African personalities drawn from all segments of society, the Panel of the Wise will advise the PSC and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission in their efforts to promote peace and security. Like the Panel of Eminent Persons of the African Peer Review Mechanism that is currently steering Nepad's reforms on democracy and good governance, the Panel of the Wise reveals a growing trend in Africa's multilateral institutions to embrace "traditional" governance. Recently, one observer warned, rather cynically, that "Africa faces the danger of collapsing under its own weight" if it does not harmonise its proliferating institutions. Apart from the African Union and Nepad, Africa has more than a dozen regional economic communities, each with peace and security functions. In this regard, the Council needs to harmonise the peace and security work of the AU with that of Nepad's Peace and Security Committee as well as with the peace efforts of Igad, Ecowas and SADC. In the same vein, the PSC should harmonise its governance priorities with those of the African Peer Review Mechanism. The success of the PSC is a litmus test for the AU and its aim of promoting "democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance". Dr Kagwanja is a researcher based in Pretoria, South Africa.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 27 Feb 2004 Millions of Africa's refugees could go home soon, says UNHCR official GENEVA, Feb 27 (UNHCR) - Millions of Africans uprooted by war are in sight of the day when they can return to their countries, UNHCR's head of operations in Africa told a press conference at the agency's Geneva headquarters today. Speaking to the media at the Palais des Nations, Africa Bureau Director for UNHCR David Lambo said that thanks to ongoing peace efforts in various regions of Africa, there are potentially more than 2 million refugees who may want to return home over the next three to five years. Noting that the world is seeing "a new dawn in Africa", Lambo said that several conflicts on the continent had recently ended while in other regions, parties were now seriously sitting around the negotiating table. He stressed that for the first time in many years, millions of refugees may have the chance to return to their countries, where they would join millions more of their countrymen internally displaced by war who are also starting to go back to their communities. UNHCR is planning a ministerial conference, the Dialogue on Voluntary Repatriation and Sustainable Reintegration in Africa, to be held in the Palais des Nations on March 8. Lambo said the meeting will bring together key African ministers, donor governments and other partners to discuss peace processes that will, over the next few years, present unprecedented opportunities to find solutions for Africa's protracted refugee problems. The upcoming meeting will be opened by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers. Joining the 14 ministers who Lambo said have so far agreed to attend the meeting will be keynote speakers Poul Nielson, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid; Julia D. Joiner, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Commission of the European Union; and Julia Taft, Assistant Administrator of the UN Development Programme. "The March 8 meeting will raise the awareness of the international community and help them to understand the potential for return," Lambo said. "We're trying to spread the message that donors must help the peace processes now underway on the continent to be sustainable." "One of the major problems is to break the cycle of repatriation and then of despair," Lambo said of situations where refugees finally make the step to return to their countries, but then lack the economic and social support necessary to become self-sufficient. The refugee agency's intention behind the upcoming conference is to spotlight countries where Lambo said UNHCR is "cautiously optimistic" about the direction of the peace process and consolidation efforts. The agency has noted that Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan all fall into the list of states already welcoming back or on the verge of seeing exiles return from neighbouring states. Lambo said the agency believes that the international community needs to seize this opportunity and take a comprehensive regional approach to ensure repatriation and sustainable reintegration in Africa. "It is very important that we make this effort sustainable and that we really do break the cycle of violence," Lambo declared. "We can demobilise combatants and help people home, but it is an entirely different matter to rehabilitate and rebuild a country." As such, UNHCR sees the March 8 meeting as an opportunity to bring senior government officials from nearly 40 African countries into contact with key donor states and humanitarian and development actors. This will give them a chance to begin outlining a coordinated repatriation and rehabilitation effort in their states to ensure that returning refugees and displaced persons can be absorbed by communities that are themselves recovering from years of neglect. In an encouraging sign, UNHCR has received the first contributions to what could be its biggest repatriation operation in the near future - Sudan. The United States has donated $2.7 million while Canada contributed $380,000 in response to the agency's November 2003 appeal for $8.8 million to fund preparatory activities for the return of Sudanese refugees.

NYT February 16, 2004 Algeria Shows Willingness to Abandon Its Violent Past By SIMON ROMERO ALGIERS, Feb. 11 — Little of note happened at OPEC's gathering here this week, other than an announced cut in oil production. There were no explosions. No kidnappings. No assassinations. That was exactly what the tough-minded military-backed government would have demanded, after a decade of fighting Islamic insurgents, a battle that has left an estimated 120,000 people dead. The government's next big test will come in presidential elections, set for April 8, elections in which some parties are not taking part, to protest the state of emergency still in effect. In the meantime, there are signs that the country is returning bit by bit to the fold of diplomacy and international commerce. A few days before ministers from the 11 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries began arriving at an airport patrolled by commandos armed with submachine guns, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, led a state visit that produced agreements allowing China to explore for oil and gas in Algeria's rich southern Saharan fields. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell came here briefly in December during a trip to North Africa to applaud Algeria's "exceptional cooperation in the war on terrorism." He called for fair presidential elections. In March, the French president, Jacques Chirac, accompanied by executives from France's largest companies, dropped by in a display of cordial relations between Algeria and its colonial ruler until 1962. The eight-year war of independence cost a million lives. The host of the OPEC meeting, the Algerian oil minister, Chakib Khelil, spoke of strengthening ties with other nations, illustrated by the decision of Air France and British Airways to operate flights to Algiers for the first time in years. The area around the capital is relatively safe, but attacks are breaking out farther away. "The security situation appears to have improved in some places but the Algerian military and government are still on a knife edge," said George Joffe, an expert on Algeria at Cambridge University. "As much as the army would like to declare otherwise, the war in Algeria is not over." Just this week, Islamic fighters killed seven paramilitary police officers in an ambush at a coastal city east of Algiers, Bejaia, the official APS news agency reported. In Algiers, where plainclothes and uniformed police officers keep watch, consumer trappings are becoming visible, like the Peugeots and Renaults on the streets, Korean cellphones and satellite dishes perched on balconies of crowded tenements. The government has begun a heavily publicized campaign to raise awareness of traffic safety and road accidents, adding to the impression that Algeria may finally be ready to address issues other than terrorism. The police advertise the slogan "Speed Equals Death." "The police are supposed to be fining motorists for not wearing seat belts instead of hunting people down," said Mostefa Bouchachi, a lawyer and president of the human rights commission of the Algiers Bar Association. "Traveling safely around the city or even between cities, something unthinkable not long ago, is one of those subtle achievements." The meeting in Algiers was only OPEC's second in Algeria in the organization's 44-year history. Nearly three decades ago, Ilich Ramírez-Sánchez, the Venezuelan terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, fled to Algiers with 11 of OPEC's ministers who had been kidnapped from a luxury hotel in Vienna. The military has assumed great powers since 1992, when the army halted elections that Islamic opponents seemed about to win, an action that began the civil war. In a later election, in 1999, the military's candidate won the presidency only after six rivals dropped out, claiming fraud. Fully rekindling the economy, which is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas exports, is another matter. But government officials insist that the nation is on its way to attaining stability that could soon allow it to join groups like the World Trade Organization. "This country passed through a very difficult period in the 90's, but it is recovering fast," Abdellatif Benachenhou, Algeria's French-trained finance minister, said in an interview. He cited economic growth that was reported to be more than 6 percent last year, largely because of high oil prices. Mr. Benachenhou said he expected the economy of this nation of 32 million people to grow 6 percent again this year. Such prospects are tied chiefly to oil and natural gas sales to Europe and the United States. Once shunned by all but a handful of American and European energy companies, the nation is expected to soon become the largest supplier of gas to Spain and one of the largest to France and Italy. Still, even Mr. Benachenhou admits that robust exports cannot easily repair the damage from a decade of civil war or bridge the hard divisions between the French-speaking elite and the mostly underemployed and underpaid masses, many of whom still receive benefits dating from the nation's once rigid socialist past. Tension over how to share the nation's oil bounty has spilled over the campaign before the presidential elections in April. Despite the state of emergency, the city's French- and Arabic-language newspapers carry fierce critiques of the administration of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was elected in 1999 with the blessing of the army amid widespread accusations of vote rigging. Under his presidency, thousands of Islamic militants have been pardoned. "Algeria and the Algerians deserve better from the present debate," La Tribune, a French-language paper, said in an editorial this week. It accused Mr. Bouteflika of using oil and gas revenues to finance social programs to win electoral support. Facing pressure to guarantee fair elections, Mr. Bouteflika has asked the United Nations, Arab League, African Union and European Union to send observers in April. The lack of strong opposition candidates has many convinced that he is likely to be re-elected, though he has not yet officially announced his candidacy. Mr. Bouteflika's government has yet to account for 7,000 or more people who, according to Human Rights Watch, disappeared at the hands of security forces in the 1990's. As if to change the topic, the government has unflinchingly endorsed the Bush administration's campaign against terrorism; it did not permit protests against the war in Iraq.

AFP 1 Feb 2004 Burundi army says 30 rebels killed in clashes in west BUJUMBURA, February 1 (AFP) - A top army commander in Burundi said Sunday that about 30 fighters from the central African country's sole remaining active rebel group had been killed in clashes the previous day near the capital. "Yesterday (Saturday) about 30 FNL (National Liberation Forces) were killed and 18 rifles taken in fighting in Nyabibondo zone," General Germain Niyoyankana, head of the army staff, told AFP. The area is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Bujumbura. The general went on to "categorically" deny an earlier report that 15 soldiers and eight allied fighters from a former rebel group had been killed by the FNL in Nyabibondo on Friday. He said only a soldier and one member of the former rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy, which has made peace with the government, had been killed on Friday. The FNL said there had been clashes over the weekend but declined to give details about casualties. "There were casualties on our side, as there were with the army and their allies," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said by phone. "You can see that even when they are allied, the army and the FNL are unable to dislodge us," he added. Since January 12, FDD units have been attacking FNL positions in several areas near the capital. Hopes that the FNL might, like other armed groups drawn from Burundi's large Hutu majority, reach a peace deal with the government were raised in January when President Domitien Ndayizeye met leaders of the movement for the first time, in the Netherlands. Burundi's civil war has claimed some more than 300,000 lives since 1993.

AP 1 Feb 2004 French foreign minister optimistic on U.N. peace force for Ivory Coast Baudelaire Mieux, Associated Press, 2/1/04 France's foreign minister said Sunday he was optimistic the United Nations would put together a new peacekeeping force to help secure peace in Ivory Coast and hoped it could be deployed to the war-divided country in a few weeks. Dominique de Villepin told journalists after closed door talks with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo in the commercial capital, Abidjan, that he would press the issue at the United Nations in New York next week. "France is engaged, and I know that the international community wants to move in this direction," de Villepin said. "I am optimistic that in a few weeks this force could be put together and be deployed here." France already has 4,000 troops in its former colony, helping 1,300 West African soldiers uphold a peace deal agreed last year. Although the Ivorian government officially declared the nine-month long civil war over in July, the country remains split between government-held south and rebel-controlled north. De Villepin said French troops would stay on if the United Nations deploys troops. West African states have called for U.N. peacekeepers to replace their soldiers. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for a peacekeeping mission with 6,420 troops, but the exact size and mandate of such a force would have to be approved by the U.N. Security Council. The United States has expressed reservations about the size of the proposed force, and says it wants to examine the justification for sending U.N. troops there. A beaming Gbagbo, surrounded by a posse of bodyguards, echoed de Villepin's optimism. "I've asked Ivorians to steel their muscles so that we can get out of this crisis," he said. "France and Ivory Coast are walking hand-in-hand to make the last steps" toward peace. Underscoring the difficulty of that task, de Villepin's own bodyguards were prevented by soldiers from entering the room where he met with Gbagbo. Tensions between France and Ivorian government loyalists, who often accuse the former colonial power of favoring the rebels, have risen recent months, with anti-French mobs launching violent protests and riots in the streets. An estimated 9,000 French expatriates have fled since war broke out with a failed coup attempt in September 2002. A peace accord in 2003 ushered in a new government of national unity which included figures from the rebel factions and opposition parties. The transitional administration is due to hold elections in 2005, and French troops are supposed to depart at the same time. Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, fueled the regional economy for decades since independence in 1960. A 1999 coup shattered its reputation as an oasis of stability in a turbulent region, ushering in a series of military revolts and violence along ethnic and political lines. The civil war began with a failed coup attempt in Abidjan in September 2003. De Villepin will visit four South American nations - Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico - next week, before heading for talks at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

UN Commission on Human Rights 9 Feb 2004 Visit by Special Rapporteur on racism and racial discrimination to Côte d'Ivoire Doudou Diene, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, is today starting a visit to Côte d'Ivoire which will last until 20 February. The aim of this visit is to examine the evolution of inter-communal and inter-ethnic relations in the context of the conflict in the country. Mr. Diene will visit Abidjan, where the Government is situated, the Ivorian capital Yamoussoukro, as well as other regions in the country in order to gather information which will allow him to understand the socio-political dynamics in Côte d'Ivoire. He hopes to meet with Ivorian authorities, representatives of the "Forces nouvelles", members of the international community in Abidjan as well as representatives of civil society. Mr. Diene is the former Director of the Department of International Dialogue and Cultural Pluralism at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He has been Special Rapporteur since 25 April 2002. Since his appointment, he has visited Canada, Colombia, Guyana and Trinity and Tobago.

IRIN 9 Feb 2004 Tension still runs high in the Wild West [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] BIN HOUYE, 9 February (IRIN) - Hundreds of Liberian refugees were lining up to receive their first ever ration of food aid in Bin Houye, a small town near the Cote d'Ivoire's volatile western frontier with Liberia, when the sound of gunfire sent the inhabitants of nearby villages running for cover into the bush. The guns fell silent everywhere else in Cote d'Ivoire after the government and rebels signed a ceasefire nine months ago. But here in the "Wild West," they still talk loudly. This time it was only the garrison of government soldiers in the border town of Zouan Hounien, 20 km up the road, letting rip with every weapon in their possession to protest that their special bonuses for serving on the frontline had not been paid for three months. No-one was being targetted by their bullets. But that is not always the case. Ethnic rivalries and land disputes, marauding bands of armed Liberians, squabbling rebel warlords and the threat of Liberian rebel fighters spilling back over the border into Cote d'Ivoire all combine to make Western Cote d'Ivoire an explosive place where 150,000 people were displaced from their homes as a result of conflict. Killings and violence remain common here, nine months after a ceasefire brought relative calm to the rest of the divided country. "Too many weapons are in the hands of people and many young people have been drafted into fighting forces or vigilante groups," a security officer remarked. Even so, conditions are slowly improving. French peacekeeping troops patrol the area - they even have a small base at Bin Houye, a small town whose shops are mostly closed, but whose market has once more burst into life. And villagers who fled the helicopter gunships and indisciplined bands of government and rebel militiamen 12 months ago are gradually returning. Nearly all the 50,000 inhabitants of Bin Houye and the surrounding districts melted into the bush as the town became a battlefield between January and April last year. But the local authorities estimate that between 26,000 and 32,000 local residents have returned since July. In some nearby villages you can see new houses being built. International relief agencies have moved in to assist the returnees. Doctors of Medecins Sans Frontieres Holland run a health clinic in Bin Houye, whose quiet dirt streets are virtually free of vehicle traffic. And last month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) distributed food to 25,000 people who had returned to the town and the surrounding area to resume farming. At the end of January, WFP also began distributing a 30-day food ration to 7,000 refugees from nearby Liberia. Bin Houye lies just three km from the border. Relief workers said the the UN refugee agency UNHCR had been slow to register these people as refugees because the local authorities were uncertain how many of them might simply be gunmen fighting for one or other faction in the conflict and looting freely for themselves. "This was the cause of the delay in the registration of the refugees and also in the relief agencies, especially the UN agencies, coming into the area," the security officer operating in the west told IRIN. But the refugees are glad that help has finally arrived. "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would eat without this," said one elderly Liberian woman as her family received its standard WFP ration of bulgar wheat, corn-soya blend, salt, beans and cooking oil. Men carried away the sacks of food in wheelbarrows and sacks balanced on their head. Ironically most of the refugees in Bin Houye arrived after the signing of a peace agreement in Liberia in August last year to end 14 years of civil war. The peace accord led to an immediate ceasefire in the capital Monrovia, but it was largely ignored for three months in Nimba county, just across the border from Bin Houye. There, Liberia's three armed factions continued to fight among themselves and harass civilians. On the Ivorian side of the border, the situation has been no less chaotic. With the outbreak of civil war in September 2002, the Guere people in the west mainly sided with the government of President Laurent Gbagbo. The Guere are closely related to the Krahn who live just over the border in Liberia and many Krahn gunmen joined hastily formed Liberian militia groups known as "Limas." These were raised by the Ivorian army to help battle against rebel forces sweeping down from the north. The rebels, on the other hand, drew strong support from the Yakouba people who live in the same area as the Guere. General Robert Guei, who led a military government in Cote d'Ivoire from 1999 to 2000, was a Yakouba. But when Guei was shot dead in Abidjan the night the civil war began, most of his people instinctively sided with the rebels. So too did many of the Yakouba's kinsmen in Liberia, the Gio, who came over the border with guns to help out on the rebel side. Pro government groups have claimed that the rebels also commanded widespread support among the Burkinabe and Malian immigrants who came to the west to set up cocoa farms in the thick forest of western Cote d'Ivoire. Since the outbreak of hostilities, some Ivorian communities have tried to seize their land. Near the town of Bangolo, 150 km east of Bin Houye, land disputes between the Ivorian and Burkinabe settlers have given rise to countless massacres since the civil war began 16 months ago. In the latest round of blood-letting there, 35 people were killed between late December and mid-January in the village of Kahin. About 7,000 displaced Burkinabe settlers have sought shelter at a makeshift camp in the town of Guiglo, which also hosts a camp for Liberian refugees. In Bin Houye, the Guere and Yakouba communities came to blows during the thick of the fighting a year ago. When government forces re-established firm control of the town, most of its Yakouba population fled north to the rebel occupied towns of Man, Danane and Odienne and few have returned. Many of Yakouba homes in the town have been occupied by Guere people and Liberian refugees. "There are people from both the ethnic groups who are afraid of going back to their original homes because they still fear for their safety," one local chief remarked. The Liberian refugees in Bin Houye scrape a living by working as farm hands for their Ivorian hosts. Many work on the cocoa and coffee farms. Others work in rice fields. Some have become petty traders, selling firewood, kola nuts and palm wine. "A few of us had relatives on the Ivorian side of the border, because most of us here are from the Gio tribe in Liberia which speak the same dialect and are related to the Yakouba in Cote d'Ivoire, " Mentuah Kayo, the head of the Liberian refugee community in the town, told IRIN. Now Kayo wants the relief agencies to provide the refugees with seeds and farm implements so that they can grow their own food. "We went to several villages and met with the local chiefs and elders and people said they were willing to give land for cultivation to Liberian refugees. We therefore need vegetable and rice seeds," he said. The international relief organisation Solidarite plans to start an agricultural resettlement programme this month in Toulepleu, 27 km south of Bin Houye which is designed to benefit 80,000 people. Philippe Guerin, an agronomist with Solidarite, said the organisation would give out seeds for both swamp and upland rice and tools such as ploughs, watering cans and knife sharpeners. Conditions are not only hazardous on the government side of the front line in western Cote d'Ivoire. The rebel-held towns of Man and Danane have seen repeated skirmishing between the gangs of rival warlords, despite the presence of French peacekeepers there since May last year. A five-day battle broke out between rival factions in Man on January 22 and was only quelled on 27 January when the rebel leadership sent a force of 600 men to restore order and arrest the ringleaders. The reason for the spat remains unclear. Some residents said it was an argument over who got to keep the "taxes" levied on trucks passing through Man and other towns in the area at a series of checkpoints. Others said it was a scrap over the spoils from a bank raid in the town. Dely Gaspard, the new rebel military commander in Man, told IRIN that the battle was simply sparked off by one military commander accusing another of trying to take his girlfriend. It is impossible to predict where the next flashpoint will occur. "We always have to be on the alert and I cannot say whether we will see more or less of these breaches of security," said the security officer attached to a relief organisation operating in the west. "I cannot tell which place is more dangerous than the other. All we can hope for is that peace returns and becomes secure and people feel more secure," he added. .

www.monuc.org 6 Feb 2004 UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo / NewsWire 06/02/2004 Gun battle reveals tensions in Congo's east Reuters Kinshasa - Government troops battled fighters loyal to a former rebel leader in Bukavu in eastern Congo, United Nations officials said on Thursday. This is latest sign of serious rifts threatening peace in the region. The hour-long gunfight highlighted the challenges facing UN troops charged with cementing a fragile peace process in the central African country's mineral-rich east where rag-tag armed groups with entrenched loyalties and separate agendas roam. Wednesday's gunbattle was between troops loyal to General Prosper Nabyolwa, the military commander of South Kivu province, and soldiers loyal to Colonel Georges Mirindi, a former Rwandan-backed rebel and now brigade leader in Congo's new army. 'This is more than just a spat' "This is more than just a spat. These are two opposing currents in the bid for politico-military dominance," said a western diplomat in the capital Kinshasa. Under a peace deal to end Congo's five-year civil war, a power-sharing government has been set up and the warring factions are being integrated into a new army. But success will depend on securing the loyalty of the men with guns - including 15 000 Rwandan Hutu rebels, many of whom were involved in the 1994 genocide in their country, who are still based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Sebastian Lapierre, UN spokesperson in Bukavu, said one of Mirindi's soldiers was killed in the shootout and a civilian was injured when a rocket fell on a transit centre for refugees. "Today the situation is calm," he said. "The UN is present in the area to observe and deter any further action." There have been long-standing tensions between Nabyolwa and Mirindi and also between the former and South Kivu's governor Xavier Ciribanya Cirimwami. Both the governor and Mirindi are former members of the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebels. Congo's civil war claimed more than three million lives, mainly through hunger and disease and drew in fighters from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and other neighbouring countries. The conflict was declared over last July but sporadic clashes have continued in the east. The United Nations has sent 10 800 peacekeepers to the country.

AFP 8 Feb 2004 Tension grows in DR Congo's Ituri between UN forces and ethnic militias by Helen Vesperini KIGALI, Feb 8 (AFP) - Tension has been growing in the volatile Ituri region of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo between UN peacekeepers and local militias during the past three weeks, observers said Sunday. Relative calm prevailed in Ituri in November and December following the deployment in September of a reinforced UN peacekeeping force. The UN force took over from French-led European Union troops to restore security in an area riven by inter-ethnic violence that has cost 50,000 lives and left about 500,000 wounded since 1999. Since mid-January, however, the UN have been the target of five attacks outside Bunia, the main town in Ituri, but there were no casualties among the UN troops. No casualty information was available from the attackers. The UN has blamed the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), a minority ethnic Hema faction in Ituri commanded by Bosco Ntaganda, for at least three of the five attacks. "It is probably Bosco who is behind the attacks," Leo Salmeron, a spokesman for MONUC, the UN mission in the DRC, told AFP by telephone from Bunia on Saturday. In the most recent attack last Wednesday, unknown assailants opened fire on five speedboats carrying a UN team to Gobu, a village situated on the shores of Lake Albert, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Bunia. The group of UN officials were investigating a massacre that allegedly took place in the area in January. The boats came under fire around Djo, seven kilometres (four miles) south of Gobu, and the UN team, made up of soldiers, returned fire. "We can't confirm who the assailants were, but we strongly suspect that they were Boscos's people," said Salmeron. The UPC has also been blamed for two other attacks against the UN on January 19 and 20 in Drodro, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Bunia, and in Iga Barrier, 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Bunia. Militias detained following the two attacks are said to be loyal to Ntaganda, according to MONUC, which quoted witnesses as saying that his group had committed "serious human rights violations", including rape. Towards the end of last year, the UPC split into two. One of the two splinter factions is led by Ntaganda and the other one, which is close to the government in Kinshasa, is headed by Floribert Kisembo. According to sources close to Ntaganda, who asked not to be named, Ntaganda's faction wants to take revenge against MONUC for detaining two commanders close to him -- Rafiki Aimable, a UPC commander and his deputy Etienne Nembe, who were arrested in October and December. The two men are still being held in Bunia. In the first attack on January 16, a MONUC helicopter flying over the village of Kisenyi was fired on five times. Kisenyi is situated about 50 kilometres (31 miles) south east of Bunia and the attack is thought to have been carried out by the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI), a faction of the majority Lendu ethnic group in Ituri, according to MONUC. The perpetrators of the attack on January 21, when militiamen fired on Pakistani UN troops at Nizi, about 30 kilometres (21 miles) north of Bunia, have not been identified. Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/upc.htm

AP 15 Feb 2004 Congo peacekeepers fire back IGA-BARRIERE, Congo (AP) --From positions on three hills, tribal fighters unleashed a surprise attack at sunset, their bullets smacking into the high sand ramparts around the U.N. checkpoint below. Then the peacekeepers did what the United Nations all too often is accused of failing to do: They fought back. Helicopter gunships, armored personnel carriers and infantry sent the assailants fleeing. Quiet returned, and people in this dusty gold-mining town of 15,000 breathed easier, knowing they had probably been spared another round of rape, murder and cannibalism. Peacekeeping has changed dramatically since the troops from more than two dozen nations arrived in eastern Congo in 2001 to protect U.N. installations and unarmed military observers monitoring the cease-fire lines that separate government and rebel armies. Nowadays, with a stronger U.N. Security Council mandate to pacify a volatile chunk of Congo twice the size of Colorado, the peacekeepers talk -- and act -- tough. "We need to intervene very forcefully and very quickly," said Dominique AitOuyahia-McAdams, the Frenchwoman who heads the U.N. mission in northeastern Ituri province and is headquartered in Bunia, the provincial capital 16 miles south of Iga-Barriere. The strategy may be risky, "but we all have to take risks because the price for the population is too high not to take any risk," she said. Backed by a fleet of 52 helicopters and transport planes and a $600 million budget, the 10,500 peacekeepers are helping the transitional government regain control of Africa's third-largest nation, curb armed groups and prepare for elections that could be held in less than two years. "U.N. troops first entered as peacekeepers and have been transformed into peace enforcers," said Taylor B. Seybolt of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent, federally funded think tank in Washington. "The U.N. is responding to events on the ground in a way they have not done in the past in other countries and other times," Seybolt, who studies peacekeeping and ethnic conflict, said in a telephone interview. Seven months after the three main rebel groups joined President Joseph Kabila in a transitional government in faraway Kinshasa, peace is yet to be restored in large parts of eastern Congo. This is the region hardest hit by the five-year civil war in which an estimated 3 million people have died, mainly through war-induced hunger and disease. Hutu militiamen, who fled to Congo in mid-1994 after taking part in the Rwanda genocide, are still active in South Kivu province, attacking villages and terrorizing the population. "Congo is a huge country. It's the heart of Africa. There is no infrastructure, so the challenge for anyone to help the government to do anything is multiplied by ten," AitOuyahia-McAdams said. "We are being asked to address a country of between 50 and 60 million people, so the challenge is much bigger for us than any other U.N. mission existing today." The turnaround came in July with the new Security Council mandate "to use all necessary means" to do the job. That was after the peacekeepers were fiercely criticized for failing to stop tribal fighting in Bunia in which more than 500 people were killed, despite the presence of hundreds of soldiers from Uruguay. The present force draws armed troops plus unarmed observers from Bangladesh, Chile, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, South Africa and Uruguay. An additional 25 nations provide observers only. With most of the U.N. troops in Ituri based in Bunia, seat of the U.N.-backed interim provincial administration, the town has quieted down. Newly painted shops advertise cell phone companies, and U.N. engineers from Uruguay use bulldozers to cover the potholes. But more work remains. Although many gunmen have been disarmed and removed from Bunia, the rebels are still able to run a clandestine network extorting illegal taxes in the city, U.N. officials say. In the South Kivu city of Bukavu, blue-helmeted peacekeepers patrol, ready to use force to prevent more fighting between the private army of the former rebel governor and troops loyal to the regional military chief. In Ituri, the tribal fighters were armed by neighboring Uganda and Rwanda in a proxy war to protect stakes in the province's timber and mines. They have morphed into criminal gangs that attack U.N. helicopters, troops and civilian staff, hoping to halt their deployment in the areas they control and plunder with impunity. "There are some elements in the armed groups who have been thriving on violence, on extortion, and they want to continue with that way of living," said Brig. Gen. Mahmood Rashad, commander of the 4,700 U.N. soldiers in Ituri. Rashad arrived three months ago, thinking his job would be to peacefully disarm and demobilize tribal fighters. But the Pakistani officer now hunts them down with helicopter gunships and sends peacekeepers to arrest them because the local police have no guns, vehicles or handcuffs. There are plans to send U.N. troops in to oust the Rwandan Hutu militiamen and pave the way for the new Congolese army to secure the volatile region. "All our assessment is, whenever we've moved into an area -- and when there is a rumor that we are moving into the area -- the rebels pull out," said Lt. Col. Tim Wood, British chief of staff of the U.N. force in eastern Congo. But in Ituri, the tribal fighters aren't giving up so easily. They just shed their uniforms, hide their weapons and wait to inflict casualties on the peacekeepers. On Thursday, a Kenyan army officer was shot dead when his team of U.N. observers, sent to investigate tribal fighting in northeastern Congo, came under fire, the U.N. mission said. Troops called in by helicopter fired on the assailants and scattered them before they could make off with the dead Kenyan's vehicle. Last year two unarmed military observers, a Jordanian and a Malawian, were killed and mutilated in Mongbwalu, 35 miles northwest of Iga-Barriere. Also last year, a Russian military observer died and another was injured when they drove over a land mine outside Bunia. U.N. observers have been abducted, robbed and wounded when attacked with stones and gunfire in several places. The United Nations says it is prepared to hold its ground and fight the rebels, strengthened by battle-hardened U.N. troops from Pakistan, India and Nepal. "They can shoot at us from a distance. They can do a little bit of guerrilla-type warfare," AitOuyahia-McAdams said. Pressure from the U.N. force has split tribal fighters into even smaller groups that often fight each other for control of resources in places where there are no U.N. troops. How long will Congo need peacekeepers? President Kabila says they won't be required after the end of this year, and should start training the new Congolese army and police. Seybolt is skeptical. "In the Balkans, foreign troops have been there for eight years, and they are not likely to pull out any time soon because there is a general sense that the place will gradually fall apart in such an event," he said. "The same may be true for Congo."

The NAtion 19 Feb 2004 Silence=Rape by Jan Goodwin Last May, 6-year-old Shashir was playing outside her home near Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), when armed militia appeared. The terrified child was carried kicking and screaming into the bush. There, she was pinned down and gang-raped. Sexually savaged and bleeding from multiple wounds, she lay there after the attack, how long no one knows, but she was close to starving when finally found. Her attackers, who'd disappeared back into the bush, wiped out her village as effectively as a biblical plague of locusts. "This little girl couldn't walk, couldn't talk when she arrived here. Shashir had to be surgically repaired. I don't know if she can be mentally repaired," says Faida Veronique, a 47-year-old cook at Doctors on Call for Service (DOCS), a tented hospital in the eastern city of Goma, who took in the brutalized child. "Why do they rape a child?" asks Marie-Madeleine Kisoni, a Congolese counselor who works with raped women and children. "We don't understand. There's a spirit of bestiality here now. I've seen 2- and 3-year-olds raped. The rebels want to kill us, but it's more painful to kill the spirit instead." In the Congo today, age is clearly no protection from rape. A woman named Maria was 70 when the Interahamwe, the Hutu militia that led Rwanda's 1994 genocide and now number between 20,000 and 30,000 of the estimated 140,000 rebels in the DRC, came to her home. "They grabbed me, tied my legs apart like a goat before slaughter, and then raped me, one after the other," she told me. "Then they stuck sticks inside me until I fainted." During the attack Maria's entire family--five sons, three daughters and her husband--were murdered. "War came. I just saw smoke and fire. Then my life and my health were taken away," she says. The tiny septuagenarian with the sunken eyes was left with a massive fistula where her bladder was torn, causing permanent incontinence. She hid in the bush for three years out of fear that the rebels might return, and out of shame over her constantly soiled clothes. Yet Maria was one of the more fortunate ones. She'd finally made it to a hospital. Two months before we met, she had undergone reconstructive surgery. The outcome is uncertain, however, and she still requires a catheter. Rape has become a defining characteristic of the five-year war in the DRC, says Anneke Van Woudenberg, the Congo specialist for Human Rights Watch. So, too, has mutilation of the victims. "Last year, I was stunned when a 30-year-old woman in North Kivu had her lips and ears cut off and eyes gouged out after she was raped, so she couldn't identify or testify against her attackers. Now, we are seeing more and more such cases," she says. As the rebels constantly seek new ways to terrorize, their barbarity becomes more frenzied. I, too, was sickened by what I saw and heard. In three decades of covering war, I had never before come across the cases described to me by Congolese doctors, such as gang-rape victims having their labia pierced and then padlocked. "They usually die of massive infection," I was told. Based on personal testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch, it is estimated that as many as 30 percent of rape victims are sexually tortured and mutilated during the assaults, usually with spears, machetes, sticks or gun barrels thrust into their vaginas. Increasingly, the trigger is being pulled. About 40 percent of rape victims, usually the younger ones, aged 8 to 19, are abducted and forced to become sex slaves. "The country is in an utter state of lawlessness; it's complete anarchy," says Woudenberg. "In this culture of impunity, people know they can get away with anything. Every armed group is equally culpable." In the Congo, rape is a cheaper weapon of war than bullets. Experts estimate that some 60 percent of all combatants in the DRC are infected with HIV/AIDS. As women rarely have access to expensive antiretroviral drugs, sexual assaults all too often become automatic death sentences. Médecins Sans Frontières operates five health clinics offering antiretrovirals in the conflict zone of northeastern DRC, but many women don't know about the drugs and cannot travel safely to the centers. Moreover, according to Helen O'Neill, a nurse who set up MSF's sexual-violence treatment program, such drugs must be taken within forty-eight to seventy-two hours of the rape to prevent infection. If a woman has been exposed to the virus, the treatment is 80 percent effective. But in the Congo, rape victims who are not captive sex slaves must walk for days or weeks, often with massive injuries, and risk new capture by roving rebel bands, before reaching assistance. "So far, 30 percent of rape victims being treated at our hospital are infected with HIV/AIDS," says Dr. Denis Mukwege, the French-trained medical director of the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu. "And nearly 50 percent are infected with venereal diseases like syphilis that greatly increase their chances of contracting HIV." Rape as a weapon of war is as old as war itself. What has changed recently is that sexual violence is no longer considered just a byproduct of conflict but is being viewed as a war crime, says Jessica Neuwirth, president of Equality Now, a New York-based international women's human rights organization. "Rape as a violation of war was codified in the Geneva Convention, but only now is it being taken seriously. But it is still not effectively prosecuted, not proportional to the extent that sexual violence takes place," she says. Armed forces now have a legal obligation to stop rape and hold the offenders accountable. "This is a major shift in consciousness. But it needs to be followed by a major shift in conduct," says Neuwirth. In the DRC, rape is used to terrorize, humiliate and punish the enemy. Frequently husbands, fathers and children are forced to watch and even participate. Women sexually assaulted by members of one rebel organization are accused of being the wives of that group and raped again as punishment when a new militia takes over the area. "It's happened repeatedly to the women of Shabunda in the far east of the Congo, every time the region has changed hands," says Woudenberg. Even the camps for internally displaced people are not safe. The barbed-wire encampment in Bunia is home to more than 14,000 people, but enemy militia infiltrate at night. Shortly before I arrived, an 11-year-old girl was dragged off and gang-raped, a not uncommon occurrence. There are more than 3 million internally displaced people made homeless by the war, many of whom have been forced to flee over and over again. UN officers admit they have nowhere near the numbers they need to be effective, or even to stay safe themselves. "The rebels are all around us here. We don't feel secure and we've seen what these guys do to people, especially to women and girls. Our own people have been killed, after they were horribly tortured," a European UN major told me. "The DRC is the size of Western Europe. We're supposed to have 8,500 troops here, but we've only got 5,000! I was in Bosnia, which is a fraction of the size of the Congo, and we had 68,000 NATO troops, and even that wasn't enough." Patrols of MONUC, the UN's peacekeeping force in the DRC, have refused to pick up wounded rape victims and escort them to medical care when they were afraid they would be outnumbered by nearby rebels. "People denounce the rapes but do nothing to bring the rebels to justice," says Woudenberg. "There isn't the political will, domestically or internationally, to make it happen. I've never seen anything like this, when war has become this horrible, and human life so undervalued." Trevor Lowe, spokesperson for the UN World Food Program, echoes this view. "The nature of sexual violence in the DRC conflict is grotesque, completely abnormal," he says. "Babies, children, women--nobody is being spared. For every woman speaking out, there are hundreds who've not yet emerged from the hell. Rape is so stigmatized in the DRC, and people are afraid of reprisals from rebels. It's a complete and utter breakdown of norms. Like Rwanda, only worse." Adds his colleague Christiane Berthiaume, "Never before have we found as many victims of rape in conflict situations as we are discovering in the DRC." Yet where is the international media coverage? The outrage? The demand for justice? During the Rwanda genocide, rape as a war crime received extensive international media coverage. Despite initial reports of 250,000 women being sexually assaulted (a third more than there were Tutsi women living in the country at the time), evidence later suggested the total number was closer to one-fifth of that. In Bosnia, where the European Community Investigative Mission concluded there were some 20,000 victims, reports of systematic rape by the Serbs first made international headlines one year into the war, and remained a major news focus for the remaining three years of the conflict. It was only after the Bosnia war, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague in 1997, that rape was first prosecuted as a crime against humanity. A year later, at the Rwanda tribunal, rape was found to be a form of genocide. Everyone I spoke with in the DRC and in the international UN, NGO and human rights community said they believe the incidence of rape there greatly exceeds that in both Bosnia and Rwanda, although it will be years before precise figures are available. The systematic nature of the assaults has been amply documented by the UN, humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations. Yet for the most part the media look the other way. As one editor of a national newspaper told me, "It's just another horror in the horror that is Africa." One has to ask, Does this kind of cynicism merely reflect public opinion or help create it? Says Lowe, "Look at the square footage of Bosnia, a country that is dwarfed by the Congo, and look at the enormous number of reporters who covered Bosnia compared to the DRC. Clearly, Africa doesn't get the same coverage as Europe. The reasons are racial, geopolitical interests, ease of access, etc. The DRC conflict is an extremely dangerous one, which is one reason the press is not there. Selling Africa, and being part of an agency that does it all the time, is difficult. Africa is clearly not a place where the major powers have a lot of interest. The Congo is not on the geopolitical map. And the major-league press follows that geopolitical map." There is also media faddishness, what Lowe refers to as the CNN factor. "If CNN shows up, then other reporters become interested," he says. Another factor is the complexity of the Congo conflict. In Rwanda, the media were able to present the issues as clear-cut, with the good guys and the bad clearly defined. "People consider the Congo conflict confusing; they label it tribal or ethnic, which is totally wrong," says Woudenberg. "The war in the DRC has been an international war, involving a number of different countries." Conduct a straw poll among Americans who are usually well informed and few know of the vicious campaign of sexual violence against women in the DRC. Many are even unaware that the country is six years into a brutal conflict, in which up to 4.7 million people have died--the highest number of fatalities in any conflict since World War II. Or that six countries--Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia--have been fighting proxy wars in the DRC, and helping to plunder the country's tremendous mineral wealth to fill their coffers. The indifference, according to Woudenberg, extends to the arms of government that should be most deeply concerned with the DRC's crisis. "In November I tried to raise the issue with the US Mission to the UN in New York, and they told me fairly point-blank that they were aware rape was going on in the Congo, and it was just not high on their priorities," she says. "I had a similar response from the US State Department." Meanwhile, a UN Security Council panel has cited eighty-five multinational corporations, including some of the largest US companies in their fields, for their involvement in the illegal exploitation of natural resources from the DRC. The commerce in these "blood" minerals, such as coltan, used in cell phones and laptops, cobalt, copper, gold, diamonds and uranium (Congolese uranium was used in the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki), drives the conflict. The brutality of the militias--the sexual slavery, transmission of HIV/AIDS through rape, cannibalism, slaughter and starvation, forced recruitment of child soldiers--has routinely been employed to secure access to mining sites or insure a supply of captive labor. If that isn't enough to awaken the international community's interest, one would think it would be of concern that "blood" business practices also fund terrorism. Lebanese diamond traders benefiting from illegal concessions in the Congo have been tied to the Islamic extremist groups Amal and Hezbollah. According to a UN report, the Lebanese traders, who operate licensed diamond businesses in Antwerp, purchased diamonds from the DRC worth $150 million in 2001 alone. Such linkage between African rebel groups and global terrorist movements is not new. Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front reportedly sold diamonds to Al Qaeda, thus helping to finance both organizations. The lobbies of the two luxury hotels in Kinshasa, the DRC's capital, are full of elegant, $5,000-a-day corporate lawyers from New York, London and Geneva, and scruffier diamond dealers from Tel Aviv and Antwerp, as they while away the hours waiting for government ministers and senior representatives of armed groups to smooth their way. These institutional fortune-makers are 1,800 miles away from the nightmares of northeastern Congo. Yet they are not so far removed from the atrocities perpetrated there. Rape is a crime of the war they are fueling with their greed. Today's conflict profiteers are not the first to sponsor a campaign to ransack, rape, pillage and plunder in the Congo. A century ago, Belgium's King Leopold II amassed a fabulous fortune this way. During the monarch's genocidal reign of terror, when villagers couldn't meet his impossibly high quotas harvesting rubber or mining ore, their hands were amputated and women were taken as slaves. By the time he was finished, an estimated 10 million Congolese, half the population, were dead. Kinshasa's policy-makers, who serve in a government with four vice presidents in a misguided attempt to appease various factions, now claim a new political beginning after the so-called peace accord last year. But there is a "huge and dangerous gap" between what is happening in Kinshasa and what is going on in the northeast, says Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary general. "In Kinshasa there is talk of peace and political progress, of regional harmony and democratic elections. But while the newly appointed members of government are wrangling for power and privilege in Kinshasa, in the Kivus and Ituri people are confronted daily with death, plunder and carnage. Mutilations and massacres continue. Rape of women and girls has become a standard tactic of warfare. It is absolutely outrageous that many of the senior members of the government and the political parties they represent are closely linked to the armed groups who are committing these abuses." At the time of King Leopold's predatory rule, an international Congo reform movement was formed with the support of Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph Conrad. It was Conrad who described what was being done as "the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience." He would recognize what is happening now. For the sake of 6-year-old Shashir and tens of thousands of girls and women who have been infected with HIV/AIDS, forcibly impregnated or so badly damaged internally they will never be able to have children, and who are so psychologically traumatized they may never recover, we can only hope that a similarly prominent group of today's social commentators will find its conscience and its voice soon.

News 24 South Africa 1 Feb 2004 Ethiopians asked for mercy Addis Ababa - Thirty three former government officials on trial for genocide have asked Ethiopia's people to forgive them for crimes they committed during the former regime of exiled dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. "We, the few who are being tried for what had happened, realise that it is time to beg the Ethiopian public for their pardon for the mistakes done knowingly, or unknowingly," they said in a letter to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, published on Sunday by Ethiopia's Reporter. "We are the people who remain from the regime, our actions had the support of the majority of the people who benefitted, while we believed it was also the cause of the civil war that has consumed the life of the people and destroyed property," the letter said. Dated last August 13, the letter was signed by former vice-president Colonel Fisseha Desta, former prime minister Captain Fikersellasie Wegederesse and Major Melaku Tefera, widely known as the "Butcher of Gondar", a town 800 kilometres north of Addis Ababa. "Even though we were the sworn servants of the regime of the emperor to protect it, when the people showed their dissatisfaction against the regime, we decided to side with them, instead of protecting it," it added. Of the 108 people believed to have participated in the alleged genocide, only 66 were either arrested or surrendered in May 1991, when Mengistu was ousted by Meles, and 33 others have so far died in prison. Ethiopia has since 1994 been conducting trials of people accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, particularly during the Red Terror period, when tens of thousands of Ethiopians were killed or disappeared. Nearly 5 200 former soldiers and communist activists are due to be tried by the courts, about 2,200 are currently in prison in Ethiopia, while several key accused are to be or have been tried in absentia. Mengistu, who has lived in Zimbabwe since fleeing in 1991, was convicted in absentia. The trials that are due to be concluded next year, Ethiopian judiciary sources said. Although the Ethiopian parliament is discussing a new bill to empower the president to pardon convicted people, the current constitution bars anybody convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity from benefitting from the presidential prorogative of mercy.

IRIN 2 Feb 2004 Ethiopia: Human Rights Watch accuses government of continuing abuses ADDIS ABABA, 2 February (IRIN) - An international advocacy group has criticised Ethiopia for its continuing human rights abuses and condemned foreign donors for failing to help prevent them. Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the government "continues to deny" its citizens their basic human rights while the international community takes no action. In its 2004 World Report, the New York-based group said foreign donors who were pouring about US $1 billion into Ethiopia each year were focused on other issues. "Foreign donors have not played any role in correcting these abuses, and have been diverted by famine, the possibility of a renewed Ethiopia-Eritrea war arising from Ethiopia's refusal to honour an arbitration decision on the location of its border with Eritrea, and Ethiopia's cooperation in the US war on terrorism," the report stated. But the government insists that improvements have been made, stressing that democratic institutions were put in place until 12 years ago after the overthrow of the former military regime. "We accept everything is not perfect," the government spokesman, Zemedkun Tekle, told IRIN, "but we are trying to make the improvements demanded of us. This report highlights the problems and not the achievements we have made. It is expecting us to be fully developed, but we are beginners in everything." In particular, the report cites restrictions on the country's media, attacks on political parties, serious abuses by the police, including torture and mass arrests. "The private press leads a precarious existence, and editors, publishers and reporters are frequently arrested or harassed," the report stated. "A proposed new press law would tighten government oversight of private newspapers, despite some modifications," it said. HRW added that physical torture, including forcing detainees run barefoot and kneel on gravel, was a common abuse perpetrated by police. "More severe torture remains a problem," said the report, which was released by the organisation in January. "Excessive force has often been used to quell peaceful demonstrations. Demonstrators are subject to mass arrest and mistreatment," it noted. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who heads the country's coalition government, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, has pledged to crack down on abuses. He has backed the creation of an ombudsman and a human rights commission to tackle abuses, although neither is functioning yet. HRW criticised the delay in the creation of the commission and ombudsman despite promises by Meles, and the non-implementation of promised reforms in the broadcasting law. It said that "local leaders of political parties allied with the ruling coalition" were often implicated in physical assaults on supporters of registered opposition parties. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (ERCHO) has been a constant critic of the government, accusing it of heavy-handedness and failing to take human rights seriously. The HRW report comes just weeks after fierce fighting in western Ethiopia, in which, ERCHO said, at least 93 people had been killed, and claimed that local security forces had played a role. Moreover, it follows a decision by the government to ban the country's free press association, a group representing the private press. Attempts by international organisations have been made to enhance the status human rights in Ethiopia. The International Committee of the Red Cross is working with the police, prison officials and the military in an effort to improve their performance in the context of human rights.

IRIN 6 Feb 2004 Ethnic violence leaves 18 dead in the east ADDIS ABABA, 6 February (IRIN) - Ethnic violence has left at least 18 people dead and several hundred homes burnt down in eastern Ethiopia, the country's human rights organisation revealed on Friday. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (ERCHO) said fighting had erupted between the Somali and Oromo ethnic groups competing for political power in West Harerge. It noted that the violence had been sparked by plans for a referendum on who would control the Meisso District administration, 500 km east of the capital, Addis Ababa. The district, which earns substantial tax revenue from the mildly narcotic shrub, khat (Catha edulis), is located between the Somali and Oromiya regional states. Scores of ethnic groups live peacefully alongside each other in Ethiopia. But ERCHO argues that ethnicity is gradually seeping into the political arena and daily life. "Since the coming into effect of the ethnic- and language-based division of administrative units, several ethnic and religious conflicts have occurred in many parts of the country," ERCHO stated in a special report released on Friday. Its president, Prof Mesfin Wolde-Mariam, said the government's policy of dividing power along ethnic lines, was fuelling conflict. "These conflicts are becoming alarming and [are] increasing," he warned. Details of the killings in West Harerge came to light just days after a highly critical report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which accused the government of continuing to deny basic human rights. HRW also blamed foreign donors, who last year pumped US $1.3 billion in aid into Ethiopia without adequate regard for human rights abuses. In the last two years, Ethiopia has witnessed severe clashes between various ethnic groups. British government officials estimate that 150 people were killed in fighting in the western region of Gambella in December, mostly in reprisal killings against local Anyuaks. ERCHO claimed that government troops had been involved in the killings - an allegation vehemently denied by the defence ministry, which described it as "baseless". In March 2002, at least 128 people were killed after political protests by a local ethnic group in the Tepi region in the far southwest, about 700 km from Addis Ababa. The incident sparked a public outcry, with the EU demanding an "open, transparent and public" inquiry into killings of ethnic Sheko people. In May 2002, at least 17 Sidamas were killed when local security forces opened fire on a demonstration in Awasa, some 250 km south of Addis Ababa. The EU, one of Ethiopia's most prominent donors, has extended financial support for the establishment of a human rights commission and an ombudsman to help tackle abuses. But the commission, whose establishment was announced in 2001, has yet to get off the ground. Ethiopian officials told IRIN that suitable candidates to fill the posts were still being sought. The government has pledged to crack down on ethnic violence, with new legislation passed in 2003 entitling federal authorities to intervene in cases of human rights violations at the regional level and below. Diplomats say this indicates a growing willingness to accept "ultimate responsibility" for rights violations at both the regional and local levels. But opposition leaders fear that the new law will place too much power in the hands of the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.

BBC 4 February 2004
Western Ethiopia tense after clashes By Mohammed Adow BBC, Ethiopia The town of Gambella, in the west of Ethiopia, has been tense for several months. It is a cosmopolitan town, but also home to some of the poorest people in Ethiopia. Gambella, just 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Ethiopian-Sudan border, is inhabited by the Nuer, Anyuak, Majenger, Opou and Komo tribesmen. Other Ethiopian tribes like the Amhara, Oromo and Tigre who are locally known as the Highlanders also live in this region. And last month tensions between Highlanders and other groups over land spilled over into violent clashes. The violence was sparked off by an attack on a United Nations vehicle which killed eight people, including three government workers. Hundreds of homes were burnt down and the killings continued for several days. Desperation The Anyuak group was blamed for the attack. Eyewitnesses contacted by the BBC then said Ethiopian Highlanders, supported by the military, had attacked the Anyuaks. But army spokeswoman Major Harnet Yohannes said the soldiers were there only to keep the peace.When I visited the villages belonging of the Anyuaks in Gambella, volunteer government workers were helping rebuild some of the burnt houses. Akinyi Owuor, stood with her six children, in her compound where three huts housed them before the violence. Desperation was evident all over her face. "Five of my relatives were killed. When the raiders came to attack our village we ran away. Then they set our houses on fire. I survived only because the raiders were after the men and not the women," said Akinyi. The Anyuak men were not present when I got to the village, only women and children could be seen among the government volunteers rebuilding the torched houses. Ethiopian troops Moments later, I was led into a hut in a corner of the village where the men had gathered - perhaps for security reasons. They were drinking a local brew and playing chess when we finally located them. It is here that I met Ojullu Ochalla, an Anyuak tribesman. Mr Ojullu says that many Anyuaks have fled the violence. He says that about 15,000 of them have fled to Puchalla in southern Sudan. Many others, Mr Ojullu said, are still missing and their whereabouts are not known. One of the village elders, Akim Obara, says the problem is far from settled. " While we appreciate the government's efforts in deploying troops here to keep peace, we still fear for our lives." said Mr Obara He said their attackers were still intimidating and abusing them. 'Distorted figures' "We have even advised our children not to reply to people who abuse them," Mr Obara told me through a translator. But the acting regional president, Keat Tuach Bithow, says details concerning the Anyuaks who fled their homes have been distorted. Mr Bithow says the government is aware of only 4,000 Anyuaks who fled to the Sudan-Ethiopia border. He said that they had already dispatched two teams of government officials to convince the fleeing people to return to their homes. Mr Bithow said that there was need to speak to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) on the other side of the border to facilitate the return of Ethiopians who had crossed the border. Although up to 5,000 Ethiopian troops have helped restore calm, tension remains high. Their military presence cannot be a long-term solution to the problems in Gambella, aid agencies operating in the area have said.

UN World Food Programme 6 Feb 2004 www.wfp.org Emergency Report n.6 - Ethiopia (a) Following a number of attacks on highlanders by armed personnel from the Anuak tribe in western Ethiopia and the clashes between Government soldiers and Anuaks, UN staff (WFP and UNHCR) based in Dimma camp were relocated to Mizan Teferi on the advice of the UN Security Coordination Office in Addis Ababa. Dimma hosts about 18,700 Sudanese refugees. These security incidents come on the heels of similar incidents that took place in the Gambella area in mid December 2003, which resulted in the loss of lives and damage to property. UN staff were pulled out of Gambella and relocated elsewhere following the civil strife between Anuaks and highlanders in the Gambella Region. Highlander is the name given locally to all Ethiopians originating from outside the lowlands such as Gambella and Dimma. Although security conditions in western Ethiopia have deteriorated significantly over the last several weeks, WFP has been able to maintain food deliveries and distributions to Sudanese refugees. http://www.wfp.org/newsroom/subsections/year.asp?section=18

IRIN 9 Feb 2004 Renewed fighting reported in the west ADDIS ABABA- Renewed fighting has erupted in the western Gambella region bordering Sudan, claiming as many as 40 lives, according to UN and humanitarian sources. The clashes broke out just weeks after fighting had left up to 150 people dead in Gambella, officials told IRIN on Monday. It had broken out on Friday at the Dimma refugee camp, about 800 km from the capital, Addis Ababa, and home to 18,700 Sudanese refugees, the humanitarian sources said. Clashes had also occurred around a gold mine, 30 km from Dimma in late January, as well as in the town itself a day later, they added. The UN said that following the January attacks, staff of the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were relocated for their safety. In its weekly bulletin released on Friday, the WFP said security conditions in the region had "deteriorated significantly" over the last few weeks. "These security incidents come on the heels of similar incidents that took place in the Gambella area in mid-December 2003, which resulted in the loss of lives and damage to property," the WFP bulletin stated, but noted that food distributions to refugees had continued. The fighting in western Ethiopia has also sparked international concern. British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, who arrived in Ethiopia on Sunday, has told the British parliament that up to 150 people died in the December clashes. "There is still a high level of ethnic violence in Ethiopia," Benn told parliament recently. "We take human rights very seriously." The US government, meanwhile, has sent a security team to the troubled Gambella region. Asked whether it had raised the issue with the Ethiopian government, a US embassy official said: "As a practice, the US government does not comment on diplomatic communications between the US government and other governments. The United States, however, is always concerned for the welfare of its citizens, and others, in cases of reported ethnic violence." The Gambella clashes have prompted a wave of Anyuaks to flee to Sudan. UNHCR says about 5,000 of them, mostly men and boys, have arrived in the Sudanese town of Pachala. Senior UN sources also told IRIN that the UN were planning to send high-profile human rights officials into Pachala to interview the Anyuak refugees. The fighting has largely been between Anyuaks on the one hand and Ethiopian highlanders, who have moved into Gambella in recent years, and government troops on the other hand. It was initially sparked by an attack on a UN-plated vehicle in which eight government refugee workers were killed. The Anyuaks were blamed for the attack, and dozens of them killed in reprisals. The Anyuaks are resisting plans for a new refugee camp on land they regard as their territory, and claim they are being forced out of the area and are losing political power. Human rights organisations argue that tensions are being fuelled by government policies which divide political power along ethnic lines. Analysts in the region say they fear that the instability in the region could reignite conflict between the Anyuak and another ethnic group, the Nuer. The two groups have traditionally fought over land rights and political representation. The defence ministry insists that troops sent into the area after the first spate of fighting broke out in December, are trying to restore calm. A spokesman of the federal affairs ministry contacted on Monday said he was unable to immediately comment on the fighting.

IRIN 9 Feb 2004 Renewed fighting reported in the west ADDIS ABABA, Renewed fighting has erupted in the western Gambella region bordering Sudan, claiming as many as 40 lives, according to UN and humanitarian sources. The clashes broke out just weeks after fighting had left up to 150 people dead in Gambella, officials told IRIN on Monday. It had broken out on Friday at the Dimma refugee camp, about 800 km from the capital, Addis Ababa, and home to 18,700 Sudanese refugees, the humanitarian sources said. Clashes had also occurred around a gold mine, 30 km from Dimma in late January, as well as in the town itself a day later, they added. The UN said that following the January attacks, staff of the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were relocated for their safety. In its weekly bulletin released on Friday, the WFP said security conditions in the region had "deteriorated significantly" over the last few weeks. "These security incidents come on the heels of similar incidents that took place in the Gambella area in mid-December 2003, which resulted in the loss of lives and damage to property," the WFP bulletin stated, but noted that food distributions to refugees had continued. The fighting in western Ethiopia has also sparked international concern. British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, who arrived in Ethiopia on Sunday, has told the British parliament that up to 150 people died in the December clashes. "There is still a high level of ethnic violence in Ethiopia," Benn told parliament recently. "We take human rights very seriously." The US government, meanwhile, has sent a security team to the troubled Gambella region. Asked whether it had raised the issue with the Ethiopian government, a US embassy official said: "As a practice, the US government does not comment on diplomatic communications between the US government and other governments. The United States, however, is always concerned for the welfare of its citizens, and others, in cases of reported ethnic violence." The Gambella clashes have prompted a wave of Anyuaks to flee to Sudan. UNHCR says about 5,000 of them, mostly men and boys, have arrived in the Sudanese town of Pachala. Senior UN sources also told IRIN that the UN were planning to send high-profile human rights officials into Pachala to interview the Anyuak refugees. The fighting has largely been between Anyuaks on the one hand and Ethiopian highlanders, who have moved into Gambella in recent years, and government troops on the other hand. It was initially sparked by an attack on a UN-plated vehicle in which eight government refugee workers were killed. The Anyuaks were blamed for the attack, and dozens of them killed in reprisals. The Anyuaks are resisting plans for a new refugee camp on land they regard as their territory, and claim they are being forced out of the area and are losing political power. Human rights organisations argue that tensions are being fuelled by government policies which divide political power along ethnic lines. Analysts in the region say they fear that the instability in the region could reignite conflict between the Anyuak and another ethnic group, the Nuer. The two groups have traditionally fought over land rights and political representation. The defence ministry insists that troops sent into the area after the first spate of fighting broke out in December, are trying to restore calm. A spokesman of the federal affairs ministry contacted on Monday said he was unable to immediately comment on the fighting.

AFP 10 Feb 2004 Up to 70 killed in ethnic clashes in western Ethiopia ADDIS ABABA, Feb 10 (AFP) - Between 50 and 70 people were killed late last month in ethnic clashes in western Ethiopia, aid workers in the capital, Addis Ababa, said Tuesday. The deadly clashes erupted onA January 29 at a mine near Dimma, in Gambella state, near the border with Sudan, where thousands of artisanal workers dig for gold, the sources said, asking not to be named. Some sources said the fighting, which continued into the next day, was sparked when indigenous workers at the mine, members of the Anuak ethnic group, attacked so-called "highlanders", people originating from other areas of Ethiopia. An Anuak policeman reportedly killed a highlander on January 30, and the situation degenerated into widespread violence, prompting the army to deploy to try to disarm the Anuak miners. Instead, the army suffered heavy losses, according to some sources. This could not be independently confirmed and the government had not commented officially as of late Tuesday. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have temporarily removed their staff from a camp housing 18,000 mostly Sudanese refugees near Dimma. "Following a number of serious security incidents in Dimma, WFP and other UN agencies staff at the Dimma refugee Camp were relocated to Mizan Tefri, northeast of Gambella, on the advice of the UN security Coordination office in Addis Ababa," a WFP statement said. Dimma lies about 920 kilometres (575 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa. In mid-December Gambella's eponymous capital, 200 kilometres (1209 miles) to the north, was hit by similar clashes. According to the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, 93 people were killed then. The government put the toll at 57. That episode was sparked after eight people, including a policeman, were killed while driving to Gambella town. The Council accused the state authorities of failing to take action to prevent the violence, despite clear indications of tension before the killings."As a result of the government ethnic policy, it is becoming a common occurrence to see Ethiopians who (once) lived in peace and harmony killing each other, categorizing themselves along ethnic lines," the statement said. With more than 65 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is Africa's second most populous country after Nigeria and is home to some 87 ethnic groups. Under Ethiopia's federal system, the largest ethnic group in each state -- the Anuak in Gambella's case -- are meant to control local government affairs and dictate the official language. But recently the Anuak have felt their authority has been undermined by outsiders, the so-called "highlanders" from the capital and other areas, who are accused of lording it over the indigenous population. A year ago, a UN report highlighted the prevalence of arms in Gambella and said this, as well as the tension in the state, was due to the presence of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army on the other side of the border. The same report noted that Gambella had suffered ethnic tension since the early 20th century with the principal antagonists being the Anuaks and the Nuer. Clashes between these two groups over government posts claimed 60 lives over the course of a month in 2002 and displaced several thousand, according to the human rights council. [ The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO www.ehrco.net ) is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit making, non-partisan and non-political organization established on October 10, 1991.]

www.genocidewatch.org 18 Feb 2004 IMMEDIATE RELEASE Survivor’s Rights International & Genocide Watch Call for Immediate Steps to Stop Massacres in Southwestern Ethiopia February 18, 2004 – Survivor’s Rights International and Genocide Watch are calling on the Ethiopian Government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the United Nations Security Council, and the African Union to take immediate steps to halt escalating violence in the Gambella region of southwestern Ethiopia. Interviews conducted January 16-23, 2004 with Ethiopian refugees in nearby Pochalla, Sudan confirmed that Ethiopian government troops massacred over 400 members of the Anuak ethnic group in Gambella December 13 – 16, 2003, and that rapes and murders are continuing. On January 29, 2004, members of the indigenous Anuak minority responded with violence to the torture and execution of an Anuak gold miner in Dimma. Exemplifying the climate of gross impunity, soldiers bragged about the murder to members of the Anuak community. Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Defense Forces (EPRDF) attempted to disarm other Anuak gold miners, who counter-attacked. EPRDF forces were defeated, with scores of soldiers believed killed. The Anuak gold miners also killed highlander civilians in Dimma town. On January 30, 2004, a convoy of EPRDF reinforcements was attacked on route to Dimma, with more soldiers killed. After the January 29 - 30 battles, non-combatant Anuak women and children fled Dimma in fear of further military retaliation and atrocities by EPRDF soldiers. As of January 26, some 5,297 refugees had fled southwestern Ethiopia to Pochalla, Sudan from the Gambella region, including the districts of Gambella, Abobo, Gok and Itang. On February 3, 2004, EPRDF reinforcements in Dimma massacred 17 Anuaks, including Dimma District government officials. EPRDF troops also massacred non-combatant Dinka and Nuer Sudanese refugees from a nearby camp and wounded other Sudanese refugees. Mass rape continues in the region, perpetrated by both EPRDF soldiers and “highlander” militias. These same groups were responsible for the December massacres. On January 28, for example, EPRDF soldiers summarily executed an Anuak father for persevering in his attempt to bring to justice the men who that day had gang-raped his 10 year-old daughter. In the absence of Anuak men—who have been either executed or driven from southwestern Ethiopia—Anuak women and girls have been subject to sexual atrocities from which there is neither protection nor recourse. SRI and Genocide Watch have received reports that the Anuak Gambella People’s Liberation Force (GPLF) is planning armed responses to the ongoing repression, rape and murder of Anuak people, and to the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. Additional reports indicate that the federal government of Ethiopia may have dispatched intelligence operatives to neighboring countries to assassinate exiled Anuak leaders, including Mr. Okello Akuai, the President of Gambella, and Mr. Abulla Obang Agwa, the founder of the Gambella People’s Democratic Congress. The violence is thus already a threat to international peace and security in the region. According to Genocide Watch sources, the massacres on 13 -16 December 2003 were ordered by the commander of the Ethiopian army in Gambella, Nagu Beyene, with the authorization of Dr. Gebrhab Barnabas, an official of the Ethiopian government. The accusation has also been made that lists of targeted individuals were drawn up with the assistance of Omot Obang Olom, who is himself Anuak, but holds an official position. On 8 January 2004 Genocide Watch faxed Prime Minister Meles Zenawi a letter calling for the arrest of these officials, as well as other perpetrators of the December massacres. He has not replied. None of the perpetrators of the massacres have been arrested. Instead, the Ethiopian government has portrayed the December massacres as ethnic conflict between Nuer and Anuak, which they were not. It has also tried to minimize the number killed. Genocide Watch and SRI have eyewitness testimony that Ethiopian soldiers have dug up mass graves and burned the bodies. The government portrays conflict at the Dimma gold mines as instigated by the Anuak, though the fighting began with an EPRDF atrocity against a miner, and an attempt to disarm the miners, for whom their weapons are their only self-defense. The Ethiopian government has moved over 20,000 EPRDF troops into the Gambella region, ostensibly to “calm down” the area, when actually EPRDF troops continue to commit murders and rapes. Genocide Watch and Survivor’s Rights International call upon the Ethiopian government to remove EPRDF troops from the Gambella region, leaving regular police. We also call upon the Secretary General of the United Nations to place this explosive situation on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. Contacts: Dr. Gregory H. Stanton < genocidewatch@aol.com > President, Genocide Watch < www.genocidewatch.org > Coordinator, The International Campaign to End Genocide Telephone: 540-654-1391 Keith Harmon Snow < info@sri.org> Researcher, Survivor’s Rights International < www.survivorsrightsinternational.org > Annapolis, MD 21403 (410) 268-6988 For more information on the crisis in southwestern Ethiopia, please visit the website of the International Campaign to End Genocide (ICEG) at . The field report based on research and interviews of refugees in Pochalla, Sudan, is available on that website, and on SRI’s website at < www.surviorsrightsinternational.org>

I RIN 23 Feb 2004 Ethiopia: US Government Wants Gambella Violence Investigated Addis Ababa The US government has called for "transparent, independent" inquiries into clashes in Ethiopia's troubled western border region where hundreds have been killed. In a statement from Washington on 20 February, the US said the government must investigate allegations that its troops were involved in the killings. Adam Ereli, the US government deputy spokesman, also told journalists in Washington that the crisis in Gambella region was "deteriorating" following fighting between ethnic groups and the Ethiopian armed forces. "Fully transparent and independent investigations by the government would encourage restoration of peace in the troubled region," Ereli said in a statement. The government, however, rejected the allegations that its troops were involved in the fighting, and told IRIN that they were restoring order. The US call came as two human rights organisations condemned the international community for its silence over the "atrocities" being perpetrated in Gambella, which is about 800 km west of the capital, Addis Ababa. The US-based Genocide Watch (GW) and Survivors' Rights International (SRI) alleged that the Anyuak ethnic group was being subjected to rape, executions and torture. Clashes first erupted in Gambella in early December after eight government officials were attacked and murdered while travelling in a United Nations vehicle. The Anyuak, who make up around one-third of the 228,000 people who live in the remote region, were blamed for the attack and targeted for brutal reprisals, in which hundreds of people were killed. Gambella is a fertile, but swampy, malaria-infested area, which borders war-torn Sudan. It is however also rich in natural resources like gold and oil, which, GW and SRI say, may be serving to fuel the three-month orgy of violence, inasmuch as the Anyuaks believe that much of the land in the area belongs to them. "The Ethiopian government continues to deny, downplay and mis-characterise the massacres as justifiable responses to the Anyuak attack," said their 23-page report. "The fact is that most of the victims have been unarmed Anyuak civilians who were hunted down and murdered," Keith Harmon Snow, the report's author, asserted. "Numerous assailants have been identified, including government officials, soldiers and civilians," he added, while also calling for an independent inquiry into the killings. "Numerous reports indicate that summary executions, mass rape and disappearances continue to occur in contravention of international legal standards," he said. Snow's report was compiled after conducting interviews in January and February with Anyuaks who had fled across the porous border into neighbouring Sudan. In a statement released last week, the government said 200 people had been killed in one attack led by Anyuak at a gold mine, and 10,000 people had fled the region. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme say they have evacuated all their international staff from parts of western Ethiopia. The killings mark some of the worst violence for years in Ethiopia, a landlocked country of 70 million people divided into numerous linguistic and ethnic groups. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council said earlier this month that ethnic violence was increasing in the country as a result of government policies forming local administrations along tribal lines. But the government, a four-party ethnic coalition which has been in power since 1991, accused the group of being politically motivated and dismissed its accusations. "These statements from the human rights groups are not correct. The government troops are not there to kill Anyuaks, they are there to make peace. We have stated this time and again," Zemedkun Tekle, the information ministry spokesman, told IRIN The federal affairs ministry, which is investigating the violence, was unavailable for comment on the latest claims surrounding the fighting in Gambella.

News 24 Sa 23 Feb 2004 'No justice' for Red Terror Red Terror suspect cleared Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's top human rights campaigner said here Monday that the government could not "deliver justice" in the genocide trial of former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and dozens of officers from his regime. "That regime cannot deliver justice" because it is not "democratic", Mesfine Woldemariam, chair of the Ethiopian Human Rishts Council, told AFP as the trial was set to resume on Tuesday before the federal high court. Mengistu and 65 other officials are charged with genocide and other crimes, including the murder of Emperor Haile Selasie and Orthodox Patriarch Abuna Tefelows, during the 1977-78 so-called "Red Terror" period which followed the ouster of emperor Haile Selassie by a marxist junta. The defendants are also charged with ordering the killing of 1 823 people and a forced resettlement that led to the death of 100 000 others under the Marxist regime. "At the beginnning, we have stated that if you have a trial for genocide, establish in Ethiopia a democratic system, and a genuine judiciary system," Woldemariam said. "You can't do that when you have former terrorists in power, when they have incriminate people selectively," he said, referring to the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the former rebel leader who ended Mengistu's bloody rule. Tens of thousands of Ethiopians were killed or disappeared during the two-year "Red Terror". Mengistu himself was convicted in absentia after fleeing to Zimbabwe in 1991, where he has lived in exile ever since. Nearly 5 200 former soldiers and communist activists are due to be tried by the courts. Around 2 l200 are currently in prison in Ethiopia, but several of the key accused are to be or have been tried in absentia. Last August, 33 former officials of the Mengistu regime, who are behind bars, wrote a letter to Zenawi begging for mercy from the Ethiopian people. More than 500 people have been acquitted, and 600 are to be tried between January and September of this year. The Red Terror trials are due to be concluded in 2004, according to the Ethiopian judiciary. Edited by Tisha Steyn

Daily Nation, Kenya 2 Feb 2004 www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation Special Report ONE YEAR OF PEACE Peace returns to 'valley of death' Hostilities between Pokots and Marakwets, fanned by reckless utterances by politicians and provincial administration officials, are now dying down and they'll even inter-marry By PETER KIMANI Deserted homesteads in Kerio Valley. Pink and white blooms dot the steep Kerio Valley, bringing life to a ridge where little grows. This could be nature's way of redeeming a region haunted by a grotesque past. Not too long ago, it used to be called the Valley of Death, with scores of villagers killed on the barren rocks. Stepping into a deserted homestead, dry leaves crackling under his feet, Mr Laxmana Kiptoo says, tears welling in his eyes: "This used to be my home." That was 26 years ago – a good number of which Marakwet families spent shuttling between the rocky plains and caves on the higher grounds. "The hills have always been our refuge, as you can see the raiders from afar," says Mr Kiptoo. "We used to live in the lowlands during the day and move to the caves at night." Kiptoo's family was finally persuaded to leave after an attack on the 1997 Christmas eve in which his cousin, Mr Richard Kinaiyo, was killed. Mr Kinaiyo, a final-year engineering student at the University of Nairobi, was celebrated in a community desperate for role models. Two shells of what once served as Mr Kiptoo's homestead stand eerily a pile of rocks cemented together by the red soil. The grass thatch has been burnt and soot covers the clay wall. But the writing on the wall is still discernible. Kiberurin enkong ngung ak terengung ne kitangware busiek ne kibwate ngatutik. It is taken from Deuteronomy 28: 5 and was written by Mr Kiptoo's mother. It is a prayer for providence to bless the utensils used in the household. "She still is quite religious," Mr Kiptoo says of his mother, who has since set up a home in nearby Kapsowar. He and his five children were taught to read the Bible sitting by the fire every evening. Such humdrum, if meaningful, family existence was violently disrupted in Marakwet in the 1990s, casting children and adults in all the four directions. In fact, attacks on the Marakwet from their Pokot neighbours were so rife that the Marakwets mark important events according to the Pokot invasion. Local places have been given new names that reflect terror and devastation: Chechan village is now known as Chechnya. Baghdad village in Tot is where children were smashed to death on the rocks. But the killings that took place on the morning of March 12, 2001, in Murkutwo village in Chesongoch – what has come to be known as the Murkutwo massacre – evokes terror of unparalleled proportions. Mr Kirop Cheboi Kiplilei recalls: "It was about 5am, and we were asleep. The people rushed out of their beds naked and ran to the caves where we all hid when the raiders came. There was gunfire in the air and I ran without knowing where I was going. In all my life, the Pokots had never ventured beyond the (seasonal Kerio) river, but this time, they came up to our homes." His voice falters when he points in the direction of the hut where his son lived with his wife and two children. His daughter-in-law, school teacher Leah Chello, fled into a cave with her two children – aged two and six – and a nephew, also aged six. Their bodies were found four days later, bringing the toll in the Murkutwo massacre to 58. "They had managed to escape, but she was discovered by a raider who was higher up. They shot her and the children dead," Mr Kiplilei says. "I'll never forgive those people." The orgy lasted three hours and Mr Kiplilei says his life has never been the same: "How can I continue as if nothing happened? They killed my grandchildren for no reason at all. If we had another place, I would go and live there. What do we have but these rocks and trees?" Land has yet to be demarcated in Marakwet district. This is one of the issues that come to the fore whenever the raids take place, with some suggesting that the attacks are meant to expel them from their land. In Murkutwo, clay huts stand forlorn among the shrubs and the acacia trees, sharp tips jutting out of grass thatch. But the facade of calm fades when you venture inside the homes and hear the men and women speak in hushed tones of things they want to forget but cannot. To fully understand this conflict, one needs to lay bare the historical antagonism between Pokots and Marakwets that underpins the struggle, fanned over the years by reckless utterances from politicians and indifferent provincial administration officials. Mr John Lochaa, 39, will never be able to live in the home he shared with his wife and four children. The retail trader at Songoch, a stone's throw away from his home in Kasang village in Murkutwo, was away on the night of the slaughter. His wife and two children were not so lucky. He recalls: "I had gone to Eldoret to see a friend and buy supplies for the shop and I wasn't able to return home. It was while there that I learnt that Murkutwo had been invaded. I arrived the following morning and somebody offered me a soda, saying I needed to get my breath back. "I had no idea what they were talking about until I asked for my wife. They told me she was no more. I asked for the children and nobody answered me. I later learnt that two had been killed. The youngest was just a few months old." Mrs Hellen Lochaa first fled to the caves as she had done whenever the Pokots struck. She was smoked out and shot at point-blank range. "Now I have to fend for the children without the support of my wife, who had a steady income as a primary school teacher," says the trader. But the greatest challenge is being able to set foot on the place he once called home. "I can't live here," Mr Lochaa says, standing outside the iron-roofed house. "How can I?" There are more questions than answers about the Murkutwo massacre. The leaders say it could have been avoided as the police and provincial administration had been warned of attacks. "The attacks were expected," says Mr James Cheboi Kimisoi, the assistant coordinator of the Eldoret-based Catholic Peace and Justice Commission. "Negotiations had gone on for one month, as the Marakwet were asked to give back 800 animals they had taken from the Pokot as they grazed along Kerio river," he says, "We spoke with the chiefs and asked them to give back the animals, but they did not. Word went round that the Pokot would strike to get back their animals." When they did finally strike, the raiders were ruthless in their mission: they plundered the land, destroyed what they could not take away and killed and maimed anyone in sight. Deserted houses were torched. Master Henry Tarus, 15, stands out among the pupils of Sangach primary school. He is wearing a black hat, which conceals the injuries left by the raiders' bullets. One long mark cuts across his head and a huge scar runs near the right ear. At the back of his head his brain juts out, the mound standing like a fisted hand. "We were on the farm with my brother and a cousin," he says with a stutter, "I don't know what happened. I just saw the men approach and open fire. My brother Kipkiro and cousin Kibor were killed. I was unconscious and I found myself in hospital." Master Tarus was in a coma for two weeks at the Moi University Referral Hospital in Eldoret. After a life-saving operation, his cranium was opened to remove a bullet. Two bullets had torn away parts of the brain. He says he is not in pain any more and is happy to be back at school. But the swelling at the back of his head sticks out, a permanent reminder of the night he nearly lost his life. Assistant chief Benjamin Sutar also had a narrow escape. He disappeared behind a cave, but his wife was killed – shot in cold blood. Others hid in latrines, shivering and fearing the worst, and are only too glad to be alive to tell the story. Yesterday's peace celebrations draw a line between that bloody phase of the Marakwet past and the prospects for peace now beckoning in the horizon. It is nightfall when we reach Tot, from where Pokotland stretches monotonously. Here, the land is fertile and mangoes and bananas are to be found in abundance. We meet Ms Paulina Loplich, a Pokot visiting her sister who is married to a Marakwet. She smiles when asked if she knows when Pokot warriors raided the Marakwet. In earlier days, she may have been treated suspiciously when she returned home. But peace reigns now and no questions are asked. She goes to the market where both Marakwets and Pokots trade. Local MP Linah Jebii Kilimo wipes her tears and smiles: "There is a baby boom with 1,360 expected early in the year. "There was a generation lost as the people fled from the plains to the caves." Now it is time to catch up.

www.kenyasomalis.org KENYA SOMALI COMMUNITY OF NORTH AMERICA Toronto, Ontario PRESS RELEASE Published: February 3, 2001 Waggalla Massacre Rally: 12th February, 2001 A rally will be held in front of the Kenya Embassy in Washington, DC on Monday February 12th, 2001 at 11.00 a.m., (2249 R STREET N.W., WASHINGTON D.C 20008 Phone No. 202-387-6101). At the same time a similar rally will be held at the Kenya Embassy in Ottawa, Canada (415 Laurier St. West, Ottawa, ON Canada). The demonstrations will be held to commemorate the Wagalla Massacre that happened in Wagalla Village, Wajir District, North Eastern Kenya on the same date in 1984. Similar demonstrations have been held at different locations all over the world since the massacre occurred, all aimed at keeping the pressure on the Kenya Government to respect basic human rights and the dignity of the Kenya Somalis living in the North East as well as for all Kenyan citizens. The Government has a past and present history of perpetrating injustice, unfair and unequal treatment and negligence when it comes to issues regarding the people of the North Eastern province. In many cases the government has been guilty of previous massacres and genocidal policies. In the case of Wagalla, the government has recently admitted at least in principle that its security forces were responsible for the atrocities and that it was an operation that had gone out of control. In this case, we demand a full investigation that is aimed at bringing to court those who were responsible for this massacre and compensation for the thousands of families who became destitute as a result of the massacre. Please consider joining us in peacefully standing for justice and what is right. For Details Contact Mr. Abdi Omar: @ (613) 521-9228 Or Ugas Jillaow @214-869-3080 Email Contact: abdi_omar@hotmail.com> Posted by SomaliTalk Feb 3, 2000

East African Standard February 11, 2004 www.eastandard.net Wagalla massacre to be probed By Maore Ithula Survivors and children of victims of the Wagalla massacre have accused the Government of reneging on its promise to compensate them. But in a swift rejoinder, Justice minister Kiraitu Murungi said the Government would form a truth and reconciliation commission to look into the circumstances that led to the infamous killings. Earlier in the day, more than 300 protesters took to the streets in a peaceful demonstration to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the massacre that left thousands of people dead. The group marched from the Freedom Corner at Uhuru Park to Sheria House, where they sought audience with Murungi. Without giving a time frame, the minister said the commission would investigate what led to the massacre with a view of seeking justice and compensation for the victims. He assured that the Government was committed to ensuring the residents of North Eastern Province were no longer sidelined "in the distribution of the national cake". Thousands of people were killed and maimed during the February 10, 1984, botched operation to smoke out alleged bandits in Wajir. The operation was conducted by regular police, General Service Unit and Army personnel stationed in Wajir. Male victims were paraded at the Wagalla airstrip where they were forced to lie prostrate on the tarmac for two days in the scorching sun. On the other hand, women were raped and bundled together with children in their manyattas (huts) before being burnt alive. Those who tried to flee were either shot or clobbered to death by the security personnel. The demonstrators yesterday claimed that they had been victimised by the former regime, and appealed to the Government to come to their assistance. Addressing them, Murungi observed that the province was prone to insecurity because it had been neglected by successive governments. The marchers had to wait for several hours at the Sheria House before they were allowed to meet the minister.

The Nation (Nairobi) 3 Feb 2004 COLUMN Wagalla Victims Still Waiting for Justice Ahmed Adan Nairobi When Mr Kibaki became our third President and promised to uphold the rule of law, many Kenyans were delighted. Part of the reason was because the many victims of past economic crimes, mass killings and other gross human rights abuses have been crying out for justice. At the very least, they expected the suspected culprits to be investigated and punished. Government may be sacrificing considerable expense and expertise investigating past economic crimes, but it seems to have neglected, or downplayed, the more crucial issue of past impunities when it comes to human rights. Besides the initial rhetoric and symbolism that characterised the exposure of the Nyayo House torture chambers followed by the appointment of a task force on transitional justice, very little movement has been noticed since. The task force's recommendations are yet to be implemented, while the Government appears to have shelved the whole idea of transitional justice for the time being. There could be practical and political constraints hampering the Government's ability to take comprehensive action against perpetrators of human rights abuses. One is that this Government represents a mix of old and new political faces who circumstances have forced to co-exist very uneasily. Putting a demarcation line between the old regime and the new government presents a dilemma for those who would like to see a clean break from the past. The magnitude and extent of the crimes committed against Kenyans in last 40 years may also make investigation, prosecution, and reparations very difficult. On the one hand, the most difficult dilemmas facing Government is deciding who to prosecute and who to forgive, or whether a blanket amnesty should be granted to perpetrators of past crimes. Criminal prosecution of human rights abusers gives the victims some sense of finality and justice; but at the same time, it discourages perpetrators from coming forward with the truth about what really happened, which is also necessary for reconciliation. On the other, adhering to democratic principles in dealing with the perpetrators upholds the basic principle of a functioning State. But since the wheels of justice turn slowly, this may seem to leave the old regime unpunished, and injustices unaddressed. The Government must decide whether to punish the leaders and henchmen of the old regime known to have abused their fellow countrymen. We argue that seeking justice and revealing the truth are the best ways to mark our society's new beginning. Though it is true that deciding to prosecute members of the old regime can be complicated, their victims expect nothing less. Besides unearthing the truth about our dark human rights past and punishing the perpetrators, the victims must be granted compensation and restitution. This serves three very important functions. First, it helps the victims to manage the material aspect of their loss. Second, it constitutes an official acknowledgement of their pain by the State. Third, it will deter the State from future abuses by imposing a financial cost to such misdeeds. The mechanisms of transitional justice - trials and truth commissions, restitution and rehabilitation - are expensive in the short term. However, failing to deal adequately with such issues will be even more expensive in the long term. To manage the process, we should not rule out sourcing some funding from private or foreign sources, though it is my considered opinion that the Government should bear the cost of compensation, which will reinforce the lesson that misdeeds are costly. Since the Government has chosen to acknowledge past crimes, it must next decide whether and how to hold the responsible parties accountable for those crimes. The main reason for prosecuting past crimes is to punish criminals and dignify the victims. Prosecutions can also help to reunify society and establish a common moral reality. One of the most brutal and despicable instance of human rights abuse is known as Wagalla massacre. The survivors of this mass killing and their families stoically waited for Kanu's exit from power for almost two decades, and not only to seek redress, but actually to come open about it. With Kanu in power, they were unable to communicate their deep grievance to anyone. Brave individuals who spoke sympathetically on their case were subjected to extra-legal power to silence them. One example is the prize-winning Catholic nun, Annalena Tonelli, who the locals veritably consider the Mother Teresa of Wajir. She assisted victims, collected bodies and buried them in a mass grave, as a result of which she was declared persona non grata. On February 12,2003, the survivors and family members of victims finally got access to "the human abattoir", otherwise known as the Wagalla airstrip. There, on that spot 20 years ago, thousands of their family members lost their lives. To the survivors, the commemoration of the day their loved ones were exterminated is of immense importance. Whether or not the Government prevaricates or takes the necessary legal and political decisions to resolve the Wagalla issue, the people of Wajir are determined to push for a full settlement of this issue no matter how long it takes. Mr Adan is a lawyer practising in Nairobi.

East African Standard, Kenya 15 Feb 2004 www.eastandard.net Wagalla massacre: The sore that refuses to heal By John Kamau On February 16, 1984, local daily newspapers carried a story about an open letter to a minister of State in the Office of the President, Hussein Maalim Mohammed, about the "persecution" and "rounding up" of people of the Degodia clan. It was the first time what was happening, or had happened, at a Wajir airstrip was being mentioned. Signed by two local MPs Ahmed M. Khalif (Wajir West) and A. M. Sheikh (Wajir East), and local leaders D M Amin, Abdi Billow and A H Hassan, the letter told the minister what he already knew; after all he was, along with fellow State minister Justus ole Tipis, privy to the operation. The letter claimed that "more than 5,000 men were gathered together, beaten up, denied water and food and some among them have either been shot dead or burnt alive". These women were among a group of Wagalla supporters from North Eastern Province who were protesting against the massacres. They are seen here at the fence of Sheria House where they were demanding audience with the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mr Kiraitu Murungi Pic by Jennifer Wachie The leaders also told Mohammed that "the atrocities perpetrated by the authorities have no parallels in the history of independent and democratic Kenya, and it is difficult to imagine that (such a) holocaust could take place in the country." The operation against the Degodia had started on February 5 when the North Eastern PC, Benson Kaaria, ordered all those whose houses had been burnt down by security forces to leave Wajir Town. The rounding up however started on February 10 and at the end of the day 5,000 had been arrested. Others had been tricked to go to the airport, ostensibly to welcome dignitaries. Intelligence sources say that the Degodia were suspected to be behind violent skirmishes with and ambushes against the soldiers deployed to stamp out the Shifta menace in the district and that they had links with other Somalis in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region. But when the ‘final solution’ was decided upon after a security meeting in Wajir town, chaired by Kaaria and attended by police and military personnel, the end result shocked the outside world. Ghastly "The gruesome atrocities being perpetrated against these people are nothing short of genocide. There can be no justification whatsoever for this ghastly situation," said NEP leaders in a Press statement that was downplayed. After all it was overshadowed by the ongoing Njonjo Inquiry. The story petered out and eventually died. A senior official with the Voice of Kenya (now Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) says they were instructed by the Ministry of Information to drop "the Wajir story". "The word Wagalla was never mentioned anywhere for a very long time," says the now retired executive. To downplay the story emerging from the international media, most of it leaked by Barbara Lefkow, the wife of a US diplomat, the Minister of State Justus ole Tipis released a statement in which he blamed the loss of lives to "repeated tribal feuds between the Degodia and Ajuran people". Tipis explained that the "exercise" – which covered Elben, Damba, Butehelu, Eldas, Griftu and Bura Jogoo – was "necessary to restore peace and order" and that during the operation a "number of firearms were recovered" and "as a result it was necessary to question several suspects". It was the ‘questioning’ that went wrong. With temperatures soaring above 40 degrees centigrade those arrested and taken to, or were tricked into Wagalla airstrip were ordered to strip and lie on the murram. Those who refused were shot dead and their bodies loaded onto a lorry, witnesses say. To make them confess, the soldiers kicked and slashed some of the victims and watched as exhaustion, thirst and hunger took their toll on them. Outside the Wagalla perimeter fence there was great concern about the people herded there. It is claimed that on February 15, Kaaria visited the airstrip to "review the progress". As he addressed the crowd he was heckled and some of them started moving toward him. Others, like in the Jewish Escape from Sorbibor movie, decided to make one final dash. The soldiers opened fire and the number of those who died is still not known. The Kaaria convoy left for Wajir town and official silence on Wagalla massacre started. Speaking to the Sunday Standard this week, the former PC denied ever being party to the killings. He claimed he visited the airstrip after the deaths in the company of the former Chief of General Staff, General Jackson Mulinge. Meanwhile as the convoy left, Annalena Tonelli, a nun at the Wajir Rehabilitation Centre, painted her vehicle with the Red Cross sign and followed the army convoys that were dumping the dead and the injured in the bush (see separate story). She made a list of the dead and gave it to Ms Lefkov. By that time all the bodies had been cleared from the airstrip and its environs and dumped in an area that stretched to the Kenya/Ethiopia border. Tonelli managed to collect hundreds of them and buried them in a mass grave at her Wajir Rehabilitation Centre. As the story leaked out and pressure from human rights activists mounted on President Moi over the killings, Foreign Affairs minister Elijah Mwangale, who was abroad, was faced with the task of explaining the issue. He quickly flew back to Kenya and told the world that there was "no massacre" describing the clashes as a "spillover" from hostilities between Somalia and Ethiopia. That was the official government line. However, the government was in a quandary as to what to do with the Italian nun who had collected the bodies from the bushes and talked to survivors. She had also lived among the Degodia, Ogaden and Ajuran clans since 1969. At that time, Parliament was on August recess and legislators Khalif and Sheikh could not raise the matter in the House. Back in Wajir, the two MPs were being sought for questioning. But Khalif, together with Sheikh Ahmed, then a teacher at Sabunley Secondary School, escaped and, to the chagrin of the provincial administration, held a Press conference in Nairobi where they put the number of the dead at "more than 80." As that was happening, Moi flew to the province and praised government officers and security forces in the region "for efficiency" and asked those with guns to surrender them. Wagalla was being downplayed and the airstrip had been closed to all. Local chief Bishar Ismael Ibrahim, who had witnessed the deaths, was arrested and locked up for 57 days before he was dismissed. In Parliament, Khalif attempted to raise the issue, but was challenged to substantiate by then Vice-President Mwai Kibaki. He only produced two pictures of dead people as Tipis maintained that only 57 people had died during the entire operation. Kaaria, who along with the Provincial Police Officer was quietly relieved of his duties, has a different recollection of events. The report from Garissa, he says, only mentioned 16 dead. "It was obviously a lie," he says. That number given by Tipis has remained the official figure and when the Government finally decided to talk about it, William Ruto, an assistant minister in the Office of the President, said that only 13 people were shot dead and that 381 had been detained for screening. He explained that after the killings "no action was taken since there was no criminal activity." The only thing Ruto admitted on behalf of the Moi administration was that "security standards were flouted" during the operation. The testimony of a witness who survived a massacre But within government circles, the Wagalla has been hushed and there is little official information on what really happened. Victims and government officials are afraid to share what they know, hiding behind the veil of secrecy that surrounded the massacre. Twenty years later, it remains Kenya’s worst kept secret. •••• "I was hurled into the back of a lorry and taken to Wagalla," Eyewitness Haji Warerra recalls. "Throughout the day, military lorries drove in from all parts of the district bringing in more people. By the end of the day, hundreds of men had been detained behind the chicken-wire fence. Sometime late in the afternoon, we were ordered to strip naked and lie on the hot murram in the scorching sun. We spent the night in the cold. By Saturday afternoon, people realised they would not be released soon. Some of the people were beaten badly by soldiers to extract information. We were now very hungry and thirsty. I saw people drink their own urine. Some weak ones collapsed and died. Those who resisted the order to strip naked were shot outright. That Saturday, the security men poured petrol on four people and set them ablaze. By the fourth day there was a pile of dead bodies. On February 14, out of desperation, the "prisoners" attempted to escape. They ran helter-skelter making for the fence. A few managed to climb over but the security men opened fire, killing most of them. Later in the afternoon, about six lorries drove in to collect the dead bodies and the half dead. They were piled onto the vehicles and taken to the bush where they were left for the hyenas. I was among those whom security men mistook for the dead. I found myself in Tarbaj. I was rescued by an Italian missionary who was scouring the bushes for survivors."

ICG 30 Feb 2004 Africa Report N°75 : Liberia Rebuilding Liberia: Prospects and Perils Liberia is a collapsed state that has effectively become a UN protectorate. Failure to achieve stability would have a violent spill-over effect in the rest of West Africa. The 5-6 February donors conference is an opportunity to focus on the long-term strategies, real money and hard thinking required to pull Liberia out of crisis and develop a government that can handle reconstruction. The immediate concern is the security situation, which demands concentrated efforts on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of fighters (DR). States need to bring the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) up to authorised troop strength (15,000) quicker to avoid the chaos surrounding the abortive December 2003 disarmament attempt. As two main Liberian factions are sponsored by Guinea and Côte d?Ivoire, a solid DR package would not only aid peace in Liberia but also help stabilise all West Africa. ICG reports and briefing papers are available on our website: www.crisisweb.org

This Day (Nigeria) 25 Feb 2004 www.thisdayonline.com 48 Killed in Plateau Community From Funmi Peter-Omale in Jos Fourty-eight people, including women and children were on Tuesday massacred in a church in Yelwa, Shendam Local Government Area of Plateau State by suspected Fulani insurgents. THISDAY gathered that the victims were part of dozens of people who had fled into the COCIN church for refuge following an attack by insurgents along Yelwa-Shendam road. So far, not less than 117 men, women, children and policemen have been brutally killed in renewed hostilities in the Southern part of the state in the last two weeks. Local government areas affected by the insurgence include Langtang North, Langtang South, Shendam, Wase and Kanam. State Police Commissioner, Mr. Innocent Ilozuoke, confirmed the latest development but said he could not ascertain the brains behind the attack. "I can't categorically say who carried out the latest attack. We have been having series of attacks in the Southern senatorial zone. I wouldn't want to associate the problem in Wase with what has just happened in Yelwa, Shendam," he said. Ilozuoke affirmed that the situation has been brought under control by a combined team of army and police, adding that reinforcement is being sent to villages considered to be under serious threat. "We have a joint operation and investigations are being well co-ordinated. We have moved the CIB (Criminal Intelligence Bureau) and CID Criminal Investigation Depart-ment) men to the affected areas. In fact the OC CIB and OC Mobile are both there to unravel the mystery as I speak to you." A police bulletin breakdown of villages that have come under militant attack shows that Shendam has been the worst hit in terms of casualties. So far, 52 people, including four policemen have been brutally murdered by suspected Fulani insurgents. In Langtang South, five villages have come under militant attack with 32 casualties as well as dozens of houses razed. Wase Local Government recorded 29 casualties with four villages coming under major attack. Langtang North has recorded only one death though a number of houses have been razed. In 2002, hundreds of people were killed in a genocide-type of hostilities that broke out in Plateau South. The genesis of the breakout could not be ascertained but most of the current clashes are not unconnected to cow stealing and ethnic cleansing between the Taroh people of the South and Hausa/Fulani. Trouble broke out two weeks ago when Taroh people who had fled Wase and Shendam Local Government Areas returned to their villages to discover that their homes have been overun and their cattle stolen.

Boston Globe 8 Feb 2004 Wounds of colonialism reopen in Namibia German apology for massacres poses questions By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, 2/8/2004 OKAHANDJA, Namibia -- One hundred years ago, the chief of the Herero tribe grew furious over the constant raids by German settlers, who stole land and cattle. He quietly ordered an attack, and over a few days, the Hereros killed an estimated 150 settlers. But the chief's battle cry would soon haunt his tribe of cattle herders, which had flourished in southwestern Africa since the mid-16th century, after their ancestors made the long journey from the Great Rift Valley of East Africa. A German commander issued a written order in August 1904 that his troops must "annihilate these masses" of Hereros, and German soldiers went on to kill tens of thousands of them. Some historians describe it as a genocide and estimate that only 15,000 survivors escaped into the desert. The massacres slipped long ago into the recesses of history, just another colonial atrocity in Africa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But now, because of an apology, the slaughters of the Hereros are being brought into full view, and with that the emotional issue of colonialism's legacy in Africa. Wolfgang Massing, Germany's ambassador to Namibia, told hundreds of Hereros last month at a ceremony marking the battles that he wished to "express how deeply we regret this unfortunate past." He called the massacres the "darkest chapter of our colonial history." The statement was Germany's strongest ever expression of contrition for the killings. For many observers, these words hold significance beyond the tragedies here in the farmland of central Namibia. Several Hereros and Germans said the Germans' act of facing the past raises broader questions about the sins of colonialists throughout Africa and what should be done about them. The questions have echoes across the Atlantic in simmering debates over whether the US government should apologize and pay reparations, both to Native Americans for killings and land seizures as well as to African-Americans for enslaving their ancestors. President Bush, during a trip to Senegal's Goree Island last summer, called slavery "one of the greatest crimes of history." But he stopped short of an apology demanded by many African-American activists. The difference in Africa is that the calls for making amends are much quieter, if they exist at all. Still, some think it is time for Europeans to face the past. "It's terrifying what happened in the 19th century in Africa," Massing said in an interview in his office last week in Windhoek, the Namibian capital. "We Germans are traumatized by our history, and so we as a people need to look back at it. And our colonial history, in principle, doesn't differ from that of the other colonial powers." In another office two blocks away, Kuaima Riruako, the Herero paramount chief today, put it more directly: "These apologies should be made all over Africa." European powers began to carve up Africa with great intensity toward the end of the 19th century, seeking to extract vast mineral wealth, amass huge land holdings, and apply these newfound riches to gain power on the world stage. The main players were Germany, Italy, Britain, France, Portugal, and Belgium; the only African countries that eluded their grasp were Liberia and Ethiopia. Ethiopia, known for its fierce independence, repelled an Italian force in 1896; Liberia, formed by the American Colonization Society in 1847 for the purpose of repatriating freed slaves, held onto its independence thanks in no small part to US influence. But there is no consensus on how the European countries can make amends. In Namibia, which was called German South-West Africa a century ago, Riruako welcomed the German ambassador's remarks, saying it could lead to a new relationship between the Hereros and Germans. But Riruako said the Germans must do much more, including helping the Hereros reclaim their land and paying reparations to the tribe. Four years ago, Hereros in New York City filed a lawsuit in the United States on behalf of the tribe, demanding $4 billion in reparations from the German government and German companies. Last month in Okahandja, Massing told the assembled Hereros that his government would not pay reparations. He said doing so to one group "could reinforce ethnic tensions and thus undermine the policy of reconciliation" in Namibia. But Nahas Angula, Namibia's minister of higher education and a member of the Ondonga tribal group, a subgroup of the Owanbo tribe, said in an interview that Massing was "hiding behind a divisiveness argument. . . . It's true that everybody suffered from the Germans. But the Hereros suffered the most. The Germans decimated them." Last week, in his office, Massing, 60, who took over his post less than five months ago, said reparations "make no sense at all. This happened 100 years ago. To whom should we pay reparations? . . . Imagine paying one ethnic group $4 billion. There are 100,000 Hereros. That would be detrimental to the national unity of Namibia. There were other tribes that also fought colonial rule. What would we pay them?" Instead, he noted, Germany has been Namibia's largest donor since its independence from South Africa in 1990, giving about 500 million euros, worth more than $600 million US today. Asked why Germany would pay billions of dollars in reparations to Holocaust survivors and the government of Israel for the killing of 6 million Jews, while not paying reparations for the killing of the Hereros, Massing said the 1904 massacres "were not a systematic killing of people like the systematic killing of the Jews." In Okahandja, about 45 miles north of Windhoek, many residents disagree. "I wasn't happy with his speech," said Jejatua Omaendo Kaangundue, 29, a Herero who has closely studied the history of his people. "It came out of the blue. Think about it: You kill people, you take their land, and for 100 years you never speak to them. And now you come and say you were wrong but don't want to pay for it?" Kaangundue and a friend, Ismael Mieze, 28, showed a visitor the graves of the past Herero leaders, including Samuel Maharero, who gave the fateful order to attack the Germans. Despite the vast numbers of Hereros killed from 1904 to 1907 by the Germans, only several were identified and buried. Almost all were piled into unmarked mass graves in scrubland and desert. In fact, off a side street in Okahandja, the largest number of marked graves from the early 20th century is for German soldiers. More than 50 were buried here. The two young Herero men walked among the tombstones, reading the German names. "History can never be deleted," Kaangundue said, referring to the German graves, the German street names remaining in Okahandja, and to what happened to his people. "There's a saying, `If you don't know your history, you don't know where you come from.' We will not forget our history." .

RWANDA: Chemical weapons team visits Kigali NAIROBI, 27 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - A delegation from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is in Rwanda to explore ways of supporting the country in its ratification of a chemical weapons convention, the Rwandan News Agency, RNA, reported on Monday. "We are in Rwanda to help the government in the ratification of the agreement which the country signed in 1993," Yu Huang, the organisation's director of external relations, was quoted as saying. The organisation was set up in 1997 by the countries that have joined the Chemical Weapons Convention to make sure that it achieves its purpose. It undertakes activities worldwide aimed at convincing countries that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the agreement. The organisation also monitors activities in the chemical industry to reduce the risk of commercial chemicals being misused. Huang said that although Rwanda did not posses chemical weapons, it was important to be a state party in the fight against chemical weapons, RNA reported. "The ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention demonstrates a political will in the implementation of peace and security of the country," Huang was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, Radio Rwanda reported on Monday that a Belgian delegation led by the country's defence minister, Andre Flahaut, was in the country to ask the government to officially recognise the death of 10 Belgian soldiers who died during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The soldiers were killed while serving as part of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda. Belgium is seeking to have the soldiers be remembered among the other victims of the 1994 as they died in line of duty in a peace mission.

Guardian UK 13 Feb 2004 Murambi dispatch Guarding the horror Rory Carroll meets a Rwandan genocide survivor who is determined that the savage events he witnessed will not be glossed over Friday February 13, 2004 Emmanuel Murangira has a hole the size of a small grape in his left temple. The bullet saved his life, in a way, since he fell unconscious and was covered in blood, apparently dead. He awoke beneath a pile of bodies, climbed out and fled, scampering through hills and glades to the nearby border with Burundi, one of a handful of Tutsis to escape slaughter in Murambi, a district in southern Rwanda. That was 10 years ago. Today Mr Murangira is back in Murambi and working at the massacre site, a school campus, as an oral historian, or tour guide, for visitors. When words fail he just points. Stacked on desks in classrooms are hundreds of skeletons. At first sight it could be Pompeii but then you see the remains have been preserved with lime. Fragments of individuality endure. A small child with tattered red shorts. An adult with an orange shirt. Tufts of hair from an otherwise smooth skull. Some final moments you can imagine: arms shielding faces, others with palms pressed together, in prayer or pleading, perhaps both. Hundreds of massacre sites dot Rwanda but Murambi is unique in displaying preserved remains. Most of the 40,000 estimated to have died here are buried in mass graves but enough are in the 24 classrooms to give a sense of the horror. As the 10th anniversary of the genocide approaches, the site is due to change. A new centre, which will house a permanent exhibition, will keep the skeletons on shelves, still visible but behind glass. It is part of an ambitious plan to erect proper memorials across the country on sites which have been barely touched since Tutsi-led rebels ousted the extremist Hutu government that incited the murder of 800,000 Tutsis and sympathetic Hutus. There is fraught debate about whether to bury all remains out of dignity or to leave some displayed as a warning. Mr Murangira, 48, favours the latter, which is why every day for almost a decade, unpaid, he has guarded the classrooms. "Most people say genocide never took place in this country. That's why we keep the bodies here. So they can see what happened." In fact, very few deny the genocide, but there is a desire, not just by perpetrators, to gloss over its scale and impact. Mr Murangira welcomes the idea of moving the bodies to the adjacent Murambi Genocide Prevention Centre, where they should remain safe and visible. The centre is the initiative of the Aegis Trust, a British charity, African Rights, a human rights watchdog and Rwanda's culture ministry. "You should have seen the relief on Emmanuel's face when we told him we would build a centre," said James Smith, of Aegis. Mr Murangira looks forward to no longer being a lonely sentinel but, with all 49 relatives dead, including his wife and three children, he is not sure what he will do. "I'm old, I'm not educated," he shrugs. One task which awaits him is testifying next month at a traditional court, known as gacaca, against some of the alleged killers, a belated exercise in justice which has stoked tension. Just an hour's drive from Murambi, three witnesses were recently killed, reportedly by genocide suspects who wanted to stop their testimony. Other witnesses have been intimidated, said Ibuka, an umbrella group for survivors. The authorities say they are isolated cases. Isolated is certainly how Mr Murangira feels, one of just four Tutsi survivors in Murambi. "If they don't kill me I will testify."

Guardian UK 18 Feb 2004 Final amnesty for perpetrators of Rwanda genocide Jeevan Vasagar, East Africa correspondent Wednesday February 18, 2004 The Guardian Thousands of Rwandans accused of participating in genocide have been offered a "final chance" to be released from prison if they confess their guilt and ask for forgiveness before a deadline next month. A large proportion of Rwanda's Hutu majority were drawn into the mass murder and, a decade after the killing was brought to a halt, prisons in the tiny central African state are still overflowing with around 90,000 alleged "genocidaires". Rwanda's government, founded by the rebel movement which ended the genocide, has long encouraged suspected killers to confess in return for lighter sentences such as community service. Last year, around 25,000 suspects were freed and returned to their communities after attending "solidarity camps" to reintegrate them into society. In an interview yesterday, the country's prosecutor general, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, said the government was launching a final campaign to urge thousands of prisoners to confess before a deadline of March 15. Mr Mucyo said: "We have given people enough time, this is their last chance." Individuals accused of organising, instigating or taking a particularly zealous role in the genocide - those known as category one defendants - will not be eligible for the amnesty. Those who are freed could still face the gacaca justice system, where defendants are judged by their peers in village courts. The traditional system was restored by the government to uncover the truth of what happened from witnesses to the genocide and promote reconciliation by encouraging perpetrators to confess and make atonement. Once released there is usually no option but for alleged perpetrators and survivors of the genocide to live side by side, and the gacaca system is seen as crucial to repairing the social fabric. The prosecutor said: "It will be up to the population to decide what people have done or not done." Releasing prisoners back into a society still deeply wounded by the genocide did not mean suspects were escaping justice, the prosecutor added, explaining that it was part of the healing process. "We can't have justice without reconciliation and we can't have reconciliation without justice." Rwanda has been grappling with the question of justice since 1994, when the extremist government, known by its slogan "Hutu Power", masterminded the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates in around 100 days. The Rwandan government is planning memorial services across the country on the 10th anniversary of the day the killing began, April 7 1994.

Vanguard (Lagos) 18 Feb 2004 10 Years After Genocide, Rwanda Still Scarred ANALYSIS Kigali Ten years after an orchestrated attempt to exterminate its Tutsi minority led to the deaths of up to a million people over the course of 100 days, the central African state of Rwanda still bears deep scars. The killings, organised by the Hutu government of the day, and carried out amid the total inaction of the international community, claimed up to 10,000 lives a day. The now ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which took power as a rebel group in July 1994, putting an end to the genocide, and its political partners have since placed much emphasis on national security, reconciliation and poverty reduction. Last year President Paul Kagame and his RPF both clocked up landslide victories in presidential and parliamentary elections. European union observers complained of cases of fraud and irregularities but stopped short of calling the results of the elections into question. Rwanda is now one of the safest countries in Africa. In the wake of the genocide, Rwanda was frequently attacked by Rwandan Hutu forces holed up in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo -- prompting Kigali to sponsor a Congolese rebel group in that country's own devastating civil war -- but there have been no such incidents since 2001. Kigali now boasts a brand new five-star hotel which this month hosted a major summit of African heads of state. But despite these developments, the sores left by the genocide are still present. Of all of history's genocides, Rwanda's has the sad distinction of having involved the greatest number of killers. Unlike the Nazi Holocaust where victims were slaughtered with industrial precision, the Rwandan genocide was carried out by vast numbers of ordinary peasants, people who, whipped into a frenzy of ethnic hatred by the regime in power, turned on their neighbours with agricultural instruments and bludgeoned or hacked them to death. The sheer number of killers, coupled with the destruction of the country's legal system, has hampered attempts to deliver justice. Despite ambitious and innovative programmes involving group trials, village courts, and the provisional release of many prisoners, some 90,000 detainees are still crammed into the country's jails, many in conditions better suited to animals. While thousands of killers have admitted to their crimes, thereby earning sentence reductions, they have not always expressed remorse.

Reuters 19 Feb 2004 Rwanda genocide suspects could face trial at home By Daniel Wallis DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The U.N. court trying the perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide may hand some mid-ranking suspects to Rwanda for trial over their role in the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people, a court spokesman said on Thursday. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is under intense pressure to meet a U.N. deadline to finish investigations by the end of this year and complete all trials by 2008. The court has delivered 17 guilty verdicts and one acquittal since being set up in November 1994. But despite its hundreds of staff and multi-million dollar budget, some 40 suspects are still languishing in custody. "The Security Council allows us to transfer suspects to host countries," ICTR spokesman Roland Amoussouga said by telephone from the tribunal in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha. Extremists from Rwanda's Hutu majority butchered some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus during 100-days of orchestrated violence that began in April 1994. Only the top suspects have been sent for trial at the ICTR, and Rwanda is currently deciding what to do with tens of thousands of lower profile suspects locked up in the tiny central African country's overflowing jails. Facing the difficulties of trying so many suspects, and opening old wounds in the process, the Rwandan government said on Monday that thousands could be freed if they admitted their guilt and asked for forgiveness before a deadline next month. Amoussouga said the transfer of high profile ICTR cases would be decided at a later date by the tribunal's chief prosecutor, former Gambian justice minister Hassan Jallow. But he denied reports the ICTR had agreed to set up a joint committee with Rwanda to look at transferring jurisdiction. Media reports said ICTR Chief Registrar Adam Dieng had agreed the move during talks on Monday with Rwandan Justice Minister Edda Mukabagwiza in the Rwandan capital Kigali. "The registrar was in no position to discuss how these transfers could take place," Amoussouga said. "It was a misquote. We have not yet reached the point where a joint committee could be set up." The tribunal has been accused of inefficiency by Rwanda's Tutsi-led government, which overthrew the Hutu regime and ended the genocide. But Amoussouga has rejected those claims, saying 66 people out of 81 indicted have been arrested, including 12 out of 19 members of Rwanda's 1994 transitional government, which is accused of overseeing the slaughter.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 18 Feb 2004 Clamping Killers and Survivors Together ANALYSIS February 18, 2004 Posted to the web February 19, 2004 By Gabriel Gabiro Shyorongi After a brief wait inside a stuffy little house in the middle of a thick banana grove, a small shy man dressed in tired farm clothes and a flat cap made of part cloth, part red mud emerges from the front door clutching a machete. One can't help but immediately try to visualize to how many uses Evariste Ahimana, 50 and a confessed killer, may have put the soiled machete in his hands. At the start of the 1994 genocide, Ahimana and a group of his ethnic Hutu friends and fellow farmers swept through the hills and valleys of this remote Central Rwanda town of Shyorongi rummaging through all possible hideouts for their Tutsi neighbours before killing them. For the 'work' - a popular euphemism for 'killing' - they used machetes, cudgels, hoes, axes or any other farm tool they could lay their hands on. Seven months ago, Ahimana, together with over 10,000 other confessed genocidaires were released after spending varying periods in detention. This followed a presidential decree issued in January 2003 for the release of suspects that had been (or risked spending) in detention without trial longer than they would serve should they be convicted, as well as confessed criminals that had served most of their time in jail. Rwanda's recently enacted genocide law provides for reduced punishments for peasants like Ahimana, especially when they confess and express remorse before a prosecutor. Confessed criminals who are not suspected of being master minders of the genocide, committing rape or having been 'distinguished' killers, serve half of their sentences outside prison doing community work in their areas. Reconciliation is the underlying principle of this law. Ahimana pleaded guilty to clubbing to death a Tutsi neighbour and erstwhile friend called Mulinda. "We picked him up from a house where he had been hiding for some days", narrates Ahimana. "Then, as you know, those were days of killing", he adds before looking away, seemingly expecting one to imagine what had followed. After a pause, Ahimana, still facing away, volunteers details of how he, in the company of five men, attacked and killed Mulinda and several other Tutsi men. "I personally killed Mulinda. I repeatedly hit his head, stomach and back using a cudgel", he says, adding, "We had been told by the authorities that we had to kill or we would be severely punished. I regret what I did". Prior to his release from jail, Ahimana like all the others were taken for a mandatory three month 'solidarity camp', a kind of rehabilitation centre. Top on the subjects taught there were reconciliation and the importance of asking forgiveness from victims and their families. 'I haven't been to their home' From the time Ahimana returned to his home after nine years in jail, he admits he hasn't visited any of Mulinda's surviving family members to ask for forgiveness. "I'm planning to go and see his younger brother and his sister one of these days", he says as he peels some dry mud from his arms. Mulinda's sister and brother live about five hundred metres away from Ahimana's house. From the yard of his house, Ahimana points at both locations. Asked again why he hadn't been to see any relative of Mulinda's as encouraged by the authorities, Ahimana remains evasive. Then, once more facing away, he mutters something to the effect of the necessity to first probe if he is welcome at Mulinda's relatives. He denies harbouring any fear for what would happen if he visited the Mulinda's. "I have seen his brother a couple of times as I went to church. I have also seen his sister", he says. "Each time, we exchanged quick greetings and continued our way", he adds. A trip to Mulinda's Then, albeit with a little hesitation, Ahimana accepts an invitation from Hirondelle to go find Mulinda's brother and talk to him a little more than exchanging quick greetings. Once inside FranÃ§ois Munyambabazi's living room, it is difficult to even suspect that anything ever went wrong between them. Both men show respect and calm. "He hasn't asked me for forgiveness", says Munyambabazi. "But I'm ready to forgive him. That is what this country is all about. It is about giving people second chances regardless of what crimes they committed", he calmly adds reclining in a chair. Ahimana quietly listens. After a long positive speech that would impress any reconciliation enthusiast, Munyambazi with an expression of 'its-your-turn-to-speak', looks at Ahimana. "What we did is a shame", Ahimana explains. "When I look back at those days, I can't believe it was me. Worse still, I can't understand how I did this to your family", he adds. Like Munyambabazi's speech, Ahimana's is a near photocopy of the spirit of the policies sung by all authorities in Rwanda day in, day out. But, when quizzed further about his feelings towards the man sitting before him - a man that brutally killed his brother and presided of the killings of his father and his younger brother - Munyambabazi can no longer keep behind the faÃ§ade. With his index finger pointing at Ahimana, Munyambabazi angrily speaks out. "Look, you have no guarantee to life as long as you haven't asked for forgiveness from me and my family", he says shaking his head. "I can shoot you. In fact, get out of my house quickly", he adds. "These people have no truth. Get out of my house", he repeats. Ahimana, with a face of more fear than surprise, mumbles a farewell and quickly walks out of Munyambabazi's house. Other cases Ahimana and Munyambabazi are not an isolated case. Across Rwanda, victims, killers, suspects and their families are struggling to understand the dynamics of being neighbours as they used to about ten years ago albeit in totally changed circumstances. Jean Tuyisenge, 38, returned from jail and resettled on his little property with his wife and three children in the East Rwanda district of Bicumbi last May. He was released after pleading guilty to killing two young men from his neighbourhood. He says he is now a changed man. "I feel terrible about that period. I wish I hadn't been there", the well-built farmer says quietly. Tuyisenge has been working on his small farm since his return. However, he admits he hasn't done any work on asking for forgiveness from relatives of his victims. "They live quite far away; I need to prepare a lot before I go to see them," he explains. Walking away from Tuyisenge's house, his cousin points at a woman walking along a narrow path in a maize plantation. "That is the lady Tuyisenge was talking to you about". The lady is one of the relatives of Tuyisenge's victims whom he said live "quite a distance away". Tansiana Mukarwego's house is 50 metres from the point where she was. "Those people are unrepentant", she says. "I have seen him pass by several times. I can't stop imagining that he is still a beast". "We shall even share water" Whereas most of the released killers and suspects interviewed by Hirondelle hadn't visited families of their victims to ask for pardon, some appear to have started to mend their relationships. The first stop for Theoneste Habimana, 32, on the day he was released from prison last May, was for the family of his victim. "We saw Theo appearing through the front door. He put down a sack containing his belongings", recalls Maria Mukamusoni, the mother of Habimana's victim. "We didn't know what to say to him. He asked for mercy. We didn't know what to do". Today, Habinama and Mukamusoni both admit that even as good neighbours, they need time to return to pre-war friendship. "I'm sure we shall even share water (a domestic practice that symbolises friendship between neighbours) in future", says Habimana. "Personal initiative" Spokesperson for the ministry of justice, Fidele Masengo denies any suggestion that a process normally flaunted as a quick route to reconciliation and co-existence after the genocide may not exactly have worked. "Reconciliation was not the reason for the release of these people. It was purely a judicial process", says Masengo. However, he concedes reconciliation was a major consideration in the drafting of the genocide law that has relatively reduced sentences. A law that Ahimana has benefited from. "Reconciliation will take longer. We can't put a deadline. It will come as people meet more and more in their day-to-day activities". .

News 24 SA 19 Feb 2004 Thousands confess to genocide Kigali - Rwanda is to release a large number of prisoners accused of participating in the country's 1994 genocide who have confessed to their roles in massacres that claimed the lives of up to a million people, the chief prosecutor said on Thursday. Jean de Dieu Mucyo said that "several tens of thousands" of prisoners have made confessions while in preventative detention but declined to say how many of them would be freed. The release plan comes as Rwanda prepares to commemorate of the 10th anniversary in April of the 1994 genocide where members of the country's Tutsi minority and Hutu sympathisers were killed in 100 days of slaughter by Hutu extremists. Some 22 000 genocide suspects were released temporarily from the country's overcrowded jails in May 2003, pending verdicts from the courts. "Since then many prisoners have made confessions, above all in view of the deadline date", said Mucyo, referring to chance given to suspects to confess before March 15 and have their sentences reduced by as much as half. This means that some suspects have served out in preventative detention more time than the sentences that would have been handed out for their crimes, allowing for their release from jail. International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that some 89 000 prisoners are crowded into the jails of the central African country. Mucyo did not give a date for the release of the prisoners, but said it was unlikely that this would take place before or during the official commemoration of the genocide. The release is set to prove controversial after many survivors of the genocide were shocked by the liberation of the 22 000 suspects in May last year. According to Mucyo, it has yet to be decided if prisoners accused of ethnic "divisionism" and damaging state security, such as former president Pasteur Bizimungu, would be affected by the measure. Solidarity camps' After their release, the prisoners are to be sent to so-called "solidarity camps" for one or two months. The camps are aimed at "re-educating" former fighters and genocide suspects and informing them of the changes in Rwanda since 1994. The backlog of prisoners awaiting trial had forced the Rwandan authorities to use mass trials and also to set up so-called "gacaca", or village courts, across the country to bring the perpetrators of the genocide to justice. The suspected masterminds of the genocide are, however, being tried outside Rwanda at a United Nations court, based in Arusha in neighbouring Tanzania and set up in November 1994. Edited by Elmarie Jack

Reuters 20 Feb 2004 Rwanda asks for minute's silence for genocide By Finbarr O'Reilly KIGALI, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Rwandan officials have asked countries around the world to hold a minute's silence at noon on April 7 to mark the 10th anniversary of the 1994 genocide. "We would like the whole world to hold 10 minutes of silence -- one minute for each year since 1994 -- but some say that's too long," said Ildephonse Karengera, Rwanda's director of the genocide memorial. "The most important thing is to have at least a minute of silence because people must remember what happened here," Karengera told Reuters in an interview in Kigali on Friday. The tiny central African country was plunged into a frenzy of ethnic butchery that saw an average of 8,000 people killed each day in the months after a plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994. In all, about 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slain in about 100 days by Hutu extremists and their followers. Scholars concluded that the killers -- mostly civilians armed with machetes, garden hoes and spiked clubs and spurred on by hate propaganda -- did their work five times faster than the gas chambers used by the Nazis in World War Two. The lack of international response to the genocide was seen by many as a failure of the world community. "The international community must bear its share of responsibility for this tragedy. We did not act quickly enough after the killing began," America's then-president Bill Clinton said in a speech during a visit to Rwanda in 1998. April 7 has been designated by the United Nations as an "International Day of Reflection" for Rwanda, which will host a conference on the prevention of genocide and a week of memorial services. About 20 heads of state, including U.S. President George W. Bush, are among dignitaries invited for the anniversary. Memorial events on April 7 will include speeches and a march from downtown Kigali to the Gisozi genocide museum, where tens of thousands of skulls and skeletons are on display in glass cases and tombs in a valley below the hilly capital. Karengera would not give the cost of the memorial services until the number of visiting dignitaries was confirmed. He said the three-day conference on genocide would run from April 4 to 6 in Kigali and that various memorial events would continue until a closing ceremony on April 13. The genocide was halted when Tutsi rebels overthrew the Hutu extremists, thousands of whom fled into the lawless jungles of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The rebels went on to form Rwanda's current government.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 23 Feb 2004 Rwanda To Hold Large 10th Genocide Anniversary Kigali Plans are underway in Rwanda to hold the biggest genocide commemoration event in the country since the 1994 genocide. April 7th, 2004 will be exactly ten years since the start of 100 days of genocide in which an estimated one million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. "It is a big event. It is a time to look back at what has happened since the genocide and to probe whether any lessons have been learnt", James Smith, Executive Director of Aegis Trust, a UK-based organization working with the government on preparations for the event, told Hirondelle News Agency. "There will be questions for the international community on how it would react if another Rwanda happened today", he added. "Many heads of state and other individuals that have been engaged in Rwanda since the genocide have been invited to attend the ceremonies", said Smith. Among the major events scheduled to take place on April 7th will be the opening of the first genocide memorial centre in the country. This event will be followed by a ceremony at the national stadium in the capital city, Kigali. There are also plans to light one of the hills of Kigali making it the brightest spot on earth that night. The light is meant to symbolize a bright future for the country. Many other events are being organized in all provinces. Every event will also include testimonies of genocide survivors.

News 24 SA 24 Feb 2004 Grim tales of genocide unfold 2 Bisesero - Every day in Bisesero, survivors of one of the worst killing fields in Rwanda's 1994 genocide gather on top of a hill where a memorial to the slaughters is nearing completion. When it rains, they huddle in the only available shelter, a hut housing the bones of their dead relatives, relics that will be the centrepiece of the memorial. Aron Gakono, a gaunt man of 51, leaning on a stick, commands respect despite his ragged clothes, which are topped off with a blazer and a felt hat. During the 1994 genocide, when the extremist Hutu government then in power tried to eliminate Rwanda's minority Tutsis, Gakono was one of the leaders of a Tutsi resistance group that held out for almost three months on the Bisesero hills, which lie in the west of the central African country. Once the genocide started on April 7, 1994, Tutsis from the whole region converged on Bisesero, numbering an estimated 50 000 at their height. They held out with spears, stones and the odd gun for just over a month, but their attempt to resist enraged their assailants, led and organized by local dignatories, causing them to redouble their attacks. By the end of June, just over 1 000 Tutsis were left alive in Bisesero. Of the one million people that the Rwandan government estimates died in the genocide, one twentieth of them died in Bisesero. Those who survived, nearly all of them men, are haunted by their memories. Gakono lost his wife and five of his seven children at Bisesero. His wife was crucified and impaled on a bamboo pole while nailed to the cross. "You not only have to live with the pain," he said bitterly. "You have to live with the pain and you go hungry." What he and his fellow survivors find hardest to accept is that the killers pick up the pieces of their lives with relative ease once they come out of prison. "Okay, they were in prison, but they come out, their wives and children are there and their wives and children have cultivated their land all the time they were in prison," Gakono said. Little has been done to help survivors, he said. A few kilometres down the hill, in Mubuga, Karoli Ntagwabira, a peasant farmer of 34, who also sells banana beer in the village bar on market days, locked himself and his visitors into a small room rank with the smell of beer at the back of the bar before telling his story. His eyes bloodshot, beer on his breath, he told how he was freed from prison after six years after admitting to having clubbed four people to death in 1994 and to having taken part in all the massacres in the Bisesero area. Karoli himself has suffered. When he was first arrested in 1997 he spent almost a year in an improvised lockup where conditions were so bad that the prisoners died at the rate of twenty a day. "It's a lot more difficult for a survivor who lost his wife in 1994 than for somebody like me who just has a heavy heart," he said.

NYT 26 Feb 2004 10 Years Later in Rwanda, the Dead Are Ever Present By MARC LACEY MURAMBI, Rwanda — If, for whatever reason, one has the desire to relive the horror of the Rwandan massacre of 10 years ago, Emmanuel Murangira is the man to see. Mr. Murangira, 48, is a survivor of a schoolyard blood bath that killed tens of thousands of people seeking refuge on the hilltop campus of a technical school here that has become one of the country's many memorials to the dead. He walks soberly and silently as he guides visitors down the hallways. He unlocks classroom after classroom and pushes open the doors. "This is genocide," he says. Inside, the rooms are full of the partially preserved remains of hundreds of those who were killed by Hutu extremists. The stench is overpowering. The scene is worse still. Closer inspection of the remains, which have been treated with a traditional substance to slow decomposition, reveals exactly in what manner many of them died. A woman has her arms over her face, as if protecting herself from attack. One of her forearms has been hacked off. Another, a youngster, has a thin crack across his skull, the imprint of a machete. All across Rwanda, there are similar scenes of butchery, preserved by survivors just as they were. But with the 10th anniversary of the mass killing approaching in April, the Rwandan authorities are working to bury the bones while still preserving the memories of the estimated 800,000 Tutsi, who make up a minority in the country, and moderate Hutus who died. "We want the memorials to be centers for the exchange of ideas, not collections of bones," said Ildephonse Karengera, the country's director of memorials. But just what to do with all the remains is the question. Some want the bones displayed for as long as they last as evidence of what happened, just in case doubters emerge. But Rwandans traditionally bury their dead and some people say it is disrespectful to leave so many bones and bodies exposed. A compromise is emerging, one that calls for burying more bodies without sanitizing the horror of what occurred. "For those who say it is undignified to show bones, we're burying them, in a sense, behind dark glass," said Dr. James Smith, who runs Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Center in Britain and is working with the Rwandan government to revamp some of its memorials. "For those who say it is necessary to see the death, we're accommodating them, too." The memorials are just one part of Rwanda's attempt to recover from the events of 1994. The Tutsi-led government that now runs Rwanda has eliminated ethnicity from identity cards and made it a crime to say or do anything that can be construed as "divisionist." As for prosecuting those who killed, an international tribunal is slowly working its way through the big fish while Rwandan courts handle the lieutenants. With too many offenders to possibly try, President Paul Kagame recently released tens of thousands of people from jail and ordered them to face community trials, known as gacacas. Those proceedings, which will begin countrywide in the coming months, are already having one unforeseen effect. Defendants are pointing out with more specificity where the killing occurred, and more remains are being found. Some bodies were dumped into latrines. Others have spent the last decade in swamps. Mass graves are being dug up, as well. Rwanda hopes the 10th anniversary will attract worldwide attention to the country, its past but also its attempts to recover. On the morning of April 7, the date the killing began in earnest, the government is planning a somber march through the city, followed by 10 minutes of silence. The main memorial in Kigali will officially open its doors. The federal government intends to focus its attention on a handful of main memorials. Local jurisdictions will maintain other sites. But locals will be encouraged to begin using some properties again, despite the unimaginable things that happened there. "Everybody wants a memorial," Mr. Karengera said. "But the whole country can't be covered with memorials. We're a small country. We can't live with that kind of chaos." Thanks to donations from Rwanda's former colonial power, Belgium, and the foundation run by former President Bill Clinton, work is under way on an education center at the school in Murabi that will tell the story of the killings without offering up so much first-hand evidence. Mr. Murangira narrowly escaped death himself. He was shot in the head during the attack on the school. But somehow, hidden under corpses and bleeding from his head, he managed to live. There were only three other survivors that day and Mr. Murangira, with a deep indentation in his forehead from where the bullet was removed, wants to make sure that the attack is never forgotten. The smell, the sight, he can deal with that. "Those who smell are my relatives," he said. "How can I mind?" All the same, Mr. Murangira is thrilled that a permanent memorial will soon take the place of his ad hoc effort to keep the victims' memories alive. "It's hard for me to be here," he said. "But I cannot leave before they put things in order." A similar overhaul is planned for the church in Ntarama, west of Kigali, where the space between the pews is filled with human remains and bloody clothes. In the back, survivors of the massacre here have lined up skulls, reserving a special row for the children. "I want people to see the bones," said Pacific Rutaganda, 48, who survived the church slaughter but lost his sisters, parents and in-laws inside. "I don't want them buried away. There is no way if you see this that you can say genocide never happened. Genocide happened." He then began pointing at the skulls, indicating the weapon used to kill each person. "This is an ax," he said, noting a huge gash in the temple of one victim. "This is a bullet. Here's an arrow and here's a club." Dancilla Nyirabanzungu said her family was somewhere in the church. She lost her husband, 2 children and 15 other relatives in April 1994. Pregnant at the time, she survived because bodies collapsed on top of her and the killers assumed she was dead, too. Soon afterward, though, she gave birth to a boy, whom she named Hakizimana, or Only God Can Save. He is nearly 10 now, and he knows little about what happened in the year of his birth. He knows that his father died with all the others in the church. And he knows his mother is drawn to the place, sitting on the front step just about every day. But for him, the church yard is a playground, one that attracts many visitors. "People keep coming," he said.

Deutsche Presse Agentur 2 Feb 2004 Fresh fighting in Sudan threatens peace process Khartoum (dpa) - At least 50 people have been killed in renewed fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and pro-government southern Sudanese militias in the Upper Nile region of Sudan, according to officials on Monday. The clashes are another blow to the increasingly shaky Sudanese peace process, following the unexpected suspension of peace talks between the SPLA and the Sudanese government in Kenya last week. SPLA forces are said to have attacked pro-government militia troops in the government-controlled counties of Ogot, Nakdiar and Panyikango, around the Upper Nile state capital of Malakal. Militia sources said 12 soldiers died in Ogot, while fighting in Panyikango and Nakdiar claimed 18 and 11 lives respectively. No casualty figures were available from the SPLA side. Officials said fighting began when forces loyal to southern leader and former Minister of Transport Lam Akol overran a government garrison in the town of Tonga, killing eight and wounding dozens. Governor of Upper Nile State Dak Dwop Bishok downplayed the significance of the fighting, and told Deutsche Presse-Agenter dpa that the ongoing insurgencies had nothing to do with the government. He warned that the Sudanese army would intervene if the situation continued to deteriorate. Some wounded had been taken by military plane for treatment in Khartoum. Roads leading in and out of Malakal have been closed to civilian traffic. A planned visit to the Upper Nile town of Nasser by officials from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was called off due to security concerns. Hundreds of villagers, forced out of their homes by the outbreak of clashes, are taking refuge in the town. The renewed fighting will adversely affect the work of NGOs in the region, an official told dpa on condition of anonymity. Rumours of new offensives are rife in Malakal amid the apparent movement of reinforcements by both sides. Militia Commander James Othow declined to comment on the latest fighting, but advised against travel outside the town on security grounds. The clashes have provoked despair amid citizens of the region and dampened hopes that recent progress in the peace process, including a deal on the sharing of oil wealth, would draw a line under Africa's longest-running civil war. "We are very, very depressed with the renewed fighting'', said 55-year-old Nyakal Akot, questioning the ability of the international community to bring the warring factions to the negotiating table.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 3 Feb2004 Sudan: Massive abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law in Darfur As fighting and displacement of civilians intensifies in Darfur, western Sudan, Amnesty International is requesting all parties to the conflict to respect international human rights and humanitarian law at all times. Massive abuses of human rights in the region are documented in a new 43-page report entitled: Sudan: Darfur: "Too many people killed for no reason". In an attempt to end the escalating armed conflict in Darfur, Sudanese government forces and government-aligned militia (the "Janjawid") are threatening the lives, liberty and property of hundreds of thousands of civilians through indiscriminate bombings, killings, torture, including rape of women and girls, arrests, abductions and forced displacement. Since the start, in February 2003, of the conflict between the Darfur-based Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the government in Khartoum, hundreds of thousands have either been displaced within the region or sought refuge across the border in Chad. During a visit to the refugees in eastern Chad in November 2003, Amnesty International delegates recorded numerous testimonies from Sudanese refugees. They reported attacks on villages and towns by both government-aligned militia and government soldiers. The nature of the killings committed by government soldiers and by the Janjawid point to a pattern of extrajudicial executions and unlawful killings. "There is clear evidence of cooperation between government forces and government-aligned militia. The Sudanese government should cease all support and supplies to the Janjawid or establish a clear chain of command and control over them, including making them accountable for abuses of international humanitarian law," Amnesty International said. The Sudanese authorities have neither condemned the numerous cases of grave human rights abuses committed in Darfur, nor conducted transparent and impartial investigations into them. "By its silence in the face of abuses, the Sudanese government is condoning or encouraging further abuses. Government forces and its aligned militia must immediately end the targeting of civilians," Amnesty International said. Civilians seeking refuge internally or across the border in Chad have also been attacked. In Darfur, the humanitarian crisis is growing, as access to the displaced and the victims of the conflict remains very limited for humanitarian organizations, due to insecurity and government restrictions. Humanitarian assistance to the refugees in Chad is not only hampered by harsh living conditions and the remoteness of the region, but also by insecurity. On 29 January, bombs were dropped by the Sudanese government in the Chadian town of Tina, killing at least three civilians and wounding twelve others. Amnesty International is also calling on the government-opposed armed political groups the SLM/A and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and on the government-aligned militia to respect at all times international humanitarian law binding on all parties to internal armed conflicts and to respect and protect the lives and livelihoods of civilians in all areas under their control. Amnesty International repeats its calls for urgent and unrestricted humanitarian access to Darfur, for human rights monitors to investigate attacks on civilians in the region and for an independent and impartial Commission of Inquiry into the complex human rights situation in the region. The organization is calling for the grave human rights abuses committed in the region to be addressed in any future peace negotiations on Darfur. For the full report in English, please go to: http://www.web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr540082004

Center for the Prevention of Genocide 10 Feb 2004 www.genocideprevention.org The Sudanese government declared victory over the rebel groups that have been fighting against exclusionary policies, applied by state officials in region, for almost a year. President Omar al-Beshir formally declared “the end of all military operations” in the region; all three states within Greater Darfur are now officially “completely in government hands.” Unconfirmed reports of at least 700,000 internally displaced persons, and confirmed reports of more than 110,000 refugees fleeing across the border into Chad, have led to many humanitarian organizations to call for access to this region. Until this week, however, the Sudanese government has refused to grant any person of foreign origin access to the Darfur region, citing instability caused by the ongoing conflict as safety concerns. The Center for the Prevention of Genocide strongly encourages the Sudanese government to grant humanitarian organizations immediate and full access to that region. Many such organizations have repeatedly stated their willingness to assist these internally displaced persons. In addition, transparency in the Darfur region will enable the international community to either confirm or disprove reports of massacres of innocent Darfurians committed by Arab-armed militia known as Janjaweed amid military operations. The health and livelihood of these reported populations depend on the swift mobilization of humanitarian organizations and humanitarian aid.

Center for the Prevention of Genocide 11 Feb 2004 www.genocideprevention.org Suspects Massacres Continue in Darfur, Sudan DARFUR, SUDAN – The attacks continue in Western Sudan despite the Sudanese president Omar al-Beshir’s declaration that the rebels have been ‘crushed’ and that the Sudanese army is now in control of the region. Yesterday afternoon, roughly 80 kilometers West of Nyala, additional villages have been attacked by the Janjaweed, a government-aligned, Arab-militia. Ground sources have reported that the following villages have been destroyed and are currently blocked off by the militia - Shataya, Derlewa, Ai Bo, Ai Bela, Magara, and Romalia. The Sudanese foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, has been quoted reporting that the government has opened 10 corridors in Darfur for relief agencies to move through. However, ground sources report that many of the corridors have not yet been opened.

News 24 SA 14 Feb 2004 Dozens dead in Darfur: rebels Sudan set for bumper harvest Sudan welcomes Chad mediation Sudanese forces bomb town Refugees living in the desert A hotbed of exotic diseases Cairo - Dozens of civilians have been killed in Sudan's western Darfur region in the past 48 hours in a major offensive staged by army troops and their Arab militia allies, a rebel spokesperson said on Saturday. Bahr Ibrahim, speaking for the Sudan Liberation Movement - the largest rebel group active in Darfur - said troops and militia had "killed dozens of civilians and burnt more than 200 villages" in the offensive launched on Thursday. Ibrahim, who spoke to reporters by telephone, said army Antonov aircraft had bombarded the area north and northeast of the village of Kuttum, in the north of the region - an area he said was entirely populated by civilians. The spokesperson accused the Sudanese army and its militia allies of pursuing a policy of "ethnic cleansing", saying the attacks - which were ongoing on Saturday - had targeted villages whose residents belonged to non-Arab ethnic groups. Destroyed every water source "They also destroyed every water source in this arid area," Ibrahim said. "The local population fled to the bushes or the mountains." Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir said on Monday that the army had crushed a year-old rebellion in the Darfur region, declaring an end to hostilities there and offering a general amnesty to rebels who surrender their weapons. But on Thursday, a spokesperson for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement said that the rebels had retaken several towns and road links from government forces in the semi-desert area. About three thousand people have been killed and another 670 000 displaced within Sudan itself by the war pitting government troops and their Arab militia allies against rebels drawn mainly from the region's non-Arab minorities. Another 100 000 Sudanese are estimated to have fled across the border into Chad because of the rebellion that erupted a year ago over the Darfur region's alleged economic neglect by the government. Edited by Tricia Shannon

Center for the Prevention of Genocide 17 Feb 2004 www.genocideprevention.org Massacres Confirmed: 81 Dead in Darfur ARLINGTON, VA - The Center for the Prevention of Genocide has received confirmation of the massacre of 81 innocent civilians in Darfur, Sudan. Janjaweed, an Arab militia aligned with the Sudanese government, killed the victims during a February 10 attack on the town of Shatatya and its surrounding villages. This report verifies suspicions that violence continues in Darfur despite government claims that the Sudanese army maintains control in the region. On-the-ground sources have additionally reported the abduction of 32 teenage girls by popular defense forces. This abduction occurred in Mukjar, a town currently inundated with thousands of internally displaced persons in Wadi Saleh province. The Darfur region of southern Sudan is divided between Arab and indigenous African populations. Increasingly, the Janjaweed militia is looting and burning local villages in an attempt to displace the indigenous African people. UNHCR estimates that about 110,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to neighboring Chad while more than 800,000 IDPs are estimated to be in Darfur itself. These numbers have been growing rapidly in recent months. Despite government attempts to conceal the brutal nature of the recurrent violence, sources in Darfur continue to come forward with reports of abuse. Website: www.genocideprevention.org

Center for the Prevention of Genocide 18 Feb 2004 www.genocideprevention.org TRIBAL LEADERS ARRESTED AFTER USAID MEETING DARFUR, SUDAN – Friday, February 13 – The Center for the Prevention of Genocide has confirmed the arrest of tribal leaders in Darfur by the Sudanese government. In a clear case of minority and political oppression, the leaders were arrested in the town of Nyala following their meeting with representatives from USAID. A Sudanese government official confirmed that the detainees are being held indefinitely. The arrests occurred after Sudanese Fur tribe representatives met with US officials to provide first hand accounts of the genocidal violence and humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Among the detainees is Mr. Salah Eldin Mohamed Fadul, the Acting Sultan of the Fur tribe. The Sudanese military has denied all outside access to the Darfur region. This forced isolation has effectively blocked humanitarian efforts of international organizations, relief agencies, media, and diplomatic envoys for over a year. The ensuing media blackout has allowed numerous attacks on local villages by Government aligned Janjaweed Arab militias to go unreported. In spite of the Sudanese president’s claim that the region is under “government control” 81 civilians were massacred just seven days ago in the village of Shatatya.

IRIN 18 Feb 2004 Pro-government militias massacre 81 in Western Darfur, says rights group This elderly woman suffered burns in an earlier attack on Gosmino, Western Darfur NAIROBI, 18 Feb 2004 (IRIN) - A US-based human rights group has claimed that 81 civilians in the war-affected Western Darfur region Sudan were last week massacred by Arab militia groups aligned with the Sudanese government. The Center for the Prevention of Genocide (CPG) said it had received confirmation that the massacres were perpetrated by the Janjawid militia, during an attack on the town of Shatatya and its surrounding villages on 10 February. Sources also reported the abduction of 32 teenaged girls by government forces, in Mugjar, a town currently inundated by thousands of internally displaced persons in the Wadi Salih area (near the border with Chad), CPG said in a statement. "Despite government attempts to conceal the brutal nature of the recurrent violence, sources in Darfur continue to come forward with reports of abuse," it said. However, the Sudanese ambassador to Uganda has denied any government involvement in the massacres. The ambassador, Siraj al-Din Hamid, told IRIN from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that sanctioning militia attacks on civilians contradicted his government's overall objective of bringing stability to the region. "The government cannot initiate attacks against people," Siraj al-Din said. "These things are just ignited. It could be about cattle or land, but it has nothing to do with the government or the rebel groups," he added. Violence in Darfur, a region shared by Arab and indigenous African populations, has in recent weeks resulted in the internal displacement of up to 800,000, while about 130,000 people have fled to neighbouring Chad, according to humanitarian agencies. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun airlifting food aid to thousand of Sudanese refugees in Chad. It said it planned to send more than 256 t of aid supplies to 110,000 Sudanese refugees currently scattered along the Chadian side of a 600-km strip of the remote border. The airlift, it said, coincided with an ongoing emergency relocation of tens of thousands of refugees on the insecure border to safer camps further inland in Chad before the start of the rainy season in May. Nearly 4,000 refugees had been transported so far to two new camps, UNHCR said in a statement. "Obviously, we’ve still got a long way to go in this race against time and the elements," Ron Redmond, a spokesman for UNHCR, said. The UN World Food Programme (WFP), meanwhile, is airlifting food aid into Darfur to help "alleviate the suffering" of thousands of people displaced by the conflict there. About 500 t of sorghum was airlifted to Al-Fashir, the regional capital of Northern Darfur, as an interim measure to ensure that food reaches people who have been cut off since November. However, WFP expressed concern over insecurity, which, it said, was continuing to prevent it from transporting food overland from its main warehouses to key supply points in Al-Fashir and Nyala, the regional capital of Southern Darfur. "We are not planning a massive airlift to the region, since we hope that road transportation will be re-established very soon," Bradley Guerrant, the WFP’s deputy country director for Sudan, said in a statement. Getachew Diriba, the WFP's senior programme officer for Sudan, who accompanied an EU delegation to Junaynah in Western Darfur, said the situation there was "very, very alarming". "All they have to protect them is the sky of Junaynah. No matter how seriously wounded they are, there is hardly anything to alleviate their suffering," Getachew asserted.

Mathaba.net 21 Feb 2004 Hapless Arabs Seek Foothold in South Sudan, After Supporting Genocide Posted: 02/21 From: Mathaba The Arab League on Friday held its first investment conference on southern Sudan, part of its efforts to make unity more attractive to southern rebels while peace talks are under way. The conference took place in Egypt, safely in an Arab capital far from the war-torn south Sudan region. Earlier, an Arab League official, Samir Hosni, speaking on the sidelines of the conference, said a peace accord being negotiated by the Khartoum Arab-Islamist dictatorship and southern non-Arab south Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels was expected to be signed before March 11. About 200 Arab businessmen participated in the investment and development conference, aimed at luring investment into the region and preventing the partition of Africa's largest country. A Sudanese dictatorship delegation attended the meeting, but there was no representation by the non-Arab south Sudan SPLA. The Arab League "wanted to invite the SPLA to this conference but the Sudanese government vigorously opposed it and stressed it was the legal representative of Sudan at the league," Hosni, the league's point man on Sudan, told reporters. Hosni added that despite the SPLA absence, the Arab League hoped the conference would result in development projects for the marginalized region, "which will render the southerners more enthusiastic about the idea of a unified Sudan". "The hapless Arabs are clearly deluding themselves yet again and have smoked too much hashish", one Sudan analyst said. "To think they can hold a conference in an Arab capital, outside Sudan, and talk of coming in to profit in South Sudan after decades of genocide, supported by Arab regimes, and by chemical weapons supplied to the [Sudanese Arab] dictatorship by Iraq, they not only think Africans are stupid but also sub-human. How could people forget that in the south Sudan alone 2 million people lost there lives, every family has been seperated and traumatised by Arabs?" the analyst said. "We want unity to be an attractive option, but even if ... the southern rebels opt for separation, the Arabs will pursue their interests in the south of Sudan," Hosni said. In a keynote speech, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said Arab investment funds "have pledged 1.8 billion dollars for infrastructure projects in the north and the south of Sudan, of which 180 million have already been awarded to the Sudanese government [dictatorship] to launch road construction and purification projects," he said. "The 'Arab interests' are manifestly clear, 2 million dead speak volumes. 'Purification projects' could mean Islamization, or Arabization, or even a return to the genocidal release of germs upon the African population" one south Sudan commentator noted.

BBC 23 Feb 2004 Sudan's Darfur still inaccessible Thousands of displaced people are in need of relief supplies Continued fighting in Sudan's Darfur region, is denying aid agencies access to victims of the conflict, a member of the European parliament has said. Richard Howitt, said only 15% of the victims of the war have access to humanitarian aid in the region. Mr Howitt a British member of the European Union delegation that toured the area in western Sudan told the BBC that the area is still unsafe. More than 600,000 have fled clashes, with some 100,000 crossing into Chad. 'Systematic denial' "There is direct evidence that military confrontation is continuing. The Islamist militia, the Janjaweed, supported by the government are running riot in most of the countryside," Mr Howitt said. "Q&A: Darfur conflict" The government has however denied supporting the Islamist militia who have been fighting against Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebels in the area. Mr Howitt said at least 40% of the area is out of bounds for aid agencies, despite the rising number of people being driven out by the fighting. "There has been a systematic pattern of denial of travel to aid agencies and journalists by military intelligence to Darfur in western Sudan." he said. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had earlier announced that they had opened up corridors for aid agencies to access victims of the conflict in Darfur. The rebellion began a year ago, when non-Arabs took up arms complaining of neglect by Khartoum. The United Nations has begun supplying emergency aid to some of those affected by the Darfur fighting but many areas are inaccessible by road. The Sudanese government has said it is in full control of the Darfur region, but rebels insist they control much of the countryside and say they have launched a new front.

Reuters 25 Feb 2004 West Sudan rebels say moving towards Khartoum - KHARTOUM, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Rebels from western Sudan said on Wednesday they had opened a new front to show the government the remote area was not alone in its demands for equal treatment and a share in the oil exporter's resources. Two rebel groups launched a revolt in the western Darfur region a year ago, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the arid area and arming Arab militias to loot and burn African villages. The United Nations warns of a humanitarian crisis with about a million Sudanese fleeing the fighting. "This means we are fighting a guerrilla war against the government and we can strike them in many places," said rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) leader Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur, adding the SLA also had troops in northern Sudan. "Two days ago we attacked government forces in their camp about 100 kms (60 miles) north of El-Obeid," he said, referring to the capital of Northern Kordofan state, which borders Darfur. El-Obeid is less than 400 kms (250 miles) southeast of the capital, Khartoum. "If there's no peace in Darfur there'll not be peace in any part of Sudan," Nur told Reuters from the Darfur region. He added the SLA had signed an agreement to launch joint operations with an eastern rebel group called the Beja Congress. Sudan's armed forces spokesman was unavailable for comment. Army sources have previously said they would not comment on the Darfur conflict to dampen media coverage of the troubles. Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the other rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said his movement had launched a failed offensive to take Southern Kordofan state 45 days ago. "The government defeated us and arrested 161 of our men," he told Reuters from his Paris base. "We kept this secret to protect the men in prison, but they killed four of them until now so we are announcing it."

BBC 2 Feb 2004 Rwanda tribunal in turmoil By Noel Mwakugu BBC News Online After eight years in slow motion, proceedings at the international court charged with prosecuting the main perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have picked up pace recently. Hassan Jallow's appointment has quickened proceedings but at what cost? Since the appointment of a new chief prosecutor and the posting of a number of extra judges to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) last year there have been several new convictions. A total of 18 people have now been convicted for their part in the 100 days of killing in which some 800,000 people were slaughtered, including the recent convictions of three key "hate media" executives. This progress has pleased critics concerned that the process could drag on indefinitely. And at a cost of $177m last year, there is a growing realisation that it cannot go on for ever. But this quickening pace has also angered defence lawyers so much that a two-day strike disrupted hearings last week. On average two sittings are now being held daily at the tribunal, which is based in Arusha, in northern Tanzania. 'Defence limited' Defence lawyers say this quicker pace is bad for the pursuit of justice. Under these circumstances we feel that the tribunal cannot portray a fair image required by international law Prof Peter Erlinder Professor Peter Erlinder, a spokesman for the defence, says the tribunal set up actually limits the defence team in preparing for the cases. " We have been saying this for the past seven years but the issues are not being addressed by the registry, " he told BBC News Online. He says the defence is not convinced that the convictions of the those already sentenced by the tribunal were even fair since they were unable to present their cases competently. Unfair Prof Erlinder notes that the defence lawyers are denied an opportunity to investigate their cases adequately unlike the prosecutors. For instance, resources to undertake their research and investigations on the cases before the tribunal have been cut back, he claims. "Under these circumstances we feel that the tribunal cannot portray a fair image required by international law" he said. He said their access to clients at the United Nations Detention Facility (UNDF) in Arusha is restricted and therefore their operations are curtailed. Prof Erlinder says these unresolved issues led 40 detainees to boycott the proceedings and effectively instruct them to stop appearing before the tribunal. The strike is now over, but their grievances have still to be resolved. Crucial case Their arguments are rejected by the ICTR spokesman Roland Amoussouga. He says adequate resources have been provided for the defence teams under the tribunal's legal aid system. Some 800,000 people were killed during the 1994 genocide Mr Amoussouga notes that out of the 81 people indicted, 65 are in custody and have been assigned lawyers to defend them by the tribunal. " We provide for the necessary requirements but our budget is not open ended, excessive claims cannot be met," said Mr Amoussouga. He said the tribunal is concerned that the stoppages by the defence counsel comes when testimony is being given at a crucial case for the tribunal. The lawyers' strike has affected the proceedings of a case involving Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, a former top defence official. " We are open to negotiations over issues raised, but the right procedures should be followed to avoid derailing what has been achieved so far," said Mr Amoussouga. Sensitive issue The BBC's Great Lakes Service reporter Ernest Sagaga says that one group that has been impressed with recent developments is the Rwandan Government Until Carla Del Ponte was replaced last year as the chief prosecutor at the tribunal there was a great deal of tension with the Rwandan administration which accused her of inefficiency. In her defence, she claimed the government was uncomfortable with her plans to investigate the involvement of former Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) soldiers in the genocide. Our reporter says the issue is sensitive - since most of the soldiers are in government or are politically connected to it. If the new chief prosecutor Hassan Jallow opts to revisit the investigations on RPF soldiers then there is bound to be trouble from the government again. Their stance is that the soldiers were preventing the genocide, he says. However this raises questions as to how the tribunal expects to pursue justice impartially when only one side will be investigated. This is a difficult one for the tribunal to sweep under the carpet indefinitely. But any move to broaden out the scope of the tribunal's investigations at the moment would only risk further battles and a reduction in its momentum that it can ill afford.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 10 Feb 2004 Synthesis: General Romeo Dallaire's Testimony Arusha The trial of four senior officers of the former Rwandan army shifted into high gear when General Romeo Dallaire, former commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR), testified at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He was in the witness box from January 19 to 27. Dallaire's former aid-de-camp, Major Peter Beardsley, then testified next in support of the former Canadian general's testimony. Maj. Beardsley finished testifying last week. Dallaire, 58, went to Rwanda for the very first time in August 1993 as a part of an evaluation mission. He arrived at a time when the country was engulfed in political turmoil as well as a civil war that pitted the Hutu-dominated government and the Tutsi-led Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF). Two months later, the United Nations Security Council decided to send a peacekeeping force under the command of Gen. Dallaire. In the meantime, the protagonists had signed peace accords in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. Setback When the massacres started after the killing of president Juvenal Habyarimana on the night of April 6, 1994, Dallaire came to the conclusion that what the Arusha Peace Accords stood for "was lost". According to him, opposition to the accords were rife both within the Habyarimana's "inner circle", and within the RPF. The witness pointed out the former director of cabinet in the Rwandan ministry of defence, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, as spearheading the hardliners within the president's entourage. Bagosora is one of the accused in this trial. The prosecution alleges that Bagosora is the "mastermind" of the genocide that claimed the lives of an estimated one million people within a hundred days. Dallaire did not mince his words. "It was Bagosora who held the real power. He even overshadowed higher-ranked officers", said the general. Dallaire continued that UNAMIR's position was that Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, was the legitimate person to fill the constitutional vacuum left by the death of the president. During the very first meeting of the crisis committee called on the night of April 6, Bagosora rejected the idea of handing over power to the Prime minister arguing that "the population has no confidence in her". According to the Canadian general, such an attitude reflected a total rejection of the Arusha accords, adding that it was more or less a Coup d' Etat. Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana was assassinated on the morning of April 7, 1994. All through the turmoil, Bagosora is said to have remained calm and undisturbed. "It was as though everything was going according to plan", or alternatively, "as though he was living on another planet". "The plan aimed at exterminating the opposition" Gen. Dallaire let it out that the "plan" was to eliminate all political opposition recognised by the Arusha accords. He however pointed out that with the extent of the killings, it was difficult to imagine that someone could have been able to plan the death of 800,000 people. It is "impossible that a plan to carry out such a holocaust could have existed". He blames the wide-scale killings to "overspills" that came to add up to what had been planned "on the political side". Dallaire also revealed that there were some moderate elements within both the army and political circles who did not want war. He continued that "maybe between 40 and 70 percent" of the army were tired of war and wanted a ceasefire, while the rest were still in doubt as to the intentions of the RPF following its military and political gains. General Dallaire accuses the UN Information available to UNAMIR from an informer, former militia member Jean-Pierre Turatsinze, revealed that long before the 1994 genocide, the army had trained and distributed weapons to civilians. The informer claimed that the militia had the "capacity to kill one thousand Tutsis in twenty minutes". Going by the information, Gen. Dallaire sent a telegram to his superiors in New York in January 1994 seeking authorisation to mount an operation to seek and recover hidden arms. The witness revealed that the UN turned down his request arguing that an operation of that kind "did not lie within UNAMIR's mandate". In his book, "Shake hands with the devil", in which Major Beardsley also contributed, the former UN forces commander is nevertheless convinced that the operation would have helped fend off or limit the massacres. In his view, the arms proliferation was made worse by the civil wars in both Uganda and Burundi. Both camps were equally guilty Even though Dallaire's principal target is Colonel Theoneste Bagosora and the "inner circle", he did not spare the RPF. "None of the two parties was inclined towards the application of the peace accords", pointed out the General. He added that UNAMIR expected both sides to respect the status quo and not rearm as they waited for installation of the transitional institutions. Instead, as Dallaire explained, the Rwandan government army was rearming and redeploying battalions all over the country. On the other hand the RPF commander Paul Kagame had predicted on April 2, 1994 that "we are on the brink of a catastrophe, and no one would be able to control it once it was triggered off". "It seems they (the government and the RPF) did not understand the full meaning of the accords", lamented Dallaire. Bagosora's defence teams strongly contested the version of events put forth by the Canadian General. According to the lead counsel, Raphael Constant (Franco-Martinique), Dallaire had made up a wrong image of his client. Bagosora is jointly charged with the former head of military operations of the army, Brigadier Gratien Kabiligi, the former army commander of Gisenyi region, Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, and the former commander of the Para-commando battalion in Kanombe (Kigali), Major Aloys Ntabakuze. The trial is taking place in Trial Chamber One of the ICTR composed of Judge Erik MÃ¸se from Norway (presiding), Judge Serguei Aleckseievich Egorov from Russia, and Judge Jai Ram Reddy of Fiji.

AFP 18 feb 2004 UN Rwanda court mulls transfer of cases to Kigali AFP[ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2004 10:09:02 PM ] ARUSHA: The UN court for Rwanda, set up to try the instigators of the country's 1994 genocide, is considering transferring some of its cases to the authorities in Kigali, the Hirondelle agency reported Wednesday. A spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said that its chief clerk, Adama Dieng, had held a meeting on the issue with Rwandan officials on Monday in Kigali. The UN resolution that created the tribunal allows the court to hand cases involving mid-ranking accused to national authorities so it can keep to its timetable of closing all investigations by the end of this year and completing trials by 2008. "The regulations of the court allow us to do this," said the spokesman, Roland Amoussouga during a news conference at the court's seat in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. He said Dieng's talks in Kigali had also looked into the possibility of individuals convicted by the Arusha court of serving out their sentences in jails in Rwanda. So far, no-one found guilty by the court has been sent to a Rwandan prison, although the tribunal's statutes say terms can be served either in Rwanda or in another country designated by the court. Since its creation in November 1994, the court has handed out 17 guilty verdicts and one acquittal. Up to a million people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed during 100 days of planned slaughter by Hutu extremists from April to July of 1994.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 23 Feb 2004 Interhamwe Could Kill Soldiers From The Government, Says Witness Arusha A prosecution witness in the "Military I" involving the former director of cabinet in the Rwandan ministry of defence, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora on Monday told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) during cross-examination that the Interahamwe could kill soldiers from the government. Bagosora is jointly charged with the former commander of the Kanombe Para-military battalion based in Kigali, Major Aloys Ntabakuze the former head of operations in the former Rwandan army, Brigadier General Gratien Kabiligi, and the former military commander of Gisenyi region, Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva. They are mostly charged with Conspiracy to Commit Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. All have pleaded not guilty. The witness code-named XAQ to conceal his identity was being cross-examined by the lead defense counsel for Ntabakuze, Andre Tremblay (Canada) when he said that the Interahamwe did not need any permission to get into the Kanombe military camp. "The Interahamwe had permission, they had the right to kill soldiers from government if they deserted the front line," he said, The accusation maintains the Interahamwe are the main perpetrators of the genocide, alongside other units of the military and government. XAQ, the 47th prosecution witness, added that the Interahamwe (the MRND youth wing) were given training and weapons by senior military officials. During cross-examination the witness clarified issues he had raised during examination in chief. In particular, he was asked by the lead counsel for Colonel Bagosora, Raphael Constant (Franco-Martinique) about the content of the meetings that he said were organized by Colonel Bagosora. "It was a long time ago - fourteen years - and I cannot remember what he said. All I remember is that the meetings were held at a place called Jolly Bar in shrubs overlooking Kanombe," he answered. Bagosora is considered by the prosecutor to be the "mastermind" of the genocide. XAQ's cross-examination continues on Tuesday. The Military I trial is before trial Chamber One of the ICTR, presided over by Judge Erik MÃ¸se of Norway. Who is assisted by Judge Serguei Aleckseievich Egorov of Russia as well as Judge Jai Ram Reddy of Fiji.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 23 Feb 2004 Ntabakuze Led Soldiers to Eliminate Former Prime Minister Arusha A prosecution witness in the "Military I" trial on Monday told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that the former commander of the Kanombe Paramilitary battalion, Major Aloys Ntabakuze, led soldiers from the death squad to eliminate former prime minister Dismas Nsengiremye. Ntabakuze is jointly charged with the former director of cabinet in the Rwandan ministry of defence, Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, the former head of operations in the former Rwandan army, Brigadier General Gratien Kabiligi,and the former military commander of Gisenyi region, Lieutenant Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva. They are mostly charged with conspiracy to commit genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. All have pleaded not guilty. The witness, code-named "XAQ" to conceal his identity, told the court during examination in chief that a corporal named Munyankindi assigned to the unit escorting Major Ntabakuze in the para commando battalion in 1992 to 1993 told him, "Major Ntabakuze led soldiers going to eliminate the then prime minister, Dismas Nsengiremye but the operation failed". Part of the indictment states that the strategy adopted in the early 1990s, which culminated in the widespread massacres of April 1994, comprised several components, which were carefully worked out by the various prominent figures who shared the extremist Hutu ideology, including the members of the Akazu. XAQ who is the 47th prosecution witness added that Munyankindi told him that he was a member of the death squad. "He told me he was assigned to a mission to eliminate people," XAQ, who was himself a member of the paracommando battalion said. "I saw Aloys Ntabakuze every day along with Captain Hakizimana and Bizimungu in the Mugunga and Tingitingi camp(In Zaire, now DRC)," he explained. According to the witness, the death squad was in operation from the beginning of the multi party period up to the time of the death of president Habyarimana in 1994. Similar information about the existence of a death squad was revealed by General Romeo Dallaire, the former UNAMIR commander, when he testified in the same trial at the ICTR, in January this year. Dallaire referred to the death squad as a third force composed of extremists. The witness testified that soon after the death of president Habyarimana, Ntabakuze addressed para commando soldiers on what they had to do saying, "The Inyenzis have just killed him, we have to avenge his death." Inyenzi is the deragatory word meaning coackroaches which was used to refer to Tutsis at the time. "Soon after that, the arms depot was opened and the soldiers took ammunition and started killing people in Kajagari area next to Kanombe camp in Kigali," the witness continued to narrate. XAQ also provided information regarding the Interahamwe. "After the downing of the plane , Interahamwe came to Kanombe camp onboard green ONATROCOM buses to obtain grenades and ammunition," the witness explained, adding that the Interahamwe were also provided with fuel and guns from the camp. The indictment states the Interahamwe (MRND youth wing), were organized into militia groups, which were financed, trained and led by prominent civilians and military figures from the President's entourage. They were issued weapons, with the complicity of certain military and civilian authorities. The militia groups were transported to training sites, including certain military camps, in public administration vehicles or vehicles belonging to companies controlled by the President's circle. XAQ will be cross-examined in the afternoon. The Military I trial is before trial Chamber One of the ICTR, presided over by Judge Erik MÃ¸se of Norway. Who is assisted by Judge Serguei Aleckseievich Egorov of Russia as well as Judge Jai Ram Reddy of Fiji.

BBC 25 Feb 2004 Ex-minister acquitted of genocide Memories of the genocide remain fresh Former Rwandan transport minister Andre Ntagirura has been found not guilty of genocide by an international court. The court also freed former local administrator Emmanuel Bagambiki but a third man, Lieutenant Samuel Imanishimwe, was found guilty. The judge ruled that the charges against the two had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt but the prosecution has appealed. Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the 1994 genocide. 'Small fish' This is just the second time the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has acquitted suspects. Rwanda's deputy attorney general Martin Ngoga has criticised the ruling. "I am personally not happy with the judgment because I believe it sets the precedent for convicting the small fish and exonerating those who made the political decisions," said Mr Martin, a former representative of the Rwanda government at the tribunal. ARUSHA TRIBUNAL 21 suspects on trial 22 suspects awaiting trial 18 convictions 3 acquittal Lieutenant Imanishimwe - the then commander of the Karambo military camp was found guilty of authorizing the arrest, detention, mistreatment, and execution of civilians. He is the 18th person to be convicted by the tribunal since it was established in November 1994. Since the appointment of Hassan Jallow as the new prosecutor at the tribunal, based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, it has quickened the pace at which it processes cases.

Reuters 23 Feb 2004 Uganda Rebels Use Spirit Beliefs to Spread Terror By William Maclean, 1/23/2004 LIRA, Uganda (Reuters) - His voice whispering with awe, Patrick Akat tells of the day God sent a signal of sympathy and support for Uganda's terrifying northern rebellion. ADVERTISEMENT In a guerrilla hide-out in the wilderness of southern Sudan, the teen-ager saw a white dove descend and flutter above the head of rebel leader Joseph Kony as he addressed his child fighters. "As it flew, people started moving away (in wonder)," the former LRA child fighter told Reuters, explaining that the bird's behavior was a sign of divine favor. "Another day, as we trained, a star came out of the sky and flew over him. It was also a sign." Brainwashing and belief in spirits are key to Kony's uncanny power, according to aid workers counseling children who have escaped from his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group. In a continent torn by brutal armies, the Sudan-based LRA is among the most vicious, dismembering and burning alive the Ugandan civilians, including children and babies, it preys upon. Crucially, it is also expert in the psychology of fear, and the skill has proved key to its survival, the aid workers say. The LRA has snatched tens of thousands of children like Akat from their homes in its 17-year-old war against the government and forced them to work as frontline soldiers and sex slaves. Many escape, but the LRA constantly abducts new "troops" from mud and thatch villages dotted among swamps and tall grass. A DEADLY LESSON Within hours of kidnapping a new group LRA commanders will select one child for death -- usually an infant who tries to escape, is sick or fails to walk fast enough. On pain of being killed the rest of the group must beat him or her to death. The abductees, told a similar fate awaits them if they try to escape, are rapidly traumatized into obedience. "The kidnappers began beating me, telling me that they are now registering me to become a real soldier," another former LRA soldier, Kenneth Okorach, 16, told Reuters. "Then I was forced to kill some people ... In our group they told one person to lie down. They got a strong person to beat him. Then the rest of us children had to join in. Immediately I did that I prayed to God to forgive me." Listed by the State Department as a terrorist group, the LRA has displaced more than a million people and shut down the economy of perhaps a fifth of Uganda by a systematic campaign of violence. The group is fighting to topple the government and says it wants to win a better life for the Acholi. But it has never detailed its demands and observers note it avoids fighting the government's army, preferring to attack civilians. Experts on the cult-like movement say Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet and former altar boy, is a deranged personality who believes he must "cleanse" his Acholi tribe of sinners by killing anyone in it who supports the government. Estimated to be in his 40s, he has not been seen by outsiders for years. 'A CULT, PURE AND SIMPLE' "He sees himself as the Acholis' savior. The idea comes from his reading of the Bible and God's treatment of the people of Israel," said Els de Temmerman, an aid worker who has interviewed hundreds of former LRA children at a rehabilitation center she runs for them in this northern town. "He says 'We have to cleanse our people so only the good, faithful ones remain. So we are not killing our people, we are cleansing them'," said de Temmerman, a Belgian. "It is a cult, pure and simple." In Akat's view, and those of many other children who like him have fled LRA ranks, Kony receives continuous messages from God and can read the minds of every one of the 3,000-plus child soldiers who serve at any one time in his rebellion. They believe that he continues to read their minds even after they have escaped and will use his skill to track them down and kill them. "If you ask them why they did not escape earlier they reply because he reads our minds. We could not even think of escape because we could be caught immediately," de Temmerman said. Many of those who escape are killed by LRA hunting parties sent out to punish people they see as traitors. Their success is due to the LRA's habit of keeping a strict record of the home villages and families of those they have abducted. "There is this very strong belief in the spirits in the Acholi community," said de Temmerman. "A lot of children, long after they have come back, tell me that they believe that Kony has the Holy Spirit and has supernatural powers. Aid workers say Kony's brainwashing techniques are so good that many former fighters, especially those who spent years in the bush, see him as a good person, and much misunderstood. "He is nice to children," said Akat. "His only problem is the hard orders he gives to his commanders to kill. It's them who kill and torture children. They do it behind his back." Those with the LRA shorter periods are less generous. "They really like killing people," said Okorach. "I think those people (in the LRA) are wasting their time."

IRIN 30 Jan 2004 Uganda: Peace groups and government officials worried about ICC probe into LRA KAMPALA, 30 January (IRIN) - Peace groups and officials from the government's Amnesty Commission have warned that the impending probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes committed by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels could make a peaceful settlement of the 18-year conflict impossible. "Certainly, this is going to make it very difficult for the LRA to stop doing what they are doing. They have already been branded 'terrorists', which isn't going [to help] to easily persuade them to come," the Amnesty Commission spokesman, Moses Saku, told IRIN. On Thursday, the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, announced that there was sufficient evidence to initiate a probe into grave human rights abuses committed the LRA. He was responding to a petition lodged with the ICC by President Yoweri Museveni. Museveni met Ocampo in London on Thursday. Shortly afterwards, the ICC issued a statement requesting maximum cooperation from the international community in the hunt for the LRA's senior commanders. But the ICC acknowledged that many LRA members were themselves victims, having been abducted and brutalised by the LRA leadership, and that "the reintegration of these individuals into Ugandan society is key to the future of northern Uganda". Saku said in this context the "position of the Uganda Amnesty Commission is that all LRA should be granted across-the-board amnesty, including the commanders". However, he went on to concede that "Uganda is a signatory to the ICC, so we acknowledge that they may have obligations not to grant immunity to some of its [the LRA's] members". Members of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI) condemned the probe. "This kind of approach is going to destroy all efforts for peace. People want this war to stop. If we follow the ICC in branding the LRA criminals, it won't stop," the ARLPI vice-president, the Rev McLeod Ochola, told IRIN. Ochola said an ICC probe was something that must come after the war ended. "We're not saying impunity should be encouraged," he said. "We're saying this is poor timing. Let us not forget that UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces] have also committed atrocities which will at some stage need to be investigated."

Amnesty International 2 Feb 2004 Press Release Uganda First investigative steps must end impunity Uganda: First steps to investigate crimes must be part of comprehensive plan to end impunity Amnesty International welcomes the announcement last night by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (Court) that he would take steps towards investigating and prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the context of the conflict in northern Uganda. The conflict involves the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) armed group. Accompanied by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the Prosecutor , Luis Moreno Ocampo disclosed that the Court had received a referral, made by the Government of Uganda, concerning the LRA. "Any Court investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda must be part of a comprehensive plan to end impunity for all such crimes, regardless of which side committed them and of the level of the perpetrator", Amnesty International said. The text of the referral is still not yet public, but it appears that Uganda sought to limit the referral to crimes committed by one party to the conflict. Once the Prosecutor receives a referral by a state party of a situation, the Prosecutor, after analyzing the information, can open a formal investigation without judicial approval and has the right to investigate all crimes committed in that situation, regardless who committed them. "A referral by a party to the Rome Statute may not limit the scope of any investigation by the Prosecutor of a situation ", Amnesty International said. "Moreover, the Prosecutor under Article 15 (1) and (3) of the Rome Statute can open an investigation on his own initiative (proprio motu) of crimes outside the scope of that situation, subject to approval by the Pre-Trial Chamber. The organization emphasized that Article 42 (1) of the Rome Statute requires that "the Prosecutor shall act independently" and that no member of his office shall "seek or act on instructions from any external source". Amnesty International urges Uganda to cooperate fully with the Court in connection with any investigation or prosecution. This will require promptly enacting effective implementing legislation for the Rome Statute and ratifying the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court and enacting effective implementation legislation. The organization also calls on Uganda not to ratify or implement the impunity agreement with the United States of America that it has signed. Furthermore, Uganda should review of the Amnesty Act of 1999 which covers crimes committed in the course of the conflict. "Under no circumstances should amnesty laws include crimes under international law," the organization stressed. The ICC Prosecutor has consistently stated that one of his major challenges will be to close the impunity gap between the crimes he will be able to investigate and prosecute and the hundreds of thousands of others that remain the primary responsibility of states. Therefore, Amnesty International urges the Prosecutor to follow the example of the United Nations Secretary-General, who has stated that "amnesty cannot be granted in respect of international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity or other serious violations of international humanitarian law". Article 12 (2) (b) of the Rome Statute gives the Court jurisdiction over crimes committed by the nationals of states parties, such as Uganda, anywhere in the world, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Ugandans and nationals of other countries have been implicated in serious human rights abuses. The Prosecutor is also currently undertaking a preliminary examination of crimes under the Court's jurisdiction committed in the Ituri district of the DRC. Since 1 July 2002, when the Court was established, thousands of civilians have been victims of crimes against humanity or war crimes in Ituri. "The need for investigation of those crimes and prosecution of the perpetrators remains as urgent as ever," Amnesty International said. Last week, the Prosecutor received a letter DRC President Joseph Kabila, which expressed the DRC government's commitment to collaborate with the Court. "The DRC government should take this commitment further by enacting effective implementing legislation for the Rome Statute, by ratifying and implementing the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Criminal Court or by making its own referral to the Court." Background For 18 years, the conflict in northern Uganda has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and the situation reportedly deteriorated further during 2003. The conflict resulted in the massive displacement of the population, arbitrary killings, maimings, abductions and forced recruitment. In particular the LRA has been accused of abducting children, at times moving them across the border into Sudan and amongst them scores of girls, for use as sex slaves and combatants. The treatment of children returning, voluntarily or as a consequence of military action, from their abductors has also been the subject of much controversy with allegations having been levelled against the Ugandan security forces of retraining some of them for military purposes in the fight against the LRA. Amnesties for crimes under international law, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, are prohibited under international law, as Amnesty International has documented in numerous studies, including most recently its paper, Sierra Leone: Special Court for Sierra Leone: Denial of right to appeal and prohibition of amnesties for crimes under international law, (AI Index: AFR 51/10/2003, September 2003). Amnesty International opposes amnesties, pardons and similar measures of impunity for crimes under international law in all circumstances where they would prevent a judicial determination of guilt or innocence, the discovery of the truth or full reparations.

AFP 5 Feb 2004 Some 50 killed as rebels attack camp for displaced in northern Uganda KAMPALA, Feb 5 (AFP) - About 50 people were killed when rebels attacked a displaced people's camp in northern Uganda, church sources and a journalist at the scene said on Thursday. About 300 rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on Wednesday attacked Abia camp, near the northern town of Lira town on Wednesday evening, overpowering a detachment of government soldiers, the sources said. A Roman Catholic priest who visited the camp Thursday, Sebat Ayala, said 44 people were killed during the attack and that eight among 70 injured people taken to hospital had also died. "I have been in the area and I have seen some of the dead, including attending the burial of 17 of them, but I had to leave and help in the evacuation of the wounded so I did not wait to count all the dead," Ayala said. A local radio reporter, Joe Owata, who was also at the camp, told AFP by phone that he had seen some 47 bodies and that more people were believed to have died when 200 huts in the camp were set ablaze. The army confirmed the attack took place but gave a lower death toll. "A sizable number of rebels attacked Abia and after a fierce fight with the army, they started killing civilians and over 20 were killed. Twice that number were wounded," army spokesman Lieutenant Chris Magezi told AFP from Lira, 360 kilometres north of the Kampala. He said three soldiers had been wounded, two of them seriously. The rebels came armed with rifles, machetes and some form of shells or bombs whose fragments caused many of the casualties, according to the spokesman. "Some people were abducted, but our forces are still pursuing the attackers and we hope we shall get hold of them and give the punishment for what they have done to these people," Magezi said. The rebels were reportedly dressed in the same uniforms used by government troops and the army contingent in the camp initially mistook them for their colleagues, until the attackers started firing at people. "All those who tried to run away were shot by the rebels and some of the abducted people were hacked to death by the retreating rebels," Magezi said. A 17-year-old rebel war in northern Uganda has displaced over 1.2 million people, who currently live in congested and squalid conditions in camps set up by the army. The army claims that by housing the displaced in these camps, it is able to guard them against rebel abductions conducted by the LRA to fill its fighting ranks. The LRA has been fighting against President Yoweri Museveni's government since 1988 to replace it with one based on the Bible's Ten Commandments. The group is infamous for its habit of abducting children and forcing them into combat and sexual slavery, among many other human rights abuses. The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced in The Hague last week that its first inquiry would focus on the LRA.

IRIN 5 Feb 2004 Rebels kill 52 in dawn attack on Lira IDPs camp Ugandan army is finding it hard to protect civilians from LRA attacks. KAMPALA, 5 Feb 2004 (IRIN) - In the most devastating assault on northern Uganda’s civilian population for several months, the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacked a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Lira District on Thursday morning, killing 52 people and seriously wounding over 70, residents said. Many of the injured were in critical condition. The attack, on Abia camp, 28 km northeast of Lira town, took place at 05:00 GMT. The residents said a 300-strong army of LRA fighters stormed Abia and overwhelmed the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) units guarding it, before opening fire at random on its inhabitants. "The camp is in a state of total confusion. People are terrified and there is no one here to help them – they are crying and burying their dead, helpless and alone," Father Sebhat Ayele, a Roman Catholic priest of Lira municipality, who was evacuating the wounded to Lira hospital, told IRIN. The UPDF spokesman in the region, 2nd Lt Chris Magezi, told IRIN from Lira town that the scale the attack was unusual. "They don’t usually attack in such a large group and they rarely use these big machine guns and mortar bombs," he said. "They must have amassed new supplies from somewhere." But Magezi said that to his knowledge, only about 20 civilians had been killed in the attack. "Some of them [LRA fighters] infiltrated the camp and started beating the civilians," he said, noting that the commander responsible for the attack was a senior LRA leader called Odyambo. "While the others fled to Sudan, we knew he had decided to hang around in Uganda, but he has been hard to track," said Magezi. Two UPDF soldiers had been killed by gunfire in the attack and scores of huts housing the IDPs were set ablaze when the rebels fired mortar bombs into the camp, residents said. It was not immediately clear how many people the rebels abducted for recruitment or to carry loot, but several camp residents were reported missing or unaccounted for by Thursday afternoon. Ayele said 12 of the 44 dead were being buried by their relatives and eight of the 20 injured on the first convoy to Lira hospital, had died before reaching the hospital gates. "Some of the people were killed by bullet wounds, some were burned alive in their homes and others were beaten and hacked to death with pangas. This is terrible," Ayele told IRIN. He added that the evacuations for emergency medical treatment were taking time, because the rebels were still operating the area, making it risky to move to and from the camp. The attack comes barely two weeks after the government claimed to have "nearly defeated" the LRA, saying it had killed many of the group’s most senior commanders. "This latest attack is just a desperate attempt at getting publicity, because they know they are being crushed by our forces on the ground," Magezi asserted. On Wednesday, the Refugee Law Project, a Kampala-based advocacy group, issued a statement claiming that the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, was fighting for survival because he feared being killed if he surrendered or tried to negotiate. But the group noted that Kony still possessed a formidable arsenal, including shoulder-fired rocket launchers, making him "better equipped than many African armies". The statement argued in this context that government plans to scrap the amnesty for the LRA’s stop commanders would obstruct efforts to bring peace to the north. The study was based on interviews with 900 people, including UPDF officers, IDPs, religious leaders and ex-rebels. The LRA says it is fighting to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni and replace it with one based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. But the group’s attacks have mainly targeted civilians from the Acholi tribe. Museveni has sought international help to track down the LRA. Aid agencies estimate that 23,000 people have been killed both by LRA and UPDF in the 18-year-long civil war. Last year, the LRA abducted 8,500 children, whom it forcibly recruited as porters, soldiers or sex-slaves. LRA terror tactics in the north have sent 1.2 million people fleeing into makeshift IDP camps. The international medical aid organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres, said in a statement on Wednesday that among the 33,000 IDPs who had sought refuge in the northeastern Ugandan town of Amuria since June 2003, health needs were serious, with many children suffering from severe malnutrition. People were dying at twice the rate of that considered an emergency threshold, it said. Another 230,000 people had sought refuge in nearly 50 makeshift camps in Lira since November, but only 20 of the camps were accessible. "As fighting between the Ugandan army and the LRA continues, hundreds of thousands of civilians are exposed to brutal attacks. Witnesses have testified to particularly violent, large-scale abuses against civilians, including murder, mutilation, abduction, and rape," MSF said. "In this atmosphere of terror, civilians are forced to choose between staying in insecure villages and towns, thereby risking another attack that could cost them their lives, or fleeing to urban areas that cannot offer them even the minimum conditions necessary to survive."

Deutsche Presse Agentur 6 Feb 2004 War-displaced Ugandans abandon camp after rebel massacre Kampala (dpa) - A camp in northern Uganda where guerillas massacred over 50 people was nearly empty Friday as thousands fled to safer camps, sources from an Italian Catholic Church mission in the area said. According to the Comboni Fathers missionaries, Abia camp which had contained over 10,000 people was attacked Thursday morning by Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who killed 46 people, including 2 soldiers, using machetes and grenades. Eight other people later died in hospital. "Thousands of people have abandoned the camp. There are only a few people and soldiers left. Thousands of people are fleeing the area and are still on the roads. We are sitting in a meeting with relief groups in the area to find how emergency items like blankets and saucepans can reach the people,'' a Comboni Missionary, Father Sebath Ayele, said via telephone Friday. Abia camp is about 280 kilometres north of the capital Kampala and is one of numerous camps sheltering the over one million people displaced by the nearly 17-year civil war waged by the LRA. An army spokesman in the area, Lieutenant Chris Magezi, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone Friday that "we have deployed heavily in the (Abia) camp. We are hunting down and pursuing the rebels who attacked the camp.''

AFP 9 Feb 2004 At least 10 killed in fresh rebel attack on north Uganda village KAMPALA, Feb 9 (AFP) - Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels attacked another village in northern Uganda at the weekend, abducting at least 10 farmers before clubbing them to death, military and local sources said Monday. "These rebels are becoming crazy. They attacked Ojuru village in Abako sub-county yesterday (Sunday), found people who had returned to the villages to tend to their gardens and abducted all of them, but later decided to club them to death," army spokesman Lieutenant Chris Magezi told AFP by telephone from Lira town in northern Uganda. Magezi said that about 10 people were clubbed to death, but local leaders put the death toll at 15, with about four injured and admitted to Lira Hospital. The latest attack came four days after another deadly attack on a camp housing thousands of displaced people, which left up to 50 people dead. The army said on Sunday that it had killed five members of a group that had attacked the camp on Wednesday. Church sources also confirmed the latest attack, saying that information on casualties was still scanty, but the death toll could be between 10 and 18. The rebel war in northern Uganda, nearly two decades old, has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced over 1.2 million people, many of whom live in congested and squalid camps set up by the army. The army claims that by housing refugees in camps, it is able to protect them against being abducted and forced into LRA ranks. The LRA has been fighting against President Yoweri Museveni's government since 1988. It has gained infamy for its practice of abducting children and forcing them to fight in its ranks or act as sex slaves to rebel commanders, among many other human rights abuses. A top UN official last year said the conflict was the worst forgotten humanitarian crisis in the world. The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced in The Hague last week that it would launch an inquiry into the conflict that would focus on the LRA.

New Vision (Kampala) 14 feb 2004 www.newvision.co.ug Gulu Boss Blasts Religious Leaders By Denis Ocwich Kampala ACHOLI religious leaders have come under fire for insisting on peace talks with Joseph Kony. Kitgum district chairman, Nahaman Ojwe, described the clerics as detractors who are not directly affected by the conflict. He said it was obvious that the rebel leader was not interested in dialogue. "Some of them are talking from safe havens, mosques and churches. Let us hear from the people who are directly affected by the war," Ojwe said. Ojwe, who is opposed to peace talks, last week condemned the rebels for killing innocent people. Meanwhile, a former MP for Erute South, John Akeny who is now a volunteer mobiliser for the Amuka militia in Lango, has also slammed peace talks. "If somebody believes talking to Kony is possible, let him go and surrender his life," Akeny said. He described Kony as a devil and a parasite which survives on the assets of other people. He hailed the International Criminal Court for its decision to probe Kony. [see Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARPI) . www.acholipeace.org]

BBC 22 Feb 2004 Rebels massacre Uganda civilians The government has been fighting the rebels for 18 years A rebel attack in northern Uganda has left 192 people dead and many injured, according to witnesses. Carried out by the Lord's Resistance Army, the killings are thought to be the worst in several years. The rebels armed with assault rifles, artillery and rocket-propelled grenades attacked and then set alight a camp for displaced people north of Lira. For almost two decades the authorities have been fighting the LRA, which is known for its brutality. 'Terrible scene' The attack on Barlonya camp, about 26km (16 miles) north of Lira town, apparently took place on Saturday afternoon. As the insurgents surrounded the camp, many people ran to their grass huts, and were burned as the insurgents torched their houses, said legislator Charles Anjiro. I've never seen in my life such a massacre. Ugandan priest "It's a hopeless situation, we went there this morning with the Lira district police commander and physically counted 192 bodies. The scene is terrible," he said. Fifty-six people were taken to the hospital with burns, shrapnel and gunshot wounds, one of whom died on Sunday, said Dr Jane Aceng, head of Lira hospital. Around 5,000 people, most of whom had fled fighting between the rebels and government troops, were living in the camp. Altogether, the conflict is said to have displaced at least one million people. The camp was being guarded by a local defence who were outnumbered and outgunned, an army spokesman said. Eyewitness: Previous Lira attack "I've never seen in my life such a massacre... I saw in one hut alone a whole family members still burning," a Ugandan priest in Lira told the BBC. The LRA, led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony, are known for kidnapping and brutalising young children, many of whom end up fighting for them. The group is based in lawless areas of neighbouring southern Sudan. The Ugandan army says the rebels attack the camps to divert its attention away from hunting the insurgents down in the bush. The Ugandan army said 25 rebels were killed in a different area on Saturday. However, while the army claims to be weakening the rebels, civilians remain extremely vulnerable, says the BBC's Will Ross, in the capital Kampala. Newly recruited militias have so far been unable to defend the population, he says.

BBC 23 Feb 2004 Uganda rebels 'burnt my family alive' Some were buried in mass graves, others individually More than 190 people were killed in northern Uganda at the weekend when rebels from the notorious Lord's Resistance Army attacked a camp for displaced people near the town of Lira. Some of those who survived have been talking about their ordeal. Samuel Ogwang, a 30-year-old shopkeeper, told AFP news agency that one of his two wives was killed in the attack. Three of his four children were wounded. "My parents were burnt alive in one of the huts. I buried 10 of my relatives yesterday before I brought these children to hospital, he said." "They (rebels) were about 200, dressed in new uniforms and carrying new guns." "They came running, surrounded the camp and started setting huts on fire," said Molly Auma, a 26-year-old mother of three. She was shot and had her right-hand fingers blown off by an exploding grenade. Two of her children were killed and the surviving 10-month-old baby girl was shot in the shoulder. She said the rebels appeared to have overpowered the self-defence militia who were guarding the camp. "When they came I ran inside the hut, then they started shooting. When we tried to run outside the hut, they would shoot you, when you remain inside, they burn you," survivor George Okot told AP news agency, as he winced in pain, lying in Lira hospital with gunshot wounds to his leg. Army accused Local MP Charles Angiro accused the army of trying to play down the scale of the attack by releasing reduced casualty figures. Profile: LRA rebels He told the BBC's Network Africa programme that a local military commander had told him that 84 people had been killed, when he had himself counted 192 bodies. "They went very early in the morning and ordered for the burial of these people without our co-operation," he said. "And the manner in which these people have been buried is horrible." He said he had counted 500 grass-roofed huts which had been burnt down. Mr Angiro also said he had personally warned President Yoweri Museveni that an attack was imminent in the area last year but his request for an army brigade to be deployed had not been acted on. "The government says they have overpowered the LRA but they always say the same thing." "The rebels came with sophisticated guns... and grenades. When they arrived at the camp at 5.30pm, they approached it from three fronts - from the north, east and south and left the western side for their exit," the MP said. "They bombed the camp... and overpowered the local defence forces and then started burning the huts."

BBC 24 Feb 2004 Uganda survivors face grisly aftermath By Orla Ryan BBC, northern Uganda Many victims were burned alive in their grass huts Barlonyo camp in northern Uganda, the scene of rebel attacks at the weekend, is now practically empty. The only people there are people who have come to bury their dead, or look for food. George Okello, 23, has come with his brother, Tom, to bury his father. They are motorbike taxi drivers in Lira town and on Sunday they buried their mother in the trenches surrounding the camp. Now they say they will bury their father under the collapsed walls of the mud hut he lived in. When asked how he feels about the attack, Okello says he cannot feel anything. 'Slaughtered' The camp, which once housed 4,000 people, is now practically deserted. Only the walls remain of the grass thatched huts. At 1700 local time, rebels from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) surrounded the camp, lighting the roofs of the cramped huts and creating a fire which lasted all night. Then they killed about 200 people. Mary Josco Akoli ran from the camp as rebels came with machetes, rocket-propelled grenades and "big guns". Ms Akoli's son, a militiaman defending the camp, was "slaughtered", while three of her grandchildren were burnt to death. She ran to a nearby trading centre, returning only now to search for food. Local militias Smoke still rises in the camp, which is scattered with charred remains. It was too fast - they [had] big guns... there were bullets everywhere Local militiaman Some of the dead have been buried in trenches, others lie hastily buried beneath the fallen walls of mud huts. The dry season has made the ground hard and it is hard to dig deep graves. The remains of a woman lie under a lemon tree covered with grass, while one man's body lies covered by a papyrus mat, buzzing with flies. A lone dog searches the camp. Joseph Kony's LRA has abducted children and adults to use as sex slaves, porters and soldiers in northern Uganda for some 17 years. The attack has highlighted the government's use of hastily-trained and unpaid local militia groups instead of the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF). At Barlonyo there were 30 Amuka, a local militia named after the white rhino. They had an AK-47 each and six weeks of training. They arrived in the camp on 15 December to replace the local UPDF command. Fleeing flames Kajoka Boniface, 21, one of the militia, spoke to me. Survivors say they have lost everything "It was too fast. They [had] big guns... there were bullets everywhere," he said. In the children's ward of Lira hospital, Ogwang Vincent holds the hand of his five-year-old sister, Akello Dorcus. He found her at the camp on Sunday lying between the dead bodies of his mother and father, her head hacked by a machete. Nekodina Auma, lying on a mat in the floor of the hospital, tells me how she was in her hut when it caught fire. Fleeing the flames, she was shot in the base of her spine and is now paralysed from the waist down. Five of her eight children were burnt to death and her husband lies in another hospital ward, recovering from a gunshot wound. Little consolation The official Ugandan response is to play down the attack, stressing instead the victories the army has achieved in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told journalists that the attack was due to lack of co-ordination between the UPDF and militia. The local army commander has since been recalled to headquarters in Kampala. He stresses that the army has killed 146 rebels in the past month, while nearly 50 more have defected. He disputes militia claims that the rebels arrived with big guns. For the people who lost family and friends in the attack, this will offer little consolation. Florence Akello in Lira hospital spoke of her life after the attack. "We have no clothing, no bedding, no food, no cooking utensils," she told me. "As for my feelings [about the attack], I cannot express myself."

BBC 24 Feb 2004 Ugandans seek 'massacre revenge' Acholis are often abducted to fight for the rebels Protesters in Uganda have attacked the homes of Acholi people, the ethnic group they blame for a massacre. At least one man - believed to be an Acholi - has been stoned to death by the mob in the town of Lira. Four other people have died after security forces opened fire on the crowds of protesters. Rebels of the largely Acholi Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are accused of killing 200 people in a refugee camp north of Lira at the weekend. About 10,000 people took to the streets of Lira on Wednesday to express their anger at the killings and the government's inability to end the rebellion. "The government has shown a lack of concern for the people of Lira and northern Uganda as a whole," said John Bosco Ochieng, a 32-year-old university student. Some marchers demanded United Nations intervention. Ugandan Information Minister Nsaba Buturo rejected the marchers' accusation. The government wants to appeal to our people to have restraint - it's no good venting anger on others because of what has happened Ugandan Information Minister Nsaba Buturo In pictures: Lira protest Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme, he said the government was doing what it could to protect its people. But he said constraints placed on the poor country by donor nations made it difficult for Uganda to respond as effectively as it would like. "Over the years we have insisted that more expenditure needs to be incurred to increase [the army's] mobility, but our development partners - some of them - have other plans," he said. "They do not think there should be increased expenditure on the armed forces." He appealed to Ugandans to stop rioting. "The government wants to appeal to our people to have restraint. It's no good venting anger on others because of what has happened," he said. Lynch mob The BBC's Andrew Harding, on the march, says a section of the crowd broke away and formed what could only be described as a lynch mob. Q&A: Why haven't the rebels been defeated? In pictures: Barlonya massacre They began burning homes and threatening the lives of Acholis. Our correspondent reports that the group he is with had to intervene on two occasions to prevent women from being murdered by a gang of men armed with clubs. Meanwhile, Uganda's army says that since the massacre it has killed 21 of those responsible. 'Huts torched' Some 4,000 people were living in the Barlonya refugee camp where the massacre took place at the weekend. They had fled their homes because of fighting elsewhere in northern Uganda. The refugee camp near Lira was destroyed Local MP Charles Angiro said that as the camp was surrounded by rebels, many refugees ran to their grass huts and were burned alive when the insurgents torched them. But a rebel spokesman said civilians were caught in the crossfire as rebels defended themselves against a government attack. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has set up camp near Lira, saying he is determined to wipe out the rebels - something he has repeatedly promised to do in the past. Mr Museveni has also issued an apology for what he said were mistakes by the government and army which led to the killings. He has however disputed the eyewitness reports that 200 civilians died in the massacre, putting the figure at 80. Mr Museveni told the BBC that neighbouring Sudan was supporting and equipping the LRA.

New Vision (Kampala) 24 Feb 2004 www.newvision.co.ug MP Blames UPDF for Lira Massacre By Irene Nabusoba And James Oloch Kampala LIRA Woman MP Margaret Ateng has said Saturday's LRA attack, which left over 190 people dead and about 50 injured in a Lira displaced people's camp, was due to negligence of the UPDF. Ateng told The New Vision from parliament yesterday that the rebels had been in the area for several weeks launching similar smaller attacks. "Some individuals in the army must be playing some tricks. Where was the UPDF? How can 30 people (Amuka militia) guard a camp of over 4,000 people? It was agreed that the Amuka boys would work alongside the army but the UPDF is doing nothing," Ateng said. Most of those burnt in their huts were women and children. The men had gone to the market, the MP said. There was reportedly no single UPDF soldier guarding the camp. The Amuka guards fled. The six who tried to fight back were killed. Media reports said the number of dead could be higher, saying the army went to the massacre scene earlier and cleared some bodies. "The fact that the army reached the area earlier and secretly removed some bodies means that they are covering up something," Ateng said. Army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said the UPDF soldiers were not there to guard the camp because they were in the jungle pursuing the rebels. Meanwhile, Erute North MP Charles Angiro Gutomoi has said the Lango Parliamentary Group has called on the government to probe the massacre and explain what happened.

Reuters 25 Feb 2004 Five Killed as Ugandan Peace March Turns Violent By David Mwangi LIRA, Uganda (Reuters) - Five people were killed in a northern Ugandan town Wednesday when a peace march to protest the massacre of more than 200 people turned into a riot marred by ethnic lynchings and gunfire, witnesses said. Shots crackled as security forces dispersed hundreds of demonstrators who beat three women and a man to death, accusing them of sympathizing with Lord's Resistance Army rebels responsible for the mass killing near the town Saturday. "The latest is that one person was killed by a stray bullet, four were lynched and three injured," said army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza. "The organizers could not control their demonstration so we moved in stop the chaos." Residents said members of the ethnic Langi community had attacked individuals from Uganda's northern Acholi tribe, accusing them of siding with the rebels who have been waging war in the north of the country for the past 17 years. "We are not happy with the Acholi," said one Langi resident of Lira, a farmer named Goddy Anyima. "We are brothers, we are wondering why they are killing us." A nun placed a reed mat over the body of a man who had been beaten to death and left lying in a grassy field. The body of another man lay sprawled in a makeshift shop in the town center. The army said the four people who were lynched were all suspected by the crowd to have been Acholis. One man was shot and killed when security forces opened fire to disperse protesters who tried to break into the town's police station, smashed car windshields and wrecked offices, angry at what they said was a lack of protection against the LRA. "The police shot with live bullets and one guy was shot dead, it was by accident," said mechanic Bulwadda Hussein, who witnessed the incident. The body was placed in the back of a pick-up truck outside the police station and bore what appeared to be gunshot wounds. ARMY HUNTS REBELS Separately, the army said it had killed 21 of the rebels responsible for the attack on the camp about 18 miles northeast of Lira while pursuing them Wednesday. "We are seriously hunting these thugs that went to the camp and killed innocent civilians," the divisional army commander in Lira district, George Ityang, told Reuters television. Earlier, several thousand marchers waving branches and placards demanded better protection from LRA rebels after the massacre of at least 230 at the camp for people uprooted by fighting, according to a toll given by local officials. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who says 84 people were killed in the attack, has vowed to crush the LRA, led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony. Museveni has blamed the weekend attack on errors made by a local army commander. The LRA says it wants to win a better life for the northern Acholi people, although it has not clearly stated its demands. The movement, which has abducted thousands of children for use as sex slaves and fighters, has defied repeated attempts by the army to crush it, exploiting the long grass, swamps and forests of the north.

IRIN 25 Feb 2004 Uganda: Focus On Lra Attack On Barlonyo IDPs Camp UN Integrated Regional Information Networks ANALYSIS February 25, 2004 Posted to the web February 25, 2004 Barlonyo/Lira All that remained of Barlonyo camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), north of Lira town, were huts burned to ashes. A few contained bodies still smouldering, others the charred remains of what were once granaries, clay pots, bicycles and jerry cans. The few people still there on Monday were burying the dead. The other IDPs had grabbed their remaining possessions and headed out on foot for nearby urban centres. Here they would sleep rough, but face a lower risk of an another attack by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Victoria Ogwar, 45, did not know quite where to go, but said she could not stay in Barlonyo. Carrying her remaining worldly possessions - an orange plastic basin, a few chunks of firewood and a cloth bag - she trudged along the bush path leading from the ashes of the camp to Ogur trading centre, 16 km away. NO WARNING "They really hit us," says Alfred Komakech, one of the local militiamen guarding the 4,800 IDPs in the camp on the night of the attack. His gaze swept over the black wreckage of the camp, target of the worst attack by the LRA in over 10 years, where at least 200 people were killed on Saturday evening. It was the second attack on an IDP camp in Lira District in a month. On 5 February, the LRA killed about 50 people at Abia camp, about 10 km away. Like the Saturday incident, the Abia attack occurred at about 17:00 GMT. An investigation ordered by the government is under way. Komakech, 20, told IRIN that the first warning of the attack came from a group of IDP children who had gone out to fetch water. They came running back, shouting that rebels were advancing from the adjacent forest. "By then it was too late. They came running at us and started firing straight away - they had all these big guns. They bombed the barracks, and many of us [the militia] fled after we finished our ammunition," he said. REBELS WELL ARMED Komakech told IRIN at Barlonyo that the LRA had vastly superior firepower. "They had all these big RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] and recoilless weapons - they were brand new," he said. "We did not stand a chance." The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) put the death toll at 84, thereby angering local leaders, who insisted they had counted 192 bodies right at the scene of the massacre. More bodies were later discovered in bushes nearby. The army also disputed claims that the LRA had new weapons. Chris Magezi, the UPDF spokesman in Lira, 380 km north of the capital, Kampala, told IRIN: "How could they see whether the LRA guns were new? It was dark." However, the main UPDF spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, had earlier told IRIN in Kampala that "the rebels had superior weapons. The militias have not yet had the training to use similar firepower. They were out-armed." President Yoweri Museveni, who says the rebels are being armed by neighbouring Sudan, flew into Lira on Monday. He blamed the UPDF for letting the massacre happen, but downplayed the significance of the new weapons. "We shouldn't put too much emphasis on big guns. The issue is not guns - it is about confidence and knowledge in fighting," he asserted. "It is possible the Amuka [local militia] were not properly trained about weapons and their capabilities. These RPGs are useless in a bush war, because they only do damage in confined spaces," he told reporters. IDPs BURNED ALIVE Samuel Ogwal, 30, a camp shopkeeper, was resting with his wife and four children when the rebels stormed the camp. "I was just inside, then we heard some commotion and firing in the distance. I saw a group of guys in uniform. They were setting huts on fire, and people were screaming, burning inside the huts," he said. "Then I saw them running towards my shop. I just grabbed my youngest [child] and ran." Ogwal could neither save his wife nor his parents. He returned on Sunday morning, only to find his parents shot dead and his wife brutally hacked with a machete. But his three sons, including an infant who sustained two bullet wounds, survived. "We were lucky," he told IRIN. Poorly defended by a newly trained local militia group, the camp had been a sitting duck, the IDPs said. Ogwal said the rebels did not even bother to fight the militia, just firebombing their barracks, then going straight for the civilians. "Before anyone knew what was going on, they were setting huts ablaze and shooting at people," he said. The cult-like LRA has waged war in northern Uganda for 18 years. Led by a reclusive mystic, Joseph Kony, they say they want topple the Ugandan government. Yet they consistently target defenceless civilians. In 1995, they slaughtered 240 civilians in an attack on a village in Atiak, herding them into a corner and shooting them dead. DEVASTATING IMPACT ON NORTH AND EAST Relief workers say the conflict has had a devastating impact on northern and eastern Uganda, displacing about 1.4 million people - nearly 75 percent of the area's population. The rebels have also abducted about 30,000 children since the mid-1990s. These children have either been forced to fight for the rebels or provide sexual favours. "Fear of abduction and attacks prevent most people in the camps from cultivating the land. Economic activities have largely come to a halt and most displaced persons depend on aid for their survival," said the UN's Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a statement. Roman Catholic Father Sebhat Ayele, who visited Barlonyo shortly after the attack, told IRIN that the LRA had numbered about 300. Dressed like members of the UPDF and armed with assault rifles and artillery, they stormed Barlonyo at about 17:00 GMT. Using a recoilless gun, they fired into a barracks housing the 35-strong militia guard unit before moving into the camp. Other survivors said at Lira Referral Hospital that most of the IDPs who died were burned alive. The rebels set fire to their thatched huts after ordering them into their houses at gunpoint. Others, who were trying to flee, were shot, bludgeoned or hacked to death by rebels wielding clubs, machetes and AK-47s. ATTACK INTERNATIONALLY CONDEMNED Saturday's attack, which is due to be probed by the International Criminal Court, has drawn a barrage of condemnation. "This senseless atrocity underscores the need for increased security in northern Uganda and protection of vulnerable civilians," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said in a statement. "There is urgent need for a workable solution to this 18-year tragedy." "Attacks on civilians cannot be justified in any circumstances," Amnesty International (AI) said in another statement. "The LRA should immediately cease all attacks on civilians, end all forcible abductions and release all those held as captives, especially children." AI urged the Ugandan authorities "to show their commitment to the basic principle of protection of civilian populations by taking effective measures to boost security at all existing IDP camps in northern Uganda". "In the 18-year conflict between the LRA and the government of Uganda, civilians remain the prime target of attacks, killings, maimings, abductions, and destruction of property. These attacks should be addressed as a matter of urgency. Over 1.2 million people are living in testing conditions in IDP camps across northern Uganda," AI said. Residents in camps outside Lira town told IRIN that conditions were appalling, made so by lack of adequate food, water, sanitation and medicine. Scores of children had died, they said. "I see children dying of cholera every day, and some have died because there is no water - they are drying up. I have personally buried 17 in the last week," said Joseph Omara, a church leader in Omoro IDP camp. Omoro, 60 km east of Lira, houses about 10,000 people. Omara said many other IDPs had been killed by rebels as they ventured outside the camps. "People leave the camps to collect food, and that's where they [the LRA] strike. On Friday [13 February], they killed a boy called Alio. He was just outside the camp, going to get water," he told IRIN. Relief workers say access to the IDPs has been made difficult by the fluid security situation in the region. "The provision of aid poses several challenges, among which are access to victims and their security in places of residence," said OCHA in a statement. The LRA intensified its operations against Lira District last November with a series of brutal attacks on villages, IDP camps and trading centres. But these attacks led to fewer casualties than the Saturday massacre. Observers say Lira was targeted because the rebels ran out of food after the army forced most of them out of the Teso region. Lira is a corridor between Teso and the country's far north. But observers say the UPDF has not demonstrated enough commitment to mopping up the rebels after they left Teso, leaving the much smaller local militias to pursue them. The mayor of Lira town, Peter Owiny, told IRIN that the IDP population had stretched the town's facilities to the limit. "The population of Lira was officially 90,000, but it is now up to 350,000 people." The local hospital, where at least 60 injured IDPs were writhing in pain, he added, could hardly cope with the situation. Religious leaders in the region have urged the government and the rebel leader, Joseph Kony, to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. But Museveni has ruled out negotiations, saying the rebels are terrorists who will be defeated militarily. At Lira hospital on Tuesday, Museveni, clad in military uniform and surrounded by UPDF soldiers, repeated his position before driving off to Barlonyo. "We have got a big struggle, but we shall win. We have won previous battles," he told reporters.

The Monitor (Uganda) 25 Feb 2004 www.monitor.co.ug More bodies found in Lira By Patrick Ebong Feb 25, 2004 LIRA – The death toll of the Saturday massacre in Barlonyo camp in Lira has risen to 239. Erute County North MP Charles Angiro told journalists yesterday that the number of the dead had risen from 207 previously to 239 after 32 more bodies were discovered in a garden, 1km away from the Barlonyo displaced people’s camp. “We discovered 32 more bodies of people who were abducted by the rebels to carry their loot but were later murdered in the forest,” Angiro told journalists. “Their bodies were found decomposing on Monday evening 1km away from the massacre scene,” the legislator added. Angiro criticised the army for giving a death toll figure outrageously lower than that given by local leaders and survivors. He also accused a senior army officer in the region for ordering locals to secretly bury some of the victims on Sunday morning. “The army officer ordered for mass burial before the local authorities and the press could count the number of dead people simply to deceive President Museveni that the number of civilians killed were about 80 yet a total of 239 people died,” Angiro said. Mr Angiro told Monitor FM yesterday that the Shs 5 million donated by the president for treatment of the 62 survivors in Lira Hospital was peanuts. Museveni handed over the money to Lira district Chairman Mr Franco Ojur at the hospital yesterday. The President later visited Barlonyo camp before heading to Okwang sub-county where he was expected to pitch camp to oversee the army’s offensive against the rebels. Additional reporting by Edwin Musiime [See also www.lira.go.ug]

The Monitor (Uganda) 26 Feb 2004 www.monitor.co.ug Lira killings shock leaders By Frank Nyakairu Feb 26, 2004 KAMPALA – Political and religious leaders in Acholi have said they are shocked by what they claim were tribal killings in Lira yesterday. Some five people, believed to be Acholi, were killed in Lira yesterday during a demonstration against the Barlonyo camp massacre on Saturday. Barlonyo is in Lira district. “I did not expect this to happen in this modern era,” Gulu district chairman Walter Ochora said by telephone yesterday. “I have been receiving calls from Acholi students in hiding in Lira asking me what they can do.” The chairman of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, Archbishop John Baptist Odama, blamed the escalation of the violence on government. “If government had not involved the population in this conflict, this would have definitely not happened,” Odama said by telephone. “Several youth are now armed with guns. Tell me how you can reverse that situation?” Ochora accused Erute North MP Charles Angiro of incitement. “Angiro is responsible for all this. He incited anti-Acholi sentiments and see what has happened,” he said. Angiro denied the accusations, and in turn counter-accused Ochora. “He is the one who is inciting hatred. I have been injured. My car was smashed,” Angiro said by telephone last evening. Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARPI) . www.acholipeace.org

Telegraph.co.uk, UK 14 Feb 2004 Nazis' Argentine village hide-out pulls in tourists By Seamus Mirodan in Bariloche (Filed: 14/02/2004) The bookshops of Bariloche, an Alpine-style town on the edge of the Argentine Andes, are running out of copies of their new bestseller - a guide to the homes of senior Nazis who found refuge there after the Second World War. The author and publisher of Nazi Bariloche, Abel Basti, said: "It is a serious investigation, presented in non-traditional format, which seeks to demonstrate that Bariloche was a Nazi stronghold." His evidence is compelling. A small yellow-brick building in the town centre houses a delicatessen once owned by an SS captain, Erich Priebke. Priebke is serving a life sentence in Italy for his role in the massacre of 335 Italians, including 75 Jews, but his former neighbour Cecilia Maahs vividly remembers "the sorrowful day" a decade ago when he was arrested. "He was an excellent neighbour who always behaved like a gentleman," said the 79-year-old. She was "always fully aware" of the former Nazi's past "because he never felt the need to hide it here", she said. "It never bothered me in the slightest." Across the road from Priebke's delicatessen is the Club Andino Bariloche, a mountaineering association set up in 1931 by Otto Meiling, the father of Argentine winter sports and a former member of the Hitler Youth. Its membership lists from the late 1940s include Hans Ulrich Rudel, former head of the Luftwaffe and a close confidant of Hitler, and Frederich Lantschner, the former Nazi governor of the Tyrol. Hugo Jung, the club president, remembers Rudel well: "I know he was a Nazi, but it doesn't bother me at all. He was a great man and despite the fact that he had only one leg, he still managed to be an excellent skier." Two blocks further up the hillside is the timber-built house where Priebke lived for 50 years. His son 63-year-old George, still lives there. "We were always very well accepted here," he said. "I went to a local school and, despite the fact that everyone knew who my father was, I never had any problems. "The culture here is different. In Italy people call us assassins and scream at us. Here they greet us and shake our hands." Other sites of interest listed in the guide include Otto Meiling's isolated mountain cabin, preserved as a museum open to the public; the home for many years of Joseph Schwammberger, commander of the Polish ghetto Przemysl; and Primo Capraro, the local German school. Erich Priebke was its president at the time of his arrest and it once proudly flew a swastika flag outside its entrance. At the town hall in the city centre, Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz death camp doctor who was known as the "Angel of Death", took his driving test twice in the 1940s, having failed the first time. Now retired, Francisco Calo, who ran the tests, said: "There were always rumours that Mengele was here, but when I saw his face I was certain it was him." It is no secret that many Nazis fled to Argentina following the Allied victory in 1945. Argentina's then president, Juan Peron, explained: "When the war was over some useful Germans helped us build our factories and make the best use of what we had and in time they were able to help themselves too." For decades most of them lived on undisturbed in the country, and the local population still refuses to condemn them for their actions. A federal police sergeant in Bariloche said: "We have never received a single complaint, charge or denunciation from the civilian population against any of the Nazis." Sergio Perez, a taxi driver, simply did not want to know the truth: "For our community they were great people who did everything they could for us," he said. "We felt impotence when Priebke was arrested because we could not help this man who was like a father to us." At the time of the arrest the pupils of Primo Capraro took to the streets to protest on his behalf. Mr Basti, whose book has prompted a Buenos Aires travel agency to set up tours of the sites he highlights, said he had been "inundated with angry e-mails asking how I can attack these great men". He added: "There remains a strong neo-Nazi sympathy in Bariloche today." Jewish targets were bombed twice in Buenos Aires during the 1990s - first the Israeli embassy and then a Jewish community centre, an attack which left 85 people dead. Daniel Reisfeld, the vice-president of the 150-strong Jewish community in Bariloche, lost a sister in the second bombing and in the same year, after Priebke's arrest, became acutely aware of the pro-Nazi sentiment in his home town. He received several threatening phone calls saying a bomb had been placed in his house or his shop. "I was inundated by phone calls asking why this was happening to poor old Priebke," he said. "There is still a lot of ignorance and, without doubt, anti-Semitism in Argentina. "Nobody wanted to notice the Nazis here and that is why Priebke freely admitted his past without fear of repercussions. "It might be comical if it were not so tragic."

Toronto Star 1 Feb 2004 `I couldn't take my eyes off him' Dallaire tells of being face-to-face with his `Devil' Taking the stand at genocide trial was a test of strength ALLAN THOMPSON In the end, he just couldn't let go. Couldn't take his eyes off the man he once compared to the Devil. "There was this feeling, is this the end? Is this closure? Is this the last time I see him?" Roméo Dallaire recounted in an exclusive interview on the day after he completed seven days of testimony against Theoneste Bagosora, the former army colonel accused of being one of the architects of the Rwanda genocide. Dallaire has made no secret of his hostility toward Bagosora, the de facto military ruler of Rwanda during the 1994 slaughter and the man with whom he was forced to negotiate, even as death squads continued to hunt down Tutsi civilians and hack them to death. Dallaire, the retired Canadian general who commanded the ill-fated United Nations force in Rwanda during the genocide, was left traumatized by the horror and the helplessness. At the landmark genocide tribunal here, Bagosora and three other senior military officers have pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the 100-day killing frenzy that wiped out 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. For years, Dallaire anticipated his chance to testify against Bagosora but also dreaded the encounter. The ordeal finally over, he says he found himself in the courtroom on Tuesday, rooted to the spot, unable to move, his eyes fixed on Bagosora. "It was very difficult for me to say that it was over. I just didn't want to let him go. It just happened. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I just couldn't." But Dallaire said he also feels that he is leaving Africa feeling stronger — both mentally and physically — than he did when he arrived here, despite fears that reliving the horrors of Rwanda through his testimony might set him back. And he confirmed for the first time that he plans to return to Rwanda in April — for the first time since he left in 1994 — to take part in formal ceremonies to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the genocide. He will be accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth — who has never seen the country that turned their family life upside down — as well as by Maj. Brent Beardsley, the army officer who was his executive assistant in Rwanda and helped write the general's recent memoir. In an hour-long interview over a cup of tea, an omelette, toast and peanut butter, Dallaire spoke in more detail than ever before about his health, his state of mind and his plans for the future. Nearly a decade after Rwanda, after the cycles of depression, the suicide attempts and his long battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Dallaire finally seems to be in a place where he is spending more time looking ahead than back. "I think all this, if I can relate it to the PTSD injury, it is all sort of a maturing of my ability to live with the injury," he said. "Where at times I thought a lot of this stuff would break me down and I'd go back down the tubes, I'm finding that, on the contrary, it's helping me to stabilize and I feel that I'm gaining. "I feel I'm coming out of it." In the fall, Dallaire is to take up a research fellowship at Harvard University's prestigious Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and plans to write a book on conflict resolution. "We can't defuse these conflicts with methodologies that come from pre-1989, Cold War, nation-state concepts. "I feel that so much of the writing is still fiddling with known methods. We need pure, innovative thought, to get ahead of the nature of conflict." Shortly after arrival, one of the burly members of the Canadian military security detail shadowing Dallaire on this trip asked if he would like to join him and the others in the gym. "These guys introduced me to a new way of life," Dallaire said, nodding toward one of the security guards sitting nearby in the hotel restaurant. "So, I've been going to do physical training and yesterday we even started weights and what to eat and not eat. "I hadn't done one inch of physical training since Rwanda, nothing. It's part of the injury — you lose a lot of self-discipline. Just like you can't read, you can't do any of that stuff." Every night, after several hours of preparation with his legal team for the next day's testimony, Dallaire would visit the gym with his bodyguards and work out. "These were really tight when I arrived here," he said, pulling on the belt around his trousers. "So, I'm coming home stronger physically and I think mentally in a sense." But there are still episodes, he says, moments when his mind soars back to Rwanda. "I didn't sleep at all last night. I stayed up all night. I tossed and turned, walked the halls, even though I took the pills. "At the end, in the courtroom, I was quite exceptionally taken aback by all that." While staring at Bagosora, he says, he was once again transported back to Rwanda. "All I saw were bodies and bodies and bodies, so many of the horrific scenes. It was just sort of like fast forward, when you put a million pictures together and try to watch it. "All that stuff was just going at a hyper rate. It created a very tense and difficult moment for me." But the release came when he saw one of the court guards put Bagosora in handcuffs. "I found a certain release in the fact that he left the courtroom handcuffed. When I saw the guy putting the handcuffs and I saw Bagosora sort of jiggling his hands with the handcuffs, there was a certain sense of, well, it was okay." In a departure for Dallaire, who hasn't had much time or patience for leisure since Rwanda, he went on a safari with his delegation last weekend at nearby Arusha National Park. "I'm not into tourism and stuff like that, particularly when I'm here without my wife," Dallaire said. "But the whole gang decided we all needed to get out of this complex and it was a good solution. "We saw water buffalo, giraffes, zebras, wild boar — extraordinary animals — different gazelles, fantastic butterflies. "And monkeys of all types, just beating the living daylights out of each other," he laughed. "And right near, eh." Dallaire spoke by phone with Elizabeth three times during his stay in Africa, "just to keep up and keep her morale. "She suffers from high blood pressure now. These things, you know, they're in the family. And she was quite concerned when we left. "I called her on the Sunday night before starting to testify to say: `I feel ready, prepared, calm and tomorrow it starts.'" Dallaire says he braced himself for questions from the defence lawyers about his medication and state of mind. "It was something that could have been raised and the responses would have been that I felt perfectly capable of handling the situation. "I'm at a stage sort of like a diabetic who takes insulin every day and, as my doctors say, `You're perfectly normal, but you need pills to permit that.' And every now and again, I need a session." He says his medication was increased in the fall, in preparation for his trip to Arusha. "I was having problems, with all this coming. A few years ago, those problems would have been catastrophic. These days, it's more a problem with sleeping and sleep invasion at times, dreams. And sometimes the flashbacks hit me." But maintaining his composure and concentration during seven days on the witness stand was testament for Dallaire that he is making progress. And he says his therapy has taught him how to protect himself against destructive bouts of depression. "Part of the work that has been done over the years is to discern that and work your way out of it. That means getting out of your room, talking to somebody or walking around, not to fall into this spiral. "Before, I had no prosthesis, I would just crash, bumph." He slammed his hand on the table to illustrate the point. "Now, I'm more acutely aware if I'm going that way and I can react." Dallaire still consults a psychiatrist "once in a blue moon — he controls all the medication and stuff like that. "And there's a psychologist who is much more regular, at times when I'm feeling I could use a good punch-up." When he testified here for one day in 1998 — and wept on the witness stand — Dallaire says he was basically operating without a net. "At the time, I was just fiddling with therapy, I'd been told to see a military psychiatrist, but I was a very reticent client." This time, in addition to legal advisers, his security detail and a media handler, Dallaire's team included a defence department psychologist with whom he would often meet at breaks in the proceedings. "At one point, we started to describe some pretty ugly scenes and then I asked for a recess. "It's a therapeutic process, physical and also mental. It's incredible how physical things like massage have an incredible impact on your mental state." With the Bagosora trial behind him, Dallaire is preparing for Harvard and plans to visit Boston to find accommodation. He says his April return to Rwanda will not be the extended, personal pilgrimage he still hopes to eventually make as his final step in coming to terms with the genocide, mourning the dead and "re-establishing contact with the spirits. "This is not particularly appreciated or welcomed in the family, and I know that, but at times I would just like to return to Rwanda and just be a nomad, a pilgrim. "I mean, it's always spring in Rwanda. There is food in the trees. There are always extra beans or some goat milk. And there are a thousand hills and a thousand valleys. "The strongest feeling of being in a whole different dimension is usually in the morning. "On the high roads, you would have clouds or mist below you. And what the mists would do, you would stand there and you would see them creeping in the valleys. "It was like the mist was forming, dissipating, moving down the valleys, like an entity. And then it would disappear." "It is just an extraordinary place to sit and watch paradise."

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 10 Feb 2004 UNHCR condemns murders of two leaders of displaced Colombians GENEVA, Feb. 10 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency today condemned the murders of two members of an association of internally displaced persons (IDP) in Colombia and urged Colombian authorities to investigate the killings and prosecute those responsible. Marta Cecilia Aguirre, a 36-year-old mother of four, and Giovanni de Jesús Montoya Molina, 45, were murdered on Sunday in front of their homes in the north-western Colombian city of Aparetado in separate attacks by unidentified armed men in civilian clothes. Aguirre was a founding member of the Apartado Displaced Persons Community Association (ASOCODEA) and currently served as its vice-chairperson. Montoya Molina, from Antioquia Province, was also a member of the association after being displaced five months earlier. He leaves behind a one-year-old daughter. "UNHCR offers its condolences to the families of the victims and calls on Colombian authorities to investigate these crimes and to prosecute those responsible," said UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski at a news briefing. The refugee agency also urged authorities to ensure the protection of IDP leaders who have been threatened in other parts of Colombia as well. "UNHCR will continue working with ASOCODEA and other IDP associations, strengthening them and supporting them in the defense of their rights. This violence must stop," Janowski said. The murders of Aguirre and Montoya Molina are the latest in a string of attacks against individuals and groups involved in human rights work for Colombia's IDPs. UNHCR has publicly condemned these attacks. ASOCODEA was founded by IDP families in Apartado in 2000 and currently counts some 220 displaced families in the city among its members. The majority are IDPs from the northwestern provinces of Córdoba, Antioquia and Chocó. UNHCR has supported the association. UNHCR's work in Colombia is aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of internally displaced people and supporting and strengthening the response of the government and civil society to forced displacement. More than 1 million internally displaced people are registered with the Colombian government, but NGOs estimate there could actually be close to 3 million IDPs in the country. According to official sources, 74 percent of the displaced are women and children. In another development, UNHCR signed an agreement on Feb. 6 with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in order to carry out joint activities in Colombia. Both agencies decided to coordinate efforts and look for resources, and also for other partners, in order to improve the aid currently given to women of all ages who are suffering the consequences of the conflict in Colombia. Some joint pilot projects between the two UN agencies are expected to be identified soon. UNIFEM has been working in Colombia since 1994 and is consolidating and expanding its operations, giving priority to efforts to strengthen the role of women in the construction of peace, and also to support displaced women.

AP 2 Feb 2004 U.S. says US$15 million in military aid to Ecuador will be cut, QUITO, Ecuador The U.S. government will withhold US$15 million in military aid to Ecuador for failing to guarantee that U.S. military members won't be handed over to an international court, the U.S. ambassador said. "The United States has the democratic right to deny help to nations with which we do not have protection for our military," Ambassador Kristie Kenney told the daily newspaper El Universo in an interview published Monday. Last July, Washington froze military aid to nations which refused to promise not to surrender members of the U.S. military to the new International Criminal Court in The Hague. Despite the loss of military aid, Kenney said the U.S. government has asked the Congress to approve US$70 million for other non-military programs in Ecuador for 2004. "Ecuador is in a fragile zone, but it is an island of peace and the entire region is interested in maintaining it as such," Kenney said, referring to drug trafficking and the leftist insurgency in neighboring Colombia. In September, the U.S. government sent Ecuador US$15.7 million to fight drug trafficking. The United States halted US$48 million in aid to 35 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America after they failed to meet a July 1 deadline to exempt American troops and other personnel from prosecution before the new court. The United States fears that without the guarantee American soldiers could be subject to false and politically motivated prosecutions before the court. Ninety-two countries have ratified the treaty establishing the court.

Reuters 12 Feb 2004 Ex-Guatemala dictator to testify over reporter death GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 12 (Reuters) - A judge has banned former dictator Efrain Rios Montt from leaving Guatemala and ordered him to testify to a court investigating his possible implication in the death of a reporter last year. Judge Luis Alfredo Morales subpoenaed Rios Montt and members of his family and political party for their alleged role in violent protests in Guatemala City last year in which a radio journalist died while fleeing an armed mob. The reporter's son is accusing Rios Montt -- whom rights groups accuse of genocide during his iron-fisted 1982-83 dictatorship -- of murder, his lawyer said on Thursday. Radio reporter Hector Ramirez died of a heart attack in July as he was being chased by stick-wielding rightists at a demonstration backing a presidential bid by the ex-dictator. Walter Roble, the lawyer representing his son, also called Hector, said he welcomed the judge's ruling, made on Wednesday. "The decision to ban the accused from leaving the country is prudent, in virtue of the fact that in Guatemala those accused often become fugitives of justice," he told Reuters. Rios Montt, 77, was head of Congress at the time of the protests, called in support of his bid to be a candidate for Guatemala's 2003 presidential election. The retired general lost parliamentary immunity from prosecution when he stepped down from Congress in January after losing the election in the first round. Rights groups accuse Rios Montt of ordering the massacre of thousands of Maya Indians during his rule at the height of a 36-year civil war in which 200,000 people died. Judge Morales told local media that a warrant for Rios Montt's arrest would be issued if he did not present himself willingly to the court. Lawyers in the case say they expect Rios Montt to be called to appear next week. The court will then decide, based on his initial testimony, whether to proceed with the case.

Reuters 26 Feb 2004 President apologises for wartime deaths February 26 2004 at 06:00AM Guatemala City - Guatemala's new president asked forgiveness on Wednesday for the state's role in the country's long civil war, but stopped short of calling the widespread wartime killings of Mayan Indians genocide. Oscar Berger, who took office last month, said he was asking forgiveness from "every one of the victims' relatives for the suffering that came from that fratricidal conflict." About 200 000 people were killed in Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which pitted Marxist guerrillas against a series of right-wing governments and ended with peace accords in 1996. Most of the victims were Mayan Indian peasants, many killed in massacres during army or paramilitary sweeps through rural areas.Berger, a conservative businessman, pledged $9-million to compensate civilians who lost relatives and property in the conflict. He said the amount was "important but insufficient" and promised more funds when state finances were more stable. Berger made his comments at a ceremony in the national palace on the fifth anniversary of a UN-backed "truth commission" report that concluded the army targeted Maya Indians in "scorched-earth" tactics to isolate rebel groups. Hundreds of civil war survivors demonstrated in the streets outside the palace on Wednesday to demand the government accept the truth commission's conclusion the civilian deaths amounted to genocide. "It is impossible to relaunch the peace agreements without taking into account the truth commission recommendations, including justice for genocide," said Christina Laur, deputy director of the rights group Caldh. The Caldh group is leading efforts to build criminal cases against senior military officers, including former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, for crimes against humanity. The new government's head of security and defence, Otto Perez Molina, himself a retired general, denied genocide had taken place in Guatemala. "There was no genocide because there was no attempt to exterminate a race. This was a battleground for the United States and Russia, and communism against capitalism. We provided the dead and they provided the ideology," he said. [ www.berger.com.gt guatemala.gob.gt ]

Knight Ridder/Tribune 6 Feb 2004 Opposition movements in Haiti threaten country's stability BY TIM COLLIE FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - (KRT) - The violent takeover of Haiti's fourth largest city by a slum gang offers a frightening glimpse of one possible future for the impoverished nation: Chaos. Many Haiti watchers now fear a prolonged collapse similar to failed states like Somalia or Liberia - especially if the United States and the international community do not take a greater role in resolving Haiti's many problems. Wracked by worsening poverty and political violence, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government may be losing control over key areas of the country. Gonaives has been the scene of periodic violence since September, when a major figure, Amiot "Cubain" Metayer, was murdered. In the Central Plateau, another group known as the Motherless Army, composed of former army members, has carried out assassinations of government officials and sacked villages. Meanwhile, the country's capital has been the scene of frequent large protests by coalitions of students, civic groups, business leaders and other members of the urban elite. They have been pushed together by the continuing economic decay, as well as attacks on their ranks by gangs linked to the government. Though Aristide's government labels them all as one opposition movement, there seem to be few links between these groups, and that's what makes the situation so dangerous, some experts say. There is no figure of Aristide's stature to counter Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected leader. There is no rival who commands anywhere near the following that the former priest still has among the poor. If Aristide was overthrown, the various groupings of gang leaders, politicos, urban elites and intellectuals could easily turn on each other. "That's why this is a very dangerous moment in Haiti, dangerous both for the government and the peaceful opposition," said Robert Fatton, a leading authority on Haiti at the University of Virginia. "If what is happening in Gonaives is the opposition's vision for Haiti, then the future is pretty grim indeed. "I don't think these various groups are linked, but what happens in Gonaives encourages the forces in Port-au-Prince, which then holds marches and rallies and inspires the army in Gonaives to go that much further," said Fatton, author of "Haiti's Predatory Republic: The Unending Transition to Democracy." "But the only thing that unites these groups is their hatred of Aristide. If he left tomorrow, you'd have all kinds of struggles among the opposition. The whole country could easily fall apart." The resulting fragments would run the gamut from dedicated democratic activists on one end of the political spectrum to a dark force of drug traffickers and armed thugs whose alliances continually shift based on power and money. With only a national police force under his control - the army was disbanded under international supervision in the 1990s - Aristide has maintained power over Haiti's streets with armed gangs known as chimere. These young toughs knock skulls and run drug and kidnap rings in exchange for political patronage - many can be found working as luggage handlers at the international airport. That formula has worked for Aristide, diplomats and other observers say, but it's unclear whether he or his political party still have control over these gangs. Their clout swelled by drug money, many chimere gangs now may be a power unto themselves. A similar situation exists in Jamaica, where political parties lost control of their street wings, which became the notorious drug posses. "If the United States does give more support to the peaceful opposition, the Group of 184 and other groups, then this is what they're going to end up with - groups like the Cannibal Army," James Morrell, a onetime Aristide adviser who now heads the Washington-based Haiti Democracy Project. The Group of 184 is a leading civic opposition group based in Port-au-Prince. Thursday's uprising was led by a group formally known as the Cannibal Army, now renamed the Artibonite Resistance Front. Based in the shanty town of Robateau, they are a hardcore mix of former Aristide supporters and elements of the FRAPH, a paramilitary squad that menaced Haiti during the early 1990s, after Aristide was overthrown during his first administration. "These are not democrats by any means - they don't have a political philosophy other than power and money," said Fatton. When Aristide returned to power, he used them to menace his opponents. Led by Metayer, the group controlled Gonaives as a stronghold for Aristide's Lavalas Family Party for years. In 2002, under international pressure, the government arrested Metayer. But using a bulldozer, his supporters busted Metayer out of prison a month later. The jailbreak also freed a slew of notorious prisoners, including Jean Tatoune, who was serving a life sentence for a massacre of Aristide partisans in 1994, during a period when some 5,000 Aristide partisans were murdered. Metayer and Tatoune joined forces. The militia leader seemed to have reached some arrangement with the government. Despite a warrant for his arrest, he openly held court in Gonaives while the police claimed to be searching for him. But in September, after an alleged meeting with an Aristide emissary, his mutilated corpse was found with both eyes shot out. Gonaives has been in a tense state ever since. A revolt in Gonaives touches a nerve in Haiti, which is enjoying only its first decade of democratic government after 200-year history of instability and 30 military coups. It was there that Haiti's independence was proclaimed January 1, 1804. In 1985, the city also saw the first revolt against Jean-Claude Duvalier, which ultimately led to that dictator's downfall in February, 1986. "Right now I can't tell you where this is all going to go, but it doesn't look good," said Alex Dupuy, a sociologist who has written extensively on Haiti at Wesleyan University. "The opposition, in my view, is not acting in the interests of the Haitian people. But Aristide isn't acting in their interests either."

BBC 8 Feb 2004 Police killed in Haiti city riot The rebels say they are planning to seize more territory At least three police officers have been killed in bloody fighting with militants on the streets of Haiti's fourth largest city. Rebels seized Gonaives two days ago in a challenge to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A column of up to 150 police special forces rolled into the city in a bid to re-establish control on Saturday. Unconfirmed local reports said rebels claim to have killed up to 14 of the officers in street ambushes. The authorities had vowed to restore order after clashes with the gunmen, who set fire to a police station on Thursday and freed about 100 prisoners. The US embassy released a statement condemning the earlier violence in Gonaives, in which at least 10 people died. It said it backed efforts by the Caribbean leaders to mediate the crisis. 'Protecting civilians' Dozens of people have died in anti-government protests over the last few months in Haiti. But correspondents say the latest escalation in tension is the most serious challenge to Mr Aristide yet. He has faced a growing opposition campaign calling for his resignation. Haiti's Secretary of State for Communications Mario Dupuy said the latest police operation was aimed at "protecting the civilian population". "Those who are responsible will be punished," he warned. Opposition fears President Aristide has offered to hold elections but insists he will serve out his second term in office, which ends in 2006. Opposition groups are calling for the president's resignation, saying he stole the 2000 election that returned him to power and are accusing him of corruption and human rights violations. The mainstream opposition is trying to present itself as a viable alternative to Mr Aristide and does not back the uprising in Gonaives. The BBC's Nick Caistor says they are concerned that groups such as those which took over Gonaives are little more than armed gangs without any defined political beliefs. The rebels in the city are former members of the pro-government Cannibal Army militia, who turned against Mr Aristide after one of their leaders was murdered. Many local observers feel that the worst outcome for Haiti would be for President Aristide to be thrown out of office without any credible political force to fill the void.

AFP 10 Feb 2004 Police retake three towns from Haiti rebels by Dominique Levanti PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 10 (AFP) - Haitian police retook three towns from rebels battling Jean Bertrand Aristide as the political opposition on Tuesday distanced themselves from the fighting that has left at least 42 dead in five days. The United Nations warned meanwhile that the impoverished Caribbean nation faces a major humanitarian crisis. Prime Minister Yvon Neptune briefly toured Grand-Goave after police backed by helicopters brought it back under government control late Monday, media reported. A supporter of the ruling Lavalas party was killed on a road outside Grand Goave when police tried to separate rival pro- and anti-government demonstrators, a witness said. That brought the death toll to 42 since Thursday when rebels took over much of the northern city of Gonaives. Neptune also went to St Marc which was taken back by police after a day of armed clashes between rival opposition groups. Armed assailants attacked police in the smaller town of Dondon but police and armed supporters of the government regained control by late Monday after nine houses were torched and at least two people wounded, local radio reported. Armed local insurgents took over about a dozen towns after the the Gonaives attack and took up opposition demands that Aristide stand down. One opposition leader Andre Apaid late Monday blamed elected Aristide for the violence, calling him "a dictator and a despot." Aristide has been ruling by decree since the country was left without a functioning legislature last year because parliamentary elections have not been held. The populist priest turned president has promised polls within six months, but not set a date. He has also vowed to remain in office until the end of his term in 2006. Aristide has accused the opposition political groups of favoring a coup d'etat against him but opposition parties distanced themselves from the armed opposition. "We distinguish the popular movement we support demanding the deprture of Jean Bertrand Aristide from armed rebels with whom we do not identify ourselves," socialist Micha Gaillard, a prominent opposition political figure, told AFP. "We are sticking to our peaceful strategy because the solution can only be peaceful and unnarmed," he added. The United Nations warned Tuesday that a "major humanitarian crisis" is looming in Haiti. "The insecurity and violence make us fear a major humanitarian crisis," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator in Geneva. Byrs warned that the fighting was holding up hampering food deliveries around Gonaives. "The villages in the north are those that have been most affected by hunger and are the poorest," she said. Power has been cut since Monday in Cap-Haitien in the north, Haiti's second city, and no cars were on the streets Tuesday as there was no gasoline. Several informal lottery stands and a restaurant belonging to presumed anti-government activists were burned by armed men. In Port-au-Prince, two people were wounded in gunfire after a group opened fire seeking revenge for the killing Sunday of a police officer who was close to them. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher on Monday accused the Aristide administration of contributing to the violence. The United States sent 20,000 troops to Haiti in 1994 to bring Aristide back to power after he was ousted in a coup. He stepped down after a five-year term and was reelected in 2000. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham condemned the violence and supported international efforts by the Organization of American States and the Caribbean Community to mediate between Aristide and the opposition

AFP 13 Feb 2004 Suriname mulls ICC, US immunity deal, PARAMARIBO President Ronald Venetiaan said Thursday Suriname is keen to sign on to the International Criminal Court, but may grant US citizens immunity to prosecution at the ICC. "The government will study the options for Suriname and decide if and how a possible bilateral agreement with the US will be," Venetiaan told reporters. Suriname is mulling a deal to exempt US citizens from prosecution before the ICC in The Hague. The South American country could lose a vital 1.6 million dollars in US military aid this year if it does not sign the so-called Article 98 exemption. Joint US-Suriname military exercises are also planned later this year. Washington has signed pacts with at least 65 other countries, which have guaranteed not to surrender Americans to the ICC to face charges for warcrimes or crimes against humanity. The US has threatened to scrap military aid to countries that refused to sign immunity deals. Suriname foreign minister Marie Levens has said the country will sign up to the ICC in The Hague, even if it meant US aid would be cut off. Leaders of the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM) agreed in July that member countries would ratify the ICC treaty but are free to enter into bilateral agreements with the United States based on legal advice.

Telegraph UK 24 Feb 2004 Massacre fear as Haiti rebels close in By Marcus Warren in Port au Prince and Robin Gedye Haitian opposition groups attacked a police station on the outskirts of the capital yesterday in what appeared to be the first sign of militants moving on Port-au-Prince after taking the country's second city. Rebel leader Guy Philippe hugs his men after capturing Cap-Haitien The capture of Cap-Haitien on Sunday will have given rebels the confidence to aim for the largest and by far the most difficult prize, a move that prompted America to send 50 marines to protect its embassy in Port-au-Prince. Rifles at the ready and dressed in full combat gear, the marines rushed off their transport plane and adopted firing positions around its perimeter, before moving on to the US embassy, which is already protected by 15-ft walls and roadblocks. It was a far cry from the Pentagon's intervention in the turbulent Caribbean state a decade ago, when more than 20,000 troops launched a huge exercise in nation-building and reinstalled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The former priest still occupies the presidential palace but this time, with the belief that Haiti's chaos is largely the result of his misrule, there is no desire to come to his aid. The United Nations was last night reported to be ordering its staff to leave and America and France have also urged their citizens to do so as soon as possible. The Red Cross warned of an imminent breakdown in public services and said they were struggling to keep pace with the 30 to 50 people being injured each day. The capture of Cap-Haitien by a rebel force of 200, many of them masked, put anti-Aristide forces in control of much of the north. Witnesses said heavy gunfire rattled through the streets of the city and columns of smoke rose from at least two buildings when the rebels took control of the airport and chased poorly trained police from the city. Joking and relaxed, a rebel leader said his comrades would soon take over the rest of the country. "We will liberate Haiti from the slavery of Aristide," said Louis Jodel Chamblain, the former leader of a militia group that terrorised Haitians in the early 1990s. "So far, the only resistance we've encountered has been with machetes," said Chamblain, who was surrounded by about 50 rebel fighters dressed in military fatigues, some of them armed with automatic rifles. The relative ease with which the rebels took Cap-Haitien heightened fears of an imminent attack on Port-au-Prince, where Mr Aristide still has a large reserve of support. Diplomats gave warning that victory on the streets would not automatically translate into political legitimacy. "We will not accept them taking power in Port-au-Prince," one diplomat said. "If they prove successful, they will be unable to substitute military victory for a political solution." The capital was outwardly calm yesterday but presented a very different face from that it normally displays for the Mardi Gras carnival. Instead of revellers filling the city with music and dancing, only sullen groups of youngsters turned out for the festivities, and they only in small numbers..

Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA 1 Feb 2004 seattlepi.nwsource.com OPINION Focus: U.S. sabotages international court at its own peril By DAVID H. SCHEFFER FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR AT LARGE Justice remains elusive for the millions of victims of atrocity crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the worst human catastrophe in recent years still plagues the heart of Africa. Yet if the Bush administration continues to oppose and undermine the work of the newly established International Criminal Court, which is focusing its initial research on the Congo, the task of achieving any accountability in the genocidal regions of the world will be even more unlikely than it is today. The president of the International Criminal Court, Judge Philippe Kirsch of Canada, visited Seattle and other American cities recently to explain why his court merits American support. As the lead American negotiator for the court during the Clinton administration, I hope the court's critics listened to Kirsch. He is a friend of the United States and knows well our angst about the court. But Kirsch also understands how vitally important this new permanent court (with its 92 member states that span our rosters of allies and friends) is for the cause of justice in far distant corners of the world where atrocities rage. The American people can be proud of our contributions to international justice over the past decade, particularly U.S. support for the international criminal tribunals for the Balkans and Rwanda and the "hybrid" courts (with international and domestic judges, prosecutors and defense counsel) in Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone and soon in Cambodia. That support has been more problematic under the Bush administration, which greatly fears exposure of high government or military officials to judicial accountability and wants to close down international tribunals as quickly as possible. The war on terror has heightened those concerns as we deploy high-tech military firepower and thousands of soldiers in controversial operations overseas. The White House has reversed America's once cautious support for the permanent International Criminal Court into a policy of destructive disengagement grounded in fear. The Bush team nullified Clinton's authorized signature to the treaty setting up the court. It signed an odious law punishing many nations that support the court and directing the president to use military force to liberate any American detained for trial there. It also launched a worldwide campaign to commit all governments to protect any American (including any mercenaries) from the court's reach and bludgeoned other nations on the United Nations Security Council to immunize American personnel in U.N.-authorized actions from any possible surrender to the court. The foreign perception of American actions to undermine the ICC is that the United States has become an intimidated nation when faced with the prospect of effectively enforcing atrocity law that punishes the perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes. In contrast, our unrivaled military power makes us the intimidator nation confronting evil regimes. Our decisive actions in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq have ended massive atrocities in those countries. The issue with the ICC is not whether we are justified in taking these actions. Nor does the court restrain us from employing the safeguards offered by the court's treaty. I negotiated them and am gratified to see the administration invoking explicit articles of a treaty it despises as the basis for protecting American personnel. (It is ironic that the new statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal for Crimes against Humanity, which the United States oversees as the occupying power, replicates many of the provisions in the criminal court treaty.) The real problems are the purpose for which we invoke those safeguards, the strategy we use to obtain them and whether we overreach. In recent years we have fed the impression that ours is a nation wedded to impunity for our military actions in a very dangerous but progressively democratic and atrocity-weary world. As a result, we have lost our leadership role in achieving accountability for atrocities. If any administration in Washington, D.C., were to engage in the kind of governmental planning required to commit genocide or to launch systematic or widespread criminal assaults on civilian populations or to order a large-scale commission of war crimes -- the high thresholds required by the ICC -- then the Constitution and our moral compass would be in peril. To stand intimidated before an international court we helped build to bring the real perpetrators of atrocity crimes to justice because we fear the unthinkable in our own government is the height of folly. To stand intimidated for fear of inevitable but groundless politically motivated charges against the United States mocks the integrity of the court's judges and prosecutor and our successful efforts to build due process and discipline into the court's treaty. To fear for the Constitution in the court's design is a red herring. The Bush administration has negotiated scores of so-called "Article 98 agreements" with other countries (though only a limited number have been ratified in foreign capitals), which would have the effect of preventing any American held by the other country from being surrendered to the ICC. We successfully negotiated Article 98 in the treaty, preserving the core principle of the nearly 100 military status-of-forces agreements the United States has with other countries. The principle is that the nation that sent military forces deployed on foreign soil -- the "sending state" -- retains primary criminal jurisdiction over its soldiers unless it consents to local prosecution. We purposely negotiated the words "sending state" to ensure that Americans sent on official mission overseas -- military, diplomatic, humanitarian -- would retain this important protection. But Article 98 was never intended to protect unofficial actions, such as those taken by mercenaries or others acting without U.S. authority. Other countries agreed and gave us this well-defined protection. What has angered so many overseas is that the Bush administration draws no distinction between official and unofficial actions -- whatever an American does overseas must never reach the international court, regardless of whether he has authority to act. Nor will the administration compromise by pledging in the Article 98 agreements to ensure that any American charged with an atrocity crime indeed would be investigated and, if merited, prosecuted in U.S. courts and under U.S. law. There is also the substantial risk that ICC judges will interpret the American Article 98 agreements as covering only what was originally intended under the treaty, not what Washington wishes such agreements to protect. The Bush administration also has abandoned critical talks still under way to define the crime of aggression and how such a crime might reach the ICC's attention. Although the court's treaty includes aggression as an atrocity crime, the court will not be empowered to investigate and prosecute it until the treaty is amended with a definition that can be used against individual offenders. During the Clinton administration we held the line very effectively to ensure that the drafting of this crime included an acceptable definition and that only the Security Council could trigger it for the court's attention. Aggression is the one crime that other nations may seek to charge our globally deployed military with, regardless of the merits. It is a crime that invites political manipulation to serve the interests of whoever regards any projection of military power to be aggressive. It goes to the heart of why we intervene, not how we intervene. Yet when truly committed, as during World War II and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, its criminal character is undeniable. That is why the weight of our influence in talks over the trigger and definition of aggression is so critical. We do not have to be a ratified party to the court's treaty to participate in those talks. Ironically, however, if the United States were to ratify the ICC treaty by 2009, when the crime of aggression can first be introduced as an amendment to the treaty, it could "opt out" of the application of the crime of aggression to itself. We successfully negotiated that protection in the treaty, and yet the Bush team seems intent on sacrificing it at extreme risk to our military forces. The rebuttal -- that the court must not exercise any jurisdiction over any country's citizens if that country is not party to the treaty (at least under most circumstances) -- has a long history of debate. I believe that debate can be resolved with well-intentioned pragmatic efforts by Washington and the court's supporters around the world. But the Bush administration is at war with this court and has poisoned the well. We now take an enormous risk by arrogantly arguing what so many others dispute, rather than use all the privileges and protections the treaty offers in order to assume leadership of the court's work. There is one important initiative that both supporters and critics of the ICC should agree upon. We spent years drawing from well-established international law to properly define genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes for the court's jurisdiction. Yet U.S. federal and military law remains surprisingly antiquated in reference to such crimes. Since the ICC defers to national courts for investigation and prosecution (a major safeguard we negotiated in the treaty), the United States must be able to prosecute all such crimes or risk being held incapable of doing so. Major parties to the court, such as the United Kingdom, Canada,1 Germany, France and Australia, have amended their criminal codes to enable them to litigate all these crimes. Ironically, they now stand more protected from the court's reach than does the United States. Finally, we should encourage the new Iraqi court that prosecutes Saddam Hussein and his colleagues to invite onto its bench one of the underemployed judges from the ICC, partly to demonstrate the integrity of the judges elected to the international court. Most important, the United States should propose that the Security Council refer the Congo atrocities to the ICC for vigorous investigation, an initiative that would put the full enforcement power of the council behind the court's work. Can we dare deny the millions who have died and suffered in the Congo their right to justice? David H. Scheffer is visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center and the former U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues.

www.toledoblade.com 1 Feb 2004 2 Tiger Force vets urge Army inquiry By MICHAEL D. SALLAH and MITCH WEISS BLADE STAFF WRITERS For Rion Causey, it has been 37 years since he watched soldiers herd Vietnamese families against thatched huts before opening fire. Thirty seven years since he saw soldiers lob grenades into a bunker where women and children hid for safety. Thirty seven years since he counted the corpses. After reading The Blade’s series last year of the Tiger Force’s rampage across the Central Highlands, he did something he debated for years: call the Pentagon. But three months after offering his testimony to the Army about the war crimes he saw as a medic in 1967, he’s still waiting to talk to investigators. The 56-year-old nuclear engineer is one of two witnesses to contact the Army since The Blade’s series, "Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths," revealed the platoon’s actions - the longest series of atrocities by a fighting unit in the Vietnam War. Now, a leading human rights group and an Ohio congressman are urging the Army to interview the former soldiers. Amnesty International will ask the Defense Department to meet with the witnesses, saying the atrocities are among the worst to emerge from reports about the Vietnam War in years. Last week, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D., Cleveland) wrote acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee, urging the Army to talk to the witnesses and conduct an investigation. "Two veterans, both witnesses to atrocities, simply want to have their stories investigated by the Army and to find out why the Army failed to take action," Mr. Kucinich said. The effort to bring the witnesses forward is the latest development in a case that has gained international attention since the newspaper series was published between Oct. 19 and 22. A Vietnamese provincial official is tracing the movements of Tiger Force through the Central Highlands in 1967 to determine the whereabouts of thousands of civilians missing since the war. The U.S. Army agreed to review the case in late October, but has yet to interview witnesses. The Blade series showed at least 81 unarmed civilians - men, women and children - were killed by platoon members between May and November, in some cases as villagers prayed for their lives. But based on interviews with former soldiers and civilians, the platoon is estimated to have slain hundreds of unarmed villagers. The newspaper found the Army conducted a 41/2 -year investigation beginning in 1971 - the longest war crimes inquiry of the Vietnam conflict - substantiating 20 atrocities involving 18 soldiers. But after reaching the Nixon White House, the case was quietly dropped in 1975 with no one charged. A member of the platoon for six months in Vietnam, Mr. Causey said he watched as the unit broke the rules of war. He contends that commanders who oversaw the unit - part of the 101st Airborne Division - knew of the atrocities, and, in some cases, encouraged the attacks to help boost what was known as "body count," the term used to count dead enemy soldiers. "It was out of control," said Mr. Causey, who now resides in California. "You don’t tolerate things like that. "I still want to see those officers called on the carpet. They have yet to answer to what happened, and that’s wrong." Another witness who has stepped forward since The Blade series said he has written to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command to talk about the executions of civilians by Tiger Force. "I saw it with my own eyes," said Dennis Stout, a former Army journalist, 58, who was assigned to cover Tiger Force in July, 1967, for the military newspaper, The Screaming Eagle. "I’ll never forget what I saw. I’ve lived with this for a long time." He and Mr. Causey describe a platoon that was systematically targeting unarmed villagers in the Quang Ngai and Quang Nam provinces - some of the soldiers severing ears and scalps for souvenirs. Mr. Stout, now a Phoenix contractor, said he watched Tiger Force soldiers round up 35 women and children and execute them in a rice paddy in the Song Ve Valley in July. Mr. Causey said he counted as many as 120 civilians killed during a bloody, 33-day stretch in October and November northwest of Chu Lai. "We would call on the radio to say that we found nine people in a hootch, and we would ask what we were supposed to do with them, and word would come back, ‘Kill them.’ So, we lined them up against the hootch, and shot them.’’ After the war, records show Army agents searched unsuccessfully for Mr. Causey in 1973 during the military investigation of Tiger Force. Mr. Causey said he still struggles with the memories of the massacres 37 years ago - one of the reasons he wants to talk to investigators. "I called them twice after reading the series before I got a call back from a colonel, who told me they were going to send a warrant officer to talk to me. That was three months ago." Mr. Stout said he wrote the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command Jan. 23, but has not yet been interviewed. "I’m here to tell them what went wrong," said Mr. Stout. "I’m here to tell them how things went out of control. I saw it from the ground. "I’ll bet there are hundreds if not thousands of papers written by captains and colonels on how we can avoid military atrocities and what we can do to keep civilians from being killed. But there’s probably very little from enlisted people - privates and sergeants - and, unfortunately, that’s where it all starts." Forty-three former Tiger Force soldiers were interviewed by The Blade as part of the series, with 10 admitting to killing unarmed women and children in what were clear violations of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and U.S. military law. Several said they regretted their actions. Curt Goering, senior deputy executive director of Amnesty International, said last week his organization, which monitors human-rights violations, will raise the Tiger Force case with U.S. Defense Department officials later this year. "It’s important that the government take this seriously, and if it doesn’t, it’s a great dereliction of duty," he said. "The last thing you want to do in light of these revelations - and these are serious - is to sweep them under the rug." He said representatives of the human rights organization will ask the military to expand its review of the Tiger Force case by interviewing witnesses. "This is absolutely appropriate." He said the case is one of many issues Amnesty International will bring to the government’s attention at a series of meetings later this year. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command has repeatedly refused to comment on the review, which consists of comparing The Blade’s series with the records of the investigation from three decades ago. In previous interviews, Joe Burlas, an Army spokesman, said some former soldiers could still be charged since there’s no statute of limitations for murder. William Eckhardt, the prosecutor in the My Lai massacre case in which Army soldiers were accused of slaughtering 504 Vietnamese villagers in 1968, said the military should talk to the former soldiers. "We can learn from My Lai and Tiger Force," said Mr. Eckhardt, a law professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. "They serve a purpose. It’s important to examine what happened so the Army doesn’t make the same mistakes - especially with our forces in Iraq. What Tiger Force did was inexcusable. You can’t kill civilians. That’s just wrong." Mr. Kucinich said the Army needs to take the case more seriously and move beyond a "paper review." He said he will press for hearings on the Tiger Force case before the House’s national security, emerging threats, and international relations subcommittee, on which he is the ranking Democrat. "These individuals are in the right, since there is no statute of limitations for the war crimes of torturing and murdering civilians," he said. "The Army’s refusal to speak with them is regrettable. I am hopeful that public attention will help persuade the Army to improve its conduct in this case." Dr. Joseph Nevins, a Vassar College professor who studies international atrocities, said the American military has tried in the past "to bury these kinds of cases," but that there is a "danger in doing so." "What Tiger Force shows is that these atrocities did happen, and it wasn’t just My Lai. What we’ve tried to do is to forget that this happened in Vietnam, and to say My Lai was [the exception]. We need to learn from this. We definitely don’t need to just move on."

NYT 1 Feb 2004 [excerpt] THE PUBLIC EDITOR All the News That's Fit to Print? Or Just Our News? By DANIEL OKRENT THIS week, it's time for some journalism heresy. I'd like to suggest that newspapers with aspirations to greatness - like the one you're holding in your hands - learn to be generous to their rivals, and in the process provide value for their readers. It has long been Times policy to credit other news organizations for their scoops: "Such and so was first reported Monday in 'The Daily Bugle.' '' It has even longer been part of the paper's genetic code never to let someone else's scoop lie unmassaged by Timesian hands. "What can we add?'' goes the editors' refrain. Sometimes - often - that works. Sometimes, though, the effort at addition becomes, for the reader, an act of subtraction. In the last several weeks, three stories launched elsewhere have been either diminished or disregarded by The Times. (Of course, among major news organizations, this not-invented-here attitude is no more exclusive to The Times than are commas.) In each case, the effort to maintain a high level of what people around here call "competitive metabolism'' has not served the readers well. Last October, The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, published a series of articles revealing that "members of a platoon of American soldiers known as Tiger Force slaughtered an untold number of Vietnamese civilians over a seven-month period in 1967.'' The series was the product of 10 months of research conducted on two continents and in seven states. When the Blade series broke, The Associated Press sent out a story summarizing its findings. Many newspapers picked up the A.P. report; some, including the Times-owned International Herald Tribune, put it on the front page. In the Times newsroom, Roger Cohen, who was foreign editor at the time, thought it an important story, but, he recalls, he was "focused on Iraq'' and "did not give it the attention it deserved.'' National editor Jim Roberts tried to get something rolling that the paper could call its own, but reporters who knew their way around the Pentagon were otherwise engaged. Editors felt that running 10 inches of A.P. copy would not represent the story fairly. In The New Yorker of Nov. 10, Seymour Hersh, who as a young reporter broke the story about the massacre at My Lai, praised the Blade series, noting along the way that the four major networks and most major newspapers had all but ignored it. Hersh's article provoked The Times's executive editor, Bill Keller, to order up a lengthy piece on The Blade's discoveries. John Kifner's "Report on Brutal Vietnam Campaign Stirs Memories,'' which sought to place the Blade series in historical perspective, finally ran on Dec. 28 - a report on a two-month-old story about events that took place 37 years ago. The Blade's publisher and editor in chief, John Robinson Block, felt that The Times's late weigh-in, which included a sizable helping of the skepticism that re-examination will almost inevitably provoke, was an insult to his paper and its reporters. Keller told me that if his own staff had developed the Blade series, he would have put it on the front page. Yet at least partly because it was someone else's, it ended up diminished, delayed and, in some eyes, devalued. . . .The public editor serves as the readers' representative. His opinions and conclusions are his own. The public editor's column appears at least twice monthly in this section.

Richmond Palladium Item, Indiana 1 Feb 2004 www.pal-item.com Students sharpen world view during mock U.N. assembly Earlham College: Matters with Iraq, Middle East take center stage at 2-day event By Bill Engle Staff writer At a glance Students from nine Indiana and Ohio high schools attended the ninth annual Earlham College Model United Nations Friday and Saturday. Students represented various countries during sessions of the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly committees. The event included awards for outstanding delegate/delegation, most favored nation and other committee awards. Young people learned to speak in global voices at Earlham College this weekend. During the ninth annual Earlham College Model United Nations, 140 students from nine Indiana and Ohio high schools conducted mock sessions of the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly committees. However, none of the schools participating were from the area. During the two-day event, students dealt with matters as pressing as the Palestine/Israel crisis, how Iraq can regain its sovereignty, overpopulation and hunger. "It's really been a learning experience,'' said Brinkley Rowe, a freshman from Indian Hill High School in Cincinnati. "They are very specific as to what they want us to talk about and they complement the session with speakers.'' The idea is to encourage the students to explore a more global view by asking them to pair up and represent a specific country. That requires a study of the country and issues facing it today. "We ask the students to try to see the world in another person's eyes, to walk in another's shoes,'' said B. Welling Hall, Earlham professor of politics and international studies and Model U.N. faculty adviser. "And our staff is very international as well.'' Twenty-five Earlham students help with the Model U.N. They are from Egypt, India, Kosovo, Vietnam and Japan. Earlham student Tanyel Cemal, from North Cyprus, is U.N. secretary general. "It's addictive. Once you are involved you just can't get out,'' she said. "Part of it is we are trying to explore the importance of the U.N. to these students.'' "And the U.N. was a part of our lives on a day-to-day basis. That's what we're trying to get across to the students,'' said Ali Mamina, an Earlham student from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who was chairman of the Futuristic Security Council. One of Mamina's parents worked for the U.N. and Mamina and fellow family members were evacuated from Rwanda by U.N. troops in 1994 during the genocide that occurred there. Cyprus was under U.N. supervision for years before Cemal was born there. Deepti Chinta and Emily Ehrnschwender from Cincinnati Country Day High School represented North Korea on the committee seeking solutions to terrorism. "It's really enjoyable,'' Chinta said. "At first it's tedious to talk in this format but once you get the hang of it you really feel like you're a part of the U.N.'' "We take it seriously and really go at it, but at the end of the day it's just fun,'' Ehrnschwender said.

ANCA 2 Feb 2004 Gov. Dean Calls for Passage of Genocide Resolution WASHINGTON, DC ? Former Vermont Governor and Democratic Presidential hopeful Howard Dean, in a letter sent today to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), called on Congress to adopt the Genocide Resolution and criticized President Bush for abandoning his pledge to Armenian Americans that he would properly recognize the Armenian Genocide. "The ANCA joins with Armenian Americans across the country in welcoming Governor Dean's support for the Congressional Genocide Resolution," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We share the Governor's criticism of the Administration, both for blocking this human rights legislation and for abandoning the President's pledge to the Armenian American community that he would properly recognize the Armenian Genocide." In his letter, addressed to ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian, Governor Dean noted his agreement with then Governor Bush?s February 2000 campaign promise that he would "ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian people." Citing the broad bi-partisan support for Genocide legislation currently in Congress (H.Res.193 and S.Res.164), Dean observed that the resolutions "would pass tomorrow, except for the fact that President Bush is now pressing Congressional leaders to block this human rights measure for no other reason than that it mentions the Armenian Genocide." He then went on to urge Congress to pass the Genocide Resolution. Click here to read Gov. Dean's statement on the Armenian Genocide http://www.anca.org/anca/pressdocs/Dean_statement.pdf

BBC 2 February, 2004 Unfinished business in Indian country Chris Summers BBC News Online A revolutionary fighting oppression, killed with a bullet in the back of the head by her erstwhile comrades who suspected her of being an informant. Palestine? Northern Ireland? No, this was America's Midwest. Arlo Looking Cloud, accused of killing Anna Mae in 1975 Anna Mae Aquash was an activist with the American Indian Movement (AIM), which was fighting for the rights of the indigenous people of the United States. This week one of her former AIM colleagues goes on trial in Rapid City, South Dakota charged with her murder. The trial of Arlo Looking Cloud, 49, is likely to reopen plenty of old wounds. A second man, John Boy Graham, who allegedly fired the fatal shot, is fighting extradition from Canada. The body of the 30-year-old Micmac Indian was found in a remote corner of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in February 1976. It is claimed she was killed because of rumours she was an FBI informant. 'Exploitation and persecution' In the 1970s a new group was born which was determined to fight proactively for the rights of the Native American people who, it claimed, had been persecuted and exploited for so long by "white" America. AIM took on the mantle of legendary Indian leaders such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Trouble in Indian Country Feb-May 1973: AIM activists besieged at Wounded Knee, South Dakota Jun 1975: Two FBI agents shot dead at Oglala, South Dakota Nov 1975: Anna Mae Aquash goes missing from Denver, Colorado Feb 1976: Anna Mae's body found near Wanblee, South Dakota Apr 1977: Leonard Peltier given two consecutive life sentences for murdering FBI agents. Feb 2004: Arlo Looking Cloud goes on trial accused of killing Anna Mae Who killed Anna Mae? AIM grew rapidly and began to challenge the authority of the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the tame Indian tribal councils who, between them, had run things on the reservations for decades. AIM wanted, among other things, to publicise the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which ceded a vast swathe of South and North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana to the Lakota (Sioux) people in perpetuity. The treaty was later torn up and Lakotas were given worthless scraps of land to live on. They were also evicted from the sacred Black Hills (Paha Sapa) in South Dakota, when the US Government realised they were a rich source of gold, coal, uranium and molybdenum. Many Lakotas ended up on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota which, in the early 1970s, was run as a private fiefdom by a "half-breed" called Dick Wilson. Pine Ridge was the home of the Oglala - one of seven Lakota clans - who descended from Crazy Horse. In an attempt to highlight what they saw as the graft, nepotism and violence of Wilson's regime and to focus attention on the betrayal of the Fort Laramie Treaty, AIM activists occupied the town of Wounded Knee (scene of an infamous massacre of Indians in 1890) in 1973. For 71 days armed AIM supporters were besieged by FBI agents, BIA police and Wilson supporters. Eventually they surrendered after the US Government promised to investigate the corruption. 'Political prisoner' Little was ever done and by the summer of 1975 violence against AIM activists on Pine Ridge was at record levels and the atmosphere was poisonous. The Lakota (Sioux) clans Oglala Brule Hunkpapa Miniconjous Sans Arcs Two Kettles Blackfeet (not to be confused with the Blackfeet tribe from Montana) On 26 June 1975 two FBI agents, Ron Williams and Jack Coler, were killed by AIM gunmen during a shootout near the town of Oglala. Two AIM men, Dino Butler and Bob Robideau, were acquitted but another, Leonard Peltier, was given two consecutive life sentences. He continues to protest his innocence from Leavenworth penitentiary in Kansas and is considered a political prisoner by AIM. Anna Mae Aquash was suspected of being an FBI informant He has also drawn support from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ann Robinson, the Dalai Lama and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. 'Like the Third world' In September 1975 FBI agents investigating the murder of their colleagues at Oglala raided a property on the nearby Rosebud reservation. Anna Mae was one of several people picked up, although she was later bailed. She jumped bail and headed for California but only got as far as Denver. What happened to her after that remains uncertain. In the quarter of a century since the events on the Pine Ridge reservation life has changed little for the Oglala and the other 4.3 million fellow native Americans. Most reservations are run like Third World countries by tribal elders who act like dictators. Some of them don't even allow freedom of speech Frank King Native Voice Frank King, publisher of the Native Voice newspaper, said: "Most reservations are run like Third World countries by tribal elders who act like dictators. Some of them don't even allow freedom of speech." Mr King, a Lakota who hails from the Rosebud reservation, said many Indians lived in a welfare culture and the Crow Creek reservation in South Dakota had the highest unemployment rate in the US. In December 2000 FBI agents protested against Peltier being pardoned He said alcoholism and obesity were also endemic on most reservations and he blamed it on a "poverty of the mind". "Tribes have come to the point where they have created a business out of being poor and they are just looking for handouts," said Mr King. As for AIM, it has become fractured between different factions and Mr King said: "The main AIM is a federally-funded charity with a board of directors and they're always looking for money. It's just lost the spirit of the thing."

Sacramento Bee, CA 2 Feb 2004 sacbee.com. Tribe seeking jackpot - But hopes for casino hinge on struggle for Plymouth-area land. By Steve Wiegand -- Bee Staff Writer - (Published February 2, 2004) PLYMOUTH -- History students might note some ironic symmetry in American Indians asking the residents of a place called Plymouth to allow the Indians to establish an enterprise in their midst. The locals, however, aren't laughing. Many, if not most, of them see the proposal by the Ione Band of Miwok Indians to build a casino and hotel at the southern edge of town as the precursor to a modern-day version of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse: Crime, Traffic Congestion, Pollution and Diminished Lifestyle. "Building an Indian casino in this community would be an absolute tragedy," said Elida Malick, a veterinarian and one of the leading opponents of plans to build a casino and hotel complex on Plymouth's main drag. "An absolute tragedy." Tragic or not, variations of the Plymouth saga are becoming more common around California as Indian tribes without casinos -- and without land to put them on -- seek an economic base for their governments. "We've waited a long time," said Matt Franklin, chairman of the 535-member Ione Band. "I guess you could say we want our piece of the pie." It's a pie of considerable proportions. There are 54 Indian casinos in the state, producing estimated annual revenues of between $4 billion and $6 billion. But that leaves 55 federally recognized California tribes that don't have casinos and at least three dozen Indian groups that are seeking formal federal recognition as tribes -- and potentially, a chance at opening a casino. "Are we reaching a saturation point?" asked Deron Marquez, chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, which operates a successful casino near San Bernardino. "I don't know. I think that's a question only the market will answer." For tribes such as the Ione Band of Miwok, however, there are problems beyond carving out a piece of the casino market, problems such as finding a piece of land on which to put a casino. Like many California tribes, the Ione Band was formed in 1915 when the federal government gathered up Indians who had survived 146 years of genocide and disease and arbitrarily assigned them to tribes based on geography rather than cultural ties. Although a land base was promised each group, some tribes never received any land. Others gave up their land in the 1950s and 1960s when the federal government terminated tribes as sovereign entities in an effort to cut costs and coerce Indians into assimilation. Various court and governmental decisions have restored many of the tribes to recognized status -- the Ione Band was re-recognized in 1994 -- but recognition often came without real estate. That presents no little dilemma for landless tribes that want to open casinos -- there are now about two dozen around the state -- because of provisions in the 1988 federal law that governs tribal gambling. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act requires that a tribe seeking to build a casino on land it didn't own before 1988 must have a federal court ruling in its favor, an act of Congress or approval from both the secretary of the interior and the governor. The Ione Band of Miwok, which wants the federal government to take 215 acres on the southern edge of Plymouth into trust for it, meets none of those requirements. "Being a landless tribe is very difficult," Chairman Franklin said. "We have to go above and beyond to convince all these levels of federal government and then the governor that we are entitled to this land." Nicholas Villa isn't convinced. The leader of a group of about 50 Indians he calls the "traditional" Band of Ione Miwok, Villa contends that Franklin and his supporters belonged to a disbanded tribe from Wilton in south Sacramento County that failed to win re-recognition in the 1990s. According to Villa, the Franklin group colluded with a tribal member who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to "steal" a a tribal election in 1996. "The government didn't have the authority to do what they did (in recognizing Franklin's group)," Villa said. "We are the historical tribe ... and we're opposed to a casino in Plymouth." But Villa also acknowledges that after losing both the election and a subsequent legal challenge, he has little recourse beyond seeking congressional help to reclaim the tribe. "There is no due process for us," he said. "We really don't have anywhere to go." Franklin counters that each member of his tribe can prove his or her legal right to belong, that the tribe's council was democratically elected and that Villa's complaints are so many sour grapes. "Any tribe that is dealing with a casino has to deal with a tribal faction," Franklin said. "That's just a fact of life." Another fact of life is that the state and federal governments put great store in what the locals think about a landless tribe's casino plans. "I've always been, and I know the governor has been, sensitive to the interests of local communities," said Daniel Kolkey, the Schwarzenegger administration's chief negotiator on Indian gambling compacts. "And that requires, at a minimum, consultation and agreements between the tribes and those local communities." That may bode ill for casino prospects in Plymouth, a town that meanders along a stretch of Highway 49 and is home to about 1,000 people. "I like things the way they are around here," said Kevin Cranford, floor manager at the Plymouth True Value Hardware and Feed Supply, "so I don't like the casino." Cranford's place of employment sits opposite the proposed casino site, presently occupied by a modest motel. The tribe's plans call for a 120,000-square-foot complex, half of which would be taken up by the casino. The rest would house a tribal administration center and retail shops. Eventually, the tribe would build a 250-room hotel and conference center. No one questions that the complex would have a major impact on Plymouth, where a hefty chunk of the populace lives in tidy mobile home parks and a "Support Our Troops" banner stretches across Main Street. Dick Moody, who is serving as a consultant to the tribe, said the impact would be positive. "The city's going to get help in getting out from under the water and sewer moratorium they are under now and full-time fire protection, which they don't have now," Moody said, "plus 1,200 to 1,500 jobs, which the tribal government has offered to train the people of Plymouth for." Opponents counter that the casino would exacerbate the town's historic water problems -- it once was named "Drytown" -- and increase crime rates, snarl traffic, enhance air pollution and generally disrupt the area's bucolic atmosphere. "We moved here because it had the safety and the friendly community feeling that we wanted for our children," said veterinarian Malick, who moved to Plymouth two years ago from the Bay Area. "At no time did anyone mention a casino." So pervasive is local opposition that an informal survey conducted by the city found 79 percent opposed and the rest undecided. Moreover, a recall effort has been launched against three members of the town's five-member council, because they supported seeking an agreement with the tribe that would pay the city hundreds of thousands of dollars to mitigate casino impacts. "I voted from my heart and my conscience with the betterment of the city in mind," Councilman Rich Martin said in response to the recall, which is scheduled for a May 4 vote. Even if the council majority is replaced, local opposition remains fierce and the Department of the Interior or the governor refuses to sign off on the Plymouth site, the Ione tribe's efforts for a casino will continue. "This is a long process," Franklin said. "We have waited a long time, and the Plymouth site makes sense for everyone ... but if it doesn't work out for some reason, OK. I guess we would just look somewhere else." And history students who put any stock in names might note the possibilities for irony in Plymouth's original name. Pokerville.

www.palmbeachdailynews.com 2 Feb 2004 Author: Crusades warriors relevant By WILLIAM KELLY, Daily News Staff Writer Monday, Feb. 2, 2004 — The Holy Land is a fiercely contested battlefield between Christians and Muslims who slaughter one other in the name of their respective gods. But this blood-soaked conflict that author James Reston Jr. writes about in his book Warriors of God (Doubleday, $27.50) occurs not in our age but the latter years of the 12th century. Reston's account of the Third Crusade is a biography of two legendary warriors, King Richard I of England, known as the Lionheart, who set out to conquer Jerusalem from the Arabs, and the Sultan Saladin, who successfully defended it. Reston, the author of 12 books, told a Prologue Society audience at the Northern Trust Bank last week that, given the jihad in the Middle East today, he found the topic of the Third Crusade irresistible. "I would have a story that not only entertains, it would have relevance," Reston said. "I knew it would be epic in scope." Reston's book, published in April 2001, took on new life after the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and is now published in paperback and in 10 languages, including Arabic. At the time of the Christian Crusades, the boundaries of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were roughly equivalent to those of modern Israel, Reston said. The kingdom lasted 82 years. Muslims had held Jerusalem since 638 but Christians had been permitted pilgrimages to their Holy Land. That changed in the 11th century when the city was taken over by the Seljuk Turks, who prohibited the pilgrimages. The crusader movement lasted more than 200 years. In the First Crusade led by Pope Urban II, Christians seized Jerusalem in 1099 from a divided Arab world, then established a network of fortresses to defend the territory. "The massacre of Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem, and Christian crusaders pounding over the walls is intensely remembered" by Arabs today, Reston said. The Sultan Saladin, hero of the Islamic world, unified the Arabs, whose empire reached from modern Libya to Russia. His forces captured Jerusalem in the battle of Hattin in 1187, which marked the beginning of the Third Crusade. "The battle is considered the greatest victory in Arab history," Reston said. In the Third Crusade, which lasted until 1192, King Richard I, who grew up in the romantic court of Eleanor of Aquitaine in France, resolved to recapture Jerusalem. Both were great warriors, but it was Saladin's iron will that ultimately prevailed. Richard raised an army that battled the Arabs to the outskirts of the city before his sudden failure of nerves stopped him at the gates and turned the tide in favor of the Arabs. The two great leaders respected one another, and Richard the Lionheart is a hero to the Arab people because he made peace with Saladin, Reston said. Today the Arabs view the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East as an "unnatural circumstance," Reston said. They are forever waiting for another Saladin to come along and take up their cause, he said. "It is said that Osama bin Laden has a son named Saladin to whom he will someday turn over his struggle," Reston said. But "bin Laden is not a Saladin, but a cult leader and a mass murderer. Saladin recoiled at the death of innocents."

Grand Junction Sentinel, CO 8 Feb 2004 Holocaust survivor to tell story of genocide By DANIE HARRELSON The Daily Sentinel Don’t tell Joseph Kempler one of history’s most horrific genocides never happened. The horrors the Polish Jew experienced during the Holocaust are as real to him today as they were in 1945, when Allied forces liberated him after two years in Nazi concentration camps. “Some people say it never happened, but I was there, and with my own eyes I saw people do unimaginable things to other people,” he said. Kempler will share his story of survival with students in Western Colorado, beginning with Grand Junction High School on Monday. Presentations to students at Central and Palisade high schools are scheduled Tuesday. Kempler’s Western Colorado tour runs through Feb. 20 with stops in Rifle, Aspen, Hotchkiss, Paonia, Carbondale and Basalt. The public is invited to hear his story at 6 p.m. Monday in the Saccomanno Lecture Hall at Mesa State College. Kempler was a teenager when Nazis sent him to Plaszow concentration camp in July 1943. Freedom came two years and four camps later. Kempler, who weighed 60 pounds when Allied forces found him, recalls seeing a small child shortly after his liberation. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “After what I’d been through, I couldn’t imagine there were any children left in the world.” Most of Kempler’s family did not survive the Holocaust. A family of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Poland hid his sister, and she lived. The memories of Nazi brutality remain fresh, but Kempler prefers to tell his audiences about the lessons he took from the nightmare rather than describe the nightmare. He hopes his listeners appreciate what he observed in the most inhumane conditions — courage and perseverance. “The most important thing is to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “Each person has a choice and a responsibility to make sure hatred doesn’t win out.” Kempler’s presentation at Mesa State is free. Contact Kip Koski at (970) 963-2098 for information about his speaking schedule.

AP 17 Feb. 2004 Disputed genocide figures in settlement By Greg Risling LOS ANGELES - Martin Marootian displayed a grainy, black-and-white photograph taken in 1905 that shows 10 family members and friends. He pointed out that eight were killed a decade later in what Armenians contend was an act of genocide by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Among them was his uncle, Setrak Cheytanian, and ever since then the family has been trying to collect death benefits from the uncle's policy with New York Life Insurance Co. Their ordeal may finally be over. Last month, Marootian was among 12 plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit who reached a tentative $20 million settlement with New York Life. On Thursday, a federal judge is expected to decide whether to approve the agreement. Marootian, 88, had hoped the agreement -- believed to be the first ever in connection with the often disputed massacre, and open to claims from survivors worldwide -- would bring more recognition to a catastrophe that hasn't been acknowledged by the United States. "If we hadn't done this, many Armenians would have been left out in the cold," he said. "At least this way they are getting some money." However, some Armenian-Americans believe the agreement shortchanges the entire community. "It's a Band-Aid on a bullet wound," said Ardy Kassakhian, executive director of the western region offices of the Armenian National Committee of America. "It's a very emotional subject for many Armenians." "For $20 million, they are buying silence and goodwill," said Harut Sassounian, publisher of the California Courier, a weekly newspaper serving the estimated 100,000 Armenians in Southern California. A full-page ad in the Courier urged readers to call for a jury trial that could lead to a larger monetary judgment. New York Life sold about 8,000 policies in the Ottoman Empire beginning in the 1880s, with less than half of those bought by Armenians. The company stopped selling insurance in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. The company said it located about one-third of the policyholders' descendants to pay benefits. The rest of the policies languished because the remaining heirs could not be found, company vice president William Werfelman said. "The parties are confident that this is a fair, reasonable and adequate settlement that the judge should feel comfortable approving," he said. The settlement would set aside about $11 million to pay claims by heirs of some 2,400 policyholders. About $3 million would go to Armenian charitable organizations, with the remainder to be used for legal fees and costs. Marootian would receive about $250,000. He was born in New York in 1915 -- the year that Armenians assert the Turkish regime began executing their ancestors for allegedly helping the invading Russian army during World War I. It is estimated that some 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1923. Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, rejects the genocide claim, insisting that Armenians were killed in civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. France and Russia are among 15 countries, along with a United Nations human rights panel, that have recognized the genocide. The United States has not made such a declaration.

VOAnews.com 18 Feb 2004 Survivors of Rwanda Genocide, Nazi Holocaust Find Common Ground Jenny Falcon New York 18 Feb 2004 Their stories of survival are terrifying. But a young survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and a Nazi Holocaust survivor are determined to tell youngsters about their painful past in the hopes of preventing such atrocities from happening again. In the process, the two have forged an unlikely friendship based on a bond of suffering. For years, David Gewiritzman has talked to local students and community groups about his experience as a Jew in Nazi-occupied Poland. A teenager at the time, Mr. Gewirtzman and his family barely escaped death. They survived after his father paid a Polish farmer to hide eight Jews in a small, filthy hole under a pigsty. They huddled there for close to three years. "We came out of what we called the grave into one large cemetery," recalled Mr. Gewirtzman. "A cemetery in which six million Jews and five million non-Jews were massacred and buried all over Europe. In the town, my town, out of the 8,000 Jewish people who lived in the ghetto, 16 came back alive." Mr. Gewirtzman, 75, often receives letters from students he addresses. But two years ago, the retired New York pharmacist received one that touched him deeply. It was from then-16-year-old Jacqueline Murekatete, who had survived the 1994 massacres of minority Tutsis in Rwanda by the majority Hutus. She lost her parents, six siblings and scores of relatives. Ms. Murekatete wrote: "Maybe I can make a difference in this world, if I try. And maybe I can do my part to make sure that no other human being goes through the same experience I did." Ms. Murekatete thanked Mr. Gewirtzman for sharing his story. "I saw so many similarities, how he was going to school one day - a child, like myself - then he was dehumanized, called an enemy of the country, having to see people killed and losing relatives," she said. "I felt a bond and I felt that he understood me and that is how the friendship started." Mr. Gewirtzman wrote back to Ms. Murekatete and they soon began working together. They approach an auditorium of teenagers who are chewing gum and chatting happily with their friends. But it does not take long for the students to listen quietly. "We would see people with torches and machetes and they would come towards the county [village] and every night our neighbors, our former Hutu neighbors, started following us and every night they came and killed people," she told the youngsters. Ms. Murekatete describes her nightmare in detail. She was nine years old and was staying with her grandmother when machete- and gun-wielding Hutu mobs arrived at her parents' village. Ms. Murekatete eventually found refuge in an orphanage, but her grandmother was murdered. After the killings, which left an estimated 800,000 people dead in 100 days, Ms. Murekatete learned that nearly all of her relatives had been butchered to death and were thrown in the river. "I did not understand, being nine years old," she said, "why they had died, why hundreds of thousands of Tutsis had been killed for no reason other than the fact that they were Tutsis." She asked how the international community allows genocides to continue, from Cambodia to Rwanda, despite the post-Holocaust pledge to prevent any more mass killings? "The United Nations and other world leaders always say, 'never again, never again,' but so far it has continued to happen and it is up to each and every one of us to make sure that that phrase 'never again' is not just an empty phrase but a reality," said Ms. Murekatete. Mr. Gewirtzman says selfish motives compel him to keep speaking - he wants to make the world a better place for his six grandchildren. He says if he can influence one person to stick up for someone in need of help, then he has succeeded. "When you see a bully in the corridor of your school beating up on somebody and that somebody is not a friend of yours, is not a relative of yours, instead of going away and saying, 'I do not want to get mixed up with that, you do something about it' because if you do not, neither your children nor my children will ever be safe," said Mr. Gewirtzman. The students, some of them stunned and teary-eyed, ask the survivors questions about their escapes. "Before the genocide," asks one, "did you have friends of other religions or ethnic groups and if so how did the genocide impact those relationships?" While most of the students go on to their next class, several stay behind to talk to Jacqueline Murekatete. Another student says, "It's upsetting that the world has let something like this occur and it helps you to think about what you can do about it." During her talk, Ms. Murekatete begins to cry when describing the day she found out that her parents had been murdered. David Gewirtzman says from the beginning, the two survivors understood each others' tears. "It did not matter whether she was from Africa, Asia, Europe, Jewish, Christian, it did not matter," he said. "All of a sudden, there was a blood bond between us. It was our pain that united us. I felt, my God, is that what it takes in order for her and me to unite. Can we not do it without going through the horror that we went through? She really is my sister. As close as other people are to me, as close as neighbors and friends are, they do not understand me the way she does." Ms. Murekatete was adopted by an uncle in the United States, but Mr. Gewirtzman and his wife have taken on a role of grandparents. They invite her to their home for dinner and call to see how she is doing in school. Now a college student in New York, Ms. Murekatete is writing a book about her experience.

Zap2it.com 18 Feb 2004 Production Begins on HBO Genocide Pic (Wednesday, February 18 09:17 AM) LOS ANGELES Director Raoul Peck ("Lumumba") and HBO Films have begun production on "...Sometimes in April," an original project that is described as the first major film to tackle the horrors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The film, which stars Idris Elba (HBO's "The Wire"), Oris Erhuero ("Highlander: Endgame") and Debra Winger ("Terms of Endearment"), is shooting on location. Set in the present day with flashbacks to 1994, "...Sometimes in April" focuses on Rwandan Army officer turned teacher Augustin Muganza (Elba), a man forced to relive the genocide in his mind after receiving a letter from his brother Honori (Erhuero), a former broadcaster on trial at the International Tribunal in Arusha. Winger plays Prudence Bushnell, U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs. HBO produced the English-language version of Peck's acclaimed "Lumumba," which premiered on the network in 2002. "It is a pleasure to be working again with Raoul Peck, whom we feel will accomplish a highly authentic visualization of the events surrounding the Rwandan genocide, shot on location in many of the very locations where the events took place," says HBO Films President Colin Callender. "It is a powerful piece, and the fact that many of the young Rwandans on the production team are survivors is extraordinary." In addition to the location filming in Rwanda, Peck and his crew will also shoot in Paris in March. Currently there are no plans in place for a theatrical run for "...Sometimes in April." Joel Stillerman (HBO's "A Lesson Before Dying") is co-executive producing with Sam Martin as the HBO executive in charge of production.

AP 18 Feb 2004 Today in History - Feb. 19 Today is Thursday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2004. There are 316 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History . . . In 1986, the U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide, 37 years after the pact had first been submitted for ratification.

AFP 1 Feb 2004 Afghan official and family killed by landmine believed planted for him KABUL, Feb 1 (AFP) - An Afghan official was killed along with his wife and three children when his vehicle ran over a landmine believed to have been planted deliberately for him in south central Uruzgan province, its governor said Sunday. Eight people were killed in all and five injured in the incident on Saturday afternoon, Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammad Khan said. "Yesterday in the late afternoon when the newly-appointed Deh Rawood district chief Khalifa Sadat was on his way back home from bazaar with his family, his vehicle ran over a landmine planted for him near his house," Khan said. "Among the eight killed are his three sons, his two brothers and his wife." Khan said the family had gone shopping for Eid-al-Adha, the three-day Muslim festival of sacrifice which began Sunday, and were returning home when the vehicle hit the explosive device. An investigation had began into the deaths but it was too early to say whether Sadat was targeted by remnants of the ousted Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime or local warlords, or whether the attack was related to a personal dispute, Khan said. Sadat was from an area close to Deh Rawood, he added.

The Age, Australia 2 Feb 2004 Aborigines tell of child sex abuse February 2, 2004 - 10:07AM Horrific rates of child sexual abuse have blighted the Aboriginal community at Cherbourg in south-east Queensland for years, but a group of women spoke out in a desperate appeal for help. Until now, the subject of abuse has been largely ignored for fear of retribution, but the women - many of them grandmothers - put an end to their silence. In a deeply emotional plea, the women appealed to Australia's politicians - both federal and state - to help them deal with a crisis they believe touches more than 80 per cent of children in the 2,000-strong community. In one case, a two-year old girl had contracted syphilis, while other girls had been so severely raped they would never be able to have children. In a written statement released during a meeting with Queensland Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg, the women called for help in dealing with several areas, including in the courts, police, witnesses, pathology and the state's Families Department. "If we cannot grow up our kids better, as is the present situation, our communities will continue to implode and biological genocide will be complete," the statement said. The women said there were currently 27 children involved in sexual abuse legal proceedings, including seven victims and 20 witnesses. Another case, involving 12 victims from a historical charge, was also tied up in the courts. "Some of the crimes are so severe, the children have to be repaired and rebuilt," one woman told the meeting. "We're bringing children into this world to be destroyed." Another woman said: "We want justice as grandmothers because we've buried a lot of our mothers and daughters who went to the grave." Concerned grandmother Esme Fewquandie said without urgently-needed services, people would take the law into their own hands. "Our people are not going to be tolerant for too much longer," Ms Fewquandie said. "Our people are angry about what is happening to the children." Lorian Hayes, who helped establish a task force several months ago to deal with the issue, said she believed at least four out of five children would be sexually abused sometime during their childhood in the community. This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au

BBC 16 Feb 2004 Sydney riots over Aborigine death A number of people have been arrested More than 40 police officers have been injured in Sydney in a riot sparked by the death of an Aboriginal teenager. Angry youths torched a railway station and pelted police with petrol bombs and lumps of concrete in the mainly Aborigine district of Redfern. Thomas Hickey, 17, died after he was impaled on a metal fence when he fell off his bike. Police deny claims he was being chased by officers at the time. There are to be three inquiries into the boy's death and the riot. Four people have been arrested and charged over the riot, which last for nine hours. Police say they expect more arrests to follow. The BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney says this was the worst night of violence in Sydney for years, and will be a setback for race relations. New South Wales State Premier Bob Carr said his government would launch inquiries into the incident to establish how the teenager died and whether there was any police involvement. The three inquiries will be carried out by the state coroner, the police service and a public affairs watchdog. Local anger The riot broke out on Sunday night and continued into the early hours of Monday. Police reinforcements wearing riot gear were drafted in from across Sydney to quell the violence. Eight of the injured officers had to go to hospital. "At this stage one officer was knocked out by a brick that was thrown through the air and a number of others have got broken limbs, legs," Assistant Commissioner Bob Waites told reporters. At the height of the riots, some 100 people were said to have taken to the streets. "They burnt out one vehicle and they in fact were throwing Molotov cocktails both at police and at Redfern railway station during the course of the riot," said Mr Waites. Thomas Hickey's mother said her son was being pursued by police when he fell of his bike and became impaled on a metal fence. The allegation is strongly denied by the police. A local resident, identified only as Donna, told ABC radio that people were angry because they believed the police were responsible for the teenager's death. "He was murdered. We've been down to look at the spot and everything and there's no sign, they cleaned it up that quick," she said. One local community leader accused the police of harassing people who live in a rundown area of housing known as The Block. "You could interview every Aboriginal kid down there that comes from The Block, and the majority will tell you to your face... that they've all been bashed by the police," said Lyle Munro. The area is notorious for drug dealing, with heroin being sold openly in a local park.

Courier Mail AU 19 Feb 2004 'Persecuted' Aussies flee to US By Mark Dunn MORE than 30 Australians have sought asylum in the US. At least two Australians have been granted asylum in America after complaining they faced religious, racial or political persecution in Australia. Four other Australians await the outcome of US asylum applications. Privacy reasons prevent authorities detailing specific arguments used by Australians for asylum, but it is known Aborigines have made official complaints to US diplomatic staff claiming racial persecution in Australia and allegations of genocide. Human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, QC, said the Australian applications came as a shock, but Aboriginal claims of persecution could well be entertained by US immigration courts considering asylum. "I can understand how some Aborigines might complain of a fear of persecution," he said. Between 1997 and 2002, 31 Australian nationals applied for asylum, US Department of Justice figures show. And UK Home Office documents also show Australians have sought asylum, but the Asian region statistics are not broken down to show precisely how many Australians have applied for refuge. While several Australians apply for asylum in the US every year, it is extremely rare for them to succeed. Two Australians were granted asylum in 1999 and 1997. Mr Burnside said Aboriginal issues including land rights and the so-called Stolen Generation might be considered as background in support of a persecution case. "If you see that, the history, it helps explain more recent treatment," Mr Burnside said. "What they have to show is that they genuinely fear persecution." The persecution did not have to be actual, but had to be shown to be genuinely perceived. "These cases come as a bit of a shock to us, because we are inclined to believe we are a very tolerant society," he said. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission said it was unaware of indigenous claims for asylum. High-profile refugee lawyer Eric Vadarlis was also surprised Australians had sought asylum overseas, and said he was "gob-smacked" at least two were successful in the US. "I am extremely surprised. Whatever we say about this country, there is a lot of tolerance generally," Mr Vadarlis said. Most applicants make their claim for asylum once they reach the US or after they have been in the country some time. Under the US system, applicants must persuade immigration officials they are unable to return to Australia "because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion". Australian Civil Liberties Union president John Bennett said real or perceived persecution by police may also lead to asylum applications. "Although Australia is a reasonably fair society, I could see why some people don't feel treated fairly." Falun Gong spokesman Katerina Vereshaka said she was not aware of Australian asylum seekers from her group, but she said some members had been harassed by Chinese officials in Australia. The Foreign Affairs and Immigration departments and the Attorney-General's office said they had no knowledge of the asylum cases.

IPS 7 Feb 2004 (Inter Press Service) UN's Cambodian 'success' in question By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK - More than a decade after the United Nations claimed as a success story the restoration of democracy in war-ravaged Cambodia, the Southeast Asian country is showing this achievement to be much less than it has been vaunted to be. Democratic processes such as elections are meant to create societies that work for a country's citizens. But more than six months after the third general elections it has had since a 1991 accord brought peace to the country, Cambodia does not have a functioning government. In fact, a key contributor to the deadlock between the three main political parties - the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), the royalist Funcinpec (Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Independent, Neutre, Pacifique, et Cooperatif, or National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia) and the Sam Rainsy Party - is a condition enshrined in the country's democratic constitution. It states that a political party needs a two-thirds majority of seats in the Cambodia's 123-member National Assembly to form a government after a national poll. Because of this high demand - in contrast to the universal practice of political parties needing only a simple majority to rule - the governments formed after the 1993 and 1998 polls were coalitions. Fence-mending among the rival parties would lead to a way out, but the prospect of a political alliance emerging after last year's poll has been shot down by the bitter rivalry between the CPP, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, and the other two main parties. The CPP won 73 seats at the July polls. This week Cambodia's former finance minister, Sam Rainsy, who leads the party that bears his name, revealed during a visit to Bangkok that there had been a slight thaw in the frosty relations. He was quoted by Thursday's Nation newspaper as saying he had dropped his refusal to join Hun Sen in forming a government. Yet he stressed that it would not be easy, since his party and Funcinpec, which have just united under a new political banner called the Alliance of Democrats, have set preconditions for the CPP to meet as part of any political deal. They include changes to the justice system, the electoral process and anti-corruption measures. The two previous elections also gave rise to similar factionalism and signs of incompatibility between the main political parties. The country's 1993 constitution, which was adopted by the parliament shortly after that year's poll, had received the blessing of the United Nations. At that time, the UN had a special mission running the affairs of Cambodia for 18 months as the country embarked on a journey from decades of war to peace. "The two-thirds clause had some validity at that time, because Cambodia was in a process of national reconciliation," said Kao Kim Hourn, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, a Phnom Penh-based independent think-tank. "The need then was for consensus-building and bringing Cambodia's many political factions together." But now, Kao asserts, this provision has proved to be more bane than boon. "The clause is no more an asset, but has become a political liability. It has become a problem given the difficulty it poses in us getting a new government after an election." Continuing political violence has also not helped the picture painted by the UN when its special mission left Cambodia in December 1993 - that it had spurred a nation traumatized by genocide, war and occupation to take the path to stability. In a report released this week, the independent Cambodia Human Rights and Development Association (known by its French acronym ADHOC) declared that 2003 was the country's most violent year since the 1998 elections. Thirty-three activists were murdered last year, including 12 from the Sam Rainsy Party, 10 from Funcinpec and 11 from the CPP, the Phnom Penh-based ADHOC revealed in its annual report. Last year also saw anti-Thai riots in January, and the murder of high-ranking officials, a Buddhist monk and a judge, the report added. In addition, Cambodia witnessed attacks on a radio journalist and a popular female singer and, most recently, the murder of its most prominent trade-union leader (see Unionist's killing stirs up hornets' nest, January 27). Today, critics of the world body argue that the United Nations must shoulder some responsibility for Cambodia's troubled times. "The UN has to bear the responsibility for failing to create a viable political environment in Cambodia in the early 1990s," said Sunai Phasuk, analyst at Forum Asia, a Bangkok-based regional human-rights lobby. "The chaos there today is the result of how the UN approached the problem of restoring democracy." The only emphasis was on bringing together the disparate political forces in the country to create stability, said Sunai. "The elections of 1993 and the country's constitution that was adopted soon after were the ways through which the UN sought to achieve that goal." But the United Nations did not "create an enabling environment for the newly imposed democratic culture to grow", added Sunai. "We have been deeply skeptical of the UN's ability when it comes to elections and the political process being introduced to war-ravaged countries." The United Nations will also find it hard to ignore Cambodia's political climate, since the turmoil has created yet another stumbling block to a still unfulfilled mission - the setting up of the UN-backed war-crimes tribunal to prosecute the former leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime (see Cambodia on trial over genocide trial, January 10). Between 1975 and 1979, when the Khmer Rouge ruled the country, more than 1.7 million people died from torture, starvation and illness. After close to five years of at times testy negotiations, UN officials had been hoping that the law to create the special tribunal would be passed soon after last July's election. But as Mu Soc Hua, Cambodia's minister for women's and veteran's affairs, said, "Because of the deadlock, no laws have been passed in the National Assembly." Likewise, she said that because of the absence of a government, the legislative body has not approved the budget for 2004. This reality should give supporters of the United Nations a reason to pause, said Sunai, the human-rights activist. "The timing is appropriate, because of the present calls to get the UN involved in the electoral and democratic process in postwar Iraq." Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) www.bigpond.com.kh/users/adhoc/

Scotsman UK 22 Feb 2004 scotsman.com Torture museum crumbles into dust ALISON WINWARD IN PHNOM PENH ON THE wall is a grainy photograph of a metal bed frame to which is chained a crumpled heap of bones. Beneath the picture is the bed itself. Nearby are three rooms containing row upon row of black and white photographs of people who all have the same defeated look in their eyes, as if they knew when the camera flashed that they were already dead. The exhibits in Cambodia’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum are so compelling that their surroundings often go unnoticed. But any visitors who look up at the ceiling will see cracks and holes, and those who look down will see the floor is sinking and the tiles are crumbling to dust. The museum is the most tangible testament Cambodia has to the two million victims of the Khmer Rouge’s murderous regime, masterminded by their leader, Pol Pot. But it is falling apart, taking with it memories that historians and older generations warn must be preserved to avoid such horror ever happening again. The holes in the roofs mean the torrential rains of the Cambodian wet season are washing away the brickwork, riddling the walls with damp and causing irreparable damage to the museum archives. "Parts of the complex are in imminent danger of collapse, and many others will reach that state if they are not renovated promptly," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DCC), which collects and catalogues evidence on the regime’s atrocities. There were torture centres all over Cambodia, but Tuol Sleng - which means "poisonous hill" - is the best preserved, the country’s most visible reminder of its bloody recent past. The camp was built in 1958 as a high school. But when Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, the school was converted into the infamous S21 prison and interrogation centre. Between May 1976 and January 1979, an estimated 15,000 adults and 2,000 children were detained in S21 and tortured into confessing ‘crimes’ against the state before being taken to the killing fields for execution. Only seven survived. On arrival, a prisoner - whose ‘crime’ could be that he wore glasses or spoke a second language, which branded him an ‘intellectual’ and therefore a dissident - would be photographed and made to write their life story. Some were held in brick cells, just 80cm wide and two metres long, others were crammed in mass cells on the two upper floors. Prisoners were forbidden to talk to each other, while regulations for people under torture included: "While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all." The Vietnamese soldiers who liberated S21 opened the former prison as a museum and funded it until they withdrew from Cambodia in 1989. The museum was supported by subsequent administrations until the United Nations-supervised elections in 1993. Since then the government has paid the museum’s wages and utility bills, but now says it cannot afford repair and maintenance costs. Museum director Sopheara Chey says he needs less than £200,000 to repair the buildings. "This is our story," said Chey. "And it is for the next generation, for the children who don’t know the Pol Pot regime killed the people like that, that we want this museum to be here for a long time."

BBC 11 Feb 2004 N Korean defector 'held by China' A North Korean man who fled with evidence that prisoners are used to test chemical weapons has been detained by China, a human rights worker said. Kang Byong-sop, 58, was stopped last month in Yunnan province while trying to cross into Laos, Kim Sang-hun said. Mr Kim called on the UK to stop China handing Mr Kang to North Korea, where he faced possible torture or death. Pyongyang has described claims it used political prisoners to test gases for chemical weapons as "US propaganda". Mr Kang was the source of a North Korean document, or letter of transfer, which appeared to authorise chemical weapons testing on political prisoners. China is becoming an accomplice to North Korean crimes Kim Sang-hun Within prison walls The document featured in a BBC documentary broadcast this month which also interviewed a man who claimed to have been head of security at North Korea's notorious prison camp 22. While there, he claimed to have seen chemical weapons testing carried out on political prisoners. Mr Kim, a Christian activist who has helped dozens of North Koreans escape to the South, had contacted Mr Kang and encouraged him to flee North Korea with documentary proof of the testing. "We knew he had strong feelings that someone had to do something to stop this practise," Mr Kim told BBC News Online. Mr Kang was an engineer at a chemical factory where the testing allegedly took place. On one occasion, according to Mr Kim, Mr Kang inadvertently witnessed what appeared to be tests being conducted behind a large glass window. "He saw human hands, scratching the window from the inside," Mr Kim said. Mr Kang was helped to leave North Korea and arrived in China in July 2003, before travelling across the country in secret. Mr Kang was detained, with his wife and son and two South Korean helpers, on 4 January, Mr Kim said. "It appears the North Koreans have found out papers are missing. They offered a lot of bounty money to the Chinese authorities, who were waiting for him," he said. "This is a clear case where China is becoming an accomplice to North Korean crimes," he said. Mr Kim said he had kept Mr Kang's identity secret, but that it was now clear North Korea and China knew who he was. "We don't know what has happened to him, of if he has already been repatriated," he said. "I fear it could already be too late."

NDTV.com (India) CBI locates bodies of Gujarat riot victims Veeraghav Monday, February 2, 2004 (Ahmedabad): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now got some fresh leads into one of the most horrific cases in the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat. The skeletal remains of at least three persons have been unearthed from the forests of Dahod in Gujarat which the CBI suspect could be remains of the members of the family of Bilkis Banu. On March 3, 2003, 14 members of Banu's family were killed by an armed mob. The Gujarat police had, however, registered seven of them as missing persons. Brutal act Two years back, during the Gujarat riots Bilkis Yakoob was raped by a mob and then left to die. Even though she survived, 14 of her family members including her three-year-old daughter also caught in the attack were killed and their bodies buried. Only 6 of the bodies could be found till now and that had weakened Bilkis's case. But the CBI seems to have discovered at least four of the remaining eight bodies. The first skeleton was dug out on Saturday by a CBI team and the next day bulldozers were called in to dig deeper and three more human skeletons were found. This is one more example of the CBI's quick work after the Supreme Court asked the investigating agency to take over the case in December 2003. Two weeks back, it arrested 12 of the main accused, the first arrests made in the case in almost two years. The CBI will now get DNA tests done on the four skeletons to confirm their identity.

BBC 12 Feb 2004 Police submit Gujarat riot report - The riots left at least 1,000 dead - mostly Muslims India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted a report to the Supreme Court on an alleged gang rape and murder of Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Fourteen Muslims are alleged to have been killed and three women raped in the incident. The CBI was asked to take over the investigations by the Supreme Court after local police closed the case. More than a thousand people died during the Gujarat riots, India's worst religious violence in decades. During its investigation, the CBI unearthed the skeletal remains of four people including that of a child in Gujarat's Dahod district. The bones have been sent for DNA testing. The CBI was asked to follow up the case after India's National Human Rights Commission came in support of a key eyewitness, Bilkis Bano. Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant at the time, is reported to have seen three women being raped in the incident in which 14 Muslims were also killed. Ms Bano herself managed to survive because the attackers assumed her to be dead. She says she had named the accused to the Gujarat police but they allegedly took no action. Arrests Thirteen people have been arrested by the CBI in this case including a policeman for allegedly tampering with evidence. The case is expected to shortly come up before the Supreme Court. More than 10 Gujarat riot cases are currently before the court. The Gujarat authorities have been criticised for their poor handling of riot cases. Last October, the Supreme Court ordered the government to appoint new public prosecutors to handle the cases following the acquittal of 21 Hindus charged with burning 12 Muslims in a bakery in Baroda city. The Gujarat riots started after 59 Hindus were killed in an attack on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims in February 2002. That attack was blamed on a Muslim mob. Bibliography on 20002 Anti-Muslim Violence in Gujarat (ths website)

www.paknews.com 19 Feb 2004 Kashmiris Genocide Preplanned - Gilani Kashmir Media Service SRINAGAR, IHK : Feb 19 (PNS) - In occupied Kashmir, the Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Gilani has said that the Indian troops are carrying on genocide of Kashmiris under a preplanned strategy. He was addressing a gathering of the agitated people at Narbal in Budgam. It may be recalled that a murderous attack by Indian troops was made on the APHC Chairman and other Hurriyat leaders while they were leading a demonstration in the area yesterday, against the custodial killing of a civilian who was father of seven children. Syed Ali Gilani strongly denounced the occupation authorities for not allowing mourners even to bewail killings of martyrs of liberation. Referring to use of brute force on demonstration yesterday he pointed out that the Indian government, he emphasized was resorting to brute methods to maintain its illegal subjugation of occupied Kashmir. He led the funeral prayers of the martyred woman who was injured in yesterday's military firing and succumbed to her injuries in a hospital. Meanwhile, the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik, addressing a gathering at Badharwa in Doda district, and the Chairperson of Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Khawateen Markaz, Yasmin Raja, in a statement in Srinagar today expressed grave concern over the stepped up state-terrorism.

BBC 25 Feb 2004 Vajpayee reaches out to Muslims Mr Vajpayee made a direct appeal for Muslim votes India's prime minister has appealed to Muslims not to be afraid and vote for his Hindu nationalist party in this year's general election. "We are creating a new India - we need your help," Atal Behari Vajpayee said. He also told the thousands of Muslims who had gathered for a rare convention in Delhi that India should "walk and live together" with Pakistan. His ruling BJP hopes peace moves and a strong economy will help it return to power in elections expected in April. Delhi and Islamabad began peace talks this month, after two years of tension. The prime minister told his Muslim audience in the capital that India's policy was to have peace with its neighbours while keeping the country's interests in mind. "There is no conflict between the two," he said. "If we have to fight, we have to fight against poverty and unemployment but not with each other." Wooing Muslims Urging Muslims to put aside their mistrust of the BJP, Mr Vajpayee asked them to seriously consider voting for the party. Vajpayee: "Our policy is to have peace with all our neighbours" "We have always sought votes from all sections, but we didn't get them," he said. "I have come to appeal to you... stop being afraid, give it serious thought." The BJP has been attempting to reach out to India's 130 million-strong Muslim minority, which has often been suspicious of the party's strong Hindu nationalist agenda. On Tuesday, a key Muslim politician joined the BJP and said he would work to "bridge the gap" between the party and the Muslim community. Arif Mohammad Khan, a former member of the main opposition Congress Party, is seen by many as a prize catch for the governing party. The BJP has already announced that it is dropping the contentious Ayodhya issue from its campaign. The Ayodhya dispute, in which hardline Hindus pushed to build a grand temple on the ruins of a destroyed 16th century mosque, was once the BJP's key campaign issue. The hardliners believe the mosque, destroyed by Hindus in 1992, was built over a site marking the birthplace of the Hindu God Ram. Gujarat scar But many Muslims say the BJP is unlikely to win much support among the community. Mehmood Madani of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a Muslim religious body, says that they have not changed their impression of the BJP. "Why are they suddenly thinking of reaching us to out now, just days before the election? Why didn't they think of it earlier, during their five years in power?" he asked. He added that religious violence in Gujarat two years ago had left a lasting scar on the community. Sarosh, a civil engineer working in Saudi Arabia who was attending the rally, agreed with this view. "They can only gain our trust if they bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice, something they have still to do," he told the BBC. More than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, died in Gujarat in 2002 in some of the worst religious violence in India in decades. The BJP-ruled state administration was accused of turning a blind eye to the rioting.

Laksamana.Net 2 Feb 2004 Review - Regions: No More Mediation The International Red Cross said Wednesday (28/1/04) it had suspended efforts to mediate the release of hostages held by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). "As of today the Indonesian Red Cross and the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) have suspended our involvement until both sides in the conflict reach an agreement," ICRC spokesman Fortuna Alvariza told Agence France-Presse. "Our job was to facilitate the exchange of messages but we saw that both sides could not reach common ground," she said. GAM rebels had said they would release a batch of some 80 captives they are holding in East Aceh if the military granted a two-day cease-fire, but any release must be arranged with Red Cross representatives rather than military (TNI) or government negotiators. The government rejected the cease-fire proposal and accused GAM of holding 277 people hostage but TNI commander Endriartono Sutarto said Monday (26/1/04) he would order a two-day cease-fire provided GAM promised not to take any more civilian hostages in the future. The military later in the week successfully freed two officers' wives who had been held hostage since June in a military operation. The military claimed to have killed 22 rebels in a number of clashes last week, while another 17 suspected rebels had surrendered. The government said Thursday (29/1/04) it would channel Rp500 billion in cash this year to build infrastructure, including roads and bridges. Of this, Rp210 billion will go on irrigation systems, and Rp60 billion for housing and resettlement sites, Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Minister Sunarno said at the opening of a bridge in West Aceh. Priority would be given to the people's basic necessities, Sunarno said.
Maluku Separatists Jailed Judges in the provincial capital Ambon sentenced on Thursday (29/1/04) three Christian separatists from the outlawed Republic of South Maluku (RMS) group to between 13 and 15 years in prison for treason. John Latuhihin and Johanis Abraham went down for 15 years and Markus Siwabessy was jailed for 13 years for hoisting separatist flags in April last year. Earlier this month the same court sentenced nine RMS activists to between 30 months and 15 years in jail for treason. RMS leader Alex Manuputty and his deputy Sammy Waileruni were sentenced to three years in prison in January last year for subversion and an appeal court in May increased their terms to four years. They were released pending an appeal to the Supreme Court after their detention period expired in early November. Manuputty later fled the country and is now in the US.
Papua Emergency Ruled Out Amid fears that Jakarta would crack down in Papua and launch another 'integrated military operation', the government said it would not impose a state of emergency there. The National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Elsham Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy and the National Solidarity for Papua (SNUP) have protested strongly against plans said to have been made in a closed meeting held between People's Representatives Council (DPR) Commission I and the armed forces commander. According to the three NGOs, the idea was mooted by a member of the Military/Police faction and was a deliberate attempt to hamper investigations into alleged human rights violation cases in Papua. Some legislators had also called for a state of civil emergency in Papua to ensure elections this year run smoothly. "There are not enough reasons to impose a state of civil emergency in Papua," Home Affairs Minister Hari Sabarno announced on Wednesday (28/1/04). Under a state of civil emergency the governor would have special powers that include command of the police and military and the right to ban meetings and censor the media.
Military Bars E. Timor Opposition TNI commander in Indonesian West Timor, Col. M. Musanip, said Thursday (29/1/04) the military would not allow members of the "Kolimau 2000" opposition group in neighboring East Timor to enter West Timor where many former East Timorese refugees still live. "If members of Kolimau 2000 opposition group enter our territory and then ask ex-Timorese residents living in camps to carry out a rebellious movement in East Timor, we will take stern action against them," Musanip said. "There will be no leniency for them."East Timorese officials say Kolimau 2000 is led by disgruntled former resistance fighters, disillusioned by a lack of jobs. Earlier reports said the leader of Kolimau 2000, Bruno, had entered West Timor to ask former East Timorese militiamen to help them create chaos in East Timor after the withdrawal of United Nations troops this May. West Timor is still home to thousands of militiamen who fled the arrival of foreign peacekeeping troops in September 1999. Tens of thousands of other East Timorese who were forcibly moved across the border by militias at the time have now returned home. Meanwhile in East Timor, prosecutors for the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) court said in a press statement on Wednesday (28/1/04) that they had petitioned for a public hearing on the pending application for an arrest warrant against Gen. (Ret.) Wiranto, former Indonesian military commander and a candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections. A UN-supported SCU indictment against Wiranto was filed in February last year, for his alleged role in gross human rights violations perpetrated in the former Indonesian territory in 1999.The indictment was accompanied by an application for an arrest warrant for Wiranto, who was Armed Forces commander and Defense Minister in 1999 when the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence form Indonesia in a UN-backed referendum. The SCU indictment alleges that under international law Wiranto was responsible for crimes against humanity, including murder and persecution, for failing to punish or prevent crimes committed by his subordinates or those acting under his effective control in the period before and after the 1999 referendum in East Timor. Wiranto did not attend the subsequent trial at the SCU, which was set up to investigate and try those held responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 East Timorese during the 1999 mayhem. A human rights tribunal in Jakarta last year found Wiranto innocent of committing crimes against humanity in East Timor but international observers have criticized the tribunal's procedures and verdicts for not being impartial. Wiranto, along with six other ex-generals, is also on a visa watch list in the United States, because of the SCU indictment
E. Kalimantan: PDI-P Barred from Polls The East Kalimantan General Elections Commission (KPUD) ruled on Wednesday (28/1/04) that the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) could not run for seats in the provincial council during the upcoming elections. The decision was made after executives from PDI-P's East Kalimantan chapter failed to beat a midnight Tuesday deadline to file a final and valid list of the party's legislative candidates. The deadline was also imposed on other political parties. "The deadline passed and it cannot be extended. The party is not allowed to run for seats in the upcoming elections," said Noersyamsu Agung, the chairman of the KPUD. Noersyamsu said the KPUD gave the party the deadline to allow it to resolve its internal differences, but none of the party leaders turned up. "The KPUD has no right to interfere in the internal matters of a party. The internal conflicts of a party must be settled by themselves," he said. The KPUD invited the PDI-P executives to a meeting on Wednesday, but only one turned up. A PDI-P official said the party had yet to formulate a response to the KPUD decision but would hold a meeting that would be attended by all of the party chapter executives to discuss it. KPUD also announced that 759 legislative candidates from 23 political parties, excluding PDI-P, had passed the verification process.
Golkar Wins in Kupang Ibrahim A. Medah and Ruben Funay were elected as the new regent and deputy regent of the East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital of Kupang for the 2004-2009 term on Monday (26/1/04). The election took place under heavy security following an anonymous bomb threat a few days before. The tight security prompted thousands of supporters of rival candidates to cancel their plans for major rallies on the evening of the election. The pair, who were nominated by the Golkar Party, won 31 of the 40 votes in the Kupang legislative council, defeating their rivals from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Libert S. Foenay and Paul Nyoko. The PDI-P nominees received only four votes. Medah has been questioned as a witness in at least three graft cases involving billions of rupiah in Kupang, which remained unsolved to date.

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia 3 Feb 2004 www.smh.com.au Ambassador vowed closer ties: Wiranto By John Garnaut February 3, 2004 Wiranto - the former Indonesian military chief accused of crimes against humanity over the 1999 carnage in East Timor - says Australia's ambassador to Jakarta had discussed "increasing co-operation" if he defeats President Megawati Soekarnoputri in July's presidential elections. Wiranto told the Herald that Indonesia's bloody occupation of East Timor had been a "catastrophe", but his role in the pre-independence violence had been misunderstood. Australia and East Timor would be the first countries he would visit as president, he said. Wiranto has recently emerged as a leading presidential candidate, despite allegations he helped orchestrate violence in East Timor, Maluku province, Jakarta and elsewhere. He denies the allegations. A Washington-based campaign adviser, who did not want to be named, said ordinary voters were more concerned with security, stability and jobs than human rights. Wiranto has been accused of orchestrating militia violence that led to an estimated 1400 deaths and the displacement of almost a third of East Timor's population in 1999. This led to the decision by the Prime Minister, John Howard, to send Australian troops to lead an international peacekeeping force. United Nations prosecutors in East Timor this week stepped up efforts to obtain an Interpol warrant to arrest for the one-time protege of former president Soeharto, following his indictment by a UN tribunal last year. It also emerged that his name is on a US State Department watch list, which prevents him from entering the US without special permission. A Wiranto presidency would create serious diplomatic headaches in Canberra. "I think the most important thing is not to look backward, but to look forward and rebuild the friendship with Australia and the US," the retired general said. An Australian embassy spokesman said the ambassador, David Ritchie, had recently met Wiranto but had "certainly not" made any commitments. Many Jakarta-based analysts say Wiranto has the best campaign funding and election prospects of any challenger. He deflected questions about the source of his campaign funding, saying only that "I don't have a lot of money but I have a lot of friends". He said he would not accept donations from his former patron, Mr Soeharto. But an Indonesian member of his campaign team was confident Wiranto would remain Mr Soeharto's "strategic" choice.

www.yaledailynews.com. 3 Feb 2004 Report discloses abuse in W. Papua BY STEPHEN BUTLER Staff Reporter Yale Law students in the school's Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic released a report on Dec. 10 detailing human rights abuses in West Papua, Indonesia, the western half of the island of New Guinea. The report, which was prepared over the course of several years at the behest of the Indonesia Human Rights Network, found considerable but inconclusive evidence that the Indonesian government acted with the intent to commit genocide against indigenous West Papuans at various times during the past 30 years. "Although no single act or set of acts can be said to have constituted genocide, per se -- there can be little doubt that the Indonesian government has engaged in a systematic pattern of acts that has resulted in harm to -- and indeed the destruction of -- a substantial part of the indigenous population of West Papua," the report says in its conclusion. Elizabeth Brundige '98 LAW '03, one of the lead authors of the report, said there was clear evidence of "horrible" human rights abuses in West Papua. But it was not easy to definitively label these acts as genocide, she said. "The part that is more difficult to prove is if there was the requisite intent to commit genocide," Brundige said. Brundige, who has worked on the report since its inception, said there is a difference between the current situation in West Papua and previous situations in Rwanda and Nazi Germany, where governments publicly expressed their intent to wipe out an entire group of people. Law School professor and Lowenstein Clinic Director James Silk said the issue of human rights abuses in West Papua was new to many of the students in the Lowenstein Clinic. But he said many of them had heard of problems in parts of Indonesia, such as now independent East Timor. "[The students] weren't aware that in some of the other territories that are part of Indonesia, there are serious human rights abuses," Silk said. Silk said the Lowenstein Clinic had hoped from the start to use the West Papua report to draw international attention to the situation. "We wanted to bring this paper to the attention of organizations concerned with human rights but also to the attention of governments and the United Nations," Silk said. "We were hoping to use the report to generate discussion, particularly with officials in the United States government who have connections to the Indonesian government." Indonesia first gained control of West Papua in 1969, when the United Nations-sponsored "Act of Free Choice" transferred sovereignty over the area from the Netherlands to Indonesia. Silk said the students he supervised had to prepare their report using incomplete documentation of abuses in West Papua. "For the early period of Indonesian control, [the students in the clinic] relied on a fairly limited number of secondary sources," Silk said. "In the more recent period, there have been good efforts by West Papuan human rights activists to document abuses." Brundige said that since the report's authors did not go to West Papua to do fact-finding research, their final analysis was based primarily on secondary sources and primary sources that had been collected by other people. "We certainly had access to enough information for a very comprehensive report, but our report highlighted the need for further documentation," Brundige said. Silk said he was involved in supervising the report's preparation, but that the students in the clinic did all of the research and writing. He said the students also organized a round table discussion with experts on West Papua and experts on genocide about the issues at stake there as part of their research. [ 12 December 2003 Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control December 10, 2003, Yale Law School's Human Rights Clinic has released a report on human rights conditions in West Papua, the Indonesian-controlled western half of the island of New Guinea. The report by Elizabeth Brundige, Winter King, Priyneha Vahila, Stephen Vladeck and Xiang Yuan was writeen for the US-based Indonesia Human Rights Network (IHRN www.indonesianetwork.org ). Quote from the text: "Although no single act or set of acts can be said to have constituted genocide, per se, and although the required intent cannot be as readily inferred as it was in the cases of the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide, there can be little doubt that the Indonesian government has engaged in a systematic pattern of acts that has resulted in harm to--and indeed the destruction of--a substantial part of the indigenous population of West Papua." Summary (html) or 77 page report (PDF file) ]

ICG 3 Feb 2004 Asia Report N°74 : Indonesia Indonesia Backgrounder: Jihad in Central Sulawesi Recent violence in Central Sulawesi suggests the nature and gravity of the terrorist threat in Indonesia must be reassessed. While the shorter-term prospects are somewhat encouraging, there is an under-appreciated, longer-term security risk In October 2003, attacks in Poso and Morowali killed thirteen, mostly Christian villagers. Most of those responsible were local recruits from a militia spawned by, though institutionally distinct from, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), South East Asia?s largest terrorist group. Close examination reveals important rifts within JI: a more radical element pushes for attacks on Western targets but a majority views such attacks as undermining the longer-term strategy for an Islamic state in Indonesia. If those in the more radical faction can be captured, the immediate threat of another Bali-style attack by JI in Indonesia could substantially ease, though the longer-term th reat from local groups would remain. ------------------------------------- ICG reports and briefing papers are available on our website: www.crisisweb.org

International Herald Tribune 19 Feb 2004 Justice Still Eludes Indonesia Washington's Double Standards Toward Mass Murderers by Joseph Nevins President George W. Bush's promise, when Saddam Hussein was captured, that the former Iraqi dictator would "face the justice he denied to millions" took on a special meaning for me. I had just completed a friend's book manuscript on the events preceding the bloody seizure of power in Indonesia by General Suharto, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. But unlike in the case of Saddam, Washington has no desire that Suharto and his accomplices be held accountable for their crimes. The reasons why, and the fact that the United States is in position to realize its desires, painfully illustrate the poverty of international justice. Beginning in October 1965, Suharto and his army organized and carried out what the CIA described "as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century." Over the course of several months, they slaughtered members of the Indonesian Communist Party along with members of loosely affiliated organizations such as women's groups and labor unions. Amnesty International estimated "many more than one million" were killed. The head of the Indonesia state security system approximated the toll at half a million, with another 750,000 jailed or sent to concentration camps. Marshal Green, American ambassador to Indonesia at the time, wrote that the embassy had "made clear" to the army that Washington was "generally sympathetic with and admiring" of its actions. Indeed, the United States had helped lay the groundwork for the coup through its support for the military, and through intelligence operations aimed at weakening the Communists and drawing the Communist Party into conflict with the army. Accordingly, Washington supplied weaponry, telecommunications equipment, as well as food and other aid to the army in the early weeks of the killings. The United States Embassy also provided the names of thousands of Communist Party cadre who were subsequently executed. This same military mounted a full-scale invasion of neighboring East Timor on Dec. 7, 1975. While meeting with Suharto the previous day in Indonesia's capital, President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger approved of the invasion plans and the use of American weaponry, but asked Suharto to wait until they returned to the United States. About 14 hours after their departure, Indonesian forces attacked. What followed was a war and occupation that cost more than 200,000 East Timorese lives - about one-third of the pre-invasion population - and 24 years of American complicity in the slaughter. From the Ford administration to that of President Bill Clinton, the United States provided billions of dollars in military weaponry and training and economic assistance, as well as diplomatic cover to Jakarta. Today, Suharto resides comfortably in Jakarta, and the brutal military he helped to build remains intact, free to commit atrocities throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Similarly, officials from the United States complicit with the 1965-66 slaughter and Indonesia reign of terror in East Timor continue their lives unhindered. Not surprisingly, the United States and its allies - many of whom also actively supported Jakarta's crimes - have made it clear that they have no desire to see an international tribunal for Indonesia and East Timor established. Comparing laws to spider webs, Anarchasis observed in the 6th century B.C. that laws catch the weak and poor, while the rich and powerful tear them to pieces. Although not always the case, Anarchasis has generally shown himself to be prescient in the area of international affairs, a profoundly undemocratic arena in which the powerful demand accountability of their weaker enemies, while insulating themselves and their allies from prosecution. Whatever we may call this, it is not justice. The writer is an assistant professor of geography at Vassar College and author of "A Not-So Distant Horror: Making and Accounting for Mass Violence in East Timor," to be published next year by Cornell University Press.

Chicago Tribune 1 Feb 2004 Prosperous Kurds complicate Iraq's handover - Island of peace, stability seeks to keep its status of near independence By Tom Hundley
SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq - A dozen winters ago, during the last great repression by Saddam Hussein's regime, Kurds in this mountainous region of northern Iraq stayed alive by eating grass. These days they shop in sleek new supermarkets for Pringles potato chips and Belgian chocolates. It would be difficult to overstate the economic and political progress that has exploded across the swath of Iraq known as Kurdistan. While the rest of the country withered under Hussein's rule, Kurdistan, protected by a coalition-enforced no-fly zone, flourished. Today, as insurgents in Baghdad and the region known as the Sunni Triangle fight a persistent guerrilla war against the American-led occupation and Shiite clerics in the southern areas flex long-dormant political muscle, Kurdistan remains a relative island of Western-oriented stability. In Sulaymaniyah, the provincial capital, merchants along Salim Street fill shops with widescreen televisions, computers and the latest in cell phones. At night, a carnival display of Christmas lights illuminates the downtown area - and this well into the new year. Christmas is not usually observed in Muslim lands, but Kurds can't seem to get enough of the West and its commercial ways. Proud parents line up children for photos with shopping-mall Santas, known here as Baba Noels, and then take them for an ice cream sundae at "MaDonals." The U.S. has long held up Kurdistan as an example of what can be achieved under Western-style democracy. And while the U.S. encouraged the autonomous Kurdish region during Hussein's rule, it now worries that an Iraq divided into ethnic cantons would seed instability throughout the Middle East. But a quasi-independent Kurdistan appears to be the likely outcome of a process that threatens to slip from the Bush administration's control. Scrambling to meet its self-imposed June 30 deadline for the handover of power in Iraq, Washington faces increasing pressure to yield to the Kurds' key demands. For once, the gods of geopolitics seem to be smiling on the Kurds.
'Almost independent' The large measure of autonomy and the self-governing institutions already established in Kurdistan likely will be left in place during the transition period. After that, it will be hard to change the status quo, U.S. officials concede. More problematic are Kurdish demands for a referendum that almost certainly would give them control of the oil-rich region around the city of Kirkuk, and for a security policy that would allow the main Kurdish political factions to maintain their traditional militias while barring the Iraqi army from entering the Kurdish territory. Earlier this month, Paul L. Bremer III, head of the U.S. occupation authority, curtly rejected those demands, but he has since taken a softer approach. The turnabout would appear to reflect second thoughts about alienating the only piece of Iraq that seems to be functioning well, and a recognition that the Kurds, the only Iraqis who actively and enthusiastically supported the U.S. in the war against Hussein, are owed. "Right now, we are almost independent," said Barham Salih, a prominent Kurdish politician. "By seeking reintegration into Iraq, we are giving up things; we are not asking for more." Given Iraq's grim history of persecution and genocide against the Kurds, during Hussein's regime and before, it is remarkable that the Kurds would want anything to do with Iraq. But the general feeling among the Kurdish population seems to be that while separation and independence would be nice, that will never happen. Some of Iraq's neighbors - Turkey, Iran and Syria, with Kurdish minorities of their own - would create too many problems. There also is a feeling that despite the troubled history with Iraq, there are certain advantages to being part of an important Arab country. "Iraq belongs to Arabs, Christians, Jews and Kurds," said Sabah Muhammed, 40, a currency dealer in the Sulaymaniyah money trader's bazaar. "I was born in Baghdad, and I have many Arab friends. If the Arabs respect my rights, I see them as my brother."
Shaky democracy Most of the economic progress in the Kurdish north has occurred in the past five years, after the two main political factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, fought a brief civil war that led to a wary political settlement. U.S. officials talk about Kurdistan's "democracy." It does have an elected parliament and elected local administrations, but it is effectively ruled by two tribal mafias, each jealously protective of its turf. The KDP is headed by Massoud Barzani, a tribal chieftain who dresses and governs in the traditional, patriarchal manner. His father, Mustafa, founded the KDP and led a failed uprising against the Arabs during World War II. The rival PUK is headed by Jalal Talabani, who affects a more modern style. The two leaders loathe each other but, for the sake of political peace and profit, have learned the art of accommodation. All the major economic projects in Kurdistan - the shopping malls and hotel complexes - have direct links to Barzani or Talabani. It would be a serious mistake to invest in a mall in KDP-controlled Dohuk, for example, without taking one of Barzani's nephews as a partner. For the U.S. occupation authority and for Iraq's neighbors, the underlying fear is that autonomy for the Kurds will only whet their appetite for full independence. They worry that Kurdish politicians are playing a shrewd game, taking autonomy for now, keeping all options open for the future.
Dreams of nationhood Not far from Sulaymaniyah's main market, an inconspicuous doorway opens into a cavernous cafe. Beneath chandeliers and slowly turning ceiling fans, men's chatter mingles with the clatter of backgammon games and the soft clinking of their tea glasses. Here, in the thin afternoon light filtered through a fog of cigarette smoke, long-frustrated dreams are sometimes given voice. "I feel like I have lived my whole life for these last 10 years," said Muhammed Nergiz, 60, a renowned Kurdish folk singer. He wears the traditional checkered headscarf and baggy trousers of a Kurdish peasant. "The other 50 years of my Kurdish life, either we are in prison, or in the mountains, or fighting or in sadness," he said. "In these last 10 years, we have our freedom. ... We felt for the first time that we are human." He noted, as Kurds often do when they speak with foreigners, that Kurds are the largest ethnic group on the planet who do not have a country to call their own. "People know what's behind the curtain," he said. "If they give it to us, I would dance."

BBC 2 Feb 2004 Iraqi Kurds count cost of attacks People had been celebrating Eid al-Adha when the offices were hit Kurds in northern Iraq are in mourning after a double suicide bombing at the offices of their main political parties, that killed at least 56 people. Senior political figures were among the dead, and some 200 people were wounded, in the blasts on Sunday in Irbil. US chief administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer condemned the "cowardly attack on innocent human beings". He said it was also an attack on the principle of democratic pluralism in Iraq. Communities across the region reportedly flew black flags in place of those for their two main parties - Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Kurdish television turned to sombre music. The northern region is in shock and mourning, said the BBC's World Affairs Correspondent Mike Wooldridge in Iraq. In virtually simultaneous attacks, the bombers hit the KDP and PUK offices packed with guests for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Crucial time Kurdish officials blamed al-Qaeda and its allies and said they feared the death toll could rise above 100. The KDP and PUK between them largely run northern Iraq and are strong allies of the US-led coalition which ousted Saddam Hussein. Irbil hosts the Kurdish parliament. On the first day of Eid we receive people and well-wishers and that's why security wasn't as tight as during the rest of the days Mohammed Ihsan Minister for human rights for Kurdish regional government The bombings have dealt a severe blow to the two parties and their leadership as critical negotiation is taking place ahead of the installation of a new interim Iraqi government. Our correspondent says there is speculation that the attacks may be intended to drive a wedge between Kurdish north and the rest of Iraq. "I want to express my outrage at today's terrorist bombings which constituted a cowardly attack at both innocent human beings as well as on the very principle of democratic pluralism in Iraq," said Mr Bremer in a statement. Senior officials killed Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari - a Kurd - blamed the Muslim militant group Ansar al-Islam for the attacks. The Kurds and the United States say the group is allied with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. MAJOR ATTACKS SINCE 1 MAY 1 February 2004: At least 56 killed by twin suicide bombings during celebrations in Kurdish city of Irbil 18 January 2004: 18 reported killed outside coalition HQ, Baghdad 14 December: Car bomb at police station kills 17 in Khalidiya, west of Baghdad 12 November: 26 die in suicide attack on Italian base in Nasiriya 2 November: 16 US soldiers die as Chinook helicopter downed 27 Oct: Red Cross and other buildings in Baghdad bombed, more than 30 killed 29 Aug: Mosque near Najaf bombed, at least 80 dead including top Shia cleric 19 Aug: UN headquarters in Baghdad bombed, 23 killed including head of mission List covers attacks since US declared war effectively over An overview of Iraq's Kurds Ansar al-Islam was expelled from northern Iraq by Kurdish and coalition forces during last year's war. But PUK spokesman Sabah Sabir told the BBC that Ansar had recently re-emerged because of the increasing volatility in Iraq. Mohammed Ihsan, minister for human rights for the Kurdish regional government, said the dead included senior figures in the provincial government . Among them were the Irbil Governor Akram Mintik, Deputy Prime Minister Sami Abdul Rahman, Minister of Council of Ministers Affairs Shawkat Sheik Yazdin and Agriculture Minister Saad Abdullah. The bombers, witnesses said, made their way through checkpoints outside both venues and detonated their bomb belts once inside. "On the first day of Eid we receive people and well-wishers and that's why security wasn't as tight as during the rest of the days," said Mohammed Ihsan. "They [the attackers] took advantage of this."

DEBKAfile, Israel 2 Feb 2004 www.debka.com Talabani Accuses Turkish Intelligence of Massacre DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 2, 2004, 12:21 AM (GMT+02:00) Two huge bombs were detonated Sunday, February 1, at the very moment that Iraq’s Kurds joined their leaders for a mass celebration at the headquarters of their two parties in the north Iraqi town of Arbil. The crowds had gathered to mark the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice and the passing of their archenemy Saddam Hussein. The carnage was unimaginable, the worst terrorist assault ever seen in post-war Iraq. The death toll rose fast towards 70 with more than 200 injured. Hospitals recalled staff from their holidays and US helicopters rushed in medical assistance. The extent of the bloodshed and damage indicated strongly that vehicles packed with explosives outside the buildings must have backed up the suicide killers within. According to DEBKAfile’s sources in Kurdistan and Washington, PUK leader Talal Jalabani talking later to senior US officials - believed to include visiting US Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz - bluntly accused Turkish intelligence of orchestrating the massacre with the aim of wiping out the entire Iraqi Kurdish leadership at a single stroke. Kurdish PM Baram Salah repeated the allegation during a visit to White House that day. Kurdish sources declared the Qaeda-linked Ansar al Islam lacked the resources and capabilities for mounting an operation of such magnitude and precision. It was clearly the work of a professional intelligence agency, who knew the two Kurdish heads Masoud Barzani, leader of the KDP and Jalal Talabani, head of the PUK, were to greet their followers at their respective headquarters in Arbil, along with the entire Iraqi Kurdish political and military leadership. Talabani smelled a rat at the last minute and went into hiding. Barzani is in deep shock. Among the dead are Sami Abdul Rahman, Dep. PM of the Kurdish region and his two sons, and Medhi Khoshnau, Dep. Governor of Arbil Province. Turkish prime minister Tayyep Erdogan and foreign minister Abdullah Gul have just ended four days of talks in Washington at which they voiced concern over the generous measure of autonomy Iraq’s Kurds had been promised as America’s primary allies in the new Iraq. DEBKAfile’s sources report that they were not satisfied with the replies they received from President George W. Bush. Neither were they happy when secretary of state Colin Powell told them that the Kurdistan problem would be resolved in negotiations between the future sovereign government in Baghdad and Kurdish leaders. The American responses were seen by Turkish leaders as leading inevitably to near-Kurdish independence, creating a model in Iraq that threatened to inflame Turkey’s own Kurdish minority.

NYT 2 Feb 2004 Death Toll Rises to 67 in Sunday's Attacks in Iraq By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and EDWARD WONG RBIL, Iraq, Feb. 2 — The death toll from an attack by two suicide bombers in northern Iraq has risen to 67 people, a coalition official in Baghdad said today. At least 247 people were wounded in the blast on Sunday during Muslim holiday celebrations at the separate headquarters of Iraq's two leading Kurdish parties. All of those killed in the blast were Iraqis, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The attack shattered the calm of the north, a part of the country that had been relatively stable under the American occupation. The bombers killed several top Kurdish leaders and wounded other senior officials in the explosions, which came 10 minutes apart and constituted the worst attack in Iraq since late August, when a car bomb killed more than 80 people outside a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Najaf. The bombings here came at a time when the two rival Kurdish parties have been trying to unite the divided administrations of the northern region to strengthen their demands to retain autonomy in that area. The two parties had been using their Erbil headquarters reception areas for the first day of a festival celebrating the end of the hajj, when devout Muslims travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. American military officials have said they expected an increase of violence during the four-day holiday, but there was little preparation for the possibility that suicide bombers strapped with explosives would walk virtually unnoticed into celebrations here. Some officials said the attacks bore the signatures of foreign fighters or Ansar al-Islam, a mostly Kurdish terrorist group that American officials suspect has ties to Al Qaeda. The group was based near the mountainous Iranian border until American forces routed it last year with the help of Kurdish fighters. At the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, a blast blew out every ceiling panel, curled the blades of ceiling fans, peeled off wallpaper and left charred and bloody remains across the floor. At the time of the explosion, around 11 a.m., more than 200 people, including children, were packed into the reception hall, according to guards who had been there. They were exchanging greetings, eating chocolates and paying respects to Kurdish leaders. That was when a lean man in his 20's walked into the reception hall wearing a bulging photographer's vest, said Aziz Ali Achmad, chief of security for the headquarters. "He came up, reached for a minister's hand, and then all of a sudden there was a horrible noise and fire everywhere," Mr. Achmad said. Mr. Achmad said nobody was searched before entering the hall, despite his urging. "I kept telling the sheiks, `Please let us search people,' and they said, `No, we will not bother them, not today,"' Mr. Achmad said. A witness provided a similar account of an explosion at the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. It was unclear to what degree the attacks were a result of rising ethnic and religious tensions in Iraq. Except in the hotly contested oil-rich city of Kirkuk, the Kurds have generally not been involved in sectarian violence, and the Kurdish region has been considered one of the safest parts of Iraq. Relatively free of assassinations, roadside explosions and suicide bombings, the region is one where American soldiers can be seen occasionally walking around unarmed and eating in restaurants. L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator in Iraq, said in a statement that the bombings "constituted a cowardly attack on human beings as well as on the very principle of democratic pluralism in Iraq." The Kurdish region has existed as a virtually independent state since 1991, when the American and British governments declared it a no-flight zone and protected Kurds from Saddam Hussein's forces. The Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan each govern half the region. "Certainly this was an attack against the stability and security in the Kurdish region," said Bakhtiyar Amin, a spokesman for Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish member of the Iraqi Governing Council, who was on his way to one of the buildings at the time of the attacks. "They are forces of darkness and they want to bring Iraq back to an age of tyranny." Mr. Amin predicted that the attacks on Sunday would draw the two main Kurdish parties which went to war against each other in the mid-1990's closer together and strengthen their resolve for autonomy. Party leaders say they want a unified regional government that will retain much of the independence the Kurds have enjoyed, though the parties are willing to cede matters of monetary, foreign and national defense policy to a central Iraqi government. "These attacks could be better prevented by unity, by joining forces," Mr. Amin said. "I hope this will expedite the process." The two parties have been in talks since the summer to unite their regional administrations. Those talks have accelerated in the past couple of months, and Kurdish leaders say they expect to reach an agreement well before the Bush administration transfers sovereignty to an Iraqi government, which is supposed to happen on June 30. Mr. Amin said the parties had agreed in principle several weeks ago that the prime minister of a united region would come from the Kurdistan Democratic Party and his deputy from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, while the top two officers of the parliament would come from the two parties in reverse order. The ministries of the rival administrations would be combined, he said. Several Governing Council officials say autonomy for the Kurds, who make up a fifth of Iraq's population, is one of the most sensitive issues confronting them as they try to complete an interim constitution by Feb. 28. The committee writing the document opened debate over a first draft on Saturday. That draft calls for a three-person joint presidency shared by one Shiite Arab, one Sunni Arab and one Kurd. Some Kurdish officials insist that the two Kurdish parties should be able to keep their militias, called pesh merga, in some form, a demand that has become a delicate issue with the Governing Council because American officials are trying to disband militias. The attack on Sunday could bolster the Kurds' argument that they need to retain the pesh merga which means "those who face death" for security. On Sunday night, pesh merga essentially shut down Erbil, a city of around one million people. Sentries established roadblocks at all major intersections and searched cars. At the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a guard's description of the morning attack mirrored the accounts of the bombing in the reception hall of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. "A man walked up to Shakhawan Abbas," a member of the patriotic union's leadership council, "and while he was shaking his hand, he exploded himself," said the guard, who gave his name as Mahmoud. The guard said investigators were checking a videotape taken right before the bombing to identify the bomber. Many people here blamed Ansar al-Islam. They also cited as suspects insurgents from the restive Sunni Arab areas to the south. American military officials have said there is "a rat line" of insurgents flowing north. As a cold drizzle fell Sunday night, crowds huddled around the gates of Erbil's hospitals. "My son, my son," one man moaned as he collapsed against a friend outside Erbil Emergency Hospital. Achmad Umer, a farmer in traditional baggy Kurdish dress, with pants pulled up high, waited nearby to hear about his cousin. "They tried to erase our leaders," Mr. Umer said. "And they took many innocents along the way." Among the leaders killed were Sami Abdul Rahman, the deputy head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Saad Abdullah, a high-ranking official in the same party. Kurdish officials declared a state of emergency and appealed for donations of blood. The Erbil bombings overshadowed violence elsewhere in Iraq on Sunday. In the southwest, at least 20 looters were killed when they accidentally set off a munitions bunker guarded by Polish soldiers, Polish military officials said, according to The Associated Press. The looters were apparently trying to steal rockets, artillery shells and other weapons stored by Mr. Hussein's army. Near Balad, in central Iraq, one American soldier was killed and 12 others were wounded in a rocket attack on a support base. Jeffrey Gettleman reported from Erbil for this article and Edward Wong from Baghdad. ]

AFP 2 Feb 2004 Iraqis to try Saddam for genocide SADDAM Hussein will be handed over to a special court being set up by the US-appointed Governing Council to face charges of genocide and invasion of neighbouring countries. The ousted dictator remains in Iraq, US administrator Paul Bremer said yesterday. "Saddam is in Iraq now, and yes he will be tried publicly by a special Iraqi court when the prerequisites for setting up such a court are completed," Mr Bremer said. "The Governing Council has started setting up the special court and we have spent some funds on that and he will be tried publicly after bringing charges of mass killing and invading neighbouring countries against him. "Saddam will be handed over to the Governing Council after it finishes setting up the court." Asked if Saddam was co-operating with investigators, Mr Bremer replied: "He is not co-operating, but he is not a troublemaker either. "He has not given us any important or useful information up to now and has not confessed to the whereabouts of his offshore funds, but we know for sure that he has a lot of money outside Iraq." He said Saddam was in good health, but no new photographs of him will be released before trial. The Red Cross has insisted on its right to interview Saddam, who was captured by the US military on December 13 and confirmed an enemy prisoner of war on January 10. Red Cross spokeswoman Nada Doumani said last week that Saddam could not be tried in Iraq until the country regained its sovereignty because of Geneva Convention restrictions. But the US has insisted that Saddam's status does not preclude him from being tried in Iraq or elsewhere. Under a deal signed in November, the US-ledcoalition occupying the country has promised to cede power to a transitional Iraqi leadership by June 30.

Reuters 10 Feb 2004 US unveils Al Qaeda Iraq 'plan' BAGHDAD: A militant Islamist who the United States has described as an associate of Osama bin Laden has plotted a series of attacks in Iraq aimed at provoking a civil war, the US-led occupation authority says. Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt said US forces had seized a computer disc that contained a letter outlining the plan written by Abu Musab Zarqawi, who Washington suspects of links to Ansar al-Islam – a Muslim militant group operating in Iraq. "There is clearly a plan on the part of outsiders to come into this country and spark civil war, breed sectarian violence and try to expose fissures in the society," Kimmitt, the top US military spokesman in Iraq, told a news conference today. "We are persuaded that Zarqawi was the author of the letter ... We believe the document is credible and we take the threat seriously," he added. In October, Washington offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Zarqawi, who featured prominently in a presentation of US intelligence by US Secretary of State Colin Powell before the war in Iraq. "Iraq today harbours a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda lieutenants," Powell said at the time. He said Zarqawi oversaw a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan that specialised in poisons. He is also suspected of orchestrating the murder of US diplomat Laurence Foley in the Jordanian capital in 2002. Zarqawi was sentenced to death in absentia by a Jordanian court last year for plotting attacks against US and Israeli targets. PROVOKING VIOLENCE In Washington today, Powell said the letter added credence to his presentation to the United Nations last year. "With respect to the letter itself, it's very revealing. They describe the weaknesses they have in their efforts to undercut the coalition's effort. "But at the same time, it shows they haven't given up. They're trying to get more terrorists into Iraq ... But they will not succeed," Powell added. Iraq's US occupiers have long said they suspect al Qaeda has played a role in the insurgency against US troops and particularly in attacks on civilian targets in Iraq. US officials say last month's arrest by US troops in Iraq of Hassan Ghul, who they say reported to the operative responsible for the September 11 attacks – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, shows al Qaeda is trying to get a foothold in Iraq. Dan Senor, chief spokesman for Iraq's US governor Paul Bremer, said the 17-page letter proposed attacks on the shrines and leadership of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority, whom Arab Sunnis and Kurds fear could dominate a future government. "The document ... talks about a strategy of provoking violence targeted at the Shia, the Shia leaders in the hope that it would provoke reprisals against other ethnic groups in the country," he said. The document's author alludes to having conducted some 25 attacks in Iraq, Kimmitt said. Senior US officials in Baghdad said the letter was contained on a CD obtained in Ghul's capture, which also led to the identification of Zarqawi as its author. Another official said the letter spoke of the possibility of kidnapping US soldiers and expressed frustration at the participation of Sunnis in Iraqi security forces. "Before, we had a strong suspicion that al Qaeda was trying to operate in the country, kill coalition soldiers and create sectarian violence," that official said. "This confirms it." Asked how questions about the document's authenticity might be addressed, one senior US official said: "We couldn't make this up if we tried."

Reuters 15 Feb 2004 Saddam Trial Unlikely for Two Years - Newspaper LONDON- Saddam Hussein is unlikely to stand trial for at least another two years, a British newspaper quoted a top Iraqi lawyer as saying on Monday. Salem Chalabi, who is coordinating the toppled dictator's trial, told the Guardian ``there are frustrations'' over establishing a war crimes tribunal to try him on charges that could include genocide and crimes against humanity. The paper said delays have been caused by the need to select and screen judges, prepare courts and establish well-guarded jails to hold suspects. ``I think it will take two years to get to Saddam being tried,'' said Chalabi, a U.S.-educated Iraqi lawyer and nephew of Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi. The United States last month declared Saddam a prisoner of war, meaning he has certain specific rights under the Geneva Convention on treatment of POWs. That provoked demonstrations in Baghdad by Iraqis opposed to the move, who also demanded that Saddam face the death penalty. Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in Kuwait on Sunday the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council would ask Washington to hand over Saddam and to remove his status as a POW when Iraqis take over power on June 30. Saddam has been held by U.S. forces since his December 13 capture near Tikrit. U.S. officials have said they do not rule out the possibility the United States might re-evaluate Saddam's POW status in the future. Earlier this month Chalabi told Reuters the tribunal would try low-ranking Iraqi officials first, and he hoped to get the first trial going before year's end.

NYT 21 Feb 2004 Iraqi Kurdish Leaders Resist as the U.S. Presses Them to Moderate Their Demands By DEXTER FILKINS BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 20 — The alliance between the United States government and Kurdish political parties in Iraq has come under intense strain in recent days, with Kurdish leaders accusing the Americans of trying to block their long stifled hopes for autonomy in the new Iraqi state. Kurdish leaders say American officials are putting pressure on them to drop some of their main demands for autonomy in negotiations with the other major Iraqi groups, the Shiites and Sunni Arabs, over a temporary constitution to guide the country until the end of next year. Iraqi leaders on both sides of the negotiations say the talks on the constitution are deadlocked over three main issues: the fate of the 60,000-member Kurdish militia, which Kurdish leaders want to keep; the boundaries of the autonomous Kurdish region, which Kurdish leaders want to expand; and the amount of oil revenue to be set aside for the Kurdish region. Kurdish leaders also say they want years of Arab migration into Kurdish lands reversed before nationwide elections for a permanent government are held next year. They say they are especially embittered by American leaders, who they say have forgotten the special relationship that grew up between the Kurds and the United States in the Persian Gulf war of 1991, when they were united against Saddam Hussein. "Have the Americans forgotten that the Kurds are their best friends in the Middle East?" said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi Governing Council. "After all the Kurdish people have been through, the killings, the genocide, I cannot go to my people and tell them to accept the things the Americans are trying to force on us. The Kurdish people will not accept them." According to Kurdish and other Iraqi officials, L. Paul Bremer III, the chief American administrator here, has told Kurdish leaders that he will not yield on the three major issues holding up the negotiations. Mr. Bremer, the Iraqis say, has flatly rejected the Kurds' demand that they keep their militia intact, that they be guaranteed a percentage of oil revenue proportional to their population and that their region be expanded to include heavily Kurdish areas once held by Mr. Hussein's forces. The deadlock cuts to the heart of the future of the Iraqi nation, a patchwork of ethnic and religious groups cobbled together from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. It poses a test for Mr. Bremer, who is faced with the task of reconciling the demands of the three Iraqi groups while putting in place a framework that will hold the country together after the Americans leave. Kurdish officials said Mr. Bremer, trying to break the deadlock, flew by helicopter earlier this week to the home of Massoud Barzani, the longtime Kurdish guerrilla chieftain and political leader. He stayed overnight, Kurdish officials said, but left empty-handed. Kurdish leaders say they can only compromise on autonomy so much, because an overwhelming majority of their people want independence from Iraq. That desire is shaped by the historic depredations suffered by the Kurds at the hands of the central government in Baghdad. "These are our rights — we fought hard for them," said Rowsch Shaways, a senior leader of Mr. Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party. "The experiment of Iraqi statehood failed once before. We do not want to repeat the same mistakes." American officials declined to comment on the negotiations. At a news conference on Thursday, Mr. Bremer was asked about oil, militia f