Somalia, UN talks to resume

31/o5/08 ( AS )

Djibouti – Negotiations sponsored by the United Nations and aimed at bringing the Somali government and its main political foes into direct dialogue were due to resume Saturday in Djibouti.

The first round of discussions ended on May 16 and although the rivals did not engage in direct talks, the move was seen as a breakthrough in efforts to end a conflict which, according to international rights groups and aid agencies, has seen at least 6 000 civilians die in fighting over the past year.

Officials from the western-backed transitional federal government and the Eritrea-based Islamist-dominated opposition were due in Djibouti on Saturday in a fresh bid to agree on common targets for the peace talks.

“I have been extremely encouraged by the progress made so far and the huge support we have received from Somalis inside and outside the country,” top UN envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah said in a recent statement.

The negotiations were to receive a boost on June 2 with the visit of a delegation from the UN Security Council, which will be touring Africa over the coming week..

“This will be a wonderful opportunity for the Somali leaders to demonstrate to the international community their strong commitment and determination to restore peace and stability to Somalia,” Ould Abdallah said.

The African Union, which has about 2 600 peacekeepers deployed in Somalia, also lent its support to the Djibouti talks.

In a statement issued on Friday, the AU’s Peace and Security Council “encouraged the parties to pursue their efforts in a spirit of compromise and mutual accommodation in order to promote national reconciliation and lasting peace in Somalia”.

It also urged Somali factions that have so far shunned the process to join the peace process.

While some Islamist leaders and influential clan leaders have joined the discussions, other hardline Islamists have insisted the mediation was biased and continued to demand an Ethiopian withdrawal before talks could start.

The talks will be held against a backdrop of almost daily clashes between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian troops supporting the Somali government.

The Horn of Africa country has been plagued by virtually uninterrupted civil war since the 1991 ousting of former president Mohamed Siad Barre and has defied more than a dozen peace initiatives

Eritreans mark National Day on Thursday

By Afkar Abdullah (Senior Reporter)

31 May 2008

DUBAI – A large number of Eritreans living in the UAE and officials from the Consulate-General of Eritrea in Dubai marked the 17th anniversary of their country’s National Day on Thursday.

 

Among those present at the function were Eritrea’s Minister for Land, Water and Environment Weldmicael Gebrenariam, Eritrean Consul-General Yohannes Teccemmichael, and members of the diplmatic corps of various Arab and African countries in Dubai. Emirati musicians, including Eial Nasser, also participated in the celebration to project UAE-Eritrean cultural relations.

A cultural performance by a well-known Eritrean musical troupe was the highlight of the evening, which also featured poetry recitation and patriotic songs.

Eritrean minister Gebrenariam briefed the  members of the community on the current political and economic situation in the country and urged them to contribute to the process of rapid development in the country.  

“This is the day Eritrean freedom-fighters relished the taste of independence after 30 years of war and devastation,” Consul-General Teccemmichael said.

He commended the Eritrean people’s unparalleled determination to get a sovereign Eritrea and paid all those who had made sacrifices to make the dreams come true.

Speaking to Khaleej Times Teccemmichael said that after the independence of Eritrea in 1991, the government established its embassies and consulates in many Arab countries, particularly those who supported the resistance against Ethiopia.

The UAE was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with Eritrea with the opening of the Embassy in Abu Dhabi in 1993 and the consulate in Dubai in 2001.

There are about 3,000 to 4,000 Eritreans in the UAE, 60 per cent of whom are women who work primarily as baby-sitters.

“There was a need among the members of the community to interact and practice their culture and traditions, the reason for which they have established an association under the patronage of the consulate,” the consul-general said.

Ethiopia-Eritrea: Stalemate tkes toll on Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin

Source: Refugees International (RI)

Date: 30 May 2008

Despite strong historic and ethnic ties, relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia have rarely been smooth. As a result, and particularly over the past decade, nationality rights of residents of both countries have been at risk.

After Eritrea’s 30-year struggle for independence, the country peacefully became a state in 1993 through a referendum in which Eritreans in Ethiopia also voted. Since the 1998-2000 border conflict during which both countries deported thousands of people – Ethiopians from Eritrea and Eritreans from Ethiopia – relations have remained bitter, with both sides stationing troops along the border. Weak enforcement of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s decision awarding Eritrea the disputed town of Badme has left the conflict unresolved. International reluctance to persuade Ethiopia to uphold the decision has also signaled that human rights abuses in that county will not face meaningful scrutiny. Political and religious persecution has compelled citizens of both countries to become refugees around the world. Ethiopia welcomes Eritrean refugees, but Eritreans living in Ethiopian society still face marginalization.

UNDP, Japan to help Africa adapt to global warming

New York, May 31 (PTI)

The United Nations Development Programme and Japan have announced a new USD 92 million initiative to help Africa adapt to global warming.
“Climate change is one of the most critical issues that governments and citizens around the world need to address,” UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of Bureau for Development Policy, Olav Kjorven, said.

The programme, announced yesterday during the high-level Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), will be launched in August.

The initiative seeks to help governments revise their current anti-poverty strategies to come into line with climate change’s potential effects on development.

“As a result of climate change, many African countries will experience increased water scarcity and worsened health and food security,” Kjorven said, stressing that global warming threatens economic and social progress.

“Unless we act now, climate change may threaten everything we will attempt to achieve in the future,” he added.

Of the USD 92 million, USD 11 million will be allocated to projects in collaboration with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Industrial Development Organisation.

UNDP and Japan have joined forces in the past on successful projects, in several countries, including Afghanistan and Sudan and in the areas affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. PTI

TICAD meet ends on positive note

The Yomiuri Shimbun

31/05/08

YOKOHAMA–Participants in the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development closed their three-day meeting in Yokohama on Friday after adopting a declaration emphasizing the need to increase international aid for Africa’s fight against a host of challenges facing the continent.

“Efforts to see [the advent of] a vibrant Africa have just begun to take shape. The Japanese government will do its utmost [to help achieve the goal],” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said at the closing ceremony of the gathering, the fourth of its kind to be held since 1993.

With a note of satisfaction in his voice, the prime minister declared an end to the meeting that is held every five years. “The [latest] TICAD, which has become an unprecedentedly large international conference in the history of Japanese diplomacy, has successfully closed all sessions,” he said.

On Friday morning, African leaders and their partners wrapped up their meeting after adopting the Yokohama Action Plan, which spelled out a set of policies and principles to be pursued for African aid. Participants also adopted the Yokohama Declaration, a package of specific measures to be implemented over the next five years and targets to be accomplished during this period.

The document stressed the need to shore up international efforts to facilitate African development, while also praising the continent’s economic growth and its move toward political stability in recent years as positive signs.

Meanwhile, the declaration expressed a sense of urgency about whether the United Nations will be able to achieve its Millennium Development Goals, citing a host of serious problems confronting African nations, including the continent’s population explosion and its ensuing unemployment, as well as the spread of AIDS and other infectious diseases in the region.

The document said a sharp rise in global food prices could adversely affect efforts to reduce poverty on the continent, while praising Japan’s financial assistance for African nations in their newfound efforts to join the global fight against global warming. It also emphasized the need to reform the U.N. Security Council as early as possible.

The document stated the results of discussions on these issues at TICAD IV would be reflected in sessions at the Group of Eight summit meeting in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, in July.

The action plan incorporates Japan’s plan to double its official development assistance for Africa and its private sector investment in the region over the five years until 2012.

Specific plans include a project to build and improve highway networks on the continent. The conference adopted a plan to establish a system designed to examine the progress made in implementing these plans.

Djibouti: A war between Eritrea and Arab League

 

Djibouti (HAN) May 31st, 2008 –

Eritrea on 2002 asked the Arab League to interfere in order to calm down the tension in the relations between it and Sudan after Khartoum confirmed that the Eritrean army supported the Sudanese rebels and opposition in the recent attacks in East Sudan. On the other hand and in a related issue, the Djibouti president discussed with the chairman of the ICU Sheikh Sharif, latest developments on the Eritrea issue in light of the war taking place between the His Islamic forces and the Ethiopian military in Somalia. Again Djibouti accuse Eritrea over border.

Ethiopia which killed a number of people both in Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa. 
 

Djibouti, which is in the middle of a border dispute with Eritrea, handed over five days ago, an Eritrean suspected of Ethiopian railroad bombings near Dire Dawa and allegedly with links to Al Qaeda’s East Africa Branch, a senior Djibouti Security official told the media. Eritrean special border officers collected the suspect. The suspect, an Eritrean of Afar decent, was detained on January 3rd this year and is being held in the Djiboutian capital.

The officials said the Eritrean had also been calling other Islamist militants trained in Eritrea. “Ethiopian antiterrorism and federal police said intelligence agents followed the Eritreans to Djibouti after they entered the country from Somalia in January and arrested them at a Mosque in Balbala, Djibouti on charges of violating immigration and border laws,” according to some Somali news sources. The Eritreans were in Mogadishu, Somalia, before they were detained in Djibouti whose officials also say the Eritreans made frequent trips into Ethiopia and Sudan.Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister of Djibouti, whose territory has been encroached upon by Eritrea, has called upon the United Nations Security Council to intervene, and warned that his country was inching closer to a war with its neighbour.

“We call on the Council to deploy urgently all necessary measures toward preventing yet another conflict,” Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf wrote to the United Nations on Tuesday, “We consider Eritrea’s move a misguided intimidation and …an undisguised and naked provocation against my country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

Ali Youssouf added that attempts to quietly defuse the tension had failed and that Eritrea seems intent on illegally occupying the Ras Doumeira mountain range, which overlooks the busy Red Sea shipping lanes.

Asmara denied the accusation after which the Arab League’s Peace and Security Council held an emergency session at Djibouti’s request, asking for League Secretary General Amr Moussa to send a fact-finding mission to the area and report back to the League.

The under-secretary of the Arab league for political affairs, Ambassador Ahamed Ben Hely, said Sunday that “the Arab Peace and Security Council approved Djibouti’s request to send the mission in an effort to solve the crisis between the two countries.”

According to him, the Council discussed the border problem between Djibouti and Eritrea in its first ever meeting Sunday at delegates level.

Ben Hely revealed that he will meet the ambassadors of the two countries to explore ways to defuse tensions and prevent more escalations.

“The Council called Djibouti and Eritrea to exercise restraint in dealing with the border issue and to seek to solve it through peaceful means,” he pointed out.

In a related news, Ethiopia last week called on the UN Security Council to do more than just condemn Eritrea for continued obstructions that forced its peace monitoring mission to temporarily relocate.

“Appeasing Eritrea has never worked. Ethiopia and the peoples of our region expect more from the Security Council if it is to be taken seriously as a bulwark for international peace and security,” the Ethiopian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The council unanimously slammed Eritrea for cutting off diesel supplies to the UN mission monitoring the Eritrea-Ethiopia border dispute (UNMEE), forcing it to pull out of the country.

Last month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that a new war could break out if a U.N. peacekeeping mission along the heavily-militarized Eritrea-Ethiopia border were disbanded. But Mr. Ban’s warning came after Eritrea had expelled the 1500 member U.N. mission from a buffer zone that had separated the two country’s armies, effectively rendering the blue-helmeted force useless.

The Security Council issued statements condemning Eritrea’s expulsion order, but failed to take any further action. Ethiopia last week chided the world body for what it called “appeasing” Eritrea, and urged the Security Council to act forcefully against the Asmara government.

Reaction from Eritrea has been muted. In a statement issued in February, Eritrea’s foreign ministry said it was expelling the U.N. peacekeepers because their presence was not in keeping with the 2000 Algiers peace agreement aimed at resolving the border dispute.

 

Ethiopia’s Ambassador Signals Policy Change

Garowe Online (Garowe)

30/05/08

The Ethiopian ambassador in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, has indicated that the government of Ethiopia is initiating policy changes to help improve security.

Ambassador Fisaha Shawel told journalists Thursday that the Ethiopian army will stop search operations across Somalia

“We have halted our search operations across the country [Somalia], and especially Mogadishu,” the Ambassador said, adding: “This is a preliminary step in our desire for the Somali people to reach an agreement so we [Ethiopian troops] can withdraw from Somalia.”

It was a rare public speech by Ethiopia’s Ambassador in Mogadishu. Mr. Shawel was speaking at a location where Ethiopian soldiers distributed food aid to upwards of 1,000 Somalis, mostly women and children.

The soldiers distributed various foodstuffs to the families, including sugar, flour, cooking oil and rice.

It was the second time Ethiopian troops distributed food to needy families in Mogadishu, according to the Ambassador.

But Mr. Shawel indicated that a serious security challenge was posed by insurgents, who continued to target and attack Ethiopian forces on Somali soil.

“The al Shabaab group is creating problems in Somalia, especially in Mogadishu…they [al Shabaab insurgents] launch mortars from among civilians and this is unacceptable,” Ambassador Shawel said, while underscoring that Ethiopian soldiers will continue to response militarily until al Shabaab’s attack capability was significantly weakened.

Mr. Shawel welcomed an ongoing UN-backed peace process between the Somali government and the Eritrea-based opposition. The talks are scheduled to resume this weekend, but Somali opposition leaders remain divided on participating in the peace talks.

Ethiopia has maintained thousands of combat troops inside Somalia since December 2006, when the Ethiopian army helped the weak interim government expel Islamists from Mogadishu.

Ethiopian government officials claim that the country only has 4,000 soldiers deployed in Somalia, but locals report a much higher number.

Somali rebels have attacked joint Somali-Ethiopian soldiers whenever a search operation begins in Mogadishu, especially in areas considered to be insurgent strongholds.

Thousands of people have died during the ongoing Islamist-led insurgency that aims to topple the Somali government and expel its Ethiopian military backers.

 

Tiny Eritrea makes big footprint in Africa

By Andrew Cawthorne

NAIROBI, May 30 (Reuters) – Most nations erect grandiose monuments to their historical triumphs.

Eritrea put up a pair of sandals.

The sculpted black metal shoes in Asmara’s Shida (Sandal) Square, recalling the footwear of Eritrea’s rebels, were a symbol of its remarkable 30-year independence war against its giant neighbour Ethiopia that ended with secession in 1991.

And despite its small territory and population of just 4.7 million people, Eritrea has, from independence until today, continued to make big footprints on east African politics.

To detractors, including the United States, Eritrea is a nasty oppressor at home and troublesome meddler abroad. Washington has threatened to put President Isaias Afwerki’s government on its terrorism list for involvement in Somalia.

But to supporters, Isaias symbolises the Eritrea of the sandals: plucky self-reliance and noble resistance to bullying superpowers. “We are all soldiers here, ready to defend our country,” one Eritrean man proudly told a visitor.

Either way, nobody underestimates Eritrea’s influence at a critical time for the Horn of Africa, where the Somalia war and Eritrea-Ethiopia border dispute fuel instability and keep the region on a war footing.

“Whether one likes it or not, Eritrea is an actor to be reckoned with,” Horn of Africa expert Matt Bryden said.

“The focus of Eritrean foreign policy is its dispute with Ethiopia, everything else takes a back seat or is related in some way. … Domestic politics in Eritrea are frozen.”

Isaias, 62, and Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi, 53, go back a long way. Their respective guerrilla movements played a role in bringing down Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.

Initially feted by the West as part of a new generation of progressive African leaders, Meles and Isaias soon fell out, going to war between 1998-2000, and explaining authoritarian tendencies at home in the context of that still unresolved feud.

The United Nations fears a new war. Now both nations keep thousands of troops near their borders, oppose each other in Somalia, and make mutual accusations of internal interference.

To outsiders, it may seem absurd for two such culturally close nations to maintain such costly enmity, when their peoples are among the world’s poorest.

But for them you cannot erase history.

“It’s too late,” Isaias told Reuters this month, stiffening when asked about possible reconciliation with Meles’ Ethiopia.

“You would have to be an angel or someone like Christ.”

SOMALIA FACTOR

Given guaranteed world condemnation, stretched economies, and the past enormous cost — 70,000 died in the border war — diplomats in the region doubt Ethiopia and Eritrea will actually return to war, though they do seem perpetually close to it.

“They’re both focused at the moment on Somalia, they couldn’t deal with another conflict,” one African diplomat said.

Ethiopia has thousands of troops in Somalia, supporting a western-backed government against Islamist-led fighters in an insurgency increasingly seen as “Africa’s Iraq”.

Geographically straddling the Christian and Muslim worlds, Eritrea hosts some Somali opposition leaders and, according to a U.N. arms committee, funnels weapons to the insurgents.

Eritrea says such accusations are a smokescreen to cover up Ethiopia’s “invasion” of Somalia and another example of the double standards applied by the West in the Horn.

“Trying to associate the resistance of the Somali people with terrorism is a mere fabrication,” Isaias added in one of several recent interviews that seemed an attempt to explain Eritrea’s positions more forcefully to an often perplexed world.

Eritrea’s positive role in brokering peace for east Sudan, its desire for self-reliance not foreign handouts, and its vindication in the border dispute by an independent commission, are all wilfully overlooked by the world, Asmara argues.

“While Eritrea is right in much of what it says, its recent behaviour is an object lesson in how not to do international diplomacy,” one diplomat said, citing obstacles to foreign aid groups and U.N. peacekeepers who are pulling out of the border.

Domestically, Isaias is under little pressure to fulfil pledges made at the start of his rule for elections or to enact constitutional guarantees on hold due to the Ethiopia conflict.

And his people’s economic hardship is unlikely to prove an Achilles’ heel, experts say, as Eritreans have endured worse, particularly in the independence war they call “The Struggle”.

“This is a people accustomed to suffering and sacrifice,” said one expert who, like many people when it comes to discussing Eritrea with journalists, did not want to be named.

Meanwhile, rights groups say thousands are in jail unfairly. Young people leave, illegally, by the thousands each year. And the suppression of basic freedoms make Eritrea the continent’s very own “North Korea”, according to one press freedom group.

“I like a lot of what the president has done for us in terms of anti-poverty strategy and rescuing national dignity,” said one young Eritrean professional in a cafe.

“But now it is time to be more flexible,” he added, lowering his voice. “The old men from ‘The Struggle’ just want to stay in power. Ethiopia is their excuse. Our leader used to walk freely round Asmara. Now you don’t see him. What does that show?” (Editing by Jack Kimball and Mary Gabriel) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )

Eritrea: President Isaias Holds Talks With Different Japanese Government Officials in Yokohama City

Shabait.com (Asmara

29/05/08

President Isaias Afwerki who is attending the current 4th International Conference on African Development in the Japanese city of Yokohama held talks with different Japanese government officials.

In a meeting yesterday, President Isaias and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda conducted discussion focusing on the development of bilateral relations, the situation in Africa and the significance of Japan’s role in meeting African challenges and the development of the continent.

Indicating that Japan’s assistance and cooperation with the nations and governments of Africa should be direct, the President underlined that assistance through other organizations and association is not effective.

Also in a meeting on the same day with the Chairman of New Komeito Party, Mr. Akihiro Ota, President Isias discussed the objective situation in Africa, the continent’s future development prospects and its relations with Japan. He called on the Japanese government to enhance its role of partnership in promoting Africa’s development and development through extending direct assistance on the basis of the priority of the states concerned.

Mr. Akihiro Ota on his part stated that at a time when Eritrea is registering accelerated pace of economic progress, Japan would enhance its cooperation with the country in the domains of development programs and upgrading human resource capacity.

Moreover, in a press conference he gave to Japanese media organs, President Isaias pointed out that the dedication and spirit of self-reliance which the industrious Japanese people had demonstrated in building a prosperous nation is exemplary to Africa.

The President arrived in Yokohama City on Monday to attend the 4th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV). The Conference that opened today would continue until May 30.

 

Eritrea: Ambassador Calls On Kuwaiti Investors to Make Good Use of Available Investment Opportunities And Prospects

Shabait.com (Asmara)

28/05/08

The Eritrean Ambassador to Kuwait, Mr. Mahmuod Omar Churum, called on Kuwaiti investors to make good use of the available wide-ranging investment opportunities and prospects in Eritrea.

In a press conference he gave to Kuwaiti media outlets in connection with the 17th Anniversary of Independence Day, the Ambassador outlined the major achievements Eritrea has registered in the post-independence period through the coordinated and dedicated endeavors of the people, the leadership and members of the Defense Force. He further underlined that significant infrastructure facilities have been put in place in a manner that encourages investors.

Indicating that Eritrean-Kuwaiti relations is not only historical but also one that is gaining momentum, Ambassador Mahmoud Churum invited Kuwaiti investors to personally witness the available investment opportunities in Eritrea and the prevailing peace and security.