Security Council urges Ethiopia and Eritrea to refrain from any threat to use force

Published: May 1, 2008
UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. Security Council urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to refrain from threatening to use force against each other and to resolve their border dispute peacefully.

In a statement approved late Wednesday by consensus, the council said it stands ready “to assist the parties to overcome the current stalemate, taking into account the interests and concerns of both parties.”

Eritrea and Ethiopia have been feuding over their border since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.

A 1,700-strong U.N. force has been monitoring a 15-mile (24-kilometer) wide, 620-mile (1,000-kilometer) long buffer zone between the Horn of Africa neighbors under a December 2000 peace agreement that ended a 2 1/2-year border war.

Tensions between the two countries remain high because of Ethiopia’s refusal to accept the boundary commission’s 2002 ruling on the border demarcation which awarded the key town of Badme to Eritrea.

The council said Eritrea’s continued “obstructions” of the U.N. peacekeeping force have reached a level that undermines the basis for the U.N. mission, known as UNMEE.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ordered the temporary redeployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Eritrea on Feb. 11 after its government restricted fuel supplies to the force and its food supplies were briefly halted.

“The Security Council will, in the light of consultations with the parties, decide on the terms of a future U.N. engagement and on the future of UNMEE,” said the statement read by the current council president, South Africa’s U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo.

It reiterated that the two countries have the primary responsibility for achieving a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the border dispute.

“The Security Council urges both sides to show maximum restraint and to refrain from any threat or use of force against each other and calls upon the parties to address forthwith the unresolved issues in accordance with the commitments made in the Algiers agreements” signed in December 2000, the statement said.

Djibouti summons int’l community over row with Eritrea

 

02 May 2008, Djibouti( APA

Djibouti has summoned the international community to engage in settling its border dispute with Eritrea, the country’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Mahamoud Ali Youssouf told a news conference.

Youssouf Wednesday said the row has been referred to the Arab League, to IGAD, to the African Union and the United Nations Security Council.

A “fact-finding commission from these international bodies were expected in the coming days” to the two countries the envoy said.

“The Republic of Djibouti has taken this action after noticing the total breach in communication and the refusal of the Eritrean government to enter into any dialogue”, Youssouf explained.

He said “all political and diplomatic means at the regional and international level are now welcome in order to settle the border issue for good.”

 

the diplomat charged, but other independent sources say the two armies are “silently” facing each other.

Djibouti denounced an Eritrean incursion on its territory on April

16.

Government to re-examine anti-terror guidance

 British government due to issue ‘amended’ anti-terror guidance in November

BY. Chris Cheesman

30/04/O8

Police officers are expected to be issued with fresh guidance in a government bid to ensure they do not abuse their stop-and-search powers under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The Home Office outlined the plans after a police body complained that officers are not sufficiently trained in how to correctly apply anti-terror legislation when dealing with photographers.

Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Peter Smyth said that officers are ‘not properly trained in this legislation and that is probably leading to misunderstandings’.

He was speaking on BBC Radio 4s iPM programme last Saturday, which focused on increasing concerns that photographers are being unfairly stopped and questioned by police when taking photos in public places.

In response to the police claims, a Home Office spokesperson told Amateur Photographer: ‘We want to make sure that this power, which is useful in creating a hostile environment for would-be terrorists to operate in, is being applied appropriately and proportionately. The review will look at guidance for the use of Section 44 to make sure that this is the case.’

She added: ‘One of the key aims of the guidance is to set out a framework for the use of Section 44 powers to ensure that they are used appropriately by officers on the ground. The guidance clearly states that the powers should only be used for searching for articles which could be used in connection with terrorism.’

Police, civil liberties groups and ‘other stakeholders’ are being invited to comment on the existing guidance until May 16.

Amended guidance is due to be published in November, according to the Home Office.

Earlier this year, civil rights group Liberty told us that stop-and-search powers are meant to be ‘exceptional powers which allow the police to act without any grounds for suspicion’. The lobby group added: ‘It is incredibly important that anti-terror stop and searches never become an ‘everyday’ police power because of the negative long-term impact on community relations and apparently, the Arts.’

The reassessment of police stop-and-search guidance forms part of a review announced by the Prime Minister in October last year.

The move comes as issues surrounding the rights of photographers to take pictures in public continue to grab the headlines.

The campaign to protect street photography is gathering pace, boosted by recent coverage on TV and widespread support from MPs.

Labour MP Austin Mitchell plans to raise the issue directly with Home Office Minister Tony McNulty and hopes to include a representative from Amateur Photographer magazine in a ‘delegation’ to visit the Home Office.

Mideast Quartet presses Arab states, Israel

 

LONDON (AFP) 

02/05/08

 Key world powers called Friday on Arab states to fulfil their promises of aid for the Palestinians and voiced deep concern over the humanitarian impact of a nine-month-old Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.

In a joint statement issued after the Middle East Quartet held talks in London, the powers also called on Israel to stop building or extending settlements in the West Bank.

The Mideast Quartet — the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union — urged Arab donor states to follow through on commitments to the Palestinians made at a Paris conference in December.

“The Quartet encouraged the Arab states to fulfil both their political and financial roles in support of the Annapolis process,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, citing an agreed statement.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who attended Friday’s talks, said: “I think there have been pledges that have been fulfilled but clearly when you make a pledge you ought to fulfil it.

“That is the point that I will be making to all states.”

At the Paris meeting, the international community pledged more than seven billion dollars (4.5 billion euros) in aid, including 1.5 billion dollars in budgetary support, mostly to be spent on civil servants’ salaries.

According to the State Department, of the 717 million dollars contributed so far, 500 million dollars have come from the EU, Britain, Norway, France and the United States.

Some 215 million dollars have been paid by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Friday that Kuwait had agreed to make an immediate payment of 80 million dollars.

Fayyad, speaking after a separate meeting in London on aid for the Palestinians, said while he welcomed the Kuwaiti move, the main obstacle to economic reconstruction in Gaza was the Israeli blockade.

“Life there is extremely miserable,” he told journalists. “There is no substitute to re-opening the crossings.”

The Quartet also urged Israel to ease the blockade to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

“The Quartet called for continued emergency and humanitarian assistance and the provision of essential services to Gaza without obstruction,” Ban added.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair, now the Quartet’s envoy, said the situation in Gaza was “terrible.”

But he said before the blockade could be lifted, it was essential that rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory into Israel ceased.

Before the London talks, aid agencies had warned of “an impending humanitarian crisis” in Gaza and urged the Quartet to press Israel to end the blockade, which it imposed after Islamist group Hamas seized power in June.

The Quartet also called on Israel to “freeze all settlement activity including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001.”

Rice was due to go on from London to Jerusalem and the West Bank, to try to kickstart stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, ahead of a visit to the region by President George W. Bush later this month.

Blair also voiced optimism that an agreement on a Middle East peace deal was possible “faster than people think.”

Hamas has insisted that, as part of any truce to end violence, Israel must lift the blockade, but Israel on Thursday rejected an Egyptian proposal to ease restrictions.

Separately, on Iran, a six-power grouping comprising the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany agreed to make a new offer to Tehran to resolve the nuclear standoff between the West and the Islamic republic.

“I am glad to say that we have got agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran,” said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband after talks with his counterparts.

Miliband said the contents of the offer would only be disclosed to Iran.

The West fears Iran wants to use its nuclear programme to make atomic weapons but Iran insists the drive is peaceful and solely aimed at providing energy for a growing population

Gordon shouldn’t smile – it looks unnatural

“Gordon Brown manages a smile in Number 10 despite the results“

By Carole Walker 02/05/08
Political correspondent, BBC News

“Gordon shouldn’t smile – it looks unnatural” was the advice from one former minister last week.

Surely the prime minister must have realised that his attempt to do so, when he spoke to us in Downing Street on Friday morning, was even less convincing than usual.

Less than a year after taking office, Gordon Brown has delivered Labour’s worst election result for 40 years. His party’s core supporters either stayed at home or voted for the opposition.

The Conservatives have notched up the sort of support Labour enjoyed two years before Tony Blair swept to power.

Gordon Brown’s inner circle are looking at reports of a massive turnout in the London suburbs and bracing themselves for the hammer blow of a Boris Johnson victory on Friday evening.

Brown blamed

The prime minister said he would learn lessons, reflect and move forward, but it is difficult to see how he is going to regain that forward momentum.

He says the difficult economic circumstances are partly to blame. But as the man who has been in charge of the economy for ten years, the voters appear to be blaming him.

Next month’s draft Queen’s speech will be an opportunity to set out fresh policies to reform public services, welfare and the constitution. But the tight financial situation will limit his scope to deliver anything that will make much difference to all those feeling the squeeze.

The Prime Minister told us the real test of leadership is how you cope in difficult circumstances. He is certainly being tested now

Of course local elections are not the same as general elections. People do feel a greater liberty to register a protest vote and some parts of the country have not gone to the polls this time.

Yet more than 100 Labour MPs will now be worrying about their chances of keeping their seats at the next election.

There is no sign of any organised attempt to move against the leader who was given such overwhelming support by his party when Tony Blair stood down. There is no obvious candidate prepared to put up a serious challenge at the moment.

With two years to go before the next election, Gordon Brown does have time to turn around his party’s fortunes. But some are now wondering whether he is personally capable of the sort of change that is needed.

David Cameron is right to suppress the glee that he is clearly feeling.

Volatile electorate

The results do suggest he could be heading for victory at the next general election, but the Tory leader is correct when he says his party cannot afford to hope that Labour’s failings will be enough.

The electorate is highly volatile and Labour is right to claim that Conservative policies will now come under greater scrutiny.

The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has won himself some breathing space. His campaign strategists did an excellent job in lowering expectations.

The mixed bag of some losses, but modest gains, allowed Mr Clegg to declare he had confounded expectations. His party at least seems to have exhausted the habit of ditching its leader when the going gets tough.

For Gordon Brown the picture appears to be getting grimmer by the hour. Losing control in Reading leaves Labour with hardly a council in the south-east of England, whilst the Tories have at least gained a foothold in the north.

The prime minister told us the real test of leadership is how you cope in difficult circumstances. He is certainly being tested now.

Labour suffers heavy losses in UK local elections

Friday, May 02, 2008

Gordon Brown’s Labour party has suffered huge losses in the local elections in Britain and Wales.

The party has so far lost 160 seats and projections suggest the total loss could reach around 200.

The Tories, meanwhile, have gained almost 150 seats and have taken control of eight councils.

The results mean Labour looks set to suffer its worst local election performance in 40 years.

Seeking refuge in Israel

Rory McCarthy in Tel Aviv

Friday May 2 2008

The shelter is in one of the poorest parts of Tel Aviv, an area of run-down strip joints, cheap cafes and patrolling police cars.

There is no sign on the door but the overcrowded four-storey building is now home to at least 200 African asylum seekers, their numbers growing by the day in a new and sudden rush of migrants pouring into Israel.

Occasionally they are rounded up by police and jailed, only to be released again weeks, sometimes months later. Some are lucky enough to secure short-term work permits, though with heavy restrictions; very few ever get the official refugee status they seek and which some among them doubtless deserve.

Yohannes Lemma Bayu is one of the few whose application for asylum succeeded, although it took him five months of campaigning and a 23-day hunger strike. He now he lives legally in Israel on a temporary but renewable residence permit.

He arrived 10 years ago from his native Ethiopia seeking asylum from political persecution – his father had been a minister in a previous government and their family was now under threat from the regime. But rather than leave to join the rest of his family in the United States, Bayu, 35, stayed and established this first shelter in Tel Aviv for the flood of new arrivals.

“I considered Israel a developed and democratic country and I believed Israel is respecting the rule of law. That’s why I came here,” he said. Like many others, he was also drawn as a Christian to the sites and history of the Holy Land.

In the past five years the number of people crossing on foot through the desert from Egypt into southern Israel has increased dramatically: from several hundred in 2006, to more than 5,000 last year and already at least 2,200 in the first three months of this year alone.

At first most were from Sudan, some from Darfur but many more from the south of the country where they also faced political persecution and human rights violations.

Many had already spent months or years seeking asylum elsewhere, particularly in Egypt.

But then the Egyptian authorities began a crackdown – including one notorious incident in December 2005, when police killed 27 Sudanese migrants in an attack on a makeshift camp in Cairo. That in turn encouraged thousands of others to escape and take the risk of crossing through the desert and into Israel.

Today they continue to come, the numbers now including many Eritreans, again escaping political persecution at home.

Some of the migrants are Muslims, many more are Christians. For Israel, a country built largely on the wave of Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, this issue has sparked a particularly intense debate.

The Israeli military has stepped up patrols along the Egyptian border and the government has begun planning a costly border fence.

The prime minister, Ehud Olmert, reportedly told a meeting of senior ministers in March: “This is a tsunami that can only get worse. We must do everything we can to stop it.”

In the shelter, many sleep on the floor and all rely on donations for food and clothes. Notices are pinned to the walls: rotas to share cleaning duties in the shelter next to advice about legal rights and healthcare facilities.

One Eritrean, who gave his name only as Fisehaye, arrived in Israel seven months ago with his epileptic son Simon, 14. He had fled military service at home, then spent months in camps first in Sudan and then Egypt, before walking over the border into Israel.

“We thought it would be better than the other places we’ve been,” he said. They were arrested by the Israeli military but then dropped off on the streets of Beer Sheva, in southern Israel. He made his way to Tel Aviv where he has shuttled between hospital visits and the shelter ever since. “I’m stuck here,” he said. “The living conditions are horrible but I can’t go back to my country either.”

Along the corridor was another Eritrean, a 30-year-old woman named Teje. After five years in Sudan, she crossed into Egypt and then two months ago into Israel with her husband and their four children. Her husband was later arrested is still in jail.

She had an appointment scheduled with the local office of the UN high commissioner for refugees and hoped it might produce a temporary work permit. “It feels like I’ve been a refugee all my life,” she said.

“We can’t continue like this for ever,” said Bayu, the shelter’s director. “We’re doing the government’s job.”

Israeli officials claim that many of those arriving are coming to seek work, not to escape genuine political persecution.

“I think there is a common assessment inside the government that we have not adequately yet met this challenge,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert. “But only a very small percentage of these people are refugees. Israel succeeded in building this country to be like a modern, European economy and we are maybe the only such country with a land border with Africa.

“The overwhelming majority of people coming into Israel are people seeking to work illegally.”

But critics say the government’s response has been haphazard and has fallen short of the requirements of the international convention on refugees.

Anat Ben-Dor is a lawyer who helps run a legal clinic at Tel Aviv University where for the past five years law students and lawyers have given free support to those seeking asylum.

They have so much work now they have to turn people away. She argues that many of those coming do have genuine cause for refugee status, which needs to be properly assessed.

“I’m not underestimating the problem but I think Israel needs to build a refugee status determination system,” she said. “Everything they have done has failed. They are trying everything in their power to get rid of refugees and to try and make their lives as difficult as possible.”

When the Sudanese first began arriving they were arrested because they came from what is still regarded as an “enemy” country in Israel’s on-going conflict with the Arab world.

Later they were released in their hundreds and allowed to work, particularly in resorts like Eilat, but only under stringent conditions.

Then there was an outcry last year when 48 migrants, mostly Sudanese, were deported to Egypt where some were arrested and went missing, and others were sent back to Sudan.

The policy was promptly dropped and instead temporary residency was given to around 600 Darfurians, an acknowledgement of the horror of the genocide they had escaped. Around 2,000 Eritreans have also received six-month work permits in another apparent concession. But further crackdowns are expected.

“This isn’t the way the refugee convention is to be implemented,” said Ben-Dor. “Every single person asking for asylum should be individually screened and assessed, not be dealt with by group-based decisions. It’s not something that’s impossible to achieve but I think there’s a resistance to accepting the way the refugee convention works.”

Bush condemns violators of press freedom

(AFP) 02/05/08

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush Thursday denounced governments which muzzle the media and imprison journalists, pointing out China as “the world’s top jailer for journalists,” followed by Cuba.

“Just and open societies protect and rely on the freedom of the press,” Bush said in a statement marking World Press Freedom Day, which falls on Saturday.

“Brutal regimes and others who seek to stifle liberty often do so by closing down private newspapers and radio and television stations. They kidnap, arbitrarily jail, and beat journalists,” he said.

“The United States condemns the harassment, physical intimidation, persecution, and other abuse that journalists, including bloggers and Internet reporters, have faced in China, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, Venezuela, and Vietnam, as well as the unsolved murders of journalists in Belarus, Lebanon, and Russia.”

Bush cited Belarus, Myanmar, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe for repressive anti-free speech laws and for often imprisoning media workers.

“In 2007, for the ninth consecutive year, China remained the world’s top jailer of journalists, followed by Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, and Azerbaijan,” he said.

Bush also cited Belarus, Lebanon, and Russia for records of unsolved murders of journalists.

“We call on all governments to guarantee the inalienable rights of their people, including, consistent with Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to freedom of speech and the press,” he said.