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Vol.7 No.1 Jan-Feb 95
The Horn of Africa Bulletin (HAB) is an international media review, compiling and recording news and comments on the Horn of Africa. Reports published in HAB represent a variety of published sources and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors.
Readers are always referred to the original sources for complete versions. When HAB uses a secondary source, the secondary source is given first, followed by the primary source in square brackets. Some items are re-titled to best reflect the content of chosen excerpts. Sections marked with "/HAB/" are introductions or comments made by the editors. Square brackets are used to indicate changes/ additions made by the editors. (Square brackets appearing within a secondary source may also indicate changes made by a previous editor.)
Note of Thanks: We are particularly indebted to our readers for their contributions and to our sources for their invaluable cooperation.
Abbreviations of sources used in this publication:
AB - African Business; AC - Africa Confidential; AED - Africa Economic
Digest via RBB; AFP - Agence France Presse, Paris; AI - Amnesty
International; AN - Africa News; ANB - African News Bulletin; APS -
Africa Press Service; AR - Africa Report; ARN - Arab News; CSM -
Christian Science Monitor, World Edition; DN - Daily Nation; DNR -
Dagens Nyheter; DT - Daily Telegraph via RBB; EC - Ethiopian
Commentator; EH - Ethiopian Herald; EN - Ethiopia News; ENA -
Ethiopian News Service; ER - Ethiopian Review; FOA - Focus on Africa;
GI - Guardian Independent; GN - The Guardian via RBB; GW - Guardian
Weekly; HRM - Human Rights Monitor; IHT - International Herald
Tribune; IND - The Independent via RBB; ION - Indian Ocean Newsletter;
KT - Kenya Times; LICR - Lloyd's Information Casualty Report via RBB;
LWI - Lutheran World Information; MD - Monday Developments; MEED -
Middle East Economic Digest via RBB; NA - New African; NFE - News from
Ethiopia; NN - NordNet; NNS - NGO Networking Service's Monthly Update
via NordNet; NYT - New York Times; RBB - Reuters Business Briefing;
SCSG - Scottish Churches' Sudan Group Newsletter; SDG - Sudan
Democratic Gazette; SHRV - Sudan Human Rights Voice; SN - Sudan
Embassy News; SNU - Somalia News Update; SSV - Southern Sudan Vision;
STD - Standard; SU - Sudan Update; SvD - Svenska Dagbladet; SWB - BBC
Summary of World Broadcasts via RBB; UNIC - United Nations Information
Center, Sydney, via NN; WH - The White House via
Radio stations are abbreviated as follows:
RNU - Radio National Unity, Omdurman; RFI - Radio France
Internationale, Paris; RH - Radio Hargeisa, Voice of Republic of
Somaliland; RMO - Radio Mogadishu; RMV - Radio Mogadishu, Voice of the
Great Somali People; RSR - Republic of Sudan Radio, Omdurman; VBME -
Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea, Asmara; VOA - Voice of America;
RE - Radio Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; REE - Radio Ethiopia External
Service, Addis Ababa; VOEN - Voice of Ethiopia National Service, Addis
Ababa.
Publisher: Sture Normark
Editor: Susanne Thurfjell Lunden
Assistant Editor: Everett Nelson
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NELSON
RELIGION--UNITING OR DIVIDING?
Out of a total population of 80 million in the Horn of Africa, the
majority are Muslims. In some of the countries, like Somalia,
Somaliland and Djibouti, only a small minority belongs to other
religions. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, Christians and Muslims share the
realities of life on approximately a 50/50 basis. In Sudan, two thirds
are Muslims and one third constitutes an important minority of
Christians and Animists.
On a local level, there have been many good examples in the Horn of
how the people have accepted their differences and have learned to
live together, sharing the conditions and the meager resources that
their countries provide for them. There are also examples of how they
are working together in the struggle for justice and survival, both in
local committees for emergency assistance and development aid programs
and in trying to change unjust conditions. Respect and understanding
for each other have been their guiding principles.
But we also find sad examples of how religion has been exploited and
misused by individuals and groups in their struggle for power and
dominance over people and land. We have seen it in the expansion of a
Christian empire in Ethiopia, and we see it today in the Sudan where a
minority party is enforcing its militant brand of Islam on the entire
country, with an expressed aim of eventually including all of Africa.
Religion in the Horn of Africa has always been a vital and dynamic
factor and is thoroughly determining the day to day life of the people
of the Horn. People in power and those who struggle for power have to
reckon with this fact. Recent issues of the Bulletin have focused on
many incidents and developments where the religious dimension is
clearly seen.
We see it in Somalia, which is bracing for UNOSOMs withdrawal, where
warlords and faction leaders are locked in a struggle for leadership
of the country. Consequently, both Aideed and Ali Mahdi, as well as
Mohammed Abshir in the Northeast, are playing the religious card.
As Ethiopia is adopting a new constitution and is facing general
elections in May, Moslem leaders have been giving clear signals about
their ambitions for the new Ethiopia in the making; in December, they
took to the streets to demonstrate for Sharia. President Meles has
realized the importance of including the Muslims in his administration
in order to avoid polarization between Muslims and Christians, but for
him it is also a way of balancing the earlier Christian Amhara
dominance.
The leaders of the National Islamic Front in Sudan, who started with a
surprisingly open and pragmatic approach to the new government in
Asmara, are now perceived by Eritrea as a serious threat to Eritrea's
nation building process. In what looks like an effort to break the
dominance of Eritrean Christian highlanders, Sudan is speaking about a
holy war and is actively training and supporting Muslim militant
groups inside Eritrea.
Lack of law and order, as well as social and political insecurity
provide an excellent climate for religious extremism, be it Christian
or Muslim. People in that situation are vulnerable to manipulation by
ruthless leaders who act in the name of God. Fundamentalism offers
clear guidelines and a sense of security where the alternatives are
chaos, corruption, failed promises and leadership by corrupt
power-hungry politicians.
One example of this dynamic is Somalia. To the people of war-ravaged
Somalia, fundamentalist Muslims may offer an increasingly viable
alternative to clan warfare. However, there is yet another, Somali,
alternative. Newly set-up district and regional councils all over
Somalia could provide the much-needed peace and stability. The
international NGO community should recognize the positive force of
these councils.
Religion is important in people's search for a fair and just world. As
the Horn is a meeting point between the Arab world and Africa, as well
as between Islam, Christianity and African religions, it could become
an example of how religion is a unifying and stabilizing factor in the
region.
If that is going to happen, it is crucial that moderate traditional,
Christian, and Moslem leaders see their mediating role today and guide
their people to accept and appreciate the different religions and
cultures in their societies. They must actively help the people in
their constituencies to withstand those who want to plant seeds of
hatred, oppression and division in the name of religion.
Could religious tolerance and understanding in the Horn be an issue
for the agenda of IGADD, which, although started as an organization
tackling questions of drought and development, has moved into a
mediation role in the conflicts of the Horn? Can it also create a
forum for religious dialogue, respect and understanding among the
peoples of the Horn?
GOVERNMENT SIGNS PEACE AGREEMENT AND ALLIANCE WITH REBEL SPLINTER
GROUP
(SWB 28 Dec 94 [RFI in French 26 Dec 94])
In Jibuti, an agreement was signed this morning between the
authorities and the rebel faction of the FRUD [Front for the
Restoration of Unity and Democracy]. Christophe Boisbouvier reports on
this solemn agreement:
[Boisbouvier] The Jibuti interior minister, Idris Harbi Farah, and the
secretary-general of this FRUD faction, Ougoureh Kifle Ahmed, signed
the agreement at the People's Palace. President Hassan Gouled and some
100 officials, including the French and US ambassadors, attended the
ceremony.
The main points of the agreement are: the end of the armed struggle,
an alliance between this FRUD faction and the ruling party, the RPP
[Popular Rally for Progress], for the management of affairs - in other
words, the inclusion of one or two members of this faction in the
government - and the reform of electoral lists before the next general
elections.
This agreement has led to a very hostile reaction from the other
component of the FRUD, the one led by Ahmed Dini, which believes that
this only amounts to the surrender of a couple of men who will now
rule with the authorities without getting anything for it.
This agreement has led to very different reactions in the rest of the
opposition. On the one hand, [Mohamed] Djama Elabe, of the PRD [Party
for Democratic Renewal], and Aden Robleh [Awaleh], of the PND
[National Democratic Party], have approved it - they were at the
People's Palace this morning. But on the other hand, the opposition
united front has said that it sees this as a dangerous manoeuvre led
by the regime and dissidents - a manoeuvre which, it says, puts real
peace opportunities further out of reach.
[Note: In an earlier report (1230 gmt 24 Dec 94)the radio said that
the faction which signed the agreement called itself the New Armed
Movement Leadership (French: Nouvelle Direction du Mouvement Arme).].
PRESS RELEASE BY ORIGINAL FRUD FACTION LED BY AHMED DINI
(29 Dec 94)
1 - The civil war in Djibouti is not a tribal or ethnic matter, but
rather a matter of freedom and democracy concerning the whole
population which is harassed by Djibouti's autocratic and oppressive
government. In its ranks, FRUD has nationals from all factions who are
aspiring for freedom, brotherhood and equality in this tiny country.
2- The signing of the so-called "Peace and Reconciliation Agreement"
between a dissident and the oppressive regime led by Ismael Omar will
not solve this problem, which is a problem of justice which demands
the equality of all people in Djibouti.
3 - We are appealing to the international community to take
responsibility for what is happening in Djibouti against democracy,
freedom and justice...
4 - We are calling for an investigation by the UN and the EU in order
to verify the very real ethnic oppression and the fact that the
government is destroying everybody who is trying to influence the
policy of the country.
5 - In particular, we are appealing to Ethiopia and Eritrea, our
neighbors with whom we have many bonds and a common destiny and
together with whom we have always struggled. We are applealing to them
to care for the cause of peace and reconciliation in Djibouti before
our country is turned into a stage for chaos and revenge.
[Signed] Ahmed Dini, President
BACKGROUND TO CONFLICT IN DJIBOUTI
(FRUD 1994)/HAB/ Unofficial translation from French by HAB.
The Republic of Djibouti, independent since June 1977, has an
important French military base.
Wedged in between Ethiopia and Somalia, with an area of 23,000 km2,
Djibouti has 500,000 inhabitants. The population consists of two
ethnic groups: the Afars and the Somalis.
The Afars live in certain regions and occupy 4/5 of the country (the
regions of Tadjourah, Obock and Dikhil). They constitute somewhat more
than half the population.
The Somalis live in areas by clans. Issas form an indigenous group and
live in the very south of the country, (Ali-Sabich district). Isaqs
and Gadaboursi are clans from Somaliland and live mostly in the
capital. A Yemenite minority also lives in the capital.
Mr Hassan Gouled, the President, is from the Issa Clan. Issas are
nomads like most Somalis and live in Somalia as well as in Ethiopia.
For the last 16 years, a policy of thorough marginalization is being
conducted towards the Afars. The Afars are semi-nomads, whose way of
living is based on livestock, sheeps, goats, cattle and camels.
Some of the Afars have become residents of the capital and other
smaller towns (Tadjourah, Obock, Dikhil, Randa, Yoboki, As Eyla, Khor
Angar etc).
After having eliminated the Afars from the administration, the army,
and economic life, the Djibouti government has tried to take over
their land.
The Afars have reacted, but not without having first tried to find an
agreement with the government.
During all these years, human rights organizations like Amnesty
International have denounced the torture, the extrajudicial
executions, the arbitrary detentions and all the other serious attacks
against human rights committed by the government in Djibouti.
APPEAL FOR HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE BY ASPA
(Aid et Solidarite au Peuple Afar, 25 Jan 95) /HAB/ Unofficial translation from French by HAB.
The displaced Afar population has been totally isolated for 3.5 years.
They live in absolute destitution and suffer from illnesses caused by
serious deficiencies. Children and women are worst affected which
seriously affects their chances to survive. It is absolutely necessary
to assist them with emergency food and medicines. TB is very
widespread...
It is necessary to appeal to the Djibouti government to make them
cease the intolerable violence against the civilian population: women
and young girls are raped, relatives who try to intervene are killed,
young shepherds are killed by the mercenaries who also steal and set
fire to people's homes.
EMERGENCY RELIEF FOR FLOOD VICTIMS
(RAPID via RBB 20 Dec 94, Ref IP/94/1215 [13 Dec 94])
The Commission has approved humanitarian aid worth ECU 355 000 for the
victims of flooding in Djibouti...
ECU 35 000 of the aid has been earmarked for essentials, which will be
distributed by the NGO Save the Children (UK). Medical care will be
provided in the capital by Medecins Sans Frontieres Netherlands (ECU
200 000) and in rural areas by Cooperazione Internazionale (It) (ECU
100 000).
ETHIOPIA: 8,600 REFUGEES REPATRIATED FROM JIBUTI
(SWB 28 Jan 95 [REE in English, 25 Jan 95])
Some 800 Ethiopians who had fled the country to neighbouring Jibuti
have returned home via Dire Dawa town, eastern Ethiopia. The UNHCR
office in Dire Dawa told the Ethiopian News Agency that the returnees
were repatriated under a tripartite agreement reached among the UNHCR
and the governments of Ethiopia and Jibuti. The office said about
8,600 Ethiopians have so far been repatriated since September [1994]
by train.
RELATIONS TO KHARTOUM
(ION 10 Dec 94, p. 5)
According to an Arab diplomatic source in New York, the United States
is believed to have asked the Djibouti delegate to the United Nations
Security Council to table a draft resolution calling for the creation
of safety zones in southern Sudan, so that local populations could
shelter from Sudanese army harassment. The Djibouti government is
understood to have refused the proposal despite financial compensation
the US offered, out of a fear of annoying member-countries of the
IGADD mediation group or certain Arab nations, and to avoid damaging
Djibouti's relations with Khartoum.
ARAB CARD TO COUNTER IMF
(ION 28 Jan 95, p.1)
... In a bid to seduce Arab fund donors (such as Saudi Arabia, which
has reportedly offered Djibouti DF 1 billion to build schools and
repair a road), the government issued a decree at the beginning of
January banning all bars and drinking places except those `inside
foreign clubs, messes, and cultural societies' or in `hotels with more
than ten rooms and restaurants serving alcoholic drinks with food as
part of main meals'. Bar owners have until March 15 to get rid of
current stocks. As the measure will see the Djibouti government lose
some DF 300 million annually in taxes paid by traders, the real reason
behind the decision can hardly be put down to the official argument
that it is a sudden desire to combat AIDS infection. The `moral
environment clean-up' campaign is much more aimed at closing licensed
dance halls and `wiping out the image of Djibouti as a garrison town'.
This represents a calculated smear for the French government and has
been very badly accepted by the general staff commanding French
military forces stationed on Djibouti territory. The measure has also
upset the Ethiopian government which is not at all keen to see
hundreds of Ethiopian b-girls pouring out of Djibouti and returning
home.
In a wider context, France is uneasy at Djibouti's latest tendency to
look sympathetically toward a certain number of Arab countries and
their militant Islamic ideas. A case in point was the mid-January
visit to Djibouti of a Pakistani military mission, ostensibly to
discuss military cooperation with Islamabad. Many French observers of
the scene are taking a much closer look at the fine print in
Djibouti's latest political measures...
ERITREA/SUDAN: SQUEEZE
(AC 16 Dec 94, p.8)
Asmara's dramatic snapping of diplomatic relations with Khartoum on 5
December is looking more and more like part of a concerted regional
strategy to isolate the National Islamic Front government. Eritrea's
move came after a blitz of accusations against Sudan's government not
only from Asmara but also from Cairo and Kampala.
The war of words with Egypt heated up again in late November: Khartoum
accused President Hosni Mubarak of, among other sins, `wrapping
himself in the rags of weakness' to indulge in `persistent begging' in
Europe. It said Egypt had `violated Arabism for the benefit of the
Jews'. Egyptian State Radio said the `mind-boggling' and `tyrannical'
Sudan government had `sold itself to the devil' and added: `The
Sudanese people, we pray God, will be quickly ... released from the
shackles of this ruling junta.'
Then on 5 December, the Ugandan army said it had strengthened its
forces on the Sudan border because Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army
rebels were fighting alongside Sudanese troops against the Sudan
People's Liberation Army and this could spill over the border.
Khartoum denies Ugandan charges that it arms Uganda's rebels. Eritrean
President Issayas Aferworki, who is keen on the idea of regional
integration, made no bones about the international dimension of his
accusations against Sudan. Condemning `the design of the government in
Khartoum to destabilise the whole region', he said that Ethiopia,
Kenya and Uganda were all affected. He accuses Khartoum of funding and
training Islamist terrorists (AC Vol 35 No 24): `I don't wand to fight
a war ... but sometimes it is necessary; people need to learn the hard
way'. Issayas is close to Presidents Meles Zenawi and Yoweri Museveni
who, with President Daniel arap Moi (no friend of Khartoum), form the
peace committee sponsoring the stalled talks between Khartoum and the
SPLA. Moi and Issayas met on 7 December to discuss `regional issues'.
YEMENI TALKS FAIL TO SOLVE DISPUTE
(Reuter 1 Jan 95)
NAIROBI - Talks between Eritrea and Sudan on a dispute that led to the
breaking of diplomatic relations last month have failed, Eritrean
radio, monitored in Nairobi, reported on Saturday.
The radio said the Eritrean delegation had returned home after
inconclusive talks with a Sudanese delegation in the Yemeni capital,
Sanaa...
SUDAN DENIES EXPELLING ERITREAN REFUGEES
(Reuter 7 Jan 95)
KHARTOUM - Sudan on Saturday denied accusations by Eritrea that it had
mistreated and expelled Eritrean refugees.
Ihsan al-Ghabshawi, Sudan's commissioner for refugees, was quoted by
the official news agency Suna as saying that voluntary repatriation of
refugees was going ahead as agreed with the United Nations and
representatives from Eritrea...
BACKGROUND STORY: PROFERI
(Development Matters Dec-Jan 94/95, p.17)
... The prolonged war that ended in May 1991 has resulted in large
numbers of refugees, internally displaced people and unaccompanied
children. The estimates compiled by CERA suggest that there are around
one million Eritreans abroad. The largest number (some 42 percent) of
these live in Sudan.
Eritrean refugees in the Sudan are settled in five zones, including
the capital Khartoum, but mostly in the east near the Eritrean
frontier. Some of the refugees, mostly senior citizens, women and
children, subsist on food aid in camps administered by UNHCR. Close to
35 percent of these households are women headed. The overwhelming
majority of the refugees want to return back as soon as possible,
however, they need assistance with transport and with getting
themselves re-established. The first phase of a $260 million program
for refugee reintegration and rehabilitation of resettlement areas in
Eritrea (PROFERI) was due to start in July 1993. However, only $32.5
million of the $111 million needed for the first phase was raised.
PROFERI aims to bring back home, over the next four years, over
400,000 Eritreans from camps in the Sudan.
The PROFERI pilot program which was officially launched in November
will repatriate an estimated 24,000 (4,500 households) voluntary
Eritrean refugees from the Sudan to nine selected sites in four
provinces in the northwest of the country under conditions which will
allow sustainable human development. Under normal circumstances,
family loyalties and ties of friendship are common in Eritrea, but
many returning refugees no longer have anyone close to them left at
their place of origin. And the society at large has little more than
goodwill to spare. The urban centers cannot take any new arrivals: the
existing population already stretched services to the limit. There are
no spare jobs and affordable housing.
Returnees will find that they are not alone when it comes to competing
for government help. The 30-year war has left thousands within Eritrea
displaced, disabled or deprived of parents and breadwinners. According
to a 1992 survey carried out by the Social Affairs Authority, 90,000
children have lost one or both parents--one-sixth of them are children
of fighters martyred in the war. One in five orphans have been
disabled. For orphans without other support, the government runs a
number of homes, the aim being to reunite the children with close
relatives so that they can live and grow up in their own communities.
Since liberation, over 3,000 children have been reunited with their
families in this way.
ERITREA'S ECONOMIC SUCCESS STORY
(NA Feb 95, p.27)
In April 1994 UN agencies warned that Eritrea faced the prospect of
renewed famine; now, 10 months later, the government has announced the
best harvest in years, and holds out the cautious hope that the
drought-ravaged land might never again experience widespread famine.
An effective early-warning system, prompt donor response, efficient
aid distribution and generous summer rains helped to avert the
threatened famine crisis; but it was the accumulated results of three
years of agricultural rehabilitation and development since the end of
the 27-year war and the coming to power of the EPLF in Asmara that has
made the difference between bare survival and bounty. This has
resulted in the early success of what the agriculture minister, Dr
Tesfai Ghermazien, calls the "greening of the Eritrea campaign."
Rains had failed for six years, and came only late in 1994 to avert
another catastrophe. "I don't think we'll see another famine in
Eritrea," declared Dr George Jones, the USAID director in Eritrea.
Last year the US provided almost $40m of food aid--their highest in
Africa. But, typically of the Eritrean attitude, Dr Nerayo
Teklemichael, director of the Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, said:
"Emergency food is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it saves
lives, on the other, it makes people dependent. We are near a very
crucial moment in our history when we will be able to say: Thank you
very much, we are on our own."
Reviewing the success of agricultural development, Dan Connell,
writes: "From the outset, the new government embarked on a crash
programme of economic reconstruction. The objective was food security.
The main initial thrust was on rehabilitation of peasant agriculture.
Units of the liberation army were dispatched to the countryside to
repair roads, build small dams and catchment basins, terrace the badly
eroded hillsides and plant tree seedlings. They were joined by
villagers on food-for-work programmes, set up to avoid chronic
dependence on the emergency relief that fed most of the rural and
urban population.
"This year, as the regular army is cut to half its original size, the
rural reconstruction campaign will be swelled by 40,000 young men and
women in Eritrea's new National Service, which requires everyone over
the age of 18 to undergo six months of military training and another
year of community service.
"In 1993 alone, 11 micro-dams and 10 new ponds were built, 34 wells
dug, 2,100 hectares of cropland terraced and millions of tree
seedlings planted. Over 1,000 tons of seed were also distributed to
peasant farmers, together with 7,500 sets of tools and 2,000 draft
animals. "Starting in 1995, we hope to triple dam construction to 25
per year," says Dr Tesfai. "If we do that, you're going to see a very
good change in Eritrea in the near future."
Officials estimate that the country loses 10 billion cubic metres of
water each year to run-off that ends up in the Red Sea, taking tens of
thousands of tons of valuable topsoil with it.
In the long term, Eritrea plans a shift away from rain-fed agriculture
to small and large-scale irrigation schemes. "This will make us
certain to reach agricultural self-sufficiency," says Dr Tesfai.
A new land law intended to facilitate agricultural development
guarantees every Eritrean man and woman individual use-rights for
residential and agricultural purposes, together with the right to
inherit the value of improvements to the land. It also offers up to
99-year leases to domestic and foreign investors for large-scale
commercial farming.
Meanwhile, the government is providing inputs to demobilised soldiers
and returning refugess to promote cooperative projects in which
individuals pool resources but enjoy the full return from land
designated as theirs. Livestock herds are also being restocked, and
plans are being laid to resuscitate the fishing industry.
To make investment in agriculture more attractive and to forestall an
exodus into crowded urban centres, there is a massive push to build
new infrastructure--roads, schools, clinics and telecommunications--
throughout the remote, less developed areas of the country.
"The possibility of success in this country is better than any I've
worked in because of the commitment, dedication and sense of purpose
of the people here," says Dr Jones, whose experience includes 30
African countries. "It's a very honest government. We feel very
confindent putting money into this country--we know it's going to be
used properly."
While Eritreans welcome foreign aid and investment many are wary of
the role of donor agencies. "In those areas which we identify where we
lack expertise, the international community is welcome, but most
international organisations try to prescribe for you what you need,"
says Dr Tesfai. "I think we know our deficiencies and our problems
better than anybody."
Under a new policy, foreign agencies are prohibited from being
"operational"--a role reserved entirely for Eritreans. Donor agencies
are also restricted from paying Eritrean staff higher than prevailing
in-country rates, to prevent them from pulling skilled people out of
government service or private-sector activity, and they are required
to account for all funds spent in Eritrea, with no more than 10% to be
used for office overheads. Most importantly, they are limited to
supporting projects that fall within the country's national and
regional development plans.
"However, the strongest concerns were reserved for the Eritrean NGOs,
which were criticised for being too dependent on foreign sources of
income and urged to rely more on financing by Eritreans themselves.
"If we put a limit on foreign funding as a condition, the indigenous
NGOs would be reduced by half," says Dr Nerayo, who warned that
institutional dependence on outside funding is as much a danger as
dependence on food aid.
"The basic lesson from our independence struggle is that we were able
to win the war on a very self-reliant basis. This is a very important
lesson for the future as well," says Yemane Gebreab, who heads the
political section of the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, the
ruling party.
THUMBS-UP FOR ASMARA
(ION 24 Dec 94, p.7)
Fund donors who met in Paris on December 19 and 20 for the World
Bank's first consultative group meeting on Eritrea gave the Asmara
authorities an approving thumbs-up signal. The warmest congratulations
came from the head of the United States delegation Gary Bombardier (of
USAID's Africa bureau). At political level, delegates of the Arab
countries expressed the desire to see a rapid settlement to the
diplomatic squabble between Asmara and Khartoum (ION No 650) and this
point was underlined in the Group's final communique. Overall, donors
identified US$ 250 million in international aid for 1995, this figure
including all commitments made for Eritrea (several already announced)
which are due for release in 1995.
The World Bank's own aid programme amounts to $25 million for 1995
whilst the African Development Bank has promised to finance $50
million worth of projects. Arab countries made noteworthy commitments:
Kuwait put up $20 million and Saudi Arabia $50 million. The European
Union, which has already disbursed some ECU 200 million in aid
(including food) for Eritrea since 1992, now envisages an envelope of
ECU 30 million for 1995. France has earmarked FFr.35 million and Italy
has announced $50 million (it should be noted that whilst Italy's
announced commitments for East Africa are always high, they are
frequently cut back prior to disbursement).
A number of headaches were raised at the meeting. One was the need for
Eritrea to administer prudently the financial implications of its
public investment programme (although it does get aid at concessional
interest rates or even grants to help it in this), particularly in
order to avoid any debt pile-up by a country which, for the moment,
has no more than a $25-million loan from the International Development
Association (the World Bank subsidiary) to repay. Another point,
perhaps even more delicate, is the need for Eritrea to respect donors'
instructions on obtaining the release of aid funds; some fund donors
claim that Asmara wants them to issue blank cheques to use as Asmara
sees fit. But the Eritreans are criticizing the usual Western practice
of tieing aid disbursements to contract signatures with firms from the
fund donor's country. Asmara also wants to cut the number of Western
expatriates working as technical assistants, and is reluctant to allow
all foreign NGOs full liberty to operate...
ERITREA NOW ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE IMF ESAF LOANS
(PRNewswire via RBB 10 Jan 95)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has added
Eritrea to the list of member countries eligible to borrow under the
IMF's enhanced structural adjustment facility (ESAF). Eritrea shares
characteristics -- such as low per capita income, and eligibility for
IDA -- with those IMF members that are already eligible to borrow
under the ESAF.
The ESAF is a concessional IMF lending facility for assisting eligible
low-income developing members who are undertaking comprehensive
programs of structural adjustment aimed at fostering sustainable
growth and strengthening the external payments position. It allows the
IMF to help eligible members both to implement comprehensive
macroeconomic and structural reforms and to secure additional
concessional financing. ESAF are disbursed over three years, loans
carry an interest rate of 0.5 percent, and are repayable over 10
years, with a 5-1/2-year grace period...
CLINTON MEETS AFWERKI
(WH 1 Feb 95)
The President met today with President Isaias Afwerki in the Oval
Office for thirty minutes. The two Presidents welcomed the excellent
relations that exist between the two countries and discussed ideas for
broadening the relationship, especially in the areas of commerce and
security...
The President expressed his appreciation for Eritrea's good start on
the road to democracy and free markets in the nearly two years since
its independence. He pledged continued U.S. support for Eritrea's
efforts to rebuild after its decades-long struggle for independence
and applauded the emphasis that the Eritrean government has placed on
encouraging international trade and investment as the engine for
Eritrean development.
The two Presidents also discussed the need for peace and stability in
the Horn of Africa, especially Sudan and Somalia. They agreed that a
peaceful resolution to the civil war in Sudan is essential not only
for the long-suffering people of that nation but also for the security
of Sudan's neighbors. They reaffirmed their commitment to work
together and with the nations of the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Drought and Development to achieve that goal.
The Presidents also underscored their joint effort to promote food
security throughout the region. They agreed that the Greater Horn of
Africa Initiative, developed by the USAID, provides a solid basis for
a preventive approach to food crises in this ten-nation region. They
agreed that a regional Horn of Africa conference should be held soon
to coordinate measures that could use humanitarian relief as a
stimulus for recovery and sustainable development.
AIDS CASES RISE
(Development Matters Dec-Jan 94/95, p.7)
According to the Eritrean AIDS Control Office, over 1,000 Eritreans
are affected by AIDS. In a report issued at the beginning of November,
the office said that 494 cases have been reported in the last nine
months, bringing the total number of AIDS patients to 1,163. Of these,
68 percent are males and 32 percent females. Over 70 percent of AIDS
patients are aged between 20 and 39. The office says the number of
Eritreans infected by HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, is estimated
to be around 60,000.
PRESIDENT MELES DISCUSSES NEW CONSTITUTION'S PROVISIONS ON SECESSION,
LAND TENURE
(SWB 14 Dec 94 [RE in Amharic 12 Dec 94])
... In a speech President Meles made during the handing over ceremony
[of the new constitution], he said that the time when Ethiopia's
children were dying of famine and starvation while the country was
deeply involved in political and economic crisis under previous
regimes could not be forgotten.
President Meles, who noted that the adoption of a democratic
constitution was the only way to pull Ethiopia out of the problems it
was in, said that the participation of the people in the drafting and
adoption of the constitution was favourable for its lasting impact and
implementation too...
[Meles - recording] The stipulation in the constitution of the right
of nations, nationalities and peoples to self-determination up to [and
including] secession is not a cause for alarm, as some people might
think, but will make it possible to place the unity of our peoples and
country on a stronger foundation. The inclusion of this article in the
constitution indicates that the centuries-long struggle by various
peoples and democratic forces against national suppression and
segregation has come to a victorious conclusion. [End of recording]...
The article on land tenure enshrined in the constitution will make it
possible to preserve the Ethiopian peoples'struggle and enable our
country to emerge from poverty and, [President Meles] noted, once and
for all, a lasting solution had been found to the land issue, which
had been found to represent a longstanding political and economic
crisis. President Meles added that the transitional government was
committed to seeing that the forthcoming general elections in our
country were carried out in a fully democratic manner and reiterated
his call for those compatriots, who really and genuinely stood for
democracy and had a clear objective: to participate in the forthcoming
elections...
ETHIOPIA PROMISES TO RETURN CONFISCATED LAND
(Reuter 2 Feb 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia promised on Thursday to pay compensation or
return property confiscated by the state during the 17-year rule of
ousted Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
The council of representatives, the highest authority in the
transitional government, said it had approved a proclamation to return
the property through a privatisation agency.
"The proclamation allows the return of property confiscated to their
rightful owners and the payment of legal compensation to those owners
whose extra houses had been taken over by the ousted Marxist regime,"
the council said in a statement.
It said it had also approved a proclamation allowing the sale of
state-owned housing in the capital Addis Ababa.
First to be sold of the 423,050 state-owned houses will be those now
renting for more than $15 a month.
While pursuing his disastrous and bloody Marxist programme, Mengistu
nationalised all high-rise buildings, large villas and houses not
occupied by their owners following the 1974 revolution that overthrew
feudal Emperor Haile Selassie.
Since Mengistu was ousted by guerrillas in May 1991, pressure has
mounted for the stolen properties to be returned. The move could be
seen as a way of muzzling opposition criticism of the government ahead
of national elections next year.
Ethiopia's new constitution, published in December, makes clear that
urban and rural land is owned by the state but development on it can
be privately owned.
This clause is once again highly unpopular with the urban business
class. But Western diplomats say it is aimed at the peasantry, the
bulk of Ethiopian society.
WESTERN EMBASSIES URGE PARTIES TO MEET
(pol.ethiopia/NN 3 Jan 95 [Press release by 18 embassies, 20 Dec 94])
A group of 18 embassies* who are actively supporting the democratic
process wish to congratulate the members of the Constituent Assembly
on their work over the past weeks which has now culminated in a new
Constitution for Ethiopia.
This is an important milestone on the path towards the establishment
of democracy in Ethiopia and during the Assembly's deliberations we
were especially impressed with the open debates on serious issues with
minority views receiving a full hearing. Free, unhindered expression
of dissenting views is the essence of a healthy constitutional
democracy.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed this view most clearly when he
said of the American Constitution:
"If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively
calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free
thought - not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for
the thought we hate."
Ethiopia now faces a greater challenge: the implementation of the
democratic principles enshrined in the new constitution through
national and regional elections next year. The seeds of democracy have
been planted and now everyone must ensure that they flourish.
Many members of the Constituent Assembly and others in the country
will soon be standing in these elections or wll be supporting one of
the political parties that are now establishing themselves in the
country. In doing so they will not agree with some of the views
expressed by other individuals and the parties to which they belong.
Indeed some may bitterly oppose them. The essence of democracy
requires leaders to support the right of all views to be heard and for
all parties to take part in the election process.
This involves in particular:
- the right of all political parties to open and operate offices in
regions and at local levels;
- the right of free movement, free assembly and free expression and
the right to campaign without hinderance; and
- reasonable access to the media for all parties;
We are encouraged that the Transitional Government of Ethiopia has
again stated that these principles are fully accepted and will be
implemented.
In the interests of all the peoples of Ethiopia and for the success of
democracy in this beautiful country, we support President Meles' call
for all political forces to put the past behind them and to
participate in these elections in a legal and democratic manner. We
urge them, as a first step, without preconditions, to respond
positively to the call for an All-Party Conference to discuss the
preparations for the elections.
In the past three and half years - after years of tragedy and
bloodshed - we have at last seen peace and stability restored to
Ethiopia. The Transitional Government of Ethiopia is now completing
its mission to pave the way for constitutional democracy in Ethiopia.
As members of the international community, we are committed to help in
the next stages of this process. We call on all parties to come
together with resolve and determination to make this dream a reality.
* Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,
United Kingdom, United States
VISITING US SECURITY OFFICIAL SAYS USA TO MONITOR ELECTIONS
(SWB 19 Dec 94 [REE in English, 17 Dec 94])
Mr Anthony Lake, US national security adviser, has said that he called
on opposition forces to participate in the forthcoming national
elections, the first of its kind in the Ethiopian history. He made the
disclosure in a press conference in connection with his visit to
Ethiopia...
He said his country would name a team that would closely monitor the
national elections and pre-election campaigns in Ethiopia...
ETHIOPIANS IN BIG SHOW OF SUPPORT FOR CONSTITUTION
(Reuter 1 Jan 95)
ADDIS ABABA - An estimated 250,000 people staged a demonstration in
the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Sunday in support of a new
constitution which restructured the country into nine, ethnic-based
federal states...
ETHIOPIA TO HOLD PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN MAY
(Reuter 6 Jan 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia will hold multi-party parliamentary elections
on May 7, the first since a communist dictatorship was overthrown four
years ago, the National Electoral Board said on Friday.
A statement issued by the board gave no further details.
Opposition groups say they will boycott the polls for the two-chamber
550-seat parliament, comprising of a council of people's
representatives and one of the federation, because they do not approve
of a new constitution ratified last month...
The elections will be the climax of one of Africa's boldest political
experiments -- to confront the often divisive problem of ethnicity
head on by giving Ethiopia's regions a large degree of autonomy and
the right to secession...
ETHIOPIA SAYS CANDIDATES CAN USE STATE MEDIA
(Reuter 7 Feb 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia said on Tuesday political parties and
candidates contesting seats in federal and state assemblies due in May
would be allowed use of state media for their campaigns.
Information Minister Negaso Gidada said state-owned radio, television
and press agencies would give free air time to registered political
parties as well as individual candidates contesting landmark pluralist
elections on May 7...
He added that parties and candidates would also be able to buy
advertising space over and above their alloted slots...
Ethiopia's National Electoral Board (NEB) said registration and
accreditation of candidates would be between February 24 and April 13
while it set voter registration for April 15 to 25...
AFAR PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION TO TAKE PART IN ELECTIONS
(SWB 21 Jan 95 [REE in English, 19 Jan 95])
The Afar People's Democratic Organization, APDO, has said it will take
part in the upcoming state and federal election. Adopting its five
year plan of action at its first congress, the organization resolves
to make sure that elections are conducted fairly and elected deputies
are accountable for their actions...
ZENAWI'S NEW DEAL
(NA Feb 95, p.33, by Andrew Lycett)
... Since taking power in June 1991, the Transitional Government of
Ethiopia (TGE) has been forced to make a number of important
decisions. Out of necessity, but nevertheless with good grace it
granted independence to its former northern province of Eritrea. It
performed a sharp U-turn in its economic policies, abandoning the
Marxist programme of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which
dominates the TGE, and adopting a radical free market policy.
But, because of inherent problems, its prescription for Ethiopia's
political future waited three-and-a-half years to be formulated. The
reason is that the country is a recent, imperial hotch-potch of
several different ethnic peoples. For over a century, it was dominated
by one group, the Amharas. The accession to power of the TGE, with its
built-in Tigrayan ascendancy, raised widespread fears that the country
might have changed one dominant ethnic group for another.
The TGE has sought to allay these fears by opting for its
multinational approach. Ethiopia's nine federal states will comprise
Tigray, Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, Benshangul, Gambella, Harhari
and an entity to be known as the Southern People's state, which in
itself comprises 45 different ethnic groups.
President Meles Zenawi has grasped the nettle and insisted that any
state will be allowed to secede from the union. He promises to hold
multi-party elections at both the national and federal level within
the relatively short period of six months. After that his government
will dissolve itself and the transition from Marxist dictatorship to
democracy will be complete.
Or at least that is the theory. Various opposition groups do not see
it quite that way. They argue that the constitution was drawn up by
the government to perpetuate its rule. They want further discussions,
particularly on the constitution and the composition of the army,
which they see as dangerously Tigrayan dominated.
However, the opposition is by no means homogeneous. Three main groups,
the Coalition of Ethiopian Democratic Forces (COEDF), the Oromo
Liberation Front (OLF) and the All Amhara People's Organisation (AAPO)
agreed in November to accept an offer of mediation from a special task
force of the US Congress. However, the task force, organised by Harry
Johnston, the chairman of House of Representatives sub-committee on
Africa, failed to engage the interest of the TGE.
Meanwhile the Council for the Alternative Forces of Peace and
Democracy in Ethiopia (CAFPDE), headed by Dr Beyene Petros, has been
trying to build itself up as a credible opposition front inside the
country. On 4 December, it held a large demonstration in Addis Ababa
to oppose the constitution. According to its supporters, CAFPDE's
rally in Mesfin Square also attracted the magical figure of 250,000
people...
OPPOSITION RAPS WEST ON CONSTITUTION
(Reuter 5 Jan 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopian opposition groups on Thursday criticised
Western support for a new constitution restructuring the east African
country into nine federal states.
Western embassies, in a statement last month, supported the
constitution ratified by Ethiopia's constituent assembly in December
after negotiations begun in 1991 after the overthrow of Marxist
military leader Mengistu Haile Mariam.
A statement by the opposition umbrella group, the Council of
Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy in Ethiopia (CAFPDE), said
Western support for the constitution failed to take account of popular
opinion.
"The official communique by the 18 diplomatic missions does not appear
to have made a concrete appraisal of the popular sentiment regarding
the mode and manner through which the constitution was framed and
eventually ratified," CAFPDE said.
Opposition groups oppose the new constitution, which allows regions to
secede if they gain a two-thirds majority vote, saying it will break
Africa's most ancient nation into ethnic regions...
NEGOTIATIONS IN WASHINGTON
(ION 11 Feb 94, p.3)
The US Task Force on Ethiopia (ION No 650), set up by the outgoing
chairman of the House Sub-Committee on African Affairs Harry Johnston
and his colleagues Donald M. Payne and Alcee L. Hastings (all three
Democratic Party's congressmen), has resumed its efforts of good
offices between the Ethiopian government and its opponents. Backed by
the US State Department and in the presence of former US Assistant
Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen, the team last
week consulted several groups of Ethiopia's political opposition: All
Amhara Peoples' Organization, Coalition of Ethiopian Democratic
Forces, and Oromo Liberation Front. Beyene Petros, the chairman of
Council of Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy, and Fitawrari
(an old title under the imperial regime) Mekonen Dori also went to
Washington to join the discussions.
These meetings continued, from February 7 onwards, with direct (but
bilateral) discussions between the opposition parties' delegates and
an Ethiopian government delegation, on the following subjects:
security conditions required in Ethiopia for political opponents to be
active, open access to media, the right to travel and to open
political party premises right across the country, a commitment to
debate later in Addis Ababa on major differences of opinion. The
meetings were chaired by the present US ambassador to Ethiopia, Irving
Hicks, and by his British opposite number, who was acting as a
delegate of Ethiopia's international fund donors. The three-person
Ethiopian government delegation was made up of an official of the
Amhara National Democratic Movement (a member of the ruling EPRDF in
Addis) Dawit Johannes, the current Ethiopian ambassador to the United
States Brehane Gebre Kristos, and his press attache Ms. Salome
Tadesse.
Discussions were still continuing on February 9 (as The Indian Ocean
Newsletter closed for press) but the chances of their resulting in an
agreement appeared to be slim. Dawit Johannes admitted that he had not
been mandated by his government and even Western observers, who would
dearly like to see the opposition groups agree to participate in the
ballot on May 7, 1995, seemed to find his position too rigid... The
situation on February 9 seemed to be that discussions between the
opposition groups represented in Washington showed nobody considered
that conditions were right for agreeing to take part in elections. As
an example, the AAPO and OLF delegates did not accept the government's
refusal to admit the existence of political prisoners in Ethiopia and
to discuss their possible release...
/HAB/ According to a White House press release of February 11 on the
conclusion of the Washington talks, National Security Advisor Anthony
Lake "said that the Administration will continue efforts to encourage
productive dialogue among the parties, and he welcomed the
establishment of a multi-party forum to address issues related to May
7 parliamentary elections in Ethiopia."
OROMOS GET ACT TOGETHER
(ION 21 Jan 95, p.4)
Representatives of three Ethiopian Oromo movements which oppose the
Addis Ababa government agreed, at the close of a meeting in Nairobi
last month, on the urgent need for an "effective and coordinated
struggle" against the regime of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front (EPRDF). They decided to cooperate in order to
"mobilize resources necessary" for carrying out their fight for
liberation. Delegates who signed the agreement claimed to speak for
Oromo People's Liberation Front (OPLF), United Oromo People's
Liberation Front (UOPLF) and Oromo People's Liberation Organization
(OPLO).
OPLF recently published a political programme calling for the
abolition of "Ethiopia's colonial-type administration" and the
establishment of an independent state of Oromia (ION No 651). UOPLF
was founded in 1991 when general Wako Guutu Usu, who comes from Bale
Province in the south, walked out of Somali Abo Liberation Front
(SALF), which had long been backed by the government in Mogadiscio and
later renamed itself the Oromo Abo Liberation Front. UOPLF had one
delegate (Abajebel Tahiro) in the former council of representatives
(provisional parliament) in Addis but today finds itself split by
contradictory political options. OPLO, a small group which sprang up
in Ethiopia in 1992 under the leadership of Tilahun Muleta, also
signed the Nairobi agreement.
Shortly after signature of the Nairobi agreement, the BBC monitoring
service picked up a broadcast on January 12 by the state-owned
Ethiopian broadcasting authority which reported an agreement between
UOPLF and the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia (IFLO) to
unite within a new organization, United Oromo Liberation Front (UOLF),
which appears to be headed by Ahmed Mohamed Challo, an IFLO leader who
had been a former council of representatives delegate in Addis.
Officials of the new Oromo movement say that members will be voting in
Ethiopia's general elections in May, which, the officials believe,
should "open the way to the formation of a popular government".
[ION editorial comment:] ... The principal Oromo opposition movement
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) recently announced, through one of its
officials Taha Abdi, that it rejects Ethiopia's new constitution and
refuses to take part in the May elelctions...
TOWNS ATTACKED BY OLF
(ION 4 Feb 95, p.2)
Armed units of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF, opposition) invaded
the towns of Humruna and Jarte, Horo Gudru Province, for several hours
over the past fortnight. The rebels were reported to have taken 10,000
birr (about US$1,800) and various documents from official buildings,
and then to have set the documents alight on the spot. During the same
period, another group of OLF militants attacked soldiers of the
governmental Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)
at Yargedu, in the same province. In each place, the OLF members
called local inhabitants together and explained the OLF movement's
political objectives...
VIOLENT GOVERNMENT ACTION IN THE OGADEN
(SNU 14 Dec 94)
Addis Ababa, December 5 - The Ethiopian government fired Ugaz
Abdulrahman as President of Ethiopia's Ogaden region (Region 5) last
week. Details about his dismissal remain unclear but the stated
reasons are said to be charges of corruption and incompetance - the
same reasons that led to the ousting of the last two presidents of
Region 5.
The firing of the President coincides with Ethiopia's admission that
troops of the transitional government engaged on action with rebel
forces in the Ogaden region's southeastern parts that share border
with Somalia.
In a statement issued November 30, Ethiopian Prime Minister Tamrat
Layne said some Oromo dissidents and Islamic groups in the adjacent
regions of Harar and Ogaden were doing "illegal things."
The clashes have been confirmed by independent travelers to the
area...
ARRESTS OF OPPOSITION MEMBERS REPORTED
(SWB 22 Dec 94 [RFI in French, 20 Dec 94])
More leaders of the Amhara opposition have been arrested in Ethiopia.
Three members of the central committee of the Ethiopian opposition
movement were arrested on Monday [19th December] and joined three
other leaders in prison, including the chairman of the movement who
had been arrested previously. The Amhara opposition is against the new
Ethiopian constitution, which envisages the right of secession for the
peoples of Ethiopia and makes the state the sole owner of the land.
According to Ato [Mr] Zenebe [phonetic], member of the AAPO
[All-Amhara People's Organization] central committee, 28 other people
- all of them Amharas - have already been arrested throughout the
country. Ato Zenebe was recorded by Farida Ayari speaking about the
campaign of harassment to which his movement is being subjected:
[Zenebe - recording in English with superimposed French translation]
AAPO is the main opposition party and the government is trying to
arrest all the leaders in order to decapitate our party. The
government cannot be seen to ban the party officially, but it is
closing its offices, especially in the north of Ethiopia, and
preventing us from making contact with the people to inform them about
our cause. For example, in northern Shewa more than 20 offices have
been closed and several of our members killed in broad daylight...
ON THE PAPER TRAIL OF ETHIOPIAN GENOCIDE
(GN 14 Dec 94, by John Balzar [Los Angeles Times])
They killed, tortured, despoiled and terrorised an ancient country -
and wrote it all down. In ghastly detail. They affixed their
signatures and stamped the official seal to their 17 years of tyranny
and filed it away. Then they lost a civil war.
Now, their deeds are counted on 309,215 pages, which become court
evidence as the new government of Ethiopia yesterday started
prosecution of 3,400 officials of the former Communist regime on
charges of "crimes against humanity" and other malefactions.
With the help of the American Bar Association and governments on three
continents, Ethiopia believes it is undertaking the largest, most
richly documented trial of systematic government genocide since the
second world war.
The victims could number more than 100,000. Ready witnesses could
reach 10,000. The charges against the first defendants consume 296
leather-bound pages and require a full day to read aloud. About 1,300
men are in custody; 1,100 are out on bail. The remainder have fled and
are being sought. The process could last years.
Unique among the accusations is that the government of exiled
President Mengistu Haile Mariam withheld and manipulated food aid in
one of Ethiopia's periodic droughts to suppress dissent.
The trials are probably the ending chapter of the last hard-line
government to rise under sponsorship of the former Soviet Union.
Ethiopians are transfixed and wishing for catharsis. They hope, too,
that in this improbable place the world will find a precedent for the
trials of human rights atrocities in Rwanda and Bosnia.
The first defendants to go on trial and those facing the most serious
genocide charges are 66 men - 45 in custody, the others, including the
exiled Mengistu, being prosecuted in absentia. All face death by
hanging, if convicted.
Asked how detailed the evidence was, Abraham Tsegaye, of the Ethiopia
Special Prosecutor's Office, said: "We have minutes of meetings in
which it is stated, `We hereby agree that revolutionary measures be
taken against A, B and C.' In this context you should know,
revolutionary measure was a synonym for execution."
Prosecutors also assert that the meticulous bureaucrats of the
Mengistu government left behind tape-recordings of torture sessions.
There are known to be repositories of skeletons. Reports circulate
widely that prosecutors have photographs and videotapes of torture and
executions. "This was a campaign of annihilation against all political
groups and individuals suspected of being counter-revolutionaries,"
said Mr Tsegaye.
According to the special prosecutor, the government systematically
executed hundreds of students on a single day to forestall a street
demonstration. Another 600,000 Ethiopians were forcibly relocated.
Billions in aid were spent enlarging the army from 50,000 troops to
500,000.
The epic storehouse of evidence and the legal case were compiled with
help from several nations. Argentina provided forensics investigators,
the Americans and Swedes computer equipment and the British and Dutch
money.
ETHIOPIA ADJOURNS TRIALS OF FORMER MARXIST RULERS
(Reuter 16 Dec 95, by Tsegaye Tadesse)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia on Friday adjourned to March next year the
trials of the country's former Marxist rulers, charged with mass
murder during a 17-year rule of terror.
The presiding judge said the lengthy adjournment was necessary in
order to give defence lawyers time to study a catalogue of charges.
"Considering the seriousness and complicated nature of the charges and
taking into account the request made by defence lawyers for more time
to study the cases, the court has decided to adjourn hearing until
March 7," he said...
MENGISTU DENIES ALL CHARGES
(ION 10 Dec 94, p.8)
In a telephone interview with The Indian Ocean Newsletter, Ethiopia's
former head of state, who has been living in exile in Zimbabwe since
1991, systematically denied all charges laid against him in the trial
in absentia started in Addis Ababa against him and dozens of other
former Ethiopian leaders. Unexpectedly, Mengistu Haile Mariam put the
responsibility for the Red Terror on to other persons. He said that
Ethiopia was governed today by "a minority government of Tigreans" and
added that he was "writing about the present situation in Ethiopia to
inform future generations". Living in a comfortable villa in Harare
but forbidden to receive visitors freely or to move outside of the
Zimbabwean capital, Mengistu makes most of his contacts by telephone.
His telephone bill for the six months of 1994, paid by the Zimbabwean
government, came to US$ 28,413.
ZIMBABWEAN OPPOSITION LEADER CALLS FOR MENGISTU'S EXTRADITION
(SWB 11 Jan 95 [KNA news agency, Nairobi, in English 10 Jan 95])
Excerpt from report by PANA news agency, Dakar, carried by Kenyan news
agency KNA
Harare, Zimbabwe: A Zimbabwean opposition leader, Ndabaningi Sithole,
has challenged President Robert Mugabe's government to extradite
former Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile Mariam, who is facing charges
of genocide in his country.
In a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Nathan Shamuyarira, Sithole
said that this was necessary if Zimbabwe "is to set a precedent which
will serve as a shining example for all African countries"...
ROME PANS DEATH SENTENCES
(ION 14 Jan 95, p.2)
The Italian delegate on the European Union's Africa Working Group has
submitted a proposal to his colleagues for a joint approach to the
Ethiopian government seeking an assurance that a death sentence will
not be demanded (or will not be applied if passed) on the leaders of
the former Ethiopian regime under ex-head of state Mengistu Haile
Mariam. Some European countries who might back the Italian proposal
have nevertheless counselled patience until the outcome of the mass
trial becomes a little clearer...
The Italian move is motivated by the fact that the Italian embassy in
Addis Ababa is still playing host to three former high officials of
the Mengistu regime who took refuge there in 1991: Tesfaye Gebre
Kidane, the vice-president under Mengistu who became president himself
for just one week after the dictator fled to Zimbabwe and until the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front seized power,
ex-foreign minister Berhanu Baye, and ex-armed forces chief of staff
(and DERG economic expert) Addis Tetla...
ETHIOPIAN AND ERITREAN AIRLINES TO OPERATE JOINTLY
(ION 24 Dec 94, p.7)
The national airlines Eritrean Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines decided
last week to set up a joint company to operate air traffic rights
which the Eritrean company on its own is not able to use fully. The
agreement includes the companies sharing international facilities.
Eritrean Airlines, which was created in May 1993 after the country
became independent, is currently operating the Addis Ababa--Massawa
route, using an aircraft acquired under a leasing agreement with
Hungary. Ethiopian Airlines has been functioning since 1945 and serves
more than thirty capitals across Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East.
A source said the company is considering concluding similar joint
ventures with other airlines in the region.
AGREEMENTS WITH GERMANY ON FORESTRY AND DRINKING WATER PROJECTS
(SWB 3 Jan 95 [RE in Amharic, 21 Dec 94])
Editorial report
Technical cooperation agreements worth 9.7m dollars were signed by the
governments of Ethiopia and Germany on 21st December. Under the
agreement, 5.8m dollars was allocated for the implementation of a
forestry project in Adaba Dolo in Bale Zone (southeastern Ethiopia),
while the remaining 3.9m dollars will be used for the completion of
the German-funded ongoing potable water projects in Tigray and Oromia
regions (Regions One and Four respectively).
STUDIES ON GAS AND OIL PROSPECTING IN EASTERN AND NORTHERN AREAS
(SWB 10 Jan 95 [REE in English, 2 Jan 95])
Editorial report
A preliminary study on launching natural gas prospecting in the Abay
basin and Serdo and Tendaho areas of Afar region in eastern Ethiopia
is under way. The head of the Petroleum Exploration Department said
that the government had allocated 407,000 birr, equivalent to about
65,000 dollars, for the collection of samples and the mapping of the
areas. The America Oil Company, which has won a bid for exploration
rights, is also preparing to prospect in the Afar area.
The department head said that similar studies were being undertaken in
Wereilu locality in northern Ethiopia, where oil-bearing sediments had
been discovered, and that an international oil company, ILP, was
bidding to prospect for oil in Gambella region in western Ethiopia,
where samples of oil-bearing rocks similar to those in the Sudanese
oilfield had been detected.
GOLDEN STAR TO EXPLORE THE DUL PROJECT AREA IN ETHIOPIA
(PRNewswire via RBB 25 Jan 95)
DENVER -- As announced recently by the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and
Energy, Golden Star Resources Ltd. has been awarded the Dul permit
area in Ethiopia. Dul is one of several gold prospects for which
Ethiopia invited applications during 1994. The detailed terms for
development of the project are being discussed by Golden Star and the
Transitional Government of Ethiopia.
The Dul permit covers 1,801 square kilometers and is located in
western Ethiopia about 800 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa.
The permit area covers several Proterozoic "greenstone" belts which
contain a number of identified primary gold occurrences, of which the
Dul Mountain gold prospect is the most important...
Golden Star has proposed an integrated exploration program, working
closely with the Ethiopians, to evaluate the Dul Mountain gold
prospect. In addition, it is proposed to conduct a comprehensive
regional evaluation of the entire 1,801 square kilometer Dul permit...
ETHIOPIA SETS UP NEW COFFEE AUTHORITY
(Reuter 31 Jan 95)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia, pushing ahead with reform in its key coffee
industry, set up a new coffee authority to streamline the sector and
improve marketing of the crop.
A government statement said the new body would be called the Coffee
and Tea Development Marketing Authority. It replaces the ministry of
coffee and tea development which has been abolished.
"The authority shall have the power and duties to formulate and draft
policy, laws and regulations that can promote the country's coffee and
tea development," the statement said...
Ethiopia is Africa's third largest producer of coffee after Ivory
Coast and Uganda. Officials estimate output to reach 120,000 this
year, up from 72,000 tonnes last year.
Coffee is Ethiopia's main export commodity and accounts for 60 percent
of total foreign currency earnings.
Last year it also exported 450 tonnes of tea for the first time,
earning $400,000. Ethiopia plans to export some 2,000 tonnes this year
and earn an estimated $2.5 million, official statistics show.
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZES TREASURY BILL AUCTION
(SWB 7 Feb 95 [REE in English, 25 Jan 95])
The National Bank of Ethiopia has announced that it has organized a
210m birr [nearly 30m dollars] treasury bills auction effective today
in a bid to help the government obtain loans from the business
community. The executive committee for treasury bills at the bank said
all commercial banks are designated as authorized dealers for the sale
of the bills. The bank said any person or resident in Ethiopia
including firms, companies, corporate bodies, banks and financial
institutions could purchase the treasury bills. The treasury bills
auction, run jointly by the bank and the Ministry of Finance, would
stay active for about three months. The National Bank said bidders who
win the tender for the amount they tendered will collect their money
after the auction is over.
SAUDI-ETHIOPIA JOINT COMMISSION PROPOSED
(Moneyclips via RBB 16 Jan 95 [Arab News, by K. S. Ramkumar, Arab News
Staff])
Jeddah, Dec. 2 - Ethiopia is keen to establish a joint economic
commission with Saudi Arabia to further boost mutual relations. This
was stated by Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Minister Suyom Mesfen when a
high level 17-member businessmen's delegation from the Kingdom called
on him recently...
The mission returned with the impression that the country, where
Organization of African Unity was founded, is a virgin land for Saudis
to invest, moreso because of its close proximity-just an hour and 40
minutes flying time, and also that it is a gateway to the rest of the
African continent. An invitation was also extended by the visiting
group to the Ethiopian chamber mission to visit the Kingdom...
ETHIOPIAN-SUDANESE COOPERATION TALKS OPEN IN ADDIS ABABA
(SWB 20 Jan 95 [REE in English, 18 Jan 95])
An Ethio-Sudanese joint meeting is under way in Addis Ababa to discuss
ways and means of revitalizing and fully implementing cooperation
agreements signed between the two governments. The three-day meeting,
which began yesterday [17th January], is expected to find ways of
putting in practice friendship and cooperation agreements signed
between the leaders of the two countries on 21st October 1991. The
Ethiopian delegation to the meeting is headed by Mr Wend Wesen Kebede,
economic adviser in the Prime Minister's Office and the Sudanese
delegation by Mr Abd al-Wahhab Ahmad Hamza, minister of state in the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning...
AIDS RESEARCH CENTRE OPENS IN ETHIOPIA
(Reuter 22 Dec 94)
ADDIS ABABA - An AIDS research centre opened in the Ethiopian capital
on Thursday to study Africa's HIV virus compared with its counterparts
in Europe and the United States.
The Netherlands embassy said the $8.1-million centre financed by the
Dutch government would concentrate on the African HIV virus because
its epidemiology and virus strains were different from those in Europe
and the United States.
It said any possible treatment for AIDS developed in the United States
or Europe might be poorly adapted for Africa.
Africa has the highest incidence of HIV and AIDS in the world. There
are an estimated 10 million adults infected with HIV in sub-Saharan
Africa, according to the World Health Organisation.
ACORD: "POVERTY ALLEVIATION THROUGH SOCIAL ORGANISATION"
(NNS Dec 94/Jan 95)
1993/94 saw some 63 new Community Based Organisations, or CBOs, spring
up in the Eastern Ethiopian city of Dire Dawa. Their number is
evidence of an expanding civil sector in the city as the population
increases and there is some space for locals to organise. While this
expansion may be new, CBOs are rooted in tradition, often built around
the demands of burial and marriage ceremonies or economic need, where
better off community members lend to the worse off through rotating
credit. Meanwhile, working with them exemplifies what international
organisations preach for `participatory development.'
Yet evidence of international agencies, including NGOs, working
through existing CBOs in Ethiopia is scant. ACORD, a European NGO with
a development mandate has just spent a year developing a four year
project to increase the capacity of CBOs in Dire Dawa. NNS spoke to
their Country Co-ordinator, Ali Adam, a Sudanese with over ten years
experience of development work in the Horn.
"Their eyes are on the grant" when you first talk to them, he says,
"and that's for a clear practical reason - but we have to work with
them to move away from practical to strategic needs." ACORD has spent
a year conducting a baseline survey on the structure and needs of the
CBOs in Dire Dawa (as well as on the city itself). As a result one of
their main focuses in the programme is on women who comprise 60% of
the total population of the city (80% in some districts) while 32% of
all households are female-headed. Programme support in terms of grants
to CBOs will be 80% to women and gender issues will be at the
forefront of programme strategy.
More generally, CBOs suffer because, as informal groups, they are not
eligible for loans from the Ethiopian Development Bank. "While we do
not want to formalise them," says Adam, "it will help to at least have
access to being a legal entity, if they want, then they can access
credit." This is an example of one lynch-pin of the programme:
`linkage'. By putting CBOs in touch with NGOs, local administrators
and with each other, avenues of opportunity can open up. "They rarely
come together to sit and discuss problems jointly, which may be a
legacy of the previous regime, but we'll organise visits so that they
can see each other's work and they may, through time, learn that
working together would be to their advantage - but we will only open
that door, we won't push them through."
Similarly ACORD is shy of creating or encouraging artificial
structures, but they do plan to facilitate an advisory committee which
will include representatives of the city administration, the district
council, ACORD and the CBOs. This will make project funding decisions
and is also intended to provide access for CBO representatives to
local officials...
NEWSPAPER EDITOR FOUND GUILTY OF "PUBLISHING UNFOUNDED STORIES"
(SWB 13 Feb 94 [REE in English, 11 Feb 95])
The third bench of the Central High Court has passed a suspended
sentence of one and [a] half year[s] on the editor-in-chief of the
`Mogad' newspaper on charges of violating the press law and publishing
unfounded stories. The court said that it found Yohanes Abebe guilty
of committing the crimes he was accused of by the prosecutor's office.
The defendants published [an] unfounded story on [as heard] the 23rd
June 1994 issue of the newspaper under the headings: Ethiopia was
encircled by wars from all direction[s] for which the EPRDF [Ethiopian
People's Revolutionary Democratic Front] government was responsible.
The newspaper said that the Black Lion and Kefagne Army [both
opposition forces] were fighting from [the] northwest to the central
part of the country and unidentified guerrilla fighters were taking
offensive measures which put the country's peace at stake...
THREAT OF RENEWED SOMALIA VIOLENCE
(DT 20 Dec 94, by Scott Peterson)
United Nations troops are accelerating their withdrawal from Somalia,
as news that American forces will take part in the final evacuation,
setting foot again on Somali soil, has increased fears of violence.
Although Somalia's strongest warlords have promised not to disrupt the
UN pull-out, rumours are growing among Somalis that America plans to
re-colonise their country. Apocryphal as these rumours may be, they
influence many.
Gunmen have taken control of the streets of Mogadishu since the
withdrawal of US forces in March. Extremists among them are likely to
take up arms against the Americans once more.
President Bill Clinton has ordered up to 3,000 US Marines to serve as
offshore back-up and - saying that "it's the right thing to do" -
plans to send several hundred ashore in the final days of the
evacuation.
On Radio Mogadishu yesterday, General Mohammed Farah Aidid, the
warlord who survived a US-led manhunt, questioned the need for
American troops to return. His lieutenants had far stronger words.
"They killed thousands of Somalis, whose fathers and brothers will not
forgive that or forget," said Osman Ato, the chief financier for Gen
Aidid's militia. "They will shoot the Americans if they have the
chance."
Despite Gen Aidid's promises of peace, his senior security officers
have warned civilian UN and relief agencies planning to stay that
their safety cannot be guaranteed after UN troops depart.
Clashes, and possibly renewed civil war, are expected to erupt as clan
militias fight for control of the port and airport, and over the booty
from the lavish UN compound.
The UN army in Somalia now stands at 12,000 Third World troops, mostly
from Pakistan and India. They will be cut to 10,000 by the end of the
year and will abandon the newly built UN compound - 80 acres of
pre-fabricated offices and housing with first-class sewerage, water
and lighting services - by the middle of January. They should be gone
by the first week of March...
UN SPECIAL ENVOY APPEALS TO OAU TO PERSUADE UN TO STAY, AVERT CIVIL
WAR
(SWB 4 Jan 95 [KNA news agency, Nairobi, in English 2 Jan 95])
Mogadishu, Zimbabwe [as received]: UN special envoy to Somalia James
Gbeho says the OAU should make "last ditch efforts" to pressure the UN
into extending its mandate in Somalia beyond 31st March. This
extension, he said, would avert a return to full-scale civil war.
"They (OAU) should use collective weight in order to still keep it
(the UN) interested and involved in Somalia," he told Zimbabwean
journalists.
Gbeho, who fell short of describing the withdrawal as premature,
questioned whether the UN's reason for its pull-out after two years
would be acceptable to Africans.
The UN said it was leaving because Somalis had failed to form a
government in this anarchic East African nation of almost 8m people;
but Gbeho said the withdrawal would set a complicated precedent. It
would mark the first time since its formation that the organization
abandoned a mission before achieving its objectives. In future
situations similar to Somalia, he said, Africans might be unwilling to
participate. Zimbabwe completed its withdrawal from the country [on]
Saturday [31st December].
The withdrawal, he added, could turn Somalia into a "battleground for
ambitious Western powers". Somalia has vast untapped mineral resources
like oil, uranium and gas.
He criticized Somalia's faction leaders, who include the two main
protagonists, Somali National Alliance leader Gen Muhammad Farah Aydid
and the Somali Social [as received: should be Salvation] Alliance one,
Ali Mahdi Muhammad, for their "intransigence and selfishness".
ORDERLY RETREAT, WITH LUCK
(The Economist via RBB 4 Feb 95)
NEW YORK - All that now remains for the United Nations to do in
Somalia is to get out as quietly and decently as it can. Over the next
month, the UN plans to withdraw its last 8,000 troops-Pakistanis,
Bangladeshis and Egyptians-and as much of their equipment as possible.
The withdrawal, as Somalia's still-warring clans gather like vultures,
will be complicated and dangerous. Much worse, it will leave Somalia
as vulnerable as it ever was to the havoc of warlords and the threat
of famine.
The Somali mission, which lasted about 20 months and was preceded by
America's unilateral operation, failed abysmally to impose political
order but did save an unknown number of people from dying of hunger.
It is ending at a time of good harvests. But if fighting spreads, food
could become as scarce, over the next few months, as it was two years
ago. The handful of UN political people who have been told to remain
in Mogadishu, the capital, will be able to do nothing to protect any
relief worker who bravely decides to stay on: no armed guards, no
helicopters, no flights out of Somalia. The UN's is not an honourable
retreat.
But the Security Council decreed in November that it should be a
deliberate and orderly one--not hasty, let alone enforced--and this is
now the height of the UN's ambition. The Indian troops left the port
of Kismayu at the end of December, with the Indian navy off-shore. Now
the whole UN presence is concentrated in Mogadishu.
By February 8th, an American-Italian naval task-force will be gathered
off the coast with 2,600 American and 800 Italian marines on board.
France will offer air protection from Djibouti. Until the last week of
the withdrawal, the task-force will act only when requested to do so
by the UN chief of mission. But then, come the end of February or the
beginning of March, the UN's own commander will have left and the
marines will go in, with their American commander in full control, to
replace the rearguard of 2,000 Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. When the
last peacekeeper is gone, the marines themselves will leave.
Stories of widespread looting of UN equipment-by peacekeepers and by
Somalis-are, says the UN, based on fact but exaggerated by the press.
The hope is to shift most of the stuff to either Rwanda or Angola or
to the new storage base the Italians have given the UN at Brindisi.
Some things, air-conditioners and telephones, will be passed on to the
wretched relief agencies. Fine, in theory. But on February 1st, as UN
troops left their headquarters in Mogadishu to take up position at the
airport and harbour, Somali militia moved in at once, stripping the
place bare. The next day two mortar bombs were fired into the
UN-controlled port. Nobody was hurt but the evacuation of civilians
was brought forward. Orderliness is within a hair's breadth of
breaking down.
Is the military withdrawal from Somalia a rehearsal for the bigger,
far more daunting prospect of retreat from ex-Yugoslavia? Up to a
point, perhaps. But that operation, according to a NATO estimate,
would cost $10 billion-14 billion. This sum, out of all range of
penny-pinching UN peacekeeping, highlights the fact that it is much
harder to get out of a country than to get in.
A POST-INTERVENTION POLICY TOWARD SOMALIA
(Feb 95, by Ken Menkhaus and John Prendergast)
This month US Marines provide cover for the inglorious withdrawal of
the last UN peacekeeping forces in Somalia...
Aid organizations -- donors, UN agencies and private voluntary
organizations -- are now faced with the same set of dilemmas that
confronted them during Somalia's terrible war and famine of l99l-92.
How can we most effectively channel assistance to responsible and
needy Somalia communities in the midst of ostensible "Mad Max"
anarchy? At issue is not only our continued commitment to Somalia; we
will be setting a precedent for how the international community copes
with other zones of protracted state collapse.
The birds of prey in Somalia are counting on aid agencies to continue
to cut deals with local militias, pay extortionate wages to armed
"guards", provide ransom to kidnappers -- in sum, to do whatever it
takes, so that at least some aid gets to communities in need. This
philosophy, however well-intentioned, bankrolled the militias and
helped fuel the very conflicts that triggered Somalia's recent famine.
It must not happen again.
Aid organizations have slowly come to understand that one of the main
assets over which Somalia militias and bandits fight is international
assistance. It is a welcome if belated realization and challenges
aid-givers of all persuasions to fundamentally revise the principles
on which they operate in complex humanitarian emergencies.
In the case of Somalia the corrosive and centralizing effect of
foreign aid has a long history. It helped create a bloated, artificial
and heavily militarized state which collapsed, never to return once
donors froze aid in the late 1980s. It fostered a "cargo cult"
mentality in Somalia towards foreign aid which is still very much
alive today.
Somali militia leaders are keenly aware that foreigners and their
international agencies have institutional imperatives to provide aid.
They know from experience that an accusation that Western aid agencies
are failing to respond to emergency needs -- an irresistable story for
the media -- is a quick and easy way to prompt headquarters in New
York, Washington and Geneva to give the order to "do whatever it
takes" and the aid flows.
This has led to a situation in which several powerful Somali clans and
militias have held weak, agricultural populations in southern Somalia
hostage, looting them until they starve, then crying for the
international community to stop the famine. We pay the ransom but the
hostages are never released. Famine, refugees and deprivation are a
big business in Somalia.
There are those who argue that Somalia should just be left completely
alone, but this is simply not going to happen and is not fair to the
many honest and victimized Somalis who deserve help in their efforts
to rebuild their lives. A more realistic alternative is for a united
donor community to set and maintain strict standards for permissible
environments for foreign assistance until the militias come to
understand that the rules of the game have changed. An important first
step has already been taken when aid agencies suspended activities
last month until an international aid worker was released by
kidnappers. Watchdog donors should monitor implementing agencies and
cut funding to those which gravitate back towards the old rules. It
will take time and induce hardships but a "tough love" approach is now
the only way to break the cycle of extortion.
Aid should also be radically decentralized, channeled through and in
partnership with local community authorities in small areas of
operation. There are functional and effective local leaders -- elders,
intellectuals, responsible politicians, clerics and local self-help
organizations -- who can and will see to it that outside help is
properly used. But aid agencies will need to put in considerable time
on the ground to learn who is a legitimate community representative
and who is not.
Aid must be provided in small, manageable quantities, lest it attract
the unscrupulous. Large levels of assistance will place too much
pressure on local authorities and may even undermine them.
Non-governmental organizations and UN agencies need to adapt a
patient, labor-intensive approach which stresses quality of input
rather than quantity. A number of small, commited agencies have long
embraced this approach with good results.
It is not so much that "small is beautiful" in Somalia; small is
simply the only viable course of action in a collapsed state. The only
legitimate authority that exists and thrives in contemporary Somalia
is at the local level, in villages, neighborhoods, and the pastoral
range. Though the UN remains preoccupied with reviving a central state
in Somalia, for the foreseeable future what we call "Somalia" will be
a mosaic of fluid, localized communities. Let's work with them and not
against them.
Ken Menkhaus is an assistant professor at Davidson College and is
currently a visiting professor at the US Army Peacekeeping Institute.
John Prendergast is Director of the Horn of Africa Project of the
Center of Concern. Both are co-directors of the Somalia Task Force.
CLAN FIGHTING VIOLATES MOGADISHU CEASEFIRE PACT
(Reuter 6 Jan 95)
MOGADISHU - Rival Somali militiamen, violating a day-old ceasefire
agreed by clan elders, clashed in the capital Mogadishu on Friday,
killing four people and wounding a dozen.
Witnesses said gunmen of the Abgal and Murusade clans fought in the
battered Bermuda district bordering on the U.N.- held seaport with
machineguns and anti-tank rockets in the worst fighting since the
ceasefire took effect on Thursday morning.
Both sides accused the other of shooting first. Witnesses said four
people were killed and a dozen wounded in the clash which followed
sporadic shooting in Bermuda throughout Thursday.
The three-point ceasefire calling for an end to hostilities from
Thursday was signed in Mogadishu on Wednesday by Abgal and Murusade
elders after at least 23 people were killed and more than 300 wounded.
The pact called for opening all roads to Bermuda district...
UN TROOPS QUIT SOMALI HEADQUARTERS, MILITIAS LOOT
(Reuter 1 Feb 95)
MOGADISHU - United Nations troops abandoned the world body's former
headquarters in Mogadishu on Wednesday and withdrew to the airport
ahead of a final evacuation from Somalia, officials said.
U.N. spokesman George Bennett said that Somali militias immediately
moved in and seized the complex, looting the place bare.
"The (U.N.) Pakistanis finally left their positions in the early hours
of this morning. As soon as they moved out the Somalis moved in and
started taking all the equipment that was left," Bennett told Reuters.
He said the final armoured column of several hundred U.N. troops was
given air cover with combat helicopters and tanks were on hand to
guide them to the U.N.-controlled airport.
The militias who seized control of the old U.N. complex were from
warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed's Habre Gedir militia...
SHIP ATTACKS
(LICR 31 Dec 94)
London, Dec 29 - Following received from the Maritime Liaison Office
Bahrain, dated Manama, today: The situation around Mogadiscio
continues to deteriorate with repeated reporting of ship attacks and
piracy. Piracy also continues along the Somalia coast especially in
the area of Cape Guardafui where there have been repeated reports of
piracy conducted by the Somalia Coast Guard. Commercial shippers are
advised to remain at least 50 nautical miles offshore when transiting
the area.
LIBYAN CLERICS MEET SOMALI WARLORDS IN MOGADISHU
(Reuter 13 Dec 94)
TUNIS - A group of Libyan Moslem clerics and teachers, who went to
Mogadishu last week upon the wishes of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi,
met Somali faction leaders, the official Libyan news agency JANA
reported on Tuesday.
The panel, made up of mosque preachers and teachers of the Koran,
Arabic language and Islamic studies held talks with Somali warlords to
"complete a mission of reconciliation between parties and restore
stability," said JANA, monitored in Tunis.
The report of talks coincided with the start on Tuesday in Morocco of
a summit by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference which will
discuss the issue of Somalia.
The agency said the mission was inspired by Gaddafi last year when he
met pr eachers and clerics.
LEAGUE MISSION TO SOMALIA A FAILURE
(Moneyclips via RBB 5 Jan 95 [Riyadh Daily])
Cairo (KUNA) - An Arab League mission, sent to resolve the conflict in
Somalia, will be returning Monday from Mogadishu, apparently without
accomplishing any breakthrough, according to a League source here on
Sunday.
Speaking to the press, the source said that League Secretary General
Esmat Abdul Meguid has recently received a message from the mission
that "it has failed in the assignment of bringing closer viewpoints of
different Somali factions."
The mission to Somalia, including head of the League's Arab department
Ahmed Ben Ali and Samir Hussni in charge of the Somali conflict
visited Mogadishu 10 days ago in a bid to reconcile Somali warring
factions before withdrawal of international peacekeepers from the
African Horn state, scheduled for next March.
In its message, the mission attributed failure of its efforts to
insistence of the three Somali leaders on their hardline stances,
especially General Mohamed Farah Aidid, interim president Ali Mahdi
Mohamed and Mohamed Abdul Rahman Egal who announced a separate state
in the north under the name of Somaliland.
The mission said in its message that given the hardline position of
each Somali faction, conditions in Somalia are expected to deteriorate
with wide possibilities for renewal of civil war after expiry of the
international forces' mandate under Security Council resolution 954...
ETHIOPIA CALLS ON OAU MINISTERS TO ACT ON SOMALIA
(Reuter 23 Jan 95, by Tsegaye Tadesse)
ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia on Monday called on African foreign ministers
meeting in Addis Ababa to pressure Somali factions for a new
initiative aimed at averting further chaos in their country.
Prime Minister Tamirate Layne told the ministers in the country for a
five-day ministerial council of the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU) the impending withdrawal of United Nations forces from Somalia
gave the matter extra urgency.
"It would be appropriate for the council to call on all factions in
Somalia, in the clearest language possible, to come to their senses
and save their country and people from what can only be further
anarchy and destruction," he said.
Tamirate expressed "disappointment and frustration" over the lack of
progress in reconciling Somali groups at war since the government of
Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in early 1991...
OAU MINISTERS URGE SOMALIS TO FORM GOVERNMENT
(Reuter 26 Jan 95, by Tsegaye Tadesse)
ADDIS ABABA - African foreign ministers meeting in Addis Ababa
appealed to warring Somali factions on Thursday to set up an interim
government before the March 31 U.N. troop withdrawal...
SUDAN INITIATIVE
(Reuter 31 Dec 94, by Aden Ali)
... In a last ditch attempt to reconcile Somalia's clans, U.N.
Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) spokesman George Bennett said leaders of
50 clans would meet next week in Khartoum, Sudan.
U.N. officials said the reconciliation meeting would not include
political and clan militia leaders such as Aideed...
AYDEED'S DILEMMA
(AC 6 Jan 94, p.6)
Despite growing support from Ethiopia and Eritrea, real power still
eludes General Mohamed Farah Hassan `Aydeed'. In theory, he is set to
announce a `government of national unity', but this means alienating
many of his key supporters, who would inevitably be left out. It is a
situation uncannily reminiscent of that facing the nominal President,
Ali Mahdi Mohamed, in 1991 - well over a year before United States'
and UN troops first landed. Now as the last contingents of UN troops
start their withdrawal, it is Aydeed who has to weigh his options
carefully: run the risk of breaking up his often fragile domestic
support base by trying to form a government or, as the best armed and
prepared leader in the country, return to the battlefield and bludgeon
his way to power.
Bloody guerrilla conflict continues between Habr Gidir and Hawadle in
Hiran (Belet Weyne area) and to a limited extent in Mogadishu; clashes
between Murosade and Abgal (AC Vol 35 No 22) have been raging in
Mogadishu's Medina and Bermuda quarters; in Kismayo tension has risen
between Harti and Marehan militias since India's UN contingent left in
mid-December; Aydeed's supporters may try to retake Baidoa by
exploiting the fighting among the Rahanwein.
Since the beginning of November, two rival `peace conferences' have
been going through the motions in Mogadishu. One is organised by
Aydeed, who belongs to the Saad sub-group of the Habr Gidir sub-clan
of the Herab clan of the Hawiye clan family and heads the Somali
National Alliance. This aims to set up a `government of national
unity'. The one held by Ali Mahdi (Abgal/Herab/Hawiye), head of the
Somali Salvation Alliance, is a reaction to the first. Ali Mahdi hopes
to maintain SSA cohesion in the wake of defections to the SNA, notably
by the United Somali Front (Issa), Somali Democratic Alliance
(Gadabursi), Somali National Democratic Union (Leykasse/Darod) and
Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's wing of the Somali Salvation
Democratic Front. Ali Mahdi's conference is also trying to show it
could form its own government if Aydeed dared appoint one without
first unifying the two conferences. Unification does not look likely.
Asmara and Addis Ababa have become key players and the only
governments visibly backing Aydeed. Ethiopia needs a friendly
government in Mogadishu that will refuse refuge to its Ogaden Oromo
dissident groups. It is also looking for its first regional policy
success. Eritrea, whose presence is very evident in Mogadishu, is
backing its twin and hoping to widen the growing rift between Aydeed
and Sudan (AC Vol 35 No 25), which has begun to notice that Aydeed's
overtures were more opportunistic than Islamist. Within Somalia,
Ethiopia and Eritrea keep declaring their neutrality. But they use
much franker language abroad: a bad government is better than no
government and only Aydeed can set one up. Memories of dictatorship
have quickly faded, it seems.
Only government aid could enable Aydeed to spend the 6-10,000 US
dollars a day that his conference is estimated to have cost since 1
November. The daily hire of just one `technical' (armed pickup truck)
costs him some four million Somali shillings. Furthermore, the weapons
consignments he receives across the Ethiopian border look too large to
come solely from the black market. Yet who is paying remains unclear.
Aydeed still has many problems. These stem firstly from the weakness
and lack of popular legitimacy of his conference delegates, such as
Mohamed Qanyere Afrah (Habr Mohamed/Murosade/Hawiye), head of the
United Somali Congress-SSA, who went over to Aydeed in September, and
Somaliland's ex-President Abdirahman Ahmed Ali `Tour' (Habr
Younis/Garhajis/Issaq), head of the Somali National Movement, which
imploded at the end of 1991. Many leaders see their only option as
pushing for war while manipulating clan differences, which they
exacerbate to give themselves some kind of support-base.
Mohamed Qanyere's case also illustrates the deeper clan forces at
work, especially the changing elite: each clan had its economic and
political elite sub-group in President Mohamed Siad Barre's time but
these are now contested by other sub-groups, which is what much of the
war is about. Qanyere witnessed Aydeed's rise to power in the USC,
thanks to Ethiopian assistance in 1990, and developed what then looked
like eternal hatred for him. Furthermore, the Murosade and Abgal (Ali
Mahdi) are neighbours and have therefore developed a modus vivendi.
Their business leaders united in the 1990 Manifesto group and later in
the USC-Mogadishu. Both organisations were very hostile to Aydeed.
The Murosade-Abgal alliance endured through the height of the civil
war (1991-92) though animosity built up over various issues. Several
Musorade leaders, such as Mohamed Farah Siad and the extremely wealthy
ex-Finance Minister, Mohamed Sheikh Osman (both from the Abukar
sub-clan) dropped their support for Ali Mahdi because of his political
mediocrity and their own exclusion from the political and financial
inner circle.
After months of apparent neutrality in the War of Mogadishu, the
Murosade went to war against the Habr Gidir but were defeated within a
day without receiving any help from their Abgal allies. The Murosade
felt betrayed by the January 1994 Herab peace agreement (principally
between Abgal and Habr Gidir) since their Abgal allies failed to
consult them. Qanyere was finding it hard to be Ali Mahdi's eternal
deputy as Hawiye representative in the SSA, particularly since the
Hawiye felt continually marginalised by the multiplicity of
unrepresentative Darod organisations. And Qanyere had begun to flex
his muscles, thanks to the ineptitude of Unosom which recognised him
as a faction leader. This means he is party to every faction agreement
and can sign for the USC-SSA even when its Abgal majority disagrees.
Competition within the Murosade is a further factor here. Their elite
belongs mainly to the Abukar sub-clan. Qanyare, who belongs to a much
poorer but more numerous sub-clan, the Habr Mohamed, now has the
opportunity to promote his group (and thus himself) at the expense of
the old elite by forging an alliance with a small but fairly rich
group, the Abdallah, which is well reporesented in his entourage by
controversial businessman Hiri Qassem.
This is the context of the fighting in Medina. The immediate cause was
Murosade opposition to the Islamic courts set up by the Abgal. The
real cause was the mobilisation of the clan behind its fighters. Since
these are mainly Habr Mohamed, who support Qanyere, the Murosade are
also obliged to back him. In this conflict, the Murosade have the
benefit of substantial support from Aydeed's supporters. Meanwhile,
the Abgal have been able to move arms and ammunition around in
vehicles belonging to the police force set up by Unosom and directed
by Gen. Ahmed Jilow.
Qanyere's strategy is suicidal in the long term as the Abgal are more
numerous and better armed but it could pay in the short term,
particularly if the Murosade-Abgal ceasefire signed on 4 January fails
to hold, since Aydeed has still to convince the Hawiye that he
represents them and to weaken Ali Mahdi. Despite everything, Ali Mahdi
remains the biggest obstacle to Aydeed's taking power: if it were not
for him, the question of Hawiye unity would be far easier to
resolve...
OFFICER FACES TRIAL IN DEATH OF SOMALI
(Financial Post via RBB 17 Jan 95)
A Canadian officer charged in the beating death of a Somali teen will
face a court martial after losing a bid yesterday to have his case
thrown out. A military judge-advocate at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa
has ruled Capt. Michael Sox will face a court martial on charges
stemming from the beating. Shidane Arone, 16, was killed in March
1993, while in the custody of Canadian peacekeepers in Somalia. Sox is
charged with unlawfully causing bodily harm and negligent performance
of duty.
BELGIAN PARATROOPER SENTENCED IN SOMALI ABUSES TRIAL
(Reuter 18 Jan 95, by Sue Pleming)
BRUSSELS - A Belgian paratrooper was sentenced to five years in jail
on Wednesday after being found guilty of manslaughter while serving
with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia.
"Five years may seem like a lot, but when one looks at the facts in
this case, it is a mild sentence," the military judge told Private
Philippe Dechilly, who served in Somalia in 1993.
Dechilly was involved in an exchange of gunfire with a group of
Somalis after an argument over the illegal sale of weapons to Belgian
troops. Two Somalis died in the shooting.
"You should not kill because you were afraid that the (sale of
weapons) would be known to your commander...What you did was
despicable," the judge said, adding that Dechilly had acted like a
bandit rather than a peacekeeper...
Dechilly was one of eight paratroopers to appear before a military
court over the past month in connection with abuses committed while
serving with the U.N. in the southern Somali port of Kismayu...
SOMALIA'S EX-PRESIDENT DIES IN NIGERIAN EXILE
(Reuter 2 Jan 95)
MOGADISHU - The death in exile on Monday of former Somali president
Mohamed Siad Barre was unlikely to cause much grief in his devastated
homeland.
Siad Barre, who died in a Nigerian hospital aged about 84, ruled
Somalia like a dictator for most of his 22 years in power.
Many blame him for fanning the clan rivalries that ruined the Horn of
Africa country and are expected to erupt with a vengeance when U.N.
troops withdraw by March 30.
Driven by rebels from his palace in Mogadishu in 1991, Siad Barre was
forced out of his stronghold in the southwest a year later. He fled
first to Kenya with 1,200 supporters and members of his huge family
before finding asylum in Nigeria in May 1992.
He was army commander when he seized power in 1969, pledging to
preserve democracy and outlaw corruption and tribalism.
But his years in charge saw a failed dalliance with communism, a
disastrous war with neighbouring Ethiopia over the Ogaden region in
1977-78 and economic stagnation.
Apart from periods of drought and famine, Somalia under Siad Barre had
to grapple with man-made ills like refugees, insurgency in the north
and widespread dissent.
Somalia achieved independence in 1960 as the result of the merger of
the British Somaliland Protectorate and Italian Somaliland.
Despite these colonial divisions, Somalia had the advantage that its
ethnic groups have a common language, religion and ethnic background.
Siad Barre's efforts to promote literacy and development earned him
some popularity. Historians say his only lasting achievement will
probably be the introduction of Latin script in 1972 and the promotion
of Somali as the language of education and government in the place of
English, Italian and Arabic.
In 1974 he served as chairman of the Organisation of African Unity and
took his country into the Arab League, a success considering Somalia's
ethnic and linguistic uniqueness.
But his ambition to build a "greater Somalia", including lands outside
the colonial frontiers, led to war in Ethiopia's Ogaden region. Somali
forces were repulsed in 1978 by an Ethiopian army backed by thousands
of Soviet and Cuban troops.
The campaign produced hundreds of thousands of refugees and Siad
Barre's popularity plummeted.
Border clashes, complicated by Somali and Ethiopian government support
for armed dissidents on either side, continued for years.
Clan-based groups rebelled in much of the country until by the end of
his reign Siad Barre controlled so little territory he was nicknamed
the "Mayor of Mogadishu".
But he refused to step down until forced out, his resistance fuelled
by a diet of countless cigarettes and cups of black espresso coffee.
He was born in 1910 -- the exact date is uncertain -- in what was then
Italian Somaliland, the southern part of the present republic. His
parents died when he was 10 and he was brought up by relatives.
He joined the police force, taught himself English and Italian, and
reached the rank of chief inspector, the highest post then open to
Somalis.
As president his official policy was to end Somalia's clan rivalries.
In practice he concentrated power within his small Marehan clan and
appointed family members to top jobs.
Experts on Somalia say the policy helped extend his years in power but
created a bitter harvest that was reaped after his downfall.
"He will be remembered for destroying his country both economically
and for fragmenting Somalia's clans, a terrible legacy for the people
who come after him," Professor I.M. Lewis of the London School of
Economics said in 1991...
BARREH BURIED IN HIS HOME TOWN
(SWB 14 Jan 95 [RMO in Somali, 12 Jan 95])
Text of report by Somali pro-Ali Mahdi Muhammad radio
Mr Umar Haji Muhammad, the chairman of the SNF [Somali National
Front], has attended the burial of the late Muhammad Siyad Barreh, the
former Somali president. The late Muhammad Siyad Barreh, who died in
Lagos, Nigeria, and whose body was flown back by a Nigerian air force
aircraft, has been buried in Garbahaarrey town [Barreh's home town],
Gedo Region...
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PROTESTS CRUEL PUNISHMENTS
(AI 16 Dec 94, AFR 52/WU 02/94)
The stoning to death of a man in Mogadishu earlier this month by
sentence of an Islamic court, which has already sentenced many people
to amputations and floggings, could signal more such extreme and cruel
punishments in the next few months, Amnesty International said today.
This informal religious court has already handed down sentences of
amputations of limbs for 12 men and a woman, and of floggings for more
than 160 others since its establishment in August.
These trials flagrantly violate internationally recognized standards
of justice and Amnesty International is concerned by indications that
informal religious courts such as this, which fail to guarantee the
right to a fair trial and inflict cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishments, could spread more widely in Mogadishu and other parts of
Somalia, a war-torn country without any central government.
On 8 December after a summary trial, Abdullahi Weheliye Omar, 25, was
brutally stoned to death for 20 minutes by a group of men in the crowd
hurling concrete blocks at him at close range while he lay shackled.
He had been convicted of rape by the court, which was composed of 12
religious leaders.
The execution, witnessed by a western journalist and filmed with the
court's encouragement by a Somali cameraman, took place before a
cheering crowd of hundreds of men, women and children.
The court which condemned Abdullahi Omar was established in August by
increasingly active Islamist groups. It functions in a part of north
Mogadishu controlled by militias of Ali Mahdi, chairman of the Somali
Salvation Alliance (SSA) -- the clan coalition opposed to General
Mohamed Farah Aideed's Somali National Alliance (SNA). A spokesman of
the court is reportedly closely connected to Ali Mahdi and the SSA.
Defendants have no legal counsel, there is no right to appeal to any
higher court or to petition for clemency, trials are informal and
summary, procedures are arbitrary, and penalties are carried out
immediately.
Another man pleading guilty to also raping the same woman was
sentenced to 100 lashes, which left him unconscious and profusely
bleeding. He escaped a stoning death sentence because he was unmarried
and an Islamic legal provision invoked by the court decreed death for
married rapists only. Abdullahi Omar tried to explain as he was being
led to execution that he too was unmarried but this was ignored.
Five women were previously stoned to death in January last year in the
break-away Somaliland Republic in the north west. They were sentenced
to death for adultery by an informal Shari'a court set up by an
Islamist group. This court was then dissolved by the Somaliland
authorities and the Islamist group's leader was arrested, but was
later released and no further steps were taken to bring him to
justice.
Amnesty International considers amputation and flogging to be cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishments -- violations which are prohibited
by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment of Punishment. The Human Rights Committee,
established under the ICCPR to monitor implementation of that treaty,
has stated that the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or
degrading punishment "must extend to corporal punishment, including
excessive chastisement ordered as a punishment for a crime". Somalia
is a party to both treaties and all persons exercising governmental
authority such as judges and police officers, are bound by these
international instruments.
Amnesty International also opposes the death penalty unconditionally
everywhere as a violation of the right to life...
SOMALIS PROTEST ATTACK ON ISLAMIC LAW ENFORCER
(Reuter 28 Dec 94)
MOGADISHU - Thousands of Islamic sharia law supporters have
demonstrated in the war-shattered Somali capital Mogadishu against an
attack on the head of a court committee.
In one of the biggest rallies staged in northern Mogadishu, marchers
took to streets on Tuesday chanting Allahu Akhbar (God is Greatest)
and demanding the four-month-old sharia court keep operating.
Witnesses said the demonstration was in protest against an attack on
Monday on Sheikh Sharif Muhiddin, head of the sharia court committee,
by gunmen. No casualties were reported from the attack.
The committee checks court punishments are implemented. It has
overseen penalties including death by stoning for adultery and rape,
amputation for theft and flogging for lesser offences.
Self-styled president and north Mogadishu warlord Ali Mahdi Mohamed
vowed to the marchers he would never accept a position of national
leadership unless Somalis agreed to sharia law for the country.
Sharia law has been widely welcomed by residents of northern Mogadishu
in the absence of any other strict system of law and order since
Somalia was torn apart by rival clan militias with the toppling of
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in January 1991.
Islam is Somalia's state religion but before the start of the war its
legal code, apart from district courts for Islamic law, was largely
based on that of former colonial power Italy.
U.N. AGENCIES TO STAY IN SOMALIA, APPEAL FOR FUNDS
(Reuter 22 Dec 94)
NAIROBI - The United Nations appealed Thursday for $70.3 milllion for
emergency relief and rehabilitation in Somalia for the next six months
despite a U.N. military pullout that leaves them exposed to banditry.
"Failure to do so will result in a predictable new emergency which
will, as in the past, exact a tragic toll in human lives and have
severe consequences for stability in the sub-region," the agencies
said in an appeal for funds.
Their statement said they would try to decentralize the aid and not
concentrate it in the capital of Mogadishu, where fighting and looting
is the worst in the country.
But in New York, Peter Hansen, the U.N. undersecretary-general for
humanitarian affairs, told reporters he thought much of the food aid
from the World Food Programme would still go through the port of
Mogadishu and local security guards might have to be hired.
He said the U.N. troops would continue to protect humanitarian aid
workers until they pulled out in March but that the Security Council
had turned down an appeal for U.N. troops or police to stay longer to
help the agencies.
The council ordered the withdrawal of the 15,000-strong U.N. force in
Somalia by the end of March because of the failure of rival factions
to agree on peace and a new government. Diplomats said the wrong
message would be sent if security forces remained behind for any
reason...
But in 1991-92, the U.N. aid agencies were severely criticised by
former U.N. special envoy Mohammed Sahnoun for centralizing operations
in Mogadishu, spending too much time in Nairobi and not fanning out to
more secure areas.
Aware of the criticism, Hansen said "the humanitarian agencies are
active all over the country and looking for ways and means for which
we can maintain that presence."
The $70.3 million would be used to educate children, help demobilize
combatants and to provide food aid to support reconstruction from
January until the end of June.
Action would be taken to support community health centres, sustain
water supplies, repatriate refugees and resettle people displaced
within the Horn of Africa country.
In the latest of several kidnappings of foreign aid workers this year,
gunmen abducted a 24-year-old Frenchman in Mogadishu Saturday and are
demanding $20,000 in ransom.
The World Food Programme needed $24.8 million for food aid,
particularly for rehabilitation, while the U.N. Children's Fund
estimated it would need $14.6 million for health care, food and water
for children and mothers and educational aid...
WFP TO SUPPLY MORE FOOD AID TO SOMALIA THIS YEAR
(Reuter 9 Jan 95)
ROME - Food supplies in Somalia improved in 1994 but the country will
still require substantial food aid in 1995, the Rome-based World Food
Programme (WFP) said on Monday.
"The August harvest was very encouraging, reaching an average ninety
percent of pre-war levels," the United Nations agency said in a
statement.
"While much more food is available in Somalia than during the last
three years, many people are still without jobs or without sufficient
income to feed their families."
The WFP said it needed 115,270 tonnes of foodstuffs for its aid
programmes in Somalia in 1995. It has already secured 49,000 tonnes of
its requirement from pledges and stock carried over from 1994.
The remainder has been valued at $44 million including transport.
An estimated 300,000 Somalis died in a famine fuelled by civil war in
the Horn of Africa state prior to the arrival of United Nations relief
organisations in December 1992.
EU - FURTHER GRANTS
(RAPID via RBB 10 Jan 95 [20 Dec 94])
The European Commission has approved a further grant of ECU 1 million
in humanitarian aid for the people of Somalia.
Medical relief aid will be provided out of the annual humanitarian aid
budget. Medicines and medical equipment will be sent urgently to
Hargeisa in the north-west of the country, the scene of recent
factional fighting; three further aid allocations will ensure that
current medical aid projects in Luuq, Mogadishu and the province of
Middle Shabelle are able to continue functioning.
1. Emergency aid of ECU 30 000 will be used to replenish the central
medical stores at Hargeisa with medicines and basic medical equipment
in order to meet the recent increase in demand; this will ensure that
medical aid programmes in the region can continue to function and
treatment be provided for the injured and those recently made
homeless. Save the Children Fund will be responsible for the purchase
and delivery of this aid.
2. Aid totalling ECU 520 000 is to be given to Medecins Sans
Frontieres-Spain in order to finance medical assistance programmes in
Giohar and Adan Yabal (Middle Shabelle) and Mogadishu for a period of
six months. These programmes will help improve health facilities, both
in terms of supervision and through the provision of primary health
care and distribution of medicines. In Mogadishu, the aid will be
specifically directed towards helping displaced persons and treating
mothers and children suffering from malnutrition.
3. A grant of ECU 200 000 implemented by Medecins du Monde (France)
will provide funding for a further six months for a current medical
programme in the town of Borhache (20 000 inhabitants) and its
surroundings. The aid will finance primary health care supervision,
the operation of mobile clinics, a child vaccination campaign and a
project to monitor the nutritional situation in the region.
4. An aid allocation of ECU 160 000, implemented by the African
Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF - Germany), will provide
necessary ongoing funding for the hospital at Luuq for a period of
three months.
This financing decision brings to ECU 8 278 000 the total amount of
humanitarian aid which the Commission has so far accorded to the
people of Somalia.
REPATRIATION FROM KENYA
(SWB 30 Dec 94 [KNA news agency, Nairobi, in English 28 Dec 94])
Mombasa: A group of 438 Somali refugees from the Utange Camp in
Mombasa left today by ship to Kismaayo, being the first lot after the
repatriation exercise stalled [in] mid-November this year. According
to the officer in charge of the repatriation exercise, Mr Leerschool
[name as received], 11 trips have been organized by the UNHCR to
transport 5,000 refugees from the Utange Camp with three flights from
Moi International Airport in Mombasa to Kismaayo...
SOMALI GUNMEN KIDNAP FRENCH RELIEF WORKER
(Reuter 17 Dec 94)
PARIS - Gunmen in the Somali capital Mogadishu kidnapped a French
relief worker on Saturday, the French LCI television channel reported.
The 24-hour news channel said Marc Rudy, 24, who works for the agency
International Action Against Hunger (AICF), was abducted while driving
to the airport in the south of the capital, which is controlled by
warlord Muhammad Farah Aydeed.
There was no immediate confirmation from AICF.
LCI said two Somali guards were wounded during an exchange of fire
with the kidnappers and that Rudy had been working for AICF for only
six months...
AID AGENCIES SUSPEND OPERATIONS IN MOGADISHU
(Reuter 12 Jan 95, by Peter Smerdon)
MOGADISHU - Nearly a dozen aid agencies suspended non-emergency
operations indefinitely in the Somali capital on Thursday after
kidnappers failed to free a French aid worker held for four weeks.
The non-governmental organisations (NGOs), hanging on in this lawless
city devastated by clan warfare, said they had closed their doors at 6
P.M. (1500 GMT) until 24-year-old Rudy Marq was freed.
"We are putting a sign on the door saying we accept no new projects
and are stopping all work that does not involve a life or death
situation," Nancy Smith, Somalia representative for Oxfam UK and
Ireland, told Reuters.
In a major blow to relief operations, U.N. agencies decided to
evacuate all international staff from the central town of Baidoa
following the killing of a Somali driver working for the U.N.
Childrens' Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday...
"Rudy Marq must be freed by his kPUBLISHER INFORMATION
The Horn of Africa Bulletin is published bimonthly by the LIFE & PEACE INSTITUTE, S-751 70 Uppsala,
Sweden
Tel: (+46) 18-16 95 00; Fax: (+46) 18-69 30 59
Email: enelson@nn.apc.org
ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO HAB
E D I T O R I A L
D J I B O U T I
ACRONYMS:
ADDHL - Djibouti Association for the Defense of Human Rights and Liberties
DRA - Djibouti Relief Association
FDF - Front of Democratic Forces
FRUD - Front for the Restauration of Unity and Democracy
FNS - Force Nationale de Securite
MND - Mouvement National Djiboutien
MSR - Mouvement pour le Salut et la Reconstruction
MUD - Movement pour l'Unite de la Democratie
PCRD - Parti Centriste et des Reformes Democratiques
PND - Parti National Democratique
PRD - Parti du Renouveau Democratique
RPP - Rassemblement Populaire pour le Progres
UDD - Union des Democrates Djiboutiens
UDSJ - Union for Democracy and Social Justice
UMD - Union des Movements Democratiques
GOVERNMENT--FRUD AGREEMENT?
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
E R I T R E A
ACRONYMS:
ARDU - Afar Revolutionary Democratic Union
ARDUF - Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front
CERA - Commission for Eritrean Refugee Affairs
CRS - Catholic Relief Secretariat
ECE - Evangelical Church of Eritrea
EDLM - Eritrean Democratic Liberation Movement
EDM - Eritrean Democratic Movement
ELF - Eritrean Liberation Front
ELF-RC - ELF-Revolutionary Council
ELF-UO - ELF-Unity Organisation
EPLF Eritrean People's Liberation Front
ERRA - Eritrean Relief and Rehabilitation Association
ERD - Emergency Relief Desk
PFDJ - Popular Front for Democracy and Justice
PGE - Provisional Government of Eritrea
PROFERI - Programme for Refugee Reintegration and Rehabilitation of
Resettlement Areas in Eritrea
MOUNTING TENSIONS WITH SUDAN
A FUTURE ERITREA
E T H I O P I A
ACRONYMS:
AAPO - All Amhamra People's Organisation
ALF - Afar Liberation Front
ARDU - Afar Revolutionary Democratic Union
BPLM - Benishangul People's Liberation Movement
CAFPDE - Council of the Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy in Ethiopia
COEDF - Coalition of Ethiopian Democratic Forces
CRDA - Christian Relief and Development Association
ECS - Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat
EDC - Ethiopian Democratic Organization Coalition
EDUP - Ethiopian Democratic Unionist Party
EECMY - Eth. Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus
ENDP - Ethiopian National Democratic Party
EPDA - Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Alliance
EPDM - Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement
EPRDF - Ethiopian People's Rev. Democratic Front
ESDL - Ethiopian Somali Democratic League
ESDM - Ethiopian Somali Democratic Movement
GDU - Gamo Democratic Union
GPDF - Gurage People's Democratic Front
HPDO - Hadia People's Democratic Organisation
IFLO - Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia
IGLF - Issa Gurgura Liberation Front
KPC - Kembata People's Congress
OLF - Oromo Liberation Front
ONLF - Ogaden National Liberation Front
OPDO - Oromo People's Democratic Organisation
ORA - Oromo Relief Association
SEPDC - Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Coalition
SPDO - Sidama People's Democratic Organisation
TPLF - Tigray People's Liberation Front
WSLF - Western Somali Liberation Front
NEW CONSTITUTION, ELECTIONS
OPPOSITION
WAR CRIMES TRIAL
ECONOMIC NEWS AND FOREIGN RELATIONS
HUMANITARIAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
S O M A L I A
ACRONYMS:
SACB - Somalia Aid Coordination Body
SAMO - Somali African Muki Organisation
SDA - Somali Democratic Alliance
SDM - Somali Democratic Movement
SLA - Somali Liberation Army
SNA - Somali National Alliance
SNDU - Somali National Democratic Union
SNF - Somali National Front
SNM - Somali National Movement
SNU - Somali National Union
SORRA - Somali Relief and Rehabilitation Agency
SPM - Somali Patriotic Movement
SSA - Somali Salvation Alliance
SSDF - Somali Salvation Democratic Front
SSNM - Southern Somali National Movement
USC - United Somali Congress
USF - United Somali Front
USP - United Somali Party
UN WITHDRAWAL
UNREST
PEACE INITIATIVES
AYDEED'S DILEMMA
UN SOLDIERS ON TRIAL
SIAD BARRE DIES
HUMAN RIGHTS
HUMANITARIAN ISSUES
KIDNAPPINGS