The long road to peace

By Joyce Mulama

Nairobi, Kenya, Oct. 17 (IPS) — Motivated by the success in resolving Somalia’s conflict, African leaders have stepped up efforts to end the civil war in the tiny central African nation of Burundi where more than 300,000 people have been killed since 1993.

The leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti, working under the auspices of the regional bloc, the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have brokered the talks to end Somalia’s 13-year civil war. The talks, which opened in neighboring Kenya in 2002, culminated into the election of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as president of Somalia on Oct. 10.

Yusuf is expected to form a government of national unity within a month. Somalia slid into chaos after the fall of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Since then, the Horn of African country has been without a central government.

Following the experience of Somalia, African leaders do not want Burundi to also slide into chaos. Attending the 23rd Summit of the Great Lakes Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi in Kenya’s capital Nairobi Oct. 15, the leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa pushed Burundi’s elections forward to give more time to the country’s independent electoral commission, appointed at the end of Aug. 2004, to prepare and put in place modalities of running free and fair elections.

Initially, the elections had been scheduled for the end of Oct. 2004, when a three-year mandate of the country’s transitional government expires. Burundi’s government, led by President Domitien Nday-izeye, was installed in office in Oct. 2001.

The electoral commission, chaired by Paul Ngarambe, advised the summit of the impossibility of holding the elections on schedule because of logistical difficulties.

“Based on the reality on the ground, the summit accepts that elections cannot take place before November 1, 2004,” the African leaders, meeting in Nairobi, said in a joint statement made available to journalists. “Furthermore, the summit noted that the life of the transition institutions and administration has to be extended.”

Upon arrival in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura, president Ndayizeye announced that the elections would take place in Apr. 2005.

Some concerns have been raised about the postponement of the elections which, critics fear, might create more tensions between Hutus, who make up 85 percent of the country’s population, and Tutsis, who dominate the army. Clashes between the two ethnic groups have erupted intermittently since independence from Belgium in 1962.

But some political analysts have ruled out any tensions resulting from the postponement of the elections since the decision was not made by the Burundi government, but by a greater force comprising African leaders.

“The postponement [of the elections] has been made by a greater unit and the rebels would not want to fight the entire [regional] bloc which enjoys the support of the international community. There’s no need for the rebels to point a finger at the government,” Mitch Odero, of the Nairobi-based Solid Strategy Africa, a regional peace and advocacy group, told IPS.

The latest clashes between the Hutus and Tutus erupted in 1993 when renegade Tutsi soldiers assassinated Melchior Ndadaye, the first elected Hutu president.

Since then, the conflict has claimed more than 300,000 lives, the latest being the August 2004 incident in which the National Liberation Forces (FNL), a Hutu rebel Movement, descended on a refugee camp in Burundi, slaughtering 160 Congolese Tutsis.

Hopes were raised in August when 20 parties, among them Tutsi and Hutu rebel groups except FNL, signed an accord, resulting in a power sharing agreement.

The deal, clinched in Tanzania, gives the Tutsi minority 40 percent of government and national assembly posts, compared to 60 percent for Hutus.

The activities of FNL, the only Hutu rebel group still mounting attacks in Burundi, have placed it in bad books with regional leaders. During the 22nd Summit of the Great Lakes Regional Peace initiative on Burundi, held Aug.18 in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Heads of State of Burundi, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and South Africa labeled the FNL a terrorist organization.

They appealed to the United Nations Security Council to consider a travel ban on members of FNL, freeze the group’s assets and institute on it an arms embargo.

Critics fear that if the FNL was allowed to continue wreaking havoc, it might spark genocide, like in neighboring Rwanda, where more than 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists a decade ago.

US lifts Haitian arms embargo as tensions mount

By Jim Lobe

Washington, DC, Oct. 20 (IPS) — Amid growing reports of violence in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, the United States announced Oct. 12 it will consider requests to sell weapons to the country’s interim government on a case-by-case basis, signalling the end to a 13-year arms embargo.

The decision, confirmed by the State Department, appears designed to begin supplying weapons to the 2,500-man police force that has carried out gun battles with militants loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was kidnapped earlier this year and is now in exile in South Africa.

The police, however, have also been accused of firing on peaceful pro-Aristide demonstrators and rounding up well-known leaders of Aristide’s political movement, Lavalas.

Human rights group Amnesty International (AI) on Oct. 12 denounced last week’s arrest of the Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste while the priest was distributing food to hundreds of children and poor people at a church in a Port-au-Prince suburb.

According to testimony gathered by the London-based group, Jean-Juste was punched while being dragged out of the presbytery by police officers, some of who were wearing masks.

The police later said the arrest was a pre-emptive action based on intelligence that the priest was linked to pro-Aristide gangs, although no evidence to support that charge has been released.

“Amnesty International considers that if the arrest is politically motivated for Rev Jean-Juste being a vocal supporter of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience,” said the organization in a statement.

The rise in tensions in the Caribbean nation began in September after Hurricane Jeanne devastated the port town of Gonaives, Haiti’s third-largest city, killing as many as 2,000 people and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses.

The interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, which took power with the help of US Marines and French troops after Aristide’s departure, failed to coordinate or provide much help to the stranded population, fueling popular discontent with the regime, particularly among the poorest sectors that have long supported Aristide.

Pro-Aristide demonstrations broke out on Sept. 30, the 13th anniversary of the military coup d’etat that exiled the leader the first time in 1991. Aristide is the first democratically elected president in Haiti’s history.

At least two protesters were killed by police Sept. 30. The following day, the remains of three policemen who had been beheaded were found on the street, bringing tensions in the capital to a boil. Some 50 people have since been killed in sporadic violence. the vast majority Aristide supporters.

Since the anniversary, the situation in the capital has been unsettled, while former soldiers and military officers who led an insurrection against Aristide last winter and who still control much of the countryside, announced they intend to move to the capital to back the police against pro-Aristide gangs and militants.

The former soldiers have pressed the government to restore the army, which was abolished by Aristide after his return from exile in 1994.

The result is a growing sense of chaos in Haiti, according to Professor Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, who described the situation as “very explosive.”

“What’s going on now is that the Latortue government is losing control of the situation,” he said in an interview.

“The armed insurgents who opposed Aristide are increasingly taking center stage in the political situation, which will probably spell significant trouble for the country. They literally want to go into Cite Soleil [the capital’s poorest neighborhood] and try to repress that segment of the population that continues to support Aristide.”

Last week Washington accused Aristide supporters of promoting violence against the regime, and over the weekend Latortue himself accused South African President Minister Thabo Mbeki of “not respecting international law” by permitting Aristide to rally his supporters from South African territory.

Mbeki’s spokesman rejected the charge with “contempt,” noting that the South African president “cannot be used as a scapegoat for failure by the interim Haitian authorities to bring about peace and stability.”

Jim Morrell, director of the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP), a lobby group closely tied to the Latortue government, also charged that Aristide was inciting his supporters.

“We know Lavalas leaders are in touch with Aristide over the phone, but we don’t claim to know the contents of those conversations,” he said. Morrell called for the 3,000-man United Nations peacekeeping force now in Haiti to be reinforced and “get pro-active, because if it doesn’t, a growing part of the Haitian people will look on the damned army as their salvation.”

“As bad as is the memory of the army years,” added Morrell, “it’s even worse now with Lavalas gangs in the streets.”

The UN force, which took over from US and French forces in July, is currently only at less than half strength.

But Fatton said neither more troops nor renewed US aid to the police is likely to resolve the situation, particularly given the failure of the government to take a more conciliatory attitude toward Lavalas, which most observers believe remains the most popular political movement in the country.

“The UN could send more troops, but that’s not really the problem,” he said. “There has to be some sort of real, meaningful dialogue between the different sectors in Haiti, particularly Lavalas. The growing and very explosive polarization, with the former army entering the scene and the government lacking the means or the will to curb it, spells big trouble.”

Fatton also accused the government of using Aristide as a scapegoat for its own failures.

“They want to portray him as completely unpopular and yet blame him for paralyzing Port-au-Prince; they’re trying to find a way to explain that the country is falling apart and they are not responsible, so they arrest Lavalas leaders, some of whom could not possibly be involved with violence.”

Washington imposed an arms embargo against Haiti after the coup against Aristide in 1991, although it helped equip and train the police force created after the United States restored Aristide to power in 1994.

The State Department said Oct. 12 it would consider requests for arms from the Latortue government on a case-by-case basis.

Fatton said the situation, particularly the increasingly desperate plight of the tens of thousands of people in Gonaives, could result soon in a new exodus of Haitian “boat people,” something Morrell also said was quite possible.

Both analysts stressed that the Bush administration was hoping “to keep the lid on” both the violence and any chance that thousands of Haitians would take to the sea, and was unlikely to do much more pending the Nov. 2 presidential election.

Afghan warlords poised to take power

By Nick Meo

Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 14 — Alleged war criminals are poised to take positions of power in Afghanistan’s new government, threatening hopes of democracy taking shape after last week’s historic election, a human rights group has warned.

Men with bloody records from years of conflict will become judges, police chiefs, and government ministers unless their appointments are blocked by presidential decree, according to a report by Afghanistan Justice Project.

The United States-based group has conducted detailed research into the darkest periods in recent Afghan history -- the wars between 1978 and 2001 -- and accuses some of the most powerful men in the country of involvement in murders, mass rapes, summary executions and indiscriminate rocketing and bombing of civilians.

It also calls on the Western powers backing the Kabul government to apply pressure against warlords, and accuses the US of helping discredited figures back into power and re-arming them as allies in its fight against al-Qaida.

Patricia Gossman, the report’s researcher and author, said: “The new government’s appointments must be scrutinized. There must be proper accountability...At the moment there is no vetting process.

“We are particularly worried that the controversy over ink marks on voters’ fingers in the election will mean deals have been done where candidates’ complaints are dropped in exchange for appointments.”

The new president -- expected to be Hamid Karzai -- has the power to withdraw the appointments of tainted figures but may find it politically difficult to do so without support from his Western backers, Gossman said.

She said that the US may still be using warlords in its anti-terror war. “There is a total lack of transparency about what they are doing,” she said. “The [US] ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, is meeting Karzai almost every day but nobody knows what message he is sending about warlords. There seems to be more concern among European powers ... than there is among US officials. They have caused huge problems in the past.”

The report, “The Candidates and the Past: The Legacy of War Crimes and the Political Transition in Afghanistan,” details new evidence about some of the bloodiest episodes from the Soviet occupation, the civil war in the 1990s and the Taliban era, accusing all sides of taking part in atrocities. Little research has been done before on war crimes. Years of turmoil made the work difficult. And no efforts have been made to bring any of the figures to justice.

For this report, researchers interviewed witnesses to and survivors of atrocities.

One of those singled out is Mohammed Fahim, a former vice-president and defense minister, and one of the most powerful figures in the Northern Alliance. He was dropped by Karzai as his vice-presidential running mate, but many expect him to remain a significant figure in the government. The report highlights summary executions and rapes carried out by troops allegedly under his command in Kabul in 1993.

Another powerful behind-the-scenes figure is Abdul Sayyaff, a hardline Islamist warlord who opposed the Taliban. He is believed to have played a key role in appointing ultra-conservative judges to Kabul’s Supreme Court where their judgments have repeatedly gone against the few liberal figures brave enough to try to play a public role in Afghanistan.

General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a presidential candidate with ambitions to be chief of the defense staff, is another who is singled out for his record leading a militia during the civil war.

The report also claims that Taliban commanders accused of war crimes may not face justice because they have disappeared into US custody. The prospect of those accused ever standing trial is believed to be years away, partly because the authority of the government is so fragile. Gossman said: “So far the only real trial for anybody accused of abuses is happening now in London, where alleged commander Zardad Khan is being prosecuted.”

Source: Independent (UK)