Not Only Somalia, Sudanese peace talks almost collapsing

HAN Monitoring in Djibouti, August 16th, 2003

Sudan, Politics, 8/16/2003

The southern Sudanese rebels have rumored of pessimistic atmospheres in the fifth day of the Sudanese peace talks in Kenya as they announced that the negotiations are "facing a blocked road and are almost collapsing."

Sources of the southern rebels in the city of Nanioki in Kenya said that the "current crisis resulted from the governmental delegation persistence on that the talks will not be built on the project proposed by the mediators from the government's authority for development IGAD" which includes each of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia.

The sources explained that the "government delegation asked us to choose all topics that should be discussed separately but without returning back to IGAD project."

The sources added "the people's army for the liberation of Sudan considers that this project which was approved by IGAD's mediators should be the base of direct negotiations to settle the civil war in Sudan." On August 9th, the Sudanese President announced he will not sign an "unfair" peace accord and he expressed "doubts" concerning the intention of the leader of the southern rebels John Garang. Al-Bashir said "a peace accord will be only reached through sincerity, firmness and determination. There is no benefit for any agreement without the will of the two sides, altogether."

Meantime, the democratic national coalition announced in a statement that its chairman Othman al-Meirghani discussed in Cairo on Wednesday and Thursday with the leaders of the rebels John Garang latest developments concerning peace negotiations.

The statement said that the talks between the chairman of the opposition party and the leader of the rebels dealt with " latest developments of the current negotiations in Kenya." The statement said that the talks between the opposition party and the leader of the rebel's movement dealt with "latest current negotiations in Kenya." Al-Meirghani and several leaders of the northern opposition announced in May their support for the peace negotiations in Kenya in conclusion of a meeting held in Cairo with Garang.

Sources: Arabnews

15/08/2003 22:01 - (SA)

Monrovia - Long prayed-for, US Marines in Liberia went about the workaday tasks on Friday of America's first peace mission in Africa in nearly a decade, patrolling new razor-wire perimeters and guarding the first in a convoy of aid ships.

Americans' task in Liberia's shelled, starving capital: "Trying to get the boats in the port," said Major Leonard DeFrancisci of Melbourne, Florida, a reservist with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Friday marked the first full day ashore for about 200 US forces. Military helicopters landed them from three US warships looming in the tides off Monrovia the previous day, after warlord-president Charles Taylor ceded to US, West African and rebel demands and left his bloodied country.

For US forces, landing on the green, black-rock-heaped hills of Liberia's coast opened the first humanitarian mission in Africa since Somali fighters killed 18 US troops in Mogadishu in 1993. The battle deaths prompted Washington's withdrawal of troops the next year, and lingering US reluctance to get involved in the continent's crises.

Black Hawk Down

"We've all seen the movie," Marine Captain James Jarvis, a spokesperson for the 26th Marines at Liberia's main airport said, referring to Black Hawk Down, depicting the Somalia deaths. On Friday, Marines, including men in two Humvees mounted with 50-caliber machine guns, guarded the airport's landing strip, securing it for flights of West African troops and aid.

Deployment at the airport freed a stretched-thin, still building West African peace force, now at roughly 1 500 men, for duties in Monrovia, where hungry, eager crowds on Friday broke through the front-line that had split the city for 10 weeks of rebel sieges.

A 150-member US rapid-reaction force was on standby at the airport, ready to fly out by helicopter if the Nigerian-led peace force came under attack anywhere, Jarvis said.

On Thursday, a Navy Seal team scoured the trash-strewn water at Monrovia's seaport, looking for navigation hazards for aid ships bringing food and other aid for the hungry capital.

Razor-wire fences

About 40 Marines, including DeFrancisci, helped West African forces hold the heavily looted, badly damaged port, which up until this weekend had victims of fighting still floating face-down off the docks.

After pounding stakes on Thursday to erect razor-wire fences, Marines patrolled the port barricades on Friday, or sat in the shade of delapidated buildings against the rainy-season heat and sun.

Within blocks of the Marines, rebel fighters lingered, despite insurgents' pledge to withdraw from the city entirely.

"Better than it was yesterday," DeFrancisci said, his attention drawn to the young insurgents. "The country's in shambles," Sergeant Nathen Baker, 23, of Olean, New York, said back at the airport. "We're trying to keep the peace."

Many of the Marines, including Jarvis, had served in Afghanistan. The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit had deployed in Iraq as well, at Mosul, but few here were part of that mission.

Liberians had prayed for rescue by America, whose government oversaw Liberia's 19th-century founding by freed American slaves.

Quieter

As the siege grew, meeting the worst fears of the trapped people, angry crowds laid men, women and children killed in mortar barrages before the high-walled US Embassy.

Crowds roared at sight of warships offshore this week, followed by what are now repeated helicopter and warplane buzzes over the city.

The limited size and role of the US troops' mission means they take a back seat to West African forces here.

"We like it that the Americans are flying to protect us. But why don't they come down with us and see our hunger?" Emmanuel S Cooper, a 22-year-old unemployed university graduate, asked as he crossed Monrovia's newly opened front-line to look for beans, rice and oil.

Undoubtedly, presence of the heavily armed Marines, and their warplanes and warships, have helped cow fighters on both sides - rag-tag militias, prone to smoking cocaine and drinking, and more accustomed to attacks on civilians than disciplined fighting.

Already, Jarvis said, "the streets have gotten quieter. This is what the people have been waiting for."

After almost ten months of baseless negotiations, the problems Of dying Somalia are still unsolved. Instead of shrinking the diversity expanded, the existing groups decomposed, and a common intersecting point is not visible yet.

Taking advantage of the foolish, egocentric group leaders, the East African countries are keen on keeping Somalia on It’s deathbed, and are organizing the embalming ceremony. That embitters the new generation of the Somali elite, that was eager to eliminate the Long-standing manufactured enmity between the neighboring countries, and establish a new friendly and co-operating environment.

Ignoring and embarrassing our eagle-eyed, established Educators, volunteered to rescue their people, and dealing with the decanter, edible group leaders, that never thought beyond themselves, illuminated the hidden discarding, suffocation plan.

Although the programmed, Eccentric envoy acts honest, and drapes the disastrous agenda from the rest of the world, emotion sometimes keels him over his badly designed effusive highway, and makes him express his deep feelings, that alerts the awareness of most Somalis.

Not to find a healed and healthy Somalia, it’s very Unfortunate that the Ninny Neighbors still use the old system of irritating some and satisfying others.

Thinking a hospital, it’s the Somalis that came to a Slaughterhouse to be treated, and it depends on them to accept to be slaughtered or not.

As the the wily, modern East African politicians have a bigger mentality than their ancestors to arrange such a game, also Somalis are not their grandfathers, and can certainly play a bigger ball.

Whatsoever, waddling Somalia will never be wiped out, and if not woozy, Planting a Cactus will never make the region wealthy!

Ahmed A/Kadir (Shiine)

Ottawa - Canada