ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Military talks successful
The first meeting of the Military Coordination
Commission of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE)
was successfully conducted in Nairobi on 2 December. The military delegations
from Ethiopia and Eritrea concluded "ahead of time" a "successful
and cooperative meeting", UNMEE spokesman Albert Wong told IRIN. They
agreed to "further the process of improving freedom of movement for
UNMEE personnel" and planned to open two new land routes on 7 December,
an UNMEE statement said.
Both parties also agreed to begin providing UNMEE with information on "known or suspected minefields", said the statement, released at the close of the talks. Other agreements reached during the military talks included a formula for the redeployment and rearrangement of forces on both sides. Under this plan, the Force Commander of UNMEE will be "responsible for the timeline determining the redeployment of certain forces and the readjustment of the position of others". The agreement requires both armies to provide the Force Commander, Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert, with their respective plans by 12 December. Subsequently, the peacekeepers will establish a 25 km Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) between the two armies. The TSZ has "absolutely nothing to do with demarcation... The distance simply relates to artillery fire," UNMEE spokesman Brian Kelly explained to IRIN.
Both sides agreed to provide notification of live-fire exercises and troop rotations to UNMEE "in order to reduce tension in the area", the statement said. The military delegations for their respective countries were led by Maj-Gen Alemshet Degife from Ethiopia and Brig-Gen Abrehaley from Eritrea. The meeting was chaired by Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert, with opening statements from Ambassador Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General. Yemane Kidane provided political representation for the Ethiopian delegation, and Commissioner Andeberhan Giorgis for the Eritrean delegation. Brig-Gen Peter Augustine Blay represented the Organisation of African Unity.
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Peace agreement to be signed
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders said they had agreed to a final peace pact to formally end the border war. An agreement, brokered by US envoy Anthony Lake and the OAU, was expected to be signed in Algiers on 12 December, news agencies said. Details of the pact, which include formal demarcation of the disputed border, were confirmed in a letter US President Bill Clinton sent to the leaders of both countries on 1 December.
Official statements released by the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments said on Monday that a "comprehensive" peace agreement would be signed in Algiers on 12 December.
ETHIOPIA-SUDAN: Improved relations consolidated
Sudan's relations with Ethiopia are moving towards wider horizons of strategic cooperation the political and economic fields. This view was expressed by Uthman al-Sayyid, the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, during an interview with the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, on Saturday. The ambassador said that, during their meeting on the fringes of the recent Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Khartoum, Presidents Umar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had agreed that work should begin on drafting a programme to strengthen bilateral relations in the political, economic and commercial fields. Sayyid said Meles had announced Ethiopia's decision to import gas and other petroleum products from Sudan. Sudan and Ethiopia was also expected to sign an agreement to abolish customs dues on bilateral commodity exchanges, and Sudanese entrepreneurs were being encouraged to invest in Ethiopia. The ambassador also said Ethiopia would make use of the harbour facilities at Port Sudan (in northeastern Sudan).
He went on to say that in the near future there would be exchanges of visits by senior officials from the Sudanese ruling party, the National Congress (NC), and its counterpart in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian People's Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPRDF). Within the next few days, moreover, a meeting of the Ethiopian-Sudanese joint border committee was due to be held in the capital of Amhara State (Gonder). Another meeting of the committee, to be held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, was scheduled for April 2001, Sayyid was quoted by Suna as saying.
SUDAN-ERITREA: Talks to normalise relations
First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha was due in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, Omdurman radio reported on Monday. The report said that he "will hold talks with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki within the framework of consultations and efforts being made to strengthen bilateral relations and bolster means of cooperation between Sudan and Eritrea". Earlier, on Saturday, the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, quoted the secretary-general of the ruling party, the National Congress (NC), as saying that the visit "affirms Sudan's keenness to normalise its relations with Eritrea". It added there was "no contradiction between the military defence of the homeland and normalising relations with the neighbouring countries."
SUDAN: Election postponement suit filed
Court officials in Sudan said the Supreme Court would consider a suit filed by the opposition alliance demanding the postponement of this month's general elections, the BBC reported on Sunday. A lawyer for the opposition National Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, Ghazi Sulayman, said the suit argued that the General Election Commission (GEC) could not conduct the forthcoming elections in the absence of a parliament, as it was answerable to both the parliament and the president. Parliament was dissolved a year ago (on 12 December) by President Umar al-Bashir. A Supreme Court judge said a copy of the suit had been sent to the GEC and a hearing would be held on Wednesday. Sudan's presidential and general elections are scheduled to be held from 11 to 20 December, the report said.
The same court had also decided to study a case filed by another lawyer, Mahmud Sha'rani, contesting the GEC's endorsement of President Umar al-Bashir and former President Ja'far Numayri as presidential candidates, AFP reported on Sunday. The lawyer had complained "that Bashir, as incumbent president, could order all state employees to vote for him, while slamming Numayri's nomination as a 'provocative insult' to the Sudanese people, who rose in a popular uprising and overthrew him in 1985".
SUDAN: OAU election observers
An 11-member delegation from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), led by the organisation's former secretary-general, Ambassador Gayama, is due to arrive in Khartoum on Tuesday to observe the presidential and presidential elections. This was reported to the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, by the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, Uthman al-Sayyid, on Tuesday. He said that the delegation "will tour all the [26] states in Sudan to observe the electoral process towards submitting a report on its mission to the OAU secretary-general, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim".
SUDAN: Qatar resumes meat imports
The State of Qatar has resumed imports of meat from Sudan. The importations have been resumed after a regional ban was imposed by the Gulf States due to Rift Valley fever. The undersecretary of the Sudanese Ministry of Livestock, Dr Muhammad al-Jabalabi, said that Sudan was continuing its meat exports to Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Sudanese television said on 1 December. Jabalabi also said there were "extensive contacts" between Sudanese meat exporters and the Saudi Arabian authorities with a view on lifting the ban on Sudanese exports of live animals "after Rift Valley fever had been put under control".
SUDAN: Government protests against US visit
The Sudanese government has written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to protest against the visit to the country by US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Susan Rice, Omdurman radio reported on Monday. The station quoted External Relations Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il as describing Rice's visit to southern Sudan "without the official permission of the government" as "a violation of Sudan's national sovereignty". Isma'il said he had sent copies of the protest note to the secretaries-general of the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and the Organisation of African Unity, the report added.
SOMALIA: Qatari technical delegation arrives
An official delegation from Qatar arrived in Mogadishu on Saturday to assess the needs of the new government. The technical delegation included representatives from the planning, foreign and defence ministries in Qatar, sources in Mogadishu told IRIN. The delegation visited the Ceel Macan port, 35 km north of Mogadishu, which will be used to bring in donated supplies. The delegation is the first official delegation from an Arab country since the creation of the interim government, reported local Mogadishu newspapers.
SOMALIA: Libya donates uniforms
A plane carrying supplies from Libya has landed at Balidogle airport, Mogadishu. The plane brought in the first consignment of aid, which included uniforms, to the interim government from Libya, sources in Mogadishu told IRIN. Electric generators and 5,000 sets of uniforms were handed over to the interim government's defence minister, Abdullahi Boqor Muse, by the officer in charge of the Libyan embassy, the south Mogadishu daily 'Xog-Ogaal' said on Monday. The Libyan embassy, situated in south Mogadishu, is one of a handful of embassies to have remained open in Somalia in the last few years. The official in charge of the Libyan embassy, Isa Rabli Anshur, told local journalists that the consignment was just the first, and more aid would follow.
Nairobi, 4 December 2000
[ENDS]
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