June 19

- Several ministers, including the Tanzanian foreign minister, have expressed concern that the Zimbabwe elections scheduled for June 27 cannot be free and fair. Tanzanina, Angola, and Swaziland, all members of the Southern African Development Community, came to their conclusion based on election observers in the country. At least 70 people have died in election violence since March 29. One solution is for Mugabe and Tsvangarai to form a unity government but this is unlikely. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed concerns about the viability of clean elections. The violence only compounds the miserable economy. Mugabe has banned all international aid groups. South African president Thebo Mbeki's trip to Bulawayo was an attempt to mediate. Last week Kenya's PM Raila Odinga called for an international peacekeeping force, and the UN is ready to fund election monitors. An election observer was killed in Karuru north of Harare. All other election observers are being screened to make sure they are not biased.

-NATO and Afghan forces have killed at least 50 Taliban fighters had died in the district of Arghandab. Many insurgents are from Waziristan, and are commanded by Baitullah Masood. About 1400 Afghan forces were deployed to the area. Fighting has led to the displacement of hundreds of people. Four more British soldiers were killed in Southern Afghanistan while two more from NATO's International Secureity Assistance Force were killed in Paktika.

- A six-month cease fire started today at 6:00 AM Jerusalem time.

-The Iraqi army moved into the city of Amara, a Shia city of 250,000 in the Maysan district that is a stronghold of the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. This raid follows incursions into Basra and Mosul earlier this year. The army's movement comes two days after a car bomb in Iraq killed 63. In another move, Sadr had separated the militant and political wings of his movement, so that the politicians he favors can run in provincial elections on October 1. Sadr's soldiers are being told to cooperate with the Iraqi army, even though the mayor of the city was arrested. The Iraqi army is demanding the handover of weapons.

-Militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacked an oil rig in Royal Dutch Shell's Bonga Field, which produces 225,000 barrels per day. The rig is 120 km from the coast and required a higher level of sophistication than previous attacks

-Israel attempted to begin peace talks with Lebanon, but Lebanon's prime minister Fouad Siniora refused.

- Insurgents targeted Somali president Abdullahi Yusaf Wednesday. The attack came just a week after a UN-mediated cease fire was signed between the Somali government, backed by Ethiopian troops, and the Islamic Union of Islamic Courts. At a donors meeting in Nairobi particpants from the US, EU, Norway, and the League of Arab States discussed a peace deal that would call for a halt of hostilities within 30 days, followed by a three-month cease-fire. About 3.5 million Somalis now depend on food aid. Violence alone this year has sent 20,000 Somalis south to Kenya. Somalia has been in perpetual crisis since the overthrow of dictator Siad Barre. A transitional government in 2004 lasted only a few months.

- Ethiopia and Eritrea are moving closer to war. Only ten years after a war that cost 80,000 lives, both countries are mobilizing more troops along their border. Eritera has never accepted the international recognized Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission, established in Algiers in 2000. Eritrea has expelled UN peacekeeprs from the Temporary Security Zone, replacing them with itsown troops. Ethiopian president Meles Zenawi and Eritrean president Isaias were close brothers when they fought against the dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam. Ethiopia recognized Eritrea in 1993. The International Crisis Group offers the following suggestions to diffuse the situation: recognition of the EEBC's border line, the removal of heavy weapons from the TSZ, the return of UN peacekeepers, negotiations on ports use, diplomatic and economic ties, and the demarcation of disputed areas, and more international involvement.

-The United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) said government troops (FARDC), the police (PNC), militias such as the Patriotic Resistance Front in Ituri (FPRI) and the National Congress for the Defence of the Congolese People (CNDP), and foreign groups are all contributing to human rights abuses in the country.

-Thebo Mbeki is uring the creation of a government of national unity (GNU) in Zimbabwe, and has urged the cancellation of elections. Mbeki has met with both Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai, but failed to convince Mugabe to meet with Tsvangarai. Zimbabwe had a GNU in the 1980s with the ZAPU party, led by Joshua Nkomo, after atrocities in Matabeleland and the Midlands. This seems unlikely as the number of dead MDC activists continues to rise. Mugabe has shown nothing but contempt for Tsvangarai, and the South African Development Community has been unable to place election observers on the ground. Both Mugabe's election agent and Tsvangarai have said that is up to the winner of the election to form an inclusive government. Mugabe told supports in Mashonaland that they could vote for ZANU PF or vote for war. The Pan African Parliament Observer Team has expressed doubts about the election next Friday. The following African lumanaries have urged free and fair elections: Nobel laureates Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Wangari Maathai; former presidents Peirre Buyoya (Burundi), Joaquim Chissano (Mozambique), Abdusalami Alhaji Abubaker (Nigeria), Jerry Rawlings (Ghana) Kenneth Kuana (Zambia), Ketumile Masire and Festus Mogae (Botswana), Benjamin Mkapa and Ali Hassan Mwinyi (Tanzania); and business leader Mo Ibrahim. The Kenyan Foreign Affairs minister said the situation in Zimbabwe is "unacceptable," and has called on Mugabe to respect the results of the elctions. Prime minister Raila Odinga at the World Economic Forum-Africa rebuked Mugabe's behavior. Odinga has gone so far as to ask western nations to intervene the same way they did in Bosnia in the 1990s.

- Rebels in Cote d'Ivoire are demanding that cash and benefits promised in a demobilization deal be expedited. All rebels will receeive $630 over the next three months. So far 1050 rebels have disarmed in Bouake. Another 1500 of the estimated 36000 fighters are disarming. Another 10000 are being integrated into the national army, and the rest are receiving vocational training. The UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI) says donors need to deliver on all promised aid.

-Calm has been restored in eastern Chad. Last week rebels took the twosn of Goz Beida, Am-Dam and Biltine. But the Chadian army defeated rebels in Am Zoer, 90 km northesat of Abeche.

- Rwanda will indict foreigners who participated in the 1994 genocide, which killed 800000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The matter will be raised at the next AU summit in Egypt.

- Humanitarian activists warned that the suspension of a case against Thomas Lubanga, leader of an Ituri-based militia, the Union des patriotes congolias (UPC), would help perpetuate the "culture of impunity" in Congo. Inter-ethnic conflict among the Ituri claimed 50000 between 1999-2003. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are two other Itru militia leaders currently being held at the Hague. The suspension of the case caused mixed reactions among the the Hema community in Bunia. Although the case has been suspended, it's not clear whether or not Lubanga will eventually go free.