Medeshi
Somaliland MPs in Uganda
Tuesday, 12th May, 2009
By Milton Olupot
MEMBERS of the parliament of Somaliland are in Uganda to study the budget system and the role of parliament in the budget distribution.
The delegation, led by Eng. Nasir Hagi Ali, was yesterday received by deputy clerk Chris Kaija Kwamya.
Kaija took the MPs through the budget process. The group is also scheduled to attend various parliamentary committees.
Addressing journalists at the Speaker’s Boardroom, Nasir gave the background of the country that has remained unrecognised as a sovereign state internationally, despite assuming independence about 20 years ago.
Nasir said the African Union recently sent into the country a fact-finding mission.
“We are a de-facto state. Many countries do not recognise us, but we deal with many like the US,” he said.
“Somaliland has been named Africa’s best kept secret by scholars. This is the fourth parliament since we claimed our independence in 1991,” Nasir added.
The country has a republican form of government. The legislative assembly is composed of two chambers - an elected elder’s chamber, and a house of representatives.
It has three political parties, the ruling UDUB Party, Kulmiye Party and UCID.
The next presidential elections are slated for Sept. this year.
Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh
Medeshi May 12, 2009
Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh
Police in Uniform Join In as Victim Is Whipped, Beaten, Electrocuted, Run Over by SUV
By VIC WALTER, REHAB EL-BURI, ANGELA HILL and BRIAN ROSS
A video tape smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates (Watch the tape here: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=2688465)shows )a member of the country's royal family mercilessly torturing a man with whips, electric cattle prods and wooden planks with protruding nails.
A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down as the Sheikh pours salt on the man's wounds and then drives over him with his Mercedes SUV.
In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.
"The incidents depicted in the video tapes were not part of a pattern of behavior," the Interior Ministry's statement declared.
The Minister of the Interior is also one of Sheikh Issa's brother.
The government statement said its review found "all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the Police Department."
"If this is their complete reply, then sadly it's a scam and it's a sham," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.
"It is the state that is torturing them," she said, "if the government does not investigate and prosecute these officers, and those commanding those officers."
The 45-minute long tape was smuggled out of the country by Bassam Nabulsi, of Houston, Texas, a former business associate of Sheikh Issa.
Nabulsi is now suing the Sheikh in federal court in Houston, alleging he also was tortured by UAE police when he refused to turn over the videos to the Sheikh following their falling out.
"They were my security, really, to make my case that this man is capable of doing what I say he can do," said Nabulsi in an interview to be broadcast Wednesday on the ABC News program Nightline.
Nabulsi says the video tapes were recorded by his brother, on orders from the Sheikh who liked to watch the torture sessions later in his royal palace.
The Sheikh begins by stuffing sand down the man's mouth, as the police officers restrains the victim.
Then he fires bullets from an automatic rifle around him as the man howls incomprehensibly.
Sadistic Torture by Sheikh
At another point on the tape, the Sheikh can be seen telling the cameraman to come closer.
"Get closer. Get closer. Get closer. Let his suffering show," the Sheikh says.
Over the course of the tape, Sheikh Issa acts in an increasingly sadistic manner.
He uses an electric cattle prod against the man's testicles and inserts it in his anus.
At another point, as the man wails in pain, the Sheikh pours lighter fluid on the man's testicles and sets them aflame.
Then the tape shows the Sheikh sorting through some wooden planks. "I remember there was one that had a nail in it," he says on the tape.
The Sheikh then pulls down the pants of the victim and repeatedly strikes him with board and its protruding nail. At one point, he puts the nail next to the man's buttocks and bangs it through the flesh.
"Where's the salt," asks the Sheikh as he pours a large container of salt on to the man's bleeding wounds.
The victim pleads for mercy, to no avail.
The final scene on the tape shows the Sheikh positioning his victim on the desert sand and then driving over him repeatedly. A sound of breaking bones can be heard on the tape.
Sheikh Issa's lawyer, Daryl Bristow of Baker Botts in Houston, told ABC News "the tape is the tape."
The torture victim was identified by Nabulsi as an Afghan grain dealer, Mohammed Shah Poor, who the Sheikh accused of short changing on a grain delivery to his royal ranch on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.
The UAE government, in its statement, says the matter was settled privately between the Sheikh and the grain dealer, "by agreeing not to bring formal charges against each other, i.e., theft on the one hand and assault on the other hand."
Nabulsi says Sheikh Issa became increasing violent and sadistic following the 2004 death of his father, the UAE's first and only president until that time, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
"It's like you flipped a switch and the man took a wrong turn in his life and started getting violent," said Nabulsi.
Sheikh Issa is one of the country's 22 royal sheikhs but does not hold an official position in the UAE government.
Man Says U.S. Embassy Officials in Abu Dhabi Knew of Torture Tape
Nabulsi first met Sheikh Issa when he traveled to Houston for medical reasons. Nabulsi provided hotel and limousine services and their relationship grew into a business partnership, he says.
Nabulsi, in his lawsuit, says he was falsely arrested on narcotics trafficking charges by Abu Dhabi police when he refused to turn over the tapes and mistreated in prison, where he was held for three months.
"They would stick a finger up his anus and say, 'this is from Sheik Issa, are you going to give us the tapes,'" said Nabulsi's Houston lawyer, Tony Buzbee.
"They would keep him from sleeping, deny him his medications, tell him they were going to rape his wife, kill his child. They made him pose naked while they took pictures," the lawyer alleges.
The UAE government said its review "also confirmed that Mr. Nabulsi was in no way mistreated during his incarceration for drug possession."
After a short trial, Nabulsi was convicted of having prescription medicine without a prescription from a local doctor. Evidence at the trail showed his doctor in Houston had prescribed the medicine.
Nabulsi was expelled from the country and his passport is stamped with the notation "Not Allowed to Return to the UAE."
Nabulsi says officials at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi were aware of the torture tapes but took no action to protest the Sheikh's action.
The UAE is considered a stalwart U.S. ally in the region, with close cooperation in working against al Qaeda. The U.S. Navy has an important base outside Dubai.
Nabulsi says he even showed portions of the tape to a Department of Homeland Security official stationed in Abu Dhabi to train UAE police, Bill Wallrap.
Nabulsi says after the U.S. official watched the tapes, he advised Nabulsi to "gather your family and get out of the country as soon as possible for your own safety."
A spokesman for DHS said neither Wallrap nor the DHS would have any comment on the torture tapes.
In its 2008 Human Rights report, the U.S. State Department referred to "reports that a royal family member tortured a foreign national who had allegedly overcharged him in a grain deal." The State Department made no reference to the video tapes played for the U.S. official.
Rep. McGovern Weighs In
Other U.S. embassy employees did help, says Nabulsi, who credits them with keeping him alive by their visits to the prison.
Asked why neither he nor his brother didn't report the torture he saw on the tape to authorities in the UAE, Nabulsi said, "I mean the whole government is all brothers. I mean the president is al Nahyan, the crown prince is al Nahyan, the foreign minister is al Nahyan, the foreign minister is al Nahyan. What can you do?"
The co-chairman of the House Human Rights Commission, Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), said the existence of the tape requires the U.S. to take action.
"Granted that they're strategically located in a key part of the world, but it's hard to imagine that we're going to keep going on as if it' business as usual when this kind of stuff happens," said McGovern. "My guess is that this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Sheikh Issa's lawyer, Bristow, has moved to have the case, which also involves allegations surrounding their business dealings, transferred to courts in the UAE.
Wherever it is heard, said Bristow, "You may be assured that in due course the one-sided "story" being told to ABC by the Nabulsi's and their lawyers will be completely addressed and the Nabulsi's will be discredited," he said in a letter to ABC News.
The "'story that we think ABC is being told is grossly misleading; it is in large measure demonstrably untrue; and it is defamatory to Sheikh Issa." Bristow represented George W. Bush in the Florida recount case in 2000. Among the firm's partners is former Secretary of State James Baker.
Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh
Police in Uniform Join In as Victim Is Whipped, Beaten, Electrocuted, Run Over by SUV
By VIC WALTER, REHAB EL-BURI, ANGELA HILL and BRIAN ROSS
A video tape smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates (Watch the tape here: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=2688465)shows )a member of the country's royal family mercilessly torturing a man with whips, electric cattle prods and wooden planks with protruding nails.
A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down as the Sheikh pours salt on the man's wounds and then drives over him with his Mercedes SUV.
In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.
"The incidents depicted in the video tapes were not part of a pattern of behavior," the Interior Ministry's statement declared.
The Minister of the Interior is also one of Sheikh Issa's brother.
The government statement said its review found "all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the Police Department."
"If this is their complete reply, then sadly it's a scam and it's a sham," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.
"It is the state that is torturing them," she said, "if the government does not investigate and prosecute these officers, and those commanding those officers."
The 45-minute long tape was smuggled out of the country by Bassam Nabulsi, of Houston, Texas, a former business associate of Sheikh Issa.
Nabulsi is now suing the Sheikh in federal court in Houston, alleging he also was tortured by UAE police when he refused to turn over the videos to the Sheikh following their falling out.
"They were my security, really, to make my case that this man is capable of doing what I say he can do," said Nabulsi in an interview to be broadcast Wednesday on the ABC News program Nightline.
Nabulsi says the video tapes were recorded by his brother, on orders from the Sheikh who liked to watch the torture sessions later in his royal palace.
The Sheikh begins by stuffing sand down the man's mouth, as the police officers restrains the victim.
Then he fires bullets from an automatic rifle around him as the man howls incomprehensibly.
Sadistic Torture by Sheikh
At another point on the tape, the Sheikh can be seen telling the cameraman to come closer.
"Get closer. Get closer. Get closer. Let his suffering show," the Sheikh says.
Over the course of the tape, Sheikh Issa acts in an increasingly sadistic manner.
He uses an electric cattle prod against the man's testicles and inserts it in his anus.
At another point, as the man wails in pain, the Sheikh pours lighter fluid on the man's testicles and sets them aflame.
Then the tape shows the Sheikh sorting through some wooden planks. "I remember there was one that had a nail in it," he says on the tape.
The Sheikh then pulls down the pants of the victim and repeatedly strikes him with board and its protruding nail. At one point, he puts the nail next to the man's buttocks and bangs it through the flesh.
"Where's the salt," asks the Sheikh as he pours a large container of salt on to the man's bleeding wounds.
The victim pleads for mercy, to no avail.
The final scene on the tape shows the Sheikh positioning his victim on the desert sand and then driving over him repeatedly. A sound of breaking bones can be heard on the tape.
Sheikh Issa's lawyer, Daryl Bristow of Baker Botts in Houston, told ABC News "the tape is the tape."
The torture victim was identified by Nabulsi as an Afghan grain dealer, Mohammed Shah Poor, who the Sheikh accused of short changing on a grain delivery to his royal ranch on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.
The UAE government, in its statement, says the matter was settled privately between the Sheikh and the grain dealer, "by agreeing not to bring formal charges against each other, i.e., theft on the one hand and assault on the other hand."
Nabulsi says Sheikh Issa became increasing violent and sadistic following the 2004 death of his father, the UAE's first and only president until that time, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
"It's like you flipped a switch and the man took a wrong turn in his life and started getting violent," said Nabulsi.
Sheikh Issa is one of the country's 22 royal sheikhs but does not hold an official position in the UAE government.
Man Says U.S. Embassy Officials in Abu Dhabi Knew of Torture Tape
Nabulsi first met Sheikh Issa when he traveled to Houston for medical reasons. Nabulsi provided hotel and limousine services and their relationship grew into a business partnership, he says.
Nabulsi, in his lawsuit, says he was falsely arrested on narcotics trafficking charges by Abu Dhabi police when he refused to turn over the tapes and mistreated in prison, where he was held for three months.
"They would stick a finger up his anus and say, 'this is from Sheik Issa, are you going to give us the tapes,'" said Nabulsi's Houston lawyer, Tony Buzbee.
"They would keep him from sleeping, deny him his medications, tell him they were going to rape his wife, kill his child. They made him pose naked while they took pictures," the lawyer alleges.
The UAE government said its review "also confirmed that Mr. Nabulsi was in no way mistreated during his incarceration for drug possession."
After a short trial, Nabulsi was convicted of having prescription medicine without a prescription from a local doctor. Evidence at the trail showed his doctor in Houston had prescribed the medicine.
Nabulsi was expelled from the country and his passport is stamped with the notation "Not Allowed to Return to the UAE."
Nabulsi says officials at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi were aware of the torture tapes but took no action to protest the Sheikh's action.
The UAE is considered a stalwart U.S. ally in the region, with close cooperation in working against al Qaeda. The U.S. Navy has an important base outside Dubai.
Nabulsi says he even showed portions of the tape to a Department of Homeland Security official stationed in Abu Dhabi to train UAE police, Bill Wallrap.
Nabulsi says after the U.S. official watched the tapes, he advised Nabulsi to "gather your family and get out of the country as soon as possible for your own safety."
A spokesman for DHS said neither Wallrap nor the DHS would have any comment on the torture tapes.
In its 2008 Human Rights report, the U.S. State Department referred to "reports that a royal family member tortured a foreign national who had allegedly overcharged him in a grain deal." The State Department made no reference to the video tapes played for the U.S. official.
Rep. McGovern Weighs In
Other U.S. embassy employees did help, says Nabulsi, who credits them with keeping him alive by their visits to the prison.
Asked why neither he nor his brother didn't report the torture he saw on the tape to authorities in the UAE, Nabulsi said, "I mean the whole government is all brothers. I mean the president is al Nahyan, the crown prince is al Nahyan, the foreign minister is al Nahyan, the foreign minister is al Nahyan. What can you do?"
The co-chairman of the House Human Rights Commission, Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), said the existence of the tape requires the U.S. to take action.
"Granted that they're strategically located in a key part of the world, but it's hard to imagine that we're going to keep going on as if it' business as usual when this kind of stuff happens," said McGovern. "My guess is that this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Sheikh Issa's lawyer, Bristow, has moved to have the case, which also involves allegations surrounding their business dealings, transferred to courts in the UAE.
Wherever it is heard, said Bristow, "You may be assured that in due course the one-sided "story" being told to ABC by the Nabulsi's and their lawyers will be completely addressed and the Nabulsi's will be discredited," he said in a letter to ABC News.
The "'story that we think ABC is being told is grossly misleading; it is in large measure demonstrably untrue; and it is defamatory to Sheikh Issa." Bristow represented George W. Bush in the Florida recount case in 2000. Among the firm's partners is former Secretary of State James Baker.
Amnesty International Urgent Action - woman sentenced to death in Puntland, Somalia
Medeshi
Amnesty International Urgent Action - woman sentenced to death in Puntland, Somalia
PUBLIC
AI
Index: AFR 52/003/2009 12 May 2009
UA 123/09
Imminent execution/unfair trial
SOMALIA
Ifraah Ali Aden (f), aged 30
Ifraah Ali Aden is in imminent danger of being executed for the murder of another woman, Suad Mohamed Aware, who was another of her husband's wives. She was convicted after an unfair trial. The warrant for her execution does not set a date, and it appears that she could be put to death at any time.
She was sentenced to death by the Court of First Instance in the city of Bossaso, on the coast of the north-eastern region of Puntland. She is four or five months pregnant, according to sources close to her. The court does not appear to have ordered any medical tests to confirm the pregnancy. International human rights law and standards prohibit the execution of pregnant women or new mothers.
Ifraah Ali Aden has a cell to herself in a prison in Bossaso which is only for prisoners under sentence of death. Relatives of the woman Ifraah Ali Aden killed have apparently been able to get into the prison, as have members of the security forces, to taunt her about her imminent execution.
Ifraah Ali Aden was sentenced to death on 27 April, less than 24 hours after the killing of Suad Mohamed Aware. She had no time to prepare her defence, as required under international law. The verdict says that she was represented by a lawyer during the trial, but it is not clear whether she had adequate legal representation, or whether she has the right to appeal to a higher court, as per Article 41(5) of the Transitional Constitution of the Puntland Regional Government.
Ifraah Ali Aden and Suad Mohamed Aware appear to have been in dispute for some time. There are conflicting reports about the killing, with some (including her relatives) saying that Suad Mohamed Aware was attacked by Ifraah Ali Aden with a knife in a medical centre in Bossaso. According to relatives of Ifraah Ali Aden, she was confronted by Suad Mohamed Aware and two other women; there was a struggle, during which she killed Suad Mohamed Aware in self-defence. Suad Mohamed Aware was seven or eight months pregnant when she was killed.
Ifraah Ali Aden’s relatives also say that she complained to the police several times that she had been threatened by Suad Mohamed Aware, once with a gun, but that the police did nothing; some of her relatives, including her seven children, were intimidated by Suad Mohamed Aware's family before the killing. This intimidation continued after the killing, and they had to flee Bossaso, and have been unable to visit Ifraah Ali Aden in prison, where she is said to be in a "state of shock."
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Puntland region declared its autonomy from Somalia in 1998, and has its own government. Although there is no effective or competent system of administration of justice in Somalia, Puntland has functioning courts, based on three legal systems: the judicial system of the former Somali state; shari’a (Islamic law); and customary law, as traditionally administered by elders. The system applied will depend on the matter under consideration as well as the region in which the issue arose. Several people have been sentenced to death in Puntland since it came into being, and at least one person was executed in 2008.
While the death penalty is not in itself a violation of international law, there is an increasing international trend towards its abolition and international law and standards place strict limitations on its use in those states where it is still used. These limitations include a prohibition on the execution of pregnant women and new mothers; a requirement that people charged with crimes punishable by death are entitled to the strictest observance of all fair trial guarantees required by international human rights law; and that they should have the right to seek pardon or commutation of sentence.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally and under any circumstances, as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Somali or English or your own language:
- calling on the authorities to immediately suspend the warrant of execution against Ifraah Ali Aden, and give her immediate access to a doctor, to confirm whether she is pregnant;
- stating that international human rights law and standards prohibit the execution of pregnant women and new mothers;
- urging the authorities to ensure that Ifraah Ali Aden has adequate legal representation and that her family is able to visit her;
- urging the authorities to ensure that Ifraah Ali Aden is able to appeal to a higher court in proceedings which comply with international fair trial standards, and that her rights to legal representation, to adequate time and facilities to prepare her defence, to challenge evidence brought against her and to call her own witnesses, and to seek clemency, are upheld;
- stating your opposition to the death penalty as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment;
- calling on the authorities to commute all death sentences and to establish a moratorium on executions.
APPEALS TO:
President Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud (Farole) President of Puntland
Email: plpresidencyg@hotmail.com
info@puntlandgovt.com
Salutation: Dear President
COPIES TO:
Mrs Asha Ghele Dirie
Minister of Women Development and Family Affairs
Ministry of Women Development and Family Affairs
Fax: +2525434501
Email:
mowdfa@puntlandgov.net
ashagelle@yahoo.com
mowdafa_punt@hotmail.com
mailto:mowdfa@puntlandgov.net
and to diplomatic representatives of your own government in Nairobi, Kenya.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 22 June 2009.
Amnesty International Urgent Action - woman sentenced to death in Puntland, Somalia
PUBLIC
AI
Index: AFR 52/003/2009 12 May 2009
UA 123/09
Imminent execution/unfair trial
SOMALIA
Ifraah Ali Aden (f), aged 30
Ifraah Ali Aden is in imminent danger of being executed for the murder of another woman, Suad Mohamed Aware, who was another of her husband's wives. She was convicted after an unfair trial. The warrant for her execution does not set a date, and it appears that she could be put to death at any time.
She was sentenced to death by the Court of First Instance in the city of Bossaso, on the coast of the north-eastern region of Puntland. She is four or five months pregnant, according to sources close to her. The court does not appear to have ordered any medical tests to confirm the pregnancy. International human rights law and standards prohibit the execution of pregnant women or new mothers.
Ifraah Ali Aden has a cell to herself in a prison in Bossaso which is only for prisoners under sentence of death. Relatives of the woman Ifraah Ali Aden killed have apparently been able to get into the prison, as have members of the security forces, to taunt her about her imminent execution.
Ifraah Ali Aden was sentenced to death on 27 April, less than 24 hours after the killing of Suad Mohamed Aware. She had no time to prepare her defence, as required under international law. The verdict says that she was represented by a lawyer during the trial, but it is not clear whether she had adequate legal representation, or whether she has the right to appeal to a higher court, as per Article 41(5) of the Transitional Constitution of the Puntland Regional Government.
Ifraah Ali Aden and Suad Mohamed Aware appear to have been in dispute for some time. There are conflicting reports about the killing, with some (including her relatives) saying that Suad Mohamed Aware was attacked by Ifraah Ali Aden with a knife in a medical centre in Bossaso. According to relatives of Ifraah Ali Aden, she was confronted by Suad Mohamed Aware and two other women; there was a struggle, during which she killed Suad Mohamed Aware in self-defence. Suad Mohamed Aware was seven or eight months pregnant when she was killed.
Ifraah Ali Aden’s relatives also say that she complained to the police several times that she had been threatened by Suad Mohamed Aware, once with a gun, but that the police did nothing; some of her relatives, including her seven children, were intimidated by Suad Mohamed Aware's family before the killing. This intimidation continued after the killing, and they had to flee Bossaso, and have been unable to visit Ifraah Ali Aden in prison, where she is said to be in a "state of shock."
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Puntland region declared its autonomy from Somalia in 1998, and has its own government. Although there is no effective or competent system of administration of justice in Somalia, Puntland has functioning courts, based on three legal systems: the judicial system of the former Somali state; shari’a (Islamic law); and customary law, as traditionally administered by elders. The system applied will depend on the matter under consideration as well as the region in which the issue arose. Several people have been sentenced to death in Puntland since it came into being, and at least one person was executed in 2008.
While the death penalty is not in itself a violation of international law, there is an increasing international trend towards its abolition and international law and standards place strict limitations on its use in those states where it is still used. These limitations include a prohibition on the execution of pregnant women and new mothers; a requirement that people charged with crimes punishable by death are entitled to the strictest observance of all fair trial guarantees required by international human rights law; and that they should have the right to seek pardon or commutation of sentence.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally and under any circumstances, as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Somali or English or your own language:
- calling on the authorities to immediately suspend the warrant of execution against Ifraah Ali Aden, and give her immediate access to a doctor, to confirm whether she is pregnant;
- stating that international human rights law and standards prohibit the execution of pregnant women and new mothers;
- urging the authorities to ensure that Ifraah Ali Aden has adequate legal representation and that her family is able to visit her;
- urging the authorities to ensure that Ifraah Ali Aden is able to appeal to a higher court in proceedings which comply with international fair trial standards, and that her rights to legal representation, to adequate time and facilities to prepare her defence, to challenge evidence brought against her and to call her own witnesses, and to seek clemency, are upheld;
- stating your opposition to the death penalty as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment;
- calling on the authorities to commute all death sentences and to establish a moratorium on executions.
APPEALS TO:
President Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud (Farole) President of Puntland
Email: plpresidencyg@hotmail.com
info@puntlandgovt.com
Salutation: Dear President
COPIES TO:
Mrs Asha Ghele Dirie
Minister of Women Development and Family Affairs
Ministry of Women Development and Family Affairs
Fax: +2525434501
Email:
mowdfa@puntlandgov.net
ashagelle@yahoo.com
mowdafa_punt@hotmail.com
mailto:mowdfa@puntlandgov.net
and to diplomatic representatives of your own government in Nairobi, Kenya.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 22 June 2009.
US Soldier allegedly kills 5 American Soldiers in Iraq
Medeshi May 11, 2009
US Soldier allegedly kills 5 peers at ‘stress clinic’ in Iraq
Shooting happened at sprawling Camp Liberty base outside Baghdad
Shooting happened at sprawling Camp Liberty base outside Baghdad
BAGHDAD - An American Army sergeant shot and killed five fellow soldiers following an altercation at a counseling center on a military base in Iraq Monday, officials said. The attack drew attention to the issues of combat stress and morale among soldiers serving multiple combat tours over six years of war.
The suspect had been disarmed after an earlier incident at the center but returned with another weapon, according to a senior military official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into the shootings was ongoing.
Attacks on fellow soldiers, known as fraggings, were not uncommon during the Vietnam war but are believed to be rare in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A brief U.S. statement said the assailant was taken into custody following the 2 p.m. shooting at Camp Liberty, a sprawling U.S. base on the western edge of Baghdad near the city's international airport.
Names not releasedPresident Barack Obama, who visited a base adjacent to Camp Liberty last month, was shocked by the "terrible tragedy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Obama planned to discuss the shooting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
After a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Obama said he would make sure "that we fully understand what led to this tragedy" and will do everything possible "to ensure that our men and women in uniform are protected as they serve our country so capably and courageously in harm's way."
The military statement in Baghdad said nobody else was hurt, but military officials in Washington said one person was wounded. The names of the victims and shooter were not released.
Pentagon officials said the shooting happened at a stress clinic, where troops can go for help with the stresses of combat or personal issues. Soldiers routinely carry weapons on Camp Liberty and other bases, but they are supposed to be unloaded.
The military official told The Associated Press that the sergeant had been involved in a verbal altercation at the center. His service weapon was taken from him for his own protection and he was driven back to the center later in the day.
The official said that when the sergeant returned he had another weapon. It was unclear whether he was returning under orders or of his own volition.
Another senior military official said the shooter was a patient at the clinic. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the probe, did not know what relationship the shooter had to those he killed. It was unclear whether the victims were workers at the clinic or were there for counseling.
At the Pentagon, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the shooting occurred "in a place where individuals were seeking help."
"It does speak to me about the need for us to redouble our efforts in terms of dealing with the stress," Mullen said.
The U.S. military is coping with a growing number of stress cases among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — many of whom are on their third or fourth combat tours. Some studies suggest that about 15 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from some sort of emotional problems.
With violence declining, many soldiers face new challenges trying to shift from fighting a war to supporting the Iraqis — tasks that often require skills in which they have not been trained.
Troops under fireAdding to the stress, there have been several incidents recently when men dressed as Iraqi soldiers have opened fire on American troops, including an attack in the northern city of Mosul on May 2 when two soldiers and the gunman were killed.
Rep. Harry Mitchell, a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the Camp Liberty shooting underscores the "critical need" to reach out to soldiers suffering from "the effects of combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder."
"Many troops are under great psychological strain and are not receiving the treatment they need," said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and head of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America. "Much more must be done to address troops' psychological injuries before they reach a crisis point."
The death toll from the shooting at the counseling center was the highest for U.S. personnel in a single attack since April 10, when a suicide truck driver killed five American soldiers with a blast near a police headquarters in Mosul.
"Anytime we lose one of our own, it affects us all," U.S. spokesman Col. John Robinson said. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy."
There have been several previous fragging incidents in the Iraq war.
Last September, Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis was detained after allegedly killing two members of his unit south of Baghdad. The case remains under investigation.
In April 2005, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death for killing two officers in Kuwait just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In June 2005, an Army captain and lieutenant were killed when an anti-personnel mine detonated in the window of their room at the U.S. base in Tikrit. National Guard Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez was acquitted in the blast.
Spc. Chris Rolan, an Army medic, was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2007 for killing a fellow soldier after a night of heavy drinking in Iraq.
In 2008, Army Cpl. Timothy Ayers was sentenced to two years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the fatal 2007 shooting of his platoon sergeant in Iraq.
In other violence, the military announced Monday that a U.S. soldier was killed a day earlier when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra province of southern Baghdad.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bombing killed two people Monday, including a 10-year-old boy, and wounded 10 others, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.
In Baghdad, a senior Iraqi traffic officer was assassinated on his way to work. It was the second attack on a high-ranking traffic police officer in the capital in as many days.
The suspect had been disarmed after an earlier incident at the center but returned with another weapon, according to a senior military official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into the shootings was ongoing.
Attacks on fellow soldiers, known as fraggings, were not uncommon during the Vietnam war but are believed to be rare in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A brief U.S. statement said the assailant was taken into custody following the 2 p.m. shooting at Camp Liberty, a sprawling U.S. base on the western edge of Baghdad near the city's international airport.
Names not releasedPresident Barack Obama, who visited a base adjacent to Camp Liberty last month, was shocked by the "terrible tragedy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Obama planned to discuss the shooting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
After a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Obama said he would make sure "that we fully understand what led to this tragedy" and will do everything possible "to ensure that our men and women in uniform are protected as they serve our country so capably and courageously in harm's way."
The military statement in Baghdad said nobody else was hurt, but military officials in Washington said one person was wounded. The names of the victims and shooter were not released.
Pentagon officials said the shooting happened at a stress clinic, where troops can go for help with the stresses of combat or personal issues. Soldiers routinely carry weapons on Camp Liberty and other bases, but they are supposed to be unloaded.
The military official told The Associated Press that the sergeant had been involved in a verbal altercation at the center. His service weapon was taken from him for his own protection and he was driven back to the center later in the day.
The official said that when the sergeant returned he had another weapon. It was unclear whether he was returning under orders or of his own volition.
Another senior military official said the shooter was a patient at the clinic. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the probe, did not know what relationship the shooter had to those he killed. It was unclear whether the victims were workers at the clinic or were there for counseling.
At the Pentagon, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the shooting occurred "in a place where individuals were seeking help."
"It does speak to me about the need for us to redouble our efforts in terms of dealing with the stress," Mullen said.
The U.S. military is coping with a growing number of stress cases among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — many of whom are on their third or fourth combat tours. Some studies suggest that about 15 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from some sort of emotional problems.
With violence declining, many soldiers face new challenges trying to shift from fighting a war to supporting the Iraqis — tasks that often require skills in which they have not been trained.
Troops under fireAdding to the stress, there have been several incidents recently when men dressed as Iraqi soldiers have opened fire on American troops, including an attack in the northern city of Mosul on May 2 when two soldiers and the gunman were killed.
Rep. Harry Mitchell, a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the Camp Liberty shooting underscores the "critical need" to reach out to soldiers suffering from "the effects of combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder."
"Many troops are under great psychological strain and are not receiving the treatment they need," said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and head of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America. "Much more must be done to address troops' psychological injuries before they reach a crisis point."
The death toll from the shooting at the counseling center was the highest for U.S. personnel in a single attack since April 10, when a suicide truck driver killed five American soldiers with a blast near a police headquarters in Mosul.
"Anytime we lose one of our own, it affects us all," U.S. spokesman Col. John Robinson said. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy."
There have been several previous fragging incidents in the Iraq war.
Last September, Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis was detained after allegedly killing two members of his unit south of Baghdad. The case remains under investigation.
In April 2005, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death for killing two officers in Kuwait just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In June 2005, an Army captain and lieutenant were killed when an anti-personnel mine detonated in the window of their room at the U.S. base in Tikrit. National Guard Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez was acquitted in the blast.
Spc. Chris Rolan, an Army medic, was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2007 for killing a fellow soldier after a night of heavy drinking in Iraq.
In 2008, Army Cpl. Timothy Ayers was sentenced to two years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the fatal 2007 shooting of his platoon sergeant in Iraq.
In other violence, the military announced Monday that a U.S. soldier was killed a day earlier when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra province of southern Baghdad.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bombing killed two people Monday, including a 10-year-old boy, and wounded 10 others, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.
In Baghdad, a senior Iraqi traffic officer was assassinated on his way to work. It was the second attack on a high-ranking traffic police officer in the capital in as many days.
Somali pirates guided by London intelligence team, report says
Medeshi May 11, 2009
Somali pirates guided by London intelligence team, report says
The Somali pirates attacking shipping in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean are directed to their targets by a "consultant" team in London, according to a European military intelligence document obtained by a Spanish radio station.
The document, obtained by Cadena SER radio, says the team and the pirates remain in contact by satellite telephone.
It says that pirate groups have "well-placed informers" in London who are in regular contact with control centres in Somalia where decisions on which vessels to attack are made. These London-based "consultants" help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships' cargoes and courses.
In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company.
The pirates' information network extends to Yemen, Dubai and the Suez canal.
The intelligence report is understood to have been issued to European navies.
"The information that merchant ships sailing through the area volunteer to various international organisations is ending up in the pirates' hands," Cadena SER reported the report as saying.
This enables the more organised pirate groups to study their targets in advance, even spending several days training teams for specific hijacks. Senior pirates then join the vessel once it has been sailed close to Somalia.
Captains of attacked ships have found that pirates know everything from the layout of the vessel to its ports of call. Vessels targeted as a result of this kind of intelligence included the Greek cargo ship Titan, the Turkish merchant ship Karagol and the Spanish trawler Felipe Ruano.
In each case, says the document, the pirates had full knowledge of the cargo, nationality and course of the vessel.
The national flag of a ship is also taken into account when choosing a target, with British vessels being increasingly avoided, according to the report. It was not clear whether this was because pirates did not want to draw the attention of British police to their information sources in London.
European countries have set up Operation Atalanta to co-ordinate their military efforts in the area.
Somali pirates guided by London intelligence team, report says
The Somali pirates attacking shipping in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean are directed to their targets by a "consultant" team in London, according to a European military intelligence document obtained by a Spanish radio station.
The document, obtained by Cadena SER radio, says the team and the pirates remain in contact by satellite telephone.
It says that pirate groups have "well-placed informers" in London who are in regular contact with control centres in Somalia where decisions on which vessels to attack are made. These London-based "consultants" help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships' cargoes and courses.
In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company.
The pirates' information network extends to Yemen, Dubai and the Suez canal.
The intelligence report is understood to have been issued to European navies.
"The information that merchant ships sailing through the area volunteer to various international organisations is ending up in the pirates' hands," Cadena SER reported the report as saying.
This enables the more organised pirate groups to study their targets in advance, even spending several days training teams for specific hijacks. Senior pirates then join the vessel once it has been sailed close to Somalia.
Captains of attacked ships have found that pirates know everything from the layout of the vessel to its ports of call. Vessels targeted as a result of this kind of intelligence included the Greek cargo ship Titan, the Turkish merchant ship Karagol and the Spanish trawler Felipe Ruano.
In each case, says the document, the pirates had full knowledge of the cargo, nationality and course of the vessel.
The national flag of a ship is also taken into account when choosing a target, with British vessels being increasingly avoided, according to the report. It was not clear whether this was because pirates did not want to draw the attention of British police to their information sources in London.
European countries have set up Operation Atalanta to co-ordinate their military efforts in the area.
Ships held by Somali pirates
Medeshi
Ships held by Somali pirates
May 10, 2009
May 9 (Reuters) - Somali pirates freed a British-owned ship on Saturday after its Italian operator paid a ransom, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said.
The 32,000-tonne bulker Malaspina Castle was hijacked on April 6. Bulgarian government officials have said the ship had a total of 24 crew, including 16 Bulgarians.
Here are details about some ships believed to be under pirate control and some facts about the increase in piracy:
YENEGOA OCEAN: Seized Aug. 4, 2008 - The Nigerian tugboat, with around 11 crew aboard was hijacked near Bosasso.
JAIKUR-I: Seized Oct. 2, 2008 - The 21,040 tonne general cargo ship was detained after a dispute with the owners over damaged cargo. Most of the 21 crew were released last month.
MASINDRA 7: Seized on Dec. 16, 2008. The Malaysian-owned tugboat, was seized with a barge off the Yemeni coast. The tug has around 11 Indonesian crew.
SERENITY: The catamaran sailing for Madagascar from the Seychelles with three people aboard, was seized in early March.
NIPAYIYA: Seized on March 25. The Greek-owned and Panama-registered vessel was seized by pirates 450 miles from Somalia's south coast.
INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER: Seized March 2009. The 35-metre boat was built in Hamburg as an oceanographic research vessel. It accommodates around 12 passengers.
HANSA STAVANGER: Seized April 4, 2009. The 20,000-tonne German container vessel was captured about 400 miles off the southern Somali port of Kismayu, between the Seychelles and Kenya. The vessel had a German captain, three Russians, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board.
WIN FAR 161: Taiwanese tuna boat, Seized on April 6, 2009.
SHUGAA-AL-MADHI: Seized April 9, 2009. The fishing boat was seized with 13 crew aboard.
MOMTAZ 1: Seized April 10, 2009. Egyptian fishing vessel was detained with 18 crew.
BUCCANEER: Seized April 11, 2009. The Italian tugboat, owned by Micoperi Marine Contractors, was carrying 10 Italians, five Romanians and a Croatian, and was seized towing two barges while travelling westbound through the Gulf of Aden.
IRENE E.M.: Seized April 14, 2009. The St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged Greek-owned bulk carrier was hijacked as it travelled through the Gulf of Aden. 22 Filipino crew unharmed.
POMPEI: Seized April 18, 2009. The Belgian dredging vessel and its 10 crew was hijacked about 600 km (370 miles) from the Somali coast en route to the Seychelles. It has two Belgian, four Croatian, one Dutch and three Filipino crew on board.
ARIANA: Seized May 2, 2009. The Ariana was seized north of Madagascar en route to the Middle East from Brazil. The 24-strong Ukrainian crew are said to be unhurt. The ship, flying a Maltese flag, belongs to All Oceans shipping in Greece. A Ukrainian ship was hijacked on the same day in the Indian Ocean with a cargo including U.N. vehicles. Maritime officials were unable to confirm this seizure.
VICTORIA: Seized on May 5, 2009. The Antigua and Barbuda- flagged cargo vessel was hijacked by eight pirates in the Gulf of Aden whilst proceeding toward the Port of Jeddah. The 146-metre ship had a crew of 10.
MARATHON: Seized on May 7, 2009. The 2,575-tonne boat, carrying up to 18 crew, is both owned and flagged from the Netherlands. It was carrying coke fuel.
* PIRACY KEY FACTS:
-- In 2008 there were 293 incidents of piracy against ships worldwide -- 11 percent up on the year before. Attacks off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden almost trebled.
-- In January 2009, one in every six vessels attacked was successfully hijacked. This increased to one in eight for February 2009 and one in 13 for the month of March.
Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal.
Sources: Reuters/Ecoterra International/International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre/Lloyds List/Inquirer.net
Ships held by Somali pirates
May 10, 2009
May 9 (Reuters) - Somali pirates freed a British-owned ship on Saturday after its Italian operator paid a ransom, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said.
The 32,000-tonne bulker Malaspina Castle was hijacked on April 6. Bulgarian government officials have said the ship had a total of 24 crew, including 16 Bulgarians.
Here are details about some ships believed to be under pirate control and some facts about the increase in piracy:
YENEGOA OCEAN: Seized Aug. 4, 2008 - The Nigerian tugboat, with around 11 crew aboard was hijacked near Bosasso.
JAIKUR-I: Seized Oct. 2, 2008 - The 21,040 tonne general cargo ship was detained after a dispute with the owners over damaged cargo. Most of the 21 crew were released last month.
MASINDRA 7: Seized on Dec. 16, 2008. The Malaysian-owned tugboat, was seized with a barge off the Yemeni coast. The tug has around 11 Indonesian crew.
SERENITY: The catamaran sailing for Madagascar from the Seychelles with three people aboard, was seized in early March.
NIPAYIYA: Seized on March 25. The Greek-owned and Panama-registered vessel was seized by pirates 450 miles from Somalia's south coast.
INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER: Seized March 2009. The 35-metre boat was built in Hamburg as an oceanographic research vessel. It accommodates around 12 passengers.
HANSA STAVANGER: Seized April 4, 2009. The 20,000-tonne German container vessel was captured about 400 miles off the southern Somali port of Kismayu, between the Seychelles and Kenya. The vessel had a German captain, three Russians, two Ukrainians and 14 Filipinos on board.
WIN FAR 161: Taiwanese tuna boat, Seized on April 6, 2009.
SHUGAA-AL-MADHI: Seized April 9, 2009. The fishing boat was seized with 13 crew aboard.
MOMTAZ 1: Seized April 10, 2009. Egyptian fishing vessel was detained with 18 crew.
BUCCANEER: Seized April 11, 2009. The Italian tugboat, owned by Micoperi Marine Contractors, was carrying 10 Italians, five Romanians and a Croatian, and was seized towing two barges while travelling westbound through the Gulf of Aden.
IRENE E.M.: Seized April 14, 2009. The St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged Greek-owned bulk carrier was hijacked as it travelled through the Gulf of Aden. 22 Filipino crew unharmed.
POMPEI: Seized April 18, 2009. The Belgian dredging vessel and its 10 crew was hijacked about 600 km (370 miles) from the Somali coast en route to the Seychelles. It has two Belgian, four Croatian, one Dutch and three Filipino crew on board.
ARIANA: Seized May 2, 2009. The Ariana was seized north of Madagascar en route to the Middle East from Brazil. The 24-strong Ukrainian crew are said to be unhurt. The ship, flying a Maltese flag, belongs to All Oceans shipping in Greece. A Ukrainian ship was hijacked on the same day in the Indian Ocean with a cargo including U.N. vehicles. Maritime officials were unable to confirm this seizure.
VICTORIA: Seized on May 5, 2009. The Antigua and Barbuda- flagged cargo vessel was hijacked by eight pirates in the Gulf of Aden whilst proceeding toward the Port of Jeddah. The 146-metre ship had a crew of 10.
MARATHON: Seized on May 7, 2009. The 2,575-tonne boat, carrying up to 18 crew, is both owned and flagged from the Netherlands. It was carrying coke fuel.
* PIRACY KEY FACTS:
-- In 2008 there were 293 incidents of piracy against ships worldwide -- 11 percent up on the year before. Attacks off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden almost trebled.
-- In January 2009, one in every six vessels attacked was successfully hijacked. This increased to one in eight for February 2009 and one in 13 for the month of March.
Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal.
Sources: Reuters/Ecoterra International/International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre/Lloyds List/Inquirer.net
Somali pirates receive $2 mln for British-owned ship
Medeshi
Somali pirates receive $2 mln for British-owned ship
Sun May 10, 2009
BOSASSO, Somalia, May 10 (Reuters) - Somali pirates said on Sunday they had received a $2-million ransom for the release of a British-owned vessel and its 16 Bulgarian crew.
Pirate attacks, fuelled by large ransoms, have continued almost unabated despite the presence of an armada of foreign warships patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
"We got a $2 million ransom for the release of the British-owned ship," pirate Mohamed Saleh, from the Somali coastal village of Eyl, told Reuters on Sunday.
"A helicopter brought the money."
The 32,000-tonne bulker, Malaspina Castle, was released on Saturday after being captured more than a month ago. Its Italian operator paid the ransom, according to Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry, which gave no details on the amount.
Analysts say the only way to stop bandits on the high seas is to resolve Somalia's political crisis on land where pirates profit from lawlessness as Islamist-led rebels fight government troops and African Union peacekeepers. (Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Somali pirates receive $2 mln for British-owned ship
Sun May 10, 2009
BOSASSO, Somalia, May 10 (Reuters) - Somali pirates said on Sunday they had received a $2-million ransom for the release of a British-owned vessel and its 16 Bulgarian crew.
Pirate attacks, fuelled by large ransoms, have continued almost unabated despite the presence of an armada of foreign warships patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
"We got a $2 million ransom for the release of the British-owned ship," pirate Mohamed Saleh, from the Somali coastal village of Eyl, told Reuters on Sunday.
"A helicopter brought the money."
The 32,000-tonne bulker, Malaspina Castle, was released on Saturday after being captured more than a month ago. Its Italian operator paid the ransom, according to Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry, which gave no details on the amount.
Analysts say the only way to stop bandits on the high seas is to resolve Somalia's political crisis on land where pirates profit from lawlessness as Islamist-led rebels fight government troops and African Union peacekeepers. (Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Eritrea denies hosting Iranian forces
Medeshi
Eritrea denies hosting Iranian forces
Sunday 10 May 2009
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
May 9, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — Despite growing reports,Eritrea on Friday has denied the presence of any Iranian forces in its soil.
Since November last year opposition websites and a number of western sources have reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guard unities have been heading to the Eritrea’s port town of Assab to establish a military base.
According to these reports, Iran has also anchored submarines and also deployed long-range missiles at the tiny red sea nation, to what the reports reason out was as a strategic preparation to confront in case a possible conflict breaks out with Israel or with the west in connection with Nuclear question, so it would be easy for Tehran to launch a "maritime jihad".
But Yemane, Gebremeskel, Spokesman for Eritrean President Issias Afeworki blasted the reports referring it as "Disinformation campaigns" by Israel.
"Neither Israel nor Iran have bases in Eritrea. More importantly, Eritrea’s long-standing policy is not to provide military bases to any power," said Yemane Gebremeskel.
Yemane termed the reports as "persistent disinformation campaigns by Israeli Intelligence officials."
"Why would Iran deploy troops in Assab? This is a ridiculous story."
Eritrea’s foreign Ministry also denounced the reports.
"The main sources of these relentless vilification campaigns against Eritrea are invariably the key western intelligence sources that have refined the art of disinformation," the ministry said.
It added that Eritrea and Iran had friendly ties. But this is not different from the warm diplomatic ties the nation enjoys with all other countries in the Middle East.
10 percent of the world’s maritime traffic passes through the area, including 25 percent of the world’s oil.
(ST)
Eritrea denies hosting Iranian forces
Sunday 10 May 2009
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
May 9, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — Despite growing reports,Eritrea on Friday has denied the presence of any Iranian forces in its soil.
Since November last year opposition websites and a number of western sources have reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guard unities have been heading to the Eritrea’s port town of Assab to establish a military base.
According to these reports, Iran has also anchored submarines and also deployed long-range missiles at the tiny red sea nation, to what the reports reason out was as a strategic preparation to confront in case a possible conflict breaks out with Israel or with the west in connection with Nuclear question, so it would be easy for Tehran to launch a "maritime jihad".
But Yemane, Gebremeskel, Spokesman for Eritrean President Issias Afeworki blasted the reports referring it as "Disinformation campaigns" by Israel.
"Neither Israel nor Iran have bases in Eritrea. More importantly, Eritrea’s long-standing policy is not to provide military bases to any power," said Yemane Gebremeskel.
Yemane termed the reports as "persistent disinformation campaigns by Israeli Intelligence officials."
"Why would Iran deploy troops in Assab? This is a ridiculous story."
Eritrea’s foreign Ministry also denounced the reports.
"The main sources of these relentless vilification campaigns against Eritrea are invariably the key western intelligence sources that have refined the art of disinformation," the ministry said.
It added that Eritrea and Iran had friendly ties. But this is not different from the warm diplomatic ties the nation enjoys with all other countries in the Middle East.
10 percent of the world’s maritime traffic passes through the area, including 25 percent of the world’s oil.
(ST)
Lawless Somalia keeps Dadaab full
Medeshi May 10, 2009
Lawless Somalia keeps Dadaab full
Mohammed Noor Hajir is waiting to hear whether he will be among the lucky few at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, who will be resettled in the United States.
(Mohammed Noor Haji and his family at the camp. Picture: Courtesy of ECHO )
Mohammed Noor Hajir is waiting to hear whether he will be among the lucky few at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, who will be resettled in the United States.
(Mohammed Noor Haji and his family at the camp. Picture: Courtesy of ECHO )
It has been a long wait. He fled his native Somalia in 1991 following the outbreak of clan fighting in Gedo region and made it to Dadaab with his wife and daughter. He has been there ever since living a life in limbo, not knowing where he will be going next.
“I didn’t expect to be here so long. I’m very disappointed with my country. There is little hope of returning, so my only option is to be resettled in a third country like the US or Canada,” he said.
Mohammed Noor Hajir now has seven children, six of whom were born at the Dadaab refugee camp. He lives in a small compound in a mud house that he built.
It is perhaps not a typical image of a refugee camp, but then Dadaab is an untypical camp. Set in the dusty scrub plains on the highway that leads to the Somali border, it is according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) unofficially the largest refugee camp in the world.
Although it was designed for 90,000 refugees, it now holds around three times that number and is expanding by up to 500 people every day as the clan fighting in Somalia intensifies.
Alongside the established plots where people like Mohammed Noor Hajir live, are rows of tents for the newly arrived. This is where 20 year old Deko Abdi Osman may be accommodated once she completes the camp registration procedures.
She has just arrived at Dadaab after fleeing from Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
“There was fighting all around my family home,” she said. “When we heard heavy guns firing we decided it was time to leave Mogadishu as it was just too dangerous.” In the confusion surrounding the family’s hasty departure, she got separated from her parents and siblings and decided to head for the Kenyan border alone.
After a week of walking and catching lifts on vehicles she arrived in Dadaab.
“I’m happy to be somewhere safe, but I do not intend to stay long here. I need to find my family.”
The reality is that Deko will, without doubt, stay longer in Dadaab than she intends as, for the time being at least, there is nowhere else for her to go.
The escalation in violence between rival clans means repatriation to Somalia is not an option. And although the camp will soon be 20 years old, the long-term integration of Somalis into the local population is also not considered a possibility.
The resettlement of the 270,000 Somali refugees in third countries is the most viable alternative to repatriation and local integration. Although it is fraught with difficulties, it remains the dream of most of the refugees.
UNHCR, which runs the camp, is hoping to resettle around 8,600 refugees in 2009. Even it if resettles that many and reaches the 2010 target of 20,000 people, the arrival of new refugees means that the population at Dadaab is unlikely to decline.
The pressure of providing services for 270,000 people in a camp designed for 90,000 is becoming a problem. Water delivery is a key issue. Although, there is a plentiful supply in the Dadaab area, it is becoming increasingly difficult to supply it to all the refugees.
The infrastructure of the ageing water network is nearing the end of its useful life and the increase in refugees is putting further pressure on the system.
If there is a partial breakdown of the water system, Dadaab could face a humanitarian catastrophe as it could lead to the outbreak of cholera and other diseases,” said Yves Horent, the head of the Kenya operations for the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department.
“In addition to providing food aid in the camp, we have provided funding of three million euros ($4 million) to rehabilitate the network and provide sanitation services. We’re confident that by the end of the year all refugees will have access to enough water for their daily lives,” he added.
As one of the longest residing refugees in the camp, Mohammed Noor Hajir is likely to be among the next to be resettled in the US. After 18 years, he is impatient to move on, but is prepared to wait his turn. Despite the hardships of living in Dadaab, he still considers himself fortunate.
“I consider myself to be one of the luckiest Somalis. I am alive and here with my family. There are many who are not so fortunate.”
Daniel Dickinson is the regional information officer with ECHO
“I didn’t expect to be here so long. I’m very disappointed with my country. There is little hope of returning, so my only option is to be resettled in a third country like the US or Canada,” he said.
Mohammed Noor Hajir now has seven children, six of whom were born at the Dadaab refugee camp. He lives in a small compound in a mud house that he built.
It is perhaps not a typical image of a refugee camp, but then Dadaab is an untypical camp. Set in the dusty scrub plains on the highway that leads to the Somali border, it is according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) unofficially the largest refugee camp in the world.
Although it was designed for 90,000 refugees, it now holds around three times that number and is expanding by up to 500 people every day as the clan fighting in Somalia intensifies.
Alongside the established plots where people like Mohammed Noor Hajir live, are rows of tents for the newly arrived. This is where 20 year old Deko Abdi Osman may be accommodated once she completes the camp registration procedures.
She has just arrived at Dadaab after fleeing from Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
“There was fighting all around my family home,” she said. “When we heard heavy guns firing we decided it was time to leave Mogadishu as it was just too dangerous.” In the confusion surrounding the family’s hasty departure, she got separated from her parents and siblings and decided to head for the Kenyan border alone.
After a week of walking and catching lifts on vehicles she arrived in Dadaab.
“I’m happy to be somewhere safe, but I do not intend to stay long here. I need to find my family.”
The reality is that Deko will, without doubt, stay longer in Dadaab than she intends as, for the time being at least, there is nowhere else for her to go.
The escalation in violence between rival clans means repatriation to Somalia is not an option. And although the camp will soon be 20 years old, the long-term integration of Somalis into the local population is also not considered a possibility.
The resettlement of the 270,000 Somali refugees in third countries is the most viable alternative to repatriation and local integration. Although it is fraught with difficulties, it remains the dream of most of the refugees.
UNHCR, which runs the camp, is hoping to resettle around 8,600 refugees in 2009. Even it if resettles that many and reaches the 2010 target of 20,000 people, the arrival of new refugees means that the population at Dadaab is unlikely to decline.
The pressure of providing services for 270,000 people in a camp designed for 90,000 is becoming a problem. Water delivery is a key issue. Although, there is a plentiful supply in the Dadaab area, it is becoming increasingly difficult to supply it to all the refugees.
The infrastructure of the ageing water network is nearing the end of its useful life and the increase in refugees is putting further pressure on the system.
If there is a partial breakdown of the water system, Dadaab could face a humanitarian catastrophe as it could lead to the outbreak of cholera and other diseases,” said Yves Horent, the head of the Kenya operations for the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department.
“In addition to providing food aid in the camp, we have provided funding of three million euros ($4 million) to rehabilitate the network and provide sanitation services. We’re confident that by the end of the year all refugees will have access to enough water for their daily lives,” he added.
As one of the longest residing refugees in the camp, Mohammed Noor Hajir is likely to be among the next to be resettled in the US. After 18 years, he is impatient to move on, but is prepared to wait his turn. Despite the hardships of living in Dadaab, he still considers himself fortunate.
“I consider myself to be one of the luckiest Somalis. I am alive and here with my family. There are many who are not so fortunate.”
Daniel Dickinson is the regional information officer with ECHO
Somaliland court jails 14 for piracy
Medeshi May 10, 2009
Somaliland court jails 14 for piracy
MOGADISHU (AFP) — A court in the republic of Somaliland on Sunday sentenced 14 people to between 15 and 20 years in jail for piracy.
The suspects had been arrested by the Somaliland coastguards near the port of Berbera. Three of them were sentenced in absentia after dodging arrest last week.
"After we listened to the charges against the defendants and the evidence brought against them, the court finds them guilty," judge Osman Ibrahim Dahir said.
Nine of the suspects were each handed 15-year jail terms, while another two plus those who escaped detention were given 20 years.
Authorities in Somaliland have so far this year jailed 62 pirates as attacks on ships off the lawless Somali coast soar.
In the first quarter of 2009, 102 piracy incidents were reported to the International Maritime Bureau, nearly double the number during the same period in 2008.
Foreign naval ships, including from NATO and the European Union, have however thwarted several hijacking attempts and also made dozens of arrests.
Edited by medeshi
Somaliland court jails 14 for piracy
MOGADISHU (AFP) — A court in the republic of Somaliland on Sunday sentenced 14 people to between 15 and 20 years in jail for piracy.
The suspects had been arrested by the Somaliland coastguards near the port of Berbera. Three of them were sentenced in absentia after dodging arrest last week.
"After we listened to the charges against the defendants and the evidence brought against them, the court finds them guilty," judge Osman Ibrahim Dahir said.
Nine of the suspects were each handed 15-year jail terms, while another two plus those who escaped detention were given 20 years.
Authorities in Somaliland have so far this year jailed 62 pirates as attacks on ships off the lawless Somali coast soar.
In the first quarter of 2009, 102 piracy incidents were reported to the International Maritime Bureau, nearly double the number during the same period in 2008.
Foreign naval ships, including from NATO and the European Union, have however thwarted several hijacking attempts and also made dozens of arrests.
Edited by medeshi
Ethiopia - Meles Zenawi's Regime Recent Panic Is Not Without Cause.
Medeshi
Ethiopia - Meles Zenawi's Regime Recent Panic Is Not Without Cause.
Press release
The recent accusation by Meles Zenawi‘s, The Ethiopian Prime Minister, clique of an alleged “coup” attempt led by Ginbot 7, which in a matter of days, was revised and heralded as an “assassination” attempt is a vivid indication of a very serious internal danger that the regime has begun to face. The only objective of the confusing and the constantly changing statements coming from the Prime Minster’s office is to distract Ethiopians and the international community from seeing the real crisis engulfing the regime.
For a long time, high military positions and exclusive military training and educational opportunities both at home and abroad have been monopolized by ethnic Tigrean officers; and this has created immeasurable discontent in the highly polarized Ethiopian army. Officers affiliated with the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (TPLF) routinely disobey their superiors from other ethnic groups ignoring military codes of conduct and discipline. For example, a major affiliated with the TPLF scolds a General from other ethnic group in a breach of strict military protocol. The absolute majority of the Ethiopian army is composed of non Tigreans; however, most of the high ranking commanding officers, including the Army Chief of Staff are from the ruling Tigrean ethnic clique. In addition, 22 of the 23 Army Divisions and all of the five Regional Army Commands are headed by ethnic minority Tigrean commanders. Such disproportionate Tigrean domination is not limited to the military, it encompasses the Police Forces, Intelligence services as well as the political and economic spheres of the country. Moreover, almost all important civilian assignments within the government and key posts in the economic and social sectors are occupied by a small group of loyal ethnic Tigreans affiliated to the TPLF. The recent uproar in the military was to challenge the inequity and the injustice inherent in the system. General Kemal Gelchu from Oromo ethnic was the first high ranking officer to officially break rank with the ethno-racist politico-military rule of Meles Zenawi. General Tefera Mamo, the recent victim of the brutal regime, has been a long time outspoken opponent of the ethno racist policies of Zenawi's regime. The view of this courageous general is shared by tens of thousands in the highly politicized and polarized members of the Ethiopian Armed Forces.Ginbot 7 is acutely aware of the simmering discontent within the army and defense forces, shares their solemn belief that only a genuinely democratic Ethiopia will remove the scourge of preferential treatment and nepotism in the army and in the country at large. What shook Meles Zenawi's regime to its core is the realization that the Army has now joined the civilian population in concluding that Meles and his band of ethno-racists are the main impediments to Ethiopia's peace, stability, economic prosperity and forming a truly democratic government accountable to its citizenry. This is the frightening fact Meles and Bereket want to hide underneath the confusing allegations and denials of the last few days.
Meles and his colleagues are failing to understand that the problem they are facing now is of greater magnitude than anything they have faced in the last 18 years. The festering problem will not disappear just because the regime clumsily accuses and imprisons a handful of officers and a motley crew of alleged collaborators -- including an eighty year old senior citizen. Ginbot 7 would like to inform Ethiopians at large, and the international community in general, the simple truth behind the smoke screen of alleged “coups”, “plots” and “assassination” attempts concotted by the Zenawi regime.
The primary link between Ginbot 7 and General Tefera Mamo as well the civilian prisoners of the brutal regime is our shared vision of creating a democratic Ethiopia where citizenship and merit, rather than blood line will become the route to high office and wealth and where civil liberties and the rule of law will flourish in every corner and every hamlet of our proud and ancient land.
Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy
Ethiopia - Meles Zenawi's Regime Recent Panic Is Not Without Cause.
Press release
The recent accusation by Meles Zenawi‘s, The Ethiopian Prime Minister, clique of an alleged “coup” attempt led by Ginbot 7, which in a matter of days, was revised and heralded as an “assassination” attempt is a vivid indication of a very serious internal danger that the regime has begun to face. The only objective of the confusing and the constantly changing statements coming from the Prime Minster’s office is to distract Ethiopians and the international community from seeing the real crisis engulfing the regime.
For a long time, high military positions and exclusive military training and educational opportunities both at home and abroad have been monopolized by ethnic Tigrean officers; and this has created immeasurable discontent in the highly polarized Ethiopian army. Officers affiliated with the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (TPLF) routinely disobey their superiors from other ethnic groups ignoring military codes of conduct and discipline. For example, a major affiliated with the TPLF scolds a General from other ethnic group in a breach of strict military protocol. The absolute majority of the Ethiopian army is composed of non Tigreans; however, most of the high ranking commanding officers, including the Army Chief of Staff are from the ruling Tigrean ethnic clique. In addition, 22 of the 23 Army Divisions and all of the five Regional Army Commands are headed by ethnic minority Tigrean commanders. Such disproportionate Tigrean domination is not limited to the military, it encompasses the Police Forces, Intelligence services as well as the political and economic spheres of the country. Moreover, almost all important civilian assignments within the government and key posts in the economic and social sectors are occupied by a small group of loyal ethnic Tigreans affiliated to the TPLF. The recent uproar in the military was to challenge the inequity and the injustice inherent in the system. General Kemal Gelchu from Oromo ethnic was the first high ranking officer to officially break rank with the ethno-racist politico-military rule of Meles Zenawi. General Tefera Mamo, the recent victim of the brutal regime, has been a long time outspoken opponent of the ethno racist policies of Zenawi's regime. The view of this courageous general is shared by tens of thousands in the highly politicized and polarized members of the Ethiopian Armed Forces.Ginbot 7 is acutely aware of the simmering discontent within the army and defense forces, shares their solemn belief that only a genuinely democratic Ethiopia will remove the scourge of preferential treatment and nepotism in the army and in the country at large. What shook Meles Zenawi's regime to its core is the realization that the Army has now joined the civilian population in concluding that Meles and his band of ethno-racists are the main impediments to Ethiopia's peace, stability, economic prosperity and forming a truly democratic government accountable to its citizenry. This is the frightening fact Meles and Bereket want to hide underneath the confusing allegations and denials of the last few days.
Meles and his colleagues are failing to understand that the problem they are facing now is of greater magnitude than anything they have faced in the last 18 years. The festering problem will not disappear just because the regime clumsily accuses and imprisons a handful of officers and a motley crew of alleged collaborators -- including an eighty year old senior citizen. Ginbot 7 would like to inform Ethiopians at large, and the international community in general, the simple truth behind the smoke screen of alleged “coups”, “plots” and “assassination” attempts concotted by the Zenawi regime.
The primary link between Ginbot 7 and General Tefera Mamo as well the civilian prisoners of the brutal regime is our shared vision of creating a democratic Ethiopia where citizenship and merit, rather than blood line will become the route to high office and wealth and where civil liberties and the rule of law will flourish in every corner and every hamlet of our proud and ancient land.
Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy
Clashes kill at least 65 in Somalia in 3 days
Medeshi
Clashes kill at least 65 in Somalia in 3 days
By Abdi SheikhReuters
Sunday, May 10, 2009
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Clashes between rival Islamist groups have killed at least 65 people and wounded more than 190 others in three days of battles in Somalia's capital, witnesses and hospital sources said on Sunday.
The Horn of Africa nation's interim government is struggling with a powerful insurgency in one of the world's most dangerous countries, where fighting since late 2006 has killed thousands and forced more than a million more from their homes.
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Clashes between rival Islamist groups have killed at least 65 people and wounded more than 190 others in three days of battles in Somalia's capital, witnesses and hospital sources said on Sunday.
The Horn of Africa nation's interim government is struggling with a powerful insurgency in one of the world's most dangerous countries, where fighting since late 2006 has killed thousands and forced more than a million more from their homes.
(People run past the body of a man in Mogadishu, Sunday, May 10, 2009. Rival Islamist groups clashed in Somalia's capital Sunday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens in renewed fighting in the seaside city, witnesses and hospital officials said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Hundreds of Islamists loyal to the government and opposition al Shabaab militiamen fought with heavy machine guns and mortars in northern Mogadishu over the weekend. "We killed an uncountable number of government fighters and moderate Islamists. Their dead bodies lie in the streets," Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal, a senior al Shabaab official, told Reuters.
"Now north Mogadishu is under our control. We swept them from five key positions including Mogadishu football stadium."
Residents and hospital sources said 50 people had been killed in the fighting and 181 others wounded. At least 15 other people were killed and ten injured when a mortar struck a local mosque on Sunday, witnesses said.
"I can see 15 bodies of people killed after a mortar hit a mosque," witness Hassan Abdulle told Reuters by telephone. "They wanted to attend the afternoon prayers."
A local elder told Reuters that foreign fighters were taking part in the clashes. "We see long-bearded Arabs everywhere," Osman Ali said.
There was no independent confirmation of the presence of foreigners. Western security agencies have long feared that Somalia could become a haven for terrorists. The anarchic nation has been without effective central rule since 1991.
Two local reporters were wounded after a mortar struck a news conference, witnesses said.
International donors have pledged at least $213 million to help boost Somalia's security forces. President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed -- a former Islamist rebel -- is seen by many as the best hope in years for restoring stability.
Heavily armed pirates from Somalia have captured dozens of merchant ships off the coast, taking hundreds of hostages and making off with millions of dollars in ransoms.
(Additional reporting by Mohamed Ahmed and Ibrahim Mohamed; writing by Jack Kimball; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Hundreds of Islamists loyal to the government and opposition al Shabaab militiamen fought with heavy machine guns and mortars in northern Mogadishu over the weekend. "We killed an uncountable number of government fighters and moderate Islamists. Their dead bodies lie in the streets," Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal, a senior al Shabaab official, told Reuters.
"Now north Mogadishu is under our control. We swept them from five key positions including Mogadishu football stadium."
Residents and hospital sources said 50 people had been killed in the fighting and 181 others wounded. At least 15 other people were killed and ten injured when a mortar struck a local mosque on Sunday, witnesses said.
"I can see 15 bodies of people killed after a mortar hit a mosque," witness Hassan Abdulle told Reuters by telephone. "They wanted to attend the afternoon prayers."
A local elder told Reuters that foreign fighters were taking part in the clashes. "We see long-bearded Arabs everywhere," Osman Ali said.
There was no independent confirmation of the presence of foreigners. Western security agencies have long feared that Somalia could become a haven for terrorists. The anarchic nation has been without effective central rule since 1991.
Two local reporters were wounded after a mortar struck a news conference, witnesses said.
International donors have pledged at least $213 million to help boost Somalia's security forces. President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed -- a former Islamist rebel -- is seen by many as the best hope in years for restoring stability.
Heavily armed pirates from Somalia have captured dozens of merchant ships off the coast, taking hundreds of hostages and making off with millions of dollars in ransoms.
(Additional reporting by Mohamed Ahmed and Ibrahim Mohamed; writing by Jack Kimball; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Somaliland : Upstanding citizen lumped with neighbours from hell
Medeshi
Upstanding citizen lumped with neighbours from hell
Friday May 08, 2009
The arrivals hall of Hargeisa Airport is a dust-blown, concrete box on a sweltering plain of scrub desert.
Through its broken doors are peeling walls with a few scattered pictures of Mecca. A brass plaque on a beam commemorates the opening of the building by Prince Henry, the 1st Duke of Gloucester, in 1958. The tarnished plate looks oddly out of place as a reminder of Britain's forgotten colony.
While the rest of Somalia has forced its way on to the world's news agenda as an anarchic, failed state and the spawning ground for a new age of piracy, the former British protectorate of Somaliland has been quietly pleading for international recognition.
To its south lies the region of Puntland, whose ports have been turned over to the pirate gangs. Beyond that, in Mogadishu, are the remnants of an Italian colony that is now among the most dangerous places on earth. To the west is the repressive and heavily armed Ethiopia. It is what Somaliland's Foreign Minister ruefully calls a "rough neighbourhood".
Sitting beneath a map of his unrecognised state - which is roughly the size of Wales and England combined - Abdillahi Duale cuts a polite, if exasperated, figure. He begins to list Somaliland's accomplishments, such as a functioning government, multi-party elections, a coastguard and a police force: quite mundane in most places in the world but in this neighbourhood, truly remarkable.It is, the minister says, "Africa's best kept secret".
Somaliland has more territory and a bigger population than at least a dozen other African states, he points out. A polished performer, Duale explains the Somalis' divergent paths with a brief history lesson. When both British and Italian Somaliland were granted independence within months of each other in 1960, there was a mistaken unity pact that eventually degenerated into the violent dictatorship of Siad Barre and then civil war.
When Barre's government fell in 1991, the north set up its own government within the former colonial borders while the south descended into warlordism.
Both paths had their origins in the colonial experience, the minister argues. Britain only wanted its protectorate to shore up naval control of the Gulf of Aden and to supply meat to Aden itself, and so left traditional elders largely in place. Italy treated its eastern coastal section of Somalia as a settlers' colony. When the shooting briefly stopped in 1991, the north had a starting point, the south didn't.
Despite this, Somaliland's 3.8 million people remain subject to a government in Mogadishu that doesn't exist. It has its own currency, security services, ministries and courts, but no place at the United Nations. Without recognition, Hargeisa has no access to lenders such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank.
Presiding over this limbo is Dahir Rayale Kahin. "All the criteria are fulfilled but still no one is recognising us," the President says calmly. "We are fighting piracy, we are arresting terrorists. Nobody can deny our regional contribution."
A referendum held in 2001 found overwhelming support for an independent Somaliland and an African Union report on recognition for the territory in 2005 found in favour, Rayale points out. "Always they say, 'If someone else recognises you, we will be second'. The problem is who will be first?"
The UK recognised Somaliland at independence in 1960 but London would have to upset powerful allies to renew that step. People here know that Egypt remains the major hurdle. Cairo sees a powerful Somalia as a bulwark against Ethiopia in any future conflict over the vital resources of the Nile.
But the potential costs of a continued limbo were hammered home in deadly fashion last October when a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks left 28 people dead and rocked the stability of Hargeisa. While no one wants to put a time limit on how long Somaliland can hold out in isolation, there are worrying signs everywhere.
A few feet away from the Duke of Gloucester's airport plaque is a meagre kiosk offering sugary biscuits. The bored-looking young man who works the day shift there has a favourite T-shirt - it is emblazoned with the name of Hassan Nasrullah, the Hizbollah leader in Lebanon.
- INDEPENDENT
The arrivals hall of Hargeisa Airport is a dust-blown, concrete box on a sweltering plain of scrub desert.
Through its broken doors are peeling walls with a few scattered pictures of Mecca. A brass plaque on a beam commemorates the opening of the building by Prince Henry, the 1st Duke of Gloucester, in 1958. The tarnished plate looks oddly out of place as a reminder of Britain's forgotten colony.
While the rest of Somalia has forced its way on to the world's news agenda as an anarchic, failed state and the spawning ground for a new age of piracy, the former British protectorate of Somaliland has been quietly pleading for international recognition.
To its south lies the region of Puntland, whose ports have been turned over to the pirate gangs. Beyond that, in Mogadishu, are the remnants of an Italian colony that is now among the most dangerous places on earth. To the west is the repressive and heavily armed Ethiopia. It is what Somaliland's Foreign Minister ruefully calls a "rough neighbourhood".
Sitting beneath a map of his unrecognised state - which is roughly the size of Wales and England combined - Abdillahi Duale cuts a polite, if exasperated, figure. He begins to list Somaliland's accomplishments, such as a functioning government, multi-party elections, a coastguard and a police force: quite mundane in most places in the world but in this neighbourhood, truly remarkable.It is, the minister says, "Africa's best kept secret".
Somaliland has more territory and a bigger population than at least a dozen other African states, he points out. A polished performer, Duale explains the Somalis' divergent paths with a brief history lesson. When both British and Italian Somaliland were granted independence within months of each other in 1960, there was a mistaken unity pact that eventually degenerated into the violent dictatorship of Siad Barre and then civil war.
When Barre's government fell in 1991, the north set up its own government within the former colonial borders while the south descended into warlordism.
Both paths had their origins in the colonial experience, the minister argues. Britain only wanted its protectorate to shore up naval control of the Gulf of Aden and to supply meat to Aden itself, and so left traditional elders largely in place. Italy treated its eastern coastal section of Somalia as a settlers' colony. When the shooting briefly stopped in 1991, the north had a starting point, the south didn't.
Despite this, Somaliland's 3.8 million people remain subject to a government in Mogadishu that doesn't exist. It has its own currency, security services, ministries and courts, but no place at the United Nations. Without recognition, Hargeisa has no access to lenders such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank.
Presiding over this limbo is Dahir Rayale Kahin. "All the criteria are fulfilled but still no one is recognising us," the President says calmly. "We are fighting piracy, we are arresting terrorists. Nobody can deny our regional contribution."
A referendum held in 2001 found overwhelming support for an independent Somaliland and an African Union report on recognition for the territory in 2005 found in favour, Rayale points out. "Always they say, 'If someone else recognises you, we will be second'. The problem is who will be first?"
The UK recognised Somaliland at independence in 1960 but London would have to upset powerful allies to renew that step. People here know that Egypt remains the major hurdle. Cairo sees a powerful Somalia as a bulwark against Ethiopia in any future conflict over the vital resources of the Nile.
But the potential costs of a continued limbo were hammered home in deadly fashion last October when a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks left 28 people dead and rocked the stability of Hargeisa. While no one wants to put a time limit on how long Somaliland can hold out in isolation, there are worrying signs everywhere.
A few feet away from the Duke of Gloucester's airport plaque is a meagre kiosk offering sugary biscuits. The bored-looking young man who works the day shift there has a favourite T-shirt - it is emblazoned with the name of Hassan Nasrullah, the Hizbollah leader in Lebanon.
- INDEPENDENT
For Somali Pirates, Worst Enemy May Be on Shore
Medeshi
The Pirate Chronicles
For Somali Pirates, Worst Enemy May Be on Shore
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
GAROOWE, Somalia — Abshir Boyah, a towering, notorious Somali pirate boss who admits to hijacking more than 25 ships and to being a member of a secretive pirate council called “The Corporation,” says he’s ready to cut a deal.
For Somali Pirates, Worst Enemy May Be on Shore
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
GAROOWE, Somalia — Abshir Boyah, a towering, notorious Somali pirate boss who admits to hijacking more than 25 ships and to being a member of a secretive pirate council called “The Corporation,” says he’s ready to cut a deal.
(Photo: Garoowe, where several prominent and many lesser Somali pirates make their homes.)
Facing intensifying naval pressure on the seas and now a rising backlash on land, Mr. Boyah has been shuttling between elders and religious sheiks fed up with pirates and their vices, promising to quit the buccaneering business if certain demands are met.
“Man, these Islamic guys want to cut my hands off,” he grumbled over a plate of camel meat and spaghetti. The sheiks seemed to have rattled him more than the armada of foreign warships patrolling offshore. “Maybe it’s time for a change.”
For the first time in this pirate-infested region of northern Somalia, some of the very communities that had been flourishing with pirate dollars — supplying these well-known criminals with sanctuary, support, brides, respect and even government help — are now trying to push them out.
Grass-roots, antipirate militias are forming. Sheiks and government leaders are embarking on a campaign to excommunicate the pirates, telling them to get out of town and preaching at mosques for women not to marry these un-Islamic, thieving “burcad badeed,” which in Somali translates as sea bandit. There is even a new sign at a parking lot in Garoowe, the sun-blasted capital of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, that may be the only one of its kind in the world. The thick red letters say: No pirates allowed.
Much like the violence, hunger and warlordism that has engulfed Somalia, piracy is a direct — and some Somalis say inevitable — outgrowth of a society that has languished for 18 years without a functioning central government and whose economy has been smashed by war.
But here in Garoowe, the pirates are increasingly viewed as stains on the devoutly Muslim, nomadic culture, blamed for introducing big-city evils like drugs, alcohol, street brawling and AIDS. A few weeks ago, Puntland police officers broke up a bootlegging ring and poured out 327 bottles of Ethiopian-made gin. In Somalia, alcohol is shunned. Such a voluminous stash of booze is virtually unheard of.
“The pirates are spoiling our society,” said Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud, Puntland’s new president. “We will crush them.”
In the past 18 months, Somali pirates have netted as much as $100 million hijacking dozens of ships and holding them ransom, according to international maritime groups. It will be exceedingly difficult for these men — or the local businesses that they support — to make that kind of money doing anything else in this beleaguered nation.
Still, the Puntland pirate bosses insist they are ready to call it quits, if the sheiks find jobs for their young underlings and help the pirates form a coast guard to protect Somalia’s 1,880-mile coastline from illegal fishing and dumping. These are longstanding complaints made by many Somalis, including those who don’t scamper up the sides of cargo ships, AK-47 in hand.
It is a stretch, to say the least, that the world would accept being policed by rehabilitated hijackers. But on Monday, Mr. Boyah and two dozen other infamous Puntland pirates, many driving Toyota Surfs, a light, fast sport utility vehicle that has become the pirate ride of choice, arrived at an elder’s house in Garoowe to make their case nonetheless.
“Negotiation is our religion,” said one pirate, Abdirizak Elmi Abdullahi.
Puntland officials acknowledge, grudgingly, that the pirates have helped them in a way: bringing desperately needed attention and aid.
“Sad but true,” said Farah Dala, Puntland’s minister of planning and international cooperation. “After all the suffering and war, the world is finally paying attention to our pain because they’re getting a tiny taste of it.”
Last month, after an American sea captain was kidnapped by Somali pirates, donor nations pledged more than $200 million for Somalia, in part to fight piracy.
Since then, foreign navies have increased their patrols and arrested dozens of pirates. Mr. Boyah conceded that business was getting riskier. But, he said, there are still plenty of merchant ships — and plenty of ocean.
“It’s like hunting out there,” Mr. Boyah said through an interpreter. “Sometimes you get a deer, sometimes you get a dik-dik,” a runty antelope common in Somalia.
Mr. Boyah, 43, was born in Eyl, a pirate den on the coast. He said he dropped out of school in third grade, became a fisherman and took up hijacking after illegal fishing by foreign trawlers destroyed his livelihood in the mid-1990s.
“He’s respected as a pioneer,” said Yusuf Hassan, the managing editor of Garoowe Online, a Somali news Web site.
When Mr. Boyah walked into a restaurant recently, he had to shake half a dozen hands before sitting at a plastic, fly-covered table with two foreign journalists.
“Ha!” he said, through a mouthful of spaghetti. “Me eating with white men. This is like the cat eating with the mice!”
The restaurant sat across from the presidential palace. Mr. Boyah cut right through a crowd of Puntland soldiers to enter. He is hard to miss, about 6 foot 4 and dangerously thin. Earlier, he had been sitting on a couch, thigh to thigh, next to a high-ranking police chief. The two joked — or maybe it was not a joke — that they were cousins.
Puntland’s last president, Mohamud Muse Hirsi, was a former warlord widely suspected of collaborating with pirates and voted out of office in January. The new president, Mr. Abdirahman, is a technocrat who had been living in Australia and came back with many Western-educated advisers — and an ambition to be Somalia’s first leader to do something substantive about piracy. He formed an antipiracy commission and even issued a “First 100 Days” report.
Yet, Puntland officials are doing precious little about the pirate kings under their noses — reluctant, perhaps, to provoke a war with crime lords backed by hundreds of gunmen. When asked why they weren’t arresting the big fish, Mr. Abdirahman said, “Rumors are one thing, but we need evidence.”
Indeed, it is hard to see exactly where all those millions went, at least here in Garoowe. There are some nice new houses and a few new hotels where pirates hang out, including one encased in barbed wire called “The Ladies’ Breasts.” Dozens of dusty Surfs prowl the streets. But not much else.
Mr. Boyah, who lives in a simple little house, explains: “Don’t be surprised when I tell you all the money has disappeared. When someone who never had money suddenly gets money, it just goes.”
He claims that his estimated take of several hundred thousand dollars disappeared down a vortex of parties, weddings, jewelry, cars and qat, the stimulating leaf that Somalis chew like bubble gum.
Also, because of the extended network of relatives and clansmen, “it’s not like three people split a million bucks,” he said. “It’s more like 300.”
Oh, Mr. Boyah added, he also gives 15 percent to charity, especially to the elderly and infirm.
“I’d love to give them more,” he said.
Over all, he seemed like a man on a genuine quest for redemption — or a very good liar.
“We know what we’re doing is wrong,” he said gravely. “I’m asking forgiveness from God, the whole world, anybody.”
And then his silver Nokia phone chirped yet again. He would not say what he needed to do, but it was time to go.
Facing intensifying naval pressure on the seas and now a rising backlash on land, Mr. Boyah has been shuttling between elders and religious sheiks fed up with pirates and their vices, promising to quit the buccaneering business if certain demands are met.
“Man, these Islamic guys want to cut my hands off,” he grumbled over a plate of camel meat and spaghetti. The sheiks seemed to have rattled him more than the armada of foreign warships patrolling offshore. “Maybe it’s time for a change.”
For the first time in this pirate-infested region of northern Somalia, some of the very communities that had been flourishing with pirate dollars — supplying these well-known criminals with sanctuary, support, brides, respect and even government help — are now trying to push them out.
Grass-roots, antipirate militias are forming. Sheiks and government leaders are embarking on a campaign to excommunicate the pirates, telling them to get out of town and preaching at mosques for women not to marry these un-Islamic, thieving “burcad badeed,” which in Somali translates as sea bandit. There is even a new sign at a parking lot in Garoowe, the sun-blasted capital of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, that may be the only one of its kind in the world. The thick red letters say: No pirates allowed.
Much like the violence, hunger and warlordism that has engulfed Somalia, piracy is a direct — and some Somalis say inevitable — outgrowth of a society that has languished for 18 years without a functioning central government and whose economy has been smashed by war.
But here in Garoowe, the pirates are increasingly viewed as stains on the devoutly Muslim, nomadic culture, blamed for introducing big-city evils like drugs, alcohol, street brawling and AIDS. A few weeks ago, Puntland police officers broke up a bootlegging ring and poured out 327 bottles of Ethiopian-made gin. In Somalia, alcohol is shunned. Such a voluminous stash of booze is virtually unheard of.
“The pirates are spoiling our society,” said Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud, Puntland’s new president. “We will crush them.”
In the past 18 months, Somali pirates have netted as much as $100 million hijacking dozens of ships and holding them ransom, according to international maritime groups. It will be exceedingly difficult for these men — or the local businesses that they support — to make that kind of money doing anything else in this beleaguered nation.
Still, the Puntland pirate bosses insist they are ready to call it quits, if the sheiks find jobs for their young underlings and help the pirates form a coast guard to protect Somalia’s 1,880-mile coastline from illegal fishing and dumping. These are longstanding complaints made by many Somalis, including those who don’t scamper up the sides of cargo ships, AK-47 in hand.
It is a stretch, to say the least, that the world would accept being policed by rehabilitated hijackers. But on Monday, Mr. Boyah and two dozen other infamous Puntland pirates, many driving Toyota Surfs, a light, fast sport utility vehicle that has become the pirate ride of choice, arrived at an elder’s house in Garoowe to make their case nonetheless.
“Negotiation is our religion,” said one pirate, Abdirizak Elmi Abdullahi.
Puntland officials acknowledge, grudgingly, that the pirates have helped them in a way: bringing desperately needed attention and aid.
“Sad but true,” said Farah Dala, Puntland’s minister of planning and international cooperation. “After all the suffering and war, the world is finally paying attention to our pain because they’re getting a tiny taste of it.”
Last month, after an American sea captain was kidnapped by Somali pirates, donor nations pledged more than $200 million for Somalia, in part to fight piracy.
Since then, foreign navies have increased their patrols and arrested dozens of pirates. Mr. Boyah conceded that business was getting riskier. But, he said, there are still plenty of merchant ships — and plenty of ocean.
“It’s like hunting out there,” Mr. Boyah said through an interpreter. “Sometimes you get a deer, sometimes you get a dik-dik,” a runty antelope common in Somalia.
Mr. Boyah, 43, was born in Eyl, a pirate den on the coast. He said he dropped out of school in third grade, became a fisherman and took up hijacking after illegal fishing by foreign trawlers destroyed his livelihood in the mid-1990s.
“He’s respected as a pioneer,” said Yusuf Hassan, the managing editor of Garoowe Online, a Somali news Web site.
When Mr. Boyah walked into a restaurant recently, he had to shake half a dozen hands before sitting at a plastic, fly-covered table with two foreign journalists.
“Ha!” he said, through a mouthful of spaghetti. “Me eating with white men. This is like the cat eating with the mice!”
The restaurant sat across from the presidential palace. Mr. Boyah cut right through a crowd of Puntland soldiers to enter. He is hard to miss, about 6 foot 4 and dangerously thin. Earlier, he had been sitting on a couch, thigh to thigh, next to a high-ranking police chief. The two joked — or maybe it was not a joke — that they were cousins.
Puntland’s last president, Mohamud Muse Hirsi, was a former warlord widely suspected of collaborating with pirates and voted out of office in January. The new president, Mr. Abdirahman, is a technocrat who had been living in Australia and came back with many Western-educated advisers — and an ambition to be Somalia’s first leader to do something substantive about piracy. He formed an antipiracy commission and even issued a “First 100 Days” report.
Yet, Puntland officials are doing precious little about the pirate kings under their noses — reluctant, perhaps, to provoke a war with crime lords backed by hundreds of gunmen. When asked why they weren’t arresting the big fish, Mr. Abdirahman said, “Rumors are one thing, but we need evidence.”
Indeed, it is hard to see exactly where all those millions went, at least here in Garoowe. There are some nice new houses and a few new hotels where pirates hang out, including one encased in barbed wire called “The Ladies’ Breasts.” Dozens of dusty Surfs prowl the streets. But not much else.
Mr. Boyah, who lives in a simple little house, explains: “Don’t be surprised when I tell you all the money has disappeared. When someone who never had money suddenly gets money, it just goes.”
He claims that his estimated take of several hundred thousand dollars disappeared down a vortex of parties, weddings, jewelry, cars and qat, the stimulating leaf that Somalis chew like bubble gum.
Also, because of the extended network of relatives and clansmen, “it’s not like three people split a million bucks,” he said. “It’s more like 300.”
Oh, Mr. Boyah added, he also gives 15 percent to charity, especially to the elderly and infirm.
“I’d love to give them more,” he said.
Over all, he seemed like a man on a genuine quest for redemption — or a very good liar.
“We know what we’re doing is wrong,” he said gravely. “I’m asking forgiveness from God, the whole world, anybody.”
And then his silver Nokia phone chirped yet again. He would not say what he needed to do, but it was time to go.
Ethiopia - Legitimizing the Injustices
Medeshi May 9, 2009
Ethiopia - Legitimizing the Injustices
Tesfaye Z. Yigzaw
(A scorpion asked a frog for help, to cross over the river, as it is unable to swim. No, no, you will sting me, said a frog. The scorpion promised, it would not sting the frog. Alright, hop up on my back, said a frog. At midway over the river, a scorpion stung the frog. You sting me, you sting me, the frog cried. I cannot help it, it is my nature, said the scorpion, and so both drown deep into the river.(Atifithe Tifa)
Yes, it is TPLF’s nature. At no time since its inception, the Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF), ruling Ethiopia with iron fist, has spoken the truth. The recent alleged coup, which all of a sudden changed to “plotting to assassinate” unidentified “authorities” that led to the arrest of army officers and many citizens are not unanticipated news. This is an ordinary TPLF’s fallacious propaganda scheme to wish to gain an attention as usual when it is in a deep trouble. This arrest is not a surprise, because, technically, 80 million people are in prisons (except the members of TPLF). Apparently, TPLF is an organization founded on an ideal of deception, bewilderment, divisions, and it after all has continuous to inflict terror on the people of Ethiopia for eighteen years. The people and the world community very well know, TPLF is a pathological liar, and it is never to be embarrassed to tell bloodcurdling fabricated news and lies. Thus, “We won Badame, the Ethiopian economy has been growing 11.5 %” even at this time when the world’s economies are in downfall, the invasion of Somalia has been “successful”, “Ethiopia is enjoying democracy. Election is free and fair” and these are just a few examples of numerous TPLF’s deceptive reports.
They cannot help it, it is their nature; most often leaders are the products of their society, but not a kind of TPLF leaders. Ethiopians are very peace loving, religious, law abiding, and respects old and unable, children and woman. But, TPLF’s leaders do not have a slightest character of Ethiopian cultures. I come to understand the reason, they had their own monasteries cultures and behaviors built on when they were in isolation during their rebellious years. I am sure, they do not believe in God, but atheists do have a great respect for humanity. So, who are these people and where did they come from? Instead of taking responsibility for its wrongs, TPLF likes to blame individuals, groups, organizations and political dissents for its own incompetence. Rather than working with other political groups and experts on varies fields to develop the economy and technology the country greatly needs, it intentionally makes them enemies. TPLF, who has proud as warmonger has no comprehension other than creating a war, and which it cannot win. We are acquainted listening for eighteen years the same phrases and languages; terrorist, hooligans, neftegnas, and etc. and now they added a new word in their vocabulary collections “desperadoes” calling those disagree with its political philosophy, or when they “dislike the color of their eyes” I am sure TPLF does not understand the meanings of these words, except finding them in a dictionary. Let us look the word terrorism by it self, and how it implies, in short, it is an act of an individual, group, organization and government that implement or impose its interest and ideas by use of force. Those speak out of injustice, stood for a democracy and human rights are by no means labeled terrorist. It’s an obligation of every man and woman and their rights to defend a value of humanity. On the other hand, it is TPLF that has been terrorizing the entire citizens for eighteen years. There is an Amharic proverb: “Ye abbabne Le emmama”. It is obvious; TPLF has committed scandalous crimes against humanity and shattered democratic values, and continues with its crimes of arbitrary arrests, disappearances, mass-killings, and imprisonment of citizens without due process of law. Who is then should be called a terrorist?
TPLF is its own enemy, and has no other enemy than itself. TPLF waged guerilla warfare against Dergue, but never won a war. It is surly would have won the war had it seek peace with the Ethiopian people, and has a will to establish justices and a democratic values the people have had fought for a long time. Now, effectively, TPLF is at war with the people of Ethiopia.
In any rate, it has been believed, TPLF revolted against despotic rule seeking justice, of course, that is not an accurate assessment of its struggle. Nevertheless, TPLF’s mutiny against Dergue should be said a struggle for its sole belief in a communist ideology; subsequently for it had wished to establish an Albanian style of State of a greater Tigrea. Essentially, it never fought for justice to free the people of Ethiopia. In contrary, the fact that, TPLF has had aborted the process of democracy that was started to undertake in the country. Nonetheless, the power bestowed upon TPLF by British and the USA in London conference was clearly stated for TPLF to institute a democratic government in the country. At that conference, handing over a power to TPLF was done hastily to prevent a power vacuum in the country after Dergue surrendered a power, and that, it was because no other an alternate political group(s) that had been organized to replace a military dictator. That it was an open opportunity with a right time for TPLF to grab a state power. Now, after eighteen years, TPLF has not kept its mandate and promises, and it is necessitate for the people of Ethiopia to resume a struggle for democracy, justice, and ultimately bring to an end of ethnocentric corrupt regime of TPLF. It is only natural for human being to fight injustice, live free from despotic and brutal regime. “What is good for the goose is good for a gander”. Who gave the right to TPLF to revolt against a constitution during a Dergue brutal government? Was TPLF then a terrorist organization, than it is now?
Well, imprisonment, carnages and muzzling citizens never stop people to fight for justice; it is only a matter of time and at the end dictatorship will collapse. For eighteen years, many innocent citizens of dear Ethiopians are imprisoned all by fallacious allegations, and numerous had been disappeared or killed all by the actions of TPLF. Nevertheless, soon and suddenly one day every woman would wake up in the morning with a bright sun shine, and start calling herself, I am Birtukan Mideksa, and every man would start calling himself, professor Asrat, Darara Kefene, and many more others, the heroes and heroines will be called on one by one. With their names democracy and justices will be erected, and then man and woman, old and a child will never suffer again by dictators.
They cannot help it, it is their nature; most often leaders are the products of their society, but not a kind of TPLF leaders. Ethiopians are very peace loving, religious, law abiding, and respects old and unable, children and woman. But, TPLF’s leaders do not have a slightest character of Ethiopian cultures. I come to understand the reason, they had their own monasteries cultures and behaviors built on when they were in isolation during their rebellious years. I am sure, they do not believe in God, but atheists do have a great respect for humanity. So, who are these people and where did they come from? Instead of taking responsibility for its wrongs, TPLF likes to blame individuals, groups, organizations and political dissents for its own incompetence. Rather than working with other political groups and experts on varies fields to develop the economy and technology the country greatly needs, it intentionally makes them enemies. TPLF, who has proud as warmonger has no comprehension other than creating a war, and which it cannot win. We are acquainted listening for eighteen years the same phrases and languages; terrorist, hooligans, neftegnas, and etc. and now they added a new word in their vocabulary collections “desperadoes” calling those disagree with its political philosophy, or when they “dislike the color of their eyes” I am sure TPLF does not understand the meanings of these words, except finding them in a dictionary. Let us look the word terrorism by it self, and how it implies, in short, it is an act of an individual, group, organization and government that implement or impose its interest and ideas by use of force. Those speak out of injustice, stood for a democracy and human rights are by no means labeled terrorist. It’s an obligation of every man and woman and their rights to defend a value of humanity. On the other hand, it is TPLF that has been terrorizing the entire citizens for eighteen years. There is an Amharic proverb: “Ye abbabne Le emmama”. It is obvious; TPLF has committed scandalous crimes against humanity and shattered democratic values, and continues with its crimes of arbitrary arrests, disappearances, mass-killings, and imprisonment of citizens without due process of law. Who is then should be called a terrorist?
TPLF is its own enemy, and has no other enemy than itself. TPLF waged guerilla warfare against Dergue, but never won a war. It is surly would have won the war had it seek peace with the Ethiopian people, and has a will to establish justices and a democratic values the people have had fought for a long time. Now, effectively, TPLF is at war with the people of Ethiopia.
In any rate, it has been believed, TPLF revolted against despotic rule seeking justice, of course, that is not an accurate assessment of its struggle. Nevertheless, TPLF’s mutiny against Dergue should be said a struggle for its sole belief in a communist ideology; subsequently for it had wished to establish an Albanian style of State of a greater Tigrea. Essentially, it never fought for justice to free the people of Ethiopia. In contrary, the fact that, TPLF has had aborted the process of democracy that was started to undertake in the country. Nonetheless, the power bestowed upon TPLF by British and the USA in London conference was clearly stated for TPLF to institute a democratic government in the country. At that conference, handing over a power to TPLF was done hastily to prevent a power vacuum in the country after Dergue surrendered a power, and that, it was because no other an alternate political group(s) that had been organized to replace a military dictator. That it was an open opportunity with a right time for TPLF to grab a state power. Now, after eighteen years, TPLF has not kept its mandate and promises, and it is necessitate for the people of Ethiopia to resume a struggle for democracy, justice, and ultimately bring to an end of ethnocentric corrupt regime of TPLF. It is only natural for human being to fight injustice, live free from despotic and brutal regime. “What is good for the goose is good for a gander”. Who gave the right to TPLF to revolt against a constitution during a Dergue brutal government? Was TPLF then a terrorist organization, than it is now?
Well, imprisonment, carnages and muzzling citizens never stop people to fight for justice; it is only a matter of time and at the end dictatorship will collapse. For eighteen years, many innocent citizens of dear Ethiopians are imprisoned all by fallacious allegations, and numerous had been disappeared or killed all by the actions of TPLF. Nevertheless, soon and suddenly one day every woman would wake up in the morning with a bright sun shine, and start calling herself, I am Birtukan Mideksa, and every man would start calling himself, professor Asrat, Darara Kefene, and many more others, the heroes and heroines will be called on one by one. With their names democracy and justices will be erected, and then man and woman, old and a child will never suffer again by dictators.
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Qaar ka mid ah Ururada Bulshada Rayidka ah oo walaac ka muujiyay mudo dhaafka golayaasha deegaanada
Annaga oo ah Ururada Bulshada Rayidka ah ee Madaxa-banaan waxaanu si wayn uga walaacsanahay
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