‘Into Africa’ with the Military’s “Africom”

Medeshi Oct 3, 2008

‘Into Africa’ with the Military’s “Africom”
by Greg Palkot
A fully armed “battle-rattle”-ed Marines Humvee patrol winding through the African desert and peering into bunkers looking for militants…and weapons.
Army instructors firing off blanks from the brush around a foot squad of African soldiers training them in the art of fending off an ambush.
And Navy Seabees, sweating in the blistering African sun, digging and installing a water distribution system for impoverished villagers.
done

Just three views of the new US military command Africom which we’ve had a chance to take in during the past week, traveling around this diverse continent. October 1st was the “roll-out” day for the command but we wanted to get a jump on things for Fox so we headed down to Africa a bit early.
Previously, Africa had been covered by parts of three different US military commands, and while there have been a variety of programs and operations conducted in Africa by the Pentagon, the feeling was that the place got short-changed.
As the commander of Africom, 4-star Army General (and veteran of numerous global hot spots including 1990’s Somalia) William “Kip” Ward told me, “The continent of Africa is important to global security, our security, the stability of the world.”
In addition, the thinking has been that more than just the military guys needed to be involved in the project. Folks from the State Department and other government agencies needed to pitch in as well.
Former African ambassador and Ward’s civilian number two Mary Yates explained, “It gives us the opportunity to bring the assets of the US military in a supporting role of those needs.”
Presto…Africom. A “combatant” command with a difference. Yes, if there’s a military operation that needs to be conducted in Africa they can run it. But time and time again in my discussions officials there stressed the command was less about war fighting and more about war prevention.
Our first stop was the central African country of Uganda, better known to most people as the home base for the 1970s cruel and despotic leader Idi Amin. Now it’s a colorful country with a growing economy and a friendly attitude towards the US. The US military runs a number of training program for local troops , including some at base not far from the infamous Entebbe airport.
As the US Army Lieutenant in charge of the trainers there explained to me the troops were “dynamite” students and they really picked up on the real-life lessons. In addition to that ambush drill I mentioned earlier they were taught how to approach and take out a fortified bunker as well breaching a barbed wire defense.
The idea is help the locals create a more stable and secure environment with the aim of either keeping bad guys out. Or having African troops (and not the US) deal with the bad guys themselves. “In a hundred years,” one offical noted to me, “If Africom hasn’t fought a single battle in Africa we will have done our job.”
Then it was on to the eastern African country of Djibouti, home to the only US military base in Africa, Camp Lemonier, Joint Combined Task Force Horn of Africa. The area has also (and seems still to be ) home to a number of terrorists. Usama bin Laden was in nearby Sudan in the 90’s. Across the Gulf of Aden the USS Cole was hit in 2000 and there have been terror incidents there ever since. And Somalia, just 12 miles away, remains the hideout its believed for Al Qaeda and Islamists.
If there is ANY “direct action” against any foes of the US in Africa it comes from here. Not so much that Marine patrol I noted earlier which is more security than “kill and capture.” But activities we did not have the chance to take in as its not in the direct Africom remit : Special Force, CIA and other civilian agencies tracking and targeting extremists.
More of the work in Djibouti (and of Africom) is of the “indirect” kind, like once again training up militaries like Ethiopian troops who now happen to be in Somalia quelling Islamists. And even more, civil affairs projects, like that Seabee-built water system. We also dropped in on a school that had been fixed up in their off hours by troops from Djibouti . This is full scale “hearts and minds” stuff. As one Africom official explained to me, “we can call in that chit later.” Meaning information, help, tips.
As we fought to get on the air amid all the other news on Wednesday October 1st with reports about the launch of the command there was other media reporting based on the Washington DC Africom presentation. I’m not sure all the Africom folks were pleased with the coverage. First of all there was more interest in the latest piracy incident off the coast of Somalia involving a Ukrainian arms ship.
But also complaints which had been piling up over the last year or so about the command were dredged out again : That the mission wasn’t focused; that it was aimed less at satisfying Africa and more the US strategic, political and economic needs on the continent; that it stepped on the turf of aid workers in Africa.
Concerns echoed by Africans. For example there are worries that the US will be opening up a new front in the War on Terror across the continent. As Ugandan newspaper editor Daniel Kalinaki explained to us, “Having an American base can make you a target for terror groups.”
All those kinds of concerns forced Africom to give up on the idea for now of basing its headquarters in Africa proper (it couldn’t find an appropriate country willing to host it) and the so the HQ is in Stuttgart.
But everybody at Africom I talked to is convinced that over time they can win Africans over and that many countries and leaders in Africa are already supportive of the mission.
As for Congress (which cut the initial budget for the command) and the rest of Washington, the command, I think, probably SHOULD play up what’s in it for the US. There’s a lot :
The terror threat from Africa is very real. A new Al Qaeda chapter has opened up in northern Africa just ready to export carnage to American targets.
Maintaining access to natural resources on the continent (by 2015 25% of our oil will come from here).
As well as keeping up with the global rival “Jones”’s China and Russia moving in here big time.
Plus keeping bad stuff like disease drugs and illegal immigration from being transferred from there to our shores.
And, oh yes, helping the African people. Who are in need of and worthy of that help. We were so taken by the people of Uganda. Friendly, mellow, hard-working, handsome. Ditto the very cute and studious kids of Djibouti…the next generation of Africa…the ones we ll have to be dealing with for decades to come.
As Specialist Samuel Fitch of a US Army civil affairs which helped out in that school fix-up project said, “It feels good. That’s what we’re doing it for, the kids. They’re the future.”

Somalia coast problem is foreign made

Medeshi Oct 3, 2008

Somalia coast problem is foreign made

By Tedla Asfaw
The so called Somali Transitional Government of Abdullahi Yusuf is asking Russia to take all the necessary actions on the Somali gunmen who hijacked the Ukrainian ship with twenty Ukrainian and Russian crewmen on board week ago. Who are these hijackers? The Somali coast for the last twenty years has been a free coast for the United Fish Looters (UFL) to come and fish on Somali coast and profit an estimated $300 million per year at the expense of local fishermen.

(Photo : A. Yussuf shopping in London )
The local Somalis organized a vigilante groups to scare away the UFL and they were not successful. These looters are carrying bogus flags of different countries and carry fake licenses given by former Somali officials one of whom is Abduillhi Yusuf the current president of Somalia in Mogadishu who personally profited.
Somali coast has also become a damping ground for toxic wastes and the United Nation which calls to fight piracy never addressed the issue of Somalis who lost livelihood to the well organized looters and did not take any action also on foreign companies that polluted the coast of Somalia and endangered the lives of many people.
Currently the Somalis has set up a strong thousand armed men who are moving on small boats to hijack ships and demand money. Some countries negotiate and pay and recently France sent a commando and rescue its people and capturing some of the hijackers.
The Ukrainian ship is rather interesting because of the 33 Russian made battle tanks it carry and the destination of the cargo that is still debatable, Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia the possibilities. Recently Meles Zenawi was heard saying that he is worried about "piracy" on Somali coast. He might be worried this time more because he might lose the tanks if it indeed was destined for his war in Somalia as Somali Islamic fighters alleged and call the hijackers to burn the ship.
The American war ship is following closely the week old sea drama and buying time for the Russian ship which is still far to take on the Somali gunmen. From previous Russian rescue missions of hostages, the one ended up gassing everyone in Moscow might be the conclusion of this week old drama if Abdullahi Yusuf request is answered.
Such action will not stop future hijacking by gunmen in the more than 3,200 km coast of Somalia. The problem on the sea is not different from the problem of Somalia and unless Somalia is left alone from all outsiders and find its way to function as a country and control its resources the Somali coast will not be safe for anyone.

What is to be done about the world’s least-governed state?

Medeshi

Oct 3 , 2008

Somalia Piracy and much worse
From The Economist print edition

What is to be done about the world’s least-governed state?
Get article background
THE azure waters at the foot of the Red Sea lapping southwards round the Horn of Africa are now the most dangerous in the world. This year pirates have captured more than 60 ships. Recently a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks was captured by Somali buccaneers (see article). The reason for this swirl of maritime outlawry can be found on the nearest shore, in Somalia.
Until the world’s most comprehensively failed state acquires the barest modicum of order and government, the seas beside it will be a paradise for pirates and a menace to passengers, crew and cargo, even for ships sailing 300 miles offshore. Yet maritime outrages, though they help remind the world of the disaster that is Somalia, are only one reason to do something about the place. A more important one is that Somalia’s people do not enjoy a scrap of security, let alone any of the material benefits of a modern state. And a final one is that the outside world helped tip Somalia into chaos.
The prescriptions for dealing with piracy are simple enough. Governments must co-operate more energetically to face down pirates and, where necessary, blast them out of the water. A coalition of countries already has a naval task-force in the area, mainly to tackle terrorism; its numbers should be bumped up and a sea lane that can be properly monitored should be defined. Ships taking food to Somalia for the UN must have a naval escort. The EU should strengthen its tiny naval cell that co-ordinates air and sea activity. The UN, along with the African Union (AU), should organise a coast guard to watch Somalia’s shore. The Gulf states, in particular Saudi Arabia, should fulfil their vague promises to help pay for Somalia’s recovery.
But the harder, underlying problem is Somalia itself. With no proper government since 1991, it has been a bloody kaleidoscope of competing clans and fiefs. More than 1m, in a population once around 10m, have fled abroad; this year alone, the UN reckons, some 160,000 have been uprooted from Mogadishu, the capital, which has lost about two-thirds of its inhabitants over the years. The country is too dangerous for foreign charities, diplomats or journalists to function there permanently. Thousands of angry, rootless, young Somalis are proving vulnerable to the attractions of fundamentalist Islam in the guise of al-Qaeda and similar jihadist brands. The cash from piracy is probably fuelling the violence.
In recent times Somalia has known order only briefly, in 2006, when Islamists known as the Islamic Courts Union took over. Unfortunately next-door Ethiopia, egged on by the Americans, intervened to oust them. A “transition federal government” has totally failed to impose itself. A feeble AU force has tried in vain to help. With the UN unable to drum up even half the heralded force supposed to keep the peace in Sudan’s ravaged Darfur region, no one has the guts or cash to send a serious force to bring order, let alone justice, to Somalia.
And yet outsiders could still help Somalis to help themselves. A “dialogue” that started in nearby Djibouti between most of the warring factions has been going on intermittently for more than a year; the more moderate Islamists from the Courts Union must be brought in, even if the harder-line affiliates of al-Qaeda cannot be. The UN, Western governments and those in the region have a moral duty not to give up trying to bring Somalis together. Besides, wretched as it is, Somalia can cause a lot of trouble—on land and at sea. It is a disaster that the rest of the world cannot shrug off.

On Maternal Mortality, Why Africa Falls So Far Behind

Medeshi
(Photo:Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Somaliland )
On Maternal Mortality, Why Africa Falls So Far Behind
By Edna Adan Ismail
Created Oct 3 2008
· Access to Abortion
· Contraception
· Maternal Health
· Women’s Rights
· attended birth
· Birth Control
· Childbirth
· family planning
· maternal mortality
· safe abortion
· unsafe abortion
A very distraught old woman came to Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland, appealing to us to help her transport to the hospital a woman who had given birth five days earlier and who still had the placenta inside her. Those of us at the hospital are not sure how this could be possible and we ask her again whether she means five hours. She is sure about the number of days, and quotes the day the woman had delivered which, indeed, was five days earlier. She also tells us that the woman may not be alive by the time we get to her.

Safe Motherhood Project At WorkWe prepared the ambulance, put in our emergency obstetric kit and set out towards the home at the opposite end of town from our hospital. We come to a hut with quite a few neighbors and onlookers standing around.

Before we get to the patient, we could have been guided to the woman by the smell coming from inside the hut. We find a woman who has bled for several days, is very infected, febrile, dehydrated, has no recordable blood pressure and a weak, rapid pulse. We cannot understand how she could have survived this long in this condition. Answers to our questions would come later, but right now, we needed to get an IV line going, and once in, we put her in the ambulance and headed for the hospital where blood transfusions and medical care would be ready for her. We also brought along the baby.

Once she picked up, we got the placenta out, started her on high doses of antibiotics and the woman miraculously recovered and went home a week later.

Our burning question was why did they wait for five days before they looked for help when the placenta refused to come out after the baby was born?

The unfortunate answers were: (1) We thought we would wait and hoped that it would come out later. (2) When it took too long to come out, her husband suggested that they try Somali Traditional methods to get the placenta out. (3) When this failed, they tried spiritual chants and prayers. (4) By the third day, they feared that if they report this to the hospitals, the old woman who had attended the delivery would be denounced to the government. (5) Finally, the woman became so ill that they feared they would not be able to afford the cost of the medicines she would need to treat her.

Luckily, they got the courage to come to us and we were able to treat her free of charge, although we had our conditions for this free treatment: the woman who had attended the delivery would have to agree to spend five days at our hospital [1] to be shown how to conduct a normal delivery and to know which conditions to refer immediately. To this, she agreed, and hopefully, this situation never will be repeated.

This was just one example of what practicing midwifery in our part of the world entails. My theory is that women in Somaliland die because of ignorance on their part and on the part of those assisting them. Poverty is a strong factor that prevents women from seeking help because they convince themselves that they cannot afford the cost of modern medicine and would rather consult the local traditional healer who often causes more complications.

Pregnancy, Childbirth Still Killing Women

In 1945, diplomats representing the countries of the world at the end of the Second World War gathered in New York and proposed the formation of a global health organization. In April 1948, the constitution of the World Health Organization [2] was passed, with its first article stating, "Health is a fundamental Human Right."

Sixty years later, that noble declaration seems to have had little effect on the maternal mortality rate of women in the developing countries. The women continue to die of causes that have been eliminated in countries where efficient, safe and adequate health care have been made available for their women.

As far as African women are concerned, we seem to have very few rights, particularly in the area of safe reproductive health care. We fare the worst compared to women in other continents. In my 48-year experience as a midwife, I see very little improvement in the conditions under which our women progress through their pregnancies and childbirth. It's a situation that shocks me even more today when I witness the advances that have been made in medical care elsewhere during the past half-century.

Why Africa Falls Behind

What leads the women of our continent to their graves during pregnancy and childbirth? As I describe below, the reasons fall into six categories: nutrition, education, high fertility, female genital mutilation, improper care at delivery and inadequate health facilities.

Nutrition: Sub-Saharan countries are affected by increasing degradation of the environment -- which we commonly call desertification -- due to frequent droughts, cutting down of trees, soil erosion and poverty. Superimposed on this are frequent wars and instability that cause displacement of peoples and which negatively affects the nutritional status of those living off the land.

While little girls are the mothers of tomorrow, we all know that they are fed the leftovers from whatever the family is eating. If lucky, she occasionally gets a bone to nibble at. During her childhood, who thinks about the growth of the bones of these little girls? Does anyone worry that her growth may become stunted because of chronic malnutrition and anemia? That she might develop a contracted pelvis? What will happen when she gets married and her narrow pelvis cannot permit the passage of the babies she will be expected to bear and produce? How many women have access to a health facility that can perform a Caesarean section to save the lives of the baby and its mother before the labor becomes obstructed?

Education: Quite often, when a family has to decide which of their children can be sent to school, it is often the girls who are left behind. We find that illiteracy affects the health and survival outcome of women. The lower their education level, the higher their risk of health problems, including those associated with their reproductive life.

An illiterate woman is not able to seek her rights because she is not even aware that she has any rights at all. She considers herself "owned;" first by her family, then by her husband and later by his sons.

High Fertility: Once the girl is married, immediate and frequent fertility is expected of her without taking into consideration whether or not her body can take care of the baby she will conceive. Our women, therefore, produce as many children as they can to ensure their place in their new home. In my work, I often witness women having baby number 9 or 10, and also some having baby number 12, 13, 14, 15 or 16 and, once, baby number 21!

FGM: As if all her other misfortunes were not enough in themselves, harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) are performed on them and affect the health of women and children in many African countries, including mine. FGM affects and damages the perineum and the pelvic floor muscles of women and is a major cause of laceration of the perineum during childbirth, as well as damage to the urethra and rectum resulting in fistula formation.

This is among the most tragic situations and has shocked me so much that I became the first Somali woman to publicly cry out against FGM in 1976, well before those who would like us to believe that they are fighting against a new enemy that they have discovered. Thirty years later, even though umpteen campaigns have been held and many have joined the struggle, millions of little girls continue to be cut, mutilated and affected.

To show the extent of the problem, I developed a study at the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital on the status of women who come to our clinic and FGM. Regretfully, and contrary to anecdotal reports stating that there has been a decline in the practice, we discovered that 97 percent of the women attending our prenatal clinic have some form of FGM, and 98 percent of them have the most severe form of it. I am still working on the final results of this report, but it is clear that there has to be an FGM strategy that is different and more effective than that which has been used in the past.

Time of Delivery: Women having babies who are at a time of their greatest need for skilled medical or midwifery assistance are often at the mercy of relatives or other individuals who have received no or insufficient training in the care of women during childbirth. The woman does not know nor seek proper medical care because she does not know that this is her right. Many women die of obstetrical mismanagement with her relatives blaming her misfortune on "evil spirits" or "the evil eye of other women who were jealous of her baby."

Health Facilities: The health facilities are so ill-equipped and poorly staffed that even if women get taken there, there is very little that can be done for them. More often than not, women arrive at these health facilities when their situation is too advanced and cannot be helped. How can infections be avoided when many health facilities have no water, gloves, disinfectants, sterilizers or dressings?

Charting a Better Path
Delegating women to a second-class status does not necessarily raise men to a first-class status. When when they do, they are denying their sisters, wives and daughters the education, decision-making and the possibility to rise to their fullest potential. In short, men lose when they prevent women from becoming full partners in all the challenges that life brings.
The prevention of maternal mortality is the basic right of all women and must be made a priority in all developing countries. The urgency of the situation warrants vastly heightened attention. Otherwise, the pledges and statements of health as a human right will continue to be words printed on paper made from the wood of the trees that have been cut down -- and thus only contributing to more degradation of the environment, poverty and misery.
This article was first published by On The Issues magazine [3].

Somaliland: The World Arms Pirates While It Disarms Somaliland Navy

Medeshi 3 Oct, 2008
Somaliland: The World Arms Pirates While It Disarms Somaliland Navy
The International community’s imprudent strategy of giving millions of dollars to pirates for ransom while refusing to provide tangible trainings and equipments for Somaliland navy because of fears that such a move would tantamount to recognition has resulted triple disasters—not only for the people of Somaliland, but also for
(Photo:US helicopters and warships circling the pirates) the vessels sailing through the Gulf of Aden and for the region itself. Never before has the economic lifeline of Somaliland—exporting livestock to the Middle East—been threatened by pirates. Never before has the world seen so many hijacked ships and their crews suffering in the hands of pirates. Never before has the Golf of Aden faced environmental catastrophe. Thanks to the millions of dollars paid for ransom to free ships and their sailors. Few foreign sailors may have been set free, but the economic backbone of millions of Somaliland people as well as the safety of the Gulf of Aden face uncertainty. And the danger—environmental disasters—is growing by the minute.
It is now clear that the ransom paid to pirates is equivalent to nearly Somaliland’s yearly budget. The shipping authority, Lloyd's List, warns that “ransom paid to pirate raiders off Somalia could spiral to $50 million this year, fueling copy cat attacks.” http://webmail.skywebhosting.co.uk/webmail-n/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2F3ny57z Most of this money would be spent on hiring more hijackers—they are now numbering over 1000 strong men—buying sophisticated speed boats and the state of the art weapons through the black-market. Soon pirates would be a fearless force to reckon with, in the Golf of Aden.
On the other hand, in 2007 Somaliland’s modest yearly budged was only $55 millions. Worse yet, unlike the pirates it doesn’t have millions of dollars at its disposal. Additionally, because of the U.N. arms embargo imposed on Somaliland, it cannot buy weapons to defend its territorial waters. Yet the international community continually enjoys Somaliland’s cooperation in combating “terrorism” and piracy. http://webmail.skywebhosting.co.uk/webmail-n/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.awdalnews.com%2Fwmview.php%3FArtID%3D10613
Evidently, despite Somaliland’s meager resources, it is has launched its own anti-piracy covert military operations and apprehended pirates where a court convicted them. http://webmail.skywebhosting.co.uk/webmail-n/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fallafrica.com%2Fstories%2F200809090053.html And unlike the Somali Transitional Government TFG and Puntland—the epicenter of sea piracy, Somaliland is known to launch strikes against pirates and human-traffickers in its territory. (Somali Regime: Epicenter of Sea Piracy http://www.awdalnews.com/wmview.php?ArtID=10622 U.N. slams Puntland leaders for having connections with pirates http://tinyurl.com/4f7q4h ) And clearly Somaliland’s bold moves against piracy and human-trafficking explain why its coast remains safe despite sharing both land and sea borders with Puntland. But things are now changing for worse.
Currently, Somaliland navy patrols its waters, escorts ships loaded with livestock from its ports to safe areas, and meets cargo ships destined to Somaliland ports in highs seas. But pirates should by now have more boats and weapons than Somaliland navy has. Additionally, if pirates get away with it, soon their deadly arson will include 33 T-72 tanks—far more tanks than probably Somaliland has—rocket launchers and other weapons. http://webmail.skywebhosting.co.uk/webmail-n/parse.php?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Fafrica%2F7637257.stm And this changes the whole equation.
The fast-growing number of pirates and the enormous cash at their disposal promoted Somaliland president to seek help from Europe. Alarmed or frightened by the power of pirates, recently President Dahir Riyale Kahin quickly flew to France, Germany and Britain as to shore up support for combating piracy which now threatens Somaliland’s economy and soon will choke its lifeline—exporting livestock—if immediate action is not taken.
Multinational navies increase their presence in the Golf of Aden, and so do pirates
The Europeans, Americans, Russians, Indians, and Indonesians, among others, have deployed their navies to Somalia’s waters as to fight piracy off, but to no avail. As it seems, as the number of foreign navies moving into Somalia’s sea waters increases and so does piracy. This is odd, isn’t it? But does anyone wonder why?
Like any other problem, the best approach to piracy is to study its root-cause and then cooperate with the locals. In the Somali world, piracy effects Somaliland, TFG and Puntland in different ways. While the TFG and Puntland clearly benefit from piracy and human-trafficking, Somaliland suffers because of chaos in high seas.
Clearly, Somaliland is the only authority capable of curbing piracy—provided that its navy is modernized to meet the challenges that piracy poses—but also Somaliland is the only effective government in the area. So what is the world waiting for, you may ask?
Rebuilding Somaliland Armed forces could pose a real challenge for pirates—a far more threat than multinational navies could pose. What a ludicrous claim to make, you’d think? Evidently, the International forces would rather fire few missiles from a ship or from a helicopter than fight on the ground and get their hands dirty. And the cost of maintaining hundreds of International war warships in Somalia’s volatile waters could amount to billions of dollars.
To the contrary, Somaliland holds the key to solving mayhem in high seas. For one thing, Somaliland forces require a fraction of the money that the world currently spends to battle against piracy and pays for ransom, in the Golf of Aden. For another, due to Somaliland’s indispensible expertise in the region, its people and its trains, its army would be able to launch air, ground, and naval attacks against pirates’ bases deep in Puntland and in Somalia, before pirates attack ships in the Golf of Aden. Undoubtedly, any way you look at it, rebuilding Somaliland’s armed forces is not only a cost-effect strategy to curtail piracy, but it will also bring a far better result than the multinational navy forces could deliver.
However, rarely ever do military approaches alone work without offering an alternative economic incentives to those who are involved in piracy. Just as military strategies alone failed to eradicate terrorism, and so will they fall short to prevent piracy. But reconstructing the devastated Somali fishing communities, providing local fishers training and fishing equipments, cleaning up the toxic waste dumped as well as stopping the incursions of illegal foreign fishing fleets into Somalia’s sea waters, is yet another effective tactic to minimize piracy in the region. This strategy will give the Somali pirates a reason to be decent citizens again.
Also, the world must not ignore the impending environmental disasters looming on the Golf of Aden. All it takes for the pirates is to attack a gigantic oil tanker and pierce a hole through its massive oil tank with a bullet from a machinegun.
In short, give Somaliland what it deserves and watch piracy dwindle before your eyes. The alternative is to carry on the status queue: keep Somaliland’s hands tight behind its back, pay millions of dollars to pirates for ransom, and kiss goodbye to the Golf of Aden. And surely, the closure of the Suez Canal will soon follow. The choices are clear. The world must act now.
Dalmar Kaahin

Securing Red Sea coast

Medeshi 2 Oct, 2008
When India used to secure Somalia’s Red Sea coast
And why it must do so again
The pirates of Puntland made the strategic mistake of becoming too successful. And they also ran out of luck, when among the vessels they hijacked was one carrying a huge arms shipment, and another something mysteriously important. And suddenly, the world’s navies with the capability to get there—save India’s—decided that it was time to sail to go pirate hunting (or, at the very least, pirate watching) in the Red Sea. The US navy is already there. The Russian navy is on its way (and may well demonstrate some muscle in the days ahead). Even the European Union “is setting up an anti-piracy taskforce to help protect the lawless sea lanes off east Africa.”

Now, piracy off Somalia presents both threat to humanitarian relief operations, international security and to international commerce. And both the UN security council and the president of Somalia have called for the international community to take an interest in patrolling the region. And as Seth Weinberger writes, suo motu action against pirates has legal sanction under international law.

Piracy is one of the clearest examples of jus cogens, a preemptory norm that creates a crime for which there is no possible justification and for which there is universal jurisdiction. Thus, anyone who wishes to act against the pirates is legally allowed to do so. However, that creates a problem—in the absence of a specific jurisdiction, no one has the responsibility or strong incentive to act (why should one state bear the cost of enforcement when the cost of piracy falls on many?). [Security Dilemmas]

The question, though, is how long these navies will stay in the region. While the United States and its allies have the logistics and support infrastructure in the region, other naval forces will have to work out arrangements if they are to maintain forces for an extended period of time.

Amid all this, the Indian government is demonstrating an inexplicable reluctance to dispatch the Indian navy to the waters off Somalia. Not only does this position disregard the threat to India’s interests in the region, it also ignores the fact that a century ago, it was the (British) Indian navy that used to secure the Red Sea.

During the prime mininstership of William Gladstone in the 1880s, it was decided that the Indian government should be responsible for administering the Somaliland protectorate because the Somali coast’s strategic location on the Gulf of Aden was important to India. Customs taxes helped pay for India’s patrol of Somalia’s Red Sea Coast. [David D Laitin/LOC]

According to retired Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh, “it is almost impossible, and prohibitively expensive, for the Indian Navy to send two warships and a tanker, some 2,000 nm from our west coast, and keep them on patrol for 365 days a year in the “safety corridor”. He argues that apart from placing armed “Sea Marshalls” on board commercial ships passing through the region, the Indian navy should partner those of the west and Russia to patrol the region.

The long-term solution, of course, lies on land: extricating Somalia from its civil war, and stabilising the entire Horn of Africa. That’s a tall order. In the meantime, it is necessary to contain the Somali pirates. There is a clear case to deploy the Indian Navy in the Red Sea off the coast of Somalia, with rules of engagement that include hot pursuit. Indeed, there is a clear case to task the marine commandos with hostage-rescue missions where Indian ships and nationals are taken hostage.

Tensions simmer in southern Yemen

Medeshi 2 Oct, 2008
Tensions simmer in southern Yemen
By Shane Bauer in Sanaa

As the Yemeni army hunts down al-Qaeda-linked groups across the country and struggles to maintain peace with a Zaydi Shia insurgency in the north, political tensions in the south are driving a new wedge into the already fractured country.
At least 17 protesters have been killed and 864 arrested since the unrest erupted in the summer of 2007, according to Yemeni human rights groups.

(Photo:Rebels in southern Yemen)
While demonstrations, riots, and armed clashes with the military seem to have intensified, demands for political reforms in the Middle East's poorest country have developed into calls for independence for the south.
Former military generals, unemployed professionals, and disgruntled youth across the south contend that the north is economically more developed and that northerners are favoured by the government in Sanaa.
"We aren't Yemenis. We are South Arabians," says Ali al-Sa'idi, the vice president of the Committee of Retired Southern Generals, referring to the historical name of South Yemen.
"We used to be an independent nation and we want to go back to what we were."
New country
The traditionalist north and Marxist south unified in 1990, forming the Republic of Yemen.
The new country was to operate under a structured power-sharing arrangement, but fraternal relations quickly disintegrated, leading the country into a two-month civil war in 1994.
After northern forces crushed a southern bid to secede, the government led by Ali Abdullah Saleh, the current president, scrapped plans to protect regional autonomy.
Thousands of generals were punitively retired after the war, and roughly 100,000 civil and military workers lost their jobs. Thousands of soldiers fled the country, but many have since returned.
Growing tensions erupted in July 2007 when former generals began organising protests to demand higher retirement funds, claiming they could not survive on their pensions.
Riots
The latest tide of protests erupted on March 28, when tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets were brought in to quell three days of riots in the southern city of Dhalie.
Young men burned tires to block the street from Sanaa to Aden and set two police stations and several military vehicles on fire.
People accused of instigating the riots were arrested and public demonstrations eased off, though protests continued in Dhalie and nearby Lahaj.
Since then, large scale demonstrations have waned, but armed attacks against the government have increased.
In mid-September, three coordinated bombings, unclaimed by any specific group, targeted Central Security and Criminal Investigation offices in the southern provinces of Abyan.
A recent report in Jane's, an American military intelligence magazine, estimated that at least 15 separate attacks have occurred against military checkpoints in Aden and the southern province of Lahaj alone.
"The situation could become much more dangerous than other problems in Yemen," says Mohammed al-Mutawakkal, a professor of politics at Sanaa University.
"The south comprises two-thirds of Yemen's land and it used to be its own country."
Al-Saidi's group of retired generals and other movements have been calling on southerners to refrain from violence. But al-Sa'idi says that if the government does not meet their needs, the situation might get out of control.
"We are living under occupation," he says. "The tribal military regime in the north does not care about Southerners. They just care about our land and wealth."
Natural wealth control
Around 80 per cent of Yemen's national budget comes from natural wealth drawn from the dry, barren expanses of the south.
Depleting reserves of natural gas and its primary export, oil, are extracted from southern deserts. The 900-kilometre coastline provides Yemen with fish, its second largest export and its largest port.
The government responded to the discontent earlier this year by raising the pensions of some former generals and giving others positions in the military.
"We made an agreement with the generals and there is a minority of people trying to take advantage of their legitimate grievances and turn it into a political situation," Abubakr al-Qurbi, the minister of Foreign Affairs, told Al Jazeera.
Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, has remained mostly silent on the tensions in the south, but Nassr al-Shaibani, the former endowments minister, issued a fatwa calling the southern generals apostates and permitting bloodshed of those who staged sit-ins and demonstrations.
Southern journalists say they have been up against a media blackout. Yemeni and foreign reporters have been arrested for attempting to cover demonstrations.
In February, one person was killed when the Sanaa home of the editor-in-chief of Al-Ayam newspaper, Yemen's leading independent newspaper - largely perceived to be sympathetic to southern independence, was riddled with bullets.
Independence unlikely
Many observers say it is unlikely that southerners will ever achieve independence, citing the government's military dominance and the fact that south Yemen makes up less than one-fifth of the country's population.
But with some southerners edging toward violence and with popular sentiment for independence higher than ever, the situation remains deadlocked.
"The only solution to the southern issue has to be a democratic one," al-Mutawakkal said.
"The government needs to sit down with them and come up with a suitable agreement."
A presidential order to release at least a dozen leaders of southern movements during Ramadan suggested that the government might be changing its tone.
But some say it is far from negotiating a comprehensive settlement.
"If these people want to make changes, they can form a political party and try to reform the government," al-Qurbi said.
"Yemenis have worked hard to build unification. They will not allow anyone to break this country apart."

Kenya arrests maritime source over Somalia piracy

Medeshi

Kenya arrests maritime source over Somalia piracy
02/10/2008
By Celestine Achieng
MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan police said on Thursday they had arrested the head of a regional maritime group for "alarming" statements about the hijack of a Ukrainian ship off Somalia and the destination of its military cargo.
The detention of Andrew Mwangura, whose East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme monitors shipping in the region and promotes sailors' rights, heightened controversy around the seizure of the MV Faina by Somali pirates a week ago.
The pirates want $20 million to free the 20 crew members and cargo of 33 tanks, grenade-launchers and other weapons.
Mwangura angered local authorities by saying the weaponry, which was en route to Mombasa, was ultimately bound for South Sudan and not Kenya as Nairobi insists. That has embarrassed Kenya which brokered an end to Sudan's north-south war in 2005.
"Mwangura is in our custody and he will be appearing in court ... to be charged with using alarming statements," Mombasa chief detective Amos Tebeny said.
Mwangura was picked up by police and taken away in a convoy of six vehicles on Wednesday night from the offices of local Standard newspaper where he was due to give an interview.
He is expected to appear in court on Thursday or Friday.
About 50 heavily-armed pirates are holding the Faina offshore near Hobyo village. Several U.S. navy ships are watching it, and a Russian ship is approaching too.
The saga has highlighted rampant piracy off Somalia in the strategic Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean ship lanes.
COSTLY ATTACKS
Ransom negotiations are going on via satellite phone, maritime officials say. But with the international community increasingly angry over the disruption to trade, shippers are calling for tougher action against the pirates.
Taking advantage of chaos onshore, where an Islamist-led insurgency is raging, Somali pirates have attacked scores of boats this year and are still holding about a dozen.
British think-tank Chatham House said on Thursday piracy had cost shippers between $18-30 million in ransoms so far in 2008.
Mwangura says his information comes from families of pirates and crew, plus shipping groups round the region and beyond. But Kenyan officials say he has fallen for pirates' propaganda.
"The information that my client has been receiving has been coming from officials of the same union (seafarers programme) both in Ukraine and Russia," said his lawyer, Francis Kadima.
"My client has a right to free expression."
The U.S. navy said this week that it believed the arms were for South Sudan, and many Kenyans share that suspicion.

Leading local paper Daily Nation, quoting "impeccable sources in Kenya's military" said its investigations had shown Sudan was the probable destination.

Analysts say Kenya has traditionally bought such equipment from the West, so sourcing in Ukraine would be unusual.

Civil groups are starting to agitate. The Kenya National Youth Convention condemned "the reckless and dangerous conduct of national affairs by elements within the Government of Kenya and calls for an end to the importation of offensive weaponry."

(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

Somalia warlord government courts Russia

Somalia warlord government courts Russia
Medeshi 2008-10-02 - Western backers of current imposed parachute government for Somalia were suddenly made redundant and their influence over heinous warlords left in tatters.

Somalia's ailing government struck a unilateral deal with Russia rendering western naval ships and future plans for Africom useless in an effort to free one hijacked Ukrainian ship carrying thirty odd tanks to the Ethiopian military.
Current "Transitional Federal Government" for Somalia enjoyed unconditional support riding USA waves of "war on terror" and its pogroms. In return, western allies enjoyed complete

control of air, sea, and food securities in the now defunct former Somali Republic. America bombed at will, slaughtered at will and still continues to arrest and detain Somalis at will even in their homeland.
Despite warnings from security experts in American circles such as J Peter Pham of University of Virginia once warned of "Russian bear's return to Africa". Russia's political surge coupled with the increased intensity to seek foreign collaborations might have been dismissed by NATO, but is now a reality in parts of Africa.
Speaking to sympathetic local media from the tribal fiefdom of Majertenia, the president of "Transitional Federal Government" for Somalia commented discouragingly on the illusive "Islamic extremism" than the current terror which his fiefdom has unleashed on the seas.
Russia's new deal to use force in Somalia just as its western counter parts had done so will be difficult to assume. However, if lessons are learnt from past Russian interventions in releasing hostages; it will be a bloody attempt.
More daringly, "Transitional Federal Government" for Somalia's appointment ambassador to Russia suggested his government's will to recognise the new states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia after deservingly escaping from the clutches of the crippled infantile Georgia. South Ossetia and Abkhazia remain isolated by the rest of the world except Russia who shows interest in their rights to survival.
Ambassador Handule, a reader of Russian arts and culture is a prominent member of Somali intellectuals united in finding alternative solutions to Somalia crisis than current myopic state of affairs giving precedence to warlords over the long suffering civilian population.
Exactly what the skeleton ghost country of former Somali Democratic Republic would add to Abkhazia and South Ossetia is unclear, but the warlords intensions to juxtapose its sponsors may begin from here just as many Somalis lost faith with the west pushing them to extreme forms of anti-America affiliations.
Author:Shuun Isaaq
PRI-Inside

Somalia asks Russia for help with pirates

Medeshi 2 Oct, 2008

Somalia asks Russia for help with pirates
Story Highlights
NEW: Somalia wants Russian warships to intervene; Russia rules out using force
Pirates captured Ukrainian MV Faina, loaded with weapons, off Somalia's coast
Officials fear weapons will get into terrorists' hands
Ships from 10 countries, including U.S., in region; Somalia fed up with inaction
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The Somali government has asked Russia to intervene against pirates who have seized a Ukrainian cargo ship, the Somali ambassador to Russia said Wednesday.
But the Russian navy issued a statement later in the day saying it had no intention of using force against the pirates, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
"The questions of freeing the ships and crew are being dealt with in line with the corresponding international practices," Interfax quoted Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo as saying. "For understandable reasons, the use of force would be an extreme measure because it could threaten the life of the international crew of the ship."
The pirates took over the MV Faina last week off the coast of Somalia and are demanding a $20 million ransom for the ship's cargo of 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, tank artillery shells, grenade launchers and small arms. The ship is anchored within Somalia's 12-mile territorial limit.
"The government and the president of Somalia are allowing the Russian naval ships to enter our waters, and fight against pirates both in the sea and on the land, that is, if they would have to chase them," Amb. Mohamed Handule said at a news conference in Moscow.
"We think that this issue of piracy has exceeded all limits. It is very dangerous that pirates are now laying their hands on arms -- not just for Somalia, not only for the navigating, but for the entire region in general," he added. "Right now, pirates are controlling the sea in this area, but just imagine if they get control of the land too."
The announcement raised concern among some officials monitoring the situation. Watch Russian warships move to confront pirates »
"We may have bad news," said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya Seafarers Association.
Mwangura said some of the Ukrainian crew's family members are concerned for their loved ones' safety and have called him to see if he can communicate with the pirates. He urged negotiations to continue.
"For the safety of the crew members," Mwangura said, "let the ship owners talk with the pirates." Watch Mwangura talk about the rise in pirating »
A Russian navy ship sailing toward the Faina is in the Atlantic Ocean and "still has a bit of water to get here," said U.S. Navy Lt. Stephanie Murdock, who is stationed in nearby Bahrain. "There is no estimated time of arrival yet."
The U.S. Navy has several ships in the area monitoring the situation.
"There have been no changes today," Murdock said.
The Navy has not communicated with the Russian ship but will work out coordination when it arrives, Murdock said.
The Russian ship Neustrashimy is headed to the region solely to protect Russian shipping, according to the Russian navy spokesman.
"The navy command has been stressing that the Neustrashimy, from the Baltic Sea Fleet, has been given the task of arriving in the area of Somalia and guaranteeing for a certain time the safe seafaring of Russian ships in the area with a high risk of pirate attacks. The essence of the mission is to prevent the seizure of Russian ships by pirates," Dygalo said.
Handule, the Nigerian ambassador, seemed to criticize the United States for not taking action.
"Ships of more than 10 countries are now close to our shores, but we are not satisfied with the results of their activities," he said.
Citing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1816, Handule said, "We are inviting all countries, all states who have possibility to support Somalia to fight against ... pirates. We are especially inviting Russia and giving special status to Russian warships to fight, to help Somalia."
The latest developments came two days after three pirates were killed when they started shooting at each other, according to Mwangura, the Kenya maritime official. The shootout centered on a disagreement between moderate and radical pirates aboard the ship, Mwangura said. The moderates wanted to surrender, but the radicals did not.
The pirates hijacked the ship off the coast of Somalia September 25. The Faina had been headed to the Kenyan port of Mombasa after departing from Nikolayev, Ukraine, and was seized not far from its destination.
The Faina is owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine, and its crew includes citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Latvia, the Navy said.
Abdi Salan Khalif, commissioner of the coastal town of Harardhere, told CNN the pirates told a group of town elders that one crew member had died of high blood pressure problems.
Attacks by pirates have increased dramatically in the waters off Somalia's northern coast in the past year, prompting the U.S. and other coalition warships to widen their patrols in the region.
Three ships were hijacked on August 21 in that area, the "worst number of attacks" in a single day in many years, Capt. Pottengal Mukudan of the International Maritime Bureau told CNN.
After the spate of attacks, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain announced that it would begin patrolling a newly established shipping corridor in the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to protect international shipping. Canada also sent a warship through the end of September.
The International Maritime Bureau said in April that 49 pirate attacks on ships were reported in the first three months of 2008, compared with 41 for the same period last year. It recorded 263 pirates attacks last year, up from 239 the year before and the first increase in three years.
All AboutU.S. Navy • Somalia • Russia

Fake Terror War Intensifies in Somalia

Medeshi 2 Oct, 2008
Bipartisan Terror War Intensifies in Somalia
Written by Chris Floyd
Thursday, 02 October 2008
Silent Surge: Bipartisan Terror War Intensifies in Somalia by Chris Floyd
( Photo : Man starving to death in the Somali region)
In the recent presidential "debate," both candidates expressed their eager, unstinting, even feverish support for the so-called "War on Terror" being waged by Washington and its proxies around the world.
Indeed, throughout the entire campaign, Barack Obama and John McCain have repeatedly pledged their fealty to the Terror War, and all that it entails: an even larger war machine (with even more public boodle for war profiteers); a continued military presence in Iraq (under one guise or another); a substantial expansion of the hate-fomenting war in Afghanistan (with a concomitant raise in "collateral damage"); an extension of that war into Pakistan (destabilizing and radicalizing a fractious state with a nuclear arsenal); pressing ever closer to the threshold of war with Iran (with bellicose threats, blockades and demonizing propaganda); establishing even more military satrapies to exercise dominion over the regions of the earth (including new proconsular commands for Africa and the United States itself); and -- as we have noted here over and over -- the bloody rendering of Somalia into a boiling, hellish cauldron of slaughter, suffering and chaos.
Somalia is the invisible third front of the Terror War, an American-backed "regime change" operation launched by the invading army of Ethiopia and local warlords in December 2006. In addition to helping arm, fund and train the army of the Ethiopian dictatorship, the United States has intervened directly into the conflict, carrying out bombing raids on fleeing refugees and nomads, firing missiles into villages, sending in death squads to clean up after covert operations, and, as we reported here long ago, assisting in the "rendition" of refugees, including American citizens, into the hands of Ethiopia's notorious torturers. [See note below for more links.]



[For complete article reference links, please see original here.]


"The soul of a nation is under the knife...." -- Bob Dylan

Together, the American Terror Warriors, the Ethiopians and the warlords (some of them directly in the pay of the CIA) have created the worst humanitarian disaster on earth. Thousands have been killed in the fighting. Hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes, many fleeing to northern Kenya, where more than 215,000 people are languishing in a single refugee camp in Dadaab; 45,000 people have poured into the camp this year alone, says the UN. In some of the camps, Somali refugees are living without any shelter at all: "The BBC's Mark Doyle, who has recently visited the camps in Kenya, says some refugees do not even have a basic plastic sheet to protect them from the sun and rain."
In just the last two weeks, more than 18,500 people have fled the capital of Mogadishu, which has already been decimated by the warfare. Many were sent on the run by one of the Ethiopians' favorite tactics: mortar and artillery fire into civilian areas believed "sympathetic" to the insurgents.
The United States is not only backing the Ethiopians and the Somali transitional government (TGF) propped up by the occupation; Washington has also provided "robust financial and logistical support to armed paramilitaries resisting the command and control of the TGF," according to a major new study of the conflict by the human rights organization, Enough. In addition to these freebooters, it turns out that the wide-ranging Somali pirates -- who last week hijacked a shipload of heavy weapons being funneled into African conflicts by Ukrainian war profiteers -- are supported by "backers linked to the Western-backed government" in Mogadishu.
In other words, the United States is sponsoring a hydra-headed conflict that spews fire and destruction in every direction, and is trampling an already ravaged people deeper into the dirt. It is by any measure -- even the mass-murdering standards of our day -- a sickening abomination, a war crime of staggering proportions. Yet it goes on, day after day, without the slightest comment, much less criticism, from the entire bipartisan political establishment, and almost all of the media -- including most of the "dissident" blogosphere. The Somalis are simply non-people, a nation of ghosts, unseen and unseeable.
II.
An exception to the media's "cloud of unknowing" around Somalia appeared this week in Salon.com, where Jennifer Daskal put a human face on a single aspect of the Terror War atrocity: rendition. From a refugee camp in Kenya, she writes:
Ishmael, a 37-year-old shepherd from the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, looked at me with tears in his eyes. Ethiopian forces -- who had already killed his mother, father, brothers and sisters -- murdered his wife days after they were married. They then slaughtered his goats, beat him unconscious, and slashed his shoulder to the bone, he said.
In December 2006, Ishmael crossed through Somalia into Kenya, heading for the nearest refugee camp in search of medical care. But when he didn't have enough money to pay a 1,000 shilling ($15) bribe, the Kenyan police bundled him into a car and took him to Nairobi. Less than a month later, he was herded onto an airplane with some 30 others, flown to Somalia and handed over to the Ethiopian military -- the same forces that he previously fled.
Ishmael is a victim of a 2007 rendition program in the Horn of Africa, involving Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and the United States. There are at least 90 more victims like him. Most have since been sent home. A few -- including a Canadian and nine who assert Kenyan nationality -- remain in detention even now. The whereabouts of 22 others -- including several Somalis, Ethiopian Ogadenis, and Eritreans -- remain unknown....
[In the immediate aftermath of the invasion], Kenyan authorities arrested at least 150 men, women and children from more than 18 countries -- including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada -- in operations near the Somali border, and held them for weeks without charge in Nairobi. In January and February 2007, the Kenyan government then unlawfully put dozens of these individuals -- with no notice to families, lawyers or the detainees themselves -- on flights to Somalia, where they were handed over to the Ethiopian military. Ethiopian forces also arrested an unknown number of people in Somalia....
An unknown number of them -- likely dozens -- were questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Addis Ababa. From February to May 2007, Ethiopian security officers daily transported detainees -- including several pregnant women -- to a villa where U.S. officials interrogated them about suspected terrorist links. At night the Ethiopian officers returned the detainees to their cells....
In addition to working with the U.S., the Ethiopians used the rendition program for their own ends. For years, the Ethiopian military has been trying to quell domestic Ogadeni and Oromo insurgencies that receive support from neighboring countries, such as Ethiopia's archrival, Eritrea. The multinational rendition program provided them a convenient means to continue this internal battle -- and get their hands, with U.S. and Kenyan support, on those with suspected insurgent links.
Ishmael was one of their victims.
The questions his Ethiopian interrogators asked were nonstop, and always the same: "Are you al-Qaida? Are you an Ogadeni rebel? Are you part of the Somali insurgency?" Each time he said no, he was beaten, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness. When he resisted answering, they targeted his testicles.
Then, in February 2008 -- some 14 months after his original arrest -- the Ethiopians decided Ishmael was no longer worth the trouble. They dumped him, along with 27 others, just over the Somali border....Now Ishmael is back in the refugee camp, limping and urinating blood. He is still waiting for the healthcare he came searching for nearly two years ago.
Deskal's story is marred by the same timidity with which groups like Human Rights Watch (where she serves as senior counterrorism counsel) general take when discussing American direction of and complicity in war crimes. These references are often couched in terms of "a perception" (or even misperceptions!) of American intentions. The latter are always given the benefit of doubt and qualification. Still, it requires little reading between the lines to see the confirmation of what every honest observer of the conflict can see: the Terror War operation is creating more of the violent extremism that it purports to combat:
Almost everyone I spoke with assumed -- whether true or not -- that the United States backed the arbitrary arrest and unlawful rendition of men like Ishmael and the still-detained Kenyans. Almost everyone assumed that the Ethiopians operate with America's blessing.

‘Famished’ Canadian held in Ethiopia

Medeshi 2 Oct, 2008

‘Famished’ Canadian held in Ethiopia
A Canadian awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges in Ethiopia was described as injured and malnourished in a human rights report released yesterday.
Human Rights Watch said it had interviewed a former detainee who saw former Toronto resident Bashir Makhtal in a prison in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
“He was limping. He had a deep cut in one of his legs. He looked weak. He looked so famished,” the report quoted the unidentified witness as saying during an interview conducted at a refugee camp.
The report did not directly accuse Ethiopia of mistreating Mr. Makhtal but it did say that detainees like him have been subjected to “brutal beatings and torture.” It also quoted a man who was detained with Mr. Makhtal as saying that Ethiopian interrogators had repeatedly asked, “Are you al-Qaeda” and beaten him when he said no.
He was arrested in December, 2006, as he was crossing from Somalia into Kenya. He was secretly flown to Mogadishu, Somalia, where he was handed over to Ethiopian officials who brought him to Addis Ababa.
At the time, Islamist militants in Somali were fleeing toward Kenya to escape U. S.-backed Ethiopian and Somali troops. The Canadian government has claimed that some of the Islamists fighting in Somalia were actually Canadians.
Mr. Makhtal immigrated to Toronto from Ethiopia and is the grandson of the founder of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, an Ethiopian guerrilla group, but his family says he was only selling used clothing in Somalia.
The New York-based human rights group yesterday released a report, titled “Why Am I Still Here?” that named Mr. Makhtal as one of 10 who were sent to Ethiopia as part of a rendition program and who remain in detention there.
The report said several of the men were interrogated by American officials in the Ethiopian capital soon after they were transferred there from Kenya and Somalia. Others remain unaccounted for, it said.
Mr. Makhtal was placed in solitary confinement, the report said. He could face the death penalty if convicted at his upcoming military trial.
Canadian officials visited Mr. Makhtal in July, 2008. Ethiopia has assured Canada he will have a lawyer at his trial.
The report called on the Canadian government to ask Ethiopia either to prosecute Mr. Makhtal in a civilian court that meets international standards or release him and return him to Canada. The Department of Foreign Affairs had no comment yesterday.

Another Guantanamo in Ethiopia

Medeshi 2 Oct , 2008

Group says Ethiopia won't release terror suspects
By ANITA POWELL –
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Suspects arrested in a clandestine anti-terrorism sweep in East Africa nearly two years ago have been abandoned by their governments, a human rights group said in a report released Wednesday that also detailed torture accusations from former prisoners.
One Canadian and nine Kenyans are still jailed without charge in Ethiopia after being arrested in 2007 and 22 more east Africans of various nationalities are missing, said a report by Human Rights Watch titled "Why Am I Still Here?"
The men were part of roundup of about 90 people arrested in the months after Ethiopia toppled Somalia's Islamist government at the end of 2006. They are accused of being members of insurgent and Islamist groups such as al-Qaida.
The prisoners were detained in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia and moved to secret jails where some say they were tortured by Ethiopian guards and often questioned by American interrogators, the report said.
Ethiopia is a key ally in America's war on terror, but is frequently criticized for its poor record on human rights and the suppression of political opposition.
The American government has previously acknowledged questioning foreign terror suspects transferred from other countries to Ethiopian jails, but denied there is anything illegal about the practice. American officials said the suspects were never in American custody.
"No one has any interest in (the prisoners), and they seem to be stuck in never-never land," said the report's author, Jennifer Daskal, a senior counterterrorism counsel for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"Those governments involved — Ethiopia, Kenya and the U.S. — need to reverse course, renounce unlawful renditions, and account for the missing," she said.
The group said it conducted interviews with 12 former and current detainees and numerous other sources. Some detainees gave harrowing accounts of being tortured by their Ethiopian captors, including being knifed and having toenails pulled out, the organization said.
Several men said they had been beaten repeatedly, suffered permanent injury and disfigurement, only to be suddenly released after months of interrogation and dumped penniless in Somalia, Human Rights Watch said.
"All the other foreigners we were held with here have been released. No one cares about us. Please help us," Salim Awadh Salim, a 36-year-old Kenyan, said to Human Rights Watch by telephone from prison.
"The Kenyan government has refused to acknowledge their Kenyan citizenship and bring them back home," Daskal said.
Kenyan officials were not immediately available for comment on Tuesday, a public holiday in Kenya.
Ethiopian officials have previously acknowledged holding detainees, both foreign and Ethiopian, without charge or contact with their embassies. In April 2007, Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry acknowledged holding 41 suspects and ordered their release.
Wednesday's report also says Ethiopia secretly arrested Ethiopian men accused of being members of internal rebel groups, such as the separatist movements the Oromo Liberation Front and the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
Ethiopian officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday because of a public holiday in Ethiopia as well.
The report's authors say that the roundup, intended to diminish terrorist threats in the region, has only increased them.
"This horrific experience ... does nothing but breed resentment both against the countries directly involved — Ethiopia and Kenya — and the U.S.," Daskal said. "This type of activity merely fuels the anti-American militancy."
Associated Press Writer Elizabeth A. Kennedy contributed to this report.

War is Boring: Somalia Shows Danger of U.S. Prioritizing Ideology Over Security

Medeshi

War is Boring: Somalia Shows Danger of U.S. Prioritizing Ideology Over Security
David Axe Bio 01 Oct 2008 World Politics Review
Editor's Note: This is the first installment of a new biweekly column by World Politics Review Contributing Editor David Axe. Axe is an independent correspondent who has covered conflicts from Somalia to Afghanistan to East Timor. The column shares its name with David's blog, which is at WarIsBoring.com.

(Photo: A Ugandan member of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia)
On a morning late last November in Mogadishu, Somalia, a tall, toothy 65-year-old man climbed into his beat-up sedan parked in the makeshift squatter's camp he called home. Ali Mohamed Siyad, chairman of the central Bakara Market -- once the economic engine of Mogadishu, but now a mostly ruined battleground -- motored across town to my hotel for an interview.
Passing the accumulated debris of years of warfare, Siyad -- know to his friends as "Ali Dere" ("Tall Ali") -- perhaps reflected on how far he'd fallen.
Ali Dere would never use the word to describe himself, but for several years beginning in the 1990s, he was one of the city's powerful warlords, driven into the position by the looting that wracked Mogadishu in the wake of the 1991 civil war. With an arsenal of nearly 2,000 assault rifles, readily available on the black market, Ali Dere raised a security force big enough to patrol all of Bakara Market. To pay his troops, he imposed a small tax on businesses. Soon he had the armed force necessary to ward off looters. For a while, Bakara -- indeed, much of Mogadishu -- was safe, as warlords established a stable balance of power.
Contrast that to today. Mortar duels between Islamic insurgents and African Union peacekeepers in the last week have killed scores of civilians in Mogadishu. Attacks have shut down the international airport for the first time in years. Two foreign journalists and their Somali colleague were abducted at gunpoint in August and reportedly are being held somewhere in Bakara. Last weekend more than 100,000 refugees choked the roads heading out of town.
In just the last few weeks, Mogadishu, one of the world's most desperate cities in one of the world's most desperate countries, has somehow managed to become even more dangerous.
It wasn't always like this. Two years ago, Mogadishu, and much of Somalia, were under the strict but fairly orderly rule of the Union of Islamic Courts, in alliance with a number of warlords, including Ali Dere. After years of financial drought, foreign investment poured in.
Then in 2006, a confederation of northern clans calling itself the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) teamed up with the Ethiopian army and, with significant U.S. backing, destroyed the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, disarmed the warlords and sparked the present insurgency. In Somalia, as in Iraq, the logic of waging war on any political movement that remotely resembles Islamic extremism has resulted in greater extremism.
But it didn't have to be this way. A more reasonable U.S. strategy in such places would be to engage hardline regimes. The alternative -- chaos -- is far worse.

In Mogadishu, the consequences of Washington's refusal to engage with admittedly unsavory local and regional leaders are manifest in Ali Dere's tragic fall.
His power, and his association with the Islamic Courts, made him a target of the U.S.- and Ethiopian-backed TFG. When Mogadishu fell to the TFG and Ethiopians in early 2007, Ali Dere was ordered to surrender his arms. He did so, but suspicions lingered that he was sympathetic to the Islamic Courts and the associated Al-Shabab insurgent group. The suspicions were exacerbated by Ali Dere's vocal opposition to ongoing U.S. military strikes on suspected Islamists in Somalia. (The strikes reportedly have resulted in many civilian casualties.) "I know I might be arrested," Ali Dere said when he reached my hotel that day last November, "but I don't care."
Sure enough, just a month after leaving Somalia the following December, I got an email saying Ali Dere had been arrested by government troops. I expected never to hear from him again. The transitional government's "justice" system doesn't dole out much justice, just torture and -- if you believe the rumors -- summary execution.
Had Ali Dere died, it would have been the logical result of outsiders' illogical decision to remove the only powers capable of maintaining order in a troubled city. Mogadishu's warlords had, alongside the Islamic Courts, enforced a measure of security that facilitated investment and commerce. Granted, it was security at the cost of democracy, along with many other liberties that Westerners take for granted. Cinemas, for example, were banned. But that was a small price to pay for peace.
In fact, though, Ali Dere survived. He reappeared in Mogadishu after a few weeks, explaining his arrest as a simple misunderstanding over property ownership. But I for one was skeptical. His detention coincided with reports that the TFG and Ethiopia were trying to clear out insurgents and their sponsors from their Bakara hideouts. And in a follow-up interview, the former Bakara warlord seemed a shadow of his former self. Which led me to believe that Ali Dere was squeezed for information.
Regardless, the TFG's and Ethiopia's Bakara offensive was a failure, and today Mogadishu is more violent than ever. The anti-Islamist, anti-warlord strategy in Somalia has failed, and similar approaches elsewhere in the so-called "war on terror" will also fail, as long as Washington prioritizes ideology over security in troubled countries.
To craft lasting peace, we must engage regional regimes and even local strongmen who might offend our Western sensibilities, but who are capable of enforcing a measure of law and order. We could start by giving Ali Dere back his guns.

Somalia to recognize Abkhazia, S.Ossetia - envoy

Medeshi
MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - Somalia will soon recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two Georgian breakaway regions recently recognized by Russia, the Somali ambassador to Moscow said on Wednesday.
So far only Nicaragua has joined Russia in recognizing the two republics. Moscow said recognition was a necessary step to protect the republics after last month's conflict.
"The government of Somalia will be preparing documents as swiftly as possible on the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Ossetia, as well with Georgia and Abkhazia," Mohamed Handule said.
Recognition of a state is a pre-requisite to the establishment of diplomatic relations.
Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states on August 26 after a brief war with Georgia, which attacked South Ossetia to bring it back under central control on August 8.
Belarus and Venezuela have signaled support for Russia's recognition of the republics, but have not yet followed suit.
Handule also said Somalia, which enjoyed the former Soviet Union's backing in the 1970s when it was proclaimed a socialist state, hopes to launch military and technical cooperation with Russia.
"We want Russia to start military and technical cooperation with our country as soon as possible. Active talks are currently underway between our countries' foreign ministries on Russia's assistance in training Somali border guards, combat units, and security services," he said, adding that he hoped the Russian Defense Ministry would soon engage in talks.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. The country, which emerged as an independent state comprising a former British protectorate and an Italian colony in 1960, has for years been plagued by territorial and religious disputes. It has struggled to cope with famine and disease that have had a heavy death toll.
Earlier on Wednesday, the diplomat said Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has allowed Russia's military to fight pirates off Somalia's coast and on land.