Medeshi
U.S. chase of Somali pirate assets faces rough seas
Tue Apr 21, 2009
By Tabassum Zakaria - Analysis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. pledge to hunt down the fortunes Somali pirates amassed from capturing ships on the high seas may score political points but is unlikely to yield much bounty, experts say.
The millions of dollars that the pirates receive in ransom payments to release ships and their crews largely end up in Somalia, where lawlessness dominates and a fledgling government is trying to take hold.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week announced that the United States would go after the pirates' illicit gains, saying, "there are ways to crack down on companies that would do business with pirates."
But experts say going after assets of Somali pirates is not the same as going after terrorists and drug traffickers.
"The model we've used to go after other transnational threats like terrorist financing doesn't necessarily apply easily in the context of piracy where you have a localized economy and industry in a safe haven," Juan Zarate, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.
"It's very unclear where that localized economy actually touches the international financial system either formally or informally," said Zarate, a former counterterrorism official at the White House National Security Council and Treasury.
The ability of the United States to affect illicit financing derives from its ability to have influence, but it does not have much reach into Somalia, he said. "It's very hard to imagine how we're going to find and freeze assets of local pirates."
Fairly simple questions are difficult to answer without help from local authorities -- how to determine whether a boat is bought for fishing or for piracy? Who on land in Somalia would enforce any seizures of assets?
Somalia has been without an effective central government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991. The United States wants to help the new government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed stabilize the African country.
Combating Somali piracy took on a higher priority for the United States after the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama container ship was attacked and its American captain held hostage this month. The U.S. Navy rescued the captain and killed three of the pirates.
TARGET CLANS, BUSINESS
Urging clan leaders and the Somali business community to help restrain piracy may lead to greater success against the pirates, said Princeton Lyman, an Africa policy analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Somalia does a lot of business in spite of its anarchy and lack of government, and there are very prominent Somali businessmen, and I'm sure they are directly or indirectly in touch with this whole business," he said. For example, Somalia is a large exporter of livestock to the Middle East.
Somali clans or business leaders might have an incentive to cooperate if they feared U.S. military action, he said.
"There is some worry about what the West will do. They would be concerned about growing threats of military action, although I think military action on land in Somalia would be a disaster," said Lyman, a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria.
Piracy is big business in Somalia and becoming more organized, with bigger ships supporting smaller ships, experts said. But the foot soldiers still use relatively low-capital tools for the attacks: a skiff, AK-47 rifles, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Experts say one way to curb piracy would be to stop paying ransoms, but that becomes a difficult equation for ship owners weighing the threat to their crew and cargo.
"The real lever that we have to affect the funding of piracy is to drive an international campaign to stop the payment of ransoms," Zarate said.
"You have to do this on the front end because once the money hits the shores of Somalia, I don't think at this point we have the ability or the levers to affect the pirates or their networks," he said.
Peter Leeson, author of "The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates," said going after the assets was in fact shifting the focus away from the criminals to the businesses.
"Notice we're shifting the blame from wealth destroyers, who are pirates, to wealth producers, which are legitimate firms that happen to sell stuff," said Leeson, an economics professor at George Mason University.
"It's like the lazy man's solution," he said.
(Editing by Deborah Charles and Paul Simao)
Exiled Somali opposition leader returns to Eritrea
Medeshi
Exiled Somali opposition leader returns to Eritrea
Tue Apr 21, 2009
Opposition leader returns to exile base in Asmara*
No meeting with president, legislators
By Abdiaziz Hassan
NAIROBI, April 21 (Reuters) - Somalia's hardline Islamist opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has returned to his exile base in Eritrea without meeting Somalia's new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a close ally said on Tuesday.
Aweys, 62, is on a U.S. list of terrorism suspects. He quit self-imposed exile in Eritrea last month and went to Sudan for what some Somalis had hoped would be reconciliation meetings with the president and members of parliament from his clan.
His return to Asmara is another setback for Ahmed, who faces the daunting task of trying to establish a new national security force and persuade heavily-armed Islamist guerrillas to back his government in the interests of peace.
"He returned as he had planned. He has been in Asmara for the last three days," said Jama' Mohamed Khalib, deputy chairman of the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) in Asmara, and an Aweys ally.
"Khartoum is not his base. He went back to the ARS base in Asmara. He has no animosity with (Somali) government officials," he told Reuters by phone from Eritrea.
Aweys and Ahmed had worked alongside one another in the Islamic Courts Union that ruled Somalia's capital in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian troops.
They later formed the ARS in Eritrea but fell out when Ahmed joined a U.N.-hosted peace process in neighbouring Djibouti. Ahmed was elected Somalia's first Islamist president by lawmakers meeting in Djibouti in January.
FOREIGN TROOPS THE OBSTACLE
But some Somalis had expected the former colonel to end his exile in Eritrea, return to Mogadishu from Sudan and endorse Ahmed's government, which voted last week to introduce sharia law in the Horn of Africa nation.Regional diplomats accuse Eritrea of meddling in Somalia's affairs to destabilise the Western-backed government and fear the return of Aweys could lead to more insecurity down the line.
"It's not good news," said one diplomat. "There was no progress, no dialogue while he was in Sudan."
A senior Somali embassy official in Khartoum said Aweys had refused to see legislators from his Hawiye clan who had travelled there to meet him. Ahmed is also a Hawiye.
Khalib said his group would only speak with government officials once some conditions, such as the withdrawal of foreign troops from Somalia, were met.
The Ethiopian troops that ousted the Islamic Courts withdrew this year, but there are 4,300 African Union peacekeepers in Somalia and hardline Islamists routinely launch mortar and suicide attacks against the force.
"The only obstacle to direct negotiations is the presence of the foreign forces. Talks are impossible as long as the troops are there," said Khalib.
Ahmed has said he wants the troops from Uganda and Burundi to stay in the country until Somali security and police forces can be established to curb the violence.
International donors meeting in Brussels this week say Somalia needs about $165 million over the next 12 months to pay for a 6,000-strong new national security force, 10,000 Somali police, and to support the African Union troops. (Additional reporting by David Clarke; Writing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by David Clarke)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.
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Exiled Somali opposition leader returns to Eritrea
Tue Apr 21, 2009
Opposition leader returns to exile base in Asmara*
No meeting with president, legislators
By Abdiaziz Hassan
NAIROBI, April 21 (Reuters) - Somalia's hardline Islamist opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has returned to his exile base in Eritrea without meeting Somalia's new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a close ally said on Tuesday.
Aweys, 62, is on a U.S. list of terrorism suspects. He quit self-imposed exile in Eritrea last month and went to Sudan for what some Somalis had hoped would be reconciliation meetings with the president and members of parliament from his clan.
His return to Asmara is another setback for Ahmed, who faces the daunting task of trying to establish a new national security force and persuade heavily-armed Islamist guerrillas to back his government in the interests of peace.
"He returned as he had planned. He has been in Asmara for the last three days," said Jama' Mohamed Khalib, deputy chairman of the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) in Asmara, and an Aweys ally.
"Khartoum is not his base. He went back to the ARS base in Asmara. He has no animosity with (Somali) government officials," he told Reuters by phone from Eritrea.
Aweys and Ahmed had worked alongside one another in the Islamic Courts Union that ruled Somalia's capital in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian troops.
They later formed the ARS in Eritrea but fell out when Ahmed joined a U.N.-hosted peace process in neighbouring Djibouti. Ahmed was elected Somalia's first Islamist president by lawmakers meeting in Djibouti in January.
FOREIGN TROOPS THE OBSTACLE
But some Somalis had expected the former colonel to end his exile in Eritrea, return to Mogadishu from Sudan and endorse Ahmed's government, which voted last week to introduce sharia law in the Horn of Africa nation.Regional diplomats accuse Eritrea of meddling in Somalia's affairs to destabilise the Western-backed government and fear the return of Aweys could lead to more insecurity down the line.
"It's not good news," said one diplomat. "There was no progress, no dialogue while he was in Sudan."
A senior Somali embassy official in Khartoum said Aweys had refused to see legislators from his Hawiye clan who had travelled there to meet him. Ahmed is also a Hawiye.
Khalib said his group would only speak with government officials once some conditions, such as the withdrawal of foreign troops from Somalia, were met.
The Ethiopian troops that ousted the Islamic Courts withdrew this year, but there are 4,300 African Union peacekeepers in Somalia and hardline Islamists routinely launch mortar and suicide attacks against the force.
"The only obstacle to direct negotiations is the presence of the foreign forces. Talks are impossible as long as the troops are there," said Khalib.
Ahmed has said he wants the troops from Uganda and Burundi to stay in the country until Somali security and police forces can be established to curb the violence.
International donors meeting in Brussels this week say Somalia needs about $165 million over the next 12 months to pay for a 6,000-strong new national security force, 10,000 Somali police, and to support the African Union troops. (Additional reporting by David Clarke; Writing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; Editing by David Clarke)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.
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Why New York Is No Place to Try Somali Pirates
Medeshi
Why New York Is No Place to Try Somali Pirates
By Tony Karon Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2009
The reason Abdulwali Muse will stand trial in New York's Southern District Court, we are told, is that the court has a lot of experience in trying those who have attacked U.S. targets abroad. The 19-year-old Somali is accused of being the ringleader of a group of pirates who seized the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama cargo ship in the waters off East Africa, before a dramatic U.S. military rescue operation. Unlike previous pirate suspects who have been handed over for trial in Kenya, Muse was brought to New York on Monday night and is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan soon. But even if the young Somali broke the law and kidnapped Americans, putting him on trial in New York will do nothing to stamp out the piracy that is plaguing the Somali coastline. If anything, it will turn Muse into a martyr, prompting an escalation of violence on the high seas by his peers, who will rally more Somalis to their cause (which is already pretty popular in the long-suffering nation), and jeopardize U.S. national-security interests in East Africa.
Stories
How Somalia's Fishermen Became Pirates
Why the Somali Pirates Keep Getting Their Ransoms
The competence of the Southern District Court is not in question. But the guiding principle in dealing with the Muse case ought to be enhancing the effort to stamp out piracy and stabilizing the failed state in which it has festered. From that perspective, bringing Muse to stand trial in New York is a terrible idea. (See pictures of the dramatic pirate-hostage rescue.)
Somalia's pirates are not viewed as criminals by their own communities. They're a symptom of a unique set of local problems: the collapse of the Somali state and the absence of the rule of law and government authority (which leaves the country's territorial waters open to exploitation and abuse by foreigners) as well as the absence of any prospect of making an honest living. Even if he is guilty as charged, Muse is not some pathological individual who has transgressed his community's norms. There are hundreds of young men just like him all along the Somali coastline, calling themselves "coast guards" who protect Somali waters and "tax" foreign shipping to compensate for the fact that foreign fishing fleets, unmolested by any Somali state authority, annually plunder hundreds of millions of dollars of fish from Somali waters — and also for the fact that unscrupulous foreigners have used the coast to dump toxic waste. None of this excuses piracy, of course, and many of these claims are spurious, since the prime beneficiaries of booty extracted by pirates are land-based warlords, many of them associated with the now deposed U.S.-backed government. Still, the plight of Somalia's coastline certainly helps explain why the phenomenon is so widespread — and why the pirates are viewed by many Somalis as folk heroes. Putting Muse on trial in New York won't change that; it will simply reinforce an already negative prevailing view of the U.S.
Even those Somalis who take a dim view of piracy will not have forgotten that the last time the country produced a political authority with a willingness and capability to stamp out piracy — in the form of the Islamic Courts Union, which drove out the feuding warlords and brought a modicum of peace and stability to Mogadishu in 2006 — the U.S. backed an Ethiopian invasion to topple that authority because it was sheltering a handful of al-Qaeda suspects. But the U.S.-backed Transitional Government propped up by the Ethiopians was not only unable or unwilling to tackle piracy; the government itself was untenable, and it subsequently collapsed.
Somalis' hopes for stability now rest with a process of reconstituting a government in which the Islamists play a central role — though this is opposed by the more radical, al-Qaeda-aligned breakaway youth militia known as the Shebab. The fact that the deployment in the area of more than 20 warships from around the world has done little more than contain the problem of piracy, and then only temporarily, underscores the reality that the only hope of eliminating the problem lies in establishing a government deemed legitimate by a majority of Somalis, and therefore capable of enforcing its writ.
A New York trial for Muse is unlikely even to prompt others to refrain from acts of piracy. There is no fear of America among young Somali gunmen, who demonstrated that attitude in the most grisly fashion in the streets of Mogadishu in 1993, during the infamous "Black Hawk Down" incident. That event has achieved mythic status in the Somali imagination. Instead, the trial is more likely to prompt Muse's peers to seek symbolic retribution — possibly even prompting them to make his release the condition for freeing some future group of hostages they capture on the high seas. Until now, the Somali pirates have scrupulously avoided harming their captives; their capture has been simply a business transaction. That may soon change. An escalation in the confrontation between the pirates and the ships of richer nations will present a golden opportunity to the Shebab to exploit popular nationalist sentiment and turn the business of piracy into a coastal jihad.
A more likely way to turn local sentiment against piracy would be, for example, to put those responsible for holding a shipment of food aid destined to feed the starving in a famine-plagued region on trial in an African court. Somali piracy needs a Somali solution — beginning with the creation of a political order capable of enforcing law and order and protecting Somalia's sovereignty, and offering young Somali men alternative livelihoods. Putting captive pirates on trial may be part of the solution to the piracy problem, but it will only be effective if the courts and laws are seen as legitimate by the communities from which the pirates hail. Putting them on trial in New York may satisfy the desire by many in the U.S. to send a harsh message to those who dare mess with Americans. But it only raises the likelihood of more, and more dangerous, pirate attacks.
Why New York Is No Place to Try Somali Pirates
By Tony Karon Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2009
The reason Abdulwali Muse will stand trial in New York's Southern District Court, we are told, is that the court has a lot of experience in trying those who have attacked U.S. targets abroad. The 19-year-old Somali is accused of being the ringleader of a group of pirates who seized the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama cargo ship in the waters off East Africa, before a dramatic U.S. military rescue operation. Unlike previous pirate suspects who have been handed over for trial in Kenya, Muse was brought to New York on Monday night and is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan soon. But even if the young Somali broke the law and kidnapped Americans, putting him on trial in New York will do nothing to stamp out the piracy that is plaguing the Somali coastline. If anything, it will turn Muse into a martyr, prompting an escalation of violence on the high seas by his peers, who will rally more Somalis to their cause (which is already pretty popular in the long-suffering nation), and jeopardize U.S. national-security interests in East Africa.
Stories
How Somalia's Fishermen Became Pirates
Why the Somali Pirates Keep Getting Their Ransoms
The competence of the Southern District Court is not in question. But the guiding principle in dealing with the Muse case ought to be enhancing the effort to stamp out piracy and stabilizing the failed state in which it has festered. From that perspective, bringing Muse to stand trial in New York is a terrible idea. (See pictures of the dramatic pirate-hostage rescue.)
Somalia's pirates are not viewed as criminals by their own communities. They're a symptom of a unique set of local problems: the collapse of the Somali state and the absence of the rule of law and government authority (which leaves the country's territorial waters open to exploitation and abuse by foreigners) as well as the absence of any prospect of making an honest living. Even if he is guilty as charged, Muse is not some pathological individual who has transgressed his community's norms. There are hundreds of young men just like him all along the Somali coastline, calling themselves "coast guards" who protect Somali waters and "tax" foreign shipping to compensate for the fact that foreign fishing fleets, unmolested by any Somali state authority, annually plunder hundreds of millions of dollars of fish from Somali waters — and also for the fact that unscrupulous foreigners have used the coast to dump toxic waste. None of this excuses piracy, of course, and many of these claims are spurious, since the prime beneficiaries of booty extracted by pirates are land-based warlords, many of them associated with the now deposed U.S.-backed government. Still, the plight of Somalia's coastline certainly helps explain why the phenomenon is so widespread — and why the pirates are viewed by many Somalis as folk heroes. Putting Muse on trial in New York won't change that; it will simply reinforce an already negative prevailing view of the U.S.
Even those Somalis who take a dim view of piracy will not have forgotten that the last time the country produced a political authority with a willingness and capability to stamp out piracy — in the form of the Islamic Courts Union, which drove out the feuding warlords and brought a modicum of peace and stability to Mogadishu in 2006 — the U.S. backed an Ethiopian invasion to topple that authority because it was sheltering a handful of al-Qaeda suspects. But the U.S.-backed Transitional Government propped up by the Ethiopians was not only unable or unwilling to tackle piracy; the government itself was untenable, and it subsequently collapsed.
Somalis' hopes for stability now rest with a process of reconstituting a government in which the Islamists play a central role — though this is opposed by the more radical, al-Qaeda-aligned breakaway youth militia known as the Shebab. The fact that the deployment in the area of more than 20 warships from around the world has done little more than contain the problem of piracy, and then only temporarily, underscores the reality that the only hope of eliminating the problem lies in establishing a government deemed legitimate by a majority of Somalis, and therefore capable of enforcing its writ.
A New York trial for Muse is unlikely even to prompt others to refrain from acts of piracy. There is no fear of America among young Somali gunmen, who demonstrated that attitude in the most grisly fashion in the streets of Mogadishu in 1993, during the infamous "Black Hawk Down" incident. That event has achieved mythic status in the Somali imagination. Instead, the trial is more likely to prompt Muse's peers to seek symbolic retribution — possibly even prompting them to make his release the condition for freeing some future group of hostages they capture on the high seas. Until now, the Somali pirates have scrupulously avoided harming their captives; their capture has been simply a business transaction. That may soon change. An escalation in the confrontation between the pirates and the ships of richer nations will present a golden opportunity to the Shebab to exploit popular nationalist sentiment and turn the business of piracy into a coastal jihad.
A more likely way to turn local sentiment against piracy would be, for example, to put those responsible for holding a shipment of food aid destined to feed the starving in a famine-plagued region on trial in an African court. Somali piracy needs a Somali solution — beginning with the creation of a political order capable of enforcing law and order and protecting Somalia's sovereignty, and offering young Somali men alternative livelihoods. Putting captive pirates on trial may be part of the solution to the piracy problem, but it will only be effective if the courts and laws are seen as legitimate by the communities from which the pirates hail. Putting them on trial in New York may satisfy the desire by many in the U.S. to send a harsh message to those who dare mess with Americans. But it only raises the likelihood of more, and more dangerous, pirate attacks.
Piracy: 'I don't even tell my company what route I'm taking'
Medeshi
Piracy: 'I don't even tell my company what route I'm taking'
By Daniel Howden Africa correspondent
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Amid the late night, dockside scrum of reporters in Mombasa awaiting the return earlier this month of the now famous US container ship the Maersk Alabama, was one man who wasn't there to file a story.
Related articles
Pirates: the $80m Gulf connection
Somali pirates release chemical tanker
A sea captain himself he had come down to the heavily guarded berth 12 in the hope of getting some tips from the American sailors on what to do if your ship is attacked by Somali pirates.
He was due to set sail soon afterwards in a similar container ship. He was understandably nervous. "My crew are shit scared, they don't want to go," he said. "They're saying they're going to go on strike."
Chain smoking cigarettes but refusing a drink as he was sailing soon, the captain spoke of the incredible strain that crews and captains come under when an ordinary cargo voyage can end up with your being held hostage for up to a year off the coast of a failed state.
There are at least 17 hijacked vessels being held in the coastal waters off Somalia and some 300 sailors being kept hostage.
In this atmosphere of fear, he is far from convinced that everything is being done to prevent piracy. "If I can find my house on Google Earth why can't they find the pirates?" he asked.
In return for anonymity he was happy to offer a tour of his freighter berthed nearby.
On the bridge something that looks like a telex machine was spitting out the latest piracy reports.
Tearing off an update he smiled broadly, gave a shrug and said: "You can get one of these in Mombasa. They cost $200 (£137). All the pirates have them."
As he contemplated a high-seas dash for the Middle East during a week in which there had been at least two pirate attacks every day he said it no longer made sense to trust anyone.
"I don't tell my company exactly what route I will be taking, I don't want people to know where I am."
It is widely believed that there are spies both within the ports and the shipping companies themselves leaking information on ships' cargo and whereabouts to the pirates.
He said he avoided typical shipping lanes, where pirate mother ships carrying smaller attack craft lie in wait.
"No one" gets to see his charts, he explained, and that is the best form of anti-piracy he has come across.
Piracy: 'I don't even tell my company what route I'm taking'
By Daniel Howden Africa correspondent
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Amid the late night, dockside scrum of reporters in Mombasa awaiting the return earlier this month of the now famous US container ship the Maersk Alabama, was one man who wasn't there to file a story.
Related articles
Pirates: the $80m Gulf connection
Somali pirates release chemical tanker
A sea captain himself he had come down to the heavily guarded berth 12 in the hope of getting some tips from the American sailors on what to do if your ship is attacked by Somali pirates.
He was due to set sail soon afterwards in a similar container ship. He was understandably nervous. "My crew are shit scared, they don't want to go," he said. "They're saying they're going to go on strike."
Chain smoking cigarettes but refusing a drink as he was sailing soon, the captain spoke of the incredible strain that crews and captains come under when an ordinary cargo voyage can end up with your being held hostage for up to a year off the coast of a failed state.
There are at least 17 hijacked vessels being held in the coastal waters off Somalia and some 300 sailors being kept hostage.
In this atmosphere of fear, he is far from convinced that everything is being done to prevent piracy. "If I can find my house on Google Earth why can't they find the pirates?" he asked.
In return for anonymity he was happy to offer a tour of his freighter berthed nearby.
On the bridge something that looks like a telex machine was spitting out the latest piracy reports.
Tearing off an update he smiled broadly, gave a shrug and said: "You can get one of these in Mombasa. They cost $200 (£137). All the pirates have them."
As he contemplated a high-seas dash for the Middle East during a week in which there had been at least two pirate attacks every day he said it no longer made sense to trust anyone.
"I don't tell my company exactly what route I will be taking, I don't want people to know where I am."
It is widely believed that there are spies both within the ports and the shipping companies themselves leaking information on ships' cargo and whereabouts to the pirates.
He said he avoided typical shipping lanes, where pirate mother ships carrying smaller attack craft lie in wait.
"No one" gets to see his charts, he explained, and that is the best form of anti-piracy he has come across.
Pirates: the $80m Gulf connection
Medeshi April 21, 2009
Pirates: the $80m Gulf connection
Crime syndicates laundering vast sums taken in ransom from ships and their crews hijacked in Horn of Africa
By Kim Sengupta In Nairobi and Daniel Howden Africa correspondent
Crime syndicates laundering vast sums taken in ransom from ships and their crews hijacked in Horn of Africa
By Kim Sengupta In Nairobi and Daniel Howden Africa correspondent
Organised piracy syndicates operating in Dubai and other Gulf states are laundering vast sums of money taken in ransom from vessels hijacked off the Horn of Africa.
Investigators hired by the shipping industry have told The Independent that around $80m (£56m) has been paid out in the past year alone – far more than has previously been admitted. But while some of this money has ended up in the pirate havens of Somalia, millions have been laundered through bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Middle East.
The so-called "godfathers" of the illicit operations, according to investigators, include businessmen from Somalia and the Middle East, as well as other nationalities on the Indian sub-continent. There have also been reports that some of the money from piracy ransoms has gone to Islamist militants.
Investigators hired by the shipping industry have told The Independent that around $80m (£56m) has been paid out in the past year alone – far more than has previously been admitted. But while some of this money has ended up in the pirate havens of Somalia, millions have been laundered through bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Middle East.
The so-called "godfathers" of the illicit operations, according to investigators, include businessmen from Somalia and the Middle East, as well as other nationalities on the Indian sub-continent. There have also been reports that some of the money from piracy ransoms has gone to Islamist militants.
Somali pirate arrives in NYC, awaits court hearing
Medeshi
Apr 21
Apr 21
Somali pirate arrives in NYC, awaits court hearing
By VIRGINIA BYRNE Associated Press Writer
AP Photo/Louis Lanzano
Watch Related Video
Piracy Suspect to Be Tried in New York
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Somali teenager arrived to face what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century, smiling but saying nothing as he was led into a federal building under heavy guard.
Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain, was to appear in a courtroom Tuesday on what were expected to be piracy and hostage-taking charges.
By VIRGINIA BYRNE Associated Press Writer
AP Photo/Louis Lanzano
Watch Related Video
Piracy Suspect to Be Tried in New York
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Somali teenager arrived to face what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century, smiling but saying nothing as he was led into a federal building under heavy guard.
Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain, was to appear in a courtroom Tuesday on what were expected to be piracy and hostage-taking charges.
(Police and FBI agents escort the Somali pirate suspect U.S. officials identified as Abduhl Wali-i-Musi into FBI headquarters in New York on Monday, April 20, 2009. Abduhl Wal-i-Musi is the sole surviving Somali pirate suspect from the hostage-taking of commercial ship captain Richard )
Handcuffed with a chain wrapped around his waist and about a dozen federal agents surrounding him, the slight teen seemed poised as he passed through the glare of dozens of news cameras in a drenching rainstorm. His left hand was heavily bandaged from the wound he suffered during the skirmish on the cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama.
A law enforcement official familiar with the case said Muse (moo-SAY') was being charged under two obscure federal laws that deal with piracy and hostage-taking. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.
The teenager was flown from Africa to a New York airport on the same day that his mother appealed to President Barack Obama for his release. She said her son was coaxed into piracy by "gangsters with money."
"I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial," Adar Abdirahman Hassan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Galkayo town in Somalia.
The boy's father, Abdiqadir Muse, said the pirates lied to his son, telling him they were going to get money. The family is penniless, he said.
"He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into," Muse said in a separate telephone interview with the AP through an interpreter.
He also said it was his son's first outing with the pirates after having been taken from his home about a week and a half before he surrendered at sea to U.S. officials.
The young pirate's age and real name remained unclear. His parents said he is only 16; law enforcement said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.
His worried family asked the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center to help get him a lawyer, said the organization's executive director, Omar Jamal.
"What we have is a confused teenager, overnight thrown into the highest level of the criminal justice system in the United States out of a country where there's no law at all," Jamal said. Muse speaks no English, he said.
The suspect was taken aboard a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Bainbridge, shortly before Navy SEAL snipers killed three of his colleagues who had held Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips hostage.
The U.S. officials said the teenager was brought to New York to face trial in part because the FBI office here has a history of handling cases in Africa involving major crimes against Americans, such as the al-Qaida bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
Court documents list the suspect's name as Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, which the boy's parents have said is incorrect.
Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said he has been in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the Somali suspect.
"I think in this particular case, there's a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas," said Kuby. "This man seemed to come onto the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate. He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age."
Handcuffed with a chain wrapped around his waist and about a dozen federal agents surrounding him, the slight teen seemed poised as he passed through the glare of dozens of news cameras in a drenching rainstorm. His left hand was heavily bandaged from the wound he suffered during the skirmish on the cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama.
A law enforcement official familiar with the case said Muse (moo-SAY') was being charged under two obscure federal laws that deal with piracy and hostage-taking. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.
The teenager was flown from Africa to a New York airport on the same day that his mother appealed to President Barack Obama for his release. She said her son was coaxed into piracy by "gangsters with money."
"I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager; I request him to release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial," Adar Abdirahman Hassan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Galkayo town in Somalia.
The boy's father, Abdiqadir Muse, said the pirates lied to his son, telling him they were going to get money. The family is penniless, he said.
"He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into," Muse said in a separate telephone interview with the AP through an interpreter.
He also said it was his son's first outing with the pirates after having been taken from his home about a week and a half before he surrendered at sea to U.S. officials.
The young pirate's age and real name remained unclear. His parents said he is only 16; law enforcement said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.
His worried family asked the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center to help get him a lawyer, said the organization's executive director, Omar Jamal.
"What we have is a confused teenager, overnight thrown into the highest level of the criminal justice system in the United States out of a country where there's no law at all," Jamal said. Muse speaks no English, he said.
The suspect was taken aboard a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Bainbridge, shortly before Navy SEAL snipers killed three of his colleagues who had held Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips hostage.
The U.S. officials said the teenager was brought to New York to face trial in part because the FBI office here has a history of handling cases in Africa involving major crimes against Americans, such as the al-Qaida bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
Court documents list the suspect's name as Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, which the boy's parents have said is incorrect.
Ron Kuby, a New York-based civil rights lawyer, said he has been in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the Somali suspect.
"I think in this particular case, there's a grave question as to whether America was in violation of principles of truce in warfare on the high seas," said Kuby. "This man seemed to come onto the Bainbridge under a flag of truce to negotiate. He was then captured. There is a question whether he is lawfully in American custody and serious questions as to whether he can be prosecuted because of his age."
Country profile: Djibouti
Medeshi
Country profile: Djibouti
Facts and staticstics on Djibouti including history, population, politics, geography, economy, religion and climate
Monday 20 April 2009
Map of Djibouti. Source: Graphic
Potted history of the country: The nomadic Afars and Issas inhabited Djibouti hundreds of years before the French colonised it in the 19th century. It was renamed the French Territory of the Afars and Issas in 1967. Ten years later Djibouti won its independence, with Hassan Gouled Aptidon ushering in an authoritarian one-party state. Civil war erupted in the 1990s. In 2000 the government and the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy signed a peace treaty.
At a glance
Location: Horn of Africa, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the Gulf of Aden
Neighbours: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somaliland
Size: 8,958 square miles
Population: 848,000 (168th)
Density: 94.7 people per square mile
Capital city: Djibouti (population 583,000)
Head of state: President Ismael Omar GellehHead of government: Prime minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita
Currency: Djibouti franc
Time zone: Djibouti zone (+3 hours)
International dialling code: +253
Website: presidence.dj
Political pressure points:
Facts and staticstics on Djibouti including history, population, politics, geography, economy, religion and climate
Monday 20 April 2009
Map of Djibouti. Source: Graphic
Potted history of the country: The nomadic Afars and Issas inhabited Djibouti hundreds of years before the French colonised it in the 19th century. It was renamed the French Territory of the Afars and Issas in 1967. Ten years later Djibouti won its independence, with Hassan Gouled Aptidon ushering in an authoritarian one-party state. Civil war erupted in the 1990s. In 2000 the government and the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy signed a peace treaty.
At a glance
Location: Horn of Africa, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the Gulf of Aden
Neighbours: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somaliland
Size: 8,958 square miles
Population: 848,000 (168th)
Density: 94.7 people per square mile
Capital city: Djibouti (population 583,000)
Head of state: President Ismael Omar GellehHead of government: Prime minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita
Currency: Djibouti franc
Time zone: Djibouti zone (+3 hours)
International dialling code: +253
Website: presidence.dj
Political pressure points:
President Ismail Omar Guelleh came to power in the country's first multi-party elections in 1999. He has close ties to France, which maintains a strong military presence. As a frontline state in the war on terrorism, Djibouti hosts the only US military base in Africa. High unemployment is a major problem.
Population mix: Somali 60%, Afar 35%, French, Arab, Ethiopian, Italian 5%
Religious makeup: Muslim 99%, citizens not identifying with a religion are officially considered to be Muslim
Main languages: French, Arabic, Somali, Afar
Living national icons: Abdourahman Waberi (author), Fathia Ali Bouraleh (athletics, first female Olympian)
Landscape and climate: Positioned at the mouth of the Red Sea on one of the busiest shipping trade routes in the world, Djibouti is the smallest country in the Horn of Africa. The land is largely barren and coastal desert. It has a hot semi-arid climate with a cooler season from October to April.
Highest point: Moussa Ali, 2,028 metres
Area covered by water: Eight square miles
Healthcare and disease: The civil war fractured the healthcare system, and clinics have still not recovered. Vaccination coverage is poor and there is a high incidence of TB, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and measles. Thirty per cent of children under five are affected by malnutrition.
Average life expectancy (m/f): 53/56
Average number of children per mother: 4.1
Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births: 650
Infant deaths per 1,000 births: 130
Adults HIV/Aids rate: 3.1%
Doctors per 1,000 head of population: 2
Adult literacy rate: 65.5%
Economic outlook: Despite its position on the Gulf of Aden, with a busy port servicing landlocked neighbours, Djibouti is mostly underdeveloped and has few natural resources. The airport, port and banking account for 80% of the GDP.
Main industries: Service industry
Key crops/livestock: Virtually all food supplies imported
Key exports: Machinery and transport equipment
GDP: £393m (166th)
GDP per head: £480
Unemployment rate: 58%
Proportion of global carbon emissions: n/a
Most popular tourist attractions: Islands and beaches in the Gulf of Tadjoura and the Bab al-Mandab; the Marché Central bazaar in the capital.
Local recommendation: Surrounded by dormant volcanos and hot springs in the Danakil desert, Lake Assal, at 155 metres below sea level, is the lowest point in Africa.
Traditional dish: Skoudehkaris (lamb and rice)
Foreign tourist visitors per year: 20,000
Media freedom index: (ranked out of 173): 134
Did you know ... Lake Assal is considered to be among the most saline body of water in the world - only some hypersaline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica have higher salinity levels.
National anthem:Arise with strength!For we have raised our flagThe flag which has cost us dearWith extremes of thirst and pain
· Information correct on date of first publication, Monday 20 April 2009.
Population mix: Somali 60%, Afar 35%, French, Arab, Ethiopian, Italian 5%
Religious makeup: Muslim 99%, citizens not identifying with a religion are officially considered to be Muslim
Main languages: French, Arabic, Somali, Afar
Living national icons: Abdourahman Waberi (author), Fathia Ali Bouraleh (athletics, first female Olympian)
Landscape and climate: Positioned at the mouth of the Red Sea on one of the busiest shipping trade routes in the world, Djibouti is the smallest country in the Horn of Africa. The land is largely barren and coastal desert. It has a hot semi-arid climate with a cooler season from October to April.
Highest point: Moussa Ali, 2,028 metres
Area covered by water: Eight square miles
Healthcare and disease: The civil war fractured the healthcare system, and clinics have still not recovered. Vaccination coverage is poor and there is a high incidence of TB, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and measles. Thirty per cent of children under five are affected by malnutrition.
Average life expectancy (m/f): 53/56
Average number of children per mother: 4.1
Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births: 650
Infant deaths per 1,000 births: 130
Adults HIV/Aids rate: 3.1%
Doctors per 1,000 head of population: 2
Adult literacy rate: 65.5%
Economic outlook: Despite its position on the Gulf of Aden, with a busy port servicing landlocked neighbours, Djibouti is mostly underdeveloped and has few natural resources. The airport, port and banking account for 80% of the GDP.
Main industries: Service industry
Key crops/livestock: Virtually all food supplies imported
Key exports: Machinery and transport equipment
GDP: £393m (166th)
GDP per head: £480
Unemployment rate: 58%
Proportion of global carbon emissions: n/a
Most popular tourist attractions: Islands and beaches in the Gulf of Tadjoura and the Bab al-Mandab; the Marché Central bazaar in the capital.
Local recommendation: Surrounded by dormant volcanos and hot springs in the Danakil desert, Lake Assal, at 155 metres below sea level, is the lowest point in Africa.
Traditional dish: Skoudehkaris (lamb and rice)
Foreign tourist visitors per year: 20,000
Media freedom index: (ranked out of 173): 134
Did you know ... Lake Assal is considered to be among the most saline body of water in the world - only some hypersaline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica have higher salinity levels.
National anthem:Arise with strength!For we have raised our flagThe flag which has cost us dearWith extremes of thirst and pain
· Information correct on date of first publication, Monday 20 April 2009.
Gov’t urged to act on seamen held off Somalia
Medeshi
Gov’t urged to act on seamen held off Somalia
By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
04/19/2009
MANILA, Philippines -- A labor organization called on the government on Sunday to step up pressure on foreign shipping firms to secure the release of 105 Filipino sailors held hostage in seven vessels in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia.
"No effort should be spared to safely recover all of the hostages without further delay," the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), through its secretary general Ernesto Herrera, said.
Herrera said the government should also see to it that the families of the sailors get adequate help and timely updates on the conditions of their loved ones from the shipping firms or their staffing agencies here.
"Apart from the emotional distress associated with having a member in captivity, our worry is that the families of the victims might also be having financial difficulties. We presume they have not been receiving their remittances, since those who are supposed to send the money have been unable to do so," Herrera said.
The former senator said the government should ensure that the captives’ families would get enough assistance to tide them over financially.
He said the government should likewise ensure active negotiations to free of all Filipino sailors held by Somali porates, and that no one has been left out or abandoned by their employers.
"This is apart from ensuring that the victims are being properly looked after. It is quite possible that some of them may have become ill in captivity, or may require some medical attention,” the labor leader added.
Since 2006, a total of 227 Filipino sailors on foreign vessels have been seized in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia. At least 122 of them have been freed.
Citing Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) statistics, Herrera said more than 350,000 Filipino sailors wired home a record $3.034 billion in 2008, up 36 percent or $798.19 million compared to the $2.236 billion they remitted in 2007.
In the first two months of this year, they remitted a total of $491.12 million, up six percent or $28.04 million versus the $463.07 million they sent home in the same period in 2008.
Herrera said the cash wired home by Filipino sailors grew more than 100 percent over the last four years, from the $1.464 billion they remitted in 2004. Sailors are able to send home large amounts because they receive higher emoluments, and they live where they work, according to Herrera. Thus, they do not have to spend for rent, food and utilities.
Officers on foreign ships receive more than $3,000 monthly, while other personnel get around $1,250, according to Herrera.
Gov’t urged to act on seamen held off Somalia
By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
04/19/2009
MANILA, Philippines -- A labor organization called on the government on Sunday to step up pressure on foreign shipping firms to secure the release of 105 Filipino sailors held hostage in seven vessels in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia.
"No effort should be spared to safely recover all of the hostages without further delay," the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), through its secretary general Ernesto Herrera, said.
Herrera said the government should also see to it that the families of the sailors get adequate help and timely updates on the conditions of their loved ones from the shipping firms or their staffing agencies here.
"Apart from the emotional distress associated with having a member in captivity, our worry is that the families of the victims might also be having financial difficulties. We presume they have not been receiving their remittances, since those who are supposed to send the money have been unable to do so," Herrera said.
The former senator said the government should ensure that the captives’ families would get enough assistance to tide them over financially.
He said the government should likewise ensure active negotiations to free of all Filipino sailors held by Somali porates, and that no one has been left out or abandoned by their employers.
"This is apart from ensuring that the victims are being properly looked after. It is quite possible that some of them may have become ill in captivity, or may require some medical attention,” the labor leader added.
Since 2006, a total of 227 Filipino sailors on foreign vessels have been seized in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia. At least 122 of them have been freed.
Citing Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) statistics, Herrera said more than 350,000 Filipino sailors wired home a record $3.034 billion in 2008, up 36 percent or $798.19 million compared to the $2.236 billion they remitted in 2007.
In the first two months of this year, they remitted a total of $491.12 million, up six percent or $28.04 million versus the $463.07 million they sent home in the same period in 2008.
Herrera said the cash wired home by Filipino sailors grew more than 100 percent over the last four years, from the $1.464 billion they remitted in 2004. Sailors are able to send home large amounts because they receive higher emoluments, and they live where they work, according to Herrera. Thus, they do not have to spend for rent, food and utilities.
Officers on foreign ships receive more than $3,000 monthly, while other personnel get around $1,250, according to Herrera.
Somali piracy: Global overview
Medeshi April 20, 2009 Somali piracy: Global overview
World leaders are increasingly concerned by pirates operating off the coast of Somalia, who have seized several ships recently, demanding ransom payments to free them.
Warships from several countries have been sent to patrol the Indian Ocean, as the pirates are threatening some of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Use the map to see how the pirates have affected various countries.
EYL
The so-called pirate capital of Somalia's Puntland region is where the high seas hijackers often steer their captured vessels. Special restaurants in the town cater for the captive crews. With their expensive tastes in fancy houses, cars and women, the pirates have brought boom times to the local economy.
YEMEN
A number of pirates have pounced close to the Yemeni shores but it is not known if any are actually based there. The gangs have been known to seize Yemeni fishing boats and use them to fool naval patrols. The pirates are believed to source much of their heavy weaponry, like rocket-propelled grenades, from Yemen.
ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia is another source - albeit indirect - of arms such as AK-47s for the pirates. Somalia's Horn of Africa neighbour is known to have provided Somali clan militias with weapons to take on radical Islamists, although many of the firearms end up on sale in markets throughout Somalia.
LONDON
The business capital of the world's maritime industry, London is home to many of the lawyers, negotiators and security teams who help reunite ship owners with their seized vessels. Legal advisors and maritime risk consultants help haggle over ransom fees while hired muscle ensures the cash reaches the raiders.
FRANCE
France has led the way in taking tough action against the pirates. In the past year French forces have captured more than 70 Somali pirates, and killed three others.
DUBAI
Wealthy businessmen in the emirate, which has a large Somali community, are suspected of having funded the pirates in the past through the informal Islamic finance system of Hawala. They also provided equipment like speedboats and GPS devices. But the pirates are now thought to largely manage their own affairs.
KENYA
Kenya is trying a number of the Somali pirates currently in detention. Many of the captured ships have either been going to, or coming from, its main port of Mombasa. These include ships delivering food aid to Somalia.
USA
US engagement with the issue of Somalia piracy escalated after two of its vessels were attacked. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced a four-point plan for dealing with the pirates, including improving the situation in Somalia and freezing pirates' assets. One pirate, captured by US forces, is to be tried in the US.
MOGADISHU
Mogadishu is the capital of a nation which has been without an effective government since 1991. Islamist insurgents are battling a weak, internationally recognised government. The anarchy and fighting on the land has now spread to Somalia's waters. Mogadishu also has a large weapons market.
INDIAN OCEAN
Every year, 22,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden to or from the Indian Ocean, carrying about 8% of the world's trade. Since piracy has escalated, at least nine countries have sent naval vessels to patrol the region. But the task is extremely difficult, because of the huge area within which the pirates operate.
World leaders are increasingly concerned by pirates operating off the coast of Somalia, who have seized several ships recently, demanding ransom payments to free them.
Warships from several countries have been sent to patrol the Indian Ocean, as the pirates are threatening some of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Use the map to see how the pirates have affected various countries.
EYL
The so-called pirate capital of Somalia's Puntland region is where the high seas hijackers often steer their captured vessels. Special restaurants in the town cater for the captive crews. With their expensive tastes in fancy houses, cars and women, the pirates have brought boom times to the local economy.
YEMEN
A number of pirates have pounced close to the Yemeni shores but it is not known if any are actually based there. The gangs have been known to seize Yemeni fishing boats and use them to fool naval patrols. The pirates are believed to source much of their heavy weaponry, like rocket-propelled grenades, from Yemen.
ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia is another source - albeit indirect - of arms such as AK-47s for the pirates. Somalia's Horn of Africa neighbour is known to have provided Somali clan militias with weapons to take on radical Islamists, although many of the firearms end up on sale in markets throughout Somalia.
LONDON
The business capital of the world's maritime industry, London is home to many of the lawyers, negotiators and security teams who help reunite ship owners with their seized vessels. Legal advisors and maritime risk consultants help haggle over ransom fees while hired muscle ensures the cash reaches the raiders.
FRANCE
France has led the way in taking tough action against the pirates. In the past year French forces have captured more than 70 Somali pirates, and killed three others.
DUBAI
Wealthy businessmen in the emirate, which has a large Somali community, are suspected of having funded the pirates in the past through the informal Islamic finance system of Hawala. They also provided equipment like speedboats and GPS devices. But the pirates are now thought to largely manage their own affairs.
KENYA
Kenya is trying a number of the Somali pirates currently in detention. Many of the captured ships have either been going to, or coming from, its main port of Mombasa. These include ships delivering food aid to Somalia.
USA
US engagement with the issue of Somalia piracy escalated after two of its vessels were attacked. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced a four-point plan for dealing with the pirates, including improving the situation in Somalia and freezing pirates' assets. One pirate, captured by US forces, is to be tried in the US.
MOGADISHU
Mogadishu is the capital of a nation which has been without an effective government since 1991. Islamist insurgents are battling a weak, internationally recognised government. The anarchy and fighting on the land has now spread to Somalia's waters. Mogadishu also has a large weapons market.
INDIAN OCEAN
Every year, 22,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden to or from the Indian Ocean, carrying about 8% of the world's trade. Since piracy has escalated, at least nine countries have sent naval vessels to patrol the region. But the task is extremely difficult, because of the huge area within which the pirates operate.
Pirate mother's Obama mercy plea
Medeshi April 20, 2009
Pirate mother's Obama mercy plea
The mother of a teenage alleged pirate held over the hostage-taking of a US sea captain this month has appealed to US President Barack Obama to free him.
Adar Abdurahman Hassan told the BBC her son, Abde Wale Abdul Kadhir Muse, was innocent and just 16 years old.
He was held over the seizure off Somalia of Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship.
Pirate mother's Obama mercy plea
The mother of a teenage alleged pirate held over the hostage-taking of a US sea captain this month has appealed to US President Barack Obama to free him.
Adar Abdurahman Hassan told the BBC her son, Abde Wale Abdul Kadhir Muse, was innocent and just 16 years old.
He was held over the seizure off Somalia of Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship.
(Photo: President Obama in Somali dress while in a visit to Wajeir -NFD)
While her son was allegedly negotiating on a US warship, naval snipers shot dead three pirates holding the captain.
The mother of the teenager, who is facing trial in New York, said she wanted to be present in court if the case goes ahead.
'Under-age'
Mrs Hassan said her son had been missing for two weeks prior to the hijacking and she only realised he had been implicated when she heard his name in a radio report.
“ I am requesting President Obama to release my child, he has got nothing to do with the pirates' crime, he is a minor ” Adar Abdurahman Hassan Mother of alleged pirate
The teenager is accused of being a member of the pirate gang which boarded the container ship on 8 April and took Capt Phillips hostage in a lifeboat.
The standoff ended on the fifth day while her son was aboard a US warship allegedly demanding a ransom when US Navy marksmen killed three of the pirates.
Mrs Hassan told the BBC's Somali service: "I am requesting the American government, I am requesting President Obama to release my child. He has got nothing to do with the pirates' crime.
"He is a minor; he is under-age and he has been used for this crime. I also request from the US, if they choose to put him on trial, I want them to invite me there."
Her plea came as Somali pirates released a Togo-flagged cargo ship seized last week, reportedly after a $100,000 (£68,000) ransom was paid.
The 5,000-tonne Lebanese-owned MV Sea Horse - which had been heading to India to pick up food aid for Somalia - was seized on 14 April.
But 19 foreign vessels and more than 300 sailors remain in the hands of Somali pirates, who have stepped up attacks on shipping in recent weeks.
About three million people - half the Somali population - need assistance, donors say.
On Sunday, the weak, internationally recognised Somali government said captured pirates could face the death penalty.
But the Horn of Africa nation has been without an effective administration since 1991, fuelling the lawlessness which has allowed piracy to thrive.
Shipping companies last year handed over about $80m (£54m) in ransom payments to the gangs.
While her son was allegedly negotiating on a US warship, naval snipers shot dead three pirates holding the captain.
The mother of the teenager, who is facing trial in New York, said she wanted to be present in court if the case goes ahead.
'Under-age'
Mrs Hassan said her son had been missing for two weeks prior to the hijacking and she only realised he had been implicated when she heard his name in a radio report.
“ I am requesting President Obama to release my child, he has got nothing to do with the pirates' crime, he is a minor ” Adar Abdurahman Hassan Mother of alleged pirate
The teenager is accused of being a member of the pirate gang which boarded the container ship on 8 April and took Capt Phillips hostage in a lifeboat.
The standoff ended on the fifth day while her son was aboard a US warship allegedly demanding a ransom when US Navy marksmen killed three of the pirates.
Mrs Hassan told the BBC's Somali service: "I am requesting the American government, I am requesting President Obama to release my child. He has got nothing to do with the pirates' crime.
"He is a minor; he is under-age and he has been used for this crime. I also request from the US, if they choose to put him on trial, I want them to invite me there."
Her plea came as Somali pirates released a Togo-flagged cargo ship seized last week, reportedly after a $100,000 (£68,000) ransom was paid.
The 5,000-tonne Lebanese-owned MV Sea Horse - which had been heading to India to pick up food aid for Somalia - was seized on 14 April.
But 19 foreign vessels and more than 300 sailors remain in the hands of Somali pirates, who have stepped up attacks on shipping in recent weeks.
About three million people - half the Somali population - need assistance, donors say.
On Sunday, the weak, internationally recognised Somali government said captured pirates could face the death penalty.
But the Horn of Africa nation has been without an effective administration since 1991, fuelling the lawlessness which has allowed piracy to thrive.
Shipping companies last year handed over about $80m (£54m) in ransom payments to the gangs.
Desert locust swarms increase in Yemen and Somaliland
Medeshi
Desert locust swarms increase in Yemen and Somaliland
Source: (FAO)
Date: 20 Apr 2009
During the past week, more swarms have been reported in southern Yemen and, to a lesser extent, in Somaliland.
In southern Yemen, there were a dozen reports of small immature swarms that migrated into the interior of Shabwah (Ataq, Nisab, Bayhan) during the second week of April, reaching Marib and Al Abr. Thereafter, some immature and mature swarms were seen moving from west to east to villages in Wadi Hadhramaut (Shebam, Sayun). All of these swarms are thought to have originated from breeding that occurred on the southern coast in March. Unusually good and widespread rains fell in late March and early April throughout the interior desert of Shabwah, Hadhramaut and Mahra provinces from Marib to Shehan on the Oman border. These rains will allow ecological conditions to become favourable for breeding, and locusts will mature rapidly and lay eggs by the end of April. Hatching and band formation are expected to occur from early May onwards.
In Somaliland , ground control operations finished on 12 April against late instar hopper bands on the coast near Silil. The infestations that were not treated have now become adults. A few small swarms formed during the second week and moved from the coast up the escarpment to the east towards Burao and to the southwest towards Ethiopia. Scattered adults were reported in the railway area of Ethiopia while groups of gregarious mature were seen in adjacent areas of Djibouti near Holhol. As good rains fell in late March and early April on the coast, escarpment and plateau, the locusts are expected to mature and lay eggs within a large area between Dire Dawa and Jijiga (Ethiopia) and Silil and Burao (Somaliland).
All efforts are required by the affected countries to monitor the current infestations and undertake the necessary control operations in order to prevent locusts from increasing further and spreading to other countries in the Region.
Desert locust swarms increase in Yemen and Somaliland
Source: (FAO)
Date: 20 Apr 2009
During the past week, more swarms have been reported in southern Yemen and, to a lesser extent, in Somaliland.
In southern Yemen, there were a dozen reports of small immature swarms that migrated into the interior of Shabwah (Ataq, Nisab, Bayhan) during the second week of April, reaching Marib and Al Abr. Thereafter, some immature and mature swarms were seen moving from west to east to villages in Wadi Hadhramaut (Shebam, Sayun). All of these swarms are thought to have originated from breeding that occurred on the southern coast in March. Unusually good and widespread rains fell in late March and early April throughout the interior desert of Shabwah, Hadhramaut and Mahra provinces from Marib to Shehan on the Oman border. These rains will allow ecological conditions to become favourable for breeding, and locusts will mature rapidly and lay eggs by the end of April. Hatching and band formation are expected to occur from early May onwards.
In Somaliland , ground control operations finished on 12 April against late instar hopper bands on the coast near Silil. The infestations that were not treated have now become adults. A few small swarms formed during the second week and moved from the coast up the escarpment to the east towards Burao and to the southwest towards Ethiopia. Scattered adults were reported in the railway area of Ethiopia while groups of gregarious mature were seen in adjacent areas of Djibouti near Holhol. As good rains fell in late March and early April on the coast, escarpment and plateau, the locusts are expected to mature and lay eggs within a large area between Dire Dawa and Jijiga (Ethiopia) and Silil and Burao (Somaliland).
All efforts are required by the affected countries to monitor the current infestations and undertake the necessary control operations in order to prevent locusts from increasing further and spreading to other countries in the Region.
ONLF rebels support calls to probe genocide allegations in Ethiopia
Medeshi
ONLF rebels support calls to probe genocide allegations in Ethiopia
Sunday 19 April 2009
April 18, 2009 (NAIROBI) — Ogaden rebels yesterday backed call launched by a genocide watchdog to investigate genocide allegations in the south-eastern of Ethiopia.
In a letter sent to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Genocide Watch requested to investigate extra-judicial killings, rape, disappearances, destruction of livelihood and the displacement of thousands of Anuak ethnic group who live in a remote section of southeastern Ethiopia.
The rights group said the Ethiopian army had continued into late 2005 before finally subsiding when the same Ethiopian National Defense Forces were moved to the Ogaden area of southeastern Ethiopia and into Somalia "where similar atrocities were and still are being committed."
"The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) strongly supports the call by Genocide Watch for the initiation of an investigation of the human rights situation in Ethiopia," said the rebel group which fight for the independence of Somali ethnic group in Ogaden.
The ONLF also accused the Ethiopian government of committing war crimes tantamount to Genocide in Ogaden.
The rebels further said a UN humanitarian assessment team had visited Ogaden in September 2007 and concluded that an independent investigation was warranted. The ONLf regretted that "this recommendation was never acted upon and the details of their findings with regard to human rights were never fully released."
The Genocide Watch said they were encouraged by the action of the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor against the Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al Bashir and the decision issued by the judges of the court for his arrest on war crimes committed in Darfur region.
"The action that the International Criminal Court has taken in this situation has restored hope to peace and justice loving people, affirming that international human rights law not only exists on paper, but in reality," wrote the Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch.
He added that atrocities fears of impunity may be a "primary reason that one of the first leaders to defend Omar Al-Bashir and condemn the warrant was Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia."
(ST)
ONLF rebels support calls to probe genocide allegations in Ethiopia
Sunday 19 April 2009
April 18, 2009 (NAIROBI) — Ogaden rebels yesterday backed call launched by a genocide watchdog to investigate genocide allegations in the south-eastern of Ethiopia.
In a letter sent to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Genocide Watch requested to investigate extra-judicial killings, rape, disappearances, destruction of livelihood and the displacement of thousands of Anuak ethnic group who live in a remote section of southeastern Ethiopia.
The rights group said the Ethiopian army had continued into late 2005 before finally subsiding when the same Ethiopian National Defense Forces were moved to the Ogaden area of southeastern Ethiopia and into Somalia "where similar atrocities were and still are being committed."
"The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) strongly supports the call by Genocide Watch for the initiation of an investigation of the human rights situation in Ethiopia," said the rebel group which fight for the independence of Somali ethnic group in Ogaden.
The ONLF also accused the Ethiopian government of committing war crimes tantamount to Genocide in Ogaden.
The rebels further said a UN humanitarian assessment team had visited Ogaden in September 2007 and concluded that an independent investigation was warranted. The ONLf regretted that "this recommendation was never acted upon and the details of their findings with regard to human rights were never fully released."
The Genocide Watch said they were encouraged by the action of the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor against the Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al Bashir and the decision issued by the judges of the court for his arrest on war crimes committed in Darfur region.
"The action that the International Criminal Court has taken in this situation has restored hope to peace and justice loving people, affirming that international human rights law not only exists on paper, but in reality," wrote the Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch.
He added that atrocities fears of impunity may be a "primary reason that one of the first leaders to defend Omar Al-Bashir and condemn the warrant was Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia."
(ST)
US threatens Eritrea over support for al-Qaeda-linked terrorists
Medeshi April , 19, 2009
US threatens Eritrea over support for al-Qaeda-linked terrorists
By Damien McElroy in Asmara
The US has warned Eritrea it risks American military action for its support for a Somalian terrorist group linked to a plot to attack President Barack Obama.
The US has warned Eritrea it risks American military action for its support for a Somalian terrorist group linked to a plot to attack President Barack Obama.
The Red Sea dictatorship has drawn the wrath of America by backing extremist Islamic groups in Somalia as part of a proxy war with Ethiopia, its former ruler.
It champions al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that American intelligence believes has trained a dozen of its own citizens to carry out attacks in the US.
President Obama's January inauguration was hit by FBI warnings about a potential suicide threat from 12 American citizens that had left Africa to infiltrate the US and disappeared.
Subsequently Washington quietly warned Eritrea, a former Italian colony which was occupied by Britain during the Second World War, it could suffer the same fate as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks, if the plot was carried out.
"Eritrea has chosen the wrong path," said a source. "There are consequences for working with al-Shabaab when President Obama cannot afford to look weak on terrorism by not retaliating if there is an attack on the homeland."
But President Isaias Afewerki told the Daily Telegraph that he would continue to oppose an American and British-backed Somalian government that declared al-Shabaab its principal enemy when it took office in February.
While Western governments have growing confidence in the new government, led by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Mr Isaias diminished the new leader as a stooge.
He called for a fresh peace conference in which his allies would be granted a significant role. "There is no government, there is not even a nation of Somalia existing," he said. "There has to be an alternative solution. Attempts to impose this new government on Somalia will not work. Peace is not guaranteed without a government agreed by all Somalis."
Mr Isaias has not forsaken his broad opposition to American foreign policy. He mocked the use of Western military force to target Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. "Addressing piracy with military force is not going to work," he said. "Piracy, like famine and drought is a secondary issue."
Mr Isaias presides over one of Africa's youngest but most isolated states– it gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993.
The 63-year old former guerrilla relishes a reputation as an international pariah. He was broadly condemned after Eritrea became the first country to invite Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir on a visit following the International Criminal Court's decision to issue charges for crimes against humanity in Darfur.
"By being the first country to host General Bashir after he was indicted by the International Criminal Court, Eritrea put itself on the wrong side of history," said Andrew Mitchell, the Conservative's International Development spokesman, who used a meeting with Mr Isaias in Asmara to lodge a protest against the visit.
Few see any prospect of Eritrea repairing its relations with the West as long as it maintains a constant war footing against Ethiopia. Internal repression has grown steadily worse as it maintains a standing army of 300,000 from a population of just over four million.
The regime operates a system of National Service that has been described as a "giant prison" for people under 40. The thousands fleeing the country are viewed as deserters and dozens are shot attempting to cross the border.
Prisoners, including 11 parliamentarians that have disappeared, are subjected to horrific torture, including the so-called "Jesus Christ" – crucifixion on trees in the desert.
The Eritrean leader made no attempt to deny the practice of modern slavery or torture. He claimed the imperative of building the nation was his overriding concern.
"We are a small, young country in the process of making ourselves, you cannot compare our unique reality with other nations," he said. "We are the most stable and most prosperous nation in terms of age but establishing a nation on the continent of Africa is not easy."
It champions al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that American intelligence believes has trained a dozen of its own citizens to carry out attacks in the US.
President Obama's January inauguration was hit by FBI warnings about a potential suicide threat from 12 American citizens that had left Africa to infiltrate the US and disappeared.
Subsequently Washington quietly warned Eritrea, a former Italian colony which was occupied by Britain during the Second World War, it could suffer the same fate as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks, if the plot was carried out.
"Eritrea has chosen the wrong path," said a source. "There are consequences for working with al-Shabaab when President Obama cannot afford to look weak on terrorism by not retaliating if there is an attack on the homeland."
But President Isaias Afewerki told the Daily Telegraph that he would continue to oppose an American and British-backed Somalian government that declared al-Shabaab its principal enemy when it took office in February.
While Western governments have growing confidence in the new government, led by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Mr Isaias diminished the new leader as a stooge.
He called for a fresh peace conference in which his allies would be granted a significant role. "There is no government, there is not even a nation of Somalia existing," he said. "There has to be an alternative solution. Attempts to impose this new government on Somalia will not work. Peace is not guaranteed without a government agreed by all Somalis."
Mr Isaias has not forsaken his broad opposition to American foreign policy. He mocked the use of Western military force to target Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. "Addressing piracy with military force is not going to work," he said. "Piracy, like famine and drought is a secondary issue."
Mr Isaias presides over one of Africa's youngest but most isolated states– it gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993.
The 63-year old former guerrilla relishes a reputation as an international pariah. He was broadly condemned after Eritrea became the first country to invite Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir on a visit following the International Criminal Court's decision to issue charges for crimes against humanity in Darfur.
"By being the first country to host General Bashir after he was indicted by the International Criminal Court, Eritrea put itself on the wrong side of history," said Andrew Mitchell, the Conservative's International Development spokesman, who used a meeting with Mr Isaias in Asmara to lodge a protest against the visit.
Few see any prospect of Eritrea repairing its relations with the West as long as it maintains a constant war footing against Ethiopia. Internal repression has grown steadily worse as it maintains a standing army of 300,000 from a population of just over four million.
The regime operates a system of National Service that has been described as a "giant prison" for people under 40. The thousands fleeing the country are viewed as deserters and dozens are shot attempting to cross the border.
Prisoners, including 11 parliamentarians that have disappeared, are subjected to horrific torture, including the so-called "Jesus Christ" – crucifixion on trees in the desert.
The Eritrean leader made no attempt to deny the practice of modern slavery or torture. He claimed the imperative of building the nation was his overriding concern.
"We are a small, young country in the process of making ourselves, you cannot compare our unique reality with other nations," he said. "We are the most stable and most prosperous nation in terms of age but establishing a nation on the continent of Africa is not easy."
The telegraph.
How Somalia's Fishermen Became Pirates
Medeshi, April 19, 2009
How Somalia's Fishermen Became Pirates
By Ishaan Tharoor
Amid the current media frenzy about Somali pirates, it's hard not to imagine them as characters in some dystopian Horn of Africa version of Waterworld. (A fisherman carries a sword fish on his head from the Indian Ocean in the port city of Kismayu Reuters)We see wily corsairs in ragged clothing swarming out of their elusive mother ships, chewing narcotic khat while thumbing GPS phones and grappling hooks. They are not desperate bandits, experts say, rather savvy opportunists in the most lawless corner of the planet. But the pirates have never been the only ones exploiting the vulnerabilities of this troubled failed state — and are, in part, a product of the rest of the world's neglect. (Read "No Surrender to Thugs.")
Ever since a civil war brought down Somalia's last functional government in 1991, the country's 3,330 km (2,000 miles) of coastline — the longest in continental Africa — has been pillaged by foreign vessels. A United Nations report in 2006 said that, in the absence of the country's at one time serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become the site of an international "free for all," with fishing fleets from around the world illegally plundering Somali stocks and freezing out the country's own rudimentarily-equipped fishermen. According to another U.N. report, an estimated $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the country's coastline each year. "In any context," says Gustavo Carvalho, a London-based researcher with Global Witness, an environmental NGO, "that is a staggering sum."
In the face of this, impoverished Somalis living by the sea have been forced over the years to defend their own fishing expeditions out of ports such as Eyl, Kismayo and Harardhere — all now considered to be pirate dens. Somali fishermen, whose industry was always small-scale, lacked the advanced boats and technologies of their interloping competitors, and also complained of being shot at by foreign fishermen with water cannons and firearms. "The first pirate gangs emerged in the '90s to protect against foreign trawlers," says Peter Lehr, lecturer in terrorism studies at Scotland's University of St. Andrews and editor of Violence at Sea: Piracy in the Age of Global Terrorism. The names of existing pirate fleets, such as the National Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia or Somali Marines, are testament to the pirates' initial motivations.
The waters they sought to protect, says Lehr, were "an El Dorado for fishing fleets of many nations." A 2006 study published in the journal Science predicted that the current rate of commercial fishing would virtually empty the world's oceanic stocks by 2050. Yet, Somalia's seas still offer a particularly fertile patch for tuna, sardines and mackerel, and other lucrative species of seafood, including lobsters and sharks. In other parts of the Indian Ocean region, such as the Persian Gulf, fishermen resort to dynamite and other extreme measures to pull in the kinds of catches that are still in abundance off the Horn of Africa. (Read about illegal wildlife trade.)
High-seas trawlers from countries as far flung as South Korea, Japan and Spain have operated down the Somali coast, often illegally and without licenses, for the better part of two decades, the U.N. says. They often fly flags of convenience from sea-faring friendly nations like Belize and Bahrain, which further helps the ships skirt international regulations and evade censure from their home countries. Tsuma Charo of the Nairobi-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, which monitors Somali pirate attacks and liaises with the hostage takers and the captured crews, says "illegal trawling has fed the piracy problem." In the early days of Somali piracy, those who seized trawlers without licenses could count on a quick ransom payment, since the boat owners and companies backing those vessels didn't want to draw attention to their violation of international maritime law. This, Charo reckons, allowed the pirates to build up their tactical networks and whetted their appetite for bigger spoils.
Beyond illegal fishing, foreign ships have also long been accused by local fishermen of dumping toxic and nuclear waste off Somalia's shores. A 2005 United Nations Environmental Program report cited uranium radioactive and other hazardous deposits leading to a rash of respiratory ailments and skin diseases breaking out in villages along the Somali coast. According to the U.N., at the time of the report, it cost $2.50 per ton for a European company to dump these types of materials off the Horn of Africa, as opposed to $250 per ton to dispose of them cleanly in Europe.
Monitoring and combating any of these misdeeds is next to impossible — Somalia's current government can barely find its feet in the wake of the 2006 U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion. And many Somalis, along with outside observers, suspect local officials in Mogadishu and in ports in semi-autonomous Puntland further north of accepting bribes from foreign fishermen as well as from pirate elders. U.N. monitors in 2005 and 2006 suggested an embargo on fish taken from Somali waters, but their proposals were shot down by members of the Security Council. (See photos of dramatic pirate rescues.)
In the face of this, impoverished Somalis living by the sea have been forced over the years to defend their own fishing expeditions out of ports such as Eyl, Kismayo and Harardhere — all now considered to be pirate dens. Somali fishermen, whose industry was always small-scale, lacked the advanced boats and technologies of their interloping competitors, and also complained of being shot at by foreign fishermen with water cannons and firearms. "The first pirate gangs emerged in the '90s to protect against foreign trawlers," says Peter Lehr, lecturer in terrorism studies at Scotland's University of St. Andrews and editor of Violence at Sea: Piracy in the Age of Global Terrorism. The names of existing pirate fleets, such as the National Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia or Somali Marines, are testament to the pirates' initial motivations.
The waters they sought to protect, says Lehr, were "an El Dorado for fishing fleets of many nations." A 2006 study published in the journal Science predicted that the current rate of commercial fishing would virtually empty the world's oceanic stocks by 2050. Yet, Somalia's seas still offer a particularly fertile patch for tuna, sardines and mackerel, and other lucrative species of seafood, including lobsters and sharks. In other parts of the Indian Ocean region, such as the Persian Gulf, fishermen resort to dynamite and other extreme measures to pull in the kinds of catches that are still in abundance off the Horn of Africa. (Read about illegal wildlife trade.)
High-seas trawlers from countries as far flung as South Korea, Japan and Spain have operated down the Somali coast, often illegally and without licenses, for the better part of two decades, the U.N. says. They often fly flags of convenience from sea-faring friendly nations like Belize and Bahrain, which further helps the ships skirt international regulations and evade censure from their home countries. Tsuma Charo of the Nairobi-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, which monitors Somali pirate attacks and liaises with the hostage takers and the captured crews, says "illegal trawling has fed the piracy problem." In the early days of Somali piracy, those who seized trawlers without licenses could count on a quick ransom payment, since the boat owners and companies backing those vessels didn't want to draw attention to their violation of international maritime law. This, Charo reckons, allowed the pirates to build up their tactical networks and whetted their appetite for bigger spoils.
Beyond illegal fishing, foreign ships have also long been accused by local fishermen of dumping toxic and nuclear waste off Somalia's shores. A 2005 United Nations Environmental Program report cited uranium radioactive and other hazardous deposits leading to a rash of respiratory ailments and skin diseases breaking out in villages along the Somali coast. According to the U.N., at the time of the report, it cost $2.50 per ton for a European company to dump these types of materials off the Horn of Africa, as opposed to $250 per ton to dispose of them cleanly in Europe.
Monitoring and combating any of these misdeeds is next to impossible — Somalia's current government can barely find its feet in the wake of the 2006 U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion. And many Somalis, along with outside observers, suspect local officials in Mogadishu and in ports in semi-autonomous Puntland further north of accepting bribes from foreign fishermen as well as from pirate elders. U.N. monitors in 2005 and 2006 suggested an embargo on fish taken from Somali waters, but their proposals were shot down by members of the Security Council. (See photos of dramatic pirate rescues.)
In the meantime, Somali piracy has metastasized into the country's only boom industry. Most of the pirates, observers say, are not former fishermen, but just poor folk seeking their fortune. Right now, they hold 18 cargo ships and some 300 sailors hostage — the work of a sophisticated and well-funded operation. A few pirates have offered testimony to the international press — a headline in Thursday's Times of London read, "They stole our lobsters: A Somali pirate tells his side of the story" — but Lehr and other Somali experts express their doubts. "Nowadays," Lehr says, "this sort of thing is just a cheap excuse." The legacy of nearly twenty years of inaction and abuse, though, is far more costly.
Read a brief history of pirates
See the Cartoons of the Week.
Read a brief history of pirates
See the Cartoons of the Week.
Somali piracy and American foreign policy
Medeshi April 19, 2009
Somali piracy and American foreign policy
By Rebecca Macaux and Philip Primeau
With the explosion of Somali piracy, America is reaping what it has sown. In many ways, we have nobody to blame but ourselves for the emergence of high-seas crime threatening to disrupt important lanes of trade.
(AFP) A U.s. Navy helicopter closes in on suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden in February 2009)
America’s support for a violent strongman during Somalia’s formative post-colonial years hindered the development of stable political institutions and severely complicated its capacity for effective self-rule and sustainable growth.
The country’s markets are also victims of foreign meddling, fatalities of the backhanded ‘charity’ which has made Western actors—and especially the U.S.—distrusted throughout the Third World. Rendered economically impotent through the misapplication of aid and assistance by the U.S. government and various NGOs, it is no surprise that Somalis have turned to brigandry for sustenance.
These actions we are now witnessing are not crimes of maliciousness or greed, but of desperation. They are sins of last resort.
Modern Somalia was formed from the 1960 union of two European colonies, one British, the other Italian. What began as an exercise in constitutional democracy rapidly devolved into a dictatorship under the command of Maxamed Siyaad Barre.
Although Barre originally aligned his nation with the USSR, the relationship soured in 1977-79. Moscow eventually abandoned Somalia altogether, throwing its weight behind neighboring Ethiopia in a conflict over the disputed Ogaden region.
Reeling from the Soviet betrayal, Barre appealed to America for military assistance in the fighting of foreign wars and the suppression of internal resistance. In typical fashion, President Carter waffled, green lighting the shipment of munitions but then changing his mind at the critical moment.
Deprived of a sympathetic great power, Somali forces were run out of the Ogaden by a combined Ethiopian-Cuban-Soviet task force. Barre’s regime teetered on the verge of collapse.
However, under the consummate Cold Warrior Ronald Reagan, America suddenly renewed its interest in the Horn of Africa. Henry Kissinger met personally with Barre, and in 1981 the U.S. began supplying the dictator with arms and some $100 million per year.
In exchange, America was granted control of the deep-sea port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden. Berbera was deemed of considerable strategic significance in countering Soviet designs in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It had the added advantage of overlooking a key oil route.
Fortifying his rule with American weapons and treasure, Barre managed to survive the Cold War. His nation was not so lucky.
Like most Third World pawns, Barre’s regime was fundamentally unsound, necessitating ever greater levels of financial aid. At the conclusion of the Cold War, American politicians downgraded Somalia’s importance, deeming it an unnecessary expenditure.
As American patronage waned, unrest turned to full-fledged civil war. Barre was ousted in 1991 and died of heart attack in 1995. In the intervening years, America attempted a ‘humanitarian invasion’ of Somalia. It ended in the humiliation of the ‘Black Hawk Down’ fiasco. By then, Somalia was overwhelmed by the anarchy with which its name is now synonymous.
Despite America’s loud talk of championing democracy and human rights abroad, we encouraged neither during Somalia’s crucial post-colonial years. Although our sponsorship of Barre afforded opportunities aplenty for promoting responsible governance, we instead enabled a tradition of illiberal rule-by-force.
Somalia entered the 1990s with an economy as nonexistent as its political institutions. This too was the fault of American and Western planners.
Over the years, its markets atrophied as its people grew accustomed to the foreign dole. Somalia’s agricultural industry was undermined by shipment after shipment of crops, which were sold at exaggeratedly low prices to the detriment of local farmers, who simply could not compete.
Without an organic market of indigenous producers, Somalis were forced into a cycle of dependency. How ironic: In the hopes of eliminating starvation in Somalia, we in fact eliminated the country’s ability to feed itself, making starvation all but inevitable.
The situation was exacerbated by a legacy of man-made famines and refugee crises. These humanitarian emergencies were engineered by Barre with the tacit approval of the United States, which steadily stoked a regime driving its country into the ground.
Barre was notorious for hording food aid, lavishing it upon an ever-tightening circle of ethnic supporters and withholding it from the nation’s other clans, which were increasingly at odds with his regime.
With the cessation of large scale food aid from the U.S., Barre was robbed of a major power-preserving tool. With next to no support among the populace, he was forced from office.
However, Somali clans continue to extract significant food aid from foreign agents, especially NGOs like Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere and Save the Children. Food in Somalia is explicitly political, used to reward allegiance and punish resistance. In this way, Westerners are fueling a conflict that might already have run its course without outside interference.
Earlier on, we said that America is reaping what it has sown. That statement stands, insomuch as piracy is a symptom of a land made lawless by the lasting damage of cruel, U.S. supported regime that seeded dysfunction and violence.
However, seen in another light, America is reaping what it did not sow. For more than a decade, Barre existed at the mercy of U.S. funding. He depended upon our calculated ‘kindness’ in every way.
We could have used such total reliance to seed democracy; to facilitate the development of sustainable economic structures and stable political institutions; to nourish Somali agriculture, build its industrial capacity, and protect its waters from the overpowering foreign fishing operations which have led many sea-going Somalis to piracy.
Instead, we allowed Barre to brutalize his people, never exerting the slightest pressure for reform.
Instead, we paralyzed an already weak market, giving hand-outs rather than hand-ups, and extinguishing local farming through a disastrous IMF structural adjustment program.
Americans are in a frenzy over the advance of Somali thugs upon American merchants. What they do not understand is our country’s role in undoing the very fabric of Somali society—in the creation of a power vacuum that allows criminals free rein—over the past twenty-five years.
Somalia is a case study in unintended consequences, in good intentions gone awry, in the bad karma of realpolitik.
America must learn to be highly conscientious of who it aids and how it aids them. It must accept that actions have consequences, that we are not immune to the forces of reaction. It must recognize that short-term Machiavellian tactics are no substitute for long-term developmental strategies. The latter will help produce a more just and equitable world; the former will surely come back to haunt.
America’s support for a violent strongman during Somalia’s formative post-colonial years hindered the development of stable political institutions and severely complicated its capacity for effective self-rule and sustainable growth.
The country’s markets are also victims of foreign meddling, fatalities of the backhanded ‘charity’ which has made Western actors—and especially the U.S.—distrusted throughout the Third World. Rendered economically impotent through the misapplication of aid and assistance by the U.S. government and various NGOs, it is no surprise that Somalis have turned to brigandry for sustenance.
These actions we are now witnessing are not crimes of maliciousness or greed, but of desperation. They are sins of last resort.
Modern Somalia was formed from the 1960 union of two European colonies, one British, the other Italian. What began as an exercise in constitutional democracy rapidly devolved into a dictatorship under the command of Maxamed Siyaad Barre.
Although Barre originally aligned his nation with the USSR, the relationship soured in 1977-79. Moscow eventually abandoned Somalia altogether, throwing its weight behind neighboring Ethiopia in a conflict over the disputed Ogaden region.
Reeling from the Soviet betrayal, Barre appealed to America for military assistance in the fighting of foreign wars and the suppression of internal resistance. In typical fashion, President Carter waffled, green lighting the shipment of munitions but then changing his mind at the critical moment.
Deprived of a sympathetic great power, Somali forces were run out of the Ogaden by a combined Ethiopian-Cuban-Soviet task force. Barre’s regime teetered on the verge of collapse.
However, under the consummate Cold Warrior Ronald Reagan, America suddenly renewed its interest in the Horn of Africa. Henry Kissinger met personally with Barre, and in 1981 the U.S. began supplying the dictator with arms and some $100 million per year.
In exchange, America was granted control of the deep-sea port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden. Berbera was deemed of considerable strategic significance in countering Soviet designs in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It had the added advantage of overlooking a key oil route.
Fortifying his rule with American weapons and treasure, Barre managed to survive the Cold War. His nation was not so lucky.
Like most Third World pawns, Barre’s regime was fundamentally unsound, necessitating ever greater levels of financial aid. At the conclusion of the Cold War, American politicians downgraded Somalia’s importance, deeming it an unnecessary expenditure.
As American patronage waned, unrest turned to full-fledged civil war. Barre was ousted in 1991 and died of heart attack in 1995. In the intervening years, America attempted a ‘humanitarian invasion’ of Somalia. It ended in the humiliation of the ‘Black Hawk Down’ fiasco. By then, Somalia was overwhelmed by the anarchy with which its name is now synonymous.
Despite America’s loud talk of championing democracy and human rights abroad, we encouraged neither during Somalia’s crucial post-colonial years. Although our sponsorship of Barre afforded opportunities aplenty for promoting responsible governance, we instead enabled a tradition of illiberal rule-by-force.
Somalia entered the 1990s with an economy as nonexistent as its political institutions. This too was the fault of American and Western planners.
Over the years, its markets atrophied as its people grew accustomed to the foreign dole. Somalia’s agricultural industry was undermined by shipment after shipment of crops, which were sold at exaggeratedly low prices to the detriment of local farmers, who simply could not compete.
Without an organic market of indigenous producers, Somalis were forced into a cycle of dependency. How ironic: In the hopes of eliminating starvation in Somalia, we in fact eliminated the country’s ability to feed itself, making starvation all but inevitable.
The situation was exacerbated by a legacy of man-made famines and refugee crises. These humanitarian emergencies were engineered by Barre with the tacit approval of the United States, which steadily stoked a regime driving its country into the ground.
Barre was notorious for hording food aid, lavishing it upon an ever-tightening circle of ethnic supporters and withholding it from the nation’s other clans, which were increasingly at odds with his regime.
With the cessation of large scale food aid from the U.S., Barre was robbed of a major power-preserving tool. With next to no support among the populace, he was forced from office.
However, Somali clans continue to extract significant food aid from foreign agents, especially NGOs like Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere and Save the Children. Food in Somalia is explicitly political, used to reward allegiance and punish resistance. In this way, Westerners are fueling a conflict that might already have run its course without outside interference.
Earlier on, we said that America is reaping what it has sown. That statement stands, insomuch as piracy is a symptom of a land made lawless by the lasting damage of cruel, U.S. supported regime that seeded dysfunction and violence.
However, seen in another light, America is reaping what it did not sow. For more than a decade, Barre existed at the mercy of U.S. funding. He depended upon our calculated ‘kindness’ in every way.
We could have used such total reliance to seed democracy; to facilitate the development of sustainable economic structures and stable political institutions; to nourish Somali agriculture, build its industrial capacity, and protect its waters from the overpowering foreign fishing operations which have led many sea-going Somalis to piracy.
Instead, we allowed Barre to brutalize his people, never exerting the slightest pressure for reform.
Instead, we paralyzed an already weak market, giving hand-outs rather than hand-ups, and extinguishing local farming through a disastrous IMF structural adjustment program.
Americans are in a frenzy over the advance of Somali thugs upon American merchants. What they do not understand is our country’s role in undoing the very fabric of Somali society—in the creation of a power vacuum that allows criminals free rein—over the past twenty-five years.
Somalia is a case study in unintended consequences, in good intentions gone awry, in the bad karma of realpolitik.
America must learn to be highly conscientious of who it aids and how it aids them. It must accept that actions have consequences, that we are not immune to the forces of reaction. It must recognize that short-term Machiavellian tactics are no substitute for long-term developmental strategies. The latter will help produce a more just and equitable world; the former will surely come back to haunt.
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