The Horn of Africa – Somalia Spring 2009 Chronicles - I

In this article, I publish integrally the no 183 Ecoterra Press Release SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor).

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) – 2009-05-29 FRI - 23h47:09 UTC

Issue No. 183

Ecoterra International – Updates & Statements, Review & Clearing-house

A Voice from the Truth- & Justice-Seekers, who sit between all chairs, because they are not part of organized white-collar or no-collar-crime in Somalia or overseas, and who neither benefit from global naval militarization, from the illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters or the piracy of merchant vessels, nor from the booming insurance business or the exorbitant ransom-, risk-management- or security industry, while neither the protection of the sea, the development of fishing communities nor the humanitarian assistance to abducted seafarers and their families is receiving the required adequate attention, care and funding.

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act". George Orwell

EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hotline: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) - email: somalia@ecoterra.net

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: SMS to +254-738-497979 or call +254-733-633-733

"The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream!"

Capt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y TANIT - killed by attack of French commandos - 10. April 2009

Non A La Guerre - Yes To Peace

(Inscription on the sail of F/Y TANIT shot down on day one of the French assault)

Clearing-house

Breaking:

Navies in Renewed Cover-up

Indian Navy did not report the whole story while French Naval Forces didn't report at all.

Local reports spoke immediately of two people killed and four injured in an incident involving 8 Somali sea-shifta and naval forces. Then in the afternoon the Press Information Bureau of the Indian Government reported today: "An Indian Naval Ship, which is currently in the Gulf of Aden for anti piracy surveillance and patrol operations foiled a daring piracy attempt on Norwegian-owned, Liberian registered merchant vessel MV Maud on 28 May 09. The Indian warship had earlier commenced an eastbound escort of merchant vessels including MV Maud AM 27 May 09. At about 1250 h on 28 May 09, MV Maud with an Indian Master and nine Indian crew, reported a skiff manned by eight armed personnel approaching her at high speed. The position of the incident was approximately 225 nm east of Aden.

The Indian warship immediately responded to the distress call and advised the vessel to increase speed and carry out evasive maneuvers to avoid getting boarded. Simultaneously, the warship launched her helicopter with Marine Commandoes embarked and started closing the distressed vessel at best speed. The helicopter saw two personnel on a ladder attempting to board the vessel from the bow. The visibility being low, it was possible that the pirates may not have sighted the warship and the helicopter. The helicopter had to, therefore, resort to firing warning shots to deter the pirates from boarding the ship. The pirates were then observed to disengage from the merchant ship and two pirates who were in the process of climbing the merchant vessel fell into the water. A boarding party from the warship, thereafter, boarded the skiff and confiscated various weapons as well as equipment used by the pirates.

Since, further piracy attacks were possible due to the low visibility prevailing in the area, the warship proceeded with full dispatch to continue with her escort mission, as warships from other countries had arrived on the scene for any follow up action. The three merchant ships are presently being escorted safely through the Gulf of Aden. The Indian warship effectively averted the piracy attempt just in time by prompt and timely action. This has been much appreciated by the owners, crew and officers of the merchant vessel. From available records, it is appreciated that this may be the first instance of a piracy attempt being thwarted when the pirates were actually in the process of boarding a merchant ship". - end of quote.

Not a single word on what happened to the alleged attackers. The helicopter, a Chetak armed with 7.62mm light machine guns, had opened "preventive fire" to thwart the pirate attack. "The two pirates on the ladder fell into the sea..." - all not worth a question? INS Talwar, had then dispatched `Prahar' rigid-hull inflatable boats, with marine commandos on board, to intercept the skiff. "The pirates surrendered without a fight", said an officer. As the story is now slowly uncovered and only after persistent questions were raised, the Indian navy warship, the guided-missile stealth frigate INS TALWAR, actually continued escorting the three merchant vessels -- Maud, Southern Independence and Aramis after the incident and left the injured, dead and survivors behind.

A French naval vessel, according to diplomatic sources, then took over to mop up the ugly scene and the story has it that now that the dead (if found?) and the survivors are supposed to be delivered to Puntland, while the injured will be taken to Djibouti, which seems to become a secluded hospital-station for injured pirates, who shall not talk, after the Spanish had also left one injured alleged pirate there while delivering the other 13 to Kenya.

While the wires and other media only copied the press-statement of the Indian government - some adding that last November, India's navy drew criticism after sinking a Thai fishing trawler that had been commandeered hours earlier by pirates (- and killing all crew except one survivor, though all navies had been informed and warned) the naval forces off Somalia seem to continue with impunity their uncontrolled hunting without informing anybody honestly and truly. That the operations of the international navies become at least as immoral as the deeds of the sea-shifta is obvious. But that this all is just a test as to how far the military and naval actions can go until the citizens (and taxpayers) of the joined nations withdraw their support only few seem to have realized.

News from sea-jackings, abductions, newly attacked ships and vessels in distress

Local reports say that MV MARATHON has left the Laaskoray area at the Gulf of Aden coast and is on her way towards Eyl on the Indian Ocean side of Puntland.

Negotiations concerning T/B BUCCANEER with 2 barges and 16 have reportedly stalled again, while 8 of the 16 crew members are still held off the vessel in the coastal mountains.

Russian reports stating that the Ukrainian crew on Greek/British-owned and Malta-flagged MV ARIANA would be tortured by the sea-shifta, who are holding her, have been refuted by the pirates as baseless propaganda and communication access was offered to independent journalist. Fact, however, seems to be that since this morning the satellite communication system on the bridge of the vessel has been switched off by the owner and that the negotiations don't go well. Relatives of the Ukrainian sailors from the bulk cargo ship stated that their relatives held hostage are being tortured, informed Itar-Tass news agency. The mother of the second mechanic stated her son called her and asked for help. The woman said pirates gave the prisoners mobile phones deliberately so that they would tell their relatives what is going on. "Pirates want money as soon as possible so they want the news about torture to be spread. Sailors are being flogged and put on the metal deck while the temperature there is about +50 C. I heard bolts clanking".

Officials from the company UkrCrewing that hired sailors for this passage recommended to the relatives of the sailors, all of whom are from Odessa or small cities of Ukraine, to take part in the negotiations with the pirates. The company assures that the talks are going well and there are some improvements. At the same time, the sailors´ relatives say they are not being informed about the process of negotiations while the water and food reserves on the ship are running out. The vessel is carrying soybeans. Pirates are demanding $10 million in exchange for freeing the bulk carrier. The dry bulk carrier was captured on May 2 in the Indian Ocean, 250 miles south-west of the Seychelles. The crew consists of 24 members, all of them citizens of Ukraine. So far the negotiations with pirates have been conducted by the operator company Seven Seas Maritime London, registered in Great Britain. Another famous case involving Ukrainian sailors and Somali pirates occurred in September 2008 when pirates seized the Ukrainian freighter FAINA. The ship which was manned by a crew of 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and one Latvian was carrying 33 battle tanks and ammunition. It was released only after 134 days of many times failing negotiations.

The Tuvalu Government is requesting for assistance in the rescue of a German cargo ship that was captured by Somali pirates, reports the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation. The ship has a Fiji citizen and 12 Tuvaluans on board. Tuvalu´s Transport minister Taukelina Finakaso they have sought help from the United Nations, other countries and including the Somali government itself, concerning the release of the HANSA STAVANAGER crew and the payment of the ransom money. "Yes of course, the family has approached the Government as such and we´ve head the ransom is in the region of US $15 million and that is an amount which is over and above the capacity of Tuvalu to pay". The German military tried to rescue the HANSA STAVANAGER crew earlier in April but aborted the mission.

Negotiations are still on-going between the ship owners and the Somali pirates, the Tubalu Government said, while local sources reported that the negotiations had stalled again and that already 5 or 6 containers on the vessel with cargo for Mombassa / Kenya and other locations were looted. The Pacific region is rallying to help lobby for the freedom of 12 Tuvaluan sailors held captive by Somali pirates. The men are among the 24 crew on board the German cargo ship HANSA STAVANAGER. Pirates are demanding $US 15 million in ransom or hostages will die. Wellington based Sapulina Samasoni worries about her brother Logo, held hostage by pirates in Somalia. He rang her from the ship with a pirate's gun jammed against his back. "He said that if they don´t hear anything from Tuvalu or they didn't bring any money they gonna shoot two of them". The ship was seized early last month off South Somalia.

Two Yemeni fishermen killed by anti-piracy warship. At least two Yemeni fishermen were killed and another was wounded as an international anti-piracy warship fired at their boat in the Red Sea, Yemen's state news agency Saba said on Wednesday. The boat with four fishermen on board was completely destroyed in the missile strike off Sudan on Tuesday, it said, adding that the wounded man reached the Sudanese coast while a fourth was still missing.

Sources in the Yemeni navy said the missile "probably came from sea by one of those warships conducting anti-piracy patrols in the region", Saba said. It also quoted local officials in Yemen as saying that the boat was in Sudanese territorial waters, adding that Sudanese authorities were questioning the survivor. International naval forces have been deployed in the Gulf of Aden to combat piracy attacks off Somalia. It was not clear what flag the warship was flying. Saba noted that two other Yemeni fishermen had been killed earlier this year in separate attacks in the Indian Ocean believed to have been the work of naval units taking part in anti-piracy operations.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 15 foreign vessels (16 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) with a total of not less than 210 crew members accounted for (of which 44 are confirmed to be Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force.

For 2009 the account stands at 122 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 36 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least two wrongful attacks (incl. friendly fire) on the side of the naval forces. Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures. Piracy incidents usually degrade during the monsoon season in winter and rise gradually by the end of the monsoon season starting from mid February and early April every year. Present multi-factorial risk assessment code: Yellow (Red = Very much likely, high season; Orange = Reduced risk, but likely, Yellow = significantly reduced risk, but still likely, Blue = possible, Green = unlikely). Allegedly four groups from Puntland alone are still out hunting on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Directly piracy related reports

Two Yemeni fishermen were killed and another was injured when a landmine went off on the shore of a Red Sea island on Thursday, the official Saba news agency reported. The accident comes two days after two Yemeni fishermen were killed as their boat was hit by a missile fired by an international counter-piracy warship in the Red Sea. The agency said Thursday's explosion took place as the fishermen were disembarking from their boat at the Honey Island in the Red Sea. Eight other crew members survived the blast uninjured, it said. Yemeni official media have frequently reported attacks by international counter-piracy warships against Yemeni boats in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

On January 14, a Yemeni fisherman was killed and two others were injured during an anti-piracy operation by a Russian Navy ship near the southern Yemeni port city of Aden. Yemeni authorities said the fishermen were caught in crossfire after a Russian frigate attacked Somali pirates attempting to hijack a Dutch vessel. Piracy in the Gulf of Aden has surged in recent years as Somalia descends further into chaos and the ineffectual central government continues to squabble rather than govern. Earlier another destroyer from Russia's Pacific Fleet, which was escorting six merchant vessels through the Gulf of Aden, fired warning shots at Somali pirates as they tried to seize a ship, a Navy spokesman said at the beginning of the week. The Eide Trader, sailing under the Marshall Islands flag, was part of the convoy being escorted by the Admiral Panteleyev on last Saturday when two speedboats closed in on the slow-moving ship in an attempt to hijack it.

The Russian destroyer fired warning shots at the pirates who immediately backed off. "Six merchant ships from different countries were under the Admiral Panteleyev's protection as part of an international convoy through a safe region in the Gulf of Aden. The Pacific Fleet agreed to escort the Eide Trader freighter... despite its slow speed", the Navy spokesman said. All the ships made it safely through the pirate infested waters and the Admiral Panteleyev is heading for Bahrain to take on supplies before returning to its duties in the Gulf of Aden. The Admiral Panteleyev is an Udaloy-class missile destroyer armed with anti-ship missiles, 30-mm and 100-mm guns, and two Ka-27 Helix helicopters. The destroyer seized in April a boat carrying 29 suspected pirates, believed to have been involved in the unsuccessfully attack on a Russian-crewed oil tanker as it passed through the Gulf of Aden en route to Singapore.

A Muslim sheikh who is leading the effort in northern Somalia to speak with willing pirates has said a meeting held in the coastal town of Eyl was successful, Radio Garowe reports. Sheikh Abdulkadir Nur Farah, a well respected Islamic scholar in Puntland, told a Radio Garowe interview on Monday that the sheikhs met privately with a group of 'reformed pirates'. "We came [to Eyl] as a group of sheikhs and elders from Bossaso and Garowe and we met with 80 former pirates", Sheikh Abdulkadir said, adding that the group of men they met with had "quit piracy eight months ago". He indicated that the group showed the sheikhs and elders willingness to stop pirate attacks, saying: "Our job is to advocate against piracy and we will continue our efforts". Sheikh Abdulkadir said the coastal town of Eyl has been "transformed" and that hijacked ships are not brought there, as in the past. Currently, two ships are being held hostage off the Eyl coast.

An independent journalist based in Eyl, Mr. Abdishakur Ahmed "Gorgor", suggested to Radio Garowe that the effort to speak with ex-pirates is a risky endeavor. "Ultimately, it becomes an issue of trust and whether or not these men who say they quit [piracy] can be believed", Gorgor said. But he confirmed that Eyl no longer has the "pirate appeal" as hardcore pirate gangs have moved southward. New Puntland President Abdirahman Farole has declared war on pirates, saying that the anti-piracy campaign would incorporate police action with community and religious advocacy. While local reports say that this is actually the same group, which had been paid months earlier already by some undisclosed sources to conduct a "redemption-exercise" and back than was unsuccessful and chased away by the sea-shifta, the reality is that the sea-shifta of several clans have bonded together and hold now most ships near Harardheere together, threatening that if one vessel is attacked all will suffer.

Uproot piracy with Somali people in mind

by Zhao Zhuoyun for Xinhua

Farah Jimale, a shop owner, is one of a few who have not fled the renewed fighting in Wardigley district of Mogadishu, the restive capital of Somalia. Jimale and his family, like many others in Mogadishu, were not able to leave because he couldn't afford the fees for minibus which charge about 30 U.S. dollars for ferrying people out of harm' s way. "There are shelling and shooting all around my neighborhood every now and then. I cannot move out because I have no money as the costumers for my shop have left the area and there are no people to sell things to", said Jimale, a father of four. "I know that there could be big fighting in Mogadishu especially where we live because the resistance (insurgent fighters) are stationed very close to the government forces and they shoot each other almost every day. Sometimes there are intermittent shellings in this area and luckily it never hits our home or near it, but it could happen like it happened to many other families", Jimale told a Xinhua reporter Tuesday.

After weeks' intermittent fierce fighting in the war-torn capital city of Somalia, more than 600 people have been killed or wounded while the number of residents fleeing the latest escalation of violence in and around Mogadishu has surpassed 67,000, according to the UN refugee agency.

Suffering of millions of Somalis, like Jimale, in the past 18 years of conflicts, however, is barely known by many people around the world and draws less attention regarding a special group of their compatriots -- the Somali pirates.

As another international anti-piracy conference kicked off Wednesday in Cairo, a consensus that the Somali piracy is a global issue which requires global cooperation is coming into being.

If the international community, however, only focuses on containing piracy itself with outside force, then only stopgap measures can be found.

It is undeniable that the foreign warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden, the improved vigilance of merchant ships sailing off the Somali waters and the millions of dollars pledged for Somali security forces by donors have made or will make it harder for pirates to hijack ships. But piracy cannot be uprooted with these stopgap measures alone.

Statistics from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) showed that attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off east coast of Somalia this year had surpassed cases reported in 2008.

"The Gulf of Aden has been the site of 71 attacks so far in 2009, of which 17 resulted in successful hijacks. In 2008, there were 32 hijacks from a total of 92 attacks. This year has seen a surge in activity off the east coast of Somalia, with 43 attacks so far compared to 19 in the whole year 2008", the bureau said earlier this month.

The IMB said in 2008 there were 111 incidents including 42 vessels hijacked while barely half way into 2009, there have been 29 successful hijacking from 114 attempted attacks.

There has also been an increase in the number of vessels fired upon in these regions. In 2008, there were 39 instances of vessels being targeted. This year, there have been 54 cases.

Despite the reduction in successful hijacking which can be partly attributed to the presence of international navies in the region, risks facing merchant ships plying routes off the Somali coast remain, if not worsen. The only difference is that pirates have to launch more attacks in more areas far from the coast and face higher risks of being arrested, which seems not to be an effective deterrent to them so far.

How can we get at the root of the problem then?

As victims of piracy, the world is used to look at the issue from an external angle with the reduction of risks facing merchant ships and their crews being the first consideration. This is reasonable but exposes neglect of the other side of the issue.

The issue of piracy is neither a problem of Somalia alone nor one that can be solved by other countries without the support and help of the Somali people.

If we change an angle of view and have more consideration for the ordinary Somalis experiencing daily terror of violence, it will not be difficult for us to find what they need most -- peace and stability.

Without peace and a stable government supported by most Somalis, the country in war for almost two decades cannot get rid of the cancer of piracy.

Actually, the international community has already realized the root of piracy rests on conflicts in the Horn of Africa country and made numerous not-so-successful efforts to stabilize it.

More than a dozen of internationally supported Somali transitional federal governments have failed and the current one is under fierce attacks in Mogadishu and a few other government-controlled areas.

Thousands of peacekeepers from the U.S. and the UN withdrew in early 1990s following heavy losses in fighting with local militias. The Ethiopian troops, who entered Somalia and helped the transitional government expel an Islamic group from the south-central part of the country, also finished their presence early this year after a two-year-long Iraqi-style guerilla war.

All these international attempts to bring peace to Somalia failed so far for the same reason -- they put too much emphasis on the outside force and neglect the will of the Somali people and the fact that a government without strong local support cannot last long.

If the international community can have the will and benefits of Somali people in their mind when making anti-piracy decisions and take effective measures to stop unjustified interference in Somali conflicts by some external forces with their own political agenda, peace and stability may come back to the war-ravaged country and that will be doomsday for piracy.

News that a Swedish warship had arrested nine suspected Somali pirates in these waters was met with mixed emotions on this Canadian frigate, writes Dan Lett In the Winnipeg Free Press and explains:

Aboard one of the 50 of so warships cruising this critically important shipping route, the crew of the Winnipeg applauds the work of any ship that is able to not only fend off a pirate attack, but also bring the alleged perpetrators to some form of justice. That opportunity to arrest a pirate and see him taken before a court of law has been one aspect of the anti-piracy mission here that has evaded the diligent crew of the Winnipeg.

On a half-dozen occasions, the Winnipeg has stopped and boarded suspected pirate vessels. Just last week, the ship had its best day in the gulf, seizing a significant cache of automatic weapons, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, the weapon of choice for discerning pirates. But there was just the slightest hint of muttering among some of the crew about the fact that these pirates, as was the case each and every time before, had to be released.

It is growing increasingly difficult to determine who is winning the war in the Gulf of Aden.

Certainly, pirate attacks are way down and it has been more than three weeks since pirates have actually seized a merchant vessel. This latest period of quiet stands in stark contrast to the first three months of this year, when pirates attacked more than 100 vessels seeking cargo and ransom they could earn from the hostages.

It is expected pirate attacks could decline even more as monsoon season settles on this part of the world. The high seas and winds that come with the rain are perhaps the most effective deterrent to the Somali pirates and their small, tenuous fishing skiffs.

Politically, events in Somalia hold remote hope that forces within the country are trying to frustrate the criminal organizations behind the piracy. This week, some 200 self-declared pirates gave up their life of plundering and pillaging in what appeared to be a highly staged event in Puntland, one of the breakaway states within Somalia thought to be ground zero for the syndicates behind the attacks.

Infamous pirate leader Abshir Abdullah, whose cell-phone appears to be available to many of the world's news agencies, claims he and his marauding comrades have found religion, and have been convinced by Islamic leaders to put away their ladders and RPGs in exchange for amnesty. It's not clear whether this is a conversion timed to coincide with monsoon season, or just a ploy to convince the international armada to leave the gulf.

And yet, no one on this ship really believes the pirates have been completely discouraged. As soon as calm waters return, there is a strong sense that piratical acts will resume with extreme prejudice. Each and every night, the crew of the HMCS Winnipeg is reminded that this threat is hardly over.

In the past four days, there have been nightly attacks on merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden shipping corridor. All the attacks have been repelled, and in two instances pirates were actually arrested. One may wonder how Swedish and Italian warships were able to arrest pirates, while the Winnipeg has repeatedly been forced to release their suspects.

In both recent incidents, the Swedes and Italians arrived as an attack was going on and witnessed the shots being fired at the merchant vessels. This is a small but important legal element that determines whether arrests can be made.

International shipping law, as defined by various United Nations declarations and resolutions, requires warships to witness a piratical act in progress before arrests can be made. If a warship stumbles upon a pirate skiff full of armaments and boarding devices before any piratical act has taken place, all the warship can do is seize weapons and other boarding tools and set the pirates free.

The Winnipeg is clearly ready and willing should the right conditions present themselves. A shower has been installed on a deck behind the ship's flight deck to prepare pirate suspects for detention on board; detainee jumpsuits sit nearby at the ready. The crew recently completed a training simulation to ensure proper procedures are followed if and when suspects are brought on board.

If they are, however, there is no consensus about what should be done with them.

The Swedes took their suspects to Djibouti, for reasons that are not well-known. The European Union has struck an accord with Kenya to try those accused of piracy, a process that Canada has publicly indicated it would like to join.

However, at last word the Italians were keeping their detainees on board, awaiting word about where to take them. And there has been no indication what ships from China, Russia and Iran, the latest nation to join the ragtag armada in this gulf, would do with pirates caught in the act of piracy.

Private armies board ships in Somalia

by Jan Huisman

Dozens of warships from navies around the world patrol the waters off Somalia, yet still the number of hijackings rises. The international effort to combat piracy involves many navies operating in separate alliances, working with different rules of engagement in poorly coordinated operations. As governments fail, private security companies move to fill the void.

One such company, US-based Phoenix Intelligence Support, initiated a private sector conference in Cairo this week to discuss what it calls "real solutions" to the piracy threat. Speaking on phone from Cairo, Phoenix managing director William Fielding said so far a group of companies operating almost 1,000 ships have expressed interest in his protection services.

"The ideal situation would be to never have a pirate come on board a ship at all", Mr. Fielding said. "We are looking at the most humane ways to deter anyone from getting on board the ship, but we need to be true to our customers as well".

Mr. Fielding said his company plans to install teams on board vessels, armed with high pressure hoses, long range acoustical devices and, as a last resort, conventional weaponry. The company also intends to employ airplanes to spot pirates at sea.

"We want our philosophy to be, just keep them off board the ship the gentlest way possible".

Moral high ground

Private security companies have been a controversial phenomenon since their involvement in Iraq. Private companies are not subject to civilian control the way a conventional military is, and have been accused of trigger-happy rules of engagement.

One company already operating an armed ship in Somalia is Blackwater, infamous for its role providing private security in Iraq and in particular one 2007 incident in which 17 civilians were killed in Baghdad's Nisoor Square.

Mr. Fielding argues the private sector can thwart pirates in a simple and cost-effective manner, while navies lack the resources to patrol enough ocean.

But the potential for deadly mistakes is high. This week, for example, two Yemeni fishermen were killed by a missile fired by an international anti-piracy patrol in the Red Sea, according to Yemen's state news agency Saba.

"While some suspected the missile was an air strike, sources at Yemen's navy said it probably came from sea by one of (the) warships conducting anti-piracy patrols in the region", Saba said.

It's clear even the navies are struggling to identify who is and isn't a pirate.

Rob Hunnego, chairman of the Dutch Royal Association of Marine Officers, agrees that navies are struggling to intercept pirates, but says private security is an undesirable alternative. Without democratic control over the behaviour of armed forces, the use of violence lacks legitimacy, Mr. Hunnego said.

"Our rules of engagement are strong enough, but I think that's the price we have to pay if we want to attack pirates, or even terrorists - we have to maintain a moral high ground and make sure that the way we act is beyond disapproval from international law".

Mr. Hunnego dismissed the notion that companies would save money by hiring private security.

"One thing is sure - the private companies don't come cheap either".

Big business

Andrew Mwangura holds a unique position in the world of Somali piracy. From the Mombassa office of his small NGO for seafarer's safety, Mwangura negotiates between pirates, Somali clans and the multinational companies whose ships are seized. He does not consider private contractors a solution.

"We think that will bring more trouble in these waters. We want the private security companies to stay away and let the military do what is right".

Mwangura sees private security contractors as yet another leech profiting from conflict in Somalia. Mwangura said the finances involved in piracy far exceeds the ransom figures reported in the media. There are ransom delivery costs, negotiation fees, lawyer fees, and increasingly, the cost of security.

"Piracy in Somalia is big business. Everyone wants to make money out of this, including the private security companies".

Root cause

The debate over private security versus military intervention is misguided, said Mwangura. Ever since Somali piracy gained international attention, analysts have pointed to poverty and lawlessness in Somalia as the underlying cause. Yet all Mwangura hears is debate over what military tactic to pursue.

"The solution is not military". Conflict in Africa, Mwangura said, is often tied to the illegal extraction of its natural resources: diamonds in Liberia, cotton in the Congo, and in Somalia, fish.

"The root cause is poverty, and the cause of poverty is illegal fishing, toxic dumping, and years of bad rains".

Mwangura rattled off by memory five United Nations resolutions to address piracy in Somalia. None have mentioned the root cause, he said.

"We find it a contradiction because we have about more than 25 warships from all over the world in Somalia, but none of them has arrested fishing vessels fishing illegally in Somali waters".

Shipping insurance sky-rockets as pirate attacks increase

As the number of attacks increases – and the pirates become more daring, hijacking larger and more valuable vessels – so have the rates of shipping insurance, reports Nick Amies for DPA. Insurance companies have increased surcharges for sending a cargo shipment through the Gulf of Aden to about $9,000 (6,429 euros) from $900 (643 euros) a year ago. Given the increased threat, shipping insurance firms, mostly based in London, have been charging hefty premiums to go through the Gulf of Aden and Suez since last spring. Big oil and chemical tankers, several soccer fields long, are especially vulnerable. They must pay tens of thousands of dollars a day in extra "war zone" insurance to cross the Gulf.

War zone insurance policy adds hefty surcharges

Until recently, shippers have been unable to buy insurance policies to guard against the loss of ships, cargo or crews to pirates. But now companies have begun offering such policies.

"Shipping insurance comes in three parts: you insure the cargo, you insure the ship itself which is called hull insurance and you insure the ship against liability like collisions with other ships", Herbert Fromme, shipping expert and insurance correspondent for the Financial Times Deutschland, told Deutsche Welle. "Each is supplied by different companies. But the piracy issue is a different kettle of fish; it can be covered under war risk policies which have been standard for centuries. You declare an area a war zone risk and you charge ships a surcharge on top of the premium you normally calculate".

Herein lies another problem for ship owners and insurers. War zone risk policies are gray areas when it comes to pirates. They are, however, clear on the issue of terrorism but this only muddies the waters further. Despite Somalia's reputation as a breeding ground for terrorists, it is clear that most Somali pirates are acting for economic, not political, gain. Getting insurers to see it this way is sometimes difficult.

A question of terrorism

"The problem with war risk policies is they exclude terrorism from their cover so the question is then whether the insurer thinks of the pirates as terrorists or not", says Fromme. "This is a definition problem; do the pirates have an ideology or are they fundamentalists of some sort? Do you take the risk, get war risk and hope your insurer will see an attack as an act of piracy, not terrorism? This is why more owners pay for insurance for a single trip through the Gulf of Aden with a $3 million ransom clause, at around $30,000. These policies are called K&R – Kidnapping and Ransom – which are sold to the ship owner for one trip".

On top of the increased surcharges and expensive one-trip policies, ship owners face other potential costs.

"Another cost on top of this insurance is a policy against possible claims against owners by crew members in cases where the crew claim the owners acted negligently", Fromme adds. "This happened on the container ship Maersk Alabama where the first steward sued the owner because he claimed there wasn't enough security on board to prevent the hijacking. That case and settlement was paid from that added insurance policy".

Alternative routes come with own financial burdens

These hikes in high insurance prices and added costs have pushed many companies to skip the Gulf of Aden and Suez Canal, and instead some plot a course around the Cape of Good Hope. But that voyage adds an extra two to three weeks to the trip, which in turn can add to the financial burden.

"The route round the Cape only makes financial sense depending on what your cargo is", Fromme said. "If your cargo is not time critical then this is an option but you have to do a simple calculation; a container ship carrying electronics from the Far East has a cargo easily worth around $1 billion. If you take two weeks longer to deliver this, you are liable for the interest on that $1 billion for those two weeks you are late. You have to weigh this up against the risk and the added cost of traveling through the Gulf".

Some shipping officials do just that and dismiss the threat, deciding to take their chances in the Gulf. They point out that, since only a fraction of the more than 50 commercial ships that still pass through the Gulf of Aden every day are attacked, the risks remain minimal.

They also rely on the fact that since various international naval missions have been launched in the area, the odds will be even more in the shipping companies' favor, improving security and therefore lowering insurance costs in time.

Problems need solving on dry land first

However, one of the most surprising elements of the modern-day piracy problem is that the world's most powerful countries have been so powerless to stop it. Attacks have persisted, and a dozen ships have been held for ransom at any given time, even though the European Union has sent a flotilla of warships, China has promised naval support, the Indian navy last fall sank a pirate "mother ship", and the United Nations is developing plans to combat piracy.

Once the US Navy joined the mission, the hope was that this would finally end the pirate threat but even the powerful United States has not been able to stop the attacks.

The general consensus is that, as long as Somalia remains a failed and lawless state on land, the waters off its coast will continue to be plagued by pirates. Until stability is brought to the launch site for these attacks, piracy and the high prices the international shipping industry has to pay because of it, will remain an issue.

Chasing the Somali piracy money trail

A new economy has developed both within Somalia and further afield, as security companies, lawyers and negotiators reap huge profits from their involvement, reports the BBC. But finding out what happens to the money delivered as ransom payments is doubly difficult, first because piracy is a transnational crime, and second because Somalia is a country without rules, regulations or a functioning government. There have been various reports that piracy in Somalia is attracting big-time criminals from all over the world; that it is being orchestrated from London; that the ship owners themselves are involved. But little evidence has been provided to back up these claims. It has also been reported that much of the ransoms has been laundered by organized syndicates in Dubai and other Gulf states.

But this has been strenuously denied by officials in the Gulf, and people working in maritime intelligence say they have no real proof that the money laundering or any other large scale international crime is happening. "There's been a lot of inventive reporting on very slim evidence", says Christopher Ledger, chairman of the maritime security company Idarat. "What happens to the money is exceedingly opaque, partly because of the way Somalis communicate with each other, and also because of the impenetrable way their finance system works". Established security experts have also suggested that some of those cashing in on the new growth industry of Somali piracy are exaggerating its international criminal dimensions in order to drum up business for themselves. The experts say that with a decreasing demand for private security and intelligence in places like Iraq, some companies and newly-formed "piracy consultants" are trying to sell Somalia as the new frontier for their operations, basing much of their information on speculation rather than fact. In a sense, Somalis do not need to launder the money they make from piracy because their unique financial system operates on trust and honour, bypassing banks and other financial institutions.

Verbal transactions

As the system - known as "hawala" - often does not involve documentation, with most transactions done verbally, there is no paper trail. This makes it almost impossible to find out what happens to money made from ransom payments or any other transaction in Somalia. The fact that most ransoms are paid in cash means they simply disappear into the Somali community, rather than ending up in banks or other financial bodies. Although hawala companies in the West and the Arab world have become more regulated in recent years, it is very difficult to track the money once it gets to Somalia.

It has been possible to find out something about how the ransom money is distributed. One thing is clear: the small groups of pirates who take to sea in speedboats to hijack huge ships do not get all the money. "They are the foot soldiers", says Andrew Mwangura, who heads the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme and negotiates frequently with pirates. "They are young men, often teenagers, and they certainly don't end up with all the money".

Compensation' scheme

Pirates interviewed by the BBC have been reluctant to say exactly how much money they make from a successful hijacking, but reports indicate they make tens of thousands of dollars rather than millions. This is because piracy has developed into a mini-economy, employing hundreds of people in north-eastern and central Somalia, all of whom need their share of the ransom. A UN report found the payments are shared virtually equally between the maritime militia, although the first pirate to board the ship gets a double share or a vehicle. And compensation is paid to the family of any pirate killed during the operation. The breakdown shows how ransom money trickles down to many sections of Somali society. Government officials and the armed groups that control different parts of the country all get their share too.

Yemen link

Some analysts - such as the Kenyan-based security consultant Bruno Schiemsky - say pirates have given as much as 50% of their revenue to the Islamist al-Shabab militia in the areas it controls. However, al-Shabab has stated that it opposes piracy. There have been consistent reports that officials in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland - the heartland of Somali piracy - have been getting cuts. Several officials, including a deputy chief of police, have been sacked for involvement in piracy. With so many people receiving a share of the ransom payments - which average between $1m to $3m (£1.9m) - Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, says Somali piracy is unlikely to attract the involvement of major international crime syndicates. "When you look at the way ransoms are distributed, there's simply not enough money for big time gangs to be interested", he says.

However, if piracy continues to grow, there's a possibility that it will start to attract major criminal elements. Maritime security expert Christopher Ledger says: "It's similar to the South American drugs trade in the 1970s, which started off as a relatively small-time operation, and grew into a huge global crime". One country that does seem to be involved in Somali piracy is Yemen. Maritime security experts say the 'mother ships' from which pirate attacks are launched are often re-fuelled, re-supplied and even armed in Yemen. A UN report said: "Members of the Harardhere pirate group have been linked to the trafficking of arms from Yemen to (the Somali towns of) Harardhere and Hobyo, which have long been two of the main points of entry for arms shipments destined for armed opposition groups in Somalia and Ethiopia". It's likely that the truth about all the money made from piracy will never be uncovered. What is clear is that several elements in Somali society are benefiting, and that piracy will remain an attractive career option as long as the country remains without central authority. But it is wrong to transfer theories about money laundering and international crime onto Somali piracy. The problem is unique, the country is unique, and speculation will lead to misguided policies which are likely to prolong the dangers facing any ship that sails along the long unruly coast of Somalia.

Marine ecosystem, IUU fishing and dumping, ecology

Somali Piracy: Predictable Result of Global Exploitation

By Stephen Von Sychowski for People's Voice (Canada)

If someone had said two years ago that piracy would soon be a serious international issue, most people would have disregarded the claim as the delusional result of watching too many Johnny Depp movies.

Yet today, cases of real-life piracy can be found in the pages of every major newspaper on nearly a daily basis. The pirates are portrayed as simply bad apples, greedy, or otherwise morally reprehensible. But, like the rest of us, they are merely the product of their environment.

Somalia, like other African countries, is impoverished and underdeveloped due to a long history of exploitation going back to the days of slavery and colonialism. When Somalia's central government collapsed in the early 1990s, the United States was quick to intervene. Corporate interests had their eyes on Somalia as a source of natural resources (oil, iron ore, copper, salt, etc.) as well as potential cheap labour. They also considered it militarily strategic due to its proximity to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

For these reasons, U.S. imperialism, directly and through its puppet governments in neighboring countries, has consistently played a provocative, warmongering and destabilizing role in Somalia. Over 1.1 million people have been displaced in recent years, helping to ensure that the country remains unable to pull itself out of the cycle of foreign control and exploitation which has led to its impoverishment.

This situation in general, and more specifically, the theft and destruction of the natural resources on which Somalia's coastal villages survive, has given birth to the surge of piracy.

The majority of piracy takes place in the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean. Villages along the Somali coast depend largely upon fishing for their livelihood. In the past, families could fish enough to feed themselves and to sell additional catches in local markets. But today this source of livelihood has been stolen from the Somali people by foreign corporations.

Fishing trawlers are frequently targeted by pirates. These trawlers, owned primarily by Asian and European companies, have robbed the Somali people of an estimated $300 million per year by depleting the fish stocks upon which many villages depend. These profiteers, who are illegally pillaging fish and other sea life from Somali offshore territory, are in many ways the real pirates, or at any rate, the real thieves.

Perhaps even more reprehensible has been the dumping of nuclear and toxic waste along the Somali coast by European corporations. This dumping came to light in December 2004, when the Indonesian tsunami stirred up tones of waste and revealed to the world the poisoning of the Somali people and their shores by foreign corporations for profit. It is estimated that the costs of "disposing" of this waste in Somalia was a mere $2.50/ton, as compared to nearly $1000/ton to properly dispose of the waste in Europe. This very profitable venture for the corporations came at a high price for the Somali people, many of whom suffer from radiation sickness characterized by skin and respiratory infections, mouth ulcers and bleeding and abdominal hemorrhages. The dumping of nuclear and toxic waste has also caused a major environmental crisis in the affected areas, reaping further havoc on the available fish stocks.

Somalia's agriculture-based economy has also been hard hit by intense drought, which threatens the possibility of famine if foreign aid is not sufficiently applied. According to BBC reports, nearly half the population is suffering malnutrition, with roughly 24% of children under five year of age suffering from acute malnutrition.

Against this war-torn backdrop of hunger, desperation and lawlessness, there is little wonder how piracy came to flourish.

Predictably, the imperialist countries (the primary targets of pirate attacks) are focusing on military-based "solutions" to the problem. Much like organized crime in North America, piracy in Somalia will not be stopped by more violence, enforcement and suppression. The situation was caused by the vicious profiteering policies of imperialism, and will only be solved by addressing these root causes.

Foreign troops, military bases and interference in the affairs of government must be removed from Somalia, and the right to self determination and sovereignty must be guaranteed. Foreign assistance to the Somali people should be rendered in the form of reparations for years of war, theft of resources and polluting of territory. Foreign companies and governments should be held responsible to pay for cleaning up the mess they have made. If not, incidences of piracy will likely continue to increase as starving Somalis struggle to feed their families.

Seeking alternatives to charcoal in Somaliland

Insufficient cheaper alternatives and a large former refugee population are fuelling tree-felling and dependence on charcoal in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, adversely affecting the environment, say analysts.

Most urban households use charcoal for everyday cooking. "We use a sack of charcoal every four days because our family is large", said Zahra Omar, a mother of 12, in the capital, Hargeisa.

According to a 2007 study by the Academy for Peace and Development, more than 2.5 million trees are felled annually and burned for charcoal in Somaliland. The report stated that each household in Somaliland consumed an equivalent of 10 trees a month.

Deforestation exacerbates soil erosion and reduces rainfall availability. Trees are also important in carbon fixing - reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Despite charcoal prices going up since 1991 with the resettlement of former refugees, demand remains high. "Before, 10 years ago, one sack of charcoal [cost] only 5,000 Somaliland shillings [US$0.76] but now here in Hargeisa it is about Sh30,000 [$5]", said Nimo Ahmed, a resident. "When [it] rains... charcoal [becomes] more expensive... because [the] trees become wet".

Wood for energy

High and rising gas prices have also encouraged charcoal use. Previously, Nimo said, gas was cheaper than charcoal but the price has increased dramatically, with one litre of gas now costing about Sh4,000 ($0.61) up from Sh1,500 ($0.23).

It is the preferred fuel even in hotels, which consume even larger quantities of the commodity. "I use a sack of charcoal for a day's cooking", said Anab Mohamed Ismail, a Hargeisa chef.

According to researchers, one of the main drivers of deforestation in Africa is the need for fuel.

In sub-Saharan Africa only 7.5 percent of the rural population has access to electricity, according to a 2009 report on the state of the world's forests. "As household incomes and investment in appropriate alternatives remain low, wood is likely to remain an important energy source in Africa in the coming decades..." it stated.

Forecasts made in 2001 suggested a 34 percent increase in wood fuel consumption from 2000 to 2020. "However, the rise in fuel prices in the past two years suggests that this increase is likely to be even greater. The share of wood fuel in the total energy supply is likely to decline, but the absolute number of people dependent on wood energy is predicted to grow", it stated. "The forest situation in Africa presents enormous challenges, reflecting the larger constraints of low income, weak policies and inadequately developed institutions".

"Charcoal... demand is increasing daily and burning [of] trees is increasing... but we are trying to [encourage] awareness among the people and give them other sources of income", said Abdirisaq Bashir, the emergency and environment coordinator of Candlelight, an NGO working in environmental management. The NGO is helping young people become involved in alternative activities such as bee-keeping.

Trade ban

Local environmentalists are worried that the trade in charcoal may wipe out some tree species. "One of the ... trees used for charcoal [production] is [the] Acacia bussei tree. Unfortunately its type is now going to be [extinct] in the Somaliland territories", said Bashir. Each tree produces about eight to 10 sacks of charcoal.

Concerned with the impact of charcoal-burning on the environment, Hargeisa´s regional governor, Maroodi Jeeh, on 30 April banned trade in charcoal and the burning of trees.

Other attempts at protecting the environment have included the introduction of solar cookers and gas stoves in the main urban centers of Burou, Las-anod, Gabiley, Wajalea and Borama.

Since January, Somgas Company has been supplying gas to residents. "We have different gas cylinders [which] we sell... and train [the public on] how to use", said Subeir Mouse Abdi of Somgas. An ordinary household uses an 11kg cylinder for six weeks, according to Abdi.

Although initial gas and cylinder prices are high, an 11kg gas cylinder and gas costs $44.50 and is recharged at $19. This, he said, is not expensive compared with the monthly charcoal consumption of about $15 for three 20kg sacks of charcoal per household. The gas cylinders range from 2-22kg.

"We now have 600 customers since we started in January", he said.

While charcoal consumption fell in 2008 compared with 2007, there is still cause for concern, according to Somaliland's Ministry of Pastoral Development and Environment.

"We are concerned [about the] environmental degradation caused by the charcoal, and we are working with several organisations to search [for] alternatives [to] charcoal energy", said Mohamoud Ibrahim Mohamoud, head of the forestry section in the ministry. "The problem that increases... forest burning for charcoal is the poverty in the countryside and the high demand [for] charcoal energy in the urban [areas]".

It's a terrifying week for whales. Iceland's whaling season began on Tuesday, despite international outcry against the bloody hunt. Whalers plan to kill up to 100 mink whales this season. If Somali waters would not fall into the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary, we certainly would also see the Icelanders joining the "anti-piracy"-armada, where each navy has her own hidden agenda.

Tell Iceland's Minister of Fisheries to reduce this year's whale hunt quotas immediately, and work toward a full ban on whaling in Iceland.

Clearly Iceland is sensitive to the outrage against whaling – particularly its impact on the country's tourism industry. Whaling is banned close to Reykjavik harbor, and the first whales are usually killed in a bay just outside of the capital city. But clearly a more effective effort to protect Iceland's tourism industry and popular whale watching businesses would be to ban the brutal whaling program completely.

That is why we need your help. These majestic beauties of the ocean deserve to live in peace. Please sign the petition opposing Iceland's whaling program »

Anti-piracy measures

"The issue is getting worse," Somalia's Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar told reporters as he pleaded for aid to help his country build an effective coast guard. The so-called Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia on Friday signed a declaration supporting measures to be taken by the group to help counter Somali piracy. The contact group includes the United States, the European Union, NATO and the United Nations. Greg Delawie, a U.S. envoy present at the signing ceremony, told reporters those measures would include apprehending and prosecuting pirates and supporting the creation of effective coast guards in the region.

Omaar said an effective Somali coast guard could help put an end to piracy in the country's waters. But to get it up and running, he said, money and equipment were urgently needed. "We have the will and we have the men on the ground in the areas where these things are happening", he said, adding that the coast guard would need money, equipment, boats, radar and satellite communications systems. He said creating a coast guard would also create employment opportunities for young Somali men who may go into piracy to escape abject poverty.

The Russians had caught 26 pirates and threw them into the brig of a warship. After several weeks, they were still there. No one knew what to do with them or how to prove exactly that they were involved in piracy. Now it has transpired that the Russian navy handed these alleged Somali 'pirates' to Iran, Pakistan. Russian naval officers said Thursday that the 'pirates' among 29 it captured on a so-called mother ship off Somalia have been handed over to Iranian and Pakistani investigators, news agencies reported. "At the start of May, after having conducted preliminary enquiries aboard the navy destroyer Admiral Panteleev one group of pirates held were delivered to Iranian authorities and another to Pakistan", a representative of Russian naval high command was quoted as saying by Ria Novosti. Russian sailors had seized seven Kalachnikov machine-guns, handguns of different calibers, satellite navigation devices and a large number of empty shells at the time of the operation, said Russia's defense ministry. Why the Russians involve in their clandestine rendition operations now these two countries is unknown and the Russian Human Rights bodies so far could also not provide an answer.

As navies from around the world confront Somali gangs off the Horn of Africa, a small legal issue is turning into a major problem for the mission and the governments involved: what to do with the captured pirates?

Faced with escalating pirate attacks in one of the world´s busiest shipping routes, European Union forces rushed to the Indian Ocean in December — only to find that after chasing and detaining the suspects, the next step was unclear.

Many Western governments are reluctant to bring suspects into their own countries, lacking the jurisdiction to do so or fearing the Somalis might try to claim asylum. Lawless Somalia is unlikely to give them a free and fair trial. Some forces simply set them free again.

Trying to solve the problem, the European Union, the United States and a growing number of other pirate hunters have started outsourcing trial and prosecution to Somalia´s neighbour, Kenya. But Kenya, with an eye on its volatile neighbour, has made clear it cannot take all Somali suspects.

There is already one German lawsuit challenging the Kenyan arrangement. Some lawyers say governments have thrown themselves into a legal experiment that lays them open to compensation claims and raises questions about the maritime operation itself.

"Has it been given a lot of thought? I don´t think so. If it had, the legal aspect would have been considered more thoroughly", said Timothee Phelizon, a lawyer whose Somali client, Ishmael, is held in a French jail. Mr. Ishmael and five other Somali men are accused of attacking a French yacht and holding its crew hostage in April 2008.

Mr. Phelizon said four of them had nothing to do with the hijacking, and would have to be released without charge. "It´s a very political case. Because if in the end there are only two people who will be put on trial, then there are four who will have spent a year in France behind bars. And they can demand compensation and a parliamentary inquiry into why four innocent people spent 12 months behind bars", he told Reuters.

France holds 15 Somali pirates who were caught during or after attacks on French crews. Mr. Phelizon argues they cannot be sent back as other pirates will suspect them of having divulged secrets to the French. He expects them to claim asylum here.

Others have been shipped to Mombassa. The EU struck a deal with Kenya in March over suspects seized by its "Operation Atalanta", and has since then transferred more than 50 men. The United States in January expanded an older deal with Kenya.

Like France, it still decided to tackle the issue itself when its national interests were at stake — a Somali teenager, the sole surviving accused pirate from an attack on US container ship MAERSK ALABAMA in April, was indicted in the United States on ten counts in May.

NATO, which is also operating in the area, is scrambling to hammer out a deal after it was publicly rebuked by the United States for freeing captives. Military sources told Reuters that the initial confusion was frustrating for them. Officials have cheered the Kenya deal.

"For us, it´s a blessing that we have this rule, that we have a place where we can drop them off," an Atalanta spokesman said. But despite everyone from Russia to India to the United States patrolling the Gulf of Aden and Somalia´s east coast, pirates continue to do their business.

There were 111 attacks in 2008; so far, 2009 has already seen 114, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Maritime experts believe that successful prosecution will somewhat deter pirates, who pay attention to legal developments. But human rights activists question Kenya´s suitability.

German lawyer Oliver Wallasch, whose links with human rights groups led him to represent a Somali caught by German forces and shipped to Kenya, said he should be tried in Germany. "When I hear, oh but then they´ll ask for asylum — so what! If Germany takes on the task of playing police down there, then it should also be able to cope with asylum requests from five Somalis", he told Reuters in a phone interview.

Arguing Kenya does not meet EU justice standards, Mr. Wallasch is suing Germany´s government on behalf of his client. Germany says it cannot prosecute the men, accused of attacking a German ship with a non-German crew and flag. An exchange of letters between the EU and Kenya, the legal basis of the deal, includes several human rights provisions.

An EU official, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters lawyers are monitoring the Kenyan trials. "What happens if my client is sentenced to eight, nine years in jail — once the media loses interest, who will continue to monitor his jail conditions after eight years?" Mr. Wallasch said.

Meanwhile, Western governments are seeking out other suitable partners in the region, such as the Seychelles. Whatever the result of the talks and legal tussles, lawyers, military officials and maritime experts agree that ultimately, none of this will solve the piracy problem. As Mr. Cyrus Mody, a piracy expert for the International Maritime Bureau, puts it: "At the end we all know that the problem lies with Somalia and its lack of a rule of law".

At the beginning of the tuna-season - Japanese P-3Cs dispatched for Somalia anti-piracy duty.

Two Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C aircraft were dispatched Thursday from Atsugi Air Base in Kanagawa Prefecture for an anti-piracy mission off Somalia, marking the first overseas mission for the MSDF patrol planes, Kyodo News reports. Conducting surveillance flights out of Djibouti, the antisubmarine and maritime patrol planes will support two MSDF destroyers that have been patrolling for pirates in the Gulf of Aden since late March.

The dispatch, ordered by Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada on May 15, came a day after the House of Councilors began deliberating legislation that would expand the anti-piracy mission's scope by enabling the Self-Defense Forces to protect foreign vessels unrelated to Japan. The P-3Cs of the 3rd Air Patrol Squadron at Atsugi base are expected to begin patrol flights around mid-June using Djibouti International Airport as their operational base, the Defense Ministry said. "The mission is an indispensable one to carry out the important duty of escorting ships that must be protected, and is therefore extremely important to our country", Senior Vice Defense Minister Seigo Kitamura told about 100 mission personnel and their roughly 150 family members in a ceremony at the base. The planes will patrol the gulf, where many commercial ships have come under pirate attack, and convey relevant information to the destroyers, Japanese-related ships and navy vessels of other countries patrolling the high seas, according to the ministry.

The air patrol operations will involve roughly 100 MSDF personnel, including the crew and engineers of the planes, and about 50 Ground Self-Defense Force members who will guard the aircraft with light arms at the airport or provide other services there. The GSDF troops include members of the Central Readiness Regiment, which comprises the core of the GSDF's Central Readiness Force and will be dispatched on its first mission abroad since it was established last year. The Air Self-Defense Force will transport personnel and maintenance equipment to the airport using its C-130H transport aircraft, the ministry said. Capt. Hiroshi Fukushima, commander of the air patrol unit dispatched Thursday, said before the ceremony that his unit intends to serve the anti-piracy mission by closely working and sharing information with other countries involved in similar operations in the region. Noting that pirates in the region are known to be well-armed, the captain said, "We'd like to fulfill our mission by fully grasping the types and qualities of weapons they possess".

Pakistan Navy warship to participate in CTF-151

By Azeem Samar

As the International Day of United Nations (UN) Peacekeepers is being observed on May 29, the Pakistan Navy (PN) has announced that it will be able to send one of its warships off the Coast of Somalia by mid of next month to participate in the Combined Task Force (CTF)-151, the newly constituted international maritime campaign to combat the menace of piracy against merchant vessels in Horn of Africa. "Yes it has now been confirmed that the PN would dispatch one of its warships to Gulf of Aden to counter the menace of piracy by June 14 or June 15", said Director Public Relations, PN, Captain Asif Majeed Butt. Earlier, on February 27, disclosing the PN's plan to deploy its assets at the Horn of Africa to participate in the international efforts against piracy, Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Noman Bashir told newsmen at a press briefing, "Given our limited naval resources it might be a token participation in the multinational efforts against piracy but we will surely send our maritime assets to become part of international force near Somalia".

The PN spokespersons say that after the naval chief's announcement a couple of months back, there was no delay in sending the PN warship off the Somalia coast as far as the navy's operational preparedness for this specific maritime task is concerned. As it is the matter of participation in an international maritime operation, so approvals were mandatory from the government and its concerned agencies that were being awaited by the naval command, they explained. In its peacekeeping role in the maritime region near the country, the PN has already been participating in the Task Force-150 combining together regional and international navies to counter major threats in Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. One of the battleships of the PN remains in the regional waters all the time to operationally take part in the Combined Task Force -150. The PN to its credit had the command of CTF-150 two times in recent past: from April 2006 to September 2006 and again from July 2007 to February 2008.

The PN is poised to take over command of the CTF-150 for the third time somewhere in coming July, said PN's spokesman in Karachi, Commander Salman Ali. He said that the CTF-150 had been constituted some years back to check and combat the regional maritime menaces including drug and human smuggling, piracy, and terrorism. He said that over the last four to five years the threat perception for the sea region near Pakistan had changed drastically and it had become vital that naval forces of all the concerned nations should combined together their efforts and resources to tackle the regional maritime menaces. Moreover, the concerned regional and international countries had felt that countering international sea menaces such as terrorism should not be left to a single country, rather the task be taken up by a combined force of the international navies, he added.

The Combined Maritime Forces hosted naval leaders from 22 nations and international organizations for a series of meetings, held in Manama, Bahrain. The Shared Awareness and De-confliction meetings (SHADE) provide a working-level opportunity for navies to come together to share information and de-conflict counter-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia. "These efforts streamline and maximize the effectiveness of naval forces to conduct counter-piracy operations in the region", said Commodore Tim Lowe, deputy commander, CMF. "By synchronizing and de-conflicting our efforts, Combined Task Force 151, EU, NATO and other international forces are making a difference".

Representatives from nations including Australia, Bahrain, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Russia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, UK, U.S., Yemen, the European Naval Force and NATO took part in the SHADE meeting. Following the establishment of CTF 151, the CMF staff determined that it would be helpful to implement working-level meetings ashore to discuss counter-piracy coordination and de-confliction. Today's conference marked the fourth time CMF facilitated the meetings. Originally commanded by the U.S. Navy, CTF 151 is now commanded by the Turkish Navy. The command staff is comprised of personnel from Turkey, the U.S., U.K., Pakistan and Greece. The command staff manages daily operations from USS Gettysburg operating in the Gulf of Aden. CTF 151 is a multi-national task force established to conduct counter-piracy operations under a mission-based mandate throughout the CMF area of operations to actively deter, disrupt and suppress piracy in order to protect global maritime security and secure freedom of navigation for the benefit of all nations. CTF 151 operates in the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia and is commanded by Turkish Rear Adm. Caner Bener.

Australia would send a warship and surveillance planes to combat pirates in waters off Somalia, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Friday. Rudd said piracy was a threat to the economic interests of Australia and the rest of the world. "That problem is indiscriminate in terms of who it is hitting", Rudd told reporters in the north Australian city of Darwin. "Ships of all nationalities, cargo ships, passenger ships, sometimes involving Australians...this affects all of our economic interests", Australian Associated Press quoted Rudd as saying. An Australian navy frigate, HMAS Warramunga, currently patrolling the Persian Gulf, will be attached periodically to a new international taskforce established to combat pirate activity in shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia. Also assisting will be an Australian air force AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, one of three based in the Persian Gulf. "We believe it's part of Australia putting its shoulder to the wheel, together with our friends, our partners, our allies to make a material difference to security in the region", he said.

While warships pursue pirates around the Horn of Africa, the secretary general of Interpol, Ron Noble, is pressing for a new global alliance of criminal investigators to hunt the bandits by examining the money trail of multimillion-dollar ransoms. On Friday, Mr. Noble, the first American to head the international policing organization in Lyon, will promote the creation of a special criminal task force at a Group of Eight meeting of justice ministers who are gathering for a two-day conference in Rome to debate strategies to fight international organized crime, reports the NY Times. Piracy "is a classic, classic transnational crime problem occurring on the high seas", Mr. Noble said in an interview. "We´ve got organized criminals targeting victims, taking them hostage and using extortion to get money. And what´s happening now is that the world has focused on a military response". Mr. Noble said that it made sense to dispatch naval conveys to confront pirates off the coast of Somalia, but that "what doesn´t make sense — what I can´t understand — is to release these people after detaining them and let them go back and try again". Piracy is on the agenda of the meeting amid rising concerns about the threat to the region´s major shipping routes. Anti-piracy conferences are also taking place this week in London and Egypt to examine the 114 attempted attacks on ships this year in the Gulf of Aden that resulted in 29 hijackings and the kidnappings of 478 sailors.

NATO, the European Union, China, India, Russia and the United States have dispatched warships to the area on anti-piracy patrols. But ships of the NATO fleet, like the Canadian frigate the Winnipeg, usually chase the boats, seize firearms and ladders and then release the crews. Mr. Noble said he wanted to form a task force in Africa of investigators and prosecutors from a number of countries to create a data base of photographs and DNA and fingerprint records to keep track of suspects. As it is now, he said, data collection is done on a piecemeal basis. What was needed, he said, was a method to collate information about identities and alliances. "There is the whole question of corruption on shipping lines", Mr. Noble said. "How do you think these pirates are able to find the ships to attack? Obviously they have inside information. Obviously there are conversations that are going on, or e-mails that are being exchanged. And you find their modus operandi by debriefing people you arrest". As a model approach, he cited the cooperation of investigators from more than 16 countries who gathered to share information about a gang of thieves — the Pink Panthers — that was robbing jewelry stores in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Mr. Noble credits the sharing of information across borders with the arrests of some of the thieves — a system that could be partially adapted for Somalia, which is comparatively lawless. "Right now there are pirates in jail and others have been arrested and let go", he said. "But there is no central repository to collect that information and no system for exchanging information". There are now seven Somalis on Interpol´s most-wanted list of criminal suspects — the "red notice". None is accused of piracy. "There´s no way these criminals can get the money, travel the high seas with the money, offload the money, spend the money without law enforcement being able to find out how it works and taking them down", Mr. Noble said. "These guys are not rocket scientists". Russia and the Netherlands have been pressing for more — the creation of an international tribunal that could prosecute suspected pirates. France, the United States and the Netherlands are holding Somalis accused of attacks on shipping. But those legal efforts have caused an uproar in the Netherlands: One of the five men facing trial there has expressed satisfaction with such jailhouse comforts as a television and toilet and has asked to bring his family to the Netherlands upon his release. Mr. Noble said that such tribunals are expensive and that the nations pursuing the pirates should try to set up a legal system in Kenya next door.

For the time being Bulgaria will abstain from direct participation in a possible new NATO operation against the Somali pirates, announced sources from the Bulgarian representation in the Headquarters in Mons. The current NATO mission will be over at the end of June and the member countries are thinking over a new one. Bulgaria had received an invitation to join the new mission, but for now the country will abstain from participating. One of the Bulgarian frigates will join the operation Active Endeavor and as of January 2010 the second Bulgarian frigate will be on high alert for the standing NATO Response Force Maritime, a statement reads. The question about the possible Bulgarian participation could be discussed at the end of next year. The Council of Ministers was to decide Thursday whether to send two Bulgarian officers to join the command of the Atlanta EU operation against the Somali pirates.

The new NATO mission in the region will depend mostly on the EU countries' good will to grant resources for its fulfillment, experts commented. Bulgaria is envisaged to send two navy officers to take part in the first ever naval operation of the EU - Operation Atalanta, whose aim is to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia - the Bulgarian government press service has announced. A total of 12 EU member states are already supporting Operation Atalanta but there was a shortage of personnel at the operational headquarters in Northwood near London where only 76 out of 106 positions are filled. Bulgaria's Defense Ministry has said the role of the Bulgarian officers in Operation Atalanta had not be decided and would depend on the needs of the operation. The EU has recently decided to prolong Operation Atalanta, which was supposed to expire at the end of 2009, as well as to expand its geographical coverage as far as the Seychelles. Ireland is also reported Wednesday to contribute two navy officers to the Atalanta operation against the Somali pirates.

No real peace in sight yet

Thousands of people are fleeing the Somali capital Mogadishu as government forces and insurgent fighters gear up for renewed fighting, Radio Garowe reports. More than 20,000 residents have fled their homes in Wardhigley and Dharkinley districts in Mogadishu, where government forces have poured into in recent days. "I had recently returned to Mogadishu and was hoping to live in peace", said resident Sahro Omar, adding that she was forced to flee again for fear of new fighting. Col. Farhan Mahdi, a government military commander, told reporters Wednesday that government troops have been deployed in Dharkinley to "restore security and to prevent opposition groups from launching attacks".

More than 120 people have been killed in armed clashes in Mogadishu this month as fighting raged between government forces and Islamist rebels, led by Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam factions. On Tuesday, the U.N. reported that upwards of 67,000 people fled the Somali capital since the first week of May when heavy fighting erupted between government forces and insurgents.

Somalia's President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed accused Eritrea of arming hard line Islamists fighting to oust his government, a day after his own palace came under a barrage of mortar shells. It was the first time he directly blamed the small African nation since the eruption early this month of some of the heaviest fighting against his four-months-old government. "We know for sure that the majority of the weapons in the hands of the insurgents are coming from Eritrea", he told reporters at his targeted residence. "Eritrea is very much involved here... We know that Eritrean officers come here and bring money in cash." Sharif said that in the past the officers would send money via Nairobi or Dubai, but "now they come directly with cash".

The hard line Islamists, believed to be propped up by hundreds of foreign jihadists, want to impose a stricter Sharia law in the lawless country. Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke said there were up to 400 foreign fighters while Sharif said the majority of them are from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. "We still understand that the influx of Al-Qaeda members continues and you can imagine how the situation will be if they take over", said Sharif.

According to Sharif, Asmara's intention in backing the radical Islamists was to create a base to train units to wage guerrilla war against its arch-foe Ethiopia. "Since there is a war and tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Eritrea needs a place where Ethiopian opposition groups could be trained", he said. Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been tense since a devastating border war in the late 1990s in which some 80,000 people died. Eritrea was vehemently opposed to the deployment of Ethiopian troops in Somalia in late 2006. Asked whether he backed a re-deployment of Ethiopian troops in the face of the renewed attacks, Sharif said "absolutely not". "We would like our country to remain independent", he added. Residents in a Somalia border town with Ethiopia recently said they saw Ethiopian troops there, but Sharif said authorities had discussed the matter "and they have agreed that Ethiopian troops will remain inside their border". The United States and African Union have accused Eritrea of fuelling the violence in Somalia, a charge Eritrea denies. African countries have called for the imposition of United Nations sanctions on Asmara. Islamist fighters opposed to Sharif launched the latest onslaught on May 7, vowing to topple his Western-backed government.

More than 200 people have been killed and some 62,000 Mogadishu residents have fled the clashes in the past 20 days. Sharif has been holed up in his presidential compound under the protection of AU peacekeepers. Islamists insurgents on Wednesday warned that prolonging the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia would only worsen the crisis, a day after the UN decided on extending its tenure. "We clearly say that extending the mandate of the foreign forces means extending violence and hostility in the Muslim country of Somalia", said Sheikh Ali Mohamoud, a spokesman for Shebab Islamists. "To those deployed in Somalia, you are the ones that are trapped and dying here every day, but not those taking wines in New York. We warn you not to be here for the Mujahedeen fire".

The AU mission, deployed in March 2007, counts more than 4,300 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers and is charged with protecting strategic sites in the capital such as the presidency, the port and the airport. But it is not allowed to fight alongside government forces and is authorized to retaliate only in the case of a direct attack. Sharif's government, which has been confined to parts of the capital, took up power in January after a UN-sponsored reconciliation process. The Shebab, a homegrown radical group whose leaders are suspected of links to Al-Qaeda, and the Hezb al-Islamiya armed group loyal to hard line opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys have been battling the government.

Eritrea has dismissed as "utterly irresponsible" an African Union (AU) request for U.N. sanctions against it for allegedly supplying weapons to insurgents fighting Somalia's new administration. Somalia's government accuses Eritrea of supporting Islamist militants with planeloads of AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons to fuel fighting there. The AU asked the U.N. to impose sanctions on Eritrea last week. "Eritrea strongly rejects the irresponsible and illegal statement issued in the name of the African Union", the Horn of Africa country said on the government website, www.shabait.com. "The illegal and utterly irresponsible statement ... was made on the basis of groundless accusations against Eritrea, without ascertaining the facts, and without even consulting the current chairman of the African Union". Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki has also denied the allegation, saying U.S. agents were spreading lies to blacken his government's name.

Asmara has recalled its ambassador to the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa. Western analysts say Ethiopia and Eritrea, still bitter over a border conflict in which 70,000 people were killed, have been fighting a proxy war in Somalia. "Eritrea is fully aware of where, how and by whom this irresponsible and cynical flouting of the rule of law was conceived in the first place and through which machinations it has passed", it said on the statement posted late on Tuesday. Somalia's insurgent leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told Reuters last week that Eritrea was supporting his group's fight against Somalia's new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. Neighboring states and Western security forces fear Somalia, which has been mired in civil war for 18 years, could become a haven for militants linked to al Qaeda.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday "strongly" condemned the recent violence aimed at overthrowing the transitional government in Somalia, which resulted in large number of civilian casualties. Ban defended Somalia's transitional federal government, which survived several armed attacks in the past weeks, saying that the government's open door policy is directed at its opponents in a spirit of reconciliation. "The secretary general is deeply concerned about the growing numbers of civilians killed, wounded and displaced as a result of these attacks", a UN spokesperson said. "In the face of this ongoing threat to the peace process, Somalia's government is appealing for international assistance, and the secretary general wishes to strongly and urgently echo that appeal", Marie Okabe said. "The secretary general believes there is a unique window of opportunity for peace in Somalia, but the situation is fragile and international assistance is needed now", she said. Ban urged the international community to urgently meet financial and other forms of support recently pledged in Brussels to both the government of Somalia and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

UN sees "Unique Window of Opportunity for Peace in Somalia

by Caroline Patton for MaximsNews Network

The UN Secretary General spoke out today against the violence that has proved resurgent in Somalia over the last several weeks. However, he also "believes there is a unique window of opportunity for peace in Somalia", although "the situation is fragile and international assistance is needed now".

Ban Ki-Moon had harsh words for the rebel Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam fighters who have since 8 May launched repeated strikes against the soldiers of the Transitional Federal Government. As a result of these clashes in Mogadishu, more than 67,000 Somalis have had to flee their homes. The toll of those hurt or dead as a result of the violence is also on the rise.

Many of them are now in crude displaced persons camps near the Afgooye corridor, joining some 400,000 people displaced over the course of the country´s years of tumult and unrest. IN total, there are some 1.3 million Somalis within the country who have had to flee their homes and another half a million in other countries, among them Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Eritrea and Tanzania.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees revealed that "[t]hose displaced who are unable to make the 30-kilometre journey have sought refuge in south-western parts of Mogadishu that have not yet been overrun by fighting".

The Secretary General told the international community, "This campaign of violence is aimed at the forceful overthrow of a legitimate government which has reached out to its opponents in a spirit of reconciliation, through an 'open door' policy and negotiations".

His spokesperson explained that, "In the face of this ongoing threat to the peace process, Somalia´s government is appealing for international assistance, and the Secretary-General wishes to strongly and urgently echo that appeal". He asked UN members to provide the new funding and other help that they promised recently to sustain Somalia´s nascent central government and continue the operations of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

The Security Council has likewise spoken out against the ongoing violence and has lengthened AMISOM´s stay in Somalia until 31 January 2010.

Meanwhile, aid organizations are having great difficulty reaching the thousands of Somalis who are in need of their help. UNHCR has said that "[l]ocal agencies that have been providing a lifeline to the IDPs are facing growing security problems as they try to help the needy". Further, an assault on the UN Children´s Fund (UNICEF) Office in Jowhar destroyed thousands of vaccines, as well as other provisions and equipment.

The Secretary General´s statement today perhaps represents a more optimistic stance than that of his Special Representative in Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah who characterized conditions there as "very difficult ... but not hopeless".

Somalia's security minister was attacked as he traveled by road from Ethiopia on his way home by suspected insurgents, Radio Garowe reports Thursday. Col. Omar Hashi, who has been in Ethiopia alongside Somali Finance Minister Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden in recent days, landed at the airport in the Ethiopian city of Godey and reportedly traveled by road towards Hiran region, in central Somalia where he hails from, sources said. The number of casualties could not be confirmed independently, but the sources said the Security Minister's vehicle convoy was attacked in Mustahil district of eastern Ethiopia and that there were unconfirmed reports of death and wounded persons. Mr. Hashi is reportedly safe, but his whereabouts remain unclear. No group has claimed responsibility for this attack, but Islamist rebels waging war against Somalia's U.N.-backed interim government have regularly targeted government officials and their allies. Security Minister Hashi has been an outspoken critic of Al Shabaab, accusing the rebel faction of having 'foreign fighters' among their ranks. Al Shabaab commanders have since confirmed his allegations. Al Shabaab guerrillas have fought pitched battles in parts of Hiran region this month as they attempt to overthrow the pro-government Islamic Courts Union (ICU) militia that controls Beletwein, the provincial capital of Hiran.Somali government officials in the capital Mogadishu have not commented on this story.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake flew from the capital Mogadishu on Thursday en route to Libya to attend a regional summit. Government spokesman Abdulkadir Mohamud Walayo told reporters in Mogadishu that Prime Minister Sharmake is accompanied by Reconstruction Minister Hussein Elabe Fahiye and Education Minister Ahmed Abdullahi Wayel, Radio Garowe reports. He noted that the Somali government delegation will attend a two-day summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States which opens Friday in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. "The Prime Minister will address the summit and speak about the situation in Somalia, in terms of security and development", the spokesman said. Prime Minister Sharmake did not speak with the media before flying out of Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu. Somalia's U.N.-recognized interim government is struggling to survive in Mogadishu where an Islamist-led rebellion threatens to keep the Horn of Africa country embroiled in endless conflict.

Parliament Speaker rejects Kenya maritime agreement Somalia's parliament Speaker told a Thursday press conference in the capital Mogadishu that a controversial maritime agreement between Somalia and Kenya is "illegal", Radio Garowe reports. The agreement was a Memorandum of Understanding signed in April which stipulates that the Somali government will declare "no objection" when the two countries formally submit documents to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. But Speaker Aden "Madobe" Mohamed told journalists that the agreement is "illegal" since it was not presented to the Somali parliament. "We cannot allow the U.N. to interfere with Somali internal affairs…but we welcome efforts to restore security", the Speaker said.

He noted that the upcoming meeting of Somali MPs in Mogadishu will deal with the maritime agreement, which has stirred controversy across Somalia with Islamist insurgents using the controversial agreement to accuse government leaders of treason. "Lawmakers will reach a decision over this controversial agreement soon", Speaker Madobe added. Somali MPs have not met since April when insurgents targeted the temporary Somali parliament building in Mogadishu with mortars, killing soldiers and civilians. Senior government leaders, including President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, have publicly defended the maritime agreement.

Somalia: one week in hell – inside the city the world forgot

In a rare dispatch from war-ravaged Mogadishu, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, writing for the Guardian, found a city daring to hope for a break from years of violence. Then the fighting resumed.

Mogadishu's best barometer of violence is the little blackboard on which Dr Taher Mahmoud daily records the number of patients in his hospital. For the last 20 years the tall surgeon with huge hands has been operating on the victims of the city's civil war.

"It's good times now", he told me when we met a few weeks ago. "We are only getting four to six gunshot casualties a day. That's very good". He pointed at the blackboard covered with his neat white handwriting: it recorded that 86 patients were undergoing treatment. "During the Ethiopian war [2007-08] we had 300 in this hospital".

Reporter Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was not prepared for what he found in the Somali capital ( hear: Link to this audio)

Few respites in this most ravaged of cities last long, and within days of our conversation the relative calm had given way to a more familiar story: running battles between the forces of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the notional president, and the more radical Islamist al-Shabaab militia. More than 200 people have been killed in these skirmishes and as many as 60,000 people have fled.

Yet the chances are you won't have heard about it: with the exception of the latest pirate drama, Somalia is the country the world forgot, a state so broken that scenes which would elsewhere dominate international news bulletins are barely noted on the foreign pages of major newspapers. Last year Foreign Policy magazine ranked Somalia as the state most at risk of total collapse, a verdict some might have considered flattering.

Yesterday I spoke to Mahmoud again. The hospital was full and around 40 patients were having to sleep under the trees outside. "We need tents to shelter the patients from rain, and medicine is running very low. If the fighting continues we will be without medicine". The number on his blackboard was 167.

Even before the latest surge in violence you could get a sense of the precariousness of life in Mogadishu from a quick tour of the hospital. In the dark, bungalow-like emergency room, five men lay on soiled, torn beds. All had abdominal gunshot wounds; plastic drip bags lay between their legs or on the floor. A man sat on a plastic chair next to his wounded brother and waved a paper fan over his head to chase away flies.

All the men had been injured a day earlier, when a pro-government Islamist militia fought a unit of the government's "proper" army for control of an intersection in the government-controlled area of the capital. "I was standing when the fighting started. I tried to hide but they shot me", one man wheezed. Across the yard in the intensive care unit, another dark bungalow packed with flies and the sick, a man waved a fan over the burnt-to-white flesh of his small son, caught in the fire when a grenade had been tossed into their house during a clash between two rival gangs.

A mother looking after another burnt child said: "We pray for peace – we have nothing but prayers. This is the best hospital in Mogadishu and we don't have electricity or running water".

Dr Mahmoud, who was appointed director last month after the previous director was shot on the way to work, nodded, adding: "We get water from a well in the yard and we have a small generator for electricity – we get the fuel from a rich Somali businessman. Everyone has left us here in Mogadishu".

The most difficult job in the world

Earlier this week the Shabaab shelled the presidential palace as they fought government forces for control of the city. A few weeks before, I sat next to Hassan Haila, the government's media coordinator, as we drove towards the palace. Every Somali politician who is not an MP or minister is a coordinator of some sort, it seems. We drove past women queuing, clattering and shouting outside a shop, one of very few open in the streets. "Look at the Somalis", he said. "After all these years of fighting, they have become like dead people walking. There is no life in their eyes".

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected president by MPs in January. He was the co-leader of the Islamic Courts Union, the Islamist movement that defeated the infamous Mogadishu warlords in 2006, bringing a measure of peace to the city for the first time in almost two decades. The Islamic Courts were routed by US-backed Ethiopian forces, but remnants of the Court militias soon launched a violent, if not coherent, insurgency. When the Ethiopians pulled out earlier this year various Islamist militias fighting them took different sides, some with Ahmed's government, some against. Now Ahmed can be considered leader of Somalia only in the loosest sense of the word: when we met he controlled perhaps 40% of Mogadishu. A week later it was more like 20%. And ever since the ousting of the dictator Muhammad Siad Barre in 1991, two vast regions, Somaliland and Puntland, have cut themselves free of the war-torn south altogether.

At the entrance to the presidential compound a few "technicals" – Toyota pick-up trucks with anti-aircraft guns mounted on them – were parked. Somali soldiers sat in the shade. Outside the president's door two Ugandan soldiers, members of the flimsy African Union force charged with keeping peace in the city, slouched on plastic chairs.

"I have the most difficult job in the world," the president said, looking exhausted. Big drops of sweat rolled down his forehead in the suffocating humidity. He fumbled with the air-conditioning remote control and handed it to an assistant. The machine hissed and a cold breeze crossed his desk. "It's different from the jobs of all other presidents of other countries", he went on. "In the beginning we want to stand on our feet. We have inherited a very bad reputation from our predecessors [presidents] because of 20 years of internal fighting and disagreement. The economy is non-existent, state institutions are non-existent, essential services are non-existent".

It was cold now and Ahmed ordered his assistant to switch off the air- conditioning. "You can say that the idea of a state is non-existent in Somalia. We have to teach people what a state is".

Many of Ahmed's ministers and advisers huddled for safety in the Sohafi hotel, although the 17 bullet holes in my door did not promote a sense of security. In the courtyard I heard different accounts of why Somalia's Islamists had turned on each other. "They are fighting because they come from two different Islamic schools", explained one seasoned Somali journalist. "The president is from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Shabaab are Salafis".

"Nonsense", guffawed an Islamic commander. He was an ally of the president who fought the Ethiopians alongside the Islamic Courts but had good connections with the Shabaab. "We are all Salafis. The difference is between the ideologues, the young people with principles, the Shabaab on one side, and the people who see where is the maslaha [the interest of the nation] and are willing to compromise. I agree with the Shabaab that we should fight a jihad on principle but the maslaha says that we should compromise and use the opportunity we have now to build a state".

Another Somali official with a thick American accent from long years of asylum in the US told me: "It's very simple – it's about who gets to be the president. There is no ideological difference. It's all about who gets what share of the pie. Everyone wants to become a president in Somalia".

A Ugandan officer in the presidential compound offered his own jaundiced assessment: "Look. The best thing the Somalis know how to do is to kill other Somalis".

All we have is religion

On a seemingly hot day that saw the first clouds of the monsoon gathering, parliament was convened to debate the imposition of sharia law. One of the main demands of the Shabaab movement has been the imposition of sharia, which has also been backed by the Islamic Courts.

Ali Hassan, a police officer sipping tea with his men outside his station, told me that imposing sharia meant progress "in the absence of law". He said that like the rest of the force, he hadn't been paid a salary for the past 18 months. "This month was good. They gave us some wheat, sugar, tea and canned food".

A warehouse that was once a garage for the Mogadishu police force had been converted to house the parliament. Hundreds of plastic chairs were lined up for the 275 members. Coloured paper decoration criss-crossed the ceiling and balloons and advertisements for mobile phone companies hung from the walls.

After the parliament voted to introduce sharia I went back to visit the police officer. He shrugged and smiled when I told him about the debate. "We have always used sharia in our work", he said, handing me a cup of murky tea. "When the whole state is collapsing all that we have is our religion".

He told me he had joined the army in 1970 and then the police just before the collapse of Mogadishu 20 years ago. He had been wearing the same beige uniform ever since. "You are trying to impose law but where is the law when everyone is fighting? When the Ethiopians came those same Islamists that are in the government attacked us every day. They said we were supporting the invaders. In one day 15 shells fell on our police station. Now they are the government hopefully things will be better".

First we establish order

In a Mogadishu courtyard one afternoon I watched sharia justice in action. The judge sat in front of a broken glass table decorated with red plastic flowers, a big folder and piles of papers spread on his lap. In neat Arabic handwriting he recorded the statements of the two adversaries sitting in front of him. A man in his 40s was accusing a teenage boy of stealing his son's bicycle. The case had been running for two weeks.

"This how we establish sharia", the judge told me. "First we establish order and judgment in the middle of the chaos of war and destruction. When we started back in 1996 we were not a political movement. We started as judges to bring justice, then we became a political movement and then we became military". We crossed the basketball pitch of the compound that was once an army college. A lone boot sat in the middle of the pitch. The judge went on: "You know, sharia is fearing God and establishing religion. It's not about chopping hands off. First we establish security and then impose the rulings. It's the fear and hunger and chaos. If I cut the hands of hundreds of thieves I will not bring justice. Feed the hungry first and then punish them if they steal".

Life without a state

Two decades of garbage have been piled into the streets of the Hamrawaine area in Mogadishu. The piles have decomposed into mounds of earth and plastic, the earth giving life to cacti and shrubs through which small rivers of sewage trickle. Goats climb the walls of destroyed houses. Mogadishu resembles a city hit by a nuclear blast. Shattered walls peppered with millions of bullet holes, are all that is left of the city's Italian colonial architecture and communist monuments.

One of the mysteries is how the city's residents survive in the absence of any meaningful economy. "Somalis have a very strong social support network", a young government employee explained. "If you work with the government or in the market you support at least 10 people of your family, and your neighbours. The people who live outside [the country] send money, and if there is a rich Somali and he doesn't support the poor, he will be despised, and no one would marry his daughters".

After 20 years people had become used to life without a functioning state, explained one businessman with interests in fuel, mobile telephones and food. "Businessmen learned to do their work without a government. In the port the shipment is downloaded just as if there was a government – only you are the government, so if you have a ship you have to bring your men and your guards and do your work. Amongst the businessmen everything is run through trust – for example, when we need to buy fuel 20 merchants put money together, send it to Dubai, and our Somali friends send us a fuel tanker. Every merchant has his own militia and men who protect his interests. We do business with the government and the Shabaab. Our friends in Dubai are envious of us because we live without a state and we can do trade everywhere without control".

In Rome Street, down from the market, an old man sat in his shop half buried by piles of yellow newspapers and old magazines. Behind him on the wall were pictures of Mogadishu when it was still a functioning city 20 years ago. He poked his head between two ancient typewriters, a huge grin on his face, and declared, in beautiful Arabic: "This is very good time in Mogadishu. Look, it's so late and we can stay in our shops". It was 4pm and across the street a man swept the floors of the dentist's with a broken broom.

Changing sides

Back at the presidential compound I met one of the young commanders of the Islamic Courts, Jami'a, who was on Ahmed's side. A thin 22-year-old dressed in stonewashed jeans and a faded white shirt, he sat flanked by two new Chinese fans. Like soldiers, the fans moved their heads, first to the left and then to the right, with mechanical precision.

Like all the young Somali fighters, Jami'a was born out of the chaos of two decades of civil war. "When I was in high school our area was controlled by two warlords, Mousa Yaljo and Omar Fenish. It was a very difficult time. Sometimes we went to school in buses and sometimes because of the fighting we had to walk. Their soldiers would steal everything, even our shoes".

Jami'a told me how he had learned the Qur'an at university, then joined the Islamists battling Mogadishu's warlords. After the warlords, he fought the Ethiopians. Later he took me to the frontline. We drove in two Toyota Land Cruisers along Factory Road in south Mogadishu, to our east a wasteland of shrubs and swamps where the Shabaab positions were.

We walked through the grounds of the burnt-out ministry of defense, where young, frail and underfed fighters, in tattered clothes and broken sandals, sat under trees or on broken ammunition boxes. There was a look on their faces that I had seen before in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan. They carried guns and wrapped themselves with bandoliers of bullets but their faces gave them away: they were scared. Their enemy was somewhere across the fields, Islamists like them, heads wrapped by kuffiyas like them, holding Kalashnikovs like them, tired and underfed like them.

A week later the Factory Road frontline fell to the Shabaab, when most of the commanders I met switched sides and decided to fight with the opposition. A tiny, barely noticed footnote in the tragedy of Somalia.

Hawiye Elders Disprove Reports Saying They Asked Asylum From the U.S. Hawiye traditional elders have disproved reports leaked through the media saying that the elders asked asylum to the United States of America, officials told Shabelle radio. Ahmed Dirie Ali, the spokesman of the Hawiye traditional elders had contacted and told to Shabelle Media that some news websites wrote that the elders asked safe haven to the United States of America saying that it was baseless propaganda. "That news is false and there is no reason we ask asylum to the United States of America and also no reason to run from our country. We were here in Mogadishu at a riskier time than this while Ethiopian troops were present - so it is shame on the media to write such baseless reports", Ahmed Dirie said. We will not leave from our country even if danger comes to our lives, he added. The statement of the Hawiye traditional elders comes as some media wrote that the traditional elders asked place of safety to the American embassy in Kenya.

German Federal Foreign Office increases humanitarian aid for Somalia by one million euro. The Federal Foreign Office of Germany has pledged one million euro for relief measures for civilians in need in Somalia. Over the last few days, heavy fighting between government forces and opposition groups has been reported in this country in the Horn of Africa. According to the United Nations, more than 60,000 people have fled the capital Mogadishu. Part of the Federal Foreign Office funds will go to an aid project run by the charity Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and local partners, under which emergency shelters, drinking water and food is being provided for internally displaced persons in the Mogadishu area. People in need in the Puntland region are receiving assistance under a second project. In cooperation with the German Red Cross, urgently needed medical equipment and bandages are being supplied to the hospitals in Garoowe and Bossasso. After almost 20 years of civil war, roughly half of the Somali population is dependent on humanitarian aid. Since 2007 alone, the Federal Government has provided more than 20 million euro for relief measures. The Federal Foreign Office stands ready to provide further funding if necessary.

Africa Oil signs energy farm out deal with Raytec in eastern Africa (Africa-Oil-Raytec)

Africa Oil Corp. (TSXV:AOI) has signed a deal to farm out some of its energy prospects in eastern Africa to Raytec Metals Corp. (TSXV:RAY), a Vancouver-based mining and resources company , announced Rick Schmitt on behalf of the board. Raytec shares were halted on the TSX Venture Exchange pending news of the deal. The two companies said Thursday the transaction gives Raytec a stake in Africa Oil´s production sharing contracts in both the State of Puntland, Somalia and Kenya. In Puntland, Somalia, Africa Oil will transfer 25 per cent of its licence interest to Raytec in the Nogal and Dharoor Petroleum production sharing deals. In Kenya, Africa Oil will transfer 10 per cent stake in the Block 9 production agreement and 25 per cent of its stake in other Kenyan interests. In return for the energy interests, Raytec will pay a disproportionate share of costs associated with the planned exploration and development programs to be carried out this year and next, the companies said. Africa Oil is a member of the Lundin Group, which also includes Lundin Mining (TSX:LUN), a Vancouver-based international miner with operations mainly in Europe.

Raytec noted that Africa Oil´s management also includes key utives from Tanganyika Oil Company Ltd. which successfully developed a major heavy oil deposit in Syria and recently sold the company to China´s Sinopec for $2 billion. Brian Thurston, president of Raytec, called the deals a "strategic transaction" for the Vancouver company. "The Lundin Group has been directly involved in the discovery and development of several major oil fields which has resulted in the creation of enormous value for their shareholders", Thurston said. "The Lundin Group of companies currently operates in over thirty different countries worldwide in the oil and gas sector as well as the mining sector. The Group has been highly commended by local communities and governments over the years for their efforts in developing a set of protocols that ensure issues of environmental and cultural concern are addressed as well as economic benefits and employment opportunities". The farmout transaction is subject to government, exchange, board and partner approvals if required.

In a related move, Raytec said it plans to issue up to 10 million share and warrant units in a private placement to raise up to $3 million. Africa Oil is a Canadian oil and gas company with assets in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. Raytec is an exploration company with more than 180,000 acres of potash permits in Saskatchewan. The company also holds 20 per cent of Sulphur Solutions Inc., an emerging fertilizer company, and has iron ore projects in Ontario, and uranium joint ventures in the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan. In the Somalia region of Puntland Africa Oil is partnered with controversial Australian firm Range Resources and caused fighting between a Puntland militia and the Warsangeli people of independent Sanaag region. Africa Oil's operations in the Lake Albert Region at the border between Uganda and DRC have caused already several clashes and environmental concerns.

The Canadian looting continues in Africa, as the authors of the book Noir Canada state « Like the Norwegian Government, the time has come for Ottawa to shed light on the countless allegations of abuses granted to Canadian mining companies in Africa and elsewhere on the planet, [translation]» concluded Delphine Abadie, Alain Deneault and William Sacher based on recent documents.

Puntland MPs unhappy with new draft constitution. Some Members of the Puntland Parliament have spoken on the new draft constitution for the Puntland Administration. Speaking to Somalilandpress about the new draft, the Members of Parliament said the draft constitution is a good one and that a lot of time has been spent on it by successive governments in the Puntland Administration but pointed out that they were personally not happy with some sections of it. The media has been denied access to the draft constitution which has only been seen by the Members of the Puntland Parliament who held a session to debate it this morning. Speaking on the short comings of the new draft constitution, MPs said the constitution in its first page, the preface, says that the Puntland Administration has been formed by the people of northeastern Somalia. Member of Parliament from Sanaag, Sool and Ayn were upset by this aspect of the draft constitution this morning.

The parliamentarians from these regions have said that section of the draft constitution can be taken to imply that the administration is for all in the Puntland administration with the exception of those from these regions [although they are still part of the administration]. Some officials of the Puntland Administration tried explaining what it was actually being implied in these sections but the Members of Parliament from these areas who were very upset did not accept their explanation. Member of the Puntland Parliament are tomorrow expected to have a long debate about the new draft constitution. If this constitution is endorsed, it will become the second constitution set up for Puntland Administration since the formation of the administration in 1998. Puntland´s first constitution was adapted in 2001 when former Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad was then the president in the region. Analysts in the region have said that if the new draft constitution is rejected by members of the Puntland parliament, it will be a unforgettable lesson for President Abdirahman Farole´s Administration which will have to start working on it once again. The Puntland Administration has spent a long time working on the draft constitution, particularly in the last two weeks. Ministers in the Puntland Administration are also concerned about the reaction by the MPs and the possible rejection of the draft constitution in parliament.

Local MP Says They Want to Form Administration in Gedo Region. Mohamoud Sayid Adan, a Somali lawmaker said Thursday he wanted to form a unity administration in Gedo region where Islamists control. Speaking to Shabelle radio from Dolow town, he said they were planning to form an administration which satisfies the people of the region and practices the Islamic Sharia. He denied that he was amassing troops in Dolow town and added that he was only planning to get a unity administration for the people in the region. He accused the people from the region who live abroad that they failed to form an administration in the region.

Swedes killed in fighting in Somalia Several young men who left Sweden to join the radical Islamic militant group al-Shabaab in Somalia have been killed in battle, according to Sweden´s security service Säpo. Säpo estimates that about 20 people have left Sweden to train and fight with al-Shabaab, a militant group with alleged ties to al-Qaeda. So far, a handful of people with Swedish passports have also been killed in the fighting, Säpo reports. "For the time being, it is believed there are ten or so Swedes on the ground in Somalia. They are either taking part in the violence or in training camps, but there may be more as of yet unknown cases. What worries us is that it´s ongoing and growing", said Säpo counterterrorism analyst Malena Rembe to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

The recruits aren´t only Swedes with Somali backgrounds, but are also individuals of mixed ethnicity, according to Rembe. Some of them are leaving Sweden without telling their relatives what they are planning to do. "These are people who are going down on their own initiative. They see themselves as a part of a global struggle and want to contribute", said Rembe.

Impacting reports from the global village

The Norwegian embassy in Kenya and two local news organizations have been threatened with attacks, according to an e-mail message sent to them and seen by AFP Thursday. The message sent by a group calling itself 'Worrior Brave' (sic) accused Kenya of "claiming Muslim territory" and detaining pirates handed over by foreign forces off the Somali coast. Nairobi has applied to the U.N. for an extension of its maritime border, claiming larger sections of the continental shelf that would impact on drilling rights for the region's mineral potential. The group accused Norway of backing Kenya's bid. It also said the Nation and Standard media groups were targets because they "are the enemy of Allah", but didn't elaborate.

"Also we are targeting the interests of Norwegian government in the globe including hunting their diplomacies and tourists in Kenya", said the e-mail dated May 26. The Norwegian embassy in Nairobi confirmed receiving the e-mail and according to KTN had evacuated the embassy. "We confirm that we received an alarming e-mail and we have taken the necessary measures", Espen Gullikstad, the deputy head of the Norwegian embassy, told AFP, declining to give further details. The move by Kenya to claim the disputed seabed has angered Somali nationalists, who have accused Norway of seeking to secure access to oil resources in the area.

Nairobi has recently voiced fears that extremist Islamic groups operating in Somalia could target Kenya and many intelligence officials posted in the Kenyan capital have warned terrorist attack alert levels are high. Somalia's hard line Islamist group Shebab and its allies, who control the entire south of the country, have demonstrated their ability to cross the border with ease on a number of occasions. Recently, a Somali cleric who had reportedly criticized the Shebab over the latest three weeks of fighting in Mogadishu was abducted from the refugee camp of Dadaab in Kenya by hooded gunmen. In 2009, Nairobi also signed deals with Western naval powers whereby detained Somali pirates can be transferred to courts in Mombassa, prompting accusations from some groups that Kenya was being used for what is tantamount to "rendition programs."

Pan-Africanist dies on Africa Day in Kenya

Renowned Pan-Africanist Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem has died in a car crash in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Kenya. Born in Nigeria in 1961, he became best known for his role as general secretary of the Pan-African Movement. He was also a director of the UK-based campaign group Justice Africa and wrote prolifically for newspapers and journals across the continent. Firoze Manji, editor of online forum Pambuzuka News, told the BBC he had the ability "to see through hypocrisy". "He will be remembered for his humour, his warmth, his support and above all for being a strong pan-Africanist", Manji said. "I have met few people who have been so committed to that one ideal and for so long, despite all the setbacks that we've had in Africa". He said Abdul-Raheem was "a wonderful person but an editor's nightmare". "His respect for deadlines didn't exist and he typed as he spoke and thought. He simply sent us copy that was unpunctuated, no spell checks - straight off the cuff - a nightmare and yet worthwhile because what he had to say was always pertinent". Manji said it was poignant that he died in the early hours of 25 May, designated Africa Day. "He insisted it be called Africa Liberation Day, not just Africa Day, because that sounds like celebrating something in the past whereas Africa's liberation is a struggle still to be achieved". Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was for a lecture in Kenya and buried there. Diplomatic sources close to the case ruled out any foul play.

We mourn a great personality and a good friend.

Wetangula meets Somali PM

by Rose Kamau/KNA

Minister for Foreign Affairs Moses Wetang'ula Thursday the met the Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake. During the meeting, Sharmake briefed the minister on the current political and security situation in Somalia. He also briefed him on the efforts being done by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to stabilize the country. Sharmake expressed gratitude for the support extended by Kenya, IGAD and African Union to the lawless country. Wetang'ula said Kenya was committed to efforts to stabilize Somalia and bring peace to the country.

The Minister called on the TFG to reach out to all insurgent groups opposed to the government so as to arrive at an amicable solution that will lead to the attainment of peace and stability In Somalia. This, he said, will help minimize the current humanitarian crises in Somalia. Somalia has been without a functional government since the ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Since then the country has spiraled into anarchy with constant wars between the transitional government and the militias. Piracy has also taken root along the country's coastline in the Indian Ocean with pirates demanding huge ransoms and making the route a nightmare for vessels.

Police rule out foul play in helicopter crash. Kenyan police and intelligence officers in Ijara district have ruled out the possibility of an enemy attack on the Kenya Army helicopter that crash landed Tuesday at Hulugho. Ijara OCPD Rems Warui said the site of the crash was 17km away from the border and the area was uninhabited and under intense surveillance by security personnel making it difficult for an enemy to launch a successful attack on the plane. Warui further said that the Somalia side of the border was also a vast stretch of uninhabited territory. The OCPD said that the plane was flying within Kenyan airspace from Kiunga in Lamu to Hulugho and was therefore out of possible enemy territory. Intelligence sources confirmed that no explosion was heard when the plane crashed.

They said that the plane first hit a tree then rammed into a fence within the compound of the military camp. The sources, however, said that Hulugho was notorious for very strong winds and hinted that the aircraft might have been overpowered by the winds. The Hughes, registration number KAY 515, went down at 2.30 pm local time Tuesday while carrying three senior military officers including an army colonel and two pilots of the rank of major. The officers who sustained injuries were said to be on normal patrol. The ministry of defence issued a statement refuting allegations that the plane could have been shot down. The ministry said the chopper developed mechanical problems as it was about to land at Hulugho Military Camp and the pilot was forced to crash land. The military also said the officers on board sustained just minor injuries and one of them was already back at his duty station.

The area near the Kenya-Somali border has been under intensive surveillance to keep off the Al-Shabab militia who are involved in fighting with the government in the lawless country. The militias have threatened to invade Kenya and annex the North eastern province. The accident came two weeks after another chopper carrying an assistant minister, police commissioner and journalist crashed in Kapsabet.

Meanwhile, the Kenya-Somali border is officially closed.

Iran Uses Warships to Escalate Aggressive Stance Toward Israel

By Carol Forsloff.

In another saber - rattling episode Iran has just sent six warships into international waters. This follows its test-firing a missile with a range of 1200 miles. These incidences reflect Iran's continuing posture of defiance, experts say.

The recent action by Iran to send the warships into the Gulf of Aden and other international waters follows not only the missile test firing but also its sending two other warships on May 14. The announcement by Iran about its recent warships may or may not include those previously sent into the Gulf.

Like other countries Iran has faced the threat of Somali pirates. The country maintains that these ships will help preserve its territorial integrity in its southern waters as well as in other areas where they believe their territorial integrity may be threatened. Despite protestations of commerce as a reason for these ships, Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, which is the passage way for 40% of the world's oil. It made this threat to reflect how it would respond to any attack over its nuclear program. Its naval commander Admiral Habibollah Sayyari stated that this present move reflects the country's high military capability in confronting any foreign threats on the country's shores. In January pirates seized an Iranian cargo ship bound to Iran from Germany that was carrying 36,000 tons of wheat. In March another vessel was attacked by pirates. So Iran declares it protects its commerce while at the same time it demonstrates its military capabilities to the rest of the world.

Following the missile test, Iran declared that it had the power to literally send to hell any country that threatened Iran. This message is seen as a specific threat to the neighbors of Iran, because the missile is capable of striking Israel, parts of Europe and most Arab nations.

This is not the first time that Iran has threatened to respond aggressively to anyone who supports Israel. Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared in 2006 that Iran was prepared to respond militarily in the event it saw any problems related to Israel expansion or United States military involvements with Israel. Critics of Iran's military saber rattling have recommended everything from a first strike to diplomacy.

In the meantime reports indicate Pres. Barack Obama advised Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not to precipitously attack Iran´s nuclear program. During a recent meeting between Obama and Netanyahu they were said to have agreed to share intelligence on Iran's nuclear program. All of this comes at a time when Iran appears to be escalating its military provocations as well as demonstrating its military strength in general with the use of warships sent into territorial waters that could interrupt the flow of oil and goods, which experts declare could be a threat to world security.

Amnesty - Economic Crisis Fuels Rights `Time Bomb`

We are sitting on a powder keg of inequality, injustice and insecurity, and it is about to explode`, Irene Khan wrote in a report.

The global economic downturn has aggravated human rights violations and distracted attention from abuses, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

The world faced a grave danger that "rising poverty and desperate economic and social conditions could lead to political instability and mass violence", the rights group's secretary-general, Irene Khan, wrote in its annual report.

As governments struggled to resuscitate their economies, human rights were being "relegated to the back seat", she said, calling for a "new global deal on human rights ... to defuse the human rights time bomb".

This new deal was about governments living up to their obligations on human rights, rather than creating new treaties, she told Reuters in an interview.

"We are sitting on a powder keg of inequality, injustice and insecurity, and it is about to explode", she wrote in the report on "The state of the world's human rights".

The worst downturn in decades has plunged large parts of the world into recession, slashing industrial output and trade and throwing many people out of work.

Protests against rising food prices and economic hardships last year were met with tough responses in many countries, and protesters were killed in Tunisia and Cameroon, Khan said.

Xenophobia

Xenophobia was on the rise, she said, citing attacks on African immigrants in South Africa a year ago that killed at least 56 people.

World leaders were concentrating on attempts to revive the global economy but neglecting conflicts that spawned widespread human rights abuses, she said, citing Gaza, Sudan's Darfur region, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan.

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers had been laid off as export-driven economies slowed down, leaving more "disillusioned, angry, young men idle in their home villages and an easy prey to extremist politics and violence", she said.

One bright spot in the human rights picture was a change in the U.S. position on the war on terror, she told Reuters.

Soon after taking office in January, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the closure of the Guantanamo prison camp for terrorism suspects.

Noting that nearly one billion people suffered from hunger or malnutrition, Khan said food shortages had been aggravated by discrimination and political manipulation of food distribution.

In Zimbabwe, where five million people needed food aid by the end of 2008, the government used food as a weapon against its political opponents, she said, while in North Korea, the authorities deliberately restricted food aid to oppress people.

Wealthy countries were resorting to ever harsher methods to keep out migrants, she said. Some European Union states, such as Spain, had signed agreements with African countries to return migrants, or stop them leaving in the first place.

"Countries such as Mauritania see these agreements as a license to arbitrarily arrest, detain in sub-standard conditions and deport without any legal remedy large numbers of foreigners on its territory ...", she said.

SEN-SAD Executive Council Urges Member States to Dismiss ICC Resolutions. Wrapping up its 18th ordinary session that commenced last Tuesday in Tripoli, Libya, the Executive Council of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (SEN-SAD) called on the African States to dismiss the ICC resolutions and to revoke their membership to the Court. Leader of Sudan Delegation to the meeting, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Al-Sammani Alwaseela, told SUNA that the Council, that embrace 28 African States, has stressed the criticality of supporting the peace process in Sudan, and ratified the ongoing course of peace negotiations between Sudan Government and Darfur Justice and Equality Movement in Doha, Qatar.

According to Waseela, the Council discussed cooperation among SEN-Sad member States, implementation of accords related to transportation and transit among member countries, besides agricultural and security issues. He concluded that the Council has appreciated the progress achieved in respect of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement implementation. President Al Bashir arrived in Tripoli on Thursday ahead of the two-day a summit of African leaders that started yesterday. Al Bashir's visit would be the second to Libya and the seventh one outside Sudan since the issue of ICC resolution against him.

As different German sources report, the German Navy´s newest warship class, the Braunschweig class corvettes designated K 130, has experienced serious defects on the diesel gearboxes as has now been temporarily decommissioned. So far only three of the five ordered ships had been commissioned. The German Navy has not yet released any information on when the corvettes are to be recomissioned. According to the German newspaper "Kieler Nachrichten", a spokesman of the K 130 consortium (a joint venture of the shipyards ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Lürssen-Gruppe and Nordseewerke) said that the gearboxes of all ships will have to be removed. Problems with the corvettes´ gearbox had been experienced during a trial run with the "Oldenburg". During the trial some of the gearbox´s screws loosened and fell into the gears causing significant damage.

The costs resulting from the damage have not been specified yet; however they are expected to amount to several million Euros. The gearboxes were produced by MAAG in Switzerland, but apparently weren´t of the well-known Swiss precision work. The production had rather been outsourced to a polish company which is now bankrupt. The German Navy and the shipyards have asked the Swiss producer to present a concept for the repair of the deficiencies by June 12. The ships were scheduled to enter service in early 2010. According to the Navy, this will be delayed by several months. However, according to the spokesman at least one corvette will be ready for service in the course of 2010. The new vessels are urgently required for the support of the German Armed Forces´ (Bundeswehr) operations off the coasts of Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Somalia (EU mission "Atalanta"). It is not the first time that the schedule had to be adjusted. Originally the "Braunschweig" and its sister ships were to be commissioned between May 2007 and February 2009. Due to technical problems and defects this timeframe could not be met. The "Braunschweig" and the "Magdegurg" had been commissioned last year. The corvettes "Erfurt", "Oldenburg", and "Ludwigshafen am Rhein", produced in the course of 2007 have now been decommissioned before even entering service with the German Navy. Each ship costs approximately €240 million.

U.S. Sailors to Become Guinea Pigs for New H1N1 Vaccine?

Vical reports progress with swine flu vaccine

London (MarketWatch) -- Vical Inc. (VICL 2.13, -0.12, -5.33%) said Thursday that in the two weeks since launching its program to develop a vaccine against H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, it has completed development of a prototype vaccine, produced an initial supply and initiated immunogenicity testing on animals. The firm said that, assuming a successful outcome of this testing and a commitment for external funding, it is ready to advance directly to large-scale manufacturing of the vaccine for human clinical trials to be conducted by the U.S. Navy.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=8E46DF7F-6D54-4BC3-9450-DE4B6C14C982

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Note

Picture: A recapitulation of the 2008 cases of piracy off the Horn of Africa, from the Gulf of Aden to SW Indian Ocean.