The Horn of Africa - Somalia Spring 2009 Chronicles VI – Italy to Outweigh Evil Impact of IGAD

In this article, I publish excerpts from the no 188 Ecoterra Press Release SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor).

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) – 2009-06-10 Wed 21h35:24 UTC

Issue No. 188

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

Navy Warning: Pirates Change Tactics To Avoid Patrols

The Bahrain-headquartered Fifth Fleet said it had warned merchant vessels about changes in pirates' tactics following bad weather and the stepped-up presence of international navies. The U.S. Navy says pirates extend activity into Red Sea. Pirates in the Gulf of Aden are increasingly operating at night and could expand their raids into the Red Sea, the U.S. Navy said on Tuesday Pirates are changing their tactics and extending the reach of their raids beyond the Gulf of Aden. The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet warned shipping firms that pirates operating off the coast of Somalia have increased their night attacks. The navy statement said a confirmed pirate attack took place at the southern end of the Red Sea at the end of May and ships should be cautious when transiting through the area.

The U.S. navy advised cargo ships to keep up their vigilance day and night through high-risk areas. Pirates operating off the coast of Somalia have also expanded their forays into an area stretching to the Seychelles Islands to avoid foreign navy ships in the Gulf of Aden, a shipping lane connecting Asia with Europe. "Pirates have also recently increased their number of attacks during the hours of darkness, highlighting the need for heightened vigilance of merchant mariners during both day and night time transits through the high risk areas", the U.S. Navy said.

USS Gettysburg (CG 64), who earlier had responded on 26th May to a Yemeni vessel in distress in the Gulf of Aden, and towed the boat with 11 people who had been adrift for two days to Yemeni territorial waters, so the dhow MV ALASEB could be repaired, arrived this morning in Mombassa to hand over 17 captured Somalis to Kenya, but left immediately this afternoon the harbour in a hurry, citing security reasons.

Kenya has made clear it cannot take all the pirates and local Muslim leaders are worried the growing number of Somali prisoners could fuel tensions between the neighbouring nations.

"Kenya is not a dumping ground. The U.S. or the French or the German navy should take charge of the people they arrest", said Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa, organising secretary of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK).

"It is almost like they want to open an African Guantanamo Bay in Kenya. It is a very dangerous trend", he said, according to Reuters.

The hard line Islamist insurgent group al Shabaab, which controls southern Somalia along Kenya's border, has links to al Qaeda and there are fears of strikes in the capital Nairobi.

Kenya's Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula reassured diplomats on Wednesday of their security against any terrorist attacks, saying the diplomatic police had been put on "high alert".

The minister added that we are living in a volatile world and the deteriorating situation in Somalia.

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

"Rescue Us or We Will Die of Privation"

Captain of Italian ship held by pirates off Somalia´s coast pleads for rescue

Report on a telephone interview with Mario Iarloi, captain of Italian tug BUCCANEER seized by pirates off Somali coast, in Las Qorey, Somalia, by Massimo A. Alberizzi in Nairobi; date not given]

Nairobi - [This is the account of] a dramatic phone call with Mario Iarloi, captain of the Buccaneer, the Italian ship seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden on 11 April while it was towing two empty barges. The vessel, owned by Ravenna-based company Micoperi Marine Contractors, is riding at anchor of Las Qorey, a fishing village in Puntland, in the northern part of the former Italian colony.

Living conditions are tragic, and the high-sea tug´s crew (10 Italians, a Croat, and five Romanians) feels left in the lurch. Several sailors are sick, and they are all on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Six of the 16 sailors have been taken ashore and probably distributed among various villages along the coast, in order to hide them in the event of an unlikely swoop by Italian special troops. So it is going to be more difficult to get them back when the time comes for their release. Their names are not known.

"Rescue us or we will ask them to shoot us", the captain said in despair, in a voice that sounded as though it were hoarse with tears. He went on: "We are falling ill; some people are suffering from depression, others from heart condition; there are no medical supplies. Medical supplies arrived some time ago (one of the crew members suffers from a heart condition - Corriere della Sera editor´s note) but in this never-ending story the drugs are almost finished. I am not a medic; there are no medics; I cannot treat people when I do not even know what is ailing them, or else I would have to treat them just by looking them in the eye. Or noticing that they are losing their minds. They no longer manage to speak like reasonable people. In fact, I am losing my reason too".

Captain Iarloi, aged 51 from Ortona, tried to reason: "It is an absurd situation and we do not have the strength to carry on. Some people are losing their minds. There is no longer anything to eat. Only a very little, to keep us alive. We use sea water to wash with. We have gone beyond the end of our tether. Please rescue us from this situation, otherwise we ourselves will ask them to kill us. They too (the jailers - Corriere della Sera editor´s note) are nervous and they open fire every now and then. It happened again today. A bullet almost grazed my head. We cannot take any more and we want to go home; and we want to go home at once. We spend six hours on the bridge without any air conditioning (the heat is unbearable in that region and temperatures frequently rise above 40 degrees [Celsius] - Corriere della Sera editor´s note)".

During the phone call, the captain of the Buccaneer (which, by an ironic twist of fate, is the English word for "pirate") said that there is no more drinking water on board ("we drink boiled water") nor is there any food ("we eat rice and bread that the cook cooks for us"). He also denied that the victuals which were sent in a truck from Djibouti were ever delivered ("we have received nothing"), despite assurances that they did reach their destination.

The captain said that he knows nothing about any negotiations: "They do not tell us about that. If no negotiations are in hand, then they should start negotiating, they should telephone these gentlemen". At this point Iarloi said: "And we are sick and tired of being on this ship. I cannot take it any more and I will hand you over to the person next to me", in other words to the pirate who speaks Italian. It was precisely he who assured Corriere della Sera a couple of days ago that no negotiations are under way. "These men", he said, referring to the hostages in a somewhat nervous manner, "want to go home, but no one has contacted us".

Translated from Italian By Abdinasir Mohamed

An armed operation to rescue hostages on board the Italian tugboat T/B BUCCANEER held by Somali pirates would be too risky, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini indicated Tuesday. Frattini discussed the plight of the 16-man crew of the Buccaneer in talks with Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke during an international meeting in Rome to discuss the escalating violence in the Horn of Africa nation. "I confirmed our perplexity over a blitz or armed action to free the Buccaneer", Frattini said, adding that Italy continued to back government-led negotiations to resolve the situation peacefully. He was referring to the vessel which was seized in April in the waters of the Gulf of Aden.

Any armed rescue action would be complicated because the Buccaneer is being held together with "many dozen" other crews and their vessels, Frattini said. He was referring to two Egyptian fishing vessels, which had been captured earlier for illegal fishing but then were also somehow involved to capture the Italian tug. Italian groups, however, who tried to assist the company in Ravenna to better understand the situation and to help them in achieving a release, confirmed that the owner-manager is extremely ignorant and until today also has not revealed what was or is in the barges, which does not let the accusations go away that the convoy was up to no good. Toxic dumping has been and still is an Italian Mafia specialty in the Somali waters as well as oil-product-smuggling and fish-for-weapons deals.

The cargo-handler for the container vessel MV HANSA STAVANGER since today admitted for the first time to concerned owners of shipments that the negotiations for the release of the vessel had stopped.

Tuvaluans living in Queensland are calling on the Australian Federal Government to help rescue 11 of their countrymen being held hostage by Somali pirates. Eleven Tuvalu nationals and one Fijian man are still being held hostage by gunmen, more than two months after pirates stormed a German cargo ship they were working on. The 12 men were working on the cargo ship, the HANSA STAVANGER, when it was seized by pirates near the Horn of Africa on April 4. The pirates are demanded in the beginning that the tiny nation of Tuvalu, which has a population of just 12,000, pay a ransom of $US15 million, but reportedly the demands have gone down significantly to the present average payments.

Mapusanga Fumatagi from the Queensland Tuvalu community says one of her cousins is being held hostage by Somali gunmen. "It's been almost two months now and we haven't heard any positive feedback from the government of Tuvalu", she said. "There's a small community here in Brisbane and we would like the Australian Government to help the Tuvalu Government; since they are they bigger fish, they know how to deal with the problem. We want to plea with the Australian Government to help in any possible way they can", she said. She says some of the hostages have made contact with loved ones. "One guy was talking to a sister back home with a gun pointing at him [but] this is through email though", she said.

Dr Mark Hayes from the University of Queensland worked in Tuvalu as a journalist. He says it is becoming commonplace for Tuvalu men to leave home and work on a cargo ship for two years at a time, to support their family. "Being away from your wife, your family and your children for as long as two years in a rather dangerous occupation, is very, very stressful for them and to have this happen to some of them, just makes it so much worse. They're very, very worried about their menfolk caught up in this situation", he said. He says two days after the men were taken hostage, an American cargo ship was also attacked and gained international attention. "It's an awful situation which has almost fallen off the radar internationally", he said.

"As far as we know they are all still being held by the pirates who captured them two months ago". Dr Hayes says he hopes the Australian Government will intervene. "The problem in Somalia is of course that you don't really have a central government that you can negotiate with or approach", he said.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 14 foreign vessels (15 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) with a total of not less than 206 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 126 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 44 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least three wrongful attacks (incl. one friendly fire incident) on the side of the naval forces. 111 Somalis are held in foreign prisons under charges of piracy.

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 very likely, Yellow = significantly reduced risk, but still likely, Blue = possible, Green = unlikely). Allegedly still/again three groups from Puntland alone are out hunting on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, and also groups from Harardheere have set out again, despite the heavy seas.

Directly piracy related reports

Somalia pirate attacks set to break all records

by Mark Warner for LloydsList

Piracy incidents off Somalia are on course to break all records this year.

Security research company Risk Intelligence has predicted there will be over 300 attacks before year end, compared to 141 attacks in 2008.

"The monsoon season has virtually brought to a standstill attacks in the Western Indian Ocean, but these will resume again in August and our risk model anticipates that there will be 314 attacks for this year", said Risk Intelligence managing director Hans Tino Hansen.

The Copenhagen-based company has also calculated a piracy success rate of 23% for this year, which means with 135 attacks already recorded, another 40 vessels could potentially be hijacked before the end of the year. [This is, if nobody helps the Somali Governance and Coastguard, we like to add here]

Ship owners will also be concerned that Risk Intelligence said there was an increasing trend for attacks to move further towards the Middle East Gulf and to the high-profile transit corridor for very large crude carriers and liquefied natural gas carriers.

"There are definite signs that motherships are operating closer to the Gulf and this is grave cause for concern as this area cannot be patrolled in a similar vein to the Gulf of Aden".

Piracy attacks off Nigeria for this year are set to be close to the 2008 figure of 133 recorded incidents, but Mr. Hansen said that there were distinct differences between the two hubs of activity.

"Somalia is driven by pirate syndicates, purely motivated by money, but in Nigeria political issues on the Niger delta have increased the problem and there needs to be both a political and financial solution".

Somali piracy and the enchanting water circus

by Abukar Arman

If you ever felt this whole saga of these invincible maritime desperadoes getting away with the most fantastic piracy operations along the Somali coast is so incredibly bizarre, you are not alone.

Regardless of what many media groups have sensationally been reporting, there is not enough information available to adequately explain the nature of this high sea drama or to pinpoint all those who are involved. However, there are some, state and non-state actors, who are openly positioning themselves to be the beneficiary.

That said, let there be no mistake, the pirates are real. And, like chemical waste dumping, illegal fishing, weapon-smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal oil exploration, illegal human trafficking, and a host of other criminal activities, piracy is a thriving business in Somalia. These lucrative enterprises have steadily soared in the past two decades while Somalia was rapidly descending into a deadly spiral of anarchy.

During that period, Somalia experienced only six months of relative peace and order in 2006 before the Washington-backed Ethiopian invasion abruptly ended the Islamic Courts Union rule and caused Somalia to sink into its worst political and economic conditions.

Today, with over a million IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) and a total of over three million people being on the verge of starvation, Somalia is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Yet, with its 1880 mile coastline and its vicinity to the Middle East and Bab Al-Mandab-- one of the world's most critical trade arteries, Somalia still remains the most coveted strategic space.

Washington's influence in The Horn (of Africa) has been on a steady decline since pulling its troops out of Somalia in 1994 following that infamous episode known as "Black Hawk Down".

But, now that a whole new geopolitical dynamic is rapidly developing in the Middle East and The Horn - the increased volatility of the Middle East as Israeli Iranian tensions increase, and China's multi-billion dollar oil deals with various African nations to name a couple. Washington is compelled into a Cold War like maneuvering for influence.

Ensuring dominance throughout the region in terms of land, water, and air is the name of the game- a game that historically shattered the region's aspiration for peace, co-existence and development.

The National Intelligence Council's report, Global Trends 2025, projects that the US will have competitions in its role as the world's most influential nation.

As a result of their rapid economic growth, new influential players such as Russia, China, India, and Brazil are not only going to have "a seat at the international high table", (but) will bring new stakes and rules of the game. The NIC report also makes a daunting projection that in the coming decade or two, powerful nations would be competing for access to resources essential to survival- food, water, and energy.

Going back to the pirates: if they did not exist, they would have been invented! Their almost daily criminal activities have dwarfed all other less covered criminal enterprises.

The unintended consequence of their actions is paving a way for the architects of chaos, the so-called independent security contractors (ISC) - clandestine military forces immune from all laws and accountabilities.

Already the American and European ISCs are actively out-maneuvering each other to position themselves for hefty contracts to escort ships through the troubled waters of Somalia and to fight piracy. But, if history is a reliable mechanism to forecast political outcomes, this all too familiar approach has only one plausible result, disaster.

Pirates in Somalia are said to have hijacked over 90 ships and vessels since January. Currently, there are over a dozen ships parked along the coastal area of the north eastern region of Somalia waiting to be bailed out with hefty ransoms.

These hijacked ships include a weapon-smuggling Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, rifles and heavy weapons destined to Southern Sudan; also, a super tanker bigger than three football fields carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil worth $100 million. The latter was hijacked near Mombassa, Kenya in a broad daylight.

Here you may want to restrain your inquisitive urges: How could these village-dwelling thugs who wear macawis (cultural skirts) for camouflage gear and dacas (flip-flops) for combat boots pull such sophisticated operations? How do they execute with such precision and successfully high-jacks new ship virtually every other day? How could they stealthily dodge all the sophisticated land, sea, and air counterterrorism surveillances stationed in and around the Indian Ocean?

By no means are these high sea hooligans innocent. While they are, on one hand, being used as a gambit or a pretext to geopolitical positioning, they are partnering with international organized crime and any other devils willing to make a deal.

Ironically, for decades the Straits of Malacca (between Malaysia and Sumatra of Indonesia) have been the leading area for piracy. And, according to IMB (International Maritime Bureau) - an agency that, among other things, monitors maritime crimes-- the piracy enterprise costs the shipping industry over $10 billion a year.

Most shipping companies do not report ransoms that they pay or goods robbed for fear of having to pay high insurance premiums. Meanwhile there are widespread anecdotal accounts of "wealthy businessmen" from US, Australia, and Western Europe being sited in remote areas of the piracy infested region. Meanwhile the mightiest nations of the world continue to send their war ships to "the world's most dangerous waters".

Piracy in Somalia cannot be solved militarily.... Solving this problem will require objective focus on the root cause - the political quandary that broke down law and order and made Somalia a free-zone for crime, exploitation, and human suffering.

A starting point for the soon-to-take-office new US administration is to put this issue on top of its foreign policy priority and to develop a sound policy toward Somalia.

What you don´t know, but pirates of the Red Sea do

A journey with Yemeni fishermen to face the pirates

by Firas Shamsan for the Yemen Times

It is the distance between three equal dangers, either to drown, become a hostage in the hands of a pirate, or to be the target of the international maritime forces.

The burning sun is no longer the biggest concern of Yemeni fishermen who everyday tackle the waves with their ancient wooden boats. The sun which burns their complexion guides them every morning toward the sea, the only source of their livelihood.

The real danger consists in 180 maritime mile which separates the Gulf of Aden from the Somali coast where piracy is on the rise against both international trade ships and small Yemeni fishing boats.

Recently, Yemeni fishermen have made national and international headlines as victims of the international maritime forces, who claimed that they suspected that the Yemeni fishermen's boats belonged to pirates.

But how did Yemeni fishermen become pirates? The answer was disclosed by the fishermen themselves, who explained that many times they have been kidnapped by Somalis pirates, who use the fishing boats to attack commercial ships.

Khaled Omar, the senior assistant of the captain on a fishing boat carrying about eight fishermen, explained that pirates usually use a nine meter-long fiberglass boat.

"Each fiberglass boat carries eight pirates armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades", said Omar. "The fiberglass boats are very small compared with the ships they seize, so pirates seize the Yemeni fishing boats to use them in piracy".

According to Omar, the pirates take the Yemeni fishermen hostage, forcing them to wander the sea using their boats until they achieve their goal. The pirates then released the Yemenis after having held them captive for hours or even days.

"During this time, the pirates threaten the fishermen with death if they refuse to carry out their orders", said Omar.

Official reports say that nine Yemeni fishing boats have been seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden since the beginning of 2009.

Yemeni fishermen are accustomed to moving in the regional water to fish in a "nakhoda", a medium-sized fishing boat. These boats cost YR 5-15 million each, which fishermen pay to obtain a livelihood.

Based on the season, fishing ground changes from Yemeni regional waters to the border with Somali waters. They seek out areas where the catch is best.

Nowadays, the best fishing spot is in the Gulf of Aden where they can find shark.

However, Omar confirmed that the threats of pirates have prompted many fishermen to refrain from fishing as pirates use them as human shields and their boats to seize large commercial ships.

"We are not allowed to carry arms at sea", Said Omar. "If the government finds any weapons with us on board, it prevents us from working for at least three months and we are fined YR 1 million. But as our boats are not bullet –proof, a single bullet can cause the boat to sink".

Fishermen demand that the government allow them take weapons with them to defend themselves against pirate attacks. They say that these demands came after they lost hope that Yemeni Coast Patrol Authority would be able to protect them while fishing in Yemeni regional waters. However, Yemeni maritime laws don´t allow fishermen to carry weapons and those who violate the law are subjected to imprisonment and fined.

Asked whether pirates the routes and schedule of the targeted ships, Omar said that some Somali reports said that there is a network of spies who watch the movement of the targeted ships.

A Kenya-based maritime organization has estimated the number of pirates up and down the Somali coast at about 3,200 individuals in three groups.

Most of them worked in the Somali Coast Patrol Authority in the past. In addition, a number of Eritrean pirates are also present in the regional waters off the Somali coasts. Most pirates are stationed in Puntland, a semi-independent region in northeast Somalia, where the port of Ail reportedly the main stronghold of pirates.

Pirates not the only threat

Last May, local newspapers reported that six Yemeni fishermen were killed and several others injured in when two Yemeni boats were separately hit by international forces on suspicion of being pirates.

"We receive complaints from fishermen saying that they were insulted by the international forces who searched their boats, took their mobile phones and other equipment", said a source in the Yemeni coastguards. "Some of them saying that they even were beaten by these soldiers".

In a report released last December, the United Nations (UN) group monitoring the 1992 arms embargo on Somalia included a paragraph on piracy, alluding to the growing financial ties between Somali pirates and criminal entrepreneurs in Yemen.

The UN report said the NATO Shipping Center had identified five ports along the Yemeni coast, which were serving as re-supply stations for mother ships belonging to Somali pirates.

Mother ships are usually hijacked fishing trawlers or merchant vessels, used to tow the speedboats needed to attack slow-moving ships sailing in open waters.

Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal. Seven percent of world oil consumption passed through the Gulf of Aden in 2007, according to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit.

A few dozen warships from the United States, the EU, NATO, Russia, China, India, Iran, Japan and Malaysia are positioned in the international waters to protect their interests and partake in anti-piracy missions.

The Swedish navy on Monday handed over to Kenya seven suspected Somali pirates arrested in the Gulf of Aden, police said. The seven pirates had tried to hijack a Greek merchant vessel in the lawless waters off Somalia on May 26. "The suspects tried to attack MV ANTONIS, which was sailing from Europe to Asia before the Swedish navy patrolling along the Gulf of Aden arrested them", Ayub Ali Gitonga, chief of police in the Kenyan port of Mombassa told reporters. They were flown on a chartered flight from Djibouti to Mombassa, but their trial will take place in Malindi, a coastal town, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Mombassa. Gitonga said the trial venue was moved due to congestion at the Mombassa prison where other pirate suspects are being held. The Swedish warship HMS MALMOE responded to a distress call from the MV ANTONIS, which said it was under attack from pirates using rocket-propelled grenades.

The Swedish vessel is taking part in an international anti-piracy drive in the waters off Somalia. Sweden has had three corvettes and 152 personnel patrolling the Gulf of Aden since May 15 as part of a European Union force, which is running an anti-piracy naval mission off Somalia. Seven suspected Somali pirates who attempted to seize a foreign vessel in the Gulf of Aden last month denied the piracy charges in a Kenyan court on Tuesday. The suspects who were handed over to the Kenyan authorities on Monday by Swedish Navy were arraigned before Malindi Magistrate Beatrice Jaden but denied attempting to hijack MV ANTONIS at the transit corridor within the Indian Ocean. "The suspects attempted to hijack the MV ANTONIS on May 26 in the Gulf of Aden and were arrested on the same day. They were also found in possession of illegal weapons," State prosecutor Alexander Muteti told the magistrate. Muteti said the suspects who landed in Mombassa aboard a chartered plane from Djibouti jointly attempted to hijack the vessel while armed with pistols, a knife, an AK47 rifle and a rocket propelled grenade (RPG).

He consequently opposed the suspects being released on bail saying the suspects, who were not represented by a lawyer, could jump bail since they were not Kenyan nationals. Muteti urged the court to take cognizance of the escalating cases of piracy off the coast of Somalia and the potential risk such acts could bring to the east African nation and the international community. "If released, the accused persons are likely to go back and continue with the same activities", Muteti said. However, the accused persons asked to be given five days to get advocates to represent them and declined to respond to the State Counsel's application. They said they were caught in the Red Sea but not in the Indian Ocean as alleged. The case will be heard on July 16 and 17. The seventh accused person, 14-year-old Abdi Adan Abdulkadir was remanded separately. The handing over of the suspects brings the number of those being tried in the country to 81. A month ago, 11 suspects who mistook a French naval vessel for a commercial ship and tried to attack it were charged with the offence in Mombassa. The suspects approached a French frigate MV NIVOSE which is deployed by the European Union to guard and escort commercial ships in the pirates infested waters off Somalia coast preparing for an attack, but were shocked to discover it was a naval ship.

Pirates have continued attacking commercial ships in the Indian Ocean off Somali waters despite the presence of navies deployed by the international community under the banner of the European Union.

Marine ecosystem, IUU fishing and dumping, ecology

On Oceans Day, Illegal Fishing Stumps UN FAO

by Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

As World Oceans Day was celebrated at the UN in New York, there was news, some good but mostly bad, about the failure to include oceans in the current climate change talks, and lack of welcome for environmental refugees.

Inner City Press asked what is being done to stop illegal fishing, for example off Somalia and Western Sahara. The FAO, it was said, has a plan of action. There are moves afoot to make countries control what companies, flying their national flag or not, do out in the ocean. But the UN is quiet as Morocco and European fish off Western Sahara, and little is done of the pillage off of Somalia. So where is the FAO?

Also on the panel was professor David Freestone. Inner City Press asked him if Ban Ki-moon or Yvo de Boer should be more to try to put oceans on the UNFCCC agenda in Copenhagen. Freestone said that a special effort should be made. We'll see.

While the campaign of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia is portrayed as example of global unity, there are disagreements about setting up an international court mechanism to try piracy suspects. After Friday's meeting of the Contact Group, Inner City Press asked U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary, Political and Military Affairs Greg Delawie if the U.S. favors such an international mechanism. No, Mr. Delawie said. Is this due to the U.S.'s position against the International Criminal Court?

Ironically, not only Germany and the Netherlands but also Russia favor an international court, or "mechanism within a national court", as a Russian diplomat put it to Inner City Press. He noted that the U.S. arguments against this are similar to those Russia made against, for example, the establishment of the so-called Hariri tribunal for Lebanon. He said that since Kenya, where most trials for now take place, has an Anglo Saxon system, the U.S. and UK are fine with it, Russia less so. He said that recently pirates from Pakistan and Iran have been caught and asked, why turn them over to Kenya?

Pirates? From where? To where?

Somalia's foreign minister made a pitch for money for his country's courts, and to develop an official Somali Coast Guard. Inner City Press had asked Delawie what the group would do about illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste, two roots or rationales for Somali piracy. Delawie said that things are so dangerous now, he doubts that illegal fishing persists. The answer seemed insufficient.

Standing to the side of the stakeout was the UN's envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, fresh from a press conference in which after Inner City Press asked about human rights in Somalia, he said the Press is an accomplice in what Ugandan President Museveni has called a genocide in motion. As the UN's Olara Otunu might say, Museveni should know....

Report Adds to Claims of Somali Fisherman Turned Pirates written by Benjamin Joffe-Walt for medialine

Hundreds of foreign ships are devastating marine environments and stealing from some of the poorest nations in the world, a three-year investigation has found.

The report, which references Somalia, supports the principal grievance of Somali fisherman—many of whom have turned to piracy—that over-fishing by foreign vessels has severely damaged Somalia's fish stocks and destroyed their livelihood.

The results of the global investigation, released on Monday by the U.K.-based Environmental Justice Foundation to coincide with World Oceans Day, indicate that illegal fishing in Africa is out of control, causes severe ecological damage and deprives vulnerable coastal communities of their principal source of food and livelihood.

"Artisanal fishing communities throughout the world consistently report decreased numbers and sizes of fish, threatening their livelihoods and basic food security", the report stated. "There is growing evidence that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and its impacts are likely contributing to... the widely reported expansion of piracy in regions".

Foreign fishing operators, sailing under a number of flags, regularly fish illegally in Somali waters, use unscrupulous and illegal fishing practices and fail to report their catches. The Environmental Justice Foundation has referred to Somali as "perhaps the most striking and extreme example of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing".

Somali authorities, local fishermen, civil society organizations and international organizations have complained of foreign vessels illegally fishing or dumping industrial, toxic and nuclear waste off Somali shores since 1991, when President Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted by Ethiopian-backed forces.

Over the 18 years since Barre's fall, Somalia has not had an effective central government able to protect the country's 2000 mile coastline.

In the ensuing chaos, Somali warlords and regional leaders are believed to have participated in the plunder of the country's marine resources, setting up front companies throughout the Middle East and Europe to issue phony fishing licenses to any foreign entity willing to pay the warlords for Somali fishing rights.

In 1999, authorities in the semi-autonomous Puntland region gave the authority to issue fishing licenses to PIDC, an Omani company. Two years later, the PIDC had made over $20 million in profit from fishing operations along the Puntland coast. The Puntland administration claimed PIDC's profits were meant to be split, but when the profits were not shared, the government revoked the PIDC deal.

Puntland is now the epicenter of Somali piracy. Pirates, almost all of them former fisherman, say they took up hijacking foreign fishing operators in the 1990s after they destroyed their livelihood.

In 2005, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) issued a report stating that the agency had a "strong suspicion of illegal dumping of industrial and nuclear wastes along the Somali coast". The FAO claimed around 700 foreign ships were regularly fishing illegally in Somali waters for shark, lobster, dolphins and endangered tuna and sea turtles.

Abdirahman Ibbi, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources in the new Somali National Unity Government, recently claimed there were over 200 foreign fishing operations entering Somali waters illegally, but that the government did not have the resources to monitor the activities of such operators, never mind their effect on Somali fish stocks.

The foreign vessels are believed to not only fish illegally in Somali territory, but also use fishing methods forbidden by international law, including drift nets and underwater explosives, said to have devastated populations of endangered species such as sea-turtles, orca, sharks and baby whales.

Leaders in Somali coastal communities, whose livelihood depends on artisanal fishing, claim Somali fishermen have been violently harassed by foreign trawlers, and have referred to the phenomenon as "economic terrorism".

"Heavily armed foreign vessels come close inshore and compete with small scale, artisan fishermen", the Environmental Justice Foundation has claimed. "They destroy their nets and traps and this has resulted in confrontations and loss of life".

In April the organization claimed that illegal fishing causes losses to the Somali economy in the range of US$94 million a year.

"Action must be taken much earlier to address issues such as illegal fishing before they escalate into the terrible state that we see in Somalia today", said Steve Trent, the director of the organization. "If illegal ´pirate´ fishing is not ended in these regions, then the consequences could be devastating".

See the Reports of the Environmental Justice Foundation: http://www.ejfoundation.org/page372.html

Pirate fishing causing eco disaster and killing communities, says report by John Vidal, environment editor The Guardian

The new report confirms uncontrolled waves of violent, eco-damaging and illegal fishing activity worldwide, but with some of the biggest offences connected to the European market

Pirate fishing is out of control, depriving some the most world's most vulnerable communities of food and leading to ecological catastrophe, a three-year investigation has found.

"Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the most serious threats to the future of world fisheries. It is now occurring in virtually all fishing grounds from shallow coastal waters to deep oceans. It is believed to account for a significant proportion of the global catch and to be costing developing countries up to $15bn a year", says the report by the Environmental Justice Foundation.

Unscrupulous Chinese, European and Latin American companies, using flags of convenience, are operating illegal gear, fishing in sea areas they are not allowed and are not reporting their catches, the investigators found. In addition, ships are laundering illegally caught fish by transferring them at sea to legal boats making it impossible to identify catches.

The situation is particularly serious in African waters where pirate fishing may be now be taking nearly 30% of the catch from local fishermen. "IUU operators are stealing food from some of the poorest people in the world and are ruining the lives of local fishermen in countries like Somalia, Angola. These countries do not have the resources to police their territorial waters", says the report.

An aerial survey of Guinea's territorial waters found that 60% of the 2,313 ships spotted were committing offences. Surveys of Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau waters found that levels of illegal fishing at 29% and 23%. An estimated 700 foreign-owned vessels are fishing regularly in Somali waters for endangered tuna, shark and lobster.

"Heavily armed foreign vessels come close inshore and compete with small scale, artisan fishermen. They destroy their nets and traps and this has resulted in confrontations and loss of life", says the report.

Apart from the human misery that the pirate fishers are causing, the investigators found the practice undermining conservation measures, resulting in the depletion of fish stocks. Up to 75% of the world's fish stocks are fully exploited, over exploited or depleted according to the UN's Food and Agriculture organization.

Rich countries police some oceans, but at great expense. In 2003, the Australian navy chased the Uruguayan-flagged Viarsa 1 trawler for 21 days across the Southern ocean. Its illegal catch of Patagonian toothfish was finally sold for over $1m.

But poor countries are helpless in the face of force used against them. Angolan fisheries authorities, says the report, have had their boats rammed and sunk by illegal trawlers, whilst other pirates have hurled buckets of boiling water on boarding parties. At least two inspectors have disappeared, believed murdered, while on observer duty aboard industrial trawlers.

The authors identify Las Palmas in the Canary islands as the centre of the illegal fishing trade in the Atlantic ocean. IUU vessels are allowed to land or tranship illegal catches which then enter Europe and the international market. The port only employs a handful of inspectors. "It is inexcusable that the Spanish government and the wider European authorities have failed to close Las Palmas", says the report.

It recommends that a global database of high seas fishing vessels is set up and that onboard observers, aerial patrols and more patrol vessels be used. But it acknowledges that countries need to put up hundreds of millions of pounds to stamp it out.

In a separate study, international marine group Oceana reported that European seas are among the most damaged in the world due to over-fishing. "According to the European Commission, 88% of our fish stocks are overexploited. Of these, 69% are at risk of collapse. Each day in European waters more than 55,000 tonnes of oily and bilge waters and fuel waste are spilled into the sea, more than 350,000 hectares of the sea bed is impacted by trawlers and 20,000 tonnes of fish are taken out", says the report.

"Up to 3,000 tonnes of fish caught accidentally by fishing vessels in European waters is thrown back dead. Discards can reach 90% of the total weight of the catch in some fisheries", it adds.

Anti-piracy measures

Somalia´s Transitional Federal Government (TFT) said foreign navies claiming to patrol Somalia seas against pirates have a hidden agenda of exploiting the resources of Somalia. The Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Minster for Fisheries and Marine Resources, Prof. Abdirahman Haji Aadan Ibbi said that foreign navies stationed in Somalia waters didn't come to hunt and deter the activities of pirates but are there to divide the Somali seas among themselves before they take control of on shore resources. "Foreign navies in Somalia seas are from countries engaged again in cold war such as the US, Russia, EU and China" said the Minister speaking to BBC Somali Service.

The Minister added that such powerful foreign navies are not needed to combat pirates with small unsophisticated boats. The Minister praised the efforts by the TFG to establish a Somali Coast Guard to protect Somalia´s resources and security and appreciated the appointment of Admiral Faarah Ahmed Omar (Faarah Qare) as the commander for Somalia´s Coast Guard. "The TFG is currently training Somalia´s Coast Guard and as soon as they finish the training they would start work to secure Somalia´s coast with modern equipment provided by internationally renowned companies. NATO is to launch a new, long-term warship fleet dedicated to fighting piracy off Somalia", a senior US diplomat said at a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels on Monday. 'We expect a significant effort for a sustained period', starting as early as July 1, the diplomat said ahead of the Thursday meeting. 'The United States is prepared to play its part, but the amount of what we're doing will depend on what our partners are ready to do', he said. NATO currently has five warships operating in Somali waters to fight the rising tide of piracy in the region. Those ships were diverted from a diplomatic mission to South-East Asia and Australia. NATO officials say that the world's premier military alliance should show a stronger long-term presence there at a time when other powers such as Russia, China and the European Union are all sending warships to the region. However, NATO's efforts are hampered by legal difficulties, since not all allies have the same rules on what to do with pirates once they are captured. That has led to cases in which NATO forces have had to release captured pirates in Somalia itself, with no guarantee that they will not take to the sea again. NATO officials ahead of Thursday's meeting complained that the EU had solved the problem by offering millions of dollars in development aid to Kenya in return for taking charge of pirates captured by EU vessels - an investment beyond the reach of the military alliance.

Seoul also held a piracy meeting, which was attended by representatives from 34 countries and international maritime organizations. Here delegates discuss the role that international organizations can play in suppressing piracy. They also talk about what needs to happen in Somalia for the piracy to stop. Yasutoshi Nishimura, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan said: "The broader situation in Somalia is at the root of the upsurge of piracy. Therefore, civilization of Somalia is essential for a fundamental resolution of the piracy issue". An International Maritime Organization representative re-emphasized the importance of international cooperation. Koji Sekimizu, General Secretary of IMO stated: "To achieve those aims, the continued support of international society will be vital". Japan and South Korea dispatched naval ships to the waters off Somalia in March to join the international effort to curb pirate attacks in the region. South Korean cargo vessels have been captured by Somali pirates in recent years and sailors held hostage for ransom. In February, South Korean sailors were among 23 who were released after being held for three months. South Korea is the world's 5th largest crude oil buyer, making the dangerous Gulf of Aden a key shipping route for South Korean cargo vessels. But no word on how South-Korea will keep its pirating fishing fleet on the leach and stop it from illegally fishing in foreign waters.

"Our man destroyed a pirate boat and went on a frantic sea chase off the African coast", reports the British gutter-press THE SUN about TV "tough guy" Ross Kemp, who allegedly blew up a pirate skiff - see: http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00820/SNN08TV2B-380_820370a.jpg . Ross was joined by The Sun on the first leg of his journey filming Ross Kemp In Search of Pirates. If true, then Ross Kemp certainly was compensating his admitted fears during the trip and was as childish, irresponsibly unconcerned, cowardly and criminal as his British navy fellows the other day, who just for fun and exercise created another environmental havoc. see: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/06/03/article-1190575-0531D015000005DC-919_634x893.jpg

But The Guardian and the Leicester Mercury understood the real background story: He gets to join the elite commando unit on one of their ribs (reinforced inflatable boats), haring off across the ocean at 25 knots to intercept a group of dhows and skiffs. They reach the suspicious vessels in no time, but then it gets a bit tricky. "It's rather difficult because we don't have a twerp on board at the moment", Ross explains. Eh? Oh, terp, which I'm guessing means interpreter.

"Speak English?" one of the commandos asks. The dhow dudes look blank. The marine flicks through his phrase book to find the Arabic for "Are you pirates or fishermen?" It seems incredible to me that there's this British warship, "bristling with hugely powerful and sophisticated weapons" we're told, patrolling the Gulf of Aden with over 200 men and women on board in search of pirates, and no one thought to bring someone along who may actually be able to communicate with the people they bump into.

The chief marine wants to board the vessel, to see if the hold is full of fish or rocket-propelled grenades (they no longer use cutlasses); he radios back to the Northumberland to ask for permission. The captain calls the UK for clearance, which is denied. Ross and the elite commando unit return sheepishly to the ship.

And that's how it continues - Ross and the lads charging about by rib or helicopter, intercepting dhows, finding out nothing, returning to the Northumberland. A distress call comes in from a ship called the Saldanha, which may be under attack; the helicopters are scrambled, with an "array of specialised weapons". It's a race against time to reach the Saldanha before the pirates take it. The GPMG (that's general-purpose machine gun) is prepped. Are we finally going to catch some pirates?

No, because the usual confusion follows. An American helicopter gets there first and decides they're not pirates, but fishermen. So Ross and the gang head off to another false alarm. Bad news comes the following day: the Saldanha has been taken, and is heading for Somalia. Ooops, they were pirates after all, but now it's too late. Oh well. They do find one of the pirates' little skiffs and use some of their hugely powerful and sophisticated weapons

to sink it. Good work, lads. And so the captured MV Saldanha breezed by the heavily-armed but powerless British frigate, and sailed off to Somalia. Later the Northumberland found the pirates´ own boat, bobbing around emptily on the seas, save for some rocket launchers and an Arsenal souvenir, bizarrely. The gunners blew it up, as much out of frustration as anything else, and we got the moment of all-guns-blazing drama Kemp craved. So far concerning "Our Man".

No real peace in sight yet

Embattled Somali president foregoes Italy summit

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed will not attend a conference in Rome on his beleaguered country, a senior government official told AFP Monday.

Sharif had been expected in Italy on Tuesday for a meeting of the International Contact Group on Somalia, but he opted to stay in Mogadishu where a month-old insurgent offensive aimed at toppling the government was yet to be decisively repelled.

"The Somali president, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, will not attend the conference by the International Contact Group on Somalia for important duties at home", the senior official said to AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The meeting will be attended by the prime minister (Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke) and several other ministers", he said.

"Our president is very much engaged in dealing with the current security situation created by anti-establishment forces that are opposed to peace".

On May 7, an insurgency spearheaded by the radical Shebab group and Sharif rival Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys' Hezb al-Islamiya militia launched a major nationwide offensive to remove the president from power.

Sharif has been holed up in his Mogadishu compound and his forces, propped up by African Union peacekeepers, have only recently been able to recapture a few positions in the capital.

Some members of his entourage had warned that his absence from Mogadishu risked creating a window for Aweys and his allies to make a final push and seize the presidency.

Other sources reported that Sheikh Sharif was not amused about Italian media mis-quoting him as having said that the former colonial power should take a lead for the European countries concerning the Somalia questions. In an interview published in the Italian economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore the president had reportedly stressed the "long and good relations" between Somalia and Italy, and urged Rome to take the lead in getting the rest of the European Union to support his fledgling government under siege from a hard line Islamist insurgency. This last sentence, however, is seen as wishful thinking of the Berlusconi government rather than Sheik Sharif's opinion, sources close to the Somali President stated.

Already the Italian government has offered to help Somalia fight piracy and improve its coastal security by providing support for a police force and a local coast guard. The initiative was announced by foreign minister Franco Frattini after meeting Somali prime minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke at the foreign affairs ministry in Rome on Tuesday. "We have offered Italy's willingness to create a Somali police and coast guard, and to also improve the capacity for prevention and reaction in Italy", Frattini said.

Referring to the African country, Frattini said there was a problem that "is not only humanitarian, but above all about politics and security. We have to support this government and this president whom we appreciate and we help", he said. The minister opened the 15th summit of the International Contact Group on Somalia which was meeting in Rome on Tuesday to discuss the growing incidence of piracy and other security issues. "Italy will carry a political message to all of Europe, promoting help and also finance", he said. "The government of Somalia is fighting against a serious criminal phenomenon, but surveillance is not enough because we have to fight the problem at its roots", he said.

The minister said that piracy is linked to phenomena like the "criminality and infiltration of extreme elements easily recruited also by Al-Qaeda". "Piracy is only the tip of the iceberg", Frattini said. "We are convinced that piracy is related to the political and socioeconomic crisis on land, not on the sea. We therefore support the efforts of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Prime Minister Sharmarke to build a government of national unity, inclusive and open to all components of Somali society which reject violence and terrorism", Frattini said. He said piracy and terrorism, illegal immigration, human trafficking are "a threat not only to Somalia but to the entire international community". US president Barack Obama has said that Somali piracy must be brought under control. Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean is just a sample of a complex web of challenges inside Somalia, - a former Italian colony from the late 19th century until 1936 - which is one of the poorest, most violent and least stable countries anywhere on earth.

Somalia's foreign fighters. The conflict in Somalia has encouraged many foreign volunteers to join the militant Islamist factions attempting to overthrow the internationally backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG). These foreigners seem to be mostly ethnic Somali émigrés living in Western countries, raising fears that some may return to carry out terrorist attacks.

While Somalia's hard line Islamist factions have often claimed they have foreigners fighting on their behalf, it has been difficult to independently assess how many foreign fighters there are in Somalia and what impact they have on the conflict. However, UN special representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, has claimed they constitute a small, but elite force within the Islamist insurgency. In May, the AP quoted him as saying that the foreigners are "the best disciplined and organized force".

This suggests that there are dedicated foreign units fighting in Somalia and that they are made up either of veterans from other conflicts and/or new recruits who have been given extensive training. It stands to reason that these foreigners are a more unified force, as they do not suffer from the clan loyalties that divide Somalia. They are also likely to be more ideologically committed to the hard line Islamist cause.

Somali Islamist leader calls for withdrawal of foreign forces. Somali Islamist leader sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys on Monday reiterated his call for the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Aweys, who heads Hezbul Islam, a Somali opposition faction, was speaking at a press conference in Mogadishu only a day after media reports said that he was seriously wounded or might have been killed in fighting between his group's fighters and others loyal to a pro-government militia. Although he did not speak specifically about his alleged death or injury, Aweys, the radical Islamist leader, reiterated his call for the African Union peacekeeping forces to leave the war-torn country and the implementation of the Islamic law in Somalia.

The top Somali opposition figure told a Monday press conference in the capital Mogadishu that he is alive and vowed to continue the insurgency, Radio Garowe reports. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the rebel chief of Hizbul Islam faction, rejected reports that he was wounded on June 5 during intense battles in the central Somali region of Galgadud as "propaganda". "I am healthy and there is no injury on my body, as you can see", Sheikh Aweys told reporters. Aweys, 62, vowed that Hizbul Islam fighters will continue the insurgency against the U.N.-endorsed Somali interim government led by his former ally, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. "Me and [President] Sheikh Sharif can meet only when the enemy leaves [Somalia]", Sheikh Aweys said, while referring to a 4,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force serving in Mogadishu since March 2007. He accused the U.S. government of "fuelling the war" in parts of Somalia, where Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam rebels are fighting to topple the Horn of Africa country's beleaguered interim government. "Islamic rule supported by the West cannot be a true Islamic government, but it is intended to trick the Somali public", said Sheikh Aweys.

He did not directly condemn piracy while speaking about Somali pirate attacks off the country´s long coastline, but suggested that piracy was "created" as an excuse to "destroy the Islamic movement" in Somalia. Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam rebels outgunned the pro-government Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a militia in Wabho, a small town in Galgadud region. Mogadishu-based Elman human rights organization reported that 123 people were killed in the single-day battle. "The only way this war can stop is the withdrawal of foreign forces from Somalia and the implementation of the sharia law in the country". Aweys returned from exile in the east African country of Eritrea last April to topple the Somali government led by his former ally and now his archrival Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the Somali President. Both Aweys and Ahmed co-chaired the ousted Islamic Courts Union (ICU) which ruled much of south and central Somalia in the latter half of 2006 before the movement was ousted by allied Ethiopian and Somali government forces. Aweys, wanted by the United States for links with terrorism, also said that the fighting in Somalia was forced on his group and accused some foreign countries of having a hand in the ongoing conflict in the country.

The UNHCR now estimates that more than 117,000 people have been displaced by the past month's violence, while more than 200 people were reportedly killed in the last month alone, most of them civilians. Reports from hospitals indicate that some 700 people were wounded in the recent clashes. U.N. agencies say that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed on a daily basis in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. According to the U.N. children's and refugee agencies, all sides in the fighting have flaunted humanitarian principles by ignoring the safety of civilians. Fighters have shelled civilian areas, forcibly recruited children to join militias, and raped women. UNICEF's acting representative for Somalia, Hannan Suleiman, says there are reports that boys as young as nine-years old have been recruited to join militias. UNICEF says at least 34 schools in the city have been occupied by fighters at some point since the start of the year, and many families have been separated. There are reports of rape and other sexual violence against women who have been displaced.

Puntland sheikhs call for peace, condemn Kenya sea deal.

A meeting was held Monday in Somalia's semiautonomous region of Puntland by Muslim sheikhs who appealed for peace while condemning a controversial maritime agreement, Radio Garowe reports.

The meeting was held in Garowe, the capital of Puntland State, and attended by well-known sheikhs from major Puntland towns, including Las Anod and Bossaso.

The four-point declaration was signed by eleven sheikhs, with the first point calling for Islamist factions in Somalia to "immediately cease the bloodshed of Muslims" and to "resolve differences through dialogue".

The second point noted that the fighting is "among Muslims" and that "confusion" has surrounded the principles of the war, therefore: "Supporting it [war] and joining it [war] is haram [prohibited by Islam]".

The Puntland clerics' declaration called on the Somali public and the Muslim people across the world to offer help to fellow Somalis who are wounded, facing hunger, thirst and diseases.

Lastly, the fourth point of the declaration described the maritime agreement signed between the Somali interim government and the Kenyan government in April has "created confusion, suspicion and distrust" and urged the Somali government to present the agreement to parliament or the public for approval.

"Since the country is currently in an extraordinary situation and since the government lacks the authority to implement [agreements], we appeal to the Transitional Federal Government to avoid entering into agreements that can have an impact on the people and nation of Somalia", the declaration concluded.

Sheikh Abdulkadir Nur Farah, Puntland's most well-known Islamic scholar, was the first name to sign the declaration.

Puntland sheikhs have routinely issued public statements appealing for the violence raging in parts of south-central Somalia to stop in order to save the lives of Somali civilians.

Located in northeastern Somalia, Puntland is a relatively stable region that has functioning is a self-governing state within a federal structure for Somalia since its establishment in 1998.

The Somali interim government, based in the national capital Mogadishu, is struggling against an insurgency led by Islamist rebels who have vowed to overthrow the U.N.-recognized government.

UN's and Norway's Roles in Somalia's Law of Sea Filing Questioned

By Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

Norway's role in Somalia's Law of the Sea filing, arranged by the UN's envoy Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, continued to be questioned Wednesday at the UN. The Secretariat's Hariharan Pakshi Rajan was asked what safeguards are in place that an oil-interested state like Norway does not benefit from its assistance to the filing of a poorer state like Somalia. He did not answer about any safeguards, but rather referred to a UN trust fund that poor countries can apply to.

But this simply raises more question: why would a UN envoy like Ould Abdallah, rather than looking to the UN's own trust fund, seek out or accept the potentially self-interested assistance of a state like Norway?

Inner City Press asked this question at a UN noon briefing, and was then questioned in turn by a member of the UN spokesperson's office, who rather than answer suggested that Inner City Press should "ask Norway". Inner City Press did, and on May 13 received from the Press Counselor to Norway's mission to the UN a statement that

"How much Norway has used on assisting Somalia to lay forward preliminary information indicative of the outer limits of its continental shelf to the UN; We don´t have a separate budgetary item for this, because the work is a part of Norwegian assistance to several African countries in this matter".

How much was the assistance? Which other African countries? The questions Inner City Press submitted to Ould Abdallah's spokeswoman have yet to be answered.

Ould Abdallah's boss, in a way, the head of the UN Department of Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, said on Wednesday when asked that he had read Inner City Press' story on this, but didn't "see the connection here".

What safeguards are in place when the UN arranges for a rich, oil-interested state to assist a poor country with its legal filings? Beyond the UN, when India assists Myanmar with its filing, does anyone thing that India doesn't have an interest in Myanmar's energy resources, on and off-shore? While that may be between India and Myanmar -- where Aung San Suu Kyi now faces more punishment, for an uninvited visit to her in house arrest -- when the UN sets up the deal, it should answer the questions.

Background:

Off Somali Coast, Norway, UN and Kenya Make Plan for Drilling Rights, Pirates of the Pen

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive

While the international press focuses on the teenage Somali pirates who took the American ship MAERSK ALABAMA and captain Richard Phillips and were killed, Kenya and Norway and the installed Somali government are quietly dealing the continental shelf off Somalia away to the benefit of the former two.

While the press says Somalia has no government, Kenya with Norway's and the UN's behind the scenes assistance has filed with the UN a "Memorandum of Understanding" between itself and the "Transitional Federal Government of the Somali Republic", ensuring that Somalia will be unable to later object to Kenya's claim to undersea oil drilling rights.

The related 15-page memo, also filed with the UN, makes the UN's and Norway's role clear. It recites that Special Representative of the Secretary General Ahmedou Ould Abdallah "initiated the preparation of preliminary information indicative of the outer limits of the continental shelf of Somalia beyond 200 nautical miles... In the preparation of this material the SRSG accepted an offer of assistance from the Government of Norway... Both the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate have been involved in the preparation... All of the expenses related to the preparation of the present submission have been covered by the Government of Norway".

Norway, of course, is a major oil producer. Absent safeguards that do not appear to be in place, it is viewed as a conflict of interest for Norway to pay for and prepare a filing about drilling rights for an African country described as having no government. And yet little has been said, and the UN has accepted the filing. Call them pirates of the pen.

As one close observer put it to Inner City Press, "Ould Abdallah started the whole process -- the UN asks Somalia to submit papers and the UN special envoy Ould prepares the papers Somalia is submitting -- why waste time, have the UN and Mr. Ould Abdallah directly handle things instead of abusing the poor colonial era chiefs such as the Transitional Federal Government".

For this Somali government, the deal was signed by Abdirahman Abdishakur, the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, whom Inner City Press last saw in June 2008 at the UN-sponsored (and paid-for) talks of Somali expatriates held in a luxury hotel, the Kempinski, in Djibouti.

The UN has been remarkably untransparent about financing in Somalia. Most recently, Inner City Press asked Mr. Ould Abdallah about the UN's financing of not only the Djibouti talks but now also Somali parliamentarians. (Inner City Press also asked about a UN-affiliated humanitarian worker now held by kidnappers for months; Ould Adballah has yet to revert with the promised update information.)

On financing, Ould Abdallah affably told Inner City Press to ask his spokeswoman, who in turn referred Inner City Press to the UN Development Program. UNDP produced boilerplate, with no funding amounts nor the recipients of the funding:

From: UNDP Spokesman

To: Inner City Press

Sent: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:47 am

The Djibouti peace process is led by the UN political office (UNPOS) and funded by various donors, for which UNDP plays an administrative and logistical support role. As far as the start-up package is concerned, donors contributed to the project and their contributions have been channeled by UNDP in 2008 to provide some basic infrastructure support to the TFG institutions. This includes computers, office furniture, travel costs to/from Somalia and some rehabilitation of office buildings. In total, around 6.5M USD has been disbursed for this project, financed by a consortium of donors (EC, DFID, Norway, Sweden, USAID, Italy).

Now, the UN participates in Norway's and Kenya's grab for Somalia's undersea drilling rights. Italy of course is the former colonial power. What roles might other countries, including Permanent Five members of the UN Security Council, have? Watch this site.

Somali journalists on Tuesday went on strike to protest the recent assassination of a colleague and demanded protection from the international community.

Around 15 Mogadishu-based journalists held a press conference, two days after the director of private radio Shabelle, Mokhtar Mohamed Hirabe, was assassinated in broad daylight in the capital.

"In addition to the direct threats against us, we cannot work impartially at this time and send correct information to society, so we are temporarily suspending our journalism activities", the group said in a statement.

"We know the impact this decision can have on society and the free flow of information but we are obliged to stop working in Mogadishu in order to save our lives", Shabelle editor Abdirahman Yusuf explained.

"We are in danger, so we call on the international community to protect Somali journalists", the statement read.

Hirabe was the third Radio Shabelle journalist to suffer a fatal attack since the start of 2009, the fifth journalist killed this year.

Somalia is one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. Media houses have been routinely shut down by the authorities and many reporters, Somali and foreign, have been kidnapped by armed groups.

Two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian kidnapped near the capital some nine months ago, are still being held. The fate of kidnapped Alberta journalist Amanda Lindhout is still unclear, reports Canada's 660 broadcaster.

The Symon's Valley journalist was kidnapped in Somalia nine months ago and is still being held along with an Australian colleague. Lindhout was heard from over two weeks ago. At that time she said she was very sick and needed the Canadian government to pay the ransom, demanded by the kidnappers. Reporters Without Borders says another Somali journalist who was kidnapped last week was freed over the weekend.

The security situation has been particularly volatile in recent weeks, with an offensive by insurgent groups bent on toppling internationally-backed President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and a counter-attack by government forces. Reporters Without Borders and Ecoterra Intl. demanded an immediate investigation to determine the identity of the killers and their prosecution. This was echoed by the Africa researcher of Amnesty International, Benedicte Goderiaux, who said journalists and civil rights activists were being killed with impunity in Somalia. "Not a single person has been brought to account", she said. "This is a way of silencing the reporting of human rights abuses in Somalia. It is an extremely dangerous place".

At least five Somali journalists have been killed and dozens more have left the capital, Mogadishu, this year, after receiving death threats - creating the specter that some, if not all, independent media may close down due to lack of staff. There are 11 independent radio stations and two TV stations in the city.

"We are in a very difficult and dangerous situation. We are being forced to choose between reporting on what is happening and our lives", Hamdi Kadiye, an executive member of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUJOS), told IRIN.

The killing on 7 June of the Radio Shabelle director Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe has added to pressure on journalists in the capital.

"All we do is cover the story. We don't side with any group, but the fighting groups want to silence us to make sure no one hears or sees the suffering they are causing", she added.

She said many journalists had left because "they no longer felt they could carry out their duties".

She admitted that Somalia's story may be lost in the process, but said: "You cannot ask someone to continue when you know their life is in serious danger".

Since late 2006, when Ethiopian troops backing the Transitional Federal Government ousted the Union of Islamic Courts, dozens of Somali journalists have been killed, five of them this year alone, or forced into exile due to the ongoing fighting in the capital.

Ali Sheikh Yassin, deputy chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organisation (EHRO), told IRIN that journalists were in even "more danger now than at any time in the past".

He said harassment and intimidation of journalists had increased this year. "We get reports of journalists getting anonymous calls and SMSs [text messages] threatening them.".

If this trend of journalists being killed or forced to flee continued, many independent media would be shut down, he added.

"Unfortunately, many of the radio stations and even the TV stations will close for lack of staff. There is a real danger that the independent media will be no more", said Yassin.

That would be a catastrophe for the Somali people and particularly for the people of Mogadishu, he said, adding that the fighting groups could achieve their aim. "They are keen to keep the world from knowing the crimes being committed and the humanitarian disaster their actions and activities are creating".

A civil society activist, who requested anonymity, told IRIN that both sides in the conflict were worried and afraid that the media reports would be used against them "if they are made to appear in court to answer to their actions".

He added: "Thousands have been killed or maimed. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes. Someone has to eventually take responsibility for that".

If journalists left and the independent media ceased to exist, there would be no one to tell the story of those suffering in the camps, in their homes and in hospitals, he said. "They are not only killing and starving the people, now they will make sure no one knows about it."

Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, director of London-based private channel Universal TV, was kidnapped 13 kilometers (eight miles) west of Mogadishu, on June 2. He was released on Sunday, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

A senior member of Somalia's Islamist guerrilla movement Al Shabaab has ordered international aid agencies to leave the south-western districts of Gedo Region in Somalia, Radio Garowe reported. Abdullahi Osman Jibril, a top militia commander in Gedo region, said Al Shabaab informed the aid agencies' local and international offices to leave "within a short period of time". He did not specify to the media how many days Al Shabaab gave the aid groups to leave or face consequences. "Security forces in Gedo [region] have orders to take necessary steps against all aid agencies who refuse to leave the region", said Mr. Jibril, who accused aid groups of "espionage". No reports have emerged from U.N. and other international aid agencies operating in Gedo, where lack of rainfall this year has contributed to a growing humanitarian crisis.

Separately, Mr. Jibril sent a warning to politicians linked to the former administration in Gedo region, who are regrouping militias in Dolow district along the Somali-Ethiopian border. He vowed that Al Shabaab "will not tolerate" the militia build-up along the border. Al Shabaab rebels control many regions in central and southern Somalia, including the key towns of Kismayo, Marka and Baidoa.

The Somali interim government, which is the 15th attempt to restore national order since 1991, is struggling against an insurgency led by Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam hard liners, who control sections of Mogadishu and are attempting to overthrow the U.N.-backed government.

Officials in Somalia's border town of Eil Waq, Gedo region, have meanwhile appealed for urgent help for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who need food, water and shelter. At least 15,000 Somalis, some of whom fled violence in the capital, Mogadishu, and others who are drought-displaced, are facing disease and uncertainty in Eil Waq, near the Kenyan border, locals told IRIN on 8 June. "We don´t have exact figures but our estimate is that some 2,500 families [15,000 people] have arrived in Eil Waq", Hussein Hassan Katilow, the district commissioner, said.

UN refugee agency: 'Daily' atrocities in Somalia

The U.N. refugee agency says the humanitarian situation in Somalia is getting worse and worse and «serious atrocities are taking place almost on a daily basis. UNHCR spokesman William Spindler says civilians are being shelled and that there is widespread rape and hostage-taking. The Geneva-based agency estimates 117,000 people have fled fighting in the capital Mogadishu since May 8. Aid agencies like UNHCR are struggling to cope with the increasing needs of the population but their work has been hampered by the proximity of the fighting. Spindler told reporters Tuesday that 200 people, mostly civilians, have reportedly been killed over the past month.

A cache of weapons docked at a small harbor in Zeila, a coastal town in Somalia's breakaway republic of Somaliland, Radio Garowe reports Tuesday. Somaliland newspapers printed headlines that the weapons were secretly unloaded at Zeila harbor and transported by road south to Borama, the home town of Somaliland President Dahir Riyale near the Ethiopian border. Somaliland authorities have not spoken publicly about media reports that weapons were secretly imported, but confidential sources in Hargeisa said the weapons were bought in Yemen by a Borama businessman. The arrival of the weapons shipment comes a week after two warring clans in Somaliland who traditionally inhabit the towns of Borama and Gabiley disagreed over mediation efforts, with the clan in Borama reportedly rejecting a peace proposal. Somaliland, located in northwestern Somalia, unilaterally declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has not been recognized internationally.

What a British company offers for 325 pound sterling on the internet: "The Travel and Tourism in Somalia report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest market size data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new legislative, technology or pricing issues. Background information on disposable income, annual leave and holiday taking habits is also included. Forecasts to 2012 illustrate how the market is set to change".

Comment: Maybe that company should become the chief-adviser, or shall we say "astrologer" to the UN, the EU and the US - or are they providing a guide for "Somalia - not on a shoestring"? Even insurgents as well as refugees have to pay hefty (smuggling)travel fares into an insecure future.

Impacting reports from the global village

Kenya rallies behind Sharif amid rising Al-Shabaab attacks

by Fred Oluoch for Daily Nation

A sudden change of heart by Kenya towards Somalia has raised questions as to whether the US is using the East African state to fight the Al-Shabaab extremists, who are engaged in an intense onslaught against the struggling Somalia Transitional Federal Government.

According to Kenya, the latest Al-Shabaab onslaught is threatening its security, affecting the country and regional economies. For the first time since 2004, Kenya declared that it is ready to protect the TFG, vowing it will take "all available steps" to block the ascendancy of the Al-Shabaab to power. This new attitude has added strength to the growing belief that Kenya is being pushed by the United States to get directly involved in Somalia as part of the war on terror, the way Ethiopia did in 2006 to oust the Union of Islamic Courts — a view that has been discounted by both Kenya and the US. There are concerns that Kenya, apart from the risk of being a target of other militant groups, could find itself pitted against its own citizens of Somali origins. The debate is whether Kenya is adopting this approach to protect its own interests or those of the US that has been keen to ensure that Somalia is not used as a training ground from which it is attacked. The US is known to use frontline states like Ethiopia and Pakistan to fight terrorists on its behalf.

However, both the government of Kenya and the US Embassy in Nairobi denied that Kenya is under any pressure. According to Minister for Foreign Affairs Moses Wetangula, Kenya has taken the latest position in consultation with the Inter-Governmental Authority and Development (IGAD) countries. Mr. Wetangula maintained that the latest Al-Shabaab onslaught is threatening Kenyan security, affecting the country and regional economies and has the potential of creating an influx of Somali refugees into Kenya. The Dadaab camp that is meant to hold 50,000 is now home to 300,000 refugees. "I think at certain levels, the insurgents in Somalia have taken the region´s soft approach as a weakness; it is high time they are told the region will not sit back and watch them harass the people and a legitimate government in Somalia", said Mr Wetangula. He, however, declined to reveal whether Kenya would resort to the military option, arguing that Kenya will operate within the IGAD approach to the problem.

IGAD foreign minsters met recently in Addis Ababa and decided to send a delegation to the UN to request the imposition of a no-fly zone on airports, airstrips and seaports that are being used by Al-Shabaab to ferry in mercenaries; and, to push for sanctions against Eritrea, which the regional countries accuse of supplying arms and ammunition to the extremists. Equally, the US ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, in an exclusive interview to The East African, denied that his country is putting pressure on Kenya, but admitted that the US is fully supporting the initiatives by Kenya and IGAD. "Whatever Kenya is doing, it´s on its own accord", he said.

However, Kenya´s decision to support the TFG is seen in some quarters as an attempt to get into the good books of the US, given the earlier friction with the first Kibaki administration over corruption and the continuous issuance of travel advisories.

Analysts have often argued that some of the US criticisms against Kenya stemmed from President Kibaki´s decision to embrace countries from the East such as China, Iran and Turkey.

It is under such circumstances that those against Kenya´s direct involvement in Somalia´s internal affairs maintain that the US had all along intended to stir up anxiety and paranoia over terrorism in the region to gain more allies.

On the other hand, Kenya keeps on bending backwards to accommodate US interests but to no avail. One of the areas Kenya has defied the US interests is the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill, which the Kenya government finds difficult to enact due to stiff opposition from the Muslim population and civil society.

However, the first Kibaki administration was co-operative and arrested terrorist suspects wanted by the US, despite being accused of participating in the rendition of its citizens.

Now, the Kenya/US relation is once again in the limelight following President Barack Obama´s decision to visit Egypt, while avoiding Kenya on the grounds that the Coalition government is backtracking on reforms.

Still, Kenya´s decision is gaining support among the population.

After more than six years, Egypt and the United States have resumed their formal strategic dialogue. Officials said representatives of Egypt and the United States met on June 7 in Cairo for the first strategic dialogue since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. They said the dialogue reviewed Egyptian-U.S. military and security relations as well as regional threats. "These discussions are not new, but the formal framework has been revived", an official said. The U.S. side in the strategic dialogue was led by Undersecretary of State William Burns. Burns was joined by U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Margaret Scobey, and the meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu Al Gheit.

Ethiopia: The Shameful AU-IGAD Collusion on Eritrea

by Sophia Tesfmariam for shaebia.org

On 24 May 2009, Eritreans around the world were celebrating Eritrea´s 18th Independence Anniversary with grand carnivals, galas, festivals and more. Jubilant Eritreans were too engrossed to pay attention to other news, least of all news emanating from Africa´s sin city, Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The minority regime in Ethiopia led by the reckless and belligerent Meles Zenawi took this opportunity to launch yet another propaganda campaign against Eritrea. The desperate campaign to link Eritrea with Somalia, specifically the flow of illegal arms into Somalia, and the call for sanctions against Eritrea were echoed by the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD). The regime and its partners are in a panic, the bloody trails lead right back to their own doorsteps.

With the two corrupt and inept regional organizations in tow, the shameless minority regime in Ethiopia is calling for sanctions against Eritrea for not endorsing the third illegitimate Transitional National Government of Somalia led by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. These two organizations coordinated their calls for UN actions against Eritrea-calls that came on the eve of Eritrea´s 18th Independence Anniversary. If they were counting on Eritreans being too busy celebrating to pay attention to their immature gimmicks, they would have been right…if the gamble was to get away with it, they were dead wrong.

So what was all the huffing and puffing coming from the African Union all about? Well, it all began with what Mr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the AU Commission said at the IGAD Council of Ministers meeting on Somalia on 20 May 2009. He said:

"…It may be recalled that at your meeting in December 2008, the issue of imposing targeted sanctions against those that were deemed to be undermining the peace process was mooted. This idea has assumed greater relevance than it was at that time. It is in that light, that I am calling for a full investigation into the matter in order to identify all those individuals and entities involved in the destabilization activities currently taking place in Somalia. This is with a view to facilitating the imposition of appropriate sanctions by the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) and the United Nations Security Council, in accordance with the decisions and resolutions taken by these two bodies…".

Not sure what he means by "This idea has assumed greater relevance". Ping must know that IGAD and the AU need not go far, least of all conduct a full investigation, to identify the culprit here. The only country that has invaded and occupied Somalia is Ethiopia. In addition, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda are the only countries that have contributed to the mayhem that is Somalia today. This orchestrated call is a poor attempt at cover up and white wash and divert attention from their known and documented crimes in Somalia. The UN Envoy for Somalia has since admitted that while there might be a lot of talk about Eritrea supplying arms to Somalia, there is no hard evidence. Yet the minority regime and its partners in crime continue to disseminate the erroneous reports.

It was fishy from the get go. It was obvious to all independent analysts that the accusations against Eritrea were meant to divert attention away from the US-backed Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia. Back then, there was an orchestrated to link Eritrea with terrorism, with Jendayi E. Frazer and Meles Zenawi leading the smear campaign. To help advance the campaign, a UN Report filled with lies, fabrications and exaggerations was produced. It accused Eritrea of supplying certain factions in Somalia with arms and went to great lengths to implicate Eritrea with certain deliveries, without ever producing any tangible evidence.

Once again I´d like to re-visit the fabricated allegations contained in the July 2007 UN Monitoring Group´s Report on Somalia. Recent deadly developments may shed more light on the conspiracies woven by Jendayi E. Frazer, Meles Zenawi and their hirelings.

AFP in a 12 May 2009 Report "Africa aid shipped in planes 'used for weapons'" said:

"…The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report that 90 percent of air cargo companies identified in arms trafficking-related reports had been used by UN agencies, European Union and NATO members as well as leading non-governmental organizations to deliver aid …US private security firms hired air cargo carriers and aircraft which have been involved in the trafficking of arms to militias which the US government have designated 'global terrorists'…The report cited Dyncorp, a company that provides security services for the US government, as having contracted Aerolift, a firm accused by the UN Security Council in 2006 of being involved in arms trading, to supply weapons to an Islamist militia that controls much of southern Somalia…".

Aerolift? Isn´t that the same company that supposedly sold a plane to Eritrea? I dug deeper…I went hunting, or is it fishing…My catch led me to Uganda and a 9 March 2009 news item[1] about the crash of a plane heading for Mogadishu. The report said:

"….An Iluyshin-76 four-engine cargo plane with eleven people on board crashed into Lake Victoria after take-off from Uganda's main airport at 5:14 am Monday. It was chartered by US Dyncorp, which confirmed the crash. There seem to be no survivors… The plane, registration S9-SAB, was operated by an international cargo company located in Russia -- which uses some of the most experienced military pilots in the world -- Aerolift . It was chartered by Dyncorp, the US military and intelligence contractor [CIA], to fly emergency supplies to Somalia…".

Something about that plane kept nagging me and going back through my notes, I found it. The identification given, S9-SAB, was familiar. A quick check revealed that is was the same plane that was supposedly sold to Eritrea by Evgueny Zakharov of Aerolift in July 2006. More on that later.

With international arms dealer Victor Bout behind bars in Bangkok, many world leaders are squirming over revelations of his client list, which include the US, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Congo and more. Despite the attempts by the UN Monitoring Group and its anonymous informants to link Eritrea with Bout and efforts by the minority regime and its handlers to implicate Eritrea in a dubious transactions with Zakharov and other known associates of Bout, the truth is that Eritrea has absolutely no links with Bout and has never done any business with the notorious arms dealer. So let us go back to the beginning and the UN, State Department and African Union´s collusion on Eritrea.

The UN Monitoring Group for Somalia in its November 2006 report wrote:

"…On 26 July 2006, at 07.45 AM, an Ilyushin aircraft (IL-76) containing an arms shipment for the ICU arrived at Mogadishu International airport…The IL-76 departed from Assab, Eritrea, indicating a flight plan designating a destination of Hargeisa (Somaliland), but the aircraft went to Mogadishu. The IL-76 used the call sign or LFT-1221. The IL-76 has the Kazakhstan flag painted on the tail. The registration number on the fuselage of the aircraft starts with the following pre-fix: UN - which is the code for Kazakhstan…".

In its July 2007 report, the Monitoring Group unabashedly repeated its allegations against Eritrea and again sought to deceive the readers with more "anonymous" informers.:

"…In its previous report (see S/2006/913), the Monitoring Group provided detailed information concerning an IL-76 cargo plane transporting arms and fighters from Eritrea to Mogadishu (paras. 43-53). When presented with the foregoing information by the Monitoring Group, the Government of Eritrea denied that the flights had taken place…During the current mandate, the Monitoring Group obtained a copy of the contract of sale (annex I) of the IL-76 aircraft to a company in Eritrea. A person intimately familiar with the transaction confirmed the information contained in the previous report of the Group added that the company that had purchased the aircraft was a front for the Eritrean Government. The person also indicated that a down payment of US$ 200,000 had been paid by Eritrean diplomats based in a Gulf country to the seller of the aircraft…".

The Group never identifies the person who is supposed to be familiar with the said transaction. The Group had annexed to the report on Somalia, a "Contract of sale of an IL-76 aircraft to Eriko Enterprise (Eritrea)". According to the "Contract", the buyer is a certain Kelati Haile for Eritrea and the seller is Evgueny Zakharov (of Aerolift Company). According to the Group, Eriko Enterprise was a "front" for the Government of Eritrea and this copy of the "Contract" was supposed to some how prove Eritrean involvement in the arms transport to Somalia. Why would the Government of Eritrea need a "front company" if it wanted to purchase a plane? Of all the planes available for sale, how did the GoE end up buying the one exact plane that was used by Viktor Bout, and one that the African Union and DynaCorp used until it crashed in March 2009?

In yet another twist to the sordid saga of the Ilyushin 76, Amnesty International in its report about arms trafficking mentions the "transaction" between Aerolift and Eritrea. Let us take a look at Amnesty International´s version of the story…Amnesty wrote about Brian Johnson Thomas, "the journalist" who broke the story in a 18 February 2007 Times article[2], Amnesty wrote:

"…The managing director of Aerolift told a researcher in detail, and with supporting documents (Contract of Sale and Purchase, Registration Certificate, Certificate of Airworthiness and Noise Certificate) how he claims he was deceived by the Eritrean military into allowing ´his´ aircraft to be used to make at least three clandestine arms deliveries to the Union of Islamic Courts. He stated that early in July 2006, Aerolift was approached by a high ranking officer of the Eritrean Peoples' Defence Force, who offered to pay US$1.5 million for the IL-76TD aircraft, registration UN-76496 (s/n 073410303), which at that time was operated by Aerolift. Since the aircraft's actual value was in the region of US$1 million, Aerolift accepted the offer, even though the aircraft was not his property, and then contacted the actual owner GST Aero in Tashkent. Aerolift agreed to pay GST Aero US$1.2 million, thus leaving Aerolift with a notional profit of US$300,000…".

In a news item for the Times, Brian Johnson Thomas had identified the high ranking officer of the Eritrean People´s Defense Force as "General Tambi". Amnesty, and/or the "journalists" want us to believe that Aerolift bought the plane from Victor Bout (owner of GST Aero) and then Eriko Enterprises bought it from Aerolift. Why didn´t Eritrea buy it directly from Viktor Bout and why would Eritrea pay more for the plane than it was worth? It should be recalled that Tambi ended up being a former member of the Monitoring Group appointed by Kofi Annan.

Amnesty has more details not found in the UN Monitoring Group´s Report. Amnesty says:

"…A contract was then drawn up between Aerolift and an Eritrean company called Eriko Enterprise, represented by a Mr. Kelati Haile. Unusually, the contract does not specify the payment to be made for the aircraft sale, saying merely "payment conditions will be enclosed with contract forms", but Aerolift says that they received a first, and only, 'progress' payment of US$250,000 on signing the contract in Moscow on 25 July 2006… The aircraft was reportedly delivered to Massawa airport on 25 August 2006, whereupon the representative of the Eritrean military assumed operational control. According to the Eritrean Civil Aviation Authority documentation, the aircraft was registered as E3-AAF with registered owner Skyroute Aviation (Asmara, Eritrea). So far as Amnesty International is aware, the Eritrean registration E3-AAF was never actually applied to the surface of the aircraft, which remained pure white except for the Kazakhstan registration UN-76496…"

Amnesty International has no presence in Eritrea so how does Amnesty know that the plane was registered in Eritrea? How did Amnesty International get documents from the Eritrean Civil Aviation Authority? Considering Amnesty´s close links to the Eritrean Quislings League (EQL), it is possible that they are AI´s anonymous sources.

The "Contract of Sale" attached to the UN Monitoring Groups Report shows that the contract was signed on 21 July 2006 and to make the "evidence" fit the crime, the Contract says that the plane was to be delivered within four days of the signing. That would mean, Eritrea would take possession of the flights around 25 July 2006, just in time to make the 26 July 2006 run from Massawa to Mogadishu. But Amnesty says that plane was delivered to Massawa on the 25 August 2006. If that is the case, how did Eritrea make the flights from Massawa to Mogadishu in July 2006 as reported by the UN Monitoring Group?

The IL-76 is at the center of the accusations against Eritrea and it is supposed to be the most damning part of the UN report and the one accusation against Eritrea that Jendayi E. Frazer was hoping to make stick as she collected her "evidence" against Eritrea. It is also the story that Meles Zenawi´s minority regime and its partners in crime have been peddling in order to implicate Eritrea in their blood drenched theater of war. Turns out, the fabricated story was taken right out of a book about Viktor Bout- "Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Plans, and the Man Who Makes War Possible", by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun. On pages 254-255 of the book Farah and Braun write:

"…At the same time as the Lebanon crisis, a group of radical Somali militias operating under the banner of United Islamic Courts seized control of Mogadishu, the battered Somali capital…quickly consolidated their hold over the city's international airport, a crumbling facility nearly abandoned by foreign aircraft over the past decade. Then, on July 26 and again on July 28, exited residents near the airfield streamed outside after hearing a rumbling from the sky. They watched as a droning Ilyushin Il-76, with the flag of Kazakhstan painted on its tail, descended from the barren horizon and taxied down the airfield's dusty runway…Journalists were banned from the airport, but several stationed just outside the field managed to snap pictures of the aircraft, using telephoto lenses. The plane's identifying tail number, required by international aviation regulations, had been stripped off, preventing any attempt to learn who was behind the weapons shipments…Within weeks, intelligence officials concluded that the flights were carried out by Bout's air network…".

Once again, in a related article, Douglas Farah on 29 July 2006 writes about that flight:

"…Twice in one week the airport at Mogadishu, Somalia, was the scene of something almost unseen in the past decade-the landing of two large Soviet-era IL-76 cargo planes… On the first flight, the plane was painted with the "UN" markings denoting Kazakhstan registration, with no other identifiers. The second flight may have been the same aircraft, and if not, was a similar Il-76… Hmm, so an unmarked Soviet-built aircraft probably carrying large amounts of weapons, flying to remote airstrips …Kazakhstan registration… Fits a certain M.O. There are not many people in the weapons world who can provide the weapons and the transportation, who know the terrain and the militia leaders…Bout has registered his Reem Air in Kazakhstan, including an IL-76, and has flown regularly smaller planes to Somalia in recent times, from Sharjah, UAE…No one else has that kind of track record. Intelligence officials are desperately trying to find any further markers on the aircraft. But if it flies like a duck and quacks like a duck, it just might be a duck…".

Viktor Bout´s adventures in Somalia are well known and many have written about them, including the UN. In addition to Douglas Farah, many others have written about Bout and his illicit activities in Africa and Somalia. In a 9 April 2009 report about the pirates in Somalia, Larry Kelen writes:

"…Security observers have said that the hijackers are working with sophisticated groups involving a cell of former KGB operatives who were part of the Viktor Anatolyevich Bout network. Bout was arrested early last year, but some of his regional net work based out of the port city of Kismayo, with satellite bases in Marka dealing in small arms and drugs has continued to operate. The same network is blamed for the arms trade in Kenya's capital Nairobi with arms supplied from Bircao and in the far flung south west town of Kalem in South west Ethiopia…".

There is documented proof that Bout has links with Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the US, but he has absolutely none, except the fabricated one, with Eritrea. None of these shameful mercenary regimes, whose hands are drenched with the blood of innocent Somalis and that of their own citizens, have the legal or moral authority to point any fingers at Eritrea. Since the mercenary lot want to point fingers at Eritrea, let´s see how many of those fingers point right back to them. Let us take a look at Bout´s link with the above countries and the mercenary regimes and their sponsors that are responsible for the chaos and destruction in Somalia today.

Kenya

Sanjivan Ruprah, a Kenyan with mining interests in the Congo and Kenya and a notorious arms dealer was Victor Bout´s business partner and both "enjoyed a covert relationship with US Feds". According to a 2002 UN Report, Sanjivan Ruprah:

"… plays a key role in Liberia´s airline registry and in the arms trade. Before his involvement in Liberia, Sanjivan Ruprah had mining interests in Kenya, and was associated with Branch Energy (Kenya). Branch Energy owned diamond mining rights in Sierra Leone, and introduced the private military company, Executive Outcomes to the government there in 1995… Ruprah was once in charge of an airline in Kenya, Simba Airlines…".

The European Community On Protection of marine life (ECOP) also links Kenya with Bout. It said:

"…Kenya recorded association with maritime trade dates back to the 19th century when the Arabs from Oman established Manda Island 250km north coast of Mombassa as their base and port…The industry has been dogged behind by corruption, tribalism, nepotism and lack of political will. For the past 12 years the government of Kenya has been collecting Ksh. 500 million annually from the shippers as merchant shipping levy of cargo interest…It hurts very much to note that this big amount of money has not been accounted for and no one knows its whereabouts …Apart from lack of accountability and transparency the Kenya water ways have been used by international drug barons, human traffickers and the illicit arms dealers such as Victor Bout commonly known as ´Anatoliyevich´".

In addition, Alexander Radionov, a known associate of Viktor Bout, is the Kenyan-based representative for the Oregon based company SIMIX Ltm. Mentioned as the person who sold one of Viktor Bout´s planes to Eritrea, the story takes an interesting twist when it is discovered that it was Amnesty´s researcher/ and Times journalists, who posed as a middleman for the UIC[3]. Not sure what Amnesty´s role in the collusion against Eritrea is, but this certainly raises more questions about who else was in on the well orchestrated plot.

Uganda

Viktor Bout, the world's most notorious illegal arms baron who was arrested in Thailand, sold arms to Uganda and illegally used Entebbe International Airport to ship arms to DR Congo and Liberia. A report by the Belgian International Peace Information Service (IPIS) reveals how Bout, with the help of top Ugandan military officers, fueled the conflict in DR Congo, Africa's vast and mineral-rich country. Belgian researcher Tim Raemaekers reported that in 2002, Culworth Investments (a Bout front company) sold arms to Uganda (machine guns from Slovakia). There are reports that Bout frequented Kampala during the Congolese civil war and was close to top military officers in the UPDF and the Ugandan President.

Ethiopia and the US

Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun reported in their book about Bout, "Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Plans, and the Man Who Makes War Possible", that both the U.S. military and defense contractors KBR and DynCorp [supporting the African Union in Somalia] had used Bout's services in the aftermath of the Iraq war. Even after President Bush signed an order freezing Bout's assets, the Pentagon continued using his planes, they reported, to get reconstruction supplies into Baghdad. According to Farah and Braun, Bout´s planes flew hundreds of flights from 2003 to 2006, even after his work for the Defense Department was exposed by the Los Angeles Times in its 14 December 2004 article which said:

"…Planes linked to Bout's shadowy network continued to fly into Iraq, according to government records and interviews with officials, despite the Treasury Department freezing his assets in July and placing him on a blacklist for allegedly violating international arms sanctions…Largely under the auspices of the Pentagon, U.S. agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers and the Air Force, and the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed Iraq until last summer, have allowed their private contractors to do business with the Bout network… Four firms linked to the network by the CIA and international investigators have flown into Iraq nearly 200 times on U.S. business…".

Douglas Farah in his book explains that Victor Bout´s activities are well known to US intelligence:

"…We have developed a large body of information of what Mr. Bout's organization is doing" in the Horn of Africa, one U.S. intelligence analyst said. "I am alarmed at what he is doing as it undermines Centcom's counterterrorism strategy in the region…".

A 28 October 2002 report "The Business of War: Making a Killing" from the Center for Public Integrity and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has much to say about Victor Bout and his connections. Here are some of its comments:

"…the polyglot with personal skills was able to establish working relationships with various African heads of state and rebel leaders – the late Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, Liberian President Charles Taylor, former Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko…".

"…And his associates – ranging from former U.S. military personnel and Russian officials to African heads of state and organized crime figures – gave him a lengthy list of buyers and sellers with whom to do business. He ran a maze of individuals and companies, which employed some 300 people and owned and operated 40 to 60 aircraft, including the largest private fleet of Antonov cargo planes in the world…".

"…Bout´s companies shipped vegetables and crayfish from South Africa to Europe, transported United Nations peacekeepers from Pakistan to East Timor, and reportedly assisted the logistics of Operation Restore Hope, the U.S.-led military famine relief effort in Somalia in 1993…".

"…Bout´s companies had contracts flying in tents, food, and other supplies for US firms working for the US military in Iraq, including a large contract to fly supplies for Kellogg, Brown, and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company once run by Vice President Cheney. Bout´s companies also flew for US Air Mobility Command. The US military does not stop hiring and using Bout´s planes until about 2007…".

Apart from his relationship with the Pentagon, I set out to find out more about Victor Bout and his associates. Not surprisingly, I found out that he was not only well known to the State Department, CIA and other US entities, but that Jendayi E. Frazer and Meles Zenawi also knew of him. Turns out Richard K. Orth, the US Defense Attaché in Ethiopia, a close friend of Jendayi E. Frazer, had used Bout to deliver arms to various groups in Africa including Rwanda.

On November 17-19, 2006, a Wayne Madison Report (WMR) contained the following on Richard K. Orth:

"…The arming by the U.S. of both the Ethiopians and Somalis in preparation for war is nothing new. In fact, WMR and this editor have reported extensively on the past and current covert intelligence activities of the U.S. Defense Attaché in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, U.S. Army Colonel Richard Orth. He was present in Rwanda the day after U.S.-supplied surface-to-air missiles struck the Rwandan presidential aircraft on April 6, 1994, assassinating the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi and triggering Rwandan and Zairian/Congolese civil wars that took the lives of over 5 million Africans. Orth, as Defense Attache in Kigali, Rwanda, lorded over the transformation of that country from a French-speaking nation to a U.S. client state with English-speaking refugees from Uganda put in charge. Orth then proceeded to take over as U.S. Defense Attaché in Uganda where he cemented the U.S. military presence in that nation. He then moved on to Addis Ababa where, as Defense Attaché, he aided Meles Zenawi and helped prepare Ethiopia's incursion into Somalia, bolstered the U.S. military positions in Djibouti and Somaliland, tilted U.S. policy to favor Ethiopia in its border war with Eritrea, coordinated Horn of Africa intelligence activities…".

The Wayne Madison Report in a May 2007 article wrote:

"…Colonel Richard K. Orth is not well-known outside the circles of Africa specialists who have tracked America's insidious role in some of Africa's bloodiest civil wars. Orth is what is known in U.S. intelligence circles as an "operations area specialist". He now serves as the U.S. Defense Attaché in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he oversees overt and covert U.S. military assistance to the Meles Zenawi regime and Ethiopian-backed groups seeking to overthrow the government of Eritrea and roll back that nation's long-fought independence struggle against Ethiopia…Orth also oversees the joint Ethiopian-U.S. military foray into Somalia as well as at least three secret CIA detention camps in Ethiopia where prisoners, accused of terrorist links, have been rounded up from around the world…In Addis Ababa, Orth has not only provided U.S. military and intelligence support to the Ethiopian dictatorship but has overseen U.S. training of African military units via the Pentagon's Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance Program (ACOTA)…".

It is clear that Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the US know of and have done business with Viktor Bout. What is also becoming clearer is that the accusations against Eritrea were not only totally false, but that the whole sordid story was fabricated with the help of US intelligence officers and was designed to vilify Eritrea for not agreeing to their dangerous and deadly policies in Somalia. Only those who were in Somalia would know about Viktor Bout and his frequent flights there. Only those with access to Bout and his schedules would know such details. Eritrea, despite the fabricated and erroneous UN Report that claimed there were 2000 Eritrean forces in Somalia, had no presence then, and has no presence now, in Somalia.

It took two years, but the fateful turn of events, the crash of an Ilyushin 76 plane have finally exposed the truth and the US-Ethiopia-AU and IGAD collusion on Eritrea. Africa News reported the following on 23 March 2009.

"...It is believed that the Ilyushin-76 plane that crashed at Entebbe Airport a fortnight ago, might have been hit by an Al-Qaeda missile. Villagers who saw the plane going down confirmed to reporters on the accident's scene that the plane was indeed in fire when going down. Mr. Yevgeniy Zakharov the owner of the ill fated plane told a Russian news agency after spending five days in Uganda that evidences on the scene of the crash showed clearly that the cargo plane managed by Ugandan businessman Sam Engola, living Entebbe en route to Somalia was either hit by a rocket from a grenade launcher or a Stinger missile during take-off, when its tanks were virtually full with tonnes of fuel aboard. He supported his arguments by alleging that there was nothing left and all the debris recovered by the divers covered less than six meters by six area ashore...".

The one small item missing from this news report is that the plane is the same plane that the UN Monitoring Group and Meles Zenawi´s mercenaries claim was sold to Eritrea. When did the African Union and DynCorp take possession of the plane? According to the aviation report about the crash of the Ilyushin 76 in Uganda, Aerolift took possession of the plane in 2006 from GST Aero (Viktor Bout´s company) and it remained in its possession until the fateful crash.

The plane was leased to DynCorp at the time of the crash. Is it simply a coincidence that the very same plane ends up with DynCorp and the African Union? If the plane was sold to Eritrea in 2006, how did Aerolift get it back? I bet it was in Aerolift´s possession all along and Eritrea was wrongly framed. I bet there was no sale to Eritrea and I bet the "Contract" that is supposed to show the sale of the Ilyushian 76 to Eritrea is a forged document. The art of forgery and counterfeiting are two things that the minority regime and its mercenaries have perfected.

At this juncture, it behooves Johnnie Carson, the current Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and the Obama Administration and the Justice Department ought to launch a thorough investigation into the conduct of Jendayi Frazier, the former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and all those involved in the campaign to vilify Eritrea. The Obama Administration should review the policy for Somalia and the horn of Africa that has plunged Somalia into the abyss and is threatening to destabilize the entire region.

Finally, African Union and IGAD, the incompetent and crooked regional organizations have long compromised their credibility, neutrality and integrity and can no longer have relevance on matters pertaining to Somalia, or anywhere else in Africa. These two organizations no longer serve the interests of Africa and have become tools for those who want to plunder and pillage Africa´s vast resources. Africans should come together and create new organizations that can better represent the aspirations and dreams of their people and revoke their memberships in these pathetic entities.

As for mercenary regimes in Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, pointing their blood drenched fingers at Eritrea is not going to absolve them, or their handlers, of the international crimes and the genocide being committed in Somalia. History and the Somali people will judge them harshly. The rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!

Notes

1] http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/268835 accessed 30 May 2009

2] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1400655.ece accessed on 30 May 2009

3] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2076015.ece accessed on 30 may 2009

Rwandan Genocide: Will We Ever Learn Anything from Crappy Foreign Policy?

by Frank Staheli (Santaquin, Utah, USA)

If the United States cared to pay attention to great examples of crappy foreign policy, it could have easily noticed what hell Belgium wrought in Rwanda during most of the 20th century. Belgian intrigue paved the way for the hatred, persecutions, and massacres that followed their arrival.

During the genocide of 1994, when it would have been wise for someone—anyone—to come to the aid of Rwandans in distress who had asked for outside help, the United States was busy licking wounds sustained from becoming involved in Somalia, a place we were neither needed nor wanted. When our help isn´t asked for, we usually cause more problems by jumping into the fray. When our assistance is wanted, we are most often too busy running with our tails between our legs from the effects of our own crappy foreign policy.

For centuries the Rwandan Hutus and Tutsis shared the same culture, the same language, and the same religion, and they lived in relative peace. They often intermarried. In 1916, that all began to change. In that year, Belgium, seeing itself in every way superior to the blacks on the African continent, took control of Rwanda and established a colonial system that ended up being a kettle of racial classification and exploitation.

In a move eerily similar to the British elevation of the Iraqi Sunnis to government domination over the Shia majority, the Belgians placed the minority Tutsi at the head of the Rwandan government, creating massive and deep resentment of the Tutsi among the Hutu majority.

After carefully and constantly stirring up a hornet´s nest of internecine hatred, Belgium gave Rwanda its independence in 1959. Control of the country fell into the hands of the Hutu majority, many of which now perceived themselves as morally entitled to settle a score with the Tutsis. What followed were years of segregation and persecution of the Tutsi people, mixed with the occasional round of killing. Rather than suffer persecution and death, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis, along with their moderate Hutu brethren, left their homeland.

By 1988, a critical mass of these expatriates came together to form the Rwandan Patriotic Front, with its main goal of reclaiming their country. In 1990, the RPF began its first foray into Rwanda from their bases in Uganda. The offensive was put down with the help of the Belgian and French military.

Nonetheless, for three years, war and massacre flared. The United Nations eventually stepped in, hoping to broker a power-sharing agreement between the two factions. Reveling in their power, Hutu extremists resisted the United Nations agreement. The result was one of the most horrifying genocides in human history.

What would Rwanda look like today if Western colonizers had not gotten involved in dictating the course of its future? A lot better—just like a lot of other cauldrons of Western social experimentation would have. What changed? The Hutu and the Tutsi lived in relative peace before the white man came.

Prior to the fervent appearance of the Belgian "missionaries", little distinguished Hutus from Tutsis. After Belgium made its imprint on Rwandan culture, that distinction made all the difference. Where once they married each other and laughed and socialized together, now their perverse delight is in killing one another.

Nearly every time the West has gotten involved in colonization or overlordship, the "solutions" they have created have been far worse than the original problems. One would think that intelligent governments could learn from others´ mistakes, or even from their own. They haven´t. Might it have been planned that way?

Will we have to write the same about Somalia in one year?

The critical portions of the new Seacom undersea fiber-optic cable linking Africa to Europe and India have been completed and the effort has been hailed as the start of the continent´s broadband revolution. Large swathes of Africa have been left to languish in the connectivity dark ages over the past decade. Even South Africa, the continent´s leading and most-competitive economy, has been reduced to wishing for the high-speed broadband capacity that other less developed countries take for granted. While the ability of African businesses to compete is an obvious casualty of the lack of broadband capacity, education and scientific research have also been stunted by the poor connectivity. After Seacom´s 13,700km-long underwater cable, there are plans for at least seven other cables. In the next three years t a series of new cables will connect Africa. "We had to lay a huge amount of cable along ocean floor around the Horn of Africa near Somalia, which makes you a target for pirates, especially as the ships we use move very slowly. Our vessels that traveled to and from the work site had to do so in a navy convoy, while we had to hire gunships to protect our vessels as they worked, which was not cheap", said Seacom's chief executive Brian Herlihy to the Irish Times. The result of all this effort is that the cost of broadband will drop by 75 percent over the next three years.

Press Contacts:

ECOP-marine

East-Africa

254-714-747090

marine[at]ecop.info

www.ecop.info

ECOTERRA Intl.

Nairobi Node

africanode[at]ecoterra.net

254-733-633-733

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme

SAP Media Officers

254-722-613858

254-733-385868

sap[at]ecoterra.net

Note

Picture: Italy can help by contributing to efforts for Somalia´s pacification and reunification.