Ecoterra Press Release 196 – The Somalia Chronicle June – December 2009, no 8

Following the Somalia Spring 2009 Chronicles, I herewith republish the Ecoterra Press releases issued in the second half of 2009. I reproduce the integral version of all Ecoterra press releases in a recapitulative effort to provide the global readership with the most comprehensive collection of texts published worldwide about the most abominable Western postcolonial involvement in Africa, namely the systematic effort of extermination of the Somali Nation. The vast documentation provided serves as basic point of reference to students, researchers, analysts and intellectuals.

ECOTERRA Intl.

SMCM

Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor

ECOTERRA INTERNATIONAL - UPDATES & STATEMENTS, REVIEW & CLEARING-HOUSE

2009-06-23 TUE 16h38:53 UTC

Issue No. 196

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 elsewhere, 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 or 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[at]ecoterra.net

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme EMERGENCY HELPLINE : SMS to +254-738-497979 or sms/call +254-733-633-733

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

Cpt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y Tanit - killed by French commandos - 10. April 2009 / Ras Hafun

NON A LA GUERRE - YES FOR PEACE

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

CLEARING-HOUSE: Cut out the clutter - focus on facts !

BREAKING:

MV MARATHON released against ransom, and death of sailor finally confirmed.

Somali sea-shifta freed the Dutch freighter MV MARATHON with a Ukrainian crew in the early morning hours Tuesday, nearly two months after the vessel was captured in the Gulf of Aden, Ukrainian authorities confirmed. The pirates seized the Netherlands Antilles-flagged MV Marathon, owned by Western Marine Transport NV and operated by the Dutch Cargadoor Amons & Co on May 7. The Dutch government finally came clear and stated now that one crew member had been shot dead by the pirates, and another sailor had been wounded. The crew is receiving medical treatment by Dutch marines on board their own ship and have been given new supplies. "Somali pirates on Tuesday released a Dutch ship they had hijacked last month in the Gulf of Aden and one crew member was found dead aboard the boat", the Dutch defence ministry told AFP.

After the hijacking the ship was taken first near the coast of Laskooray, where it was boxed in by first a Spanish and then also a Dutch warship. During that stand-off numerous incidences were reported by local observers. Later the vessel was commandeered to Eyl in Puntland, and drawn-out negotiations over its release were held between the Somali pirates and the Dutch government. The Somali pirates held the ship most the time off the coast of Eyl, a haven for pirates to co-ordinate their activities. "According to the Ukrainian embassy in the Netherlands, Somali pirates on June 23 released the Marathon vessel with eight Ukrainian citizens," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated. "The Ukrainian Embassy in the Kingdom of the Netherlands has reported that on June 23 the Somali pirates freed the Marathon vessel, which had eight Ukrainian crew members," the statement reads. A spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry said force was not used but he could not comment on whether a ransom was paid. The Ukrainian embassy in The Hague was not available for comment, AP reported. The 2,575-tonne Marathon was carrying coke, a coal residue used in steel making steel, and was westbound through the Gulf of Aden when it was seized May 7 inside the so called safe passageway controlled by numerous navies.

MV MARATHON was regarded as a high risk vessel with a small freeboard and capable of just 10 kts. "The pirates let the ship, in which a crew member was found dead, leave," ministry spokesman Marcel Pullen said. "He was shot dead." The victim had died the day of the MV Marathon's capture on May 7, he added. Another crew member suffered a bullet wound, Pullen said. The MV Marathon was being escorted to a "safe port" by the Dutch frigate De Zeven Provincien, the spokesman said, refusing to reveal the location. The shipowner had repeatedly refused to release a proper crew-list to the Seafarers Assistance programme and it still is not clear how many sailors were in the actual crew. While media-reports speak even of 19 and 18 crewmembers, we believed it were 10 sailors of which 8 were Ukrainians. Seven Ukrainians survived, while reportedly the 2nd engineer was killed by a gun shot wound sustained when pirates seized the ship on or around May 7. Another crew member was injured, but the ministry did not give details of his condition.

Earlier the defense spokesmen in the Netherlands kept on denying the info concerning the dead sailor, which we released. And now it turns out to be true. It is not the first time that they have lied, but bad all the same a journalist stated. The ship had a crew of eight Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych disclosed today. He died during the ship's seizure on May 7," Mr Kyrylych informed. Normally Somali pirates do not shoot hostages as they are considered valuable negotiation tool. It seems that risk to ship crew is rising. The open question also is still what happened to the one Somali gang-member on Marathon, who during the stand-off "fell in the water" and was "netted". That is also a question to the Spanish warship involved in the case. "I am shocked by the cowardly murder of a member of the crew," Dutch Foreign Minister Mamime Verhagen said in a statement. "The Netherlands will do everything to end these practices, by putting Dutch navy ships into operations against piracy and supporting the creation of a regional tribunal so that the criminals do not escape punishment," the minister added. But better as shedding crocodile tears or making empty threats would be to come clean and launch a full fledged investigation into all aspects of the case.

The Somali pirates were paid a $1.3 million ransom for the release of the Marathon, Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service Head Mykola Malomuzh has said. Other sources believe that the ransom paid was the region of 1.5 Million US Dollars. The Dutch news agency, ANP, said a ransom was dropped to the pirates by helicopter. He said at a briefing on Tuesday that the ship's owner had paid the ransom, which was brought to the ship at around 1700 on Monday. Malomuzh said that the pirates were counting the money until late on Monday. "The last pirate left the ship at 0215 East-African time," he said. He also said that on Friday or Saturday, the Marathon would arrive at the nearest port, and that the sailors would then leave for Ukraine by air. "I think that the [arrival of the Ukrainian crew in Ukraine] will be at end of this week or the beginning of next week," he said. The Dutch ministry says in its statement Tuesday that the Dutch Antilles-flagged ship is being shepherded and is currently towed to the neutral waters and a port by Dutch navy frigate The Seven Provinces, which is part of a NATO flotilla patrolling the Gulf of Aden. The frigate's presence is also meant to keep the Marathon from being hijacked again while sailing back to neutral waters, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said. Somali sea-shifta are still holding 26 Ukrainians from other ships, including 24 crewmembers of the MV ARIANA cargo vessel and another two from the German container vessel MV HANSA STAVANGER.

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

MV HANSA STAVANGER is returning to her previous holding ground near Haradheere while negotiations apparently have still not succeeded.

The situation on board of the two Egyptian fishing vessels held with 40 crew, including 6 minors without papers off Laskooray for illegal fishing is getting desperate. The owners of the two vessels claim that they have no money to pay any fine or ransom for their release.

M/S INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER was reportedly set on fire after the hostages were released and the vessel had been looted. We do not know yet if such is a new form of "arrangement" between the pirates and the owners to cash in on insurance money or if that information is true at all. An investigation also from the side of the Somali Government and other institutions has been set in motion.

Meanwhile the 7 crew members have arrived in the Seychelles, from where the Seychellois Minister for Environment stated that no exchanges with any of the 23 Somalis held for alleged piracy in the Seychelles had taken place.

Upon arrival President James Michel praised the 7 Seychellois men who were held hostage by Somali pirates for their courage and heroism during the 80 days they were held captive.

President Michel together with the families of the men, as well as members of the Hostages Negotiation Team, met the 7 men at Seychelles International airport this morning, following the arrival of their special flight from Kenya.

"We welcome you home with unbelievable joy and gratitude. We welcome you with tears of happiness and we rejoice in seeing you safe back on Seychelles soil! You have been so brave and resilient while you waited for your release. We did everything to make sure you would come home safe and sound, and now we all, as a nation united, celebrate your happy return," said President Michel to Captain Francis Roucou and his crew.

Francis Roucou, George Bijoux, Patrick Dyer, Robin Songoire, Georges Guichard, Robert Naiken, Stephen Stravens appeared relieved and happy to be in the arms of their loved ones.

The Indian Ocean Explorer was seized by Somali pirates between 25th and 28th March this year while it was travelling from Assumption island. The 7 Seychellois onboard were taken to mainland Somalia, where their captors started negotiations with Seychellois authorities for their release. This week a deal was reached by the Government-led Hostages Negotiation Team, headed by the Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Transport, Joel Morgan. The Government has confirmed that it has not paid any form of ransom to the pirates.

The 7 Seychellois were then taken by the Somali pirates to Kenya, where they were boarded on a Seychelles government plane, for their return to Mahé island.

Local sources stated that a ransom was paid for their release. [N.B. We do not reveal ransom figures unless they are released already elsewhere.]

Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Transport Joel Morgan said the ship itself was still anchored off the coast of central Somalia.

Morgan, who led the negotiations team, denied rumours that his government might have swapped some suspected Somali pirates it had been holding for the Indian Ocean Explorer's crew.

"I can confirm to you that there was no swap and I can say that it is the firm policy of the government of the Seychelles not to pay ransoms for acts of criminality," Morgan told AFP.

He said he and his team of negotiators were still working on the release of the Serenity, a catamaran with three Seychellois crew which Somali pirates have held since late February.

"The negotiations are progressing well. We had a bit of hiccup 10 days ago... but our negotiators believe that we are making good progress now," Morgan added.

Somali pirates say Belgian ship to be freed (Reuters)

Pirate says Pompei vessel to be released imminently

Seven Europeans, three Filipinos on board

Somali pirate sources said on Tuesday they were on the verge of releasing a Belgian dredging vessel and its 10-man crew captured in mid-April. "Negotiations to release the ship have been under way for more than 20 days," a pirate, who gave his name as Mohamed Ali, told Reuters by satellite phone from the Pompei off Somalia. "At last it has been wrapped up and a ransom of $2.8 million agreed." The vessel was taken on April 18 en route to the Seychelles, with two Belgians, four Croatians, one Dutchman and three Filipinos on board. Ali said the boat could be released as early as Wednesday, though other pirate sources say it may take a day or two more. A regional piracy monitoring group, the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said a shortage of fuel could delay the release until the end of the week. "For sure it will be released soon," the group's coordinator, Andrew Mwangura, told Reuters. "It should be free by the 27th. I have heard about a ransom, but not how much."

The 1988-built, 1,220 dwt MV POMPEI was taken on April 18 while en route to the Seychelles.

Correction: In the last issue (195) we reported that a Vietnamese cargo ship was rescued by the Danish warship Absalon. The MV DIAMOND FALCON was attacked in the Gulf of Aden in the morning of Saturday 14 March 2009 and we had reported it already back then. The story was, however, published by the official Vietnam News Agency VietnamNews for 20th June 2009 http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02SOC200609 and believing such a source from Vietnam would know it, we erroneously placed the story in the update. A good source in Denmark, however, told us that the Danish warship Absalon left already in April the Gulf of Aden and the story therefore must be a re-circulation. Our apologies!

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 14 foreign vessels (13 if M/S IO EXPLORER is truely "gone" and 15 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) with a total of not less than 208 crew members are accounted for (of which 47 are confirmed to be Filipinos) and are held in Somali waters. They 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. MV JAIKUR 1 remains in Mogadishu harbour, but is an insurance and not a piracy case - all foreign crew was evacuated. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) had 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 140 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 46 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: GoA: YELLOW IO: 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 in the Indian Ocean, where also groups from Harardheere have set out again, despite the heavy seas and the rough weather.

Directly piracy related reports

Pinoy seafarers to have additional protection

By Mayen Jaymalin

Filipino seafarers on board foreign vessels passing through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden in Somalia will have additional protection.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque yesterday reported that the Japanese armed forces have agreed to provide protection to all foreign vessels with Filipino crewmembers while passing through the Gulf of Aden.

Roque said he met with the Transportation Minister of Japan, who informed him of their government´s decision to provide escorts for all foreign vessels as a protection against Somali pirates.

According to Roque, the Japanese government initially opted to send military forces to Somalia to provide protection for Japanese-owned vessels.

"This new development means that there is lesser risk of abduction for our Filipino seafarers because they have military escorts while passing through the Gulf of Aden," Roque said.

He said the International Labor Organization (ILO) has also agreed to discuss the situation in the Gulf of Aden and come up with appropriate measures to protect Filipino seafarers.

The labor chief said he raised the Somalia piracy problem during the recently concluded ILO´s annual labor conference in Geneva.

"The ILO agreed to put it in the agenda in their next labor conference. Putting it in their agenda of discussion is already a big thing," he said.

At this time, the Philippine government is looking at the possibility of adopting new employment contracts for Filipino seafarers as an additional protection against pirates.

Piracy in the Gulf of Aden is now closely linked to human trafficking

2009 release of the Trafficking in Persons Report

By Cassandra Clifford

On June 16, 2009, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons within the U.S. Department of State released the Trafficking in Persons Report 2009, which describes foreign governments´ efforts to eliminate human trafficking. You can download the report from the following here.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, alongside leaders in Congress, announced today the release of the ninth annual Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report. The release, was followed by remarks from Ambassador Luis C deBaca, Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The full remarks from the session can be seen here.

The 175-country report is the most comprehensive worldwide report on what foreign governments are doing to combat human trafficking/modern slavery. The data contained in the report is meant to both raise awareness across the globe on the issues, but more importantly to encourage countries to take more effective approaches to counter human trafficking. The assessment includes reports on 173 countries assigned ranks.

The TIP Report rank countries in tiers, see the full list of tier rankings here.

This year we are seeing 52 countries on the Tier 2 Watch List, a 30% increase from last year. This year commentary on two additional countries, Hati and Somalia, which are considered special cases, are also included.

A companion to the Global Trafficking in Persons Report, is the Attorney General´s Report to Congress and Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons, which was compiled by the Department of Justice´s (DOJ). The report looks at the problem of human trafficking in the U.S., and makes recommendations on how we can work to increase our own efforts in combating human trafficking. This years recommendations included;

Increase services to assist and restore children who have been exploited in the commercial sex industry.

Develop polices to ensure that diplomatic immunity does not result in impunity for human trafficking crimes.

Continue to promote state anti-trafficking legislation and training for state and local law enforcement on human trafficking and victim-centered approach.

Increase ability to track and enforce financial restitution to TIP victims.

On June 19th, the DOS followed with an NGO briefing on the report, with Ambassador deBaca. Ambassador deBaca is a laid back speaker, whose roots as a lawyer are quite apparent as he speaks off the cuff and stood for the majority of his time. He was open to dialog with the NGO community and was more than approachable and truly has set an open door policy, for which we need to combat these grievous crimes. I for one feel more comfortable with someone standing in the defense of trafficking victims around the world who isn´t afraid of prosecution and punishment. A few things that stuck with me from that the Ambassador mentioned included; "Even countries as poor as Moldova are putting money into shelters…rich nations need to follow.", He also referred to Tier 2 Watch list as a "parking lot", saying that he has a lot of engagement planed over this period and "its not a thing that countries should just get used to being on." Lets hope that this year is a new dawn in the fight against all forms of modern slavery, and that the noticeably thicker TIP Report is a sign that we are stepping up our efforts and looking to see those who violate the laws and commit such hanus crimes are brought to justice, as well as increasing our voice to bring attention to the issues across the globe.

Marine ecosystem, IUU fishing and dumping, ecology

Pirates, Warlords and Rogue Fishing Vessels in Somalia's Unruly Seas

By Scott Coffen-Smout (*)

A Lawless Land and Ocean

Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa at c. 3,300 km and a productive upwelling region off the Horn providing significant potential for offshore tuna fisheries development. The abundant and diverse marine resources, including seabirds, whales, whale sharks, and several dolphin and turtle species offer promise for ecotourism. This promise, however, stands in stark contrast to current political realities which have developed since the fall of President Siad Barre's regime in 1991 leaving the country without a central government and its waters unrepresented by a recognizable state in the community of nations. Since there is no one particular political entity that controls Somali waters, each coastal region has self-promoted militia, led by a faction leader, which controls its own area, with some entering into controversial fishing vessel licensing arrangements with foreign countries. Somalia's coastal and offshore waters are now dangerous for the innocent passage of yachts and commercial vessel traffic, and foreign fishing vessels operating in Somali waters are at risk of being boarded by militia and having their crews taken hostage. Somali militia, operating from speedboats and posing as coastguard, have worked out the profitability of "coastal patrolling" which includes kidnappings, vessel seizures and ransom demands, all enforced by frequent use of mortars, grenades and small arms.

With the breakdown of civil society, Somalia has degenerated into a no-man's land subject to clan or Islamic Shari'ah law. Owing to continuing unrest in the south, a central government is unlikely to evolve soon. In its place, a decentralized federation of regional political entities has emerged, including the self-proclaimed but unrecognized Republic of Somaliland in the northwest, the self-proclaimed Puntland State in the northeast, Jubaland in the south near Kismayo, and a future Banadir regional administration around Mogadishu when warlords Hussein Aideed (son of late General Farah Aideed) and Ali Mahdi settle their differences. Years of internal conflict have damaged infrastructure in the fishery sector and rendered ineffective any previous oil spill response capability, aids to navigation, and search and rescue capacity in a region of high tanker/cargo traffic to and from the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Aden and calling at Mombasa, the East African shipping hub.

A Fishery in Crisis

With no national ocean governance, fisheries policy or management structure in place, Somali fisheries are truly open access. Somali fisheries are driven principally by foreign interests and demand for high-value tuna, shark and ray fins, lobster, deepwater shrimp and demersal whitefish. Since it is unknown whether marine resources are being harvested sustainably, biological resources are potentially at risk and may face imminent collapse, affecting long-term socio-economic welfare of coastal communities. Lobster and shark resources are fished intensely - almost a mining operation. Local fishing pressure on lobster stocks is very intense due to its being a high-value species for overseas export and relatively easy to harvest. Biodiversity concerns relate to by-catch of turtles, dolphin, and dugong by foreign vessels in the offshore fishery and the inshore artisanal gillnet fishery, plus destruction of critical reef habitat by foreign trawlers.

With decentralization of fisheries enforcement to the grass-roots level, community empowerment has filled an institutional vacuum as AK47-armed militia protect their perceived property rights, and some have been successful in arresting vessels. A Taiwanese fishing vessel apprehended off northern Somalia in January 1998 was found to carry a licence of dubious legality, written on ex-Somali government letterhead and signed by a warlord in Mogadishu claiming to represent the previous Barre regime, and providing fishing access rights to demarcated areas of the Somali zone. The bogus licence was issued under an ongoing licensing scheme set up in 1996 to "authorize" foreign-flagged vessels to fish Somali waters in the 24 to 200 nautical mile zone. A London-based licensing corporation was given access to waters from the Kenyan-Somali border to about 9 degrees north latitude. It is unknown who the London-based shareholders are in these companies, but it is alleged that five authorities or clan faction leaders along the Somali coast receive royalties from the corporation through these operations. Tensions are exacerbated among different Somali sub-regional administrations aware of this activity.

Fishing vessels known to operate off Somalia include the following flags: Belize (either French or Spanish-owned purse seiners operating under flag of convenience to avoid EU regulations); France (purse seiners targeting tuna licensed to the food company Cobrecaf); Honduras (EU purse seiners targeting tuna under flag of convenience); Japan (longliners now operate under licence to the Republic of Somaliland); Kenya (Mombasa-based trawlers); Korea (longliners targeting swordfish seasonally); Pakistan (trawlers, but also targeting shark); Saudi Arabia (trawlers); Spain (purse seiners targeting tuna); Sri Lanka (trawlers, plus longliners targeting shark under licence to the Republic of Somaliland and based at Berbera, Somaliland); Taiwan (longliners targeting swordfish seasonally); and Yemen (trawlers financed by a seafood importer in Bari, Italy). Formerly operated as the Somali national fleet, four Yemeni trawlers and a collector vessel are now based in Aden (see photo).

Despite the illegal and counterproductive nature of the offshore fishery, there are constituencies in Somalia and abroad continuing to gain through maintenance of the status quo. Vessels operating under the licensing scheme have taken 25,000 t annually, including skipjack, big-eye, and yellowfin tuna, swordfish, and marlin. In 1996, 43 purse seiners and 61 longliners were licensed to fish under this arrangement. The foreign fleets benefit despite the fact that the legality of the scheme is doubtful under international law. Vessel operators and Somali royalty recipients are unlikely to support a return to legal operations where a centralized Somali government would license access to the 200-nautical mile EEZ via a legal, transparent process.

Piracy Experiences

The international community encourages local Somali administrative entities to take responsibility for governance of the region, but when authority is exerted over coastal waters the individuals are labelled pirates. Several incidents involving foreign fishing vessels and cargo vessels arrested by pirates in Somali waters have been reported recently.

In January 1998, militiamen in northeast Somalia captured two foreign ships, a Bulgarian freighter towed by a Syrian vessel. Elders and businessmen in Bosasso, northeast Somalia, helped negotiate release of the crews on 13 February 1998 in exchange for $110,000.

In April 1998, an Italian-owned trawler based in Mombasa, the MV Bahari One, was held in northeast Somalia for more than 50 days by militia demanding $200,000. The vessel was impounded for allegedly fishing illegally in Somali waters, possessing firearms, destroying marine life, and stealing marine products from its territorial waters. In December 1998, the same vessel and its 33-member crew were arrested and taken in Eyl, northeast Somalia, for allegedly violating Somali territorial waters, destroying local fishing nets, and firing at local fishing boats. A clash occurred before the capture and two Somali fishing boats were destroyed. The vessel was impounded by militiamen supporting warlord Mohammed Said Hersi, alias General Morgan, who is in control of the southern port town of Kismayo. Crew members were fined $500,000 and vessel owners warned that the vessel would be confiscated and the crew members jailed if the fine was not paid immediately. The vessel and crew were released in February 1999 after the owners paid a ransom of $230,000. Puntland State authorities have since offered to issue fishing licences to foreign vessels conducting "safe fishing operations."

On 27 July, 1998, after being held hostage for 55 days near Bosasso, two Frenchmen (not fishermen) who had been sailing to Réunion, were handed over to a representative of the international community in exchange for $50,000. On 28 December, 1998, four Ukrainian tourists harvesting sea shells from the yacht Voyager were captured by Somali gunmen near Alula, Puntland. After one month of detention, they returned to the Ukraine without possessions or the yacht. In late April 1999, two Finns sailing to Madagascar were abducted off Northeast Somalia by pirates who demanded $50,000 for their release. Although clan elders said no ransom was paid for their release on May 6 in Bosasso, the kidnappers kept the yacht.

On 4 January, 1999, the MV Sea Johana, a large commercial ferry and its 21-member crew were abducted by Somali gunmen belonging to the al-Itihad al-Islam near Kismayo. The vessel was sailing from Mombasa to India and apparently experienced technical difficulties. It was forcefully brought to the port of Bur Gabo, south of Kismayo. The ransom demand dropped from $6.5 million to $150,000 plus reimbursement of costs incurred while holding hostages. In April 1999, the MV Sea Johana was a navigational hazard when it was found drifting unmanned off the coast of Mombasa, set adrift by Somali gunmen.

In January 1999, the non-state navy of the Republic of Somaliland under the Commander of Somaliland Armed Forces arrested 40 Yemeni fishermen accused of fishing in Somaliland waters. Six fishing boats belonging to the Yemenis were confiscated and four Somalis were arrested for collaborating with foreigners.

In March 1999, Somali gunmen hijacked two fishing vessels from Taiwan and Ukraine off Somalia's east coast, taking more than 50 people hostage. About 50 gunmen in speedboats attacked the Taiwanese boat near Eyl, about 800 km northeast of Mogadishu, capturing more than 30 Taiwanese, Ugandan, Tanzanian and Indian nationals. In the other hijacking in the same region, one Somali and 20 Ukrainian crewmen were taken hostage.

It was also reported that the MV Ming Bright (22,738 gross tons) was shelled by pirates who put nine holes in its superstructure and containers, but the captain, crew and vessel escaped before pirates could board. In March 1995, pirates fired a mortar at the British racing yacht, Longo Barda, in the Gulf of Aden, and attempted to board the yacht but sped away when the Canadian Navy ship HMCS Fredericton approached. Proposed Regional Marine Governance

Despite the breakdown of civil society, Somalia still has international legal responsibilities to treaties it became party to, e.g., CITES, UNCLOS, and the Nairobi and Jeddah Regional Seas Conventions. However, this responsibility is a hollow one since Somalia is in no position to provide responsible governance and live up to its international civic commitments. Resolution of the situation therefore raises questions regarding roles of international obligations and regional cooperation in marine resource management in a legal and institutional vacuum.

The challenge is to produce a regional institutional proposal to deal with the situation. At a marine conference in Cape Town, South Africa on 3 December 1998, the UN Secretary General urged African governments to unite to protect their marine and coastal environments. Kofi Annan said African participation in global efforts to protect marine resources was vital and he promised UN support. At the same conference, the deputy Secretary General of the Organization for African Unity (OAU), Ahmed Haggag, said that African countries had to prevent non-African countries plundering their coastal resources, and referring to Somalia, he emphasized that solutions must come from within the region.One solution the Secretary General might consider is a UN-sanctioned caretaker mandate or coastal protectorate given to a regional or international organization to assure international safety of maritime navigation and regional marine resource conservation and protection in Somali waters. This mandate would create an interim marine management governance framework for Somalia, with legal and policy dimensions and an information repository on Somali marine affairs, coastal biodiversity and fisheries.

This framework could include a brief to represent Somali marine interests at international fora and an offshore fisheries management regime to control and rationally manage offshore fisheries.

The composition of the institutional arrangement should include strong participation from the East African region, with representatives not only of states, but of local communities, stakeholders and NGOs. Regional intergovernmental organizations which should be involved include the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), the OAU, and the Conferences of Parties to the Nairobi and Jeddah Conventions. The Secretariat of the IGAD in Djibouti addresses political and security issues in the Horn of Africa and has become involved in promoting peace and stability and setting up mechanisms to prevent, manage and settle crises. If a regional, multinational coastguard or naval force were used, regional enforcement of customary international law (e.g., duty to conserve) would be possible if neighbouring states have a mutual interest.

However, to establish an interim marine governance framework, international financial assistance must be secured by IGAD or the Parties to the Nairobi Convention in order to improve safety of navigation for international vessel traffic in Somali waters, to engage Somali participation in ongoing regional marine management processes, and to promote sustainable use of inshore and offshore fisheries.

The maritime issues created by a legal and institutional vacuum in failed states should be addressed by the United Nations General Assembly, as lawless states will continue to arise, e.g., Sierra Leone. A regional approach may be a useful option to address piracy in Somalia, but it must be cognizant of political realities in the Western Indian Ocean region. It is suggested that a regional approach to marine governance may also act as a catalyst for wider peace in Somalia.

(*) The author, a renowned expert, survived a six-week UN inter-agency coastal assessment mission to Somalia in February-March 1998 and also holds footage from a Yemeni stern trawler (unflagged) fishing illegally on 28/02/98 with warps visible, 1.5 miles off Bosaaso.

Pastoralists leave drought-hit villages

Thousands of nomadic pastoralists in the self-declared republic of Somaliland have abandoned their drought-affected villages and moved closer to urban centres, officials have said.

"More than 20 percent of the nomads have moved to the urban centres, [and are] living with their families in villages near towns," Mursal Askar Mire, the mayor of Eil-Afweyn District in Sanag Region, told IRIN.

The displaced, who have received aid from the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), were mainly in the Sool and Sanag regions, which are claimed by both Somaliland and neighbouring Puntland.

Roda Ahmed Yasin, a DRC sanitation officer, said the agency - through the Somaliland Red Crescent - had distributed non-food items to 1,800 families in Sanag, mostly in 12 centres in Erigavo District and 12 others in Eil-Afweyn District.

The aid recipients, he said, included families that had lost their livestock to the drought, and Ethiopian refugees heading to Bosasso en-route to countries in the Arabian Peninsula.

Mire, the Eil-Afweyn mayor, said the prolonged drought in Sool and Sanag regions had created a food and livelihood crisis.

"Non-food aid is welcome, but one of the main problems facing the people is lack of food; we would be happy to get food aid for those affected by drought," he said.

Severe drought has hit Sool and Sanag regions in the past few months following the failure of the `Gu' rains. The most affected areas include Garab-cad, Beer-weito, Xamilka, Dararweyne, Dunuble, Dhabar Mabac, Kal-Qac, Kalsheeshk, Ceelmidgaan, Dhabar-dalool and Barigeli.

"The rains were not enough to counter the effects of the drought in the area but at least livestock deaths have stopped, even though nomads recently moved to Yufle area in Erigavo District where the rains were better," Mire said.

Crops in large swathes of Ethiopia risk being destroyed by swarms of locusts coming from northern Somalia, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) "reports that locust swarms have been confirmed in seven regions in the country, including in areas where there is no previous record of infestation," a statement said. "The government is expected to present a response plan specifying immediate and medium-term actions to be taken during the week," OCHA said. It added that 1,390 hectares of land in several regions, mainly in south-eastern Ethiopia had been sprayed in ground and air operations. The vast majority of Ethiopia's 77 million inhabitants depend on subsistence agriculture and have been badly hit by successive infestations of voracious locusts that destroy every plant in their path.

Anti-piracy measures

All agree that only a stable, just and peaceful Somalia will end piracy at the Horn of Africa, but while nothing is done to help moderate leaders to stabilize the country, the Navy forces from all over the world spend millions of dollars for their own naval games.

Fiddling While Somalia Burns

By J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.

Difficult as it may be to conceive, the already-bad security situation in Somalia deteriorated further over the weekend. Yet as Islamist militants brought their offensive to the edge of Mogadishu amid fierce fighting and the country's nominal government reeled from the loss of several of its more effective members, an observer would be forgiven for thinking that the principal actors in this high-stakes drama were recreating the infamous tableau from De vita Caesarum by Suetonius wherein the Roman historian recounts how while fire raged for six days and seven nights, consuming the Eternal City, the Emperor Nero viewed the conflagration from the tower of Maecenas and sang a poem about the sack of Troy. Afterward, according to chronicle, "to gain from this calamity too all the spoil and booty possible, while promising the removal of the debris and dead bodies free of cost he allowed no one to approach the…and from the contributions which he not only received, but even demanded, he nearly bankrupted the provinces and exhausted the resources of individuals." While it might be a gross exaggeration to blame Somalia's "Transitional Federal Government" (TFG) and its international supporters for having set the Horn of Africa ablaze, it would not be unfair to ascribe a not insignificant share of the responsibility for the current burgeoning crisis in the subregion to their ongoing refusal to deal realistically with the situation.

Writing in this column one month ago, I presented the following somber conclusion:

While most Somalis loathe the jihadists (especially the foreigners), dislike of the extremist agenda should not be confused with support for the TFG. In truth, the TFG's continuing existence on life support says more about the international community's stubborn refusal to admit the failure of its top-down approach and general lack of investment in any alternatives than it does about the interim regime's viability. In short, the TFG's chances of success are non-existent: the only effect outside support can have will be to stave off an inevitable collapse of a regime whose only legitimacy was that conferred on it by outsiders unable or unwilling to move past the repeated failure of their top-down approach to remedying the collapse of the unitary Somali state nearly two decades ago (one is at a total loss to find any empirical evidence for the "tremendous progress made to date" by the TFG "in restoring a semblance of normalcy and peace in Somalia" about which Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson regaled the U.S. Senate [on May 20]). The real question is whether the eventual failure of the latest "solution" will be followed by a total sweep by al-Shabaab and its allies or whether, as they have repeatedly shown themselves inclined to do, the extremists will prematurely overplay their hand and ultimately fail achieve control, opening the way for a conflict of a different sort between rival clans. In any of these scenarios, without a significant shift in policy to engage legitimate authorities and other effective local actors, short- to intermediate-term prospects both for stability in the Horn of Africa—and the surrounding waters—and for the advancement of U.S. security interests in the region beyond possibly containing Somali chaos do not appear especially promising.

Subsequent events have, unfortunately, confirmed my analysis concerning not only the strength of the Islamist militants—spearheaded by al-Shabaab ("the youth"), an al-Qaeda-linked group that was formally designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the U.S. Department of State last year, and the Hisbul al-Islamiyya ("Islamic party") group of Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys, a figure who appears personally on both United States and United Nations antiterrorism sanctions lists and who headed the shura of the Islamic Courts Union before it was driven out of Mogadishu by Ethiopian intervention two years ago—and weakness of the TFG headed by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, but also the misguided, if well-intentioned, efforts of the international community.

Last Wednesday, June 17, Mogadishu police chief Colonel Ali Said Hassan, one of the more effective security officials still loyal to the TFG, was killed amid clashes with Islamist insurgents in the south of the capital city.

The next day, June 18, a suicide bomber drove a truck laden with explosives into the Medina Hotel in Beledweyne, some 400 kilometers north of Mogadishu close to the border with Ethiopian. The blast killed some forty people, including the TFG security minister, Colonel Omar Aden Hashi, and its former ambassador to Ethiopia and to the African Union (AU), Abdikarim Farah Laqanyo. The official spokesman for al-Shabaab, Sheikh Ali Mohamed Ragi, a.k.a. Sheikh Ali Dheere, took credit for the attack in the name of the group.

On Friday, June 19, a TFG parliamentarian, Mohamed Hussein Addow, was captured and executed by al-Shabaab fighters after they took control of his Karan neighborhood in northern Mogadishu. The heavy fighting in the Karan district as well as the Yaqshid and Shibis districts triggered a massive exodus of thousands of residents.

Things had gotten so bad by Saturday, June 20, that the head of the TFG's rump parliament, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nuur, a.k.a. "Madobe," called for foreign troops to rescue the tottering regime. According to an Agence France-Presse report, the speaker admitted to reporters that "the government is weakened by the rebel forces" and was consequently begging "neighboring countries—including Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Yemen—to send troops to Somalia within twenty-four hours." Even as the legislator was making his appeal, al-Shabaab and Hisbul al-Islamiyya fighters were operating less than three kilometers away from the Villa Somalia presidential compound in Mogadishu, which is presently protected by some of the 4,300 valiant Ugandan and Burundian troops dispatched over the course of the last two years in the undermanned, ill-supplied, and certainly poorly-conceived African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeeping force (see my commentary more than two years ago about "Peacekeepers with No Peace to Keep"). Not surprisingly, Ethiopia, which only recently withdrew its forces from Somalia, pointedly refused to send them back in without an explicit international mandate. No other country has, at the time of this writing, even responded directly to the TFG less-than-desirable invitation.

Meanwhile, al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Dheere practically exulted over the TFG's call for help, interpreting it reasonably enough in a press conference Sunday reported by the Reuters news agency to be an admission of failure on the part of the interim regime:

We tell our enemy that we do not fear any invasion from outside. We forced Ethiopia to withdraw from Somalia early this year and we shall do the same again… We, the Somali young mujahideen, shall fight against any troops deployed here to help the government until our last holy fighter passes away. This is a clear signal that the so called government established by the enemy had totally failed… God will help us to overcome all enemies and we believe we shall defeat them. We are not worried about their quantity and whatever weapons they have.

Highlighting the potential of any foreign intervention in support of the TFG to galvanize its Islamist opposition, Hisbul al-Islamiyya's Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys warned that his group would fight any foreign forces while Sheikh Hassan Yaqub, spokesman for the Islamist administration controlling the southern port city of Kismayo, issued a threat against Kenya in particular, "If you continue interfering Somali matters or attack any place in the country, we shall not be silent. We shall attack Nairobi buildings."

The TFG president, Sheikh Sharif, responded to his presidential compound being rocked by mortars on Sunday, June 21, by decreeing on Monday morning a "state of emergency," stating that the proclamation meant that "our forces are on full alert" without making clear, as an Associated Press report noted succinctly, "what difference the declaration will make on the ground."

Even as it was struggling to maintain control of what little bits of its capital it still holds, the TFG continues the charade of being a sovereign government. In a Voice of America (VOA) report published the same day as the suicide bombing in Beledweyne, correspondent Alisha Ryu narrated how, in the Old Port in northern Mogadishu, the TFG was beginning training of 500 recruits for a Somali navy that has not existed in two decades (full disclosure: I am quoted in the story). The "admiral" of the TFG's imaginary navy, Farah Omar Ahmed, waxed eloquent in an interview with the official Chinese Xinhua news agency a few days earlier, assuring his interlocutor that he expected his force to be trained, armed, and active within four months. The "naval commander" even claimed that he planned to have more than 5,000 men under his command—which, if it were true, would give him several times as many personnel as TFG president Sharif Ahmed has ever managed to muster on land despite the offer of cash bonuses for enlistment (a recruitment drive by the TFG last month fell apart as those who "enlisted" simply turned around and sold their weapons and uniforms to insurgents; analysts put the number of those in TFG units at barely 1,500).

To be fair, the musings of the wannabe admiral are no more or less removed from reality than the painful pretenses of Somalia's neighbors, other countries, international organizations, and members of the media have adopted in lieu of facing up to the reality that the TFG is not a government in any common-sense understanding of the term. Consider the following two vignettes:

I described in this column space earlier this year the manner in which TFG president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was permitted to pack and manipulate the electoral assembly which, in the comfort of the luxury Djibouti Palace Kempinski provided to them courtesy of the United Nations and the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia, former Mauritanian politician Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, duly into granting him with his "mandate." In what sense is ne'er-do-well who comes into possession of a "mandate" by such means really a legitimate head of state, especially when he is incapable of so much as entering his official residence—to say nothing of actually exercising any authority from there—without a foreign military force to keep his own countrymen from running him out of there?

Then there is the Kenyan-born warlord-turned-politician Madobe, who appealed for foreign troops in the name of the TFG legislature. Reports over the weekend referred to him as "the speaker of Somalia's parliament" and repeatedly mentioned "Somalia's parliament" as asking for military intervention despite the fact that the legislative body has not met in the more than two months since its remaining members fled their temporary headquarters as it came under fire from rebel groups and it is doubtful that enough members can even be found in the country to constitute a quorum. Lest it be forgotten, the lawmakers were meeting in Mogadishu because the town of Baidoa, where they had been holding forth since 2005 when the long-suffering Kenyan authorities forced them to set up shop in their own country—possibly the first time in history that a legislature had to be compelled by a neighboring country to meet within the borders of a state it purported to govern—had fallen to al-Shabaab. What was this august assembly deliberating when its proceedings were so rudely interrupted by the mortar rounds lobbed by the Islamist militants? The matter before the parliament was not how to better defend the last major city held by the TFG, but rather whether or not prime minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke and his cabinet acted legally in agreeing to a memorandum of understanding with Kenya that both countries would separately submit documents of their respective claims to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

If all of this seems a bit farcical, it is because it seems the surreal has become the ordinary in the international community's approach to Somalia, even as the situation has gone from bad to worse to worst, presenting the entire Horn of Africa with a security crisis of the first order, spreading instability across a fragile subregion and, as I noted here three months ago, raising the specter that transnational terrorist networks like al-Qaeda will find and exploit the opportunities thus offered. Yet, for want of better ideas, the international community has opted to buy into a seductive, but nonetheless vicious, circle of its own manufacture whereby it must "stay the course" and continue to waste scarce resources shoring up the hopeless TFG because it has already invested too much time and resources into the regime to do otherwise. In short, if the TFG is "fiddling" while Somalia burns, it is doing so with a full orchestral accompaniment provided by an international community that apparently lacks either the will or the imagination (or both) to do anything else.

What might an alternative approach look like? More than two years ago, I presented an outline of how the international community in general and the United States in particular might salvage something out of the wreckage of the Somali state:

First, formally acknowledge de jure what is already de facto: the desuetude of "Somalia" as a sovereign subject of international law. Unitary Somalia is not only dead, but the carcass of that state has been putrefied; reanimation is no longer in the realm of possible. This description of reality does not mean that the former state's territory necessarily reverts back to terra nullius that is up for grabs—as if any rational, responsible state actor would want the quagmire—but rather that it would be a quarantined area under broadly-defined international surveillance to prevent outsiders from exploiting the lack of a central government.

If the failure of no fewer than fourteen internationally-sponsored attempts at establishing a national government indicates anything, it is the futility of the notion that outsiders can impose a regime on Somalia, even if it is staffed with the Somali faces we want to see, like the allegedly "moderate" Islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and secular politicians like Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, who has spent more of his life in the United States and Canada than anywhere near the Horn of Africa.

Second, while encouraging Somalis to pursue peaceful dialogue among themselves, establish formal benchmarks for responsible governance within the former Somalia against which the regions or clans or whatever entities the Somali people themselves choose to organize for themselves will be measured. As these proto-states advance along that continuum of political maturity, they can gain progressive international recognition with the access which that would confer—for example, "interim special status" as a quasi-state entity within multilateral political and economic forums—as well as increasing amounts of assistance by way of incentive. Somaliland would, in my estimation, be well along the right side of this curve and would be ready soon—if it is not already—for international recognition; other Somali regions may take longer.

As I noted here at the end of last year, a broad consensus is emerging among experts who have tracked Somalia for any amount of time that any workable solution must embrace a "bottom-up" or "building-block" approach rather than the hitherto "top-down" strategy. Moreover, given the ripple effects of continuing disorder in the Somali lands—not the least of which is the challenge of piracy (see my most recent update) which continues to expand as witnessed by the seizure two weeks ago of a German-owned, Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship, MV Charelle, 60 nautical miles south of Sur, Oman—it makes no sense for the international community to not work with effective authorities in Somaliland, Puntland, Gedo, and other areas as well seek to engage with traditional leaders and civil society actors elsewhere. Unlike the embattled TFG, these figures both enjoy legitimacy with the populace and have actual (as opposed to notional) security and economic development agendas which complement the outside world's goal of preventing chaos from reigning in Somali territory.

Third, redefine the role of the African "peacekeepers" to keeping the peace along Somalia's borders with other countries in the subregion, rather than trying to use this force to assert the questionable claims to authority by a clearly unpopular "government" like the TFG. The addition of naval and air components to the AMISOM ground force would bolster its capacity prevent foreign non-state actors such as al-Qaeda as well as state sponsors of terrorism or other spoiler states from supporting Islamist and other insurgents within Somalia.

The reaction last week of Kenya's foreign minister, Moses Wetangula, to the worsening situation in Somalia—"We are concerned with the unfolding events in Somalia that endanger peace and stability of the region…We will not sit by and watch the situation in Somalia deteriorate beyond where we have a duty"—captures the anxiety with which neighboring states follow developments in their troublesome neighbor. It also explains why both the subregional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union have broken with the usual African "solidarity" and taken the unprecedented step of calling on the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Eritrea for providing arms and other support to the Islamist insurgency in Somalia. However the legitimate security interests of these countries can best be met not by their becoming embroiled in the Somali conflict where their support for the TFG has itself become a nationalist rallying point for the insurgents, but rather by containing the spread of the instability and preventing additional foreign fighters and supplies from fueling the conflict.

Fourth, recognize that occasionally forces like the U.S. Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) based in nearby Djibouti or the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the Arabian Sea will have to take preemptive action to prevent terrorists from gaining a foothold in Somalia when the nascent forces of order within Somalia and the AMISOM peacekeepers redeployed to guarding the perimeter may prove themselves unwilling or simply unable to do so.

While it is nowadays de rigueur to engage in facile denunciations of the Bush administration's preoccupation with counterterrorism in the Horn of Africa and, admittedly, some actions by U.S. military forces in the theatre have not been particularly felicitous in either their execution or even their outcome, it is nevertheless true that, as Dr. David H. Shinn, a veteran Foreign Service office who served as State Department Coordinator for Somalia during the 1993 international intervention as well as U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1996-1999, noted in an in-depth article two years for the Journal of Conflict Studies, "Al-Qaeda cells almost certainly exist today in all the countries of East Africa and the Horn and the al-Qaeda threat may well be increasing" with Somali territory supplying "the larges potential safe-haven for al-Qaeda in Africa." In addition, more recently it has emerged that al-Shabaab and other violent Islamist groups operating in Somalia have recruited several dozen Somali-American youth to travel there to at least undergo training. One of these men, Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Somalia whose last known residence was Minneapolis, Minnesota, became the first-ever American suicide bomber when blew himself up in an attack in Somaliland which left dozens of civilians dead. Under those circumstances and given the relatively weak operational capacity of many subregional states—to say nothing of the utter ineffectiveness of the TFG and whatever entity emerges in succession to it—it cannot but be expected that America will need to act decisively at some point in the future.

I readily acknowledged that an approach such as the one I sketched out may strike many as minimalist. However, I was convinced and am even more certain today that it was the course most likely to buy Somalis themselves the space within which to make their own determinations about their future while at the same time allowing the rest of the world, especially the countries of the Horn of Africa, to achieve their legitimate security objectives. Thus, not only does the strategy offer the most realistic hope of salvaging a modicum of regional stability and international security out of situation that otherwise grows increasingly intractable with each passing day, but it certainly beats replaying a tired old score while the neighborhood goes up in flames.

J. Peter Pham is Director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., as well as Vice President of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). In addition to the study of terrorism and political violence, his research interests lie at the intersection of international relations, international law, political theory, and ethics, with particular concentrations on the implications for United States foreign policy and African states as well as religion and global politics. Dr. Pham is the author of over two hundred essays and reviews on a wide variety of subjects in scholarly and opinion journals on both sides of the Atlantic and the author, editor, or translator of over a dozen books. Among his recent publications are Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State (Reed Press, 2004), which has been critically acclaimed by Foreign Affairs, Worldview, Wilson Quarterly, American Foreign Policy Interests, and other scholarly publications, and Child Soldiers, Adult Interests: The Global Dimensions of the Sierra Leonean Tragedy (Nova Science Publishers, 2005). In addition to serving on the boards of several international and national think tanks and journals, Dr. Pham has testified before the U.S. Congress and conducted briefings or consulted for both Congressional and Executive agencies. He is also a frequent contributor to National Review Online's military blog,

EU Commissions' DG Environment lets transparency boycotters off the hook - Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)

Commissioner Kallas has repeatedly criticised Brussels-based think tanks for boycotting the transparency register and highlighted Friends of Europe as a particularly obvious example of a corporate-funded think tank that must register. Other parts of the Commission however appear to have failed to back - and could even be said to be undermining Kallas' efforts to increase the pressure on Friends of Europe. The Commission's DG Environment, for instance, has decided to give Friends of Europe a very prominent role in its annual 'Green Week', which happens this week.

Robo-Chopper Pushed for Pirate Fight

By David Axe

When Somali piracy became big news late last year, you just knew the world´s arms manufacturers would try to capitalize on the trendy bad guys, to sell their latest gadgets.

Sure enough, in February, one defense exec said armed, robotic boats would make better pirate-fighters than traditional naval vessels — a highly dubious claim. And now Austria´s Schiebel Group is pushing its robotic, S-100 "Camcopter," equipped with advanced sensors, as a pirate early-warning for commercial vessels, plying Somali waters.

The three-year-old Camcopter design is popular with organizations working to "de-mine" old battlefields, and with oil companies, for pipeline monitoring. But the 10-foot-long, 200-pound bird, can also be flown from tankers and other large vessels, in order to search ahead for pirates, according to Schiebel. The company told Aviation News, in June, that a Saudi tanker operator has already "shown interest" in buying Camcopters for Somalia duty. But it´s worth noting that the U.S. Coast Guard stresses alert watchmen, sailing fast, and pulling up a ship´s ladder — not some expensive technology – as the best methods for beating pirates.

To be fair, Schiebel isn´t just doing a quick search-and-replace on its marketing materials, replacing "oil leaks" with "pirates." The firm actually mentioned Camcopter´s pirate-busting potential, as long ago as 2007 (source in German). And early warning is useful in the pirate fight. Still, basic, common-sense tactics are still the best, and cheapest, defenses against pirates.

No real peace in sight yet

Tragic irony in Somalia

By John Boonstra / UN Dispatch

Excuse me if I find some irony in Ethiopia declining the Somali government's request to send troops, when all indicators point to the likelihood that Ethiopia already sent some of its troops "reconnaissance missions" over the border weeks ago. (Not to mention the irony of Somalia inviting back the very military presence that its citizens railed against for over two years.)

But really -- it's hard not to understand Ethiopia's reluctance. Ditto that of every other neighboring country to which the Somali government's request was made: Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Yemen. There's a reason that the only troops in the 4,300-strong African Union force in Somalia are from Uganda and Burundi, which share the important characteristic of not bordering Somalia. I don't think others will be joining them too soon.

Somalia's leaders are right in that their country is being attacked by "foreign terrorists" -- though the latter part of that label, referring to domestic groups like al-Shaban, is much more true than the former, even as the risk of Somalia turning into a global terrorist haven grows. But what makes this an issue that no one wants to touch is that it is also a political one: combating the terrorists also amounts to protecting the government, and, as well-intentioned as the attempt to stabilize the country's shaky state institutions may be, that amounts to taking a side in a messy internal political dynamic.

So the irony is painfully evident when Ethiopia cites as its reason not to (officially) involve itself militarily in Somalia the lack of an "international mandate." The reason the UN would be so ill-advised to issue its stamp of approval on a renewed Ethiopian intervention, or on creating a new peacekeeping mission, is exactly the reason that its neighbors don't want to risk getting involved: rather than halting the flood of violence, Ethiopian or blue helmet presence would only provide targets for extremists, as well as a lodestar for generating grassroots support. This explication, of course, will provide little consolation for Somalia's beleaguered government, which simply needs somebody to do something, and quickly.

Hundreds of protestors in Somalia's capital Mogadishu have protested about the lack of food and water in displacement camps, local observers report. The protest took place in the southern outskirts of Mogadishu, where thousands of civilians have fled to in recent weeks as renewed clashes erupted in the seaside capital. "We ask the aid agencies to bring us [humanitarian] assistance…we don't have shelter, food and water," said 80-year mother Ibado Nur. One of the protest organizers, Halimo Salad, told reporters that displacement camps along the Mogadishu-Afgoye road are in terrible condition. "We built our homes in the camps using plastic, boxes and old clothes," said Ms. Halimo, while asking for immediate support to displaced families. The ongoing violence in Mogadishu has displaced thousands of people from their homes, creating a humanitarian crisis worsened by the drought in many regions of Somalia.

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed told a press conference that Somalia has been "attacked by foreign fighters."

"After reviewing the situation in Somalia, we have decided to declare a state of emergency because the country is on the verge of being overrun by foreign fighters opposed to the Somali nation," President Sheikh Sharif said. He urged the international community to help Somalia "defend" against foreign fighters, while asking the Somali parliament to pass the state of emergency. President Sheikh Sharif was accompanied by Finance Minister Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, Fisheries Minister Prof. Abdirahman Ibbi and Information Minister Farhan Ali Mohamud, at the press conference held at Villa Somalia presidential compound in Mogadishu. Somalia's UN-backed interim government is struggling to survive against a powerful insurgency led by Islamist rebels intent on overthrowing President Sheikh Sharif, whom they accuse of being a puppet of the West.

Somalia´s government has nominated Tuesday a new commander to the government troops in Gedo region in south western Somalia, where Islamist rebels control much of the region. Colonel Ahmed Hassan Farey who is in Dolow town, has been appointed to be the new commander of the government soldiers in Gedo region where they have been mobilizing in recent months. The new commander is expected to lead operations against the Islamist rebels in some districts of Gedo region. Farey said he was glad to be nominated the new commander of the government soldiers in Gedo region and will perform his duties. In other news, the Islamist administrators in Balad Hawo town in Gedo region formed a new Islamic administration in the town, but the former Islamic administration leader opposed the new administration. The Islamists nominated chairman to Sheik Adan Mohamed Barre. The new officials pledged that they would continue practicing Islamic Sharia in the town. But the former chairman of the Islamic administration in Balad Hawo town opposed the new administration. He said that he was the right leader of the Islamic administration in Balad Hawo and described the new administration as ineffective.

At least 12 people were killed in armed clashes in the Somali capital Mogadishu between pro-government forces and insurgents fighting to overthrow the interim government, local observers report. The fighting began Sunday night and continued into Monday morning, with heavy fighting and bombardment reported in Mogadishu's Yaaqshiid and Kaaraan districts. More than 20 wounded persons were admitted to local hospitals for treatment. "A lot of civilians are stuck in neighborhoods where water and electricity are cut off," said witness Halimo Da'ud. Other witnesses said Muse Sudi Yalahow, one of Mogadishu's notorious ex-warlords and a Member of Parliament, was "leading battles" against insurgent forces of Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam.

The pro government Islamic Courts Union that controls the main part of Beledweyne town in Hiraan region in central Somalia have imposed a day curfew in the town, officials said on Tuesday. The move came after high rank government officials and some parliamentarians reached in the town on Tuesday. Somalia´s security minister Omar Hashi Aden and other government officials were killed in a suicide attack in Beledweyne on Thursday. Mohamed Dhaqane Elmi, one of the Somali MPs who reached in Beledweyene today said he would pursue the activities of the security minister who was killed on Thursday´s suicide attack. Residents said all business centers have been closed and the circulation of the traffic and the people halted. Pro government Islamic Courts soldiers could be seen patrolling in the streets of Beldeweyne and tightened the security of the city. The administration of the Islamic Courts Union said they would held a pres conference talking about the reasons they have imposed the curfew to the town.Islamist rebels including al Shabaab control the west part of Beledweyne town. The Islamist rebels and the pro government Islamists once fought in the town.

Amnesty International negotiates justice with Islamist rebel groups in Somalia

Al-Shabab has introduced bloody laws in areas under its control

Amnesty International (AI) has moved to protect four Somalians who are to be amputated for stealing following their condemnation by Islamist rebels al-Shabab.

AI claims that the four men had not been given a fair trial. "We are appealing to al-Shabab not to carry out these cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments," said Tawanda Hondora, spokesperson for the human rights group.

According to the human rights group, the sentences were ordered by al-Shabab court with no due process or guarantees of fairness. The bloody punishments introduced by the hard-line Islamist have shocked many Somalis, who traditionally practice a more tolerant form of Islam.

The four men were chained around their ankles and surrounded by armed al-Shabab militants. The accused men will each have a hand and a leg cut off after being convicted by a Sharia court in the capital, Mogadishu.

"The men admitted the charges brought against them and were sentenced accordingly. Each one of them will have his right hand and left leg amputated publicly," said Judge Sheikh Abdallah al-Haq of al-Shabab.

The al-Shabab group linked with al-Qaeda, has carried out amputations, floggings and executions for such crimes as stealing in some parts of Somalia.

The extreme group is at the verge of taking over Somalia and such is the form of justice they intend to make law.

Helpless Somalia President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has declared a state of emergency and has appealed to Somalia´s neighbors and the international community to send troops to help fight the al-Shabab rebels.

Al-Shabab and its allies control much of southern Somalia and are battling the UN-backed government for total control of the country. Some observers say it is only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, the Islamic court in Somalia that sentenced four men to have a hand and a leg cut off postponed the punishment Tuesday, saying the sweltering weather could cause them to bleed to death. AP reports. The court sentenced the men Monday in the capital, Mogadishu, after accusing them of stealing mobile phones and guns. The court is run by al-Shabab, a powerful insurgent group that is trying to topple the U.N.-backed government and install a strict form of Islam. "The sentence will be carried out later," an al-Shabab official said, requesting anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly. "It was postponed because of the hot weather and fears that the victims will bleed to death." No date was set for the punishments to be carried out.

Uganda is ready to send more troops to Somalia, where the government is facing a fierce onslaught by Islamist insurgents, a senior government official said Tuesday. Islamist groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have stepped up their insurgency since early May, putting the weak government in Mogadishu under intense pressure and forcing over 120,000 Somalis to flee the capital. Somalia's Parliament Speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur at the weekend called for foreign assistance after a particularly bloody week in which three officials were killed along with dozens of civilians. "If IGAD (a regional political grouping) requests us to send troops to Somalia, we will do so," James Mugume, permanent secretary at the foreign ministry, told the German Press Agency dpa. The African Union (AU) has backed Somalia's call for help, although it has not officially approved more troops. Ethiopia, whose 2006 invasion installed the transitional federal government and sparked the insurgency, said it would not send in troops without an international mandate. Kenya has also ruled out sending in troops for the moment.

Ethiopia pulled out its forces in January, leaving an AU peacekeeping force of 4,300 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi to hold the fort. The peacekeepers do not have a mandate to pursue the insurgents and can only engage when they are attacked. The government is reeling under relentless attacks by the insurgents. Tuesday saw a relative lull in the fighting following one of the bloodiest weeks this year. Security Minister Omar Hashi Aden was killed Thursday in a suicide bomb attack that also claimed the lives of over 30 others, including the former ambassador to Ethiopia. Mogadishu's police chief was killed in fighting on Wednesday and then on Friday a parliamentarian was shot by gunmen. The appointment of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a former insurgent ally, briefly raised hopes of peace earlier this year, but the insurgents say he is too close to the West.

Their opposition continues despite the fact he has met one of their demands by implementing Islamic law across the areas controlled by the government. The insurgent groups have also implemented their strict form of sharia in areas they control. Al-Shabaab, which has links to al-Qaeda and is backed by several hundred foreign fighters, on Monday sentenced four young men in Mogadishu to have an arm and a leg amputated each for stealing mobile phones and guns. The sentence was postponed, however, due to fear the men would bleed to death in the hot weather. More than 300 people have died since the clashes erupted in early May. An estimated 18,000 civilians have been killed in the insurgency since early 2007, while over a million have fled. The insurgency, combined with drought, has left over 4 million Somalis dependent on food aid and has allowed piracy to flourish off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

IDB approves US$ 575 million for developmental projects

By Richard High

The Islamic Development Bank has approved US$ 575 million in financing for "developmental projects" in Turkmenistan, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Lebanon and Suriname.

Infrastructure projects that will receive funding include drinking water projects and sewage networks in the Akar region of Lebanon (US$ 52.7 million).

Pakistan's Niolum Jilum Hydro-electric power (HEP) project will receive US$ 137 million. When finished it will save the country the equivalent of US$ 300 million in hard currency annually.

Iran will receive US$ 91 million towards financing the Kahir Storage Dam Project. The dam will provide water for irrigation and drinking in the south of the country.

Suriname's New Nickerie Sea Port will receive US$ 5.5 million in additional financing towards upgrading its facilities thereby helping reduce the cost of exporting its agricultural products.

The project also aims to encourage regional integration and the navigability of the Nickerie River. The IDB has already allocated US$ 11 million to the project bringing its total contribution to US$ 16.5 million.

The IDB has also approved grants from its Waqf Fund for Muslim communities in non-member countries as a contribution to educational and health projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina (US$450000), Burundi (US$ 220000), Ethiopia (US$ 16 million), Thailand (US$ 295000), Tanzania (US$ 353000) and Somalia (US$ 450000) and Zambia (US$ 360000).

Impacting reports from the global village

Kenya rejects call for military help in Somalia

By R. Lee Wrights / CNN

Somalia's transitional government has the right to request military help from its neighbors against armed militants, the African Union said Monday, but Kenya was quick to reject the idea of sending troops and suggested the AU should spearhead such a move.

Islamist insurgents patrol part of Mogadishu during clashes with government forces.

Somali parliament speaker Sheikh Adan Madowe on Saturday called on Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen to send in their military forces to help government troops stop hardline Islamist militants from taking over.

"Militants are wrestling the power from the government and so we call for military help from neighboring countries," the speaker said at a news conference in Mogadishu. "Please send your military to help in 24 hours' time."

But Alfred Mutua, spokesman for the Kenyan government, told CNN that "Kenya doesn't engage in military support to our neighbors." He said that any such support would be under the umbrella of the African Union.

However, he did say that "different types of support can be given, not just military, and Kenya's options are open." He said that the government should announce by Wednesday how it will move forward.

Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, said in a communique issued Sunday that the transitional government, as Somalia's legitimate government, "has the right to seek support from AU Member States and the larger international community."

Ping also said that the AU would "continue to do its utmost to assist the Somali people and its authorities in their lasting quest for peace and reconciliation."

Somalia's call for help came hours after a third top politician was killed in ongoing fighting in the capital.

Mohamed Hussein Adow, a powerful member of parliament who was leading the fight against the Islamists, was slain Friday in the north of the city.

His death came two days after Islamists killed Internal Security Minister Omar Hashi Adan in a suicide attack in central Somalia. The nation's former ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarin Farah Laqanyo, was also killed, along with at least 11 others, government officials said.

Madowe said a Pakistani militant who is a high-ranking official in al Qaeda is leading the fighting in Somalia against the government.

He warned that militants will spread fighting into the rest of the region if they topple the government in Somalia.

Kenya rules out military intervention in Somalia (Pana)

Kenya Monday said it would not rush to provide military reinforcement to bolster security in war-torn Somalia but urged the international community to address the crisis in the Horn of Africa nation.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga was responding to Somali leaders' request to the neighbouring countries to help the war-torn country's government crush Islamic rebels and warloads currently fighting the government.

Raila told his visiting Somalia counterpart, Omar Abdirashid, that Kenya would focus on marshalling support for the transitional government from other countries.

"There is an IGAD resolution which actually restricts the immediate neighboring countries from sending troops to Somalia. That is why I am calling for international cooperation to this matter," he said.

However, he said Kenya would continue to actively support Somalia.

He announced that Kenya would discuss the crisis in Somalia in its cabinet meetings and would soon release a report which would also outline the mode of assistance it would offer.

He also downplayed continued threats by the Al-Shabaab militia, saying "they are threatening to bomb us but we don't want to respond to Al Shabaab at all. Their remarks are confined to themselves."

He appealed to the international community to offer practical solutions that could bail out the Transitional Federal Government from the recent wave of attacks by militia factions sympathetic to the cause of the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

He accused them of failing to live up to the promise of contributing US$ 213 million towards rehabilitating Somalia during a recent conference in Brussels, Belgium.

He also asked them to help Kenya deal with the influx of refugees who, he said, were fleeing into the country in thousands.

The Premier said Kenya had already secured land that could be used to expand the Dabaad refugee camp.

The problem of piracy which has lately been on the increase was also another concern raised by Odinga.

He said due to hijacking of ships, insurance companies had increased premiums, thereby affecting trade in the country.

Odinga also used the opportunity to call on Kenyans and other countries to learn from Somalia and value peace.

"What is happening in Somalia is a very vital lesson, the need for the people to tolerate each other. Here is a country where people speak one language, have one religion, one culture, but the nation is now it tatters," he said.

According to him, "so many conferences have taken place but people cannot make compromises, agree to power sharing to move the country forward. This is important."

He said prioritising the reform agenda in Kenya was a guaranteed way of cementing permanent peace in the country.

He also challenged the people of Somalia to tolerate each other and agree on an amicable way to restore peace.

The Somalia Prime Minister, who led a delegation of six top Somali officials on the visit, pleaded for intervention from Africa and the international community, saying the situation was getting worse daily.

"In the last few days, Somalia is facing a very hard situation. We have a large inflow of fighters that are now leading the fight against the government. We require security forces to help the security in Somalia," he said.

The Kenya government has vehemently denied claims that the Al-Shabaab militia who are fighting to topple the transitional government in Somalia have issued fresh threats to invade Kenya. Ijara District Commissioner Karung'o Kamau said that no such formal warning had been received by the security forces deployed along the border with the volatile country. Addressing the press in his office on the deteriorating security situation in Somalia, Kamau nonetheless said refugees fleeing from the war torn country had reported that the militia were still threatening to invade the North eastern province. He said Kenya's security forces along the common border were on high alert to deal with any threat from the militia. Ijara Officer Commanding Police Division Rems Warui maintained that security forces were continuing with surveillance along the border besides maintaining law and order. Intelligence officers who attended the press briefing also confirmed that there was no cause for alarm as no group has been seen encroaching on Kenyan territory. A large number of rebel fighters are said to have moved from Kolobiyo, a few kilometres from Hulugho area to beef up the final onslaught on Mogadishu by the Al Shabaab militia.

US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger is calling for an urgent deployment of AU troops to Somalia to save the fragile Transitional Federal Government from being overthrown by Islamic insurgents. Ranneberger said time was running out and African countries should act now to ensure stability returns to the war torn country. Speaking in Mombasa after opening a military training centre Ranneberger said the US government fully support President Ahmed Shariff's TFG government.

After Kenya and Tanzania, where it then transpired that the fuel-shortages had nothing at all to do with piracy, now also Yemen tries to blame their fuel crisis on the pirates. The official news agency says that surging piracy off Somalia has paralyzed the movement of fuel tankers in Yemen, causing a grave fuel shortage across the republic. Long queues of cars have been seen even in the capital amid insufficient diesel quantities at filling stations. According to the Yemen General Corporation for Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources, pirate attacks recently stepped up in the Gulf of Aden have forced oil and gas tankers not to transport fuel from the Aden refinery to distribution branches throughout the country. Some people are taking advantage of the crisis filling fuel in extra battles, helping the crisis worsen. According to some petrol stations owners fuel supplies they get are insufficient to meet the people's demand. However, officials assured that the company in cooperation with the Coast Guard and Navy are working the situation out, saying appropriate measures are underway. The outcomes would surface within twenty four hours. On reported price hikes in oil derivatives, a source at the company denied reports as baseless, saying the prices remain fixed. Yemen has reported several fuel shortages this year, with violence either by pirates or internal subversives mainly blamed in every time.

Ethiopia's Meles says preparing to step down

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was quoted on Tuesday as saying he was preparing to step down and that discussions on the issue had already started within his ruling party, Reuters reports.

"My personal position is that I have had enough," Meles, who came to power in 1991 when his then guerrilla group ousted former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Meles, whose ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front faces a parliamentary election in June next year, gave no deadline for his departure.

"I am arguing my case and the others are also arguing their case. I hope we will come up with some common understanding on the way forward that would not require me to resign from my party that I have fought for all my life," said Meles.

"We are not talking about Meles only. We are talking about the old generation. The party needs to have new leadership that does not have the experience of the armed struggle."

Meles was hailed as part of a new generation of African leaders in the 1990s, but rights groups have increasingly criticised the guerrilla-turned-premier for cracking down on opposition in sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous nation.

Ethiopia's political climate is closely watched by foreign investors showing increasing interest in agriculture, horticulture and real estate prospects.

The country is one of the world's poorest, ranked 170 out of 177 on the United Nations Human Development Index, and one of the largest recipients of international aid.

Ethiopia sent thousands of troops into Somalia in 2006 to help topple an Islamist movement holding Mogadishu and most of the south.

That drew protests from some in the Muslim world and enraged the Islamists, who regrouped to launch an insurgency. The Ethiopian troops withdrew in January.

Canadian Government introduces Internet Spying Bill

Stephen Harper's Conservative government wants all Canadian Internet Providers to install bugging gear so the government can monitor everyone's Internet traffic WITHOUT A WARRANT. They want Internet Providers to hand over all user information to authorities ON DEMAND WITHOUT A WARRANT.

If you feel uncomfortable with the Canadian government having that kind of power without judicial oversight, contact your Member of Parliament and let them know how you feel!

Information on the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century (IP21C) Act

Government Press Release

Chronicle Herald story

CBC story

Sarkozy Condemns Burqa. President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Muslim burqa is not welcome in France, calling the face-covering, body-length gown a symbol of subservience that suppresses women's identities and turns them into "prisoners behind a screen."

There is no limit to what a person can do or how far one can go to help - if one doesn't mind who gets the credit !

ECOTERRA Intl. maintains a register for persons missing or abducted in the Somali seas (Foreign seafarers as well as Somalis). Inquiries by family member can be sent by e-mail to office[at]ecoterra-international.org

For families of presently captive seafarers - in order to advise and console their worries - ECOTERRA Intl. can establish contacts with professional seafarers, who had been abducted in Somalia, and their wives as well as of a Captain of a sea-jacked and released ship, who agreed to be addressed "with questions, and we will answer truthfully".

ECOTERRA - ALERTS and pending issues:

PIRATE ATTACK GULF OF ADEN: Advice on Who to Contact and What to Do http://www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2008-09-08-2

NATURAL RESOURCES & ARMED FISH POACHERS: Foreign navies entering the 200nm EEZ of Somalia and foreign helicopters and troops must respect the fact that especially all wildlife is protected by Somali national as well as by international laws and that the protection of the marine resources of Somalia from illegally fishing foreign vessels should be an integral part of the anti-piracy operations. Likewise the navies must adhere to international standards and not pollute the coastal waters with oil, ballast water or waste from their own ships but help Somalia to fight against any dumping of any waste (incl. diluted, toxic or nuclear waste). So far and though the AU as well as the UN has called since long on other nations to respect the 200 nm EEZ, only now the two countries (Spain and France) to which the most notorious vessels and fleets are linked have come up with a declaration that they will respect the 200 nm EEZ of Somalia but so far not any of the navies operating in the area pledged to stand against illegal fishing. So far not a single illegal fishing vessel has been detained by the naval forces, though they had been even informed about several actual cases, where an intervention would have been possible. Illegally operating Tuna fishing vessels (many from South Korea, some from Greece and China) carry now armed personnel and force their way into the Somali fishing grounds - uncontrolled or even protected by the naval forces mandated to guard the Somali waters against any criminal activity, which included arms carried by foreign fishing vessels in Somali waters.

LLWs / NLWs: According to recently leaked information the anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden are also used as a cover-up for the live testing of recently developed arsenals of so called non-lethal as well as sub-lethal weapons systems. (Pls request details) Neither the Navies nor the UN has come up with any code of conduct in this respect.

ECOTERRA Intl., whose work does focus on nature- and human-rights-protection and - as the last international environmental organization still working in Somalia - had alerted ship-owners since 1992, many of whom were fishing illegally in the 200 nm Exclusive Economic Zone, to stay away from Somali waters. The non-governmental organization had requested the international community many times for help to protect the coastal waters of the war-torn state, but now lawlessness has seriously increased and gone out of hand.

ECOTERRA members with marine and maritime expertise, joined by it's ECOP-marine group, are closely and continuously monitoring and advising on the Somali situation. (for previous information concerning the topics please google keywords ECOTERRA (and) SOMALIA)

The network of the SEAFARERS ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME helped significantly in most sea-jack cases. ECOTERRA Intl. is working in Somalia since 1986 on human-rights and nature protection, while ECOP-marine concentrates on illegal fishing and the protection of the marine ecosystems. Your support counts too.

Please consider to contribute to the work of SAP, ECOP-marine and ECOTERRA Intl. Please donate to the defence fund.

Contact us for details concerning project-sponsorship or donations via e-mail: ecotrust[at]ecoterra.net

Kindly note that all the information above is distributed under and is subject to a license under the Creative Commons Attribution.

To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/

Send your genuine articles or networked information please to: mailhub[at]ecoterra.net

Pls cite ECOTERRA Intl. - www.ecoterra-international.org as source for onward publications, where no other source is quoted.

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

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