Ecoterra Press Release 220 – The Somalia Chronicle June – December 2009, no 32
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
March 13, 2010
ECOTERRA Intl.
SMCM
Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor
ECOTERRA INTERNATIONAL - UPDATES & STATEMENTS, REVIEW & CLEARING-HOUSE
2009-08-02 SUN 13h59:18 UTC
Issue No. 220
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)
"... obligation to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it appears, and that any group of people who are degrading another group of people have to be fought against with whatever tools we have available to us. "
B. H. Obama - US-American President, who said also: The world has changed ! YES, WE CAN !
Clearing-House: Cut out the clutter - focus on facts !
(If you find this compilation too large or if you can't gasp the multitude and magnitude of important inter-related complex issues - you better do not deal with Somalia or other man-made "conflict zones". We try to make it as condensed as possibly.)
Breaking:
T/B MASINDRA 7 FREE
The Malaysian tugboat TB MASINDRA 7 with its attached Indonesian barge ADM1 is free, Captain Ernest confirmed from the bridge of the vessel steaming northwards. The all-Indonesian crew of 11 seafarers is said to be all right, given the circumstances after the presently second longest sea-jacking case. The vessel was released last night after a ransom was paid. The vessel and it's barge was captured on 16th December 2008 on the way back to Malaysia from Mukallah in Yemen, where it had been operated under a contract from French oil-giant TOTAL. Since Malaysia and Indonesia did not co-operate to achieve a fast release but left it to the Malaysian shipowner, MASINDRA SHIPPING (M) from Bandar Sultan Sulaiman - Port Klang Malaysia, the case did drag on for months with many dangerous episodes, triggered by the conning way in which the owner was handling the affairs. Over long streches the crew felt completely abandoned. One engine of the tugboat was damaged during the first night of the sea-jacking and provisionally repaired. Vessel, barge and crew therefore are approaching the nearest harbour for repairs and bunker. (ecoterra)
News from sea-jackings, abductions, newly attacked ships and vessels in distress
MV ARIANA has been moved north from the location near Cel Huur, where is was held, local observers report. The reason for the move was not immediately known, but it is expected that the captors will bring her back.
Negotiations concerning MV HANSA STAVANGER have apparently led to a new agreement it transpired and the key-figures of the hostage takers have returned to the vessel, local sources reported. This could give renewed hope for a release soon.
The xenophobic attacks by state police against Somali immigrants in Greece make the negotiations for the release of the two vessels held hostage in Somalia, which have Greek links - MV ARIANA and MV IRENE E.M. - more difficult, though the over 200 detained Somalis were freed from Greece jails.
Most of more than 200 detained Somalis have been freed from the jails in Greece, just after government police forces arrested them on Thursday, witnesses told mareeg radio on Friday.
Reports from Greece say that the release of the Somali youth came after the Interior minister of the Greece government intervened.
Abdikadir Ali Bile, one of the Somali teenagers who took part in the demonstration by more than 500 Somali people told mareeg radio that he contacted the interior minister and other officials of the Greece government over night. He requested them to solve the matter and achieved that the Somalis were released from the prisons. The police of the Greece government arrested more 200 Somalis including pregnant women.
Turkey´s military says navy commandos aboard a frigate have captured seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia´s coast.
The military says the SAT commandos aboard the frigate TCG Gediz, part of a NATO force patrolling the seas, raided the skiff Friday upon a request to block it before it could attack a ship. The military did not provide details on what ship the pirates allegedly planned to attack.
It says a navy helicopter aboard the frigate also took part in the operation.
Turkish navy commandos had captured five other pirates in a similar operation in the Gulf of Aden a week ago. Their fate is not known.
The TCG Gediz is the second Turkish ship sent to the region and is on a one-year mission.
Rumours say the seven have been released again, but independent confirmation could not be obtained.
With the latest captures and releases now still at least 13 foreign vessels (12 if M/S IO EXPLORER is truly "gone") with a total of not less than 192 crew members are accounted for (of which 44 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 harbor, 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 151 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 47 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. More than 116 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 two 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
Maritime piracy and the devastating impact on global shipping
As the modern day global community and world trade operations have become so dependent on commercial shipping in order to keep ´the industrial machine´ running: Countless criminals have seized the opportunity to exploit, terrorize, hijack and even extort merchant vessels on the high seas now more so than ever:
The bottom line?
Desperate people who have resorted to desperate measures, in order to survive in impoverished nations, which are wracked by poverty, famine, inflation, depression, lawlessness and
exasperating third world standards of living… on all fronts. It boils down to a simple way for them to acquire money, sustenance and a deviant way of simply surviving.
One might not take much notice in regards to the entire enigma… but… it is estimated that 90% of world trade and commerce if dependent on international shipping! That is a staggering figure when one considers the scope, size and magnitude of today´s global economy: Which as we know operates under the dynamics and auspices of international interdependency. No industry and trade? No economy, profit or commerce… period! The detrimental sociological, economic and financial impact could reach into the billions eventually as a direct result of global maritime piracy. As global recession increases, coupled with internal conflict in many third world countries: Droves of ´fed up and desperate´ individuals have resorted to a life of piracy on the high seas.
From the Straits of Malacca to The Gulf of Aden: Modern day ´pirates´ are on the prowl and are proliferating at an alarming rate. They are brazen and in many ways foolishly arrogant, coupled with being a bit (over)confident. The financial impact and havoc which they wreak on the global economy is and will continue to worsen in the near future, as they continue to expand their operations and execute demonstrative assaults on merchant and commercial maritime vessels around the world. This clogs up open shipping lanes of course.
From the diplomatic side, society and rulers are faced with another serious global challenge/issue which has deep underlying side effects that do not fare well for modern day economics and global trade or commerce. This concern of course carries over into the industrial and corporate realm as well. Some of the paramount issues that are inherent to this enigmatic curse are the loss of human life, serious personal injury of crew members, insurance claims concerns, theft of high dollar vessels and ships, money lost from delivery delays, loss of business and commerce as a direct result in eventual lack of confidence in customers to utilize certain shipping lines, fear and intimidation: The list can go on and on. With so much emphasis and the definitive fact that global industry, trade, commerce and economy depends solely on safe, secure and open shipping lanes: Not one country on the face of this planet can ill afford to allow the problem of modern day piracy on the high seas to get any worse that it is at this present point in time. The need to eradicate and eliminate the problem(s) will eventually be the only course of action that will prove feasible on the economic, political, corporate, diplomatic and foreign affairs front(s).
As we speak scores of international naval vessels from some 16 countries are patrolling the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia alone: In order to deter the proliferation of piracy in that region alone. The price tag that goes along with that act of providing some sort of security is staggering in itself. A taxed global economy is footing the bill to keep the vessels in the region for security purposes. Thus: Another burden on the global economy. Once and if the perpetrators are actually apprehended: The price tag goes up in regards to the monies that are spent to keep them in custody and actually try them in courts of law. Steps have been taken to alleviate that cost as well through agreements with regional governments and authorities to some degree(s). International naval and military forces face the complex task of monitoring the region through maritime surveillance and monitoring. This task is carried out by a network of air, sea, space and electronic assets and measures… to name a few. Intelligence gathering is the key and an essential necessity in any military and law enforcement campaign as well. Intelligence gathering in respect to piracy, and terrorism, is difficult in that the ability to provide reliable information on piracy groups is difficult to acquire. That aspect of monitoring suspects and groups is easier said than done. Once an A1 intelligence network is established and the flow of good information is maintained: The task of combating a criminal/terrorists element(s) becomes a much easier task. The job and efforts of those involved becomes much easier in performing the task(s) as well: Whether they be law enforcement officials and/or military units. It takes a painstaking amount of work in establishing a dependable, legitimate and reliable network alone of good informants and more. That cost a lot of money to maintain and provide as well. The costs keep mounting up as one can easily see.
As the economic and political impact of international piracy on the high seas broadens: The economic, cultural and sociological impact will worsen. International shipping is a huge business and is pretty much the catalyst of global commerce, trade and industry. If it does not run smoothly… if you will… imagine the impact that would or will have on the global economy in the immediate future. Allowing thugs and insolent individuals to continue their heinous assaults on commercial shipping and merchant vessels will only make things worse. Piracy in recent years has also reared its ugly head towards global cruise lines as well. The list goes on and on! The hijacking of the 'Maersk Alabama' incident, which transpired back in April of this year between the US Navy and Somali pirates: Provides a staunch reminder of the danger and threat to human life on both sides of the fence, which comes to play in this manner of incident. US Navy SEAL snipers were eventually employed to end the five day standoff. The hostage situation was ended by the use of deadly force in order to preserve the life of the vessels skipper... Captain Richard Phillips. Ongoing events have proven that this course of action has not deterred the pirates activities in the region whatsoever.
The business of piracy is broad and very complex. There is a lot more to its global outreach than just thugs shooting at unarmed vessels and taking the crew hostage for ransom money. With that: Viable solutions, coupled with a hard line approach to maritime piracy/pirates needs to be employed: As is the case in dealing with terrorist groups. The funds which can be utilized in a concerted global effort to eradicated piracy on the high seas will go along way in saving the global economy huge amounts of money in losses as a direct result of piracy itself. You cannot reason with insane and unreasonable people who have a desperate, fanatical and insane agenda which hinges on killing innocent people, terrorizing them, robbing them, blackmailing them, holding them for ransom, overthrowing them and more… in a plethora of skewed, delusional, psychotic, criminal thinking and anger. Scenarios can and do pan out in a myriad of ways, as the criminal mind(s) seek creative and effectual ways to skirt or even counter law enforcement officials and military intervention.
Piracy is not the only realm in which this fact is applicable. Many merchant vessels are stolen globally by pirates and used for smuggling weapons, drug trafficking, terrorist activity, black market, illegal human organ trafficking and more. A dangerous scenario to consider: Imagine if a stolen merchant vessel was outfitted with a launch gantry in the cargo hold, with an easily acquired black market SCUD missile, which could be armed and/or outfitted with a nuclear, chemical or biological warhead: Then placed off the coast of the United States in range of a major metropolitan area and/or city… by a terrorist group! Not a scenario that anyone would want to come to fruition in any form or fashion… period!
As our Naval forces and those of the international community continue to stay on patrol in the hot spots of the world: The task that they face is a daunting one that covers hundreds of thousands of square miles. Technology, weaponry and man power are key: Coupled with a need to approach the entire problem from a harsher angle with more decisive action and tactics against international maritime pirates. Political correctness is not the manner with which any nation should employ in dealing with these blatant criminals who can and do threaten our very way of life, freedom, economic prosperity, global stability and security.
If definitive action and a more rigid policy is not employed, put in place or adhered to, the pirates will only laugh in the faces of the world´s mightiest naval forces and governments and continue on their merry ways! That crime is costing the global economy an awful lot of money and sowing the seeds of fear within the merchant marine community… to name a few. Maritime piracy could eventually become the impetus for another 9/11, both for The United States and our allies. The members of The G8 and The European Union, along with the rest of the nations of the global community, can ill afford to have that occur: Especially now with the global economy in the tattered state that it is in at this point in time.
Ecosystems, marine environment, IUU fishing and dumping, ecology
Somali Parliament rejects MoU between Kenya and Somalia
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concerning the 350nm seabed claim has been at the center of debate since it was signed by Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula and Somali International Cooperation Minister Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame.
The MoU, which was signed last April in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, attempts to set a maritime boundary on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf between the two East African neighbors.
"Three hundred and forty seven legislators attended in today´s meeting, three hundred and thirty three lawmakers rejected the agreement, nine lawmakers requested the formation of a committee for the agreement, and four others demanded the postponement of the decision," said Sheik Aden Madobe, the speaker of the Somali parliament.
The Somali parliament has now on Saturday rejected the MoU signed by Kenya and Somalia.
Mohamed Qanyare, a former Mogadishu warlord and one of the lawmakers said Somali territorial waters would have been lost and requested from the parliamentarians to reject the agreement.
The lawmakers had been discussing the motion for three days in Mogadishu. Some of the MPs criticized the government about the signing of the agreement which caused heated discussions in the parliament.
For the 334 of 347 Members of Parliament, who were rejecting the MoU, MP Ahmed Abdi later told Puntland-based Radio Garowe that Somali lawmakers rejected it because "we felt that our [Somali] sovereignty was being violated."
Other lawmakers expressed their disappointment with International Cooperation Minister Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame for being absent during parliament´s deliberations.
Though objectively seen the MoU in question had no legally binding character and was seen mostly as an indication to the International Seabed authority concerning the claims of Somalia as well as Kenya to the zone beyond the 200nm EEZ and to 350nm, it is obvious that rushing African states - by setting deadlines - into potentially internationally binding agreements had been an ill-advised move on the side of the International Seabed Authority.
Anti-piracy measures
Japan to build own housing, plane tarmac in Djibouti for piracy patrols
By Kyodo News
Japan will build its own base in Djibouti to house Self-Defense Forces personnel and patrol planes involved in antipiracy operations off Somalia, government sources said Thursday.
Tokyo plans to complete a tarmac for Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C surveillance planes and housing facilities in the strife-torn country next year, the sources said. Japan currently rents facilities owned by the private sector and the U.S. military.
The plan signals Japan's deepened commitment to the antipiracy mission, which came under a new law on July 24 that expands the types of commercial ships to be escorted by the SDF.
The U.S. also asked Japan to build its own facilities to carry out full-fledged operations, the sources said.
At present, about 150 members of the Ground Self-Defense Force and MSDF stationed in Djibouti live in U.S. military lodgings near an airport. Japan also rents a hangar for two P-3C planes and trucks from an airport management company based in Dubai.
Tokyo has been negotiating with the Dubai firm to build a tarmac and housing near the airport, the sources said.
Two MSDF destroyers have been escorting vessels in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden since the mission began March 30.
The MSDF's two P-3Cs have been patrolling the gulf and conveying information on suspicious vessels to commercial ships and foreign navies since June 11.
Piracy is rampant in the gulf and off the coast of Somalia, where sea bandits, often heavily armed, have been hijacking tankers and other commercial ships so they can demand huge ransoms to free the vessels and their crew.
The United States, the European Union, Russia and China have sent naval forces to the region to fend off the pirates and many of their ships are deployed to Djibouti.
After the new antipiracy law took effect, the 4,550-ton MSDF destroyer Harusame and 3,500-ton destroyer Amagiri left their bases July 6 to take over escort duties from two other destroyers Tuesday.
In their first antipiracy operation, which ended Thursday, the two destroyers protected five vessels, including two foreign-flagged ships with no connections to Japan.
N.B.: No wonder that the French escaped already to the UAE for a new naval base - with Djibouti overcrowded by themselves, the Krauts, the Yanks and now the Japs, though the French Foreign Legion still keeps watch over the many Amharic girls flocking into the city-state, since most pimps are French. - if you do not like this comment, well it's the truth if you like it or not - and if you are a taxpayer: Please ensure during the next vote at home that those get your vote, who would ensure that in Djibouti not more foreign soldiers would be stationed than local people inhabit this tiny neo-colony and part of Greater Somalia - its the land and the sea of the Afar and the Issa - not of Merkel, Obama, Sarkozy and neither for Taro Aso nor his emperor Akihito.]
S'porean to lead flotilla
By Jermyn Chow
A Singaporean navy officer will take charge of an international anti-piracy patrol coalition to curb the escalating violence off the waters of Somalia. The Singaporean naval officer, who has not yet been selected, will be commanding more than seven navy vessels.
The commander, who will be assisted by other officers from the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) officers, will lead the Combined Task Force (CTF) 15 from next January for three months.
This is the first time a Singaporean is commander of a multinational peace support mission since Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF's) Brigadier-General Tan Huck Gim was appointed the Force Commander of the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (Unmiset) in 2002.
Currently, the flotilla is being led by the Turkish navy.
The Singaporean naval officer, who has not yet been selected, will be commanding more than seven navy vessels that come from countries including the United States, South Korea and Australia.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean announced the deployment on Friday at the Changi Naval Base.
He paid tribute to the 296 men and women who were back from their three-month stint in the Gulf. They worked onboard the Landing Ship Tank (LST) RSS Persistence, with two Super Puma helicopters.
During their watch over the pirate-infested waters, they responded to 57 calls for assistance and launched 80 helicopter sorties.
The dedication, hard work and sheer determination of each member of the Task Group has made this mission a success for Singapore.'
For their tour of duty, members of the team were awarded the SAF Overseas Service Medal.
At Friday's event, DPM Teo, who is also Defence Minister, said the deployment put paid to the SAF's ability to integrate its forces on land, air and sea. 'This demonstrates that the third-generation SAF is versatile, creative and operationally ready, capable of rapidly mobilising a wide spectrum of skills and resources to accomplish a wider spectrum of missions,' he said.
Russian task force arrives in Gulf of Aden on anti-piracy mission
A new task force from Russia's Pacific Fleet has arrived in the Gulf of Aden to fight piracy off the Somali coast, a fleet spokesman said on Thursday.
The task force, comprising the Admiral Tributs destroyer with two helicopters, a salvage tug, a tanker, and a naval infantry unit, will escort commercial ships, conduct aerial reconnaissance, and search for suspected pirate vessels.
"The task force arrived in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday and will soon start to form a convoy of commercial ships to be escorted to a secure shipping lane," Capt. 1st Rank Roman Martov said.
The Admiral Tributs is an Udaloy-class missile destroyer, armed with anti-ship missiles, 30-mm and 100-mm guns, and Ka-27 Helix helicopters
Around 35 warships from the navies of 16 countries are currently deployed off Somalia's coast to counter frequent pirate attacks on key trade routes.
The Russian Navy joined international anti-piracy efforts off Somali coast in October 2008.
Three Russian warships have so far participated in the mission - the Baltic Fleet's Neustrashimy (Fearless) frigate, and the Pacific Fleet's Admiral Vinogradov and Admiral Panteleyev destroyers.
36 Montenegrin soldiers to be sent to peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, Liberia and Somalia
A total of 36 soldiers from the Armed Forces of Montenegro are to be sent to peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, Liberia and in Somali waters, Montenegrin Defense Minister Boro Vucinic said on Friday, noting the participation in the missions was voluntary, Radio Television of Montenegro reported.
The minister rejected the claim that sending Montenegrin soldiers would contribute to the creation of national intolerance in Montenegro, and added the first rotation would be headed by a Muslim officer.
Prison device might stop pirates: Shipping CEO
One of the tools used to keep people from breaking out of prison is the answer to keeping the outlaws of the high seas from climbing on board, a Danish shipping executive says.
The same razor wire that tops prison walls and fences can be strung along deck railings to make an effective, low-cost foil to pirates, says Per Gullestrup, chief executive of Danish Clipper Projects.
In the shipping lanes off Somalia, poor, young men approach vessels with speedboats, scrambling on board with hooks, ropes and ladders, often wearing thin T-shirts, shorts or light pants and sandals.
"I dare the pirates to crawl over razor wire in the clothes they wear," said Gullestrup. "If everyone would do this, I think we could put a dent into piracy at a very low cost," he said.
Ex-Danish premier to take over NATO
The conflict in Afghanistan is set to dominate Anders Fogh Rasmussen's tenure as the new NATO secretary general, as it did that of his predecessor.
Divisions among NATO members still exist, though now they have a different focus.
Back in 2004, when Jaap de Hoop Scheffer became the new NATO secretary general, the alliance had 19 members, a small deployment of troops in Afghanistan and was dealing with the fallout of the US-led war in Iraq.
Now, five years later, NATO is getting a new leader in former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and the problems for the group seem to have gotten bigger.
NATO has grown to encompass 28 members, including France, which returned to the fold in April following a 40-year absence. The alliance also has 64,500 soldiers stationed in Afghan territory and the Iraq fallout is still there -- but now focus has turned to relations with Russia.
These are the items set to dominate the tenure of Rasmussen, who took office on August 1.
The conflict in Afghanistan is the largest military campaign in NATO's history. It's also the bloodiest, with over 1,000 Western troops killed since the alliance began operations in the region.
Many NATO members have begun to lose faith in the mission, and one by one they have begun making plans to pull out their troops.
The Dutch are expected to recall their soldiers from Afghanistan next year, and Canada is debating a 2011 pull-out. Meanwhile Great Britain's role in the conflict has come under fire at home after 22 soldiers were killed during fighting last month alone.
This leaves Rasmussen in the unenviable position of shoring up support while still making sure that no member state feels as if they are being forced to carry too much of the burden - which has happened in the past - all while keeping Muslim nations happy.
In fact, Rasmussen almost didn't get the job because of concerns expressed by Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had spoken out against Rasmussen taking the position because of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed that were printed in Danish magazines while Rasmussen was head of the government.
Divisions also remain within NATO over the question of alliance enlargement and its relationship with Russia - two issues which have become intertwined.
During the NATO summit in April 2008, members agreed that Georgia and Ukraine would be allowed to join the alliance at some point in the future.
The announcement was meant to keep the peace among those countries - like the US, Great Britain and Poland - who wanted to see the two former Soviet republics join as soon as possible and those who were warning that such a move would enrage Russia - like Germany and Italy.
Then came the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer and the gas dispute between Moscow and Kiev over the winter. These events have renewed concerns over Russia on both sides. Some members are calling for closer ties with Moscow, while others accuse Russia of trying to create a sphere of influence within Europe.
Rasmussen is also under pressure to find a new balance of power between the US, the UK, Germany and France and to deal with other issues that have surfaced such as pirates off the coast of Somalia.
As the first former head of a government to take the post, many diplomats are confident he is up to the challenge.
With also the Turkish frigates sailing under NATO command in Somali waters allegedly to deter piracy but often just harassing fishermen, the new head of NATO has certainly also some work to streamline NATO's naval operation around the Horn pof Africa, to report to the Somali Government and to make the participanting navies accountable for what they do under the NATO flag.
No real peace in sight yet
Three people have been killed near Dhabad town in Galgaduud region in central Somalia, witnesses said on Sunday.
Residents said the three people were killed in clan retaliatory issues and tension has arisen in areas between Abudqaq and Dhabd towns in central Somalia.
Rival clans have been fighting in the area for a long time. Ahlu Sunna Waljama´a officials who control Abudwaq district in Galgaud region said they sent troops to the area to capture those who were behind the killing of the three men.
Two of the three people killed in the area were a father and his son. The nomads in the area immediately started to flee in fear for further killings in clan revenge.
Ahlu Sunna Waljama´a officials vowed that they would bring to justice those who were behind the tkillings in the area, which has beenotherwise calm recently.
Hope for calm as government takes over Beletweyne
A week after government forces took control of Beletweyne in central Somalia's Hiiraan Region, residents and internally displaced people (IDPs) hope the prevailing calm will enable them to resume normal life.
"We are really hoping for peace and stability so as to go back to our homes," Sagal Ahmed, 18, an IDP in Jowhar, Middle Shabelle region, told IRIN on 30 July. "I delivered my baby as I fled fighting [in Mogadishu] on 26 July when heavy gunfire erupted in our camp between opposition forces and government. Since our displacement, the drought has made food scarce and the insecurity has affected the ability of aid agencies to reach us."
When President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed declared emergency law on 21 June, a section of Beletweyne was under the control of Al-Shabab, an Islamist opposition militia, while the government controlled the remainder.
Beletweyne residents have expressed hope for real peace since the government took full control of the town on 26 July.
"If the struggle for control of the town between the government and the Al-Shabab finally ends, then we do have a chance of accessing services such as healthcare and humanitarian assistance," a Beletweyne resident said.
According to Ali Mohamed Gedi, Beletweyne's police commissioner, a 6pm-6am curfew has been imposed on the town to restore security.
"The local people are happy about the curfew," Gedi said. "We have a good opportunity [to restore security] because the people of Hiiraan need peace and government institutions. We will lift the curfew when we are satisfied that the town's stability can be guaranteed."
Gedi added that the curfew was not affecting emergency services such as getting the sick and pregnant women to hospital.
Although business is returning to normal in the town, the government's regional and administrative offices have not reopened since they closed in 1991 following the ouster of then President Siad Barre.
On 12 July, Al-Shabab suffered a major military setback in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, when they lost significant territory to government troops.
Mogadishu has been a battleground for government troops and Al-Shabab, which controls much of the south and centre of the country.
Since fighting between the government forces and the militia group escalated in early May, more than 200,000 Somalis have fled their homes, according to the UN.
Water shortages
IDPs from 47 camps on the Afgoye corridor near Mogadishu have held demonstrations since 2 July to protest against an alleged plan by two NGOs to discontinue water provision to the camps.
The displaced - most of whom fled Mogadishu over the past three years and sought refuge in Elasha Biyaha, Hawa Abdi and Lafole IDP settlements - appealed to the Centre for Education and Development (CED) and Oxfam Novib to continue water supplies.
The demonstrations followed reports that the two NGOs were planning to discontinue water supplies because of financial constraints. The IDPs were also reacting to claims that Oxfam had halted its financial support to CED, which has rehabilitated water wells in several centres in Elasha, Hawa Abdi and Heile areas.
Nurto Islow Madey, a mother of five and an IDP at the Jimale Camp in Elasha, said the move would greatly affect people with large families like hers as accessing water was already difficult for most displaced.
Madey's husband was killed when a mortar fell on their Mogadishu home in April, leaving her the family's sole provider.
Harakat Al-Shabab Mujahideen Orders Women Near Afgoi Town to Take Veil
The Islamic administration of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen has ordered the women in villages around Afgoi town 30 kilometers south of the Somali capital Mogadishu to take veil and cover their bodies, officials told Shabelle radio on Friday.
The security forces of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen in Marerey village about 7 km south of Afgoi town in Lower Shabelle region issued an order stating that no woman could be seen walking through the village with out veil pointing out that it is an obligation to wear the women the covering.
Sheik Abdullahi Mumin Mohamed, a commander of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen in the village told Shabelle radio that they had also banned selling or chewing Kat in the public areas in the village.The security chief of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen said that they told the women who sell the Kat to bring it out of the village and not sell it there begin from that day adding that they and the residents agreed on recently to follow the step and cling to the religion of Islam.
Sheik Abdullahi said that anyone who is seen refusing the order of the Islamic administration will be taken a drastic step on the Sharia law warning to the people of the village to be away from what Allah had banned them to do and follow the Holy Kuran and Sunnah of the prophet Muhammad (Peace and bless be Upon Him).
The order of the Islamic administration of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen comes as the Islamic administration of Hisbul Islam in Afgoi town issued an order of not selling Kat in the town recently that was welcomed greatly by the people of the town in Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia.
Burundi sends troop reinforcements to Somalia
Burundi has deployed a third battalion of 850 soldiers to Mogadishu to reinforce the African Union peacekeeping mission in the Somali capital, Burundi's army said Saturday.
With the new troops, more than 5,000 soldiers from Burundi and Uganda are now taking part in the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which began in March 2007 and has cost the lives of 17 Burundian soldiers.
"Burundi had already sent two battalions, or 1,700 soldiers, to Somalia as part of AMISOM," Burundian General Lazare Nduwayo told AFP.
"It just finished overnight the deployment of a third battalion of 850 men as part of this peacekeeping mission," the army spokesman said.
The deployment took place over four days with evening flights taking the forces from Burundi's capital Bujumbura to Mogadishu, he said.
"It is completely normal that we acted in secrecy without notifying the press... mainly for security reasons," Nduwayo said.
AMISOM is the only foreign force in Somalia, which has been mired in civil war since 1991. Islamist insurgents launched an offensive in May to topple a transitional government, which is backed by the international community.
In February, 11 Burundian soldiers were killed and 15 others wounded in a suicide bombing against their camp in Mogadishu, in the deadliest single attack against the force in the war-riven Somali capital.
"Burundi has decided to honour its decision to send peacekeepers to Somalia even though we do not know when the other countries will send their promised contingents," Nduwayo said. "But we hope that this will happen soon."
Nigeria, Malawi and Sierra Leone are among possible contributors to AMISOM, which was originally supposed to include 8,000 soldiers.
But the AU has so far failed to convince other countries to deploy troops to Somalia, where past UN and US missions ended in fiascos in the 1990s.
Ethiopia also deployed troops to Somalia in late 2006 and withdrew them in 2009.
The AU extended AMISOM's mission by seven months in June. The hardline Shebab Islamist fighters warned that the measure would only worsen the violence in Somalia. (AFP)
Somalia president congratulates Puntland on 11th year anniversary
Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed "Farole," the Puntland president, attended the festivities alongside Vice President Gen. Abdisamad Ali Shire, Cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament.
The president of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has congratulated the northern State of Puntland for celebrating 11 years of peace and governance, Radio Garowe reports.
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake phoned in at an event Saturday evening held in Garowe, the capital of Puntland State.
The event was attended by hundreds of people and featured a mixture of speeches, poetry, and prayers. "Puntland is the mother of Somalia and we congratulate the Puntland people," President Sheikh Sharif said via a telephone conversation from Nairobi, Kenya. Prime Minister Sharmake, who is also in Nairobi, urged the people of Puntland to uphold the peace while praising the regional government for all its work.
Celebrations
Thousands of people gathered at Garowe Square to mark August 1, the day the State of Puntland was first established 11 years ago.
The parade featured hordes of people walking in front of the Puntland leadership, including student groups, women´s groups, sport teams, health workers, civil servants and soldiers. After the parade, President Farole gave a speech at the Puntland Development and Research Center (PDRC) in Garowe, where he described Puntland´s history and aspirations.
Puntland is located in northeastern Somalia and has had a functioning government since 1998. The regional government held a peaceful election and a smooth transition of power in Jan. 2009.
A roadside bomb has missed a car of a government official in Beledweyne town in central Somalia, officials said on Saturday.
The bomb slightly damaged the car of Moalim Aden Abdisalan , a Somali government official in charge of awareness programs in Beledweyne town in central Somalia.
Moalin Aden told reporters that the bomb wounded a girl who was passing near the place where the bomb went off.
Beledweyne is a strategic town in central Somalia. the Islamist forces vacated the town last week after more government soldiers were deployed in the city.
No group has claimed the responsibility of the attack, but such attacks are the work of al Shabab militants who claimed the suicide attack which killed Late security minister Omar Hashi Aden and former Somali ambassador to Ethiopia Abkarin Farah Laqanyo in June this year.
Another 23 Ugandan soldiers deployed in Somalia have been flown to Kenya for treatment after contracting the illness that hit the army last week.
Defence and army spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye said the soldiers have been flown to Nairobi International Hospital for treatment.
"We are awaiting to see how best they will recover," Lt. Col. Kulayigye told Sunday Monitor on phone on Friday.
He said the soldiers were evacuated to Kenya on Friday morning, after developing symptoms similar to those presented by 17 other soldiers who were admitted in critical condition.
"The seventeen soldiers who have been on treatment in Kenya are now stable" he said.
The illness hit both the Uganda and Burundi camps. The two armies who are in Somalia to pacify the country that has had one of the longest running armed conflicts on the African continent.
Over 4,000 UPDF soldiers are deployed in Somalia to pacify the country from warring parties in a war that has destabilised the Horn of Africa nation for over two decades.
Lt.Col. Kulayigye said a team from the World Health Organisation has joined the UPDF medical team to diagnose the disease.
Mogadishu disease waterborne, says UPDF
By Steven Candia
The army has identified the mysterious disease that hit Ugandan peacekeepers on an African Union mission in war torn Somalia as a strain of a bacterial, water borne infection.
The UPDF's Chief of Medical Services, Dr. James Makumbi, said investigations are yet to establish the exact disease.
"There are many water borne diseases but we are still to put a finger on the exact disease," Makumbi said.
The disease, which caused 17 Ugandans to be flown to Nairobi hospital on Wednesday and has affected over 50 Burundian peacekeepers, had fuelled speculation of poisoning.
"This has nothing to do with poisoning. Cases of poisoning do not present themselves in such a way," Makumbi said.
Contrary to earlier media reports with varied death tolls, Makumbi said only one UPDF soldier had died due to the disease.
The patients suffer from chest pain, fever, headache, swelling of the lower limbs, fast heart beat and respiratory problems.
The outbreak of the disease in Mogadishu has been caused by a number of factors including the terrain of the area, which is flat and a swamp, coupled with poor sewerage disposal, Makumbi said.
Matters were worsened by the fact that Mogadishu is a war-torn coastal city where huge numbers of displaced are concentrated in a small area.
"Owing to the fact that the water table is close, even underground water sources became contaminated with feacal matter."
Makumbi said although a few new cases were emerging, the situation had been contained.
Apart from stepping up water purification measures, he said, the army headquarters has dispatched to Mogadishu a team comprising of a public health expert and a health inspector.
Their efforts are being supported by a team from the World Health Organisation already in the area and another team from the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) which is on the way.
"Samples have already been collected and taken by the WHO team for further investigations," he said.
The epidemic broke out about a week ago, affecting both the Ugandan and Burundian contingents.
Uganda and Burundi are the only two countries that have heeded the call from the African Union to send peacekeepers to Somalia. But the 4,300 force, the majority of whom are Ugandans, falls short of the 8,000 needed to secure Mogadishu alone.
Impacting reports from the global village
Former Somali senior military officials to meet in U.S.
The UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) said on Friday it was convening a workshop for former Somali senior military officials under the auspices of the Somali Ministry of Defense next week in Washington.
A statement from UNPOS issued in Nairobi said the Aug. 1 to 5 workshop, which follows a preparatory forum held in June, will bring together former high ranking officers from the military, police, custodial and intelligence services for in-depth discussions on both the historical background of the Somali security forces, and on the re-establishment and the strengthening of the capacity of the security sector institutions in Somalia.
"In keeping with the spirit of the Djibouti process, this is an opportunity for the former Somali military leaders to contribute to the rebuilding of their nation," the UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said.
Engaging the former leadership of the Somali Forces is expected to enable them to share their institutional memory and know-how with the current leadership.
Vietnam calls for international support to government
Vietnam calls for vigorous international support for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia in its endeavours to repel attempts to destroy the Djibouti peace process and spoil the efforts to bring peace and stability to the country.
The Vietnamese representative to the United Nations Security Council, Ambassador Le Luong Minh made the statement at the council´s briefing on Somalia in New York on July 29.
Ambassador Minh strongly condemned attacks against the TFG, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), UN staff and innocent civilians. "We are particularly concerned about the extremely alarming humanitarian situation in Somalia with over one million people internally displaced," he said.
However, the diplomat commended the political progress achieved under the Djibouti Agreement and support the continued efforts undertaken by President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed to encourage parties that are still outside the agreement to join the national reconciliation process.
He took the occasion to call for UN member states and regional organisations to expedite the provision of contributions to the UN Trust Funds to provide the TFG with adequate assistance to rebuild Somalia ´s security institutions and train its security forces.
On the problem of piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia , Ambassador Minh highlighted the effectiveness of the cooperation and coordination exhibited by UN Member States in the fight against piracy.
"We still believe that, in the long run, the scourge of piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia will only be resolved thoroughly through an integrated approach that addresses the conflict, the lack of governance and the absence of sustainable livelihoods on land in Somalia ," he noted.
He emphasised that solutions to peace and stability in Somalia requires closer cooperation and a more effective partnership between the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union (AU) and the League of Arab States (LAS).
"We continue to support a strong role of the UN in strengthening this cooperation and partnership with a view to assisting the Government and people of Somalia to bring about peace and stability for this country," the Vietnamese diplomat.
U.S. issues travel warning for Kenya
A high rate of violent crime and threats from terrorism should be a consideration for anyone considering traveling to Kenya, according to the State Department. The government's latest warning is an update of a previous alert to update travelers on security concerns near the borders with Somalia and Ethiopia. Read the State Department's Travel Warning for Kenya.
US: Clinton Should Stress Human Rights on Africa Trip
Seven-Nation Visit Should Urge Accountability and the Rule of Law
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should emphasize human rights on her seven-nation trip to Africa, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Clinton.
The 11-day trip, to begin on August 4, will take Clinton to Kenya, South Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, and Cape Verde. While in Kenya, Clinton will also meet with the president of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government.
In the letter, Human Rights Watch called on Clinton to urge the power-sharing Kenyan government to hold accountable those responsible for human rights abuses committed in the aftermath of the December 2007 elections and to implement urgently needed reforms of Kenya's security and justice sectors.
"Kenyans are losing faith in their politicians," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The government's failure to ensure justice for the victims of the post-election violence threatens to undermine Kenya's stability and impede its economic development."
Clinton should encourage Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed to support the establishment of a commission of inquiry into serious crimes Somalia, home to one of the most acute human rights and humanitarian crises on the continent, Human Rights Watch said. (by all the warring parties )
In South Africa, she should urge the new government of President Jacob Zuma to play a more proactive role on foreign policy matters on the continent, particularly in pressing for human rights reforms by its neighbor, Zimbabwe, where the army continues to commit abuses with impunity, including in the eastern diamond fields of Marange.
Clinton should call on the Angolan government to rein in its armed forces and ensure that they abide by international human rights and humanitarian law in Cabinda, Angola's oil-rich enclave, where Human Rights Watch has documented arbitrary detention and torture, and in Lunda Norte, a diamond-rich area on the Congolese border, where Human Rights Watch has recently found pillaging, arbitrary detention, and rape in the process of the mass expulsions of migrants.
Human Rights Watch also called on Clinton, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to urge the prosecution of all military personnel, regardless of rank, who have committed serious human rights abuses, particularly sexual violence. In the past 11 years, tens of thousands of girls and women in eastern Congo have been raped. While some low-ranking soldiers have been prosecuted for such offenses, not one senior commander has been brought to account.
In Nigeria, Clinton should denounce corruption and mismanagement of natural resources, which deny Nigerians basic rights to the highest attainable standard of health and education, Human Rights Watch said.
And in Liberia, Clinton should stress the importance of fair, credible prosecutions for the most serious crimes committed during Liberia's armed conflicts, and urge the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to establish commissions that would promote reforms in key areas such as human rights, the rule of law, and land disputes, which were at the root of Liberia's conflicts.
"The US rightly wants to promote Africa as a place of great opportunity, but Africans will be unable to realize their potential if their human rights are denied," Gagnon said. "Secretary Clinton should make this connection clear."
Somali-born travellers pay a price
By John Goddard for Toronto Star
Kenyan airport official threatened Toronto man with jail. After handing over $50, he boarded flight
Seeing a woman desperately stranded in Kenya calls to mind other horror stories for Toronto Somali-born travellers.
"Many people have a very bad problem there," says Hussein Adani, a former Somali track star and owner of New Bilan restaurant on Dundas St. E. Adani was returning from a two-month visit to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in 2000 when airport passport police stopped him.
It was the sort of holdup that has caused trouble for Toronto single mother Suaad Hagi Mohamud, so desperate after two months of trying to prove she is the woman in her four-year-old passport photo, that she went to court to have Canadian consular officials take her DNA this week.
"They have two signs," Adani said yesterday of the departure terminal at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. "One says 'Africans,' the other says 'Europeans and North Americans,' " he recalled. "I am Canadian. I lined up at the second sign."
When airport police asked why he was in the wrong line, Adani showed his Canadian passport and a visitor's visa issued by the Kenya High Commission in Ottawa.
"They told me, 'You will have a problem,' " he said. "They told me, 'We'll put you in jail, you will have to buy a new ticket tomorrow and your luggage will be gone.'
"I put $50 in my passport and gave it to the officer," Adani said. "When they opened it and saw the money, they said, `Thank you.'"
At Nairobi airport, every Somali-born Torontonian knows to expect to pay a bribe, said outreach worker Maryan Ali at North York Community House.
"They take only American money," she said of the airport police. "They look at the date and ask for the newest, 2000 and up. It is well known."
Such incidents are on the rise, said Mahad Yousuf, director of Midaynta Community Services. "People are travelling back and forth and asking us for help."
Calls to the Kenya High Commission in Ottawa went unreturned yesterday. In 2008, Transparency International said the chance of being asked for a bribe when dealing with Kenyan police was 93 per cent.
To make matters worse, relations between native Kenyans and ethnic Somalis remain tense. Since 1991, Somali refugees have been pouring over Kenya's northern border by the hundreds of thousands and an Islamist insurgency in Somalia threatens the entire region.
As a result, ethnic Somalis in Kenya are treated with suspicion even at the Canadian High Commission, community leaders say.
"The inadequate and sometimes casual attitude of the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi" exacerbates Kenya's "well documented history of institutional corruption," said Ebyan Farah, spokesperson for the Ottawa-based Canadian Somali Congress.
For Mohamud, callous treatment has extended to Ottawa's highest levels.
After she showed a dozen Canadian ID cards, spent weeks persuading Canadian consular officials to take her fingerprints and won a federal court action to have them take her DNA, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said she wasn't doing enough. "The individual has to be straightforward, has to let us know whether or not she is a Canadian citizen," Cannon told media after the federal court decision.
Yesterday, a spokesperson said Cannon had nothing to add.
Mohamud's DNA swabs are to arrive in a Vancouver lab on Tuesday to be matched with those from her ex-husband and son.
Meet Suaad Hagi Mohamud, the "Canadian refugee"
By Raveena Aulakh for TorontoStar and Nick Wadhams
Canadian refugee' a Nairobi celebrity - Strangers in street offer support to woman detained for not looking like her passport photo.
At her dingy Nairobi hotel, in the malls and on the streets of the Kenyan capital, that's how the 31-year-old Toronto woman has come to be known in the past few weeks.
"It sounds strange but the local newspapers have written about me and so people recognize me when I go outside," said Mohamud, who has been stranded in Nairobi for more than two months.
In that time, she has become a celebrity of sorts because two Nairobi newspapers, the Daily Nation and The Standard, have written about her plight, she says.
The BBC and some local TV channels have also run stories about her while the blogosphere has gone ballistic with stories chronicling her nightmare.
Somehow, somewhere, she was called the Canadian refugee. The name stuck.
"I could have never imagined that I would be called a refugee," she said yesterday by phone from Nairobi.
"I feel sad but I know people care about my situation and that's why they are writing about it."
Mohamud was on her way back to Toronto on May 21 when she was detained at Nairobi's airport for not looking like her four-year-old passport photo.
The Canadian High Commission in Kenya later said she was an imposter and cancelled her passport.
Mohamud has done everything to return home to her 12-year-old son.
People have stopped her on the streets and asked her how she was arrested at the airport, who put her into jail and if she needs any help.
One woman, three children in tow, even asked her to pose for a photograph.
Her story has created a buzz in Canada, especially Toronto, which has a large Somali population.
Two Toronto newspapers, Somali Canadian Times and Toronto Somali Press, have been highlighting Mohamud's case, said Mahad Yusuf, executive director of Midaynta Community Services, a settlement organization.
"Everyone knows what's happened with her," Yusuf said.
Most people are sad and angry but not surprised, he said. "It's not the first time a Somali has been harassed overseas. The community has had strange experiences when travelling, especially in Nairobi."
He said incidents of Somali expats being arrested, detained and thrown into jail by Kenyan officials have escalated in the past few years.
Their stories have been discussed threadbare by people, but what has sustained interest in Mohamud's case is the absurdity of it all, said Mohamed Busuri, editor of the Somali Canadian Times. "It's unbelievable (they) stopped her because her lips didn't match (those in her photo)," he said.
"People are talking about her and her son everywhere."
Mohamud, her ex-husband and son have submitted DNA samples to prove to the Canadian government she is who she says she is.
Detainee's son, ex-mate provide DNA
By John Goddard
Samples aim to prove woman stranded in Kenya seeking return to Canada is who she says she is
An ex-husband and young son gamely opened their mouths to federal agents yesterday, offering DNA samples to resolve questions about the passport photo of a Toronto woman stranded in Africa.
Asbscir Hussein, 42, and son Mohamed Asbscir Hussein, 12, allowed a federally appointed lab technician to photograph them twice, take their right thumbprints and swab their mouths four times – left, right, up, down.
Both subjects signed and initialed everything, along with consent forms and photocopies of their identity cards, overseen all the while by two intelligence officers from the Canada Border Services Agency.
Ottawa's intention is to compare the samples to those taken Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, from Suaad Hagi Mohamud – living in limbo mostly at slum hotels since being stopped departing for Toronto more than two months ago for not looking like her four-year-old passport photo.
DNA results are expected within 10 working days.
"Why don't you believe her?" ex-husband Hussein said he asked intelligence officer Andy Jenkins at a private interview after submitting the swabs.
"Maybe she is helping her sister," came the reply, the ex-husband recalled afterward.
If two sisters closely resemble each other, the theory goes, they might try to share a Canadian passport even if one is not Canadian.
Jenkins would not confirm or deny floating the hypothesis. An agency spokesperson refused to answer further questions.
But, so far, the suspicion that the woman in the passport photo might be Suaad Hagi Mohamud's sister is the only one Ottawa has advanced to justify the unprecedented step of taking DNA samples from a Canadian citizen to resolve a passport photo question.
The hypothesis first surfaced second-hand from the federal justice department this week and was quickly denied.
Mohamud insists the photo is of herself. She has travelled twice before to Kenya on the same passport without a problem, she says.
She doesn't have any sisters, she also points out. And her four half-sisters – by the same father – don't look like her, she says.
"They are older," Mohamud said from Nairobi, her voice over the cellphone sounding high-pitched and strained with frustration.
"The youngest is about 15 years older than me," she said. "I am not in touch with them."
She said she thinks all four half-sisters live in Europe.
Toronto neighbour and friend Fartun Mohamed said she went to school in Mogadishu with all four: Maymuna, Amina and twins Makaba and Mulka.
Maymuna was still living in the Waldaag suburb of Mogadishu when Mohamed last saw her on a 2005 visit. The others live in Europe, she said.
Ex-husband Hussein said he thinks Makaba lives in Denmark, another one in Holland and two others in the United Kingdom.
Since being stopped at the airport 10 weeks ago, Suaad Hagi Mohamud has spent four days in airport custody, eight days in Nairobi's Langata Women's Prison and faces being jailed again or deported to her native Somalia unless Canada accepts her identity.
Canada to seek clemency if Canadian convicted in Ethiopia sentenced to death
The Conservative government says it will seek clemency for Bashir Makhtal if the Ethiopian government sentences him to death next week.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon says Canada has asked Ethiopia that Makhtal not face the death penalty. Makhtal is to be sentenced next week after being found guilty this week in Addis Ababa on terrorism-related charges.
Makhtal, born in Ethiopia, settled in Canada as a refugee and later moved to Kenya, opening a used-clothing business.
He was working in Somalia when Ethiopian troops invaded in late 2006 and fled back to Kenya, but he was detained along with several others at the Kenya-Somalia border.
He was charged with being a member of the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front - an allegation he denies.
Fun And Games With Human Misery
By Ethan Zuckerman
Here´s a fun game to play with friends, particularly friends who work on social ventures or other world-changing projects. Ask each person what issues they´d work on if they were given $500 million, $50 million or $5 million dollars to spend. With thoughtful friends, you´ll get different answers for different funding levels. It´s not realistic to tackle huge global problems – curing malaria, building sewage and fresh water systems for villages worldwide – at the $5m level, but you often learn about fascinating problems that might be solvable with a small amount of concerted effort.
My $5 million answer is usually "natural-gas flaring", a practice that´s so environmentally irresponsible and dangerous for communities that it should be a no-brainer to guilt global petroleum companies with $5 million of focused bad publicity. (Part of the fun of the game is that you can argue with your friends about how much money is realistic to tackle any of these problems.)
The best $50 million answer I heard lately came from my friend Colin McCormick, a physics and policy wonk in DC, who wonders whether you could destroy the small arms trade that enables violent insurrection around the world with $50 million worth of research on ceramics. His idea was to create a ceramic that could be placed within 7.62 shells, the ammunition used in AK-47s and other inexpensive assault rifles. When detonated, the shell would trigger a chemical change in the ceramic, causing it to expand and bond to the rifled barrel. Guns fired using these rounds would become unusable. The idea would be to mix small numbers of compromised rounds into ammo released through the global arms trade, in the hopes of making it increasingly dangerous to buy illegal ammo without risking destruction of weapons.
I have no idea whether such an idea is realistic, but it´s one of the few ideas I´ve heard that might have an impact on the global small arms trade. While controls exist to prevent the sale of ammunition to anyone other than legitimate government entities, these controls are routinely skirted, and a dealer with a small number of the right connections is able to make millions very quickly selling ammunition to forces who aren´t able to legally purchase weaponry.
The fine folks at the Small Arms Survey produce countless publications on the arms trade. But very few are as entertaining and easy to read as an 8-page cartoon they published by Robert Butler. Titled "Adventures of a Would-Be Arms Dealer", it tells the story of an arms control inspector who flies to Rwanda, bribes an old friend to produce an end-user certificate (specifying that arms are to be sold to the Rwandan army), and then arranges a deal to purchase and transport 2 million rounds of 7.62 shells to rural Somalia. He concludes that, with an upfront investment of $500,000, he could turn a million dollar profit with little more than a trip to Kigali and a couple of phone calls.
As I read the story, I realized I knew most of the terminology used, not from a close study of the issue, but from Frederick Forsyth´s classic novel, "The Dogs of War". In the novel, Forsyth outlines in extremely specific detail the machinations necessary to mount a coup in a nation that sounds a whole lot like Equatorial Guinea. At least two failed coups in Equatorial Guinea – one in 1973 and the more recent Wonga Coup - have been linked to Forsyth´s novel. (Some have linked Forsyth to the 1973 coup, which he admits knowing about and researching, though won´t admit to charges he helped finance it.) The methods his characters used to obtain end-user certificates and buy ammunition in Eastern Europe are almost identical to those that Butler outlines almost 35 years later.
For me, either the suspiciously accurate novel or the eminently readable comic go a long way in turning a distant – though critical – concern into a real, tangible problem. It makes me wish that more journalists and activists would look for creative ways to tell these stories and make them more real to readers.
Along that line, I have to offer a shout-out to Wired´s recent coverage of Somali piracy. I think this is a stupid story to be following – it´s more spectacle than substance and doesn´t do much to help people understand why the situation in Somalia is so desperate – but a recent set of Wired stories does an excellent job of turning a distant story into a tangible one.
Noah Schactman and Scott Carney offer an interview with a Somali pirate that helps explain the economics of the trade. It´s illustrated with a video made by pirates aboard a ship they´d recently captured. The video is pretty remarkable – it´s the sort of braggadochio you and your friends might engage in had you just seized a multi-million dollar ship with the reasonable expectation that you´d be able to ransom it for millions of dollars.
But the piece de resistance is Cutthroat Capitalism, a flash game that invites you to man a small boat out of Eyl, pick likely looking targets in the Gulf of Aden, board them and negotiate ransom. I quickly picked up a cruise ship, fed my hostages, acted erraticly while on the satphone to the negotiator and collected a $4 million ransom. With buttons that let you beat or kill hostages, it´s one of the more cold-blooded simulations I´ve ever seen, but does an effective job of making it clear that piracy is deeply profitable for those involved.
Failure to Deliver: The Journey of the Oromo Liberation Front in the Last Two Decades - Editorial on ethioplanet.com
By writing this article, I understand that I am touching on one of the most closely guarded taboos, the untouchability of the OLF. I also understand that, because so many precious lives were sacrificed under the banner of this organization, emotions run very high at the mention of criticism. But I have the right and the duty to share my views and ideas regarding our movement. I have no intention to inflict any discomfort on any particular individual or group, I have tried to be as impartial as possible but if anyone is personally offended, I hope you will grant me forgiveness.
The article touches on some of the most controversial topics in our politics; therefore, I plead with my readers to patiently and soberly look through the entire essay in order to get the overall message: Note: This is not a research or scholarly paper, it is purely based on my understanding of the issue from informal discussion I had with former and current members of the leadership, active and retired members, ex-soldiers in Oromia and abroad, discussion forums, public gatherings and what I observed in Oromia over the past years. In this article OLF refers to all the three faction that are using the name, and the general criticism is fully applicable to all Diaspora based political organizations.
Introduction
THINK BIG! Wrote one of my heroes, a man who suffered years of incarceration in the notorious Ethiopian prison for the just cause of the Oromo people. That man is honorable Ibsaa Guutamaa, whose book, "The Prisoner of Conscience" details the moral, psychological and physical degradation inflicted upon Oromo nationalists in Mengistu´s prison, is one of the most moving books I ever read. He recently, published an article appealing to all OLF factions to overcome their division and forge a united front. Although I totally respect his genuine call for unity, I must disagree with this hero of mine by saying that the OLF has been damaged beyond repair. The beloved organization of our people has outlived its purposefulness and continuing to cover up the wounds would cause more harm to the movement than benefit.
It has been years since OLF has ceased to be the pride of the Oromo people and has transformed itself to a source of shame and disappointment by facilitating disintegration, growth of regionalist sentiment and retardation of the movement in general. This essay is not a response to Obbo Ibsaa´s latest article; rather it is an attempt to present a case against wasting time, energy and resources to resuscitate an organization that will not likely benefit the Oromo anymore. I will argue that because of weak, undisciplined and incompetent leadership, through exile politics and a cult-like outdated organizational tradition, the OLF could not produce any result over the past decade, therefore brought its own demise. Furthermore, the destructive internal conflict has intoxicated the organization beyond any repair that plastering it together will further spread the poison into the Oromo public.
This essay is organized in four parts; the first part identifies the primary cause of the problem, which is lack of action, and the second part deals with factors that exacerbated the inefficiency of the front. The third part will make case why reforming the organization may not be possible and the last part contains suggestions for the way forward.
Part I : Misdiagnosing the Root Cause and Dealing with the Symptoms
Lack of Action: Broken Promises, Fabricated Accomplishments and Its Consequences
It´s common to hear words such as "Oromo people and OLF are one in the same", "OLF is the vanguard of Oromo people" and "the Oromo struggle is unthinkable without OLF". These loaded words have been deeply engraved in our psyche that we do not even see how erroneous and misleading they are both to the leaders and supporters of the organization. If we just take away our emotional attachment to the organization and assess its accomplishment vis-a-vis its stated goal, we can see how wrong these words are. An organization, be it a business or political, must be evaluated based on it´s merit and practical accomplishment not based on how articulate its mission statement is, or whether it has taken up the right cause.
There is no question that OLF´s political program effectively reflects the just demand of Oromo people. However, over the past two decades, OLF has been in a downward spiral, despite the unparalleled financial and moral support it received from the Oromo public both at home and abroad, the organization cannot show a single achievement under its belt during this period of time. It has not freed an inch of land in Oromia, or had a single victory against the enemy. But by repeatedly and falsely convincing ourselves about the greatness of the organization, we supporters, failed to demand results from the leadership. Leaders, using slogans and excuses, instead of showing results avoid fulfilling their responsibility and taking accountability for their failures. The insignificant achievement of the organization year after year has produced low expectations. A nation that settles for mediocre gains ends up with no gain at all.
It´s a simple common sense that victory is instrumental in forging unity while lose and underachievement brings shame and disunity. When a company reports gain, stockholders are happy, and the CEO is rewarded a bonus. More investors will be attracted and the company grows. If the company does not make profit, investors withdraw their share which weakens the company and eventually goes bankrupt. The Oromo people heavily invested their property and the lives of their children into OLF, but they have seen no dividend from the organization over the past two decades. Failing to satisfy the public, instead of assessing their problem and coming out with solutions, the leadership of the organization continued to fabricate excuses about the geopolitical hardships, the changing of the international geopolitical dynamic and the uniqueness of the enemy. Such excuses gradually became unacceptable to the new generation of students who joined the organization in mass in the last decade but to find out that the organization they once revered has been taken hostage by cunning authoritarian state, Eritrea.
When fabrication and exaggeration was not enough to quell the anger and frustration of the members and soldiers the leaders turned into labeling them as regionalists in order to isolate the dissenters and destroy the reformist push. In turn the sidelined and frustrated officers also began grouping those from their own region as others shunned them under the propaganda of the establishment.
Primordial (preexisting) regional and clan affinities provide fertile ground for this kind of clique formation. Outsiders (Oromos who do not know the inner working of OLF), often make wrong generalization by looking at such clique formation by confusing the symptom, regional grouping, with the cause, lack of action. They fail to understand that to cover his own failure to deliver result, the top leader resorts to surrounding himself with "yes-men", who often happens to be from his own area but whose view by no means can represent the general sentiment of that particular region. The dissenters, who are the underdogs of the game, play in the hand of such leaders by creating their own regional power base. The establishment leader often wins the battle of propaganda because not only does he have the first strike advantage but also because he uses the entire backing of the institution, particularly the media. The end is obvious; the opposition leaves and forms its own faction.
For instance, it was quite common few years back to hear people complaining about Wallagaa´s sabotaging the struggle. Such sentiment, in addition to misidentifying the cause of the failure, misses one critical issue. Those leaders who failed the struggle might happen to be from that region, but they do not represent the people of Wallagaa who never voted to elect them in the first place. In the organization, they represent themselves, but they form cliques to relieve themselves of taking responsibility for their action and inaction. Even if they were true representatives of that region, individuals not the people who voted bears responsibility for failing to fulfill their duty.
A diagram - summarizing the life cycle of the crisis within OLF - especially over the past two decades -, shows the wave of problems that develop within an inefficient organization that lacks action. www.ethioplanet.com-news-wp-content-uploads-2009-07-olf-diagram.jpg
Leaders of such organization often have to fabricate excuses or achievements in order to stay in power. But some members who reject the fabrication begin demanding tangible action from the leaders who respond by suppressing the dissent. As openly airing of dissatisfaction is no longer an option, secret cliques of dissent form. So far, the problem brews only within active members. However the dissenters, overpowered by institutionally backed establishment, leak the information in order to expose the leaders. They do so to gain support and sympathy for their side. The establishment also leaks information aimed at defaming the dissenters. The public, who usually do not have the full picture of the problem, begin to contemplate conspiracy theories about the problem. Such often unsubstantiated rumors are always taken advantage of by the competing factions to strengthen regional/clan power base bringing the organization into turmoil.
Part II: Sources of Insufficiency
In the first part, I have discussed how lack of action perpetuated the crisis within OLF and damaged it beyond repair. I have suggested that growth of regionalism and incompetent leadership are mitigating factors that are the by-product of the chaotic life cycle of an organization that lack action. Now I must answer the legitimate question. Why did the organization lack such necessary action to avoid the problem in the first place? In this part, I present three major factors that hindered the organization from delivering the much needed action. The first factor, forces us to look back into the history of the organization and understand that the front inherited deep and complicated political tradition that prevented the leadership from dealing the root cause. The second and third factors are new phenomenons that the organization faced during the last decade or so.
a) Inherited Destructive Organizational Traditions
OLF is a foster child of the student movement that brought the revolution; as such it shares some common organizational behaviors and characteristics with all other organizations that came out that era, such as the EPRP, TPLF and EPLF. Some of these characteristics are lack of political civility, sense of entitlement and the desire to control everything and everyone within the society they claim to represent. These behaviors are the result of the situation they came out of, therefore we must look at the social and political climate under which the student movement was created, formed and developed into political parties.
After the 1960´s coup attempt blew off the lid of "untouchability" from Harresillassie, students began debating and discussing politics, breaking the taboo of " zim bala af zimb aygebam"- a mouth that remains shut has no worry for flies. However, the absence of any culture of political dialogue prior to that era means the young students had to deal with the highly charged communist theory without any prior knowledge about political civility that is essential for constructive debates to take place. Thus, it was common for discussions and debates to heat-up and name calling and fighting to ensue. Policy and ideological debates were assumed to be ways of differentiating the winner from the looser which usually led to jubilation and humiliation. Arguments were taken so personally that it usually resulted in the formation of cliques. Character assassination politics that have been too common among Ethiopian politicians has its origin to that era.
The situation got worse when the regime moved to suppress the student movement. To overcome the persecution of the security forces, the discussions and debates went underground, through formation of small cells, where secrecy was crucial. Those underground cells were the breeding ground for the already rife Abyssinian debtera culture of suspicion and conspiracy. The debtera tradition is one that is full of secrecy, conspiracy and backstabbing. In that world, there are clear winners and losers. Concepts such agreeing to disagree and power sharing are unknown. If a group member disagrees with a view held by the majority, he was excluded from the cell and begins his own defamation campaign against his former friends often by creating new cliques. The underground world made it difficult to differentiate credible information from fabricated vengeful accusations. This created a favorable condition for individuals to falsely accuse those who disagree with them.
Thus, the two political parties that came out of the student movement, MEISON and EPRP, and the later ones such as OLF, were built by individuals who had their first political training on the chaotic campus and the underground world. The revolutionaries were known for fighting over nothing and suspecting everything. It is now clear MEISON and EPRP, although lead by some of the brightest individuals, destroyed each other practically over insignificant differences.
Founders of OLF brought good share of that political tradition with them, that one should not be surprised to find out that the leaders spend most of their time chasing rumors than developing fact based strategy. When the first power struggle broke out, Jaarraa was accused of conspiring with Somalia to spread Islam, and his team in return hit back by labeling OLF as a Protestant organization. If a leader disagrees with a person from Shawa, the accepted tactic was to tie him with the dead Gobana - a sellout, regardless of that person´s merits and records. This has contributed to insignificant participation and representation of Shawa in OLF - despite its numerical and strategic importance.
How people like Lencho Leta were dealt with is another example. Although he was one of the founding members of the organization who played critical role, mostly good but some unforgettable mistakes, after 1993, so many rumors, conspiracy theories and accusations were orchestrated about him. Some called him a sleeper agent, other accused of selling the cause to TPLF, and some swore that he is not even an Oromo. Here is what is interesting, those ridiculous rumors were mostly fabricated by individuals who know the man from childhood, and never raised such issues while working with him for decades. There is no doubt that Lencho´s mistakes have played critical role in the disastrous encampment of the OLA, but he was not solely responsible. The remaining leadership embarked on the defamation campaign in order to paint Lencho as a sellout and enemy infiltrator, then blame him for everything that went wrong–so that they can be relieved of accountability. This tradition is so widespread within the organization that it has become the most preferred method of covering up issues and discrediting one another. It has also contributed to the infamous extreme negative reaction against critics and the common practice of outsourcing cause of failure by fabricating excuses. Never admitting mistakes and blame-game is a shared characteristic of all those organizations and individuals that came out of the student movement.
Before falling under subjugation, the Oromo had no hierarchical social structure, that all men regardless of their wealth or political role were considered equal. The poor and rich dined together, even the Abba Gada never received a bow from a layman. The Abyssinians were different; strict hierarchical division based on wealth, family and power were enforced. Sense of entitlement was so strong amongst those rich and powerful. The youth who established our movement was by large trained under such system that, although they rose against it, they could not completely free themselves from this culture of entitlement. This was clear from the very beginning as the educated were so elitist that they staged a coup against Jaarra Abbagadaa simply because they felt that he was not good enough since he had no "modern" education.
As the organization moved on, education as a source of entitlement was replaced by the years one has spent with organization. Although hundreds of highly skilled soldiers and well qualified intellectuals joined the organization, they were denied the opportunity to utilize their skills and knowledge to benefit the front. This has immensely contributed to the lack of effective leaders the movement desperately needed.
One of the main characteristics of the leftist organizations was their obsession to control every aspect of their society. They are so obsessed with controlling the mind. Such organization, who always claim to be the "vanguard" of the cause regardless of their popularity and strength, work so hard to make sure that their constituency falls under their absolute monopoly. The youth, the women, the elders, the religious institution and business are expected to be organized under the vanguard party. Information flows through tightly controlled, top-to-bottom structure.
The political forces that emerged from the student movement were led by individuals who worshiped Mao Zedong and Stalin , so they embraced such undemocratic, rigid and control freak organizational model. The TPLF today controls the youth, women and farmers associations, the church, the mosque, the media, businesses and almost every aspect of the Ethiopian people. OLF, which claims to oppose such totalitarianism, wastes so much time and resource to control the Oromo community association, the scholarly organization, Maccaa Tuulamaa, Waaqeffannaa, churches, mosques, and the media including the Internet if they can. Unfortunately for OLF, the time when people accepted such control in the name of satisfying the vanguard, has passed as citizens are sick and tired of any kind of dictatorships, be it individual, party or a state. Unlike Woyane and Shyabia, it had no state power to enforce its desire, therefore every attempt it makes to control civic associations has backfired.
In general, as the product of the 1970´s student movement, OLF has done so much for the Oromo people by challenging and destroying the Abyssinian cultural and political colonialism. Unfortunately it has also inherited all the evils of the Abyssinian hierarchical culture and the totalitarian leftist organizational tradition. As time changed, these inherited organizational and structural norms have contributed to the slow death of the front.
b) Exile Politics: The Reality Gap and Sucking the Energy Out of the Grassroots
When they left the charter in 1992, the OLF leaders abandoned their soldiers and supporters without any notice or guidance. The chaos and confusion that followed caused general breakdown of the command structure where rules and discipline were ignored, and some rogue soldiers committed unspeakable crimes against their own people, especially in Hararge. The disorganized and leaderless soldiers fell pray for the well financed and effectively commanded Shabiya-Woyane coalition that, despite the heroic defense by the field commanders, effectively removed OLA from its liberated zones. The organization that was believed to have some forty thousand soldiers was left with a small fraction of that, as many perished and the majority were rounded up and thrown to jail or just gave up. The blame-game that flared up amongst the leadership, soon after, further disabled the front from regrouping and hitting back.
Although OLF claims to be led by a National Assembly comprised of some forty or so people, since late 1990s, there is no single individual who resides within the Oromian soil. The vast majority of the leadership reside in the Western countries where they wage cyber politics while the remaining few have taken comfortable refuge under the wing of the Eritrean dictator.
An organization that has its leadership in exile cannot lead a struggle because of two simple realities. First, presence of a leader amongst his supporters and soldiers has significant symbolic role both in strengthening party cohesion as well as boosting moral. It is morally indefensible for a leader of any movement, let alone, an armed front, to sit in a safe and comfortable place and urge oppressed and poor people to die. Soldiers and followers need a leader who can command them by example, by starving and surviving with them. The presence of a leader amongst fighters boosts their confidence, loyalty and commitment.
OLF leaders betrayed their members and the Oromo people by running away when the time got tougher, as a result not only did they lose respect but also numerous conspiracy theories were developed about the true desire of the leadership. Second, an exiled leader faces serious reality gap. Policies and strategies that are developed based on second-hand and heresy information are sure to fail. The political, social, environmental and economic realities of today´s Oromia are dramatically different than they were when OLF leaders left Oromia over a decade ago.
Departure of the leadership moved the center of the struggle from Oromia to the Diaspora. The more the leadership stayed away from the homeland, the more dependent they became on the Diaspora for support, which forced them to cater to their views and demands. Leaders prioritized the satisfaction of the Diaspora base so the dollar would continue to flow that, they ignored the burning plight of the peasants in Oromia. An interesting evidence of this can be observed from the annual display of pictures of soldiers to arouse emotions and convince supporters about victories it had never accomplished.
A rebels´ success depends on how well its structures are intertwined with the people and land it fights to liberate. A rebel that is dependent on its mass has to continue to improve its performance both in expanding its control, and defend the peasant from enemy attack. Thus, the necessity of gaining material and tactical support from the peasants necessitates an insurgent movement to continue delivering tangible results. Since OLF leadership, in the past decade or so, did not really rely on the Oromo peasants, they did not have to fulfill their duty in order to survive. The Diaspora, who do not deal with daily abuse by the oppressive system, do not truly see the fierce urgency someone in Oromia feels.
That is why, leaders and supporters of OLF who live outside Oromia rather derail the struggle forever than see their perspective views and faction lose this endless war of words. It is also important to note that even if all Oromo political factions in the Diaspora reconcile and united by some miracle, they cannot produce any result as long as the leadership remains in exile
Oromos must learn from the experience of the Tibetan people, that despite being the most internationally supported independence movement and led by one of the most famous individuals on earth ( Dalai Lama) , today they are not any closer to independence than they were fifty years ago. By establishing an exiled government, the Dalai Lama effectively took life out of the movement, because running away, not fighting at homeland became the norm. In our case the exile- centered movement also made Oromians to wait for the Diaspora to bring freedom, which negatively prevents strong grassroots movements from emerging which could nurture potential future leaders. I strongly believe that he who is truly prepared to sacrifice for the cause must move to Oromian soil before promising any change. The Diaspora plays important role as supporters of the struggle, but must not be allowed to become center of the movement and suck out the energy.
c) Eritrea: A Safe Haven for Incompetent Leadership and The Movement that Became Hostage
It is a public secret that Shabia played critical role in forcing the OLF out of the transitional government in 1992. After coercing the organization to encamp its soldiers, Shabia joined hand with TPLF to wipe out OLF. The egomaniac Eritrean leader miscalculated the prospect of using Meles Zenawi as a puppet to build his war wretched state by exploiting Oromian resources. He mistakenly thought that eliminating OLF from the scene would allow him unconstrained access to the resources of the South. His ambitions began to fade away in front of his eyes, because his supposed puppets in Finfinnee turned against him after they consolidated their grip on the empire. Facing a certain defeat at the hand of the supposed puppet, which was using the entire human and material resources of the empire, Eritrea began to look for proxies, and at the same time OLF leaders happen to be in deep disillusionment that they welcomed the invitation to settle in Asmara.
Eritrea´s role in destroying OLA withstanding, there was no strategic benefit gained by moving to Eritrea, as there was no landmass or water body that connect Oromia and Eritrea. It is common for an insurgent movement to establish a base in a neighboring country across the border but moving to Eritrea is like moving to Uganda. It´s unthinkable to provide supply and reinforcement for the fighters across the unfriendly state of Sudan as it was proved to be when SPLA and Khartoum sabotaged almost all efforts. Therefore, I argue that there was only one factor that determined the decision to move to Eritrea, the safety of the leaders.
In addition to the strategic difficulty, moving to Eritrea created three major problems to the movement. First, it created disconnect between the leadership and the soldiers at the front. One has to be under constant eminent danger in order to fiercely fight and such quest for survival forces him to develop effective tactics and strategies not only to defend himself but also to expand his strong hold and move to the offensive. When a rebel leader is on the field thus he is permanently alert and has to be engaged in commanding and coordinating his force using strategies and tactics that were developed based on real time situations. The OLF leaders who reside in Asmara were not under such threat, and hence their survival did not depend on the success of their army but rather on the Eritrean government. The strategies and policies they devise were based on outdated information that it was often difficult to implement by the commanders in the field. This greatly contributed to the failure of few attempts to engage the enemy, that resulted unnecessary loss of life and deterioration of morale amongst commanders and soldiers who finally abandoned the field.
The second obstacle OLF faced by being in Eritrea was the fact that it provided the corrupted leaders institutions to suppress their dissenters. It is no secret that several Oromo students, journalists and soldiers who were critical of the leadership were thrown to the Eritrean jail or prevented from leaving the country for years. This was done to prevent such critics from exposing the corruption and inaction of the leadership. The third yet most crucial effect of locating in Eritrea is that, it made OLF and the Oromo movement hostage to Shabia - Woyane conflict. The Eritrean regime´s wants to use the OLF as a proxy, therefore it had to effectively control the organization in order to manipulate any outcome of OLF-TPLF engagement as it was evidenced when it vetoed almost all of the negotiations, even those where OLF apparently accepted. A strong, effective and active OLF that has its leaders outside Eritrea would have not allowed Shabia to undermine the organizations interest. However, OLF´s chairman who needed Shabia´s protection even from his own dissatisfied soldiers was too happy to serve the former in order to survive and remain at the head of the organization.
Therefore, I strongly believe that relocating the headquarters of OLF to Eritrea was the worst strategic blunder committed by OLF leadership, and being in Eritrea heavily contributed towards weakening the front. I do not believe Eritrea will ever allow OLF to leave, and as long as it remains there, it will not serve the interest of the Oromo people.
Sand in head or head in sand?
U.S. Navy in Review
By Scott C. Truver, with Mark Robinsky
"Look at what your Navy's been doing over the last year and a half," Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead offered in several speeches he delivered in early 2009. In each, the theme was virtually the same:
We are delivering on our strategy. It goes everywhere from assuring allies and friends and partners, to working in areas where we have been absent over the years. For the first time we have had ships on the west coast of Africa and on the east coast of Africa at the same time. For the first time in 40 years we've had an aircraft carrier visit South Africa. We are working with friends and partners around the world on maritime security. If you would have asked me two years ago a place in the ocean, or a place in the world, where Malaysia, India, China, Russia, Turkey, Greece, the European Union, NATO, and the United States would all be working together, I would have said, "Where could this be?" But that's exactly what we're doing off the coast of Somalia as we go after the pirate problem. All of these tie us together, and our strategy is quite simple. We're going to be a global Navy. We're going to be forward deployed. We're going to exercise power projection and sea control. We're going to be able to respond to disasters and provide humanitarian assistance. We're going to be involved in maritime security.
Say again, sir: "going to be?" Seems more like "continue to be."
Indeed, events in 2008 underscored the Founding Fathers' wisdom of building those first six frigates to form a nucleus of sea power for an upstart republic intent on protecting critical interests at risk from pirates and the great powers of the day. In the CNO's accounting, last year: 46 percent of the Navy's ships were under way at any given time, conducting more than 120 exercises and almost 350 port visits—an operational tempo that all-but "redlined" the 280-ship Navy, numerically the smallest Fleet since 1916.
In the Pacific Rim alone, 76 surface ships and aircraft carriers, 34 submarines, and 62 military sealift command ships were under way or deployed to forward operating areas.
46 percent of fixed-wing aircraft that supported U.S. and coalition forces on the ground in Afghanistan came from aircraft carriers.
The Navy provided 75 percent of the electronic attack capacity to defeat improvised explosive devices in Iraq and to disrupt communications among insurgents, fully 100 percent in Afghanistan.
In the Middle East, more Sailors were ashore than at sea—on the average 14,000 Navy personnel in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa compared to 10,000 Sailors at sea in those regions.
Navy SEALS, construction battalions, explosive ordnance disposal, riverine forces, and intelligence professionals were "in incredible demand, so much so that they're meeting themselves coming and going in order to fulfill the needs of the commanders."
The "steel bridge" provided by the Navy's Military Sealift Command "fed the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan"—in all, MSC delivered 7 million square feet of dry cargo and more than 2.3 billion gallons of fuel worldwide last year.
The Navy stood up the Fourth Fleet to focus attention on Latin and South America, particularly in support of numerous soft-power initiatives fostered by Southern Command.
The Navy also established Combined Task Force (CTF)-151 in the Gulf of Aden to deal with the age-old problem of maritime piracy.
These events and more over the past year highlighted the value of the Navy to the nation, but also underscored uncertainties as the service looks ahead.
Where No Navy Had Gone
In late 2007, an inactive 5,000-pound U.S. reconnaissance satellite was predicted to reenter the Earth's atmosphere, posing a threat of injury, death, and destruction. The potential hazard of having the non-functioning satellite's highly toxic hydrazine propellant survive reentry and land in a populated area was a growing concern. President George W. Bush directed the U.S. Strategic Command to develop a course of action—codenamed Operation Burnt Frost—to destroy the satellite at an altitude where it would pose no danger to population centers and other satellites in earth orbit.
Virtually nothing had been done in the United States to facilitate such a scenario since the U.S. Air Force shelved its aircraft-launched antisatellite system in 1989. But now, the United States had less than two months to develop a way to destroy the satellite before re-entry.
To carry out Burnt Frost, the United States had to go where no Aegis—or any other navy's—warship had gone before. The technical and operational challenges posed by the President's decision to destroy the satellite were significant. The satellite was higher, faster, and larger than any target engaged over years of testing. Given the higher closing velocities, a successful intercept would require longer radar and missile-seeker ranges, extended missile flight time, and greater guidance accuracy than any previous anti-air warfare (AAW) or ballistic-missile defense (BMD) problem.
The satellite's orbit was dwindling, allowing only seven weeks to plan, analyze, develop, test, and install shipboard modifications, make critical adjustments to surface-to-air missiles, train ships' crews, and execute the mission. Three Aegis warships—the USS Lake Erie (CG-70), Russell (DDG-59), and Decatur (DDG-73)—were assigned the task, with the Lake Erie designated as the principal firing ship.
A joint Navy-industry-academia team developed modifications to intercept the satellite and coordinated with the Navy for ship availability, modifying mission-critical systems and training ships' crews. Several warships and shore-based sites tracked the satellite, providing daily data to government, industry, and research centers to determine a feasible intercept: the launch window, optimal engagement locations and ship positions, and the best time of day to engage.
Engineers rewrote thousands of lines of Aegis weapon system computer program code to identify the satellite as a valid target, declare the satellite an "engageable" track, and compute valid intercept points. Engineers and Sailors worked hand-in-glove to confirm the software changes. This real-time collaboration between engineers and Fleet operators was a critical factor in meeting the tight timeline for the mission. Once approved, the Navy delivered and installed the modified tactical programs in the three warships.
Concurrently, engineers worked on modifications to the SM-3 missile, which included extensive modeling and simulation efforts to evaluate engagement and intercept performances. Three SM-3 missiles were modified and shipped in only 26 days.
At the same time, the Aegis Training and Readiness Center developed a new syllabus to train the crews on each ship. The best ship trainers were selected, and training teams went to the ships. Training continued while the ships were under way, with crews carrying out many rehearsals, receiving track data from land and space sensors, their own ships' radars searching, detecting and tracking the satellite, and simulating engagement after engagement.
On 20 February 2008, the Lake Erie launched a single modified SM-3 missile, which intercepted the satellite at an altitude of 153 nautical miles and a combined closing speed greater than 22,000 miles per hour. The results were spectacular, leading Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Corps General James E. Cartwright to note: "This was uncharted territory. The technical challenge was significant. You want to reach out to all of the Sailors on the ship, the technicians and the software programmers, grab them by the hand and thank them for what they did."
With a credo of "build . . . test . . . learn . . . deploy . . ." that has shaped five decades of technical and engineering excellence and operational success, Aegis BMD and Operation Burnt Frost in a sense anticipated President Barack Obama's campaign challenge that "We must seek a nuclear missile defense and demand that those efforts use resources wisely to build systems that would actually be effective. Missile defense requires far more rigorous testing to ensure that it is cost-effective and, most importantly, will work." Since the first Aegis BMD intercept test in January 2002, through 2008, the Navy's element of the overall U.S. BMD system has enjoyed unprecedented success: 16 target missile intercepts—14 with advanced mid-course-phase SM-3s and two with terminal-phase SM-2s, including dual intercepts during two test events—against only four misses.
And the President's promise to "focus on adapting and building U.S. military capabilities for current, not Cold War, needs" looks to underscore at least a sea-based defense against ballistic missiles. Indeed, in the July 2008 Foreign Affairs, he wrote, "We must use this moment both to rebuild our military and to prepare it for the missions of the future."
On 6 April 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates confirmed the need to add $700 million in fiscal year 2010 to field more of "our most capable theater missile defense systems," the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System and SM-3 programs, and $200 million to fund conversion of six additional Aegis ships to provide ballistic-missile-defense capabilities.
And Missions from the Past
Hostis humanis—the pirate is the "enemy of mankind." According to the Geneva Convention on the High Seas, piracy jure gentium is:
an illegal act of violence, detention or any act of depredation, committed for private ends, by those aboard a private ship or private aircraft, and directed, either on the high seas against any ship or persons or property thereon or in territory or waters of the nature of terra nullius against a ship or person or property thereon.
The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (which the United States has still not ratified as of May 2009) confirms that perspective and the duty of all states to take all action to combat maritime piracy. Indeed, for centuries piracy jure gentium has been considered a scourge, and pirates may be captured and tried by any state.
The war on piracy, particularly in the waters off the Horn of Africa, escalated dramatically in 2008. By year's end, according to the International Maritime Organization, more than 120 ships had been attacked—from 1984 to 2007, just 440 attacks had been reported worldwide—with 35 ships seized and more than 600 crew held for ransom, with $100 million paid to pirates.
"Instability from maritime piracy in the Gulf of Aden is sending ripples throughout the global supply chain, which is reeling from falling rates brought on by the worldwide economic slowdown," U.S. Navy Captain Brian Wilson and Commander James Kraska wrote in the January 2009 Armed Forces Journal. "Twenty thousand ships pass through the Gulf of Aden adjacent to the Indian Ocean each year, transporting cargo that includes 12 percent of the world's daily oil supply," they wrote. The economic cost to shipping companies from piracy in the Indian and Pacific oceans soared to $15 billion last year.
In August the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1772, encouraging governments with naval ships operating in international waters off the coast of Somalia to "be vigilant to any incident of piracy therein and to take appropriate action to protect merchant shipping." That same month, the Navy launched the Global Maritime Partnership initiative by establishing a Maritime Security Patrol Area in the Gulf of Aden and dispatched CTF-150 to the area.
Two obstacles soon arose. First, the U.S. Navy and the other 18 navies active in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden lacked the means to hold captured pirates, described as "people under control" or "PUCs," accountable within a legal system. Captain Wilson and Commander Kraska acknowledged:
The great expense and logistical and legal burdens of transporting the pirates to a Western country are daunting. In 2006, these difficulties caused the U.S. to provide temporary custody for Somali pirates on board U.S. warships for months at a time. These difficulties with PUCs are why several countries, including France and Britain, have simply returned captured pirates to the beach without taking any legal action.
On 2 December, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1846, which overcame the first obstacle. The most significant aspect of this resolution was its inclusion of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) clause. Based on the UN Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, this clause applies to nearly all of the attacks occurring in the Gulf of Aden, and obliges parties to criminalize such acts and establish jurisdiction when the offense is committed against their vessels or nationals.
Second, many of the navies participating in CTF-150 were not authorized to conduct counter-piracy missions. On 8 January 2009, the Commander, Combined Maritime Forces, established CTF-151, under the command of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Terence McKnight (recently succeeded by Rear Admiral Michelle Howard), specifically for counter-piracy needs, while CTF-150 provides a framework for general maritime security tasks.
Vice Admiral William Gortney, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, explained:
Because of the complexity of operations, I determined it was necessary to establish CTF 151—a task force with a mission and a mandate from the UN to conduct counter-piracy operations throughout the area of responsibility. Those nations that are seeking authorities to conduct these operations will bring their collective capabilities to bear to deter, disrupt and eventually bring to justice the maritime criminals involved in the piracy events.
The service established CTF-151 to deter, disrupt and suppress piracy in support of UN Security Council Resolution 1851, to protect the global maritime environment, enhance maritime security, and secure freedom of navigation for all nations. CTF-151 is a multinational task force that conducts counter-piracy operations in and around the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea and was created to provide a lawful maritime order and develop security in the maritime environment.
"The key to eradicating Somali piracy lies in interrupting the larger, complex system," Dr. Virginia Lunsford wrote in the December 2008 Proceedings. "It is essential that the pirates be intercepted in action on the high seas. . . . However, the situation is more complicated than that, and the longer the system is permitted to stay in place and grow, the more intractable the piracy problem will become."
In the same issue, retired Navy Commander John Patch wrote, "[B]ut it is perchance time that the many flag states and private companies enjoying the benefits of the global maritime commons contribute to the costs of keeping it secure." He continued, "Because the U.S. Navy lacks the resources to effectively accomplish even a fraction of its assigned missions, treating piracy for what it is—criminal activity—should lessen the demands on an already overtaxed American Fleet."
Humanitarian Operations Close to Home
For more than a month, back-to-back tropical storms and hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike pummeled the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Haiti was hit particularly hard. Four storms flooded eight of Haiti's ten geographic departments, destroying bridges and roads, leaving hundreds of Haitians dead and tens of thousands homeless and desperate for humanitarian aid. The Navy's hospital ship Comfort (T-AH-20) and the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) provided much-needed assistance.
After already seeing thousands of patients in eight countries as part of its planned 120-day deployment, the Comfort arrived in Port-au-Prince on 1 September. By the time the ship left a week later, she had provided medical services in four locations in and around the city of Port-au-Prince, a second small port city, and a town several miles inland. The mission required the skills and experience of the joint-agency crew: U.S. Army, Navy, Military Sealift Command, Air Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, Canadian Forces, and the non-governmental organization Project Hope.
Captain Robert Kapcio, the Comfort's mission commander, said the ship's humanitarian mission "was very important, and we hope the medical services and construction assistance we've provided will have a very positive effect on the Haitians we've been able to treat."
That mission served more than 76,000 patients during the entire deployment, more than 11,800 of those in Haiti. Total patient encounters, which include a single patient receiving multiple treatments, students in training sessions, and even veterinary care services were in excess of 295,000, of which more than 39,000 were in Haiti.
On 5 September, U.S. Southern Command directed Commander, Fourth Fleet to divert the amphibious ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) from its humanitarian and civic assistance mission in Colombia to assist in relief efforts in Haiti. By the time the ship departed on 26 September, Marine and Navy helicopters embarked in the Kearsarge had flown more than 100 sorties, and landing craft transported more than 30 loads, delivering more than 3.3 million pounds of food, water, and other relief supplies to devastated Haitian communities.
The Kearsarge had been deployed to the Caribbean supporting Continuing Promise 2008, a humanitarian-assistance mission that included the participation of U.S. military personnel, military medical personnel from Brazil, Canada, France, and the Netherlands, medical volunteers from the U.S. Public Health Service, the UN Population Fund, and volunteers from non-governmental organizations such as Operation Smile, Project Hope, World Food Program, and International Aid.
Medical teams from the Kearsarge, which included personnel from the U.S. Public Health Service, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Canadian army and air force, worked with other agencies-the Center for Disease Control, Doctors Without Borders, the Pan American Health Organization, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, Project Hope, International Aid, and others—to provide medical services and assessments in 16 villages and to more than 1,000 Haitians. Air Force engineers and Navy Seabees assessed roads, bridges, and critical infrastructures destroyed by heavy rains and flooding from the storms.
Georgia On My Mind
When Russian military forces invaded the former Soviet republic of Georgia on 8 August, the Navy's initial response was to pull out of Operation FRUKUS, a joint U.S.-Russian naval exercise scheduled to begin that week off Russia's Pacific coast. On 17 August, President Bush directed Defense Secretary Gates to put in place Operation Assured Delivery, an air and naval humanitarian mission to Georgia to reach about 118,000 displaced people.
Two U.S. warships and a Coast Guard cutter were dispatched to Georgian ports. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul (DDG-74) delivered more than 34 short tons of humanitarian aid to the southern Georgian port of Batumi, avoiding Georgia's main Black Sea cargo port of Poti that was still controlled by Russia. The Coast Guard cutter Dallas (WHEC-716) also carried 34 tons of humanitarian aid to Batumi. And in early September, the Sixth Fleet's amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) arrived in Poti, carrying more than 17 tons of humanitarian supplies for Georgians. In addition, three U.S. naval aircraft flew 62 missions, airlifting 325 tons of humanitarian aid into Tbilisi.
Operation Assured Delivery ended on 8 September, with future U.S. aid efforts to be conducted by civilian agencies. The Pentagon's focus then switched to assessing the needs of Georgia's military, depleted by the confrontation with Moscow.
Russian troops invaded Georgia, a close U.S. ally, after Georgian forces tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia. The United States strongly condemned Russia's actions, prompting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to accuse the United States of provoking Moscow by using warships to deliver aid to Georgia.
Marine Mammals Redux
On 12 November, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Navy in Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, concluding that the lower courts had improperly favored the possibility of injuring marine animals over the reality of military readiness and the use of mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar in training and exercises. As a result of preliminary determinations of Navy non-compliance, for example, one court issued a preliminary injunction that made it virtually impossible for the Navy to certify antisubmarine warfare effectiveness in strike groups making ready to deploy. This also imposed additional and broader mitigation measures on top of the 29 measures already employed by the Navy to protect marine mammals. The Supreme Court's ruling vacated the broad limitations that had been imposed on the service.
On 27 December the Navy and several plaintiffs, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Cetacean Society International, the League for Coastal Protection, the Ocean Futures Society, and Jean-Michel Cousteau, entered into a settlement agreement to resolve a worldwide challenge to the Navy's MFA sonar testing and training. The settlement adopted a long-range program for environmental analysis and research that the Navy began in August 2005. The agreement also highlighted the Navy's investment program in marine mammal research—$26 million in fiscal year 2008 and about $100 million during the previous five years. As part of the settlement, the Navy agreed during the next three fiscal years to direct $14.75 million in research and development specifically to marine mammal topics of mutual interest to the Navy and the plaintiffs.
The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Navy in January 2009 finalized marine-mammal-stranding response plans for three of the Navy's largest training areas: the Hawaii Range Complex, the Southern California Range Complex, and the Atlantic Fleet Active Sonar Training area. Similar stranding response plans will be developed for the Navy's ten other at-sea major training ranges and operating areas.
Approximately 3,500 marine mammals strand on U.S. coasts each year. In many cases, the causes of these strandings cannot be determined, though common causes include disease, fishery entanglements, and ship strikes. The impact of sound on marine mammals has been controversial, with fundamental science not supportive of definitive assessments. "We are looking forward to working with the National Marine Fisheries Service on implementing these stranding plans. We want to know why strandings occur," said John Quinn, deputy director of the Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness Division. "Understanding the causes will help scientists understand how these unfortunate events can be prevented or reduced in number," he concluded.
Thomas Fetherston, special assistant for marine science at the Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness Division, added that the stranding response plans would not unreasonably burden the Navy. "Many of the requirements listed in the stranding response plans are just codifying the types of things that the Navy has already been asked to do on a case-by-case basis. These plans simply provide a consistent process," he noted. "We are hopeful that having a consistent process will enable scientists to obtain additional and better data to assist in marine mammal research, which is a major priority for the Navy."
As Goes Zumwalt So Goes the Navy?
At a 31 July 2008 hearing before the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, Allison Stiller, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Ship Programs, and Vice Admiral Barry McCullough, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Integration of Capabilities and Resources (N8), announced a major change in the service's position on what kind of destroyers it would acquire during the next decade or so. They testified that the service no longer wanted to acquire additional Zumwalt (DDG-1000)-class destroyers—named after former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt—beyond the first two or three and instead wanted to procure eight more Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)-class destroyers through fiscal year 2015.
Prior to changing its position, the Navy had been steadfast in its support for the DDG-1000. An initial objective of 32 DDG-1000s had been planned, but as fiscal realities and force structure reassessments subsequently shaped the Navy's programs, the DDG-1000 buy dwindled to 24, 12, and ultimately just seven ships. But, as the Congressional Research Service's naval analyst Ronald O'Rourke described the situation, "Until the July 31 hearing, the Navy for several years had stressed the need for procuring additional DDG-1000s, defended the DDG-1000 program against various criticisms, and rejected proposals for stopping DDG-1000 procurement and for resuming procurement of DDG-51s."
Although concerns about the cost of the program had been aired and remained highly contentious, the Navy in mid-2008 decided to curtail the program at just three—maybe only two—Zumwalts because the ship "cannot perform area air defense; specifically, it cannot successfully employ the Standard Missile-2, SM-3, or SM-6, and is incapable of conducting ballistic-missile defense," according to Admiral McCullough's testimony at the July hearing. Recent classified studies had determined that "increased warfighting gaps," particularly in the DDG-1000's capabilities for integrated air- and missile-defense against the "pacing threats" from advanced Chinese ballistic missiles and small cruise missiles like those used by Hezbollah against the Israeli navy in the 2006 Lebanon war contributed to the Navy's decision. This was an abrupt change of course. In March, Navy leadership had testified that the Zumwalt design offered "significant capability improvements in every warfare area vs. DDG-51," including air defense using Standard missiles, and was much less vulnerable in littoral operational areas.
But there were indications in early 2008 that the Navy's ardor for the DDG-1000 was cooling. In his prepared testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in March 2008, Admiral Roughead made only one reference to the multi-mission Zumwalt destroyer:
The DDG-1000 and the two ships that we have put on contract within the last couple of weeks introduce into our Navy some very important technologies and means for us to look at those technologies as we move forward, particularly to be informed on the CG(X) [next-generation antiair warfare and ballistic-missile-defense cruiser]. The one that is most important to me is the reduction in crew size. It's the first ship that we've designed and will build with such a small crew for that amount of capacity.
Or, as naval analyst and historian Norman Polmar offered, "damned by faint praise."
"This whole thing is very strange," said Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) after learning about the program's redirection. In addition to the DDG-1000/DDG-51 decision, the Navy indicated that it would pursue something called the "future surface combatant" and an advanced "air and missile defense radar" that had yet to be defined. "If the Navy is considering changing its shipbuilding requirements," Senator Collins remarked, "I would expect the CNO to work with me and other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to ensure a stable, well-funded shipbuilding plan that meets the need for expanded capabilities and keeps our skilled shipbuilding workforce strong."
The DDG-1000 decision stoked a firestorm of debate about the roles of Congress, the Navy, and industry in crafting the way ahead for the 313-ship Fleet—or however many ships might ultimately be afforded in what looks to be a future of squeaky-tight budgets. For instance, in the October 2008 Proceedings, Polmar charged, "the U.S. Navy's leadership is shirking its responsibilities by letting Congress determine the size and composition of the Fleet rather than insisting on a force that reflects the service's view of the ships that are needed." Polmar pointed to the San Antonio (LPD-17) amphibious transport dock and the Freedom (LCS-1) littoral combat ship programs, "both characterized by massive delays and cost overruns," and concluded, "it is obvious that the a new approach to Navy ship requirements and construction is needed. Questions must be asked about the Navy's processes in these critical areas. And, the Navy's leadership must be questioned."
This seems to have come to pass. In a 26 January 2009 memorandum, John J. Young Jr., Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, addressed several funding options for the DDG-1000, DDG-51, and the still-undefined Future Surface Combatant (FSC). Young called for the Navy to update the DDG-51 acquisition strategy for the additional near-term Burkes. He also directed a Program Decision Memorandum III to assess the cost, schedule, and feasibility of outfitting the first three DDGs with required capacity to support the backfit of the air- and missile-defense radar and enhanced BMD capability. Finally, he recommended that an objective technical- and capabilities-based study compare the feasibility and multimission capabilities of the DDG-51 and the DDG-1000 to determine the appropriate baseline for the FSC, before any decision is reached regarding development of the new radar. The Navy should expect similar attention across the shipbuilding board in 2009.
Defense Secretary Gates might have trumped these initiatives in his April 2009 decision on the fiscal year 2010 and future budgets, which included funds to complete the buy of two DDG-51s next year:
These plans depend on being able to work out contracts to allow the Navy to efficiently build all three DDG-1000 class ships at Bath Iron Works in Maine and to smoothly restart the DDG-51 Aegis Destroyer program at Northrop Grumman's Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi. Even if these arrangements work out, the DDG-1000 program would end with the third ship and the DDG-51 would continue to be built in both yards.
If our efforts with industry are unsuccessful, the department will likely build only a single prototype DDG-1000 at Bath and then review our options for restarting production of the DDG-51. If the department is left to pursue this alternative, it would unfortunately reduce our overall procurement of ships and cut workload in both shipyards.
The War of All Against All
By John Fleming
During the Cold War, the ideologies of the two superpowers were strangely co-incident in one respect-equality and classlessness. Despite the unequal distribution of the wealth, the United States supposedly offered equal opportunity for getting rich and freedom from the Old World pattern of class conflict, and in the Soviet Union the working class was said to be the only class. But in reality, neither did the U.S. have de facto or de jure equality (or equality of any sort), nor did the U.S.S.R. ever achieve a Marxist classless society. There has never been a classless mass society, and hence such a society has never been free of class conflict. The American claim to equality is particularly ironic, given the great economic inequality in the U.S., and its denial of class antagonisms only hardens them. But the ideological co-incidence shows that they have the notion, though they have not the latitude and extent of it.
Even under the best conditions of class society, life is a war of everyone against everyone, which the lower class decidedly loses. If the ruling class cannot be overthrown, The best hope is for a decent culture, a humane system of rules for interaction, with those with modest means being left alone to lead a humble life. According to Hobbes, only an all-powerful state, a Leviathan, could create order out of the chaos of social warfare, and thereby assure a civilized life for the great as well as the powerless. Yet in every age, the rewards of freedom have been worth fighting for. The Spartacus revolt in ancient Rome, the Jacquerie in France, the Peasants' War in Germany, and the Nat Turner and Denmark Vessey revolts in the antebellum American South were all desperate challenges to the class system. Their brutal suppression in every instance terminated armed revolutionary resistance to oppression, yet class struggle continued in economic and cultural forms.
The universality of class hierarchy suggests something important about human nature, especially when viewed in contrast to the hunting-gathering society. The urge to be dominant in any social situation is strong, as is, on the other hand, the habit of conformity and acquiescence to authority and superior force. Both are survival strategies for an unnatural environment. Thus, slavery was practiced in every ancient society. "Force made the first slave," observed Rousseau, "and cowardice perpetuated his slavery."
Eastern or Western, communist or capitalist, "democratic," plutocratic or aristocratic-no mass society has been without a ruling elite, which suggests to many thinkers that hierarchy and conflict serve some "function." "Conflict must do something for societies [writes anthropologist Robert J. Wenke] or it would be difficult to explain its depressing ubiquitousness in human affairs." But more plausible is the idea that the elite, and the conflict stemming from its rule, is dysfunctional, governing society for no higher reason than to promote the needs and desires of its own members, and bending the energy of the masses to those ends. How else could one explain its privileges and wealth? The elite enjoys a superior education, maximum leisure, a privileged place in the military, multiple luxurious residences, worldly travel, a superior diet and superior health care, laws favoring excuse of their depredations, and exemption from work (except the prestigious political kind). On the other hand, the poor are subject to monotonous and arduous manual labor, a modest domicile, minimal leisure, impressment into the low ranks of the military, criminal laws biased against them, and inferior diet, health care and education. The brutal exploitation of earlier ages included the corvee, debtor's prison, droi de seignor, physical torture, slavery, starvation, peonage and complete absence of human rights in the lord-vassal paternalistic relationship of feudalism. John Jacob Astor Vl candidly stated, "I have found that work interferes with pleasure," thereby illustrating the rewards of power.
Class privileges bear tangible and eminently pleasurable rewards, and to solidify them is the goal of social control. In a sense, norms of interaction are a truce in social warfare, and this truce is continually being renegotiated. Changing historical conditions continually alter the class structure, and as a new elite masters the relations of production, social control is reinvented. That the basis of social control is coercion can be seen in its extreme form in the use of terror to maintain command. The Romans, for example, practiced decimation (the massacre of every tenth person) to suppress rebellious colonies, and some modern dictatorships employ death squads. The politicization of the police and military is a means of social control all over the world. The principal means of social control (socialization, indoctrination and propaganda), however, are subtler, and replace the police power in all but the most desperate situations. Although always retaining a lingering element of coercion, indoctrination works more by conditioning to make certain thoughts unthinkable, to present the status quo as part of the natural order of things and place it beyond the limits of debate and controversy. Being more explicit, propaganda-like indoctrination found in every mass society-by appealing to a wide audience, attempts to form a majority attitude and apply the power of numbers in obtaining total compliance. Social control is often so effective that unthinking conformity results, and revolt or even constructive social change seem dangerous, foolish and unnecessary or hopelessly beyond realization.
The basis of societal power is the following-a category of people who, even though they may stand to benefit but little, are prepared to aid and obey its leaders. Members of the upper class have the largest followings and hence the most power. Although fame is an important source of a large following, being high in a chain of command-whether in an economic organization, the military or the government-can also be a source of power, since all one's followers need not be able to name or formally recognize the powerful people who can compel their obedience.
Analysis of the power of the ruling class shows its ascendance to be based more than anything else on the organization of people who view its authority as legitimate. Various pretexts for power-such as the divine right of kings, a special relationship with a deity, and economic efficiency-have been advanced over the ages, but actually every elites relies on a dominant, consolidated following to maintain rule through coercion. If the lower classes in a rare instance happen to be both discontent and organized, their leaders constitute an eminent threat to the ruling class. Though God or right may not always side with the larger battalions, the power of numbers usually prevails. The authority, allegiance and social organization of the powerful prove decisive.
Similarly, the everyday struggles of class society are expressed in the competition for status. Important determinants of status are money, fame, "breeding" (i.e., family prestige), "connections" (i.e., relationships with powerful people), demonstrable achievements of various sorts (in athletics, scholarship, art, science, engineering, invention, etc.), and physical attractiveness and intelligence. Though sometimes viewed as harmless status seeking and improvement of one's comforts, the status struggle is in reality driven by that same love of power that results in social classes. A person of higher status dominates another, enjoys deference and primacy in the relationship, analogous on a small scale to class divisions. Contrary to the prevailing view in economics, the things that money can buy-although in themselves very useful and gratifying-are not the principal reward of financial success. All wealth is referential, and what it actually commands is the domination of men, symbolically mediated for the most part but nevertheless very real in its consequences.
Although it is taken for granted that civilization is synonymous with the city or developments like agriculture and writing that accompanied mass society, in the Kalahari Bushmen, the Australian aborigines and the northern Eskimos (that is, in the hunting-gathering band), are remnants of man's primal nature, fast fading from the earth but not altogether into oblivion. By far the greater part of human and hominoid evolution was spent in the hunting-gathering band, a small community of about 25 souls, whereas mass society has existed for a mere several millenia, a negligible period in evolutionary terms. For millions of years, biology (natural selection) prepared man and his ancestors for survival and reproduction as hunter-gatherers, yet he now finds himself in unnatural, crowded conditions. Whereas the small size of the band, in which relationships were face-to-face, precluded the formation of hostile classes, the growth of mass society was like the expulsion from Eden, with class conflict and the evils of impersonal hierarchy as original sin. Their subsistence was crude, yet the members of the hunting-gathering band enjoyed equality, democratic decision making and meaningful labor for personal use, such as to be the envy of any modern Japanese, Frenchmen or American. In comparison, mass society is wicked, with its conversion of morality into an abstraction. "Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete," said Sartre. Humane sentiment is weakened and dissipated by being extended over the impersonal social distances of mass society.
Whether one holds that human behavior is largely inscribed in the genes, or is a function of learning and culture, or is a combination of these, the point is that man is ill-disposed to live in an impersonal overpopulated community, in which conflict, injustice and cruelty are inevitable. Nominal democracy, rising standards of living, scientific advances and purported "technocracy" cannot resolve class warfare. Nevertheless, it is not inconceivable that a growth in class consciousness of the lower orders may overturn existing class systems. While their commitment to equality may be more ideological than genuine, strong socialist parties on every continent except North America advocate the elimination of gross inequality. The masses of the world may more and more come to believe that they, and not a privileged class, are entitled to the fruits of their own labor. The future, in this event, could hold a restoration of that primeval human community that through the ages forged the identity of man, of that decent and humane existence from which he has so long been estranged-the classless society.
John Fleming, "The War of All Against All: An Analysis of Conflict in Society" (Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America, 2000) Notes: Robert J. Wenke, Patterns in Prehistory: Mankind's First Three Million Years (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1980), p. 706. Astor quotation is from John Tebbel, The Inheritors (New York: G.P. Putnam's Son
We do not send pictures with these reports, because of the volume, but picture this emetic scene with your inner eye:
A dying Somali child in the macerated arms of her mother besides their bombed shelter with Islamic graffiti looks at a fat trader, who discusses with a local militia chief and a UN representative at a harbour while USAID provided GM food from subsidised production is off-loaded by WFP into the hands of local "distributors" and dealers - and in the background a western warship and a foreign fishing trawler ply the waters of a once sovereign, prosper and proud nation, which was a role model for honesty and development in the Horn of Africa. (If you feel that this is overdrawn - come with us into Somalia and see the even more cruel reality yourself!)
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, while the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWP) is sponsoring several service-led acquisition programs, including the VLAD, Joint Integration Program, and Improved Flash Bang Grenade. Alredy in use in Somalia are so called Non-lethal optical distractors, which are visible laser devices that have reversible optical effects. These types of non-blinding laser devices use highly directional optical energy. Somalia is also a testing ground for the further developments of the Active Denial System (ADS) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). If new developments using millimeter wave sources that will help minimize the size, weight, and system cost of an effective Active Denial System which provides "ADS-ACTD-like" repel effects, are used has not yet been revealed. Obviously not only the US is developing and using these kind of weapons as the case of MV MARATHON showed, where a Spanish naval vessel was using optical lasers - the stand-off was then broken by the killing of one of the hostage seafarers. Local observers also claim that HEMI devices, producing Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation (HEMI) Bioeffects, have been used in the Gulf of Aden against Somalis. Exposure to HEMI devices, which can be understood as a stun-gun shot at an individual over a larger distance, causes muscle contractions that temporarily disable an individual. Research efforts are underway to develop a longer-duration of this effect than is currently available. The live tests are apparently done without that science understands yet the effects of HEMI electrical waveforms on a human body.
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
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