Ecoterra Press Release 230 – The Somalia Chronicle June – December 2009, no 42

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

ECOTERRA Intl.

SMCM

Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor

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

2009-08-19 WED 00h18:27 UTC

Issue No. 230

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)

We have the obligation to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it appears, and believe that anybody who is degrading other people and peoples has to be fought against with whatever appropriate tools people have available.

Media-Release: (Free for publication 19.Aug.2009- 0:00h UTC)

Free All Ships Before Ramadan and End Piracy Forever

ECOTERRA Intl. appealed today to the Somali captors of innocent merchant ships held in Somalia to immediately finalize the last cases and to release the crews and vessels before Ramadan starts.

Mogadishu - 19. August 2009 - The spokesman of the Somali office of the international human rights and nature protection advocacy ECOTERRA urged the pirate gangs, who have embarked on sea-jacking merchant vessels which did not harm Somalia in any way, to abandon their criminal activities - once and for all times.

"Piracy is a loose-loose game!", stated Dr. Abdulkadir S. Elmi and listed the negative impacts of real piracy as follows:

Somali Piracy:

1. - is Haram, strictly forbidden by the Holy Qur'an and must be punished under Shari'a law. Attacks on innocent merchant ships outside the 200nm zone of the Somali waters can never ever even be justified as self-defence.

2. - is achieving relatively little gains for a few bandits, while great economic income generation possibilities for many Somalis are lost. With only USD 35m of ransom-money reaped in last year by all sea-shifta gangs together, hardly anything has been gained in comparison to the 300 to 400 mio dollar annual potential of controlled and sustainable fisheries.

3. - In addition: While countries like Oman, Qatar, the UAE and Egypt earn billions of dollars every year from decent seaside tourism and a culturally sound, respectful hospitality industry, as well as fair maritime trade, Somalia does not even earn a single Somali Shilling or provide for a single job for its vast number of job-seeking youth from its beautiful, clean beaches, its healthy coastal climate and wild, fascinating sceneries and only very little from its harbours and shipping routes. Somalia has the longest coastline of all African countries, bordering warm and beautiful seas with enormous benefits in the holding - but the Somali nation does not use this great gift to its sound and sustainable potential of honest, very profitable utilization possibilities.

4. - is opening Somali society for criminal activities, which disrupt socio-economic structures, security, sound governance and peace. Even the money ripped of from piracy is Haram and only spoils your other activities. The houses built from it will be empty and soul-less halls, the cars bought from it kill their drivers and the families fed with it parish. Piracy is not a true means for survival.

5. - is binding the most skilled and pro-active sailors and fishermen in criminal activities, while their true and then honed capabilities are greatly needed in the newly formed navy and coast-guard as well as in fisheries administration for Somali owned sound fisheries operations and marine industries as well as an important docking sites for maritime trade between the African continent and the world.

6. - is endangering the country and the whole population in Somalia with direct and indirect piracy-related attacks from potential friends and arch enemies alike, thereby giving them the opportunity to violate Somali sovereignty with impunity, follow the interests of their own political agenda and hinder Somali self-determination as well as development.

7. - is weakening the defence capability of Somali nationalists and their fighters, because potential Somali heroes are waisted in and lost to criminal gangs, who are masterminded by outsiders for their own gains. Many of the honest Somali coast defenders, who wanted to stop criminal activities of those outsiders, who come to illegally fish or dump toxic waste, find their hands bound, their spirit spoiled and their hearts contaminated, because they are mistaken for pirates or have been sucked into the inhuman and sick deals of hostage taking.

8. - is giving a very bad example to Somali children, who will be ashamed that their fathers only feeds them with what is Haram, while they receive no other education than to be a thief, a torturer or a killer.

9. - is causing the loss of friendship worldwide for the Somali people. While most people all over the world recognize the right and duty of all Somalis to defend their territory, their natural resources, their land and sea, their people, their sovereignty and their dignity, no decent person can live in friendship with a Somali, who is a bloody murderer, criminal sea-shifta and hostage taker. The vast majority of Somalis are true, honest and gentle members of the human race - but nobody who is not from Somalia can meet them in Somalia, because they are fenced off by a chain of murderers and villants, who have since long lost the right to be a member of the true Somali society.

10. - is playing the future of Somalia and all Somali people directly into the hands of Somalia's enemies. Instead of gaining true independence, which Somalia only will have regained when the last foreign naval vessel has left the Somali waters, when the last WFP store in Somalia is closed, when the last Somali has left from any UNHCR refugee or the IDP camps and when the last UN-appointed puppet has been retired, piracy causes misery, slavery and death.

"You have shown to the world that Somalis and Somalia have not ceased to exist, though many of our enemies had wished that, and you have shown to the world what unparalleled bravery and seamanship is existing in Somali people, but now stand up and show the world that you can use these skills and capabilities to serve your families and people, your country and yourself in a honest way. You have tried it and you have dared it - in the true ancient meaning of the word pirate, but now take your experience and succeed with it in a honorable way. With piracy today you only make outsiders rich, who profit from the multi-million dollar game of the shipping, insurance, security and risk-management business, while you damage at the end only those who have to pay for it, which is all people who need the goods, including yourself; and you turn yourself into a slave as long as piracy-gangs have you in their ugly hands," Dr. Abdulkadir added and concluded: "Pirates of innocent merchant vessels are an enemy to mankind and Somali pirates first and foremost are the enemy of Somalia and all Somalis. May Allah give you insight!"

Clearing-House: Cut out the clutter - focus on facts !

(If you find this compilation too large or if you can't grasp the multitude and magnitude of important inter-related complex issues influencing the Horn of Africa - you better do not deal with Somalia or other man-made "conflict zones". We try to make it as condensed as possibly.)

Status of Abducted Vessels and Crews in Somalia

Summary: Today, 18th August 2009, still at least 6 foreign vessels plus one barge are kept in Somalia against the will of their crews and owners, while at least 123 seafarers suffer to be released.

Cases not completely closed:

M/V JAIKUR I: Seized Oct. 2, 2008 - The 21,040-tonne general cargo ship was detained after a dispute with the owners over damaged cargo. All foreign crew were with the help of ECOTERRA released and repatriated. The vessel is still held in Mogadishu harbour due to an insurance dispute between vessel-owner and cargo-owners. The ship-owner continues to operate with another vessel MV JAIKUR II for WFP in Somalia.

MS INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER: Seized March 2009. The 35-metre boat was built in Hamburg as an oceanographic research vessel and later used as tourist diving boat. All 7 crew of Seychelles nationality were released and repatriated against a ransom. The vessel was allegedly looted and then sunk by the pirates off the coast of Harardheere, but so far no independent confirmation or evidence for the actual sinking received.

S/Y SERENITY - The fast catamaran was sailing for Madagascar from the Seychelles with three people aboard, when it was seized in March 2009. Later it was attached to and pulled by the hijacked Taiwanese FV WIN FAR 161 and kept between Harardheere and Hobyo until it allegedly sunk in bad weather at the coast near Garacad. The sinking was confirmed by different sources, but evidence is not produced yet. The 3 men crew with Seychelles nationality is held hostage but cared for together with the crew of FV WIN FAR 161.

BARGE NN - an unnamed barge is held at Kulule (near Bendar-Beyla) since mid march. Ownership and circumstances not yet clarified.

S/Y JUMLA or YUMLA ? - a mysterious yacht kept near Dinooda.

MT AGIA BARBARA: INDIAN AND SYRIAN CREW STILL WANTED FOR MURDER - vessel escaped from Somalia after the murder to the UAE - unhindered by international naval forces. See our previous updates.

Cases in negotiations:

FV WIN FAR 161 - The Taiwanese fishing vessel was seized April 6, 2009 near the Seychelles. It had then been involved in the attack on MV ALABAMA and is now still moored about 7 nm from Garacad. The crew of 30 (17 Filipinos, six Indonesians, five Chinese and two Taiwanese) is still together and on board. The ship's skipper and first engineer are Taiwanese nationals and the 700-ton long-liner is owned by a Taiwan company, which regularly sent their vessels into Somali waters from the Seychelles - a key transshipment point for poached tuna from the Indian Ocean to Japan. The Government of the Philippines seems to be pretty helpless to even find the manning agency, who lured the 17 Pinoy sailors into the fish-poaching operation. 3 Seychellois sailors from S/Y SERENITY are held hostage together with the crew of the fishing vessel.

MV IRENE E.M.: Seized April 14, 2009. The St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged Greek-owned bulk carrier was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. Its Filipino crew of 22 remains unharmed, but food and water have become scarce. The vessel and crew are held near Garcaad. Negotiations are slow. Ships with Greek connections are known to be usually held for a long time, since the negotiations from Greece are never straight forward. Allegedly the Greek embassy in Nairobi is not in charge for Somalia any longer and the affairs are to be handled from Addis-Ababa.

MV ARIANA: Seized May 2, 2009. The Ariana was seized north of Madagascar en route to the Middle East from Brazil with 10,000 tonnes of soy-beans. The 24-strong all-Ukrainian crew has run low in food and water. The ship, flying a Maltese flag, belongs to All Oceans shipping in Greece, who fronts for a British conglomerate. So far the shipping company has not responded to calls for urgently required medical attention. Two female sailors are on board, one of them in serious condition. The vessel is at the moment held 25nm north of Hobyo. The Ukrainian Human Rights ombudswoman has appealed to her European counterpart in order to achieve immediate relief to the suffering of the crew members.

MV VICTORIA: Seized on May 5, 2009. The Antigua and Barbuda- flagged cargo vessel was hijacked by eight pirates in the Gulf of Aden on its way to the port of Jeddah. The 146-metre ship has a crew of 11 Romanians, aged between 22 and 64 and includes one woman. The vessel and crew are held 8nm off Eyl and negotiations are ongoing

MV CHARELLE: Seized on June 12, 2009. The 2,800-tonne cargo ship carrying was captured 60 miles south of Oman. The vessel is owned by shipping firm Tarmstedt International. Seven of the 10 member crew are Sri Lankans. The vessel is German owned but operated from New Zealand. The company lost a substandard vessel the MV GLOBAL ISLAND during the Tsunami at the turn of the year 2004/2005, because it had bribed its way out of Mombasa harbour and sunk in rough Somali waters. The German captain and a Kenyan went missing while about 10 other crew were rescued by the US navy.

MV HORIZON 1: Turkish cargo ship with 23 crew of Turkish nationality - including one woman - on board was captured in the early morning hours on 08th July 2009. The vessel was taken in the safety corridor set up by the navies and is at present shadowed by Turkish naval forces while it is held by Somali sea-shifta at the Somali Puntland coast near Eyl. One sailor was injured during the initial attack by broken glas. The sea-shifta have allegedly found a larger amount of money on the vessel. Negotiations are still not forthcoming.

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

Illegal fishing vessel owner home

with parts of a text by Hadeel al-Shalchi (AP)]

The owner of an Egyptian fishing vessel whose crew overpowered pirates off the Somali coast received a hero's welcome at the Cairo Airport Tuesday after flying home from Yemen.

According to colleagues, Hassan Khalil orchestrated a dramatic ruse to rescue his employees using a ransom as bait and backed up by squads of locally Somali hired gunmen.

Khalil, the owner of the Momtaz 1 fishing boat, was greeted by dozens of reporters and cheering family and friends as he stepped out of the customs section at the airport.

"We lived terrible moments," Khalil told reporters at the airport. "We expected to die many times when gun fire was exchanged with the pirates."

The - as AP stated - 33 fishermen aboard the Momtaz 1 and another boat, Ahmed Samara, were captured by Somalis four months ago while fishing off the coast of Somalia. [NB: The crew list has 34 sailors on both ships, 18 and 16 respectively and was confirmed by the Egyptian embassy, but 6 additional minors without papers were taken along on this disastrous voyage. The criminal owners must explain why they always give wrong figures to the media and where the one missing sailor from the crew-list is.]

Mohammed Nasr, who owns the other vessel and was in contact with Khalil throughout the ordeal, said his colleague managed to convince the captors to let him on the boat with a ransom of $200,000.

Khalil then signaled to the captive fishermen to distract the guards while hired Somali militiamen clambered aboard and engaged the alleged pirates, Nasr said.

Khalil said he expected the fishermen to sail into the Suez Canal, 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of Cairo this weekend, with eight captive pirates on board.

Ambassador Mustafa al-Guindy from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry told reporters Tuesday that the government will examine the case and decide on how to charge the pirates.

The struggle took place off the Somali coastal town of Las Qorey along the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest waterways.

International patrols, including by U.S., European, Chinese, Russian and Indian ships, have failed to halt the pirate attacks. The fishermen on Khalil's boat, the Momtaz 1, and another vessel rose up against their captors and succeeded in killing two of them, taking the rest hostage.

N.B.: The crews of the two illegal fishing vessels hold 8 Somalis captive, which was confirmed by governmental intelligence sources. Insider information revealed that the owners of the vessels want the Somalis to be chased off their ships in Port Suez or be sent back to Puntland (which is hostile territory for people from Lasqooray) in order to avert a court trial in Egypt, where the full truth could be revealed. The Egyptian government is urged to put the two Egyptian vessel owners on trial for the illegal abduction of Egyptian minors without papers and for engaging them in child-labour during an illegal fishing venture into Somali waters, thereby disregarding a clear instruction by the Egyptian government to all shipowners not to venture into Somali waters. The fishing vessels are Egypt flagged and thereby Egypt also must be held responsible for the illegal fishing activities of these vessels. The full truth on this case must be revealed. Likewise a fair trial - including capable defence lawyers - must be given to the 8 surviving Somalis concerning the accusations and allegations of piracy and armed robbery at sea. International observers must be permitted to witness the court procedures in all the cases concerning the two vessels, their owners, their crews and the Somalis.]

Ambassador Mustafa al-Guindy from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry told reporters Tuesday that his government will study the case and decide on how to charge the pirates.

The Egyptian fishermen are expected at the Suez Canal port of Ataka on Saturday, a top union official said Tuesday. Bakri Abul-Hassan, the head of the Egyptian Fishermen's Trade Union, told Cairo's al-Ahram newspaper that the men were sailing north through the Red Sea with four Somalis in custody, which is a different figure from the 8 Somalis official sources and the vessel owner claimed to be held on board.

"I will never forget what happened to me and the rest of the families of the 34, or how we were ignored by the Foreign Ministry officials," said Nawal Taher, the mother of one of the fishermen. "I will not forget how (Deputy Foreign Minister) Ahmed Rizq said 'everyone is responsible for himself. The Foreign Ministry has nothing to do with fishermen. You collect the ransom and we will send it'," Cairo's daily al-Masry al-Youm quoted her as saying.

Meanwhile Muslim sources from Egypt, who call the one ship-owner involved in the stint Shaykh Hasan Khalil, released a statement acusing the Egyptian government and its foreign ministry for not listing the 40 abducted fishermen among their priorities and decried the continued government inability to protect citizens of Egypt. "The government also failed to free the two Egyptian doctors who were sentenced to whipping in Saudi Arabia, or to stop the Libyan authorities from executing six Egyptians who were sentenced to death on issues that were engulfed with ambiguity, or to show any desire to save the lives of 30 young Egyptians who were awaiting execution. Nor the Egyptian government was capable of protecting the Egyptian expatriates in the Arab Gulf from the unfair guarantor system whereby each Egyptian expatriate should have a local guarantor," read part of the statement by Ikhwan.

Russian defense minister reportedly says 8 suspects in Arctic Sea hijacking detained

By Jim Heintz

8 suspects in Arctic Sea hijacking reportedly held

Russia´s navy detained eight men accused of hijacking the Arctic Sea freighter near Sweden and forcing the crew to sail to West Africa, state news agencies quoted the defense minister as saying Tuesday.

Anatoly Serdyukov reportedly said the suspected hijackers — citizens of Estonia, Latvia and Russia — were detained by a Russian naval ship without a shot being fired.

The Russian-crewed cargo ship was found Monday off Cape Verde, some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from the Algerian port where it was supposed to dock two weeks ago.

Serdyukov had informed President Dmitry Medvedev that the 15 Russian crew members were safe and had been taken aboard the Russian naval vessel for questioning.

On July 30, Swedish police said the ship´s owner had reported that the crew claimed the vessel was boarded by masked men on July 24 near the Swedish island of Gotland. The invaders reportedly had tied up the crew, beat them, claimed they were looking for drugs, then sped off about 12 hours later in an inflatable craft.

Serdyukov reportedly said Tuesday the hijackers had boarded the freighter under the pretext that there was a problem with their inflatable craft. The hijackers, who were armed, then forced the crew to change course and turned off the freighter´s navigation equipment, he was quoted as saying.

By the time the Swedish report of the attack had emerged, the ship had already passed through the English Channel, where it made its last known radio contact on July 28. Signals from the ship´s tracking device were picked up off France´s coast the next day, but that was the last known trace of it until Monday.

The disappearance of the 98-meter (320-foot) Arctic Sea perplexed experts and officials across Europe, with speculation about what happened ranging from its being seized by pirates to involvement in a murky commercial dispute.

Russia says missing Arctic Sea freighter found near Cape Verde, crew alive and healthy

Missing ship found off Cape Verde, crew OK

The high seas mystery over the freighter Arctic Sea was far from solved Monday after the Russian navy found the ship off West Africa, far from the Algerian port where it was supposed to dock two weeks ago.

A full cargo of questions remained:

Was the ship attacked near Sweden as reported? Was this an unheard-of case of piracy in European waters? Or a murky commercial dispute? Why was the Arctic Sea found off Cape Verde, some 2,000 miles from its intended port?

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov informed President Dmitry Medvedev that the Russian-crewed freighter had been found safe about 300 miles from Cape Verde and that the 15 crew members were taken aboard another vessel for questioning.

The details stopped there.

Since the Arctic Sea sailed from the Finnish port of Pietarsaari on July 21 with a €1.3 million ($1.8 million) cargo of timber, rumors and unconfirmed reports of misadventure has followed it.

On July 30, Swedish police said the ship´s owner had reported that the crew claimed the vessel was boarded by masked men on July 24 near the Swedish island of Gotland. The invaders reportedly tied up the crew, beat them, claimed they were looking for drugs, then sped off about 12 hours later in an inflatable craft.

By the time the Swedish report emerged, the ship had already passed through the English Channel, where it made its last known radio contact on July 28. Signals from the ship´s tracking device were picked up off France´s coast the next day, but that was the last known trace of it until Monday.

The Arctic Sea was scheduled to make port in Algeria on Aug. 4. But after it was late by more than a week, Medvedev ordered the defense ministry to use all necessary means to find the freighter.

Subsequently, a ship resembling the 98-meter (320-foot) Arctic Sea was rumored to have been seen in the Spanish port of San Sebastian — even though the port is suitable only for small vessels — then in the area of Cape Verde. On Saturday, a Russian maritime expert said the ship´s tracking device had sprung to life off the coast of France, but France said the signals came from Russian warships.

Adding to the mystery, Russia´s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told the ITAR-Tass news agency Monday that bogus information was deliberately provided to the news media "which did not allow them to calculate the true actions of the Russian forces."

With details still sparse, Viktor Matveyev, director of the ship´s operator Solchart, told The Associated Press, "We are all incredibly happy. Now the big work starts to find out what happened."

Serdyukov said the crew and the ship were found about 5 p.m. EDT Sunday about 300 miles (480 kilometers) away from the island nation of Cape Verde.

"The crew is alive, all are alive and healthy," he said.

The crew members were taken aboard the Russian navy frigate Ladny, Serdyukov said.

Reports said crew members had been assaulted, gagged and blindfolded, and some were seriously hurt.

The disappearance of the 98-meter (320-foot) Arctic Sea perplexed experts and officials across Europe, with speculation about what happened ranging from its being seized by pirates to being involved in a murky commercial dispute.

Finnish investigators reported Saturday that the ship´s owners had received a ransom demand. But it was not clear if the demand came from people who actually held the ship, or from opportunistic charlatans.

Russian pirate saga incredible

While a baffled European Commission spokesman could only refer to the story as stuff for a Hollywood movie, European Union maritime officials, who have remained sceptical of the possibility that "traditional piracy" could have taken place in this case said: "We have not seen piracy in the Baltic Sea since the 17th century and usually pirates need a safe haven close by to operate from, as is the case with piracy off the coast of Somalia, which is totally different."

Mystery remains

According to the Daily Telegrap the suspects – four Estonian citizens, two Latvians and two Russian nationals – were charged with carrying out Europe's first act of piracy in hundreds of years. Russia's authorities have opened a criminal investigation on charges of "kidnapping" ahead of a complicated legal debate over which jurisdiction should deal with offences surrounding the hijacking of a Russian owned, Finnish managed but Maltese flagged vessel in Swedish national waters.

But the motive behind the seizure remained a mystery as experts claimed the full story had yet to emerge.

The Telegraph quotes Mikhail Voitenko, the editor of Russian Maritime Bulletin-Sovfracht, as saying he had spoken to the crew on the Arctic Sea, who remained in the dark as to the motives for the hijacking and he has suggested that the delays in reporting the hijacking, the low value of the ship's timber cargo – worth only £1 million – and the disabling of communications systems pointed beyond piracy to a more sinister conspiracy. He even hinted that Russian security forces could have been involved in the hijack at some stage.

"The operation cost more than the cargo and ship combined," he said. "It makes sense only if looked at as a conflict between states. I believe states, state interests, were involved in what happened. I believe the countries involved found a solution and agreed to 'keep it in the family'."

The 15 Russian crew members meanwhile were traveling from Cape Verde island of Sal where they are due to board a military plane bound for Moscow.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 6 foreign vessels with a total of not less than 123 crew members are accounted for (of which 42 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. MV INDIAN EXPLORER and S/Y SERENITY are allegedly dead ships. 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 154 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 47 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least five 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 or naval upsurge related reports

Belgian navy sailors terrorised coast in Spain

The Belgian Ministry of Defence issued an apology to the Spanish government after it was found that its sailors caused havoc in waters close to a popular holiday beach in northwest Spain.

The Belgian Ministry of Defence has issued an apology to the Spanish government after it was established that Belgian sailors from the mine-sweeper Lobelia caused havoc in waters close to a popular holiday beach.

The Spanish daily Faro de Vigo reported that Belgian sailors from the Lobelia sailed into an area reserved for swimmers aboard high-speed dinghies in Vigo in Northwest Spain.

Terrified bathers tried to flee the big waves that were produced by the boats.

La Voz de Gallicia wrote that the police were called in and it was only two hours later when a Spanish Civil Guard boat arrived on the scene that the errant seafarers were forced ashore.

Five of the 15 sailors involved in the incident are reported to be Belgian, seven are Dutch and three are British sailors from HMS Quorn.

Belgian Defence spokeswoman Ingrid Baeck told Het Laatste Nieuws that the swimmers panicked when they saw the boats.

Baeck added the local media had greatly exaggerated the gravity of the incident. She also denied that the offending sailors were drunk.

It is assumed that these rogue EUNAVFOR sailors were on a special training assignment for a coming operation in Somalia.

So far no apology has come forward from the Netherlands, the UK or EUNAVFOR headquarters.

Spanish environmental and civil rights groups have come together now to stop any such naval operations in Spanish waters.

NATO launches new anti-piracy operation off Somalia

British, Greek, Italian, Turkish and US warships are involved in Ocean Shield, but "other countries are thinking of coming to reinforce the operation which could evolve at any moment."

NATO on Monday launched operation Ocean Shield to help fight rampant piracy off the Horn of Africa after the alliance's North Atlantic Council approved the mission, it said in a statement.

"No timeframe has been set for this long-term operation, which will last as long as it's deemed necessary," Major Stefano Sbaccanti, a spokesman from the alliance's Joint Command Lisbon, told AFP.

It takes over from NATO's sea-based operation Allied Protector, launched last year....

The operation "will contribute to a lasting maritime security solution off the Horn of Africa," NATO said.

NATO's Joint Command Lisbon is in overall command, with day-to-day operations controlled out of the alliance's Maritime Component Command Headquarters Northwood in Britain.

British, Greek, Italian, Turkish and US warships are involved in Ocean Shield, but "other countries are thinking of coming to reinforce the operation which could evolve at any moment," Sbaccanti said to AFP.

Belgium launches fight against pirates

The Louise-Marie, a Belgian marine frigate, is leaving the Port of Zeebruges on its way to the Horn of Africa. From 1 September until 13 December the warship will accompany cargo ships to protect them from pirates.

The launch is part of a European Union effort to combate piracy off the Somali coast.

The Louise-Marie will patrol the waters between the Gulf of Aden and the Seychelles, an area the size of the Mediterranean Sea.

The operation is not without risk. "We have to keep sharp and alert and make sure we do not come under pirate fire," says Jan De Beurme, commander of the Louise-Marie.

"We have been issued very clear guidelines and we will not hesitate to follow them if necessary. The possibility that we could come under fire is also very real."

This is the first time that the Belgium has worked to combat piracy, as part of Operation Atalanta, a European Union campaign to stop piracy in the Somali coast.

The alleged aim of Atalanta is to protect vessels of the World Food Programme delivering food aid to displaced persons in Somalia, to protect cruising vessels, as well as the deterrence, prevention and repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast.

The naval patrol includes vessels from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

Dutch Frigate becomes flagship of EU NAVFOR Atalanta

At a ceremony in the Red Sea onboard the EU NAVFOR Spanish warship Numancia Force Commander Captain (N) Juan Garat Caramé, handed over Command of the FHQ to Commodore Pieter Bindt of the Netherlands.

Commodore Bindt will lead the multinational FHQ from the EU NAVFOR Netherlands warship HNLMS Evertsen for the next four months.

EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta acts in accordance with United Nations Security Councils resolutions. The military operation was launched 8 December and has been extended by the European Council until December 2010. The EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta will pursue the following objectives:

The protection of World Food Programme (WFP) vessels delivering food aid to displaced persons in Somalia.

The protection of vulnerable vessels sailing in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast and the deterrence, prevention and repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast.

Employ the necessary measures, including the use of force, to deter, prevent and intervene in order to bring to an end acts of piracy and armed robbery which may be committed in the areas where they are present.

The EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta consists of units from Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Greece and Sweden. Ships from Norway and Belgium will be joining the Force in the next few weeks.

Developing EU´s Usefulness, Capability Development and Operations

Sweden to boost European Union´s anti-piracy Operation Atalanta.

Defence policy factsheet of the Swedish EU Presidency by defpro.com -

Sweden assumes the presidency of the EU and will head the Union for the next six months *. With the presidency, Sweden is responsible for moving forward important EU issues and has already emphasised that defence policy issues will have a high priority. In view of the upcoming, challenging tasks, the Swedish government recently issued a factsheet describing the defence policy issues that are to be dealt with during its presidency.

Within this fact sheet, which was provided to defpro.com this month, Sweden intends to improve the EU´s usefulness and capability in further supporting international peace and security efforts. EU members are cooperating in various ways in this field, including implementing joint military operations. However, these are not fully effective and have to continue to further develop its crisis management capability.

EU Battle groups reform

Though a unique instrument for rapid reaction operations, the Union has not yet made use of the EU Battle groups. Given this, the Swedish presidency is now opening a political discussion on a more flexible view on this issue.

Member States are responsible for organising Battle groups and make them available to the EU in rotating six-month periods. There are, at all times, two Battle groups on simultaneous standby, providing the EU with a tool for rapid crisis management. Quickly suppressing an emerging crisis or conflict, to prevent further escalation, is a key task and projected capability of the EU Battle groups. When a Battle group has fulfilled such an initial mission, more long-term stabilising measures can be carried out by allied or national forces.

To increase the efficiency of EU Battle groups, Sweden proposed that one of the Battle groups could be made available for other than rapid reaction operations. In order to increase usability, the cooperation between Battle groups on standby should be improved.

Enabling EU to contribute to peace and security

The primary objective of the EU capability development is to identify capabilities required to enable the EU to contribute to peace and security as, for instance, strategic transport or medical evacuation helicopters. The EU member states individually decided to extend their contribution to multinational capability development, which Sweden would like to boost.

Coordination of civilian and military capabilities

According to the Swedish fact sheet, when planning military and civil operations a long-term strategy for rebuilding the respective country or area must be developed in parallel. Sustainable peace requires functioning institutions under democratic control, such as police and judicial systems. When military and civil operations are carried out simultaneously in a conflict area, their combined effect can only be increased by a healthy interaction.

As one major aim during its EU presidency, Sweden will initiate a discussion on how coordination of the EU civil and military capabilities can be further developed. Basically, this involves avoiding unnecessary duplication of activities and capabilities as well as finding common civil-military solutions. Key examples are transport and logistics, protection and co-locating civilian and military headquarters. The Swedish presidency is expected to arrange a seminar on the subject during the autumn of this year.

Extension of Operation ATALANTA

One of the purposes of the European Security and Defence Policy is to enable member states to jointly contribute to operations aimed at promoting peace and security. The need for a common EU response to conflicts or crises became obvious during the long-lasting Balkan conflict, when the EU was unable to take military action because it lacked the proper tools and structures. But much has happened since and several military operations have been carried out under the EU flag, mainly in Africa.

One of these operations is the ongoing maritime operation ATALANTA off the coast of Somalia, of which the essential objective is to protect UN food shipments from local piracy.

Sweden is planning to extend the ATALANTA mission, as the need for a military presence in the region is expected to continue to be great through 2010. The long-standing operation ALTHEA, along with the EU´s continued military presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will also be discussed in the course of late 2009.

Civil peace-support and security-building missions

The EU also conducts civilian peace-support and security-building missions. In these particular cases, its goal is promoting the development of constitutional states and police activities, providing support to the administration and civil protection, or monitoring borders and peace agreements. Sweden, for instance, participates in the EU operations in Georgia, Afghanistan, Gaza and Kosovo.

The largest civil EU mission is EULEX in Kosovo, where it has deployed experts to help Kosovo establish a functioning judicial and customs systems. Several agencies from Sweden are contributing with staff and resources to this mission. The Swedish government attaches great importance to the EU´s ability to contribute to crisis management operations.

Cooperation between civil and military maritime surveillance

Few of the current security and safety threats respect political borders. Organised crime, industrial or environmental accidents, terrorism, piracy, illegal immigration, illegal fishing, pollution and the consequences of long-term climate change affect us all and often have their origin and effects in more than one state. The common requirements of civil and military actors do not allow a strict division between civil and military related aspects of security. Instead, it requires a well-coordinated approach involving all involved EU institutions in order to successfully protect the interests of member states and of the European Union.

As the factsheet outlines, the Swedish government supports a close and transparent cooperation between civil and military maritime surveillance assets and will support a further improvement of this cooperation. The objective is to avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts and to improve overall efficiency.

To achieve this, member states, the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the European Commission will need to closely work together in order to find innovative solutions within the given legal framework. Furthermore, in order to secure efficient development of maritime situational awareness capabilities, the EU must use all the instruments at its disposal.

At the EU level, work has been in progress for several years to satisfy the maritime surveillance and maritime information requirements of the various member states. The EU maritime policy addresses the requirement for a more integrated cooperation in this field.

In this context, Sweden emphasises the importance of building, as far as possible, on existing systems and initiatives which are linked, in order to achieve better situational awareness.

Continued close cooperation between member states and relevant EU institutions, consequently, is of great value.

Closer cooperation between the EU and NATO

Since both are often operating in the same areas, there is a need for closer cooperation between the EU and NATO, according to Sweden. This need exists at all levels and stages as, for instance, from planning to implementation of operations and missions. Information exchange and cooperation on capability development and armaments can also be expanded to avoid unnecessary duplication.

This issue has been pursued by previous presidencies, however, Sweden is stimulating a dialogue that may promote increased cooperation.

To sum up, Sweden has recognised the importance of increasing usefulness, capability development and operations of the EU. The required will is there and first moves have already shown that this presidency will place important defence and security issues on the agenda. However, it has to be seen if other member states are also willing to push the Unions defence potential.

The EU presidency of the Council rotates between member states. The presidency rotates on a half-yearly basis. The country presiding over the Council acts as the driving force in the EU's legislative and political decision-making process.

War games in Eastern Mediterranean

The Reliant Mermaid military exercise to be conducted by Turkey, Israel and the USA begins today. Though the press in Turkey slides around the matter, the exercise annoys all the countries in the region.

Ron Ben Yishai, military commentator for Israel's Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot, had said this about the Reliant Mermaid exercise: "When the two strongest armies in the Middle East...are focused on achieving an unwritten military alliance, and when the world's only superpower grants this process its support, other countries in the region have cause for concern."

Reliant Mermaid, one of the "joint search and rescue exercises" by the Israeli, Turkish and United States Naval and Air Forces takes start today. Turkey will be hosting the exercise. The live part of the exercise will begin on 19th August and end on 21st August.

Officially the purpose of the exercise is declared "to contribute to overall joint readiness in response to possible future humanitarian assistance efforts or maritime search and rescue operations in the region." The first Reliant Mermaid exercise was conducted in 1998 as per the military cooperation agreement signed in 1996 during the Refah Partisi government. Since then, this trilateral exercise is conducted in the Eastern Mediterranean international waters and is taken as the most important sign of the military alliance between Turkey and Israel.

The military forces in the exercise

In total 8 ships, 4 helicopters and 3 search and rescue aircraft will be employed in the exercise. The ships that will participate in the exerice on behalf of the USA belong to the 6th Fleet based in the Eastern Mediterranean, which is quite well remembered in Turkey in that it was shooed away by Deniz Gezmis and his friends.

The name of the ship to take part in the exercise on behalf of the 6th Fleet is USS Stout (DDG 55). This ship, which is an Arleigh Burke type guided missile destroyer, is both larger and has bigger destructive power compared to other cruisers of the USA. The USS Stout´s name was most recently heard in Turkey on 18th June when it was protested by members of the Communist Party of Turkey when it docked at the Bodrum port.

What made the ship more famous was that it was one of the ships most frequently sent by the USA to the Black Sea following the war between Georgia and Russia. Most recently, USS Stout, which is a quite enhanced ship for a search and rescue mission and has nuclear missile capacity, sailed to the Black Sea on the 15th of last July during the a bilateral exercise conducted by Georgia and the USA. The entering of this ship into the Black Sea was protested by Russia, and some retired generals from Russia had declared that these ships could be sunk within a few hours if a need rises.

It was announced that INS Lahav and INS Sufa frigates will be amongst the ships to participate on behalf of Israel. Both frigates are equipped with missiles and in 2006 INS Lahav was one of the ships involved in the invasion of Lebanon by Israel by blockading Lebanese harbors.

Is search and rescue the sole purpose?

The press in Turkey slides around the matter by simply quoting the official statement issued by the General Staff about the Reliable Mermaid exercise and it is simultaneously introduced as a "search and rescue exercise" by the three countries; however, it seems that other countries in the region don´t not think the same way. Until today, the exercise was condemned by all Arab countries, Russia, Iran and even by Greece which is also a NATO member country.

Palestine, Lebanon and Syria are the countries that feel themselves under direct threat. These three countries which lie in the Eastern Mediterranean region that lies between Turkey and Israel have enough reasons to feel uneasy about such a military exercise.

Israeli ships frequently open fire at Gaza shores which they keep under blockade and sink fishermen´s boats. A short time ago Lebanon was occupied by Israel; last week a high ranking officer of the Israeli army said that the Israeli army can intervene in Lebanon again due to the presence of Hezbollah in the country. THe Golan Heights of Syria is under the occupation of Israel although this is condemned by the whole world. The official newspaper of Syria, the Tishrin Daily, has described the exercise as "a mischievous exercise"

Russia has declared that the exercise "increased mistrust and handicapped the efforts of bringing stability to the region."

Iran on the other hand is quite right to feel uneasy about the exercise of Israel in the region, since Israel is has been saying for some time in the face of world public opinion that in may attack Iran. Last month two Israeli submarines passed through Suez Canal and set sail to the Red Sea in a move perceived as an open threat against Iran.

HMCS Winnipeg taking break from fighting pirates

After more than six months of fighting pirates and delivering humanitarian aid, HMCS Winnipeg is coming home.

The ship took part in a NATO-led counter piracy mission in April and May off the Horn of Africa.

As a result, five pirate ships were disarmed in three separate incidents.

The vessel also escorted a number of merchant ships, ensuring 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid made it to Somalia in support of the United Nations World Food Program. HMCS Winnipeg will arrive in Esquimalt on Friday at 9:30 a.m.

Ecosystems, marine environment, IUU fishing and dumping, ecology

Study: Global Coral Crisis Is In Full Bloom by John Nielsen (NPR)

Coral reefs around the world are in bad shape these days. But a new research paper in the journal Science says their problems may be getting worse. The paper says as much as a third of the world's coral species may now be headed toward extinction, thanks to problems ranging from destructive fishing boats to ocean waters warmed by global climate change.

Coral experts say these reefs hold 25 percent of the world's marine species. That list includes sponges, lobsters, turtles, shrimp, sharks and commercially important fish. Philip Munday, a reef expert at Australia's James Cook University, says that's why coral reefs are often called "the rain forests of the ocean."

"It's quite stunning when you get into the water on a lovely clear day and you drop down onto [healthy] reef," says Munday. "There are fish everywhere, hundreds of thousands of fish, the sort of things you almost don't see anywhere else."

Unfortunately, reefs like those are few and far between these days. And Kent Carpenter, a reef expert at Virginia's Old Dominion University, says the problems faced by these important ecosystems may be worse than a lot of experts think they are. In a new paper, he reports that a third of the world's coral species are now declining toward extinction, partly owing to increased outbreaks of coral diseases. Corals that aren't killed off by these new diseases are recovering more slowly, he reports. Some are slowly overwhelmed by ugly gobs of algae.

"I have been on several coral reefs recently that have had large clumps of algae growing on the reefs themselves," he said. "And if you pull off the algae, you see that the coral underneath them has died, because it couldn't get any sunlight."

Carpenter says sights like those are easily as ugly as the image of a thriving reef is beautiful, adding that in his opinion a global coral crisis is now in full bloom.

"This is a whole ecosystem that we potentially could be losing," he said.

That's the central message in the paper Carpenter has just published in Science. He says he prepared it with the help of coral researchers affiliated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a nonprofit conservation group whose scientific work is widely thought to be definitive.

The coral researchers pored through records kept at field stations near coral reefs found all over the tropics. Carpenter says the result is a so-called coral "red list" that concludes that a third of the world's coral species may be declining toward extinction. He says the researchers found some evidence of a link between coral-killing diseases and warming ocean waters. He adds that it's possible that even bigger problems will emerge if emissions of global warming gases aren't reduced soon.

For example, he says ocean waters are becoming more acidic as they soak up carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas. And while there's evidence that coral reefs can find ways to adapt to waters warmed by global climate change, there's no proof that they can cope with more-acidic oceans.

"Obviously the overarching problem that has to be solved is the [buildup of man-made] carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," he said.

Carpenter's new paper drew a lot of attention at a coral reef conference held this week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The paper also drew support from a different report prepared by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That paper concluded that a quarter of the coral reefs in U.S. waters were in poor condition.

There are some rays of hope in the new coral red list. For example, it appears to show that reefs in some parts of the far Pacific are now thriving in the warming waters. And Munday, the Australian reef expert, says research conducted near the Great Barrier Reef appeared to show that when a wounded coral reef is put off limits to commercial fishermen, large numbers of big fish fill the area in a few years.

"That gives us enormous hope that these populations ... can rebound if they're given the chance to do so," he says. Munday says these programs won't protect coral reefs from problems caused by global warming. But they might help buy the reefs a little extra time.

Can Corals Survive In A Warming World?

By Richard Harris (NPR)

Coral reefs are the rain forests of the oceans, teeming with diverse and postcard-perfect fish, towering sponges and multicolored coral. And like rain forests, they are in jeopardy.

Global warming is a long-term threat to the world's coral reefs. And this summer, the risk to Caribbean corals could be acute. Federal scientists warn that the seas could be unusually warm. And warm water can be deadly for corals.

Scientists can't do anything about overheating ocean waters. But they are exploring ways to keep reefs resilient, so they can better withstand heat shock.

This spring, a team of scientists converged on the tiny Caribbean Island of Bonaire to study the reef and understand what keeps it healthy.

The ecology of the reef isn't the only thing at stake — so is the very economy of the island.

Ramon deLeon, manager of Bonaire National Marine Park, surveys a section of coral, recording his observations with an underwater pen and notepad.

"Bonaire is known as a diver's paradise," says Ramon deLeon, who is in charge of the marine park that encircles the island. "Anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of the economy is running on tourism, and 90 percent of the tourism is diving tourism."

A Reef Check-Up

On this balmy evening, deLeon has come to this combination bar and dive shop to meet up with a team of scientists. They plan to spend the next 10 days in the water, to see how the reef is doing.

Gabriel Grimsditch, from the conservation group IUCN, has organized the research. He explains that this is part of a project that's taking place around the globe. It was stimulated by a massive ocean warming episode 11 years ago. Overheated waters worldwide forced the colorful microorganisms that live inside the coral to abandon their homes. The coral turned white — it bleached.

And a staggering 16 percent of all the world's coral died off during that episode.

"And it basically got people thinking that climate change was actually one of the most important threats to corals at the moment. So people started looking at why coral reefs recover from bleaching or why they don't."

That's one reason they've come to Bonaire. The reef here was hit hard during the 1998 bleaching episode. Marine biologist Mark Vermeij, from the nearby island of Curacao, remembers it vividly.

"The reef slope actually looked like a mountain slope full of snow. People here were taking their skis out and took pictures for home — like they were skiing the coral reefs."

But much to everybody's relief, the coral here didn't die off. The live-in microorganisms eventually returned to the mineral coral skeletons. The reef regained its color and came back to life.

Too Many Nutrients

The next day, the biologists take their first dive. It's right off one of the many resorts on Bonaire. Ramon deLeon squeezes into his wetsuit and straps on a 35-pound tank.

Clipboard in one hand, measuring square in the other, deLeon trudges across a small beach of imported sand and leads his colleagues into the water.

This resort looks idyllic — the sand, palm trees, a tiki hut bar. But as Mark Vermeij emerges from the dive an hour later, he says the reef offshore looks bad.

"This is not something you get happy about, that's for sure," he says. Many of the corals had toppled over — the result of Tropical Storm Omar last October.

That in itself shouldn't be such a big deal. Reefs have been clobbered by storms for millions of years, and recovered. But Vermeij says the added stress of living alongside human beings made it hard for this reef to bounce back. For one thing, nutrient runoff from the resort's lush gardens have encouraged green algae to smother the coral in places.

"You hit them once and everything else follows. Algal overgrowth, diseases, death by a thousand cuts. That's what this is, right here."

Pinpointing The Problems

Study coordinator Gabriel Grimsditch says pinpointing the problems — and eliminating the causes — can actually help corals to recover from bleaching and natural disturbances.

"We're trying to give [park manager Ramon deLeon] some data he can point to so he can tell people the reef is being affected in this way. And there are certain actions you can take to improve the resilience of the reef."

We clamber into one of the park's well worn pick-up trucks and drive along the narrow island roads. This is actually a desert island, as in arid. But people want it to look like the classic Caribbean paradise, so they plant coconut palms and other vegetation. Then they water. And the water rushes through the porous soils, sweeping nutrients with it.

"These nutrients will end up, sooner or later, in the reef," de Leon says.

Nobody wants to hurt the reef, he says. On the other hand, nobody really wants to hear from the park manager that they need to change their ways.

"Sometimes you have to point fingers and say: 'This is the problem. You are the cause. You have to solve it,'" deLeon says. "Nobody likes that so we have to do it very carefully. But overall I think people appreciate what we do for the coral reef here."

Signs Of Hope

Since deLeon came to Bonaire 11 years ago from Uruguay, he's been telling people that if they care about the reef, they need to think differently about everything from coastal development and irrigation, to fishing.

And when he wants to show off just how healthy a reef can be, he takes people to one of the island's more remote and unpopulated dive spots.

In fact, the science team heads to one of those pristine sites the next day. An island mockingbird calls down from a cactus as the divers gear up.

Once again, the divers disappear beneath the waves. But this time, when Mark Vermeij comes back, he looks happier. This reef, he says, is "orders of magnitudes better" than the one at the resort.

Vermeij says the reef here felt the impact of the same storm that caused so much damage down the coast last fall."The place got hammered like hell, but it's grown back like hell, too," he says.

Everything that should be working to help the reef recover is working here, he says.

Coral "that were lying on the ground are growing back. There are lots of parrotfish. Everybody's happy. But, yeah, it doesn't result in a postcard reef sort of thing. No. Resilience: the ability to come back after you got kicked very hard. This is the place where it actually works like that."

The lesson here is clear. A reef that's healthy to begin with can rebound. So, he says, to help these rich and abundant ecosystems survive global warming, we need to reduce the stresses that are on them now.

Drought fuelling rural exodus in Somaliland

Some rains have fallen in northern Somalia, but this has not stopped an exodus of drought-affected people from rural areas to urban centres in Somaliland, local officials said.

"We know that hundreds of thousands have [been] displaced to urban centres," said Abdihakim Garaad Mohamoud, Deputy Minister at the Somaliland Ministry of Resettlement, Reintegration and Rehabilitation.

"Every city in Somaliland has a huge number of displaced people because of the recent drought," he added. "It has affected 60 percent of the rural population, whether they are pastoralists or agro-pastoralists. From east to west, south to north, every place in Somaliland has been affected."

Across towns in the self-declared republic, such as Burao, Berbera, Erigavo, Las´anod and Badhan, temporary shelters have sprouted as rural dwellers arrive from the countryside.

"The government has planned to deal with the problem, but our capacity is limited," Mohamoud told IRIN in Hargeisa. "Sixty percent of animals have been lost. One [man] who had 200 sheep has lost 110-120, and one who had 20 camels lost half."

The governor of Togdheer region, Jama Abdillahi Warsame, said his government, with local NGOS, was trucking water to 78 villages.

"We estimate [that] more than 8,000 people moved to Burao [the main livestock market town] from rural areas," he told IRIN.

He named the most vulnerable districts in Togdheer region as Hod, Ina Afmadobe, War-Imran, Ilka-Cadays, Bali-Hiile, Suryo, Lebi-Guun, Adow Yurura, Isku Dhoon, in Burou and Qoryale, as well as Qori Dheere in Ainabo districts of Sool region.

Late rains

The deputy minister said some rains had started in most of Somaliland, but the emergency was continuing. Prices of food, for example, had remained high.

"Some rain has started, but animals and people are so weak and [may not be] able to survive the wet situation," he added. "We are calling on the international community to help the drought-affected people."

Business people in the port city of Berbera said sugar prices had increased by about 70 percent in the past few weeks.

Mohamed Ahmed Imbir, owner of a food store in Berbera, told IRIN: "We were selling one sack of sugar at US$28, but now we are selling for $34." He did not know why prices had risen.

On 22 June, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) warned that the drought in Somalia's central region had extended northwards into the key pastoral areas of the Sool plateau, Nugaal valley, and Hawd livelihood zones.

The situation threatened more than 700,000 pastoralists and a significant number of urban households, whose income and food sources are strongly linked to livestock marketing and trade.

Anti-piracy measures

U.S. weighs arming ships to ward off pirates

By Christopher Torchia - AP

Some European nations have taken measures to deter piracy

Challenging a global aversion to guns aboard ships, France has put troops on tuna boats in the Indian Ocean, and Belgium is offering military units to its merchant vessels off the Horn of Africa. Now, U.S. lawmakers are weighing similar action to fight piracy. Opponents fear such moves will escalate the violence and raise a minefield of legal issues.

In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment that would require the Department of Defense to put armed teams on U.S.-flagged ships passing through high-risk waters, specifically around the Horn of Africa where Somali pirates have become a scourge of world shipping.

The amendment now goes to the Senate. A separate bill introduced last month would grant immunity from prosecution in American courts to any "owner, operator, time charterer, master, or mariner who uses force, or authorizes the use of force, to defend a vessel of the United States against an act of piracy."

Both measures face tough debate ---- U.S. military resources are spread thin and onboard weapons, especially in the hands of civilian crew, are seen as an extreme option.

"Work and watch-keeping take up most of a seafarer's day," Sam Dawson of the International Transport Workers' Federation, which represents hundreds of unions, told The Associated Press by e-mail. "The practice, handling and use of weapons would be a duty too far."

But there is a strong push for action following the April seizure of the MV Maersk Alabama.

That standoff, which transfixed the American public, ended with the killing of three pirates by Navy SEAL snipers and the release of the vessel's captain, Richard Phillips.

The wider potential fallout from the Western initiatives is uncertain because countries such as the Philippines, which supplies most of the world's ship crews, don't have the resources to protect them. Besides, the laws of many nations prevent vessels from carrying weapons, historically for fear they would be used by mutineers.

A range of maritime groups and insurers oppose arming ships because of liability issues and fears that violence could provoke an arms race with the pirates. Still, some ship-owners hire private guards; Israeli commercial boats are believed to routinely carry arms.

"What the Americans do will not necessarily lead the way in terms of the global shipping industry," said Daniel Sekulich, the Toronto-based author of "Terror on the Seas: True Tales of Modern Day Pirates."

Sekulich said a global trend could take hold if international groups such as the U.N. International Maritime Organization develop a comprehensive approach to arming ships. In the meantime, he said, the U.S. initiatives could encourage a "two-tiered or three-tiered system" in which a few wealthy nations protect ships flying their flags, while pirates prey on softer targets.

International patrols, including U.S., European, Chinese, Russian and Indian ships, have reduced the success rate of Somali attacks. But with ransoms running into millions of dollars, pirates have adapted, raiding boats far into the Indian Ocean.

Advocates say onboard teams with weapons would deter or defeat ragtag bands of pirates in flimsy skiffs. On April 25, pirates tried to board the Italian cruise liner MSC Melody as it headed in the Indian Ocean from southern Africa to Europe, but Israeli private guards opened fire and the assailants departed.

For opponents, the worst-case scenario is pirates getting bigger weapons.

"It's something that could actually stoke up the attacks, take the attacks to a higher level," said Andrew Linington of London-based Nautilus International, a union that represents 24,000 mariners, most of whom work on British- or Dutch-registered ships.

But internal polling among Nautilus members has indicated a "hardening of attitudes" in recent months, with more calling for armed protection, Linington said.

This summer, the Netherlands turned down a plea from parliament to put marines on especially vulnerable, slow-moving Dutch vessels threatened by Somali pirates. The refusal was based on fear that pirates could react more violently if they spot weapons and that wounded marines would not get medical care at sea.

Belgium, however, decided in early May to offer an onboard detachment of at least eight troops for euro115,000 ($162,000) a week per unit to its commercial vessels, but so far there has been only one taker, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Kurt Verwilligen.

The French government signed a deal with a tuna fishermen's union in June allowing for military protection of tuna boats in the Indian Ocean during the fishing season, according to Lt. Col. Phillippe de Cussac, a military spokesman. No attacks have been reported so far.

Global pirate attacks more than doubled in the first half of 2009 to 240, from 114 in the same period last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau. A surge of raids in the Gulf of Aden and off the east coast of Somalia accounted for many attacks, though waters off Nigeria are a serious trouble spot.

The Somali attacks are in a lull because seas are rough, but are expected to increase around the end of this month when the weather should improve.

The measure to put military guards on U.S.-flagged ships passed in the House by a vote of 389-22.

In testimony in May, Arthur J. Volkle Jr., vice president of American Cargo Transport, Inc., said private guards were already on his group's ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Persian Gulf. He said the best way to protect U.S.-flagged ships was by deploying military teams to avoid "regulatory shortfalls, liability concerns, and international reluctance to permit armed merchant vessels into their ports."

Phillips, the Maersk Alabama captain, has testified that senior crew members should have access to weapons, though he acknowledged that even this limited approach opens "thorny" issues. Maritime experts say some seafarers travel with small arms, but don't declare them.

The separate bill granting immunity has yet to go to a House vote. It would direct Washington to negotiate deals through the U.N. maritime agency to provide similar exemptions from liability in other countries, as well as to ensure armed U.S. crews can enter foreign ports.

But implementing the measure could be difficult because the U.N. agency discourages onboard weapons.

Armed Security Troops Added To Merchant Ship Crews (strategypage)

Despite the high expense, some nations are starting to put armed guards on civilian ships passing near the "Pirate Coast" of Somalia. France has put detachments of troops tuna boats operating in the Indian Ocean, and Belgium has offered to supply detachments of soldiers for Belgium ships that must move near the Somali coast. But the Belgian offer is not free. An eight man detachment would cost the ship owner $162,000 a week, and so far, only one ship has signed up. Some merchant ships, including American ones, have already arranged to carry armed guards while travelling near where Somali pirates may operate.

Now the United States government is considering offering the same service as the French. Most Western nations have small merchant marine fleets operating under the national flag. It's more common for shipping companies in Western nations to use "flags of convenience" (like Liberia and Panama) to evade laws mandating who can be hired for the crew and what they must be paid (in addition to other restrictions.) Shipping companies using flags of convenience generally do not allow firearms on board, lest they be used by mutineers. There are a few mutinies each year, usually over pay or working conditions. But even if there are weapons on board, you would have to train members of the crew how to use them. Moreover, the pirates often to rely on stealth, sneaking up on a ship at night, while the target vessel is far off the Somali coast. This tactic was first demonstrated last year, after a successful pirate attack on a 1,800 foot long, 300,000 ton tanker 700 kilometers off the Somali coast.

The piracy has been a growing problem off the Somali coast for over a decade. The problem now is that there are thousands of experienced pirates. And these guys have worked out a system that is very lucrative, and not very risky. For most of the past decade, the pirates preyed on foreign fishing boats and the small, often sail powered, cargo boats the move close (within a hundred kilometers) of the shore. During that time, the pirates developed contacts with businessmen in the Persian Gulf who could be used to negotiate (for a percentage) the ransoms with insurance companies and shipping firms. The pirates also mastered the skills needed to put a grappling hook on the railing, 30-40 feet above the water, of a large ship. Doing this at night, and then scrambling aboard, is more dangerous if the ship has lookouts, who can alert sailors trained to deploy high pressure fire hoses against the borders.

Big ships carry have small crews (12-30 sailors). Attacking at night finds most of the crew asleep. Rarely do these ships have any armed security. Ships can post additional lookouts when in areas believed to have pirates. Once pirates (speedboats full of armed men) are spotted, ships can increase speed (a large ship running at full speed, about 40+ kilometers an hour, can outrun most of the current speed boats the pirates have), and have fire hoses ready to be used to repel boarders. The pirates will fire their AK-47 assault rifles and RPG grenade launchers, but the sailors handling the fire hoses will stand back so the gunmen cannot get a direct shot.

Since the pirates generally take good care of their captives, the anti-piracy efforts cannot risk a high body count, lest they be accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes or simply bad behavior. The pirates have access to hundreds of sea going fishing boats, which can pretend to fish by day, and sneak up on merchant ships at night. The pirates often operate in teams, with one or more fishing boats acting as lookouts, and alerting another boat that a large, apparently unguarded, ship is headed their way. The pirate captain can do a simple calculation to arrange meeting the oncoming merchant vessel in the middle of the night. These fishing boats can carry inflatable boats with large outboard engines, or simply two speedboats behind it. Each of these can carry four or five pirates, their weapons and the grappling hook projectors needed to get the pirates onto the deck of a large ship. These big ships are very automated, and at night the only people on duty will be on the bridge. This is where the pirates go, to seize control of the ship. The rest of the crew is then rounded up. The pirates force the captain to take the ship to an anchorage near some Somali fishing village. There, more gunmen will board, and stand guard over crew and ship until the ransom is paid. Sometimes, part of the crew will be sent ashore, and kept captive there. The captive sailors are basically human shields for the pirates, to afford some protection from commando attacks.

Now that the pirates have demonstrated their ability to operate far (over 700 kilometers) from shore, it's no longer possible to use naval patrols. There is simply too much area to patrol. What the naval commanders are considering is a convoy system for any ships passing within a thousand kilometers of the Somali coast. But with ocean going ships, the pirates can operate anywhere in the region. Between the Gulf of Aden, and the Straits of Malacca to the east (between Singapore and Indonesia), you have a third of the worlds shipping. All are now at risk. Convoys for all these ships would require more warships (over a hundred) than can be obtained.

That leaves the option of a military operation to capture the seaside towns and villages the pirates operate from. This would include sinking hundreds of fishing boats and speedboats. Hundreds of civilians would be killed or injured. Unless the coastal areas were occupied (or until local Somalis could maintain law and order), the pirates would soon be back in business.

Pacifying Somalia is an unpopular prospect. Given the opprobrium heaped on the U.S. for doing something about Iraq, no one wants to be on the receiving end of that criticism for pacifying Somalia. The world also knows, from over a century of experience, that the Somalis are violent, persistent and unreliable. That's a combination that has made it impossible for the Somalis to even govern themselves. In the past, what is now Somalia has been ruled, by local and foreign rulers, through the use of violent methods that are no longer politically acceptable. But now the world is caught between accepting a "piracy tax" imposed by the Somalis, or going in and pacifying the unruly country and its multitude of bandits, warlords and pirates.

The piracy tax is basically a security surcharge on maritime freight movements. It pays for higher insurance premiums (which in turn pay for the pirate ransoms), danger bonuses for crews and the additional expense of all those warships off the Somali coast. Most consumers would hardly notice this surcharge, as it would increase sea freight charges by less than a percent. Already, many ships are going round the southern tip of Africa, and avoiding Somalia and the Suez canal altogether. Ships would still be taken. Indeed, about a third of the ships seized this year had taken precautions, but the pirates still got them. Warships could attempt an embargo of Somalia, not allowing seagoing ships in or our without a warship escort. Suspicious seagoing ships, and even speedboats, could be sunk in port. That would still produce some videos (real or staged, it doesn't matter) of dead civilians, but probably not so many that the anti-piracy force would be indicted as war criminals.

On the plus side, illegal fishing in Somali waters would diminish, because of the pirate threat. Suez canal traffic in the Gulf of Aden would get used to waiting for a convoy to form at either end of the 1,500 kilometers long route through pirate territory. There would still be enough ship captains stupid or impatient enough to make the "Aden Run" alone, and get caught by the pirates. The UN, and the heads of major world navies, would continue to agitate for a large peacekeeping force to go in. The UN because of the growing casualties among its food aid staff, and the admirals because of the toll of keeping nearly a hundred of warships and patrol aircraft stationed off Somalia in the endless anti-piracy patrol. Eventually, public opinion might lean towards pacification, rather than the endless anti-pirate patrol. Eventually, maybe. But for now the piracy is definitely there, and will grow larger if nothing decisive is done. Which is what has already been happening, and may continue to happen.

Denmark and Kenya in pirate pact (politiken)

Denmark and Kenya have entered into an agreement allowing detained pirates to be handed over to Nairobi authorities.

Danish warships will no longer be forced to set detained pirates free, following an agreement with Nairobi to hand them over to the Kenyan authorities, according to Jyllands-Posten.

"Some of the problems will disappear as we won´t have to land pirates. It will be easier to develop an operational system. We may also be able to detain more pirates than during our last mission," says Security Researcher Lars Bangert Struwe.

Denmark is reported to be sending a new warship to the Gulf of Aden in January 2010, replacing the Absalon, which returned home earlier this year from its role as flagship of an international anti-piracy task force.

Agreements

Struwe says it has previously been unclear what Denmark could do with pirates it detained during attempted hijacks in the region. But the new agreement with Kenya, which has entered into similar agreements with other nations, should make handling pirates easier.

"There are clearer rules and this will make efforts easier. On the other hand there is real concern in Kenya that it will become a dump for pirates. The goal must be that at some point these pirates can be brought to justice in Somalia, where many of them come from. But that is a long-term issue," Struwe says.

New warship

According to Jyllands-Posten, Denmark will be sending a new warship to the Gulf of Aden in January 2010.

"A new Danish vessel will be going and it is likely that it will be part of anti-piracy efforts," Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller tells Jyllands-Posten.

Chilli bombs to be issued to security forces

By Sasjkia Otto for the Telegraph

Bhut Jolokia, the world´s hottest chilli, could be used in hand grenades by Indian security forces to control rioters and fight insurgents.

The Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has finished trials for hand grenades that use chillies to choke the respiratory tract and cause the eyes to water.

"It gives out such pungent smoke that makes one come out of one´s hiding place," said R.B. Srivastava, chief of the Directorate of Life Sciences at DRDO. "The war scenario is changing. Low intensity conflict is the norm of the day.

"The paramilitary forces face the problem of forcing the terrorists out of the hideouts. We wanted to find a non-lethal way to tackle insurgents and the mob during riot control," he said.

Bhut Jolokia earned Guinness World Records´ recognition as the world´s hottest chilli following tests to measure its Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) - which measure active compounds to determine chilli peppers' heat . At more than a million SHUs, Bhut Jolokia is 200 times hotter than the average Jalapeño.

Scientists are using new technologies to develop a range of unusual, non-lethal weapons.

Here are the top 5:

1. Sonic weapons: sound wave frequencies are used to injure or incapacitate opponents. High-power sound waves can break eardrums while less powerful ones cause nausea and discomfort. Uses include counter-terrorism and crowd control.

2. Electromagnetic weapons: high-intensity radio waves are used to induce destructive voltage in electronic wiring. Electromagnetic weapons were used during the Gulf war to disrupt and destroy the enemy´s electronic systems.

3. Active Denial System: this fires a microwave beam to heat the target's skin. It inflicts enough pain to get the victim to move away, but does not cause damage. The US Department of Justice is aiming to introduce portable versions with smaller beams to the police force.

4. Sticky foam: A mixture of tacky materials is propelled onto people to block, entangle or impair them. US Marine Corps Operation United Shield used sticky foam guns to help withdraw UN Peacekeepers from Somalia.

5. Stink bomb: military-grade devices combine smells such as vomit, human waste, body odours, burnt hair, and rotting garbage for riot control and chemical warfare.

No real peace in sight yet

Former president to mediate between government and opposition

Somalia´s former Transitional National Government (TFG) president, Abdikasim Salad Hassan, is mediating between the Somali government and Hizbul Islam opposition group, Al Jazeera Arabic website published on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera said Abdikasim, the former president is trying his best to mediate between the two sides.

Abdikasim is from the same clanas Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the Hizbul Islam opposition group.

The move comes as the rhetoric battles through the media of the TFG government and Hizbul Islam decreased these days.

Government officials said there have been talks between the government and Hizbul Islam, but Muse Arale, the defence secretary of Hizbul Islam denied the existence of any talks with the government.

Hizbul Islam is one of the rebel groups fighting against the fragile government and the African Union troops in Mogadishu.

During President Abdikasim Salad Hassan's reign piracy from Somalia had ceased to exist.

Somali Cabinet Reshuffle

Sources close to the presidential palace confirmed the prime minister reshuffled his cabinet.

New ministers have been appointed while other ministers were changed from their portfolios.

Ali Jama Jangili, who was the foreign minister at the time of former president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed was named as the new foreign minister. Mohamed Abdulahi Omaar was the current minister.

Mohamed Abdi Gandhi, the defence minister was changed to minister for transportation and Abdalla Boos Ahmed has been nominated as the new defence minister.

Farhan Ali Mohamud, the former information minister lost his post and Dahir Mohamud Gelle has been named as the new information minister.

Defence, foreign ministers changed in Somali reshuffle (AFP)

Somalia's prime minister reshuffled his cabinet Tuesday, replacing his foreign and defence ministers as his embattled administration struggles to fend off a bloody Islamist insurgency.

The reshuffle saw one minister sacked, two new portfolios created and appeared to mark an attempt by the transitional federal administration to defuse clan tensions and be more inclusive of some key regions.

"After lengthy discussions between the president and the prime minister, a decision was made to reshuffle the cabinet in order to help improve the situation in the country," Abdulkader Mohamoud Walayo, a spokesman for the transitional federal government (TFG), told AFP.

"I hope this cabinet will be able to perform better and restore stability in Somalia," he added.

Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke reshuffle comes three and half months into a bruising military offensive by a coalition of hardline Islamist insurgents groups aimed at toppling internationally-backed President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

One of the most notable changes was Mohamed Abdi Gandi's removal from the defence ministry. He was replaced Abdallah Boss Ahmed, a politician from the self-proclaimed northern region of Somaliland.

Gandi was criticised for failing to significantly beef up the TFG's military capacity and not taking the fight to the Shebab -- an Al Qaeda-inspired rebel group -- and their allies from the more political Hezb al-Islam.

Significantly, Sheikh Yusuf Indahhade -- a powerful Islamist warlord who recently joined forces with Sharif -- was appointed deputy defence minister.

Sharmarke also appointed Ali Jama Ahmed Jengeli as foreign minister, in place of Mohamed Abdullahi Omar, who was given the water and mining portfolio.

Jengeli is from the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland and was already a foreign minister under Sharif's predecessor, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned last year.

Dahir Mohamud Gele was named the new minister of information, replacing Ali Mohamed, who will now be in charge of militia rehabilitation.

A new post of treasury minister was also created to work alongside the existing finance minister and handed to Abdirahman Omar Osman.

The changes in the cabinet bring to 39 the total number of ministers and appear to address the grievances of some key Somali clans.

"There are two new Abgal ministers. They had been unhappy with the previous distribution of portfolios and this reshuffle looks like an attempt to prevent any internal destabilisation," one official said on condition of anonymity.

With or without changes to the cabinet, observers remained sceptical as to the administration's ability to make any impact on the situation in Somalia, which continues to be ravaged by an 18-year-old civil conflict.

Sharif, a young radical cleric who spearheaded the 2006 struggle against Ethiopia's invasion, was elected as the country's president in January.

He has since failed to assert his administration's and remained largely boxed into his presidential compound in Mogadishu, owing his survival mainly to the presence of African Union peacekeepers.

Somalia's prime minister re-shuffles cabinet

By Abdiaziz Hassan for Reuters

Names new foreign and defence ministers

Splits finance portfolio into two positions

Somalia's Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke has re-shuffled and expanded his cabinet in an attempt to end in-fighting as the government faces a stubborn insurgency, officials said on Tuesday.

Ali Jama Ahmed and Abdalla Boss Ahmed were named as the new foreign and defence ministers respectively. Both men held these posts in the former transitional federal government.

In addition, the finance portfolio was split into two positions with Abdirahman Omar Osman, the former protocol chief in President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's office, being named treasury minister alongside Finance Minister Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden.

The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has been mired in civil war for 18 years, and the president's administration controls only small pockets of the coastal capital Mogadishu. It is fighting rebel groups including al Shabaab, which the United States says is al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia, with the help of pro-government militia across southern and central regions.

One senior government official said Sharmarke looked to have heeded appeals from the president's Abgal sub-clan for more influence. "It seems the prime minister accepted their call and wants to reduce grievances between clans," said the official, who asked not to be named. Abgal elders held talks with Sharmarke in Nairobi, capital of neighbouring Kenya, late last month.

The former foreign minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar, was transferred to the water and mineral resources ministry. The new jobs takes the number of cabinet posts to 39.

Mohamed Abdi Ghandi, the former defence minister, becomes Somalia's new transport minister. Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for Islamist militants plotting attacks in the region and beyond. Violence has killed more than 18,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1 million from their homes.

Abdirasaq Adan, a Mogadishu-based analyst, said the cabinet re-shuffle would probably change little on the ground. "It has fallen below the expectations of the tribes, the local people and the international donor community," he said. "The re-shuffle we were waiting for was a kind of a fresh start with new faces, but this one is repeating the same faces."

6 killed, 16 injured in Mogadishu violence

Heavy fighting between Somali government forces and insurgents leaves more than six people dead and another 16 injured in northern Mogadishu.

The clashes broke out late on August 17, when the two sides exchanged heavy mortar fire, which killed at least three civilians in the districts of Yakhshiid and Suuq-Bacaad, reports PressTV.

The injured civilians were rushed to a local hospital, witnesses told Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu.

In the early hours of the same day, unidentified gunmen attacked a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) compound in the northwestern region of Bakool.

Aid workers have been the targets of assassinations and kidnappings in Somalia, prompting a large number of aid groups to cease operations in the Horn of Africa country, where rival militias control most of the country.

Insurgent attacks continue to claim lives in Somalia, even after the election of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who futilely attempted to patch up the widely divided factions to put an end to internal armed conflict in the country.

Somali PM reaches Puntland and meets Puntland delegation

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke has reached in Galkayo town in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland on Monday.

The Prime Minister and a delegation consisting of ministers and some law makers arrived in Galkayo, the regional capital of Mudug region in central Somalia.

It is the first time that a Prime minister from the transitional federal government reaches in Puntland regions since Sharif Sheik Ahmed was elected as president in January 2009.

Somalia´s Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke then held a meeting with the president of Somalia´s Puntland semi-autonomous region Abdirahman Farole in Galkayo town in central Somalia, officials said on Tuesday.

The two leaders talked in their meeting about the security issues and the problems of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled from Mogadishu and currently reside in Galkayo.

Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, the president of Puntland informed the Somali prime minister that he was working how his administration was planning to restore order in the town after five Pakistani clerics were killed in Galkayo.

He also requested from the TFG government of Prime Minister Sharmake to help the IDPs in Galkayo.

Concern over 'Puntland secession' or frustration with 'progress?' EDITORIAL garoweonline

The 'Puntland secession' argument is the boogeyman expression used by every group who opposes the self-determination of all Somali people – Somalis and foreigners alike.

The enduring civil war in Somalia has transformed our beloved homeland into humanity´s victim of sorts, not only limited to one of Africa's worst humanitarian situations, but even in the field of intellectual debate on ways to end the civil war. Now that a small number of political orientations has emerged as the final players, it is to be expected that one adheres to one of these political orientations or becomes a neutral observer and completely avoids controversy. When one is unable to make a distinction in these choices, then one risks being catalogued indefinitely as being intellectually void of political reasoning and, worse, as a heartless heathen intent on the continuation of the civil war for the destruction of Somali society and the profiting of the war industry since 1991.

Somalia's political landscape has been disintegrated for two decades and the ultimate challenge is to produce the political settlement that can satisfy enough groups to tip the balance of power in the favor of one side of the increasingly volatile conflict. In the north, two political ideologies are in practice: in northwest Somalia, the separatist republic of Somaliland that unilaterally declared independence in 1991 with no international recognition to date; in the northeast, the self-governing State of Puntland that supports a federal structure for Somalia. In the south-central regions (south of Puntland), a myriad of contradicting and inter-changing political ideologies have emerged to confuse the war-battered public and create a new atmosphere of death and mistrust, further polarizing the conflict and potentially throwing the solution key deeper into the black hole.

In this environment, it is unexpected that the intellectual debate is thrown into a finger-pointing cycle of "who said it" when the only real and genuine question at hand is how to end the suffering of the Somali people? For love or hate, Puntland represents one of the possible solution scenarios for Somalia if the international community is sincerely committed to creating the paradigm of a trustworthy and working partner who assures domestic stability, in large part due to legitimacy among the public. The insurgents waging war in south-central Somalia came into existence, in part, by taking advantage of public sentiment that was largely against the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which many Somalis saw as a tool of foreign powers playing geopolitical games on the war-torn Horn of Africa country. Now, there is the general public sense that the tide is turning against the hardliners, giving Somalia a new opportunity to seize the moment and displace bands of young Somali men whose ability to enjoy the age 20s like an ordinary person was unfortunately shattered by the enduring civil war years. These young men need an education, earn a legitimate income, become a father – but, most immediately, the fast majority of the young insurgents seek a political settlement to end the military stalemate and new opportunities to a pursue a fresh path in life.

The federalism debate in Somalia is certainly not taking on a fresh path. The old deacons who repeatedly spoke of "canonization" or "Balkanization" of Somalia are still singing the same tunes. The separatists say Puntland is a "copy" of Somaliland. The anarchists oppose federalism because they oppose peace and development altogether. The insurgents say they want Islam – but the bloodletting continues. The pirates…well, the pirates don't care for federalism but they want money – and the world feeds them.

And in Puntland, the people continue on their day to day affairs. On August 1, 2009, to mark Puntland's 11th year anniversary, the soldiers, the women and youth groups, the singers, and the athletes, paraded in open celebration in front of the State's leadership as a clear testament to the legitimacy Puntland's successive governments and leadership enjoy in the land. Many people have died to secure Puntland's relative peace and neither militant threats nor misleading propaganda can bring down the Puntland society's hard-own peace and stability.

The 'Puntland secession' argument is the boogeyman expression used by every group who opposes the self-determination of all Somali people – Somalis and foreigners alike. It is no time for that debate when the insurgents are vowing renewed conflict during Islam's Holy Month of Ramadan. But, many suspect, the war industry that has developed around Somalia's misery over the past two decades, with its entrenched intellectual, financial, economic, food and medical components, is inherently unhappy with peaceful and progressive developments from Somalia as this represents a risk to 'valuable assets.' Remember the rumors about 'frustration' in some (foreign) corners when Somaliland's armed takeover of Las Anod in late 2007 did not spark all-out war between Somaliland and Puntland?

New President in Galmudug

Col. Mohamed Ahmed Caalin has assumed office for the new governance of Galmudug state, a semioutonumous Somali region like Puntland. His major tasks will be to pacify Central Somalia, to keep the long Indian-Ocean coast piracy free as well as to uplift the survival rate and living standards of his people, who have been many times neglected by the international community and the central government.

Pro-government forces capture Somali town

By Abdulkadir Kalif

In a surprise move from Dolo District at the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, forces loyal to the Transitional Federal Government captured the strategic town of Bulo Hawo, 520 kilometres south west of Mogadishu.

Technical vehicles (battle wagons mounted with machine guns) and hundreds of militias stormed the town earlier this morning.

For many years

The pro-government forces are composed of soldiers that accompany Honourable Barre Aden Shire alias Barre Hirale, a legislator who for many years ruled the port town of Kismayu, 500 km south of Mogadishu and loyalists of Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea, a moderate Islamist grouping allied with the TFG.

The MP and his militia lost Kismayu to Islamists opposing the TFG in August 2008.

The Islamist forces of Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam that have been ruling Bulo Hawo, a town next to Kenya´s Mandera district, have left the area on Sunday afternoon.

So far, there is no announcement as to where the Islamists have gone and what they are up to.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Hassan Yakoub Ali, the Information Official of the Islamist coalition in Kismayu said yesterday that his authority was aware of military manouevres by Barre Hirale and his associates along the border with Ethiopia.

He reiterated that his fighters were ready to repel any challenge from the pro-government forces in Gedo and Juba regions in Southern Somalia.

Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama´a free second town

Fighters loyal to Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama´a have sized Wabxo town in Galgaduud region in central Somalia, officials said on Tuesday.

Wabxo thereby became the second town that fell into the hands of Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama´a fighters within two days.

Sheik Abdullahi Sheik Abdirahman Abu Qadi, a spokesman for Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama´a, said they attacked the town and got the upper hand, adding that they have killed many fighters from al Shabab.

There is no word from al-Shabab about the latest fighting in Wabxo. The Sufi adherents had cleared al-Shabab from most towns in central Somalia.

Night Curfew in Bulo Hawo

Meanwhile Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama´a fighters have imposed a night curfew in Bulo Hawo town in southern Somalia, officials said on Tuesday.

Officials from Ahlu Sunna group said they imposed the curfew to tighten the security of the town where the rival group, al Shabab has been controlling recently.

The moderate religious group had taken control of the town on Tuesday from al Shabab after they launched an early attack.

Forces from the group were seen in the town who were telling the people to be indoors to prevent from what they called violence makers.

Al Shabab has met several military setbacks in central and south central Somalia from the hands of Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama´a for the past several months.

Somali rebels threaten attacks over Ramadhan

By Abdulkadir Khalif

Somalia's radical Islamist group Hizbul Islam has threatened to double attacks against the country's transitional government during the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan.

At a press conference in Mogadishu, the chief spokesman of Hizbu Islam, Mohamed Osman Arus, reacted angrily to the capture of Bulo Hawa town at the border between Somalia and Kenya on Monday by pro-government forces.

The official stressed that Islamist movements (Al-Shabaab and Hizbu Islam) that are opposing the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) would recapture the town.

Mohamed Arus dismissed that Hizbu Islam had plans to enter into negotiations with the transitional government led by President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

"Instead of talking to puppet government, we are going to double the attacks over the holy month of Ramadhan," he said.

The Hizbu Islam official indicated that his movement was at war with government forces, African Union peacekeepers and Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea, a moderate Islamist grouping allied with the TFG.

"We are going to multiply attacks against the puppets (government) and foreign mercenaries (AU peacekeepers better known as Amisom) and groups pretending to be moderate Islamists" said Arus.

The threat comes at a time when members of the public in Mogadishu and elsewhere in southern and central regions of Somalia are crying for cessation of hostilities during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan, which is to start in less than a week.

Other Islamist officials in Southern Somalia expressed similar reactions to the takeover of Bulo Hawa by pro-government forces on Monday.

Abdi Ali Nur of Al-Shabaab in Bardere town in Gedo region, 360 km southwest of Mogadishu, warned the public there against expressing sympathy for the forces that captured Bulo Hawa.

"Any person or group found orchestrating anti-Islamists (pro-government) moves will be dealt severely," announced Nur.

Attack on the UN-World Food Programme (WFP) compound

The Statement from Somalia, the Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator says: "On last Sunday at around midnight, the UN-World Food Programme (WFP) compound in Wajid, southern Somalia, was attacked by armed militia. This is the fourth UN compound deliberately targeted in Somalia within two months.

The United Nations strongly condemns the attack. "This direct, deliberate and sustained attack on aid organizations and aid workers is intolerable," says [acting] UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Graham Farmer.

Mr. Farmer urged all parties to allow unhindered humanitarian access wherever assistance is required by populations in need as such actions put at higher risk people who are already vulnerable. Nearly 3.2 million people in Somalia need humanitarian assistance."

The privately employed, armed guards [N.B.: They are not UN-guards as the BBC falsely reported] killed 3 of the attackers.

Somali elder Moalin Isaq said residents had gotten word of an impending attack and organised a group to fight back.

"After one hour, we repulsed them, killing three of them," Isaq told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

A guard at the compound, Abdullahi Abdi, also confirmed the violence.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.

An Islamic extremist group, al-Shabab, controls the town but witnesses said they were not believed to be behind the violence.

World Food Program spokesman, Peter Smerdon, tells VOA that as many as 10 heavily-armed gunmen approached the WFP compound in Wajid shortly before midnight Sunday.

Smerdon says they ordered the security guards to open the gate. When the guards refused, the gunmen opened fire.

"In the ensuing gun battle, which lasted about 15 minutes, three of the gunmen were killed and one was seriously wounded. One guard was slightly wounded. The attackers were rogue elements of al-Shabab from outside Wajid and they subsequently left Wajid after the assault on the compound," he said.

Smerdon says it is likely the gunmen had intended to kidnap foreign aid workers staying at the compound. Wajid, in Somalia's northwestern Bakool region, is in an area controlled by al-Shabab, but Smerdon says there is no evidence to suggest that al-Shabab authorities had ordered the attack.

Nine international U.N. staff, seven from WFP and two from other U.N. agencies, have been temporarily evacuated to Nairobi. WFP says it will continue its supplementary feeding programs in the region through local non-governmental organization partners.

Meanwhile reports claim that two of the gangs who have raided the WFP premises were caught.

The town elders and the Al-Shabab movement who are in control of the town had come together for an immediate meeting after the raid in the night, and set a committee to follow up on who the raiders were.

Both the town elders and the officials of Al-Shabab have strongly condemned the attack carried on the UN compound.

The report also adds that the two who were wounded during the night of the clash are now under tight security and receiving medical treatment in Wajid district. The three killed attackers were burried.

"Increased hostility towards aid workers" - Delivery of aid at high risk

The weekend attack on a UN World Food Programme (WFP) compound in central Somalia was the fourth "deliberately targeted" incident in two months, according to the agency.

The 16 August attack in Wajid came less than a month after militants raided two UN compounds in Baidoa and Wajid, stealing equipment and vehicles and forcing the closure of some operations.

"This direct, deliberate and sustained attack on aid organizations and aid workers is intolerable," acting UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Graham Farmer said.

Last week, the UN Children´s Fund (UNICEF) issued a warning of increased suffering for malnourished Somali children if humanitarian supplies continue to be destroyed or looted.

"We are worried about the recent destruction and looting of humanitarian aid supplies in certain areas of central and south Somalia," Bastien Vigneau, UNICEF's chief of emergency in Somalia, told IRIN. "If the situation does not improve, we are looking at dramatic consequences for affected acute malnourished children in the next four to six weeks."

The disruption in delivery of aid would put at high risk at least 1.2 million children under-five and 1.4 million women in central-south Somalia.

On 13 August, UNICEF postponed the distribution of hundreds of tonnes of nutritional supplies for more than 85,000 children in central-southern Somalia because of what it termed "increased hostility towards aid organizations".

South-central Somalia has a nutritional demand "above emergency thresholds", Vigneau said. UNICEF and implementing partners were trying to reach at least 150,000 children countrywide suffering from acute malnutrition.

The violence has also disrupted the distribution of anti-malaria bed nets to more than 100,000 women and children.

"[The postponement of aid delivery] will have an adverse impact, especially in the Middle Shabelle region, where we were involved in campaigns against malaria, diarrhoea and other diseases," a local contractor in central-south Somalia for UNICEF, who requested anonymity, told IRIN.

Aid workers freed from long hostage ordeal in Somalia

After being held hostage for nine months, the two French women and two men from Belgium and Bulgaria, who had worked for French charity ACF (Action Against Hunger) together with two abducted Kenyan pilots boarded a plane and were flown out of Somalia last week.

Somali gunmen seized the four aid workers in November 2008 along with the two pilots who had flown them to an area bordering Ethiopia

Back then witnesses said that the aid workers were being escorted by five or six security guards as they tried to board a plane chartered by the European Commission but they were easily overpowered by about 20 heavily armed men.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was pleased and relieved by the news and offered "his warmest congratulations to all those whose involvement brought an end to the hostage-taking," a statement said.

There was no immediate information on the circumstances of the hostages' release.

The release of the aid workers came as France was grappling with a separate hostage case involving two French intelligence agents seized last month from their hotel room in Mogadishu. The Shebab, an Al Qaeda-inspired militia, said last month that the two men would be tried under Sharia law, for "spying and entering Somalia to assist the enemy of Allah."

Armed Somali gangs have carried out scores of kidnappings in recent months, often targeting foreigners or Somalis working with international organisations to demand ransoms.

The relentless violence and insecurity have made Somalia one of the most dangerous places in the world for foreign workers.

Three further ACF workers, abducted from Kenya into Somalia still await their release.

Pack of Dogs Wound At Least 13 People in Barawe Town

At least 13 people have been wounded in Barawe district in Lower Shabelle region after a herd of dogs attacked them there in the region, Shabelle's Qoslaye reported on Tuesday.

Residents said that the dogs had bitten the people around their residences in Barawe district saying that they wounded 13 people including adult and children adding that 4 of them are in very dangerous situation and have heavy injuries.

Mohamed Abdirahman, one of the residents told Shabelle radio that all the wounded people were rushed to a hospital in Merka, the regional capital of the region where they are currently cured adding that the dogs have also a very hazardous disease (rabies) which affects the people seriously.

The relatives of the wounded people expressed concern about the dogs that increasingly bite the people in the district saying that they could not even buy a single dose of the vaccine against rabies which costs $50.

Impacting reports from the global village

Gaddafi invites Africa leaders for special AU summit

By Argaw Ashine

Libyan leader and current chairman of African Union (AU), Muammar Gaddafi is scheduled to hold an extensive dialogue on peace and security in Africa this month in Tripoli.

Sources from AU headquarters in Addis Ababa told the Nation that the continental peace and security special conference is scheduled for August 30-31, 2009 in Libya's capital Tripoli.

According to an AU document, Somalia, Darfur and Great Lakes region as well as post-election violence and unconstitutional regime changes in some African nations will be tabled for discussion.

The special session will review the various conflict and crisis situations in Africa and look at ways and means of ensuring the effective implementation of the decisions adopted by the AU policy organs on respective issues.

The peace and security session will be held on the margins of the celebrations marking the 40th Anniversary of the Libyan Revolution, which brought Muammar Gaddafi to power through a military coup d'etat four decades ago.

Gaddafi has sent his lobbying delegation to invite African head of states to attend both the conference and the anniversary in Tripoli.

The Libyan delegation conferred with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki, who is mostly absent from AU conferences.

The delegation also met with Ethiopian prime Minster Meles Zenawi and handed over the official invitation from Gaddafi.

Somali refugees move from overcrowded Kenyan camp (AFP)

Hundreds of Somali refugees have started moving out of the world's biggest refugee camp in Kenya in a bid to relieve pressure on the overcrowded complex at Dadaab, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.

About 12,900 of Dadaab's 289,500 inhabitants will be bussed to Kakuma refugee camp over the next couple of weeks following an agreement with the Kenyan government, said Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The refugees face an arduous three-day bus journey across the north of Kenya.

"We have started relocating the first of some 12,900 Somali refugees from the overcrowded Dadaab refugee complex in northeastern Kenya to Kakuma camp in the northwest," Mahecic told journalists.

"The first 311 refugees arrived in Kakuma this weekend after a three day journey by road," he added.

About 43,000 Somali refugees have arrived at Dadaab since the beginning of the year, fleeing escalating violence, according to the UNHCR.

The sprawling 18 year-old camp complex houses three times more people than it was designed to hold. Work is also underway to improve water and sanitation there.

The UNHCR is helping some 510,000 Somali refugees who fled to Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda.

"At the same time we are seriously concerned about the deteriorating security situation in Somalia," said Mahecic.

He warned that the wave of "abductions, killings and intimidation of aid workers, and pillaging" of relief supplies added to the difficulty of reaching some 1.3 million people who are displaced inside the country.

Security guards repelled an attack on a World Food Programme compound in Somalia in Sunday, leaving three attackers dead after a gunfight, UN officials said.

An estimated 3.2 million people inside Somalia are rely on emergency urgent humanitarian aid, according to the UNHCR.

More than 40 MPs marooned at Airport in Nairobi

More than 40 Somali legislators are stranded at Jomo Kenyatta international airport since two days.

"Yes, there are more 40 Somali lawmakers who are stranded at Jomo Kenyatta international airport for more than 12 hours, for no genuine reason," said Salat Ali Jelle an MP of the Somali transitional federal government (TFG) speaking to Wagacusub news.

MP Salat Ali Jelle addes: "The Somali ambassador to Kenya - Mohammed Ali (nicknamed Ali America) - is for sure behind the delay of these parliamentarians, who are inside the airport. The ambassador has earlier dishonored the deputy parliament speaker Professor Mohammed Omar Dalha, so we can not just close our eyes from how the ambassador is dealing with the Somali government officials."

Omar Finsih an MP in the Somali parliament who is among the MPs who are detained at the airport has also condemned how the Somali ambassador to Kenya Mr. Mohammed Ali is dealing with the Somali government officials.

"The ambassador has earlier violated a big person in the Somali parliament, Prof. Dalha and now he is doing the same to a number of Somali government officials. We are waiting reaction from the president of the nation to immediately intervene this hot issue" said Sheikh Jama Hajji Hussein who is also among the legislators detained inside Jomo Kenayatta airport."

Professor Mosses Ali Omar, who is also among the MPs stranded at the airport, has avoided to give out comments about their detention inside the airport.

According to Mareeg news there are efforts underway to free these legislators from the airport. The station stated: "It was just sometimes last week when the Somali ambassador to Kenya has dealt awkwardly with the mayor of Mogadishu, Mohammed Osman Dhagahtur, who is also the governor of Banadir region. At the front gate the building has a big sign board written "Somali Embassy", but if you go inside you will realize that it is a place where blackmailing, fraud and all ill things take place. All eyes are now on President Shariff Sheikh Ahmed to curb the ambassador´s behahviour towards the Somali government officials."

"In the case of meanwhile world-famous Somali-Canadian returnee, Suaad Hagi Mohamed, who was left stranded in Nairobi by Canadian officials, the Somali Ambassador was informed too but didn't care," a source close to the family said.

Smells Like Racism

By Lindsay Wayne-Medford

What does Brenda Martin, the convicted felon in Mexico, whom the Canadian government flew home on a government jet, not have in common with Suaad Hagi Mohamud? The former aggressively supported by the government, the later was aggressively abandoned by the same gang.

Indeed they further inflamed the situation by requesting that she be prosecuted.

Guess what? If it smells like a racist. Acts like a racist. Makes excuses like a racist. It is a racist.

Anyone who voted for the current federal government should feel ashamed, embarrassed, and angered by the latest incident involving a Canadian citizen who was abandoned by our federal representatives when she needed them the most.

Is this what we want as a government representing us? I would wager a large sum of money that if it were a white, male, businessman from Alberta they would be turning themselves inside out to gain his release.

At a minimum, Jason Kenny, Peter van Loan, and Lawrence Cannon, should be fired.

This is another example why this group must not be elected in the next election.

Feds investigate Canadian's treatment in Kenya (Cnews)

After staunchly refusing to recognize her citizenship for weeks on end, the federal government is now probing how it handled the case of a Canadian woman who has returned home after being detained in Kenya for months over an identity dispute.

Suaad Hagi Mohamud returned to Canada Saturday after being marooned in Nairobi for 86 days because authorities said her lips did not match her four-year-old passport photo.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said the Canada Border Services Agency is preparing a report detailing just how Somali-born Mohamud, who was visiting her mother in Kenya, ended up spending eight days in jail and over two months holed up in a hotel room as she struggled to prove who she was.

"From where we see it now it looks like it needs a bit of an explanation," said Van Loan. "What decisions were made and why and to get a sense of what actually occurred."

When Mohamud, 31, turned to her country for help in May, consular officials doubted her citizenship, called her an impostor and voided her passport.

Mohamud was finally able to prove her identity through genetic tests last week, which led to charges against her being dropped in a Kenyan court on Friday.

The charges, which included being in the country illegally, were laid as a result of Canada denying her citizenship.

Van Loan said he will wait for the investigation´s outcome before deciding whether to award her any compensation for her ordeal.

Mohamud was welcomed home by cheering family and friends, which included her soft-spoken 12-year-old son, Mohamed Hussein.

"I just want to be with my boy, my boy," said an emotional Mohamud as she latched onto her son at Pearson Airport on Saturday evening.

The duo were whisked away to an undisclosed hotel to spend some time away from the public eye.

"It´s so they can really have time together, have time to really relax," said family spokesperson Abdi Warsame.

Warsame said he believed Mohamud´s lawyer took her to a Toronto hospital for chest X-rays on Sunday as she was thought to have contracted either pneumonia or tuberculosis while she was in a Nairobi jail.

"She was very weak, extremely weak," said Warsame, who was the first to greet Mohamud as she emerged from customs at Pearson airport.

"I grabbed her and she was very very thin. She felt like she was about to collapse," he said.

Warsame said Mohamud´s case has riled up Canada´s Somali community who want the government to ensure all citizens are treated equally regardless of their ethnic background.

"It´s a slap on our face," said Warsame of Mohamud´s ordeal. "We should not be treated differently."

Warsame said in addition to the official review underway, the Somali-Canadian community wants the government to say it´s sorry.

"We demand an official apology from the highest ranking officer of the government," he said, raising his voice slightly. "There should be some sort of accountability."

Warsame ripped into foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon for saying Mohamud had not tried hard enough to prove her identity in Kenya.

"I think she should consider suing the Canadian government," Warsame said, adding that he couldn´t elaborate on the specifics of any legal action Mohamud was planning in the future.

Cannon´s office remained tight lipped saying the minister was committed to getting to the bottom of Mohamud´s identity debacle.

"Minister Cannon has asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to do a full review of this case," said spokeswoman Natalie Sarafian.

NDP leader Jack Layton used Mohamud´s ordeal to take a jab at the Conservative government in a speech delivered at a party convention in Halifax.

"In our Canada, new Canadians are given help to find good jobs, and won´t have to fear when they travel abroad that their passports will be seized and their government will deny their identity," he said in the text of this speech.

Also coming under fire in the aftermath of Mohamud´s return is the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi.

"We want an official review of the high commission," said Ahmed Hussen, president of the Canadian Somali Congress. "A lot of questions remain unanswered."

According to Hussen, Mohamud´s case is not an isolated incident.

He pointed to the case of a young Somali Canadian man who has been stranded in Kenya for almost three years after an error on his mother´s part left him without a passport.

When the man appealed to the Canadian High Commission, just like Mohamud, his citizenship was doubted and travel documents withheld.

"There´s mounting evidence Canadians of Somali heritage are not getting the services they deserve," said Hussen. He also said corruption was rife among authorities at the Nairobi airport, who he added went as far as to ask Mohamud for a bribe when she initially tried to leave Kenya.

"The Canadian High Commission had a duty of care to a Canadian citizen and they failed in that duty," said Hussen. "The Canadian passport has to mean something."

How much is 3-month ordeal worth?

By Daniel Dale for TorontoStar

Trapped in Kenya akin to wrongful imprisonment, lawyer says; Mohamud's damages won't be 'trivial'

It's the million-dollar question. Or maybe the quarter-million-dollar question. Or, perhaps, the somewhere-else-in-the-five-or-six-figures question.

How much money will Suaad Hagi Mohamud, the woman trapped in Kenya for nearly three months, get from the Canadian government?

Even the most experienced of litigators are loath to attach their name to an estimate. The case is so unusual and inseparable from the mercurial realm of federal politics that a journey through a legal reference book is more likely to produce a paper cut than an answer.

"I've been practising law for 38 years, and I've never been able to figure out what governments do or why in most cases," said Harvey Strosberg, a partner at Sutts, Strosberg LLP. "In most cases, I'm not sure it's necessarily a rational answer; often it's as much political as it is rational. It's a combination of rationality and politics. You put that witches' brew together and I don't know what you get."

Suaad Hagi Mohamud has so far not announced plans for a lawsuit.

Mohamud, 31, returned to Canada on Saturday. Her lawyer Raoul Boulakia, who did not return requests for comment yesterday, has not yet said how much money Mohamud will seek, nor even if she plans to launch a lawsuit.

There are no handy precedents for her bizarre experience. A veteran Toronto lawyer, who did not want to be named because he does not know all the facts, said he would tell a judge that Mohamud's situation was "analogous to a wrongful imprisonment," as she was "effectively imprisoned in a foreign country," even after she was released following eight days in a Nairobi jail.

In 2007, the federal government settled the case of Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar, who was rendered to Syria and tortured, for $10.5 million. Several Canadian men wrongly imprisoned for murder have received seven-figure settlements.

The American government paid $250,000 (U.S.) to an Iraqi refugee wrongly imprisoned for a week in 2003. The Australian government paid $2.4 million to a mentally ill German-born woman wrongly imprisoned as an illegal immigrant for 10 months in 2004 and 2005.

The veteran lawyer would not speculate on Mohamud's likely compensation, but said: "I can tell you it's not trivial sums of money."

A judge assessing the case would likely weigh multiple factors, including the direct costs Mohamud incurred while marooned in Kenya, the extent of her physical and psychological injuries, any harm to her reputation, and whether she should be awarded punitive damages.

A lawsuit, however, might never reach a courtroom. Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said he would wait for the outcome of an internal investigation before deciding whether Mohamud deserves compensation; the Harper government might prefer to pre-empt unflattering legal proceedings with an out-of-court settlement.

Canadian passport saga causes even more trouble

Meanwhile the Canadian press reports that the passport which stranded a Toronto woman in Kenya for months is now at the centre of a standoff between the federal government and the lawyer representing Suaad Hagi Mohamud in Canada.

Raoul Boulakia is taking his demands that the government immediately turn over Mohamud's passport and case file to Federal Court while officials in Ottawa remain vague on the whereabouts of the crucial piece of ID.

The demand is the latest twist in the debacle that has become Mohamud's life as her government first branded her an impostor, then consented to test her DNA and eventually repatriated her back to Canada.

"(The government is) trying to pretend there were complications in this case," said Boulakia. "It was all nonsense."

The passport which stranded a Toronto woman in Kenya for months is now at the centre of a standoff between the federal government and the Canadian lawyer representing Suaad Hagi Mohamud.

Raoul Boulakia is taking his demands that the government immediately turn over Mohamud's passport and case file to Federal Court while officials in Ottawa remain vague on the whereabouts of the crucial piece of ID.

The demand is the latest twist in the debacle that has become Mohamud's life as her government first branded her an impostor, then consented to test her DNA and eventually repatriated her back to Canada.

"(The government is) trying to pretend there were complications in this case," said Boulakia. "It was all nonsense."

"I want that passport back."

The Department of Foreign Affairs was tight-lipped on the matter, deferring inquiries about Mohamud's passport and case file to Passport Canada.

Passport Canada spokesman Sebastien Bois said anyone who has their passport seized by authorities for prosecution will have to apply for a new one.

Although he would not speak to the specifics of Mohamud's case, Bois said when Passport Canada is advised a passport is out of its control, it is immediately cancelled.

In such cases passports are eventually returned to Passport Canada or to the nearest Canadian government office.

"Applicants do not have the option of having the passport returned to them," Bois said. "The Canadian passport remains at all times the property of the government of Canada."

The Canadian Border Services Agency is probing how Mohamud's case was handled, and spokeswoman Patrizia Giolti said details of the investigation could not be made public at present.

Meanwhile, Boulakia has asked the Federal Court to order the government to release Mohamud's case file and passport. In the process, Boulakia said a judge will have to comment on the government's conduct in Mohamud's case.

The legal proceedings are expected to take place in September.

Canadian Vice Consul Liliane Khadour, who wrote the letter to the Kenyan authorites, stated that a thourough investigation had found that she is an imposter and had sent the passport to the Kenyans for prosecuting the Somali-born Canadian lady, has since been transferred from Nairobi - "she has changed posts as part of a regular rotation", a voice on the High Commions phone said.

Kenya honours freedom heroine

Residents and tourists poured into the streets of Malindi - Kenya - on Tuesday to celebrate the death anniversary of Giriama freedom heroine Mekatilili wa Menza.

The overnight celebrations took place at Bungale in Magarini District, where Mekatilili was buried in 1914.

Hundreds of people held a procession from the museum to Lamu road, then to Sabaki bridge, where prayers from various communities were conducted. There were prayers from the Mijikenda, Meru, Kikuyu, Kamba, Taita and Italian communities, among others.

Mekatilili was the first freedom heroine, but she had largely been forgotten.

Mekatilili led the Giriama uprising against British colonialists between 1913 and 1914. She opposed white occupation and forced labour on local youths.

She was captured and detained at Kisii prison but escaped and walked back to the Coast. She was arrested again and locked up at Kismayu, in present-day Somalia but again, ran back to her home in Bungale, where she died in 1914.

France may charge tourists rescued from hot spots

By Helene Goupil and Maria Danilova (AP)

French tourists heading to risky foreign destinations could be asked to foot the bill if the French government comes to their rescue.

A draft law proposed by the foreign minister would oblige travelers to reimburse air fare and other costs incurred to rescue them from war zones, hostage-takings and other hostile situations.

Officials say it's aimed at promoting responsibility among travelers at a time of rampant piracy and kidnappings across the globe.

Critics, however, believe the measure would unlikely prevent hot-headed travellers from getting into trouble in dangerous corners of the world and say the government must protect its citizens, no matter what.

The Foreign Ministry says the measure will not affect cases like that of Clotilde Reiss, a 24-year-old French teacher on trial in Iran freed Sunday on bail of about euro200,000 paid by the French government.

The ministry says the bill, presented by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner last month, would apply only to leisure-seeking tourists and their travel agencies, but not to diplomats, reporters, aid workers and others engaged in professional activity abroad.

As one example of the costs involved, a Foreign Ministry official said the government paid euro720,000 to fly home 500 tourists stranded in Thailand amid civil unrest in late 2008. He spoke on condition of anonymity citing ministry policy.

According to a preliminary draft of the law, the decision to fine a traveller would be taken by a French court and hopefully only on rare occasions, the official said. The tourist would cover all or part of the costs incurred by the government, such as travel fees, rescue operations and any other measures taken to protect their well-being, depending on the case.

It's still unclear whether it could apply to situations like that of the two French pleasure boats seized by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean over the past year whose hostages were freed by French Navy commandos.

In one of those cases, the French government repeatedly warned the boat's French captain, traveling with his family and friends, not to travel in the area. The commando raid to free them in April prompted a shootout in which the French captain and two pirates were killed.

It's also unclear how the draft law would deal with kidnappings for ransom. The French government's official policy is to never pay ransom to free its citizens, though has been rumored to help with payouts.

Similar regulations are already in place for travel within France. A 1985 law obliges skiers who have to be rescued by a helicopter from restricted areas to reimburse those costs, the ministry official said. Similar rules exist for sailors entering off-limits zones.

The preliminary draft of the law is vague and leaves much to courts to determine. Those details could be worked out when the bill goes through further review in the government and parliament. In its current form it appears more of a deterrent to risk-taking than a powerful legal tool.

Someone flown out of an Indian resort following a terrorist attack there could theoretically be charged for the rescue for having gone to a country listed as dangerous by the French government. Were French tourists to be trapped once again in Thai unrest they could also be asked to pay up, if a judge deems them responsible.

In the United States, travellers who need to be rescued from dangerous situations must compensate repatriation costs, according to the U.S. Embassy in France. Germany adopted a similar practice earlier this year after a court ordered that a backpacker taken hostage in Columbia in 2003 pay more than euro12,000 to cover the cost of a helicopter chartered to rescue her.

The French proposal comes amid a flurry of diplomatic effort to help Reiss and an employee of the French-Iranian embassy who are part of a mass trial in Tehran for allegedly fomenting unrest in Iran following disputed elections.

Critics say the bill will have little influence on adventure-lovers, who often have travel insurance that covers such risks. They also said that the government can afford to spend several hundred euros on a plane ticket if necessary to protect its citizens.

Hubert Debbash, head of Terre Entiere, a French tour operator that specializes in organizing tours to risky places such as Iraq said that travel agencies did not need government regulations to be prudent.

"The important thing is to have a local network that you can rely on," Debbash said. "I know my destinations and I have people there who can tell me if it's safe or unsafe to go somewhere."

Some French travelers and taxpayers were in favour of the proposed law.

"The people who go, they know that these are dangerous places, so it's their fault if something bad happens," said Julien Fredeveaux, 24, a waiter at a Paris restaurant. "But it's crazy to go."

N.B.: Question is if France would apply such legislation also concerning two French agents, who had posed as journalists and went M.I.A. in Somalia. And how is it the other way around: So far the French Government has not commented on how much compensation will be paid to the surviving wife and son of French skipper Florent Lemaçon, who was killed by French troops in a ill-conceived and fatally bungled rescue attempt. Actually the French state has not yet even released secret case-files to the judiciary investigating the deadly incident of the unwarranted operation.]

Japan grants Yemen $15.1 million (yobserver)

Japan has granted Yemen $15.1 million to fund development projects in the country.

Two agreements for the grant were singed on Saturday at a building within the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation.

Under the first agreement, Japan offers $10 million to fund development projects in Yemen, while the remaining $5.1 million in the second grant would be used to finance agricultural projects.

The two agreements were signed by Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi and Japanese Ambassador to Yemen Masakazu Toshikage.

Al-Qirbi highlighted Japanese support for the development process in Yemen, affirming Yemen´s interest in enhancing mutual cooperation with Japan.

It is worth mentioning that Japan grants Yemen $20 million yearly to support projects of education, health, water, electricity and agriculture.

Ghana: Is Obama shaking his head in disbelief? B

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Where is President Mills in all these? Why has he maintained his silence despite the call for him to step in?

Obama decided to choose Ghana out of about 48 countries in Africa South of the Sahara for his maiden visit because of what he calls Ghana's strong democratic credentials, human rights record, rule of law, freedom of speech and assembly and economic performance.

But barely one month after his visit he must be shaking his head for praising the country and authoring those praising words. He now wished he had not visited the country at all. He has now realised that Ghana too is an African country where nothing good could come from. The question he is asking is, "Is this the country that I visited just one month ago? I thought they were peaceful democrats who respect the rights of their citizens" shaking his head in disbelief. He is now angry with his advisors for deceiving him into choosing Ghana. "Ghana is no better than my father's Kenya" he might be exclaiming. "In my father's Kenya they steal, they arrest, they detain, they kill and they engage in violence during elections. In Ghana too they steal, they arrest, detain, kill and now in Akwatia election violence is ongoing. So what is the difference he might have asked Mr. Johnnie Carson his top envoy to Africa.

Ever since Obama's visit a lot has happened in the country. Barely a day goes without an opposition member been arrested and detained by the BNI or someone been beaten to death or shot dead by the Police and the BNI.

Ghana is slowly joining the likes of Zimbabwe where the state security apparatus arrest and detain Movement of Democratic Change MPs or members at will. Like Guinea where life has become so cheap that Ghana's ambassador was attacked by the state security forces, our nation too is slowly turning into a police state with the BNI arresting and detaining people and interrogating them without their lawyers being present.

We are told that Lawyers who followed Asamoah Boateng to the BNI were pushed and heckled by operatives of the Organisation. The lawyers were also not allowed to sit in during the BNI meeting with their client even though the laws of our land dictates that a person must have his lawyer present when being interrogated. Even though the BNI claims to have secured a bench warrant for Asamoah Boateng's arrest his lawyers were not shown a copy of the warrant.

Besides, the BNI operatives did not spare the wife of Asamoah Boateng. She too was dragged and pushed into a gutter. Like all unprofessional security agencies who use brute force, threats, intimidation, harassment the BNI is increasingly showing itself as no exception. Any cultured organisation treat women with respect and dignity but the behaviour of Atta Mills' BNI leaves much to be desired. Their unprofessional behaviour at the airport where they allowed Asamoah Boateng and his family to finish going through departure formalities only for them to enter the plane and ground it is a continuation of what they did in 2001 under Kufour regime where they harassed members of then NDC opposition members. Why did the BNI allow the family to board the plane before going in to disturb everyone there?

Betty Mould Iddrissu the Attorney General who should know better is as pathetic as the BNI itself. Instead of rising to defend Mrs. Asmoah Boateng and her children she has joined the BNI wagon in mistreating them. Women are their own enemies indeed. Consider the trauma Asabee's children are going through having to watch their parents being forcefully removed from the plane.

What examples are we setting for them? Two times they have seen their parents being yelled at, being dragged, being pushed around at the airport, in the plane. How can the peace lover Mills explain to these kids what is happening to their parents? Father of all indeed!

When a court ruled that the passport of the former foreign minister be handed to him the BNI and the Attorney General say no way. We will give to him at our time and place of choice. This shows that neither the BNI nor the A-G respect the court and its ruling. Contempt of law? Well Not in Atta Mills' Ghana. The BNI says it arrested and detained Asamoah Boateng because they could not locate him. Instead of going to Asabee's house the BNI went to his in-law's house as if Asabee lives in his in-law's house. What effort did the BNI make to contact Asabee's lawyers when the BNI could not find him? There is no indication that the BNI called Asabee's lawyers to find out about his whereabouts. Did the BNI leave a note in Asabee's house to the effect that he was being sought? The only excuse the government has given concerning Asabee's arrest is that he was arrogant when he was in government. But no where in our constitution has it said that a person should be arrested if he is arrogant.

Asamoah Boateng was prevented from travelling by the BNI even though he had told the court he would be travelling for a week. He was later arrested and detained for days and when his sympathisers organised themselves to hold a candle vigil for him they were tear gassed, beaten and murdered by the BNI and their police counterpart.

"Can't the BNI go about its work professionally without the drama that it is creating? Is the BNI aware that public opinion is against it?" a panel member retorted on Joy FM's program News File on Saturday 15 August 2009.

The culture of violence and impunity seem to be growing by the day. The recent election campaign violence in Akwatia where people have been killed and several vehicles destroyed all point to growing insecurity and lawlessness in the country. NPP General Secretary Nana Ohene Ntow claims he has been assaulted by NDC supporters with NDC's Asiedu Nkatia also making similar allegations. Supporters of both NPP and NDC are causing mayhem forcing a curfew to be imposed on the town. Due to the violence the Eastern Regional Security Council has been forced to issue a directive to the effect that the election cannot go on.

When Mpiani was invited by the BNI he too was detained for more than 10 hours before finally being released.

Mr. Sammy Crabbe, NPP Regional Chairman claims he was threatened with arrest and detention when he appeared before the BNI for a "friendly conversation." He has since sued the BNI and A-G for abuse of his human rights.

Peace FM Online has reported that the Eastern Regional Women´s Organiser of the NDC, Evelyn Ama Koran, was beaten by the Akwatia NDC executives, for being a hypocrite. Source:peacefmonline.com, Friday, 14 August 2009.

Since January 2009 Ghanaians have witnessed unemployed youth, apparently from the President's own NDC party threatening and forcefully seizing toilets in Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi and Tamale. These NDC lawless thugs have used force, threats and intimidation against employees of National Youth Employment Programme and National Health Insurance Authority at Juaso, Bibiani and some other places and demanding their sack.

"The harassment of certain individuals by the NDC government is very unfortunate especially when the head of the government is a Law Professor who should know well when it comes to human rights abuses" says a Political Activist.

Slowly a peaceful nation is becoming like a banana republic. Former President Kufour has already warned that trouble is slowly brewing in the country saying the government is behaving like there has been a coup.

The Christian Council of Ghana, a well respected body in the country has also added its voice to the ongoing mistreatment of citizens of this nation. The Council on Friday 13 August 2009 expressed regret about recent events surrounding the former Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng and the Bureau of National Investigations and called for peace.

A statement signed by the Reverend Fred Deegbe, General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, said it had also noted with regret the loss of life and the alleged treatment of his wife and legal counsel on Thursday."We believe that citizens should be treated with honour and dignity in accordance with the law and due process, as we seek justice and accountability," it said.

The Christian Council of Ghana noted with concern the "culture of vendetta that seems to be taking root in our country" and called on the government and various leaders "to eschew this so that we can live in peace and progress and be the truly democratic and lawful country we seek to be". Source: Ghana News Agency, 14 August 2009.

The Council has therefore petitioned the President to step in to calm the situation but he seems not bothered, even though he professes to be a peace enthusiast. Will the President listen to the Christian Council? So far there is no indication that he will. The question many Ghanaians are asking is what would have happened if Mills had said he was not a peace loving man? Definitely half of Ghanaians may have been given to his dogs.

The Statesman in an editorial critically condemned the government for failing to protect the rights of its own citizens. Part of the editorial reads, "What we find most worrying is the posture of the government, specifically the President and his Attorney General, both of whom are lawyers. They are exhibiting a very worrying contempt for the rule of law and civil rights. The editorial quoted two prominent civil society actors calling on the government to protect the rights of its citizens rather than abusing them. "The head of Legal Resources, Edward Amuzu, is calling on Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu to rather focus on defending the fundamental rights and liberties of the citizen than to fighting against it", it says. Source: myjoyonline.com, Friday, 14 August 2009. But will they listen to such a good advice? No, I don't think so.

Where is President Mills?

And where is President Mills in all these? Where is his leadership in the ongoing saga and who is advising him to keep quiet while Ghanaians are being murdered? Has he chosen not to say anything for fear of being attacked by those who placed in him in the Castle? Is he trying to please the many factions in the NDC and Rawlings in particular for promising not to attack his government again? Does his silence mean that he is aware of everything that is going on but has chosen not to do anything about it? Mr. President what could be more important issue to attend to than BNI's infringement of people's human rights? Nobody knows what is going on except you Mr. President.

There are two words that sum up Mills' poor handling of everything in the country. Weak leadership. Since he took office Mills seems to have been overwhelmed by the responsibilities of government and as a result has chosen to blame his predecessor for all his woes. He has constantly been saying that the debt incurred under Kufour's regime is preventing him from improving the economy. A very cheap excuse isn't it?

Is President Mills not worried about the spate of defeats that his government continue to suffer from the Courts? Is he not worried about the poor performance of the economy which has taken a nose dive since he took office? The Governor of Bank of Ghana has declared that he can no longer work with the Law Professor and as such he is calling it quit at the end of this August. This apparently is because of the poor handling of the economy by Mills and his agents.

The economic situation in the country seems to have moved from worse to the unthinkable and there are many indicators which point to the fact that the economy has been left to sink under the watchful eyes of the President. Since taking office, inflation has been soaring, hitting more than 20% in June. Fuel prices are higher today than they used to be 6 months ago. Unemployment is more than 20% and is still rising steadily with companies like Vodafone threatening to slash over 950 jobs. The Cedi has lost more than 30% of its value putting prices of commodities beyond the reach of the ordinary Ghanaian.

Under the watchful eye of the President fuel shortages is becoming a norm with drivers in Greater Accra, Volta, Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions being forced to queue for long hours to the detriment of their businesses. Fishermen in the country have complained bitterly that they cannot get premix fuel to go fishing despite the fact that they are in their peak season, a situation that has forced them to issue threats to government that they will hit the streets if nothing is done to salvage the situation.

In a message that sums up the failure of Mills' government and the displeasure of Ghanaians with the performance of the government someone texted to Joy News at 6pm that "Mills promised us free fuel, now we cannot get it to buy. Better Ghana indeed". Source: Joy News at 6pm, Wednesday, 12 August 2009.

Depicting a government that is in disarray, sick and falling apart, the Spokesperson for Jerry Rawlings, Mr. Kofi Adams has even called on the President to stop sleeping behind the wheel and sack people in his government that he Adams considers to be saboteurs. "In as much as their actions are condemnable, I think that the best thing for the President to do is to quickly clear out those who are perceived to be sabotaging his administration, to satisfy party members," he said, adding "We have four years mandate from Ghanaians and they expect us to deliver. If there are some people who are sabotaging the government, they must be removed". "We want to deliver to the people of Ghana and if one's actions are clearly undermining the activities of the government, then that person must be sacked for another person to take over". Source:The Chronicle, Thursday, 06 Aug 2009.

There are reports that NDC Propagandists in the Northern and other Regions have turned against the government and is bashing it for failing the nation. One such Propagandist is Mahama Sayibu, "a regular radio panelist who until now was seen as a supporter of the party and spoke in its favour on local radio stations, seems to be moving to a different direction. He has in recent times taken an entrenched position, made a u-turn and lashing at the Mills administration, to the shock of the NDC party kingpins in the region. Source:Daily Guide, Monday, 10 August 2009.

To make matters worse the government has suffered even in the areas where it has placed much effort. Over the last couple of weeks the government has suffered defeat after defeat in Court.

The defeats and the refusal to contest Mr. Crabbe's case have further sent a shockwave to the centre of the administration, demoralizing the already dysfunctional government machinery and sucking the remaining energy of ministers and staff alike. The Attorney General and her deputy who were caught pants down, have issued pronouncements to the effect that government is not pleased with the three judgments. Why will the government be happy when Mills is sleeping behind the wheel?

The heart of the government was further shattered by the wind of deep seated corruption that has been blowing in the government and in the party. First came the confirmation by the Auditor General that its report has implicated Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni (current Foreign Minister) in financial malfeasance and wrong-doing. Then came the corrupt Muntaka khebab and pampas saga and allegation that he travelled to Germany with Ms Edith Zenayela who is believed to be his girl friend at the expense of the nation forcing him to resign as sports minister.

The Muntaka saga was quickly followed by the allegations that Mr. Mahama Ayariga, Spokesperson of the President purchased five tractors meant for poor Ghanaian farmers and paid for only one.

A black hole was created in government when it was revealed that the Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffour suggested that, "donor inflows to the country must be channeled through his bank, Unibank" forcing Dr. Duffour to vehemently deny it.

But his denials did not settle the matter for the government when news surfaced in Nigeria and Ghana that the NDC's 2008 election victories were made possible through a $3.5m illegal cash donation made to Jerry Rawlings by the Governor of Rivers State in Nigeria. While panting for breadth the government and the party were given knockout blow when the Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom begun court proceedings against Mabey & Johnson for paying millions of pounds as bribe to top officials of the NDC government that ruled between 1994 and 1999.

In admitting the failure of his government Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communication speaking on Joy FM's News File programme on August 8, 2009 said "the recent premix saga was embarrassing for the government and promised it will never recur".

Also speaking to Joy News? Elvis Adjetey, a youth activist of NDC Mr. Mohammed Aboagye said the leadership has not shown interest in the welfare of those at the grassroots since the party assumed office. He said "the way and manner our leadership are behaving now, leaves the grassroots supporters with little hope." Source: myjoyonline.com, Tuesday, 11 August 2009

And he is not alone with that assessment. Mr. Gabriel Aggah founder of Atta Mills Foundation in an interview with the Chronicle descended heavily on the government and its operatives accusing them of growing horns while doing nothing to help the ordinary Ghanaian.

My advice to President Mills is that he must get serious and solve the many problems facing the nation. And to all those who wish Ghana well I want to urge them to stand up and defend the constitution and the rights of citizens of this nation. We must not forget that what is happening in Somalia, Sudan and other places did not start in a day. They are the fruits of years of harassment, detention, torture. Rwanda was not plunged into turmoil in a day. A seed was sown and was nurtured before it started bearing the fruit that resulted in 800,000 people been murdered in just under three months.

The onus is on President Mills to act. He can choose to rein in on his attack dogs or he can choose to ignore the atrocities they are committing and allow the problem to fester on before exploding into another Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Chad or Zimbabwe. As for Obama he is still disappointed but he has consoled himself knowing very well that Ghana is still part of Africa.

Hillary and Africa: Missing the Story

By Rev. Jackson, Jesse

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can't catch a break from the mainstream media. And Africa can't get any respect. So it isn't surprising that coverage of Clinton's remarkable African initiative descended into gotcha journalism that distorted both the nature of the trip and the importance of the continent.

The coverage was merciless, start to finish. Reporters dismissed the trip to Africa as proof that the secretary of state had been marginalized. Then they proclaimed that her husband's successful mission in North Korea somehow "upstaged" the secretary of state in Africa. She got front-page coverage only for the gotcha moment -- when she snapped at a rude question posed by a student in the Congo. That overwhelmed the courageous journey she took to meet with women, victims of mass rapes and violence, in Eastern Congo. Then the Times excused itself by making the "tide of trivialization" itself a story, complaining the secretary didn't experience Kenya's traffic gridlock.

Here is the simple reality that was never heard. Secretary Clinton is a remarkable emissary for this country in Africa. She is well known and widely respected. Having traveled there as a first lady, she has been to Africa more than any other secretary of state. She is steeped in the policy and political concerns of the countries she visited. She has the authority not only to convey this country's respect, but also our concerns. Her focus on the rights and treatment of women is exceptionally important. Africa will not develop unless women are able to gain better education and more independence. Women's rights are at the center of any solution to the AIDS pandemic. Clinton's journey to visit the victims of mass rapes -- made against the advice of her security detail -- and her courage in pushing the issue represents the best of American leadership. Americans are ill served by a press that slighted the drama of this visit to hype Hillary's reaction to a rude question.

Clinton's trip might have helped Americans see Africa in a new light. Initially, after World War II, Africa was simply viewed as a pawn in play in the Cold War. The U.S. stood with the apartheid leaders of South Africa, dismissing Nelson Mandela and the ANC as terrorists, and propped up dictators like Mobutu who parroted anti-communist slogans while pillaging their nations.

When the Cold War was over, Africa slipped from the news, an undeveloped backwater, until al-Qaida blew up embassies in Somalia and Kenya, and Africa became a theater in the war on terror.

This is a burlesque of an extraordinary continent. Many of its nations are moving slowly, often painfully, toward democracy. As Clinton recognized, democracy is hard. She took flak for comparing the Nigerian election to the corruptions of our presidential election in 2000. She was too diplomatic to note that African nations have enjoyed barely half a century of independence.

When the U.S. democracy was 50 years old, women couldn't vote and slavery was still legal. Africa has a long way to go, but we should not scorn the progress that many countries have made. Nor ignore the impediments that outsiders -- including this country -- have put in their path.

Moreover, Africa is a source of vital resources -- oil, copper, timber, diamonds and more. The U.S. is projected to import some 25 percent of its oil from Western Africa. China understands this. It has used some of the money it makes from trade with us to invest across the continent, building roads, bridges and damns, seeking to lock up long-term access to vital resources like oil and copper, while gaining the good will of African leaders. The Chinese are now the continent's second largest trading partner -- with trade rising rapidly before the Great Global Recession. The Chinese, of course, express no concerns about human rights or women's rights in Africa; they are prepared to do business with the most repressive of regimes.

Secretary Clinton has a powerful voice in Africa. The Obama administration can build on one of the few things Bush did well, the expansion of AIDS treatment through the hemisphere. We'd be wise to expand economic exchange and investment, even as we continue to advocate democracy and human rights, particularly rights for women. The secretary carried an agenda worthy of a great nation into a continent that will become more and more important in the years to come. It's too bad Americans didn't learn about it, because the mainstream media never bothered to report it.

Kenya falls short of goals set by Hillary Clinton

By Martyn Drakard (*)

The land is parched in Kenya, while it deals with smoldering political violence. Kenyans appear helpless to change despite Secretary Clinton's entreaties in the country that gave birth to President Obama's forefathers.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's whirlwind safari of sub-Saharan Africa, to deliver messages from President Barack Obama, has fallen on helpless ears.

The population here is helpless to improve its condition in the face of widespread corruption and elitism. Water rationing in is the norm. Water sources have been drying up, and huge forested areas given out for settlement, for political reasons. Ten million people are at risk of starvation, one third of the population.

As all know, Obama traces his roots to this nation, but he deliberately by-passed it on his lightning trip to the continent, choosing Ghana instead.

So he sent his Secretary of State to give the Kenyan authorities a piece of his mind. Namely that in the wake of the post-election violence last year, reforms are dragging on too long, and the culture of corruption and impunity is not being tackled with anywhere near enough determination.

In more developed democracies like the United States it is unthinkable that anyone should consider himself above the law; in democracies that are still finding their way around, such as those of most of sub-Saharan Africa, it is almost taken for granted that the kind of justice you receive is in proportion to your wealth and power. For example, a couple of days before Mrs. Clinton arrived two youths were sentenced to death in the coastal town of Malindi for stealing forty shillings (half a dollar) from a fisherman. The magistrate issuing the sentence said she was convinced that the robbery had been carried out by violent means. Robbery with violence is a capital offence in Kenya.

While Secretary Clinton was "overwhelmed" by what she saw in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she said that it is ultimately up to the locals to sort out the violence committed against women and children.

President Obama deliberately avoided visiting the land of his forefathers but instead chose Secretary Clinton to deliver a stern message on political violence there.

These two youths may still be lucky. As Mrs. Clinton was arriving in the country, the President commuted the sentence of hanging to that of life imprisonment for four thousand inmates on death row. The President has invited his countrymen to initiate the debate on the death penalty, which they have eagerly taken up, and which may be one way of saying that its days are numbered. The last person was hanged in Kenya in 1987.

Although she was invited to Kenya to attend the 8th African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Conference, the main item on her agenda was human rights. And among ordinary Kenyans there has been hardly a murmur about "American interference." According to Dr. Boni Khalwale, chair of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee, who attended one of the closed-door meetings with Mrs. Clinton, she was concerned about the lack of reforms aimed at ending impunity and promised to name, shame and ban the violence and corruption suspects from visiting the United States.

Economic sanctions against the country would not be a solution as it would mean that only the poor would suffer. She was also unhappy that the government had retained key figures in the fight against corruption and extra-judicial killings by police, such as the Attorney-General and the Police Commissioner, as well as the head of the Judiciary and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.

In another forum, she said President Obama had asked her to deliver a very tough message, which she did, word for word, on the lack of accountability and failure to prosecute those responsible for last year´s violence; not to humiliate anyone or interfere, but because of his connection with the country. If this forceful stance works, it will be ironic and a sign of the times. It will be a case of a Kenyan "emigrant" bringing about much-needed change in the country of his roots but from his position as the world´s most powerful politician.

For obvious reasons, Mrs. Clinton did not visit Somalia. Instead top Somali government officials met with her in Nairobi. The United States has good reason to be worried about what is going on in that country, both ashore and off the coast-line patrolled by pirates. The Somali government is beleaguered by al-Shabab, an extremist group, supported by extremist groups elsewhere and linked with al-Qaeda. This group is intent on imposing the sharia law in Somalia and northern Kenya where Kenyan Somalis live. Needless to say, they are heavily armed and ruthless in achieving what they want.

Fittingly, the Secretary of State laid a wreath at the memorial site in Nairobi where over two thousand Kenyan and American citizens died when the U.S. Embassy was bombed eleven years ago this August. The threat of terrorism has not left the region yet, and the extensive coast-line and vast wilderness in the semi-desert frontier area dividing the two countries doesn´t make it any easier to confront it and wipe it out. Kenya does not have oil or mineral wealth, like some of the other countries on her itinerary: South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola, but Kenyans do have strategic importance for this part of the continent.

Kenya´s many other problems must have passed over Mrs. Clinton on her three-day trip, busy as she was in the corridors of power, addressing the students at Nairobi´s public university, and meeting whatever ordinary Kenyans she managed to fit in. The last five rainy seasons have been below expectations, and the dams that supply electric power are drying up. The country is on daylight power rationing three days every week, starting the day she flew in. The rapid expansion of the capital city, with hundreds of migrants moving in every day, cannot keep up with the dwindling water supplies.

Kenyans hope that Mrs. Clinton´s visit will have shaken up their government´s complacency and persuaded it to put its act together. Eighteen months on from what nearly ended in a civil war and the fragmentation of the country, yet most of what Kenyans have got since then is hot air.

(*) Martyn Drakard is a freelance writer based in Africa

Gulf between America and Somalia may be insurmountable

By Georgie Anne Geyer (*)

The strangest thing about our "now-you-see it, now-you-don´t" relationship with Somalia, that ungoverned space on the Horn of Africa, is why we have any relationship at all.

Myself, I remember it well. I spent a week there on a USIA speaking tour in 1980. That was the country´s "Age of Pericles," and it was pretty awful then. For the moment, the Soviets had "won" their fight with us to gain control over the most irrelevant places on the globe, and they had built sports stadiums and government buildings all over Mogadishu. It was a miserably poor place, although the tall, dignified people still had hope -- they had not yet descended into the unspeakable anarchy they enjoy today. In the endlessly dusty streets, the only shining things were the ivory tusks, and they were a cruel reminder of how destructive Africans are of their environment.

We had no historic ties or commitments to Somalia whatsoever. Our cultures could not be more different, and our people did not mix well with their stratified tribal composition. Still, we kept intervening, especially in 1991, when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Somalia so he wouldn´t have to send them to the far more dangerous (he thought) Bosnia.

Today the Soviets are long gone and we have been in and out of Somalia, our attention still caught by the massacre of American soldiers on the streets of Mogadishu in 1993. We left after that, supposedly forever, but nothing is "forever" in foolish foreign policy. The charitable gene in America´s character insisted upon bringing thousands of Somali refugees to America, great numbers of them (at least 32,000 -- some say many more) to the Minneapolis area.

These large numbers of Somalis were resettled in the U.S. largely by Christian NGOs that were paid by international organizations for their work. And while many of them settled in their own ghettos, even the young men who were "doing well" in America continued to be restless and feel out-of-place in their new homeland. How out-of-place they felt has been bitterly revealed in this past year.

At least 20 young men from the Somali immigrant group in Minneapolis have sneaked back to Somalia, one by one to avoid attention, to join and fight with the al-Shabab, the local equivalent of the supremely anti-American al-Qaida. One of these young men has provided the country that gave him protection and succor with the distinction of becoming the "first American suicide bomber," and many of the 20 have been killed.

The situation has grown so serious that the imams in the Minneapolis community are trying to take retroactive action so no more young men will "answer the call to jihad," and the FBI is now deeply involved. But when experts try to analyze why these boys are sneaking back to the country their families desperately escaped from, the reasons are curious -- and by far the most important part of this sad story.

The reasons the specialists give are generally two: (1) despite the appearance of assimilation, there were always cultural problems; they didn´t fit in, and (2) joining the Islamic revolt in Somalia, the true "homeland," was seen as exciting and adventuresome, as the final sacrifice to one´s nation because when they left for Somalia, over a year ago, Christian Ethiopia was attacking Somalia. Thus they saw their cause as a nationalist one, and indirectly anti-American, for the U.S. was supporting Christian Ethiopia against the radical Islamists in Somalia.

But there is a bigger picture here, and one that involves not only the U.S. but much of Europe (Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and especially Great Britain). It revolves around the question of what groups in the underdeveloped world should be taken in by the developed world -- what cultures are amenable to ours and assimilable. To put it baldly but truly, which refugees will prove worth the whole process?

The West, especially the United States, has been profligate in playing out its dream that all peoples are essentially alike. They are not. They emerge out of their own specific histories, their loves and hatreds, and social and cultural DNAs. These differences should be respected in their own space, not played with at our expense.

So we return to the beginning. No people is more different from Americans than Somalis. They live in ethnic enclaves, they are anti-individualist, they fear the outside ... one could go on forever.

The message and moral here go far beyond the immediate story of these 20 (and probably, by now, innumerably more) confused young men who will never be able to come back to this "home" again. It is the truth, unpalatable to many good-willed Americans, that we cannot and should not attempt to engage and assimilate people from non-amenable cultures, particularly in an age of radical Islam.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made this clear indirectly on her recent tour of Africa when she said in Kenya: "The threat by al-Shabab reaches far beyond the borders. It wants to control Somalia and use it as a base to attack other countries." It wants, she said, "to gain a haven inside Somalia to be a threat to the U.S."

These young Somalis -- poor and inexperienced young saps, really, looking for adventure -- are now on the FBI books as anti-American terrorists, and their country of origin is in such chaos there will never be space for them there. Their course across the globe gives new meaning to the old saying that "you can´t go home again."

(*) Georgie Anne Geyer has delivered distinctive foreign commentary from a variety of foreign fronts for more than 30 years.

World Humanitarian Day: Honouring aid workers past and present

By Merlin

On World Humanitarian Day, Merlin honours all those who have lost their lives carrying out humanitarian work in the field and acknowledges those who are currently working in some of the most hostile environments in the world.Linda Doull, Merlin's Director of Health and Policy said: "We welcome this opportunity organised by the UN, as it has never been so dangerous to be an aid worker. In 2008, 122 aid workers were killed, compared to 79 in 2007 and 86 in 2006. Merlin lost five aid workers in 2008, including two staff members from Afghanistan who were killed in Kunduz in July.

A group of unknown men stormed a Merlin clinic, threatening to burn it to the ground. Dr Sayid Masoom, in charge of the clinic, and Mohammad Ewazewaz, Merlin's Duty Guard, were both fatally shot in the attack.

Attacks becoming more politically motivated

According to a recent report by the Overseas Development Institute, attacks on aid workers are increasingly politically motivated, especially in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia, where NGOs are perceived to be part of the "western agenda." As such, NGOs are withdrawing or limiting the movement of their international staff, while national staff are taking on increased responsibilities. Merlin is aware of the different risks involved for all staff, and is continually reviewing and adapting its security procedures accordingly.

Pete Sweetnam, Director of Programmes, concludes: "We are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of all of our staff and the community members we work with, while at the same time continuing to carry out our life-saving work in some of the world's most difficult and challenging environments. We commend all of the courageous aid workers around the world who are prepared to risk their lives every day in order to help others."

Egyptians rally against freeing Marwa's killer

Egyptian demonstrators have gathered in front of the German Embassy in Cairo to protest what they say are intentions to acquit Sherbini's murderer.

In a silent protest, the crowd condemned "the media silence in Germany over the killing of Marwa el-Sherbini," who was stabbed 18 times by a German man of Russian decent in a Dresden courtroom back in July.

The demonstrators demanded justice and punishment for the man responsible for the young woman's death, amid speculations that his lawyers may try to portray him as mentally impaired.

Sherbini's lawyer Khaled Abubakr, however, has vowed to take all possible measures to prevent such a scenario from unfolding. Protesters believe that the German media's reluctance to dedicate adequate coverage to Sherbini's death point to efforts within the German government to free him.

"This rally, which is being held in protest against the German media's silence 40 days after Sherbini's death, shows that national concern over this issue will not fade away with time," said Nadiya Ata, head of the human rights group organizing the event.

She also called on Egyptian officials to make sure that justice is served and that people are informed about future legal proceedings of the case.

The three-month pregnant Marwa el-Sherbini was killed in early July while giving testimony against Axel W. in an appeal court, when the assailant attacked her in front of German police who failed to protect her against the assailant.

El-Sherbini's husband, Elvi Ali Okaz, tried to save his wife but was stopped short by the police who shot him the leg after apparently mistaking him for the attacker.

Alex W. had been found guilty and ordered to pay a fine at an earlier hearing for insulting and abusing Sherbini in November after calling her a "terrorist."

He was at court on that day because the prosecutors had appealed against the earlier punishment believing it to be insufficient in view of his verbal insults against the Egyptian.

El-Sherbini's death created outrage in Egypt and other parts of the Muslim world where protests have been held in condemnation of the hate crime.

No State Sponsors, No Terror

By William F. Jasper

"All warfare is based on deception." — The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, Chinese General, military strategist (sixth century B.C.). It was late in the evening of February 12, 2008 when the bearded, pudgy, middle-aged man left a meeting at an Iranian school in the quiet Kfar Suseh neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, and walked to his car, which was parked on the street. No sooner had he climbed into his Mitsubishi Pajero than the vehicle erupted in a mighty blast, killing him instantly.

A few hours later, consumers of the morning news learned the identity of the car-bomb victim. It was none other than the elusive Hezbollah terror master, Imad Fayez Mugniyeh, one of the most hunted — and most dangerous — men on the planet.

Unlike his better-known terrorist colleagues, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mugniyeh shunned publicity. He didn´t give interviews, pose for photos, or issue audio or video recordings to Al Jazeerah media outlets. He rarely broke cover, was always on the move, and reportedly never slept in the same bed two nights in a row. Only a few photographs of him are known to exist despite his having cut an unparalleled swath of terror over the previous 25 years. Yet he was at the apex of the global terrorist pyramid, sitting with bin Laden on the super-secret Committee of Three.

Imad Mugniyeh burst onto the international terrorist scene in 1983 with a series of spectacular, deadly bombings aimed at driving U.S. forces out of Lebanon. At the time he was a mere 20 years old, but was already a veteran of many terrorist actions. The 1983 Beirut suicide bombings included the April 18 U.S. Embassy (63 killed); the October 23 U.S. Marine barracks (241 killed); and the October 23 French paratrooper barracks (58 killed). A litany of bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, and assassinations followed, with an ever increasing body count. He has been credited with masterminding and/or participating in terrorist acts ranging from the car bombings of the Israeli embassy and the Jewish cultural center in Argentina in the early 1990s, to the World Trade Center bombing of 1993; the Khobar Towers suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996; the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen; and the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The 9/11 Commission Report´s references (pages 240-241) to "a senior Hezbollah operative" shepherding the future 9/11 hijackers in and out of Iran refer to Mugniyeh, say inside sources.

Osama bin Laden spoke admiringly of Mugniyeh´s lethal handiwork and in 1993 met with Mugniyeh in Khartoum, Sudan, to form a working alliance. That historic meeting was brokered by Ali Mohamed, bin Laden´s master spy/double agent inside the FBI, whose story is told in riveting detail in Peter Lance´s newly released Triple Cross (reviewed in The New American, August 17, 2009).

The question that dominated the news headlines and the blogosphere in the immediate aftermath of Mugniyeh´s assassination was: who did it? No one claimed credit for the deed. The most likely suspect, and the one most often cited, was the Israeli Mossad. Some pointed to the CIA (and/or the FBI, which had placed a $5 million bounty on Mugniyeh). Some suggested a joint Mossad/CIA operation. However, some in the Islamic world pointed to intelligence agencies of Arab nations that had their own reasons for wanting to "take out" Mugniyeh. Considerable suspicion in the Arab-world press focused also on Syria as the perpetrator, while some speculated that Iran might even be responsible. It was reported in some press and intelligence blog accounts that on the night of his execution by car bomb, Mugniyeh had just concluded a meeting with Hamas leaders, Syrian intelligence officials, and Iran´s new ambassador to Damascus, on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the Iranian revolution (February 12, 1979). And the meeting at the school was but a short distance from a Syrian intelligence center in Syria´s tightly controlled police-state.

As the most notorious operational leader of Hezbollah, with whom Israel has battled for decades, Mugniyeh was, understandably, a prime target for the Mossad. He has also been a major thorn in the sides of Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, all of which had good reasons for wanting him dead. But Syria and Iran? They were his longtime sponsors. Precisely. And as some terrorism experts have argued (Kenneth Timmerman, for one), Tehran and Damascus have been anxious that Mugniyeh´s ties to 9/11 and other terror acts may be used by Washington to justify military attacks on Iran and Syria.

Whose Man Was He?

So, did Mugniyeh´s death represent a victory by Israel, the United States, or an Arab state over a longtime, implacable foe? Or was it a clean-up operation by Syria or Iran? This writer does not claim to know, though it would seem the preponderance of evidence points toward Tel Aviv. But a far more important question than who killed Imad Mugniyeh is: who was he working for?

Terrorism is a form of warfare, the ultimate in asymmetric, unconventional warfare. And to it, Sun Tzu´s maxim that "all warfare is based on deception" applies in spades. Terrorists do not wear uniforms, carry their banners openly, fight on the open battlefield, or directly confront the military of their adversaries; their entire modus operandi is one of secrecy, stealth, and deception, especially in this age of satellite surveillance, computer data mining, and pervasive electronic eavesdropping. They are particularly conscious of protecting their subterranean networks and concealing all trails that might lead back to their state sponsors. And their state sponsors, mindful of the global reach of assassin teams and GPS-guided precision missiles, are even more highly motivated to maintain "plausible deniability" by structuring their ties to terrorists through several layers of surrogates.

Thus we have witnessed for years an ongoing charade in which Iran and Syria have claimed to have no ties to Mugniyeh and other wanted terrorists. And Hezbollah, mimicking its masters, has voiced the same absurd denials. "For its part, Hezbollah has consistently denied the existence of any relationship with Mugniyeh, direct or indirect," notes Judith Palmer Harik in her 2005 book Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism. "As a matter of record," she continues, "from the time of the party´s inception, all Hezbollah officials have emphatically denied ever knowing a person by the name of Imad Mugniyeh." But as Harik points out, it is "impossible for any member of Hezbollah´s present leadership to deny knowing Mugniyeh, since all of them are known to have been intimately involved with the day-to-day functions of the Baalbek training camps," where Mugniyeh played a major role in preparing terrorist cadres for their deadly trade.

However, at Mugniyeh´s funeral, all those who had been denying connections to him for years — Hezbollah, Iran, Syria — let their masks fall (partially) to claim him as their own and eulogize him as a martyr. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad eulogized him as "an outstanding leader from Hizballah." Iran´s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised him as "an example for the young generation to follow." Lebanese Hezbollah´s General Secretary, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, used Mugniyeh´s funeral to threaten a retaliatory all-out war against Israel. "With this murder, its timing, location and method — Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: Let this war be open!"

The deception regarding Mugniyeh is duplicated again with regard to Hezbollah´s ties to terror, as well as its crucial ties to Damascus and Tehran. According to its leaders, as well as its many advocates in the press, academe, and the United Nations, Hezbollah (in Arabic, the Party of God — sometimes spelled Hizbullah or Hizb´Allah) is not a terrorist group at all, but instead a social welfare, charitable organization, providing food, schooling, and medical care to the poor and downtrodden. Swedish terrorist expert Magnus Ranstorp notes it is perfectly understandable that the terrorists and their state sponsors would lie about their actions, intentions, and connections.

"Less understandable," he says, "are the many academics who allowed themselves to be misled about Hezbollah´s clandestine wing and its use by Iran and, at times, Syria…. They preferred to believe that Hezbollah could not possibly harbor a secret structure involved in terrorism, when its above-the-board operations — social, political and military — were so effective and (according to some) so noble and legitimate. And so Hezbollah was allowed to have its cake and eat it too."

Deniable Assets

Much the same can be said for PLO-Fatah and Hamas, as well; their apologists in the media, academia, and influential policy circles claim they are no longer terrorists (some insist they never were). At any rate, they have transformed (or are in the process of transforming) into legitimate political groups. Any terrorist acts attributed to them, say the apologists, are actually the work of "rogue elements," shadowy "splinter groups," or mysterious groups of unknown origin and makeup.

This phenomenon is nothing new; Yassir Arafat, the Crown Prince of modern terrorism, proved himself the master of deception in this regard with his creation of the ultimate ruse in "plausible deniability": Black September. It is now an established fact (though still not sufficiently well known) that the Black September terrorist group, which carried out the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Olympics and other terrorist acts, was created and controlled by Arafat as a "deniable asset" to perform dirty deeds for which he did not want to be held accountable. Arafat publicly disavowed any connection to Black September and theatrically condemned their actions, while privately congratulating his terrorist minions for mayhem well done. Black September was purely Arafat´s operation, just as he, in turn, was the deniable asset of communist Romania´s intelligence service, the DIE, which, in turn, was the deniable cat´s paw of the Soviet KGB.

This process of deception and deniability was perfected by the Soviet Union as it launched successive waves of terror in the 1960s, ´70s, and ´80s. The Kremlin´s hands were usually well hidden, its KGB and GRU handlers working through their subsidiary Czech, East German, Bulgarian, or Romanian intelligence services, which, in turn, operated through Libya, Yemen, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and North Korea, whose agents, in turn, interfaced directly with the terrorists: the Red Brigades, the Baader-Meinhof, the PLO, PFLP, IRA, FMLN, etc. Yet, so massive and extensive was the global terror war that the accumulated evidence of Moscow´s direction of the entire effort became overwhelming, despite all attempts to conceal it.

Studies in the 1970s and ´80s — such as The Terror Network by Claire Sterling, Terrorism: The Soviet Connection by Ray S. Cline and Yonah Alexander, KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Agents by John Barron, and Red Horizons by Ion Mihai Pacepa — made it impossible for reasonable people to continue ignoring the elephant under the doily. What became strikingly clear was that there wasn´t a single significant terrorist group that could legitimately claim to be independent and self sufficient; all relied on the intricate Soviet-directed network for arms, explosives, communications, training, intelligence, funding, sanctuary, passports, identification papers, and much more.

Without state sponsorship terrorism would wither and die. Thus, any genuine effort aimed at eradicating terrorism must confront the ultimate state sponsors. Otherwise one will be reduced to ineffectually striking at branches instead of the root, or to use another analogy, wasting one´s energy and resources putting out endless fires, rather than arresting the arsonists.

Evil Twins: Syria and Iran

When it comes to state sponsors of terrorism Syria and Iran are the evil twins: communists and Khomeinists. Although Damascus has been in the terror business longer, it has been surpassed by Tehran, with its new brand of Islamo-Leninism, a blend of Marx and Mohammed. Syria is still run by the communist Baath Party, which took over in a coup d´état in 1966. In 1970, Syrian Air Force officer Hafez al-Assad, who had been trained in the Soviet Union, took over in an intra-party coup. He was to rule with the proverbial iron fist for the next 30 years, until his death in 2000. At which point, in a fashion similar to the Kim Il Sung communist monarchy in North Korea, Hafez passed on the throne to his son, Bashar al-Assad. Hafez al-Assad quickly established himself as Moscow´s most loyal ally in the Middle East. So much so that Soviet boss Leonid Brezhnev, in his keynote address to the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1976, praised Syria´s Baathist regime and declared that the two countries "act in concert in many international problems, above all in the Middle East."

In the 1970s, the Soviet Union began shipping Assad huge amounts of war materiel — tanks, rockets, fighter jets, small arms, explosives, radar, communications equipment — in addition to thousands of military and intelligence personnel, from Cuba, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, North Korea, and East Germany, as well as the Soviet Union. By mid-1980, more than 500 KGB advisers were training Syrian intelligence officers at a base near Damascus.

Syria quickly became a key base for avowed Marxist-Leninist terrorist groups such as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman (PFLO), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Somalia (DFLS). It later also became a base for Islamo-Leninist groups (both Shia and Sunni) such as Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hamas (Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal has lived in Damascus since 1999, along with other top Hamas leaders), and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, while an even broader assortment of terrorists has been trained (and is being trained currently) at Syria´s terror camps in Lebanon.

In its 2006 Lebanon incursion, Israel´s vaunted armor columns took surprising casualties from Hezbollah forces equipped with sophisticated armor-piercing, laser-guided, anti-tank missiles from Russia — by way of Syria. In one overrun Hezbollah position, Israeli forces captured a cache of Russia´s top-of-the-line Komet missiles. The label on each missile read: "Customer: Ministry of Defence of Syria. Supplier: KBP, Tula, Russia." This and other evidence belied Syria´s continued denials that it was involved in the Lebanon terror.

Although Hafez al-Assad´s Baathist regime in Syria had a nine-year head start in the Soviet-sponsored terror business, Ayatollah Khomeini´s Islamic Republic of Iran would soon eclipse him. The overthrow of Shah Pahlavi by Soviet-backed street radicals and the Carter administration in 1979 was a seismic shift of epic magnitude. Iran was flipped, virtually overnight, from being the most pro-Western, most moderate Islamic power in the region, and a critical roadblock to Soviet regional hegemony, to a force for global revolution and terror. Khomeini´s militant fusion of Marx and Mohammed would resonate with millions of Muslims who could not accept the secular socialist tenets of the region´s other Soviet client-states: Syria, Libya, and Iraq. Khomeiniism was the perfect made-to-order fit for the Andropov Paradigm: the plan to craft and promote a radicalized, Leninist form of Islam to infect millions of Muslims worldwide with fanatical anti-American hatred. Yuri Andropov (head of the KGB,1967-1982, and head of the Soviet Union, 1982-1984) assured Romania´s spymaster, General Ion Mihai Pacepa, that "the Islamic world was a waiting petri dish in which we could nurture a virulent strain of America-hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist-Leninist thought…. Their illiterate, oppressed mobs could be whipped up to a fever pitch."

Ayatollah Khomeini fulfilled Andropov´s wildest dreams. Upon taking over in Iran, the Ayatollah affixed the label of "the Great Satan" to the United States. The Soviet Union was viciously persecuting the Muslims of neighboring Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan (and would soon invade Afghanistan), but Khomeini insisted that Muslims see the United States, not the Soviet Union, as Satanic. When Russia later invaded Chechnya and slaughtered Muslims by the tens of thousands, Khomeini´s successors in Tehran gave tacit approval, thereby blunting expressions of outrage by other Islamic countries.

Training terrorists became a primary order of business for Khomeini, and terror camps at Manzarieh Park in Tehran, Marvdasht camp near Persepolis, Bushehr air base, and Dowshan Tappeh air base were soon set up with communist instructors from North Korea, Vietnam, Bulgaria, and East Germany. These were joined by over 300 Farsi-speaking KGB officers from the Soviet Union. The modern wave of suicide bombing was about to begin, thanks to these foreign trainers, who fortified their expertise in traditional brainwashing techniques with new advances in mind-control drugs. The man who developed the Ayatollah´s pharmaceutical "martyr" program is Dr. Aziz al-Abub (real name, Ibrahim al-Nahdhir), a psychiatrist who was trained at the Soviet Union´s KGB-run People´s Friendship University and schooled by the notorious terrorist Abu Nidal. Aziz al-Abub became a founder of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian-directed Hezbollah; he remains a key player in their terror program.

In June 1996, Iran marked a new milestone in the global terror war with the launch of Hezbollah International (HI), to be a central command uniting both Shia and Sunni Islamists. A secret summit was attended by leaders of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Change Movement, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. The summit concluded with creation of a Shia-Sunni Hezbollah International, headed by a Committee of Three: Imad Mugniyeh (Hezbollah, Shia), Osama bin Laden (al-Qaeda, Sunni), and Ahmad Salah (Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Sunni).

Sitting above HI´s Committee of Three is Dr. Mahdi Chamran, chief of Iranian external intelligence, head of international terrorism, and mayor of Tehran. Mahdi and his brother Mostafa (killed in 1981) were communist radicals at California universities in the 1960s, where they created "Red Shiism," a fusion of Marx and Mohammed. Among Khomeini´s earliest acolytes, the Chamrans got in on the ground floor of the Iranian revolution. Mahdi Chamran, who holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics, also has been in charge of Iran´s nuclear development program from the start, where he works closely with the Russian, Chinese, and North Korean scientists and technicians who are building Iran´s nuclear facilities and missile program. Of course, his Hezbollah International work requires him to work closely with the intelligence services of those three countries as well. To keep things rolling on that score, one of Chamran´s most important assets is Imad Hadj Hassan Salame, who heads the HI special operations unit (Muntamat al-Jihad al-Islami, or MJI) in Moscow. Salame´s Moscow MJI unit provides the crucial interface with Russia´s FSB and GRU for arranging the transfer of arms and other critical materials from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Balkans.

Clearly, Russia is the ultimate state sponsor of terrorism; Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Kosovo, Lebanon, and other terrorist facilitators are merely proxies. Putin and the current rulers of the Kremlin are continuing the "Islamic" terror option outlined by Andropov more than three decades ago, as KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn has repeatedly warned. "U.S. policy makers have recklessly accepted the premise that Russia and China are no longer their enemies, but are rather potential allies and partners fully deserving U.S. support," Golitsyn wrote in his 1990 book The Perestroika Deception. "Only countries like Iran, Iraq and North Korea — which (ironically, in this context) work secretly with Russia and China — are still considered potential adversaries."

All of which should call to mind Sun Tzu´s sober comment in The Art of War: "It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."

Harper on Arctic sovereignty mission

By Michel Comte

In its fifth year, the Canadian military exercises - running from August 6 to August 28 - are the biggest they have ever been. "We're growing our capability, and ramping up," navy spokesman Lieutenant Jordan Holder told AFP.

"It's the first time that we have an anti-submarine component to the exercise," Holder said.

Canada announced last year it was stepping up its military alertness along its northern frontier in response to Russia "testing" its boundaries with military flights skirting the border which had not seen since the Cold War.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper embarked Monday on an Arctic tour that will culminate with a massive display of military muscle aimed at reinforcing Canada's sovereignty claims in the resource-rich region.

Harper's first port of call on the five-day trip will be Iqaluit, formerly Frobisher Bay, at the southern tip of Baffin Island, where he will hold a cabinet meeting.

The main event comes on Wednesday when he will observe Operation Nanook, an annual military exercise trumpeting Canada's sovereignty over a large swath of Arctic territory to the east of Baffin Island.

Five countries bordering the Arctic - Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States - claim overlapping parts of the region, which is estimated to hold 90 billion untapped barrels of oil.

Harper will board a frigate and then a submarine as it dives into the icy waters near Iqaluit, Brigadier-General David Millar, commander of Joint Task Force North, told public broadcaster CBC.

In its fifth year, the Canadian military exercises - running from August 6 to August 28 - are the biggest they have ever been. "We're growing our capability, and ramping up," navy spokesman Lieutenant Jordan Holder told AFP.

This year it includes 700 personnel, aircraft patrolling the Hudson and Davis Straits, as well as the frigate HMCS Toronto and submarine HMCS Corner Brook, which will take part in anti-submarine warfare exercises along Canada's northern frontier.

"It's the first time that we have an anti-submarine component to the exercise," Holder said. "It's meant to demonstrate our ability to respond to reports of unauthorized activity both above and below the surface."

One exercise in the war games will see commandos specially trained and equipped for Arctic deployment make an amphibious landing on a remote island, he said.

Canada announced last year it was stepping up its military alertness along its northern frontier in response to Russia "testing" its boundaries with military flights skirting the border which had not seen since the Cold War.

Ottawa responded with plans for a sensor net, more navy patrols and a military training camp in the far north.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that any coastal state can claim undersea territory 200 nautical miles from their shoreline and exploit the natural resources within that zone.

Nations can also extend that limit to up to 350 nautical miles from their coast if they can provide scientific proof that the undersea continental plate is a natural extension of their territory.

Moscow believes it should control the Northern Sea Route, a passage that stretches from Asia to Europe across northern Russia, and in 2007 planted a flag on the ocean floor beneath the North Pole in a symbolic staking of its claim over the region.

Canada meanwhile has claimed the famed Northwest Passage, but is at odds with the United States which considers it to be international waters.

Later in the week, Harper is to travel to the Inuit hamlet Pangnirtung, on Baffin Island, and to Yellowknife and Whitehorse, the regional capitals of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon respectively.

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.

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