Ecoterra Press Release 247 – The Somalia Chronicle June – December 2009, no 60
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
March 21, 2010
ECOTERRA Intl.
SMCM
Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor
ECOTERRA INTERNATIONAL - UPDATES & STATMENTS, REVIEW & CLEARING-HOUSE
2009-09-17 THU 11h37:12 UTC
Issue No. 247
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.
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 and 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 easy and condensed as necessary.)
Breaking:
Condition laid upon the release of a French hostage
The Islamic Movement Mujahidin of Al-Shabab has laid conditions for the release of security French advisers who were kidnapped on the 14th of July 2009 in Sahafi hotel in Mogadishu. In fact the kidnapped agents were two, but one has escaped from the hands of Hizbul Islam sometimes last August, after a 5 hours walk from where was kept captive to the Somali Presidential palace.
"By the grace of Allah and under his guidance, the mujahidin succeeded in a major operation to capture an officer and agent of the French security services," an al-Shabab statement said.
In a decree in French language issued by the officials of the Mujahidin Al-Shabab movement on Thursday morning, concerning the release conditions for a French hostage in Mogadishu they said that there will be 4 conditions.
The 4 Conditions are as follows
1- The French government must stop both military and political support which they are offering to this apostate government of Sheikh Shariff, and withdraw all their security advisers in the country.
2-The French government should take out the infidel troops from our country, particularly the Burundians.
3- Should withdraw all security companies which are operating in Somalia.
4- Should withdraw all their warships in the Somali waters.
Al-Shabaab also said that France must release 'Muslim fighters' - without specifying which fighters and where they were being held - to secure the release of the advisor. Concerning the demand to release "mujahedeen prisoners" in return, the statement said a list of names and countries where they are held will be issued later.
France on Thursday immediately rejected the group's demands to stop supporting the Somali government, the AFP news agency reported. "It is a government that was founded in Djibouti with the support of a majority in Somalia," Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, told France Info radio. Together with its ally Hizbul Islam, al-Shabaab - which the US says has close links with al-Qaeda - has been battling to remove Western-backed President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Al-Shabab recently vowed to retaliate against Western interests for a U.S.-led commando raid in rural southern Somalia that left six dead, including Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most-wanted al-Qaida operatives in the region. Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the 28-year-old Kenyan who was said to have built the truck bomb that claimed 15 lives at an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Kenya in 2002. He was also wanted over a simultaneous but failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner taking off from nearby Mombasa.
Kouchner reaffirmed that France "hopes to secure the release of this last hostage", but warned that "negotiations cannot just be carried out simply via the media".
Two large explosions rock AMISOM base in Mogadishu
Explosions hit Uganda's protection forces' base in Somalia
Witnesses say two large explosions have rocked in bright daylight around midday the main base of African Union protection forces (AMISOM) in Mogadishu.Thursday, killing at least two people.
Residents said two huge explosions by suicide bombers have gone off at Halane, a main base of Ugandan soldiers near Mogadishu airport.
Officials from the militant al Shabaab movement claimed the responsibility for the attack and said they were aimed at offices where AU officials were meeting. Hardline Islamist Shebab rebels said they had carried out a twin suicide attack on the compound located at the airport in the south of the capital Mogadishu.
"We have carried out two holy attacks against the enemy and both missions were successful," a senior Shebab official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The enemy suffered badly and we are very happy."
The militants had vowed avenge on Tuesday after U.S. helicopters killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan who was wanted over attacks in Mombasa, Kenya and demanded from France the withdrawal of specifically Burindian troops before they could release a French hostage.
An AU official confirmed that blasts occurred but had no details. The spokesperson of the African Union Mission in Somalia, Barigye Bahoku confirmed the attack but declined to comment.
Witnesses said two vehicles with United Nations markings exploded in the attack.
Abdullahi Farah, a resident of the Somali capital, said two successive explosions hit the AU´s main base at the airport Thursday. He said black smoke is rising from the site.
Aonother witness, Ali Mohamed, said he had seen two bodies brought from the area, adding that they appeared to be Somalis. He said one blast hit an area of the base where the peacekeeping force was providing medical services to locals.
The troops took up positions near the entrance to the base and fired into the air after the blast, according to furhter witness, Ibrahim Aden.
Observers near the base said they could see African Soldiers bleeding and some dead civilians in the area.
Hardline Islamist militants seeking to overthrow the weak transitional government have repeatedly targeted the 5,000-strong protection force, made up of troops from Uganda and Burundi.
News from sea-jackings, abductions, newly attacked ships and vessels in distress
USS Porter Renders Aide to Egyptian Mariner on Russian tug
In response to distress calls sent out by a Russian tug on September 14, the medical team aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) responded.
Porter's bridge team picked up the call on the bridge-to-bridge radio. The ship requested medical assistance for a passenger that was in extreme pain due to a potentially bleeding ulcer.
Further complicating the decision to assist was the fact Porter was already racing to reach the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) to medevac one of Porter's Boarding Officers who injured his leg in a boarding event the previous day.
A small security team was formed using members from the ship's Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) team and a hospital corpsmen. Heading over to the Russian tug in one of the ship's small boats, the team had to be brought through barbed wire and other defenses the tug had in place to prevent pirates from boarding their vessel.
Following a physical assessment of the patient, the medical team administered an IV to replenish the fluids the merchant sailor had lost, while also providing medication to ease the pain and to dull the acidity of the ulcer. After about fifteen minutes, the man reported that he was no longer in pain.
An answer to the question what a Russian state-owned tug towing an Egyptian barge is doing in these waters was not revealed.
With the latest captures and releases now still at least 4 foreign vessels with a total of not less than 98 crew members are accounted for (of which 20 are confirmed to be Filipinos - Win Far 161 - Seized April 6 with 17 Filipinos and MV Charelle- Hijacked June 13 with 3 Filipinos) and are held in Somali waters. Three former hostages are held by the local ad ministration. The cases 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 too. 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 164 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 47 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least six wrongful attacks (incl. one friendly fire incident) on the side of the naval forces. More than 125 Somalis are held in foreign prisons (Kenya, Yemen, France, Netherlands) under charges of piracy. 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).
Directly piracy or naval upsurge related reports
Ocean politics' declared wave of future by Ian Elliot
Canadian sovereignty and protection of trade routes are becoming two of the major issues of this century, and it will be the Canadian navy that will be charged with looking out for them.
"The 21st century will be shaped by ocean politics in a way that is profound," observed naval Capt. Serge Bertrand, who was in Kingston yesterday to gauge the position of the navy in an largely army town as part of tour that is taking him across the country.
"People have this idea that the world's oceans are a vast, empty space where not a lot happens, but in fact, when it comes to everything from fishing to trade routes, they are not just important but increasing in importance."
Next year is the navy's 100th anniversary as well as marking one of its biggest-ever domestic taskings when it will do the bulk of shoreline defence for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
It is also about to undergo a major refit and modernization of the fleet at a time when its tasks are becoming more numerous and more complicated, dealing with everything from patrolling the rapidly-melting Arctic to intercepting pirates off the coast of Somalia.
The navy does it at a time when it is under the same stresses as other branches of the armed forces, chief among them a looming wave of retirements of baby boomers that intensifies the need to recruit a new generation of computer-savvy personnel to operate its complicated equipment.
"We are looking for geeks with attitude," said Bertrand, who now works as a reservist after a career of better than 30 years in the regular force.
"Our warships are some of the most technically advanced machines on the planet, and we need those people that I call geeks with attitude to run them."
Often overlooked in a largely army town like Kingston, the naval actually pre-dates the city in the form of the old British naval yards around Fort Henry. The city also has a long shipbuilding history, and the Kingston shipyards produced a number of Canadian Navy vessels.
Nowadays, most of the local naval element is centred on HMCS Cataraqui, which will be contributing a number of reservists to the Olympic security operation, but Bertrand argues the navy has a wider effect on the lives of Canadians even if it is not as visible as some elements.
"We're not patrolling off Somalia because piracy represents some sort of vague, existential threat to Canadian security," he said.
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"In fact, it represents a real and present threat to our way of life when you consider how many things we use in our daily lives that came to us at least in part by ship, and how many supply lines run through that part of the world.
"In today's world, warehouses have been replaced by ships."
The navy also provides troops on the ground in Afghanistan and indirect sea support -- Canadian ships protect American aircraft carriers, from which half the combat missions to that country are launched.
Those rapidly-evolving missions have spurred the navy to modernize and rebuild its fleet and as a small navy, Canadians usually operate with allies in a multi-lateral environment, requiring a sharing of everything from resources to intelligence.
"The actions that we are required to undertake are becoming increasingly complicated and we need to be able to react to a broad range of threats, which results in our need for new ships," said Bertrand.
"If all we worried about were pirate skiffs out at sea, well we wouldn't need terribly complicated ships to do that."
The operational tempo of the forces, Bertrand says, is a strength of the armed forces as well as one of its most potent recruiting tools.
"At its core, the Canadian Forces is not a think tank, it's a do tank," he said.
"If 5,000 people are needed in down town Toronto tomorrow for an emergency, we'll be the ones who will do that because we're the only organization in the country that can do that."
Death And Disappointment From The Sea - from strategypage
The Somali pirates are having a harder time because of the 25-30 foreign warships patrolling their coast. The warships interfere with attacks, and have arrested 110 pirates and jailed them in Kenya (where lawyers, diplomats and judges argue over how to prosecute them). There are now about as many merchant sailors held by the pirates in northern Somalia, on four ships. In the last two months, only one ship has been taken, although 13 were attacked. So far this year, 28 ships have been taken. But the warships have adapted faster than the pirates. The warships aggressively go after any speedboats with armed men in them. These are increasingly halted, disarmed and, if any of the men had fired on a warship, all the pirates are arrested and shipped off to jail in Kenya. It's become harder to be a pirate.
The two statelets that comprise northern Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland, have been coming apart over the last two years. Both are squabbling, and sometimes shooting, over possession of the Sool region, that lies astride their border. Both sides claim it, and both are willing to fight for it. The dispute has been going on since Puntland was formed in 1998, and declared they controlled the Sool because the inhabitants belonged to a Puntland tribe. Somaliland based their claim on borders drawn by the colonial governments of Italy and Britain a century ago. Years of negotiations have not settled anything. Meanwhile, both statelets have been coming apart because of internal problems. Despite that, northern Somalia has been better governed since breaking away from Somalia in the 1990 to form Puntland (2.5 million people) and Somaliland (3.5 million). The other two-thirds of the Somali population to the south, has been in perpetual chaos since 1990. But now, the tribal (clan) agreements that brought peace, and created the two governments, have unraveled. Somaliland is sliding towards civil war, while Puntland has been split between those who back (and profit from) the pirates, and those that don't. The result is no power that can stop the pirates.
British officials believe that up to a hundred British Moslems (nearly all young men, not all of Somali ancestry) have travelled to Somalia in the past year. There, the travelers often receive terrorist training, and some have returned to Britain.
Al Shabaab is also recruiting among Moslems in northern Kenya. Only ten percent of Kenyans are Moslem, and most of these are ethnic Somalis and Arabs living in the north and along the coast. There has always been tension between the majority of Kenyans, who are black Africans and non-Moslem, and the Moslem minorities. The growth of terrorism among young Moslems in Kenya has exacerbated these tensions.
Ethiopian troops continue to take control of Somali villages just across the border. This is part of an operation to keep militant Somalis away from the four million ethnic Somali Ethiopians living in Ogaden province, just across the border.
Somalia has long claimed Ogaden, but Ethiopia has been strong enough, and tough enough, to hang on to the place. The Ethiopians have more incentive now that oil has been discovered in Ogaden. The Ethiopians have let the people in Ogaden, and Somalia, know that any attempt to grab Ogaden, or disrupt oil operations, will be met with much violence. While the Somalis have a reputation for being fierce fighters, the Ethiopians have proved their equals over the centuries. But when the two fight, it tends to get nasty.September 14, 2009: U.S. commandos (Navy SEALs in two U.S. Army helicopters flying from U.S. warships offshore) attacked a vehicle containing the leader of al Shabaab, killing him and five of his followers. The helicopters landed and the SEALs took bodies and other items from the shot up car, and then returned to the warship. The September 14th U.S. commando operation that killed five or six al Qaeda terrorists in southern Somalia, required pretty precise intelligence to carry off. It's known that al Shabaab is increasingly unpopular in southern Somalia, where the group has imposed a strict form of Islamic law (Sharia). Apparently, the Americans have plugged into that unrest, to obtain precise information about terrorist movements.September 16, 2009: Al Shabaab, on their web site, confirmed that terrorist leader, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, had been killed in an American raid on the 14th. The attack took place along the coast, about 200 kilometers south of Mogadishu. The terrorist group vowed revenge. Nabhan was wanted for organizing a 2002 bombing of a Kenyan hotel (that killed 15), and attempt to shoot down an airliner, as well as some earlier attacks. Nabhan is one of five al Qaeda leaders known to be hiding out in Somalia, and was in charge of training foreign recruits and integrating them into al Shabaab combat or terrorist units. This includes suicide bombing operations.
The death of Nabhan, coupled with the yearlong campaign to kill al Qaeda leaders via UAV missile attacks in Pakistan, has al Qaeda leaders very upset. It's not just the deaths, as these guys know they are in a dangerous business, but how the Americans are finding out the details of terrorists movements. The U.S. won't say, for obvious reasons, how they are getting the information. It's a combination of electronic eavesdropping and local informants. That's because, even when al Qaeda leaders stop using cell phones, the American missiles or commandos still find them. There must be spies, and it's believed that hundreds of innocent Pakistanis, Afghans and Somalis have been murdered because it was suspected that they were spying for the Americans.
Somali gov´t expresses disquiet over detention of pirates in foreign countries (APA)
The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) 0f Somalia onWednesday said it was totaly against the policy to detain captured Somali pirates outside the country.
The Director General of the Foreign Affairs Ministery Abdi Mahmoud Ulusow, who spoke to reporters in Mogadishu said that his government was not satisfied with the idea of detaining pirates in Kenya or any other nation after they have been detained under the piracy crackdown operation.
"The Somali government and the international community agreed on the strengthening of the fight against piracy in Somali waters, but to detain Somali boys in foreign nations was not what we have agreed" Mr. Ulusow told reporters in Mogadishu on Wednesday.
"We want the Somali nationals to be arrested and tried in their homeland and we say with a loud voice that Kenya, Tanzania or Seychelles are not Somalia," he stressed.
Somalia has been without a functioning central government for nearly 20 years with the countrys´ unprotected coasts becoming one of the world´s most dangerous waters where buccaneers have been escalating attacks and hijaking commercial ships for the past three years.
Pecuniary Pirate Plots
Just days after a blotched hostage for pirate swap, the final return of the hostages and now also the arrested security men, the Seychelles dream of legal pirate money.
Seychelles to get funds to bring pirates to justice (APA)
The Seychelles will be able to get financial assistance from a trust fund to bring pirates in the Western Indian Ocean region to justice, APA learnt in the Seychellois capital Victoria on Thursday.
Official sources here indicated that the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, which coordinates the activities of countries taking part in the fight against pirates in the region, has approved the terms of reference of the fund which is being set up by the United Nations Development Programme.
The sources said the fund will help meet the costs of investigating incidents of piracy, prosecuting suspected pirates, detaining them after conviction and other related activities.
Such activities will include the costs of legal training, namely the gathering of evidence for the prosecution, detention, prosecution and trial of suspected pirates, imprisonment of those convicted, and legal cooperation between states in the region.
The sources further say that bringing pirates to justice has put heavy strains on the investigative, judicial, financial and other resources of countries of the region.
The Contact Group has formed a working unit to look into the possibility of setting up special, regional or international tribunals to try the pirates, the sources said.
Ecosystems, marine environment, IUU fishing and dumping, UNCLOS, ecology
Time ripe to rebuild Somalia' by David D Laitin and Afyare Abdi Elmi (*)
Somalia remains a powder keg. Since Ethiopian forces withdrew in January 2009, there are ghastly reports of killings and internally displaced populations.
Meanwhile, the al-Shabab Islamic movement, a group on the United States' list of terrorist organisations, has been expanding its sphere of influence and now controls most of southern Somalia.
Unlike the overwhelming majority of Somalia's Islamist organisations with nationalist agendas, al-Shabab's spokesmen have openly stated that while it is not officially a member, it has the same enemies and objectives as al-Qaeda.
However, Somalia's security challenges for the West are not limited to terrorism.
Despite some rescues, piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia remain a problem and last year Somali pirates attacked 111 ships, capturing 42.
Because of this, between $80-$150mn in ransom money was paid to Somali-based pirates last year, in addition to the costs incurred by states in safeguarding the shipping lanes and by companies of insurance premiums.
A new opportunity?
But there is now a window of opportunity. The time is ripe to build upon some early successes of the African Union forces in Mogadishu, to take advantage of the alliance between moderate Islamists and the transitional government, and to authorise a new UN peacekeeping mission.
In the face of continued violence, the African Union has scored some surprising successes.
The experience of Burundi, which sent a well-disciplined force to Somalia, is encouraging. Burundi peacekeepers have provided medical assistance to injured civilians and they have not used excessive force against civilians.
Furthermore, the UN special representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who helped stabilise Burundi, has coordinated the UN-sponsored peace process in Djibouti with skill.
He convinced the leadership of the Islamist Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia - including the current president of the country, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed - to negotiate and share power with the government they fought against for two years.
Ould-Abdallah also brought them into the top cabinet positions in a national unity government, along with some leading members of civil society who were not associated with clan-based warlords.
His success in bringing in the moderate factions of the Islamist Alliance demonstrates that the US need not see all Islamist movements as international "jihadists" threatening Western interests, especially among Somalis, who are resistant to all attempts at subjugation.
Women 'vital' to economy
The pastoral tradition in Somali society - where for centuries nomads have eked a meagre livelihood from an unyielding environment - encourages self-reliance.
Somali women have always played a vital role in society, and remain the backbone of the economy. Moreover, they have traditionally shown their full faces in public, a practise which even al-Shabab has not challenged.
A rich poetic tradition mixes religious and secular themes seamlessly.
The realities of Somali society, therefore, limit the popular acceptance of cultural restrictions demanded by al-Shabab, which are seen by many Somalis as without foundation in Islamic law.
As such, al-Shabab's brand and interpretation of Islam will never have broad public support in Somalia.
For many Somalis, al-Shabab looked like a better option than occupation by Ethiopia - Somalia's historic enemy.
However, now that Ethiopia is gone, moderate Islamists - along with a new generation of nationalist politicians - are ready to lead.
Indonesia, Turkey lead
Ethiopian troops should not be allowed to return to Somalia at any cost; this will only create popular support for spoilers and radicalise the general public.
With a new coalition ready to lead, a renewed UN peacekeeping operation is justified.
The ignominious failure of the United Nations Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM II established in 1993) - which went down with the Black Hawk incident - need no longer serve as a deterrent to positive international action.
Following the model of the UK leading the Sierra Leone mission, and the US leading the one in Liberia, Italy might be thought of as the natural lead state, but Indonesia or Turkey may be more appropriate.
This would need to be negotiated within the UN Security Council. Relying on the African Union forces of Burundi and Uganda already deployed, and hopefully additional forces from the Muslim world such as Jordan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, all long-term troop contributing countries to UN operations, could fill out the mission.
Al-Shabab will likely fail in the face of strong Western, UN, and African Union support to a new Somali regime that is beginning to earn local support.
There is today an opportunity to reverse the nearly two decades of Somali state collapse.
Most Somalis are now ready for the UN to lead a transitional administration that supports the rebuilding of the of the country. Rebuilding the Somali state is now feasible, and would serve the interests of the West and of Somalis, who are also desperate for normality.
(*) David D Laitin is Watkins Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, and co-author of Somalia: Nation in Search of a State. Afyare Abdi Elmi is an assistant professor at Qatar University's International Affairs Programme and author of the forthcoming book Understanding Somalia's Conglomerations: Identity, Islam and Peacebuilding.
Anti-piracy measures
The Russia´s Navy to Send the Fourth Counter-Piracy Naval Unit Off Horn of Africa (VM)
As it has in the past, the detachment will consist of a destroyer and two support ships.
The Pacific Fleet Headquarters has got down to formation of yet the fourth detachment of naval ships to take up counter-piracy duties off Somalia coast.
The relevant order has been already signed by the Commander of the Pacific Fleet Vice Admiral Konstantin Sidenko, the Pacific Fleet press service told RIA Vostok-Media.
"As it has in the past, the detachment will consist of a destroyer and two support ships," the press service added.
The third RF Pacific Fleet detachment consisting of the destroyer Admiral Tributs, tanker Boris Butoma and the fleet tag MB-99 left Vladivostok to carry out counter-piracy duties on June 29. At present the detachment is on counter-piracy patrol. In addition to seamen the detachment includes a marine unit, which will be assigned to ensure onboard security of civil vessels.
The second naval unit of the Russian Navy Pacific Fleet consisting of the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, the rescue tag MB-37 and tankers Irkut and Izhora set sail from Vladivostok to the Gulf of Aden to fight piracy off Somali coast on March 30. The detachment has returned to the Main Pacific Fleet Base on July 1.
The first Pacific Fleet naval formation consisting of the destroyer Admiral Vinogradov, rescue tag Fity Krylov and tankers Pechenga and Boris Butoma has completed the counter-piracy mission off Horn of Africa successfully. The detachment returned to the port of Vladivostok on March 20.
No real peace in sight yet
US curbs 'behind WFP Somali cuts' By Martin Plaut (BBC)
The World Food Programme says US curbs are in part behind its move to shut its Somali feeding programmes for more than 100,000 acutely malnourished children.
The US restrictions affect funding for areas controlled by groups designated as terrorist.
Washington has imposed sanctions on the hardline Somali Islamist group, al-Shabab.
But the WFP says it is doing all it can to get the aid through without it being controlled by the Somali insurgents.
Drought and war has left 109,000 children-under-five acutely dependent on the feeding centres run by the WFP.
But money has run out. The centres are closing, to focus the remaining resources on the most needy - babies under two years old, who would never recover from acute malnutrition.
Aid workers have told the BBC the cuts are the result of a freeze on funding by the United States Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.
Josette Sheeran, executive director of the WFP, said she was unaware of a ban.
She continued: "We've heard of needing to deal with the particular restrictions they have on where aid goes and needing to look at whether or not we can work in compliance with those restrictions."
The US embargo is stopping American aid funds from reaching the vast areas of southern and central Somalia, where the UN estimates half the population is now in need of food aid.
Ms Sheeran said that "getting help to them inevitably involves dealing with al-Shabab and other hardline groups now in control of the towns and villages across the region".
"We take all precautions to ensure that our food only goes to the most needy and is not handled by any particular political groups in Somalia or elsewhere and in particular al-Shabab in Somalia," she said.
"We hope to work through these difficulties and challenges.
"Right now in Somalia, WFP has by far the biggest programme and there are very few aid groups left functioning there."
Ms Sheeran says the WFP is working with the administration of US President Barack Obama on an almost weekly basis to try to resolve these difficulties.
In the meantime the children of Somalia are going without the food they so badly need.
In Somalia, a Leader Is Raising Hopes for Stability
By Jeffrey Gettleman
After Years of Chaos, a Ruler May Have a Chance
After nearly two decades of civil war, there is very little pollution, since just about all of Somalia´s industry has been razed. A clean breeze lifts off the ocean and stirs the bougainvillea. Few cars remain in the city and relatively few people, because hundreds of thousands have recently fled. It is surreally quiet, except for the occasional crack of a high-powered rifle.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed sits behind his desk in a pinstriped suit, prayer hat, designer glasses and a chunky, expensive-looking watch. He is ringed by enemies and guarded around the clock by Ugandan soldiers who literally camp outside his door and, for the rare occasions he leaves the palace, drive him to the airport in an armored personnel carrier. The few glimpses he gets of Mogadishu´s deserted streets are through two-inch-thick bulletproof glass.
"This government faced obstacles that were unparalleled," said Sheik Sharif, a former high school teacher, who became president in February. "We had to deal with international terrorist groups creating havoc elsewhere. Their plan was to topple the government soon after it arrived. The government proved it could last."
The odds against Sheik Sharif are still long, but his moderate Islamist government is widely considered to be Somalia´s best chance for stability in years.
For the first time in decades — including 21 years of dictatorship and the 18 years of chaos that followed — Somalia´s leader has both widespread grass-roots support inside the country and extensive help from outside nations, analysts and many Somalis say.
"This government is qualitatively different from the governments that came before it," said Rashid Abdi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. "But we shouldn´t fool ourselves; they need to act quickly."
Much of the world is counting on Sheik Sharif to tackle piracy and beat back the spread of militant Islam, two Somali problems that have flared into major geopolitical ones. Al Qaeda appears to be drawing closer to Somali insurgents in an effort to turn this country into a launching pad for global jihad. Just this week, American commandos killed a Qaeda agent in southern Somalia in a daylight helicopter raid.
After years of ambivalence about Somalia, the United States is playing an increasingly active role here, and recently shipped 40 tons of weapons to Somalia to keep Sheik Sharif´s government alive.
But his armed forces are like sieves. Many of his commanders still have ties to the Shabab, the Islamist insurgents working with Al Qaeda to overthrow Sheik Sharif´s government, and several government officers here conceded that a large share of the American weapons quickly slipped into Shabab hands.
If not for the 5,000 African Union troops guarding the port, airport and Villa Somalia, many Somalis believe Sheik Sharif´s government would quickly fall.
"It wouldn´t be days," said Asha A. Abdalla, a member of Parliament. "It would be hours."
Gen. Mohamed Sheik, Somalia´s intelligence chief, said that when Sheik Sharif took office, the government had 37 technicals, that distinctly Somali invention of a pickup truck with a cannon on the back. Then it decided to give technicals to Islamist militias allied with the government.
"That was our mistake," General Mohamed said. "They defected. One time, four. One time, two. Now, no technicals."
Sheik Sharif is a novel politician for Somalia. To start with, he is a politician. For decades, generals, warlords and warrior types have reduced this once languid coastal country to rubble.
Sheik Sharif, 43, is used to carrying a compass, not a gun. Studious and reserved, he has triangulated his country´s clannish politics and found something that resembles Somalia´s political center, a blend of moderate and more strident Islamic beliefs, with the emphasis on religion, not clan. To help, he has assembled an impressive brain trust of Somali-Americans, Somali-Canadians and Somali-Europeans with Ph.D.´s who had been waiting on the sidelines for years to help rebuild their country.
But the clock is ticking. Each day Sheik Sharif remains holed up in his hilltop palace, with millions of his people on the brink of starvation because of drought and grenades exploding just outside the palace gates, the euphoria that greeted his ascension slides into cynicism.
Villa Somalia may be safe, but the rest of Mogadishu, the capital, is a death trap of assassinations, land mines and senseless violence. Errant mortar shells routinely sheer off the arms and legs of children.
Just a few hundred yards beyond Villa Somalia´s chipped plaster walls are Shabab fighters with scarves over their faces and sniper rifles who used to be allied with Sheik Sharif and are now trying to kill him.
The Shabab are as much of a political anomaly as the president. The president´s advisers contend that they have never seen a force as cohesive, well-trained and ideologically driven. The Shabab and their insurgent brethren now control most of Mogadishu and much of the country. They are often referred to as the Somali Taliban, sawing off thieves´ hands and recently yanking out people´s teeth, saying gold fillings were un-Islamic.
But Somalis are not as religiously extreme as the Shabab´s presence might imply, and many say they are getting sick of the Shabab. That could spell a huge opportunity for Sheik Sharif, though critics say he must get out of Villa Somalia more and connect with the beleaguered population.
"This is really about hearts and minds," said Ahmed Abdisalam, a deputy prime minister in the last Somali government. "This government needs to get to the public. If they have the public with them, the Shabab won´t be able to survive."
In fact, the Shabab have their own defectors and may be losing critical support. Two young men who recently quit said the Shabab´s pipeline of money, which used to flow from rich Somalis outside the country, was drying up as more Somalis backed Sheik Sharif. Aid workers said the Shabab were taxing food in their territory, a very unpopular move when food prices are already high because of the drought.
The other day at a frontline position along Mogadishu´s blasted-out waterfront, government soldiers pounded Shabab fortifications with heavy machine guns.
The Shabab returned fire with a single assault rifle, sparingly fired, pop by pop.
The Shabab used to be seen as genuine freedom fighters, those leading the battle against the thousands of Ethiopian troops in Somalia propping up the previous transitional government.
But now that the Ethiopians have left, the Shabab seem to be going through an ideological drift. Their focus is no longer on liberating Somalia, the defectors said, but on something bigger.
"Our commanders were trying to tell us that there´s no Somali national flag and no national borders," said one recent defector, Mohamed, who feared identifying himself further. "They told us the jihad will never end. Once we finish in Somalia, we go to Kenya and then elsewhere."
While that global agenda may be alienating Somalis, it seems to be a magnet for wayward jihadists looking for the next holy war. Former insurgent commanders paint a much more alarming picture than American officials, who contend that there are only several hundred foreign fighters inside Somalia.
"There are thousands," said Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siad, who recently joined the government after defecting from Hizbul Islam, an insurgent group close to the Shabab. He said many battle-hardened men were coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan, and that a cell of suicide bombers were being trained in Mogadishu by Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, a Qaeda operative and a prime suspect in the bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
"Fazul´s an expert at war," Sheik Yusuf said. "He would be making more suicide bombs. He´s just running out of resources."
Many Western diplomats say now is the time for Sheik Sharif to sow divisions within the Shabab and entice relatively moderate insurgent leaders, like Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheik Muktar Robow, also known as Abu Monsoor, into the government. That was what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stressed when she met last month with Sheik Sharif in Nairobi, Kenya, a meeting that Sheik Sharif called his "golden chance."
Sheik Sharif stepped into Somalia´s messy politics in 2004, when he helped form a neighborhood court to try carjackers and kidnappers. Before that, he had been a relatively unknown teacher, educated in Sudan and Libya, the grandson of a famous cleric. In 2006, he became a leader of an Islamist alliance that kicked out Mogadishu´s warlords and brought a modicum of peace to the city for the first time since Siad Barre, Somalia´s cold-war-era dictator, was ousted by clan warlords in 1991.
But in December 2006, Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia with American help and swept aside Sheik Sharif´s Islamist alliance. An unpopular, warlord-dominated government then ruled for two years before the United Nations and the United States pressed it into ceding power to Sheik Sharif, because his moderate Islamist party was ultimately seen as having the most street-level support.
At a donor conference in Brussels in April, he got pledges of more than $200 million, though much of it has not materialized. "The problem with international aid is that it often comes late and is limited," Sheik Sharif sighed.
More help may be on the way. According to United Nations and Somali officials, the Ugandan military plans to invade Kismayo, a port town in southern Somalia controlled by a Shabab-allied group, as soon as more peacekeeping funds arrive.
And Somali officials say the C.I.A. will open a base in the old officer quarters near Mogadishu´s airport. They said three C.I.A. officers visited Villa Somalia in late August to discuss training Sheik Sharif´s struggling intelligence services.
American officials acknowledged that the United States was helping in unconventional ways, but would not specify further. At the palace, a tall, thickly built white man, wearing khaki fatigues and carrying an American assault rifle, stood guard outside a meeting room. It was not clear whom the man was working for. When he saw a journalist looking at him, he stepped inside and quietly closed the door.
Inside Somalia
By Mike Thomson
The first thing that hit me on landing near the town of Belet Weyne in Central Somalia, was the lack of any obvious signs of statehood.
There were no immigration or customs officials, no arrivals lounge or baggage hall and no requests from anybody to see my passport.
All I could see were battered looking pick-up trucks filled with sinister-looking figures bristling with all kinds of weaponry.
Wherever you go in Somalia you are never far from men with guns.
The trick is to make sure that they are pointing them the right way, that is, for your protection.
Fail to do this and you could quickly find yourself joining the 18,000 people killed here during the last two years.
This is a country that has lacked an effective national government since 1991 and is still largely in the hands of warlords, militia groups, bandits and pirates.
Somalia's transitional national government controls little of the land and might not have survived at all if it had not been for the help of five thousand African Union peacekeepers plus the support of various militia groups.
Security is so tenuous that travel by road is kept to a minimum. It is much safer by air. As a result my visit, arranged with help from the United Nations' World Food Programme, consisted of frequent bumpy hops in tiny planes.
When we did take to four wheels, a five-car convoy protected by 30 gun-toting guards was considered necessary.
Such protection is not, however, an option for most of those who live here. In the last two years alone one-and-a-half million people have been forced to flee their homes. Nearly 300,000 of them have abandoned the Somali capital Mogadishu in the past four months alone, due to on-going violence.
Escaping the violence
Everywhere I went I found people who had fled the horrors of shelling and fighting in the capital. Many had been forced to leave most of their possessions behind. Others told me that they had crammed all they owned into a car boot, only to be robbed at numerous roadblocks by militia gangs and bandits. Some were also raped.
I spoke to one woman near Dhuusamereeb who told me she had to leave her six children behind with relatives. She only had the money to bring out a sickly orphaned baby who, she told me, would have died if left in the city without medical help.
Around 5,000 African Union soldiers, known by the acronym, AMISOM, are the only vestiges of foreign protection left in the city.
A 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force pulled out of the country in 1995 following disastrous clashes with local warlords.
However, they only control the presidential palace, harbours and airports. Anarchy rules in most other parts of the capital.
Various extremist Islamic militia groups, such as Hisbul Islami and al-Shebab, fight running battles with AU and government forces.
Al-Shebab, which is the more hard-line of the two, is thought to have links with al-Qaeda. Many of those I talked to accused the organisation of killing and kidnapping civilians for no given reason and conducting roadside executions.
The Ethiopian Army restored some order when it invaded in late 2006. But, after struggling to subdue militia attacks, its forces withdrew at the beginning of this year.
Uncertain future
It is not entirely clear to outsiders what the fighting is really about. Groups like al-Shebab say they are dedicated to establishing sharia law in Somalia.
Yet the country's new president, Sharif Ahmed, has committed his transitional national government (TNG) to achieving the same objective, though he is thought to have a more moderate idea of what that should amount to.
When it comes to the hundreds of pirates who prey on foreign shipping passing through Somali waters, the objective is clearly money. That, though, is not something most other Somalis have much of after nearly two decades of bloody conflict.
In these credit-crunch days many in the developed world may feel like turning their backs on Somalia. Not just because its long-running problems seem so hard to resolve but also because there are more than enough crises much closer to home.
Yet, ever since the attacks of 11 September 2001, politicians have been wary of arguments like that. Some are now warning that Somalia may hold even more threats to the west than Afghanistan, should extremist Islamic groups be allowed to flourish in this anarchic and largely lawless state.
For the moment, at least, there is little hope on offer for the people of Somalia. Half the population are now in need of humanitarian aid. Many have been forced to flee their homes only to arrive in areas hit by drought.
Many of those I spoke to in a dusty and scorched camp near the town of Abudwaq, close tor the Ethiopian border, said they had survived bombs and bullets in Mogadishu only to face starvation there.
Aid agencies do what they can to help but few international staff are willing, or allowed, to work in what the UN describes as the world's most dangerous country.
Nearly 300,000 other Somalis have fled over the Kenyan border to camps at Dadaab, which is now home to more refugees than anywhere else on earth.
Some have been there since 1992.
Unable to work or move elsewhere in Kenya, frustration is growing. One man, who has been in Dadaab since 1992, told me that most young Somalis who have grown up in the camp are now either drug addicts, in jail or fighting in Somalia.
At the camp for displaced people near Abudwaq, I saw an elderly woman singing by her tent as dust swirled around her. I asked what she was singing about. She told me that she was calling on all Somalia's militia men to lay down their guns and help rebuild this shattered country.
"We prey to God that they will listen to me song for peace but we have no power to make them. We dare not even talk to them. We can only hope that, one day, the fighting will stop."
Impacting reports from the global village
Mobile Schools Help Nomadic Somalis Fight Drought
By Siena Anstis (*)
The sandy track cutting through Kenya's northeast province is marred by the corpses of cows, goats and donkeys. The drought has sucked all color leaving the landscape a singular shade of gray. Global warming has scarred this region.
Somali pastoralists, the main community in this barren desert, cannot remember a drought this severe. It has not rained for over a year.
Nomadic pastoral communities depend on water and green pastures to maintain their livestock and the worsening conditions pose a drastic threat to their pastoral lifestyle. Many are succumbing to this pressure and "dropping out" of pastoralism, relocating to towns destitute and without work experience. The United Nations Institute for Environmental and Security Studies estimates that by 2010 there will be 50 million such "climate refugees."
Mobile schools - secular pre-schools which follow these groups as they move to find pasture and water for livestock - are an attempt to help nomadic communities develop more options as the climate becomes increasingly hostile.
"Security is now seen [by pastoral communities] in children's education," says Kassim Ali, Chief of Wajir South, a region in Kenya's North East Province (NEP). Currently, NEP has the lowest primary school enrollment rate at 14.5 per cent, compared to 70 per cent national average. Understandably, the pastoral lifestyle makes accessing mainstream education difficult. Children are constantly moving as families search for pastures and water. While children are taught Islamic Studies for six to seven hours a day in the Islamic school called dugsi, few communities have prioritized - or have access to - secular education.
Supported by two local organizations, Nomadic Heritage Association (NOHA) and Education for Marginalized Children of Kenya (EMACK), mobile schools have drastically changed nomadic communities' views of secular education. Mobile schools, equipped by a trained pre-school teacher from the community, ensure that children learn the basics of reading, writing and counting in the national languages, Kiswahili and English.
The existing three mobile schools in the region, first founded in 2005, now host 55 students. Over 30 students have graduated from the mobile school program and are now attending boarding schools in neighboring towns. "We are illiterate, but since schools came we can now read and write. It has been very empowering," says Abdullahi Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of one of the mobile schools.
Farah Olad, EMACK's Deputy Chief of Party, comes from a community near the Somali border. When he visits the mobile schools, he brings water and biscuits for the children. His concern over the worsening drought is palpable. "I do not think Somalis will ever say they are fed up [with their lifestyle], they would go into a war-torn country to keep going," says Olad, "But, change is complex.
Nomadic pastorals are beginning to appreciate what opportunities school brings, such as improving their own livestock, initiating small businesses and lobbying on environmental issues."
"The situation is dehumanizing," says Alex Alusibia, Chief of Party at EMACK, about the drought. He has been working with the Kenyan government to register the schools in a feeding program to ensure that children have regular access to food. He is also lobbying for an emergency food aid component that would be included in every mobile school.
Culture also plays a strong role in limiting children's access to school. Ebla Abdullahi, a 10-year-old Somali girl, wants to transfer into a boarding school this year and become a teacher. Eventually, she wants to return to her community and teach. However, as tradition dictates, Farah expects that she will be married by the end of the year. When women marry, the other family pays a "bride-price" to her family, making her a valuable tool both economically and socially.
Alusibia says the government has been very responsive and is hoping to deploy the program in Kenya's 191 arid lands district. The situation in these areas is much the same: herders remain marginalized from mainstream society and increasingly threatened by the changing environment. Without education, they will be left poor and unrepresented.
Education offers choice, both economic and cultural. The next generation of young Somali pastoralists will have the potential to work in villages and towns or care for livestock, if not both. Young women will have reason not to marry young and will be able to better provide for their children when they do settle down.
As Olad explains, "It is not about changing culture, but about strengthening it."
(*) Siena Anstis is a Canadian-Swedish freelance journalist. Aside from her passion for writing and photography, she's interested in using journalism to foster positive change and alleviate poverty.
Shooting The Hand That Feeds You – strategypage
Once more, NGOs in Afghanistan are upset because military units are doing relief work. Getting the troops more involved with road building, establishing schools and delivering food and medical aid, is part of the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. But the NGOs fear that this will make NGO workers look like allies of the American troops, and more vulnerable to attack. NGOs throughout Afghanistan are upset at the increasing attacks on aid workers, and believe the new U.S. strategy will only make it worse. But a lot of these NGO problems are self-inflicted, and it's difficult to get the NGOs to accept this.
In the last few years, there's been a sharp increase in attacks on NGO for political reasons. Over two-thirds of the attacks on NGO staff are now politically motivated. This trend has been growing for the last decade, ever since the UN decided, at the urging of many other NGOs, to adopt political goals for their aid missions. This was in recognition of the fact that most aid operations were needed because there was a local political problem. That was nothing new, but the rapid proliferation of NGOs in the late 20th century was. All these idealistic new aid workers were not content to just comfort the afflicted and feed the starving. These new aid workers wanted to solve problems, not just provide first aid. But with the political agenda came enemies, enemies with guns and a murderous attitude.
Aid workers have always had to worry about bandits, and those who opposed aid for other reasons (like not wanting to see an enemy tribe get fed). But the new political agendas meant that, as soon as the aid groups showed up, they had taken sides, and had some clearly defined friends, and enemies. This tended to embolden the bandits and other lowlifes, for the aid workers had now lost the saintly aura that had previously provided a lot of protection. This loss was not really noticed until it was gone.
So now, each year thousands of aid workers are robbed, beaten, raped, kidnapped and murdered. Islamic radicals have been particularly active in terrorizing and killing the foreigners who are there to help them. At the core of this problem is not the UN, or even its, "let's get political" attitude. No, the big new problem was the evolving concept of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in general. A good example of how this works occurred five years ago, when the Afghan government threatened to expel all NGOs from the country. The NGOs were accused of failing to get aid programs moving, and spending aid money to further their own ends. The NGOs in Afghanistan then controlled over a billion dollars in foreign aid each year, and the government was simply joining many Afghans in complaining about the NGOs being more concerned about their own safety and comfort, than in making the lives of Afghans better. But it's not as simple as that.
NGOs are, for the most part, charitable organizations that take money from individuals, organizations and governments, and use it for charitable work in foreign countries. The Red Cross is one of the oldest, and best known NGO (dating back to the 19th century). In the mid-20th century, the UN became the largest NGO. Actually, the Catholic church could be considered one of the first major NGOs, as it organized large scale charity efforts over a thousand years ago. But in the late 20th century, the number of NGOs grew explosively. Now there are thousands of them, providing work for hundreds of thousands of people. The NGO elite are well educated people, usually from Western countries that solicit donations, or go off to disaster areas and apply money, equipment and supplies to alleviate some natural or man-made disaster. Governments have been so impressed by the efficiency of NGOs that they have contracted them to perform foreign aid and disaster relief work that was once done by government employees.
Problems, however, have developed. The Western employees of NGOs, while not highly paid, are infused with a certain degree of idealism, and bring to disaster areas a bunch of outsiders who have a higher standard of living and different ideas. Several decades ago, the main thing these outsiders brought with them was food and medical care. The people on the receiving end were pretty desperate, and grateful for the help. But NGOs have branched out into development and social programs. This has caused unexpected problems with the local leadership. Development programs disrupt the existing economic, and political, relations. The local leaders are often not happy with this, as the NGOs are not always willing to work closely with the existing power structure. While the local worthies may be exploitative, and even corrupt, they are local, and they do know more about popular attitudes and ideals than the foreigners. NGOs with social programs (education, especially educating women, new lifestyle choices and more power for people who don't usually have much) often run into conflict with the local leadership. Naturally, the local politicians and traditional leaders have resisted, or even fought back. Thus the Afghan government officials asked that all NGOs in the country be shut down five years ago. That included Afghan NGOs, who were doing some of the same work as the foreign ones. The government officials were responding to complaints from numerous old school Afghan tribal and religious leaders who were unhappy with all these foreigners, or urban Afghans with funny ideas, upsetting the ancient ways in the countryside.
NGOs are not military organizations, but they can fight back. They do this mainly through the media, because they also use favorable media coverage to propel their fund raising efforts. NGOs will also ask, or demand, that the UN or other foreign governments send in peacekeeping troops in to protect the NGOs from hostile locals. This had disastrous effects in Somalia during the early 1990s. Some NGOs remained, or came back, to Somalia after the peacekeepers left. These NGOs learned how to cope on their own, although with increasing difficulty. The NGOs hired local muscle for protection, as well as cutting deals with the local warlords. But eventually the local Islamic radicals became upset at the alien ideas these Western do-gooders brought with them, and began to chase the NGOs out.
Afghanistan and Iraq are two places where many local leaders thought it served their interests best if there were no NGOs at all (except maybe some Islamic ones.) Throughout the world, NGOs are finding that the world has changed. NGOs will never be the same after what's happened during the last decade.
There are few parts of the world that don't know about NGOs, who runs them and what these organizations do. NGOs are no longer seen as just charitable foreigners come to help. The local leadership often sees the NGOs as a potential threat. While the material aid the NGOs bring is appreciated, the different ideas are not. And there are more NGOs showing up with more agenda than physical aid. So NGOs have become more adept at dealing with local power brokers. But that turns them more into diplomats. NGO stands for Non-Governmental Organization. NGOs that get too heavily into diplomacy are no longer regarded as NG. This has always been a problem, but now it's getting worse as NGOs have become a worldwide presence. And the decade old UN policy of deliberately politicizing aid efforts has turned the aid workers from angels of mercy to political targets.
This move from delivering aid, to delivering (often unwelcome) ideas, has put all NGOs at risk. The NGOs have become players in a worldwide civil war between local traditional ideas, and the more transnational concepts that trigger violent reactions in many parts of the world.
Although the Afghan government sorted out its NGO disputes five years ago, new problems developed. This time around, the Afghan government is not happy with the fact that, of $38 billion provided by foreign nations for reconstruction, only 16 percent of it is under the control of the government.
There are two reasons for this. The primary problem is corruption. Money given to the government tends to get stolen. More than a third of it disappears into the pockets of government officials, their kin and friends. But letting the donors, and NGOs (Non-governmental organizations, like the Red Cross), handle the money also sees about the same portion lost. This is because these donations often come with requirements that much of the money be spent on goods and services from the donor nation. This particularly bothers the Afghans as it means a lot of highly (especially by Afghan standards) paid Western aid workers are supervising whatever is done in Afghanistan. The higher NGO pay standards are very visible because the Westerners tend to live much better than Afghans. The Westerners are also accused of not understanding the needs of Afghans, but the NGOs are also less prone to devote most of the programs to the tribes of senior government officials. The Afghans would like to gain control of all the aid money, or at least get more of it spent inside Afghanistan, but have not had much success.
All of this just adds to the growing hostility towards NGOs, and the violence it generates. No one has a solution that doesn't involve bribes or local mercenaries, and the problem just keeps getting worse.
Ethiopian PM Says No Ethiopian Forces in Somalia by Peter Heinlein / VOA
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has dismissed reports that Ethiopian troops are back in neighboring Somalia, nine months after they withdrew. At a news conference, Mr. Meles also lashed out at a new report that warns of the potential for violence ahead of next year's Ethiopian elections.
Prime Minister Meles flatly rejected recent news reports saying Ethiopia is staging military incursions into Somalia to support President Sheikh Sharif's Transitional Federal Government. Some analysts have suggested the Ethiopian army's return, less than a year after it ended an unpopular two-year adventure in Somalia, is turning public sentiment against the TFG.
Mr. Meles, himself former guerrilla leader, scoffed at the notion of an accurate public opinion poll in lawless, war-ravaged Somalia.
"There are no military incursions by Ethiopia in Somalia. As for...the supposed analysis of some experts that these military incursions are weakening the TFG because they weaken the support of the TFG, how do they know whether Sheikh Sharif has lost influence over the past two months. Have they been carrying out effective polls in Somalia?" he asked. "So I don't think this kind of analysis can be taken seriously."
In a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with reporters, the prime minister had harsh words for the authors of a new report that warns of the potential for ethnic violence ahead of next year's national elections. The report by the International Crisis Group describes Ethiopia as a de facto one-party state where the lack of political space "incites opposition groups to consider armed struggle as their only remaining option".
Mr. Meles called the report "contemptible".
"I do feel that the analysis in the paper was not worth the price of the cost of writing it up," he said.
Mr. Meles served notice his government would not tolerate outside interference, as the election nears. He pointed to recent "Color Revolution" in countries such as Ukraine and Georgia, describing them as coups backed by powerful foreign forces.
"Those who feel it is their God-given right how to tell others how to run their affairs are free to think so, but they should limit their practice of that idea to their own country," said Mr. Meles. "This type of financing of activities of so called Color Revolutions that are in substance nothing more than exalted coups, these we do not agree with, and we do not believe this is within the purview of partnerships between developed and developing countries."
On a positive note, Mr. Meles says he is satisfied with Ethiopia's relationship with the United States, even though the Obama administration has not appointed an ambassador to Addis Ababa and Ethiopia recently called home its ambassador to Washington.
"We have more old friends in the current administration than we had in the previous one," he said. "So, in terms of interpersonal dialogue, it's much smoother than it has been in many years. In terms of the fundamentals of that relationship, it's also solid."
Ethiopian diplomatic sources say Prime Minister Meles rejected the Obama administration's first choice as ambassador. A retired diplomat, Ambassador Roger Meece is currently serving as the interim Charge d'Affaires. An embassy official said there is no word on when a new envoy might be named.
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!)
and if you need lively stills or video material on Somalia, please do contact us.
There is no limit to what a person can do or how far one can go to help - if one doesn't mind who gets the credit !
ECOTERRA Intl. maintains a register for persons missing or abducted in the Somali seas (Foreign seafarers as well as Somalis). Inquiries by family member can be sent by e-mail to office[at]ecoterra-international.org
For families of presently captive seafarers - in order to advise and console their worries - ECOTERRA Intl. can establish contacts with professional seafarers, who had been abducted in Somalia, and their wives as well as of a Captain of a sea-jacked and released ship, who agreed to be addressed "with questions, and we will answer truthfully".
ECOTERRA - ALERTS and pending issues:
PIRATE ATTACK GULF OF ADEN: Advice on Who to Contact and What to Do http://www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2008-09-08-2
NATURAL RESOURCES & ARMED FISH POACHERS: Foreign navies entering the 200nm EEZ of Somalia and foreign helicopters and troops must respect the fact that especially all wildlife is protected by Somali national as well as by international laws and that the protection of the marine resources of Somalia from illegally fishing foreign vessels should be an integral part of the anti-piracy operations. Likewise the navies must adhere to international standards and not pollute the coastal waters with oil, ballast water or waste from their own ships but help Somalia to fight against any dumping of any waste (incl. diluted, toxic or nuclear waste). So far and though the AU as well as the UN has called since long on other nations to respect the 200 nm EEZ, only now the two countries (Spain and France) to which the most notorious vessels and fleets are linked have come up with a declaration that they will respect the 200 nm EEZ of Somalia but so far not any of the navies operating in the area pledged to stand against illegal fishing. So far not a single illegal fishing vessel has been detained by the naval forces, though they had been even informed about several actual cases, where an intervention would have been possible. Illegally operating Tuna fishing vessels (many from South Korea, some from Greece and China) carry now armed personnel and force their way into the Somali fishing grounds - uncontrolled or even protected by the naval forces mandated to guard the Somali waters against any criminal activity, which included arms carried by foreign fishing vessels in Somali waters.
LLWs / NLWs: According to recently leaked information the anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden are also used as a cover-up for the live testing of recently developed arsenals of so called non-lethal as well as sub-lethal weapons systems. (Pls request details) Neither the Navies nor the UN has come up with any code of conduct in this respect, while the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWP) is sponsoring several service-led acquisition programs, including the VLAD, Joint Integration Program, and Improved Flash Bang Grenade. Alredy in use in Somalia are so called Non-lethal optical distractors, which are visible laser devices that have reversible optical effects. These types of non-blinding laser devices use highly directional optical energy. Somalia is also a testing ground for the further developments of the Active Denial System (ADS) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). If new developments using millimeter wave sources that will help minimize the size, weight, and system cost of an effective Active Denial System which provides "ADS-ACTD-like" repel effects, are used has not yet been revealed. Obviously not only the US is developing and using these kind of weapons as the case of MV MARATHON showed, where a Spanish naval vessel was using optical lasers - the stand-off was then broken by the killing of one of the hostage seafarers. Local observers also claim that HEMI devices, producing Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation (HEMI) Bioeffects, have been used in the Gulf of Aden against Somalis. Exposure to HEMI devices, which can be understood as a stun-gun shot at an individual over a larger distance, causes muscle contractions that temporarily disable an individual. Research efforts are underway to develop a longer-duration of this effect than is currently available. The live tests are apparently done without that science understands yet the effects of HEMI electrical waveforms on a human body.
ECOTERRA Intl., whose work does focus on nature- and human-rights-protection and - as the last international environmental organization still working in Somalia - had alerted ship-owners since 1992, many of whom were fishing illegally in the 200 nm Exclusive Economic Zone, to stay away from Somali waters. The non-governmental organization had requested the international community many times for help to protect the coastal waters of the war-torn state, but now lawlessness has seriously increased and gone out of hand.
ECOTERRA members with marine and maritime expertise, joined by it's ECOP-marine group, are closely and continuously monitoring and advising on the Somali situation. (for previous information concerning the topics please google keywords ECOTERRA (and) SOMALIA)
The network of the SEAFARERS ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME helped significantly in most sea-jack cases. ECOTERRA Intl. is working in Somalia since 1986 on human-rights and nature protection, while ECOP-marine concentrates on illegal fishing and the protection of the marine ecosystems. Your support counts too.
Please consider to contribute to the work of SAP, ECOP-marine and ECOTERRA Intl. Please donate to the defence fund.
Contact us for details concerning project-sponsorship or donations via e-mail: ecotrust[at]ecoterra.net
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