Ecoterra Press Release 280 – The Somalia Chronicle June – December 2009, no 93
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
April 01, 2010
ECOTERRA Intl.
SMCM
Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor
ECOTERRA INTERNATIONAL - UPDATES & STATEMENTS, REVIEW & CLEARING-HOUSE
2009-10-01 * SUN * 23h59:48 UTC
Issue No. 280
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
The right to know the truth ought to be universal. Tom Paine warned that if the majority of the people were denied the truth and ideas of truth, it was time to storm what he called the "Bastille of words". That time is now."
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:
Norway kills two and injures four fishermen in blotched search at Somali coast
A Norwegian warship inspecting fishing boats in the middle of the night at the coast of Somalia for suspected pirate activity was caught in heavy gunfire in the early hours of Sunday, a European Union naval commander finally admitted Sunday night. Responding to many official requests the EU NAVFOR command, NATO and UKMTO Bahrain had pretended to not know anything during the whole course of the day.
Local Puntland region officials had reported already early on Sunday morning that a Yemeni and a Somali fisherman had been killed and four others were wounded when "French forces opened fire" at the north-eastern coast of Somalia.
The incident happened shortly after midnight Sunday (2200 GMT Saturday) when two military semi-rigged speedboats from a warship approached the small natural harbour of Olad, 20 km east of Alula at the Gulf of Aden.
There seven fishing boats were moored and clearly identifiable in in the bright moonlight.
After the Norwegians disarmed two Somalis guarding these small fishing boats against thieves and pirates, the soldiers destroyed the boats, which woke other people up. The moment the attack vessels then turned to a larger Yemeni dhow a gunfight ensued, which left one Yemeni and one Somali fisherman dead as well as three Yemenis and one Somali injured, eyewitnesses confirmed. Thereafter the commando boats disappeared into the night and back to the naval vessel, whose shadow could be seen off the coast.
The governor of Puntland´s Bari province, Muse Gele Farole, first said French forces were involved. "The French forces opened fire on fishermen on-board a fishing boat," the governor told AFP.
The chiefs of staff of the French armed forces denied any French involvement, while a spokesman for the EU´s anti-piracy force Atalanta told AFP none of its ships were involved. "No forces from the EU naval force were involved in any incident like this".
He said nothing had been reported "either from the French side or from the other nations involved in EU-NAVFOR".
But also Said Muse, the deputy commander of security forces in Alula, said by phone that the fishing vessels were attacked by two military speed boats. "The wounded told us they were French forces who carried out the attack, but we are not sure yet about the nationality of the attackers," he said.
"We have collected the wounded and the dead bodies this morning from the area and we are burying the body of the dead Somali now. The Yemenis took the dead sailor to their country hours ago," said Muse, speaking by phone from the town some 20km away from where the the incident took place.
The district commissioner of Alula Xareed Isse Omar confirmed the eye-witness records and stated to the BBC that all these fishing boats have licences and their owners are known. He explained that the fishermen always stay at the small harbour to protect themselves from pirates and that the Yemeni dhow belongs to a regular customer, who buys fish at the Somali coast.
No Information
Neither the Somali government nor their Anti-Piracy envoy, who serves as focal point for the navies, had been informed by any navy about the incident and his intensive search to reveal the truth was frustrated by all the official naval contacts from where he requested clarification.
"Norway has no permission to operate at the Somali coast," envoy Ismail Haji Noor stated, "and has not informed the Somali government, which is a prerequisite stipulated in the UN Security Council Resolutions 1846 and 1851".
Both resolutions meanwhile are disputed by experts in international law, because they are based on the consent of the Somali government, which apparently never was legally correct provided.
The Spin
It took the Norwegians and the naval commands more than the whole day in order to come out late at Sunday night with the following statements, reported by AFP:
The Norwegian sailors, cruising just off the north-eastern Somali coast, were fired upon in the dead of night by a dhow with between five and seven men on board and armed with heavy weaponry and Kalashnikov rifles, he added.
"These were not innocent fishermen, they were armed with heavy machine-guns and Kalashnikovs and were clearly up to no good," said John Harbour of the EU naval mission in the Gulf of Aden, Operation Atalanta.
A statement by EU NAVFOR had earlier said "shots were fired" at the HNOMS Fridjof Nansen, 12 nautical miles east of Caluula, known locally in English as Alula.
"The area is known by the naval forces for possible illegal activity including piracy," it added.
But Harbour, who said all naval personnel escaped unharmed, said the Norwegians were unaware of any casualties -- without excluding the possibility that their attackers had been hit in self-defence.
"I have been in touch with the ship concerned," he said. "The guys in the boarding party got a shock, because they had inspected three other dhows nearby, all anchored, and all of which cooperated.
"When they approached the fourth, they were fired upon -- and clearly became nervous.
"The boarding party returned fire in self-defence -- and retreated to 1,000 metres (yards), because their main job was to escort a World Food Programme aid ship which had to keep moving.
"You are talking about guys firing automatic weapons at you -- you retreat to try and de-escalate the situation.
"We are not aware of any deaths or injuries on the dhow -- they fired back to try and keep the heads of their attackers down.
"There was no indication that anybody had been hit -- but there was no opportunity to return and assess the damage."
While Norway is not part of the 27-nation EU, it is a longstanding member of NATO -- which collaborates with the Brussels-mandated mission among a host of international anti-piracy operations in the area also extending to unilateral action by the likes of China.
John Harbour, of the EU naval mission in the Gulf of Aden, Operation Atalanta, said the Norwegian sailors escaped unharmed.
But he added they returned fire in self-defence and he did not know if any of their attackers were injured.
An official investigation by the Somali government and the Yemeni government has been launched and a full post-incident report is expected from the Norwegians.
Latest:
7mio or 7 comrades, Somali pirates demand
Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million USD in ransom for a British sailing couple said Saturday that boats from other countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters while navies shoot and arrest innocent fishermen.
Somali Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke said in London that his government was attempting to make contact with the captors, to explain to them that the couple did not have that amount of money.
Ahmed Gadaf, who described himself as a spokesman for the coastal defenders, said Western fishing vessels "harass" local fishermen and destroy their nets - and the demand should be seen as compensation. Another spokesman for the pirates said the group holding the sailing couple are "voluntary guards" trying to protect the country's natural resources from Western forces.
Pirate fishing exploits vulnerable fisheries and uses methods that cause extensive, "collateral damage" to non-target species, including sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and endangered sea birds like the albatross.
Gadaf says the British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed. He, however, warned military powers in the area of the Somali coast and in the Indian Ocean not to attack or try to rescue the couple. Paul Chandler had confirmed in a phone interview that the two hostages were treated correctly.
The British government reiterated daily its refusal to ransom the pair. The British High Commissioner to Kenya, Rob Macaire, has insisted that the government will not pay a ransom to the Somali pirates holding a couple from Kent. Mr Macaire told the BBC: "Our main concern is to make them understand that what they are doing is entirely unjustified and that they should release the Chandlers immediately and unconditionally."
Meanwhile it has transpired from the group, which took the Chandlers further inland on the Somali coast, that the negotiation is also open to have the British couple released against the 7 Somalis, which were captured by the German navy operating under EU NAVFOR recently.
Abdi Yare, a spokesman for the hostage-takers, said also yesterday that the pirates had moved the couple. "They were taken to a village and they are fine so far," he said.
Local observers believe that reports leaked by a man, who identified himself as Ilka Gudud (red teeth) to the New York Times correspondent and claimed that the Chandlers had been taken to a small town called Buxdo, are false, but that they are held in a location under the control of the sub-clan of the hostage takers.
The seven arrestees and now potential exchange subjects were rounded up in a joint operation by the European Union Naval Force Somalia after they tried to seize a French fishing vessel 350 nautical miles east of Mogadishu last Tuesday.
Cmdr John Harbour of the EU naval force, said there was no precedent for captured pirates being swapped for hostages, but such a deal could not be ruled out.
The Foreign Office declined to discuss its plans, but repeated the fact that it would never make "substantive concessions to hostage-takers".
Regional analysts believe that such an exchange deal plus some little money would be a feasible option, but fear that the window for this opportunity and to get the couple quickly free is closing rather fast. The hostage takers have told the BBC they will accept 110,000 euros ($163,000).
Experiences from other sea-jacking cases show clearly that if such first possibilities are not responded to, the cases will drag on for months only to end with higher ransoms paid and hostages severely traumatized.
Paul Chandler, 59, a retired quantity surveyor and his economist wife Rachel, 55, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were captured on October 23 when armed men boarded their yacht, the S/Y LYNN RIVAL, near the archipelago of the Seychelles. in the Indian Ocean while en route towards Tanzania. While their distress signal was apparently ignored by the search and rescue centres, the hunt began after the plea "please ring Sarah" was left on Rachel´s internet blog, but not answered by the Chandlers. Sister-in-law Sarah Collett had devised the message and posted it but when it was ignored, she raised the alarm. Mrs Collett, of Dulwich, south-east London, said: "It was me who posted the message.
A weeping Rachel told her brother Stephen Collett over phone from their hideout: "Please don't worry about us, we're managing. I'm bearing up. Thank you for everything you're doing."
Efforts to secure the unharmed and immediate release of the hostages through the mediation of local elders also have continued.
Four other foreign hostages are held inland in Somalia: Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and photographer Nigel Brennan since nearly 15 month as well as Briton Murray Watson and Kenyan Patrick Amukhuma sind April 2008.
French tuna boat repels pirates (Sapa)
A French fishing boat repelled a Somali pirate hijack attempt by firing warning shots and fireworks at the attackers, the French military said on Sunday.
The FV AVEL VAD was sailing with another vessel in the area between the Somali coast and the Seychelles when it was attacked at 0730 GMT on Saturday.
A skiff from a pirate ship began approaching "with aggressive intent", the French military said.
Soldiers aboard the tuna boat fired fireworks and warning shots at the pirates, scaring them off. They have not been caught.
Saturday's incident was the second time in less than a week that a ship from the CMB company, based in the north-west French region of Brittany, has come under attack from pirates.
European Union warships arrested seven suspected pirates after an attack on the Cap Saint Vincent 350 nautical miles east of Mogadishu on Tuesday.
Since last year a flotilla of foreign warships has been patrolling the piracy-plagued Gulf of Aden, one of the globe's busiest maritime trade routes.
Pirates have since redeployed to the Indian Ocean, a much wider area very difficult for naval forces to patrol effectively.
Since the start of October, subsiding monsoon winds have allowed pirates with small skiffs to resume their operations in earnest after a lull that had seen the number of hijacked vessels drop to two.
Among their latest catches are a British couple seized from their yacht, an Indian cargo ship, a Spanish trawler with a crew of 36, a Singapore container ship with 21 crew members and a Chinese bulk carrier with a crew of 25.
Yemeni fishing boat seized off Somalia
A Somali militia seized overnight on Friday a Yemeni fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean after a gun battle, in which at least one Somali was killed.
"We have attacked a Yemeni fishing boat. It was fishing illegally near Eyl last night," commander Bashir told Reuters by phone from Eyl.
"They had weapons and fought us. They killed one of us and injured another , but we have captured it at last. It's in our hands now."
Since last year, an armada of foreign warships has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden in a bid to root out piracy in the notorious region, which is viewed as one of the busiest maritime trade routes on the globe, but not a single time the navies have assisted the Somali government to intercept weapons smugglers, illegally fishing vessels or toxic waste dumping .
News from sea-jackings, abductions, newly attacked ships as well as seafarers and vessels in distress
Pirates take tuna boat with 23 Russians aboard to Somali waters (RIA Novosti)
A Thai-flagged fishing vessel with 23 Russians on board that was captured by pirates has been taken to Somalia, a representative of the Singaporean owner said on Sunday.
"To our knowledge, the ship reached the coast of Somalia last night. The tuna boat has now stopped moving," Sayan Fishing spokesman Sergei Ivanov said.
The Thai Union 3 with 23 Russians, two Filipinos and two Ghanaians on board was hijacked by two pirate skiffs about 370 km (200 nautical miles) north of the Seychelles on Thursday. The captain had called for help, but a British Royal Navy frigate that was in the area was not able to reach the boat before the pirates took control.
Sayan Fishing said on Friday it was willing to negotiate with the pirates after the ship reached a Somali port, although Ivanov did not say if talks had already begun.
"I can only report that all crew members are alive and well. It would be premature to talk about anything else," the Kaliningrad-based official said.
It is expected that negotiations will begin on Monday. An International Transport Workers' Federation official said on Friday that the pirates had so far not demanded a ransom.
Investigators in the Kaliningrad Region, where all the Russians on board are from, have opened a criminal case for abduction by an organized group.
No Russians were hurt in the pirate attack on the Thai Union 3 ship, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Talks to free British couple threatened by media 'circus'
By Daniel Howden and Terri Judd
Publicity could derail efforts to negotiate with pirates, experts warn.
There was mounting concern among security experts last night that efforts to free two British hostages being held by Somali pirates were degenerating into a "circus".
Paul, 59, and Rachel Chandler, 55, who were seized on their yacht 10 days ago, are now believed to be held in the Somali interior after the faction holding them fell out with local members of the same clan.
"It's turned into a hideous circus," said Nick Davis, a security consultant who has negotiated with pirates in previous hostage crises. "The Government has got itself into a state where no one individual knows what to do. There is no one person responsible for talking to the group."
Mr Davis, a former pilot who runs the firm Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, said it was vital that the hostage-takers had one point-person to conduct negotiations with. [N.B.: The newly formed company jumped on the piracy-bandwagon and during one of their first assignments their guards jumped off a pirated merchant vessel, leaving the crew to their fate, which was later released unharmed.]
The pirates have demanded £4million to release the retired Tunbridge Wells couple but the British government has restated its policy of refusing to pay ransoms. Private negotiations were said last night to be underway and there were reports the pirates, if convinced the couple are not rich, would release them for £100,000.
Whitehall staff met on Friday at the Cobra emergency briefing room but the prospects of any rescue attempt similar to those launched by France and the US earlier this year have receded now that the hostages are being held inland. There is concern among diplomats in neighbouring Kenya that the public nature of the negotiations, in which the ransom demands have been made to media organisations, could prolong the crisis. In a phone call to the BBC's Somali Service on Friday night one of the pirates said: "If they do not harm us, we will not harm them – we only need a little amount of $7m."
One Nairobi diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said: "This cannot be settled peacefully or quickly in the public eye."
Security sources familiar with hostage negotiations said that the pirate group holding the Kent couple would be fielding as many as 50 phone calls a day and that it may be unclear to them who was actually empowered to negotiate on the Britons' behalf.
Yesterday there were also claims that some of the pirates were now considering asking for the release of seven pirates arrested by a German warship – part of the European Union Naval Force – last Tuesday when they attacked a French fishing vessel.
The last British citizen kidnapped by Somalis was newspaper correspondent Colin Freeman, who was captured in the semi-autonomous Puntland region further north late last year. The talks that led to his eventual release were handled privately and the details of any conditions remain undisclosed.
A German couple taken in similar circumstances to the Chandlers while sailing through the Gulf of Aden last year suffered a five-week ordeal before being released. Jurgen Kantner and his wife Sabine were held in a cave while the pirates negotiated by telephone with German officials. The couple, currently in Malaysia having returned to Somaliland to collect their yacht before sailing on in defiance of the pirates, believe a ransom approaching €1m (£895,000) was paid for their freedom. [N.B.: 0.6mio for the pirates and 0.4mio for the Puntland "governance"]
British Yacht Couple: No Deal Over Ransom by Mark Langford (SkyNews)
There will be no £4.2m ransom payment made to Somali pirates who have taken hostage Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler, the Government has said.
"The Government isn't going to make any substantive concessions to hostage-takers, and that includes the payment of ransom," a spokesman said.
The 59-year-old retired quantity surveyor and his economist wife Rachel, 55, were kidnapped while sailing in the Indian Ocean.
They had been taking their vessel, the Lynn Rival, from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.
Somali journalist Abukar Albadri told Sky News he spoken to one of the gang who had abducted the Chandlers who are now being held in a container ship believed to be moored off the Somali port of Harardhere, a pirate stronghold.
"They have been captured by our brothers, who patrol the coast. We have been informed about their presence in the area, where bandits operate," the pirate told him.
Pirates from the turbulent East African region often claim to be coastguards.
They also argue that boats from other countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters and the fishermen are being pushed into piracy to get income. However, fisheries expert Helene Bours, is sceptical of the argument.
"The extent to which the piracy business has developed is way beyond a few fishermen turning (into) pirates."
Sky News Gulf correspondent Ashish Joshi commented: "The pirates want money and the British government and the family of the Chandlers want them back so they will have to agree on something.
"This is a starting point for negotiations that could take weeks."
He added that piracy has become an industry in the "failed country" that is Somalia.
Basque tuna seiner 'Artza', attacked by pirates (eitb)
According to deia.com, the Basque tuna fishing boat managed to escape after being attacked and it is one of the first tuna fishing boats with private security.
Early in the morning of the 31th October, the Basque tuna seiner 'Artza' from Bermeo (Basque Country) was attacked by pirates in Indian Ocean, at around 250 miles off Somali coast.
The Basque tuna seiner noticed the presence of three small motorboats with pirates onboard, though finally the tuna boat managed to escape.
Artza' is one of the eight Basque tuna seiners under the flag of the Seychelles, have private security onboard. One of these ships is 'Demiku', which belongs to the company Echebastar, which also owns the 'Alakrana' the tuna boat from Bermeo that was hijacked recently by pirates.
With the latest captures and releases now still at least 9 (10 if one would count the abandoned yacht SY LYNN RIVAL) seized foreign vessels with a total of not less than 201 crew members are accounted for. 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 187 incidences (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 54 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least eleven wrongful attacks (incl. one friendly fire incident) on the side of the naval forces. According to an U.S. statement the naval alliances had since August 2008 and until September 2009 apprehended and released 343 suspected pirates, detained and transferred for prosecution 212 others and killed 11. (New independent update see: http://bruxelles2.over-blog.com/pages/_Bilan_antipiraterie_Atalanta_CTF_Otan_Russie_Exclusif-1169128.html).
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: ORANGE / IO: ORANGE (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, mariner or naval upsurge related reports
All at sea
One of the first rules of piracy is that before capturing a ship and demanding a ransom for the safe return of its crew, cargo, or both, it is wise to ascertain their value. For the first time since their nefarious activities so captivated the world´s attention, the pirates of Somalia appear to have broken that rule.
Having hijacked a modest little sailing boat on its way from the Seychelles to Tanzania, along with its two occupants – the Chandlers, a retired couple from the southeast of England – the pirates now say they require a ransom of $7 million. Their explanation for such a preposterous demand is, apparently, that "Nato operations had a lot of negative impact here".
Quite how Mr and Mrs Chandler can be held responsible for Nato operations off the coast of northeast Africa is unclear. What is clear is that no one is going to pay the ransom, and particularly not Nato. The pirates would be well advised to return the Chandlers to their boat and point it in the general direction of Tanzania. Another of the first rules of piracy is, quit while you´re ahead.
´Pakistan Navy has reinforced maritime security´
By Amar Guriro reporting about Maritime exercise Seaspark 2009
Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir said Thursday Pakistan Navy has tightened, as well as reinforced, the maritime security in its naval territories, following the Mumbai attacks. Talking to the media on PNS Nasr on the last day of the tactical (war at sea) phase, which is a part of ongoing six-week-long maritime exercise, Seaspark 2009, in North Arabian Sea, he suggested a joint maritime security agency comprising maritime security agency, ports and shipping and other agencies, while Pakistan Navy heads it.
The exercise, which started on October 21, included the employment of operational units of Pakistan Navy including ships, aircraft, submarines, Special Services Group and Pakistan Marines. A group of media persons were taken to PNS Nasr, which is located in North Arabian Sea, via Sea King helicopters so that they could witness Seaspark 2009.
According to ISPR officials, the main object of the exercise was to assess the operational readiness of Pakistan Navy and provide an opportunity to the officers and men to operate under multi-threat environment and exercise responses. The Seaspark 2009 maritime exercise was held in four phases, including the planning or standby phase, opening brief or mobilisation, the war that was divided into two parts, the precautionary (harbour) phase and tactical (war at sea) phase and the analysis, which would start on November 2. During the exercise on Thursday, the personnel demonstrated their expertise by landing from helicopters into ships to search them, while they also demonstrated how to search submarines.
"The North Arabian Sea is the most important waterway, which does not only hold importance for being Pakistan´s pathway of 97´s trade, but also for the world as most of trade is done via this channel," said Bashir, adding that besides having commercial importance, it is also important because it leads to the Arab countries, which have almost 97 percent of the world´s total oil reserves.
He said that Pakistan is the only non-NATO country that is a part of the Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150), which is a multinational coalition naval task force with logistics facilities established to monitor, inspect, board, and stop suspected shipping to pursue the War on Terrorism. Pakistan is also a part of the Horn of Africa region (HOA), including operations in the North Arabian Sea and also the part of Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151), the international naval task force against piracy on ships, off the coast of Somalia.
Answering a question, Bashir said that the Gwadar port must constructed as a commercial port where Pakistan Navy is a building base for naval operation. Talking about a ferry service, he said that until there is no demand for such a service, it would not be considered.
Ecosystems, marine environment, IUU fishing and dumping, UNCLOS, ecology
By Mohamed Olad Hassan (AP)
Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million in ransom for a British sailing couple said Saturday that boats from other countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters.
Ahmed Gadaf, who described himself as a spokesman for the pirates, said Western fishing vessels "harass" local fishermen and destroy their nets. Gadaf spoke to The Associated Press by satellite phone.
Gadaf says the British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed.
The British government on Saturday reiterated its refusal to ransom the pair, saying in a statement that officials would not make any "substantive concessions to hostage-takers, and that includes the payment of ransom."
The Chandlers were headed to Tanzania in their boat, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent Oct. 23. The British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday, and both have been in sporadic contact with the British media since.
Illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia stirs strong passions in the country. The country's prime minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, said in a speech Wednesday that many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters and have pushed formerly profitable Somali fishermen into the pirate trade.
He also said during Wednesday's appearance at London-based Chatham House think tank that many pirates are former fishermen "responding to the loss and disappearance of their livelihoods."
Helene Bours, an expert on fisheries in Africa who works as a consultant for non-governmental organizations in Africa and Europe, said she was skeptical that international overfishing in Somalia had a significant effect on the rise of piracy.
"The extent to which the piracy business has developed is way beyond a few fishermen turning (into) pirates," she said.
Bours said most international ships operated far from the Somali coast in order to bring in deep-sea fish, and would not be competing with smaller Somali fishing boats working closer to shore. She cautioned however, that the lack of reliable information from the chaotic country made any assessment unreliable.
N.B.: Unfortunately, Helene Bours never worked off Somalia or East Africa, because she would otherwise know about the hundreds of documented cases where foreign trawlers came so close to the shore that they even swooped the nets of the local fishermen. Even the ICRC, which donated many of these nets to Somalia, has this documented. Purse-seiners, long-liners and factory ships following the high-prized yellow-fin tuna to the Somali coast regularly are found inside the 200nm EEZ of Somalia. AP, AFP and the other media better listen to what Helene Bours had rightly to state on the general problem: "Five years ago governments agreed an International Plan of Action on pirate fishing - what's left to discuss? Governments need to stop talking and start acting. Closing ports, markets and prosecuting companies will rid the oceans of pirate fishermen - it is simply a matter of political will, not further debate."]
Sharmarke said he was aware of extensive foreign fishing off Somalia's coast.
"I shall not name names, but suffice to say many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters," he said. "We estimate that the value of the fish being taken from our waters is perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars."
Pirate attacks have increased the last several weeks after the recent end of the monsoon season. An international armada is patrolling the region to try to stop the attacks.
Multiyear Arctic ice vanishing
Experts say the multiyear ice covering the Arctic Ocean is melting at an extraordinarily fast rate, opening polar shipping routes.
Canada's Research Chair in Arctic System Science of Manitoba University, David Barbe said on Thursday that the ice sheet was vanishing altogether.
"We are almost out of multiyear sea ice in the northern hemisphere," he said in a Parliament presentation.
The little part that remains is jammed up against Canada's Arctic Archipelago, which is far from potential shipping routes, Reuters reported.
Barber who had gone on an expedition in search of a huge multiyear ice pack in the Beaufort Sea off the Canadian coastal town of Tuktoyaktuk, found instead hundreds of miles of thin layers of fresh ice or as he called "rotten ice".
"I've never seen anything like this in my 30 years of working in the high Arctic ... it was very dramatic," he said.
"From a practical perspective, if you want to ship across the pole, you're concerned about multiyear sea ice," he added.
"You're not concerned about this rotten stuff we were doing 13 knots through. It's easy to navigate through."
Many experts believe the North Pole will experience an ice-free summer by 2030.
"I would argue that, from a practical perspective, we almost have a seasonally ice-free Arctic now, because multiyear sea ice is the barrier to the use and development of the Arctic," said Barber.
The albedo feedback effect has caused the Arctic to warm up three times more quickly than the rest of the Earth.
"The Arctic is an early indicator of what we can expect at the global scale as we move through the next few decades ... So we should be paying attention to this very carefully," Barber said.
Anti-piracy measures -
Spain allows trawlers to use military-type arms against pirates (afp)
The Spanish government on Friday authorised private security firms, which protect Spanish trawlers from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean to use large-calibre weapons.
On-board security "for Spanish vessels in waters outside territorial waters and in particular danger, can be provided by agents from security companies using suitable weapons", Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said following a cabinet meeting.
She said the exact type of "military weapons" would be determined by the ministries of defence and the interior.
The move responds to concerns by trawler owners over risks posed to the vessels by the pirates in the Indian Ocean, who since October 2 have been holding a Spanish tuna trawler, the Alakrana, and its 36-member crew.
The captors are demanding $4 million ransom as well as the freeing of two suspected pirates being held in Spain.
Spain in April allowed Spanish-flagged vessels to employ private security guards to protect them against pirates off the coast of Somalia, who often use rocket launchers and grenades in their attacks.
Some Spanish trawlers have already employed private security guards but who are equipped with small-calibre weapons.
But the Spanish government has refused requests by trawler owners to allow soldiers to be placed on the vessels, as France does, because Spanish law does not permit the military to be used for protecting private property.
Help us fight piracy, Comoros asks Kenya (DN)
The Comoros has asked Kenya to help it fight pirates threatening its port business.
The Comorian Chief of Defence Staff, Brigadier-General Salimou Amir, said at the port of Mombasa on Wednesday that the island nation could not fight piracy on its own.
"We don´t have a big navy. That is why we are turning to big countries that have big navies such as Kenya and the Nordic countries," he said.
The Comoros is in the process of setting up a coast guard to monitor piracy in its waters.
"After Seychelles, we are aware that the pirates are coming and they are not far so we expect them to strike one of these days," Brig-Gen Amir said.
He said piracy off Somalia´s waters had adversely affected port business in the Comoros archipelago.
Brig-Gen Amir, the chairperson of chiefs of defence staff in Eastern Africa, was speaking during the loading of 23 trucks and other equipment on the mv Tor Futura destined for Djibouti where the region´s 14 countries will take part in military drills from November 21 to 26.
Some 298 Kenyan soldiers will take part.
Defence minister Yusuf Haji said the joint exercise in Djibouti was geared towards ensuring not only cooperation but military assistance to any of the 14-member states.
No real peace in sight yet
Peace talks vital, says Somali PM
By Robert Wright
The prime minister of Somalia's weak transitional government has admitted that negotiations with its Islamist enemies represent the only realistic prospect of ending more than two decades of civil war in the country.
However, Omar Sharmarke insisted during a Financial Times interview that large numbers of fighters were deserting from one of the two main groups fighting the government and that elements in both groups could be won over.
He also warned that, without more robust international support, Somalia risked becoming controlled by the militant group al-Qaeda.
Dozens killed in Somali fighting-rights group
By Abdi Guled and Ibrahim Mohamed (Reuters)
Battles in several southern, central Somali towns
Al Shabaab bans shaving
At least 36 people have been killed and scores wounded in three days of fighting in towns across chaotic southern and central Somalia, a local human rights group said on Sunday.
Government troops fought a rebel group in a central town, the two main insurgent forces battled each other in the south and police from the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region clashed with soldiers on their border.
In the breakaway northern enclave of Somaliland, a roadside bomb killed a senior army officer on Sunday and wounded one of his bodyguards, according to a government official.
In the capital Mogadishu, police said even some of the president's own bodyguards made off with an escort vehicle and took it to the main weapons market, which is run by insurgents.
"At least 36 people died and 175 others were injured in Mogadishu, Galkayo and in Bakool region in the last three days," said Ali Yasin Gedi, vice-chairman of Elman human rights group.
Somalia has been mired in chaos for nearly two decades and there is little sign the latest attempt to establish central government is proving any more successful than the 14 previous efforts since a dictator was ousted in 1991.
Western nations worry that the longer anarchy reigns in Somalia, the more entrenched hardline rebels accused of links to al Qaeda will become. They fear Somalia could then be used as a base to wreak havoc in the region and beyond.
The chaos on land has also allowed pirate gangs to operate with impunity, hijacking merchant ships, fishing vessels and yachts to demand hefty ransoms for their return.
Shaving Banned
Government officials and residents said eight people were killed and 16 wounded when government troops drove hardline Islamist insurgents Hizbul Islam out of the central town of Baladweyne on Friday.
Resident Fatuma Aden said the insurgents ran away after heavy exchanges of mortar shells and gunfire and that government forces were now at the airport.
In another incident on Friday, residents said fighting between Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab -- a rebel group that Washington says is linked to al Qaeda -- killed at least three people and wounded seven in the southern Bakool region.
"Fighting has stopped and al Shabaab control the town but still there is tension," local elder Malaq Muse told Reuters.
The country's two main insurgent groups had controlled much of southern and central Somalia in an uneasy alliance. But that was shattered by days of fighting between the rebels for control of the lucrative southern port Kismayu.
Al Shabaab, which wants to impose its own harsh version of sharia law throughout Somalia, has been cracking down on activities it deems to be against Islam such as sport and music.
In the southern town of Marka on Friday, al Shabaab warned men they would be punished for not wearing beards.
"Al Shabaab publicly ordered the barbers not to shave or trim people's beards," resident Sabriye said by phone from Marka. "They also ordered men not to shave beards -- or else face punishment."
Somali TFG army in bid to retake central Somali region of Hiiraan
By Hassan Osman Abdi (Mareeg)
Tension has risen in northeast of Beledweyn town in central Somalia, just after heavy fighting between the transitional government soldiers and fighters loyal to the Islamic administration of Hizbul Islam subsided, witnesses and officials said on Sunday.
Reports from the town say that there widespread anxiety in several villages in the north east of the Beledweyn town where both the Islamist fighters of Hizbul Islam and transitional government soldiers fought bitterly on Saturday and overnight on Sunday.
People in the region reported that they could see both the rival sides amassing troops and preparing again to fight, saying that they were very concerned about the possibility that fighting could resume around the town once again.
Several people were killed and others were wounded in the latest fight between Hizbul Islam and government soldiers near the town, but clear figures are difficult to confirm.
Beledweyn town is the regional capital of Hiiraan region in central Somalia and completely controlled by the fighters of the Islamic administration of Hizbul Islam since they took over the governing of the area.
Most of the clashes between both sides continued at Ugas Qalid international airport, Janta Kundishe and Burta Qawlet.
Contacts with some officials of Hizbul Islam in Beledweyn town reported that the TFG government soldiers attacked the town from several directions but were repulsed.
There is no comment from the government officials so far.
6 soldiers died in two explosions in LasAnod town
A remote control landmine explosion claimed the lives of 6 officials on Sunday at Lasanod town in Sool region of Northern Somalia.
The landmine was targeted at a Toyota 4WD in which officials from Sool region were driving.
"I was some meters away from where the blast occurred and the entire vicinity where the explosion occurred was engulfed with a huge cloud of black smoke, and instantly after it has subsided I witnessed 6 dead soldiers. The car they were driving in has turned black, it was really beyond recognition. There were some wounded ones also but they were evacuated from the spot before I reached" said Abdi Adan an eyewitness speaking to Somaliweyn radio. Some reports also say that there are 3 pedestrians who were also wounded in that blast.
Among the dead soldiers was Colonel Osman Yusuf "Afdilo", the infantry division commander of Sool region.
The quick reaction force of Sool region soon after the first blast reached the scene and cordoned the spot off.
Somaliland defense minister Saleban Warsame Guled says two remote-controlled bombs were used in the attack that killed Osman Yusuf.
After the first blast, Yusuf went to the attack site to investigate. Guled says a second explosion then went off, killing Yusuf.
Prominent clan elder killed in Galkayo (Mareeg)
Unknown gunmen have shot dead a famous clan elder in Galkayo, the regional capital of Mudug region in central Somalia, witnesses said on Sunday.
Residents say, Mohamed Ga´al , the deceased elder, was killed in the centre of the city by masked gunmen armed with pistols. The killers fled from the scene on foot when they have assassinated the elder.
Puntland security forces reached the area ,where the elder was killed and have reportedly arrested several suspects.
Some reports say the killers were captured by the police and were being investigated. It is not known the motive behind the killing of the clan chief yet.
Clan elder, Sheik Abdullahi Issack, was previously killed in Galkayo by unknown gunmen. The security of the town has been uncertain since the killing of Puntland Information Minister about three months ago.
Impacting reports, news and views from the global village
YEMEN: Record high of African arrivals (IRIN)
The past 10 months saw the highest number of Africans reaching Yemeni shores over figures for the same period in 2008 and 2007, when large numbers began travelling to Yemen by boat, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
More than 56,600 people arrived on 1,100 boats to Yemen from the Horn of Africa so far this year, already exceeding the total for all 2008, when 50,091 people crossed, Rocco Nuri, an external relations officer at UNHCR, told IRIN on 31 October.
"This is a stunning 40 percent increase in comparison with the same 10-month period last year when 40,540 boat-carried people arrived… [This year], 281 people drowned and another 152 have been missing and presumed dead after their boats capsized in the Gulf of Aden," Nuri said.
Santiago Perez, country representative for NGO the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), said there were several factors causing this growing influx of Africans to Yemen. "We´re detecting an increasing number of displaced people who say they are coming to Yemen fleeing climate disasters like drought, untimely and torrential rains, as well as conflict and poverty," he said.
He added that rapid population growth in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, was also "responsible for the phenomenon".
Because of this greater demand for the trip across the Gulf of Aden, smugglers have doubled their fees. "The money paid for smuggling by boat has jumped from US$50 to $100 per person these days," Ahmad Akam, a Yemeni coast guard official, said.
The total number of new arrivals by the end of this year is likely to hit 70,000 as sea conditions are becoming milder, according to Akam.
Response
UN agencies in Yemen and their implementing partners have developed contingency plans to provide assistance to 20,000 extra arrivals – on top of the 50,000 already planned for in 2009.
"UNHCR has improved the capacity and conditions of its reception centres in Mayfaa and Ahwar, on Yemen's southern coastline, and established a presence through its implementing partners in Bab al-Mandab on the Red Sea," Nuri said.
He added that in order to provide a dignified burial for those who do not survive the boat journey - due to rough sea conditions, drowning and mistreatment by smugglers – UNHCR had secured three cemetery plots in Hadhramout, Shabwa and Abyan governorates to bury bodies washed ashore.
A September report by UNHCR said there were 162,362 registered refugees in Yemen, 153,080 of whom were Somalis.
Kenya's Raila backs Kadhi courts under new law (DN)
Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday threw his weight behind the inclusion of Kadhis courts in the new constitution as a controversy with Christian groups rages.
Speaking at a fundraiser in aid of the Legio Maria Church at its headquarters in Got Kwer in Nyatike District, the PM warned that the issue could cause conflict if not handled cautiously.
"Those preaching against Kadhis courts could trigger conflict between Christians and Muslims," he said.
Secret pact
He said the Kadhis courts deal only with marriage and inheritance issues according to the Muslim faith and would not affect Christian principles. Mr Odinga´s declaration, however, is likely to rekindle accusations by church leaders in the run-up to the last General Election that he had signed a secret pact with the Muslims for their support.
Interdenominational Christians led by Assistant minister Bishop Margaret Wanjiru have been vocal in their opposition to the Kadhis courts, saying they should not be in the constitution in the first place. Claiming there is a plot to introduce sharia law in Kenya, the churches have threatened to reject the draft constitution if Kadhi courts are included. "The issue of the Kadhis courts should not be used to incite Christians," said the Prime Minister.
He said that some people were holding meetings to block the implementation of reforms. And in Nairobi, the National Muslim Civic Education Consortium (NMCEC) said the inclusion of the Kadhis courts in the constitution was not negotiable.
National coordinator Abdulahi Sirat said Muslims would not negotiate for anything less and their Christian counterparts had to climb down from their hard-line position and accept the Kadhi courts. "We have said that the matter of Kadhis courts is non-negotiable," he said.
Mr Sirat said individual clergy were attempting to sabotage constitutional reform while hiding under the cloak of religion. "Without the courts, there will be no new constitution," warned Mr Sirat.
Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) national chairman Prof Abdulghafur el-Busaidy also warned that Muslims would consider boycotting a referendum on the new constitution if their interests were not safeguarded. "The Muslim community will not condone this deliberate violation of its rights," said Prof el-Busaidy.
Supkem also called on the government to end constant harassment of Muslims in North Eastern Province on the pretext of fighting insecurity. The government, Prof el-Busaidy said, had suspended issuing identity cards in North Eastern allegedly for security reasons.
"To ban the issuing of identity cards to the entire province is a flagrant violation of citizens´ constitutional rights which Supkem condemns in the strongest possible terms," he said.
Terrorist group
The decision, he said, was a leaving the youths with no option but to either join the Somali army or the al-Shabaab terrorist group. Mr Odinga´s remarks came a day after he said contentious issues can be sorted out without resorting to a referendum.
His remarks also echo those of Chief Justice Evan Gicheru who last week said Kadhis courts should not be abolished. Mr Justice Gicheru, who said the courts played a vital role in the administration of justice, said the government had guaranteed their existence at all times and committed itself at the United Nations to honour the agreement protecting their establishment and existence.
Keep eye on northern Kenya, experts tell State
By Joe Kiarie and Kenfrey Kiberenge
Kenya could easily be walking the tragic path that led to the loss of millions of lives due to civil strife in Liberia, Somalia and Sierra Leone.
Conflict experts say the amassment of weapons in northern Kenya should be treated seriously.
International Centre for Policy and Conflict Executive Director Wainaina Ndung´u says armed groups in that region have already transformed into well-established militia groups that could pose grave danger to the country.
Mr Wainaina says if the scenarios in the northern Kenya replicates elswhere in the country, the situation could get worse.
"We are talking of neglected communities that have lost confidence in the ability of the State to offer them security and a decent livelihood.
Using their arms, they are now assured of security and what they are doing is trying to control their economy using the same arms," he notes.
Complex scenario
But he says the scenario will get more complex when the communities decide to control politics, with their arms stocks making them unassailable.
"In Sierra Leone and Liberia, it was also a situation where the state could not offer prerequisite services, law and order as well as governance. The people felt neglected. And to ensure their own survival, they had to get what they needed," Wainaina explains.
He says it was due to this factor that previously non-violent groups armed themselves and tried to expand their territorial control and even built their own economies.
"They later converged and made the situation uncontrollable since they were to some extent even stronger than government forces. This led to the bloody wars that were led by warlords such as Foday Sankoh — the leader of Sierra Leone´s RUF rebel group, who became infamous because of the brutality of his fighters," he says.
He notes the communities in northern Kenya already seem to have the power to overcome security forces, saying the Government has lost control over its territory.
"Even in the recent attacks in Isiolo, it is evident we are dealing with groups that can easily overcome the State security setup and anyone else who comes in their way," he asserts.
He says it should not be lost that even Somalia´s is due to many years of lawlessness.
And as was the case in Liberia, he says people with political interest could also take over armed groups in the country and use them at a national level.
Tackling threat
"These groups can be manipulated internally or externally and that is why the Government has to be serious. If no action is taken, the communities in northern Kenya could form clusters of deadly and politically exploitable militia groups," he warns.
Mr Phillip Ochieng of PeaceNet-Kenya concurs arms in the region could pose national danger once they overflow to areas that currently have none.
"The pastoral communities have never organised themselves against the central government. But if the arms spread to other politically volatile areas, this can result in civil strife," he notes.
Wainaina says the Government should tackle the marginalisation of northern Kenya head on, as the threat its residents pose is worse than the resource distribution issues it has so far failed to deal with.
He says the region should be given an equal share of national resources and treated as part of the Kenya, especially after the 2007 post-election violence.
"The moment you give violence a political face, you start courting trouble," he says.
He terms the various Government initiatives to mop up weapons as merely theoretical, saying Kenya has never had a systematic disarmament method.
Ethiopia: The Plights of Oromo and Somali Refugees in Yemen (HRLHA (*) Press Release)
The Horn of African League for Human Rights (HRLHA) Press Release No. 20 – October 2009
Where They Fled to As a Safe Haven Is Turning a Hell
Hundreds of Oromos and Somalis from Ethiopia and Somalia, who fled their respective countries due to political unrest, are currently facing very harsh situations, including forced labour and extrajudicial imprisonment in Yemen.
According to a HRLHA representative in San´a, Yemen, hundreds of Oromo and Somali refugees, who were apprehended at different times from different places in Yemen on various allegations, are currently being held in Jawazata prison in Yemen. The HRLHA representative, who managed to talk to imprisoned refugees themselves and take the list of some of those refugees, has learnt that the Oromo refugees, in particular, were arrested from around the UNHCR office in San´a, where they usually spent their day times in order to hear or see if there were any changes to their asylum cases. The allegation was that they protested to attempts of deportation by the Yemeni government, as their cases of asylum claims and resettlement in a third country were pending.
On the other hand, the Somali refugees were picked up from the battlefield in the area called Sa´ada, where the government was engaged in fighting with guerrilla forces, and where they were taken to by the government itself on a promise that they would be offered jobs. Upon arrival, the HRLHA representative documented, the Somali refugees were instructed to dig trenches that the government soldiers could use to defend themselves against the guerrilla forces. Although they were promised to be paid, the Somali refugees were not happy not only with that kind of job, but also with the payment. To make matters worse, the Somali refugees were unfortunately captured by the guerrilla fighters. Worse than that, the refugees were forced to carry guns and fight along with their captors against the Yemeni government.
The Somali refugees, who didn´t like what the guerrilla fighters were forcing them to do, secretly conspired against the guerrilla fighters and surrendered to the government army. But, things didn´t go the way the Somali refugees intended them to go. The Yemeni government, by misinterpreting their intentions and actions, announced to the refugees that they were war captives, and sent them to prison, according to the HRLHA representative in Yemen. There are also Somali refugees who have been imprisoned because they refused to accept the jobs in the battlefield, which in turn resulted in the imprisonment of their fellow Somali refugees.
The HRLHA representative in Yemen has also managed to obtain names of some of the imprisoned Oromo refugees; though he has not yet been successful in getting the names of the Somalis. Click here to view the list of names.
HRLHA strongly demands that the YemenI government investigate the situations of the wrongfully imprisoned refugees, and/or unconditionally release them from prison. We also demand that those refugees are provided with all rights and privileges that they are entitled to under international laws, covenants, treaties, etc, which HRLHA believes the Yemeni government has signed. We also call on all regional and international human rights organizations as well as national agencies in Yemen to join hands and pressurize the Yemeni government to release those refugees from prison and protect their refugee rights.
(*) HRLHA is a non-political organization which attempts to challenge abuses of human rights of the people of various nations and nationalities in the Horn of Africa. It is aimed at defending fundamental human rights, including freedoms of thought, expression, movement and association. It is also aimed at raising the awareness of individuals about their own basic human rights and that of others. It has intended to work on the observances as well as due processes of law. It promotes the growth and development of free and vigorous civil societies.
Somali group with al Qaeda ties threatens Israel
By Mohamed Amiin Adow for CNN
Al-Shabab accuses Israel of "starting to destroy" the Al Aqsa mosque
"We are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers," Al-Shabab commander says
It is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew its dictator
A militant Islamist group associated with al Qaeda has for the first time threatened to attack Israel, far from its normal base of operations in Somalia.
Al-Shabab, which is fighting to control the east African country, accused Israel of "starting to destroy" the Al Aqsa mosque, where standoffs have taken place recently between Israeli police and Palestinians. The mosque is part of the complex that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif.
"The Jews started to destroy parts of the holy mosque of Al Aqsa and they routinely kill our Palestinian brothers, so we are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers," said Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur, a prominent Al-Shabab commander.
His threat was part of a series of fiery sermons delivered after Friday prayers in Baidoa in southwest Somalia. Al-Shabab controls the region, which is part of a country that has been without an effective national government for nearly 20 years.
Other leaders of the group also threatened Israel, the first time the group is known to have done so.
"We will transfer and expand our fighting in the Middle East so we can defend Al Aqsa mosque from the Israelis," Al-Shabab commander Abdifatah Aweys Abu Hamza said in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
He is apparently the leader of a new Al-Shabab armed group calling themselves "Mujahedin Al Aqsa," or "Al Aqsa Holy Warriors," which they said is assigned to attack Israel.
It is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel.
But Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group warned that the group should be taken seriously.
"We should not underestimate the capacity of Al-Shabab," he said. "This is a deadly organization, a formidable foe."
Abdi said the group had been mutating from a nationalist group into a terrorist organization more like al Qaeda, which was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"If you look at the rhetoric and language and if you look at the Web sites, if you hear their preachers or their scholars speak, it is completely indistinguishable from al Qaeda leaders," Abdi said.
The group has also become more vicious in Somalia, a local human rights expert said.
"The most gruesome and gross violations of human rights are committed by Al-Shabab," activist Hassan Shire Sheikh said. "They have also instilled fear. They just shoot, they kill, they maim and they lash."
The group also threatened African neighbors on Friday, including Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Eritrea, Ghana, Sudan and Uganda. They have in the past threatened African nations that provide peacekeeping troops to the war-torn country.
The U.S. State Department Country Reports on Terrorism from April lists Al-Shabab as a terrorist organization and blames it for shootings and suicide bombings inside Somalia. It does not list the group as having carried out violence outside Somalia, but says some members of the group have trained and fought alongside al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and sparked brutal clan infighting.
The transitional government has struggled to establish authority, challenged by Islamist groups like Al-Shabab that have seized control of Mogadishu and much of the south.
Wahhabi terrorism helps West achieve goals' (PTV)
A top Iranian army commander says the West is using 'Wahhabi terrorism' to sow seeds of discord among Muslims around the world.
Chief-of-Staff of Iran's Joint Armed Forces, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, says Wahhabi terrorists are helping arrogant powers achieve their goals in the region.
"Today Wahhabi thought is paving the way to legitimize the presence of US and NATO forces [in the region] but the United States and NATO will be burnt in this plot," Mehr news agency quoted Firouzabadi as saying.
The Iranian commander's comment came two weeks after at least 41 people, including seven senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), were killed in a bombing during a unity gathering of Shia and Sunni tribal leaders in the town of Pishin on the Iran-Pakistan border.
The Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Spearheaded by Abdulmalek Rigi, Jundallah terrorists have staged a tidal wave of bombings and terrorist attacks in Iran, one of which left at least 25 Iranians dead in early June.
Abdulhamid Rigi, the apprehended brother of the Jundallah point man, told Press TV in a recent interview that Abdulmalek had held several "confidential" meetings with FBI and CIA agents in Karachi and Islamabad.
Firouzabadi went on to say that western plans for the region were behind the 'war, bloodshed and terror' in the Middle East.
"The aim of these brutal measures was to create discord among Muslim nations and prevent Muslim unity," he said.
During the past weeks, a series of terrorist attacks hit Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The deadly attacks, were carried out by al-Qaeda and Salafi terrorists, claimed the lives of hundreds of people in the Islamic states.
Only in Iraq, twin car bombings in Baghdad killed more than 160 people and injured over 700 others last week.
And in Pakistan, an explosive laden car ripped through the crowded market in Peshawar and killed more than 105 people.
Children and Armed Conflict: Protecting the Most Vulnerable
By Donald Steinberg (*)
The challenge of protecting the rights and well-being of children during conflict and ensuring attention to their educational, health, rehabilitation and nutritional needs in post-conflict periods is daunting. Too frequently, the absence of participation by advocates of youths and children during peace negotiations means that these concerns are given short shrift or, quite often, completely ignored.
We do so at our peril. Addressing these needs is not just a matter of fairness, equity or humanitarianism: it is key to building and maintaining lasting peace. Refusal to respect children's rights and to account for abuses committed against children during wartime can put a cynicism at the heart of attempts to restore rule of law and justice. Failure to show tangible improvements in the lives of children erodes the support of the general population and, in particular, powerful civil society groups for a peace process perceived as representing only the interests of the warring parties themselves. And rampant youth unemployment, resulting in mass alienation of young men in particular, is the surest way to produce a ready reserve of recruits for fanatical leaders like Foday Sankoh or Joseph Kony seeking to lure them into combat with a siren song.
Beyond the impact on peace and stability, there is indeed the human dimension of the tragedy when children and conflict collide. Go into any camp for demobilizing soldiers in the context of a peace process and you are sure to find large numbers of young people under the age of maturity, even where governments and rebels leaders tell you with straight faces that they did not use child soldiers. Many of these young people are used as bearers, cooks, messengers and sex slaves, but some of them were also involved in combat, carried AK-47s that are almost as big as they are, and took human lives.
Talk to these young people and you'll find that they are more frightened by the prospects of demobilization and civilian life than they ever were on the battlefield. They know that they possess no skills - including basic skills of social inter-action - needed to succeed in civilian life. They know that their homes are gone or that their families don't really want them back, fearing their impact I particular on younger family members. They will usually be given a little money, some seeds and tools, and maybe even some psycho-social counseling, but they lack the most important commodity: hope and faith in the future.
But it is not just child soldiers who need our attention: all children are the victims of large-scale armed conflict. They are victims when the government cannot or will not ensure adequate funding for schools and health clinics, resulting in very low school participation rates, high maternal and infant mortality rates, and other weak social indicators. They are displaced in huge numbers and live in camps that are desperate breeding grounds for alcohol and drug abuse, tuberculosis, cholera, and domestic and sexual abuse. They subsist on thin gruel provided by international relief agencies. They are victims of landmines frequently planted randomly in areas where children walk and play.
Their eyes have seen a lifetime of violence in the few short years of their lives. Visit psycho-social training programs for children, where the act of painting is used as a means of allowing children to express their emotional traumas. The counselors will tell you that the pictures were so filled with blood, the organizers kept running out of red paint. It's as if an entire generation is enduring post-traumatic stress disorder.
Over the last decade, we have seen a number of normative and systemic improvements in our capacity to address these issues. At the UN, for example, the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1612 was a vital step. That resolution created the framework for serious efforts to address the effects of conflict on children, including creation of a permanent Security Council working group, consolidation of the office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, identification of six key issues to be addressed and monitored, setting up mechanisms for bringing problem countries to the attention of the Security Council through a "naming and shaming" exercise, and providing for sanctions against countries and non-state actors who are abusing children in the context of armed conflict. These measures have given a powerful tool to Dr. Coomaraswamy and her colleagues at UNICEF and elsewhere within the UN system with which to attack these difficult problems. And they have done so with talent, imagination, and tireless resolve.
In our deliberations over the next two days, we should consider a number of difficult questions. These include:
How can we ensure that programs that stress the needs of child soldiers do not create the impression among the broader population that we are prioritizing their requirements above those of the masses of other children who have suffered equally?
What techniques can be adopted to ensure that the voices of children's advocates and, equally important, children themselves are heard when devising programs for their benefit, using the concept of "nothing about us without us?"
How can we ensure adequate resources for children's needs, especially in post-conflict periods, in light of reduced aid budgets and government resources resulting from the global financial crisis?
How can we provide special attention to girls and young women, including reproductive health care and girls' education - which is now understood to be the single best investment in improving socio-economic indicators in post-conflict societies?
How do we promote local ownership of these programs so that they are sustainable when international support declines?
In addressing these and other questions, it is vital that we constantly think about what will have an impact on the ground in terms of protection and participation of children. Girls must be free to attend schools without risking social alienation or, worse, acid being thrown in their faces. Young boys and girls kidnapped or coerced into joining armed forces must be freed to live the rest of their lives without the stigma or trauma of those early years shadowing their futures. All children must be able to view the ground as a place to run and play, not as a source of every-present danger from the presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance.
If we won't take the leaderhsip in the struggle to protect the most vulnerable of our world from violence, who will?
(*) Speech by Donald Steinberg, Deputy President of the International Crisis Group, to the UNICEF Program on Rehabilitation and Reintegration of War-Affected Children, Brussels, 22 October 2009
Noam Chomsky: no change in US 'Mafia principle'
It is wise to attend to deeds, not rhetoric'
Top American intellectual sees no significant change of US foreign policy under Obama.
By Mamoon Alabbasi
As civilised people across the world breathed a sigh of relief to see the back of former US president George W. Bush, top American intellectual Noam Chomsky warned against assuming or expecting significant changes in the basis of Washington's foreign policy under President Barack Obama.
During two lectures organised by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, Chomsky cited numerous examples of the driving doctrines behind US foreign policy since the end of World War II.
"As Obama came into office, Condoleezza Rice predicted that he would follow the policies of Bush's second term, and that is pretty much what happened, apart from a different rhetorical style," said
"But it is wise to attend to deeds, not rhetoric. Deeds commonly tell a different story," he added.
"There is basically no significant change in the fundamental traditional conception that we if can control Middle East energy resources, then we can control the world," explained Chomsky.
Chomsky said that a leading doctrine of US foreign policy during the period of its global dominance is what he termed as "the Mafia principle."
"The Godfather does not tolerate 'successful defiance'. It is too dangerous. It must therefore be stamped out so that others understand that disobedience is not an option," said Chomsky.
Because the US sees "successful defiance" of Washington as a "virus" that will "spread contagion," he explained.
Iran
The US had feared this "virus" of independent thought from Washington by Tehran and therefore acted to overthrow the Iranian parliamentary democracy in 1953.
"The goal in 1953 was to retain control of Iranian resources," said Chomsky.
However, "in 1979 the (Iranian) virus emerged again. The US at first sought to sponsor a military coup; when that failed, it turned to support Saddam Hussein's merciless invasion (of Iran)."
"The torture of Iran continued without a break and still does, with sanctions and other means," said Chomsky.
"The US continued, without a break, its torture of Iranians," he stressed.
Nuclear attack
Chomsky mocked the idea presented by mainstream media that a future-nuclear-armed Iran may attack already-nuclear-armed Israel.
"The chance of Iran launching a missile attack, nuclear or not, is about at the level of an asteroid hitting the earth -- unless, of course, the ruling clerics have a fanatic death wish and want to see Iran instantly incinerated along with them," said Chomsky, stressing that this is not the case.
Chomsky further explained that the presence of US anti-missile weapons in Israel are really meant for preparing a possible attack on Iran, and not for self-defence, as it is often presented.
"The systems are advertised as defense against an Iranian attack. But ...the purpose of the US interception systems, if they ever work, is to prevent any retaliation to a US or Israeli attack on Iran -- that is, to eliminate any Iranian deterrent," said Chomsky.
Iraq
Chomsky reminded the audience of America's backing of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during and even after Iraq's war with Iran.
"The Reaganite love affair with Saddam did not end after the (Iran-Iraq) war. In 1989, Iraqi nuclear engineers were invited to the United States, then under Gorge Bush I, to receive advanced weapons' training," said Chomsky.
This support continued while Saddam was committing atrocities against his own people, until he fell out of US favour when in 1990 he invaded Kuwait, an even closer alley of Washington.
"In 1990, Saddam defied, or more likely misunderstood orders, and he quickly shifted from favourite friend to the reincarnation of Hitler," Chomsky added.
Then the people of Iraq were subjected to "genocidal" US-backed sanctions.
Chomsky explained that although the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was launched under many false pretexts and lies, was a " major crime", many critics of the invasion - including Obama - viewed it as merely as "a mistake" or a "strategic blunder".
"It's probably what the German general staff was telling Hitler after Stalingrad," he said.
"There's nothing principled about it. It wasn't a strategic blunder: it was a major crime," he added.
Chomsky credited the holding of elections in Iraq in 2005 to popular Iraqi demand, despite initial US objection.
The US military, he argued, could kill as many Iraqi insurgents as it wished, but it was more difficult to shoot at non-violent protesters in the streets out on the open, which meant Washington at times had to give in to public Iraqi pressure.
But despite being pressured to announce a withdrawal from Iraq, the US continues to seek a long term presence in the country.
The US mega-embassy in Baghdad is to be expanded under Obama, noted Chomsky.
Optimism
Chomsky stressed that public pressure in the 'West' can make a positive difference for people suffering from the aggression of 'Western' governments.
"There is a lot of comparison between opposition to the Iraq war with opposition to the Vietnam war, but people tend to forget that at first there was almost no opposition to the Vietnam war," said Chomsky.
"In the Iraq war, there were massive international protests before it officially stated... and it had an effect. The United Sates could not use the tactics used in Vietnam: there was no saturation bombing by B52s, so there was no chemical warfare - (the Iraq war was) horrible enough, but it could have been a lot worse," he said.
"And furthermore, the Bush administration had to back down on its war aims, step by step," he added.
"It had to allow elections, which it did not want to do: mainly a victory for non-Iraqi protests. They could kill insurgents; they couldn't deal hundreds of thousands of people in the streets. Their hands were tied by the domestic constraints. They finally had to abandon - officially at least - virtually all the war aims," said Chomsky.
"As late as November 2007, the US was still insisting that the 'Status of Forces Agreement' allow for an indefinite US military presence and privileged access to Iraq's resources by US investors - well they didn't get that on paper at least. They had to back down. OK, Iraq is a horror story but it could have been a lot worse," he said
"So yes, protests can do something. When there is no protest and no attention, a power just goes wild, just like in Cambodia and northern Louse," he added.
Turkey
Chomsky said that Turkey could become a "significant independent actor" in the region, if it chooses to.
"Turkey has to make some internal decisions: is it going to face west and try to get accepted by the European Union or is it going to face reality and recognise that Europeans are so racist that they are never going to allow it in?," said Chomsky.
The Europeans "keep raising the barrier on Turkish entry to the EU," he explained.
But Chomsky said Turkey did become an independent actor in March 2003 when it followed its public opinion and did not take part in the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Turkey took notice of the wishes of the overwhelming majority of its population, which opposed the invasion.
But 'New Europe' was led by Berlusconi of Italy and Aznar of Spain, who rejected the views of their populations - which strongly objected to the Iraq war - and preferred to follow Bush, noted Chomsky.
So, in that sense Turkey was more democratic than states that took part in the war, which in turn infuriated the US.
Today, Chomsky added, Turkey is also acting independently by refusing to take part in the US-Israeli military exercises.
Fear factor
Chomsky explained that although 'Western' government use "the maxim of Thucydides" ('the strong do as they wish, and the weak suffer as they must'), their peoples are hurled via the "fear factor".
Via cooperate media and complicit intellectuals, the public is led to believe that all the crimes and atrocities committed by their governments is either "self defence" or "humanitarian intervention".
NATO
Chomsky noted that Obama has escalated Bush's war in Afghanistan, using NATO.
NATO is also seen as reinforcing US control over energy supplies.
But the US also used NATO to keep Europe under control.
"From the earliest post-World War days, it was understood that Western Europe might choose to follow an independent course," said Chomsky."NATO was partially intended to counter this serious threat," he added.
Middle East oil
Chomsky explained that Middle East oil reserves were understood to be "a stupendous source of strategic power" and "one of the greatest material prizes in world history," the most "strategically important area in the world," in Eisenhower's words.
Control of Middle East oil would provide the United States with "substantial control of the world."
This meant that the US "must support harsh and brutal regimes and block democracy and development" in the Middle East.
Somalia
Chomsky tackled the origins of the Somali piracy issue.
"Piracy is not nice, but where did it come from?"
Chomsky explained that one of the immediate reasons for piracy is European counties and others are simply "destroying Somalia's territorial waters by dumping toxic waste - probably nuclear waste - and also by overfishing."
"What happens to the fishermen in Somalia? They become pirates. And then we're all upset about the piracy, not about having created the situation," said Chomsky.
Chomsky went on to cite another example of harming Somalia.
"One of the great achievements of the war on terror, which was greatly hailed in the press when it was announced, was closing down an Islamic charity - Barakat - which was identified as supporting terrorists.
"A couple of months later... the (US) government quietly recognised that they were wrong, and the press may have had a couple of lines about it - but meanwhile, it was a major blow against Somalia. Somalia doesn't have much of an economy but a lot of it was supported by this charity: not just giving money but running banks and businesses, and so on.
"It was a significant part of the economy of Somalia...closing it down... was another contributing factor to the breaking down of a very weak society...and there are other examples."
Darfur
Chomsky also touched on Sudan's Darfur region.
"There are terrible things going on in Darfur, but in comparison with the region they don't amount to a lot unfortunately - like what's going on in eastern Congo is incomparably worse than in Darfur.
"But Darfur is a very popular topic for Western humanists because you can blame it on an enemy - you have to distort a lot but you can blame it on 'Arabs', 'bad guys'," he explained.
"What about saving eastern Cong where maybe 20 times as many people have been killed? Well, that gets kind of tricky ... for people who... are using minerals from eastern Congo that obtained by multinationals sponsoring militias which slaughter and kill and get the minerals," he said.
Or the fact that Rwanda is simply the worst of the many agents and it is a US alley, he added.
Goldstone's Gaza report
Chomsky appeared to have agreed with Israel that the Goldstone report on the Gaza war was bias, only he saw it as biased in favour of Israel.
The Goldstone report had acknowledged Israel's right to self-defence, although it denounced the method this was conducted.
Chomsky stressed that the right to self-defence does not mean resorting to military force before "exhausting peaceful means", something Israel did not even contemplate doing.
In fact, Chomsky points out, it was Israel who broke the ceasefire with Hamas and refused to extend it, as continuing the siege of Gaza itself is an act of war.
As for the current stalled Mideast peace process, Chomsky said that despite adopting a tougher tone towards Israel than that of Bush, Obama made no real effort to pressure Israel to live up to its obligations.
In the absence of the threat of cutting US aid for Israel, there is no compelling reason why Tel Aviv should listen to Washington.
What can be done?
Chomsky stressed that despite all the obstacles, public pressure can and does make a difference for the better, urging people to continue activism and spreading knowledge.
"There is no reason to be pessimistic, just realistic."
Chomsky noted that public opinion in the US and Britain is increasingly becoming more aware of the crimes committed by Israel.
"Public opinion is shifting substantially."
And this is where a difference can be made, because Israel will not change its policies without pressure from the 'West'.
"There is a lot to do in Western countries...primarily in the US."
Chomsky also stressed the importance of taking legal action in 'Western' countries against companies breaking international law via illegitimate dealings with Israel, citing the possible involvement of British Gas in Israeli theft of natural gas off the coast of Gaza, as one example that should be investigated.
In conclusion of one of the lectures, Chomsky quoted Antonio Gramsci who famously called for "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will."
South Sudan leader urges split (BBC)
Southern Sudan leader Salva Kiir has made his strongest call for full independence when the region's status is decided at a referendum due in 2011.
He said voting for unity with northern Sudan would make southerners "second class citizens" in their own land.
A referendum in the now semi-autonomous oil-rich south was part of the 2005 deal that ended decades of civil war.
A BBC correspondent in Sudan says Mr Kiir's comments are likely to add to tensions between the north and south.
Previously officials have been careful in public to at least promote the unity between north and south, as the peace deal stipulates, says the BBC's Peter Martell in the South Sudan capital Juba.
Respecting choice'.
Salva Kiir was speaking at a special church service to pray for peace, timed to mark the start of voter registration for multi-party elections due in April 2010 and the January 2011 referendum.
"When you reach your ballot boxes the choice is yours. You want to vote for unity, so that you become a second-class (citizen) in your own country, that is your choice," he told the congregation at St Teresa's Catholic Cathedral in Juba. "You would want to vote for independence, so that you are a free person, in your independent state, that will be your own choice. And we will respect the choice of the people."
In October, South Sudan said it had achieved a breakthrough in talks with the north over terms for the referendum.
Vice-President Riek Machar said the vote would require a simple majority as long as two-thirds of those eligible took part.
In the past, the Khartoum government had insisted that 75% of voters must agree to independence.
Mr Machar said all southerners would be allowed to vote, including those in Khartoum and those outside Sudan.
Blackwater behind Peshawar blast' (PTV)
Pakistan's pro-Taliban militants blame private US security firm Blackwater for a Wednesday bomb blast in Peshawar which killed over 100 people.
Hakimullah Mehsud, head of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, said Blackwater and some Pakistani agencies were involved in the bomb explosion at a crowded market in Peshawar.
According to the latest reports, the death toll has mounted to 106 with over 150 injured while rescue workers say that more people could still be buried under the debris. Most of the dead were women and children.
Pakistan army says since the militants are facing defeat in the South Waziristan tribal region, they are now targeting the people.
Mehsud has rejected the claim, saying the US security firm Blackwater, in collaboration with some local agencies, were involved in the attack.
On Sunday, about 200 supporters of the Tehrik-e-Taliban party held an anti-US demonstration in Dera Ismail Khan, denouncing Blackwater and chanting anti-US slogans.
The provincial chief of the Jamat-e-Islami party, Saraj-ul-Haq, said that the Pakistani operation against militants, which is being conducted 'with the consent of America', should be stopped as it only fulfills the aims of the enemy.
"Now this is sure, that all the blasts, either carried out on Faisal Mosque or Khyber Bazaar, are carried out by Blackwater," he said.
About 28,000 soldiers are battling an estimated 10,000 pro-Taliban militants, including about 1,000 tough Uzbek fighters and some Arab al-Qaeda-linked members.
Analysts have warned of the possibility of more violence as the militants come under pressure in South Waziristan.
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 under way 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.
WARBOTS, UAVs etc.: Peter Singer says: "By cutting the already tenuous link between the public and its nation´s foreign policy, pain-free war would pervert the whole idea of the democratic process and citizenship as they relate to war. When a citizenry has no sense of sacrifice or even the prospect of sacrifice, the decision to go to war becomes just like any other policy decision, weighed by the same calculus used to determine whether to raise bridge tolls. Instead of widespread engagement and debate over the most important decision a government can make, you get popular indifference. When technology turns war into something merely to be watched, and not weighed with great seriousness, the checks and balances that undergird democracy go by the wayside. This could well mean the end of any idea of democratic peace that supposedly sets our foreign-policy decision making apart. Such wars without costs could even undermine the morality of "good" wars. When a nation decides to go to war, it is not just deciding to break stuff in some foreign land. As one philosopher put it, the very decision is "a reflection of the moral character of the community who decides." Without public debate and support and without risking troops, the decision to go to war becomes the act of a nation that doesn´t give a damn."
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 since 1972 established 200 nm territorial waters of Somalia and today's 200nm Exclusive Economic Zone (UNCLOS) of Somalia, 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 from all exploiters, but now lawlessness has seriously increased and gone out of hand - even with the navies.
ECOTERRA members with marine and maritime expertise, joined by it's ECOP-marine group, are closely and continuously monitoring and advising on the Somali situation. (for previous information concerning the topics please google keywords ECOTERRA (and) SOMALIA)
The network of the SEAFARERS ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME helped significantly in most sea-jack cases. ECOTERRA Intl. is working in Somalia since 1986 on human-rights and nature protection, while ECOP-marine concentrates on illegal fishing and the protection of the marine ecosystems. Your support counts too.
Please consider to contribute to the work of SAP, ECOP-marine and ECOTERRA Intl. Please donate to the defence fund.
Contact us for details concerning project-sponsorship or donations via e-mail: ecotrust[at]ecoterra.net
Kindly note that all the information above is distributed under and is subject to a license under the Creative Commons Attribution. ECOTERRA, however, reserves the right to editorial changes. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/. The opinion of individual authors, whose writings are provided here for strictly educational and informational purposes, does not necessarily reflect the views held by ECOTERRA Intl. unless endorsed. With each issue of the SMCM ECOTERRA Intl. tries to paint a timely picture containing the actual facts and often differing opinions of people from all walks of live concerning issues, which do have an impact on the Somali people, Somalia as a nation, the region and in many cases even the world.
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