Saturday, January 30, 2010

Snuff out militant Islam's lethal spark - kill bin Laden

The situation for these people may become dramatic," Giorgio Bertin, an African Catholic bishop, warned a few days ago.


Who holds the lion's share of blame for this? The easy answer is Somalia's al-Shabab militia, the Islamic extremist group. But look deeper, and a large share of blame falls on Osama bin Laden and President George W. Bush.

How's that? Think back to the days before the Sept. 11 attacks. Osama bin Laden was brewing trouble. Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. guided missile destroyer Cole, Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, among other sites. Bin Laden was the face of Islamic terrorism. There were few imitators; al Qaeda had the field largely to itself. In 1998, the United States offered $5 million for bin Laden's capture - the highest bounty Washington had ever offered.

Then came Sept 11, 2001, and bin Laden became the world's most prominent villain. "I want justice," Bush declared on Sept. 18. "There's an old poster out West that said, 'Wanted, dead or alive.' "

The rest of the history is well known. Bin Laden had ordered the most serious attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor. The United States attacked Afghanistan, bin Laden slipped over the border to Pakistan, and two years later Bush more or less dropped his interest, transferring his attention and troops to Iraq . Today, bin Laden still resides in western Pakistan - and serves as an inspirational symbol for Islamic militants worldwide.

In Vietnam, the United States could not defeat a determined enemy that had tens of thousands of troops and regional allies that supplied it with sanctuaries and unlimited weaponry. This time, one miscreant attacked the world's only superpower, permanently altered the nation's domestic and foreign policies - and got away with it. Is it any wonder that Islamic terrorists inspired by him have sprouted like mushrooms in the forest after a summer shower?

The al-Shabab militia in Somalia is one of the vilest of these new sects. Its fighters are kidnapping and killing aid workers whose only mission is to care for the nation's poor. It is imposing the most virulent form of Islamic law. The prototypical example of that last year: Al-Shabab adherents stoned a 13-year-old girl to death as penalty for telling police that she had been raped.

Well, on Sept. 10, 2001, al-Shabab didn't exist.

On Sept. 10, 2001, Europeans were not particularly worried about Muslim immigrants. "Western Europe today has a Muslim population of 10 (million) to 12 million," the journal Middle East Policy wrote in June 2001. "In a democratic Europe, an anti-Muslim pogrom seems quite unlikely." What's under way today is not a pogrom. But it's close.

On Sept. 10, 2001, Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant Islamic group in Indonesia, was writing letters to the editor to make its points. The next year it began blowing up hotels.

Today, bin Laden must wake up every morning with a smile on his face for all he has inspired. Sitting there in Pakistan, this man mocks us. He does not need to plan new attacks, only issue a new tape every once in a while, as he did last Sunday, lauding the attempted bombing of a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day. But it doesn't really matter what he says. The point of these tapes is to show: I am still alive. The United States is powerless against us!

Right now, the most effective thing the United States could do to turn the tide in the so-called war on terror is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the terrorists' shining symbol. We know where he is, more or less - in North Waziristan. Pakistan refuses to go after him. Last week, the Pakistani military told U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that it would not attack North Waziristan "for six to 12 months." Read that: never.

Now the United States and NATO need to do the job, as President Obama has warned. Pakistan won't like it. But nine years of working with them, at a cost of more than $14 billion, has produced few if any useful results. I'm not talking about an invasion. Infiltrate the region with special-operations forces, as the Bush administration did in 2008. Pakistanis screamed in protest.

Let them scream. Over almost a decade, we have given Pakistan every chance to do the job. Now it's time to do it ourselves.

Source:sfgate.com/

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Al-Shabab Attacks Peacekeeping Hospital in Somalia

An explosion near a base for the African Union peacekeeping force near the Mogadishu airport has left at least five people killed, including one soldier Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for an attack on a hospital run by the African Union peacekeeping force. The explosion occurred near the peacekeeping base, killing at least five, including one soldier.

Sheikh Ali Muhamud Rage, the spokesperson for al-Shabab, says that the rebel group successfully attacked the base of the African Union peacekeeping mission, known as AMISOM.

He claimed that the overnight bombing near the Mogadishu airport was in response to the deaths of innocent civilians caused by the AMISOM forces.

An AMISOM official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, told VOA that three Somali patients and one Ugandan peacekeeper were killed in the blast. He added that eight were injured, half civilians and half soldiers.

Reports conflict as to whether the attack was executed through a suicide bomber or a mortar blast, and some place the casualty figure as high as seven dead.

AMISOM spokesperson Major Barigye Bahuko says that the detonation took place within the outpatient department of the hospital.

"It was not even an explosion; it was just a small blast," Bahuko said. "A blast that occurred where the Somalis were congregating waiting for treatment ended up by killing very many Somalis unfortunately."

Al-Shabab, a group thought to have links to al-Qaida, is waging an intense insurgency against the Western-backed Mogadishu government, propped up by the AU peacekeeping mission staffed with Ugandan and Burundian forces.

The rebels fight under an ultra-conservative Islamic ideology, imposing Sharia law under the territory they control and referring to their enemies as infidels. They now control most of southern and some of central Somalia, including much of Mogadishu.

The attempted Christmas-day attack on a U.S. airliner has increased the international attention given to the Horn of African Islamists. The Nigerian attacker was trained in nearby Yemen, and though no proven link exists between the two countries' respective Islamist rebellions, analysts are now expressing concern that the region could become the new front in the global fight against militant radical Islam.

In September al-Shabab claimed responsibility for twin suicide blasts within the AMISOM base disrupted a high-profile meeting between top peacekeeping brass and Somali government officials. The attack killed at least 17 people, including the top Burundian general stationed in the country.

Source:voanews.com/

Somalia: Five killed in fighting in central town

BELEDWEYNE (Mareeg) –At least five people have been killed and seven others have been injured in fierce fighting between rival Islamist groups in Beldedweyne town in central Somalia, witnesses said on Tuesday.

Three children are among those who were wounded in the clashes between Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab of one side and Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a.
The fighting started on Monday evening in Elgal village about 15 km north of the town but it escalated in the town early on Tuesday.

Combatants from the warring sides ware also included those who died on Tuesday’s fighting. A mortar injured the children after it landed on their house.

Residents say the fighting has died down, but the situation in the town was still tense as the rival groups were regrouping.

The fighting enters the fourth day and more civilians have fled from the town in fear for their lives.

Source:mareeg.com/

PM defends crackdown on illegal immigrants

Prime Minister Raila Odinga Tuesday assured members of the Somali community in Kenya that the government is not targeting them in the current crackdown on illegal immigrants.

He also assured them that all those engaged in legitimate businesses will be protected by the law and should be free to lodge complaints whenever they feel their interests as citizens or legal immigrants are being threatened.

At the same time, the PM asked the US government to help mobilise international support for the transitional government in Somalia saying stability in Somalia is the best cure against rising fear of terrorism and piracy in the region.

At a separate meeting with US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Alexander Vershbow, the PM said the threats piracy and terrorism will not be resolved in the high seas or abroad but by ensuring stability within Somalia.

The PM said Kenya will continue to play its role in Somalia and Sudan but expressed concern that the international community has not accorded the Somalia crisis the attention and support it deserves.

Vershbow, who paid a courtesy call on the PM, said he was in Kenya to get a better understanding of the situation in Somalia and Sudan.

He also delivered President Barack Obama's promise of support for the reform process in Kenya.

Earlier in the morning, the PM told officials of the Eastleigh Business Community and Somali Leaders Forum who paid him a courtesy call at his Treasury office that the on going operation was aimed at safeguarding the security of all Kenyans and their investments.

"The government doesn't have any hidden agenda against the members of the Somali Community. We welcome the investment you have put in the country and if the current operation appears to be getting abused, we will investigate and take necessary action," the PM said.

The Somali leaders supported government's move to rid the country of foreigners who have criminal intentions and backgrounds but demanded that it be carried out humanely and in a civil manner.

The officials said they do not condone the presence of illegal immigrants in the country or defend their arrests and deportation or other treatment in accordance with the law, but worried that the crackdown currently appears to be targeting Somalis and their businesses.

Source:kbc.co.ke/

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Britain 'botched rescue attempt' for Somalia hostages

LONDON — British special forces have attempted to rescue a couple seized by Somali pirates almost three months ago but the mission was aborted amid "bungling" delays, a report has said.

Citing a government official, the BBC reported on Friday that a Special Boat Service team was deployed from Britain to rescue Paul and Rachel Chandler but they were delayed by technical problems and slow decision-making in London.

The team finally arrived near where the pirates were holding the Chandlers, who were seized from their yacht in the Indian Ocean on October 23, but were not in time to rescue them, the BBC said.

"There was some bungling here," the official was quoted as saying. It was not clear when the attempted rescue took place.

In an interview with British television on Thursday, Paul Chandler said they were being treated like "captive animals" and warned their kidnappers were becoming frustrated that their demands for a ransom had not been met.

"They've lost patience. They set a deadline of three or four days. If they don't hear then they say they will let us die," he told ITV News.

The pirates have demanded £4.3 million (seven million dollars) but the Foreign Office in London said it does not pay ransoms.

Source:AFP

Somalia insurgents capture central town, loot aid offices

Somalia’s main insurgents groups of Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have reportedly captured the strategic central town of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiiraan region after battling out with pro-government militia Ahul Sunnah Wal Jama’a.

The clashes erupted on Friday morning in villages near the town with Hizbul Islam and Ahlu Sunnah engaging in heavy gun battle.

The battle in the villages have allowed Al-Shabaab fighters to attack the town and chase away the few remaining pro-government militia, who have since retreated to a El Gal village, located some 15 km from Beledweyne.

The clashes have since claimed the lives of at least five combatants from both sides, according to witnesses.

On the other hand, militias loyal to Hizbul Islam have reportedly looted The offices of the United Nations health agency WHO and Save the Children in Beledweyne.

According to witnesses, the incident happened shortly after the town’s take over with Hizbul Islam militia disarming the guards and chasing away the local agencies workers before looting the valuables in the offices.

"The armed militia entered the offices and took the equipments and weapons. We have also seen the workers, who were blindfolded, being evicted,” said an eyewitness who requested not to be named.

The looting of the aid agencies is seen as a new habit for insurgents because similar incidents targeted on UN offices were reported in rebel-held areas across the war-torn nation.

Al-Shabaab has banned several aid agencies from working in areas under its control with the UN food agency WFP being the latest casualty after being forced to halt its food distributions in the southern Somalia due to threats and extortion by Al-Shabaab.

The fighting in Beledweyne, which strategically connects the capital Mogadishu to central Somalia, comes barely two weeks after bloody battle between same armed groups which claimed the lives of hundreds and displaced thousands others
Source:garoweonline.com/

Somalia: 6 killed in pirate battle, more fighting feared

At least six pirates have been killed in fighting between pirates over a ransom in the coastal town of Harardere , in Somalia ’s central region of Mudug.

The record-breaking ransom, which was estimated to be US$7 million, was taken from Greek oil tanker Maran Centaurus released on Monday.

Harardere town is the second base of Somali pirates and the battle between the two groups left at least 6 people, including civilians dead and ten others injured. Civilians were among the injured people.

"Three pirates and three civilians died in the clashes which occurred in the district, some residents were also among the wounded people with most hit by stray bullets" said Ali a resident in Harardere.

Witnesses said residents fear another armed clash among the pirates.

"The clashes occurred after pirates took ransom from Greek oil tanker Maran Centaurus, which was held for months," said Abdullahi Ali a resident in Harardere.

The pirates gave some US$200,000 dollars to the crews comprised of 28 crews, urguing that the money was goodbye gesture for their former hostages, who stayed with them longer.

Harardere elders told Garowe Online there is fear of clashes but they are trying to mediate the two groups and broker harmony.

The ransom-hunting Somali pirates have made millions of dollars from the hijacking of international vessel transiting in the Gulf of Aden , one of the world’s most busiest shipping lanes.

Source:garoweonline.com/

Fears Increase Over Insurgents in Somalia Threatening Puntland

At least three lawmakers have been assassinated in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland in recent months, increasing fears that radical Islamist insurgents in the south may be expanding their effort to weaken the government in Puntland. One regional analyst says so far, there is no evidence to suggest that the violence in Puntland is being orchestrated or carried out by al-Qaida-linked militants in southern Somalia.

Earlier this week, unidentified gunmen shot and killed a lawmaker in the northern port town of Bosasso, marking the third time in recent months that a member of Puntland parliament has been targeted for assassination.

On January 6, another lawmaker was gunned down in Bosasso and two months before that, gunmen assassinated a lawmaker in the Puntland capital, Garowe.

Residents say since the region declared autonomy from the rest of Somalia in 1998, there is little precedent for the level and frequency of violence against Puntland government officials as is the case now. In the past two years, assassins, including a suicide bomber, have killed several senior police and military officials, and targeted government ministers.

According to International Crisis Group's regional analyst E.J. Hogendoorn, there is little doubt as to who may be carrying out these attacks.

"There is a fairly strong undercurrent of radicalized individuals living in Puntland, who have targeted Puntland officials over time," said Hogendoorn. "They have been repressed and probably more radicalized by successive Puntland administrations and they are lashing out. And the reason they are attacking members of parliament at the moment is because they are soft targets. Other officials have increased their security and they are now going after people who do not have as good a security."

Islamic fundamentalists emerged as a militarized group after the downfall of Somalia's last government in 1991. The militant al-Itihaad al-Islamiya group was dominated by members of the southern-based Hawiye clan, and in Puntland, al-Itihaad could not fully secure the popular support it needed to strengthen their position in a region dominated by the Darod, a rival clan.

In the early 1990s, Abdullahi Yusuf, a Darod military strongman who later became president of Puntland, led a bloody military campaign against the Islamist movement. Al-Itihaad was defeated in Puntland and forced to retreat from all major towns in the region, including Garowe and Bosasso.

Hogendoorn says with the growing power and influence of al-Shabab in the south, there are indications that radicals in Puntland are seizing the opportunity to challenge Puntland's secular authorities.

"The precursor to al-Shabab, al-Itihaad - they were not driven out. They were just driven underground," said Hogendoorn. "Most likely, they communicate with elements of al-Shabab in south-central Somalia. What we have no idea is whether or not this violence is being coordinated by al-Shabab. From my perspective, I have a hard time believing that. I think it is people within Puntland, who are taking the initiative to target the government and try to undermine it."

Al-Shabab militants, who proclaim allegiance to al-Qaida, currently control large areas of southern Somalia and most districts in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. In recent months, the group, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and Australia, has captured international attention by recruiting fighters from the Somali Diaspora in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

But al-Shabab has a de-centralized leadership structure, which Hogendoorn says may hinder al-Shabab's ability to coordinate activities with other militant groups.

Source:voanews.com/

Somalia: Government soldiers shot dead son of an eminent comedian

Somali government soldiers have on the injury hours of Friday shot dead Ahmed Amir Roble the son of a famous Somali comedian Awkuku, in a place not far from the Somali presidential palace.

“I was witnessing when three Somali government soldiers haphazardly opened fire at the son of a very well-known Somali comedian Awkuku, they ordered him to stop and he told them that why should I stop you know me as the biological son of Awkuku, and I do live here, and the men dressed in the Somali military uniform ordered him to stop for the second time and the son of the comedian continued his walking ignoring their order and three of the soldiers simultaneously

opened fire at the son and he has died on the spot” said Abdifatah Mohammed an eyewitness who was at the scene where the son of Awkuku was killed speaking to Somaliweyn Website.
The genuine reason as to why the son of late Awkuku was shot dead is not apparent, though some independent sources say that he was a member of Al-Shabab an armed Islamist group which operates in Somalia.

According to the neighbours of Ahmed he was a very generous and introvert person who always liked to help his neighbours.

The late senior Awkuku has died in the Somali capital Mogadishu in the mid of 2009 after a prolong illness.

Mohammed Omar Hussein+2521-5519235 shiinetown@hotmail.com

Source:somaliweyn.org/

Cellphone thief loses hand in Somalia

Mogadishu - Somalia's al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab Islamists on Thursday publicly chopped off the right hand of a man accused of stealing cellphones, witnesses and officials said.

The punishment took place in the southern port town of Merka under the control of the extremist group, and where they have imposed strict sharia, or Islamic law.

"This punishment is part of broad effort to implement sharia in the country. Anybody who steals gets his hands chopped off," said Sheikh Isa Mohamed, a Shebab official.

The judge in the Islamic court in the region announced the sentence after the convict confessed to the charges against him.

Witnesses said that Yusuf Sheikh Ahmed, 30, was brought before a crowd, then had his right hand chopped off with a big knife.

The convict was then taken to a hospital after the punishment, Ali said.

Four other people accused of taking alcohol and drugs were whipped between 40 and 80 times each.

The Shebaba control large swaths of Somalia's southern and central regions. - Sapa-AFP

Source:iol.co.za/

Human Rights Watch and a “deteriorating human rights trajectory”

The US secretary of State, Hillary Clinton feels that there needs to be more liberty regarding speech online and internet companies like Google, should not support "politically-motivated censorship."




The Security Council meeting on Somalia last week

The United Nations Security Council was briefed on the situation in Somalia on Thursday January 14th, after UN Secretary-General, Ban ki-Moon, presented his latest report on Somalia to the Council. The Council also heard the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Mr. Ould-Abdallah, and the meeting was also addressed by representatives of the African Union and the Arab League as well as Somalia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. As we detailed in the last Week in the Horn, the Secretary-General recommended a continuation of his current strategy to protect the Government and AMISOM, and invited the Council to renew the authorization of the UN Political Office for Somalia and AMISOM. The main emphasis of Mr. Ould-Abdullah’s message to the Council was that the Somali Government had made significant progress in recent months and deserved greater commitment and assistance from the UN and international partners. He called on the international community to translate its political and verbal support into the necessary material assistance. His recommendations included coordinated international policy objectives, a clear signal to extremists, increased international support for AMISOM, and an integrated UN approach. He emphasized that a failure to act now in a decisive manner would dramatically increase the ultimate costs of resolving the problems of Somalia.


The African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, Mr. Ramtane Lamamra, told the Council that 2009 had been a difficult year for Somalia. The enemies of peace and reconciliation had stepped up their aggression to try to undo the Djibouti Peace Process. Commissioner Lamamra said the link between Al-Shabaab and international jihadism had been confirmed as had Al-Shabaab’s relations with Al Qaeda. There had been an influx of foreign fighters into Somalia leading to an upsurge in terrorist activities. Equally, the past year had also seen positive momentum in terms of the rebirth of the state and the expansion of the Government. He pointed out that although AMISOM had lost twice as many soldiers in 2009 as over the whole of its previous existence, it had also been reinforced in size, capacity and experience. Its mandate had been extended on January 8th by the AU Peace and Security Council for another twelve months. He called on the Security Council to extend its authorization of AMISOM, and repeated the request of the Peace and Security Council that AMISOM should be integrated into a UN peacekeeping operation for Somalia. Commissioner Lamamra also underlined the need to impose a no-fly zone as well as control of Somalia’s sea ports to deny extremists the use of Somalia's air and maritime space, and help resolve the problem of piracy which was fueling extremism.
The Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States to the UN, Mr. Yahya Mahmassani, described the crisis in Somalia as the main challenge to peace and security in the Horn of Africa. He said inaction by the international community had contributed to a further worsening of the situation. The solution must be based on the Djibouti process, and AMISOM should be given full support. He said the Arab League called on states and regional groups to participate and help complete AMISOM deployment, including the provision of financial and logistical support. He also urged closer cooperation among humanitarian agencies to meet the challenge of humanitarian assistance. He noted that while the international community should be mindful of the need to end piracy, it was also necessary for the Security Council to take the necessary measures to tackle the root causes, among which he included the absence of strong state institutions.



The Permanent Representative of Somalia to the UN, Mr. Elmi Ahmed Duale, also stressed the importance of security to the Council. Without it, he said, meaningful progress in economy and development would be difficult to achieve. He emphasized the need to rebuild Somali national security forces, and to strengthen AMISOM and make it an integral part of a larger UN peacekeeping effort. He pointed out that the Government had received only a small portion of the pledges made in Brussels last April, and appealed urgently for states to release their pledged contributions. He said the Government’s strategy for 2010 would focus on reconciliation, security, the international conference on recovery and reconstruction, and effective cooperation with neighboring states. He said the Government considered the three-phase incremental approach by the UN might prove inadequate, given the dire humanitarian situation. What Somalia needed now was not a ‘light United Nations footprint’ but a heavy one.


These briefings preceded a closed session of the Council, but member states did express similar views in support of the TFG and of AMISOM as well as their concern about the situation in Somalia which it was agreed needed closer, more coordinated and concrete support to produce further improvement. It was decided to hold a follow-up session on Somalia before the end of the month when the Council is expected to produce another resolution on Somalia. The Council is, in fact, scheduled to consider the future status of AMISOM on January 28th. The UN authorization for AMISOM expires on January 31st as does the current UN support package for the Mission.
Human Rights Watch and a “deteriorating human rights trajectory”

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch published its World Report 2010, covering human rights around the world in 2009. In his introductory essay, Director Kenneth Roth argues that the effectiveness of the human rights movement to exert pressure on governments has grown enormously in recent years and, as a result, there was a growing reaction from abusive governments which had been particularly intense last year, with numerous attacks on human rights monitors. Mr. Roth said the way to stop this was for governments to make human rights a central part of their diplomacy, “to make respecting human rights the bedrock of their diplomacy”. In an assumption of righteousness, ignoring the ongoing international discussion and even dissension over the issue, the introduction attacks African states for refusing to support the ICC’s controversial arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. It claims many African democracies even chose the comfort of regional solidarity rather than staking out a credible position of principle in support of international justice.



In this context, we have to say that the credibility of Human Rights Watch is itself an issue, certainly in its report on Ethiopia. Its country summary repeatedly suggests Ethiopia is “on a deteriorating human rights trajectory”, sliding “towards deeper repression”, that the space for independent civil society “already extremely narrow, shrank dramatically in 2009”, and a “worsening human rights record” is sliding “deeper into repression”. It talks about “measures to control the elections in 2010” though, not surprisingly, none of these are specified – there are, in fact, none to specify.



One can of course argue about how much human rights may or may not have improved, but it is surprising that Human Rights Watch chose totally to ignore the single most significant development in the electoral process in Ethiopia last year. This was the signing of a Code of Conduct for Political Parties, negotiated by 65 political parties, and its subsequent adoption into law. This by any standards is an impressive document, binding political parties, candidates, members and supporters of political parties to ensure that elections are guided by ethical rules of conduct, and are transparent, free, fair, peaceful, democratic, legitimate and acceptable to the voters. The Code lays down the regulations for the National Electoral Board, the mass media, and the judiciary, and their ability to function independently and impartially, free of all party pressures. It lays out the details for fair utilization by all parties of government resources for the election; and underlines the responsibility of the parties for a successful election. A procedure for grievances is provided and a Joint Council of Political Parties is being set up to implement the Code.



The Code was signed last November so there can be no excuse for Human Rights Watch to have ignored it. Similarly, one might note that Engineer Hailu Shawel, one of those most involved in the problems of 2005, was a central figure in the drafting of the Code. These are surely promising developments by any standards. Aren’t they at least worth a mention, however brief? It is frankly dishonest (and certainly unfair) to talk about a deteriorating trajectory and efforts to control the elections while making no reference to the Code which is a major development to the contrary. Similarly, although the report does indicate that Human Rights Watch has for the first time been prepared to read one of the reports of Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission (a new Commissioner, Ambassador Tiruneh Zena, was approved by acclamation by all parties in Parliament last week), the reference is no more than disparaging. It all suggests that Human Rights Watch has no interest in, and no time for, any promising developments, that its criticisms in fact are not made in good faith. At this point we can’t go into further detail about this issue or Human Rights Watch’s repeated failures to evaluate recent legislation with any care, though it did, grudgingly, allow that the 2008 media law was an improvement. The Asset Registration and Anti-Corruption bill might have been worth a mention? Its largely inaccurate assertions about the provisions of the recent civil society and anti-terrorist laws need more space and time to respond.



Two other points do however need to be raised. Human Rights Watch refers, rather ungenerously, to the inquiry that the Ethiopian government did “purport to launch” into allegations of serious abuses by the military against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in the Somali Regional State. These were, in fact, allegations made in one of Human Rights Watch’s own reports. Human Rights Watch says the inquiry was sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lacked independence and concluded no serious abuses took place. That is not strictly true. The inquiry, which was independent, actually found that many of the allegations were unsubstantiated, and lacking in substance or proof. Numerous villages that Human Rights Watch claimed to have been burnt down were found to be undamaged, and a significant number of people, described as killed or tortured, were found alive and unharmed. It also found that Human Rights Watch had ignored many abuses committed by the ONLF. The inquiry concluded that Human Rights Watch’s methodology, which involved no effort to investigate on the ground, and its evaluation of allegations made by dissidents in exile, were seriously flawed. Human Rights Watch has still to respond to the questions raised about its own procedures and practices.



The second point is that Human Rights Watch in the country summary on Ethiopia, as on a number of other countries, complains that major donors are unwilling to confront countries over what Human Rights Watch claims is a worsening human rights record. In the case of Ethiopia, it is particularly critical of the UK. Human Rights Watch argues that donors remain silent for fear that Ethiopia would discontinue or scale back their bilateral aid and development programs. This is an unusually bizarre suggestion, particularly since there is another very obvious reason why major donors say little – it may be that they do not entirely agree with Human Rights Watch. Given some of the errors and mistakes Human Rights Watch has perpetrated over the years that would hardly be a surprise.

Source:waltainfo.com/

Ex-Convicts From U.S. Said to Join Yemen Radicals

WASHINGTON — Some American former convicts who converted to Islam in prison have moved to Yemen and a few may have joined extremist groups there, according to a new Senate report.

The report, from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says that as many as 36 American Muslims who were prisoners have moved to Yemen in recent months, ostensibly to study Arabic, and that several of them have “dropped off the radar” and may have connected to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The report warns that Americans recruited in Yemen or Somalia may pose a particular threat, since they can operate freely inside the United States.

American intelligence and counterterrorism officials, though, said they thought the report’s claim about former prisoners was exaggerated. A law enforcement official confirmed that some of them had traveled to Yemen — perhaps one or two dozen over the past several years — intending to study Arabic or Islam. The official said the former convicts did not appear to be part of any organized recruitment effort, however, and few are known to have connections with extremists.

Yemen has come under increased scrutiny from American counterterrorism agencies since November, after it emerged that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., had exchanged e-mail messages with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Yemeni-American cleric in hiding in Yemen. The focus intensified after the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25 by a Nigerian man who allegedly was trained and supplied with explosives in Yemen.

The Senate report, written by the committee’s Democratic staff, said the government was “on heightened alert because of the potential threat from extremists carrying American passports and the related challenges involved in detecting and stopping homegrown operatives.”

With the United States putting Al Qaeda under intense pressure in Pakistan, some fighters have moved to join militant groups in Yemen and Somalia, as well as in North Africa and Southeast Asia, the report said. “These groups may have only an informal connection with Al Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan, but they often share common goals,” Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the committee’s Democratic chairman, wrote in a letter accompanying the report.

The report notes that members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, appeared at an antigovernment rally in southern Yemen last month. In video later shown on Al Jazeera television, a militant told the crowd that the group’s war was with the United States, not the Yemeni Army.

In addition to the American former prisoners in Yemen, the report said there were about 10 other Americans not of Yemeni ancestry who have also moved there, married Yemeni women and adopted a radical form of Islam. None in that group, however, appear to have sought terrorist training, the report said.

In nearby Somalia, the Senate report recounted, news reports told of Somali-Americans traveling to join a militant group, the Shabab. It also described Americans caught entering Somalia from Djibouti.

An immigration official in Djibouti said that he had recently turned away two Somali-Americans trying to cross into Somalia, because he thought they might be trying to link up with the Shabab. Two others were arrested and prosecuted in Djibouti for entering illegally.

The possibility that American prisons could become an incubator for radical Islam has long been raised by experts on terrorism, and a few Muslim prison chaplains in United States prisons have been accused of having extremist views. To date, only a handful of alleged terrorist plots, none of them successful, have involved American Muslims who are former prisoners.

Three American Muslims were convicted for a 2005 plot to attack Jewish institutions and military bases around Los Angeles that was said to have been concocted inside New Folsom Prison, near Sacramento. Michael Finton, who converted to Islam while imprisoned in Illinois from 1999 to 2005, was charged last year with trying to blow up the federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill.

And four former New York state prisoners, at least two of whom converted to Islam in prison, were accused last year of plotting to attack synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes.

A. J. Sabree, a corrections official in Georgia and a Muslim, who worked for years as a prison chaplain, said he had never heard of Muslim former prisoners moving to Yemen. Erik Kriss, a spokesman for the New York State prison system, which employs about 40 imams to counsel inmates, said officials there were not aware of the phenomenon.

Mr. Kriss cautioned against equating conversion in prison to Islam, which is relatively common, to radicalization.

“We do not have any evidence of anything resembling widespread terrorist-inspired radicalization or recruiting,” he said. “But we recognize the potential and therefore remain vigilant in guarding against it.”

Source:nytimes.com/

Greek tanker latest ship released in Somali pirate drama


Somali pirates have released a Greek tanker, the Maran Centaurus, one of the largest ever taken, after the ship-owners paid out millions of dollars in ransom.

It is believed that a plane dropped up to $5 million dollars in a bag onto the deck of the vessel, which would make this payment one of the largest ransoms ever.

The hijack and subsequent release of merchant vessels following the payment of ransoms has become a common occurence in the Indian Ocean waters off Somalia.

While world powers continue to patrol the waters off the troubled nation, the pirates have begun to move further out to sea.

A 'mother ship' of sorts is used to carry smaller powerboats as far as 1,800 kms from shore so that attacks may be launched on vulnerable vessels.

This may have been the case when British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler were hijacked aboard their 38ft yacht enroute to Tanzania from the Seychelles.

In an emotional telephone call with ITN, Rachel said she was prepared to die, but wanted to see her husband one last time before they killed her. The couple were seperated shortly after they were captured in October last year.

Following repeated refusals by the British government to pay the ransom demanded, the pirates have threatened to kill the couple within the next three days.

A rescue operation, similar to that undertaken by the US to free Captain Richard Phillips, was ordered by Whitehall. But it has now come to light that the Special Forces operation was bungled and delayed, according to what a Whitehall official told the BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner.

It is necessarily unclear whether another rescue attempt will be made, and in the meantime two lives hang in the balance.

Source:haitinews.net/s

AU urged to protect continent’s press freedom

January 22, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – An international press watchdog report has labeled the Year 2009 as one of the most hostile year for journalists in the African continent urging the African Union to protect them.

The report released by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) revealed that 13 journalists were killed across the continent; 32 journalists imprisoned, a significant number of journalists arrested, some violently attacked and wounded, while threats and intimidation against journalists continued unabated.

The survey listed Somalia, Eritrea, Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gambia, Guinea and Niger as the leading nations in the suppression and violations of press freedom rights during 2009.

In Somalia alone, 9 journalists were assassinated by armed militias, while 19 journalists are still held incommunicado in Eritrean jails, just for carrying out their journalistic work.

The group has urged the African Union to launch a collective efforts to reverse the trend which the group referred the scale of the crises in Africa as "intolerable".

"The report intends to inform and sensitize African Governments, decision makers, and especially the African Union to prioritize press freedom and freedom of expression as a key component for good governance democracy and national development," it said.

The annual report on the state of press freedom in Africa is based on the media alerts published during the course of the year in the framework of their advocacy strategy.

The report was launched yesterday in the Ethiopia capital, Addis Ababa. A delegation from the IFJ is said to meet Ethiopian government representatives and officials of the African union to consult on the situation this week in Addis Ababa.

Source:sudantribune.com/

Sweden to receive more refugees from Somalia than Iraq

Sweden said on Thursday that it plans to give priority to refugees from Somalia and Eritrea to resettle about 1700 to 1900 United Nations (UN) refugees this year, according to a report from the Swedish Radio.

“Eritrean refuges in Sudan and Libya, who are fleeing the totalitarian regime in Eritrea, need the international community to make a contribution and do their part,” Dan Eliasson, head of the Swedish Migration Agency told Swedish Radio.

Sweden gave priority to refugees from Iraq and its surrounding areas last year. The shift will result in roughly 600 fewer Iraqi refugees coming to Sweden in 2010 said the report from Local.

Meanwhile, about 850 refugees will be transferred to Sweden from camps in Kenya, Sudan, and Libya.

The Swedish Riksdag (parliament) allocates funding for the Migration Board to bring about 1,700 and 1,900 refugees to Sweden under the UN’s quota program every year.

At present, Sweden is one of the 19 countries which accept quota refugees on an annual basis.

Source:english.people.com.cn/

Somalia under scrutiny as security threat - Soccer World Cup 2010

The group Al-Shabaab which is a Al-Qaeda linked to Somalia, they have been in control most of the Southern part of Somalia. Now South Africa's Intelligence agency has learned that they have a base in the Cape Flats in South Africa. Even thought the threat is very real it is said the Muslim extremist would not attack in South Africa because it is used as a logistical hub.

All this came out after the threats made to the American Embassy in September last year. SASS has learned that it came from inside our borders. With all the political turmoil after Mbeki left the presidency last year and Zuma has taken over, South Africa's intelligence agency was in the dark about the very real threat of terrorist.

Official maintain though that crime is still the main concern to the Soccer World Cup and not terrorism. But they are stepping up in their investigations after the brutal attack on Togolese soccer team in Angola that left three people dead and eight injured. A rebel group in Angola has said they where responsible for the attack.

The main threat still lies in crime. In a country riddled with crime and criminals aiming on cashing in on foreigners visiting our country, people needing to be educated in the do's and dont's here are still priority.

Source:english.people.com.cn/

Somalia: Weekly Humanitarian Bulletin No. 3, 15 - 22 Jan 2010

Field reports indicate that parts of Somaliland and Puntland that did not receive sufficient rainfall during the Deyr season (October-December) are experiencing water shortages both for humans and livestock. Reports from Somaliland say that abnormal population and livestock movements have been observed from north-western regions towards Sool region in search of pasture and water. Additionally, dry conditions are prevailing with extreme cold weather, as low as 1 degree centigrade recorded in Wajaale and Borama towns in Awdal region, while Hargeysa and Burco towns have been experiencing between 4 and 5 degrees.

Insecurity and displacement

Incident involving a humanitarian organisation

On 16 January, the body of a man who was working with a local NGO was found abandoned on a road in Mogadishu. Officials from the NGO confirmed the incident but could not immediately establish the motive of his murder. Four other staff members, who were taken away with the dead man by unknown people, are still missing. The NGO is the main implementer of the wet feeding programme (cooked meals) in Mogadishu.

Belet Weyne

Fresh fighting was reported early 22 January between Hisbul Islam and Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa in Bardere about 20km northeast of Belet Weyne, Hiraan. Both sides exchanged heavy gunfire and, the number of casualties was not immediately established. On 9 January, the two groups clashed over control of the town killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 50 others. According to UNHCR 22,700 people were displaced.

Gaalkacyo

On 16 January, gunmen attacked three independent radio stations in Gaalkacyo injuring four people including three journalists and damaging equipment in the stations. The assailants reportedly threw explosive devices into the three stations.

Mogadishu

On 17 and 18 January, at least 12 people were killed and scores of others injured when fighting broke out in parts of the city between insurgents and TFG forces. Mortar shells hit a section of the Bakara market killing five civilians, while another shell hit a passenger vehicle killing three and injuring nine other people.

Source:eliefweb.int/

Somali terror suspect out of jail

A Somali man who admitted that he trained with terrorists in Somalia and helped construct a terrorist training camp was released from jail on Thursday pending sentencing.

Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, 25, pleaded guilty to supporting terrorists and has been cooperating for months with investigators working on the case of up to 20 Minneapolis men who returned to jihad in Somalia. He was released after agreeing to pay $25,000 if he does not appear in court when required. U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum, who has been presiding over the cases of Isse and others indicted, agreed to Isse's release last Friday, according to court documents.

Isse is believed to be the first of the Somali men charged and jailed for aiding terrorists to be released.

He will be sent to a halfway house and will have to wear electronic monitoring equipment, according to conditions set by Rosenbaum.

Isse was one of the first men indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure. Since then, 14 men have been indicted or charged in one of this country's largest counterterrorism investigations since 9/11. Four of the men, including Isse, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Others are missing and are presumed to have fled to Somalia.

Isse, of Seattle, Wash., was arrested Feb. 24, 2009, at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. At the time, he said he was going to Tanzania to participate in an internship. He had previously left Minneapolis for Somalia in December 2007.

His attorney, Paul Engh, argued in court papers for Isse's release, noting his cooperation with authorities and the seemingly endless time until sentencing.

On Thursday, Engh would only say: "This kind of case takes a lot longer to complete than the ordinary. His hard incarceration was no longer necessary, in light of the attendant delays."

Source:startribune.com/

Egypt reiterates support for interim Somali government

APA-Cairo (Egypt) The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has reiterated Egyptian support for the government of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in Somalia by all possible means.

Ambassador Mona Omar, the Assistant Minister for African Affairs told reporters on Saturday in Cairo that Egypt was very much concerned about the Somalia issue, and that the settlement of the issue was within the framework of Egypt’s keenness on the stability of the Horn of Africa that represents a strategic importance to Egypt and the sub-region.

She added that Egypt will receive at the beginning of February, the Prime Minister of Puntland, adding that there are many Egyptian teachers working in the Somali regions of Puntland and Somaliland, in addition to a mission from Al-Azhar University which is currently in the area

Source:apanews.net/

Clashes displaced 63 000 since January

The United Nations refugees agency says recent clashes in the war torn Somalia has displaced an estimated 63, 000 since the beginning of the year.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman, Roberta Russo, said some 14,000 of that number were displaced from and within Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in the past two weeks when government forces and Al Shabaab militants intensified clashes against each other.

She said fresh battles in central Somalia's Belet Weyne and Galgaduud areas have left thousands more homeless.

According MS Ruso, there are already another 50,000 internally displaced people in the surrounding Hiraan region, bordering Ethiopia.

The pro-government Ahlu Suna Waljama group had been battling insurgent group Hizbul Islam in the town of Beledweyene. Nearby, more fighting has been waged against Hizbul Islam ally al-Shabaab - which the West says has close links to al-Qaeda. Both insurgent groups are fighting to topple the weak Western- backed government.

The refugee agency also estimates that about 28,800 people have been displaced in the area around the town of Dhuusamareeb, in the Galgaduud region in central Somalia, and are in urgent need of shelter, water and health care.

Somalia continues to be one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with some 1.5 million internally displaced people and more than 560,000 people living as refugees in neighboring countries, the refugee agency says, mainly in Kenya, Yemen and Ethiopia.

Over 19,000 people have died in the current insurgency, which kicked off in early 2007 after Ethiopian forces invaded to oust an Islamist regime that ruled for six months in 2006.

Somalia has not had an effective since the 1991 ouster of its dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Source:afrol.com/

Somalia: Pirate Ship 'Was Registered in Kenya'

Nairobi — A witness told the court that he saw a document showing a suspected pirate ship was a Kenyan registered vessel.

Lieutenant David Ratner testifying against 17 Somalis charged with piracy also told the court that another document he saw indicated that MV Ishaka was a Puntland registered vessel.

Upon cross examination by defence counsel Mr Donald Muyundo, the witness who is a member of the US Coast Guard told the court that it could be true the vessel was registered in the country then in Puntland.

The witness who was giving evidence before senior resident magistrate Mr Michael Kizito said the ship was registered as a fishing vessel.

He told the court that each suspect apprehended had a separate bag with a tag in which their clothing was kept.

"I could not see any specific reason to seal weapons in the evidence bag," said Mr Ratner adding that Yemen navy took custody of MV Ishaka.

He said he was not party to the decision why the vessel was not brought into the country.

The court heard that the grenade allegedly found on the suspected pirate vessel was poorly maintained and could have exploded hence it was documented and discarded.

Another witness Mr James Powers, a helicopter pilot from the US navy told the court that on May 13 at around 9am he was on a flying surveillance mission and had contact on a vessel along the International Transit Recommended Corridor.

Mr Powers said he saw people on the deck of the vessel which he described as red in colour who appeared to be "hanging out" and that he could not recall if the vessel was in motion.

"I kept surveillance for three hours before retuning to USS Gettysburg, a US naval ship, and downloaded pictures which he took while over the vessel.

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The witness told the court that later in the day while on another flying mission he received a distress call from MV Amira saying that they were under attack from pirates who were firing rocket propelled grenades (RPG) at them.

The helicopter pilot who said he had no knowledge if fishing vessels carry firearms told the court he did not witness the attack on MV Amira.

He described the crew on the suspected pirate boat as unfamiliar since they did not acknowledge their presence.

"From the past experience fishermen acknowledge navy vessels and aircrafts by waving their hands," said Mr Powers.

The 17 Somali's allegedly committed piracy against MV Amira on May 13, last year, in the high seas.

Source:allafrica.com/

Twenty-four dead in renewed fighting in central Somalia

MOGADISHU, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in renewed clashes between rival Islamist groups in central Somalia have risen to 24 while more than 50 others were injured in fighting raging for the consecutive fourth day, witnesses and health officials said on Wednesday.

The latest flare up of violence erupted between fighters loyal to the Islamist rebel movement of Hezbul Islam backed by its ally of Al Shabaab and the moderate pro-government Islamist sect of Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama.

Both sides have been fighting over the strategic central Somalia town of Beledweyne which has changed hands between the two sides for the past two days. Latest reports indicate the two sides partly control the town while sporadic fighting still continues in and around the town.

Both sides claim to have inflicted heavy losses on the other side but hospital sources in the region say that nearly 24 people mostly combatants from the warring sides were killed while more than 50 others were reportedly injured in the fierce clashes that continued for control of the town and adjacent districts.

Many civilians in the combat areas were reported to have fled their homes as the two sides exchanged heavy artillery in and around residential areas in Beledweyne, the provincial capital of Hiran region in central Somalia which has lately been in the hands of Hezbul Islam militias.

The pro-government Ahlu Sunna fighters control most districts in the central Somalia province of Galgaduud and Mudug and have been trying to take Hiran and its environs from the radical Islamist faction of Hezbul Islam which is allied to the Al Shabaab faction, a group that controls much of south and centre of Somalia.

Al Shabaab and Hezbul Islam factions are opposed to the internationally recognized Somali government. The groups, seen as terrorist entities, want to overthrow the Somalia government and create an Islamic state in the war-torn east African country of Somalia.

Source:news.xinhuanet.com/

Make Somalia a Priority

Last month, a Somali man who had lived in Denmark dressed himself in women’s clothes, positioned himself at a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu and then blew himself up. He killed 22 people, including three government ministers and many young medical graduates and professors, who had hoped to dedicate their lives to the alleviation of suffering in Somalia.

The terrible events of Dec. 3 reverberated around the world. Somali doctors, information technology and engineering graduates, alongside their families, began the morning full of hope and pride, yet many were not to see the sun set that day. They were among the brightest and the best of Somalia, and so were the ministers who lost their lives.

But as the recent events in Aarhus, Denmark, Mogadishu and over the skies of Detroit on Dec. 25 show, the current situation in Somalia and across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen not only threatens the lives of Somalis, but also people beyond its borders.

However, Somalia is not the ultimate failed state of popular perception. Its people are resilient and manage to survive in conditions that are probably well beyond the imagination of most readers. In Mogadishu, a city of two million, people carry on, despite the fighting, the shelling, the displacement. Over 100 Somali-led reconciliation processes have taken place at local and regional levels since 1991 — and they’ve proved the basis for stability in Somaliland, Puntland and Galmudug state in central Somalia.

While Somali reconciliation and mediation efforts will be the key to sustainable peace and stability, the international community — including the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union and the United Nations — has an important role to play. Somalia and Yemen must be properly on the agenda at the London conference at the end of this month.

As 2010 unfolds, our collective vision should be to see the beginnings of a secure, stable and prosperous Somalia, at peace with itself and its neighbors, where its citizens can go about their lives in safety and provide for their families with confidence and dignity. Let us strive for a resurgent, tolerant society, built on respect for traditional Somali cultural and religious values.

The Transitional Federal Government, as its name suggests, is a temporary structure for developing the environment necessary to achieve this objective. It is a transitional mechanism that will enable the people to decide for themselves how they want to be governed, free from outside interference and coercion.

The transitional government’s principle purpose is to prepare the way for the establishment of legitimate and accountable public institutions. (We have already taken the initiative and hired Price Waterhouse Coopers to ensure the accountability of international donor funds.) These institutions will form the basis of a stable, representative government that can begin to alleviate the trauma of the last 20 years.

We will achieve this by building professional, representative security forces; creating transparent and accountable public institutions based on the principles of civic responsibility and good governance; developing a fair and impartial judicial system; and increasing economic opportunity through investment, training, health and education.

Given the complex and extremely difficult circumstances that recent events have so graphically illustrated, achieving all this will be an extraordinary challenge. It will require the combined effort of the whole Somali people, as well as assistance from outside. Only in partnership with all Somalis and the support of the international community will success be possible. It will take time, determination and patience but it can be done. Let us all take up this challenge. Let 2010 be the start of something new.

Source:nytimes.com/

Will U.S. troops leave Haiti too soon?


WASHINGTON — As the number of U.S. soldiers in Haiti and aboard a small armada floating offshore builds toward 18,000, the question of how and when they will leave remains unanswered.

While past humanitarian missions, most notably in Somalia in the 1990s, have morphed into protracted — and bloody — "peacemaking" exercises, experts say there are many reasons that Haiti is unlikely to turn into a quagmire for U.S. forces.

If anything, said a half-dozen officials with long experience in humanitarian relief and peacekeeping operations, the danger is that the troops, ships and helicopters will leave too soon, before security is re-established. With ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has little appetite for an extended military mission in the Caribbean.

"The risk is the opposite: that they will leave too quickly, and we will have chaos," said Andrew Natsios, who led the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2001 to 2005. "They've got their hands full in Iraq, Afghanistan-Pakistan. The U.S. military does not want to do this, in terms of anything beyond the humanitarian response."

The Haiti earthquake Jan. 12 devastated the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, left as many as 200,000 dead and crippled both an existing U.N. peacekeeping mission and the country's government.

There are about 13,000 U.S. military personnel in Haiti — roughly 4,000 ashore and 9,000 aboard ship — and that number will grow to 17,000 to 18,000 by this weekend with the arrival of a second Marine Expeditionary Unit, said Marine Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman. Twenty-two ships and 66 military helicopters are participating in the relief effort, he said.

Lapan said, "There hasn't been an impact to this point" on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, although military planners are keeping a close eye on the flow of forces.

If all goes as planned, U.S. troops will begin departing after United Nations agencies and private aid groups are ready to fully take on the task of recovery and rebuilding. A U.N. peacekeeping force, which is being enlarged with 2,000 more peacekeepers and 1,500 policemen, will provide security alongside Haitian security forces.

"As we get through this initial crisis, as those other organizations bring up their capacity, we will work with all those organizations to determine when the right time is to transition our capabilities out of Haiti," Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, the commander of the military's Southern Command, said Thursday.

Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has spelled out the details of when and how that will happen, however.

Large-scale violence, which has been sporadic so far, or thousands of desperate Haitians taking to the seas to try to reach U.S. shores could upend the Obama administration's plans.

It also remains to be seen who'll coordinate the task of rebuilding Haiti, which will take years, cost billions of dollars and involve hundreds of agencies and charities.

Private aid groups have complained that the U.S. military has wrested too much control of the relief effort.

"There's a lot of pitfalls to all this well-meaning compassion," said Elizabeth Ferris, an expert on humanitarian issues at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, a research center.

The U.S. military's role "is still not clear to me," Ferris said, questioning whether American forces are focused on their own security, setting up logistics supply lines or directly delivering relief supplies. Once international and nongovernment agencies stand up their operations, "are there plans for it to exit in a reasonable period of time?" she asked.

The United States and the U.N. signed an agreement Friday clarifying the world body's lead role in earthquake relief efforts, the Reuters news agency reported.

A senior State Department official said the chances of Somalia-like "mission creep," with U.S. forces staying in Haiti as political arbiters, "are zero. ... What's the strategic rationale?"

Who'll lead the huge reconstruction effort "is a reasonable question," however, said the official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity in order to speak more frankly.

The United States has a long, troubled history of intervention in Haiti. U.S. Marines occupied the country from 1915 to 1934. President Bill Clinton sent in U.S. troops in 1994 to restore democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A decade later, U.S. Marines were back as part of an international stabilization force sent in after Aristide fled the capital.

James Dobbins, who was Clinton's special envoy to Haiti and helped organize the 1994 intervention, said he didn't foresee a lengthy stay for U.S. forces in the wake of the earthquake. Haiti's long-standing political tensions have been muted since Aristide departed, he said.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission, despite losing 70 staff members in the earthquake and having its headquarters collapse, is well-established in Haiti and has a clear job mandate, Dobbins and other specialists said.

"Ideally, I'd like to see U.S. troops stay as part of the U.N. force ... but I don't think that's likely to happen because of our other priorities," Dobbins said.

Source:mcclatchydc.com/

Italy offers Somalia help, urges others to follow

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Italy offered on Thursday to help form an anti-terrorist police force for Somalia and urged other international donors to fulfil pledges of support for the beleaguered government in the Horn of Africa nation.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters after meeting Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed that Italian military police, or Carabinieri, were ready to train such a force in neighbouring Kenya.

Two rebel groups hold sway in much of southern and central Somalia and the government controls only a few blocks of the capital Mogadishu, propped up by a 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force, Amisom.

Western nations say the chaos in Somalia, which has lacked central government since 1991, is giving Islamist militants a safe haven to train and plot attacks in the region and beyond.

"We offered to President Sharif to form a very robust anti-terrorist police for Somalia," said Frattini after their talks in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

The Amisom force has prevented insurgents from overrunning the capital and driving out the Western-backed government, but government troops have made little headway against the rebels.

Fighting since the start of 2007 has killed more than 21,000 Somalis and driven 1.5 million from their homes. Washington accuses one rebel group -- al Shabaab -- of being al Qaeda's proxy in the country.

The chaos on land has also allowed piracy to flourish in the busy shipping lanes off Somalia. The International Maritime Bureau said there were 217 attacks last year by Somali pirates.

Source:af.reuters.com/

Pirate Attacks Off Somalia Nearly Double

The International Maritime Bureau in London reports piracy incidents on the high seas increased nearly 40 percent in 2009 from a year ago. Pirate activities off the coast of Somalia accounted for more than half of all attacks worldwide.

In its annual report, the maritime watchdog said the number of attacks off the coast of Somalia doubled in 2009 from 111 to 217. According to the bureau, pirates successfully hijacked 47 of those vessels and took 867 crew members hostage, earning them untold millions in ransom payments.

The director of the International Maritime Bureau, Captain Pottengal Mukundan tells VOA that although the number of attacks was significantly higher, the number of successful hijackings were proportionately lower than the previous year.

"In the Gulf of Aden, from the 8th of July until the 28th of December, there were no vessels hijacked although the attacks continued. And that is because of the actions taken by the naval forces there and secondly, because of the maneuvering and self-protection measures taken by ships going through that area," he said.

The Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, was the main target of Somali pirates in 2008. Relentless pirate attacks and dozens of hijackings in the area prompted the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, India and other nations to send warships to protect commercial and private vessels transiting the narrow waterway between Somalia and Yemen.

As many as 30 warships now patrol the gulf at any given time.

But the focus on protecting the Gulf of Aden has had a negative effect in the Indian Ocean, particularly off the southern and eastern coasts of Somalia.

Using hijacked vessels as "mother ships" to tow fast skiffs and to utilize as floating homes, pirates can operate far from shore for weeks at a time. Since October, the International Maritime Bureau has recorded 33 attacks on ships in the Indian Ocean. The bureau says 13 vessels have been seized.

Mukundan says he believes fighting piracy in the vast Indian Ocean requires a different approach.

"It is the key risk area, where we do not have the naval protection that we have in the Gulf of Aden," he said. "In that environment, it appears that the tactical response is very strong, robust action to be taken against the mother ships, which launch these attacks. And more effort should be made to identify clusters of these mother ships. We need assets to board them, to inspect them and not allow them to carry on with these illegal activities. That is what is required."

Mukundan says piracy in other African waters is also on the rise with 28 attacks reported off the coast of Nigeria in 2009.

Source:voanews.com/

New Report Identifies Challenges in Africa for Obama

A new report says the Obama administration faces key challenges in Africa this year, including poverty, climate change and HIV/AIDS.

Africa Policy Outlook 2010 says the U.S. must take action to ensure it “does not miss a historic opportunity to bring meaningful change to the continent.” The report is co-published by Africa Action and Foreign Policy in Focus.

Gerald LeMelle, executive director of Africa Action, “The policy outlook is something we’ve put out now for 10 years. What we try to do is give a sort of an honest look at what the following year will look like vis-à-vis U.S. foreign policy in Africa based on the trends that we’ve seen from the year previous.”

Poverty is the biggest challenge

“We don’t like to discuss poverty that much because it’s kind of an indication that some of the free trade deregulation policies so favored by Western countries and Bretton Woods Institutions (World Bank, IMF) are in fact failing,” he says.

LeMelle calls poverty the greatest single threat to U.S. security today.

“We have seen the result of failed states across the globe and including in Africa, places like Somalia, that have come back to haunt The United States and other countries. And therefore, if we are not seriously addressing the question of poverty, then we’re really setting ourselves up for a fairly dismal future,” he says.

The Africa Policy Outlook report calls for a “nuts and bolts” approach to deal with poverty.

“We have to stop promoting deregulation. We have to stop promoting free trade. We have to stop promoting structural adjustment programs that make it safe for foreign direct investment to make 20, 30 percent profit at the expense of even minimal reinvestment in these communities where the money is being taken from,” he says.

LeMelle says an example of how failure to reinvest in the community can cause major problems is Nigeria’s Niger Delta.

“Fifteen years ago, we were organizing with Ken Saro-Wiwa, the peace activist from the Niger Delta, to get the oil companies to stop dumping oil into the environment. And by and large they refused to meet even minimal demands of reinvesting in schools and in housing and in roads for poor people in the Niger Delta. Today, people in the Niger Delta are picking up guns and shooting,” he says.

He calls it an attitude of profits being more important than people.

Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were executed after being convicted by a military tribunal for allegedly instigating violence that led to the deaths of pro-government Ogoni chiefs. Saro-Wiwa and the others were hanged in 1995.

Climate Change

The report says another major challenge to Africa is climate change. And LeMelle is critical of the major powers for failing to take stronger action at the Copenhagen climate summit in December.

“Climate change is going to be a major contributing factor to death, disease, conflict, insecurity - all the things that we are concerned about from the perspective of national and global security. So we have to begin to address this,” he says.

LeMelle says while the rich nations pledged $100 billion to help developing countries deal with climate change, it’s unclear whether that’s new money or funds reallocated from other programs.

HIV/AIDS

The Africa Action report says HIV/AIDS will also remain a major problem, despite programs such as PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. LeMelle says it’s responsible for an 18 percent decrease in AIDS-related deaths across Africa since 2004. But he says the increase in funding for PEPFAR is not as large as in years past.

“The end result has been that countries like Tanzania are beginning to turn people away. New patients approach them and they are told they can only enter the rolls (for treatment) if someone else dies. Or they’re saying they’re not taking any new patients for the coming year. This is going to reverse the trend toward successfully decreasing the deaths from HIV,” he says.

He calls on the Obama administration to keep the strong U.S. support to provide anti-retroviral drugs to those infected with the AIDS virus.

LeMelle says with the many problems facing the continent, “Africa deserves a more sophisticated approach than what has been afforded to its people.”

Source:voanews.com/

Af-Pak region remains nerve centre of al-Qaeda: US

Washington, Jan 21 (PTI) Despite its alarming expansion in countries like Yemen and Somalia, al-Qaeda and its leaders remain in the tribal areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan making it their nerve centre, Obama Administration's top counter-terrorism official said today.

"Al-Qaeda, the beating heart of the global network remains located in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region," Garry Reid, Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary for Special Operation and Combating Terrorism, told US lawmakers.

"The President has made clear that the mission of the United States in Afghanistan-Pakistan is to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda and prevent its return to both countries," he said.

Despite the setbacks al-Qaeda has suffered, the Taliban and other extremist groups continue to provide it with support and it thus remains a capable and dangerous enemy, Reid noted.

Source:ptinews.com/

Fighting in Somalia displaces 63,000 people



In just the past 19 days, an estimated 63,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Somalia by fighting involving government forces and militias, combined with "general insecurity," the United Nations' refugee agency said Tuesday.

Some 14,000 of that number were displaced "from and within" Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in the past two weeks, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Roberta Russo said in a news release.

Fighting in the city on January 13 between government forces and members of the Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam militias resulted in the death of at least 10 people, some of them children, she said.

In addition, the government-aligned Alu Sunna Wal Jamma militia battled Hisb-ul-Islam fighters around Belet Weyne in central Somalia on January 9, with reports of at least 30 civilians killed and 50 wounded, she said.

"Thousands of people have been forced to flee from their homes and an estimated 11,900 have temporarily settled around Belet Weyne in appalling conditions," Russo wrote.

There are already another 50,000 internally displaced people in the surrounding Hiraan region, bordering Ethiopia, she said.

The refugee agency also estimates that about 28,800 people have been displaced in the area around the town of Dhuusamareeb, in the Galgaduud region in central Somalia, and "are in urgent need of shelter, water and health care," she said.

Clashes between Alu Sunna Wal Jamma and Al-Shabaab have flared up again in recent days in the region, Russo said, referring to "sketchy reports" of 150 people killed and 80 wounded in the fighting.

"As the struggle for control of the territory continues, insecurity makes it extremely difficult for aid workers to access the area and deliver vital assistance," she wrote.

She did not specify where the other estimated 8,000 people were displaced from.

Somalia continues to be one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with some 1.5 million internally displaced people and more than 560,000 people living as refugees in neighboring countries, the refugee agency says, mainly in Kenya (309,000), Yemen (163,000) and Ethiopia (59,000).

Source:edition.cnn.com/

Out of Africa



Richard Foale, 43, flies people around in his helicopter. His passengers are tourists and the terrain they fly over is the mountains and pastures of Taranaki.

A few years ago, Mr Foale's passengers were members of the United Nations and NGOs and the land they flew over was the mountains and deserts of Somalia.

Think Blackhawk Down.

He was already in Somalia when the Americans arrived. Born in Kenya, Mr Foale had returned home after six years in the British Army Air Corps and was looking for a job. A bloke he knew said: How does Somalia sound? He didn't have much time to ponder the question because he was on a plane the next day.

In Somalia, Mr Foale worked for an American company that ran the airports at Mogadishu and Djibouti, the small country (and capital of the same name) north of Somalia. The former French colony's capital is the hottest city in the world, Mr Foale says. "When I was flying the Cessna Caravan [a plane] from Djibouti, we had to get airborne early in the morning before the temperature reached 50 degrees Centigrade. Once that happened, you weren't allowed to operate the aircraft."

The company didn't have the lease for helicopters, so he flew planes.

Mr Foale flew UN and NGO staff around Somalia, sometimes landing on roads when airstrips were held by the wrong side.

"In a lot of the places we landed, we had to pay a landing fee to a bunch of rebels sitting in a ute with an antiaircraft gun sitting on the back."

Blackhawk Down gave a very American version of the story, he says. The Hollywood version.

"The Americans . . . arrived in landing boats on the beaches at Mogadishu and were met by CNN and all the camera crews lighting up the beaches to get shots of everybody landing. It was ridiculous."

There weren't rebels or any other armed people there waiting. The Americans walked in - it wasn't like D-Day.

There were many nationalities in Somalia working for the UN: a Kiwi contingent, Pakistani, Malaysian, Irish, not just Americans. Though the movie does mention the Pakistanis, he says.

"It was just that the Americans had this inability to patrol outside their [three] bases. They went everywhere in their armoured vehicles and so had no interaction with the people whatsoever."

Initially the Somalis were very keen to have Americans around, he says. It was good for business. There was huge trade "through the fence" - black market - and everyone was very friendly. But then it all went badly wrong. The Blackhawk aircraft were shot out of the sky.

Ad Feedback The Americans retaliated with a Hercules, which had a "bloody great gun" on the back, flying at 8000ft and shooting into the night.

"And we used to sit there in our campsite in Mogadishu and watch this thing going around and blasting . . . It was blowing great big holes into a shanty town. It was complete random firing. They didn't know who they were firing at, basically. It was just retaliation."

The minute the retaliation started, the Somalis' attitude towards the Americans changed, he says, "in fact, any white person. That was the turning point . . . The atmosphere really changed."

It was fascinating, he says, sitting at Mogadishu airport watching all the tracer rounds being shot in the city, which was only 3 or 4 kilometres away.

"And we were sitting on rocks drinking wine and beer, like in a movie. I always relate it to a movie called Air America."

The Americans turned up with masses of machinery, their own shops, everything.

"We could buy everything there. We made an awful lot of money as a group by setting up a bar at the terminal and we had Somalis running it for us. We were buying stock from the American PX at one price, vastly inflating it and selling it over here at the terminal. We were making way too much money, which meant we were able to employ a Somali chef at our campsite and we were eating lobster every evening and throwing a party every evening for whoever wanted to turn up."

It was a wild time, he says.

"I was sleeping above two AK47 rifles that we all had. And everyone knew we had them. We all equipped ourselves like that. It was madness. All the tents had sandbags around them."

He would go for a jog every evening, from one end of the airport to the other. One night he and a friend suddenly had tracer rounds landing all around them. They lay flat in the sand until it was dark and then ran back to safety.

"I'll never know if they were aiming at us or just stray rounds."

One night he was up at the Kiwi camp for a party. Several were standing out the back of the tent, as blokes do, having a pee, when a mortar landed 20ft from them. It didn't go off.

Most of the mortars didn't go off, he says.

Every time the Lear jets would arrive at the airport, the Somalis would know important people were arriving and start lobbing mortars over the perimeter. The whole airfield would immediately get closed down, the sirens would sound and the Americans, dressed in flak jackets, stayed hidden in their foxholes, Mr Foale says.

"We had all these very expensive aircraft that needed fuel, so a couple of us guys from Kenya used to wander out in T-shirts, shorts and jandals and refuel the aircraft while the soldiers were hiding underground. They must have thought we were complete idiots."

The chance of being hit by a mortar was remote. They weren't that accurate and most of them didn't go off. Every day the Americans would the scan airport and find mortars that had come in overnight and the bomb squad would be called in to defuse them.

It was madness, he says again - but character building.

His company lost some of its contracts in Somalia, so Mr Foale went back to Kenya and worked for a trucking company and indulged his interest in motor sport. He drove in the Safari Rally, which was then part of the World Rally Championship. He then flew helicopters for a tourism company. The boss got some work in Somalia, but Mr Foale wasn't interested. He argued that it wasn't a good idea to fly helicopters in Somalia because of the possibility they could be hijacked.

"There were lots of aircraft flying into Somalia, but on to safe airstrips - you knew who you were paying. The trouble with helicopters is their ability to land anywhere. And the minute you land anywhere, somebody can turn up round the next bush and point an antiaircraft gun in your direction and demand money."

But eventually he was convinced it would be OK and he went back to Somalia, this time flying choppers.

He flew a Dauphin, a large helicopter that had come from South Africa, where it used to fly Nelson Mandela around.

"We were flying a very wealthy Arab who was supposedly doing something with wildlife in Somaliland, which is in the north, but in fact all he was doing was financing his own private hunting safari."

For some reason, the Arab wasn't allowed to stay overnight in the bush at the camp with the rest of his countrymen, so every night he would be flown back to the city.

The pilots had a procedure whereby they would contact the camp by radio each morning before they landed. One morning there was no answer, so Mr Foale, his South African co-pilot and the Arab did a low-level pass to have a look. The two pilots didn't like what they saw. Convinced something was wrong, they turned back. Their passenger wasn't happy.

They later found out the camp had been overrun by Somalians and the Arab's cousin had been shot. That evening, the Arabs left Somalia in an airbus, never to return, leaving the contractors sitting around wondering what to do next. All their equipment was still out at the camp and the South African pilots were all for going out and getting it, Mr Foale says.

"But myself and the most senior pilot said no, it's not sensible.

"That night, we went to the airport and loaded two 40 gallon drums in the back of a big VIP helicopter and filled it up with jet fuel."

There was also a smaller helicopter that had quite a few Jerry cans in it.

At 4am, the contractors took off for Kenya. It was a long flight and they didn't have the capability of flying all the way down Somalia, so they took a shortcut across Ethiopia.

"That was a dangerous thing, because we didn't have clearances or anything, but to be honest, we weren't that worried. I don't think they were going to find us."

They had to land quite often to transfer fuel to the smaller chopper.

"I'll never forget the radio call that we made to air traffic control in Kenya."

The Kenyans were concerned about their lack of flight plan and told them to fly to the military base.

"But we gave them telephone numbers for our boss in Nairobi and he was able to clarify things . . . that's the last time I set foot in Somalia."

Not long after he got back, a company came out to Kenya to film the World Rally Championship and the boss offered him work in the UK at the race circuit in Silverstone. There had to be a medical helicopter there as part of the contract with the drivers.

Mr Foale was there when Michael Schumacher crashed and he flew him to hospital.

Schumacher's manager, Jean Todt, now president of FIA, tried to climb into the helicopter. Mr Foale had to be quite forceful, he says. There was only room for the patient, the doctor and the pilot.

Meanwhile, Mr Foale's sister Debbie had met a Kiwi and moved to New Zealand. Mr Foale and his partner and now wife, Jolanda, came out for the wedding and loved it.

A year later, they moved here.

"I was tired of the British weather and wanted to get back to the colonial way of life."

Kenya was a British colony that gained independence in 1963 and Mr Foale calls himself a colonial.

He went to a Nairobi primary school, which had 120 pupils, 118 of them colonials. The colonial children went to high school in the UK, taking over a 747 at the beginning of each term.

Mr Foale's father ran a civil engineering and building company and did extensive work through East Africa.

"My father was a pilot and because we did so much work in East Africa - the distance is very large out there - he had Cessna aircraft. So, from a very young age I was always sitting next to him, often holding the controls."

When he first left school, Mr Foale went back to Kenya and helped in the family business. At that time, the firm was building a house up round Mt Kenya for the actress Stephanie Powers, famous for her role in the television series Hart to Hart.

Mr Foale was the intermediary between the actress, who had moved in before the house was finished, and the workforce.

"It's difficult to continue building a house when somebody won't get out of bed until about midday and then is obviously somewhat upset by the noise we were producing. Well, yes, we are still trying to finish your house."

It probably put him off the building industry.

"I decided I wanted to get into aviation and one of the ways to get into aviation and get a good training with not a lot of outlay was to join the military."

So Mr Foale went back to Britain. He joined the army, because it had more helicopters than the air force.

"I started officer training at Sandhurst, but being a colonial, they said, We're not going to send you to Sandhurst straight away because you need a bit of educating."

They sent him to a course at Beaconsfield, which was hard work but good fun.

"They used to take us to the theatre in London to try to broaden our outlook. And we did a lot of military history, as well, which was incredibly boring."

And then there were the 5.30am starts to go jogging. The course lasted six months, then it was on to Sandhurst. After finishing his training, he wasn't able to go straight on to the flying course; instead, he was attached to the Royal Anglian Regiment as a platoon commander. The regiment was based in Germany, but Mr Foale spent most of his time in Canada.

Back in England, he did his flying training starting on planes - Chipmonks - before moving on to Gazelle helicopters.

He was then sent to Germany and Canada. And he also did a stint in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

"We were in helicopters, so felt somewhat removed. We did a lot of border security. I saw a bomb go off in downtown Belfast - we were right on top of it. We were given a warning about 10 minutes beforehand and we got airborne and the bomb went off underneath us."

Mr Foale had a good friend who was based at the border in south Armagh.

"It was very difficult for him and he was very nervous because his face would have been recognised by anybody in any bar. I could go flying, land at the airport at the end of the day . . . change into my civilian clothes and head off into Belfast . . . It was probably a whole lot easier for me to interact with the local community because I could pretend to be someone totally different. I didn't have to be anything to do with the army . . . A lot of people loved the army, but you never knew who you were talking to. I used to talk about Kenya and pretend I was a visitor. That became a bit difficult when I kept visiting the same bars too often."

Canada was a lot more peaceful. His last year in the army was spent in Medicine Hat, east of Calgary.

"We had five helicopters based there in the mountains. That was interesting flying. In winter, temperatures would get down to minus 20 - not that we did a helluva lot in the winter, but we did keep flying a little bit. We mainly went skiing."

After six years with the British Army Air Corps, Mr Foale moved on. His first stop was to get his commercial licences, then he went home to Kenya just before his sojourn in Somalia.

These days his life is much quieter. He is a family man with wife Jolanda and baby daughter Safi. They own Heliview Taranaki and take people on scenic flights. Before that, he worked for the rescue helicopter.

"I love Taranaki. It's fantastic. People don't realise how lucky they are to go surfing then skiing in the afternoon. And what better way of seeing it than the way I do? Eight o'clock last night, the mountain came out. There was the sunset. When seeing it from the air, you really appreciate it."

Source:stuff.co.nz/

Obama: No Plan to Send US Troops to Yemen, Somalia



U.S. President Barack Obama says he has no intention to send American troops to battle extremists in Yemen or Somalia.

In an interview with People magazine to be published this Friday, Mr. Obama said he believes the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan remains the "epicenter" of al-Qaida's leadership and activity.

Mr. Obama said he would never rule out any possibility in what he called a "complex world," but said the most effective approach in dealing with lawless areas around the globe is for the U.S. to work with "international partners."

A Yemen-based al-Qaida branch claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas Day, December 25, bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner, prompting concerns about rising terrorist activity in Yemen.

Mr. Obama says he knows al-Qaida in Yemen has become a more serious problem, and that the U.S. is working with Yemen's government to root out terrorist training camps and cells.

But despite U.S. pressure to crack down on the terrorist group, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Sunday he is open to dialogue with al-Qaida militants.

In an interview with Abu Dhabi television, Mr. Saleh said he is ready to deal with any al-Qaida members who lay down their arms, renounce violence and "return to reason," as he put it.

Yemen's government says it has been successful in conducting operations against what it says are al-Qaida targets. Sana'a says air strikes last month killed at least 34 militants, but conflicting reports from witnesses say at least some of those killed had no connection to al-Qaida.

Source:voanews.com/