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/
Showing posts with label UN suspends food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UN suspends food. Show all posts
Saturday, January 23, 2010
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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
UN suspends food aid to southern Somalia
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) suspended its food relief operations today, citing repeated threats by Al Shabab commanders, raids on its offices, and detention of its staff. Al Shabab commanders in the southern portion of Somalia had gone as far as demanding monetary payments to ensure the security of WFP staff, and also placed demands that WFP found untenable, such as firing of Somali women staffers and coordinators of food-relief programs.
“Ninety-five percent of the territory where WFP operates is controlled by Al Shabab, and in November, Shabab gave us a list of 11 conditions for aid agencies to meet, including removing women from jobs in aid work,” says Peter Smerdon, spokesman for WFP in Nairobi, where most of the agency’s Somali operations are coordinated. “They also made a demand for payment of $20,000 over six months for security. We can’t agree to the conditions and to that payment, so feel that it is time to pull out for the moment.”
Humanitarian crisis brewing?
While WFP will continue to deliver aid in parts of Somalia that are not under the control of Al Shabab, reaching up to 1.8 million people, the pull out of food relief is almost certain to have profound effects on the Somali population.
Nearly 2.2 million Somalis receive food aid every month, and nearly 71 percent of the Somali population suffer from under-nourishment, according to UN reports.
After years of drought and war, local farmers are simply unable to meet the need without outside assistance. Fighting for control of the country has already displaced 1.55 million Somalis from their homes but within Somalia, and hunger is likely to send Somalis on the move again, perhaps joining the millions of others have been forced from their country altogether, into Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen, and beyond.
What is Al Shabab?
Al Shabab is an offshoot of Islamists who ruled Somalia for six months, from July to Dec. 2006, before being ousted by US-backed Ethiopian troops. Radicals from the Islamic Courts Union government reformed their forces and began a war of attrition with Ethiopia. By the time the Ethiopians retreated, with the formation of a broadly based transitional Somali government, Al Shabab had taken over vast swaths of the south, and much of the nation’s capital, Mogadishu remains under Shabab control.
The pullout of food aid reflects the hard line of Al Shabab, which increasingly appears to be led by foreign jihadists, who are replacing the local Islamists agenda of mere governmental takeover with a much broader objective of taking on the West in a permanent jihad. Shabab’s top leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, appears to have been sidelined after he disavowed the suicide bomb blast in a Mogadishu market that killed some 23 people. Security experts say that Mr. Godane has been replaced by foreign Islamists, who have no ties with the community, and no qualms about the effects of bomb blasts or cutoffs on the local population.
“The movement has been captured by foreign jihadists,” says one Somali expert who refused to be named for fear of retribution. “They are moving away from the local agenda for political control to a global jihad agenda.”
Source:csmonitor.com/
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