MV MARATHON Hijacked – Ecoterra Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor - XXXI

In this article, I republish excerpts from the 30th Ecoterra press release that makes available the latest news and a wide array of comments, analyses and republications.

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) - XXXI

Ecoterra International – Updates & Statements, Review & Clearing-house

A Voice from the Truth- & Justice-Seekers, who sit between all chairs, because they are not part of organized white-collar or no-collar-crime in Somalia or overseas, and who neither benefit from global naval militarization, from the illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters or the piracy of merchant vessels, nor from the booming insurance business or the exorbitant ransom-, risk-management- or security industry, while neither the protection of the sea, the development of fishing communities nor the humanitarian assistance to abducted seafarers and their families is receiving the required adequate attention, care and funding.

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act". George Orwell

2009-05-07 23h44:28 UTC

EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hotline: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) - email: somalia@ecoterra.net

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: SMS to +254-738-497979 or call +254-733-633-733

"The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream!"

Capt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y Tanit - killed by attack of French commandos - 10. April 2009

Non A La Guerre - Yes To Peace

(Inscription on the sail of F/Y TANIT shot down on day one of the French assault)

None of the various, local or foreign pirate outfits we like to add -

Clearing-house

News from sea-jackings, abductions or newly attacked ships

Somali pirates sea-jacked the Netherlands Antilles-flagged MV MARATHON, a Dutch ship with a crew of eight Ukrainian sailors on board, in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, a regional maritime group said and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirmed as well as the ship's owner-manager, Cargadoor Amons & Co. and ISM manager Marathon. According to the Ukrainian Embassy in the Netherlands, the crew includes eight sailors and all of them are Ukrainians. "The crew are said to be safe", said Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers Assistance Program. The 2,575-tonne "Marathon" with coke (coal-derivative) was heading westbound through the Gulf of Aden when it was seized, he said. The Dutch ship-operating company and the Dutch Embassy in Ukraine have confirmed the seizure of the vessel too. Vessel is not covered by ITF Agreement. The Ukrainian ministry has ordered Ukraine's embassies in the Netherlands and Kenya to investigate the incident and establish contact with the owner of the ship and its operator to aid the "swift release" of Ukrainian nationals, the statement said. Ukraine had to solve the case of the still mysterious weapons-ship MV FAINA, which took them 134 days. MV MARATHON, sporting as registered owner in the Netherlands Antilles a company called Western Marine Transport NV, was seized on Thursday some 185 kilometers (115 miles) southeast of the Yemeni port of Mukalla, the Ukrainian Embassy in the Netherlands said. In a similar incident, a Ukrainian cargo ship was seized by Somali pirates in September 2008. The FAINA with the crew of 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and one Latvian was only released in February after the pirates received a reported $3.2 million ransom. The ship's Russian captain, Vladimir Kolobov died of a heart attack soon after the ship was seized. Pirates are increasingly active in the waters off Somalia, which has no central government and no navy to police its coastline.

Suspected Somali pirates have attacked a US Navy support boat off the coast of the troubled Horn of Africa state, the US Navy said Thursday. U The targeted vessel, the USNS Lewis and Clark, a Norfolk-based dry cargo and ammunition storage ships, is no stranger to pirates. Earlier this year, the ship was used as a temporarily jail for suspected Somali pirates after about a dozen men were captured by a Navy-led, anti-piracy task force. The suspected pirates were eventually returned to Somalia. The a civilian ship normally used to transport cargo and ammunition, used to be configured to hold about a dozen pirates — and at one point held as many as 16 suspects. The supply vessel with a crew of about 11 sailors and 124 civilians, was chased for more than an hour by two pirate boats, taking emergency evasive action after being fired upon by small arms in the attack on Wednesday morning, the US Navy 5th Fleet said in a statement. The supply boat was "approached by suspected pirates off the eastern coast of Somalia and took evasive action to prevent a successful attack", the statement said. >From about two nautical miles away, the armed men in the skiffs fired small arms at the supply ship and got within a nautical mile, but the bullets fell short of reaching the target. The supply ship sped up and used a special acoustic device to warn the boats to stop. Eventually the two attacking boats gave up and retreated. The Lewis and Clark has an "embarked security team", according to a Central Command news release.

It’s not clear whether the team is armed, or whether the boat has any guns mounted on it for protection. Capt. Steve Kelley, commander of Task Force 53, which the supply ship is assigned to, said the crew’s actions "were exactly what the U.S. Navy has been recommending to prevent piracy attacks for both commercial and military vessels. Merchant mariners can and should use Lewis and Clark’s actions as an unequivocal example of how to prevent a successful attack from occurring". Until March, the Military Sealift Command ship had served as a staging platform for the U.S.-led Combined Task Force 151. In February, 16 suspected pirates nabbed in separate incidents were detained on the Lewis and Clark until the Navy could transfer them to Kenya. In March, it no longer was needed to combat the piracy efforts, and reverted to its main mission as a cargo ship in support of military operations in the area, officials said. The Navy-contracted ship was sailing north about 115 miles off of Somalia’s coast to provide supplies for U.S. Navy and coalition ships operating in the area. It was carrying primarily fuel, Christensen said, but it is also used to re-supply ships at sea with food, supplies and parts, and often delivers sailors’ mail. An embarked U.S. military security crew did not fire any weapons at the skiffs, and used only a Long Range Acoustical Device, or LRAD, to issue verbal warnings, Christensen said. The security team did not return fire because it is primarily there to provide "point defense" for the ship and crew, Christensen said.

A Spanish navy warship on Thursday captured seven suspected pirates who they said tried to attack a merchant ship off the Somali coast, the Spanish government said. They intervened in response to a call for help from the Maltese-flagged ANNE PETRAKIS, the defense ministry said.

They sent their helicopter to the scene, at which point the pirates to aborted their attempt to board the merchant ship, said the ministry statement.
The suspects tried to flee but surrendered after the helicopter fired several warning shorts. Spanish marines also confiscated two guns and a grenade launcher, AFP reported.

A Spanish judge Thursday ordered seven suspected pirates to be placed in custody and brought to Spain after they were captured by a Spanish vessel off Somalia, judicial sources said. National Court judge Fernando Andreu said the suspects had to be imprisoned so that the Defence Ministry could bring them to Spain for questioning. The seven were being kept on board the military tanker Marques de la Ensenada, which is participating in European Union patrols against pirates in the Indian Ocean. Its crew rescued and arrested the suspects, who had fallen into the water after their boat capsized when they were trying to board the Panamanian-flagged vessel MV NEPHELI on Wednesday. The Spaniards seized objects that could serve as evidence that the detainees were pirates, including their boat and a ladder, judicial sources said. Andreu was investigating whether the suspects could face trial in Spain, given that the incident occurred in international waters. Prosecutors asked Andreu to issue a jailing order, arguing that piracy fell under the principle of international jurisdiction. Andreu issued the order after the suspects had been identified. The warship is part in European Union anti-pirate patrols in the region. Last month the Spanish detained nine suspected Somalian pirates believed to have launched a failed attack on an Italian cruise ship. It handed the nine suspects over to the authorities in the Seychelles.

The MV VICTORIA, a German cargo ship with 11 Romanian crew, was captured by Somali pirates on Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden. Now the wife and mother of two Romanian sailors kidnapped by Somali pirates made an emotional plea for their safety. Elena Sarchizian told Associated Press Television News that she would give "my heart and soul" to have her husband and daughter safely returned. She said Thursday she has been praying ever since she heard about the kidnapping. Sarchizian's husband Hartin is the ship's chief mechanic and her 30-year-old daughter Ruxandra is a naval officer on the MV Victoria. Kru Martime, the manning agent, has identified the 11 sailors. Eight are from the Black Sea port of Constanta, including the Sarchizians.

MV SEAPRINCESS II has arrived in Aden / Yemen after it had left Bosaaso under armed escort. An investigation into the sea-jacking case has been launched.

Navies have apparently still not found or arrested the Murder Ship

MT AGIA BARBARA: still at large !

Crew Wanted for Murder

The position and route of the vessel with a crew of 6 Syrians and 6 Indians - wanted for murder in Mogadishu harbour - as well as at least one Somali business-agent on board are now roughly known. The small tanker with the IMO number 7616004 and call sign HO4050 flies a Panama flag (possibly now changed). Registered ship owner and manager is MEADOWLARK SHIPPING & TRADING CO. of Piraeus in Greece and the tanker is operated from an office in the UAE. Please report any sighting.

Meanwhile MEADOWLARK SHIPPING & TRADING CO. claims that it is no longer the owner of the vessel. In an unspecified e-mail an unidentified sender claimed that MEADOWLARK SHIPPING & TRADING CO. is incorrectly registered as owner in the shipping registers and that the MT AGIA BARBARA was sold to new owners and would be managed by new managers since September 2008. The sender further stated that the current owners would be WORLD CHAMPION MARINE (the Buyer) and not MEADOWLARK SHIPPING & TRADING CO. (the Seller).

WORLD CHAMPION MARINE, however, could so far not be traced. Unconfirmed reports warn that the vessel if not stopped immediately could reach Eritrea or Sudan and the crew could disappear from there. The Somali Government has officially requested all navies and coastal authorities to immediately impound the vessel and to arrest the crew. Vessel picture: http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=70209 Please report any sighting to: somalia[at]ecoterra.net

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 20 foreign vessels (21 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) with a total of not less than 297 crew members accounted for (of which 84 are confirmed to be Filipinos (plus maybe 16 of recently captured MV PATRIOT) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 79 averted or abandoned attacks with 36 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least two wrongful attacks (incl. friendly fire) on the side of the naval forces. Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures.

Directly piracy related reports

Beyond Piracy: Next Steps to Stabilize Somalia

Enough Project

For the first time in a long time, Americans are paying attention to what their government does in Somalia. Following last month's hostage drama off the coast of Somalia, President Barack Obama is under increasing political pressure to address the threat of piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Yet, while short-term measures to curb pirate attacks are certainly necessary, the Obama administration must not allow the politics of the piracy problem to distract it from putting in place a long-term strategy to help Somalis forge a state that, with measured external support, can fight piracy, promote peace and reconciliation, and combat terrorism.

Enough's latest strategy paper analyzes the current situation in Somalia and provides recommendations for how the United States and others can help Somalis address multiple security threats. "For state-building efforts to succeed, the Obama administration must privilege long-term political solutions over short-term military responses to the threats of piracy and terrorism in Somalia and chart a new course that privileges Somali-driven political processes, prioritizes inclusive governance, and respects Somali preferences," says Professor Ken Menkhaus, a noted Somalia expert and one of the paper's authors.

"The election of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and the establishment of a moderate Islamist government under his authority are potentially the best chance Somalia has had to pull itself out of nearly two decades of state collapse", says Enough co-Founder John Prendergast. "In fighting terrorism on land and piracy at sea, U.S. national security interests will be better secured if we align ourselves more with the interest of most Somalis in better security and effective governance".

Enough Policy Advisor Colin Thomas-Jensen adds: "The immediate challenges for the United States and other external actors are helping to ensure that the transitional Somali government pays its security forces, providing training and non-lethal equipment conditioned on their improved conduct, and establishing oversight mechanisms to ensure that funding does not support abusive forces or political score-settling".

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The Somalia Piracy
By Kanini Evans Kariuki

Somalia´s sea piracy started by the vacuum of authority after the collapse of the Somalia government in January 1991. Somalia entered a civil war cycle that culminated in the loss of hundreds of lives and internal displacement of millions, and exodus of refugees to neighboring nations, Europe, North America, Australia , New Zealand and the Middle East.

This civil strife had caused man-made salvation in the South West regions of Somalia , and this had warranted the intervention of the American – led forces called Store hope mission, ordered by then President Senior Bush.

The mission landed at Mogadishu sea port composed of 28,000 forces of 28 nations, under the command of the Americans. The Somalis were expecting complete disarmament and they prepared themselves to surrender voluntarily. This has been encouraged by the Western Europeans headed by the French and the Italians. But the Americans out rightly rejected the disarming of the Somali militia and public individuals.

It was a golden opportunity for the Somalia peace, reconciliation and state stabilization. Then subsequently emerged the confrontation between General Aideed and UNSOM and it ultimately made the whole mission to fail.

It is apparent that the Americans were not ready to pacify Somalia . This has been demonstrated by the support of the warlords, as the latter were holding cabinet positions in the Transitional Federal government.

The argument among the administration of the President junior Bush caused the first secretary of the American Embassy at Nairobi, Mr. Michael Zurich, to be transferred from Nairobi to Chad , after he obstructed the idea of supporting the warlords!

This indicates that the American administration was not having a clear policy to deal with Somalia.

At present, it still seems the Americans have not changed their positions even with President Barrack Obama at the helm. But Somali's are expecting that after the capture of the American captain by the sea pirates, the American public pressure and the danger the sea piracy is imposing on the world trade, and the vessels carrying goods, are threatened by the sea piracy coupled with the current world economic dilemma that may force the current American administration place a plan to fight the sea piracy.

In order to solve the Somali problem, the international community should establish the law enforcing bodies in the land, and assist the regional administrations, particularly in Puntland to enable its authority put in place capable security agencies, courts, rehabilitation centers and a package for training the unemployed youth who are engaged in sea piracy operations.
To succeed in defeating the sea pirates, the youngsters who are involved in the vice must be rehabilitated and trained in skills and trades such as electricians, carpentry, masonry, plumbing and etcetera to mould them into useful and responsible citizens.
Moreover, the current Transitional Somali institutions need to be supported financially and human resource wise so that they can operate in a fashion of transparency and accountability. This calls for formulating a plan for the qualified Somali Diaspora to return to Somalia instead of the foreigners who are presently working for Somalia in outside centers. To encourage these qualified Somalis to return, the government has to provide incentives for free land.

Reinstating a legitimate authority which is capable of delivering services and securing the safety of the public, will prevent a spillover over of the extremist activities to the neighboring countries of Somalia . Hence, the security and stability of Somalia is fatally important for the whole world. Unless otherwise, Somalia will be a safe haven for the extremists.

The Somali pirates claim that they were forced to organize themselves to defend their sea waters after foreign nations commenced to fish illegally in Somalia territorial water of and marines. These foreigners had destroyed and over ran the fishing nets of Somali fisheries as well as killing some Somali fishermen and sinking their fishing boats, according to sources.

As a result of this, Somali fishermen organized themselves and started to confront these illegal fishing foreigners and later on, the Somali fishermen opted to form an organization called "The Guards of Somali Marine Resources". Some of the Somalis sympathize with the pirates as they denied that their organization was aimed at protecting the marine resources, after some foreigners took the opportunity of looting the resources.

Even in the last Heads of States meeting in Addis Ababa, Libyan strongman Muamar Gadaffi, praised the role of the pirates saying they were defending their resources.

Anti-piracy measures

In Somalia's semi-autonomous northern province, Puntland, which is a base for various sea-gangs, hundreds of people marched against piracy in the regional capital Garowe. Chanting and waving slogans, the demonstrators urged locals to shun pirates and refuse to engage in business with them. "They have disrupted our lives and our relations with other countries", said one protester Abdiyare Hamud. "I am requesting Puntland residents and Somalia as a whole not to assist them. If we stop having any transaction with them, do not sell a single shirt, give them a cup of tea, or rent them a hotel room, where can they survive? Nowhere". Addressing the crowd, Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole said piracy was ruining the region's reputation, reported Reuters. "Piracy has discredited Puntland's name and we have to fight them at one front. I am very happy to see the public opposing them. I call for you (pirates) to release the ships and hostages you are holding unconditionally," he said.

Military action could make pirates more aggressive
By Jumana Al Tamimi

Dubai: Security experts are warning of the consequences of resorting to military option in combating piracy off the Somali coasts for a long term.

The more aggressive the West gets in dealing with piracy, the more the risk of making pirates violent in their operations becomes, they said.

Warnings coincided with Western countries' seizure of explosives from pirates in the last few days in what appears an indication that pirates are adapting new tactics to face ships' crews training in countering piracy.

"This is the problem that we saw earlier", Nicole Stracke, a researcher in security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre, said.

"The more aggressive and offensive the counter-measures are going to be, the more aggressive pirates are going to react", she said.

"Pirates have not really harmed a lot of hostages and this is likely to change, and more aggressive that they may hurt even hostages. This is the risk".

While the military option seems effective in the short term, it will not yield results in the long term, Stracke, who wrote a research paper on pricy in Somalia, said in an interview with Gulf News.

A comprehensive solution to the Somali problems is needed, including stabilising the African country, she stressed. "Military action is limited at this point", Stracke said.

Coming up with financial resources and developing capabilities to protect the whole region, including the vast Somalia coasts, seems a difficult task at present, she said.

Pirates have increased their attacks off the Somali coasts, threatening a strategic trade and naval passage.

During this year, nearly 100 ships have been attacked by pirates, despite the deployment of warships from over a dozen countries to protect the vital Gulf of Aden shipping route.

Earlier this week, a French defence ministry spokesman announced the interception of 11 armed pirates off the Somalia coasts.

They were traveling in two vessels and a "mothership" loaded with provisions and Kalashnikovs, explosives and rocket launchers.

On Saturday, special forces on a Portuguese warship seized explosives from suspected Somali pirates after thwarting an attack on an oil tanker. Nineteen men were freed later. AT the same time, pirates seized a cargo ship to raise the number of ships they are holding to 17 and the number of crews taken hostages to 300.

Usually, pirates ask for ransom to release their hostage.

It was the first time that pirates were found armed with raw explosives - a development that military officers believe indicate that the pirates are adapting their tactics as crews become more trained in counter-piracy measures.

Somali piracy has became a highly organised activity, wrote Stracke in her research.

"As a result, piracy has developed its own dynamic and now resembles a professional and highly organised business venture, starting from the selection of maritime targets to the final stage of receiving and dispensing the ransom".

Until the international community is able to solve the larger problem of Somalia and rebuild the state, "it is likely that Somali piracy will continue to pose a threat to the security and freedom of international maritime navigation in the immediate future", the paper concluded.

Meanwhile, reports on Thursday said pirates seized a Dutch cargo vessel in the latest hijack by gangs proliferating off Somalia despite the presence of patrolling foreign warships.

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Marine ecosystem and IUU fishing

Somalia MPs are now demanding compensation from some Western countries for "looting" the horn of Africa country’s water resources for the last 18 years. The countries, the legislators said, have engaged in illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste along the Somali coast line. "We want our country to be compensated for years of looting of our water resources", Mr. Ashareh, the leader of the delegation said. As a result of these activities by the countries, they said, Somalis found ways of protecting their water resources "which gave birth to the pirates". The MPs welcomed Somalia’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar statement to reporters in Mogadishu on Wednesday, accusing some foreign ships of "illegal fishing and of dumping industrial waste into Somali waters". The minister said the illegal activities helped piracy in Somali coast by being a pretext to "unscrupulous individuals". Somalia, which has not had an effective central government for nearly the past two decades, does not have a navy or a strong coastguard to protect Somalia’s territorial waters from the rampant piracy, illegal fishing and the dumping of industrial waste by foreign ships.

Mr. Omaar further defended a maritime agreement signed with Kenya last month that caused huge controversy in the war torn east African country. The two governments last Month signed a memorandum of understanding on their maritime boundary which the two countries say will facilitate the presentation of both country’s submissions to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf by May as required under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). "This (Memorandum of Understanding) is not about the government giving other country a span of our land or sea. It is about Kenya and Somalia granting each other non-objection in respect of their submissions on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf to the Commission ( on the Limits of the Continental Shelf)", Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar, Somalia’s Foreign Minister told reporters in Mogadishu. However, the maritime agreement between Somalia and its southern neighbour has caused an angry uproar in Somalia and is increasingly being seen by many including some officials within Somali government itself as being compromising the territorial integrity of Somalia and inadvertently ceding land to Kenya. The deal is expected to be brought before Somalia parliament soon and government ministers would be questioned regarding the maritime agreement with Kenya.

Somalia among top 10 African countries most threatened by sea storm surges
World Bank researchers have crunched population, economic, and elevation maps to analyze which countries are most at risk from storm surges, assuming a one meter rise in sea level (due to climate change).

The April 2009 report, [http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2009/04/14/000158349_20090414102048/Rendered/PDF/WPS4901.pdf] - Sea-Level Rise and Storm Surges - A Comparative Analysis of Impacts in Developing Countries, reveals "very heavy potential losses. [which] further strengthen the case for rapid action to protect endangered coastal populations".

Somalia is one of 10 countries with the largest increases in at-risk land area:
Somalia - http://www.irinnews.org/Africa-Country.aspx?Country=SO

No real peace yet

Militia Leaders Say They'll Help the Unsteady Somalia Government
By Derek Kilner

Leaders of an Islamist militia met with Somalia's president and prime minister in Mogadishu, pledging to work with the fragile government. But renewed fighting between two other Islamist militias in the capital provides a reminder of the continued resistance to the government.

In the presidential palace in Mogadishu, leaders of the Hizbul Islam, or Islamic Party, met with President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Prime Minister Omar Ali Sharmarke.

A spokesman for the Hizbul Islam faction, Daud Mohamed Abtidon, said the group was represented by its leader Mohamed Hassan Amey and its top military commander Yusuf Indha Ade.

He said the leaders had agreed to support the government's efforts to enact Islamic law in the country. And he said the group would work with the government to provide security in Mogadishu.

The current government came to power in January after President Sharif's moderate faction of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, an Islamist opposition group, signed an agreement with the government allowing its members to join the country's parliament.

President Sharif's government has reached out to other Islamist militias by, among other things, passing a decision in parliament to enact Islamic Sharia law. Some of the militias - including the Hizbul Islam faction that met with the president Thursday - have agreed to support the government, while others continue to resist it.

Shortly after Thursday's meeting, fighting broke out in the capital between members of the pro-government Islamic Courts Union and the anti-government al-Shabab, or the Youth, a hard-line Islamist militia with ties to Al Qaida. At least two people have died in the clashes, which started after an assassination attempt on a Shabab leader.

Local media have reported that al-Shabab has brought a large amount of heavy weaponry into the capital in recent days, possibly in preparation for an attack on the African Union peacekeeping mission in the country.

The government also recently accused Eritrea of sending weapons to the insurgents. Eritrea has denied the charge, but the United Nations and other observers have long accused Eritrea of backing Somalia's insurgency. Many of Somalia's Islamist leaders, including the current president, were at one point based in the Eritrean capital.

The United Nations maintains an arms embargo on Somalia, which the government has requested be lifted.

The African Union currently has about 3,500 Ugandan and Burundian troops deployed in the capital. The peacekeepers have become a growing target of insurgents since Ethiopian troops withdrew from the country at the start of the year. At least 22 peacekeepers have been killed so far this year.

Somalia has been without a proper central government since 1991, when the authoritarian ruler Mohamed Siad Barre was removed from power. The instability has contributed to one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and has facilitated a rise in piracy off the Somali coast.

At least two people were killed in fighting between al-Shabab and the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu, witnesses told Shabelle Media on Thursday. The fighting stared after an officer from al-Shabab escaped assassination attempt early on Thursday and one of his security guards was killed when he was attacked in Black sea junction in Mogadishu. Islamic Courts Union officer was seriously wounded and his security guard was killed in the same area on Tuesday. Al-Shabab admitted that one of their fighters was killed and another one was injured in the attack. Uniformed fighters form al-Shabab were deployed in 30 street and the fighting between the Islamic Courts Union and the Shabab started. Different kinds of weapons are being used in the fighting. The sounds of gunfire can be heard in parts of the capital. There is no word from the Somali government which the Islamic Courts Union supports.

Al-shabab was the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006 before they were ousted by the Ethiopian troops. Al-Shabab vowed fighting against the new government led by their former chairman president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, but the Islamic Courts Union decided to work with the government. On the other hand, Dr. Omar Iman one of the Islamist leaders called for the warring sides to stop the fighting and be sympathetic to the civilians in the areas they are fighting. At least four people were killed and dozens wounded Thursday in clashes between Islamist forces backing the Somali government and fighters of a hard-line Islamist group, officials and witnesses said. The pro-government forces attacked a commander of the radical Islamist Shebab rebels in southern Mogadishu, sparking a firefight in which one Shebab fighter was killed. "One of our mujahideens (fighters) died and another was injured, but the targeted commander escaped", a Shebab commander told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said three civilians perished in the fighting, while the deputy director of Mogadishu's Medina hospital, Dahir Dhere, added that 55 civilians had been taken in for treatment. The hardline Islamists frequently target officials in the government of Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate Islamist elected president in January. His administration has no complete control of Mogadishu and lost large swaths of territory in the country's southern and central regions to the hardliners. Two people were killed and fifty-five others were wounded as a senior commander of the Islamist Al-Shabaab movement in Somalia escaped an assassination attempt following an attack on his vehicle in the Somali capital Mogadishu, officials and witnesses said Thursday.

The assassination bid on the commander led to clashes between the hard line Islamist group and fighters loyal to pro-government Islamist faction, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), officials of the Hizbul Islam (Islamic Party), a main opposition group, confirmed to Xinhua. "We have nothing to do with that fratricidal fighting which we condemn in the strongest possible terms and call for its immediate and unconditional cessation", said Muse Arale, spokesman for Hizbul Islam. The clashes between Al-Shabaab fighters and pro-government Islamist forces raged for nearly two hours after the commander known as Qoslaye escaped the assassination attempt unharmed. One of Qoslaye's body guards was killed while another was severely wounded, a witness said. "Almost fifty-five civilians wounded in the fighting this afternoon were brought to our hospital. Most of the injured sustained severe gunshot wounds and included women and children", Dahir Mohamed Mohamed, Deputy Director of Medina Hospital, one of Mogadishu's main health centers, told Xinhua. The hospital official said one of the wounded, an elderly woman, died at the hospital which received most of the casualties from the fighting in the city which has recently remained relatively stable. The clashes in which heavy machineguns and mortars were used died down as night fell in the city, but there are fears that the fighting may resume between the two sides on day break on Friday.

Leaders of the ICU have previously accused Al-Shabaab of several assassinations of senior commanders ICU which is the armed wing of the political organization led by the current President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Al-Shabaab which opposes the Somali government have denied the allegations saying the assassinations were carried by what they characterized as "enemy of Allah". The group, the most radical of all Islamist factions in Somalia, controls almost the entire south-central Somalia including pockets within Mogadishu. Meanwhile a breakaway faction of Hizbul Islam have signed an agreement with the Somali government and pledged to work with it in the pacification of Mogadishu and general reconciliation between the government and other opposition groups including Al-Shabaab.

Hizbul Islam Islamist group, the wing that Sheik Mohamed Hassan Amey leads met with Somali president and his prime minister in the presidential palace, officials said on Thursday. The spokesperson of the Islamist group Sheik Daud Mohamed Abtidon told Shabelle Media that they had a meeting with President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, his Prime Minister Omar Abdirshid Ali Sharmarke, and some government ministers in the presidential palace and said they agreed many issues including the implementation of the Islamic Sharia. He said the security of the capital is crucial and it needs all sides to work it together. He added that there is no reason to oppose the government since it took the Islamic Sharia. The chairman Sheik Mohamed Hassan Amey and the defense secretary of the group Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siyad Indho Ade met president Sharif Sheik Ahmed in the presidential palace. It is yet unclear whether the group will join the government or not, but they had declared that they will work and defend the government if it implements the Islamic Sharia.

This is the latest survey from 2008 and thereby it marks ground zero for the new Government of National Unity of Somalia to improve the situation.

Somalia is Not Free

Freedom in the World - Somalia (2008)
Latest Freedom House Survey
Capital: Mogadishu
Population: 9,100,000
Political Rights Score: 7
Civil Liberties Score: 7
Status: Not Free

Trend Arrow: Somalia received a downward trend arrow as a result of increased restrictions on media freedom, an upsurge in corruption, and the return of widespread chaos and violence following the ouster of the Islamic Courts Union in early 2007.

Overview

War continued to ravage Somalia in 2007, as insurgents—some of them supported by Eritrea—battled Ethiopian and Ethiopian-backed transitional government forces in the streets of Mogadishu. Thousands of civilians were killed, hundreds of thousands fled their homes, and all sides in the conflict were accused of committing war crimes. Meanwhile, corruption increased and media outlets suffered amid the total breakdown of law and order.

Somalia gained independence in 1960 as an amalgam of former British and Italian colonies populated largely by ethnic Somalis. A 1969 coup by an army general, Siad Barre, led to two decades of instability, brutal civil strife, and the manipulation of clan loyalties for political purposes. Somalia was also plagued by natural disasters including floods, drought, and famine. When Barre’s government was toppled in 1991, the clan-based militias began fighting one another, and Somalia has lacked an effective central government ever since.

Extensive television coverage of famine and civil strife that took some 300,000 lives in 1991 and 1992 prompted a UN humanitarian mission led by U.S. forces. The intervention soon deteriorated into urban guerrilla warfare with the Somali militias, and over 100 UN peacekeepers, including 18 U.S. soldiers, were killed. The $4 billion operation was eventually terminated, and international forces had departed by March 1995. Civil conflict continued over the subsequent decade with varying degrees of intensity.
In 2000, many of the faction leaders agreed to participate in a Transitional National Government established at the Conference for National Peace and Reconciliation, hosted by neighboring Djibouti. The conference charter called for a three-year transitional government with a 245-seat Transitional National Assembly. In August, the Assembly elected Abdiqassim Salad Hassan as transitional president. The government and more than 20 rival factions signed a ceasefire in Kenya in October 2002, an initial step toward establishing a lasting federal system. Serious fissures in the process developed over the next year, as some factions launched their own power-sharing negotiations in Mogadishu.

The political process was revitalized in 2004 at another conference in Kenya, which resulted in the establishment of a 275-seat parliament, the Transitional Federal Assembly (TFA), and a new Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The country’s four largest clans were each given 61 TFA seats, and an alliance of minor clans took the remaining 31. The members in October elected controversial Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed to serve a five-year term as the first transitional president. Yusuf had previously been the leader of the breakaway region of Puntland. A month later, he appointed Ali Muhammad Gedi as his prime minister.

Despite the political process, clashes between rival factions continued and hundreds of civilians were killed. The TFG moved from its base in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2005 and established itself by early 2006 in Baidoa, a town about 155 miles north of Mogadishu.

In 2006, a fierce battle for control of Mogadishu broke out between an alliance of warlords and the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a local Islamist group. Critics of the ICU, including Ethiopia and the United States, accused it of links to the terrorist network al-Qaeda. The ICU alleged that the United States was violating a UN weapons embargo by supplying arms to the anti-ICU warlords. By June 2006, the ICU had taken control of Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia, gaining a popular following for its promise to deliver law and order. The TFG in Baidoa feared that it would lose any claims on control of the country and called for the intervention of East African peacekeeping troops, a move bitterly opposed by the ICU.

Meanwhile, the ICU had taken control of the southern city of Kismayo in September 2006 and appeared poised to move on the small territory left to the TFG. By November, peace talks between the TFG and ICU had broken down. Ethiopia said it was obliged to repel the ICU threat, and in December Ethiopian troops were openly deployed in Somalia. A major Ethiopian and TFG offensive ensued late that month, and by year’s end the ICU had been driven from Mogadishu and forced to retreat to the extreme south of the country.

While some international observers hailed the expulsion of the ICU as a new beginning, the following year proved much bloodier for Somalia, as insurgent groups backed by Eritrea—Ethiopia’s bitter rival in the region—began fighting the TFG and Ethiopian troops. In March and April 2007, combat intensified in Mogadishu, and about 400,000 people fled from their homes. According to human rights groups, all sides in the conflict were guilty of war crimes, including attacks on civilian populations. Fighting flared again in November, as UN officials declared that the situation was currently Africa’s worst humanitarian crisis. Also that month, the TFA approved Nur Adde Hassan Hussein as the new prime minister; the increasingly unpopular Gedi had resigned weeks earlier.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Somalia is not an electoral democracy. The Somali state has in many respects ceased to exist. Technically, the country is governed by an internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG), led by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Nur Adde Hassan Hussein. A 275-member Transitional Federal Assembly convened in 2004 and elected Yusuf to a five-year term as president. However, the TFG’s actual control over the country, including the capital—is minimal. Over the course of 2007, Mogadishu was the scene of intense fighting between various groups of Islamist and clan-based insurgents, some of them supported by Eritrea, and the Ethiopian-backed TFG. The country has no effective political parties, and the political process is driven largely by clan loyalty.

Since May 1991, the northwestern region of Somaliland, roughly comprising the territory of the former British colony, has functioned with considerable stability as a de facto independent state, though it has not received international recognition. The region of Puntland, in the northeastern corner of the country, has also been relatively autonomous since 1998. However, unlike Somaliland, it has not sought full independence, declaring only a temporary secession until Somalia is stabilized.

Because of mounting civil unrest and the breakdown of the state, corruption in Somalia is rampant. The situation grew worse in 2007 as the modicum of law and order established by the ICU in 2006 broke down after its ouster. Somalia was ranked 179 in Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index, tying with Burma at the bottom of the list of 180 countries.

Somalia’s charter provides for press freedom, but in practice the media operate under highly dangerous conditions, and the year 2007 proved particularly deadly for Somali journalists. Photocopied dailies and low-grade radio stations have proliferated in Mogadishu and elsewhere since 1991. However, a number of independent outlets ceased operations in 2007, and many of those that remain operate largely as public information sources for the factions they support in the fighting. According to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), which represents journalists in southern Somalia, the TFG shut down five private radio stations in Mogadishu as well as one in Baidoa in 2007. In December the TFA approved a media code that was criticized by press freedom groups for vague and severe restrictions, and it had yet to be signed into law at year’s end. However, given the TFG’s tenuous control over the country, the implementation of any such law would be uncertain. Also in 2007, the mayor of Mogadishu, former warlord Mohamed Omar Habeb, sought to restrict the media with a decree forbidding journalists from reporting on any TFG or Ethiopian military operations.

The NUSOJ reported that eight journalists were assassinated, 53 were arrested, and more than 55 fled the country during the year. Among those killed was Mahad Ahmed Elmi, head of the popular Mogadishu radio station Capital Voice, and two journalists from Horn Afrik radio, including the station’s founder. Foreign journalists rarely venture into central and southern Somalia, and when they do it is at great risk. In December 2007 a French journalist was kidnapped in Puntland but later released. The Mogadishu bureau of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television was closed by the TFG in March.

Somalia has a rich internet presence, maintained predominantly by the Somali Diaspora in Europe, North America, and the Gulf states. Internet and mobile telephone services are widely available in large cities, and users enjoy a fast and inexpensive connection. Nevertheless, owing to pervasive poverty, and the internal displacement of Somalis from Mogadishu and elsewhere, the domestic population has limited access to these resources.

Nearly all Somalis are Sunni Muslims, but there is a very small Christian community. It is difficult to claim that the religious freedom has improved markedly since the ICU’s ouster in late 2006 and early 2007, but the TFG is not as overtly Islamist as the ICU.

The educational system is severely degraded due to the breakdown of the state. As a result, the TFG has had little reason to restrict academic freedom to date.
Freedom of assembly is not respected amid the ongoing violence, and the largely informal economy is inhospitable to organized labor. According to New York–based Human Rights Watch (HRW), the conflict has also had implications for local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other international agencies. The group found that aid workers have been targeted by the warring parties, and that a local human rights group was shuttered during 2007. HRW also reported that the TFG has prevented humanitarian organizations, including the UN World Food Program, from doing their work, affecting the food supply for tens of thousands of people.

There is no judicial system functioning effectively at the national level. In many regions, local authorities administer a mix of Sharia (Islamic law) and traditional Somali forms of justice and reconciliation. The courts of the ICU interpreted Sharia with varying degrees of severity, but some judges have been accused of supporting a radical Islamist style of leadership akin to al-Qaeda or Afghanistan’s Taliban.

Over the course of 2007, the human rights situation in Somalia—which was dismal before the current phase of hostilities—grew even worse. Several international watchdog organizations reported on mass violations of human rights by the Ethiopian military, the TFG, and insurgent groups. According to HRW, thousands of people were killed in indiscriminate attacks on civilian population centers, and hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes.
Most Somalis share the same ethnicity and religion, but clan divisions have long fueled violence in the country. The larger, more powerful clans continue to dominate political life and are able to use their strength to harass the weaker clans.

Women in Somalia face a great deal of discrimination. Female genital mutilation is still practiced in some form on nearly all Somali girls. In its recent report on the conflict in Somalia, HRW recounted cases of women who had been subjected to sexual violence in the course of the war.

Inflation hurting livelihoods in Beletweyne

Prices of basic commodities and house rents have rocketed in the town of Beletweyne in Somalia's Hiiraan region, due to insecurity and large influx of displaced people. "Everything is going up, whether it is rent, water, food or even bus-fare", said Abdirashid Abdullahi, a trader in Beletweyne. He said his rent went up from the equivalent of US$10 five years ago to $75 in May. He added that the cost of transporting goods had also risen dramatically in the past few months. "This has forced me and many other traders to increase our prices", he said. "Unfortunately everyone is affected".

A local journalist, who requested anonymity, told IRIN the economic situation was affecting all sectors of society. "In the past it was the urban poor and the displaced that fared the worst; now even families from Beletweyne are affected", he said. He said families were resorting to sending their children to the market to look for work. "It is becoming normal to see children carrying stuff for people or doing odd-jobs to help the family".

Cost of roadblocks

Abdullahi Ali, a businessman, told IRIN that insecurity in the capital, Mogadishu (also the area's main port), roadblocks and seasonal port closures were disrupting the importation of food and non-food commodities.

"We use the port of Mogadishu or Bosasso [in Puntland, the semi-autonomous region in the northeast", Ali said. "The problem is that there are so many roadblocks to pay that by the time you get your goods they cost nearly twice as much. There are also times when the entire consignment is lost to bandits on the highway".

He said the losses were often passed on to customers.

Ali said many of his customers were buying less than before. "If someone was buying a 50kg bag of rice last month they are now buying half that".

Many small businesses were closing down. "Things are really getting bad and if the situation in the country does not improve soon we may all end up on the street", Ali said.

Impacting reports from the global village

Can We Stop a Pirate 9/11?

It's no big stretch of the imagination for a foreign-policy expert to connect the operations of small-time Somali pirates with big-time terror groups. And, as leading naval defense commanders from around the world tell him, our ports aren't yet prepared for a maritime mob's next big attack. We're not talking ransom notes here.

By Thomas P.M. Barnett

ISTANBUL — For all of America's focus on security at airports and on planes since 9/11, most anti-terrorism experts will still tell you that our biggest threat is not by land, not by air, but by sea. The nightmare scenario involves not so much Somali pirates as security at the ports, with a WMD landing at a coastal population center either by small watercraft or in one of the millions of shipping containers that arrive on our shores each year.

But the pirates remain part of an interconnected, international seafaring mafia of sorts, because the same failed-state conditions that allow Somali pirates to feed on cargo ships attract Al Qaeda and everything that comes with it. Given the piracy-terrorism connections found elsewhere in that part of the world, it's no great leap of faith to connect some dots.

To paraphrase Mao, transnational crime is the sea in which modern terrorism swims. And global recessions hardly bother globalization's criminal underworld, as more scarcity translates into more profits.

Terrorist groups routinely take breaks to engage in organized criminal activity that re-supply them with material and money, and virtually every major terror network has conducted operations on the high seas. And there are more fragile borders than ever to exploit — weak states with no defense while these groups are on break, or, well, Mumbai when they're not.

Obviously, it's easy to hype the piracy threat right now. Hell, whenever Congress holds a hearing, like the Senate's Armed Services Committee did this week, you know the hyperbole has hit the fan. (And the pirates were firing at the U.S. Navy again today.) According to NATO, piracy's recent peak actually came in 2003, with approximately 450 acts worldwide. In the last few years, it's hovered more in the 250-to-300 range, but 2009 gives all indications of being a banner year. Most estimates say the Somali pirates alone pulled in about $150 million in ransom in 2008, and that was only from tapping about one in every 100 cargo ships.

Given those odds, you can expect the shipping companies to continue resisting the calls for armed guards on ships. It's simply easier to write off what are, to them, paltry costs from the occasional ransom payment.

But here's the rub for navies worldwide: Container traffic, while temporarily depressed by the economic slowdown, is expected to continue growing by leaps and bounds in the years ahead, much like it doubled over the last decade. Prior to 9/11, less than 1 percent of containers were seriously inspected, and even today I'd be amazed to come across figures that seriously suggested double-digit percentages were being achieved consistently by anybody, despite the many promises by politicians to have 100 percent transparency in the future.

So if we can expect terror groups to increasingly tap piracy for revenue in the future, and for that market's traffic to continue to grow, eventually we're going to see those domains overlap in some spectacularly bad way. And the scary thing, like 9/11, will be the ransom call we don't get — the alarm being the dangerous cargo itself, employed in some stunning new deadly fashion, resulting in some new "Osama tax" on shipping like the one already imposed on air travel.

Again, without hyping the threat (a practice I am personally and professionally loathe to do), consider the words of U.S. Navy Captain Randy Stroud, director of that NATO "center of excellence" on maritime terrorism: "So far, maritime terror is more potential than problem, which raises the question, 'Are we that good, or have we just been fortunate so far'?"

The Biggest Unguarded Battlefield on Earth

Questions like that scary one abounded here this week when I spoke here at a NATO-sponsored maritime conference attended by well over 100 senior officers from 29 navies representing nations spread across five continents. The setting, apropos enough, was this historic Turkish port city that sits astride the watery division between Europe and Asia known as the Bosporus. The mood was festive enough (that many sea dogs combined with Turkey's legendary hospitality is bound to yield a good time) even as discussions often centered on the most tender of professional subjects: keeping national navies relevant in an age defined by non-state actors and stubborn insurgencies.

As a Dutch admiral quipped, "We need to thank the pirates for reminding NATO there's a maritime dimension".

Misty-eyed romantics (e.g., armchair admirals, certain congressional state delegations, Lou Dobbs) may still dream of vast sea battles with the "rising" Chinese navy, but most naval officers today are in a more constabulary mindset. With 90 percent of commerce still traveling by sea, they see the oceans as globalization's primary "lines of communication" — ungoverned space that happens to take up three-quarters of the Earth's surface and thus needs far more persistent and pervasive policing.

Tellingly, and despite decades of Cold War standoffs with the Soviets, NATO's first declared Article 5 (mutual self-defense) military operation began post-9/11: the still ongoing Active Endeavor to counter terrorism occurring in or from the Mediterranean Sea.

The theme of the conference here was the "future security environment" and what it might demand from the world's navies. NATO's attention is overwhelmingly consumed right now by residual responsibilities in the Balkans and growing ones in Afghanistan (gobbling up 80 percent of alliance meeting time, according to many participants).

But as one Italian admiral put it bluntly to his NATO colleagues, "If [NATO naval forces] can't control piracy off Somalia, then what can we handle"?

The Next Hostage Crisis, or the Next War?

Most people tend to assume that advanced countries own these giant naval fleets capable of instantly responding to any bad activity anywhere on the world's oceans. The truth is, for example, that the U.S. Navy has roughly 300 ships, and typically only about one-third of them are out and about at any one time. Now we've got, without a doubt, the most capable Navy in the world, along with the best Coast Guard (which is surprisingly global in its operations but much less so since 9/11 sucked so many of its assets back to our shores in a classically dumb "firewall" mentality). But after us, it's all downhill in terms of capabilities and numbers and especially operational reach (meaning how far from home waters navies can actually operate with any consistency).
That's why, when the Maersk ALABAMA was recently hijacked and its captain taken hostage, it took nearly a day before a U.S. warship could arrive on the scene for the anti-climatic takedown by Navy SEAL snipers three days later. And that's with a NATO Combined Task Force already operating in the area. You just have to remember the tremendous geographic scope we're talking about here, even when we reduce our vision to just the major shipping lanes.

Plus, there's not a whole lot of international cooperation beyond NATO in these matters, and even there, the current discussion centers on Maritime Domain / Situational Awareness, which means even the West's most advanced navies are still stuck on defining baseline surveillance and tracking capabilities. When outside (i.e., Russian, Indian, Chinese) navies show up, like they have off the coast of Somalia, there's very little practical cooperation.

Instead, there's mostly de-confliction, meaning each force seeks to avoid stepping on another's toes as these non-NATO navies focus primarily on escorting their own flagged cargo vessels.

With that sort of limited-regret naval presence (i.e., we'll shoot pretty much only when you hold our citizens hostage), don't expect any amphibious operations any time soon. That means all the Somali pirates have to do is reach shore, and it's game over.

Again, without hyping anything, I don't have to tax my thinker-upper to imagine what kind of events would bring us ashore in Somalia. Al Qaeda most definitely has a presence there, and openly markets slick recruitment videos (with hip-hop soundtracks) targeting Somali-American youth, who are disappearing off our streets by the dozens and resurfacing there for training.

Then there's the uptick in foreign fighters entering Somalia from war zones to the north and east. Somalia's premier radical Islamic group, Al Shabaab ("the youth"), has predictably named the U.S. as a primary foe and already controls more Somali territory than did their predecessor, the Islamic Courts Union, at the end of 2006. That situation alone triggered America's military support to Ethiopia's invasion from the north. Fast-forward to some homeland strike, and, because the chain of evidence will be long, it's Blackhawk Comes Back pretty damn quick.

UN Warns of Ties Between Lawless Groups in Somalia and Yemen
By Alisha Ryu

For years, criminals have used ports in the Arab world's poorest country, Yemen, as staging areas for trafficking humans, drugs, and weapons. There are growing fears that criminal groups in Yemen and pirate gangs in Somalia are moving closer together, further complicating international efforts to stabilize the region.

In a report released last December, the U.N. group tasked with monitoring the 1992 arms embargo on Somalia included a paragraph on piracy, alluding to the growing financial ties between Somali pirates and criminal entrepreneurs in Yemen.

The U.N. report said the NATO Shipping Center had identified five ports along the Yemeni coast, which were serving as re-supply stations for mother ships belonging to Somali pirates. Mother ships are usually hijacked fishing trawlers or merchant vessels, used to tow the speedboats needed to attack slow-moving ships sailing in open waters.

Maritime terrorism analyst Peter Lehr at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland says the information is worrisome because it implies that Yemenis, facing high unemployment and widespread poverty in their country, are being increasingly lured into the lucrative world of piracy.

"So far, there is no evidence that Yemeni fishermen are actually working as pirates", said Peter Lehr. "You have just these opportunistic people on the shore, who do not care to whom they sell their stuff. But because of the economic meltdown, we have lots of people descending into even deeper poverty than before. And it is quite logical to me that the Yemeni fishermen there might also embark on piracy because this is, at the moment, the only show in town, even for them. And the Gulf of Aden is perfect for pirates because you have confined waters and lots of targets".

The Gulf of Aden is a narrow waterway that divides Somalia from Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula. It is also a vital shipping route for hundreds of maritime companies around the world. In the past year, dozens of vessels have been seized in the area, earning Somali pirates and their associates tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of million of dollars, in ransom.

The U.N. Monitoring Group believes much of the arms, ammunition, and fuel needed to sustain the growth of piracy off the coast of Somalia is being supplied by locals in Yemen. Its adds that pirates, in turn, may be assisting smugglers by using hijacked vessels to move refugees and economic migrants from Somalia to Yemen, and then bringing arms and ammunition on the return journey to Somalia.

An analyst with the global intelligence company Stratfor, Scott Stewart, says the problem is growing largely because the Yemeni government has been unable to crack down on criminal activities taking place in its southern ports.

"They do not have the resources", said Scott Stewart. "It takes people. It takes boats. It takes training, and they simply do not have the bandwidth to devote to that issue. They have got much bigger problems, where they really need to focus at this point. The south is really looking to break away. There are a lot of mass protests and uprisings right now. The country is very, very tense. So, that is a very important dynamic in what is going on here. There are factions and tribes and people trying to make money off this trade, not only for personal gain, but also to use it to foster their independence of the south".

Oil makes up two-thirds of Yemen's public revenue and 90 percent of its export earnings. Most of the oil facilities are in the south, where the people have long complained of being discriminated against by northerners and the government in Sana'a.

Secession would be disastrous for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who took power in the former North Yemen and has been the country's leader since the merger with the south in 1990. His government is already trying to cope with numerous other problems, including a separate tribal rebellion in the north, a rapid population growth, threats from a regional al-Qaida group, and worries that the country's dwindling oil and water resources may soon plunge Yemen into deeper poverty.

Peter Lehr at the University of St. Andrews says he fears Yemen will begin to mirror Somalia, acting not only as a breeding ground for al-Qaida, but also for legions of impoverished youths joining pirate gangs.

"The more the problem persists, the more likely that you will have Yemeni pirate expeditions on the scale comparable to the Somali expeditions", he said. "What you need to do is move fast now to prevent the situation deteriorating in Yemen any further. How you do that is anybody's guess".

In a recent report, London-based Chatham House warned that Yemen faced a potent combination of problems, which, if left unresolved, could expand a lawless zone stretching from northern Kenya, through Somalia and the Gulf of Aden to Saudi Arabia.

Somali insurgency driving thousands of refugees to Kenya
CSM

Islamist militias' clashes with Somalia's government has forced more than 25,000 to flee.

The pirates get the headlines, but what drove Habibo Kune and her teenage son out of Somalia and into this sprawling, sand-blown refugee camp was a different group of men with guns.

Islamist militants, who've waged a two-year, blood-soaked insurgency, continue to battle pro-government forces for territory throughout southern Somalia. Since January, a surge in violence has driven more than 25,000 people into the camps of eastern Kenya – already overflowing with two decades' worth of Somali refugees – which has badly strained one of the world's largest humanitarian operations.

In Hagadera, the largest of three camps, new arrivals like Ms. Kune are crowding with relatives in bare, tree-branch huts covered in plastic sheets or fraying strips of clothing. The refugees say that the insurgents – a wholly separate phenomenon from the secular, ransom-hungry pirates – have imposed religious law on their towns and killed civilians who resisted.

"The pirates cause problems in the ocean", said Kune, seated on the dirt floor of a hut, her round face creased with worry, "but the Islamists cause many more problems inside the country".

Relief agencies are concerned that anti-piracy efforts are diverting attention and resources from the plight of these refugees and hundreds of thousands in even more desperate camps in Somalia. While countries pledged $213 million last month to beef up security forces in the East African nation, the United Nations' request for $918 million for relief programs is still two-thirds unmet.

A funding shortfall also forced the UN World Food Program to reduce rations in the camps – the refugees' only source of food – by 17 percent last month. After a $10 million internal loan, the agency expects to resume full food distribution within weeks.

"The world has shown it can act quickly and decisively when commercial interests are at stake", said Andrea Pattison, a spokeswoman for the Oxfam relief agency. "It's now time to show the same sense of urgency for alleviating the suffering of millions of people on land who remain in desperate need of help".

Sometimes it seems as if no amount of money could help Somalia right itself.
While there are no proven links between the southern-based Islamists and the secular, northern-based pirates, both phenomena are symptoms of the lawlessness and economic wreckage that have characterized the country since a 1991 coup felled its last functioning government.

Two decades of chaos have swelled the Kenyan camps into the world's largest refugee settlement, sheltering 271,000 people on sun-scorched land that was meant to hold only one-third that many.

Amid shortages of food, water, health supplies, and clean latrines, aid workers say that the refugees are increasingly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease. Cases of cholera surfaced in the camps earlier this year but the disease was contained.
Not everyone thinks that the focus on piracy has hurt refugees.

The top UN diplomat for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, said that the surge in piracy – some 100 ships have been attacked in the Indian Ocean so far this year, nearly as many as in all of last year – has helped refocus attention on the need to shore up Somalia's government.

"We need simultaneous action on security, development and humanitarian needs", Mr. Ould-Abdallah said. "This should not be an occasion for quarrels between those who are here to help".

The insurgency is led by Al Shabab, a militant group that claims allegiance to Al Qaeda and that the State Department has designated a terrorist organization. In Kune's southern town of Bardheere, the militants instituted Islamic law and levied high taxes on businesses. Kune was forced to close her tea stall because she couldn't afford to pay.

"Al Shabab is the superpower in that region", she said.

However, the Islamists' hard-line ways have sparked a backlash among Somalis, the vast majority of whom favor a moderate form of Sunni Islam. Last month in Bardheere, the Islamists clashed with a secular, pro-government militia called Ahlu Sunna Waljamaa, which has formed in recent months to battle Al Shabab.

After several days of gun battles, Kune grabbed her son and jumped on a minibus that was heading to Kenya. They sneaked across a border that Kenyan authorities have closed for security reasons, but it's so long and unregulated that bus drivers routinely cross it at night, charging about $90 for the passage.

Human rights groups have sharply criticized Kenya for closing the border and for sending captured refugees back to Somalia, in violation of international laws against deporting asylum seekers back to their countries of origin. In a recent report, Human Rights Watch said that Kenyan authorities had deported possibly thousands of Somali refugees, "thereby violating the most fundamental part of refugee law".

Still, some 9,000 new refugees were registered in January alone, the largest monthly tally in more than a year.

Besides the constant threat of violence, a long-running drought in Somalia has decimated the sheep and goat herds that many families rely on for their livelihoods. Aid agencies estimate that more than 3 million people – half the country – need emergency assistance and that 200,000 children are severely malnourished.

Will the problem of Indian Ocean piracy affect Israel? asks Henry Srebrnik - professor of political studies at the University of Prince Edward Island - and elaborates:

Pirate activity has escalated sharply in recent months off of the Horn of Africa, drawing increasingly assertive military operations by the American, Canadian, Dutch and French navies. It took an American naval vessel to rescue one American ship from Somali buccaneers in mid-April.

What does this have to do with the security and well-being of Israel?

More than you might think.

All Israeli shipping that leaves the port of Eilat, or that travels through the Suez Canal, must exit the Red Sea through the Bab al-Mandab, a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea, north of Somalia, on the Horn of Africa.
This narrow passageway connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It lies just north of where the pirates operate.

The recent rescues by the western navies off Somalia are unlikely to end the problem of piracy. The pirates, some analysts predict, are likely to increase their use of violence, and that could push them into the arms of Somalia’s Islamist militias for support.

Hard line Islamists in the al-Shabab insurgent group have been gaining power in Somalia, which has been without a functioning government for 18 years. By late 2008, it was estimated that the group controlled much of southern Somalia.
In February, al-Shabab carried out a suicide car bomb attack against an African Union military base in Mogadishu, Somalia’s nominal capital. In the southern town of Baidoa, they have ordered women to wear full body veils and businesses to close for prayers.

They also claimed responsibility for an attack targeting US Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey, who was in the country for talks with Somalis regarding the problem of piracy. His plane was departing from Mogadishu when Somali fighters fired mortars at the airport. It came one day after Captain Richard Phillips was rescued from Somali pirates by the USS Bainbridge after their failed hijacking of the Maersk ALABAMA.

"We carried out mortar attacks against the enemy of Allah who arrived to spread democracy in Somalia", Sheikh Husein Ali Fidow declared in Mogadishu.

The al-Shabab Islamists have also allowed Somalia to become a base for al-Qaeda. Washington thinks al-Qaeda recruits are training there for terror attacks. The country has become an African Afghanistan.

In the spring of 2007, fishing boats containing armed Al-Qaeda affiliates landed at the northern Somali port of Bargal and fought a battle with local police. A US navy destroyer in the Red Sea fired several cruise missiles against them but their leaders escaped.

Meanwhile, pirates have attacked more than 80 boats so far this year. In 2008, the ransoms paid to them to release captured ships totaled about $50 million. Well armed, they are overwhelming what little local authority exists in the country.

Just as worrisome, Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki has of late developed closer economic and trade ties with Iran, and military ties followed suit. The Iranians have reportedly established a naval base overlooking the Bab al-Mandab strait.

Unless more is done to pacify these waters, it is probably only a matter of time before Islamist-influenced pirates single out Israeli vessels, or ships carrying Israeli goods, for capture – or worse.

Missing voices in torture debate
Excerpts from an editorial in New York Times on torture:

Last month’s release of memos prepared by the Bush Justice Department and the disclosure of a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross on the brutal treatment of detainees expanded public knowledge of an ignominious chapter in the nation’s history. But these and other related disclosures do not provide a complete record of the government’s abuse of detainees. One missing element is the words of those prisoners subjected to water-boarding and other brutality.

Those voices remain muffled by a combination of Bush-era resistance to a reasonable Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union, and the gag order imposed on lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees. Attorney General Eric Holder needs to promptly repudiate both. For two years, the ACLU has been seeking complete transcripts of the hearings at Guantanamo for 14 men who were previously in CIA custody, including Abu Zubaydah, who has been described as an operative of Al-Qaeda and was waterboarded at least 83 times. But the publicly released version of these transcripts deleted all detainee statements about their ordeals.

The ACLU is appealing an ill-considered ruling by a federal trial judge in the District of Columbia, who refused to review the sought-after material before blindly upholding the bogus Bush administration claim that disclosure would damage national security.

Rather than simply adopt the Bush stand, the Justice Department has obtained a filing extension and is weighing what to do. Plainly, the right thing to do is to release the transcripts with the redacted portions filled in. The Bush team’s national security claim always had the odor of a cover-up. The interrogation program it was protecting has been discontinued, and crucial details are known. It is unsupportable to blank out grim details.

Press Contacts:

ECOP-marine
East-Africa
+254-714-747090
marine[at]ecop.info
www.ecop.info

ECOTERRA Intl.
Nairobi Node
africanode[at]ecoterra.net
+254-733-633-733

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme
SAP Media Officers
+254-722-613858
+254-733-385868
sap[at]ecoterra.net

End of Ecoterra Press Release

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Picture: MV MARATHON