The Horn of Africa - Somalia Spring 2009 Chronicles V. Sacrifice Kenya, "Ethiopia" for Peace

In this article, I publish excerpts from the no 187 Ecoterra Press Release SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor).

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) – 2009-06-07 Sunc 23h15:18 UTC

Issue No. 187

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

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)

Clearing-house

News from sea-jackings, abductions, newly attacked ships and vessels in distress

Latest information from T/B YENEOGA OCEAN speak of an escape on 5th June and not a release. Reports from Hawo (Habo, Xabo) and Alula claim that the captain of the vessel used an unobserved moment, when only one guard was on board to fool his captors, start up the engines and escape. The lone Somali guard is reported to have reached the shore by swimming. The vessel with her unharmed crew then disappeared from the coast and due to nightfall a short while later could not be followed by her captors. Having radio communication the nearest naval vessels were informed. The Royal Netherlands Navy ship De Seven Provinciën received the call at 21h00 and could catch up with the tug the next morning at around 5h00 local time. The Dutch Navy then was providing medical and other assistance to the 10 men all-Nigerian crew. During the earlier times when the vessel was commandeered by the Somali sea-shifta, the Nigerian owned, Panama-flagged AHTS YENEGOA was also identified as a pirate "mother ship" operating under the calls "SEA OCEAN" or "PUMA OCEAN" and several times fooled naval forces as a vessel in distress, thereby attracting the attention of naval forces, while the pirates did strike at other places.

The captain and crew then made their captors believe it had ran out of fuel, which stopped these activities. The firefighting and supply tug had then - after having received some 80.000 US from the owner for fuel and supplies - been moved from Hawo first to Alula (Caluula) and then even down to Ras Hafun on the Indian Ocean side in readiness to receive a ransom, but the negotiations apparently provoked a fight among the pirates that escalated into a fatal shoot out. Thereafter it was taken back to Hawo and stayed there having "run out of fuel again". That this was a clever set-up, the pirates only realized when the vessel went full steam into the night and onto the high seas of the Gulf of Aden into freedom. Local reports speak now of a serious conflict among the hostage keepers also because nobody seems to have received the money which allegedly was sent from an US based group. Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, said earlier that after a week of negotiations, he and Jeffrey Egbide, brother of the captain of the YENAGOA, Graham Egbegi, sent $43.000 to the pirates through an Islamic Hawala money-transfer service for the release. Dutch Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Robin Middel said the Dutch warship The Seven Provinces is alongside the YENEGOA OCEAN and medical staff are tending to its crew.

The tug was having engine trouble, so it was unclear if it could reach the Yemen port on Sunday evening as planned, Middel said and added that the tug's Nigerian crew members are exhausted after 10 months in captivity but have no major health problems. "Everyone is all right", he said. NATO forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden received the news that the MV YENEGOA OCEAN came free off the coast of Caluula, northeast Somalia, NATO Lieutenant Caroline Ghijsen confirmed too. She said one person was in need of medical attention and had been moved to the Provincien for treatment. "His injuries are not life threatening ... Overall the crew are in a good state of health, they have only small problems", she added. NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes, on board NATO's mission flagship Corte Real, said the Provincien was providing medical and logistical support while escorting the tug at low speed to a safe harbour in Yemen, where it was expected to dock for repairs on Sunday evening. The vessel was captured Aug. 4, 2008, after it had returned to the area earlier from repairs in Singapore during a not really clear trip to Mogadishu from Dubai.

It had three luxury vehicles on board and many rumours were spread about other contraband being transported on that ill-fated voyage. An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja as well as the Nigerian High Commissioner in Nairobi confirmed that Captain Graham Egbegi and other crew members held hostage by Somali pirates aboard a Nigerian merchant ship were free. The head of the Nigerian mission in Kenya, Dr. Wigwe is traveling to Aden to receive the crew. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the ministry will come out with details of the "release" very soon, confirming that they are on their way to Yemen. The Nigerian Senate had in April this year summoned the Minister of Defense, Dr. Shettima Mustapha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe and their counterpart in the Ministry of Interior, Major General Godwin Abbe (rtd) to appear before it. They were to explain what they know about the abandonment of a Nigerian ship and its crew that was captured by Somali pirates. The upper house of the National Assembly also extended the invitation to the National Security Adviser, General Sarki Muktar (rtd) and the chairman/chief executive of ESL Integrated Services Limited, Mr. George Onokpite. The resolution by the Senate was consequent upon a motion co-sponsored by Senators Victom Ndoma-Egba, Effiong Bob and Muhammed Mana entitled: Abandonment of Nigerian Ship and Crew in Captivity in Somalia.

According to Ndoma-Egba, "on or about Tuesday, August 5, 2008, a ten-man all Nigerian crew, sailing back home to Nigeria via the Indian Ocean route, with their vessel freshly purchased and delivered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, were intercepted and captured by Somali militants/pirates who are demanding $1 million as ransom fee or face summary execution". He noted that several months after the ship was hijacked and the crew members taken hostage, nothing substantial had been done by the Federal Government or the owner of the ship to secure their release. The members of the crew include: Captain Egbegi, Engineer David Akpoguma, Namo Musa, Usman Ochoche Agida, Lucky Edoja, John Nkanu, Effiong Joseph Bassey, Emma Okon Timothy, Okuns Kalikio and Bassey Etim. The ship, "YENAGOA OCEAN", belonging to ESL Integrated Services, had berthed in Mogadishu to seek medical attention for some crew members who were sick. The ship was on its way from Dubai when it was hijacked. The captain had earlier obtained a clearance to head for Mogadishu for the treatment. The crew will have some explanation and the Nigerian officials some investigation to do - while the Somali sea-shifta at least will have to scratch their heads and wonder, if they not just start fighting each other again.

MV MARATHON had reportedly problems with the gearbox of the main engine, but the repairs by the chief engineer are said to have progressed well. Latest reports say that the Dutch vessel had been observed close to the shore north of Ras Hafun. Since the Dutch warship left her the tension on board has apparently gone down.

MV VICTORIA has reportedly concluded the negotiations and her release is expected soon.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 14 foreign vessels (15 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) with a total of not less than 206 crew members accounted for (of which 44 are confirmed to be Filipinos) 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 126 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 44 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least three wrongful attacks (incl. one friendly fire incident) 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. Piracy incidents usually degrade during the monsoon season in winter and rise gradually by the end of the monsoon season starting from mid February and early April every year. Present multi-factorial risk assessment code: Yellow (Red = Very much likely, high season; Orange = Reduced risk, but very likely, Yellow = significantly reduced risk, but still likely, Blue = possible, Green = unlikely). Allegedly still/again three groups from Puntland alone are out hunting on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, and also groups from Harardheere have set out again, despite the heavy seas.

Directly piracy related reports

Piracy, Geopolitics, and Private Security
by Abukar Arman

Make no mistake the proliferation of piracy in the Somali coast is a serious problem- not only for the international community but for Somalia in general, and more specifically, for the current Islamist led government of national unity. After all, Islamic law has zero tolerance for banditry, whether sea-based or land-based.

That said: piracy in Somalia was not born out of vacuum- it was initially an act of protestation by local fishermen to the illegal hyper-fishing practiced by numerous fishing companies primarily based in Europe and Asia . The reckless greed of these "fishing mafia" has been dangerously depleting sea life in that part of the world. In due course, the local fishermen would be joined by others, including some of the profiteering elements of the Somali civil war, for reinforcement and thus creating an identity conflation.

The partnership would describe itself as the de facto Somali coast guard. It would offer the following reasons for its controversial activities: to prevent the fishing mafia from abusing the Somali sea resource, and to prevent mercenary ships from dumping toxic chemical waste in the Somali waters. Leaders of the partnership would offer interviews to the international media challenging the conventional wisdom that identified their acts as "piracy" and the monies they collect as "ransom." This claim would not only help present a moral argument in defense of the partnership’s illegal activities, but, it would enable them to score a few public relations points. However; while the grievance that they put in the center stage is real and deserves a serious attention, there is practically zero evidence to indicate that these pirates are driven by altruistic objectives.

Meanwhile, the number of high-jacked ships and vessels (commercial or otherwise) and the cost of freeing them and their crews have been escalating.

Today, piracy is not only disrupting international trade, it is preventing the flow of the humanitarian aid to a several million Somalis on the verge of starvation and is perpetuating the very culture that kept Somalia into an abyss of anarchy. The insurance rate for a single trip in the Gulf of Aden went up from $500 last year to about $20,000 this year. And there are roughly 30,000 ships that travel through the Gulf of Aden every year and little over 100 have been victims of piracy the last 12 months. And this indeed is a serious matter.

However, the nagging query that most media seem to ignore is: at a time when massive budget cuts became survival necessity for most of the wealthy nations, how could seemingly manageable level of threat logically justify the multi-national deployment of the mightiest navies of the world to engage in much costlier and indeed indefinite endeavor (operation water circus)? How many warships are needed in order to carry surveillance operation on Eyl and Harardheere where all the Somali pirates are based? We are talking about two bone-dry coastal villages that no rat could find a place to hide.

These pirates are not falling off the sky, and it is not like there is a tourist industry that could give the commissioned speedboats anchored along the shores of these two villages the appearance of leisure boats.

To adequately understand the piracy situation would require context beyond the illegal activities. Albeit, in the past eight years, America and much of the world were inculcated with an ill-advised notion that context is obsolete and that the official statement is all that matters in understanding complex issues such as extremism, terrorism and indeed piracy. It goes without saying that that mindset has not only failed to reduce or irradiate any of these ills, it, in fact, exacerbated them.

With that in mind, clearly missing out of the piracy discussion is a couple of critical factors: First, the importance of the Indian Ocean as a premier strategic region in light of the ‘shifting economic balance of power from West to East’ and China ’s rapidly expanding influence in Africa.

In his insightful essay—Center Stage for the 21st Century: Power Plays in the Indian Ocean —Robert D. Kaplan presents a compelling argument that the power that controls the Indian Ocean controls the new century. Kaplan is one of a few neoconservatives whose ideas still generate some interest; he is a National Correspondent for The Atlantic magazine and a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Kaplan points out that "the Indian Ocean accounts for fully half the world's container traffic. Moreover, 70 percent of the total traffic of petroleum products passes through the Indian Ocean, on its way from the Middle East to the Pacific…" Furthermore, "More than 85 percent of the oil and oil products bound for China cross the Indian Ocean".

Second is what Phil Carter, Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affiars, describes in his speech "U.S. Policy in Africa in the 21st Century" at The Africa Center for Strategic Studies last February, "the professionalization of Africa ’s security sector". And if this sounds like a thinly veiled euphemism and a page out of the last administration’s foreign policy playbook, it is.

Currently there are three possibilities being considered—reenergizing the Africa Command Center known as AFRICOM which was rejected by all African nations asked to host; providing US Navy escort services, or simply securing lucrative deals for private security contractors such as Blackwater—however, there is only one that is readily available for hire. And under such inevitable scenario, Obama’s foreign policy would be seen as nothing but a continuation of the old bankrupt neocon scheme.

Meanwhile, like in the peak of the Cold War era, Somalia remains as an exploited pawn in a deadly chess game. And as, Nick Nuttall, the spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program, recently said "European companies and others" will keep using Somalia "as a dumping ground for a wide array of nuclear and hazardous wastes". Nuttall confirmed the horrific allegations that "There’s uranium radioactive waste, there’s leads, there’s heavy metals like cadmium and mercury, there’s industrial wastes, and there’s hospital wastes, chemical wastes, you name it".

For a solution to the piracy dilemma, the Obama administration should:

1) Distance itself from anything that reminds the world of the last eight years

2) Ensure safe passage for the humanitarian aid

3) Introduce a UN resolution banning the dumping chemical waste in the Somali waters and banning the illegal hyper-fishing in the Somali coast

4) Introduce a UN resolution that mandates a massive international effort to clean the countless barrels and containers of radioactive materials dumped in the Somali waters

5) Sign a security treaty with the Somali unity government.

[This will not only mark the first time the US signs any treaty with Somalia, it will send a peace message to the rest of the Muslim world that America is indeed ready to establish formal relationship with any one on issues of mutual interest]

6) Help build a Somali navy to protect its waters

7) Use the legal option in order to freeze and confiscate assets.

There is no military solution to this problem. The military option will only win the pirates more support and sustain the current state of lawlessness.

Abukar Arman is a writer who lives in Ohio. His articles on Islam, Somalia, and US foreign policy are widely published.

Somali and Yemeni pirates use refugees as human shields

Eager to escape the warships patrolling the shipping zone, the pirates who attack commercial vessels in the waters of the Gulf of Aden use now refugees fleeing Somalia as shields, humanitarian organizations state. The new phenomenon started at the beginning of the year. It thus coincided with the reinforcement of its naval presence in the area by the international community to fight against the acts of piracy, like the operations of EU Atalanta, launched in December, or the US-led combined task special force (CTF 151) launched in January 2009. "What is new, is the use of boats of refugees as human shields", declared Francisco Otero Villar, mission leader of Doctors Without Borders - MSF/Spain in Yemen, in an interview with AFP. The pirates tow their skiffs (fast small boats) with the boat transporting the refugees and hide among those, while the traffickers and pirates, instead of making their trips right onto the Yemeni coast, are setting out from that convoy to search for isolated and vulnerable vessels, he explains. As soon they found a prey, the pirates jump in their skiffs and go into action. "There is a deal between the traffickers and the pirates", Mr. Otero Villar explains, affirming that four cases of this kind were recorded since the beginning of this year. The boat of the refugees is used as a "mother-ship" by the pirates. Somali and Ethiopian refugees reported these incidents to the teams of MSF/Spain and the UN High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR).

Both organizations assist refugees arriving in Yemen. "It was foreseeable and it is difficult to know the relations between the pirates and the human traffickers", who smuggle the refugees across the Gulf of Aden on their sole-traders, stated Claire Bourgeois - UNHCR representative in Yemen. "One day one is a trafficker, another day he is a pirate". The pirates feel secure because the policy of the present naval forces with respect to the refugees and concerning refugee-vessels is not clearly defined. "There is a legal vacuum in the code of conduct of the warships which come across refugees", notes Mrs. Bourgeois. "A warship which stops alleged pirates mingled with refugees, can it take them for refugees?", she asks. "Can it approach the Yemeni coast to help the refugees to reach in Yemen"? The situation is juridically delicate, because the foreign ships, which patrol the Gulf d' Aden, do not have the right to enter into the territorial waters of Yemen. A sad case was created in March, according to two corroborating sources which required anonymity, when a French navy ship with operation Atalanta received the exceptional authorization from the Yemeni government to tow a boat transporting some 80 refugees, of which the majority were Ethiopian, towards Aden.

The interaction, however, ended tragically during their arrival at the port, because the Ethiopians, sitting all on one side of the vessel, rose together at the same time they were called and that caused the boat to capsize. Eight refugees drowned, reported these sources. The new tactics used by the pirates thus increase still the risks for the refugees, while at the same time the crossing of the Gulf d' Aden is already in oneself an increasingly dangerous adventure. On 22nd of April 35 Ethiopian and Somali refugees drowned when another boat capsized while coming to the Yemeni coast, reported MSF/Spain and according to figures of UNHCR 142 refugees were found dead since the beginning of the year and until 4th of June, while in addition 66 are missing.

Misreading the Somali Threat When Pirates Attack
by Karen Rothmyer, a Nation Institute fellow, teaches journalism at the University of Nairobi

In the days after the Maersk Alabama was attacked by Somali pirates, the papers here were full of news about the incident. Many letter writers praised the cargo ship's captain, Richard Phillips, for volunteering to be a hostage in exchange for his crew's safety, with one commenting that he wished Kenya's feuding leaders would draw a lesson "and put the interests of the country before their own". Others expressed the hope that the United States will work to eliminate the pirate menace, noting how close Somalia is to Kenya. No one, however, has proposed military action against Somalia. That was left to US hawks, who--conflating piracy, the militant Somali group Al Shabab and Al Qaeda--swiftly turned the attack into a new excuse for extending the "war on terror" to this corner of Africa. John Bolton, former ambassador to the United Nations, called for an invasion as "the prudential response" to piracy, while the Heritage Foundation's James Carafano argued for "going into Somalia and rooting out the [pirate] bases." Former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan maintained in the Wall Street Journal that if Al Qaeda mounts another successful attack, "there is a strong chance it will be linked to Somalia".

The Obama administration's response to Somali piracy--and the strategy it develops to deal with Al Shabab--will be a crucial test of whether the neocon worldview retains any traction. So far the signals are frustratingly mixed. On the one hand, Defense Secretary Robert Gates' coolheaded comments in the wake of the attack signaled that the administration has thrown off the Bush-era lens and sees the world as the messy and complicated place that it is. On April 13 Gates explained that "there is no purely military solution" to the threat of piracy and suggested that the best strategy for dealing with hijackers like those who captured the MAERSK ALABAMA -- whom he described as "untrained teenagers with heavy weapons"--was to improve governance and economic stability. On the other hand, if a front-page April 11 Washington Post story is to be believed, even before the piracy incident administration officials were paying respectful attention to defense officials' recommendations to pre-emptively strike Al Shabab training camps "based on the potential threat the group poses to American interests".

What worries me in particular is the ease with which Americans who should know better are buying into the claim that Al Shabab is working closely with Al Qaeda--a contention reminiscent of the repeated charge that Saddam Hussein was in league with Osama bin Laden. The Washington Post story, for example, spoke flatly of the "ties between [Al Shabab's] leaders and al-Qaeda". Reuters, by contrast, carefully referred to Al Shabab on March 19 as a group that "Washington accuses of having close ties to al Qaeda". Al Shabab denies organizational links to Al Qaeda, though in a March 3 interview with Al Jazeera (as reported by Purdue professor Michael Weinstein), its spokesman said the group shares Al Qaeda's goals of implementing Sharia, uniting Islamic countries and "restoring the Caliphate".

Sitting here in Nairobi, in a country grappling with ethnic tensions and an estimated 40 percent unemployment rate, the question of just what the Obama administration believes about piracy and terrorism in Somalia is not academic. Somalia is Kenya's neighbor, and even the few US bombing runs into the country to date, targeting alleged Al Qaeda operatives, have resulted in a huge influx of Somali refugees. Kenya's Dadaab refugee center is home to an estimated 250,000 people, while the population of the area of Nairobi known--not affectionately--as Little Mogadishu has swelled with illegal immigrants.

One friend of mine here, an Ethiopian by birth, is gloomy about Obama's ability to resist the hawks' demands. He says that Obama, being new and black, is under great pressure to prove his military credentials. There's no way to do that, he says, in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Somalia, in contrast, offers a chance to define and fight his "own" war. My concerns rest more with the ambitions of Africom, the Pentagon command for Africa, which has been warmly endorsed by several of Obama's top advisers. Despite general distrust of Africom throughout the continent, former Ambassador to Tanzania Charles Stith blithely wrote in the Boston Globe that "while Africom has met some resistance, this latest hostage-taking involving an American might be just the opportunity to jump-start conversations about how Africom might be more effectively engaged". Yes, and just the ticket to career advancement for a young Africom officer.
An African proverb says, "When the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers". Those of us who are Somalia's neighbors can only hope that if the American elephant decides to start something, we won't get stepped on.

The Legacy of Piracy in Somalia
by Joel G. Schor, who has been a Merchant Seaman for 8 years, is a member of the Sailors Union of the Pacific and has been on ships transiting the Somali Coast into the Gulf of Aden)

The recent hostage taking of American Merchant Marine officer Richard Phillips, and the ensuing standoff in the Gulf of Aden over the MAERSK ALABAMA was cause for a surge in blindly patriotic furor by the US press. FOX news immediately declared that these pirates were linked to Al-Qaeda, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jumped on the bandwagon stating that the pirates were effectively "terrorists .. and should be dealt with accordingly". The motivations of the pirates off the coast of Somalia have been mischaracterized, and the stage has been set for implementing the new War on Terror dubbed - "Overseas Contingency Operations".

The lawlessness within Somalia in 1991, when warlords took control of the country and eventually fought off coalition US, Malaysian, Pakistani and Italian forces, had roots in broader US military strategic aims in the region. As depicted in the Hollywood film Black Hawk Down, the American Rangers units were greatly hampered in their efforts to take control of the city of Mogadishu by the insurgents tactics of using RPG rockets fired at the tail propeller of the American helicopters, setting them into an uncontrollable tailspin and crash. These special tactics were in fact taught by Special Forces Operatives in the United States Military to many insurgent groups in the 1980's Afghan Mujahedeen War against the Soviet Union, which attracted "freedom fighters" from around the Middle East and Africa to this cause.

Just as the notion of "freedom fighter" was later transformed to "terrorist" for the necessary foreign policy objectives, so one nation's "Pirate" is another nation's "Coast Guard". Competing warlord factions in the 90's, and latter the Islamic Courts government in 2006 have been unable to sustain a functioning civilian government on land. Meanwhile, international shipping companies have used the Somali coastline as an affordable dumping site for nuclear and other toxic waste, and have illegally over-fished the surrounding waters with no accountability for years. While the official government has been unable to provide an effective means of protecting its own coastline against European and Chinese intrusion, the pirates of Somalia have grown in numbers and respect amongst the local population. A recent article in the Times of London interviewed one of these self proclaimed "Saviors of the Sea" - Boyha, who relates stories of bags of millions of dollars dropped from helicopters onto the decks of hijacked ships in ransom exchange for the liberty of crew and ship. When asked if he plans to return to the life of a pirate after settling down, Boyha replies; "That is up to the international community", he says, "they need to solve the problem of illegal fishing, the root of our troubles. We are waiting for action".

The outcome of the standoff over the MAERSK ALABAMA, with a Navy SEALS attack rescuing captain Phillips and killing several pirates has certainly escalated anti-American sentiment in the region. The Obama administration has called for increased Navy presence in the region in cooperation with other nations in order to deal with the piracy attacks themselves, but has not addressed any of the underlying issues having to do with the negligence of the shipping companies in this region. The Gulf of Aden, just South of the Red Sea and opening to the Indian Ocean, comprises shipping channels which are important not only for commerce in oil from the other side of the Gulf through the Red Sea and Suez Canal and on to Europe, but also for the transport and pre-positioning of US military equipment and forces.

Military supply ships, crewed by civilian Merchant Seaman as well, transit the region en route to Diego Garcia South in the Indian Ocean as well into the Persian Gulf towards Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Increasing militarization under the auspices of "Overseas Contingency Operations" is the direction of the current foreign policy establishment on the African continent and abroad. This is basically a continuation of the "Full Spectrum Domination" policy objectives of Bush/Cheney as laid out in the Project for a New American Century document, calling for increasing militarization in response to foreign threats and insurgencies. In North Africa joint American-Egyptian military exercises in Operation Bright Star had been in the works just before September 11th 2001, and these war games served as a training ground for what was to come. Whether the US War Machine acts unilaterally or it cooperates with other imperialist nations (including China) in combating piracy with militarism, these efforts will serve only to increase strife and lawlessness in the region so long as they continually fail to seek a political solution and address the root causes of poverty and environmental destruction on land and sea.

An Australian warship will sail for Somalia this week to battle pirates preying on merchant ships. The pirates have been capturing vessels and holding them and their crews for multimillion dollar ransoms. The pirates are often heavily armed and use small, fast boats. But the Navy will not say if the sailors will be allowed to shoot at the pirates who use assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades, reports The Age. Their first response will be to warn the intruders off. The Australian Defense Force will send two officers to help co-ordinate the operation from its headquarters in Bahrain. One will be a naval legal officer who will ensure operations comply with international maritime law and Australian policy. The ADF will increase its anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa later this month with an RAAF P3C Orion patrol plane and the frigate HMAS Toowoomba working with the US-led Combined Counter Piracy Task Force. The frigate's crew has trained for the role. On May 17, two Royal Australian Navy Frigates, HMAS Sydney and HMAS Ballarat, thwarted attempts by pirates to capture the MV Dubai Princess and the MV MSC Stella. The merchant ships sent out distress signals after being hit by gunfire. The Navy says that for operational security reasons it cannot reveal whether its warships will be allowed to attack the pirate vessels or what will be done with any pirates the Australians capture. The policy would accord fully with Australia's obligations under domestic and international law, the Navy spokeswoman said. Different nations apply different rules.

Marine ecosystem, IUU fishing and dumping, ecology

World Oceans’ Day marked today
by Madel R. Sabater

The United Nations (UN) challenged Sunday countries all over the world to step up efforts in implementing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and uphold the rule of law on the seas and oceans in celebration of the first World Oceans’ Day (WOD) Monday.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out, and is the basis for international cooperation on all levels," UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

Also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, the UNCLOS defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world's oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.

"The world must do more to implement this Convention and uphold the rule of law on the seas and oceans", he stressed.

The world’s oceans include the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern (formerly called Antarctica).

The UN secretary-general cited the role of the oceans and seas in regulating global climate, supplying essential ecosystem services, and providing sustainable livelihood and recreation.

"The first observance of World Oceans’ Day allows us to highlight the many ways in which oceans contribute to society", Ban said.

Themed, "Our Oceans, Our Responsibility", the secretary-general said this year’s celebration emphasizes every individual’s duty to protect the marine environment and manage its resources, emphasizing that "safe, healthy, and productive seas and oceans are integral to human well-being, economic security, and sustainable development".

The UN chief lamented on human activities’ adverse effects on oceans and seas, particularly over-exploitation, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; destructive fishing practices, invasive alien species, and marine pollution.

"Increased sea temperatures, sea-level rise, and ocean acidification caused by climate change pose a further threat to marine life, coastal, and island communities and national economies", he added.

The Philippines, for one, is considered a "climate hotspot" because of its high susceptibility to the negative effects of climate change.

It is one of the most vulnerable regions in Southeast Asia as shown by the frequency of typhoons every year, increase in temperature, sea level rise, and coral bleaching that has been affecting the country’s marine resources.

Ban also stressed the need to be more vigilant against criminal activities that threaten seafarers and international shipping, particularly piracy, armed robbery, trafficking and smuggling activities.

About 90 percent of the world’s goods are transported by sea, Ban said.

It will be recalled that Filipino seafarers have also been victims of piracy, particularly in Somalia and Nigeria. Most of them had already been repatriated by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Open letter from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) to UN representatives regarding the DSCC's submission to DOALOS for its coming policy review of 61/105:

Dear UN representative,

In December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly ( UN GA ), through resolution 61/105, called on States and regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) to take measures to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems from the adverse impacts of bottom fisheries on the high seas and to ensure the long-term sustainability of deep-sea fish stocks. The measures agreed in the resolution included conducting impact assessments to determine whether significant adverse impacts to vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) would occur and closing areas of the high seas to bottom fishing where VMEs are known or likely to occur unless regulations were in place to prevent significant adverse impacts.

UN GA resolution 61/105 also called on the UN Secretary-General to undertake a review in 2009 and report on the measures implemented by States and RFMOs. The resolution requested States and RFMOs to submit information to DOALOS to assist the preparation of its report, which will be issued later this summer, in preparation for the fall Sustainable Fisheries negotiations.

Over the past two years, DSCC advisors and its member organizations have traveled the globe attending and participating in a variety of regional and national efforts to implement the provisions of UN GA 61/105. On the basis of this experience and publicly available information, DSCC advisor, Matthew Gianni , in conjunction with DSCC colleagues, has prepared the submission to DOALOS on behalf of the DSCC and offers a detailed assessment and conclusions on the implementation of 61/105 (the DSCC’s full submission can be viewed at: http://www.savethehighseas.org/publicdocs/ DSCC-Submission- UN-SG-implementa tion-of-61_ 105.pdf).

While a number of States and RFMOs have adopted framework agreements to implement the UN GA resolution, the DSCC notes that the UN GA set a deadline of December 31 2008 for the implementation of the measures outlined in the 2006 resolution after which States committed to prohibit (not authorizing to proceed) high seas bottom fishing unless or until regulations were in place. In his report, Gianni points out that "It is important to recognize that the 2006 UN GA resolution represented a compromise, primarily between fishing nations whose vessels engage in high seas bottom fisheries and non-high seas bottom fishing nations. Unfortunately, the review in 2009 will not be able to determine whether the measures called for in 61/105 have been sufficient to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems on the high seas from the adverse impacts of bottom fisheries given that the measures in paragraph 83 have not been fully implemented".

Further, as of May 2009, some, but not all, high seas bottom fishing nations have produced impact assessments. However, even the most comprehensive assessments are only partial and inconclusive at best. Some areas of the high seas have been closed to bottom fishing but many high seas areas where VMEs are likely to occur remain open to bottom fishing with few or no constraints. Moreover, there has been a general reluctance on the part of many States and RFMOs to close high seas areas to protect VMEs where bottom fishing currently takes place. A ‘move-on' rule is often the only conservation regulation in place to protect VMEs in both existing and new or un-fished areas. Finally, the DSCC submission raises questions concerning the extent to which deep-sea fisheries on the high seas targeting or taking (as bycatch) low productivity species can be both sustainable and economically viable.

The DSCC's report concludes that "The challenge facing the General Assembly in 2009 will be to conduct an honest, open and robust review and call for additional measures to address the shortcomings in the management of high seas bottom fisheries to date – in light of the fact that a number high seas nations and RFMOs continue to authorize high seas bottom fisheries in spite of the lack of full implementation of the 2006 resolution".

Lastly, the DSCC will be holding a side event during the UNICP in New York, June 17, 1:15-3:00, and will provide an overview as well as distribute copies of its assessment at that time.

We look forward to seeing you in the coming months, and if you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact either of us. We also have regular updates on our website, www.savethehighseas.org.

Best regards,
Matthew Gianni
Political and Policy Advisor
DSCC
http://www.savethehighseas.org

Anti-piracy measures

UN Anti-Piracy Adventure Coming?

Russia wants to conduct a unified operation with the UN and cooperate with NATO in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia, Russia's envoy to NATO said on Friday. Dmitry Rogozin said that currently the Russian warships guarding shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden are working with foreign crews on a bilateral basis. "Right now there are two operations: one run by the European Union and another that is beginning under the auspices of the UN, which will also allocate vessels. These will clearly overlap. We would be interested in a unified operation under the auspices of the UN". In regard to NATO, Rogozin said to the Russian newswire RIAN that Russia has received an invitation to attend conferences at which all elements of military and political cooperation in the fight against piracy will be discussed.

For them it is communication, but what is more important is COORDINATION - so far nobody coordinates and nobody actually even reports to the Somali Government or the UN!

Communication key for anti-pirate fleet
by Andrew Scutro - Staff writer NAVY TIMES

The persistent flare-up in piracy off the coast of Somalia that ignited last August has done more than fill front pages around the world with hair-raising tales of captives and gunfire. It’s also attracted warships from around the world to patrol the same patch of sea — and with that, created a challenge to keep them from bumping into each other.

At the latest count, there were some 30 warships from 27 nations in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia with varied missions to stop piracy, according to multiple sources.

Some are part of the U.S.-fostered Combined Task Force 151, led at the moment by a Turkish admiral.

Other combatants in the area fall under a NATO mission called Operation Allied Protector, ships that include the U.S. frigate Halyburton, led from the flagship frigate Côrte Real of Portugal.

The European Union organized its first maritime task force for the counter-piracy mission, known as EU NAVFOR-Atalanta, which in addition to German, Greek, Spanish and French ships boasts a newcomer to such warm waters — two corvettes and a supply ship from Sweden. And finally there are the independent operators such as China and Russia who arrived with various mandates, to include protecting their nation’s commercial shipping.

On top of that, perennial foes India and Pakistan are onboard, along with two ships from the Iranian navy — the frigate Alborz and fleet supply ship Bushehr.

In fact, there are so many foreign warships in the area, the waters off Djibouti has gone from a backwater to a booming U.N. afloat.

With so many warships in the same area, measures must be taken to "de-conflict" to keep everyone from bunching up.

Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of 5th Fleet, uses the analogy of young children playing soccer who tend to swarm the ball and stall the game. To prevent such potential dust-ups, allied nations use established systems to communicate, while there have also been some work-arounds to handle newcomers — China, for example.

"We just e-mail communications with the Chinese navy’s Yahoo account", said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman at 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

Keeping track of recent actions and future plans in what could be a bewildering situation has been done with great effect at sea in what amounts to an instant messaging system common in the modern workplace.

"What’s working really well is unclassified chat", Campbell said.

Multiple systems

The system U.S. ships use to communicate with one another and allies is called CENTRIXS, short for Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System.

In use with the fleet for several years, CENTRIXS is a Defense Department program designed to allow joint forces to coordinate their actions. In the 5th Fleet area, allied ships from the Combined Maritime Forces, the U.S., U.K., and others have used CENTRIXS to coordinate operations prior to the counter-piracy mission.

Now, an EU system called "Merc chat" has been put to use. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command has begun developing another chat program that takes its name from the monthly working group organized by 5th Fleet known as Shared Awareness and De-confliction, or SHADE.

That communication paid off June 2, when British sailors from the frigate Portland captured and disarmed 10 suspected pirates who’d been spotted by a Spanish patrol aircraft.

British Commodore Tim Lowe, deputy commander of Combined Maritime Forces in Bahrain, was quoted as saying, "This is an excellent example of international coordination. This international collaboration cannot be understated and as more countries join the fight, we will continue to work together".

Order of Battle

Countries with ships conducting the counter-piracy mission either as part of a coalition task force like CTF 151, NATO’s Operation Allied Protector or the European Union’s NAVFOR-Atalanta, or sent by their government on an independent mandate to protect their nation’s shipping:

Australia, Bahrain, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Yemen,

Sources: U.S. 5th Fleet, naval attaches in Washington, D.C.

Companies hire "ship-riders" against Somali pirates
By Katharine Hourheld for AP

There's not a warship for miles, a small pirate skiff is speeding toward you and there's no way the creaking tub you're on can outrun the bandits. How long do you wait before you shoot?

It's just one of many possible dilemmas facing an increasing number of private security companies who offer armed escorts — known in the industry as "ship-riders" — from Somali pirates.

The few companies that have begun offering armed escorts say their services have become increasingly popular since the April hijacking of the American-flagged MAERSK ALABAMA particularly among U.S. ship-owners. One company — Hart Security UK — has reported a fourfold increase in escorted trips since it began offering them in October.

But legal problems abound for ships that carry guns.

The first hurdle is making sure the countries where ships embark and disembark the weapons will allow them to do so — a legal nightmare in corrupt Middle Eastern ports with terrorism problems.

Then there's the issue of which law applies onboard the ship if a weapon is discharged: the shooter's nationality, the law of the country whose flag the ship is flying, or the territorial waters of the country the ship is in.

In at least one case, a private security consultant said, an armed team had rented weapons from the Djibouti government then was forced to drop them over the side of the ship to avoid illegally importing them into the country where they were due to disembark. The consultant asked for anonymity because he did not wish to compromise his business.

Kenneth C. Randall, the Dean of the University of Alabama School of Law and an expert in international piracy law, said there were complex issues for companies providing legally armed private guards.

"Commercial vessels have the right of innocent passage through most coastal waters. Some nations might say once you're armed, you're no longer innocent", he said.

Many questions have yet to be tested in court: should ships wait for the pirates to fire before returning fire? Is it still self-defense if the pirates are not firing at the shooter, instead aiming at the captain's bridge? What happens if the pirates are attacking from a "mother ship" — a vessel that has already been pirated — and there are civilians onboard being used as human shields?

That's the nightmare scenario the Indian navy faced last November. Pirates hijacked a Thai fishing trawler then apparently fired on an Indian warship. The Indians returned fire, turning the Ekawat Nava 5 into a massive fireball and killing 14 of the 15 crew as well as the pirates. The surviving sailor spent six days adrift in the shark-infested ocean before another ship picked him up.

There is no public registry of all the different companies providing armed guards to ships. Some, like Lotus in Yemen, did not return calls seeking comment.

But other companies interviewed in Britain and America said interest in the newly emerging market has been stoked by the recent series of high-profile hijackings, although only a small proportion of ship owners have inquired about having armed guards onboard so far.

U.S. private security company Templar Titan is providing ship-riders and has been doing around 15 escorts per month through the Gulf of Aden a month since it began the service four months ago; the teams are armed on between half and three-quarters of the passages.

Lew Knopp, who heads the company, said the maritime division of his firm has increased from 3 people to 30 within the last year.

"We are directly consulting with the U.S. government on issues of piracy, especially in the Gulf of Aden and we have attorneys reviewing and coordinating efforts so they fall within international rules and regulations", Knopp said. He declined to give further details, citing operational security.
Despite the challenges, interest in arming ships has shot up following the Maersk Alabama hijacking, said Hugh Martin, Hart Security UK's general manager.

"We've had a substantial increase in inquiries", he said. "There is a lot of interest from companies that are American-owned".

Martin said that when the company began offering armed escorts in October, they were doing around 5 escorted trips through the Gulf of Aden a month. Now they do around 20 trips a month and also offer the services of two vessels with helipads that accommodate up to 28 people each. They are usually hired by groups of ships to act as an escort, Martin said, and are in use every week.

He says Hart uses Yemeni guards and makes sure the weapons are legally imported and exported at both ends of the ship's journey.

"The amount of effort we put in to ensure we are legal is colossal", he said.

Britain's Maritime Asset Security and Training (MAST) is also offering armed guards, either ex-British naval or special forces personnel. MAST has established a subsidiary in Djibouti to provide a security transit service at the western end of the Gulf of Aden, which also allowed it to license the use of firearms under government approval. Phillip Cable, the director of MAST, says the company is providing the service between 30-35 times a month but only between 10-15 percent involved armed protection.

Other companies like Olive, which guards Shell in Iraq, or maritime security firm Drum Cussac say the legal implications of having armed men onboard commercial shipping are still too unclear.

"What do you do if you shoot a pirate and he surrenders to you?" asked Crispian Cuss of Olive.

But many companies are keen to diversify from Iraq and Afghanistan and are interested in the possibility of training a Somali coastguard. Recent donor conferences focused on the need to build up Somalia's ragged security services, both to combat piracy and the influx of hundreds of foreign jihadi fighters dedicated to the overthrow of the U.N.-backed government.

The millions pledged to Somalia represent a potential goldmine. Pirate attacks have dropped out of the news but still occur almost daily, and around 200 people have been killed on land in the latest round of fighting, which experts fear may lead to the establishment of an al-Qaeda foothold on the Horn of Africa.

But before countries agree to spend money on a coastguard, they want to see safeguards to ensure the training or weapons they provide are not turned against them later. A U.N. report issued last December estimated over 80 percent of Somalia's soldiers and police deserted along with weapons and vehicles. A U.N. program to train 10,000 Somali police was frozen due to the high rates of desertion and corruption, which was so bad police were sometimes left without boots or belts and went unpaid for months at a time.

"If we don't learn from that failure we'll repeat the same mistake", said Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst at think tank International Crisis Group. "Accountability should be critical to the donor community and it should ensure that the current project is not being as mismanaged as the previous one".

HMCS Winnipeg wraps up counter-piracy mission.

HMCS Winnipeg officially wrapped up a nine-week counter-piracy mission Saturday in the Gulf of Aden, and should be home in British Columbia by summer’s end. The Canadian warship left its home port in Esquimalt, B.C. in early February bound for the waters off the coast of Somalia. The Winnipeg intercepted a number of attacks and safely escorted merchant ships during the mission. The ship’s crew also boarded half a dozen suspected pirate vessels, seizing weapons, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers in some cases. The NATO mission was originally set to wrap up at the end of April, but Defence Minister Peter MacKay extended it into June. HMCS Winnipeg is set to return to Esquimalt in late August. Mission accomplished? - Maybe, but certainly not for the benefit of the Somali people.

Jealous or concerned about Zar Cozy's nearby new base in the UAE?

US to expand naval base
by Mandeep Singh

The US Navy is planning a major expansion into Bahrain's old commercial port, it emerged yesterday. It has reserved 70 acres to dock military ships at Mina Salman, which was decommissioned at the start of April. A spokesman for the US Navy base in Juffair told the Gulf Daily News yesterday that an agreement was signed with Bahrain's government in January last year. "We are still waiting for a date to be finalized when we can take over that space", said US Naval Support Activity public affairs officer Lt Paul Macapagal. "We now have less than two acres at the port, so the extra space will help us when we have ships calling on Bahrain". Bahrain is already home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which covers 27 countries in the Middle East and Central Asia. Its operations cover about 7.5 million sqm from Somalia in the south to Kazakhstan in the north, Egypt in the West to Pakistan in the East - including the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean.

The US Navy will now be able to berth more of its vessels at Mina Salman, which ceased commercial shipping operations with the opening of the BD131m Shaikh Khalifa Port in Hidd. General Organisation of Seaports commercial director Yousef Bubshait revealed the US Navy expansion was just one of the plans for the old port. "We have a huge restructuring plan that is being worked out at the moment and part of that plan is to make more space available to the ships of the US Navy", he said. "There is also a plan to rent out some of the land to them". Mr. Bubshait added the US Navy already had a presence at the facility and said its expansion "may only entail more space to berth ships". He also suggested the BDF, the Royal Bahrain Navy and the Coastguard could also make more use of Mina Salman. "They have their own facilities and would want to expand them", he said.

Meanwhile, Mina Salman warehouses owned by the Seaports authority will now be rented out to private companies. "The port has closed down as far as commercial and passenger shipping is concerned, but is in no way closed completely", said Mr. Bubshait. "If at all that happens, it will be many years from now. Maybe we are looking at between five and 10 years at least". Several companies still operate from the old port including Delmon Poultry and Bahrain Flour Mills Company, which have reportedly invested heavily in infrastructure at Mina Salman. "There are some other companies that own warehouses there so they have huge business interests". said Mr. Bubshait. Plans for the port could also see it used exclusively to import construction materials, such as iron, steel and cement. "However, these are all plans being considered and no final decision had been taken yet", added Mr. Bubshait.

Hollywood to portray Kenya's 'Pirate Whisperer'
An interview by Alison Bevege for Reuters

When agents for Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson came looking for Andrew Mwangura in Kenya, he could not meet them -- he was on the run.

The man they call the "Pirate Whisperer" was dodging both local authorities and well-connected criminals who were chasing him for exposing the international links of a wave of hijackings afflicting the busy international shipping routes off Somalia.

"I said I was in trouble, come back again when the coast is clear", Mwangura told Reuters in an interview at Mombassa port.

Tinseltown plans to make an action movie about the piracy scourge. Jackson is to play Mwangura -- the quiet 47-year-old founder of the non-profit East African Seafarers' Assistance Program with seemingly unrivalled contacts with maritime groups, ships, ports and even pirates around east Africa.

Himself a former seaman, Mwangura breaks news time and time again on seizures and releases of ships by Somali pirates, revealing details of ransom payments in what has become a multimillion dollar business.

He is a hero to seamen, but a pain for the pirates' financiers, said to be sitting in Nairobi, Dubai and London, managing the business by calls to the gangs' satellite phones. There are strong suspicions that officials in the region could be involved, and Mwangura has not been shy of saying that.

Film Rights

Now Jackson and filmmaker Andras Hamori have secured the rights to his life story -- but getting a chance to sit down and talk scripts has been more difficult than expected.

Mwangura fell foul of the Kenyan government last year after the MV FAINA, a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks, was hijacked en route to Mombassa. Mwangura said the consignment was really for south Sudan -- and not Kenya, as officially claimed.

In October, on his way to a talk-show where he was due to speak to the relatives of the Russian and Ukrainian crew, Mwangura was arrested.

"They were waiting for me in Moscow and Kiev on camera. But I was taken to police headquarters for interrogation".

Mwangura spent nine days in jail. One frightening night, he said he was woken by security agents who wanted to take him out of the prison for reasons unknown.

"I think maybe they wanted to harm me", he said.

His cellmates joined hands to prevent the guards from taking him, and he was left in jail.

Mwangura was charged with making alarming statements to foreign media and for possessing $2 worth of marijuana. The government called him a frontman and spokesman for the pirates.

He says the charges were trumped up to silence him, and the marijuana was planted. Charges were dropped last month.

"They were trying to stop me but they lost. You cannot stop a calling", he said.

Fear of Attack

Mwangura still fears he may be attacked, not by the government now but by criminals unhappy with the light he shines on their activities. But he is now in contact with the filmmakers, and ready to collaborate with the project.

At first, the father-of-two was hesitant. "I'm not a movie actor, I don't want to spoil their movie", he said.

The film makers reassured him that they just wanted to capture the real Mwangura for their story. Experts will shadow him for a couple of weeks to get the feel of his mannerisms.

At first he kept the film quiet, even from his wife, but now the news is out.

"Local media, TV and radio. People are calling, congratulating. Others come up with ideas -- they say to do the film in a few different languages: Chinese, Pinoy, Arabic and Vietnamese, to represent the seafarers of the world. But I have no power on that, it is up to them".

Mwangura is amazed at how often his name appears in a Google search, and the National Museum of Kenya wants to record his story for posterity too.

He says he has no time to watch films and still has not seen a Samuel L Jackson movie. But he hopes the film project will help to raise public awareness of seafarers, the "forgotten people" as he calls them, who keep sea trade alive

No real peace in sight yet

10 years ago - 1999: Former U.N. chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali says the United States was largely responsible for failed U.N. peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda.

Three gunmen killed the director of Somalia's influential broadcaster Shabelle Radio in Mogadishu on Sunday, raising security concerns of other journalists in the country. Moqtar Mohamed Hirabe, director of one the country's the largest broadcaster, was shot several times in the chest and head, witnesses told reporters. Hirabe survived an assassination attempt in Bakaro market in Mogadishu on 4 February in 2009 when gunmen killed Said Tahliil Ahmed, the director of Horn Afrik radio in the same market. This time masked gunmen shot the famous director of Radio Shabelle several times in the chest and head, said Feysal Ahmed, a businessman who saw the shooting occur just outside his shop in the capital, Mogadishu. Ahmed's shop is in Bakara market, the biggest in Mogadishu.

Radio Shabelle Editor Abdulrahman Aladala says another journalist who was walking with Hirab in Bakara market is seriously wounded and in a hospital. "This is a big tragedy. The rights of journalists have been attacked and been violated", Aladala told The Associated Press. Another journalist from the independent station, Ahmed Omar Hashi "Tajir" , who was with Hirabe was wounded during the attack in Bakara market in the Somali capital. "We were walking in the street together", AFP quoted Tajir as saying from his hospital bed in Medina hospital today. "Hirabe was shot in the head and he fell to the ground while I was hit in the stomach and in the hand. Then the gunmen came, they shot him again in the head but I managed to escape", Ahmed Tajir said, who remains stable in hospital. It was not immediately known why Hirabe was targeted again after he reportedly survived an assassination attempt in Bakaro market on Feb. 4. During the previous attack, the gunmen killed Said Tahliil Ahmed, the director of Horn Afrik radio in the same market, according to Somalia's Mareeg Online. The reports said that journalists working for the Radio Shabelle have frequently come under attack.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for reporters to operate. Radio Shabelle is an independent station that has been broadcasting since March 2003. The company launched a TV station earlier this year. Hirabe, 48, is the third journalist of Radio Shabelle to be killed this year. Two reporters from Shabelle Media Network were killed in 2009. Abdirisak Warsame Mohamed was killed in Mogadishu on 22 of May 2009 and Hassan Mayow Hassan was killed in Afgoye town on 1 January 2009. The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres - RSF) "expressed anger and dismay" at Hirabe's murder. "Hirabe is the third Radio Shabelle journalist to suffer a fatal attack since the start of 2009; the fifth journalist killed in Somalia this year", RSF said in a statement. "The Somali president must come to grips with the scale of this catastrophe and do his utmost to ensure the safety of journalists. We also call for an immediate investigation to identify and punish the criminals", it added. Two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian kidnapped near the capital over nine months ago, are still being held in captivity under horrible conditions, while a Somali TV reporter was also kidnapped on Tuesday.

Renewed reports that Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of an anti-government group and a former Islamic Courts Union leader, was among the dead were quickly denied by his followers on Sunday. "Sheikh Hassan is alive and unharmed", Sheikh Musa Arale, a spokesman for Hizbul Islam, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying. "That is the propaganda of our enemies whose commanders and leaders we killed yesterday". Aides to Dahir Awyes confirmed that reports of his death were false. Sources in the Somali government claimed Saturday that Aweys had been seriously wounded in intense battles near the border with Ethiopia on Friday. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys spoke to VOA's Somali service Sunday, just hours after Reuters news agency first had reported that he may be dead. Reuters based its report they the leader may be dead on a family member and a pro-government militia that said its fighters shot Aweys during battles in the central town of Wabho on Friday. But Aweys told VOA that he is in good health, though the interviewer said the insurgent leader sounded slow and less authoritative than usual. Aweys did not comment on the reports but said he would hold a press conference in Mogadishu on Monday to give his assessment of the latest fighting and outline his plans. His death would have been a major blow to the rebels and a boost for President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government, which had tried unsuccessfully to broker peace talks with the 62-year-old cleric.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, Somalia's top opposition leader, on Sunday blamed pro-government forces for civilian deaths in the latest month of intense fighting. "We are urging the foreign troops and the self-appointed leadership to stop killing and displacing the people in Mogadishu", he told AFP by phone from the capital. Aweys is the head of the hard line Hezb al-Islamiya group and a key figure in the insurgency that launched a massive offensive a month ago against the internationally backed government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. "Those resistance groups that are engaged against the occupation forces are doing all they can to avoid civilian casualties", he said. Hezb al-Islamiya and the hard line Shebab armed group are the two main factions in the insurgency bent on toppling Sharif and ousting African Union peacekeepers from the country. Aweys and Sharif were two of the Islamist leaders who took over most of Somalia in 2006 before being ousted by an Ethiopian invasion in support of the transitional federal government. Sharif eventually joined a UN-sponsored reconciliation process based in Djibouti which Aweys, who returned from two years in exile in Eritrea in June, has always rejected. Aweys demands the departure of the peacekeepers, whom he describes as invaders bent on corrupting Somalia's Islamic culture.

BBC correspondents say the Sufi sect has been angered recently by the desecration of the graves of revered Sufi leaders by the al-Shabab group which follows the strict Saudi Arabian-inspired Wahabi branch of Islam. A spokesman for al-Shabab, which is accused of links to al-Qaeda, said its forces were in control of Webho - but this was denied by Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama. The local Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization said it had confirmed 123 fighters killed in the fighting, while other sources reported that in addition about 70 fighters were wounded. Sheikh Ali "Dheere" Mohamud, the new spokesman for Al Shabaab guerrillas, spoke to reporters via telephone while in Wabho and claimed that the pro-government Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamee'a militia "lost the battle and an important town". Ahlu Sunnah militia commanders declined to comment on Friday's armed clashes, which local sources described as the worst single-day fighting the town has ever seen. Local sources reported that 'foreign fighters' took part of the battle for Wabho and "some died", although the report could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile a Somali teenager from Minnesota who went missing in his homeland back in October was killed. Tom Lyden of Fox 9 News has spoken with the boy’s uncle and confirmed that 17-year-old Burhan Hassan has apparently been killed. The family of the former Roosevelt High School student got a phone call from Mogadishu, from people identifying themselves as Al Shabab, an Islamic militant group operating out of Somalia. Details on the death are still sketchy, but Hassan’s family says their understanding is it wasn’t a suicide bombing. Instead, the teenager was apparently shot in the head assassination-style. They also say Hassan has been sick for some time, and hasn’t been getting the medical attention he needs. Hassan, who attended the Abubakar mosque, is one of 20 Minnesota Somalis who traveled in secret back to their homeland. Another Minnesota man, Shirwa Ahmed, became a suicide bomber in Somalia back in October. The F.B.I. is investigating to find out may be recruiting the men locally. A Somali activist confirmed that one of the young Somali men who left Minneapolis to return to their homeland last November has been reported killed in Mogadishu. Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center said his group is looking into the case.

In Mogadishu where al Shabaab have been battling the security forces of president Ahmed, three people died on Sunday when a remote control mine meant for a police car struck a civillian vehicle. "The police car was driving at high speed and the bomb missed it and struck a civilian car which was behind the police car", eyewitness Abdullahi Farah Nur told Reuters.

Islamic Courts Union (ICU) fighters in southern Somalia have claimed responsibility for a guerrilla attack on a provincial capital near Mogadishu, Radio Garowe reported Friday. Sheikh Dahir Addow Ulusow, the ICU governor of Middle Shabelle region, told reporters that ICU fighters attacked Al Shabaab guerrillas inside Jowhar town overnight last Thursday. "We attacked several positions manned by the group [Al Shabaab] who control Jowhar by force and our forces withdrew without casualties", Sheikh Ulusow said. Jowhar residents confirmed that heavy gunfire was heard inside the town for about an hour last night, but there were no reliable reports of casualties. Al Shabaab commanders in Jowhar declined to speak publicly about the ICU guerrilla attack on the town, but ICU rulers were violently expelled from Jowhar and other towns in Middle Shabelle region by Al Shabaab hardliners last month. The guerrilla attack comes on the heels of yesterday's battles in Mahaday town near Jowhar, where ICU and Al Shabaab fighters battled for control of the small town. ICU fighters who claimed they took control of Mahaday withdrew within 24 hours, with Al Shabaab commanders publicly speaking in Mahaday on Friday asking the locals to remain calm. The ICU is a pro-government Islamist faction that has battled for control of towns in southern and central Somalia against Al Shabaab, a group considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam factions have rejected the Somali interim government led by President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, formerly the ICU chief when the group rose to fame in 2006.

The World Cares More About Somalia's Pirates Than its People

For years now the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is the worst in Africa and probably the world.

Yet hardly anyone cares about this.

The issue of Somali piracy, however, has recently attracted global attention and military intervention.

Alex Perry writes in Time that "Australia, Bahrain, Britain, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, the Seychelles, Spain, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United States and Yemen have all contributed to the effort to safeguard international sea trade. Currently that involves 25 warships, scores of surveillance planes and tens of thousands of sailors".

Perry adds that "the Somali crisis that involves millions of people receives almost no attention while the Somali crisis that involves millions of dollars receives unprecedented military action".

This is nothing new. People, especially if they are poor and African, don't matter. In today's world, it's only about interests, politics, and money!

Somalia's new U.N.-endorsed government is the 15th attempt by the international community to restore national order since the outbreak of civil war in 1991. "Somehow the rights of ordinary Somalis seem not to count in the international system", says Alex de Waal, program director at the Social Science Research Council in New York. "The Somali issue is framed entirely in terms of other political agendas".

EU will pay more money to elections in Afghanistan than food aid to the whole of East and the Horn of Africa

Since long NGOs and humanitarian analysts have decried the imbalanced and inappropriate response of the EU to human suffering the world over. While the European countries in earlier days were proud to show their bi-lateral assistance to the least developed countries especially in Africa, they do hide their activities and funds since several years behind a so called European policy and the non-transparent "European" funding. The real assistance therefore has gone from "always too little, always too late" to hardly existing, while still the individual countries publish proudly their "contributions to the needy through the European Union" - whereby hardly anything arrives.

The EU will now contribute 40 million Euro ($56.9 million) for August's presidential elections in Afghanistan as part of the efforts of the European Union to help ensure that the elections are free and fair. Part of this money will go to the EU's election observation mission, and part of it will go to the electoral commission of the Afghan government, said Christiane Hohmann, the commissioner's spokeswoman.

At the same time the EU Commission will only contribute 22 million Euro for food aid in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya und Uganda together !

What is more important: Ballot boxes for Afghans or bred for Somalis?

Toward a Somali Future?

An interview with Karin von Hippel, co-director of the CSIS Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project and senior fellow with the CSIS International Security Program.

Q: Lets start off with what you think about the election of Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in Somalia. Does his presidency offer some hope to Somalia?

For the first time in years, I am mildly optimistic about events in Somalia. I haven’t been at all over these past 19 years, since the state collapsed in January 1991. There are a number of ‘ifs’ that could really give Somalia a chance.

The positive thing about President Ahmed is that he is a moderate, or at least considered to be a moderate. Though I’m never quite sure what we mean by being a moderate Muslim. Regardless, Ahmed will get the credit for the Ethiopian departure at the start of 2009. That was a negative rallying point that helped the Al-Shabaab, whose leaders were claiming that they were fighting against the Christian occupying forces. Abdullahi Yusuf has also resigned, and he too was a lightning rod. Another positive development is that Ahmed has already appointed ministers from the Northeast, crossing clan lines. He has also appointed a foreign minister who knows the West very well.

Thus, the early signs are fairly good. But one of the ‘if’s’ I referred to earlier relates to whether or not he can integrate the moderate elements of the Al- Shabaab. Contrary to what most people thing, there are some moderate elements in Al-Shabaab. Some young men in the Al-Shabaab are in it just for the money and some are not fully committed to its ideology. Already, we’ve seen the Al-Shabaab splinter into different groups. If Ahmed can pull in the moderate members and isolate and detain the handful of hard-liners who will not negotiate, then I think we may see the beginning of stability in Somalia. The goal should be to separate the extremists from the moderates and try to form a unified government.

Another ‘if’ he needs to accomplish is to figure out how to work with the Ethiopians. As much as President Ahmed is hesitant to work with Addis Ababa, he needs to do so because Ethiopia can always be a spoiler (and in contrast, could help with much-needed development and security assistance). Ahmed needs to feel comfortable about what is happening next door.

As to America’s role, I think the US government should play a very quiet, behind the scenes role; the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative needs to continue to play a mediating role.

The US government and the UN Special Representative can also play a critical role in preventing the regional states from playing a spoiler role, as they have often done in the past, as occurred during the Ethiopian-Eritrean war (1998-2000) when both countries interfered in Somalia. Other countries have also played a destabilizing role in Somalia over the past two decades, including Egypt, Kenya, Yemen, Djibouti, and Libya. So we need to get these powers behind the UN-led peace process.

Thus, if Ahmed mobilizes the moderates and isolates the spoilers, he can divide the Al-Shabaab and strengthen the government. The key is that Ahmed needs to immediately start to deliver basic services and security. But the problem is that he does not have any resources. This is where Ethiopia, the UN, and the United States, the European Union and other countries can all help. But any efforts need to include new mechanisms to prevent corruption, potentially utilizing the very vibrant Somali media to monitor all donor spending.

Q: Can you explain exactly what you mean by ways you can ensure that bureaucracy will not arrest efforts to assist Somalia?

When Ashraf Ghani was Afghanistan’s Finance Minister (2002-04), there was an attempt to have public accountability as to where the financial assistance was going. I think future aid packages to Somalia should utilize a much more public accounting approach. The press and Somali watch groups can monitor the financial aid and hold the bureaucracy accountable. Thus, the average Somali would become more involved in making sure that the money goes to where it is supposed to go. And if it isn’t going where it is supposed to go, everybody puts it online and in the newspaper, using the "name and shame" approach. Cell phones and cell phone cameras have been used to monitor aid flows, and there are other innovations in different parts of the world that can be used.

The problem is that while Ahmed will have more support from the public and hopefully the neighboring countries, there are many things that can go wrong. His biggest challenge will be in dealing with the Al-Shabaab and trying to beat them at the battle over Somali hearts and minds. He needs the support of the people to isolate and marginalize them as a movement, and prevent them from spoiling the peace process. The Ethiopians that "occupied" the country are gone, and Yusuf, who was considered a warlord by many and not representing the interest of the Somali people, is gone as well. The only real foreigners in the country now are the foreigners the Al-Shabaab invited in. But Ahmed will need to get the security situation under control so as to rebuild and also end the humanitarian crisis that has engulfed the country.

Q: Speaking of the jihadists brought into Somalia, I think the general big question is whether terrorism is finding a safe haven in Africa, specifically in Somalia. Is Somalia going to be a big counterterrorist target in the future?

There are definitely foreign jihadists in Somalia, but I don’t think that there are as many as people think because, Somalia is a very hard place to operate in. Somali society is very fragmented and power is widely diffused, while infrastructure is not reliable.

There are other jihadists in the trans-Sahel region and there is a concern because of the sheer geographic expanse of the desert. But to put this into perspective, there are also jihadists in Manchester and in London, and in Hamburg and in Marseilles and the FBI is now worried about them in America too. Recently, there have been stories about young Somali men from Minneapolis, who have joined the jihad in Somalia. But I don’t see jihad in Somalia as the biggest threat. We need to use our resources to help Somalia build the security infrastructure that it needs to secure its own borders, and prevent these people from entering in the first place.

Q: It’s very clear that a lot of reconstruction is needed in Somalia. However, much of the international community seems to be overstretched, the United States in particular. Also, Darfur, in the public sphere, seems like a much more pressing issue. What sort of priority does Somalia take, and will the lack of urgency towards Somalia ever change?

My main worry is that the same mistakes of the past are going to be made again. The UN is trying to form a peacekeeping commission, but I don’t think that is necessarily a good idea for Somalia. We have tried these tools in the past and they didn’t work very well the first time. They probably won’t work well again.

What I would rather see happening is to look at what works in Somalia and build on Somali energy and entrepreneurship. For example, a number of Somali NGOs have done a great job. There is a very vibrant Somali media and many watchdog groups. They can keep the government and non-governmental organizations accountable.

Let’s look at what works in Somalia and support those endeavors. Let’s not come in top heavy again; let’s have a very low profile and work through local institutions and build them up and not have a huge international presence.

Q: It is still very early for the Obama administration, but do you see the new administration understanding and executing the sort of role that you describe for it?

Yes, I think so. I think that in the United States, a lot of people do get the situation in Somalia. There are some really good people involved in the Obama team who really do understand the issues and I am hoping that the right people get the right jobs. But, you’re correct in saying that it’s just too early to say. And I hope the people in the administration are used in effective ways and find out ways to help Somalia.

Q: Another matter that came up in the discussion was the issue of reintegrating the Al-Shabaab, which is considered a youth militia. How does the government enforce the demilitarization and reintegration of the Al-Shabaab? We can see in other parts of the world, like in Colombia, that this effort becomes very difficult and that is the biggest obstacle that deters peace.

Demilitarization is a big problem because there are many militias. Some of them can be turned into the army and into the police, but some will just have to be reformed. There have been so many attempts at reform in the past. The main problem is that there has not been any overall governing structure to maintain the demilitarization and reintegration process.

No matter what kind of training you give these youth, if they can’t find work, and there is no overall security framework to maintain security, then they will likely resort to picking up another gun. So you need to have some state structures (not necessarily at the central level, it can be effectively managed at the local level) before demilitarization and reintegration can take place. I would rather see Somalis do it themselves and the international community play a small, behind-the-scenes role than an overt training and monitoring role. What we saw during the brief period in 2006 when the Islamists were in charge was safety in Somalia, perhaps for the first time since the state collapsed. The Islamic Courts Union succeeded in providing security, and removing the checkpoints, they also mostly eliminated piracy. They made it safe to walk in the streets again. The international community had nothing to do with it at all. So we know the Somalis are capable of doing it themselves.

The international community could play a supporting role by establishing a trust fund, for example, which can be publicly monitored by Somalis and which could be increased with signs of visible progress.

Q: You’ve mentioned that a lot of the neighboring countries are interfering with Somalia’s efforts preserve the peace. Do you think a lot of the incentive there has shifted or would they really stay out? How do you see that?

The important point here is that the US government and the UN should play a strong (but quiet) role in ensuring that all regional states are part of the solution, and not let any of them become spoilers, as many have done in the past.

Q: Do you really see citizens of the United States going in that direction?

Yes, I think America will, because Somalia and Afghanistan have both demonstrated the perils of ignoring rogue and collapsed states. Somalia demonstrates what happens when you allow a collapsed state to fester for too long: piracy, terrorism, protracted humanitarian crises, environmental degradation – the list is long and extremely worrisome. It is in everyone’s interest - the United States and its allies, the regional states, and of course, Somalis themselves - that Somalia rejoin the international community in a comprehensive way.

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Somaliland suspends licenses of nine NGOs.

The breakaway government in Somalia's separatist republic of Somaliland has declared that it has temporarily suspended the licenses of nine non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Radio Garowe reports.

A press release issued Friday by the Somaliland Ministry of Planning indicated that all 26 NGOs with operations in Somaliland were informed to submit the annual 2008 reports to the government in an April 19th press release in order to keep track of the various organizations' operations. "That press release [of April 19] warned that any group [NGO] that refuses to report will face temporary suspension of its license", read Friday's press statement. The statement went on to mention that nine NGOs have not reported back to the Somaliland government and therefore their operations in the breakaway region have been suspended. The NGOs included Islamic Relief, Mercy USA for Aid Development and the Canadian African Indigenous Development, according to the press release. Somaliland unilaterally declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 but has not been recognized internationally.

A delegation from Australian mining firm Range Resources, Ltd., has visited the Somali self-governing region of Puntland for the first time since the January election of President Abdirahman Mohamed "Farole", inside sources tell Somali news agency Garowe Online. The Range Resources delegation was led by Mr. Peter Landau, the company's executive director. The delegation met with Puntland Cabinet ministers last Thursday in Garowe, the capital of Puntland State. The meeting was organized by Puntland's Minerals and Petroleum Director, Mr. Isse Mohamud "Dholowa", and attended by Finance Minister Farah Ali Jama, Interior Minister Gen. Abdullahi Ahmed "Ilkajir" and Public Works Minister Dahir Khalif Farah. Sources close to the meeting told Garowe Online that Mr. Landau presented a case that Range Resources has been "reformed" and reportedly "admitted" to past mistakes. Mr. Landau offered to work closely with the new government in Puntland in matters of exploring for oil and minerals in the vast territory in northeastern Somalia. Further, Mr. Landau reportedly informed the Puntland government officials that Canada-based Africa Oil Corp. has "violated" some clauses of its controversial exploration contract in Puntland. It is not clear why Mr. Landau accused Africa Oil, but the Canadian explorer with links to Sweden's Lundin Petroleum has an 80% stake in a joint-venture agreement with Range Resources to search and drill for oil in Puntland's Dharoor and Nugaal valleys.

While in Garowe, the Range Resources delegation did not meet with President Farole, who became opposition leader in 2005 after rejecting ex-Puntland President Adde Muse's controversial oil contract with Range Resources. President Farole has publicly stated that all contracts signed by the former Muse administration are "under review" to ensure legality and to protect the interests of Puntland State. To date, no oil drilling has taken place in Puntland as Range Resources took its contract with ex-President Muse abroad and "sold" exploration rights to other companies, such as Africa Oil. Since the days when Western Geophysical and Conoco started the oil explorations in the Nugal valley the issue has been fuelling the war between Somaliland and Puntland regions and is especially opposed by the Warsangeli and Dulbahante people, who had to suffer under these skirmishes, triggered by deals, which the local people consider as private ventures of overlords oppressing the will of the population.

Impacting reports from the global village

Comesa has expressed concern over the deepening crisis in Madagascar and Somalia and called for immediate intervention by member states. Madagascar was the only country not officially represented at this Comesa summit. Addressing the ninth Comesa Foreign Ministers meeting, Comesa secretary general Dr Sindiso Ngwenya said the regional bloc needed to find ways of addressing the conflicts, which weighed on integration between member states. "We should be mindful that as we address the conflicts that besieged us for the past few years, new issues of peace and security have emerged that have a negative impact on our integration efforts", he said in apparent reference to the situation in Madagascar. "Such issues include piracy off the coast of Somalia and recent conflicts in Madagascar. These are issues that need your attention and I am pleased to inform you that the committee on peace and security which met two weeks ago in Mauritius considered these issues". Marc Ravalomanana was forced to surrender power in March following an uprising led by Andry Rajoelina, the 35-year-old former mayor of Antananarivo who spearheaded months of street protests demanding the elected president’s resignation. Mr. Ravalomanana is, however, attending the Comesa summit which ends today.

Kenyan activists fight land deal with Qatar
by Nick Wadhams

It seemed, when the proposal was announced last December, to be a throwaway clause in a much larger deal. In exchange for a US$2.5 billion (Dh9.1bn) loan to build a second deep-water port in Kenya, Qatar asked for 40,000 hectares of land to grow food.

Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, may have thought that he had a deal that would help feed his 800,000 people. But he was also about to get a major headache.

In the months since, the proposed land deal in Kenya’s Tana River Delta has been jeopardized by the global economic downturn, tainted by criticism from think tanks, conservationists and civil society and seized upon by locals who have promised to fight it – to the death, if it comes to that.

"No government has ever been able to acquire Tana River Delta land as long as we’ve been alive", said Omara Kalasinga, a local activist. "No amount of force will get us to give that land to Qatar".

The furor surrounding the Tana River Delta is perhaps an ominous example of just how difficult it is proving for Gulf states to find food security abroad and especially in Africa. Some analysts question whether such proposals – which have gained a great deal of media attention in the wake of rising food prices and South Korea’s failed bid to snap up a third of all arable land in Madagascar – are worth the trouble. They are asking whether Qatar and its neighbours should seek alternative strategies to feed their people.

"It turns out these deals are not such simple things to do", Marie Bos, a researcher at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, said. "Buying land comes with so many issues, so many factors to take into consideration".

By all accounts, given the business climate when Qatar made the proposal to the Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki, during a visit to Doha in December 2008, the idea seemed perfect. Qatar and its wealthy neighbours had recently launched sovereign investment funds which were looking to buy land abroad. Even better, the Kenyan government seemed willing to play along.

The Tana River Delta is a massive swath of land along Kenya’s coast. Rain is abundant and much of the land is government owned. Little of it is developed and prime, fertile land would be just kilometres from the proposed port and a quick run by sea up to Qatar. At the same time, Kenya was pushing its own development plan, known as Vision 2030, to promote investment and improvements in Kenya. The port deal was seen as crucial because it would open up a third of the country – the arid and neglected north-east – to development.

The country’s planning minister, Wycliffe Oparanya, declared that Qatar was ready to finance the port unconditionally and that the deal was too urgent to go through the process of applying for a World Bank loan.

"It is not a matter of free money", he told Reuters. "But if we go to the World Bank, it takes four years to negotiate and then you are told: ‘Do this, do that’. The Kenyan people cannot wait that long for this urgent development project".

Yet soon after the announcement appeared in Kenyan newspapers, anger started to mount. In Kenya, people do not just debate land – they kill for it too, as happened during violence after botched elections in December 2007. And for decades, people had been killing each other over the Tana River Delta, an area inhabited by pastoralists and small-scale farmers and occasionally terrorized by bandits from Somalia.

Despite its post-election troubles, Kenya has a vibrant civil society. Its neighbours, Sudan and Ethiopia, have been popular destinations for Gulf investors looking for land, but Kenya is a messier place to do business. Desperate peasants in Ethiopia may be easily cowed by autocratic governments. Kenya’s conservationists are a different matter.

"They think Kenyans like making noise and after a while they won’t have the energy to sustain it and will keep quiet", said Hadley Becha, the director of the East African Wildlife Society. "But they don’t know some of us, we are like snuffer dogs".

That the Tana River Delta is undeveloped is, in some ways, testament to that tenacity. The government has long tried a host of schemes – from sugarcane, to shrimp farming, to rice fields and agro-fuels – in the delta, all of which failed, sunk by local opposition, poor planning or conservation groups, who cherish the delta’s extraordinary ecological diversity.

The government claims that the land – 200,000 hectares – is its to give. Yet the people who live there say that while they have no deed, customary law makes it theirs.

"There were people there even before the state came into being", said Ms Becha. "On the ground, they will have to displace people and people are not ready to be displaced".

Even if Qatar does look elsewhere, such deals have come under a lot more scrutiny, especially since the South Korea deal in Madagascar ultimately played a part in the government’s downfall.

Regardless of the fact that Kenya has a great deal of uncultivated land, the country finds itself in the middle of a drought that has brought a low-level famine to many of its people. The land Qatar wants may be small, but the symbolism would be potent, experts say.

"It does seem rather anomalous that you’ve got countries which are food insecure and in receipt of food aid shipments and at the same time handing over control of land to third countries", said David Hallam, head of the Trade Policy Service at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Analysts say Qatar and its neighbours may be better off forming relationships with existing domestic farms rather than snapping up land.

Last week, a UN report on Africa noted that the global financial crisis would slash growth rates across the continent and said that such land deals with wealthy Gulf nations could be "part of the solution" to the continent’s troubles – but only if they helped create jobs or cut poverty.

"There has been talk about the business model not being robust enough – it may be better just to work with local farmers", said O B Sisay, a deputy Africa analyst with Exclusive Analysis in London. "You’re going to find it difficult to produce food for export in countries that have perennial food and farming shortages".

Kenyan officials deny the Qatar deal has been set in stone, while Qatar has maintained a general silence.

Isaiah Kabira, President Kibaki’s spokesman, said there would be discussions next month over the port deal. He said Kenya was asking Qatar to develop not only the 40,000 hectares for its own use, but also another 40,000 hectares so that the produce could be sold domestically.

He insisted that conservation groups and community leaders were wrong about the location of the land that would be leased to Qatar, and that the port would bring benefits to the entire country.

Africa's panel of the wise meets in Tripoli, Libya

Members of Africa's panel of the Wise began a meeting here Sunday, their sixth meeting in the series, to fashion out a final version of the report on "crises and conflicts triggered by electoral processes" in Africa.

Declaring the meeting open, the chairman of the panel and former Algerian President, Ahmed Ben Bella, said that the gathering was an opportunity to continue the thoughts started three weeks ago in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on the crises and conflicts triggered by elections in Africa.

He said the meeting was very important as crises and conflicts had undermined the promotion of good governance and stability in Africa.

He stressed the need to create a process of reaching decisions by consensus and punishing parties involved in conflicts.

He disclosed that the Panel had made a number of proposals which could guide African heads of State and the Chairman of the African Union, Mouammar Kadhafi of Libya, to take appropriate decisions in a bid to guarantee peace and stability in Africa.

In his speech, the general secretary of the Libyan committee for external relations, Khaled Kaeïm, said that the African Security and Peace Council (CPS), the AU Commission and other AU bodies should take advice from the panel with a view to ending the conflicts in Somalia, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania and ushering in free and fair presidential elections in those countries.

He welcomed the peace pact reached in Mauritania.

Members of the Panel of the Wise, appointed in January 2007, are from each region of the continent.

They include Bella for Northern Africa, Miguel Trovodra, former president of Sao Tome and Principe for Central Africa, Tanzanian Salim Ahmed Salim for East Africa, former Benin prosecutor, Ms. Elisabeth Pognon, for West Africa and the former chair of South African electoral commission, Ntombenhophe B. Bam, for Southern Africa.

Botswana resisting the establishment of United States of Africa by Bashi Letsididi
Botswana is still apprehensive about the establishment of a United States of Africa. Minister Dikgakgamatso Seretse told the House that Botswana is opposed to the creation of ministerial posts at the continental level, the formation of a unified African army, introduction of a single African passport, free movement of people on the African continent and membership without determined criteria.

"I wish to underline the fact that Botswana is fully committed to continental unity. We are convinced that this is the ultimate objective of the African Union. But the process must be a gradual one, taking into account the wishes of our people so that in the end we can achieve a unity of the peoples of Africa based on the common values of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. It cannot be unity of leaders alone", said Seretse, who at the time was acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Alongside South Africa, Botswana has been chosen to represent the southern Africa region in the Committee of Ten Countries of the African Union. The committee will consider and make recommendations on the creation of the US of Africa. Seretse said that after several years of "intense debate" it has become apparent that most African countries are not ready for an AU government.

"Many members are of the view that the creation of an African Union government has serious political, constitutional and financial implications. It must be carefully and properly thought through before any binding decisions are made", the minister said.

One of the major constraints to the US of Africa that Seretse identified is disharmony between African states on political and policy practice.

"Some countries in Africa can be described as ungovernable - for example, Somalia - whilst others do not allow multi-party elections", Seretse said.

However, a majority of AU members have agreed on a gradualist approach that begins with integration at the level of regional economic communities such as the Southern African Development Community.

"Botswana is of the considered view that the integration of Africa should be bottom-up and therefore anchored on the achievements of the regional economic communities. That is, the focus should be on strengthening organisations like SADC, which would then serve as the building blocks towards continent-wide integration. But equally important the decision to create a union government should involve all the people on the continent, it should not be decision made by leaders alone", Seretse said.

One leader whose enthusiasm about the US of Africa is legendary is Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi. He has been calling for its establishment since 2000.

Seretse’s quite elaborate briefing to the house was prompted by a question from Kgosi Kgomotso Boiditswe of Serowe region. Supposing the US of Africa materialized, African traditional leaders may find themselves playing second fiddle to Gaddafi who was crowned "King of Kings" by a section of African traditional leaders, sultans, sheiks and mayors from Muslim North Africa during ceremonies in the city of Benghazi last August. These leaders form the Forum of African Traditional Leaders, which meets every September 9 in Sirte - Gaddafi's birthplace. Of Gaddafi’s recently acquired royalty, a Ugandan Muslim scholar has observed: "If he overthrew a king, how does he now turn around and call himself King of Kings"?

‘Why aid to Africa must stop’

Born and raised in Zambia but educated at Oxford and Harvard, Dambisa Moyo was an uncommon face as a black woman in the world of high finance.

Now with the publication of her book Dead Aid, she has become an uncommon voice, a strong and eloquent advocate of stopping financial aid to Africa as the best way to help the troubled continent. It is an idea contradicting rock star campaigners, Western politicians and grassroots wisdom all at once. Moyo, a former Goldman Sachs economist spoke with Canada's National Post about her ideas and the hazards of opposing the aid orthodoxy.

Q. What's so bad about rich nations sharing their wealth with poor nations to help them cope with their struggles?

A. No country on Earth has ever achieved long-term growth and reduced poverty in a meaningful way by relying on aid. It's just never happened. So we're pushing a strategy that has no evidence of working anywhere on Earth. And we have years of evidence that the aid strategy doesn't work.

It boils down to incentive. We have to ask ourselves: Are African governments incentivised to do what governments all around the world are expected to do, that is, deliver public goods: education, health care, infrastructure and security? Unfortunately an aid system has allowed African governments to abdicate their responsibilities.... so until African governments live or die based on job creation and providing goods to Africans and not rely just on getting aid money, we will continue to see a situation where the private sector has not developed and Africans do not have job opportunities. The billion dollars that go from government to government ... can make African governments lazy with respect to doing what they are supposed to be doing. It also fuels corruption, can fuel civil wars, inflation, the debt burden, and so on.

Q. What do you see as the better way?

A. It is a mixture of trade, foreign direct investment, capital markets, the bond market, remittance and microfinance. It is basically fostering a private sector investment into these economies so you actually get job creation. The fundamental problem with the aid model is there are no jobs being created for Africans. It is a band-aid solution. Over 60 percent of Africa's population is under the age of 24. These people need jobs or we'll have a continent of pirates or young people with no opportunities. It is critically important that people understand that Africans want what Westerners want.

Q. In order to raise aid money, foundations and aid agencies often turn to television commercials panning across impoverished people amid a damaged wasteland. That hardly inspires confidence that any private funding would be worthwhile as a financial investment.

A. I completely agree and that is one of the fundamental problems with the celebrity culture. The focus is so negative. In the book I call it the four horsemen of African apocalypse. They want to focus on war, disease, poverty and corruption. I met with an African woman in Kenya who said to me it is hard enough to raise a teenager anywhere in the world, but try to raise a teenager to be an engineer or a doctor or to really contribute to the global society when you are constantly being told you are poor, you're inefficient, you need a handout. This is not a formula for success. It is a great disappointment that, by and large, celebrities use their platforms to basically push a negative story. That is not going to encourage anyone to Africa to invest.

Q. So you advocate turning off the taps. How soon, how suddenly and how completely should they be turned off?

A. I appreciate you asking that question because I have been completely misrepresented and, I have to say, I think quite deliberately misrepresented, particularly by the NGO community. I give a five-year example in my book. Very foolishly, the NGOs have jumped on that and [suggest] said aid should be stopped immediately or, in the worst case, within five years. I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is we need to have an exit strategy. Aid can, perhaps, only work when we know the tap will be turned off at some point. We need a phase-out plan to make sure that African governments can wean themselves off of aid. I have also said that countries have very different levels of economic development. My own home country, Zambia, is at a very different level than say, Ghana, or Kenya, or Somalia for that matter. You cannot have one blanket exit strategy for all of these countries.

Q. Much has been made in the media pitting your ideas against major celebrities, musicians Bob Geldof and Bono of U2. Not that long ago we saw Bono sitting with our prime minister, eliciting a promise to increase Canada's spending on Africa. What is your take on the rock star advocacy?

A. They have become the de facto faces of Africa. The fact that they globally are viewed as the people defining the policy agenda, attending the G8 and the G20, is completely absurd. It is particularly ridiculous because I believe that the aid system has made many African governments so lazy they have created a vacuum where anyone -- in this case celebrities -- feel it is OK to jump in and start propounding policy on Africa.

We, as Africans and as a global society, should want to hear from the African governments -- what their plan is, what their strategy is. I don't want to hear from the celebrity about what they think Africans should be doing any more than a Canadian would want to hear from Michael Jackson about the credit crisis.

Q. Not all readers of this interview are policy-makers, so on a personal level, if someone in Canada is moved by the situation in Africa and would like to help, what would you recommend they do?

A. We should be questioning our policy-makers about what they are doing....After a trillion dollars in aid over 60 years and the situation is getting worse, it beggars belief. Those are very poor returns and we would ask those questions about anything else, about any policy for business in the Western world.... I very much hope that if there is one thing that the book does, it is give people permission to ask the hard questions. Someone said to me last week that one of the problems for someone born in Western society is if they even begin to question the aid model they are labeled racist or categorized as insensitive or heartless and I think that is unfair. Also there is a Web site, kiva.org, where you can lend as little as $25 to support entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Q. Your book has become a New York Times bestseller, you were named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and yet many object to your ideas. Who is not liking what you say?

A. The pushback tends to come from a minority group in the Western countries. By that I mean the NGOs. Some NGOs, rather than have a debate about it, they prefer to label me a genocidal maniac or try to take pot shots or make personal attacks.... I understand they are very interested in keeping the status quo because that is where their jobs are.

Q. Speaking of people who might not agree with you, on Monday you will be in Toronto debating your ideas with, among others, Stephen Lewis, a very well-known and passionate Canadian advocate for African aid. Do you see Mr. Lewis's advocacy any different than Bob Geldof's or Bono's?

A. By and large it is the same thing, raising money for Africa using what I call a negative platform. All I am saying is their interventions are not meeting the fundamental problems in Africa.

Q. Mr. Lewis can draw a tear from almost any eye when he speaks about the problems in Africa. Are you nervous about facing him in public debate?

A. No, because I am speaking from the heart. I'm speaking from growing up African. It breaks my heart that people continue to push a model of economic development that does not work and they know it does not work.

So I believe it would be a much better use of Mr. Lewis's time to actually agitate for the things that can meaningfully put a dent in poverty across the African continent instead of pushing a strategy that means that, in another 50 years ... your children and your children's children will basically be paying for my children and my children's children to go to school and get health care.

That is completely ridiculous and not a long-term solution.

The Age of Middle East Atonement

Therapeutic efforts to disguise the truth never really work.

By Victor Davis Hanson - senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal.

President Obama made an earnest effort — as is his way in matters of discord — to split the difference with the Islamic world. His speech essentially amounted to: "We did that, you did this, tit-for-tat, now we’re even, and can’t we all just get along"? He should be congratulated for expressing a desire for peace and for gently reminding the Muslim world of the way to reform, even if he did so while inflating Western sins.

But the problem with such moral equivalence is that it equates things that are, well, not equal — and therefore ends up not being moral at all.

To pull it off, one must distort both the past and the present for the presumed higher good of getting along. In the 1930s, British intellectuals performed feats of intellectual gymnastics in trying to contextualize Hitler’s complaints against the Versailles Treaty, assignment of guilt for the First World War, and French bellicosity — straining to overlook the intrinsic dangers of National Socialism for the higher good of avoiding another Somme. Over the short term, such revisionism worked; over the longer term, it ensured a highly destructive war.

Whatever a well-meaning President Obama thinks, occasional American outbursts against Muslims are not analogous with the terrorism directed at Westerners or the hostility toward Christianity shown in most of the Muslim world. Try flying into Saudi Arabia with a Bible, as compared to traveling to San Francisco with a Koran. One can easily forsake Christianity; one can never safely leave Islam. European worries about headscarves are not the equivalent of the Gulf states’ harassment of practicing Christians. Sorry, they’re just not.

Pace Obama, Arab learning in the Middle Ages, while impressive, did not really fuel either the Renaissance or the Enlightenment. If anything, the arrival in Europe of the learned of Byzantium fleeing Islam over two centuries was a far stronger catalyst for rediscovery of classical values, while enlightened European sympathy for Balkan peoples enslaved by the Ottomans rekindled romantic interest in Hellenism in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Colonialism and the Cold War — both of which have now been over for decades — do not account for present Arab pathologies. The far more pernicious Baathism, Nasserism, Pan-Arabism, and Islamism were all efforts, in varying degrees, to graft ideas of European socialism and Communism onto indigenous Arab and Muslim roots.

Today, Russia and China are much harder on Muslims than is the West. (Consider Russia’s actions in Chechnya and China’s treatment of the Uighurs.) Neither country pays any attention to Muslims’ grievances, and therefore Muslims respect and fear Russia and China far more than they do the United States.

There are no Arab coffeehouse discussions today about the nearly 1 million Muslims killed over two decades by the Soviets in Afghanistan and the Russian government in Chechnya, yet there is constant haranguing over Abu Ghraib, where not a single inmate was killed by rogue American guards. In short, neither logic nor morality is in abundance on the Arab Street, and conjuring up American felonies will not change that.

"On the one hand, on the other hand" — what Greek rhetoricians knew as men/de — when delivered in mellifluous tones, can suggest a path to reconciliation. But denial of fundamental differences leads nowhere. Our problems with the Middle East will dissipate, as have to varying degrees our problems with Japan, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and South America, when the region adopts, in part or in toto, open markets, consensual government, and human rights. Until then, we are in an uneasy and dangerous waiting period.

Conflating Western misdemeanors with Middle Eastern felonies is classical conflict-resolution theory, and laudably magnanimous. But privately the world knows that Muslims are treated better in the West than Christians are in Muslim countries. That Muslims migrate to the lands of Westerners, and not vice versa. That disputes over a border between Palestinians and Israelis do not explain the unhappiness of the Arab masses, suffering from state-caused poverty and wretchedness. That American military assistance to Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, and Somalia, direct aid to Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians, and moral condemnation of Chinese, Russian, and Balkan treatment of Muslims, coupled with a generous U.S. immigration policy, are not really cause for apology or atonement.

In short, few Arab leaders wish to give a "speech to the West". They would have to take responsibility, directly or indirectly, for either fostering or appeasing radical Islam, while denying their culpability for its decades of mass murdering. They would also have to lament the global economic havoc caused in part by oil cartels and energy price-fixing.

President Obama’s intent is noble, but therapeutic efforts to disguise the truth never really work. We will see how the short-term good created by his therapeutic speechmaking compares to the long-term harm caused by telling the Muslim world, once again, that its problems were largely created by us — and, therefore, that we are largely responsible for providing the remedies.
Neither is true.

Adoption of Anti-Slap Bill in Canada

Ecoterra Intl. welcomes the adoption of an Act for Canada to amend the Code of Civil Procedure in order to prevent any improper use of the courts and to promote freedom of expression as well as citizen participation in public debate. We extend our thanks to the MPs for passing such a law. The adoption of this Bill is the result of a long citizen struggle that began in 2005. Over the last four years, more than fifty community, union, environmental and feminist organizations, as well as over 10 000 citizens and a great number of experts have given and expressed their support for the adoption of legislation aiming to protect citizens from legal abuses to shut up outspoken critics. The Canadian NGO Écosociété and the authors of Noir Canada, who are on the forefront, will soon make use of the new legislative tools now at their disposal. Their case will serve as an efficiency test for this new legislation. Écosociété has often requested a strong legislative intervention in order to reaffirm pre-eminence of freedom of speech over protection of one’s reputation within the public debate.

In Canada especially the risk-investment-capital amassing mining and oil companies had used defamation suites to shut up groups critical to their environmentally and socially often destructive activities in Canada and overseas. Africa Oil is one of these companies, which even does not shy away from closing pacts with internationally unrecognized local overlords to seal questionable oil-deals - like in the Puntland region of Somalia. Even though this law is a step in the right direction, some of the demands, especially those requesting stronger protection of public debate, have not been heard. "History will tell whether by this we have really given ourselves the means to defend the place and importance of critical thinking and public debate in our democracy", remarked Écosociété. To get more information: http://slapp.ecosociete.org/en/node/16077.

Eritrea: Obstinate Under Sanctions

Recent events from the Horn of Africa have provided two clear messages: the first, from the peoples and governments of the Horn of Africa, and indeed from Africa in general, has unmistakably told the regime in Eritrea that enough is enough – destabilization and aggression must stop. The second, equally unmistakable, is the repetition of Eritrea's continuous contempt for Africa and its institutions.

An example of the first came in Kenya's Daily Nation of Tuesday 2 June 2009. Entitled "Why the U.N. should move fast to punish Eritrea" it details the deeply held views of African institutions, states and commentators. It expresses the very clear wishes of the region that the United Nations Security Council should persevere in its current more determined position on the matter of Somalia and actually "…tackle one of the notorious meddlers [in Somalia], Eritrea". The newspaper was referring to the recent decision by the Security Council in support of AMISOM and the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. Directly responding to Eritrea's activities, it notes that "Mr. Ahmed’s government is the only authority the international community [recognizes]...".

The newspaper talks of Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki providing sanctuary to terrorist elements and as being their leading supplier of weapons, something that has continued unabated. Eritrea, indeed, has made no secret of its frantic conspiracy with terrorist elements to try to change the Government in Somalia. The paper's analysis continued with the explanation that Eritrea's return of one of the leaders of these violent elements to Mogadishu a month ago clearly demonstrated: "...Mr Afewerki’s determination to continue rabble rousing in the Horn of Africa..." It is hard to disagree, and the paper is right on target: Eritrea lacks any such direct stake in Somalia as have the frontline states of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Any of those who try to talk of "proxy war" should now be quite clear that Eritrea’s war is against the people of Somalia, even the entire region, and it demonstrates what the paper calls President Issayas's sense of ‘frustrated grandeur’, or perhaps what many other commentators would call "Eritrea's misguided and predatory policies". The Daily Nation itself emphasizes that the Eritrean leader "…has orchestrated quarrels with Sudan, Djibouti, and Yemen and, of course, Ethiopia". It ends by calling for the international community to act quickly on the calls by the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions against Eritrea.

Eritrea's response to these calls has been to launch sustained propaganda attacks against IGAD, the organization from which it illegally suspended itself two years ago. Now the new aspect of Eritrea's reply to its critics have been its diatribes against the African Union, attempting to use false historical parallels to try and give itself the highly implausible appearance of a victim.

In fact, both IGAD and the AU have been the victims of Eritrea’s condescending abuse. Eritrea has even gone so far as to call for attacks against the AU's force in Somalia, AMISOM. It should be remembered that an African force for Somalia was originally suggested unanimously by IGAD (at a time when IGAD included Eritrea). The idea was then supported by the African Union and fully mandated and backed by the United Nations Security Council. None of this has now stopped Eritrea from calling for attacks against AMISOM and the TFG.

Nor has Eritrea’s leadership given any indication it might be prepared to stop hosting international terrorist individuals and groups in Eritrea or halt its support to such bodies. The fact that Eritrea has been supplying weapons and other logistical support to terrorist groups inside Somalia has now been widely confirmed. It is this which finally forced IGAD and the African Union to take the unprecedented measure of calling for sanctions against one of their own members.

One would expect this to have a sobering impact on Eritrea and its Government and President. On the contrary, however, Eritrea appears to have chosen to continue its destabilizing activities in the region, and to continue to engage in futile propaganda. The United Nations Security Council is now expected to deliver a final verdict vindicating the efforts of the regional organizations to provide for a rule of law and for peace and security in our region.

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Note
Picture: AMISOM soldiers: butchers, gangsters, assassins, cannibals, There will never be peace in the Horn of Africa as long as they stay in Somalia. From:
http://www.biyokulule.com/sawiro/sawirada_waaweyn/AMISOM4.jpg