The MV FAINA Piracy Crisis Chronicle XIII - FAINA As Huge Ukrainian Political Scandal

With the present thirteenth article, I terminate the series on the MV FAINA Piracy Crisis and thus complete a recapitulative record of the insightful press releases of the leading NGO Ecoterra; in the present article, I republish Ecoterra Press Release update no 73, along with the additional features.

73rd Update 2008-12-08 17:55:12 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

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Day 75 - 1779 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

The Somali captors holding the arms-laden cargo ship yesterday accused the owners of stalling on a ransom payment and threatened to pull out of a deal for its release struck a week ago, Quatar sources and many news agencies reported. A pirate spokesman said that the armed gang holding the FAINA was unhappy about the delay in the ransom payment. "The ship's owners are taking too long to hand over the money", another spokesman, identifying himself only as Ahmed, said by telephone from Hobyo town, near the pirate lair of Harardheere. Citing a pirate who also called himself Ahmed, Ukraine’s ICTV television said an agreement on the payment of a ransom was reached last week -- but the ship's owners have yet to hand over the money.

There have been consultations between the captors on the land and on the ship and everyone agreed that if the money is not delivered on time to abandon the agreement, Ahmed added, according to agency reports. Elders in the area who did not wish to be named said a ransom of $3.5m had been agreed for the ship, carrying 33 Soviet-type battle tanks, rocket launchers and ammunition when it was seized off Somalia more than two months ago. Sugule Ali, the spokesman for the group of pirates aboard the FAINA, said on November 30 that a final agreement on a ransom had been reached and it was just a matter of time and a few technicalities before the ship and its crew were released, which he said would occur within four days. The US military has overflown the hijacked vessel several times to take pictures of the crew lined up on the bridge and verify that all were in good health. However, the Ombudswoman for Humanitarian Affairs of the Ukrainian Parliament is very much concerned about the fat of the crew. The MV FAINA was anchored a few miles off the coast of Harardhere, north of Mogadishu, and had been moved several times and the body of Russian Vladimir Kolobkov, who died after a heat-stroke-induced heart-failure, is still on board. However, sources very close to the negotiations maintain that the stumbling-block to the final arrangements is persisting on the side of the captors, who - being permanently influenced by various sides - appear again confused and indecisive and have not allowed for the necessary steps to a safe release take place.

Meanwhile it has transpired that Ukraine's military might is damaged by selling armament to Georgia and elsewhere below the market price, according to the parliament's investigating body. "Arms were being supplied for less than fair value, and even that cash wasn't reaching the country's coffers", said Valery Konovalyuk, the director of the investigation commission of the Ukraine's Supreme Rada (parliament), the news agency Russia Today reported. Kiev has been accused of secretly stuffing Tbilisi's arms caches with the weapons prior to and immediately after Georgia's attack on South Ossetia in southern Caucasus. The Party of the Regions, Ukraine's pro-Russian opposition party, lobbied for the creation of a fact-finding body to investigate the allegations. The party has been a vocal critic of Kiev for supporting the Georgian invasion, which 'forced' a stiff response from Russia. Konovalyuk, who heads the fact-finding investigation, said that over four years, USD 2.5 billion worth of weaponry and ammunition were shipped to Georgia, but the Ukraine government has only received USD 200 million. "The money was laundered through short-lived stooge firms", the official said. The practice went on for years thanks to the involvement of President Viktor Yushchenko who had "forced those officials to take steps" in violation of the Ukrainian legislation. The president is also accused of allegedly depriving the country of the much-needed weaponry, to provide arms for Georgia. The commission has also asked permission for looking into the large-scale arms shipment by the Ukrainian freighter MV FAINA which was intercepted by the Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa in September. "We are on the verge of a huge political scandal that could have immense political repercussions", Konovalyuk was earlier quoted by The New York Times as saying on the matter.

Ecoterra Intl. renewed its call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.

Adjustment of Perspective ------

Today is actually the 10/Dec/1429 AD in the Islamic Hijri Calendar. Eid wanaagsan to the Somalis and Eid Mubarak! Whoever you are and wherever you live, please look up in the world history almanac what happened in your country and to your people at the year 1429 of the Gregorian calendar and compare to what is going on in and around Somalia today.

England: English victory at Orleans (this is how the English see it). Henry VI was crowned, but did not officially assume the reins of government

France was split into at least six fiefdoms, no central government, wide areas occupied by enemy England. Joan of Arc entered Orléans with a relief expedition. The English, weakened by disease and lack of supplies, depart Orléans. French forces under Joan of Arc smash the English forces under Lord Talbot and Sir John Fastolf, forcing the withdrawal of the English from the Loire Valley. Joan proceeded to win several battles against the English, opening the way for the Dauphin to march to Reims for his coronation as Charles VII.

Chna: A series of seven customs offices and barriers (like today's roadblocks in Somalia) are installed along the Grand Canal of China, during the reign of the Ming Dynasty ruler Emperor Yongle.

Germany: Widely occupied by the masterminding, EU-like, Holy-Roman-Empire, which from the end of the 15th century was called the Holy-Roman-Empire of German Nations. The county Straubing, which became the capital of Bavaria-Straubing under the dukes of Bavaria-Straubing-Holland under Duke William I, when Bavaria was divided among the sons of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor in 1349, was passed on in 1429 to Ernest, Duke of Bavaria-Munich, who ordered to murder a lady-adversary.

..... these are only some few little events - enjoy searching yourself: History repeats itself !, since it seems that we still have not overcome the poor state of having only one sole solution-option to conflict-resolution, the one which homo Cro-Magnon had: The club to crush the skull of the enemy.
The navies club together to club the Somali pirates - but do they? - or are they outwitted by smart people whose club-affiliation changes every day.

Clearing-house

News from other abducted ships ---

"Somali fishermen simply changed their business model, and they've got military hardware in the meantime", said Dieter Berg, head of marine underwriting for the huge reinsurance company Munich Re. "Piracy is now a real industry in Somalia. Whole clans are living off it". This explains sometimes the long delays until the key-people can agree on a committed finalization and release. And then it depends also on which gang captured the vessel. In the case of the MV CAPTAIN STEFANOS the captors seem to be a group of specially illiterate and stubborn people, who seem not to know the difference between an old coal carrier and the Sirius oil-supertanker. The families of the crew of 17 Filipinos, one Chinese and one Ukrainian do not understand why it takes so long to finalize the release and urge the Greek owner-manager Chartworld Shipping to try harder to secure the release. Greek owned MV Centauri, which was captured around the same time as MV Catain Stefanos was released in the night 27th/28th November already.

With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of around 354 crew members (of which 108 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 123 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 51 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 16). Several other vessels with unclear fate (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.

The First Victim of War is the Truth!

It took the three absconding security guards from sea-jacked MT Biscaglia three weeks to come to paid terms with a British paper of the yell-oh-press to present their story exclusively. The Biscaglia and 18 other cargo vessels at first sailed through the Gulf of Aden with a French frigate for protection. But two days out of Oman, 300 miles off the Somali coast, it fell behind. Mike, 36, as well as ex-Royal Marine Carl "Rocky" Mason, 44, and another ex-military pal who didn't want to be named, were paid £10,000 a month to safeguard the MV Biscaglia, but jumped overboard when the pirates attacked. The arrangements didn't allow for any weapons being taken on board, but their employers, Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Services (APMSS) of Poole, Dorset / UK, promised them the ship would be equipped with "deterrents". Rocky stated: "The ship had water cannon and a sonic device - called an LRAD - which we were told was so painful any pirates would scatter [they found out too late that the pirates only laughed about the toy]. We also made a bazooka from a scaffolding pole and flares". Mike, from Dublin, said: "We noticed a skiff about three miles off our port side – and knew it was pirates". and added: "We used our makeshift bazooka, but it was wildly inaccurate and the pirates started firing rocket-propelled grenades".

The two British and one Irish ex-soldiers are presented now as people who had taken on the pirates, but the pictures taken from a French naval helicopter, who responded to the distress call from the ship, tell a different story. While the mainly Indian crew was rounded up on an outside gangway near the bridge and presented as human shield to the approaching navy helicopter, the guards lingered freely on top of the roof of the command-bridge, while one of the guards appears to take pictures of the held crew or at least interacted with them in plain view of at least one of the armed Somali captors. If the Somalis had really wanted to kill them they would have done so instantly. "There were three members of the crew on the roof (of the ship)", said Frederic Karakaya, the helicopter pilot. "They were hiding and signalled to us. They were spotted, and jumped into the water". Ex-Para Mike Kelly said: "It was terrifying. The pirates shot at us with AK-47s while we tried to tackle them with anything we had to hand – scaffolding poles and flare guns. We intended to take them out and grab the ship back, but there were too many of them". After jumping overboard in the presence of the chopper, who later dropped them a positioning device, and some most likely undirected fare-well-shots from the Somali pirates, the trio endured 40 agonising minutes until a German helicopter arrived with a winch and hauled them to safety, transporting them to the nearby French frigate. They didn't even loose their baseball caps.

Lessons learned:

a) By using home-made weapons - like a flares-"bazooka" or an iron bar - and a useless sonic device, they actually endangered the crew, the vessel and themselves to serious retaliating fire.

b) They not only escaped from the attack but also from a certain duty to stand by the crew during the coming times of negotiations and hardship detention.

c) Their employer, former British army pilot Nick Davis of APMSS, certainly tries to cover up for business reasons, but must be held responsible for sending his men into such a mission impossible, which seriously endangered the guards, the crew and the vessel.

The shipping companies need to really vet these security firms very well or we are going to find that a lot of them are jumping overboard. The only truthful sentence came from "Rocky", who stated: "They know we can’t really fight back. It’s easy money – and something must be done". Actually, it's not much of a mystery why someone would want to become a security guard an anti-piracy-firm or a pirate. It's the money, which is the same reason people want to become shipping magnates. The money is good and you don't have to work too hard. But here's what I don't understand, wrote Jim Mullen: "If you're smart enough and rich enough to build a half-billion-dollar oil tanker, why aren't you smart enough to protect it from pirates? How smart do you have to be to hire a security guard with a gun - especially if you know you're sending your ship into pirate-infested waters? However, if the escalation-game is played further also armed guards of security companies will become victims. Like in Iraq, where four slain Blackwater contractors were mutilated and hanged from a bridge in the city of Fallujah in 2004. The de-escalation options as well as pro-active solutions are still there. Who will grab them first and turn away from dreadful sabre-rattling or childish but dangerous guard-and-pirate games"?

Other related news -------

The Recipients of the 2008 Right Livelihood Awards (often referred to as the 'Alternative Nobel Prizes') spoke at a press conference in Stockholm today and stressed the role of independent media and women as driving forces for peace. The prestigious ward went among 3 others to Asha Hagi from Somalia. The Jury honoured Asha Hagi "for continuing to lead at great personal risk the female participation in the peace and reconciliation process in her war-ravaged country". Asha Hagi said in her speech: "This award comes at a very precarious time for this nation, as each day for the past two years the situation has continued to deteriorate. (...) This award demonstrates the positive side of Somalia: that humanity still exists in the desperation that Somalis face. There is courage within the fear. (...) This award leaves a legacy that offers a different direction for my nation, and for the children of Somalia".

The Dutch-operated Maersk Line-owned, Hong Kong-flagged multi purpose ship MV MAERSK REGENSBURG outran yesterday two obvious pirate vessels far off the coast of Tanzania, significantly further away from the piracy hotbed of the Gulf of Aden. "This was 450 nautical miles (520 miles) off Dar es Salaam", Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau told agencies. Choong said the ship, which he didn't name, took rocket-propelled grenade fire, starting a fire on board. But, he said, the crew put out the fire and got away by outrunning the attackers. He said that some eight pirates, who were in two speedboats, tried in vain to chase the ship. Even after opening fire, they could not reach the ship whose captain decided to increase its speed. The pirates used RPGs [rocket propelled grenades] and automatic weapons to attack the ship but it [the ship] managed to escape after the captain increased vessel speed, Mr Choong said. The ship, he said, is operated out of the Netherlands and had 19 crew members. It was flying a Hong Kong flag. According to him, a white-hulled fishing vessel was spotted nearby and was suspected to be the pirates base station. The IMB says it has logged at least 11 actual or attempted piracy incidents near the Tanzanian coast this year. Several sources reported already yesterday that the pirates attacked the vessel, but the Tanzanian Government said it had not received reports of the incident. Defence and National Service deputy minister Emmanuel Nchimbi told Tanzanian newspaper The Citizen that he could not comment because he had not heard about the attack. It is suspected that the attackers were Somali-based, but it also could very well be the first copy-cat operation of criminal syndicates, which will stretching their area now down to Tanzania and Mozambique.

A Chilean cargo vessel managed to outrun an attack with rifles from pirates in the north east of Africa, according to Arturo Claro Fernandez, vice-president of Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores, CSAV, one of Chile’s main maritime transport companies. The group of kidnappers closed on one of the "Norasia" units with several small fast boats but the quick reaction from the crew speeding the vessel impeded the sea-jackers from boarding her. The incident involved heavy rifle shooting from the pirates but fortunately nobody was injured.

The holiday-makers on the German cruise ship MS Columbus, operated by from Hapag Lloyd, has been evacuated to prevent any possible encounter with pirates during its passage of the Gulf of Aden. The alleged attack on another cruise ship last weekend concerned the German cruise line. All passengers are unloaded in Hodeidah, Yemen and will be flown to Dubai, where they will spend 3 days in a Hotel. Then they will fly to Salalah, Oman and continue their journey on the MS Columbus. The Captain is facing the passage and potential pirate encounter with a selected crew of 50.

The Australian Office of Transport Security issued a Maritime Security Notice to security regulated Australian ships on protective security arrangements for transiting through high risk shipping lanes. Maritime Security Notice (2-08) advises regulated Australian ships to apply a robust and layered protective security regime, including exercising a high level of vigilance and extreme caution and stringent access control measures, in particular when transiting through the Gulf of Aden or accessing waters off the coast of Somalia and neighbouring waters.

Even at this late hour, the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign affairs stated in a release, the enduring solution to Somalia's myriad problems rests on three fundamental pillars. First of [all], external military intervention, under any pretext or label, will not mitigate but only exacerbate the turmoil that has gripped Somalia. Secondly, it must be recognized that the various schemes of Balkanising and fragmenting Somalia into fragile mini-states will continue to be a recipe for continuous conflict. Thirdly and most importantly, Somalis must be allowed to pursue the objective of national reconstitution through their own devices. Eritrea thereby says the Somalis should left alone to pursue own objectives.

While failing to agree on a Congo peacekeeping mission, the European Union has formally launched today with EUNAVOR its first-ever naval operation, though the mission - code-named OPERATION ATALANTA - is not in its planned position when it starts tomorrow. Mounted by the 27-member EU, the anti-piracy exercise will now only provide for three warships - from Greece, Britain and France, and for two maritime surveillance aircraft - from France and Spain. British and French ships are in the region while the Greek flagship will sail from Greece on Tuesday. The naval force will be joined by a fourth ship from Germany upon approval of the mission by the German parliament, which is expected mid-month, EU officials said. A later task is to command a total of six warships and three surveillance planes ordered to patrol pirate infested seas around the Horn of Africa. The ships shall take over from NATO vessels now trying to maintain security over a vast region -- more than 1.5 million square kilometers. While the formal handover was to take place at a ceremony in Brussels, EU ships in the Gulf of Aden - the stretch of water between Somalia and Yemen - will not replace their Nato predecessors until December 15.

For a year, vessels from at least eight countries - Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden - shall escort aid ships and carry out anti-piracy duties under British Vice-Admiral Phillip Jones, since the firstly designated head, the Spanish Captain Andres Breijo, had disqualified himself. European Union warships will be allowed to shoot at pirates caught hijacking commercial vessels off the coast of Somalia, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said today after the meeting in Brussels. The mission's ability to serve any meaningful purpose - beyond a deterrent role - remains under a cloud, with critics saying the only way to beat piracy is to start the battle on land, in lawless Somalia.

While the admiral remains at Atalanta's headquarters in Northwood near London, the fleet will initially be led off the coast of Somalia by Greek Admiral Antonios Popaioannou, with a Spaniard and then a Dutch officer taking over after three month terms. While the EUNAVFOR Atalanta mission officially starts Tuesday - taking over from four NATO vessels in the waters -- it is unlikely to be up to full strength before the end of the month of December. The fleet will arrive at its bases in Djibouti and Kenya within a week. Also the rules of engagement shall only be endorsed by EU foreign ministers at a further meeting in Brussels. The mission will not provide the only cover for shipping in the region - there are regular patrols by warships from the United States, India, Russia and Malaysia. Only a few navies can actually catch and try suspects, and of those none are keen to do so except on a case by case basis. On top of that, EU nations cannot turn them over to countries where they might face the death penalty. France, for instance -- which holds the EU's rotating presidency -- is a historic maritime power but laws on piracy were cleaned out of its penal code in October 2007 and it will have to reintroduce them. Experts and officials in the region say the only way to combat the problem is to attack the roots, by tackling the poverty and insecurity in Somalia itself. "You don't stop piracy on the seas. You stop piracy on the land", NATO's top commander General John Craddock said last week.

The Guardian reported that John Hutton, the British defence secretary, said last week after a meeting at Northwood with Herve Morin, his French counterpart, that piracy's challenge to world trade and commerce was growing substantially and tackling it would be difficult. "We just can't allow the trade and commerce of the world to be jeopardised by pirates and we have to stand up and defend ourselves. If we do not, we will regret that day. It is a very, very serious threat. We have to deal with this problem and have a credible operation with a real and serious threat to the pirates". Hutton rejected suggestions that the British public would be sceptical about the EU mission, saying he did not "doubt for a second" that the majority would see the benefits of tackling the "direct and clear threats to our economic interests". Hutton's meeting with Morin marked the 10th anniversary of the British-French Saint-Malo declaration on EU defence policy. The EU has launched more than 20 civilian and military missions in three continents, but Atalanta is its first maritime mission. France and the UK "are stronger together when we act together", Hutton said. "European defence can only improve with the participation of the UK," added Morin. "The French wish is to improve and to progress the European defence in a pragmatic and concrete way".

South Korea will send naval vessels to escort its vulnerable merchant ships of less than 30,000dwt and 15kt in the Gulf of Aden, the Korea Shipowners’ Association has said. The move was a response to such piracy attacks as the hijacking of the bulker Bright Ruby, with 22 crew, in September. The crew and the ship were released in October, reportedly after a ransom was paid to Somali pirates. Defence minister Lee Sang Hee said a 4,500gt stealth destroyer and special forces might be part of the escort.

"The solution may not be about sending navies to combat piracy but ending the long-standing civil war in the country which has given rise to this maritime lawlessness", said the maritime executive Christopher Hayman, chairman of Seatrade and organiser of the Seatrade Middle East Maritime 2008 exhibition and conference taking place in Dubai the middle of this month.

No international consensus has emerged about what to do with captured pirates, or "Persons Under Control" (PUCs) because European nations bristle at proposals to return pirates to their home states, most of which, like Somalia, are perpetual human rights abusers. In another twist, last April the British Foreign Office warned the Royal Navy not to detain pirates, since it could lead to claims for asylum in Britain, which is why the UK tries now to use her former colony Kenya as a location for detention and trial of suspected pirates captured by British naval forces. Such, though EU law does not allow for extradition or rendition of prisoners to countries, where they could face a death-sentence. Kenya has still not abolished the death-penalty.

Even Germany, one of the eight participating countries in the EU force, said Sunday piracy suspects captured by the EU mission might be handed over to third countries such as Somalia's neighbour Kenya for trial. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the EU was reviewing agreements "whereby suspects could be taken by third countries that are willing and in a position to launch criminal proceedings." German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said that pirates captured by the EU force could be handed over to "friendly states" seeking the suspects for attacks on their ships. Similar considerations have confounded US government officials in discussing how to confront the problem. Terrorism-experts, however, believe it will not be long until Kenya would be targeted again for such "services".

Last month, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its report, "Global Trends 2025 – a Transformed World", which suggested, in part, that "some states might wither away as governments fail to provide security and other basic needs". The United Nations Security Council is rightly addressing this 21st-century incarnation of piracy, the age-old maritime challenge. Resolutions have been passed and coalitions made, individual state forces are patrolling the region, enhanced private maritime security is being explored, and long-term methods of appropriate state-level response being debated. Looking at the failed and presently failing UN peacekeeping operations in Darfur, DRC and elsewhere, a UN-led anti-piracy solution is certainly not the answer to the problems and not providing for the right remedies required. But while all the answers may not be here yet, everyone is at least asking the right questions now, which is a serious step forward compared to the last 15 years where the warning voices of experts, who had been predicting exactly what the situation is today, have been completely ignored and their proposals for preventive measures were neglected or outright refused - it sometimes seems willingly in order to create the present situation for other goals on a hidden agenda to be fulfilled.

In May 2003 the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) was established under which eleven nations joined together to work outside the UN to interdict and seize illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and missiles on the high seas, in the air and on the ground. The PSI soon proved its worth when Libya was caught shipping nuclear weapons technology. The PSI therefore provides a model in which the concerned nations – not just the United States – can unite to use military force to suppress piracy and protect shipping. Such concert of nations might be institutionalized and could prove useful, but again the question arises, who would oversee these operations in order to prevent them from turning into human rights nightmares violating the exact rights the global powers try to safeguard.

If the UN Security Council's ill-set rules of veto could be overcome, the this world-body could be turned into a much more effective organ securing universal rights and the callers for effective, but clandestine operations without and outside the UN or outside any other control - thereby opening doors for selfish agendas of joined state-players - could be muzzled. In the tangled web of terrorist as well as counter-terrorist alliances and allegiances, one thing becomes clear: for the United States, certain people are wanted dead — not alive. Who the U.S. shares its information with apparently comes second to that end, as was seen in the case of Rashid Rauf, who was killed by a U.S. war-drone in Paksitan. "A secret meeting on board an American aircraft carrier between the U.S. General David Petraeus and the head of the Pakistani military laid the foundation for the killing of Britain’s most wanted terrorist", reported the Independent. The Guardian said, "Whitehall [was] kept in dark over strike". And the Times Online reported that "MPs seek answers as CIA kills British terror suspect Rashid Rauf". If both sides in the obvious divide engage in more and more clandestine actions, the resulting fires will engulf all. A total collapse of the Somali government and the human disaster that would almost surely follow would be strike three for American PSI-like efforts in Somalia.

The United States and other Western powers have "exacerbated Somalia's downward spiral" and must revise their policies in the east African country, a Human Rights Watch report has warned. The report, released today, blames the policies under President George W. Bush for "breeding the very extremism that it is supposed to defeat. The new administration of U.S. President Barack Obama should urgently review U.S. policy in Somalia and the broader Horn of Africa and break with the failed approach of his predecessor", the report said. It also cites key European governments for failing "to address the human rights dimensions of the crisis, with many officials hoping that somehow unfettered support to abusive TFG (Somali transitional government) forces will improve stability". Somalia's weak transitional government, backed by Ethiopian forces, continues to battle Islamic militias with the fighting concentrated in the capital, Mogadishu. Ethiopian forces have not withdrawn from the country, as required under a recent cease-fire agreement.

The HRW report states that the United States "directly backed Ethiopia's intervention". Since the 2006 overthrow of the Islamic Courts Union, Somalia has suffered from "unconstrained warfare and violent rights abuses" by all warring parties. "The human rights and humanitarian catastrophe facing Somalia today threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of Somalis on a scale not witnessed since the early 1990s". Human Rights Watch accused all sides in Somalia's ongoing conflict, including the British-funded TFG government, of war crimes including indiscriminate shelling, looting and torturing and raping civilians.

It calls on the West to "insist upon an end to the impunity that has fuelled the worst abuses - and the right place to start is by moving the U.N. Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry to document abuses and lay the groundwork for accountability". The United Nations is reportedly planning further military action against east African pirates. A source close to the UN Security Council told Russian media it would be considering to authorise a raid on bases along the Somali coast, while the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is working on possibilities to provide the worlds navies with more power to search and arrest vessels involved in drug- and arms-related crime.

The world is getting smaller for U.S. Americans. The U.S. State Department's website (travel.state.gov) lists now twenty-seven countries on the permanent no-go-list, countries like Pakistan, Haiti, Somalia and Columbia included and in addition areas which the the U.S. Americans consider short-term threats to their citizens. Seven countries top that list, including China, Mexico, India and Thailand. But what means short-term threat ? When the last US helicopter flew out of Mogadishu / Somalia on 6th of January 1991, most of the embassy staff had left their TV sets and other household items behind during the previous 9 month repatriation of first non-essential and then essential staff, because they thought that just a few holiday months later they would be back. Under the now finally outgoing Bush administration those parts of the world where U.S. Americans indiscriminately are not welcome makes out already nearly 20 percent of all countries in the world - a lot of work for the incoming Obama administration to turn foes into friends again.