Hussein Aden Sheikh

Turkey is redoubling its efforts to end the suffering of the Somali people. The world should follow.

2011-10-14T12:19:00.005+02:00

Somalia is suffering from the most severe drought and famine in the last 60 years, which has already resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and endangers the lives of 750,000 more Somalis. This crisis tests the notion of civilization and our modern values. It reveals, once again, that it is a basic human obligation to pursue international cooperation and solidarity to provide solace for those suffering from natural and man-made disasters.

It is not realistic to consider Somalia's plight as caused solely by a severe natural disaster. We cannot ignore the fact that, in addition to the drought, the international community's decision to leave Somalia to its own fate is also an underlying factor causing this drama. Twenty years of political and social instability, lawlessness, and chaos have added enormously to the problems in Somalia. The horrifying truck bombing of the Transitional Federal Government's ministerial complex on Oct. 4 is just the latest evidence of this. The international community must not respond to this act of terrorism by retreating from Somalia, but by redoubling its efforts to bring aid to its people.

Nobody with common sense and conscience can remain indifferent to such a drama, wherever on Earth it may be and whichever people have to bear it. Our urgent intervention as responsible members of the international community can contribute to the alleviation of the Somali people's distress. However, the establishment of lasting peace and stability will only be possible through long-term, far-reaching, and coordinated efforts.

Turkey mobilized last month to help end this suffering. We consider this solidarity a humanitarian obligation toward the people of Somalia, with whom we have deep historical relations. Many of our institutions, NGOs, and people of all ages have made an extraordinary effort to alleviate the suffering of women and children in Somalia. We are proud of the sensitivity and cooperation displayed by the Turkish people during the holy month of Ramadan. In the last month alone, approximately $280 million worth of donations for Somalia were collected in Turkey. The Turkish people's generosity has served as an example to other donor countries as well as the international community, offering hope for the resolution of the crisis in Somalia.

The Turkish government has also moved decisively to help alleviate this humanitarian crisis. Turkey took the initiative to hold an emergency meeting of the executive committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the ministerial level on Aug. 17. At this meeting, which was attended by the president of Somalia and high-level representatives from 40 member countries of the OIC, $350 million was committed to help relieve the famine in Somalia, and the participants agreed to increase this amount to half a billion dollars. The Turkish Red Crescent is also standing shoulder to shoulder with international aid organizations and is working to meet the needs of those in all the camps in the Mogadishu region.

Following the emergency meeting of the OIC executive committee, I -- along with a number of Turkish ministers, some members of parliament, bureaucrats, business people, artists, and families -- visited the country on Aug. 19 to tell the people of Somalia that they are not alone. We visited the camps. We tried to give hope and encourage people who live in very different conditions from ours. We took note of the lack of such a high-level visit from outside of Africa to Somalia for the last 20 years, and informed the international community of this fact.

Turkey has decided to launch a major humanitarian effort to help restore normalcy to Mogadishu. To this end, we are preparing to provide assistance in the fields of health, education, and transportation. We will inaugurate a 400-bed hospital, provide garbage trucks for the streets of Mogadishu, build a waste-disposal facility to burn the accumulated garbage in the streets, pave the road between Mogadishu's airport and the city center, renovate the parliament and other government buildings, dig water wells, and develop organized agricultural and livestock areas. Our embassy, which will be opened in Mogadishu shortly and headed by an ambassador who is experienced in the field of humanitarian aid and familiar to the region, will coordinate these activities.

By supporting the restoration of peace and stability efforts, we will work with the Transitional Federal Government and other institutions in Somalia in order to launch the development process of this shattered country. To this end, we expect all Somali authorities to demonstrate an extraordinary effort in unity, integrity, and harmony.

The success of aid operations is directly linked to the establishment of security. The withdrawal from Mogadishu of armed elements in the al-Shabab organization is clearly a positive development for security in the region. But this is not sufficient. Moving the Somali-related U.N. offices currently located in Nairobi to Mogadishu will be a positive step to support this process and one that should be taken without delay.

Neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya bear a special responsibility regarding the restoration of peace and stability in Somalia. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union will also share this responsibility, and Turkey supports them in their tasks. In line with the Djibouti peace process, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government should intensify efforts at reconciliation by maintaining dialogue with all fighting groups and pledge prosperity, brotherhood, order, and prosperity in return for peace.

The military contribution provided by Uganda and Burundi within the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to prevent chaos and terror deserves appreciation. With this opportunity, I would like to issue a call to all neighboring countries, including Eritrea, to increase their existing efforts for the establishment of peace and security in Somalia and to enhance long-term regional stability.

In Turkish culture, it is believed that something good will come out of all bad experiences. In Somalia, too, this disaster can mark the beginning of a new process by focusing international humanitarian efforts and global attention on the plight of the region. However, this situation will only be sustainable if we continue to be sensitive to the needs of the Somali people.

The tears that are now running from Somalia's golden sands into the Indian Ocean must stop. They should be replaced by hopeful voices of a country where people do not lose their lives because of starvation and where they express their eagerness to develop and restore peace and stability. Regardless of which culture we come from or where we live, I am confident that our common heritage as human beings will motivate us to ease the suffering of Somalia.

________________________________________

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is prime minister of the Republic of Turkey.

Somali Hawala Money Transfer lifeline for Somalia famine

2011-09-14T08:27:00.004+02:00

Members of Ottawa's Somali community say a previously controversial money transfer system is an essential lifeline for those suffering during Somalia's famine.
Somali brokers use "Hawala" payments as an informal transfer system to send small amounts of money back to family members in need. They are important, say brokers, because Somalia does not have banks.

But after Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. officials believed the payments were being used by al-Qaeda to move money around the world. Former U.S. president George W. Bush even referred to them in a speech saying, "By shutting these networks down, we disrupt the murderers' work.". The increased fear and scrutiny surrounding the financial sector spread to Ottawa convenience store owner Liban Hussein, who also handled the payments, rocking Ottawa's Somali community.

Hussein was soon exonerated, but brokers said they were forced to convince the government the transfers were not a threat.

"We explained to the authorities what Hawala is, and what Hawala does, and how Hawala is the lifeline," said Imam Ahmed Hassan, a former broker who negotiated to legalize the payments.

Hassan, who is now leader of Ottawa's largest mosque, also said brokers laid low in fear for most of the past decade. But eventually they were able to explain why Hawala is vital to those in Somalia.

"I could say Hawala is the 911 of the Somali people. The money sent by the Diaspora is the backbone of the Somali economy," said Hassan.

Many countries are sending money and food as aid to Somalia to help with the current famine, but Somali-Canadians have insisted Hawala has stopped the disaster from getting worse.

Source: CBC

Sense of guilt or guiltiness propagation? Open letter to Somali Newspapers

2011-08-30T12:07:00.010+02:00

Kind Somali journalists,
here I'll like to submit to you my concern about how often news are given in Somali newspapers, anticipating that this is not about you (of the mailing list), at least not in a particular way, but is in general about the Somali online newspapers.

Giving information and reports on facts as they happen (based on science and consciousness) is very important, and it is precisely this "making news" and the depth of the verification research that makes the individual journalist a real journalist.

Instead the JOURNALISTS as a CATEGORY, has a task that goes beyond the individual commitment, and in particular in a situation like that of our country. Somalia.

Reporting always a limited "Tom said ..." may just be a limited chronicle and not very professional..

My this letter springs from an article of online Mogadishu journal, where was reported the news "The Somali Interim President Mr. Sharif said that Somalis should forgive each other"

I would like to see at least one Somali newspaper publishing an editorial, asking the President if he thinks that the problem of Somalia today is to "forgive one another". As if the situation was like two little girls friends / cousins who have had a fight yesterday, and the parent, knowing that there is nothing serious, is asking them not to be childish and to forgive each other.

I wish someone would ask him if this repeated so many times "forgive each other" has to do with a sense of guilt that my Hawiye brothers feel for what they did in Mogadishu to the rest of Somalis, or if it is a way to propagate and generalize guiltiness, so that does not fall on anyone specific.

I'd like someone informs Sharif that is not time to talk in abstract way. That, if he does not know yet, Somalia is in a shameful situation for more than twenty years. That it is time for Mogadishu clans, forgiveness or lack forgiveness, to stop thinking only of low quality commerce and to think of a Nation Building.

At the end I ask Mr. Sharif, exactly what does it means "Somalis should forgive each other?

Thanks and best regards,

Hussein Aden

La crisi alimentare in Somalia “uno delle più gravi in decenni”

2011-07-16T12:14:00.004+02:00

Il campo profughi del Kenya Dadaab, la più grande al mondo.

Peggiora di giorno in giorno la crisi alimentare e la carestia in Somalia, ma anche nelle zone limitrofe dell’Etiopia e del Kenya in Africa orientale. E’ una delle più gravi crisi umanitarie degli ultimi decenni, ha dichiarato un funzionario Usa, promettendo aiuti "rilevanti".

Gli Stati Uniti hanno già promesso il Venerdì 5 milioni di dollari per aiutare i rifugiati somali, in cima a un budget di $ 63 milioni precedentemente programmato.

"Una grande nazione può fare più di una sola cosa nello stesso momento, e questo è quello che noi, gli Stati Uniti, continueremo a fare anche nel contesto delle sfide finanziarie che ci troviamo di fronte", ha detto Brigety.

Ruben Brigety, il Vice Assistente Segretario e responsabile del Dipartimento di Stato per l'assistenza ai rifugiati e alle vittime dei conflitti in Africa, ha detto che Washington sta ora studiando quanto più potrà fare.

Decine di migliaia di rifugiati somali stanno inondando i campi in Etiopia e Kenya, a una velocità di oltre 3.000 nuovi arrivi al giorno, in cerca di cibo dopo lungo periodo senza pioggia che ha decimato il bestiame e distrutto i raccolti nel paese.

I rifugiati in Etiopia, Kenya.

Negli ultimi giorni, Brigety ha visitato i campi in Etiopia e Kenya, e parlato con le madri dei bambini che hanno camminato per giorni con poco cibo e acqua.

I livelli di malnutrizione tra i rifugiati che arrivano nei campi sono molto elevati.

Il tasso di mortalità generale nei campi in Etiopia è di sette persone su 10.000 al giorno,quando il tasso di crisi "normale" è di due al giorno, ha detto Brigety.

Al campo profughi del Kenya Dadaab, la più grande al mondo, Brigety ha parlato con una madre che è arrivato al campo con sei figli, tra cui una di 7 anni che ha la poliomielite, e che portava sulla schiena.

In questi condizioni anche se arrivassero le piogge in Somalia molto presto, la crisi alimentare andarebbe ugualmente avanti per molti mesi, ha aggiunto.

"Ci sono molti professionisti di rilievo ed esperti che ti direbbe che non aver visto una crisi così grave in una generazione," ha detto. "Prevediamo che questa crisi sia destinata a peggiorare prima di migliorare".

La crisi ha gonfiato i numeri del campo profughi di Dadaab a quasi 440.000 persone, l'Unhcr ha detto il Venerdì, e Tarek Jasarevic, portavoce dell'Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità ha detto che almeno 462 casi di morbillo, di cui 11 morti, sono stati confermati nei mesi scorsi tra i bambini rifugiati Somali a Dadaab.

UN says Somalia is worst humanitarian disaster, what do Somali leaders say?

2011-07-11T16:40:00.006+02:00

We have seen these days, even more dramatically, if possible, the incredible and inhuman situation of many Somalis in the field Dhahdab, NFD in Kenya.

We believe that there should be a limit to the indecency, and that the Somali political class, or those who think they are responsible, should pay a visit of at least three days in that field.

We want to ask these leaders to be ashamed and realize that they are holding a checkmate the entire somali people, wherever they are, and only they know why.

We also want to ask the world leaders not to close their eyes, and to pursue crimes against humanity committed in Somalia, and against all the Somali people. Crimes commeted by many, including all warlords and all factions leaders. Government including.

These warlords often have a European or North American citizenship, but these European and American countries must defend the honor of their citizens, and not allow these war criminals to take their citizenship, so they can move better in the world, and bring their children to study in the world's best universities, while they are bombing, torturing and mistreating other people's children.

Enough is Enough.

Hussein Aden

He's gone - Taci - Condolences - Condoglianze

2010-10-06T13:41:00.005+02:00

Waxaan uga tasiyeynayaa reerka walaakay, xaaskiisa iyo carruurtiisa, walaalahay, reerkayga oo dhan, eheladayda guud iyo dhammaan soomaali weyn, geerida walaalkay Dr. Mohamed Aden Sheikh.

Soomaali nin baa ka baxay.

Ilaahay naxariistii janno ka ha waraabiyo, innaga oo dhanna samir iyo iimaan inaga siiyo.

Hussein Aden Shiekh

My condolences to the family of my brother, his wife and children, my brothers and sisters, my entire family, my relatives, my friends and the whole of Somalia for the death of my brother Dr. Mohamed Sheikh Aden.

Somalia has lost a Man

Almighty Allah bless his soul and give samir and iimaan to all of us.

Hussein Aden Shiekh

Le mie condoglianze alla famiglia di mio fratello, sua moglie e i suoi figli, ai miei fratelli e sorelle, all’intera mia famiglia, ai miei parenti, ai miei amici e a tutta la Somalia per la scomparsa di mio fratello Dr. Mohamed Aden Sheikh.

La Somalia ha perso un Uomo

L’Onnipotente Allah benedica la sua anima e dai samir e iman a tutti noi.

Hussein Aden Shiekh

Duqeydii dhammaatee toloow, dirirka yaa eegi

Dabshidkii hadduu galo ayaa, dhuxulihii daadin

Ayaa daaha laanta ku xidhi, qudhac intuu diiro

Degmo tuhun ma guurtee aayaa, sahanka loo dooran

Reerkoo yagleel dagey ayaa, guri usoo deyri

Hangoolkiyo degsaarkii ayaa, gudin u soo daabi

Haddii geelu dayr dhalo ayaa, doobiga u qaadan

Dugaagiyo qaniinkiyo ayaa, daabka ka ilaalin

Toloow yaa dadkoodii wax siin, gacal ma doonaane

Toloow deynka yaa ka bixin gashiga, kama danbeeyaane

Toloow yaa u daalacan kitaab, Diinna cid u sheegi

Anuunbaa iska daalee naftaba, uma dadaalaane…..!

Si dimette il Primo Ministro somalo per controversia con il Presidente

2010-09-21T22:20:00.002+02:00

Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, Primo Ministro della Somalia, si è dimesso dopo una disputa prolungata con Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, il Presidente del paese.

Sharmarke ha detto oggi 21/09/2010 che "si è dimesso da Primo Ministro del Governo Federale di Transizione della Somalia, per non essere stato in grado di lavorare con il Presidente".

"Dopo aver esaminato la crisi politica nel Governo e la crescente insicurezza nel paese, ho deciso di rassegnare le dimissioni dal mio incarico di primo ministro", ha affermato Sharmarke.

Ahmed, il Presidente, ha detto che ha accolto con favore la decisione Sharmarke di uscire e ha detto che avrebbe nominato un nuovo Primo Ministro al più presto.

Il corrispondente di Al Jazeera Mohammed Adow, da Nairobi, la capitale del Kenya, ha detto che le dimissioni seguirono "le pressioni che era montavano sul Primo ministro per questi ultimi mesi".

Ha detto che le dimissioni saranno sorpresa somali pochi e che molti avevano poche speranze in Sharmarke come capo del governo per ristabilire la pace e la sicurezza.

"Questo è il terzo Primo Ministro a dimettersi da quando il Governo Federale di Transizione è stata creata nel 2004 a Nairobi", ha detto il nostro corrispondente.

"Se si guarda alla percezione che il popolo Somalo ha di questo governo, non sarà niente importante in termini di notizie.

"Di certo non preoccuperà molti, perché molti somali hanno già perso ogni speranza che questo Governo Federale di Transizione, e non solo il Primo Ministro, sarà quella che porterà il loro paese la pace e la sicurezza.

"Così non molti, direi, avranno una reazione in termini di sorpresa o nessuna brutta sensazione per il fatto che il Primo Ministro Sharmarke ha rassegnato le dimissioni."

Il Governo Federale non è riuscito a terminare una insurrezione di tre anni da parte dell’ala intransigente e combattenti islamisti, che ora controllano gran parte del capitale e di enormi pezzi di Somalia meridionale e centrale.

Alcuni analisti dicono che un assediato Ahmed è stato alla ricerca di un capro espiatorio mentre cerca di riaffermare la sua autorità su una amministrazione di una nazione fragile e disillusi.

Il Parlamento avrebbe dovuto procedere a una votazione di fiducia sulla leadership di Sharmarke il sabato scorso, ma ci sono stati insufficienti legislatori per raggiungere il quorum e la sessione è stata rinviata.

Hussein Aden

Fonte: Al Jazeera

Sadness come back to me - Al Shabab militants behind the deadly Kampala World Cup blasts

2010-07-12T20:11:00.000+02:00

The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has said it was behind twin blasts which hit the Ugandan capital Kampala on Sunday, killing 74 people.

A spokesman for the group, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, threatened more attacks in a statement in Mogadishu.

Police said the bombings targeted football fans watching the World Cup final.

A Ugandan official said a Somali's head was found at the scene of one blast, and he may have been a suicide bomber.

Ugandan peacekeepers are in Somalia, and al-Shabab has previously threatened Kampala.

"Al-Shabab was behind the two bomb blasts in Uganda," Ali Mohamud Rage said.

"We thank the mujahideen that carried out the attack. We are sending a message to Uganda and Burundi, if they do not take out their Amisom [African Union Mission in Somalia] troops from Somalia, blasts will continue and it will happen in Bujumbura [the Burundi capital] too."

The explosions, which also injured about 70 people, ripped through a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant as football fans watched the last few minutes of the World Cup final.
Foreigners killed

The deadliest of the blasts was at the crowded rugby club. At both locations chairs lay overturned, with blood and pieces of flesh on the floor.

A government spokesman said on Monday that at least 28 Ugandans were killed in the explosions.

Fred Opolot, quoted by the Reuters news agency, said an Irish woman was among those who died at the restaurant.

Officials said the dead and wounded also included Ethiopian, Eritrean, Indian and Congolese nationals.

Mr Opolot added that the other victims had not yet been identified.
Aware of threat

Ugandan Internal Affairs Minister Matia Kasaija told the BBC World Today programme that the severed head of a person from Somalia had been identified at the scene of one blast.

He said Uganda had been aware of the threat, but had been caught off-guard.

About 5,000 African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi are based in Mogadishu, propping up the fragile interim government.

The Amisom force is engaged in frequent firefights with the Islamist insurgents that control much of southern and central Somalia.
American dead

The attack on the Ethiopian restaurant also fits in with al-Shabab's regional policy.

Addis Ababa backs Somalia's government against the rebels. And Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist movement, stoking an insurgency that still rages.

BBC East Africa correspondent Peter Greste says security services across the region will now be reassessing how they can protect themselves from a force that has proven itself willing and capable of striking outside Somalia's borders.

Many - if not most - of those killed and injured in the Kampala blasts were foreign nationals. Both venues are popular destinations for expatriates living in the capital.

One unnamed witness told the BBC how he was caught in the rugby club blast.

"I just heard the bomb. In fact, I blacked out... when I gained consciousness, then I started now, crawling, coming out," he said.

California-based aid group Invisible Children, which helps child soldiers, said one of its workers, Nate Henn, 25, was among those killed at the rugby club.

At least three Americans, members of a Church group from Pennsylvania, were wounded at the Ethiopian restaurant.

One, Kris Sledge, 18, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, said from his hospital bed: "I remember blacking out, hearing people screaming and running."

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni criticised the attackers and said his country would not "run away" from its commitments in Mogadishu.

"People who are watching football are not people who should be targeted. If they [attackers] want a fight, they should go and look for soldiers."

US President Barack Obama said the explosions were "deplorable and cowardly".

The African Union has said the attacks will not affect its summit, which is due to be held in Kampala later this month.

Source: BBC

50th Anniversary of Independence

2010-07-12T17:53:00.000+02:00

2009-12-24T13:13:00.000+01:00

2009-12-17T16:47:00.000+01:00

Nairobi - Somalia's government called on Saturday for an international peace plan like President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy, saying it would be more effective and far cheaper than current efforts to combat Somali piracy.

"We accept that ... the situation in Somalia will appear beyond repair but the reality is very different," Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said in a letter to The Times newspaper in Britain.

Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since 1991 and is home to insurgents and pirates, who prey on shipping in the Indian Ocean despite international naval patrols. Sharmarke's UN-backed administration controls only part of the capital, Mogadishu.

Obama's plan for Afghanistan marked a "sea change in international support to troubled countries", wrote Sharmarke. "What is so startling is that all the conclusions are as true about Somalia as they are about Afghanistan."

Obama announced this week that the United States would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to combat Taliban insurgency, as well as measures aimed at ending corruption and promoting local accountability before a U.S. withdrawal.

"Piracy and the growth of Islamic extremism are not the natural state of being. They are but symptoms of an underlying malaise - the absence of government and hope," Sharmarke said.

"The irony is that it would cost only a quarter of what is being spent right now on the warships trying to combat piracy, to fund our plan and actually solve the problems rather than simply chasing them round the Indian Ocean," he said.

The Horn of Africa state hit the headlines again this week when a suicide bomber struck a medical graduation ceremony and killed at least 22 people, including three government ministers, several doctors, students and their relatives.

Western security agencies say Somalia has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks across the impoverished region and beyond.

Fighting has killed at least 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

Sharmarke agreed regional stability was increasingly at stake, and said his administration first needed help to restore effective government and train its security forces.

Second, he said, the world must restore and enforce the nation's economic exclusion zone so it could use its own potential wealth of fish, oil and gas to fund its future.

"Our fishermen currently watch as other countries plunder our waters," the prime minister said. "Whilst we condemn it outright, it is no wonder these angry and desperate people resort to 'fishing' for ships instead."

Thirdly, he called for a large civil programme to train young Somalis and set up legitimate commercial livelihoods. He did not give any estimate of how much this might cost.

Sharmarke said the same principles had been used to great effect in other troubled places that harboured threats to UK national security such as Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, and asked why they had never been tried in Somalia.

By Daniel Wallis
Cape Times

Somalia's security minister killed in attack

2009-06-18T14:22:00.000+02:00

Somalia's security minister has been killed in a suicide bombing at a hotel in Beledweyne, just north of the capital, Mogadishu, the country's information minister and witnesses have said.

Somalia's ambassador to South Africa and at least nine other people were also thought to have been killed in the blast on Thursday, reports said.

Farhan Ali Mohamud, the information minister, announced the death of Omar Hashi Aden, the security minister, but declined to give any other details.

Hashi had moved to Beledweyne at the beginning of June with heavily-armed troops in an attempt to regain territory from fighters of the al-Shabab group.

Al-Shabab, which Washington claims has ties to al-Qaeda, has vowed to topple the Somali government led by of Sharif Ahmed, the president.

A doctor from a nearby hospital said that most of the dead have been burnt beyond recognition.
Ahmed blamed al-Shabab for the attack and confirmed Hashi's death.

"I am sending condolences to the family of the Security Minister Omar Hashi who was killed in an explosion in Baladwayne," Ahmed told reporters.

Mohamed Abdi, a shopkeeper near the hotel, said smoke was rising from the building.
Hotel Medina, the scene of the blast, is known to be frequented by members of Somalia's government.

A senior al-Shabab official had warned after a deadly suicide car bomb attack on police headquarters in Mogadishu on May 25 that there would be more suicide strikes in the near future.

Beledweyne is the capital of the central Somalian region of Hiran, which is close to the border with Ethiopia.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when former Mohamed Siad Barre, the former president, was overthrown, plunging the country into chaos.

Source: Al jazeera

Se hai capito qualcosa SPIEGACELO!!!

2009-05-26T15:09:00.000+02:00

The Islamist Transitional Government of Somalia announced a few days ago that it intends to fight militarily the Islamist opposition, after these conquered other parts of the capital Mogadishu.

The Somali Minister of Defense maintains that after the reconciliation conference of Djibouti, from which this Transitional Government came out in January 2009, that his government has done everything possible to talk with the opposition and to avoid a fratricidal war.

Indeed, the new President of Somalia's interim government Mr. Sheikh Sharif is the head (or former?) of the Union of the Islamic Courts, opponents of the government of Yusuf, his predecessor. And the current opposition, Al Shabab and Hisbul Islam were part of the Islamic Courts.

About two and a half years ago, after having gained control of much of Somalia and having brought order after 17 years, the Islamic Courts have been dispossessed by the regional power, Ethiopia, with the mandate and military support of Bush administration.

Although it lasted only six months, the rule of the Union of the Islamic Courts had shown that it is possible to create order and for the first time in many years, one could leave the house at night, without going in for a certain death. They reopened the port of Mogadishu and the airport. Finally a ship could dock and bring humanitarian aid.

For these reasons and many others in time of war against the Ethiopian invasion, the Islamic Courts had a great moral support of nearly all Somalis wherever in the world, because fighting against the historic archfoe of Somalia which has planted its own flag in the Somali presidential palace, as US Marine in the palace of Saddam.

But I believe it is very interesting to bring attention to a short period before the invasion of Ethiopia. During the Transitional Government of Abdullahi Yusuf, the Islamic Courts ruled much of southern Somalia, as today the various Al Shabab and Hisbul Islam control large part of the south.

At that time, the old wolf, Yusuf, proclaimed Transitional President asked the opposition to lay down their weapons and not to trigger a war between the Somalis. He used to talk about peace and the end of decades of civil war.

The opposition, then led by the actual President Mr. Sharif, used to say they wanted to liberate Somalia form the Ethiopian influence and the interests of the warlords.

It was also very common in speeches of Mr. Yusuf a cry for help to the world against terrorists and their foreign jihadist allies.

In a press conference in October 2006 “Yusuf initially blamed al-Qaida for carrying out the attack. But, on Thursday, he said his security forces had uncovered evidence that linked Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys in a plot to kill him and 16 other politicians in the transitional government.

Yusuf also said that the radical wing of the Islamist movement had invited foreign fighters from Arab countries, Europe, Afghanistan and Chechnya to join its militia”. Global Security.

"Somalia has been invaded by foreign fighters, who are using Somali factions and their objective is to keep the country in chaos and international criminals to hide," President Sheikh Sharif told reporters yesterday (25/05/09) at the Villa Somalia presidential compound . Garowe Online.

The surprising thing for me now, if not confusing, is the resemblance of language between the current president Mr. Sharif (former opponent) and his predecessor Mr. Yusuf.
Mr. Yusuf as a President used to accuse Mr. Sharif, as opposition, of inviting foreign fighters.
Obviously Mr. Sharif always denied such “allegations”.
Mr. Sharif used to accuse Mr. Yusuf of working for Ethiopian interest.

Today as a President Mr. Sharif accuses the Islamist opposition of inviting foreign fighters in Somalia.
Moreover, the current opposition (Islamists) uses the same language that they used against Yusuf's government to justify the war against their own Islamists leaders, Mr. Sharif.

Something must be wrong.

Se hai capito qualcosa SPIEGACELO!!!

Hussein.

Donors' Conference in support of the Somali Security

2009-04-24T11:40:00.000+02:00

Today I watched the debates at the Donors' Conference in Support of the Somalia Security, hold in Bruxelles yesterday, and hearing what Jose Manule Barroso, Ban Ki-Moon, Javier Solana, and in order Shiikh Shariif said, I realized that Somali pirates have given a vital contribution to the recreation and the future of Somalia.

For the first time the world, seeing the threat to sea trade routes take into serious consideration the solution of the anarchy in which Somalia has been in the past two decades.

For the first time we talk about the construction of the Somalia security forces , not only for the seas but for the control of the entire Somali territory.

Having already tried to support the bloodthirsty warlords, grouping them under one curious as fun flag -Alliance for Democracy and against Islamic terrorism in Somalia-it seems now that someone has realized that the problem is not democracy or Islamic terrorism in an Islamic country and again in internal civil war for decades.

It is just the banal survival.

I think it's time to lay the groundwork for a Somali State able to hold control of the violence and all the distinctive characteristics of a State.

Thanks to the Somali pirates finally it became clear that these conditions are also in the interest of the whole world and not just Somalia.

Hussein Aden

UN aid workers seized in Somalia

2009-03-16T10:20:00.000+01:00

Gunmen in southern Somalia have kidnapped four UN aid workers, three of them foreigners, reports say.

They are said to have been seized in their car while travelling to the airstrip near Wajid, 340km (210 miles) north-west of the capital Mogadishu.

They were on a stopover between Puntland in northern Somalia and their destination of Kenya, a UN official told AFP news agency.

The nationalities of the three foreign aid workers have not been released. In Somalia, armed gangs have kidnapped and killed a number of aid workers and journalists.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991.

Islamist insurgents are in control of most of southern Somalia and former Islamist leader was recently elected President and trying to create a National Unity GovernmentPuntland is a semi-autonomous region, which has been relatively stable.

Source: Agencies

Real situation

2009-03-09T12:16:00.000+01:00

Somali piracy and the strange concentration of Navy

2009-03-02T16:40:00.000+01:00

Under the assumption that nobody has ever worried about Somalia in the past 18 years of civil war, now "thanks" to the Piracy there’s a race to bring warships in Somali waters.

Considering how narrow is the Gulf of Aden, which separates Somalia and Yemen, I naturally wonder whether such concentration of warships is normal.

By now there are 24 countries that already have the navy in the area, and every day one more country is joining the list. Norway has already announced its intention to send the Royal Norwegian Navy.

On the other hand the situation of the Somali civil war shows no signs of improving, despite the efforts and good intentions of the new President of Somalia.

I am convinced that if only these 25 countries were to support the new Somali government, instead of sending only warships, could win easily the piracy, saving so much money and time.
Time will tell.

List of the navies in the Gulf of Aden to "combat" piracy

Royal Australian Navy
Canadian Forces Maritime Command (NATO)
People's Liberation Army Navy (SCO)
Royal Danish Navy (NATO)
French Navy (NATO)
German Navy (NATO)
Greek Navy (NATO)
Indian Navy (SCO)
Italian Navy (NATO)
Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (SCO)
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
Republic of Korea Navy
Royal Malaysian Navy
Royal Netherlands Navy (NATO)
Royal New Zealand Navy
Royal Saudi Navy
Russian Navy (SCO)
Republic of Singapore Navy
Spanish Navy (NATO)
Swedish Navy
Turkish Navy (NATO)
Royal Navy (UK-NATO)
United States Navy (NATO)
Finnish Navy
Royal Norwegian Navy

Hussein Aden

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

2009-01-19T16:01:00.000+01:00

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

"The war in Somalia is about to become Barack Obama's problem."

The corporate media declare that Barack Obama's first foreign crisis will be in Gaza where the Israelis will likely still be engaged in the work of massacre when the president-elect puts his hand on Abraham Lincoln's Bible, January 20.

The 60-year U.S.-Israeli connection is but one of many unholy alliances in which Washington is perpetually mired. In truth, the criminal entanglements of American empire is a minefield of crises waiting to explode. They pop up at the most inconvenient times. Chickens are liable to fly home to roost from all sorts of places - like Somalia.

Two years ago, George Bush conspired with Ethiopia to invade Somalia, its neighbor in the Horn of Africa. Somalia's crime was to have achieved a brief, six-month period of relative peace under an Islamist regime. At first, the Americans massively funded combinations of warlords to fight the Islamists, preferring the chaos of bandit rule to a peaceful Somalia under an Islamist government. When the warlords were defeated, Washington encouraged and bankrolled the Ethiopian invasion, just before Christmas 2006. U.S. advisors accompanied Ethiopian troops down to the company level, while American aircraft and warships bombarded Somalis from air and sea.

"Ethiopia found it could not remain among the Somalis, no matter how much the Americans paid for their services."

If any stimulus could be predicted to unite Somalis, it is invasion by Ethiopia, Somalia's historical rival in the region. The Americans and Ethiopians succeeded only in creating the "worst humanitarian crisis in Africa" - worse than Darfur, according to the United Nations. Nearly half of Somalia's seven million people were put in danger of starvation, with well over a million displaced from their homes. The capital city, Mogadishu, was virtually emptied. Washington could convince only it's client states Uganda and Burundi to contribute troops to a puny United Nations "peace keeping" force that spent most of its time trying to keep out of the way. Ethiopia found it could not remain among the Somalis, no matter how much the Americans paid for their services. Its army is in the process of withdrawing.

The farcical, puppet Somali government installed by the Ethiopians and Americans could never survive on its own, and has effectively disintegrated. Some form of Islamist force will soon take power on the ground. The United States has talked itself into a corner. George Bush justified the U.S. and Ethiopian assault on Somalia as a necessity of the War on Terror, a blow against Osama bin Laden's friends among Somali Muslims. It was a lie, of course, but now the U.S. is stuck with it. Washington cannot simply allow people who it claims are affiliated with Al Qaida to form a government.

George Bush started the war against Somalia, but it's about to become Barack Obama's problem. Obama's soon-to-be United Nations ambassador, Susan Rice, is a rabid believer in America's right to intervene in Africa, generally, and in Somalia, specifically. Obama and George Bush share the same Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, who was sworn into office on December 18, 2006, just one week before the U.S.-backed Ethiopians stormed Somalia's capital city.

It's been Gates' and Bush's war for two years. Now Obama must decide if he will kill Africans based on George Bush's lies.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com

Mr. Kipkorir: Annexing and dividing Somalia is a call for balkanization of Horn of Africa

2009-01-14T14:05:00.000+01:00

As the piracy of the Somali coast took a new and dangerous turn with the hijacking of a ship carrying T-72 Tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and other ammunition destined for Southern Sudan, a Kenyan lawyer had the audacity to call neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia to annex the hapless country and divide it between them as a final solution for the Somali problem.

In his opinion article carried by Kenya’s Daily Nation, Mr. Donald Kipkorir, who is an advocate of the Kenyan High Court, argued annexing Somalia was the strategic interest for Kenya, viewing it as the only way to stop Kenya’s tourism industry from teetering towards destruction.

But what Mr.Kipkorir sees as a strategic interest is a strategic miscalculation for disaster which will not only bring the destruction of Kenya and Ethiopia but will usher in an era of balkanization in the entire region of the Horn of Africa.

Mr.Kipkorir forgets that Kenya and Ethiopia are tribal mine fields that are waiting to be triggered and his call for the annexation of Somalia is only what it needs to start genocides in Kenya and Ethiopia.

One has to remember the recent election crisis in Kenya and how the country stood on the brink of ethnic fragmentation. Kenya has more than 42 ethnic groups, speaking more than 62 languages and adhering to various religious affiliations while Ethiopia has about 118 ethnic groups with almost similar number of languages and different religions.

The summer 2008 ethnic strife resulting from the Presidential election crisis had exposed the fragility of the Kenyan peace and stability and the degree of hatred and hostility among the Kenyan tribes.

The scenes of machete-wielding mobs slaughtering their neighbors and looting shops reminded the world of the horrors of Ruwanda. These were just symbolic of how ugly a tribal strife can turn in Kenya if something disturbs the elusive patchwork of loose tribal confederation called Kenya.

Mr.Kipkorir also seems to have forgotten that despite its current problems, Somalia is the only homogenous country in Africa. Somalis are one ethnic group who speak the same language and adhere to the same religion. They may look divisive and anarchic in their internal skirmishes on the country’s meager resources but they have history of quickly clinging together when they face a common foreign threat.

Remember Mr.Kipkorir, it is these people that you call rag-tag army of semi naked men that stood against the British and Italian armies for 20 years in one of the longest drawn out African rebellions against foreign occupation.

It was the dervish movement led by the Somali hero Mohammed Abdulla Hassan, known in history as the Mad Mulla, the derogative name given to him by the British, that the Royal army failed to defeat until it used military aircraft against them in the first aerial bombardment ever used by a European power in Africa, even before the Italian air bombardment of Libya.

It was the same rag-tag Bedouin army led by another Somali hero (c1507-1543), who conquered much of Ethiopia; prompting vanquished Ethiopian emperor Lebna Dengel (reigned 1508–40) to appeal to Portugal for help.

By then, the Imam, known as Gran or Guray, left-handed, marched all the way to the province of Tigray where he defeated an Ethiopian army that confronted him there, and on reaching Axum destroyed the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in which the Ethiopian emperors were coronated for centuries.

It is the same rag-tag army of semi naked men that forced the American army to flee from Mogadishu after the Black Hawk Down battle. Despite its gruesome history which we Somalis are not proud of, it showed the grit and the mettle of the Somali people when they are forced into a corner.

Now, Mr.Kipkorir if you really want to invite these modern Mongols to Kenya to turn Nairobi into ruins, then you better know what you are calling for. Invading Somalia will not be a piece of cake as you tried to portray it and the Somali legislatures in Nairobi will not be easy to walk over.

The moment the first Kenyan bullet is shot inside Somalia, Nairobi will explode and the Kenyan patchwork will fall apart. And God knows how many Kenyan mini-states will emerge from the ashes. And this is not a thing that I wish for my Kenyan brothers. I am proud of what they have achieved until now because unlike Mr. Kipkorir, I pride myself in the progress made by any African country, let alone my neighbors.

Contrary to your argument Mr.Kipkorir, Somalia was not a lawless state until 1960 and if you are not aware, Somalia was the first country in Africa where an elected civilian president was replaced in a democratic election in 1967.

Aden Abdulla Othman was the first African President to hand over the reins of power to his successor Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke when Kenya was languishing under one-man rule. Somalia was not a haven for terrorists and pirates as you tried to paint it but as you know Somalia had the strongest and best disciplined army in the 70s.

It was Somalia that negotiated a peace deal between the neighboring countries of Nyerere’s Tanzania and Idi Amin’s Uganda.

You must know Mr.Kipkorir that with the exception of Mogadishu every other town in the Somali region whether it is in Somaliland, Puntland, Baidoa or even Kismayo at the border of Kenya have better degree of security than your cosmopolitan Nairobi.

In Hargeisa for example like any other town of former Somalia, women sell gold in the open market and leave it without any guard at times of prayer without anyone stealing it, while in Nairobi people are killed for the watches they wear and the mobile phones they carry in bright day light.

It is true that we have problems in our country and that due to a strange amalgam of tribal and alien ideological factors, Somalis cannot make reconciliation among themselves but by the same token one cannot deny the ingenuity of the Somali people in creating business and managing to prosper amid calamity. The bustling business the Somali community has established in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area is something that should invoke a sense of pride in you as an African and not enrage you.

It may also be worth mentioning that over the past difficult 18 years, the Somali people have founded more airlines than they ever had, created more schools and universities that any African country has and built some of the most beautiful hotels and bungalows in the peaceful parts of the country.

As an imminent lawyer, you should have known better Mr.Kipkorir than taking America’s annexation of Texas from Mexico in 1845 as a legal precedent to support your alleged invasion and annexation of Somalia.

You know that the 19th century was a time for international robbery. Although slavery was in its dying days, European powers were dividing Africa as booty among themselves in the Scramble for Africa conference of Berlin in 1884. It is therefore a pity that a man of law, a son of Africa in the 21st century and an heir of Jomo Kenyatta and the Mau Mau warriors, a semi-naked men like us, had to call for the colonization of Africans by Africans in the 21st century.

I hope you are aware Mr.Kipkorir that if your wish were ever realized, you would be the first to suffer and that you would not be writing such insidious articles in ritzy hotels in Nairobi but will be biting your fingers in a feeding center in the African bush, probably feasting on dates donated by the Arabs whom you pride yourself in their enmity, ignoring that you owe so many things to them even your Swahili language. I hope you could handle that because the semi-naked Somalis have handled it for so many years.

How shameful, Mr.Kipkorir, that in your desperate attempt to give your loyalties to the West, you had to belittle your country by describing it as an ally of the West and therefore a natural enemy of the Arabs. “The truth of the matter is that as a Western ally, Kenya is an existential enemy of the Arab countries, Sudan included,” you said, forgetting that 11 out of 53 African countries are Arabs and that the West will not blink an eye to sacrifice the whole of Kenya including its safari tourism for the Arab oil.

Mr.Kipkorir, it would have more becoming of you as an African intellectual to call for united Horn of African countries where the brotherly countries of the region can share their resources and face the challenges of globalization, rising oil prices and crumbling financial markets as a common front instead of calling for the colonization of Africans by Africans.

This is exactly what Djibouti, that little African country that you tried to trash in your article, is doing by attracting hitherto unprecedented international investment for one of the dream projects of Africa; which is to link Africa to Arabia with a bridge across the red sea. This is what I call strategic thinking my African brother and not mobilizing your forces to blunder your suffering African neighbors.

I am not sure whether you are intentionally trying to reopen the old wounds of the division of the Somali people by the colonial powers and test the resolve of the Somali people to reviving their dream of greater Somalia, but if that is your intention then rest assured brother that unlike you Somalis know that in the 21st century they would be in a better shape to have greater Africa than greater Somalia.

Bashir Goth

Email:bsogoth@yahoo.com

Why Kenya and Ethiopia ought to annex and divide Somalia

2009-01-13T17:55:00.000+01:00

by DONALD KIPKORIR

dkipkorir@ktk.co.ke

Last month, Lehmans Brothers and Merrill Lynch, the world’s foremost investment banks, went bankrupt and we witnessed the financial chaos in the western capitals.

In the fog of international headlines on finding a financial bail-out in Washington, a rag-tag army of 50 semi-naked men on rickety boats captured a ship carrying 33 T-72 tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns off the coast of Somalia. The capture of mv Faina and the stalemated talks amid the surrounding American and Russian warships made me think that maybe this is the time to find a final solution to the Somali problem.

Since 1960, the country has been a lawless state that is a haven for terrorists and pirates. The pirates have told us the destination of the captured weaponry causing tension and panic in Washington, Nairobi and Khartoum.

If it is true that the final consignee was the government of Southern Sudan, as they allege, I will be on the same page with the Kibaki government for the first time.

I am a fervent supporter of a strategic foreign policy even if it attracts us enemies of such malevolent and despotic regimes as that of Khartoum.

Supporting the Southern Sudan government is in our long-term strategic interest and we should not shy from it. The truth of the matter is that as a Western ally, Kenya is an existential enemy of Arab countries, Sudan included.

Annexing Somalia is thus in our strategic interest and we must do it now as the financial meltdown continues to take away the attention of the world.

Somalia as a state exists only in world maps. It is a classic case of a failed state. It is a state dismembered into as many independent units as there are sub-clans. Its 90-strong cabinet is emblematic of the actual number of units.

The Horn of Africa country has no functioning government. The so-called transitional federal government, led by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, is confined to a shell-shocked presidential compound.

There is no standing or even sitting army or judicial systems. By all accounts, Somalia is a black hole in international law. Together with Afghanistan and Pakistan they are known as the training grounds and refuge for international terrorism.

Kenya has been a victim of such terrorism, leading to near-destruction of its tourism industry. We cannot afford another such attack. We have the potential to develop our tourism to compete with, if not outpace, Egypt and South Africa. But we cannot do so if Somalia continues to be a non-state.

Somalia neighbours Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Of these, it is only Ethiopia and Kenya that have strategic interest in Somalia. Djibouti is a primitive entrepot that can’t even supply water to its 600,000 people, who are forced to drink that imported from France or Coca Cola. Therefore, Djibouti is out in the quest for the final solution to the Somali puzzle.

Kenya and Ethiopia must and ought to dismember Somalia and divide it between themselves along the 4 degrees latitude, each taking all the land below and above the line.

The division will make both countries extend their territories by roughly 300,000sq km and additional populations of about five million. Once Kenya and Ethiopia have sent their combined army to Somalia and declared the annexation, we will present to the world a fait accompli.

In 1845, America annexed Texas from Mexico and forced the Texan legislature to pass a specific legislation stating that it accepted the annexation. The annexation has stood to date and, for good measure, President George W. Bush is a proud American Texan. For Kenya and Ethiopia, having the Somali legislature to endorse the annexation will be cake-walk. At any given time, most, if not all, Somali legislators are in Nairobi.

We will have them convene in one of our hotels and to pass the appropriate statutes dividing their country. When the allied forces liberated Germany from Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, they sent the bill to Berlin.

Our cost of annexing Somalia will be settled by Mogadishu. Somalia is known to have huge deposits of oil, natural gas, uranium and iron ore. Immediately after the annexation, we will invite our strategic foreign friends (not China please) to come and exploit the resources for us.

Kenyans ought to know that although Somalia is a failed state, its positive statistics are impressive. Without a structured economy, its gross national income per capita is US$600 (Sh40,000), when ours is $550 (Sh36,800). Of its universities that operate without budgets and with armed militia guarding them, three are in Africa’s top 100.

International law forbids the use of force by states against the territorial integrity and political independence of others. Somalia doesn’t have either.

But the law also recognises irreversible processes like the extinction of states such as in the USSR, emergence of new states from former USSR and Yugoslavia, and annexations like that of Texas. International order hates reversing completed processes, more so if the world is a better place.

If we do not annex Somalia and now, we will be a victim of its failed status and pulled down by it. We will not be able to achieve our strategic foreign policy in the region, or attain the Vision 2030 goal.

The time to annex and dismember Somalia is now; Washington and Moscow will be grateful.

PM wins vote-of-confidence, deals blow to President

2008-12-15T12:08:00.000+01:00

BAIDOA, Somalia Dec 15 (Garowe Online)

Somalia's interim Prime Minister, Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein, decisively won a vote-of-confidence motion on Monday after lawmakers approved his new Cabinet, Radio Garowe reported.

Prime Minister Nur Adde addressed 165 MPs at ADC Hall in Baidoa, the seat of parliament, where he defended his administration's one-year record and accused President Abdullahi Yusuf of being an obstacle to peace.

"The President refused his constitutional duty to approve the Cabinet," Prime Minister Nur Adde said, while formally requesting lawmakers to vote on the new Cabinet list.

Sheikh Adan "Madobe" Mohamed, the Speaker, later announced the vote results: 143 MPs approved, 20 rejected and two MPs abstained.

The vote is a blow to President Yusuf, a day after he announced that Prime Minister Nur Adde was fired. READ: Somalia's government thrown into crisis after President 'fires PM'.

It is not clear how Yusuf will respond to Nur Adde's political victory, a clear sign that the Somali government's Western backers now favor Nur Adde's reconciliatory approach to the Islamist opposition as opposed to Yusuf's hawkish politics

Source: Garowe Online

Somali PM says he cannot be sacked by the President

2008-12-15T11:52:00.000+01:00

MOGADISHU, Dec. 14 (Xinhua)

Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussien Sunday rejected the decision by President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed to sack him, heightening a growing political crisis in Somalia.

Speaking in the southern town of Baidoa, Hussien said that the president has no "legal authority" to sack him and that he would continue to serve in his capacity as prime minister.

"I do not accept the president's announcement today that he sacked me as prime minister because he does not have that legal authority in our charter," the prime minister said at a press conference in the southern Somali town of Baidoa, the seat of the parliament.

Hussein said that it was for the parliament to decide on the "constitutional breach" of president's decision to sack him early on Sunday after the president accused him of mismanagement and incompetence.

The two senior Somali leaders have been in deep disagreement over variety of issues including the way Somali national reconciliation is being handled by Hussein who has been spearheading peace talks with a faction of the Somali opposition.

The two leaders also disagreed last month over the appointment of new ministers in Hussein's cabinet.

Yusuf refused to endorse the new ministers appointed by the prime minister, following the resignation of 10 pro-president ministers who were excluded from the newly nominated cabinet.

The UN-brokered peace talks in neighboring Djibouti have led to a power sharing deal, but President Yusuf has expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement, characterizing it as "a clan deal."

Under the agreement, the current transitional parliament will be doubled, the government's interim period extended and a new leadership for the war-torn Horn of Africa country is to be elected at the beginning of the new year.

Source: Xinhua.

Somali president "sacks" government

2008-12-14T11:45:00.000+01:00

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the president of Somalia, has dismissed the transitional government led by Nur Hassan Hussein, the prime minister.

"As of now, I have sacked the prime minister and his current government and I will nominate a new prime minister within days," Yusuf said on Sunday at a news conference in the town of Baidoa, where the government is based.

The government of Nur Hassan Hussein was unable to perform its duties and I am obliged to save the country," he said.

Hussein became prime minister in November 2007 but has disagreed with Yusuf, mostly notably over ongoing peace talks with opposition groups and the make up of a new cabinet.

"The president was speaking in his usual personal capacity, contrary to the rules and regulations, as he is not mandated to sack the prime minister of the transitional federal government," Hussein said after Yusuf announced his decision.

Parliamentary approval

Under the transitional federal charter, the president needs the parliament's approval to sack the prime minister.But Yusuf expressed confidence that MPs would back his decision.

"Most of the parliamentarians will endorse my decision to dismiss the prime minister," he said.

"Should parliament reject my desire to look for a new prime minister, I will comply with their decision and the current government will continue its tenure."

Dr Yusuf al-Hazari, a political and legal adviser to the president, told Al Jazeera that Yusuf had the right to remove the prime minister if he failed to form a cabinet within the time limit set by the constitution.

"That is always one month and he couldn't establish or form the cabinet ... Nur Hussein could not compose it in two months and 16 days," he said.

Last month, Hussein blamed the president, who has been head of state since the inception of the transitional government in 2004, for the problems in the government due to his refusal to approve new ministers.

Leaders in the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), made up of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia, had called for the new cabinet to be named at a meeting in October.

Government struggles

Hussein replaced Ali Mohamed Gedi who was forced to resign after months of a struggles with Yusuf.

In 2008, he survived a vote of no confidence after some legislators accused him of embezzling state funds.

The transitional government in Somalia has struggled to enforce its control over the chaotic country and in 2006 needed assistance from the Ethiopian military to retake large areas of the country controlled by the Islamic Courts Union.

Since then government forces and their Ethiopian allies have come under near daily attack as the oppostion fighters have gradually re-established their influence.

In November, Yusuf said the government was "on the verge of total collapse" after opposition fighters retook control of large areas of the country.

Source: Al jazeera.

Real situation

2008-12-03T14:17:00.000+01:00

Check out the real situation

Nation war against nation

Where did it all begin?

When will it end?

Well, it seems like: total destruction the only solution

And there ain't no use: no one can stop them now

Ain't no use: nobody can stop them now

Give them an inch, they take a yard;

Give them a yard, they take a mile (ooh);

Once a man and twice a child

And everything is just for a while

It seems like: total destruction the only solution

And there ain't no use: no one can stop them now

There ain't no use: no one can stop them now

Ain't no use: no one can stop them now

There ain't no use: no one can stop them now

Check in the real situation (check it out, check it out)

Nation fight against nation

Where did it all begin? Wo-oo-o-o-oh!

Where will it end?

Well, it seems like: total destruction the only solution

Mmm, no use: can't stop them

W'ain't no use: ya can't stop them;

Ain't no use: no one can't stop them now

Can't stop them now (no one can't stop them now)

There ain't no use: no one can't stop them now

Everybody strugglin': ain't no use

Ain't no use -Ain't no use you even try

Ain't no use: got to say 'bye-'bye!

Ain't no use! Ain't no - ain't no use: no one can stop them now

(No one can stop them now)

Bob Marley

Venezogo Laguna

2008-12-01T15:08:00.000+01:00

Venezogo Laguna è l’unica città del famoso deserto dell’arcipelago di Urunga.
Questo arcipelago, un tempo crocevia del commercio della seta e del mareer (frutta esotica e afrodisiaca) si trova tra il Mar morto e il lago di Naivasha, dove ha origine il fiume che alimenta la famosa cascata di Niagara.

L’Arcipelago di Urunga è composto da circa 180 mila isole, tutte collegate da grandi fiumi navigabili ricchi di fauna e flora splendente. Grazie a questi fiumi è molto frequente vedere la popolazione locale in piccole imbarcazioni commerciare la seta, nonché impegnati alla raccolta del mareer. Frutta gialla, molto dolce e grande poco più di chicco di caffè.

Venezogo Laguna è una delle più grandi delle isole Urunga ed è situata nella parte est dell’arcipelago. Un’altra isola grande è Ayil Aamoos.

Ayil Aamoos non è molto lontana dalla prima anche se molto diversa e molto più movimentata. In questa isola, piena di vulcani attivi, ci vive un gruppo etnico particolare proprio per la loro abitudine di convivere con questi vulcani senza mai trovato un modo per sfruttare il fuoco vulcanico.

Una delle loro abitudine che li rendono particolari se non strani è non utilizzano mai e poi mai nessun elemento di origine vulcanica. Dal fuoco ardente della lava a campi rigenerati dal vulcano e resi molto fertili.

Chiunque utilizzi, per qualsiasi ragione e/o qualsivoglia modo un elemento di tale origine viene considerato un mentecatto e perde immediatamente la capacità di intendere e di volere. Questo significa che non potrà mai più sposarsi e/o testimoniare in nessun processo pubblico.

Ugola e Ujaji, coinquiline e carissime amiche, vivono nell’isola Pika chupamirto, famosa per le prestigiose università Nibobba e Marroni e per il grande consumo di sonniferi. Ugola ama cantare, ma ha studiato idrologia alla Marroni; Ujaji invece è una pranoterapeuta che ha effetto sugli animali, ma ha preso il Superdiploma d’Oro in merceologia in Nibobba.

A Pika chupamirto nessuno può passare più di cinque minuti tra un canto delle cicale ed un altro a fare quello che gli viene più naturale: chi contravviene muore di fame. E sono serene solo le cicale. Ugola e Ujaji lavorano insieme agli Strambi Laboratori, che producono i migliori sonniferi di Pika Cvjetni, capitale regionale di Pika chupamirto.

Sull'isola di Trofie Pesto tutte le attività economiche vengono svolte dal lunedì al venerdì dalle 8:40 alle 12:40; il sabato dalle 8:40 alle 11:40.

Lavorare al di fuori di questi orari è severamente vietato perchè impedirebbe agli abitanti di godere del magnifico clima e del mare. Ufficialmente, il Cartone della Legge trofiano riporta come motivazione "comporterebbe un serio ostacolo all'osservazione dell'orizzonte".

La gestione delle emergenze negli orari non lavorativi è delegata alle amministrazioni delle isole vicine.

Somali piracy and increasing prices for final consumers

2008-11-25T16:52:00.000+01:00

Pirates of the Somalia coast and their daring hijackings are making news these days. Somali Pirates are most popular Google news item for several days now. AL-JAZEERA, BBC, CNN all showed the latest Aramco Supper taker hijacking in prime time news.

All of sudden the world is fixated with this latest wave of hijackings.

As we read everywhere these days, the major maritime trade route is threatened by Somali piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

The super tankers and ships linking Europe to the powerful emerging Asian and the Middle East, source of oil, have to pass through Suez Canal then and the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen, and finally the Indian Ocean. And vice versa.

Even the ships linking the Middle East to North America must move from the Indian Ocean, and even if they have more room for manoeuvre, the very fact that Sirius Star, going to the U.S. has been seized in high seas shows that they are not immune to piracy.

What does this means for the prosperous part of the world?

Surely the risk of seizure increases the insurance cost for ship-owners and for final consumers of goods transported in Europe and North America.

Currently in Somali waters are the warships of about 20 countries as well as organizations such as NATO. Obviously even this has its cost and European and American citizens are paying it as taxes.

On the other hand, exportation (and contracts) of Asian countries such as China or India to Europe will suffer a lot from this insecurity.

A European company which must meet deadlines and had chosen to import from China because it costs less, if then sees increasing delivery times and perhaps even price, because of risk, will consider a closer and more safe source even if it may cost a little more.

Another consequence is the drastic reduction of the ships crossing the Suez Canal, which means reducing the Egyptian revenue from the toll of the canal. The third national revenue after tourism and remittances from emigrants.

The Danish shipping company Maersk Moeller, one of the largest in the world, decided to change route and the oil tanker will avoid the Gulf of Aden (hence the Suez Canal) passing under the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Another group, Frontline Ltd. is negotiating with its customers a similar proposal. Its customers include some of the major oil companies like Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil.

Decision not easy because to circumnavigate Africa increases costs by 40% and lengthens the trip from 5 to 15 days, depending on the ports of departure and destination. Even these increases will be paid the final consumers.

To this we can add the increase in salaries of the sailors, who obviously do not want to risk their lives.

So what to do? How the problem started and how to fix it? Why now and in Somali waters?

Indeed this phenomenon is the natural consequence of the civil war in Somalia, and is very popular in the Somali coast for at least two years. Country without government and no real institution for over 19 years.

Let me explain better: Somalia failed as a state like private companies go bankrupt, but without even a formal procedure. Just one day all the national institutions disappeared. Government ministries, Parliament, police, army, coast guard, post offices and schools and so on.

After almost 20 years of perpetual civil war and hunger I think it is understandable that the discovery of a very lucrative source attracts all those who have nothing to lose.

Why the world has never been concerned about the situation in Somalia, apart from Bush and his obsession and the war on terror, bombing occasionally here and there to kill the usual Alqaida affiliated?

How much is costs now to eradicate the piracy from Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden? How much it will cost vessels to change route? In final, how much all this will cost to the European and / or American consumer?

Is it more challenging to help Somalia step up again or combat pirates, changing commercial routes?

I believe that now that there is a real interest in fighting piracy it is easier politically and economically to deal with the situation in Somalia than unleash a Naval War in the Gulf of Aden.

why not take two birds with one stone?

Supporting the rebuild of the Somalia institutions, freeing the country from Ethiopian invasion and recreating a central government in Somalia that can control it’s costs should be sufficient.

That would give Somalis a way out of the civil war and everything that follows like terrorism and piracy , and on the other hand will bring the shipping trade to its natural routes.

I am sure that even countries like Egypt, which so far have washed their hands of Somali civil war, are now being touched by the consequence of the war itself and have every interest to discuss both within the African Union and the UN and plead the cause of Somalia, so they do not have to renounce the third most profitable revenue of valuable currency.

Hussein.

Somali pirates strike again

2008-11-19T14:31:00.000+01:00

Somali pirates have now seized three ships off the coast of the Horn of Africa since hijaking their largest target ever, the Sirius Star carrying $100m worth of oil.

A Greek tanker, a Thai fishing boat and a Hong Kong-registered vessel have been captured in the past 48 hours despite a large international naval presence in the waters off Somalia.

With eight ships being hijacked in the past two weeks, the IMB's piracy reporting centre has described the situation as "spiralling out of control".

Noel Choong, head of the centre based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said the pirate attacks are becoming "more violent, frequent and extending further from the attackers' bases".

The Sirius Star is the biggest vessel ever hijacked, and its learned that negotiations have begun on a ransom to be paid to the pirates, Al Jazeera reported.

Somali pirates have accused European and Asian firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukrainian ship, carrying tanks and military hardware to South Sudan regional government they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste.

While money is the primary objective of the hijackings, claims of the continued environmental destruction off Somalia's coast have been largely ignored by the regions's maritime authorities.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy for Somalia confirmed that the world body has "reliable information" that European and Asian companies are dumping toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline.

But evidence of such practices literally appeared on the beaches of northern Somalia when the tsunami of 2004 hit the country. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reported the tsunami had washed up rusting containers of toxic waste on the shores of Puntland.

Source: Al Jazeera

Yusuf's permanet power struggle

2008-11-17T17:44:00.001+01:00

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has said Islamist insurgents now control most of the country, and have advanced to the edge of Mogadishu.

The President was speaking to Somali parliamentarians in Kenya, a day after he rejected new cabinet members named by the Prime Minister, Mr Hassan Hussein and then consequently talks on forming a new cabinet failed.

Only few days ago he was claiming his government controls the whole country and that, thanks to the Ethiopian Army, his opponents were no more in Somalia.

It is not the first time that the President, to draw attention waving the danger of Islamists, changes suddenly his mind.

The thing that Mr. Yusuf has not yet understood is that time of the scarecrow is over and Ethiopians themselves realize that the situation is not any more sustainable and can no longer bet on him against the rest of Somalis.

All previous governments have failed for the unacceptable position of Mr Yusuf who was so far supported by the administration of Bush and his devoted attendant Meles of Ethiopia.

Mr Yusuf blamed parliamentarians for the failure of the cabinet talks although he rejected the list of ministers before they arrive in front of the parliament.

"The government controls Mogadishu and Baidoa and people are killed there every day," Mr Yusuf told the meeting in Nairobi.

"Islamists have taken over everywhere else, so if I ask you parliamentarians: do you know the situation we face? Who causes all these problems? We are to blame." He added.

On the other hand the Prime Minister on Sunday accused the President of blocking the creation of a new cabinet, undermining efforts to restore stability in the lawless country.

"The President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed [a former warlord in the breakaway region of Puntland] had refused to approve a new cabinet list seen as a key step in ending nearly two decades of bloodletting" Said Mr. Hassan Hussein.

"It is unfortunate that the President has become the first to oppose the IGAD directives though he was one of the signatories." The Prime Minister added.

A similar power struggle forced Ali Mohamed Gedi to resign as Prime Minister last year. He accused the President of interfering with the government's operations.

At a summit in October in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), set a deadline of November 12 for the feuding sides to agree a new transitional government.

Now the Prime Minister Hassan Hussein vowed to ignore the President and present the cabinet list to Parliament for approval in order to get his government going.

Hussein also accused Yusuf of refusing to support a recent power-sharing and truce agreement between the government and the opposition, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), at UN-mediated talks in Djibouti.

"I am sorry to say that the president never supported the Djibouti peace process aimed at uniting the government and the Islamist," said Hussein, who supports the deal.

"I am the prime minister of Somalia who has great respect for the president, but I am not interested in his personal dictates that are against the rule of law." added Mr. Hussein.

Hussein Aden

Freedom Fighters Miriam Makeba left us

2008-11-15T00:00:00.000+01:00

Miriam Makeba, Mama Afrika for all of us, was born in a shantytown outside of Johannesburg on March 4, 1932 and died on November 9th 2008 at the age of 76 after collapsing on stage during her last performance. A concert against camorra dedicated to Roberto Saviano held in Castelvolturno, near the southern Italian town of Naples.

Nelson Mandela wrote a note defining her the mother of the anti apartheid fight: “She was the South African first lady of music and she deserves to be remembered as Mama Afrika. She was the mother of our fight and of our young nation”.

Her morgue was visited by a procession of common people, immigrants and politicians. She is now part of our community and she is become a symbol of the struggle against camorra, says Francesco Nuzzo, mayor of Castelvolturno.

Miriam spent all her life fighting for civil rights and it is not by accident that she died in Castevolturno, a place that has become the emblem of those who are against criminality and oppression in Italy. She wanted at any cost to take part to the demonstration to support Saviano, even though she knew her health was precarious, and she gave her life for this cause.

Makeba was famous all over the world for her music and her political consciousness. She was a delegate of UN and her beliefs, enlarged by her fame as a singer, caused the reaction of the South African Government that in 1963 decided she had to go to exile and banned all her records. She could go back to her country only 30 years later, thanks to Mandela.

Her exile was the climax of her artistic career, spent in Europe and the States. In America she married Stokely Carmichael, who was also a militant for civil rights. This caused a scandal and her career felt the effects of it. After that she went to live in Guinea and than back in Europe.

In 2005 she decided to disappear from the scene and gave her last memorable tour all over the biggest cities of the world.

But her destiny was to sing in public once again, and to do it in Castelvolturno, demonstrating against camorra and for the oppressed, in front of a lot of people who had come to listen to her last concert.

We are honored to have had this great opportunity, grazie Miriam.

Valentina Belmuso

Child stoned to death: Horrendous death

2008-11-03T14:33:00.000+01:00

A Somali girl who said she had been raped has been stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery, Somali media reported.

Amnesty International added in a press release on Friday 31st October, that the victim, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, had been 13 years old and not 23 as earlier reports had suggested.

Duhulow was stoned to death on October 27 by dozens of men in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses.

This child suffered a horrendous death at the behest of the armed opposition groups who currently control Kismayo.

I, Hussein Aden, have a question to ask: Where is the man with whom she committed "adultery"???

The armed group in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, Amnesty said.

'A woman in green veil and black mask was brought in a car as we waited to watch the merciless act of stoning,' one local resident, Abdullahi Aden, told Reuters.

'We were told she submitted herself to be punished, yet we could see her screaming as she was forcefully bound, legs and hands. A relative of hers ran towards her, but the Islamists opened fire and killed a child.

'The stoning was totally irreligious and illogical,' said her sister, who asked not to be named. 'Islam does not execute a woman for adultery unless four witnesses [at least 4 aye witnesses of reputable character, should give testimony of the actual penetration, like a finger and a ring, of the sexual intercourse. N.d.R.] and the man with whom she committed sex are brought forward publicly".

Someone said “She was asked several times to review her confession but she stressed that she wanted Sharia law and the deserved punishment to apply".

You say you applied the Low of Islam and persuaded her to “review her confession”. Why didn’t you ask her to bring her witnesses?

Do that means that if I come to you, Kismayo Group, and say I committed adultery you gonna kill me even if I could be a child (you just did it), even if that could be false, even if I could be mentally instable, or may just want to kill my self?

Are you sure that's the way of the Islam?

Please Somalis, Islamists or not, say yours here, because I'd like to open a profound debate on this murder.

Hussein Aden

Somalia After the Ethiopian Occupation

2008-10-31T17:22:00.000+01:00

by Abukar Arman

"Ethiopia has become Africa 's hegemonic brute."

In light of the development of several critical issues that include U.S. economic volatility and the new political direction it's likely to turn towards, it's not farfetched to predict that Washington-supported Ethiopian occupation of Somalia will soon come to an end. However, what ensues might not provide comfort to some who erroneously bought into the mindset that politics and Islam cannot and should not mix. But, unfortunately, their reaction would be the element that would tip the scale.

Evidently, Ethiopia is unable to feed her own people and thus could not feasibly sustain this occupation without Washington 's financial, political and technical support. In fiscal year 2007, the U.S. awarded the Ethiopian regime approximately $300 million dollars in a non-humanitarian aid, and it was supposed to award double that amount in fiscal year 2008 in order to "fight against Islamists in neighboring Somalia." Be that as it may, unless Ethiopia takes drastic measures (and soon) it can become the next epicenter of violence in the Horn of Africa.

The cruel occupation and the violent insurgency that it inspired have paved the way for the creation of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. According to the UN estimate, 3.5 million Somalis are now on the verge of starvation, and about 1.5 million are IDPs (internally displaced persons). This, coupled with the widely documented brutal oppression against ethnically Somali people of Ogadenia, has profoundly contributed to the rapid erosion of Ethiopia 's international image. Ethiopia has become Africa 's hegemonic brute with a long record of gross human rights abuses and war crimes violations.

"Ethiopia is unable to feed her own people and thus could not feasibly sustain this occupation without Washington's financial, political and technical support."

Last year, ten U.S. Senators sent a bi-partisan letter to the Secretary of State expressing their grave concern over Ethiopia 's mounting human rights violations. Likewise, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that became known as the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act to restrict U.S. military aid unless Addis Ababa improved its human rights record.

Compounding the pressure, the insurgency becomes much fiercer and more popular every day, while public trust for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has eroded beyond repair. There is no escaping the writing on the wall: the lethal debacle that led to the worst misery in Somali history is coming to an end.

Now, the question is: Would an end to occupation establish peace and order in Somalia? Or, would that set the stage for Somalia to become, as some have been saying, a breeding ground or a safe haven for fugitive terrorists? Would that ensure security for Somalia's neighbors and respect for their territorial integrities?

Of course, it would be naïve to think that the Somali political problem, an intertwined set of complex issues, could be solved the day after the Ethiopian troops vacate Somalia . It will take a process, a painful one at that; but certainly nothing like the current nightmare.

Naturally, the insurgents will declare victory. But, they are not monolithic; neither in ideology nor in identity. They are a mixture of what's left of the ICU (Islamic Courts Union) and its radical wing Al-Shabaab, secularist nationalists, victims of the occupation, and clan loyalists. However, it's highly plausible for an inter-factional power struggle to ignite. One that is reminiscent of the May 2006 when ICU was fighting for its survival against a CIA-backed gang of the most abhorred warlords in Mogadishu who called themselves the Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.

"The Islamists have an unmatched record of public service."

In due course, there will be peaceful surrenders, amnesty, and disarmaments. How soon will this come to pass, and, whether or not the triumphant entity will be willing to share power, and, how susceptible would they be to radicalization depends mainly on how Washington reacts. And the last thing that Washington wants to do is to repeat the same ill-advised reaction that led to the current catastrophe in the first place.

For almost a decade, the mention of the word "Islamist" has blurred the West's sense of perspective. Everything was seen through the biased prism of "global war on terrorism," hence a blanket rejection was thrown over any form of "political Islam" - a loaded phrase that, to many Western ears, connotes something sinister and evil.

However, even in this landscape of predisposed negative attitudes toward anything that mixes Islam with politics, the Islamists have an unmatched record of public service. They operated schools, hospitals, and for six months before the occupation removed every checkpoint in Mogadishu and brought a semblance of peace.

Of course, the Islamists have made many reckless mistakes. Certain hardliners within the courts have haphazardly restricted certain liberties such as the right to watch movies and the right of women to opt out of wearing hijab.

But Islamists still ride high when it comes to sincerity of action. However, the masses, with their vigilant skepticism, will ultimately prevail. People look forward to a new, consensus-building leadership that puts law and order first. Leadership that would bring an end to the kidnapping, rape, human-trafficking, and piracy. Leadership that would subscribes to enlightened nationalism devoid of irredentist aspiration. People will embrace pluralistic, non-puritanical Islamic governance.

Lastly, people are yearning for a wise and a charismatic leader who would articulate a new vision and inspire the masses to dream a new Somalia.

Abukar Arman is a writer who lives in Ohio . His work has appeared on the pages of International Herald Tribune, Al-Jazeera Magazine, Arab News, and Foreign Policy In Focus.

He can be contacted at abukar_arman@yahoo.com

Ceasefire and Ethiopian pullout from Somalia

2008-10-27T13:02:00.000+01:00

DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti Oct 26

Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the main opposition group, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), finalized a peace agreement Sunday after formally signing a ceasefire deal that called for the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces.

An official ceasefire will formally go into effect on November 5, 2008, and Ethiopian troops will begin withdrawing from different parts of Somalia, starting on November 21, 2008, the agreement read.

The Ethiopian army pullout will be centered on Mogadishu and Beletwein, with the army relocating from bases such as Mogadishu Stadium, the ex-pasta factory and the former headquarters of the Somali Ministry of Defense.

The second phase of an Ethiopian withdrawal will last for 120 days, the signed document read, but is not specified when the pullout count down will start.

The agreement indicated that a joint TFG-ARS security force will be promptly established to work with African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu to maintain order, following the eventual withdrawal Ethiopian troops.

The deal was rejected by the second group of ARS based in Asmara, Eritrea, who said it would have no effect on the ground.

"The agreement reached in Djibouti on Sunday is an illusion to deceive the Somalis. Neither the international community nor Ethiopia itself announced the complete withdrawal of Ethiopian troops," said Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, leader of a breakaway faction of ARS.

It remained unclear when exactly the last Ethiopian troops would leave Somali territory.

Despite the peace deal, heavy fighting between Islamists and government forces killed dozens including a local al Shabaab commander over the weekend.

Hussein.

Proxy war

2008-10-14T09:30:00.000+02:00

Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Minister Seyoum Mesfin said his country has been promoting its position that the international community and the (UN) Security Council keep on discharging thier responsibility of extending appropriate support towards maintaining peace and stability in Somalia.

Seyoum told ENA (Ethiopian News Agency) on Wednesday (8 October) that Ethiopia has been calling on the international community and the UN Security Council to extend their support to the deployment of African peacekeeping forces fully to Somalia.

He further said his country has also been repeatedly calling, through the AU and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), for the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces to Somalia.

Ethiopia has also advanced the same position in the 63rd UN General Assembly (UNGA).

Seyoum said the international community has not played a meaningful role to ensure peace in Somalia while it was torn apart by civil war for 18 years. He said the international community and the Security Council need to discharge their responsibility appropriately in this regard.

Mr. Mesfin intends to make it clear that "the international community" has not provided adequate commitment to “maintain peace and stability in Somalia”

Well! We all know that there is no peace to maintain in that country in an endless civil war, and talking about stability in Somalia is really a bad joke that does not make anyone laugh. We need first to create peace before maintaining it.

I can understand that there is a diplomatic vocabulary which the Foreign Minister can not escape, but that vocabulary is not used at random and by anyone.

It works if used only from a position of strength.

When the U.S Secretary of State says the "international community" must do more in Afghanistan, in reality she's not talking to a non-existent "International Community", but to specific countries and to clear Heads of Government from precise position of a strength . Read, if you don’t do so and so I’ll do that to you".

His words have different weights on the Pakistani government and Chinese or French. The first, the government of Musharaf has already fallen because his commitment was not considered sufficient by the U.S. China is not even aware of this "lack of international engagement."

The same thing said by the Ethiopian Foreign Minister for a different circumstance, has no effect.

In fact, the Ethiopian Minister speaks with precise Heads of Governments, those who have encouraged him to invade Somalia and from which one expects a political, economical and military support.

The difference is that one says, "Hey, if you do not do this thing I’ll do this and that to you," while another says, "but hell! you promised to help me if I had done so".

Ethiopia is facing a decision not enough pondered before being made. Invading Somalia.

Ethiopia could not think to control Somalia. It does not have enough military and economic forces, but thought to work by proxy in the "war on terror" and thereby gain support and sympathy from the chief, Bush.

The same thing did Saddam Hussein in the Iran war of the 80s, when the Ayatullah came to power.

Even then it was necessary to contain Islamist fervour that radiated from Iran to the rest of the Islamic world, putting in trouble U.S. allied regimes like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Then the strongest army in the Middle East was unleashed, properly prepared and armed by the U.S. and that annihilated in a day, without any protest from the world, two Iranian islands. The war continued for a decade.

Only the Austrian UN ambassador said he was surprised and was immediately recalled and replaced by his government.

Saddam Hussein made a proxy war, and everyone knows the end of the story. He's hanged in Direct TV after the public exposure of the bodies of his sons, killed by the same persons that once sponsored him.

Meles is now doing a proxy war, but starts to realize that the mandant wants to wash his hands of this problem. The important thing for the mandant was that Islamists were ousted, and if he can save money once they’re driven away he has everything to gain. So why paying who left for the war without first cashing the check?

From here begins the problem of Meles. He asks himself what to do without money from the boss when his troops are hungry and without shoes like fascists who invaded Ethiopia decades ago and Somalis are fighting instead of surrendering all at once?

I wouldn't like to be in his shoes right now, but gonna give him a hint. Withdraw from Somalia without waiting for any "exit strategy". Only those who have a face to lose, like the U.S. in Iraq, and do not want to lose, can afford that long time approach. Not the Ethiopian army in Somalia.

Hussein Aden

Somali political class convoked in Nairobi, Kenya

2008-10-08T18:13:00.000+02:00

As appeared in a news recently published, also on this site, few days ago the entire political class of Somalia was convoked in Nairobi, Kenya. President, Prime Minister, Parliament spokesperson and nothing less than entire Parliament members including.

The peculiarity of this convocation reveals the institutional volatility of the warlords, now endorsed by Presidents and MPs, in terms of total absence of sovereignty, institutionality, and lack of the slightest authoritativeness recognized by the citizens.

In short, it’s like if Germany convokes in Berlin the French President, Prime Minister and the entire French Parliament for "consultation". What would French people feel like?

This fact has obviously enjoyed all Somalis, particularly those still in Somalia. People often ironic and sometimes very sarcastic.

Could hear like "But how? Are they all convoked!!!!?" "Sure, Must been summoned for the payment of these months of work." "You know, have been convened to receive orders of what should do next". "They have been called to be spanked by dad Meles.

Someone has even talked of government reshuffle.

On the other hand, these warlords who once used to determine, each in his feud, life and death of the population, were ousted two years ago by Islamists.

Now that you are re-established by the Ethiopian armies, they have to face an armed Islamist opposition with a large following of the "serf" of a time.

Sulky and moody for each gossip story, because they no longer have the authority of a time (never had authoritativeness) they wheezy breath upset, so is that someone says not willing going to the call.

The Parliament Spokesperson, Mr. Aden Madobe, said that "We are elected by ourselves, and I won’t leave my office for any government reshuffle."

His absolute lack of institutional culture is evident by his inability to distinguish between government and Parliament.

He is not part of the government. He should be the second highest authority of the State. The President of Parliament. But I understand that this is making heavy demands on illiterate warlord.

Another former mayor of Mogadishu, a bloodthirsty warlord dismissed to resolve a dispute between the President and Prime Minister accuses the Government it self of connivance with the Islamists.

Aren’t Government and Parliament made by the warlords? And however in that case between who and who is the current war? Between Parliament and the opposition? Only President on one hand and government and the opposition on the other?

What the hell’s Mr. Gacmadheere talking about?

Hussein Aden

Italy: First black Italian-Somali Azzurro from district where Chinese attacked

2008-10-04T19:14:00.000+02:00

(ANSA) - Rome, October 3 - The first black footballer to play for Italy on Friday joined the growing chorus of voices warning that the country could be facing an epidemic of racism.

''As an Italian I am ashamed,'' veteran Palermo midfielder Fabio Liverani told ANSA after the latest in a series of apparently racist attacks the previous day.

Liverani, 32, a half-Somali who made history by turning out for Italy in 2001, noted that he was from the same working-class Rome district, Tor Bella Monaca, where Thursday's assault on a Chinese man occurred.

The ex-Lazio and Fiorentina player said he had noticed a rise in intolerance.
''It's like we've travelled 60 years back in time. And the level of violence is rising. When I was a boy I suffered some episodes of racism but it was essentially verbal''.

''Just when we thought some progress was being made things are going backwards. I used to hang out in that area. It was a place that had managed to clean itself up, but now this''.

The Chinese immigrant, 36-year-old Tong Hongsheng, was beaten up by a group of teenagers.
An eye witness told police Tong was on his way home when he was surrounded by a group of five or six teenagers who shouted racist slurs before breaking his nose and inflicting other injuries.

One of Tong's attackers went to Rome city hall with his father Friday to apologise to Mayor Gianni Alemanno for the incident.

Police said the same group attacked two 30-year-old Ivory Coast immigrants last week after shouting racist insults.

Also on Friday, graffiti insulting Anne Frank appeared in another Rome suburb. In another part of Rome someone recently daubed anti-Semitic slogans against Senate Speaker Renato Schifani, who is Jewish.

Insulting graffiti were also found near Milan Friday about a Romanian boy who burned to death in a shanty last week.

Italian human rights groups and the Catholic Church have for months been sounding the alarm over what they say is growing intolerance of immigrants in Italian society.

Earlier this week a case in Parma made headlines when a young student from Ghana was allegedly beaten up by traffic police who reportedly mistook him for a drugs pusher.

Last month an immigrant from Burkina Faso who ran out of a Milan store with a packet of biscuits was killed by the shopkeeper who allegedly beat him to death with an iron bar after hurling racist insults.

The death brought thousands of African immigrants onto the streets of Milan in protest.
Earlier last month the African community in Castel Volturno near Naples rioted after the Camorra mafia mowed down three Ghanaians, two Togo nationals and a Liberian.

A poll of readers of the left-leaning newspaper La Repubblica on Thursday found 86% agreeing with the proposition that Italy has ''a racism emergency''.

This summer the Italian government was widely accused of racism because of a survey of Roma (gypsy) camps which included the fingerprinting of children.

The government insisted the census - which was eventually OK'd by the European Commission - was not aimed against any specific ethnic group or spurred by a wave of crime-linked anti-immigrant feeling.

In the face of protests, Italy agreed with the European Union to make sure the scheme complied with human rights norms.

It also announced it would require all Italian citizens to have their prints put on ID cards starting in 2010.

But the Council of Europe (CE), Europe's rights body, claimed that Italian politicians had lacked ''the moral leadership'' to face down the kind of anti-gypsy sentiment that led to incidents such as the torching of camps in Naples in June.

Hussein Aden

Some are forgetting the most important thing

2008-10-02T15:51:00.000+02:00

Happened few days ago that some Somali “Ministers” (in Somalia there is no Ministry of any kind) pro-“President” have resigned in protest against the “Prime Minister”, which has accepted and signed the resignation.

A few days later, they claimed they are still Ministers even without a new acceptance of the “Prime Minister”. However they needed the confidence of the “Parliament”, which refused them confidence.

Now they state they are “Ministers” , even without the confidence and acceptance of the “Prime Minister” because the “President” (which does not name the Ministers) did refuse the no-confidence of the “Parliament”, and some of them went to participate the UN General Assembly.

Indeed nobody knows what do they do as Ministers since they’re without Ministries.

To me it seems some are forgetting the most important thing.

Rather reminds me of the strange story of the 4 disabled and hungry Somalis in the bush. A deaf, one blind, one without legs, and the last naked.

"A cow roar on the horizon" shouts the deaf. "I see it and is also gray " agrees the blind. "With a leap we can capture it" suggests that without legs. "And if they strip us (of all possessions)?" concludes fearing the nude.

Everything is tragicomic.

Hussein Aden

Funny Joke: Somalia to recognize Abkhazia and S. Ossetia

2008-10-01T16:29:00.000+02:00

Somalia will soon recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two Georgian breakaway regions recently recognized by Russia, the Somali ambassador to Moscow said on Wednesday.

"The government of Somalia will be preparing documents as swiftly as possible on the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Ossetia, as well with Georgia and Abkhazia," Mohamed Handule said.

So far only Nicaragua has joined Russia in recognizing the two republics. Moscow said recognition was a necessary step to protect the republics after last month's conflict.

The question is, will Somalia recognize even Somaliland? What about Basque Country or Padania in Northern Italy? Will South Ossetia and Abkhazia appreciate this recognition?

Last but non least, who really consider now Somalia as a State, since it's known as a failed State and who recognize Mr. Yusuf's authority as a President?

That sound really very funny.

Hussein Aden.

Suorce: RIA Novosti

Somali peace talks in Djibouti end without agreement

2008-09-23T14:11:00.000+02:00

Monday, September 22, 2008
MOGADISHU (Xinhua)

The talks in Djibouti between the two joint committees from the Somali transitional government and the opposition to finalize the peace agreement between the two sides ended without a deal, reports from Djibouti said Monday.

In a joint news conference, the Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the leader of the opposition Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS) said that they will meet again in a month's time after further consultations among each side.

"We have made much progress in our talks so far and we reached a lot of consensus on many issues but we will meet in a month's time to finalize the talks," the Somali Premier told reporters in Djibouti where the two sides have been meeting since Sept. 12.

The two sides have signed a tentative agreement last June in which they agreed to cease hostilities and request a UN force to replace the Ethiopian troops backing Somali government.

In August the two sides also signed a communiqué in which they reaffirmed their commitment to the talks and agreed to cease fire within thirty days.

The talks between the two joint committees on security and political matters deadlocked over the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia.

The Somali government wanted the troops to leave residential areas in cities while the opposition demanded that they withdraw from cities and towns in the south for a start before they fully withdraw in a hundred and twenty days.

Sheik Ahmed, leader of the opposition said in that the two sides will have to deliberate the issues among themselves and comeback to the talks in a later date "better ready".

A joint Security Committee to follow up the implementation of security arrangements and a High Level Committee to follow up on political cooperation between the two sides, were formed in accordance with the initial Djibouti agreement.

Source: Xinhua, Sept 22, 2008

Mortar attack on Somali market by Government and Ethiopeans kills 30

2008-09-22T14:58:00.000+02:00

The fighting began after Islamic insurgents fired mortars at the capital's main airport and the presidential palace, said Ali Mohamed Siyad, who chairs Bakara market traders' association. Soon after, government forces and their Ethiopian allies retaliated with mortars and gunfire.

Mortars slammed into a market in Somalia's capital Monday, killing up to 30 people including children and overwhelming hospitals with dozens of wounded in the worst fighting in months, witnesses said.

The violence — shocking even for this chaotic country in the Horn of Africa — comes as Islamic insurgents who want to topple the government appear to be gaining significant power. The government, which has failed to assert any real control since it was formed in 2004, had no immediate comment on the bloodshed.

At least 60 were wounded, including nine children, according to Dr. Dahir Dhere of Medina Hospital.

There is blood everywhere, and human flesh on the walls," Abshir Mohamed Ali, a shop owner at Mogadishu's Bakara market, where much of the fighting was centered, told The Associated Press.

Seven members of one family — a mother, grandmother, four children and an uncle — were among the dead, according to a Sahal Mohamed Ali, who was attending the funeral.

"Only the 2-year-old child survived this disaster, with minor injuries," Ali said by telephone from the funeral.

Siyad said he and other workers had counted about 30 bodies. Other witnesses described at least 19.

Islamic militants have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian allies for control since their combined forces pushed the Islamists from the capital in December 2006. But the government has failed to deliver any basic services, is riddled with corruption and comes under daily attack.

Thousands of civilians have died in the fighting and hundreds of thousands more have fled Mogadishu, contributing to a massive humanitarian emergency. In addition, foreigners, journalists and humanitarian workers are frequently abducted for ransoms in Somalia.

Hussein Aden

Somali Pirates vs Toxic waste trade

2008-09-18T13:05:00.000+02:00

For many years the long Somali coast has worked as world landfill of toxic waste.

Already in the late '80s there was much alarm, as highlighted in the report "The Deadly Trade: Toxic Waste Dumping in Africa." (September-October 1988) of Africa Report.

The reality of this illegal and very harmful Trade is then clearly highlighted by several articles of Famiglia Cristiana, Italain weekly magazine, in'98, (http://www.stpauls.it/fc98/4798fc/4798fc84.htm), and by research and the same murder of Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin.

Of course everything happened with the active collaboration of the warlords of various Somali clans. Individuals of a shameful moral lowliness, which for a few (or many) dollars have destroyed an entire nation and undermined its future in many ways, including nuclear sludge dumped into the Somali coast.

At that time everything could arrive in Somalia without any control. Even more easily by sea, where not even the AK 47 of the various militias could act as a deterrent.

What has changed since then in the Somali coast?

Just today (18/09/08) a Greek vessel was sized off Somali cost.

A maritime official says armed pirates have hijacked a Greek bulk carrier with 25 crew members off the eastern coast of Somalia.

Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau says the ship was headed to Kenya when it was attacked early Thursday off the coast of Mogadishu.

It was 13th ship seized in the notorious African waters in the past two months.

He says the latest incident shows Somali pirates have expanded their area of attack from the country's northern coast in the Gulf of Aden to Somalia's east coast.

A multinational naval force patrolling the area has been informed, and that ships have been warned to stay clear of Somalia's coast, he added

The modern Somali piracy has nothing to envy to the fearless pirates in the past, and only by January of this year 55 vessels were attacked off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden.

Almost two ships every three days, and at least eleven of them are still under seizure.

But how this affects the trade of toxic waste?

If these pirates are controlled by various warlords, becomes obvious that the seizures are targeted, at least not to attack "friends" that carry the waste in exchange for money.
In this case the situation can only deteriorate.

Personally, however, I believe that these pirates not respond directly to any local warlord, but are people who have sniffed a bargain of kidnapping as the only source of income in a country that lives only of remittance of emigrants.

I am convinced of this because if they were controlled by warlords would be very easy to stop them, since the local lords are directly controlled by Melez of Ethiopia, in turn he's directly controlled by Washington.

In addition, only two days before, for the second time French commandos attacked a base of pirates in the north of Somalia, an area controlled by an ally of the war to the pirates.

I therefore hope that fear of being kidnapped keeps away many who would otherwise conclude illegal and harmful business, and as immoral as it could appear I’m grateful to the pirates for this.

Hussein Aden

Ramadan Mubarak

2008-09-01T11:19:00.000+02:00

Every year, more than one billion Muslims around the globe observe the importance of the month of Ramadan. This time of the year is a time for reflection, devotion to God, and self-control. During the month of Ramadan, this year from 1st sept to 29th sept 2008, Muslims show their devotion to God by fasting, or abstaining from food.

Many religions encourage some kind of fasting for religious purposes. For instance, Catholics give up meat for Lent and Jews fast during the holiday of Yom Kippur. For Muslims, fasting is a very important component of Islam. The benefits of fasting for Ramadan are numerous. The most important, though, is the idea that through the self-control of fasting one can pay special attention to his spiritual nature.

Ramadan is an important time for Muslims, not simply because it helps develop a closer relationship with God, but also because Ramadan is a time to think about those who are less fortunate. Another goal of fasting for Ramadan is to experience hunger in sympathy for those without food. It is a way that many Muslims learn thankfulness and appreciation for what they have.

Hussein Aden

Sadness Come back to me - Al Shabab militants 'behind' the deadly Kampala World Cup blasts

2008-07-09T18:21:00.000+02:00

The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has said it was behind twin blasts which hit the Ugandan capital Kampala on Sunday, killing 74 people.

A spokesman for the group, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, threatened more attacks in a statement in Mogadishu.

Police said the bombings targeted football fans watching the World Cup final.

A Ugandan official said a Somali's head was found at the scene of one blast, and he may have been a suicide bomber.

Ugandan peacekeepers are in Somalia, and al-Shabab has previously threatened Kampala.

"Al-Shabab was behind the two bomb blasts in Uganda," Ali Mohamud Rage said.

"We thank the mujahideen that carried out the attack. We are sending a message to Uganda and Burundi, if they do not take out their Amisom [African Union Mission in Somalia] troops from Somalia, blasts will continue and it will happen in Bujumbura [the Burundi capital] too."

The explosions, which also injured about 70 people, ripped through a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant as football fans watched the last few minutes of the World Cup final.

Foreigners killed

The deadliest of the blasts was at the crowded rugby club. At both locations chairs lay overturned, with blood and pieces of flesh on the floor.

A government spokesman said on Monday that at least 28 Ugandans were killed in the explosions.

Fred Opolot, quoted by the Reuters news agency, said an Irish woman was among those who died at the restaurant.

Officials said the dead and wounded also included Ethiopian, Eritrean, Indian and Congolese nationals.

Mr Opolot added that the other victims had not yet been identified.

Aware of threat

Ugandan Internal Affairs Minister Matia Kasaija told the BBC World Today programme that the severed head of a person from Somalia had been identified at the scene of one blast.

He said Uganda had been aware of the threat, but had been caught off-guard.

About 5,000 African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi are based in Mogadishu, propping up the fragile interim government.

The Amisom force is engaged in frequent firefights with the Islamist insurgents that control much of southern and central Somalia.

American dead

The attack on the Ethiopian restaurant also fits in with al-Shabab's regional policy.

Addis Ababa backs Somalia's government against the rebels. And Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist movement, stoking an insurgency that still rages.

BBC East Africa correspondent Peter Greste says security services across the region will now be reassessing how they can protect themselves from a force that has proven itself willing and capable of striking outside Somalia's borders.

Many - if not most - of those killed and injured in the Kampala blasts were foreign nationals. Both venues are popular destinations for expatriates living in the capital.

One unnamed witness told the BBC how he was caught in the rugby club blast.

"I just heard the bomb. In fact, I blacked out... when I gained consciousness, then I started now, crawling, coming out," he said.

California-based aid group Invisible Children, which helps child soldiers, said one of its workers, Nate Henn, 25, was among those killed at the rugby club.

At least three Americans, members of a Church group from Pennsylvania, were wounded at the Ethiopian restaurant.

One, Kris Sledge, 18, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, said from his hospital bed: "I remember blacking out, hearing people screaming and running."

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni criticised the attackers and said his country would not "run away" from its commitments in Mogadishu.

"People who are watching football are not people who should be targeted. If they [attackers] want a fight, they should go and look for soldiers."

US President Barack Obama said the explosions were "deplorable and cowardly".

The African Union has said the attacks will not affect its summit, which is due to be held in Kampala later this month.

Source: BBC

Somali government base attacked

2008-07-08T15:52:00.000+02:00

Insurgents in Somalia have launched a rocket and mortar attack on the southern town of Baidoa, seat of the transitional parliament. It was the first time Baidoa, the only town fully under government control, had been attacked since late 2006.

A soldier was killed and six people wounded in the attack on the airport and presidential palace, witnesses say. Al-Shabab, a radical wing of the Islamist Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, claimed responsibility.

The attack comes on the eve of the coming into effect of a ceasefire signed by the government and one Islamist leader last week. Al-Shabab refuses to abide by the ceasefire, until Ethiopian troops leave the country.

Ethiopia helped the government oust Islamists from Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia in 2006. A military official said insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns had been fought off with anti-aircraft guns at checkpoints in the north and south of the city.

It is the heaviest we have witnessed for many years, the fighting sent flash lights over the city and rocked us, we kept ducking for nearly an hour," said resident Sahra Ali. Al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow told reporters his men had been behind the attack.

"Our fighters have attacked Baidoa and inflicted heavy losses to the so-called government soldiers and the Ethiopians," he said. "This was a signal showing that Baidoa is no longer safe."

The al-Shabab spokesman also said that a ceasefire signed last month between the government and opposition groups "would never go into effect". "There will not be a ceasefire and we will not negotiate with any side while Allah's enemy [Ethiopia] is on our soil, and as long as the puppet regime of [President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed] claims leadership," he said.

The three-month ceasefire pact was signed by a top Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and Prime Minister Nur Adde. But another prominent Islamist leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, rejected the deal. Mr Aweys is a founder of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) that ruled much of Somalia in 2006, before being ousted by Ethiopian forces backed by Somali government troops.

Al-Shabab is the UIC's youth wing, whose fighters have been behind much of the violence against the Ethiopian and Somali troops. Somalia has experienced almost constant civil conflict since the collapse of Mohamed Siad Barre's regime in January 1991. Political violence has surged in recent months.

Last week, gunmen killed the head of the UN Development Programme as he left a mosque in the capital, Mogadishu. Insurgents also launched lethal attacks against government and Ethiopian troops in the capital and the centre of the country.

The UN has warned that nearly half of Somalia's population is likely to require aid later this year.

Suorce: BBC

Mbeki sorry for S Africa violence

2008-07-04T11:25:00.000+02:00

Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, has apologised for the recent xenophobic violence in the country and said that it must never be repeated.

Mbeki spoke on Thursday at a ceremony in honour of the 62 people who died in the violence in May.

He said that the nation's citizens have their heads "bowed in shame" and will work to ensure that those who fled the violence can resume their lives in South Africa.

The ceremony was organised by the government.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly migrants, were displaced during the violence. Thousands have returned to their home nations, such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

About 13,000 remain in refuge camps set up by the government, which has been criticised for doing too little to help victims.

The government has said that the camps will be closed by the end of July.

Kalay Maistry, Al Jazeera's correspondent at the Ramaphosa settlement in South Africafrom where many people fled violence, said that the government was doing little more to placate the anger some South Africans have towards foreigners.

Maistry said that the majority of those targeted in the violence do not yet feel safe enough to return to their homes.

Emma Macave, a camp resident, told her: "How can you live where you don't feel safe? The person behind you could attack you."

The violence in May pitted poor South Africans against poor migrants. The locals accused migrants of taking scarce jobs and housing from them.

Suorce: Aljazeera

Ethiopian troops in Somalia: Feeling the heat!

2008-06-27T16:06:00.000+02:00

Since December 2006, when the Ethiopian troops occupied independent Somalia at the invitation of the weak government led by col. Abdullahi yusuf, more damage has been done in terms of property destruction, human rights violation and displacement of innocent population than the previous 16 years combined together!

According to aid agencies and local sources, the Ethiopian occupation forces have committed the worst atrocities imaginable in a barbaric world where rules of engagement and accountability are virtually absent. The absence of accountability has apparently contributed to such behaviour.

See (Human rights watch, 8/07; U.N. humanitarian office report): “human rights abuses committed by the Ethiopian troops include arbitrary arrests, summary executions, looting, pillaging, targeting hospitals and bombardment of populated neighbourhoods” to quote one of the numerous reports.

Oblivious of aid organization reports and appeals to stop the carnage in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia, the Ethiopians intensified the ruthless campaign against defenceless civilians causing huge suffering and death. So, Mogadishu was reduced to a ghost town largely inhabited by the occupying forces, the insurgents and cats!

Now, the tide changes in favour of the liberation forces of Somalia. The inevitable consequences of a bitter entrenched warfare in a hostile environment is adversely affecting the Ethiopians- the relentless and constant suicide raids by the Somali fighters, the insomnia, the trauma, the logistical nightmares and …./

For the first time during the occupation, the Ethiopian troops in Somalia are beginning to feel the heat! The ferocity and intensity of the insurgent attacks, their determination and will have stunned the enemy.

In Mogadishu, the hunters are being hunted and pinned down in heavily fortified trenches which look like pressure cookers in the scorching sun; out of desperation, they respond with savage artillery barrage which serves for no military purpose.

Outside the capital, the two major artery routes connecting the capital to the strategic Hiiran and Bay regions are controlled by the fighters, cutting supply lines and reinforcements. Hiiraan and Bay, two crucial regions, spin out of control.

Many analysts believe that if this trend continues, a military debacle will be inevitable, ending the wild dreams of imperial Ethiopia to annex the seaports of Somalia and probably pave the way for lasting reconciliation. That is why any future peace keeping mission to Somalia should have the endorsements of all stakeholders in Somalia!

Ahmed Raghe Hassan

Source:Hiiraan Online

Ethiopia starts "training" Somali journalists

2008-06-24T17:57:00.000+02:00

Ethiopia has launched a month-long training programme for under-pressure Somali journalists, Addis Ababa said Saturday 21st.

"The Ministry of Information in collaboration with the publicly-owned media offers a month-long training in journalism to practitioners from Somalia,” a statement read.

Around 10 journalists working for radio stations in Mogadishu Baidowa and have started the training programme, focused on radio broadcasting, journalists' code of ethics and scheduling.

The regime of Addis Ababa, a country where there is no press freedom and no respect for human rights, as demonstrated by the recent report of AAAS, US-based Human Rights Watch (published on this site).

A country were at least 200 of the opposition where killed in the last "elections", failing to counter the fight for re-release of Somalia, began a campaign of propaganda and disinformation.

Meles wants to hide the daily destruction of human lives and of all Somalia.

This campaign begins with a project to counteract the Somali press, much more free because no one controls the country and so neither the press, hostile to the invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia, organising training of journalism for Somalis.

The fact that the Ministry of Information of a dictatorial and aggressive regime organise a course of journalism for the invaded country confirms the fascist nature of the regime.

The reality is that the Somali press has influenced Ogaden Somalis, a vast region between Somalia and Ethiopia, where the Somali ethnic population is at war for decades for independence from Ethiopia.

The pro Ogaden press has bases in Somalia and is disclosed both from Somalia, via web, and by migrants of Ogaden who are seeking asylum abroad as Somalis.

Infact, the Ethiopian Somalis, the Ogaden migrants, normally seek asylum as Somalis from Somalia for which is recognised statelessness.

It’s precisely in that region where there have been villages burned by Meles, who now can no longer deny because there are satellite photos of AAAS.

It will not be this move to save a shaky dictatorship.

Hussein Aden

Somalia: Most unstable state

2008-06-24T15:52:00.000+02:00

Somalia has been ranked as the most unstable country in the world, according to a new report by the US magazine, Foreign Policy, and the Fund for Peace, which promotes sustainable security.

Seven of the top 10 states on the list are in sub-Saharan Africa, said Monday's annual report.

Sudan was named as the second most unstable state, due to the continuing crisis in Darfur and the country's growing number of refugees, the report said.

The index uses 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators to rank 177 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and the deterioration of their civil society.

Bangladesh suffered the most drastic decline in the past year, rising to 12th on the list after a year of internal political crisis and the effects of a deadly cyclone that left 1.5 million people homeless.

Israel and the occupied West Bank got into the index's top 60 - at No. 58 - for the first time, just behind Angola and Georgia.

Source: Aljazeera

AAAS: Satellites confirm Destruction of Towns, Houses in Ogaden

2008-06-17T10:44:00.000+02:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images confirm reports that the Ethiopian military has burned towns and villages in the remote Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia, the American Association for the Advancement of Science reported on Thursday.

Eight sites in the rocky, arid region, which borders Somalia, have clear signs of burning and other destruction, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program said.

The commercially available images corroborate a report by Human Rights Watch, also issued on Thursday, that uses eyewitness accounts of attacks on tens of thousands of ethnic-Somali Muslims living in the area, the AAAS said.

"The Ethiopian authorities frequently dismiss human rights reports, saying that the witnesses we interviewed are liars and rebel supporters," Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"But it will be much more difficult for them to dismiss the evidence presented in the satellite images, as images like that don't lie," he said.

Ethiopia, a key regional ally of the United States, launched its latest offensive after the Ogaden National Liberation Front attacked a Chinese-run oil field in the region in April 2007, killing more than 70 people.

Ethiopian government officials in Addis Ababa routinely reject allegations against their counter-insurgency operations and accuse the rebels of abusing locals.

Lars Bromley, project director for the Science and Human Rights Program at AAAS, said his team analyzed several before and after satellite images of villages identified by Human Right Watch as possible locations of human rights violations.

For example, in the town of Labigah, 40 structures identified in a September 2005 image were gone in images taken in February 2008. In the Human Rights Watch report an eyewitness said the Ethiopian army "went into every village and set it on fire."

Such reports are nearly impossible to corroborate because the region "may well be the most isolated place on earth, save perhaps the densest parts of the Congolese or Amazon rain forests," Bromley said.

It is also difficult to tell what is going on in some villages, AAAS said.

"While some towns are considered permanent, they can grow and shrink over the course of a year due to fluctuations in nomadic populations, and many smaller villages will relocate altogether," the report reads.

"To ensure the most accurate results, AAAS for the most part sought to review only permanent towns in the Ogaden, as indicated by their location along a well-defined road and by the presence of square structures with metal-sheet or brick roofing, and most often including a mosque."

AAAS has used satellite images to support reports of widespread abuses in Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Burma, Chad and the Darfur region of Sudan.

The report is available on the Internet at http://shr.aaas.org/.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; editing by David Wiessler)

"Agreement" between Transitional Federal Governament and the Allaince for Re-Liberation of Somalia

2008-06-10T14:38:00.000+02:00

But what agreement? What new to sign this agreement?

Meles has always said that when the UN soldiers arrive and ensure the security of government and the country (Somalia) will withdraw his soldiers from Somalia.

Just as Bush has always said that before leaving the country (Iraq) it is necessary to strengthened democracy in the country and that there is more Alqaeda.

So what changed to sign an agreement with Meles (TNG) after argued that before to speak it's necessary that the Ethiopian soldiers leave Somalia or at least plan a precise date for their departure?

How come up to yesterday (09/06/08) the Alliance for Re-liberation of Somalia have adhered to this position, forcing the representative of Ban Ki Moon to announce failure, planning his departure from Djibouti?

Why only yesterday when the opposition has met the ambassadors of some Western countries have accepted in all its parties the position Meles?

Hussein

Read agreement points

1. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia and the Alliance for Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) attending a meeting from 31 May to 9 June 2008 in Djibouti, facilitated by the UN. They are hereafter referred to as "the Parties".
2. The Parties gave their respective analyses of the 18 year old crisis and made proposals aimed at restoring trust, confidence and at ending the conflict. Their discussion led to the present Agreement.

3. The primary requirement of this Agreement is to: ensure the cessation of all armed confrontation and a political settlement for a durable peace; promote a peaceful environment; avoid a security vacuum; facilitate the protection of the population and the unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance and call for the convening of a reconstruction and development conference.
4. The Parties noted that:

a. Over the past eighteen years, Somalia has suffered massive human losses, insecurity and vast destruction of its physical infrastructure and other vital public investments. A whole generation of young people and adults has been sacrificed or denied education and development;

b. The human and humanitarian situation is continuously deteriorating. At the same time, the country’s international image and standing have been seriously undermined;

c. This tragic situation, and the fact that eighteen years of war and conflict have brought neither durable peace nor stability and inspired by patriotic and religious examples of compromise.

5. Decided to:

a. Reaffirm the dignity, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Somalia;

b. Take courageous measures to finally bring this situation to an end and resolve the crisis through peaceful means.

6. Agreed on:

a. The termination of all acts of armed confrontation by the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) and its allies and by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and its allies;

b. The cessation of armed confrontation shall come into force thirty (30) days from the signing of this agreement throughout the national territory;

c. The cessation of armed confrontation is approved for an initial period of ninety (90) days, renewable.

7. The Parties agreed from the date of coming into effect of this Agreement:

a. To request the United Nations, consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 1814 and within a period of one hundred and twenty (120) days, to authorize and deploy an international stabilization force from countries that are friends of Somalia excluding neighboring states;

b. Within a period of 120 days of the signing of this agreement the TFG will act in accordance with the decision that has already been taken by the Ethiopian Government to withdraw its troops from Somalia after the deployment of a sufficient number of UN Forces;

c. The ARS shall, through a solemn public statement, cease and condemn all acts of armed violence in Somalia and dissociate itself from any armed groups or individuals that do not adhere to the terms of this Agreement.

8. To ensure the effective implementation of this Agreement, the Parties agree to:
a. Undertake all necessary measures to ensure unhindered humanitarian access and assistance to affected populations;

b. Refrain from declarations and actions inconsistent with the peaceful spirit of this Agreement;

c. Establish a Joint Security Committee to follow up the implementation of security arrangements within fifteen (15) days of the signing of this Agreement. The composition and mandate of this Committee, chaired by the UN, shall be adopted within the same period.

9. A High Level Committee, chaired by the UN, should be established within fifteen (15) days of the signing of this Agreement to follow up on issues relating to the political cooperation between the Parties and concerns over justice and reconciliation. These issues will be discussed at a conference to be organized by 30 July 2008.

10. The Parties will work with all other relevant Somali stakeholders to ensure the full and effective implementation of this agreement.

11. The Parties call on the international community to help provide the adequate resources for the implementation and follow-up of this Agreement. The Parties also consider it a priority to convene within the next six (6) months an international conference aimed at addressing Somalia’s Reconstruction and Development.

Djibouti

9 June 2008
Transitional Federal Government
Alliance for Re-Liberation of Somalia
United Nations

Observer Groups:
African Union
League of Arab States
Organization of Islamic Conference
European Union

Observer States:
France
United Kingdom
United States
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Djibouti

Ethiopian army slit throats in Somali mosque: Amnesty

2008-04-24T10:25:00.000+02:00

NAIROBI (Reuters)
By Andrew Cawthorne April 23, 2008

Amnesty International accused Ethiopian soldiers on Wednesday of killing 21 people, including an imam and several Islamic scholars, at a Mogadishu mosque and said seven of the victims had their throats slit.

The rights group said the soldiers had also captured dozens of children during the raid on the Al Hidaaya mosque in the north of the Somali capital earlier this week during operations against Islamist insurgents.

Ethiopia has thousands of soldiers in neighbouring Somalia to bolster a Western-backed government against rebels fighting an Iraq-style insurgency in the Horn of Africa nation.

The Ethiopian and Somali governments have not responded publicly to accusations of atrocities at the mosque. But they have frequently denied abusing human rights in the fight against groups they call al Qaeda-backed terrorists.

Amnesty said those killed at the mosque included imam Sheikh Saiid Yaha and several scholars of the moderate Tabligh group that operated there.

"Eye-witnesses report that those killed inside the mosque were unarmed civilians taking no active part in hostilities," Amnesty said. "Seven of the 21 were reported to have died after their throats were cut -- a form of extra-judicial execution practiced by Ethiopian forces in Somalia."

Some moderate Islamist leaders have reacted to the mosque incident, and a recent upsurge of fighting in Mogadishu, by postponing plans to join U.N.-sponsored peace talks.

More than 100 people have been killed since the weekend in clashes in the coastal capital, and the takeover of several small towns by the Islamists' militant al Shabaab wing.

Washington last month put al Shabaab on its terrorism list.

MORE CORPSES

Amnesty urged the Ethiopian military to release all 41 children it said were held after the mosque raid.

"Witnesses have told Amnesty International that Ethiopian forces would only release the children from their military base in north Mogadishu 'once they had been investigated' and 'if they were not terrorists'," it said.

Some of the children -- whose ages were as low as nine -- were reported to have been freed, though the majority were still in custody, Amnesty's statement added.

Various witnesses told Reuters they had seen beheaded bodies lying outside the mosque after the fighting.

Another four corpses showed up in Mogadishu on Thursday, at the compound of the SOS children's hospital that had also been occupied by Ethiopian troops during clashes at the weekend.

"The Ethiopian troops who occupied SOS hospital since the weekend left last night taking the hospital's food and cooking oil with them and they also damaged the properties of the hospital," SOS security officer Abey Saney Osman told Reuters.

"There are four dead bodies, one inside and three others outside the gate of the compound. We are now inside the hospital and trying to sort all the mess," he said by phone.

An SOS employee, laboratory technician Mohammed Faagte, told Reuters a colleague died and four others were wounded while trying to flee the hospital when the fighting began.

Civilians have borne the burnt of Somalia's near-incessant violence since the 1991 toppling of a dictator.

About one million of the nation's 9 million population live as refugees in their own land.

Source: Reuters

Ethiopian soldiers blamed for mosque massacre in Somalia

2008-04-23T17:21:00.000+02:00

MOGADISHU, Somalia Apr 21 (Garowe Online)

Ethiopian soldiers deployed in southern Somalia are responsible for a brutal killing at a mosque in the capital Mogadishu yesterday, witnesses and confidential sources said.

Residents in Mogadishu's Huriwa district buried dead victims from two days of intense fighting in the capital between Islamist-led insurgents and Ethiopian troops backing the country's weak secular government.

A witness named Omar told Garowe Online that he was inside al Hidaya Mosque in Huriwa district when Ethiopian soldiers stormed inside on Sunday.

"The first person they [Ethiopian soldiers] killed was Sheikh Said Yahya, the Imam [prayer leader]," Omar said, adding that the late Imam opened the mosque door after the soldiers knocked.

"I stood above 11 dead bodies, some with their throat slit and others shot to death," said the witness describing the gruesome scene. Of the 11 dead victims, nine were regular congregants at the mosque and reportedly were part of the Tabliiq wing of Sunni Islam.

A source who took part in Monday's effort to bury the dead victims privately told Garowe Online that some of the victims had their hands cut off and their backs broken.

Another source who was arrested by Ethiopian soldiers yesterday at al Hidaya Mosque and released today said the soldiers ordered him and other detainees not to return to the mosque.

"They accused us [detainees] of attacking them [Ethiopian soldiers] and said that we were trained at the [al Hidaya] mosque," said the source who did not want his name in print.

It is not clear why Ethiopian troops attacked al Hidaya Mosque, which is frequented by Tabliiq congregants who are reportedly not involved in the insurgency.

Upwards of 80 people were killed over the weekend in Mogadishu, according to the Elman Human Rights group.

Mogadishu-area hospitals said more than 120 wounded people have been admitted since Friday, according to an inquiry by Garowe Online.

Somali Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein defended the military operation in Huriwa district, telling the international media that Somali and Ethiopian troops will "defend themselves as they come under constant attack." [ Full story]

Somalia's Ethiopian-backed interim government is attempting to restore national order since its establishment in 2004. But the government has faced armed resistance since January 2007 led by remnants of an Islamist movement that once ruled Mogadishu.

Source: Garowe Online

81 Die in Clashes Between Islamists and Troops in Somalia

2008-04-23T17:17:00.000+02:00

20 Apr 20, 2008 - 9:25:44 PM

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)

Sporadic street fighting between Ethiopian troops and Islamist fighters trying to bring down Somalia’s shaky government killed 81 people in the past two days, the head of a local human rights group said Sunday.

The deaths were caused when Ethiopians fired heavy artillery and tank shells in residential areas of Mogadishu, said the rights leader, Sudan Ali Ahmed, chairman of Elman Human Rights. “We condemn this latest fighting,” he said.

Besides the 81 people who were killed, 119 were wounded, he said. His group said that all of those killed were civilians, but witnesses said that because the insurgents wear civilian clothing, it was impossible to say how many of the dead were noncombatants.

The rights group tracks casualties through hospitals and morgues and puts out regular reports on the toll from Somalia’s fighting. Its figures could not be independently verified. Ethiopian officials could not be reached for comment on the group’s claim that shelling from their forces had caused the casualties.

The clashes on Sunday broke out in rubble-strewn streets still littered with the bodies of people killed the previous day.

A witness, Aden Shire, said the Ethiopians had seemed to be searching for the bodies of fellow soldiers killed Saturday. Another witness, Omar Abdulahi, said that among the dead he counted were two old men in their homes who had been shot by Ethiopian soldiers.

A woman, Nasteho Moalim, said her 7-year-old daughter and three neighbors had been killed, and her husband wounded, by tank shells that hit their homes.

On the government’s side, at least one Somali soldier and two Ethiopians were killed, said another witness, Asha Shegow Abikar.

The prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, addressed the growing toll of civilian deaths during the latest outbreak of fighting.

“The government is sorry about the fighting and loss of innocent civilian lives,” he said at a news conference on Sunday. “Our aim is to restore law and order through reconciliation and peaceful means, but that does not mean our troops and those of our ally Ethiopia will not defend themselves as they come under constant attack.”

Ethiopian troops supporting the transitional government’s soldiers ousted Islamist fighters from power in Mogadishu, the capital, in December 2006. The Islamists receive support from Ethiopia’s archenemy, Eritrea.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on one another.

Source: AP

Mamma Africa

2008-03-19T09:40:00.000+01:00

Akon Mama Africa

So much so much love
so much
so tell me can you feel it
so much so much yeah
ya know
make that visit
so much so much love
So much
Sénégal can you feel it
so much so much yeah
so much

So much love to share
pure blackness, oneness so rare
so much love to give
let them know they're missin' out
mama Africa
has so much love to share
sweet blackness, oneness
meet me there
So much love to give
let them know they missin' out
sing again
A
This is for all the love
and the life took away
F
don't forget we were born in trade
R
ripped from the land and shipped away
I
is the inspiration we used to survive
C
have to see it with your own cries
A
Don't play
add it up and alright
still ya don't know

Land is so gold and green
The place is so fresh and clean
And everyday I water my garden
Tell me if you feel it deep in your heart and
the spaceis so cool and nice
Visit once, guaranteed to visit twice
and if you just believe in the most high
I know you'll be alright

Mama Africa
pure blackness, oneness so rare
so much love to give
and let them know they're missin' out
mama Africa
has so much love to share
sweet blackness, oneness
meet me there
So much love to give
let them know they missin' out
sing again

A
that's my favorite place when I need to get away
F
must forget but we can't forget to pray
R
Like Lance ridin' on the runway
I
In my homeland and I'm feelin' so alive
C
Hear me chant Africa unite
A
Gonna accept mass alright

Still ya don't know
Skin is so dark and brown
she lifts me right off the ground
But no ya not gonna see it on ya tv
so just listen up and believe me
her trees have the only cure
Her love is so luke and pure
had to kiss them troubles goodbye bye
no I don't have to like mama Africa, you got
pure blackness, oneness so rare
so much love to give
let them know they're missin' out
mama Africa
so much love to share
sweet blackness, oneness
be there
So much love to give
let them know they missin' out
sing again

So much so much love
so tell me can you feel it
so much so much care
make that visit
so much so much love
Sénégal can you feel it
so much so much care
Ow!
So much love to share
I just can't see how we livin' without it
So much love to give
Don't miss don't miss one moment about it
so much love to share
Resist this miss
I really doubt it
so much love so much love to share
oh yeah
pure blackness, oneness so rare
so much love to give
let them know they're missin' out
feelin' it all the time
sweet blackness, oneness
meet me there
better be there
let them know they're missin' out
sing again

ALBAABKA II XIRA!

2008-03-07T12:12:00.000+01:00

Awowgey ninkii indhaha tiray
Ninkii aabbahay addoonsaday
Ninkii anigana i iibsaday
Ninkii ifka igu adduun tirey
Lidaan li’i baa ishaa i bidee
Haddaan ogohoon ka aarsan karayn
Haddaan, Aadanow, unuunka jarayn!

Ninkaa araggiisa uurkaan ka nebcee
Aan ooyee albaabka ii xira!

Isagoo Iglan jooga buu i diloo
Ushuu soo fidshaa i iimaysoo
Waa taa aramidu i oofa tirtee
Asaag li’i baa ishaa i bidee
Ninkaa araggiisa uurkaan ka nebcee
Aan ooyee albaabka ii xira!

Arladii ka samroo adduun ma hayee
Haddii la ilaashay afkaygii
Haddaan ikhtiyaar aqoontay hadlayn
Haddaanan erey qudha shirkaa odhanayn
Ninkaa araggiisa uurkaan ka nebcee
Aan ooyee albaabka ii xira!

Wixii arrineen Ilaahay jecleyn
Haddaanan addimada ku oolin karayn
Aayaadka Quraanka wada aragtoo
Udgoonena yidhi "Indhaha ka qarshee"
Ninkaa araggiisa uurkaan ka nebcee
Aan ooyee albaabka ii xira!

Ugaadha ninkii dhaqdee ururshaa
Ruuxii eegayaa adduun ka baxshee
Raggiinnii ogaa horruu u arkee
Ninkii ooridiisa u geynahayow
Inkeeg iyo shaal ayuu ku arkine
Iimowdey axankaaga weynee!

Libaaxa Annayiyo Abaarso ka ciyey
Abuuriin lo’da joogta baa urisee
Oodday jebisaa in ay u dhacdoo
Anshaxuu markaa ka guraa idilkeed
Waa kaa Ingiriis iidahayee
Idinna u dabbaaldegoo ariyahow!
Ayaanu ninna oran "Soomaalaan ahee"
Ordoo magacana ka iibsada!

Maxamed Ismaaciil (Barkhad-Cas) - 1925 - 1962

LA VOGLIA MATTA DI CANCELLARE LA SOMALIA

2008-03-07T10:29:00.000+01:00

ll Makrizi racconta che Ahmed Gurey (il Mancino) mosse una guerra generalizzata nel Corno d’Africa, soprattutto contro l’Abissinia che si proclamava una “isola cristiana in mezzo a un mare mussulmano”.

L’imperatore abissino di allora, lebnan Deghel, chiamò in suo aiuto i paesi “europei cristiani”, per una nuova crociata. Nel 1541 il regno cristiano portoghese (uno degli stati marittimi più potenti del momento) rispose prontamente inviando la sua flotta e sbarcò a Massaua un nutrito contingente militare che soccorse il Denghel.

Tra gli sbarcati c’erano due fratelli del ben più noto navigatore Vasco da Gama (citato in “Mogadiscio”, di Pietro Petrucci, Nuova Eri, 1993). Da allora la guerra tra somali e abissini, poi diventati alla epoca di Menelik, etiopici, non cessò quasi mai.

Questo è stato uno dei primi tentativi di cancellare la Somalia.

Durante la colonizzazione, gli italiani utilizzarono armate somale (ed eritree) per invadere l’Etioipia. L’Ogaden non fu l’unica base di contesa tra somali ed etiopi. C’era di mezzo la necessità, che l’Etiopia ha sempre proclamato, di avere in qualche modo l’accesso al mare, a un mare qualunque.

L’annessione dell’Eritrea, nel 1963, avvenne palesemente per soddisfare questa esigenza. Ma dopo l’indipendenza di quest’ultimo paese (dopo 30 anni di guerriglia!) e le recenti battaglie sul confine, l’Etiopia ha perso questa opportunità. Haile Selassie, il re reimposto dagli inglesi nel 1943, dopo l’uscita dell’Italia dall’Etiopia, in un suo intervento ha dichiarato che i confini Sud dell’Etiopia arrivavano fino alle spiagge dell’Oceano Indiano.

Altro tentativo di cancellare la Somalia Quando la Somalia accede all’indipendenza (luglio 1960) non aveva un esercito addestrato nè completo nei suoi ranghi, perché l’Amministrazione Fiduciaria italiana aveva formato solo un corpo di polizia, avocando a sé e alle Nazioni Unite la difesa del Territorio somalo; il confine coloniale non è stato demarcato ufficialmente, infatti è tuttora provvisorio e gli incontri tra i rappresentanti dell’Etiopia e quelli dell’Afis, guidati dal Dr Vitale del MAE, si sono arenati con un nulla di fatto.

Perciò la Somalia ha dovuto affrontare, già nel 1963, una massiccia penetrazione dell’esercito etiopico, forse per realizzare il suo primario obiettivo. Da lì ha inizio la relazione somalo-sovietica, due paesi che prima di allora non avevano mai avuto contatti. Siamo nel pieno della guerra fredda e l’URSS, dopo il gran rifiuto dei paesi occidentali di sostenere la Somalia (pur armando l’Etiopia, adducendo accordi precedenti) ha offerto armi, addestramento in loco e in Urss, tecnici e risorse economiche non indifferenti.

Nel 1976-77, durante il regime di Siad Barre, scoppiò l’ennesima guerra fra la Somalia e l’Etiopia. Là c’era Mingistu Haile Mariam, qui M. Siad Barre. Ognuno aveva foraggiato e sostenuto gli avversari dell’altro (i signori che oggi governano l’Etiopia, Meles Zanawi e l’Eritrea, Isayas Afwerke, hanno vissuto per anni in Somalia, hanno viaggiato col passaporto diplomatico somalo e utilizzato ampiamente risorse somale).

Quando scoppiò la guerra, i somali oltrepassarono la linea Maginot etiopica (Kara Mardha) e questo portò all’intervento dei sovietici (a favore dell’Etiopia contadina e copta) e dei cubani
(a favore dell’Etiopia socialista e più affidabile:15 000 soldati in suo soccorso!).

Altro tentativo di cancellare la Somalia Quando Mingistu stava per essere scacciato dall’ultimo baluardo (Addis Abeba) intervennero le forze occidentali cristiane, si fece in quattro e quattro otto una conferenza a Londra, si offri al dittatore un sicuro rifugio (Zimbabwe) che lui forzatamente accettò. Così si salvò Addis-Abeba! Al contrario, quando l’altro dittatore somalo uscì da Mogadiscio per rifugiarsi in uno dei lembi della Somalia, dove il suo clan lo avrebbe protetto, l’Europa (Italia compresa), si offrì per dargli un asilo politico.

Per cancellare la Somalia, bisognava prima gettarla in un indicibile caos! Nel 1991 sono nati movimenti incontrollati, ognuno dei quali faceva riferimento a uno o più clan somali. Chi conosce la Somalia sa che le città, anche se intorno vi abitano specifici clan, sono tuttavia aperte a tutti gli altri clan; dove commerciano, si sposano indifferentemente tra le donne dei clan differenti, i figli diventano patrinimicamente del clan del padre ma ci sono legami fortissimi e indissolubili con la famiglia materna (che spesso è di un clan diverso!). Questi Signori della guerra hanno trasformato la Somalia in una terra di nessuno.

L’Etiopia ci ha lavorato molto coi suoi alleati, propiziando secessioni e distacchi e soprattutto mantenendo legami fortissimi con alcuni signori, a cominciare da Abdullahi Yususf e la Somalia del Nord. Distruggendo ogni vestigia statale, questi signori hanno eretto, con foga, muri e muri difficilmente valicabili tra i somali mercificando tutte le risorse del paese: dall’impalcature metalliche delle industrie, dal rame dei fili elettrici ai tubi delle acque potabili, dalle risorse marine al sistematico disboscamento e alla distruzione della ricca fauna. Questa non è stata una conquista, ma una vittoria di Pirro su Siad Barre e una distruzione fisica della Somalia e del suo tessuto sociale.

Dopo di che il resto era prevedibile: la reazione di qualche raggruppamento somalo per salvare il paese dal caos (in questo caso le corti islamiche) e per dare respiro alla popolazione; la coalizione Etiopico-USA per invadere la Somalia (con l’accusa non sostanziata di essere un covo di Al Qaeda!), in un momento di estrema debolezza della Somalia, con l’obiettivo esplicito di occupare la Somalia e di far arrivare quindi i soldati etiopici sulle sospirate spiagge dell’Oceano indiano.

Il 3 Dicembre scorso è stato organizzato un incontro (sponsorizzato anche dal Ministero Affari Esteri italiano) tra alcune persone: Massimo Alberizzi del Corriere della Sera, Nino Sergi, Mauro Raffaelli e Gian Paolo Calchi Novati, tutte persone rispettabilissime, ma nessuno di essi è somalo. Il titolo dell’incontro, molto esplicativo, era “Somalia: il Paese che non esiste”.

Vedete che non siamo paranoici, ma non è facile oggi colonizzare un paese, come fecero gli europei nel secolo scorso, soprattutto tra vicini. No. L’insurrezione in corso contro la presenza etiopica, specie nell’area della Capitale, è massiccia e arruolerà sempre più gente e più ribelli contro lo stato attuale.

Meglio fermare in tempo l’Etiopia prima che divampi un incendio globale su tutto il corno. E’ già cominciato in Kenya, domani sarà la volta dell’Etiopia. E poi chissà!

Dr. Mohamed Aden Sheikh

medico ed ex ministro somalo

Pollicino Gnus, Febbraio 2008

Conflict spells disaster for whole of East Africa

2008-02-01T14:10:00.000+01:00

Kenya's political meltdown is threatening its economic lifeline to Somalia and other neighbouring countries and disrupting the supply of desperately needed relief aid.

The economies of landlocked states such as Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, which rely on Kenya's trade links via its Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, are already being hit by the effects of the unrest. Goods are piling up in Mombasa amid fears of blockages along the main road to Nairobi.

Other arteries including the roads from the capital to the western city of Kisumu and the highway between Nakuru and Eldoret have also been blocked. Guillermo Bettocci, the Somalia representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, expressed concern about the cancellation of flights at Nairobi airport, which is used to fly out supplies to Somalia.

He described the situation in Somalia, where fierce fighting has resumed between Islamic fighters and Ethiopian forces sent to prop up a transitional government, as "the world's worst humanitarian disaster" which he said had now overtaken Darfur in terms of a humanitarian emergency. A total of one million people have been displaced inside Somalia by the conflict, including 250,000 in Mogadishu alone.

"The whole environment is going to be much more difficult," Mr Bettocci added, mentioning fuel prices which have jumped in Kenya as a result of the unrest.

Uganda is already reporting fuel shortages, with the main road to the country passing through the Kenyan towns which read like a roll call of death: Naivasha, Nakuru and Kisumu. To make matters worse, vandals last week tore up about a mile of track along the main Kenya to Uganda railway line in the Nairobi slum of Kibera – apparently a deliberate attack to protest against the fact that President Yoweri Museveni was the first president to congratulate President Mwai Kibaki on his re-election.

Ugandan manufacturers have complained that they have lost $34m (£17m) through the disruption of Uganda's external trade.

Anne Penketh
Source: Belfast Telegraph

Ethiopian generals complain about Somalia's new PM

2008-01-30T10:39:00.000+01:00

MOGADISHU, Somalia Jan 29

Ethiopia’s top military commanders occupying Somalia have dispatched a letter to the country’s interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, expressing their dissatisfaction with the policies of new Prime Minister Nur “Adde” Hassan Hussein, confidential sources tell Garowe Online.

The exact contents of the letter have not been independently verified yet, but government sources in Mogadishu and Baidoa privately confirmed the existence of the letter.

The Ethiopian generals expressed their displeasure with the way Prime Minister Nur Adde is running his new government, said reliable sources with first-hand knowledge of the letter.

The letter was also sent to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, President Yusuf’s main backer.The generals’ central argument in the letter is that the Prime Minister makes decisions without consulting Ethiopian army commanders based in the capital Mogadishu, the sources said.

Prime Minister Nur Adde is “not as expected” and that the army commanders "cannot work with him," the Ethiopian commanders complained.

Sources close to the Prime Minister confirmed to Garowe Online that he is aware of the letter, but declined further comment concerning its exact contents.

Since his arrival in Mogadishu last week, Prime Minister Nur Adde has refused to meet with top Ethiopian commander Gen. Gabre, according to a Cabinet source who did not wish to be named in print.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Zenawi is largely believed to have personally hand-picked former Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who resigned last October under Ethiopian pressure following a serious rift with President Yusuf.

This is a very clear indication of the Ethiopian invasion policy and that the prime minister is trying to work independently from Ethiopian soldiers happiness/agreement with his plans.

This is exactly what should be expected from a prime minister after all he is elected/picked/selected, whatever you want to call it, in order to work on what he believes is right and not get dictated by outsiders. And of course, as usual when one does this, he is labelled as a bad boy by the invaders.

The question is, for how long will he last as Prime Minister?

Hussein Aden
Source: Garowe Online

African Union Unveils Road Map for Peace in Somalia

2008-01-24T16:31:00.000+01:00

The African Union's top security official has presented Somalia's leaders a four-point plan for creating stability in the war-ravaged country. From the Somali capital, Mogadishu, VOA's Peter Heinlein reports the plan's ultimate goal is to entice the United Nations to take over peacekeeping duties from beleaguered Ethiopian and African Union troops.

During a four-hour visit to Mogadishu Wednesday, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said Somalia is becoming Africa's biggest security challenge. He described his stopover as a symbolic show of support for Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, just days after the prime minister moved his government back to the embattled capital from the more secure city of Baidoa.

But as if to underscore the continuing tensions, suspected Islamic insurgents fired four mortar rounds within a few hundred meters of Mogadishu's airport runway while Djinnit's plane was on the ground. Several other rounds landed just outside the prime minister's residence shortly after Djinnit left.

The commissioner's visit also came days before an African Union summit, at which the issue of Somalia's security will be high on the agenda.

Djinnit said he outlined to Mr. Hussain a proposal to initiate a road map that would be developed by Somali leaders in partnership with the international community.

Its four components would include strengthening the fractured nation's political process through reconciliation, greater international involvement in peacekeeping operations, creating a safe environment for humanitarian aid deliveries, and building the capacity of federal government institutions to face the immense challenges ahead.

The commissioner expressed frustration at what he called the lack of international support for efforts to bring a stable peace to Somalia. He told reporters his eventual goal, and biggest concern, is persuading the U.N. Security Council to re-establish the peacekeeping mission it abandoned in the face of uncontrolled violence 13 years ago.

"It is the issue at the heart of our concerns," said Said Djinnit. "We believe Somalia has been abandoned for so long , and the Security Council remains the principal body in charge of the maintenance of international peace and security, and Somalia is becoming the biggest challenge for security in Africa. And therefore the Security Council cannot but assume its responsibility vis a vis Somalia."

Djinnit chided the Security Council for its recent statement saying it was "reiterating its commitment to considering the possibility of deploying" a Somalia peacekeeping operation.

"If you look to ideal situation where peace is prevailing before deploying a peacekeeping operation, you might not get that ideal situation," he said. "So we are therefore calling for flexibility on the part of the United Nations in considering the situation in Somalia and in deciding as early as possible on the deployment of the peacekeeping operation to come and take over from the African Union."

The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, has an authorized strength of 8,000. But nearly a year after it was formed, less than one-quarter of the troops are in place. Officials say that is far too few to stop the raging violence in and around Mogadishu.
A larger contingent of Ethiopian army troops is backing Somali's military in its campaign against Islamic insurgents. The presence of Ethiopian soldiers, however, has become a rallying point for insurgents, fueling more violence.

Ethiopia's prime Minister Meles Zenawi has repeatedly said he wants those troops replaced by a strong international force. But with Somalia among the world's most violent and gun-infested countries, and the United Nations balking at sending a peacekeeping mission, Prime Minister Hussein told reporters it is premature to set a date when Ethiopean troops could withdraw.

"To set a time maybe today it's not so easy, but you can see the efforts of the African Union, you can see the efforts of AMISOM [African Mission in Somalia] from time to time increasing their troops, and this will definitely set a way for us to discuss when and how the Ethiopian troops will be reduced," said Hussein. "So what we will try to do is have a very well-elaborated exit strategy."

Somalia's parliament chose Prime Minister Hussein last November to replace his predecessor Ali Mohamed Gedi, who was forced out in a dispute with President Abdullahi Yusuf. A career public servant and former head of Somalia's Red Crescent Society, Hussein is widely seen as a neutral figure who might be able to bring unity to a country that has been considered virtually ungovernable since 1991, when former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.

Peter Heinlein
Source: VOA

Somali map

2008-01-24T14:36:00.000+01:00

Ethiopia’s Dirty War

2008-01-24T09:37:00.000+01:00

Ethiopia's Somali population caught in the crossfire between the government and rebels.

It was early one morning in July when 400 Ethiopian soldiers came to Ridwan Hassan Zahid's village of Qorile, 120 miles southeast of Degehebur, , a dusty market town. The small settlement of ethnic Somalis in eastern Ethiopia was suspected of supporting separatist rebels from the (ONLF), and the government troops were out to exact revenge. They took , another woman, and eight men to the nearby village of Babase, where, she says, the soldiers chased away residents and burned the village to the ground. "I became like plastic," she says. "I couldn't feel a thing."

On the third day after her capture, the soldiers divided the prisoners into groups. As the other captives looked on, soldiers hung one man from one of the parched region's few trees; another was taken out of sight. Soon it was Zahid's turn. A small group of soldiers dug a hole in the sandy ground. They forced her into it and pinned her down by pressing the barrel of an AK-47 to her throat. As she tried to choke out the words to a final Muslim prayer, she heard two other captives screaming for mercy nearby as a noose was slipped over her head. Two soldiers jerked up on the rope, lifting her out of the hole by her neck, and she lost consciousness.

In Ethiopia's Somali region, a long-simmering rebellion by the ONLF, a separatist group seeking an independent state for Ethiopia's Somalis, is boiling over. Rebels, taking advantage of chaos in neighboring , attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration site in April, killing 74 people and triggering a massive crackdown by Ethiopia's ethnic-Tigray-dominated government. Government forces have since burned villages, blocked trade routes and carried out summary executions in an effort to quell the rebellion.

Nine months later Ethiopia's government appears to have gained the upper hand, but only by essentially declaring war on virtually the entire Ogadeni clan of Somalis—a group that makes up the about half of the region's 4.5 million people.

Hundreds of civilians have died in the fighting (the ONLF estimates 2,000 killed by the government in the past year, though one independent estimate suggests the figure is less than half that), and 1.8 million more may be at risk, as an Ethiopian blockade has cut off commercial food shipments from neighboring Somalia and prevented the region's nomadic people from selling their livestock. Ogadeni clan elders who have tracked the fighting say people from more than 250 villages have been forced to flee the violence.

Amid a sea of crises in neighboring Sudan, Somalia, and Kenya, the plight of Ethiopia's vast Somali region—an area twice the size of England with just 30 miles of paved highway—has been largely ignored in the West. After barring the foreign press from the region for months, the Ethiopian government recently took NEWSWEEK and a group of other foreign reporters on a tightly controlled tour of parts of the region. Amid scenes of malnourished children and whispered stories of government atrocities, the defining impression was of a population gripped by fear.

One 30-year-old man selling clothes in the marketplace in Degehebur says he came to the dusty town five months ago after Ethiopian troops burned his village of Leby, 18 miles southwest of the town. Fifty civilians were killed, he says. "At the time I had a shop, a good house," he says, refusing to give his name out of fear of government reprisal. "We are in trouble. We are caught between the Ethiopian government and the ONLF … between two guns."

Ridwam Hassan Zahid

Newsweek

Nation-State System could be losing relevance

2008-01-21T15:30:00.000+01:00

Since the signing of the 1648 Westphalia treaty, the nation-state system has stood the test of time as a replacement for the ancient-medieval empire system. But in recent years, state collapse in different parts of the world has served to illustrate the fact that the nation-state system is losing relevance.

This is compounded by the emergency of non state actors in influencing community, continental and international issues.

I will dwell on the phenomenon of state collapse in different parts of the world. This is something that has been witnessed mostly in developing countries especially on the African continent.

Soon after independence many African states experienced military takeovers. This was witnessed in Ghana, when the Pan Africanist Kwame Nkhruma was overthrown by the military from power. Patrice Lumumba was also deposed, and so was a host of other African independence leaders who had nationalist credentials.

This ushered in a period when most African nation states experienced widespread state collapse. Civil wars raged in many parts of the continent with revolutionaries seeking to remove corrupt and totalitarian dictators who were seen as puppets of super powers.

The collapse of the post independence nation states in most of Africa took the face of ethnic conflicts. At the same time other interests developed where civil wars presented an opportunity for rogue elements to control territories rich in minerals and thus gained the opportunity for primitive accumulation.

This was witnessed in Sierra Leone where warlord Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), was heavily supported by mining conglomerates in exchange for mineral concessions especially in diamonds.

Thus the role of multinationals in intra-state conflicts like the Sierra Leone and Angola civil wars in part, illustrates the extent to which non state actors have in the recent past come to influence national and international issues in direct competition with state actors.

However, sometimes they have supported state actors but nevertheless, their increasing influence can be taken as an indication of the fact that state actors, no longer have exclusive power to influence the course of world events and hence history as was the case in the aftermath of the Westphalia treaty.

The Iraq civil war has also to a large extent portrayed the state system as being in retreat. The fact that in the aftermath of the collapse of Saddam Hussein and his socialist Baath Party, the American forces had to resort to private security contractors to pacify the country is telling.
This shows that even the strongest nation-state on earth is not able on its own to pacify an occupied country. To have some semblance of control over Iraq, the United States has had to work hand in hand with non state contractors like Halliburton.

More still the emergency of terrorist or Jihadist organisations like al-Qaeda, that work independently to influence the course of world history is yet a manifestation of a new world order. Individuals like Osama bin Laden have carried out operations which in the past could only be carried out by strong state security agencies.

The fact that such individuals and organisations, that may not even be interested in taking state power have had an imprint on international events, shows the extent to which the notion of the strong nation-state system has come under challenge and threat. This is also because some Jihadist organisations like Hezbollah in the Middle East have in the past offered social services like education and health care without necessarily having control over the state.

The era of globalisation has in a sense shown that Chief Executive Officers of strong companies like Microsoft have greater influence than most Heads of states. This is so because of the resources they have accumulated over time.

The same resources are used to control the destiny of millions of people around the world. This is something a number of states are unable to do.

The moral of all this is that the need to control the state through political power by highly ambitious and gifted individuals is no longer a life and death matter. There are other avenues as demonstrated by the likes of Bill Gates through which one can make a lasting impact on the history of mankind.

Frank Kagabo

Kigali

Liberia: Virtual Eyes On Taylor Trial

2008-01-21T14:55:00.000+01:00

After a delay of six months, the Charles Taylor case resumed at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on Jan. 7. The former president of Liberia is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes during the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991-2001), including murder, rape, enslavement, acts of terrorism and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Taylor has pleaded 'not guilty' on all counts.

The prosecution, lead by chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp, wishes to prove the involvement of Charles Ghankay Taylor (59) in alleged crimes of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), two warring factions who fought for control over the country and access to diamond fields.

It is the first time that an African president is being tried before an International court."It is an important case in many respects," prosecutor Rapp told IPS. Taylor's arrest and transfer to the court "sent a powerful message across the world that there is no escaping justice," he said.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) was established in 2002 by the Sierra Leonean Government and the United Nations. It is a 'hybrid court', consisting of national and international officials, which "tries those who bear greatest responsibility for violating international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law in the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996." Thirteen persons have so far been indicted, ten are facing trial.

The SCSL resides in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, but has relocated this case to the facilities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for security reasons.When Taylor was indicted in 2003, he was offered exile in Nigeria. In 1996, newly elected president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf requested Nigeria to hand him over. Taylor immediately disappeared, but was apprehended on the Nigerian-Cameroon border on March 29, 2006. He was taken into UN Custody in Sierra Leone, and eventually transported to the Netherlands. The trial began Jun. 4, 2007.

The proceedings were delayed in June because Taylor had boycotted the case and had sent away his lawyers. Taylor's new attorney, Courtenay Griffiths, asked for more time to prepare his defence.

In the past weeks, prosecution has presented expert witnesses, such as a Canadian Ian Smillie, who is knowledgeable on so-called 'blood diamonds'. These resources, smuggled through Liberia, allegedly provided Taylor money to arm the rebels.
A Sierra Leonean pastor was called in as crime-based witness, and described in detail a horrendous massacre. A former security guard of Taylor and a former fighter of AFRC were called in as 'linkage witnesses', to testify to alleged links between Taylor and crimes committed in Sierra Leone.

"[This trial] chips away at impunity that has all too often prevailed in human rights abuses, especially in West Africa," Elise Keppler, senior counsel of the International Justice Programme of Human Rights Watch (HRW) told IPS. HRW had previously lobbied for Taylor's surrender to face trial.

HRW and other organisations are also looking at fair trial rights. "It is critically important that Taylor receive a fair trial and be given a full range of protections, accorded under international fair trial standards, including the right to be presumed innocent," Keppler said.
"The defence is not contesting that crimes were committed in Sierra Leone, it is really the question of the linkage that will be the ultimate issue in the case," Keppler said.

Dr. Tim Kelsall, senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle, whose main research focuses on the culture of accountability in Africa, said he believed that putting an end to impunity can act as a deterrent to further destabilisation, but that it was also only a small part of the solution for West Africa.

"As long as the social-economic structure of these countries remains the same, there are going to be people who have the motivation and the incentives to risk going to war," Kelsall told IPS

The proceedings can be followed via online streaming, with a half-hour delay. Furthermore, a regularly updated blog has been set up with detailed summaries and transcripts of the trial. International justice experts supplement these with weekly reports, analyses and essays.

"We want to reach out to people in West Africa," Jennifer Maki, one of the attorneys at the international law firm Clifford Chance told IPS. CharlesTaylorTrial.org is a joint project of the firm, the Open Society Justice Initiative of the New York based Open Society Institute, and the International Senior Lawyers Project, also based in New York.

Mohamed Suma, programme director of the Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme, has advocated the trial be held in Sierra Leone. Although Suma said he approved of the proceedings so far, access is central to the case, he said.

Irene De Vette

The Hague

The Ravaging of Africa, Part Two

2008-01-18T16:46:00.000+01:00

Economic War

Through institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, structural adjustment polices have been imposed upon African nations forcing them to end free education, to curtail health services, and sell the national wealth to privatizers at bargain basement rates, resulting in pandemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

The destruction of health and educational infrastructure caused by these "reforms" has led to 21 million deaths from preventable disease and malnutrition since the mid 1980s. More than 200 million Africans have absolutely no access to health care services. Forty percent of Africa's children are out of school and more than 140 million young Africans are illiterate, all thanks to "structural adjustment".

Asad Ismi

Source: Black Agenda Report

The Ravaging of Africa: Part One

2008-01-18T16:16:00.000+01:00

Militarizing Africa

The ravaging of Africa has been enriching Europe and North America for more than 500 years. First European empires imposed slavery and colonialism on the continent. After 1945 the United States took over as the dominant neocolonial power. Through the Pentagon and the CIA the US has fueled 14 wars in Africa.

The US has used the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to systematically demolish African economies, and their health and education sectors. This military and economic war enables the looting of Africa's resources by western multinational corporations. Washington's genocidal imperial strategy has killed more than 26 million Africans, but has failed to suppress popular resistance...

Nearly 80% of the strategic minerals the US requires are found in Africa, including 90% of th4e world's cobalt, 90% of the platinum, 40% of the gold, 98% of the chrominum, 64% of the manganese, and one third of the uranium. These minerals are needed to make jet engines, cars, missiles, electronic components, to manuafcture iron and steel. No industrial society can exist without these substances. Africa also accounts for 18% of oil imports, a number which is expected to rise.

Africa is the most war-torn region in the world, with armed conflicts going on in nine countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia with Somalia, civil war within Ethiopia, Uganda, Chad, Nigeria, Morrocco with Western Sahara, and Algeria. The U.S. has provided arms and military training to participants in all nine of these wars. Washington has done the same in another six wars which ended between 2002 and 2006. These are the long civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Burundi, as well as that in Congo-Brazzaville.

According to William Hartung, author of the report Deadly Legacy, U.S. Arms and the Congo War the U.S. sent $1.5 billion in arms and training to Africa during the Cold War years, 1950 to 1989. This 'set the stage for the current round of conflicts in the region'...

The Clinton Administration undertook a new wave of military assistance and training programs. In the 1990s the US gave military assistance to 50 countries in Africa out of a total of 53. The US has 4 different military training programs for Africa. Since 2001 the Bush administration has doubled US military aid to Africa, and quadrupled US arms transfers...

The most destructive case of US military intervention in Africa is the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the heart of the continent. This war has killed more than four million people since 1998 and destroyed the second largest country in Africa. The Congo is the richest country in the continent, holding the world's biggest copper, cobalt and cadmium deposits. The US's proxies for this genocide are Rwanda and Uganda, which started the war in 1998 by invading the Congo with Washington's encouragement and support, and have since been looting hte country's resources and sending them to the West.

Asad Ismi

Source: Black Agenda Report

The 'War on Terror' and the Humanitarian Crisis in Somalia

2008-01-17T14:45:00.000+01:00

By Sadia Ali Aden.

Approximately three months ago, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, pressured out Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi. Surprisingly, this political rearrangement of deckchairs generated many noisy headlines.

Meanwhile, the real story—the great unfolding humanitarian disaster—continued unnoticed.

For the Somali people, the Ethiopian invasion of December 2006 could not have started at a worse time. Defeating the Union of Islamic Courts and propping up the Transitional Federal Government was Ethiopia's immediate rationale for invading Somalia. The larger goal was to forge a partnership between Washington and Addis Ababa in order to execute the "war on terror."

A year later, this mission has not been accomplished. Instead, the war on terror has become the terror of war being visited on the Somali people.

Admittedly, a handful of Somalis have benefited from the invasion, specifically the dozens of warlords previously driven out of Mogadishu by the Union of Islamic Courts. These warlords, the instigators of Somalia's current civil conflict, were reinstalled in their fiefdoms riding on the backs of Ethiopia's invading tanks. As a result, the reviled checkpoints and roadblocks used to bully cash out of unarmed civilians were reintroduced in southern Somalia, particularly Mogadishu.

To keep the invasion and Africa's worst humanitarian catastrophe going, heavy and modern weapons, including airplanes were used. One was a United States Air Force AC-130 gunship that attacked and killed Somali villagers and countless livestock in the hunt for three foreign men suspected for the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Africa, who yet remain at large.

Among those caught in the chaos were visiting Somalis from the diaspora. In the period between June and December 2006, Somali technocrats returned to their native country to partake in the rebuilding in the six-month period of peace and stability that was established under the rule of the Union of Islamic Courts. The diaspora arrived with the intention to give back to the land and the people they left behind and contribute to rebuilding their lives.

Unfortunately, extraordinary rendition programs were the gratitude they received; in that, the Transitional Federal Government, Kenya, Ethiopia, and the United States can all be implicated. Young men as young as 12 years of age were taken out of their homes in the dead of the night, blindfolded, and carried off to unknown destinations.

Fleeing refugees of mostly women and children met a similar fate. Unfortunately, these refugees had nowhere to escape to, as Kenya decided to close its borders and deny them entry. This paved the way to the current nightmare scenario: 1 million internally displaced persons, mostly children and women, without any provision or protection from the United Nations or other humanitarian agencies or nongovernmental organizations.

In order to create a safe haven for the displaced refugees, the international community must demand that neighboring countries open their borders. It is all too often that the casualties of war are those that go unmentioned. The innocent men, women, and children, caught in the middle, left with no way out.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said border security measures should not impair the ability of deserving Somali civilians to enter Kenya to seek safety and protection as refugees. The neighboring nations have a humanitarian responsibility to safeguard these refugees.

On Oct. 30, 40 international N.G.O.'s released a joint statement ominously warning against a gathering cloud of humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia and urging the international community to respond to this man-made calamity as the Ethiopian forces and militias loyal to the Transitional Federal Government callously prevent the delivery of assistance, and bluntly stating that "there is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in south central Somalia."

Meanwhile, Ethiopian forces continue their shelling of Mogadishu neighborhoods, having killed, according to the Elman Human Rights group, 7,000 civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly, between January and November of 2007.

"In 'Shell-Shocked,' Human Rights Watch's August 2007 report of our investigation of the March-April hostilities, we documented many of the most serious patterns of abuse by Ethiopian troops, such as indiscriminate attacks on civilians, summary executions, and repeated targeting of hospitals," wrote Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, in an open letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

However, the international media by and large remain morally selective in what they show to the world.

Somali caricaturist Amin Amir (www.aminarts.com) depicts this moral selectivity in his Dec. 12 cartoon. The powerful imagery shows a representative of the international media zooming his camera in on a severely malnourished child standing in the middle of a killing field where many bodies are on the ground and Ethiopian fighter jets are flying overhead and dropping missiles. The child retorts: "I don't need your coverage; it is these atrocities"—pointing to the dead—"that you need to be telling the world."

The current Somali nightmare was exacerbated by the systematic assassination of Somali independent media groups who are not pro Transitional Federal Government and the Ethiopian occupation. And the silence of the international community on this matter is deeply disturbing and sadly deafening.

This year alone, eight Somali journalists were killed—their crimes being to have simply dared to report on the reality on the ground in Mogadishu. The Transitional Federal Government and Ethiopian forces are terrorizing Somali reporters creating an uncomfortable environment of terror and coercion.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund, one-quarter of the refugees around Afgooye are younger than the age of 5. Sick children and pregnant women often are turned away at checkpoints, and trucks carrying food and other humanitarian aid are routinely charged $500 each to pass through.

"Things are now getting absolutely worse," said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the UNICEF representative for Somalia. "There is a dirtiness to this war. Children are a real target."

Mr Meles! Why do you think others are foolish to clear up the mess you created?

2007-12-21T10:14:00.000+01:00

Mr Meles! Why do you think others are foolish to clear up the mess you created?

Others like Nigeria and South Africa care about their solders. Your soldiers’ lives are taken for granted in your case. They may die and nothing happens to you, since there is no system of accountability.
The justification you put forward to invade Somalia was only political.

Even now Mr. PM, you are playing a safe sort of politicking by attacking UN and we all know that UN is like a diplomatic sand bag that you kick around to release some of your political frustrations.

You also deny indiscriminate shooting. You always try to manipulate others by coming up seemingly logical assertions. If only one takes you, starting from what you premise, you sound right. You said you wanted united Somalia and for that you don't kill civilians indiscriminately. Yes we agree with that. But the question remains, do you really like to see a united Somali?

What makes you think you are in a better position than the ICU to create a nation out of hundreds of warlord-ridden territorial pieces? You are lying about your motivation for the invasion and what you created in Somalia right now is more or less what you wanted to achieve - CHAOS!

The whole world and especially Americans know that Somalis are fearless people. I bet you know that as well since you lived amidst them. But right now your cosy bubble in Addis must have gone to your head and you felt too invincible. But it is not true. You are dame vulnerable as anyone else. If your exaggerations of threat from the Islamic group were true, I would have supported your timely move in preventing conflict spreading from Somalia to Ethiopia. But that was a big lie made in the interest of a third party, as we all know. You see, thinking twice is very important - underestimating your enemy is one of the grave mistake dictators like yourself make time and time again.

As to me, it is an injustice to deprive ordinary Somalis peace and chance to have decent life. Now you have marginalized the population and played them in to the hands of insurgents. To be fair, there were some members who had good intention for Somalia by creating unity through Islamic religion, which seems the only common factor Somalis had to be a nation in certain civil war. By itself, being Islamic nation should not be perceived as terrorism. I agree Al-Qaida should not be allowed to have roots in east Africa and I guess there would have been other strategies than equating Islamic government to terrorism.

As it was already shown, even the Somalis were opposing the extreme Islamic stance of the ICU like ban on chat and cinemas. That would have been a natural and domestic check and balance to extremism.
The West could have also used moderate elements to discredit the extremists and create a united Somalia.

Now everything is falling apart. Is Ethiopia safe now than before? Not in my view. So what will be the benefit out of Ethiopian troops scarifies in life? I can not see Mr PM.

You are also incurring stupid expenses for getting involved in this uncalled for war while your nation’s economy is sluggish and one of the lowest in Africa. Oh yes!!! I heard all those easy lies!

Rosy stories do not take the day to day hardship we ordinary people face and you may not see it in your palace. You are doing injustice to Ethiopians and Somalis alike!

When it comes to Ethiopia, You have mountain loads of work to do! But again, do you really care?

Hussein.

Ethiopia PM attacks UN on Somalia

2007-12-20T18:18:00.000+01:00

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has accused the UN of playing a damaging role in the Somali crisis.

"The situation there - as hard as it is - it could do with less hype and exaggeration," he told the BBC.

The UN says fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces in the capital, Mogadishu, has created Africa's worst humanitarian crisis.

The UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia Eric Laroche has dismissed Mr Meles' criticism.
He told the BBC it was hardly surprising that there was a disagreement, since the Ethiopian government was a party to the conflict, while the UN was neutral.

The UN has estimated that 60% of Mogadishu residents have fled their homes.
Ethiopian troops intervened in Somalia a year ago, when they helped government forces oust Islamists from much of southern Somalia.

On Wednesday the UN children's fund called for the creation of safe zones for about 1.5m children, whose lives it says have been affected by conflict.
But Mr Meles said the UN's stance was counter-productive and he called on the organisation to play a more "positive role" in the country.

"At the moment some UN agencies appear to be doing damage in respect of parroting totally unfounded reports by some agencies without in any way trying to verify the facts," Mr Meles said.

Somalia has been politically fragmented since 1991 and the country's transitional government, faced with an insurgency, is dependent on international aid and Ethiopian military support.

'Regrettable'

The BBC's East Africa correspondent Karen Allen says Ethiopia's economy is buoyant and the country is still basking in the glory of celebrating its millennium this year.

But the country is still largely in the spotlight because of its involvement in Somalia and its efforts to drive the Union of Islamic Courts from power, she says.

Speaking nearly a year after the invasion, Mr Meles denied that Ethiopia had underestimated the strength of the Islamists.

"Our initial plans were designed to curtail the influence of the jihadists there and to try to prevent them from taking the whole of Somalia under their control. We did that in a number of weeks," he said in an interview with the BBC.

He also denied accusations that his troops were involved in the indiscriminate shooting of civilians.

"There has not been any indiscriminate firing on our side because it would be completely suicidal for us to engage in such an activity.

"Our intention is to give space to recreate the Somali state - you do not create the Somali state by firing indiscriminately into civilian areas and civilian targets.

"Nevertheless it is quite true that when you fight in built-up areas there are bound to be civilian causalities and these are extremely regrettable."

Last week, Ethiopia denied claims that it had shelled the main market in the capital, Mogadishu, leading to at least 17 deaths.

'No resources'

Mr Meles admitted Ethiopia's withdrawal from Somalia was taking "a lot longer" than planned because of delays in the deployment of African Union peacekeepers.
So far just 1,600 Ugandan peacekeepers have arrived, out of a planned force of 8,000.

"I understand why the African Union does not have the resources to fulfil its promise.
"But I hope that those who have the resources will support the African Union so they can deploy the peacekeeping troops," he said.

Even with half the expected number, the force would "go a long way in making the appropriate environment for us to withdraw", Mr Meles added.

Hussein Aden

Source: BBC

Horn African Diaspora unites for peace and stability of the region.

2007-12-15T14:47:00.000+01:00

A conference for peace and stability in the horn of Africa was held in London on Sunday December 9th 2007, bringing communities from Ogden, Somalia, Eritrea and Oromo together.

The conference, first of its kind, was jointly organised by the Oromo Youth Organisation, Ogaden Youth Organisation, Eritrean Youth Organisation and Somalia Youth Congress to address problems in the horn Africa region including killing of civilians, destruction of livelihoods, war crimes, rape and sexual assaults, arrests and detentions, occupation, forced expulsion and violation of international rulings that are being committed by the Ethiopian regime.

Followed by the official opening of the conference, representatives of Oromo Youth Organisation, Eritrean Youth Organisation, Ogaden Youth Organisation and Somalia Youth Congress gave presentations on the state of affairs of their countries and people in historical context respectively.

The Oromo representative, stating the present time as “historic moment”, expressed their delight to have the opportunity to “voice our voice for those voiceless majority Oromos in Ethiopia.”

The presentation focused on gross violation of human right in Ethiopia including the extrajudicial killing, disappearances of hundreds of thousands Oromos, mass detention and economic crimes directed at all Ethiopian ethic groups denying them to engage in any significant economic activities.

It described the plight of Oromo farmers who are “facing unprecedented scale of eviction from their farming land which time in memorial belongs to their ancestors.”

Representatives also highlighted the role of the powerful nations that have got the Ethiopian regime as their ally to their war on terror “are in reality supporting a terrorist government.” The presentation further added “whether it is a matter of coincidence or intentionally, the US government is supporting the most brutal, undemocratic, corrupt and uncivilized political power in Ethiopia”

Describing the Ethiopian regime as the “the most notorious threat to East Africa,” the presentation stated “the TPLF went into war with Eritrea in 1998 to 2000, which ended up with the loss of 70,000 lives and displacement of 700,000 people. In the involvement of Ethiopian government into internal affair of Somalia, the direct targets of the TPLF are Oromos who took refugee in Somalia.”

This was followed by Eritrean presentation, which focused on the current problem, the refusal of the Ethiopian regime to abide by the international final and binding ruling and historical context of the role of the US in the region and particular its policy on Eritrea and Ethiopia which has been the same for over half a century.

The presentation also highlighted the human suffering including the mass deportation of Eritreans from Ethiopia and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

The Ogaden presentation was also presented in historical context and the main focus of topics were the plight of the Ogaden Somali people, natural resources, the root causes of the Ogaden trouble and human right violation.

The presentation was backed by very distressing images and videos of specific cases of killing of civilians, rape and sexual assaults, arrests and detentions and torture. The evidences were very distressing and caused the presenter and most of the attendants of the conference to burst into tears and weeping.

The presentation also highlighted the role of the western nations in supporting and assisting the Ethiopian regime through billions of dollars, which is directly allowing Meles Zenawi “butcher more Ethiopians, Ogaden Somalis, also allow him to invade neighbour countries Eritrea and Somalia.” The presentation ended appealing to the international community to intervene in the plight of Ogaden Somalis.

Finally, the representative of the Somalia Youth Congress presented equally distressing picture of the Situation in Somalia. The presentation highlighted the death of over 6000 civilians, 7000 wounded people and displacement of 1.5 million Somalis, which was caused by the Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia.

The presentation also looked at the role of the US, “the Bush administration instead of supporting the IUC for getting rid of the war lords immediately branded the IUC hardliners and made those who have been killing and robbing the Somalis people his allies as well as supporting the Ethiopian occupation.”

Pointing out the agenda of the Ethiopian regime, which is to stop Somalia from uniting and reconstitute their country, the presentation stated “the majority of Somalis do not support the Somalis transition government; it is not an independent government but one that is controlled and guided by the regime in Addis.” The presentation similarly ended with a call on the international community to listen to the screaming of the Somalis people for help.

After giving the attendant of the conference the opportunity for discussion, the six-hour long event was concluded with agreement to stage a peaceful demonstration in January 2008 and invited all the people of the horn of Africa and friends of the region to join them in their appeal to the international community for peace.

Hussein Aden

Suorce: Free Somalia

Information and the Human Rights Groups

2007-12-12T13:16:00.000+01:00

The U.S. secret war in the Horn of Africa

2007-11-28T16:44:00.000+01:00

Little is reported concerning the role the U.S. played in Somalia, as it continues to engage in semi-secret operations, using Ethiopian troops as surrogates.

By Philippe Leymarie

[Translated by George Miller]

Guerrilla warfare has continued in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, since the fall in January of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controlled much of the centre and south of the country.The huge Bakara market in Mogadishu, known for its stalls selling arms and munitions, went up in flames in October after rebels attacked the defence ministry. Radio Shabelle, one of the few independent stations, was forced off air by the army, and its director, Bashir Nur Gedi, was assassinated on 19 October.

Sheikh Muktar Robo Abu Mansur, the head of the underground Shabab (youth) movement, the radical wing of the Somali nationalists, has claimed that they "fought fiercely with the Ethiopian invaders and their Somali lackeys."

According to the UN’s special envoy, the Mauritanian Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the humanitarian situation in Somalia is the worst in Africa. Many emigrants continue to flee towards Yemen across the Gulf of Aden. Some ten thousand made the crossing between this January and August, but 500 others are dead or missing.

In September there were reports of boats adrift, filled with dead refugees; other refugees had been sprayed with acid by their “guides” and their bodies tossed into the sea. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, others came under fire near the Yemeni coast.

Ethiopian forces entered Somalia in December 2006 to remove the UIC, which had held power for six months. And yet the Ethiopian foreign minister, Seyoum Mesfin, and Ali Mohamed Gedi, who has now announced his resignation as prime minister of Somalia’s transitional federal government (TFG, long based in Nairobi and then in Baidoa in Somalia), raised the Ethiopian flag over the new Ethiopian embassy in Mogadishu.

The ceremony gave Gedi an opportunity to say: “Our country’s peace and stability has been endangered by a handful of extremists who claim to be religious, which runs counter to the principles of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance."

The same day, the head of the Ethiopian mission in Somalia claimed that his troops were “an army of liberation, not an army of occupation." A few days earlier the Italian foreign minister, Patrizia Sentinelli, had come to a different conclusion after a meeting with the Somali president, Yusuf Abdullahi, who owes his position to Ethiopia’s tanks.

The presence of Ethiopian troops was, Sentinelli said, unacceptable to the Somali people and they should leave as soon as African Union peace-keepers were fully deployed: 1,200 Ugandan soldiers have been on the ground since March, out of a projected force of 9,000.

Anti-Ethiopian feeling

Anti-Ethiopian feeling is strong in Mogadishu. Ethiopia and Somalia are ancient enemies: they went to war in 1964 and 1977-8, over a border dispute and the sovereignty of the Ogaden region, where the population is mainly Somali but which is governed by Ethiopia. To gain control of the capital this April after an offensive by the UIC militia, a movement “created by businessmen seeking a semblance of normality in a city controlled by warlords," Ethiopian artillery shelled districts believed to be most hostile, killing 1,700 people and provoking the exodus of hundreds of thousands.

Ethiopia’s recent intervention in Somalia was meant to dislodge the UIC, which refused to recognise the legitimacy of the transitional government established with support from the international community. In invading Somalia, Ethiopia benefited from considerable support from the United States, which has conducted war by proxy in Somalia.

To the U.S., Somalia has long been synonymous with failure: under President Siad Barre (1969-91) Somalia initially allied itself with the Soviet Union and allowed its fleet to use the port of Berbera. Somalia later switched its allegiance to the U.S., but that didn’t stop the regime collapsing under pressure from a dozen regional independence movements. Thereafter Somalia slid into a state of chaos from which it has yet to re-emerge.

To protect a population that had suffered at the hands of feuding clan leaders turned warlords, a multinational operation called Restore Hope was set up in 1992 under U.S. leadership. The UN took over the operation in 1993, absorbing the U.S. contingent. But things went badly wrong when 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush in the heart of Mogadishu. After these events, the United States avoided Somalia and refused to take part in any African operations or peacekeeping missions, even during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Change after 9/11

After 9/11 things changed: The whole of the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia, came under surveillance. From 2002 the U.S. navy, aided by European navies, has patrolled the Somali and Yemeni coastlines and the Bab el-Mandeb Straits. Task Force 150’s brief is to secure one of the world’s most important seaways to ensure that shipping can reach the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean to the west, the Cape and the Americas to the south, and Asia and the Pacific to the east.

The U.S. navy routinely searches coasters and cargo ships with the aim of preventing fighters fleeing Afghanistan and Iraq from seeking refuge in the Horn of Africa. The border region of Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia is one of the most notorious in Africa. It connects with the old caravan route to Chad, Libya, Mali, Algeria, and Mauritania on the Atlantic coast.

In 2002, the Pentagon established a special forces unit in Djibouti, a tiny state previously within France’s sphere of influence. With a force of 2,000, this is the only U.S. base in Africa; located just a few kilometres from the Somali border, it also serves as a launch pad for covert missions, targeting suspected al-Qaida members in Yemen and Somalia.

Osama bin Laden is believed to have spent time in Somalia in the early 1990s. Some “Afghan” Arabs close to him were implicated in the 1993 attacks on U.S. soldiers in Mogadishu. From 1991 to 1996 he lived in Sudan. He invested in the al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant (which the U.S. bombed in August 1998 in retaliation for attacks on Nairobi in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania) and in the Al-Shamal Bank.

An initial wave of attacks against the U.S. army and other U.S. interests followed: Aden in 1992; Mogadishu in 1993; Riyadh in 1995; Khobar (Saudi Arabia) in 1996, the year in which Bin Laden left Sudan for Afghanistan, where he met Mullah Mohamed Omar, future leader of the Taliban. In August 1998, Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, with 224 dead and over 4,500 injured.

U.S. freezes assets

A few days after 9/11 President George Bush ordered the freezing of the assets of 27 groups and individuals believed to have links with international terrorism. Among them were Al-Barakat, the biggest company in the remittance trade in Somalia (half a billion dollars are sent back each year by the Somali diaspora, providing a living for an estimated 800,000 people), and also the movement al-Ittihad al-Islami (Islamic Union), which is suspected of having taken part in attacks on U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu in 1993 and of giving logistical support to the Mombasa attacks in November 2002.

Al-Ittihad was defeated in 1997 after an initial incursion by the Ethiopian army, but its leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former colonel who came to prominence during the Somali-Ethiopian war of 1977, turned up again in 2006 as president of the UIC.

At an opposition meeting in September held at Asmara in Eritrea, Aweys (who is on the U.S. wanted list) described himself as “a nationalist fighting for a free, united Somalia, which the Americans regard as terrorism.” He has challenged Washington to prove his al-Qaida links, noting that U.S. foreign policy is strangely bellicose towards Somalia.

Somali Islamists, suppressed under Siad Barre’s regime, increased their influence during the 1990s. They took control of Luuq, a small town in the south near the border with Kenya, which had expelled them. In 1996, however, they lost their stronghold in Puntland, a self-proclaimed state in northeast Somalia.

Egyptian, Afghan and Chechen members of al-Ittihad began to leave the country as the “local Islamists gave up military activity in favour of doing business with the Gulf states, teaching in Quranic schools and defending Shariah” and by 2000 the recently formed UIC was prepared to take part in a first attempt at transitional government.

But a 1995 UN report claimed that Aweys, who has his base in the Galgaduud region of central Somalia, was already receiving arms from Eritrea and was in touch with representatives of the National Liberation Fronts of both Ogaden and Oromo, which oppose the Ethiopian government.

U.S. secret services have detected dangerous signs of “Talibanisation” in the traditionalist outlook of the UIC. They tried to buy some of the Somali warlords in February 2006, but they were unable to check the advances of the Islamists, who had won overall control of Mogadishu by July.

This new setback was followed by a bold move: There would be no repeat of Black Hawk, nor any U.S. forces deployed on the ground, at least officially Instead, with a mandate from Washington, the Ethiopian army marched into Somalia to support the TFG, which had been unable to take possession of its capital. By December 2006, the Ethiopian forces had removed the Islamists from Mogadishu.

But once installed in Mogadishu by the Ethiopians, President Abdullahi had to abandon his plan to disarm the clans and the militias.

Popular protests against the presence of the Ethiopian army grew more frequent. Attacks by the resistance resumed around the capital. On 30 March, the battle of Mogadishu began. In April, in an attempt to end it, Ethiopian artillery bombarded the fighters. The rebel strongholds in the north of the capital fell, and within a few days refugees began to make their way home.

The U.S. army’s hunt for real or supposed members of al-Qaida continued. In January 2007, it undertook its first major operation, the machine-gunning of a group of “fugitives” by a heavily armed C-130 Spectre gunship, first used in the Vietnam war. Operations such as these, unscrutinised, in semi-secrecy, mark the return of a robust U.S. stance in the secret war in the Horn of Africa.

In February, special forces carried out operations in the south of Somalia and on 2 June, a U.S. navy warship fired on targets near the port of Bargal in Puntland, which, it was claimed, were hideouts for “fugitive members of al-Qaida” -- though these claims are unverified.

Raids have also increased in Mogadishu since the Ethiopians and President Abdullahi’s forces took control. Just being a former member of the UIC is sufficient grounds for being classified as a terrorist. Estimates of the number who have disappeared range from 200 to 1,000; they are believed to be being detained in the Villa Somalia in the port or in the National Security Agency’s underground cells.

This augured ill for a reconciliation conference scheduled for June in Mogadishu. It opened a month late and lacked any participants from the Islamist groups and the Hawiye, the majority clan. It concluded on 30 August without any significant outcome.

Reopening old wounds

In entrusting the dirty work to Ethiopia, the United States has risked reigniting smouldering tensions in the region. In pushing towards an internationalisation of the Somali conflict, it has allowed the Ethiopian and Eritrean regimes, which fought an inconclusive war from 1998 to 2000, to reopen old wounds.

Eritrea has little sympathy with the UIC, but has nonetheless provided it with arms: A UN report in November 2006, which warned of a generalised conflict, described an endemic flow of arms into both camps. It accused Eritrea of having made “at least 28 deliveries of arms, munitions and military equipment” (including surface-to-air missiles) to the Islamists, who then controlled Mogadishu after the conflict with the U.S.-backed warlords.

Last September the Eritrean government, which Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian president, has again accused of supporting Somali’s terrorists, hosted a conference for opposition groups with the aim of creating a “new alliance for the liberation of Somalia”. This organisation’s first act was to call for the withdrawal of the Ethiopian army, which it considers a U.S. pawn. It then launched a new offensive against Mogadishu in September.

Ethiopia has always supported the TFG. The U.S. government secretly gave it the green light to make emergency arms purchases from North Korea, in violation of the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the Security Council -- at the request of the U.S.

U.S. foreign policy seems to have accepted that a regime as undemocratic as that of Zenawi -- which still has a monopoly on power thanks to the Tigre Liberation Front, which he leads, and which suppresses political parties, unions and student movements -- will profit from the war on terror in order to win financial aid and political credit.

In delegating the task of restoring law and order to Somalia’s enemy, the United States has also opened the possibility that Ethiopia will take part in Somalia’s dismemberment. (In the colonial era Somalia was divided: Present-day Somaliland was ruled by the British, while Mogadishu and the centre of the country was Italian, and Djibouti in the northwest was French.)

Washington’s policy has done nothing to stop the spread of anti-Americanism, as prevalent in Somalia as in the rest of the Islamic world. It increases the risk of indirectly relaunching the claims of the Ogadenis, Afars and Omoros, nations historically hostile to the centralising ambitions of Addis Ababa, which have long dreamt of the disintegration of the former empire. Africom, the new United States Africa Command launching in 2008, must consider all this if it wants to prevent the Horn of Africa catching fire as it did in the 1970s and 1980s.

Philippe Leymarie is a journalist with Radio France International.

'The So-Called Legal Government Is a Farce'

2007-11-28T10:25:00.000+01:00

INTERVIEW WITH CHAIRMAN OF SOMALIA'S COUNCIL OF ISLAMIC COURTS

War-torn Somalia is experiencing ongoing fighting between Islamic insurgents and the Ethiopian-backed government. Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Council of Islamic Courts, talked to SPIEGEL ONLINE about how the Ethiopian forces are violating human rights and why he opposes al-Qaida.

Sixteen years after descending into anarchy, there still seems to be little hope of a lasting peace in Somalia.

The capital Mogadishu is plagued by continuing violence. Thousands have been killed in the city this year as Islamist insurgents battle the country's transitional government, which was set up in October 2004, and over half the city's inhabitants are reported to have fled the violence.

Until this year, the strongest of the many groups which had been battling for power in Somalia was the Council of Islamic Courts (CIC). The loose-knit union of Islamic courts took control of Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia in 2006 and also threatened to take countrol of Ethiopia's Somali-speaking eastern region, the Ogaden.

The Islamists imposed Sharia law during the second half of 2006. They managed to reunite Mogadishu, which had been divided up among rival warlords, and brought some semblance of law and order to the anarchic country.

The Ethiopian army marched into Somalia in December 2006 to help Somali's interim government oust the CIC. The Islamic group, who are strongly opposed to the presence of Ethiopian troops in the country, fought back, prompting the current wave of violence.

However the CIC is not a homogeneous group but is divided between moderates and hardliners, all of whom claim they want to restore stability and the rule of law in the country. However the hardliners also want to stamp out "immoral" foreign influences: While in power, they closed down cinemas showing foreign films and banned some radio stations from playing foreign music.

Meanwhile the Somali transitional government has been criticized for cracking down on the media. The government accuses the media of undermining national security and has arrested journalists and media managers. Seven reporters have been killed in the country since January.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed is the chairman of the Council of Islamic Courts and is considered a moderate. He talked to SPIEGEL ONLINE about the "popular uprising" against the Ethiopian troops, his opposition to al-Qaida and the future of Somalia.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Sheik Sharif, why don't you give your rebels the order for an immediate ceasefire?

Sheik Sharif: I'm powerless to do that. The popular uprising against the hated Ethiopian occupation troops -- which every Somali patriot must see as his enemies -- can't be stopped.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But this isn't just about the Ethiopians. You're also fighting against the army of the legitimate Somali government.

Sheik Sharif: The so-called legal government is a farce. There were no free elections worth speaking off. They're keeping us out of a true national dialogue -- which we've always called for -- with the slimmest of arguments. Critics of the government find themselves in jail without trial or simply disappear without a trace, just because they condemn military collaboration with that very part of Ethiopia which has been oppressing millions of Somalis for decades ...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: ... You're referring to the eastern Ethiopian province of Ogaden, which is populated by Somalis and which the last Somali president, Mohamed Siad Barre, wanted to "liberate" ...

Sheik Sharif: ... but how can we question the internationally recognized borders of Ethiopia when our own country of Somalia is breaking up into several regions, where local interest groups have grabbed power for themselves and can operate without any kind of control? You don't need an intelligence service to figure out that Ethiopia and Kenya, along with other countries in the region, interfere pretty openly in Somalia's affairs. But the Somali people, which right now is held together only by a common language and by Islam, is no longer going along with them. The resistance against the Ethiopians and their stooges in Somalia keeps spreading and will sooner or later topple the regime.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Ethiopians marched in to keep Somalia from turning into an Islamist state.

Sheik Sharif: That was a weak pretense which only complicated the situation even further. We never intended to declare an Islamic republic.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But it was clear which way things were heading in Somalia. Alcohol and music were outlawed and women had to wear veils. Some of your coalition partners declared open sympathy with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. And didn't the terror network al-Qaida gain a foothold in Somalia?

Sheik Sharif: That was an evil slander. Even if a few of our comrades favored a strict interpretation of Islamic law, it was up to the citizens to orient themselves toward Islamic custom according to their own discretion. I was, and still am today, strictly against giving asylum in Somalia to al-Qaida criminals and their kind.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But that couldn't happen right now anyway, because government troops still hold the reins of power.

Sheik Sharif: The government troops are fighting with their backs to the wall. They control only 5 percent of the country's territory. The Ethiopians, whose army composes the real backbone of the current Somali government, are not very motivated. They are moving through an occupied country, haphazardly murdering and pillaging, fully aware that sooner or later they will have to leave. When the last Ethiopian armored car leaves Somalia, the regime will collapse like a house of cards. We are gaining territory every day -- it's only a matter of time.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That means the bloodshed will not end any time soon. Is it true that Eritrea is providing you with weapons and money?

Sheik Sharif: Although Eritrea has experienced the expansionist and racist regime in Addis Ababa at first hand, it is neither providing us with weapons nor any other logistical support. We are surviving because the Somali people are on our side. At first it was students and shopkeepers who supported us, but now we are backed by every social class. Our influence is growing inexorably.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That sounds like wishful thinking. If you truly wanted peace and democracy, wouldn't you ask the United Nations to actively intervene?

Sheik Sharif: If the international community simply opened its eyes to the continuing violation of human rights in Somalia, and if it were ready to make a fresh start here, we would of course welcome a UN intervention. But that doesn't seem likely, unfortunately. Nevertheless, I stick to my position that if, instead of trigger-happy Ethiopian occupiers, we had neutral blue helmets here in our oppressed country, who could make free elections possible and secure a transition to a future of peace and reconstruction, we would welcome them. The European Parliament in Strasbourg has already taken the first step. It has imposed an arms embargo against the current Somali government in protest against the violation of human rights.

Interview conducted by Volkhard Windfuhr SPIEGEL ONLINE (original interview)

Who spoiled Ethiopian Dreams? III

2007-11-27T16:54:00.000+01:00

.In mid August 2000, when Mr. Wolde came back from visiting Somalia, he paid a visit to Minister Zirrow at his Mansion.

Zirrow: Welcome back Wolde. You look exhausted!

Wolde: No sir, I may look physically tired, but morally, I am on top of the world.

Zirrow: That is good. You must have had a successful mission.

Wolde: Definitely, Mr. Minister. I traveled to every major city in Somalia and I have been welcomed with warm arms by our good guys; in a secret places of course.

Zirrow: Did you recruit new good guys just in case the old ones…ehhh…you know?

Wolde: Yes sir, I believe we will be in a good shape for the next 20 years.

Zirrow: Girgis and Barhanu are joining us in a minute, so please...Oh... here they are!

Barhanu: Hello Mr. Minister and Brother Wolde welcome back.

Zirrow: Hello guys, you did not miss anything.

Wolde: I was just saying that I recruited more men and I gave them new code names like: MISKAX, WADNE, BEER, IL, KELLI, LUG, GACAN and so forth.

Girgis: What kind of names are these, Somali or Oromo?

Barhanu: These code names are Somali and they correspond with parts of the body. I gave them to Wolde before he left to Somalia.
Also I instructed him to figure out who should be given the vital parts as a code name; according to their loyalty and their job description.

For example: MISKAX should be given to the man who has the power to convince through his speeches against those who try to sabotage our goals. LUG is for the one who organizes foot soldiers for clan fighting and assassinations.

Zirrow: These names sound great, good work Berhanu. Wolde, I heard schools and universities have been built in every city of Somalia from North to South and East to West!

Wolde: Unfortunately that is true. A lot of High Schools have been opened since 1998 and Universities have grown 5 folds now.

Girigis: Wait a minute, how can that happen? Education is our number one enemy. Look at Kelli5 (Ogaden), the King and Derg have never built a middle school….and they had very good reason for that, no…no…no schools.

Wolde: This phenomena of building schools and the revival of education is due to two factors :
a) Most of the regions and clans were in peace for a while, so instead of investing in warfare, they have diverted to schools.

b) Thousands of the Somali Diaspora went back to their native towns and cities with substantial resources.

They wanted to have schools and Universities for their children. On top of this, the Diaspora continuously raises funds for education. It is amazing how they don’t have the clannish mentality in that regard whether it is for Borama, Bosasa or Beltweyn Universities.

The Diaspora did not stop there. They are rebuilding Somalia in every sector without a government. You cannot visualize the bungalows built in Las Anood or the 5 Star Hotels in Mogadishu.

Girgis: That is bad news!!! What is the code name for the one who organizes the clan fights?Wolde: LUG!

Girgis: Yes, we have to wake up LUG. We need him to start the fighting amongst the clans. This way the Diaspora will run and go back to the country they fled to before: Australia, UK, Canada, or Mexico.

They have to give up on Somalia and live in peace in their naturalized countries. Mr. Minister, their presence in Somalia is against our objective of depopulating that country. They have to feel the hostility continuously.

Zirrow: Well there won’t be any action for the time being, because I am going to attend the inauguration of Abiqassim Salad Hassan on the 27th. Meanwhile, think of a good strategy for this Somali Diaspora.

Girgis: Mr. Minister with all due respect why do you want to show solidarity to Arta’s process? Neither Ghelle nor Abdiqasim deserves your presence.

Zirrow: My dear Girgis how many times should I explain International diplomacy to you?

Historical facts:

After a long struggle and squabbling amongst clans, president Ghelle and the people of Djibouti succeeded in convincing the attendees of the Arta conference to form a government. Mr. Abdiqasim Salad Hassan was sworn as President of Somalia on August 27th, 2000.

The head of States of IGAD attended Abdiqasim’s inauguration in Arta. Unfortunately, as soon as the new government went back to Somalia, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi openly defied the newly “selected/elected” government.

There were so many attempts from Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh to engage and understand why Ethiopia treated his weak government with contempt. Even former Prime Minter of Somalia, Mr. Abdirazak Haji Hussein, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Meles Zanewi persuading him not to destroy the hope and the desire of the Somali people.

Almost a year later Terrorists attacked USA on September 11, 2001 and president Bush declared a war against terrorism, where ever terrorists are and who ever harbors them. Ethiopia did not waste their opportunity and tripled the rhythm of the drums they were beating against the Transitional National Government.

On November 12, 2001 Abdiqasim Salad appointed Mr. Hassan Abshir Farah as Prime Minister succeeding Dr. Ali Khalif Galaydh. Also Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed then president of Puntland was succeeded by Jama Ali Jama, even though Abdullahi rejected the outcome of the Garowe process.

The TNG wanted to establish a new page and good relationship with Ethiopia, so Hassan Abshir Farah flew to Addis Ababa before he formed his cabinet. He first met with the foreign Minister Mr. Seyoum Mesfin and then Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Mr.

Hassan Abshir put a blank page on Zenawi’s desk and requested him to write down what ever Ethiopia wanted from the TNG. This not only showed their good faith, but how this new government was ready to surrender themselves to Ethiopia.

Mr. Zenawi put aside the pen and the paper and requested only one thing: To reinstate Mr. Abdullahi Yusuf’s power in Puntland. Mr. Hassan Abshir had an intensive brainstorming with his advisors before he left Mogadishu, so that he could be ready for any possible requisition from Zenawi. But the question of Abdullahi Yusuf never came in to the picture.

He explained that the TNG had no power to overturn Puntland’s decision, nevertheless, he proposed to Mr. Zenawi to offer Mr. Abdullahi Yusuf any cabinet position including premiership. The meeting was over a minute after that exchange and Mr. Hassan Abshir Farah left Addis without Zenawi’s blessing.

On May 14, 2002 President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal deceased in Pretoria, South Africa and Vice President Mr. Dahir Riyal Kahin became the third president of Somaliland.

Also in May 2002 with the help of Ethiopia Mr. Abdullahi Yusuf overthrew Jama Ali Jama.
On the other hand, Ethiopia never stopped her influence on IGAD and OAU to convince TNG to sit down with their opposition and warlords especially SRRC, which was sponsored by Ethiopia.

TNG accepted and a delegation led by Prime Minister Hassan Abshir and Speaker Abdulle Derow Issaq re-started a fresh reconciliation conference in November 2002 at Eldorat, Kenya.

Fadhikudir

Qablan, Xiif, Taagane, Murad and Iftiin are well known permanent fadhikudir customers in a tea shop in Islee, Somalia, a ghetto on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya.

Iftiin: What the hell is this? Since 1991 IGAD has been calling for a conference for reconciliation. They were changing the venues: Djibouti, Addis, Nairobi, Nairobi, Addis… Djibouti, but they were calling the same old guys to reconcile.

Now, to change it up a bit they moved it from capital cities to their towns: Arta, Sodare, Eldorat. I am sure in a decade they will move it into their villages: Nagash of Ethiopia, Ngomongo of Kenya and Koutabouye of Djibouti.

Qablan: What else were you expecting from them? IGAD knows that these warlords are irrational and destructive, yet they have seen us line up behind them because of clannism. As long as we don’t reject them, they will continue reducing our country to nothing, and the main IGAD members want it that way.

Murad: Qablan is right. Your clans destroyed Somalia and you still support the warlords who caused this destruction and you want Ethiopia and Kenya to do a favor for you... Never.

Xiif: What is wrong with IGAD giving every clan a chance to rule the country for couple of years instead of one clan dominating for 20 years like Siad Barre’s rule… No way, that era is gone!!! It is my clan’s turn now. We support the Eldorat conference and the next president must be from my clan.

Murad: Do you have a good, capable politician from your clan in mind?

Xiif: No, but I’ll support any one from my clan and I’ll denounce anybody from another clan.

Iftiin: Who do you prefer a stupid warlord from your clan or a competent politician from another clan who can lead Somalia out of this crisis! Think about Leaders like Joachim Chissano of Mozambique and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.

Xiif: I don’t care if he is Malaaig or a warlord!!! As long as he is from my clan I’ll support him. And any body from another clan would not get my support regardless…

Iftiin: Have you ever thought that incapable person would not be good for your clan, country or your family whether he/she is from your clan or not?

Xiif: I want a president from my clan, period!Murad: Have the previous presidents provided their clans portable water, schools, hospitals, security, infrastructure or any kind of development? Not for their clan nor for this country!!!

Xiif: I don’t know maybe they did. I have seen Cali Calooley flying back and forth to Dubai and he is driving a Land-Cruiser in Nairobi now. He was just sitting here with us and he had nothing three years ago before his clansman became THE President.

Iftiin: I understand Cali Calooley, but have you seen any changes for the rest of his clan or Somalia as a whole? We had 6 or 7 so-called presidents for the last 12 years, and nothing has changed.

Xiif: Somalia… .Somalia, forget about Somalia. Somali kala socotayl!!!

Iftiin: If people like you, who have been educated in Somalia and worked as civil servants in Somalia, talk like you do, then what should we expect from the nomads(Reer baadie)?

Murad: Actually nowadays nomads are much better than the so called urbanized Somalis. Nomads know the deals for clan fights.

Elders and clan chiefs never call for inter-clan fights, and if it erupts they act as pacifist. Even if they don’t succeed to stop the fight they try to at least limit the damages. Here the Generals, the Colonels, and the former Ministers and Diplomats are the leaders of inter-clan warfare. It seems they are very proud for leading clans rather than their nation.
Shame on them.

Taagane: I admit it, I love my clan and I will always love her on top of Somalia. Iftiin, don’t deny it. You have to acknowledge that everybody is devoted to his/her clan.

Iftiin: If you love your clan you should love the other clans too. I repeat if you love your clan you should love other clans too. Please say it after me: I love other clans because I love my clan.

Taagane: I don’t love your clan and I am not repeating what you said! I am not your parrot.

Iftiin: This is a simple equation. Your clan is not in an isolated room. Your clan is part of the Somali society. It is absolutely obvious that the problems of one clan will affect all other clans.

If another clan prospers your clan will of course prosper; if a disaster occurs among one clan, it will directly or indirectly reach your clan. Think brother…think!

Xiif: It is the prayer time we must go to the Mosque.

Murad: Why do you always like to go to the Mosque?… Can’t you pray here?

Taagane: It is always good to pray in Jama-ah.Murad: Do you know Jama-ah (jointly) is not only for the Salat, but it is for all good causes including saving the Somali nation.

Xiif: We will continue this discussion in our next meeting, now we have to run for the Salat.

Iftiin: Don’t worry about the tea I’ll pay for it. See you later, but please think about Somalia as a whole and pray for her.

Abdulkadir Mohamud (Jangali)
E-mail: jangelione@yahoo.com

Somalia, fuga dall'inferno

2007-11-26T13:31:00.000+01:00

Tra bande di ribelli e militari, dove a un anno dall'invasione etiope e dalle bombe Usa regna la più crudele anarchia. Negli ultimi dieci giorni sono scappati in 250mila.

MOGADISCIO - Dopo 14 conferenze di pace, a quasi un anno dall'invasione etiope e dai bombardamenti Usa, giustificati con la necessità di fermare l'avanzata di Al Qaeda in Africa, la Somalia precipita sempre di più nel dramma. Una settimana fa, infatti, dall'Etiopia sono arrivati altri 20 mila uomini e 52 carri armati con un ordine semplice: fare una strage. Comincia da qui il viaggio nell'inferno della Somalia, paese senza pace, dove centinaia di conflitti sono stati coperti dal marchio globale di una guerra civile che dura da 17 anni. I militari del presidente provvisorio sono alla fame, i civili allo stremo (quattromila i morti nel 2007): donne, bambini e vecchi scappano a piedi. Un popolo in fuga dalla capitale e che si rifugia nelle tendopoli. Sperando nell'aiuto della Comunità internazionale.

Reubblica
GIAMPAOLO VISETTI

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Sono contento che finalemente qualcuno parli di una situazione davvero tanto inumano quanto trascurato in Italia.

Posso capire le ragioni della politica, ma mi sfugge la ragio dei media. Forse!

Hussein Aden

2007-11-22T12:01:00.000+01:00

After a long search, President Abdullahi Yusuf has opted for a seasoned humanitarian worker to replace Mohammed Ghedi as the prime minister of Somalia.

Col Nur Hassan Hussein - also known as Nur Adde - was the eventual compromise candidate selected from a long list of politicians and technocrats whose names were being considered for the position.

The appointment needed careful analysis by President Yusuf as he needed to kill two birds with one stone: to impress the Hawiye clan, while also retaining control of his fragile administration. Col Nur Adde hails from the Mudulood sub-clan of the Abgal, itself part of the Hawiye clan which dominates the affairs of Mogadishu and the central regions of Somalia.

Former policeman

The 69-year-old former military officer began his career in the Italian colonial police force in Somalia in the early 1950s and served in a special unit to protect tax revenues called the "Guardia Di Finanza".
Nur Adde studied law at the Nation University - Jamacadda Ummadda - in Mogadishu and later attended several police academies in Italy and the US, where he specialised in criminal investigation and international law.

With this experience and training he rose through the ranks to become the deputy chairman of the so-called Salvation Court - a military-court - which tried tax evaders and other financial crimes suspects during former President Siad Barre's rule.

After the collapse of the Somali state in 1991, Nur Adde became the chairman of the Somali Red Crescent society, a post which he still holds.

He is widely credited for professionalising the organisation and turning it into an effective tool to tackle some of the humanitarian disasters Somalia has suffered in the last 17 years of anarchy.
Despite this uphill task, Col Adde has managed to steer clear of the political minefield - a trait that political observers argue may be his greatest asset as President Yusuf struggles to improve the image of his transitional government.

Foreign diplomats believe he could be a safe pair of hands for the job, given his experience working with international partners during his career as manager of a relief aid organisation.

Hussein Aden

Source: BBC, Nov 22, 2007

Terrorism in Somalia?

2007-11-19T16:59:00.000+01:00

Who is Accountable for the Massacring and Displacing Mogadishu Civilians?

2007-11-15T18:11:00.000+01:00

Mogadishu inhabitants are shifting from the bombardment in an area to another area which it is going to be shelled next while mothers and children are waiting when to be hit by the bullets and rockets from the insurgents and the indiscriminate shelling of Mortars, artilleries, PMs of the Ethiopian troops.

The worlds worst humanitarian crises and prevalent violations of human rights is inflicted on the Somali civilians who are severely suffering from the major results of the fighting taking place between the Ethiopian troops and the insurgents , who are all using the civilian residents as their forces base.

Massive displacement and insecurity in Mogadishu pressed the international humanitarian agencies to appeal and call for the international community to save the poor residents of Mogadishu from the recounting humanitarian devastation.

AU mission is encouraged to deploy their troops soon to replace the Ethiopian troops or “coalition of willing ” as the UN secretary general declared , while the government is not even commenting the situation as it is not responsible from their people and not give the least consideration to the massive destruction of live and properties which they are accountable to all what is taking place.

“Violations of the laws of war is overrating to be documented, because of the endless fighting that takes place continuously in the densely populated areas which the insurgent forces are rocketing from and the extensive indiscriminate shelling and bombardment of these civilian areas by Ethiopian forces in response.” Said Ahmed “kiimiko” the focal point of Somalia for East and Horn of Africa Human Right Defenders Network

What flared up the situation, as it is now obvious that Ethiopian troops are extensively undertaking revenge for, is the dragging the dead corpses of the Ethiopian troops in the capital streets by the insurgents which is also inhumane and forbidden in Islamic religion and the international human rights instruments. The dead body is sacred and should be buried.

The death toll of the latest fighting reaches now sixty three civilians as reliable sources indicating while more dead bodies are found in some areas and became difficult to collect since Ethiopian sharpshooters are shooting any attempt to collect. Thousands of civilians are displaced, casualties are over three hundred while a heavy loss of property is in place. Both sides have shot innocents in their residences and in the streets .

The Ethiopians troops from the windows of the top buildings, which they forcibly took and made bases for their forces in the civilians residences, were shooting beside their shelling with the tanks and all kinds of rockets and heavy machine guns.

Ethiopian troops were not simply only confronted with Islamists and radical militias of the insurgents but with a broad front of clans and groups that are hardly or not related to the Islamists but shared their perception and rejection of the Ethiopians as a joint enemy, and this was encouraged by the Ethiopians themselves when they failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid incidental loss of civilian life and property, such as by failing to verify that targets were military objectives.

Said Ahmed ” Both sides are war criminals and violated laws of war and international humanitarian laws.” The Focal point of Somalia for East and horn of Africa Human Rights defenders and Chairperson of Human Rights defenders Network, Ahmed Kiimiko Concluded.

We finally call for all sides fighting in the city to unconditionally cease fire and respect the international human rights instruments and we also appeal the international community to undertake suitable measures on all these armed groups involved these war crimes and violated by international humanitarian law, with criminal intention to be prosecuted in international courts for war crimes. Also we call for emergency humanitarian assistance for these displaced people who are now in the city environs and posses nothing.

Human Rights Reporting Office
Somali Human Rights Defenders Network (SOHRIDEN)
Human Rights House
Talex Street, Hodan District,
Mogadishu, Somalia

Mogadishu mayor and former warlord defends Somali media crackdown

2007-11-14T11:57:00.000+01:00

MOGADISHU, Nov 14 (Reuters)

Mogadishu's mayor defended on Wednesday a government crackdown on Somali media that has been condemned by rights groups, saying three radio stations were closed this week because they were spreading lies.

In the latest attack on local media, government forces raided Simba Radio and Radio Banadir on Tuesday, a day after shutting down Shabelle Radio for the eighth time this year.

"These three radio stations have been closed down because they have no permit. We told them repeatedly to get the official documents, but they ignored the government notification," Mayor Mohamed Dheere told Reuters.

Dheere, a former warlord, also accused the private stations of undermining national security by fabricating reports that the presidential palace had been hit by mortar bombs.

"These radios have generated violence by airing exaggerated false reports. So, we have to crack down on them because of national security interests," he said.

"The international community does not have to pressure us over lies told by the media."

Staff at Simba and Shabelle said both stations had obtained the necessary operating licence and stood by their broadcasts.

"We have been shut down because the government is oppressing us as an independent media not to report the killings and violence happening in Mogadishu," Shabelle Radio News Editor Abdirahman Yusuf Al-Adala told Reuters.

ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS

Attacks on journalists in the lawless Horn of Africa country have multiplied this year.

Seven reporters have been killed in Somalia since January, when government troops and their Ethiopian allies routed a rival Islamist movement, spawning an insurgency that has been punctuated by roadside bombings and political killings.

The fighting has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands to flee the lawless capital -- prompting a U.N. envoy to call the humanitarian crisis the worst in Africa.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a media watchdog, called the radio closures "crude and unacceptable censorship".

"Any time the authorities in Mogadishu hear unwelcome news of the fighting in the city they send troops crashing through the door of the radio station responsible," its executive director Joel Simon said in a statement.

The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network urged the interim government -- the 14th attempt at restoring central rule since the 1991 ouster of President Mohamed Siad Barre -- to end its press clampdown if it wanted to establish democratic rule.

In a separate development, a landmine killed six people and wounded 15 others riding a bus on Tuesday in the breakaway northern Somaliland, officials said.

The accident took place in Goroyo Hun, which is laced with mines planted during a 1977-78 war with Ethiopia.

Aweys Yusuf

SOURCE: Reuters, November 14, 2007

2007-11-13T18:27:00.000+01:00

Somali government shuts down Radio shabelle

2007-11-13T18:08:00.000+01:00

Somali government shuts down Radio shabelle. when Heavily armed forces accompanying with three commanders have entered inside the radio building and forced the journalists to go down from the building and ordered to off the radio from the air.

They lined up the journalists at hot sun place and ordered to leave

Shabelle acting manager Jafar Kukay and the news chief Abdi Rahman Al-adala has been taken from the radio building and released some minutes after they have been told to shutdown the radio.

No reason has been said to the closure of Shabelle, but they claimed that is an order from the government senior officials and no date has been stated about the reopening of the radio’s work and no comment from the senior government authorities on this terrible action against the freedom of speech.

It’s the eight times the government closed Shabelle radio and there has been pressure, intimidations and death threats to the journalists from the government and other people

Hussein Aden

Source: Shabelle Media Network Somalia

Two Somali radio stations silenced

2007-11-13T17:59:00.000+01:00

Somali government forces have stormed two radio stations in Mogadishu and ordered them off the air, drawing protests from press freedom groups.

Workers fled Radio Banadir and Simba Radio when heavily-armed troops entered their compound on Tuesday.

Mustafa Haji, chief editor of Simba Radio, said: "They said the order to close the radio station will affect all independent stations in Mogadishu."

Ali Muhamed Aden, deputy director of Radio Banadir, said: "They terrorised the employees ... All the reporters panicked and ran."

On Monday, authorities in the turbulent Horn of Africa nation shut down Shabelle Radio and briefly detained two of its senior staff.

Shabelle said on its website that it had received no explanation for its closure or been told how long it would last. It said it was the eighth time this year that the government had shut it down.

"There has been pressure, intimidation and death threats to the journalists from the government and other people," it said.

Eight local reporters have been killed while doing their jobs in Somalia this year.

Presidential appeal

While the government has closed many independent radio stations, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the Somali president, called on Mogadishu residents to support him in the fight against hardline Muslim fighters.

"My government is doing all it can to save the lives of the Somali people, but insurgents are responsible for the continued violence," Yusuf told a press conference in Nairobi.

"People in neighbourhoods must also fight the Shabab [armed wing of the main Somali Islamist movement] and chase them away. Otherwise they are the ones who suffer in crackdowns," he said.

Dozens of civilians have been killed and at least 114,000 displaced from Mogadishu in recent weeks.

The recent clashes have worsened the humanitarian crisis that has dogged the nation for 16 years, with areas just outside the city struggling to cope with the latest influx of displaced people.

Aid workers have said that those who have remained in the the most conflict-ridden areas of Mogadishu were beyond the reach of relief agencies and face dire conditions.

Worsening conditions

Pedram Yazdi of the International Committee of the Red Cross, based in Nairobi, told Al Jazeera: "I spent several days in the two main hospitals in Mogadishu ... receiving a lot of wounded.

"Women and children have been caught up in the fighting in the southern part of Mogadishu, so the situation is quite bad.

"The surgeons are working all day and all night to keep the wounded alive. The injured people mainly have chest wounds and head wounds from bullets and shrapnel.

"Having more than 300 wounded in three weeks shows the level of violence in Mogadishu.

Hussein Aden

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Death toll rises in Somali - Ethiopian fighting

2007-11-12T16:33:00.000+01:00

At least 60 people are now believed to have been killed in violence that has rocked the Somali capital, Mogadishu, for the past three days.

Ethiopian forces began shelling parts of the capital after the body of at least one of their soldiers was dragged through the streets after battles with anti-government fighters on Thursday.

There were conflicting reports about the number of dead with the Associated Press news agency putting the death toll at more than 80.

Though there was no fighting on Saturday, thousands of residents fled the city fearing more violence as Ethiopian soldiers patrolled in force.

Residents searching through destroyed houses found the bodies near the Black Sea district of southern Mogadishu, where heavy fighting between Ethiopian forces and armed men erupted on Thursday.
"It was a very gruesome scene. They indiscriminately shot innocent civilians who were fleeing the fighting," Ali Muse Mohamed, a local elder, said referring to Ethiopian soldiers.

Osman Keysaney, another resident, said some of the civilians whose bodies were found in the Black Sea district had gunshot wounds to the head.

"They shot any moving creature around the neighbourhood," Hassan Sugule, another elder, said.

"They also killed children."

'Reprisal' attacks

The body of an Ethiopian soldier was dragged on the streets by civilians on Thursday. This sparked 'reprisal' attacks by Ethiopian forces the following day.

The UN condemned the dragging of corpses through the streets of Mogadishu.

"These gross violations of humanitarian law as well as barbaric and inhuman acts have triggered new panic and movements of population," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

"Somalia is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in years and coping mechanisms of the population are stretched to the limit."

Hospitals overflowing

A Somali medic said over 250 civilians had been wounded in the fighting.

Hospitals are overflowing with patients and doctors have said there is insufficient medicine, beds and space for the wounded.

On Friday, Ethiopian forces shelled suspected hideouts of armed groups in Mogadishu's southern districts in a bid to end months of attacks aimed against them by the groups.

Ethiopian forces fought alongside the Somali government last year to drive out the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) group that briefly controlled large parts of the country and sought to impose Islamic law.

Although the ICU was removed earlier this year, its remnants and allied tribes have since waged a guerrilla war targeting government officials, Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers.

The UN said on Friday that 114,000 more Somalis had been displaced by fighting in the last week, bringing to 850,000 the number of internally displaced across the nation.

Hussein Aden

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Bombe a Mogadiscio: Finiscono prima le bombe e la gente? Temo prima la nostra gente

2007-11-07T14:38:00.000+01:00

Coloro che si accordano ingiustamente prima, poi si scontarano giustamente

2007-11-07T14:32:00.000+01:00

Puppet Government punishes poor civilians by proxy.

2007-11-07T10:40:00.000+01:00

A short poem on Somalia by Duurgube.
Somalia has been engulfed this time by endless horror. US decided to change it into a place of killings and terror.

At home people were severely severed like haddock
As as Bush`s puppets waged merciless terrible havoc

Many people at home wait for no peace anyway
But rampant chaos and killing lasting every day

Melancholy made tears trickle down from their eyes
as America, Ethiopia and the somali devils are allies

Jerusalem ponies were fully permitted to kick and kill
Helpless people that dodge away not but stand still

Human rights violations reached in a turning point
US hirelings took people’s belongings in gun point

Both teenagers and crones were seen roughly raped
And as many helplessly killed, others luckily escaped

When most of my people feared and fled in disarray
Damned Ghedi and ungodly Yusuf joyed in no delay

Devils and their allies pitilessly put many in detention
I wonder why the other world failed to give its attention

See you not brethren what haunted Somalia this time
By the way who on earth could tell me due to what crime

US marines came recklessly here in Somalia one day
And their corpses were laid in Mogadishu in a later day

Now US sends lousy Ethiopians to settle old scores
Though their bodies were dragged likewise in scores

Puppet Government punishes poor civilians by proxy
People’s resistance will defeat their plans however foxy

Infidels like damned Ghedi and Ungodly Yusuf will be ousted
So the US puppets and the lousy ethiopians will be routed

By Faarah Ali Duurgube

Somali prime minister resigns

2007-10-29T12:48:00.000+01:00

Ali Mohamed Gedi has stepped down as Somalia's prime minister, following a longstanding political feud with Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf, the president.

"Today I want to state that I am going to resign, that I am leaving the government," Gedi told parliament in the south-central trading town of Baidoa.

Gedi proffered his resignation to Yusuf and Sheikh Adan Madobe, the parliament speaker, when he arrived in Baidoa on Monday, but was requested to do it formally in front of parliament.

It was unclear who would replace Gedi.

Embattled government

Gedi has led the embattled transitional federal government since November 2004, but his relations with Yusuf have been tense, with both men coming from Somalia's two main, rival clans.

The prime minister comes from the Hawiye clan, which is dominant in Mogadishu and is the largest in the country.

Yusuf is from what has now become the breakaway northern state of Puntland and comes from the rival Darod clan, the country's second largest.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, speaking from Nairobi, said: "This doesn't come as a surprise, the prime minister has had differences for a long time with President Yusuf."

"Getting rid of the prime minister, though, doesn't necessarily solve things because the Hawiye clan has to assume the role of prime minister.

"The president can't afford to risk disunity so he will have to appoint someone very quickly from the Hawiye clan."

Worsening relations

Relations between the two men worsened earlier this year when they backed different parties interested in exploiting Somalia's oil reserves.

Yusuf had also been pushing parliament to oust Gedi for failing to bring an end to violence in Mogadishu, draft a new constitution and bolster the federal government.

Gedi's critics blame him for being behind the decision to invite Ethiopian forces into Somalia to help the struggling interim government in its battle against the Islamic Courts Union.

But since the fighters of the Islamic Courts, which had controlled large parts of the country, were defeated earlier this year, remnants of the movement and its tribal allies have waged a guerrilla conflict in Mogadishu.

Somalia, a nation of 10 million, has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre, the country's then ruler.

Hussein Aden

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Somali Truth and Reconciliation Commission

2007-10-26T13:58:00.000+02:00

Peace in Somalia and Babylone shall not rise again.

I believe that true and memory are very important for the reconciliation of every nation, in the concept of people, that experienced a long time civil war, apartheid, slavery or any other similar situations and wants to bring it to end and avoid in the future to repeat the same bad error.

That's why Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu formulated and created the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the apartheid.

Since Somali people are facing the most horrible and longest African civil war, forgotten by the international community and nowadays seems Somalis, wherever they live, are exhausted of the clanism and killing one another, probably it's time to gather all memories for the future generations so that they know how bad is the civil war.

We all know that there're a lot of clan parties in Somalia, every one of whom has some "S", for Somali, just to appear like Somali... (SSDF, SMN, SPM, SNF, USC, and very more).

We as well know that these clan parties were fighting each other, non because some were for Somalis and some not, but for the single interest of the warlords without regard to all Somali people, even of the same clan.

I don't want Somali people think in the future that these were Somali patriotic parties, when they are mercenaries.

It's time to create The Somali Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The mandate of the commission could be to bear witness to, record and in some cases grant amnesty to the perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations, reparation and rehabilitation.

As you know it's not easy cause of the weakness of the situation in Somalia and some times can add another problems and fuel on the fire, but we must star from one point.

Please add to this blog every abuse or crime you know perpetrated during the civil war, from 1979 till the actual situation and Ethiopean presence in Somalia.

Information will have the following format:

Your view about Somali Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Your full name

Victim's full name

crimes description

When perpetrated the abuse

Where crimes happened

Optional but helpful (victim clan and abuser clan)

Hussein Aden

Peace in Somalia and Babylone shall not rise again

2007-10-24T17:26:00.000+02:00

La guerra in Somalia è cominciata ben prima del crollo dello stato somalo nel 1991. Dopo la guerra persa nel 1977, alcuni generali si ribellarono alla ritirata concordata, dal momento che "vedevano le luci di Addis Abeba".

Oltre a ciò la loro ribellione era dovuta al fatto che erano stati costretti a fare una guerra stupida e sbagliata, con tutto il Patto di Varsavia contro; all’epoca la Somalia era un paese socialista così come l’ Etiopia. In seguito furono costretti a ritirarsi in fretta e furia dopo aver liberato tutto l'Ogaden. Un gran numero di generali si rifiutarono di tornare indietro e molti di loro furono giustiziati per questo.

Era normale che dopo uno sforzo bellico così imponente, e per di più reduci da una sconfitta, se ne avvertissero i contraccolpi sulla situazione interna. Il malcontento era profondo nell'esercito, che in quegli anni si sentiva non solo il difensore della sovranità della Somalia ma anche del destino del paese, della giustizia e della politica.

Tanto è vero che il governo in carica era un governo militare, insediatosi otto anni prima con un golpe senza colpo ferire, perchè la corruzione e la frammentazione dei partiti era tale da nauseare chiunque. Solo alle elezioni del 1969, l'anno del golpe, si presentarono 83 partiti su una popolazione di 6/8 milioni. Fu in questa situazione che alcuni gerarchi, capeggiati dal gen. Irre, tentarono un colpo di stato; fallito il golpe furono anche essi giustiziati.

Il sottoclan di questo generale fondò il primo partito di opposizione SSDF in Somali monopartitica. L’Etiopia, che era in guerra con la Somalia, aveva tutto l’interesse a fomentare una guerra clanica per indebolire l’avversario e aiutava con mezzi militari e frequenza radio questo partito clanico. Questo fu l’inizio di una guerra civile che portò al crollo dello stato somalo negli anni a venire.

La Somalia è l’unico caso nella storia moderna di uno stato che fallisce come un’azienda. Almeno per le aziende è previsto lo status giuridico di fallimento, invece per la Somalia non è stato necessario. Semplicemente non esiste più, neanche negli organismi internazionali. Senza governo, senza ministri e ministeri, senza nessuna autorità politica, senza esercito o polizia, scuole e qualunque cosa che possa dare la minima parvenza di uno stato. Senza ambasciate o passaporti. Insomma la Somalia scompare e basta.

Io non ci sto e lo voglio gridare.

Dopo il fallito intervento degli Stati Uniti e di seguito dell’ONU, dal ’92 al ’94 il paese è stato “abbandonato al suo destino”. In realtà viene usato per svolgervi varie attività più o meno dannose. Innanzitutto è diventata la discarica mondiale dei rifiuti tossici.

L’assassinio di Ilaria Alpi ne è testimone e basta anche guardare sui siti somali le foto dei bambini nati deformi a causa della radioattività e di altri rifiuti tossici. Mi ricordo il caso della bambina nata senza organi genitali e che nemmeno poteva soddisfare i basilari bisogni corporei. In questi giorni sui siti somali gira l’immagine di un’altra bambina con una testa immensa e che quasi nasconde gli occhi deformi.

I pochi medici in Somalia non sanno cosa e come fare per aiutarla e ora si cerca di raccogliere un pò di soldi per portarla all’estero. In un certo senso e in un solo aspetto della “complessa” situazione somala ricorda una situazione molto nota in Europa. Il periodo feudale.

Ogni uomo che è riuscito a saccheggiare abbastanza da permettersi di pagare qualche milizia si crea il proprio feudo in cui la vita e la morte della popolazione civile dipendono da come si sveglia la mattina. Ovviamente per finanziarsi tutto diventa lecito. Dallo schiavismo per fare la raccolta nei campi, alla coltivazione di droghe e all’importazione dei soliti rifiuti tossici. Qualcuno riesce persino a battere moneta o comprarsi i soldi del Monopoli da imporre nel suo quartiere per poi fare da “ufficio cambi” e prendersi i dollari di rimessa mandati dai somali che vivono all’estero alle loro famiglie.

Io non ci sto e lo voglio gridare.

Fin’ora tutta la Somalia ha vissuto quasi esclusivamente di rimessa degli emigrati. Infatti non meno di un terzo della popolazione complessiva è scappata all’estero.

Siccome l’iniziale “fedeltà-protezione” si esaurisce in poco tempo, diventa necessario per il “Signore” creare una situazione di guerra con il vicino per mantenere lo status quo e salvare la sua unica fonte di ricchezza. Interesse condiviso comprensibilmente anche dal vicino.

Dopo una prima ondata di sostegno al proprio clan e 16 anni di guerra totale è normale che chiunque desideri un cambiamento, ma ciò non conviene al Signore della guerra, Barone, che ha tutto l’interesse perché la guerra duri. Almeno nel periodo feudale europeo si coltivavano i campi, in Somalia neanche quello.

Perenne guerra e fame, per non parlare di malattie vecchie e nuove, inducono chiunque ad accettare qualunque cambiamento, perchè le persone si attaccano a ogni barlume di speranza. Vi sembro catastrofico? Sì lo sono, la situazione è per certo catastrofica, allora perché non dirlo ad alta voce.

In Somalia, al posto degli accendini e dei fazzoletti di carte, i ragazzini vendono pillole di ogni colore e genere. Al posto che gridare “bibite fresche” in spiaggia, in Somalia strillano “pillole nuove appena importate”. Alcuni “signori” della guerra si fanno fare dei “medicinali” da fabbriche clandestine in India e Pakistan. Alcuni li fabbricano sul posto.

Un giorno il figlio di mio fratello si è ficcato la gomma della matita, quella a mine, nell’orecchio. I “medici” a Mogadiscio hanno detto che per ritarla fuori bisognava operarlo e che non se la sentivano rimandandolo a casa. Dopo giorni di infezione un gentil “medico” si è reso disponibile di operarlo a condizione che lo portino da lui già anestetizzato.

Non vuole rischiare la vita perché nel caso in cui qualcosa dovesse andare storto, in Somalia si spara tranquillamente al medico. Non teme per la vita del paziente, ma per la sua. Io sono arrivato a Mogadiscio due giorni dopo, mentre si cercava un modo per anestetizzare il bambino.

L’ho guardato con la luce del sole e ho visto la gomma. A saperlo prima mi sarei portato una pinzetta e l’avrei tirato fuori. Invece ho dovuto caricarlo su un aereo da Chat, erba masticata in Somalia, mandarlo a Nairobi dove un altro fratello mio lo aspettava e lo ha portato al pronto soccorso. Esiste un pronto soccorso in Kenya, meno male.

Essendo questi medici normali poco dopo hanno tirato fuori questa gomma senza lontanamente porsi il problema se si dovesse operare o meno. Non ce n’era bisogno. L’hanno disinfettato e rimandato a casa con un antibiotico da prendere per qualche giorno.

Immaginate 16 anni di una situazione del genere mentre il resto del mondo, anche il paese più povero dei paesi poveri ha le scuole o un ambulatorio, almeno nelle città.

Sedici lunghi anni hanno portato alla nascita di un gruppo che utilizza l’unico elemento che accomuna tutti i somali. La religione islamica.

Hanno semplicemente accolto l’esasperazione della massa dicendo che non si uccide una persona solo perché di clan diverso. Non si violenta una ragazza solo perché non è del tuo clan. Non si deruba una vedova con orfani solo perché il suo clan è lontano da te.

Nel giro di sei mesi, senza grandi sforzi hanno conquistato non solo Mogadiscio ma gran parte del Centro-Sud della Somalia. Avevano il consenso di tutti i somali, compreso quelli all’estero e non ci voleva molto. Al Nord-Est, dove si erano radunati i signori della guerra, ospiti dell’acerrimo nemico, ma ora alleato contro questi islamismi che hanno fatto saltare il loro perdurato gioco e giogo, e al Nord-Ovest hanno cominciato a tremare gli ultimi signori rimasti ancora in sella.

La Somalia era diventata un porto franco anche per l’Etiopia, che non avendo più sbocco sul mare, dopo aver concesso l’indipendenza all’Eritrea, usava i porti somali del Nord-Ovest e Nord-Est per le sue merci. Ovvio che una Somalia con uno stato e un governo comporta per lo meno la necessità di pagare le tasse doganali.

Inoltre una guerra in Somalia permette al dittatore etiope di allertare il suo esercito e schiacciare ogni voce fuori dal suo coro con la scusa ormai dominante di Al Qaida. Basti pensare quanti oppositore assassinati o messi in carcere perché “anti-popolo” (?) in Addis o tutto quello che sta succedente in tutte le regioni etiopi, tranne Tigrigna.

Conviene evitare la rinascita della Somalia.

Io non ci sto e lo voglio gridare.

Gli Stati Uniti hanno ufficialmente creato e sostenuto un gruppo di trafficanti e signori della guerra contro Al Qaida a Mogadiscio. Credo il nome fosse Alleanza per la democrazia e contro il terrorismo in Somalia. Era una barzelletta che non faceva ridere nemmeno uno stolto.

Immaginate Franjo Tudjman, Alija Izetbegovic, Slobadon Milosovic e Radovan Karadzic che si mettono insieme per creare un’alleanza per la democrazia e contro il terrorismo islamico in Bosnia, nella speranza di ricevere qualche fucile in più degli americani per uccidere meglio e di più.

Io non ci sto e lo voglio gridare.

Dai a Dio quel che è di Dio e a Cesare quel che è di Cesare.

Gli islamismi in sei/sette mesi hanno ridato speranza alla popolazione somala. Hanno riaperto il porto di Mogadiscio e l’aeroporto chiusi dal 1994. Hanno creato un corpo di polizia. Hanno disarmato le milizie. Insomma hanno dato prova di buon governo in pochi mesi.

Per la prima volta in sedici anni è stato possibile girare a Mogadiscio senza essere quasi certi di morire o avere una scorta armata.

Peace in Somalia.
We want peace in Somalia
Peace in for every one
We want peace in Somalia
Peace in Ethiopia
Cause Babylone shall not rise again
Babylone shall not rise again
Babylone shall not stand again
Babylone shall not stand again
Cause every day they talking about
the Somalian civil war
and everywhere over JAH land
muddy rivers of blood oh Lord!!
No matter who wins, Somalia is crying
no matter who looses, Somalia still crying
no matter who's right, they've got to stop the fight
no matter who's wrong, the devil still stronger...
So we want peace in Somalia
Peace in every one
We want peace in Somalia
peace in Ethiopia
Cause Babylone shall not rise again
Babylone shall not rise again
Babylone shall not stand again
Babylone shall not stand again
We calling on every one to save I and I
We calling every one to save I and I
We calling on Allah to save I and I
Calling I'n I to save I and I
cry, cry Somalia...

Hussein Aden

Peace in Somalia.

Somalia: Killings, Arrests Shatter Independent Media

2007-10-23T14:36:00.000+02:00

Somali Transitional Government, Mr. President Yussuf and Mr. Prime Minister Geeddi must protect journalists and respect free expression.

The Somali government’s systematic harassment of journalists, its closures of media outlets, and its failure to investigate the killing of eight journalists have deeply damaged independent reporting in Somalia, Human Rights Watch said today.

On October 19, two unknown gunmen shot at close range Bashir Nur Gedi, the acting manager of Shabelle Media radio, outside a cafe in Mogadishu. Gedi was the eighth journalist to have been killed in Somalia in 2007. In addition, almost a dozen journalists have been wounded, including during major fighting in Mogadishu, making this the most dangerous year ever for the Somali media.

“The violent attacks on Somalia’s journalists threaten their courageous reporting on the crisis in Mogadishu,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch. “The transitional Somali government must condemn and investigate these attacks as well as cease its own harassment of the media.

"Since January, when the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) established itself in Mogadishu, conflict has escalated between TFG and Ethiopian forces on one side and a coalition of insurgent groups on the other. This has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and displaced up to 400,000 people from the Somali capital.

All sides have been responsible for numerous, serious abuses of civilians.

The growth of independent media and civil society – one of the few success stories in Somalia’s 17 years of violent, stateless warfare – has been severely damaged over the past 10 months. Somali journalists reporting on the crisis have come under increasing attack, including through targeted killings. The transitional Somali government has subjected many journalists to arbitrary arrest and detention, and repeatedly closed independent media outlets.

The perpetrators of most of the eight killings of individual journalists in 2007 remain unknown. To date, Somali government officials have consistently failed to condemn the killings, much less investigate, arrest, or prosecute anyone in connection with them.

On February 16, Ali Mohammed Omar, a journalist working for Warsan Radio, was shot in the head as he left the station’s Baidoa office. The killings on August 11 of Ali Iman Sharmarke and Mahad Ahmed Elmi – respectively the owner and a senior radio journalist at HornAfrik, one of the country’s most prominent media outlets – dealt a massive blow to independent journalism. Several prominent HornAfrik staff fled the country in the days after the murders. The recent killing of Shabelle Media’s Bashir Nur Gedi follows months of government attempts to close Shabelle.

Several journalists in Mogadishu say they believe they are being hunted by unknown men in civilian clothes armed with pistols. Some reporters have received anonymous death threats by telephone. One journalist working in Mogadishu told Human Rights Watch that on September 23 he was attacked by three men in central Mogadishu, and only survived because the pistol jammed repeatedly.

He and other Somali journalists describe a critical situation in Mogadishu, with media targeted by both the Somali government and insurgent forces. Although the identity of the attackers is often unclear, the threats and type of attack, which have included a remote explosive device in at least one case, suggest to some journalists that insurgent as well as government forces may be responsible for the killings.

“The government and the insurgent groups must stop threatening the media,” said Takirambudde.

Many journalists were wounded during the major military operations between Ethiopian and TFG forces against the insurgents in Mogadishu earlier this year. During intense fighting in April, at least three journalists working for HornAfrik were wounded when their radio station came under sustained Ethiopian shelling and rocket barrages.

TFG forces have repeatedly harassed and detained Somali journalists, particularly in connection with their reporting on events in Mogadishu. The TFG has on occasion asserted that the reporting incited violence. Human Rights Watch documented the detention of more than 40 Somali journalists this year. Although most of them were released within a few hours, others were held for long periods without charge.

On September 17 Somali government troops fired on Shabelle Media compound and briefly detained 16 of its staff members. The government alleged that a grenade was thrown from the building, which Shabelle vehemently denied. The following day, government troops laid siege to Shabelle radio again, closing the radio station for two weeks.

The armed attacks on Shabelle followed months of temporary closures of media outlets by TFG forces. In January 2007, the TFG tried to close down three local radio companies including the two most popular FM stations – HornAfrik and Shabelle – as well as the international broadcaster Al-Jazeera. On March 21, the TFG closed Al-Jazeera, this time permanently, claiming it was giving air time to terrorists. The Somali radio stations continued to transmit despite threats to their operations. In June, the TFG again ordered the closure of three local stations, HornAfrik, Shabelle, and Holy Koran Radio.

“Somali media are a critical forum for Somali debate and a key source of information on what is otherwise an almost invisible crisis,” said Takirambudde. “Ensuring independent media and freedom of expression is critical, not only at this volatile time, but for a more stable Somalia in the future.”

Hussein Aden.

Source: HornAfrik

Somali reporter killing condemned

2007-10-22T11:00:00.000+02:00

Monday, October 22

Press watchdogs and unions have condemned the killing of a Somali radio journalist in Mogadishu, the eighth reporter to be killed in Somalia this year.

Bashir Nuur Geeddi, Radio Shabelle's acting chairman, was shot dead on Friday in what has been described by a journalist's union as a politically motivated killing.

The broadcaster, who was shot by unidentified fighters, was buried in Mogadishu on Saturday.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), a Somali-based press freedom group, said the killing was politically motivated.

"It is totally intolerable and sends clear message to each media person that his or her life in risk because of his or her media activity," Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ secretary-general, said in a statement.

"We have been appealing to political groups to end killing of media people, but no group listens," Osman said.

Critical arrest

Radio Shabelle was already closed several times in this year by the Somali interim government, loyal to Ethiopia and during Geeddi's funeral, authorities in the northern area of Puntland, the same clan of the Somali's interim President and former warlord of Puntland, arrested three reporters from Radio Garowe after the station aired a story criticizing the national security service, NUSOJ said.

Journalists in Somalia - which has had no central government since Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991 - routinely face death, arbitrary imprisonment and harassment.

The danger has intensified since the Somalia's government backed by Ethiopian military forces, expelled Union of Islamic Courts fighters from Mogadishu last year.

Journalists have faced attacks from both the government and armed fighters angered by controversial reports published by Somalia's press.

In September, the government rounded up 18 of the broadcaster's journalists.

Hussein Aden

Source: Agencies

Somalia: La tempesta dopo il fulmine 1

2007-10-19T11:25:00.000+02:00

Hussein Aden

Milano

19 ottobre 2007

Dopo anni di guerra civile nella mia nazione, Somalia, "dimenticata" da Dio e dagli uomini, all'improvviso assistiamo a un iper-dinamismo apparente che somiglia più ai primi anni della guerra dei «signori» che alla rinascita di uno stato somalo.

Una tempesta devastante, dopo il fulmine a ciel sereno della breve parentesi del domino islamista nel centro-sud del Paese.

Un proverbio somalo recita «Un uomo bagnato non si guarda dall'acqua», nonostante ciò questa tempesta pone quesiti nuovi e preoccupanti, non tanto per i civili massacrati (ce ne sarebbero stati comunque, in ogni caso), ma piuttosto per il momento, gli attori e le conseguenze.

Divido in diversi parti la mia riflessione per tentare di capirci qualcosa anch'io.

Hussein Aden

Somalia: La tempesta dopo il fulmine 2

2007-10-19T11:13:00.000+02:00

Il momento:

La Somalia è l'unico caso nella storia moderna di uno stato fallito come capita ogni tanto alle aziende. Senza governo, senza ministri e ministeri, senza nessuna autorità politica, senza esercito o polizia, scuole e qualunque cosa che possa dare la minima parvenza di uno Stato. Senza ambasciate o passaporti.

Insomma, la Somalia a un certo punto scompare e basta. Dopo il fallimentare intervento degli Stati Uniti e, in seguito, dell'ONU, dal 1992 al 1994 il paese è stato abbandonato al suo destino. In realtà viene usato per svolgervi varie attività più o meno dannose.
Innanzitutto è diventata la discarica mondiale dei rifiuti tossici. Basta guardare sui siti somali le foto dei bambini nati deformi a causa della radioattività e di altre sostanze pericolose. Ricordo il caso di una bambina nata senza organi genitali, e che nemmeno poteva soddisfare i basilari bisogni corporei.

La Somalia di colpo si è ritrovata in una situazione che l'Europa ha già conosciuto. Il periodo feudale. Ogni uomo che è riuscito a saccheggiare abbastanza da permettersi di pagare qualche milizia si crea il proprio feudo, in cui la vita e la morte della popolazione civile dipendono da come si sveglia la mattina.

Ovviamente, per finanziarsi tutto diventa lecito. Dallo schiavismo per portare a termine la raccolta nei campi alla coltivazione di droghe, all'importazione dei soliti rifiuti tossici. Qualcuno riesce persino a battere moneta o comprarsi i soldi del Monopoli da imporre nel suo quartiere, per poi fare da "ufficio cambi" e prendersi i dollari di rimessa mandati dai somali che vivono all'estero alle loro famiglie.

Una situazione del genere porta alla disperazione chiunque si trovi nel paese e all'esasperazione quelli che si sono rifugiati all'estero, ma che devono comunque mantenere i loro cari in una situazione angosciante.

Dalla frammentazione della popolazione in tanti clan o sottoclan, grandi famiglie che non si fidano una dell'altra, dalla loro stanchezza e mancanza di speranza per il futuro è a un certo punto nato un gruppo che coglie l'unico elemento che accomuna tutti i somali e che poteva fungere da collante per ricomporre la fiducia e fermare la guerra.

La religione islamica. Gli islamisti hanno semplicemente raccolto l'esasperazione della massa, sostenendo che non si uccide una persona solo perché di clan diverso. Non si violenta una ragazza solo perché non è del tuo clan. Non si deruba una vedova con orfani solo perché il suo clan è lontano da te.

Nel giro di sei mesi, senza grandi sforzi hanno conquistato non solo Mogadiscio, ma gran parte del Centro-Sud della Somalia. Avevano il consenso di tutti i somali, compresi quelli all'estero, e non ci voleva molto.

Hanno scacciato i baroni feudali che per 16 anni hanno imperversato e che raschiavano le ossa di una popolazione ormai da loro ridotta alla fame. Nessuno si aspettava un cambiamento così veloce dopo molto anni di staticità e potere incontrastato dei signori della guerra, praticamente un fulmine a ciel sereno.

Insomma, hanno riacceso la speranza.È proprio in questo momento che avviene la tempesta, e che questi islamisti vengono spazzati via. È in questa situazione che il governo provvisorio somalo chiede l'intervento dell'Africa per farsi mandare i soldati.

Richiesta che verrà approvata. Ma perché proprio adesso? Perché in questi 16 anni nessuno è intervenuto per fermare i «signori della guerra» che schiavizzavano la popolazione?

Perché proprio ora che un gruppo di islamisti è riuscito a liberare la gente da questi baroni schiavisti, questi ultimi vengono riportati al comando dei loro feudi? Se erano proprio loro ad impedire al governo di insediarsi a Mogadiscio, perché il governo non aveva mai chiesto prima l'intervento dell'ONU e dell'Africa, ma ha preteso un intervento solo quando sono stati scacciati via?

Tutto questo è avvenuto nell'interesse della popolazione somala o risponde a interessi altrui, e se sì quali?

Hussein Aden

Somalia: La tempesta dopo il fulmine 3

2007-10-19T11:05:00.000+02:00

Gli autori.

Il Presidente di transizione somalo è uno dei più forti signori della guerra del clan di Siad Barre [ex dittatore] anche se di un sottoclan diverso.

Abdullahi Yusuf, dopo essersi già imposto in passato in Punt Land, Nord-Est della Somalia, con l'esercito etiope, pare abbia l'obiettivo di raggiungere un giorno il controllo di tutta la Somalia.

Data la guerra tra vari signori della guerra, nessuno di questi vedeva di buon occhio il potere crescente di questo Abdullahi Yusuf, compresi quelli del suo clan.

Somalia ed Etiopia sono rivali storici da tempo immemorabile, e solo dopo l'indipendenza della Somalia del 1960 ci sono state due guerre tra i due paesi, nel 1964 e 1977.

I somali vedono gli Etiopi, a torto o a ragione, come i naturali nemici di sempre, anche se in questi ultimi anni tanti somali si sono rifugiati in Etiopia o all'estero, e i due popoli si sono scoperti più vicini di quanto credessero.

Comunque, che l'esercito etiope intervenga al fianco di Abdullahi Yusuf non piace a nessun somalo. E ancor meno piace a quelli che ritengono che Abdullahi Yusuf abbia solo l'obiettivo di ottenere la poltrona di presidente, come suo tempo fece Siad Barre, il presidente che l'aveva incarcerato. E che per questo sospettano che Abdullahi sia disposto a tutto pur di ottenere il suo scopo.

Infatti non esitò a parlare di Al Qaida in Somalia tanti anni fa, solo per attirare l'attenzione, proprio come avviene oggi. E in entrambi i casi la cosa è costata molti morti alla popolazione civile.

Hussein Aden

Somalia: La tempesta dopo il fulmine 4

2007-10-19T11:00:00.000+02:00

La modalità.

Che l'Etiopia invada il Paese è di per se inaccettabile per i somali, ma che l'esercito etiope, dopo aver conquistato il resto della Somalia, riesca a bombardare Mogadiscio con i Mig, i somali l'hanno considerata come un'umiliazione in un momento di debolezza.

Ancora di più quando sono arrivati a Mogadiscio i carri armati con la bandiera dell'Etiopia: è apparsa la dimostrazione della conquista avvenuta.

La Somalia è occupata dal nemico di sempre.Si poteva evitare tutto ciò intervenendo prima e accelerando l'arrivo di soldati da altri paesi africani.

Ammassandoli lungo i confini dell'Etiopia, Kenya e Gibuti, e facendoli sbarcare lungo tutta la costa somala. In tal modo i somali non si sarebbero sentiti conquistati, ma sostenuti contro i signori della guerra e questi ultimi non si sarebbero opposti per mancanza di mezzi.

Questo avrebbe permesso anche agli Stati Uniti di entrare con i propri reparti speciali senza prima bombardare una vasta zona, e senza massacrare innumerevoli vittime innocenti e migliaia di animali che erano l'unico sostentamento della popolazione nomade.

Il fatto che l'Unione Africana abbia dato inizialmente la sua benedizione all'invasione etiope e al bombardamento americano aveva scioccato tutti quelli che si aspettavano almeno la reazione del mondo.

E la constatazione che l'ONU, la Lega Araba e l'UE abbiano mormorato le solite frasi di rito ha confermato l'idea corrente che, quando sono coinvolti gli americani allora tutto è lecito o quanto meno non è il caso di alzare la voce.

Solo pochi paesi nel mondo, in primis l'Italia, hanno criticato questa modalità e condannato apertamente il bombardamento indiscriminato degli americani.

Hussein Aden

Somalia: La tempesta dopo il fulmine 5

2007-10-19T10:56:00.000+02:00

Le conseguenze.

La prima conseguenza dell'intervento etiope e statunitense è stata creare la diffusa opinione che non si stia facendo l'interesse dei somali.

La conquista della Somalia da parte dell'Etiopia, con il tacito consenso del mondo se non la sua palese benedizione, pregiudica la fiducia della popolazione civile nei confronti dei soldati di altri paesi del mondo che un giorno potrebbero essere dislocati nel Paese.

Di conseguenza suscita la nascita di una resistenza sia oggi, all'esercito etiope, sia a eventuali altri in arrivo, rendendo in tal modo difficile un futuro intervento di «peace keeping» e la rinascita dello stato somalo.

Hussein Aden