Ecoterra Press Release 234 – The Somalia Chronicle June – December 2009, no 46

Following the Somalia Spring 2009 Chronicles, I herewith republish the Ecoterra press releases issued in the second half of 2009. I reproduce the integral version of all Ecoterra press releases in a recapitulative effort to provide the global readership with the most comprehensive collection of texts published worldwide about the most abominable Western postcolonial involvement in Africa, namely the systematic effort of extermination of the Somali Nation. The vast documentation provided serves as basic point of reference to students, researchers, analysts and intellectuals.

ECOTERRA Intl.

SMCM

Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor

ECOTERRA INTERNATIONAL - UPDATES & STATEMENTS, REVIEW & CLEARING-HOUSE

2009-08-26 WED 21h43:27 UTC

Issue No. 234

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

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

EA ILLEGAL FISHING AND DUMPING HOTLINE: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) - email: somalia[at]ecoterra.net

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme EMERGENCY HELPLINE : SMS to +254-738-497979 or sms/call +254-733-633-733

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

Cpt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y Tanit - killed by French commandos - 10. April 2009 / Ras Hafun

NON A LA GUERRE - YES FOR PEACE

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

We have the obligation to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it appears, and believe that anybody who is degrading other people and peoples has to be fought against with whatever appropriate tools people have available.

Clearing-House: Cut out the clutter - focus on facts !

(If you find this compilation too large or if you can't grasp the multitude and magnitude of important, inter-related and complex issues influencing the Horn of Africa - you better do not deal with Somalia or other man-made "conflict zones". We try to make it as easy and condensed as possibly.)

Breaking:

One French Agent Free

News from Somalia were today dominated by the lucky escape of a French man, Marc Aubrière, from his captors of Hezb al-Islam.

"I am doing well, even if my month-and-a-half detention was terribly long," said the French intelligence agent from the African Union Forces' base in Mogadishu.

He told RFI: "Tuesday night around midnight I took advantage of my jailers being asleep and tired from Ramadan. I saw my cell was not closed properly, so I took off without violence," and said: "I walked at night for almost five hours guided by the stars, to get back to the area that I was looking for," he said of finding safety. "Mogadishu is deserted at night, and the only people you cross are armed. I was shot at, I ran, I hid and luckily they missed."

Surprised government soldiers at first mistook the bearded, shaggy-haired stranger as a foreign fighter, and held him at the edge of the compound for nearly an hour before realizing he was an escaped hostage, according to Mohamed Sheik, head of Somalia's intelligence agency.

While the TFG Information minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle got entangled in mixing up if one or two French hostages were released, the best account in our opinion was given by Mr. Aubrière himself in an interview with Jeffry Gettleman for the New York Times (see below or at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/world/africa/27somalia.html )

Gettleman, who incidentally had flown into Mogadishu this morning was so close to the scene that others even reported to the outside world that the French agent had been freed together with a journalist, stirring up activities, because Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, 36, and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout, 28, are still held hostage in Mogadishu since one year.

Residents in Mogadishu say al-Shabab fighters have been searching vehicles Wednesday at various checkpoints set up in areas under their control, which had led to speculation that the second French hostage may also have escaped or has been set free without authorization.

Though several Government sources had stated that the release of the French man working as security adviser was a success of the Somali intelligence service and many claim that a ransom of between US$2 and 4 million had been prepared or was already paid to Hesb al-Islam, while rumours even spoke of up to three of his guards the French agent had killed during his escape, insiders know that he was "up for sale" and back in Mogadishu already since more than a week.

A Hisbul Islam spokesman, Mohamed Osman Aruus, accoding to VOA, denied that anyone in his group had received a ransom.

"The hostage held by Hezb al-Islam was able to escape his kidnappers. Despite certain allegations and rumours this happened without violence and France did not pay a ransom," French Government spokesman Eric Chevallier told reporters.

It was initially reported that the pair were journalists, but the French Foreign Ministry later confirmed that they had been working with the federal transition government on "security matters".

Unfortunately Chevallier also had to confirm that the second of the two hostages, French government agents kidnapped on July 14 from their Mogadishu hotel during a mission to train Somali forces, was "still being held". It is said that this man is held by an al-Shabab group.

Al-Shebab had said earlier the men would be tried under Sharia Law, and it was also suggested that they might have been held in return for the release of Somali pirates jailed in France.

Mr Aubriere's escape certainly will put more stress on the captors of his colleague and could jeopardize his unharmed safety.

The French intelligence officer, however, stated that he was treated very well during captivity and hopes that those holding the second French hostage as well as all other hostages show likewise their humanity.

Frenchman Recalls Escape in Somalia

By Jeffrey Gettleman - New York Times

In the end, it came down to a single forgotten bolt.

Marc Aubrière, a French security adviser who was held hostage in Somalia for over a month, said he simply slipped open a lock on the inside of his cell door — a lock his captors had somehow overlooked. He then tiptoed past the sleeping guards, who are part of an extremist Islamist group that has threatened to behead all infidels, and dashed out the door barefoot, "so as not to make noise," he said.

Next, he made it to the streets of Mogadishu, one of the most perilous cities in the world — a place where a lone bearded white man like him would immediately draw attention, and where there is no shortage of thugs, opportunists and religious extremists eager to capture a foreigner and try to sell him off for millions.

"It was like being in a prison inside a jail inside another jail," Mr. Aubrière said. "Everybody will try to catch you. You have no friend."

With fresh puffy scratches up and down his arms from the cactus bushes he scurried through, Mr. Aubrière somehow made it to the presidential palace shortly before dawn on Wednesday and was free. He managed to find his way, he said, by following the stars, and he had been shot at several times.

"This is a fair game; they play, they lose," he said of his captors. "They can´t complain about me. I didn´t hurt anybody. I didn´t kill anybody. You play, you lose."

Mr. Aubrière, 40, recounted his daring midnight escape in an interview Wednesday afternoon at a dilapidated African Union military base in Mogadishu, where he was awaiting a flight back to Paris.

He and a colleague — who is still in captivity, being held by a separate radical Islamist group — had come to Somalia on behalf of the French government to help train the security forces of Somalia´s fledgling government. But the two were snatched from a Mogadishu hotel on July 14 by rogue security forces who had defected to the insurgency.

Mr. Aubrière insisted, emphatically, several times in an excited voice, that his half dozen, heavily-armed captors treated him like a gentleman, never hitting him, always feeding him and making sure he had plenty of water.

"They were young guys, but good guys," he said.

He talked about what he ate — "spaghetti, rice, meat from sheep, you know, the normal Somali stuff" — and how he trained for weeks in his cell, cranking out push-ups and walking for hours back and forth in a tiny, bald room, always barefoot, "to toughen up my feet." To kill time, he read the one book he could get his hands on, Dan Brown´s "Deception Point."

"I read that book eight times," he said. "I hate this book now."

Mr. Aubrière batted down rumors circulating in the city that the French government paid $2 million for his release saying, "If they gave money, would I have escaped myself?" A Foreign Ministry official also stressed that no ransom had been paid and that, contrary to some reports, there had been no violence or shooting connected to the escape.

On Wednesday, Mr. Aubrière looked oddly fit for a man who had been confined to a cell for the past month and had just emerged from a death-defying experience. He has narrow, dark eyes, a wooly black beard with a silver chin and thick arms. (He shooed away attempts to be photographed.) He was wearing a striped Somali shirt someone had given him, white pants and sandals.

He said now that he was free, the thing he really wanted to do was "kiss his wife."

Would he ever want to come back to this country?

"Maybe next life," he said.

Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York, and Dan Bilefsky from Paris.

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

MV HANSA STAVANGER still in hostage games

While the crew is safely back home and the German Captain vowed never to wotrk again for the German company, which let them down for month on end, it has transpired that 73 of the containers on the vessel had been looted by the Somali pirates.

Most of these containers are said to have contained shipments of electronic goods such as computers and clothing.

That many people are now well dressed in Harardheere, the pirate den at the Central Somali coast had been observed already earlier, but due to lack of local schools and electricity most of the computers are feared to end up where they were actually destined for: Nairobi in Kenya - though on the blackmarket and not in the shops who ordered them.

These shopowners and all the other owners of containers onthe ill-fated vessel are now up in arms, because the ship owner and their assessors hold now the cargo-owners hostage by having slammed a payment of 40% of the value of the goods on them before they can recive their containers - looted or not.

Still the vessel is in Mombasa and reluctant to unload the containers even into the terminal of the Kenya Ports Authority because the shipowner obviously fers that he would loose that unfair hostage game if he would do so without having received the payments with which he tries to hold himself damagefree.

Danish seamen held by pirates fail to win compensation – dpa

Four crew members on a Danish vessel that was held for 83 days by pirates off Somalia in 2007 failed Wednesday to get compensation from a shipping company.

The Danica White cargo ship was seized by pirates in June 2007 while carrying mostly building materials from Dubai to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

In a lawsuit the Danish seamen's union had demanded damages for the four seamen totalling 1.3 million kroner (250,000 dollars), citing that the crew had not been properly informed about the risk of pirate attacks off Somalia.

The Copenhagen district court however cleared the shipping company H Folmer & Co and the ship's captain - who was also held hostage - saying the plaintiffs had 'not proved that the owner or captain had been negligent.'

Since the event, international efforts have been stepped up to protect shipping lanes off Somalia and naval forces from several countries, including Denmark, have arrested suspected pirates.

The crew was freed after a ransom was reportedly paid.

In a similar case of neglect, the Yemeni ship-owner of SEA PRINCESS II has not paid any compensation yet to the family of an Indian sailor, who had been killed during the attack of pirates, which later held the vessel in a long odyssee until it was freed only after the intervention of a humanitarian organization.

Philippine Palace nixes ransom for 22 Pinoys in Somalia – GMAnews

Malacañang has confirmed that a group of Somali pirates is asking for $2.8 million or almost P137 million in exchange for the release of the Greek-owned MV Irene and its 22 all-Filipino crew.

But Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) should not pay for any part of the ransom being demanded by the pirates even if the ship owner is having difficulty raising the required money.

The St. Vincent-flagged merchant ship MV Irene was hijacked off the Gulf of Aden last April 15.

"We have to reiterate that we cannot depart from our no-ransom policy. Otherwise, we will just be encouraging kidnapping," Remonde said in a phone patch briefing from Sarangani, where a Cabinet meeting was held on Tuesday.

He said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has already ordered the DFA to "see to the needs" of the 22 Filipino seamen still being held hostage.

"The President has directed the DFA to mobilize its organizational and other resources to attend to needs of our brother Filipino seamen in their time of distress," he said.

The families of the victims have earlier appealed to the Philippine government, the United Nations, the African Union, and other international organizations to intervene for the release of the hostages.

An online petition has even been set up for the release of the hostages and the growing problems of piracy. A similar petition has also been set up on networking sites such as Facebook.

The number of Filipino seafarers being held hostage in Somalia have constantly yo-yoed as pirates continually hijack ships passing through the Gulf of Aden, slowly releasing vessels only after ship owners pay multi-million-dollar ransoms.

The Philippine government is encouraging Filipino seafarers to exercise the option to disembark at any port before the ship they are manning passes through the Gulf of Aden, which has seen a rise in pirate attacks in recent months.

In 2008, a total of 117 Filipino seamen on board 11 ships were seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden alone. All have been freed eventually.

This year, Somali pirates also seized 233 Filipinos on board 16 vessels. Forty-two remain in captivity.

Ships captured and still held in Somalia with Filipino crew members:

FV Win Far 161 - Hijacked April 6 with 17 Filipinos.

MV Irene E.M. – Hijacked April 15 with 22 Filipinos aboard.

MV Charelle- Hijacked June 13 with 3 Filipinos.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 6 foreign vessels with a total of not less than 123 crew members are accounted for (of which 42 are confirmed to be Filipinos) and are held in Somali waters. They are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. MV JAIKUR 1 remains in Mogadishu harbor, but is an insurance and not a piracy case - all foreign crew was evacuated. MV INDIAN EXPLORER and S/Y SERENITY are allegedly dead ships. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) had been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 156 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 47 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least six wrongful attacks (incl. one friendly fire incident) on the side of the naval forces. More than 116 Somalis are held in foreign prisons under charges of piracy. Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures. Piracy incidents usually degrade during the monsoon season in winter and rise gradually by the end of the monsoon season starting from mid February and early April every year.

Present multi-factorial risk assessment code: GoA: YELLOW IO: BLUE (Red = Very much likely, high season; Orange = Reduced risk, but very likely, Yellow = significantly reduced risk, but still likely, Blue = possible, Green = unlikely). Allegedly still/again two groups from Puntland alone are out hunting on the Gulf of Aden and in the Indian Ocean, where also groups from Harardheere have set out again, despite the heavy seas and the rough weather.

Directly piracy or naval upsurge related reports

Governments struggle to combat piracy with legal measures

By Sonia Phalnikar and Rob Mudge

Western nations have spent millions to arm their navies patroling the lawless shipping lanes off the Somali coast. But experts say legal efforts to deter pirates are lagging because of complex laws and logistics.

Last week, a German warship apprehended a pirate boat near the Somali coast and found AK-47 assault rifles, ammunition and anti-tank weapons on board. Despite the explosive discovery, the pirates went free after being disarmed.The incident is not an isolated one. In recent years, foreign navies policing the waters off the Somali coast have detained several ships operated by armed sea gangs.

Experts say such leniency sends the wrong signals to would-be sea robbers.

"You can´t just take away the pirates´ weapons and allow them to go scot-free. Pirates are like any other criminals. They´ll just get other weapons and attempt the same thing again," Michael Stehr from the Bonn-based German Maritime Institute, told Deutsche Welle. "Legal deterrence is vital - without it the whole fight against piracy is threatened."

Piracy attacks around the world, in particular on the vast shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe near the Somali coast, have risen sharply. They more than doubled to 240 from 114 during the first six months of this year, according to the ICC International Martime Bureau´s Piracy Reporting Center.

Confusing and disparate laws

The United Nations Law of the Sea convention defines piracy as a universal crime and each of the 158 states that have signed the treaty may arrest pirates at sea and prosecute them at home. But many countries have not fully incorporated this into their national legislation.

Some countries such as Denmark and Canada have no provisions in their penal codes to treat piracy as a punishable offence. Others like Germany - which operates under the EU anti-piracy mission Atalanta off the coast of Somalia - can only make arrests if its own interests are affected.

"The legal prosecution of pirates in Germany is possible if a German ship is attacked, if the victims are German or if the attack results in a huge economic loss," Uwe Jenisch, a maritime expert at the Walter Schücking Institute of International Law in the northern German city of Kiel, told Deutsche Welle.

"The final decision is up to a government committee which looks into prosecution on a case by case basis."

Pirates in the dock

Experts say these huge differences over laws concerning the arrest of pirates has resulted in only a few western nations willing to conduct trials of suspected pirates.

In May this year, five suspected Somali pirates nabbed by the Danish navy went on trial in a court in the Netherlands. In the same month, a Somali teenager, the sole-surviving accused pirate from an attack on an American container ship, was indicted in the US on ten counts.

Some point out that building a legal case against suspected pirates reflects the difficulties many nations find themselves in when deciding what to with a suspected pirate once they are arrested.

Gathering evidence, assembling witnesses who are often far out at sea and of different nationalities and the logistical and legal burdens in transporting pirate suspects to western countries remains daunting, according to Cyrus Mody from the London-based International Maritime Bureau.

"Getting everything in place - the evidence, the witnesses and paying for the process - is difficult enough," Mody told Deutsche Welle. "But the other big concern in western nations is that if the pirates are held here until the lengthy trial is completed, they could apply for asylum."

Concern over Kenya pirate trials

That's one reason why a number of western governments - including the US and within the European Union - have signed agreements with Somalia´s neighbor Kenya on the transfer of suspected Somali pirates for trial in the African country.

The practice has been strongly criticized by legal experts and rights groups who say Kenya´s dubious human rights record means it cannot guarantee a fair trial.

"It´s very convenient for western nations to just wash their hands off the pirates by handing them over to Kenya and thus avoid potential legal headaches," Jenisch said. "But morally, it´s a very questionable practice."

According to Jenisch, around 130 pirate suspects have been transferred to Kenya this year alone.

International piracy court in Hamburg?

The legal challenges posed by 21st century piracy has prompted several nations to call for an international court to be established to deal with the prosecutions. The option is viewed by many as costly and judicially cumbersome.

Germany is debating conducting pirate prosecutions at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, an independent judicial body based in Hamburg with close links to the UN.

Legal experts say the Hamburg court, which hears disputes between states over the UN Law of the Sea convention, would need a new mandate to conduct pirate prosecutions - a process that could take years and long negotiations between UN member states.

But some point out that ultimately, legal tools to deter pirates remain a secondary option at best.

"It's much more important that western nations try to find a political solution to the underlying conflicts within Somalia if they are really interested in stamping out piracy," Jenisch said.

Ecosystems, marine environment, IUU fishing and dumping, ecology

Drought induced crisis looming in the Horn of Africa – AfrolNews

The UN humanitarian wing has reported that a critical water shortage in Ethiopia´s Somali region is threatening the health of the local communities who are being forced to use abandoned ponds and wells for drinking water, which may increase the risk of water-borne diseases.

Regional authorities and humanitarian partners appealed for a resumption of emergency water tankering interventions to avert a further deterioration of the situation, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

The water shortage in Warder, Gode, Afder, Shinille and Degehabur areas of the region is expected to continue until the next rainy season in mid-October.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the prolonged drought´s impact on livestock has been compounded by the migration into Ethiopia of unusually large herds of cattle, camels, goats and sheep from drought-hit areas of neighbouring Somalia and Kenya.

Meanwhile, the UN Children´s Fund (UNICEF) and its partners are continuing to help roll out a targeted feeding programme by providing technical assistance and supplies.

In recent weeks, the agency has dispatched 47 metric tons of ready-to-use therapeutic feeding to health bureaus – enough to treat 4,447 children for one month.

A deadly mix of persistent drought, conflict and the high cost of food are threatening millions of lives in the Horn of Africa, with the global financial crisis intensifying the danger and desperation across the region, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned last month.

Already short on funding, WFP is feeding over 17 million people in the East African region, with numbers expected to rise in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, northern Uganda and Djibouti in the coming months.

"We are knocking on the door of a major regional crisis," said Ramiro Lopes da Silva, WFP's Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa.

"Millions of people across the region are seeing their lives spiral steadily downwards as this frightening confluence of factors - all beyond their control - pushes them closer to destitution," stressed Mr Lopes da Silva.

On top of the mounting humanitarian crisis, WFP is suffering a funding shortfall of almost $450 million needed to continue feeding the hungry in the region for the next six months.

Urging donors to step forward quickly and generously before it is too late, Mr Lopes da Silva said that WFP have reached millions by using "our limited resources intelligently and creatively, but there is no disguising the worrying gaps in our budget for our operations in the Horn."

WFP said that humanitarian assistance is vital for people who are struggling to survive as they sell off assets in a bid to pull through the successive years of drought and conflict, combined with the high price of food on local markets.

Anti-piracy measures

Navy divers join hunt for pirates

A team of Australian Navy divers are on their way to the Horn of Africa to take on bands of heavily-armed Somali pirates.

Five highly-trained Navy personnel were among a group of Defence members who took the weekly Defence flight to the Middle East from Darwin last night.

The clearance divers will join the crew of HMAS Toowoomba, which has been serving in the Middle East since June, to ensure safe passage for ships through one of the most dangerous waters in the world.

More than 100 ships were attacked and 42 hijacked in the Gulf of Aden and the Somalia region last year, with 60 attacks and 25 successful hijackings already this year.

No real peace in sight yet

Government Officials Say They Will Retake Over Whole Control of Hiran Region

By Hassan Osman Abdi

The transitional government officials in Beledweyn town have said that they will retake over the control of whole the region which parts it is manned by the Islamist forces in the region, officials told Shabelle radio on Wednesday.

There has been fighting between Islamist forces and government soldiers in parts of Hiran region in central Somalia that caused more casualties of deaths and injuries.

Salad Hared, a deputy chief of the transitional government soldiers in Hiran region told Shabelle radio that they will attack with the Islamist forces who are in the west side of Beledweyn town adding that they will also take over the control of whole the region.

Asked about the Ethiopian troops' arrival in Hiran region, the deputy commander replied that he knew only that the transitional government soldiers were those who are in the region currently.

The statement of government officials in Hiran region comes as there has been tension between the Islamist forces and government troops in parts of the Hiran region in central Somalia.

Insurgents attack hotel housing Somalia MPs on Ramadan break, 2 killed

At least two people were killed Tuesday in the Somali capital Mogadishu after suspected insurgents targeted a hotel where Somali lawmakers stay, a day after the federal parliament took a month-long break, Radio Garowe reports.

Somali government officials said the two dead men were insurgents, who attacked Hotel Wehliye with assault rifles and rocket launchers. Upwards of 40 Somali federal parliamentarians stay at the hotel, officials said.

Sheikh Abdirisak Mohamed Qeylow, a Somali military official, displayed to reporters the dead bodies of two young men, whom he said were killed in the "unsuccessful attack" on Hotel Wehliye.

Somali government forces and the hotel´s armed guards successfully defended against two separate attacks, which were launched Monday night and Tuesday morning, the official added.

At least four people, among them a government soldier, were wounded during the attacks.

Somali rebel groups, namely Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, have not spoken publicly about the latest attack on the hotel housing Somali MPs, but insurgents have often targeted government personnel and buildings.

Meanwhile, Somalia´s federal parliament Speaker, Sheikh Aden "Madobe" Mohamed, announced yesterday that lawmakers are on break in observance of the Holy Month of Ramadan, when Muslims worldwide observe the religious duty to fast for a month.

"The lawmakers are Muslims and they need time off…there will be no meetings [during Ramadan]," Speaker Madobe said. The Islamic month of Ramadan started on August 22 on the Gregorian calendar.

Rumors

Speaker Madobe categorically rejected reports that Ethiopian troops had entered districts along the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, saying: "There are no foreign troops inside the country that parliament is aware of."

The Ethiopian government has denied that any of its troops are present on Somali soil. The Ethiopian army withdrew from regions in south-central Somalia in January 2009, after a two-year military intervention sparked today's insurgency.

In recent weeks, many Somali lawmakers who spent plenty of time outside Mogadishu, and particularly in foreign capitals like Nairobi, had returned to the Somali capital to participate at parliamentary meetings.

Islamists close to fight each other in Kismayo

Different Islamist groups in Kismayo are on the verge to fight in the town after al Shabaab rejected to hand over the power.

Sources say Raskamboni, one of the Islamist Insurgents fighting against the Somali government wanted to take over the leadership of Kismayo administration, but al Shabaab refused to do so.

Letters reading that there was no any administration were seen in the town and the letters were written by Raskamboni Insurgent group.

The leader of the administration in Kismayo is from al Shabaab and his deputy is from Raskamboni.

When they were forming the administration in August 2008, al Shabaab promised they would hand over the leadership of the administration to Raskamoni after one year, but they have now rejected to hand over when the time of promise ended.

Reports from the town say tension is high and the two groups are on the verge to fight between in the town.

Sheik Hassan Yacqub Ali, the spoikesman of the administration denied Wednesday that there was a dispute about the leadership of the town between the Islamist groups.

Meanwhile in the diaspora powerful Somali groups have held talks and strategized how to free Southern Somalia from the hardline Islamists and transform it into the envisaged moderately governed regional state of Jubland within a Federal Somalia.

Ramadan

Meanwhile the Islamic administration of Kismayu town, 500 kilometers south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, has banned the sales of explosives, which had also killed many children, and warned the people not to sell cooked food in the town. This for the sake of the holy month of Ramadan, officials stated Wednesday.

Sheik Abu Hureira Isma'il, a deputy chairman of Kismayu administration, warned the businessmen in the town not to sell the explosive substances that the children played with in earlier years during festival days and celebrations like fire-crackers, pistols and other small arms, saying that whoever is seen ignoring the order will be punished.

Abu Hureira Isma'il also said that there are people who secretly cook food around the streets and in the neighbourhoods of the town during daytime as the people are fasting - warning them not to cook or sell food - and announcing that those who disobey will be punished.

Police arrest ex-governor in connection with Puntland minister's assassination

Security forces in Somalia´s Puntland State government have arrested a former regional governor in connection with the assassination of a Cabinet minister earlier this month, Radio Garowe reports.

Mr. Abdinur Mohamed "Gessey," the former governor of Mudug region, was arrested at a house in the provincial capital Galkayo in a police operation overnight Monday, sources said.

Mr. Gessey did not resist authorities as police and soldiers raided the home. He is currently being held at the Galkayo central region, according to police officials.

Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed "Farole," the president of Puntland State, revoked Mr. Gessey of his duty as governor two weeks ago after the former governor refused to appear in public following the assassination of Puntland´s former information minister, Mr. Warsame Abdi "Sefta Bananka."

Widespread speculation linked Mr. Gessey to the information minister´s killing, but Mr. Gessey has repeatedly rejected any connection to the murder case.

Separately, Mr. Gessey´s son shot and killed a relative of the deceased information minister overnight Monday and escaped. Puntland authorities continue to conduct search operations in Galkayo, which is under a nighttime curfew.

Independent sources said the latest victim, identified as Gobe Ali Hobar, is a distant relative of Mr. Sefta Bananka, Puntland´s late information minister who was assassinated in Galkayo on August 5. Mr. Gessey´s son and the late Mr. Hobar reportedly had an argument over the information minister´s assassination before a fatal bullet ended Mr. Hobar´s life.

The killers behind Mr. Sefta Bananka´s assassination have yet to be brought to court, but police investigations into the matter continue.

Meanwhile, Puntland´s leaders, including President Farole and the Vice President, Gen. Abdisamad Ali Shire, say they are committed to staying in Galkayo until the city elects a new District Council representing the city´s various interests.

The new District Council, which is almost complete, is expected to elect a mayor, police commanders and court judges.

Puntland is a relatively stable region in northeastern Somalia that supports a federal system of government for the war-torn Horn of Africa country .

The self-governing state has held peaceful elections followed by orderly transition of power, most recently in January 2009 when Dr. Farole became Puntland's third elected leader.

Yemen envoy meets Somali Foreign Minister

Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Jame met on Wednesday in the Somali capital Mogadishu Yemeni ambassador to Somali Ahmed Hamed Omar.

During the meeting, the Yemeni ambassador handed Jama over a cable of congratulation from Foreign Minster Abu Baker al-Qirbi on his appointment as a new Minister of Foreign Affairs of Somalia.

Jame and Omar discussed the latest developments in Somali and efforts to heal the rift between the Somalis.

The Somali official expressed appreciation for Yemen's role in supporting Somalia.

Let no one forget hostage journalists in Somalia - Edmonton Journal

Sunday marked a sad anniversary every Albertan should keep close to heart. Twelve months ago, journalist Amanda Lindhout of Sylvan Lake and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were abducted by thugs in Somalia, where they have been held hostage ever since. The families of the two have been battered by death threats, ever-changing ransom demands, emotionally-wrought pleas by Lindhout for help and troubling reports of the duo's condition.

It's a difficult, frustrating business, dealing with heartless human dregs who would kidnap innocents for sheer financial gain, along with the fear of their appalling "business" being exposed. Political pressure or moral suasion is rarely in play in this sordid league operating in what amounts to be a dysfunctional outlaw state. Indeed, some hostages are kept for years, essentially human fodder in a latter-day slave trade, with masters waiting for the right price.

Of course, we assume the Canadian and Australian governments have been doing their best to secure the release of their own. It couldn't be easy, and discretion can be an ally to achieve a successful outcome. And yet a joint announcement made by the two families last weekend leaves the clear implication that those closest to Lindhout and Brennan are beginning to feel the two have become forgotten. The families have done what they were told, which was to remain publicly silent. Indeed, very little is actually known about the case, since government agencies have been all-but-mum on the subject.

While that might indicate a delicate stage of negotiations is taking place, the families' statement indicates otherwise. In reaffirming their commitment to pull out all the stops in securing the earliest possible release of the prisoners, they made a point of noting that the hard lifting so far has been done "with little outside support," an obvious reference to governments in Ottawa and Canberra. Organizations such as the Canadian Association of Journalists have recently asked Prime Minister Harper to redouble our efforts and requested an update. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, the global experts on this file, has admitted it never suspected the hostage-taking to have festered for so long without some sort of resolution. Expressing the sentiment most of us would feel under the same circumstances, spokesperson Benoit Hervieu said Friday, "It's true that we feel weak. It's one year now; it's a completely chaotic situation."

Flags have been rightly been raised by the mixed signals sent by the Harper government in bringing captured Canadians back home. That acknowledged, the depressing truth could be that it--and the recently-elected Labour government of Australia, with a much different world view than that of our Conservatives --are essentially powerless to do very much to bring poor Lindhout and Brennan back home.

It is up to the rest of us to make sure the two aren't lost in the relentless passage of time and that efforts from both governmental and non-governmental agencies to free them continue. There are those who mutter that the duo was asking for trouble and found it. Travelling to the most dangerous corners of the planet without a sponsoring organization is very risky, to the point of being foolhardy in some instances. The two American journalists recently freed in North Korea by a visit from former U. S. president Bill Clinton, for example, worked for a media outlet partially owned by Al Gore, which obviously added a degree of clout. Lindhout and Brennan were freelancers.

But then, it is also fundamentally wrong to further punish the victims. Brave journalists--along with aid workers and dozens of other callings on the front lines--willing to risk their liberty in pursuit of the truth aren't a quaint anachronism or fools, but heroes. We must never forget Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan and hope they soon enjoy freedom.

Is Dahabshiil fanning discord in Somaliland?

Dahabshiil, the money transfer service, is financing Somaliland´s opposition party, Kulmiye, whose " grand political strategy has been to erect a wedge between the Isaaq electorate and the Gadabursi in an effort to rally the Isaaq electorate behind the party," according to a prominent Somaliland writer Adan H Iman . Writing in Awdalnews.com , Adam Iman described the brutal murder of four innocent in July as a criminal act that shattered "the harmony" in Somaliland. [ Somaliland: Brutal Murders Shatter Harmony]

"Some members of the overseas Awdal communities are expressing a desire to boycott the businesses believed to be extending unlimited financial resources to Kulmiye especially DAHABSHIIL, the money transfer company. They argue that the dollar they are paying to send money is being used to endanger the existence of their people, corrupt the political system and destroy the country," wrote Adam.

It is the first time Dahabshiil is alleged to have been fanning clan feuds in Somaliland. Dahabshiil has not challenged allegations about its role in political and clan differences in Somaliland.

Impacting reports from the global village

How Kenya's 'Little Mogadishu' became a hub for Somali militants

By Heba Aly for CSM

The Somali enclave of Eastleigh in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, is now a recruiting and financial center for hardline Islamists fighting in neighboring Somalia.

The streets of Eastleigh, a Somali enclave of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, are crowded and dirty. Sewage and rotting garbage flow through gullies. Police are virtually nonexistent; restaurants are locked, even when open, for safety reasons; and guns are readily available for sale at the market.

No one ever said "Little Mogadishu" was paradise, but now the sprawling neighborhood has become a hub of financing and recruiting for militant Islamists waging holy war in neighboring Somalia, according to residents, security analysts, and diplomats.

"Those who kill people in Somalia are also here – scattered all over the place," says an elderly Sufi Muslim sheikh matter-of-factly. "This is the hotspot of the Somali fundamentalism.... They are recruiting right here in Nairobi."

In the latest chapter in a civil war that has raged since 1991, Somalia's radical insurgents this week rejected the Western-backed transitional government's call for a cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Militant and moderate Islamists are battling for control of the rubble-strewn streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, fighting that has forced more than 1.4 million people to flee their homes and caused what the United Nations on Wednesday called the country's worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years of war.

But here in Eastleigh, the war takes a different form. Little Mogadishu has become a port through which Somali insurgents raise money and recruit fighters, especially for the militant group, Al Shabab, which has been labeled an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist organization by the US government.

"What we know is that Al Shabab is very popular in Eastleigh," says Roland Marchal, senior research fellow at the Paris-based National Center for Scientific Research. "Al Shabab has been able at different moments to bring a number of people in Eastleigh to fight in Somalia. It's very likely that a number of economic operators in Eastleigh try to collect money and support this organization."

Why young Somali-Kenyans join militants

Outside a small green-gated home in Eastleigh, the elderly sheikh – who declined to be named due to the grave threat to anyone talking about Somali militant operations – says agents of Somali insurgents have recruited from across the country dozens of Somali-Kenyans, most in their early 20s, who are missing and presumed dead in Somalia. Though their parents were moderate, a lack of employment or alternatives led them to become students of madrassas (religious schools), where they adopted more extreme ideologies, he says. (Read our in-depth story: How one youth was drawn to jihad in Somalia.)

Estimates of the number of recruited Kenyans range from dozens to thousands, most – but not all – Somali-Kenyans. The insurgency benefits from an effective recruitment network that works out of Eastleigh. Diplomats say recruiters use a combination of money and brainwashing to pull in the youths, many of them from refugee camps and areas along the Somali border.

"These young men have no ID papers, no future," says the sheikh. "The only future they see is blowing themselves up and going to heaven." Insurgents in Somalia are increasingly relying on suicide bomb attacks in their offensives.

One woman, the sheikh says, lost her 12-year-old son. She went looking for him in Somalia's southern port town of Kismayo, under insurgent control, and found him training to be a suicide bomber. She returned home emptyhanded. "If she'd tried to bring him, she'd be killed," the sheikh says.

In Somalia, moderate Sufis, belonging to a traditionally peaceful group called Ahl al-Sunna wal Jama'a, have taken up arms to defend their vision of Islam against militant groups, like Al Shabab, that are not only fighting the government, but also desecrating Sufi graves and attacking their more moderate views.

In Kenya, Sufis are also fighting back, but not with guns. Instead, they are trying to keep their children alive through a "counterjihad."

"We are trying to teach our children at home. We don't even send them to madrassas.... We don't trust [the madrassas] with our children," says the sheikh. "If they knew you were writing this, you'd go back without a head."

How money flows through Eastleigh

According to a regional analyst who has studied Somalia for nearly two decades but cannot be named because his work is too politically and diplomatically sensitive, up to $3 million passes through Eastleigh to Somalia every year.

The money comes from businessmen who support the insurgency, from mosques that fundraise, and from foreign donors who sometimes funnel it through Eastleigh. Using an informal money transfer system called hawala, Somalis in any part of the world can make money available in Eastleigh within minutes.

>From there, it can be carried north to the porous and badly guarded Kenya-Somalia border. The cash funds anything from guns to fuel to uniforms.

The transfers are hard to track, Mr. Marchal says, because they are generally small payments that do not attract much attention.

But money also gets to Somalia in other ways. He lays out an example: Sympathizers of insurgents knowingly buy sugar from certain vendors in Kenya. They send that sugar to Somalia, where it is resold. None of these activities are illegal, but "then the money disappears," Marchal says. "It's very efficient.... There is no profit, no fee. [All the money] goes to the organization. This is untraceable for anybody."

No entity in Eastleigh has been under more suspicion than the Sixth Street mosque, a small, unimposing building on top of a FedEx shop, hidden among laundry-cluttered balconies.

The mosque is among Al Shabab's main fundraisers in Eastleigh, according to a Nairobi-based official of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Somalia who spoke anonymously because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

"Sixth Street mosque has a history of supporting militant Islamist causes in Somalia since 1991," says the regional analyst. Its leader, Sheikh Umall, has called the Somali government an "infidel government" and a "puppet of foreign interests," he says. But knowing he is a person of interest to the US, Kenya, the AU, and the UN, Umall has sung a more moderate tune in recent months.

Fighters without borders

Unconfirmed numbers gathered by the Institute for Security Studies in Kenya suggest that as many as 1 in every 10 refugees crossing the border from Somalia into Kenya are members of Al Shabab, which has used severe forms of sharia, or Islamic law, such as amputating the hands of thieves and stoning women accused of adultery.

Al Shabab uses Eastleigh to treat its wounded and run madrassas, from which children often disappear, says the AU official.#

"They have agents who are here, who brainwash these kids, who end up going there [to Somalia to fight]," he says. "It has become problematic."

The AU and UN say Somali-Kenyan recruits are joined by others from Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, even the United States and Europe – many of whom enter Somalia through Nairobi, according to analysts. Until recently, you could get a fake Somali passport in Eastleigh's Garisa Lodge mall in minutes.

Government plays down Eastleigh concerns

In June, the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation reported that a Kenyan named Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan leads a group of 180 foreigners in Somalia, called al-Muhajirun, fighting alongside the Somali insurgents and connected to the global terrorist group Al Qaeda.

But the Kenyan government denies there is much of a problem.

"We don't believe Kenyans have gone to Somalia or have been recruited to go to Somalia," says Alfred Mutua, the Kenyan government spokesman. "We received reports of attempted recruitment, [but] ... because of our security apparatus, we've made it impossible for them."

In late 2006, when Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia to overthrow Islamists who had taken over, Kenya took precautionary measures, he says. It closed its border with Somalia, allowing only aid workers to enter Somalia from Kenya. The border is heavily patrolled by police, military, and helicopters 24 hours a day, and the government is using satellite technology to monitor vehicles crossing it, says Mr. Mutua.

Reports of recruitment are "mere speculation," he adds, as Kenya has used "very high intelligence" to infiltrate the Somali community and disband any recruiting circles.

Kenyan police spokesman Erick Kirathe says Eastleigh is under high surveillance – both overt and covert – because it is a poorer, more-crowded neighborhood where crime is more likely.

"It is much better policed than is apparent," he says. "Even visibly, there is much more police presence than in other areas."

Because the attention it has received makes it unappealing to terrorists, he argues, Eastleigh is not as threatening as people think.

Mr. Kirathe says no one has been arrested for supporting the Somali insurgency, and "we really don't consider Eastleigh a major risk as of yet."

"It's a point of concern," Mutua adds, "but we feel that we've got the situation under control."

Others beg to differ

Some observers strongly disagree. They say recruitment in Kenya is longstanding and widespread.

"We all know it's happening," one diplomat in Nairobi says, adding that the Kenyan government is unable or unwilling to stop it. The border may be officially closed, but even Mutua admits people are able to sneak through.

But sources say the Kenyan government is beginning to take the threat more seriously. "They are panicking," the diplomat says. "They were not doing their best. Now the threat to Kenya is higher than ever. They have to do something."

It seems the government is starting to feel that way, too. But it remains divided. Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula have called for sending in troops, as Ethiopia had done, to defend the Somali government.

"It will be most inappropriate and inadvisable to do nothing when our national security and regional stability is threatened," Mr. Wetangula said recently.

Authorities fear a backlash

But with hundreds of thousands of Somalis living in Kenya, strong involvement by the government and any taking of sides could expose Kenya to a big risk. Insurgents have already threatened to retaliate within Kenya if attacked.

"There's a reluctance to really mess with the Somalis," the regional analyst says.

The fear is not only on the political level. Insurgents are perceived to have such a presence in Kenya that even average citizens are wary of providing authorities with information on their operations. In Nairobi, activists who speak out against Somali extremists are threatened.

"Because I'm not one of them, then I'm on the other side," says a Somali civil society activist who goes by the name Madobe. He calls the Somali Islamist movement a "cancer spreading very fast," and the insurgents "sub-human." He believes they are tapping his phone and e-mail.

"Anytime, I expect a very big knife in my back."

AU to hold special summit on regional conflicts in Libya

The African Union (AU) said on Tuesday it would hold a special summit on regional conflicts in Tripoli, Libiya this coming weekend, Xinhua reported.

The special summit, to be held from August 30 to 31, will review the various conflict crisis situations in Africa and look at ways and means of ensuring the effective implementation of the decisions adopted by the AU policy organs on these issues, said a statement from the pan-African body.

The two-day summit in particular is expected to focus on situations in Somalia, Sudan's Darfur and the Great Lakes region, the statement said.

The summit will also consider the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction and stabilization, with specific reference to the roles that could be played by member states and the regional mechanisms, it said.

At its 13th summit held in July in Libya's Sirte city, the AU adopted a decision to hold a special session on the consideration and resolution of conflicts in Africa. The adoption of this decision is yet another demonstration of the commitment of African leaders to addressing the scourge of conflicts, according to the statement.

The summit is also expected to provide a clear roadmap for Somalia's piracy problem, whose root cause stems from the abhorrent illegal fishing by foreign fleets committed in Somalia's 200nm EEZ and to safeguard the protection for the Somali waters without outside interference.

The Egyptian efforts to settle disputes in Africa and make the Special African Summit, to be held on August 31st, a success

Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit stated that Egypt continues to contact all concerned parties to make the Special African Summit a success. The summit is to be held on August 31st, to discuss and settle the disputes in Africa with the initiative of the Leader of the Libyan Revolution and current Chairman of the African Union. The Summit will focus on the three severest disputes in Africa; in Darfur, Somalia and the Great Lakes.

Aboul Gheit added that the most recent of the Egyptian efforts is hosting the Quadripartite Meeting, two days ago, which witnessed the participation of the US Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration, the Foreign Ministers of Egypt and Libya, and Advisor to the Sudanese President in charge of Darfur dossier to coordinate efforts in order to achieve a real and sustainable peace, and discussing the achievement of Sudanese-Chadian reconciliation.

The Foreign Minister added that the Egyptian visions to settle the African disputes do not stem from narrow national interests, but stem from an Egyptian sense of responsibility towards the African brothers, employing in this regard its expanded and accumulated diplomatic expertise in resolving disputes, as well as the Egyptian contributions to the peacekeeping efforts. Aboul Gheit outlined that Egypt participates in almost all UN peacekeeping operations in Africa, and will soon be ranked the 5th or 6th among the countries participating in peacekeeping operations. Aboul Gheit further added that the biggest of the Egyptian contributions –which is not a matter of coincidence- are those in the UN missions in Sudan, Darfur, DR Congo, which constitute the disputes that are to be discussed in the Special Tripoli Summit.

As for the most prominent African disputes that might witness a breakthrough due to the efforts of the African leaders during the Special Tripoli Summit, the Foreign Minister stated that the wise and discreet African balance between the concerns and suspicions of Sudan and Chad, which has frequently aborted the efforts to settle the deep disputes between both sides, might enable Africa to succeed in bridging the gap between the Sudanese and Chadian sides. Aboul Gheit pointed out that the tensions in eastern DR Congo obviously decreased due to the successful political understandings between the leaderships of Rwanda and DR Congo, which sets an example for the possibility of repeating such a successful experience.

The Foreign Minister asserted that Egypt is keen on an active participation in the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region to assist all countries of the region to achieve sustainable development after restoring stability and achieving the required peace and security.

Aboul Gheit also stated that Egypt effectively participates in the African Panel of the Wise- which is concerned with achieving reconciliation and peace in Darfur, and pushes towards reaching an executable and comprehensive vision that balances between all considerations related to achieving peace in Darfur.

As for Somalia, Aboul Gheit stated that Egypt sees the international community hesitant towards Somalia in critical moments during which Somalia is in more need for support. He also asserted the importance of a regional and international vision to deal with the Somali issue that includes clear steps and division of roles to contribute to achieving a final settlement for the deteriorating political, security and humanitarian conditions in Somalia.

N.B.: However, Egypt first has to proof that it stands with both legs firm on the ground of justice and human rights by providing a fair and transparent trial to the 8 piracy-suspects from Somalia, who were guards on two fishing vessels impounded for illegal fishing off Laskooray.]

Disarmament: Africa Joins the Nuclear-Free Club

By Fareed Mahdy (IPS)

Africa, the second-largest continent after Asia, has now become the world's largest nuclear-free zone comprising 53 countries with about a billion people. This means denuclearisation of one of the richest uranium producing regions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the African Union (AU) announced mid-August that the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) Treaty has come into force.

This was after Burundi became the 28th African state to ratify the treat Jul. 15. Algeria and Burkina Faso were the first African countries to ratify it in 1998, two years after its signature.

Its entry comes amidst reports of intensive exploitation of uranium mines in Africa by European and Chinese-backed multinational corporations. It now ensures that the southern hemisphere is now free of nuclear weapons.

Under the treaty all parties are required to conclude comprehensive safeguards agreements with the IAEA. These agreements are equivalent to those required under the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

The treaty also commits its parties "to apply the highest standard of security and physical protection of nuclear material, facilities, and equipment to prevent theft and unauthorised use, as well as prohibits armed attacks against nuclear installations within the zone."

The treaty officially declares Africa a nuclear weapons free zone. It was drafted in Johannesburg and Pelindaba in June 1995, and opened for signature in Cairo Apr. 11, 1996.

The treaty is also called the Treaty of Pelindaba after the Pelindaba nuclear research facility near the Hartbeespoort dam west of Pretoria in South Africa. Pelindaba is South Africa's main nuclear research centre run by the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa. This is where South Africa's atomic bombs were built and stored in the 1970s.

"The African NWFZ, similar to other nuclear weapons free zones in Latin America and the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, South Pacific and Central Asia, is an important regional confidence and security-building measure and would contribute to our efforts for a world free from nuclear weapons," said IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei.

He said the IAEA welcomed the treaty's support of "the use of nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes, and trusts that the use of nuclear technologies in Africa would contribute to the continent's economic and social development."

The process of declaring Africa a nuclear weapons free zone was launched at the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) heads of state and government meeting in Cairo in 1964. The African leaders declared their readiness "to undertake, through an international agreement to be concluded under United Nations auspices, not to manufacture or acquire control of nuclear weapons."

The leaders based their position on international agreements such as the UN General Assembly resolution of Dec. 11, 1975 that considered "nuclear- weapon-free zones one of the most effective means for preventing the proliferation, both horizontal and vertical, of nuclear weapons."

The African leaders agreed "the need to take all steps in achieving the ultimate goal of a world entirely free of nuclear weapons, as well as of the obligations of all states to contribute to this end."

They said "the African nuclear-weapon-free zone will constitute an important step towards strengthening the non-proliferation regime, promoting cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, promoting general and complete disarmament and enhancing regional and international peace and security."

The African leaders said an "African nuclear-weapon-free zone will protect African states against possible nuclear attacks on their territories." It would also "keep Africa free of environmental pollution by radioactive wastes and other radioactive matter." The treaty commits members not to dump nuclear waste.

But the leaders also expressed their support for Article 4 of the NPT that recognises "the inalienable right of all states parties to develop research on production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination."

The leaders agreed to promote regional cooperation for the development and practical application of nuclear energy.

Africa has some of the richest uranium mines. Many industrialised countries depend on uranium from Africa. France relies entirely on uranium exploitation in Niger to operate its 58 nuclear power plants.

Other uranium producers on the continent are Algeria, Botswana, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Africa is also reported to be one of the largest nuclear, radioactive and toxic waste-dumping sites, together with Southeast Asia. Somalia is reported to be a major nuclear waste dumping site.

Another treaty creating a zone free of nuclear weapons in Central Asia came into force Mar. 21 this year. Five countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - are parties to the treaty.

This treaty was the first of its kind comprising states of the former Soviet Union, and is the first such zone in the Northern Hemisphere. Each of the five states hosted former Soviet nuclear weapons infrastructure. They now confront common problems of environmental damage resulting from the production and testing of Soviet nuclear weapons.

Like the African Treaty, the Central Asian pact forbids development, manufacture, stockpiling, acquisition or possession of any nuclear explosive device within the zone.

Similar treaties are in force in South America (the treaty of Tlatelolco), the South Pacific (the treaty of Rarotonga), Southeast Asia (the treaty of Bangkok), and Antarctica (the Antarctic treaty).

France will not let Al-Qaeda take hold in Africa: Sarkozy (IC)

France will not let Al-Qaeda acquire a foothold in Africa, President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Wednesday, vowing that Paris would help fight the extremist group.

"We will mobilise to support Africa faced with the growing threat from Al-Qaeda, whether in the Sahel or in Somalia," Sarkozy said in a foreign policy speech to French ambassadors in Paris.

"What happened these past months in Mali, in Niger and Mauritania is a very clear signal," he said, referring to a string of incidents targeting Western interests in north and west Africa.

"France will not let Al-Qaeda set up a sanctuary on our doorstep in Africa. That message, too, must be clearly heard."

The Islamist network's north African wing, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has recently extended its operations from Algeria into neighbouring states.

The Al-Qaeda branch grew out of Algeria's radical Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat and has repeatedly threatened French targets.

The group claimed responsibility for an August 8 suicide bombing near the French embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, in which two French gendarmes were lightly wounded.

It also claimed the kidnapping of six Westerners in Niger and Mali late last year.

Here speaks one who fosters the US-American hidden agenda

Four Ways to Help Africa

By Jendayi E. Frazer (*)

The U.S. African Command should move from Germany to Liberia.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently concluded her maiden trip to sub-Saharan Africa carrying in her words "a tough message lovingly delivered." Simultaneously, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk visited Kenya, Ethiopia and Senegal also touting, in his words, "a tough love" message for Africans.

But U.S. policy in Africa is not about love. It's about advancing America's core interests: promoting economic growth and development, combating terrorism, and fostering well-governed, stable countries. Did Mrs. Clinton's trip advance those interests? The record is mixed.

The secretary of state did well to show the American flag in the region's most strategic countries. Kenya is the regional hub for commerce in East Africa, and it plays a key role in combating terrorism in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. South Africa and Nigeria together constitute more than 50% of sub-Saharan Africa's economic output, and both countries are major providers of peacekeeping forces throughout Africa. Mrs. Clinton got it right that we must engage these countries to help shape the continent's future in a fashion that advances our mutual interests.

She was also right to speak about women's empowerment. Her stops in the Democratic Republic of Congo—especially the conflict zone of Goma where women are frequent victims of war-related rape—and Liberia, home of Africa's first elected woman president, demonstrate her commitment to highlight and advance women's issues globally.

Not so welcome is the false billing that Mrs. Clinton's trip was the earliest by an American secretary of state. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice traveled there earlier in their terms—Mr. Powell in May 2001 and Ms. Rice in July 2005. Even more unwelcome is the Obama administration's penchant for lecturing Africans rather than listening.

Here are four quick steps the administration can take to translate the rhetoric of love into policies that advance mutual U.S. and African interests:

Place Eritrea on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. This will follow through on Mrs. Clinton's statements that Eritrea must end its assistance to al Shabaab, a designated Somali terrorist group.

Al Shabaab recruits young Americans to become suicide bombers. It also has turned Somalia into a haven for mujahedeen fighters from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The al Qaeda East Africa cell is based in Somalia and was responsible for the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Mrs. Clinton laid a reef in Kenya to commemorate the embassy bombing. She can help prevent a future attack on our diplomatic missions and citizens in the Horn and East Africa by taking direct action against Eritrea today.

Oppose congressional legislation to extend the trade preferences in the African Growth and Opportunity Act to all developing countries. Thanks to this legislation 40,000 jobs were created in Lesotho alone, mostly for women in the textile sector. The trade-preference program was adopted during the Clinton administration, and it was extended and strengthened under the Bush administration to increase Africa's competitiveness and market access. But extending the same trade preferences to hypercompetitive Cambodia and Bangladesh—each of which individually exports more apparel to the U.S. than all of sub-Saharan Africa combined—will undermine the program's success in Africa.

Hold a summit at the White House with the presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Mr. Obama needs to spend more time meeting and engaging African leaders to address the continent's challenges.

President George W. Bush helped to end the interstate wars among Rwanda, Congo and Uganda by holding individual and trilateral meetings with these leaders. Now Mr. Obama needs to galvanize U.S. efforts to end the militia violence of Rwandan and Ugandan rebel groups still operating in the Congo. The Department of Defense in particular must move from assessing to actually training disciplined Congolese soldiers capable of protecting Congolese citizens and defending their territory.

Move the headquarters of the U.S. African Command (AFRICOM) from Germany to Liberia.

This needs to be done to promote U.S. strategic interests in the region, which include maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, countering terrorism and drug trafficking, and promoting regional development and stability.

The Liberian government has repeatedly offered to host a headquarters for AFRICOM understanding the U.S. presence will create jobs and help stabilize the country and region. The command needs to be in the region its operations are charged with shaping.

These four steps, more than any love messages, will signal a real commitment that the mutual interests of the U.S. and Africa will remain strong and secure under the Obama administration.

Ms. Frazer, was assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2005-2009 and at present is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University

AFRICOM: Pentagon's First Direct Military Intervention In Africa

by Rick Rozoff

The 2009 World Population Data Sheet published by the Washington, DC-based Population Reference Bureau states that the population of the African continent has surpassed one billion. Africans now account for over a seventh of the human race.

Africa's 53 nations are 28% of the 192 countries in the world.

The size and location of the continent along with its human and natural resources - oil, natural gas, gold, diamonds, uranium, cobalt, chromium, platinum, timber, cotton, food products - make it an increasingly important part of a world that is daily becoming more integrated and interdependent.

Africa is also the last continent to free itself from colonial domination. South America broke free of Spanish and Portuguese control in the beginning of the 1800s (leaving only the three Guianas - British, Dutch and French - still colonized) and the post-World War II decolonization of Asia that started with former British East India in 1947 was almost complete by the late 1950s.

Sub-Saharan Africa was not to liberate most of its territory from Belgian, British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonial masters until the 1960s and 1970s. And the former owners were reluctant to cede newly created African nations any more than nominal independence and the ability to choose their own internal socio-economic orientation and foreign policy alignment.

In the two decades of the African independence struggle the continent was marred by Western-backed coups d'etat and assassinations of liberation leaders which included those against Patrice Lumumba in the former Belgian Congo in 1961, Ben Barka in Morocco in 1965, Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana in 1966, Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique in 1969, Amilcar Cabral in Guinea-Bissau in 1973 and Marien Ngouabi in the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) in 1977.

In his latest Anti-Empire Report veteran political analyst William Blum wrote, "the next time you hear that Africa can't produce good leaders, people who are committed to the welfare of the masses of their people, think of Nkrumah and his fate. And think of Patrice Lumumba, overthrown in the Congo 1960-61 with the help of the United States; Agostinho Neto of Angola, against whom Washington waged war in the 1970s, making it impossible for him to institute progressive changes; Samora Machel of Mozambique against whom the CIA supported a counter-revolution in the 1970s-80s period; and Nelson Mandela of South Africa (now married to Machel's widow), who spent 28 years in prison thanks to the CIA." [1]

Some of Blum's references are to a series of proxy wars supported by the United States and its NATO allies and in some instances apartheid South Africa and the Mobutu Sese Seko regime in Zaire in the mid-1970s and the 1980s, such as arming and training the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the unspeakably brutal Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), and Eritrean and Tigrayan armed separatists in Ethiopia as well as backing the Somali invasion of the Ogaden Desert in that country in 1977.

Over the past five years French troops and bombers have waged deadly attacks inside Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and the Central African Republic either in support of or against rebels, always in furtherance of France's own geopolitical objectives. In the second application of the so-called Blair Doctrine, in 2000 Britain sent troops to its former colony of Sierra Leone and has de facto recolonized the nation, taking control of its military and internal security forces.

But in the post-World War II period there has only been one direct American military action in Africa, the deadly 1986 air strikes against Libya in April of 1986, Operation El Dorado Canyon.

While conducting wars, bombings, military interventions and invasions in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East and recently Southeastern Europe over the past half century, the Pentagon has left the African continent comparatively unscathed. That is going to change after the establishment of the United States Africa Command on October 1 of 2007 and its activation a year later.

The U.S. has intensified military involvement in Africa over the past seven years with such projects as the Pan Sahel Initiative (PSI), launched by the State Department but which deployed US Army Special Forces with the Special Operations Command Europe to Mali and Mauritania among other locations. U.S. military personnel are still engaged in the counterinsurgency wars in Mali and Niger against Tuareg rebels.

The Pan Sahel Initiative was succeeded by the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative (TSCTI) in late 2004 which has American military personnel assigned to eleven African nations: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

The Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative was formally launched in June of 2005 with the deployment of 1,000 American troops, among them Green Berets, in Operation Flintlock 05 in North and West Africa to engage with counterparts from seven nations: Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia.

Until their transfer to the Africa Command (AFRICOM) all 53 nations on the continent except for those in the Horn of Africa (assigned to Central Command) and the island nations of Madagascar and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean (handled by Pacific Command) were within the area of responsibilty of the European Command (EUCOM), whose top commander is simultaneously the Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

As such the past two EUCOM and NATO commanders, Marine General James Jones (2003-2006) and Army General Bantz John Craddock (2006-June, 2009), were the most instrumental in setting up AFRICOM.

Jones is now U.S. National Security Adviser and at this February's Munich Security Conference opened his speech with "As the most recent National Security Advisor of the United States, I take my daily orders from Dr. [Henry]Kissinger. " [2]

In 2008, while serving as State Department special envoy for Middle East security and chairman of the Atlantic Council of the United States, Jones said, "[A]s commander of NATO, I worried early in the mornings about how to protect energy facilities and supply chain routes as far away as Africa, the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea." [3]

Shortly before stepping down from his military posts with NATO and the Pentagon "NATO's top commander of operations, U.S. General James Jones, has said he sees a potential role for the alliance in protecting key shipping lanes such as those around the Black Sea and oil supply routes from Africa to Europe." [4]

Three years ago a Pentagon web site documented that "Officials at U.S. European Command spend between 65 to 70 percent of their time on African issues, [James] Jones said....Establishin g such a group [military task force in West Africa] could also send a message to U.S. companies 'that investing in many parts of Africa is a good idea,' the general said." [5)

During the final months of his dual tenure as NATO's and EUCOM's top military commander, Jones transitioned Africa from EUCOM's to AFRICOM's control while also expanding the role of NATO on the continent.

In June of 2006 the Alliance launched its global Rapid Response Force with its first large-scale military exercises off the coast of the former Portuguese possession of Cape Verde, in the Atlantic Ocean west of Senegal.

U.S press reports of the time offered these details:

"Hundreds of elite North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) troops backed by fighter planes and warships will storm a tiny volcanic island off Africa's Atlantic coast this week in what the Western alliance hopes will prove a potent demonstration of its ability to project power around the world." [6]

"Seven thousand NATO troops conducted war games on the Atlantic Ocean island of Cape Verde on Thursday in the latest sign of the alliance's growing interest in playing a role in Africa.

"The land, air and sea exercises were NATO's first major deployment in Africa and designed to show the former Cold War giant can launch far-flung military operations at short notice.

"'You are seeing the new NATO, the one that has the ability to project stability,' said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after NATO troops stormed a beach on one of the islands on the archipelago in a mock assault on a fictitious terrorist camp.

"NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe James Jones, the alliance soldier in charge of NATO operations, said he hoped the two-week Cape Verde exercises would help break down negative images about NATO in Africa and elsewhere." [7]

NATO's first operation in Africa had occurred a year earlier in May of 2005 when the bloc transported African Union troops to the Darfur region of Sudan, at the crossroads of a war-riven region comprised of the Central African Republic, Chad and Sudan.

The Alliance has since deployed warships to the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden, last year with Operation Allied Protector, and this August 17 NATO announced that it was dispatching British, Greek, Italian, Turkish and U.S. warships to the area for a new mission, Operation Ocean Shield. These operations don't consist of mere surveillance and escort roles but include regular forced boardings, sniper attacks and other uses of armed and often lethal force.

On August 22 a Netherlands contingent of the complementary European Union naval force off Somalia used an attack helicopter against a vessel in the area which subsequently was taken over by troops from a Norwegian warship.

Over three years before, now U.S. National Security Adviser and then NATO chief military commander James Jones addressing what was his major "national security" concern at the time, "raised the prospect of NATO taking a role to counter piracy off the coast of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, especially when it threatens energy supply routes to Western nations." [8]

A month later both he and NATO's then top civilian leader, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, reiterated the above commitment.

"NATOs' [commanders] are ready to use warships to ensure the security of offshore oil and gas transportation routes from Western Africa, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's Secretary General, reportedly said speaking at a session of the foreign committee of PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe].

"On April 30 General James Jones, commander-in- chief of NATO in Europe, reportedly said NATO was going to draw up a plan for ensuring the security of oil and gas industry facilities.

"In this respect the bloc is willing to ensure security in unstable regions where oil and gas are produced and transported. " [9]

Two months earlier a U.S. Defense Department news source reported this from Jones:

"U.S. Naval Forces Europe, (the command's) lead component in this initiative, has developed a robust maritime security strategy and regional 10-year campaign plan for the Gulf of Guinea region.

"Africa's vast potential makes African stability a near-term global strategic imperative." [10]

Jones "raised the prospect of NATO taking a role to counter piracy off the coast of the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, especially when it threatens energy supply routes to Western nations" in April of 2006 and the Pentagon and NATO have followed through on his pledge and exactly in those two opposite ends of Africa.

At article a few days ago by Daniel Volman, director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC, called "Africa: U.S. Military Holds War Games on Nigeria, Somalia" provided details on how far plans by James Jones and the Pentagon have progressed over the past three years.

Working with what sketchy information that had been made public about Unified Quest 2008, last year's rendition of what the U.S. Army web site described in an article of this year under the title of and as "Army war games for future conflicts" [11], conducted by the United States Army War College, Volman's article included this information:

"In addition to U.S. military officers and intelligence officers, Unified Quest 2008 brought together participants from the State Department and other U.S. government agencies, academics, journalists, and foreign military officers (including military representatives from several NATO countries, Australia, and Israel), along with the private military contractors who helped run the war games: the Rand Corporation and Booz-Allen.

"The list of options for the Nigeria scenario ranged from diplomatic pressure to military action, with or without the aid of European and African nations. One participant, U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Mark Stanovich, drew up a plan that called for the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops within 60 days....

"Among scenarios examined during the game were the possibility of directAmerican military intervention involving some 20,000 U.S. troops in order to 'secure the oil,' and the question of how to handle possible splits between factions within the Nigerian government. The game ended without military intervention because one of the rival factions executed a successful coup and formed a new government that sought stability.

"[W]hen General Ward [AFRICOM commander] appeared before the House Armed Services Committee on March 13, 2008, he cited America's growing dependence on African oil as a priority issue for Africom and went on to proclaim that combating terrorism would be 'Africom's number one theater-wide goal.' He barely mentioned development, humanitarian aid, peacekeeping or conflict resolution. [12]

In addition to nations already shelled, targeted and threatened like Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Eritrea, even long-time and staunch U.S. military allies like Nigeria are not beyond the reach of hostile Pentagon action. Nigeria is the main power in the fifteen-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which over the past nine years has deployed troops to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire on the request of the West, but that loyalty will not protect it when its own moment arrives.

The U.S. has employed other countries as regional military proxies - Ethiopia and Djibouti in Northeast Africa, Rwanda in Central Africa, Kenya in both - and has designs on South Africa, Senegal and Liberia for similar purposes.

Since its establishment in October of 2007 AFRICOM has lost little time in marking out the Pentagon's new continent.

Even prior to its formal activation the Pentagon conducted the Africa Endeavor 2008 23-nation military exercise with forces from Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sweden, Uganda, the U.S. and Zambia as well as representatives from ECOWAS and the African Union. [13]

The operation was held under the auspices of the U.S. European Command at the time as AFRICOM wasn't activated until October of that year but it included the participation of the then fledgling AFRICOM and U.S. Marine Forces Europe (MARFOREUR), U.S. Air Forces in Europe and the Marine Headquarters, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa [14], but "Next year's exercise will be sponsored by U.S. Africa Command." [15]

This January the U.S. Department of Defense announced that "The U.S. Army Southern European Task Force [SETAF] officially has assumed its new role as the Army component for U.S. Africa Command."

The Pentagon web site from which the above quote is taken also provided this background information and portents of the future:

"Since the 1990s, SETAF has worked with African nations to conduct military training and provide humanitarian relief in countries such as Liberia, Rwanda, Uganda, Congo and the former Zaire. [Congo is the former Zaire, as Zaire was the former Belgian Congo]

"In the coming years, SETAF, operating as U.S. Army Africa, will continue to grow and build capacity to meet the requirements needed to coordinate all U.S. Army activities in Africa.

"[U.S. Army Africa] is not an episodic, flash in the pan, noncombative evacuation operation." [16]

In the same month, demonstrating another new AFRICOM component and the continent-wide reach of the American military and its recently acquired client states, it was reported that "Air Force C-17s will soon begin airlifting special equipment for Rwandan Peacekeepers in the Darfur region of Sudan, marking the kickoff of the first major operation engineered by U.S. Africa Command's air component, Seventeenth Air Force, also known as U.S. Air Forces Africa." [17]

This May the newspaper of the American Armed Forces, Stars and Stripes, carried a feature on joint U.S.-British training of the Rwandan army, one which bears a large part of the blame for the deaths of over five million Congolese since 1998: The biggest loss of life in a nation related to armed conflict since tens of millions of Chinese and Soviets were killed during World War II.

Rwandan and Ugandan troops invaded Congo in 1998 and triggered ongoing cross-border fighting which persists to this day. Rwanda and Uganda are both U.S. and British military client states.

The Stars and Stripes feature detailed that American instructors "are currently working with a team from the British army to train instructors with the Rwandan army. Those instructors will then train their own troops — many of whom will serve as peacekeepers in places such as Sudan." [18]

It quoted a British officer, Maj. Charles Malet, who "leads a contingent of British forces based in Kenya," as saying "We´ve been producing short-term training in this part of the world for a long, long time. [U.S. Africa Command] has stood [up]. It´s great to link up and provide a sort of introduction. " [19]

The training of the Rwandan armed forces by the United States and its NATO allies has less to do with Darfur than it does with devastated Congo.

In November of 2008 the United Nations reported that "Rwandan forces fired tank shells and other heavy artillery across the border at Congolese troops during fighting" [20] which began when former Congolese general Laurent Nkunda staged an armed rebellion in the east of the country which led to the displacement of 200,000 civilians.

The BBC revealed at the time that "journalists report that some of Laurent Nkunda's rebel fighters are in the pay of the Rwandan army.

"This has renewed fears that the fighting will see a re-run of the five-year Congolese war, which involved nine nations, before it ended in 2003." [21]

The British Financial Times conducted interviews with "former rebels and observers on the ground" who said that "the uprising – led by Laurent Nkunda, the renegade former Congolese general – relies heavily on recruitment in Rwanda and former or even active Rwandan soldiers."

Referring to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the report added, "Mr Nkunda and Rwanda´s government, military and business elite share a history....Mr Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi, was an intelligence officer in the guerrilla army that Mr Kagame, a Rwandan Tutsi, used to...seize power.

"Mr Kagame launched invasions of Congo in 1996 and 1998 and supported uprisings... ." [22]

The following month a U.S. congressional delegation "traveled to Rwanda and Ethiopia to meet with U.S. ambassadors, AFRICOM officials and various ministers of each country, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Rwanda Foreign Minister Charles Murigande." [23]

Ethiopia invaded Somalia on America's behest three years ago and Rwanda's repeated incursions into Congo could not have occurred without a green light from Washington.

As an Ugandan commentary at the time of the latest attack on Congo from Rwanda stated, "London, New York and Paris are among the top consumers of minerals from Congo. They lecture humanity on the need to uphold human rights and the sanctity of property rights whilst their thirst for strategic minerals unleashes terror on innocent women and children in Eastern Congo." [24]

Last week an AFRICOM spokesman announced that "The United States military will be sending experts to the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo this week." The initial deployment will be small, he added, but "more may follow...." [25] AFRICOM would be better advised to monitor the activities of the Rwandan military it trains and arms.

Also last week the Pentagon stated it was deploying "unmanned reconnaissance aircraft in the skies above the Seychelles archipelago" in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar and AFRICOM commander General William Ward said, "We have the recent arrival of our P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft that will aid in conducting the surveillance of Seychelles territorial waters and as we look into the future, (we will) bring unmanned surveillance vehicles." [26]

Two days later Ward said "that the rise of radical Islamist militant group al-Shabab in Somalia makes East Africa a central focus of the U.S. military on the continent."

Voice of America added:

"General William Ward has pledged continued support to Somalia's transitional federal government.. ..He made his remarks during a visit to Nairobi, Kenya, which is a key U.S. ally in region." [27]

Until last October Africa was the only continent other than Australia and Antarctica without a U.S. military command. The fact that one has now been established indicates that Africa has achieved heightened importance for the Pentagon and its Western military allies.

An analysis of why Africa is a major focus of attention and why now rather than earlier was provided by U.S.-based writer Paul I. Adujie in the New Liberian on August 21:

"America's Africa Command, in conceptual terms and actual implementation, is not intended to serve Africa's best interests. It just happens that Africa has grown in geopolitical and geo-economic importance to America and her allies. Africa has been there all along.

"There were, for instance, reports of how the American military, acting supposedly in partnership or cooperation with the Nigerian military, literally took over Nigerian Defense Headquarters. ...

"It is probably important to mention that the United States already operates at least three other commands, namely, the European Command (EUCOM), Central Command (CENTCOM) and Pacific Command (PACOM), therefore the Africa Command or (AFRICOM) will be the fourth leg of US military global spread.

"America's Africa Command is...machinery for Western governments to pursue their vaunted economic, political and hegemonic hemispheric influence at the expense of Africans as well as a backdoor through which Westerners can outmaneuver rivals such as China and perhaps Russia in addition." [28]

Citations:

1) The Anti-Empire Report, August 4th, 2009

http://killinghope. org/bblum6/ aer72.html

2) Real Clear Politics, February 8, 2009

3) Agence France-Presse, November 30, 2008

4) Reuters, November 27, 2006

5) U.S. Department of Defense, August 18, 2006

6) Associated Press, June 21, 2006

7) Reuters, June 22, 2006

8) Associated Press, April 24, 2006

9) Trend News Agency, May 3, 2006

10) U.S. Department of Defense, March 8, 2006

11) www.army.mil, May 6, 2009

12) AllAfrica.com, August 14, 2009

13) United States European Command, July 29, 2008

14) United States European Command, July 16, 2008

15) United States European Command, July 29, 2008

16) U.S. Department of Defense, American Forces Press Service, January 28, 2009

17) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, January 9, 2009

18) Stars And Stripes, May 24, 2009

19) Ibid

20) Associated Press, November 3, 2008

21) BBC News, November 13, 2008

22) Financial Times, November 11, 2008

23) Times-Journal, December 8, 2008

24) Sunday Monitor (Uganda), November 9, 2008

25) Daily Nation (Kenya), August 18, 2009

26) Reuters, August 19, 2009

27) Voice of America News, August 21, 2009

28) New Liberian, August 21, 2009

We do not send pictures with these reports, because of the volume, but picture this emetic scene with your inner eye:

A dying Somali child in the macerated arms of her mother besides their bombed shelter with Islamic graffiti looks at a fat trader, who discusses with a local militia chief and a UN representative at a harbour while USAID provided GM food from subsidised production is off-loaded by WFP into the hands of local "distributors" and dealers - and in the background a western warship and a foreign fishing trawler ply the waters of a once sovereign, prosper and proud nation, which was a role model for honesty and development in the Horn of Africa. (If you feel that this is overdrawn - come with us into Somalia and see the even more cruel reality yourself!)

There is no limit to what a person can do or how far one can go to help - if one doesn't mind who gets the credit !

ECOTERRA Intl. maintains a register for persons missing or abducted in the Somali seas (Foreign seafarers as well as Somalis). Inquiries by family member can be sent by e-mail to office[at]ecoterra-international.org

For families of presently captive seafarers - in order to advise and console their worries - ECOTERRA Intl. can establish contacts with professional seafarers, who had been abducted in Somalia, and their wives as well as of a Captain of a sea-jacked and released ship, who agreed to be addressed "with questions, and we will answer truthfully".

ECOTERRA - ALERTS and pending issues:

PIRATE ATTACK GULF OF ADEN: Advice on Who to Contact and What to Do http://www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2008-09-08-2

NATURAL RESOURCES & ARMED FISH POACHERS: Foreign navies entering the 200nm EEZ of Somalia and foreign helicopters and troops must respect the fact that especially all wildlife is protected by Somali national as well as by international laws and that the protection of the marine resources of Somalia from illegally fishing foreign vessels should be an integral part of the anti-piracy operations. Likewise the navies must adhere to international standards and not pollute the coastal waters with oil, ballast water or waste from their own ships but help Somalia to fight against any dumping of any waste (incl. diluted, toxic or nuclear waste). So far and though the AU as well as the UN has called since long on other nations to respect the 200 nm EEZ, only now the two countries (Spain and France) to which the most notorious vessels and fleets are linked have come up with a declaration that they will respect the 200 nm EEZ of Somalia but so far not any of the navies operating in the area pledged to stand against illegal fishing. So far not a single illegal fishing vessel has been detained by the naval forces, though they had been even informed about several actual cases, where an intervention would have been possible. Illegally operating Tuna fishing vessels (many from South Korea, some from Greece and China) carry now armed personnel and force their way into the Somali fishing grounds - uncontrolled or even protected by the naval forces mandated to guard the Somali waters against any criminal activity, which included arms carried by foreign fishing vessels in Somali waters.

LLWs / NLWs: According to recently leaked information the anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden are also used as a cover-up for the live testing of recently developed arsenals of so called non-lethal as well as sub-lethal weapons systems. (Pls request details) Neither the Navies nor the UN has come up with any code of conduct in this respect, while the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWP) is sponsoring several service-led acquisition programs, including the VLAD, Joint Integration Program, and Improved Flash Bang Grenade. Alredy in use in Somalia are so called Non-lethal optical distractors, which are visible laser devices that have reversible optical effects. These types of non-blinding laser devices use highly directional optical energy. Somalia is also a testing ground for the further developments of the Active Denial System (ADS) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). If new developments using millimeter wave sources that will help minimize the size, weight, and system cost of an effective Active Denial System which provides "ADS-ACTD-like" repel effects, are used has not yet been revealed. Obviously not only the US is developing and using these kind of weapons as the case of MV MARATHON showed, where a Spanish naval vessel was using optical lasers - the stand-off was then broken by the killing of one of the hostage seafarers. Local observers also claim that HEMI devices, producing Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation (HEMI) Bioeffects, have been used in the Gulf of Aden against Somalis. Exposure to HEMI devices, which can be understood as a stun-gun shot at an individual over a larger distance, causes muscle contractions that temporarily disable an individual. Research efforts are underway to develop a longer-duration of this effect than is currently available. The live tests are apparently done without that science understands yet the effects of HEMI electrical waveforms on a human body.

ECOTERRA Intl., whose work does focus on nature- and human-rights-protection and - as the last international environmental organization still working in Somalia - had alerted ship-owners since 1992, many of whom were fishing illegally in the 200 nm Exclusive Economic Zone, to stay away from Somali waters. The non-governmental organization had requested the international community many times for help to protect the coastal waters of the war-torn state, but now lawlessness has seriously increased and gone out of hand.

ECOTERRA members with marine and maritime expertise, joined by it's ECOP-marine group, are closely and continuously monitoring and advising on the Somali situation. (for previous information concerning the topics please google keywords ECOTERRA (and) SOMALIA)

The network of the SEAFARERS ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME helped significantly in most sea-jack cases. ECOTERRA Intl. is working in Somalia since 1986 on human-rights and nature protection, while ECOP-marine concentrates on illegal fishing and the protection of the marine ecosystems. Your support counts too.

Please consider to contribute to the work of SAP, ECOP-marine and ECOTERRA Intl. Please donate to the defence fund.

Contact us for details concerning project-sponsorship or donations via e-mail: ecotrust[at]ecoterra.net

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Pls cite ECOTERRA Intl. - www.ecoterra-international.org as source for onward publications, where no other source is quoted.

Press Contacts:

ECOP-marine

East-Africa

254-714-747090

marine[at]ecop.info

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africanode[at]ecoterra.net

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