www.eastafricaforum.net http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/peter_worthington/2008/09/17/6790751-sun.html Toronto Sun, Canada
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Ottawa provokes diplomatic flap or a terrorist in a civilian dress provokes Canadian Immigration law!
PETER WORTHINGTON
17th September 2008
This is one of those stories that defies reason and underscores the occasional lunacy of bureaucracy.
The government of Canada -- or rather our ministries of both foreign affairs and immigration -- have denied a visa to the foreign minister of Eritrea on grounds that he participated in Eritrea's war of liberation against the tyrannical Marxist regime of Ethiopia that ended 17 years ago.
Foreign Minister Osman Saleh was denied a visa to visit Canada's large Eritrean community because (according to a letter delivered to Eritrea's ambassador in Nairobi, Kenya, from the Canadian counsellor): "You were a member of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) between 1979 and 1991 ... a group that engaged in the subversion of a government by force."
The letter added: "Canadian federal court jurisprudence confirms that membership in a group that attempts to subvert even a despotic government is sufficient to render inadmissibility."
Holy mackerel! It was a war that the EPLF was fighting -- and won in 1991, gaining independence and sovereignty in 1993. It is now a member of the African Union. (Eritrea had been an Italian African colony and after World War II the UN made Ethiopia its "guardian").
It was a war the Tigryan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) also fought -- and won -- against Ethiopia's homicidal regime of Col. Hariam Mengistu. The TPLF leader, Meles Zenawi, is now Ethiopia's PM - and presumably would also be denied a visa to Canada for "subverting" an existing government.
Most of the countries of Africa, at one time or another, overthrew the previous existing government by coup or force.
By the standards applied to the Eritrean foreign minister, Canada should deny a visa to Nelson Mandela because he was a member of the African National Congress (ANC) seeking to subvert the white apartheid government of South Africa. Today Mandela is an honorary Canadian citizen.
With what seemed a sigh of relief, a Canadian foreign ministry spokesman said the visa decision was not theirs, but the immigration department's.
An immigration spokesman acknowledged she knew of the Eritrean case, but "I can't speak to specific cases" (privacy and all that). As far as she was concerned, the case stands. She said the only one who could give permission to speak about the case would be the prime minister.
Eritrea's ambassador to Canada, Ahfrom Berhame, is puzzled and appalled at the Canadian decision. He said foreign minister Salah meets all the qualifications to be accepted, and to call the EPLF a "subversive organization" makes no sense, since it comprises the core of the Eritrean government today.
"We have always had good relations with Canada," he said.
"Canadian businesses operate in Eritrea. Your soldiers were peacekeepers after the 1998 border war with Ethiopia. In the war of liberation, my wife was a fighter. I was a fighter. We were all EPLF. Why is Canada doing this?"
The Eritrean government is indignant, and its foreign ministry noted that some nations were "slow" to take cold war references to African rebels off their old terrorist lists -- as U.S. lawmakers recently did by removing the "terrorist" designation for Nelson Mandela.
Their foreign ministry called it "an unheard act from a country that enjoys full diplomatic ties with Eritrea (that) would, in itself, construe an embarrassing aberration in diplomatic conduct. What makes it more horrendous is, however, the reasons ... given to explain their provocative act."
In condemning what it called "this hostile act," Eritrea wonders if it is "sheer ignorance by a junior government official, or a deliberate desire by the government of Canada to desecrate Eritrea's legitimate struggle against colonial occupation that exacted more than 60,000 of our best sons and daughters?"
One hopes it is the former. At very least an apology seems in order -- unless Canada knows something about foreign minister Saleh that no one else does.
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http://africa.reuters.com/country/SO/news/usnLH410374.html
Militant threat paralyses Mogadishu airport
Wed 17 Sep 2008Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Mogadishu's main airport was largely shut down on Wednesday after militant Somali Islamists threatened to attack any planes using it.
Staff at the airport said carriers using the sea-front facility in south Mogadishu had decided not to take any risk following the threat by al Shabaab to target aircraft landing or taking off after midnight on Tuesday.
Al Shabaab, which is on Washington's list of terrorist groups, is spearheading an insurgency against the Somali government and its Ethiopian military backers.
"Turning deaf ears to what al Shabaab said means planes will be burned and staff assassinated at their houses," an official at the airport said. "We have agreed not to land planes."
A weekend statement by al Shabaab said the airport was a legitimate target because it was used by the Somali government, the Ethiopian military, and African Union (AU) peacekeepers, whom it perceives as propping up the government.
About 4-5 flights daily were going through Mogadishu airport before Wednesday.
The AU, which has 2,200 peacekeepers in Somalia, mainly based at the airport, condemned the threat, saying it would harm locals because it would block medical supplies.
DJIBOUTI TALKS
AU spokesman Barigye Ba-Hoku said the peacekeeping mission had no immediate scheduled flights, but it would continue to use the airport. "For us it is still open but we shall not take the threat lightly. We are alert 24 hours," he said.
"This threat is nothing new because the airport was subjected to attacks since we first arrived," he added.
The airport has suffered a string of attacks since Islamists launched an Iraq-style insurgency in early 2007 that has killed nearly 10,000 civilians and an unknown number of combatants.
Al Shabaab's threat against the airport reflects the growing confidence of one of the main protagonists in the Somali war. The group last month led an Islamist takeover of southern Kismayu port, giving it a strategic base near the Kenyan border.
The United Nations' special envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who is in Djibouti trying to promote a peace deal between the Somali government and moderate opposition figures, condemned al Shabaab's move.
"If any plane is downed ... they will be held responsible," said Ould-Abdallah, who chaired a meeting on Tuesday of the International Contact Group (ICG) in Djibouti.
The multi-nation group, which is trying to help broker peace, condemned ongoing violence and urged all Somalis to back the tentative peace pact signed in Djibouti earlier in the year.
________________ http://www.voanews.com/english/
2008-09-15-voa54.cfm VOA Horn of Africa Piracy Spurs International Action
Alisha Ryu
15 September 2008
Nairobi Maritime specialists say a surge in pirate attacks on ships between Somalia and Yemen is affecting global commerce and they are urging the international community to quickly find a solution to the crisis. As VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, what began as a group of Somali fishermen trying to protect their territorial waters has evolved into a sophisticated, multi-million-dollar criminal business.
The head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center, Noel Choong, tells VOA that he and his staff are overwhelmed by the number of calls the center is receiving every day.
"Our hands are full," Noel Choong. "We have so much work here, you know. A lot of ships are being attacked. We have so many ships calling in for help."
The International Maritime Bureau, based in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, used to focus most of its attention on activities taking place in the pirate-infested waters off Singapore and in the Malacca Strait near Indonesia.
Choong says the piracy problem there is small now, compared to the problem in waters off the coast of Somalia - particularly in the Gulf of Aden - a narrow, 885 kilometer-long stretch of water that lies between Yemen and Somalia. The waterway is considered vital for global commerce because it provides the shortest maritime route from the Far East to Europe.
This year, more than 50 commercial ships and private vessels have been attacked in Somali waters. The majority of those attacks have taken place in the Gulf of Aden. Eleven vessels, including a South Korean cargo ship seized by pirates in the area last Wednesday, have been hijacked in the past six weeks.
The head of the Seafarers' Assistance Program in Mombasa, Kenya, Andrew Mwangura, says the alarming increase in Somali pirate activity is being fueled by enormous ransoms being paid for the release of seized vessels and their crew.
On average, ship owners are paying more than $1 million per vessel. Mwangura says the potential for riches through piracy has lured a legion of poor young men to join various pirate groups that have been operating in Somalia since the fall of the country's last functioning government in 1991.
"In the past five or six years, there were less than 100," said Andrew Mwangura. But now, we have information that there are between 1,100 and 1,200."
One of the first pirate groups, the National Volunteer Coast Guard based near the southern town of Kismayo, was established by a group of fishermen who used guns and speedboats to chase away vessels they believed were illegally fishing and waste-dumping in Somali territorial waters.
The group then began seizing the vessels and demanding ransom, spawning a lucrative pirate industry along the country's eastern coastline.
Pirate activities in Somalia stopped briefly in 2006 under the Islamic Courts Union, the group that seized power from Mogadishu-based factional leaders and quickly gained popular support by restoring law and order in many parts of the country. A ban on piracy was strictly enforced.
As the Islamic courts began consolidating under the control of militants, neighboring Ethiopia, with the support of the United States, intervened in December 2006, ousting the Islamic Courts Union and installing a secular - but deeply unpopular transitional government.
That move sparked a bloody Islamist-led insurgency in Mogadishu and elsewhere. Acts of piracy also began to rise, especially off the coast of Somalia's northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Rampant piracy hampered deliveries of much-needed aid to millions of Somalis caught in a prolonged drought and in the insurgents' war with Ethiopian and Somali troops.
Many Somalis believe a powerful syndicate of factional leaders and businessmen runs the piracy operation in the country. The syndicate, with bases in Kenya and in the United Arab Emirates, is said to be using the bulk of the ransom money to fund a variety of operations, including drug and weapons smuggling and human trafficking.
There have also been reports that a portion of the money is being diverted to a homegrown, al-Qaida-linked Islamist group called the Shabab. Maritime specialist Andrew Mwangura says he also has credible information that the syndicate is sharing some of the spoils with high-ranking Somali officials.
"Some officials within the government of Somalia, as well as some Puntland authorities, are part of the activities of pirates in Somalia," he said. "So, both parties are gaining something from this commercial crime."
The cost of sending ships through the Gulf of Aden has increased 10-fold in recent months because of soaring insurance premiums. Noel Choong at the International Maritime Bureau says he fears pirates could eventually shut down one of the world's busiest and most important transport routes.
"Before it gets out of hand, someone has to step in to control because the pirates are going out, attacking the ships and bringing them back," said Noel Choong. "There is no deterrent at all."
Earlier this month, allied naval forces responsible for maritime security in the region announced they would increase their presence in the Gulf of Aden. Combined Task Force 150, which includes the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Pakistan, and several other allied countries, says the new campaign will provide a more concentrated look at who comes and goes in the area.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, Lieutenant Stephanie Murdock, acknowledges that the task force is facing a huge challenge in their vast area of operation.
"It extends pretty much from the Gulf of Oman through the Arabian Sea, through the Gulf of Aden, through the Red Sea," said Lieutenant Murdock. "Now, that is a very large expanse of water. We have ships that cover a number of different missions while they are there. It is not just piracy. We are also covering drug smuggling, human trafficking, and any other destabilizing activities. So, we always respond to distress calls from mariners and we have set up a more focused area. But there are going to be times when a coalition asset cannot get to a ship because the distance is just that great."
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