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The Challenges of Piracy in the Indian Ocean the result of incompetent AU and UN
It has been almost 20 years when the Somalia Government collapsed and the Somalies have not been able to recover. Infact, they converted themsleves to terrestrial terrorists and Sea Pirates.
The unfortunate story is how the neighbors, IGAD (Inter-governmental Agency for Development) of the Horn of Africa, African Union and the United Nations have been incomptent in dealing with this crisis.
After 20 years of chaos, children born in this chaotic environment have not seen any thing normal except their lives of anarchy, chaoes, poverty and terror.
These are new breed of young people who have now joined the Shabab and Al-Qaeda Terror network and do not know any thing better.
The recent stories about highly brazen bold and effective pirates is nothing but the result of misguided misinformed and most importantly neglected youth of Somalia.
Their values is not based on life, family and hard work but rather chaoes, death, mayham and high risk activities including suicides. Now, they got some help from their piracy ransom money, they are becoming highly suffosticated pirates with consequence.
This is nothing but the failures of adults in their lives, in their neighborhoods and the larger community of African Union and the United Nations.
It is a shame, we have the same challenges of neglect surfacing again to shame us into vulnerable shipping lanes and even negative, international maritime safety statistics.
The reslut, longer routes via the Cape of Good Hope and more time and expensive markets. That comes at a time when the Global Market itself is being terrorized by selfish insider dealings, unregulated hedge funds and shadow banking system taking over the main banks, insurance and now the Auto industry.
So, it appears those who play by the rules continue to loose and those who take risks and break the law make a big break. This is likely to change and we have no choice but to change for good win-win opportunities for all.
The Pirates in the Indian Oceasn have collaborators in the wall Street and Main Street, who are prepared to waste $700 Billion Tax payers money into Private Jet Setting and Outrageous Party operatives of the Executive Network.
Imagine, bailing out the Pirates and leaving the hostages to sink in the Indian Ocean, that is exactly what is happening in the Main Street of US congress and the White House and G20 Summit of 15 Nov 2008 as we plan to bail out the crooks and let down the warriors and patriots.
So, our approach to the Pirates and the Wall Street Criminals should be the same. Take them out and let the hostages free.
We need courage from the Barack Obamba Government and the new G20 Summit participants. May be call the Pirates to the Conference and let Wall Street answerfor the crimes they are commiting. We need to learn from the horse's mouth first as to how they managed to fool and terrorize us for so long with out us paying attention.
Let us pay attention, and here is a very fascinating story fit for the movies.
Dr B
www.eastafricaforum.net; Icc Commercial Crime Services
November 20 2008
Live Piracy Map 2008; Map is available at this link:
http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?
option=com_fabrik&view=visualization&controller=visualization.googlemap&Itemid=89
This map shows all the piracy and armed robbery incidents reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre during 2008. If exact coordinates are not provided, estimated positions are shown based on information provided.
Zoom-in and click on the pointers to view more information of an individual attack. Pointers may be superimposed on each other.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7739153.stm
BBC
November 20 2008
Crisis meeting over Somali piracy
The Sirius Star has 25 crew - who are said to be unharmed
A spate of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia has prompted an emergency meeting between nations bordering the Red Sea to deal with the problem.
Senior officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen are meeting in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
It comes amid claims that pirates who hijacked a Saudi oil tanker on Saturday are demanding a $25m (£17m) ransom.
However, a spokesman for the tanker's owners has cast doubt on the demands, which were reported by AFP news agency.
The Sirius Star, the biggest tanker ever hijacked, is carrying a cargo of 2m barrels - a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output - worth more than $100m.
It is now anchored off the Somali coast with around 25 crew members being held as hostages.
A pirate on board the vessel calling himself Mohamed Said told AFP that the owners, Vela International, had been set a 10-day deadline to hand over the ransom.
"The Saudis have 10 days to comply, otherwise we will take action that could be disastrous," he said, without elaborating.
A spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry, Hossam Zaki, was quoted by Egypt's official Mena news agency as saying that "all options are open" in trying to solve the crisis.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's foreign minsiter confirmed that the ship's owners were negotiating with the pirates.
'Fundamental problem'
The 25 captive crew on the Sirius Star include 19 Filipinos, two British citizens, two Poles, one Croatian, and one Saudi national.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he could not comment on negotiations.
However, he did say: "There is a strong view of the British government, and actually the international community, that payments for hostage-taking are only an encouragement to further hostage-taking and we will be approaching this issue in a very delicate way, in a way that puts the security and safety of the hostages to the fore."
With Britain's Royal Navy co-ordinating the European response to the incident, Mr Miliband said: "There is a fundamental problem in the Gulf of Aden. That is why the deployment of the European force is the right thing to do."
The pirates who seized the tanker on Saturday are a sophisticated group with contacts in Dubai and neighbouring countries, says BBC Somali Service editor Yusuf Garaad.
Much of their ransom money from previous hijackings has been used to buy new boats and weapons as well as develop a network across the Horn of Africa, he adds.
Russia has announced it is to send more warships to the region to counter the pirates.
Earlier this month, one of its destroyers, the Neustrashimy, scared away pirates who were trying to hijack ships in the Gulf of Aden.
"After the Neustrashimy, ships from other fleets of the Russian navy will head to the region," Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said.
There has been a surge in piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia this year.
On Tuesday, a cargo ship and a fishing vessel became the latest to join more than 90 vessels attacked by the pirates since January.
In a rare victory against the organised gangs, the Indian navy said it had sunk a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden, several hundred kilometres north of the location where the hijackers boarded the Sirius Star.
INS Tabar attacked the vessel on Tuesday after it failed to stop for an inspection and opened fire, the Indian navy statement said in a statement.
Shipping companies are now said to be weighing up the risks of using the short-cut route to and from Europe via the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.
However, travelling around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope would add several weeks to average journey times and substantially increase the cost of goods for consumers.
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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/56097.html
McClatchy Newspapers, US; Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Islamists poised to seize Somalia again in setback to U.S.
Shashank Bengali
NAIROBI, Kenya — Al Shabaab, a radical Islamist group that U.S. officials say is tied to al Qaida, has methodically seized much of southern Somalia and is poised to take the capital, Mogadishu, as the country's internationally backed government nears collapse.
The rise of al Shabaab — from the Arabic word for "youth" — in many ways represents the very scenario that the Bush administration sought to avoid two years ago, when it quietly backed an invasion by Somalia's neighbor, Ethiopia, to drive a federation of hard-line Islamic courts out of Mogadishu.
The invasion aimed to forestall a Taliban-style regime that could have become an East African haven for jihadists. But diplomats, regional analysts and former Shabaab fighters say that it's fueled a diverse Islamist insurgency that's now stronger and more sophisticated than ever, and seems bent on retaking control of the country.
American officials "are fearful" of a return to hard-line Islamist rule in Somalia, according to one official who wasn't authorized to discuss the subject publicly. "There's no question that (the insurgency) is more violent than it has been in recent history, and we are extremely concerned about that," the U.S. official said.
Of several insurgent factions claiming territory in southern Somalia, the most powerful is unquestionably al Shabaab, whose leaders claim allegiance to Osama bin Laden and rule based on a strict form of sharia, or Islamic law.
In recent months, their forces have been bolstered by the arrival of foreign-trained jihadists and by ready supplies of cash, weapons and mercenaries flowing easily through one of the most lawless and impoverished regions of Africa.
The group has recruited perhaps hundreds of fighters from across the permeable border in Kenya, paying young, jobless Muslim men upward of $100 a month and promising large sums to the families of martyrs, say Kenyan ex-militants.
They're also joined by a small but influential number of jihadists from Arab countries who train the mostly young and inexperienced Somali fighters in suicide bombing and other tactics, the fighters say.
Despite nearly two decades of chaos and militia rule, foreign fighters are a new phenomenon in Somalia and a sign that al Shabaab is "becoming more dangerous," said Richard Barno of the Institute for Security Studies, a South Africa-based think tank.
Analysts credit Shabaab's foreign wing with plotting five coordinated car bombings in northern Somalia last month that killed at least 31 people — the worst terrorist strike in the country in recent memory.
Analysts say it's unclear if Shabaab's links to al Qaida are operational or mere bluster, but CIA director Michael Hayden last week identified Somalia as a region where al Qaida was forming new partnerships.
In March, the State Department designated al Shabaab as a terrorist organization that included "a number of individuals affiliated with al Qaida" and that "many of its senior leaders . . . trained and fought with al Qaida in Afghanistan."
U.S. officials accuse the group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 220 people. The Pentagon has launched several airstrikes inside Somalia against suspected terrorists, including Aden Hashi Ayro, a top Shabaab commander and reputed al Qaida operative, who was killed in a U.S. strike in May.
In backing the Ethiopian invasion two years ago, Bush administration officials made similar allegations about leaders of the Islamic courts, including Hassan Dahir Aweys, a hard-liner who commands a militia from his base in neighboring Eritrea. But in a sign of a softer approach this time around, the U.S. official said that American envoys had met with allies of Aweys in recent months.
Aweys's forces have sometimes fought alongside al Shabaab against Ethiopian forces and secular, clan-based militias. In a recent interview with McClatchy, Mukhtar Robow, a Shabaab senior commander, said that he and Aweys "have a common enemy and are pursuing a common goal in the struggle to liberate our country" from Ethiopian forces.
While Robow accused the United Nations and the African Union peacekeeping mission of siding with the Somali government — his fighters have attacked peacekeepers and are suspected of murdering and kidnapping aid workers — he denied a global or anti-American agenda.
But he expressed allegiance to bin Laden's worldview and said that his fighters, if called upon by Islamic militant groups in other countries, would "join them to liberate them from Americans' interference in their affairs."
Meanwhile, Somali leaders have been paralyzed by a bitter power struggle between President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. With insurgents gaining ground, the dispute could signal "the beginning of the end" for the country's four-year-old transitional government, said Abdikarim Farah, a senior Somali diplomat based in Ethiopia.
Last week Shabaab forces overran the strategic port of Merka, 60 miles south of Mogadishu, and a smaller town 10 miles southwest of the capital — in both cases without firing a shot.
In Shabaab-controlled areas, the imposition of sharia law has brought sometimes-gruesome consequences. Last month in the southern port of Kismayo, a 13-year-old girl who reported being raped by three men was accused of adultery and stoned to death in a stadium in front of about 1,000 spectators, according to Amnesty International.
"Their agenda is to control the whole country with sharia. They are in it for power," said Issa Abdi Ismail, a rail-thin Kenyan who joined al Shabaab this year for the promise of a $150 monthly salary.
He quit about two months ago after commanders sent him to train with a foreign jihadist to become a suicide bomber and attack Ethiopian troops in the government-controlled town of Baidoa.
"I was told that even if you kill one person, you will have sacrificed yourself for God," Ismail said at a cafe in the teeming Somali enclave of Eastleigh, in Nairobi. "I had joined just for the money. I could not go through with that."
Despite the influence of foreign fighters, however, analysts say that al Shabaab can only take Mogadishu by forming alliances with other Islamist militias, which could weaken their influence.
Somali officials say that al Shabaab's strict version of sharia is unpopular among other groups and everyday Somalis, many of whom opposed the Islamic courts for similar reasons in 2006.
"Tensions between the groups are there already. Once you take out the hard-core members, there are divisions among the foot soldiers," said Abdisaid M. Ali, an analyst and former Somali cabinet secretary.
Questions also surround Ethiopia's plan to withdraw the several thousand troops still guarding government sites in Mogadishu. Experts believe that al Shabaab and its allies are waiting for Ethiopian forces to leave to avoid a bloody battle for Mogadishu, but Ethiopia has been vague about a timetable for withdrawal.
Already, more than 1.3 million Somalis have fled their homes since 2007, with many living in squalid encampments on the outskirts of cities and in Kenya, the United Nations says. Some 3.2 million people — more than half the country — need urgent humanitarian assistance, a number that relief agencies say will surely rise with the next round of fighting.
www.eastafricaforum.net
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-18-voa7.cfm
VOA
Conflicting Reports on Seized Saudi Oil Tanker
Alisha Ryu
18 November 2008
A hijacked Saudi supertanker carrying two million barrels of oil is reported to have dropped anchor off the coast of Somalia. Pirates captured the vessel more than 800 kilometers off the coast of Kenya on Saturday. The company that owns the tanker says the 25 crew members are believed to be safe.
As VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, the ship's owner is hoping to negotiate an end to the spectacular seizure.
The head of the East African Seafarers' Association in Mombasa, Kenya, Andrew Mwangura, says negotiations for the release of the $140 million oil tanker and its multi-national crew of 25 have begun.
He says he expects the pirates to demand a far higher ransom for the release of the vessel than the $1.2 million the pirates have previously demanded from ship owners.
"We are informed that they are already in touch with the ship owner but we do not know who far they [negotiations] have gone," said Mwangura.
According to Mwangura and other maritime officials, the enormous weight of the cargo would have limited the 330-meter supertanker to a top speed about 14 knots - slow enough for armed pirates in fast attack boats to come alongside.
British maritime journalist David Hughes says although the newly-built Sirius Star sits higher
Click on map to see larger map
in the water than older tankers, it would not have been difficult for experienced gunmen to board her.
"The modern one is higher than an old one," he said. "We are talking 10 to 15 meters. Not easy. Still, you could get a ladder up."
The hijacking of the vessel, the largest ever taken by pirates, took place despite the presence of warships recently deployed by the United States, the NATO alliance and the European Union to protect one of the world's busiest shipping areas.
Many of the warships have been conducting their patrols in the narrow shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden, where the number of successful piracy attacks on merchant ships have dropped significantly in the past month.
But Monday's attack occurred 830 kilometers off the coast of Kenya in wide open waters that navies cannot adequately cover. The United States' top military officer, Navy Admiral Michael Mullen told reporters that he was stunned by the pirates' ability to operate so far from shore.
Journalist David Hughes says the attack signals a potential catastrophe for the global maritime industry. "It means that nowhere from somewhere down the middle of the Indian Ocean and westward is safe," he said. "And that means you essentially cannot have normal merchant shipping in that huge area."
The U.S. Navy has not said whether it is considering taking military actions to rescue the tanker.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7737375.stm
BBC
November 19, 2008
Pirates 'working with Islamists'
Martin Plaut
Pirates captured the Sirius Star tanker at the weekend
Somali pirates have been accused of forming what is described as an "unholy high seas alliance" with some of the country's Islamist insurgents.
Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor says certain insurgents are using pirates to smuggle weapons and supplies and help provide bases in return.
The London-based newsletter says pirates are also training Somali hardliners in naval tactics.
The links are traced to 2007, after Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia.
The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which took control of much of southern Somalia in 2006, had cracked down on pirate operations in Hobyo and Harardheere.
They even freed a dhow captured by the pirates in August 2006.
But after the UIC were ousted, various Islamic groups formed links with the pirates.
Maritime force
Bruno Schiemsky - who formerly monitored UN arms shipments into Somalia - says these links take a variety of forms:
Islamists have used the pirates to bring in arms shipments and foreign fighters, providing weapons and training in their use in return. They also help with bases from which the pirates operate Hardliners, known as the Shabab, now have a degree of control over several pirate groups and provide operating funds and specialist weapons in return for a share of the ransoms being paid to free the ships and crew
As many as 2,500 young Somalis have been trained by the Shabab at points all along the Somali coast The Islamists are using the pirates to train their own forces in naval tactics so that they can provide protection for arms being smuggled in Somalia from Eritrea.
The article provides details of three arms shipments brought into the country by pirates.
It says two shipments in May were for Sheikh Hassan Abdulle Hersi, who is also known as Hassan Turki, an Islamist leader who is based in southern Somalia near Kismayo.
They are reported to have been picked up from islands off the Eritrean coast.
One was landed south of the capital, Mogadishu, the other brought into Mogadishu port where businessmen are alleged to have bribed port officials to allow them to be landed.
Another shipment arrived in July and is reported to have contained large quantities of weapons including specialist sniper rifles, heavy machine guns, guided anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft guns, as well as ammunition.
This is said to have been landed in Puntland in north-eastern Somalia.
The maritime force organised by the Shabab - along the lines of the Sea Tigers operated by the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers - is said to be located in southern Somalia.
They are reported to be 480 strong, and the article says they will operate off the coast of Somalia and northern Kenya.
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http://www.shabait.com/staging/publish/article_008926.html
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Eritrea
October 17, 2008
Press Statement: Ethiopia Has the Obligation to Accept Its Nationals
Over the last few days, the Government of Ethiopia has been falsely accusing Eritrea for ill-treatment of a group of Ethiopian nationals. The Government of Eritrea has no desire to reply to the daily hate propaganda of the Ethiopian Government. However, the Government deems it appropriate to set the record straight to Ethiopia and the public at large.
The facts of the matter are as follows. In June 2008, a group of Eritreans returned home from Egypt. During the interviews carried out at their arrival, it was established that 167 of them were Ethiopian nationals registered as Eritreans in Egypt. (Three babies were born after the arrival of the group in Eritrea raising the total number to 170.)
Upon realizing the situation, the Government of Eritrea approached the Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Eritrea. The Delegation of ICRC made frequent visits to the group who were temporarily sheltered in a school in the city of Massawa. In the private interview conducted by the Delegation of ICRC, the ICRC ascertained that 167 expressed their desire to return to their country. Three opted to stay in Eritrea.
Consequently, the Government of Eritrea proposed to the ICRC to arrange a repatriation mission in two weeks. The ICRC reply to the proposal was that the mission could not be undertaken because of logistical difficulties and the request by the Government of Ethiopia for a 4-6 weeks advanced notice for repatriation missions.
This was not off-course, a novel development but a pattern that Ethiopia often resorts to. Later, the ICRC informed the Government of Eritrea that the repatriation of the 167 Ethiopian nationals could only be done simultaneously with the previously arranged voluntary repatriation of Ethiopians residing in Eritrea scheduled on September 25, 2008.
(The date for this mission was later pushed to October 9, 2008.) Although the Government of Eritrea was concerned with the unnecessary delays, it nonetheless agreed with the proposed date.
When all the necessary arrangements for the repatriation mission were finalized, in the afternoon of October 7, 2008 the ICRC informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Eritrea that the repatriation mission would be canceled since; Ethiopia was not ready to receive its nationals in accordance with the previously arranged plan. In the event, the government of Eritrean took appropriate decision and ensured the safety of the non resident Ethiopian nationals in returning home.
On 9th of October, with the exception of one pregnant woman who required medical attention, the 166 Ethiopians who requested to be voluntarily repatriated to their country were transported to the border and crossed the Mereb Bridge to Ethiopia.
On their journey and throughout their stay in Eritrea, the group was treated with dignity and the usual warm Eritrean hospitality. This treatment was commended by the persons themselves and humanitarian organizations. The claim that they were deported is nonsensical. First, the persons were not residents of Eritrea.
Second, they were repatriated upon their request; those who opted to stay in Eritrea were allowed to do so. The unfounded allegations of ill-treatment of the persons, although regrettable, do not merit serious consideration as it is part of the routine hate-campaign against Eritrea by the Government of Ethiopia and its patrons.
'Toxic waste' behind Somali piracy
By Najad Abdullahi
Some pirates operating off Somalia's coast claim to act as coastguards [GALLO/GETTY]
Somali pirates have accused European firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste.
The ransom demand is a means of "reacting to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years", Januna Ali Jama, a spokesman for the pirates, based in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said.
"The Somali coastline has been destroyed, and we believe this money is nothing compared to the devastation that we have seen on the seas."
The pirates are holding the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military hardware, off Somalia's northern coast.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, 61 attacks by pirates have been reported since the start of the year.
While money is the primary objective of the hijackings, claims of the continued environmental destruction off Somalia's coast have been largely ignored by the regions's maritime authorities.
Dumping allegations
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy for Somalia confirmed to Al Jazeera the world body has "reliable information" that European and Asian companies are dumping toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline.
"I must stress however, that no government has endorsed this act, and that private companies and individuals acting alone are responsible," he said
The pirates are holding the MV Faina off Somalia's northern coast [Reuters]
Allegations of the dumping of toxic waste, as well as illegal fishing, have circulated since the early 1990s.
But evidence of such practices literally appeared on the beaches of northern Somalia when the tsunami of 2004 hit the country.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reported the tsunami had washed up rusting containers of toxic waste on the shores of Puntland.
Nick Nuttall, a UNEP spokesman, told Al Jazeera that when the barrels were smashed open by the force of the waves, the containers exposed a "frightening activity" that has been going on for more than decade.
"Somalia has been used as a dumping ground for hazardous waste starting in the early 1990s, and continuing through the civil war there," he said.
"European companies found it to be very cheap to get rid of the waste, costing as little as $2.50 a tonne, where waste disposal costs in Europe are something like $1000 a tonne.
"And the waste is many different kinds. There is uranium radioactive waste. There is lead, and heavy metals like cadmium and mercury. There is also industrial waste, and there are hospital wastes, chemical wastes – you name it."
Nuttall also said that since the containers came ashore, hundreds of residents have fallen ill, suffering from mouth and abdominal bleeding, skin infections and other ailments.
"We [the UNEP] had planned to do a proper, in-depth scientific assessment on the magnitude of the problem. But because of the high levels of insecurity onshore and off the Somali coast, we are unable to carry out an accurate assessment of the extent of the problem," he said.
However, Ould-Abdallah claims the practice still continues.
"What is most alarming here is that nuclear waste is being dumped. Radioactive uranium waste that is potentially killing Somalis and completely destroying the ocean," he said.
Toxic waste
Ould-Abdallah declined to name which companies are involved in waste dumping, citing legal reasons.
But he did say the practice helps fuel the 18-year-old civil war in Somalia as companies are paying Somali government ministers to dump their waste, or to secure licences and contracts.
"There is no government control ... and there are few people with high moral ground ... [and] yes, people in high positions are being paid off, but because of the fragility of the TFG [Transitional Federal Government], some of these companies now no longer ask the authorities – they simply dump their waste and leave."
Ould-Abdallah said there are ethical questions to be considered because the companies are negotiating contracts with a government that is largely divided along tribal lines.
"How can you negotiate these dealings with a country at war and with a government struggling to remain relevant?"
In 1992, a contract to secure the dumping of toxic waste was made by Swiss and Italian shipping firms Achair Partners and Progresso, with Nur Elmi Osman, a former official appointed to the government of Ali Mahdi Mohamed, one of many militia leaders involved in the ousting of Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia's former president.
At the request of the Swiss and Italian governments, UNEP investigated the matter.
Both firms had denied entering into any agreement with militia leaders at the beginning of the Somali civil war.
Osman also denied signing any contract.
'Mafia involvement'
However, Mustafa Tolba, the former UNEP executive director, told Al Jazeera that he discovered the firms were set up as fictitious companies by larger industrial firms to dispose of hazardous waste.
"At the time, it felt like we were dealing with the Mafia, or some sort of organised crime group, possibly working with these industrial firms," he said.
Nations have found it difficult to tackle
the problem of piracy [AFP]
"It was very shady, and quite underground, and I would agree with Ould-Abdallah’s claims that it is still going on... Unfortunately the war has not allowed environmental groups to investigate this fully."
The Italian mafia controls an estimated 30 per cent of Italy's waste disposal companies, including those that deal with toxic waste.
In 1998, Famiglia Cristiana, an Italian weekly magazine, claimed that although most of the waste-dumping took place after the start of the civil war in 1991, the activity actually began as early as 1989 under the Barre government.
Beyond the ethical question of trying to secure a hazardous waste agreement in an unstable country like Somalia, the alleged attempt by Swiss and Italian firms to dump waste in Somalia would violate international treaties to which both countries are signatories.
Legal ramifications
Switzerland and Italy signed and ratified the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which came into force in 1992.
EU member states, as well as 168 other countries have also signed the agreement.
The convention prohibits waste trade between countries that have signed the convention, as well as countries that have not signed the accord unless a bilateral agreement had been negotiated.
It is also prohibits the shipping of hazardous waste to a war zone.
Abdi Ismail Samatar, professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota, told Al Jazeera that because an international coalition of warships has been deployed to the Gulf of Aden, the alleged dumping of waste must have been observed.
Environmental damage
"If these acts are continuing, then surely they must have been seen by someone involved in maritime operations," he said.
"Is the cargo aimed at a certain destination more important than monitoring illegal activities in the region? Piracy is not the only problem for Somalia, and I think it's irresponsible on the part of the authorities to overlook this issue."
Mohammed Gure, chairman of the Somalia Concern Group, said that the social and environmental consequences will be felt for decades.
"The Somali coastline used to sustain hundreds of thousands of people, as a source of food and livelihoods. Now much of it is almost destroyed, primarily at the hands of these so-called ministers that have sold their nation to fill their own pockets."
Ould-Abdallah said piracy will not prevent waste dumping.
"The intentions of these pirates are not concerned with protecting their environment," he said.
"What is ultimately needed is a functioning, effective government that will get its act together and take control of its affairs."
Source: Al Jazeera
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7739153.stm
BBC
November 20, 2008Somalia 'to become pirate magnet'
Onboard a Nato warship heading towards Somalia
Somalia must be helped by the international community to stop it becoming a "magnet for pirates," a senior Egyptian official has said.
Deputy foreign minister Wafaa Bassem, who chaired a piracy crisis meeting of Red Sea states, called for political, humanitarian and economic help.
And a top African Union diplomat called on the UN to send peacekeepers to the country or risk further deterioration.
Meanwhile, the largest tanker ever hijacked remains under pirate control.
The Sirius Star, carrying two million barrels of oil worth $100m (£68m), was taken on Saturday and remains anchored off the Somali coast with its 25 crew held hostage.
The increase in piracy prompted senior officials from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia's government to gather for a private meeting in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Ms Bassem said: "The international community must co-operate first in the short and medium-term by offering sufficient support to the Somali transitional government and the Somali people as far as humanitarian, economical and political support are concerned, in order to eliminate the factors that make this region a magnet for piracy and pirates."
The chairman of the Commission of the African Union, Jean Ping, also said the country needed outside help.
He said the rise in piracy was "a clear indication of the further deterioration of the situation with far-reaching consequences for this country, the region and... international community".
Although Nato ships patrol the area and help protect merchant ships and food aid cargos destined for Somalia, secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said it would not go further.
"Piracy is a very serious challenge and we have to fight it, but I think if you come to the part of these operations, for instance on land, then it is first and foremost up to the United Nations and not organisations like Nato to get deeply involved," he was quoted by Reuters.
An earlier report from AFP news agency quoted a pirate on board the vessel calling himself Mohamed Said who said that the Saudi owners, Vela International, had been set a 10-day deadline to hand over a $25m (£17m) ransom.
BBC Security correspondent Frank Gardner says the owners are effectively denying that figure, while the industry is expecting the demand to be higher.
A spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry, Hossam Zaki, was quoted by Egypt's official Mena news agency as saying that "all options are open" in trying to solve the crisis.
'Fundamental problem'
The 25 captive crew on the Sirius Star include 19 Filipinos, two British citizens, two Poles, one Croatian, and one Saudi national.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he could not comment on negotiations.
However, he did say: "There is a strong view of the British government, and actually the international community, that payments for hostage-taking are only an encouragement to further hostage-taking and we will be approaching this issue in a very delicate way, in a way that puts the security and safety of the hostages to the fore."
With Britain's Royal Navy co-ordinating the European response to the incident, Mr Miliband said: "There is a fundamental problem in the Gulf of Aden. That is why the deployment of the European force is the right thing to do."
The pirates who seized the tanker on Saturday are a sophisticated group with contacts in Dubai and neighbouring countries, says BBC Somali Service editor Yusuf Garaad.
Much of their ransom money from previous hijackings has been used to buy new boats and weapons as well as develop a network across the Horn of Africa, he adds.
Russia has announced it is to send more warships to the region to counter the pirates.
Earlier this month, one of its frigates, the Neustrashimy, scared away pirates who were trying to hijack ships in the Gulf of Aden.
"After the Neustrashimy, ships from other fleets of the Russian navy will head to the region," Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said.
On Tuesday, a cargo ship and a fishing vessel became the latest to join more than 90 vessels attacked by the pirates since January.
Shipping concerns
In a rare victory against the organised gangs, the Indian navy said it had sunk a suspected pirate "mother ship" after it failed to stop for an inspection in the Gulf of Aden, several hundred kilometres north of the location where the hijackers boarded the Sirius Star.
Shipping companies are now weighing up the risks of using the short-cut route to and from Europe via the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.
However, travelling around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope would add several weeks to average journey times and substantially increase the cost of goods for consumers.
Maersk, one of the world's biggest shipping firms, announced on Thursday that some of its fleet, mainly tankers, would no longer use the Gulf of Aden.
Convoy confusion
But the company added that if there were enough naval escorts, it would resume sending vessels through the gulf.
BBC Africa editor Martin Plaut says there is currently no formal system of convoys in the area.
The Indian and Russian ships are working independently, while Nato and the US Navy are working together, advising merchant ships that they are in the area and can protect them.
Other warships are escorting World Food Programme ships carrying aid destined for Somalia, and merchant ships can travel with them as long as they do not slow them down.
A naval taskforce is due to be sent by the European Union in December.
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http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12637009&fsrc=rss
The Economist
Anarchy in Somalia
The lawless Horn
Nov 20th 2008
Pirates are only part of a much bigger problem in east Africa
IT IS tempting to be jaunty about piracy. So what if a few Robin Hoods in skiffs nick the odd tanker off the Horn of Africa? Often enough, the owners pay ransom and nobody gets hurt. Everyone needs a living in these hard times. And if the worst comes to the worst, gunboats can always be dispatched to clean the problem up, just as the British and Americans did off north Africa’s Barbary coast at the turn of the 19th century.
It is tempting, but it is wrong. The Barbary pirates caused immense human and economic damage, and the current spate of piracy in the waters of east Africa is now getting out of hand too. On November 15th pirates operating hundreds of miles from the coast seized the Sirius Star, a supertanker carrying 2m barrels of Saudi oil (see article). A dozen or so other vessels are already held by pirates. One of them—surrounded by American and Russian warships—contains a cargo of 33 T-72 tanks, enough to tip the balance in a small local war.
The last thing the world needs right now is disruption of one of its busiest shipping lanes and a spike in insurance premiums. But the cause of the present surge of piracy is no less worrying than its consequences. What has made the pirates’ audacity possible is the collapse of Somalia. The existence of a vast ungoverned space in Africa’s Horn does not just provide a useful haven from which pirates can hunt their prey at sea. It also threatens to transmit shockwaves through a seam of fragile and strife-torn African states from Sudan to the Congo.
How did this happen, and how can it be resolved? The first question is the easier to answer. About 50,000 peacekeepers are currently deployed under United Nations or African Union auspices in east and central Africa in an effort to dampen down various conflicts. In Somalia in 2006, however, the Bush administration tried something different: war by proxy. It gave a green light for Ethiopia to invade Somalia. The plan was for Ethiopia to squash an Islamist movement and reinstate a Somali government that had lost control of most of its territory.
Two years on, the plan has backfired. Abdullahi Ahmed, Somalia’s increasingly notional president, admitted on November 15th that a variety of Islamist insurgents once again dominate most of the country, leaving only two cities, Mogadishu and Baidoa, in the hands of his increasingly notional government. Neither Ethiopia nor the African Union ever sent enough soldiers to impose order. Worse, the strongest of the insurgent groups, the Shabab, is even more radical than the Islamic Courts movement which the Americans and Ethiopians originally took on. It is suspected of being linked by money to the pirates (who hand over a slice of the ransom in return for protection) and by ideology to al-Qaeda.
So how to resolve the issue? It is not enough just to send more gunboats. Although an Indian warship sunk an alleged pirate vessel this week, and a bigger naval effort could help to keep the sea-lanes a little safer, a long-term solution demands much more. This includes establishing stability inside Somalia itself, depriving the pirates of a sanctuary, and preventing the jihad-tinted anarchy there from spilling over Somalia’s borders. But since there are no serious military forces available to defeat the insurgents, a proper answer will entail reshaping the country’s politics and stepping up attempts to woo the more biddable Islamists—if there are enough left and a deal with them is still possible. Maybe not so jaunty, after all.
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http://appablog.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/somalia-djibouti-agreement-remains-open-to-all-somalis-un-secretary-general-says/
United Nations - Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General /African Press Organization
Somalia / Djibouti Agreement remains open to all Somalis UN Secretary-General says
MOGADISHU, Somalia, November 20, 2008/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Daily press briefing by the offices of the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general And the spokesperson for the general assembly president
Turning to Somalia, the Secretary-General’s latest report to the Security Council is out today, and he says that the Djibouti Agreement remains open to all Somalis, and he urges all of them to joint that process, implement it faithfully and commit unconditionally to peace.
He says that the deterioration of the security situation, particularly in the south-central regions, poses an immense challenge, not just to reconciliation efforts but also to the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The Secretary-General says that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) deserves international support and encouragement. He adds that it will be imperative to tie that Mission, the ongoing anti-piracy operation and an envisaged multinational force in a coordinated effort to address both the consequences and the sources of lawlessness in Somalia. As current conditions are not conducive to a UN peacekeeping operation, he appeals to Member States to pledge troops, funds and equipment for a multinational force.
And on the humanitarian side, the World Food Programme (WFP) says that, in October, it dispatched a total of 21,198 metric tons of food aid commodities for distribution in Somalia to nearly 1.7 million people.
Nearly 80 per cent of the food distributed was through emergency food distribution to vulnerable residents and displaced populations in south-central Somalia.
WFP is now targeting over 700,000 food insecure, urban residents with relief food distributions, in response to high food prices in urban areas. The agency began the expansion of targeted nutrition intervention to internally displaced persons’ settlements, targeting malnourished children under the age of five, as well as pregnant and lactating women.
Isaac Abodunrin
United States 14/10/2008
Toxic
It's a real shame that something like this is allowed to happen. Yes, it costs only $2.5 to dump a ton of waste in Somalia compared to the $1000 in Europe and America. But the Somalis are paying the remaining $997.5 with their health and lives.
Ruben Abreu
United States 15/10/2008
Toxic waste dumping
A global effort is necessary to stop toxic waste dumping and establish a meaningful clean-up program. Pirates and dumpers must be brought before the World Court.
felix
United States 16/10/2008
Toxic waste
Well, if this is happenning in front of the coast of Somalia, imagine what s going on at hight seas all over the world my friends...
WebSpeak Ezine
United States 13/10/2008
Toxic waste behind Somali piracy
This is going on all over the world. The Somolian pirates are hardly making things any better. Surely there just be some way to hit the world courts with this injustice. You see innocent people all over the world will pay for the ignorance of a few. The people dumping this waste seem to be ignorant that they and their future generations may reap the benefits of their ignorance. Don't you just love it?
sophie
Norway 13/10/2008
Coalition of the greedy
The impact this has on peoples health, their livelihood and the environment, is a catastrophy that could and should have been avoided if the European companies lived up to the standards of the wealthy countries. An additional tragedy is how the liason of corrupt politicians in Somalia and the greedy companies undermines the chance of the democratic west ever being trusted to support the "right" side in the conflict in Somalia. Policies of economic liberalism gives political liberalism a bad name
Abdali
Canada 14/10/2008
justice demands those dumpers to be EXECUTED
Do not do to others what you would not like to be done (by others)! As simple as it is.. Any nation that is found involved in this act MUST PAY (MUCH more than it costs to clean/treat those who got sick due to this dumping) AND MUST BE OUTLAWED from ANY further DEALINGS!
Dhoruba Bin-Wahad
United States 18/11/2008
Toxic European Racism
This practice has been carried out by Europeans for decades, often with a nod from the elites who inhabit African governments like maggots eating at the fragile envinronment, African "businessmen" contract deals with Europeans to import and dump toxic waste.This only happens to poor nations. The same Europeans who send their navies to protect the flow of oil - send their toxic waste to protect Europe. Garbage is welcome in Africa but Africans aren't welcome in Europe.
Michael
United States 19/11/2008
Somali pirates
So since they've captured millions of dollars thru piracy, I imagine we can expect to see that money being used in a very public way to stop or begin the cleanup of the toxic waste, right?
Josh
United States 19/11/2008
Somalia
Well maybe if those idiots down in Somalia would stop killing each other they would have a stable government that would be able to stand up for itself. The US under UN mandate tried helping them in the earlier 90's and im sure youre all familiar with the "black hawk down" incident. When you shoot at the people who are trying to give you food and restore peace your not going to get any sympathy from the world.
Sayd-Ali
Somalia 19/11/2008
How Somali pirates begin this Hijacking?
In my idea, in the last 10 years Some industial countries were dumping tixic waste in Somali coasts, so many peoplewre dying that remaiing Nucleasr wastes and many fishes also, therefore after that years there's Pirates estabilshed their own and began to hijacked ships in Gulf of aden. I beleive If there's no Tixic waste there wouldn't be any Pirates.
James Seekie
United States 19/11/2008
waste dumping
I think that's how it's suppose to be. That's how it has been. Africa is the refuse for wastes. Who told you guys that the corrupt U.N doesn't know about all this? How can you blame those stupid ministers who are taking bribes for something that affects themselves as well as posterity. If Africa don't unite now and protect the what they have left then they should get ready for real cataclysm. I am in America and the aim of those waste dumpers is to kill everyone in Africa slowly without weapon.
MUJAHID
Guinea 19/11/2008
Toxic Waste Behind Somali piracy
If you believe the crap about "black hawk down" you probably believe the invasion of Iraq was to stop Saddam's WMD program. Somalia has been intentionally destabilized by the US & the West to insure pro-western control of the vital Horn of Africa. The African pawns of this destabilization are Ethiopian, Kenyan, & Somalis business men &clan leaders paid by the U.S. in its so called war on terror. The UN mission was opposed because hunger was used to cover proselyting Christian Aid agencies.
ibrahim
United Kingdom 19/11/2008
piracy in somalia
and they hard a strict policy about the piracy infact there was no piracy during the rule of the islamic courts in somalia - but the united states was not happy with islamist and they decided to topple them using the ethiopians.
And today what is the result? the waters of somali have become the most dangerous waters in the world...... good luck to the usa and their policy and remember when you close one window another one opens.
shaikh
India 19/11/2008
Toxic waste behind Somali piracy
good work Al-jazeera.. U hav shows the real fact & the rialitySomali piracy beacoz of the toxic waste.. Good keep it on.. Mke this colm as headline..
frankie edmond
Bahamas 19/11/2008
its sad to think that the united nations and news media is letting this go in in todays time but this does not give the civilian the right to turn to piracy to let the word know what is going on.
I think that these pirates are just evil greedy men that want to line their pockets with cash while telling the people they are doing it for the betterment of the country and to stop the polluting, they are no better that the persons who are dumping the waste in the ocean
M.Sadd
United States 19/11/2008
comments made by" josh"-united states
Josh you sound very arrogant. What do you know about Somalia? What do you know about Somalis'? "Those idiots"? It sounds to me like you need an education. You shouldn't speak that way about people who's voices you've never heard.
Let me tell you something You have to be human first,You are talking about human souls,People just like you.
They eat and sleep just like you.If you didn't have you head so far up your rear end you might understand this.Understand a nations people before you judge.
mohamed
Kenya 20/11/2008
resistance
i think that the pirates are doing a good job by defending,patrolling and guarding the coastline of somalia. and i am urging somali pirates to carry on piracy untill somalia becomes stable or the dumping of toxic waste be eradicated.
otti
Australia 20/11/2008
toxic waste
Sink the supertanker and show them what toxic waste really looks like.
Jamal
Somalia 18/11/2008
No dispute
I wonder why the world watches only pirates and they're not looking inside a country where the people eat stones and drink blood. I would say "help the dying Somali people then there won't be pirates!"
Dr. A.F. Dualeh
Denmark 18/11/2008
Piracy Contra Nuclear 6 Chemical wate
Combatting piracy off the somali coast is step one of the 1994 EU-UN master plan to recolonize Somalia, and the UN is playing a major part of this criminal plan.
For a complete and in depth analisy, read my article regarding the specific of planning by the Uk to recolonize Somalia, Sudan and Burma (Mianmar). The late UK foreign minister Douglas Hurd, declared that plan in 1994!
ANassir
Finland 19/11/2008
selfish and greedy
Look what is happening in the hands of world powers!. Once somalia was peaceful under UIC after a continous clan-based warlords supported by the west.then when they used neighbouring coutry which is very poor to go to war on behalf of them.still unsuccesful.
This is being done because the west wants to destablise somalia and dump wastes into somalia ocean so that they can be as they wish where there is no effective control. what is wrong then with pirates compared to what the west does?
Joseph Heckel
United States 18/11/2008
Toxic Waste behind Somali Piracy
If you think this waste is not effecting your life, consider where the hurricanes originate. These tropical depressions carry these things with them including radioactive water.
This is an international problem and requires international attention. Look at the oceanic currents and you will see the alarming proximity to somalia with major tropical storms.
Lama Abdul Samad
Lebanon 19/11/2008
Environmental Hysteria
Somalian Piracy constitutes yet a fraction of the international piracy problem and that of fisheries. The European toxic waste dumping and toxic ship breaking, all signatory to the Basel Convention, constitute the bulk of the problem.
Considering the socio-envo-political Somalian situation and the cost of toxic waste treatment in Europe of that ship, maybe $8M will never be enough of a ransom but surely has highlighted the crises internationally.
Andreas
Egypt 19/11/2008
Toxic Waste
A new kind of "Green Peace"! We weolcome such "self governace", as Somalia is known to have no real government in place for years. The new generation has to act and clean up the mess. Well done to the pirates!!!
Jacob
Singapore 19/11/2008
Somali pirates
The current piracy actvities in the Somali coasts is the result of the Bush admnistration policies towards Somalia. A policy that lacks of solid knowledge and understanding of the Somali conflict.
Its time for those who refused to let the Somali people live in peace pay the price for thier crimes of destabilizing Somalia. The last two captures by the pirates shows that some one is providing them with intelligence information. I beleive that some countries are trying to justify a foreign milit
Rubi
United Kingdom 19/11/2008
Somali pirates
Josh, when u say somalis have been ungrateful, "black hawk down"what u didnt/dont know is that the only reason americans went into the country was for their benefical.
To help a country doesnt mean to kill their ppl. Yes somalians are killing each other but we need better solution. the pirates just protecting their sea cost, since there isnt no gov. Its about time someone is doing something about it...AFRICA isnt a bin for european waste...
abduarazak
China 19/11/2008
pirates
well done pirates,-for more then 18 years Somalia was dying because of diseases unknown and UN and whole world forget Somali problems so they do to day .Now the doctors told the Somali people should take a number of ships as tablets ,and there is no other way to recover
J.
United States 19/11/2008
Common
Does anyone with brain really think that these pirates are going to donate the ransom money to cleaning up the Somali shore? ... if so, I have a bridge to sell you.
These pirates have multi-million dollar estates, drive around in Mercedes. It is also convinient that an ACTUAL investigation could not be conducted because of " the high levels of insecurity onshore and off the Somali coast" So they can't investigate because of the Pirates... how Ironic
dave
United States 19/11/2008
Toxic Waste in Somalia
I wonder what sorts of legal problems Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah could possibly be talking about for identifying the offending companies to the media. If there is evidence, let's have it, and let's bring an end to waste dumping anywhere. I would personally boycott the offending companies, as would most Americans. If he wishes something to be done, he must help.
Concerned
United Kingdom 19/11/2008
Pirates - toxic Waste
The pirates might nor donate the ransom money to a clean-up effort, but their actions will discourage more dumping of toxic waste and the illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia. Lets face it, if its wasn't for the pirates nobody would be commenting on these issues.
J.T.
Afghanistan 19/11/2008
EvToxic
Wow. I agree with the pirates. If this was happening off the coast of ANY OTHER COUNTRY it would be a declaration of war. But Americas and the rest of the world are so racist towards blacks and Muslims they turn a blind eye. May we get what we deserve.
Thomas
United States 20/11/2008
Bad excuses
I'd love to see the proof of dumping on Somali shores. If a company know they're doing something illegal, such as dumping, why would they pay $2.50 and have proof of their actions in stead of dumping in international waters "for free"? No matter what, if someone throws garbage in my yard, it doesn't justify me going out mugging some other random person.
dan
United States 20/11/2008
somalis toxic waste piracy
Bush policies? U.S. imperialism? Good grief! sounds like desperate people taking desperate actions. But planned out actions by more organized groups.
The U.S. conspiracies? ok good! U.S. pull out of everything everywhere! to heck with rest of world. fools! We have bad people too, but most trying to help!
I am sure wherever you live your leaders are sooo good and benevolent.that's called sarcasm. wake up! open your eyes! Which side do you take in Somalia? are you sure? who is right? nope wrong
Ceegaag
United States 20/11/2008
Toxic waste and Somali coast guard
Its a beyond the human imagination how is Somalia became nuclear dump ground and NO Body said something about it included those around the red sea especially Saudi Arabia I congratulate those courageous Somali coast guard!
Hassan
Somalia 20/11/2008
To: Thomas,,
"If a company know they're doing something illegal, such as dumping, why would they pay $2.50" are you serious?
Did you consider the cost of transporting the waste including the salary, transportation, etc.
That's where the $2.50 come from if you were stuck with it.. To those who are saying Pirates are not paying to clean up the waste, it's true and there's not justification for piracy, however, the pirates themselves are victims of such toxins. BTW, the income boosts our GDP.
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http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2008112522949
Saudi Gazette, Saudi Arabia
November 25, 2008
Kingdom lifts ban on import of sheep, cows and camels from Eritrea
RIYADH - The Saudi Ministry of Agriculture has issued a decision lifting the temporary ban imposed on the import of sheep, cows and camels from Eritrea. The decision stipulates that the exported livestock from Eritrea should be subject to conditions and procedures of the quarantine in Kahtalai (Eritrea).
The procedures include attaching authenticated certificates by the Eritrean veterinary authorities, keeping the exported livestock at the quarantine for a period of 30 days, marking livestock by the quarantine including the number of the animal and the date of its entry for quarantine, examining animals to make sure that they are free from the disease of the rift valley fever or any other epidemic or infectious diseases, vaccination of the animals on the 7th day of their entry for quarantine against the Rift Valley Fever by the vaccine called Smith Burm which is used in the Kingdom.
Moreover the procedures also include the transportation of the animals by clean transportation channels. The decision pointed out that the livestock exported to the Kingdom from Eritrea will be subject to all quarantine procedures in line with the system of the quarantine law carried out by the GCC member states and under its executive statutes.
Moreover, random samples will be taken from the animals for examination to get sure of their immunity level from vaccination against the rift valley fever.
The Ministry of Agriculture said the period of quarantine at the quarantine of Kahtalia before the export of the animals will be reduced from 30 days to 10 days during the Haj season of this year.
The animals will be vaccinated on their first day at the quarantine against the Rift Valley Fever by Smith Burm, the Ministry of Agriculture further said.
The Eritrean economy is largely based on agriculture, which employs 80 percent of the population but currently may contribute as little as 12 percent to GDP.
Agricultural exports include cotton, fruits and vegetables, hides, and meat, but farmers are largely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and growth in this and other sectors is hampered by lack of a dependable water supply.
Worker remittances and other private transfers from abroad currently contribute about 32 percent of GDP.
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http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29365
Sudan Tribune, France
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister says ready for talks with Oromo rebels
Monday 24 November 2008.
Tesfa-alem Tekle
November 23, 2008 (ADDIS ABEBA) – A mediation team said that the government of Ethiopia has agreed to hold talks with the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) without any pre-conditions.
The OLF is an organization established in1973 by Oromo nationals to promote self-determination for the majority Oromo people against what they call "Ethiopia’s colonial rule"
In January, a groups of mediators drawn from 3 Oromo-ethnic elders met OLF leaders namely Dawd Ebsa and Temam Yosuf in Amsterdam and signed with the rebel leaders a pact of agreement to come for peace talks under which the rebels agreed to accept Ethiopia’s constitution in principle.
"Ethiopian PM, Meles Zenawi called us and told us in person that his country is ready to hold talks with OLF" Ambassador Birhanu Dinka, one of the elders and also former UN envoy to the great lakes region said.
"Ethiopia agreed to come to negotiating table after the prime minister’s office looked deep into the Amsterdam’s pact of agreement reached between the three of us(elders) and the rebels last January" he added.
After both parties agreed to start talks, the third party has been holding meetings with different influential people abroad and at home.
Recently the elders group has hold two-day discussions with 125 most influential elders drawn from different zones of the Oromiya region under which they urged on the rebel to listen to his people and come to peace talks without any delay.
Ethiopia has long designated the rebel group as a “terrorist” group and holds it responsible for a number of bomb blasts in the capital and in other southern towns.
Another elder Priest Itefa Gobena to his side said that the peace talks will solve long suspicions of authorities over the Oromo for possible links to OLF.
"A number of Oromo-national scholars, investors have been reluctant to return home and serve at home due the fears to what they hear at home” He said adding “The start is a major break through to bring an end to it”
Recently Ethiopia has arrested a number of Oromo including an opposition leader for an alleged links to OLF “terror ring”.
The elders on a declaration called on both sides to show a genuine commitment to narrow their political difference which put the rebel group into nearly two decades of insurgency.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122731000016149251.html#project%3DPIRATES08%26articleTabs%3Darticle
Wall St. Journal
November 22, 2008
How to Deal With Pirates
The rise of piracy is threatening international trade and raising complex questions. The only way to end the scourge is to respond aggressively, says Michael B. Oren.
Michael B. Oren
The attack began when an unidentified vessel drew alongside a merchant ship in the open sea and heavily armed brigands stormed aboard.
"They made signs for us all to go forward," one of the frightened crewmen remembered, "assuring us in several languages that if we did not obey their commands they would massacre us all." The sailors were then stripped of all valuables and most of their clothing and locked in the hull of their own captured ship.
They would be held in unspeakable conditions, subsisting on eight ounces of bread a day and threatened with beating and even beheading should they resist. "Death would be a great relief and more welcome than the continuance of our present situation," one of the prisoners lamented.
The attack on the merchant ship, an American brig, occurred over 200 years ago in the Mediterranean during the scourge of the Barbary pirates. Sponsored by Morocco and the city-states of Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli, the pirates preyed on civilian vessels, plundering their cargoes and kidnapping their crews.
"It was written in the Koran...that it was their [the pirates'] right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners," the emissary of Tripoli's pasha told a startled John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in London in 1785.
The emissary demanded $1 million from the United States -- one-tenth of the national budget -- to suspend the assaults or face losing the valuable Mediterranean trade, representing one-fifth of all American exports.
The choice was excruciating. No longer protected by the British navy and lacking any gunboats of its own, the U.S. had no ready military option. Nor did it have international support.
Jefferson's attempt to create an international coalition together with European states was summarily rejected. Defenseless and internationally isolated, most Americans were opposed to devoting their scarce resources to building a navy and instead favored following the age-old European custom of bribing the pirates -- the euphemism was "tribute" -- in exchange for safe passage.
"Would to Heaven we had a navy to reform these enemies to mankind or crush them into non-existence," an exasperated George Washington confided to his old comrade-in-arms, the Marquis de Lafayette.
Washington's frustration could well be echoed today in the face of escalating assaults by pirates from Somalia. Over 90 such attacks have occurred this year alone -- a three-fold increase since 2007 -- resulting in the capture of 14 ships and 250 of their crew members.
Among their prizes, the pirates have seized a Ukrainian freighter crammed with Soviet-made battle tanks and, most recently, the tanker Sirius Star with $100 million worth of Saudi crude in its holds. These shipments are now being held off the Somali coast where the pirates are bargaining for their return.
Superficially, at least, there are many differences between the Somali pirates and their Barbary predecessors. The Somali bandits have no declared state sponsors and no avowed religious pretext.
Their targets are no longer principally American ships but flags of all nations, including those of Arab states. And they are more interested in ransoming cargoes of arms and oil than hapless sailors. Yet, no less than in the 18th century, 21st-century piracy threatens international trade and confronts the U.S. with complex questions.
Should the U.S. Navy, for example, actively combat the pirates, emulating the Indian warship that destroyed a Somali speedboat earlier this week? Can the U.S., which is already overstretched militarily in two conflicts, afford to assume responsibility for another open-ended operation in the same area?
Or should America follow the example now being set by Saudi Arabia and various Asian states which, according to United Nations statistics, have paid $25 million to $30 million in ransoms to the pirates this year alone?
Pirate Hall of Fame
In the 1700s, high-seas pillaging was rampant. Here are some of the most notorious practitioners of the craft in history. -- Juliet Chung
Bettmann/Corbis
Henry Avery
This former Royal Navyman, born around 1653, had a short but successful career as a pirate. He seized command of a ship in 1694, renamed her Fancy and plundered ships in Cape Verde and on the west coast of Africa. The biggest prize -- and the coup that would make his name a legend -- came in the fall of 1695, when Mr. Avery and his crew encountered the Ganj-i-Sawai, the largest ship of the Mogul Emperor in India. An early shot brought down the main mast of the Ganj-i-Sawai.
Meanwhile, one of the ship's cannons exploded, causing mayhem among the crew of the Ganj-i-Sawai, according to David Cordingly's account of the clash in "Under the Black Flag." Mr. Avery retired after the ship's capture and division of its loot.
Blackbeard
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The ferocious fighter and womanizer raided ships in the Caribbean and along the Eastern Seaboard.
Born Edward Teach or Thatch, Blackbeard was known for his luxuriant beard, which he decorated with ribbons and even slow-burning fuses on occasion, says Pieter van der Merwe, general editor of the National Maritime Museum in London. He eventually commandeered his own ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, and is said to have bested a British man o' war around 1717 that was sent to destroy him before plundering dozens of other ships over the next six months.
Blackbeard came to an inglorious end in 1718 after the governor of Virginia put a price of 100 pounds on his head; his vanquisher hung Blackbeard's decapitated head from his ship.
Black Bart
Bartholomew Roberts, born around 1682, was one of the most successful pirate captains of the early 18th century. His career take was estimated at 400 boats -- more than Blackbeard's tally -- and was marked by swift, savage attacks.
One of his best-known captures was of a Portuguese merchant ship traveling in a convoy along the South American coast. Black Bart coerced the captain of another boat in the convoy to identify the richest ship, then had the captain hail the target. Black Bart and his crew made off with booty including gold, jewelry meant for the king of Portugal, sugar and tobacco.
Anne Bonny
Corbis
Born in 1698, Ms. Bonny was the illegitimate daughter of a lawyer, and abandoned her husband to become the mistress of the pirate Calico Jack. She is often mentioned in the same breath as Mary Read, another female who became part of Calico Jack's crew when he captured the ship she was traveling on. Both women disguised their gender by dressing in men's clothes. Calico Jack and crew were eventually captured and hanged, but the women escaped death by revealing that they each were pregnant.
Ms. Bonny's later life is said to have been one of reinvention. Some accounts suggest she was released from prison, married a South Carolina man to whom she bore eight children "and became a respectable woman" who died in her 80s, says Mr. van der Mewe.
Zheng Yi Sao
When her husband died around 1807, Zheng Yi Sao (or Cheng I Sao) took over a large, well-organized confederation of pirates in the South China Sea. At its height, the confederation probably numbered between 50,000 and 70,000 men and controlled 800 large vessels, says Dian Murray, a Chinese history professor at the University of Notre Dame.
The confederation made much of its money selling protection to merchants, fishermen and coastal villages, but also profited from plundering ships and ransoming passengers. By 1810, when the group disbanded to take an offer of amnesty from the government, "they had picked the coast clean and trade had been substantially reduced," Ms. Murray says. "She was able to hold the thing together and ultimately negotiate a successful settlement."
Sister Ping
Daily News
This modern-day pirate from the Fujian province of China arranged for ship hijackings in the South China Sea from the 1970s though the 1990s. Cheng Chui Ping, known as Sister Ping, modified the vessels into unidentifiable phantom ships, and used them to smuggle thousands of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. and Europe, says John S. Burnett, author of "Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas." "They'd be paying up to $35,000 per passage to be locked up in the bottom of a hold of a small leaky boat," he says.
Not all survived. In June 2000, 58 of 60 passengers who had come from Fujian by boat suffocated in a truckload of tomatoes at Dover, England. Sister Ping was recently convicted in the U.S. of heading a smuggling operation, and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
The answers to these questions can be gleaned from America's experience with Barbary. Lacking a navy and unwilling to bear the financial burden of building one, early American leaders opted to pay tribute to the pirates.
By the 1790s, the U.S. was depositing an astonishing 20% of its federal income into North African coffers -- this in addition to costly naval stores and even cannons and gunpowder.
In return for this tribute, America only received more piracy. Foreign corporations refused to ship their goods in American hulls and U.S. diplomats were forced to sail overseas on European-flagged ships for fear of seizure. Dozens of American sailors languished in captivity.
Humiliated by these depredations, the American public grew critical of its feckless government and began to demand action. "Steer the hostile prow to Barb'ry's shores," wrote an anonymous poet, a veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill, "release thy sons, and humble Africa's power.
" In response, in 1794, Congress passed a bill authorizing $688,888.82 for the construction of six frigates "adequate for the protection of the commerce of the U.S. against Algerian corsairs." By 1801, America possessed a navy capable of striking back at the pirates and a president willing to do so. In reply to Tripoli's declaration of war against the U.S., Thomas Jefferson ordered those frigates into battle.
Many setbacks would be suffered by U.S. Naval forces in what was later called the Barbary Wars, not the least of which was the capture of the USS Philadelphia and its 307-man crew by Tripoli.
Nevertheless, an intrepid trek by U.S. Marines and a mercenary force 500 miles across the Libyan desert -- to the shores of Tripoli -- in 1805 compelled the pirates to yield. Ten years later, President James Madison dispatched a fleet under Commodore Stephen Decatur to vanquish the remaining Barbary States.
Shamed by these initiatives, the Europeans followed suit and sent their own warships to subdue the pirates, but the U.S. remained vigilant. A U.S. Mediterranean squadron -- the forebear of today's Sixth Fleet -- was kept on permanent patrol to ensure that Middle Eastern pirates never again threatened American commerce.
Of course, the world is a vastly more complicated place than it was two centuries ago and America's role in it, once peripheral, is now preeminent. Still, in the post-9/11 period, America would be ill-advised to act unilaterally against the pirates. The good news is: It does not have to.
In contrast to the refusal to unite with America during the Barbary Wars, or more recently the Iraq War, the European states today share America's interest in restoring peace to the seas. Moreover, they have expressed a willingness to cooperate with American military measures against the Somali bandits. Unlike Washington and Jefferson, George W. Bush and Barack Obama need not stand alone.
Such a campaign will not be risk-free. The danger exists that America and its allies will become bogged down indefinitely in seeking to locate and destroy an elusive foe. The operations may also prove costly at a time when America can least afford them. Finally, there is the constant headache of maintaining an international coalition which may contain members who, like many early Americans, prefer to bribe the pirates rather than fight them.
In spite of the potential pitfalls, an America-led campaign against the pirates is warranted. Though the Somali pirates do not yet endanger American trade, they will be emboldened by a lack of forceful response. Any attempt to bargain with them and to pay the modern equivalent of tribute will beget more piracy. Now, as then, the only effective response to piracy is a coercive one.
"We shall offer them liberal and enlightened terms," declared Commodore Decatur, "dictated at the mouths of our cannons." Or, as William Eaton, commander of the Marines' march to Tripoli, more poignantly put it: "There is but one language that can be held to these people, and this is terror."
The U.S. is no longer the fragile and isolated country it was in the 1780s. It today possesses unrivaled naval power that it projects globally and enjoys far-reaching international support for unleashing that power against pirates.
And while it is true that U.S. forces are deeply committed elsewhere in the region, addressing the threat of Somali pirates must be made a national priority while there is still time. Much like terrorism, piracy, unless uprooted, will mushroom.
George Washington wished that America had a navy capable of crushing the "enemies to mankind" -- that is, not only the enemies of the U.S. His vision is now a reality. We have only to recognize it.
Michael B. Oren, a professor at Georgetown and distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center, is the author of "Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East
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