M e d e s h i

Somaliland : Saudi livestock move boosts economy

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:08:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
HARGEISA, 10 November 2009 (IRIN) - Days after Saudi Arabia lifted a nine-year ban on livestock imports from Somalia, the market in Hargeisa, Somaliland, has seen a 10-fold increase in sales, according to local traders.

"One thousand five hundred sheep used to be sold in the market before the recent announcement... compared to more than 16,000 animals in the market daily in the last few days," Jama Farah Du’alle, a middleman (`dilal’) in the market, told IRIN on 7 November.

Livestock keepers in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, whose mainstay is pastoralism, said they were beginning to see a change in their fortunes.
"In the last nine years I used to earn 5,000-10,000 Somaliland shillings a day [US $1.6 - 3.2] but by Allah’s mercy in the past few days I have been earning 60,000-70,000 a day, which has really improved my life," Du’alle said.
Somaliland’s livestock minister, Idiris Ibrahim Abdi, announced the Saudi move on 5 November. Imposed in late 2000, the ban followed an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in the Horn of Africa region.
RVF is an acute viral infectious disease of humans, cattle and sheep, which usually occurs during the rainy season. Clinically it is characterized by fever, loss of body coordination and sudden death.
Saudi Arabia, which used to be the biggest buyer of Somali livestock, said it had lifted the ban to coincide with the `haj’ pilgrimage later in November.
Better days for Berbera
The decision allows livestock keepers to ship animals to Saudi Arabia through Somaliland's traditional livestock port of Berbera. In the past, the port also served livestock trucked from the neighbouring Ethiopian regions of Somali and Oromiya.
Berbera had been losing its importance as a business centre since 2000. Thousands of people there moved to other towns such as Hargeisa and Burao.
"[Most] of the young men who used to work in the livestock export business as animal herders on vessels heading to Saudi Arabia, have moved to Arab countries or other urban centres within Somaliland," a local resident said.
The Saudi decision, according to local pastoralists, has renewed hope that Somali livestock can fetch a good price. "We have suffered in the last few years because of the ban; our animals had no value in the market.
"For example one lamb was valued at only about US$20, which is much less than the cost of foodstuff," said Rashid Haybe Illeeye, from the Lebi-Sagaale region along the Somaliland-Ethiopia border.
"Today I came with four lambs as usual - to buy food - and three of them were bought at $40-50," Illeeye said.
A local journalist based in Burao told IRIN that the lifting of the ban was a boon to all. "The market has not seen such activity for nine years," he explained. "The whole of Burao - from tea ladies, truckers and nomads, to porters - is doing a booming business."
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Somali pirates seize weapons ship, attack another

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:21:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
By Abdi Guled
MOGADISHU, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Somali pirates have seized a United Arab Emirates-flagged cargo ship loaded with weapons bound for the anarchic Horn of Africa nation in contravention of a U.N. arms embargo, maritime experts said on Monday.

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme told Reuters that the ship, which he believed was using the fake name Al Mizan, had been hijacked on Sunday and was now being held near the northern Somali town of Garacad.
"She is one of the regular weapons carriers circumventing the U.N. arms embargo on Somalia," Mwangura said.
The country has been torn by 18 years of civil war and hardline Islamist rebels linked to al Qaeda are fighting to topple President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's U.N.-backed-government.
Some 19,000 civilians have died since the start of 2007 and more than 1.5 million have been driven from their homes, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.
In the latest pirate attack, gunmen from Somalia opened fire on an unidentified merchant vessel far out in the Indian Ocean on Monday, about 400 nautical miles northeast of the Seychelles. The merchant vessel caught fire after being hit by bullets and a rocket-propelled grenade. Mwangura said there were no casualties and that the captain remained in control.
"There have been 12 pirate events in this area in the last 30 days. There is a high probability of attacks in this area for at least the next 24-48 hours. Weather conditions are expected to remain favourable for piracy...through this period," he said.
There was a lull in hijackings during this season's monsoon rains, but the pirates have stepped up their attacks in recent weeks and now hold at least 11 vessels and more than 200 crew.
DEAL TO FREE SPANIARDS?
Also on Monday, Spanish fishermen being held hostage said they believed a deal had been struck to free them. Ricardo Blach, first mate of the Basque tuna boat Alakrana, said he understood Spain's government had agreed to send two accused pirates back to Somalia in exchange for the crew's release.
The Spanish navy captured the two Somalis soon after pirates overran the Alakrana on Oct. 2 and took its 36 crew hostage. They are set to face trial in Spain for kidnapping.
"It seems almost certain that they are going to send the (captured) pirates here," Ricardo Blach told Spanish state radio on Monday. "We want to believe it, good news, even if it's clutching at straws, because of the tension we have here."
The pirates holding the crew have said they would not negotiate a ransom for their release until Spanish authorities freed their two colleagues.
"In the morning (on Sunday), they were telling us in signs that they were going to cut our throats. Now the head of the pirates is smiling," Blach said in separate comments to the Spanish daily El Mundo.
Environment Minister Elena Espinosa told state TV the Spanish government was exploring various options. Judge Baltasar Garzon, who ordered that the two suspects be brought to Spain, said Madrid should not cave into pressure.
"I believe there are legal ways to find a solution to this conflict and without a doubt that is going to happen," he told Europa Press agency.
The pirates said last week they had taken three men from the Alakrana ashore. But Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said he believed the whole crew remained on board. (Additional reporting by Sarah Morris in Madrid; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Angus MacSwan)Read Medeshi feed here: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/medeshi/lhmK
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Somaliland Surviving the Agonizing Process of International Recognition

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:16:00 +0000

(Medeshi)

Alemayehu Behabtu, Researcher, Peace and Security Council Report Programmee (PRP), ISS Addis Ababa Office

On 18 May 2009, the self-declared ‘Republic of Somaliland’ marked eighteen years since it proclaimed independence seceding from the rest of Somalia. Even after nearly two decades of self-rule, however, the international community remains hesitant to recognize the breakaway territory as a functioning sovereign state. Yet Somaliland leaders remain undiscouraged by the apparent lack of enthusiasm and inaction by the international community, including, most importantly, the African Union (AU). As a result, the messages coming out of Somaliland often refer to ‘the irreversible independence’ or almost of ‘no return to the union with Somalia’.
Somaliland’s claim to statehood is being made on the basis that the territory has had historically separate status for a brief period following independence from Britain in June 1960. The next month, in July 1960, the former colonies of Italy and Britain voluntarily established a unitary nation-state known as Somalia. Almost immediately the leadership in Somaliland regretted this decision and begun to wage a secessionist struggle against Siad Barre's misrule for two decades. Barre's forces pursued Somaliland armed movements killing tens of thousands of people and destroying infrastructure in the region. This experience of brutal political repression and military atrocities fostered the emergence of the Somali National Movement (SNM) in 1981, which waged a secessionist struggle, leading to the collapse in 1991 of the Somalia state and the eventual declaration of independence by Somaliland.
Since then, the Somaliland government has been persistent in its pursuit of official recognition. It declared the territory a ‘Republic’ in 2002 and wrote to the AU asking it to send a fact-finding mission to see the viability of the de facto state. In response, the AU dispatched, between April 30 to May 4 2005, a mission led by its former Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission Mr Patrick Mazimhaka. Later the same year, in December, Somaliland’s President Dahir Rayale Kahin submitted a formal application for admission to the AU, pleading for recognition as a fully active member of the continental body.
Despite the lack of international recognition, Somaliland has the primary constitutive components evident in most nation-states including: an internally accepted political system; institutions of governance; a police force; and its own currency. But the lack of recognition has significantly impeded the territory’s overall progress. In this regards, the AU observer mission report had noted that ‘the lack of recognition ties the hands of the authorities and people of Somaliland, as they cannot effectively and sustainably transact with the outside to pursue the reconstruction and development goals’. The AU fact-finding mission has also concluded that the situation was sufficiently ‘unique and self-justified in African political history’ and recommended that the AU ‘should find a special method of dealing with this outstanding case’.
Following the above rather sympathetic gesture, president Rayale, on 16 May 2006, met with the then AU Commission Chairperson, Alpha Oumar Konaré to discuss Somaliland’s application for membership. Somaliland authorities’ argue that their claim is consistent with article III of the OAU charter and article IV of the Constitutive Act of the AU, which states that the Union shall function in accordance with the principles of respect for the borders existing on achievement of independence. They also infer the experience of other states, including in Africa, acceptance of self-determination, such as recognition given to Bangladesh, Eritrea, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.
Given the AU’s sensitivity about the maintenance of colonially inherited borders, the 2005 mission report could be seen as exceptionally sympathetic. But so far the organization has taken no further concrete action. Instead the AU’s current efforts are focused overwhelmingly on south/central Somalia. The organization in 2006 deployed a peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in support of the fragile Transitional Federal Government (TFG), that is presently battling with Islamist insurgents. In effect, since president Kahin had submitted an application for membership four years back, there is no breakthrough at the continental organization or at member states level.
Regardless of the lack of progress on formal recognition, Somaliland still attracts significant attention, as the region occupies a strategic position near the world’s major oil transport routes and major power wants to see it guarded carefully. Consequently the self-declared republic has established political contacts with a number of countries. Ethiopia and the UK insist that Somaliland deserves encouragement and support as the self-proclaimed state has provided an area of relative stability in the volatile Horn sub-region.
In a similar context, Somaliland has also established significant contacts with Belgium, Ghana, South Africa, Sweden, and Djibouti. Moreover, in early 2007, the European Union sent a delegation to discuss future cooperation; while President Kahin led his own delegation and attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda. In December 2007 the Bush administration also considered whether to back the shaky transitional government in Somalia or to acknowledge the less volatile Somaliland secessionists. Recently the UN special envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, was quoted as saying: ‘We will open a new UN political affairs office in Hargeisa …[and] this office will further advance UN funding support to Somaliland in the fields of maritime security and counterterrorism.’
However, before Somaliland gets recognition by the rest of the international community, it needs full and formal legal recognition from the AU. Since President Kahin has submitted a formal application pleading for recognition four years back, there is no breakthrough at the AU or member state level. While it is normal to feel sympathetic to Somaliland’s agony in this process, it is equally understandable to see the rationale behind why the AU remains indecisive on the matter. There are indeed risks for the AU to say ‘yes’ to Somaliland’s request for recognition and set the ‘wrong precedent’. At least from the Union’s perspective, the principal objection against recognition is the strong reservation African governments have about revising borders inherited from colonial times. This is a legitimate concern that cannot be ignored, given the heterogeneity of the majority of African states and the possibility that many may face with the proliferation of similar ethnic and secessionist movements. Other potential risks relate also to the nature of the relationship that is going to be forged between Somaliland and Somalia. Central in this case is whether the two will create friendly relations, through which mutual recognition will be exchanged. Currently, there is a serious threat of Islamists controlling most of the territories of the South and central Somalia. Such elements could aim to infiltrate Somaliland, de-stabilise it and take it over with the support of local Islamists. Moreover, Somaliland is in dispute with the neighbouring autonomous Somali region of Puntland over the Sanaag and Sool areas, some of whose inhabitants owe their allegiance to Puntland and could lead to further destablisation of the sub-region.
To conclude, Somaliland has persevered for 18 years as an independent state, hoping that it will one day get the attention of the international community, especially that of the AU. The debate whether the breakaway territory deserves recognition as well as the implications of it continues. Coupled with its electoral crisis, presently it has become clearer that without recognition, it remains hard to tell how long Somaliland’s relative peace and stability can last. It is critical, therefore, that the international community shows foresight. In particular, the AU has yet to act decisively on the matter. Meanwhile, the people of Somaliland still continue to live with the agony of waiting to hear from the decisionmakers whether they will be a recognised “Republic” or not.
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It only took days for a giant crack to form in Afar Ethiopia

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:13:00 +0000

(Medeshi)

By Stephanie Dearing.

If anyone had been on site with a camera during the event, the formation of a giant crack in the north of Ethiopia in 2005 could have been a scene for the upcoming apocalypse movie 2012.

A preview from the soon-to-be-released movie 2012 shows the earth splitting wide open as a family frantically stays barely one step ahead of the massive rift forming suddenly and oh so dramatically. Couldn't possibly happen in real life, right? New research from a crack that formed in Africa, just published last week, shows that the scene from 2012 might not be so far from reality.

The crack, which formed in a remote part of Ethiopia, is speculated to be the beginnings of a new ocean, caused by two continental plates moving away from each other. In the past, it was thought that rifts formed slowly, so scientists were astounded when their reconstruction of the events that created the Afar rift showed that the reality was quite different. One of the lead researchers of the team based out of the Addis Ababa University, Cindy Ebinger said "The ferocity of what we saw during this episode stunned everyone." Ebinger is with New York's University of Rochester. It is thought that it will take four million years for the crack to reach the Red Sea and fill with ocean water. The crack, or rift as it is called, is 35 miles long.

The implications of the new knowledge of how the Afar rift formed are huge. The theory that had been in force held that tectonic ocean plates would separate slowly and cause small breaks. According to Ebinger,

"... such sudden large-scale events on land pose a much more serious hazard to populations living near the rift than would several smaller events."
The scientists explained that :
"The African and Arabian plates meet in the remote Afar desert of Northern Ethiopia and have been spreading apart in a rifting process — at a speed of less than 1 inch per year — for the past 30 million years. This rifting formed the 186-mile Afar depression and the Red Sea. The thinking is that the Red Sea will eventually pour into the new sea in a million years or so. The new ocean would connect to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, an arm of the Arabian Sea between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in eastern Africa."
The process that created the rift in the Afar region in 2005 is also at work in the Red Sea. The international team studying the rift have come to conclude that the process that created the crack is also the process that creates similar rifts in the ocean floors. The crack formed when Dabbahu volcano erupted in 2005. Volcanic eruptions in the Afar region continue to this day. The region is also a hotbed of study for scientists from all around the world.
The Afar region is known for being the place where the remains of Lucy were found. It is home to two volcanoes, and is said to be the hottest place on earth. The region regularly experiences drought.
The findings were published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal last week. Led by Ethiopian scientist, Atalay Ayele, the research team had members from Eritrea, Yemen, the United Kingdom, the United States and France.
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Ethiopia: Land of silence and starvation

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:47:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
Geoffrey York ,Globe and Mail
A famine is growing across Ethiopia, but the government is clamping down on information - even ejecting aid agencies that could help bring aid for fear of provoking unrest and losing their grip on power .

On market day in the dusty town of Meki, the few cobs of corn sold by the hawkers are scrawny, pale, scabby and pockmarked. Yet the price of this meagre food has doubled since last year – because so many farmers have seen their corn harvests fail.

“We are between life and death,” says 50-year-old farmer Geda Shenu, who was forced to buy corn at Meki market after most of his crops failed in this year’s drought. He shows the empty weed-filled fields where he planted corn and beans, crops that never grew when the rains never came.
To survive, he is selling one of his two oxen and giving his family just two sparse meals a day. He and his neighbours have marched down to the local government office to sign a petition pleading for government help. “If we don’t get any aid, we will die,” he says. “How can we feed our children?”
It’s a story the Ethiopian government does not want told.
On the 25th anniversary of the famine that killed nearly a million Ethiopians in 1984, any talk of drought and hunger is still a highly sensitive issue in this impoverished country, subject to draconian controls by the government. Two regimes were toppled in the 1970s and 1990s because of discontent over famines, and the current regime is determined to avoid their fate.
Aid agencies that dare to speak out publicly, or even to allow a photo of a malnourished child at a feeding centre, can be punished or expelled from the country. Visas or work permits are often denied, projects can be delayed, and import approvals for vital equipment can be buried. Most relief agencies are prohibited from allowing visits by journalists or foreigners, except under strict government control.
After a disastrous series of crop failures, the number of Ethiopians needing emergency aid has jumped from 4.9 million to 6.2 million in the past 10 months. Yet most journalists are barred from travelling to the countryside to document the drought. Relief workers avoid any public comments about the rising malnutrition, and none will talk candidly to journalists except on condition of anonymity.
Another restriction is even more damaging: Foreign agencies are not permitted to do their own independent assessments of malnutrition this year. Instead, they must be accompanied by government officials in joint teams that are difficult and time-consuming to negotiate, delaying the response to regional emergencies.
Aid agencies have known since July that at least seven million people will need emergency aid in Ethiopia this year, based on detailed assessments across the country. But the government delayed the release of these figures, continuing to insist publicly that only 5.3 million people needed help.
Finally, after months of mystifying delays, the government announced in late October that 6.2 million people needed emergency aid – still below the true figure, and too late to trigger a large-scale fundraising effort this year. Another estimate is due to be released in mid-November, unless it too is delayed.
Why such heavy-handed controls from a government that is seen as a U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa, a country that is still viewed sympathetically by most of the world? One reason is the election scheduled for May. The long-ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, is keeping a tight grip on the vote. The last election, in 2005, was widely criticized for vote-rigging and fraud, and about 200 people were killed after the election when police fired on opposition protesters.
Since then, the government has strengthened its control of the country. Maoist-style neighbourhood committees watch over all activity in the villages, with informants appointed for every five families in some areas. Local elections in 2008 were so carefully managed that the opposition ended up with only a tiny handful of the three million seats.

But nobody expects the controls to disappear after the May election. The ruling party has always been sensitive about any questioning of its ability to feed the country. Its own rise to power in 1991 was largely a result of the famines of the 1980s. And it knows that the long reign of Emperor Haile Selassie was brought crashing down after the globally televised images of the 1974 famine.
(Farmer Geda Shenu, who lives in a drought-hit rural area near the town of Meki, Ethiopia, is struggling to feed his children and has petitioned for government assistance. The Ethiopian government has restricted coverage of the drought and is hampering the work of international aid groups. )

Relief agencies say it is harder to make a global appeal for help for Ethiopia when the official estimates are politicized, minimized and delayed. By the time the 2009 appeal was released in late October, only two months were left in the year.

“This year’s fight is over,” said an aid worker at one of the biggest agencies. “The children who were at risk of death in the summer have died by now.”

In some of the hardest-hit regions, foreign relief agencies have extremely limited access. Their movements are tightly controlled, partly because of military operations against rebel groups in the Somali region. Several of the biggest international agencies were expelled from the region or withdrew under pressure in 2007 and 2008.

In another region, Tigray, aid agencies are heavily restricted, because Tigray is the traditional base of the ruling EPRDF. “It’s a black spot, because it’s supposed to be a model of success,” one aid worker says. “When people are starving, the information doesn’t get out.”

The government is widely suspected of using the foreign aid shipments to reward its supporters. Up to 20 per cent of the aid is “lost” before it reaches the neediest people, but the diverted sacks of food are often noticed at military barracks, according to one aid worker.

When Ethiopia is hit by cholera outbreaks, as often happens, the government prefers to call it acute watery diarrhea because it dislikes the bad publicity that cholera attracts. The latest cholera outbreak, which began in August, has sickened thousands of people, but the government called it AWD and minimized the numbers. When the true numbers finally surfaced in a United Nations document, the government was so furious that it suspended its co-operation meetings with the relief agencies for a month.

In fear of government punishment, many agencies fall into self-censorship. “There’s a whole layer of anxiety that we’re all operating under,” one veteran worker said. “The obsession with control has been even stronger than last year.”

Some Western diplomats argue that the government’s euphemisms and public evasions are unimportant because the accurate assessment data is known internally to the key agencies that supply emergency aid to Ethiopia. Compared with many other African countries, they say, Ethiopia is relatively efficient in distributing aid and is introducing good programs to expand health care and food delivery in rural regions.

But others say the government’s sensitivities and restrictions are hampering the world’s response to Ethiopia’s emergencies, delaying the flow of crucial aid for months.

“If you delay the life-saving response, lives don’t get saved,” one relief worker says. “People get weaker and less productive. And the response is a short-term band-aid. If you recognize a situation earlier, the response can reduce the chances of needing emergency aid in the future.”

Another aid worker is even more blunt. “The government is locked into a cycle of very significant denial,” he said. “It’s playing with millions of lives.”

Ethiopia has been hit by a series of crop failures and droughts since 2007, and the cumulative effect is taking a heavy toll. In addition to the 6.2 million who are officially deemed to need emergency aid, another 7 million are already getting food aid because they are chronically vulnerable to food shortages, meaning that Fully one-sixth of Ethiopia’s 80 million people are on food aid.

The global recession, meanwhile, is making it harder to raise funds from international donors. Canada has given $54-million to the Ethiopian relief effort this year, but the overall level of global donations is far below what is needed. As a result, the food rations for most Ethiopian recipients are barely half of the needed level.

But instead of redoubling its efforts to seek help, Ethiopia is tightening its controls as the 2010 election approaches. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi repeatedly denies that Ethiopia has a food crisis and accuses the “food aid industry” and the “lords of poverty” of deliberately inflating the number of Ethiopians who need aid.

Relief agencies give troubling accounts of how their work is becoming more difficult. One agency was forced to halt its food distribution for three months in one region because the government was unhappy with a local media article.

Another agency tried to offer help after a massive blaze destroyed 20 homes in an Addis Ababa shantytown this week. At first welcomed by firefighters, the agency was abruptly ordered to leave when security agents arrived on the scene. “Even for something that was so obviously a disaster, where we could have helped, there was suspicion and distance,” a worker said.

Most foreign journalists are prohibited from travelling outside Addis Ababa, the capital. The Globe and Mail twice applied for permission to visit rural regions, but both applications were rejected. In the end I had to travel without permission, at the risk of arrest if I was discovered.

When I asked a government official why I was barred from reporting in rural districts, he said too many journalists were too interested in the drought, which he said was entirely due to climate change and had nothing to do with the government.

The very few journalists who do obtain permission to visit a feeding centre are accompanied by a government “minder” at all times. Feeding-centre staff are sometimes interrogated by security agents after they talk to foreign journalists, making them fearful of saying anything.

The government maintains a “black list” of foreign correspondents who are deemed unfriendly to the regime, and some have been expelled, refused entry, or detained at the Addis Ababa airport when they arrive. Several Ethiopian journalists who work for foreign media have fled the country for fear of punishment.

The Ethiopian government, using technology from its new economic partners in China, has blocked many websites that criticize the government, including those of Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists. The same Chinese technology is allowing the authorities to monitor e-mails and cellphones, making relief agencies and journalists nervous about government eavesdropping on their conversations.

Back in the drought-stricken Meki region, a farmer named Gudeta Beriso points to a field of withered corn stalks, surrounded by empty fields. “In the old days, all of this was covered by corn,” he said.

“Now you don’t see anything. The fields are just rubbish. We haven’t had a good crop for two years. We are worried about the future. We are shouting for help.”

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Somalia sees growth in Gulf exports

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:35:00 +0000

(Medeshi)

MOGADISHU: Somali livestock exports to the Gulf States are expected to double to one million animals this month after the Saudi government lifted a long-standing ban, traders and a company official said on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia, formerly the biggest buyer of Somali livestock, lifted the nine-year ban this week to secure meat supplies for Haj pilgrims.
Riyadh had imposed it due to concerns about a lack of proper health screening in the lawless Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has had no central government for 18 years and livestock exports, along with bananas and fish, are the mainstay of its trade with the Middle East.
“The demand is higher because of the Haj and we expect a hundred percent increase. I suspect that we can meet the needs of the market,” said Iman Ali, chairman of exporting firm East Africa Livestock.
He said that 60,000 livestock were ready to be exported to Saudi Arabia in a few days, but the business faced many problems.
On top of frequent fighting between Islamist insurgents and the forces of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, bad weather, dilapidated infrastructure and piracy were hindering trade.
“Though we plan to send more livestock, heavy rains, poor roads and increased insurance premiums are hampering transportation to our partners in the Gulf,” Ali said.
Animal exports account for 40 percent of Somalia’s Gross Domestic Product.
The Middle East is the main export destination with other Asian countries accounting for very small portions of the trade.
“Lifting of the ban is most welcome news in our village... merchants are coming to our villages and even in the remote areas to buy sheep and goats,” said Muhumad Soomane, a farmer in Wallaweyn, 90km southwest of Mogadishu.
The semi-autonomous Puntland region in the northeast is expected to contribute 60 percent of the livestock heading to the Middle East market.
Ahmed Hussein, livestock minister in Putland’s regional government, said it would invest in the port of Bossaso to allow it to cope with increased exports.
“We are working on renovating and completing all necessary equipment for Bossaso port after resumption of exports to Saudi,” he said.
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Pirates demand Spain send detainees to Somalia

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:13:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
Pirates demand Spain send detainees to Somalia
MADRID, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Somali pirates holding the crew of a Spanish fishing vessel hostage have called for two pirates held in Spain to be extradited to Somalia for trial, a family member of one of the crew said on Saturday.

"The latest news we have is that they (the pirates) have contacted the (shipping) company and are asking for the two pirates held in Madrid to be extradited to Somalia," the family member said.
"They are not to be set free, but to be tried there," she said at a rally in support of the 36-strong crew's families in Bermeo in the Basque country, where the tuna boat Alakrana is based.
The pirates had previously said they would not negotiate a ransom for the release of the vessel until the two Somalis had been freed.
Spain's Ambassador to Kenya Nicolas Martin Cinto was to meet Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke in Nairobi on Sunday to discuss the the Alakrana, Spanish radio quoted Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos as saying.
Late on Friday, Moratinos said three crew members taken ashore on Thursday from the Alakrana, moored in the port of Haradere, had not been harmed despite pirates' threats to kill them unless the two Somalis held in Spain were freed.
"We understand they were taken back to the ship yesterday. The pirates cannot kill them because they are their bargaining chips. You cannot destroy your bargaining chips because you will be destroying your bargaining power," Andrew Mwangura of Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers' Association told Reuters on Saturday. (Reporting by Judy MacInnes; additional reporting by Nairobi newsdesk; editing by Andrew Roche)
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Somali adulterer stoned to death

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:27:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.

Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka.
An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.
Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital.
This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year.
Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala Mohamed said Mr Abdirahman had confessed to adultery before an Islamic court.
“ They [al-Shabab] are forcing women to wear very heavy clothes, saying they want them to properly cover their bodies but we know they have economic interests behind - they sell these kinds of clothes and want to force people to buy them ”
President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed
"He was screaming and blood was pouring from his head during the stoning. After seven minutes he stopped moving," an eyewitness told the BBC.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says that if the woman is also killed, her baby would be given to relatives to look after.
Meanwhile, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has accused al-Shabab of spoiling the image of Islam by killing people and harassing women.
"Their actions have nothing to do with Islam," said the moderate Islamist during a ceremony at which he nominated a new administration for the capital, Mogadishu.
"They are forcing women to wear very heavy clothes, saying they want them to properly cover their bodies but we know they have economic interests behind - they sell these kinds of clothes and want to force people to buy them."
Last month, two men were stoned to death in the same town after being accused of spying.
A 13-year-old girl was stoned to death for adultery in the southern town of Kismayo last year.
Human rights groups said she had been raped.
Another man has also been punished in this way in the Lower Shabelle region.
Mr Sharif, a former rebel leader, was sworn in as president after UN-brokered peace talks in January.
Although he says he also wants to implement Sharia, al-Shabab says his version of Islamic law would be too lenient.
The country has not had a functioning national government for 18 years.
Story from BBC NEWS:
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Somali pirates seize Greek cargo ship

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:15:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
NAIROBI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Suspected Somali pirates are believed to have hijacked a Greek cargo ship early on Thursday with crew members from Ukrain and Philippine onboard .

Regional maritime official said Delvina was heading for the Kenyan port city of Mombasa from Mediterranean when it was captured 250 miles northwest of Madagascar.
"I am still not sure whether Delvina was hijacked or attacked by the pirates. The vessel was sailing to Mombasa when it was seized or attacked by pirates, about 250 miles northwest of Madagascar," Andrew Mwangura, the coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP) told Xinhua by telephone.
"The ship had Ukrainian and Filipinos on aboard but I have not established the correct number of crew members," Mwangura said.
The maritime official said Delvina was the third Greek to have been seized by the pirates this year.
Somali pirates have seized dozens of ships over the last two years, taking in tens of millions of dollars in ransom money. The pirates are believed to be holding seven ships in all.
The Somali pirates who come from specific regions and clans, far away from the war-ravaged capital have thwarted efforts by the coalition of warships patrolling the world's most dangerous waters to end the menace.
An estimated 25,000 ships annually cruise the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's northern coast. Over 10 ships and 200 crew members are still held by Somali pirates.
The Gulf of Aden, off the northern coast of Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world. About 25,000 ships use the channel south of Yemen, between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
Source: Xinhua, Nov 05, 2009
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Somaliland, where the teenagers of Camden go to ‘cool off’

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:07:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
A land feared for its pirates who currently hold a British couple hostage, Somalia’s reputation for lawlessness is hampering its bid to get back on its feet after a bitter civil war.
New Journal reporter Jamie Welham recently visited the African country to discover the true situation.
JOURNALISTS have a short life expectancy in Somalia, and as I touched down on the scorched dirt-track that serves as the runway at Hargeisa International Airport, protection was high on my list of priorities.
Six journalists have been killed this year alone. Dozens more have been thrown into jail to rot. The Foreign Office advice is unequivocal: don’t go there.

Read the papers, watch the news and it becomes clear that there is no credible, authentic frame of reference in this benighted country recently dubbed “the new Afghanistan”.

(Photo: New Journal reporter Jamie Welham with security guards at his compound in Hargeisa )

Most recently, it’s been known for its pirate angle, before it was the war angle, the film Black Hawk Down, but on the country itself and its eight million people: nothing.

That was my official reason for being there. Naturally there were doubts. Was I just another deluded misfit, driven by post-colonial guilt, seduced like so many before me by misplaced ideals and an itch to escape the white noise of London? The French have a word for such people – Les fous d’Afrique – the madmen of Africa.

Hargeisa isn’t Mogadishu. Flattened by the bombs of repressive dictator Siad Barre (the only man to successfully switch sides during the Cold War) in 1989 shortly before he was overthrown, the city of a million people has refashioned itself as a relatively stable haven in the north, a de facto republic since the rest of the country is paralysed by anarchy and gangsterism.

But in the capital of the former British protectorate of Somaliland – a country you won’t find on any map but it’s real nevertheless – people are restless. It isn’t the usual story of a nation without a state (Somalia is one of only two countries in Africa which is united by a common ethnicity, language, religion and culture) but the fear of being dragged back into the maelstrom in the south. They want independence and the foreign investment it brings.

While the perception of safety could pave the way for recognition, there are other barriers. That Somaliland is a craggy desert of rock and sand with no real resources is the most telling.

“When you go home, tell your Foreign Office it is safe here,” was a request I heard countless times. And they’ve got a point. Yes, it is a UN ruling that every Westerner must be under armed guard, the city has been targeted by suicide bombers from hard-line militant group Al-Shabaab and, as I saw for myself when I visited the hospital, gunshot wounds are the main source of injury.

But, unlike the rest of the country, Somaliland as an army, government bureaucracy, parliament and a multi-party political system. Which isn’t to say I didn’t feel threatened. The endless daily checkpoints, driving around in Toyota Landcruisers with the lights off, and the general feeling that every encounter might implode, some of the reasons why. And there are signs that stability could be ephemeral. There are elections there. An election in a country that doesn’t exist is a strange thing.

And there are more surprises. Perhaps the patronising “white man in Africa” travel guide literature had seeped through my defences, but, if I was going to make snap decisions on the “friendliness” of Somali people, I’d say first impressions would rank them somewhere between resentful mother-in-law and an out-of-work docker after 10 pints. The following exchange was typical: Somali: “Hey, white man, you are a spy.” Me, somewhat taken aback: “No, I’m not. I’m a writer. I am going to write about your country.” Somali, grabbing my hand: “You are an agent. You are CIA.” Me, stuttering: “I promise I’m not. I’m British from London, you know, Arsenal, Chelsea, John Terry?” Somali, simultaneously shaking my hand, looking around and shouting out loud: “CIA, CIA, CIA! Agent, Agent!” Not exactly the smiley African-exotica package of the National Geographic.

Other preconceptions had to be put in check. Somalia is not the dollar a day, distended stomach Africa. There are victims and there are killers, but there is also everyone else – ordinary Somalis. The country can feed itself. The only people I saw begging were Ethiopian refugees, (there really are some people actually fleeing to Somalia).

Despite or perhaps because of the complete absence of international development aid, its economy has had to be resilient. It’s a mixture of telecommunications (Hargeisa had three mobile phone companies and even the camel herders carry phones), livestock and its main industry – money sent back from family living overseas. Remittances are a lifeline to Somalis. And while it might seem bizarre, Camden Town is the coalface of Somalia and particularly Hargeisa’s economy. Thousands of Somalilanders were uprooted to north London at the height of the civil war between 1986 and 1992. Every week, emigres living north of the Euston Road put money into their Dahabshiil accounts to help out family in their homeland. Dahabshiil may not mean anything in Hampstead, but the British-Somali money transfer company is a household name on housing estates in Kentish Town and King’s Cross. And many go further than sending money. They go themselves. Hundreds of families put their faith in Daallo airlines (a faltering DC-10 that makes the plane in Airplane! look like Air Force 1) to return to their motherland every summer. I met a good few teenagers who told me they had been sent away for the summer to “cool off” from the Camden Town street life.

Hearing the familiar top-deck-of-the-bus London argot of “skeen” above the din of the call to prayer was one of the more bizarre space-time ruptures of my trip.

When they’re not surviving or arguing, Somalis like to chew. Sometimes goat, sometimes spaghetti – the legacy of Italian colonialism, which you eat the way you always wanted to eat it as a child, slurping with your hands – but mainly a green leaf called Khat. “You chew, you chew, green grass very good,” was a familiar refrain as I walked about. The eye-popping amphetamine-containing plant is sold on every street corner, and by three in the afternoon, the whole city is comatose.

At Berbera jail, the site of my most surreal encounter, I secured an interview with two real-life pirates, men who sensationally captured two German tourists; successfully collecting the ransom money, before they were arrested trying to spring an Egyptian freight ship with a boat-full of rocket launchers.

Berbera jail is medieval. A quick frisk and I was in. With palms sweating, “Iska warran,” I said in broken Somali, summoning as much confidence as I could in front of the two steely looking men, just a month into their 15-year sentences. It was going to be a tough interview. But my carefully rehearsed “you’re the victims here, let’s talk about the causes of crime” spiel unravelled quicker than I had expected. My translator looked shell-shocked. “What did he say?” I asked hesitantly. “He said ‘this is my country, not yours, why don’t you f*** off out of my country’.” I needed a change of tack. Khat. $30 worth of the talking leaf, and I began to feel more like the CIA interrogator everyone seemed to think I was. Is it ethical to drug prisoners before an interview? “We are just humble fishermen,” they told me. “We were just defending our waters. International fishermen have plundered our stock. We have a family to feed, that’s why we did it. We ?are heroes where we live, not criminals.”

When I did try to challenge them with guilt they just shrugged their shoulders. As I left, the prison guard told me the pair weren’t too bothered by their situation. The

$1million they received for the German hostages was evidently keeping their families comfortable.

One of the most haunting experiences of my trip was visiting Hargeisa Mental Health unit – the only mental health facility in the entire country.

I doubt any of the patients; a mixture of khat addicts and civil war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress, had ever met a psychiatrist. A soiled mattress, leg-irons and a shit bucket – that was their medicine.

Asked why they had to be chained up 24 hours a day, I was told they had no option. “They would run away. We know it’s cruel but it is all we can do,” said the hospital administrator, who was remarkably disinterested in my line of questioning and sudden compulsion to take a lot of pictures. Now I understand why the unit is kept out of sight.

Somalia isn’t for everybody. It can be frustrating, distressing and at times downright scary, but going there also makes you feel like you’ve only half-lived.

Journalists should be wary of generalisations, but if ever there was a country to hold a mirror up to what we have lost through wasteful wealth and non-stop living, the good and the bad of the human condition and everything in between, Somalia has it times 10.

Where else in the world would you be honoured with a thanksgiving ceremony, a camel and a plot of real estate so close to the seashore you can spot a Jolly Roger, just for dressing up in a sarong and chewing some khat with a couple of out-of-work herders.

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USA : 13 People Killed and 30 Wounded in Fort Hood Shooting

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:55:00 +0000

(Medeshi)

Suspected Gunman Is Identified by ABC News as Major Nidal Malik Hasan

By EMILY FRIEDMAN and RICHARD ESPOSITO

Nov. 5, 2009 —

Thirteen people have been killed and 30 wounded in a shooting spree at a Texas military post in a murderous rampage that officials believe was carried out by an Army psychiatrist.

The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Nidal Malik Hasan. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, told Fox News that military sources informed her that the gunman was about to be deployed to Iraq. Sources tell ABC News that this would have been his first deployment.

The shooter was killed and two other suspects, who are also soldiers, have been apprehended, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone said.
Hasan allegedly opened fire and killed 12 people on the post before he was shot dead, bringing the total number of fatalities to 13.
The general said there were "eyewitness accounts of more than one shooter," and the others were tracked to an adjacent facility.
Cone called the attack "a terrible tragedy, stunning." He said the community was "absolutely devastated."
President Obama called the Fort Hood shootings a "horrific outburst of violence."
"It is difficult enough to lose" soldiers overseas, but it is "horrifying that they should lose their lives at an Army base in the U.S.," he said.
"My prayers are with the wounded and the families of the fallen," said the president.
The Senate and the House of Representatives held a moment of silence this evening for the victims of the Fort Hood massacre.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered flags be flown at half mast until Sunday.
Cone said the motive for the attack, which took place just after 1:30 p.m. CT, is unclear.
According to sources, Hasan, who is either 39 or 40, attended the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. He graduated in 2003 with a degree in Osteopathy and later finished his residency as a psychiatrist.
In 2009, Hasan completed a fellowship in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry at the Center for Traumatic Stress.
He was promoted to major status in May, according to the Army Times.
Fort Hood, located just 60 miles north from Austin, is the largest U.S. military installation in the world, and has suffered the greatest number of casualities of all American bases in the war on Iraq.
The base is a 340 sq. mile facility located in Killeen, Texas and is home to the 1st Cavalry Division, which was one of the first groups of soldiers deployed to Iraq.
Cone said that a gunman entered a facility known as the Soldier Readiness Facility, where soldiers who are preparing to deploy go for last minute medical check ups and dental treatment. Sources told ABC News that the soldiers gathered there were getting ready to deploy to Iraq.
The gunman used two handguns, Cone said. He wasn't sure if the shooter reloaded the weapons during the attack.
"The gunman opened fire and essentially due to the quick respond of the police forces was killed," said Cone.
The shooter was killed by civilian law enforcement and one police officer died in the shootout, Cone said.
The gunman's suspected accomplices were taken into custody in an adjacent facility known as the old SportsDome Complex.
Fort Hood Went on Lockdown After 12 Shot Dead
Schools n the base were also placed on lockdown. A message on Fort Hood's public affairs office Web site read, "Organizations/units are instructed to execute a 100 percent accountability of all personnel. This is not a Drill. It is an Emergency Situation."
According to a source on the base, it is rare for firearms to be on the base because they are locked up.
Homeland Security said it is still gathering information and that the "Army is taking the lead" as of now. FBI agents from Waco and Austin, Texas, are being deployed to the scene.
An army spokesman said that unit commanders have been instructed to account for all of their personnel.
"The immediate concern is to make sure that all of our soldiers and family members are safe and that's what commanders have been instructed to do," said Jay Adams of First Army, Division West, located at Fort Hood.
The CounterTerrorist Unit said they have "no word" yet on whether this incident was terrorism-related.
At least six victims are being treated at the Metroplex Hospital five miles away. Area hospitals are all requesting blood donations to treat victims.
According to icasulaties.org, 483 soldier deaths from Fort Hood since war started. Fort Hood has suffered more deaths in Iraq than any other US home base.
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Somaliland's main export market reopened

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:40:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
afrol News, 5 November - Saudi Arabia officials have announced that the 9-year ban on import of livestock from Somalia, including Somaliland, is lifted. Thus, Somalia's main export trade may be resumed, promising much needed revenues for Somali farmers.

Following an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever on the African Horn nine years ago, the Saudi government placed a ban on livestock imports from the region. Livestock represents the major export commodity from Somalia, with Saudi Arabia being the main market. Thus, the ban, which was expected to be short-lived, strongly affected the rural economy of Somalia.
With the Rift Valley Fever long gone, Somalia and the breakaway state of Somaliland have lobbied for the lifting of the ban, holding Saudi Arabia was causing major damage to their economies. However, with now good animal health infrastructure and quarantine centres in place, the Saudis had sufficient formal reasons to keep the ban in place.
During the latest years, therefore, Somalis have found alternative routes to send parts of their livestock production to Saudi Arabia. Recent Saudi press reports have documented widespread smuggling of Somali livestock into national markets.
Observers in Saudi Arabia and Somalia therefore claim the sudden lifting of the ban is caused by this increased smuggling. 'Al Riyadh' newspaper, relating the two issues, holds Saudi agriculture authorities calculate animal health risks are better controlled by legalising the trade, thus enabling government to screen arriving animals.
The meat market in Saudi Arabia is large, especially during festive seasons, necessitating large imports of especially sheep. Since the ban on Horn livestock, meat prices have increased and bottlenecks are registered in peak seasons such as Eid.
For Somali producers, prices achieved on the Arabian market are far better than in neighbouring African countries. Also efforts by Somali and Somalilander authorities to get access to new markets such as Egypt have proved short-lived.
The livestock trade therefore has been unpredictable for Somali farmers during the last decade, with uncertainties on export markets regarding volumes and prices. Also, the illegal exports to Saudi Arabia are far from as profitable as legal exports will be.
In particular, the self-declared republic of Somaliland is expected to achieve major economic gains from the reopened Saudi market. In Somaliland, were political stability provides farmers with predictable conditions, a boost in livestock production and an export is easily manageable.
"The ban has caused a great suffering to Somaliland whose economy depended mainly on livestock export," Somaliland Interior Minister Ismail Adam Osman said in an appeal to Arab nations a few years ago, lobbying for the lifting of the ban.
The lifting of the ban was announced in a press statement from the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture yesterday. The Ministry said the lifting came to secure supplies of "livestock at reasonable prices" to locals and pilgrims during the upcoming Eid Al-Adha and the Hajj season. It emphasised the Ministry would strictly enforce animal health legislation and scan all imported live animals for possible diseases.
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KENYA: Replacing the bucket latrine

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:59:00 +0000

(Medeshi)

WAJIR EAST, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - The sound of the evening bell at a local boarding high-school in Wajir, in the northeast of Kenya, did not always signal the end of the day's classes. Instead it marked the end of the evening bathroom break as “bucket toilets” were emptied for the day.

Such stories are commonly told with a mixture of humour and concern in the semi-arid region of Wajir, where most residents have little access to improved sanitation - with serious health implications.

"Wajir is prone to diarrhoea outbreaks," Francis Njoroge, Wajir East medical health officer, told IRIN. "Diarrhoeal diseases are [the] third [most] common illness in children below five years.

"Several factors could be contributory: the town lacks a sewerage system [and] uses a bucket system... people depend on boreholes... and many of the community water wells are not protected, exposing them to contamination," Njoroge said.

Outside the town, people use water from open dams, which they share with animals. "During the rainy season, run-off water washes animal waste into the dam, contaminating it," he said

Wajir residents rely on shallow wells, due to increasing water salinity at depth, which are exposed to contamination during flash floods and from seepage. ( A bucket toilet in a home in Wajir town)

The larger Wajir, which borders Somalia, Ethiopia, as well as the Kenyan towns of Mandera, Moyale, Isiolo and Garissa, lies in an area with large aquifers supplied by perennial rivers and dry seasonal river basins - also sources of contamination.

Like most of northern Kenya, Wajir has experienced a prolonged drought and livestock deaths. Animal carcasses litter watering points, posing a further health risk.

Contamination

Wajir South Development Association (WASDA) programme manager, Haretha Bulle, told IRIN of the challenges.

"There are [largely] no flush toilets and no pit latrines," Bulle told IRIN. A few flush toilets can be found in some hotels and in newer settlements but are rare in households.

According to a UN World Health Organization report, latrine coverage in rural Wajir is about 5 percent and just a little higher in the town.

Because of the high water table, pit latrines are not viable, and residents mainly rely on unhygienic bucket toilets - improvised from plastic jerry cans.

"Waste is collected from the bucket latrines by a tractor, which serves the whole town," Bulle noted. The town has a population of about 220,000.

"Households are not able to dispose of waste [and] are forced to dispose it anywhere," she said. "When it rains, the whole town smells. The water gets contaminated more easily and changes colour." (Children at a shallow well: Most of the wells are uncovered exposing residents to the risk of using contaminated water)

Refuse pit and open pit dumping is prevalent.

El Niño threat

According to Wajir town resident, Khadijah Ibrahim, ongoing El Niño-related rains will only exacerbate the situation. Her family of eight shares one bucket toilet with three other households - about 24 people in total.

"Sometimes the municipal council comes to empty the bucket after a week or 15 days. By the time the waste collectors come, the bucket toilet is already overflowing," Ibrahim said.

Her children, the youngest of whom is three, have been trained to wear shoes before going to the toilet to protect themselves, "but they only use soap to wash their hands before they eat", Ibrahim said.

Eco-toilets

The Arid Lands Development Focus (ALDEF) NGO is piloting eco-toilets, which use heat trapped by solar panels to burn human waste, reducing it to ash.

The toilets do not use water, instead relying on a dehydration/evaporation system. Diyad Hujale, ALDEF programme manager, told IRIN the target was mainly the town centre, which requires about 5,000 toilets.

Hujale recommended that Wajir town’s by-laws should make it compulsory for any upcoming construction to have an eco-toilet facility. The challenge, he said, is "how to get rid of the bucket toilet".

However, the cost of setting up an eco-san unit, about KSh60,000 (US$800), is prohibitive for private households.

Health education

Past recommendations to improve drainage and sanitation in Wajir have not yielded much, according to Bulle of WASDA. "It is one disaster after the other. When the rains come, we think of the drainage but forget about it when the drought comes." (Khadijah Ibrahim with some of her children. Children are particularly at risk of catching diarrhoeal diseases)

At present, village elders in Wajir are being taught how to chlorinate the community wells, according to health officer Njoroge. Health education on the importance of protecting the wells is also being provided.

He said the construction of more toilets is being encouraged in new settlements, where communities are provided with water treatment chemicals.

"Health education is ongoing. Of importance is that there is continued disease surveillance in the district," he said. The solution lay in "providing clean water to the community and safe disposal of human waste via a sewerage system".

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Genetic tests for UK asylum seekers draw criticism

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:44:00 +0000

(Medeshi)

LONDON — Britain is using genetic tests on some African asylum seekers in an effort to catch those who are lying about their nationality, drawing criticism from scientists and provoking outrage from rights groups.

The United Kingdom Border Agency launched the pilot project in September amid suspicions there might be a large number of asylum applicants lying about their home countries. An agency spokesman said Britain was the only country using genetic tests in this way.
Experts, however, say the tests are based on flawed science and there’s no way genetic swabs can provide meaningful evidence regarding nationality.
Concerned about potential fraud, the Bush administration launched a pilot DNA testing project in 2007 to vet applicants to a program that allows family members of African refugees already in the United States to join them.
The project, which wrapped up in March 2008, found an extremely high rate of fraud — 87 percent — among applicants claiming to be related to each other, the State Department said, and the resettlement program was suspended until those concerns could be addressed. The U.S. does not use genetic tests to try to prove nationality.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in London on Thursday that the U.S. has other ways of probing a person’s country of origin, such as testing language skills.
“I haven’t thought about it,” she said of the British attempt to match DNA to nationality. “We have a variety of ways we can use when we think someone is not telling the truth.”
Authorities in Britain described the testing as voluntary and said applicants would be asked to provide a mouth swab or hair or nail sample only in cases where questions arise about their nationality and they would be free to decline.
The government argues such tests can provide valuable — although not conclusive — evidence in assessing whether or not asylum seekers are telling the truth about their country of origin.
So far, the tests are being used only on people who claim to be from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, though if successful, officials say the plan could be rolled out further.
Several experts slammed the effort as “fundamentally flawed science,” and a petition has been sent to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for the project to be dismantled.
“Genes are not aware of national borders,” said Sir Alec Jeffreys, a geneticist at the University of Leicester who developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting.
“Nationality is a legal concept, and it’s got nothing to do with genetics at all,” said Jeffreys, adding that the kind of genetic research needed to identify ethnic origins according to DNA in Africa has never been done.
Human rights experts said the voluntary label was misleading.
“If people do not consent to this test, that could jeopardize their application or otherwise be construed negatively,” said Jill Rutter, a spokeswoman for Refugee and Migrant Justice, a London-based legal charity for asylum seekers and migrants.
“Refugees might not be in a position to understand what’s going on and they could be without legal representation when this request is made,” Rutter said. “It puts them in a very vulnerable position and their rights may be infringed upon.”
Refugees may be eligible for asylum in Britain if they can prove they face persecution at home because of their race, religion, political views, sexual orientation, or other factors.
Last year, nearly 26,000 people applied in Britain; of the more than 19,000 cases where decisions were made, 3,725, or 19 percent, were granted asylum. People from more repressive or chaotic countries, like Sudan or Somalia, often have a better chance of gaining asylum than those from more stable countries like Kenya.
In a document describing the project, the Border Agency acknowledges “testing will only provide a clue to the person’s ancestral lineage allowing a probable identification with a particular country.”
The agency had originally planned to use genetic test results as definitive proof of nationality, but scaled that back after scientists protested. A spokesman for the agency said results would only be used in combination with other ways of determining an asylum seeker’s nationality, such as language analysis and interviews, and would not be used to deport anyone.
“We are only trying to establish the efficacy of this approach,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. The Border Agency expects to test about three samples a week during the 10-month-long project.
The tests will also be used to determine if the children asylum seekers are trying to bring into Britain are actually related to them. In addition to the pilot program in the U.S., such testing on children has also been conducted in France.
Besides genetic tests, British officials are also performing isotope analysis of asylum seekers’ hair and nail samples. Scientists can look at the composition of certain elements like oxygen or strontium in hair and nails to see where a person has been.
But these isotopes are present only so long as the hair and nails have recently been growing, meaning such tests will only give clues into an applicants recent whereabouts.
“I don’t see how hair and nails can be used to tell you anything about (birth) origins,” said Jane Evans, an isotope expert at the National Environment Research Council in Nottingham.
It is possible to get more precise information about a person’s origins using isotopes, but only with a bone or tooth sample, she said.
Britain has been a lightning rod of controversy in the debate over security versus civil liberties.
It has one of the largest DNA databases in the world, with more than 5 million samples collected by authorities to help fight terrorism and crime.
In a landmark decision, the European Court of Human Rights recently ordered Britain to destroy nearly 1 million DNA samples and fingerprints on its database — samples taken from children, people who had never been charged or people acquitted of crimes.
Since terror attacks in the U.S. and Britain, authorities have also used DNA collection as an important counterterrorism tool.
DNA samples taken on battlefields in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan from detainees and suicide bombers have provided clues about terror cell members and how they are linked to global cells, British security officials said.
Samples taken during terror raids in Britain have also allowed investigators to trace suspects to suspects abroad, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their work.
Experts said that while it is legitimate for the government to try to confirm asylum seekers’ claims, it has to do that in ways compatible with the principles of a democratic society — and with a credible test.
“Genetic testing may be able to tell you where somebody’s ancestors started out, but it doesn’t tell you where they’re from,” said John Harris, a professor of bioethics at Manchester University, who also sits on the government’s Human Genetics Commission.
“It won’t give them anything worth knowing, and it’s very likely that what it will give them is misleading.”
Associated Press writers Paisley Dodds and Gregory Katz in London and Eileen Sullivan and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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Somalia :Spanish hostages' wives: 3 crew taken ashore

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:40:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
By DANIEL WOOLLS (AP)
MADRID — Pirates holding a Spanish trawler off Somalia took three crew members ashore Thursday to press Spanish authorities for the release of fellow pirates captured in connection with the month-old hostage drama, wives of two sailors said.
Separately, pirates on Thursday captured a Greek-owned bulk carrier with 21 crew on board, according to an EU naval force fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean. The carrier, which is flagged in the Marshall Islands, had been heading to Zanzibar but was last seen 300 miles east of Mombasa, Kenya, the force said.
That hijacking brought the number of crew being held by Somali pirates to more than 210 from 10 captured vessels. A retired British couple taken late last month from their private yacht remain captive in Somalia.
Spain's defense minister confirmed three crew members had been removed from the commandeered Spanish tuna trawler Alakrana and taken on a smaller boat to Somalia. But she would not comment on what the pirates' motives might be.
"We know exactly where they are and we also know that they are OK," Carme Chacon told a news conference.
"We know that in order to achieve their criminal aims, pirates not only hold crew members but also exploit the anxiety of their families," she said.
Two Spanish wives said they had spoken by cell phone Thursday with their husbands, who are among the 36 crew members of the Alakrana. It was seized on Oct. 2 in open Indian Ocean waters and is now just off the coast of Somalia.
Pirates on the ship ordered some crew members to call home Thursday and tell their families that three colleagues were being disembarked to be taken to Somalia, Chacon said. The government is working on all fronts to free the entire crew and does not rule out any option, including military action, she said without giving details.
In April 2008 the Spanish government reportedly paid a euro1.2 million ($1.78 million) ransom to secure the release of the Spanish trawler Playa de Bakio, which had been captured by pirates off Somalia's coast. In the end it was held for six days.
One of the women who spoke Thursday, Silvia Albes, the wife of sailor Pablo Costas, described him as very frightened. Costas said the ship is running out of drinking water and conditions are increasingly desperate.
"My husband said they have taken three crew members off the ship," Albes told Spanish National Radio.
Costas said the crew "are all very scared. My husband was crying. There came a point when all he could say was 'I love you, I love you, I love you. Please get me off the ship,'" Albes said.
Pirates on the Alakrana fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the water and fired guns into the air to ward off a Spanish navy frigate that is shadowing it, a Defense Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with ministry rules.
Two days after the hijacking, Spanish naval forces taking part in the EU anti-piracy mission captured two suspected pirates as they tried to travel ashore to Somalia from the Alakrana in a skiff. Both are now in custody in Madrid and face preliminary charges including 36 counts of kidnapping.
The pirates that remain on the Spanish ship want those two released as a condition for freeing the Alakrana and the crew, said the other wife, Maria Angeles Jimenez, wife of sailor Gaizka Iturbe.
He told Jimenez the pirates are threatening to take more crew ashore if the two detained colleagues are not freed.
The minister, Chacon, dodged a question as to whether these two might in fact be released. She said the Spanish naval forces who caught them were fulfilling their mission to prevent piracy and arrest those caught doing it. Albes and other family members have complained that heavy publicity surrounding the arrests complicate the task of freeing the fishermen.
Jimenez said, "The government is ignoring what the kidnappers have brought to the negotiating table. Their main demand is that the two Somalis be returned."
"And if they are not returned, they have already taken three crew members off the ship and they are going to keep taking them off one by one," she added
Jimenez, too, said her husband had broken down in tears. "And he told me, 'Go tell the press. Scream. Make noise. Don't leave me.'"
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Somali group threatens Israel

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:56:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
From Mohamed Amiin Adow, For CNN
A militant Islamist group associated with al Qaeda has for the first time threatened to attack Israel, far from its normal base of operations in Somalia.

Al-Shabab, which is fighting to control the east African country, accused Israel of "starting to destroy" the Al Aqsa mosque, where standoffs have taken place recently between Israeli police and Palestinians. The mosque is part of the complex that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif.

"The Jews started to destroy parts of the holy mosque of Al Aqsa and they routinely kill our Palestinian brothers, so we are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers," said Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur, a prominent Al-Shabab commander.
His threat was part of a series of fiery sermons delivered after Friday prayers in Baidoa in southwest Somalia. Al-Shabab controls the region, which is part of a country that has been without an effective national government for nearly 20 years.
Other leaders of the group also threatened Israel, the first time the group is known to have done so.

"We will transfer and expand our fighting in the Middle East so we can defend Al Aqsa mosque from the Israelis," Al-Shabab commander Abdifatah Aweys Abu Hamza said in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
He is apparently the leader of a new Al-Shabab armed group calling themselves "Mujahedin Al Aqsa," or "Al Aqsa Holy Warriors," which they said is assigned to attack Israel.
It is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel.

But Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group warned that the group should be taken seriously.

"We should not underestimate the capacity of Al-Shabab," he said. "This is a deadly organization, a formidable foe."
Abdi said the group had been mutating from a nationalist group into a terrorist organization more like al Qaeda, which was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"If you look at the rhetoric and language and if you look at the Web sites, if you hear their preachers or their scholars speak, it is completely indistinguishable from al Qaeda leaders," Abdi said.
The group has also become more vicious in Somalia, a local human rights expert said.
"The most gruesome and gross violations of human rights are committed by Al-Shabab," activist Hassan Shire Sheikh said. "They have also instilled fear. They just shoot, they kill, they maim and they lash."
The group also threatened African neighbors on Friday, including Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Eritrea, Ghana, Sudan and Uganda. They have in the past threatened African nations that provide peacekeeping troops to the war-torn country.
The U.S. State Department Country Reports on Terrorism from April lists Al-Shabab as a terrorist organization and blames it for shootings and suicide bombings inside Somalia. It does not list the group as having carried out violence outside Somalia, but says some members of the group have trained and fought alongside al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and sparked brutal clan infighting.
The transitional government has struggled to establish authority, challenged by Islamist groups like Al-Shabab that have seized control of Mogadishu and much of the south.
CNN's David McKenzie in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

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Horn of Africa: The Birth of an Ocean

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:29:00 +0000

(Medeshi)

The Red Sea is parting again, but this time Moses doesn’t have a hand in it.

Aerial photo of the cracks and faults that formed in September, 2005. These cracks formed above the zone where molten rock rose into the plate, reaching to within approximately 1.2 miles of the surface. Credit: Julie Rowland, University of Auckland

Satellite images show that the Arabian tectonic plate and the African plate are moving away from each other, stretching the Earth's crust and widening the southern end of the Red Sea, scientists reported in this week's issue of journal Nature.

Last September, a series of earthquakes started splitting the planet's surface along a 37-mile section of the East African Rift in Afar, Ethiopia.

Using the images gathered by the European Space Agency's Envisat radar satellite, researchers looked at satellite data before and after these activities.

Earth-shattering shift

Over a period of three weeks, the crust on the sides of the rift moved apart by 26 feet and magma—enough to fill a football stadium more than 2,000 times—was injected along a vertical crack, forming a new crust.

"We think that the crust and mantle melt slowly at depths greater than 10 kilometers [6 miles], where it is hotter, forming magma (molten rock)," said Tim J Wright, study co-author, a Royal Society University Research Fellow. "This magma rises through the crust because it is less dense than the surrounding rock.”

The magma collects in magma chambers at depths of 3 to 5 kilometers [1.9 to 3 miles] where the density is the same as the crustal rocks, Wright explained. "Slowly, the pressure has been building up in these chambers until last September when it finally cracked, breaking the crust along a vertical crack. The magma was then injected into this crack."

The intrusion of magma into the gap, rather than the cracking of the crust, is responsible for segmentation of continental drifts.

This is the first rifting episode to have occurred since 1970 and the largest single rip in the Earth's continental crust during the satellite-monitoring era.

"We knew about the steady rifting process in Afar, as Arabia moves away from Africa across the rift," Wright said. "And we knew that occasionally the strain that builds up slowly over centuries is released suddenly in rifting episodes. We did not know how big the deformation could be."

Slow drift

For the past 30 million years Africa and Arabia have been going through a rifting process, the same one that formed the Red Sea. In this amount of time, the 186-mile- wide Afar depression formed.

"The ground is continually moving—much more rapidly now than before the rifting episode," Wright told LiveScience. "On average, the two sides move apart at about 2 centimeters per year [0.8 inches per year]. But, as this event demonstrates, the motion is episodic and jerky. This poses considerable hazard to the local inhabitants, which is higher for the next few years."

This latest split, added to the long-term rifting process, which is tearing the northeast of Ethiopia and Eritrea from the rest of Africa, could eventually create a huge new sea. Although such processes could take millions of years to occur, this event has given scientists an unprecedented opportunity to monitor the rupture in real time.

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Somalia plane hijack bid foiled

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:11:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
Two men have been arrested in Somalia after an aircraft was hijacked, officials in north of the country say.
Two men armed with pistols boarded the plane bound for Djibouti at an airport in Bossaso, in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

Half-way through the flight the plane turned back to Bossaso.
Puntland Security Minister Mohammed Said Samata said Somali forces opened fire on the hijackers as soon as the plane landed, wounding one of them.
Several of the airport employees responsible for searching the passengers have also been arrested.
Story from BBC NEWS:

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High seas shootout kills two off Somalia

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:52:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
MOGADISHU (AFP) - Two fishermen were killed and three others wounded in an apparent shooting incident involving a foreign warship off the northeastern coast of Somalia, Somali officials said Sunday.
The incident happened shortly after midnight (2200 GMT Saturday) when three fishing boats were stopped and questioned at sea, the officials said.

The dead men were Somali and Yemeni nationals, they said. The incident happened off the coast of Alula in Puntland.
The governor of Puntland's Bari province, Muse Gele Farole, said French forces were involved.
"The French forces opened fire on fishermen onboard a fishing boat. A Yemeni sailor and a Somali died and three others were injured, including two Yemenis," the governor told AFP.
The chiefs of staff of the French armed forces denied any French involvement, while a spokesman for the EU's anti-piracy force Atalanta said none of its ships were involved.
"No forces from the EU naval force were involved in any incident like this".
He said nothing had been reported "either from the French side or from the other nations involved in EU-NAVFOR".
Said Muse, the deputy commander of security forces in Alula, told AFP by phone the fishing vessels were approached by two speed boats.
"The wounded told us they were French forces who carried out the attack, but we are not sure yet," he said.
"We have collected the wounded and the dead bodies this morning from the area and we are burying the body of the dead Somali now. The Yemenis took the dead sailor to their country hours ago," said Muse, speaking by phone from a village some 20 kilometres (12 miles) away from the incident.
French tuna trawlers operating in the region have French marines stationed on board to prevent attack. The Spanish government on Friday gave private security firms protecting fishing vessels the authorisation to use greater firepower to prevent piracy.
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Somaliland :It is about time to stop Al Shabaab terrorists from spreading to the North

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:28:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
It is about time to stop terrorists from spreading to the North. Somaliland suffered under the regime of Siayad Barre and tens of thousands of its people were killed during the SNM struggle to gain freedom.
The stability in Somaliland was achieved at the cost of many lives and should be protected from any foreign intervention regardless of ethnicity.
People of Somaliland are known for resilience when ever oppression , destruction or terrorist acts happen. The people of Somaliland were able to rebuild their country quickly after the destruction of the previous regime of Syad Barre. The government institutions were build from scratch. Schools re-opened despite lack of funding . The Diaspora poured what they could to rebuild the country. Private sector flourished. For example the telecommunications sector became the second in Africa after South Africa in a short time after independence in 1991.
Private colleges and universities came up after 2000 and International NGO’s were permitted to contribute to institutional building.
The recent incident in Lasanod is worrying for the people of Somaliland and the incident should be tackled with the support of the international community.
Somaliland has overcome many obstacles caused by mindless people who were indoctrinated by the Wahabist Saudis and will defeat the current terror plotters from Al Shabaab. Enough blood has been split among the Somalis and religion should not be used to justify that. Those in Somaliland who sympathize with Al Shabaab must be ready for an iron fist.
Somaliland must be vigilant in the wake of the threat of Ashabaab group to attack Somaliland and its neighbors. The Government of Somaliland should not respond in rhetoric but with an iron fist to tackle Al Shabaab terrorists.
Related stories: Somaliland bomb attack kills military commander (http://www.medeshi.com/2009/11/somaliland-bomb-attack-kills-military.html)
Writen by M .A. Ali
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Somaliland bomb attack kills military commander

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:35:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
(AP) –
Somaliland — A defense official in Somaliland says a roadside bomb in the country's Sool region has killed two people, including an infantry division commander.

Somaliland defense minister Saleban Warsame Guled says two remote-controlled bombs were used in the attack that killed Osman Yusuf.
After the first blast, Yusuf went to the attack site to investigate. Guled says a second explosion then went off, killing Yusuf.
The attack comes only days after the powerful militant group al-Shabab, which is concentrated in southern Somalia, threatened to attack the northern region of Somaliland and other countries in the Horn of Africa, including Uganda and Kenya.
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Ethiopia: Is it the drought that causes the deaths or the dictatorial dynasties?

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:02:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
The term Dictatorship means: “A form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in a dictator or a small clique; a government organization or group in which absolute power is so concentrated; a despotic state.”

It is fundamentally important when governing any variety of semi-fascistic state to ensure that your subjects, citizenry, call them what you will, are absolutely unlikely to depose you. The habitual technique of achieving this situation is by applying brute force. In some cases a dictatorial regime might be held together by the threat of the gun, however this is inherently unstable. Thus, most dictators obstruct human rights, proscribe or limit freedom of speech, lawful assembly, and freedom of the press. Many dictators also prohibit elections entirely. Many others rig elections or blatantly force people to vote for the government’s pre-chosen candidates.( Photo: Malnutrition in Occupied Somalia )In despite of denying citizens’ numerous basic freedoms, many despotic regimes or what I call coarse coalitions call themselves "people's republics" or "people’s democratic.” The kind of rules employed by unpopular regimes mentioned above only invite armed rebellion; they result lack of social development; or worse they expedite the creation of bigger muscles to overthrow their dictatorial dynasties.

A substitute approach, also very popular with megalomaniacs from all Four Corners of the world, is to convince the oppressed that oppression is actually the best form of governance. In practice, this method can be so effective that the downtrodden and oppressed people will even fight to defend the oppressing state. Most dictatorships are established through violence, force, and sometimes-political trickery. Colonel Mingistu Haile Merriam, for instance used these methods effectively while serving as Military Ruler of Ethiopia from 1974-1991. He used to maintain his power through vicious military force and massacred thousands and thousands, if not millions, of Ethiopians both military men and civilians. Similarly, the current ruler of Ethiopia-moribund Meleze -does the same. In reality, Melez and his cronies, seem to have borrowed a leaf from the past and in particular Mingistu Haile Merriam’s book. The lone reason for the savagery and repression behaviors evident in many regions such as Ogadenia, Oromia and Sidamo to name but a few, by Melez’s pitiless military recruits are a prime example of desperate dictatorial tactics.

One could plausibly argue that the reason why many people in Ethiopia have fallen victims to drought, starvation, and war is undoubtedly, the cause of the current ruling regime’s policy based on controlling and manipulating people both economically, and politically using all means and ways at its disposal. The immediate concern for Ethiopia’s advertisement of the famine threat, however, is for the advantaged TPLF (Tigranian People’s Liberation Front) ruling elements to divert and distort Food Aid to feed the large number of oppressing forces stationed in many military garrisons throughout the country. On the other hand, they would like to use food donated by the international community as a lethal weapon to deprive the starving people, especially those who oppose the regime or sympathize with the armed opposition, food. In contrast, people who will get food aid donated by the international community through the TPLF government is those who bow to the regime’s policies based on “obey or out.” Consequently, the Ethiopian people are evidently victims of an enigmatic crime engineered by the despotic regime in Addis Ababa led by Prime Minister Meleze Zenawi.

Evidence on the ground point to the fact that the Ethiopian people are suffering from TPLF terror and it’s tyrannic tenets rather than a natural drought and destituteness. Many among the oppressed ethnic groups in various regions such as Ogadenia and Oromia are on melee against the malevolent regime in Addis Ababa. These people are always fighting for their freedom, and justice. Apparently, it’s their sole source of hope to fight and resist for survival and existence to live a life without havoc, hunger, and panic.

Indigenous inhabitants from regions such as Ogadenia, Oromia, Afar, and Sidamo live under well-documented and inconceivable harsh conditions. Amnesty International, in its 2002 world report (http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/afr/ethiopia!Open) described eloquently the problems faced by inhabitants of the above mentioned regions. The report states in part:

At least 31 people were killed and over 3,000 arrested during rioting in April. Armed conflict continued within Ethiopia between government forces and Oromo and Somali opponents; many human rights violations by government troops were reported. Suspected rebel supporters were detained, tortured and extrajudicially executed. Several thousand remained in detention; some had been held for years without charge or trial. Journalists, human rights activists, demonstrators and other critics of the government were arrested. Most were held without trial, although some received unfair trials. During local elections in March, April and December scores of opposition party supporters were subjected to intimidation, beatings and arbitrary arrest…

What Amnesty International described above could be said is a basically a systematically planed strategy intended to subdue people and make them conform to Tigranian domination.

Many people could strongly argue that the root cause of lack of development and political instability in Ethiopia is due to the arrogance and tyrannical attitudes of the Abyssinian rulers against other ethnic groups who live in what is nowadays known as Ethiopia. To me the fore-mentioned is a vindication of an old man’s wisdom or saying, which says; “The more you hold down a man; the more you stay down with him.” This saying reminds me the other axiom by the famous former United States President Abraham Lincoln, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot long retain it.” In addition John F. Kennedy said, “…the enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war it self.” In the case of Ethiopia, poverty, disease, tyranny, and the perpetual wars are the by-products of Abyssinian rulers. One could, as a result, plausibly argue that Abyssinian rulers’ extensive denial of people’s rights and freedoms put the whole nation its current position of being the most retarded and paralyzed country in the world. Moreover, the bad policies implemented by the above mentioned rulers resulted the ongoing or the perpetual catastrophes, such as the unceasing droughts, war, and the large number of Diaspora’s who live outside Ethiopia.

Ironically, the International Community has never come up with any sincere strategy or thoughtful solution that can address overtly or covertly the root causes of Ethiopia’s chronic droughts, diseases, and mal-governance that engulfed(ing) millions of the nation’s population. Incongruously, they (International community) always furnish food aid into the wrong hands of unpitying and ill-prepared regimes in Addis Ababa and forget about the fundamental problems. The reality is that people in Ethiopia need an enduring way out with freedom and better system of governance. One of the better ways to address the problem and prevent these disasters from bringing harm to people is for people to live in peace, and freedom and without forgetting that they will have to account for everything perpetrators do.

Furnishing food aid to famine victims while not attempting to understand why famine is the rallying cry of successive Ethiopian regimes is comparable to a doctor who prescribes medicine for his/her patient without a proper examination of the illness. Thus, it does seem paradoxical to distribute food to the needy people without understanding the root causes of the ever-present famine threat and other issues that do affect the lives of the poor and needy people in impoverished regions such as Ogadenia. Trucking food aid from Berbera, which is thousands of miles away, is not a lasting solution to the famine crisis. Let the international community ask itself an honest question. How long will it continue to send food aid from thousands of miles away to feed millions of people made to deliberately starve by a hostile and heedless regime in Addis Ababa?

Finally, without the constitution of a proper distribution system, it will be most probable that the food donated by the international community will not reach its intended target: The poor and needy citizenry of regions such as Ogadenia, Oromia, Afar and Sidamo.

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Gitmo :Jet named in torture flight report is met by SAS at British airport

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:37:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
By Miles Goslett ( Mail Online)
A U.S. plane that featured in a European Parliament report into the 'extraordinary rendition' of terror suspects was met by two SAS helicopters in a secret operation at one of Britain's biggest airports.

The Gulfstream jet landed at Birmingham International Airport on Friday, October 2, having flown in from an undisclosed location, and was seen by a member of staff being met minutes later by the Special Forces regiment aircraft.
Records show that the jet is owned by a subsidiary of L-3 Communications, a multi-billion-dollar defence corporation based in New York, whose clients include several American government departments, among them the Department of Homeland Security.
The jet was cited in a 2007 European Parliament report into CIA rendition - the process of smuggling terrorist suspects to interrogation centres abroad.
While not claiming that the plane had been used in a rendition, it stated that the plane was involved in an accident at Bucharest airport, having arrived from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, and that a passenger on board was found carrying a pistol with ammunition.
The Birmingham airport employee who saw it land said helicopters that he recognised as belonging to the SAS's support flight, 8 Flight Army Air Corps, based at Credenhill, near Hereford, arrived shortly afterwards.
The witness, who did not want to be named, added that he saw another plane, a Boeing 757 operated by COMCO, land at the airport on October 1, and that this was also met by two SAS helicopters. He said: 'People were seen transferring between all the aircraft.'

Landed: The Boeing 757, passing the terminal building at Birmingham, was the first of the two planes to arrive

The aircraft's presence at Birmingham airport was also confirmed by Ron Kosys, a member of the Birmingham Aviation Enthusiasts Group, who has posted pictures on the group's website.

The planes were parked in an area mostly used by private aircraft and situated away from the main runways.

The disclosure will reignite controversy over the use of British airspace and facilities by US-owned planes linked to rendition flights.

Last year, Foreign Secretary David Miliband was forced to admit that two American extraordinary rendition flights had landed on UK territory in 2002.

Mr Miliband revealed that both flights had refuelled on the British dependent territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

He apologised for the renditions, which contradicted successive statements made by Tony Blair in 2005, 2006 and 2007 saying there was no evidence that rendition flights had stopped on British territory.

The Gulfstream, registration number N478GS, is owned by a company called L-3 Integrated Systems.

The European Parliament report details how, on December 6, 2004, the Gulfstream jet was involved in an accident while flying from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan into Bucharest airport in Romania.

Although seven passengers were believed to have been on board, nobody involved in the Romanian investigation into the crash ever established what happened to them, as they had left the scene before accident investigators arrived.

On the tarmac: The Gulfstream jet, named in a report into the alleged transport of terror suspects, at Birmingham airport

A Ministry of Defence source confirmed that SAS helicopters did meet the two aircraft at Birmingham airport but said their presence could be explained by an organised meeting to discuss 'routine business between two allies'. He denied it had anything to do with rendition.

One aviation expert told The Mail on Sunday how he had tried to use the online tracking service www.flightaware.co.uk to monitor the flight plans of both planes to find out where they had flown from before landing in Birmingham on October 1, and where they flew to when they left on October 3. He was 'very surprised' to find that he was unable to. He added that this level of secrecy was highly unusual.

Spokesmen for Birmingham airport and National Air Traffic Services said the planes' flight plans were confidential.

Waiting: Army helicopters from an SAS air corps base near Hereford met both of the planes at Birmingham airport

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We unreservedly condemn any practice of extraordinary rendition to torture. The UK's clear policy is not to participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment for any purpose. We will not co-operate in any transfer of an individual where we believe there is a real risk of torture to the individual concerned.'

Shami Chakrabarti, director of pressure group Liberty, said: 'The sighting of a plane previously associated with some of the darkest aspects of the war on terror is a matter of grave concern.

'Ministers should be able to confirm whether or not it was transporting suspects on this occasion. In any event, the case for a wider inquiry into extraordinary rendition has become unanswerable.'

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The Nile: water conflicts

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:50:00 +0000

(Medeshi)
From its major source at Lake Victoria in east-central Africa, the White Nile flows north through Uganda and crosses the border into Sudan.
After a journey of several thousand kilometres, and in the dusty heat of Khartoum it eventually meets the Blue Nile which, by that time, has made the precipitous descent from the Ethiopian highlands. From the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, the river then continues to flow northwards through the desert, into Egypt and on to the Mediterranean Sea.
Colonial-era agreements outdated
Contained within those voluminous waters, stretching some 6,000 km through some of Africa's most arid lands, is a still largely untapped potential for the development of large swathes of the continent.
According to the World Bank, the Nile River Basin is home to an estimated 160 million people, while almost 300 million live in the ten countries that share the Nile's waters. Within the next 25 years, population within the Basin is expected to double, adding to the increased demand for water generated by growth in industry and agriculture.
In recent years, however, the use of the Nile's waters for development has become something of a bone of contention among the 10 countries that share its basin - Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt.
The contention partly arises from two agreements signed during the colonial era - the 1929 Nile Water Agreement and the 1959 Agreement for the Full Utilization of the Nile - that gave Egypt and Sudan extensive rights over the river's use.
The upstream countries, including the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, have expressed concern over the long-standing arrangements, arguing the treaties have served to give Egypt unfair control over the use of the river's waters. None of the colonial treaties involved all the riparian countries and therefore, did not deal equitably with the interests of the upstream countries, they say.
Regional analysts say that Egypt and Sudan, on the other hand, have been reluctant to renegotiate the treaties and this has, at times, strained relations between the upper- and lower-riparian nations.
Recent UN figures highlight the problems of water scarcity in the region. Of 180 countries listed for water availability per person per year in the recently released World Water Development Report, Kenya is ranked 154th, Uganda 115th and Ethiopia 137th. The upstream countries of Egypt and Sudan are ranked 156th and 129th respectively.
During the 1990s, attempts to resolve disagreements surrounding the Nile Basin and develop a regional partnership within which countries of the basin could equitably share the Nile's waters, got under way.
However, real progress has been slow, and Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian legislators have recently sparked fresh debate over the legitimacy of the colonial-era agreements.
Ugandan Members of parliament in particular have demanded compensation from Egypt, which they claim has been able to industrialise by using the Nile's resources to generate electricity and irrigate crops, whereas Uganda has not had this freedom.
Ugandan MP Amon Muzoora in 2002 proposed a motion in parliament for Uganda to renounce the pre-independence Nile water agreements, and made claims for annual compensation of some US $1.2 million.
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI)
In the last decade efforts towards cooperation on the Nile have intensified and, in 1993, the Technical Cooperation Committee for the Promotion of the Development and Environmental Protection of the Nile Basin (TECCONILE) was established with the aim of promoting a development agenda.
During that same year, the first in a series of 'Nile 2002 Conferences', supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), took place. Within the framework of TECCONILE, the Nile River Basin Action Plan (NRBAP) was prepared in 1995, and in 1997 the World Bank, UNDP, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) began working as 'cooperating partners' to facilitate further dialogue among the riparian states.
In 1998, all the riparian states except Eritrea, began discussions with a view to creating a regional partnership to better manage the Nile. A transitional mechanism for cooperation was officially launched in February 1999 in Dar-es-Salaam by the Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin States (Nile-COM).
The process was officially named the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) later in the same year, and in November 2002 a secretariat was established in Entebbe, Uganda, with funding from the World Bank. Burundi, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda are all involved in the NBI, with Eritrea participating as an observer.
According to Antoine Sendama, one of the Nile Basin Initiative's regional coordinators, the 10 countries which share the Nile and its sources met to find a way of cooperating on using the Nile "sustainably and effectively towards development".
Most countries in the region, according to Sendama, share a similar history of poverty, high population growth, environmental degradation, unstable economies and insecurity. "We need to utilise the existing opportunities to have a cooperation where actors will have a win-win gain towards development," he told IRIN recently.
Within the NBI are plans designed to harness the basin's waters for irrigation, and also the establishment of an energy policy to provide power for all the countries in the region, according to Sendama. Some NBI projects, including ones aimed at harnessing energy, and also some designed to make the best use of fisheries resources, are nearing their implementation stage, he said.
It is vital to the success of future developments on the Nile that both Egypt and Sudan are involved in the NBI, Sendama said. "Sudan and Egypt are among the 10 member countries which make up this initiative. By being part of this initiative means they are interested in seeing that it works. They are part of the process," he added.
Geoffrey Howard, who is in charge of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) [Http://www.iucn.org] Eastern Africa programme, told IRIN the main challenge for the region was for upstream countries to find sustainable ways of harnessing the Nile that would not hinder its flow downstream to Egypt. "The real issue here is that Egypt has no other supply of water. Cairo is a major city but depends solely on the Nile," Howard told IRIN.
Philip Kassaija, a lecturer at the Makerere University in Kampala, is full of praise for the Nile Basin Initiative.
He told IRIN that the NBI initiative would help open up negotiations on the equitable use of the Nile, and reduce conflicts over the use of its waters. "At least there is a framework now for negotiations. This is a positive case in which conflict is being arrested before it flares up. The NBI is reducing the potential for conflict," Kassaija told IRIN.
"It is important to renegotiate the colonial treaties. They do not reflect the circumstances that exist today," he added.
Ordinary people ignored
However, critics of the NBI have argued that the initiative has been a closed affair in which only the states involved and the World Bank have had input into decision making, largely ignoring the voices of ordinary people whose livelihoods depend on use of the Nile basin's resources.

Elizabeth Birabwa, a writer on environmental issues, told IRIN there was hardly any information flowing between the NBI secretariat and the media, because the language used by the secretariat was "too technical and distanced from us". "Few journalists know what is happening as far as the Nile is concerned. If you go there, they just give you the colonial treaties and some difficult-to-understand documents. We are hitting a wall," she said.

"Ugandan MPs have raised an issue that affects ordinary people. But the issues are shrouded in secrecy, big moneys being spent, some of it to be repaid by the people who live along the Nile, but the people know nothing," she added.
Civil society groups like IUCN have also criticised the running of the NBI and have formed a parallel initiative they say would enable them to participate in the NBI process.
Howard told IRIN the formation of the Nile International Discourse Desk [http://www.nilediscourse.org], as the initiative is known, did not come easy because governments were initially cautious over the inclusion of civil society groups in the process.
"It has been clear to some of us that decisions made by government are implemented without the actual consultation with the people who live in the Nile Basin," Howard said.
The Nile International Discourse Desk is a loose coalition of non-governmental organisations and civil society groups, and is hosted by the IUCN.
"We are just going to facilitate and organise civil society. We are drafting a social pact to facilitate the work of the civil society," Jean Bigagaza, head of the discourse desk, told IRIN.
"We are trying to get representation from every country. We are talking about a huge investment that will have great impact on people who live on the Nile Basin. We need to get them involved in the process," Bigagaza said.
[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003]
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Somali pirates: Western boats 'loot' Somali fish

noreply@blogger.com (Medeshi) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:59:00 +0000

(Medeshi)

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN

Saturday, October 31, 2009
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million in ransom for a British sailing couple say boats from other countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters, a pirate spokesman said Saturday.

Ahmed Gadaf, who says he's a spokesman for the pirates, said the group holding the couple hostage off Somalia's coast was made up of "voluntary guards" — not pirates.
"The Western forces continue to loot our natural resources. They continue to harass local fishermen and destroy their fishing nets, so we want them to taste the consequence," Gadaf said by satellite phone from the coastal town of Haradhere.
The British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed, Gadaf said. They will be released once the ransom is paid, he said.
The Chandlers were headed to Tanzania in their boat, the Lynn Rival, when a distress signal was sent Oct. 23. The British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday, and both have been in sporadic contact with the British media since.
Illegal fishing off the coast of Somalia stirs strong passions in the country. The prime minister of Somalia's transitional government, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, said in a speech Wednesday that many pirates are former fishermen "responding to the loss and disappearance of their livelihoods."
"Many of these pirates were once profitable fisherman and would be so again given the chance," he said at the London-based Chatham House think tank.
"I shall not name names, but suffice to say many countries are fishing illegally in Somali waters," he said. "We estimate that the value of the fish being taken from our waters is perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.
"It is wholly unacceptable for these countries, many of whom claim they want to help Somalia, to turn a blind eye to this theft. Particularly when that theft robs thousands of Somali people of a way out of poverty and a way out of piracy," Sharmarke said.
Rachel Chandler told her brother in a telephone call broadcast by ITV News on Friday that the pirates were "hospitable people," a message that Sharmarke underscored in his London remarks.
British officials held a meeting on the hostage situation Friday in the government's crisis briefing room. The Foreign Office said a team from across several government departments was involved. Both the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defense declined to comment on whether any potential rescue was under consideration.
Pirate attacks have increased the last several weeks after the recent end of the monsoon season. An international armada is patrolling the region to try to stop the attacks.
Source: AP, Oct 31, 2009
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