Somalia Blogger

USA to back Somaliland Independence?

2007-12-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

In the following article, the Washington Post says the the US is losing patience with the TFG in Mogadishu, and may turn is dollars and support to the more stable north in Hargeisa. Supporing Somaliland may just be a ploy by the Bush administration to get the TFG to start working harder on reconciliation, or it may be their way to establish another presence in the Horn.

Whatever the case, such a move would embolden the Hargeisa government to annex more and more land between itself and Puntland. This would cause continued strife in this region, and lead to more death and future generations of revenge. This move would also set a precedent of a first-world country supporting a breakaway republic of a single clan from a larger nation. This may cause other groups around Africa and the world to declare independence. That may be a bad sign for the Ethiopian government.

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CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti - The escalating conflict in Somalia is generating debate inside the Bush administration over whether the United States should continue to back the shaky transitional government in Mogadishu or shift support to the less volatile region of Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991, U.S. defense and military officials said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates discussed regional issues during a visit to Djibouti on Monday, including Somalia and the presence there of about 8,000 Ethiopian troops, the officials said. Ethiopian forces intervened a year ago to install the fledgling government in Mogadishu and they continue to fight Islamic radicals in Somalia.

"My biggest concern about Somalia is the potential for al-Qaeda to be active there," Gates said on his first visit to the Horn of Africa as defense secretary. Asked about allegations of human rights abuses by Ethiopian troops in Somalia, Gates said: "We're obviously very interested in helping the African Union and Ugandans to try and exercise some constructive influence on the Ethiopians."

U.S. military officials say Somalia is the greatest source of instability in the Horn of Africa, leading them to seek new ways to contain the violence there.

One approach, Pentagon officials argue, would be to forge ties with Somaliland, as the U.S. military has with Kenya and other countries bordering Somalia. A breakaway region along Somalia's northwestern coast, Somaliland has about 2 million people and an elected president, and offers greater potential for U.S. military assistance to bolster security, even though it lacks international recognition, they say.

"Somaliland is an entity that works," a senior defense official said. "We're caught between a rock and a hard place because they're not a recognized state," the official said.

The Pentagon's view is that "Somaliland should be independent," another defense official said. "We should build up the parts that are functional and box in" Somalia's unstable regions, particularly around Mogadishu.

In contrast, "the State Department wants to fix the broken part first -- that's been a failed policy," the official said.

The official U.S. government position is that the United States should withhold recognition from Somaliland because the African Union has yet to recognize it. "We do not want to get ahead of the continental organization on an issue of such importance," said Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer in an e-mailed response to questions.

The issue is diplomatically sensitive because recognizing Somaliland could set a precedent for other secession movements seeking to change colonial-era borders, opening a Pandora's box in the region.

In Djibouti, U.S. military officials say they are eager to engage Somaliland. "We'd love to, we're just waiting for State to give us the okay," said Navy Capt. Bob Wright, head of strategic communication for the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa. The task force is composed of about 1,800 U.S. troops who conduct military training and reconstruction projects such as digging wells and building schools in 11 countries

Meanwhile, the United States continues to back Somalia's weak Transitional Federal Government, set up in late 2004 with support from international organizations and the African Union.

Source: Washington Post

New Somali prime minister named

2007-11-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

President Yusef finally makes his decision on the new PM. Below is a brief overview article of the decision. For more details on Nur Adde, click on this link to the Reuters article.

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A new prime minister has been named in Somalia, three weeks after his predecessor was forced from office.

The new man is Nur Hassan Hussein, a former policeman, who heads the Somali Red Crescent humanitarian organisation.

Mr Hussein, also known as Nur Adde, said he would do his best in a "difficult" job.

He takes office amid a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, where the UN refugee agency says 1m people are now homeless following fighting in Mogadishu.

Islamist insurgents are battling the Ethiopia-backed government forces in the capital.

Some 200 000 people have fled their homes in the past two weeks.

Somalia is so unstable that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon say it is too dangerous to send peace-keeping troops there - even though the Security Council would like to.

Only Uganda has sent troops to an African Union mission but they have not been able to stop the violence.

After his appointment, Nur Adde said: "I pledge to do my utmost to perform the difficult obligations in front of me, by respecting the Somali federal charter."

He is from the Hawiye clan, the largest in Mogadishu, many of whom distrust President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, from the rival Darod group.

The previous prime minister, Ali Mohamed Ghedi, resigned amid intense diplomatic pressure to try to bring stability to the western-backed transitional government - and after losing a power struggle with President Yusuf.

Somalia has not had a functioning national government since President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.

Written By: claire wanja/bbc

Somali Religious Leaders Make a Long Overdue Statement

2007-11-22T09:03:00.000-08:00

Things continue to progress or digress in Somalia. President Yusef has forced PM Gedhi to resign. He got the constitution changed so he can appoint a non-parliament member to the the PM office. We are still waiting. Meanwhile, Mogadishu continues to have outbursts of violence. The head of the UN says no to the idea of a UN peace-keeping force. But the UN security council disagrees. The AU is doing nothing and Ethiopia is expanding their aggression in the Ogaden. Ethiopia and the opposition-supporting Eritrea are make war noise, and Somaliland and Puntland are battling over borders too.

So apparently this is the point when a group of Somali religious leaders decide its time to meet and make a statement calling for peace. A little late. Better late than never? You decide. Below is their statement:

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Full text of a statement issued by Somali religious leaders at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland:

We religious leaders from Somaliland, Puntland, and South-Central Somalia meeting in Hargeisa, Somalia, on 17 - 19 November 2007, with support from the Religious Leaders Peace Initiative in the Horn of Africa, with a goal to discuss and find ways in which the religious leaders and women can contribute to resolving conflicts among the Somalis

We have challenged ourselves to use our talents and powers to help our people find effective solutions to the problems of poverty, hunger and diseases; contribute more actively to the removal of socio-political conflicts, civil wars and sub-regional disputes and displacement of the people, and work effectively to enhance human and people's rights, equality and justice.

We want to appreciate the various opportunities created by Islam for people to come together to share ideas and feelings to include at least five praying times a day, a weekly Friday prayer gathering, twice a year Eid meetings where people of Islam come together to integrate ideas, and the final Hajj that the Prophet made and the speech on the gathering emphasizing peace and security.

We commit ourselves to convey the message that Islam is a religion of peace, and accepts other religions, and further commit ourselves to have this message supported by concrete actions, and demonstrate true love and brotherhood among ourselves as Muslims and the Somali people, and to the protection of life and property.

We deplore that the East African region has faced turmoil and conflicts, and that these have impacted negatively on the Somali people who have remained poor, underdeveloped, have had to migrate from their homes into being refugees and IDPs. We further deplore that the conflicts have also generated psychological problems.

We further regret that because of the conflict, the Somali natural resources are being exploited and wasted, and toxic materials dumped on the land and seas, thus degrading the environment.

We pledge from now henceforth to be more active peacemakers and commit ourselves to the process of peace-building to reverse the conflict situation that has affected us as Somali people, by participating in peace processes, and make contributions that advance the cause of peace.

We accept the challenge to advocate for the voiceless and the vulnerable, the cause for peace, the plight of the displaced persons, the marginalized and excluded groups, and upholding human rights and dignity.

We commit ourselves to advance open dialogue, sharing of experiences and information and exchange of ideas on peace and coexistence to the benefit of all Somali people. We further commit to advocate and to raise awareness through the media, research and publications.

We appeal for support to establish, empower and build the capacity of structured regional institutions that target religious leaders from the Somaliland, Puntland, and South and Central Somalia, and further call for the empowerment of religious leaders in conflict resolution, meditation and reconciliation through seminars, workshops and trainings.

We seek to establish partnership and networking relationships with international organizations and agencies for the cause of peace.

We commit ourselves to mobilize our social, moral and spiritual resources, and further seek financial and human support from willing and interested partners as we move toward building substantial peace.

We strongly call for an end to tribalism that fuels conflicts and increases the suffering of our people. We further call all the concerned and relevant stakeholders to put public interests ahead of personal and vested interests.

In conclusion we express our deep appreciation and thanks to the peace and solidarity mission of religious leaders from Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan and Kenya. We also thank ACRL-Religions for Peace, the working group of the Religious Leaders Peace Initiative on the Horn of Africa, and FCA Finland for their support and Government of Somaliland for providing space and opportunity for this historic meeting. We express gratitude to the International Horn University, Center for Community Development and Research, for hosting this event.

May the Almighty Allah help us!

Signed by Somali religious leaders and the leaders of the mission

Somali PM strikes deal with Mogadishu clan leaders

2007-10-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest attempt by the Somali government to get the Hawiye on their side. I doubt it will work as long as ICU gunmen are on the loose.

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By Aweys Yusuf and Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's prime minister has reached a truce with Mogadishu's dominant clan, whose fighters had supported Islamist-led insurgents in battles with government troops and Ethiopian forces earlier this year.

Hawiye clan elders met Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi amid tight security on Monday in the capital, which has been rocked by insecurity since January when his soldiers and their Ethiopian allies routed a hardline Sharia courts group.

Some Hawiye militia have joined remnants of that movement to wage a rebellion since then. But speaking after the talks, Gedi said the clan leaders would now work with his administration to take on the insurgents.

"We agreed a truce and we agreed that we do something about their complaints ... We agreed we work together against anyone carrying out violence," Gedi told reporters late on Monday.

Responding to accusations that government troops have been heavy-handed in their hunt for rebels, Gedi called on his army officers to control their men, who he said should perform their duties with respect and discipline.

Gedi's government -- the 14th attempt to forge central rule in Somalia -- has struggled to impose its authority in the face of roadside bombings, grenade attacks and assassinations.

But rubble-strewn Mogadishu has been relatively calm in recent days, and the outcome of Gedi's meeting with the clan leaders was eagerly anticipated by many war-weary residents.

Hawiye spokesman Ahmed Diriye told Reuters the government and insurgents both had a responsibility to end the violence.

"If the truce gets enforced, I do hope that all people who have political agendas on their mind, opposing the government, will compromise with it," he said.

Story Here.

Debate over radicalism in religion in Somalia

2007-08-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

The NRC continues in Mogadishu amidst continual failed efforts of Islamists to derail it. Today's news shows good efforts toward clan reconciliation and important discussion on defining what Islamic radicalism is. But it also shows the likelihood of continued intolerance of religious freedom in the new Somalia.

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MOGADISHU, Somalia Aug 5 (Garowe Online) - Hundreds of delegates participating at Somalia's national reconciliation conference listened to speeches on Sunday regarding the controversial issue of radicalism in religion.

Before the debate, clan delegates said they had forgiven each other for misdeeds accrued over the past 17 years of civil war.

Spokespeople for major Somali clans Hawiye and Darod formally apologized to smaller clans who faced indiscriminate killing, robbery of property and land, rape and other unimaginable acts at the hands of Hawiye and Darod clan militias since 1991.

The interim government has billed the NRC as a "conference of clans" where each and every clan's voice is heard and respected.

The conference is aimed at ending years of civil war amongst various clans but critics doubt any tangible result will come out of the NRC unless important political actors, like the Islamic Courts movement, are included.

Remnants of Islamist fighters are suspected to be leading the insurgency raging in Mogadishu and other Somali towns.

Debate over exactly what constitutes radicalism was heated today at the NRC hall, a former police warehouse refurbished to seat more than 1,300 delegates.

Sheikh Ali Nur said the people of Somalia are 100% Muslim and belong to one faith. He said the use of the term "radicalism" needs to be defined clearly to fit conditions in Somalia, since every Somali cannot be a radical.

Mohamed Ismail, an intellectual, said radical elements must be identified and isolated in society. He accused radicals of being responsible for daily bombings, saying that they are opposed to peace and governance.

The Somali government accuses its Islamist rivals of being "terrorists" and "radicals."

American Muslim-convert sentenced for terror training

2007-07-21T23:19:00.000-07:00

The Somali Reconciliation Conference proceeds as scheduled, despite efforts to derail it by the ICU and Hawiye extremists. In the meantime, an American Muslim-convert who fought with the ICU against the TFG, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Texas. See the details below:
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HOUSTON -- A U.S. citizen convicted of receiving training at a terrorist camp alongside al-Qaida members in his efforts to help overthrow the Somali government was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

Daniel Joseph Maldonado, 28, a Muslim convert also known as Daniel Aljughaifi and Abu Mohammed, also was fined $1,000.

Maldonado admitted to traveling in December to a terrorist camp in Somalia, where he was trained to use firearms and explosives in an effort to help a group called the Islamic Courts Union topple the government and install an Islamic state. Members of al-Qaida were present at the camp.

Maldonado was captured by the Kenyan military while trying to flee Somalia in January and brought back to the United States in February.

In April he pleaded guilty to a charge of receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization.

Ten years was the maximum prison sentence Maldonado could have received. He faced a fine of up to $250,000.

Federal prosecutor Gary Cobe said after the hearing that the sentence was just.

"We're fighting a war against terrorism. We need to send a message that anyone who gets involved with terrorism will pay the price," he said.

Maldonado's defense attorney, Brent Newton, did not speak to reporters after the hearing.

But before the sentence was handed down, Newton said that while his client is not making excuses for what he did, he went to Somalia and the Middle East only to practice his Muslim faith in peace and not to join a terrorist group.

"He wants it to be known he never intended to hurt Americans," Newton said.

Maldonado declined to make a statement during the hearing.

Maldonado, who grew up in Pelham, N.H., lived in Houston for four months in 2005 before moving with his wife and three children to Cairo, Egypt, then Somalia. Just before his arrest as he and his family tried to leave Somalia and go to Kenya, they became separated. His wife, Tamekia Cunningham, later died of malaria. His three children are being cared for by his parents in New Hampshire.

Defense attorneys described Maldonado as a man who, driven by anti-Muslim sentiment in America after the Sept. 11 attacks, moved away with his family so they could live in peace as Muslims

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Burundi Soon to Deploy the Long Awaited Forces

2007-07-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

After endless delays, the TFG is going to get the long promised Burundi forces to help support the AU force. In related news, the AU voted to extend the peace-keepers mission there for another 6 months. The AU is also appealing to the UN to take oversight of the peacekeeping force.

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Burundi Réalités (Bujumbura)
18 July 2007

Bujumbura: On Saturday July 14th, 2007, France's Ambassador to Burundi, Joël Louvet, and the Burundian Minister of National Defence, Lt.-Gen. Germain Niyoyankana signed an exceptional aid convention of 500000 Euros to help convey troops and military equipments to Somalia.

France has made this promise in mid-June while the USA had promised to provide some military equipments including uniforms, boots and bullet-proof jackets and helmets. The promises by the USA and France followed a confirmation by the AU of the troops' technical preparedness for the peace keeping mission.

Burundi troops were ready since May, but were waiting for logistical support which was to be provided by the AU. In an exclusive interview with Burundi Réalités Agence Presse on May 23rd, Mr. Manirakiza Adolphe had stated that the only delay for the deployment was logistical support which was to be provided by the African Union. Many observers doubt whether the African Union has what it really takes to mobilize the troops needed for the mission, hence a probable UN takeover.

In fact, the UN Security Council met on June 14th, 2007 and stressed the urgent need for appropriate contingency planning for a possible UN takeover of peacekeeping in Somalia from struggling African Union (AU) troops.

BBC Bias Continues

2007-07-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

Despite efforts against it Somali nationals, BBC's anti-government bias continues to rear its ugly head. See the article that follows to see the latest one-sided reporting, this time about the National Reconciliation Conference trying to get underway in Mogadishu. This article again shows the point of view from the side of anti-government forces. I believe their poor show of journalism is caused by one or more of the following factors:

* Lazy BBC journalists and editors who don't think both sides need to be represented.
* Ignorant non-Somali BBC journalists who have trusted sources that only feed them anti-government interviewees and story lines.
* Staff who don't think any of its readers will really care what they report about Somalia.
* Anti-government Somali BBC staff who have convinced their editors that their viewpoint is the correct viewpoint on the situation in Somalia.

Most appalling in the latest BBC story is the large quote by 'an opposition leader' that reads, "There is no clan conflict at the moment in Somalia but there is a political conflict." Is this really passing as for truth on the BBC? Clan conflict is in fact the MAIN reason why there still exists strife in Somalia. Leaders from around the world, from the AU, IGAD, and the UN all recognized this which is why they called on a clan-based reconciliation conference to be urgently held.

This shifting of the focus from the idea of clan-related to politically-related strife in Somalia by BBC journalism is giving a voice to falsehood and to the continued empowerment by a radical fringe of of Fundamentalists who are dominated by the Hawiye clan. For a more balanced article on the attempted reconciliation conference see the article from the International Herald Tribune here.
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Somali peace conference postponed

Security has been stepped up around the conference

A national reconciliation conference in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu has opened - and then adjourned.

Organisers postponed the conference until Thursday to allow more time for all the delegates to arrive.

Several mortar shells landed near the venue on Sunday, injuring civilians, but President Abdullahi Yusuf said violence would not deter the talks.

The main Islamist opposition have refused to attend, saying the venue is not neutral.

Somalia has been without a functioning government for 16 years.

Clan focus

Hundreds of Ethiopian and Somali government troops are patrolling the streets in Mogadishu and guarding the former police warehouse where the talks will be held.

Over 1,000 clan elders, former warlords and politicians from across the country have been invited.

The opposition Islamic Courts, who were driven from the city by Ethiopian and Somali forces and who are now mainly in exile in Eritrea, say they cannot attend because of the presence of their Ethiopian enemies.

There is no clan conflict at the moment in Somalia but there is a political conflict

Yusuf Hassan Ibrahim
Opposition member

A number of delegates from the international community who had planned to attend the opening ceremony were unable to, when their flights were cancelled over security concerns.

When talks begin, they are expected to focus on clan reconciliation, disarmament and sharing natural resources.

But critics say clan conflict is not the major problem and the focus should be on reconciliation between political and armed groups.

"The conference would make sense if it was bringing rival politicians and armed groups to the same table," said Ahmed Diriye, a spokesman for the powerful Hawiye clan.

"But if the idea is to talk about a non-existent tribal conflict, it's a waste of money and energy."

"There is no clan conflict at the moment in Somalia but there is a political conflict," Yusuf Hassan Ibrahim, a member of an opposition alliance linked to the Islamic Courts told the BBC.

"We are calling for a national reconciliation conference which will deal with the differences between the Transitional Federal Government and the other stakeholders, including former parliamentary groups, the Islamic Courts, civil society and the Somali diaspora."

Africans in U.S. caught between worlds

2007-06-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here's an insightful article from USA Today about the struggles of African immigrants to the US:
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WASHINGTON — They range from surgeons and scholars to illiterate refugees from some of the world's worst hellholes — a dizzyingly varied stream of African immigrants to the United States. More than 1 million strong and growing, they are enlivening America's cities and altering how the nation confronts its racial identity.

Some nurture dreams of returning to Africa for good one day. But many are casting their lot permanently in America, trying to assimilate even as they and their children struggle to learn where they fit in a country where black-white relations are a perpetual work-in-progress.

"To white people, we are all black," said Wanjiru Kamau, a Kenyan-born community activist in Washington, D.C. "But as soon as you open your mouth to some African-Americans, they look at you and wonder why you are even here.

"Except for the skin, which is just a facade, there is very little in common between Africans and African-Americans. We need to sit down and listen to each other's story."

The 2000 Census recorded 881,300 U.S. residents who were born in Africa. By 2005, the number had reached 1.25 million, according Brookings Institution researcher Jill Wilson.

Since 1990, the African population has more than tripled in places as far-flung as Atlanta, Seattle and Minneapolis, where Africans now constitute more than 15% of the black population. The biggest magnets are New York City and greater Washington, including its Maryland and Virginia suburbs; Wilson estimates that the African-born population in each area has soared past 130,000.

As director of the African Immigrant and Refugee Foundation, Kamau deals with some of the most hard-off newcomers — dispossessed refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and other war-ravaged countries. They have been arriving at a pace of roughly 20,000 a year. Many of those from rural areas have never before used modern appliances and, in some cases, can't read or write their native languages, let alone English, she said.

"I cry a lot when I see the people being settled here," Kamau said. "Some are very frustrated, because the culture is so different from what they know."

The flip side of the refugee influx is a wave of sophisticated professionals who also are making their way to the United States. Census data from 2000 shows 43% of Africans in the U.S. have college degrees, higher than the adult population as a whole. Compared to African-Americans, the immigrants' average household income is higher and their jobless rate lower.

They include hardworking couples such as Tigist Mengesha and her husband, Girum — Ethiopians trying to build their own version of the American dream in the mostly black suburb of Suitland, Md.

Girum, 36, was granted asylum in the U.S. in 2002 because of political tensions in Ethiopia.

Tigist joined him two years later, bringing their sons Biniyam and Fitsum, now 7 and 6.

The family had lived comfortably in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, with their own walled home and servants to look after the children while Girum worked as a bank manager and Tigist as an executive secretary.

In Washington, Girum had to resume his banking career at the bottom, as a teller, but has worked his way up to assistant manager and is pursuing a master's degree at a business college.

Tigist is a family counselor at a Head Start center, advising many Ethiopians as well as a few African-American parents. "In some ways, life is harder here," she said. "But we have hope — we are adjusting ourselves to the new situation."

She notes that they can't afford hired help and scramble to raise their sons while working full-time. On the bright side, however, they recently bought a townhouse.

Tigist said her relations with African-Americans have mostly been amicable, though on occasion she has sensed ill-feelings. "Some people, they treat you as if you don't know anything," she said, "as if you're from the jungle."

Lack of knowledge can cut both ways. Tigist is gradually learning details of America's racial history, even watching the TV mini-series "Roots."

"I feel bad about that racism — but when I come here now, I didn't feel it at all. I would never think someone would discriminate against me," she said. "I don't have any bad feelings for black Americans, but I am not one of them. ... I'm not a black American, I'm not a white American. I'm an Ethiopian."

Democratic president candidate Barak Obama, son of a black Kenyan father and white American mother, has wrestled with similar issues. Some skeptics have doubted whether his background will appeal to black voters, and he recalled in his memoirs that he was rebuffed by national civil rights groups when he was younger.

Jacqueline Copeland-Carson, an African-American scholar with Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, is optimistic that African immigrants and African-Americans will outgrow any strains, which she blames partly on stereotypes.

"Some Africans view African-Americans as violent, lazy, intellectually inferior — U.S. blacks are taught that the Africans are less civilized, not as capable," she said.

"As people get to know each other in churches and mosques and community associations, they're beginning to realize they've been taught lies about each other. They're starting to understand they share many things in common."

In the District of Columbia, as in some other cities, there has been occasional friction between recently arrived Africans and the entrenched, politically powerful black American community.

Some African-Americans bristled at a proposal — subsequently withdrawn — to officially nickname a bustling one-block stretch of 9th Street as "Little Ethiopia." More broadly, civic leaders say there is some resentment among working-class African-Americans who view the newcomers as threats to their jobs in such fields as health care, civil service and hotel work.

"Sometimes it's very overwhelming to the African-American community," said Abdulaziz Kamus, an Ethiopian-born activist who works on numerous immigrant issues. "They feel threatened that we are coming here and demanding jobs. If I was an African-American, I would feel the same thing."

In an overture to the newcomers, the city government last year formed an Office of African Affairs. But even this gesture ruffled some feathers — not all black American leaders felt it was needed, and some Africans say they have been disappointed by a lack of dynamism in the office's first few months of operation.

Bobby Austin, a vice president at the University of the District of Columbia, has been one of a relative handful of prominent African-Americans in the city to delve deeply into the tensions and misunderstandings. He and Kamus have promoted townhall dialogues between members of the two communities; some sessions are to be shown on a local cable channel this summer.

American blacks, Austin said, do not see themselves as immigrants and often do not comprehend the Africans' desire to come here.

"We are going to have to learn a new narrative," Austin said. "We will have to learn to work with them, and they will have to learn to work with us."

While African-Americans trace their presence in America back to the slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries, the modern surge of Africans dates to the post-independence era of the 1960s and '70s. Persistent conflict and corrupt government in much of Africa prompted more to follow in subsequent years, and the surge increased in the 1990s due to the Diversity Visa Lottery, a federal program boosting immigration from countries that traditionally sent few people.

The largest groups of Africans in the U.S. are from Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana, but the influx is diverse. The refugee program, for example, is accepting people from roughly two-dozen African countries each year; more than 200,000 African refugees have been taken in since 1980.

Some Americans, black and white, assume the Africans must share a common culture and outlook with one another, when in fact they may feel no deep bond with another ethnic group from their own country, let alone with Africans from distant corners of the continent. Immigrant leaders trying to encourage solidarity among Africans have found that task challenging.

There has been a wide range of cultural clashes — some serious, some bemusing — as the new Africans fan out across the country. Some polygamous families have managed to settle in the U.S., despite laws forbidding that. Women's rights activists and health officials have been on the lookout for cases of female circumcision — illegal in the U.S. but a common practice in some African regions.

Wanjiru Kamau, the Kenyan activist, says many newly arrived Africans find American culture bewildering. She tells them not to look down, but into the eyes of a person they are speaking to; she has fielded complaints that African nurses, accustomed to the relative din of hospitals in their homelands, talk too loudly on the job in America.

"That's how they talk where they came from," Kamau said. "Sometimes we fail to realize where we are."

Nurses and doctors are among the tens of thousands of well-trained Africans who have settled in America — contributing to concerns that a brain drain to Europe and the U.S. is depriving Africa of badly needed talent. Some of the expatriates say they are doing more good in the United States, where African immigrants earn enough to send back an estimated $3 billion a year to relatives in their homelands.

"The conditions at home often make it difficult to go back," said Nigerian native Ike Udogu, a professor at Appalachian State University who came to North Carolina 36 years ago.

"Here, there are great facilities," he said. "You simply want to do your work in a society where your life is not in danger."

Udogu has a thoroughly Americanized son who just finished college in Indiana. Likewise with Ghana-born Kukuwa Nuamah, 49, of Vienna, Va., a performer and instructor of African dance whose two daughters have completed college in Virginia.

"You can't hear one African accent from our children," Nuamah said. "They go back to Africa and get to know the culture there. When they are here, they feel fully American. ... They have both worlds."

In greater Washington, the Ethiopian and Nigerian communities are large enough so that immigrants could isolate themselves and minimize contact with American culture.

"For me, that's not healthy," said Abdulaziz Kamus, who has tried to encourage African taxi drivers — and other immigrants — to become politically engaged,

"You could be here 20 years, but if you don't start participating, you're not part of America," he said.

"What excites me every day is that I could go protest without fear of deportation or being sent to prison. ... I could lobby, jump up and down, start my own business, and nobody could question me. The country I was not even born in is allowing me to dream."

Source: USA Today

Doctor helps establish Somalia baby hospital

2007-06-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice story about Doctor's Without Borders doing good work in Jowhar. Hopefully this is a start of more good things to come in Somali.
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Pediatrician Ruriko Nishino is flanked by fellow members of the medical-aid group Doctors Without Borders at a maternity hospital.

Ruriko Nishino received an e-mail recently from Somalia, which has been in a state of chaos for more than 15 years, telling her the maternity hospital she helped set up there is having an impact.

"There are three to four births now at the hospital," the message said. Nishino reacted with a smile, saying, "There was definitely a need for the hospital."

Nishino, a pediatrician in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, was in Somalia from December to March as a member of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres). She took an active part in the establishment of the maternity hospital there.

Somalian women typically give birth at home in the absence of public medical facilities. One in 10 dies during pregnancy or at the time of delivery, and one in 10 newborns dies within a week after birth, according to the group.

Because of this situation, the group began building a maternity hospital last August in Jowhar, about 90 km north of Mogadishu. The medical center was designed to admit expectant mothers and has surgical facilities.

After some setbacks, the group resumed efforts to build the hospital and interviewed prospective nurses. Equipped with 20 beds, delivery and operating rooms and capable of performing emergency surgery 24 hours a day, the center opened in mid-February.

The first patient was a woman suffering a serious case of gestational toxicosis and high blood pressure.

Doctors thought an immediate Caesarean delivery was necessary, but they had to get the consent of her husband in a country where the majority of people are Islamic and women's rights get little protection.

The husband said, "The operation isn't necessary. If (she) died, that would be Allah's will."

Nishino and other members of the group managed to persuade him to give in. The operation was performed and the mother and baby were discharged safely.

Source: Japan Times

Suicide Bomber Misses Somalia’s Premier...Again

2007-06-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

The NY Times is reporting that once again Somali Prime Minister Gedi has survived an assassination attempt on his life, which is at least the 3rd attempt in the past 12 months. The reason the insurgents are targeting him is because he is from the Mogadishu-dominated Hawiye clan. A majority of his own clan is against his role in the transition government, yet he has remained a strident cog in the new government. His stance is a modern 'profile in courage.'

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NAIROBI, Kenya, June 3 — A suicide bomber narrowly missed killing Somalia’s transitional prime minister on Sunday afternoon after he rammed a pickup truck packed with explosives into the gates of the prime minister’s house in Mogadishu, the capital.

The prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, who was inside at the time, was unhurt. However, the explosion killed six of his bodyguards, along with a student at a Koranic school across the street.

Witnesses said that the pickup sped through a roadblock outside Mr. Gedi’s house and that bodyguards opened fire as the truck hurtled onward. It then slammed into a set of gates just feet away from the residence and exploded in a fireball that flattened several buildings and scattered debris for blocks.

Afterward, Ugandan peacekeepers shuttled Mr. Gedi from his house to an undisclosed location. Speaking on national radio, he blamed Islamist militants for the violence.

“These cowards, they’re trying to sabotage our government,” he said. “But we won’t stop our mission to stabilize this country and defeat them.”

Mr. Gedi said the pickup was able to sail through the checkpoints outside his home because it was carrying men dressed in government army uniforms.

“My security guards thought these guys were friends,” he said.

The authorities did not say how many attackers died.

According to Somali security officials, remnants of the Islamist forces that briefly ruled Somalia last year are regrouping and changing their tactics from conventional warfare to terrorist strikes. In December, Ethiopian forces routed the Islamists and helped install Somalia’s weak but internationally recognized transitional government in the capital.

Since then, the Ethiopian troops, thought to number in the thousands, and the government’s fledging security forces have struggled to bring the same level of peace and security that the Islamists delivered.

Many of Mogadishu’s neighborhoods are still bullet-pocked no-go zones, and several government officials, including police chiefs, have recently been assassinated. On Saturday, Mogadishu’s mayor blamed members of the Hawiye clan, the dominant clan in the city, for the killings. Hawiye elders denied it.

A contingent of 1,600 Ugandan soldiers, the first part of a larger African Union peacekeeping force, has been beefing up efforts to protect officials.

It was at least the third time in a year that someone has tried to kill Mr. Gedi, a veterinarian-turned-politician.

UPDATE: American among those killed by U.S. attack

2007-06-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

The NY Times is reporting that most of the Somali insurgents killed in the missile attack were Somali's living abroad. These Somali's gain asylum in the west, get indoctrinated by middle-eastern fundamentalists who speak hate freely in their host countries, and then return to their homeland to try to ensure that Somalia continues to be a country of anarchy. It is a shame. But is there any solution?

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MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali officials confirmed on Sunday that an American was among the suspected Muslim radicals killed on Friday when a U.S. Navy warship fired missiles at a militant encampment in northern Somalia.

The American was not identified, but Hassan Dahir Mohamoud, the vice president of Puntland, the northern Somali region that declared itself semiautonomous in 1998, said that the American's passport had been recovered.

Five other foreigners were also killed in the strike, Mohamoud said, including citizens of Great Britain, Sweden, Morocco, Pakistan and Yemen. Two Somali nationals reportedly survived the U.S. missile strike.

"We have found an American, British, Swedish and some Middle Eastern passports on the corpses," Mohamoud said.

The presence of at least six foreigners among what officials now estimate was a group of perhaps a dozen men who arrived by boat in Puntland Wednesday night raises questions about who the men were and what their purpose was.

Their deaths in a U.S. attack highlights what apparently is an aggressive U.S. military program to help Somalia's government combat a stubborn and growing Islamist insurgency. U.S. forces twice struck suspected militants in southern Somalia in January.

The violence has increased since December, when a U.S.-backed invasion by Ethiopia toppled a fundamentalist Islamic regime that Bush administration officials said was run by al-Qaida.

On Sunday, Somalia's interim prime minister escaped an assassination attempt when a car bomb detonated outside his heavily guarded residence. News reports said five Somali soldiers and two civilians were killed.

Somali officials immediately blamed al-Qaida-linked insurgents for the attack, the second in as many weeks on the prime minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi.

"We have been patient for so long," Gedi later said on a radio broadcast. "We can no longer cohabit with these terrorists. ... We have to eliminate them."

U.S. officials have declined to confirm the U.S. role in Friday's attack on the militants' encampment outside the village of Bargal in a mountainous region 250 miles northeast of Mogadishu.

But Puntland officials on Sunday said they had coordinated closely with American forces about the group.

They said the group came ashore on Wednesday night and was apparently traveling by fishing boat to the tiny coastal nation of Eritrea, where top leaders of Somalia's former Islamist regime are believed to be hiding.

On Friday, the suspected militants came under fire from Puntland security forces, who then alerted the American military base in neighboring Djibouti. After the security forces chased the group up a brushy mountain, a U.S. Navy destroyer floating in the Red Sea fired cruise missiles at their location.

It was unclear whether the militants included any of the three al-Qaida suspects whom U.S. officials are seeking in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and who are believed to be hiding inside Somalia.

The clashes in Puntland were the first in the north of the country, which has largely escaped Somalia's recent violence. Somali officials pledged to continue to seek American help to root out other militants.

"The American air strike follows a series of attacks targeting any terrorist group in every hideout," said Mohammud Ali Yusuf, Puntland's finance minister. "We want any help from U.S. without harming innocent people."

"Quite a number of international terrorist groups have been looking for Somalia as an alternative base," said Somalia's foreign minister, Ismail Mohammed Hurre.

By Mahad Elmi and Shashank Bengali

McClatchy Newspapers

U.S. Strikes Again at Militants in Somalia

2007-06-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

American soldiers are back at it, trying to kill militants...this time in Puntland. The Bush Administration's secretive policy in Somalia is at best disjointed. What Somalia needs if for the world to help rebuild the infrastructre of their country. And why don't those American ships turn their attention to stopping the pirates out there from hijacking foreign aid ships?

==============

From the NY TIMES:

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 2 — American forces struck inside Somalia on Friday, bombarding a mountainous area where suspected militants were hiding out, Somali officials said Saturday. It was the third known American strike on Somali soil this year.

According to Somali security forces, an American warship fired cruise missiles into the area after two boatloads of heavily armed gunmen landed at Bargal, a small fishing village on the north Somali coast, and then escaped into the mountains.

Hassan Dahir, the vice president of Puntland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia, said that eight Islamist militants were killed, including one who was an American citizen, according to documents found on his body.

Mr. Dahir also said that three American Special Operations soldiers were on the ground, helping Somali security forces.

“Three Americans came into the mountains with us,” Mr. Dahir said. “They are counterterrorism experts and they are investigating the computers that the militants were carrying.”

American officials declined to comment on this information. But the operation Mr. Dahir described was congruent with an attack in early January in which American forces bombed an area in southern Somalia and then sent in a small contingent of Special Forces soldiers to investigate the remains of suspected militants. A few weeks later, American forces struck again, trying to kill a militant Islamist leader.

On Saturday, Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman, said in an e-mail message, “This is a global war on terror and the U.S. remains committed to reducing terrorist capabilities when and where we find them.”

The statement went on to say, “The very nature of some of our operations, as well as the success of those operations, is often predicated on our ability to work quietly with our partners and allies.”

Mr. Dahir said the militants, thought to number around 15, were from Somalia’s recently ousted Islamist administration and that they had come by boat to northern Somalia in an attempt to cross the Gulf of Aden and escape the country.

Among the eight killed, he said, were men from Eritrea, Yemen, England and Sweden. He said that Somali officials contacted American officers in Djibouti, where there is a large American military base, after a gun battle on Friday evening in which the militants wounded four Somali security agents and then melted into the mountains. He said that an American destroyer moored off Bargal fired the cruise missiles into the area.

The strike fit a pattern of a broader American strategy to hunt down Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa, especially Al Qaeda operatives. American officials have accused Islamist clerics in Somalia of sheltering Al Qaeda agents, including the mastermind of the American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

American forces played an influential but behind-the-scenes role in helping overthrow the Islamist movement that controlled Somalia for six months last year. In late December, Ethiopian troops, aided by American satellite imagery and battlefield intelligence, routed Islamist forces. That paved the way for Somalia’s internationally recognized but weak transitional government to take loose control of the capital, Mogadishu, for the first time.

Since then, American warships have been patrolling Somalia’s 1,880-mile coastline. American officials say that several Qaeda suspects are still inside the country.

The attack on Friday punctured what had been a relatively peaceful period for Somalia. Over the past several weeks, life in Mogadishu, the scene of intense fighting in March and April, has been improving, with policemen patrolling neighborhoods and sanitation crews lifting enormous amounts of garbage from the streets. The transitional government said security was finally good enough to hold a major reconciliation conference in mid-June, though there were still some concerns about how to pay for the conference.

Mohammed Ibrahim contributed reporting from Mogadishu.

UN says Somalia rebuilding to cost $2 billion

2007-06-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

In this article below, the UN tells the world that it would only take $2 billion to rebuild Somalia.

That's a bargain considering that America spend about $1 billion in Iraq every month! At that rate we could rebuild Somalia in two months!
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By Prensa Latina

A UN expert has worked out a $2 billion rebuilding plan for Somalia beset for more than 16 years with violence and chaos.

A report by UN Humanitarian Assistance in Somalia Coordinator Eric Laroche indicates that at least $1 billion will be needed for programmes to reduce poverty level in the country.

The final figure includes $666 million for social services and $462 million for security and governorship.

Laroche hoped international donors would provide the required funds to rescue Somalia from misgovernance since President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.

Experts from more than 60 NGOs and international aid groups are trying to evolve strategies to place Somalia on the way of recovery, reconstruction and development, he said.

Somali's in the U.S.

2007-05-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting editorial on Somali's in America.
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Somalis Call for Bilingual Programs to Help There Community Move Forward
May, 16,2007
For more than a decade the East African nation of Somalia has been plagued by clan fighting, the lack of an effective central government, and most recently by clashes between Islamic insurgents and the provisional central government. It is not surprising that there has been an outflow of refugees, and Somalis are now scattered around the world. In the USA a fast-growing Somali community is trying to integrate itself with the mainstream population, and has called for new bilingual educational programs that can meet the needs of Somali children enrolled in US Schools.

Minnesota currently has the largest Somali population, and that state has responded with a vigorous bilingual educational initiative. Through this initiative the Minnesota Humanities Commission publishes Somali folktales in Somali-English bilingual children's books. The Somali Bilingual Initiative also coordinates with existing bilingual Somali literacy resources, develops audio/visual resources that support the use of the Somali-English children's books in the home, and holds workshops on teaching Somali parents about the importance of books and reading.

Another fast-growing Somali community is located in Seattle, Washington in the Pacific Northwest. Here, Somali community members are calling for the expansion of special bilingual programs that will help their children.

Somali parents in Seattle want increase bilingual support instruction in the class and out of the class. In particular they also would like programs that would make teachers more aware of the cultural nuances that are particular to the Somali community. For example, Somalis are Muslim and many of them do not want their children to learn music and dance in school.

Similarly, some of the Somali families want public school teachers to be knowledgeable and respectful about the particular dress code that is adhered to by Somali immigrants in the US.

According to Somali community leaders it is not just a question of developing in-school programs for school children. They believe that the integration of Somalis into the larger society also depends on making the social bureaucracy of the USA more comprehensible to Somali immigrants.

Currently all of the resource information that immigrant families receive is written in English, and most families just can’t understand what the various documents are all about. Often they throw the important documents way. The Somalis would like to see Somali-language documents offered so that immigrant families would be in a position to take advantage of the information and services that they are entitled to receive.

They also believe that the goal of integration could be better achieved if there were more “community involvement program” such as summer-school and after-school programs.

Despite the obvious differences that exist between the Somalis and the existing US population, the Somalis have some cultural traits that make them well suited for success in America. For example, the Somalis come from a friendly society; they are by and large tolerant, and can easily get along with other cultures.

In addition they have a strong work ethic. They are happy to be in the USA and are working very hard at their jobs. And like other immigrant groups that have come before them, Somali parents want their children to be the best in their class, and are keen to support and follow the educational progress of their boys and girls.

This innate sociability, strong work ethic and interest in education combine to create a sure formula for success in America. Somali community leaders believe that bi-lingual educational programs, improved awareness on the part of educators, a more helpful bureaucracy, and more community programs will help their people to become valuable and respected members of the American society.

Indeed, they already proudly point to Somali children in the Seattle school system who have moved to the heads of their classes, as examples of what this community can offer.

Mohamoud Abdilahi Rooble
Saylacnews Editorial
Seattle Washington
http://www.saylac.com/news/Article4may16,07.htm

Thoughtful Editorial from Nuruddin Farah

2007-05-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting inside look at the situation in Somalia late-2006. Mr. Farah is Somalia's most recognized modern author. Here he gives a balanced view on the past and what must be done to secure peace in his homeland.
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My Life as a Diplomat
By Nuruddin Farah
May 26, 2007

WATCHING from afar, people find it difficult to understand the intractability of the conflict in Somalia. The cycle of violence, almost mysteriously, remains uninterrupted. Peace breaks out. Victory is declared, as it was a couple of weeks ago when President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed’s Transitional Federal Government declared its triumph over the rival Islamic Courts Union and the clan-based militia fighting alongside it. And then the violence quickly erupts again.
In Somalia, it has been clan versus clan, Muslim Somalis versus Christian Ethiopians, for as long as anyone can remember. A recent United Nations report asserted that a dozen or so countries — Egypt, Eritrea and Iran among them — are engaged in trying to destabilize Somalia.

Why can’t Somalia arrest its downward spiral?

Well, let me tell you about my brief time as an emissary between Somalia’s two main warring factions; perhaps it might help explain in concrete — and human — terms why the conflict has become so difficult to solve and why the transitional government, backed by the United States and with the support of Ethiopia, is probably doomed to fail.

My career as an emissary began last July. A man in the executive directorate of the Islamic Courts Union, then in control of Mogadishu, telephoned me in Cape Town, where I now live. (I was born and raised in Somalia.) The man, who shall remain nameless, asked if I would “carry fire between the two sides,” as the Somali idiom has it.

The timing was understandable. Talks between the Islamists and the government had broken down; the Islamists were laying siege to Baidoa, the seat of the government, and Ethiopia was sending troops to defend the garrisoned town.

The choice of a mediator, however, wasn’t so readily apparent. “Why me?” I asked.

“Because the I.C.U. admires your opposition to Ethiopia, Somalia’s archenemy, and because of your avowed interest in peace,” he replied.

And, truth be told, I admired some of what the Islamists had accomplished. Indeed, they had done the impossible: in a series of fierce battles from March to June last year, they had routed the warlords and pacified Mogadishu. For the first time in many years, the city enjoyed peace.

Like many Somalis, though, I also had my reservations about them. Even though almost all Somalis are Muslim, very few embrace the union’s fervent brand of faith: the group supports Shariah law and it treats the federal charter, which is secular, with disdain. Then there was the matter of clan rivalry, which hinted that devotion might be masking politics: the top Islamists belonged to the clans known to be antagonistic to the president’s clan.

Of course, my feelings about the transitional government were also ambivalent. The government came into being in 2004 after a two-year-long national reconciliation conference held in exile. I supported the president’s desire for an African peacekeeping force to stabilize Somalia; at the same time, I was fearful that he was susceptible to pressure from Ethiopia.

Still, the Islamic Courts Union, as my interlocutor told me, was holding out a proposal that just might lead to peace. According to him, the union was offering to let the government move to Mogadishu from Baidoa and to let the president bring with him a force of 1,000 from his home province, Puntland.

I felt this was promising. A peace deal would not just bring stability — it would reduce the opportunities for foreign intervention by Ethiopia, which had thwarted every national and international effort to bring Somalia’s strife to a peaceful end, and by the United States, which seemed inclined to support Christian-run Ethiopia as a bulwark against the Islamists. (It didn’t help, of course, that the union’s defense spokesman had used the red-flag word “jihad” in his firebrand declamations.)

And so I called the office of President Yusuf to request a meeting. When I received a favorable response, I called my Islamist interlocutor to let him know that I would accept the mission. Excited at the thought of doing more than writing about Somalia to keep it alive, I bought my ticket and left for Mogadishu.

When I arrived in Mogadishu in the last week of August, the city appeared calm. That’s not to say that there wasn’t a hint of unease. Residents felt that they were under surveillance. And they were. Drones hovered above the city all night. War, it seemed, was in the offing.

My first meeting in town was with Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, then the spiritual head of the Islamic Courts Union; he struck me as being more reasonable than many others in the group. In all, I spent three and a half hours in our first meeting, much of it alone with him. We were in an office with a huge escritoire, and we were cramped, sitting very close to each other, a low table on which he placed his notebook and I mine and also our teacups between us, the door left ajar. He leaned forward to enunciate his words with the slowness of someone used to speaking to blockheads. (Perhaps he thought me a halfwit, come from Cape Town, on a dubious peace mission; a fool proposing that he and President Yusuf, his adversary, make up for the sake of Somalia.)

When I told him what prompted my visit, he confessed he had no recollection of agreeing that President Yusuf relocate to Mogadishu with a force from Puntland. The group’s position, he reiterated with emphasis, was that Ethiopia must withdraw its forces from Somalia before anything else could happen. He continued: “We control much of the country and the people are behind us. What does he control, this president, confined to Baidoa?”

THIS was not an encouraging beginning.

My subsequent meetings with the Islamists and their sympathizers were equally frustrating. There was no discussion of the peace plan that had brought me back to Somalia. Instead, the discussions centered on matters they deemed important: whether theaters should be open; whether girls could be permitted to wear jeans or go about unveiled; whether tea houses should play music, or young men watch soccer on television. There was no serious talk of governance.

What struck me in these conversations was the presence of Arabic. These men, I surmised, had received their education in Sudan, Libya or Kuwait. For the first time since the Middle Ages, Arabic was the lingua franca in Mogadishu; Somali was practically a second language.

After my meeting with the Islamists, I headed for Baidoa to meet the president. When we met in his office, across the courtyard from his residence — he emerged dressed in gray, his bearing immaculate, hair groomed with care and face glowing, after a good night’s sleep. (How, I asked myself, was this possible in a town with no modern amenities?)

The president and I sat facing each other, and his intent stare reminded me that he and Sheik Aweys come from the same part of the country; I couldn’t help being mindful that the two of them had engaged in armed skirmishes in the early ’90s, soon after the structural collapse of the state. The sheik had led an Islamist takeover of Puntland; the president, opposing him, had won that round.

The president accepted my offer to open channels between the two sides. But it was another message from him that would ring in my ears: “I know what war is,” he said. “I have fought in three of them. I won’t attack Mogadishu, but if the I.C.U. invades Baidoa, someone will regret it. Tell the sheik this. From me.”

Back to Mogadishu. I met Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the executive director of the union; also present was the interlocutor who had called me in the first place. Regrettably, my interlocutor would allude neither to our initial conversation, nor to his suggestion that the transitional government move to Mogadishu, with guarantees. As we spoke, officials came and went, some bowing low, others kneeling in deference to the sheik. It was clear that I was in the presence of a power — a power who was unwilling to confirm that he had knowledge of my interlocutor’s offer.

I had to wonder. Was the Islamic union negotiating in bad faith? Had I embarked on a peace mission that was doomed to fail? Or did the powers that be in the Islamic union reject the idea of a rapprochement with the government and forget to tell me? I chose to play dumb, and so I provided the sheik’s secretary with contact information for the president’s men — as if everything else was on track.

The following day, I went to meet Sheik Aweys at his home. I got lost on the way. He lived in a part of town unfamiliar to me. With no paved roads, and with the rains having created ravines with crumbly sides, and with no street names, the entire area was virtually impassable. My driver and I got stuck in the sandy chasms.

After I arrived, the sheik and I talked amicably, with his 2-year-old son sitting on his lap. I dared not share with him the president’s threatening remarks.

Before we parted, he commended me for my “audacious” attempt to bring the Islamic union and the transitional government closer. He suggested not giving up hope, however, adding that there was bound to be further need for my involvement once “the Somali people” routed their enemies, “and you know who these are,” he grinned. I offered to return in a few months.

I didn’t make it back. Over Christmas, Ethiopia, perhaps intending to provide a gift for the festive season to its American ally, invaded Mogadishu and expelled the Islamists. With thousands of Ethiopian troops in the country — and only a few African Union troops from elsewhere — savage battles took place in Mogadishu between the transitional government army (backed by Ethiopia) and the Islamists, supported by clan-based militiamen. Hundreds of people were killed. Now that there has been a lull in the fighting, it is regrettable that President Yusuf has both claimed victory and sworn not to engage in dialogue with the Islamists. I wonder if his refusal to negotiate from a point of strength will come back to haunt him.

Somalis are not religious extremists. But Islam has a revered place in their hearts and minds. The religion has cultural importance — Arabs opened up Somalia for their faith and their commerce around the ninth century; Mogadishu was a cosmopolitan city, where anyone from the Islamic world felt welcome.

Islam also has political importance. With the collapse of the Ottomans, the last Islamic empire, the Europeans — meeting in Berlin in the late 1800s — worked out a system by which portions of Somalia went to Italy, Britain and France. Because Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia, pleaded with his fellow Christians, claiming that his country was a Christian island in an Islamic ocean, Ethiopia was, in time, given a share in the land grab, the Somali-speaking Ogaden. This territory has remained the bane of Somalia’s blighted dealings with Ethiopia.

It could be that Sheik Aweys and his fellow Islamists are modeling their struggle on the first Somali to wage an anticolonial war in the name of Islam against Christian invaders. Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan fought for the reinstitution of Somalia’s religious and national dignity. A letter he wrote to the British government in the early years of the 20th century spells out his aims: “I want to protect my own religion. All you can get from me is war, nothing else. We ask for Allah’s blessings. Allah is with me as I write this. If you want war, I am ready; if you want peace, go away from my country.” So what can be done?

For starters, the international community must provide the wherewithal for the African Union to deploy 6,000 or so troops to keep the peace — soldiers who are not from Ethiopia.

But in the end, the only way out of the current impasse is to resume dialogue between the two principal parties to the conflict. I now know from personal experience how difficult this is. President Yusuf has said that the Islamists’ claim to represent a religious constituency does not sit well with his administration.

At the same time, the exiled Islamists are endorsing or openly engaging in violence. Assassinations of political figures, exploding roadside bombs in which peacekeepers or innocent bystanders lose their lives: these must stop.

Both sides must give. Most Somalis believe that the Islamists deserve a place at the table; they have been disempowered through invasion by an occupying force, which must withdraw, the sooner the better.

Genuine negotiations will not be easy. I found this out the hard way. But Somalis must consider the alternative: the violence will continue and the rest of the world will continue to use land as a playground for intervention.

Nuruddin Farah is the author, most recently, of “Knots,” a novel
http://www.saylac.com/news/articlemay2607.htm

AU Reinforcements on the Way

2007-05-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

Another promise from the AU. Hopefully they will follow through on this one. And then when the Ethiopian troops leave, what excuse will be left of the Hawiye? None. Africa will be standing against them, and their ICU. Light will be shed on their years of inability to bring peace to even their own city. Unfortunately, th Hawiye elders have chose the wrong side again, and have created such a deep mistrust from the other clans of Somalia that it will take years for them to be a strong voice in the future of Somalia. As the saying goes, "You reap what you sow."

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Extra 8,000 AU troops to be sent to Somalia

Mon. May 07, 2007
By Bonny Apunyu. - (SomaliNet)

An extra 8 000 peacekeepers will be sent to Somalia, the African Union (AU) announced on Monday but saying that dialogue remained the only solution to the bloody conflict in that country.

"The crisis in that country has so far proved intractable. The AU has decided to send 8 000 troops immediately to assist peacekeeping efforts," AU chairperson John Kufuor told the opening of the seventh ordinary session of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand near Johannesburg, South Africa.

"The solution to the situation lies with the people of Somalia. We cannot impose a solution. But dialogue is better than allowing force to reign," he said.

Somali firms hand weapons to AU

2007-05-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

From BBC NEWS:

Influential Somali businessmen have surrendered weapons to African Union peacekeepers in the capital, Mogadishu.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan says the move is a boost to relations between locals and the AU troops.

The business community had set up its own security teams to protect their operations from rogue militiamen during Somalia's 16 years of lawlessness.

The interim government says it is in control of Mogadishu after weeks of fighting in which some 1,000 died.

The government says it has defeated Islamist fighters and some of the 400,000 people who fled last month's fighting have started returning to the capital.

Anti-terror law

Our correspondent in Mogadishu says 151 companies operating in the city have agreed to disarm and registered their weapons but only four gave their weapons in at a ceremony on Thursday.

Somalia's four major communication and money transfer companies were the first to hand over weapons.

"The companies handed over assault rifles, ammunition and rocket propelled grenades in bags and boxes to the African Union troops," our correspondent said.

The exercise was witnessed by Mogadishu Mayor Mohammed Omar Habeb Dhere and police chief Abdi Hassan Awale Keybdid, both once feared warlords.

"The process has started and these are not the only weapons, we urge all Somalis and other business people to voluntarily disarm," said AU force spokesman Captain Paddy Ankunda.

Meanwhile, the parliament in Baidoa has approved a new anti-terrorism law that will allow life imprisonment, execution and confiscation of property of those found guilty of supporting "terrorists".

Premier claims Somali 'victory'

2007-04-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

From BBC News:

Ethiopian and government troops are in control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after nine days of battles, the prime minister says.

Ali Mohamed Ghedi said the worst of the fighting against Islamists and clan gunmen was now over. Columns of tanks were deployed and reinforcements sent to Mogadishu from other parts of Somalia. Earlier, a BBC correspondent in the city said the battles were the heaviest in recent days, spreading to new areas.

United Nations humanitarian relief co-ordinator John Holmes has described the situation in Somalia as critical. He said up to 400,000 people had fled Mogadishu but aid was reaching just 60,000. A doctor who runs one of Mogadishu's hospitals estimates that two-thirds of the city's one million residents had left.

Some 300 people have been killed in the recent clashes, after 1,000 deaths last month, local human rights group say. Mogadishu residents say government forces have taken control of some northern suburbs from the insurgents.

"We hope to completely conclude the war tomorrow, and government forces will secure the capital," Mr Ghedi said.

'Hijacked'

Somali Education Minister Ismail Mohamoud Hurre said the deaths and violence were a price worth paying to return normality to the country, which has not had a functioning national government for 16 years.

"The Ethiopian forces are doing very well, stopping the Jihadist elements from causing instability," he told the BBC's Network Africa program. "We have to bite the bullet."

The Union of Islamic Courts controlled Mogadishu for six months last year - reuniting the capital for the first time since 1991. The Islamist fighters have been joined by gunmen from the Hawiye clan, which does not back the government. Donors and diplomats have accused the government of hindering the aid effort with bureaucratic obstacles.

The government says its checks on aid shipments are necessary to prevent insurgent attacks.
Somalia has not had a functional government since 1991. Peace talks led to the formation of a transitional government in 2004, but it has so far failed to take full control of the country.

Ethiopian troops announced they had begun to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force, but only 1,200 of the 8,000 troops the AU says it needs have been deployed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6594603.stm

Government Appoints a Committee to Bring Back National Assets

2007-04-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

The Somali government takes another necessary step toward legitimacy across the country.

======================================================

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
April 15, 2007

by:Aweys Osman Yusuf

The Somali government administration in Lower Jubba province, southern Somalia, has nominated what it called a national committee for restoring government properties.

The nomination was made in a decree issued by the chairman of the Lower Jubba province, Ilyas Badal Gaboose. The decree indicated that the job of the committee that makes up 7 would be to oversee former government buildings which were occupied by internally displaced people.

The committee would also be responsible for bringing back the government landscapes currently occupied by shanties in the port city of Kismayu, about 500 km south of the capital Mogadishu.

Igad endorses Somalia transitional government

2007-04-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

By Peter Opiyo

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development (Igad) recognises the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) as the legitimate authority in Somalia.

At the same time, the Igad Council of Ministers, in a communiquÈ issued by the 26th session of Igad Council of Ministers in Nairobi on Friday, have condemned forces that undermine TFG and prevent it from carrying its responsibilities in accordance with the Transitional Federal Charter (TFC).

But as the ministers issued the communiquÈ, a row emerged between Eritrea and Ethiopia, with the former opposing the presence of the Ethiopian troops in Somalia.

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs minister, Mr Raphael Tuju said he would soon go to Eritrea to solve the impasse.

Tuju, who is also the chairman of the Igad Council of Ministers, was asked to enhance his diplomacy in the sub-region and beyond to achieve complete deployment of Africa Union Peace Support Mission in Somalia (Amisom) and facilitate the all-inclusive national reconciliation and dialogue in Somalia.

Assassination Attempt on President Fails; 6 Killed

2007-03-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Yet another close call for the Somali President Yusuf. After numerous attempt in Baidoa over the last year, including one with car bombs that killed his brother, this attempt comes in Mogadishu where he is attempting to reestablish the city as the TFG's capitol. What is interesting to learn from this article is that the ICU will play no part in next month's national reconciliation talks.

============
Somalia's President 'Abdullahi Yusuf returned on Tuesday to the capital Mogadishu for the first time since June last year, and was welcomed with an attempt on his life, the local SomaliNet news agency reported. Around seven rockets were fired toward the presidential palace. Two rockets landed in the palace itself, but there were no reports on casualties from within the palace.

A few rockets landed out of the palace in the village of Sheikh Soufi; six civilians were killed and there a number were wounded.

The Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) was defeated in January this year by the Somali interim government forces and the Ethiopian army. Nevertheless, armed men affiliated with the SCIC managed to remain in the capital when the battles ended.

The Somali government will return to Mogadishu next week. Preparations for a national reconciliation conference are under way. The SCIC will not be invited to the conference, which is scheduled to begin on April 16.

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=17046

Govt votes to move to Mogadishu

2007-03-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

In a much anticipated vote, the Somali government is officially headed to Mogadishu. When? Who knows. But it's another step in the right direction, and toward further legitimacy, but there is still much to do.
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BAIDOA, Somalia, March 12 (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government voted overwhelmingly on Monday to move to Mogadishu, two months after neighbouring Ethiopia's military helped it rout a rival Islamic movement from the volatile coastal capital.

The administration is desperate to impose its authority on the whole Horn of Africa country after being confined to the south central town of Baidoa since its creation in 2004. But near-daily insurgent attacks in Mogadishu have delayed the move.

"A motion to move the government to Mogadishu has passed today in Baidoa after 171 members of parliament (MPs) voted in favour of it, while nine opposed and 10 abstained," MP Abdi Abdulle Said told Reuters after the ballot. It was not immediately clear when the move would take place.

On Sunday, the government's deputy defence minister, Salad Ali Jele, pledged to pacify the capital within a month using newly trained security forces to tackle insurgents who have targeted peacekeepers, the government and its Ethiopian allies.

The Ethiopians are to make way for African Union troops who began arriving in Mogadishu last week. More than 1,000 Ugandans have landed -- and been attacked in at least two assaults by guerrillas, thought to include defeated Islamist fighters.

In Baidoa on Monday, President Abdullahi Yusuf told parliament his government was making advanced preparations for a long-awaited national reconciliation conference. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi would travel to Kenya soon to meet donors and seek funds for the meeting, Yusuf added.

Catholic Bishops' Short-sidedness

2007-03-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Despite having nearly 80 years of work completely wiped out by the civil war and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism within Somalia over the last 15 years, the Catholic church has failed once again to make a strong statement on behalf of the persecuted Somali Christian minority in the Horn of Africa.

Although in this week's announcement statement pushing for peace and reconciliation in Somalia and the Horn, they remained silent on the plight of persecuted Christians in these areas. The dilemma they will soon face is that if the proposed reconciliation in Somalia occurs with the involvement of the Islamic Courts, then they would essentially be supporting the further repression of religious freedom and the continued persecution and elimination of the Christian minority.

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Somalia: AMECEA Bishops Call for Peace

From: Catholic Information Service for Africa

Catholic bishops from the AMECEA region of Africa have called for collective efforts to bring lasting peace to Somali and the entire Horn of Africa.

In a communiqué issued at the end of their Executive Board meeting, in Nairobi at the AMECEA Secretariat from 7th to 8th March 2007, the bishops said that peace "can flourish only when all recognize that everyone is responsible for promoting it".

"We would like to assure you and the entire people of Somalia that we pray for peace and reconciliation so that there can be more hope for having life in fullness "the bishops said in a message of solidarity sent to Rt. Rev. Giorgio Bertini, OFM, Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of Somalia.

"It is the wish and desire of AMECEA Bishops that reconciliation, justice and peace prevail within the Horn of Africa. Indeed, this will be our main theme for our next 16th Plenary Assembly that will take place in Zambia next year," their statement dated March 9 read in part.

The bishops pledged to contribute to the efforts of bringing peace and reconciliation within the Region in the communiqué signed by among others, Cardinals Polycarp Pengo of Tanzania, Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Sudan and Bishop Paul Bakyenga, chairman of AMECEA.

They stressed the importance of lobbying and advocacy with governments in the Region in order to ensure that the voice of the Church is heard on matters affecting the Great Lakes Region.

"In view of the peace situation in the region, the Executive Board reflected and deliberated on the relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia and the fighting and peace keeping effort in Somalia," their statement continued.

They stressed the need to understand the real problem in these countries instead of relying on the media because the problems are not as simple.

"During this Lenten Season and Easter celebration later, we call upon all Catholics and all people of good will to pray for peace in the Great Lake Region and the Horn of Africa. Let us all work and pray for lasting peace and reconciliation in the world," they concluded.

Others in the meeting included Archbishop John Njue, Bishop Aaron Chisha, Bishop Cornelius Korir and Bishop Mengsteab Tesfamariam. Bishop Joseph Mkasa Zuza and Alfred Maluma also signed the statement.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200703090862.html

Eritrea's Stupidity

2007-03-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Once again, the leadership in Eritrea is flexing its 'stupid' muscle. Trying its best to garner the silver medal in the 'worst regimes of Africa' campaign (behind clear gold medal shoo-in Zimbabwe), Eritrea has come out this week warning Ugandan peace-keeping troops to leave Somalia or face "dire consequences."

As pointed out by Ugandan leadership, the newly arrived troops, are under the joint mandate of the African Union and the United Nations. This continued foot-in-the-mouth syndrome of Eritrean leadership is not only making a mockery of the fine people of Eritrea, but continuing to marginalize this desperately poor country from needed international support.
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Somalia: Eritrea Warns Uganda to Leave Somalia

by: Henry Mukasa
www.allAfrica.com

ERITREA on Friday warned Uganda to pull its peacekeeping force out of Somalia immediately, warning of "dire consequences" if they remain.

"We believe that the government of Uganda must rectify its error and pull out of Somalia, otherwise the situation will become increasingly dangerous," Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu said.

"It will not only worsen but will become a war between the Somali people and external forces. That will have dire consequences for the whole region."

In a reaction, UPDF spokesman Paddy Ankunda told New Vision by telephone: "Eritrea has no right to demand that we withdraw. Unless they are claiming they are not part of the African Union. We received a mandate, not only from the AU but also from the UN."

The Ugandans have been attacked since landing in the capital on Tuesday. Mortars exploded close to Mogadishu airport during the hand-over ceremony and two were wounded in an ambush the following day. And yesterday evening, a landmine was discovered on the road leading to the airport.

Earlier on Friday, a cargo plane carrying military equipment and six UPDF soldiers for the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia caught fire as it landed in Mogadishu.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear and no casualties were reported.

"The plane carried military equipment and some six soldiers and everything is safe now. We highly believe that the fire was due to some technical problems," Ankunda, said.

The airport remained closed most of the day and all traffic was diverted to other destinations. One plane carrying additional UPDF soldiers returned to Uganda, according to a source at Entebbe airport.

Meanwhile, the death toll of Wednesday's clash between the UPDF and Somali gunmen has risen to at least 13. A Ugandan convoy that drove out to protect the transitional government came under mortar attack.

"The mortar missed, smashing a restaurant nearby," explained Ahmed. "In the attack and the subsequent exchange of fire, 13 to 15 civilians were killed and 20 wounded."

Ankunda confirmed the civilian casualties. "It is true, a lot of people were killed in that attack," he said. "The mortar which missed our vehicle landed straight into the restaurant. That is why our vehicle managed to drive through."

Two UPDF soldiers were injured. Private Robert Bamutaraki and Lt. Michael Wandera, who were hit by shrapnel in the leg and the arm, were flown back to Uganda on Thursday morning.

The AU is still investigating the incident. A radical Muslim youth group, calling itself the Islamic Courts Movement, has threatened to wage 'Jihad' or holy war against the peacekeeping force.

Around 1,000 of the 1,700 Ugandan soldiers had by yesterday arrived in the Somali capital. Their task is to protect the transitional government and the government institutions and to train the Somali army.

The Ugandans are also deploying tanks in Somalia. A dozen of them were loaded onto a freighter late on Thursday at the Kenyan port of Mombasa, where they were shipped by train.

Analysts say the peacekeeping force are targets because they are foreigners in a land known for its xenophobia and are seen as supporting a government that has many enemies in Mogadishu.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200703100131.html

Rebuke to the BBC

2007-02-20T14:38:00.000-08:00

The following is a copy of a recent complaint letter sent to BBC chairman of governors and signed by 260 Somali Britons. Thank goodness that there are people out there (Somali's in particular) who like myself, see the uncalled for bias that plagues the BBC coverage on Somalia.

========================

16 February 2007

To: The Chairman of the Board of Governors
35 Marylebone High Street
London W1U 4AA

Dear Sirs,

We are Somali-Britons who deeply care for the future of our country. We are very unhappy about the way the BBC Somali Service conducts the Somalia related programs: Such as the selection of News Topics to broadcast and the selection of the radical people interviewed.

We feel that the people in charge of the Somali Service are neither being impartial, diverse in opinion nor fair in reporting the reality in Somalia. On the contrary, they appear to be taking sides and acting as tools of propaganda for the Islamic Courts Union.

In our opinion, a group of Islamic Courts Union Supporters within the BBC Somali Service are selectively choosing interviewees to express the opinion of the group that the Islamic Courts Union are the chosen liberators of the Somali people. Thereby using the good offices of the BBC to campaign for the newly emerged Taliban Style Forces. We know these Forces as the New Somali Warlords who have replaced the previous, now ousted Somali Warlords. The people in charge of the BBC Somali Service is giving the activists of the Islamic Courts Union a platform as a means of propaganda for the purpose of poisoning, brain-washing and recruiting young innocent Somali-Britons and other youth Muslims in Britain, Somalia, and The East African Region, and indeed World-wide.

As you know, the ousted Somali Warlords killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian Somalis. Dismantled our country’s physical infrastructure and social fabric, and took Somalia back to the Stone Age. Their activities were then confined in the Somali Territory. But now these Islamic Courts, the New Warlords, are a global threat, fanatic madmen, extremists and fundamentalists who want and plan to wage war on everyone, every religion & faith, including Islam. They have declared JIHAD without understanding what JIHAD is. They are only using Religion as a means to achieve their goals through the implementation of far more deadly and dangerous hidden agenda. I enclose a DVD Video demonstrating the Islamic Courts Union’s ideology and actions since they seized power in Mogadishu and Southern Somalia Regions.

What has happened to the Journalism Ethics of the BBC Somali Service? What has happened to the trusted and respected core values of News Broadcasting that has always distinguished the BBC from all the other Broadcasting Media? Are we to understand that the ethics of the BBC Somali Service are now the accepted ethics of the BBC.

Yours sincerely,
Somali–Britons
United Kingdom

First ten signatories out of 260:
1. Salah Sh. Abukar
2. Mohamed Ali Cawke
3. Maana Ahmed Omar
4. Ahmed Geelle
5. Xawa Haji Abukar
6. Luul Haji
7. Dr. M. Omar
8. Mr Hasan Hussein
9. Mr Xasan Warsame
10. Dr Abdul Hussein

Source: SomaliNet.com

Renegade Speaker revoked of duty

2007-01-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

Here's another case of sour grapes by a Somali politician who played his cards wrong and sided with the losing side. He was probably positioning himself to be President if the TNG fell to the Islamists, and now he's stuck overseas and having his staff complain about parlimentary procedures.

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BAIDOA, Somalia Jan 17 (Garowe Online) - Somali legislators debated and voted on a motion brought up against the interim parliament Speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, who has been a vocal critic of Ethiopian military intervention.

The parliament meet occurred Wednesday in Baidoa, an inland city that still houses the parliament despite the government’s takeover of the Somali capital Mogadishu last month with Ethiopian backing.

MP Omar Qalad read a document highlighting the many charges brought up against Speaker Sharif Hassan, which included treason, being absent from the country for more than 3 months without valid reason, interfering with legislators’ salaries, and supporting the outsted Islamic Courts movement.

A long debate ensured, with lawmakers disagreeing on the method of voting. Some MPs wanted the vote to be by secret ballot while others argued to vote publicly by show of hands.

Of the 192 MPs present at the Baidoa session, 183 raised their hands in favor of removing Sharif Hassan from the post of interim parliament Speaker and 9 MPs voted no.

Osman Elmi Boqorre, the second deputy Speaker, announced the official results at the end of the session. Sharif Hassan met with European Union officials earlier in the week and sources said he is still visiting European countries.

MP Mohamed Abdi Yusuf, a member of Sharif’s delegation in Europe, condemned the vote to remove him from the post of Speaker while he was still absent.

-Garowe Online

African Troops Could Arrive Soon

2007-01-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

Several unamed African countries have offered to contribute troops to a Somali peacekeeping force, the leaders of Ethiopia and Kenya have said.

In Somalia, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi named five countries as agreeing to send troops and said he expected them to be in place this month.

Only Uganda has publicly offered to contribute to the proposed 8,000-strong peacekeeping force. Ethiopia wants to pull its soldiers out of Somalia within weeks.

The government is trying to restore order in Mogadishu

They recently helped government forces oust Islamists who controlled much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu.

In a briefing to parliament, Mr Ghedi named the countries who had agreed to send troops as: Uganda; Nigeria; South Africa; Malawi and Senegal.

Over the weekend, the regional body, Igad, sent envoys to seven African countries, asking them to contribute to a proposed 8,000-strong peacekeeping force.

Somaliland Protests

2007-01-16T18:41:00.000-08:00

What is President Yusuf doing? Is he trying to distract Somalis from the Islamist problem? Most Somali's don't support an independent Somaliland. Maybe he is trying to gain favor and unite the rest of Somali on an issue they agree with. It's a calculated risk, but will it work?

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BBC News: In Somaliland, large demonstrations have been held after interim Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf said he views the breakaway region as part of Somalia.

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia after the overthrow of dictator Siad Barre in 1991, since when the country has been without an effective national government.

For years Somaliland has been campaigning to win support for its claim to be a sovereign state.

And many Somalilanders, who have escaped much of the chaos and violence that have plagued Somalia, are fiercely opposed to any talk of reuniting with their lawless neighbour.

Conflict in Somalia Deepens Suffering of Children

2007-01-12T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is the true travesty of the civil war in Somalia:
===========================================================

By Lisa Schlein, VOA

The U.N. Children's Fund and Save the Children are demanding that all children associated with armed forces or groups in Somalia must be immediately released from their ranks, or from detention centers where they currently are being held. The aid agencies say the suffering of Somali children and women has increased since the recent upsurge of fighting in the country. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

The aid agencies say children in Somalia are suffering from drought, flooding and now conflict. They warn more children will be separated from their families, orphaned and vulnerable to abuse and neglect unless the situation in this war-torn country is stabilized.

Spokesman for the U.N. Children's Fund, Damien Personnaz, says his agency has received reports that many children below age 15 are being recruited as child soldiers. He says all the warring factions are doing this.

"We also do know that a lot of children fighting for one of the parties in Somalia are being detained and are still detained," he said. "And the third thing is that we do also know that a lot of children have been deliberately the targets of some nasty grenade attacks in IDP camps, internally displaced camps."

Personnaz says it is hard to believe that children are being deliberately targeted. But, he notes, there can be no other explanation since it is women and children who mainly live in the makeshift IDP camps.

"The people know that actually men are not in these IDP camps so the fact that they throw grenades into these camps from whatever side is part of the war strategy for all the parties," he added. "So, they are deliberately targeting civilians and mostly women and children."

UNICEF and Save the Children say they are very disturbed by reports that Somali children and women are among the casualties of aerial bombardment in the southern part of the country. They also are concerned that with the closure of Kenya's borders, the threats to fleeing Somalis have increased.

In fact, Personnaz says civilians are totally trapped within their own borders.

"They are trapped because bombardments prevent them to go to a safe place," he noted. "There is no safe corridors. There is no safe-havens. There is no safe place actually currently existing in Somalia-mostly in the South. So, these people are the first victims of the current conflict. This is not new again. We are sorry to say that, but this is the reality."

Personnaz says the conflict situation, plus the closure of the border with Kenya, is making it extremely difficult for humanitarian workers to reach vulnerable people with critically needed relief supplies. He says aid agencies have to airlift supplies. And this, he says, is extremely difficult, dangerous and very costly.

Islamic hideout in Somalia said captured

2007-01-12T16:52:00.000-08:00

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Ethiopian-backed government forces captured the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic movement in southern Somalia, the Somali defense minister said Friday, hours after warlords met with the president and promised to enlist their militiamen in the army.

The southern town of Ras Kamboni fell after five days of heavy fighting, Defense Minister Col. Barre "Hirale" Aden Shire told The Associated Press. He said government troops backed by Ethiopian forces and MiG fighter jets chased fleeing Islamic fighters into nearby forests and the fighting would continue. He did not give casualty figures.

Ras Kamboni is in a rugged coastal area a few miles from the Kenyan border. It is not far from the site of a U.S. airstrike Monday targeting suspected al-Qaida militants _ the first U.S. offensive in Somalia since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.

The report of the town's fall came after Somalia's warlords met with President Abdullahi Yusuf in the capital of Mogadishu and pledged to disarm their militias, a major step toward bringing calm to this city after years of chaos.

US 'targets al-Qaeda' in Somalia

2007-01-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

US air strikes in Somalia are aimed at al-Qaeda leaders in the region, and based on "credible intelligence", a Pentagon spokesman has said.

In its first official comment on the air strikes, the Pentagon said a raid was carried out on Sunday but declined to say if it had hit its target.

The US has long said al-Qaeda suspects linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa took refuge in Somalia.

At least 19 people were killed in US air raids, local Somali elders say.

Fresh air raids have been carried out near the town of Afmadow, 250km further north of Sunday's raid, but it is not clear if these were carried out by the US, or by Ethiopian forces which back the transitional Somali government.

The air strikes are taking place days after the Union of Islamic Courts, which had taken control of much of central and southern Somalia during the past six months, was routed by soldiers from Ethiopia and Somalia's government.

Latest reports from the capital, Mogadishu, say unknown assailants have fired rocket propelled grenades at a building housing Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces. Two explosions were heard, followed by a brief but heavy exchange of automatic gunfire.

Sunday's US attack was carried out by an Air Force AC-130, a heavily-armed gunship that has highly effective detection equipment and can work under the cover of darkness.

This is the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since 1994, the year after 18 US troops were killed in Mogadishu.

Somalia's interim President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, said the US had the right to bomb those who had attacked its embassies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6245943.stm

Islamist preachers arrested in Somalia capital

2007-01-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

If there was any doubt that Presdient Yusef hates the Islamists, here is another example of how he is trying to rid Somalia of these radicals:
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A group of clerics of the Tabliq Islamic sect were arrested in the Somalia capital Mogadishu by the government policemen, reports say on Tuesday.

The security forces in the Ex-presidential palace (Villa Somalia) where the Somalia president now stays have arrested nine suspected Islamist clerics including Somalis and foreigners.

They are being held by the government over suspicion that they were belonging to the ousted Islamic Courts. “They are under investigation and being questioned over their connection to the Islamic Courts,” local official said.

The arrested clerics were six Pakistani and three Somalis.

by: Mohamed Abdi Farah (SomaliNet)

Somali president says no to negotiation with Islamists

2007-01-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

Given Presiden't Yusuf's history against the Islamists, this story is not a surprise.

===========================================================

DUBAI (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf said on Monday there would be no negotiations with Islamists who ruled the capital Mogadishu and large parts of southern Somalia before they were ousted late last month.

"With regard to holding talks with the courts (Islamists), this will not happen," he told Al Jazeera television in an interview before he flew to the Somali capital for the first time since he became president in 2004.

Yusuf's entry into Mogadishu on Monday capped a remarkable turn-around in the capital after Islamists were routed by advancing Ethiopian and government troops on December 28.

Some Islamists have vowed to fight on. But others meeting in Yemen have offered the prospect of talks to ease the country's latest crisis and Washington's top envoy to Africa has promoted dialogue as a way to secure a lasting peace.

But Yusuf seemed to rule out this possibility.

"We will crack down on the terrorists in any place around the nation," he added in remarks dubbed into Arabic.

African and Western diplomats are working on a plan to send African peacekeepers into Somalia to fill a security vacuum when Ethiopian forces who helped drive out the Islamists leave.

"We are waiting now to replace the Ethiopian troops with international forces," he said, adding he had no objections for both Arab and African troops to join.

Source: Reuters

Somali leader arrives in capital

2007-01-08T09:22:00.001-08:00

Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has arrived in the capital, Mogadishu, amid tight security.

He flew in on his first visit since Islamists fled advancing Ethiopian forces and interim government soldiers.

President Yusuf

Gunmen fired at Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu overnight, after two died in anti-Ethiopian protests on Saturday.

It is unclear if the violence is linked to the Islamists, who threatened an Iraq-style insurgency. Some Islamist leaders are in Yemen calling for talks.

Somalia's president and the prime minister, Mohammed Ali Ghedi, are at the former presidential palace in southern Mogadishu, Villa Somalia, for discussions with clan elders about the faltering disarmament process.

The capital awash with guns, and since being elected Somalia's interim president in 2004, Mr Yusuf has always said it was too dangerous for him to set up a government in Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, diplomats are discussing an African peacekeeping force, with Ethiopians keen to pull their troops out within weeks.

Many Islamist fighters are in hiding, though fighting is still being reported involving Ethiopian forces near the Kenyan border at Ras Kamboni.

Somalia's defence minister said government troops were poised to enter one of the Islamist's last strongholds, after a two-day battle.

Talks

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakar al-Qurabi says that several ousted leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts managed to escape to Yemen - though the whereabouts of the UIC's main leaders remains unclear.

UIC spokesman Ibrahim Hassan Adow said from Yemen that they were "determined to find solutions".

US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer concluded her tour of Somalia's neighbours, calling on all Somalis to take part in the peace process - a comment taken to include moderate Islamists.

"We've made clear that we see a role in a future Somalia for all who renounce violence and extremism," she said.

Speaker of the transitional parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, has said he will try to persuade UIC leaders to join a national reconciliation process.

However, other Somali leaders are unconvinced and President Yusuf rejuected talks with Islamist leaders before his arrival in Mogadishu.

They say the transitional government, incorporating all the main clan factions - is already inclusive enough and they say the UIC is now irrelevant and defunct.

Violence

On Saturday, security forces fired in the air to disperse crowds, as youths burnt tyres and threw stones, witnesses said.

At least two civilians were killed and several others injured by gunfire, but it was not clear who was responsible.

Another protest was held in the town of Beledweyne, near the border with Ethiopia, with one death reported.

The protests came as the government indefinitely postponed a forcible disarmament programme in the capital.

The African Union's peace and security council meet shortly, to discuss a peacekeeping force, agreed by the UN Security Council before the current hostilities.

The US has agreed to provide $10m (£5.2m) towards the funding of the 8,000-strong peacekeeping force - part of $40m pledged to support Somalia's efforts to restore stability.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has said he wants his forces out of the country in a matter of weeks.

Kenya's government has shut its border with Somalia, despite criticism from the United Nations' refugee agency.

In addition, a deadline given to a group of Somali MPs who have been staying in Kenya to leave the country expires on Monday.

The 20 MPs are opposed to the presence of Ethiopian forces in Somalia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6240269.stm

Islamists Out, Somalia Tries to Rise From Chaos

2007-01-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

New York Times
Published: January 8, 2007

KISMAYO, Somalia, Jan. 7 — Every Friday morning in this seaside town, the future of Somalia plays soccer on a bone-littered beach.

Boys dribble around animal carcasses and oil drums that have been dumped by the shore. Ships covered with rust lean into the sand. The palms sway, the seagulls squawk and a few girls in veils hang back, watching the action.

“This is all we know,” said Mahmoud Abu Gur, 19, pointing to a dozen haphazard soccer games. “This.”

The road ahead for Somalia begins in places like Kismayo, dusty, chaotic, forlorn wrecks of cities where the list of dire needs like food, water, shelter, a fire department, law, order — and hope — is so overwhelming that people just shake their heads and smile when asked where they would begin.

In just two weeks, the Somali political world has been turned upside down, bringing ambitious governance and reconstruction issues into focus for the first time in 16 years. The Islamist forces that ruled much of the country for the past six months are out. The transitional federal government, which had been considered totally feckless by those both at home and abroad, is in. The surprising reversal is because of thousands of Ethiopian troops still in Somalia who routed the Islamists after Ethiopian officials declared the growing movement a regional threat.

Kismayo is an old Arab port town of 700,000 people, Somalia’s third most populous city, after Mogadishu, the capital, and Hargeysa, in the north. But town elders in all three places are struggling with the same questions: how to provide security; what to do with the remaining Islamists; how to determine the proper role for religion, an important theme in Somali society; and how to unify rival clans, rebuild infrastructure and live with the Ethiopians. Many Somalis say they are starting at less than zero.

“After nearly two decades of anarchy,” said Abdi Artan Adan, a retired diplomat in Kismayo, “people just don’t want to be ruled.”

Ever since Somalia’s central government collapsed in 1991, the country has been notorious for the staggering levels of firepower on the streets. The new government made disarmament its first step but despite meetings, pleas, deadlines and threats, officials have collected few weapons. In Mogadishu, hundreds of people rioted Saturday at the prospect of house-to-house searches. The local government there indefinitely postponed the issue.

That led Jendayi E. Frazer, the United States assistant secretary of state for Africa, to cancel a planned trip to Mogadishu on Sunday. She would have been the highest-ranking American official to set foot in Mogadishu since American troops left the country in 1994 after a troubled aid mission. American officials said the security situation was too unstable.

On Sunday night, insurgents in Mogadishu attacked a downtown army barracks and residents said that four civilians were killed.

In Kismayo, no weapons have been turned in. Many elders agreed that everyone would be better off once all guns were gone, but no one seems to want to volunteer theirs first.

“It’s a custom for Somalis to attack someone who doesn’t have weapons,” said Sultan Abdi Rashid Dure, a leader of the Galjel subclan. “When I was young, we used knives.”

With long, wrinkled fingers, Mr. Dure, 56, traced the web between disarmament, clans, revenge and anarchy. “During these years, every clan killed,” he said. “A lot. Now there are so many feuds, so many scores to settle. We are all afraid that if we give up our weapons, other clans will take their revenge.”

The Islamists, using Islam as a bridge, did a better job than any recent authority to unite warring clans. But their military was no match for the better-trained, better-equipped Ethiopian-led troops, and now that the Islamists are gone, many fear a return to clan mayhem.

Somalia has always been somewhat of a political paradox — one of the most homogeneous countries in Africa, with one language, Somali, and one religion, Sunni Islam, but at the same time is one of the most violently divided. Clan allegiances have always mattered.

Dahir Ali Barre, the leader of a small Kismayo political organization, said that when he was a teenager in Mogadishu in the early 1970s, he did not know which clan he belonged to. It was not until 1974, when he was sent to a village in Somalia’s barren interior as part of a national effort to foster cross-clan understanding, that Mr. Barre learned he was a Marehan. But when he returned to Kismayo in the mid-90s after some years in the capital, the first thing he did was seek out the Marehan neighborhood, for protection. “After all those years of sophisticated culture,” he said, “we’ve basically gone back to the bush.”

The transitional government has theoretically addressed the clan issue by its so-called 4.5 formula, which allots equal representation to the four major clans and a smaller percentage for all the minor clans. The government was set up in 2004 with help from the United Nations and is supposed to rule until the next elections, proposed for 2009.

Already it seems that clan militia leaders are well positioned. The big man in Kismayo is Barre Aadan Shire, the transitional government’s defense minister and a former warlord, whose strong jaw, natty goatee and bald head lend him an uncanny resemblance to Lenin. He says many people in Kismayo have asked him to reach out to the Islamists, but he does not want to. The last of the Islamist fighters have retreated to the Kenya border, about 150 miles away.

“If we were going to compromise,” Mr. Shire said, “why go to war?” He gave the Islamists credit for bringing a degree of order, but said they pushed religion too far. Yet he predicted that Somalia’s permanent government would not be purely secular. He does not see beer or bikinis in Somalia’s future. “We are a traditional people,” he said.

It seems to be a fine balance. Several Kismayo residents said they grew to resent the Islamists after they banned movies, Western music, cigarettes and khat, a mildly narcotic plant that is chewed here. “Those rules were a total fallacy,” said Abdullahi Jama Ali, who was once part of an underground Islamist group. “The Koran doesn’t say anything about cigarettes. The Islamic religion is like an ocean, everyone can swim where he likes.”

With the Islamists in hiding, Kismayo’s market is bustling again. But the grapefruit farms on the outskirts of town are still a mess, irrigation canals are full of sand, roads are dreadful and government buildings are lonely, shot-up places.

Kismayo’s jail is a single windowless cell, barred by a log, where four sweaty prisoners, accused of stealing a mattress, wait for a justice system to be set up. There are 22 police officers for the entire city.

Not far away, there is a displaced persons’ camp, a field of three-foot-high domes made of sticks and plastic bags. The salty breeze nearly carries them away.

Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers occupy this wasteland. Though many of its people are Muslims, Ethiopia also has a long Christian history, and already some Muslim extremists, including leaders of Al Qaeda, have vowed to respond with a holy war to drive the Ethiopians out. Ethiopian officials say they plan to withdraw their forces in a few weeks and hand over control to a yet-to-be-formed African peacekeeping force.

With Somalia’s longtime fears that Ethiopia might swallow it, the sooner that happens, the better. On Saturday, Nasteh Dahir Farah, a reporter for a Kismayo radio station, visited the town’s airport with three foreign journalists. The foreigners were allowed in. Mr. Farah was not. He was shooed away by Ethiopian soldiers at the gate and told never to come back.

“This is my country, not theirs,” he said. “If I didn’t have a job,” Mr. Farah muttered, straightening himself up and smoothing the shirt where he had been poked in the chest, “I’d join the resistance.”

A little humiliation, it seems, goes a long, long way.

U.N. eager to promote peace in Somalia

2007-01-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The United Nations is hopeful Somalia will be ready to establish a long-term peace, and it plans to reinstate international staff members across the country.

Speaking to reporters Friday at U.N. World Headquarters in New York, U.N. Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator Margareta Wahlstrom said the extent of the conflict's toll on Somali civilians is not yet known, but the world body plans to seize this moment of relative calm to promote stability and reconciliation in the war-torn country.

This summer, power in Somalia largely shifted hands from warlords who have ruled the country for more than a decade, to the Union of Islamic Courts, which brought order to the country but also imposed strict religious laws.

On Dec. 24, Ethiopia, which aligned itself with the transitional government and which had warned of a regional conflict, started a bombing campaign that restored power to the transitional government.

Wahlstrom said the Ethiopian bombing assault displaced about 30,000 Somalis -- a relatively small number of people when taken against the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled their homes due to flooding.

The United States, which has voiced concern the Union of Islamic Courts created refuge for al-Qaida in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, has pledged $11 million in aid. The African Union has announced its intentions to deploy peacekeepers to the country once the security situation is stabilized.

Thursday, the new U.N. secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, issued a statement urging all sides to engage in dialogue.

"The secretary-general calls on all Somali parties and the international community to seize the current moment and do their utmost to end the heavy loss of life, displacement and suffering that have plagued the country," read a statement released by Ban's spokeswoman, Michele Montas.

Islamists ban smoking in southern Somalia

2006-11-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

Here is yet another example of how the Islamists are spreading their Teliban-like rule. It should be noted that the harshest rules by the Islamic Courts seem to be implemented on cities in the south. This may be a punishment on clans in the south who resisted ICU rule before it took control in those areas. Yet whatever the reason, as poor Somalis die from floods in the countryside, we see here what is really important to these Islamist leaders.

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MOGADISHU, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Somalis caught smoking or selling cigarettes risk punishment in the south-central town of Jilib, residents said on Friday of the latest strict application of sharia law by Islamists who control much of the region.

Speaking at a public rally in Jilib, 365 km (227 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, senior Islamist official Sheikh Mohamed Hassan issued the decree, which also banned the sale and use of leafy stimulant khat chewed by Somali men.

"From today onwards if a person is seen smoking, selling cigarettes, chewing khat or selling it he or she will be punished," he told the crowd amid chants of God is great.

"You will either be fined or arrested. We will start implementing sharia law."

The rise of the Islamists, who seized the capital Mogadishu in June, directly threatens the shaky interim government -- the 14th attempt to restore central rule in Somalia since the 1991 ouster of a dictator plunged the country into anarchy.

Many Somalis credit the Islamists for bringing a semblance of order to anarchic Mogadishu and other areas in southern Somalia under their control. But some accuse them of imposing strict Islamic law, such as outlawing music in weddings or whipping men with long hair, on those who hold more moderate religious views.

Jilib resident Osman Mohamed said Islamist officials in the agriculture-rich settlement of about 5,000 people were already implementing the law even before the sheikh's order.

"I saw Islamic troops burning cigarettes in the streets this week," Mohamed told Reuters by telephone. "This announcement will affect so many families because they are so many women who feed their children from khat proceeds."

One man who said he has smoked heavily for 25 years said the Islamists were infringing on his rights and should not just slap the new rule into place without giving him time to quit.

"I have been smoking for last 25 years," the smoker told Reuters by telephone. "I am now hiding in the bush to smoke. We know it is for our own good to quit smoking but we need more time. I now have to quit smoking slowly."

A khat vendor in Jilib, who also declined to be named, said she was unhappy with the ban because she supports her five children on her sales proceeds.

"We did not choose to sell khat for fun. They should provide us with paying jobs and then punish us if we start selling it again." she said. "This means my family will go hungry."

By Guled Mohamed

President of Somalia on 3-day working visit to Singapore

2006-11-08T17:06:00.000-08:00

I understand Ahmed's desire to put up the façade of a functional international government But maybe this isn't the ideal time to be jaunting off to a quait diplomatic visit to a small asian country. Everything I know about Ahmed makes me believe that he will not let the TFG go down without a fight, especially against the Islamists. This leads me to believe that Ahmed is in Singapore securing a considerable 'donation' for the TFG.

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SINGAPORE : The President of Somalia is on a three-day visit to Singapore till Nov 9.

Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed met with President SR Nathan on Wednesday afternoon at the Istana. He is here at the invitation of the Singapore President.

Mr Abdullahi Yusuf was accompanied by his wife and several ministers including the Finance Minister. President Nathan hosted Mr Abdullahi Yusuf and his delegation to lunch.

Speaker Offers Islamists in Somalia to Join Government

2006-11-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

This is likely another dead end, and may be taken as a sign of division and weakness of the TFG by the Islamists. The PM has reportedly told the delegation to return to Baidoa immediately. It sounds like Aden may have been doing this on his own initiative. A noble effort by Aden indeed it was driven by a hope to avert war. But my guess is there are ulterior motives by Aden. Unfortunately, the air has been so polluted over the last 15 years that it is hard to trust any Somali politician.
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Speaker of the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament, Sharif Hasan Sheikh Aden, has invited the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) to join the government, the Somali daily Banadir reports.

The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has accused Aden of breaking ranks and acting on his own. Aden had last week refused to lead a negotiation delegation on behalf of the TFG. The delegation went to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, but the third round of talks between the two warring sides failed. Aden then led a delegation of his own to the capital Mogadishu, for the first time since fighting began in February.

Aden held talks with top SCIC officials, including leader Sheikh Hasan Dahir 'Awies. The latter told reporters that any peace talks held outside Somalia would never bring stability to the country. The SCIC has not yet given its decision, but it has agreed to continue talks.

Written by The Media Line Staff

Former Somalia pres declares jihad on Ethiopia

2006-11-08T16:09:00.000-08:00

Wow, this comes as absolutely no shock. As I've said before, the ex-pres is still bitter that his mock government didn't get off the ground. An irrelevant ex-politician is so sad to watch trying to squirm back into the seats of power...

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Abdiqassim Salat, former Somali president, wants to wage "jihad" to remove Ethiopian troops from Somali soil

MOGADISHU, Somalia Nov 7 (Garowe Online) - A former Somali president has announced that he is ready to wage jihad against Ethiopian troops who have invaded Somalia, joining Islamist calls and demonstrations for such fight.

Abdiqassim Salat Hassan, who was elected as Somali president in 2000, said that it is “compulsory” upon every Somali citizen to defend the nation against Ethiopian aggression.

“I am ready…to fight jihad against Tigre troops who have invaded Somalia,” said the former Somali leader in an interview with Mogadishu-based radio.

Witnesses and analysts have confirmed the presence of Ethiopian troops inside Somalia, even though Addis Ababa only admits that it sent a “few hundred” armed military trainers to back the Baidoa-based interim government.

Ethiopia is currently led Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a staunch supporter of the Baidoa-based interim government and a member of the minority Tigre ethnicity of Ethiopia.

Abdiqassim Salat further stated during Tuesday’s interview that, as long as Ethiopian troops remained inside Somalia, he believed that the Islamic Courts should not open negotiation talks with the government.

Ex-President Abdiqassim said he welcomed the change the Islamist have brought to Mogadishu and to other areas under their control.

During the interview, Abdiqassim Salat did not mention the presence of pro-Islamist Eritrean soldiers inside Somalia who number some 2,000 troops, according to a leaked UN report that placed pro-government Ethiopian troop numbers inside Somalia as high as 8,000 soldiers.

Garowe Online News

Fighting erupts in northern Somalia

2006-11-06T16:22:00.000-08:00

Reported fighting in Puntland. Could this be the beginning of the long-anticipated war? Also, protesters in the streets of Baidoa to protest last-minute attempts at negotiations with the Islamists.

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Islamic forces said their fighters clashed Monday with government militia backed by Ethiopian troops in northern Somalia, one of the few areas still outside their control.

Puntland officials denied any fighting took place, and Ethiopian officials repeated earlier denials that they have troops inside Somalia.

If confirmed, the clashes would mark the first fighting since peace talks collapsed amid fears that Somalia is on the brink of a war that could engulf the Horn of Africa region.

Meanwhile, demonstrators took to the streets in the southern Somali town of Baidoa — the base of the transitional government led by President Abdullahi Yusuf and virtually the only town it controls — to protest the decision by the country‘s most powerful lawmaker to negotiate with the courts.

Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden is considered sympathetic to the Islamic courts, which the United States accuses of having ties to al-Qaida. His decision to hold talks without the cooperation of the prime minister and president is a direct challenge to their authority. The trip comes days after the government‘s peace talks with the Islamists collapsed in Khartoum, Sudan.

By MOHAMED SHEIK NOR, Associated Press Writer

Islamists ban some weddings in Somalia

2006-11-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

Yet another example of how Arab-trained Islamist theologians are destroying native Somali culture:
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MOGADISHU, Somalia - Islamic leaders Monday banned youthful Somalis from marrying without the consent of their parents, saying such unions violate Islam.

"It is against the teaching of our religion and parents do not approve of it," said Sheik Mahad Mohamed Sheik Hassan, chairman of the regional Islamic court in Wanlawien.

The edict was the latest step to impose strict religious rule as this chaotic nation emerges from more than a decade of anarchy.

Islamic leaders already have banned women from swimming at the main beach in Somalia's capital, live music, the viewing of films and sports, and the use of qat, the leafy semi-narcotic plant.

The marriage practice of "masaafo" - roughly equivalent to eloping - is common in Somalia because it allows young couples to wed without their parents scuttling the union because they deem the dowry too small.

Mohamedek Ali, a 21-year-old Somali, said the costs of a wedding were prohibitive for average Somalis and would prevent many marriages.

"They cannot ban what our forefathers practiced," he said. "All of us, including the mullahs were born from elopement marriage."

MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR, AP

Kenya Camps cannot cope with Somali refugee influx

2006-10-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Here is the reality of the new Somalia under the Islamists. These new refugees are Somali's that the Islamists have driven out of Somali. The Islamists claim they are unifying Somalia, but instead they are creating a false reality by driving away those not from their clan, and those that disagree with their fundamentalist form of Islam.
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NAIROBI, 26 October (IRIN) - The three refugee camps in Daadab in Kenya's Northeastern Province do not have the facilities to cater for the influx of refugees from Somalia, an official of the United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday."

Ideally, the Daadab camps should accommodate 60,000 people but at the moment there are 160,000," Eddie Gedalof, the UNHCR representative in Kenya, said in Nairobi."The camp is crowded, with a family of 10 sharing a single tarpaulin tent," Baarlin Abukar, a UNHCR field assistant based in Daadab added.

The UN launched a flash appeal on Thursday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for Somali refugees in Kenya. "There is also a water shortage - among other challenges facing the refugees," Abukar said.According to the six-month flash appeal, at least US $32 million is urgently required to provide humanitarian aid for the refugee population, with food, healthcare, nutrition, water and security the top priorities.

New arrivals have overstretched the camps' capacity, contributing to the negative environmental impact on neighbouring communities, Gedalof said. "The majority of the people are also faced with malnutrition," he added.The latest influx follows the unpredictable political situation in Somalia after territorial gains made by the Union of Islamic Courts and the precarious position of the Transitional Federal Government in Baidoa.

The impact of drought and destitution in the country was also contributing to the influx, with refugees coming from the southern areas of Mogadishu, Baidoa and Kismayo, Gedalof said. The permanent secretary in Kenya's Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons, Emmanuel Kisombe, said Kenya was willing to accommodate the refugees but falling support was a burden for host countries."

There is a need for a supportive and predictable international response to the refugee problem," Kisombe said.However, he said, resolving the root cause of conflict in the refugees' home countries was the only sustainable solution. At least 32,000 new arrivals have been registered in Daadab this year, with an average of 100 refugees being registered each day between January and August. The number surged to an average of 1,000 refugees each day on 4 and 5 October.

Baidao will fall soon and we don’t recognize the UN – Hassan Turki

2006-10-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

The ICU leadership is throwing caution to the wind, making bold declarations and dangerous pronouncements. Their arrogance is blatant, and the world is standing by with their hands in their pockets. The following article underlies the ICU's grand plan to take over all of Somalia:
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Tue. October 24, 2006

(SomaliNet) Number-two leader of the Islamic Courts Mr. Hassan Turki announced his organization’s immediate intention to chase President Abdulahi Yusuf and his powerless government out of Baydhabo in the coming days. In a telephone interview with Horn Afrik radio in Mogadishu, he said the southern part of the country is in our hands and we are going to Burao (in Somaliland) and Galkaio (in Puntland).

Mr. Turki who is now in a small town near Kenyan border said we don’t recognize the United Nations as it has become American interest group. When asked if the Islamic Courts are worrying about possible external intervention such as African Union troops, he replied with “We have enough power to defeat anyone”.

Sheik Turki also talked about his view on the US and accused America of labeling Muslim people as terrorists. He was equally critical on the United Nations whose agencies he said are corrupt and lie about Somali refugees in Kenya. "They repatriate Somali refugees back to Somalia and return them back into Kenya only to open new accounts and misuse more money by claiming more influx of refugees. United Nations is a corrupt organization." He said.

In a confident tone, Mr. Turki promised to bring all Somalia under his organization’s rule and declared war on self declared Somaliland and semi-autonomous Puntland.

The Islamic Courts seem to be unstoppable and the neighboring countries are unease about Somalia’s current situation. Ethiopia and Eritrea are both accused of meddling with Somalia civil war although no concrete prove has been presented on the Eritrean side.

Somaliland and Puntland administrations have amble time prepare themselves for possible showdown with the Islamists as tehir hands are now full with the federal government and other foes in the south.

Both Sheik Hassan Turki and his boss, Sheik Aweys are on international terrorist list by the US State

Somalia: Why Islamic Courts Can't Win War Against Govt

2006-10-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a very interesting piece about how the ICU's militias have spread themselves too far apart to survive a real fight.

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Unless the next round of talks between the Union of Islamist Courts (UIC) of Somalia and the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) - scheduled for October 30 in Khartoum - builds on the uneasy calm that the feuding groups maintained during Ramadan, it will not achieve much.

Talks between the rivals on September 2 ended in a stalemate after the Transitional Government accused the Islamic Courts of having links with the Al Qaeda terrorist organisation; in turn, the Islamists accused the Transitional Government of being a stooge of the Ethiopian government.

For many Somalis, it was enough that the two sides deliberately avoided squabbling war in the holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week.

But if there is no breakthrough in the third round of talks, war seems inevitable.

The reality of Somalia's landscape, however, makes taking over the country a harder proposition than either party and their allies believe.

The Islamists opted to range far and wide in order to gain territorial control in most of the southern and central regions.

The militias flanks are thus located at Galinsor district, about 650 km north of Mogadishu, and around Afmadow district, about 680 km south of the capital. To defend such a huge front in a war would be a daunting task.

That the Transitional Government is relying on Ethiopian support and its base in Baidoa is well protected, is no secret. The town is in the middle of the Gedo and Bakol regions, both bordering Ethiopia. Strategists believe that Baidoa is thus in no danger.

The forces of the Islamic Courts in the central regions are in the most vulnerable position. They are over 600 km from Mogadishu - the Islamic Courts' stronghold - but only 100 km away from Ethiopia, where heavily armed battalions are eyeing them from across the border.

Any supplies or reinforcement from Mogadishu can be intercepted if the highway through Hiran region were seized, which Ethiopian forces could do in matter of hours.

If Ethiopian troops in Baidoa moved just 120 km towards Mogadishu, they would threaten the strategic Lower Shabelle, the region shielding the capital from the west and south. Should that happen, supplies to forces in Lower Juba - close to the Kenyan border - will be impossible.

Forces of the Islamic Courts in Lower Juba, especially those in Kismayo - the port town that lies 500 km south of Mogadishu - are facing yet another enemy. The former Juba Valley Alliance (JVA) leader, Barre Hirale, who was chased from the town by Islamists in late September, is said to be gathering militias from Gedo region, which is the power base of his Marehaan kinsmen. The reunited JVA militias are said to be inching towards Kismayo both from the northwest and southwest. If these forces reach Jilib town, on the main Mogadishu-Kismayo road, the so-called Shabab elite forces could be stranded.

According to newspapers in Mogadishu, the Islamic Courts is facing the biggest threat ever since it emerged as a national force in June. Having spread their wings too far, the Islamists' vulnerability was proven at Bandiradley village in July when the forces failed to take Galkayo town upon meeting resistance. Their dreams of capturing the semi-autonomous state of Puntland have also come to nought.

The main highway that traverses the Hiran region to the northwest of Mogadishu appears unprotected. Only a small, ineffective militia at Belet-Weyn town, the region's capital, stands in the way of a whole Ethiopian battalion vigilantly staring across the border.

When the Transitional Government forces recently reached Burhakaba, allegedly supported by Ethiopian troops, the Islamic Courts could not retaliate. Instead of assembling a formidable force, to reassert its authority on the splendid town at the base of Mt Hakaba next to the Mogadishu-Baidoa main road, the Islamists only managed to issue a threat of a jihad.

Many observers believe that the only committed and well-trained armed unit of the Islamic Courts is the Shabab (Arabic for youth), numbering about 2,000. The rest are either conventional militia who in the past served various warlords or new recruits with no experience or even commitment.

If war breaks out, the Islamists will have to defend at least four fronts - Jubaland, the main road linking Mogadishu to Baidoa, the highway that runs through Hiran region in the middle, and the upper central regions, including Galgadud and Mudug.

Residents of Mogadishu will face a compounded problem should the Islamist forces decide to reverse their current expansion strategy and withdraw to the capital. Street fighting may become the order of the day.

Most people believe that Somalia's best interests would lie in a deal struck at the Khartoum talks, especially if the Transitional Government's legitimacy is accepted. An acceptable formula could then be worked out, especially a nationwide demobilisation programme.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the Islamic Courts' leader, and the Ethiopian army's generals know each other well.

They fought several battles in the 1990s when Sheikh Aweys's turbaned Al-Ittihad men reportedly suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Somali National Front militia in Gedo region in southwestern Somalia.

Ethiopian support tilted the balance in favour of the Front and Al-Ittihad fighters fled Bulo-Hawa, Luq and Dollow districts.

Earlier, in the 1990s, Col Abdulahi Ahmed Yusuf, the current Transitional Government President, was Åhelped by Ethiopia to expel Sheikh Aweys Al-Ittihad fighters from Bossaso, the economic capital and main port town in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

The East African (Nairobi)
October 23, 2006
Abdulkadir Khalif

Islamic Court declared near Ethiopia border

2006-10-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

ICU Continues its unrestrained and unconfronted expansion:
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Last Updated: Oct 23rd, 2006 - 00:59:23

BELETWEIN, Somalia Oct 21 (Garowe Online) - A new Islamic Court was declared Saturday in Jawil, a frontier village near the Ethio-Somali border, raising more concerns of a showdown between Somalia’s Islamist movement and the Ethiopian military.

The ceremony to mark the opening of the new Islamic Court was attended by Islamist officials, including the chairman of Islamic courts of Hiran region, Sheikh Farah Moallim Mohamud.

Ethiopian troops previously crossed into Jawil and other villages in Hiran region, but such frontier villages have recently come under the control of the Somali Islamist militia.

Earlier this month, Sheikh Farah Moallim declared jihad on Ethiopian troops at a public rally in Beletwein, capital of Hiran region.

Canada: Biggest Supplier of Jihadists to Somalia

2006-10-20T10:35:00.001-07:00

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA--(CCNMatthews - Oct. 19, 2006) - The Somali Justice Advocacy Center expresses concern about the increase of the Somali Canadians joining the Islamic extremists in Somalia. The Center has been following closely about this development, and thus now afraid that the releases of this information by some Canadian officials will change the trend of people from Canada to Somalia. Here is the statement:

Mr. Aden Hashi Ayrom, Somali Afghan trained leader of (Al-Shabab), the youth, in Somali, on regular basis, sends avowal to the all major cities in Canada to have it read to the Somali young men.

The Somali Justice Advocacy Center worries this new wave of young Somali business owners from Canada, coupled with the lack of effective outreach of Canadian government to combat against terrorism will lead to the empowerment of radical group in Somalia.

The Center urges Canadian government to be on guard.

"This is outrageous that Somali-Canadians are assisting radicals in Somalia, and therefore urge the Canadian government to do something." Mr. Omar Jamal, Executive Director of the Center said.

Canada is on the top of the list of countries, besides Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries, from which young men are going back their homeland to join the extremists.

Mogadishu radio station shut down

2006-10-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here is another example of how the Somali Taliban (ICU) is trying to spin the their oppression over freedom of expression in Mogadishu:

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NAIROBI, 16 October (IRIN) - The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and much of the country's south-central area, has shut down the East Africa radio station in Mogadishu, an official of the station told IRIN on Monday. "

At around 7:00 a.m. local time yesterday, Islamic court people came to the radio station and informed the morning shift staff to shut down," Muhammed Mahamud Mo'allim, the radio manager, said.

"They have taken all the keys to the compound and the radio is still off the air," he added.

According to Mo'allim, the UIC said the radio was shut down because it belonged to Bashir Raghe, one of the warlords defeated by the UIC in June.

Abdirahim Ali Mudey, the UIC's head of communication and information, confirmed that the radio station had been shut down "due to misinformation and for fanning hate-filled messages that could lead to violence and not because it belonged to Bashir Raghe".

He added: "We allowed it to operate hoping that the new owners would bring in professional, responsible journalists to run it. When that did not happen we had to act."

Mudey said the radio station would be allowed to operate again "once a new management is set up".In late September the UIC temporarily shut down the HornAfrik radio sub-station in the southern port city of Kismayo. However, Mudey denied reports that the UIC was trying to gag the media. Last week, the UIC circulated rules governing the media, which would have curtailed media freedom, according to the watchdog, Reporters Without Borders.

"What was published was meant as a proposal and we forwarded it to the media community for their input," Mudey said.

HornAfrik radio and television managing partner, Ali Iman Sharmarke, told IRIN that the Mogadishu media community on Sunday met the UIC leadership represented by Mudey to discuss the proposed rules and concurred that they "were meant as proposal only".

Sharmarke said: "As a media practitioner, I can tell you that a media code of conduct is essential and long overdue in this country. What we don't want is one that is imposed from outside that would undermine the freedom of the press."

He said the media groups were discussing different proposals and would present their views to the courts. Sharmarke said the media favoured "self-regulation and a self-enforced code of conduct".

Mudey said the courts respected the role of the media and "want to support an independent and responsible press; that is why we are consulting with them and we will wait to see what they come up with".

He added, "We are determined to uphold the freedom of the press."

In Somalia, Islamic Law Is Far From Uniform

2006-10-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a great article from the LA Times about just how disjointed the ICU movement is even in Mogadishu.
====================================

'They don't all have the same vision,' an official says of the courts that control the south.

By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer
October 15, 2006

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The public execution was set for 9 a.m., and thousands of men, women and children raced toward a sandy dune where the previous regime killed its political enemies.

A man accused of fatally shooting a Mogadishu businessman in a dispute over a cellphone two weeks earlier knelt and prayed in front of an eight-man firing squad, as impatient spectators whistled, hooted, stood on cars and scrambled up trees for a better view. The death sentence had been imposed swiftly by a local Islamic court. No attorney. No appeal.

The first blast of gunfire didn't do the job, so an officer stepped forward and shot the accused in the head. Then the crowd broke through security lines and rushed toward the body, many yelling, "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!"

Four months after they seized control of Somalia's capital, Islamists have won widespread praise for reestablishing order and stability in Mogadishu and surrounding areas after 15 years of anarchy.

But the Islamists are by no means uniform in their application of justice. In Islamist-run southern Somalia, how you live, and sometimes whether you live, depends largely on where you live.

In one Mogadishu neighborhood, court officials banned cinemas and satellite television as immoral, and have punished criminals with public lashings and executions, such as the one last month.

Under a different court less than a mile away, residents can view pornographic films at night and are free to watch CNN and Hollywood movies. Islamic leaders there have no stomach for public punishment, instead sentencing criminals to prison.

"They don't all have the same vision," said Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Hassan Ali, who was appointed by Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government but has struggled for authority under the Islamists. "They don't even know each other that well. Now they're trying to set an agenda, and it's creating some culture shock."

After their surprising victory over U.S.-backed warlords in June, the Islamic Courts Union reopened the airport and seaport, dispatched uniformed security officers who won't take bribes, and reintroduced consumer protection laws, such as halting the import of spoiled food, which unscrupulous businessmen had been dumping in Somalia for years.

But a clash of ideologies has emerged between leaders of the Islamist union and nearly three dozen smaller, semiautonomous courts that function as local governments throughout southern Somalia. These clan-based courts, some of which have their own militias, sometimes pursue distinct and competing interpretations of Islamic law.

On big issues, such as opposition to bringing foreign peacekeepers to Somalia and strategies to reach a power-sharing agreement with the transitional government based in Baidoa, the Islamists show few signs of discord. Most also support, in theory, the installation of an Islamic-based government.

But as Somalis begin debating how to implement such a system, cracks are beginning to show.

In Jawhar, north of Mogadishu, the local court last month banned love songs and Western music on the radio, though such fare still plays in the capital.

After an Italian nun and her bodyguard were shot to death in Mogadishu on Sept. 17, moderate court leaders accused a group of young fundamentalist fighters, known as Shabbab, of shielding one of the killers. The court leaders threatened to break from the union if the suspect was not handed over, two court sources said.

In an interview at his modest home in Mogadishu, with laundry hanging across the courtyard and children playing, Islamic Courts Union leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys insisted that differences within the movement were minor.

"There may be some division," he said. "But there is no challenge to the authority and administration of the court. Our ideology is one." He denied any internal friction over the case of the nun's slaying.

Aweys heads the 91-person shura, a de facto parliament that includes representatives of various factions and clans. He shares power with Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a former teacher who serves in a presidential role for the union. Ahmed is thought to represent the moderate side of the courts, though he has rarely differed from the more hard-line Aweys in public.

Both men said the disputes were being magnified by outsiders, including the Bush administration and Ethiopian government, who Aweys said were plotting to "divide and conquer" the fledgling alliance.

"The U.S. government accuses anyone who disagrees with it of being a terrorist, especially when they see a Muslim who wants to form an Islamic government," Aweys said.

Ibrahim Hassan Addou, who serves as foreign minister for the union, expressed disappointment that the more extreme actions by lower courts seemed to get the most attention in the news media.

"It seems that the extremists here are getting the focus and overshadowing us," said Addou, who worked as an administrator at American University in Washington before returning to Somalia in 1999. "We're wasting our time and resources closing movies and things like this. Minor things like this have to wait."

Islamic leaders said they planned to disband the local courts and replace them with one body that would provide consistency throughout Islamist-controlled regions.

"There are mistakes being made by individuals who lack experience," Addou said. "These decisions should be made by scholars and the shura council."

In recent weeks the shura has attempted to reverse or rein in lower court actions, issuing edicts such as a ban on attacks against foreigners or civil society groups. The council chastised one lower court for seizing control of a former police station, and it apologized to the families of some World Cup fans who were killed by local militiamen.

But to avoid alienating either side, Islamist leaders have skirted thorny issues, such as cinema and radio closures, leaving lower courts free to continue issuing and enforcing religious rulings as long as they don't conflict with the council.

"As a court we are free to make our own decisions," said Sheik Hussein Omar Hussein, a former tea seller who is chairman of one of Mogadishu's new lower courts in Hamarweyne district.

His recent rulings included a ban on cinemas and satellite television in public places. For a young woman accused of selling marijuana, he ordered 40 lashes in a public square.

North of the city is a court leader with a far different view of justice. Mahad Mohammed, chairman of Wanlaweyn court, studied economics in Pakistan and returned several months ago to pursue a career in politics.

He said he supported an Islamic government for Somalia, but believed there was room for interpretation.

He said he enjoyed music and movies. When faced recently with a man accused of theft, he said, he couldn't bring himself to order the man's hand amputated, as prescribed by some Islamic law. Instead he tossed the thief in jail.

"We can be flexible," Mohammed said.

But Aweys believes there is no room for compromise under Islam.

When asked what sort of model he would use to govern Somalia, Aweys said he would turn back to the 7th century. "Our model is to go back to the government during the life of the prophet Muhammad," he said.

To him, that includes amputating limbs of robbers, executing killers in public and stoning adulterers to death — a far more conservative vision of Islam than has ever been practiced in Somalia.

Nevertheless, support for the courts union remains high on the streets of Mogadishu. Many residents say they are willing to tolerate some limits on their freedom of expression in exchange for peace and normality.

But there is growing anxiety over how far it will go.

"They've done so much for Mogadishu, no question," said businessman Said Abdi Elye, who returned three years ago from Fairfax, Va. "The real question now is: Where are they taking us?"

edmund.sanders@latimes.com

We will take port from Islamists, says Somali militia

2006-10-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of militias loyal to Somalia's defense minister have encamped at Sakow, a district in Middle Jubba region, and face off Islamist militias in the region.

Defense Minister Col. Barre "Hirale" Adan Shire and his militia set up a large base of operations in Bardhere, a town in neighboring Gedo region, and his militia commander, Col. Fartaag, promised to retake Kismayo from the Islamist militia by force.

On September 24, Col. Hirale fled Kismayo peacefully before Islamist militias completely surrounded him.

There is fear of war in the region and Sheikh Abdirahman Jinikow, a top Islamist official, warned against threats to Islamist militia in the region during a press conference in Mogadishu on Saturday.

Garowe Online News

Somalia: Islamists ban women from swimming

2006-10-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

Islamist officials in Mogadishu have disclosed for the first time that they will not "allow" women to swim in the sea, and specifically at Lido Beach in Mogadishu.

Mohamed Dirie Osman, an Islamist militia commander, said it is a "sin" for a woman to swim alongside men at popular beaches.

He said that women are allowed to take sea water in containers and shower at home.

Garowe Online News

Are Somali's Arab or African?

2006-09-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

If you ask a Somali this question, you will get many answers. Many will say that they are descended from Arabs. Some will claim Arab to distance themselves from the historically dysfunctional Africa. Other will claim African to try to distance themselves from the ugly history of Arabs in the Horn of Africa, and the more recent activities of Arab fundamentalists. Others will say both. These that claim both have long had influence in Somali society, given the fact that Somali is one of the few African countries belonging to both the African Union and the Arab League. The struggle between an African and Arab heritage is still a central issue as a new government tries to rise from the ashes of civil war. Below is a very good article that sums up the issues involved about the politics of this issue:

Arabs Vs Africans in Somalia, Sudan Crises
By MICHELLE FAUL , AP

The crises in Somalia and Sudan are pitting Arabs and African governments against each other, sharpening a centuries-old continental divide.

That's clear from the way two regional groups - the Arab League and the African Union - have treated Sudan, a member of both.

Sudan currently chairs the Arab League, and was supposed to hold the rotating chairmanship of the African Union as well when it hosted the summit of the group's 53 states and territories in February. The Africans withheld the privilege, however, because of Sudan's alleged complicity in atrocities in its Darfur region.

U.N. peacekeeping has further highlighted the division. The African Union wants the U.N. in Darfur, Sudan doesn't, and the Arab states support Sudan's stance.

Africa experts say tensions between Arab and ethnic African states over Darfur have been growing for months.

Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper, which reflects the government's view, charged in a recent editorial that peacekeeping missions are a cover for foreign powers "to find a toehold in a region rich with strategic minerals."

"Once a region is destabilized, international powers step in and rearrange it according to their needs," Al-Ahram said.

Helmoed Romer Heitman, a South African defense analyst for Jane's Defense Weekly, agrees that when it comes to oil, outsiders don't necessarily have Africa's best interests at heart. "I'm not sure they really want good functioning states because they're more expensive to buy and work with than weak, fractious ones," he said.

But he said Arab states harbor a deep-seated racism toward black Africa, and Gamal Eid, executive director of the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information, accused them of having a "generally condescending view" toward their southern neighbors. He believes the rift is widening.

Compounding the friction is Somalia, where Islamic fighters - reportedly backed by Arab Muslim extremists - are vying for authority with a weak government. The Arab states oppose foreign peacekeepers for Somalia, a member of both the African Union and the Arab League, though that country's own government wants them.

Somalia and Sudan are at the eastern end of a continentwide line where Islam and Christianity first collided 150 years ago, as Arabs moved south bringing Islam and bumped up against European colonizers with their Christian missionaries. Both Arabs and Europeans were involved in the slave trade, leaving a legacy of resentment among Africans.

Nowadays, the conflicts in the two countries are exposing the fault lines between the 53-member African Union and the Arab League, some of whose 22 members belong to both.

Iqbal Jhazbhay, a political analyst at the University of South Africa, noted that when the African Union was founded six years ago, it pledged not to ignore members' human rights violations. The Arab League, however, though, rarely criticizes one of its own.

The result, Jhazbay said, is that Arab League countries "have found themselves marginalized" in African forums.

He added that when the Arab League recently launched peace talks for Somali factions, some Africans saw it as interference. "That certainly has not gone down well with key member states of the African Union," he said.

Race and religion were evident in the 21-year conflict that divided Sudan between northern Arab Muslims and southern black Christians and others.

That war ended in 2005 but meanwhile Darfur was becoming the vast country's next battleground.

In Darfur, the fight pits Muslims against Muslims, though some identify themselves as African and others as Arab.

Somalia is mainly black and Muslim. There the fear expressed by many is of a Taliban-style government taking root, or of foreign intervention sparking a regional war and drawing in faraway powers.

Plans are afoot to send in Ugandan and Sudanese troops, as requested by the weak Somali government. The Islamic fighters vehemently oppose such a move.

In Darfur, some 200,000 people have died in a three-year rebellion by ethnic African tribes following years of government neglect. Some of the worst atrocities are blamed on the janjaweed, Arab tribal militias unleashed by the government - a charge officials deny. The U.N. Security Council wants to send in peacekeepers, but only if Sudan consents.

But Sudanese officials have declared U.N. troops could spark a holy war. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden - who was based in Sudan in the 1990s until the government ousted him - has called on Islamic militants to battle any U.N. troops that deploy in Darfur. Bin Laden also has identified Somalia as a battleground in his war with the West.

News Week in Review

2006-08-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

After years of being forgotten and neglected by the world press and the international community, Somalia has lately been given a place of prominence in the news community because of the current political situation.

Here is a summary of "news-worthy" events in Somalia being reported today:

Mogadishu port re-opens under the UIC's control. This is a very visible effort by the UIC leaders to show that they are restoring stability to Somalia. They seem to be adopting the Hamas and Hezbollah model of providing social services to win over the public, while simultaneously adopting a Taliban-like law enforcement stance. The former has proven effective in other countries; the latter has proven disastrous when implemented in other countries. Time will tell how effective they will be.

Puntland leaders admit to having Ethiopia soldiers on their land. This seems to be the tactic to fight the UIC. Puntland, as a self-declared autonomous state, can invite in Ethiopian troops without the same complications that the TFG in Baidoa can. This may be leading to a two-front attack on the UIC militias. One coming from the Puntland/Ethiopia forces in the north and another front from TFG forces in the west.

Second Anniversary of the TFG celebrated with military parade in Baidoa. TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf is trying his best to show a strong, united front in Baidoa. Is it a facade?

An ex-president of Somalia's most recently failed attempt at a government is looking to become relevant again in the political picture. This press conference news conference has him aligning himself with the UIC. He is a known sympathizer with Islamist groups. His strong ties to these and Arab groups are what seemed to help speed the collapse of his TNG government.

One of the forgotten humanitarian crises in Somalia. This is just another sad tale of what is happening to common rural Somali's as the politicians on all sides bicker for power.

A Land of City-States

2006-08-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

In the Middle Ages, before the dawn of the concept of the nation-state, there were city-states. These autonomous, self-governing cities were what controlled most of civilizaton. With the current state of Somalia, the world is provided a glimpse back into the world of the city-state.

Practically speaking, there are 4 cities-states within the boundries formerly known as Somalia. They are Hargeisa, Bossaso, Mogadisho, and Baidoa. In each, there are local governments now that (although claiming regional or national entitlement) only control their particular city. In between are huge stretches of desert and mountains and plains with intersparced villages and towns.

These vast swaths of undeloped land and these small villages and towns are what make up an overwhelming majority of the geographic territory of Somalia. The nomads and the small towns and villiages generally don't see the Hargeisa, Bossaso, Mogadisho, and Baidoa leaders as their government. They're government is local and they listen to the local elders of their clan.

When a few soldiers from the UIC storms into a remote villiage and 'takes control' of a area, it just means there are soldiers in the village. A group 'takes control' of an area when a majority of the people are either forced to accept the authority of their invaders, or are bribed into believing their invaders will make life better for them. There is some of both cases happening in areas controlled by each these city-states.

Hargeisa and Bossaso have sustained themselves relatively well over the last few years, with Hargeisa having more stability and recognized success. Yet, both of these cities are dominated by one paricular clan. The UIC in Mogadisho is also tilted toward one major clan. Only the TFG in Baidoa is a 'successful' effort to create a multi-clan government. The TFG has done this through a long and democratic reconcilliation process. The UIC, on the other hand hopes to become a united multi-clan government through an appeal to pious Islam.

Are these city-states sustainable? Hargeisa and Bossaso can only be sustained long-term if there is no strong central government, or if they break away and form independent countries. The TFG can only be sustained if they take control of Mogadisho. The UIC can only be sustained if they force the TFG to collapse, or they give up their ideas of becoming a government body.

Rights Group in Somalia Criticizes Islamic Courts

2006-08-24T14:08:00.000-07:00


By Pearse Lynch www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-18-voa46.cfm

Islamic militiamen in Mogadishu

On August, 18th a meeting at a Mogadishu hotel to commemorate the anniversary of a Somali Islamic movement 28 years ago was forcibly broken up by heavily armed Islamic militiamen, who said the gathering was illegal because it had not been approved by Islamic leaders.

In a press statement released immediately after the incident, the chairman of the Somali Human Rights Defenders Network, Ahmed Mohamed Ali, said the actions of the Islamists were a direct violation of the basic human right of free assembly.

The statement also rejected claims that the Islamists have restored law and order in areas under their control. The group says that Islamic militias are carrying out murders and prominent figures in Mogadishu have been arbitrarily detained and imprisoned.

Islamic Courts Militia patrol a street of Mogadishu

A spokesman for the Islamic leadership, Abdukraim Ali Mudday, has dismissed the group's accusations. He says that unauthorized public gatherings are a direct threat to the security the Islamists have restored to many parts of the country after seizing the capital in early June. He also insists that public gatherings held without the supervision of Islamic authorities violate Islamic laws, known as sharia.

Nairobi-based Somali analyst, Najum Mushtaq, says whenever a system based on sharia law is enforced, it often comes in conflict with Western views of human rights as defined by the United Nations charter and the Geneva Convention.

Mushtaq says despite the Islamists' success in restoring order in towns and cities seized from factional warlords, the recent arrival of refugees from Somalia into neighboring Kenya and Sudan may be a sign that many Somalis are unwilling to live under a strict, Islamic regime.

"The more their laws are seen in action, people will resent them," he said. "Cinemas closing down, restrictions on women's movements in public space, this kind of a Taliban-like culture trying to impose [itself] on a society that is so diverse, this is what I call 'inter-Islam fissure' - people on many sides calling themselves Muslims but with a different culture and a different world view."

Mushtaq predicts the rise of hard line Islamic doctrine could cause lasting divisions within Somalia.

"The point I want to emphasize here is that of sectarianism, which is unheard of in Somalia," he said. "It happened in Afghanistan. It happened in Pakistan - the Sunni, Shi'ite thing all over the Muslim world. But in Somalia, they are Sufis. They follow the same school of thought. So this movement is a departure from the traditional religious structures of Somalia."

Somalia Islamists say they will attack Puntland

2006-08-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

The spokesperson for the Islamic Courts Council said on Wednesday that
the presence of Ethiopian and Puntland troops in central Somalia regions to aid warlord Abdi Qeibdid must not be tolerated.

Sheikh Abdirahim Ali Mudey, the ICC's information secretary, said the Islamists spared Colonel Abdi Qeibdid's life after Islamist militiamen defeated him in Mogadishu.

This is the first time the Islamists have shed light on exactly how Qeibdid left Mogadishu after his defenses were overran by the Islamists.

Sheikh Mudey said the ICC leadership talked with Puntland president Mohamud "Adde" Muse and the two sides agreed that Puntland would not cross into south Mudug region and the ICC promised to not enter Puntland-controlled areas.

"We will send our forces into Puntland regions if Puntland forces do not rereat from south Mudug," the ICC's information secretary warned.

Puntland sent hundreds of militias Wednesday to Bandiiradley village, which is located some 60 KM south of Galkayo, the capital of Mudug region.

Bandiiradley was previously under the control of the Islamists but they were forced to retreat with the arrival of Qeibdid's militias supported by Ethiopian troops and Puntland militias.

Residents in Mudug region are reportedly fearful of the outbreak of new wars in the region.

Aug 23, 2006, 19:05
Garowe Online News

Somali woman is flogged for drugs

2006-08-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

Men have been whipped for selling drugs

A Somali woman has been flogged in public for selling cannabis by Islamist militias who now control the capital.

This is the first time a woman has received this kind of punishment since the Union of Islamic Courts seized Mogadishu in June. She got 11 lashes.

Arrested for a small bundle of the drug worth $1, she pleaded innocence while being beaten, AP news agency reports.

Most sellers of the mild narcotic khat, widely used in Somalia, are women but the UIC has not opposed this trade.

The BBC's Hassan Barise in Mogadishu says women often sell khat because during the long civil war, they aroused less suspicion than men when crossing between areas controlled by rival factions.

The UIC was set up two years ago by businessmen who wanted some law and order. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991.

Five men were also whipped in Thursday's ceremony, in which the seized drugs were burnt.

This is only the second time that the UIC has carried out a public flogging in Mogadishu.

The UIC is divided between radicals, who want to impose a Taleban-style state in Somalia, and moderates, who say they have no such plans.

It controls much of southern Somalia, while the internationally recognised government remains confined to Baidoa, some 200km to the north of Mogadishu.

East African diplomats have been trying to bring the Islamists and the government together for talks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5283192.stm

The State of Somalia

2006-08-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

I hope to spend much of my time on this blog giving you my understanding, opinions and feedback on current situations in Somalia. I don't have an agenda, aside from the deep hope that peace is possible again in Somalia and the hope that Somalia will become a safe, peaceful and democratic country that I and my family may be able to visit one day.

Somali Islamists ban animal trade.

2006-08-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Birds of prey are among the wildlife exported

The Islamic courts that control large parts of Somalia have banned the export of charcoal and wild animals.

The courts warned businessmen involved in the trade that they will be dealt with firmly if arrested.

Charcoal exports have stripped areas of woodland, causing drought and soil erosion, while many wild animal species are becoming rarer.

Somali companies and individuals run the trade, with exports going mostly to the United Arab Emirates.

Birds of prey, trapped and exported live, form a significant part of the trade.

The exports have been going on since the collapse in 1991 of Somalia's last effective national government.

For the past 15 years, the country has been divided between warring militias.

Some of these factions have tried to control the export of wildlife and charcoal, but with little success.

The Islamic courts and their militia who have controlled the capital, Mogadishu, since earlier this year are taking the issue more seriously, the BBC's Hassan Barise reports from the city.

Their decision to halt the trade is more likely to have an impact, particularly in Mogadishu, our correspondent says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5274620.stm

Welcome..

2006-08-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

This is a little test welcome to make sure this blog is off the ground and running!