June 12, 2006
MORE than 1000 Islamist fighters were deployed to a strategic camp north of Mogadishu today, witnesses said, sparking fears of a new offensive against warlords.
Islamic forces captured the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a week ago from a self-styled anti-terrorism alliance of warlords, widely believed to be backed by the US, after three months of fighting.
It was unclear whether the latest deployment was part of moves to drive out remaining warlords from the capital or to stage an attack on Jowhar, the last warlord stronghold, 60km further north.
From: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Baidoa
June 11, 2006
SOMALIA'S transitional government has overnight deployed troops to its temporary seat northwest of the capital a day after clashes between rival forces killed at least seven people and wounded eight, officials said.
Government spokesman Abdirahman Nur Mohamed Dinari said that some 300 troops were brought to Baidoa, about 250km northwest of Mogadishu, overnight to provide security and to help bring down checkpoints over which local militia and pro-government fighters battled on Friday.
New York, USA, June 9, 2006 – Reacting to intensifying violence in Somalia, where Islamic forces were recently reported to have taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, after fierce battles with other groups, the United Nations Security Council today called on all concerned to comply with the arms embargo and avoid any further destabilization.
In Mogadishu, Prayers Amid Lull In Violence
June 9: Somali's chant slogans during a rally supporting an alliance of warlords in Mogadishu.
Mogadishu, Somalia, June 09, 2006 – Weary residents of Somalia's war-ravaged capital headed to Friday prayers, bolstered by a week of relative calm since an Islamic militia seized control of Mogadishu and tightened its grip on this lawless nation.
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Sheikh Sherif Sheikh Ahmed - Chairman, Islamic Courts Union
Date: June 5, 2006
The Union of Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, have decided to break the silence between us and the international community. We made this decision in order to clarify the situation in Mogadishu and to bring the true picture of the conflict in the city and present it to the international community.
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MOGADISHU, June 06, 2006 – Islamic militia vowed to turn Somalia into a religious state on Tuesday, pushing north to take more territory after winning a three-month battle for Mogadishu.
But thousands of Mogadishu residents protested against the takeover and defeated warlords said they would fight back. Clan elders warned the Islamic side against more advances.
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Warlord Militias Advance On Mogadishu
A fighter for a warlord clan is seen at a demonstration outside Mogadishu on Thursday.
MOGADISHU, Somalia, June 8, 2006 – Warlords driven out of Mogadishu by an Islamist militia are advancing back towards the Somali capital from their last stronghold of Jowhar, residents said on Thursday.
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Armed militias on the streets of Mogadishu.
NAIROBI, Jun 8, 2006 – In an effort to restore law and order in war-scarred Mogadishu, two ministers from Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) were meeting on Thursday with the leadership of the Islamic courts, which now control the capital, a government spokesman said.
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Kenya Slams The Door On Somali Faction Leaders
Armed Somali militias on the streets of Mogadishu.
NAIROBI, Jun 7, 2006 – A day after Kenya banned leaders of Somalia's armed factions and their associates from entering the country, authorities deported a prominent Somali businessman with alleged links to a group of secular politicians who have been engaged in a bloody conflict with Islamists in Mogadishu.
Islamists Take Mogadishu, Set up Sharia Courts: Echos of Kabul
Mogadishu, Somalia, June 06, 2006 – As reported by Vinnie yesterday at The Jawa Report, Islamist militias with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network have succeeded in taking over the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu. It should never be forgotten that al Qaeda's first success was in fighting American troops in Mogadishu during the famous "Black Hawk down" incident.
Although not mentioned in the movie by the same name, Osama bin Laden later admitted that he had sent fighters into Somalia to help warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. Bin Laden, it is said, had had a mystic "vision" in which U.S. was revealed as a paper tiger & that American forces would withdraw from Somalia, defeated. When his "vision" came true, many came to think of bin Laden as a man with supernatural powers.
Gerald Hamilton founder of “Diamond in the Rough” program
The “Diamond in the Rough” program is designed to help children reach higher levels of achievement. The Non-profit Christian based program was founded by Gerald Hamilton, a US citizen and a native of Memphis, TN suburbs. Gerald has always had a passion for sports, children, and education. While surfing the internet one day, he stumbled upon an article of a young man living in a refugee camp. In this article it described how this young man helped other children reach safety in Kenya, while fleeing his country. The young man stated he not only left his country in search of peace, but to pursue his dream of getting an education and becoming an athlete. Initially after reading this article Gerald was touched, but like most people, he just went back to his daily routine
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Tensions In Baidowa After Clashes Between Local Militia And Majerteen Troops
Baidowa , Somalia , June 10, 2006 (SL Times) – Tensions are high in Baidowa following yesterday’s clashes between a local militia belonging to the Geledleh sub-clan and Majerteen troops deployed in and around Somalia ’s interim president Abdillahi Yusuf.
At least 14 people got killed while over 20 were wounded after the fighting erupted in early morning.
The compound which is located in central Baidowa has been guarded by an exclusively Majerteen militia from Puntland, the home region of Abdillahi Yusuf.
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Exclusive Interview- Sheikh Sherif Welcomes Dialogue With Washington
MOGADISHU, June 9, 2006--Sheikh Sherif Sheikh Ahmed, Chairman of the Somali Islamic Courts Union, today welcomed a dialogue with the United States, describing the Bush Administration's willingness to talk to them as Washington's "first step towards the right direction."
"We know that a lot of wrong information has been given to the U.S. They have been fed with lies and Somalia has been portrayed to them as a threat, which is baseless," he said.
In an exclusive telephone interview with Bashir Goth of Awdalnews Network on 9th June 2006, Sheikh Sherif also explained that what happened in Mogadishu was a popular uprising and not an Islamic Courts' conquest of the capital, noting that all fighters on the Islamic Courts side were natives of Mogadishu and there were rarely any other Somalis among their ranks let alone foreign elements.
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Jawahir Mohamed Ali Sh. Madar with Rwandese Foreign minister Charles Murigande (left) and an official from Rwandese Foreign ministry.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, June 10, 2006 (SL Times), Somaliland government envoy for Southern Africa, Jawahir Mohamed Ali Sheikh Madar, discussed the issue of Somaliland with Rwandese Foreign minister Charles Murigande.
Jawahir who returned to Hargeysa on last Thursday told reporters that the purpose of her visit to Rwanda was to promote Somaliland and gain diplomatic support for its recognition.
Jawahir said she was impressed by the tremendous progress made by Rwanda in a time span of 10 years.
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By Jamal Gabobe
Seattle, Washington
The gains made by the Islamic Courts of Mogadishu in their most recent battles with some of Mogadishu’s warlords is indisputable. The word “some” is important because despite the many headlines proclaiming “the end of the warlord era” and “the Islamic courts’ takeover of Mogadishu”, neither of these two claims are very accurate. Out of the dozens of warlords operating in Mogadishu, only three (Qanyare, Ilqayte, and Bootaan Ciise) have abandoned their bases in Mogadishu, and two of these are now not very far in Jawhar.
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The Hague, Netherlands , June 08, 2006 – The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) has been following the situation in the Horn of Africa and is deeply concerned at the dramatically deteriorating situation in Somalia and its capital Mogadishu, as widely reported by international media in the recent period. UNPO, as an organization promoting human rights and democracy among its Members worldwide, recognizes that the current situation in Somalia demands the urgent attention of the world community.
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A Somali man stands in front of a machine gun mounted truck supporting an alliance of warlords, Thursday, June 8, 2006 during a rally against the Islamic courts in Karan in northen Mogadishu. Islamic leaders who seized Somalia's capital after weeks of bloody fighting began talks Thursday with the U.N.-backed government that has so far failed to assert any real control over this lawless Horn of Africa nation. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor)
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By ANNE GEARAN
WASHINGTON, June 9, 2006 -- The United States will invite other nations to a strategy session next week on Somalia, where an Islamic militia group has routed U.S.-backed warlords and tightened its grip on the lawless nation.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that European and African nations are among the members of an international consortium that will try to coordinate support for Somalia, which has had no fully working government for 15 years.
McCormack offered few details of the group or its agenda. The short notice reflected concern here about the tightening grip of the militia on the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other cites.
SOMALIA: Tragic Cargo - Part One
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A boat in Bosasso Port, North Eastern Somalia. Boats like these carry as many as 100 migrants when they leave for Yemen.
NAIROBI, Jun 8, 2006 – Every morning at dawn, groups of Ethiopian and Somali migrants arrive on the desert outskirts of the Red Sea port of Bosasso in northeastern Somalia, ready to take the gamble of their lives.
Packed into small fishing boats, the migrants pay US$50 to smugglers to cross the Red Sea. Since 2001, thousands of migrants are known to have taken their lives in their hands, leaving the tip of the African continent for Yemen and Saudi Arabia, hoping to find a better life in the wider world.
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WASHINGTON, June 5, 2006 — Muslim militias claimed Monday to have routed warlords allegedly backed by the United States after weeks of fighting for control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, dealing a setback to U.S. efforts to contain the spread of militant Islam.
U.S. officials and other experts warned that if the militias consolidated their victory they would establish an Islamist state where al-Qaida could secure bases from which it could spread its violent ideology to other East African and Horn of Africa nations.
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The New York Times Editorial
June 7, 2006
Terrorist groups linked to Al Qaeda may just have won a new foothold in the strategic Horn of Africa, as radical Islamist militias captured Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
The immediate concern among many Somalis is a forcible imposition of harsh Islamic law, Taliban style.
The larger international concern is that Mogadishu's new rulers may follow the Taliban's example in another way, sheltering international terrorist operations in a region within tempting striking distance of vulnerable countries on the Arabian peninsula and in East Africa.
The Bush administration wasn't exactly caught looking the other way. But with more than 130,000 U.S. troops tied down in Iraq and some 20,000 more in Afghanistan, and with America's reputation in the Islamic world driven to an all-time low, Washington's ability to respond effectively to a very real danger was severely compromised.
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International News
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WASHINGTON, June 8, 2006 – The Central Intelligence Agency has come under criticism from some U.S. officials for its operation in Somalia where Islamist militia have now taken control.
The officials reportedly feel the CIA's covert effort to finance the secular warlords in their recent bitter battle against the Islamists in Somalia has adversely affected counterterrorism efforts inside that country.
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One tip came from al-Zarqawi's own terror network, military says
The U.S. military on Thursday displayed a photo of what it says is the body of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 8, 2006 (CNN) -- Betrayal inside his al Qaeda in Iraq terror group led to success in a painstaking U.S.-led operation to kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the U.S. military said on Thursday.
The most wanted man in Iraq died in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday evening when two 500-pound bombs slammed into a safe house near Baquba, according to U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell.
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DAVIDSON, N.C., June 8, 2006 -- Davidson College Professor of Political Science Ken Menkhaus was hoping to use his sabbatical year to expand his research on African politics into new parts of the continent. But major developments in Somalia, his principal country of expertise, have forced him back to that troubled land.
Outbreak of a major war in Mogadishu, a sudden victory by an ascendant Islamist movement with possible links to al Qaeda, and allegations of deep U.S. counter-terrorism involvement have combined to thrust Somalia back onto the front page in recent weeks. As one of only a handful of political analysts with extensive experience in Somalia, Menkhaus has had to field a barrage of requests for information and analysis from media, think tanks, governments, and the United Nations.
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Political instability could block deportation of convicted criminals and rejected asylum-seekers
Helsinki, Finland, June 8, 2006 – The Directorate of Immigration must take into consideration recent events in the Somali capital Mogadishu when considering whether or not Somali asylum-seekers, or Somali immigrants who have been convicted of a crime can be sent back to Somalia.
The directorate has been updating its assessment of Somalia’s situation. The occupation of the Somali capital Mogadishu by Islamist fighters on Monday is postponing the publication of the assessment.
"This is a new situation, in a way. We must assess whether or not this is significant with respect to international protection", says Jaana Vuorio, head of the directorate’s Legal and Country Information Unit.
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Western Sahara & Morocco: Behind The Moroccan Wall Of Shame
Mail Guardian Online, 05 June 2006
Eduardo Galeano: COMMENT
The Berlin Wall made the news every day. From dawn to dusk we read about it, heard about it and saw it: the Wall of Shame, the Wall of Infamy, the Iron Curtain.
Eventually, this wall, which deserved to fall, fell. But other walls have sprung up, and continue to spring up, and though they are far larger than the Berlin Wall, little or nothing is said about them.
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New Foundation Will Help Africans Set
Their Own Agenda For Long-Term Development
DAKAR, 6 June 2006 — Based on a deeply-held conviction that the search for solutions to Africa’s development challenges must be led by Africans, the Ford Foundation today formally launched an independent philanthropic foundation for the continent, based here and managed by an experienced and diverse board of African leaders.
The new foundation, TrustAfrica, has just completed a five-year development phase within the Ford Foundation, using the time to explore its potential role, develop ideas, and make initial grants. With a growing track record behind it, and with new democratic governments and an increased focus on regional partnerships and development on the continent, both organizations believe the time is right for TrustAfrica to become a fully independent institution.
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JOURNALISTS MEMORIAL IN BAYEUX (FRANCE)
Reporters Without Borders asks for help in compiling a list of all journalists killed around the world since 1944
Paris, France, June 8, 2006 – The town of Bayeux, in Normandy, has decided to build a memorial (with the help of Reporters Without Borders) to pay tribute to journalists killed while doing their job.
The memorial, entirely devoted to journalists and press freedom, will be the first of its kind in Europe. It will feature a landscaped walkway displaying white stones bearing the names of journalists killed anywhere in the world since 1944.
To build it, Reporters Without Borders seeks the help of all those around the world who value freedom of the press and opinion to draw up a list of journalists so killed
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Editorial
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On last Sunday most of Mogadishu , Somalia ’s former capital, fell to the militia of the “Islamic Courts Union” after weeks of fighting against their rival warlords, the “ Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism”.
Immediately after claiming that his forces seized control in Mogadishu , the ICU’s nominal chairman, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, announced that his group intended to establish an Islamic state in all Somali territories. Sheikh Sharif also denied that the ICU had links with Al-Qaida.
In a letter to a number of world governments and organizations, Sharif Ahmed who studied Sharia law in Libya then in Sudan , said that the United States by backing the ARPCT warlords had contributed considerly to the recent bloodshed in Mogadishu .
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Special Report
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REPORT ON FAMILIARISATION TOUR TO SOMALILAND
In November 2005, the Centre for Human Rights began investigating the possibility of a third destination for the LLM field trip. The reasons for increasing the number of field trip destinations to include Somaliland include the following:
Somaliland is a state in the making; it would be ideal for students on the programme to have a first hand experience of this.
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Opinions
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Why The United States Should Recognize Somaliland
By Ali Deria, Nashville, TN, USA
It is not surprising that Muslim fundamentalists in Somalia were easily able to fill the vacuum created by a lack of government in Somalia. By recognizing and supporting Somaliland, it would be impossible for the Extremists to continue to spread.
Though Somaliland people have confirmed their rejection of Talibanism and created a peaceful democratic country for the past fifteen years, not a single country has recognized Somaliland. No wonder that the Fundamentalist Movements in Somalia and elsewhere are laughing and ridiculing the US and its coalition for their lack of winning the war on terrorism.
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By Ahmed M.I. Egal
One of the indignities that the reputations of great men have to endure is their usurpation by charlatans, liars and other political ‘has-beens’ or ‘never-will-bes’ hoping to cloak their self-seeking mendacity with the nobility, wisdom and charisma of the great man they have chosen to misrepresent. Of course, these upstarts wait until the great man is dead in order to try to usurp his prestige for their own ends, since they could no more face him with their lies than a mouse face a lion.
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Abdikarim Hajji Ibrahim, Ottawa, Canada
On behalf of the family of the late Hajji Ibrahim Nur Jama. I would like to send my congratulations on Somaliland's 15th Anniversary to His Excellency President Dahir Rayale Kahin and to the First lady Huda Barkhat Aden.
I would also like to convey similar messages to the Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament , Senates(Guurti) Members and all Government officials both at local and central levels. And also my best wishes go to my people around the world and particularly those who are living in Somaliland and enjoying the freedom of their country and striving to make their country an example in Africa. May Allah guide us to the right path and help us achieve our goals through his means…Aamiin".
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Somaliland Times Owes Samatar Brothers An Apology
By Ahmed Keyse Ali, Hargeysa
Last week Somaliland Times published an editorial under the title ‘Ayan Hersi and the Samatars”. The editorialist recounted the plight and travails of Ayan Hersi, a Somali born Dutch novice politician who fell from grace after authorities discovered that she lied to immigration department when she applied for asylum in the Netherlands. Half of the Somaliland Times editorial revolved around innuendos and misinformation Ayan Hersi spread about Islam and Muslims.
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By Rhoda A. Rageh
A dead man does not fart. This Somali aphorism simply means when one dies all vital signs of life leave him and it is impossible for him to do normal bodily functions like farting. The dead union between Somalia and Somaliland was in fact dead before it started and Somalilanders were trying to make a dead man fart for thirty years. The coffin was nailed in 1990 and the dead man is now a corpse six feet under the ground. The desperate cry of the so called UNS is for something that will never be. And unlike in 1960 when vote rigging shocked the people in Somaliland and the overwhelming ‘no’ vote to the constitution turned into overwhelming ‘yes’ Somalilanders said ‘no’ to that union and it will remain ‘no.’ Now the world experiences and understands what Somaliland had for over thirty years.
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By Faysal Diriye, Ottawa, Canada
With Somaliland recognition gaining momentum in recent weeks, Somali websites have seen a flood of articles by panic-struck Siyadist remnants on TFG payroll.
Dr Pham, Dr Jean Daudelin and ICG reports have been hatefully slandered in different articles where character assassination replaced honest and clever discussion. Feeling the heat and running out of time before Somaliland’s upcoming recognition, the burgeoning number notes presented by the Siyadist writers, representing a myriad of grievance and personal attacks have prevented them from pursuing a cohesive and integrated set of argumentation underlying where if for example the authors of the ICG report erred.
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Taliban-style takeover power in Mogadishu. What is next?
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Mogadishu, The Pearl of the Indian Ocean has fallen to the hands of Fundamentalists led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.
As the development in Mogadishu unfolds, these are some of the pertinent questions that need to be analytically discussed and critically assessed in the coming days.
What is next? Would the Islamists declare the formation of an Islamist government in Mogadishu? That is expected.
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Mr. President: Thanks, But No Thanks
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By Farah Ali Jama
The President’s dark past, suspicious ascendancy to power; sheer ineptness, unfavourable policies, corruption, and shadowy actions are an embarrassment to the intrepid people of Somaliland, an insult to the long and bitter liberation struggle of this country, and a chagrin to the Somali national Movement (SNM) and its living and martyred Mujahideen (may God rest their soul in peace). In addition, his boring leadership style; imprudence, uncharismatic nature, lack of pragmatism, dishonesty, and constant blunders are a colossal combination of political deficiencies and a liability to UDUB Party as well as a set back to the cause, aspirations, and interest of the people and existence of the democratic Republic of Somaliland.
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By Abdirahman Ibrahim Abdillahi
A general definition of corruption is the use of public office for private gain. This includes bribery and extortion, which necessarily involve at least two parties, and other types of malfeasance that a public official can carry out alone, including fraud and embezzlement. Appropriation of public assets for private use and embezzlement of public funds by politicians and high-level officials (associated with "grand" corruption in various countries, some of which are beset by kleptocracies) have such clear and direct adverse impacts on a country's economic development that their costs do not warrant sophisticated discussion.
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| FEATURES & COMMENTARY |
SPECIAL REPORT:
Collapse Of US-Supported Somali Warlords Poses Strategic Challenges For Washington, And The Horn
Gregory R. Copley, President, The International Strategic Studies Association (Washington, DC, USA); President, Global Information System, Inc.; Editor-in-Chief, Defense & Foreign Affairs Publications, and Founding Director, Future Directions International (FDI) (Perth, Western Australia).
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis – Confidential
Founded in 1972. Formerly Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily.
Volume XXIV, No. 36 Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS, with input from GIS sources in Mogadishu and the Horn of Africa. The fall of Mogadishu, Somalia’s largest city and sometime capital, on June 5, 2006, to Islamist-jihadist militias linked with al-Qaida was a major blow to the US Central Intelligence Agency and US Defense Department, quite apart from the damage it portended for stability in the Horn of Africa and East Africa. But within the Washington, DC, power establishment, the collapse of the Somali “warlords” of the “Alliance for Restoration of Police and Counter Terrorism” proved to be a vindication for the US State Department which — in the continual power struggle between Defense and State in the US capital — had been left uninformed of the operations being undertaken in Somalia by the CIA and Defense.
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Hargeysa Journal
The Signs Say Somaliland, But The World Says Somalia
Edna Adan Ismail, with Somaliland's flag, is the foreign minister of the republic
By MARC LACEY
HARGEYSA, Somaliland, June 5, 2006 — Edna Adan Ismail may get angry when she reads this. In fact, she may pick up the phone and vent, berating anyone with the gall to suggest that this city sits inside Somalia.
She will go on at length about the unique history of this region in the northwestern part of a place that she says used to be called Somalia but no longer is. She will describe the declaration 15 years ago making this an independent land and the referendum a decade later affirming it. She will emphatically say that this is not Somalia. It is Somaliland. Got it?
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The new team shows its face
Might a victory for Somalia's assorted Islamists offer some hope for its people?
NAIROBI, Jun 8th 2006 – THE speed with which Islamist militias this week at last seized control of Mogadishu, Somalia's ravaged capital, was telling. Gunmen loyal to secular warlords fled without much of a fight, losing a battle not just of territory but also, it seems, of hearts and minds.
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Anti-terror efforts of CIA suffer a blow
Islamist fighters mobilized yesterday in Somalia after claiming victory over a US-backed warlord alliance in Mogadishu. (Ali Musa Abdi/ AFP/ Getty Images)
By John Donnelly
PRETORIA, June 6, 2006 – Islamic fighters claimed control over the Somali capital of Mogadishu yesterday following weeks of deadly street battles that left hundreds dead and wounded, dealing a major blow to US counterterrorism efforts in the Horn of Africa region.
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Storm Warning: Somalia
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By: Rene Wadlow June 6, 2006
One of the aims of Peace Journalism is the early warning of conflicts where current peace-making structures and institutions are inadequate and thus require increased attention and action by peace-makers.
Although Somalia is in a crucial geo-strategic position on the Horn of Africa facing the Arabian peninsula, the country has largely slipped from world attention except for specialists. The government had disappeared in 1991, proving that people can live without a State.
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Article by John Prendergast, a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group (ICG), published in the Washington Post on 7 June 2006.
It was before "Black Hawk Down," before Somalia became the only country in the world without a government, that I took my first trip there. It changed my life. This was in the mid-1980s, when the United States was underwriting a warlord dictator in support of our Cold War interests, at the clear expense of basic human rights.
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