CARE Hargeysa To Be Probed For Allegedly Harming The National Economy

Berbera, Somaliland, December 30, 2006 (SL Times) – The Berbera port manager, Eng. Ali Omar Muhammad in a press conference held in his office Thursday disclosed that the port of Berbera authority had recently made a purchase of $640,000 US dollars worth of dock loading and stacking equipment used for lifting goods and container freight.

The Berbera port authority manager said, the port authority made these purchases to replace the current old equipment that cannot cope with the in coming and out going port freight traffic. Eng. Ali Omar said, one lift crane cost $540,000 alone while the rest of the equipment was $100,000 put together.

GENEVA, December 27, 2006 – As the fighting in Somalia intensifies, the UN refugee agency is mobilizing staff and resources in preparation for possible widespread displacement in the region.

Although no large-scale refugee movements from Somalia have yet been recorded in neighboring countries, UNHCR is immediately positioning relief items in the region for up to 50,000 people, as well as trucks and emergency staff.

By Ahmed Kheyre, London, UK

After the bitter fighting in Somalia between Ethiopian forces and the militia Islamic Court militias, with the rag-tag hoodlums of the gang in Baydhabo hiding behind Ethiopian tanks, it seems clear that neither side scored an overwhelming victory, expect for Somaliland.

Contrary   to the claims by either side, the Ethiopian forces are in a jam, if they leave, they will leave a power vacuum, and if they stay they will ensure the lasting enmity of the Somalis and become bogged down. On the other hand, the militias are in full flight, they have overreached and exposed themselves as weak and without any political or military tactics.

A War of Miscalculation

By Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar

The UIC   has already made its mistake.

They threatened Ethiopia and stirred the wasp’s nest, but they have not bothered to prepare themselves with protective clothing.   They had the guts, the belief, the belligerence but not the arms, the organization or the depth of pocket necessary for waging a war (Jihad) against Ethiopia. They believed their own rhetoric of God being on their side, of representing all Somalis, of having already taken over and centralized the whole power in the nation in their hand.

By Martin Fletcher

Ethiopian troops, with Washingtons tacit approval, have routed the Islamists who seized power in Somalia last June. The official Government forged by the international community in 2004 can take power. Good news, surely?

As one of the few journalists to have visited Mogadishu recently, I fear it is not. Far from restoring stability to Somalia, this week's developments could well plunge that country back into the protracted anarchy from which it emerged only recently. What struck me most forcefully during a week in Mogadishu this month was the gulf between Washington's view of the so-called Union of Islamic Courts and that of the Somali people.

By J. Peter Pham

12.29.2006

With most Westerners in the throes of holiday mirth this week, an estimated 20,000 Ethiopian troops deployed to neighboring Somalia went on the offensive against the forces of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). Ethiopian forces are now on the outskirts of Somalia’s sometime-capital, Mogadishu, after retreating Islamist militants apparently abandoned the city without a fight. The ICU’s rout (compliments of Ethiopia) is impressive, since the Islamist group had captured Mogadishu in June, gradually won control of most of southern and central Somalia, and cowed the semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland—the one-time base of President Abdillahi Yusuf, who heads the utterly ineffective but internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government—into hastily imposing sharia law last month.

Editor's View

December 29, 2006

Phew! Good riddance! The nightmare is over. Yes, I mean the Union of Islamic Courts, UIC. They had their day under the sun and they blew it. They had the support of all Somali people when they stormed to power, routed the notorious warlords, restored peace in Mogadishu, opened the airports and seaports, started addressing looted property issues and began looking like a wise authority.

But instead of capitalizing on the people’s genuine support and willingness to give in and give up everything, they had become power lusty, belligerent and fatwa-crazy. Instead of building bridges with the community, improving services, opening hospitals, winning the trust of international organizations and NGO’s to help them with projects to generate employment, they burned all bridges.

THE SOMALI STRIKES (The Wall Street Journal, New York)

The armed conflicts that so often roil Africa rarely engage U.S. interests except in a humanitarian sense. But that cannot be said of the war that has now broken out between Ethiopia and the Islamists who seized control of much of Somalia in June. Here America's strategic interests are very much engaged, even if the actors in the fight range, morally speaking, from the unpalatable to the unacceptable.

Among the unpalatables is the increasingly autocratic Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister of 15 years, who has deployed as many as 20,000 troops in neighboring Somalia and may soon control its capital, Mogadishu. Mr. Zenawi claims to be acting on behalf of Somalia's internationally recognized but weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which was barely holding on in the regional city of Baidoa until Ethiopia's intervention.