WASHINGTON, Mar. 24, 2007 _ A U.S. citizen imprisoned in Ethiopia reportedly told investigators that he was briefly in an al Qaida camp in Somalia and had tried to fire a gun during a clash with foreign troops in the south of the war-torn country, but denied he was a fighter or had undergone military training.
Amir Mohamed Meshal, 24, of Tinton Falls, N.J., made the statements in early January while he was being held in Kenya for illegally entering the country, according to an account provided to McClatchy Newspapers on condition that the source remains anonymous.
HARGEISA, March 26, 2007 – Somalia and Somaliland remain some of the most dehumanized states in the world. This has been due to war that has lasted for almost sixteen years. This is not made better by the harsh climatic conditions and the prevailing poverty of the populace. Several years after many countries have federal legislation that relate directly to individuals with disabilities particularly with children and the youth, these countries are yet to get their footing right.
It took a strong man and an arc saw to cut loose the padlock on Abdi Hafid’s leg. Scenes like these are a common occurrence in the school.
MOGADISHU, March 27, 2007 (AFP) - Two cars exploded in overnight attacks on an Ethiopian military compound in Mogadishu, killing an apparent suicide attacker and a taxi driver who was shot when Ethiopian troops retaliated, officials said Tuesday.
"A suicide car targeted an Ethiopian military compound, crossed the checkpoint and hit a wall at the main gate. The car exploded, the driver was killed but we don't know if there was fatality on the Ethiopian side," said a senior Somali military officer, who requested anonymity.
Nairobi, Kenya, March 27, 2007 – The Ugandan government is reviewing its involvement in Somalia as its troops await the arrival of peacekeepers from other African countries.
"We are assessing the situation on the ground and the magnitude of the assignment before the government decides on the way forward," Isaac Musumba, the State Minister for Regional Co-operation, said.
He added that he had not received any communication from the African Union regarding when the peacekeepers promised by other African countries would join the Ugandan troops.
MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 25, 2007 (AP) - Ethiopian troops opened fire after a major explosion occurred at an Ethiopian army camp on the outskirts of the Somali capital Monday, and one person was killed, a witness said.
It was not clear what had caused the explosion or who the troops may have been firing at, and officials were not immediately available for comment.
Djibouti, March 23, 2007 – In an attempt to activate the role of intellectuals in the conflict-ridden Horn of African region, Djibouti will offer a forum to the region's intellectuals to debate and start a dialogue on the region's economic, political and social problems in a conference due to be held in the second half of November 2007.
Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh extended his full support to the conference during a meeting with members of the organizing committee, who held a preliminary session on 12 March to review the arrangements related to the conference.
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Marines deter, detect, defend and mitigate terrorist activity.
CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti, March 27, 2007 — With the temperature nearing the 100-degree mark and the scorching sun of Djibouti beating down, Marines from the 6th Provisional Security Company (PSC) stood watch around Camp Lemonier March 15, as they do every day as part of the security measures in place to protect all the valuable assets on station.
While in Djibouti, the mission of 6th PSC, which is comprised of 12 reserve units from eight different states, is to deter, detect, defend and mitigate terrorist activity in order to provide a stable platform for Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa to accomplish its mission. Part of their responsibility is the security of each entry and exit point of the camp and conducting joint patrols with the Djiboutian army.
Mogadishu, 31 March 2007 - The largest exodus ever witnessed in the last 15 years is going on in the Somali capital Mogadishu as heavy fighting continued for the third day, Somalia's local Shabelle Media Network reported Saturday, saying even it's staff are also joining the people fleeing the city.
In a notice posted on its website, Shabelle notifies online visitors that the network is difficult to update news stories as previously due to the intensifying fighting in Mogadishu.
"The fighting has also affected our personnel as they are increasingly becoming part of the civilians fleeing from the capital city," said the notice. "Indiscriminate shelling by both warring sides of Ethiopian soldiers and Somali insurgents is making every move difficult as the living standard in Mogadishu is coming to its worst and all businesses are closed."
MOGADISHU, Mar 31, 2007 – Artillery fire rocked Mogadishu on Saturday as Ethiopian and Somali troops backed by helicopter gunships launched a third day of a major offensive against Islamist insurgents and clan militiamen.
Ethiopia says its forces have killed 200 rebels since the assault began on Thursday. Scores of civilians have also died and hundreds have been wounded in what the International Committee of the Red Cross says is the capital's worst fighting for more than 15 years.
"I have been here 16 years and never seen anything like this," Salado Yebarow, who lives between the main soccer stadium and the presidential palace, told Reuters by phone. "The whole city is being shelled indiscriminately."
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Mogadishu, Mar 30, 2007- At least 80 people - many of them civilians - have been killed in intensified fighting in Somalia over the past two days, according to hospital sources Friday.
They said at least 300 people had been wounded in the fighting - some of the fiercest Mogadishu has seen since the transitional government seized the capital in late December.
Meanwhile an Ethiopian helicopter scouring the Somali capital for insurgents was shot down on and crash-landed near Mogadishu's International Airport.
London, March 22, 2007 – Heavy fighting is currently taking place in Mogadishu as forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the large Ethiopian army force supporting it have been attacked by armed opposition groups. Several captured TFG or Ethiopian soldiers were dragged through the streets by their feet, stoned and set on fire. Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in cross-fire.
23 March - Eritrea, Sudan and Somaliland are strongly advised to carefully monitor "a developing and potentially dangerous situation" arising from second-generation locust infestations that are now developing, according to the latest UN update on of the crop-devouring insects.
"There have been several new developments in the past few days in three key areas," UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said, noting that the second-generation infestations from an outbreak in Eritrea in December are now concentrating in a 60 kilometres by 60 kilometres area on the Red Sea coast straddling the Sudanese-Eritrean border.
Main Developments
This week saw the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since the ICU was ousted by TFG/Ethiopian forces at the end of December. Gun battles and mortar attacks – on the seaport, various neighbourhoods in Mogadishu, Hamar Jajab market and other locations – took place and civilian casualties were reported. Fighting between TFG/Ethiopian forces and opposing militia seriously escalated Wednesday (21 March)
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"We see our release as a victory for the people of S/land and freedom of speech" Gabobe
Yusuf A Gabobe, chief editor of Somaliland Times talks to local media, seconds after the journalists release outside Mandera prison. Muhammad O Sheekh, the Awdal Haatuf reporter is standing behind Yusuf |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 31, 2007 (SL Times) – The jailed Haatuf journalists, held in Mandera High Security prison for the past 3 months were released on Thursday, after the President of Somaliland, Dahir Rayale Kahin issued a presidential ‘Pardon’ decree. Hargeysa Regional Court had sentenced the journalists early this month to prison terms, ranging from 2 to 2½ years. The journalists were jailed for publishing articles on government corruption, which the government interpreted as ‘insulting the President and his household’.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 31, 2007 (SL Times) – Two large mysterious vessels were first spotted last month in mid February, off the Somaliland coastline, and were said to be carrying out some sort of operation along the coast. The Somaliland Ministry of Water & Minerals (W & M) claimed two weeks after the vessels were first seen in Berbera, that the vessels belong to TGS-Nopec, the Norwegian geophysical seismic survey specialists, which the ministry of W & M contracted in 2006 to gather seismic data for oil and gas deposits off the S/land coastline. Yet, many argue that the ministry of W & M has not produced one shred of evidence to back this claim.
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Commentary
The pretext used by Tony Blair as his reasons for slumming the door to Somaliland quest to gain recognition was the fact that the ‘UK has signed to a common EU position and to many UN Security Council Presidential Statements…made references to the territorial Integrity of Somalia.’
The statement did not specify who and what Presidential statements the prime minister is referring to. The following, however are some noteworthy historical facts that suggest the so-called ‘territorial integrity of Somalia’ is irrelevant to Somaliland because Somaliland has its own territorial integrity too. Rather it is fair to suggest that Britain never believed that Somalia has territorial integrity according to Britain’s past involvement in the history of that country.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 30, 2007 – Shells rained down on Mogadishu and a helicopter was hit in a second day of battles on Friday as Ethiopian and Somali troops sought to flush out militant Islamist insurgents in the worst fighting for months.
After around 30 people died on Thursday, terrified residents said there was no let-up in the fighting across the bullet-scarred city on the Indian Ocean coast.
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PRESS RELEASE
March 24, 2007
The Somaliland Policy and Reconstruction Institute (SOPRI) announces the sale of the Video (9 DVD's) that has been produced from the 2006 Somaliland Conference in Arlington, Virginia ( USA). The price is $40 dollars. Limited copies were produced and please contact us immediately to purchase your copy; do not miss to buy this important collection
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A Somali soldier imprisoned by militia. Somalia's powerful Hawiye clan has released government forces captured during bloody clashes last week as the Somali government sought dialogue with the clan in a bid to pacify Mogadishu.(AFP/Jose Cendon) |
MOGADISHU, March 26, 2007 (AFP) - Somalia's powerful Hawiye clan on Monday released government forces captured during bloody clashes last week as the Somali government sought dialogue with the clan in a bid to pacify Mogadishu.
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A stockpile of illicit arms is guarded by a Kenyan police 15 March 2007 in Nairobi. A rise in illegal arms trafficking has deepened insecurity fears in Kenya, already struggling to overcome its image as a crime-ridden country plagued by terrorism threats. |
Nairobi, Kenya, 31 March 2007 - A rise in illegal arms trafficking has deepened insecurity fears in Kenya, already struggling to overcome its image as a crime-ridden country plagued by terrorism threats.
MOGADISHU, 31 March 2007 - Hundreds of more Ethiopian soldiers were headed to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, as insurgents battled government troops and their Ethiopian allies for the third straight day.
The Ethiopian military convoy that included tanks passed through Beletwein, a town 330km northwest of Mogadishu, witnesses said on Saturday.
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by Prof. James Petras
The structure of power of the world imperial system can best be understood through a classification of countries according to their political, economic, diplomatic and military organization.
Introduction:
The imperial system is much more complex than what is commonly referred to as the “US Empire”. The US Empire, with its vast network of financial investments, military bases, multi-national corporations and client states, is the single most important component of the global imperial system (1). Nevertheless, it is overly simplistic to overlook the complex hierarchies, networks, follower states and clients that define the contemporary imperial system (2). To understand empire and imperialism today requires us to look at the complex and changing system of imperial stratification.
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The people of Bweni in Congo are generally supportive of President Joseph Kabila. But the problems facing his government are tremendous. ( Tyler Hicks/The New York Times) |
March 27, 2007
KINDU, Congo: The highway out of town is a single dirt motorcycle track. The colonial-era railroad has finally broken down. The last of the mighty river barges lies rotting on shore with weeds shooting up through its ribs.
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Mogadishu, Somalia, March 28, 2007 - The Young Mujahideen Movement in Somalia, a group which has claimed several recent attacks striking peacekeeping, Ethiopian, and Somali targets, issued a 3:38 minute video with a statement to its Somali website today, Wednesday, March 28, 2007, claiming responsibility for a suicide car bombing in Mogadishu. This message was also distributed to jihadist forums. The operation is indicated to be in revenge for a Somali Muslim woman, Suuban Maalin Ali Hassan, who alleged that Ethiopian forces raped and tortured her at gunpoint. |
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Journalists working for Haatuf Media Network, among them Mr. Muhamad Rashid Farha (2nd left upper row) with Mr. Hassan Shire Sheikh, head of the EHAHRD-Net delegation (3rd left, upper row) |
Objectives of the mission
It is the denial of a fair trial to Yusuf Gabobe and his fellow accused that has made this mission necessary. It was believed that a direct assessment of the situation on spot as well as proactive cooperation with the civil society in Somaliland was necessary to actively reinforce local and international efforts to lobby the authorities for affording a fair trial to the detained journalists. The objectives of the mission therefore were:
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International News
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LONDON, March 27, 2007 - As tensions escalate between Iran and the West, Prime Minster Tony Blair warned Tuesday that Britain's campaign to free 15 captured sailors and marines would move into a "different phase" if they were not released by Tehran.
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VIENNA, 26 March 2007 - The OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Eva Biaudet, issued the following statement today:
"In 1807 the British Parliament passed a bill to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. Yet two centuries later, the cruel exploitation of men, women and children remains unfettered. Today's modern slavery - human trafficking -- has found refuge in the loop-holes of insufficient legislation, in structural weaknesses of our economic and migration policies, in corruption, ignorance and indifference.
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Stockholm, March 28, 2007 – Safia Benaouda, a 17-year-old girl from Stockholm, has been released from a prison located in the Horn of Africa.
The girl's mother, who is chairwoman of Sweden's Muslim Council, was informed by the foreign ministry on Tuesday night that her daughter had been put on a plane back to Sweden, Svenska Dagbladet reports.
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Two weeks ago in this space, I reported that the supporters of Somalia's defeated Islamic Courts Union (ICU) were reconstituting themselves as the "Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations" (PRM) and beginning to undertake the same insurgency strategy and unconventional tactics which foreign jihadis and Sunni Arab insurgents, often functioning in an at least operational alliance, have employed to deadly effect in Iraq. Developments over the last ten days have proven my analysis of the situation to have been on target
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Editorial
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After spending almost three months in jail, the editor of this newspaper, Yusuf A. Gabobe, and my two colleagues, Ali Abdi Dini and Mohamed Omar Sheik, are happy to have our freedom back. During our incarceration, two factors helped in keeping our spirits up: our conviction that we were fighting for a righteous cause, and the outpouring of support that we received from Somalilanders inside and outside the country, civil society, the independent media, friends of Somaliland and international human rights organizations. We thank them all for standing by us and promise to redouble our efforts to provide them with reliable news and sharp analysis.
Although our government took an illegal and unjust action against us, we reiterate that we have no axe to grind with either the government or anyone else. Our first and foremost commitment is to our readers, and we shall do all we can to keep it that way.
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Special Report |
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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By Ahmed M.I. Egal
Introduction
The problems bedeviling Somalia, and therefore indirectly bedeviling Somaliland, can be summarized as those particular to ‘failed states’. A ‘failed state’ is essentially a country in which state authority has collapsed and which has, therefore, imploded into a state of anarchy characterized by fewer or greater numbers of warring factions each of whom is trying to either maintain its grip over a given swathe of territory or impose its authority over the others. Yugoslavia is the European example of a ‘failed state’ while Africa has produced the largest number of such states including Liberia, Ivory Coast, DRC and, of course, the granddaddy of all ‘failed states’, Somalia – the subject of this paper.
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Imagine Somaliland As Offshoot Republic Of China In Africa!
By By Yassin M. Ismail, Kent UK
Somaliland’s quest for international recognition is increasing fading into a mist of uncertainty. Despite continued efforts by the Hargeisa administration as well as individual campaigners to convince the international Community that Somaliland is worthy of the status, the world has been so far unequivocally reluctant to recognize Somaliland as sovereign entity. For Somaliland this is frustratingly distressing.
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Somaliland May Be Teetering Toward Failure
What Can Be Done To Avoid That?
PART ONE
By Noah Arre
It is unfortunate but is a fact that Somalia as a sovereign state is no more. It is also painful but true that a nation that was once a model of pride and democracy for black Africa,…..it was the first African country that through election peacefully transferred power from one president to the next in 1967… from Adam Abdulla Osman to Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, seems to have wiped itself off the world map forever and the Irish man of Africa (Somali) is today in fact the outcast of the continent.
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By Ismail Ahmed
Would a Majeerteen-ruled Somalia be better off or worse off than it was before the Ethiopian invasion?
Has Col. Abdillahi Yusuf yet reached his long cherished goal that one day he would bring the giant Hawiye and other Jubblanders under his military rule with help of foreign forces?
Would Ethiopia keep Somalia permanently as its satellite “client state” in collaboration with present Majeerteenians rulers?
Would Ethiopia’s policy to keep a tiny minority on top of other Majority Somalis bring peace and stability to that of east African country, where clan allegiance has become next to religion?
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Dr Mohamed Dirie Abdillahi, Hargeysa, Somaliland
When the Haatuf saga begun, I, for one, thought that the Haatuf journalists were the victim of an overzealous chap who was trying to please his superiors and that they would be freed soon. It was never to be.
Instead, what happened is the unthinkable---a trail and a conviction all in the infamous Mandera dungeon---the same one that served Siyad Barre as a jail for prisoners of conscience awaiting execution.
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Earlier this month the Awdal Diaspora community in the UK signed a petition in support of Hibo Mohamed’s appeal to President Rayaale. Other Somaliland people in the Diaspora have done the same. The president responded to the appeal by freeing the Haatufnews journalists. Therefore, we, the undermentioned Awdal Diaspora community in the UK would like to express our appreciation to President Daahir Rayaale Kahin.
As a nation we are always quick to condemn our leaders when we think they are in the wrong but we always fail to praise them when they do good deeds.
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By Faisal M. Aideed, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia To: Somaliland Parliament Sincerely, This is a petition that will be submitted to the Somaliland parliament to start the impeachment process for the president, Dahir Rayale Kahin.
Due to severe complications of financial wrong doings by the president and his unconstitutional roles in over throwing or couping the National Election Commission (NEC) and confiscating their properties such as personnel mobile phones and vehicles in front of the public instead of recognizing and prizing their well-done job. This person has proved more than once that he has betrayed the laws of Somaliland constitution and has violated the trust of the citizens who brought him to the power.
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It is true that History repeats itself with different actors serving the same function at different times. It was only a little more then a century ago when in the 1870s, Ali Yusuf Keenadiid returned from Arabia with about three dozens of Hadhrami musketeers and a band of devoted subordinates. With their help, he called himself Sultan and carved out the small kingdom in Hobyo after conquering the peaceful local Hawiye clans. After he found it hard to establish his dream over the Hawiye, he invited European Colonial Powers through the recommendations of Pietro Antonelli, the famous Italian who mediated between the French and the Majerteen Sultan of Bargal who wrecked and pirated the French Ship of Amical and then took huge amounts of gold bars from French Indo-china.
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Ahmed, 17, stands on the roof of a building occupied by the African Union troops to monitor the situation in the center of the Somali capital Mogadishu. |
Mogadishu, March 30, 2007 - Like most teenagers of his age, 17-year-old Ahmed has great hopes for the future, even though his past is filled with the nightmares of Somalia's bloody inter-clan power struggle.
The fighting - about 16 years of civil war that has defied more than 14 attempts to restore a functional government - does not stop teenagers like Ahmed from dreaming, but their hopes are often simple, if unobtainable. |
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Nuruddin Farah, Never Writing Far From Home
March 25, 2007
African novelists can become international celebrities, but it's often as much about the politics as the writing.
Nigeria 's Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, might be best known for his fiery denunciations of his home country, which executed Ken Saro-Wiwa, the famed playwright. Egypt's Naguib Mahfouz, another Nobel laureate, stayed at home in Cairo -- and was stabbed by Islamic militants for his political liberalism. Kenya's Ngugi wa Thiong'o fled for 22 years; when he and his wife returned for a brief visit, they were given a hero's welcome -- then brutally beaten in a home invasion.
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Text of analysis by BBC Monitoring's Daud Aweis on March 27, 2007
Despite the fact that majority of Somalis share one ethnicity, one language and the Islamic religion, a dizzying division of sub-clans dominates the every day life of a Somali person. Somalia's largely pastoral 11-million population has a long history of clan disputes, typically over land, grazing rights or water, with each major clan divided into subclans which are further divided into more subclans, some hostile to one another, even within the same major clan.
First modern political movement
The year 1943 was a first in modern Somali history. In that year, the Somali Youth League (SYL) was formed to fight for independence from colonial rule and one of its main objectives was to eradicate what it termed tribalism among Somalis. It wanted to ensure that the name Somali became the identity of everyone in Somalia, no matter what clan they belonged to. The idea was backed by many, but doubts about its practical implementation emerged soon after independence in 1960.
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Soccer success helps Somali-Bantu refugees adjust to life in U.S
31 March 2007
Members of the Somali-Bantu Young Brothers soccer team celebrate a goal during a recent game at Uihlein Soccer Park. The team competes in league playoffs today.
The Somali-Bantu Young Brothers have dominated recent soccer opponents with victories of 30-2 and 14-3.
But the team's members, who are in their late teens and early 20s, aren't cocky as they head into their league's playoff games today at Uihlein Soccer Park.
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Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, March 29, updated March 30, 2 pm -- The UN, at which terrorism remains without a definition, decides in a decidedly murky process who can have access as a journalist to its briefings. Who decides, and how, were brought to the fore on Thursday by a denial of renewed accreditation. The UN's current definition is that a journalist's emphasis must be on original content and not commentary, and that reporters should not ask long and "non-governmental organization-like" questions.
The UN's policy on questioning, however, appears to some to be unevenly applied, based on the size of the media outlet. The UN's dismissing of commentary is called anachronistic and out-of-step with the online or "New" media, and an impediment to outreach, particularly in the UN's host country.
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks Mogadishu, 22 March 2007 - The Somali capital of Mogadishu has witnessed daily mortar attacks over the past few months but serious efforts are being made to improve its fragile security, according to the mayor.
"Stabilising the city is the number-one priority," Mahmud Hassan Ali, mayor of Mogadishu, said on Tuesday. "First, I want to establish security in the city and second, I will focus on health and education."
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