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By LUCAS BARASA
Nairobi, May 07, 2009 – Somalia MPs are now demanding compensation from
some Western countries for "looting" the horn of Africa country’s water
resources for the last 15 years.
The countries, the legislators said, have engaged in illegal fishing and
dumping of toxic wastes on the Somali coast line.
"We want our country to be compensated for years of looting of our water
resources," Mr Ashareh, the leader of the delegation said.
As a result of these activities by the countries, they said, Somalis
found ways of protecting their water resources "which gave birth to the
pirates."
The MPs welcomed Somalia’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdillahi Omaar
statement to reporters in Mogadishu on Wednesday, accusing some foreign
ships of "illegal fishing and of dumping industrial waste into Somali
waters."
The minister said the illegal activities helped piracy in Somali coast
by being a pretext to "unscrupulous individuals."
Piracy is rife in the Somali coastal waters and in the Gulf of Aden
where nearly 20 ships with nearly 250 crew members on board are being
held hostage for ransom by pirates.
Several countries have deployed warships along the east Africa coastline
to protect ships from hijackings.
Somalia, which has not had an effective central government for nearly
the past two decades, does not have navy or a strong army to protect
Somalia’s territorial waters from the rampant piracy, illegal fishing
and the dumping of industrial waste by foreign ships.
Mr Omaar further defended a maritime agreement signed with Kenya last
month that caused huge controversy in the war torn east African country.
The two governments last Month signed a memorandum of understanding on
their maritime boundary which the two countries say will facilitate the
presentation of both country’s submissions to the Commission on the
Limits of the Continental Shelf by May as required under the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
"This (Memorandum of Understanding) is not about the government giving
other country a span of our land or sea. It is about Kenya and Somalia
granting each other non-objection in respect of their submissions on the
Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf to the Commission ( on the Limits
of the Continental Shelf)," Mohamed Abdillahi Omaar, Somalia’s Foreign
Minister told reporters in Mogadishu.
However, the maritime agreement between Somalia and its southern
neighbor has caused an angry uproar in Somalia and is increasingly being
seen by many including some officials within Somali government itself as
being compromising the territorial integrity of Somalia and
inadvertently ceding land to Kenya.
The deal is expected to be brought before Somalia parliament soon and
government ministers would be questioned regarding the maritime
agreement with Kenya.
Source: Daily Nation, May 07, 2009
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