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Violence Continues To Claim
Lives In Somali Capital, UN Says |
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Mogadishu, March 6, 2010 – The ongoing clashes in Somalia’s
capital, Mogadishu, continue to spark the concern of the
United Nations, which reported today that violence this week
claimed some 35 lives.
Dozens more were wounded in the 2 to 3 March fighting
between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and
insurgents.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 6, 2010 — It seems that there is a
new breed of pirate out there, inland pirates,
and their new quarry is trucks, not ships, carrying food.
On Monday, the United
Nations World
Food Program said that a pirate gang had ventured dozens
of miles from shore and was holding three large trucks and
their drivers who had just dropped off life-saving rations.
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By JESSE J. HOLLAND
Washington, March 6, 2010 — Supreme Court justices on Wednesday
questioned whether a former prime minister of Somalia can be
sued in U.S. courts over claims that he oversaw killings and
torture in his home country.
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By Robert
Barnes
Washington, March 6, 2010 – The federal government argues
that it is up to the executive branch, not the judicial, to
decide when foreign officials deserve immunity from charges
of human rights abuses filed in U.S. courts.
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A hooded
German commando escorts a suspected pirate
arrested in the Indian Ocean. |
DAR ES SALAAM, March 6, 2010 – The U.S. envoy to Tanzania
urged African nations on Wednesday to prosecute Somali
pirates apprehended in the Indian Ocean as a way of tackling
the continent's growing piracy problem.
"Right now, Kenya and Seychelles are the only two countries
in Africa that are prosecuting pirates," said U.S.
Ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt. "More countries need to come
forward. That's how to stop it."
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MOGADISHU, March 6, 2010 – More than a dozen people were
killed and many more were hurt when two clans clashed in
central Somalia, residents and community elders said on
Friday.
The Qubeys clan and the Suleyman sub-clan of the Habargidir
clan started fighting the previous day in Amara village, 90
km north of the pirate base town of Haradheeere. The fight
was over a dispute over land ownership.
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Bintel Group Awards Redknee
License Expansion |
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TORONTO, March 6, 2010
(PRNewswire via COMTEX) – Redknee Supports Growth of Bintel
Operation in Gabon Redknee (TSX:RKN), a leading provider of
business-critical billing and charging software and
solutions for communications service providers, today
announced it has received an order for a software license
expansion for its Turnkey Converged Billing (TCB) and
Airtime Reseller solution at Azur, Gabon's newest mobile
provider, to support their rapid growth and subscriber
acquisition.
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full text...
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Somaliland Community Meets
With The Australian Department Of Foreign Affairs |
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Canberra, March 6, 2010 — Representatives of Somaliland
Community in Australia have met with officials from the
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra on
Tuesday, Hadhwanaagnews reports.
Leaders of two community organizations, Somaliland Society
of Australia in Melbourne and Somaliland Community of
Australia in Sydney, discussed number of issues with the
officials of Department of Foreign Relations including how
the Australian government can participate in social and
economic development in Somaliland in particular in the
areas of health and education.
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full text...
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Sri Lankan Crew To Be
Released |
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Nairobi,
Kenya, March 6, 2010 – The Sri Lankan crew, including the
captain, of a cargo ship being held by Somali authorities at
gunpoint at a port in Berbera since September 15, 2009 are
set to be released this week following diplomatic
intervention.
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125 Years Of The Berlin
Conference |
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By NEW AFRICAN REVIEW
Africa | Sat, March 6, 2010
THE BERLIN CONFERENCE
"There is no single event in modern African history whose
consequences have been as dire for the continent as the
Berlin Conference of 1884-85," reports New African. With 26
February, 2010 marking 125 years since 'the end of this
abominable conference', New African presents "an in-depth
look at the conference and its impacts on Africa and her
people."
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full text...
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In Dire Straits: Yemen
Tries To Keep Somali Al Qaeda Out |
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Fishing
boats float in the water off the coast of Bossasso,
Somalia, a port on the Gulf of Aden. Tens of
thousands of Somalis, fleeing almost two decades of
war, have been smuggled across to Yemen on highly
dangerous journeys in boats like these. An equal
volume of weapons is stuffed onto the boats on
the way back |
By Benjamin Joffe-Walt /The Media Line
Aden, Yemen, March 6, 2010 – For years the 100 to 170
nautical mile route across the Gulf of Aden between Somalia
and Yemen has been well travelled.
Tens of thousands of Somalis, fleeing almost two decades of
war, have been smuggled across to Yemen on highly dangerous
journeys in battered wooden dhows. An equal volume of
weapons is stuffed onto the boats on the way back.
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full text...
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UK Cash For Education In
Developing Countries Targets Conflict Zones |
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As part
the international pledge to secure education for the 72
million children who are out of school, some £300m of
Britain's contribution will go to war-torn countries
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'We
cannot help make significant breakthroughs in
education unless we start helping those in some of
the most difficult-to-reach places,' said
international development secretary Douglas
Alexander. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA |
Rachel Williams
London,
March 6, 2010 - Half of Britain's budget for education in
the developing world is now to be spent on schooling in
war-torn countries, the Department for International
Development (Dfid) announced on Friday (March 5).
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full text...
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ETHIOPIA - Villagers in
Rural Ethiopia Debate Irregular Migration |
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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 6, 2010 – A play on the
pitfalls and dangers of irregular migration is currently
touring rural areas of the Amhara region of Oromia, which
stretches in an arc from eastern to southwestern Ethiopia.
The play, entitled "Mutach"- "the last one" in Amharic-
tells the story of a father's predicament as he considers
sending his youngest son to work abroad. His dilemma is
based on the fact that he has been without news from one of
his daughters who was smuggled out of Ethiopia a year
earlier.
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full text...
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Somali Islamist Rebels Ban
English, Science Lessons |
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Children play
with a soccer ball on an Indian Ocean beach near
Somalia's capital Mogadishu, March 5, 2010. |
By Sahra
Abdi
NAIROBI, March 6, 2010 – Somalia's hardline Islamists have
banned English and science studies in schools in the
southern Afmadow town after the education centers there
ignored the rebels' call for fighters, residents and
teachers say.
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full text...
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US Supreme Court To Announce
Decision On Somali War Criminal In June |
As Somalia's minister of
defense in the 1980s,
Gen. Mohammed Samantar,
right, was part of a
military dictatorship
that "had one of the
worst human rights
records in Africa,"
according to the United
Nations. "They tied my
hands to my legs, and
they waterboarded me,
and put [on] me some
kind of electric shock,"
said Bashe Yousuf, a
former Somali political
prisoner now living in
the United States.
(Courtesy Center for
Justice and
Accountability)
Washington DC, March 6,
2010 (SL Times) – The US
Supreme Court heard the
case of Somali war
criminal Muhammad Ali
Samatar on March 3,
2010.
Muhammad Ali Samatar
served at various times
as vice president, prime
minister and defense
minister during Muhammad
Siyad Barre’s 21-year
military dictatorship
and has publicly
admitted to having
giving the order for the
carpet bombing of the
city of Hargeysa which
resulted in the deaths
of thousands of
civilians.
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Djibouti’s Prime
Minister And Ethiopia’s Minister Of Culture Visit Somaliland
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Djibouti Prime
Minister, Daleita Mohamed Dleita (left) and Ethiopian
minister of Culture, Muhammad Dirir (right) |
Zeila, Somaliland, March 6, 2010 (SL Times) – Officials from
Djibouti, including Prime Minister Daleita Muhammad Dleita, the
Commander of Djibouti’s military, Gen. Zakariya, and several
ministers, arrived in Somaliland’s city of Zeila to take part in
the ceremony for publicly declaring the person who was chosen as
the new sultan for Issa clan. The new Sultan for the Isse clan
is Mustafe Muhammad Ibrahim who is nineteen years old.
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Farah Ma’allin
Defends His Visit To Somaliland |
Nairobi, Kenya, March 6, 2010 (SL Times) – The Kenyan Deputy
Parliament leader, the Honorable Farah Ma’allin, strongly
defended himself from insinuations by the Kenyan Foreign
Minister, Mr Moses Watangula, that he may have broken
government policy during his visit to Somaliland.
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Hadrawi's Secret Of Life
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 6, 2010 (SL Times) – The Somali
language newspaper Haatuf published this week an excerpt from
Hadrawi's poem “Sirta Nolosha” (the secret of life). This is a
long poem that was composed over a decade ago but its impact has
not diminished with the years.
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Cairo, Egypt, March 6, 2010 (SL Times) – Egypt’s high court
issued a ruling that said it is legally permissible to have
commercial relations with Israel. The Egyptian high court’s
decision overturned a ruling by a lower court which prohibited
commercial dealings with Israel. The high court said the lower
court had no authority over the government’s foreign policy.
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Las Anod, Somaliland, March 6,
2010 (SL Times) – The Somaliland government’s delegation that is
touring Sool region held a conference in Las Anod with officials
from throughout Sool region in which they evaluated what was
accomplished so far. During the conference the Minister of
Defense, Mr Suleiman Warsame Guleed revealed that the government
is determined to improve the level of development of Sool region
and bring to the same level as other regions in Somaliland. He
also pointed out that although the security situation has
improved, it does not mean their job is over.
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Finnish Citizen Running For
President In Somaliland |
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Helsinki, Finland, March 6, 2010 – Construction engineer Faisal
Ali Farah, a naturalized Finnish citizen living in Espoo, is
running for the office of President of Somaliland in elections
scheduled for the coming autumn.
Somaliland, which declared itself independent from the rest of
Somalia in 1991, has taken gradual steps toward democracy.
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Arab League Condemns Israel Over
Somaliland Recognition |
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Cairo, Egypt, March 6, 2010 (SL Times) – Arab foreign ministers
meeting in the Egyptian capital on Wednesday for their 133rd
session have called for diplomatic action against Israel’s
measures that posed a threat to the region and the peace
efforts, as their adopted a draft agenda for the upcoming Arab
summit.
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In Brief: Floods Displace
Thousands In Somaliland-Ethiopia Border Area |
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 6, 2010 – Around 1,000 families have
been displaced by flooding after heavy rains in an area
straddling the border between Ethiopia and Somaliland, according
to officials.
“The floods occurred in the last 24 hours. About 1,000 families
were displaced, and they are with their relatives in other parts
of Allaybaday and Tog-wajale districts in Gabiley region,”
regional governor Said Mohamed Ahmed Aw Abdi, known as Habib,
told IRIN on 3 March.
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Nairobi, March 6, 2010 – New land tactics being employed by
Somali pirates may be a cause for concern, a UN spokesman
told the BBC. Peter Smerdon said three trucks and their
drivers were being held in the pirate town of Eyl after
delivering food aid last week in central Somalia.
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full text...
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London, March 6, 2010 – The
British government said Monday it is banning Somali
terrorist organization al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-linked
Islamist group fighting the anarchic country's transitional
government.
British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he had issued an
order banning al-Shabaab. The order must be approved by
Parliament before it goes into force, but that is largely a
formality.
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full text...
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By SLOBODAN LEKIC
BRUSSELS, March 6, 2010 – The U.S. is considering joining a
European Union effort to train a new army for Somalia, whose
government is engaged in a war against al-Qaida-linked
Islamic militants, a senior military official said Thursday.
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Massive Voter Fraud Reported
Across Iraq |
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KIRKUK, March 6, 2010 – Electoral monitors yesterday estimated
that as many as 150,000 security personnel were left off lists
for early voting in Iraq, causing chaos at polling stations
across the country. Iraqi hospital staff, prisoners and security
service members went to the polls on Thursday.
Of greatest concern to observers were the thousands of missing
names of police and army officers, but other issues included
multiple voting, individuals bringing weapons into polling
stations, intimidation and monitors being denied access.
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Yemen Arrests 11 Al Qaeda
Suspects, Gunfight Kills One |
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SANAA, March 6, 2010 – Yemeni security forces have arrested 11
suspected al Qaeda members in raids in the capital Sanaa that
sparked a gunfight which killed the father of a suspected
militant, state media said on Thursday.
Yemen became a major Western security concern after the
Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for
a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December.
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South Africa's President Jacob Zuma
speaks at the UK/South Africa Business Seminar in London, March 5,
2010 |
LONDON, March 6, 2010 – South African President Jacob Zuma, rebuffed by Britain
in his call to end to sanctions on Zimbabwe, said on Friday he had put his point
across about the need to resolve the crisis in the struggling country.
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Yemen, Iraq
and the Palestinian territories see regression
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Benjamin Joffe-Walt / The Media Line
Dubai, March 6, 2010 – Women in the Middle East have made notable advances over
the past five years, with modest overall improvements in women's rights,
literacy, educational attainment, political participation and economic role, an
extensive multinational study has found.
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Princess Aiko is the only child of
Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako |
Tokyo, Japan, March 6, 2010 –
Japan's Princess Aiko has been off school since early this week after
complaining of being bullied, a royal household official has said.
The princess, eight, had come home from school in a state of anxiety and saying
she had stomach pains, he said.
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Samantar v. Yousuf, et al.,
08-1555, Argument recap
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US Supreme
Court |
By
Lyle Denniston
Showing some hesitancy to leave it to the State Department to
decide when foreign government officials can be sued in U.S.
courts for human rights abuses, the Supreme Court on Wednesday
struggled to figure out what Congress wanted courts to do with
such lawsuits. Not one of three lawyers who argued in Samantar
v. Yousuf, et al. (08-1555)
seemed to make a convincing case, thus leaving the Justices to
work out a decision, unaided by much beyond their own
perceptions, in coming weeks. The Justices’ puzzlement began in
the opening minute of the argument, and remained throughout.
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Arlen
Specter, US senator for Pennsylvania |
By
Sen. Arlen Specter, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
Today (March 3, 2010), the United States Supreme Court hears
oral arguments in a case whose outcome will either uphold or
nullify the rights of victims of foreign torture, including U.S.
soldiers, to sue under American law.
The
Court should take this opportunity to reaffirm America's
commitment to human rights and its opposition to torture.
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Making deals and
moving goods to other parts of the world is a
multibillion-dirham business at Dubai Creek. But while money
drives this lucrative trade, it’s the men loading the dhows
who are working the hardest, and risking the most. By Conor
Purcell. Photographs
by Ryan Carter.
Dubai, March 6, 2010 – From a certain angle the wharves that
line Dubai Creek look like the loading bays of a giant
out-of-control supermarket. Boxes are stacked precariously,
crates are dumped in huge piles and sacks and bags are
thrown haphazardly over the ground. The goods are diverse:
Vietnamese cashew nuts, giant LG freezers, Malaysian office
furniture, water tankers from Ajman, Ninja “foodstuff” from
China, hundreds of bags of garlic, a solitary jet ski.
Beeping forklifts reverse around crates and battered
open-top Isuzus offload boxes of Heinz tomato ketchup.
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full text...
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Supreme Court
to Decide If He's Immune to Lawsuits Filed in the U.S.
By ARIANE de VOGUE
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Mohamed
Ali Samantar, now of Fairfax City, is the focus of a
case coming to the Supreme Court.
Photo
Credit: By Susan Biddle For The Washington Post
Related Article: 'I
am no monster' |
Washington, March 06, 2010 – The
Supreme Court on
Wednesday heard arguments in a case about a Fairfax, Va.,
retiree who also happens to be the former prime minister of Somalia,
accused of tacitly approving gross acts of torture.
Mohamed Ali Samantar served in Somalia from 1971 to 1990 in
various high government jobs under Somali President Muhammad
Siyad Barre. During that period, the United States
recognized the government of Somalia but the country
struggled through intense
and violent civil conflict. In 1991, the Barre
government was overthrown and Samantar eventually landed in
exile in the United States.
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full text...
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Gen.
Samatar Must Account For His Crimes |
It has taken close to a decade for a member of Somalia’s
military regime to be brought in front of a court of law. But
that day is finally here, or is almost here. We say almost
because the US Supreme Court is, at this point, not trying the
case but is looking at whether the case should be tried in the
US. The Supreme Court’s is expected to reach a decision sometime
this summer.
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1969 Military Coup In Somalia
Part XV |
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By Dr. Mohamed-Rashiid
Sh. Hassan
This is the fifteenth article of a
series of articles that Dr. Mohamed-Rashid analyses the
military coup and its legacy
Somali-Ethiopian War 1977/1978 and Super Power Politics
The decision to go to war in 1977 was contributed by three
reasons: First, the regime decided to distract
opposition at home and abroad against it. It was a time when
the opposition both inside and outside the country was
politically organizing itself and critical comments against
the regime were published in foreign newspapers for the
first time.
Read full text...
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Somaliland De-jure Recognition
Is Out Of Arab League Sphere |
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Written by Ahmed Kheyre
At a recent Arab League Council Somaliland's de-jure
international recognition was mentioned in dispatches from
the meeting. With the ineffectual and totally un-credible
TFG administration insisting on representing all of the
former defunct "Somali Republic", whilst barely in control
of more than a few blocks of Mogadishu, it is in this
author's opinion that the de-jure international recognition
of Somaliland has moved above the sphere of the Arab League.
Read full text....
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Horn Of Africa: Unprecedented
Enthronement Of Issa’s Tribal Chief |
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By Abdulaziz Al-Mutiari
Issa is one of the major tribes in horn of Africa and live
in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somaliland. The Issa’s
geographical homeland starts from northwest of Ethiopia’s
city of Diradawa, Djibouti and to historic northern
Somaliland city of Zeyla at Salal Region. Issa crown their
young tribal chief in Zeyla City as part of ritual trip that
started from Diradawa to Zeyla, which covers the entire land
of Issa tribe. This trip took about seven months and covered
more than 200 kilometers.
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In Favor Of The Tol
Convocation: Why We Have To Give Our Blessings To The
Gathering In Minneapolis |
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By Adan H Iman
Members of the Awdal Community in Minneapolis decided last
year to hold a convocation in their city, which, in the
words of an announcement they disseminated, will offer an
opportunity “to reflect on history, seize up the current
milieu, interrogate the phenomenon of leadership, and, most
supreme, explore novel ways for the community to organize
itself for the tough challenges already here and others
that, no doubt, the future will thrust upon us”.
Read full text.....
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Somalia: Appeasing
Bureaucrats, Gangs First—Helping Drought-stricken Somalis
Second |
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By Dalmar Kahin
Whether it is anarchic Somalia or other corrupted African nations, before the
World Food Program WFP feeds drought-devastated locals: catering to the needs of
the government officials as well as the local gangs first tantamount to
resolving the most critical aspect of the crisis. The governments’ bureaucracies
kill far more people than droughts obliterate victims from the face of the
earth. The local gangs, on the other hand, loot whatever aid snatched away from
the hands of callous, gluttonous, selfish officials.
Read full text.....
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The Somali Federation: The Dual-State Solution |
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By Tedla Asfaw
I met Bob Geldoff in Belgium, Ghent, in 1986-87 by accident in conference as a
young student and was excited to see him after the live aid he organized saved
the lives of the famine of 1984-85 victims in northern Ethiopia of Tigray. This
young man was my hero and many Ethiopians do believe like that. However,
Ethiopia after twenty five years of the great famine is still on food aid, wide
famine has been averted only because of food aid by USA and the west for TPLF
since it has been in power in 1991. The hundred millions of dollars food aid
"fruit" is also visible buying wealth for TPLF millionaires.
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Can Torture Victims Sue
Their Tormentors? |
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By NINA
TOTENBERG
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in a
major case testing whether torture victims living in the
United States can sue their tormentors, who are also living
here.
Before there was "Black Hawk down" or pirates preying on
ships off Somalia, there was an ethnic war, a military
dictator and a brutal regime in Somalia — a regime engaged
in torture, abduction, summary executions and large-scale
rape.
Read full text...
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K'naan: 'My Success Is Their
Success'
The Somali-born rapper K'naan on politics and pirates – and
why Coca-Cola chose his song to be the official anthem for
this summer's football World Cup in South Africa, writes
Caspar Llewellyn Smith |
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K’naan
fled from Mogadishu with his mother in 1991, when he
was 14. Photograph: Peter Graham |
Caspar Llewellyn Smith
London, UK, March 6, 2010 – The Somali-born rapper K'naan arrives
at the K West, the west London hotel much loved by today's
rock stars looking half the part: hip-hop fly in his
cardigan but also shy, fresh from shooting a video with the
band
Keane, prepping himself for a wearying flight out of
Heathrow to Mozambique.
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