First African American President: But Will Old Washington Power Trust Obama?
Barack Obama; US Presidency, Global Power, Axis of Evil, George W. Bush, Tony Blair, International Relations, WMD, Washington, Mitchelle Obama, Cherie Blair, Laura Bush
News that tentacles of American power could not trust its most ardent ally Tony Blair- a harmless, cuddly, and shrill cheerleader; its domestic pet, an American poodle; the former British Prime Minister- is mindnumbing.
Here was Tony, all chummy, cheerful trooper of the American Century under team leader Dubbya. His was the more legitimate and convincing voice on the War On Terror (WOT). He was the more humane and benign face of power that reassured you there could be nothing more sinister than routine exacting of just retributions against those who harm innocent citizens. After all, he was British Prime Minister; a small country and disintegrated empire unenamoured any longer with direct military occupation, control and domination of other lands and peoples as a righteous and divine duty or the whiteman's burdens unto other God's lesser creatures.
It turns out, America under George W. Bush the Dumber, could not spare the leash, even on the family's favourite pet, Tony the Poodle. He was apparently leashed all the while he was being petted. And all this, when he and the Queen's dominion were lulled into fervently believing, that America and Britain, are siamese twins: inseparable; and the interstices of their existences, as that of thier power and global interests and reach, interlinked.
We are told that Washington only eavesdropped on Tony's ' private life.' Who are they really kidding?
Okay, we know that unlike many prime ministers before him; as long as British memory can be relied upon, Tony Blair and Cherie Booth Blair were the only power couple in a long time to find the space and energy, to actually make love and father a child, Leo, at Number 10, Downing Street, between their very busy and exhausting public schedules. Might Dubbya have been interested in finding out if Tony was all au naturale, unaided by viagara, or some technique native to Britain that he could pirate and help him nudge Laura Bush into more than just giving him a back rub after his usual bouts of watching sports on TV and munching away on pretzels, and at long last give the teeen-aged twin girls a brother Herbert Walker, perhaps?
You must be kidding, if you believed that. We were warned there was an axis of evil and there were rogue states and terrorists squirming to push the nuclear or WMD trigger and obliterate the USA and the world at the slightest opportunity of complacency. So, with all the threats from the terrorists and the axis of evil, the USA could squander precious and critical survaillance resources on tracking Tony Blair's randiness, or who he plays pool with at No. 10, or if he kisses Cherie goodnight after every session of lovemaking, or if he actually used to secretly call that squirrelly chancellor at No.11, to tell him Tony's support of the American WOT was all a charade, and could he Gordon, please tell George Galloway to cool it?
Cynical of officialdom as we are wont to be at NUMP, we do not think so. We want to believe that, indeed, Tony was under survaillance, and so was Gordon Brown, all the time. We also want to believe that, it was not only their domestic lives under the microscope, but all the facets and planes of their lives, to make sure they were genuinely lock and step, with the aspirations of the neocons at the centre of forging the American century under Dubbya. Therefore, what has come out is from only one of several such nodes of intercepts on various particular aspects of the lives of those, jittery American power put under close watch.
Which begs the question for us at NUMP: If the tentacles of American power, and for our purposes, white old boys' American power, could not trust Tony Blair, either because he was British, European, centre left or closet socialist labour leader, how can we be sure that the same power sceptical of its own kin, would open up completely and trust Barack Obama- who was variously portrayed as an outsider, unAmerican, terrorist, moslem, socialist, African, and redistributionist- with its interests and aspirations?
We want to disappoint the world that, far from re-modelling American outlook and the world on a global village framework, where we are all family and share the same ethoes and pathoes, Barack Obama will be merely a figurehead, held hostage to his own visions of and aspirations for the world and the euphoric world's own unrealistic expectations for the end of self interests and the ideology of power and domination. Barack Obama may be black, but he is immersed in the same old Americal and European culture of power and domination of others to further the welfare of those they consider their own.
If the distrust shown Tony Blair is any indication, we can confidently hazard to project that, the centre of power will migrate from the Oval Office, where Obama will remain titular President of the USA, to the Vice President's Office and the State Department, where Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, will be more trusted with classified information and covert operations and actions overseas in pursuit of old American power and interests. This power will increasingly be shared with respective congressional leaders and committee chairs of both parties, running circles around The President himself, who will largely be considered an outsider and potential danger to American power that must be preserved at all costs.
Like Tony Blair, we believe, there will be files on Barack Obama, and we do not mean the interest will be driven by voyeurism into the stereotypical ready, red-hotness of the black woman and how raunchily Michelle Obama could go down on the President of the United States of America, after hours. Far from it. While that may attract some interest, the focus will be to make sure he is not palling around with the likes of William Ayers, or cussing America with Jeremiah Wright in the dead of night.
We can also project that, Obama's presidency will bring Britain, the USA, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, ever closer and closer than they were under Dubbya the Dumber, to ensure that whatever potential dangers Obama's place at the centre of traditinally Anglo-Saxon centre of power,will be minimised by running circles around him among these club who tend to act collaboratively on global issues.
The world can be forgiven for its excitements about Barack Obama as the first African-American or ethnic minority president of the USA. As far as we are concerned, the world will remain divided between us and them. Palestine will still remain the land where no justice is rendered, but might is right and who is your friend. As for Africa, Obama's presidency has come at the wrong time-we do not want him to fail, and yet there are so many dictators in Africa who were coddled by Washington, that we want to get rid of, but Washington under Barack Obama will still want to keep them in power because they further American interests in the region.
Therefore, we are headed on a collision course, if Zimbabwe is any indication, where justice and equity, which is the centre of the contention there, has been displaced by the centrality of how fair or unfair, free or unfree elections are without any thought that African states and peoples too, have national interests, the fight for which, sometimes must make the critical constructive balance of respecting fundamental rights, and ensuring that the majority of their citizens, their interests, welbeing and aspirations and future are ensured.
Wednesday 26 November 2008
Tuesday 25 November 2008
Raila Odinga: Here Comes Africa's new Anglo-American imperialist hatchetman
Raila Odinga: Here Comes Africa's New Anglo-American Imperialist Hatchetman
Raila Odinga, African Union, Robert Mugabe; Zimbabwe; Morgan Tsivangirai; Land and agrarian reforms in Zimbabwe; social justice and equity; Democracy in Zimbabwe.,
There is an African saying that, fire begets cold, impotent ash. Perhaps this witticism aptly applies to Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Abongo Odinga, the son of the fire and brimstone, anti-colonialist crusader, and champion of African liberation and emancipation, and celebrated author of the anti-neocolonialist book: Not Yet Uhuru; the late Jaramogi Abongo Oginga Odinga.
We have no doubt that Oginga Sr would disagree with Oginga Jr on Zimbabwe. It is both false and errorneous for Raila Odinga to equate the national liberation and national democratic struggles in Zimbabwe, with the social and democratic struggles in Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African states in the throes of conflicts and violence as a consequence of neo-colonial penetration and control.
Zimbabwe won its national liberation and human equality in 1980, after a bitter armed struggle by African nationalists against the racist and oppressive settler white minority rule, and the Unilateral Declaration of Indepence (UDI) by Ian Smith. Until the imperialist and neocolonial forces were on the verge of collapse in Zimbabwe from the concerted efforts of Zimbabwean nationalists and Pan-African Front Line States, did Anglo-American imperialism begin to push for a negotiated settlement, lest they lost completely in Zimbabwe. Their suit for a negotiated settlement, was to save the rump of the settler class, and particularly ensure that white privilege and control of the Zimnbabwean economy, particularly agricultural land-the bone of contention for the liberators-continued in a post-racist and post-UDI Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean African nationalists, led by comrades Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and Joshua Nkomo, compromised at Lancaster, and allowed for a delayed decision on the land question. The caveat on Zimbabwean independence were that, the independence constitution would not be changed for 10 years, and any land reforms must be based on a willing-seller, willing-buyer basis, determined by market forces. The sweetner on these bitter pills, was that the Anglo-American imperialist principals, Britain and the USA, would provide credit assistance to Zimbabwe, to help it purchase land for redistribution to landless Africans and freedom fighters, from white settlers who were willing to sell.
We know that Britain under Tony Blair, reneged on this deal, and left Zimbabwean patriots with no choice, but to go forward with land reforms that was necessary for the landless African masses that had been waiting since independence. Seeing that Zimbabwe was not going to grovel at the feet of Anglo-American imperialism, an African puppet, willing to betray the objectives and aspirations of the liberation struggles, had to be found. And they found this in a reactionary trade unionist, Morgan Tsvangirai.
The crux of the struggles in Zimbabwe, is therefore, justice for historically dispossessed Africans, led by comrade Mugabe, and Anglo-American re-colonisation of Zimbabwe, with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Tsvangirai, as chief comparadore to mediate the control and domination of Zimbabwe. As far as the MDC and Tsvangirai are concerned, the problem of Zimbabwe is lie in the seizures of white-owned farms by the government, to give to landless black families and farmers. According to this logic, the Zimbabwe liberation struggle was therefore unnecessary.
This is something that Raila Odinga should understand. The Zimbabwean situation is similar to the Kenyan sitaution at the time of Raila Odinga's father, when he was Vice President of Kenya. The reason he left the young independence government was precisely because the freedom fighters who gave all to win Kenya's independence, were shortchanged by the petty bourgeoisie that seized contron of the post colonial state in Kenya. Instead of meaningful land reforms that should have seen redistribution of white settler farms in the highlands given to landless Africans and freedom fighters, the African leadership in Kenya colluded with Anglo-American imperialism to help themselves to these farms and extend colonial settler leases. As far as Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was concerned, it was Not Yet Uhuru, because the toils for Uhuru were in vain, because the population for whom the struggle for Uhuru was waged, have been cheated out of the dividends of their sacrifices for Uhuru.
It is therefore ludicruous that Raila Odinga, should declare that there is no legitimate government in Zimbabwe. and African Union (AU) should send peacekeeping troops into Zimbabwe.
Raila Odinga's problem is that of analysis by analogy, which can be very faulty. He begins to equate himself with Morgan Tsivangirai, and Robert Mugabe with Mwai Kibaki or Moi. In his thinking, the democratic struggles in Kenya, Uganda, DRC, and other African states, were and are being waged on the same issues and by the same forces. which is grossly simplistic.
In Uganda, the struggle is against an autocrat, who shot his way to power, and seized power by unconstitutional means, while murdering hundreds of thousands of fellow countrymen, with the help of Anglo-American imperialism. Dictator Yoweri Museveni, is the errandboy for Britain and the USA in East and Central Africa. It is because he helped prosecute Anglo-American imperialist plans of dislodging France from Rwanda, Burundi and DRC, and diminishing French influence in East and Central Africa, that he has been rewarded with military and financial aid, and international diplomatic protection from scrutiny for human rights violations and genocide in northern Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC. Despite the fact dictator Museveni banned political parties, and never held any elections in Uganda for 20 years, he was the west's posterboy in Africa.
As for Kenya, it was an intra-class struggle between a faction that lost out at independence, and the faction of the petty bourgeoisie that had captured and controlled the state since indpendence. While there were social justice colouring to the yearnings of the ordinary Kenyans for change, the leadership of both factions were essentially fighting for political power to control the state and continue to act as middlemen for British settler and American imperialist capital. Consequently, for the leadership of the intraclass factions, the struggle was limited to free and fair elections, supervised by agents of imperialism, but not fundamental alternations in the structure of power and the Kenyan economy, that has left so many so poor for so long since independence. For the ordinary Kenyan, as it was for Raila Odinga's father, Oginga Odinga, it is Not Yet Uhuru.
This is in contrast to Zimbabwe, where the African leadership is striving to empower the dispossessed black masses, by speaking truth to power. And for this, the west imposed sanctions and economic blockade against Zimbabwe, so that they may suffer and grovel at the feet of the oppressors, through the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai. We know there is enormous and unforgivable suffering in Zimbabwe as a result of this and the actions of the government to maintain law and order. But it is legitimate to wonder, what contribution covert imperialist actions and manipulation of reactionary MDC forces have made to the desperation. Whatever the answer, we believe that in the end, in the broader interests of the Zimbabwean masses, and under tremendous pressure and threats from Anglo-American imperialism, the actions of the ZANU-PF government is justified. Both Britain and the USA would not tolerate quislings.
For Tsvangirai and Raila Odinga, free and fair elections are all we need; forget about issues of justice and fairness. But to many Zimbabwean patriots and Africans, the issue of justice and fairness is critical, existential and trumps the question of free and fair elections. The landless Africans do not eat ballot papers or procedural platitudes. They want to be free, masters of their destiny and sovereign.
We believe Raila's utterances are meant to endear himself to the Anglo-American imperialists, standing him in good stead to succeed their favoured shambaboy, Yoweri Museveni, next door as East Africa's slave driver. As a Kenyan bourgeoisie removed from the trepidations of ordinary Kenyans, Raila certainly is suited for the job. However, we believe very strongly that, our hero, Raila's father, Jaramogi Abongo Oginga Odinga, is gnashing his teeth and turning in his grave, wondering, how such whitehot coals like himself, could have begotten such cold, impotent ash.
Just a piece of advice to Raila Odinga before he gets overzealous to dethrone Yoweri Museveni as regional favourite of Anglo-America: Yoweri Museveni still has some worth left with the Anglo-American imperialists. What with DRC smouldering? However, the imperialists will be happy for competition, which will drive the bargain downwards, as they will play Kampala against Nairobi, and have their biddings done on the cheap.
Nonetheless, we tip our hats to Africa's newest Anglo-American imperialist hatchetman in the region...Hip Hip! Hooray! Hip Hip! Hooray! Hip Hip! Hooray Raila Odinga!
Raila Odinga, African Union, Robert Mugabe; Zimbabwe; Morgan Tsivangirai; Land and agrarian reforms in Zimbabwe; social justice and equity; Democracy in Zimbabwe.,
There is an African saying that, fire begets cold, impotent ash. Perhaps this witticism aptly applies to Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Abongo Odinga, the son of the fire and brimstone, anti-colonialist crusader, and champion of African liberation and emancipation, and celebrated author of the anti-neocolonialist book: Not Yet Uhuru; the late Jaramogi Abongo Oginga Odinga.
We have no doubt that Oginga Sr would disagree with Oginga Jr on Zimbabwe. It is both false and errorneous for Raila Odinga to equate the national liberation and national democratic struggles in Zimbabwe, with the social and democratic struggles in Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African states in the throes of conflicts and violence as a consequence of neo-colonial penetration and control.
Zimbabwe won its national liberation and human equality in 1980, after a bitter armed struggle by African nationalists against the racist and oppressive settler white minority rule, and the Unilateral Declaration of Indepence (UDI) by Ian Smith. Until the imperialist and neocolonial forces were on the verge of collapse in Zimbabwe from the concerted efforts of Zimbabwean nationalists and Pan-African Front Line States, did Anglo-American imperialism begin to push for a negotiated settlement, lest they lost completely in Zimbabwe. Their suit for a negotiated settlement, was to save the rump of the settler class, and particularly ensure that white privilege and control of the Zimnbabwean economy, particularly agricultural land-the bone of contention for the liberators-continued in a post-racist and post-UDI Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean African nationalists, led by comrades Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and Joshua Nkomo, compromised at Lancaster, and allowed for a delayed decision on the land question. The caveat on Zimbabwean independence were that, the independence constitution would not be changed for 10 years, and any land reforms must be based on a willing-seller, willing-buyer basis, determined by market forces. The sweetner on these bitter pills, was that the Anglo-American imperialist principals, Britain and the USA, would provide credit assistance to Zimbabwe, to help it purchase land for redistribution to landless Africans and freedom fighters, from white settlers who were willing to sell.
We know that Britain under Tony Blair, reneged on this deal, and left Zimbabwean patriots with no choice, but to go forward with land reforms that was necessary for the landless African masses that had been waiting since independence. Seeing that Zimbabwe was not going to grovel at the feet of Anglo-American imperialism, an African puppet, willing to betray the objectives and aspirations of the liberation struggles, had to be found. And they found this in a reactionary trade unionist, Morgan Tsvangirai.
The crux of the struggles in Zimbabwe, is therefore, justice for historically dispossessed Africans, led by comrade Mugabe, and Anglo-American re-colonisation of Zimbabwe, with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Tsvangirai, as chief comparadore to mediate the control and domination of Zimbabwe. As far as the MDC and Tsvangirai are concerned, the problem of Zimbabwe is lie in the seizures of white-owned farms by the government, to give to landless black families and farmers. According to this logic, the Zimbabwe liberation struggle was therefore unnecessary.
This is something that Raila Odinga should understand. The Zimbabwean situation is similar to the Kenyan sitaution at the time of Raila Odinga's father, when he was Vice President of Kenya. The reason he left the young independence government was precisely because the freedom fighters who gave all to win Kenya's independence, were shortchanged by the petty bourgeoisie that seized contron of the post colonial state in Kenya. Instead of meaningful land reforms that should have seen redistribution of white settler farms in the highlands given to landless Africans and freedom fighters, the African leadership in Kenya colluded with Anglo-American imperialism to help themselves to these farms and extend colonial settler leases. As far as Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was concerned, it was Not Yet Uhuru, because the toils for Uhuru were in vain, because the population for whom the struggle for Uhuru was waged, have been cheated out of the dividends of their sacrifices for Uhuru.
It is therefore ludicruous that Raila Odinga, should declare that there is no legitimate government in Zimbabwe. and African Union (AU) should send peacekeeping troops into Zimbabwe.
Raila Odinga's problem is that of analysis by analogy, which can be very faulty. He begins to equate himself with Morgan Tsivangirai, and Robert Mugabe with Mwai Kibaki or Moi. In his thinking, the democratic struggles in Kenya, Uganda, DRC, and other African states, were and are being waged on the same issues and by the same forces. which is grossly simplistic.
In Uganda, the struggle is against an autocrat, who shot his way to power, and seized power by unconstitutional means, while murdering hundreds of thousands of fellow countrymen, with the help of Anglo-American imperialism. Dictator Yoweri Museveni, is the errandboy for Britain and the USA in East and Central Africa. It is because he helped prosecute Anglo-American imperialist plans of dislodging France from Rwanda, Burundi and DRC, and diminishing French influence in East and Central Africa, that he has been rewarded with military and financial aid, and international diplomatic protection from scrutiny for human rights violations and genocide in northern Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC. Despite the fact dictator Museveni banned political parties, and never held any elections in Uganda for 20 years, he was the west's posterboy in Africa.
As for Kenya, it was an intra-class struggle between a faction that lost out at independence, and the faction of the petty bourgeoisie that had captured and controlled the state since indpendence. While there were social justice colouring to the yearnings of the ordinary Kenyans for change, the leadership of both factions were essentially fighting for political power to control the state and continue to act as middlemen for British settler and American imperialist capital. Consequently, for the leadership of the intraclass factions, the struggle was limited to free and fair elections, supervised by agents of imperialism, but not fundamental alternations in the structure of power and the Kenyan economy, that has left so many so poor for so long since independence. For the ordinary Kenyan, as it was for Raila Odinga's father, Oginga Odinga, it is Not Yet Uhuru.
This is in contrast to Zimbabwe, where the African leadership is striving to empower the dispossessed black masses, by speaking truth to power. And for this, the west imposed sanctions and economic blockade against Zimbabwe, so that they may suffer and grovel at the feet of the oppressors, through the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai. We know there is enormous and unforgivable suffering in Zimbabwe as a result of this and the actions of the government to maintain law and order. But it is legitimate to wonder, what contribution covert imperialist actions and manipulation of reactionary MDC forces have made to the desperation. Whatever the answer, we believe that in the end, in the broader interests of the Zimbabwean masses, and under tremendous pressure and threats from Anglo-American imperialism, the actions of the ZANU-PF government is justified. Both Britain and the USA would not tolerate quislings.
For Tsvangirai and Raila Odinga, free and fair elections are all we need; forget about issues of justice and fairness. But to many Zimbabwean patriots and Africans, the issue of justice and fairness is critical, existential and trumps the question of free and fair elections. The landless Africans do not eat ballot papers or procedural platitudes. They want to be free, masters of their destiny and sovereign.
We believe Raila's utterances are meant to endear himself to the Anglo-American imperialists, standing him in good stead to succeed their favoured shambaboy, Yoweri Museveni, next door as East Africa's slave driver. As a Kenyan bourgeoisie removed from the trepidations of ordinary Kenyans, Raila certainly is suited for the job. However, we believe very strongly that, our hero, Raila's father, Jaramogi Abongo Oginga Odinga, is gnashing his teeth and turning in his grave, wondering, how such whitehot coals like himself, could have begotten such cold, impotent ash.
Just a piece of advice to Raila Odinga before he gets overzealous to dethrone Yoweri Museveni as regional favourite of Anglo-America: Yoweri Museveni still has some worth left with the Anglo-American imperialists. What with DRC smouldering? However, the imperialists will be happy for competition, which will drive the bargain downwards, as they will play Kampala against Nairobi, and have their biddings done on the cheap.
Nonetheless, we tip our hats to Africa's newest Anglo-American imperialist hatchetman in the region...Hip Hip! Hooray! Hip Hip! Hooray! Hip Hip! Hooray Raila Odinga!
Sunday 23 November 2008
World powers must solve Somalia crisis
Daily Monitor, Uganda - 17 Nov 2008
Reports from Somalia indicate that the security situation there remains precarious and that Islamic insurgents are controlling more territory than the ...
United Nations Urges Somali Leaders to Unite to End Conflict
Bloomberg - 17 Nov 2008
By Hamsa Omar Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations urged Somalia's political leaders to unite to end the nation's 17-year conflict, after President ...
Somalia falling to Islamists
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 17 Nov 2008
NAIROBI: The President of Somalia has said the transitional government is on the verge of collapse and Islamist groups now control most of the country. ...
Q+A-Why should the world care about Somalia?
Reuters South Africa, South Africa - 17 Nov 2008
Nov 17 (Reuters) - Daily headlines from Somalia of violence, refugees and piracy may seem like a blur to the outside world. * Islamists have been gaining ...
Rival Islamists clash near Somali capital, 6 dead
Reuters South Africa, South Africa - 17 Nov 2008
By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Rival Islamist militia have fought in a town just outside Somalia's capital Mogadishu, illustrating splits in the ...
Somali Opposition Accuses Transitional Government of Failing to ...
Somali Opposition Accuses Transitional Government of Failing to Provide SecurityVoice of America - 16 Nov 2008
By Peter Clottey, Washington, D.C.
17 November 2008
Somali opposition parties are accusing President Abdullahi Yusuf's transitional government of failing in its mandate to maintain law and ...
Daily Monitor, Uganda - 17 Nov 2008
Reports from Somalia indicate that the security situation there remains precarious and that Islamic insurgents are controlling more territory than the ...
United Nations Urges Somali Leaders to Unite to End Conflict
Bloomberg - 17 Nov 2008
By Hamsa Omar Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations urged Somalia's political leaders to unite to end the nation's 17-year conflict, after President ...
Somalia falling to Islamists
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 17 Nov 2008
NAIROBI: The President of Somalia has said the transitional government is on the verge of collapse and Islamist groups now control most of the country. ...
Q+A-Why should the world care about Somalia?
Reuters South Africa, South Africa - 17 Nov 2008
Nov 17 (Reuters) - Daily headlines from Somalia of violence, refugees and piracy may seem like a blur to the outside world. * Islamists have been gaining ...
Rival Islamists clash near Somali capital, 6 dead
Reuters South Africa, South Africa - 17 Nov 2008
By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Rival Islamist militia have fought in a town just outside Somalia's capital Mogadishu, illustrating splits in the ...
Somali Opposition Accuses Transitional Government of Failing to ...
Somali Opposition Accuses Transitional Government of Failing to Provide SecurityVoice of America - 16 Nov 2008
By Peter Clottey, Washington, D.C.
17 November 2008
Somali opposition parties are accusing President Abdullahi Yusuf's transitional government of failing in its mandate to maintain law and ...
How the War on Terror pushed Somalia into the arms of al-Qaeda
The Times November 18, 2008
How the War on Terror pushed Somalia into the arms of al-Qaeda
War on Terror, Somalia, al-Qaeda, Horn of Africa, President Bush, Iraq, Afghanistan, Islamic militancy, Islamic extremists, qat, Christian Ethiopia, Islamic Courts, Kismayo
It has been the forgotten debacle of the Bush years. But anarchy in the Horn of Africa may soon haunt the West
Martin Fletcher
As President Bush prepares to leave office, the pundits will start to produce their balance sheets. It is hard to know what they will list under “achievements”, but easy to predict their “disasters”: Iraq, Afghanistan, economic meltdown, soaring debt and America's loss of global stature.
One other debacle should feature prominently in that second column, but probably won't because it has occurred in a faraway country that most Westerners know only through the film Black Hawk Down - or from recent reports of rampant piracy including the seizure early on Sunday of a Saudi tanker, carrying more than two million barrels of oil, which had an immediate effect on crude prices.
I am referring to the Bush Administration's intervention in Somalia in the name of the War on Terror. It has helped to destroy that wretched country's best chance of peace in a generation, left more than a million Somalis dead, homeless or starving, and achieved the precise opposite of its original goal. Far from stamping out an Islamic militancy that scarcely existed, the intervention has turned Somalia into a breeding ground for Islamic extremists and given al-Qaeda a valuable foothold in the Horn of Africa.
Rewind to the early summer of 2006. For 15 years, since the fall of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, feuding warlords had made Somalia a byword for anarchy and terrorism - the archetypal failed state. A tenth of its population had been killed. A million had fled abroad. At that point the warlords were finally routed, despite covert CIA backing, by a remarkable public uprising in support of the so-called Islamic Courts movement that promised to end the lawlessness.
Somalia had always practised a mild form of Islam, but the Courts received a bad press in the West, being widely portrayed as a new Taleban determined to impose the most draconian forms of Sharia on a terrified populace. That was certainly what I expected when I visited Mogadishu in early December 2006. But what I actually found was a people still celebrating the return of peace and security.
Gone were the checkpoints where the warlords' gunmen extorted and killed. Gone were their “technicals” - the Jeeps with heavy machineguns on the back with which they terrorised the citzenry. For the first time that most Somalis could remember, they were walking around their shattered capital in safety, even at night. Businesses were reopening. Exiles were returning. Mountains of rubbish were being carted away.
“It's like paradise compared to even one year ago,” according to Mohammed Ahmed, a doctor who had returned from working at the West Middlesex Hospital.
The Courts had certainly imposed what would be seen in the West as some fairly repressive moral codes. They cracked down on the narcotic qat that rendered half the menfolk senseless, banned sexually explicit films, encouraged women to cover their heads and discouraged Western music and dancing. There had been two public executions. But that was a price most Somalis were happy to pay, and while the Courts' disparate factions undoubtedly included extremists with dangerous connections and intentions, they also included moderates with whom the West could have done business.
European nations favoured engagement. Washington did not. It accused the Courts of harbouring the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for bombing US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The Courts hardly helped their cause by claiming territory in Kenya and Ethiopia.
Weeks after my visit the US supported - morally, materially and with intelligence - an invasion by predominantly Christian Ethiopia, Somalia's oldest bitter enemy. That replaced what was, for all its faults, Somalia's most effective government in memory with a deeply unpopular one led by former warlords, which had been cobbled together by the international community in Nairobi two years previously.
“The Americans see an extremist under every Muslim stone,” one European official complained bitterly, and the consequences were entirely predictable. An insurgency that began early in 2007 has steadily gathered strength, while the reviled Government in Mogadishu has come to depend utterly for its survival on thousands of Ethiopian troops that were meant to withdraw within weeks.
As the fighting has worsened 10,000 Somali civilians are thought to have been killed, more than a million have fled their homes, and more than three million - 40 per cent of the population - now urgently need humanitarian assistance. Although the UN World Food Programme is still getting some aid into the country the situation is deteriorating and scores of humanitarian workers have been killed or abducted. Exploiting the lawlessness, pirates have turned the waters off Somalia into some of the most dangerous in the world.
In Kenya last weekend Abdullahi Yusuf, Somalia's President, finally admitted that insurgents now control most of the country and have advanced to the very edge of Mogadishu. His Government, he said, was close to collapse.
There are several insurgent forces, but one of the most powerful is the Shabab - a group of virulently anti-Western jihadists that has now eclipsed the Islamic Courts movement of which it was once part.
Somalia's nightmare may be only just starting. President Yusuf predicts wholesale slaughter if the Shabab seize Mogadishu. Diplomats fear that the Shabab will wage all-out war with other insurgent forces, including those of the Islamic Courts, for control of the country once Ethiopian troops - the common enemy - are withdrawn.
And unlike the Courts, the Shabab has no truck with moderation: in the port city of Kismayo last month a young girl who complained that she had been raped was stoned to death for adultery, while in Balad two dozen Somalis were flogged for performing a traditional dance.
Whatever happens, Somalia will be another horrendous legacy for Barack Obama, but somewhere on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border one man will be celebrating. Shabab openly supports al-Qaeda. It has adopted suicide bombings and other tactics. “Al-Qaeda is the mother of the holy war in Somalia... We are negotiating how we can unite into one,” Muktar Robow, a leading Shabab commander, recently told the Los Angeles Times. “We will take our orders from Sheikh Osama bin Laden because we are his students.”
All in all, hardly a resounding triumph for the War on Terror.
Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
How the War on Terror pushed Somalia into the arms of al-Qaeda
War on Terror, Somalia, al-Qaeda, Horn of Africa, President Bush, Iraq, Afghanistan, Islamic militancy, Islamic extremists, qat, Christian Ethiopia, Islamic Courts, Kismayo
It has been the forgotten debacle of the Bush years. But anarchy in the Horn of Africa may soon haunt the West
Martin Fletcher
As President Bush prepares to leave office, the pundits will start to produce their balance sheets. It is hard to know what they will list under “achievements”, but easy to predict their “disasters”: Iraq, Afghanistan, economic meltdown, soaring debt and America's loss of global stature.
One other debacle should feature prominently in that second column, but probably won't because it has occurred in a faraway country that most Westerners know only through the film Black Hawk Down - or from recent reports of rampant piracy including the seizure early on Sunday of a Saudi tanker, carrying more than two million barrels of oil, which had an immediate effect on crude prices.
I am referring to the Bush Administration's intervention in Somalia in the name of the War on Terror. It has helped to destroy that wretched country's best chance of peace in a generation, left more than a million Somalis dead, homeless or starving, and achieved the precise opposite of its original goal. Far from stamping out an Islamic militancy that scarcely existed, the intervention has turned Somalia into a breeding ground for Islamic extremists and given al-Qaeda a valuable foothold in the Horn of Africa.
Rewind to the early summer of 2006. For 15 years, since the fall of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, feuding warlords had made Somalia a byword for anarchy and terrorism - the archetypal failed state. A tenth of its population had been killed. A million had fled abroad. At that point the warlords were finally routed, despite covert CIA backing, by a remarkable public uprising in support of the so-called Islamic Courts movement that promised to end the lawlessness.
Somalia had always practised a mild form of Islam, but the Courts received a bad press in the West, being widely portrayed as a new Taleban determined to impose the most draconian forms of Sharia on a terrified populace. That was certainly what I expected when I visited Mogadishu in early December 2006. But what I actually found was a people still celebrating the return of peace and security.
Gone were the checkpoints where the warlords' gunmen extorted and killed. Gone were their “technicals” - the Jeeps with heavy machineguns on the back with which they terrorised the citzenry. For the first time that most Somalis could remember, they were walking around their shattered capital in safety, even at night. Businesses were reopening. Exiles were returning. Mountains of rubbish were being carted away.
“It's like paradise compared to even one year ago,” according to Mohammed Ahmed, a doctor who had returned from working at the West Middlesex Hospital.
The Courts had certainly imposed what would be seen in the West as some fairly repressive moral codes. They cracked down on the narcotic qat that rendered half the menfolk senseless, banned sexually explicit films, encouraged women to cover their heads and discouraged Western music and dancing. There had been two public executions. But that was a price most Somalis were happy to pay, and while the Courts' disparate factions undoubtedly included extremists with dangerous connections and intentions, they also included moderates with whom the West could have done business.
European nations favoured engagement. Washington did not. It accused the Courts of harbouring the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for bombing US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The Courts hardly helped their cause by claiming territory in Kenya and Ethiopia.
Weeks after my visit the US supported - morally, materially and with intelligence - an invasion by predominantly Christian Ethiopia, Somalia's oldest bitter enemy. That replaced what was, for all its faults, Somalia's most effective government in memory with a deeply unpopular one led by former warlords, which had been cobbled together by the international community in Nairobi two years previously.
“The Americans see an extremist under every Muslim stone,” one European official complained bitterly, and the consequences were entirely predictable. An insurgency that began early in 2007 has steadily gathered strength, while the reviled Government in Mogadishu has come to depend utterly for its survival on thousands of Ethiopian troops that were meant to withdraw within weeks.
As the fighting has worsened 10,000 Somali civilians are thought to have been killed, more than a million have fled their homes, and more than three million - 40 per cent of the population - now urgently need humanitarian assistance. Although the UN World Food Programme is still getting some aid into the country the situation is deteriorating and scores of humanitarian workers have been killed or abducted. Exploiting the lawlessness, pirates have turned the waters off Somalia into some of the most dangerous in the world.
In Kenya last weekend Abdullahi Yusuf, Somalia's President, finally admitted that insurgents now control most of the country and have advanced to the very edge of Mogadishu. His Government, he said, was close to collapse.
There are several insurgent forces, but one of the most powerful is the Shabab - a group of virulently anti-Western jihadists that has now eclipsed the Islamic Courts movement of which it was once part.
Somalia's nightmare may be only just starting. President Yusuf predicts wholesale slaughter if the Shabab seize Mogadishu. Diplomats fear that the Shabab will wage all-out war with other insurgent forces, including those of the Islamic Courts, for control of the country once Ethiopian troops - the common enemy - are withdrawn.
And unlike the Courts, the Shabab has no truck with moderation: in the port city of Kismayo last month a young girl who complained that she had been raped was stoned to death for adultery, while in Balad two dozen Somalis were flogged for performing a traditional dance.
Whatever happens, Somalia will be another horrendous legacy for Barack Obama, but somewhere on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border one man will be celebrating. Shabab openly supports al-Qaeda. It has adopted suicide bombings and other tactics. “Al-Qaeda is the mother of the holy war in Somalia... We are negotiating how we can unite into one,” Muktar Robow, a leading Shabab commander, recently told the Los Angeles Times. “We will take our orders from Sheikh Osama bin Laden because we are his students.”
All in all, hardly a resounding triumph for the War on Terror.
Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Somalia: Analysis of a failed state
Somalia: Analysis of a failed state
Somalia, failed state, Horn of Africa , trade routes, conflict, ohammed Siad Barre, warlords, Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down, Africa, clan rivalries
Somalia's collapse into anarchy almost two decades ago created a uniquely explosive combination
By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Last Updated: 12:33PM GMT 19 Nov 2008
At a stroke, the Horn of Africa acquired a failed state with 2,000 miles of coastline skirting one of the world's great trade routes.
No greater opportunity for piracy could be imagined. Whereas other countries have inefficient police forces and overstretched navies, Somalia has no national institutions whatsoever.
Other failed states – for example the Democratic Republic of Congo – are almost entirely landlocked. But Somalia's coastline is one of the great strategic prizes of the world.
With a grim inevitability, the country's anarchy has steadily assumed global importance.
Somalia has been torn by conflict for most of its 48 years of independence. But the implosion of the state itself came in 1991 when President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown.
A coalition of warlords then destroyed the central government and razed large areas of the capital, Mogadishu. An American-led military intervention designed to restore order began in 1992.
But this venture came to a humiliating end the following year when US troops fought militias in the streets of Mogadishu, killing hundreds and losing 18 of their number in battles later immortalised by the film "Black Hawk Down".
That searing chapter effectively ended the prospect of international intervention to rebuild Somalia. Since 1993, the country has been divided into a patchwork of fiefdoms, fought over by warlords.
The fundamental cause of the conflict lies in Somalia's bitter clan rivalries. Elsewhere in Africa, countries are divided by tribe. In Somalia, by contrast, almost all of the 9.5 million people are from the same tribe. They are ethnic Somalis, sharing a common language and loyalty to Islam.
But they are all divided into clans, for example the Hawiye and the Darod. In turn, these large umbrella groups are divided into scores of sub-clans who are then split between hundreds of sub-sub-clans. These groups, each led by a warlord, fight for the scarce resources of an arid country.
They form complex alliances, which are made and broken with bewildering speed.
Outside factors have made this situation still more explosive. Radical Islamists have clearly identified Somalia as a target for expansion. In 2006, an extremist group styling itself the Union of Islamic Courts captured Mogadishu and briefly controlled most of southern Somalia.
The possible birth of a radical Islamist state in East Africa alarmed America and her regional allies, notably Ethiopia, which shares a 1,000-mile border with Somalia.
In December 2006, Ethiopia invaded Somalia and captured Mogadishu. After overthrowing the Islamist regime, Ethiopia installed Somalia's internationally recognised government in Mogadishu.
This threadbare administration has almost no control of the capital, let alone the rest of the country. Abdullahi Yusuf, a septuagenarian warlord, holds the official title of "president of Somalia". In fact, he is the besieged mayor of a few quarters of Mogadishu.
Mr Yusuf's popular standing is undermined by his dependence on Ethiopian military muscle. Moreover, he is a Darod, while most of Mogadishu's people are Hawiyes. Mr Yusuf's militias, aided by Ethiopian forces, have destroyed much of the city while fighting a strong insurgency.
Elsewhere in Somalia, two independent enclaves have emerged – Somaliland in the north and Puntland in the centre.
Somaliland has achieved a measure of stability, while Puntland has become a global centre of piracy. Unless there is a successful rescue mission, the Sirius Star may find itself anchored off the coast of Puntland. Thanks to Somalia's anarchy, this lawless mini-state has effectively become a pirate kingdom.
More Telegraph.co.uk
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008 Terms & Conditions of reading Commercial information Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Somalia, failed state, Horn of Africa , trade routes, conflict, ohammed Siad Barre, warlords, Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down, Africa, clan rivalries
Somalia's collapse into anarchy almost two decades ago created a uniquely explosive combination
By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Last Updated: 12:33PM GMT 19 Nov 2008
At a stroke, the Horn of Africa acquired a failed state with 2,000 miles of coastline skirting one of the world's great trade routes.
No greater opportunity for piracy could be imagined. Whereas other countries have inefficient police forces and overstretched navies, Somalia has no national institutions whatsoever.
Other failed states – for example the Democratic Republic of Congo – are almost entirely landlocked. But Somalia's coastline is one of the great strategic prizes of the world.
With a grim inevitability, the country's anarchy has steadily assumed global importance.
Somalia has been torn by conflict for most of its 48 years of independence. But the implosion of the state itself came in 1991 when President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown.
A coalition of warlords then destroyed the central government and razed large areas of the capital, Mogadishu. An American-led military intervention designed to restore order began in 1992.
But this venture came to a humiliating end the following year when US troops fought militias in the streets of Mogadishu, killing hundreds and losing 18 of their number in battles later immortalised by the film "Black Hawk Down".
That searing chapter effectively ended the prospect of international intervention to rebuild Somalia. Since 1993, the country has been divided into a patchwork of fiefdoms, fought over by warlords.
The fundamental cause of the conflict lies in Somalia's bitter clan rivalries. Elsewhere in Africa, countries are divided by tribe. In Somalia, by contrast, almost all of the 9.5 million people are from the same tribe. They are ethnic Somalis, sharing a common language and loyalty to Islam.
But they are all divided into clans, for example the Hawiye and the Darod. In turn, these large umbrella groups are divided into scores of sub-clans who are then split between hundreds of sub-sub-clans. These groups, each led by a warlord, fight for the scarce resources of an arid country.
They form complex alliances, which are made and broken with bewildering speed.
Outside factors have made this situation still more explosive. Radical Islamists have clearly identified Somalia as a target for expansion. In 2006, an extremist group styling itself the Union of Islamic Courts captured Mogadishu and briefly controlled most of southern Somalia.
The possible birth of a radical Islamist state in East Africa alarmed America and her regional allies, notably Ethiopia, which shares a 1,000-mile border with Somalia.
In December 2006, Ethiopia invaded Somalia and captured Mogadishu. After overthrowing the Islamist regime, Ethiopia installed Somalia's internationally recognised government in Mogadishu.
This threadbare administration has almost no control of the capital, let alone the rest of the country. Abdullahi Yusuf, a septuagenarian warlord, holds the official title of "president of Somalia". In fact, he is the besieged mayor of a few quarters of Mogadishu.
Mr Yusuf's popular standing is undermined by his dependence on Ethiopian military muscle. Moreover, he is a Darod, while most of Mogadishu's people are Hawiyes. Mr Yusuf's militias, aided by Ethiopian forces, have destroyed much of the city while fighting a strong insurgency.
Elsewhere in Somalia, two independent enclaves have emerged – Somaliland in the north and Puntland in the centre.
Somaliland has achieved a measure of stability, while Puntland has become a global centre of piracy. Unless there is a successful rescue mission, the Sirius Star may find itself anchored off the coast of Puntland. Thanks to Somalia's anarchy, this lawless mini-state has effectively become a pirate kingdom.
More Telegraph.co.uk
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008 Terms & Conditions of reading Commercial information Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Guinea-Bissau restores calm after mutiny
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Guinea-Bissau restores calm after mutiny
Guinea-Bissau ,mutiny, President Joao Bernardo, presidential residence, African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde (AIGC), Bissau,renegade soldiers, Abdoulaye Wade , Senegalese
DAKAR, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- In defiance of international appeal for respect for election results in Guinea-Bissau, fighting broke out in a pre-dawn raid on Sunday at the presidential residence between mutineers and government soldiers before calm restored in the capital of Bissau.
The attack followed the unveiling of provisional results of last Sunday's legislative election by National Electoral Commission President Aladji Malam Mane.
Guinea Bissau's President Joao Bernardo and wife is seen in this file photo taken on Nov. 16, 2008, when they arrived to cast their ballots at a voting station in Bissau. Soldiers attacked Guniea-Bissau's presidential residence on Sunday morning.
(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>
The results showed that the traditionally dominant African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) secured 67 of the 100 parliament seats.
A group of gunmen fired at the residence of President Joao Bernardo Vieira after midnight. Witnesses in Bissau heard explosions of artillery and rockets. The latest report said Vieira survived the attack by renegade soldiers who fled the scene after hours of shootout with Vieira's guards. The presidential residence was partly damaged in the fighting.
At least one presidential bodyguard was killed and several others wounded in the exchange of fire, the press service of the president told Xinhua. The authorities arrested several suspects of mutiny.
Vieira made an emergency phone call to his Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade after the incident, apparently in a bid to seek supports from the north neighboring country. The movement of troops was reported on the side of Senegal, before Vieira's presidential press service declared the situation was "under control."
Guinea-Bissau's Communication Minister Fernando Mendonca confirmed to Xinhua on a separate occasion that calm has returned to Bissau after fighting.
Although the Nov. 16 election was widely hailed as a success without tensions or disruption, there were complaints about "signs of fraud."
Mohmed Koumba Yala, leader of the Party of Social Renovation (PRS), has rejected the results after complaining that the vote at the party's northern stronghold Circle Five was delayed until Monday.
Yala, who won a presidential election in 2000 but was overthrown in a 2003 coup, met with UN special envoy in Guinea-Bissau Shola Omoragie, one day after the election to file a protest against the PAIGC, which claimed to win more than 80 percent of votes before the official results were published.
A high turnout of more than 70 percent was reported for the election. Nearly 600,000 of the country's 1.5 million population were registered to chose lawmakers for the country's fourth National Assembly since its independence in 1974.
About 20 political parties contended in the race, where the most influential included the PAIGC, the newly-formed Republican Party for Independence and Development and the PRS.
The UN Security Council on Thursday welcomed the legislative election in Guinea-Bissau, urging the political parties to respect the results.
Guinea-Bissau has been plagued by coups and revolts since its independence from Portugal. Instability triggered a civil war between 1998 and 1999, toppling Vieira who had ruled the country for 19 years.
Vieira, stilled seen as a hero by many in the struggle for the country's independence, returned to power after winning the presidential election of the country in 2005. But the situation has remained unstable with changes of government. In August, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concerns after a failed coup attempt and the dissolving of the parliament, calling on all national stakeholders to work cooperatively and peacefully in the run-up to the election in November.
To ensure the success of the vote, the United Nations, the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States have contributed millions of U.S. dollars. More than 150 international observers were deployed across the country to monitor the process.
On the tip of West Africa with jagged coastline, Guinea-Bissauis being used by traffickers as a major hub for the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe, narcotics experts say.
The international community hopes the election will lead the country out of the shadow of both instability and drug trafficking.
Guinea-Bissau is one of the poorest countries in the world, being ranked the 175th out of 177 nations in the U.N. Development Programme's Human Development Index. The country's life expectancy is averaged at less than 46 years.
Covering an area of 28,120 square km, the country lies on the west coast of northern Africa, bordered by Senegal to the north, Guinea to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its main exports include cashew nuts and fish.
Cashew nuts account for 90 percent of the country's exports, which are estimated by the International Monetary Fund at nearly 94 million U.S. dollars in 2008, up from 71 million dollars in 2007.
Guinea-Bissau's presidential residence under attack
DAKAR, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Soldiers on Sunday morning opened fired at Guniea-Bissau's presidential residence, agencies' reports said.
President of the West African country, Joao Bernardo Vieira called his Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade and told him the event, the reports said. Full story
Guinea Bissau says situation "under control"
DAKAR, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The situation of Guinea Bissau is "under control," the government of the tiny West African country declared on Sunday after shootouts between guards of the presidential residence and mutineers early in the day.
Communication Minister Fernando Mendonca told Xinhua by telephone that unidentified soldiers fired at the residence of President Joao Bernardo Vieira before calm returned to the capital city of Bissau. Full story
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Guinea-Bissau restores calm after mutiny
Guinea-Bissau ,mutiny, President Joao Bernardo, presidential residence, African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde (AIGC), Bissau,renegade soldiers, Abdoulaye Wade , Senegalese
DAKAR, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- In defiance of international appeal for respect for election results in Guinea-Bissau, fighting broke out in a pre-dawn raid on Sunday at the presidential residence between mutineers and government soldiers before calm restored in the capital of Bissau.
The attack followed the unveiling of provisional results of last Sunday's legislative election by National Electoral Commission President Aladji Malam Mane.
Guinea Bissau's President Joao Bernardo and wife is seen in this file photo taken on Nov. 16, 2008, when they arrived to cast their ballots at a voting station in Bissau. Soldiers attacked Guniea-Bissau's presidential residence on Sunday morning.
(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>
The results showed that the traditionally dominant African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) secured 67 of the 100 parliament seats.
A group of gunmen fired at the residence of President Joao Bernardo Vieira after midnight. Witnesses in Bissau heard explosions of artillery and rockets. The latest report said Vieira survived the attack by renegade soldiers who fled the scene after hours of shootout with Vieira's guards. The presidential residence was partly damaged in the fighting.
At least one presidential bodyguard was killed and several others wounded in the exchange of fire, the press service of the president told Xinhua. The authorities arrested several suspects of mutiny.
Vieira made an emergency phone call to his Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade after the incident, apparently in a bid to seek supports from the north neighboring country. The movement of troops was reported on the side of Senegal, before Vieira's presidential press service declared the situation was "under control."
Guinea-Bissau's Communication Minister Fernando Mendonca confirmed to Xinhua on a separate occasion that calm has returned to Bissau after fighting.
Although the Nov. 16 election was widely hailed as a success without tensions or disruption, there were complaints about "signs of fraud."
Mohmed Koumba Yala, leader of the Party of Social Renovation (PRS), has rejected the results after complaining that the vote at the party's northern stronghold Circle Five was delayed until Monday.
Yala, who won a presidential election in 2000 but was overthrown in a 2003 coup, met with UN special envoy in Guinea-Bissau Shola Omoragie, one day after the election to file a protest against the PAIGC, which claimed to win more than 80 percent of votes before the official results were published.
A high turnout of more than 70 percent was reported for the election. Nearly 600,000 of the country's 1.5 million population were registered to chose lawmakers for the country's fourth National Assembly since its independence in 1974.
About 20 political parties contended in the race, where the most influential included the PAIGC, the newly-formed Republican Party for Independence and Development and the PRS.
The UN Security Council on Thursday welcomed the legislative election in Guinea-Bissau, urging the political parties to respect the results.
Guinea-Bissau has been plagued by coups and revolts since its independence from Portugal. Instability triggered a civil war between 1998 and 1999, toppling Vieira who had ruled the country for 19 years.
Vieira, stilled seen as a hero by many in the struggle for the country's independence, returned to power after winning the presidential election of the country in 2005. But the situation has remained unstable with changes of government. In August, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concerns after a failed coup attempt and the dissolving of the parliament, calling on all national stakeholders to work cooperatively and peacefully in the run-up to the election in November.
To ensure the success of the vote, the United Nations, the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States have contributed millions of U.S. dollars. More than 150 international observers were deployed across the country to monitor the process.
On the tip of West Africa with jagged coastline, Guinea-Bissauis being used by traffickers as a major hub for the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe, narcotics experts say.
The international community hopes the election will lead the country out of the shadow of both instability and drug trafficking.
Guinea-Bissau is one of the poorest countries in the world, being ranked the 175th out of 177 nations in the U.N. Development Programme's Human Development Index. The country's life expectancy is averaged at less than 46 years.
Covering an area of 28,120 square km, the country lies on the west coast of northern Africa, bordered by Senegal to the north, Guinea to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its main exports include cashew nuts and fish.
Cashew nuts account for 90 percent of the country's exports, which are estimated by the International Monetary Fund at nearly 94 million U.S. dollars in 2008, up from 71 million dollars in 2007.
Guinea-Bissau's presidential residence under attack
DAKAR, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Soldiers on Sunday morning opened fired at Guniea-Bissau's presidential residence, agencies' reports said.
President of the West African country, Joao Bernardo Vieira called his Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade and told him the event, the reports said. Full story
Guinea Bissau says situation "under control"
DAKAR, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The situation of Guinea Bissau is "under control," the government of the tiny West African country declared on Sunday after shootouts between guards of the presidential residence and mutineers early in the day.
Communication Minister Fernando Mendonca told Xinhua by telephone that unidentified soldiers fired at the residence of President Joao Bernardo Vieira before calm returned to the capital city of Bissau. Full story
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Fierce gun battle rocks Mogadishu
Fierce gun battle rocks Mogadishu
Ethiopian troops, Ethiopian withdrawal, insurgents, Islamist groups, Mogadishu, north-east Mogadishu, peace deal, Somali capital, UN Security Council
At least 15 people have been killed after insurgents attacked the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses say.
Heavily armed men were repulsed after they attacked the house of district commissioner Ahmed Da'i just after dawn prayers, resident Ahmed Mumin said.
Mr Da'i confirmed the attack and said the bodies of the attackers "now littered the streets".
The raid comes on the day Ethiopian troops are due to start leaving Somalia, under a recent peace deal.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says there is no sign yet that the planned Ethiopian withdrawal from Mogadishu's residential areas has begun.
They [bodies] were unfamiliar faces in the our district, so we think they were the insurgents Dahir Mohamed South Mogadishu resident said.
He says in contrast, they started patrolling in new areas of north-east Mogadishu, leading to clashes with residents and insurgents.
The pull-out is due to finish on 29 December, according to the UN-brokered deal between the government and some moderate Islamist groups.
The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution imposing sanctions - an assets freeze and travel ban - on anyone threatening peace in Somalia.
"The prime goal of this is to provide a framework to stem the flow of arms into Somalia, which is causing such mayhem there," said John Sawers, the UN ambassador of the UK, which drafted the resolution.
The resolution also mentions anyone disrupting aid deliveries.
Mosque killing
Meanwhile, a gunman has killed one clan elder and wounded three others in an attack inside a mosque near the northern town of Hargeisa.
Hargeisa is the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, which has been spared much of the violence of the rest of the country.
Government officials say there were two hours of fighting between insurgents and security officials in south Mogadishu.
The bodies of at least 15 of those killed were displayed by the authorities.
"They were unfamiliar faces in the our district, so we think they were the insurgents," said resident Dahir Mohamed.
The Islamists have not commented on the incident.
Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia two years to help the transitional government oust Islamists from Mogadishu and surrounding areas.
But President Abdullahi Yusuf last week admitted that Islamists now control most of the southern part of the country.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2008/11/21 15:48:53 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Ethiopian troops, Ethiopian withdrawal, insurgents, Islamist groups, Mogadishu, north-east Mogadishu, peace deal, Somali capital, UN Security Council
At least 15 people have been killed after insurgents attacked the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses say.
Heavily armed men were repulsed after they attacked the house of district commissioner Ahmed Da'i just after dawn prayers, resident Ahmed Mumin said.
Mr Da'i confirmed the attack and said the bodies of the attackers "now littered the streets".
The raid comes on the day Ethiopian troops are due to start leaving Somalia, under a recent peace deal.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says there is no sign yet that the planned Ethiopian withdrawal from Mogadishu's residential areas has begun.
They [bodies] were unfamiliar faces in the our district, so we think they were the insurgents Dahir Mohamed South Mogadishu resident said.
He says in contrast, they started patrolling in new areas of north-east Mogadishu, leading to clashes with residents and insurgents.
The pull-out is due to finish on 29 December, according to the UN-brokered deal between the government and some moderate Islamist groups.
The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution imposing sanctions - an assets freeze and travel ban - on anyone threatening peace in Somalia.
"The prime goal of this is to provide a framework to stem the flow of arms into Somalia, which is causing such mayhem there," said John Sawers, the UN ambassador of the UK, which drafted the resolution.
The resolution also mentions anyone disrupting aid deliveries.
Mosque killing
Meanwhile, a gunman has killed one clan elder and wounded three others in an attack inside a mosque near the northern town of Hargeisa.
Hargeisa is the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, which has been spared much of the violence of the rest of the country.
Government officials say there were two hours of fighting between insurgents and security officials in south Mogadishu.
The bodies of at least 15 of those killed were displayed by the authorities.
"They were unfamiliar faces in the our district, so we think they were the insurgents," said resident Dahir Mohamed.
The Islamists have not commented on the incident.
Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia two years to help the transitional government oust Islamists from Mogadishu and surrounding areas.
But President Abdullahi Yusuf last week admitted that Islamists now control most of the southern part of the country.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2008/11/21 15:48:53 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Is Somalia on the verge of an Islamist takeover?
Fri 21 Nov 2008, 9:16 GMT
SCENARIOS-Is Somalia on the verge of an Islamist takeover?
By Andrew Cawthorne
NAIROBI, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Rampant piracy offshore and an advance by Islamist rebels on Mogadishu have put Somalia's long-running civil conflict in the global spotlight.
Here are some possible scenarios for the country.
ISLAMIST TAKEOVER?
* After a two-year insurgency, Islamist fighters are within nine miles (six km) of the capital and President Abdullahi Yusuf admits his Western-backed government is on the verge of collapse. The Islamists or aligned groups now control most of the south, except Mogadishu and the seat of parliament, Baidoa.
* The Islamists' momentum in recent months has led to some predictions of an imminent assault on the capital, where they launch regular guerrilla-style attacks on the government and its Ethiopian military allies.
* But the rebels are split. The most militant wing, al Shabaab, which is on Washington's terrorist list, is urging jihad, or holy war. Moderate elements in another faction, the Islamic Courts Union, are leaning towards talks. The umbrella opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) is divided into a pro-peace group known as ARS-Djibouti and a hardline wing ARS-Eritrea.
* Some analysts say the Islamists may be quietly satisfied with the current, Iraq-style situation of daily attacks in Mogadishu, drawing in African peacekeepers and keeping Somali-Ethiopian troops bogged down. The presence of several thousand Ethiopian troops -- who beat them militarily at the end of 2006 -- is a major deterrent to an assault on the city.
* Should the Islamists take the capital, hardline leaders say they will impose sharia law across the south. Washington fears that would make it a haven for al Qaeda-linked extremists, and neighbouring Ethiopia fears a push on its ethnically Somali regions. But some regional diplomats say the world should have nothing to fear from an Islamist-led Somalia, provided -- crucially -- al Shabaab and other militants are marginalised. The northern states of Somaliland and Puntland run their own affairs, with the former having declared itself independent.
* Islamist leaders have publicly vowed to stamp out piracy if they take over and cite their action against gangs when they ruled the south for half of 2006. But analysts say some factions, including Shabaab, are increasingly linked to piracy, using the gangs to bring arms from abroad and sharing spoils.
POWER-SHARING?
* After 14 attempts to re-establish effective central government in Somalia since warlords toppled a dictator in 1991, another one came along this year. The U.N. special envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, has been leading talks in Djibouti between the government and moderate Islamists.
* Both sides have signed a ceasefire in principle and an agreement to form a power-sharing government. But with hardline Islamists stepping up attacks every time the peace process moves a notch forward, it has had no impact in stemming violence on the ground. Further, Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein says Yusuf himself is opposed to the peace process. "The president is an obstacle, no doubt," he told Reuters this week, underlining rifts that are frustrating the government's foreign backers.
* East African nations and the wider international community are backing power-sharing as the best way to avoid the collapse of Yusuf's government while adapting to the reality of Islamist power on the ground.
* A regional summit in Nairobi at the end of October gave the Somali government a 15-day deadline for a cabinet reshuffle to bring in some moderate opponents. The deadline has expired.
FOREIGN INTERVENTION?
* Any talk of foreign intervention in Somalia is tinged with memories of disastrous U.N. and U.S. interventions in the early 1990s, perhaps most vividly illustrated by the "Black Hawk Down" battle in 1993 when 18 American troops were killed.
* The African Union (AU) has a 3,000-strong peacekeeping force of Ugandans and Burundians, but they have been unable to do much more than guard a few key installations like the presidential palace and airport. Both of those have been hit by insurgents, however, and AU troops themselves are targets too.
* The AU is struggling to increase the force to an intended 8,000, though Nigeria and others are talking of soon sending reinforcements. The pan-African body's preferred option, however, is to hand over to the United Nations.
* The U.N. Security Council appears to have no political appetite for another major intervention in Africa -- at a time when it is facing criticism over failing to keep the peace in Congo and Darfur -- but has begun contingency planning in case.
* By contrast, foreign nations have swung into quick action to try to contain piracy which has reached unprecedented levels this year in the nearby Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters.
* The NATO alliance and the European Union (EU) have sent ships, while the United States, France, Russia, India and others have all stepped up patrols in the area. As if mocking their efforts, pirates took a Saudi supertanker off Kenya last weekend in their biggest and geographically furthest strike yet.
* Ethiopia has been quietly withdrawing soldiers it sent in 2006 to back the government. But it still has several thousand there and is viewed as unlikely to pull them all out for fear of an al Shabaab assault on Mogadishu.
CHAOS AS NORMAL?
* In the absence of any major shift in Somali politics, the current quagmire would simply continue.
* Fighting has killed 10,000 civilians since early 2007 and more would undoubtedly be caught up in daily clashes. More than 1 million are internal refugees, and that number would grow.
* Foreign fighters may continue to be attracted to "Africa's Iraq" which militants present as a war against infidel invaders.
© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters
SCENARIOS-Is Somalia on the verge of an Islamist takeover?
By Andrew Cawthorne
NAIROBI, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Rampant piracy offshore and an advance by Islamist rebels on Mogadishu have put Somalia's long-running civil conflict in the global spotlight.
Here are some possible scenarios for the country.
ISLAMIST TAKEOVER?
* After a two-year insurgency, Islamist fighters are within nine miles (six km) of the capital and President Abdullahi Yusuf admits his Western-backed government is on the verge of collapse. The Islamists or aligned groups now control most of the south, except Mogadishu and the seat of parliament, Baidoa.
* The Islamists' momentum in recent months has led to some predictions of an imminent assault on the capital, where they launch regular guerrilla-style attacks on the government and its Ethiopian military allies.
* But the rebels are split. The most militant wing, al Shabaab, which is on Washington's terrorist list, is urging jihad, or holy war. Moderate elements in another faction, the Islamic Courts Union, are leaning towards talks. The umbrella opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) is divided into a pro-peace group known as ARS-Djibouti and a hardline wing ARS-Eritrea.
* Some analysts say the Islamists may be quietly satisfied with the current, Iraq-style situation of daily attacks in Mogadishu, drawing in African peacekeepers and keeping Somali-Ethiopian troops bogged down. The presence of several thousand Ethiopian troops -- who beat them militarily at the end of 2006 -- is a major deterrent to an assault on the city.
* Should the Islamists take the capital, hardline leaders say they will impose sharia law across the south. Washington fears that would make it a haven for al Qaeda-linked extremists, and neighbouring Ethiopia fears a push on its ethnically Somali regions. But some regional diplomats say the world should have nothing to fear from an Islamist-led Somalia, provided -- crucially -- al Shabaab and other militants are marginalised. The northern states of Somaliland and Puntland run their own affairs, with the former having declared itself independent.
* Islamist leaders have publicly vowed to stamp out piracy if they take over and cite their action against gangs when they ruled the south for half of 2006. But analysts say some factions, including Shabaab, are increasingly linked to piracy, using the gangs to bring arms from abroad and sharing spoils.
POWER-SHARING?
* After 14 attempts to re-establish effective central government in Somalia since warlords toppled a dictator in 1991, another one came along this year. The U.N. special envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, has been leading talks in Djibouti between the government and moderate Islamists.
* Both sides have signed a ceasefire in principle and an agreement to form a power-sharing government. But with hardline Islamists stepping up attacks every time the peace process moves a notch forward, it has had no impact in stemming violence on the ground. Further, Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein says Yusuf himself is opposed to the peace process. "The president is an obstacle, no doubt," he told Reuters this week, underlining rifts that are frustrating the government's foreign backers.
* East African nations and the wider international community are backing power-sharing as the best way to avoid the collapse of Yusuf's government while adapting to the reality of Islamist power on the ground.
* A regional summit in Nairobi at the end of October gave the Somali government a 15-day deadline for a cabinet reshuffle to bring in some moderate opponents. The deadline has expired.
FOREIGN INTERVENTION?
* Any talk of foreign intervention in Somalia is tinged with memories of disastrous U.N. and U.S. interventions in the early 1990s, perhaps most vividly illustrated by the "Black Hawk Down" battle in 1993 when 18 American troops were killed.
* The African Union (AU) has a 3,000-strong peacekeeping force of Ugandans and Burundians, but they have been unable to do much more than guard a few key installations like the presidential palace and airport. Both of those have been hit by insurgents, however, and AU troops themselves are targets too.
* The AU is struggling to increase the force to an intended 8,000, though Nigeria and others are talking of soon sending reinforcements. The pan-African body's preferred option, however, is to hand over to the United Nations.
* The U.N. Security Council appears to have no political appetite for another major intervention in Africa -- at a time when it is facing criticism over failing to keep the peace in Congo and Darfur -- but has begun contingency planning in case.
* By contrast, foreign nations have swung into quick action to try to contain piracy which has reached unprecedented levels this year in the nearby Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters.
* The NATO alliance and the European Union (EU) have sent ships, while the United States, France, Russia, India and others have all stepped up patrols in the area. As if mocking their efforts, pirates took a Saudi supertanker off Kenya last weekend in their biggest and geographically furthest strike yet.
* Ethiopia has been quietly withdrawing soldiers it sent in 2006 to back the government. But it still has several thousand there and is viewed as unlikely to pull them all out for fear of an al Shabaab assault on Mogadishu.
CHAOS AS NORMAL?
* In the absence of any major shift in Somali politics, the current quagmire would simply continue.
* Fighting has killed 10,000 civilians since early 2007 and more would undoubtedly be caught up in daily clashes. More than 1 million are internal refugees, and that number would grow.
* Foreign fighters may continue to be attracted to "Africa's Iraq" which militants present as a war against infidel invaders.
© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters
Mogadishu clashes leave 20 dead, 15 wounded
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Mogadishu clashes leave 20 dead, 15 wounded
Mogadishu, Somali Militants, Somalia, Somali capital, Ethiopia, Ethiopian troops, Islamic Militants
MOGADISHU, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Heavy fighting between insurgent fighters and Somali government forces and Ethiopian troops in the Somali capital of Mogadishu has left nearly 20 people dead and almost 15 others wounded, police and witnesses said Friday.
Fifteen people, most of them young men, were killed after a gunfight between Somali government security forces and heavily armed fighters, who attacked the home of a Somali government official in the southwest of the restive capital, witnesses said.
It is not yet clear who the dead were but police spokesman, Colonel Abdulahi Hassan Barise, claimed that they were insurgent fighters.
Barise said his forces lost two men while four others were wounded in the gunfight that lasted for nearly two hours.
In separate clashes involving Ethiopian and insurgent fighters in the northeast of Mogadishu, three civilians were killed and 11 others were wounded after stray shells and bullets hit residential areas away from the battle scenes, witnesses told local media.
The escalation in fighting between insurgent fighters and Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies comes on the day the Ethiopian troops were expected to withdraw from some of their bases in Mogadishu in accordance with a peace agreement between Somali government and a faction of the opposition Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS) signed in Djibouti last month.
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Mogadishu clashes leave 20 dead, 15 wounded
Mogadishu, Somali Militants, Somalia, Somali capital, Ethiopia, Ethiopian troops, Islamic Militants
MOGADISHU, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Heavy fighting between insurgent fighters and Somali government forces and Ethiopian troops in the Somali capital of Mogadishu has left nearly 20 people dead and almost 15 others wounded, police and witnesses said Friday.
Fifteen people, most of them young men, were killed after a gunfight between Somali government security forces and heavily armed fighters, who attacked the home of a Somali government official in the southwest of the restive capital, witnesses said.
It is not yet clear who the dead were but police spokesman, Colonel Abdulahi Hassan Barise, claimed that they were insurgent fighters.
Barise said his forces lost two men while four others were wounded in the gunfight that lasted for nearly two hours.
In separate clashes involving Ethiopian and insurgent fighters in the northeast of Mogadishu, three civilians were killed and 11 others were wounded after stray shells and bullets hit residential areas away from the battle scenes, witnesses told local media.
The escalation in fighting between insurgent fighters and Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies comes on the day the Ethiopian troops were expected to withdraw from some of their bases in Mogadishu in accordance with a peace agreement between Somali government and a faction of the opposition Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS) signed in Djibouti last month.
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Dozens Killed as Fighting Intensifies in Somalia
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November 22, 2008
Dozens Killed as Fighting Intensifies in Somalia
By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and SHARON OTTERMAN
MOGADISHU, Somalia — At least two dozen people, including six children, were killed in heavy fighting here in Somalia’s capital on Friday as government troops tried to reassert control and Islamist insurgents fought back fiercely, witnesses said.
Bodies littered the streets of the bullet-pocked city, and hundreds of residents began to flee. Both sides claimed victory.
Violence between Islamist rebels and government forces has intensified over the past few weeks. Islamist insurgents now control much of south central Somalia, including many neighborhoods within Mogadishu, and seem intent on seizing the few enclaves the government, with Ethiopian muscle, still controls.
The gun battles on Friday started just after dawn outside the house of a local district commissioner, Ahmed Daaci, in a southern neighborhood of the city. At least 17 people died and 6 were wounded in that fighting, according to witnesses’ accounts.
Mr. Daaci, who survived the attack, said that government forces had repulsed a group of insurgents who attacked his house, and that 17 of the attackers were killed.
The bodies were left on display for hours, after government forces blocked residents from collecting them, an apparent attempt to ward off further attacks.
“I saw 12 dead bodies lying on the streets, and there were 2 bodies in front of my house,” said Abdurashid Abdullahi, a resident of the Medina neighborhood, where the fighting took place. “They are the Islamists,” he said.
More fighting erupted in the afternoon, when Islamist insurgents and government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, fired artillery at each other. Six children were killed when a mortar shell slammed into their house, said a resident who lived next to the crushed building.
Ethiopian troops were to start leaving some positions in Mogadishu on Friday, under terms of a recent United Nations-brokered peace deal in Djibouti between the transitional government and a coalition of Islamist groups. African Union troops are scheduled to replace them.
But there were no signs of a withdrawal, witnesses said.
One of the insurgent groups, a faction of the Union of Islamic Courts, considered one of the more moderate Islamist groups in Somalia, said it had lost six men in the day’s fighting and had killed 15 government soldiers. The figures could not be independently verified.
Ethiopian troops entered the country in late 2006 and ousted an Islamist administration that briefly controlled much of south and central Somalia. But the Islamists regrouped, and have steadily progressed from staging sporadic hit-and-run guerrilla attacks to seizing — and holding — large swaths of territory.
A deal reached late last month between the transitional government and the main Islamist-led opposition group called for Ethiopian troops to pull out of areas in Mogadishu and the central garrison town of Beledweyne by Nov. 21, which was Friday.
Under the deal, the Somali government and the opposition Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia are to assemble a 10,000-strong police force to help the African Union peacekeepers control the areas.
Somalia has been without a functioning central government since 1991, when Mohammed Siad Barre was removed from power and the army fell into the hands of clan militias, throwing the country into lawlessness.
Mohammed Ibrahim reported from Mogadishu, and Sharon Otterman from New York.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
November 22, 2008
Dozens Killed as Fighting Intensifies in Somalia
By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and SHARON OTTERMAN
MOGADISHU, Somalia — At least two dozen people, including six children, were killed in heavy fighting here in Somalia’s capital on Friday as government troops tried to reassert control and Islamist insurgents fought back fiercely, witnesses said.
Bodies littered the streets of the bullet-pocked city, and hundreds of residents began to flee. Both sides claimed victory.
Violence between Islamist rebels and government forces has intensified over the past few weeks. Islamist insurgents now control much of south central Somalia, including many neighborhoods within Mogadishu, and seem intent on seizing the few enclaves the government, with Ethiopian muscle, still controls.
The gun battles on Friday started just after dawn outside the house of a local district commissioner, Ahmed Daaci, in a southern neighborhood of the city. At least 17 people died and 6 were wounded in that fighting, according to witnesses’ accounts.
Mr. Daaci, who survived the attack, said that government forces had repulsed a group of insurgents who attacked his house, and that 17 of the attackers were killed.
The bodies were left on display for hours, after government forces blocked residents from collecting them, an apparent attempt to ward off further attacks.
“I saw 12 dead bodies lying on the streets, and there were 2 bodies in front of my house,” said Abdurashid Abdullahi, a resident of the Medina neighborhood, where the fighting took place. “They are the Islamists,” he said.
More fighting erupted in the afternoon, when Islamist insurgents and government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, fired artillery at each other. Six children were killed when a mortar shell slammed into their house, said a resident who lived next to the crushed building.
Ethiopian troops were to start leaving some positions in Mogadishu on Friday, under terms of a recent United Nations-brokered peace deal in Djibouti between the transitional government and a coalition of Islamist groups. African Union troops are scheduled to replace them.
But there were no signs of a withdrawal, witnesses said.
One of the insurgent groups, a faction of the Union of Islamic Courts, considered one of the more moderate Islamist groups in Somalia, said it had lost six men in the day’s fighting and had killed 15 government soldiers. The figures could not be independently verified.
Ethiopian troops entered the country in late 2006 and ousted an Islamist administration that briefly controlled much of south and central Somalia. But the Islamists regrouped, and have steadily progressed from staging sporadic hit-and-run guerrilla attacks to seizing — and holding — large swaths of territory.
A deal reached late last month between the transitional government and the main Islamist-led opposition group called for Ethiopian troops to pull out of areas in Mogadishu and the central garrison town of Beledweyne by Nov. 21, which was Friday.
Under the deal, the Somali government and the opposition Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia are to assemble a 10,000-strong police force to help the African Union peacekeepers control the areas.
Somalia has been without a functioning central government since 1991, when Mohammed Siad Barre was removed from power and the army fell into the hands of clan militias, throwing the country into lawlessness.
Mohammed Ibrahim reported from Mogadishu, and Sharon Otterman from New York.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Ethiopian troops remain in Somali capital
Ethiopian troops remain in Somali capital
Ethiopian troops yet begin to withdraw from key positions in Somali capital
Ethiopians had agreed to withdraw from some bases by Friday
They were supposed to do so under a peace agreement designed to end conflict
MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Ethiopian troops have not yet begun to withdraw from key positions in the capital of Somalia two days after they were supposed to do so under a peace agreement designed to end years of conflict.
The Ethiopians had agreed to withdraw from some bases by Friday under an agreement signed last month by the Somali transitional government and a rebel faction known as the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.
Ethiopia invaded Somalia two years ago to expel Islamic forces who had conquered Mogadishu. Under the deal signed October 26, a cease-fire between the transitional government and the ARS went into effect November 5. The Ethiopians were to withdraw from from key positions in the capital on November 21, and leave the country entirely early in 2009.
Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein has said that Ethiopian troops will withdraw as agreed.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate leader of the rebel ARS, told the local radio station Shabelle Saturday that the Ethiopian troops would pull out on schedule.
Insurgents clashed with Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies Friday, witnesses said, leaving at least 11 fighters dead.
The fighting started when armed insurgent fighters attacked the house of a local commissioner in Mogadishu's Wadajir district, sparking heavy fighting between the government troops guarding the house and the insurgents.
"I saw 11 men wearing red turbans on the heads dead on the ground," local resident Mohamed Haji Ali told CNN by phone from a house near where the clashes took place. Other residents provided a similar death toll.
The commissioner whose house was attacked, Ahmed Da'd, said that his soldiers killed 17 insurgents. He displayed what he said were some of the dead insurgents for the media.
It is not clear what will happen if the Ethiopian troops remain in Mogadishu despite the October 26 peace deal. Under that agreement, government and opposition members will form a 10,000-member joint police force to keep order, along with the African Union peacekeeping mission now in place and a U.N. force to be deployed later. Both sides will work toward establishing a unity government in Somalia, which has been riven by 17 years of strife since the collapse of its last fully functional government.
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to install the transitional government in Mogadishu after a decade and a half of near-anarchy. The invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union -- which captured Mogadishu earlier that year -- of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda. The Islamists responded with a guerrilla campaign against government and Ethiopian troops.
Efforts to replace the Ethiopians with an African Union-led peacekeeping mission faltered as the violence worsened, and heavy fighting in Mogadishu and other cities drove hundreds of thousands from their homes. The lawlessness also spilled on to the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected Somali pirates who demand large ransoms.
Journalist Abdinasir Mohamed Guled and CNN's Mohammed Amiin and Amir Ahmed contributed to this report.
Find this article at:
Links referenced within this article
Copyright 2008 Cable News Network.
Ethiopian troops yet begin to withdraw from key positions in Somali capital
Ethiopians had agreed to withdraw from some bases by Friday
They were supposed to do so under a peace agreement designed to end conflict
MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Ethiopian troops have not yet begun to withdraw from key positions in the capital of Somalia two days after they were supposed to do so under a peace agreement designed to end years of conflict.
The Ethiopians had agreed to withdraw from some bases by Friday under an agreement signed last month by the Somali transitional government and a rebel faction known as the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.
Ethiopia invaded Somalia two years ago to expel Islamic forces who had conquered Mogadishu. Under the deal signed October 26, a cease-fire between the transitional government and the ARS went into effect November 5. The Ethiopians were to withdraw from from key positions in the capital on November 21, and leave the country entirely early in 2009.
Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein has said that Ethiopian troops will withdraw as agreed.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate leader of the rebel ARS, told the local radio station Shabelle Saturday that the Ethiopian troops would pull out on schedule.
Insurgents clashed with Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies Friday, witnesses said, leaving at least 11 fighters dead.
The fighting started when armed insurgent fighters attacked the house of a local commissioner in Mogadishu's Wadajir district, sparking heavy fighting between the government troops guarding the house and the insurgents.
"I saw 11 men wearing red turbans on the heads dead on the ground," local resident Mohamed Haji Ali told CNN by phone from a house near where the clashes took place. Other residents provided a similar death toll.
The commissioner whose house was attacked, Ahmed Da'd, said that his soldiers killed 17 insurgents. He displayed what he said were some of the dead insurgents for the media.
It is not clear what will happen if the Ethiopian troops remain in Mogadishu despite the October 26 peace deal. Under that agreement, government and opposition members will form a 10,000-member joint police force to keep order, along with the African Union peacekeeping mission now in place and a U.N. force to be deployed later. Both sides will work toward establishing a unity government in Somalia, which has been riven by 17 years of strife since the collapse of its last fully functional government.
Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to install the transitional government in Mogadishu after a decade and a half of near-anarchy. The invasion had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union -- which captured Mogadishu earlier that year -- of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda. The Islamists responded with a guerrilla campaign against government and Ethiopian troops.
Efforts to replace the Ethiopians with an African Union-led peacekeeping mission faltered as the violence worsened, and heavy fighting in Mogadishu and other cities drove hundreds of thousands from their homes. The lawlessness also spilled on to the seas off the Horn of Africa, where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected Somali pirates who demand large ransoms.
Journalist Abdinasir Mohamed Guled and CNN's Mohammed Amiin and Amir Ahmed contributed to this report.
Find this article at:
Links referenced within this article
Copyright 2008 Cable News Network.
Saturday 15 November 2008
Fortress Britain: Poor Self-Paying Overseas Students Unwelcome!
University education for overseas students at British universities is expensive. The cost of living in its major cities is high. Now, The British Council and the UK Home Office have just made choosing a British university for self-paying students from developing countries, less attractive. In terms of tuition and cost of living, compared to a country like Canada, one would half their costs and obtain comparable or even more superior, world-class degree from a Canadian University, than from Britain. Unless one is on a government, state, Commonwealth and other scholarships, a British university may just cost you an arm and a leg for no good reason than vanity. If value for money and thrift are any part of the bargain, the arguments for a self-sponsored student from a developing country going to study in the UK, is marginal, barring that the programme they will undertake is unavailable in Canada.
According to The Times Higher Education World Ranking of 200 universities in 2008, British Universities; Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, University College, King's College, University of Edinburgh, Manchester, and Bristol, are ranked among the top 50 in the world. Only Canada's McGill, University of British Columbia, and University of Toronto, make the grade in that league. However, this alone does not give a complete picture of what quality and excellent education many more Canadian universities offer for a fraction of the costs of comparable UK programmes.
Down the ranking, Canadian universities; the University of Alberta, Université de Montréal, McMaster, Queen's, Waterloo, Western Ontario, Simon Fraser, Calgary, and Dalhousie, compare very favourably with or ahead of LSE, Warwick, Glasgow, Birmingham, Sheffield, York, St. Andrew's, Nottingham, Southampton, Leeds, Durham, Sussex, Cardiff, Liverpool, Bath, Aberdeen, Queen Mary, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Lancaster, Leicester, and Reading. The complete ranking can be seen here:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=243&pubCode=1
Another disincentive for choosing a British University is the recent UK Home Office announcement of major new immigration rules for highly skilled and skilled people who want to come and work, and for overseas students who want to study, in the UK. We agree with Alan Travis of The Guardian (London), that the ''New Points system (is a)'barrier to migrants'', The Guardian, Wednesday November 5 2008.
The new immigration rules will come into force on 27 November 2008. For highly skilled migrants seeking work in the UK, before a visa can be issued, they will need to have in the bank -and for a minimum three months before making application- £2,800 pounds for themselves as principal applicants, and £1,600 for each family member. For the three months preceding application, the sums must not have dropped below the threshold, even by a penny!
Here is the crux of our argument why a UK university is less attractive for self-sponsored students from developing countries. Prospective overseas students, who wish to study in the UK for a period of 12 months or more, must have £9,600 for self, and £535 for each dependent at hand for living costs, and the full amount of their required fees for their respective programmes, as part of new conditions for student visa. The new conditions were arrived at with extensive input from the British Council, including the recommendation the £800 pounds a month as reasonable and fair amount for personal needs for students attending British universities.
On average, postgraduate arts and social sciences programmes cost £9,500, while sciences and technology programmes can set one back about £12,000 at most British universities. Research, professional, business, and specialist degrees cost more. Roughly, a prospective student from a developing country who is self-paying will need a £20,000 pound kitty to get the nod for a student visa to the UK. Such amount will be out of reach for many prospective students from the developing countries, whose parents must scratch for this amount, but most will no longer afford a British degree, unless they could spread the costs over semesters.
Relative incomes to the pound, and the new immigration rules, will make a British education not an option for underprivileged self-paying applicants and their families from the developing countries. Traditionally, many families from the British Commonwealth look to an overseas, particularly British university degree, as a sure shot at evening out social odds and inequality, to leapfrog over corruption, influence peddling, and cronyism, which block their chances for local university places, official state scholarships, sponsorship, and opportunities in their native homeland.
Marginalized and deprived of access and opportunities at home, the new visa requirements will put private sponsorship to British universities out of reach for them. Closely controlling access to power and resources, not only do developing countries’ elite and the politically connected reserve the privileges of state sponsored university education at home for their own children, but they will also be the only social stratum with the wherewithal to access highly sought after graduate and postgraduate education at British universities. It also means that, lacking university level education, and particularly prized overseas qualifications, children of the poor will not be able to compete for state positions, opportunities, and managerial level jobs in the public and private sectors, at home. This freezes upward mobility for the underprivileged, further exacerbating and fossilising inequalities and iniquities among social groups. In other words, such policy and practices will inadvertently reward corruption and cronyism by the politically powerful and their associates in developing countries.
With the new rules, you had better have a scholarship. If you are Ugandan, your father had better have fought in Luwero and you come from somewhere in south-western Uganda. Or you have one of those state house scholarships awarded on the basis of the shape of your nose. Better yet, your parents call Amama Mbabazi, the powerful minister for security and NRM secretary general; Ezra Suruma, the minister for finance; Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, the governor Bank of Uganda; and super rich businessman, Amos Nzeyi, a friend, village mate and fellow tribesman; or a British university degree is a pipe dream.
This is where Canada comes in. For a fraction of the cost at British Universities, Canadian universities provide world-class education, with first rate research and teaching and learning support. Compared to Britain, the cost of living is lower, and the country warm and welcoming, despite its winters. The average cost for an overseas student in arts and social sciences is CAD$12,000. At current exchange rates to the pound, this works out to roughly CAD$8,000 dollars cheaper than a comparable British university programme in arts and social sciences.
If thrift and the prospect of a quality education, with thousands of dollars to spare in fees and living cost is not yet persuasive enough to make you take a serious look at Canada as the British Commonwealth’s destination of choice for prospective under- and postgraduate education, then may be its global cultural mosaic will tilt the scales of your mind and heart in that direction. Canada is a microcosm of the world-every identity, ethnicity, and corresponding culinary tastes you can think of in the world is represented there. Don’t you worry then, because homesickness will be none of your afflictions. Moreover, Canada probably has the most diverse and the best gene pool in the world. This means that for those single students, who may not just come out with a degree but also life-long partners, you could not have come to the right place to bespoilt for choice. You must have to be a very difficult customer to satisfy, if you will still need to write back home to uncle Patel, Hussein, Kwame, Singh, Lam, or Park to search high and low for a suitable hometown girl or boy, to reserve or send on over.
Forget about Britain and its claustrophobic, fortress mentality immigration rules. Together with the relative value of the pound, and comparable programmes and degrees in Canada, it is only a foolish student who would want to splurge on a British degree, when a superior four-year or postgraduate degree could be had for half the cost in Canada. Try Canadian universities and, your soul, mind, life and career will be enriched a hundred folds.
Although it did not make it among the top universities this year, I recommend my Alma Mater, York University, Toronto, Canada:
http://www.yorku.ca
Its Osgoode Law, and Schullisch Business Schoools, and Faculty of Environmental Studies, are world renowned.
According to The Times Higher Education World Ranking of 200 universities in 2008, British Universities; Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, University College, King's College, University of Edinburgh, Manchester, and Bristol, are ranked among the top 50 in the world. Only Canada's McGill, University of British Columbia, and University of Toronto, make the grade in that league. However, this alone does not give a complete picture of what quality and excellent education many more Canadian universities offer for a fraction of the costs of comparable UK programmes.
Down the ranking, Canadian universities; the University of Alberta, Université de Montréal, McMaster, Queen's, Waterloo, Western Ontario, Simon Fraser, Calgary, and Dalhousie, compare very favourably with or ahead of LSE, Warwick, Glasgow, Birmingham, Sheffield, York, St. Andrew's, Nottingham, Southampton, Leeds, Durham, Sussex, Cardiff, Liverpool, Bath, Aberdeen, Queen Mary, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Lancaster, Leicester, and Reading. The complete ranking can be seen here:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=243&pubCode=1
Another disincentive for choosing a British University is the recent UK Home Office announcement of major new immigration rules for highly skilled and skilled people who want to come and work, and for overseas students who want to study, in the UK. We agree with Alan Travis of The Guardian (London), that the ''New Points system (is a)'barrier to migrants'', The Guardian, Wednesday November 5 2008.
The new immigration rules will come into force on 27 November 2008. For highly skilled migrants seeking work in the UK, before a visa can be issued, they will need to have in the bank -and for a minimum three months before making application- £2,800 pounds for themselves as principal applicants, and £1,600 for each family member. For the three months preceding application, the sums must not have dropped below the threshold, even by a penny!
Here is the crux of our argument why a UK university is less attractive for self-sponsored students from developing countries. Prospective overseas students, who wish to study in the UK for a period of 12 months or more, must have £9,600 for self, and £535 for each dependent at hand for living costs, and the full amount of their required fees for their respective programmes, as part of new conditions for student visa. The new conditions were arrived at with extensive input from the British Council, including the recommendation the £800 pounds a month as reasonable and fair amount for personal needs for students attending British universities.
On average, postgraduate arts and social sciences programmes cost £9,500, while sciences and technology programmes can set one back about £12,000 at most British universities. Research, professional, business, and specialist degrees cost more. Roughly, a prospective student from a developing country who is self-paying will need a £20,000 pound kitty to get the nod for a student visa to the UK. Such amount will be out of reach for many prospective students from the developing countries, whose parents must scratch for this amount, but most will no longer afford a British degree, unless they could spread the costs over semesters.
Relative incomes to the pound, and the new immigration rules, will make a British education not an option for underprivileged self-paying applicants and their families from the developing countries. Traditionally, many families from the British Commonwealth look to an overseas, particularly British university degree, as a sure shot at evening out social odds and inequality, to leapfrog over corruption, influence peddling, and cronyism, which block their chances for local university places, official state scholarships, sponsorship, and opportunities in their native homeland.
Marginalized and deprived of access and opportunities at home, the new visa requirements will put private sponsorship to British universities out of reach for them. Closely controlling access to power and resources, not only do developing countries’ elite and the politically connected reserve the privileges of state sponsored university education at home for their own children, but they will also be the only social stratum with the wherewithal to access highly sought after graduate and postgraduate education at British universities. It also means that, lacking university level education, and particularly prized overseas qualifications, children of the poor will not be able to compete for state positions, opportunities, and managerial level jobs in the public and private sectors, at home. This freezes upward mobility for the underprivileged, further exacerbating and fossilising inequalities and iniquities among social groups. In other words, such policy and practices will inadvertently reward corruption and cronyism by the politically powerful and their associates in developing countries.
With the new rules, you had better have a scholarship. If you are Ugandan, your father had better have fought in Luwero and you come from somewhere in south-western Uganda. Or you have one of those state house scholarships awarded on the basis of the shape of your nose. Better yet, your parents call Amama Mbabazi, the powerful minister for security and NRM secretary general; Ezra Suruma, the minister for finance; Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, the governor Bank of Uganda; and super rich businessman, Amos Nzeyi, a friend, village mate and fellow tribesman; or a British university degree is a pipe dream.
This is where Canada comes in. For a fraction of the cost at British Universities, Canadian universities provide world-class education, with first rate research and teaching and learning support. Compared to Britain, the cost of living is lower, and the country warm and welcoming, despite its winters. The average cost for an overseas student in arts and social sciences is CAD$12,000. At current exchange rates to the pound, this works out to roughly CAD$8,000 dollars cheaper than a comparable British university programme in arts and social sciences.
If thrift and the prospect of a quality education, with thousands of dollars to spare in fees and living cost is not yet persuasive enough to make you take a serious look at Canada as the British Commonwealth’s destination of choice for prospective under- and postgraduate education, then may be its global cultural mosaic will tilt the scales of your mind and heart in that direction. Canada is a microcosm of the world-every identity, ethnicity, and corresponding culinary tastes you can think of in the world is represented there. Don’t you worry then, because homesickness will be none of your afflictions. Moreover, Canada probably has the most diverse and the best gene pool in the world. This means that for those single students, who may not just come out with a degree but also life-long partners, you could not have come to the right place to bespoilt for choice. You must have to be a very difficult customer to satisfy, if you will still need to write back home to uncle Patel, Hussein, Kwame, Singh, Lam, or Park to search high and low for a suitable hometown girl or boy, to reserve or send on over.
Forget about Britain and its claustrophobic, fortress mentality immigration rules. Together with the relative value of the pound, and comparable programmes and degrees in Canada, it is only a foolish student who would want to splurge on a British degree, when a superior four-year or postgraduate degree could be had for half the cost in Canada. Try Canadian universities and, your soul, mind, life and career will be enriched a hundred folds.
Although it did not make it among the top universities this year, I recommend my Alma Mater, York University, Toronto, Canada:
http://www.yorku.ca
Its Osgoode Law, and Schullisch Business Schoools, and Faculty of Environmental Studies, are world renowned.
Thursday 6 November 2008
Lessons of Obama to the black child
Lessons of Obama to the black child
By Okello Lucima
I Cradle Him In My Arms
Only Two Months Old
Riveted By The Unfolding Drama
On The Telly
Thousands Throng Grant Park
In Chicago
An Expectant Night
Is At Hand
A Greyed White Man
Extols A New Era
Weighted On The Shoulder
Of A Tawny Black Child
Nonchalantly Asleep
On My Lap
He Does Not Discern
The Ecstasy at Grant Park
Only Two Months Old
He Does Not See My Tears
When Obama’s Declared Victor!
And Grant Park Exultant!
He Slumbers Unaware
Of News Of Renewed Hope
For The Black Child
Of Haze of History and Race
Receding From His Horizon
His Humanity
No Longer Caged
His Dreams
No Longer Obscured
He May Dream Bigger
Now
And Aim Higher, Or
Shoot For The Stars
It Is Up To Him?
But Still A Black Child
His Historical Baggage
Unloosened
Like A Calling Card He Carries
Obama’s Rise To Power
At The Citadel
Of White Racial Privilege
Releases Not The Black Child
From His Racial Cage
Held Back By Chains Of Slavery
In The New World
And Disinherited In The Motherland
By Capital and Tyranny
He Wallows In Perpetual Want
Lying Asleep In My Arms
My Eyes Wet With Rears
Joyful And Terrified At Once
Of The Paradox
Of The Black Child
Fated By History
Henceforth Tempted By
Obama’s Story
Bears Double Burdens
Of Race and Ambition
Of Unfettered Dreams
In A Changing…
Yet Unchanging World.
Northern Uganda Messenger Post (NUMP) © 2008
By Okello Lucima
I Cradle Him In My Arms
Only Two Months Old
Riveted By The Unfolding Drama
On The Telly
Thousands Throng Grant Park
In Chicago
An Expectant Night
Is At Hand
A Greyed White Man
Extols A New Era
Weighted On The Shoulder
Of A Tawny Black Child
Nonchalantly Asleep
On My Lap
He Does Not Discern
The Ecstasy at Grant Park
Only Two Months Old
He Does Not See My Tears
When Obama’s Declared Victor!
And Grant Park Exultant!
He Slumbers Unaware
Of News Of Renewed Hope
For The Black Child
Of Haze of History and Race
Receding From His Horizon
His Humanity
No Longer Caged
His Dreams
No Longer Obscured
He May Dream Bigger
Now
And Aim Higher, Or
Shoot For The Stars
It Is Up To Him?
But Still A Black Child
His Historical Baggage
Unloosened
Like A Calling Card He Carries
Obama’s Rise To Power
At The Citadel
Of White Racial Privilege
Releases Not The Black Child
From His Racial Cage
Held Back By Chains Of Slavery
In The New World
And Disinherited In The Motherland
By Capital and Tyranny
He Wallows In Perpetual Want
Lying Asleep In My Arms
My Eyes Wet With Rears
Joyful And Terrified At Once
Of The Paradox
Of The Black Child
Fated By History
Henceforth Tempted By
Obama’s Story
Bears Double Burdens
Of Race and Ambition
Of Unfettered Dreams
In A Changing…
Yet Unchanging World.
Northern Uganda Messenger Post (NUMP) © 2008
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