Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Somaliland readies for presidential election
Somaliland readies for presidential election
Matt Brown, Foreign Correspondent
- Last Updated: October 20. 2009 10:44PM UAE / October 20. 2009 6:44PM GMT
Dahir Riyale Kahin, who has ruled the autonomous region for seven years, will face two challengers. Tim Freccia for The National
HARGEISA, SOMALIA // Inside the compound of the presidential mansion here, there is a circle of blue and white tiles about a metre across lying on the ground over a dirt mound. The decorative hump amid a dusty car park seems out of place, until a guard explains that it is a memorial.
Almost a year ago, a suicide bomber drove a lorry through the front gate of the compound and blew himself up at this spot, just metres from the president’s lavish two-story house. Five people died in the blast including the president’s secretary. Another 25 died in two other simultaneous attacks in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland.
Dahir Riyale Kahin, the president of Somaliland, was upstairs in his house when the bomb went off and was uninjured. Local authorities blamed the attack on al Shabab, an Islamic militia with ties to al Qa’eda that has been waging war in southern Somalia for the past two years.
The October 2008 Hargeisa bombings, a rarity in the normally stable northern breakaway region of Somaliland, underscored the threats faced by the man living in the president’s mansion.
An upcoming presidential election could install a new man in the president’s house for the first time in seven years, or it could put Mr Riyale back in the hot seat. Security will be a major issue of the campaign, as will gaining international recognition for Somaliland’s independence.
Unlike southern Somalia, which has been at war for two decades, Somaliland has a functioning government and security forces. It declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but so far no other nation recognises this and Somaliland remains a country that does not exist.
“Recognition will come sooner or later,” Mr Riyale said in an interview from his mansion. “The international community will come to the conclusion that we have a right to self determination. We are a functioning state. There is no state in southern Somalia. We have become a victim of a failed state.”
Critics say Mr Riyale, the former vice president, has not done enough to achieve recognition since he ascended to power following the death of the previous president in 2002. He has yet to articulate a concrete plan for gaining recognition for Somaliland.
The last time Somaliland held a presidential election, in 2003, Mr Riyale beat his nearest challenger, Ahmed Mahamoud Silaanyo, by a mere 80 votes out of almost 500,000 cast. Then, an amazing thing happened: Mr Silaanyo stepped down quietly. Unlike in other African countries where hotly contested elections often lead to bloody protests, Somalilanders accepted the results peacefully and went on with nation building.
This year, Mr Riyale is back seeking another five-year term. Mr Silaanyo, a 72-year-old former resistance fighter, and Faisal Ali Waraabe, a professor who spent many years in Finland, are again his main challengers.
The election, which was scheduled for April 2008, has been delayed several times, most recently on September 27, because of security and logistical constraints. Politicians say it will now take place in January at the earliest.
As president, Mr Silaanyo, an economist and former minister of commerce, said he would empower women and youth, develop the country’s natural resources including exploiting potential oil reserves and keep the nation safe from Islamic insurgents.
“The president has passed his mandate, and he doesn’t deserve to be there,” he said in an interview from his quiet residence in the former house of a British colonial official. “If we agree [with the ruling party] on one thing, that is the need to protect ourselves from al Shabab. We do recognise the threat that they represent. We are on our guard as much as we can.”
The most comprehensive plan to achieve international recognition for Somaliland is from Mr Waraabe, 58, a soft-spoken Finnish citizen who entered Somaliland politics in 2001. Mr Waraabe, the dark horse candidate in the election, said he can achieve recognition within one year if elected.
“First we need to make a viable state that respects human rights,” he said. “Then we will activate the more than 400,000 Somalilanders in the diaspora and use them to lobby to get recognition in their home countries.”
Mr Waraabe said a strong government would serve to counter violent extremism. “Terrorism is a result of anarchy. If we make a strong state, there won’t be groups like al Shabab.”
While he did not outline a specific plan to achieve recognition, Mr Silaanyo said self-determination would come once the international community realised Somaliland is the most stable region of Somalia.
“We pride ourselves in being an oasis of peace,” he said. “It is the only asset we have … Once we are more developed, we will be able to sell ourselves to the international community.”
Mr Riyale, for his part, is running on his record of creating security in Somaliland. Suicide bombers did manage to kill innocent Somalilanders last year, but that was an isolated incident, he said, and al Shabab and its sympathisers in Somaliland have been pushed underground.
“We are the only government in the Horn of Africa that is fighting terrorism,” he said. “I am doing a lot to bring stability to this country.”
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Searching the internet is good for your brain
Searching the internet is good for your brain |  |  |  |
Monday, October 19, 2009
US drone 'shot down over Somalia'
US drone 'shot down over Somalia'
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Islamist insurgents say they have shot down an unmanned US spy drone off the coast of southern Somalia.
An al-Shabab official said the drone had been hit by anti-aircraft fire and had fallen into the Indian Ocean near the port of Kismayo.
The claims could not be independently verified.
US forces last month launched a helicopter raid in southern Somalia and said they had killed a senior al-Qaeda suspect who was working with al-Shabab.
The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the incident increased Islamist suspicions of US activity in Somalia.
He says that, if confirmed, it would be the first time that al-Shabab fighters had shot down a US drone.
An Islamist official told the BBC: "The suspected US aircraft had been flying in Kismayo airspace for days before being shot down two miles north-east of the town on Monday morning.
"It fell into the water and our fighters are trying to locate it."
Al-Shabab and other Islamist groups control much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government controls only a few parts of the capital, Mogadishu.
US forces have long been working against Somalia's Islamist groups from their military base in Djibouti, north-west of Somalia.
Friday, October 16, 2009
French firm to fund Somaliland's largest port
| French firm to fund Somaliland's largest port | |
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Berbera, less than 300 kilometres east of the former French colony of Djibouti, faces Yemen on the Gulf of Aden and is the economic capital of Somaliland, a breakaway state more stable than the rest of Somalia.
"Bollore is about to invest €500-million in Berbera port to improve the port and create a new corridor to the hinterland.
Ethiopia is very excited about that," a French diplomat based in Addis Ababa said.
"The project is not completely finalised, but Bollore has a huge presence in West Africa and is interested in East Africa," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
The company is part of a group owned by Vincent Bollore, a leader in West Africa's ports sector and close friend of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Somalia has the longest coastline on the continent and forms the "horn" of Africa, which juts out into the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden and commands access to some of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.
Ethiopia has had good relations with the self-proclaimed government of Somaliland and is heavily reliant on the port of Berbera for supplies.
The Bollore group confirmed to AFP in Paris it was interested in the project but did not elaborate further.
"We have not made an offer yet and no amount has been agreed," a spokesperson said.
Bollore won his power-stakes in Africa after having taken over the private bank of old-timer Conte du Beaumont, who had built a large empire of businesses and held vast estates in several African states, including Kenya.
US to make Blackwater-style entry into Somalia
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Blackwater operatives |
Michigan-based CSS Global Inc., secured the contract under the plea of 'fighting terrorism and piracy' and 'protecting' Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), reported Michigan Live citing The Grand Rapids Press newspaper.
"It is going to be a huge challenge," said Chris Frain, chief executive officer and co-owner of CSS Alliance, to which the CSS Global Inc is affiliated. "This is a brand-new government being stood up with the help of the international community."
The contractor's operations team was composed of former military and law enforcement personnel, including Special Forces, Michigan Live added.
The US firm has been involved in other African nations as well as in Iraq, where 17 civilians were killed in 2007 by a similar licentiate, Blackwater, currently known as Xe Services.
Washington has been exceedingly deputizing the companies, which are notorious for misusing their State Department-issued gun licenses as excuses for trigger-ready atrocities. The move has been denounced as an effort at putting a non-military face on the US pursuits in the respective countries.
US officials have, at the same time, been strongly arguing that there is an alleged al-Qaeda presence in Somalia and a reported militant-run recruitment network which, they say, could ensnare the Somali-American community.
Special Somali envoy to the United States, H.E. Ali Hassan Gulaid, however, said they were "confident the expertise of the CSS Global senior staff will prove to be a valuable asset to us in our efforts to establish a safe and secure Somalia for our citizens."
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
A Recipe for Somalia
A Recipe for Somalia
A light footprint won’t work in Afghanistan. Just look at the Horn of Africa for all the reasons why not.
BY RICHARD BENNET | OCTOBER 13, 2009
As the Afghanistan strategy review dominates conversations in Washington, President Barack Obama's advisors appear split over whether to fully resource a counterinsurgency or scale back the effort to a more limited, counterterrorism approach. Vice President Joe Biden and others, fearing an open-ended engagement, have argued that a light footprint that features Predator drones and special operations forces would be the best way to counter al Qaeda and other Islamist groups. The reported strategy would take boots off the ground, lessening U.S. casualties even as airstrikes continue to target high-value targets, such as those responsible for the September 11 attacks. To some it may sound like the perfect casualty- and commitment-free plan.
COMMENTS (1)
More... Unfortunately, we have seen such an approach before. Over the last 18 years, Somalia has become the poster child for the shortcomings of light engagement peppered with misguided attempts at counterterrorism intervention. If the United States pursues a similar strategy in Afghanistan, the result will be equally catastrophic. And this time, the new Somalia will be right in the heart of the world's most volatile region.
As in Afghanistan, the United States began its engagement in Somalia two decades ago with the deployment of troops. The Bill Clinton administration pulled out after just 19 months, when casualties mounted and there was no end in sight to the conflict. Today, 15 years of light footprint later, Somalia remains a breeding ground for a host of Islamists groups, many with connections to al Qaeda. The country is technically ruled by a weak Transitional Federal Government -- the 14th attempt at establishing authority in almost as many years. But the administration controls but a few neighborhoods of Mogadishu, holding the Islamist groups at bay only with the help of African Union troops who act as de facto bodyguards.
As Islamist insurgents have gained ground, the United States has tried to contain the damage with targeted strikes utilizing special operations forces. In January 2007, for instance, attacks by an AC-130 gunship and attack helicopters killed at least 31 people, many of them suspected Islamist militants. More recently, on Sept. 14, Navy SEALs swooped down in helicopters and shot up a vehicle carrying Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al Qaeda leader thought to be responsible for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Despite these few successful raids, Islamist groups -- and other malign elements such as the pirates who terrorize ships off the Horn of Africa -- appear stronger than ever in Somalia. It has proven difficult to decapitate the Islamists with airstrikes alone, thanks to poor intelligence in such a chaotic climate. And far from crippling terrorist groups, U.S. strikes often cause enough collateral damage to drive more aggrieved people into the insurgent camp. These attacks have also had the unintended effect of bringing disparate insurgent elements closer together. The patchwork of Islamist groups have put aside their clan-based divisions and coalesced around a common cause, forming far more monolithic -- and more dangerous -- groups such as al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam.
Nor has halfhearted financial, military, and diplomatic support for the Somali government, whether it's from the African Union, Ethiopia, the United States, or the United Nations, done anything to curtail the Islamists. Instead, it has had the opposite effect. International backing has allowed Islamist groups to portray subsequent interim regimes as puppets of the West, further discrediting the weak bodies among the Somali people. A U.S.-backed Ethiopian intervention to install a transitional government in 2007 made matters even worse; Ethiopians were widely resented, giving the Islamist opposition a convenient enemy against which to fight. Ethiopia pulled out its forces in January, leaving Somalia as much of a mess as ever.
No wonder U.S. officials fear that Somalia is becoming a major al Qaeda safe haven -- with an ominous connection to the continental United States, home to many Somali refugees. Some of these U.S. citizens have gone back to fight for Islamist groups. And in the future, there is always the danger that other immigrants, radicalized by the U.S. attacks, will wage war directly on their adopted homeland.
Even if the United States and its allies wanted to devote major resources to stabilizing the situation, it would be hard to do so now, after years of chronic neglect. Somalia lacks security forces that could secure neighborhoods and prevent them from becoming havens for terrorists or pirates. More fatally, Somalis have lost whatever faith they might once have had not only in the United States but also in international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the African Union. Years of empty promises and failed programs have sullied the reputations of aid workers and peacekeepers, limiting the prospects for any future engagement.
If the United States were to start drawing down forces in Afghanistan -- a move that would undoubtedly spark withdrawals by many NATO allies -- it is not hard to imagine Afghanistan spiraling downward to become a "Somalia on steroids." In the 1990s, both were gripped by internecine fighting among brutal warlords. In Afghanistan, the chaos allowed for the emergence of the Taliban, an Islamist group similar to Somalia's al-Shabab. And as recent civilian casualties have made painfully clear, U.S. counterterrorism strikes there have been no more effective than in Somalia. Drone strikes should certainly play a role in hunting high-value targets, but they are effective only when backed by actionable local intelligence gathered from secure Afghans. Relying solely on air power will only serve to alienate the populace in the long run.
Although the time to win the hearts and minds of the Somalis may have come and gone, it's still not too late for the Afghan people. One of the bright spots in the war is the Taliban's abysmal approval rating. An ABC-BBC poll released in February revealed that only 4 percent of Afghans would prefer rule by the Taliban. And though the corruption surrounding the recent presidential election has undermined Hamid Karzai's government, the damage can still be undone, particularly if the Afghan government works in conjunction with coalition forces to improve the delivery of basic services and security. Such a commitment will require considerably more troops than are currently on the ground. This is the strategy envisioned by the U.S. commanding officer in Kabul, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
Obama is right to pause and consider all the ramifications of sending more Americans into harm's way. But if the administration's ongoing strategy review is honest and rigorous, it should conclude that there is really no alternative -- that reverting to a counterterrorism model risks turning Afghanistan into another Somalia. Absent a significant foreign troop presence and an accompanying counterinsurgency approach, the Afghan government would likely fall to warlordism or to the Taliban. The United States and its allies would then have no choice but to intervene selectively. And as in Somalia, a light footprint that targets terrorists without protecting the people would only serve to discredit the international community in the eyes of the Afghans.
Some might be prepared to live with that eventuality, as we currently live with the chaos in Somalia. But though the violence from Somalia certainly has spilled across borders in the form of terrorism and piracy, the danger emanating from a failed Afghanistan would be far greater. The terrorist groups that are based in South Asia -- notably al Qaeda -- have a more international focus and greater operational capacity than does al-Shabab. And, of course, Afghanistan is located next to another unstable state that has nuclear weapons. Should Pakistan, too, become another Somalia, the world would have a true nightmare scenario on its hands. A drawdown by the West in Afghanistan would only make that bad dream more likelyAdal Flag
