Nairobi, 5 Jan. 2007 - FIVE Somali Members of Parliament were yesterday arrested in Nairobi over allegations that they were linked to the fallen Islamist movement.
The five were arrested by a combined team of Immigration officials, National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) officers and Administration Policemen from a hotel in Eastleigh where they had been hiding.
American warships patrol off Somalia
MOGADISHU, 5 Jan. 2007 - Somalia U-S Navy warships are patrolling off the coast of Somalia. Their mission is to make sure members of an Islamic militia don't escape by sea.
Troops from both Somalia and Ethiopia are preparing for a major assault. They'll be targeting a town in southern Somalia that's the militiamen's last stronghold. The country's defense minister warns the militia's options are to "drown in the sea or to fight and die."
Hargeysa, Somaliland, January 4, 2007 – A Somaliland court has today given two days to the prosecution to present its case against two local journalists who were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly defaming the President and his family in an opinion article.
The repeated arrests of Somaliland journalists are received with frustration among citizens, otherwise proud of their breakaway republic's democratic advances.
WASHINGTON, DC, 5 Jan. 2007-- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the United States is providing $16.575 million as an initial "robust" response to meet humanitarian needs in Somalia following the re-establishment of control over the country by the Transitional Federal Institutions.
In a January 4 statement, Rice said Somalia has a "historic opportunity to begin to move beyond two decades of warlordism, extreme violence and humanitarian suffering" and called on the international community to join the United States in supporting humanitarian and reconciliation efforts.
Addis Ababa. January 5, 2007-Foreign Affairs State Minister, Dr. Tekeda Alemu yesterday delivered Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's message to Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
In a press release it sent to ENA yesterday the ministry said that the Premier's message focus on strengthening Ethio-Djibouti bilateral ties and maintaining peace and stability in Somalia.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Kenyan troops are on high alert after two helicopters on patrol along the border with Somalia came under gunfire earlier in the week.
The Daily Nation reported Friday that the shooting incident occurred Wednesday evening in the Hulugho area of Ijara district.
Ethiopian soldiers patrol Somalia's port city of Kismayu, January 5, 2007.
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MOGADISHU, 6 Jan 2007 (Reuters) - Western and African diplomats on Friday called for the urgent deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia as al Qaeda's deputy leader urged defeated Islamists to launch an Iraq-style insurgency against Ethiopian forces there.
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05/01/2007
Somali government troops backed by Ethiopians today prepared to launch a major assault on the last stronghold of Islamic movement militiamen.
US and British warships patrolled off the Somali coast to prevent militiamen from escaping by sea.
The US 5th Fleet said in a statement yesterday that coalition ships from a British-led Combined Task Force were boarding as part of the effort to deny an escape route to al-Qaida suspects believed working with the Somali Islamic movement
PRESS RELEASE
Paris January 4, 2007, -Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of journalists in recent days in the northern breakaway state of Somaliland
Police stormed into the offices of "Haatuf" in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, on the afternoon of 2 January 2007 and arrested publisher Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, editor Ali Abdi Dini and chief financial officer Hussein Kalif Abdullahi,
Triumphant Somali government forces in Bur Haqaba, 60km south of baidoa, last week. |
Nairobi, Kenya, January 5, 2007 – Somalia’s political future was uncertain this week even as the Transitional Federal Government —installed in Nairobi in 2004 through a controversial collegiate — finally marched to Mogadishu backed by Ethiopian guns.
The government forces were greeted with jubilation by Mogadishu residents who only six months ago applauded the advent of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi had sworn to crush, and whom he finally drove out of town under a hail of bullets after two weeks of fighting.
3 January 2007 - The US is seeking to re-establish a presence in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, after an absence of 12 years following the ousting of Islamist forces this week by Ethiopian-backed Somali allies.
Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state, hopes to include Mogadishu in a tour that began on Wednesday with the aim of shoring up Somalia’s transitional government with multinational African forces and US humanitarian aid.
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Fri Jan 5, 2007 
By Katie Nguyen - Analysis
NAIROBI (Reuters) - If words are matched by deeds, expect Somalia's Islamists to rise from the ashes of a defeat by Ethiopian troops who forced them from strongholds into hiding.
The movement seemed unstoppable six months ago when it seized Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords, opened long-abandoned facilities like an international airport, created its own police force and dispensed justice through sharia law.
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5 Jan 2007
The International Contact Group on Somalia has been discussing the country's future after transitional government forces regained control from Islamist militias. It comes amid fears that a long Iraq-style war could be waged by retreating Islamist fighters. The Islamists took control of the capital Mogadishu in June and imposed sharia law across much of the south.
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Ethiopian soldiers, backing up Somali government troops, stand on their truck on a street in Kismayo, January 1, 2007. REUTERS/Sahra Abdi Ahmed |
WASHINGTON Thu 4 Jan 2007 (Reuters) - U.S. forces are deployed near Somalia to block the escape of members of that country's ousted Islamist government with ties to al Qaeda and other extremists, a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.
"We would be concerned that no leaders who were members of the Islamic Courts which have ties to terrorist organisations including al Qaeda are allowed to flee and leave Somalia," spokesman Sean McCormack said.
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Somaliland Authorities Arrest Editor Of Somaliland Times ‘Yusuf Abdi Gabobe’ and Haatuf Editor ‘Ali Abdi Dini’
Hargeysa, Somaliland. Jan 6, 2007, (SL Times) – Forty heavily armed police and C.I.D officers stormed the offices of Haatuf Media Network (HMN) on Tuesday afternoon and arrested the chairman of HMN, Mr Yusuf Abdi Gabobe who is also the editor of Somaliland Times and the editor of the Somali language Haatuf daily newspaper, Mr Ali Abdi Dini and the chief accountant for HMN, Mr. Hussein Khalif Abdullahi who sustained minor injuries while being arrested. Mr. Hussien Khalif was released 3 hours later.
Mahad Abdi Muhammad, lawyer representing the two journalists could not gain access and see the journalists soon after their arrests on Tuesday, but managed to see them on Wednesday and Thursday morning.
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The New York Based Committee To Protect Journalists Calls For The Immediate Release Of Yusuf Abdi Gabobe And Ali Abdi Dini
PRESS RELEASE
New York, January 3, 2007-Police in the northern self-declared republic of Somaliland stormed the offices of the Somali-language daily Haatuf late Tuesday and seized two journalists over an article alleging corruption by the president’s wife, according to local media reports and local journalists. Managing editor Yusuf Abdi Gabobe and editor Ali Abdi Dini have been held for questioning at the offices of the Criminal Investigation Department in Hargeysa, according to the newspaper’s associate editor Rashid Mustafa. He said about 40 police stormed the newspaper offices and did not show arrest warrants.
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Djibouti, January 3, 2007 – After Saudi Arabia last month surprisingly lifted its damaging 2001 ban on the import of live livestock from the Horn of Africa, a lucrative export trade has been revived. But this has sent Djibouti and non-recognised Somaliland into a new fight over becoming the region's leading export harbour, with Djibouti even expelling Somalilander diplomats.
Apart from Djibouti, Somaliland's city of Berbera is the only port on the northern coast of the Horn able to serve land-locked Ethiopia, with its large trade on a regional scale. The small state of Djibouti - which has its greatest revenues from its port facilities - is best connected with the Ethiopian hinterland; by road and train, but relations between Djibouti and Addis Ababa are not always the best.
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Mr Gedi—with Ethiopian transport (AP) |
Jan 4th 2007 | NAIROBI
After a stunning victory over its Islamist enemies, the government has to act quickly if the country is not to slip back into its usual civil strife
ETHIOPIAN military jets flew low over the hot, blue-black waters of Ras Kamboni on January 1st. They were looking for retreating Somali Islamist fighters. Anywhere between 500 and 1,000 hardliners, including foreign fighters and possibly al-Qaeda operatives, had abandoned their defence of Kismayo, a fishing town 150km (93 miles) up the Somali coast from the Kenyan border. Ras Kamboni, a thickly forested tropical island near the border, was a known training camp for the Islamists.
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Press Statement
by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
January 1, 2007
On the Holy day of Eid, the world watched in horror at the barbaric lynching of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, allegedly for crimes against humanity. This public murder was sanctioned by the War Criminals, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair.
This sadistic act broadcasted to the whole world is a travesty of justice, and was meant to demonstrate the imperial power of the United States and serves as a warning to peace loving peoples that we must either bow to the dictates of the Bush regime or face the consequences of a public lynching.
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David Shinn |
With the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government now in control in Somalia, when will a peacekeeping force be ready for deployment and who will it include?
Dr. David Shinn of George Washington University, former ambassador to Ethiopia, spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about the problems facing a peacekeeping force.
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January 5, 2007
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somali government troops backed by Ethiopians captured a southern town near the Kenyan border and prepared Friday to launch a major assault on the last stronghold of Islamic movement militiamen.
U.S. Navy warships patrolled off the Somali coast to prevent militiamen from escaping by sea.
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TFG Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi |
December 28, 2006
Meles Zenawi’s war of aggression against the people of Somalia was not a surprise to folks like me who have been watching the developments in Somalia since June 2006 when the Union of Islamic Courts took over Mogadishu and restored peace in Somalia after 15 years of anarchy and chaos. It was obvious that the US State Department was not happy with the developments in the Horn and turned once again to its trusted ally and mercenary Meles Zenawi to help return Somalia to its chaotic past. Using the Security Council as its bully pulpit, the US got its proxy war in Somalia. That is another topic for another day, my interest today is Ali Mohammed Ghedi, the illusive Prime Minister of the Transitional National Government of Somalia. Very little is divulged about this man in the US led western media…I wonder why
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NAIROBI, Kenya January 5, 2007– Somalia's president told top diplomats Friday that his country has a rare opportunity to reverse 15 years of anarchy but needs international help.
Officials from the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East are exploring ways to help the Somali government following the defeat of an Islamic movement that tried to destroy it.
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January 06, 2007
Before the Islamists lost power in much of southern Somalia earlier this month, the least known but most feared organization in the country was a radical Muslim group called the Shabbab, which means “youth” in Arabic. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu in Mogadishu interviewed two former Shabbab members, who do not know each other but who revealed similar details about Shabbab never told before to Western media.
Somalis tell VOA that during the Islamist’s six-month rule from the capital Mogadishu, a mere glimpse of a Shabbab member wearing the tell-tale, red-and-white scarf around the head or neck, caused ordinary people to flee in terror.
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Somaliland/UAE - Contrary to what pundits say about an Iraq scenario tearing up Somalia, I believe the quick withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces from Somalia and the speedy deployment of African peacekeeping forces with international financial backing will bring peace and stability to Somalia under a strong central government for the first time in 16 years.
Everything will of course depend on how quickly the international community moves to extend a Marshall Plan to rebuild the country's government institutions, particularly the armed forces, as well as creating jobs for the people. |
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International News
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WASHINGTON, Jan 06 2007 – A U.S. general seen by some as a contender to lead the Pentagon's Africa operations said on Friday he does not expect American troops to go into Somalia, where al Qaeda has urged defeated Islamists to start an Iraq-style insurgency.
"Situations change but I do not see it now, and there's nothing that I've heard that implies that at all," said Gen. William Ward, deputy commander of U.S. European Command and a former brigade commander in Somalia.
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Another New York Times Cover-up?
Sure looks that way... and this time around, brought to you by John Burns
By Jeff Koopersmith
Jeff Koopersmith
Jan. 2, 2007 -- Milano (apj.us) -- John Burns, the bearded little blonde troll that seems to appear magically on PBS's NewsHour now and again, has penned what seems to be either a sign of his naiveté or simply the usual New York Times dross about the war in Iraq and those things connected to it. He and Marc Santora, on New Year's Day, wrote about the now scandalous manner in which Saddam Hussein was "executed" in Baghdad.
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With a new secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, at the helm of the UN hopes are again being raised. The UN has never been so active- new peacekeeping ventures appear to go into the works every few months. Indeed, the peacekeeping department, mainly funded by its old critic, the U.S. of the administration of George W. Bush, has just thrown back to the Security Council its most recent order, complaining of overload and the fact there is no peace to keep- to go into Chad and sort out a brewing war.
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Cardiff, Wales, December 30, 2006 – South Wales Somalis today expressed their fears over political unrest in their homeland.
The United Nations estimates about 30,000 people have been displaced during fighting, hundreds of young people have been killed and 800 people, have been treated in hospital.
Cardiff has the largest British-born Somali population in the UK - about 8,000 - though most are descended from the independent northern province, Somaliland, which has been relatively peaceful since 1991.
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UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The ousting of Islamist militias from Somalia by Ethiopian troops and the installation of a weak, but internationally recognized, transitional government not only nips in the bud an emergent terrorist sanctuary but also represents an important opportunity for progress in the war-ruined nation.
A series of regional experts and officials consulted by United Press International said that the expulsion from Mogadishu of the Islamic Courts Union, the loose militia coalition that until Christmas controlled most of Somalia, presented an opening.
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Friday, January 05, 2007
While many eyes were on Lebanon, in July, I wrote a column pointing out another likely regional war, based on a rumour that Ethiopian soldiers had moved into Somalia.
Now, Ethiopian tanks and MiG fighter planes have turned a Potemkin village of a Somalian government, a stage set for the international community's wishful thinking, into something real. The militias of the Somalia Council of Islamic Courts, which for half a year had controlled most of south and central Somalia, just melted away
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December 27, 2006
It's religion. It's nationalism. It's clan. It's money. It's strategic. It's personal. The war in Somalia is all of these things and more. But one truth stands above all of them: it was - and maybe still is - avoidable.
Somalia has lain broken since 1991 when the last national government fled and the country was ruled by clan warlords. The north, the old British protectorate of Somaliland, elected a government and declared itself independent. No one recognized it.
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Editorial
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The illegal detention of the editor of the Somaliland Times, Yusuf Gabobe, and the editor of its sister newspaper Haatuf, Ali Abdi Dini, is a serious blow to the freedom of the press in Somaliland. The detention is illegal because it happened without a warrant, whereas Somaliland’s press law which was passed by parliament and signed by the president himself, stipulates that a warrant must be issued before arresting a journalist. In addition to illegally detaining the above two journalists, Somaliland’s police physically assaulted another Haatuf staff, Mr Huseen Khalif. During their illegal raid on Haatuf Media Network’s office, Somaliland’s ill-disciplined police also forcibly took cameras from Haatuf journalists and created an atmosphere of fear and pandemonium in Haatuf’s office.
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Special Report |
In November 2005, the Centre for Human Rights began investigating the possibility of a third destination for the LLM field trip. The reasons for increasing the number of field trip destinations to include Somaliland include the following:
Somaliland is a state in the making; it would be ideal for students on the programme to have a first hand experience of this. |
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Opinions
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By Yassin M. Ismail, Kent UK
As with everyone else in the media industry I was appalled by the news of the recent arrests in Somaliland of two senior journalists working for the Haatuf Media Network by the authorities in Hargeysa. Yusuf Gabobe, the editor-in-chief of the weekly Somaliland Times and Ali Abdi Dini, editor of the daily Haatuf were taken into custody following the newspaper’s publishing of an article in which the president of Somaliland Mr. Dahir Rayale Kahin and his wife were implicated in accusations of corruption.
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We never learn!!!
By Abdulkadir J. Dualeh
Supporters of the various Somali factions are reassured as quickly as they are alarmed.
As the tide of fortune passes over another crest of the wave-like saga of the Somali horror story, there are jubilations on one side, bitterness on the other side. Arrogance and self-assurance on one side; resolve and vengeance on the other side.
Some take delight in recent events and prematurely applaud the apparent outcome favoring their side; others deplore it and denounce it. |
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No Case Against Haatuf To Answer
Prof. Abdisalam Yassin Mohamed
The staff of the Haatuf newspaper has recently informed us that the two detained journalist, Mr. Yusuf Abdi Gabobe and Ali Abdi Dini were taken from the CID detention center to the office of the Regional Attorney in Hargeisa yesterday at 8:30 in the morning. According to Haatuf, the two detained journalists were first interrogated by the Regional Attorney. After that, they appeared before a District Judge, accompanied by the Regional Attorney and the police. When the Judge asked the Regional Attorney to present his case to the court, the RA predictably said that they did not put a case together yet.
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By Mohamud Tani
I condemn the act of putting Journalists in prison. Even in unfortunate Somalia, journalists do not go to prison. One might say that they have no Government, and therefore they have no prison-system. However governments that put journalists to prison do not qualify to be called 'Government'. Thomas Jefferson said" If I were given the choice between a country without Newspapers, and Newspapers without a country I would choose the latter".
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By Rashid Nur, Herndon, VA - USA
The Somaliland government imprisoned Mr. Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, the managing editor of the daily newspaper Haatuf in Hargeisa and Mr. Ali Abdi Dini, the Editor of the same newspaper and Mr. Hussein Kh. Abdillahi, staff at Haatuf newspaper. This is not the first time Somaliland government have used despicable tactics to subject harassment, intimidation, and jail time against the media for exercising their right to publish newspapers. This is not a matter of whether Haatuf’s work is factual or whether Haatuf made a mistake; needless to say there are laws that provide recourse to the government and to the citizens at large against the media, when they believe to have a legitimate grievances against media.
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By Ahmed Abdi
Democracy means people power. It is narrowly defined where the citizens freely elect their leaders. To have that status there are conditions to be met.
There must be institutions that independently safeguard rule of law. In this regard the segregation of law making parliament, executive branch and judiciary is a must. Does that exist in Somaliland?
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By Mowliid Magare, Seattle
Part 1
Ever since the UIC won control of Mogadishu over the cohort of warlords, who reined peace in Mogadishu for the last 16years, it has become hard for ordinary Southern Somali to see where the path to Democracy and away from the precipice lies. Yet there can be no doubt the incessant endeavors of UIC to restore peace and security needed to all the territories under their control, though this peace did not come without a cost, which spawned controversy – that sees it unfertile in the pastures of a liberal Somali culture known for its personal freedom.
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By Mohamud Tani — Ottawa, Canada
It is a high time that the KULMIYE party sheds it's heinous image. What has been projecting from the extreme wing of the KULMIYE party from its inception can be termed as nothing but politics of hate, anger, desperation, treachery, bigotry and fascism. -Some flew over the Cuckoo nest to Mogadishu, saying "If we can not win let everybody in Somaliland be the loser"
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By Noah Arre
According to an article published in the Gulf News of November 2006, in the United Arab Emirates, over fourteen thousand Somalis landed in Yemen from January to November 2006 alone but were immediately apprehended for illegal infiltration and breach of the national laws of that country. Of course, that number does not include the thousands more who died in the countless number of boats that capsized at the high tides of the Red Sea and who never made to safety!
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| FEATURES & COMMENTARY |
USS Enterprise Strike Group |
by Michel Chossudovsky
January 4, 2007
Throughout history, " wars of religion" have served to obscure the economic and strategic interests behind the conquest and invasion of foreign lands. "Wars of religion" were invariably fought with a view to securing control over trading routes and natural resources.
The Crusades extending from the 11th to the 14th Century are often presented by historians as "a continuous series of military-religious expeditions made by European Christians in the hope of wresting the Holy Land from the infidel Turks." The objective of the Crusades, however, had little to do with religion. |
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By J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.
World Defense Review columnist
04 Jan 07
The reports continue to stream in of the hasty retreat of the militants of Somalia's Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in the face of an unexpectedly heavy offensive by Ethiopian air and land forces acting at the nominal behest of Somalia's besieged Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and with the tacit endorsement of the United States.
At the time of this writing, the Islamists had abandoned the sometime capital of Mogadishu without much of a fight and, after a brief stop at their last stronghold,
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WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (IPS) - While U.S. officials were euphoric over last month's unexpectedly easy rout by Ethiopia and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of the Islamic Courts Union, scepticism that stability can be restored to the long-suffering African nation remains high.
Much now depends, according to regional specialists, on whether the fractious TFG can be persuaded to make far-reaching concessions to bring moderate elements of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and its associated clans into the government as part of broad-based political settlement.
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alt.muslim interviews Somali social worker Hussein Yusuf (himself a refugee) in order to help put the current conflict in Somalia into perspective.
Born into a life of privilege as the son of a provincial governor in Somalia, Hussein Yusuf's life changed forever in 1991 when insurgents drove his family out of Mogadishu.
His family returned to Somalia several times after, where his father had set up feeding stations for refugees and forbade his son Hussein from joining the army.
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THE MASSMEDIA SHOULD NOT CONFUSE 'DEMOCRACY' WITH DIVIDEND...
FPF - January 3, 2007 - In the 'debate' and articles in the US junta's propaganda media concerning the illegal invasion of Somalia by the U.S. (tax) paid, equipped and trained Ethiopian and Ugandan troops, the words oil, gas and/or natural resources mostly are missing. Ordered by Washington's warmongers in their 'guidelines for the media' was that via their war propaganda people should not be made to wonder about the CIA and Ethiopia's breach of Somali sovereignty.* Or think about who's doing this again or why? You're reading this on Internet because you are not supposed to know the facts about the US/CIA having another proxy war in Africa. And another quagmire and 'blowback' coming up.
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By Richard Marcus
Every year at this time the leaders of both the Church of England and the Catholic Church give a state of the world address to their flocks. According to the tenets of their faiths they will let the world know what they consider to be the most important issues of the day.
Of course they aren't the only ones who get to have their say, other religious leaders, national leaders, and the deep thinkers in the press all have their lists ready for consideration.
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Since European colonizers recklessly enforced national boundaries in the horn of Africa, Ethiopia and Somalia have been fighting, particularly about the ownership of the Ogaden land. Because of these colonizers and with the two east African nations being hi-jacked by radical nationalist governments for decades, what succeeded since have been oppression, dictatorship, extreme patriotism, poverty and anarchy
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