A two-day international conference on piracy around the Horn of Africa was kicked off earlier today in Nairobi. Placed under the auspices of the UN and the Kenyan Government, the event is a venue for many to discuss the rampant piracy off the Somali cost. A statement from the UN Political Office for Somalia said that the UN-backed December 10th-11th meeting is significant as piracy is linked to the need for peace and stability in the war torn nation.

The 75th Press Release Update released by Ecoterra a few hours ago sheds light on the event, as well as on several other cases of Horn of Africa piracy and their worldwide repercussions. I therefore re-publish it integrally.

75th Update 2008-12-10 23:51:12 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. – Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International — Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past – with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme – Media Officer: +254-733-385868

Day 77 – 1833 hours into the FAINA Crisis – Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

While sources close to the seized vessel confirmed today only that the crew is apparently all right, though an earlier skirmish had been reported, critical voices urged both sides in the negotiations to finally come to terms.

A Russian frigate currently protecting civilian ships from Somali pirate attacks near the Horn of Africa is escorting another convoy of four vessels in the area, a Navy spokesman said. Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said the Northern Fleet’s Neustrashimy (Fearless) is currently escorting the Russian Nadezhda (Hope), the Fesco Yenisey flying a Marshall Islands flag, along with the Panamanian Symphony, and the Cayman Islands-flagged Nanami. The Neustrashimy will continue to escort commercial vessels through the dangerous waters off the Somali coast until the end of the year when it will be replaced by the Pacific Fleet’s destroyer Admiral Vinogradov, which left a naval base near Vladivostok on Tuesday on course for the Indian Ocean.

Ecoterra Intl. renewed it’s call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted ships ———-

Security sources said that two Yemeni fishing ships with 22 fishermen on board were hijacked on Wednesday by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, Yemen’s Interior Ministry said. The pirates attacked the ships as they sailed off the Mait area near the southern port city of Aden, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.The ministry affirmed that the 22 fishermen taken as hostages by the pirates were Yemenis, but sources of Yemen’s Coastguards Authority said that seven fishermen escaped on a small boat and had claimed the pirates attacked the two ships as they sailed in the Gulf of Aden. A total of 17 crew members on board in coastal waters in the Gulf of Aden were hijacked, a state-run website then reported late Wednesday. “Before the pirates took control of the two ships, seven Yemeni fishermen escaped on a small boat to report the attacks to the authorities in Aden”, independent sources confirmed.

Philippines’s Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos reconfirmed to the media on Wednesday that the pirates had released the Greek-owned MV Captain Stefanos and its 19-man crew, as reported. The ship was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on 21 September, and it had 19 crewmembers, including 17 Filipinos, one Chinese and one Ukrainian, on board when it was hijacked. Conejos said all the crewmembers were safe and added that the ship was currently on its way to Italy, and then to Greece. The department also said that Somali pirates are still holding 91 Filipino seamen, on board six international ships, hostage. There has always been an element of risk in the seafaring life, but these days, with piracy resurgent off the Horn of Africa, the dangers have seldom been more glaring. Nevertheless, in the Philippines, whose citizens make up nearly a third of the world’s commercial sailors, economic considerations trump concerns for personal safety. Recruiters say they’ve seen little falloff in demand for jobs on even the most dangerous routes.

According to reports of some Filipino sailors who were freed late last month by Somali pirates, it could even be fun. The all-Filipino crew of the Greek-owned tanker Centauri, which was hijacked in September, told news agencies that the pirates treated them well, even playing cards with them and sharing meals. While some legislators in the Philippines have called for restrictions on the maritime recruiting market, Salvador Santos, assistant general manager of the Luneta Seafarer’s Center, a private organization that offers counseling and other assistance to sailors, said he did not think the men were being exploited. “It’s up to the sailor whether to accept the offer,” Santos said. “The important thing is he knows what he’s getting into.” News reports of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden apparently had not deterred sailors from seeking jobs on oil tankers and other commercial ships. “We haven’t seen any change in the number of people who come here,” Santos said. “On the contrary, perhaps because of what is happening in Somalia, we’ve heard that more sailors are seeking to be deployed there because the money is good.” A sailor who boards a ship bound for Somali waters gets double pay plus hazard pay, Santos said. That could mean more than $3,000 a month for a cook, more than a minimum wage-earner in the Philippines would make in a year. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration says that 30 percent of the world’s merchant sailors, about 270,000, are Filipinos. They are likely to continue to find themselves in pirate-threatened waters for some time to come. “The Philippine government is doing its best to protect its sailors, whom we consider heroes,” said Crescente Relacion, executive director of the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“We are in constant communication with the ship owners, with foreign authorities and with the families of the sailors who remain in captivity.” Santos, of the Luneta Seafarer’s Center, said it should not surprise anyone that Filipino sailors are enthusiastic about sailing despite the dangers. “Given how hard it is to find a job in the Philippines that pays as much as a sailor would get abroad, I think it’s not surprising that sailors would take some risks,” he said. Santos noted that Filipino workers have even smuggled themselves into war-torn Iraq because of the high pay offered there. “About the only thing we can do,” Santos added, “is make sure that the sailor’s needs are met and he is equipped with all the knowledge and information he must know before he embarks on a dangerous assignment”.

With the latest captures and releases still at least 15 foreign vessels with a total of around 335 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 123 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 51 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 15). Several other vessels with unclear fate (not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail.

Other related news ——-

A two-day conference, sponsored by the United Nations and hosted by the Kenyan Government, opened today in Nairobi and brought together officials from more than 40 countries, as well as representatives from regional and international organizations. During the first day technical experts elaborated recommendations and the ministerial-level meetings are scheduled for Thursday. The conference is seeking to also develop an improved approach to pursuing, arresting, and charging pirates. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime is reported to have proposed a $1.3 million program to enhance justice and law enforcement efforts in Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, and Yemen. Plans to cut ransom supply routes and money laundering opportunities for Somali pirates are some of actions being considered to stem the rising tide of piracy. Estimates show that at least three billion shillings may have been paid to Somali pirates since January.

The pirates have attacked about 100 ships this year. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, United Nations Special Representative for Somalia stated that the international community must work harder to block access to finances for pirates. “What is important is to freeze the money. We need to go after the pirate´s associates, the brokers. We know the names and they should be arrested,” he said, on the sidelines of a two day anti piracy conference in Nairobi. He said the United Nations will work with partners to block avenues where pirates invest their money. But he said the ultimate solution will be to have a functioning government in Somalia. In this all experts agreed and also that law enforcement supported by foreign navies must include the fight against illegal fishing, toxic waste dumping as well as against trafficking in arms, drug or humans. The experts had to elaborate recommendations concerning four key sectors. While recommendations were elaborated on enforcement actions, capacity building as well as on the commercial and financial implications, the rapporteur of the working group on the legal implications and a legal framework had to state that no agreement was achieved, citing time constrains. Deliberations concerning the finalized recommendations will continue tomorrow on ministerial level. An official with the East African Seafarers’ Association, Andrew Mwangura, said that international efforts would have little lasting impact without involving the local population in Somalia. “If you are not going to involve the local community, it cannot achieve anything,” he said. Mwangura said a strategy to combat piracy needs to be part of a coordinated effort against other illicit activities in the region.

Meanwhile the U.S.-American Bush administration announced today that it will push for international action–a last ditch attempt to stabilize the East African nation, but as Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper told FP, it will take weeks–maybe months–even to get coastal surveillance under control. The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Admiral Michael Mullen said Wednesday he was “extremely worried” about potential safe havens for terrorists in Somalia and Yemen. “A significant objective in Afghanistan and Pakistan is to not have a safe haven, and I am concerned about the potential for a safe haven in Somalia as I am in Yemen,” Mullen said at a Pentagon press conference. “I try to pay a lot of attention to the evolution of potential safe havens, these two in particular,” said Mullen, the highest-ranking US military officer and the top military adviser to the president.

“So I’m extremely concerned about that,” adding that he believes the United States and the international community needs “to do all we can to impede the arrival of more safe havens out of which we can be threatened”. Mullen however ruled out US intervention in Somalia if the Islamists take over the country. “It wouldn’t be the US military,” he said according to an AFP report. The U.S. plan outlined by State Department officials who requested anonymity would encourage shipping and cruise operators to do more to fight attacks, bolstering navigation strategy with non-lethal technology such as alarm and surveillance systems, anti-boarding devices such as water cannons and electric fences, and long-range acoustic devices that generate painful noise. Under the plan, an international naval presence would continue, and countries would improve sharing of intelligence about threats of piracy. Nations would coordinate an international effort to disrupt pirates’ financial resources, and attempt to reach consensus on how to deal with pirates after they are captured. The U.S. does not plan to increase the number of Navy vessels now patrolling the sea lanes around the Horn of Africa, but the administration wants to utilize growing support in Europe for coordinated action against attacks at sea on shipping and cruise vessels.

The United States is seeking international authorization to hunt Somali pirates on land with the cooperation of Somalia’s weak U.N.-backed government. A U.S. draft resolution circulating among council members and obtained by The Associated Press proposes that all nations and regional groups cooperating with Somalia’s government in the fight against piracy and armed robbery also “may take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia” including its airspace. Presumably that could involve the U.S. military, which withdrew from Somalia after the killing of 18 U.S. troops in 1993. The resolution is to be presented at a session on Somalia with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior officials from a number of countries will attend an anti-piracy meeting at the UN in New York on Dec. 16, according to reports. The U.S. intends to back efforts to deploy an international peacekeeping force in Somalia to replace a contingent led by Ethiopia scheduled to leave the country by the end of this month. The U.S. says pirates based in coastal camps have links to an Islamic extremist group that has taken control of much of the country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who will both be in New York on Monday, may also attend the Somalia talks, which are scheduled for Tuesday, diplomats said. U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff confirmed that Washington hoped to see a resolution adopted. “There is complete council solidarity and consensus on the importance of dealing with the piracy problem and thwarting it, and dealing with it with every tool at our disposal,” he said. “Clearly this implies both at sea and, if needed, with the consent of the Somalis, on land,” Wolff told reporters.

It was not clear what form that Somali consent would take. The country has been in virtual anarchy since the collapse of a dictatorship 17 years ago. Islamists now control most of the south. Feuding, heavily armed clan militias hold sway in many other areas and a weak, Western-backed interim government has little authority outside the capital of Mogadishu. Diplomats familiar with the text said it was not clear what kind of force would be permitted for countries in “hot pursuit” of pirates who decide to bring the chase onto dry land. It was also unclear if the U.S. military would participate. The latest US initiative may be seen as a further response to a crisis that has “clearly escalated,” according to a senior UN diplomat. President-Elect Barack Obama, who did not make piracy a high-profile issue during the presidential campaign, did not comment on the issue, which represents one of the final foreign-policy initiatives for the Bush administration.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday asked parliament to approve the use of a German warship in a European Union anti-piracy mission off Somalia, spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said. The naval mission, code-named Atalanta, was formally constituted on Monday. Participation by the Germans must wait until the German parliament grants authorization. That is scheduled for December 19. The authorization is expected to then run through to December 15, 2009. Germany has offered a naval frigate, the Karlsruhe, and up to 1,400 sailors, airmen and other military personnel. The German Foreign Ministry meanwhile issued an “urgent” warning against visiting Somali coastal waters. “There is a very high risk of pirate attacks in the entire Gulf of Aden, including Yemeni coastal waters and adjoining waters,” it posted on its web page for travelers and stated there is “no effective protection” against the raiders.

The German government has agreed that the sailors on the Karlsruhe should have a “robust mandate” to shoot at pirates and liberate prisoners by force if other deterrence fails. The vessel normally has a crew of 220. They will only be allowed to capture pirates and send them to Germany for trial if they have harmed German citizens or ships. Wilhelm said the primary aim of Operation Atalanta was to protect relief shipments into Somali ports from pirate attack. Armed soldiers – so called riders – would be put on board the chartered UN World Food Programme cargo vessels. The German government said the anti-piracy operation did not relieve shipping companies of their responsibility to keep their own ships safe. The EU expects to operate a flotilla of six warships and three reconnaissance planes in the area, with seven EU nations involved in the operation. According to German news agency DPA, the modern German Navy has no experience fighting pirates. Europe’s most recent experience with rampant piracy dates back to the early 19th century. For hundreds of years, German states paid ransoms annually to pirate lords on North Africa’s Barbary Coast. Germany’s military ombudsman, Reinhold Robbe, warned on N24 television that “the resources currently being deployed” would not solve the piracy problem. He said the West had to ask itself about the causes and promote the authority of the Somali government so that the people of Somali could earn an honest livelihood. “Otherwise, I fear, this deployment won’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

The Hapag-Lloyd company said it decided to allow the passengers to leave the vessel after the German government turned down a request for a naval escort through the Gulf. Officials in Berlin said this was because the Columbus does not sail under the German flag. Hapag-Lloyd’s website says the 15,000-gross-ton vessel is registered in the Bahamas. Hapag-Lloyd disembarked 370 passengers and crew from its cruise vessel MS Columbus in a Yemeni port Wednesday so the vessel could cross the pirate-infested waters without them.

Shippers based in the Emirates are being approached by independent security firms with offers of gangs of “tough guys” to join the crews of vulnerable vessels. Smaller Dubai-based dhow operators, who cannot afford to stop sailing to Somalia, are taking expensive detours of up to a week to minimise the danger of seizure. Amid widespread concern at the failure to mount a concerted international response, owners are under pressure to find their own means of protecting their vessels and cargoes in the Gulf of Aden. Despite rising concern in the industry, a UAE seafarers´ charity is urging companies against hiring private security, warning that this would put seamen´s lives at risk. “These companies are offering business in the UAE — they are doing so anywhere here where there are ports,” said the Rev Stephen Miller, the director and port chaplain for the Mission to Seafarers. “But so far there has been no take up. It would not be a good thing. When pirates come aboard and meet no resistance then generally no one gets hurt. “If someone is firing down at them then they will respond. A pirate´s bullet does not discriminate between an armed security man and a crew member”.

Mr Miller could not identify any of those offering protection to the UAE maritime industry. Daren Dickson, from the security firm Drum-Cussac, based in the English Channel island of Jersey but with an office in Dubai, said: “Basically everyone is trying to cash in. Piracy is high profile now and there are firms offering maritime security and tough guys walking the dockyards touting for business.” Mr Miller said UAE-based shipowners had so far resisted such offers of protection partly because they would then be legally liable for any violent deaths that might occur on board. “The owner is responsible for whatever happens on the ship so if someone dies then the owner is liable for that death,” he said. Meanwhile the lack of a legal framework for dealing with pirates if they are captured is hindering navies from taking stronger action against maritime pirates and encouraging the use of private muscle, a shipping body warned. “We have been pushing for more robust action by navies. If they were stopping and searching mother ships and confiscating vessels then the number of attacks would go down,” said Cyrus Mody, a manager at the International Maritime Bureau in London. “The UN is debating what would happen to pirates if they are caught. We don´t have a framework for that and it is a big hindrance for the entire deterrent process.” The IMO advises strongly against the use of private security companies and seeks solutions from regional agreements on maritime safety.

Military and counter-terror sources report that the pirates have set up a land-based intelligence-financial-logistic logistic network in the Persian Gulf, East Africa andâ?¦ northern Europe. Information turned up by the US Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet intelligence were reported by DEBKAfile to have revealed that the Somali pirates had organized their traffic on business lines by establishing a sort of “back office” in Abu Dhabi. It is allegedly run by money changers earning a rake-off on ransom payments as the pirates’ agents. They have since established similar “agencies” in Mombasa, Kenya; Piraeus, Greece; Naples, Italy; and Rotterdam, Netherlands, which work through spies at shipping and marine insurance firms. The pirates’ undercover agents obviously gather information from their shipping contacts in the Gulf, in East African and European ports on the merchant vessels heading for the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean as well as their cargoes.

They brief the pirates on the presence of security guards and weapons available for the crew aboard the vessel. The pirates are always on the lookout for “special cargoes”, meaning smuggled goods or merchandise exported illegally or contrary to international law, such as clandestine weapons shipments. Such consignments, like that of the Ukrainian MV FAINA, which carried a large unregistered cargo of 33 T-72 tanks and other armaments – and is still held – increase the ransom value of the vessel and pay more than routine freights. The pirates also use their proxies to negotiate ransoms and terms for releasing the hijacked vessels, rather than exposing themselves and their locations. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that the pirates’ logistics and intelligence are far superior to that of the European counter-terror operation. This gap seriously detracts from the international patrol fleet’s prospects of getting to grips with the pirates.

All warring parties in Somalia have committed war crimes against civilians including rape, murder and the use of people as human shields, a human rights’ body said in its latest report. “The combatants in Somalia have inflicted more harm on civilians than on each other,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. A bloody insurgency began in the Horn of Africa nation early 2007 after Ethiopian forces helped kick out the Islamic Courts’ Union (ICU) – a Islamist regime that was in power for six months. The Horn of Africa nation has been plagued by chaos and civil war since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, but the last two years have been particularly miserable for civilians. Aid agencies say around 10,000 civilians have died and over a million have fled to avoid the crossfire since the insurgency began. A report released by HRW – “So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia” – details how government forces, Ethiopian soldiers and insurgents have indiscriminately opened fire on civilian areas.

Drawing on the testimony of 80 witnesses, HRW accuses government forces and allied militia of torturing detainees, killing and raping civilians and looting their homes. The report includes testimony from teenage girls raped by government forces, parents whose children were shredded by Ethiopian rockets and people shot by insurgents for working as messengers for the government. Around 200,000 civilians have fled to neighbouring Kenya, even more are internally displaced and hundreds have died already this year as they attempted to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, usually after being forced overboard or abandoned at sea by smugglers. According to the UN, 3.2 million Somalis, 40 per cent of the total population, are dependent on humanitarian aid as a result of the conflict, drought and high food prices. Western governments have backed the transitional federal government in the hope that it will halt the march of Islamist insurgent group al- Shabaab, which has made huge gains in recent months. HRW said that blindly supporting a regime that targets it own civilians is not the solution. “There are no quick fixes in Somalia, but foreign governments need to stop adding fuel to the fire with misguided policies that empower human rights abusers,” Gagnon said. HRW called for a policy review and said that the incoming Obama administration would have the opportunity to “break with the failed policies of its predecessor”. Ethiopia announced in late November that it will pull it troops out by the end of the year, leaving behind only a small African Union peacekeeping force to help the government keep the insurgents at bay.

By — Dr. Megalommatis Muhammad Shamsaddin

In five previous articles, entitled ‘Terrorist State ‘Ethiopia’ to Be Punished for Evil Role in Somalia — HRW Report Summary‘, ‘So Much to Fear – War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia, HRW Report Recommendations‘, ‘Amhara and Tigray ‘Ethiopianist’ Regime: Osama Bin Laden’s Foremost Ally‘, ‘Incommensurable Monstrosity of Amhara — Tigray Death Squads at Mogadishu, Revealed by HRW Report‘, and ‘The Destruction of Mogadishu: Genocidal Plans and Practices of the Evil Amhara – Tigray Regime‘, I re-published the chapters ‘Summary’, ‘Recommendations’, ‘Methodology’, ‘Background’, ‘International Humanitarian Law and the Conflict in Somalia’, ‘Civilian Deaths and the Destruction of Mogadishu’, and ‘Human Rights Abuses by Transitional Federal Government Forces’ from the HRW Report on Somalia.

In the present article, I republish the Report’s most critical chapter, namely ‘Laws of War and Human Rights Violations by Ethiopian Military Forces’.

Before that, I will republish excerpts from the daily press briefing offered to media representatives by the Spokesman of the State Department Sean McCormack – just three days ago.

Asked about the HRW Report, the indescribable spokesman McCormack failed to admit the reality, namely that his government’s unconditional support of the TFG and ‘Ethiopia’ helped only exacerbate the Somalia crisis.

And to add comical reference to his lack of proper response, he suggested the journalists to refer to â?¦.. ‘the transcripts from Jendayi’, the inhuman and racist accomplice of the monstrous Abyssinian gangster Zenawi.

McCormack’s sentences about Somalia are a must read; they bear witness to the utmost inhumanity that characterizes the criminal American interlocutors of the barbaric and racist Abyssinian regime.

Somali, Ogadeni, Oromo, Afar, and Sidama blood is fresh in the hands of McCormack, Jendayi Frazer, Condoleezza Rice and President Bush.

As long as they don’t dissociate themselves from Africa’s most rancorous and hateful hyenas, the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinians who rule the fake state ‘Ethiopia’, they are and they are viewed as their allies.

As long as they don’t impose an international embargo against ‘Ethiopia’ on the basis of so many extremely analytical and scrupulously descriptive reports, they bear full responsibility as criminal partners in the world’s most odious crime which has been committed for more than 17 years against Somalia.

As long as they pursue the shameful tactics of silence and complicity, they bring on their heads the dramatic consequences that they deserve — and which they will not escape. It is sheer delusion for anyone to assume that a stance like this will have no consequences.

It is a real shame for any country to be represented by a pathetic accomplice able to merely utter that he is not sure ‘what Human Rights Watch is trying to do with this report’.

What spokesman McCormack must be able at least to answer is ‘what the US is trying to do with the criminal policy of support to Abyssinia’.

What this felon must definitely understand is that America will pay a heavy price for its alliance with Hitler’s Children in Africa, and that whatever America has done or may do in the future will not prevent the final dissolution and destruction of ‘Ethiopia’ and the bleak but perfectly deserved days for the criminal and unrepentant perpetrators of serial genocides, the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) tribes of Abyssinia.

In forthcoming articles, I will complete the re-publication of the enlightening Report that should become the basic set of guidelines of a total reconsideration of the American policy for East Africa.

Daily Press Briefing by Sean McCormack, Spokesman

Washington, DC
December 8, 2008

QUESTION: There’s a new Human Rights Watch report on Somalia that’s very critical of the U.S. Government’s support, or what they call unconditional support, of the government, which they say is exasperating the political situation and aiding human rights abuses.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, where to start with such an assertion? Look, I think you can go back and look at my transcripts, look at the transcripts from Jendayi, where I say we’re interested in working with all parties and have an interest in working with all parties who want to have a — work towards a better future in Somalia. That has been the case. It just so happens that the Transitional Federal Government is such an institution. It’s not exclusive. Those who want to make a constructive contribution to Somalia’s future, we’re willing to take a look at how we might work together.

The people with whom we won’t work are terrorists. So I’m not sure what the suggestion of Human Rights Watch is in that regard. The United States as well as other countries have also made extensive efforts to ensure the continuing flow of humanitarian goods into Somalia. So not only have we contributed to humanitarian relief, but we have also helped ensure that those humanitarian goods get into Somalia.

So, yeah, I’m not sure, you know, what Human Rights Watch is trying to do with this report, what points they’re trying to score. But Somalia is a deeply tragic place and has been for some time. We have been working with others to try to make it a less tragic place and a place that has a better future.

I want to start –

QUESTION: What do you mean by scoring points?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t know. I mean, I — you give me these sort of quotes talking about the United States and criticizing the United States — I’m not sure — for its efforts in Somalia. I’m not sure really even the basis for making those kinds of statements, those kinds of assertions. It’s just ridiculous on its face.

QUESTION: Same topic, Somalia?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: Is the United — is the State Department assisting the FBI in searching for these Somali Americans who apparently have gone back to Somalia and are at risk of participating in terrorism?

MR. MCCORMACK: Not sure. I’ll –

QUESTION: Can you take it?

MR. MCCORMACK: I’ll have to take the question, yeah.

QUESTION: Same subject?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, Dave.

QUESTION: The Ethiopians have announced that they’re going to leave the country within weeks. They’re certainly reporting that if that happens, Somalia will have, you know, an all-out, ungoverned, failed state. What sort of diplomacy are you involved in, I mean, to try to — are you trying to talk the Ethiopians out of leaving or trying to increase other foreign forces there?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, what we’re taking a look at and we’re trying to work through the international system, that is, trying to find a way that you can have a responsible international force in Somalia to help provide some security and therefore some stability, and allow some of these weaker institutions to start to take hold in a positive way. So we’re looking at a variety of different ways of doing that, working with the AU, working through the UN.

Thus far, I don’t have the answer for you, but I — this is something that Secretary Rice, just on her last trip in the UK, she spoke with Foreign Secretary Miliband about. And so we’re continuing to look for a solution. There clearly needs to be an answer to this question. We just haven’t found the right one yet.

Yeah.

QUESTION: A transition question. When do you expect the first meeting between Secretary Rice and Senator Clinton? Or has it happened already and we don’t –

MR. MCCORMACK: No, it hasn’t happened. We’ll let you know.

QUESTION: Will that be here?

MR. MCCORMACK: We’ll let you know. We’ll let you know the details, as many details as we can provide.

QUESTION: Yeah, after the fact.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

Laws of War and Human Rights Violations by Ethiopian Military Forces

As of early 2007, ENDF troops had a reputation among many Somalis interviewed by Human Rights Watch for being admirably disciplined in their day-to-day interactions with Somali civilians, even if most Somalis resented their presence in the country.[143] That discipline has been allowed to erode severely. Ethiopian forces have been implicated in numerous violations of the laws of war, including acts by individuals that amount to war crimes. They have indiscriminately bombarded populated areas with mortar shells, artillery, and rockets. They have increasingly responded to insurgent ambushes and other attacks by firing indiscriminately at anyone and everyone in the general vicinity. And incidents of killing, rape, and looting involving ENDF personnel have greatly increased.

Indiscriminate Attacks

Rockets, Mortars, and Artillery

ENDF forces in Mogadishu have routinely and indiscriminately bombarded populated residential areas of Mogadishu since March 2007. They have made regular use of “Katyusha” rockets in Mogadishu, often fired from BM-21 “Grad” multiple-rocket-launchers.[144] Their use in populated urban environments is inherently indiscriminate, in violation of international humanitarian law.

The crushing impact of these bombardments on Mogadishu residents has been well-documented.[145] Nonetheless, there is no evidence that Ethiopian forces have in any way curtailed them.

Ethiopian forces carried out similar indiscriminate bombardments in fighting in the strategically important town of Beletweyne. In July 2008 Al-Shabaab fighters launched mortar shells against ENDF troops stationed at a base just outside Beletweyne unlawfully using the town’s civilian population as cover.[146] ENDF forces responded by indiscriminately bombarding large swathes of the western districts of the town for three days beginning on July 24.[147] Humanitarian organizations estimated that at the end of July, 74,000 people-more than 75 percent of the town’s population-had been displaced as a direct result of the bombardment and related fighting.[148]

Indiscriminate Gunfire

There have been increased reports in 2008 of Ethiopian forces responding to insurgent ambushes and other attacks by firing indiscriminately into populated areas. Incidents of indiscriminate ENDF fire that claimed civilian lives appear to have occurred with increasing frequency, particularly in Mogadishu, Baidoa, and along the Mogadishu-Afgooye road.

One of the most notorious incidents of 2008 occurred on August 15 when an ENDF convoy was struck by a roadside bomb along the Mogadishu-Afgooye road, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons from Mogadishu and a frequent site of armed clashes. Ethiopian soldiers in the convoy responded by firing wildly in all directions, and when the shooting stopped at least 40 Somali civilians were dead, including the passengers of two public minibuses.[149] Human Rights Watch put these allegations to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, DC, which responded that a thorough investigation had demonstrated the civilian casualties were the result of a roadside bomb planted by insurgents. As of the time of writing, no evidence to support this version of events, which is contrary to all other credible eyewitness accounts, has been made public by the Ethiopian government.[150]

Many similar incidents have been reported, often in the immediate aftermath of insurgent attacks on ENDF personnel. In late March or early April, another incident near Afgooye saw an ENDF convoy hit by a roadside bomb. A witness to the incident told Human Rights Watch that ENDF soldiers responded by “spraying bullets” in all directions. Most people in the area escaped but several were cut down by ENDF gunfire that continued for about 10 minutes. “When we came back, we came face to face with dead and injured people,” the witness recalled. “One of the bodies had one of the hands shot off.”[151] On April 30 ENDF troops in Baidoa reportedly opened fire wildly after their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb, killing several civilians.[152]

The descriptions that emerge from interviews with witnesses to these incidents indicate that the indiscriminate shooting by Ethiopian soldiers in response to insurgent attacks reflects poor discipline rather than criminal intent. ENDF troops rotated into Somalia from the end of 2007 were reportedly less experienced and well-trained than the soldiers they replaced. This, combined with the escalating daily violence, may have contributed to an overall breakdown in discipline and misuses of force causing civilian casualties.[153] At the same time, there have been no reported instances where ENDF soldiers have been investigated or held accountable for possible war crimes. This absence of accountability of Ethiopian soldiers has doubtlessly contributed to violations of international humanitarian law by Ethiopian forces.

Assault, Rape, Killings, and Looting

ENDF soldiers have been implicated in serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law against Somali civilians with increasing frequency since the end of 2007.[154] In Mogadishu, many of these abuses are not committed by Ethiopian soldiers acting alone but during joint operations with TFG security forces. Somalis interviewed by Human Rights Watch recounted horrifying accounts of ENDF abuses in 2008, including assaults, rape, killings, and looting.

Following a clash between EDNF troops and insurgent fighters in northern Mogadishu in April 2008, TFG and ENDF forces cordoned off an area around the site and began conducting house-to-house searches. A 22-year-old man from Mogadishu told Human Rights Watch:

Some Ethiopian and government soldiers came to our house and said, “Where are you hiding them [the insurgents]?” We said we were not hiding anyone, and that’s when they shot my father. He was just explaining to them that we did not see the people they are looking for and that we had been in the house all day, and they shot him, telling him he was lying. They shot him in the chest. My sister and mother were screaming at me to leave the place. But I wanted to resist, and I said, “Why are you doing this?” but they started beating me with the back of their guns.

The young man and his family were members of a minority clan that traces its ancestry partly back to immigrants from Portugal and so were unusually light skinned. The Ethiopian soldiers began joking that the young man’s two sisters and mother looked more like Eritreans than Somalis. With the family’s father lying dead on the floor in front of them, several Ethiopian soldiers took turns raping the three women. “And I was sitting there helpless,” the young man said. “They started raping my sisters and they were screaming. They were there for almost three hours. I saw them raping my mother in front of meâ?¦I could not help my mother or help my sisters.” At his mother’s insistence, he left Mogadishu the next day.[155]
Human Rights Watch interviewed a farmer who had fled his home in the outskirts of Beletweyne when fighting between Al-Shabaab and ENDF forces erupted there in July. He boarded a truck with others heading towards Somaliland along a back road[156] but they were soon stopped by a group of ENDF soldiers:

They stopped our car and said we are hiding some of the people they are looking for. We came out of the truck and they started searching. When they saw that there were two pretty girls with us they just took them. There was nothing we could do to resist. They did not even ask anything, they just grabbed them and started going with them. The girls were crying but the soldiers were slapping them and dragging them across the ground.

We waited for them. I was hearing their screams and cries, they were just near to us. They shot one girl because she was screaming a lot. We took the dead body and buried her. They shot her in the chestâ?¦The other girl did not want to talk about it but she said three of them were raping her at the same time.[157]

The truck and its passengers were then allowed to continue on their way.

In April 2008 one of the year’s most widely publicized atrocities occurred during an ENDF raid on a mosque in northern Mogadishu. ENDF soldiers, operating jointly with TFG forces, reportedly killed 21 people during that raid, seven of whom were found with their throats cut. Amnesty International reported that the dead included Islamic scholars who were inside the mosque at the time of the raid. The soldiers also detained several dozen children who were present at the mosque at the time of the raid.[158] The Ethiopian government denied that these or any other serious abuses involving ENDF soldiers took place.[159] Following the April 2008 mosque killings the only Ethiopian government response was to issue a statement denying the allegations and declaring that their operation in the area had been “successful beyond expectation.”[160]

ENDF forces have also been implicated in acts of looting in Mogadishu, though these incidents do not appear to be nearly as common as those involving TFG forces. One former shopkeeper from Hodan in Mogadishu said that his shop was looted twice by joint ENDF and TFG patrols in late 2007.[161] A former merchant whose shop was in the Bakara market area said that another joint patrol looted his store in April 2008. And a prominent Hawiye political figure from Mogadishu told Human Rights Watch that some groups of ENDF soldiers went on looting sprees during search and seizure operations in 2008 prior to being rotated out of the country.[162]

Notes

[143] See Human Rights Watch, Shell Shocked, p. 73. This reputation has eroded due to the events of the past year but many Somalis still see a difference in the discipline of ENDF and TFG forces. For example one refugee who fled Mogadishu in May 2008 told Human Rights Watch that, “The Ethiopians will attack you if they are attacked and use heavy weapons but they will not come into your homes and attack you like the Somali government forces.” Human Rights Watch interview, Dagahaley refugee camp, Kenya, June 30, 2008.

[144] Residents of Mogadishu refer to these as “BM,” because the rockets are often fired from BM-21 multiple rocket launchers or as “whistling” because of the whistling sound “Katyusha” rockets make while in the air. See Human Rights Watch, Shell Shocked, pp. 56-60.

[145] Human Rights Watch, Shell Shocked; also see above, Civilian Deaths and the Destruction of Mogadishu.

[146] Beletweyne sits a few kilometers off of the main road leading north from Mogadishu towards the Ethiopian border, a key link in the supply lines of ENDF forces in Somalia. It is the largest town in Hiran region and a large ENDF base sits along the highway just outside the town.

[147] Documents on file with Human Rights Watch; Human Rights Watch interviews with journalists and Somali civil society activists, Nairobi and Djibouti, September 2008. The eastern half of Beletweyne (which is divided by a river) is largely populated by Somalis of the Xawadale clan, who are seen as sympathetic to the TFG. The western half of the town is seen as a hotbed of Al-Shabaab and ICU activity.

[148] Human Rights Watch interviews with UN officials, Nairobi, September 2008; “Monthly Cluster Report: Humanitarian Response in Somalia,” UN OCHA, September 2008, p. 2.

[149] Human Rights Watch interviews with Somali civil society activist, Nairobi, September 20, 2008. See also “About 50 people killed in separate Somalia attacks,” Reuters, August 15, 2008.

[150] Letter on file with Human Rights Watch.

[151] Human Rights Watch interview with J.I., Ifo refugee camp, Kenya, June 28, 2008.

[152] See “Ethiopian soldiers kill 12 Somali civilians after roadside bomb attack,” Garowe Online, April 30, 2008, (accessed October 15, 2008).

[153] Human Rights Watch interviews, Nairobi and Hargeisa, July 2008. See also Amnesty International, Routinely Targeted: Attacks on Civilians in Somalia, p.11.

[154] For more accounts of such abuses see Amnesty International, Routinely Targeted, pp. 10-13.

[155] Human Rights Watch interview with D.M., Hargeisa, July 11, 2008.

[156] The interviewee told Human Rights Watch that ENDF forces had forbade the use of back roads as a security measure but that they took such a route anyway because they were afraid of suffering violence at ENDF checkpoints along the main tarmac road. Human Rights Watch interview, Hargeisa, July 11, 2008.

[157] Human Rights Watch interview with S.E., Hargeisa, July 11, 2008.

[158] See Amnesty International, “Ethiopia Must Release Mosque Attack Children,” April 24, 2008, (accessed October 27, 2008).

[159] See “Ethiopia Denies Mosque Killings,” BBC News Online, April 24, 2008, (accessed October 27, 2008). See also Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “No massacre at the mosque but a successful operation against Al-Shabaab,” Week in the Horn, April 24, 2008, (accessed October 27, 2008).

[160] See Agence France-Presse, “Amnesty Urges Ethiopia to Probe Mogadishu Mosque Executions,” April 25, 2008, (accessed November 10, 2008).

[161] Human Rights Watch interview, Ifo refugee camp, Kenya, June 28, 2008.

[162] Human Rights Watch interview, Nairobi, June 25, 2008.

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   The arrival of the Abyssinian forces in Mogadishu in the last days of December 2006

The destruction of Somalia will soon pale when compared to the forthcoming destruction of the criminal, evil state of ‘Ethiopia‘ and the chaos that will prevail in the fake pseudo-Amhara capital ‘Addis Ababa‘ that will be evacuated by all Amhara and Tigray settlers. The calamities that will soon hit Gondar and Mekele will have no parallel in the Aafrican History.

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by Dr. Megalommatis Muhammad Shamsaddin

A shameful and disreputable representative of America’s most racist elites, who is a former ambassador to several African countries, gave – a few days ago – two speeches in order to embellish the role played by America in Africa. This inimitable person is Phillip Carter III, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

To go through his two speeches, one may momentarily imagine that Africa reached such development and prosperity that is going to adhere to the ….. European Union.

This is the role of the missionaries of evil: they promise eudemonia and they deliver pestilence. The representatives of hypocrisy and prefab disaster see positive development everywhere, even where unspeakable degradation is obvious to all the locally concerned people who after all are the ultimate reality to be taken into consideration.

Read the criminal lies of the apostle of hypocrisy and the defender of the utmost criminality, Phillip Carter III!

Try to find in his speech the persecuted Nubians of Sudan who are asked to leave their homelands so that the Sudanese dictator builds a dam in the Nile; try to read a reference to the massacred Ogadenis of the criminal, terrorist pseudo-state ‘Ethiopia’ which gave Hitler an unsurpassed lesson on how inhumanity works! Search for a denunciation the well financed by colonial England and the pro-English American establishment warlords of Somalia!

In vain! Phillip Carter III has no time for them, and after all, they don’t disturb him at all; they serve him and his invisible masters. And their target to exterminate a great number of African masses through various methods.

Phillip Carter III hates Africans, and more particularly the Hamites and the Kushites of the North and the East.

Why?

Ask him!

Search in his speeches for a sentence in which Phillip Carter III condemns the racist Amhara and Tigray elites that propagate the criminal and inhuman program of ‘Ethiopianism‘, aiming at the cultural, national or physical extermination of a dozen of Kushitic African nations!

You will find nothing!

Why?

Because they are his (and his invisible masters’) servants.

Do your ingenious best to find in his speeches a clause for the independence of Darfur, the self-determination of Oromia, and the liberation of Kabylia from the Pan-Arabist pestilence of the colonial regime of Algiers, the puppets of the French…..

Again nothing!

Make an effort to detect the idea Phillip Carter III has about the oppressed tribes of Nigeria that struggle for independence! Attempt to imagine what this false prophet of American help intends to deliver to the multi-divided Afars and how he plans to terminate the criminal involvement of Rwanda and Uganda in Congo.

You will find nothing; all Phillip Carter III cares about is how he will identify new gangsters of nations like Meles Zenawi, new puppets like Kibaki, and new renegades like Rayale and AbdillahiYusuf of Somalia.

He will call them ‘new leaders of Africa“, and they will prove to be the latest gangsters.

At a certain moment, you will find his comical words about ‘democratic institution building’; this shows what excellent skills the disreputable ambassador has in Science Fiction.

It is up to you to denounce the felony Phillip Carter III; in fact, every African and every Human must.

Protest against his fallacious purposes, write to express your indignation; call his office (Bureau of African Affairs (AF) 6234) in the State Department: 202-647-2447 (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/112065.pdf). I republish here his two speeches, and his official biographical sketch.

Do not let him believe that you don’t know him — as one of America’s foremost enemies of Africa.

The United States’ Unprecedented Commitment to Africa, 2000 to 2008 and Beyond
Phillip Carter III, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

The World Affairs Council of Arizona
Washington, DC
November 20, 2008

Good evening and thank you.

Since 1918, the World Affairs Council has opened the door for local citizens to engage in diplomacy through education and awareness of international issues — and through hosting global leaders.

The U.S. Department of State is proud to partner with you — and looks forward to continuing this successful relationship.

I would like to note that the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs is celebrating our 50th Anniversary this year. Created in 1958 by President Eisenhower, the bureau sought to change what had been a traditionally Eurocentric policy view of Africa.

We at the State Department are proud of the anniversary, and look forward to working with our sub-Saharan partners and organizations like your own, to advance Africa’s future as we transition into our next half century.

U.S. Policy in Africa

Over the past eight years, the United States has made an unprecedented commitment to Africa — this current Administration has gone further than any previously in engaging and assisting the continent. We are working with our sub-Saharan partners to pioneer a new era of growth and development in Africa.

The partnerships and programs forged during the past eight years have supported significant African progress — and have laid a foundation for sustaining that support in subsequent administrations.

Tonight — I would like to highlight these partnerships and programs — but also sneak a peak — towards the future and potential of the continent in the 21st century.

Over the past eight years, the United States has changed its approach to Africa. As part of our broader mission to build and sustain a network of democratic states that respond to the needs of their people and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system – we have partnered with African leaders, governments, and civil society organizations to combat disease, build peace, expand prosperity, and improve governance.

We have defined success not just in the narrow terms of resolving specific crises, but in the broader sense of supporting Africans in building institutions and adopting policies that sustain long-term growth, freedom, and justice.

The U.S. commitment to Africa reflects a recognition that our success and security increasingly depend on conditions in distant lands, and that we are at greater risk if Africa is a place where extremist ideologies are fostered, states are failing, and violence and instability spread across borders.

To challenge these potential risks, the United States has committed to fostering growth and development in Africa. At the 2005 Gleneagles G-8 Summit, President Bush announced that the United States would double its assistance (bilateral and multilateral) to sub-Saharan Africa from a base of $4.4 billion in 2004 to $8.7 billion by 2010.

By increasing investments in health and education, stimulating growth, improving the investment climate, and making trade work for Africa — the U.S. is on track to meet that pledge.

Programs and Initiatives

I would like to highlight some of the programs initiatives that have spurred African growth and development.

Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)

The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is a revolutionary foreign assistance program that seeks to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth by awarding sizeable grants — not loans — to countries that practice good governance, seek to take responsibility for their own development, and are committed to achieving results. Of the 18 compacts signed to date – eleven totaling over $4.8 billion have been signed with sub-Saharan African countries.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a program that rewards reforming African countries with U.S. trade preferences — this initiative has helped to reduce barriers to trade, increase exports, create jobs, and expand business opportunities for African and U.S. entrepreneurs.

With 41 countries presently qualified, AGOA has helped increase two-way trade between the U.S. and eligible African economies to over $50 billion — more than six times the level in 2001, the first full year of AGOA.

Agriculture and Food Security

The United States is also the world’s largest donor of food aid, providing over $5.5 billion to fight global hunger in 2008 and 2009. The Presidential Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA) is a multi-year initiative launched in 2002, providing a total of $1 billion for 2006-2010, and aims to increase agricultural growth and raise rural incomes.

PEPFAR

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the largest commitment ever by a single nation toward an international health initiative.

When President Bush launched PEPFAR, approximately 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatment. Today, PEPFAR supports lifesaving treatment for over 1.7 million people worldwide, care for 6.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission during nearly 12.7 million pregnancies, allowing nearly 200,000 children to be born HIV free.

The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)

The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) was established in 2005. The U.S. has committed $1.2 billion in new malaria funding to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 African countries. In 2007, the Malaria Initiative reached more than 25 million people with effective prevention and treatment interventions.

Africa Education Initiative

In 2002, President Bush established the Africa Education Initiative (AEI), a multi-year $600 million initiative focused on increasing access to basic education in over 40 Sub-Saharan African countries through scholarships, textbooks, and teacher training programs. By 2010, AEI will have trained nearly one million teachers, provided 550,000 scholarships for girls, and distributed 15 million textbooks.

Peacekeeping

The United States has been the most important contributor to African force generation efforts through our Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program and large scale provision of peacekeeping equipment. Since 2005, the United States has directly trained nearly 60,000 African peace keepers in 22 countries. Of these troops, over 82% have deployed to African Union and United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Terrorism

The Trans-Sahara Counter-terrorism Partnership is a multi-year effort, funded at about $150m per year, to leverage and coordinate military, law enforcement, development, and public diplomacy elements to enhance the capacity of the trans-Sahara region to deter and defeat terrorism, and counter extremist ideology. We are seeking to build on the success of this program with a parallel East Africa Regional Strategic Initiative, to counter the terrorist elements that destroyed our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam ten years ago, and continue to threaten regional stability.

Conclusion

Over the past eight years, a renewed commitment to the African continent has been started or carried forward in large part on a fundamental, bipartisan agreement of what needs to be done — such as brokering peace agreements, training African peace keepers, PEPFAR, or MCC. While much has been accomplished, the United States Government will continue to build on the foundation laid by this and previous administrations. We still have a way to go — but with greater security, disease prevention, and political and economic freedom, the African continent of the 21st century can strive to reach its potential.

Thank you very much.

Released on December 3, 2008
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Address to the First Annual International Conference on Africa
Phillip Carter III, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

The Africa Initiative Project,
Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
November 21, 2008

Good afternoon and thank you all for being here. I would like to thank Arizona State University for hosting us this afternoon — and especially The Africa Initiative Project for bringing us together for their first annual conference.

This conference is very important – it not only allows for a deeper understanding of African history – but contemporary U.S.–Africa Affairs. Combining a rich historical perspective – with an interdisciplinary vision and awareness for the future – provides a great means to address challenges on the African continent.

We at the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs are also celebrating an important milestone this year – our 50th Anniversary. Building upon a half century of accomplishment, the Bureau looks to the next fifty years with great hope and excitement.

U.S. Policy in Africa

Over the past eight years, the United States has made an unprecedented commitment to Africa — this current Administration has gone further than any previously in engaging and assisting the continent. We are working with our sub-Saharan partners to pioneer a new era of development in Africa.

This afternoon, I would like to highlight our policy priorities on the continent.

Democratic Institution Building

The first defining priority is Democratic Institution Building — we are engaged in supporting the rise of freedom and democracy throughout sub-Saharan Africa. During the past two decades, progressive democratic reform has adapted to local values, customs, and practices. Outgrowths of democratic, well-governed states that adhere to the rule of law, support the will of their people, and contribute responsibly to the international system are developing.

We have partnered with these nations to build democratic institutions, conduct free and fair elections, and govern justly. These outcomes mark an important historical shift. In the past four years alone, there have been more than 50 democratic elections throughout Africa. Almost three-quarters of sub-Saharan nations are now classified by Freedom House as ‘Free’ or ‘Partly Free’ – up from less than half in 1990.

Despite significant progress, recent elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe have hindered these advances. These elections, marked by voting irregularities, contestable results, and post election violence, demonstrate that the path to democracy is often challenging.
Notwithstanding these impediments, the United States will continue to work with our international partners to support democratic institutions, promote free and fair elections, and expand freedom and prosperity for the benefit of all.

For example, we will continue to strongly support the democratic transition in Liberia — and to strengthen democratic institutions in post-conflict countries, such as the DRC and Burundi.

Although conflict resolution is an essential part of our foreign policy objectives, we believe that to sustain long term peace and stability on the continent – it is not enough to just end wars – but we must move beyond post-conflict transformation to consolidate democracies.

Economic Growth and Development

Our second foreign policy priority is the expansion of Economic Growth and Development.

At the 2005 Gleneagles G-8 Summit, the United States committed to doubling its assistance (bilateral and multilateral) to sub-Saharan Africa from a base of $4.4 billion in 2004 to $8.7 billion by 2010 — We are on track to meet that pledge.

To accelerate growth in Africa, the United States implemented the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), a revolutionary foreign assistance program that seeks to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth by awarding sizeable grants — not loans — to countries that practice good governance, seek to take responsibility for their own development, and are committed to achieving results. Of the 18 compacts signed to date since the programs inception in 2004, eleven totaling over $4.8 billion have been signed with sub-Saharan African countries – Senegal and Malawi are in the process of developing compacts – and another eight African nations have MCC threshold programs to help them qualify for full compact.

The United States Government has also enacted the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a program that rewards reforming African countries with U.S. trade preferences — this initiative has helped to reduce barriers to trade, increase exports, create jobs, and expand business opportunities for African and U.S. entrepreneurs.

With 41 countries presently qualified, AGOA has become a cornerstone of our trade and investment policy in Africa — it has helped increase two-way trade between the United States and eligible African economies to over $50 billion — more than six times the level in 2001, the first full year of AGOA.

Programs such as MCC and AGOA are strengthening African economic health and underscore our cardinal interest in the continent’s economic affairs. Not surprisingly, in 2007, sub-Saharan Africa experienced a growth rate of 6.5% – one of its highest in decades.

Disease

The third U.S. foreign policy priority in Africa is the fight against Disease. As the leading cause of death on the continent, disease is one of the greatest challenges to Africa’s future. Rising to meet this challenge – the United States is partnering with sub-Saharan nations to target the prevention, care and treatment of disease — most especially HIV/AIDS, malaria and neglected tropical diseases.

To address the severe and urgent HIV/AIDS crisis, President Bush led the world into action with The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR is the largest commitment ever by a single nation toward an international health initiative. Through PEPFAR, the U.S. Government has already provided $18.8 billion in HIV/AIDS funding, with a reauthorization of up to $48 billion for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria over the next five years.

When President Bush launched PEPFAR, approximately 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatment. Today, PEPFAR supports lifesaving treatment for over 1.7 million people worldwide, care for 6.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission during nearly 12.7 million pregnancies, allowing nearly 200,000 children to be born HIV free.

Responding to the malaria crisis, the President launched the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in 2005. The U.S. has committed $1.2 billion in new malaria funding to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 African countries. In 2007, the Malaria Initiative reached more than 25 million people with effective prevention and treatment interventions.

In the fight against what we call ‘neglected tropical diseases,’ – the President – in February 2008 – announced a five year – $350 million initiative to eliminate the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as a major threat to health and economic growth in the developing world. Focusing on seven major diseases, from snail fever to hookworm, this initiative aims to provide integrated treatment for more than 300 million people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Through the prevention and treatment of disease, programs such as PEPFAR and PMI are touching the lives of millions. In collaboration with our regional partners, we will continue to develop sustainable healthcare infrastructure so African nations can address these challenges through their own national institutions.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution represents our final foreign policy priority on the continent. In the past seven years we have seen the end of major conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, North-South Sudan, Ethiopia-Eritrea and Angola. Although the current peace is fragile in several of these countries — and challenges persist in Darfur, Eastern Congo and Somalia — Africa has demonstrated a trend toward conflict resolution and stability.

I would like to highlight three distinctive areas demonstrating this trend – peacekeeping, counter-terrorism and maritime safety.

Firstly – through our participation in the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), the United States, along with our G8 partners, is committed to building global peace and security by training and equipping 75,000 peacekeepers worldwide by 2010. The United States has been the most important contributor to African force generation efforts through our Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program and large scale provision of peacekeeping equipment. Since 2005, the United States has directly trained nearly 60,000 African peacekeepers in 22 countries. Of these troops, over 82% have deployed to African Union and United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Secondly – to combat terrorism, the United States is pursuing a multidisciplinary regional approach in the trans-Sahara region, as well as the Horn of Africa.

The Trans-Sahara Counter-terrorism Partnership is a multi-year effort, funded at about $150m per year, to leverage and coordinate military, law enforcement, development, and public diplomacy elements to enhance the capacity of the trans-Sahara region to deter and defeat terrorism, and counter extremist ideology. We are seeking to build on the success of this program with a parallel East Africa Regional Strategic Initiative, to counter the terrorist elements that destroyed our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam ten years ago, and continue to threaten regional stability.

Lastly – the United States is also partnering with African nations to support progress in strengthening maritime security — particularly — anti-piracy measures – in sub-Saharan Africa. The ability of African nations to control their coastal waters is critical to regional trade and economic growth – control of sovereign natural resources, including fisheries – the delivery of critical humanitarian assistance to Somalia – and efforts to stem the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and humans on the continent.

Conclusion

In closing, the United States Government is committed to work with our African partners to promote democratic institution building, conflict resolution, economic growth and development, and the prevention, care and treatment of disease throughout the African continent.

When African nations cultivate freedom, prosperity and justice, their populations are more likely to reject extremist ideology, build strong economies that benefit all people, and replace disease and despair with healing and hope. These are unwavering priorities of the United States Government today, tomorrow and in the months and years ahead.

Thank you very much.

Released on December 3, 2008
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Phillip Carter – Official Biographical Sketch

Phillip Carter was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs in August 2008. He previously served as Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea. Mr. Carter has also served as the Director for West African Affairs and the Deputy Director in the Office for East African Affairs at the U.S. State Department.

Prior to that assignment, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the U.S. Embassy in Antananarivo, Madagascar and DCM in Libreville Gabon. Before his arrival in Gabon in 1997, he was an international financial economist in the State Department’s Office of Monetary Affairs in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. During this period, he dealt with international debt and capital matters and served as the Department’s point-person on International Monetary Fund issues with Africa.

From 1992-1994, he served as the Economic and Commercial Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prior to Bangladesh, Mr. Carter was the Economic and Commercial Officer in Lilongwe, Malawi for three years. From 1987-1989, he worked in the Department’s Office of Caribbean Affairs as a desk officer responsible for bilateral matters concerning the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Eastern Caribbean, as well as regional economic issues such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative. From 1982-1986, he served as the Deputy Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Winnipeg, Canada and as vice consul at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

Mr. Carter received a Masters degree in International and Development Economics from Yale University and earned a Bachelors degree in Economics and History from Drew University where he was a member of the International Economics Honor Society (Omicron Delta Epsilon). He is the recipient of a Superior Honor Award, The Franklin Award, and several individual and group Meritorious Honor Awards. He speaks French and Spanish. A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Phillip Carter holds the rank of Counselor.

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An explosive situation prevails aboard MV FAINA; according to converging information, crew members attacked — unsuccessfully — some pirates, in an effort that clearly reflects the impossibility of a human being to be help hostage of such a piracy for 1800 hours without a major international reaction.

Quite unfortunately and extremely inhumanely, the MV FAINA crew members have become — precisely like the pirates themselves — the victims of an incredible conspiracy against Somalia, the Somali Nation, and the entire Horn of Africa region.

   Ukrainian Merchant Vessel – MV Faina as observed from the guided-missile cruiser the USS Vella Gulf

   [Enlarge]

The negotiations have been carried out in a deceptive way in order to offer the NATO admirals the timing they had planned; the pirates and their negotiators cannot realize that some guys among them have been deceived and have therefore cultivated illusions as regards the final outcome.

On the other hand, the crew members, their physical and psychological resistance, and their lives are the least concern of the criminal gangsters who impersonate respectable admirals and generals, politicians and diplomats, PR specialists and well known statesmen – all hidden behind the anonymity.

There is little to be done in order to avoid the terrible hit prepared against the prefab ghost of piracy that became an apocalyptic hot air balloon about to go burst over the western part of the Indian Ocean. This possibility of successful exit, I will analyze in a separate article. Here I publish the latest Ecoterra Press Release update, issued a few hours ago.

74th Update 2008-12-09 13:52:38 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. – Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International — Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past – with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
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Day 76 – 1799 hours into the FAINA Crisis – Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

Crew members on the arms laden cargo ship held by Somali pirates attempted to overpower two of their captors, prompting the hijackers to threaten to punish the men on Tuesday. Speaking to AFP from the MV FAINA cargo they hijacked on Sept 25 and have held off the coast of Somalia ever since, a spokesman for the pirates said the incident took place late on Monday. ‘Some crew members on the Ukrainian ship are misbehaving. They tried to harm two of our gunmen late Monday’, said the pirate, who declined to give his name. ‘This is unacceptable, they risk serious punitive measures. Somalis know how to live and how to die at the same time, but the Ukrainians’ attempt to take violent action is misguided’, the spokesman added. He said two of the pirates were taken by surprise when a group of crew members attacked them.

‘Maybe some of the crew are frustrated and we are feeling the same but our boys never opted for violence, this was a provocation’, the pirate spokesman explained. More than 120 attacks by Somali pirates have been reported this year alone in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean but all the hijackings have so far been resolved peacefully through the payment of ransoms. The pirates of FAINA have lowered their ransom demand to US$3.5 million and told AFP late last month that an agreement had already been reached for the ship’s release. In recent days, some sources have reported frustration among the pirates over delays in the ransom payment.

The operation to release the crew of the FAINA is continuing, Vasyl Kyrylych, chief of the foreign ministry press service, told a news briefing at the ministry, according to the Ukrainian press agency. “The pattern for setting the hostages free is being carried out now. We hope to witness successful completion of the release operation soon”, he said. Pirates captured the FAINA with 17 Ukrainian citizens among its crew off Somalia on September 25. The FAINA is under surveillance of several US ships whose objective is to prevent unloading of the military hardware. As reported, the pirates and the ship-owners reached agreement on November 30 on releasing the dry cargo ship with defence technologies aboard. Local observers had spotted the vessel delivering the ransom to MV CAPT. STEFANOS and believed it was a vessel concerning MV FAINA. After MV CENTAURI and MV CAPT. STEFANOS were released FV FAINA remains solely at the coastal stretch off Harardheere.

Ukraine expressed on Tuesday its desire to join the European Union’s naval task force protecting ships in the Gulf of Aden against Somali pirates.

Ecoterra Intl. renewed it’s call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted ships ———-

The Greek ship-owner’s company Chartworld Shipping Corporation (Athens) finally confirmed that the Greek ship MV CAPT. STEFANOS with a Ukrainian citizen as a crew member, one Chine and 17 Filipino seafarers, captured by Somali pirates September 21, was set free following 11 weeks of captivity. The crew members’ state of health is estimated as satisfactory, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry informed. According to the ship-owner’s information, presently the released ship is heading for Brindisi port (Italy).

With the latest captures and releases still at least 15 foreign vessels with a total of around 335 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 123 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 51 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 15). Several other vessels with unclear fate (not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail.

The First Victim of War is the Truth!

Did pirates attack Aussie cruise ship? A traveler on board the Australian cruise ship MV Athena says owners are trying to cover up news of a pirate attack. Pirates did attack a cruise ship carrying 400 Aussies off Somalia, says an Australian passenger, but the cruise company — which claimed that the 52 boats reported to have approached the ship were manned by ‘friendly’ fishermen — is trying to cover up the incident, the passenger says. The Melbourne woman, who remains on board the MV Athena and does not want to be named, said passengers who informed relatives back home of the attack had been given “a real dressing down” by the ship’s crew. Classic International Cruises Australia, which owns the Athena, has said there was no substance to reports that dozens of pirate boats attacked the ship and tried to board it on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the company said the boats turned out to be fishing vessels whose crew were “very friendly”. However, the Melbourne woman who contacted wire service AAP said there was no doubt the ship was the target of a co-ordinated pirate attack as it passed through the Gulf of Aden, separating Yemen and Somalia. She said the crew had ordered passengers to stay indoors after small motorboats surrounded the vessel. Observers using binoculars on the bridge reportedly counted between 30 and 40 small boats to the port side and 12 to starboard at the height of the incident, she said. “Less than an hour later the master of the vessel, Captain Antonio Morais of Portugal, confirmed to listeners that two attacks by pirates had taken place”. Crew members used blasts from high-powered water cannon to drive back the pirates who clearly wanted to board the Athena, the woman said. She said the official line now being put around the ship was that “as no shots were fired by the assailants it was merely a reconnaissance mission by those in the motorboats rather than an attack as such”. And yesterday, two days after the attack, Captain Morais again addressed passengers to stress that “no attack” had occurred.

Other related news ——

The United Nations will convene a two-day international conference in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss the rampant piracy off the coast of Somalia. The gathering, hosted by the Kenyan Government, will begin on 10 December, when technical experts will discuss the issue. The following day, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, and Moses Wetangula, Kenya’s Foreign Minister, will co-chair a ministerial-level meeting. Some 140 representatives from 40 countries are expected to attend the event, which will be addressed by President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya. “It is clear that the problem of piracy is linked to the need for peace and stability in Somalia itself’, said UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Mr. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. ‘We hope that this high-level Conference will lead to greater international attention and cooperation between countries, regional and international organizations’. He said the gathering is very important and timely given the increasing threat of piracy in Somali waters which threatens the safety of trade routes. “We hope that this high-level Conference will lead to greater international attention and cooperation between countries, regional and international organizations”.

Spain could delay sending about 200 military personnel to participate in the international anti-piracy naval operation off the coast of Somalia, Spanish daily ABC reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed military sources. Defence Minister Carme Chacon has decided not to seek authorisation from parliament on Wednesday to send the Spanish ship SPS Victoria to the Somali coast, which means it will not set sail on Jan. 8, as was expected, ABC said. The sources cited by the newspaper said the ship may now join the task force in the second phase of the anti-piracy operation, called Atlanta. EUNAVOR operation ATALANTA began today with only two ships from France and Britain and two surveillance planes from France and Spain.

Germany has led calls for a debate on a UN special pirate court for those caught by the European mission, given that the EU will not transfer prisoners to countries with the death penalty, potentially leaving it with pirates on its hands. “The EU is reviewing agreements whereby suspects could be taken by third countries that are willing and in a position to launch criminal proceedings”, said Mr Steinmeier and added: “Moreover we are in favour of reviewing whether the United Nations could use existing international courts or found a new one to conduct such criminal proceedings”.

A task force from Russia’s Pacific Fleet left its main base in Vladivostok on Tuesday for a tour of duty in the Indian Ocean, a fleet official said, according to the Russian news agancy RIA. The task force comprises the Admiral Vinogradov, an Udaloy class missile destroyer, a tugboat, and two tankers. “The current tour of duty will demonstrate the ability of the Russian Navy to protect the country’s interests in the world’s oceans”, said Capt. 1st Rank Roman Markov, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet. According to the official, the task force will pay a visit to the Indian port of Mormugao and participate in the joint naval exercises INDRA-2009 with the Indian Navy in January. INDRA is a biennial Russian-Indian exercise aimed at practicing cooperation in enforcing maritime law and countering piracy, terrorism, and drug smuggling. INDRA-2009 is the fourth such exercise since 2003. The task force will also conduct joint exercises with a task force from Russia’s Northern Fleet, led by the Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great) nuclear-powered missile cruiser, which will arrive in the Indian Ocean after a current tour of duty in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Following the exercises, the Admiral Vinogradov will replace the Neustrashimy (Fearless) missile destroyer from Russia’s Northern Fleet in the Horn of Africa to protect commercial shipping from pirate attacks off the Somali coast. Vice Admiral Konstantin Sidenko, commander of the Pacific Fleet, earlier said that Russian warships from the fleet would make several long-range training sorties in the South Pacific and Indian oceans in 2009, and participate in a number of exercises involving live-firing drills. Russia announced last year that its navy had resumed and would build up a constant presence in different regions of the world’s oceans.

A more romantic environment of piracy: The Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1718

For the non native speakers, ricochet is a military term that defines the firing of guns or howitzers, usually with small charges, at an elevation of only a few degrees, so as to cause the balls or shells to bound or skip along the ground. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Ricochet+firing).

I find good reason to use the term for an otherwise idiotic article written by an ignorant and uneducated Kenyan lawyer who runs a shadowy firm deeply connected with (if not created by) the darkest side of the Kenyan establishment and the paramilitary, the Kipkorir Mafia.

For those who are not experts in the Military Art, I find the Wikipedia entry quite illuminative of the reason I use the term; “Ricochets are a common danger of shooting because after bouncing off an object the bullet that ricochets poses an ‘unpredictable’ and serious danger to bystanders, animals, objects, or even the person who fired the shot” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet).

Mr. Donald Kipkorir – Gideon Moi’s Fraudulent Trustee

Simply put, Mr. Donald Kipkorir (known to have “looted Kenya” and then betrayed his boss, Gideon Moi, after having first cashed what was thought of as sufficient for his seemingly respectful firm – http://kenyanomics.blogspot.com/2007/08/gideon-moi-and-looting-of-kenya.html), in an article compiled to help re-invent the African History and Politics, suggests what would mathematically trigger the rise of an Islamic Republic of Eastern Africa.

In his far-fetched innuendo, the ignorant Kalenjin lawyer reveals the volatility and the fallacy of parts of the Kenyan establishment that have been tele-guided from other continents with respect to their next movement.

You may not be familiar with the Kalenjin people, who – Nilo-Saharan of origin – inhabit part of Kenya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalenjin_people), having migrated there from Ancient Ethiopia (today’s Sudan).

Being exposed to eventual reprisals from the part of a reputed as vindictive leader, like Gideon Moi, if he happens to consider you as a fraudulent trustee, means that you’ve got to find some strong backing. This is what Mr. Donald Kipkorir did, and he even threatens his former boss with ‘revelations’….

The loathed bosses of Mr. Donald Kipkorir

Would you like to find out who stands behind the authoring lawyer, Mr. Donald Kipkorir?

It’s not difficult; just search whose interests he defends.

In his article, the Kalenjin lawyer expresses his care for the lost swag, the captured (off the coast of Somalia) ship which was carrying 33 T-72 tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns for the Kenyan army — which certainly does not need these weapons.

These are the strong backers of the lawless lawyer whose text — judged by specialists of International Law — is tantamount to the Law of the Jungle, and totally dishonoring of and defamatory for a human being.

You may consider the Kalenjin origin of the author as relevant of the jungle, but this is sheer western supremacism and racism; the Kalenjin are highly civilized and have kept among their religious traditions some of the most authentic Hamitic, Ancient Egyptian beliefs, namely the cult of Isis. As in the case of every nation, there are good Kalenjin and bad Kalenjin; in fact, Mr. Donald Kipkorir is the shame of the Kalenjin.

Not only is he the shame of the Nilo-Saharan nation, but he risks becoming the responsible for their forced Islamization.

As his bosses, the formidable and reviled Kikuyu generals of the pathetic Kenyan army, have been maddened because of the easy achievement of the Eyl Somali pirates, they ordered him to write in support of the illegal interests of the Kenyan militarists who will use the 33 T-72 tanks and the rocket-propelled grenades in the next face off with the Luos, the Somalis and the Oromos of Kenya.

Kenya is an English Colonial Fabrication

In fact, Kenya is not a nation, is not a state, and is not a society; it is an English colonial fabrication geared to destroy the Muslim community and political tradition in the East Coast of Africa. Large parts of Kenya, including the coast, are inhabited by Muslims, similarly with the Tanganyika coast and Zanzibar. All these Muslim populations have been ruled for many long centuries by various local rulers who exercised their power under the auspices of the Ottoman Sultan (and to lesser extent the Shah of Iran) and interacted peacefully with the Somalis, the Yemenites, and the Indians.

The evil colonial borderlines have been established according to an English — French plan that was set up in order to make of the Eastern African Muslim majority a minority residing within irrelevant and fabricated realms like Tanzania and Kenya. Disconnected from the Somalis, the East African Muslims became a minority in each fake colonial state, and were deliberately marginalized. The other African nations, who were forced to be part of these fake states, had been in harmonious terms with the coastal Muslims who for more than a millennium did not express any concern to islamize the African inlanders, as most of them worshipped God through monotheistic concepts. The conflicts started when all the different components were forced by the monstrous colonial elites of England and France to live within a state that they never conceived or needed.

The present article is not a point by point refutation of the fallacious suggestions of the bribed and lawless lawyer of the Kikuyu Kenyan paramilitary. It only consists in a revelation of the prevailing panic among Mr. Donald Kipkorir’s backers and the elucidation of their despair.

Their panic and despair are highlighted by Mr. Donald Kipkorir’s proposals that Kenya and Abyssinia (fallaciously re-baptized ‘Ethiopia’) invade and divide Somalia.

Of course, generically speaking, anyone understands the scheme of two countries attacking and dividing a third; the typical case is Poland, attacked and divided among Prussia, Russia and Austria in the late 18th century. But by then, there was no International Law, practically speaking.

Donald Kipkorir: Utterly Gross

Today, it is utterly gross for a supposed lawyer to suggest something so directly opposite to the quintessence of the International Law. However, this is the least one can say about the panicked, fraudulent (ask Gideon Moi) and lawless Mr. Donald Kipkorir.

His suggestion comes at a moment the Abyssinian army admitted its defeat in Somalia and are about to abandon the Horn of Africa country, in an effort to better implement the racist Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic tyranny over the outright majority of the wretched and starving country (consisted of Amhara and Tigray Muslims, and Oromos, Ogadenis, Sidamas, Afars, Agaws, Kambaatas, Shekachos, Kaffas, Hadiyas, Gedeos, Wolayitas, Anuak, Shinasha, Berta and Gumuz who all total 82% of the country’s total population).

In fact, the Somalia expedition, combined with the ongoing Ogaden revolution, is about to bring the world’s most loathed and most bestial tyranny to total collapse.

The World’s Most Venerated Heroes of the 3rd Millennium

As if the Abyssinia lesson from Somalia were not enough, the panicked, fraudulent (ask Gideon Moi — always!) and lawless Mr. Donald Kipkorir suggests that the militarily impotent Kenya attempts to ….. invade the Somali south, which is the area of the world’s most venerated heroes of the 3rd millennium, the noble and brave Somali Liberation and Re-unification fighters, who already liberated Kismayu.

• – Does Mr. Donald Kipkorir expect to recuperate the 33 T-72 tanks, the rocket-propelled grenades and the anti-aircraft guns ordered by his bosses?

Too comical a question! Why? Ask the Eyl Somali pirates!

• – Does Mr. Donald Kipkorir expect his bosses’ tanks to … fly over Somalia?

This would be the only prerequisite for a Kenyan victory in the Somali South…..

In fact, what Mr. Donald Kipkorir suggests, if materialized (which would be paranoid to attempt and impossible to achieve), would result in a dramatic increase of Muslim population in both, collapsing Abyssinia and ailing Kenya.

This increase of the Muslim population in both Kenya and Abyssinia (immediate consequence of Mr. Donald Kipkorir’s suggestions’ materialization) is not a mere matter of figures but an affair of radicalized and armed populations.

Islamic Republic of Eastern Africa

When the extremely well armed Somalis of the South will be “part of Kenya” (assuming always on the basis of the suggested bunkum), their fight for liberation of Somalia will be transformed into a struggle for the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Eastern Africa that will encompass Sudan, Eritrea, Abyssinia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania, as it will be coordinated with the struggle of the Eastern and Northern Somalis (who would be annexed by Abyssinia – on the basis of the suggested bunkum), the Oromos, the Ogadenis, the Afars, the Amhara and Tigray Muslims, the Hadiyas, and all the Muslims of the Sudan.

Such the radicalization will be that, assuming that the suggestions of Mr. Donald Kipkorir are materialized, it would be a matter of less than 2 years for the Islamic Republic of Eastern Africa to rise.

As many suspect a plan for the rise of an Islamist regime to rise in the Middle East and confront Israel before 2012, Mr. Donald Kipkorir’s suggestions may simply reveal the plan’s provision for the southern wing of the Islamist empire.

In a world where Kenya would be a mere memory…..

The historical and political refutation of Mr. Donald Kipkorir’s flawed and erroneous arguments will be the subject of a separate article. Here, I re-publish the lawless Kenyan lawyer’s proposals on how to help the Islamic Republic of Eastern Africa become a reality.

Kenya and Ethiopia should dismember Somalia and divide it between themselves

By Donald Kipkorir

Supporting the Southern Sudan government is in our long-term strategic interest and we should not shy from it. The truth of the matter is that as a Western ally, Kenya is an existential enemy of Arab countries, Sudan included. Annexing Somalia is thus in our strategic interest and we must do it now as the financial meltdown continues to take away the attention of the world. — Donald Kipkorir

Why Kenya and Ethiopia ought to annex and divide Somalia

Last month, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, the world’s foremost investment banks, went bankrupt and we witnessed the financial chaos in the western capitals.

In the fog of international headlines on finding a financial bail-out in Washington, a rag-tag army of 50 semi-naked men on rickety boats captured a ship carrying 33 T-72 tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns off the coast of Somalia.

The capture of mv Faina and the stalemated talks amid the surrounding American and Russian warships made me think that maybe this is the time to find a final solution to the Somali problem.

Since 1960, the country has been a lawless state that is a haven for terrorists and pirates. The pirates have told us the destination of the captured weaponry causing tension and panic in Washington, Nairobi and Khartoum.

If it is true that the final consignee was the government of Southern Sudan, as they allege, I will be on the same page with the Kibaki government for the first time.

I am a fervent supporter of a strategic foreign policy even if it attracts us enemies of such malevolent and despotic regimes as that of Khartoum.

Supporting the Southern Sudan government is in our long-term strategic interest and we should not shy from it. The truth of the matter is that as a Western ally, Kenya is an existential enemy of Arab countries, Sudan included.

Annexing Somalia is thus in our strategic interest and we must do it now as the financial meltdown continues to take away the attention of the world.

Somalia as a state exists only in world maps. It is a classic case of a failed state. It is a state dismembered into as many independent units as there are sub-clans. Its 90-strong cabinet is emblematic of the actual number of units.

The Horn of Africa country has no functioning government. The so-called transitional federal government, led by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, is confined to a shell-shocked presidential compound.

There is no standing or even sitting army or judicial systems. By all accounts, Somalia is a black hole in international law. Together with Afghanistan and Pakistan they are known as the training grounds and refuge for international terrorism.

Kenya has been a victim of such terrorism, leading to near-destruction of its tourism industry. We cannot afford another such attack. We have the potential to develop our tourism to compete with, if not outpace, Egypt and South Africa. But we cannot do so if Somalia continues to be a non-state.

Somalia neighbours Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Of these, it is only Ethiopia and Kenya that have strategic interest in Somalia. Djibouti is a primitive entrepot that can’t even supply water to its 600,000 people, who are forced to drink that imported from France or Coca Cola. Therefore, Djibouti is out in the quest for the final solution to the Somali puzzle.

Kenya and Ethiopia must and ought to dismember Somalia and divide it between themselves along the 4 degrees latitude, each taking all the land below and above the line.

The division will make both countries extend their territories by roughly 300,000sq km and additional populations of about five million.

Once Kenya and Ethiopia have sent their combined army to Somalia and declared the annexation, we will present to the world a fait accompli.

In 1845, America annexed Texas from Mexico and forced the Texan legislature to pass a specific legislation stating that it accepted the annexation. The annexation has stood to date and, for good measure, President George W. Bush is a proud American Texan.

For Kenya and Ethiopia, having the Somali legislature to endorse the annexation will be cake-walk. At any given time, most, if not all, Somali legislators are in Nairobi.

We will have them convene in one of our hotels and to pass the appropriate statutes dividing their country.

When the allied forces liberated Germany from Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, they sent the bill to Berlin.

Our cost of annexing Somalia will be settled by Mogadishu. Somalia is known to have huge deposits of oil, natural gas, uranium and iron ore. Immediately after the annexation, we will invite our strategic foreign friends (not China please) to come and exploit the resources for us.

Kenyans ought to know that although Somalia is a failed state, its positive statistics are impressive. Without a structured economy, its gross national income per capita is US$600 (Sh40,000), when ours is $550 (Sh36,800). Of its universities that operate without budgets and with armed militia guarding them, three are in Africa’s top 100.

International law forbids the use of force by states against the territorial integrity and political independence of others. Somalia doesn’t have either.

But the law also recognises irreversible processes like the extinction of states such as in the USSR, emergence of new states from former USSR and Yugoslavia, and annexations like that of Texas. International order hates reversing completed processes, more so if the world is a better place.

If we do not annex Somalia and now, we will be a victim of its failed status and pulled down by it. We will not be able to achieve our strategic foreign policy in the region, or attain the Vision 2030 goal.

The time to annex and dismember Somalia is now; Washington and Moscow will be grateful.

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About The Author: Donald Kipkorir — Mr. Kipkorir is a lawyer and partner at the law firm of Kipkorir, Titoo & Kiara, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Kipkorir, Titoo & Kiara was established in 1996 and currently has 8 lawyers and 2 consultants as well as a capable team of paralegal and support staff.
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Note: The Muslim populations of Mombasa want to belong to Greater Somalia — not the fake colonial fabrication “Kenya.”