From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Apr 27 2010 - 08:03:08 EDT
When Empires Join Hands: Japanese Military Joins U.S. And NATO In Horn Of
Africa
by Rick Rozoff
http://www.globalresearch.ca/coverStoryPictures/18869.jpg
<http://www.globalresearch.ca> Global Research, April 27, 2010
Japanese navy commander Keizo Kitagawa recently spoke with Agence
France-Presse and disclosed that his nation was opening its first overseas
military base - at any rate since the Second World War - in Djibouti in the
Horn of Africa.
Kitagawa is assigned to the Plans and Policy Section of the Japan Maritime
Self-Defense Force, as his nation's navy is called, and is in charge of the
deployment.
AFP quoted the Japanese officer as stressing the unprecedented nature of the
development: "This will be the only Japanese base outside our country and
the first in Africa." [1]
The military installation is to cost $40 million and is expected to
accommodate Japanese troops early next year.
Djibouti rests at the confluence of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, across
from strife-torn Yemen, and borders the northwest corner of equally
conflict-ridden Somalia. The narrow span of water separating it from Yemen
is the gateway for all maritime traffic passing between the Mediterranean
Sea and the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden
and the Arabian Sea.
Naval deployments to the Gulf of Aden by several major nations and alliances
- the U.S., NATO, the European Union, China, Russia, India, Iran and others
- are designed to insure the free passage of commercial vessels through the
above route and to protect United Nations World Food Programme deliveries to
Somalia. The second concern in particular led to the passage of United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1838 in 2008, which requests that
nations with military vessels in the area suppress the capture of ships and
their crews for ransom. An anti-piracy mission.
However, the above-mentioned Japanese naval officer was more direct in
identifying his nation's interest in establishing a military base in Africa.
Kitagawa also told AFP that "We are deploying here to fight piracy and for
our self-defence. Japan is a maritime nation and the increase in piracy in
the Gulf of Aden through which 20,000 vessels sail every year is worrying."
The term self-defense is not fortuitous. Article 9 of the 1947 Japanese
Constitution explicitly affirms that "the Japanese people forever renounce
war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as
means of settling international disputes. To accomplish the aim of the
preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war
potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state
will not be recognized."
As such, in the post-World War Two period the nation's armed forces have
been called the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF).
The Constitution also expressly prohibits the deployment of military forces
outside of Japan, stating that it is "not permissible constitutionally to
dispatch armed troops to foreign territorial land, sea and airspace for the
purpose of using military power, as a so-called overseas deployment of
troops, since it generally exceeds the minimum level necessary for
self-defense."
That notwithstanding, in the years following the Cold War all post-Second
World War proscriptions against the use of military force by the former Axis
nations have been disregarded, [2] and in February of 2004 Japan dispatched
600 troops, albeit in a non-combat role, to Iraq shortly after the U.S. and
British invasion of the country. The nation's navy, the Japan Maritime
Self-Defense Force, supplied fuel and water in support of the U.S. Operation
Enduring Freedom campaign in Afghanistan from 2001-2007 and again from
January of 2008 to the beginning of this year, thereby violating another
basic tenet of its constitution, the ban on engaging in what the document
refers to as collective self-defense, the relevant section of which reads:
"Japan has the right of collective self-defense under international law. It
is, however, not permissible to use the right, that is, to stop armed attack
on another country with armed strength, although Japan is not under direct
attack, since it exceeds the limit of use of armed strength as permitted
under Article 9 of the Constitution."
However, a 2007 Defense White Paper left the door open to further military
deployments with a provision on "international peace cooperation
activities."
It is in the spirit of that elastic and evasive phrase that Japan resumed
support for the war in Afghanistan in 2008 and has now secured a military
base on the African continent.
The Japanese official presiding over the latter project also said that "A
camp will be built to house our personnel and material. Currently we are
stationed at the American base." Kitagawa added that "We sent military teams
to Yemen, Oman, Kenya and Djibouti. In April 2009, we chose Djibouti."
A year earlier, the Kyodo News cited an official of the Foreign Ministry as
confirming that "Japan and Djibouti reached a status of forces agreement" on
April 3, 2009, "stipulating the terms of operations and legal status for the
Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and related officials who will be based
in the African nation during the current antipiracy mission in waters off
Somalia." [3]
The agreement was signed on the same day by Japanese Defense Minister
Yasukazu Hamada and the foreign minister of Djibouti, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf,
in Tokyo. The month before Japan sent two destroyers to the Gulf of Aden.
Two months later Japan deployed two new destroyers, the 4,550-ton Harusame
and the 3,500-ton Amagiri, off the Horn of Africa. Also last July the
Japanese press disclosed that "The U.S..asked Japan to build its own
facilities to carry out full-fledged operations," and that at the time
"about 150 members of the Ground Self-Defense Force and MSDF [Maritime
Self-Defense Force] stationed in Djibouti live in U.S. military lodgings
near an airport." [4] The Japanese military announced plans to construct a
runway for Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C surveillance planes and barracks
for its troops.
Although Russian, Chinese, Indian and Iranian ships in the Horn of Africa
are there to protect their own and other nations' vessels and their missions
are understood to be limited to anti-piracy operations and to a prescribed
duration, Japan and its American and NATO allies have established permanent
land, naval and air bases in the region for use in armed conflicts on the
African continent.
In early 2001 the U.S. started negotiations with the government of Djibouti
for setting up its first major military base in Africa at the former French
Foreign Legion base Camp Lemonnier. (Until recently spelled Lemonier by the
Pentagon.)
This was several years before combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden became
the rationale for U.S. and NATO deployments in the region.
Djibouti is the last territory on the African continent to achieve
independence (excepting Western Sahara, seized by Morocco in 1975 with the
connivance of Spain's General Franco), only being granted what independence
it has by France in 1977. Its population is less than 900,000.
France still maintains its largest overseas military base in the world in
the nation and has approximately 3,000 troops stationed there.
Since the Pentagon moved into and took over Camp Lemonnier in 2003, it
established its Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) on the
base and has an estimated 2,000 troops from all four branches of the U.S.
military - Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps - stationed there.
The Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa's area of operations
incorporates Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan,
Uganda and Yemen and increasingly the Indian Ocean island nations of
Comoros, Madagascar and Mauritius.
As the U.S. was transferring the CJTF-HOA command from the Marine Corps to
the Navy in 2005 - to free up Marines for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -
the then commander, Major Marine General Timothy Ghormley, acknowledged that
"U.S. forces have been working with militaries in Yemen, Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Djibouti, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Comoros" [5] and "operate throughout
Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Yemen and Ethiopia." [6]
France has used its base in Djibouti for deadly military interventions in
Cote d'Ivoire and Chad and, because of the nation's topography, Djibouti has
also been used for training French troops for the war in Afghanistan, where
the nation's contingent is the fourth largest serving under NATO command.
Last December the commander of the French army in the country, Commandant
Etienne du Fayet, said that "French officers are going to be training a
contingent in Uganda next February and we are also going to Ethiopia." [7]
During deadly border clashes between Djibouti and Eritrea in June of 2008
France deployed additional troops, warships and aircraft to the region.
The U.S. base has been used for military operations in Somalia and Uganda.
In 2008 the deputy commander of U.S. forces in the country was cited as
revealing that "the Djibouti base facilitates some other military activities
he won't talk about.
"There have been reports of U.S. special operations forces working from the
base on counter-terrorism missions in Somalia and elsewhere..[T]hat approach
is the model for the new United States Africa Command.."
At the same time Rear Admiral Philip Greene took over as commander of the
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa and, speaking over nine months
before the formal activation of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), said "There
is, I think, great synergy between what CJTF-Horn of Africa does now and
what we're about and what AFRICOM will represent as a combatant command."
To indicate the range of the operations he envisioned, Greene also said he
would "be watching some of the region's hot spots for potential seeds of
instability," including "the situations in Kenya, Somalia and Sudan's Darfur
region, as well as tension on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border and piracy along
the Indian Ocean coastline." [8]
In 2006 a Kenyan daily newspaper wrote that (as of four years ago) "direct
US arms sales to East Africa and the Horn of Africa countries - Djibouti,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia - have shot up from
under one million dollars in 2003 to over $25 million in 2006. Djibouti
leads the list with nearly $20 million in direct arms purchases in 2005 and
2006." [9]
The same feature described broader U.S. plans for the Horn of Africa region
and further afield being hatched from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti:
"Overall, direct US weapons sales [to Africa] increased from $39.2 million
in 2005 to nearly $60 million in 2006. In both years, East Africa and the
Horn accounted for nearly 40 percent of US weapons sales to Africa, and this
demonstrates the US military's strategic shift to the region.
"Access to strategic airfields and ports has also increased for the US
military. Beyond Camp Lemonier in 2003, the US had an agreement with Kenya
that allowed it access to the port of Mombasa and airfields at Embakasi and
Nanyuki.
"Zambia and Uganda have joined Kenya in this unique arrangement. At Entebbe,
the US has constructed two K-Span steel buildings to house troops and
equipment. The so called 'Lily Pad' arrangement will allow the US military
to use the base when needed in times of conflict or as a staging area for a
conflict within the region."
The article also stated, "Strategically, the US military has developed a
regional operations plan that centres on Djibouti to support the Horn
countries. It anchors the southern flank with bases in Kenya, Zambia and
Uganda to the west..[L]ike in Nigeria, it can be used to ensure an
uninterrupted flow of oil from the newly discovered fields of Uganda and
Kenya, and it opens the door to the construction of a well-protected oil
pipeline carrying oil from the interior of Central Africa to the port of
Mombasa. It also provides a strategically located airbase to support future
military operations to the north in Sudan or to the west." [10]
In 2006 the Pentagon expanded Camp Lemonnier by almost five times its
original size, from 88 to 500 acres. Late last year it completed an airfield
project in the country to provide parking spaces for C-130 Hercules and
CV-22 Osprey aircraft and to support C-17 Globemaster III and C-5 Galaxy
military transport planes.
Four years ago the Reuters news agency reported "the United States is
already providing Ethiopia and Kenya with logistical support and U.S.
special forces had been observed on the Kenya-Somalia border," [11] and
shortly afterward the U.S. Air Force divulged that U.S. airmen were
operating out of Contingency Operating Location Bilate (also known as Camp
Bilate) in Ethiopia in conjunction with the the Combined Joint Task Force -
Horn of Africa headquarters at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. [12]
The U.S. military headquarters in Djibouti is in charge of three smaller
downrange bases, known as Contingency Operating Locations, at Bilate and
Hurso in Ethiopia and Manda Bay in Kenya.
An Ethiopian newspaper revealed at the time that "The United States would
continue providing training and other assistance to the Ethiopian Defence
Forces as per the Ethio-US bilateral cooperation" [13] during the Ethiopian
invasion of Somalia in 2006.
Ethiopian troops were being trained in infantry tactics by soldiers with the
U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment at
the Training Academy in Hurso as jets from the country bombed the Somali
capital and ground forces invaded their eastern neighbor. The U.S. Army
conducted training at the base starting no later than 2003. "U.S. military
personnel with the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.have spent the
last four years training the Ethiopian National Defense Forces in basic
military tactics." [14] The effects of that preparation were seen in the
2006 invasion of Somalia.
The Pentagon's role in Somalia was not limited to training and arming
Ethiopian invasion forces, as in early 2007 it was reported that "recent
military operations in Somalia have been carried out by the Pentagon's Joint
Special Operations Command, which directs the military's most secretive and
elite units, like the Army's Delta Force.
"The Pentagon established a desolate outpost in the Horn of Africa nation of
Djibouti in 2002 in part to serve as a hub for special missions.." [15]
As U.S. special forces were operating in Somalia and Washington's military
client was launching air and ground attacks there, the U.S. deployed the USS
Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which "has an air wing of about 75
aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet and SuperHornet strike fighters, E-2C
Hawkeyes, EA-6B Prowlers, and SH-60 Seahawks," [16] to join the the
guided-missile cruisers USS Bunker Hill and USS Anzio and the amphibious
landing ship USS Ashland off the coast of Somalia.
An "AC-130 gunship, operated by the Special Operations Command, flew from
its base in Djibouti to the southern tip of Somalia" [17] where it "rained
gunfire on the desolate village of Hayo" on January 8. A local official was
quoted as saying "There are so many dead bodies and animals in the village."
[18]
"Officials with CJTF-HOA, based in Djibouti, declined.to comment on the
reported AC-130 attacks; media reports said the plane was based at Camp
Lemonier." [19]
Also in early January of 2007 a major Kenyan newspaper reported "The US
counter-terrorism task force based in Djibouti acknowledges that American
troops are on the ground in northern Kenya and in Lamu," the latter on the
Indian Ocean. [20]
In March of the same year two U.S. soldiers were killed in Ethiopia in what
was attributed to an accident. They were assigned to a unit that was "part
of the U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, headquartered at
Camp Lemonier, Djibouti." [21]
Late last year U.S. Africa Command deployed lethal Reaper unmanned aerial
vehicles (drones), 133 military personnel and three P-3 Orion anti-submarine
and maritime surveillance aircraft to Seychelles in the Indian Ocean east of
Kenya. The Pentagon now has its second major African military base.
In addition to the 5,000 U.S. and French troops stationed there, Djibouti
also has been home to what in 2005 Agence France-Presse disclosed were
"several hundred German, Dutch and Spanish soldiers." [22]
That is, the diminutive state is for all practical purposes not only the
headquarters for U.S. Africa Command but also for NATO in Africa.
In late 2005 Britain announced that it was also deploying troops to
Djibouti.
Starting in March of 2009 NATO started rotating its Standing NATO Maritime
Group 1 (SNMG 1) and Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG 2) warship fleets
off the coast of Somalia, first with Operation Allied Provider until August
of last year and since with Operation Ocean Shield, which continues to the
present day and which in March was extended until the end of 2012. The
current fleet consists of warships from the U.S., Britain, Greece, Italy and
Turkey. Its area of operations includes one million square kilometers in the
Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin. (The current name of the naval groups are
NATO Response Force Maritime Groups 1 and 2.)
NATO does not intend to leave the area soon if at all.
Even before the NATO Allied Provider and Ocean Shield operations began, the
Italian destroyer MM Luigi Durand De La Penne, "a 5,000-ton multi-role
warship capable of air defence, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare
operations," [23] part of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2, at the time
comprised of warships from the U.S., Britain, Germany, Greece and Turkey,
visited the Kenyan port city of Mombasa in October of 2008.
Of the current NATO deployment, last December then German Defense Minister
Franz Josef Jung said that it was "the most robust mandate we have ever
had," adding, "There may be combat situations, and in this respect it would
of course be a combat deployment." [24]
The NATO flotillas joined warships of the U.S.-led Combined Task Force 150
(CTF-150) with logistics facilities in Djibouti. Formerly the U.S. Navy's
Task Force 150, starting in 2001 it became a multinational operation with
the inclusion of NATO allies and those from an emerging Asian NATO. Full
participating nations are the U.S., Britain, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany and Pakistan, and others who have been involved are Australia,
Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and Turkey.
CTF-150 has 14-15 warships near Somalia at any given time and is coordinated
with the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, under the Combined Forces Maritime
Component Commander/Commander US Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.
In January of 2009 the U.S. Navy inaugurated Combined Task Force 151
(CTF-151), which will include warships from 20 nations, NATO and Asian NATO
states.
European NATO nations are also "double-duty" participants in the European
Union Naval Force Somalia - Operation Atalanta, the first naval operation
conducted by the EU and run under the auspices of the European Security and
Defence Policy. It was launched in December of 2008 and is based at the
Northwood Operation Headquarters in Britain, which also houses NATO's Allied
Maritime Component Command Northwood. Current participants in Operation
Atalanta are Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, and "a number of Cypriot, Irish, Finnish,
Maltese and Sweden military personnel supplement the team at the Northwood
Operation Headquarters." [25]
Starting no later than September of 2009 NATO commanders have visited and in
essence established a headquarters in Somalia's autonomous Puntland state.
Last autumn British Commodore Steve Chick, commander of Standing NATO
Maritime Group 2, met with Puntland authorities on board the HMS Cornwall.
"The talks ended successfully with NATO and Puntland officials agreeing to
cooperate in combating pirates operating along the Somali coast." [26]
This January Admiral Pereira da Cunha, commander of Standing NATO Maritime
Group 1, hosted Puntland officials on the Portuguese flagship Alvares
Cabral, and the meeting "focused on human intelligence gathering, capacity
building and counter piracy cooperation between NATO and Puntland
authorities."
"NATO.has established a close working relationship with the Puntland
Coastguard..This is just a start. With 60 years of experience and coalition
building, NATO is well placed to make things happen." [27]
In March ministers of the Puntland government met with Standing NATO
Maritime Group 2 commander Commodore Steve Chick on board the HMS Chatham,
current flagship of the NATO naval group in the region. The talks "covered
ways in which further cooperation between NATO and the Puntland authorities
could be developed in the future." [28]
According to a Puntland news source, NATO's activities aren't limited to
operations in the waters off Somalia: "NATO has a working relationship with
Puntland authorities in a bid to enhance its fight against the piracy
scourge along the lawless waters of the Horn of Africa. Puntland has offered
its help in terms of dealing with the gangs in the mainland." [29]
The European Union will soon begin training 2,000 Ugandan troops for
deployment to Somalia to aid the Transitional Federal Government, which is
fighting for its life even in the nation's capital.
Last October a Kenyan newspaper announced that Kenyan troops sailed to
Djibouti to receive military training along with the armed forces of other
regional nations. At the same time military officers from Denmark, Finland,
Norway and Sweden were in Kenya to "assist the region in the ongoing
establishment of a united military force to deal with conflicts on the
continent."
"The experts from the European countries, which are part of the Nordic Bloc,
are based at the EASBRIG headquarters, at the Defence Staff College in
Karen, Nairobi." [30]
EASBRIG, the East African Standby Brigade, "will be deployed to trouble
spots within 14 days after chaos erupts, to restore order..The brigade will
have troops from 14 countries..The military unit will comprise 35,000
soldiers and 1,000 police officers plus 1,000 civilian staff. Kenya is
already training 2,000 soldiers to be seconded to the force once it is in
place." [31]
..
Japan's destroyers off the coast of Somalia and the nation's first foreign
military base in the post-World War Two era in Djibouti are in line with the
geostrategic plans of Tokyo's allies in North America and Europe.
Plans which are embodied most fully in the creation of the first U.S.
regional military command outside North America in a quarter of a century,
Africa Command. Long after pirates, al-Qaeda affiliates and other threats
have ceased to serve as their justification, the Pentagon, NATO and Japan
will retain their military footholds in Africa.
Notes
1) Agence France-Presse, April 23, 2010
2) Former Axis Nations Abandon Post-World War II Military Restrictions
Stop NATO, August 12, 2009
<http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/former-axis-nations-abandon-post
-world-war-ii-military-restrictions>
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/former-axis-nations-abandon-post-
world-war-ii-military-restrictions
3) Kyodo News, April 3, 2009
4) Kyodo News, July 31, 2009
5) Stars And Stripes, September 23, 2005
6) US Department of Defense, September 22, 2005
7) Radio France Internationale, December 11, 2009
8) Voice of America News, January 25, 2008
9) The East African, November 6, 2006
10) Ibid
11) Reuters, November 21, 2006
12) Air Force Link, January 7, 2007
13) Ethiopian Herald, January 5, 2007
14) Stars and Stripes, January 10, 2007
15) Xinhua News Agency, January 13, 2007
16) Stars and Stripes, January 10, 2007
17) Voice of Russia, January 9, 2007
18) Reuters, January 10, 2007
19) Stars and Stripes, January 10, 2007
20) The Nation, January 3, 2007
21) Stars and Stripes, March 8, 2007
22) Agence France-Presse, December 22, 2005
23) The Standard (Kenya), October 29, 2008
24) Associated Press,December 23, 2009
25) European Union Naval Force Somalia
<http://www.eunavfor.eu/about-us/mission>
http://www.eunavfor.eu/about-us/mission
26) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Maritime Component Command Headquarters Northwood
September 11, 2009
27) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
January 27, 2010
28) Royal Navy, March 30, 2010
29) Garowe Online, April 8, 2010
30) The Nation, October 29, 2009
31) Ibid
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----
