From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Aug 29 2009 - 06:39:51 EDT
Somalis juggle scant jobs
Time runs out for Somalia's transitional government as the humanitarian
crisis intensifies, writes
<mailto:gnkrumah@ahram.org.eg?subject=Region%20::%20Somalis%20juggle%20scant
%20jobs> Gamal Nkrumah
27 August - 2 September 2009
Issue No. 962
_____
Fighting erupted with unprecedented ferocity this week in the southern
suburbs of the Somali capital Mogadishu. The Alliance for the Re-Liberation
of Somalia (ARS) headed by the redoubtable Sheikh Hassan Dhaher Aweis who
also doubles as the leader of Al-Hizb Al-Islami (Islamic Party), has urged
its supporters to wage a jihad (Muslim holy war) against "infidels" of the
African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISCOM). In retaliation, AU
peacekeeping troops, predominantly Ugandan and Burundian, have launched an
all-out assault on the militias loyal to the Al-Hizb Al-Islami.
The distinguishing features of this Islamist movement are its militancy, its
explicit and its implicit use of violence, and a tendency to declare anyone
who opposes it as an "apostate". This week's violence highlights what a long
way Somalia still has to go in building sustainable democratic institutions.
Even as the fighting intensifies, foreign vessels are increasingly fishing
illegally off the sprawling coasts teaming with tuna and mackerel. The
Somali people are incensed because their territorial waters are being
invaded by hoards of foreign fishing vessels assisted by foreign naval
vessels patrolling Somali territorial waters ostensibly to combat piracy.
Meanwhile, one in five Somali children are malnourished and hundreds are
dying every week of starvation.
Tapping into a sense of betrayal among those Islamists who have previously
looked to Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as a national saviour
when he served as a prominent member of the now defunct Union of Islamic
Courts (UIC), Aweis urged his followers to "fight until total victory". He
notified them at a press conference in Mogadishu not to accept the ceasefire
offered by the Somali president during the holy month of Ramadan.
The Al-Hizb Al-Islami is now determined to turf the forces loyal to the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of President Sharif out of their
strongholds in central and southern Somalia. Al-Hizb Al-Islami, one of the
most powerful of military forces in contemporary Somalia, is battling
against the Somali president.
Sheikh Sharif is playing his hand shrewdly, but the floundering president of
Somalia sees his influence wane, as he fights to maintain his diplomatic
clout after meeting with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in
the Kenyan capital Nairobi last week. More and more Somalis are switching
their affections to the militant Islamists as the already deplorable
economic and social conditions in the country deteriorate further.
The turgid religious discourse of yesteryear when both Aweis and Sharif were
esteemed judges in the Islamic Courts is now translated into a bitter-armed
struggle. The Somali people, meanwhile, grew disillusioned with the
bellicose nature of their leaders. The UIC is prone to in-fighting and
internal splits, and today the antagonistic bickering have come home to
roost.
Fighting intensified again this week with apparently losing control of the
strategic town of Beledweyne, central Hiran region of Somalia. Al-Hizb
Al-Islami described its defeat as a "tactical retreat".
It is against this grim backdrop that the Somali president has declared a
state of emergency that has been enforced since 19 August. The Islamists
ignored this latest move insisting that their own Islamist writ extend into
everyday life.
The worst humanitarian crisis to hit the country for 18 years has rendered
1.42 million Somalis homeless and in desperate need of humanitarian
assistance. This amounts to a 40 per cent rise in displaced persons in the
first six months of this year. According to United Nations estimations, some
3.76 million Somalis are now utterly dependent on foreign food aid as
agricultural activity has come to a virtual standstill.
Two French aid workers with "Action Against Hunger" were released this week,
along with a Bulgarian woman and a Belgian man in the central Somali town of
Dhusa Mareb. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner this week announced
that the European Union is prepared to train Somali security forces in
keeping law and order and in combating terrorism. Ironically, Al-Shabab
movement is currently holding two French security advisors. Kenya and
certain Arab League nations expressed an interest in assisting the EU train
Somali security forces.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front insurgency in Ogaden, Ethiopia's
easternmost region inhabited by ethnic Somalis. Many Somali factions want to
see Ogaden re-united with the rest of Somalia in a Greater Somalia that
encompasses not only Ogaden, but also Djibouti, northeastern Kenya which is
inhabited by ethnic Somalis, and the breakaway autonomous regions of
Somaliland (northwestern Somalia) and Puntland (northeastern Somalia).
Ethiopia has long harboured territorial and military disputes with Somalia
over Ogaden. In more recent years, Ethiopia also nurtured political and
ideological conflicts with armed Somali opposition groups in part because
Addis Ababa is seen as interfering in domestic Somali affairs. Ethiopia is
also denounced by its Somali critics for its unsolicited and unconditional
support for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, the beleaguered
administration of the moderate Islamist cleric turned politician Somali
President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a onetime ally of Aweis when they both
belonged to the UIC.
Ethiopia's rubber stamp parliament has been supportive of efforts of the
country's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's untiring efforts to contain the
threat posed by militant Somali Islamists to his country's political
stability and territorial integrity. "Parliament hereby authorises the
[Ethiopian] government to take all necessary and legal steps to stave off a
declaration of holy war and invasion by UIC against our country," the
Ethiopian parliament recently declared, pledging its full and unqualified
backing for Premier Zenawi. The Ethiopian political establishment,
government and opposition, appear to be virtually united on this issue.
Cross-border clashes between Ethiopia and Somalia are nothing new, and
neither are incursions into Somali territory by Ethiopian armed forces, the
largest albeit not the best equipped in Africa south of the Sahara. The
first incursion by Ethiopian troops into Somali territory since the demise
of the Somali strongman Siade Barre and the subsequent dissolution of the
Somali state was in August 1996. In March 1999, Ethiopian troops crossed the
Somali border in hot pursuit of members of Al-Itihad Al-Islami, the now
disbanded militant Islamist organisation with close links to Al-Qaeda.
Ethiopia insisted that their incursion into Somali territory be in
self-defence as is part of the global war on international terrorism.
However, what most Somalis deeply resent is the 20 July 2006 entry of the
Ethiopian army in a poignant infringement of Somali territorial integrity
ostensibly to safeguard the then beleaguered transitional government of
former Somali president Abdallah Youssef. Only with the evacuation of
foreign troops from Somali soil will the incessant fighting cease. And, only
then will the Islamists' triumph be complete.
No end in sight
Al-Houthi rebels fighting the security forces in northern Yemen this week
refused a government offer of a ceasefire, writes Nasser Arrabyee
27 August - 2 September 2009
Issue No. 962
_____
<http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/962/_re81.htm>
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/962/_reg05.jpgClick to view caption
<http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/962/_re81.htm>
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh presided over the graduation of a new
generation of security forces with his Defence Minister Mohamed Nasser Ahmed
Ali and the head of the police academy last week
_____
Two weeks have now passed since conflict erupted between the Al-Houthi Shia
rebels and government troops in Saada in the north of Yemen, with hundreds
of people having been killed or injured as a result and tens of thousands
forced to flee their homes from this conflict in which tanks, artillery and
fighter jets are being used.
Abdel-Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of the rebels, refused an offer of peace
made by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh at the beginning of the month of
Ramadan on 22 August, possibly because the rebels are stronger now than they
were in 2004 when they first started their armed rebellion against the
Yemeni government in an effort to establish a clerical state.
The rebels will also be aware that Saleh's government is facing three other
major challenges in addition to the conflict in the north.
Yemen's government is also struggling with increasing secessionist sentiment
in the south of the country, the growing activity of Al-Qaeda, and a
deterioration in the economic situation linked to a fall in oil prices, on
which the government largely depends.
The Al-Houthi rebels appear to be trying to exploit this difficult situation
by launching their latest round of attacks.
Despite recent offers of peace, the Yemeni government seems to be determined
to rid the country of what it has described as "the cancer" of the Al-Houthi
rebel group, if necessary by the use of overwhelming force.
This new round in the conflict, the sixth since 2004, has seen Saleh
mobilising the support of tribesmen across the country in an effort to crush
the rebels.
The chiefs of two of Yemen's most influential tribes, the Hashed and the
Bakil, declared this week in letters to President Saleh that they would
fight with the Yemeni army against the rebels. Tribesmen have also started
to send assistance and volunteers to support the army and help the
displaced.
Regarding the conflict itself, government forces have now secured the road
between the northern city of Saada and the capital Sanaa, which the rebels
had earlier controlled. Following the Yemeni army's regaining control of the
mountainous area of Harf Sufyan earlier this week, eyewitnesses said they
had seen dozens of dead bodies at the sides of the road.
Local sources estimate that more than 100 rebels, including two field
commanders, have been killed in battles to secure the roads in Harf Sufyan
about 140km north of the capital Sanaa.
As the air strikes continue on the main rebel strongholds in Dhahyan, Mutrah
and Naqaa close to the border with Saudi Arabia, military officials say that
the army is closing in and the end of conflict is imminent.
However, the rebels depend on the high and rugged mountains of the area for
protection, and they also use ambush tactics against government forces.
Although they deny receiving support from Iran, heavy weapons, including
artillery and missiles, and hi- tech communication equipment used by the
rebels have raised questions regarding their source.
Iranian-made weapons were found among the six weapon caches seized by
government troops earlier this week in the Harf Sufyan area.
Accusations have been flying between Yemen and Iran since the current round
of the conflict started, with the spokesman for the Yemeni government,
Minister of Information Hussan Al-Lawzi, saying that Yemen was ready "to
settle accounts with Iran" for supporting the Al-Houthi rebels.
"Various media channels have revealed the financial and political support
enjoyed by the Al-Houthi rebels and saboteurs, especially satellite channels
like Al-Alam and Al-Kawthar and Tehran Radio. Everybody knows who finances
these channels," Al-Lawzi said.
"These channels are interfering in our internal affairs, and we will settle
our accounts with the states behind them," he said.
Yemen denied allegations aired by Al-Alam that Saudi Arabia and Yemen had
established a joint operations room for running the conflict against the
Shia rebels.
For its part, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has denied the allegations of
Iranian involvement and has called for a political solution to the conflict.
According to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi, "the propaganda in
the [Yemeni] media is simply not true. We believe the issue is Yemen's
internal issue, and we think there should be a political solution. Bloodshed
cannot help solve the problems."
Speaking to a news conference last Monday, Qashqavi said that "we have
always respected Yemen's territorial integrity and national sovereignty, and
we want to see peace, stability and calm in that country."
The Al-Houthi rebels themselves have also denied allegations that they have
hostile intentions towards Saudi Arabia and are fighting a proxy war on
Iran's behalf in Yemen.
"We are not fighting on any third party's behalf, and we defy anyone to
prove that we are. What we are doing is defending ourselves against unjust
aggression," Al-Houthi wrote in a letter addressed to the people and
leadership of Saudi Arabia.
"What's being said in the media are rumours aiming to make the Saudi regime
participate in the war," said the letter, sent by e-mail from Al-Houthi's
office.
The Al-Houthi rebels answered the Yemeni government's offer of peace at the
beginning of Ramadan by insisting that they wanted to return to the Qatari-
sponsored deal signed early last year in Doha.
President Saleh had said in his offer that he would halt Yemeni army
operations if the rebels withdrew from the districts they controlled,
removed the check points they had established, left their mountain hideouts,
and stopped blocking roads and carrying out acts of sabotage.
The rebels should hand over the military and civil equipment they had seized
and clarify the fate of the six foreigners they are believed to have
kidnapped. They should also hand over local people who had been kidnapped.
Should the rebels refuse these conditions, Saleh said, the army would take
decisive action against them. The conditions are similar to those of the
Doha deal, which also stipulated that the rebels should retreat from their
mountain hideouts, hand over heavy and medium-sized weapons, and send their
top three leaders into exile in Qatar.
Saleh had earlier described Al-Houthi himself as a radical aiming to rule
Yemen by "divine right". His actions had forced the government to build
military fortifications instead of schools in Saada, Saleh said.
The Yemeni government has been taking tight security measures in the capital
Sanaa since the war erupted, fearing possible attacks from Al-Houthi
sympathisers. Two rebel supporters were arrested in Sanaa on Friday while
distributing leaflets in support of Al-Houthi.
For his part, Al-Houthi has ignored Saleh's offer of peace, instead
supporting a call from the country's opposition parties for a ceasefire.
This came last Tuesday amid demands that relief organisations be able to go
to the war-affected areas to help the displaced.
In a statement, the opposition parties said that they were ready to
participate in all "national efforts" to end the conflict.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----