Ethiopia's Ogaden rebels Apr 2008

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The fight for the Ogaden region, populated mainly by ethnic Somalis, known as the Ogadeen, has been going on for more than 19 years. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow reports on their battle for independence.

U.S. launches missile strike in Somalia

KISMAYU, Somalia (Reuters) - Two U.S. missiles hit a house in southern Somalia on Monday, according to local officials, in a strike Washington said was directed at "known terrorists".

It was the fourth U.S. air strike in 14 months on Somalia, where Washington believes local Islamist insurgents are giving shelter to wanted al Qaeda figures.

"We launched a deliberate strike against a suspected bed-down of known terrorists," a senior U.S. official, who declined to be named, told Reuters in Washington.

Residents of Dobley, a remote Somali town 220 km (140 miles) from the southern port city of Kismayu on the Kenyan border, believed the missiles were targeting senior Islamist leaders meeting nearby.

Dobley district commissioner Ali Hussein Nur said six people were killed, but a local politician who had visited the scene and who asked not to be named, said only three people were wounded.

The U.S. official said it was too early to know what damage had been inflicted, or whether any people were injured or killed. The official declined to give details on the type of weapon used.

The Somali politician said Sheikh Hassan Turki, a local militant cleric, and other leaders from a militant Islamist group from Mogadishu were meeting in the vicinity. The Islamists have been waging a bloody insurgency against Somali government forces.

ASSESSING DAMAGE

"The town is very tense. People have started fleeing because they fear there might be more attacks," he said.

A man in Kismayu, who said the house belonged to him, told Reuters his daughter had been wounded and four of his cows killed in the attack.

"We do not know whether the missiles were fired by the American AC-130 plane which is still flying over the city. All we know is they dropped from the sky," Mohamed Nurie Salad told Reuters in Kismayu.

He said he was returning to Dobley to assess the damage, which he had been told about over the telephone.

On January 8, 2007, a U.S. AC-130 gunship struck Islamists in southern Somalia in Washington's first overt military action there since pulling out of a U.N.-backed peacekeeping mission in 1994 after the "Black Hawk Down" incident.

That attack, and another with the same kind of airplane shortly thereafter, struck Islamists fleeing from Ethiopian and Somali troops who cornered them in southern Somalia during a two-week war to rout the militant movement.

On June 21, a U.S. Navy ship fired missiles at Islamist fighters and foreign jihadists hiding in the mountains in the northern Puntland region.

The United States accuses Somali Islamist insurgents of harboring al Qaeda fugitives responsible for planning and executing the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

It provided intelligence and some military support to Ethiopia's intervention to help the Somali interim government in late 2006.

The Horn of Africa country has had no central government since a dictator was overthrown in 1991. An interim government formed in 2004 is struggling to assert its authority and is battling the Islamists in the capital Mogadishu.

IMF warns of economic doom

Story by JEFF OTIENO - DAILY NATION Publication Date: 1/7/2008

The International Monetary Fund Sunday warned that Kenya was facing an economic catastrophe if the current post-general election standoff is not addressed. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn also said the institution was concerned that supply disruptions due to violence in the country was affecting other countries in the region. Some of the countries that are already feeling the pinch of the post-election violence are Uganda and Rwanda which heavily depend on the port of Mombasa for imports like petroleum, machinery and other products. As a growing regional economic hub, Kenya is the transit point for one quarter of the GDP of Uganda and Rwanda, and one third that of Burundi. “I very much hope that the political leaders in Kenya will quickly and peacefully resolve the current dispute over the election results. This would open the way to further progress toward economic prosperity which could benefit all Kenyans,’’ said Mr Strauss-Kahn. Economic reform The fund was ready to support Kenya in its economic reform efforts. The concerns were supported by economic analyst, Dr David Ndii, who said the political violence experienced in Kenya will be felt for a long time. “It is important that there be political stability and confidence in the government of the day for the eroded investor confidence to be restored,” said Dr Ndii. He said the notion that calm would restore investor confidence as argued by some politicians was misplaced. Dr Ndii added that transit trade was a leading foreign exchange earner, apart from tourism and agriculture. “With the chaos that has been witnessed in the country it will not be surprising if the landlocked countries look for alternatives other than wholly relying on Kenya for their essential commodities,” he added. He said influential people who took part in the election fraud had done harm not only to the country but also to their businesses. “Investor confidence will be fully restored once Kenya holds another election that is deemed to be free and fair, whether it is next month or after five years,” Mr Ndii added. He said the cost of insuring buildings and infrastructure from political risks will skyrocket following the violence witnessed. Mr Strauss-Kahn said the Bretton Woods institution had noted with sadness the violence that has caused the deaths of many innocent Kenyans in the aftermath of the December 27 elections. “I offer my condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones to the violence and pay tribute to the people of Kenya who exercised their democratic and constitutional rights to vote. I note with concern that supply disruptions emanating from the developments in Kenya are affecting other countries in the region,’’ he said. The IMF and local economists concerns come a few days after a statement issued by the donor community which said the country was losing Sh2 billion daily. The joint statement, issued last week by the World Bank, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, France, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, warned that the gains made in the past few years could dissipate due to the ongoing destruction. Business confidence “At stake is the pre-election Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of seven per cent, rising business confidence, increasing tourism, measurable progress in firm level productivity, significant gains in democratic development and the lifting of over two million Kenyans out of poverty,” said the statement. The donor community said Sh40 billion–about five per cent of market capitalisation– was wiped off the value of shares when business resumed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange after the elections.

Starbucks in Ethiopia coffee vow

Coffee is a vital source of income for Ethiopia

Starbucks has agreed a wide-ranging accord with Ethiopia to support and promote its coffee, ending a long-running dispute over the issue.
bbc

The US retailer will market, distribute and, in some cases, license Ethiopia's range of high-quality coffee brands.

A row over the recognition and use of trademarks for its coffee has stymied co-operation between the two sides.

But it is hoped the deal will act as a catalyst to raise prices and improve the livelihoods of Ethiopian farmers.

'Milestone'

Although Ethiopian coffees command a premium price in foreign markets, particularly the US, farmers who grow the beans often live in extreme poverty.

Hopes of an alliance between Starbucks and Ethiopia receded last year when the retailer objected to a plan to license rights to coffee brands in countries where they were not registered as trademarks.

Having the commitment and support of Starbucks will improve the income of farmers and traders Getachew Mengistie, Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office

Starbucks was also accused of opposing potentially lucrative trademark applications in the US.

But the new agreement acknowledges Ethiopian ownership of popular coffee designations such as Yirgacheffe, Harrar and Sidamo, regardless of whether they are registered or not.

It will also allow Starbucks to use coffee types in certain markets under agreed conditions.

Ethiopian farmers will not receive royalty payments from the deal, but it is hoped that more effective distribution and marketing will help boost demand and, in time, lift prices.

"This agreement marks an important milestone in our efforts to promote and protect Ethiopia's speciality coffee designations," said Getachew Mengistie, director general of the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office.

Starbucks recognises the value of Ethiopian beans

"Having the commitment and support of Starbucks will help enhance the quality of Ethiopian fine coffees and improve the income of farmers and traders."

Ethiopian coffees have been trademarked in the US, Japan, Canada and Europe, while applications are pending in China, Brazil and India.

Fairtrade concern

But fair-trade campaigners argue that this has done little so far to reward Ethiopian farmers, some of whom receive only $300 a year for their crop.

Ethiopian officials said the ultimate aim of the agreement was to try to boost prices, which for Starbucks purchases averaged $1.42 per pound last year.

Starbucks said the accord was far more comprehensive than previous agreements.

"We are extremely pleased that this agreement supports both the Ethiopian speciality coffee industry and the farmers and their communities that produce these fine coffees, while allowing us to bring them to our customers," said chairman Howard Schultz.

Ethiopia is Africa's third largest coffee producer, behind Uganda and the Ivory Coast, and coffee is its largest source of foreign exchange.

Ethiopia says 1,000 insurgents killed in Mogadishu clashes

ADDIS ABABA, May 19, 2007 (AFP) - Ethiopia said Saturday its troops backing Somali government forces killed nearly 1,000 insurgents in Mogadishu in March and April during some of the heaviest clashes in the city's bloody history.

"Some 200 to 300 Al-Shabaab fighters (Somali insurgents) and other extremists died in the fighting in late March and more than 600 in the fighting that ended on April 26," the Ethiopian foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said 150 others were taken prisoner, "many of them international mujahedeen", but did not indicate where the detainees were being held.

Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan elders and a local rights panel estimated that at least 1,400 people, mainly civilians, died in the clashes, which drew international condemnation for attacks on civilian targets.

Addis Ababa said at least 80,000 people fled the violence, while United Nations agencies said up to 400,000 people were displaced.

"The numbers of those who had fled from the two or three (Mogadishu) districts where the fighting was fiercest was perhaps as many as 80,000, but this was no more than a fifth of the higher UN estimates," the statement added.

African Union peacekeepers from Uganda are due to take over from Ethiopian forces who helped Somali troops expel the Islamists from southern and central Somalia at the start of the year.

Apart from the face-to-face fighting, dozens of people -- including peacekeepers -- have been killed and scores wounded in separate attacks since then, mainly by homemade bombs and grenades.

Renegade Somali leaders living in Eritrea last month vowed to intensify insurgent attacks despite their retreat following the Mogadishu clashes.

Somalia, a nation of 10 million, has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.

Mogadishu seriously damaged as Ethiopia tries to end resistance

MEDIA MONITORS
by M A Shaikh
(Thursday, May 17, 2007)

"It is true that the international community and media have on the whole ignored the Somali conflict, concentrating their attention on Darfur (Sudan) instead. But the indiscriminate bombing by the Ethiopian army of Mogadishu, which in a short time destroyed many of its buildings, killed thousands of its inhabitants and injured many more, and forced most of them to flee, could not fail to draw attention to the mayhem. However, that attention was very little compared to the concentration of the West on Darfur, despite the fact that a UN agency pointed out that the Somali conflict is far bloodier and more costly."

Somalia’s transitional government (TG) claimed the victory when the shelling of Muqdisho (Mogadishu, the capital) by the Ethiopian army during the recent ten-day confrontation with supporters of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) came to an end on April 27. But even one day earlier the interim prime minister, Ali Mohamed Ghedi, announced that the fighting was over and that “we have won it against the insurgents”. The fact that the next day the Ethiopian army unleashed on the north of Muqdisho – “the hiding place of the ICU militias”, according to some media reports – one of its most devastating raids, and that the head of the African Union called for additional African Union (AU) ‘peacekeepers’ shows that the conflict was still raging. But that did not discourage Ghedi or his colleagues from making further claims of victory.

Nor did the fact that some members of the international media and NGOs had already dismissed their claims as unfounded, the raids as war crimes and the Ethiopians and the TG as “US stooges” bent on backing its ‘war on terrorism’ in the Horn of Africa. Undoubtedly the TG was encouraged by the continued support of Western governments and their allies worldwide, by the silence (and by implication complicity) of members of the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) and the AU, despite the fact that Somalia is a member of each of these bodies. As an American professor quoted in the Arabic daily al-Hayat has pointed out, the international community tied its hands by backing a government (the TG) that enjoys no local support whatsoever.

The professor, who is an expert on Somalia, was also quoted as saying that the TG is “a total failure and that is the essence of the matter.” He added that “nevertheless, the Western leaders cannot retract and it is in their interest not to draw the attention of the international community to Somalia.” But, in any case, “most of the international media and the international leaders have undoubtedly set aside the Somali issue,” he said.

It is true that the international community and media have on the whole ignored the Somali conflict, concentrating their attention on Darfur (Sudan) instead. But the indiscriminate bombing by the Ethiopian army of Mogadishu, which in a short time destroyed many of its buildings, killed thousands of its inhabitants and injured many more, and forced most of them to flee, could not fail to draw attention to the mayhem. However, that attention was very little compared to the concentration of the West on Darfur, despite the fact that a UN agency pointed out that the Somali conflict is far bloodier and more costly.

Germany was only major power to acknowledge the seriousness of the bombings, by means of an official letter sent by Walter Lindner, its ambassador to Somalia, to Abdullahi Yusuf, the TG president. The letter, which was made public on April 25, condemned the indiscriminate use of air strikes and heavy artillery in densely populated areas of Muqdisho. It also condemned the rape of women, the blocking of urgently needed food and humanitarian supplies, and the bombardment of hospitals. But Germany was only commenting because, as the current holder of the presidency of the EU, it was embarrassed by the seriousness of events in Muqdisho, which had been widely publicised. But it did not exploit its presidency of the EU to propose action or even official censure by the EU of Ethiopia and the TG. The fact that it merely sent a letter is an indirect indication that Ethiopia and the TG do not need to take Germany’s concerns seriously.

Nor do they need to heed the statement by Sir John Holmes, the UN humanitarian affairs chief, on April 26, simply because he accused all sides to the conflict of being responsible for what he described as war crimes. “The rules of humanitarian law are being flouted by all sides... all factions are equally guilty of indiscriminate violence in a civilian area,” he said. “Civilians in Mogadishu are paying an intolerable price for the absence of political progress and dialogue and the failure of all parties to abide by the rules of warfare.” The UN refugee agency also made a statement on the situation in Muqdisho but did not apportion blame for the mayhem. “At least half of the capital is deserted, slowly turning it into a ghost city,” it said.

The UN agencies should have put the blame on Ethiopia, whose force of 20,000 in Somalia is responsible for the destructive bombing, and on the TG, which invited Ethiopia to intervene and takes part in the fighting, although its 5,000 troops can only play a relatively minor role. But the bombing by the Ethiopians is assisting the TG’s troops to carry out its clan and anti-Islamic war on the ground and inside the city to make sure that supporters of the ICU and their allies do not escape the lethal bombing.

But the UN agencies should have put the main blame on the US, which encouraged, and finances, the invasion of Somalia by the Ethiopian army. One reason that they will not do so is that both the UN security council and the secretariat are determined to avoid any criticism of Washington’s role in the Somali conflict, and of the TG, which it backs. At the same time they are happy to censure Sudan in connection with the unrest in Darfur and impose sanctions on it at the behest of the US government. In fact it was the security council which in December passed the resolution that sanctioned the despatch of the Ethiopian army into Somalia.

One of the consequences of the interference of the US and UN in Somalia is widespread anger among Somalis at both, and the Somalis’ determination to support the Islamic Courts Union come what may. Clearly, Somalia faces a protracted conflict and illegal continued intervention by the US and its allies.

Ethiopia warned not to pull troops from Somalia

bbc
The US and the African Union have warned Ethiopia not to withdraw its troops from Somalia before peacekeepers are deployed to replace them.

AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare says it would be a "catastrophe" if Ethiopia pulled out too soon.

US Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer said it would probably be several months before the full peacekeeping force arrived.

Ethiopia's prime minister says he wants to withdraw all his troops, after they helped oust Islamists.

Up to a third of the population fled recent fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, and badly need aid.

Less than 40% of the estimated 300,00 displaced Somalis are receiving any help, according to UN humanitarian relief chief John Holmes.

After a visit to Mogadishu, he said Somalia now represents a worse displacement crisis than Sudan's Darfur region.

'Onerous'

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he wanted to end the "onerous" financial burden of having Ethiopian troops, estimated to be several thousand in number, in Somalia.

"Things have improved significantly in Mogadishu, making it possible for peacekeeping troops to do their job," he said.

"I very much hope and expect that those African countries that have promised to send troops will do so."

Mr Konare told the AFP news agency that Ethiopia must wait for the AU forces.

"If Ethiopia withdrew from Somalia today, it would be a catastrophe," he said.

He said Ethiopia had done the job of the AU but its continued presence could "block political dialogue" in Somalia.

But Ms Frazer said that an Ethiopian withdrawal before the AU troops arrived would lead to a security vacuum.

"It would be a mistake for Ethiopia to withdraw. That said, we certainly want them to withdraw from Somalia as soon as possible," she told the BBC's Newshour programme.

Ethiopia has twice fought border wars with Somalia and is widely distrusted there.

So far, Uganda has sent 1,700 peacekeepers but the AU says another 6,300 troops are needed.

Nigeria, Burundi and Ghana have all promised to contribute to the AU force.

Mr Meles said the "organised resistance" of the Islamists had now been "broken".

The Ethiopia-backed government says it is in control of Mogadishu after what is seen as the worst fighting in 16 years in the city.

But gunmen attacked a World Health Organization office in the city on Monday night, injuring a guard, WHO officials say.

Cholera

Aid workers have accused authorities of hindering the passage of food aid at checkpoints set up across Mogadishu.

"We estimate that we are only reach 35 to 40% of those in need," Mr Holmes said.

"Many are already suffering from a cholera outbreak."

Mr Holmes said international law had been violated by the fighting factions in the city, saying that some citizens had disappeared without explanation.

"Clearly, human rights abuses have taken place, but the government categorically denied reports and accusations of their involvement," he said.

He said the government had promised to co-operate with a planned UN investigation into the reports.

Mr Holmes, the most senior UN official to visit the city in more than a decade, had to cut short his trip on Saturday, after bombs exploded in Mogadishu, killing three people.

Somalia has been without an effective national government for 16 years, controlled by rival militias and awash with guns.

Ethiopia - Eritrea Dismisses UN Call for Border Peace With Ethiopia

nazret.com
09 May 2007 -- The government of Eritrea is defending its right to send troops into the disputed border region with Ethiopia.

Eritrean officials told a government-run newspaper Wednesday they blame the United Nations for the region's instability, saying it has failed to implement a five-year old border agreement.

On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council said it is "deeply concerned" by growing tension between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The council urged both countries to withdraw their forces from within and near the buffer zone.

The Security Council asked Ethiopia to implement a 2002 border ruling without delay, and urged Eritrea to end all restrictions on U.N. monitors.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a two year border war that killed some 70,000 people and ended in 2000.

The 2002 ruling by an independent border commission granted Eritrea the border town of Badme but Ethiopia has rejected that decision.

Source: VOA News

China and Russia 'arming' Sudan

Al Jazeera

The report contained photographs of Russian-made helicopters at Darfur's Nyala [Amnesty International]

Amnesty International has accused China and Russia of selling arms to Sudan that could be used against rebels and civilians in Darfur.

Both the countries have denied the London-based pressure group's accusations.

The countries were among several that were breaking an United Nations embargo aimed at stopping violence in Sudan's Darfur province, a report from Amnesty said on Tuesday.

Amnesty said it was "deeply dismayed" that China and Russia are continuing to send arms "that are diverted for the conflict in Darfur and used there and across the border in Chad to commit grave violations of international law."

Along with Britain, France and the United States, China and Russia are permanent members of the UN Security Council, which adopted an extensive arms embargo in 2005.

Amnesty said that Russian and Chinese state-owned arms firms had supplied Sudan's government with a range of arms and ammunition, ranging from aircraft to light weapons.

Government denials

The governments of Russia and China have denied Amnesty's accusations.

In Moscow, a foreign ministry spokesman rejected the report, saying: "None of our arms are being supplied to Darfur."

"We rigorously observe the provisions of the UN resolution banning deliveries of arms to Darfur," he said.

In Beijing, Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, called the report "a groundless accusation".

"The Chinese government takes a responsible attitude and a strict management policy on arms exports," she said.

Incriminating photographs

Amnesty International's 24-page report contained several photographs of Russian and Chinese warplanes which it said were based at Nyala airport in the Darfur region in the last few months.

The report also said that Sudan imported $24m worth of arms and ammunition from China, in addition to nearly $57m worth of parts and aircraft equipment and $2m dollars worth of parts of helicopters and airplanes.

It added that the Chinese company AviChina Industry and Technology "recently delivered six K-8 military training/attack aircraft to the Sudanese Air Force and a further six will follow soon."

Civilians in Darfur have often described coming under aerial attack from the Sudanese air force.

74 dead in attack on Chinese oil field in Ethiopia

AP
Rebels stormed a Chinese-run oil field at dawn in eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday, killing 74 workers and destroying the facility, the guerrilla group and government officials said.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front, an ethnic Somali group that has fought alongside insurgents in Somalia, also kidnapped seven Chinese workers, said senior Ethiopian government official Bereket Simon.

"This was a cold blooded killing," Bereket, a special adviser to the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told The Associated Press. "This was organized."

The rebel group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to the AP, saying it had launched "military operations against units of the Ethiopian armed forces guarding an oil exploration site," in the east of the country.

It also warned all international oil companies not to operate in the region. It did not give any details of casualties, but said they had "wiped out" three Ethiopian military units.

China's official Xinhua News Agency identified the Chinese workers and Ethiopian guards as employees of the Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, a division of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., a huge state-run oil company better known as Sinopec.

Xu Shuang, the general manager of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, based in Addis Ababa, said nine of its Chinese oil workers were killed, seven Chinese workers were kidnapped and 65 Ethiopians were killed in the fighting.
The Zhongyuan official, whose company began working in Ethiopia's volatile Somali Regional State last year, declined to give further details of the attack.

The attack took place early Tuesday morning in Abole, a small town 120 kilometers away from the state's capital Jijiga, close to the Somali border. Bereket said several Ethiopian troops were wounded in the gunbattle.
"The army is pursuing them. We will track them down dead or alive. We will make sure these people will be hunted and be brought to justice."

He said the group was also linked to the Eritrean government, which Ethiopia has repeatedly accused of waging terror attacks. Eritrea denies the claims.

Both countries fought a bloody border war that ended in 2000 and are accused of backing rival sides in the Somali conflict.

China has increased its presence in Africa in recent years in a hunt for oil and other natural resources to feed its rapidly growing economy.

Its forays into areas considered politically unstable, however, has exposed Chinese workers to attacks.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front issued a warning last year that any investment in the Ogaden area that also benefited the Ethiopian government "would not be tolerated."

The Ogaden National Liberation Front has been waging a low-level insurgency with the aim of creating an independent state for ethnic Somalis. Somalia lost control of the region in a war in 1977.

The region, which is the size of Britain and home to around 4 million people, is one of the poorest in Ethiopia with bad communications and roads.

The rebel group also has been fighting Ethiopian troops inside Somalia, where Ethiopia has been backing the government in crushing an Islamic movement and re-establishing control over the country.

In Nigeria, armed militants seeking a greater share of that country's oil wealth kidnapped nine Chinese oil workers in January, and two more in March. Two were still being held, though hostages are normally released unharmed in Nigeria, after a ransom is paid.

Also in March in Nigeria, five Chinese telecommunications workers were abducted for two weeks.

Ethiopian tanks pound Mogadishu

Ethiopian tanks are pounding parts of the Somali capital, stepping up a week-long campaign against insurgents and fighters of the Hawiye clan.
bbc
Heavy shelling is also taking place near the presidential palace - guarded by Ethiopian and African Union troops.

Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi said the government forces were winning the war against insurgents.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called for an end to clashes in which more than 250 people have died in the past week.

Ethiopian forces and insurgents are exchanging heavy fire. Mortar and other artillery shells are also landing,? Khalid Haji, a resident at Fagah in the north of the capital told AFP news agency.

Rotting bodies have been left on the streets for days according to witnesses.

'Genocide'

Prime Minister Ghedi dismissed claims that Ethiopian backed government forces have committed genocide in Mogadishu during their campaign against insurgents.

Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed, who launched an alliance opposed to Ethiopians in Somalia, in neighbouring Eritrea, has called for an international probe into the killings in the capital.

?Aideed should feel ashamed for attacking policies of the government he serves, his conduct will soon be discussed by the cabinet,? Mr Ghedi told a news conference in Mogadishu.

Ethiopian forces have been in Mogadishu since December last year after helping Somalia's transitional government oust the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

Mr Ghedi also blamed the insurgents for the take over of the southern port town of Kismayo on Monday following two days of fighting between rival clans.

Fighters from the Marehan clan have taken control of the town in what correspondents say is a big blow to the government.

The UN refugee agency says more than 300,000 people have fled the capital and a living in terrible conditions outside the city.

UNHCR spokesperson Catherine Weibel told the BBC the agency is now providing relief supplies to about 20,000 displaced persons in Afgooye about 30km from Mogadishu.

Somalia has not had a functional government since 1991. A transitional government was formed in 2004, but has so far failed to take full control of the country.

Ethiopian troops have started to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force, but only 1,200 of the 8,000 troops the AU says it needs have been deployed.

Report: Sudanese Planes Strike Under U.N. Guise

npr
Day to Day, April 19, 2007 · A United Nations report, first published in the New York Times, details the use of Sudanese government planes and helicopters in strikes on Darfur. The aircraft have been painted to look like U.N. vehicles and are being used for bombing runs and surveillance. Khartoum-based reporter Noel King speaks with Alex Chadwick.

Somalia: Eritrea might invade Ethiopia again

american chronicle


Top Somali Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has demanded for the end of Ethiopian support for the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) once again. But according to the Main & Guardian, together with the Eritrean government, the Islamists have now warned of an “all-out war” if Ethiopian troops do not withdraw.

According to BBC analyst Patrick Gilkes and various UN documents, the Eritrean government has been arming Oromo Liberation Front and the Islamic Courts Union(ICU) who have been alleged of supporting Al-Qaeda operatives. Despite the American mission to find the terrorists inside ICU and stopping the formation of a Taliban like Somali government, the Ethiopian government’s original mission of defeating the source of “Jihad” call, responding to the “invitation” of the Somali government and repelling the threat of Islamic annexation of Ethiopian territories is still ongoing. But most analysts are still convinced that the involvement of the Eritrean government in Somalia was the real and only reason for the concern of the Ethiopian government.

One sign that indicated a warning of more Eritrean involvement to come was when the Husseid Aidid claimed that “Less than 10% of our forces are on the ground against the Ethiopians.” In reality, the Islamists have been overwhelmingly defeated and are left to fighting just minor guerrilla wars so it would look like his claims were empty. However when Mr. Husseid said “less than 10%” and when he said “No army…can stop what is coming up" he might be talking about a massive military assistance from the Eritrean army which can invade Ethiopia from the north. In East Africa, that is the only large military available to challenge the Ethiopians.

The Eritrean government has already invaded Yemen and Ethiopia before. According to the international commission in The Hague, the UN has concluded that the Eritrean government broke international law by starting the 1998-2002 war with Ethiopia. Also there has been a lot of pressure against the Eritreans very recently. After some of the British hostages left Eritrea, the Ethiopian government has been accusing Eritrea of keeping the rest of the Ethiopian hostages and there has been a lot of campaign to free the hostages. Also some Western officials have been asking for sanctions against the Eritrean government and Rights groups like IFEX have added more pressure.

Both the kidnappers and the Islamist leaders were recently seen on Eritrean national TV with the Eritrean authorities. In addition to these, past Eritrean assistance and the several Eritrean soldiers arrested, including the captured Eritrean army general in Somalia, have persuaded the US state department to recently label Eritrea as the major supporter of the insurgency in Somalia. All of this buildup of pressure on the Eritrean government might create a “nothing to lose” attitude in Asmara and validate another Eritrean invasion.

Hussein Aidid’s work of art

If a war would start between Eritrea and Ethiopia, it should be partially called the masterwork of the Somali genius DPM Hussein Aidid. Once labeled as one of the most loyal figure to the transitional government and to the Ethiopians, now he almost single-handedly broke the back of the transitional government when he switched sides late in this Somali crisis and went to Eritrea.

But despite this genius work by Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aidid, this switch was actually anticipated by some regional analysts. For example, after the Ethiopians and the Somali government forces defeated the Islamists, Hussein Aidid unexpectedly called Ethiopian troops heroes and erratically contemplated about Somalis & Ethiopians using the same passport. Thus he effectively sent a nation wide rage, suspicion and more hate towards the Ethiopian troops. His comments also made other Diaspora Somalis, who are extremely nationalistic, distrust the transitional government even more. Such “shock effect” was what was really needed to take the mistrust & skepticism between the transitional government and the people of Mogadishu into a higher and more dangerous level.

Prior to his wild comments, other systematic propaganda moves were taken by many sympathizers of the Islamists to utilize this “shock effect,” including randomly accusing the transitional government of giving Somalia as an Ethiopian colony or letting EThiopia annex Somalia. Some sympathizers of the Islamists even staged fake reports of Ethiopian troops raping Somali women, used pro-Islamist "Human Rights Organizations" to defraud other international Human Rights groups regarding into alleging a War crime and falsely reported the recapture of Kismayo city by the Islamists.

If there will be an Eritrean invasion, more of these propaganda and systematic techniques will be used by the Islamists to revive the resistance, to keep Ethiopia on edge, to get European sympathy and most of all to use the media to scare away the African Union force from coming to help the Somali transitional government.

The OLF oromo factor

Oromo political parties like Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) and Geda System Advancement Party (GSAP) hold around 80% of parliament seats of the Oromia regional state in Ethiopia. CUD party and ONC/UEDF hold the rest. And due to the lack of violence and persecution against Oromos recently, the Oromo Liberation Front(OLF) has increased its propaganda campaign asking for an uprising in Oromia based on fabricated reports. This call for rebellion in Ethiopia is not being supported since OPDO and Oromo elders are bracing and addressing the public about the OLF threat. In the most recent interview, Oromia’s OFDM party leader, Bulcha Demeksa, condemned OLF’s past terrorist activities in Ethiopia.

However, for the first time, OLF is utilizing its diplomatic resources in the West by using propaganda against Oromo immigrants. Just during the last month, two pro-OLF rallies have been held by Oromo students who are mostly influenced by OLF's misinformation, one in Howard University and another one in Washington D.C. Inside sources state that another OLF rally will be held in Minnesota very soon. Until lately, OLF has used minimal diplomatic efforts, mostly due to the Human Rights issues it faced after its militias massacred hundreds of ethnic Amhara Ethiopians during the 1990-1993 transition period of the country.

“Siyadism” and the issue of Somaliland

It is precise to state that the Hawiye clan has been the dominant figure in Somalia, economically and politically, for many years. However Somali president Yusuf’s clan, the Darod, has been equally influential. In fact some suggest that Yusuf believes in clan supremacy just like the dictator Siyad Barre. Thus some Somalis have claimed that the only difference between Yusuf and Siyad is that Yusuf believes his Majerteen sub-clan should reign while Siyad Barre was from the Marehan sub-clan. Certainly, most of these are speculations from Non-Darod Somalis but Yusuf’s autocratic behavior is very similar to that of the former Derg official Hailu Shawel, who is the chairman of Ethiopian opposition party CUD. Thus Yusuf might not be tolerant enough to facilitate the Somalia reconciliation conference and many early sign are showing his failures. The fact that many Somalis belonging to the Darod clan were killed and some forced out of Mogadishu in the early 1990s might be a factor to clan bitterness. And also, with the old animosity between the Somaliland region and Yusuf’s Puntland region, other conflicts can restart to complicate the already tense situation in Mogadishu. Ethiopian government might be forced to address this northern conflict over the Dahar region between Somaliland and Puntland because Ethiopia already has influence on both regions to demand peaceful solutions for sharing Dahar.

Thus there is a very thin line of balance to be played by the Ethiopian government so that it can satisfy Somaliland’s age old independence wishes while keeping Puntland & Yusuf happy and persuading Yusuf to be accommodating to other clans in southern Somalia. Also the Hawiye Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi can not afford to play nominal roles in this government. He has the education and many qualities to lead. His selection of the Hawiye warlord Abdi Awale Qeybdiid might be a good step but more has to come from him and Ethiopia should pressure Yusuf to give PM Gedi more power in Mogadishu. These are some of the things the Ethiopian government might do to get out of Somalia even before more AU troops arrive. Playing a delicate line of balance in its support for Yusuf, Gedi and Somaliland is very important for Ethiopia and for many of its long-term interests. Some of these interests include:

* To have beneficial economic cooperation and peaceful co-existence with a friendly Somalia and Somaliland nations that respect national boundaries.

* To allow Somaliland, which was mostly independent before a united “Somalia” existed, gain its sovereignty. Thus creating a long-term ally for Ethiopia and stabilizing Somalia.

* To keep Puntland satisfied since Ogaden National Liberation Front rebels have Darod clan connections with Puntland. (ONLF is believed to have assassinated many Somali leaders in Ethiopia’s Somali state, especially from Somali People’s Democratic Party (SPDP) who has 24 seats in the Ethiopian parliament.)

* To keep the already flourishing relationship between Addis Ababa and Hargeisha and to prevent Djibouti from monopolizing the port transportation business on Addis Ababa.

* To resist Egypt, which is blocking Somaliland’s bid for independence and arming OLF & ONLF militants. Egypt’s main goals against Ethiopia remain the domination of the Nile River and the creation of an Islamic state in Ethiopia to create a puppet government. (Egypt’s growing population will depend even more on the Nile basin in the 21st century and Nasser Military Academy in East Cairo is dedicated to watching the Nile situation in Ethiopia. If other measures fail, since the 1990s, Dr Hamdi el-Taheri and many Egyptian authorities have advised for the bombing of Ethiopian Dams along the Nile River.)

* To reduce Eritrea’s future military options both in case Eritrean government attacks and for future diplomatic work with Eritrea. [This is necessary because all parties in Ethiopia benefit from it. Ethiopia’s Afar National Democratic Party (ANDP) and Afar People’s Democratic Movement (APDM) as well as the Afar people want the Afar lands in east Eritrea to be reunited with Ethiopia. Ruling sub-party TPLF still aims to reunite the ethnic Tigrayan people in Eritrea with Ethiopia. And various political parties, including CUD, UEDF,UEDP & OFDM claim that the Asseb seaport in eastern Eritrea should be returned to Ethiopia.] Currently, Eritrea gets a lot of military assistance from Iran & Libya due to its deteriorating economy.

* To resist Saudi Arabia and Libya, who are also blocking Somaliland’s independence for fear of an Israeli alliance which is already preferred by Somaliland’s “British friendly” administrators. The fact that a pro-west nation in east Africa is considered a positive development to Ethiopia’s long-term national interests is an open secret.

* To prevent Libya, Egypt and Eritrea from using Somalia as a base for their proxy attacks against Ethiopia. OLF and ONLF have historical ties with these countries.

* To have a moderate Islam or perhaps a secular Somali nation in order to prevent the radicalization of southern Ethiopia against the Northern/Central Orthodox Christians and the Western Protestant Christians. (There have been several religious clashes in Ethiopia caused by the aggressive Islamic movements and the growing evangelical churches which have reduced the domination of the Orthodox Church.)

But with other pressure growing against Eritrea, most expect the Eritrean government to play the same previous role by invading Ethiopia or at least arming more anti-Ethiopia factions to damage Ethiopia’s current & long-term national interests.

Too few, too late?

Even if UN forces are at last let into Darfur, will they be able to save it?
economist
AFTER months of huffy hesitation and evasion, Sudan's government at last agreed this week to let some 3,000 UN peacekeepers, replete with helicopter gunships, into its ravaged western region of Darfur. The UN's blue helmets are to bolster an ineffectual force of 7,000 troops now on the ground under the aegis of the African Union (AU). The UN's secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, says he hopes the Sudanese government in Khartoum may yet allow the peacekeeping mission to be beefed up a lot more, bringing its strength up to 22,000 soldiers and police under a “hybrid” UN and AU command. But Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, shows no sign of agreeing to such an increase.
EPA On the move, again, in Darfur

This week's deal will have no immediate impact on the misery in Darfur, where at least 200,000 have been killed and 2m displaced since 2003 in fighting that has ranged over scrubland the size of France. But it is a start. If a small but robust UN force proves more effective, pressure may grow on Mr Bashir to let in a bigger force.

A key factor in persuading him to relent was an apparent change in the attitude of China, which had hitherto prevented any real pressure being put on Sudan; most of Sudan's oil goes to China, which provides Sudan's government with most of its arms and much of its sorely needed investment in infrastructure. The Chinese government may have been rattled by a campaign launched in America calling for a boycott of next year's Beijing Olympic Games and dubbing them “the Genocide Olympics”.

China has blithely ignored accusations that it is indirectly to blame for letting the Darfur carnage continue. But when the Olympics are brought into the equation, it becomes twitchier. A letter to China's authorities from Steven Spielberg, the American film director, urging them to help alleviate the suffering in Darfur may have forced the issue. Mr Spielberg is advising on the Olympic ceremonies, heralded as China's coming-out party. He may have feared being labelled a hard-hearted propagandist, much as Leni Riefenstahl was damned for her photographic choreography of the Nazis' Berlin Olympics of 1936.

Whether or not his letter had an effect, China's president, Hu Jintao, promptly sent a senior official to Sudan—and a deal was struck. No one is confident that Mr Bashir will stick to it. He has often wriggled out of agreements before. The American administration remains particularly sceptical. Its relations with Khartoum will improve, it says, only when things in Darfur improve. President Bush said this week he would press for sterner sanctions if Sudan failed to co-operate fully. But Mr Bashir is banking on America's bark being worse than its bite, because he knows he is still valued, if only by the CIA, as an American ally in the so-called war on terror.

It is unclear, in any case, how much difference the dispatch of 3,000 UN troops to Darfur will make. For a start, they are not due to arrive until October—or later, if the Sudanese drag their feet again. It is even less certain that Mr Bashir will let the much bigger hybrid UN-AU force be built up. And even if he did, there is no knowing if it would be effective.

Few countries are willing or able to provide the right sort of troops for the job: special forces and paratroops, as well as medical units and engineers. Fewer still, apart from the United States, have the needed airlift capacity. Sudan insists that the UN force must have an African face. But few African countries have the military clout; the best are overstretched. By the by, if the AU were persuaded to bolster its force in Sudan, that would probably end any serious effort to stiffen the backbone of its under-sized force now struggling against the odds to keep the peace in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

Even if peacekeepers do eventually reach Darfur in meaningful force, the region may be overwhelmed by problems of nature. The recent carnage apart, the number of people and cattle has risen much faster than their ability to sustain themselves, even in peacetime. Aid agencies now feed almost half the population. Over the years, as rainfall has declined and crops have become less bountiful, a gross dependency has set in. It is uncertain whether the people of Darfur will ever be able to look after themselves again.

Eritrea: Somali crisis entangles Ethiopia-Eritrea border dispute

(SomaliNet) Analysts say tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea could further worsen due to the Somali crisis in the countdown to a November deadline, set by an independent boundary commission, for both sides to demarcate their border.

Ethiopia and Eritrea’s involvement in Somalia has added a dangerous new element to their already tense relationship and faded hopes they may resolve a border dispute seen as vital for regional stability.

"The tragedy is that it’s gone well beyond the confines of the border dispute," said Patrick Smith, editor of the Africa Confidential newsletter."It’s now to a point where there can be no amelioration on the border issue until there is some resolution in Somalia," he said by telephone from England.

The neighbours have been locked in a bitter impasse over the border since the Hague-based commission issued its ruling on the 1,000 km (620 mile) frontier in April 2002, as part of a peace deal ending Ethiopia and Eritrea’s 1998-2000 war.

The border ruling awarded a flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea in a decision rejected by Ethiopia.Diplomats accuse both sides of playing out their feud by supporting opposing parties in Somalia, saying the proxy conflict exacerbates the border row now in its fifth year.

Somalia and Ethiopia have accused Eritrea of undermining the interim Somali government by supplying weapons to insurgents involved in some of the worst fighting in Mogadishu for more than 15 years.

Asmara vehemently denies allegations it is funnelling arms to anti-government forces in Somalia and accuses Ethiopia of breaking international law by "invading" Somalia and interfering with the country’s right to chose its own leaders.-(Sudan Tribune)

Ethiopia, under pressure for details on detainees in secret jails

eitb24
The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen and some are from Canada, Sweden and France. They also include citizens from Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Tunisia and Morocco.

Ethiopia was under pressure to release details of detainees from 19 countries held at secret prisons in the country, where U.S. agents have carried out interrogations in the hunt for al-Qaida in the Horn of Africa.

Canada, Eritrea and Sweden were lobbying Thursday for information about their citizens in Ethiopia, where human rights groups say hundreds of prisoners, including women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally. An investigation by The Associated Press found that CIA and FBI agents have been interrogating the detainees.

Officials from Ethiopia, which has a troubling human rights record, were not immediately available for comment, but in the past have refused to acknowledge the existence of the prisons.

Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman said of Canadian citizen Bashir Makhtal: "We know that he is in Ethiopia." "We've been making, and continue to make, representations both here in Ottawa and in Ethiopia to get access to him," Beaulieu said.

Some detainees were swept up by Ethiopian troops that drove a radical Islamist government out of neighboring Somalia late last year, according to Kenyan officials and police. Others have been deported from Kenya, where many Somalis have fled the continuing violence in their homeland, they said.

The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP. They also include citizens from Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Tunisia and Morocco.

Authorities Collect, Bury Corpses in Mogadishu

voanews
Residents of Somalia's capital are collecting corpses that are still scattered on the streets after last week's fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian forces.

Medics and clan leaders began gathering up bodies Wednesday as a lull in the violence continued.

A top official with Somalia's doctor's association says infectious diseases could break out if the decaying bodies are not buried. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) says dead bodies do not generally pose a health hazard, unless they pollute sources of drinking water with human waste.

Aid organizations say last week's fighting was the worst violence to strike Mogadishu in 15 years. More than 380 civilians were killed.

On Tuesday, African, European and U.S. diplomats called for a full stop to fighting in Somalia. The diplomats were meeting in Cairo under the umbrella of the International Contact Group on Somalia.

International concern about the country is running high as the interim government struggles to establish authority in the capital.

Last week's fighting broke out when the government and its Ethiopian allies mounted an offensive against insurgents. The Ethiopian entered Somalia in December to help the government push a rival Islamist movement from power.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991.

U.S. agents eye secret prisons in Ethiopia - Africa - MSNBC.com

U.S. agents eye secret prisons in Ethiopia - Africa - MSNBC.com

U.S. agents eye secret prisons in Ethiopia
CIA, FBI agents looking for al-Qaida militants at notorious Ethiopia jails
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:58 p.m. ET April 3, 2007

NAIROBI, Kenya - CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaida militants in the Horn of Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and abuse, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

Human rights groups, lawyers and several Western diplomats assert hundreds of prisoners, who include women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally in recent months from Kenya and Somalia to Ethiopia, where they are kept without charge or access to lawyers and families.

The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen, and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP.

Some were swept up by Ethiopian troops that drove a radical Islamist government out of neighboring Somalia late last year. Others have been deported from Kenya, where many Somalis have fled the continuing violence in their homeland.

Ethiopia, which denies holding secret prisoners, is a country with a long history of human rights abuses. In recent years, it has also been a key U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida, which has been trying to sink roots among Muslims in the Horn of Africa.

U.S. government officials contacted by AP acknowledged questioning prisoners in Ethiopia. But they said American agents were following the law and were fully justified in their actions because they are investigating past attacks and current threats of terrorism.

The prisoners were never in American custody, said an FBI spokesman, Richard Kolko, who denied the agency would support or be party to illegal arrests. He said U.S. agents were allowed limited access by governments in the Horn of Africa to question prisoners as part of the FBI’s counter-terrorism work.

Western security officials, who insisted on anonymity because the issue related to security matters, told AP that among those held were well-known suspects with strong links to al-Qaida.

An 'outsourced Guantanamo'
But some U.S. allies have expressed consternation at the transfers to the prisons. One Western diplomat in Nairobi, who agreed to speak to AP only if not quoted to avoid angering U.S. officials, said he sees the United States as playing a guiding role in the operation.

John Sifton, a Human Rights Watch expert on counter-terrorism, went further. He said in an e-mail that the United States has acted as “ringleader” in what he labeled a “decentralized, outsourced Guantanamo.”

Details of the arrests, transfers and interrogations slowly emerged as AP and human rights groups investigated the disappearances, diplomats tracked their missing citizens and the first detainees to be released told their stories.

One investigator from an international human rights group, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to the media, said Ethiopia had secret jails at three locations: Addis Ababa, the capital; an Ethiopian air base 37 miles east of the capital; and the far eastern desert close to the Somali border.

More than 100 arrests in January
More than 100 of the detainees were originally arrested in Kenya in January, after almost all of them fled Somalia because of the intervention by Ethiopian troops accompanied by U.S. special forces advisers, according to Kenyan police reports and U.S. military officials.

Those people were then deported in clandestine pre-dawn flights to Somalia, according to the Kenya Muslim Human Rights Forum and airline documents. At least 19 were women and 15 were children.

In Somalia, they were handed over to Ethiopian intelligence officers and secretly flown to Ethiopia, where they are now in detention, the New York-based Human Rights Watch says.

A further 200 people, also captured in Somalia, were mainly Ethiopian rebels who backed the Somali Islamist movement, according to one rights group and a Somali government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to jeopardize his job. Those prisoners also were taken to Ethiopia, human rights groups say.

Kenya continues to arrest hundreds of people for illegally crossing over from Somalia. But it is not clear if deportations continue.

The Pentagon announced last week that one Kenyan al-Qaida suspect who fled Somalia, Mohamed Abul Malik, was arrested and flown to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ethiopia denying secret prisoners
When contacted by AP, Ethiopian officials denied that they held secret prisoners or that any detainees were questioned by U.S. officials.

“No such kind of secret prisons exist in Ethiopia,” said Bereket Simon, special adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. He declined to comment further.

A former prisoner and the families of current and former captives tell a different story.

“It was a nightmare from start to finish,” Kamilya Mohammedi Tuweni, a 42-year-old mother of three who has a passport from the United Arab Emirates, told AP in her first comments after her release in Addis Ababa on March 24 from what she said was 2½ months in detention without charge.

She is the only released prisoner who has spoken publicly. She was freed a month after being interviewed, fingerprinted and photographed by a U.S. agent, she said. Tuweni, an Arabic-Swahili translator, said she was arrested while on a business trip to Kenya and had never been to Somalia or had any links to that country.

She said she was arrested Jan. 10. Tuweni said she was beaten in Kenya, then forced to sleep on a stone floor while held in Somalia in a single room with 22 other women and children for 10 days before being flown to Ethiopia on a military plane.

Finally, she said, she was taken blindfolded from prison to a private villa in the Ethiopian capital. There, she said, she was interrogated with other women by a male U.S. intelligence agent. He assured her that she would not be harmed but urged her to cooperate, she said.

More families speak out
In a telephone conversation with AP, Tuweni said the man identified himself as a U.S. official, but not from the FBI. A CIA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that the agency had no contact with Tuweni.

“We cried the whole time because we did not know what would happen. The whole thing was very scary,” said Tuweni, who flew back to her family in Dubai a day after her release.

Tuweni’s version of her transfer out of Kenya is corroborated by the manifest of the African Express Airways flight 5Y AXF. It shows she was taken to Mogadishu, Somalia, with 31 other people on an unscheduled flight chartered by the Kenyan government.

The family of a Swedish detainee, 17-year-old Safia Benaouda, said she was freed from Ethiopia on March 27 and arrived home the following day. Benaouda had traveled to Somalia with her fiancé but fled to Kenya during the Ethiopian military intervention, her mother said.

“She is exhausted, her face is yellow and she’s lost about 10 kilograms (22 pounds),” her mother, Helena Benaouda, a 47-year-old Muslim convert who heads the Swedish Muslim Council, wrote on a Web site she set up to help secure her daughter’s release. “She was beaten with a stick when she demanded to go to the toilet.”

The mother spoke briefly by telephone with AP, saying any information she had was being posted on the Web site. She declined to make her daughter available for an interview.

According to the Web site, an American specialist visited the location where Benaouda was being held and took DNA samples and fingerprints of detainees. It said the teenager was never charged or allowed access to lawyers. The teen was also concerned about a 7-month-old baby that was in detention with her, the Web site said.

One American among detainees
The transfer from Kenya to Somalia, and eventually to Ethiopia, of a 24-year-old U.S. citizen, Amir Mohamed Meshal, raised disquiet among FBI officers and the State Department. He is the only American known to be among the detainees in Ethiopia.

U.S. diplomats on Feb. 27 formally protested to Kenyan authorities about Meshal’s transfer and then spent three weeks trying to gain access to him in Ethiopia, said Tom Casey, deputy spokesman for the State Department.

He confirmed Meshal was still in Ethiopian custody pending a hearing on his status.

An FBI memo read to AP by a U.S. official in Washington, who insisted on anonymity, quoted an agent who interrogated Meshal as saying the agent was “disgusted” by Meshal’s deportation to Somalia by Kenya. The unidentified agent said he was told by U.S. consular staff that the deportation was illegal.

“My personal opinion was that he may have been a jihadi a-hole, but the precedent of ’deporting’ U.S. citizens to dangerous situations when there is no reason to do so was a bad one,” the official quoted the memo as saying.

Like Benaouda, Meshal was arrested fleeing Somalia. A Kenyan police report of Meshal’s arrest obtained by AP says he was carrying an assault rifle and had crossed into Kenyan with armed Arab men who were trying to avoid capture.

Meshal’s parents insist he is innocent and called on the U.S. government to win his release.

“My son’s only crime is that he’s a Muslim, an American Muslim,” his father, Mohamed Meshal, said from the family’s two-story home on a cul-de-sac in Tinton Falls, N.J., where he lives with his wife, Fifi.

“Clearly the U.S. government interrogated him, and threatened him with torture according to the accounts that we’ve seen,” said Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law who has been assisting the family.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday to demand Meshal’s immediate release. “Our government cannot allow an American citizen to continue to be held by the Ethiopian government in violation of international law and our own due process,” he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, the guardian of the Geneva Conventions that protect victims of war, is seeking access to the Ethiopian detainees, said a diplomat from a country whose citizens are being held. He insisted on speaking anonymously because he is working for their release.

U.S. officials, who agreed to discuss the detentions only if not quoted by name because of the information’s sensitivity, said Ethiopia had allowed access to U.S. agencies, including the CIA and FBI, but the agencies played no role in arrests, transport or deportation.

One official said it would have been irresponsible to pass up an opportunity to learn more about terrorist operations.

Kolko, the FBI spokesman, also said the detainees were never in FBI or U.S. government custody.

“While in custody of the foreign government, the FBI was granted limited access to interview certain individuals of interest,” he told AP. “We do not support or participate in any system that illegally detains foreign fighters or terror suspects, including women and children.”

Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, declined to discuss details of any such interviews. He said, however: “To fight terror, CIA acts boldly and lawfully, alone and with partners, just as the American people expect us to.”

One of the U.S. officials said the FBI has had access in Ethiopia to several dozen individuals — fewer than 100 — as part of its investigations.

1998 bombings a focal point
The official said the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed hundreds are a major focus of the agents’ work. Law enforcement officials have long believed the bombings were carried out by members of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network who were later given safe haven in Somalia.

The official said FBI agents would not be witness or party to any questioning that involved abuse.

It wasn’t clear how many people the CIA interviewed or whether the agency’s officers were working jointly with the FBI.

The CIA began an aggressive program in 2002 to interrogate suspected terrorists at an unknown number of secret locations from Southeast Asia to Europe. Prisoners were frequently picked up in one country and transferred to a prison in another, where they were held incommunicado by a cooperative intelligence service. But President Bush announced in September that all the detainees had been moved to military custody at Guantanamo Bay.

One Western diplomat, who refused to be quoted by name for fear of hurting relations with the countries involved, would not rule out that additional suspects in Ethiopia could be sent to Guantanamo.

Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua insisted no laws were broken and said his government was not aware that anyone would be transferred from Somalia to Ethiopia.

Lawyers and human rights groups argue the covert transfers to Ethiopia violated international law.

“Each of these governments has played a shameful role in mistreating people fleeing a war zone,” said Georgette Gagnon, deputy Africa director of Human Rights Watch. “Kenya has secretly expelled people, the Ethiopians have caused dozens to disappear, and U.S. security agents have routinely interrogated people held incommunicado.”
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17935971/

USS Cole suspect claims torture - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

USS Cole suspect claims torture - International Terrorism - MSNBC.com

USS Cole suspect claims torture
Saudi says he admitted involvement in attack ‘to make the people happy’
The Associated Press
Updated: 12:08 p.m. ET March 30, 2007

WASHINGTON - A suspected Saudi terrorist told a military hearing that he was tortured into confessing that he was involved in the bombing of the warship USS Cole, according to a Defense Department transcript released Friday.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent, said he made up stories that tied him to the Cole attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors and nearly succeeded in sinking the $1 billion destroyer in Aden harbor, Yemen.

"From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me. It happened during interviews. One time they tortured me one way, and another time they tortured me in a different way," al-Nashiri said, according to the transcript. "I just said those things to make the people happy. They were very happy when I told them those things."

Portions of the 36-page hearing transcript were edited out, and it does not include any details of the torture al-Nashiri said took place over five years. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that any allegations of torture would be investigated. He said sections were blacked out of the transcript because of national security reasons.

Al-Nashiri is one of 14 so-called high-value detainees that were moved to Guantanamo in September from secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons abroad. The military is conducting hearings for the 14 to determine if they are enemy combatants, who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted for war crimes.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17871604/

I plotted E. African terror, sez Qaeda big

ny daily
WASHINGTON - Another top Al Qaeda thug has confessed, this time to masterminding attacks on the destroyer Cole and two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

Walid Bin Attash admitted to his "many roles" in the suicide bombings. But unlike 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, he didn't offer regrets.

Attash told a military tribunal at the Guantanamo naval base that he was "the link" between Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and the Nairobi, Kenya, cell behind the 1998 embassy attacks that killed 213 people, including 12 Americans.

Attash also said he was with Bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Oct. 12, 2000, when a small boat blew a hole in the Cole, moored in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors.

"I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation," Bin Attash admitted. He bought the boat and explosives, and was in charge of "recruiting the members that did the operation."

The tribunal is likely to determine Bin Attash is an "enemy combatant" eligible for a war crimes trial.

Military trials for low-level detainees are set to begin this summer, and trials for senior operatives may begin soon after, according to an informed source.

Gary Solis, a Georgetown University expert on the law of war, said the confessions make it much easier to prosecute.

"You take the evidence handed to the military on a platter, verify it, convict them and sentence them to death," Solis said.