Somalia thread for the week ending August 30

An article published at the UN's OCHA site IRIN provides voice to a little-mentioned aspect of the international community's focus on the waters off the coast of Somalia,

SOMALIA: Livelihoods - and lives - at risk in Puntland

Fishermen in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, are losing their livelihoods and sometimes their lives due to foreign vessels invading their waters, says a minister.

"More and more fishermen in Puntland are coming to us to complain about foreign vessels destroying their nets and denying them access to fishing grounds," Mohamed Farah Aden, Puntland Minister of Fisheries, told IRIN.

He said these foreign vessels were destroying livelihoods. "I have a number of reports of Somali fishermen killed. These people are not only killing their livelihoods but they are killing them as well."

The minister said his office was compiling figures of how many had died in attacks by foreign vessels.

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Jama Isse, a member of a fishing cooperative in the port city of Bosasso, told IRIN that many members were idle due to attacks by foreign ships. "People are afraid to go out there. Sometimes we are mistaken for pirates and sometimes these big fishing ships ram our boats or cut our nets.

"If the situation does not improve, many of us will be forced to join the pirates," he said. "We have no other means of making a living."

Ahmed Ali Abdalla, who owns several fishing boats, said the number of foreign ships had increased since the foreign navies arrived.

He said the foreign ships were using the naval forces as protection and denying locals the opportunity to fish. "They even take our nets with everything in them. It is like taking food from our mouths."

Local fishermen were caught between the pirates and the foreign forces, "but the worst are those fishing illegally", he said. "Some of them are armed and have even fired on us or taken our boats."

According to the analyst, to end insecurity in Somali waters what is needed is a comprehensive and integrated approach that addresses "not only piracy, but also the problem of illegal fishing, which pirates routinely cite to justify their actions".

Somalia has a 3,330km coastline, with major landing sites in Kismayo, Mogadishu, Merka and Brava in the south, and Eil, Bargal, Bolimog, Las Korey and Berbera, and Bosasso in the north. It also has large species, including tuna and mackerel; smaller stocks, such as sardines; sharks and lobster.

IRIN ran a similar article in April this year, quoting the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources of the TFG - SOMALIA: Getting tough on foreign vessels to save local fishermen

Relatedly,

Reuters: Illegal fishing evades U.N. crackdown -study

Illegal fishing is depleting the seas and robbing poor nations in Africa and Asia of resources, but a lack of global cooperation is undermining efforts to track rogue vessels, an environmental group said on Tuesday.

The Pew Environment Group, a Washington-based think-tank, has found that a United Nations scheme to oblige ports to crack down on illegal fishing boats is handicapped by a lack of accurate information, implementation and participation.

In the five years from 2004, of 176 vessels blacklisted by regional fishing authorities, only 55 turned up on port records, Pew said in a report it presented to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome.

In some cases, ports were not checking ships' identity, using the unique vessel number on their hulls. In others, ships had found ways of avoiding detection, such as changing their names, sometimes doing so mid-voyage before entering a region where enforcement was stricter.

Blacklisted vessels are, in theory, banned from landing fish at ports in the regions signed up to the scheme.

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Pew estimates that a fifth of all fish landed come from illegal, unregulated or unreported vessels -- and this figure rises to around half for valuable species like blue fin tuna.

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"For some countries, this represents a major loss of income ... and is having a direct impact on the development of these countries," Flothmann said.

"In Somalia, a country which is totally incapable of enforcing anything in its waters, coastal fisheries have been devastated, turning fishermen into recruits for pirate gangs."

Part of the problem that Asian countries which consume large quantities of fish -- such as China, South Korea and Taiwan -- are not too scrupulous about where the catch comes from, [Stefano Flothmann, head of International Ocean Governance at Pew] said.

Europe, however, was also not exempt from criticism: much of the fishing fleet from countries like Spain and Norway use flags of convenience to dodge fishing quotas, he said.

New S. Korean anti-piracy unit starts operations in Somali waters

SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- A fresh contingent of 300 South Korean troops has begun operating off the Somali coast, replacing an anti-piracy unit that had been deployed there since April, officials said Monday.

The Dae Jo Yeong destroyer took over on Saturday from the 4,500-ton Munmu the Great, which has escorted a total of 300 boats and is due to return to South Korea by mid-October, Joint Chiefs of Staff officials here said.

The 300-crew Munmu the Great, the first South Korean warship sent to operate under the U.S.-led anti-piracy drive, rescued seven commercial vessels, including a North Korean one, during its deployment.

Approximately 500 South Korean ships ply the Gulf of Aden each year. About 150 of them are vulnerable to pirate attacks because of their low speed, according to the defense ministry.

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We'll have to wait & see how this story develops.

Somali pirates open fire on US navy helicopter

MANAMA (AFP) – Somali pirates aboard a captured vessel have opened fire on a US navy helicopter on the high seas as it carried out a surveillance mission over the boat, the navy said on Thursday.

There were no reported casualties or damage from the incident which occurred on Wednesday morning off the pirate-infested [sic] coast of Somalia, said a statement from the Bahrain-based US Naval Forces Central Command.

"Somali pirates aboard the motor vessel (M/V) Win Far fired what appeared to be a large calibre weapon at a US navy SH-60B helicopter," the statement said.

"The helicopter was conducting a routine surveillance flight of M/V Win Far, currently held at anchorage by Somali pirates south of Garacad, Somalia, when the incident occurred," it added.

The shooting came as the helicopter returned to the USS Chancellorsville, where a video recording of the incident was noted, it said, adding that during the flight the crew was unaware of the attack.

The navy identified the Win Far as a Taiwanese-flagged vessel which was seized by pirates earlier this year.

"Over the past 135 days it has been used as a 'mother ship' to conduct other known pirate attacks, most notably the US-flagged Maersk-Alabama in April," it said.

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The world's naval powers have deployed dozens of warships to the lawless waters off Somalia over the past year to curb attacks by pirates threatening one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.

High among them is the fishing trade, of course...

Something AP left out of their coverage: A recent Ecoterra International SMCM update posted this summation of the Win Far

FV WIN FAR 161 - The Taiwanese fishing vessel was seized April 6, 2009 near the Seychelles. It had then been involved in the attack on MV ALABAMA and is now still moored about 7 nm from Garacad. The crew of 30 (17 Filipinos, six Indonesians, five Chinese and two Taiwanese) is still together and on board. The ship's skipper and first engineer are Taiwanese nationals. The 700-ton long-liner is owned by a Taiwan company, which regularly sent their vessels into Somali waters from the Seychelles - a key transshipment point for poached tuna from the Indian Ocean to Japan.

AP reports Win Far as MV (motor vessel) while Ecoterra International and other sources refer to the Win Far as FV (fishing vessel). Is there a protocol for which acronym merits the greater emphasis? At any rate, the AP article fails to even mention the word "fish".

From an April 9 Ecoterra International SMCM update,

Among its 30 crew members of sea-jacked Taiwanese FV WIN FAR 161, the ship's skipper and first engineer are Taiwanese nationals, while five others are Chinese, 17 are Filipinos and six are Indonesian. In addition to trying to get the latest information about the ship through its representative office in South Africa, Taiwan's foreign ministry has sought the assistance of the U.K. Maritime Trade Organization, the maritime liaison office of America's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, the Seychelles fishery bureau and the Somali harbour bureau in rescuing the hijacked Kaohsiung-based long-liner. Asked whether the ship has sent out a distress signal, Chen said the incident was reported back to the ship's owner in Taiwan by three other fishing vessels of the same company working in the area. They all returned to the Seychelles immediately after the incident occurred. As to whether the Chinese government has offered to assist, Chen said so far no such offer has been made but the ministry is actively seeking help from all types of channels. The Taiwan longliner was hijacked and used to hijack other fishing vessels in the area, the International Maritime Bureau said.

But other sources said that the reported attack on another vessel of the group did not succeed and the sea-jacked vessel was later seen by aerial surveillance leaving the area, while having a catamaran in tow. It is, however, assumed that the fishing vessel as well as the catamaran will be used to seize other ships.

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Garowe Online: Hiran region's Islamist governor returns home amid tension

BELETWEIN, Somalia Aug 28 (Garowe Online) - The governor of Somalia’s Hiran region has returned home after spending months in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Radio Garowe reports.

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Somali government forces tightened security in and around Beletwein in anticipation of the governor’s arrival. An armed convoy escorted Sheikh Ma’ow from Kala-Beyr junction in Hiran to the town of Beletwein, where he urged supporters to uphold the peace and to defend Shari'ah law.

Sheikh Ma’ow has spent the past three months in Mogadishu, where he held meetings with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake, and other government leaders.

He was not in Beletwein when former Somali Security Minister Omar Hashi was killed in a deadly suicide bombing among scores of civilians and soldiers at a Beletwein hotel two months ago.

It is not clear what the return of Sheikh Ma’ow will mean in Beletwein, where Somali government forces control the eastern part of town while the western neighborhoods are controlled by insurgent fighters loyal to Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam.

During the Ethiopian intervention that ended in Jan. 2009, Sheikh Ma’ow was the leader of Islamist factions in Hiran region.

But since the election of Sheikh Sharif as Somali president earlier this year, loyalties have been broken and Sheikh Ma’ow sided with President Sheikh Sharif’s interim government, angering local insurgents who accuse Sheikh Sharif of being a Western puppet.

Shabelle Media: Ethiopian and TFG troops conduct operations in Beledweyn town

more Ethiopian and TFG soldiers are conducting operations in parts of Beledweyn town in Hiran region, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Saturday.

Reports say that the government soldiers with Ethiopian troops poured into parts of the neighborhoods of Beledwetn town and continuing operations in Hawl-wadag neighborhood in the west side of the town on Saturday morning where there had been forces loyal to Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen recently.

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Residents said that more government soldiers could be seen in the streets of the Beledweyn town searching the traffic using the roads of the town while the Ethiopian troops confined some limited areas like the police station and Madina hotel and streets that connects neighborhoods of the town.

Witnesses said that sporadic gunfire could be heard in the town as both the Ethiopian and government troops still continuing their operations in parts of the town saying that the Islamist fighters of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen left from the town peacefully as the Ethiopian troops reached there.

Ethiopian troops make military bases in Beledweyn town

Ethiopian troops have made military bases in the west site of Beledweyn town in Hiran region, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Saturday.

Reports from the town say that more government soldiers with Ethiopian troops entered overnight in the west side of the town and made search operations there until Saturday morning where they lately made military bases.

Locals said that government soldiers robbed some of the people’s belongings in the areas where both the allied troops reached today adding that the movement of the traffic, people and business returned normal.

Witnesses told Shabelle radio that two people were also killed in the town as the government soldiers opened fire to the people. One of Beledweyn university officials told Shabelle radio that the troops crushed computers and took money that laid at the office of the university declining to mention its amount.

There is no official who talked about the operation of both Ethiopian and TFG troops who jointly entered to parts of Beledweyn town in central Somalia and conducted operations

Doesn't sound like that will gain the compromised governor any more popularity and even a temporary ethiopian presence, along w/ any looting & other banditry by the govt's militias, only favors the guerillas advantage in ultimately taking back the territory.

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VOA: Paris-based Group Says Accused Somali Pirates Denied Rights

A Paris-based legal aid network, Lawyers of the World, says agreements signed by the United States, Britain, the European Union, and Denmark to transfer suspected Somali pirates to Kenya for trial violate the human rights of the suspects. The legal group is representing more than 40 detainees captured by European navies off the coast of Somalia and handed over to Kenya for prosecution.

Lawyers of the World representative Avi Singh tells VOA his organization has written to the United Nations, the European Union, and to Kenya's foreign ministry, expressing deep concern that more than 100 suspected pirates awaiting trial in Kenya are being denied basic human rights and the right to a fair trial.

"Under Kenyan domestic law, there is no entitlement to legal aid for anybody who is not accused of a capital offense," said Singh. "So, suspected pirates have no opportunity to have a lawyer. They have no opportunity to review the evidence against them. At no point is there any independent adjudication of whether these people are actually pirates, have actually committed a crime or not. So, basically, you have ship-catching to conviction."

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Under agreements signed in the past year with the United States, Britain, the European Union, and most recently with Denmark, Kenyan courts are responsible for trying suspected pirates apprehended anywhere in the region by foreign navies. In return, Kenya is said to be receiving funding and support to reform its much-criticized judicial system.

Earlier this year, U.N. human-rights investigator Phillip Alston published a scathing report on widespread judicial corruption in Kenya. The country's courts are also reportedly overwhelmed by a backlog of more than 80,000 cases.

Singh says none of the funds given to the prosecution and courts are making their way to Shimo la Tewa, a notoriously overcrowded prison in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa. He says many of the accused hijackers have been there for months without adequate medical care and access to such basic amenities as soap.

"There are juveniles in there and they all have medical ailments," continued Singh. "There is actually a 14 year-old kid with bullet wounds. There is somebody with a bullet still in the body. They have had no contact with any family members or any opportunity for contact with anybody in Somalia since their arrest."

...

Lawyers of the World has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to deliver food and medicine to piracy suspects and to monitor their treatment in jail.

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Following the previous thread, here are a few more stories related to efforts to block China in the Indian Ocean

Stars and Stripes: U.S. plans land-based UAV patrols to combat piracy

U.S. officials plan to use MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the Indian Ocean as a way to combat piracy in the region.

About 75 U.S. military personnel and civilians will be headed to the Seychelles islands in the coming weeks to set up the Reaper operations, which could start in October or November. U.S. Africa Command is calling the Navy-led mission Ocean Look.

The U.S. will base the Reapers — to be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — at Seychelles’ Mahé regional airport, Vince Crawley, AFRICOM spokesman, said.

The Navy has been using ship-based UAVs in the region for some time, but using land-based drones for counterpiracy work is new, he said.

...

The mission should last several months, with a Reaper airborne at all times, Crawley said. Details on exactly how long the UAVs would be in the Seychelles are still being worked out, he said.

The UAVs would not be armed.

“We will get it up and running and see for a few months if it is the right assets and location (for counterpiracy). It is a very strategic location,” Crawley said.

According to San Diego-based General Atomics, which manufactures the Reaper, the UAV can stay in the air for 30 hours and fly at speeds up to 275 mph.

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In addition to Reapers, the Navy has experimented with operating P-3 Orion patrol aircraft at the same Seychelles airport. A P-3 crew with Squadron VP-10 operating out of Djibouti stopped off at the Seychelles overnight from Aug. 12 to Aug. 13 to test the idea.

“I believe the main focus would be maritime security and counterpiracy operations,” said Navy Capt. John Moore, commodore of Combined Task Force 67 in Sigonella, Italy.

The P-3s would not be permanently based there, Moore said.

Orions with a combat radius of 2,380 nautical miles can cover and survey a large area, the captain said.

“They add a lot of situational awareness. I would say that our assessment (of operating from the Seychelles) proved successful. We could do this,” Moore said.

From a story in the Seychelles Nation on the latter, dated August 12,

US surveillance plane visits Seychelles

As part of US support for Seychelles against piracy and other security threats, a P-3 Orion aircraft of the United States Africa Command arrives in Seychelles today.

The visit of this military plane is said by the US embassy in Port Louis, Mauritius, to be a further sign of the ongoing partnership between the people of the US and of Seychelles.

The P-3 Orion, a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft, has been the US Navy’s frontline, land-based maritime patrol aircraft since the 1960s.

Originally designed as a long-range, anti-submarine warfare patrol plane, the P-3C’s mission has evolved since the late 1990s to include surveillance either at sea or over land, where its long range and long loiter time have proved invaluable assets.

The P-3C has advanced submarine detection sensors such as directional frequency and ranging sonobuoys, and magnetic anomaly detection equipment.

The avionics system is integrated by a general purpose digital computer that supports all the tactical displays and monitors, automatically launches weapons and provides flight information to the pilots. The system also coordinates navigation information and accepts sensor data input for tactical display and storage.

The aircraft will leave Seychelles tomorrow.

From a (unattributed) press release by the Republic of Seychelles Office of the President the second week of August,
US Navy steps up Seychelles piracy protection

The president of the Republic of Seychelles, James Michel, has hailed this week's discussions with General William E. Ward, commander of US Africa Command(AFRICOM), as “extremely warm and fruitful.”
President James Michel has welcomed the announcement by the United States of America of its intention to operate surveillance assets, to include P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles in Seychelles.
The announcement follows in depth high-level discussions between the two countries on means of strengthening the security situation in the region, which builds on recently ratified provisions of the Status of Forces Agreement by the Seychelles National Assembly.

...

“This new venture is both a concrete step in the fight against piracy and a symbol of the trust and understanding which exists between the governments of the Republic of Seychelles and the United States of America. We look forward to continually strengthening this partnership based on our mutual desire for peace and stability in the region,” the President stated following the meeting.

The EU is basing two surveillance planes in the Seychelles as well.

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African Union to 'train Somalia police': officials

MOGADISHU, Somalia Aug 29 (Garowe Online) - The national police chief in Somalia has said that the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) in the Somali capital Mogadishu will begin training police recruits, Radio Garowe reports.

Gen. Abdi Qeybdiid, Somalia's national police boss, spoke Saturday at a ceremony in Mogadishu marking the returning of police officers who completed training abroad.

"AMISOM previously maintained [only] a military force now there are police units [in AMISOM] who will train our police recruits," Gen. Qeybdiid said.

He noted that new police recruits will be "trained inside Somalia" while the officers will receive training abroad. He did not specify which countries are training Somali police officers.

...

Gen. Bashir Gobe, the head of police training, ... stated that the police force will begin receiving regular salary and promised 'accountability" within the Somali police force.

AMISOM commanders have not spoken publicly about training police recruits in Somalia.

From a rpt of the UN General Assembly dated June 05, titled FIFTH COMMITTEE TAKES UP FINANCING TO CONTINUE LOGISTICAL SUPPORT PACKAGE FOR AFRICAN UNION MISSION IN SOMALIA

The report states that, pending a decision by the Security Council on the establishment of a future United Nations peacekeeping operation, the continued presence of AMISOM in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, remains critical. Without both logistics support from the United Nations and donor assistance for its other requirements, AMISOM will not achieve its mandated strength of 8,000 troops and 270 civilian police or establish effective peacekeeping operations.

Indications are that the number of AMISOM troops in Mogadishu will increase shortly to 5,150 with the deployment of another battalion from Burundi. With work under way to identify additional units to meet its present mandate, AMISOM anticipates that an additional two battalions will be in place from September 2009, with the remaining troops deployed, including a further battalion and additional units, by the end of 2009. AMISOM also anticipates having 157 police in place by the end of the 2009/10 period, averaging 81 during the year.

From the latest official TFG govt web presence,

AMISOM HOLDS CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOP FOR SOMALI POLICE FORCE

The African Union Mission for Somalia held a harmonization and coordination workshop on capacity building for the Somali Police Force from 13 to 14 August in Nairobi Kenya. The two day workshop sort to harmonize all the training programmes given to the Somali Police Force by various countries and organization to avoid duplication.

According to Dr. Steven Kasiima Munanura, AMISOM Police Coordinator for Training, the intention is to understand and appreciate how training programmes for the Somali Police Force will be handled by various stakeholders.

“The main objective of this workshop is to identify linkages between AU,UNDP and other stakeholders regarding training programmes” said Dr. Kasiima. He further said the workshop will also identify and discuss funding for the training programmes.

Participants to the workshop have been drawn from the Somali Police Force, African Union Mission for Somalia ,United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Department of Peace Keeping Operations and AU’s Strategic Planning Management Unit.

From the UN SecGen's March 9 rpt on the situ in Somalia

UNDP, in close cooperation with the African Union police contingent, has also restarted the training of trainers and is in the process of selecting 2,000 additional recruits for training within the next three months in Somalia, subject to confirmation of funding availability for stipend payment. The African Union police are assisting with monitoring, mentoring and advising trained officers who are still in service.

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The technical assessment mission stressed the need for the coordination of assistance among international actors, including UNDP, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the African Union and bilateral donors. In this regard, the mission recommended that the UNDP training programme should provide a basis for continued support to the Somali Police Force. Under a clear division of labour, UNDP will train an additional 4,000 officers in 2009, while AMISOM police will help the Joint Security Committee to register, advise and mentor trained police officers and develop plans for reform and restructuring. The African Union plans to deploy 270 police advisers and mentors to AMISOM for that purpose. Additional United Nations police advisers assigned to UNPOS, initially from the standing police capacity, will support AMISOM and provide advice to the Joint Security Committee. United Nations and African Union police experts will also support the conduct by the Joint Security Committee and the Somali Police Force of medium-term training-needs analysis.

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Contingency planning for a United Nations peacekeeping operation

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Police component

60. The peacekeeping operation would include a civilian police component, deployed on the basis of a secure environment provided by United Nations forces. The tasks of the police component would include mentoring, monitoring, advising and training the Somali Police Force in policing and law enforcement, complementing UNDP activity; advising and assisting Somali institutions on community policing, investigations, police reform, restructuring and rebuilding; and facilitating the provision of equipment and infrastructure. Subject to assessment on the ground, it is estimated that the United Nations police component would comprise as many as 1,500 individual police officers and 8 formed police units (140 personnel each), which would provide protection for United Nations personnel and equipment and perform joint patrols with the Somali Police Force.

August 14 article at ISN, Africa: Police for Peace

By 2004, there were fewer than 1,000 African police officers charged with peacekeeping duties within and outside the continent. Today, that number has grown more than ten-fold and looks set to rise exponentially.

Experts link the growing demand for local police officers to work in peacekeeping missions to a trend that has seen conflicts on the continent become more internal in nature, with increasingly civilian casualties.

More often than not, these conflicts are fueled by ethnic differences, ethnic-based power struggles and unbalanced sharing of national resources. And civilians are increasingly playing a central role and are thus targeted by opposition militias.

While armies are useful in pacifying conflict areas, the calm they leave behind is usually short-lived and degenerates into human rights abuses such as rape and theft. Police, experts say, could serve as peacekeepers preventing these ‘aftermath’ atrocities and helping to rebuild the institutions of law and order.

“This concept, where the police peacekeepers take over as soon as the army peacekeepers pacify an area was first successfully used in Monrovia, Liberia. Since then, the army has demanded the police should take over where missions succeed in stabilizing,” Dr Steven Kasiima, who heads the police training and development wing of the Africa Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), told ISN Security Watch.

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The practice of cleaning up after the army, however, is only applicable where stability exists, Kasiima of AMISOM said.

“In countries like Somalia, it is currently difficult to use this practice. We are only using police peacekeepers at the government police headquarters,” he said. However, this is complimented by the ongoing training of 500 Somalia police officers in Puntland, a semi-autonomous break-away region of Somalia, which is peaceful.

Additional police officers and Somalia military officers are being trained in Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria.

When relative stability is established in Somalia, these police officers are expected to begin working with their foreign counterparts to reconstruct criminal justice systems that have been destroyed in the country and protect civilians at the grassroots level.

In pursuing this option, the police peacekeepers are playing the role of mentors and trainers – which will be critical to ensure that when peace is finally established, the host affected county has adequate police officers to take up law and order maintenance and prevent resurgence of conflicts.

However, it is not all about waiting for “stable heavens” for the police before they engage in conflict zones. A new concept in which crack units known as Formed Police Units (FPUs), is now operational in Africa.

FPUs comprise 140 heavily armed officers with special training, who can engage in combat situations to help the local police force or are called upon to protect civilians in case of hostile armed attacks.

A half a dozen such units are already operational in Darfur, compared to the target of 19 such units, and a similar arrangement is being planned for Somalia.

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Garowe Online: Justice Minister admits troops 'take extortion money'

MOGADISHU, Somalia Aug 29 (Garowe Online) - A Cabinet minister in Somalia has admitted that government forces 'take extortion money' from commercial and civilian traffic at an important checkpoint, Radio Garowe reports.

Sheikh Abdirahman Janakow, the Somali Minister of Justice, told reporters Friday in the capital Mogadishu that government forces at the checkpoint connecting Mogadishu to the agricultural town of Afgoye is manned by "loyal soldiers."

"But the government does not take any money from vehicles…securing Mogadishu includes fighting against illegal checkpoints," the Justice Minister said.

The checkpoint on the road linking Mogadishu to Afgoye is manned by Somali soldiers, who stop every vehicle and collect cash, witnesses and officials say. The checkpoint has been attacked numerous times by insurgents, most recently last Thursday.

"We asked the officers if they authorized the collection of money [at the checkpoint] and they said no," Justice Minister Janakow said, adding: "This shows that there is an illegal operation."

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Separately, commercial truck drivers in Mogadishu have declared a "three-day strike" and have refused to deliver goods to Bakara Market.

The drivers complain that they pay "lots of money" on the way to delivering goods to particular destinations.

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Le Monde: Surprise Release of Frenchman Kidnapped in Somalia

In Somalia, where piety, politics and the pursuit of personal interests, especially financial, are regarded with equal seriousness, the surprise release, Wednesday 26 August, of one of the French citizens abducted on 14 July with one of his colleagues from a hotel in Mogadishu raises many questions.

...

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From an August 19 Los Angeles Times article, functioning as a pro-AMISOM propaganda piece,

In Somalia, troops for peace end up at war

Until recently, AU political leaders and the U.N. resisted requests by AU military commanders that their troops be allowed to go on the offensive, fearing such a move would only escalate the violence and allow insurgents to taint the soldiers as "foreign invaders."

[First, they are foreigners based in Somalia, so no matter whether they admit shelling civilian neighborhoods or not, they already are tagged as foreign invaders. Both TFG's were neither created by Somali's nor inside Somalia, so there is no legitimate argument that Somalis invited AMISOM forces into their country to support the Ethiopian mission to insert and protect the transitional govts inside the Mogadishu. Somalia, as if anyone needed a refresher course, are extremely hostile to any armed foreign presence in their country, never mind one that is widely acknowledged to be the only thing keeping the flailing foreign-imposed govt alive.]

But the newly arrived force commander, Ugandan Maj. Gen. Nathan Mugisha, said he had received a green light to get tougher. "We can preempt," he said. "We don't have to be like sitting ducks, waiting to be beaten like a drum."

[If there was approval for "a green light", it has yet to be officially made public, since the UN et al just recently declined to expand AMISOM's mandate to include offensive operations.]

In an instance of the new approach, AU troops last month responded to an insurgent attack on the presidential palace by engaging for the first time in a sustained street battle, pushing the insurgents back more than four miles. It was the farthest AU troops had fought beyond their zone.

[And within 24 hours the insurgents had retaken that very same territory, as is to be expected in guerilla struggle where the various insurgent forces, while no match for direct confrontation w/ the heavily-armed military forces of AMISOM, have most other factors on their side. They can't necessarily win the battle, but they are in the best position to win the war.]

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Somalia's president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, is encouraging the AU to jump into the fight, saying operations against insurgents are justified under the mission's mandate to support the government.

"Mogadishu is the seat of the government and it should be free of insurgents," Ahmed said in an interview at Villa Somalia, the heavily guarded presidential palace. "There are many different forms of self-defense. Preemptive defensive action can be taken."

[Well doesn't that sound familiar...]

Ahmed said the AU's positions in the capital have allowed his army, which is really a collection of allied militias, to take its battle to different parts of the country. In recent weeks, government forces have made headway near the Ethiopian border.

Near the Ethiopian border, or, more accurately, from the Ethiopian border?