Prosecute War Crimes!

Unexploded bomb vest found in Uganda; 4 arrested … By MAX DELANY and GODFREY OLUKYA, Associated Press Writers Max Delany And Godfrey Olukya, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 46 mins ago KAMPALA, Uganda – Investigators found an unexploded suicide vest with ball bearings in a disco hall in Uganda's capital, suggesting that militants had planned a third bombing during the World Cup final, officials said Tuesday. Four foreign suspects were arrested in connection with the find. The discovery of a suicide vest in a suburb of Kampala on Monday was consistent with what was seen at the two blast sites in Kampala, said the inspector general of police, Kale Kaihura. The vest contained ball bearings, as did the bombs that exploded Sunday. Officials believe suicide bombers took part in the twin blasts during the World Cup final. "What we found here is consistent with what we found on both scenes of crime. And so this is a very significant lead in our investigation," Kaihura said. Four people were arrested in connection with the discovery of the unexploded vest, said Edward Ochom, the director of criminal investigations. He said the four were not Ugandan but would not say their nationalities. Kale hinted that Somali nationals could be among those arrested. Kaihura said a Ugandan militant group — the Allied Democratic Forces — may also have played a role in the attack. Like al-Shabab, the ADF is primarily a Muslim radical group. The death toll from Sunday's attack rose to 76, Kaihura said. Officials found a bomb vest, detonator, wires and ball bearings in a bag at the disco similar to a laptop computer bag, he said. Al-Shabab, Somalia's most dangerous militant group, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Islamists are calling for Uganda to withdraw their African Union peacekeeping forces from Somalia. The claim by al-Shabab, whose fighters are trained by militant veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, raises the security stakes in East Africa and has broader implications globally. The group in the past has recruited Somali-Americans to carry out suicide bombings in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab, an ultra-conservative Islamic group that has drawn comparisons to the Taliban, has long threatened to attack outside of Somalia's borders, but the bombings late Sunday are the first time the group has done so. "We warned Uganda not to deploy troops to Somalia, they ignored us," said Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabab's spokesman. "We warned them to stop massacring our people, and they ignored that. The explosions in Kampala were only a minor message to them. ... We will target them everywhere if Uganda does not withdraw from our land." Rage said a second country with peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu — Burundi — could soon face attacks. Fighting in Mogadishu between militants and Somali troops or African Union peacekeepers frequently kills civilians. The militants attacked two sites in Uganda's capital, one at an Ethiopian restaurant, the other at a rugby club where World Cup fans were watching the tournament's final at an outdoor screening.

I wouldn't worry about that... unless Kenya or Ethiopia get Nukes and that isn't likely to happen anytime soon. The say it simply means they will continue to support the TFG, but in a limited capacity in addition to Counter-Terrorism, humanitarian programs etc ie USAID TIS.

Shabab fight like real men? LooL, you must be joking, right? Launching attacks, then hiding behind old men, women & children is your idea of fighting like real men? You must be quite a real "Man" yourself.

Sorry, I do not number one believe proven Liars, and I also do not believe everything that the press conjecture or says, it`s as simple as that. Osama Bin Laden also said he was behind 9/11, and the U.S. took him at his word, as a confession. It may surprise you to know that the U.S. has zero hard evidence against him for 9/11. Doesn't slow him down for taking credit though does it? My take is first Al Shabab feigned surprise, then uncertainty, then collaboration. Seems a bit strange and when you put some of the pieces together, such as a long distance international operation out of their territory and do not have experience at and which they are not known for, it doesn't quite fit with the late confirmation. Fishy at best...

Originally posted by Che -Guevara: Maaddeey....If it turns Al-Shabaab did this. It's bad for all of us.There's really no need to do this considering the West and their minions were beginning to talk about disengaging from ineffective TFG. Not everything can be solved with bullets. Sometimes you need to play savvy politics. Sorry Che, guess your not keeping up with US DoS. They shelved the dis-engagement plan. Its now "Constructive Engagement".

Its easy for Al Shabab to claim it, whilst someone else did it for them with their same ideology in mind, their proxy. You don`t see it as operationally more difficult for A.S. than local Uganda boys? It would also make sense for A.S. to claim it if they didn't do it, to steer the investigation away from the actual perpetrators, the ADF, while the ADF blends back into the woodwork. It also makes them appear as they have a higher capability to strike internationally also, thus increasing the possibility of their funding. Terror groups sharing like minds and assisting each other for fun and profit isn't anything new.

Has any main stream media even put two and two together yet? A.Shabab may be claiming responsibility, and may be behind the attacks.... or not? Perhaps a proxy terrorist gang would make more sense than Shababies transiting Africa to launch coordinated attacks out of their area of operation? This would be much more difficult to pull off than wiring money through Hawalas to thier friends, the ADF in Uganda. Follow the money. By Shababies claiming responsibility may lighten the load of an in depth investigation additionally. They claim responsibility, and Uganda Investigators may not look as hard as if they thought it was locals. Paper Tiger.... Allied Democratic Forces National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU) The Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) is made up of Ugandan opposition forces, supported by the Government of Sudan, which fought the Government of Uganda. Insurgent groups in Uganda harass government forces and murder and kidnap civilians in the north and west. They do not, however, threaten the stability of the government. A group operating in western Uganda near the Rwenzori Mountains, the Allied Democratic Forces, emerged as a localized threat in 1996 and has inflicted substantial suffering on the population in the area. An ADF-affiliated group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU), also claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks that resulted in fatalities. Based in the Ruwenzori mountains of western Uganda, the ADF is a combination of fundamentalist Tabliq Muslim rebels and remnants of another rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). It has claimed responsibility for a string of bomb blasts that have rocked the country, particularly Kampala, this year. It also frequently links up with the ex-FAR/Interahamwe militias operating in the region and is particularly active in the Bundibugyo area of western Uganda. The ADF rebels, based in the Rwenzori Mountains, reportedly committed atrocities against the local civilian population, driving them from their homes and farms in the mountains into lowland towns. As the IDP population in the region grew to approximately 70,000 people, food became more scarce and the towns became unable to absorb them. On 04 April 1998 the US Embassy reported that bombs exploded at two restaurants in Kampala, killing five persons--including one Swedish and one Rwandan national--and wounding at least six others. The restaurants, the Nile Grill and the cafe at the Speke Hotel, are within walking distance of the US Embassy and the Sheraton Hotel. A Ugandan Government official reported to local press that the AlliedDemocratic Forces may be responsible. In the west and southwest, the rebel Allied Democratic Forces significantly heightened their activities in 1998, which included repeated attacks on civilian targets, trading centers, and private homes, resulting in hundreds of deaths and abductions. The ADF continued to plant land mines extensively and increased its attacks on both rural and urban civilian targets, police outposts, and UPDF encampments. In February 1998, 30 students were abducted by ADF rebels from Mitandi Seventh Day Adventist College in Kasese. In April 1998 rebels attacked a woman in Bundibugyo district and cut off her ears and nose. The ADF forces hacked two civilian women to death in Kasese district in May. The ADF's deadliest attack of the year occurred on 08 June 1998, when rebels killed 80 students of the KichwambaTechnical College in Kabarole district by setting locked dormitories on fire. An additional 80 students were abducted in the raid. Also in June 1998, ADF rebels abducted over l00 school children from a school in Hoima district. ADF conducted dozens of small-scale raids that resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths. An ADF-affiliated group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda claimed responsibility for three bus bomb attacks in August 1998 that killed 30 persons. On 09 December 1999 the Allied Democratic Forces began a renewed offensive in the Fort Portal Town, Kabarole district, and Bundibugyo Town, Bundibugyo district areas. These actions, which may have been instigated to combat the UPDF offensive "Operation Mountain Sweep," targeted barracks and a regional prison.

Hold on to your shorts Burundi....

Can I be the Minister of Khat importation?

Somalia: A revered Somali cleric lauds for IGAD troop contribution to Somalia Published On: Saturday, July, 10 2010 - 13:50:33 Mogadishu.Sunatimes- A most revered cleric in Somalia Sheik Omar Faruk has on Saturday vehemently welcomed the recent decision by IGAD member nations to urgently send 2000 peacekeepers to Somalia. During a telephone interview from the holy city of Mekkah in Saudi Arabia, the cleric said that Somali government was right to ask neighboring countries for military assistance to help it restore peace and stability into the country. Although the renowned cleric welcomed the move, while the Alqaeda-linked militants in Somalia accused Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed of demanding what they described "infidels" for help. Spokesman for Al shabab Sheik Ali Mahmoud Raghe on Friday said that Somali president handed the whole country over to IGAD. "A Muslim government can invite every one, to help it stabilize its country, no mater whether they are infidels or not, but the importance is to look for solution" the well known cleric said. He called on the Alqaeda-proxy AL shabab and Hezbal Islam extremists to lay down the army and negotiate with the legal government in Somalia which has the recognition and the support of international community. The east African regional body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) earlier this week decided to engage more forcefully in search for a lasting peace and stability to Somalia which has been in chaos since 1991. The prolonged civil strife and lawlessness in Somalia engulfed the lives of more than half a million people since the country descended into anarchy nearly 20 years ago. At least 22,000 of those were killed in the restive capital for the past three years while more than 1.5 million others fled from their homes. info@sunatimes.com

The upshot of political subjugation By Abukar Arman The IGAD resolution will embolden the very extremist elements it is intended to subdue [AFP] If I could think of any tactfully discreet and diplomatically clear way to describe the outcome of the 15th Extraordinary Session of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government on Somalia without compromising the essence of my message, I would have simply chosen that approach. Therefore, going crude is the appropriate way: As a patched up political charade destined to embolden the very extremist elements that it is intended to subdue and push Somalia deep into anarchy and destruction, the resolution passed in that session is haphazardly imprudent and wildly dangerous. IGAD (the Intergovernmental Authority on Development) was right in describing Somalia's still-raging political fire as a situation likely to pose a serious threat to the stability of the region and perhaps beyond. However, IGAD is wrong in hastefully approving to send troops from the "frontline states" to Somalia despite the fact that UN Resolution 1725 bans the deployment of any troops from bordering states. IGAD is planning to immediately send 2,000 troops and possibly add another 15,000 at a later date. This, needless to say, means that Ethiopian troops would inevitably be part and parcel of the first contingent, the latter, or all. After all, in the Horn of Africa, in terms of military might, experience, and political clout, Ethiopia holds unmistakable distinction that could even guarantee her the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) command. Already, in an action item that is bound to undermine the credibility of AMISOM and confuse its command centre, IGAD directed its secretariat to open an office in Mogadishu within 15 days. The purpose of this office is described as "[to] enable AMISOM and IGAD [to] establish in Mogadishu an operational level coordination mechanism to strengthen and harmonise their support to the Transitional Federal Government [TFG] in the areas of training, establishment of command and control structure". Questionable timing Evidently, this swift move comes at a time when in the US consensus favouring a policy toward Somalia that is based on constructive engagement instead of the "constructive disengagement" that was being pushed by some analysts is gaining momentum. Unlike the failed policy of the previous administration that was entirely based on counter-terrorism and military power, the soon to be announced policy of the current administration is expected to rely on soft power and building relationships. More strangely, the IGAD move comes at a time when the TFG has successfully expanded the areas that it controls in Mogadishu, and the Somali diaspora is vigorously pushing the TFG toward dialogue and reconciliation. The timing does indeed raise certain questions, if not suspicions. The wounds from the brutal two year Ethiopian occupation that killed over 20,000 Somalis and gave al-Shabab its current status are still nightmarishly fresh. Mind you, the current TFG is a coalition government made up of those who ushered in Ethiopia and those who resisted the occupation. However, it is no secret that this coalition is already hanging from a cliff as a number of cabinet members representing the Islamist side have been killed, sacked or pressured out since the Djibouti agreement. The scale is clearly lopsided as individual ministers regardless of their competence and productivity were unabashedly replaced in the recent controversial TFG reshuffle while other questionable characters are awarded key positions. And as the argument goes: two decades later, Ethiopia still micromanages Somalia's internal political affairs as became apparent in the TFG agreement with the ever-morphing Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah. Understandably Ethiopia has certain security concerns; and these concerns should be addressed through the appropriate channels. It is in the best interest of Somalia to forge a peace treaty reflecting national and regional security threats and the future economic opportunities with Ethiopia and other neighbours. However, Somalia should allow no foreign entities - states or non-states - to exploit its weak position and dictate their political wish-list to it or infringe its sovereignty. Self-respect In fairness however, Ethiopia is not the only potential impediment to sustaining the Djibouti agreement and paving the way for lasting peace and reconciliation. Bloody-handed Somalis still continue to position against one another for zero-sum gains. At the end of the day, it is the Somalis who would have to learn at this time of great adversity to make peace with one another, and make space for one another. So, internally, it is time to raise the bar, though nothing of significance could happen until our human capacity and attitudes are profoundly improved; and that may not happen until something extraordinary that would compel the Somali diaspora to reconnect with its homeland emerges. Meanwhile, as a profoundly brain-drained nation, Somalia is still struggling to learn that nations, just like individuals, are treated in ways that are equal to the self-respect that they demonstrate. And, so long as those who grab power (or are entrusted with it) continue to fall over each other into the very condition that ultimately humiliates their persons and subjugates their country, business will continue as usual. Finally, though arming one faction against another might create a temporary advantage to one group or another, it does not produce a viable long-term security and lasting peace. Therefore, continued exploitation and indeed subjugation of Somalia can only prolong the bloodshed and misery. And under such conditions, neither Somalia, nor the region, nor the community of nations that rely economically on the Indian Ocean and Red Sea could benefit in the long run. Abukar Arman is Somalia's special envoy to the US. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

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From on outsider looking in the solution seems easy enough. You may find it oversimplified, silly and it might anger you but just think about it for one minute. First recognize you are all Somalis, and one people who all want the same end goal. Peace, security & stability. This would require ENDING clan/tribal rivalries. I know, big step there. It seems that if a true Somali leader would step forward, that he/she could somehow rally the people for this support. I think the Somali Diaspora would strongly support that idea. Second, combine Somaliland & Puntland to form Somalia. Invite the TFG, they leave Mog and Mog falls into Al Shabab hands. Big deal, what is there anyway? Combine all three governmental authorities to form one government in a power sharing deal. This would accomplish a few things. Instant recognition which would enhance and invite world business and foreign government help promoting the economic system and stability. Enhanced security as now you have all three separate forces combined, and a serious force to deter further Al Shabab attacks. Ends piracy, and promotes stabilization. Third, your line in the sand is just north of Mog. Al Shabab and others may hold that ground for now, but with your new security and combined forces they could easily be rooted out, as only the top one quarter of Shabab are real idealogical fighters and they would quickly loose their foothold.

Good Luck to the TFG, Cabinet ministers and their new power sharing deal. Make something happen & think out of the box.

"We can't let you leave." The African Union soldiers with whom we'd thrown in our lot a few hours earlier were shocked to learn we actually planned to head back into the city of Mogadishu, abandoning the relative safety of their base on the outskirts of the Somali capital. Their commander was adamant we not be allowed to go. Finally, after much protestation from our side, the soldiers came up with a compromise. We were told to write a letter saying that if we left the base and were killed in Mogadishu, it would be entirely our own responsibility. "You will be dead," the African Union mission spokesman told us when we finally left. "You will die today." Mogadishu, as we quickly learned, is not an easy place to visit. COMMENTS (0) SHARE: Twitter Reddit Buzz More... We had arrived there on our way back to Kandahar, another war-torn city unwelcoming to outsiders, where kidnappings, disappearances, and gunfire have sadly become regular features of life. But Mogadishu feels different. As we've seen while living for the last two years in the stronghold of Afghanistan's Taliban revival, Kandahar at war is still a functioning city, with traffic, construction noise, and large markets. Mogadishu is an empty moonscape of anarchy and destruction. There are precious few remnants of everyday life. "Anything can happen," Nuruddin, our driver, host, and security advisor, warned us as we headed from the African Union base to the ironically named Peace Hotel. We would be the hotel's only two guests. Nuruddin gave us a short lecture when we arrived; several other foreigners had been killed or kidnapped before our visit. "There are weird people around. They would sell you -- you are a lot of money for them." Mostly, we were struck by the empty menace of the place. No one stays on the street after 3 p.m. Hundreds of thousands have abandoned Mogadishu altogether for camps outside the city. "I don't think there can be anybody left in the city anymore," is how the besieged administrator of one camp put it when we spoke. The Failed States Index 2010 Photo Essay: Postcards from Hell In the Beginning There Was Somalia The only crowded place in Mogadishu is the main hospital. In the first 10 minutes of our visit, three patients were brought into the emergency room, each with bullet or shrapnel wounds. In the intensive care ward, beds are filled with the war-wounded -- and these are only the ones whose injuries are so severe that sending them home would result in certain death; the rest are discharged due to overcrowding. Abdul Aziz, 4, suffered a severe skull injury when the area of northern Mogadishu where his family lives was shelled. The hospital did not have the necessary expertise to repair his skull. So instead of surgery, Abdul's father was given an official-looking letter. It read: "This injury needs the attention of a neurosurgeon not available at this time in Mogadishu." He had been waiting 28 days for outside help to arrive. It hadn't. When we asked to visit the front lines, Somalia's state defense minister was skeptical: "Did you bring enough men for that?" He agreed to accompany us, though, and we traveled in two jeeps, the second car packed with a half-dozen guards. The front was marked by a row of green sandbags. The ground was covered with empty shell and AK-47 casings. On the other side, not visible but clearly not far away either, were fighters of the insurgent group al-Shabab. Somali insurgents are cloaked in as much mystique as the Taliban are in Afghanistan. Both groups fight with guerrilla-style tactics: raids on government areas and checkpoints, targeted operations involving small numbers of fighters, and suicide bombings. We saw much evidence of this -- and little presence of Somalia's nominal government, the country's 14th since 1991. Officially, the fighting in Somalia is about Islam and ideology, but in reality it is also about money and power -- and in this way at least it reminded us of Afghanistan. Back at the Peace Hotel, a Somali friend visited us for dinner. Our conversation turned toward U.S. intervention and what the arrival of American troops in Somalia could mean. "Of course they should come," he told us. "We need the money. We need the contracts." The wars being fought in Somalia and Afghanistan are both difficult and tragic. Mogadishu is a stark reminder of how much worse the situation in Kandahar could get. Indeed, the paranoia that has settled into Kandahar these days feels uncomfortably similar to what we felt during the few days we spent wrapped up in flak jackets in Somalia's capital. Of course, few people have been to both cities to study the comparison. One night we invited a new friend in Mogadishu to visit us in Kandahar. His response: "Visit you in Afghanistan? You're crazy! It's too dangerous."

"recommended a 22,500-strong force to stabilise Somalia". Well, that would be the final blow to fragile Mogadishu. Sending underpaid foreign peacekeeping troops to war torn countries is always a problem, because said troops are never paid enough to make their deployment worthwhile, and they usually set about trying to find new & creative ways to boost their pay, ie selling drugs, prostitution, stealing food and re-selling it etc etc. We have seen it all before, it just doesn't work. If the UN is really serious about peacekeeping in Somalia, they should contract out a serious Muslim force, pay them well and establish some decent oversight.

The last skirmish a couple o years back involved soldiers from Eritrea deserting to Djiboutis side, not border disputes. I know because I was there and spoke with Djiboutian soldiers firsthand. Eritrea soldiers started shooting at their own guys when they realized what was happening. It all went downhill after that.

He doesn't really need to. The French are there to save his **** if Eritrea kicks off again. Eritreans should know their soldiers are shooting targets for French boys.

"Djibouti planned to send 450 soldiers to Somalia in January to boost the AMISOM peace mission, but the UN resolution ties the hands of the small Red Sea country". Guelle wont send troops unless he can figure out a way to make money on their heads. If PeaceKeepers get paid $8 dollars a day, he will take at least half of that.

The Committee to Destroy the World http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7iH034gzG-MJ:www.foreignpolicy.com/issues/curre nt+FP+The+Committee+to+Destroy+the+World&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us Why Bad Guys Matter They put the failed in failed states. BY PAUL COLLIER | JULY/AUGUST 2010 There are bad leaders, good leaders, and great leaders. Let's start with one very bad one. When I met Sani Abacha in 1997, the Nigerian dictator struck me as uninterested in matters economic, his eyes glazing over as I sketched Nigeria's untapped opportunities. But I later realized how badly I had misjudged him: In his short five years in office, he reportedly succeeded in amassing some $4 billion in private bank accounts overseas. It was only his country's economy that bored him. Good thing for Nigeria that he passed away when he did, in 1998. During the subsequent oil boom, more scrupulous leaders enabled Nigeria to accumulate $70 billion in reserves. Just think how much of that Abacha would have squirreled away. Leaders matter, for better or, more likely, for worse. Sure, some of Asia's "benign" autocrats have turned their ambitions to building strong national economies. But not in Africa and many of the other countries that I call the bottom billion -- quite a number of which crowd the upper reaches of the Failed States Index. There, the most common form of autocracy is anything but benign. These leaders not only neglect to build the economy, they actively avoid doing so. The best-known instance is President Mobutu Sese Seko's order to "build no roads" in the vast country then known as Zaire. Why? Because without roads, it was harder for opponents to organize a rebellion against him. The world, unfortunately, has many Mobutus. When I asked Kenya's autocratic president, Daniel arap Moi, why he had banned food imports from neighboring Uganda, his answer so tortured common sense that one of his aides had to take me aside and tell me the real story: Some of the president's businessman friends had stocks of food warehoused and wanted prices to rise. In Angola, I once asked a finance minister why, in defiance of economic logic, his country operated multiple exchange rates. The president used the dual system to siphon off money, he whispered. Until last year, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe did the same. Bad guys matter, and when they rule, they make weak states weaker. And the countless anecdotes are backed up by numbers: In a celebrated study, economists Benjamin Jones and Benjamin Olken looked at whether the death of a country's leader altered economic growth. It did, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. Recently, an Oxford colleague, Anke Hoeffler, and I sifted through their results again, distinguishing this time between democrats and autocrats. We found that in democracies, changing the leader does not change growth -- all leaders are disciplined to perform tolerably. But in autocracies, the growth rates are as unpredictably varied as the leaders' personalities. Here lies the difference between good leaders and great ones: Good leaders put right the policy catastrophes of bad leaders; great leaders, like the men who shaped the U.S. Constitution, build the democratic checks and balances that make good leaders redundant. So much for the good and the great -- now back to the bad. Like Tolstoy's unhappy families, leaders can be bad in many different ways, and the extremes of their badness matter out of all proportion to their frequency in the population. At the extreme of greed are kleptocrats. At the extreme of insensitivity to the pain of others are psychopaths. At the extreme of preference for getting their own way are tyrants. Although people with such characteristics are rare, they have a knack for getting themselves into precisely those positions where their traits are most damaging. Kleptocrats do not aspire to become monks; they want to be bankers. Psychopaths do not dream of being nurses; they strive to be soldiers. Tyrants do not plead to be social workers; they scheme to become politicians. At the core of all successful societies are procedures for blocking the advancement of such men. The safety mechanisms are often rather mundane. Britain, for example, transformed the 19th-century civil service from corruption to efficiency by replacing promotion by patronage with competitive examinations. The weakest states utterly lack such defenses. There, as extremely bad people of all three varieties infiltrate a wide range of key positions, countries are brought to their knees -- and not just by politicians. Banks are routinely run by thieves who bankrupt them by "lending" the deposits to themselves. Rebel armies are led not by liberators, but by people more suited for a mental hospital. Take Liberian commander Prince Johnson, who filmed himself calmly sipping a beer while his captive, President Samuel Doe, was tortured to death. But among the many varieties of badness, political tyranny is surely the most destructive. Politically ambitious crooks do not just fritter away the money they make from corruption; they invest it in future power. And that should frighten us most of all.

Somalia tops the list... http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/21/2010_failed_states_index_interactive_map_and_rankin gs

Maybe SSL should invite the TFG to Hargeisa to re-group and form the new nation from there? I know that statement will make alot of people angry, but if you think about it, it could work, and has been suggested before. After all, whats in a name? The entire new nation of Somalia could be called Somaliland.

Simple: Because Somalia still claims Somaliland as its own, and currently not one state recognizes Somaliland. Criteria for inclusion: The criteria for inclusion means a polity must either: have de facto control over a territory, a population, a government, a capacity to enter into diplomatic negotiations with other states, claim statehood, and lack recognition from at least one state, or it must be recognized as a state by at least one state and lack recognition from at least one state. Here are some noteworthy entities that do meet some but not all of these criteria: Uncontacted peoples who exercise varying degrees of de facto sovereignty over the areas under their control, but either live in societies that cannot be defined as states or whose status as such are currently too data deficient to be definitively known. Entities considered to be micronations are not included, even though they generally claim to be sovereign and independent. It is often up to debate whether a micronation truly controls its claimed territory. The permanent populations of micronations are generally small. Foreign relations of Somaliland are the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1] Somaliland is a de facto independent state,[2] which is regarded by all foreign governments as part of Somalia. The country's self-declared independence remains unrecognised by the international community.[3][4] Due to its status, the Republic of Somaliland currently has no official contacts with any nation. International recognition as a sovereign, stable state, remains at the forefront of the government's current foreign policy. Other key priorities are encouraging international aid and foreign investment.[5] The position of the Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Conference, and United Nations and the African Union favouring the preservation of existing national borders has so far prevented recognition of Somaliland's sovereignty. An African Union fact-finding mission that visited Somaliland in early 2005 recently published a report that recommended favourable consideration for recognising Somaliland's independence

Of prior donor nation pledges made to the TFG, only 1/4 roughly were ever collected or materialized. Though Asian countries are wanting Tuna especially bad like a crack addict needs a fix, I doubt this amount will ever materialize.