Yes Haddad, I did translate this and I am still working on the last paragraphs. It is not as easy as I thought and I don't have that much time because of school and work. But it is still a great exercise and it just helps me to revive my lost and forgotten Italian. I have lived and studied in Italy for about 3 years and even before leaving for Italy, I studied Italian at the Italian Cultural center ( Cultura Italiana vicino a Radio Mogadiscio e Scoula Nasser )in Mogadiscio, then at Gaheyr, SNU ( Universita` Nazionale Somala) There are global environmental networks and some conscious Somalis who are at their best making an effort to expose this toxic dumping in Somalia and other parts of the poor third world and make sure that people are aware of it. However, we are doomed forever as a nation as long as we persistently continue to perpetuate the primitive clannish creed of our nomadic forefathers. We are led by self-interested callous warlords who have no idea of what it takes to found and build a modern viable nation that could guarantee its citizens a stable and prosperous future and can compete with the modern world in terms of economics and growth. Unfortunately, we all support these criminals because of tribalism.

http://www.espressonline.it/eol/free/jsp/detail.jsp?m1s=null&m2s=a&idCategory=4791&idContent=971132 One Boss talks: Thus, the state has been paying the Ndreghetta, to dispose the toxic waste. Condemned for drug trafficking, he collaborated with the AntiMafia. Thought to be reliable, now he has delivered to the judges a memorandum. An explosive one! Ricardo Bocca. From June 2004, L’esspresso has published a series of long articles in regards to the International trafficking of toxic and radioactive waste. It is an investigation that had its first journey on the Rosso Case. It is about the motor-vessels that had been going around the Calabria coast in 1990s that is today at the center of this investigation done by Attorney of power, Paula. Following this, the inquiry of our newspaper encompasses the entire incident of the so-called ' Vessels of the see', the ships that between years Eighty and Ninety would have been sunk voluntarily with their toxic and nuclear cargo aboard. Transactions of ecological dimensions that have been investigated by the attorneys of Reggio Calabria, and that would have involved dozens of political and foreign affairs agents, intelligence agencies and manufacturers, freemasons, criminals. A case marked by the mysterious death of Captain Natale Degrazie, a key adviser to the inquirers, as well as the traces of secret exchanges between Italy and Somalia in the different stages of the cooperation regarding the cause of the killings of journalists Ilaria the Alps and Miran Hrovatin. Now, L’esspresso has come to acquaintance of a new document, a long and detailed memorandum written by the former head of ‘Ndreghetta’(see the table), kept here anonymous for security reasons who is already collaborating with authorities for past crimes, and serving now a thirty years sentence for criminal association of international drug trafficking. With the direction of the national Antimafia, he delivered pages in the first person about episodes he lived through where he revealed the illegal sinking of ships carrying radioactive materials and shifting to other ships carrying international arms trafficking with the convergence of men from the government and intelligence agencies. These documents will be looked through in full details by the Magistrate who for a long time was working at related fronts to confirm and re-evaluate the accountability of the involved individuals. Above all, all the sites have to be verified with a careful attention whether in Italy or not, where the author of the memorandum says are buried the barrels of the toxic and radioactive waste. This is a course of action L’esspresso will follow progressively in the hope of revealing the truth to those effected by these criminal incidents. The first head of the ‘ndreghetta†who understood the importance and profitability of the international business of toxic and radioactive waste was Giuseppe Nirta. He was responsible of the territory of San Luca and Mammasantissima, that is the highest rank of the organization. He had contacts with individuals of the secret service, freemasons, and politicians in Rome. This is how the memorandum delivered by the former head of the Ndreghettta to the Antimafia begins with. In which he precisely says “then, I had no direct relations with the highest ranking bosses of the San Luca family, which I was affiliated with. My role was only to manage racketeering. Nirta was a distant cousin of my mother, because of this; I had a preferential treatment with him. He so often assured me that the business of this hazardous waste would bring a lot of money into our cause.†With the help of the minister “In particular†it reads “Nirta explained to me that it has been proposed to him by the defense minister, Lelio Lagorio, with whom he had a relationship through the undersecretary of transportation, Nello Vincelli and the honorable MP, Vito Napoli, to stack barrels of toxic waste and hide it designated zones in Calabria.†He also informed me that the Napolitan Camorra (Naples racket) and the Sicilian Mafia has been already consulted with disposal of the toxic waste and that they have given their approval.†The thing however, writes the former boss “it didn’t advance immediately; there were series of meetings in the following months which were carried in the open near the sanctuary of Polsi, on the mountains of San Luca, where also the annual meeting of the Ndreghetta was held. At the meeting were represented by all the crime families: for the family of Melito Porto Salvo in the person of Giuseppino Barbaro, for the family of Sinopoli in the person of Domenico Alvaro, for the family of Gioiosa Marina in the person of Salvatore Aquino and naturally of San Luca family in the person of Giuseppe Nirta. It was the same Nirta who informed me of the particulars, because it had been decided that I would have had to take care of the organizational aspect of the family of San Luca, and therefore I had to know of the more important structures and transactions†“from these reunions†writes the Ex Boss “the meeting didn’t come up with a common front, there were divergent opinions, because they didn’t want hazardous substances buried in Aspromente, a territory loved by the bosses and at the same time, it was the area where they held and hide those kidnapped by the Ndreghetta. At the end, it was decided to discuss the great business of toxic hazardous waste with the agreement that every family would have managed the activities in the mutual respect but for the own facts but for the right reasons. So it was attempted to find sites outside of Calabria, or a foreign country, and at the end, the choice fell on as far as Italy, on the Basilicata, because it was a land of no one from the point of view of gangsters. And when it comes to the foreign country, the Turkish Mafia was contacted for the acquisition and purchase of heroine, and the person we had as a point of reference was Mehmet Serdar Alpan, who is also the financier of Lupi Griggi. From this point on, my bosses initiated to keep I informed constantly of how the situation was evolving. My first direct engagement in the field of the toxic hazardous waste started at the end of 1986, even though the operation had a prologue in the spring of 1983†It was then ", explains the Ex-boss in his memorandum, that he has been sent to Rome by Sabstiano Romeo, who in previous months succeeded Nirta as the head of Santa Luca Family. He wanted me to meet the lawyer, Giorgio De Stefano, cousin of Paolo De Stefano, boss of the Reggina Family, a man with so many political links. Romeo has said to me he would indicate me which foreign countries that would fit the disposal of the radioactive and toxic waste. De Stefano told that the ideal place would be Somalia, specifying for this reason, it would be useful to have high contact within the Socialist party. After which, through lawyer De Stefano, I had an appointment in Rome with Pietro Bearzi, then general secretary of the Chamber of Commerce for the Somalia. We met in a hotel behind Via Cristoforo Colombo, where I explicitly said that we had selected Somalia for the disposal of toxic and radioactive waste, and then we asked him if he was in position to help us. With some disturbance, I have generically told him that he would be paid with generosity. He told me his availability and asked at what level we were moving and I have vaguely answered that we have the necessary political reference or backing.†The Sixteen Hundred Barrels in Basilicata. “He left us saying to that there would be detailed reviews†continues the Ex Boss. “Therefore I reported to all the particulars to Sebastiano Romeo, who only said to me ‘all is going well, we don’t make things in haste’ adding as he loves to say a proverb: ‘the cat that is hurry gives birth to blind offspring’ In regards to these questions, we didn’t occupy ourselves with it until at the end of October of 1986, when I was living in Reggio Emilia to manage the drug trafficking for the San Luca Family in Emilia Romagna and Lombardia. In this context, I was doing business with Musitano di Plati family whose head was Domenico, known as ‘the fascist for his dictatorial tendency’, for he was free to wait the process but for an ordinance decree was not able to reside in Calabria, the reason why he had transferred to Nova Siri, in the province of Matera. He asked of a meeting†it says “that there are 600 barrels containing toxic and radioactive waste, asking me if I and my family are interested in the different faces of transportation and placement. First of all, I asked him how much we will earn and who has shown some prospect in this job. He explained to us that he has been approached by Tommaso Candelieri dell'Enea di Rotondella (Italian Energy and Gas Company) who for a certain period was stacking toxic waste from Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany and United States and at the precise moment was required to make sure these stalks deposited in two hangars owned by the same Enea disappear. And as far as money is concerned, I would have pocketed 660 million for all that is made of the operation, for this, I met in Milan, at Loreto square ,Giuseppe Romeo, brother of Sebastiano, who came from Calabria for reference, after a week he returned to Milan to give me the go ahead†“For a support†explains the Ex boss of the ndreghetta, “Musitano gave me the availability of the son-in-law, Giuseppe Arcadi, who helped me to find the trucks and the drivers for the transportation of the toxic waste. We calculated that for 600 containers there would be needed approximately 40 months, in which they have to withdraw all the barrels from the hangars of Rotondella, and to load them on a ship that would have left for Somalia. It seemed everything was ready ", he writes," but Musitano was killed by ' ndrangheta in front of the court of Reggio Calabria, where he was convened for an audience. This( Musitano’s killing) stopped our job momentarily, then but it resumed in January of 1987, because the same Musitano shortly before dying had introduced me Candelieri, with whom I had straightened the first agreements in the course of an encounter at house of the same Musitano ". From Mogadiscio to Livorno “The ship that we used for the operation ", continues the memorandum," was called Lynx, was of property of the society Fyord Tanker Shipping of Malta and the broker was Fin-Chart, who had his central office in Rome and was tied to the Swiss society Achair & Partners. Both were head of the society Zuana Achire that had it central office in Singapore and whose administrator was the Indonesian citizen, Gurda Ceso. Precisely†the former ex boss writes," the Lynx ship had been rented from the society with center to Opera Jelly Wax, of Renato Pent, to whom I had asked a cover after he had been referred to me by the general secretary of the Italian-Somali Chamber of Commerce, Peter Bearzi. The fact is that, according to our calculations, in storage would have been only 500 containers; therefore to assess was to dispose the other 100. It was therefore that we decided to proceed with a two planes: 500 containers would be leaving for Somalia, while the remaining 100 would have been hidden in Basilicata. For accuracy, I gave order that it had to be transported and buried in the community of Pisticci, in the locality of Coasts of the Cretagna, along the bank of the Vella River ". I participated directly in the operation, that was carried out between the 10 and the 11 of January 1987", tells the ex boss. “ We left with the 40 truckloads to Rotondella, around two at night and an hour later we arrived, around seven or eight at the Vella river, where a big hole had been predisposed and was filled up with the barrels and then covered up. To prepare the trench had been the machinery put in disposition by Augustin Ferrara, man of Musitano that lived in Nova Sirta, who also secured the light in order to illuminate the area. In the same hours, the other trucks proceeded for the port of Livorno, where the Lynx was waiting for them and after finishing the job in Bisilicata, I came on board with my Lancia Thema with Giuseppe Arcadi. The invoices with false descriptions in order to embark toxic and radioactive waste had been prepared by a Milan businessman, who had been introduced to me by businessman, Vito Roberto Palazzolo di Terrasini (today fugitive), and they were registered to the office International consulting of Djibouti. The ship in fact left directly from Livorno for Djibouti, instead of docking there, it reached Mogadiscio. At the point in action was the assistance that I had asked the general secretary for the Italian-Somali Chamber of Commerce, who had organized trucks and labor for the unloading of the ship and the cargo onto trucks. “The toxic waste†it reads, “had been taken to the dead Shebelle river outlet, where they have been buried for good and best by the available excavation machinery on place, in agreement with the head of the tribe of the zone Musa Sudi Yalahow ". The entire job, tells the ex boss, “cost us about 260 million that was added to the compensation. As far as the 600 million agreed, it came from the encrypted account “whisky†of the Italian Switzerland bank of Lucern. Marino Ganzerla, of the foreign affairs office, had given me an appointment in the same Lucern on February 1st and he paid me cash on behalf of Candelieri. He delivered the money to me in dollars, and I sent 500 million Liras to the family of San Luca ". Uranium, Kalashnikov and Corruption “The operation ", continues the memorandum," was spun smooth. All were satisfied, for some years later (in the meantime I have been in jail) we repeated the job. This time I was to contact Candelieri. November of the 1992 I asked him always on behalf of the family of San Luca if there were transactions to carry out. I went personally in his office at the Enea di Rotondella and his answer was that in this field there was always plenty of work. In this case, it referred to the transportation of thousands of containers of toxic and radioactive waste. It specified that there were oozing and hospital waste and that was product of oxides of uranium, cesium and strontium, all contained in barrels that in time had been arranged in 20 containers, 25 meters long and 6 meters wide each, property of the Merzario Maritime society, that above all, on behalf of the Somali authorities, controlled the entry of the ships in the new port of Mogadishu. In order to organize all ", writes the ex-boss," I contacted Mirko Martini, whom I have known since late 1992. His name had been given to me by Giuseppe Romeo, brother of the boss, Sebastiano, who had known him personally and he had guaranteed me that he is the right person for our transactions. Precisely that Martini who was foreign affairs man with nobility title who lived in Piacenza and also had a residence in Mogadishu, where he was in business with Omar Mugne, holder of the Shifco, ownership society of the ships that the Italian government had given to the Somali government. During an evening meal in the Hilton hotel of Milan ", he continues," I have explained to the same Martini that I had to transport hazardous waste in Somalia and I need some help at the port. he has answered saying to me of being literally of intimate ' of the interim president of the Somalia Ali Mahdi, let alone being a man of the Italian intelligence agencies and connected at a good level with the American CIA', adding that when it comes to Somalia, it is not a problem to do anything there at all. Moreover, he has explained to me that he already had in action trafficking of weapons that had to arrive in Mogadiscio on behalf of Ali Mahdi, and he has asked me to secure those weapons in order to have only one expedition with two ships he would have recovered himself ". The fishing boats in question ", explains the ex boss," were the Mohamuud Harbi and the Osman Raghe, both of property of the Shifco, that in turn were part of the Mahdi Group Company. The weapons were 75 cases of Kalashnikov, 25 ammunition cases and 30 of Uzi machine guns, that were loaded in Ukraine from the factory Ukrespets Export on board of the Jadran Express ship with Maltese flag, rented on my behalf by lawyer Pasquale Ciola di Ostuni and his friend Pasquale Locatelli, who had a partnership company in Gibraltar, Cyprus and in Croatia which they called River Plata Limited and Business investment company. The Jadran ", he tells," docked in Trieste, where the weapons were loaded on two trucks and transferred to the port of La Spezia, a place in which they were transferred then inside a port hangar in order to reload them on the Mohamuud Harbi. In the meantime, Martini transmitted 375 million Liras to the Ukrespets Export making one transaction through the Kreditna Banka of Trieste. Instead I was at the same time busy with organizing the trafficking of the toxic and radioactive waste. The Merzario Maritime has supplied, other than the containers, also 20 trucks, that they have loaded the waste near the centers of Enea of the Garigliano, where Candelieri was to supervise the operations. After that the waste arrived at the port of Livorno and has been loaded on the Osman Raghe. The ships Mohamuud Harbi and Osman Raghe left from Italy contemporaneously and arrived in the new port of Mogadishu the first days of February 1993. “ there ", it reads," were waiting men and tools put at disposition by Moroccan Giancarlo, beloved friend of Mirko Martini, who at that moment was more powerful in Somalia, where he utilized trucks held in a warehouse at the kilometer fourth at the road to the airport. At that point the weapons were brought to Ali Mahdi’s general neighborhood, while the wastes were transferred to various points. A quarter of the waste has been buried in kilometer 150 of the road between Berbera and Sillil, in the coastal zone of the Bosaso. Another quarter has been carried to the outlet of the Webi Jubba River, neighboring the border with the Kenya. Another fourth again has been buried in the tiny strips at road between Dhurbo and Ceel Gaal, in the Bosaso, and the last quarter has been buried under the Garoe-Bosaso road, to kilometer 37,700". The operation ", comments the former boss of ' ndrangheta,†has been carried out once again without problems and has seen various payments. The contact Abdoullahi Yussuf, for of availability of territory, has wanted 1 billion 200 million Liras, that were paid to him by Candelieri in Switzerland at the Credit Suisse di Lugano, where I personally accompanied him to the bank. I have taken 8 billions 800 million cash from Candelieri, that I have withdrawn from the Hellenic Bank di Sarajevo. Of these, 350 million went to Mirko Martini, 300 I have spent in varied organizations, 200 million served to pay the transport of the ships, while to Morochini I made him have 400 million through Marino Ganzerla. At the end, I celebrated the good outcome with various members of the Romeo family renting entirely a small restaurant ' Piccolo padre' in Milan, near the public square, Cinque giornate ".

Akash...saaxiib do google search on Somali toxic waste dumping and you will be amazed by how many organizations and news agencies are involved. Mopp - this toxic dumping has nothing to do with regions but with corrupt italian politicians, secret service agents, italian crime rings such as the mafia and Somali warlords( As far as we concerned we need to expose all of them for the crimes they have done against us ) - the two important names in this confession by the ex boss of the ndraghetta crime family ...when it comes to somali warlords.. are Ali Mahdi and Ina Yeey. ... also mentioned are Engineer Munye and Musi sudi. ..... i will continue working on the translation. so please hush up with your clannish biases against innocent illiterate somali folks in certain regions, this is a matter of national, international, global, environmental question. it is about the injustice and the unethical nature of dumping toxic radioactive nuclear waste from developed world into poor third world countries. Somalia is a case study because of its status as a failed state. here is the link of the article am working on translating. it is long one and i am kind busy but i will translate it into English by hook and crook so people will be aware of this tragedy. http://www.espressonline.it/eol/free/jsp/detail.jsp?m1s=null&m2s=a&idCategory=4791&idContent=971132 ----- One Boss talks: Thus, the state has been paying the Ndreghetta, to dispose the toxic waste. Condemned for drug trafficking, he collaborated with the AntiMafia. Thought to be reliable, now he has delivered to the judges a memorandum. An explosive one! Ricardo Bocca. From June 2004, L’esspresso has published a series of long articles in regards to the International trafficking of toxic and radioactive waste. It is an investigation that had its first journey on the Rosso Case. It is about the motor-vessel that has been going around the Calabria coast in 1990s that is today at the center of this investigation done by Attorney of power, Paula. Following this, the inquiry of our newspaper encompasses to the entire incident of the so-called ' carts of the see', the ships that between years Eighty and Ninety would have been sunk voluntarily with their toxic and nuclear cargo aboard. Transactions of ecological dimensions that have been investigated by the attorneys of Reggio Calabria, and that would have involved dozens of political and foreign affairs nations, intelligence agencies and manufacturers, freemasons, criminals. A case marked by the mysterious death of Captain Natale Degrazie, a key adviser to the inquirers, as well as the traces of secret exchanges between Italy and Somalia in the different stages of the cooperation regarding the cause of the killings of journalists Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin. Now, L’esspresso has come to acquaintance of a new document, a long and detailed memorandum written by the former head of ‘Ndreghetta’(see the table), kept here anonymous for security reasons who is already collaborating with authorities for past crimes, serving now a thirty years sentence for criminal association of international drug trafficking. With the direction of the national Antimafia, he delivered pages in the first person about episodes he lived through where he revealed the illegal sinking of ships carrying radioactive materials and shifting to other ships carrying international arms trafficking with the convergence of men from the government and intelligence agencies. These documents will be leaved through in full details by the magistrate who for a long time was working at related fronts to confirm and re-evaluate the responsibility of the involved individuals. Above all, all the sites have to be verified with a careful attention whether in Italy or not, where the author of the memorandum says are buried the barrels of the toxic and radioactive waste. This is a course of action L’esspresso will follow progressively in the hope of revealing the truth to those effected by these criminal incidents. The first head of the ‘ndreghetta†who understood the importance and profitability of the international business of toxic and radioactive waste was Giuseppe Nirta. He was responsible of the territory of Saint Luca and Mammasantissima that is the highest rank of the organization. He had contacts with individuals of the secret service, freemasons, and politicians in Rome. This is how the memorandum delivered by the former head of the Ndreghettta to the Antimafia begins with. In which he precisely says “then, I had no direct relations with the highest ranking bosses of the San Luca family, which I was affiliated with. My role was only to manage racketeering. Nirta was a distant cousin of my mother, because of this; I had a preferential treatment with him. He so often assured me that the business of this hazardous waste would bring a lot of money into our cause.†With the help of the minister “In particular†it reads “Nirta explained to me that it has been proposed to him by the defense minister, Lelio Lagorio, with who he had a relationship through the undersecretary of transportation, Nello Vincelli and the honorable MP, Vito Napoli, to stack barrels of toxic waste and hide it designated zones in Calabria.†He also informed me that the Napolitan Camorra (Naples racket) and the Sicilian Mafia has been already consulted with disposal of the toxic waste and that they have given their approval.†The thing however, writes the former boss “it didn’t advance immediately; there were series of meetings the following months which were carried in the open near the sanctuary of Polsi, on the mountains of Santa Luca, where also the annual meeting of the Ndreghetta was held. At the meeting were represented by all the crime families: for the family of Melito Porto Salvo in the person of Giuseppino Barbaro, for the family of Sinopoli in the person of Domenico Alvaro, for the family of Gioiosa Marina in the person of Salvatore Aquino and naturally of Saint Luca family in the person of Giuseppe Nirta. It was the same Nirta who informed me of the particulars, because it had been decided that I would have had to take care of the organizational aspect of the family of Saint Luca, and therefore I had to know of the more important structures and transactions†“from these reunions†writes the Ex Boss “the meeting didn’t come up with a common front, there were divergent opinions, because they didn’t want hazardous substances buried in Aspromente, a territory loved by the bosses and at the same time, it was the area where they held and hide those kidnapped by the Ndreghetta. At the end, it was decided to discuss the great business of toxic hazardous waste with the agreement that every family would have managed the activities in the mutual respect but for the own facts but for the right reasons. So it was attempted to find sites outside of Calabria, or a foreign country, and at the end, the choice fell on as far as Italy, on the Basilicata, because it was a land of no one from the point of view of gangsters. And when it comes to the foreign country, the Turkish Mafia was contacted for the acquisition and purchase of heroine, and the person we had as a point of reference was Mehmet Serdar Alpan, who is also the financier of Lupi Griggi. From this point on, my bosses initiated to keep I informed constantly of how the situation was evolving. My first direct engagement in the field of the toxic hazardous waste started at the end of 1986, even though the operation had a prologue in the spring of 1983†It was then ", explains the Ex-boss in his memorandum, that he has been sent to Rome by Sabstiano Romeo, who in previous months succeeded Nirta as the head of Santa Luca Family. He wanted me to meet the lawyer, Giorgio De Stefano, cousin of Paolo De Stefano, boss of the Reggina Family, a man with so many political links. Romeo has said to me he would indicate me which foreign countries that would fit the disposal of the radioactive and toxic waste. De Stefano told that the ideal place would be Somalia, specifying for this reason, it would be useful to have high contact within the Socialist party. After which, through lawyer De Stefano, I had an appointment in Rome with Pietro Bearzi, then general secretary of the Chamber of Commerce for the Somalia. We met in a hotel behind Via Cristoforo Colombo, where I explicitly said that we had selected Somalia for the disposal of toxic and radioactive waste, and then we asked him if he was in position to help us. With some disturbance, I have generically told him that he would be paid with generosity. He told me his availability and asked at what level we were moving and I have vaguely answered that we have the necessary political reference or backing.†The Sixteen Hundred Barrels in Basilicata. “He left us saying to that there would be detailed reviews†continues the Ex Boss. “Therefore I reported to all the particulars to Sebastiano Romeo, who only said to me ‘all is going well, we don’t make things in haste’ adding as he loves to say a proverb: ‘the cat that is hurry gives birth to blind offspring’ In regards to these questions, we didn’t occupy ourselves with it until at the end of October of 1986, when I was living in Reggio Emilia to manage the drug trafficking for the San Luca Family in Emilia Romagna and Lombardia. In this context, I was doing business with Musitano di Plati family whose head was Domenico, known as ‘the fascist for his dictatorial tendency’, for he was free to wait the process but for an ordinance decree was not able to reside in Calabria, the reason why he had transferred to Nova Siri, in the province of Matera. He asked of a meeting†it says “that there are 600 barrels containing toxic and radioactive waste, asking me if I and my family are interested in the different faces of transportation and placement. First of all, I asked him how much we will earn and who has shown some prospect in this job. He explained to us that he has been approached by Tommaso Candelieri dell'Enea di Rotondella (Italian Energy and Gas Company) who for a certain period was stacking toxic waste from Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany and United States and at the precise moment was required to make sure these stalks deposited in two hangars owned by the same Enea disappear. And as far as money is concerned, I would have pocketed 660 million for all that is made of the operation, for this, I met in Milan, at Loreto square ,Giuseppe Romeo, brother of Sebastiano, who came from Calabria for reference, after a week he returned to Milan to give me the go ahead†“For a support†explains the Ex boss of the ndreghetta, “Musitano gave me the availability of the son-in-law, Giuseppe Arcadi, who helped me to find the trucks and the drivers for the transportation of the toxic waste. We calculated that for 600 containers there would be needed approximately 40 months, in which they have to withdraw all the barrels from the hangars of Rotondella, and to load them on a ship that would have left for the Somalia. It seemed everything was ready ", he writes," but Musitano was killed by ' ndrangheta in front of the court of Reggio Calabria, where he was convened for an audience. This( Musitano’s killing) stopped our job momentarily, then but it resumed in January of 1987, because the same Musitano shortly before dying had introduced me Candelieri, with whom I had straightened the first agreements in the course of an encounter at house of the same Musitano ". From Mogadiscio to Livorno “The ship that we used for the operation ", continues the memorandum," was called Lynx, was of property of the society Fyord Tanker Shipping of Malta and the broker was Fin-Chart, who had his central office in Rome and was tied to the Swiss society Achair & Partners. Both were head of the society Zuana Achire that had it central office in Singapore and whose administrator was the Indonesian citizen, Gurda Ceso. Precisely†the former ex boss writes," the Lynx ship had been rented from the society with center to Opera Jelly Wax, of Renato Pent, to whom I had asked a cover after he had been referred to me by the general secretary of the Italian-Somali Chamber of Commerce, Peter Bearzi. The fact is that, according to our calculations, in storage would have been only 500 containers; therefore to assess was to dispose the other 100. It was therefore that we decided to proceed with a two planes: 500 containers would be leaving for Somalia, while the remaining 100 would have been hidden in Basilicata. For accuracy, I gave order that it had to be transported and buried in the community of Pisticci, in the locality of Coasts of the Cretagna, along the bank of the Vella River ". I participated directly in the operation, that was carried out between the 10 and the 11 of January 1987", tells the ex boss. “ We left with the 40 truckloads to Rotondella, around two at night and an hour later we arrived, around seven or eight at the Vella river, where a big hole had been predisposed and was filled up with the barrels and then covered up. To prepare the trench had been the machinery put in disposition by Augustin Ferrara, man of Musitano that lived in Nova Sirta, who also secured the light in order to illuminate the area. In the same hours, the other trucks proceeded for the port of Livorno, where the Lynx was waiting for them and after finishing the job in Bisilicata, I came on board with my Lancia Thema with Giuseppe Arcadi. The invoices with false descriptions in order to embark toxic and radioactive waste had been prepared by a Milan businessman, who had been introduced to me by businessman, Vito Roberto Palazzolo di Terrasini (today fugitive), and they were registered to the office International consulting of Djibouti. The ship in fact left directly from Livorno for Djibouti, instead of docking there, it reached Mogadiscio. At the point in action was the assistance that I had asked the general secretary for the Italian-Somali Chamber of Commerce, who had organized trucks and labor for the unloading of the ship and the cargo onto trucks. “The toxic waste†it reads, “had been taken to the dead Shebelle river outlet, where they have been buried for good and best by the available excavation machinery on place, in agreement with the head of the tribe of the zone Musa Sudi Yalahow ". The entire job, tells the ex boss, “cost us about 260 million that was added to the compensation. As far as the 600 million agreed, it came from the encrypted account “whisky†of the Italian Switzerland bank of Lucern. Marino Ganzerla, of the foreign affairs office, had given me an appointment in the same Lucern on February 1st and he paid me cash on behalf of Candelieri. He delivered the money to me in dollars, and I sent 500 million Liras to the family of San Luca ". Uranium, Kalashnikov and Corruption “The operation ", continues the memorandum," was spun smooth. All were satisfied, for some years later (in the meantime I have been in jail) we repeated the job. This time I was to contact Candelieri. November of the 1992 I asked him always on behalf of the family of San Luca if there were transactions to carry out. I went personally in his office at the Enea di Rotondella and his answer was that in this field there was always plenty of work. In this case, it referred to the transportation of thousands of containers of toxic and radioactive waste. It specified that there were oozing and hospital waste and that was product of oxides of uranium, cesium and strontium, all contained in barrels that in time had been arranged in 20 containers ,25 meters long and 6 meters wide each, property of the Merzario Maritime society, that above all, on behalf of the Somali authorities, controlled the entry of the ships in the new port of Mogadishu. ------ continues

Here is the first part of the translation. I am working on this, even though it is long and am busy. Ndreghetta is a crime family in Calabria, second to the Mafia in Sicily. --------------------------------------------- One Boss talks: Thus, the state has been paying the Ndreghetta, to dispose the toxic waste. Condemned for drug trafficking, he collaborated with the AntiMafia. Thought to be reliable, now he has delivered to the judges a memorandum. An explosive one! Ricardo Bocca. From June 2004, L’esspresso has published a series of long articles in regards to the International trafficking of toxic and radioactive waste. It is an investigation that had its first journey on the Rosso Case. It is about the motor-vessel that has been going around the Calabria coast in 1990s that is today at the center of this investigation done by Attorney of power, Paula. Following this, the inquiry of our newspaper has encompasses to the entire incident of the so-called ' carts of the see', the ships that between years Eighty and Ninety would have been sunk voluntarily with their toxic and nuclear cargo aboard. Transactions of ecological dimensions that have been investigated by the attorneys of Reggio Calabria, and that would have involved dozens of political and foreign affairs nations, intelligence agencies and manufacturers, freemasons, criminals. A case marked by the mysterious death of Captain Natale Degrazie, a key adviser to the inquirers, as well as the traces of secret exchanges between Italy and Somalia in the different stages of the cooperation regarding the cause of the killings of journalists Ilaria the Alps and Miran Hrovatin. Now, L’esspresso has come to acquaintance of a new document, a long and detailed memorandum written by the former head of ‘Ndreghetta’(see the table), kept here anonymous for security reasons who is already collaborating with authorities for past crimes, serving now a thirty years sentence for criminal association of international drug trafficking. With the direction of the national Antimafia, he delivered pages in the first person about episodes he lived through where he revealed the illegal sinking of ships carrying radioactive materials and shifting to other ships carrying international arms trafficking with the convergence of men from the government and intelligence agencies. These documents will be leaved through in full details by the magistrate who for a long time was working at related fronts to confirm and re-evaluate the responsibility of the involved individuals. Above all, all the sites have to be verified with a careful attention whether in Italy or not, where the author of the memorandum says are buried the barrels of the toxic and radioactive waste. This is a course of action L’esspresso will follow progressively in the hope of revealing the truth to those effected by these criminal incidents. The first head of the ‘ndreghetta†who understood the importance and profitability of the international business of toxic and radioactive waste was Giuseppe Nirta. He was responsible of the territory of Saint Luca and Mammasantissima that is the highest rank of the organization. He had contacts with individuals of the secret service, freemasons, and politicians in Rome. This is how the memorandum delivered by the former head of the Ndreghettta to the Antimafia begins with. In which he precisely says “then, I had no direct relations with the highest ranking bosses of the San Luca family, which I was affiliated with. My role was only to manage racketeering. Nirta was a distant cousin of my mother, because of this; I had a preferential treatment with him. He so often assured me that the business of this hazardous waste would bring a lot of money into our cause.†“in particular†it reads “ Nirta explained to me that it has been proposed to him by the defence minister, Lelio Lagorio, with who he had a relationship through the underscerertary of transportation, Nello Vincelli and the honorable MP, Vito Napoli, to stack barrels of toxic waste and hide it designated zones in Calabria.†______ continues ------- as you have already sensed from the above, it involves italian secret agency, the corrupt politicians in both the italian goverment and parliament, the Mobsters in Calabria, the killings if journalists in Somalia, ------- just wait when it comes to the Somali warlords and how much money they were paid and where all these barrels of nuclear radiactive toxic waste were dumped.

I will translate this in ENGLISH AND SOMALI soon, so people will be aware of this serious and grave crime against Somali.

CABDULLAHI YUSUF, CALI MAHDI, inj. MUNYE IYO GIANCARLO MAROCCHINO AYAA KA DAMBEEYAY SUNTA SOOMAALIYA LAGU SHUBAY (Toxic Waste) (L’Espresso N. 22 – 9 June 2005) 15 June 2005-06-15 Qaybta kowaad. Wargeyska caanka ah ee L’Espresso ee usbuuc walba ka soo baxa wadaanka Talyaanika ayaa waxaa uu N. 22 ee soo baxay usbuucaan 9 June 2005 ayaa helay dokumeenti aad u muuhiim ah oo ku saabsan xaaladda Sunta Nuklearka (radioactive toxic waste). Dokumeentigaan oo loo guudbiyay Maxkamadda Talyaniga waxaa laga helay nin madax ka ahaa koox ka mid ah Mafia da Calabria iyo Sicily degta ee wadaanka Talyaaniga oo lagu magacaabo 'ndrangheta, kooxdaan oo ka qayb qaadatay duugiitaanka iyo suunta badda lagu shubo intii ka dambeysay 1983 mashruuca loo bixiyay ECOMAFIA. Ninkaan oo ahaa madaxda ka mid ah kooxdaan magaciisiina la qarinaayo, waxaana ku magacaabaya “Ndrinuâ€, jaaraaidkuna wuxuu qoray in uu haysto “witness protection†maadaama uu la shaaqeynayo kooxda dowladda Talyaniga ee Anti-mafia. Dokumeentigaan wuxuu ka hadlaaya arrimo aad u faro badan oo la xariira dhowr qof oo siyaasiin sare ka ahaan jiray dowladda Talyaaniga, militariga Talyaniga, mafia da, niman beec mushtar ah, bangiyada, hayaadaha sirdoonka, iwm. Waxaase uu ninkaanu soo bandhigay oo uu ka hadlay hoogaamiyee kooxeedka dagaalka Soomaaliyeed, niman Talyaani ah oo Soomaalida la shaqeyn jiray iwm. Sidaa aad la socotaanba arrinta Sunta khatarta ah ee lagu shubay Soomaaliya waxay bilaabatay waqtiyaaddii dowladdi la riday 1985tii iyo wixii ka dambeyaay. Laakin arrinta ugu foosha xun ee loogaga beecmushtaraayo Sunta oo wadanka lagu gatay laguna badashay hubka (arms-toxic waste traffic deal) waxay bilaabatay 1990 wixii ka dambeyaay. Waxaana door weyn ka qaatay hoogaamiye kooxeedyadda Soomaaliyeed. L’Espresso waxaa uu soo ogaaday oo lagu qoray dokumeentiga dowladda Talyaaniga ay gacanta ku hayso in ay ka qayb qaateen Cabdullahi Yusuf iyo dad kale: Cabdullahi Yusuf waxaa lagu sheegay in uu 1992 lacag dhan 7 malyaan dollar looguna shubay Bangiga “Credit Suisse†oo Lugano ku yaala, lacagtaas waxaa maalinta “Ndrinu†la socday Dr. Candelieri oo lacagta xawilay. Dr. Candelieri waxaa uu waqtigaas madax ka ahaa qolodda loo xil saaray in ay gubaan Suntaan. Waxaa uu L’Espresso sheegay in Cabdullahi Yusuf uu ogooladay dhul ka mid ah Puntland iyo baddaha Bari ee Soomaaliya in lagu aaso Suunta. Suunta qaar waxaa lagu shubay wadaada isku xirta Garoowe-Boosaso . "L'operazione", commenta l'ex boss della 'ndrangheta, "si è svolta ancora una volta senza problemi e ha previsto vari pagamenti. Il contatto Abdoullahi Yussuf per la di sponibilità del territorio ha voluto 1 miliardo 200 milioni di lire, che gli furono pagati da Candelieri in Svizzera presso il Credit Suisse di Lugano, dove lo accompagnai personalmente fino alla banca†Waxaad qaybaha kale ka heli kartaan jaraiidka L’Espresso N. 22 – 9 Giugno 2005.

ATTUALITA' Parla un boss: Così lo Stato pagava la 'ndrangheta per smaltire i rifiuti tossici Condannato per traffico di droga. Ha collaborato con l'Antimafia. Ritenuto attendibile, ora ha consegnato ai giudici un memoriale. Esplosivo di Riccardo Bocca A partire dal giugno 2004 'L'espresso' ha pubblicato una lunga serie di articoli riguardo al traffico internazionale di rifiuti tossici e radioattivi. Un lavoro che ha avuto come prima tappa la ricostruzione del caso Rosso, la motonave che nel 1990 si è arenata su una spiaggia calabrese e che tutt'oggi è al centro di un'indagine della Procura di Paola. In seguito, l'inchiesta del nostro giornale si è allargata all'intera vicenda delle cosiddette 'carrette del mare', le navi che tra gli anni Ottanta e Novanta sarebbero state affondate volontariamente con il loro carico di scorie tossiche e nucleari. Affari di dimensioni planetarie che sono stati investigati dalla Procura di Reggio Calabria, e che avrebbero coinvolto in decine di nazioni politici e faccendieri, servizi segreti e industriali, massoni e malavitosi. Uno scenario segnato dalla morte misteriosa del capitano Natale De Grazia, consulente chiave degli inquirenti, nonché dalle tracce di scambi occulti tra Italia e Somalia nella stagione della cooperazione, secondo alcuni causa dell'omicidio dei giornalisti Ilaria Alpi e Miran Hrovatin. Ora 'L'espresso' è venuto a conoscenza di un nuovo documento. Un lungo e dettagliato memoriale scritto da un ex capo della 'ndrangheta (vedi scheda), qui tenuto anonimo per ragioni di sicurezza, già in passato collaboratore di giustizia e oggi con un cumulo di pena pari a trent'anni per associazione a delinquere e traffico internazionale di stupefacenti. Alla Direzione nazionale antimafia ha consegnato pagine scritte in prima persona, con episodi vissuti direttamente, dove le rivelazioni sull'affondamento doloso delle navi radioattive si alternano a quelle sui traffici internazionali di armi e sulle convergenze con uomini dello Stato e dei servizi segreti. Tutto materiale che, ovviamente, dovrà essere vagliato nei minimi particolari dai magistrati, i quali peraltro stanno già da tempo lavorando su fronti connessi, in modo da confermare o smentire tutte le responsabilità delle persone citate. E soprattutto dovranno essere verificati con la massima attenzione i siti, italiani e non, dove l'autore del memoriale indica la presenza dei fusti con scorie tossiche e radioattive. Un percorso che 'L'espresso' seguirà passo passo, nella speranza di raccontare al più presto la verità su questi gravi fatti. Il primo capo della 'ndrangheta a capire l'importanza del business dei rifiuti tossici e radioattivi è stato Giuseppe Nirta. Nel 1982 era il responsabile del territorio di San Luca e Mammasantissima, ossia il vertice supremo dell'organizzazione. Per questo aveva contatti a Roma con personaggi dei servizi segreti, della massoneria e della politica... Inizia così il memoriale consegnato all'Antimafia da un ex boss della 'ndrangheta. Il quale precisa: "Allora non avevo rapporti diretti con i massimi vertici della famiglia di San Luca, a cui ero affiliato, in quanto il mio livello era quello cosiddetto dello 'sgarro', e gestivo solo estorsioni. Nirta però era un lontano cugino di mia madre, e per questo avevo una corsia preferenziale con lui, il quale più volte mi assicurò che il business dei rifiuti pericolosi avrebbe portato tanti soldi nelle nostre casse". In soccorso del ministro "In particolare", si legge, "Nirta mi spiegò che gli era stato proposto dal ministro della Difesa Lelio Lagorio, col quale aveva rapporti tramite l'ex sottosegretario ai Trasporti Nello Vincelli e l'onorevole Vito Napoli, di stoccare bidoni di rifiuti tossici e occultarli in zone della Calabria da individuare. L'ipotesi ventilata a Roma era quella di sotterrarli in alcuni punti dell'Aspromonte e nelle fosse naturali marine che c'erano davanti alle coste ioniche della Calabria. Nirta però mi disse che non voleva prendersi da solo questa responsabilità , e avrebbe quindi convocato i principali capi della 'ndrangheta nella provincia di Reggio Calabria per decidere cosa fare. Mi informò anche che sia la camorra napoletana che la mafia siciliana erano già state interpellate sullo smaltimento dei rifiuti, e che avevano dato il loro benestare. La cosa comunque", scrive l'ex boss, "non si sviluppò subito. Ci furono una serie di riunioni nei mesi successivi che si svolsero all'aperto presso il santuario di Polsi, sui monti alle spalle di San Luca, dove si teneva anche l'incontro annuale di tutta la 'ndrangheta. Agli incontri parteciparono le famiglie di Melito Porto Salvo nella persona di Natale Iamonte, di Africo nella persona di Giuseppe Morabito ('u tiradrittu), di Platì nella persona di Giuseppino Barbaro, di Sinopoli nella persona di Domenico Alvaro, di Gioiosa Marina nella persona di Salvatore Aquino e naturalmente di San Luca nella persona di Giuseppe Nirta. Fu lo stesso Nirta a riferirmi i particolari, perché aveva deciso che avrei dovuto occuparmi dell'aspetto organizzativo della famiglia di San Luca, e dunque dovevo conoscerne la struttura e gli affari più importanti". "Da queste riunioni", scrive l'ex boss, "non uscì però un fronte comune. C'erano divergenze di opinione, perché non si voleva che sostanze pericolose fossero sepolte in Aspromonte, territorio amato dai capi e allo stesso tempo area dove abitualmente venivano nascosti i sequestrati. Alla fine fu deciso di entrare nel grande affare dei rifiuti pericolosi, con l'accordo che ogni famiglia avrebbe gestito le attività nel rispetto reciproco ma per i fatti propri. Si cercò così di trovare siti che fossero fuori dalla Calabria, oppure all'estero, e alla fine la scelta cadde per quanto riguarda l'Italia sulla Basilicata, perché terra di nessuno dal punto di vista della malavita. Quanto all'estero, si presero contatti con la mafia turca, referente della 'ndrangheta per l'acquisto dell'eroina, e la persona a cui facemmo riferimento era Mehmet Serdar Alpan, il quale è stato anche finanziatore dei Lupi Grigi. Da questo momento i miei capi iniziarono a tenermi costantemente informato di come evolveva la situazione, e il mio primo impegno diretto nel campo dei rifiuti pericolosi è avvenuto alla fine del 1986, anche se l'operazione ebbe un prologo nella primavera del 1983". "Fu allora", spiega l'ex boss nel suo memoriale, "che venne inviato a Roma da Sebastiano Romeo, il quale nei mesi precedenti era succeduto a Nirta come capo della famiglia di San Luca. Voleva che incontrassi l'avvocato Giorgio De Stefano, cugino del boss Paolo De Stefano della famiglia reggina e uomo con potenti agganci politici. Romeo mi disse che dovevo farmi indicare da lui in quali nazioni estere ci fossero entrature per smaltire i rifiuti tossici e radioattivi. De Stefano mi disse che il posto ideale era la Somalia, precisando che per questo sarebbe stato utile prendere contatti con i vertici del Partito socialista. Dopodiché, sempre tramite l'avvocato De Stefano, ebbi un appuntamento a Roma con Pietro Bearzi, allora segretario generale della Camera di commercio per la Somalia. Ci vedemmo in un albergo dietro a via Cristoforo Colombo, dove gli dissi esplicitamente che avevamo individuato la Somalia per smaltire i rifiuti tossici e radioattivi, e quindi gli chiesi se fosse in grado di aiutarci. Un disturbo, gli dissi genericamente, che gli sarebbe stato retribuito con generosità . Lui mi diede la sua disponibilità , chiedendomi a che livello ci muovessimo, e io risposi vago che avevamo i necessari referenti politici". Seicentobidoni in Basilicata "Ci lasciammo dicendoci che ci saremmo rivisti con un piano dettagliato", prosegue l'ex boss. "Quindi riferii tutti i particolari a Sebastiano Romeo, il quale mi disse soltanto: 'Va tutto bene, ma non facciamo le cose di fretta'. Aggiungendo, come amava fare lui, un proverbio: 'La gatta che ha fretta partorisce figli ciechi'. In effetti di quelle questioni non ci occupammo fino all'ottobre del 1986, quando vivevo a Reggio Emilia per gestire il traffico di droga della famiglia di San Luca in Emilia Romagna e Lombardia. In questo contesto facevo affari con la famiglia Musitano di Platì, il cui capo era Domenico, detto 'u fascista per il suo piglio da dittatore, il quale era libero in attesa di processo ma che per un'ordinanza non poteva risiedere in Calabria, ragione per cui si era trasferito a Nova Siri, in provincia di Matera. Mi chiese un incontro", si legge, "e mi disse che c'erano da far sparire 600 bidoni contenenti rifiuti tossici e radioattivi, chiedendo se io e la mia famiglia potessimo interessarci per le varie fasi di trasporto e collocazione. Prima di tutto gli domandai quanto ci avremmo guadagnato, e chi gli aveva prospettato questo lavoro. Mi spiegò che era stato avvicinato dal dottor Tommaso Candelieri dell'Enea di Rotondella, il quale stoccava in quel periodo rifiuti provenienti da Italia, Svizzera, Francia, Germania e Stati Uniti, e che in quel preciso momento aveva l'esigenza di far sparire questi fusti che erano stati depositati in due capannoni dell'Enea stessa. Quanto ai soldi, avrei intascato 660 milioni per tutte le fasi dell'operazione. Per questo incontrai a Milano, in piazzale Loreto, Giuseppe Romeo, fratello di Sebastiano, il quale scese poi in Calabria per riferire. Dopo una settimana, ritornò a Milano e mi diede il via libera". "Come appoggio", spiega l'ex boss della 'ndrangheta, "Musitano mi diede la di sponibilità del genero, Giuseppe Arcadi, il quale mi aiutò a trovare i camion e gli autisti per il trasporto dei rifiuti. Calcolammo che per 600 fusti ci sarebbero voluti circa 40 mezzi, i quali dovevano prelevare i bidoni dai capannoni a Rotondella, trasportarli nel porto di Livorno e caricarli su una nave che sarebbe partita per la Somalia. Sembrava tutto pronto", scrive, "ma Musitano fu ucciso dalla 'ndrangheta davanti al tribunale di Reggio Calabria, dove era stato convocato per un'udienza. Questo fermò momentaneamente il nostro lavoro, che però riprese a gennaio del 1987, perché lo stesso Musitano poco prima di morire mi aveva presentato Candelieri, col quale avevo stretto i primi accordi nel corso di un incontro a casa del Musitano stesso". Da Livorno a Mogadiscio "La nave che usammo per l'operazione", continua il memoriale, "si chiamava Lynx, era di proprietà della società Fyord Tanker Shipping di Malta e il broker era la Fin-Chart, la quale aveva sede a Roma ed era legata alla società svizzera Achair & Partners. Entrambe facevano capo alla società Zuana Achire, che aveva sede a Singapore e il cui amministratore era il cittadino indonesiano Gurda Ceso. Preciso", scrive l'ex boss, "che la nave Lynx era stata noleggiata dalla società con sede a Opera Jelly Wax, di Renato Pent, al quale avevo chiesto una copertura dopo che mi era stato segnalato dal segretario generale della Camera di commercio italo-somala Pietro Bearzi. Il fatto è che, secondo i nostri calcoli, nella stiva ci sarebbero stati solo 500 bidoni, e dunque si poneva il problema di dove smaltire gli altri 100. Fu così che decidemmo di procedere con un doppio piano: 500 fusti sarebbero partiti per la Somalia, mentre i rimanenti 100 sarebbero stati nascosti in Basilicata. Per l'esattezza, diedi ordine che fossero trasportati e seppelliti nel comune di Pisticci, in località Coste della Cretagna, lungo l'argine del fiume Vella". "Partecipai direttamente all'operazione, che si svolse tra il 10 e l'11 di gennaio 1987", racconta l'ex boss. "Partimmo con i 40 camion caricati a Rotondella verso le due di notte e un'ora dopo arrivammo con sette o otto di essi al fiume Vella, dove era stata predisposta la buca che fu riempita con i bidoni e poi ricoperta. A preparare la fossa erano stati i macchinari messi a disposizione da Agostino Ferrara, uomo di Musitano che abitava a Nova Siri, il quale procurò anche i fari per illuminare l'area. Nelle stesse ore, gli altri camion proseguivano per il porto di Livorno, dove li aspettava la Lynx e dove finito il lavoro in Basilicata sopraggiunsi anch'io a bordo della mia Lancia Thema con Giuseppe Arcadi. Le fatture con descrizioni false per imbarcare le scorie tossiche e radioattive erano state preparate da un commercialista di Milano, che mi era stato presentato dal commercialista Vito Roberto Palazzolo di Terrasini (oggi latitante), ed erano intestate alla International consulting office di Gibuti. La nave infatti partì da Livorno diretta a Gibuti, ma invece di attraccare raggiunse Mogadiscio. A quel punto, entrò in azione l'appoggio che avevo chiesto al segretario generale della Camera di commercio italo-somala, il quale aveva organizzato camion e manodopera per lo scarico dalla nave e il carico su camion. I rifiuti", si legge, "sono stati portati alla foce morta del fiume Uebi Scebeli, dove sono stati seppelliti alla bene e meglio con gli escavatori reperibili sul posto, in accordo con il capo tribù della zona Musa Sudi Yalahow". Tutto il lavoro, racconta l'ex boss, "ci costò 260 milioni, che furono aggiunti al compenso. Quanto ai 660 milioni concordati, provenivano dal conto criptato 'whisky' della Banca della Svizzera italiana di Lugano. Il faccendiere Marino Ganzerla mi diede appuntamento nella stessa Lugano ai primi di febbraio e mi pagò in contanti per conto di Candelieri. Mi consegnò la cifra in dollari, e io inviai 500 milioni di lire alla famiglia di San Luca". Uranio, kalashnikov e mazzette "L'operazione", continua il memoriale, "era filata liscia. Tutti erano soddisfatti, per cui qualche anno dopo (nel frattempo sono stato in carcere) ripetemmo il lavoro. Questa volta fui io a contattare Candelieri. Nel novembre del 1992 gli chiesi per conto sempre della famiglia di San Luca se ci fossero affari da svolgere. Andai personalmente nel suo ufficio all'Enea di Rotondella e la sua risposta fu che 'in quel campo il lavoro non manca mai'. In questo caso si riferiva al trasporto di altri mille bidoni di rifiuti tossici e radioattivi. Specificò che c'erano fanghi e rifiuti ospedalieri e che si trattava di ossido di uranio, cesio e stronzio, il tutto contenuto in fusti che a loro volta erano stati sistemati in 20 container lunghi 25 metri e alti 6 di proprietà della società Merzario Marittima, che tra l'altro controllava per conto delle autorità somale l'ingresso delle navi nel porto nuovo di Mogadiscio. Per organizzare il tutto", scrive l'ex boss, "contattai Mirko Martini, che ho conosciuto alla fine del 1992. Il suo nome mi era stato fatto da Giuseppe Romeo, fratello del boss Sebastiano, che lo aveva conosciuto personalmente e mi aveva garantito essere la persona giusta per i nostri affari. Preciso che Martini era un faccendiere col titolo di conte che abitava a Piacenza e aveva la residenza anche a Mogadiscio, dove era in affari con Omar Mugne, titolare della Shifco, società proprietaria delle navi che il governo italiano aveva regalato a quello somalo . Durante una cena all'hotel Hilton di Milano", continua, "ho spiegato allo stesso Martini che dovevo trasportare rifiuti pericolosi in Somalia e avevo bisogno di appoggi nel porto. Lui mi ha risposto dicendomi letteralmente di essere 'intimo del presidente ad interim della Somalia Ali Mahdi, nonché uomo dei servizi segreti italiani e collegato a buon livello alla Cia americana', aggiungendo che per quanto riguardava la Somalia non c'era alcun problema per fare entrare qualsiasi cosa. Inoltre mi ha spiegato che aveva già in ballo un traffico di armi che doveva fare arrivare a Mogadiscio per conto di Ali Mahdi, e mi ha chiesto di procurargli quelle armi per realizzare un'unica spedizione con due navi che avrebbe recuperato lui stesso". "I pescherecci in questione", spiega l'ex boss, "erano il Mohamuud Harbi e l'Osman Raghe, entrambi di proprietà della Shifco, che a sua volta faceva capo alla Al Mahdi Group Company. Le armi erano 75 casse di kalashnikov, 25 casse di munizioni e 30 di mitragliette Uzi, che furono caricate in Ucraina dalla fabbrica Ukrespets Export a bordo della nave Jadran Express con bandiera maltese, affittata per mio conto dall'avvocato Pasquale Ciola di Ostuni e dal suo amico Pasquale Locatelli, i quali avevano società a Gibilterra, Cipro e in Croazia che si chiamavano Rio Plata Limited e Business investiment company. La Jadran", racconta, "fece scalo a Trieste, dove le armi furono caricate su due camion e trasferite nel porto di La Spezia, luogo in cui furono trasbordate dentro un capannone portuale in attesa di essere reimbarcate sulla Mohamuud Harbi. Nel frattempo, Martini versava alla Ukrespets Export 375 milioni di lire facendo una transazione tramite la Kreditna Banka di Trieste. Io invece mi sono in parallelo preoccupato di organizzare il traffico dei rifiuti tossici e radioattivi. La Merzario Marittima ha fornito, oltre ai container, anche 20 camion, che hanno caricato i rifiuti presso la centrale Enea del Garigliano, dove c'era anche Candelieri a sovrintendere le operazioni. Dopodiché i rifiuti sono arrivati al porto di Livorno e sono stati caricati sulla Osman Raghe. Le navi Mohamuud Harbi e Osman Raghe partirono dall'Italia in contemporanea e arrivarono nei primi giorni del febbraio 1993 nel porto nuovo di Mogadiscio. Lì", si legge, "aspettavano uomini e mezzi messi a disposizione da Giancarlo Marocchino, caro amico di Mirko Martini e in quel momento molto potente in Somalia, il quale utilizzò autocarri tenuti in un deposito al quarto chilometro della strada dell'aeroporto. Le armi furono a quel punto portate al quartier generale di Ali Mahdi, mentre i rifiuti vennero trasferiti in diversi punti. Un quarto è stato seppellito al chilometro 150 della strada tra Berbera e Sillil, nella zona costiera del Bosaso. Un altro quarto è stato portato alla foce del fiume Webi Jubba, vicino al confine col Kenia. Un altro quarto ancora è stato seppellito nel breve tratto di strada tra Dhurbo e Ceel Gaal, nel Bosaso, e l'ultimo quarto è stato seppellito sotto la strada Garoe-Bosaso, al chilometro 37,700". "L'operazione", commenta l'ex boss della 'ndrangheta, "si è svolta ancora una volta senza problemi e ha previsto vari pagamenti. Il contatto Abdoullahi Yussuf per la di sponibilità del territorio ha voluto 1 miliardo 200 milioni di lire, che gli furono pagati da Candelieri in Svizzera presso il Credit Suisse di Lugano, dove lo accompagnai personalmente fino alla banca. Io ho preso da Candelieri 8 miliardi 800 milioni in contanti, che ho ritirato alla Hellenic Bank di Sarajevo. Di questi, 350 milioni andarono a Mirko Martini, 300 li ho spesi in organizzazione varia, 200 milioni servirono per pagare il trasporto delle navi, mentre a Marocchino feci avere 400 milioni tramite Marino Ganzerla. Alla fine, festeggiai il buon esito con diversi membri della famiglia Romeo affittando l'intero ristorante 'Piccolo padre' a Milano, nei pressi di piazza Cinque giornate". I siluri dell'ingegner Comerio "Quelli che ho riferito fino a questo momento sono solo pochi episodi, rispetto alla realtà dell'epoca", scrive l'ex boss. "In quel periodo il traffico dei rifiuti tossici e radioattivi era molto praticato. Diversi erano i faccendieri che con coperture varie svolgevano questo genere di attività per conto dei governi internazionali, i quali già negli anni Ottanta non sapevano dove piazzare queste enormi quantità di materiali pericolosi. Uno dei personaggi più importanti che mi è capitato di conoscere", si legge nel memoriale, "è stato l'ingegner Giorgio Comerio, il quale gestiva il progetto Odm (Oceanic disposal management), messo a punto dalla Organizzazione per la cooperazione e lo sviluppo economico (Ocse) e poi da lui gestito in autonomia per sparare pattumiera radioattiva dentro missili sotto i fondali marini. Comerio si muoveva a livelli governativi internazionali, e le persone che contattava nei vari stati, europei e non, sapevano che aveva gli appoggi per mettere in pratica il suo studio sottomarino. Lui stesso mi raccontò che i fondali della Sierra Leone erano i migliori per la sua attività , in quanto non so perché accoglievano al meglio i suoi siluri con i rifiuti radioattivi. Preciso", scrive l'ex boss, "che ho conosciuto Comerio ai primi dell'aprile 1993 a Cetinje, ex capitale del Montenegro, una cittadina tra le montagne jugo slave. Ci ero andato per incontrarmi con il latitante per associazione a delinquere Giuseppe Giorgi, che faceva parte della famiglia di San Luca. Nell'occasione andammo a cena in un ristorante del posto, dove per combinazione trovammo Comerio, il quale era a tavola con una ragazza. Io non l'avevo mai visto, fu Giorgi a indicarmelo e a dire che in zona Comerio aveva vari movimenti di armi, e che era in grado di reperire qualunque arma, sia leggera che pesante. Poi mi presentò a lui e ci sedemmo al suo tavolo, mentre la ragazza veniva allontanata da Comerio". "Fu un incontro prudente e positivo allo stesso tempo", si legge nel memoriale, "nel senso che facemmo tanti discorsi interessanti ma generici. Ci siamo poi rivisti alla metà di aprile in un ristorante di San Bovio di Garlasco, in provincia di Pavia, dove Comerio abitava in una villa che mi mostrò dall'esterno. Nel frattempo mi era giunta richiesta da parte di un membro della milizia ustascia di un certo quantitativo di armi, per cui chiesi a Comerio se avesse entrature in qualche fabbrica. Lui mi rispose che aveva ottimi rapporti con la tedesca Thyssen, e che mi dava volentieri quel contatto in quanto aveva una percentuale sulle vendite procurate. L'affare si fece nel 1994, mentre ero in carcere a Padova per traffico di stupefacenti. Ma la stessa sera Comerio mi fece a sua volta un'offerta, proponendomi l'acquisto di 50 aerei Antonov modello 12 e 22 e altri Iljusin 76. Una proposta che non raccolsi perché non sapevo in quel momento dove piazzarli. Viceversa ho saputo che è stata accettata da Victor Butt, un ucraino laureato presso l'accademia militare russa, il quale nel '95 avrebbe fondato una compagnia aerea a Ostenda e successivamente l'avrebbe registrata a Monrovia, capitale della Liberia. Poi trasferì gli aerei negli scali di Sharjah e Ajman, Emirati Arabi, e li vendette al governo della Liberia". Così affondavo navi radioattive "Sempre con Giorgio Comerio", continua l'ex boss, "la famiglia di San Luca ha fatto nel 1995 un altro affare che riguardava il niobio, solitamente utilizzato per costruire reattori nucleari. Comerio in quell'occasione chiese a Giuseppe Giorgi, detto 'u capra, genero del boss Sebastiano Romeo, di trasportare una certa quantità di quella sostanza, e la cosa andò in porto. Il niobio fu caricato su un container e trasportato con un aereo della Air Cess da Budapest alla Sierra Leone, dove Giuseppe Giorgi in persona lo consegnò ai responsabili della società Transavia. La famiglia di San Luca ricevette in cambio 250 milioni di lire, e non fu un episodio sporadico. Lo stesso Comerio mi raccontò che già negli anni Ottanta aveva avuto diversi contatti con la 'ndrangheta, e in particolare con Natale Iamonte, capo dell'omonima famiglia di Melito Porto Salvo, che lo aveva aiutato riguardo all'affondamento di navi cariche di rifiuti tossici e radioattivi in acque internazionali davanti alla costa ionica calabrese. Comerio", si legge, "mi spiegò che affondava navi cariche di rifiuti pericolosi per ottenere un doppio guadagno, sia da parte di chi commissionava il trasporto, sia da parte dell'assicurazione che veniva frodata. Le sue parole mi sono state poi confermate dallo stesso Iamonte, il quale mi ha spiegato come Comerio gli avesse chiesto di fornirgli il personale di bordo per l'affondamento della Riegel, la nave della società May Fair Shipping di Malta, noleggiata dalla Fjord Tanker Shipping, a sua volta noleggiata a un'altra ditta di cui non ricordo il nome, mandata a picco nel settembre del 1987 davanti a Capo Spartivento. Iamonte mi disse che l'affondamento era avvenuto 25 miglia fuori dalle acque territoriali. La 'ndrangheta aveva fornito il capitano e il suo aiuto italiano, mentre il resto dell'equipaggio veniva da varie nazioni. Sempre Iamonte ha fatto partire un motoscafo dalla costa con i candelotti di dinamite per mandare a picco la Riegel, dopodiché il capitano e l'aiuto sono stati riportati sulla costa di Capo Spartivento, mentre l'equipaggio è stato prelevato dalla nave jugoslava Karpen collocata in zona, che l'ha portato in Tunisia". "Io stesso", continua l'ex boss, "mi sono occupato di affondare navi cariche di rifiuti tossici e radioattivi. Nel settore avevo stretto rapporti nei primi anni Ottanta con la grande società di navigazione privata Ignazio Messina, di cui avevo incontrato un emissario con il boss Paolo De Stefano di Reggio Calabria. Ci siamo visti in una pasticceria del viale San Martino a Messina, dove abbiamo parlato della di sponibilità di fornire alla famiglia di San Luca navi per eventuali traffici illeciti. Fu assicurato che non ci sarebbero stati problemi, e infatti in seguito è successo. Per la precisione nel 1992, quando nell'arco di un paio di settimane abbiamo affondato tre navi indicate dalla società Messina: nell'ordine la Yvonne A, la Cunski e la Voriais Sporadais. La Ignazio Messina contattò la famiglia di San Luca e si accordò con Giuseppe Giorgi alla metà di ottobre. Giorgi venne a trovarmi a Milano, dove abitavo in quel periodo, e ci vedemmo al bar New Mexico di Corso Buenos Aires per organizzare l'operazione per tutte le navi. La Yvonne A, ci disse la Ignazio Messina, trasportava 150 bidoni di fanghi, la Cunski 120 bidoni di scorie radioattive e la Voriais Sporadais 75 bidoni di varie sostanze tossico-nocive. Ci informò anche che le imbarcazioni erano tutte al largo della costa calabrese in corrispondenza di Cetraro, provincia di Cosenza. Io e Giorgi andammo a Cetraro e prendemmo accordi con un esponente della famiglia di 'ndrangheta Muto, al quale chiedemmo manodopera. Ci mettemmo in contatto con i capitani delle navi tramite baracchino e demmo disposizione a ciascuno di essi nell'arco di una quindicina di giorni di muoversi. La Yvonne A andò per prima al largo di Maratea, la Cunski si spostò poi in acque internazionali in corrispondenza di Cetraro e la Voriais Sporadais la inviammo per ultima al largo di Genzano. Poi facemmo partire tre pescherecci forniti dalla famiglia Muto e ognuno di questi raggiunse le tre navi per piazzare candelotti di dinamite e farle affondare, caricando gli equipaggi per portarli a riva. Gli uomini recuperati", si legge nel memoriale, "sono stati messi su treni in direzione nord Italia. Finito tutto, io tornai a Milano, mentre Giuseppe Giorgi andò a prendere dalla Ignazio Messina i 150 milioni di lire per nave che erano stati concordati". Servizi molto segreti "So per certo", racconta l'ex boss della 'ndrangheta, "che molti altri affondamenti avvennero in quel periodo, almeno una trentina, organizzati da altre famiglie, ma non me ne occupai in prima persona. So anche che nel 1994 la famiglia di San Luca ha acquistato tre navi. Una in Norvegia che si chiamava Aoxum, presa tramite Valentino Foti, italiano residente a Bruxelles nel consiglio di amministrazione della banca svizzera Fimo A.G., un'altra che si chiamava Marylijoan acquistata in Francia a Marsiglia dal faccendiere siciliano Cipriano Micciché e una terza che si chiamava Monika acquistata in Germania a Baden Baden tramite il faccendiere di Lubiana Dusan Luin. Tutti e tre gli acquirenti erano vicini alla 'ndrangheta e membri della Loggia massonica Montecarlo, con il numero di inserimento 33. Detto questo", precisa l'ex boss, "non mi ha stupito sapere che tali traffici avvenissero con simile frequenza, perché le coperture necessarie per non avere fastidi erano in atto da tempo. In particolare, io e la famiglia di San Luca avevamo rapporti diretti con alcuni esponenti in vista dei servizi segreti. Come ho già scritto, nei primi anni Ottanta Giuseppe Nirta convocò una riunione dei capi dopo essere stato contattato dal ministero della Difesa, e proprio in quel momento era stato contattato anche da due collaboratori del Sismi, Giorgio Giovannini e Giovanni Di Stefano, i quali chiesero alla famiglia di San Luca se fossero disposti a fornire manodopera per trasportare rifiuti tossici e radioattivi in Somalia per conto di aziende italiane che non sapevano più dove ficcarli. Della cosa", scrive l'ex boss della 'ndrangheta, "era al corrente il segretario del Psi Bettino Craxi, il quale però non seguiva questo genere di affari ma lasciava appunto che se ne occupassero i servizi. Giovannini stesso spiegò a Nirta che per via della troppo stretta amicizia tra lui e Craxi, nota a tutti, era meglio che in futuro i rapporti fossero tenuti da Francesco Corneli e dal colonnello Stefano Giovannone, entrambi vicini al Sisde. Infatti il mio primo contatto avvenne telefonicamente e poi di persona nel 1987 con Corneli, che vidi al ristorante dell'Hotel Barberini di Roma. Era in occasione dell'affare con l'Enea di Rotondella. Ci serviva la copertura al porto di Livorno per caricare i bidoni, e lui ce la procurò. Quando ci presentammo, un suo uomo ci disse che nessuno ci avrebbe disturbato, e così è stato". Prima De Michelis, poi Pillitteri "Anche nel 1993", stando al memoriale dell'ex boss, "il business con l'Enea coinvolse Corneli. Anche questa volta ci fornì la protezione, sia al porto di La Spezia sia a quello di Livorno. Inoltre Corneli mi chiese di caricare sulla nave che partiva da La Spezia per la Somalia alcune casse di armi che dovevano essere recapitate a Giancarlo Marocchino. In seguito sono stato arrestato, ma i rapporti tra servizi segreti e la mia famiglia della 'ndrangheta sono continuati, come d'altronde sono sempre stati costanti quelli con la politica. Cito per esempio l'incontro che ebbi nel dicembre 1992 al ristorante Villa Luppis a Pasiano di Pordenone con l'ex ministro degli Esteri Gianni De Michelis, che come ho spiegato alla Direzione distrettuale antimafia di Reggio Calabria già conoscevo bene. Io partii in auto da Milano con Consolato Ferraro, rappresentante della 'ndrangheta reggina per la Lombardia, e quando arrivammo ci sedemmo a tavola con De Michelis e Attilio Bressan, un imprenditore del luogo che avevo già conosciuto in precedenza ed era molto amico del ministro. De Michelis", racconta l'ex boss, "faceva lo spiritoso, diceva che senza i politici noi della malavita non saremmo esistiti, e che se la politica avesse voluto spazzarci via lo avrebbe fatto senza problemi. Diceva così perché quell'anno c'erano stati gli omicidi di Falcone e Borsellino, ed era stata modificata la cosiddetta legge sui pentiti. Lui diceva che se anche questi pentiti avessero svelato fatti legati alla politica, sarebbe stato un boomerang, in quanto i politici si sarebbero comunque tirati fuori e si sarebbero vendicati. Inoltre parlai con De Michelis di Somalia, armi e rifiuti. Lui sosteneva che i politici avrebbero potuto trasportare qualunque cosa anche senza la collaborazione della 'ndrangheta, e che ci usavano per comodità . Io gli risposi che era vero quello che diceva, ma era vero anche che i politici si potevano sedere in Parlamento grazie ai nostri voti". "In quell'incontro", continua l'ex boss, "si è poi parlato di investimenti che la famiglia di San Luca voleva fare a Milano. De Michelis disse che se avevamo bisogno di comprare locali, potevamo rivolgerci a Paolo Pillitteri, e così facemmo. Fu deciso nel corso di una riunione tra vari boss che avvenne subito dopo a Milano nel ristorante 'Pierrot', in zona Ripamonti, alla quale partecipai anch'io. In quell'occasione Antonio Papalia, rappresentante della 'ndrangheta zona aspromontana in Lombardia, si offrì di presentarci Pillitteri, con cui aveva già concluso affari. La presentazione avvenne nel suo ufficio di piazza Duomo e oltre a Papalia c'eravamo io, Stefano Romeo e Giuseppe Giorgi. Grazie ai buoni uffici di Pillitteri, la famiglia di San Luca ha perfezionato l'acquisto di un bar in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, che poi è stato sequestrato proprio perché comprato con soldi sporchi, quello di un altro bar in via Fabio Filzi e di altri locali dei quali ho sentito parlare ma che non ho seguito direttamente". "Preciso", conclude l'ex boss, "che dal 1994 ho iniziato a collaborare con la Direzione distrettuale antimafia di Reggio Calabria riguardo ai temi della criminalità organizzata e del traffico internazionale di stupefacenti, e da quel momento non ho più svolto attività per conto della 'ndrangheta".

http://amipalazzi.ifrance.com/gb/palazzi08_gb.htm More Colonels and Some Torture The AMI - "Associazione musulmani italiani" or "Association of Italian Muslims" (however the organization prefers the English translation "Italian Muslim Association") - has undergone a complete change in recent times. This website, however, is not about the AMI but about Palazzi, so here we are taking a look at how the AMI used to be when Palazzi belonged to it. The AMI - "Associazione musulmani italiani" or "Association of Italian Muslims" - seems originally to have been an association of dictator Siad Barre's top colleagues, plus of course Palazzi's later additions: The Somali officers living in Italy and who joined the Italian Armed Forces during the 64th course for officers at Valtomorizza identify themselves with the position of the Association of Italian Muslims, one of the most moderate ones, led by Shaykh Abdul Hadi Palazzi: their spokesman is the former ambassador to the Holy See, the Qadi Ali Hussen.[1] In December 2001, Palazzi's friends launched an ambitious plan to regain power in Somalia, with help from the US army, no less: "The ten generals who have set up the new Alliance of Somali Officers, established in Tampa under the hegemony of the USA and of the United Nations, have all studied in Italian military academies, and are the sons or grandsons of the 'Ascari' [mercenaries] of the Kingdom of Italy who used to be led by Duke Amedeo d'Aosta. One of them, the general Osman Hajji Omar, called "Falco" [The Hawk], will perhaps be the future chief of staff, if the US approve, once armed intervention has been decided in Mogadishu to clear out the accomplices of Osama Bin Laden." [2] Generals Osman Hajj "The Hawk" (on the left) and Ali Hussen (on the right), when they were cadets of the Guardia di Finanza It is a bit worrying to read [1] that Osman Hajj Falco, besides being a founding member of the AMI, was also the deputy chief of the national police under Siad Barre's military regime. Falco "The Hawk" is not the only veteran of Siad Barre's regime in the AMI. There is also the former commander of the military district of Migiurtinia; Gen. Yusuf Aden, former comptroller general of customs and drug trade surveillance under Siad Barre, then head of the press office of the government; Gen. Osman Iyoò, a founding member of AMI and former legal adviser of the Somali embassy in Italy; Gen. Abdullahi Warsame, former commander of the Somali military intelligence; Gen. Hasan Farey, member of AMI, former Minister of Social Infrastructures and currently the guardian for the real estate and agricultural assets of Italy and the Holy See in Somalia; Gen. Omar Hashi, physician and former commander of Siad Barre's scientific police. This information comes directly from the AMI [2] ; whereas a source which is quite close to AMI - [3] tells us that Iyoò was actually the head of Siad Barre's Secret Service. One wonders whether these people were completely unaware of what happened during the last years of Siad Barre's regime. If they were not spending all their time in Italian nightclubs, they must for example have been aware that Barre had hurled his impoverished country into a disastrous war against Ethiopia, which led to a general revolt in Somalia itself: In May 1988, fierce fighting broke out in the north between the Government and rebels who contended they had been discriminated against by the Siad Barre Government and were fighting for a more democratic Government. A report commissioned by the State Department and made public in September 1989 said the Somali Army "purposely murdered" at least 5,000 unarmed civilians over a 10-month period in the early phases. The Government denied the allegation. More than 10,000 people were reported killed in the months that followed, with allegations that the Somali military had bombed towns and strafed fleeing residents. Amnesty International said in August 1988 that since 1981 the Government had used torture and "widespread arbitrary arrests, ill treatment and summary executions" of civilians suspected of collaborating with the rebels.[4] The whole issue is quite complicated, and we are no experts on the tribal alliances in Somalia; however, putting the pieces together, it seems quite clear that there is a group of military people tied to Siad Barre's regime and living in Europe who want to take advantage of Bush' "Enduring War" in order to take back their old countries. Ali Hussen has thus become the "Co-ordinator of the National Somali Alliance", modelled on the "Northern Alliance" of Afghanistan. Rather than thinking of a band of bloodthirsty torturers living in Europe on what they plundered from the starving people of Somalia and plotting to start all over again, we prefer the more romantic image of the French aristocrats in exile after the Revolution, dreaming of how to get back their chateaux. One question does arise. We are willing to believe that all these former chiefs of police and secret services were quite unaware of the horrors going on under Siad Barre. However, if they were, one wonders whether such short sighted people are really the most suited to govern Somalia in the future. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOOTNOTES [1] Fabio di Chio e Anna Maria Turi, Costituita dall'ONU la "Alleanza antifondamentalista per la Somalia", 24 dicembre 2001, www.iltempo.it. [2] "Aggiornamento sulle operazioni in Somalia del 13 Shawwal 1422 - 28 dicembre 2001", e-mail A cura del Dipartmento Informazione dell'Associazione Musulmani Italiani. [3] Dimitri Buffa, "Falco, il generale educato all'italiana, capo di Stato Maggiore in Somalia", Libero, 29 dicembre 2001. [4] George James, Somalia's Overthrown Dictator, Mohammed Siad Barre, Is Dead, The New York Times January 3, 1995.

saaxiib dariskeena waa dad ka imaaday gaalkacyo oo faan badan. waa nagu cabaan maalin kasta.

Somali's best and brightest being targeted by gunmen By: Abdulkadir Khalif (notav@notav.com) News of the recent shooting of Abdalla Nurrudin Ahmed spread like bushfire across Somalia, particularly Mogadishu. It was on Somali websites within hours. The incident took place his Aana 2 snack bar in the Ali Kamin area in the capital. Several shots were reportedly fired at, arguably, the best known man in Somalia. The attacker, reportedly a lone man fired several shots at Abdalla Nurrudin, but the victim escaped with injuries. A poet, an advertiser, a composer, a presenter and teacher, Abdalla Nurrudin's contributions to society are many and diverse. Somalis, who have known Abdalla through various, almost universally failed to understand why anyone would want to kill such a man. So, public reaction to the attack was one of fury." How could a young man simply walk into the popular restaurant and open fire on a man who never harmed a fellow citizen?" asked a city dweller. At Medina hospital, where Abdalla Nurrudin is admitted, the visitors' book is said to be filling up fast as well-wishers flock there to deliver camel milk and oodkac - a popular fried camel meat cutlet. "We have no culture of taking flowers to those in hospital," a visitor explained. The attack was comndemned by old and young alike, as well as by artistes and business people. Civil society, human-rights groups and other community watchdogs have demanded behavioural change in our violent society. "Listening to Abdalla describe what happened to him was a reminder of the man's courage," said a sympathiser. In a chaotic society like Somalia, Abdalla's public exposure has always made him a possible target for elimination. He is a perfect role model for those aspiring for creative engagements and entrepreneurship. His outstanding personal achievements over the past four decades have generated both appreciation and jealousy. CUSTOMERS OF Aana 2 snack bar come from as far as Bulla Hubey and Waxara-Cadde sub-districts, seven kilometres away just to have a samosa and juice. And wedding ceremonies appear more organised when Abdalla is the master of ceremonies. He is capable of keeping the youth on tenterhooks as he describes his love life. His poems makes food more appetising, said a woman who took part in such a wedding. Newspapers in Mogadishu occasionally advertise the latest novel by Ustaaz (Teacher) Abdalla Nurrudin. He does in-depth social analyses of our society in a romantic way," said a fan. Abdalla sometimes combines religious preaching, news broadcasting and presentation of musical programmes in a single day. His radio and TV shows draw in large audiences. Life in other Somali towns without the likes of Abdalla must be quite boring, said Elmi Nur, another of his fans. Products that Abdalla popularises become household names because they are associated with his unique ability to combine message in Somali, Arabic, Italian, English and Swahili. Many people tune in to radio channels that carry his commercials because they are amused by his weird, sexy expressions, said a radio listener. ALTHOUGH EVERYBODY in Somalia ought to have security, those with exceptional qualities like professionals, scientists, academics, artists, religious and business people should get more protection as they have been particularly targeted by killers as has been the case during the past 14 years of civil war. Violence and deaths in Somalia occur as a result of inter-clan wars, inter-militia confrontations, ambushes by gangsters, stray bullets and sniper fire. THE MOST recent victim of the violence was Dunya Mohiddin Nur, a young reporter working with Horn Afrik Media in Mogadishu, who was shot dead on June 5 while trying to find out why an illegal tax collection roadblock was being erected along the strategic motorway linking Mogadishu and Afgoye town. A Mali sage once said, When an old man dies in Africa, it is like an entire library has been burned out. Thus, Abdalla Nurrudin Ahmed, Dunya Mohiddin Nur and their likes are God's gifts to the Somali people and should receive awards and recognition instead of bullets in the chest. The whole nation must show its gratitude to the fallen heroes by wishing Abdalla a quick recovery and praying for Dunya to rest in peace. Public security in Somalia is almost non-existent and recovery is not possible without the nascent government assuming full authority and getting the wheels of justice rolling once again. Abdulkadir Khalif is the former assistant production manager of the Mogadishu Milk Factory.

it is a somali comedy at its best creative take on Yeey's chickening out of Jowhar! enjoy it ------------------ Cabdilahi Yusuf: Ninka garka dheer ee horkacayay Ciidanka Jowhar ku soo dhawaa markaan ka degi rabay ma Ina Dahir aweys buu ahaa mise tolow Suudi Yalaxow????? Sheeko siyaasadeed: Doha Waagacusub.net Mudane Madaxweyne ka waran sida Seatlet-kii aan wadanay u soo qabtay Ciidankii uu watay ninkii Garka dheeraa xilligii aan Jowhar ku degi rabnay’wale iyo bile af libaax baan ku dhici gaarnay. Madaxweyne Yusuf: Mujaahid baad tahay wale iyo bile ,horta waxaan ku weeydiiyay ninka garka dheer ee horkacayay maleeshiyadda kaabiga u saarneed Jowhar ma kii Al Itixaadka ahaa ee Ina Dahir aweys buu ahaa mise Muuse Suudi Yalaxow? La taliye: Walaahi anigu saani uma arag oo xilli qorax dhac beey ahayd laakiin Madaxweyne Xasan Dahir aweys buu ahaa sababtoo ah Maleeshiyadda uu watay dhamaan Camaamado ayaa u xirnaa ala tira badnaayeenaa,mida kale Muuse Suudi Gerkii iska xiir waa hore oo ma ahayn. Madaxweyne Yusuf: la taliye warka noo jooji nin Gardheer baa nagu soo socdee meeshuna waa dal carbeede. Wadani Somaliyeed: Asalaamu Caleeykum Mudane Madaxweyne?????? Madaxweyne Yusuf: Dantaada ka hadal iyo waxa aad iigu socoto???? Wadani Somaliyeed: Madaxweyne waxaan ahay Nin ka socdaa jaaliyadda dalkaan Qatar bal marka hore Caafimaadkaada iiga waran? Madaxweyne Yusuf: Caafimaadkeeyga laguuma dirsan ..Beerkeeyguna kaadaas waa ka Caafimaad badan yahay , ee waxaad iigu timid aan ka wada hadalno ? Wadani Somaliyeed: Ok Madaxweyne’anigu kaalama hadleeyn beerka laakiin hadaan kaala hadlo ujeedkeeyga waxaan wakiil ka ahay Jaaliyadda Somalida ee dalkaan Qatar ku nool waxaana dooneeynaa inaan kula kulanaa marka waqti noo qabo? Madaxweyne Yusuf : Adigu horta Ina ayaad tahay isu keey sheeg? Wadani Somaliyeed: Anigu ilama ahan inaad I taqaan? Madaxweyne Yusuf: Dadkii hore waan garanayaa ee magacaada oo sedexan ii sheeg? Wadani Somaliyeed: Maxamed Cali Xaayoow ayaa leey yiraa Mudane Madaxweyne? Madaxweyne Yusuf: laba sababood aawgeed kulama sii sheekeeysan karo marka na kala daa maandhoow!!. Wadani Somaliyeed: Maxay yahiin labadaas sababood? Madaxweyne Somaliyeed: Inta aanan kuu sheegin Aaabahaa gartaye,Hooyadaa iyo Xaaskaaduna waa qolama? Wadani Somaliyed: ma garan Mudane Madaxweyne waa qolama waxaad ula jeedo? Madaxweyne Somaliyeed: yacni waa ina ayo magacooda oo sedex ii sheeg? Wadani Somaliyeed: hooyadeey waxaa la dhahaa Xaliimo Xamuud Calasow,Islaanteeydana waxaa la yiraa Faay Jimcaale Cosoble..: Madaxweyne Yusuf: In awoowgaa la yiraa xaayoow iyo in sida ii muuqatay aad tahay qolooyinkii Gardheerta ee Lacagaha faraha badan u direeya shayaadiinta Xamar joogta ayay tahay labadu aan isku maandhaafnay anigu kuwa adigga oo kale ah dhangad baan la dhici jiadhay ninkaagaas garka dheer na kala daa. Wadani Somaliyeed: Madaxweyne Xaayoow ma dakana gooni ah buu kaa galay?garkoo la deestaana soow ma ogid inuu Suna yahay? Madaxweyne Yusuf: waar aaway ilaaladii ninkaan dibadda iiga saara,waadna qaldan tahiin mar dambe ha ii soo gudbino qolooyinka Xaayoow iyo Gardheereyaasha. Ilaaladda Madaxweynaha: Ok mudane Madaxweyne hada waxaa kuu joogo nin Carab ah af carabi buu nagula hadlay waxaana ka fahamnay Al ra’iis Cabdalla,maxaanu ka yeelnaa? Madaxweyne Yusuf: anigu bari dhaweeyd Casharkii la siinayay waxaan ka xasuustaa Eshtabqaa toloow maxaad rabtaa miyeey ahayd mise waxaan rabaa? War ninkii Cusmaaciil buubaa ahaa xagee ka baxay Ninkaa baan Carabka isaga haleeyay oo barigii dhaweeyd ee aan ka qeeybgalayay Janaasadii Carafaat beey qolooyinkii Carabta tii xumeeyd igu dhigeen’Ninkii Juriile ahaabaa igu yiri anigaa carabiga Xariif ku ah ileen ninku waxaan Talyanigu ahaynba ma aqoon la ogaa ee iska daa?? waxaan idin dhahay ninka af ingiriis kula hadla. Xoghayntii Madaxweynaha: Sir What is your name? Nin Carbeed:Laa haada luqatul Isticmaariya ,xaaram’ anta muslim?لا هذا لغة الإستعمارية أنت مسلم Anaa min safaarah liibiya uriidu Ra'isu yusuf' أنا من سÙارة ليبيا أريد رئيس يوس٠Xogheyntii Madaxweynaha : ba ba boowe muxuu ku hadlayaa ma anagaa xaaraan ah waa maxay isticmaarka 'malaha Isagana Ingiriiska ayuusan aqoon inaan caayay buu u heeystaa'madaxweyne ninka Liibiya ,isticmaar iyo xaaraan intaba waa sheegay. La soco sheeko kale oo qadka Telefoonka ku dhexmartay Cabdilahi Yusuf iyo Maxamed dheere.

Bari e` bravo! perche` sempre tanti saluti! Ina Yeey ayaa la sheegay inuu ka soo dagi doono garoonka Boosaaso, halkaasna eey si diiran ugu soo dhaweeyn doonaan ciidamadda booliska magaalada boosaaso iyadoo la sheegay in dharkii baambeeyda dhawaan laga soo gaday DUBAI. Alla Beerka - faan badanaa taneeytu? yaa suurahaas waaba ku aqaanay! walaahi this chick is so creative and so proud that i find her so interstingly amusing and entertaining!

Rudy!!! Qaaci mise alla cuud?

I hope they don't end up in mental asylum! I know you are all depressed and nervously exasperated. I have a word for you. join the progressive peace loving patriotic side and you will forever live with optimism and hope.

disoriented and disorganized punch of pretenders with no clear cut objectives, no strategic vision and no follow up action, Yeey and Ghedi are now showing signs of defeat and weakness. blame it on their outlandish hullicination or whatever you may call it but I feel sorry for those die-hard cheerleaders in this lousy forum! what a disappointment.!! Now, i am entitled to gloat!! well, it is about time! Now they, Yeey and Ghedi's are realizing that their insistance of front line troops was short-sighted. They signle handedly managed to unite the warlords in Mogadishu and also further degenerate the divisions and mistrust among Somalis. they showed their lack of patriotic sentiments when they ignored the so many calls and pleas from all concerned Somalis to sit down and reoncile with the opposing factions. No, their arrogance and smugness was too good to listen and consult with intellectuals and scholars. Yeey's clannish selfish goal was to start some kind of civil reprisal against southern factions. it backfired. People are not dumb any more! times have changed! no more jump-balls! Luckily, Yeey was outmanouvered and beaten in every political game and in all venues. He was fairly and squarely defeated and it seems the old octogenerian is now realizing his insubstantial influence on Somali politics. His thinking was based on obsolete past clannish mentality. It is about a time, the grave-ridden clannish octogenerian retires and quits for the good of Somalia.

sorry folks!!

Prof:Geedi oo aan war u heyn halka uu xarun ka dhiganayo Madaxweynaha Posted on Wednesday, June 15 @ 03:30:26 PDT by editor Xildhibaano kula sugan Ra'iisulwasaare Geedi dalka Kenya ayaa waxka weydiiyay guuritaankooda halka dhabta ah ee loo qoondeeyay, isagoo isla markaasna hadalkiisa ku soo koobayay uun in Muqdisho la tagayo. C/llahi, Geedi iyo Xildhaanadooda oo weli ku sugan marxalad ii ugu xumeyd ee ku aadaneyd INTEENKA BAXNAA MEEL ALAH, ayaa waxaa Ra'iisulwasaaraha wax laga weydiiyay halka uu xarun rasmiya ka dhigan doono Madaxweynaha waa hadii uu Soomaaliya ku soo noqdo ayaa ku jawaabay war uma haayo sitoosana ugama wada hadlin. Madaxweynaha oo ay hada u harsantahay inuu xarunka dhigto Muqdisho halka goboladii hore ee ay u carabka ugu dhufteen ay socon la'yihiin. onkod_news@hotmail.com Onkod News Desk

Cabdullahi Yusuf oo iskacasiliraba xilkii Madaxweynenimo Sida aanu ku helnay ilo ku dhow dhow Madaxweynaha oo ayna Jabuuti isla joogeen ayaa daqiiqado ka hor onkod.net u sheegay in madaxweynaha xalka kaliya ee u furan ee uu isna arka in ay tahay inuu iska casilo xilka uu hayo. Cabdulahi Yusuf oo uu isbadal weyn ku dhacay kadib markii ay xaalada siyaasadeed ay cirka isku shareertay hadana uu xal u heliwaayay halka uu xarun ka dhiganayo, isagoo ku gacanseeray goobihii uu hore u iclaamiyay oo dhan. Mas'uulkan aanu la xiriirnay ayaa sheegay in hadalka iscasilida in uu afkiisa uga'ga sheegay Madaxweynaha Jabuuti Md.Ismaaciil Cumar Geele. Dhinaca kale waxaa la filayaa inuu Madaxweynaha safarkiisa kolka uu ka soo noqdo kadib inuu kasoo dagi doono Magaaladda Gaalkacyo waxaana uu kolkaas kadib usoo kicitimidoonaa magaaladda Baladweyne sida ay hadal hayeen rag aad ugu dhowdhow madaxweynaha oo laga soo xigtay wararkaasi. onkod_news@hotmail.com Onkod News Desk

Guess what folks? the honeymoon is over between Ghedi, Mohammed Dhere and Yeey. The homeless president is still in exile. Ghedi & Aideed Jr with their cabinet are coming to Mogadishu. more than 184( quorum ) parliamentarians are confirmed to be coming to the Shariif's side. the next two weeks are very critical. let us see how things will dramatically change.

It is official - 110 are already in, Jinni Boqor & Co. will bring 46 MPs to Mog, Dalxa and his lost sheep (dirty dozen) have repented after being hummiliated - our guys in Nairobi have confirmed more than 21 MPs are on the bargaining table. Aideed Jr. have expressed his qualms, so is Gacmadheere. We will have more than the quorum in Mogadishu within a week. June 25 Yeey will be ousted and a new president will be crowned. rumors have it a Professor (with US blessing ) will be appointed as the president (who could bring the Somalialand in )and he in turn will appoint Doctor as the PM. A new Somali federal charter of two years will be formed. USA & EU have already guarenteed they will restrain Melez through WB. OIL, GAS and natural resources are all over in the Somali Soil. Waa la doogiyee yaan la dacaroon. The next two weeks is very critical. Hold on your breath and keep your head up! Yaan la is dhiibin!

intee la aadaa? caawa waxaa islii ka socda ishaa falato iyo habarteey ma aragtay? jiq eey ku tahay xildhibaanadii jaadka ku cuni jiray! maba xishoonaayaan? sharafta idin ka dhacday!

President is told to pack bags after outstaying his welcome From Xan Rice in Nairobi President Yusef: exile over A RELUCTANT guest of honour will arrive for his farewell party at Kenya’s State House this morning, shake hands with government ministers and listen to the very best wishes from a relieved international donor community. Abdullahi Yusuf, the Somalian President-in-exile, is finally going home. “He is going to a summit in Qatar, and then perhaps to another Arab country,†Yusuf Ismail Bari Bari, the President’s spokesman, said yesterday. “But then it will be Somalia. He is not coming back here.†The departure of President Yusuf will come as a huge relief to the Kenyan authorities. They have hosted their neighbour’s Government since 2002. But bitter wrangling over the choice of a capital city and the matter of foreign peacekeeping troops had raised the prospect of the Government collapsing before it even returned home. Neither issue has been resolved but the Kenyans and the donor countries who have been paying for the MPs’ accommodation have had enough of the Somalis’ prevarication. Last week the parliamentarians received eviction notices from their upmarket hotels in Nairobi. All are expected to return to Somalia — still largely a patchwork of warlords’ fiefdoms — by the end of the week. A senior UN official, who asked not be named, said: “They now have simply got to take the risk of going home.†Since his election by politicians last October, Mr Yusuf, 70, a former warlord, has argued that the risk of relocating to the traditional capital, Mogadishu, the epicentre of Somalia’s anarchy, was too great. He has insisted on moving the capital to the nearby towns of Baidoa or Jowhar, so infuriating many MPs and frustrating international officials. A failed attempt by militia loyal to Mr Yusuf to take Baidoa by force two weeks ago served only to raise suspicions about his commitment to peace and national unity. Last month the UN proposed that the Government should move to Mogadishu under a plan in which a soon-to-be-established police force would secure the city while the President toured the country. And so more than 100 MPs have returned to Mogadishu. With civic groups, they have dismantled 20 roadblocks used by the warlords to extort money. This is being seen as a big step forward. STATE OF CHAOS Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991, when the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown More than 14 attempts to restore a national administration have been prevented by heavily armed warlords The 275-member Transitional Federal Government (TFG) — including many warlords — was set up in October 2004 after two years of peace talks in Kenya The TFG was due to relocate to Somalia on December 15, 2004, but MPs chose to remain in Kenya, citing security fears

what a phony propogandistic lie! Qaybdiid is very civil and fair-minded individual, not know for such injudicious abrupt rage! I would have believed you if it was Mohammed Dheer. The imbecile of Jowhar!

The World Bank/IMF Structural Adjustment Programs and the Somali Crisis by Julius O. Ihonvbere Department of Government The University of Texas at Austin Burdine Hall 536 Austin, Texas 78712-1087 Tel. (512) 471-5121; Fax (512) 471-1061 Paper prepared for the symposium on "Towards Conflict Resolution in the Horn of Africa," organized by the African Studies Program, Central Connecticut State university, New Britain, Connecticut, November 19, 1994. The clan system that is embedded in Somali culture is not in itself responsible for the destruction of Somalia: the deliberate policy of exacerbating clan rivalries is. Said Bare initiated the policy, but the war lords bent on replacing him replicated his tactics.(1) There are more arms than food in Somalia. These arms were not fabricated by Somalis... they were given by the outside, to serve outside interests. Those who provide arms are partners in crime.(2) Somalia is one African country that came to occupy the center stage of global attention as a precipitate of a very unfortunate development in its political history. The country had served the interests of the former Eastern bloc and the Western alliance very well. Unfortunately, it did not benefit from its spasms of allegiance to either bloc and at the end of the cold war, the economy was in shambles, the state had been terribly delegitimized and was fast disintegrating, poverty, alienation, cynicism, and violence had become the order of the day. These conditions only served to worsen an already bad situation. Though signs of impending disaster were there for all to see, very few NGOs had the resources and interest to concern themselves with this poor, backward, underdeveloped, and almost unimportant nation in the Horn of Africa. It was not until the media brought the gruesome pictures of starving children, corpses on the streets, moving skeletons, and sickly children watched over by vultures waiting for them to take the last gasp of air, that the United States, the only surviving super power after the Cold War, and the United Nations, now under the unprecedented influence of the United States, responded to the Somali disaster. Unfortunately, analyses of the origins, dimensions, and implications of the Somali crisis have tended to be superficial and impressionistic. Part of this problem is because the world, even the academic community, had to rely on the media with its journalistic interpretations and penchant for sensationalism. Somalia had not benefitted from the massive influx of expatriate western researchers in the 1970s as was Tanzania, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, and Nigeria. Thus, not much is known about the nation's political economy in the West. It was thus easy and rather convenient to blame the crisis and the disintegration of the Somali state on the so-called warlords and ethnic or tribal clans. The wrong argument was that the clashes among the clans and the inability of the warlords to reach a consensus is responsible for the Somali crisis. This, we argue, is only a very partial and superficial explanation of the crisis. Our goal in this paper is not to argue that the IMF and World Bank vcreated the Somali crisis. Rather, we contend that the crisis is directly a precipitate of ruthless explouitation, unmderdevelopment and marginalization of the Somali social formation by the forces of Westewrn imperialism. We contend that this crisis weas reproduced through the interplay of political forces, the alignment and realignment of political and ideological interests in opoast-colonial Somalia. It is into this crisis, precipitated by internal and expernal forces, thart the IMF and thw World Bank waded in the 1980s only to deepen contradictions, destroy the foundations of stability, erode the legitimacy of the state, intensify poverty snd alienation, and lay the foundation for the more popularly known version of the Sonali experience as was seen very recently. In this paper we begin by locating Somalia in the African crisis. Next, we take a brief look at the background to the crisis in Somalia, the nature of the crisis, and the role of the World Bank and the IMF in the deepening of the crisis.international responses. We conclude by examining the implications of the crisis for Africa and prospects for peace and recovery in the country. Somalia in the African Predicament There is increasing agreement on the fact that sub-Saharan Africa has performed very badly on all fronts in the past decade.(3) The region entered the 1990s as the most crisis-ridden, most debt-distressed, most marginal, and most poverty-stricken in the world. On virtually all indicators of development, Africa lagged behind other regions in the developing world.(4) Describing the situation in sub-Saharan Africa in the mid-1980s, Edward Jaycox, Vice President, Africa Region of the World Bank noted: At that time, most of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa...were in an economic free fall: no goods on the shelves, no spare parts, no chalk in the classrooms, no drugs in the clinics and so on. Budgets were out of control, debt was piling up, institutions were decaying, social indicators were falling, and, in substantial parts of Africa, famine stalked the land. The "African Crisis" was well under way.(5) While the deteriorating situation alerted the world and African governments to a new reality, policy responses at national, regional, and global levels failed to stem the tide of decay and disintegration. Political and economic reforms were tentative, post-hoc and uncoordinated. More importantly, the reforms embraced by most African regimes were simply designed to impress donors and creditors, open credit lines, and to attract more foreign aid.(6) At the structural levels, the reforms dealt with superficial and superstructural problems and contradictions, leaving substructural contradictions intact. Such cosmetic responses failed to contain the region's deepening crisis, and by the end of the 1980s, Africa had become "the greatest development challenge facing the international community..."(7) Many desperate governments and leaders rushed to embrace economic restructuring programs only because the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund(IMF) conditioned further assistance on stabilization and adjustment policies and other international financiers, donors, and creditors adopted similar positions. But in most instances, conditions had deteriorated to unprecedented proportions, and regimes were not in any position to negotiate better terms or to modify reform packages which pay little cognizance to the specificities of their economies. It is in this context that we can appreciate Jaycox's summary of the African predicament at the end of the 1980s: Sub-Saharan Africa was in an especially vulnerable position because its basic economic structures and capacities were weaker than anywhere else. The region had no industrial base to speak of, its human resource and management skills were extremely thin, its infrastructure was sparse and often run-down, its technological options were limited, and it was rapidly losing its competitiveness to other developing regions. Wrong-headed policies fed into and exacerbated these basic problems. Grossly overvalued exchange rates, excessive taxation of exports, widespread price controls and subsidies, state interference in internal and external trade, and generally poor management of the revenues from the commodity price booms of the 1970s- all these left Africa...with a major development crisis on its hands.(8) At the end of 1992, Africa's external debt stood at $290 billion. This was "about two and a half times greater than in 1980, while sub-Saharan Africa's debt had more than tripled."(9) The region's debt is equivalent to 90 per cent of its GNP. For sub-Saharan Africa, it is equivalent to 110 per cent of GNP. Debt servicing in 1991 alone was $26 billion. With a population of about 600 million, Africa accounts for half of the world's refugees, average life expectancy is 51 years, population is growing at an annual rate of 3.2 percent- the highest in the world (it is 2.1 for Latin America and 1.8 for Asia), only 37 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans have access to clean drinking water, food production is 20 per cent lower than 1970 levels, and its economic growth rate is the lowest in the world standing at 1.5 percent. The depth of its economic stagnation, and decay in the majority of cases, is evidenced in the fact that the region's combined GNP of less than $150 billion is about the same as Belgium's!(10) According to Lance Murrow, "In the face of political instability and disintegrating roads, airports and telephone networks, and other disincentives, investors...are withdrawing from sub-Saharan Africa and looking elsewhere."(11) In addition, "AIDS is devastating the continent's population...capital and operating costs in Africa are 50% to 100% higher than in South Asia, where the return on investment is nine times as great; 25 years ago, the regions were even."(12) According to the Institute for African Alternatives(IFAA), over 1000 children die daily from avoidable diseases and this excludes the disaster cases of Somalia, Mozambique, and the Sudan.(13) By the end of 1992 African countries were classified as "the poorest, most troubled, least developed and hungriest in the world."(14) Africa News drawing from reports by the World Bank and several international agencies also noted that large numbers of African nations were "at or near the bottom of global indicators of development; they account for 90 per cent (23 of 26) of the "most Severely indebted nations in the world," and in the International Index of Human Suffering the region accounts for 66 per cent (20 of 27) of the "Extreme human suffering" category, and 40 per cent (24 of 56) of the "high human suffering" category. Finally, in its Economic Report of Africa 1992, the Economic Commission for Africa(ECA) practically echoed its previous reports showing overall deterioration in practically all sectors.(15) In his 1992 end-of-year review of Africa's economic prospects, Laiyashi Yaker, the ECA's Executive Secretary noted that "With output rising at barely 2 per cent per annum..., Africa's chronic economic ills of the 1980s seem unabated. Continued low growth and resulting austerity has badly hit social spending."(16) The net implications of declining investment and foreign assistance, political instability, stagnant or failed adjustment programs, low growth rate and capital flight have been declining standards of living, regime turnover, economic dislocation, and increasing marginalization in the global division of labor.(17) More and more Africans are dying from poverty and civil wars than ever before. The youths and intellectuals are practically fleeing their respective nations for the Middle East, Europe, and North America. The general terrain of tensions, uncertainty, disillusionment, declining purchasing power, unemployment, institutional decay and inefficiency, and widespread corruption constitute part of the African reality and background which has manifested itself in the Somali situation. The point to note therefore, is that the conditions of economic and political decay are common to all African social formations without exception.(18) The manifestation of the crisis as has happened in Somalia differ only in terms of the resiliency of the state, the nature and power of the contending constituencies, the degree of external support and interest in the economy, the structural integration of production and exchange forces, and the character of leadership and national constituencies. Let us now examine the case of Somalia. Somalia: The Path to Crisis and Disintegration The territory known as Somalia today was colonized in the 19th century by the British, French, and Italians. Colonialism ruthlessly exploited and underdeveloped the country. As part of the politics of divide-and-rule, the colonial powers did everything possible to play one clan against the other sowing seeds of discord and conflicts. In July 1960, the independent Somali state emerged from the Union of British and Italian Somaliland. This left millions of Somalis outside the new state in Djibouti, the ******* in present day Ethiopia, and the former Northern Frontier District of British Kenya. For the first nine years of political independence, the country enjoyed relative peace and some form of democracy. It gained strength from its cultural, racial and religious homogeneity- Somalia has one major ethnic group, one language, and one religion.(19) The existence of six major clans- ******* (35 per cent of the population), ****** (23 per cent), ***** (23 per cent), Digil, and Rahanwayan (11 per cent) and the *** (7 per cent)-and several sub-clans did not lead to a complete break down of law and order. Inter- and intra-clan politics was conditioned by the influence of the heer (social contract) which dictates the relationship between the clan and the individual. To be sure, there were several points of contradictions, conflicts, and uncertainty. There were over 60 political parties, complex and conflicting political coalitions, assassination of political figures, and suppression of the press. Most of these developments were largely precipitates of the distortions, contradictions, and disarticulations caused by the colonial experience and the reproduction of a neo-colonial political reality. The period before 1969 also witnessed several points of tension. First, the Northern clans, especially the Isaaqs in the former British Somaliland felt neglected, and dominated by the Southern Somalis. Second, the Somalis in Kenya and Ethiopia were eager to join their kins in the new Somali state and consequently developed liberation movements to pursue this objective. Third, the Somali government gave open encouragement to these liberation movements in Kenya and Ethiopia and made open territorial claims. Fourth, post-independence governments neglected infrastructures, basic needs, and education which could have reduced primordial loyalties and sentiments and strengthened national cohesion. The consequence was increasing reliance on the clan and clan politics to survive the difficult conditions of poverty and exploitation from domestic and foreign interests. Finally, fifth, in spite of the country's claim to democracy, repression was common and corruption was widespread. These simply deepened loyalties to regional and clan leaderships and accentuated the reproduction of inherited conditions of instability and limited legitimacy and hegemony of the Somali state. In October 1969 things took a turn for the worse as has been the case in the majority of African states. In the African context, Somalia had done very well in being able to run a democratic system for nine years before General Siyaad Bare seized power in a bloodless coup. He suspended the constitution, dismissed parliament and replaced it with the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC). Bare remained in power for 21 years during which corruption reached unprecedented proportions, clannishness became the fundamental basis of politics, infrastructures were run down, the legitimacy of the state, its institutions and agents were clearly eroded, and he carried out several bloody persecutions of opposition elements. As part of his strategy to remain in power for life, Siyaad Bare had civilianized himself, taking the title of President, decreed a socialist one party state in October 1970, and established the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP) which replaced the dissolved SRC in July 1976. Siyaad Bare imposed himself on the SRSP as its Secretary-General. The context of Bare's persecution and direction of foreign aid and scarce resources to repression and security matters reveals part of the background to the Somali crisis. At independence in 1960, Somalia was and has remained one of the poorest countries in Africa. With a population of 7.5 million (1987) only 1.6 percent of the land area was cultivated. Livestock production accounts for 47 per cent of its gross domestic product and manufacturing accounts for a mere 5 percent. The exportation of livestock products accounts for 60 per cent of its exports with bananas accounting for 40 per cent. Its GNP per capita in 1990 stood at a mere $120, one of the lowest in Africa. Its foreign debt profile of $2.4 billion showed a debt/GNP ratio of 283.4 per cent. Life expectancy was a mere 47 years, adult literacy was 24 per cent, under-5 mortality was 215 per thousand, only 27 per cent of the population had access to health care, and 37 per cent had access to safe water. In 1988, at a time Siyaad Bare was busy attacking villages and eliminating opposition movements, 70 per cent of rural Somalis were living below the poverty line, less than a fifth of all school age children were attending any sort of school, and half of the population still depended on livestock for their livelihood. On all indicators of development, Somalia was doing very badly by African standards: Somalia is one of the poorest nations in the world, classified by the UN as a "least developed country" LDC....Even before the devastation and suffering brought by the civil war, conditions for most Somalis were extremely difficult.... The poverty of Somali's people is explained in part by the country's extremely underdeveloped and fragile economy...manufacturing has been little developed,....Dominated by public enterprises, the sector has been plagued by obsolete equipment, shortages of raw materials, irregular energy supply, uncertain foreign exchange and inefficient and corrupt management.(20) It was in the context of these debilitating conditions that the Bare regime squandered Official Development Assistance(ODA) which accounted for 37 per cent of GDP by 1984- contributing between $300 and $400 million in the 1980s,(21) and diverted massive military aid to large scale human rights abuses and the repression of popular organizations. A few examples of Bare's repressive politics will suffice. In July 1977 he was at war (in support of the Western Somali Liberation Front(WSLF)) with Ethiopia over the disputed ******* region and suffered a crushing defeat largely as a precipitate of Soviet support for the Mengistu regime in Ethiopia. This forced Siyaad Bare, a former staunch ally of the Soviet Union to opt for American support. Bare's government expelled 6,000 Soviet personnel from Somalia in November 1977. This switch was very rewarding as it earned the Bare regime substantial military and economic support from the United States. With the military and economic aid, the Regime was able to wage its war against growing opposition and the persecution of so-called communist organizations. Clans from which the opposition were drawn were subjected to unparalleled attacks and persecution, civil society was suffocated, and popular groups were driven underground. Bare's "reign of terror (was) cited by international human rights groups as one of the cruelest on the continent."22 Foreign economic aid was used to strengthen the security forces and to create a very ruthless elite security agency called the Duub Cas (Red Hats). Foreign money was also used to buy the support of some prominent political figures, bribe journalists, and sections of the military. As part of his "clean up" campaign to consolidate his new allegiance to the West and to check opposition to his openly inefficient and corrupt regime, Siyaad Bare practically destroyed several villages and massacred thousands of Somalis. Intellectuals were either jailed or chased out of the country for daring to criticize his mismanagement and corruption. According to Africa Watch, Bare's abuses included "aerial bombardment of civilian targets, secret detention in squalid conditions, the burning of villages, the indiscriminate use of landmines, the deliberate destruction of reservoirs and the killing of livestock, the lifeline of the rural population."(23) The Majareeten sub-clan which is part of the ****** clan received a taste of Bare's ruthlessness in 1979 when the Red Hats killed over 2000. The Isaaqs in the North were next. In response to feelings of alienation and marginalization, Isaaqs in exile had formed the Somali National Movement (SNM) and had launched a military offensive to oust the Bare regime in 1988. The SNM enjoyed widespread support beyond the ***** clan and was very popular amongst youths and professionals. In response the Bare regime killed over 5000 unarmed civilian Isaaqs suspected to be members of the SNM and destroyed the northern cities of Bur'o and Hargessia through massive aerial attacks.(24) The massacres forced over 300,000 Isaaqs to flee into exile in Ethiopia.(25) In 1989 the persecution was directed against the ****** clan which had formed the United Somali Congress (USC) to challenge the Bare regime. As in other cases, the Bare regime responded with systematic attacks and massacres of women, children, and the widespread displacement of herdsmen and farmers. Unfortunately for the Bare regime, the USC was strategically located to effectively challenge the repressive politics of the government and the army. Following two years of fighting, the Somali capital of Mogadishu fell to the forces of the ****** dominated USC in January 1991. General Bare fled Mogadishu to Garba Harre in the Gedo region in southwestern Somalia where loyal troops waged their own war against the rest of Somalia. Bare left "a country in ruins, a capital looted, widespread fighting between clans and armies, hundreds of thousands of refugees and a people on the verge of starvation. A country once praised for its unity was disunited, facing dismemberment."(26) The fall of the Bare regime did not lead to the restoration of peace and harmony or to the promotion of an environment for national reconciliation, reconstruction, and rehabilitation in Somalia. With the fall of Bare, an interim government was set up under the leadership of USC member, Mohammed Ali Mahdi. Mahdi's government did not receive national acceptability and could not assert its powers and authority throughout the country. Efforts by Djibouti's President Gould Aptidon to convene a broad-based conference as a basis for improving the credibility and legitimacy of the Mahdi government yielded little results. To make matters worse the USC broke into two major factions, the one in support of Mahdi, and the other in support of General Mohammed Farah Aidid. This division led to increased sub-clan conflict between Aidid's Habr Gedir sub-clan of the ****** and Mahdi's Abgal sub-clan also of the ****** . This rift intensified the fighting in Mogadishu.(27) The USC, SNM and scores of other opposition factions took up arms against Bare's clan- the ******s, and against themselves in a senseless struggle for power and control. In the North, the SNM under the leadership of Abdurahman Ahmed Ali "Tur," adopted its former colonial borders and proclaimed its independence from Somalia in May 1991 when it announced the creation of an independent state of Somaliland. Ironically, the new republic of Somaliland failed to receive recognition from any nation.(28) This proclamation was opposed by the United Somali Front (USF), the Somali Democratic Association (SDA), and the United Somali Party (USP). The beginning of the complete deterioration of the Somali economy and the disintegration of the Somali state had been set in motion. What became very clear from the ensuing conflicts were that: first, the various leaderships of the so-called resistance movements lacked any credible agenda for a united Somalia and lacked a program for national reconstruction; second, the leaders were more interested in personal power and the benefits of power than in the good of the nation; third, too many opposition elements had emerged in the struggle to oust Siyaad Bare that it became impossible to bring them together to create a national platform and agenda for reconstruction and development; fourth, the militarization of Somali society under the Bare regime through the massive infusion of military aid under the Cold War environment by both the West and East had made sophisticated and very dangerous weapons available in Somalia. With the fall of the Bare regime and without a central authority, the military depots were simply raided and there was a free distribution of weapons to any one who could carry one thus intensifying the violence and reducing possibilities for peace; fifth, the repressive tactics of the ousted Bare regime had created and consolidated an environment of intolerance, distrust, exploitation, and destruction in the country. Many of the gangs, and opportunistic opposition movements simply fed into that tradition and waged a war against the people and society. Their methods of looting, rape, destruction, and mindless massacres were exactly the same as those employed by Bare before his fall in 1991; sixth, with the drought which had affected Somalia between 1990 and 1992, the situation was made worse by the massacres of women and children, the destruction of herds of cattle and farmlands, hoarding of food stuffs by the gangs and war leaders, the general insecurity of life and property, and widespread looting. What followed was unprecedented starvation, disease, death and the unfolding of one of the worst cases of anarchy and destruction in the history of the African continent; finally, seventh, because Somalia did not posses nuclear weapons it was not a threat to the West and to any one. In the context of the end of the Cold War and the fall of the communist Mengistu regime in Ethiopia it was no longer of much use to the immediate needs of the West, and of course, Somalia was not a major oil producing country and its economy was one of the weakest in the region, it did not attract the attention and interest of western investors. Consequently, in spite of several warnings by UN agencies and several NGOs, very little global concern was directed to the unfolding Somali disaster. The 1992 American presidential campaigns which concerned itself with Russia and Eastern Europe, trade with Mexico, Bosnia-Herzegovina and so on, hardly discussed the disaster in Somali. It was not until the Western media, following extensive lobbying from NGOs, freelance journalists and some UN agencies brought pictures of corpses on the streets, starving children, and gun totting children and gangs to the homes of many Americans that President George Bush decided to send about 30,000 American troops to Somalia to secure the ports and major cities in order to make the delivery and distribution of food and relief materials possible in Somalia.(29) Conclusion: Towards Recovery and Democracy in Somalia It is true that the world powers and the UN were slow in responding to the crisis in Somalia. Just like the country had been a pawn in the hands of the super-powers during the Cold War, it was also a victim of the end of the Cold War. With attention and interest diverted to Eastern Europe and the deepening crisis in the developed economies, poverty-stricken, underdeveloped, and crisis-ridden countries around the world were virtually unimportant to the major powers and the United States.(30) The civil war in Somalia had destroyed virtually every institution that could have supported rehabilitation including the government itself. As Bruce Nelan has noted "Somalia is a country with no working economy, no police force, no government."(31) Wells were contaminated, hospitals were looted and destroyed, all schools were closed, and only 15 of the country's 70 hospitals were open though without drugs, doctors or basic amenities. As well, water taps were dry, food disappeared from the markets and shops, except for open gun markets, all regular markets were closed. All embassies were closed, inflation reached unprecedented levels as the local currency became worthless and as Ernest Harsch notes, "The entire formal banking system disappeared. Some private individuals continued to lend and trade currency, however, charging high interest rates and transaction fees. The Somali shilling circulated internally, but had no official recognized value; the US dollar became the preferred currency of Somali traders."(32) Gun runners from Ethiopia and Kenya did brisk business in Somalia supplying weapons to the scores of warring factions and gangs, "all telecommunications stations were destroyed, and telephone cables in the towns were looted for their copper. Electricity generating stations were heavily damaged, forcing Somalis to rely almost entirely on fuelwood for their energy needs...industry ground to a standstill, and some factories were even dismantled, their parts and equipment sold off in neighboring countries."(33) With the major cities virtually in ruins, over 300,000 dead from starvation and war, 1 million displaced and living as refugees in neighboring countries and in Europe, and an estimated 2 million facing death by starvation, the Somali crisis finally attracted concerted action from the United States, donors and the UN. Throughout this display of death and disaster, the World Bank and the IMF pretended as if they were not part of the crisis, that they knew notnhing about the processes that made an insane and insecure person of Said Bare, and that their policies did not contribute to eroding the power and relevance of institutions that could have prevented the disintegration of the Somali state. Our discussion thus far has highlighted several critical issues that need to be put into consideration in an attempt to understand, in a holistic manner, the origins and implications of the crisis in Somalia. First, the country's historical experience which fragmented the people and severely underdeveloped the economy and society is critical to understanding the present crisis. The present crisis is largely a manifestation of past experiences and contradictions. Second, the limited hegemony of the state, its agents and institutions made it impossible for post-colonial governments to contain the forces of disintegration, mediate class and clan contradictions, and promote growth and development. Third, the advent of Siyaad Bare was a monumental disaster for the young Somali state. Insecure in office and without viable and credible programs for reconstruction and development, his regime mismanaged scarce resources, hopped from one super-power to another, converted the country into a pawn in the hands of the super-powers, promoted suspicion and conflicts within and between the clans, and unleashed an unprecedented reign of terror on the people of Somalia. This diverted scarce resources and foreign aid away from development to military and security matters with the consequence of reproducing the country's backwardness and marginalization in the international division of labor. Fourth, the Somali clans had lived and interacted with one another for over a thousand years without political and economic decay to the current levels at any period. To be sure, relations were not always harmonious. The reality is that clans in themselves do not generate conflicts and destruction. It is the politicization of clan relations and politics that accentuates conflict and destruction.(34) This is exactly what has happened in Somalia. The clans have been subjected to barrages of manipulation and harassment by the British, the French and other colonial powers, then by post-colonial leaders drawing on support, even encouragement, from both super powers in the days of the Cold War. Fifth, the Cold War played a large part in the current Somali crisis. It is instructive to note that while a few strategically located nations like South Korea for the West and Cuba for the East benefitted from the Cold War, Somalia, like the vast majority of African states were simply pawns of the super powers. Not one African country emerged from the alliances with either or both as a developed or industrialized nation. Leaders were encouraged not to reach accommodation with domestic constituencies. Simple conflicts that could have been resolved at the OAU or national levels were given ideological coloration and used as excuses to expand super power interests in Africa.(35) So-called assistance was often in the form of military aid and poverty-stricken and backward countries received some of the most dangerous and destructive weapons in the 20th century.(36) As Sulayman Nyang rightly notes, "Somalia became very much a depository of arms" for the great powers and "we are seeing now the belated manifestation of irresponsible politics on the part of those big powers; they were more interested in selling arms than in helping societies grow food."(37) Without doubt, support from the United States was a major part in Siyaad Bare's arrogance, repressive politics, human rights abuses, and refusal to tolerate opposition.(38) For all his oppressive actions, the Bare regime received little or no condemnation from the Western powers. Sixth, the depth of the destruction in Somalia could have been mediated if the UN and the great powers, especially the United States, had responded in a comprehensive and serious manner on time. The point that the UN Charter did not anticipate a situation where there would be no government to deal with is unacceptable. With its resources, and the resources it could call upon at short notice, the UN ought to be in a position to restructure its policies, strategies, and institutions to respond to situations of rapid political deterioration. The crisis in Somalia did not suddenly descend on the international community. The signs and implications were there for all to see. The argument can be made that if the crisis had occurred in a more resource endowed and more strategically located country, perhaps the responses from the developed nations would have been different. Though the conditions are different, the massive response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait shows that the Somali situation was not so-unexpected and unprecedented. Finally, seventh, the crisis in Somalia, as we have now seen, is only the immediate manifestation of Africa's deepening crisis. In Liberia, the Sudan, Mozambique, Ethiopia and in other parts of the region, the state is under severe train and challenges, the economies are at best stagnant, politics and the state have been privatized by the elites, and the processes of political and economic restructuring have deepened coalitions, contradictions, and conflicts to very dangerous proportions. This means that, there is no reason not to expect a repeat of the Somali situation in places like Togo, Zaire, and Liberia. A combination of inherited contradictions and distortions, post-colonial alignment and realignment of political and social forces, economic decay and deterioration, and a very exploitative and hostile international division of labor are some of the conditions certain to reproduce the Somali situation in other areas.(39) For the Republic of Somaliland, the people are clearly determined to sustain their autonomy as an independent nation state. To be sure, they have not completely ruled out some form of dialogue and political arrangement with the rest of Somalia even if this will now be on their own terms and must respect their self-determination. The republic today is a desolate devastated area which has not received international recognition and is not receiving the required assistance from donors and lenders to promote recovery. The current government of President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal is still confronted with serious political, social, and economic contradictions and pressures. The republic has established the framework for a viable democratic system which could empower the people and the communities and thus make viable growth and development possible in the future. Yet, it has to deal with the opportunistic politics of the former president, Abdurahman Tuur who is in exile in London and currently engaged in extensive subversive politics. This situation must not be allowed to degenerate to the Angolan situation which will only serve to rationalize global skepticism and stereotypes and further impoverish the already poor and desperate. Yet, Somaliland must learn from the mistakes of Somalia as far as the World Bank is concerned. It cannot afford to impose painful orthodox adjustment programs on a poor, hungry, insecure, and already frustrated populace. Mr. Egal and his cabinet must take the alternative political and economic positions and prescriptions advanced by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) very seriously.(40) Without doubt, adjustment is necessary to manage scarce resources, eliminate or reduce waste and mismanagement and improve growth. Yet, it must not be at the expense of the people or at the expense of national autonomy. Given its current state of poverty and backwardness, Somaliland must develop urgent linkages with other popular groups in Africa, especially the human rights and pro-democracy communities. This is one way to get the other African governments to give it recognition rather than an excessive focus on the United States which has openly declared its unpreparedness to take the lead in this regard. As well, Somaliland must be prepared to take advantage of economic opportunities in South-South cooperation rather than focusing on the markets of the west. Countries like Brazil, South Africa, India, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Korea should be targets for business, aid, and technology. In the specific case of Somalia, it was only natural that in the context of the inability of the state to meet the basic needs of the people, ensure security, and create an environment for rational politics, people and their loyalties will easily dissolve into more reliable and more assured terrains of politics and social interaction. In Somalia, the clan provided such a terrain. Its politicization by power-hungry elites, does not immediately convert the clan into the primary and most important variable in the explanation of the crisis. While the Somali opposition fought very hard to oust the Bare regime, "they brought more calamities to their own people than did the displaced regime"(41) through irresponsible politics, personal ambition, narrow mindedness, total disregard and disrespect for the will of the people, political opportunism, and narrow vision. There is no doubt that the so-called warlords are a disgrace to the whole idea of national liberation and leadership in the contemporary world even if at a level we do recognize the fact that they are equally victims of a political culture and environment conditioned by violence, manipulation, and distrust. The future for Somalia cannot be said to be bright no matter how generous we wish to be. The process of reclaiming its sovereignty and dignity from the outside world will take decades. Somalis are going to be viewed from the perspectives of the starving and horrifying pictures that were presented to the world by the international media. Rebuilding the state, rehabilitating institutions, generating confidence in the government and its institutions, rehabilitating displaced persons, encouraging the refugees and investors to return to Somalia, reconstructing telecommunications and other infrastructures, and disarming the gangs and war chieftains will take a long time. Creating the required institutions for administrative efficiency and promoting democracy and the mobilization of the people for growth, development, and self-reliance will be an even greater task. We must remember that before the break down of law and order, Somalia was one of the least developed countries in the world. The crisis has pushed it beyond the category of a fourth world country, now completely at the mercy of international agencies, donors and relief agencies even for maintaining security and distributing food aid. It is however possible to argue that at the end of the day, Somalia will be better off than before the crisis: a new, democratic, and peaceful Somalia, with a lot of experiences and lessons to draw from might just emerge from the present disaster. For the UN, the Somali crisis and the response of donors, the relief agencies, and the United States would probably be a lesson on how to handle future similar developments.(42) The criticisms which the UN faced from several quarters, and the open attacks on the person of the Secretary-General during his visit to Somalia are pointers to new expectations from the UN in the new global order. Hopefully, in the future, warnings from NGOs will be taken more seriously, the Security Council will live up to expectation by acting more swiftly, and necessary institutions will be established and funds set aside to confront such developments which are bound to recur again. For African nations, the Somali crisis exposed their relative helplessness and unpreparedness for national and regional emergencies and disasters. The Somali crisis ought, in the first instance, to be the responsibility of the Organization of African Unity(OAU). In 1991 the OAU spent millions of dollars to host its Summit in Abuja, Nigeria. Yet, it was unable to take the initiative in the Somali crisis. Without doubt, countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Egypt, are in a position to send a combined force of over 50,000 troops without endangering the security of their respective nations. Africa, once again, had to wait for the United States to send 30,000 troops, and for the outside world to send relief materials and supplies. In so long as African states do not demonstrate a collective commitment to regional autonomy, self-reliance, and an ability to contain regional conflicts through a mobilization of domestic resources in the first instance, they would continue to remain vulnerable to foreign penetration and manipulation. The task of rebuilding Somalia (with or without unity with Somaliland) is still formidable. There is still the job of encamping the clan forces, disarming the roving gangs, providing seeds for farmers, reconstructing houses, and getting basic infrastructures working again. As well it has not been easy getting the leaders of the armed gangs to respect declared cease-fires.(43) Frequent outbreaks of violence between rival war groups, and between the groups and peace-keeping forces continue to challenge the process of rehabilitation.(44) The ability of the UN to establish a credible Somali Police will be a crucial step to securing a safe environment and bringing some order to the country. Widespread lawlessness still exits outside the areas where UNITAF forces operate.(45) The on-going peace talks in Ethiopia with the support of President Meles Zenawi do not appear to be addressing some of the critical issues. The focus is on ensuring peace among the very same forces and organizations which destroyed the country. As Africa Watch has noted, The current effort does not adequately address the underlying causes of the destruction of Somalia's social fabric that ultimately led to famine. In sponsoring a peace process, the United Nations is acting as if the cause of the disaster was simply war. The U.S Special Envoy to Somalia...has limited his diplomatic efforts to ensuring that the factions avoid attacking the international forces and observe a shaky cease-fire. In fact, it was not war alone that created this disaster, but rather the massive, persistent, deliberate violations of human rights committed by all the factions in the course of the war. The longer this important distinction is ignored, the harder it will be to achieve a lasting solution to the Somali conflict.(46) This is an important, even if incomplete point.(47) Very few indigenous NGOs are involved in the talks. The hundreds of Somali professionals, doctors, nurses, teachers, civic leaders, clan heads, and employees of the relief agencies who have extensive experience in containing the excesses of the warring groups have been excluded from the peace talks and their contributions have not been adequately acknowledged. Africa Watch reports that the organizations have had problems communicating with the UN, the US Special Envoy and the relief agencies. Grassroots organizations like the IIDA, the Somali Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SORRA), the Somali Relief Association (SOMRA) and the Union for Somali Salvation Youth (USSY) were specifically told that the peace talks were "restricted to the fighting factions" only.(48) This is a major mistake. Leaders like Siyaad Bare succeeded in driving popular forces underground, squandering national resources, and suffocating progressive organizations because of the weakness, marginalization, and fragmentation of civil society. To exclude popular organizations and grassroots movements from the urgent task of rebuilding Somalia is to address the problem from a superstructural and superficial perspective. If care is not taken, at the end of the day, power will be handed over to a very weak and loose coalition of the political organizations or to a faction of the organizations. Either way, such a coalition government will be unable to restore investor confidence, retain the sympathy of the outside world, stimulate growth and development, promote law and order, and commit itself to democracy, accountability, social justice, popular participation, respect for the judiciary and a free press, and human rights. The current situation is an ample opportunity to empower civil society, strengthen grassroots and popular organizations, and ensure that political leaders and public institutions, including the police and armed forces will be accountable to the people and civil society in a post-crisis Somalia. Endnotes Africa Watch, Somalia- Beyond the Warlords: The Need for a Verdict on Human Rights Abuses (New York: Africa Watch, March 7, 1993), p. 3. Boutros Boutros-Gali quoted in Ernest Harsch, "Somalia-Restoring Hope," Africa Recovery Briefing Paper (7) (15 January 1993), p.18. See Julius O. Ihonvbere, "The Economic Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa: Depth, Dimensions and Prospects for Recovery," The Journal of International Studies (27) (July 1991); and his "Deepening Economic Crisis and the Re-Defining of Euro-African Relations," Philosophy and Social Action Vol. 29 (3-4) (1990). See also World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth (Washington D.C.: World Bank, 1989); North South Roundtable, The Challenge of Africa in the 1990s (New York: North South Roundtable, 1991) and John Ravenhill (ed.), Africa in Economic Crisis (London: Macmillan, 1988). See Robert Browne, "The Continuing Debate on African Development," TransAfrica Forum Vol. 7 (2) (Summer 1990); Julius O. Ihonvbere, "Political Conditionality and Prospects for Recovery in Africa," International Third World Studies Journal and Review Vol. 3 (2) (1991); and Institute for African Alternatives, Alternative Development Strategies for Africa (London: IFAA, 1989). Edward Jaycox, "Africa's Development Challenge and Prospects," in his collection of essays, The Challenges of African Development (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1992), p. 2. See Karamo Sonko, "Debt in the Eye of the Storm: The African Crisis in a Global Context," Africa Today Vol. 37 (4) (1990); Julius Nyangoro, "The Politics of International Debt: The Case of Africa," Africa Quarterly Vol. XXVI (1) (1986); and Omari Abillah, "False Start?: Structural Adjustment and African Political Economies," Dalhousie Review Vol. 68 (1-2) (Spring-Summer 1988). Edward Jaycox, "Africa's Development Challenge...," op. cit. p. 14. Edward Jaycox, "Economic Reform and the Challenge of Adjustment," in his collection of essays in The Challenge of African Development op. cit., p. 15. United Nations, African Debt Crisis: A Continuing Impediment to Development (New York: Africa Recovery, 1992), p.1. Lance Murrow, "Africa: The Scramble for Existence," TIME (September 7, 1992). ibid, p. 42 ibid See Institute for African Alternative, Alternative Development Strategies for Africa op. cit. "African Countries Lead Misery Index," Africa News (May 25-June 7, 1992), p. 3. Economic Commission for Africa, Economic Report on Africa 1992 (Addis Ababa: ECA E/ECA/CM.18/2, 1992). Reported in Roy Laishley, "ECA: Another Tough Year for Africa," Africa Recovery Vol. 6, (4) (December 1992-February 19930, p.1. See Julius O. Ihonvbere, "The Changes in Eastern Europe and their Implications for Africa's International Economic Relations," The Nigerian Journal of International Affairs Vol. 16 (2) (1990), and his "Surviving at the Margins: Africa and the New Global Order," Current World Leaders Vol. 35 (6) (December 1992). See Michael Chege, "Remembering Africa," Foreign Affairs Vol. 17 (1) (1991-92); "Aid Flows to Africa Stagnate," Africa Recovery (December 1991); Ernest Harsch, "Food Aid Lags Behind Massive Need," Africa Recovery (August 1992); and Adebayo Adedeji, "The African Challenges in the 1990s: New Perspectives for Development," Indian Journal of Social Science (3) (1990). See Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Somalia: Country Profile (Ottawa, Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board Documentation Center, March 1990); and Lee V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982). Ernest Harsch, "Somalia- Restoring Hope," op. cit., p. 18 and p. 19. ibid, p. 19. Robert M. Press, "Somalia Tries to Pick up the Postwar Pieces," The Christian Science Monitor (19 February 1991). See also U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights for 1990 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, February 1991); Africa Watch, Somalia: A Government at War with its Own People (New York: Africa Watch, January 1990) and several reports by Amnesty International and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Africa Watch, Somalia: A Government at War with Its Own People op. cit, p.2. See Almami Cyllah and John Prendergast, "Genocide in the Horn of Africa," Washington Post (July 1, 1990). See Robert Gersony, Why Somalis Flee Washington, DC; Bureau of Refugee Programs, Department of State, August 1989. 26 African Association of Political Science, "A Nation in Turmoil: Somalia," AAPS Newsletter New Series No 7, (June 1992), p.3. See "Somalia USC and SDM Report Fighting in Central and Southwest Regions," British Broadcasting Corporation (July 26, 1991 Report No. ME/1134/B/1); Alan Rake "Fresh Start," New African (September 1991); "Somali Leader Reported to be Ousted by Rival," Washington Post (19 November 1991); Jane Perlez, "As Fighting in Somalia Rages On, African Neighbor Seeks a Truce," New York Times (6 January 1991); and Robert M. Press, "rebel Clashes Forestall Peace in Newly Liberated Somalia," The Christian Science Monitor (5 April 1991). See "The North Declares Independence," New African (July 1991); "Part of Somalia Declares its Independence," Washington Post (20 May 1991); and "Drifting Apart," Africa Events (June 1991). See Jeffrey Bartholet, "The Road to Hell," Newsweek (September 21, 1992) and Bruce W. Nelan, "Taking on the Thugs," TIME (December 14, 1992). See Julius O. Ihonvbere, "The Dynamics of Change in Eastern Europe and their Implications for Africa," Coexistence (29) (1992). Bruce W. Nelan, "Taking on the Thugs," TIME (December 14, 1992), p.28. Ernest Harsch, "Somalia- Restoring Hope," p. 11. ibid. See Julius O. Ihonvbere, "The 'Irrelevant' State and the Quest for Nationhood in Africa." Forthcoming in Ethnic and Racial Studies See Michael Clough, Free at Last?: U.S. Policy Toward Africa and the End of the Cold War (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1992); Stephen Wright, "Africa in the Post-Cold War World," TransAfrica Forum Vol. 9 (2) (Summer 1992); and Eboe Hutchful, "Eastern Europe: Consequences for Africa," Review of African Political Economy (50) (March 1991). According to Donald Patterson, U.S. ambassador to Somalia 1978-82, Somalia received $65 million in military assistance from the United States in fiscal years 1980,'81, and '82, "half was for air defense radar and almost all the remainder for nonlethal items like radios and trucks." at several other times, emergency air lifts of arms were delivered to Somalia after 1982 to balance military forces in the Horn. See Donald Patterson, "Somalia and the United States 1977-1983: The New Relationship," in Gerald J. Bender, James S. Coleman, and Richard S. Sklar (eds.), African Crisis Areas and U.S. Foreign Policy (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985), p.196. Sulayman Nyang, "A Regional Perspective: the Horn of Africa," in ADC, ADC Conference on Somalia op. cit., p.11. See Donald K. Patterson, "Somalia and the United States, 1977-1983: The New Relationship," op. cit. See Keith Richbung, "Somalia: A Land of Clan Control," Austin American Statesman (December 13, 1992); Kenneth B. Noble, "Zaire: Two Leaders, Many Problems, Few Hopes," New York Times (March 9, 1993); Steven A. Holmes, "Africa: From Cold War to Cold Shoulders," New York Times (March 7, 1993); and Julius O. Ihonvbere,"Building and Sustaining Democracy in Africa: Impediments and Possibilities in the 1990." Forthcoming. See Economic Commission for Africa, African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programmes (Addis Ababa: Eca Secretariat, 1989), and African Charter for Popular Participation in Development and Transformation (Addis Ababa: Eca, 1990). Sulayman Nyang, "A Regional Perspective: The Horn of Africa," op. cit., p.11. See Paul Lewis, "U.N. May Shape New Era With Somalia," Austin American Statesman (December 13, 1992). See Molly Moore, "Somali Warlords Break U.N. Deadline," The Washington Post (February 16, 1993); Jane Perlez, "Somali Clan Killed Dozens of Rivals, U.S. Officials Say," The New York Times (December 29, 1992); and Richard Joseph, "Focus on Somalia: The U.S. Connection," Africa Demos Vol. III (1) (February 1993). See Steve Vogel, "U.S. Troops in Somalia Chafe at Police Role," The Washington Post (January 21, 1993); Alison Mitchell, "6 Somalis Killed as Bandits Clash with G.Is," The Washington Post (January 17, 1993); Michael Gordon, "Pentagon Says Killing of 2 Somalis May Have Been Accidental," The New York Times (December 12, 1992) and Africa Watch, "Somalia: Beyond Warlords...'" op. cit. Ernest Harsch, "Somalia- Restoring Hope," op. cit., p. 4. Africa Watch, "Somalia- Beyond War Lords: The Need for a Verdict on Human Rights Abuses." op. cit., p.1. There is the equally important issue of why it was possible to violate human rights, and the very crucial economic issues which encourage political instability and the abuse of power. 48 Africa Watch, Somalia- Beyond Warlords...," op cit., p. 20. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Muqaabaraad Caalami ah oo sheegay inuu jiro qorshe Somaliya lagu weerarayo 13-ka bishaan. Waagacusub.net Nairobi Muqaabaraad Caalami ah oo caan ka ah Geeska Afrika ayaa markii ugu horeeysay dowladahooda u gudbiyay warbixino cadeeynayo in 13-ka bishaan Ciidamo gaaraya 15 kun oo ka socda dowladda Itoobiya ay weerar ku qaadayaan Somaliya. Muqaabaraadkaan waxay warbixintooda ku sheegeen inuu hoowlgalkaan melleteri dhici doono xilligga Madaxweynayaasha Afrika u fadhiyaan munaasabadda lagu soo xirayo shirkii dib u heshiisiinta Somaliya. Warbixintu waxay sheegeeysaa in duulaanka Ciidamadda Itoobiya ka imaan doono ugu badnaan dhinaca Magaaladda Beledweyne kaas oo loogu tala galay inuu socdaa ugu yaraan 24 saacadood ugu badnaana 48 saacadood. Saraakiisha dhinaca dabagalka Aduunka waxay sheegayaan in Ciidamadaas 4 kun oo ka mid ah ay yahiin Somali. Sirdoonka mid ka mid ah dowladaha aduunka ugu waaweyn ayaa sheegay inay khadka Isgaarsiinta ka heleen duulaankaas qorsheeysan. Diblomaasiyiin shisheeye ah ayaa iyagana sheegay in Xisbigga Ra’isulwasaaraha Itoobiya looga cod badiyay doorashadii sidaas darteedna ay u weerarayaan Somaliya maadama dastuurka dalka Itoobiya uu dhigayo in hadii Dalka ku jiraa dagaalo dal deris ah talada laga qaadi Karin Madaxda sare ee madaxtooyadda dalka . Midka mid ah la taliyaasha sare ee Madaxweyne Cabdilahi yusuf kana mid ah sirdoonka dowlad caan ah ayaa warbixintiisaa ku sheegay inuusan Cabdilahi Yusuf tilaabadaas ogeysiinin raga ay isku siyaasada yahiin ,wuxuuna Madaxweyne Yusuf codsaday in tilaabadaas laga qariyo Xuseen Maxamed Ceydiid iyo Cali Maxamed Geedi oo uu sheegay inay fashilinayaan hadii ay ogaadaan. Warbixintaan waa mid xaqiiqo hasse ahaatee lama ogga waxa iska bedeli doono. Waagacusub News asoj@hotmail.com