UN 'not exaggerating crisis in Somalia' The United Nations has rejected Ethiopian claims that it is exaggerating the severity of the crisis in Somalia. The UN says fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces in the capital, Mogadishu, has forced 600,000 people to flee the capital. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says that is just hype. But UN special envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah says he trusts the word of aid agencies on the ground. "I believe that what my colleagues from humanitarian [organisations] do is usually accurate, though in Somalia we have no international presence to attest the accuracy of these figures," he said. - ABC/BBC Source

'Grave concern' for Somalia United Nations - The UN Security Council on Wednesday renewed its call for the world body to pursue contingency planning for deploying a peacekeeping force in war-wracked Somalia. It also expressed "grave concern" about the humanitarian situation in the volatile Horn of Africa country. A non-binding statement, read out by Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, whose country chairs the 15-member council this month, asked UN chief Ban Ki-moon to report to the council by February 8 on contingency planning for a UN force to take over from African Union troops in Somalia. The council welcomed Monday's briefing by special envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah but did not specifically comment on his proposal that the world body and the Somali transitional government reach swift agreement on bolstering AU troops in Somalia. The AU force known as AMISOM "needs to remain operational and its effectiveness strengthened", Ould-Abdallah told the council on Monday. "For this, Saudi Arabia ... a close neighbour with many Somali refugees, should be invited to play a leading role." Expressing "grave concern" at the humanitarian situation in Somalia, the council demanded that "all parties in Somalia ensure unfettered access for all humanitarian assistance and calls on them to fulfil their responsibilities and obligations under international humanitarian law". Last week, an AU official said Burundi planned to send a first battalion of troops to Somalia this month to join the 1 600 Ugandan soldiers already there since March to quell Islamist insurgents. The deployment of Burundian troops, initially set for July, has been delayed due to a lack of equipment and funds. Burundi plans to send a total of 1 700 soldiers. The AU aims to eventually send an 8 000-strong contingent to Somalia to help it stabilise after 16 years of bloodshed. Some 600 000 civilians have been displaced and thousands others killed this year in relentless violence since January when Ethiopian forces helped oust Islamist militants, ending their six-month rule in the country's southern and central regions. Violence in the lawless country has derailed numerous initiatives aimed at restoring peace and stability there since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Source

The Desecration Of Somalia By Amii Omara-Otunnu Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi--will have to answer for Somali war crimes by his forces The chilling facts about the humanitarian crises of Biblical proportions unfolding in Somalia as a result of the proxy war in that country are numbing. Yet despite the facts about violations of important principles of international, humanitarian and human rights laws, there has scarcely been unequivocal outrage and robust action taken by individuals and organizations, which traditionally are regarded as being in the vanguard of raising and mobilizing public awareness about egregious violations of human rights and principles of the United Nations. This is not to say there have not been some humanitarian or human rights organizations and individuals, who have nobly performed heroic work to save lives in otherwise objectively appalling conditions and tried to bring attention to obscene violence in Somalia. Outstanding examples of such organizations are United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. On balance, however, there has been at best anemic attention paid to the multifaceted tragedies in Somalia. This calls to question the criteria used by various organizations to put a spotlight on issues of human rights and humanitarian crises in Africa and elsewhere. But before we pose some questions, it is necessary first to review the relevant known facts leading to and about the catastrophic humanitarian crises in Somalia. On December 6, 2006, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1724 (S/Res/1725 (2006)) on Somalia that calls for the respect of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and unity of Somalia. The resolution expressly prohibited the deployment of troops from neighboring countries, as peacekeepers in Somalia. It specifically reiterates “its insistence that all Members States [of the UN], in particular those in the region, should refrain from any action in contravention of the arms embargo and related measures, and should take all actions necessary to prevent such contraventions.” In addition, it “calls upon all parties inside Somalia and all other States from action that could provoke or perpetuate violence and violations of human rights, contribute to unnecessary tension and mistrust, endanger the ceasefire and political process, or further damage the humanitarian situation.” But within the month, at the end of December, the neighboring country of Ethiopia, traditionally a perennial threat to the territorial integrity of Somalia, sent an estimated 15,000 troops into Somalia. This was in direct contravention of important principles of the UN Charter, as well as in violation of the UN Security Council’s resolution 1725, which amplifies an earlier UN Security Council resolution on Somalia, S/Res/1724 (2006). Paradoxically and tragically, none of the powers on the Security Council stood up for the principles of the UN Charter and/or for the Security Council’s own resolutions. What has transpired since the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia? Here are some of the notable facts: By April 2007, there were credible reports that the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia had set into motion unprecedented violations of human rights, on a scale that would qualify as war crimes. This occurred during a four-day offensive to eliminate insurgents in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu, at the end of March, by joint Somali-Ethiopian troops. During the offensive the troops engaged in indiscriminate flattening of pro-insurgent neighborhoods with tanks, helicopters and artillery. It was reported that these were the heaviest onslaughts on civilian population in 15 years in a city notorious for bloodshed. The offensive triggered a massive exodus of people from Mogadishu. The U.N. estimated that in the month of March 2007, about 124,000 people fled the capital city. The military atrocities committed by Ethiopian-Somalia’s transitional government troops did not go unnoticed. A European Union security expert who visited the country indicated that the joint Ethiopian and Somali troops may have committed war crimes during the offensive. The European expert is reported by Reuters to have said, "There are strong grounds to believe that the Ethiopian government and the transitional federal government of Somalia and the African Union force commander ... have through commission or omission violated the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court." Human rights scholars and observers believe that at the very least, Ethiopian-Somali government troops have a case to answer for potential complicity in the commission of war crimes. However, to date, no clear public pronouncements have been made by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which in accordance with the Rome Statue has a duty to investigate and prosecute war crimes. Five months later in September 2007, the UN human rights envoy to Somalia, Ghanim Alnajar, after visiting the country on a fact-finding mission, indicated that he was going to recommend a full investigation into alleged war crimes in Somalia. By November 2007, the calamitous humanitarian crisis in Somalia had reached Biblical proportions. The intensity of the crisis in Somalia might be illustrated by highlighting the fact that, within a space of two weeks in November, for example, it was reported that an estimated 173,000 people fled Mogadishu, brining the total of displaced people by mid-November to more than 850,000. Without the crisis abating and with hundreds of thousands of Somali on the verge of dying of starvation and lack of medical treatment and sanitation, the UN confirmed that the humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia was the worst in Africa. It was deemed far worse than the much rightly publicized humanitarian crisis in Darfur region of Sudan. In the words of Ahmedou Oud-Abdallah, the top United Nations official for Somalia, “The situation in Somalia is the worst on the continent.” The general data on the scale of human suffering may not sufficiently capture and convey the plight of individual Somali. Yet in the figures, are thousands of human lives devastated for no good reason except that they were born Somali and grounded in the country. We can get a glimpse of the type of personal suffering experienced by summarizing the individual stories of a couple of people that have been reported. Natheefa Ali, who escaped a bloodbath in Mogadishu to a market town of Afgooye, said that her 10-month-old baby was so malnourished she could not swallow. “Look,” Ms. Natheefa said, pointing to her daughter’s splotchy legs, “her skin is falling off, too.” In Afgooye where Natheefa Ali escaped to, the United Nations report shows that the malnutrition rate is 19 percent, as compared with about 13 percent in Darfur. Malnutrition of 15 percent is considered the emergency threshold. Another individual, Fadumo Abdullahi, aged 30, fled fighting in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and trekked to a makeshift camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Bosasso, the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, in northeastern Somalia, which is nearly 1,000 miles northeast of Mogadishu. She fled leaving her four children with her mother, in the hope to undertake the arduous journey to Yemen and then Saudi Arabia. The trip to Bosasso took her 10 days, navigating around bandits checkpoints where people were shot routinely. Interviewed in Bosasso, she said, "I have no relatives here, so I stay at the camp [for internally displaced people] during the night and during the day I go out to people's homes to take away their rubbish. They pay me 5,000 shillings [about 25 US cents] for every load of garbage I remove. On a good day I make about 25,000 [$1.25] but some days I get nothing. I know the danger I face going to Yemen, but what is the alternative? In Mogadishu, you don’t know from day to day whether you will see another sunset. You hear about women robbed or raped every day. My neighbor was raped and then beaten badly with a gun by soldiers. She was in hospital, not dead but not alive. That is when we moved and my mother and I decided that I should take the risk of going to Saudi. I know going to Yemen I may die but only once. There are worse things than that kind of dying, and that was staying in Mogadishu." By mid December, it was estimated that that 60 percent of Mogadishu's residents had fled their homes. The humanitarian situation had deteriorated so much that by mid-December 2007, children in particular were in exceptionally precarious conditions that UNICEF called for the creation of safe zones in Somalia for about 1.5m children whose lives have been blighted by the conflict. In a statement, the head of UNICEF, Ann Veneman, pointed out that not only were the children malnourished and at a high risk of disease, but they were also suffering from exhaustion and emotional trauma. Ironically but not surprisingly, in December, United Nations officials conceded that the country was in better shape during the brief reign of Somalia’s Islamist movement before the Ethiopian invasion. Laroche, head of the U.N. humanitarian operations said, “It was more peaceful, and much easier for us to work.” He concluded, “The Islamists didn’t cause us any problems.” Ould-Abdallah called those six months, when the Islamic Courts Union were in control of most of the country, Somalia’s “golden era”; it was, he said, “essentially the only epoch of peace most Somalis have tasted for years.” It should be mentioned to avoid misunderstanding that Somali suffering and being used as pawns in geo-political power games did not begin with the invasion of Ethiopian troops, apparently sponsored by the U.S. Administration in December 2006. A review of Somali history shows that the Somali people have more often than not been sliced into pieces like a cake and divided up among various powers, without any regard for their interests and welfare. For instance, at the end of the nineteenth century, the Somali were partitioned into four colonies against their will. The “share-out” of the Somalis during the high-tide of the new European colonial imperialism was among the following powers: Italy got one portion, which they named Italian Somaliland; the British grabbed another portion; and the French claimed Djibouti. The African empire of Ethiopia also got a slice: it was allowed to enclose the ****** within its territory. Although it lost the ****** to Italy during the invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, it renewed its control of ****** in 1941, with the sanction of Britain. In fact, it was the partitioning of the Somali and the mistreatment of the people in ****** by Ethiopia, which provided the impetus for the first pan-Somali resistance movement led by the charismatic and puritanical religious leader, Mohammad Abdille Hassan. For his unflinching nationalist fervor the British derogatorily referred to Hassan as the “Mad Mullah.” Much later during the Cold War, in the 1970s, both the Soviet Union and U.S.A. jostled for geo-strategic position of advantage over Somalia, by changing sides whenever expedient. The latest Ethiopian invasion of Somalia with the connivance of external powers simply falls in a long established pattern of using the country and people as pawns in larger geo-strategic calculations. It should also be noted that since the demise of the Said Barre regime in 1991, civilians in Somalia have been subjected to various cycles of violence and displacements. In fact, more than 800,000 people fled Somalia in 1991 and 1992, during the heat of the crisis in the post-Barre period. It was this, in effect, which set in train the nation's downward spiral. By the time of the Ethiopian invasion, close to 450,000 Somali remained internally displaced, and with about 150,000 people lived as refugees in other countries. In fact there was no semblance of effective central government, until Islamic Courts Union asserted authority in most parts of the country in mid-2006. Nonetheless, despite the history of foreign powers and elites using Somali people as pawns and the continual nightmares to which they have continually been subjected to in the quicksand of clan politics, the current situation and context in the country is different. The fact that foreign powers can intervene and hemorrhage the people and country to virtual death in the context of the twenty-first century puts to pain the rhetoric of human rights and claims about human progress. Although it must be regarded as a triumph for cynical power-politics of geo-strategic calculations, it is also a severe indictment of the international community. In terms of comparative analysis and without diminishing the enormity of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, it should be noted that, unlike Darfur where the suffering is being attended to by a billion-dollar aid operation and more than 10,000 aid workers, the UN estimates that the total emergency aid for Somalia to date has been less than $250,000. In effect, the Somalis caught up in the inferno of violence have more or less been left to fend for themselves, with the world barely noticing, leave alone caring about the magnitude of the humanitarian crises in this region of the Horn of Africa. The difference in approach to, and of providing funds for, Somali and Darfur cannot be explained simply by reference to the insecurity in the former. A major factor might be the lack of interest in the very humanity of the Somalis. Eric Laroche, head of United Nations humanitarian operation gave voice to the view of many fair-minded people with human hearts, regarding the attitude if not approach of the international community to Somalis, when he said: “If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years.” In view of the calamitous humanitarian crisis in Somalia, we are entitled to ask a few probing questions, even if we cannot hazard or obtain answers. For in most cases, all that the powerless are entitled to is the right to ask questions. The following are some of the pertinent questions: What is the purpose of the UN Charter, if its principles can be violated recklessly without consequence? Why should the world take seriously UN Security resolutions if they cannot be enforced; or if those violate such resolutions are not even simply condemned? Is it a case of selective morality, that some UN Security resolutions are enforced while others are conveniently ignored? Or could the lack of robust response to the humanitarian crisis in Somalia be attributable to the particulars of the perpetrators and victims? Why is the international community not requiring both the occupying Ethiopian troops and its allies in the Transitional Federal government to fulfill their respective duties? Why is the ICC not approaching with vigor the allegations of war crimes in Somalia? And why is the African Union standing impotently while the great majority of the people of Somalia are being violated in broad day light? Whatever our views, the human tragedies in Somalia, which has reduced a resilient people almost to despair and hopelessness, should prompt people with human hearts but who do not make fetish of naked power, to reflect seriously about the functions and relevance of the United Nations Security Council. It should also be a cause for concern about the virtual impotence of the African Union and the state of Pan-African solidarity. Although we might not have military materiel with which to defend the great majority of Somalis, at the very least, we should speak out and up against the abominations being committed in that country. It is imperative that we speak up out of human solidarity, because the lives of the people of Somalia have been placed in purgatory for far too long by forces that have arrogated to themselves the power to determine the fate of an African people. If we are not to repeat the grave error of history, we should remember the logic of the poem by Rev. Martin Niemoller, the German Protestant theologian, who after the Jewish Holocaust and the elimination of a great many innocent people by the Nazi military and scientific machines penned these lines in 1945: “First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me”. As we see the human debris and blood pile up in Somalia, we should not act with indifference like the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, who, when faced with the menace of Hitler in the 1930s, played the power-politics of self-interests. He was reluctant to challenge Hitler so long as British interests were not directly threatened: he issued but anemic formal protests only when he saw the malign influence of the Nazis extended from area to area. He was compelled belatedly to condemn Hitler only when British spheres of influence were under threat of conquest. With the unfolding human calamities in Somalia, we should not wait until it is too late to plead that it was a mistake not to have identified with the people in their hours of need, even if the powers that be might not care about the violations of principles of international, humanitarian, and human rights laws in Somalia. The time is now for people of goodwill to be counted and to speak up against what is going on in Somalia and to demonstrate solidarity with the people, whose have for a whole generation lived in hellish nightmares. Source

Ethiopia PM attacks UN on Somalia Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has accused the UN of playing a damaging role in the Somali crisis. "The situation there - as hard as it is - it could do with less hype and exaggeration," he told the BBC.It is nearly a year since Mr Meles sent troops to help Somalia's government oust Islamists from much of Somalia. The UN now says persistent fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian-backed forces in Mogadishu has created Africa's worst humanitarian crisis. The organisation has estimated that 60% of the city's residents have fled their homes. On Wednesday the UN children's fund called for the creation of safe zones for about 1.5m children, whose lives it says have been affected by conflict.But Mr Meles said the UN's stance was counter-productive and he called on the organisation to play a more "positive role" in the country."At the moment some UN agencies appear to be doing damage in respect of parroting tota lly unfounded reports by some agencies without in any way trying to verify the facts," Mr Meles said. Somalia has been politically fragmented since 1991 and the country's transitional government, faced with an insurgency, is dependent on international aid and Ethiopian military support. The BBC's East Africa correspondent Karen Allen says Ethiopia's economy is buoyant and the country is still basking in the glory of celebrating its millennium this year. But the country is still largely in the spotlight because of its involvement in Somalia and its efforts to drive the Union of Islamic Courts from power, she says. Speaking nearly a year after the invasion, Mr Meles denied that Ethiopia had underestimated the strength of the Islamists. "Our initial plans were designed to curtail the influence of the jihadists there and to try to prevent them from taking the whole of Somalia under their control. We did that in a number of weeks," he said in an interview with the BBC. He also denied accusations that his troops were involved in the indiscriminate shooting of civilians. "There has not been any indiscriminate firing on our side because it would be completely suicidal for us to engage in such an activity. "Our intention is to give space to recreate the Somali state - you do not create the Somali state by firing indiscriminately into civilian areas and civilian targets. "Nevertheless it is quite true that when you fight in built-up areas there are bound to be civilian causalities and these are extremely regrettable. Mr Meles admitted Ethiopia's withdrawal from Somalia was taking "a lot longer" than planned because of delays in the deployment of African Union peacekeepers. So far just 1,600 Ugandan peacekeepers have arrived, out of a planned force of 8,000. "I understand why the African Union does not have the resources to fulfil its promise. "But I hope that those who have the resources will support the African Union so they can deploy the peacekeeping troops," he said. Even with half the expected number, the force would "go a long way in making the appropriate environment for us to withdraw", Mr Meles added. BBC AUDIO

^^ Ina Lillahi wa ina Illeyhi Rajacuun..! And some will say everything is alright except for few 'dowladiids' who will be eliminated soon. Cant they see the suffering of the people, cant they see the destruction of the little we had. Inshallah it will be overcome, and we are nearing the end. I hope and pray Inshallah.

Originally posted by Emperor: ^Dialogue my dear, dialogue, even if it is with the devil himself, no one's gota lose anything in dialogue... You are making a fundemental error sxb, I thought it was paramount tenet not to deal with terrorist organisations or those it supports.

War odeyga ka xishow oo corada uu qari.

Originally posted by Emperor: ^Of course they are Dowladiids and include other elements with wild agendas... However, one should not rule out the posibility of talks or any political negotiations purely because of that... I believe in the sense of logic, talks never hurt any1 but may heal and help cure wounds... But how can you engage in dialogue with'dowladiids' and elements of terrorist organisation?

Since his hospitalisation, C/llahi Yusuf, there has been lot going on. For a start the government named by Nuur Caade has been dissolved by the PM himself.And he did that two days after naming couple of new appointess to replace those who resigned in protest. The PM has now promised a more slimer cabinet with 50% coming from outside the parliament, who have silmulteneously granted him an extenssion of time to form the much expectd and promised cabinet. In parallel with this, the speaker of the TFG parliament Aden Madobe has been leaning in the pastweek the necessecity to engage dialogue with the opposition. He has at one time officially stated that he has met with members from the Asmara group in Nairobi. This coupled with the UN proposal and support for the Saudi innitiative in hosting a peace talk among Somalis.Not mentioning that Djibouti has also hinted that it has held or want to hold such a meeting. Hence with the PM's sudden change of the structure of his cabinet, plus the Speakers call for dialogue and the International Bodies endorsement, clearly shows that there has been a tilt towards solving the Somali crises in a more peaceful and dialogue manner by the heads of the TFG. And all this is happening since Yeey's visit to Cromnwell Hospital. Whether he is involved or has granted his blessing in all these manouveres only time will tell. But according to his last interview with VOA while he was in hospital in Nairobi - he apporved the cabinet and of the opposition said that they first have to disarm and become part of the general public and follow the order of the 'ruling' government. If anythiung he was notin a reconciling mood. Thus these current political innitiaves do not reflect his methodology. So the question is . 'war sawaxankaan kasocda Baydhabo Odeyga malagala tashadey'?

So now they are opposition groups instead of 'dowladiid' and few elements supported by Al-qaeeda.

This is another twist in Nuur-Cadde's saga. Everybody expected he did not deliver. Then he disembersed his cabinet, lets see what he will produce. One thing for certain though , the expectation that he was the catalyst to much needed change has diminished.

Somali PM Hussein dismisses cabinet Somali PM Hussein dismisses cabinet BAIDOA, Somalia, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Nur Hussan Hussein dissolved his cabinet on Sunday, barely two weeks after five senior officials quit in a power-sharing row. Speaking at a news conference in the southern town of Baidoa, where parliament is based, Hussein said he expected to name a new cabinet in the next two weeks. "After meeting my ministers, I decided to form a new government," Hussein said. "In that government, 50 percent of the ministers will be selected from outside, while the other 50 percent will come from the parliament." Since his appointment late last month, Hussein has come under pressure to end the infighting that has paralysed Somalia's interim government for three years. The cabinet he named on Dec 2 failed to win parliamentary approval after five officials quit in protest against what they saw as their clans' under-representation in the government. (Reporting by Ahmed Mohamed; Writing by Katie Nguyen; editing by Andrew Dobbie) Source: Reuters, December 16, 2007

Originally posted by Libaax-Sankataabte: Hayaay, the old man is looking sharp there. No more General, he is a diplomat now. Well he has the oppurtunity to try another proffession after failing notably in his previous one. However on the other hand Kuwaitis need to be reminded that on Morgan's last state visit to Kuwait , the country was invaded and captured by Sadam Hussein..

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduced a new venue for her superficial and destructive stewardship of US foreign policy during her lightning visit to the Horn of Africa last Wednesday. The Horn of Africa is a dangerous and strategically vital place. Small wars, which rage continuously, can easily escalate into big wars. Local conflicts have regional and global aspects. All of the conflicts in this tinderbox, which controls shipping lanes from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea, can potentially give rise to regional, and indeed global conflagrations between competing regional actors and global powers. The Horn of Africa includes the states of Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Kenya. Eritrea, which gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 20-year civil war, is a major source of regional conflict. Eritrea has a hot border dispute with Ethiopia which could easily ignite. The two countries fought a bloody border war from 1998-2000 over control of the town of Badme. Although a UN mandated body determined in 2002 that the disputed town belonged to Eritrea, Ethiopia has rejected the finding and so the conflict festers. Eritrea also fights a proxy war against Ethiopia in Somalia and in Ethiopia's rebellious ****** region. In Somalia, Eritrea is the primary sponsor of the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Courts Union which took control of Somalia in June, 2006. In November 2006, the ICU government declared jihad against Ethiopia and Kenya. Backed by the US, Ethiopia invaded to restore the recognized Transitional Federal Government to power which the ICU had deposed. Although the Ethiopian army successfully ousted the ICU from power in less than a week, backed by massive military and financial assistance from Eritrea, as well as Egypt and Libya, the ICU has waged a brutal insurgency against the TFG and the Ethiopian military for the past year. THE SENIOR ICU leadership, including Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed have received safe haven in Eritrea. In September, the exiled ICU leadership held a nine-day conference in the Eritrean capital of Asmara where they formed the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia headed by Ahmed. Eritrean President-for-life Isaias Afwerki declared his country's support for the insurgents stating, "The Eritrean people's support to the Somali people is consistent and historical, as well as a legal and moral obligation." Although touted in the West as a moderate, Ahmed has openly supported jihad and terrorism against Ethiopia, Kenya and the West. Aweys, for his part, is wanted by the FBI in connection with his role in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Then there is Eritrea's support for the ****** separatists in Ethiopia. The ****** rebels are Somali ethnics who live in the region bordering Somalia and Kenya. The rebellion is run by the ****** National Liberation Front (ONLF) which uses terror and sabotage as its preferred methods of warfare. It targets not only Ethiopian forces and military installations, but locals who wish to maintain their allegiance to Ethiopia or reach a negotiated resolution of the conflict. In their most sensationalist attack to date, in April ONLF terror forces attacked a Chinese-run oil installation in April killing nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians. Ethiopia, for its part has fought a brutal counter-insurgency to restore its control over the region. Human rights organizations have accused Ethiopia of massive human rights abuses of civilians in ******. THEN THERE is Sudan. As Eric Reeves wrote in the Boston Globe on Saturday, "The brutal regime in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, has orchestrated genocidal counter-insurgency war in Darfur for five years, and is now poised for victory in its ghastly assault on the region's African populations." The Islamist government of Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir is refusing to accept non-African states as members of the hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping mission to Darfur that is due to replace the undermanned and demoralized African Union peacekeeping force whose mandate ends on December 31. Without its UN component of non-African states, the UN Security Council mandated force will be unable to operate effectively. Khartoum's veto led Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN undersecretary for peacekeeping to warn last month that the entire peacekeeping mission may have to be aborted. And the Darfur region is not the only one at risk. Due to Khartoum's refusal to carry out the terms of its 2005 peace treaty with the Southern Sudanese that ended Khartoum's 20-year war and genocide against the region's Christian and animist population, the unsteady peace may be undone. Given Khartoum's apparent sprint to victory over the international community regarding Darfur, there is little reason to doubt that once victory is secured, it will renew its attacks in the south. THE CONFLICTS in the Horn of Africa have regional and global dimensions. Regionally, Egypt has played a central role in sponsoring and fomenting conflicts. Egypt's meddling advances its interest of preventing the African nations from mounting a unified challenge to Egypt's colonial legacy of extraordinary rights to the waters of the Nile River which flows through all countries of the region. Globally, the region is a hotbed of Wahabist activity. Osama bin Laden was based in Khartoum until 1995. The ICU receives support not only from Eritrea, but from the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. So too, international attempts to end the genocide in Darfur have been stymied by the Arab League and the OIC. One of the main reasons for the recent US decision to establish a military command in Africa is its strategic importance to the forces of global jihad. The US's largest force in Africa is located in Djibouti. International efforts to resolve the manifold conflicts in the region have failed to address the roots of the conflicts and so, even when successful are generally short lived. As the situation in Southern Sudan and the Eritrean-Ethiopian border show, these agreements only last as long as neither side believes it can defeat the other. Beyond that, while US and European leaders have spoken eloquently of the need to end the slaughter in Darfur and help the Somalis establish order, Washington and Brussels have made clear that they will not take effective action to back up their declarations. Indeed, even if Khartoum weren't actively working to undermine the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, it is hard to see the mission actually succeeding. No NATO member will agree to donate helicopters to the peacekeeping force. Without the helicopters, the peacekeepers will be unable to perform their mission. THIS REGIONAL morass of wars and rivalries formed the backdrop last week to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's one-day visit to African Union headquarters in Ethiopia. It is far from clear what Rice hoped to accomplish by traveling to Africa. She didn't bring any plans to solve any of the region's problems or even suggest new ways of looking at them. Even more troubling, Rice devoted the majority of her attention not to pointing a finger at Eritrea and Sudan for their bad behavior, but to attacking Ethiopia and pressuring the southern Sudanese to cut a deal with Khartoum. It seems fairly clear that Ethiopia's hands are not clean in its handling of the separatist war in ******. But at the same time, it is equally clear that Ethiopia is the only state among the warring factions that has tried to bring a semblance of law and order and openness to its war torn, fractured society. Beyond that, Ethiopia is without a doubt the US's most loyal, stable, militarily capable and strategically valuable ally in the region. And yet, in her public statements, Rice singled Ethiopia out for censure demanding that it curtail its operations along its border with Eritrea. She also called for an Ethiopian withdrawal from Somalia despite the fact that she knows that the African Union has not been successful in raising a peacekeeping force to deploy to the country that could secure a peace. Rice refused to accept Ethiopia's position that the ONLF is a terrorist organization and took a step back from US threats in September to label Eritrea a state supporter of terrorism despite its open support for the al-Qaida linked ICU. Then too, aside from declaring that the peace agreement between the southern Sudanese and the Khartoum government must not be permitted to unravel, she offered no helpful advice on how to prevent that from occurring. Rice refrained from attacking Khartoum for boycotting her visit, and apparently sufficed with pleasantries in her meeting with south Sudanese leader Pagan Amum. RICE'S FORAY into the Horn of Africa left an acrid aftertaste. Her superficial treatment of deep and dangerous conflicts indicates her lack of interest in the strategically vital region. Most troubling though, was her abusive treatment of Ethiopia. By attacking the US's strongest ally while making light of the actual conflicts plaguing the area, Rice showed that in the Horn of Africa her view of her role as chief US diplomat is no different from her perception of her role in the Middle East and Asia. Apparently, as Rice sees it, her remaining time in office is best spent weakening America's allies and giving a free ride to its foes. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi should be thankful that her main focus lies elsewhere. Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST Source

In all the times C/llahi Yusuf was claimed to be sick or dying - and even during the period he was fighting his kinsmen Jamac Cali Jamac in Puntland - he never came out in the open to counter the accusations. He just stayed silent and let the propoganda continue. That even happened recently when Geedi was forced to resign, C/llahi was presumed ailing and under wraps - yet when Geedi returned with his resignation papers he was at the front row and proclaiming victory against Geedi proving wrong all that was alleged against him. This latest saga has a twist innit. Yeey is countering the allegation head on, calling the press at his bedside and taking photos at the hospital. Hence my question is why is it different now? Why is he adamant to prove that he is healthy which is very un-him. In any case hadu jiran yahey iyo hadi kaleba odeyga cafimaad Allah siiyo. habarka qofka koleyba wa laygaga ficaan yahey.

Originally posted by xiinfaniin: ^^The pic would be even more reflective on Somalia’s reality if good Ammiin had shown Cadde peaking from the other shoe… Indeed, but the press-guys were clever enough at first by not fleeing to Puntland. Meshan ayey miciin bideen mise wa ka daro dibi dhal.

Originally posted by -: Alla Ha UNaxariisto Marxuumka Amiin!

Originally posted by J.a.c.a.y.l.b.a.r.o: waxba ha cabaadin adeer ssdf waa laga baxay markay SNM meesha timid ,,,,, You just affirmed that SNM was an offspring of SSDF.

You are not a good poker player, nevertheless there is no pardon in here only an extension of execution - and it does not answer the question of originality like who does the expulsion favor.

^^ Waxaa aad ka hesho wax ha iga siin dheh.

Originally posted by J.a.c.a.y.l.b.a.r.o: kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ,,, i'll show u soon Ok since you can predict the future bal waxad ii sheegta in uu ina-Yeey ka kici doona tan hada heysata iyo in kale. Bal aan ka faideyste..

Originally posted by J.a.c.a.y.l.b.a.r.o: I already know what you'll say ,,,,,,,, waa la is barty maalmahan War wax iskula har, maba la garin halke ugu si hordageysa.

Originally posted by J.a.c.a.y.l.b.a.r.o: I know you'll bring more excuses haday dhacdo and say iyadana waa la amray Adiga un ha is kashifin.

War bal banoniga dejiya....odeygii aya sakarad ah idinkana waad isdagaleysaan. Soomaali maryoioley..only them can wish for and celebrate the dead of 'their' president. Odeyga uu duceyaa aya la idin yiiri..ee amiin dhaha..!