Somalia is still a failed state

[Juje]

Even hope is in short supply as violence flares in Mogadishu

 

 

WHO was behind the murder in the past week of two prominent journalists in Mogadishu, Somalia’s wretched capital city? Ali Imam Sharmake, the director of the country’s respected HornAfrik Radio, was killed while returning home from the funeral of a colleague, Mahad Ahmed Elmi, head of the city’s Capital Voice Radio. Mr Elmi, also a popular presenter, had been shot dead earlier the same day by unknown attackers. Mr Sharmake's jeep was blown up by a remote-controlled landmine—the cowardly assailants watching from a nearby alley. The double killing was a miserable reminder in the rubble-strewn city of how far Somalia has to travel if it is ever to become a normal country.

 

Both men had been defiant in the face of threats, providing balanced reporting on the tense local situation. The Somali government said the killings were “obviously” the work of Islamist insurgents and quickly picked up two men it says were responsible. The suspects were also accused of trying to murder a Reuters correspondent. Were Islamists behind it all? The device that shredded Mr Sharmake was apparently of a type used by Islamist fighters in the city, but no one really knows. Life in Somalia, for journalists and other civilians alike, remains perilous and miserable.

 

The killings in Mogadishu are not going away. This week alone at least 30 people have been murdered and 60 seriously injured, most of them civilians. In one incident a grenade was thrown at police from a crowd. In the chaos that followed somebody, perhaps a policeman, let fly with a gun and several others were killed or injured. Elsewhere there were also bombings, mortars, attempted suicide attacks and sniper fire.

 

Life grinds on, but insecurity keeps down an already feeble economy. Unlike Iraq, Somalia has no oil revenues (although some, including Chinese firms, are rumoured now to be looking) or Pentagon job schemes to keep poverty at bay. Some 1.5m Somalis, about 20% of the population, are thought to need humanitarian aid. An estimated 3,000 civilians flee Mogadishu each week, most of them to disease-ridden camps at the edge of the city. The World Food Programme says that since June insecurity has made proper distributions of food impossible. Even the sea is unsafe: some food shipments have been intercepted by pirates.

 

Mogadishu, in any case, remains too dangerous for non-Somalis to visit. So most outsiders with an interest in helping the country do their talking in Nairobi, the capital of next-door Kenya. The Somali government wants to create a Green Zone for foreign visitors, but that would not be likely to have much impact given the world’s indifference. America backed Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in December, in order to bring down an Islamist group that had control of Mogadishu and much of the south of the country. The Americans have promised Somalia more cash and appointed a new envoy, based in Nairobi. But this seems to be little more than window-dressing. America’s main interest is not in creating regional stability but in catching a few suspected al-Qaeda operatives, who may or may not be in Somalia.

America is not alone in its clumsiness. A report issued this week by Human Rights Watch, an NGO, blamed the Somali government and Ethiopia for the deaths of hundreds of civilians in fighting in Mogadishu earlier this year. The shelling of neighbourhoods, occasionally with phosphorous bombs, and summary executions of civilians, caused 400,000 people to flee the city. Oddly, the report made little of the Islamist insurgents, whose fighters took cover in the neighbourhoods. Ethiopia, in particular, was bitter in its denial of the report's findings, calling it “factually and morally repugnant”.

 

But Ethiopia was meant to be gone from Somalia in February, to be replaced with peacekeepers from the African Union. The fact that it is still the main occupying force reflects the listlessness of the AU operation. So far, of 8,000 peacekeepers promised by the AU only 1,600 Ugandan troops have arrived. Meanwhile, the Islamist insurgents are evidently as determined as ever, remaining a threat to Somalis and, perhaps, to their neighbours as well.

 

Aug 17th 2007

From Economist.com

[Gabbal]

Juje, oo kaalay ma inay wax is badaleen baad mooday?

[Jacpher]

^Why not. He thought good Qeydiid would bring back stability to Moqdisho.

[Chimera]

That was the whole point behind the Al Qaeda propaganda followed by an illigal invasion, it was simply to prolong our suffering with more humiliation cause they didn't like seeing there project Anarchy 95-2006 returning to stability cause all that hard work of threatening countries that wanted to give Somalia a helping hand because of it's past relationships would have gone to waste..

 

we can not allow to let that happen stability is a ''no no'' the Somalis must pay for BHD for as long as the 4th Rome continues to rule the skies,lands and the oceans of the world

 

there new project is Eritrea and eventually it too will become a Failed state for some reason(despite the fact on the ground[in Eritrea] nothing has changed)

 

Somalia should have gone Nuclear in the soviet era like Libya then we would have taken the whole world with us, yeah that would have been nice, a failed planet

[xiinfaniin]

IA waa laga baxaa waxaan. We are yet to decode Allah's wisdom in all of this. Seeing Iraq and how it turned out and egged on America's face, it's not far fetched to suggest that Somalia too will at the end turn out to be quite contrary to what they have originally devised it to be.

[General Duke]

It will take time, 17 years of mayhem will not change in a year or two. But Somalia is on the road ro recovery.

[Chimera]

Solution?: Sack Rome..Gothic/Constantinople style

[Peacenow]

Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

IA waa laga baxaa waxaan. We are yet to decode Allah's wisdom in all of this. Seeing Iraq and how it turned out and egged on America's face, it's not far fetched to suggest that Somalia too will at the end turn out to be quite contrary to what they have originally devised it to be.

God and man has long left Somalia.

[Gabbal]

Originally posted by peacenow:

quote:Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

IA waa laga baxaa waxaan. We are yet to decode Allah's wisdom in all of this. Seeing Iraq and how it turned out and egged on America's face, it's not far fetched to suggest that Somalia too will at the end turn out to be quite contrary to what they have originally devised it to be.

God and man has long left Somalia.

Inaa lilaahi war kani halkee ayuu naga soo galay?

[Jacpher]

^Carabuu dagaal kula jiraa kii abuurayna wuu ku daryey. War Alle u towbad keen miskiin baa tahay.

[Peacenow]

I still what would have been if Somalis became as docile as the Japanese and accepted the Americans in 1992. The superpower was engaged and it would have been a chance to develop under America's umbrella. If they wanted the oil, fine give it to them, but be clever and sell it to them at market rates. Proft from it and use your mind.

 

Look South Korea, it has had American troops for 60 years.

It is perfect for themas it is essentially free security.

They save their money and export back to them trinkets and other tosh the US needs to feed it's wild consumer culture.

They use their brain and profit.

 

What did happen in 1992, they came and then the animals parade 18 of them in the streets. Now those people in that city are left to the raw meat eating hyenas. Back then it was all so much simpler, wasn't it.

[rudy-Diiriye]

some ppl really need to use their brains and not carry it like its a luggage!

 

do u know how many times this so called power was defeated in the last 30 yrs!

 

wat are they putting in your pasta man????

[Emperor]

God and man has long left Somalia.

Peacenow, I think you are a terrorist, not only to our religion and people, but to all human lives. It was not long ago when you was calling for the murder of Somali prime minister if I remember it correctly.

 

How on earth can one call for the assasination of state official like Premier Ghedi, you should be traced, arrested and locked in Guantamo Bay, I believe there are many innocents in that base, far more innocent than you. You have publicly called for the killing of the Somali Prime Minister, your IP address is known to us and our agencies can trace your where abouts, it's not too late to come forward and apologize to the people of Somalia. You are glorifying and motivating terrist actions daily in this board, your movement and inputs are closely monitored, and just to let you know, we may take you unexpectedly before you know it. It's serious, get that through your hard skull.

 

I have respect for most of SOL contributors and more so those who have respect for human live.

 

The Emperor.

[Peacenow]

Originally posted by rudy:

some ppl really need to use their brains and not carry it like its a luggage!

 

do u know how many times this so called power was defeated in the last 30 yrs!

 

wat are they putting in your pasta man????

Ask yourself what is the clever thing, what is the smart thing.

Why fight it or desroy it in Somalia's sake when you can use it to help yourself. The superpower has decided to make himself engaged in your country, he sends his men to send you grain. To HELP you. Now far from it this superpower to give you time for itself, he wants something. So should you. Now what do you want?

 

If he rapes a Palestinian or a Iraq, it is of no concern to me. I worried about my nation only. So should you. If every Somali, thinks like that, you would be discussing that new mall that opened in Xamar or the terrible traffic jam.

[Peacenow]

Originally posted by Emperor:

quote:God and man has long left Somalia.

Peacenow, I think you are a terrorist, not only to our religion and people, but to all human lives. It was not long ago when you was calling for the murder of Somali prime minister if I remember it correctly.

 

How on earth can one call for the assasination of state official like Premier Ghedi, you should be traced, arrested and locked in Guantamo Bay, I believe there are many innocents in that base, far more innocent than you. You have publicly called for the killing of the Somali Prime Minister, your IP address is known to us and our agencies can trace your where abouts, it's not too late to come forward and apologize to the people of Somalia. You are glorifying and motivating terrist actions daily in this board, your movement and inputs are closely monitored, and just to let you know, we may take you unexpectedly before you know it. It's serious, get that through your hard skull.

 

I have respect for most of SOL contributors and more so those who have respect for human live.

 

The Emperor.

Oh please go head. You can't silence me, i'm a free man in a free country. I fear no bullet in my head. Now that would disturb the peace in my quiet Milan neighbourhood. It certainly wouldn't go unoticed.

 

I will remind you, that Italy is the only country that indicted and called for the proscuetion of those that have come to Italy

and taken those people in the same name, under same threats and sent them to gitmo.

 

I can tell you also, that no government would give that man any time, anywhere, they know him for what he is.

 

Viva Italy.