Britain, Djibouti To Sign Antiterror Deal

[Fyr]

Britain, Djibouti To Sign Antiterror Deal

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, DJIBOUTI

 

 

Britain is expected to seal an agreement with Djibouti next month to allow the deployment of British troops in this tiny but strategic Horn of Africa nation as part of a US-led international counter-terrorism operation, officials said Dec. 22.

 

Djibouti’s Defense Minister Ougoureh Kifleh and a British envoy said the deal was expected to be signed in mid- to late-January after details of English- and French-language versions of the agreement were completed.

 

“We had received the terms of this agreement earlier, but this time the British delegation brought copies in French ... so we can now amend them and agree on a final pact,†Kifleh told AFP at the end of a two-day visit to the former French colony by a group of British diplomats.

 

 

 

He could not discuss the exact size of the British deployment or when it was expected but a British envoy in Djibouti said Britain’s ambassador to neighboring Ethiopia, Bob Dewar, would return “in three weeks time to sign a memorandum on the modalities of the deployment.â€

 

Djibouti is already home to France’s largest overseas military base and the only U.S. military base in Africa and currently hosts some 1,500 American troops and several hundred German, Dutch and Spanish soldiers participating in the U.S.-led anti-terrorism operation known as “Enduring Freedom.â€

 

Djibouti, located at the southern end of the Red Sea on the Gulf of Aden, is a key staging post between the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean.

[Xoogsade]

Does this mean the Brittish troops are getting closer to Somaliland?

[Fyr]

Originally posted by Xoogsade:

Does this mean the Brittish troops are getting closer to Somaliland?

In a geographic sense yes, but we all know that so be kind and articulate a bit more about your true intentions with your comment. And please put aside the sarcasm.

[Yeniceri]

Djibouti is teeming with foreign soldiers from the U.S., France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and now, the U.K. I understand the short-term economic gains that will be made by Djibouti, but what of the long-term consequences? This so-called "war on terror" will, sooner or later, have an end (naturally, everything that has a beginning has an end, i.e. the "Cold War"). I wonder how long the terms of deployment signed between the Djiboutian government and these foreign militaries are. Fyrkanten, anything on this?

[Xoogsade]

On top of the social degradation and the spread of STDs and Aids, the life ammunition exercises with staged fake/mock assaults on an unseen enemy, naval gun fire, warplanes included, there will be future health problems for the residents in the area. These poor Africans are not educated about that.

 

Fyr

 

You are right, I was sarcastic. I might offend you if I speak of my mind as I will base my view on assumptions, which is the wrong thing to do anyway. But if you insist again, I can tell you why I mentioned the brittish troops coming closer to Somaliland and how that may have prompted your interest in the subject. Again, I am presumptuously speaking here. I don't know what was your interest in the subject. It is the downside to our politics.

[Fyr]

I wonder how long the terms of deployment signed between the Djiboutian government and these foreign militaries are. Fyrkanten, anything on this?

 

Like the french they’re here for the long term, whether it maybe terrorist today or something else tomorrow rest assured they’ll be there for a very long time just because of djibout’s strategic location.

 

Xoogsade

 

Oh how I would’ve wanted everyone in SOL to speak their minds instead of two-faced sinister that goes around here characteristically, I can assure you that I don’t take any offence in assumptions as they’re only assumptions and nothing more.

 

 

My interest in this subject has little to do with Somaliland, but rather the regional effect of these kinds of deployments. These kinds of news should really be of interest for you as it centres more on Somalia then any other place in the horn of Africa.

 

Would you believe me if I said that I don’t like the British any less than you do, and I wouldn’t want them deployed anywhere near any inhabited Somali region?

[Abu-Salman]

Djiboutians's health or environment is the last priority considered and has always been so.

 

However,I wonder why Blair's government wants to be more involved there while the GIs, the International task force as well as French soldiers are already well established.

 

Wouldn't be the NHS deficits and failed schools more pressing issues?

 

Is it a new "spiritual vision" after he publicly justified Iraq's invasion somehow as a "decision taken by god"?

 

Nevertheless, as usual, the deal has been signed without any national debate..

[ElPunto]

^That's an intersting point. There are so many western troops there to safeguard 'western' interests. Why is a permanent British deployment necessary? What is it that we don't know?

[Abu-Salman]

Most definitely, it has something to do with the current situation in Somalia.

 

Clearly, supporting at any cost the highly dependant Tigre's military dictatorship in Ethiopia is not enough.

 

In fact, Blair has resumed aid, which is more substantial than ever, to Zenawi's regime despite the "elections" farce and the concomitant atrocities not mentioning Blair's rhetoric of

good-governance and democracy promotion (the police was shooting in broad daylight the crowd in Addis-Abeba, mainly targeting children and women).

 

At any rate, I can't understand what further damage could be inflicted to Somalis after the NFD, Hawd and rest of Somalis inhabited areas handing to Ethiopia which caused permanent warfare and as a consequence Syad Barre military rule (the Somali-Ethiopian war marking the most notable Syad's policy change).

 

Is it not therefore Britain the very mastermind and main responsible of this crime against humanity, the best qualification of Somalia's tragedy?