Soldiers of fortune (puntland privet army)

[Wiil Cusub]

Soldiers of fortune

 

 

 

It is 18 years since America’s last soldier left Somalia. Africa has finally agreed to take care of the mess in the Horn of Africa in a country that has been in the grip of a murderous terrorist group whose leadership and rank and file is filled with child soldiers and teenagers.

 

Uganda and Burundi are the only countries currently contributing troops to a peacekeeping mission in a conflict that has been made intractable by both internal politics and warlord benefiting from the war economy, and regional power interests.

 

Al Shabaab, the dominant rebel militia now routinely threatens global sea lanes and a crucial choke point through which 70 per cent of all global oil exports pass.

 

It is forging important links with Al Qaeda, the global terror franchise.

 

So far, it has successfully staged two foreign attacks in Kampala and Nairobi.

 

In the meantime, the balkanisation of Somalia is gathering pace with the establishment of Somaliland, Puntland, and soon Jubaland as peaceful, semi-automous enclaves that now seek international recognition as independent states.

 

US President Barack Obama has also recently unveiled his much awaited “Duo-Track” Somalia policy dubbed that seeks to support both the feeble and deeply corrupt Transitional Federal Government (TFG) whose mandate is expiring in July 2011, and the semi-autonous states that want to break free.

 

This is the same solution Kenya has been pushing with its Jubaland Initiative.

 

It is in this context that a former special adviser on war crimes to former president George W. Bush, Pierre Prosper, and a former CIA deputy station chief in Mogadishu, Michael Shanklin have linked up with President Yoweri Museveni’s younger brother, who is also a retired Uganda general (Caleb Akwandanaho, alias Salim Saleh).

 

Mr Saleh is an investor in Saracen International, a private military company outfit based in Uganda.

 

There is even an “angel investor” rumoured to be a mysterious Middle East government that is funding the whole operation.

 

Their plan is to do what the armies from the world’s only superpower and from the AU have failed to do: Empower the semi-autonomous state of Puntland to set up a 1,000 man commando unit to fight off pirates and secure its monopoly of the use of violence throughout its territory.

 

The plan will also include training a presidential guard for the TFG. If these two pilot projects work, there is a possibility of scaling their operation throughout Somalia.

 

According to security experts, the plan on paper could work, but in reality, a lot could go terribly wrong sparking an even deadlier wave of violence. These are the major worries.

 

First, the involvement of a private military company (PMC) — let alone one associated with the brother of a president from the country contributing most troops — was not sanctioned by the AU.

 

It may make member states uncomfortable, and it may enrage some like Somaliland which now feels threatened by its neighbour Puntland, and it may enrage Al Shaabab and the Somali populace which will interpret Salim Saleh’s and Uganda’s presence in their country as seeking to profit from their war.

 

The EastAfrican has obtained confidential information to the effect that Saracen International started the training in Puntland without the approval from the AU, making its activities controversially parallel to the mandate of the AU Mission to Somalia, Amisom.

 

Second, these developments also raise the question of how the UN and the AU sponsored peacekeeping mission will co-exist with private military companies.

 

Third, and perhaps the most worrying, is the confluence of global energy politics, religion and a corporate army in Somalia in an already volatile conflict.

 

Puntland is rich in oil and natural gas, and it is speculated that the entry of Saracen International is in return for concessions in oil exploration and extraction.

 

E.J. Hogendoorn, a Nairobi-based analyst with the International Crisis Group told the Associated Press, “We don’t know if this unknown entity is operating in the interests of Somalis or their own self-interest. If it’s a company, there has to be a quid pro quo in terms of [oil and gas] concessions. If it’s a government, they are interested in changing the balance of power.”

 

With the mandate of the Transitional Federal Government ending in July 2011, the emergence of an armed militia in Somalia is a source of concern for the stability of the Horn of Africa.

 

The combination of a weak state, valuable natural resources, and a for-profit military corporation is a scenario that has played out before on the African continent with devastating consequences, and history threatens to repeat itself in Puntland.

 

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, private military companies and defence contractors have played a growing role in the support of state armed forces, and in multilateral reconstruction strategies, such as in present-day Iraq.

 

These types of firms are also critical in raising and maintaining levels of security in unstable but economically strategic areas of the world.

 

Many states that had previously benefited from military aid found themselves in a precarious security situation at the end of the Cold War, requiring them to use PMCs to support their armed forces.

 

These contracts have historically been financed by the often controversial extraction of natural resources.

 

Mercenaries, PMCs, which?

 

There is a thin line between PMCs and mercenaries. Ever since men have waged wars, there have always been soldiers of fortune willing to sell their services.

 

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http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Soldiers%20of%20fortune/-/2558/1078700/-/10l2agj/-/