TFG Parliament Orders Sharmarke's Clandestine Mercenaries Contracts Suspension

[AYOUB]

Somali parliament orders contracts suspended

 

 

By MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR, Associated Press – Thu Dec 30, 10:26 am ET

 

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia's parliament on Thursday ordered the government to suspend several security and infrastructure contracts with foreign companies because the agreements did not have parliamentary approval.

Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed told parliament the contracts were signed before he took office in October and asked for four weeks to investigate them. Deputy Speaker Abdiwali Mudey granted Mohamed's request.

One of the contracts debated Thursday concerns an Uganda-based company, Saracen International.

Numerous Somali officials have identified it as the security contractor involved in a controversial program to train and fund anti-piracy forces in Somalia. An ex-CIA deputy station chief and a former U.S. ambassador are also involved in the program.

U.N. and American officials have expressed concerns over the transparency and goals of the program.

But Bill Pelser, the chief executive of Saracen International, has denied his company is involved and says it is another company of the same name registered in Lebanon. Lebanese authorities say they have no record of such a company.

[AYOUB]

Ten years ago, a different Puntland government hired a British security company, Hart Security, to train a coast guard in a program that was ultimately unsuccessful. Some analysts believe graduates of the course deserted and became pirates, pointing to incidents like the 2008 hijacking of a Japanese vessel in which some pirates wore coast guard uniforms. Others say there is not enough evidence to show that Hart graduates became pirates and the current program should not be discouraged.

"It's too easy to criticize security contractors," said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, which provides information about piracy to shipping companies. "But the answer to piracy has to be regional engagement."

Pierre Prosper, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, earlier told AP he is being paid by a Muslim nation he declined to identify to be a legal adviser to the Somali government on the project. He said Saracen International is the contractor that is being paid by the unnamed Muslim nation to do the training.

Uganda-based Saracen International was also identified in a letter and a statement from Puntland's government and the Somali president's former chief of staff. But Bill Pelser, the chief executive of Saracen International, denied his company is involved.

Pelser told AP he made introductions for another company called Saracen Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have no record of a company called Saracen and Pelser did not provide details.

A multinational naval force patrolling the waters off East Africa has limited capabilities to end Somali piracy. Experts, along with the force's own commanders, have said the only long-term solution is to go after pirate havens on land.

An effective Puntland coast guard could dramatically cut down on attacks, Gibbon-Brooks said. There many pirate groups based in southern Somalia but the northern gangs remain the most experienced and dangerous, Gibbons-Brooks said.

Somali pirates currently hold 22 ships and 521 crew, according to the European Union Naval Force.

The Puntland administration, which nominally falls under the Mogadishu-based government, is generally seen as stable and efficient. Puntland also has rich marine resources — a possible source of lucrative fishing licenses. A consortium of companies are also exploring for oil and gas but instability has largely prevented these resources from being exploited.

 

Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

 

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

source

[AYOUB]

 

Biyokulule Online

 

December 27, 2010

 

This paper discusses the recently promoted view that government counter-insurgence campaign should rather be conducted by self-interested quasi-mercenaries, instead of AMISOM forces. It is not entirely clear that the fez-wearing sheikhs have learned from the unfortunate Somali experiences. There are reports circulating in the Somali media that states Villa Somalia’s final decision to hire foreign security firm. The chitchats coming from the bunker walls of Villa Somalia are also rising loudly and are in favour of bringing quasi-mercenaries into Somalia, although Villa Somalia publicly denounces it.

 

Despite the almost universally unanimous distaste for quasi-mercenaries, the fez-wearing sheikhs who are now playing political midwife to Somalia assume that foreign private security actors are cheaper and more effective than UN or AMISOM forces.

 

Full piece >>> Marauding Saracen - A Mercenary by Any Other Name

[Saalax]

Interesting piece Ayoub. Thanks for posting. It will shed more light to the truth.

[AYOUB]

Parliament Takes on Contractors in Somalia

 

By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Published: December 30, 2010

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s Parliament demanded Thursday that the government immediately suspend the operations of several foreign security contractors because the lawmakers said they had no idea what the contractors were actually doing.

 

While Western officials have recently acknowledged that a number of private security contractors have begun operating in war-ravaged Somalia, little is publicly known about whom exactly they are working for or what their assignments are.

 

Lawmakers are accusing Somalia’s president and prime minister of making secret deals, and United Nations officials have been raising questions about whether some of these contractors might be helping organize and arm new pro-government militias, possibly violating the United Nations arms embargo on Somalia.

“These companies were hidden from us,” Mohamed Bashir, a Somali lawmaker, said on Thursday.

 

The Somali government — which is fighting an Islamist insurgency and is confined to a few city blocks in a country nearly the size of Texas — recently disclosed that it hired at least one of the security companies to train soldiers. It identified the company as Saracen International but did not provide details about it, including where it is located.

 

But lawmakers said there were at least five other foreign contractors doing secretive security work in Somalia.

 

Several of the security companies are based at Mogadishu’s airport, Somali residents have said.

 

Somalia’s new prime minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, gave the impression on Thursday that he did not know what the companies were doing in the country.

 

“I’ve been in office only a month, and these contracts were made by the former government,” said Mr. Mohamed, an American citizen who recently relocated from upstate New York. But, he added, “it is my responsibility to investigate these deals.”

 

He gave himself a deadline of four weeks to reply to Parliament. It was not clear on Thursday if this would placate lawmakers, who seem to take pride in their feisty and often antagonistic relationship with the other branches of Somalia’s weak government. The lawmakers want the government to suspend the contracts now, until further review.

 

Last week, Somalia’s Ministry of Information issued a cryptic news release about Saracen and who is behind it. “The funding of these activities is provided by some Muslim countries that have no interest but to help the people and government of Somalia overcome the difficulties they faced for the last 20 years,” the release said, without disclosing which Muslim countries. “This is a rare opportunity.”

 

The Somali government is facing an uphill battle against the Shabab, a radical Islamist insurgent group that controls much of the country. The Shabab are known for a violent brand of rule that includes executing their perceived enemies or performing crude amputations on them.

 

The Shabab have sworn allegiance to Al Qaeda and claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Uganda in July that killed dozens of civilians who were watching the World Cup.

 

About 8,000 African Union troops are based in Somalia, many Ugandan. The Somali government acknowledges that without them it would fall to the insurgents within days, maybe even hours.

 

The United States and other Western nations have been trying to bolster the struggling government against the Islamist insurgency, with relatively little success.

 

Mohammed Ibrahim reported from Mogadishu, and Jeffrey Gettleman from Nairobi, Kenya.

 

A version of this article appeared in print on December 31, 2010, on page A6 of the New York edition.

[Qodax Qorax]

Ignoring these developments didn't seem to work, even the New York is reporting on it.

[Jacaylbaro]

Tuug la qabtay ma hadal baa ka soo baxaya ,,,,

[Qodax Qorax]

dee kuwan SOL ku jira mexee uga hadli wayeeen. yaga dantee ugu jirtaa. mise share ayee ku leeyihiin?

[AYOUB]

Somali PM asked to suspend agreement with security firm Saracen

 

 

English.news.cn 2010-12-31 00:20:59 FeedbackPrintRSS

MOGADISHU, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Somali lawmakers on Thursday demanded suspension of the work of international security firm Saracen in the war-torn country and called on Prime Minister Mohamed Abdulahi to explain government deals with the firm in four weeks' time.

 

 

There has been growing controversy over the security firm since it emerged its involvement in the training of an anti-piracy force in the semi-autonomous northeastern Somali state of Puntland.

 

 

The Somali premier who was summoned before parliament to explain the agreement it has entered with the South Africa-based international security firm Saracen.

 

 

The premier told lawmakers that the government of former prime minister Sharmarkeh signed the deal with the firm to provide training and logistics for local forces and protection to senior Somali government officials.

 

 

Lawmakers asked the premier to suspend the work of the firm for the next four weeks until the government of Abdullahi can give the parliament further details of the agreement with the firm.

 

It has recently surfaced that the security firm was training local anti-piracy force in Puntland with the funding of an unnamed "Muslim country."

 

 

Both the U.S. government and African Union peacekeeping forces in Somalia expressed opposition to the move, while lawmakers have been skeptical about the deals saying it affronts "the sovereignty of Somalia."