Eritrea arming Al Shabaab

By Standard Team and Agencies

The possible role of Eritrea in supporting Al Shabaab insurgents has come into sharp focus after the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) confirmed that two aircraft landed in Baidoa with a consignment of arms for the rebels.

Although KDF did not name the origin of the aircraft, chatter on many Somali Internet sites, quoting Al Shabaab, said they were Eritrean.nd has advised anyone with relatives and friends in the town to warn them of the imminent attack.
Hitting Baidoa and taking over the airstrip would cut off one of the key supply routes, apart from Kismayu port, for weapons to the militants.

On Tuesday, The Standard exclusively reported that aircraft suspected to be from Eritrea were spotted on Baidoa’s airstrip on Saturday under tight security from Al Shabaab.

Eritrea has been accused of pouring flames on the conflict in Somalia by flying in weapons and explosives to the militants using the airstrip in Baidoa, a town controlled by the militants.

During the invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia, Eritrea harboured leaders of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and its military wing, now Al Shabaab, and was accused by the United Nations of supplying them with weapons to fight a proxy war against Ethiopia.

On Tuesday, a member of Somalia’s Parliament, Mr Mahamud Abdulla, told a Somali news agency website that he witnessed over 10 vehicles from Baidoa airstrip enter a building in the area over the weekend.

He said Al Shabaab informants told him the weapons included heavy artillery and explosives.

In his daily briefing notes for the media, military spokesperson Major Emmanuel Chirchir, in addition to Baidoa, warned residents of Baadheere, Baydhabo, Dinsur, Afgooye, Bwale, Barawe, Jilib, Kismayu and Afmadow to beware and avoid being used as conduits for the weapons.

“In line with the Kenya Defence Forces Strategy of diminishing Al Shabaab effectiveness and weapon use, the aforementioned towns will remain under imminent attack. Residents in the towns are advised to avoid contact with Al Shabaab militia,” said Major Chirchir.

“The Kenya Defence Forces also urges anyone with relatives and friends in the aforementioned areas to advise them accordingly,” he noted.Al Shabaab are marshalling forces and digging in around Afmadow, where heavy rains, muddy terrain and the threat of landmines have made movement on the ground difficult.

Kenyan jets have been pounding Al Shabaab training camps around Afmadow ahead of a final battle that could be decisive, as far as Kenya’s and Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government’s (TFG’s) goal of moving on to capture Kismayu is concerned.

The immediate goal of the joint offensive is to clear Al Shabaab out of its strongholds in central and southern Somalia and put in place adminstrators friendly to both Kenya and the TFG. Kenya is tightening the diplomatic screws on Al Shabaab and its allies even as the insurgents prepare for a major showdown at their Afmadow base. Just a day after the Government announced it would ask the United Nations to assist in blockading the Somali port of Kismayu, Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Tuesday met a select group of diplomats and appraised them on the operation against the militants.

“Our joint forces have liberated a large portion of Jubaland are now assisting the civilian population to set up local administrative units. The towns that have been captured are now being put under civilian administration,” said Raila.

The two premiers were addressing the press outside Raila’s office in Nairobi, after a lengthy meeting with diplomats drawn from various countries that are in one way or another supporting the joint operation in Somalia. Raila reiterated their call that the International Criminal Court should investigate and indict Al Shabaab commanders for acts against humanity. And as the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) and troops from the TFG close in on the terrorists, international support from Africa and beyond is being marshalled to back the exercise dubbed “Operation Linda Nchi”.

The flurry of diplomatic activity is also meant to counter Al Shabaab’s propaganda machine, which has had a field day due to the scarcity of updates by the KDF on its military offensive.

Raila and Ali maintained they were fighting a common enemy and needed more support from the international community.

Raila said Kenya is not interested in occupying Somalia and will move its troops out as soon as the country gains stability.

“Our joint military operation has so far liberated a large portion of Jubaland and we are assisting civilian population on the ground,” said Raila. Ali said the Al Shabaab was a global problem that required support not only from Kenya and other African countries but also from the international community.

“We are succeeding with these efforts, we are facing a common enemy, and therefore we should have common strategy to defeat Al Shabaab,” he said.

Mohammed said the people of Somalia had suffered enough, and that they would need help from the international community to rebuild the country.

Raila said Kenya was ready to investigate claims by a humanitarian agency of civilian deaths in an air raid by Kenyan warplanes against the militants on Sunday.

“If there is any death that has occurred as a result of the military operation, it will be investigated thoroughly,” Raila told reporters. “It is not our intention to kill innocent civilians”. Aid agency Medicines Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) alleged that five civilians, including children, were killed when a bomb hit a camp in Jilib hosting some 9,000 displaced Somalis.

Aid agencies operate in the area only with permission from the terror outfit and there has been no independent confirmation of the claims that were widely reported by western news agencies.

A regional Shabaab official, Sheikh Abukar Ali Ada, put the death toll at 15 and vowed to avenge the attack.

But military spokesperson Major Chirchir said 10 Shabaab fighters were killed in the raid and the civilians died after a Shabaab vehicle mounted with an anti-aircraft gun and explosives was hit by the warplane and then driven into the camp where it exploded. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged all sides on Tuesday to respect civilian lives and said it had resumed food distribution to over 6,000 displaced people in the camp after a temporary suspension.

“The ICRC and the Somali Red Crescent remind all parties to the conflict of their obligation to spare the civilian population,” ICRC Somalia chief Pascal Mauchle said in a statement.

Raila cautioned Kenyans against singling out ethnic Somalis saying Al Shabaab terrorists were not limited to one ethnic group.

He also assured tourists visiting the country, and those planning to spend their Christmas holidays in Kenya that security had been enhanced.

“We have secured our vital installations, hotels and buildings. The country is more secure than before,” said the PM

Is Meles Zenawi becoming paranoid

Is Meles Zenawi becoming paranoid? Or is he laying the ground for a new round of crackdowns on his government’s favourite targets–the media and the opposition?

Ethiopia observers were left groping for answers after the country’s prime minister recently launched into a tirade against perceived enemies, leaving no doubt that something had unhinged him.

The October 20 outburst seemed to have been inspired by the capture of Col Muammar Gaddafi just an hour before the Ethiopian premier was scheduled to address parliament.

Col Gaddafi was to be later killed sparking a global debate, but few African leaders, including Ethiopia’s premier, have made their feelings about the former Libyan leader’s fate known.

Mr Meles’ presence in parliament was to mark its first opening in the year 2004 (according to the Ethiopian calendar), but he instead used his two-and-a-half hour stay to rail against journalists, who termed vagabonds, and the opposition, who he referred to as terrorists.The prime minister said he had evidence that the senior leadership in the main opposition party coalition, the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum–known in Amharic as Medrek, were backed by arch-foe Eritrea and were plotting terrorist acts.

“We know in our hearts that they are involved in terrorism acts. However, we are aware that this is not enough before a court of law. So we will be patient until we are certain we have enough evidence against them,” he said.

“We don’t want to ruin everything by moving hastily.”

Ethiopia: Witness(Woyane police Man) says 2 Swedes ‘supported’ rebels

A witness in a terror trial against two Swedish journalists arrested in Ethiopia told a court on Tuesday that the pair planned to “support” a rebel group.

Ethiopian troops captured journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye during a clash with rebels in the Ogaden in the country’s restive east in July. Journalists are prohibited from traveling freely in Ogaden, which borders Somalia.

Police inspector Mohamed Ahmed told an Ethiopian court on Tuesday that the two Swedes told him that they traveled to Ethiopia to work and to support the rebel group the Ogaden National Liberation Front, also known as the ONLF.

When asked by an Associated Press reporter after the court session adjourned if they ever admitted to supporting the ONLF, the Swedes laughed and shook their heads “no.”

The two Swedes pleaded not guilty to charges of terrorism during a preliminary hearing Oct. 20 but admitted to having violated immigration laws.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/2011/11/ethiopia-witness-says-2-swedes-supported-rebels#ixzz1cTzBT16I

Military drone programs should be put to an end

Dec. 31 marks the deadline for the remaining 41,000 combat troops in Iraq to come home. The Iraq war was waged under false pretenses and should have never happened, but this “withdrawal” is misleading because our military’s presence abroad continues to expand through an undisclosed proxy-war of drone air strikes in unstable regions of the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Last Sunday the Washington Post revealed that the Air Force, working closely with the CIA, has secretly invested millions into upgrading a small airport in Ethiopia to conduct counterterrorism missions with Reaper drone aircrafts. These unmanned fighter jets are loaded with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs whose purpose is to target and kill rogue militants. These operations continue to expand, with bases revealed to be in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen.

The CIA has a long history of stirring the cauldron of violence around the world through undeclared wars, and since 9/11, the agency’s counter-terrorism staff has doubled. Although the drone program has never been officially recognized by the CIA, 20 percent of its analysts are now “‘targeters (that) scan data for individuals to recruit, arrest or place in the crosshairs of a drone.” The CIA’s authority to freely conduct high-tech aerial warfare is seriously problematic, but they have not publicly offered any legal guidelines or restrictions for its operations.

Unstable governments, preferably in a constant state of political and/or ethnic conflict, are what the CIA preys upon to build its drone facilities, and nowhere has suffered more than Pakistan. The number of civilian Pakistani deaths since the program began in 2004 is widely disputed: The CIA said that between May 2010 and August 2011, 600 militants and zero civilians had been killed, but the Brookings Institute says that for every militant killed, 10 civilians are murdered.

The imprecise nature of the video game-like targeting software used by the controllers from the base have easily confused terrorists with unarmed locals, often children: On March 1, nine Afghan children gathering firewood were killed because they were mistaken for militants with rocket launchers.

One of the most horrific examples of undifferentiated killing took place on June 22, 2009, when a “suspected militant hideout” in Pakistan was bombed, leaving the inhabitants buried inside. When others rushed onto the scene, another missile was fired, leaving 13 innocent civilians dead. At the funeral the next day, the U.S. struck again with the hopes that one militant leader was amongst the onlookers. But he wasn’t there, and another 80 civilians were killed.

The responses to drone attacks have caused overwhelming humanitarian and diplomatic backlashes against the United States with political observers noticing further anti-American sentiment seeding into the Pakistani and Afghan populations. The U.S. public’s response hasn’t nearly been as negative, but that difference can probably be attributed to the lack of a realistic, daily threat of a bomb being dropped on our homes. The impersonal nature of the killing, and thus diluted sense of moral culpability, should be highlighted because the person pulling the trigger is sitting comfortably miles away from the victims.

Despite Nobel Peace Prize-winner Barack Obama’s carefully timed illusion that “the tides of war are receding,” his administration is escalating wars in several other countries. More attention needs to be given to the dramatic loss of life and physical destruction he has overseen as president.

The drone program needs to be critiqued and ultimately put to an end because it is strategically ineffective — it increases the hatred and militarization of populations it is supposedly aiming to reduce — and for its profound disregard for preserving the sanctity of human life. But working to put an end to this atrocious program cannot gain momentum without pressure from U.S. citizens in solidarity against our government’s policy of unending warfare.

Ethio-Eritrea Border Demarcation Deadlock

The United Nations Secretary-General is expressing concern over the Ethiopian-Eritrean border impasse as a peace deal that ended their bloody war in 2000 has not yet been followed by a border demarcation as first agreed by the two sides.

The Secretary- General’s remarks come as the UN Security Council considers an Ethiopian backed proposal to make tougher sanctions against Eritrea which, if imposed, could likely raise further tension between the two countries.

“I am concerned that this border issue has not been resolved in accordance with the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s [EEBC] recommendations,” the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an exclusive interview with Capital.

The Secretary-General says he has raised the issue with the leaders of the two countries; Ethiopian Prime Meles Zenawi and Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki. Eritrea was once a strong ally that helped to unseat a brutal Ethiopian communist regime in 1991 which was soon followed by their succession.

In 1998 the two countries unexpectedly entered into a full scale war, suffering massive casualties and hundreds of millions of dollars of expense. The conflict ended in June 2000 when a peace deal was signed.

“The Algiers Agreement of 2000 was able to address this war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. With the binding agreement on delimitation and demarcation between the Eritrea and Ethiopia [border], it is up to the two countries to implement these recommendations,” Mr. Ban Ki moon explained in the interview.

“I sincerely hope that all EEBC’s recommendations could be implemented through dialogue between the two countries,” he also said.

EEBC, established under the Algiers Agreement, in collaboration with Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague agreed upon a “final and binding” verdict.

Since the ruling that awarded some territory to each side, Ethiopia sought to negotiate with Eritrea including for a possible land swap while Asmara insists on an immediate physical demarcation based on the verdict.

In November 2006 both Ethiopia and Eritrea boycotted an EEBC meeting at the Hague which would have demarcated their disputed border using UN maps.

It is unlikely that Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders will soon return to a discussion table as both routinely accuse each other of destabilizing the Horn of Africa region. Ethiopia since March has stepped up the charge and even vowed to take “all measures necessary” against Eritrea.

Eritrea is already facing an arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council over reports it supports the Somali based Islamist group al-Shabab. Asmara denies any support to the group and often decries any wrongdoing as ‘smear campaign’ by Addis Ababa.

In July the report of the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea said that the Eritrean Government planned a massive attack on an African Union meeting held earlier this year in Addis Ababa. According to this report, the plot was just one of multiple violations of Security Council arms embargoes committed by Eritrea.

The Secretary-General in a Capital interview called on Eritrean authorities to adhere to the embargo: “It is important for the Eritrean government to implement fully the resolutions adopted by the Security Council; it is an obligation by all member states to fully comply with the resolutions taken by the Security Council.”

Ever since the July report by the UN panel tasked with monitoring Eritrea’s compliance with embargoes, the East African block- Intergovernmental Authority on Development Regional (IGAD) – has been calling on the Security Council to make tougher sanctions against Eritrea.

Despite the latest promise of cooperation coming from Asmara, a six page IGAD spearheaded resolution was tabled for negotiation at the fifteen-member UN Security Council.

The six-page draft resolution proposes to ban foreign companies from investing in the country’s lately booming mining sector and prohibits transfers of the so called diaspora tax- two percent of their annual income that Eritreans living abroad pay to the Eritrean government through their embassies overseas. Eritrea’s 2.59 billion dollar economy is reportedly reliant on mineral resources such as gold, and the money sent from Eritreans living abroad.

On October 18 the Security Council members have begun negotiations on the draft resolution prepared by Gabon and cosponsored by Nigeria which are two of the three African nations in the council. The other African member in the council, South Africa, is said to be demanding ‘some changes’ to the draft.

Western countries led by the United States are reportedly backing the proposal. The US is currently strengthening its ties with Ethiopia as they team up to fight al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the region -al-Shabab-.

The US Air Force has been secretly flying armed Reaper drones on counterterrorism missions from a remote civilian airport in southern Ethiopia, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

According to this report, the US Air Force has invested millions of dollars to upgrade an airfield in the southern Ethiopian town of Arba Minch where it has built a small annex to house a fleet of drones that can be equipped with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs. –Capita