Troops forcing residents from homes in Somali capital, rights group says

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Somali and Ethiopian troops have ordered thousands to vacate their homes in Somalia's capital to allow them to conduct searches for arms and insurgents, a local human rights group said Saturday.

The order was issued Thursday, after an insurgent attack earlier in the week against a government base, said Sudan Ali Ahmed, chairman of the independent group Elman Human Rights.

Meanwhile, witnesses and police said insurgents attacked a police station late Friday in southern Mogadishu, and that two soldiers and three civilians were killed — a reminder of Mogadishu's near daily violence.

"The police station was briefly taken by the attackers, after forcing government soldiers to flee," witness Hassan Odawa said. "They also set free all the prisoners in jail," and burnt the station and a government house.

Cpl. Mohamed Iidle said the insurgents attacked his station, and that police killed several of them, but did not give any other details.

Madahey Barkhad said police had killed his two brothers without reason during the attack. "My brothers were deliberately killed by Somali police as they were in front of their home. I don't know why they kill innocents like my brothers," said Barkhad, screaming.

Government officials declined to comment on the reported evictions from Mogadishu. The rights group official said most of those evicted had either left the city or sought refuge with relatives or friends elsewhere in Mogadishu.

"I cannot give you precise numbers of displaced people, but I believe they are in the thousands, and they were forced by Ethiopian and Somali troops to vacate their homes," Ahmed told The Associated Press, basing the figures on interviews conducted with residents.

Asha Ali Jimuale, a mother of seven from a northern Mogadishu district, told the AP that soldiers had ordered her to leave her home, and warned that insurgents could use those who stayed behind as human shields.

The evictions this week were the first reported since April, when hundreds died in heavy fighting in Mogadishu, Ahmed said.

He said that when insurgents attack government positions, "the Ethiopians and government troops launch security operations, and the Islamists go to residential areas to use civilians as a shield."

Ahmed condemned both sides, saying: "They do not care about the lives of the civilians."
On Friday, the U.N. refugee agency said its staff reported that Mogadishu was divided in two — the deserted north, and a calm south.

"The streets of northern Mogadishu are so empty during the day ... literally only a handful of people can be seen," the U.N. refugee agency said in a statement. The capital's main market, Bakara, was barely functioning due to "fighting, assassinations and killings linked to robbery," it said.

It also said inflation was running high, with prices for staple items tripling over the past two months and counterfeit money available everywhere.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. The current government, formed in 2004, has struggled to assert control.

A radical Islamic group ruled the capital and much of southern Somalia for six months last year, but was kicked out by Ethiopian troops who support the government. Since then, insurgents and government-allied troops have battled nearly every day, and thousands of civilians have been killed this year alone in Mogadishu.
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Associated Press writer Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu, Somalia contributed to this report

Source: AP

Somalis May Kidnap Americans From Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — By KATHARINE HOURELD
The U.S. Embassy warned Friday that Somali-based extremists may try to kidnap American citizens from Kenyan beach resorts.

"There are indications that Islamic extremists based in Somalia may be planning to target Westerners, especially American citizens, in the Kiwayu Island tourist area and other beach sites frequented by Western travelers on the northeast coast near Somalia," the embassy, which is also responsible for Somalia, said in an e-mail to U.S. citizens.

An embassy official — speaking on condition of anonymity, citing embassy guidelines — said the warning was based on a tip from Kenyan security services this week.

Kenya shares a 400 mile border with Somalia, which is currently closed. Kenyan security forces have been regularly patrolling the border, which is sparsely populated desert, since a radical group controlling much of southern Somalia was ousted last December by Ethiopian troops supporting the weak U.N.-backed government.

Leaders of that group, the Council of Islamic Courts, are alleged to have links with the al-Qaida terror network. Remnants of the group have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency and the transitional government and its Ethiopian allies come under daily attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Kenya, one of Africa's main tourist draws, is relatively peaceful. But in 1998, the U.S. embassies here and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were simultaneously hit, killing 225 people in an attack blamed on al-Qaida. The network was also blamed for another attack four years later on a beach-front hotel in southeastern Kenya, a region that is a key tourist attraction. The car bombing at the hotel killed 13 people and a near-simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner failed.

Source: AP

Somalia: fragile TFG might face Nigeria-like Oil dilemma

Jimma Times staff

Another rebel attack in southern Nigeria led to another death of a foreign oil worker Friday and there are fears that such Oil conflict could become the scene in Somalia very soon as well.

The recent dispute between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi are reportedly deeper than just disagreements on the chief justice of the Supreme Court dismissal.

Another point of quarrel has been Oil deals in Somalia, particularly in the semiautonomous Puntland. So far, Prime Minister Gedi has rejected all the regional Oil deals stating that only the federal government has the mandate to endorse such foreign deals.

However, President Yusuf has supported the Puntland Oil deals and has signed with more Oil firms himself, despite the Prime Minister requesting a Petroleum law prior to any deals.

The issue gets more complex as any future compromise between the two leaders will still not solve concerns with the Oil firms, since local villages are still marginalized by the regional officials. Just like the lack of economic benefits for the locals fueling the clashes in Nigeria, the relative peace in Northern Somalia can disappear if the arrival of more Oil firms occur without careful deliberations inside the government, regional officials as well as at the clan & village level.

Some sources claim that more than 5,000 Nigerians have been killed in the violence at the Oil production areas during the last six years alone. Nigeria, a country with 250 ethnic groups and a near 50-50 percent Islam to Christian ratio, has far more the ingredients needed for division, lack of trust and rivalry that lead to violence than Somalia.

But with Somali clans and sub-clans being equally rivals, the Nigeria scenario might occur in Somalia and spread out the already existing humanitarian concern & violence in the south. In order to hide the crisis in Nigeria, international Oil companies have allegedly created a diplomatic network and have been feeding the security forces in Nigeria, including allegedly purchasing helicopters that shot at peaceful protestors in southern Nigeria.

In Somalia, even the most politically powerful Oil firms will not be able to hide the violence and the consequences of irresponsible investments.

Four civilians killed in fresh Somalia violence

MOGADISHU (AFP) — At least four civilians were killed in Somalia's war-wracked capital during a heavy attack against a police station, witnesses said Saturday.

Insurgents armed with rocket launchers and machine guns and fired rounds late Friday at the police station in southern Mogadishu and briefly seized control of it, they said.

"It was the heaviest attack against this police station since the government arrived," said Mohamed Adan Jeri, a local resident.

They also torched two vehicles while shouting "Allahu Akbar," said another resident.
The daily violence in Mogadishu has surged since an Islamist-dominated opposition group formed in Eritrea this month vowed to defeat Ethiopian troops in Somalia since last December.
Government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, defeated a powerful Islamic movement which, for the second half of 2006, controlled much of the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

Since the movement's ouster in January, remnant fighters have waged daily hit-and-run attacks against government targets.

Somalia has had no central authority since plunging into cycles of bloodletting in 1991 with the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Several attemps to restore order have failed.

source: AFP

Tensions Rise in Northern Somalia

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN – 15 hours ago
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Tensions are rising in northern Somalia following clashes between forces of rival regional administrations, officials said Friday, and diplomats called on all sides to show restraint.

Somalia's weak federal government based in Mogadishu, in the south, has been hard-pressed to assert control in the south and was unlikely to have any influence in the confrontation between the autonomous Puntland region and the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

Hassan Dahir Mohamud, Puntland's vice president, told The Associated Press that one soldier was killed and three others wounded. Somaliland officials had earlier in the week claimed on local radio stations that their troops killed three Puntland soldiers during a gunbattle at a village in a region called Sool.

Both Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991 but has not been internationally recognized, and Puntland, an autonomous region in northeastern Somalia, claim Sool. They have clashed over the region at least four times in the past.

"We urge the leadership of both Puntland and Somaliland to exercise maximum restraint and to give their full support to peaceful approaches for resolution," said a group of donors to Somalia, the Committee of the Coordination of International Support to Somalia.

"There is a growing buildup of arms and troops inside the region, with deliveries coming by land on a daily basis," said Haji Mohamed Jama, a resident of Las Anod, the capital of Sool.
Mohamud said his administration dispatched more troops to the contested region to stop forces from Somaliland crossing into Puntland.

Mohamud said that Puntland had also arrested seven men carrying explosives in vehicles with Somaliland registration plates in Buhodle, a town bordering Puntland and Ethiopia.

"We handed the men to Ethiopian security forces for further investigation," said Mohamud.
Somalia has had no effective central government since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Said Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, turning the country of 7 million people into a patchwork of battling clan fiefdoms. Somaliland and Puntland have managed to avoid much of the clan-based fighting that has plagued central and southern Somalia.

Four Somali soldiers killed in Mogadishu attack - AFP

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Four Somali soldiers were killed and several wounded when an army truck was ambushed in the capital, where the government is battling a deadly insurgency, an official and witnesses said Friday.

The soldiers were heading to reinforce their colleagues in Mogadishu's Suqaholaha district overnight when they came under rocket-propelled grenade attack, they said.

"Four of our men were killed and several others wounded when insurgents ambushed them near the Arafat area. I believe the death toll might rise," an army commander told AFP.
Witnesses confirmed the ambush, the latest in a string of attacks in Mogadishu.

"The vehicle was hit by an RPG shell and I saw it burning down as the forces left the scene at night. It was destroyed about 100 metres (yards) from my house," said Muse Farah.
Resident Abdisalam Adan Mohamed said dozens of heavily armed insurgents poured into the area after government forces left.

Amid escalating violence, residents continued fleeing the areas that have been convulsed by fighting between the government, Islamist insurgents and some clan fighters mainly in northern Mogadishu.

"Who can endure a situation where people are killed and harassed everyday?" said Mumino Ali Bashir, a mother of three who was fleeing the Huriwa neighbourhood on Friday.

"I decided to move away from this neighborhood until stability comes back," she added.

"I think this time only cats will be left in the houses because most of the residents fled already and the rest are now leaving," said Haji Abdallah Sugurow, another resident.

Ethiopian troops came to the rescue of Somalia's embattled transitional government last year and ousted an Islamist militia that briefly controlled large parts of the country.

Since then, an Islamist-led insurgency has waged daily guerrilla-style attacks in Mogadishu against the government as well as the Ethiopian and the African Union troops protecting it.
Last week, groups opposed to the Somali government vowed to intensify fighting with the aim of driving out Ethiopian forces, whose presence in Somalia has renewed tensions between the two nations.

The international community and the government have stressed that Ethiopian troops should not leave until an 8,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force is fully deployed.
Yet so far only 1,600 Ugandan troops have arrived in Somalia while other contingents -- including more troops from Uganda and Burundian forces -- have been delayed by a lack of funds or logistical obstacles.

The lack of stability and central authority has also allowed clan-based feuds to erupt and crime to spread in the seaside capital, home to about a million people.

Somalia has lacked an effective government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, touching off a deadly clan-based power struggle that has defied numerous efforts to restore stability.

Violence has raged despite a recent government-sponsored reconciliation conference, which was boycotted by Islamist-led Somali opposition groups.

Source: AFP

Ahmadinejad defiant in UN address

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told world leaders last night his country will defy any further UN Security Council resolutions imposed by "arrogant powers" seeking to curb its nuclear programme.

He said it is "high time for these powers to return from the path of arrogance and obedience to Satan to the path of faith in God".

Undeterred, France and Germany increased pressure on the Islamic republic at the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting in New York yesterday, saying they would not accept a nuclear-armed Iran.

"Let's not fool ourselves. If Iran were to acquire the nuclear bomb, the consequences would be disastrous," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the session.

Mr Ahmadinejad told leaders at the meeting yesterday that the world powers on the Security Council had politicised Tehran's nuclear programme, making military threats and imposing sanctions against the country as they demanded it suspend uranium enrichment.

He announced to the assembly that the nuclear issue was now "closed" as a political issue and Iran would pursue the monitoring of its nuclear programme "through its appropriate legal path", the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the UN's nuclear watchdog.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei and Iranian officials agreed in July that Tehran would answer questions from agency experts by December on more than two decades of nuclear activity - most of it secret until revealed more than four years ago.

IAEA technical officials returned to Tehran this week to start probing outstanding questions, some with possible weapons applications.

The US delegation walked out of the General Assembly chamber when Mr Ahmadinejad went to the podium, leaving only a low-ranking note-taker to listen to his speech, which also indirectly accused the US and Israel of human rights violations.

Gonzalo Gallegos, a US State Department spokesman, said the Americans wanted "to send him a powerful message".

Iran insists that its nuclear programme is purely peaceful and aimed solely at producing nuclear energy. But the United States and its European allies believe the programme is a cover for Iran's real ambition - producing nuclear weapons.

Iran has defied two Security Council resolutions demanding it suspend uranium enrichment and imposing sanctions against key figures and organisations involved in the nuclear programme.
Mr Ahmadinejad made clear in his speech Iran does not intend to comply with them now. Iran has decided "to pursue the issue through its appropriate legal path ... and to disregard unlawful and political impositions by the arrogant powers," he said. "Some powers sacrifice all human values including honesty, purity and trust for the advancement of their goals," he said.
"They lie openly, level baseless charges against others, act contrary to legal norms and damage the climate of trust and friendship."

At a news conference later, he said Iran's efforts will still be geared towards preventing sanctions, but he maintained that the Security Council sanctions against his country were "completely illegal".

Before Mr Ahmadinejad spoke, French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned the assembly that allowing Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons would be an "unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world".

US President George Bush scarcely mentioned the Iranian nuclear standoff in his speech, instead harshly criticising Burma's military dictatorship, which he accused of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship in the country.
Mr Ahmadinejad remained in the General Assembly for Bush's speech, but a UN diplomat in the chamber said he pulled out his translation earpiece before Mr Bush started to talk.

Source: Irish.com

UN: Cubans Walk Out During Bush U.N. Speech

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Cuba's foreign minister walked out of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday in protest of President Bush's speech in which he said the "long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end" on the communist island.

The Cuban delegation issued a statement saying the decision by Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque to leave was a "sign of profound rejection of the arrogant and mediocre statement by President Bush."
In his speech, Bush looked ahead to a Cuba no longer ruled by Fidel Castro, the ailing 81-year-old leader who has not appeared in public in more than a year, since ceding power to a provisional government headed by his brother Raul.

"In Cuba, the long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end," Bush said. "The Cuban people are ready for their freedom. And as that nation enters a period of transition, the United Nations must insist on free speech, free assembly and, ultimately, free and competitive elections."

Cuba's U.N. Mission said the American president had no moral standing to criticize anyone.
It accused Bush of responsibility "for the murder of over 600,000 civilians in Iraq" and for "the torture of prisoners" at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 300 men are being held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

"He is a criminal and has no moral authority or credibility to judge any other country," the mission's statement said. "Cuba condemns and rejects every letter of his infamous tirade."

Source: UN