NAIROBI, Kenya – With a Russian frigate closing in and a half-dozen U.S. warships within shouting distance, the pirates holding a tanker off Somalia’s coast might appear to have no other choice than to wave the white flag.
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But that’s not how it works in Somalia, a failed state where a quarter of children die before they turn 5, where anybody with a gun controls the streets and where every public institution has crumbled.
The 11-day standoff aboard the Ukrainian MV Faina begs the question: How can a bunch of criminals from one of the poorest and most wretched countries on Earth face off with some of the world’s richest and well-armed superpowers?
“They have enough guns to fight for another 20 years,” Ted Dagne, a Somalia analyst in Washington, told The Associated Press. “And there is no way to win a battle when the other side is in a suicidal mind set.”
In Somalia, pirates are better-funded, better-organized and better-armed than one might imagine in a country that has been in tatters for nearly two decades. They have the support of their communities and rogue members of the government — some pirates even promise to put ransom money toward building roads and schools.
With most attacks ending with million-dollar payouts, piracy is considered the biggest economy in Somalia. Pirates rarely hurt their hostages, instead holding out for a huge payday.
The strategy works well: A report Thursday by a London-based think tank said pirates have raked in up to $30 million in ransoms this year alone.
“If we are attacked we will defend ourselves until every last one of us dies,” Sugule Ali, a spokesman for the pirates aboard the Faina, said in an interview over satellite telephone from the ship, which is carrying 33 battle tanks, military weapons and 21 Ukrainian and Latvian and Russian hostages. One Russian has reportedly died, apparently of illness.
The pirates are demanding $20 million ransom, and say they will not lower the price.
“We only need money and if we are paid, then everything will be OK,” he said. “No one can tell us what to do.”
Ali’s bold words come even though his dozens of fighters are surrounded by U.S. warships and American helicopters buzz overhead. Moscow has sent a frigate, which should arrive within days.
Jennifer Cooke of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said hostage-taking is the key to the pirates’ success against any military muscle looming from the U.S. and Russia.
“Once you have a crew at gunpoint, you can hold six U.S. naval warships at bay and they don’t have a whole lot of options except to wait it out,” Cooke said.
The pirates have specifically warned against the type of raids carried out twice this year by French commandos to recover hijacked vessels. The French used night vision goggles and helicopters in operations that killed or captured several pirates, who are now standing trial in Paris.
But the hostages are not the bandits’ only card to play.
Often dressed in military fatigues, pirates travel in open skiffs with outboard engines, working with larger mother ships that tow them far out to sea. They use satellite navigational and communications equipment and an intimate knowledge of local waters, clambering aboard commercial vessels with ladders and grappling hooks.
They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and grenades — weaponry that is readily available throughout Somalia, where a bustling arms market operates in the center of the capital.
They also have the support of their communities and some members of local administrations, particularly in Puntland, a semiautonomous region in northeast Somalia that is a hotbed for piracy, officials and pirates have told the AP.
Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, a deputy minister of ports in Puntland, acknowledged there were widespread signs that Puntland officials, lawmakers and government officials are “involved or benefiting from piracy” and said investigations were ongoing. He would not elaborate.
Piracy has transformed the region around the town of Eyl, near where many hijacked ships are anchored brought while pirates negotiate ransoms.
“Pirates buy new luxury cars and marry two, three, or even four women,” said Mohamed, an Eyl resident who refused to give his full name for fear of reprisals from the pirates.
“They build new homes — the demand for construction material is way up.”
He said most of the well-known pirates promise to build roads and schools in addition to homes for themselves. But for now, Mohamed says he has only seen inflation skyrocket as the money pours in.
“One cup of tea is about $1,” he said. Before the piracy skyrocketed, tea cost a few cents.
Piracy in Somalia is nothing new, as bandits have stalked the seas for years. But this year’s surge in attacks — nearly 30 so far — has prompted an unprecedented international response. The Faina has been the highest-profile attack because of its dangerous cargo. The U.S. fears the arms could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked militants in a country seen as a key battleground on terror.
The United States has been leading international patrols to combat piracy along Somalia’s unruly 1,880-mile coast, the longest in Africa and near key shipping routes. In June, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that would allow countries to chase and arrest pirates after attacks increased this year.
But still, the attacks continue. Dagne, an analyst in Washington, said that unless the roots of the problem are solved — poverty, disease, violence — piracy will only flourish.
“You have a population that is frustrated, alienated, angry and hopeless,” Dagne said. “This generation of Somalis grew up surrounded by abject poverty and violence.”
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Associated Press writers Salad Duhul and Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.
A group of Kenyans who were recently flown back into the country after being held in Ethiopia for several months as terrorist suspects now want to sue the state for kidnapping.
Through their lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, the eight have sent a petition to the Attorney-General notifying him that they intend to bring charges against police officers who escorted them and handed them over to foreign authorities with kidnapping and abuse of office. But before they can take the action they want the A-G to exercise his powers and instruct Police Commissioner Mohammed Ali to investigate the allegations of kidnapping and to charge police officers. In the event the AG fails to respond in the next seven days, they will have no option but go to court themselves and seek reprieve.
They want the A-G to admit liability for the violation of their fundamental rights and freedom on behalf of the police. The eight are Mr Salim Awadh Salim, Hassan Shaban Mwazume, Hussein Mohammed Sader Chirag, Said Hamisi Mohammed, Swaleh Ali Tunza, Kassim Musa Mwarusi, Ali Musa Mwarusi and Abdallah Khalfan Tondwe.
They complained about their arrest, detention and handing over to Somali and Ethiopian authorities saying it was malicious and in contravention of their rights.
Even before they were taken out of the country, the eight said, they were held in police custody for a period longer than 24 hours provided for in law.
Secondly, they said, they were held in Ethiopia and Somalia without trial in violation of their rights to personal liberty as guaranteed in the constitution.
The group also believes that their forceful removal from the country without their consent or even any lawful court order amounts to kidnapping and those behind it should be held responsible.
A person who is found guilty of kidnapping is liable to imprisonment for seven years, according to the law.
The eight who are all citizens of Kenya were arrested on diverse dates between January 7 and 11, 2007 at Kiunga in Lamu district.
Subsequently they were removed from the country and handed over to Somalia and Ethiopian authorities.
They were released last Saturday without being tried before any court of law both in Kenya and the foreign countries where they were detained.
Black Star Power was in full effect when some of the best and brightest in entertainment came out to help Tyler Perry celebrate the grand opening of his new studio in Atlanta. The guests at this sophisticated soirée including Oprah, Ruby Dee, Sydney Poitier, Stedman Graham, Gayle King, Will Smith, LA Reid, Tracey Edmonds, Boris and Nicole Ari Kodjoe, Kirk Franklin, Tasha Smith, Eva Pigford, Star Jones, Patti Labelle, Gladys Knight, and a host of other people.
Tyler hosted the party with his girlfriend, 24 year old supermodel Gelila Bekele of Ethiopia.
Check out pics of the guest arrivals after the jump.
Tyler Perry unveils new studio in Atlanta
By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr.
ATLANTA (AP) — Tyler Perry unveiled a new multimillion-dollar TV and film studio Saturday on 30 acres in southwest Atlanta.
His renewed commitment to the city came after he once flirted with departing. Perry said he had considered leaving Atlanta for good after neighbors complained about noise and traffic at his old studio in a neighborhood close to downtown.
“Even though it was a studio there for 15 years, there was a lot of resistance in everything I was doing,” Perry said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press earlier in the week. “I was thinking about leaving at one point, but this is home for me.”
His new Tyler Perry Studios contains more than 200,000 square feet of studio and office space in an area that once housed Delta Air Lines’ finance, reservation and computer center. It was vacant when Perry found it.
The guest list included Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Forest Whitaker, Hank Aaron and Whitney Houston. R&B singer Mary J. Blige was to perform.
Perry, 39, said the studio features five sound stages that will be named after Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and Cicely Tyson — with one still unnamed. He will shoot his TBS sitcoms “House of Payne” and “Meet the Browns” along with other film projects at the studio.
Perry said he knew the new location would be an improvement. His old building was on property zoned commercial, but the street next to it is residential.
“I knew spiritually I was in the wrong place,” said Perry, whose projects include “Tyler Perry’s the Family That Preys.”
“You can never be upset with the people who forced you into your dream or up higher,” he said. “They forced me out into a higher situation. It’s worked out much better for me.”
Perry drew criticism from the Writers Guild of America, West, after Perry fired four writers from “House of Payne” earlier in the week. A guild spokeswoman said in an e-mail Saturday that the four, along with supporters, planned to picket Sunday morning at Perry’s Atlanta home.
The country that we call Ethiopia contains a region that is said to be the most important in the history of humanity. It is from what is now the capital, Addis Ababa, that archaeologists will tell us that humans migrated around the world.
For such an important place in the story of mankind, my first impressions of Addis Ababa were rather unremarkable – a sprawling city that could be anywhere in Africa with cars and buses and masses of people hanging around public buildings. But this was a stopping off point for me to travel further into some of the rural areas in Ethiopia and to get a glimpse of the work being done by the doctors, nurses and support teams of Licht für die Welt – the Austrian charity that helps to bring access to eye-care in some of the most remote regions of the world.
Jijiga
We flew onwards to Jijiga, a city that is East of Addis, near the border to Somalia. And from there I visited a field hospital and saw for myself the work of the eye specialists and the daily challenges they face, patients who needed anything from simple check-ups to more major operations to remove cataracts. I was also invited to go to some villages and this is where I really felt the culture shock begin.
As I walked into one small village, I was greeted on the way by young children who would come up, walk alongside of me and start to chat away in their local language. The fact that I couldn’t communicate with them didn’t seem to put them off. It just made them want to put more of their questions to their European guest. The colours of the landscape, the houses and the warmth of the people made a great impression on me. Here was a country that had been beset by years of war, poverty and drought yet these people were determined to do their utmost to invite me into their homes and make sure I was fed.
Staying put
I was also keen to meet and talk with young Ethiopians about what they thought about their futures. I met a young girl who was also a kind of parliamentary speaker for the Ethiopian Youth as well as a young guy who had left home at the age of six and had been sleeping rough as child on the streets until he was befriended and looked after by soldiers. Both of them, along with other young Ethiopians that I met had similar views. Although they had seen many Hollywood movies and enjoyed western music, the thought of upping and leaving and trying to make it in Europe or America was not something they would consider. They all told me they were very proud of Ethiopia and their aspirations of continuing their education were founded on being in their country. Even though it was clear that they and their families didn’t have very much in the way of possessions, they were staying put and were cheerful and positive about their future in Ethiopia.
That really made me think because we are often lead to believe by some politicians and sectors of the press in Europe that all people in developing nations in Africa want to do is get in a boat and come to our shores. Maybe a trip to a place like Ethiopia that has known real poverty would help to modify those ideas; writers who know the continent well echo the view that despite the daily problems they face, most people whether they live in Addis Ababa or Accra have only one major goal – to face up to their own challenges at home and make a brighter future in their own countries.
Hear more about my visit to Ethiopia on FM4’s Reality Check: Progress in Africa, today (Saturday) on FM4. [podcast]http://fm4.orf.at/medias/163835/mp3[/podcast]
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Meles Zenawi’s dictatorial regime in Ethiopia on Saturday denied claims by Human Rights Watch that it tortured terror suspects held in prisons since 2006 when Addis Ababa despatched troops to neighbouring Somalia to quell Islamist rebels.
The New York-based rights watchdog said Wednesday that at least 90 people were rendered from Kenya to Somalia and then to Ethiopia in the aftermath of Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s 2006 invasion of Somalia.
Several detainees were housed in solitary cells with their hands cuffed in painful positions behind their backs and their feet tied, it said in a report. It added that many were held incommunicado and without charge.
“Despite HRW’s claims none of these people has been maltreated,” Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “In fact many of the details claimed by HRW are unsubstantiated and most are simply untrue.”
The ministry added that the suspects were not “arbitrarily” arrested, but “were found in a theatre of war or trying to cross the Somali-Kenya border.”
“There were strong grounds for suspicion of terrorist involvement. Under the circumstances of the time, it would have been irresponsible to leave them at large,” it said, adding that Mogadishu lacked secure and acceptable prisons.
“Ethiopia Woyanne has not hidden the identity, fate or whereabouts of anyone brought from Somalia for investigation,” it said.
But the rights group said that at least 10 suspects are still languishing in Ethiopian Woyanne jails some 15 to 21 months after they were first arrested and that the wherabouts of 22 others remained unknown.
It also said US intelligence agencies had questioned the suspects during their captivity in Ethiopia.
Eight Kenyans among dozens who had been rendered to Ethiopia returned home overnight, government spokesman Alfred Mutua said Saturday, adding that the suspects had initially denied being Kenyan.
“The government never deported any known Kenyans from from this country,” Mutua said in a statement.
Kenya sent a team to Addis Ababa in August to negotiate their release amid mounting pressure from the detainees’ families and rights groups.
According to Kenyan security sources, some of the eight are suspected of links to Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in the region.
Somali insurgents have killed the head of security forces in Baidoa while the house of the country’s parliament speaker has been attacked.
Ibrahim Maadey was shot dead on Saturday by armed insurgents in Bay Region in the city of Baidoa, 256 kilometers (159 miles) northwest of capital Mogadishu, Press TV correspondent reported.
Shortly after the killing, insurgents attacked the house of Somali parliament speaker Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nuur in Howlwadaag district.
At least four heavy mortars landed near the house and one inside, killing four guards in the house, while 11 civilians were severely wounded in the attack.
Baidoa has been home to Somalia’s interim parliament since February 2006.
A witness to the incident told our correspondent that Mohamed Nuur was not in the house when it was attacked.
The attack comes a day after Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed rejected a call by the Horn of Africa states to transfer the country’s transitional government to Kenya.
Yusuf said what the government was in need of at present was more military backup from African nations in its battle against insurgency.
Organizations such as the Arab League have reportedly refused to help Somalia’s transitional government, saying the government, which is backed by Ethiopian Woyanne forces, is responsible for the death of thousands of civilians in the violence-ridden country.
Yusuf has said in case the African nations fail to provide the military aid, the Somali government would turn to a bigger organization such as the UN.
