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Government announces AL-SHABAB to be behind suicidal bombings
Hargeisa (JMG) - Minister of Interior Mr. Abdillahi Ismail Ali (Irro) for the first time officially announced that AL-Shabab - the extremist organization in Somalia - is behind the suicidal bombings in Hargeisa on October 29/2008.
Mr. Abdillahi Irro speaking at Press Conference here Thursday said, "We have sufficient evidence - including documents - that the suicidal bombings were organized by top officials of Al-Shabab. These included its Chairman Ahmed Abdi Muhumed (known as Abdi Godane), its spokesman Moukhtar Abu Mansur and Ibrahim Haji Jama Me'ad (known as Ibrahim Afghanistan).
The minister added that that 3 of the field leading operators have escaped and currently are believed to be in Somalia.
The 3 include Abdilfatah Gutale - An engineer who assembled and put together the explosions. He left the country on October 27. The two others left the country by land 2 days after the explosion.
The minister added that 16 people are police detention. He said, "Some of these are those who rented the houses or took part in the sale of the cars used for the bombings. There are some who are suspected of being accomplices and these will be brought to a legal court soon."
Somaliland Interior Minister appealed to the people of Mogadishu saying, "We appeal to you not to give a safe haven to those who committed the suicidal bombings in Hargeisa in which innocent people lost their lives."
The minister added that one of the six suicide bombers was a Somaliland citizen, but declined from revealing their names.
24 people have died and 28 wounded in the bombing carried on the presidency, the Ethiopian Mission and UNDP headquarters in Hargeisa.
House of Representatives calls on UN to revise its new categorization
Hargeisa (JMG) - The House of Representatives approved on Tuesday a motion presented by 16 members which calls on the UN to revise its new categorization of Somaliland from Category 3 to category 4.
43 of the 45 members present supported the motion.
The resolution reminds the UN that Somaliland does not deserve to treated as such for similar terrorist attacks have been carried in different countries at different times.
The resolution underlines stating, "Somaliland does not deserve to be treated as such, for it had been a safe and peaceful country. The new categorization frustrates the people while it encourages the terrorists who have committed the series of attacks on October 29/2008."
The resolution criticized IGAD and the UN Secretary General Special Representative to Somaliland and Somalia. "It is unfortunate that the Secretary General's Representative did not mention in his report about Somaliland's quest for recognition. IGAD regional organization also have not at any of its meetings discussed or raise the terrorists attack on Hargeisa, although Somaliland is part of the region," stated the resolution.
The resolution thanked Djibouti President Ismael Omer Ghelle and the people of Djibouti and other states (not specifically mentioned) for their support to Somaliland.
24 people have died and 29 wounded in the terrorist attack on the presidency, UNDP office and the Ethiopian Mission on October 29
Somaliland Navy Only Way to stop Somali Piracy?
Security in Somaliland waters due to Somaliland Navy efforts is an example for Somalia
Piracy is most lucrative business in many parts of Somalia including "Puntland" and Central Regions. Piracy attracted many jobless and poor Somalis, because piracy is very big and easy money. Millions of dollars were paid to the Somali pirates from "Puntland", which is much more than national budget.
In general, Somali Pirates focus on lawless areas of Somali water including busy shipping lanes near the "Puntland" and Indian Ocean including Gulf of Aden, where dozens of boats and ships been hijacked this year. According to the International Maritime Bureau, 69 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January; 27 were hijacked and 11 are still being held for ransom including recent Saudi Oil Tanker with ransom money of 25 million dollars.
Somali pirates are holding more than 200 crew members of different hijacked ships and boats. USA and EU have agreed to joint anti-piracy operations off the Indian Ocean and Somali Water amid growing demands for action against the violent Somali pirates. The question is, how do you think Somali piracy should be tackled?
Majority of the pirates off "Puntland" Coast are former Police Officers turned Pirates, after "Puntland" administration failed to pay handsome salaries. Also, the high-ranking officials of both "Puntland" and Transitional Government of Somalia (TGS) in Mogadishu take loin´s share in the ransom money. "Puntland" President Adde Moose and TGS President Abdullah Yusuf are major players and architect of piracy business in Somalia. Yusuf served as "Puntland" leader at the beginning of piracy.
On the other hand, Republic of Somaliland established well-trained Navy to protect its water from the piracy. Berbera Marine College is famous producer of highly-qualified Navy Officers, who follow International Maritime Bureau standards and regulations including those against piracy. Moreover, Somaliland formed Military, Police, Jails Authority, and carried out elections. Somaliland achieved all these accomplishments by its own.
Somaliland Navy has technology and military capabilities to eliminate the piracies and to blow up their bases inside Somalia including "Puntland". But unfortunately, the international community is wasting their precious time searching the solution of the piracy at the wrong place. The Solution is recognizing Somaliland, then Somaliland will establish as regional economic power and caretaker of world interest in the region. Somaliland has elected president and parliament, and furthermore, there is biometric voter registration taking place. This is the first time in African history.
Berbera Marine College is functioning almost in last five years with more than 100 Officers graduating from the college each year. Somaliland Government established the colleges after the need of Navy arose in the region, due to illegal fishing and human trafficking.
Today, neither human trafficking nor piracy exists within Somaliland water after the creation of Somaliland Navy. Somaliland's Navy cooperates with International counterparts stationed in nearby Djibouti in tackling the pirates, and even Somaliland arrested pirates, who later claimed to be "Puntland" former Police Officers.
The International community should support Somaliland diplomatically in order to end the piracy and violence inside Somalia, because Somaliland has all possible mechanisms to fight terrorists and pirates inside Somalia. Somaliland will play active role in war on terror and fight against piracy, in which Somaliland will be leading factor.
Somaliland is registering citizens using biometric technology. The national budget increased 27% in 2008 compare to 2007. All these progress was result of Somaliland´s commitment towards developing country and people. Also, Somaliland is managing steady increase in revenue which is leading the rise in the national domestic production
In 1991 Somaliland reclaimed its lost independence from Somalia, and ever since it's peaceful and without piracy. Why? Because of there is real functioning institutions and elected government unlike Somalia with no central government and warlords are committing crimes against humanity. AU and IGAD isolated Somaliland enough, and it is time that AU and IGAD accept the reality inside Somaliland.
RTRS-CORRECTED-ANALYSIS-Yemen powerless to combat Somali piracy
Somali pirates preying on shipping in the Gulf of Aden have struck most often off the coast of Yemen, an unstable, impoverished Arab state that has few resources to tackle the maritime scourge.
Ships often take sea lanes near Yemen to avoid proximity to pirate lairs in lawless Somalia and its semi-autonomous northern Puntland region, but there is no sign of Yemeni involvement in the attacks, diplomats in Sanaa and some analysts say.
They do not exclude links between Somali pirates and some of the several hundred thousand Somali refugees and migrants in Yemen, but cannot confirm theories that pirates have forged ties with criminal networks there during years of people-smuggling.
Many analysts, however, regard Yemen's own chronic problems as a major potential threat to order in the Horn of Africa.
"Future instability in Yemen could expand a lawless zone stretching from northern Kenya, through Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, to Saudi Arabia," concluded researcher Ginny Hill in a paper issued by London's Chatham House think-tank on Wednesday.
A European diplomat in Sanaa said the Yemeni government had grave concerns about maritime insecurity, in part because of the risk that it could damage efforts to attract foreign investment.
These include offshore oil exploration and a liquefied natural gas terminal due to operate next year, both seen as vital to counter declining oil output. Oil now accounts for 90 percent of export
earnings and 75 percent of state revenue.
Despite Western training and assistance, Yemen's tiny coastguard and navy is ill-equipped to patrol its 1,906 km (1,191 mile) coastline, even against the crammed boatloads of Somali refugees smuggled to its shores every year.
"At the last count, the Yemeni navy had 15 ships, nine of which were operational. Only two have deepwater capacity," said another Sanaa-based diplomat. "Yemen lacks the ability to really police the deep water in the Gulf of Aden area."
Pirates operating across ocean expanses have defied the foreign navies trying to stop them - they showed their reach last week by seizing a Saudi supertanker with a $100 million oil cargo 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya.
A naval force with NATO and European Union components guards a shipping corridor in the Gulf of Aden. U.S., French and Russian warships are also deployed off Somalia.
CRIMINAL NETWORKS
Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein told Reuters on Wednesday naval patrols alone could not stamp out pirates whom he linked to unidentified "criminal networks" beyond Somalia.
Such networks operate out of the United Arab Emirates, not Yemen, said Michael Weinstein, a Somalia expert and professor of political science at Purdue University in the United States.
"The major business interests abetting and controlling the piracy to a great extent are based in the UAE," Weinstein said, describing them as diaspora Somali entrepreneurs without known links to political or militant Islamist groups.
He said the pirate gangs were based mostly in Puntland and attributed the spike in attacks to a collapse of authority in the region, which claimed autonomy from Somalia in 1998.
"The Puntland regime, which had been seen as relatively stable, has basically crumbled," he said. "The administration there is honeycombed with officials with links to the pirates."
The piracy gangs, he added, were mostly from the Darod clan and were cooperating across sub-clan conflict lines, rather than following "the normal Somali model of internecine strife".
For Yemen, the main impact of Somalia's troubles so far has been the flood of refugees escaping chaos, war and insecurity. About 32,000 survived the perilous sea crossing in the first 10 months of this year, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR). At least 230 people had died and 365 were missing.
It is a measure of their desperation that they take such risks to reach Yemen, grappling with 27 percent inflation, 40 percent unemployment and 46 percent child malnutrition. "Yemen's collapse has been predicted for years but the country has muddled through," Hill wrote for Chatham House.
"However, Yemen's window of opportunity to shape its own future and create a working post-oil economy is narrowing as oil production falls closer to consumption levels." "State failure" in Yemen would dim peace prospects in Somalia and endanger security across the region. "Piracy, smuggling and violent jihad would flourish, with implications for the security of shipping routes and the transit of oil through the Suez Canal," Hill wrote.

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