The president of Somalia’s transitional government, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has said he is willing to talk to senior Islamist opposition leader Hassan Dahir Aweys and even accept him into the government if it would help stabilise Somalia.
This decision is as a result of the incessant attacks and atrocities committed by the Islamist opposition that has continued to bury the country in social, economic and political quagmire.
However, the Islamist opposition leader has said he will not talk to the government until African Union peacekeepers are removed from Somalia.
Yesterday, the Islamist group aimed mortar bombs at the country’s parliament in Mogadishu shortly after MPs had just passed a national budget.
Reports claim that at least three children and five adults were killed when the mortar bombs began to rain in the surrounding neighborhoods as it missed the targeted parliament building.
Somalia faces a daunting set of challenges: famine, poverty, chronic insecurity and lawlessness, meddlesome neighbours, piracy, and the enduring memory of numerous failed peace processes.
The most pressing problem for the new president is how to deal with the radical Islamist group al-Shabab.
So far they (Islamist group) have shown no willingness to join the grand coalition between Sheikh Sharif’s Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS) and they have spent the last two years building their military and financial strength and will be hard to dislodge by force.
International donors need to face up to the seriousness of Madagascar’s deepening humanitarian crisis and, perhaps more importantly, they need to pay up, said aid agencies on the Indian Ocean Island.
As if the mix of cyclones, floods, drought, soaring food prices and chronic food insecurity were not enough, a protracted political crisis has deepened existing vulnerability, but instead of attracting additional assistance the country has become even more isolated. "It’s as if the population of Madagascar needs to be punished for the consequences of the political crisis," Xavier Leus, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Madagascar, said.
The international response to Madagascar’s coup-style change of leadership, which brought the economy and governance structures to a halt earlier this year, was one of disengagement. The country has been suspended from regional bodies like the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, and donors were quick to cease non-humanitarian aid. But even humanitarian aid has been less than generous: the humanitarian community in Madagascar jointly raised the alarm in a "Flash Appeal" for $US36 million on 7 April, but with barely $1 million in commitments three weeks on, the call seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
In a parallel effort the UN Country Team in Madagascar is putting together an appeal for Central Emergency Relief Funding (CERF) - which is reserved for time-critical, life-saving activities - from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The message is clearer
By December 2008, the government’s early warning system (SAP) had brought attention to the 150,000 people in the south of the country needing food assistance due to persistent drought, and to malnutrition rates that were reaching critical levels. Malagasy and international relief NGOs, including Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA), and Médecins du Monde, which provides medical care to vulnerable people affected by disasters, have added their voices to strengthen the case for humanitarian action. "Madagascar is facing an evolving humanitarian crisis of proportions unprecedented in its history," they said in a joint statement released by Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) on 23 April. "The country was already facing an extremely worrisome drought in the south, to which has been added the effects of cyclones and tropical storms, while also being hit with food insecurity," the statement noted.
Now, with need fast outstripping supply, the World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), are very worried that non-funding will make even a minimal response to the food crisis unsustainable. According to the CARE statement, the risk is exacerbated by the fact that Madagascar is currently in the "lean season", before the main harvest in May and June, but the SAP has warned that poor rains mean little home-grown relief should be expected.
Madagascar has experienced worse cyclone seasons, but the three that have struck since January 2009 have caused widespread flooding, displaced many thousands and left nearly 30 people dead. The latest, Jade, which made landfall on 6 April, affected over 60,000. All of this comes on top of an already precarious political situation in the island. Development and health indicators are alarming: 70 percent of the population live on less than a dollar a day, nearly 40 percent are undernourished, and every hour two children die before the age of one month.
Re-engage, but do it carefully
Most observers agree that the combination of emergencies is overwhelming not only the capacity of international organisations, but also the fragile and increasingly non-operational government structures. "Before the crisis hit we were already trying to work with the government ... But now ... [as a] consequence of the political crisis, the capacity of the authority - particularly at a decentralized level - and the capacity of donors to work with the government has disappeared," said UN Resident Coordinator Leus. "Donors are waiting for the HAT [Higher Transitional Authority] to show that it is [honest], said Guy Ratrimoarivony, a retired General and Director of Strategic Seminars at the Centre for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies in the capital, Antananarivo. Donor re-engagement would be easier if HAT showed a genuine commitment to holding fresh elections, "and as soon as possible", he said.
Understandably development aid and direct budget support are contingent on the international attitude to the HAT, but "it is absolutely critical that humanitarian aid is forthcoming – large parts of the population are really suffering, and they will continue to suffer during this [political] crisis." Leus agreed. "This is a governance issue and of course we need to be working on that, but at the same time we do need to think about what is happening to the people of Madagascar."
The World Digital Library (WDL) offers free online access to important, rare and interesting cultural treasures from around the planet. Starting April 21, a vast multilingual collection of manuscripts, maps, rare books, sound recordings, films, prints, photographs and other cultural and historical materials can be viewed with the click of a computer mouse — and this is only the beginning of an ambitious project to share the contents of the world’s libraries and cultural institutions.
The WDL’s Web site functions in seven major languages, permitting users to conduct searches and read descriptions of the content in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish (the official languages of the United Nations) and Portuguese. All materials are presented in their original languages. For selected items, there are videos featuring discussions by expert curators.
More than two dozen libraries around the globe contributed the 1,200 digitized items from different eras and places that are now available for viewing. Among the treasures are calligraphic works in Arabic, Persian, Chinese and Japanese from the eight to the 19th centuries; early films, by the Lumière brothers in France, 1897–98, and Thomas Edison in the United States, 1899; and Miroslav’s Gospel, a Serbian illuminated manuscript created around 1180.
The World Digital Library was launched April 21 at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris —four years after the project was proposed by James Billington, head of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Billington envisioned a Web site that would “bring together in a single place what is most interesting and most important of the world’s varied cultures.”
“The focus of the project is on rare and one-of-a kind cultural items that are locked away in the great libraries of the world: oracle bones from China, ancient woodblock prints from Japan, scientific manuscripts from the Arab world, Columbus’ letter announcing his discoveries in the New World,” he said.
By increasing the quantity and diversity of cultural materials on the Internet — and making them available in the original languages — the World Digital Library aims “to improve international understanding across cultures,” Billington said.
Bridging the digital divide
Both UNESCO and the Library of Congress emphasize that another important goal of the project is to help bridge the digital divide among countries.
Universal access to information and knowledge is a fundamental principal for UNESCO, said Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for communication and information.
“There are hundreds of thousands of libraries,” he said. “Once you empower them through the digitization process, then you create almost unlimited opportunities for people to access information and knowledge.”
When a prototype of the WDL was unveiled in 2007, Billington said that “many countries will need to build capacity, both technical and human,” to be able to create and access digital content. “This is part of the challenge and one that we welcome,” he said.
The WDL prototype was developed by the Library of Congress, UNESCO and five other partners — the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt; the National Library of Brazil; the National Library of Egypt; the National Library of Russia; and the Russian State Library.
Currently, the WDL has 32 partners, including institutions that contributed cultural content, funding or technological or other assistance. It hopes to expand participation to all UNESCO member countries.
When the WDL prototype was unveiled, Rafaat Hilal of the National Library and Archives of Egypt invited participation “especially [by] those in the Middle East and all Arab countries and Africa.” He added that “working together to bring your culture to the people is what the World Digital Library is all about.”
Speaking at the April 21 launch ceremony, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said the World Digital Library “offers a platform for the free flow of information, for international solidarity, for the celebration of cultural diversity and for the building of inclusive knowledge societies,” and that it highlights “the social and cultural potential of digital technologies.”
Furui Zhan, chief librarian of the National Library of China, a WDL partner, said, “The spirit of equality and open understanding comes into full view with the creation of this World Digital Library,” and he pledged his library’s close cooperation.
Billington called the launch a first step toward building a comprehensive online resource that helps “deepen our understanding of each other.” He particularly encouraged young people to make use of the World Digital Library and “enjoy what is best in traditional culture, using the new media.”
The leaders of the African Union, Brazil, Japan, and India, amongst leaders of other developing states have called for a reform of the United Nations Security Council to address what they consider a gross imbalance of power in the world body. But will the UN be a functioning body if the current five permanent members of the Security Council are not assured their veto powers?
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told the UN World Summit in New York that the council’s structure reflected the world of 1945. Russian Prime minister Vladimir Putin had urged the gathering of some 150 world leaders in New York to carry out constructive reform of the UN. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki had criticized rich and powerful nations for allegedly blocking the reform. In a report published in The Nation, in March, 2009, Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon was quoted as saying: “Experience tells us that veto impacts negatively on the effectiveness and efficiency of the Council.”
The ongoing debate about the UN’s Veto Power and permanent Security Council has however streamed from political conventions, ambassadors forums and executive offices to the academic symposium of scholars, for analysis. Dr. Douglas Woodwell, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Indianapolis and a former lecturer for the Yale Center for International and Area Studies is one of the many scholars to confer his views on the argument about reforming and expanding the most powerful UN body aimed at making it more representative and more effective.
Veto, Democracy and UN future
The renowned professor whose articles have appeared in publications for the World Bank and International Studies Quarterly reiterated the fact that the current UN situation is a complicated one. “Developing countries are justified in demanding that the Security Council should be more representative and democratic. However, there would be no functioning UN body if the current five permanent members of the Security Council are not assured their veto power,” Woodwell said referring to the concept of the proscription power. The political science expert described the power structure of the UN as a holdover of the power structure of World War II. “Satisfying the power appetite of these guys is just a necessary evil,” he added.
The United Nations since 1988 has adopted at least one resolution annually dealing with some aspect of democracy. Such resolutions as promoting human rights, development, peace and security, assisting parliaments and decentralized local governance structures to enhance the checks and balances that allow democracy to thrive. However, the same enthusiasm to ensure democracy amongst member countries is not apparent in the governing body of the United Nations, so say leaders of developing countries.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the United States, Russia, the People’s Republic of China, France and the United Kingdom) have the veto power in substantive matters: This power has been deeply controversial since the drafting of the UN Charter in 1945. Powers like the United States and Russia would probably not have accepted the creation of the United Nations without the veto privilege. Fifty four years later, the debate on the existence and use of the veto continues, revitalized by many cases of veto-threat as well as actual veto use. In response to whether there is a need to expand the permanent Security Council, the History and political Science expert said that:“The United Nation functions on the vague idea of legitimacy, and of course a greater range of representation would guarantee the organization’s legitimacy, however, if the Security Council becomes too big, the United Nations will become unwieldy and it will be much harder for it to achieve anything.”
It is out of place to view the UN as a one-world government body — a view that has led many a developing nation to seek for it to be more democratic and representative. “The way domestic governance works is not the same way governing a world organization as the UN, works. To keep countries from going to war with one another, to protect sovereignty and to ensure humanitarian intervention is all that the UN can thrive to do and to meet these goals is to keep the big nations on board and with power,” Woodwell said.
Security
Another problem that has plagued the UNs credibility has been their failure to prevent conflicts or ensure peaceful treaties in several conflict zones around the world. A report on Aljazeera described the UN peacekeepers as one of the largest, best equipped and international forces in the world. Yet the organization’s history is spotted with cases of its incapability to keep the peace in places such as Srebrenica in Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, Darfur and DR Congo. Currently there are UN peacekeeping operations running in 16 different locations, throughout five continents from Haiti to Timor and 120 countries contribute 100,000 troops who are paid out of the UN’s annual budget of $7.1 billion. To this regard, the coexisting General Assembly and Security Council resolutions establishing the Peace building Commission — advisory body of the United Nations that supports peace efforts in countries emerging from conflict, and is a key addition to the capacity of the International Community in the broad peace agenda—, have also provided for the establishment of a Peace building Fund and Peace building Support Office, which together form the United Nations peace building architecture. Quizzed about how this new UN body can best achieve its goals, the Associate professor of Political science said, “What one hopes for is still a long way from now, but the UN must utilize its contact with such organizations as NATO, the African Union, and other regional bodies regarding security operations: It should work in conjunction with them and build better inter-regional relationships in order to successfully keep the peace amongst nations.”
Leadership
Questions have also been asked about the candidacy for the leadership of the United Nations. No prominent or high-profile candidate has yet been Secretary General- a trend that has led many to believe that only compromise-candidates from middle powers and with little prior fame are chosen for the position, which makes it easier for the permanent members of the Security Council to easily manipulate or override. Since the Organization was formed in 1945, it has been led by Trygve lie of Norway, Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden, U Thant of Burma, Kurt Waldheim of Austria, Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru, Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, Kofi Annan of Ghana and currently Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea. But Dr. Woodwell believes that it is as a result of the perception of neutrality that most candidates from countries that have no reason to take sides in crucial decisions have been chosen. “However, it is an exception so far to have a guy from South Korea in that position given South Korea’s ties with the U.S.”
The UN security Council, and the new Peacebuilding Commission body have pledged to play a more important role in bringing together all of the relevant actors, including international donors, the international financial institutions, national governments, troop contributing countries; marshalling resources and advising on and proposing integrated strategies for post-conflict peacebuilding and recovery and where appropriate, highlighting any gaps that threaten to undermine peace.
"We will work with you to achieve enlargement of the Security Council, but only in the right way and at the right time," Shirin Tahir-Kheli, adviser on UN reform to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told the General Assembly in 2005. However the US rejected a draft resolution by Brazil, India, Japan, and Germany asking for radical changes to the UN Security Council. But the developing countries have decided to open that chapter again with Africa joining in the race.
A veiled Muslim woman at the White House? As impossible as that may sound, Dalia Mogahed, a young Muslim of Egyptian origin, has been appointed as a member of the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in President Barack Obama’s administration.
The new tenant of the Oval Office, himself the greatest surprise of the year 2008, on 5 February signed an executive decree establishing a Faith Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships office at the White House.
Religiously veiled, Dalia Mogahed is indeed the first American Muslim of Arab descent to enter the White House every morning with an Islamic headscarf to advise a United States President. Without a doubt, this is an affront to puritanical America, where all things touching Islam or Muslims is considered a taboo. It is also a beautiful lesson of tolerance and of recognition just handed by Obama to France about merit, in particular where the wearing of the veil was forbidden, including in schools.
Expressing her joy, Dalia Mogahed said she is "proud to be the first Muslim to enter the White House". She is now a full member of the advisory panel of religions, known as the Faith Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships. The committee is composed of 25 other people from different faiths.
She is senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. The young woman commands respect by virtue of her talent, which she generously exposes in the pages of the Gallup Institute’s publication.
Her book: Who speaks for Islam, re-edited and published by the prestigious Harvard University’s Harvard International Review, appears to have caught President Obama’s eye.
According to the open minded and talented Dalia Mogahed, "My job is to assist the President of the United States to better understand Muslims beyond the distorting prism of violence".
Needless to say, her essential appointment has also reignited theories from analysts who have been tireless in trying to find possible links between Obama and bin Laden ...
The unprecedented show of support for the country’s fragile transitional government at an international donor conference in Brussels will go towards maintaining and enlarging an embattled 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force, made up of Burundian and Ugandan troops, and towards training Somali security forces.
International donors pledged $213m on Thursday towards stabilising Somalia, galvanised by the threat to world trade posed by Somali pirates.
Ahmedou Ould Abdullah, the United Nations envoy to Somalia, said the commitments, led by the EU’s $72m (€56m, £49m), but which included a surprise pledge from Iraq, exceeded requests by about a third. He was as encouraged by the number of high-level international diplomats who showed up. Some delegates took this as a sign of a dawning realisation that naval vessels from around the world now patrolling the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean would be insufficient to curtail an epidemic of attacks by Somali pirates.
The attacks have pushed up shipping insurance costs and hampered international trade. “You cannot tackle piracy effectively at sea unless you tackle the root causes of piracy on land which [are] lawlessness and the insurgency,” Nicholas Bwakira, the African Union envoy to Somalia, told the Financial Times. He and other delegates expressed optimism that Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the new Somali president and erstwhile leader of a 2006 ruling coalition of Islamists, was making real efforts to reconcile warring clans, and re-establish the authority of the state.
There have been 15 past attempts to create a viable national government since the 1992 overthrow of Siad Barré led to the collapse of Somali state institutions and the descent into clan war. The bitter experience of US troops and UN peacekeeping troops, who were forced into a humiliating withdrawal in the early 1990s, has deterred greater international intervention to halt the resulting humanitarian crisis and help Somalis rebuild the state.
But recent pirate attacks and the success of Islamist insurgents, some of whom are allegedly connected to al-Qaeda, appears to have put Somalia back on the radar. More than 60 countries were represented at Thursday’s’s conference. This saw Sheikh Sharif flanked by Ban ki-Moon, UN secretary-general, and Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, among other international officials.
Mr Sharif and a coalition of other mainly Islamist Somalis were driven out of the country when Ethiopian troops invaded in 2006, with support from Washington. But the presence of the Ethiopian troops fuelled an Islamist insurgency which has increasingly drawn support from foreign jihadist elements. The Ethiopians have now withdrawn, but left insurgents in control of large parts of southern and central Somalia. They have continued attacks against the transitional government in Mogadishu, the capital, in spite of Mr Sharif’s own Islamist credentials and his efforts to promote broader reconciliation.
Mohamed Abdullahi Omar, Somalia’s foreign minister, said he believed a popular decision by parliament last weekend to implement Islamist Sharia law as national law, would undermine support for the insurgents, some of whom are fighting for just that. In an interview with the FT, he said the real answer to the threat of piracy was to fund and equip Somali forces capable of patrolling their own waters, and taking the fight to the pirates in their bases on land. “We could do this at 1 per cent of the cost of keeping the international flotilla in the water,” he said.
After violently disrupting a demonstration organised by supporters of deposed President Marc Ravalomanana, the High Authority of transition (NDT), chaired by Andry Rajoelina has moved to ban all public demonstrations as of April 22, reports France 24.
According to the Zimbabwean statenewspaper, The Herald, a trial date for Chinoona Mwanda, the truck driver who was involved in an accident that killed Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai, in March, has been set for 20 May. Mr. Mwanda is charged with culpable homicide.
Somali gunmen who abducted two doctors from the NGO Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) Sunday in Somalia, threatened Tuesday to kill their hostages if a military action was undertaken to try to release them, reports TV5. The two MSF workers are of Dutch and Belgian nationalities.
Some 8 million Swiss francs belonging to the former dictator of Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, Mobutu Sese Seko, will not be given to his heirs. Blocked in Switzerland since 1997, this sum should be returned, following a complaint filed by the heirs, last January. The Ministry of Public Confederation (MPC Ministère Public de la Confédération) did not favor the complaint.
According to the Al Hayat newspaper, “Egypt will file an official request to Lebanon demanding to open investigations of serious deviations,” over the Lebanese authorities’ “conspiracy” in helping the Hezbollah cell in Egypt, the newspaper quoted Egyptian officials as saying. Egypt, has reportedly, accused the Lebanese government of collaboration with Hezbollah in the alleged attempt to destabilise the North African nation on Tuesday in what is likely to shake diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Egyptian government is reported to claim that the Lebanese authorities provided Hezbollah members with false passports in order to allow the group’s operatives to enter Egypt. Egypt arrested 49 people in early April and accused the Shia Lebanese party of recruiting in Egypt in order to carry out attacks at popular tourist areas against Israeli tourists. Cairo is also said to have claimed that Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt’s biggest opposition group) have plans to topple the Egyptian government through a coup d’état.
Paladin Africa, African subsidiary of the Australian group Paladin Energy, has just opened a huge uranium mine at Kayelekera in northern Malawi, Your Industry News said on Monday. With an investment of US$ 220 million, production should start at the end of this year and reach 1 500 tonnes of uranium oxide a year over the first seven years. Malawi, which holds 15% of the operating company, expects export earnings of over $ 100 million annually.
Two supporters of Marc Ravalomanana, exiled President of Madagascar, were killed on Monday in Antananarivo as security forces clamped down on an event, reports TSR. According to hospital sources, at least 13 others were injured,.
At least twenty-four people died in Karatina in central Kenya, in clashes between small groups of residents and members of the Mungiki criminal gang, the Kenyan police said Tuesday. According to the police spokesman, all the victims were butchered with machetes, lynched or stoned”. “Our men have restored order” he said.
A Protestant church tried to convert Sarah, the grandmother of US Head of State Barack Obama, against her will, a representative of the Kenyan Muslim community has claimed according to Al Arabiya Monday. "Mama Sarah", her nickname in the remote village of Kogel, declined the invitation. "She was born Muslim and will die Muslim," said Saïd Obama, half brother of the President of the United States.
Nine men who were convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison after they were charged by a court for “unnatural acts” are to be released immediately after Senegal’s court of appeal moved to quash their sentences. According to international rights group, although Senegalese laws are harsh towards homosexuals the sentences handed down to the men, who were “not caught in the act”, were the toughest ever. Several international organisations as well as the French government criticised the convictions in January.