Aid to Somalia? Really?

Dozens of Christian humanitarian workers have been beheaded by Somali Islamists in the past two years,  including  this man, but it is thousands of Muslims who starve as a result.

There is a picture that goes with the caption above. I cannot seem to be able to get the thing to post properly. When I can post the pic, I will. That being said, moments after it was taken, a small knife was used to saw, not slice cleanly and quickly, but saw into his throat and arteries. His blood gushed up in torrents and the gurgling blood filling his spasming lungs is enough to make decent people physically ill. Why was he killed? First, he was Christian, not muslim. Second, he was in Somalia to distribute food.  This is one of the publicized attacks against aid that al Shabab proudly displayed and distributed via the internet.

The UN has declared a famine in Somalia. CNN is cajoling people to donate in spite of al Shabab’s control over southern and central Somalia. Hillary Clinton has just promised to add another $28 million of our tax dollars (even though the budget has not been written and ratified, she is writing checks against it).

This is sick. It is a tragedy. I have nightmares about it! I have seen these vicious,  vile “people” dragging people through the streets from the back of a car simply because the victim was Christian.

The other point I want to make here is about the recruitment of child soldiers. Children are recruited by way of schools (madrasa for them), off the street, or kidnapped. Consider the schools. The only schools operating in Somalia for children are Islamic madrasa. The first step is mental/psychological indoctrination.  At this early stage children are used by Shabab as spotters for attacks, emplacers of IEDs, or, if they are not making the grade at school, media fodder. By media fodder I mean they are put in front of cameras to elicit aid from the world, as no one who is civilized wants to see a starving child. I certainly don’t. Another manifestation of media fodder is they are given a suicide task. The catch is that the child does not know he is about to die. The lifeless body of a child is then used to anger muslims and Somalis worldwide to come into Somalia to fight against infidels who are, by simply being there, causing the death of Somali children.

So, after aid workers had been slaughtered by Shabab, Hillary wants to spend more of our tax dollars to send food and non-islamic workers into an area where they are likely to die.

SOMALIA DROUGHT: MILITIA REFUSE INTERNATIONAL AID

11:43 22 LUG 2011

(AGI) Mogadishu - Hard-line militant Islamists in drought-ridden Somalia are continuing to refuse international aid. They are accusing the UN of giving false information about the real situation in Somalia. This is a turn-around from a fortnight ago when the extremists announced that the ban on international agencies working in areas under their control, in place since 2009, had been revoked. .

UN officially declares famine in two regions of Somalia

US to send aid to areas controlled by Islamist group al-Shabab

msnbc.com news services

The United Nations declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia Wednesday and said it could quickly spread unless donors took action.

Mark Bowden, humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle had been hit by the worst famine in the region for 20 years.

The U.N. is proposing "exceptional measures" of providing "cash relief" while it finds ways of getting larger volumes of food aid into southern Somalia, Bowden said. The U.N. is also appealing for $300 million over the next two months for Somalia.

"If we don't act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks," Bowden said.

"Every day of delay in assistance is literally a matter of life or death for children and their families in the famine-affected areas."

The U.N. said 3.7 million people across the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country, or almost half the population, were now in danger. Of them 2.8 million are in the south.

In the worst-affected areas, half the children are malnourished. "It is likely that tens of thousands will already have died, the majority of those being children," Bowden said.

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Years of drought, that have also affected Kenya and Ethiopia, have hit harvests and conflict has made it extremely difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country.

The south is controlled by al-Shabab Islamist insurgents, affiliated to al-Qaida, who are fighting to topple the Western-backed government. The group also controls parts of the capital Mogadishu and central Somalia.

In early July, the rebels lifted a ban on food aid which they had said created dependency. Some analysts say they are allowing aid in because they fear a public backlash if they do not. Others say the rebels want bribes.

The U.N. has said the inability of food agencies to work in the region since early 2010 because of the ban had contributed to the crisis.

"If cash is made available, that will enable the market to continue to function," said Luca Alinovi, head of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization in Somalia.

Roberto Schmidt  /  AFP - Getty Images

Two sisters hold hands as they follow their mother and brothers at the reception center of the Dolo Ado refugee camp near the Ethiopia-Somalia border.

A change in US policy
U.S. aid officials said Wednesday they would send help to the areas of Somalia under the control of al-Shabab, the BBC reported. But officials wanted assurance the aid wouldn't fall into the hands of the insurgents.

Al-Shabab is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and last year the U.S. stopped sending aid to the areas of Somalia controlled by the group.

"What we need is assurances from the World Food Program and from other agencies, the United Nations or other agencies, both public and in the non-governmental sector, who are willing to go into Somalia who will tell us affirmatively that they are not being taxed by al-Shabab, they are not being subjected to bribes from al-Shabab, that they can operate unfettered," said Donald Steinberg, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, in an interview with the BBC.

The U.N. is working to improve its access to airstrips in al-Shabab-controlled territory so that it can import large volumes of food into the country, Bowden said.

Nearly 135,000 Somalis have fled since January, mainly to Kenya and Ethiopia. An average of 1,700 and 1,300 Somalis are arriving in Ethiopia and Kenya respectively each day.

The U.N. defines famine as at least 20 percent of households facing extreme food shortages, a crude mortality rate of more than 2 people per 10,000 per day and malnutrition rates of above 30 percent.

Reuters also contributed to this report

Somali Militias Recruiting Child Soldiers, New Report Finds

Photo: AP

A young boy leads the hard-line Islamist Al Shabab fighters as they conduct military exercise in

Children as young as eight years old have been recruited to fight in Somalia's ongoing civil war, according to a report published by Amnesty International, Wednesday.

Recruiters lure or kidnap children

Amnesty says most of the young soldiers recruited are between the ages of 10 and 17. Some, it says, are lured from their homes by promises of gifts like mobile phones. Others, it says, are kidnapped.

Amnesty's Benedicte Goderiaux told VOA that one girl said her school was raided by the militant Islamist group al-Shabab.

“One child told us for instance that she was at school and her school was raided by armed groups  so that they could take children away, presumably to take them to a training camp and to train them into fighting. She said that one teacher who tried to oppose the abduction of children was killed,” Goderiaux said.

Basis for report

The 90-page report is based on 200 interviews with Somalis who had fled to neighboring countries.

Civil war and lawlessness have plagued Somalia since the fall of the last stable government in 1991.  The situation has been made worse by severe drought and high food prices that have led to famine conditions in parts of the country.

“A combination of conflict, drought, and lack of access to humanitarian aid is really making the situation absolutely unbearable for children,” Goderiaux explained.

The Amnesty report says most child soldiers are recruited by al-Shabab.  But it says the Transitional Federal Government, TFG, which is supported by the international community, also has children fighting for it.  The TFG denies this.

African Union

Roger Middleton, a Horn of Africa expert at the London-based research group Chatham House, says the African Union should use its influence with the TFG.  The AU Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM, is the only international peacekeeping force in Somalia.

“The AU needs to put as much pressure as it can on the TFG to make sure it is not recruiting child soldiers and to use its influence. Because the reality is if AMISOM were to leave - highly unlikely scenario, but if it were to leave -- that would be the end of the TFG,” Middleton said.

He says the broader international community, which funds the TFG, should also be making sure children are protected.  At this point though, he says, international governments have few options.

"The problem for the international community is that they do not have a Plan B beyond the TFG, they have not got that far. And they need to start thinking about it," he stated.

The Amnesty report cites the recruitment of children by armed groups as one of the reasons so many Somalis are fleeing southern and central Somalia

UNSC Overview, continues

Yesterday, I posted several items that are of concern in regards to human rights and security enforcement in a few of the UNSC member states. Those states reviewed were China, Frnace, Russia, and Colombia. The only real shock I had in that was the pervasiveness of abuse by police. The fact that China and Russia routinely put citizens through forced disappearance, while disturbing, is not a shock to learn. I believe that these two countries regimes will never change the way they conduct business internally. Colombia is simply one of the most violent places. Should these three countries be in positions that have them writing and voting on security resolutions, I think not. I have some misgivings on them enforcing the resolutions and acts, but that role would seem much more appropriate for the apparatchik of these countries.

Today, let's look at the US and the UK to round out the Permanent Membership of the UNSC. Bosnia, Nigeria, and Portugal will be the temporary members at which to look today.

UNSC OVerview Portugal

A 2011 report from the State Department indicates that there is a strong respect for human life and dignity there. There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings and no reports of politically motivated disappearances.

The worst thing that can be said of this country is that it is a haven for pedophiles. UK Mail Online writes about how children at an unnamed but very famous orphanage cringe at the sound of Ferrari’s arriving. They are sorted by deaf mutes first, screened and checked for STDs, then carted off in vans to the homes of wealthy pedophiles. Once there, the children may be drugged, given alcohol, or other harsh treatments prior to being sexually abused. The young Madeleine McCann disappeared, to never be found, in this country.

In September 2010 the BBC reported seven defendants faced a total of more than 800 charges relating to an alleged sex ring abusing children from the Casa Pia, a state-run network of homes and schools looking after more than 4,000 needy children.

They included Carlos Cruz, a former TV presenter; Jorge Ritto, a retired ambassador; and a former deputy director of the Casa Pia itself.

Carlos Silvino, a 54-year-old former Casa Pia driver, was the hub of the ring, and faced more than 600 charges relating to the abuse of children or procuring them for others.

Five other male defendants each faced between six and 48 abuse charges. One was also accused of pimping.

But a 68-year-old woman, Gertrudes Nunes, was acquitted of charges relating to the use of her house in Elvas, near the Spanish border, by the abusers.

The abuse at Casa Pia is said to have started in the mid-1970s, but was not discovered until 2002. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11171283)

I suppose that, with all that safety and beauty of the country, a few thousand children sexually and systematically abused is alright with the State Department under Hillary Clinton.

UNSC Overview Bosnia & Herzegovina

Srebrenica is the first thing that comes to mind. Due to its internal war, as seen with Colombia, human rights violations abound. It is estimate that there are up to 10,000 cases of human rights violations that are yet untried. There were Serb run prison camps in which Bosniaks, Bosnian citizens who identified as muslims, had been raped, murdered, and mutilated. At the end of the war one could travel around and find muslims who were missing the pinky and ring finger from their right hand. This mutilation left the survivors with a permanent Serb Victory Salute.

While in Bosnia I saw also that the Bosniaks were not innocent of crimes against humanity. In Bugojno all the Croat men and boys were rounded up by the Bosniaks and taken to the soccer stadium. After being held there, these inmates were executed. Old men right down to and including baby boys were murdered.

Bosnian Croats are not innocent, either. The Croatians in Bosnia decimated the town of Duvno and later renamed it as Tomislavgrad. A town in Bosnia named for the first crowned king of Croatia, a neighboring country.

Progress in identifying the whereabouts of victims of enforced disappearance during the 1992-1995 war remained slow and is obstructed by the lack of cooperation between the authorities of FBiH and the RS.

Perhaps, still repairing and healing from the wounds that were sustained during the war and certainly those from the iron fisted reign of Tito, putting Bosnia & Herzegovina on the UNSC was premature. Premature, if not downright misguided, is the kindest way I can put an assessment of this country being on the Council. A single country bearing two names, comprised of two opposing states (The Serb Republic and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), comprised of three divided religions is not a solid candidate for sitting on the council to decide security resolutions.

UNSC Overview Nigeria

A country with over 120 languages spoken, three main ethnic groups, and a religious schism between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north has seen thousands of people killed in ethnic clashes over the past few years. Al Jazeera, in 2009, reported on the group Boko Haram (loosely translates to all non-islamic teaching is evil) killing police and hundreds of civilians in the north. In the goal of establishing sharia law throughout the country, Boko Haram is known for widespread killings, rape, burning villages, and more. The government of Nigeria is unable to stop the group or to protect the people who live in areas that are under threat from Boko Haram.

The Nigerian government, where it does operate, is corrupt. 102-page report, "‘Everyone's in on the Game': Corruption and Human Rights Abuses by the Nigeria Police Force," documents the myriad forms of police corruption in Nigeria. It also shows how institutionalized extortion -- a profound lack of political will to reform the force -- and impunity combine to make police corruption a deeply embedded problem.

The US State Department report from 2008 states national police, army, and other security forces committed extrajudicial killings and used lethal and excessive force to apprehend criminals and to disperse demonstrators during the year … On February 25, police killed approximately 50 persons, burned nearly 100 homes, and destroyed more than 150 market stalls in Ogaminana, just outside Okene, Adavi local government area, Kogi State. Credible reports indicate the police attacked the village in reprisal for the reported killing of a colleague by local youths the previous day. There was no formal investigation of the incident … In March 2007 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture visited the country at the government's invitation to assess reports of official abuse. On the basis of discussions with detainees, visits to prisons and police stations, and forensic medical evidence collected over a one-week period, the rapporteur reported that torture was endemic in law enforcement operations, including police custody, and was often used to extract alleged confessions. According to his report, methods of torture included flogging with whips; beating with batons and machetes; shooting in the foot; threatening a suspect with death and then shooting him with powder cartridges; suspension from the ceiling; and denying food, water, and medical treatment.

Even after the UN had written and published the scathing report of very recent and, to this day, ongoing blatant violations of human rights, absolute and utter disregard for human rights, and a completely corrupt system that is incapable of maintaining its own internal security, Nigeria was voted to sit on the UNSC.

UNSC Overview United Kingdom

This year the European Court has found the UK guilty of violating human rights and due process of law in two cases.

The first involved what was deemed to be the improper investigation into the killing of 6 Iraqi civilians in 2003 and 2004. The Court found the UK had failed to ensure such investigations in five of the six cases, in violation of article 2 (right to life) of the Convention. Significantly, the Court rejected arguments by the UK that the European Convention did not apply to the UK’s operations because they occurred outside the UK’s ordinary territory. The Court held that the fact the UK was an occupying force over the territory in question and therefore exercised public powers there meant the European Convention applied.

The second case the European Court of Human Rights found that the prolonged internment of the applicant, Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Ali Al-Jedda, for more than three years in a detention centre in Basra, Iraq, run by British forces, violated his right to liberty and security under the European Convention.

The UK has also transferred prisoners to countries in which torture is openly permitted and practiced as a matter of course. During the course of the last decade the UK has allowed use of its airspace to transfer prisoners to these countries.

While not clear of blood on their hands, the United Kingdom certainly does not operate at the same levels of impunity or with the same disregard for human rights and security, they are certainly not innocent. That being said, and I may be biased some, it seems that the UK may actually be well suited for writing and suggesting actions and resolutions within the UNSC.

UNSC Overview United States

The protection of fundamental human rights was a foundation stone in the establishment of the United States. In February 2008, US Vice President Dick Cheney said, “[w]e do not torture – it’s against our laws and against our values.” President George W. Bush had used the same words a year and a half earlier when he admitted publicly for the first time that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been operating a program of secret detention in various places around the world.

The USA has now effectively admitted to being a state that condones torture – one that has used torture and reserves the right to do so again. Its response to revelations of torture and other ill-treatment has been at best inadequate. At worst the government is facilitating impunity for crimes under international law.

A black eye, certainly. Have the letter and the spirit of the laws on due process and human rights been violated? Clearly, these abuses have occurred. However, as Lincoln said, this country is the world’s last best hope.