Sunday 29 November 2009

Somali and Child Soldier











Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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Human Rights Day 10 December
60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

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Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
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Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
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Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
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Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
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Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
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Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
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Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
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Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
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Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
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Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
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Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
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Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
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Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
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Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
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Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
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Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
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Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
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Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
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Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
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Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
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Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
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Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
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Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
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Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
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Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
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Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
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Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
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Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
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Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
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Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Cambaareynta Culimada lagu dilay Magaalada Baladweyne

Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha Soomaaliyeed (SHARMOC)

Ref: Sharmoc0711009
Date: 29 November 2009
Ujeeddo: Cambaareynta Culimada lagu dilay Magaalada Baladweyne

Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha Soomaaaliyeed (Sharmoc) waxa uu si weyn u cambaareynayaa dilkii dhawaan loogu gaystay Magaalada B/weyne ee Gobalka Hiiraaan laba kamid ah Culimada diinta ee sida weyn looga qadariyo Magaalada mid kalana dhaawac loogu gaystay.

Falkaan oo ka dhacay Masjidka Nuur Xawaad ee Magaalada B/weyne ayaa Culimada la dilay iyo kan la dhaawacayba ay ka wada tirsanaayeen Culimada Ahlusunnah Waljamaaca waxaana dilkaas gaaystay kooxo hubaysan oo aan haybtooda la garan, markii ay fal dembiyeedka fuliyeenna isla markiiba ka baxsaday goobta, waxayna laba sheikh ku qurbexeen halkii falku ka dhacay.

Ehelada mid kamid ah Culimada la dilay ayaa sheegay in labada sheikh ay horey uga bexeen magaalada markii ay qabsadeen Xoogagga Xisbul Islaam, hase ahaatee loogu baaqay in ay dib ugusoo laabtaan Magaalada Ammaankoodana ay sugi doonaan Ciidanka Xisbul Islaam, waxaana lagu sheegay magacyada labada wadaaad ee dhintay Sheikh Muuse Xafiid iyo Sheikh Mohamed halka uu dhaawacna soo gaaray Khadiibka Masjidka Sheikh Daud Cali.

Falkaan ayaa ah mid kasoo horjeeda Baaqa Caalamiga ah ee Xuquuqda Aadanaha Qodobkiisa Saddexaad ee Qeexaya in qof walba uu xaqq u leeyahay in uu ku noolaado Nabad iyo Xoriyad, waxaa sidoo kale falkaan uu liddi ku yahay Diinta islaamka iyo dhaqanka wanaagsan ee Somalida, waxaana Guddiga dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha ee Sharmoc ay ka dalbanayaan Ururka Xisbul Islaam ee ka taliya Magaalada B/weyne in ay soo qabtaaan ciddii ka dambaysay falkaan Caddaaladana ay hor keenaan.

Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha ee Sharmoc waxa uu ugu baaqayaa Ururka Xisbul Islaam in ay muujiyaan dadaal ay wax uga qabanayaan falalka Amni darada ah ee welwelka ku abuureysa Shacabka aan hubaysnayn, suurta geliyaana in ay shacabka ku nool guud ahaan gobalka Gaar ahaan Magaalada in ay helaan amni ay ku noolaadaan kuna qabsadaan howl maalmeedkooda.

Wabilaahi Towfiiq
Abdurahman Sheikh Hassan
Madaxa Guddiga Xuquuqda Aadanaha Soomaaliyeed (Sharmoc)
Mogadishu, Somalia
Email. sharmoc@yahoo.co.uk, sharmoc@gmail.com

U.N. Raises Alarm Over Islamic Stonings in Somalia

U.N. Raises Alarm Over Islamic Stonings in Somalia
Written by Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Published Sunday, November 29, 2009

The current and former United Nations experts responsible for human rights in Somalia have condemned a series of stonings in the war-torn country.

Dr Shamsul Bari, an independent expert appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council to report on Somalia, expressed concern over a rise in stonings and targeted assassinations of women's rights advocates, journalists and U.N. staff in a meeting with Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

Citing the "deteriorating" human rights situation in the country, Dr Bari called on the interim Somali government to work to end the "cruel, inhuman and degrading" practices.

"I strongly condemn these recent executions by stoning," Dr Bari said in a statement.


The statement was released after Halima Ibrahim Abdirahman, a 29-year-old married woman, was stoned to death after she allegedly confessed to having had sex with a 20-year-old unmarried man in Eelboon, southern Somalia. The young man, who has not been identified, was sentenced to 100 lashes.

That came after a 20-year-old divorced woman accused of sleeping with an older, unmarried man was put in a public square, buried up to her waist and stoned to death in front of a crowd of 200 earlier this month in the town of Wajid, Somalia. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes.

Abdirahman Hussein Abbas, a 33-year-old man accused of adultery, was stoned to death earlier this month in Merka, a port town south of Mogadishu. His girlfriend is set to face the same fate after giving birth to their child.

Large parts of Somalia are controlled by a group of Islamic militants loosely working together to overthrow the country's Transitional Federal Government under the banner of the 'Al Shabaab' movement.

Under Al Shabaab's interpretation of Sharia, Islamic law, crimes such as theft and adultery are punishable by floggings, amputation, torture or death.

Al Shabaab considers any person to have ever been married - including a divorcee - to be forbidden from having further relations. The punishment is often death by public stoning.

Al Shabaab executions first made international news a year ago when Amnesty International accused the Islamist group of stoning a 13-year-old rape victim to death in the southern city of Kismayo after she was accused of adultery. Al Shabaab claimed the girl was older and had been married.

Bashir Goth, a Somali analyst and the former editor of Awdal News, said Somalis are shocked by the lack of international interest in the actions of Al-Shabaab.

"Where is the international community, where are the human rights organizations?" he told The Media Line.

"These are crimes against humanity. They are stoning people, creating an army of handicapped youth with amputations, even stopping people with golden teeth and removing them."

"There should have been an outcry but there is silence from the international community," he said. "How long do we have to tolerate this until they notice."
"It's sheer madness to me," he added.

"None of this is indigenous to Somalia and stoning is not something that you apply habitually as they are doing now in Mogadishu. Even in the prophet's time it was done only once."


"I think in their opinion they think this is the only way they can control people," he said. "It's just to put fear into the people."

Dr Ghanim A-Najjar, the former independent expert on Somalia for the U.N. Human Rights Council and a political scientist at Kuwait University, said that while the stonings were appalling, the Somali Islamist groups were not the principal cause of instability in the country.


"We are talking here about groups that claim certain rules and regulations from Islamic Sharia," Dr A-Najjar told The Media Line.

"That is objectively deplorable and we call on Al Shabaab not to continue these practices, but that said this is not the cause of instability in Somalia."


"The interim government of Somalia is itself run by Islamists, so the problem is essentially which Islam we are talking about," he said.

"This is the result of the loss of statehood and a central government than can control the country with one set of laws.

Without this, smaller groups will run the country in accordance with their understanding of Islamic sharia without regard to the regime of international human rights."


"It's the result of the failure of the international community to put more effort into resolving the instability in Somalia once and for all," Dr A-Najjar continued.

"Four years after the UN Security Council called for 8,000 international troops, we still don't even have half of them. So clearly Somalia is not an international priority."


A jihadist movement, Al Shabaab members have cited links with Al Qaeda although most analysts believe the affiliation to be minimal.

The group has several thousand fighters divided into regional units, which are thought to operate somewhat independently of one another.


EJ Hogendoorn, the Horn of Africa Project Director for the International Crises Group, argued that Al Shabaab's incongruent groups have created a situation in which the more extreme among them have come to represent the whole.


"I think it's important to note that Al Shabaab is a very disparate coalition of like-minded groups," he told The Media Line.

"So there are certain localities that have more conservative leadership than others, and for good or bad the more extreme ones get more media attention than others."


"It's not that widespread," he said. "Al Shabaab is fairly sophisticated when it comes to some of its actions, which are carried out in this way not because they believe this is the most appropriate penalty for people but because they believe it sends out a message both internally and externally about what they seek to further: a religiously minded government based on a very conservative, literal reading of the Koran."


Somalia has not had a functioning government since the 1991 ousting of Mohamed Siad Barre.

The ensuing years have seen a chaotic system of rival clans controlling various parts of Somalia, with some of the worst fighting in years seen across the country over the past few months.


The battles pit moderate Islamists and soldiers of the shaky, Western-supported transitional government against militants from Al Shabaab.

Al Shabaab began an insurgency in late 2006 with assassinations and suicide bombings against the transitional government and aid workers, particularly in Mogadishu.

Originally the militant wing of the Islamic Courts Union, a group that controlled Mogadishu prior to the invasion by Ethiopian forces, Al Shabaab has made significant gains in the Horn of Africa nation and now controls much of Southern Somalia.

Western government's fear that Somalia's instability may provide a safe haven for terrorist groups, and some foreign militants are believed to have entered Somalia to join Al Shabaab's ranks.

The US has launched selected air strikes against Al Shabaab leaders thought to have ties to Al Qaeda, but analysts say this has only increased their support among Somalis.

The Western-backed Ethiopian military invaded the country in 2007, but many analysts believe this augmented Al Shabaab's insurgency campaign. Battles between Al Shabaab and Ethiopian forces caused roughly 400,000 people to flee the capital in August 2007.

The Ethiopians withdrew in January of this year after Al Shabaab attacked its forces for over 16 months.

African Union (AU) peacekeepers have also been in the country since 2007, but have made little impact with just over 3,000 troops from Uganda and Burundi.

Saturday 28 November 2009

YEMEN SOMALIA - THE NEW AL-QAEDA FRONTS

By Chris Hughes on Nov 25, 09 10:30 AM in

WESTERN intelligence chiefs fear young radicalised muslims will head to Yemen and Somalia to newly-established al-Qaeda terror camps.

A leaked US military intelligence reports reveals the two states are being targeted by al-Qaeda leaders looking for alternatives to Afghanistan.

Fleeing Pakistani terrorists who have been fighting in Afghanistan are already flocking to poverty-stricken Yemen to set up training camps, already according to the report.

The American CIA and British MI6 spy agencies fear Osama bin-Laden's henchmen hope to set up a network of terror-academies there.

This is a direct consequence of the succeses of NATO soldiers - including 9,000 Brits in Helmand who have made it too difficult for Islamic fighters to move around in any great number in Afghanistan.

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - or Drones - used by the CIA and US military on the Pakistan border have made it even more hazardous.

US spies in Yemen- the poorest of the Arab countries - believe Al Qaeda's inner-circle hopes to relocate its main bases there.

British MI5 has in the past been aware of several thousand UK radical Muslims travelling to Pakistan and Afghanistan to train with al-Qaeda.

But now US intelligence agencies fear a switch to Somalia and Yemen - areas where it is far less easy to monitor what radicals do there.

A senior western intelligence source said: "Recent assaults on the tribal areas of southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan have severely curtailed movement of al-Qaeda forces.

"The organisation's senior leaders have long held the belief that they must branch out, that they must think ahead and keep a steady through-flow of trainees and trained fighters.

"As a failed state Somalia is ideal, except it can be a difficult terrain to move freely in given the anarchic nature of the clan system.

"Al Qaeda and bin Laden hold a lot of sway there and any outsider would find it very hard to move freely, to spy on the group.

"Equally bin Laden has close and historical ties to Yemen. It is where his family originally come from and it is where he has fought before."

In recent weeks President Obama's senior counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan - a former CIA spook for 25 years has been to Yemen.

He carried a personal message from Obama to Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh, promising him US help in tackling terrorism.

Several senior American military officers have also secretly travelled to Yemen's capital Saana to advise local security forces. And even British special forces counter terrorism experts from the SAS have been to Yemen to help train local security men.

Yemen is stuck in a major localised counter-terror offensive against anti-government forces and is therefore vulnerable to Al-Qaeda.

The report - leaked to the Daily Mirror- says: "Al Qaeda has come to view Yemen which is a fragile state inching towards failure as a potential base of operations.

"This could have significant security implications for the United States and the greater Middle East.

"The Yemeni government is bogged down in a full-scale military operation against an imminent domestic security threat, the al-Houthi rebels, who are Shia Muslim."

Al Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim organisation, representing the majority of Islamic worshippers in the Middle East.

But intelligence organisations believe that if the Houthi rebels were successful they would still allow al-Qaeda to get a foothold in the country.

They mainly object to the Yemeni government's accord with US demands that they help in the war against terror.

That means allowing western special forces soldiers into the country to train up their home security forces.
Ends

Friday 27 November 2009

Terrorism probe casts scrutiny on Minneapolis' Somali immigrant enclave

Terrorism probe casts scrutiny on Minneapolis' Somali immigrant enclave

Little Mogadishu residents talk of a lack of identity and a life of poverty and racism. And they disagree over their former neighbors who are accused of plotting jihad in Somalia.

By Bob Drogin
November 25, 2009
Reporting from Minneapolis - Barely a block from the Mississippi River sits a neighborhood Mark Twain could not have imagined.

Men with henna-streaked beards and women in full-body hijabs streamed Tuesday past the Maashaa Allah Restaurant, the Alle Aamin Coffee Shop, the Kaah Express Money Wiring stall, the storefront Al-Qaaniteen Mosque and other similar structures.

"When I came here as a refugee in 1995, there were just a few hundred Somalis, and we were very alone," said Adar Kahin, 48, who was a famous singer back home and now volunteers at a local community center.

"Now everyone is here," she said cheerfully. "It's like being back in Mogadishu. That's what we call it, Little Mogadishu."

This corner of Minneapolis -- the de facto capital of the Somali diaspora in America -- presents many faces: hope and renewal, despair and fear.

But more than anything, particularly for the young, it is a place of transition and searching for identity.

"Keeping an identity in this situation is really hard," said Saeed Fahia, who arrived in 1997 and now heads a confederation of Somali organizations. "In Somali culture, all tradition is taught when you are 9 years old, and you learn all about your clan and sub-clan for 25 generations. There's no mechanism to learn that here, and no context."

For the FBI, Little Mogadishu has become the center of an intense investigation into a recruiting network that sent young men to fight in Somalia for a radical Islamist group known as Shabab, or "the Youth."

Investigators say the poverty, grim gang wars and overpacked public housing towers produced one of the largest militant operations in the United States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.


Federal officials announced terrorism charges Monday against eight local men, seven of whom remain at large. That brought the total to 14 Minneapolis men who have been indicted or pleaded guilty this year for allegedly indoctrinating, recruiting or training local youths to join a Muslim militia waging war in Somalia against the U.S.-backed government.

Family members say six young men from Minneapolis have died in Somalia in the last 13 months, including one who the FBI believes was a suicide bomber. About 20 local youths are believed to have taken up arms there.

Fahia speculated that those who went to Somalia "are trying to reclaim their identity. They're trying to find a mission in life. They're trying to find out where they come from, and who they are."
Those who left to fight in Somalia prompt no unified response from those who stayed.


Outside the Brian Coyle Community Center, five young men who emigrated from Somalia as toddlers huddled in black hoodies under a cold, clammy fog that turned the day dull gray. They shared smokes and spoke of those who had joined the jihad, or holy war.


"Some of them felt America is the land of the devil," said Said Ali, who is 20, rail-thin and jobless. "They were losing their culture, their language and their religion. They've got family there. They feel at home."
If he had the money, he said, he would go to Somalia too."My friend went," he said. "He's running a hotel. He carries an AK-47. He's living life good."Ali Mohamed, also 20 and unemployed, jumped in. "These guys are blowing up women and kids," he said.

"That ain't right."The difficult search for identity is an old story in this area.Minnesota long has waved a welcome mat for war refugees -- first Koreans, then Hmong, Vietnamese and Ethiopians. Minneapolis provided subsidized housing and generous benefits. The newcomers found low-wage jobs at chicken-processing factories where English was not required.


The first wave of Somalis arrived here after 1991, when the country descended into a fierce clan-based civil war that still rages. More Somalis came each year, and family members soon followed, as was mandated under U.S. law. Others moved here from other U.S. cities.

Many in the community started families, opened businesses and achieved financial stability. They wired money to relatives back home, followed Somali news in ethnic papers and websites, and in some cases invested in Somali businesses even as their children became American doctors and lawyers.


Others became mired in brutal poverty. Many of the women were illiterate, and old men who had herded goats struggled in the rugged winters. Unemployment and school dropout rates soared. So did incidents of intolerance.

"We're an obvious minority here, and have a different religion and culture," said Abdiaziz Warsame, 37, an interpreter and youth counselor who has worked with local gangs such as the Somali Hard Boys and RPG's. "So people feel a high level of racism."

A 2007 tally counted 35,000 Somalis in Minnesota, the vast majority of whom live in Little Mogadishu, the gritty Minneapolis zone between two highways and the Mississippi River.The Riverside Plaza, a public housing project, looms over the area.

The grim concrete structures house more than 4,500 people, most of them Somali, in Soviet-style apartment blocks.


Pungent spices waft through the halls, and posters advertise travel agencies that sell visits to Muslim holy shrines in Saudi Arabia. The Halal Minimart outside sells meat acceptable to Muslims, one of more than a dozen in the neighborhood.

The Brian Coyle center is the logistical heart of the community. Its food pantry serves more than 1,000 families per month, and various groups help with food stamps, legal services and other needs. The gym does double duty as a wedding hall.

But the neighborhood's cultural focus are the mosques and ubiquitous coffee shops, where people gather to discuss community news, politics in their homeland, religion or myriad other subjects.The young have other avenues, including the Internet.

Some members of the group that went to Somalia were said to be followers of Anwar al Awlaki, an American-born firebrand imam who preaches on the Internet in flawless English about the need to fight for Islam.

Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused killer of 13 people at Ft. Hood in Texas this month, had exchanged e-mails with Awlaki, who is based in Yemen.

Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center here, said Awlaki's fierce sermons helped inspire several of the youths who later joined Shabab in Somalia. Awlaki has praised the militia, which U.S. officials say is allied with Al Qaeda.

"They exchanged messages on his blog," Jamal said. "They prayed for him. They watched his videos. They fell under his spell of influence."

But in the flux of Little Mogadishu, not everyone hears the words of jihad as clearly as others.Outside the community center, the group of young men continued their discussion about the fighters who had gone back to Somalia.

To Noor Bosir, an 18-year-old student, the jihad seems a world away.Although he was close to Burhan Hasan, one of the youths who was killed last summer in Somalia, Bosir can't understand the alienation many young men here feel.


"All these guys who left, we looked up to," Bosir said. "When we came here to play basketball, they would go to the mosque. And somehow, they got brainwashed. And now they're dead."

Somali-Americans recruited jihadists, say US prosecutors

Somali-Americans recruited jihadists, say US prosecutors

Prosecutors in Minneapolis say they have charged eight men with recruiting young Somali-Americans and sending them to Somalia to fight with an anti-government insurgency force linked to al-Qa'ida. In head-count terms, it is the largest terror cell to emerge in the US since the 9/11 attacks.

The charges stem from a long-running investigation by the FBI in Minneapolis, the largest city in the state of Minnesota, which is home to a thriving Somali-American community. Officials believe that as many as 20 men may have been sent to Somalia in this way. In 2008, a naturalised US citizen, Shirwa Ahed, blew himself up in northern Somalia. It was believed to be the first time that an American citizen had carried out a terrorist suicide bombing.


While the alleged recruitment drive appears aimed at assisting the insurgency in Somalia, officials fear that once they have received terrorist training there, many of the men may return to carry out similar attacks on American soil. "The potential implications for national security are significant," said Ralph Boelter of the FBI.

The men were allegedly being sent to fight alongside Al-Shabaab, a terror group closely allied with al-Qa'ida. "The vibrant Somali community here in Minneapolis has lost many of its sons to fighting in Somalia. These young men have been recruited to fight in a foreign war by individuals and groups using violence against government troops and civilians," said Todd Jones, the US Attorney for Minnesota.


The investigation intensified after a group of youths were stopped by traffic police in Nevada on 6 October. They said they were travelling to a wedding in San Diego. They were later tracked by customs officers entering Mexico. They had airline tickets out of the border city of Tijuana to Mexico City and they are now believed to be in Somalia.

In total, 14 men have been charged in connection with the case; some have been arrested, others are still at large. Those named in the latest criminal complaints include Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax and Abdiweli Yassin Isse, who are among those who made the trip last month via Mexico. They are charged with conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim and injure individuals outside the US.

"Faarax told the co-conspirators that travelling to Somalia to fight jihad will be fun and not to be afraid," according to an FBI affidavit in the case. "Faarax also explained to his co-conspirators that they would get to shoot guns in Somalia."


By David Usborne, US Editor
Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross: Western terrorism recruits in Somalia

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross: Western terrorism recruits in Somalia

Posted: November 25, 2009, 8:30 AM by NP Editor
,
On Monday, the United States unsealed terrorism charges against eight defendants for supporting a Somali Islamist group called al-Shabaab. While few lay people in Canada or the United States have heard of al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-connected extremist organization — which controls a significant amount of territory in Somalia — has recently become a particular concern for analysts examining possible homegrown terrorist flashpoints in North America.

Beginning in late 2007, dozens of young men of Somali descent started disappearing from diaspora communities in the West. It turned out they were returning to Somalia to train in Shabaab camps or to take up arms against Shabaab’s enemies within the country. Islamists of non-Somali descent were also travelling there to join Shabaab.

This phenomenon has been repeating itself in a number of countries. Canadian government sources claim that 20 to 30 Canadians have joined Shabaab — a development that public safety minister Peter Van Loan has said “alarmed” him. In the U.S., the disappearances have primarily clustered around Minneapolis-St. Paul, but there are credible reports of disappearances in other U.S. cities with large Somali populations as well.

The Times of London reports that British security services believe “[d]ozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from terror training camps in Somalia.” SAPO, Sweden’s security service, believes that about 20 people have left that country to join Shabaab. And Australian authorities think as many as 40 Somali refugees may have gone from Australia to Somalia to liaise with Shabaab.

Many factors cause young men in the West to join Somali Islamist movements. For one, the Somali diaspora is less integrated than other immigrant communities; this can lead to disaffection and the development of a mythologized sense of homeland, leaving newcomers especially vulnerable to recruitment.

There is also a political dimension to support for Shabaab. In March 2009 U.S. Senate testimony, Professor Ken Menkhaus noted that Shabaab thrives on the “complex cocktail of nationalist, Islamist, anti-Ethiopian, anti-Western, anti-foreigner sentiments” that resulted from Ethiopia’s December 2006 invasion of Somalia.

Of course, there’s a religious aspect too. American convert Daniel Maldonado, who pleaded guilty in April 2007 to receiving training from a foreign terrorist organization, told U.S. authorities that when he decided to travel to Somalia, it was to fight jihad — something he described in religious terms as “raising the word of Allah, uppermost, by speaking and fighting against all those who are against the Islamic State.”

Shabaab recruiting is a security concern for both Somalia and the rest of the world. Within Somalia, Shabaab’s implementation of a strict version of shariah in areas it controls raises human rights worries. For example, according to Amnesty International, Shabaab jurists sentenced a 13-year-old rape victim in Kismayo to be stoned to death last year for alleged adultery.

Internationally, the problem is Shabaab’s links to global jihadist groups like al-Qaeda. One important document explaining Shabaab’s outlook, entitled A Message to the Mujaahideen in Particular and Muslims in General, and written by the American mujahid Omar Hammami (a.k.a. Abu Mansoor al-Amriki) made its way around the jihadist web in early 2008. In it, Hammami contrasted Shabaab with previous Somali Islamist movements, such as the Islamic Courts Union.

In making this distinction, Hammami put Shabaab into the same ideological category as al-Qaeda. He said that while the Islamic Courts’ objectives were limited by national boundaries, “the Shabaab had a global goal including the establishment” of an Islamic caliphate. He also wrote that Shabaab’s religious methodology was the same as that expressed by such recognizable jihadist icons as Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In August 2008, Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow said that Shabaab was “negotiating how we can unite into one” with al-Qaeda. In the same month, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, Shabaab’s chief military strategist (who was killed by U.S. commandos in September 2009), reached out to al-Qaeda’s senior leadership in a 24-minute video entitled March Forth.
On Nov. 19, 2008, Zawahiri responded to Nabhan’s video with one in which he called Shabaab “my brothers, the lions of Islam in Somalia.” He urged them not to lay down their weapons “before the mujahid state of Islam” has been established in Somalia.

But authorities’ biggest concern is not what people pulled into Somalia do while they’re there, but what happens when they return to the countries from which they came. There are fears that these men could end up involved in a terrorist plot — fears bolstered by the fact that Shabaab’s training is both military and ideological, with the camps fostering what Nairobi-based journalist Fredrick Nzwili described as a “fundamentalist ideology.”

A clear picture of Shabaab’s recruiting networks in the West still has not emerged, although a significant thread running through a number of cases is the presence of recruiters. This could be seen, for example, following 25-year-old Abdifatah Yusuf Isse’s guilty plea in Minnesota to providing material support to terrorists based on his travel to Somalia. Omar Jamal, director of Minneapolis’s Somali Justice Advocacy Center, told the media that recruiters had approached Isse at the Abubakar as-Saddique mosque, the Twin Cities’ largest Somali mosque. This account was corroborated by Isse’s attorney.

Similarly, when 26-year-old Salah Osman Ahmed pled guilty to the same charges, he spoke elliptically of recruiters who helped draw him to Somalia, mentioning “secret meetings” beginning in October 2007 with people he would only describe as “guys.”

In other U.S.-based terrorism cases where recruiters played a prominent role, the recruiters enjoyed little support from the mosques they frequented; in the Lackawanna Six case, for example, leaders of the Islamic Center in Lackawanna, N.Y., chastised Juma al-Dosari when he lectured about the need for jihad. But in the Shabaab recruitment cases, there have been allegations of mosque complicity.

Many of these allegations have focused on the Abubakar as-Saddique mosque where Isse was allegedly recruited. Osman Ahmed, whose nephew was killed in Mogadishu in June 2009 after disappearing from the Minneapolis area, pointed his finger at that mosque in testimony before the U.S. Senate, claiming that family members of men who disappeared “have been threatened for just speaking out.”

The investigation into al-Shabaab recruitment in the West must continue. Only by better understanding these recruiting networks will authorities be able to stem the flow of young men to Shabaab’s destructive camps.

National Post
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the director of the Center for Terrorism Research (CTR) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a PhD candidate in world politics at the Catholic University of America. The Nov. 4 issue of the Center’s regular publication, CTR Vantage, is devoted to al-Shabaab’s recruiting efforts in the West.Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/11/25/daveed-gartenstein-ross-western-terrorism-recruits-in-somalia.aspx#ixzz0Y6PTNMGP The New Financial Post Stock Market Challenge starts in October. You could WIN your share of $60,000 in prizing. Register NOW

Monday 23 November 2009

Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha ee Sharmoc oo ugu baaqay dhinacyada ku dagaalamaya Muqdisho in ay Shacabka u turaan

Humanitarian crisis deepens as Beletweyne control shifts - IRIN

Aid workers in southern Somali town moved to Kenya

Aid agencies operating in southern Somalia said on Monday they had relocated 12 expatriate aid workers following a deterioration in the security situation.

Rebel group Al Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu. The group is fighting government troops and African Union peacekeepers to impose its own harsh version of sharia law throughout Somalia.

The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) and World Vision, two of the few international aid agencies working in southern Somalia, said their international staff had left the town of Buale for security reasons.

"Six international staff working for WFP and six staff from World Vision have been relocated for security reasons," said Peter Smerdon, WFP's regional spokesman based in Kenya.

The nature of the threat was not disclosed, but fighting between two rival insurgent groups has been spreading fast in the south of the Horn of Africa nation.

Al Shabaab seized control of the southern town of Afmadow at the weekend from rival Hizbul Islam insurgents in clashes that killed at least 12 fighters.

The aid agencies said the move would not interrupt key programmes such as the therapeutic feeding of over 250,000 children in the south Somali region of Juba.

"Our national staff will continue carrying these programmes forward as we assess the security situation in the region," said Amanda Koech, World Vision's spokeswoman for Somalia.

After a nearly three-year insurgency and a prolonged dry spell, Somalia is struggling with one of the world's worst humanitarian crises and more than a third of the population depend on food aid.

Increasing insecurity in Somalia continues to force thousands to flee their homeland into neighbouring Kenya.

Some 19,000 civilians have been killed by clashes since the start of 2007. While some residents credit the insurgents with restoring a semblance of order in some areas, al Shabaab has alienated many Somalis who are traditionally moderate Muslims. (Editing by David Clarke) ((Email: nairobi.newsroom@reuters.com.
Source: Reuters, Nov 23, 2009

Saudi soldiers kill seven Somali immigrants and bust boats

Seven Somali immigrants have been killed in Saudi Arabia ,Yemen border by Saudi soldiers, witnesses said on Saturday.The Somali immigrants were on their route from Yemen to Saudi Arabia when they have been killed by the Saudi soldiers.

The soldiers have reportedly ordered the Somali immigrants to stop but they tried to run away and the soldiers opened gun fire indiscriminately to the immigrants.

One of the Somali immigrants who survived the shooting incident and returned to Yemen told Mareeg Online on condition of anonymity that the Saudi soldiers killed the immigrants on purpose.

There has been fighting between Saudi and Yemen soldiers and the Shiite Yemen rebels.

Yemeni soldiers captured Somali teenagers fighting alongside the Yemeni Shiite rebels two months ago.

The Somali immigrants fleeing from Somalia reach Yemen and then cross to Saudi Arabia in search of better life, but the Saudi government often deports the immigrants back to Somalia.

Source: Australia.to, Nov 23, 2009
Somali Human Rights Monitoring Committee (Sharmoc)

Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha Somaliyeed (Sharmoc)

Ujeeddo: Warsaxaafadeed.
Ref. 061109
Date: 23/11/2009

Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha ee Sharmoc oo ugu baaqay dhinacyada ku dagaalamaya Muqdisho in ay Shacabka u turaan

Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha Somalia (Sharmoc) waxa uu aad uga xunyahay cambaareynayaana dagaalada dib ugasoo cusboonaaday Magaalada Muqdisho kaasoo u dhxeeya Dowladda KMG ah, Amisom iyo Kooxaha Mucaaradka ah kaasoo dhimasho iyo dhaawac xad dhaaf ah ku keenay shacabka ku dhaqan magaalada Muqdisho.

Sida ay xaqiijiyeen Ilaha Warbaahinta iyo Goobaha Caafimaadkuba waxaa ku nafwaayey dagaalkii Shalay ilaa xalay ka dhacayey Magaalada Muqdisho 26 qof oo rayid ah tira intaas ka bandanna waa ku dhaawacmeen, iyadoo madaafiicdii habowga ahayd ee labada dhinac is dhaafsanayeen ay ku hoobanayeen Guryo ay degan yihiin dad rayid ah.

Dagaalka oo uu ku bilowday Weerar uu qaaday Ururka Xisbul Islaam oo ka biaya diidsanaa fariisin cusub oo Ciidamada Dowladda KMG ah ee Somalia iyo Kuwa Amisom ka sameysteen Cisbitaalka Digfeer ayaa jawaab celintiisu ahayd mid madaafiic lagu garaacayey Suuqa bakaaraha, iyadoo xilliyadii shalay weerarkii koowaad bilowday ay dadka qaar aad u joogeen Suuqa bakaaraha si ay uga iibsadaan howlaha la xiriira u diyaargarowga Ciidda Carafo.

Somali Human Rights Monitoring Group (Sharmoc) ayaa ku tilmaamaya dagaaladan kuwa masuuliyad darro ah isla markaana ka maran naxariista banii aadamnimo iyo mid islaamnimo, iyadoo aan wax ixtiraam ah la siin bisha Wanaagsan ee Umadda Islaamka iyo somaliduba ay ku guda jiraan, waxaana dhinacyada samaynaya gabood falka ka dhanka Xuquuqda Aadanaha ee laga gaysanayo degaanada ay degan yihiin dadka rayidka ah laga dalbanayaa in ay joojiyaan tacadiyadaas isla markaana ay waddooyin aamin ah u furan Shacabka aan ka tirsanayn dhinacyada Dagaalamaya.

Gabood falka loo gaysanayo dadka rayidka ah iyo ku dagaalanka korkooda ayaa ah mid dhaxalsiin kara dhinacyada dagaalamaya in lala tiigsado Maxkamad Caalami ah si loogu qaado dembi ka dhan ah Xuquuqda Aadanaha, iyadoo dhimashada gaareysa dadka rayidka ah ay tahay mid ka dhan ah Baaqa Caalamiga ah ee Xuquuqda Aadanaha Qodobkiisa 3-aad ee qeexaya in qof walba helaa nabad gelyo iyo xuriyad, Shareecada Islaamka ee Dowrtay Xuquuqda dadka aan dagaalka ku jirin iyo Xeerka Soomaalida ee Birimagaydada.

Dhinaca kale Guddiga dabagalka Xuquuqda aadanaha (Sharmoc) wax laga naxo isla markaana fal ka dhan ah Banii aadamnimada ku tilmaamayaa go’aankii dhawaan Puntland ay ku gaartay in ay dib u celiso qaxootigii kasoo barakacay Gobalada K/Somalia, taasoo khatar weyn ku keeni karta dadkaas haddii ay dib ugu laabtaan halkii ay kasoo bara keceen.

Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha ee Sharmoc waxa uu ka dalbanayaa Madaxda Maamulka Puntland, Odayaasha Dhaqanka iyo wax garadka kalaba in ay u istaagaan ka hortegidda Go’aankaan kaasoo abuuri kara dhibaato kale iyo cadaawad hor leh oo dhex marta Umadda Soomaaliyeed ee hatan dhibta ba’ani haysato, sidoo kalana maamulka Puntland waa in ay Amniga gobalka ku sugaan qaab aan dhibaato gelinaynin dadka rayidka.

Wabilaahi Towfiiq
Abdurahman Sheikh Hassan
Madaxa Guddiga Dabagalka Xuquuqda Aadanaha Soomaaliyeed (SHARMOC)
Mogadishu, Somalia
Email. sharmoc@yahoo.co.uk,sharmoc@gmail.com
Website:sharmocsom.blogspot.com