When he calls himself chief he is responsible for the massacre of Conakry on september 28th. He is giving the guidelines. The bloody actions showed everybody how anxiously he try to keep his position. It also showed us that elections would be anything but fair, when he is one of the candidate.

Increasing foreign interests in Guinea was definitely a major aspect why Camara changed his mind to call out his candidacy for president. Since Camara’s military junta started, France loosed grip on its former colony. Just recently Guinea signed a contract with China & Russia, which plan to build a $1 billion hydroelectric dam in Guinea … in exchange: China will receive the right to mine bauxite.

The West-African country is the worlds largest exporter of bauxite, the ore that is used to produce aluminium. And it has even more resource-potential: Gold, diamonds, uranium and new surveys show that there are big deposits of oil at Guineas coast, able to provide 30% of US-requirements of a decade.

Camara and the whole military elite dont want to lose control, because they have a lot to l$$se. The commission which was just installed, to investigate what happened in Conakry on 28/09, should ease international pressure. Its is right that opposition condemned this “false” move. But the opposition should agree talking to Camara in Ouagadougou with the Burkinabe-President, Compaoré. There they would have to opportunity to speak united on an international stage. It is somehow strange that the mediator is a leader, who put himself to power through a bloody coup-d’etat in October 1987. Compaoré calls the death of his predecessor Thomas Sankara, an “accident” … this description reminds me on Camara talking about 28/09.

The opposition knows that Camara must step down, his ties to the military are too strong. A presidential candidate with the back-up of the military would be a horror for the presidential campaign. Now the “Forces Vives de la Nation“, as the opposition calls itself, must show how united and willing they are. They are the decisive players, at the moment.

The situation in Conakry remains tense …

In Western Media Somali pirates are shown as simple criminals, having poverty as only motivation. This picture of „Piracy“ as a socio-economocial phenomen is surely not completely representative. As far as many „African issues“ concern, Western media often lack objectivity.

What many people don’t know or what they dont judge as „interesting“ is the fact that the majority of the pirates come from … the semi-autonomous country of Somaliland, a nation which declared independence in 1991 but still lacks international recognizition. It is known that the pirates havens are in Haradhere, Eyl (Somaliland) and Bossaso, which is located in Puntland, another semi-autonomous region in Northern Somalia. Although these regions are often described as more stable than the „troubled“ Southern Somalia, they are economically very weak and depend almost completely on money from the Somali diaspora. Don’t get me wrong: Yes, Pirates ARE criminals before the law and need conviction. But every criminal has a story and in this case, the stories of Somali pirates can be related to BIG vessels with BIG nets. I guess I don’t have to point out that the fishing industry is elementary fro people at coastal areas, especially in developing contries.

I would like to advocate for an independent body which investigates possible unjust practices by fishing companies from foreign states. 2005 The „Marine Resources Assessment Group Ltd“ in London/ UK published in their study „MRAG: Review of IUU fishing and developing countries: Synthesis report“ interesting fugures:

• Somalia has a „yearly loss of 95 $m to illegal/ pirate fishing“. „Pirate fishing“ ?. Yes. So who ist the pirate here? Who is Captain Hook, who is Robin Hood? I won’t answer this question because by doing so I would just adopt the media’s simple stereo-types.

Sometimes pirates call themselves „Coastguards“ which sounds rather like Robin Hood than Captain Hook. It implifies a movement, founded to revolt againgst the unjust practice of foreign fishing vessels. But due to lack of constitutional recogniziton and lack of state ressouces of Somaliland/ Puntland these movements have never been real „movements“ but just criminal organisations. They never had the capability to raise the issue of „pirate FISHING“ in official and political paths. Therefore, they chose piracy as a lucrative opportunity.

Piracy shows quite interesting social outcomes. The profession “pirate“ receives high social status in Somaliland and Puntland, which can mainly be explained by the financial richness. Each week hundreds of men follow their paths and start piratin’. Why? No perspective and the vision to make tens of thousands of dollars in few weeks. Talking about the profiteers of piracy it would be careless to remain in Somaliland or Puntland. It is said that there are financial supporters who receive big shares of the attacks. These unknown characters are based in Kenya (Eastleigh/ Nairobi) but also in the USA and other industrialized countries.

Another interesting fact: The border-conflict between Somaliland and Puntland is still ongoing and during the last few years it brought birth to two more „states“ claiming independent recognizion: Northland State, which was proclaimed just one year ago in May 2008 and Maakhir (July 2007). This fact gives an impression of how complex the political situation in Somalia is.

Wouldn’t it be more effectiv to support the new government of Sheik Sharif Ahmed in Somalia than sending more and more military ships. Wouldn’t it be more rational to invest in unity? Search the solutions in the roots of the problems! The flow of new pirates would never end.

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New facts: They are hostages held by one of Al-Qaeda’s partner-groups, together with 4 European hostages. The group demands that two of his members, who are imprisoned in a Sahel-country, are released.

And the most interesting development: UN-Secretary General Ban Ki Mon told a diplomat, that he “didnt know about Fowlers appointment as an envoy”. Since Fowler’s disappearance Ban said he was a “special envoy to Niger”, he even appointed him in July. UN put 390,700 US-$ for an envoy to Niger into the budget. Everything planned …  or not? Ban’s new doubts let Fowler’s case look very fishy …

Canadian investors are highly interested in mining-profits in Africa. Why should Ban appoint a Canadian, to solve resource-conflicts which effect Canadian-owned mines? How should Fowler deal with this subject in an objective way?

According to me, Fowler wanted to use his former diplomatic connections in order to seek profit in the mining-business.

It seems as if Ottawa, Bamako and Niamey were not yet able to find a common way forward. They have their special interests, which they dont want to be effected.

But the new US-President should not ignore Somalia, out of two reasons:
1. US had bad influence on Somali politics, misusing it for their fight, which at the end just destroyed.
2. Fighting against terrorism they cant let Somalia being controlled by Al-Shabaab

Somalia seems to be at a „tipping point“. The current situation is tense and can turn to either side. Every move has to be well-planned.
The Ethiopians just left, Al-Shabaab  claims „victory“ and wants also the UN-peacekeepers to leave Somalia. The next steps in Djibouti will be very important in gaining a more effective government, with much more support from the Somali people.

America should not try to intervene strongly in these efforts, but should support a diplomatic move and let the Somalis choose their represantatives.
After killing 15 Somalis, Al-Shabaab cannot claim to represent the Somali People. They should decide now: To fight and be defeated by the new government or disarm and integrate themselves in the political system.

Since weeks now ships from Germany, France and China, etc. are “fighting” against the phenomena of piracy in the gulf of Aden. Since weeks now the same nations ignore the causes of this phenomena and the situation on the land of Somalia.

There is no use to fight the pirates on water, when they can move, recruit and arm themselves freely on land. Pirates can only be defeated through a strong Somali Government which represents the interests of (all) the Somali people. Therefore USA, France, Germany and Co should rather give diplmatic support for a new recruited Somali government.

• UN Deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said that Fowler “, as special envoy for Niger was on an official mission.” Modibo Traore, an OCHA-official said “Mr Fowler came here as part of an official UN visit but we were not aware of his trip out of town to the Samira gold mine.”
• Niger’s communications minister Mohamed Ben Omar said that the UN envoy was not in Niger on official business. Niger didn’t request a mediator from the UN.

According to my opinion, of course, there has to been a mediator, somebody who brings the government- and the Touareg-side at one table to talk about their interests. But the Niger-government still feels too strong to carry on negotiations and call the Touaregs “bandits” and “drug-traffickers”. There won’t be ever peace and development in Northern Niger, unless the government accept the Tourag as “talk-partners”. On the other side the Touareg must show the ability and willingness for negotations.

These negotations must be backed and supported by UN-represantatives, but Fowler and Guay seemed to be interested in the SAMIRA HILLS Gold Mines. I guess, it is the freedom of everybody to do business and to do what someone wants, but I ask myself:

1. Mines are the conflict-object, but the real confict region is in the North, as are the Touaregs, as one of the conflict parties. At SAMIRA HILLS Fowler was not supposed to meet miners who are in conflict with the Touaregs. These mines are in the North. So he couldn’t meet Tourages there. What was he doing there?
2. Why does he visits this mine, without informing neither UN- or Niger-authorities?
3. Why doesn’t want the UN give any detailed information about Fowlers role in Niger?

Inner City Press: Can we have a description of what he was doing? Is that possible?

Spokesperson: At this moment, given the security implications of this situation, I think we will leace at at the for now.

4. I don’t think that a information like “Fowler was in Niger to help the conflict-parties to negotiate” would be dangerous for him, because that would be a good reason, and wouldn’t give a reason to any group, which dares active peace in Niger, to kidnap him. But are there groups who don’t want peace & equality in Niger?

The latest updates claim the FFR seized Fowler, without quoting any statemant of the Touareg-group. The FFR denied long ago that they kidnapped Fowler, on their blog. I wonder, why this wrong information comes up again.

First the FFR (Front des Forces de Redressement) declared they kidnapped them, later this was denied by the group. So, now nobody knows who kidnapped them. This question includes also an unanswered question about the kidnappers’ motives. It is very rare to receive no demand from kidnappers, after such a long time (9 days).

Another question, often raised now, is the one about Fowler’s business he had in Niger …

Named by the Secretary General as a Special Envoy to Niger, he is supposed to help to find a solution for the conflict between the Tourags and the government concerning the unfair share of uranium-benefits. Before the dissapearance they visited a gold-mine called “SAMIRA HILL GOLD MINE“, with him was Louis Guay who works as an official for the Canadian government. On the niger-trip he was “Fowler’s assistant”. The SAMIRA HILLS gold mine is owned by a Canadian firm called ETRUSCAN RESOURCES. Louis Guay was cited that he wanted to visit the mine, which he described as a “Canadian success-story”. Anyway, the trip was not an official trip, neither the UN nor the Niger-government were aware of it.

Why was he visiting the gold mine, without having any security and without informing the Niger-government or the U.N. This was clearly a private trip, but with which purpose? The envoy’s office is supported financially with an amount of 390,700$. The mysterious thing is that the U.N. doesn’t want to give any further information about Fowlers office, task, why he wasn’t announced publicly as Ban’s special envoy to Niger…. Until now there were no reports about vital talks between the two sides, so where is Fowler? What has he done until now in the weeks he was there? According to unofficial reports, Tuarag-rebellion leaders find Fowler as “too government-sided”, bad cards for a mediator-post.

However, he has to be found first …

This accident draws attention to a long lasting problem: The fight of the Tuaregs for a fair share of the Uranium business, which the government has with the french company AREVA. Since some years now armed groups of the Tuaregs itensified their activities using violent force, mainly because they feel cheated/ exploited by the Niger-government/ AVERA.

Why do they not form a non-violent political force, combining their interests?

This very rational idea was announced, legitimately by a minister of the Niger-Government. This would be a very good move, but when someone builds, let’s say, a political party he has to have trust in a the democratical system of a state. Since Niger’s independence the Tuareg never felt any back-up from Niamey, living in one of the least developed areas of the world and not receiving any support. And this failing trust is increasing, due to government activities, which allows foreign companies to exploit the Tuareg regions resources without letting the Tuareg benefit.

On one side the government wants the Tuareg to manifest their complaints and build a party, on the other side it isolates the complete North economically. The “isolation-move” could be better interpreted as a sanction to calm the fighters or a “fighting-move”. However, we realise that the government and the Tuareg dont trust each other .. but only one of them is benefiting from the current situation.

How should the Tuareg rebels go on, to effectivelly gain any benefit from the Uranium which lies under “their soil”? (They dont have a title for the land, but they lived there for centuries, although nobody knew about the resources. It was/ is their natural living place.)

Like in every conflict violence can’t be a lasting solution. The economical conflict, there’s no ideologic conflict here, must be solved without weapons, especially in this extremely poor region. Therefore the rebel group: MNJ (Niger Justice Movement) and the FFR (Restoration Forces Front) must combine their intrerests in a political movement. But this move requires on one hand a cease-fire between Rebels and the government and on the other hand that both sides create a basis of trust, which may be the toughest task. The U.N. should supervise or moderate the talks. The results are very important for the future, because the northern area of Niger is affected by climate change/ desertification. Its population is loosing more and more farming land.

By building a armed protest against the government they will isolate them selves and loose any international reputation, international organisations would clearly distance them selves from them.

Beside the Tuaregs and the government, there is another very important “conflict-player“: AVERA, the uranium-expoiting company from France. The effects which the uranium-mining has on the environment and on the population have to be examined by the U.N.. AREVA uses a lot of water to wash the Uranium, before giving the water back to the soil. Later the people use the same water, which has a ten-times more level of radio-activity. Misterious skin-diseases among the people have occured in the region.

AVERA, in collaboration with the Niger-government exploits the Tuareg’s soil. It is sad to see … nothing: No shocking reaction by the population of western Countries, especially France. People seem to feel very comfortable, to be very far away from the Sahel.

Since 1991 Somalia is living in anarchy. 13 attempts to create a working government failed.

Bill Rodgers writes in “Situation in Somalia Worsens” ( Washington – 12 December 2008): {…} There has been no real central Somali government since 1991. Only U.S. aid and the presence of Ethiopian troops who invaded in 2006 have kept the current transitional government in Mogadishu from collapse.  {…} (http://voanews.com/english/2008-12-12-voa25.cfm)

Accoring to UN-information 70% of the Somalian security budget ended up being corrupted. Money which came from the US, which also supports Ethiopia, its ally.

The US seems to ignore the rise of al-kaida linked terrorists in the horn of Africa, through calm diplomacy and unefficient financial aid. And the European countries specialize themselves as pirates-attackers, sending numerous military ships in the gulf of aden. Their aim: To Stop Piracy.

Anarchy in Somalia makes the seed of piracy grow. It provides the pirates with the needed ressources, like, lawlessness and weapons.

This piracy fighting is a very triste and lazy attempt to stop the problem. Fighting the pirates might help on the short-term, but never in the long-run. The pirates don’t come from nowhere. They are based in a country, which is controlled by (more or less) warlords, an failing government, a helping hand from ethiopia and … the new protagonists: Al-Shabab, an islamic militia, which is a broke-away group of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU).

Currently hundred of thousands of Somalians depend on foreign food aid, people flee the capital muqdisho in fear of fightings and their is no improvement to be seen. Ethiopia will withdraw its troops, beside it tries to manipulate the AU-troops from Burundi and Uganda, also to leave the country.

Piracy will always go on, as long the Western Countries dont integrate a political solution for Somalia!

I am questioning myself if the US would enable a fundamental islamic group, which has clear ties with Bin Laden, to gain control over a whole country, making it a training camp for islamists.

Again a country is seen as a playball of the US. Not reacting now means to gain another enemy for the future. US policy cant work without enemies (Soviet union, Sadam, Bin Laden, Cuba, North Corea, Ahmadinejad, …).

In one year the US will “suprisingly” observe an huge number of islamists from Somalia.
“Congratulations” USA, you play your game without anybodys notice.