| Ethiopia gives Djibouti's President farmland:Land-locked Ethiopia has given Djiboutian President Omar Ismail Guelleh large tracts of land for wheat farming and a lakeside holiday home, officials said on Tuesday. Jul 26, 2008 |
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Djibouti: Location Gives Tiny State Prime Access to Big Riches
30 may 2008
For centuries, nomads have dropped down from the rocky hills around here to carve bricks of salt from an ancient lake and haul them away on the backs of camels. But a new salt miner is giving it a try, and he may be a harbinger of what's happening here. “As a salt person, my first impression was why was all this salt just sitting here,“ said Daniel R. Sutton, an American salt miner who is overseeing a new $70 million operation to industrialize the collection of Djibouti’s plentiful salt. “There’s 50 square miles of salt. It runs 20 to 30 feet deep. This could be huge.“ Djibouti is becoming the little country of big dreams. Hundreds of millions of dollars of overseas investment is pouring in, promising to turn this sleepy, sweltering mini-state, which right now does not even have a stoplight, into something of an African trade center. There are gold miners from India, geothermal experts from Iceland, Turkish hotel managers, Saudi oil engineers, French bankers and American military contractors. Tycoons from Dubai are pumping in a billion dollars just on their own, largely for the country’s port, a gateway to the region. There is even a project on paper to build a multibillion-dollar, 18-mile bridge across the Red Sea, captained by Tarek bin Laden, the half brother of Osama bin Laden. Djibouti does not have many people — about 500,000 — and few outsiders have heard of it. Its soil is mostly sand, it is unearthly hot — often more than 100 degrees — and just about everything, from bottled water to rice to gasoline, is imported. But if there was ever an example of location, location, location, it is here. Djibouti sits at the mouth of the Red Sea, where Africa and Asia nearly touch. It overlooks some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, especially for oil heading from the Persian Gulf to Europe and the United States. And because of its strategic position, both France and the United States have military bases here. Shipping is already big business in this country — and it’s getting even bigger, with investors from Dubai hoping to expand the Port of Djibouti to 3 million containers a year from its current capacity of 300,000. Dubai World, a large holding company, has also bought a controlling share in a local airline and built an industrial park, new roads and a $200 million, five-star hotel, with gurgling fountains and possibly the greenest lawn in the Horn of Africa.
“Djibouti is perfectly positioned to become a services and logistics hub,“ explained Jerome Martins Oliveira, the chief executive officer of the port, which is operated by a subsidiary of Dubai World. He said Djibouti could become the central link between the raw materials of Africa and the oil wealth of Arabia, with Dubai as its main partner. Dubai is actually the country’s model for development, said Djibouti’s foreign minister, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf. “We’re a small country with a big port,” he said “And we’re even better located than Dubai.” Clearly, little Djibouti has a long way to go. While Dubai, one of the seven United Arab Emirates and a very rich city-state, is building the world’s tallest building, the highest building here is six stories. Djibouti is ranked 149 out of 177 on the United Nations human development index, which measures life span, education and income. But Djibouti’s smallness — it basically has one city, known as Djibouti town — is a virtue, business people say. “If you need something, the government responds very fast,” said Nikhil Bhuta, the chief financial officer for the JB Group, an Indian mining company. Mr. Bhuta said he had set up mines across Africa but never had he experienced such generous terms of business, like the deal he struck with the Djiboutian government to split gold profits 80 percent for his company, 20 percent for the government. “In Africa, you never even get 50 percent,” he said. Other selling points are a stable currency that is pegged to the American dollar, excellent French food and the fact that Djibouti is an outpost of relative stability in the Horn of Africa, a region constantly plagued by war, famine and drought — sometimes all at the same time. “If you want to participate in the development of this region, Djibouti is the only place to be,” said Ould Amar Yahya, the director of a commercial bank that opened a branch in Djibouti a year ago. “Ethiopia has too many regulations. Sudan has the embargo. Eritrea has serious problems, and Somalia is too violent.” But there’s a very visible cloud on the horizon: Eritrea. Djibouti’s prickly neighbor recently moved more than 1,000 soldiers into a disputed border zone, and Djiboutian officials fear war may break out at any moment. The troops are heavily armed and literally inches apart. “We’ve got a lot going on right now,” Mr. Youssouf said. “Maybe the Eritreans are jealous.” Local customs can also be a bit of a minefield. The population here is predominantly Muslim, divided between Somalis and Afars, a nomadic group that plies the desert and sticks to its traditions. Mr. Sutton said that shortly after he arrived to begin the salt mining operation, an Afar chief threatened to kill him. “He was about 4-foot-tall with a 6-foot stick,” Mr. Sutton said. The chief was apparently angry that Mr. Sutton had not paid his respects. The chief’s people live around the salt flats. Mr. Sutton said that he had agreed to hire as many Afars as possible and that he and the chief are now friends.
Soudan: Arab League rejects arrest for Sudan's president
17 03r 2009
DAMASCUS, Syria -- The Arab League rejected an international arrest warrant for Sudan's president on charges of war crimes in Darfur, and its leader said Qatar has done the same, clearing the way for the beleaguered Sudanese leader to attend an Arab Summit there later this month. "The court asked Qatar and the Arab League at the same time, but our legal position on the matter does not allow what the International Criminal Court is requesting," Arab League head Amr Moussa said Monday during a visit to Syria. Only three Arab League states recognize the Netherlands-based court - Jordan, Djibouti and Comoros. It was unclear whether they have endorsed Moussa's statement. Under the rules of the ICC, member states must arrest those indicted if they enter their territory, which could restrict Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir's movements to just friendly countries. Moussa did not specify when the court made the requests but said he was concerned about the effect that arresting Sudan's president would have on the country's stability. "The Arab League is cooperating with the African Union to take clear measures on this issue," he said. "We ask, and we are making contacts, to stop these measures (by the ICC) ... because stability and security in Sudan is in danger." The court issued its arrest warrant on March 4, accusing al-Bashir of orchestrating atrocities against civilians in Darfur, where his Arab-led government has been battling ethnic African rebels since 2003. Up to 300,000 people have been killed, and 2.7 million have been driven from their homes. Al-Bashir has denied the charges and has said he will not cooperate with court. He has struck a defiant tone, and his trip to Qatar at the end of the month is meant to show he cannot be touched. He has expelled 13 large foreign aid agencies mainly operating in Darfur, accusing them of spying for the court. The U.N. has said those expulsions will leave millions at risk of a humanitarian crisis. On Monday, al-Bashir said he wants all international aid groups out of the country within a year. Moussa said the Arab League was working with the African Union in trying to halt the court's efforts. Many Arab and African countries have lobbied the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution deferring any prosecution of the president for at least a year, hoping to defuse the crisis. But the U.S., which has a veto on the council, does not support the move, and there have been some signs of frustration among Arab and African countries with al-Bashir's tough line. When the court's chief prosecutor first presented his charges against al-Bashir last year, the Arab League said the move undermined Sudan's sovereignty and only the country's courts should have jurisdiction.
Horn Africa: Djibouti Intellectuals Denounce Colonially Incited Tribalism as Reason of Djibouti's Tribulation
29 03 2009
In an earlier article entitled Freemasonic Conspiracy vs. 4000 Years of Somali History: Targets, Methods of the Anglo-French Elites amongst others:
I focused on the external reasons that triggered the calamities suffered and the adversities faced by the Somali Nation in all parts of the Somali homeland, the tyrannized Ogaden, the peremptorily detached Djibouti, the arbitrarily cut off Somali province of Kenya, and the mainland Somalia which was plunged in a 18 years long civil war. Many have focused on the existing internal reasons of the Somali strife, identifying in forms of tribalism a critical reason for Somalia’s present disarray. This analysis is correct but can bring only small relatively speaking results. It mainly helps focus on the details of the current developments in every social cell of the beleaguered nation; it offers pertinent conclusions when the target is to denounce to local wrongdoers.
The Limits of the Anti-tribalist Analysis:
The limits of the anti-tribalist analysis are delineated by the fact that the prevalence of the tribal and personal interests in the minds of the corrupt warlords is not the original reason that stands behind the still ongoing fratricidal conflict of Somalia. The rivalries among the numerous wealthy and well-armed (notice this!) warlords, gang heads, and sub-tribal chieftains are not an event that started by its own; these enmities did not ensue from the local socioeconomic dynamics. As trait of Somali socio-economic life, these rivalries and clashes do not represent any historical trend throughout the long Islamic ages of the glorious and resplendent Somali sultanates. This does not mean, on the other hand, that there had never been a tribal rivalry in Somalia; there were many points of conflict and a long series of clashes that’s true. However, they were always contained and their importance never reached at a national level, threatening the entire Somali Nation. If the extent of the tribal clashes has been over-magnified over the past 18 years, it’s because these minor tribal conflicts have been maliciously exacerbated and artificially aggravated through many different ways. The malignant actor of the extraordinary deterioration of the pre-existing (but always adroitly contained) tribal clashes and rivalries was the colonial elite of England and France. For this reason, today’s Somalis will never achieve peace and unity without clearly identifying the authentic perpetrator of the Crime committed against Somalia 1991 - 2009. It is certainly good for every Somali to deploy an effort and attribute to the national Somali interest the due and undisputed prevalence over the personal / tribal gain. It is certainly great for every Somali to denounce the tribalisms practiced here and there throughout Somalia. But it would be determinant for Somalia’s ultimate pacification and rehabilitation to unite against the foreign colonial enemy, isolate the English and the French diplomacies from any development taking place in Somalia, reject their fallacies and trickeries, and leave their local puppets irreversibly exposed and irrevocably tarnished in front of all the Somalis. Only when the least important act of the last minor Somali warlord will be viewed by all the Somalis as service offered to the colonial gangsters of the Somali Nation, the Somali tribal Mafia lords will be met with a major setback. This will be the beginning of their end. I republish here a brief but insightful analysis elaborated by a shrewd Somali commentator, Mr. Nasr Ibn Othman. Patriotic Somali intellectual with very wide interests, Mr. Nasr Ibn Othman, 33, was born in East Africa, grew in North Africa, and was educated in England (Engineering & Mining Industry). Among his cultural interests, the top position is reserved for the Central Asiatic Islamic Art which represents a perfect reminiscence of the historical Afro-Asiatic interaction and a modern reflection of the socioeconomic cultural interconnectedness of Eastern Africa and Asia through the land, sea, and desert routes of the Silk, Perfumes and Spices Trade. In his Somalia and the Corrupt 4.5 Formula, Mr. Nasr Ibn Othman analyzes and castigates the tribal skidding of some of his compatriots. I therefore reproduce it integrally. Somalia and the Corrupt 4.5 Formula
The purpose of a state is to provide material benefits to the people living under its authority. The state, in order to exist as an independent entity, amongst other things, must possess the ability to enforce its right to security. Any entity that calls itself a government must demonstrate this ability before it can be considered as a legitimate entity. The monstrous TFG of Somalia cannot demonstrate, in any way, that it is the legitimate government of Somalia. Furthermore, the so-called Transitional Federal Charter is an abomination that is wholly inspired by non-Somali actors. The TFG of Somalia, as a concept, represents an affront to Somali culture, and it must never be respected by the people of Somalia. The TFG of Somalia is a tool, manipulated by the shadowy enemies of the Somali people, for the social fragmentation of the Somali nation along clan lines. The diabolical Transitional Federal Charter states that all Somali political offices must be divided in accordance with the vile 4.5 formula. It is truly astonishing that grown men can seriously entertain the idea of executing state business on such a basis. The disgraceful 4.5 formula is nothing less than an assault upon the dignity of the Somali nation. This dishonourable concept only exists to serve the base interest of the many loathsome clan chauvinists of Somalia, and the Somali people must never succumb to such divisive schemes. It is clear to me that the clan lineage of any Somali politician is simply irrelevant when one is asked to evaluate the political competence of the individual in question. The clan lineage of a particular Somali politician is about as important as that individual's height or weight with respect to the ability to perform a specific political duty. How has it come to pass that certain people, who claim to be serving the best interests of the Somali nation, can entertain the dreadful idea sharing political power in accordance with the 4.5 formula? The 4.5 formula’s if adopted by the people of Somalia’s shall surely lead to the dismemberment of the Somali nation. The Somali nation, like any other nation, cannot afford to prostitute the nature of its national politics by indulging in the promotion of shameful pursuit like political fragmentation along clan lines. The folly of blindly following the wicked men who promote divisive agendas such as the futile attempt to give legitimacy to the flawed TFG of Somalia by way of foreign military assistance must be resisted by all Somali people. The TFG of Somalia represents, quite simply, a stain upon the honour of the Somali nation. Over 20,000 helpless Somali civilians have been killed as a result of the illegitimate claims of the TFG of Somalia. And, over 3 million Somali civilians have either been forcibly displaced, within the Somali national territory, or are in acute danger of starving to death as a direct result of the genocidal military aggression launched in the name of the TFG of Somalia.
We, of the honourable Somali nation, must never entertain the idea of supporting a criminal entity, such as the TFG of Somalia, in its quest for political legitimacy. How can the Somali people ever recognise the legitimacy of the TFG after a brutal Ethiopian military intervention has failed to win political legitimacy for the TFG of Somalia? The TFG of Somalia is unable enforce its declared claim to rule the people of Somalia, and everybody is aware of this fact. Therefore, this particularly dishonourable political aberration the TFG of Somalia must not be permitted sully the good name of the Somali nation any longer. In statecraft, there can never be such a thing as legitimacy without might, and the TFG of Somalia enjoys neither might nor political legitimacy.
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| No stand-off with Djibouti: Eritrea : Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki denied today that there is a frontier stand-off with neighbouring Djibouti even though tensions between the two have grown in recent weeks. May 20, 2008 |
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| Djibouti turns over 26 Eritreans to ICRC: Djiboutian authorities handed over 26 Eritreans to the International Committee of the Red Cross who had been under their custody since the June military clashes between Eritrea.Thu Sep 04, 2008 |
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