Somalia: Christians Living in Fear as Country’s Crises Deepens

Ruins of Qa’ableh, Somalia. Image via Wikipedia

It has been widely reported in the media that as a result of the famine in East Africa, Somalia is facing ‘not only a humanitarian crises’ but also ‘a human rights crises and a children’s crises.

This indication is contained in a report by the Prayer Communication team of Open Doors UK a United Kingdom based Christian humanitarian organization (www.opendoorsuk.org) adding that Islamist insurgent, Al-Shabaab, the main armed group opposed to the government in Somalia, is reported to be systematically recruiting children under 15 as child soldiers.

It noted that the group is denying the children access to education, and carrying out indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas, resulting in the deaths of civilian adults and children.

Quoting Amnesty International and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it observed that two regions of southern Somalia were officially declared to be in a state of famine by the United Nations (UN) earlier this week, amid the worst drought to hit the region for 60 years.

Open Doors said that the crisis is being exacerbated by Al-Shabaab’s refusal to allow foreign aid organizations access to the parts of the country under their control. An Al-Shabaab spokesman has accused aid groups of being political, saying that UN reports of famine are ‘sheer propaganda.‘

According to it, Al-Shabaab currently controls the majority of southern Somalia and targets Christians, who are then routinely killed. Kidnapping and killings of NGO workers have also been reported.

via Somalia: Christians Living in Fear as Country’s Crises Deepens.

h/t: persecution.org.

The (real) situation in the country is so grave that people who thought there was an “economic miracle” in Somalia, due to the lack of government, are considering they were wrong:

If telecommunications’ business has prospered (ejem) in Somalia is not because “all” the country is showing an upward trend, but because there is a powerful coastal minority, formed by the famous pirates and their protector clans, who can afford to buy cell or satellite phones . The majority of the population, many million people, can only communicate by smoke signals, if they can find a dead branch somewhere. The real data to compare, if you want to show the relative strength of the country, are not the costs related to individual people, but of community investments. And there the picture is bleak: no airport, no harbor, no fucking kilometer of paved road, not a single unpaid water treatment station by the United Nations, no school or university (the illiteracy rate exceeds 80%) zero infrastructure of any kind since the days of Methuselah. We can’t say in any way that they go relatively well, even if we don’t consider the famine.

Related articles

• Somalia: Extremist Group Bans Samosas (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Calls for aid agencies to channel famine relief through Somali NGOs (guardian.co.uk)
• Somalia: Islamists kill NGO workers and burn food and medicines (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Somalia Militants Bedevil Efforts on Famine (online.wsj.com)
• Horn of Africa: 400,000 crammed into refugee camp fleeing worst regional drought in decades (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Horn of Africa: UNHCR calls for aid to Somalia in worst food crisis (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)

Somalia: Islamists kill NGO workers and burn food and medicines

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According to the Monitoring Group, some UN agencies working in Somalia suspect that several local organizations which  they have funded and through which they have distributed aid, were giving money to al Shabaab, payments that the Islamist group called “taxes” .

The report details several cases where members of al Shabaab have asked for bribes to the UN and aid agencies in exchange for allowing them to work in rebel areas and in some cases, burning food and medicine when they didn’t get the required money.

Al Shabaab promised this July to lift the prohibition on distributing food aid, imposed in 2010, but then said that it will maintain restrictions on the World Food Programme (WFP) the UN and key NGOs.

The report of the observation that Al Shabaab commander gave a speech in late 2010 in which he warned that the Somalis do not accept foreign aid. “You can eat whatever you want except the food received as aid,” he said.

The WFP has said that can not access more than 2 million Somalis at risk of starvation in areas controlled by the Islamist militia. Although try to reach these areas over the next week, said that if this fails will be raised as a last resort, throw the food out of airplanes.

…According to the report, commanders of the insurgent group asked humanitarian organizations for an initial payment of $ 10,000 to allow them access to their controlled territory and then make them pay another $ 10,000  to register themselves (as “NGOs”) and another $ 6,000 every six months.

The rebels are also demanding the payment of 20 percent of the value of all foods and medicines that pass through their areas and impose a 10 percent tax on all vehicles.

via Los islamistas de Al Shabaab matan a trabajadores de ONGS y prenden fuego a alimentos y medicinas.

Related:

• Horn of Africa: 400,000 crammed into refugee camp fleeing worst regional drought in decades (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Horn of Africa: UNHCR calls for aid to Somalia in worst food crisis(teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Somali group bans samosas (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)

UN: Sec Council asked to consider “green helmets”

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An article in The Guardian recently reported that a special meeting of the UN Security Council will be asked to consider the concept of “a new environmental peacekeeping force – green helmets – which could step into conflicts caused by shrinking resources.”

via The Green Police Are No Longer A Joke – The UN May Create An Army Of “Green Helmets” To Fight Climate Change.

Read it all – it’s somewhat chilling… UN peacekeeping soldiers have been ineffective to prevent conflicts or to end them. There have been horrific news about their abuses. And now they want to create another UN service “environment-keeping” while at the same time a New Peer-reviewed study proves Global warming is a hoax:

When the new data is combined with existing NOAA and NASA data the study reflects  that for 25 years and counting, carbon dioxide emissions have directly and indirectly trapped far less heat than alarmist computer models have predicted. 

The bottom line is that the basic premise of the global warming hoaxers is between all of the coal, cars, human exhalation etc, CO2 is collecting in the atmosphere and trapping a certain amount of heat preventing it from escaping into space and eventually heating to the planet up and causing us all do die by heat, drowning and skanky beer. But by simply looking out the window this new study proves that far less heat is being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and it is escaping much faster meaning you will still be able to attempt to hike to the North Pole a decade from now and NY is not going to be buried under the ocean (well not because of global  warming anyway).

h/t Augusto.

Related articles

• UN security council to consider climate change peacekeeping (politics.ie)
• UN security council to consider climate change peacekeeping (guardian.co.uk)

UN Report: More than 3/4 of people killed in Afghanistan are caused by the Taliban

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The Taliban are not happy about it:

U.N. representatives consider that women and children are being killed and wounded at home more than ever before, due to the intensification of Taliban attacks on the Afghan territory.

About 55 percent more children were killed in the first half of this year by the Taliban, compared to the last year. Thus, 3,268 people were killed from January 1, 2010, and 1,997 were injured and maimed. 2,477 of these people were killed or wounded by anti-governmental forces such as the Taliban, while 386 can be blamed on the pro-governmental forces, including the  International Security Assistance Force and Afghan Security Forces.

More here.

UN Report: Iran was caught 10 times sending weapons to terrorists

Iran was caught 10 times in recent years, transferring weapons to terrorist groups in the Middle East. These illegal activities included sending in April a shipment of advanced missiles which was intercepted while it was being sent to the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a United Nations report released by the Jerusalem Post.

The report, prepared by an independent panel of experts from the UN, which monitors compliance with UN sanctions imposed on Tehran, was elevated to the Security Council of the UN. The report was leaked to the Internet and picked up by Israeli defense analysts.

The report documents 10 cases of illegal shipment of weapons, including the cargo ship Victoria, who was arrested by the Israel Navy, earlier this year, with several containers full of weapons to Hamas.

More here.

Related articles

• Report: Iran Sent Weapons to Mideast Terrorists (foxnews.com)

China, Russia and Brazil, against sanctioning Syrian regime

“There is no consensus”, stated the Brazilian foreign minister, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, speaking about the European proposal for the UN’s resolution to condemn the Syrian regime for the violent repression of demonstrations. The diplomat stated that “it is unclear whether Lebanon, the only Arab country on the Security Council, would support it or not. “

European countries of the UN executive body (France, Britain, Germany and Portugal) supported by the United States have submitted a draft resolution to the 15-member Council to condemn the government of Bashar Assad. However, both China and Russia have veto power. Both of them and Brazil have expressed their misgivings.

The 15 countries were due to reconvene on Wednesday to address the issue, although the vote could take several days. At present the highest international security body is composed, in addition to the above countries, also by Bosnia-Herzegovina, Gabon, Nigeria, Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa.

More here.

Just in case there is precendent for them and friends, don’t you think?

Related: ‘Reforming’ Syria fills graves with dissidents; Hillary Clinton warns Assad that he’s ‘nearly’ forfeited his legitimacy.

Climate Change UN Summit: from prayers to Mayan goddess to Bolivian anger

Mayan Goddess Ixchel

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also “the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you — because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools.”

She called for “a balanced outcome” which would marry financial and emissions commitments from industrialized countries aimed at combating climate change with “the understanding of fairness that will guide long-term mitigation efforts.”

“Excellencies, the goddess Ixchel would probably tell you that a tapestry is the result of the skilful interlacing of many threads,” said Figueres, who hails from Costa Rica and started her greetings in Spanish before switching to English. “I am convinced that 20 years from now, we will admire the policy tapestry that you have woven together and think back fondly to Cancun and the inspiration of Ixchel.”

via Global Warming Summit in Cancun Opens with Prayer to Pagan Goddess Ixchel | NewsBusters.org.

Balkans: Saudis fund Muslims spreading hate of the West

SAUDI ARABIA is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for jihad in Afghanistan.

According to officials in Macedonia, Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilise the Balkans. Strict Wahhabi and Salafi factions funded by Saudi organisations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities.

Fundamentalists have financed the construction of scores of mosques and community centres as well as handing some followers up to £225 a month. They are expected not only to grow beards but also to persuade their wives to wear the niqab, or face veil, a custom virtually unknown in the liberal Islamic tradition of the Balkans.

via Islamization Watch: Saudis fund Balkan Muslims spreading hate of the West.

Macedonia is monitoring more than 50 AQ terrorists in its territory and there are also several Islamic charities under scrutiny:

One of the groups under scrutiny is the International Islamic Relief Organisation from Saudi Arabia, which is on a United Nations blacklist of organisations backing terrorism. It did not respond to inquiries, but has previously denied involvement in terrorist activities, calling such claims “totally unfounded”.

Again and again. But then Islamic states complain about “the targetting of Muslims in some parts of the world“, passing a new resolution against the “defamation of religions” through the UNHRC.

Related:

1. Islamic Relief Organisation linked to terrorism (wikipedia.org).
2. The UN partners with terror (investigativeproject.org)

Before: Bulgaria imposing Wahabbi Islam by force.

Iran: Planning of New Atomic Sites, Suspected

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The United Nations inspectors assigned to monitor Iran’s nuclear program are now searching for evidence of two such sites, prompted by recent comments by a top Iranian official that drew little attention in the West, and are looking into a mystery about the whereabouts of recently manufactured uranium enrichment equipment.

In an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency, the official, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered work to begin soon on two new plants. The plants, he said, “will be built inside mountains,” presumably to protect them from attacks.

via Agencies Suspect Iran Is Planning New Atomic Sites – NYTimes.com.

Who’s surprised? Me neither…

PS: In the photo, is it my eyes, or Ahmadinejad is hand in hand with a man?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Iran considers uranium plant sites (cnn.com)
• Iran VP: work on 2 enrichment sites to begin soon (ctv.ca)

Yemen: women protests ban on child marriages

Thousands of women demonstrated outside parliament Sunday to oppose legislation banning the marriage of girls under 17. The protesters held up banners proclaiming “don’t ban what Allah made permissible,” or “stop violating Islamic sharia law in the name of rights and freedoms.” Proposed amendments to the civil status law stalled in parliament last August after severe opposition to a government proposal that would ban girls under 17 and males under 18 from marrying. Child marriages are common, especially in rural areas, where girls as young as eight have been married off.

via “Stop violating Islamic sharia in the name of rights and freedoms!”.

I don’t think Nojoud thinks (1, 2, 3) the same as these women.

From Yemen Times:

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon starts Mid-East peace push

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After a Hamas rocket killed a Thai worker in Israel, while Baroness Aschton was visiting Gaza, and another rocket was fired to south Israel, UNSC first stopped in his official visit in Ramallah, then he will visit Israel:

The UN secretary general is meeting Palestinian leaders at the beginning of a mission to press for a resumption of talks between them and the Israelis.

Ban Ki-Moon‘s first stop was in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he met PM Salam Fayyad. He is to see the Israeli president Shimon Peres later.

Israel’s controversial plan to build 1,600 more homes in East Jerusalem has provoked the latest round of activity.

via BBC News – UN chief Ban Ki-Moon starts Mid-East peace push.

So, what has Ban said?

The UN chief has said Israel’s blockade of Gaza is causing “unacceptable suffering,” during a Middle East visit to reinvigorate the peace process.

But I haven’t read any statement from Mr. Ban speaking about Hamas Minister Mr Jarbu’s words in which he considered Jews as bacteria and asked Allah to anhilate all of them.

Related articles by Zemanta

• UN chief pledges support for Gaza (news.bbc.co.uk)

technorati tags: West_Bank, Israel, Ban_Ki-Moon, Hamas, UN, United_Nations, UNSC, United_Nations_Secretary_General

US: Bipartisan Senate majority pushing Clinton on Western Sahara

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“We are writing to urge to make the resolution of the Western Sahara stalemate a U.S. foreign policy priority for North Africa,” the senators wrote to Clinton. “We are very concerned about the mounting evidence of growing instability in North Africa.  Terrorist activities are increasing and countries in the region are under substantial pressure from a growing and restless youth population and a precarious economic base.”

Specifically, the senators urge Clinton to pursue a “serious and credible” 2007 proposal by Morocco that would establish autonomy in the region except for symbols of Moroccan sovereignty such as currency as well as border control and foreign policy. Morocco, a major U.S. ally, reclaimed the area from Spain in the 1970s. The plan is being opposed by the Polisario, a Sahrawi rebel movement that is pushing for a regional referendum that would offer independence. A cease-fire agreement between the two sides has been in place since 1991, monitored by a special United Nations peacekeeping force.

via Bipartisan Senate majority pushing Clinton on Western Sahara – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

Well, the only thing these guys are doing is throwing Polisario, which has not being a terrorist organization, into Al-Qaeda‘s hands. Morocco has tortured these guys, have condemned them to live as refugees and has imprisoned them for attending peaceful demonstrations. Morocco can be a “US ally” but it’s nothing more than a terrible dictatorship to the best glory of King Mohammed VI. He blocks newspapers that critisize the regime or Islamic mores and arrests Christians for proselytising. Specially important are the restrictions on press freedom and the country has also protested against drawings of Muhammad in foreign publications and blocked the latter inside Moroccan territory. Morocco has also accused and imprisoned people on homosexuality charges.

So this is not the least intelligent, I’m afraid.

One of the many empty towns built in Western Sahara by Morocco (Author: Dexcel)

Iraq: Mosul Christians protest demanding Govt action (U)

Following the Christian leaders’ plead for Govt protection, Christians have protested in the streets. From Catholic Culture:

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of Mosul led over 1,000 Iraqi Catholics in a silent protest on February 28 to demand that the government act to put a stop to violence against Christians there.

The United Nations estimated that 683 Christians fled Mosul between February 20 and February 27. Chaldean Catholic Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona of Mosul estimated that "about 400 families" had left the city’s community of 4,000 Christians.

“The daily massacre suffered by the Christian community … is met with indifference from the authorities,” said Archbishop Casmoussa on the eve of the march. “We will be fasting and praying for peace and for the survival of Christians.”

“Security is not guaranteed,” he added. “There are soldiers in front of the church, and this helps to prevent terrorist attacks. But today’s Christian families are being killed on the streets or in their homes. More protection is needed. We ask authorities that the culprits be arrested and prosecuted according to law. We want justice to be done.”

Archbishop Casmoussa added that the Christians of Mosul were consoled by a visit on February from 82-year-old Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, the patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church. Eleven of the nation’s 15 dioceses and eparchies are Chaldean Catholic; two are Syrian Catholic, one is Armenian Catholic, and one is Latin Rite.

I’m not very optimistic. MSM are silencing Christian [*] persecution in Iraq and Christians (and Human Right activists) are not particularly interested in knowing about the plight of Christians in Iraq.

[*] Whatever the denomination they belong to, Christians are being subjected to attacks and harrassment to oblige them to emigrate from Iraq.

(U) Three relatives of Father Mzen Ishoa, a Syro-Catholic priest who was abducted and later released in 2007 (click here for more information), were shot and killed by unknown assailants on February 23. The gunmen forcibly entered the believers’ home and opened fire on Aishwa Maroki (59) and his two sons, Mokhlas (31) and Bassim (25). Aishwa’s wife and daughter were also in the home but were not harmed. (Sources: Middle East Concern, Catholic News Agency, AFP).(via).

UN: considering “Global Tax on the Internet”

As we are in a global economic crisis, the UN wants to… tax us all more:

The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering a plan to ask governments to impose a global consumer tax on such things as Internet activity or everyday financial transactions like paying bills online.Such a scheme could raise “tens of billions of dollars” on behalf of the United Nations’ public health arm from a broad base of consumers, which would then be used to transfer drug-making research, development and manufacturing capabilities, among other things, to the developing world.

The multibillion-dollar “indirect consumer tax” is only one of a “suite of proposals” for financing the rapid transformation of the global medical industry that will go before WHO’s 34-member supervisory Executive Board at its biannual meeting in Geneva.

via U.N.’s World Health Organization Eyeing Global Tax on Banking, Internet Activity – International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News – FOXNews.com.

(via)

I’m sure that multimillonaires and govt busibodies are not going to pay this tax…

Somalia: AU to Ask UN to Focus on Global Terrorism Role

The African Union is urging the United Nations to boost its support for Somalia’s fragile government in view of the rise of terrorist activity in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula. AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping calls the overall security situation in the Horn of Africa nation “unstable, volatile and challenging’.

via AU to Ask UN to Focus on Somalia’s Global Terrorism Role « Haaraa News.

It’s about time to call for help, although it’s doubful that neither the African Union nor the United Nations would do something really important in this regard. This important growth in terrorism is something that was much more than probable, but that hasn’t been really considered in an international level. Surely Clinton’s failed campaign in the 1990′s has something to do with it. But Al-Qaeda’s group in the area, Al-Shebab, is growing stronger by the day, in a country with only a “virtual” central Government, which in reality has no power at all.

Eritrea: US warns the country against arming Al-Shabab

Eritrea to face US wrath if it continues arming Somali terrorists | Bartamaha.com — Breaking News – Somali Videos — Opinions

Two senior Obama administration officials have warned that Eritrea could face severe punishment if it does not halt its alleged arms shipments to an Islamist terrorist group in Somalia.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said last week that the Obama team is “deeply concerned and very frustrated” with Eritrea’s support for Al Shabaab fighters who are trying to overthrow the Somali government.

“It is unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it, nor will other members of the Security Council,” Ms Rice told the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee.

Via BrucePatrick23.

Islamists are not going to be really impressed by someone who tells them “we are not tolerating it”. They know Obama won’t do anything, as he doesn’t want to be considered a “warmonger” like Bush.

Tags Technorati: Eritrea, US, Al-Shabab, Al-Qaeda, Islamic terrorism, terrorism, Obama, Islamism, Susan Rice, United Nations, UNSC, Somalia

"Sistine Chapel" at United Nations sparks controversy (News Feature)

As Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo prepares for the unveiling of his most gigantic work so far at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, he is at the height of his artistic glory.

Only a political squabble over the cost of the art work is casting a shadow over the ceremony, which will be attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Tuesday, November 18.

Barcelo, who is being compared with Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Joan Miro (1893-1983), worked for 13 months on redecorating a negotiating room which will now be known as the Chamber for Human Rights and the Alliance of Civilizations. The Alliance of Civilizations project was launched by Zapatero and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to improve dialogue between the West and the Muslim world in 2006.

(…) The budget to renovate the room amounted to nearly 20 million euros (25 million dollars), 60 per cent of which was covered by Spanish sponsors.

The rest was given by the government, including 500,000 euros that were lifted from a development aid fund.

‘Art has no price,’ Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said, eliciting criticism from the conservative opposition which said the same money could have been used for vaccinating children or opening water holes in developing countries.

via “Sistine Chapel” at United Nations sparks controversy (News Feature)

Don’t think this needs any comments… It’s a shame.

North Korea is spying on citizens and carrying mass executions to avoid the publicity on worst famine

North Korea is clamping down on cell phones and long distance telephone calls to prevent the spread of news about a worsening food crisis, according to the United Nations investigator on human rights for the isolated communist country.

In a report to the U.N. General Assembly, Vitit Muntarbhorn, a Thai law professor who has never been allowed to visit North Korea, said that its government is using public executions as a means of intimidating the population, and using spies to infiltrate and expose religious communities.

His report came two days after the World Food Program said that two thirds of North Koreans do not have enough to eat, in the country’s worst crisis since as many as three million people died of famine a decade ago.

via FOXNews.com – North Korea Clamps Down on Cell Phones, Uses Public Executions to Halt News of Food Crisis – International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

NKorea won’t be a terrorist state for USA, but it seems to me that NKoreans are not feeling the same…