Somaliland
Government web site is www.somalilandgov.com
Posted on 11/12/2001 3:34:31 PM PST by LarryLied
ABIDJAN. As part of the German contribution
to the U.S.-led fight against terrorism, plans to
deploy elements of the German navy off the
coast of Somalia are evidently further along
than Berlin wants people to believe.
According to sources close to Ibrahim Egal,
president of the internationally unrecognized
Republic of Somaliland, which borders
Somalia to the west, the decision to deploy the
German navy in the region was made some
time ago.
The naval force is expected to be made up of
around 1,800 personnel, and sources say the
joint German-American task force is to use the
port city of Berbera, in the north of Somalia as
a support base. According to this information,
German ships will operate from the harbor
while the U.S. contingent will take over the
airport.
The focus of their observation will be on
movements between the port of Bosaso in the
autonomous Somali region of Puntland and the
Yemenite coast. The United States suspects
that Al Ittihad Al Islamija, a fundamentalist
group active in Somalia, has been using
Bosaso to smuggle volunteers to fight with
Taliban rebels against the opposition Northern
Alliance in Afghanistan.
Sources in the capital of Hargeysa say that the
German navy's area of patrol has also been
known for some time now. It is said to extend
from the Yemenite island of Socotra to
Somalia's northeastern tip up to the Saudi Red
Sea port of Jidda.
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder indicated
recently that the German navy would most
certainly be based around the Horn of Africa,
an area it knows well from its operations there
in the mid-1990s, when it helped evacuate the
German UN contingent from Somalia. The
area is also of geo-political relevance as U.S.
installations in both Somalia and Yemen have
been the target of terrorist attacks.
At the same time, the extension of the patrol
area well into the Red Sea would permit the
navy to screen the Sudanese port of Sudan. As
yet, however, there is no timetable for the
deployment.
Another sign that the United States is seeking
support in Somalia is the imminent lifting of
Saudi Arabia's import ban on Somali cattle.
Cattle exports are Somalia's most important
source of hard currency and the embargo by its
biggest customer was politically motivated.
The economic boycott was to force Somaliland
to give up its independence and recognize the
transition government in Mogadishu supported
by Saudi Arabia.
According to observers, a CNN television
team has been in Somalia for several days
filming a story aimed at showing the "positive
sides" of the unrecognized republic. Observers
say the idea is to give U.S. viewers an image
of Somalia contradicting the grisly pictures of
mutilated corpses of U.S. soldiers that came
out of Mogadishu in 1993.
Nov. 12
© Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2001
I think this article, at least in translation, gets a few facts mixed up, like "Somaliland" and "Somalia". My understanding is that "Somaliland" is northern Somalia, basically the territory previously known as British Somalia, on the Gulf of Aden. Apparently there is a relatively moderate government there, but we won't recognize it as a separate entity due to Saudi objections and perhaps a concern that we would condone the division of "Somalia". Trying to find articles on it. They have a possible naval base at Hargeisa, be a nice post. Djibouti is too the west, but you know those French!!!
If you find any web sites on Somaililand, please mail me or post here. Looks like CNN might be doing some work for the State Department.
Somalia is a potential target. So is Yemen, if we wanted to really rile the Saudis...
Good observation. Hadn't occurred to me CNN would ever help our side. But then we have a Texan in the White House. They can be very persuasive. Thanks for the information, aside from a few names, I'm unfamiliar with this area.
Yeah, that's right.
But did not the Soviets had a base on that island? In that case it just has to be rebuilt ;-)
Posted tonight:
CNN -- The United States plans to use a military airfield in Tajikistan to base strike aircraft that can be used to launch attacks into Afghanistan, two senior Pentagon officials told CNN Monday. . . http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/569558/posts
The New York Times had a long article the other day about a Uzbek base we are rebuilding but I can't find it. Wonder if we'll upgrade these bases to handle C-5's.
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