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UN Piracy Resolution Dodges Toxic Waste and Sinking
of Wrong Ship, Somali TFG's Sphere to Shrink
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner
City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 2 -- As the UN Security
Council congratulated itself for Tuesday's resolution about Somali
piracy,
unresolved are the problems of the dumping of toxic waste on Somali
shores, the
sinking
of a fishing ship and its crew in the name of fighting pirates, and
the
lack of popularity of the UN-based Transitional Federal Government as
its
Ethiopian backers threatened to leave at month's end.
Even the
UN's envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, has said the European
Union must
stop its ships from dumping on Somalia. But when Inner City Press asked
Ambassador
Ripert of France, which still holds the EU's presidency, about how
toxic waste
will be dealt with, he said he was not prepared for the question. Video
here.
When Inner
City Press asked him
about reports
that the Indian navy's loudly proclaimed sinking of a pirate
"mother ship" last month turned out to be a fishing ship, he said,
You should ask the Indians. But the shooting was done under the cover
of Security
Council resolution.
The U.S.
representative, Rosemarie DiCarlo, came out of the Council and said the
U.S. is
working "bilaterally" to try to stabilize Somalia. Inner City Press
asked if that meant speaking with the Ethiopians, since the U.S. armed
them and
gave them the green light to drive on Mogadishu back in December 2006.
Video here.
Apparently it does. But the Ethiopians make good on their word, to
leave by the
end of this month, expect the TFG's sphere of influence to shrink even
further.
Of the TFG,
a Somali source of Inner City Press opines that "on
the TFG side the President he is against the agreement as it was
between one
clan -- the prime minister and Sheikh Sharif are of the same clan. The
speaker
of the parliament is now expected to fly to Puntland to join the
Presidents
effort in opposing the agreement. Both see their influence will be
diluted by
the addition of 275 more members to the parliament and they do not want
to have
to run for the offices they are already possess."
Amb. Ripert of France and EU, no comment on
toxic waste or wrong-ship down
Compared to
this real politik, the UK Deputy Permanent
Representative Karen Pierce took a more legal-minded approach, speaking
about
the right and responsibility of member states, parties to the 1988
Convention
for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime
Navigation,
to "accept delivery of persons responsible for or suspected of seizing
or
exercising control over a ship by force or there thereof."
But when
one
suspects a person or ship of piracy, is that enough to fire and sink
the
vessel? Inner City Press asked Amb. Pierce what recourse the owner of a
erroneously downed ship would have. She said she wasn't sure, nor about
the
applicability of the SUA Convention to the problems of toxic waste
dumping. Video here.
News analysis: And
so what exactly were these
Council members congratulating themselves for, with this belated and
repetitive
resolution? South Africa's outgoing Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, asked
as he
entered the Council chamber about the resolution, groaned dismissively
and told
Inner City Press, they're never going to do anything for Somalia,
haven't you
understood that?
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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USA
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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