Djibouti calls on Security Council to help avert border conflict with Eritrea

 

Source: United Nations Radio

Date: 07 May 2008

Djibouti has urged the UN Security Council to intervene to prevent a border conflict with Eritrea.

In a letter to the Security Council, Djibouti’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf called to the Council “to deploy urgently all necessary measures toward preventing yet another conflict …in a region long ravaged by mayhem, bloodshed and destruction.”The letter described the situation as “a looming crisis at the common border..”

It says Djibouti has been “witnessing a progressive growth of Eritrean troops at the common border since February 2008 which included preparation of fortification and battlements; equipment flow; and well-armed Eritrean soldiers” on Djibouti’s side of the Ras Doumeira mountain range over-looking the busy Red Sea shipping lanes.

Djibouti says it “embarked on quiet diplomacy”, but its “efforts have failed to elicit any credible response.”

Djibouti and Eritrea have clashed twice over the border area situated at the southern end of the Red Sea.

93 Reasons Why Journalism Remains a Dangerous Profession

Vienna, 8 May 2008

PRESS RELEASE

93 Reasons Why Journalism Remains a Dangerous Profession

 

With 93 journalists killed, 2007 was another deadly year. Iraq proved again to be the most hazardous place on earth to report, with the conflict accounting for almost half of all journalists killed during the year. In Somalia, another conflict zone, eight journalists were also killed.

 

In Europe, the murder of Hrant Dink by a Turkish nationalist reinforced the dangers to those who defend freedom of the press. In Russia, pressures on the media intensified in the run-up to elections, and impunity exists for those who harass, assault or murder journalists.

 

The Middle East and North Africa region was 2007’s deadliest, with 42 of the 44 journalists killed dying in Iraq. Two journalists were killed in the Palestinian Authority. In the meantime, heightened security in other conflict zones, such as Sudan and Chad, made reporting difficult. Censorship was widespread in the region, with the critical press in Iran, for example, all but silenced.

 

Pressure continued to be exerted on the press in other African countries. While Somalia was the deadliest place to work in the region, the press was also severely restricted in Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Gambia, and Zimbabwe. Censorship came in all forms, from physical aggression to the subtle abuse of bureaucracy. In Zimbabwe, for example, where practising journalism without a licence triggers criminal charges, the authorities’ reluctance in extending licences appeared designed to obstruct reporters.

 

Armed conflicts in Asia made the region the second deadliest of 2007. However, the troubled countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka were not the only ones where journalist lives were lost. Four were killed in the Philippines, where reporting on corruption repeatedly proved fatal. China remained the worst jailer of journalists worldwide, with no less than 30 journalists and 50 bloggers currently imprisoned. In Australasia and Oceania, Fiji’s interim government tightened its grip on the media following the 2006 coup.

 

Fifteen journalists were killed in the Americas. With two journalists killed and eight missing, Mexico remained the region’s most dangerous country. In the U.S., Chauncey Bailey of the Oakland Post was gunned down in the first targeted assassination of a journalist since 1993.

 

“Like the murder of Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, Hrant Dink’s murder reinforces not only the bravery of journalists everywhere who challenge censorship, but also the very real dangers of doing so,” said IPI Director David Dadge.

 

The IPI World Press Freedom Review 2007 is the Vienna-based International Press Institute’s annual review of press freedom in over 140 countries around the world.

Central Somalia fighting kills 23: witnesses

 

 

MOGADISHU (AFP)

08/05/08

Heavy fighting between Ethiopian troops and Islamist insurgents in central Somalia left at least 23 people dead, witnesses and officials said Thursday.

The fighting broke out late Wednesday near the village of Garsani, some 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Mogadishu, when insurgents ambushed an Ethiopian military convoy.

Several witnesses said at least 13 civilians and eight Ethiopian soldiers had been killed in the fighting, while the insurgents admitted to losing two fighters in the battle.

“The fighting was so heavy and our holy warriors with the help of Allah won a huge victory,” Sheikh Abdirahin Ise, an Islamist spokesman told AFP.

“In return they (Ethiopians) killed pastoralists who were near the fighting zone,” he added.

“I have counted bodies of 13 civilians, including four children,” said Ibrahim Adan Moalim, a local resident.

The Islamists promised to avenge the killing of Hashi Aden Ayro — a senior Islamist leader accused of being Al-Qaeda’s pointman in Somalia — in a US airstrike last week.

Ethiopian troops entered Somalia in late 2006 to rescue an embattled transitional government and defeated an Islamist militia which had taken control of large parts of Somalia.

The remnants of the militia have since waged a deadly guerrilla battle against government forces, its Ethiopian allies and African Union peacekeepers, mainly in Mogadishu.