Posted April 23, 2010 By Maher Chmaytelli

Eritrea Rejected U.S. Demand of Red Sea Base

Eritrea rejected a demand from the U.S. military to have a base in the Red Sea port of Assab, the eastern African nation's president Isaias Afeworki said in an interview with the newspaper Gulf News.

The U.S. made the request about a year after the attacks of 9/11, 2001, he said, according to the Dubai-based daily. Eritrea rejected the demand so as not to become a "tool in the hands of the Western military command," he said.

Posted February 18, 2010 By German-Foreign-Policy

War Scenarios for Africa

The German Navy and Air Force have been carrying out since Monday their largest non-NATO maneuver of the year in South Africa. This maneuver, entitled "Good Hope IV" taking place close to Cape Town, is the fourth of its kind to be held together with the navy and air force of South Africa. The objective is to enable the two countries to coordinate military operations and will, this year, also include firing guided missiles, including air-to-ground missiles, such as those used by Germany in the aggression on Yugoslavia. South Africa seeks to be recognized as the stabilizing power for Africa. Berlin seeks to exploit this ambition and with Pretoria's help acquire new possibilities of control in Africa south of the Sahara. Their joint activities are benefiting not only from the generally close relationship between the two countries, but also from the fact that South Africa disposes of a large quantity of German-produced war material. In the current maneuver that simulates joint interventions in Africa, the navies of both nations will be operating warships produced in German dockyards. The maneuver is due to last until March 15.

A Certain Routine

Alongside six Panavia 200 Tornados, two frigates, an ammunition ship and the "Frankfurt am Main" combat unit logistical support vessel, there are also two Sea Lynx onboard helicopters participating on the German side in the four-week maneuver "Good Hope IV". The combat maneuver can rely on a certain routine. The ships are stationed near Cape Town in the Simonstown Harbor, South Africa's most important naval base. The German Navy had already used the harbor during other "Good Hope" maneuvers. The Tornados are stationed at the Overberg military testing grounds 200 km from Cape Town. The Bundeswehr is also no stranger to Overberg. The air force and navy have tested weapons in Overberg on various occasions, including the accuracy of the Taurus cruise missile. The familiarity that has been established during the German-South African maneuvers is advantageous to military proficiency.

Live Fire

As a matter of fact, according to the German Navy, the current maneuver - the largest non-NATO enterprise for the current year - is aimed toward "enhancing and elaborating operative measures and methods within a multinational exercise scenario." In this joint enterprise, training in "live fire" is particularly to be stressed.[1] The soldiers will "fire various munitions from sea and air (...) register and evaluate the flight data" explains the Bundeswehr. This is not possible in the North or Baltic Seas because of the density of civilian traffic. Aside from the maritime region off the coast from San Diego on the US West Coast, the sea at the southern tip of Africa provides optimal training conditions for target practice with guided munitions. This year the soldiers will also be training on the Exocet rockets and the HARM air-to-ground missiles, the same type used to destroy ground-based radar installations during the attack on Yugoslavia. The German military declared that the inspectors of the navy and the air force, as well as the fleet commander will occasionally also be present, underscoring the significance of these maneuvers.

Stabilization Force, South Africa

South Africa, the partner nation in the current war maneuvers, seeks to establish itself as the stabilization force for southern Africa and beyond to the entire continent. South Africa is already economically predominant. In purchasing power parities, it constitutes nearly one-third of the gross domestic product of the entire continent.[2] Its trade with other African nations grew 328 percent between 1993 and 2003, accumulating an enormous surplus: imports were valued at 13 billion Rand in comparison to 39 billion Rand in 2003. South Africa's foreign investments have sharply risen from eight billion Rand in 1996 to reach 26 billion Rand four years later. According to a recent study, not only is the new African military structure [3] "being strongly influenced by South Africa" but "the South African National Defense Force" is considered "the strongest military force on the continent."[4] Contributing to this is the fact that the "army, navy and air force (...) are equipped with modern material."

Modern War Material

Pretoria's being equipped with modern war material is not least of all thanks also to Berlin. German arms exports to South Africa rose considerably since 2001.[5] In 2003 South Africa became the second most important, and in 2004 and 2005 was the most important market for German war material outside the EU, NATO and the NATO-comparable nations. According to SIPRI, in the period from 2003 - 2007, when judged by product value, Germany was South Africa's most important supplier of war materials. The exports resulted from an arms deal, where in 1999; Pretoria agreed to buy EU warplanes, helicopters and warships for a total of seven billion Euros. The German industry furnished four frigates and three submarines from its dockyards.

German Dockyards

The maneuver "Good Hope IV" shows how this business has not only provided Germany economic but military benefits as well. The submarine SAS Queen Modjadji I is participating in the maneuvers. It had been christened in the Northern German Emden dockyard in March 2008, leaving Germany April 22, of the same year and arriving in South Africa in May. It was the German dockyard HDW that directed the production. Also to participate in "Good Hope IV" are the frigates SAS Amatola and SAS Spioenkop, handed over by the German Blohm + Voss dockyard to the South African Navy in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Blohm + Voss also produced the Brandenburg that will be participating on the German side in the combat maneuvers. The joint war efforts, prepared by Berlin for the "Good Hope" series of maneuvers are facilitated by the fact that the navies of both countries are operating German ships. The plans for intervention are aimed mainly, depending on the situation, at the African continent, where South Africa is positioning itself to become the stabilizing force and where Berlin, with Pretoria's help, hopes to obtain greater access to its resources.[6]

[1] Manöver GOOD HOPE IV startet vor Südafrika; www.marine.de 15.02.2010
[2] Christian von Soest: Regenbogennation als regionale Führungsmacht? Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 1/2010
[3] see also Military Aid for Africa (I) and Militär für Afrika (II)
[4] Christian von Soest: Regenbogennation als regionale Führungsmacht? Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 1/2010
[5] Informationsdienst Sicherheit, Rüstung und Entwicklung in Empfängerländern deutscher Rüstungsexporte: Länderportrait Südafrika; www.bicc.de Oktober 2008
[6] see also Around Africa and Expeditionary Navy

Posted January 18, 2010 BY ALEX NEWMAN

UN-Backed Troops Wreak Havoc in Africa

From Somalia to the Congo, United Nations-supported troops and "peacekeepers " are killing, raping, and displacing civilians on an unprecedented scale, charge human-rights groups.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a civil war that has claimed over five million lives still rages. And the UN is making matters much worse. The UN-backed Congolese and Rwandan militaries have been on a mission to disarm a rebel group known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). But the results of the effort have been disastrous, according to an umbrella group of 84 organizations called the Congo Advocacy Coalition and a report commissioned by the UN itself.

"For every rebel combatant disarmed, one civilian has been killed, seven women and girls have been raped, six houses have been burned and destroyed and 900 people have been forced to flee their homes," the coalition calculated. The UN-backed operations have "resulted in an unacceptable cost for the civilian population," the group said in a press release.

Other organizations have also blasted the actions: "The human rights and humanitarian consequences of the current military operation are simply disastrous," explained Marcel Stoessel of Oxfam. "Some victims were tied together before their throats were, according to one witness, 'slit like chickens.' The majority of the victims were women, children, and the elderly," the organization said.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), another advocacy organization, criticized the UN mission as well. "The UN peacekeepers are being put in an appalling situation where they are supporting an army that is attacking its own population," said HRW. The group called for UN forces in the Congo to "immediately cease all support to the current military operation." According to an Associated Press article, the group has documented more civilian murders by the government army and its UN sponsors than by the rebels it is purportedly fighting.

Even a UN-commissioned "Group of Experts" set up to investigate the situation has blasted the boondoggle in the Congo. As reported in an article entitled "UN peace mission fuelling violence in Congo, report says" by the U.K newspaper the Guardian, "Among the most damning findings of the UN-mandated Group of Experts is the free rein given to a military commander and war crimes suspect known as ?The Terminator.?" He is wanted by the international criminal court for allegedly forcing children to serve as his soldiers.

Now, units under his command and backed by the UN mission in the Congo have been accused by the group of experts of widespread killing, torture, rape, looting, extortion, forced labor, and mass displacement of civilians.

The report also concluded that the military actions have "not succeeded in neutralizing the FDLR, have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Kivus and have resulted in an expansion of CNDP [the Congolese Tutsi militia National Congress for the Defence of the People] military influence in the region."

But despite the well-documented monstrosities, a spokesman for the UN mission in the Congo expressed support for the Congolese army, as quoted by the Associated Press in an article entitled "UN-Backed Congo Troops Killing, Raping Civilians."

Somalia is also hosting a UN mission and UN backed African Union and other foreign troops. And the situation is dire there as well.

"The United Nations forces in Mogadishu are indiscriminately shelling civilian populated areas and markets," reports Ali Osman for Mareeg.com, a Somalia-based news outlet. "In the last three months alone the United Nations forces in Mogadishu have killed more than 160 civilians and have injured more than 400," Osman wrote, adding that these figures were a conservative estimate since many victims are never even taken to the hospital or reported.

In an Online Journal article entitled "The UN in Somalia: Peacekeepers or peacekillers?" contributor Thomas Mountain reports from nearby Eritrea that the UN, via its "proxies" in the African Union, is supporting the random bombing of civilian neighborhoods. "It would seem that the UN/AU forces are little more than hired thugs doing the dirty work on the behalf of the USA and its European allies whose main goal is to see Somalia in a state of continued conflict and chaos," he concludes.

The notion that American taxpayers should finance the UN and by extension these atrocities is simply unacceptable. The mission in the Congo, for example, is costing billions of dollars and doing far more harm than good. The United States should promptly withdraw funding and its membership from the UN once and for all. The world may not immediately become perfect, but at least Americans will not be financing the massacres of African civilians under the guise of "peace keeping." Does anyone remember Katanga?