The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Smuggling cartels, militants hinder revival of Somali port Posted: 04 Dec 2013 12:46 AM PST One of only three deep-water ports in Somalia, Kismayu's proximity to northern Kenya and Ethiopia has for decades made it integral to a thriving business smuggling arms, sugar and increasingly, narcotics across porous east African borders. Foreign powers trying to curb militant Islam in Somalia fret about the money-spinning charcoal trade that remains a big earner for the Islamist group al Shabaab. The UN Security Council has banned charcoal exports, but the trade continues unabated in areas where the government holds little influence. Rehabilitating the port is not only essential for generating new state revenues and creating jobs for former Islamist fighters, it is also vital to cutting off a steady flow of cash to al Shabaab, which showcased its threat to regional stability with September's bloody attack on a Nairobi mall. "People have been making huge amounts of money from the ports and there are entrenched interests," said one Western diplomat. "If it could be run by a clean private sector provider, you would see a big increase in revenues." Since the onset of the civil war in 1991, rival warlords and clan militias in need of cash to prop their fiefdoms have often waged war for the right to collect taxes and control the flow of weapons through Somalia's Indian Ocean ports. The man now running the city and its fertile hinterlands is a former Islamist warlord Ahmed Madobe. "The president wants zero tolerance of corruption, he wants better management, (but) capacity is very limited," Abdirahman Omar Osman, spokesman for the Somali presidency, told Reuters. "Therefore foreign companies who can help us get better in terms of efficiency and fighting corruption are wanted." Improving Somalia's ports is crucial to rebuilding the country and denying Islamist militants a launchpad for strikes across the region, but any firm running Kismayu port will face powerful forces with an interest in keeping it dysfunctional. While the gun-toting young men roaming Kismayu's port suggest little has changed in the past two decades, a thaw in relations between the central government and local administration heralds a rare opportunity for change. "Life in Kismayu is getting better," said Faisal Abdiaziz, a 20-year-old labourer, who had worked at the port when the Islamists were in charge. "My salary is now US$300 (RM965) and during al Shabaab it was US$150 (RM482)," he said next to a crumbling warehouse. To the annoyance of Western powers, al Shabaab continues profiting from Kismayu even after Kenyan troops fighting under an African Union peacekeeping banner and Madobe's own militia routed the militants from the port. UN investigators monitoring the Somalia sanctions regime, said in July about 1 million sacks of charcoal worth US$15-16 million (RM48-51 million) were exported every month from Kismayu in the months after Kenya and Madobe's Ras Kamboni militia won control of the city in September 2012. Pointing to the business interests around the port, the investigators said Kenyan troops, Ras Kamboni and al Shabaab split the charcoal profits from Kismayu port with each other despite being at war. All three deny doing so. A second diplomat working with regional intelligence said there was firm evidence that huge quantities of charcoal continue to be exported despite pressure on Kenya and Madobe. "Nothing has changed," said the diplomat. A third diplomat added: "The Kenyan military officials will be key to any kind of improvement to the port." Intelligence sources say the contraband route from Kismayu to the northern Kenyan town of Garissa has three layers, comprising sugar and electronics, hard drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as explosives and weapons. A former Kenyan military officer with detailed knowledge of the smuggling routes said Kenya had, since 2011, intensified checks on vehicles crossing the border due to worries about explosives destined for al Shabaab members inside Kenya. He said the crackdown has only had partial success: "The volume has reduced, but the business is still going on." Western security experts say the port has become a key entry point into east Africa for Afghan narcotics. "It's not a port. It's a clearing house for drugs going into Kenya," said one Western security adviser. Abdiqani Jama, a senior adviser to Madobe, said Dubai's DP World, the world's third largest port operator, and six other firms had shown interest in the port, including from China, Turkey, Kenya, South Africa and the United States. Jama said about US$250 million (RM804 million) will be needed to rehabilitate the port, which is deeper than the port in the capital, Mogadishu. "As part of this deal, we will give them 25-50 years (concession)," Jama told Reuters in Kismayu's windswept harbour. Whoever takes on the port faces a huge task. The first job will be to remove two sunken Somali warships which are laden with rusting ordnance beneath the harbour's turquoise waters. The port will have to be dredged for the first time in many years to allow large ships to dock. New warehouses are needed to replace the ruined ones dotted around the harbour. "This port has been neglected," said Abdulahi Hadun, who took over as port manager when al Shabaab was chased out. "It has been used almost 50 years with no additional investment." A Turkish company in October won a 20-year concession to run Mogadishu port, the federal government's biggest single revenue earner. Officials say a deal struck in August between the government and Madobe could pave the way for a similar arrangement in Kismayu. But first the central government and regions need to agree on how to share port revenues. That will test Mogadishu's ties with Madobe in a country where conflict has largely been driven by competition for resources and clan loyalties. Under the agreement, Madobe was due to hand over running of the port to the central government after 6 months, but this has been delayed until an accord on revenues is achieved. Presidential spokesman Osman said whoever takes over the running of Somali ports will have to be acceptable to all sides. "Revenue generated from the port will be spent in the regions so that they don't feel that Mogadishu is coming and taking away the resources," Osman said. Stacks of cement, paint and other building materials lining the harbour point to a construction boom in Kismayu, where freshly painted murals advertise newly-opened tea shops and restaurants along the city's sandy streets. Even though two of the four berths are blocked by the sunken warships and debris, the port employs over 3,000 people, mostly part-time manual labourers, Hadun said. It is the biggest revenue earner for the local administration. "For us, two things are important: stability and job creation, so people don't go back to al Shabaab," said Jama. Pointing to several dozen manual labourers who were once al Shabaab fighters, mostly teens sporting threadbare soccer shirts, he added: "If you don't offer an alternative life from al Shabaab, they will go back to their previous life." - Reuters, December 4, 2013. |
| Posted: 03 Dec 2013 09:09 PM PST Besides the usual congregation for the five daily prayers, the surau is also the place for some 50 recovering drug addicts to seek motivation and therapy. The surau, located in the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), is also the venue of the Spiritual Enhancement Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Programme (Sedar) run by UMCAS in the last six months. It is a continuation of the pioneer project started at Bangsar's Masjid Ar-Rahman in 2010, which combines the methadone drug replacement therapy with spiritual healing to treat opioid-type drug addiction. The programme starts around 10am with project coordinator, Dr Rusdi Abd Rashid, assisted by a counselor from Universiti Malaya Mohd Amirul Hanif Mohd Nawawi, researcher Muhamad Firdaus Ali @Ghazali and moderator Gus Saladin Sanusi receiving participants for the programme. A table placed at the left hand corner of the surau is turned into a makeshift counter for doctors to conduct check-ups and go through participants' records. The prayer area, meanwhile, is where the surau committee holds motivational talks and discusses the problems forwarded by participants. An imam or a counsellor usually heads the committee. It appeared that the participants were well-acquainted with the routine and needed no further instructions. Upon reaching the surau, they would promptly start by performing ablutions and a short prayer. This is followed by the reading of supplications. The positive aura in the surau helps them recall the person they used to be before they became addicts, said Gus Saladin, who used to be a heroin addict himself. He is now a mentor in the programme. After the process is over, they would wait for their turn with the doctor. Their urine sample would be taken before consultation and the dispensing of their methadone prescription. Most of the participants are staying around Petaling Jaya. However, some of them have to go the extra mile to be able to join the programme. Alwi (not his real name), 39, would leave his house in Bentong, Pahang, at 5.30 am every Wednesday to get onto the bus heading towards Kuala Lumpur. He would disembark at the Jalan Pekeliling Bus Station and take a taxi to Surau Ad-Deeniah. On that day he came with only RM60 in his pocket, and with a strong determination to overcome the odds against him. "It is a challenge to come down here as I had never ever even made it to Kuala Lumpur previously and had no idea where UMMC was, but all praises to Allah, I made it," he said. Alwi's heroin addiction started when he was 16. He had tried to quit several times but was unsuccessful. His addiction became worse when he lost his job in 2009. He had tried to wean off his addiction before by taking methadone, but was unable to withstand the withdrawal symptoms. "Maybe my body is not able to cope with it," said Alwi, who was determined to quit his addiction and gain employment to support his family. He felt more confident of the programme's treatment method this time around due to its spiritual aspect in addition to doctor's supervision. "I understand that this will not be easy and will take time," said Alwi, who intended to move to Kuala Lumpur and start a new life here one day. Reforming lives Mohd Hisham Abu Bakar, 39, had previously been a junkie for 20 years and could not hold down a job. His addiction to heroin started from the tender age of 14, and his life thereafter was between prisons and rehabilitation centres. "I have been imprisoned thrice for stealing and have been admitted to rehab three times as well. The last time was in 2010," he told Bernama. Like Alwi, his efforts to quit the addiction had been futile, until he joined SEDAR over a year ago. "The early stages of taking methadone were unbearable. I would have given up if the doctors had not spurred me on. Now I rely entirely on methadone to rid of my addiction," said Mohd Hisham, who is now employed as a supervisor with a security company in Kuala Lumpur. Free from his heroin addiction, he has started the path onto a normal life. He got married two years ago and has a child. "I'm tired of all this. As I get older, I regret of wasting my youth and money on heroin. But we cannot turn back time. "What I can do now is to try the best I can and hopefully, one day, I would no longer even need methadone," said Mohd Hisham, who planned on starting a business with his brother next year. The first three months is a critical time for addicts joining Sedar. It is a test of the strength of their willpower to quit their addiction, said Gus Saladin. This is because the prescription given to addicts in the early stages is minimal, at around 30 ml. It would then be increased in accordance to an addict's need. "If the addict is serious about quitting, he would continue with the programme until he is drug-free, said Gus Saladin who had been taking methadone for the past six year. The father of five said that since taking drugs over 20 years ago, methadone administration was the most effective form of treatment that he had undergone. "We cannot quit an addiction without a combination of family support, societal encouragement and medication. Similar to patients of chronic diseases like diabetes and kidney failure, drug addicts would need medication till the day they die," he said. It also turned mosques and surau into the place where addicts seek peace and strength to overcome their addiction. Gus Saladin hoped the programme would be expanded and more mosques. He noted that many people subscribed to the unsubstantiated notion that methadone administration could cause harm and even death. Methadone does not affect adversely the body of opioid users, even in large quantities. Sadly, many addicts and their family members did not believe this, he said. – Bernama, December 4, 2013. |
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