Undisclosed Muslim country 'paying for anti-piracy force in Somalia'

Donor nation has hired US security experts as advisers to Somali government, according to a report.

Xan Rice
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 December 2010

An undisclosed "Muslim nation" is funding a 1,000-strong, privately trained military force in northern Somalia and has hired a former CIA officer and a senior official from the Bush administration to advise the Somali government on security matters, according to a report.

The Associated Press said the "anti-piracy" force was receiving instruction in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region on the tip of Africa's horn that oil and gas exploration firms are interested in.

A separate force will be trained in the capital, Mogadishu, the news agency said, citing sources involved in the program, which has reportedly cost many millions of dollars. A large convoy of pick-up trucks, small aircraft and armored vehicles will support the troops.

The motivation of the donor country remains unknown, and UN experts have confirmed they are investigating whether there has been a violation of Somalia's arms embargo. The country has not had a functioning government since 1991, and Islamists who claim allegiance to al-Qaida are trying to gain overall control.

AP said the same country funding the security forces had hired Pierre Prosper, who was an ambassador at large for war crimes issues under George Bush from 2001-05, to advise the Somali government on legal issues related to security, anti-corruption and transparency. Prosper, who was also the diplomat responsible for engaging with countries whose citizens were held at Guantánamo Bay after the September 11 attacks, said he was being paid to do the job by "a Muslim nation", which he declined to name.

Fellow American Michael Shanklin, the CIA deputy chief of station in Mogadishu 20 years ago, told AP he was employed by the same country as "a security adviser and liaison to the Somali government".

The involvement of the two men is likely to be viewed with deep suspicion in Somalia, and is likely to be used by the Islamists for propaganda. Many Somalis are mistrustful of foreign meddling, and were angered by the US's decision to give money to a group of warlords in Mogadishu in 2006 then back the Ethiopian invasion a few months later.

AP named the private security company involved in training the troops as Saracen International, a Uganda-based firm headed by a South African former special forces soldier called Bill Pelser. In a November statement the Puntland government said Saracen had been hired to establish its "marine forces", while documents from the Somali presidency this year suggested the company had been hired to train the presidential guard in Mogadishu.

But in a phone interview, Pelser told the Guardian claims of his company's involvement were "bullshit", and said he would take legal action against the media. "I have already given a statement to the UN security council on this. None of my assets are involved in Somalia. It must be another company called Saracen," he said.

Puntland is more stable than the rest of Somalia, but the creation of an "anti-piracy" force will raise questions. Senior members of the current administration are believed to have close links to some pirate groups, who have raked in millions in ransoms for foreign ships. Previous efforts to train a local navy have seen recruits "go off and become elite pirates themselves", according to a Somalia analyst in Nairobi, who asked not to be named.

Mohamed Farole, the son of Puntland president Abdirahman Mohamed Farole and a powerful figure in his own right, said the first 150 graduates completed a 13-week training course this week. He told AP they would be used to hunt pirates in the Galgala mountains. However, that area is not known as a major piracy hotspot. The main pirate bases fall outside Puntland.

But Galgala is the territory of a well-known weapons dealer and militia leader called Mohamed Said Atom. Accused of supplying arms to Somalia's main Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab, Atom has clashed with Puntland's administration before and complained about being excluded from energy exploration deals.

Source: The Guardian.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/muslim-nation-funds-security-somalia.