Star Phoenix Group Ltd (fka RGRLF)

[TONY THE TIGER UK]

4 Billion again
Luca Galassi
http://www.eilmensile.it/2012/03/24/somalia-il-nemico-alle-porte/

The Foreign Affairs Council has decided to extend until the end of December 2014 the European Union called operation 'Atalanta' to fight piracy. The main objectives of the operation are to protect the ships of the World Food Programme providing food aid to Somali refugee populations and to combat piracy off the Somali coast. The decision of the Council, however, provides some important new features: enlargement of areas of the operation, "the territorial waters, internal waters, the coastal territory of Somalia and its airspace." "The fight against piracy and against its underlying reasons - said the High Representative for EU Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton - is a priority of that conduct in the Horn of Africa. Operation Atalanta has brought an important contribution to this effort in coordination with international partners. "

Behind the words of the circumstances of the European Foreign Minister is the request of the Somali Prime Minister, Mohamed Ali Abdiweli, in recent weeks has sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in a letter which sought to allow the expansion of prerogatives and objectives of the naval mission . Not really an invasion of the sovereignty of Somalia, but a change of mandate with dangerous consequences. The transition from the prevention of acts of piracy at sea operations in a specific area of intervention in the land could be interpreted as the creation of an occupation force. An extension of the prerogatives that could lead to a dangerous escalation in the territory, already plagued by decades of civil conflict. The Somali transitional government it controls only the capital Mogadishu, metnre the radical group al-Shabab militants, al-Qaeda saldatosi recently , remained in control of large portions of territory.

Abandoned for years, international indifference to his fate, the Horn of Africa is back to stimulate the interest of Western countries after the autonomous region of Puntland have been discovered huge oil deposits. The Canadian exploration company Africa Oil have identified resources to 4 billion barrels of crude oil, but the entire subsurface Puntland may hide as many as 10 billion barrels. The black gold rush could also involve large ocean areas: off the Somali coast, the depths of the Indian Ocean, it could even wait for the extraction of about 100 billion barrels.

The British Foreign Secretary William Hague went on a visit to Mogadishu less than a month ago. The London Observer noted how it is dealing with humanitarian aid and assistance to the country's security in exchange for his slice energy. Behind the scenes, the Minister for International Cooperation Puntland, confirmed to British weekly "The British representatives have offered help in future management of petroleum revenues. We will support technically to maximize future profits of the oil industry. " A 'help' that may soon also come from the European mission Atalanta, which fits perfectly with the beliefs of multinational armed interventions in recent decades: the fight against terrorism and piracy in order to protect democracy. Replace, even in this case, democracy with energy sources.