The President and the Speaker, leaders of the K-TFG coalition, have yet to assent to the Parliament’s law. It is doubtful if the decision of parliament will bind other stakeholders.
Article 2 of 2004
Transitional Federal Charter (TFC) affirms that the Somali territory is
inviolable and indivisible and that the territorial sovereignty shall extend to
the land, the islands, territorial sea, the subsoil, the air space and the
continental shelf. The 1960 Constitution repeats the same description of article
2. Law no. 37 of 1972 specifies the limits of the territorial sea mentioned in
the TFC and the 1960 Constitution. Therefore, nowhere in both Constitutions and
in the law, it is mentioned EEZ. The Outer Continental Shelf which extends 150
nm is beyond the 200 nm.
TFP unanimously
voted for the complete cessation of all activities intended to revise the
legally defined Somali territorial sea border and it has retroactively
nullified all “illegal and secret agreements” crafted after 1stJanuary 1991. Some information indicates that EU awarded contracts on the
Somali Sea to foreign contractors without the permission or knowledge of Somali
Authority.
However, my
prediction is that the invented “Somali Stakeholders” will go ahead with the
EEZ declaration on schedule for three reasons. First, the earlier parliamentary
rejection of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the D-TFG and
Kenya did not stop the continuation of the activities started by the MoU. PM
Abdiweli Ali Gas ignored that decision and went ahead with the signing of the
Roadmap requiring EEZ declaration. Second, the role of the Parliament has been
subverted by the provisions of the Kampala Accord and by the UN-Consultative
Meeting (UN-CM) which gave birth to the Somali Stakeholders. Third, the
Communiqué of the International Contact Group meeting in Denmark mandated
immediate declaration of EEZ. Furthermore, K-TFG leaders are required to
cooperate with the super Technical Committee, the Regional Political
Initiative and the International Coordination and Monitoring Groupall created to enforce the implementation of the Roadmap and to inaugurate the
post transition arrangement after August 2012.
The difference
between the 200 nm of territorial water and 200 nm of the EEZ defined in the UN
Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS) also known as the Law of the Sea Treaty
(LOST) is the span of the territorial sovereignty of the coastal states and the
restrictions and regulations on the use of their marine resource. EEZ is
intended to restrict the territorial sovereignty of coastal States and to
expand the sovereign rights of fishing, navigation and scientific research of
maritime and industrial States for their military and economic security. The
strategic decision of each coastal state is influenced by its long term
strategic interests, and the changes in technological innovation as well as the
special features of its sea.
Somalia has been
registered as one of the countries that have claimed 200 nm of territorial
water since 1972. It signed the Law of the Sea on July 24, 1989, with the
stipulation that Law no. 37 is the law of the land. Somalia did not sign the
agreement for the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and
highly migratory fish stocks and the agreement for the implementation of the
part XI of the Convention. The understanding of the scope, legal definitions
and implications of UNCLOS and its addendums requires strategic thinking, legal
expertise, discipline and leadership with political acumen that are presently
absent in Somalia. Experts argued that the language of UNCLOS is deliberately
obscure and open for legal litigation and misinterpretations.
Croatia which
shares the Adriatic Sea with Italy and Slovenia has been denied the right to
claim EEZ regime enshrined in UNCLOS. China accepted EEZ but claimed full
territorial sovereignty over it. Japan and USA rejected China’s claim.
Many countries like Ecuador, Eritrea, Peru, Venezuela,
Israel, Turkey and Uzbekistan chose not to sign and ratify the UNCLOS. Others
like Burundi, Libya, El Salvador, Colombia, Ethiopia, United States and United
Arab Emirates signed but failed to ratify it. Other Countries signed and
ratified with reservations.
The United States asked a renegotiation of UNCLOS in
1994. Nevertheless, the US Congress refused to ratify the renegotiated
Convention because Article 2 (3) forces the surrender of national sovereignty
to the UN. The opponents of UNCLOS have attacked the creation of the
International Seabed Authority and the business company “Enterprise” for Deep
Seabed Mining seen as an international structure that promotes wealth
redistribution and unfair concessions.
The importance of
the Sea for security, economic growth, environment, energy and scientific
research purposes is immense. The control of pollution, submarine navigation,
offshore oil drilling, illegal fishing and laying cables and pipelines under
Sea is a great challenge to the sovereignty of the coastal States. Efforts by
EU to expand the coastal state jurisdiction over EEZ to prevent environmental
degradation and pollution have met stiff resistance from the powerful maritime
countries.
The piracy issue
cannot be an excuse for change of the limit of the Somali territorial water.
Prof. Nurudin Farah has reported that initially “piracy was in response to the
illicit plunder of the country’s sea resources by ships owned in Europe and
Asia, but flying foreign flags of all sorts. Ships would arrive in Somali
waters armed for battle, with speed boats, and they would employ fishing
methods banned elsewhere, at times dumping nuclear, chemical and other wastes,
and at times shooting at the Somalis fishing in the same area.” Logically, the
first step to address the piracy problem would be to stop the criminal
activities and help re-establish the Somali State.
The K-TFG has no
authority, capacity and credibility to engage on the revision of the
territorial water of Somalia for the following considerations. First, K-TFG is
one year stopgap government tasked to prepare for the transfer of political and
legislative powers to a government legitimately elected by the Somali people.
The feasibility of the goal is another matter.
Second, Somalia
is a failed State that is ineligible to interact with other states as a full
member of the International Community. It lacks collective decision making
authority and effective bureaucratic and judicial system. The United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) and the Inter-Governmental Authority (IGAD-Ethiopia and
Uganda) control K-TFG. Thus, K-TFG leaders are subordinates to external powers.
Third, about half
of the Somali population, which means 4 million people, needs life saving
humanitarian assistance. About 750,000 out of the 4 million people are close to
die for starvation. So far, K-TFG leaders failed to protect and secure the
distribution and delivery of the humanitarian assistance to the needy people.
Therefore, K-TFG leaders’ first priority is to doggedly focus on saving those
three quarters of million lives before anything else. Matt Bryden, Coordinator
of UN Monitoring Group on Somalia argues that “Somalia’s famine is less a
symptom of conflict and climate than of callous and criminal conduct-including
crimes against humanity that demand consequences anchored in international
justice.” He added that “the scale of the TFG’s financial
hemorrhaging is so immense that the term ‘corruption’ seems barely adequate.”
Fourth, the PM
promised a national reconciliation plan that will lead to a national consensus
and trust among Somali society on the urgent need to re-establish a national
State. This pre-empts the draft of a new constitution and the declaration of
EEZ regime because both will divide the Somali people rather than unite them.
The public
statements and the interviews given by the Prime Minister, Dr. Abdiweli M Ali
Gas and former and current Ministers of fisheries have confirmed public
suspicion about their candor on the reasons behind the EEZ push. The PM chose to give provocative and
accusatory answers that did not address the EEZ question. The Parliament dismissed
the current Minister of Fisheries, Abdirahman Sheikh Ibrahim after he failed to
disclose significant information and danced around fake words like “trust me.”
He said he knew nothing about his predecessor’s legacy on the issue. This shows
the lack of institutional memory and coordination between K-TFG’s dysfunctional
Institutions.
K-TFG leaders
should not compromise the long term strategic security, economic and
environmental interests of the present and future generations of Somalia. The
Somali parliament warned K-TFG leaders against committing treason if they
endorse the EEZ regime. Will the K-TFG leaders respect Parliament’s decision on
Somalia’s territorial water or will they confirm my prediction? I wish I’m
wrong.
By Mohamud M Uluso
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Somali Parliament warned K-TFG leaders against committing treason
Mogadishu (Sunatimes) On October 8, 2011, the Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia (TFP) passed a law (resolution) that made a crime the implementation of one of the priority tasks of the Roadmap adopted by the selected Somali Stakeholders -- K