Armies of Liberation

APC

Somalia’s transitional government warned Puntland, the semi-autonomous region in Northeast Somalia, that it can not sign any deals with foreign government over its territorial waters without the consent and knowledge of the country’s interim federal government.

In a news conference held in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, Ahmed Mohammed Iman, the general director of Somalia’s fishing ministry, said Puntland signed illegal deals with Yemen over establishing coastguards and trade of the country’s fish.

“Deals with foreign states over Somalia’s territorial waters and marine resources can only be singed by the central transitional federal government. Puntland doesn’t have the rights to be involved in such deals,” he said.

He warned the provincial administration that it should back out deals it made with Yemen, indicating that the province has the right to make trade deals locally.

Iman articulated that Puntland’s minister for marine resources, along with a delegation, was in Sana’, Yemen, to finalize the trade accords between the regional management and the government of Yemen.

“The minister is there to confirm the deal which will give Yemen the right to send coastguards to Somalia waters and fish in Somalia,”

He said the government’s fishing ministry was proposing to write the rules of dealing with foreign government over marine resources issues.

“We will present the rules to Somalia’s cabinet ministers who will have decisions on them,” he said.

He called on Yemen to halt trading with Puntland as the central institutions. “Any foreign government interested in having agreements over fishing in Somalia, it should see Somalia’s central government,” he said.

Shabelle Media Network Somalia

Yemen, which refuses to extradite American Jaber Elbaneh or any of the Cole bombers, demands Egypt turn over a fisherman who killed a Yemeni Coast Guardsman.

YO:
Yemen has imposed a ban on Egyptian boats working in its territorial waters, after a Yemeni coastguard was killed by Egyptian fishermen off the south-western Yemeni Red Sea town of Midi on April 19. The Egyptian boat attacked a boat belonging to the Yemeni Coast Guard, which was combing Yemeni territorial waters near Baklan Island off the coast of the Hajja governorate. Yemen has asked Egypt to hand over the fishermen involved in the attack against the Yemeni coastguard ship, an attack that left one Yemeni coastguard dead and another injured.

“We officially ask the Egyptian government to hand over the crew of the ferry that fired on the coastguard ship. The attack had led to the death of the one of the coastguard and injured another,” said Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sources in the Coast Guard said that that the assault resulted in the death of a soldier, Ismail Mohammad, and the wounding of a second soldier; two other soldiers, Ahmed Shou’ey and Mohamed Nasser, remain unaccounted for. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called upon the Egyptian authorities to hand over the accused in the incident to be put on trial in Yemen, according to the law.

The Yemeni authorities have taken actions to disallow Egyptian fishing boats to fish along the Yemeni Coast until the offenders have been handed over and justice has been dealt. The officials said that this act would affect licensed and unlicensed Egyptian boats alike. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the boat that attacked the Yemeni boat was not licensed to work in Yemeni waters. “Our ambassador in Egypt is following our requests with the Egyptian government, which is conducting investigations into this issue,” said al-Qirbi.

That’s a good thing.

Sana’a, May 07 (26 Sept.net)-The higher coordination committee for common Arab action at the conclusion of its meeting of the 38 session at Arab League headquarters in Cairo, headed by the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa approved Yemen’s proposal to establish ministerial council for fisheries (MCF)in the Arab world from the League of Arab States (AL)

Minister of Fisheries Engineer Mahmoud Ibrahim Al Sagiery said that the meeting which concluded yesterday in Cairo approved raising the degree of attention and increase fish wealth specialists working in the Arab Organization for Agricultural and Fish Development, pointing out that the approval came in response to the recommendations of the meeting of Arab Ministers Council for fish Responsible in the Arab world held in the capital Sanaa in November 2006.

Al Sagiery stressed that the most important objectives of the establishment of this Council is to create a ministerial meeting under the umbrella of the Arab League and at the level of Ministers responsible for fisheries, agriculture , water, or environment to draw policies for the exploitation of marine resources and means at the national and international levels

He pointed out that the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development would have two Councils, one of Ministers responsible for agriculture, and another for fish.

AL-MUKALLA, April 1 — More than 120 fishermen demonstrated and staged a sit-in on Saturday, March 24, before the Al-Mukalla governorate building in protest against extra taxes imposed on them.

The demonstrations were followed by riots and fishermen closed the nearby hospital, preventing people from getting inside and further broke the door of the Al-Mukalla Central Market. They also took by force fish and money belonging to three sellers. Another seller was injured when a fisherman hit him with a gauge.

In their letter sent to Hadramout governor Abdulqadder Hilal, the fisherman asked that the extra tax, which amounts to 3% according to Law number 2 of 2006, be lifted.

Reacting to the incident, the Hadramout governor and Minister of Fish Wealth held talks with fishermen representatives and both officials confessed the existence of mistakes and promised to adjust them.

Al-Mukalla Fishermen Association Chairman Abdullah Badawood noted the problem is not that of the added tax but the law and its bylaws relating to artificial fertilization, which affect bottom drag trawling and the reproduction of fish and inturn reduce profits.

The teachers want the law to be activated:

Sana’a University staff members staged a sit-in last Saturday before the University Administration in protest against university presidency and government stalling on early promises towards the rights of staffers.

In their press release, the staff members claimed that teaching would be halted for two hours in all university faculties and its branches as an initial step, and then stoppages would gradually increase until their demands are met.

Head of Sana’a University Staff Members Syndicate Dr. Abdurrahman Ghanem told The Yemen Times that the demonstration aims at forcing the government to meet their demands including administrative and financial independence, giving more care to scientific research and toward the implementation of the judicial ruling issued by the Capital’s West Court on March 7, 2007 that dictated the payment of suspended staffer salaries, and the handing in the President Saleh’s gifts represented in personal computers.

Ghanem also asked that Yemeni Universities Law be applied to administrative and academic appointments and that the resolution of the Sana’a University Council concerning the distribution of land pieces among staff members and improving life standards of assistant staff members, readers and teachers be implemented, together with adopting hardship allowance for those not included in Wages Law No. 43 of 2005. He further demanded that staff members’ residence allowances be paid that a 40 percent increase, to be calculated retrospectively since January 2005, be adopted.

President of Sana’a University Khalid Tamim accused the Finance Ministry of delaying the implementation of university staff members’ demands. He also assured that his university has met some demands and was about to meet others over the coming period.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Azazi noted the demonstration helped release 47 suspended salaries of 35 deceased staff members. He added that the syndicate would shift the sit-in to the Ministry of Finance the next day and that staff members would staged a similar one before the cabinet on Tuesday.

BOSSASO, Somalia Mar 4 (Garowe Online) – Two boatloads of fishermen were detained Sunday off of the northern Somali coast, according to authorities in the semiautonomous Puntland State.

The two boats were fishing near the Alula coastal area when the Puntland coast guard on speedboats boarded them and apprehended a total of 14 men, including 12 Yemenis and 2 Somalis.

Both boats are officially registered in Yemen, which lies just across the Red Sea.

Col. Abdirisaq Abdi Hirsi, commander of Puntland’s maritime forces, confirmed the arrest of 14 individuals who are now being kept at a Bossaso jail.

He said the boats were fishing in Puntland waters without permission from the legitimate government, adding that the case would appear before a local court soon.

YT

Large numbers of Yemenis depend on fishing for their living and Red Sea waters are among the richest fishing areas. An army of traditional fishermen amounting to 70,000 within the traditional fishing sector suffers significant deterioration. Some warn that such deterioration results from random fishing – a problem that began 15 years ago when large fishing vessels fished with nets, which don’t comply with international standards, and furthermore, sweeps fish grazing grounds, thus destroying the environment.

“If the situation remains like this, there won’t be a single fish to catch on all Yemeni coasts,” warns 35-year-old fisherman Haj Munasar.

Mohammed Darwish, chief of fishermen on Aden’s Meedi coast, declares that such practices have affected fishermen and caused a scarcity of fish, even during autumn when fish are more plentiful, because large fishing vessels interfere with traditional fishermen and sometimes prevent them from fishing. (Read on …)

SANA’A, (SANA) – Syrian-Yemeni Maritime Technical Joint Committee started activities on Wednesday and discussed ways of enhancing the joint cooperation between the two brotherly countries.
The committee’s meeting concentrated on several main topics including training the Yemeni cadres by Syrian experts and exchange expertise between both countries.
Syria’s Deputy Transport Minister for Maritime Affairs Imad al-Din Abdulhai said that the meetings will consternate on activating the maritime tratsport agreement signed between the two countries in 2004.
For his part, Yemeni Transport Minister Omar Mohsen al-Amoudi said that the meeting aims at developing the Syrian-Yemeni ties in transport field, stressing the necessity of taking all required steps to realize that.
The Syrian-Yemeni Maritime Technical Joint Committee, which is the first of its kind, will last until next Saturday and discuss the practical steps and facilitates from both side to create a joint strategic partnership between Syria and Yemen.

11/11 Syrian Deputy FM delivers letter from Assad to Saleh.

10/30 Fisheries agreement grants Syria priority in Yemeni waters

DAMASCUS,(SANA)- Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian reform Dr. Adel Safar on Monday discussed with Ambassador of Yemen in Damascus Salah Ali Ahmad al-A’nsy the draft of a proposed cooperation agreement between the two countries in the filed of fishery.

The Minister stressed the importance of this cooperation with Yemen due to expertise that the Yemeni side has in this filed and necessity of signing this agreement very soon in addition to abiding by its contents because it is the first agreement to be signed concerning fishery resources.

For his part, the Yemeni Ambassador expressed his country’s keenness to established economic relations with the Arab countries, emphasizing that the Syrians will have the priority in the Yemeni regional waters.

as if they weren’t already

YO: The Deputy Minister of Marketing in the Ministry of Fisheries has announced that 5% of all profits will be allocated to aid programs in Palestine and Lebanon.

According to the Minister of Fisheries, Mhammoud Ebraheem Sagheri, US $18 million had already been contributed by the fishing sector as a whole during the recent conflict. The Minister has publicly asserted his support for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance, calling their stand against the Israelis “heroic”. He has also affirmed the Yemeni government’s stance against the continued suffering of the Palestinian people.