[kictanet] Financial Times story on pirates disrupting broadband and north-south tensions in Sudan

Thu Jun 25 15:19:22 EAT 2009

Story below is in the Financial Times....

Somali pirates blamed for broadband delay*
*By Barney Jopson in Nairobi *
*459 words*
*25 June 2009*
*(c) 2009 The Financial Times Limited.*

Somali pirates have claimed a new victim by disrupting the laying of an
undersea fibre optic cable that has promised to end east Africa's isolation
as the last region of the world not connected to the global broadband
network.

The managers of Seacom, a $600m project owned by private investors, said on
Wednesday that its cable would not come into service until July 23 - nearly
a month later than planned - because pirate activity off the coast of
Somalia had delayed the work of its cable-laying contractor.

Tyco Telecommunications, the contractor and part of Tyco Electronics, was
forced to suspend its cable-laying around the Horn of Africa so it could
revise its security plans and beef up protection for its ships following the
latest surge in pirate activity in April and May.

Piracy from Somalia has been on the rise since last August, resulting in
dozens of ships and hundreds and crew members being taken hostage, millions
of dollars in ransoms, and severe disruption to commercial shipping.

Wednesday's announcement from Seacom marked the first time the pirates have
disrupted east Africa's faltering efforts to end its dependence on satellite
internet links, which are slow, unreliable and often prohibitively
expensive.

Brian Herlihy, chief executive of Seacom, which is based in Mauritius, said
he was "frustrated" by what he called the "pirate-induced delay". He and
Tyco would not comment on whether they had received specific information
that Tyco ships were on a pirate hit list.

So far no cable-laying ships have been attacked, but the ships contracted by
Seacom were huge - needing to carry up to 6,000km of fibre optic cable - and
vulnerable to pirate attack because they moved so slowly.

"Cable-laying ships would be prime targets," said Pottengal Mukundan,
director of the International Maritime Bureau in London. "They're very slow
when they're laying the cables and they really can't get away."

Maritime experts said some ships using the waters off Somalia had beefed up
anti-pirate security by employing armed guards from private security
companies while others had hired armed patrol boats to escort them. Tyco
declined to comment on its security procedures.

Mr Herlihy said the laying of the cable, which will connect the east Africa
portion of Seacom to Mumbai, had been completed in the past few days. The
delay had not been announced until the job was finished to avoid putting the
ships in further danger.

The Seacom cable will link South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania,
Kenya and Ethiopia to India and Europe. A separate project led by the Kenyan
government called Teams will connect Kenya to the United Arab Emirates.
*
West redoubles efforts to keep Sudan peace*
*By Barney Jopson in Nairobi and Daniel Dombey in Washington *
*670 words*
*25 June 2009*
*(c) 2009 The Financial Times Limited*

The US and its western allies have embarked on a surge of diplomatic
activity in an effort to prevent the long civil war between north and south
Sudan from reigniting.

Fighting between southern rebels and successive Khartoum regimes stretched
over five decades and in its second phase caused an estimated 2m deaths. It
ended with the 2005 deal, the comprehensive peace agreement, that the then
Bush administration saw as one of its proudest foreign policy achievements.

But there is rising concern that the deal could fall apart because
Khartoum's commitment to it has been patchy, several key implementation
deadlines have been missed and the semi-autonomous southern government says
it is rearming in readiness for a possible war for independence.

An international meeting held by the Obama administration in Washington this
week sought to renew commitment to the deal, which gave the mainly Christian
south partial autonomy from the Arab-led north and promised a referendum on
southern independence in 2011.

"It's not hard to see the path toward an escalation and collision, we all
know the dangers," John Kerry, chairman of the senate foreign relations
committee told the representatives of 33 countries and organisations who
came to the event.

The meeting included the National Congress party, which forms the core of
president Omar al-Bashir's Khartoum regime, and the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement, the rulers of the south who as rebels were fighting for
a fairer share of wealth and power.

In a statement on Tuesday all the participants reaffirmed their commitment
to implementing the peace deal "in good faith and in a timely fashion",
including the referendum on self-determination that should occur no later
than January 9 2011.

The north and the south also agreed to accept as binding an arbitration
ruling due next month on where their border cuts through the oil-rich Abyei
region.

But many analysts remain doubtful that the deal can be put back on track.
"Khartoum has no desire to implement the CPA and has shown an impressive
capacity to undermine it," said Robert Muggah, research director of the
Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.

The current regime could be pushed out of power if free and fair elections
were held as envisaged and it could lose access to the lucrative oil fields
of the south if the region's people vote to secede in 2011, he said.

Privately many western diplomats say that their countries paid insufficient
attention to the risk of the north-south war reigniting, partly because of
the much greater focus on the separate Darfur conflict.

They also acknowledge that they have limited leverage over Khartoum and
place hopes on pressure from China, which is alarmed by the prospect of its
multi-million dollar investments in Sudan's oil industry being damaged by
another war. Liu Guijin, China's special envoy to Sudan, attended the
meeting in Washington.

Sudan has already delayed parliamentary and presidential elections until
next year. Washington fears such delays could reduce confidence in the south
that the independence referendum itself will be held on time or at all.

"We only have 164 days until the national election in February of 2010, and
we only have 403 working days until the referenda in January 2011, so time
is urgent," Scott Gration, president Barack Obama's personal envoy to Sudan,
told the conference.

Mr Muggah said that the inexperienced and under-resourced government of the
south was committed to the CPA and had "everything to lose" if it was not
implemented. "But it has comparatively little capacity to execute key
aspects of the agreement, much less deliver equitable governance and
protection for southerners."

Last week Yasir Arman, deputy secretary-general of the SPLM, accused
Khartoum of arming militias that have been involved in a surge of
inter-ethnic fighting in borders areas of the south this year, a charge the
north denies.

----- End forwarded message -----

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with best regards,
barney*

Somali pirates blamed for broadband delay*
*By Barney Jopson in Nairobi *
*459 words*
*25 June 2009*
*(c) 2009 The Financial Times Limited.*