Djibouti Today

Eritrean, Djiboutian troops exchange fire at border

Media: AFP
Byline: N/A
Date: 10 June 2008

DJIBOUTI, June 10, 2008 (AFP) - Djiboutian and Eritrean troops exchanged
fire Tuesday for the first time since a tense standoff started at their
border two months ago, a military source and a government official told
AFP.

The clashes took place in the Ras Doumeira area at Djibouti's northern
border, where Eritrean troops carried out an incursion on April 16 that
sparked a military standoff between the two neighbours.

"Everything started when Eritrean soldiers opened fire today on around
20 Eritrean deserters who wanted to cross the border," a Djiboutian
military official on the ground told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Naturally, the Djiboutian military retaliated and this is how the
hostilities started," he added.


Everyone on board Camp is safe and we are at a heightened state you could say. The French are out in arms providing the support they promise to the Djiboutian people by being here. 3 Djiboutians died another 30 were injured and about 80 Eritreans died from what I heard.

The Djiboutian/Eritrean border is much like the Gaza Strip, both countries claim a certain section of land as part of their country and thus they have conflict with one another every few years in an on again off again rotation.

FGM/FCM

Something I learned about the Djiboutian culture last night. This comes to you straight from the State Departments website:

Released by the Office of the Senior Coordinator for International Women's Issues

Practice:
The two forms of female genital mutilation (FGM) or female genital cutting (FGC) widely practiced throughout Djibouti are Type II (commonly referred to as excision) and Type III (commonly referred to as infibulation). Type III is the most common form and is practiced among the Issa and Afar. Type II is practiced on girls of Yemeni origin.

Incidence:
Various estimates are that between 90 and 98 percent of young girls in Djibouti have undergone Type II or Type III. The practice is firmly entrenched among the Issa and Afar who make up the overwhelming majority of the population of Djibouti. It is practiced on 41 percent of girls under the age of five and on 95 percent of girls under the age of ten.

Attitudes and Beliefs:
The practice of FGM/FGC is deeply rooted in custom that is often defended on religious (Islamic) grounds, despite the fact there is no mention of the practice in the Quran.

Although the practice has long been entrenched in the culture and society of Djibouti, young women in the early 1980s initiated discussions and called for its abolition. Some progress and changes in attitudes have slowly been made. The official policy in Djibouti is to discourage Type III as a first step towards change.

Type II:
Type II is the excision (removal) of the clitoris together with all or part of the labia minora (the inner vaginal lips).

Type III:
Type III is the excision (removal) of part or all of the external genitalia (clitoris, labia minora and labia majora) and stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening leaving a very small opening, about the diameter of a matchstick, to allow for the flow of urine and menstrual blood. The girl or womans legs are generally bound together from the hip to the ankle so she remains immobile for approximately 40 days to allow for the formation of scar tissue.

Type II and Type III are generally performed without the use of anesthesia.

Outreach Activities:
In 1987, a National Committee with members from the Ministries of Health, Justice and Education, as well as from the Red Crescent Society and "Union Nationale des Femmes de Djibouti" (UNFD), was set up. The Committee works under the umbrella of UNFD. UNFD advocates complete abolition of this practice.

UNFD used to run a dispensary at its headquarters where girls were brought in for a less radical form of the procedure (Type II). This was performed by a traditional excisor, but the girl was given a local anesthetic before the operation. It was believed that a less radical form could be encouraged through control in the dispensary. While protecting girls from Type III in many cases, this did not prove to be totally successful in stopping it in all cases brought to the dispensary. In some cases, grandmothers took the girls home complaining that the procedure was incomplete. They then had the girls infibulated. UNFD has now closed its dispensary.

The government has incorporated awareness about FGM/FGC into its national program to promote safe motherhood. It has a focal person at the Ministry of Health who deals specifically with women's health issues. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations are free to disseminate information and provide training and education about the harmful effects of the practice. The Ministry of Health allows use of clinics and health training centers for distribution of information about FGM/FGC and other harmful health practices.

The Ministry of Information encourages media coverage of information relating to conferences on this topic. Neighborhood leaders are appointed to promote public awareness campaigns. They are perceived as playing an important role in the dissemination of information.

The Association for the Equilibrium and Promotion of the Family (ADEPF), a local NGO, runs programs to inform the population about the harmful effects of this practice. The international NGOs, the Red Sea Team International and Caritas also work to end the practice in the country. Caritas is very active, printing posters and educational material and working with the Ministry of Health, local NGOs, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and other organizations.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is active in Djibouti in anti-FGM/FGC campaigns, working closely with the Ministry of Health, NGOs and health workers. UNICEF is also involved in these efforts.

Both UNFD and ADEPF raise public awareness by instructing school children and womens groups on the harmful health effects of this practice. They organize national seminars, workshops and training for traditional birth attendants (TBAs), information sessions for target groups such as religious leaders, mothers, fathers and policy-makers and conduct publicity campaigns. They also participated in the production of a film about the issue in Djibouti.

In 1997, the National Committee of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) in Djibouti produced a film on FGM/FGC and other harmful traditional practices, which was shown on national television. After the showing a roundtable was held with members of IAC/Djibouti, doctors, religious leaders, traditional healers and TBAs. They all agreed that the practice had harmful health consequences and was not justified under science, religion or culture.

There have been a number of declarations made about this practice, including that of the State Prosecutor who said, "...I wish to remind that the Republic of Djibouti has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, thus committing itself to put an end to all harmful treatments directed to children. The suffering endured by innocent children is intolerable and reprehensible. Such criminal acts are provided for and punishable by article 324 and following of the Penal Code. From now on, instructions will be given to all police forces in order for those who carry out such harmful practices to be prosecuted and punished by law."

UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) are the major international organizations involved in campaigns in Djibouti. A WHO representative also trains village birth attendants about the dangers of this practice.

There is an increased awareness, especially in the rural areas, of the harmful effects of this practice. Medical personnel throughout the country are aware of the law criminalizing this practice. Posters against the practice are found throughout the country. Anecdotally there has been a move toward using the less radical form, Type II, instead of Type III, especially in Djibouti City. This has been attributed, in part, to increased public awareness through campaigns and openness among the population in discussing the subject.

The newspaper "La Nation" has carried a few articles, interviews and short messages to make the public aware of the harmful health effects of the practice. Radio and television advertisements have also been used to raise awareness of the effects of the practice.

A major obstacle to disseminating information about this subject is the illiteracy rate. An ADEPF report states that 72 percent of Djiboutian women are illiterate. In response, UNFPA, UNFD, Caritas, Red Sea Team International and other groups use street theater, story telling and other means of communication more in line with the oral traditions of Djiboutian society to get their message across.

The U.S. government, through the U.S. Embassys Democracy and Human Rights Fund (DHRF), has provided funding for education programs by local NGOs to end this practice. It has provided funds to ADEPF and to the Red Crescent Society. In 1996, ADEPF received US$24,871 to conduct an FGM/FGC survey, to provide education to school children and womens groups on the health effects of the practice and to organize a television debate on the subject. In 2000, the Red Sea Team International received US$18,010 to provide health education and human rights awareness (including violence against women and FGM/FGC) for women and children throughout Djibouti.

Legal Status:
This practice was outlawed in the countrys revised Penal Code that went into effect in April 1995. Article 333 of the Penal Code provides that persons found guilty of FGM/FGC will face a five year prison term and a fine of one million Djibouti francs (US$5,600).

Enforcement to date is quite another matter. The UNFD is aware of only one case in which a young woman had to be hospitalized after undergoing the operation where the "midwife" who performed the operation was given "counsel." She was advised not to continue her practice. Apparently, no formal charges were brought.

Protection:
We are unaware of any groups or organizations that provide protection to someone who wants to avoid this practice.

A woman faces no legal or economic repercussions in Djibouti if she has not undergone FGM/FGC. There is often social pressure, however, from relatives to at least undergo Type II. Local traditions and social pressure are the main impediments to the abolition of this practice.

Prepared by the Office of the Senior Coordinator for International Women's Issues, Office of the Under Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of State, June, 2001

The Marine I mentioned in my previous blog

This was in the Stars & Stripes Middle East Edition today 7 June 2008.

LAKE STEVENS, Wash. (AP) -- On the afternoon of March 23, two superiors took a 21-year-old Marine, Lance Cpl. Dustin Canham, into a tent at Camp Lemonier, a U.S. base in the rocky desert of the Horn of Africa.

Exactly what happened inside remains unclear, except this: Canham died.

In letters, the Marines told Canham's family he collapsed while exercising. His father and his 19-year-old widow believe that's half the story. They were told by Canham's fellow Marines that he was being punished for accidentally chipping another Marine's tooth. They suspect he might have dropped dead from being forced to work out too hard.

A military autopsy determined the manner of death to be "natural" and said Canham had a mildly enlarged heart. But the medical examiners were not told the circumstances of Canham's death and thus did not consider heat exhaustion as a possible cause, The Associated Press has learned.

After the AP raised questions last week, Armed Forces Medical Examiner Craig T. Mallak and the deputy medical examiner who performed the autopsy, Cmdr. Timothy D. Monaghan, told the family they would take another look at Canham's case.

"They try to make it sound routine, but there's nothing routine about taking one Marine aside," said Canham's widow, Devyn. "Why wouldn't they be doing their daily exercises together?"

The AP has also learned that one of the two superiors who brought Canham into the tent, Sgt. Jesus Diaz, was reassigned out of the platoon following the death.

A spokeswoman at Marine Corps headquarters declined to comment, citing the continuing investigation, as did representatives of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is conducting its own inquiry. The AP was unable to locate contact information for Diaz or the other superior, Cpl. Richard Abril.

Canham, 21, of Lake Stevens, had arrived at Camp Lemonier, in the African nation of Djibouti, about a week earlier. The U.S. maintains the 500-acre base for its Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, which blends traditional security and training roles with humanitarian efforts to combat terrorism.

Canham was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group, out of Portland, Ore. In Djibouti, he was serving with the 8th Provisional Security Company, installing and repairing fuel equipment.

None of his platoon mates would comment when contacted by the AP. But some did speak with Devyn, telling her that earlier in the day, Dustin was unloading a truck with other Marines when they began joking around and throwing rocks at each other. Dustin chipped another Marine's tooth, she said.

Shortly before 4 p.m., Diaz and Abril brought Canham into a tent. Dustin soon collapsed; other Marines saw Diaz run out of the tent to get help, Devyn said. Resuscitation efforts failed. He was pronounced dead at the camp's medical clinic at 5:12 p.m.

One letter to the family, written by Lt. Col. J.R. Hill of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, said, "Dustin was in his air-conditioned quarters while exercising when he unexpectedly collapsed," and added that "the Marines who found him" immediately called for help.

Another, written by Lt. Col. Thomas E. Foos, commanding officer of 8th Provisional Security Company, and Capt. Craig E. Harris, commander of Alpha Company at Lemonier, said, "Dustin was exercising with his fire team leader in his tent doing what we call the Daily Seven" - an exercise routine that includes push-ups and core-body work - and that he collapsed after just two or three minutes.

None of the letters explained why Canham was in the tent with two superiors. Devyn Canham said three Marines told her it was not Dustin's own tent, but another that might not have been air-conditioned. The high temperature that afternoon neared the mid-90s.

Dustin's father, Mark Canham, said an investigator confirmed to him that Dustin was doing physical training in lieu of receiving a black mark on his record, typically referred to as a "page 11," when he died. Devyn said no military officials have told her that.

The nine-page autopsy report makes no mention of Canham exercising; it says merely that he collapsed while in his quarters. Canham's heart weighed 450 grams, at the top of the normal range.

The medical examiner listed the cause of death as a thickening of the left ventricular wall, a condition sometimes found in endurance athletes. Canham was in excellent shape, his family said.

"His enlarged heart and hypertrophic left ventricular wall left him vulnerable to disruption of life-sustaining cardiac rhythms," Monaghan concluded.

Heat exhaustion can cause such a disruption.

Although Mark Canham signed a privacy waiver authorizing the military to discuss the autopsy with the AP, the military would not allow an interview with the pathologists. The AP instead gave its questions to Mark Canham, who asked them of Monaghan last week.

According to Mark Canham, Monaghan said that he was unaware Dustin had been exercising or that he was being punished when he died, and that he had no reason to suspect heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Mallak confirmed that, Devyn and her lawyer said.

Mark Canham has spent the past two months trying to contact his son's friends in the Marines, investigators and members of Congress to pry loose any information he can.

"I just want to know what happened," he said. "I wish I could let the whole thing go. But that would be a grave injustice to my son."

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test..1...2..3

Some humor for a change

A man who dressed up as Darth Vader, wearing a black garbage bag for a cape, and assaulted the founders of Britain's first Jedi church was given a suspended sentence Tuesday. A person dressed as Darth Vader pictured at a launch of a Star Wars video game. Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, attacked Jedi church founder Barney Jones -- a.k.a. Master Jonba Hehol -- with a metal crutch, hitting him on the head, prosecutors told Holyhead Magistrates' Court.

He also whacked Jones' 18-year-old cousin, Michael Jones -- or Master Mormi Hehol -- bruising his thigh, in the March 25 incident. Unfortunately for Hughes, the incident was recorded on a video camera that the cousins had set up to film themselves in a light saber battle.

"Darth Vader! Jedis!" Hughes shouted as he approached.

Hughes claimed he couldn't remember the incident, having drunk the best part of a 10-liter (two-and-half-gallon) box of wine beforehand.

"He knows his behavior was wrong and didn't want it to happen but he has no recollection of it," said Hughes' lawyer, Frances Jones. District Judge Andrew Shaw sentenced Hughes to two months in jail but suspended the sentence for one year. He also ordered Hughes to pay £100 ($195) to each of his victims and £60 ($117) in court costs. Barney Jones, his brother Daniel and cousin Michael set up the Church of Jediism, Anglesey order, last year. It claims about 30 members.

Jedi is the faith followed by some of the central characters in the "Star Wars" films. In the 2001 United Kingdom census, 390,000 people -- 0.7 percent of the population -- listed Jedi as their religion.

Death and deployment

White( a person whom I work worth) and I were talking. Both of us have a few deployments under our belt and never has anyone been seriously injured or died on those deployments.

However, this one has been quite the opposite. I have been here for less than 3 months and we have had 2 people die. Not from combat injuries because we are not engaged in combat here. But from natural causes. The first of which was a 21 year old Marine who's name I do not know died in the gym while working out from unknown causes.

The most recent of which passed away yesterday. At least we became aware of it yesterday. He was believed to have passed away some time before he was found. His service although not here was a memorable one. An honor guard of Airmen escorted the casket to the vehicle which would transport it from the hospital to airport. While the streets were lined with service members from the French Navy , Yemen Army, Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen who offered their respects and final salute.

I did not know the man well but I did know him. I had the good fortune of sharing conversations and laughs with the man. His passing has been tragic with me although I do not know if it was because I knew him or what he represented. I cannot help but to look at the table we sat at with a new profound sense of respect and yearning.

War is a cruel monster in which we as a people have become desensitized too and I have come to fear the idea of 'what if the last thing you said to your loved ones was the actual last thing.' This is a tragic place and situation in which no one should have to die not having seen their loved one's in such a long time and yet so far away from them.

But just in case I love you Kim and I love you Mom. Thanks for being the greatest influences in my life.

Farewell and Following Seas Lieutenant Colonel Joseph A. Moore, Chaplain Corps, United States Air Force

Tactical Aircraft

Some information for thought.

The last Air Force pilot ever involved in a real dog fight is coming up on his 2nd star. The same goes for the last Naval Aviator.

Back in Vietnam, Marines lost 1 tactical aircraft for every 6,000 missions. In Operation Iraqi Freedom our loss rate is 1 tactical aircrafter per every 1,500 sorties.

It's considered safer to fly fighter plane rather than helicopters.