On May 1st, the US assassinated Aden Hashi Eyrow, one of senior leaders of Somalia’s Islamist movement, in an air strike that killed at least 10 other people.

Somalia has a United Nations-backed transitional government that had little local legitimacy and controlled only one town at the time of the Ethiopian invasion. The transitional government has lost almost all support by Somalis following its continued support for the Ethiopian occupation, even after several well documented atrocities. Amnesty International has accused Ethiopian soldiers of killing 21 people, including an imam and several Islamic scholars, at a Mogadishu mosque and said seven of the victims had their throats slit. According to eye-witnesses, the eleven killed inside the mosque were unarmed civilians taking no active part in hostilities. Amnesty International has documented a pattern of these ‘throat-slitting’ executions, which often occur in security sweeps after attacks on Ethiopian forces in Somalia. Amnesty International also expressed concern that approximately 41 children, estimated to range from 9 to 18 years of age, were taken by the Ethiopian military from the Al Hidya mosque where they were attending religious classes.

Asha Haji Ilmi, head of Save Somali Women and Children, a Mogadishu-based NGO, reports that the situation had never been this bad in 17 years of civil war, and that the transitional government is making the humanitarian situation worse by waging an economic war in Mogadishu. “The destruction and looting of Bakara market and the printing of fake currency has led to hyperinflation,” seriously affecting the population’s ability to cope, she said.

The upsurge in violence comes as the country is on the brink of a severe drought. The number of people in need of assistance in Somalia has increased to 2.6 million people (35% of the total population), an increase of more than 40% since January 2008. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs-Somalia, warns that “if things do not improve within the coming weeks, and it is not likely, then we will be confronted with the images of 1991-1992,” when hundreds of thousands of Somalis died through drought and violence.

In response to the US assassination of Eyrow, Ahmed Samatar, the Somali born dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College told PBS's News Hour that the death of the Islamic leader will likely increase resistance to Ethiopia: "this is what you can hear from the Somali people around both inside and outside of the country. And that is target assassinations, in the final analysis, might be successful in taking out the individual or the individuals that one is hunting for, but the consequences of that is to make people who are now in the middle and who really are peaceful people and who are not interested in violence to be increasingly pushed to become more militant and, therefore, dare to take violence as an instrument to liberate their country from the invasion of the Ethiopians and this transitional government, which the Ethiopians have imposed on the Somali people."

Thousands of Somalis Protest Deadly U.S. Air Strike | PDF | Thousands riot in Somali capital | Somalis protest against US strike | US confirms Somali missile strike | Somalia Situation Report | Scores dead as Ethiopian troops push further into Mogadishu | 'Wash Post' Backs Invasion and 'Endless' Occupation Over Air Strikes | Anarchy in Somalia

Previous Indybay Coverage Of Somalia

On April 7, two indigenous Triqui women who worked at the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence), in the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala (Mixteca region), were shot and murdered while on their way to Oaxaca City to participate in the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the Peoples of Oaxaca. Three other people were injured.

According to the state attorney general, the victims are Teresa Bautista Merino (24 years old) and Felícitas Martínez Sánchez (20 years old). Francisco Vásquez Martínez (30 years old), his wife Cristina Martínez Flores (22 years old), and their son Jaciel Vásquez Martínez (three years old) were also injured in the attack.

According to prelimary reports, the women had left the station, which is part of the Network of Indigenous Community Radio Stations of the Southeast (Red de Radios Comunitarias Indígenas del Sureste), around 1 p.m. They were traveling in a truck on their way to Oaxaca City, but were ambushed on the outskirts of the community of Llano Juarez.

The two community radio activists were supposed to coordinate the working group for Community and Alternative Communication: Community Radio, Video, Press, and Internet, at the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the People of Oaxaca, which was to begin on April 9 in the auditorium of the teachers union in Oaxaca. The Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS) released a statement denouncing the murders and demanding that the state authorities investigate and punish those responsible for the crime.

The state attorney general said that twenty 7.62 caliber bullet shells were found at the site of the murders, along with other arms including an AK-47. International supporters have been asked to contact their local embassies and consulates and organize demonstrations condemning the paramilitary repression of indigenous women and community media projects.

Read more | Two Community Radio Announcers Killed in Copala, Oaxaca | Deep Dish TV blog

On Wednesday, April 9th, the Olympic Torch came to San Francisco. Thousands of people gathered in an Francisco to either cheer or protest. Supporters of China waved Chinese flags and supporters of Tibet hung "Free Tibet" banners from buildings but few saw the torch as the relay did not go along the announced route and the closing ceremony was cancelled. One torchbearer, Majora Carter, tried to display a Tibetan flag while running with the torch on Van Ness Avenue but the SFPD quickly took the torch from her and pushed her onto the sidewalk.

On Monday April 7th activists from Students for a Free Tibet hung banners from the Golden Gate Bridge; they were later arrested and are now facing felony charges.

CodePink/Global Exchange Brings Positive Olympic Torch | Rallies On The Embarcadero | Big Group Takes Torchless Embarcadero Banner Confrontation | Tanks in the streets | Sanity in SF Torch Route | Compiled breaking news reports | Archive of live mobile streams | Pro-Tibetan demonstrators march, and no torch

April 8th San Francisco Tibet Vigil | Action Alert | Burma Contingent | Scaling the Golden Gate cables for a free Tibet | Photos from the banner drop | Protest on Golden Gate Bridge | SF Welcomes China's Official Secret Police For Lighters On Steroids | Will SF also cede sovereignty to China's police? | Less than a week before the Olympic Torch arrives | Info on Text and Video Updates | Cable Access coverage of the San Francisco Olympic Torch Relay | Twitter the Torch

The Olympics will be taking place between August 8th and August 24th in Beijing, China. Many human rights groups are concerned that China is cracking down on dissidents ahead of the games.

On September 28, 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu urged China to intervene in the crackdown on protests in Myanmar. Tutu said that if China did not take a stance against the military rulers in Myanmar he would "join a campaign to boycott the Beijing Olympics"

The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders(RWB) has advocated a boycott of the Olympics expressing concerns over violations of free speech and human rights in China. RWB hopes that international pressure and petition can effect the release of prisoners of conscience, and hold China to promises made to the IOC regarding improvements in human rights. RWB journalists interrupted the speech of the China organizing committee chief during the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece March 24. One protester tried to snatch the microphone as another unrolled a black flag showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs.

Activists working to address the ongoing violence in Darfur, Sudan, have called for pressure to be exerted on China because of their financial and diplomatic support for Omar al-Bashir, who is responsible for the Sudanese government's proxy militias.

Pro-Tibetan independence groups, such as Students for a Free Tibet, have initiated a campaign to protest the Olympics. The group plans to protest for Tibetan independence. The Tibetan People's Movement has also demanded representation of Tibet with its own national flag.

On Sunday April 6th, protesters tried to steal the torch as it made a 31-mile trip through London from Wembley Stadium to the O2 Arena in North Greenwich. Several protesters were arrested.
On Monday April 7th, protests in Paris forced an end to the relay in France after protesters repeatedly extinguished the torch.

French snuff Tyranny Torch | UK Indymedia Photos&Video Of London Tibet Protests | Demonstrations in Paris cancel Olympic torch relay | Activists urge torch-bearers to speak out on Tibet oppression | Forget the Olympic Torch: Free Tibet | NYPD caught on tv beating up Tibet protestors in NY | Incendiary Device Left at the Chinese Consulate in SF | HRW: International Olympic Committee Operating in Moral Void

On March 10th 2008, monks from the Drepung monastery in Tibet staged a protest on the anniversary of the 1959 failed rebellion led by the Dalai Lama. Chinese police arrested 60 monks. The next day around 600 monks staged a protest in front of the Lhasa police headquarters demanding the release of the detained monks. Protest across China led to many arrests and possibly hundreds of deaths. The Chinese government has now sealed off Tibet from the outside world preventing journalists from getting into the provence and many essential goods (such as food and medicine) from getting into monasteries.

On April 3rd, China sentenced AIDS activist Hu Jia to 3 1/2 years in prison after he testified to the European Parliament and published a letter urging a focus on human rights as the Summer Olympics approach.

The largest Tibetan uprising since 1959 | Tibet Intifada Day 2 | Tibet Intifada Day 3 | HRW: Restrain Forces From Violently Attacking Protesters in Tibet | Petitition to Boycott Beijing 2008 Olympic Games | Repression in Tibet and China | 1959 Tibetan Insurgency | In Tibet, China dishonours Olympic spirit | Chinese profits will soon make the world forget Tibet | Gruppo EveryOne: Save Tibet, Boycott Beijing 2008 | Yahoo and MSN helping to root out Tibetan rioters | China claims "Intern'l Community on OUR side" | More info on the ethnic cleansing of Tibet | M19 Tibet Protest at the Chinese Consulate in SF | August 8th 2007 SF Protest Against Olympic Torch

Some activists groups are concerned that protests against China are motivated more by US government military and economic interests rather than real concerns about human rights. They point out that the 1959 Tibetan Uprising was sponsored by the CIA and Tibet under the rule of the Dalai Lama was a theocracy .

Party for Socialism and Liberation: Statement Opposing Anti-China Campaign | Oil in Tibet and gold, uranium and more | A Free Tibet: Freedom for whom? | From Brutal Theocracy to Socialist Liberation to Capitalist Nightmare | The Protests in Tibet and the Discontent Below | China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics | What's really going on in Tibet