'The white men need pirates, we give them pirates.' In Somalia, actors pose as pirates to western journalists

This photo taken in 2010 shows an armed Somali pirate along the coast in Hobyo, northeastern Somalia.  (MOHAMED DAHIR/AFP/Getty Images)

Somalia’s fearsome pirates have been in the news a lot in recent years because of their kidnap and ransom operations off the Somali coast but they have also spawned another lucrative industry: actors posing as pirates to western journalists.

Channel 4 reporter Jamal Osman says he found actors in Kenya – where many journalists travel in search of pirates – who admit to hamming it up for the television cameras in exchange for money. 

The scam works like this: unsuspecting journalists hire a fixer who agrees to set up the interviews for a price. But the fixer is in cahoots with the actors. Journalists are sent on a false wild goose chase for days in search for the elusive pirates.  

Adan, whose day job is at a restaurant told the network: "They (journalists) go to the boss and say we need pirates. The boss comes to us and says the white men need pirates. So he says, 'pretend to be a pirate.'"

He says he earns $200 for each gig. “I depend on myself. I'm an asset, not a liability."

Osman, who is a Somali, spotted the pirates as implausible because their accents placed them as Borans, an ethnic group in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. So they aren’t even Somali. One of them hadn’t even been to Somalia. 

Adan told Osman he had no regrets. "You know, western guys they think the Africans are fools. But we have discovered we are not fools. We are much cleverer than the western people. We are fooling them, but they think they are fooling us."

Channel 4 says Time magazine and Danish Broadcasting Corporation DR have fallen for the scam. 

Hamida Ghafour is a foreign affairs reporter at the Star. She has lived and worked in the Middle East and Asia for more than 10 years and is the author of a book on Afghanistan. Follow her on Twitter @HamidaGhafour

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War reporting documentary wins prestigious Peabody Award

Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly on assignment in Libya. Courtesy: Under Fire Journalists in Combat

A documentary about the dangers journalists face in war zones has won the prestigious Peabody Award.

Toronto filmmaker Martyn Burke's Under Fire: Journalists in Combat examines how reporting on war has becoming increasingly dangerous over the last 10 to 15 years. Renowned psychiatrist Dr. Anthony Feinstein who treats journalists suffering from the stress of war reporting also worked with Burke. The CBC commissioned the documentary.

Among those interviewed was The Toronto Star's veteran war reporter Paul Watson who talks about the guilt he felt over his photograph of an American soldier's body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 which won him a Pulitzer prize. 

Watson said: "Martyn Burke has the interviewing skills of a superb psychiatrist. He took me to a dark place where I didn't want to go and anyone who sees the film can see the re-telling was traumatic for me. But I'm glad he took me there. I'm an idealist who believes that if enough people fully grasp the corrosive effect that war has on all of us--whether we're fighting, caught in the middle, merely observing, or feeling safe back home--we'll do more collectively to end war forever."

The Star's national security reporter and author Michelle Shephard who has spent years reporting from conflict zones including Yemen, Somalia and Kenya was an associate producer.

The Peabodys celebrate some of the world's best journalism and winners were announced on Wednesday at the University of Georgia’s journalism school.  

Burke told the CBC: "In some of them (journalists), not all, but some, there is just this level of submerged trauma that just kind of bubbles up. The second thing that surprised me is that in amongst all these people, there's a residual humanity [despite] all the depravity and killing they've seen. I actually liken it to flowers coming out of concrete. You can't keep that humanity down."

Read Michelle Shephard's dispatches from Kenya's troubled election

Read Paul Watson's reports from Syria on factions in the civil war

Hamida Ghafour is a foreign affairs reporter at the Star. She has lived and worked in the Middle East and Asia for more than 10 years and is author of a book on Afghanistan. Follow her on Twitter @HamidaGhafour

Kenya's foreign press pariahs and zombie scribes

 

The of Kenya's largest newspaper March 4, 2013. (Michelle Shephard/Toronto Star)

 "Any journalist worth their salt should start feeling itchy when praised by those in authority," writes author and journalist Michela Wrong in an excellent blog about reporting Kenya's election last week. 

Wrong, who has covered Africa for nearly two decades, laments both the backlash against foreign scribes, as well as the malaise of the local press - whom she greatly admires - but says it was transformed for the elections into a "zombie army."

To step back, some history:

In the last election five years ago, various media outlets were blamed for stoking the violence that followed the contested vote and resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200. Joshua arap Sang, the owner of radio station Kass FM, has been indicted by The Hague's International Criminal Court for allegedly airing hate speech to incite ethinc tensions.

Kenya's government spokesperson was none too subtle in his warnings to the media in the lead up to the March 4th vote. "We will set you on fire before you set us on fire," Muthui Kariuki told a gathering of international press in January.

Foreign journalists carried on, but what turned Kenya's normally fiesty local media into what Wrong calls the "zombie army," was a code of unprecedented restraint. Kenya's Media Owners Association told The Associated Press' Jason Straziuso that there was "gentleman's agreement" among media bosses to not air any political statements live, or publish "inflammatory statements."

It is understandable, or even as Straziuso calls it, "a noble goal," given how desperate everyone was to avoid the horrors of five years ago.

But did the self-censorship go too far and what does that mean for the future of Kenya's journalism?

There were some insightful columns, but the live television coverage, was bizarre to watch: a 24-hour live scroll of vote tallies set to an excrutiating superhero soundtrack that looped over and over and over again, broken only by equally numbing roundtable discussions where analysts spoke in hypotheticals.

Was this what election and government officials praised (which as Wrong says, should make them get a little itchy, especially since the election did not go as smoothly as many Kenyans may have believed)?

Political analyst, Ken Opalo told The Independent's Daniel Howden that he believed the self censorship went "too far," while the Committee to Protect Journalists' Tom Rhodes reported that not all local journalists were happy with the gentleman's agreement, but frustrated by "editors who cull(ed) their stories in the name of maintaining peace."

It's no wonder in contrast the foreign press appeared as dangerous naysayers, accused of hyping the threat with a-need-to-feed-journalism-speed. There were some examples of questionable reports, but it was "foreign press" in general that was targetted. On Thursday, the information ministry warned that foreign journalists would be prosecuted or deported if they did not have proper work permits.

Intimidation of the foreign press hurts all media in Kenya - and is especially tragic when the local press has fought so hard for the independence they normally enjoy.

Wrong and others are also asking if the self-censorship impacted the election itself? Without fullsome coverage - including allegations of vote rigging that prompted the running mate of presidential candidate Raila Odinga to call for a recount - were Kenyans may have been lulled into a sense of security through distorted facts ... and a superhero soundtrack?

Michelle Shephard is the Toronto Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recepient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

 

 

 

Canadian is new arrival at international court

Canada is often accused of punching below its weight on the international stage. But it still packs a wallop at The Hague.

Ottawa was in at the birth of the International Criminal Court, and Canadian Philippe Kirsch was the court’s first president. Renowned jurist Louise Arbour was the chief prosecutor of the tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and McGill University law professor Payam Akhavan was the first legal advisor to the prosecutor’s Office for the tribunals.

Now there’s a new Canadian in town.

 Toronto lawyer James Stewart is taking his place as the newly-elected deputy prosecutor of the ICC, assisting Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in a new slate of cases that includes some of the world’s worst war crimes. He’s no stranger to the scene, having done two terms for the Rwanda tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, as a senior trial attorney, and one for the Yugoslavia tribunal as chief of prosecutions. Both featured horrifying testimonies of survivors of genocide, torture, murder and rape.

The volatile cases awaiting Stewart include that of Kenya’s president-elect Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, accused of orchestrating attacks on members of ethnic groups who were suspected political opponents of President Mwai Kibaki in the 2007 election.
The court also opened an investigation into possible crimes committed in northern Mali during the recent rebellion.

Meanwhile the ICC is deliberating on whether Saif al Islam Gaddhafi  - son of late dictator Moammar – should be tried at The Hague or in Libya for war crimes. And the court is a focus of controversy over a possible Palestinian attempt to press for war crimes charges against Israel. Although reports of atrocities are mounting in Syria, a UN Security Council deadlock is blocking an ICC investigation.

Stewart, an unassuming Montreal-born lawyer, is prepared for whatever might come in the next nine years of his term.

Dealing with Rwandans who had experienced unimaginable abuses moved him deeply, but did not discourage him. “There is no way not to be affected by the people you are dealing with, particularly at the trial level,” he told the Canadian Lawyer Magazine. “I am sure it has altered my view of the world and affected me in many ways I probably don’t even realize.”

Olivia Ward has covered international courts at The Hague as well as conflicts, politics and human rights as correspondent and bureau chief from the former Soviet Union to the Balkans, Northern Ireland, the Middle East and South Asia. She has won both national and international awards.

 

Frequent flyer ultrasounds

Okay Air Canada, what have you done for me lately?

Kenya Airways - whose motto is The Pride of Africa - is offering free echo cardiograms or kidney profiles for travel from Nairobi to Delhi. Kind of makes that whole Air Canada elite lounge access seem lame suddenly.

The offer for free "World Class Health Care At Your Doorstep," is advertised on the back of every Kenya Airways ticket stub. It seems all you have to do is take a direct flight from Kenya's capital to India and you're entitled to a free "Executive Health Check Up" from the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences. That includes an ultrasound (whole abdomen), liver function test, a lipid profile, and ECG, among other medical tests.

Kenya Airways representatives were unavailable for comment - not surprising since life is essentially on hold here as the votes are counted in the country's historic election. But an email sent to Jacob Deepika at Asian Hospital (as advertised on the ticket) was promptly returned saying that, well yes, all that was required was a boarding pass and passport.

He attached this brochure:

 

Free nuts and soft drinks? How yesterday.

 

Michelle Shephard is the Toronto Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recepient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm 

Kenya's election watch and wait ... but don't say worry

A deputy presiding officer takes a much-needed break March 4, 2013 after election polls closed in Kibera, Kenya's largest slum. MICHELLE SHEPHARD / TORONTO STAR

 

Matatus, the overcrowded minibuses that normally clog Nairobi's streets, are parked along the side of the roads. Drivers who venture out in their own cars are giddy with the freedom of actually driving, rather than sitting stuck in the capital's ubiquitous traffic. Schools are closed. The few grocery stores that are open are low on stock.

Along Ngong Road that leads out of the city, car lots remain empty. Owners removed the pricey Land Rovers the weekend before Monday's election, just in case looters rampaged again as they did five years ago in disatrous post-election violence that killed more than 1,200.

This is the unusual calm here in the capital as Kenyans wait for results of the crucial presidential election and the world waits to see what happens once a decision is announced. But don't wonder if it's the "calm before the storm" because stories hyping the threat (or clichés for that matter) are really getting on people's nerves. 

Monday was a remarkable exercise in patience. It is difficult to imagine many other countries where voters would wait in single-file lines for as long as 12 hours, wordlessly enduring the sweltering heat, to cast their ballots. It is estimated that turnout was at least 70% of the country's more than 14 million registered voters.

But if Monday was about patience, and Tuesday, a day of recovery and reflection, then Wednesday represented frustration, if only because people are eager to get on with life and back to business. 

The delay is largely because the electronic system used to count the votes broke down Tuesday. That means returning officers now have to physically deliver paper copies here to Nairobi. It's a big country, and many polling stations are very remote.

By midday Wednesday, only 53 of the 290 constituencies had arrived.

Time fuels suspicion, which officials are going to great lengths to dispute, as it was cries of corruption and a rigged vote five years ago that sparked the violence.

 Under the new constitution Kenya passed in 2010, electoral officials have seven days to tally the results. There is hope it will not take that long.

 

Michelle Shephard is the Toronto Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recepient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

PHOTO: Voting in 'Little Mogadishu'

 
A woman walks with her ballot cards in the Eastleigh district of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on March 4, during the nationwide election. Eastleigh is known locally as "Little Mogadishu" due to the number of ethnic and national Somalis living there. The election is seen as a crucial test for Kenya, with leaders vowing to avoid a repeat of the bloody 2007-8 post-poll violence in which over 1,100 people were killed and observers repeatedly warning of the risk of renewed conflict. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images)

Read Michelle Shephard's latest report from Kenya.

Follow Michelle Shephard on Twitter: @shephardm