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Stolen Kenyan Documents Find Huge Market In Somalia
Stolen Kenyan passports and national identity cards are on sale in Somalia, The Standard has learnt.
The vital documents, which are available in abundance, find their way to Bakaro market in Mogadishu through unscrupulous middlemen operating in Nairobi.
They are then altered to fit the buyer’s needs, which include replacing the pictures of the original owners with those of the potential buyers.
A Kenyan passport fetches about Sh9,720 (US$120) while an ID card is available for about Sh8,100 (US$100). Once the buyer has the documents securely in his hand, he can travel anywhere in the world.
A reporter who posed as a potential buyer gathered from the dealers that they had sold a number of Kenyan passports to nationals of various African countries, who had then used them to make successful trips around the world.
The dealers had only one warning though: Never attempt to enter Kenya using the fake travel documents.
However, the fake national identity cards are used in Kenya. When asked about the contradiction on the names and pictures appearing on the passports, one dealer retorted: "Out there (countries outside Africa), who knows that you are not John, Kamau, Mohammed or Fatuma?"
An impeccable source said some of those who buy the documents are people who applied for the same through Kenyan authorities but their files went missing.
And unscrupulous Kenyan immigration officials, being aware of the lucrative black market trade, collude with the middlemen and process the passports in Nairobi before handing them over for delivery to Mogadishu.
The middlemen even revealed that it was easy to obtain a passport in Kenya following their deals with the crooked immigration officials. Once the officials process the passports, they normally destroy the records to avoid detection.
Other passports are stolen directly from the owners and sold to brokers on Nairobi streets before transportation to Mogadishu.
Our team also found Ethiopian and South African passports in the Mogadishu market.
The dealers explained that the Somali mostly use the stolen Ethiopian documents due to their resemblance with Ethiopians.
Posted on Sunday 31st October at 22:44:20 Little Support In Somalia For AU Peace-Keeping Force
Mogadishu has reacted with mixed feelings to a request by Somalia's newly-elected president that the African Union (AU) deploy up to 20,000 troops to help disarm factional fighters and rebuild the devastated country.
"No need of troops from outside, they will impose their own ill intentions on the people of Somalia. They are like Somali warlords," said Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who is of charge of Islamic courts in Mogadishu.
On Monday President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who was elected by transitional lawmakers sitting in Nairobi, asked the AU's Peace and Security Council to send between 15,000 and 20,000 troops to Somalia to help disarm fighters and restore stability.
Somalia has lacked a recognized central government since the 1991 fall of dictator Muhammad Siad Barre.
"We can't accept any foreign soldier in our soil. It is better to die rather than be instructed by AU troops in Mogadishu. That kind of action would remind me of my brother who was killed by UN troops in 1993," said driver Nur Warasame Nur.
International efforts to relieve famine and restore peace in Somalia began in 1992 and were aborted in 1994 after several deadly clashes between the US-led peacekeepers and Somali fighters.
Mogadishu trader Muhammad Hussein Ahmed said on Monday: "I personally would have supported [Yusuf's appeal] if the AU countries were paying for the peacekeepers," but instead "they ask for help from donors and use money which could have assisted us to rebuild Somalia... AU troops are really parasites," he added.
"Bandits are the ones rejecting the disarmament. Without troops from the international community the Somali leaders can't disarm the gunmen in the streets. Let them come and arrest criminals," said Ahmed Ali Muhammad, a civilian who hails in north Mogadishu.
Muhammad Nur Galal, a former army general who now supports Yusuf, said the president's appeal was premature.
"The decision to deploy troops in Somalia should be made after the president appoints a government. If there is need for outside forces, they should only be a few, not 20,000 or so, to collaborate with a new Somali army and to train them," Galal said.
Veteran warlord Hussein Mohamed Aidid agreed, saying that, "First, a representative government that guarantees the well-being of all clans should be established, before the militia give in their weapons. The use of force would end in serious human tragedy."
"I and other faction leaders are ready to give in weapons after we accept the new prime minister to be appointed and the formation of his government. Any attempt to deploy troops at this stage would be futile and dangerous for both Somalis and outside troops," Aidid added.
Posted on Sunday 31st October at 18:09:43 Somali Truck Driver Kidnapped In Iraq
KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct 30 (Reuter) - Kidnappers abducted a Somali driver and looted his truck in Iraq on Saturday, police in the northern city of Kirkuk said. He was the sixth foreigner taken hostage this week. Major General Torhan Mustafa told reporters the unidentified Somali had been delivering goods from Turkey to the water and sanitation department in Kirkuk.
An Iraqi resistance group seized a Sudanese translator in the rebel town of Ramadi and demanded that his U.S. employers quit Iraq, Arabic Al Arabiya television said on Saturday.
It aired excerpts from a videotape it received showing two masked men pointing rifles at the man, named as Noureddin Zakaria. No specific threat was made on his life.
There was no word on the fate of a Shosei Koda, a Japanese backpacker whose captors threatened on Tuesday to behead him within 48 hours unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq.
Militants said on Thursday they had abducted an Iraqi-Polish woman, Teresa Borcz Khalifa, and demanded that Polish troops leave Iraq.
Kidnappers also took a Bangladeshi and a Sri Lankan truck driver hostage, Al Jazeera television said on Thursday.
Bangladesh urged the captors on Saturday to show mercy in the holy month of Ramadan and free the hostage, named in Dhaka newspapers as Abul Kashem, an employee of a Kuwaiti company.
At least 25 foreigners from a dozen countries are thought to be in the hands of kidnappers trying to drive U.S.-led forces and foreign workers from Iraq. Scores of foreigners have been abducted since April. Many have been freed. More than 35 have been killed.
Posted on Saturday 30th October at 23:03:44 Somalis Walk Off Job At Cell Phone Company
Chanhassen, Minn. (AP) Several Somalis have walked off their jobs at a cell phone company in Chanhassen claiming they've been subject to ethnic slurs and other poor treatment.
About 100 Somalis protested outside Teleplan Wireless Company yesterday.
Almost twice that number walked off their jobs Monday, though some have returned. The rest rejected a company offer to settle and say they may contact labor unions.
Teleplan Wireless released a statement denying any discrimination.
Workers say one manager called them "terrorist sympathizers" and told them they didn't belong in America. However, they were later told that the manager was fired.
They also say the company hired several white people instead of converting some Somalis from temporary to permanent status.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Posted on Saturday 30th October at 23:02:06 Somali Leader calls For Dialogue For Avoid Further Clashes
NAIROBI, Oct. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Somalia's newly-elected President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has called for dialogue to avoid further clashes between Somaliland and Puntland, two regions in the northern part of the country over their common border.
Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, Somali presidential spokesman Yusuf Ismail Baribari said "the president is calling for an immediate dialogue to resolve Somali crises, including the one between Somaliland and Puntland."
About 100 people were reported killed in fighting between Puntland and the rival Somali territory of Somaliland, which accused Puntland's leader, now Somalia's new president, of waging war on it.
Abdullahi Yusuf, elected president on Oct. 10, has pledged to work peacefully with breakaway Somaliland as he tries to restore order to Somalia.
A spokesman for Somaliland's Office of Defense said the death toll from the fighting, which erupted on Friday at the village of Adi-Addeye, about 30 km north of Las Anod, had risen to 109.
Yusuf, who has not yet been able to return to Somalia because of the continued insecurity, has asked the African Union to send 20,000 peacekeepers to disarm the militias controlling much of the failed state.
Ismail said Yusuf wanted an international fact-finding mission to establish the cause of the fighting and facilitate a ceasefire.
Yusuf said in a letter sent to neighboring states and the United Nations on Friday that Puntland had told him Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991, was waging "an all-out war." Enditem
Posted on Saturday 30th October at 22:58:38 Bloody Clashes Erupt In Somalia
More than 100 people have been reported killed in fighting between the rival Somali enclaves of Puntland and Somaliland.
Puntland political boss Abdullahi Yusuf, elected Somalia's new president on 10 October, has pledged to work peacefully with Somaliland as he tries to restore order to the lawless country which descended into anarchy in 1991 following the ousting of Muhammad Siad Barre.
But his election alarmed Somaliland, hostile to a man long seen as the neighbouring territory's arch foe. It warned Yusuf on 12 October against any attempted aggression and said it was on alert against any move to reunite Somaliland with the rest of Somalia.
"Full mobilisation of our soldiers is going on and will continue until Abdullahi Yusuf's forces leave our territory," a spokesman for the Somaliland president said on Saturday, adding that fighting had stopped because of heavy rains.
Death toll
A spokesman for Somaliland's Office of Defence said the death toll from the fighting, which erupted on Friday at the village of Adi-Addeye, about 30km north of Las Anod, had risen to 109.
It was not immediately clear whether that figure referred to combat casualties or civilians or both. The spokesman said nine Somaliland soldiers were also killed in the fighting.
Las Anod has been a flashpoint during previous flare-ups between the two armies. Puntland and Somaliland have fought sporadic clashes for years over the ownership of several eastern areas of Somaliland claimed by Puntland's leaders as their own on the basis of ethnicity.
But the cause of the fresh bout of fighting was not clear, with both sides accusing each other of initiating hostilities.
A Yusuf spokesman he hoped the two territories would stop fighting and pursue dialogue. "The president is very much concerned about the unfortunate clashes that happened yesterday which caused heavy losses of life and property," the head of Somalia's presidential press service Yusuf Muhammad Ismail told reporters in Nairobi.
Waging war
Yusuf was elected head of state by Somali lawmakers after two years of stop-start peace talks held in Kenya because of insecurity at home.
Yusuf, who has not yet been able to return to Somalia because of the continued insecurity, has asked the African Union to send 20,000 peacekeepers to disarm the militias controlling much of the failed state.
Ismail said Yusuf wanted an international fact-finding mission to establish the cause of the fighting and facilitate a ceasefire.
Yusuf said in a letter sent to neighbouring states and the United Nations on Friday that Puntland had told him Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991, was waging "an all-out war".
© 2003 - 2004 Aljazeera.Net
Posted on Saturday 30th October at 22:57:07 More Than 100 Feared Dead In Somalia Clashes
HARGEISA, Somalia - More than 100 people were reported killed on Saturday in fighting between the rival Somali enclaves of Puntland and Somaliland, which accused Somalia’s new president of invading the breakaway territory.
Puntland political boss Abdullahi Yusuf, elected Somalia’s new president on Oct. 10, has pledged to work peacefully with Somaliland as he tries to restore order to the lawless country which descended into anarchy in 1991 following the ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
But his election alarmed Somaliland, hostile to a man long seen as the neighbouring territory’s arch foe. It warned Yusuf on Oct. 12 against any attempted aggression and said it was on alert against any move to reunite Somaliland with the rest of Somalia.
“Full mobilisation of our soldiers is going on and will continue until Abdullahi Yusuf’s forces leave our territory,” a spokesman for the Somaliland president said on Saturday, adding that fighting had stopped because of heavy rains.
A spokesman for Somaliland’s Office of Defence said the death toll from the fighting, which erupted on Friday at the village of Adi-Addeye, about 30 km (20 miles) north of Las Anod, had risen to 109.
It was not immediately clear whether that figure referred to combat casualties or civilians or both. The spokesman said nine Somaliland soldiers were also killed in the fighting.
Las Anod has been a flashpoint during previous flare-ups between the two armies. Puntland and Somaliland have fought sporadic clashes for years over the ownership of several eastern areas of Somaliland claimed by Puntland’s leaders as their own, on the basis of ethnicity.
But the cause of the fresh bout of fighting was not clear, with both sides accusing each other of starting it.
Yusuf said through his spokesman he hoped the two territories would stop fighting and pursue dialogue.
“The president is very much concerned about the unfortunate clashes that happened yesterday which caused heavy losses of life and property,” the head of Somalia’s presidential press service Yusuf Mohamed Ismail told reporters in Nairobi.
Posted on Saturday 30th October at 22:55:17 15 Die In Somali Border Dispute
Mogadishu - At least 15 people were killed and scores wounded Friday after fighting erupted over a border dispute between Somaliland and Puntland, two regions in northern Somalia, officials and residents said.
It was the first time that the dispute over the territory of Sool degenerated into major hostilities.
The fighting pitted government troops from Somaliland, which considers itself an independent state, against fighters loyal to the regional government in neighbouring Puntland.
"Some 15 people were killed and scores more wounded by the fighting which is continuing," said Mohamed Said, a resident of Lasanod, the main town in the disputed region.
He said the fighting was taking place in the nearby village of Adhi-adeeye.
"I can confirm the battle but am unable to give any further details," Ismail Omar Aden, defence minister of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, in northwest Somalia, told journalists in Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa.
There were unconfirmed reports that up to 35 people were killed in the fighting.
Somaliland, which unilaterally seceded from the rest of Somalia in May 1991, claims Sool as part of its territory, while semi-autonomous Puntland to the east insists the area's residents are Harti, the dominant clan in Puntland.
Somaliland has refused to have anything to do with the rest of Somalia, or to recognise the country's newly elected president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who used to be the president of Puntland.
Posted on Friday 29th October at 22:58:14 EC Gives 12.5 Euros to Combat Drought, Disease
The European Commission (EC) has allocated a total of -12.5 million (US $15,923,750) in humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of people affected by drought and disease in the Horn of Africa countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
Eritrea will receive -1 million; Ethiopia, -6.5 million; Kenya, -3.85 million; and Somalia, -1.15 million, according to an EC statement issued on Wednesday. The money will be channelled through the EC's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO).
"This EU support will provide a lifeline for thousands of pastoralists suffering from the effects of water shortage," Poul Nielson, EC Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said. "Emergency operations will be linked with development assistance to reduce the vulnerability of populations in the long term to future drought."
In Eritrea, receding ground water levels following successive years of drought are leading to pockets of acute need as water supplies fail. Poor rainfall has led to poor harvests exacerbating the situation.
According to a livestock, agriculture and drought preparedness expert with ECHO's Nairobi-based regional office, Lammert Zwaagstra, the emergency aid would secure essential water supplies, including emergency repair and maintenance of existing water sources, deepening of the existing boreholes and shallow wells and building small dams on rivers in grazing areas.
Some of the funds would also be used for supplementary nutritional aid in the form of targeted destocking and slaughtering of livestock where the meat would immediately be made available to the most vulnerable.
An estimated 150,000 people, mainly women and children located in rural areas, are expected to benefit from these activities over the next one year.
In Ethiopia, acute needs have arisen in the southeast due to drought, while in a number of regions malaria is reaching epidemic levels, notably in areas where populations have recently been resettled.
ECHO will provide emergency water and nutritional aid to drought-affected areas. In addition, ECHO will provide emergency medical aid, including more effective medicines to address epidemic malaria. In total, up to one million people are estimated to benefit from this aid over the next 12 months.
Seasonal malaria epidemics are common in Ethiopia and mostly affect the highlands where people have lower resistance to the disease compared to residents of lowlands where malaria is endemic. The disease is the third biggest killer in Ethiopia, claiming up to 114,000 people each year, according to the country's health ministry.
In Kenya, most of the northern and northeastern regions inhabited by pastoral communities are suffering from the effects of a prolonged drought. An estimated 600,000 people will benefit from a range of activities financed by ECHO, including emergency water, health and veterinary aid.
"While each of the four countries does have its specific problems, the overriding strategy for the vulnerable pastoralist communities in each of these countries will be to address threats to livelihood security through support to the livestock sector," Zwaagstra, told IRIN. "This support will be in the form of ensuring water supplies and appropriate veterinary interventions."
The drought problem has over the years been exacerbated by a rapidly growing population that needs increasingly larger herds of livestock, which the land cannot continue to support, Zwaagstra said.
"The population growth may already have outstripped the land carrying capacity resulting in serious environmental degradation," he added.
In Somalia, as a result of almost 14 years of civil strife, health indicators are among the worst in the world. The most vulnerable people have little or no access to health care. ECHO's assistance will focus on providing access to primary and secondary health care through support to clinic and hospital facilities including vaccination, paediatric and maternity care. This decision will help an estimated 250,000 people, especially in the capital Mogadishu.
ECHO's intervention will also support livestock through the provision of water and veterinary services to Somali pastoral communities, particularly in the northern Sool and Sanaag regions that have been severely hit by drought, Christophe Reltien, ECHO's technical expert in charge of Eritrea and Ethiopia, said.
The support is intended to "maintain the core assets for the pastoralist households" during the drought period, Reltin added.
In southern Somalia, ECHO's focus is on drought-related health and malnutrition problems.
"We still continue to support therapeutic feeding centres and health centres to enable paediatric wards to deal with severe malnutrition cases," Reltien said.
Posted on Friday 29th October at 18:44:20 IGAD Wants AU Control
The IGAD facilitation committee has called upon the African Union to urgently deploy an AU force in Somalia to facilitate the relocation of the new Government from Nairobi to Mogadishu.
In a key address to the 18th meeting of the peace and security council of AU held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Kenya’s regional Co-operation minister, John Koech mphasized the need to build on the achievements so far made in order to consolidate the peace process.
The minister traced historical development of the Somali peace process, which culminated into the election of President Abdulahi Yusuf who was sworn in in Nairobi.
He noted that despite the difficulties, the process has been an all inclusive one.
The new Somali president who also attended the meeting appealed to the international community to lend its support to his government and commended Kenya for her central role in the peace process.
BY: Jinaro Mburu
Posted on Friday 29th October at 15:16:22 Fighting Breaks Out Between Puntland and Somaliland
HARGEISA, Somalia, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Fighting broke out on Friday between the armies of the rival Somali territories of Puntland and Somaliland following weeks of growing tension after a former Puntland warlord was elected Somalia's new president.
Fighters from the breakaway northern enclave of Somaliland fought forces from Puntland's regional administration at the village of Adi-Addeye, about 30 km (20 miles) north of Las Anod, a flashpoint during previous flare-ups between the two armies.
Somaliland Minister of Information Abdillahi Mohamed Du'ale said 22 Puntland fighters had been captured but there no immediate word on casualties.
Somaliland Defence Minister Ismail Aden Boss told Reuters: "Forces loyal to the (Puntland) regional administration attacked Somaliland Security forces from three sides, with heavy weapons around 9.00 a.m."
He added Puntland had been reinforcing its forces in Las Anod for "some time".
Puntland and Somaliland have fought sporadic clashes for years over several eastern areas of Somaliland that Puntland's leaders claim as their own on the basis of ethnicity.
Tensions between the two regions rose sharply after lawmakers elected warlord and Puntland political boss Abdullahi Yusuf as president of Somalia at national peace talks held in neighbouring Kenya on Oct. 10.
Many in Somaliland see Yusuf as their arch foe, accusing him of instigating the clashes between Puntland and Somaliland.
On Oct. 12 the Somaliland government warned Yusuf against any attempted aggression and said it was on alert against any move to reunite Somaliland with the rest of Somalia.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate on the Gulf of Aden, declared independence from anarchic Somalia in 1991 and has since enjoyed relative peace, but is unrecognised internationally.
Puntland broke away from Somalia in 1998 to escape the militia anarchy of southern and central Somalia. It also is not recognised internationally.
The territory of 3.5 million to 4.5 million won independence from Britain in 1960 and quickly joined neighbouring ex-Italian Somalia in the south and east to form a united republic.
But an uprising against Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in the 1980s was followed by years of devastation as he turned his forces against the northwestern enclave.
When Siad Barre fled the country in 1991, Somaliland split away. The rest of Somalia slid into lawlessness and clan-based factional conflict which is still continuing.
The independence of the normally peaceful enclave has never been recognised by the international community, something which rankles with many ordinary people and the government.
Local media reports said, without elaborating, that both sides were using heavy weapons and that the sound of fighting was heard in Las Anod.
In September three people were killed and four wounded in a previous flare-up.
Posted on Friday 29th October at 15:08:33 For Some, Immigration Issue Personal
Abdifatah Abdinur, anchorman of a public affairs TV show broadcast in Somali, is a key conduit for election information in his immigrant community.
From a small TV studio in Rochester, Abdinur re-broadcasts the presidential debates -- complete with translation and fact checks.
Minnesota's immigrants are very interested -- and perplexed -- by the elections, he said. They're concerned about jobs, housing, health care -- and also the candidates' plans for immigrants, he said.
"So many people are really confused by the immigration issues going on," said Abdinur. "They get a lot of headaches from them."
Although immigration issues aren't in the headlines this election, they're a top priority to thousands of Minnesota immigrants and the communities they live in. The same is true nationally. As Bob Schieffer, moderator of the third presidential debates, noted, he'd received more mail on immigration than any other subject.
A big reason is that the scope of immigration issues has ballooned since 9/11. The traditional issues of family reunification, worker permits and legalization have been joined by concerns about certain immigrant rights in relation to tighter homeland security.
"I think both [candidates] diagnose the same problem -- that we have a lot of people here illegally, a lot of people who want to come here legally, and families separated because of an outdated family reunification system," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
"Where they part company is what to do with these folks," she said.
One of the biggest issues, especially for burgeoning Latino communities, is how the United States should handle the thousands of immigrants who slip across the border and the other illegal workers already here.
President Bush has proposed a guest-worker program that would allow businesses to hire foreign workers for three years with a possibility of renewing their term. The businesses would get needed workers, he explains, and immigrants wouldn't have to fear deportation.
But under the Bush plan, the workers wouldn't be able to remain in the United States after their work term ended. Such a route to amnesty, said Bush, would "perpetuate illegal immigration."
Kerry also endorses a temporary worker program, but with the option of citizenship down the road.
"We need an earned legalization program for people who have been here for a long time, stayed out of trouble, got a job, paid their taxes," Kerry said in the final debate.
For people like Jorge Saavedra, CEO of Centro Legal community law office in St. Paul, a route to citizenship is critical. Otherwise, he said, "we'll use immigrants as cheap labor, to have when we want, and to discard when we're done with them."
But critics say that giving guest workers a path to citizenship undermines the current immigration system and could result in jobs being taken from Americans.
The records
Bush's immigration record is mixed, say national immigration officials. He started his administration calling for immigration reform. In fact, his first foreign visit was to Mexican President Vicente Fox.
Some progress was made, said Jeffrey Passel, an immigration expert at the Urban Institute, a public policy research group in Washington, D.C. The backlog of citizenship applications was reduced during his early years in office. New technology was put in place that could better track information needed to process applications.
But by 2003, the backlogs for processing of green cards -- or permanent residency cards -- and citizenship applications grew, he said. There's now a backlog of 1.2 million people waiting for green cards, he said.
Meanwhile, tightened homeland security after 9/11 led to charges that the civil liberties of immigrants, especially Muslims, were being violated.
Most of that has subsided, said Abdinur. And now, refugee groups, including Somalis, are focused on bringing their children and families to the United States -- a bureaucratic process that can take years, he said. They're also very interested in jobs, housing, education and health care, he said.
"Most Somalis are here legally; they want to bring their family here," he said. "That's been getting harder and harder after September 11."
Kerry, for his part, has not been a leader on immigration issues in the Senate, in part because his fellow Massachusetts senator -- Democrat Ted Kennedy -- has been a vocal advocate for change, national observers said.
Kerry has, however, supported guest-worker programs and has talked about cracking down on leaky borders and on employers who hire illegal workers. He supports the SOLVE Act, sponsored by Kennedy, which would legalize undocumented workers who had been here five years, reduce backlog on family reunification requests by relaxing some requirements, and increase the number of temporary worker permits.
Kerry has also backed the DREAM Act, which would allow children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state college tuition. The Bush administration doesn't have an official position on it.
Whoever the next president is, he must make the immigration system function more smoothly, local immigrant leaders argue. It would benefit employers in need of workers, they say, as well as immigrants eager to build lives in America and the communities they live in.
"There are so many [immigration] issues that people deal with on a daily basis," said Abdinur. "They need to do something different."
Jean Hopfensperger, Star Tribune
Posted on Thursday 28th October at 18:54:05 Ethiopia to Send Peacekeepers to Somalia
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said that Ethiopia will send peacekeeping forces to the newly established Somalia if a request comes from the African Union (AU).
"As you know, Ethiopia has already sent peacekeeping forces to some other African countries on AU's request. So, if there will be a request from AU, we will consider positively to send peacekeeping forces to Somalia," Meles said.
"Nevertheless, if it is the opinion of the AU to send troops and the wish of Somalia people and government we will help them by sending peacekeeping troops. That is something we should consider positively when the question is asked," he said
He told journalists at a press conference held on Monday evening at Sheraton Addis, together with Somalia newly elected transitional government, Abdulahi Yesuf that Ethiopia will continue to support the ongoing peace process in Somalia as it did in the previous years.
He said that the international community needs to stretch its hands to support what Somalia is seeking, re-building the country.
"We want to assure our support to the Somalia people in their journey to peace," Meles added.
President Yesuf on his part told journalists that his government will try to solve the Somaliland issue peacefully.
"We want to solve Somalia's problem peacefully including Somaliland. Dialogue is much better than other means. War is not the solution," Yesuf said.
President Yesuf also indicated that there would not be two Somalia's.
"I am the president of the country .We would solve the existing difference peacefully and form one Somalia," Yesuf added.
Asked when he will return to Somalia, he said, "It is our interest to go inside Somalia as soon as the cabinet is formed and to do what are possible in terms of restoring security and peace."
"We don't see any problem to return to Mogadishu. But there should be adequate preparations for peace and security in Somalia."
Copyright © 2004 The Daily Monitor.
Posted on Thursday 28th October at 18:50:56 Full-Blown Emergency Threatens Somali Region
A full-blown emergency is threatening Ethiopia’s Somali region, the United Nations warned on Thursday. Wells are drying up and malnutrition is beginning to set in, according to a joint UN rapid-assessment team sent to monitor the crisis.
The team included the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Food Programme, UN Children’s Fund and the UN Development Programme.
It said the first “unconfirmed reports” of deaths from water shortages were beginning to emerge from the region, one of the most remote in the country.
“The Somali region is declining into a crisis situation with some districts already in a state of emergency,” said the joint UN agencies report.
“There is widespread suffering in the Somali region due to the cumulative effects of years of poor rains. Should the present Deyr [short] rains fail or perform poorly, then many zones in the Somali region are facing a full-blown humanitarian emergency.”
The team said the situation was resulting from an extensive loss of livestock, which affects the livelihood of the people living in the region. As a result, people are falling sick and some are even dying. The team added that massive environmental degradation and four years of drought in the Somali region “will have repercussions for years to come”.
The southeastern Somali region, an area the size of Britain, is one of the driest areas in Ethiopia. Average rainfall in many parts is as low as 250mm a year.
Temperatures hover around 30C every day. Four million people live in the region, which borders Somalia. Many eke out an existence as pastoralists, nomads who herd livestock and sell animals at markets.
The UN warning follows a similar cry for help by regional authorities.
Somali region officials said last week that panic was beginning to set in among communities who fear they might suffer on a scale like that of the 2000 drought in the same region. In that year, an estimated 50 000 people died, mainly from measles.
Only a handful of aid agencies work in the Somali region, an area that has witnessed serious insecurity in recent years. The government’s response to the crisis was also described as “weak” by the UN team, which spent nine days in the region, reported widespread livestock deaths and said food aid was not getting to the communities in need.
According to the assessment team, vital distributions were “late, inconsistent, or non existent”.
Children were dropping out of school as families went in search of water, while poor health facilities exacerbated the problems.
Somali region is dependent on two rains -- known as the Gu and the Deyr.
The Gu rains provide 60% of the water needed for the region, while the Deyr supply 30%. The Gu rains failed in May 2004 and the Deyr rains are already three weeks late.
“In effect it will lead to a humanitarian disaster due to water and pasture shortages, increase in deaths of livestock and people, deterioration in human health and nutritional status and displacements of families into camp situations,” the joint UN report continued.
The UN is calling for a 16-point action plan that includes shipping water into the region. It also said aid organisations should put plans in motion to set up emergency feeding centres and mobile health units. Nutrition assessments should also be undertaken, it concluded. - Irin
All material copyright Mail&Guardian.
Posted on Thursday 28th October at 18:49:35 Somali Firms 'Must End Militias'
Somali businesses have been told to disband the heavily-armed militias many run to protect their interests.
That is the message of the country's newly elected leader Abdullahi Yusuf, who is trying to return a unified government to the war-torn nation.
He said that instead of firms having "technicals", flatbed trucks armed with heavy machine guns, the new government would ensure peace and security.
Somalia has been torn apart by civil war and rival warlords since 1991.
Awash with guns
Mr Yusuf was elected two weeks ago by Somalia's parliament in the safety of neighbouring Kenya, and has yet to return to Mogadishu.
He said earlier this week that with the help of foreign peacekeepers, he hoped to have a Somali army of 30,000 trained and ready to take over security within a year.
"There are 2.5 million small arms throughout Somalia," said Mr Yusuf.
"We have to disarm militias and let business groups disarm their militias.
"We promise that the government will help them in terms of security.
"We want to disarm militias and unify the country."
Mr Yusuf's presidency is the fourteenth attempt to return an effective central government to Somalia since the overthrow of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Posted on Thursday 28th October at 18:48:35 Somalia Rejects Postponing UN Aid
The president of Somalia, Abdullah Youssef, refused the call made by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan postponing the expansion of the scale of aid to Somalia until the improvement of the security condition in the country.
In a press conference held in Ethiopia, Youssef said he is eager to return back to the country and assume his missions and he refused to change into "a government of refugees or a government in exile." He added that there is no need "to wait for restoring security in Mogadishu and Somalia has many other cities and what the new government needs is to enter and assume its responsibilities directly."
Youssef also said he hopes that an army of 30,000 troops will supervise the security of the country within one year.
The UN security general Kofi Annan warned last week from the speedy expansion of the activity of building the country which is carried out in Somalia by the UN under the pretext of achieving more progress at the security and political aspects.
Despite the desire of the new government to impose its authority on the country whose population tolls 7 million the International community feels concerned over taking part in Somalia after a failed American mission to keep peace and after that the UN were forced to withdraw in 1993.
However, officials and observers on the Somali issue admitted the transfer of the government to Somalia as soon as possible under the pretext that Somalia has run a great risk by forming its government and that the International community has to undergo a similar risk in order not to eliminate wasting this unique opportunity.
Somalia has collapsed after toppling the regime of the former President Muhammad Seyad Berri in 1991 and then it was torn into villages led by war lords in the absence of a central authority. the Somali parliament elected Abdullah Youssef as a president of Somalia two weeks ago in neighboring Kenya. N.
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Posted on Thursday 28th October at 18:48:02 British Minister Addresses Somaliland Parliament
Mogadishu, Somalia, 27/10 - British minister for African Affairs Chris Mullin, who is leading a nine-strong delegation on a three- day visit to the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, addressed Parliament in Hargeisa Tuesday.
Mullin told MPs of the self-declared Republic that London would not oblige Hargeisa to fall in with the recent peace agreement on Somalia.
"Britain would never be part of an agreement that pushes you against your will into a forced marriage with southern Somalia," he declared, but cautioned the Somaliland government against doing anything that could jeopardize the fragile peace process in Somalia.
Mullin also urged the authorities in Hargeisa to enter into talks with the newly formed government in Somalia towards peaceful coexistence.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, gained independence in 1960 and later joined the former Italian colony of Somalia.
However, it unilaterally dissolved the union when Somali warlords toppled the then military ruler Siad Barre in 1991.
© 1996-2003 Angop. Tous droits reserves.
Posted on Wednesday 27th October at 18:59:33 Boosting Of UN Role To Be Gradual and Based On Consensus
NAIROBI, 27 October (IRIN) - Recent progress in efforts to restore peace and stability in Somalia is likely to require the boosting of the UN's role in that country, the UN Security Council said on Tuesday, adding that the strengthening of the world body's involvement would be gradual and based on consultations with the new government.
"The Security Council shares the Secretary-General's assessment that, 'at this stage of progress in the Somali peace process, there will likely be a call for an expanded peace-building role and presence for the United Nations, in order that it may assist the Somali parties in implementing their agreement'," the Council said in a statement read by its president for October, Emyr Jones Parry of Britain.
"At the same time, it is clear that any enhanced role for the Organization in Somalia must be incremental, and should be based on the outcome of discussions with the new government," the Council added.
Somalia's newly elected President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was inaugurated in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 14 October, a move widely seen as the culmination of a two-year reconciliation conference in Kenya that brought together representatives from Somalia's various clans and factions. The peace talks were sponsored by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
The new president is expected to appoint a prime minister before the new administration moves to Somalia. The president and his government have a five-year mandate, after which, general elections will be held in Somalia.
In its statement on Tuesday, the Security Council reiterated "its commitment to a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the situation in Somalia, and its respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and unity of Somalia, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations."
It welcomed efforts by the UN, the European Union, the League of Arab States and other donor states to development a "rapid assistance package" for Somalia and urged the international community to support the package, as well as emergency rehabilitation and economic development programmes in the Horn of Africa country.
The Security Council said it "urges the Somali leaders to create a favourable environment for the future Transitional Federal Government by making determined efforts to bring about improvements in the security situation on the ground and reiterates that those who persist on the path of confrontation and conflict will be held accountable." It added: "The Council will continue to monitor the situation closely."
Somalia ceased to function as a state in 1991 when armed groups overthrew the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre, precipitating a ruinous civil war that saw rival warlords and their militias carve the country into fiefdoms.
Posted on Wednesday 27th October at 18:52:17 Somalia’s President Seeks Army of 30,000
Somalia’s newly elected president said today he aimed, with the help of foreign peacekeepers, to have a Somali army of 30,000 trained and ready to take over security in his lawless country within a year.
Abdullahi Yusuf, speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council at its Addis Ababa headquarters, reiterated his call for 20,000 peacekeepers as well.
He said the forces were needed urgently to disarm what he estimated as about 55,000 fighters and militiamen in Somalia.
Analysts say it is essential Yusuf, elected two weeks ago by Somalia’s parliament in the relative safety of neighbouring Kenya and yet to return home, must quickly build a government and exert control back in Somalia or else he will fail.
His presidency is part of the 14th attempt to return an effective central government to Somalia since 1991, when warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and carved the country up into clan-based fiefdoms ruled by the gun.
"Our plan is not to be a government in exile. We will go back to Somalia and get support from our people and reconcile them," Yusuf said. "We expect the international community to assist us, as we are starting from zero." Yusuf said he hoped the peacekeepers would be drawn from "Africa at large, brotherly Arab states and the rest of the world".
Observers are sceptical the AU will field a force of that size, given that it needs foreign support of $221 million just to deploy an additional 3,000 troops to monitor the peace in Sudan’s Darfur region.
AU Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said the 53-member African body would help stabilise and rebuild Somalia. —Reuters
Copyright © MMIV . The Standard Group
Posted on Tuesday 26th October at 20:07:59 Journalist Abducted, Held Overnight in Mogadishu
On 24 October 2004, Zamzam Abdullahi Abdi, a member of the Somalia Women Journalists Association's (Sowja) governing board, was abducted and detained overnight by unidentified armed individuals in Mogadishu before being released on 25 October.
"We welcome the fact that Abdi was released safe and sound, but her abduction reinforces the urgent need to rebuild a state in Somalia. We call on President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, as part of his new duties, to do justice to press freedom activists like her by heeding their struggle and their message," RSF said.
RSF said there was no justification for the use of violence or threats against Abdi, who honoured her country by defending not only press freedom in a climate of anarchy, but also women and children whose situation is often precarious in Somalia.
The organisation learned from sources in Mogadishu that two men and a woman armed with AK-47s and a pistol forced Abdi into a car near the Bakaraa market at about 5:00 p.m. (local time) on 24 October, blindfolded her and took her to an undisclosed location in Mogadishu. At one point during her abduction, she was able to briefly speak to her husband by telephone and explain what had happened. Abdi was released at around 8:00 a.m. on 25 October.
The exact motives for the kidnapping are unknown. "I think I was abducted on account of my activities in defence of children, because my kidnappers told me stop talking about children's rights," Abdi told the Somali Journalist Network (Sojon), a local press freedom group.
In addition to being a Sowja member, Abdi is also the deputy head of COGWA, a Somali women's group, and the local representative of the African Network for the Prevention and Protection of Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), based in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Married and the mother of a girl, she has both Somali and Kenyan nationality.
The kidnapping of civilians is common in Somalia, where militiamen carry out abduction "contracts" for US$200.
Copyright © 2004 Reporters sans Frontières.
Posted on Tuesday 26th October at 20:00:15 No Government-In-Exile, New President Says
ADDIS ABABA, 26 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - Somalia’s newly elected president said on Monday his administration would not remain in exile, but would return to the war-ravaged country before security was completely restored.
President Abdullahi Yusuf said once his cabinet was selected they would return – although they would initially establish themselves outside the capital, Mogadishu. He rejected calls for the new government to return only when security is restored. “The first thing this new government should tackle is security,” he told journalists at a joint press conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. “Somalia has been destroyed.”
Yusuf has asked the African Union (AU) for between 15 and 20,000 peacekeepers to help restore order in Somalia, which has been devastated by 14 years of civil war.
“For the past 14 years that destruction has been going on and all the infrastructure including the military and security forces has been destroyed,” he said. “We need forces from Africa to help us in peacemaking. At the same time, it is essential we start building new Somali forces comprise military police and military.”
He also pledged to begin as soon as possible the difficult task of disarming the 55,000 militias in Somalia. “The government, as soon as the cabinet is formed, will like to move inside the country and do what is possible in terms of restoring security and peace,” he said. “What we need is for the government to go inside and start work. We are not going to be a government of refugees. We are not going to be a government of exiles.
“The government needs to prepare the grounds for having some security forces,” he added. “We need to prepare on the reconciliation side - the government will make sure that when it’s moving into Mogadishu, Mogadishu is ready in terms of accommodating the government.”
Yusuf, sworn in on 14 October after a 275-member transitional parliament elected him in Nairobi, Kenya, also played down difficulties with the self-declared republic of Somaliland, which said it would not recognise him. “We want to solve the problems in Somalia peacefully – including Somaliland,” he said. “We would never resolve matters through force. Dialogue and discussion is much better than resorting to violence.”
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also stressed that the government should move to Somalia at the earliest opportunity and move to Mogadishu when security permits.
“I think Somalia has got a very rare opportunity,” Meles said. “The Somalis have taken a risk in establishing a new government and the international community should take a similar risk in making sure this opportunity is not squandered. The international community should not wait for stability to be established in Somalia before it can send a stabilising force because that is a contradiction in terms.”
The Horn of Africa country has been divided into fiefdoms ruled by rival warlords since 1991, when long-time president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted. There have been 14 other peace efforts and two previous governments were formed, but they never managed to take effective control over most of the country.
However, the Ethiopian Prime Minister said this initiative and election were different. He said the Somali president had been elected by a parliament in “fair, transparent elections” and that there had been “immediate international support”.
Meles also said while Ethiopia was “a bit stretched” in terms of peacekeeping forces, it would act if asked. Ethiopia has already sent peacekeepers to Liberia and Burundi.
“If it is of the opinion of the African Union that we send troops and is the wish of the Somali people and the Somali government that we help them out by sending peacekeeping troops, that is something we shall consider positively,” he added.
Said Djinnit, AU commissioner for peace and security, said it was “too early” to say when an African peacekeeping force would arrive in Somalia. An AU delegation will travel to Somalia next month as a part of on-going efforts to draw up a concrete peacekeeping plan.
Posted on Tuesday 26th October at 16:42:29 Somali Man Gets 17 Years For Murder
Abdishakur Muhidin Hassan, whose father and two brothers were killed in a civil war that gripped his native Somalia, was sent to prison Monday for killing a man in Roanoke, the city where he found refuge from his earlier life.
Hassan was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison by Circuit Judge Charlie Dorsey.
"I can't imagine a more horrible upbringing than what you had in Mogadishu, and I can't imagine what effect that sort of upbringing would have on you or anyone," Dorsey told Hassan.
But in sentencing Hassan to the maximum term allowed under a plea agreement, the judge said it was equally unimaginable why the 23-year-old immigrant would kill a man with no apparent provocation.
In August, Hassan pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Frederick "Ricky" Mumford, who was shot in the face the night of Feb. 3 outside his Mountain Avenue apartment in Old Southwest.
Although some witnesses said Hassan had seen Mumford and his longtime girlfriend arguing shortly before the shooting, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Seth Weston said the fight did not involve Hassan and was over by the time Hassan followed Mumford outside the apartment and shot him.
Hassan shot Mumford "for no reason whatsoever," Weston said.
Testifying through an interpreter Monday, Hassan's mother, Habibo Masame Ali, told how Hassan was just a young boy when warring tribes killed his father, his two older brothers and his grandmother in 1991.
Surviving family members were placed in a refuge camp in Kenya with help from the United Nations, Ali testified. They eventually wound up in Roanoke, where Hassan found a job in construction to support the family.
Defense attorney Jack Gregory said he presented testimony about his client's past in Somalia not as an excuse for what he did in Roanoke, but as a way for the judge to gain a better understanding of who Hassan is.
Gregory also mentioned news reports that the house where Mumford was shot, 518 Mountain Ave., has become the subject of a grand jury investigation initiated by neighbors who claim that drug dealing, prostitution and other problems make it a public nuisance.
"This house was a difficult place to live in, and exactly what went on there I don't know if we will ever know," Gregory said.
In asking Dorsey to impose the maximum punishment under the plea agreement that allowed Hassan to maintain his innocence through an Alford plea, Weston admitted that the description of Hassan's childhood was troubling.
"But having had all that happen to you," he said, "you ought to be the last person in the world to shoot someone for no reason."
Paul Mumford, the brother of the victim, testified that he believes Hassan should receive more time for what he called a "cowardly act." Under an agreement that was partly the product of recanted testimony from one witness, prosecutors agreed to seek no more than 28 years in prison with all but 17 years and four months suspended - the sentence Dorsey imposed Monday.
"For a person who seeks refuge in this country ... and takes somebody else's life in the way he did, I feel the time he has on his plea agreement shouldn't be allowed," Mumford testified. "It should be more."
The Roanoke Times
Posted on Tuesday 26th October at 16:33:09 Somali Leader Rejects Go-slow Approach On U.N. Aid
ADDIS ABABA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf rejected U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's call to delay an expansion of aid to the broken country until security improved, saying he was keen to go home and start work.
"We are not going to be a government of refugees and a government in exile," Yusuf, elected two weeks ago by Somalia's parliament in the relative safety of neighbouring Kenya, said at a joint news conference on a visit to Ethiopia on Monday.
"If the idea is that the government should not move into Somalia until security is completely taken care of in Mogadishu, we do not see that it is a correct way to go," he said. Yusuf had said earlier in the day he aimed to have a trained army of 30,000 to overlook the country's security within a year.
"Somalia is not Mogadishu alone. Somalia has many other cities. What the new government needs to do is to go inside and start working."
Annan warned last week against a hasty expansion of U.N. nation-building activity in Somalia, saying there must first be more political progress and serious efforts by Somali leaders to improve security.
Somalia collapsed with the ousting of military dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. It disintegrated into warlord-run fiefdoms which flourished in the absence of a central authority.
Analysts say Yusuf, who has yet to return home following his election, must build a government and exert control quickly or face failure.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the same news conference he agreed that the Somali government should move into Somalia at the earliest opportunity.
"Somalia has got a very rare opportunity ... Somalia has taken a risk in establishing a government. The international community should also take a similar risk in making sure this rare opportunity is not squandered," Meles said.
"I understand the Secretary General has to be realistic. But I also think that the international community should not wait for stability, before it can send a stabilising force, because that would be a contradiction in terms."
Despite the new government's wish to stamp its authority on the country of more than seven million, the international community is wary of engaging in Somalia after a failed U.S. peacekeeping mission forced the United States and later the United Nations to withdraw in 1993.
On Monday, Yusuf told an extraordinary meeting of the African Union's Peace and Security Council at its Addis Ababa headquarters that 20,000 peacekeepers were urgently needed to disarm an estimated 55,000 fighters and militiamen in Somalia.
Posted on Tuesday 26th October at 16:29:23 Somali Runners Make Impact At Marshall
The boys' cross-country program at Marshall High School was good, although not great, until Somali families began arriving in the southwestern Minnesota community several years ago. Now, with Somalis leading the way, the Tigers are ranked No. 1 among the state's big schools and are favored to win their second consecutive Class 2A title.
The pipeline began with the arrival of Abdullahi Ahmed, a former marathoner from Somalia who competed at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. His sons have been pivotal to Marshall's success. Ahmednur Jumale, now a senior, was the first to try out for the team. He placed 11th at state last year. His brother, Dahir Jumale, is a sophomore who was ninth at state a year ago and is ranked No. 2 in Class 2A. Teammate Yahya Iman, a senior, was the state runner-up in 2003 and is ranked third.
One of those three could make history at the state meet on Nov. 6 at St. Olaf College in Northfield; no Somalia native has won a state cross-country crown in Minnesota.
Marshall finished 11th as a team in its first trip to the state meet in 2001 and placed second in 2002.
"The influence of the Jumales was critical," coach Mike Jacobs said. "Once that connection with the Somali runners was established, they became recruiters and brought other kids out for the team. As soon as Yahya showed up in town, they brought him to me."
The Marshall girls' team, also coached by Jacobs, went to state 11 years in a row before the boys' debut.
"The boys were always in the top third at our section but had never made it to state as a team," Jacobs said. "We had commonly entered boys at state as individuals, but the whole package wasn't there."
This year, the Marshall boys are undefeated against Minnesota competition. Their only loss came at the Roy Griak Invitational, where they finished second to Liberty (Mo.).
The sixth-ranked boys' team at Willmar also has a strong Somali influence. Three of the Cardinals' top five runners -- sophomores Abdi Awale, Mohammed Bedel and Kaafi Adeys -- were born in Somalia.
John Millea, Star Tribune
Posted on Tuesday 26th October at 16:11:50 Somali Donor Talks Seek To Raise Funds
ADDIS ABABA - A donor conference to gather funds for war-torn Somalia is to take place in Sweden on October 28, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said her on Saturday.
In announcing the event, Solana said the gathering in Stockholm on Thursday would be "a sign of good will of the international community to rebuild a peaceful Somalia".
Solana was in the Ethiopian capital for talks with new Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed to show EU support for getting Somalia, since 1991 without an internationally recognised government, back on its feet.
The country has been under the control of diverse armed factions for more than 13 years.
The EU's foreign policy chief did not give any figures on how much aid the Horn of Africa state would need, and said he backed the possibility of an African Union peacekeeping force for the country, which he promised would also get Un backing.
Solana also met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and African Union chairman Alpha Oumar Konare before later flying on to Khartoum to discuss the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
Posted on Monday 25th October at 15:28:35 Ethiopia Hands Over Murder Suspect in Somaliland
Authorities in the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland say Ethiopia has handed over a man accused of killing several foreign workers in Somaliland.
The interior minister for the self-declared republic, Ismail Aden Osman, said Sunday Ethiopian officials had arrested Mohamed Ali Yusuf last week.
He said Mr. Yusuf recently had been in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and neighboring Djibouti. But he did not release details on Ethiopia's role in the arrest.
He said Mr. Yusuf is accused of killing two British workers, one Italian and one Kenyan aid worker in Somaliland since last year.
The northwestern region in Somalia declared independence shortly after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Posted on Monday 25th October at 15:23:51 Somalia President Calls For Int'l Help To Disarm Militia
ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed requested Monday the international community to send 15,000 to 20,000 peacekeeping forces to his country to help disarm 55,000 militia and build a new Somalia.
While addressing here the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), the newly-elected president said that "Somaliais like a baby naked waiting for cloth. We are going to reestablish Somalia from zero. We are asking the international community to help us disarm 55,000 armed forces."
Yusuf asked the IGAD (the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development), Africa at large, Arab states and the rest of the world including Indian ocean countries to help the new government to reverse the tide of lawlessness and instability and bring aboutpeace and security to the Horn of Africa country.
The requested force will stay in Somalia for one year, he said.
In addition to the peacekeeping forces, the new Somali leader said that his government need the formation of a new Somali peacekeeping security force of about 30,000 men and women.
AU Commissioner Said Djinnit said that the security council will in principle accept the request for the peacekeeping forces and AU will do everything possible to strongly support Somalia, adding "we hope that there will be strong backing and support fromthe African continent and the international community."
Djinnit said that the details will be worked out through properanalysis by experts, who would travel to Somalia and come out withsome concrete proposals.
Somalia is composed of 18 regions, of which 8 regional live in relative stability. The remaining 10 regions constituted the epicenter of the civil war and the largest number of the militia were located in the troubled areas.
Around 15 million small arms are said to be in the hands of various militia and civilians in Somalia.
Since the breakdown of the Somali central government in 1991, conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people, plunging the country into anarchy. Enditem
Posted on Monday 25th October at 15:23:07 Somali Refugees Forced To Leave UK
The government forced around 100 Somali asylum seekers to leave the UK in the first half of this year, many sent back to their war-torn country despite warnings from the Somali government and the United Nations that such action would endanger lives.
The figures, revealed in an official letter from Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart to Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury, will raise serious questions about the government's immigration policy.
Somalia is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Warring militias control much of the southern part of the country, including the capital, Mogadishu. Between April and June this year more than 100 civilians were killed and thousands of others were forced to flee their homes, according to Amnesty International.
Emma Ginn, of the National Coalition Anti-Deportation Campaign, said: 'There have been numerous reports highlighting how unsafe the situation is in parts of Somalia. The government cannot have been unaware of the grave situation that confronts asylum seekers once they arrive back in the country.'
The unrest has sparked an exodus of Somalians who now make up the single biggest source of asylum applications to Britain. Last year, nearly 4,600 Somalians sought asylum in the UK and the government has made 'fast tracking' their applications a priority.
Earlier this year it quietly introduced a new policy of enforcing the removal of failed Somalian asylum seekers, which prompted alarm from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
In her letter to Avebury, Mactaggart reveals that 55 Somali nationals were removed from the UK under the government's 'enforced returns' programme in the second quarter of this year. She acknowledges a similar number were removed over the first quarter of 2004. The policy has been temporarily suspended because Daallo Airlines, which flies asylum seekers into Somalia from Dubai, has now refused to accept enforced returns for reasons that are unclear.
by Jamie Doward and Martin Bright
Posted on Monday 25th October at 15:18:17 AU To Send Mission To Somalia
The African Union says it will send a fact-finding mission to Somalia after the country's newly-elected president, Abdullahi Yusuf, asked for 20,000 peacekeeping troops to help disarm militias there.
Mr Yusuf made his request at a meeting with senior African Union officials in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The African Union will consider the request tomorrow
Somalia's central authority collapsed after the military dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, was ousted in 1991.
The UN's Special Envoy to Somalia, Winston Tubman, said Mr Yusuf was right to expect to return to a secure country.
Posted on Sunday 24th October at 15:29:35 The President Without a Capital
When Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was sworn in as Somalia’s new president earlier this month in Kenya, cautious optimism was expressed at the fact that a new chapter appeared to be opening for the embattled East African country.
Diplomats and political analysts warn now that it is essential for Yusuf to return to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as soon as possible to cement the legitimacy of his government.
To date, security concerns have kept Yusuf and his country’s new parliament in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where peace talks have been underway since 2002 to end conflict in Somalia. The country was carved into fiefdoms after its central government collapsed in 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.
“Discussions about creating a secure environment for the transitional national government in Somalia must be focused on how to enable the new president to return to Mogadishu,” said Britain’s Minister for Africa, Chris Mullin, during a press conference in Nairobi on Friday.
“He (Yusuf) will look more like a president when he goes to Mogadishu, rather than in a hotel in Nairobi,” he added.
However, any effort to set up a central government in Somalia is likely to be bedeviled by the fact that 13 years of conflict have left the country awash with arms (regional aid groups put the number of weapons at over 500 000).
“Mogadishu is full of armed militia -- not only armed with AK 47 rifles, but more serious arms,” said Mullin.
The ready flow of cheap weapons has fuelled disputes between the faction leaders who took control of Somalia after Barre was ousted -- and so deepened the effects of disease and food scarcity on the country. Aid groups claim that about a million lives have been lost in the Somali conflict.
About two million Somalis have also fled their country. Somalia is currently the main source of refugees travelling to the United Kingdom, according to Mullin.
He said the circulation of weapons in Somalia had also made the country a source of regional instability -- a point noted earlier this year by the former minister of foreign affairs, Kalonzo Musyoka.
Addressing a conference on small arms that was held in Nairobi in April, Musyoka said that about 60 000 weapons had been smuggled into Kenya from Somalia.
In addition, the violence and lawlessness in Somalia have reportedly made the country a centre for terrorists.
International terrorism has taken a toll on East Africa, notably during the 1998 attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In 2002, a suicide bomb attack took place at an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa.
In light of this, Mullin called on the new Somali government to embark on urgent disarmament programmes, adding that Britain was prepared to assist in this process.
“The Somalia government and Somalis themselves must play the frontline role in creating a stable nation. But we are ready to assist…What form our assistance will take, it is too early to say,” he noted.
On Saturday, Yusuf asked the African Union (AU) to send 20 000 peacekeepers to Somalia to help disarm militants. This request is to be debated by the AU’s Peace and Security Council on Monday.
However, with member states of the union already preoccupied with deploying troops to help resolve the crisis in Darfur, western Sudan, Yusuf may find that his request receives little more than a sympathetic ear.
Hussein Aideed, one of the principal faction leaders in Somalia and a candidate in the country’s presidential election, says the success of disarmament efforts will depend on the degree to which the various factions are consulted.
“All militia must be party to this arrangement since they are the ones on the ground with guns,” he said on Friday.
This provision is stipulated in the blue print on disarmament, which must be applied to the end. No short cuts -- or else disagreements arise,” he added. Aideed controls southern Somalia and Mogadishu.
The “blue print” in question was endorsed by a disarmament committee comprising members of all Somalia’s clans last year. It provides guidelines as to how disarmament should be carried out.
The creation of a lasting peace in Somalia may also be complicated by the situation in Somaliland, a north-westerly region of the country which declared its independence in 1991. In May 2001, a referendum held in the area upheld the decision to secede -- and Somaliland has since refused to take part in the Somali peace talks.
More recently, Somaliland warned that it would resist efforts at reunification. Mullin was scheduled to hold talks in the region Saturday in a bid to defuse tensions around this matter.
In addition to grappling with the challenge of disarmament, Yusuf is required to appoint a prime minister by October 26 who will form a cabinet. The Somali president was elected on October 10 by members of his country’s parliament -- which was inaugurated in August.
The negotiations that allowed a new administration to be established for Somalia have been conducted under the auspices of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development -- a regional body comprising Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. -- IPS
Joyce Mulama | Nairobi, Kenya
All material copyright Mail&Guardian.
Posted on Sunday 24th October at 15:20:28 Britain Wants Somalia Government Back Home
Britain yesterday called for speedy relocation of the new Somali Government from Nairobi to Mogadishu.
The Secretary for African Affairs, Mr Chris Mullin, said the international community should help the new President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, take control of his country.
"The President should secure his territory. He should be in charge of his country," said Mullin.
The new government, he said, would get more support when it
starts operating from Somalia.
The minister said he would tour Somaliland today, to help in the process of integrating the Somali government.
Earlier in the week, Mullin met members of the Somali Parliament who are currently working from Nairobi. He is expected to meet Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
during his tour of the region.
Sources said he would ask Ethiopia to support the new government. Somaliland, a province of the larger Somalia, was under British rule before independence while the larger
Somalia was under the control of Italy.
Analysts believe the self-declared independent Somaliland and Ethiopia hold the key to restoring and order in Somalia.
Some Somali warlords have in the past accused landlocked Ethiopia of allegedly taking sides and fueling the war for its own interests.
President Ahmed was elected early this month in the first post-war elections.
He was sworn in at a colourful ceremony attended by 10 heads of state in Nairobi.
By Biketi Kikechi
Copyright © MMIV . The Standard Group
Posted on Saturday 23rd October at 17:08:54 Somalia Seeks 20,000 Peacekeepers
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) -- Somalia's newly elected president, Abdullahi Yusuf, has asked the African Union to send 20,000 peacekeepers to disarm militias controlling his lawless Horn of Africa country, an AU spokesman said on Saturday.
"The president has formally asked the AU for a 20,000-strong peacekeeping force to help in collecting millions of small arms known to be owned by the Somali people," AU spokesman Adam Thiam told reporters.
He said the request would be considered by the AU's Peace and Security Council which is due to meet on Monday.
Yusuf made the appeal to AU Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare during a meeting with top AU officials on Saturday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Yusuf was elected as Somalia's president after almost two years of talks held in neighboring Kenya because of insecurity at home. He made an appeal for international peacekeepers at his swearing-in ceremony last week.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, also on a visit to AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, said the European Union would consider helping to train Somali security forces.
"We would like to participate in the stabilization of the country," Solana told reporters.
Somalia collapsed with the ousting of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, disintegrating into fiefdoms run by rival warlords who have thrived in the absence of a central authority.
Diplomats say Yusuf risks leading a government in exile if he is unable to return quickly to Mogadishu and that the legitimacy of his fledgling government hinges on gaining control of the anarchic country.
Despite the new government's need to its stamp authority on the country of seven million, the international community is wary of engaging in Somalia after a failed U.S. peacekeeping mission forced the United States and later the United Nations to withdraw in 1993.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Tuesday against the hasty expansion of U.N. nation-building activities in the failed state, saying there must first be greater political progress coupled with serious efforts by Somali leaders to improve security.
But with operations in Sudan's Darfur to deal with what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the AU will be hard pressed to free up 20,000 troops for Somalia, one analyst said.
"The heavy lifting has to be done by the Somalis first," said Matt Bryden, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank.
"I think it is a really worrying sign because he (Yusuf) is out of touch with international reality. If he's capable of deluding himself on that score he's probably capable of deluding himself about the amount of financial assistance on offer," Bryden told Reuters.
"No one is going to send troops in to fight, which is what peace enforcement entails, especially after what happened in '93," Bryden said, referring to a botched raid that resulted in two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters being shot down in Mogadishu.
Posted on Saturday 23rd October at 17:02:08 Newly-elected Somali President Starts Visit To Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The newly elected President ofthe Somali transitional government Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed arrived in Addis Ababa on Friday on a working visit to his Ethiopian neighbor.
During his visit, he will hold talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and other government officials on issues of current affairs in Somali.
Yusuf's visit is packed with meetings related to security issues. He is expected to hold talks with the Peace and Security Council of the African Union on enhancing peace and security in Somalia.
He will also meet with European Union Foreign and Secretary Policy Czar Javier Solana, who arrived here later Friday evening.
Yusuf was inaugurated on October 14, in Kenya's capital Nairobi,the venue of the Somali peace talks, and immediately vowed to re-establish stability in the Horn of Africa country, ravaged by factional warfare since 1991.
Yusuf, 71, winner in the run-off round of the poll by lawmakers,had served as president of the northeastern self-declared autonomous region of Puntland since 1998. Somalia has been withoutan effective government since 1991 when the regime of Muhammad Siad Barre was toppled, following which the country was plunged into anarchy and factional violence. Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of Somalis.
Under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, which groups Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia, Somali National Reconciliation Conference began in October 2002 in Kenya. Enditem
Posted on Saturday 23rd October at 17:00:47 The Sovereignty Of Somaliland Is Not Negotiable, Says Ahmed Silanyo
Oct 22 2004 London, - The leader of Somaliland’s largest opposition party, KULMIYE, Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo, said in an interview with the BBC Somali Service, that his country and people welcome the new government for Somalia, while noting the efforts and resources, which the international community invested in this process. However, he noted that the Somalia government formed in Kenya does not concern the Republic of Somaliland, and that Somaliland’s sovereignty was not negotiable, rejecting comments by Somalia President that Somaliland is part of Somalia, and that his government will open up negotiations with its administration soon.
The republic of Somaliland, former British protectorate, amalgamated with Somalia, former Italian trustee, in 1960. However, after a lengthy civil war, Somaliland reclaimed its sovereignty in 1991, and declared the withdrawal from the union. It has been peaceful since then, and has its own money, military and a democratically elected government. It has not been part to the Kenya process, and it is yet to be recognised by any country.
In the eyes of many international observers, the prospects for renewed cycle of hostilities in the horn of Africa region, once again, is real, if the international community does not take an active part in finding a solution to Somaliland-Somalia situation, due to their opposing positions on sovereignty and territory.
Asked if it was not up to Somalia and Somaliland to negotiate final settlement to their status, Mr Silanyo, replied: “the international community did not ask the people of Somalia to negotiate and find a solution to their own problems. It intervened and assisted them. Now it must assist Somaliland and Somalia go their separate ways and live peacefully, side by side, as two sovereign states.
Horn Press Agency
Posted on Friday 22nd October at 20:52:12 EU's Solana To Meet New Somali President
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is to hold talks this weekend with Somalia's new president, Abdullahi Yusuf, to lend the EU's support for rebuilding the shattered country, officials said Friday.
The European Union official is set to meet Yusuf on Saturday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, his office said in a statement.
Solana will "express EU support for the peaceful reunification of the country and the reconstruction of the state in Somalia, which will contribute to regional stability and security", it said.
Yusuf, a veteran Somali faction leader and soldier, was sworn in as the new president last Thursday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi by members of Somalia's transitional assembly.
The poll followed numerous failed attempts to fill the power vacuum left by the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, since when the country has been in the control of heavily armed factions.
Solana was en route Friday to Addis Ababa for talks with regional leaders focussed on the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
The Spanish official will meet Yusuf before heading on to Sudan's capital Khartoum on Saturday evening, his spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.
The EU has not yet taken an official position on whether to recognise the new Somali president.
But Gallach told AFP ahead of the meeting: "It does imply that we think this is a very good opportunity that Somalia can move towards a more stable situation. Therefore we should open all our lines of contact."
Posted on Friday 22nd October at 20:01:58 DJIBOUTI: Pastoral Zones Likely To Suffer Worse Food Shortages
NAIROBI, 22 October (IRIN) - The pastoral zones of northwestern and southeastern Djibouti are likely to experience worsening food shortages during the next six months as a result of inadequate rainfall, a famine early warning agency reported on Thursday.
In the southeast, people who moved to Geustir with their livestock in August in search of pasture have still not returned to their home areas, a factor that had delayed school opening, particularly in Beyadde, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) said in its October update on Djibouti.
"A long dry spell is expected from November to April and animals may concentrate on the coastal areas if the rains are good enough," said FEWS NET.
In the northwest, livestock are currently concentrated on the main winter grazing areas around the valley of Weima down to the flood-prone plains (Dohda, Andaba and Agna). The current available pasture will be exhausted soon due to high population pressure, according to FEWS NET.
"Serious food deficits are projected over the coming six months," it added. "The first gesture of food distribution at Balho had been done by the national Red Crescent Society."
The potential food security hazards affecting both zones are related to a decrease in milk and butter production, a decline in animal condition and sales price, and a gradual increase in staple foodstuffs, FEWS NET reported. It added that a multi-agency evaluation mission should be carried out as soon as possible.
Apart from the central highland zone, which received normal to above normal rainfall during Karan/Karma, the main rainy season (July to September), rainfall this year was generally below normal in Djibouti.
All along the northwest and southeast border, pastoral sub-zones and pockets of the central lowland pastoral area received between 25 and 75 percent of average monthly rainfall. As a result, pasture availability was unsatisfactory in most parts of the country and it is unlikely that the existing pasture will be sufficient to sustain animals' needs until the Diraac/Sougoum rains, which normally start in April.
In Djibouti city, food security was stable, but higher than normal prices for staple and other foods (rice, sugar, oil), as well as kerosene, is still placing a major constraint on the livelihoods of poor households in the city, according to the FEWS NET report.
The climate of Djibouti is hot and dry, with most of the country receiving less than 150 mm rainfall per year.
Posted on Friday 22nd October at 15:21:05 Britain Willing To Train Somali Security Forces
NAIROBI, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Britain is prepared to help Somalia train security forces to disarm militias and stabilise the country where lawlessness has prevented a new government from taking its seat, a British minister said on Friday.
At his swearing-in ceremony in neighbouring Kenya last week, Somalia's new President Abdullahi Yusuf appealed for international peacekeepers to help disarm the warlords that control the Horn of Africa state.
"Mogadishu is full of armed militias, many of them not just armed with AK47s but much more serious weapons. And some means have to be devised to take the toys away from the boys," Britain's minister for Africa Chris Mullin told a news conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
"Primarily it is a matter for the new government, but we and the international community will be ready to assist them. We stand ready to assist if that is what is necessary," he said, referring to the training of yet-to-be-created security forces.
Somalia, seen by the United States as a haven for terrorists, descended into anarchy 13 years ago with the overthrow of military dictator Siad Barre.
Yusuf was elected after almost two years of stop-start peace talks held in Nairobi because of anarchy in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
His ability to return to Mogadishu is crucial for the legitimacy of his fledgling government, Mullin said.
"Obviously he would look more like a president when he's a president in Mogadishu (instead of) in a hotel in Nairobi," Mullin said. "One of the conditions of a recognised government is being able to exercise some control over your territory and we're waiting for that to happen."
Regional mediating body IGAD has said the Somali government aims to return home within two months, either to Mogadishu or the southern city of Baidoa.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned on Tuesday that U.N. nation-building activities should not be expanded too quickly, saying there must first be greater political progress accompanied by serious efforts by Somali leaders to improve security.
Analysts say the road home for Yusuf's government will be rocky without a ceasefire in place and a monitoring force to investigate and guard against possible violations.
Another security problem may come from Somalia's northern breakaway enclave of Somaliland, which warned Yusuf against any attempted aggression, saying it was on alert for any attempt at reunification.
Mullin, who is due to visit Somaliland on Saturday, said he aimed to "keep the rhetoric down".
"My mission is to encourage both sides to have a dialogue and to remain on friendly terms with each other and to do nothing to destabilise the situation."
Source: Reuters
By Katie Nguyen
Posted on Friday 22nd October at 15:19:19 Kenyan Pilot Held In Somalia Is Released
A Kenyan pilot who was detained together with his light plane in Somalia for the last six days arrived in Nairobi yesterday.
He narrated his ordeal at the hands of his militiamen captors in the Bele Tuen town of the war-torn country.
"It has been a traumatising time for me because I was with people who could not communicate in English," he said.
Captain Bharat Bhanderi had delivered miraa (khat) to Somalia last Friday morning when armed militiamen struck.
Bhanderi said his plane was detained as a result of a payment dispute between a local businessman who delivers miraa to the town and another one who receives the same.
He said he had offloaded the product and was fueling the plane when militiamen belonging to businessman Gar Yahuub came and surrounded him.
"They were talking in Somali and were armed with machine guns. They told me the plane was theirs and ordered me out."
"They then bundled me with a passenger I had into a car and drove me to a house under guard," he added.
The chief pilot said while in the house with the other captive they were guarded by between three and six men.
Five other militiamen, two of them armed with grenades, took control of the plane, threatening to blow it up should any hitch occur in efforts to settle the Sh5 million payment.
Yahuub said the monies owed to him accumulated as a result of bad business.
"Yes, the plane has been under our guard for a week now and the pilot is safe but we need to negotiate with those who hired the plane to deliver miraa to us. He will be free thereafter," said Yahuub before releasing Bhanderi.
While in the house, the pilot said, he was allowed to use his satellite phone to communicate with his employers and family members in Kenya.
"I was worried for my life in the first two days," he said.
The man who he had been detained with knew his way around the place and came in handy organising for his food and other logistics.
Bhanderi said he managed to talk to the Somalia President Abdillahi Yusuf on Monday and told him what he was undergoing.
"I told him I was a Kenyan detained in the town and sought his intervention to be released but he did not help me," he said.
A local radio station in Somalia had by then announced that a militia group demanding to be paid their money was detaining a Kenyan pilot.
Local journalists managed to visit and interview him after thorough consultations.
Yahuub, who was demanding to be paid the said monies had by then been overthrown from the airport by another militia group.
The airport became a no-go zone with no flights landing.
"All I could hear were gun shots," the 31-year old pilot recalled.
It was until yesterday morning when he received good news that a deal had been struck and ordered to leave the area immediately.
He was escorted under heavy guard to the airport. He landed at the Wilson Airport at 2 pm.
Bhanderi said he has been a pilot for the last 14 years and the detention in Somalia was the first one of the kind.
"I have flown to Kashmir, Afghanistan and other dangerous places but I have never experienced what I saw," he said.
"The president has a difficult time to bring sanity in the area. I am ready to fly there but there must be security," he said.
By Cyrus Ombati and Albert Moindi in Mogadishu
Copyright © MMIV . The Standard Group
Posted on Friday 22nd October at 15:18:29 U.N. Peacekeeping Failures Chronicled In Book
UNITED NATIONS — Their story begins just more than a decade ago, on the right side of history.
Andrew Thomson, a doctor, wanted to save lives. Kenneth Cain, a human-rights lawyer, wanted to save the world. Heidi Postlewait, a secretary, just wanted to save some money and leave her broken marriage behind.
The three U.N. staffers came together at a rooftop party in Phnom Penh in 1993, during the heady days when the world body was organizing democratic elections in Cambodia. Fired up by a marijuana-and-rum combo called the space shuttle, they began to think maybe the United Nations really could change the world.
But amid the euphoria were glimpses of the chaos ahead. First came the wild contingent of peacekeepers from Bulgaria, allegedly recruited from prisons and mental hospitals to fill the U.N. quota. "A battalion of criminal lunatics arrive in a lawless land," Cain observes in a book the three have written on their experiences. "They're drunk as sailors, rape vulnerable Cambodian women and crash their U.N. Land Cruisers with remarkable frequency."
Six years later, after stints in Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda and Liberia, the three came to believe that not only was the United Nations unable to keep pace with its grand ideals in the new world order, it actually allowed genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia. They coped by immersing themselves in their work, alcohol, faith and "emergency sex."
The three chronicled their precipitous slide from buoyant idealism to hard-bitten cynicism in "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures," a best seller published this year by Miramax that has outraged U.N. officials and nearly cost Thomson and Postlewait their jobs. (Cain had already quit.)
But the United Nations' censure has only won the book more publicity — and a six-figure deal with Miramax TV to make a television series.
The three consider themselves whistle-blowers. Top U.N. officials think of them as disloyal. As the United Nations makes moves to garnish their royalties from the book and TV deals, the controversy raises this question: Are they the worst kind of U.N. employees — or the best?
"Frankly, we found it a sensational and selective account of peacekeeping," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. It certainly contains lots of sex. Cain, then an earnest, twentysomething Harvard Law grad, describes a lover teaching him the French word for orgasm. Thomson relates how when he was courting the woman who became his wife, he could not get the stench of corpses out of his pores no matter how many 90-minute showers he took. Even in her embrace, he could not escape his ghosts.
But it is Postlewait's encounters that give the book its title — and have grabbed the greatest attention. At the time of her escapades, she was a tall 30ish redhead from New Jersey with heavy-lidded eyes, freshly divorced and ready for adventure.
After a near miss in a sniper attack in Somalia, Postlewait finds sudden consolation with a Somali U.N. interpreter after they dive for cover in an abandoned vendor's shack. "And then the strangest thing happens," she writes. "I want to rip my clothes off, rip Yusuf's clothes off ... right there. I can feel this pounding inside me and I can't wait. It has to be right now, not in 10 minutes, not five. Now. An emergency. Emergency sex."
Postlewait's sexual encounters provide a raw insight into the alienation, connection and betrayal that come with trying to live a normal life against the backdrop of mortar attacks, sniper fire and chaos.
Between missions, she has a weeklong tryst with a Masai tribesman she meets on a Kenyan beach — and then has to decide whether to pay him. Is he a prostitute or just a lucky guy? She has an extended affair with Yusuf, the interpreter, until his best friend tells her she must become his second wife or break it off.
But it's not the descriptions of sex that have dismayed U.N. officials. It is the trio's portrayal of the failures of peacekeeping and the betrayal of trust by an organization dedicated to saving lives.
Thomson, who spent two years pulling bodies out of mass graves in Rwanda and the Bosnian town of Srebrenica — corpses of people who had sought safety with the United Nations — concludes: "If blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run. Or else get weapons. Your lives are worth so much less than theirs."
Although U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has led a campaign to reform peacekeeping since the Rwanda and Srebrenica massacres occurred under his watch, deemed the book "not so bad," other U.N. officials have been highly critical.
"It is an unfair and outdated image of the United Nations in peacekeeping," said Shashi Tharoor, the undersecretary-general for public information, who was responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslav federation during part of the five-year span the book covers. "It reflects a period when the U.N. was scrambling — we went from 5,000 people to 80,000 in two years. Peacekeeping was trying to catch up with itself, and that was like trying to fix the engine on a moving train."
Thomson calls it reforming from within and thinks the book should be required reading for new staff members preparing to go on a mission.
"We didn't start out to write a scandalous book about the U.N.," Thomson said. "But it is a scandal that almost a million civilians, who our peacekeepers had promised to protect, were killed in Rwanda and Srebrenica," Thomson said.
"I find it very difficult that not a single U.N. official in the secretariat was investigated or disciplined for those failures," he said. "And when you put that in the context of Heidi and myself being reprimanded and threatened with dismissal, I find it outrageous."
To the trio's collective surprise, the book has served as much as a recruiting tool for the United Nations as a lightning rod for the world body's critics.
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company
Posted on Friday 22nd October at 15:15:49 Annan Calls for Progress in Somali Political Process
NAIROBI, 21 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that peace-building activities in Somalia should be based on discussions with the new government and political progress within Somalia.
International support can only do so much, Annan said in his latest report to the Security Council on Somalia, which was issued on Tuesday. "Somalis themselves must show seriousness if they are to re-establish peace and stability in their country," it said.
Any enhanced role for the UN, he added, would be incremental and based on the outcome of the discussions with the new government.
At this critical stage in the peace process, I can only re-iterate the crucial importance of progress in the political arena being accompanied by serious efforts on the part of the Somali leaders to bring about tangible improvement in the security situation, Annan said. He appealed to the international community to provide generous support to Somalia.
Col Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was inaugurated in Kenya on 14 October as the new Somali transitional president, after being elected by the newly constituted 275-member Somali transitional parliament.
During a summit on Friday, a day after president Ahmed was inaugurated, east and central African leaders had appealed to the UN to "take immediate action to deploy a mission to Somalia to assist in securing the new government and also help train security forces for Somalia".
The new president faces an immediate challenge after the self-declared breakaway republic of Somaliland said it would not recognise him. Annan’s report noted that the security situation in Somalia had remained precarious and was unlikely to improve over the coming months. Much of the insecurity stemmed from crime, delinquency, clashes between rival militias for control of the highways, ports and airports, and other resources at the local level, the report said.
Somalia ceased to function as a modern state in 1991 when armed groups overthrew the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre, precipitating a ruinous civil war that saw numerous warlords and their militias carve the country into fiefdoms.
Ahmed’s predecessor, Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, was elected by the Transitional National Government (TNG) in August 2000. In subsequent months, however, the TNG's authority withered amid opposition from warlords.
The new president is expected to appoint a prime minister before the new administration can relocate to Mogadishu. The president and his government have a five-year mandate, after which, general elections will be held inside Somalia.
Posted on Thursday 21st October at 19:11:35 Crisis Profile: Is Peace Possible In Somalia?
LONDON (AlertNet) - After 13 years of civil war, has Somalia finally turned a corner?
An interim parliament, carefully comprised of representatives from Somalia’s four major clans and minority groups, has elected a president. But ongoing instability in the lawless country means the new government is located in neighbouring Kenya, which has served as the nerve centre of troubled peace talks for the past two years.
The real test will be installing a functioning government in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, where rival clans vie for influence and control.
Who is the new president?
Somalia’s new president is Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the leader of the Darod clan and first president of the northern Puntland Regional State, which declared its independence from Somalia in 1998.
A powerful warlord, he’s known for founding one of the first armed groups to challenge the rule of former dictator Muhammed Siad Barre. He supports the U.S.-led “war on terrorism”, is no friend to radical Islamic groups within Somalia and enjoys the backing of the region’s biggest military power, Ethiopia.
In 2002, his forces clashed with rival militia in Puntland, when Yusuf refused to relinquish power at the official end of his presidency.
Not surprisingly, there’s a lot riding on Yusuf’s shoulders. But his past might pose problems for Somalia’s future.
Matt Bryden, an analyst for the a Belgium-based think tank International Crisis Group, told Reuters that the new government would fail if Yusuf projected himself as a strongman.
“If he falls back on his anti-terror credentials and his external backing, without building a consensus at home, then it’s not going to work… But if he really does start to look like a conciliator, going beyond merely appointing rivals to his cabinet, then this will have a chance.”
What challenges will Yusuf or any future Somalian president face?
Yusuf or any future president of Somalia will need to find some middle ground with the northwestern region of Somaliland, the most stable part of the country, which claimed independence from Somalia in 1991.
Somaliland, which is not recognised by the international community as an autonomous state, will be under pressure from a new government in Mogadishu to rejoin Somalia.
Representatives from Somaliland have already predicted clashes with the new government.
There is also a sticking point between Somaliland and Yusuf’s Puntland over territory that both breakaway regions claim as their own.
Tension among the country’s most powerful clans could prevent a smooth transition in Mogadishu.
Yusuf, a Darod, is expected to choose a prime minister from the Hawiye clan, but even this is unlikely to patch things up between the clans. Old feuding and property disputes between the Darod and Hawiye in Mogadishu and across the country will need to be settled.
What role has inter-clan conflict played in the country’s decline?
Somalia’s four major clans -- the Dir, Isaaq, the Hawiye and the Darod -- are collectively known as Samaale. They are primarily nomadic and live in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. (The original Somali nation was divided up between British, French, Italian and Ethiopian colonies, which accounts for the spillover of Samaale into neighbouring countries today.)
Two other clans, the Digil and the Raxanweyn, are known as Sab. Most Sab live in villages in southern Somalia where they keep livestock and farm.
Inter-clan fighting has devastated the country in the past decade. Though competition between Somalia’s clans is nothing new, the craven manipulation of clan and sub-clan loyalties by Siad Barre, a Darod who ruled Somalia for over 20 years, fed the fire. When Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, the scene was already set for widespread violence.
The group that overthrew Barre, the United Somali Congress (USC), which had been drawn from the Hawiye clan, then split over who should rule.
A wealthy businessman, Ali Mahdi Mohammed, backed by the Hawiye’s Abgal sub-clan, nominated himself president.
But General Mohammed Farah Aideed, the USC’s main military commander backed by another sub-clan, the Habr Gedir, wanted power for himself.
The fighting that ensued in the early 1990s led to a bloodbath, widespread humanitarian disaster and the killing of thousands of civilians.
According to Africa Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, 14,000 people were killed and 27,000 wounded in Mogadishu between November 1991 and February 1992.
What did the international community do to respond?
In January 1992, the United Nations imposed an arms embargo, but it was too little too late. By then, Mogadishu and the rest of the country had been divided up by rival clans.
Numerous ceasefires failed, and civilians continued to suffer. The rich agricultural lands in the south were devastated, which led to famine.
U.N. peacekeepers and U.S. troops, part of Operation Restore Hope, attempted to deliver food aid and relief supplies to the ailing population, but the situation went awry when forces loyal to General Aideed ambushed a group of Pakistani peacekeepers, killing 24.
The U.N. retaliated by calling for Aideed’s arrest, and the Somali civil war became a war between Aideed and the U.N. and U.S.
In 1993, the conflict broadened to include other militia after U.S. helicopters, in an attempt to attack a house in Mogadishu where clan leaders were meeting, killed Somali civilians.
Operation Restore Hope ended after 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in street-to-street fighting with Somalis, some loyal to Aideed and some not, infuriated by the indiscriminate killing. The U.N. abandoned its mission in 1995.
All attempts to bring the war to a close have since failed. A Transitional National Government (TNG), established in October 2000, did not unify the country or win support.
In fact, the TNG was charged with being unrepresentative, and clans took up arms against it, causing more fighting in Mogadishu and other areas in the south. Not surprisingly, it was unarmed non-combatants who were most vulnerable.
How many Somalis have been displaced by the war?
According to the U.S. Committee on Refugees, some 280,000 Somali refugees and asylum seekers live in about two dozen countries, including Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
An even larger number -- about 350,000 persons, or five percent of the Somali population -- are internally displaced. Most are from minority groups in the south, where majority clans fight over fertile land.
The U.N. estimates that the biggest concentration of displaced people is in Mogadishu, where between 100,000 and 250,000 people live in crowded squatter settlements.
The delivery of humanitarian assistance to internally displaced people and others is extremely difficult in the midst of political jockeying, clan warring and violence.
Insecurity in the capital and elsewhere is rife, and aid workers run the risk of being kidnapped or killed, their vehicles stolen or looted.
Most aid agencies have pulled out of Somalia as a result. The Somali Red Crescent is the only agency operating across the country.
What’s life like in Mogadishu today?
With no civil administration to speak of, no government to provide social services, life in Mogadishu is a struggle. According to the U.N. World Health Organisation, cholera is endemic due to the absence of basic sanitation and a centralised water supply system.
The city’s infrastructure is dilapidated, buildings are crumbling and territory is still divided among opposing armed groups.
Intermittent fighting drives up the prices of food and other basic needs.
But things do seem to be improving. Self-appointed Islamic courts practising Shari'ah law have provided some stability. Backed by clans, the courts have helped clean Mogadishu’s streets of bandits and roadblocks.
But the courts have come under criticism from human rights groups.
It remains to be seen how or even if the courts, which were set up as a stop-gap measure, will be incorporated into the judiciary system of a secular government.
Posted on Thursday 21st October at 19:04:30 Somali Ramadan in the UK: Reviving Sunnahs and Adapting to Change
The countdown is on. In the month of Sha`ban in London, England, the Somali community is calculating the number of days till Ramadan. Sha`ban is the last chance to make up previous Ramadan fasts, so timing is key. Families are busy gathering food and drink supplies such as dates, bottled water, cartons of juice, kilos of rice and pasta. Samosas (triangle shaped pastries stuffed with minced meat or tuna fish) are a staple for the modest iftar dinner table, so families will buy minced lamb, and whole or half carcasses of lamb and chicken to freeze at home. They will end up in iftar dishes like fragrant chicken and rice, lamb stew and rice, and spaghetti and minced lamb sauce—all Somali favorites.
I got the impression when I was living in Hargeisa, Somaliland1,that people saw fasting as a duty and great burden. Life slows down for a month, allowing those fasting to absorb the whole experience almost at leisure. Not so in the West, where in London life continues as always and Somalis who have arrived recently always bemoan how difficult fasting is here. Young and old would speak to me with wistful eyes about how civilized Ramadan was back home, vowing to go back one day. Despite that, I personally think they feel the fast more here, and I can see how it really stretches them physically, spiritually, and mentally. Sado, a young Somali woman with four children, relates how people can feel the fast in Ramadan back home. This is due to the majority of people fasting and whole families breaking the fast together. One can express generosity easily by inviting the poor, relatives, and neighbors in to an abundant iftar meal. While in London, you just feed yourself and your family with a modest meal. Despite that, she states that Somali families still manage to financially support relatives and the poor back home by sending monthly payments, and the zakat al-mal and zakat al-fitr in Ramadan.
Iftar back home is a communal event where every member of the family is normally present. The Maghrib Prayer is recited together, with the iftar meal following and everyone catches up with each other and relates how his or her day was. As minorities in London, Somalis find it incredibly difficult to practice a traditional iftar, except perhaps on weekends, because of the long days in schools, colleges, universities, and workplaces. However, Muslims have adapted their traditional fasting practices to Western living by holding communal daily iftars and prayers in educational establishments and workplaces. Consequently, they educate those around them, Muslim and non-Muslim, that Ramadan is just as relevant here and now.
Whenever I attended the Tarawih Prayers back home in Somaliland, I noticed how young the mosque goers were, particularly the women, and how the married and elderly women stayed at home to recite the Qur'an alone. Over here, I have witnessed Somali women aged even in their 60s regularly attend the Tarawih Prayers in numerous mosques across London. They have even acquired a reputation for their high attendance at my local masjid in Shepherd's Bush, where they make up a significant proportion of those praying. They feel very proud, and I can read the devotion in the lines on their faces, their stooped postures, their unusual silence during the prayers, and subsequently in their tortured expressions following the du`aa’ (supplication) with the imam. Hodan, a young Somali mother, comments on this phenomenon saying how men, women, and adolescents back home used to complete the Ramadan duties but didn't understand their benefits and blessings as they do now in the diaspora. She says this is the case for most Muslim ethnic minorities in the West because of the Islamic revival of the last 30 years.
Those women who cannot attend the Tarawih Prayers in the masjids recite them at home, alone or in small groups, as they used to back home. I myself adapted my prayers to my home environment when I could not attend the masjid. When I was single I prayed with a local friend taking it in turns to lead and recite directly from the mushaf (copy of the Qur’an). I have discovered these practices occur across the Muslim community here in London, particularly among women. It seems to be the return of a most welcome lost sunnah that actually empowers women by lifting them into the spiritual realm from the mundanities of domestic life and childrearing. Sado adds that another revived sunnah—i`tikaf (spiritual retreat in the mosque)—has enjoyed increasing popularity by men and women over here, while women never attended i`tikaf in their home towns in Somaliland.
Due to the financial dependence poorer relatives have on more prosperous ones within the Somali culture and the absence of a welfare system, Somali families normally provide for their relatives and the needy back home. They also send their zakat al-fitr in mid-Ramadan so they can eat and dress well for the `Eid Al-Fitr celebrations. These celebrations are extremely important, and whole families still continue to attend `Eid Prayers together over here. Cooking in Ramadan and for the the `Eid day is substantial in the Somali community, but not so much that it hinders women from attending Tarawih and `Eid Prayers. This is unlike other Muslim communities in the United Kingdom, where swapping iftar invitations and consequently preparing various complicated, sumptuous dishes prevents women from the spiritually nourishing experience of Tarawih and `Eid Prayers in the masjid.
Sado meditates over how her small children will cope with fasting in Ramadan in years to come and the obstacles they may face. A way to combat the fear of feeling “other” perhaps is to maximize on the familiarity of Ramadan in Britain. The Muslim community could use Ramadan as month to embrace non-Muslims and educate them about Islam in a positive manner, through activities in homes, educational establishments, and masjids. All they need is an invitation.
By Zahrah Awaleh
Posted on Thursday 21st October at 18:57:54 Humanitarian Emergency Developing In Somali Region - UN
NAIROBI, 19 October (IRIN) - A full-blown humanitarian emergency is developing in the Somali Region of eastern Ethiopia following a prolonged drought that has caused the deaths of large numbers of livestock, the main source of livelihood in the area, a UN joint agency assessment report warned.
"A situation of chronic vulnerability is now turning into one of acute food insecurity. Many pastoralist households have lost most, if not all, of their livestock, and in farming areas poor to no crop production is expected," the report, issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on 11 October, said.
Ethiopian government officials and aid workers had last month warned that parts of the Somali Region were facing "near emergency" conditions, blaming poor rains in both 2003 and 2004 for steadily worsening food, water and health conditions in the area, one of the most remote in Ethiopia.
According to a recent survey, the number of people currently in need of food assistance until December is 1.4 million.
The UN Joint Agency Rapid Assessment survey found that milk was not available or had become too expensive in many of the seven zones visited. Cases of diarrhoeal illnesses were on the rise, water had become extremely scarce and pasture was completely depleted.
"Unconfirmed reports of some deaths by thirst or disease were reported by people in villages and rural areas [and] increasing reports of observable malnutrition among children and older people are being seen by administration and agency officials," the report stated.
It added that distress migrations were on the increase and food aid was not reaching villages in adequate supply, if at all.
"Should the Deyr rains fail or perform poorly, then the present situation has the potential to tip over very badly into a humanitarian crisis in the coming months," the report said. "Even if good rains fall in one area, there are already weakened livestock (and people) who may not be able to get to those areas which may already be overcrowded," it added.
The report said that environmental degradation due to overgrazing, felling of trees and the cumulative effects of up to four years of drought were evident in some of the worst-affected areas and will have repercussions for years to come.
Posted on Wednesday 20th October at 19:09:28 Somalia Gets Cash Boost To Help Fight Malaria
NAIROBI - The Global Fund on Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved a $24.4 million grant to scale up health programmes in Somalia, an African country trying to emerge from 13 years of anarchy, officials say.
Aid agencies in Somalia, which has lacked an effective government since 1991, had requested $51.6 million for five years from the Global Fund, but only $24.4 million was approved for two years, said an official working with Somalia Aid Co-ordination Body (SACB).
"The fund has already dispersed the first instalment of $4.6 million to Unicef and 2.2 million dollars to World Vision for malaria and tuberculosis programmes," the official added.
The country benefitted owing mainly to progress made in peace talks in neighbouring Kenya that culminated in last week's swearing-in of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as the first president of Somalia in 13 years.
The Horn of Africa nation has been without a central government and wracked by anarchic bloodletting since dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
Posted on Tuesday 19th October at 22:59:07 UN Peacebuilding Role in Somalia Will Depend On New Government
As several organizations work on structuring a peacebuilding framework for Somalia, a call may come for an enhanced role for the United Nations, but that expansion must be based on discussions with the new government, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says.
In his latest report to the Security Council on Somalia, he says, "At this stage of progress in the Somali peace process, there will likely be a call for an expanded peace-building role and presence for the United Nations, in order that it may assist the Somali parties in implementing their agreement.
"At the same time, it is clear that any enhanced role for the Organization in Somalia must be incremental, and should be based on the outcome of discussions with the new government."
Col. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was inaugurated last Thursday as the Somali Transitional President.
Mr. Annan commends the efforts of his UN Representative for Somalia, Winston Tubman, the UN Political Office for Somalia, the UN country team, the Somalia Aid Coordination Body, the European Commission, the League of Arab States and others to come up with the peacebuilding framework envisaged by the Council in 2001 and 2004 and expected it to lead to a "rapid assistance package."
He appeals to the international community to fund the package quickly and generously and proposes maintaining the resources provided to the UN Political Office for Somalia for the 2004-2005 period at the current level.
He notes that despite the country's urgent humanitarian needs, only limited funds were donated in response to the 2004 Inter-Agency Consolidated Appeal for Somalia for $118 million, with major donors being Ireland, Italy and Norway.
Copyright © 2004 UN News Service.
Posted on Tuesday 19th October at 22:57:22 Do Somalis Really Need Old-Style Govt?
Some called it the "rebirth of Somalia," others a "triumph for Africa." It was a key moment for Somalia last week as 11 heads of state gathered in Nairobi to witness the swearing in of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as the newly "elected" president of the war-ravaged country. And then there were speeches, song and dance, men in dark suits and women in colourful robes and glittering jewellery.
But Somalia is Somalia, and over the next two months President Ahmed will face his toughest test - whether he can actually move his government to Somalia and set up shop there.
But in celebrating the "rebirth of Somalia" we might have made a mistake. For the only other event to match the Somali political festivities of the past few weeks in Nairobi (which included the swearing in of the interim parliament) happened in another African capital in July 2003. It was the Somali Community Creative Week in Djibouti.
The event was organised by the Somali-Speaking PEN Club. Nearly 600 Somalis from all parts of the world turned up. They put on dances, read poetry and books, discussed and argued about Somali arts and culture, and drank a lot of coffee. The conflict in Somalia only ensured that Somali-Speaking PEN Club couldn't hold the event inside the country at Mogadishu, but it did little to destroy the Somali nation.
The award-winning Somali writer Nuruddin Farah is the patron of the Somali-Speaking PEN Club. He is an old friend, and I caught up with him when he stopped in Nairobi on his way back from the PEN meeting in Djibouti. Nuruddin keeps his faith in things Somali by writing about them, and he maintains his sanity by cracking jokes about them.
So when he said he came away from Djibouti feeling as strongly as he ever did that the Somali nation, expressed as a collection of the country's culture and history, was as vibrant as ever, I replied that I didn't think so. I joked that it seemed it was producing fewer warlords.
That got him going. He said that the warlords never killed the one thing the Somalis like doing most - talking, talking, and talking. It is the reason, he said, that Somalis in the UK, Sweden, the US, Canada or Nairobi share one thing in common - they all know which places have the cheapest phones, as well as where to find phone booths that are malfunctioning, on which you can talk for one hour to a relative abroad and pay less than a dollar.
The day you go to a city and find Somalis there who don't know where you can make the cheapest call, then you will know that the Somali nation is in crisis, he said. "For now, we are doing very well," he said and we laughed.
But it was something he said late into the night that got me to wonder if the swearing-in of President Abdullah might not have come many years too late.
According to Nuruddin, as the warlords ravaged and destroyed Mogadishu, the clan system and its deep loyalties came into play in new ways. Business people and professionals drifted to those areas, some of them remote, where most of their clan lived, and were under the protection of "their" warlord.
There they set up and flourished because most warlords wanted a functioning economy in their areas to keep them supplied, and so created a favourable environment for business.
The result, he said, is that Somalia is the only Third World country that has reversed the exodus to the big city. And it is the only African country where many services are better upcountry than in the capital. Said he, "That, in a strange way, might be where Africa's future lies." Amid the carnage, Somalia might have moved on in ways that the rest of the world missed.
If Nuruddin is right, then the new government is being offered as a solution to a Somalia that no longer exists. Again, maybe he's wrong.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is managing editor in charge of media convergence at the Nation Media Group.
Copyright © 2004 The East African.
Posted on Tuesday 19th October at 22:55:47 Doubts Over Somali Peacekeeping Force
call for peacekeepers by Somalia’s new president last week revived memories of the ill-fated intervention in the 1990s, when Black Hawk helicopters were shot out of the sky and the bloodied corpses of US servicemen dragged through the anarchic streets of Mogadishu.
Few leaders in the world need more help to restore order in their countries than Abdullahi Yusuf, who was sworn in last week.
But bruised by the memory of the failed US peacekeeping mission in 1993 that forced Washington and later the United Nations to quit Somalia, the international community will treat Yusuf’s appeal for engagement with caution, seeking guarantees before committing to help, analysts say.
Elected by an interim parliament in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi because of lawlessness at home, Yusuf takes over from Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, who headed a flimsy Arab-backed administration from 2000-2003 which never controlled more than a few streets in Mogadishu and tiny pockets of land elsewhere.
Mindful of his predecessor’s woes, Yusuf is perhaps hoping for international muscle to give him more credibility.
Long on hope, the president’s speech was short on details about the size of any peacekeeping force, what role it would play, who would bankroll it and who would be involved.
"He is looking for a proactive peacemaking force as opposed to a peacekeeping force. There is no peace to keep," Yusuf’s acting chief of staff Abdirizak Adam Hassan told Reuters.
Among diplomats, there is consensus that any intervention would probably focus on monitoring a yet-to-be established ceasefire, with funding from the European Union.
African Union (AU) officials have already travelled to Somalia twice this year to assess the possibility of setting up a monitoring, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration operation for the country’s tens of thousands of gunmen.
But without a truce in place other nations will be reluctant to offer soldiers quickly, analysts say.
Moreover, with many troops tied up in Iraq and missions across Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Burundi, Liberia to Sudan’s Darfur region, Somalia may have to wait.
"We are all sceptical of the capacity of the AU at this time because they are overstretched," said one diplomat close to the peace talks in Nairobi. "They cannot deploy realistically before six months," he added.
Whether led by the AU or United Nations, experts are sceptical that a conventional peacekeeping operation would best serve Somalia where there are no frontlines between conventional armies and fighting is confined to clashes between rival clans.
"Clearly most people would say what reigns in Somalia is not peace but few would define it as war," a Western diplomat said.
Experts agree that to avoid another potentially bloody and humiliating confrontation like 1993,, peacekeepers must have a clear mandate and all Somali clans should sign a ceasefire.
"It’s important that the main observer force be Somalis supported by some international forces," International Crisis Group senior analyst Matt Bryden said.
"If peacekeepers are perceived to be assisting in coercive disarmament, they’re just going to become targets. If they’re on the ground and the mission isn’t clear, people will get killed."
Even if Yusuf were to win the cooperation of the international community, perhaps the biggest task the new president faces is to persuade Somalis that such a military force is required.
"The solution for Somalia is not military, it’s political. It must be the will of the Somali people to accept a foreign force," said Hussein Farah Aideed, son of the Somali warlord whose clashes with US forces spawned the film and book "Black Hawk Down". "We do not want to go back to ‘92, ‘93," he said.
Copyright © MMIV . The Standard Group
Posted on Monday 18th October at 21:07:39 Call For Somalia Troops May Fall On Deaf Ears
Nairobi - A call for peacekeepers by Somalia's new president last week revived memories of the ill-fated intervention in the 1990s, when Black Hawk helicopters were shot out of the sky and the bloodied corpses of US service officers dragged through the anarchic streets of Mogadishu.
Few leaders in the world need more help to restore order in their countries than Abdullahi Yusuf, who was sworn in last week.
But bruised by the memory of the failed US peacekeeping mission in 1993 that forced Washington and later the United Nations to quit Somalia, the international community will treat Yusuf's appeal for engagement with caution, seeking guarantees before committing to help, analysts say.
Elected by an interim parliament in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi because of lawlessness at home, Yusuf takes over from Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, who headed a flimsy Arab-backed administration from 2000-2003 which never controlled more than a few streets in Mogadishu and tiny pockets of land elsewhere.
Mindful of his predecessor's woes, Yusuf is perhaps hoping for international muscle to give him more credibility.
Long on hope, the president's speech was short on details about the size of any peacekeeping force, what role it would play, who would bankroll it and who would be involved.
"He is looking for a proactive peacemaking force as opposed to a peacekeeping force. There is no peace to keep," Yusuf's acting chief of staff Abdirizak Adam Hassan told Reuters.
Among diplomats, there is consensus that any intervention would probably focus on monitoring a yet-to-be established ceasefire, with funding from the European Union.
African Union (AU) officials have already travelled to Somalia twice this year to assess the possibility of setting up a monitoring, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration operation for the country's tens of thousands of gunmen.
But without a truce in place other nations will be reluctant to offer soldiers quickly, analysts say.
Moreover, with many troops tied up in Iraq and missions across Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Burundi, Liberia to Sudan's Darfur region, Somalia may have to wait.
"We are all sceptical of the capacity of the AU at this time because they are overstretched," said one diplomat close to the peace talks in Nairobi. "They cannot deploy realistically before six months," he added.
Whether led by the AU or United Nations, experts are sceptical that a conventional peacekeeping operation would best serve Somalia where there are no frontlines between conventional armies and fighting is confined to clashes between rival clans.
"Clearly most people would say what reigns in Somalia is not peace but few would define it as war," a Western diplomat said.
Experts agree that to avoid another potentially bloody and humiliating confrontation like 1993,, peacekeepers must have a clear mandate and all Somali clans should sign a ceasefire.
"It's important that the main observer force be Somalis supported by some international forces," International Crisis Group senior analyst Matt Bryden said.
"If peacekeepers are perceived to be assisting in coercive disarmament, they're just going to become targets. If they're on the ground and the mission isn't clear, people will get killed."
Even if Yusuf were to win the cooperation of the international community, perhaps the biggest task the new president faces is to persuade Somalis that such a military force is required.
"The solution for Somalia is not military, it's political. It must be the will of the Somali people to accept a foreign force," said Hussein Farah Aideed, son of the Somali warlord whose clashes with US forces spawned a film and book.
"We do not want to go back to '92, '93," he said.
Posted on Monday 18th October at 21:06:27 Warlords Who Call Nairobi ‘Home’
Welcome to Nairobi, the city many warlords call "home".
Many men of arms have found a safe haven in the city, away from the death and turmoil of the lands they fight to liberate.
Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA/SPLM) chairman, General John Garang, his deputy Salfa Kirr and top commander Riek Machar; Somali’s General Mohammed Hersi Morgan, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, warlord Hussein Farah Aideed, warlord Mohammed Qanyare Afrah and Abdilahi Ahmed Adow are just a few of the many visitors who have set up base in Kenya.
Ahmed Adow are just a few of the many visitors who have set up base in Kenya.
Nairobi’s hospitality to rebel leaders goes back many years. Rwandese President Paul Kagame, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Mozambican rebel Alfonso Dhalakama have all lived in Nairobi at one time or another.
Intelligence sources say even Joseph Kony, a pain in President Museveni’s neck, secretly slips into the country and back into Northern Uganda, where he is leading a bloody rebellion.
Dhalakama led a quiet life in the city and few knew of his presence, while Alice Lakwena, an eccentric mystic who led a rag tag guerrilla army of believers against Museveni, lived for long in Kangemi before she was moved to Kakuma refugee camp where she still resides.
Some of the warlords lead a millionaire lifestyle in five-star hotels and posh homes in the leafy suburbs, from the serenity of which they monitor — and direct — the bloody goings-on in their countries.
Because of rivalries and the nature of their "occupations", security is of paramount importance. Most move around the city accompanied by several heavily armed bodyguards.
Warlords are a virtual growth sector, they are wallowing in money and are known to be generous to supporters and, when need arises, to buy the allegiance of those in rival camps.
Accommodating: Nairobi hotels do brisk business from the rebels and the delegations paying homage to them. But what attracts the rebels and warlords to Kenya and Nairobi especially?
To begin with, Nairobi has a good communication network, allowing the warlords to run their armies. And the fact that most of their fellow citizens fleeing the war settled in Kenya, coupled with Nairobi’s proximity to their countries which makes it easy for them to ‘walk in and out’, has added to the city’s attractiveness.
Kenyans are also perceived to be accommodating.
"For logistics, Kenya, and especially Nairobi, is very ideal for the operations of most rebel leaders and warlords," said a senior Government security official, who did not wish to be named.
The stable and open Kenyan economy also attracts warlords and their lieutenants because they are able to invest and make money.
The presence of the United Nations headquarters and various international organisations, among them international media organisations, has helped to make Nairobi the choice destination for these warlords craving attention.
The SPLM set up base in Nairobi long before the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development started spearheading talks to bring peace in the war-torn Sudan.
The rebels were previously based in Addis Ababa between 1983 and 1991 during the reign of former President Mengistu Haille Mariam.
Destination of choice: When Mengistu’s government was toppled by Meles Zenawi, SPLM/A was kicked out of Ethiopia for its association with the former regime. After 1991, SPLM/A warmed up to the Ugandan authorities and relocated offices to Kampala. It also continued to maintain satellite offices in Southern Sudan, Cairo, and Eritrea.
With the initiation of the Igad brokered peace process in which Kenya was the mediator, SPLM/A moved its offices to Nairobi and this saw the influx of more of its top command into the city.
The security official said the Kenya Government has over the years been tolerant of the SPLM/A and its cause, a factor that has made Nairobi the destination of choice for its top commanders.
The source of the warlord’s great wealth is a fascinating mystery. Most claim to be funded by friends of their countries.
But knowledgeable government officials said most of the money comes from individuals, organisations and even countries eyeing future business opportunities in the war-torn countries.
"In the case of Southern Sudan, the country is quite endowed with resources and those funding the rebel leaders and the cause of Southern Sudan definitely have their eyes set on the future," he said.
It is also believed that some of the warlords own property and run businesses in Nairobi and other towns.
Garang and other top SPLM/A leaders are believed to own rental houses in Nairobi. Garang is also said to own a farm in Zimbabwe where his children go to school.
The Somalia warlords have heavily invested in the import-export business, real estate and transport. Some of them also own many of the mobile phone shops in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area.
But a large part of their funding, however, is believed to come from business people. The handouts are believed to mainly come from international companies but, as in the case of Somalia, Kenyan businessmen with interests in construction, glass manufacturing and the automobile business have joined in.
Security: The warlords prefer the suburbs of Runda, Kileleshwa, Karen and Lavington.
However, there are those who live in South C and B and Eastleigh.
The Government has discreetly extended security to some of the warlords, who are guarded by the General Service Unit. Security officials said foreign rebel leaders do not pose a security threat because they are carefully monitored.
When they enter the country, they are asked to declare all arms in their possession.
Police spokesman Jasper Ombati said provision of security to Kenyans or anyone in the country is the work of the Kenya Police and not foreigners.
"We are there to provide security wherever the leaders stay. They are scattered all over the city. Internal affairs are handled by the Igad and we only come in to handle criminal and other issues when we are called upon," he said.
However, Officers Commanding Police Divisions (OCPDs) in whose areas the warlords live are briefed daily on their welfare.
While it was an open secret that some top Government officials in former President Moi’s government were paid protection money by Rwandan genocide fugitive Felicien Kabuga, it is also rumoured that other rebel leaders and warlords routinely pay for their protection by government officials.
But the rebels operate on a short leash: Their movements are carefully monitored and whenever they want to leave the country, they must first inform the Office of the President.
Kenyan authorities are also confident that the warlords have too much to lose to cause trouble here.
Some warlords have homes in Mombasa and Eldoret where they have invested in real estate. Some, such as Aideed, have inherited homes in Kenya from their parents. According to Aideed, living in the country as a warlord is safer than going back to volatile Somalia.
"Here we are safer though would like to go back as soon as possible. All I can tell the president elect is that he should brace himself for tougher times in trying to reconstruct the government," he added.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be reached to state the Government’s policy on hosting warlords.
Gen Morgan’s aides denied us a chance to interview him, saying he was tired in his room.
"Tired, tired, tired. Come Monday and try if you can see him. He is sleeping now," said a man on the phone.
By Francis Openda and Cyrus Ombati
Copyright © MMIV . The Standard Group
Posted on Monday 18th October at 17:12:21 Self-proclaimed president's militia threaten, fire on journalist in Mogadishu
Reporters Without Borders today condemned an attack by militiamen working for businessman and self-proclaimed president Abdinur Ahmed Darman, who slapped, threatened and then fired on radio reporter Abdullahi Yassin Jama in Mogadishu on 16 October, after he and another journalist interviewed the inhabitants of a refugee camp.
"We once again protest against the regime of terror maintained by the faction chiefs in Somalia with complete impunity", the organisation said.
"The courage of Somalia's journalists are a credit to a country devastated by 13 years of anarchy and war", Reporters Without Borders continued. "Abdinur Ahmed Darman should respect their work. Instead, the way his thugs assaulted and threatened a journalist bodes ill as regards his plans for Somalia."
The leader of the United Somali Republic Party (USRP), Darman had himself proclaimed president of Somalia by 5,000 supporters gathered in Mogadishu in July 2003. He and his militia exercise absolute power over certain districts of the capital and part of the south of the country.
A businessman with money more than a warlord, Darman said on his return from exile in 2003 that he was a "business deal facilitator." A UN report has accused him of being involved in forging money. He is one of the last clan chiefs to refuse to recognise the authority of President Abdullahi Yusuf, who was sworn-in before the new Somali parliament meeting in Kenya on 14 October.
Jama, who works for Radio Banadir, and Zeynab Abukar Mohammed, a journalist with HornAfrik Radio, had been interviewing civilian refugees in "Camp Bosnia" in Mogadishu whose homes had been devastated by heavy rain.
"As we finished our work, four gunmen took up position at the entrance to the camp and stopped me", Jama told the Somali Journalist Network (Sojon), a local press freedom organisation.
"They said to me, 'Show us your tape-recorder and your recording and it we hear one word about the government of Abdullahi Yusuf, you will lose you life.'" Mohammed had meanwhile hidden behind a kiosk after seeing her colleague had been detained.
Jama said that one of the militiamen then slapped him several times and placed the barrel of his gun against his head. When a woman's voice was heard on the recording saying she hoped to be given a new home by the "Somali government in Kenya" (referring to the Abdullahi Yusuf government), Jama ran off while the militiamen fired shots at him with their Kalashnikovs as he fled. He was not hit. Mohammed did not leave her hiding place until the militiamen had left the camp. Both she and Jama are now safe.
In the face of the brutality of Somalia's gunmen and the impunity they enjoy, Reporters Without Borders reiterated its appeal to parliamentarians and the new president to not waste the opportunity being offered them.
"The country needs to be rebuilt, and it cannot be done at the expense of journalists who, despite the constant violence, continue to do their work", the organisation said. It added : "The Somali press must not only be protected but also supported and listened to by those whose job it is to create a new Somalia."
Posted on Monday 18th October at 17:04:24 Addo Resigns From Caf
Former Caf vice-president and vice-chairman of the Referees' Committee Farah Addo has resigned from African football's governing body.
The Somali administrator's announcement on the Caf website cited personal reasons for his decision to step down.
Addo's position was due to be discussed by the Caf Executive Committee on the 23 and 24 October.
His announcement comes after Fifa president Sepp Blatter said in September that he expected Caf to comply with the ten-year ban placed on Addo by expelling him from their referees commission.
Addo received the sanction for diverting funds given to his home nation under Fifa's financial assistance programme.
The ban precluded him from participating in any football-related activity within a national association, confederation or Fifa.
In the past Addo has claimed that his criticism of Blatter's election to the Fifa presidency in 1998 and 2002 was responsible for his ban.
But Blatter, who subsequently sued Addo for libel in a Swiss court, denied misusing his presidential powers to hound the Somali out of the football fraternity.
Posted on Sunday 17th October at 18:12:55 Doubt Over Democratic Values In Somaliland
afrol News - Somaliland has stood out as an example of democracy and human rights in Africa's Horn, but recent attacks on the free press, banning of public meetings and the alleged use of torture have cast doubts over this image. Somaliland opposition leader Faisal Ali Waraabe told afrol News his party wants to defend democracy and human rights but defended government attacks on the press to "preserve unity".
The most horrifying story regarding Somaliland's diminishing human rights record yet has to make headlines in the country. A 17-year-old Somali girl, according to local human rights groups, was detained one month ago as she approached the Vice-President's house in eastern Somaliland. Put to jail in the region, she was allegedly "raped and tortured for 25 days," according to reports from Somaliland's Awdalnews Network.
Awdalnews editor Bashir Goth - a devoted defender of Somaliland - told afrol News this was "a shocking story" that "Somaliland media decided to keep under wraps." The editor nevertheless had opted to publish it yesterday.
Mr Goth and other Somalilander independent editors are under great pressure not to publish headlines that could hamper national unity and the image of the non-recognised country in these difficult times. After all, a new united Somalia may soon stand up against Somaliland and claim sovereignty over the former British colony that unilaterally dissolved the union with former Italian Somalia in 1991.
Chief editor Hassan Said Yusuf of Somaliland's leading independent newspaper, 'Jamhuuriya', in September was detained for the 15th time by Hargeisa police over an article by his Kenya correspondent, saying the Somaliland government's position regarding the Somali Peace Conference was "soft". The government held 'Jamhuuriya' was "inciting people against the government" and threatening national unity. Mr Yusuf was acquitted on 3 October.
Editor Yusuf alleged the police action against him had been "extremely heavy-handed and violent." Members of the police force that brought him to court had "stopped him in the middle of the dry-bed river and threatened him saying, 'We can cut your throat and leave you here'," he said.
One of Somaliland's main opposition parties, Kulmiye, is strongly protesting what it sees as anti-democratic tendencies in Somaliland. According to a statement issues by Kulmiye last month, "it has become the usual trend to take steps towards dictatorship and the destruction of democracy, instead of selling our achievements to the international community." The party refers to Somaliland's efforts to sell its democratic gains to achieve recognition of its independence.
Somaliland's other main opposition party, the Justice and Welfare Party (JWP), however does not share these concerns over the situation of democracy and human rights in the country. JWP leader Waraabe told afrol News this week that he was still proud of representing Somaliland as "one of the most democratic countries with the freest press in Africa." Mr Waraabe however warned that "we need to be a patriotic people," and that the press needed to remember this.
According to the opposition leader, Somaliland's media "are not sufficiently trained," thus not being able to "differentiate between criticism against the government and causing damage to the country." Asked what he considered as "harmful to national interests," Mr Waraabe mentioned press reporting over corruption scandals "on an exaggerated level," which he alleged were meant to cause harm on a politician's image.
- We need not to compromise our national interest because of press freedom, Mr Waraabe told afrol News, adding: "We need a positive, not a negative freedom." The JWP leader advocated for a national press code to regulate what the media could write and what they could not write, taking national interests in consideration. He however emphasised that his party was "against the arrests of journalists or any ban of discussions."
Asked on the Kulmiye party's claim that democracy has weakened under current President Dahir Riyale Kahin's regime, Mr Waraabe said the President was upholding very democratic standards. After the despotic regime of Somali military dictator Siad Barre, before 1991, Somalilanders would "not accept limitations to their freedom," the JWP leader said.
- We cannot say President Riyale is stricter than [Somaliland's deceased founding President Muhammad Ibrahim] Egal, Mr Waraabe said, emphasising that he was impressed by the attack from the press President Riyale had sustained without reacting. "I would become even stricter if I was elected President and I would not tolerate what Riyale tolerates," Mr Waraabe told afrol News.
Posted on Saturday 16th October at 21:34:46 Museveni Warns Somalis
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has warned Somali warlords that the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will not allow anyone to disrupt the Somali peace process and cause anarchy in the country again.
Museveni chairs IGAD, the regional body which sponsored the peace process that culminated in the election of a president for Somalia after 13 years without a central government. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was elected by the Somali transitional parliament sitting in Nairobi, Kenya.
Speaking at Ahmed’s swearing-in in Nairobi on Thursday, Museveni said IGAD would ensure the peace process succeeded.
Present were seven African heads of state and diplomats.
Museveni warned key Somali factional leaders, including Gen. Hirsi Morgan and Mohammed Aideed, who boycotted the ceremony, that no one would be allowed to disrupt the Somali peace process.
“IGAD will not allow anyone to mess up the peace in Somalia. If you are not president, wait for another chance. The same applies to an MP who should wait for their chance,” Museveni said, drawing applause.
Museveni said the peace process proved that Africa could find its own solutions to its problems. He said Ahmed’s swearing-in was a testimony that Africa had triumphed where the United States failed in 1991. Museveni said the US intervention instead fuelled the problems.
He appealed to the international community to provide financial and technical aid to Somalia.
Museveni said if the aid did not come, African countries should pull their resources together and help Somalia as they did in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and in the ouster of Idi Amin.
He said Somalia needed “resources and not mere words” from the international community to complement aid from within Africa.
Yusuf, a career soldier and politician, took the oath of office in the Somali language. He was sworn-in by the speaker of the transitional federal parliament as thousands cheered.
Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki said after Yusuf was sworn-in, “This is the victory of all Somali people. We are delighted that the people of Somalia have chosen the path of peace.”
The Somali state collapsed in 1991 when Muhammad Siyad Barre was overthrown, triggering a deadly civil war that saw numerous warlords carve the country into fiefdoms.
Posted on Saturday 16th October at 21:33:18 Work Cut Out for Ex-Army Colonel
"Some Somalis work during the day and others during the night, but I promise you that I will work both day and night to make Somalia secure," so said Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's on Sunday soon after he was declared Somalia's newly elected president.
Indeed, in a country where clan power and force rules and determines one's destiny, the new president of a country tattered by 14 years of bloody fighting will require more than working day and night to restore sanity and recreate what was once the Republic of Somalia.
The biggest challenge, however, for 67-year-old Yusuf is how to command the allegiance of the different Somali clans, which for the past 14 years, since the fall of the leadership of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, have been loyal to individual warlords controlling vast parts of Somalia.
Yusuf, a former army colonel in the Siad Barre government who rebelled and went into exile in Ethiopia, is the immediate former leader of the self-declared enclave of the Republic of Puntland, which is dominated by the Darod clan.
His immediate task is to come up with a diplomatic mechanism of wooing other former warlords and clan leaders to support his government after last Sunday's presidential elections in Nairobi that attracted 26 candidates.
Despite the fact that Somalis share one language, which should be a unifying factor, the monster of clannism has split Somalia into various fiefdoms with totally divergent attitudes even when common national interests are at stake.
This scenario presents a very delicate and fluid situation, which the new president must strive to balance astutely. Somalia is made up of four main clans, the Darod, Hawiye, Digile and the Merifle. Each clan has it's own leader and their own interests.
The new president is already faced with opposition from the self-declared regions of Somaliland and Puntland, which have warned of war if their borders are interfered with by the new government.
Somaliland, with a population of 2.5 million people out of Somalia's 7 million has already expressed misgivings about the new leader and has refused to recognize Yusuf's new authority.
Somaliland is a northwestern region of Somalia, which broke away in 1991 soon after the country descended into chaos following the ouster of Barre.
The area is relatively peaceful, has a president and a booming economy.
It says it can only negotiate with Somalia's new leadership as equals. Puntland authorities have also expressed similar sentiments.
The deadly militia poses a major challenge to the restoration of law and order.
Copyright © 2004 The East African Standard.
Posted on Saturday 16th October at 21:31:45 President Starts Consultations To Form The Interim Government
The new Somali President Abdullah Youssef Ahmad started consultations to chose a prime minister for his government in the beginning of a difficult mission to achieve political stability in Somalia, after 14 years of chaos and armed conflicts.
President Abdullah Youssef is facing challenges especially the restoration of security and stability and implementing his promises for members of the Somali parliament and the international community to dismantle the weapons of the Somali factions.
Following his taking oath ceremony in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Abdullah Youssef called on the UN and the African Union to dispatch peace keeping forces to his country and to train the Somali security forces to support the authority of the of the Interim government whose term of office will last for five years. The new government will assume preparations for the general elections by the end of the Interim period.
In a first challenge for the authority of the new government, the President of the Republic of Somaliland, Zaher Reyal Kahin, said that his government will not establish any dialogue with Somalia except in case of reciprocated recognition between the two countries.
In a statement from Hergheza, the capital of the district, Reyal said that the " independence of Somaliland is sacred and any attempt to discuss unity with Somalia will be meaningless and a waste of time.
Last Sunday, the new Somali president announced his determination to discuss the unity of Somalia with the leaders of the northern areas leaders. The Republic which is declared to the north of the country was not recognized internationally since it had split in May 1991, just five months after toppling the government of President Muhammad Seyad Berri.
The second day after the election of Abdullah Youssef, the cabinet of the land of Somalia and its parliament announced their rejection to negotiate with any government in Mogadishu over the unity of the country.
Posted on Saturday 16th October at 21:30:53 It Was No Easy Walk To Peace
When Kenya agreed to host the Somalia National Reconciliation Conference in October 2001, the election of the country's president and the formation of an all-inclusive government in the war-torn country must have seemed like a mirage.
Indeed, there was little optimism when retired President Daniel arap Moi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni led other Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) leaders in launching the talks.
Fourteen other initiatives, the last one being in Djibouti in 2000, had flopped, as factional leaders reneged on every pact.
The launch of the talks was marred by rows over representation, with some clans and groups disagreeing on the number of participants. There were wrangles, too, over an interim charter and the selection of future parliamentarians.
Although less than 300 delegates were invited for the talks, more than 1,000 turned up in Eldoret, disrupting accommodation and transport plans.
Then came the failure by some factional leaders to attend the sessions at various hotels in Eldoret before the talks were relocated to the Kenya College of Communications and Technology at Mbagathi, Nairobi.
The European Union, the African Union, the League of Arab States, Igad and Igad Partners Forum said the desertion undermined the peace process and urged the leaders to rescind their decision.
Action, they warned, would be taken against leaders who breached peace deals signed in Kenya.
Through the then Kenyan ambassador to the talks, Mr Elijah Mwangale - later replaced by Mr Bethwel Kiplagat - the Government ensured that all the invited delegates had food and accommodation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs - where the talks fell before they were transferred to Mr John Koech's Regional Cooperation ministry this year - had a secretariat at Eldoret's Sirikwa Hotel to coordinate the talks.
But a number of ministry staff were seconded to the talks, hence the relocation to Nairobi.
Kenya convinced some of the factional leaders to attend. They included Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the Federal Republic of Somalia's new president, whose Puntland State had seceded from the Greater Somalia and enjoyed relative peace.
Security was provided to guard the factional leaders and their hotels. Twenty one of the leaders blamed former president Siad Barre's regime for the chaos in their country, after his faction turned up for the talks.
This was the first time some of the warlords saw eye to eye and shook hands, giving the peace talks a major boost.
During the earlier efforts to bring peace to the only country in the world without a government, only a few factional leaders took part.
For the first time, however, the Nairobi talks also attracted professionals, a large number of them women. During the Djibouti talks only clans were recognised as legitimate units of representation.
There are five clans in Somalia and not one of them considered women important enough to be part of the talks.
Analysts said the factional leaders took heed of Igad's invitation due to Kenya's perceived neutrality in the Somali fights.
Other Igad countries, including Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia, were regarded as partisan.
Only the breakaway Somaliland remained unrepresented in the talks for long. It is a part of the country that has enjoyed relative peace since seceding from the larger Somalia.
Other countries also helped Kenya meet the medical bills of the delegates throughout their stay in Kenya.
"Most Somalis are also more free in Kenya than the other neighbouring countries, and that is why the previous talks failed," Mr Sheikh Adow, a Somalia resident in Nairobi said.
Other foreign countries also helped Kenya meet the medical bills of the delegates throughout their stay in Kenya.
Questions have been raised why Kenya gave all its energy to the peace process despite "draining" its meagre resources.
Copyright © 2004 The Nation. All rights reserved.
Posted on Friday 15th October at 21:36:15 Somaliland Leader Rejects Unity With Somalia
The president of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland said on Friday his administration will only negotiate with Somalia if it is for the recognition of their respective states' sovereignty.
"Somaliland's independence is sacred and efforts to discuss Somaliland uniting with Somalia are futile and a waste of time," President Dahir Riyale Kahin said by telephone from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, on Friday.
Somaliland unilaterally declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in May 1991, five months after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.
But despite developing the tools of statehood, including a flag and currency, and enjoying relative peace compared with Somalia, the breakaway state has not been recognised by the international community.
Kahin said: "If Somaliland were to abandon its existence as a free nation in the world, then there would be no reason why it declared its independence.
"I have the full support of my people to stick to our freedom. It is good for Somalia and Somaliland to recognise each other and to make our region a peaceful place."
Kahin was reacting to remarks made at the swearing-in ceremony in Nairobi on Thursday of Somali President Abdulaahi Yusuf Ahmed, who was elected last weekend by Somalia's federal Parliament, which sits in Nairobi due to security concerns in Mogadishu.
"I will discuss with leaders of north-west Somalia, calling itself Somaliland, about the unity of Somalia. We will not use force to bring about the unity of Somalia, only dialogue," Yusuf told the ceremony, attended by seven African presidents, including the African Union chairperson, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The Somaliland council of ministers and chamber of elders had earlier declared they will not hold discussions with Somalia about reuniting the two states, a decision that has also been supported by two opposition parties in Somaliland.
While Somaliland has been relatively peaceful since it declared independence, the rest of Somalia has been embroiled in clan warfare that has killed hundreds of thousand people and displaced millions of others. -- Sapa-AFP
Posted on Friday 15th October at 19:49:02 High Malnutrition Rates Observed in Four Areas
High levels of malnutrition have been observed among communities in four areas in Somalia, with some of them experiencing greater rates of malnutrition than what would be considered acceptable, the UN food and agriculture agency said in a report.
Those affected include Lower and Middle Juba Riverine communities, IDPs [internally displaced persons] in Bossaso, and inhabitants Dhusamareeb and Adaado districts in the drought-affected central region of the country, the Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU) of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a report released on Wednesday.
The report also said that the humanitarian emergency in the drought-affected areas of Gedo and Juba Valley remained of a cause for concern. A rapid food security and nutrition survey in the area is currently underway, according to the FSAU update for October.
It noted that early, above normal and widespread rainfall in northern pastoral areas had began to improve water and pasture conditions in the region, but it was still too early to determine the rainfall's overall impact on emergency situation.
Rain was also reported in parts of the drought-prone Sool Plateau and Nugaal Valley and the neighbouring Gebi Valley, resulting in large immigration of people and livestock to those areas.
Above normal rainfall fell over Sool, North Mudug, Togdheer and most of Somaliland in the northeast, but heavy rains in the Golis Mountains in Sanaag (Erigavo and Elafweyn districts) caused severe damage, according to FSAU.
The south was largely dry, apart from light showers over the coastal areas of Shabelle valley and parts of north Gedo.
Severe drought this year exacerbated an already desperate food security situation in Somalia and left up to 1.2 million people in need of food aid until the next crop expected in April next year.
Copyright © 2004 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks.
Posted on Friday 15th October at 19:47:53 What a Stable Somalia Means for Kenya And the Region
The chaos and anarchy that followed the collapse of the government of Somalia 13 years ago have had an indirect impact on the socio-economic and political life of Kenya.
After the deposition of Mohammed Siad Barre in a coup, Kenya had to contend with an influx of Somali refugees from all quarters.
Yesterday's inauguration of a new Somali President ushered in new hope and assurance for peace in the Horn of Africa.
Kenyans look forward to the new federal Somali transitional government moving to the capital Mogadishu to start working.
They hope the pains they experienced while hosting their neighbours will soon be relieved and at the same time reap from the opportunities that come with stability in Somalia.
Immediately the Siad Barre was ousted from power in 1991, Kenya's north-eastern neighbour was divided into numerous enclaves each governed by warlords.
The port of Mogadishu and other major towns were divided and governed by a number of warlords.
Militiamen ruled by the gun. Fighting for control of resources among the various rival warlords led to the deaths of civilians and massive destruction of property.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled into neighbouring Kenya to seek refuge. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees set up four refugee camps - three in Garissa and an other in Turkana.
An estimated 200,000 Somali refugees are in the country, says UNHCR. A similar number illegally stay in Nairobi, Mombasa and urban centres in northern Kenya.
Somalia's expected stability will, hopefully, woo back home the refugees whose huge financial back up is invested abroad.
The refugees' presence was felt in various parts of Nairobi mainly Eastleigh where they set up bazaars dealing in textiles and electronics. They also took over the export of Miraa (khat) to Somalia and some destinations in Western Europe.
Some Kenyans, especially in Nairobi, complain that rent in estates like Eastleigh skyrocketed at the influx of the Somali refugees. They now expect rents to reduce.
With its vast and porous border, Kenya is not in a position to monitor the movement of people and goods from its north-eastern neighbour.
The militiamen in charge of the ports in southern Somalia, mainly Mogadishu and Kismayu, are the second largest importers of goods from South-East Asia and Dubai after Iran in the whole of Africa and Middle East region.
These goods, mainly textiles, electronics and motor vehicles and accessories, are then exported to Kenya illegally.
The contrabands enter Kenya through North-Eastern Province, Nairobi's Wilson Airport and recently through Eldoret Airport. Apart from undercutting local businessmen, Kenya has been denied billions of shillings in revenue.
Goods smuggled through Mandera, Garissa and Wajir include foodstuff, vehicle spare parts, tyres, electronics and textiles. Some of these goods are counterfeits.
With a stable Somalia, licit trade that used to flourish with Kenya is expected to contribute to a strong economy for both countries.
The billions lost to smugglers will be history - a legal regional trade will be re-established at official border points.
The air traffic between Mogadishu and Nairobi is also expected to increase. Miraa export and passenger travel will be the main focus.
Employment opportunities will benefit many Kenyans with return of peace and stability to Somalia. Before the collapse of Somalia, thousands of Kenyans worked there but were forced to return after 1991.
With Somalia starting from the scratch, many more unemployed Kenyans who have been hard hit by high inflation are looking forward to restoration of law and order there.
The chaotic situation also brought the peddling of illegal small weapons - mainly rifles, pistols and ammunition that is blamed for increased crime in Kenya. The number of illegal guns in the hands of criminals in Nairobi and other major urban centres in the country is attributed to the instability that characterised the vacuum in Mogadishu.
The weapons in the hands of criminals and bandits in the country are used in carjacking, murder and cattle rustling.
The deaths and theft of livestock in northern Kenya carried by armed bandits is expected to greatly reduce with return of peace.
The militiamen did not spare the government of Kenya either. In 1998, a detachment of Kenya Army was attacked at Amuma Camp in Garissa District and heavy artillery, including two armoured vehicles were stolen. Although the Kenyan military repossessed the weapons, the border raids did not stop.
Vehicles belonging to police, the provincial administration and local businessmen were not spared either. In Wajir's border division of Dirr, the administration withdrew a brand new Land Rover 110 meant for police patrol last September because of fear of militiamen. The gang had stolen a similar vehicle earlier in August.
The instability in Somalia has also led to influx of criminals and terrorists who use that country to get into Kenya and cause mayhem or target Western installations.
Copyright © 2004 The East African Standard./I>
Posted on Friday 15th October at 19:46:41 Rebel Bosses And 97 MPs Boycott Fete
Key factional leaders boycotted the swearing-in of the president.
Among those who stayed away were Hussein Mohammed Aideed and long-time diplomat and former Cabinet minister in former Mohammed Siad Barre's government, Dr Abdullahi Adow, who came second to Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in Sunday's elections.
In addition, 97 members of the 275-strong Parliament did not attend and the Nation learnt that some were not ready to allow Mr Ahmed to rule unless he agreed to share power with a prime minister and a Cabinet.
Sources also indicated that General Mohammed Said Hirsi Morgan and Mr Musa Sudi Yalahow also skipped the ceremony because of failure by the elected president to bring different groups together.
Mr Aideed, sources said, chose to have a meeting with his allies at a hotel in Nairobi.
An MP said most of the presidential candidates and factional leaders boycotted the event since President Ahmed had not sought reconciliation with them.
It is understood that the son of a former warlord, who ousted President Siad Barre from power, was angered by the violence on Wednesday in which his key ally was killed.
Mr Adow got 79 votes to Mr Ahmed's 189 in a run-off after two rounds of elections failed to produce a clear winner.
Somali MPs who talked to the Nation on condition of anonymity said they were looking forward to seeing the President in Somalia seeking peace and unveiling his programmes.
They said peace would only return to Somalia if locals were involved in electing their president.
Another MP said Somalia's future was hard to predict, adding that if the president was to rule effectively he should first reconcile with MPs.
The lawmakers warned President Ahmed against seeking "handouts" from foreign governments before he restored peace in his country.
Gen Morgan is allied to the southern-based Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM).
Mr Aideed leads the United Somali Congress/Somali National Alliance (USC/SNA).
He is a former US Marine and son of the late General Mohamed Farah Aideed, the warlord who helped to remove Siad Barre from power, and then fought US forces in Mogadishu in 1993.
Former President Daniel Moi also gave the function a miss and instead chose to stay in his Kabarak home.
Although it was not clear whether he was invited or not his press secretary Lee Njiru said there was no arrangement for them to attend.
On Monday, Mr Moi, sent a congratulatory message to President Ahmed on his election.
The former President who had on several occasions during his rule tried to reconcile Somali leaders said the existence of a legal and functional government was the foundation of all human civilisation.
Copyright © 2004 The Nation. All rights reserved.
Posted on Friday 15th October at 19:27:06 SPR Welcomes Somali New President with A Caution
Somalia has been through a 14-year civil war. It is now regarded as a failed state. Almost all people of Somalia have been profoundly affected by the conflict. More than a quarter of a million people have lost their lives during the civil war. Most were civilian non-combatants.
Almost half the population of the country has been displaced or are refugees. Abductions, torture, rape and human rights atrocities have taken place on a massive scale. A whole generation has been lost of the Somali people, particularly the children, in terms of school, in terms of healthcare.
To reverse the current situation, a number of Key strategic issues are facing new President, strategic issues that demand well-thought plans, creativities, vision and new approaches. In upcoming few months, the President's commitment to nation building will be evaluated against the credibility of selected members of the cabinet and the progress made in peace building and creating trust.
In mid-term, there is no doubt that rehabilitation and reintegration programming are profoundly needed to repair the fabric of the society that has been torn apart over these 14 years. That entails the resettlement of internally displaced people, the repatriation of refugees and other war-affected groups. If successful disarmament and demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of former combatants are not made, the reconstruction is not going to work.
The reconstruction only succeeds if the leaders of the country display a good leadership with a workable plan and the outside groups work with them. It is Somalis that have to lead the reconstruction effort. And that is a critically important factor and principle. If the new leadership empowers its people to reconstruct their own country, the chances of success will dramatically increase because then it will be their reconstruction, not a reconstruction imposed on them from the outside that they may not support.
Most challenging task is the establishment of effective institutions which could lead the nation to a lasting peace and improved wellbeing. Will the elected leadership focus on the pressing issues facing the people or will he pay out his energy in entertaining Somali warlords and enriching his interest group (his clan)?
Copyright © 2004 Somali Peace Rally.
Posted on Thursday 14th October at 23:38:34 Will Somalia’s Attempt At Democracy Succeed?
It could be the beginning of a nightmare or dream come true for Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, 71.
Elected in Nairobi by an interim Parliament, Somali watchers anxiously await to see how smooth or rugged the road to Mogadishu from Nairobi could prove to be.
One wish delegates at yesterday’s inauguration shared was their wish to see Mr Ahmed, leader of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland and his government in place in Mogadishu at the earliest possible opportunity without any factional leader rocking the boat.
Travellers have to cross a range of war enclaves controlled by vicious, sometimes merciless militias to reach Mogadishu—or any part of Somalia.
Ahmed, who is a teetotaler and father of four, established his Puntland leadership in 1998 with a presidency and a council of elders acting as a single chamber legislature.
His title of strongman comes from a long history of confrontation with the authorities and the effective banning of political parties in his region, turning Puntland into a one-party state.
The elders elected him to govern the region for three years. He, however, refused to relinquish that position to the next president, Jama Ali Jama, saying he needed to continue because he was fighting terror.
This spat came hot on the heels of the attacks in the US of military and financial installations on September 11, and anybody claiming to fight terrorism was an instant friend of the George Bush administration.
If the US ever supported his government is a matter that has not been documented, bearing in mind that the US quit Somalia in a huff after a series of attacks aimed at its troops operating under the banner: Operation Restore Hope.
To continue his war on terror, Ahmed marshalled his army and seized power in 2002, reportedly with the aid of staunch ally, Ethiopia.
By Argwings Odera
Posted on Thursday 14th October at 23:37:14 Peace Dividends Worth the Dear Cost of Talks
The cost of hosting the 20-month long Somali peace process in Kenya runs into billions of shillings.
But money can never buy the peace that Kenya and other neighbouring countries will enjoy once there is stability, security and peace in Somalia.
Hundreds of delegates were hosted in Eldoret and at the Kenya College of Communication in an effort to find a solution to the decade-long Somali problem.
More than Sh600 million was spent in hotel and food accommodation and not to mention transport and delegates allowances since the peace talks opened in November 2001.
A peaceful solution and a restoration of a stable government in Somalia will remove the spectre of insecurity.
Business in small arms has flourished because there is chaos in Somalia.
And because of the instability in Somalia, Kenya is teeming with hundreds of thousands of refugees in camps in the north and in major towns.
On several occasions, in the past, Kenya has been forced to halt cross-border trade with Somalia because of security concerns.
Former President Moi in 2001, complained that illegal weapons from Somalia were fuelling cattle rustling, robberies and car jackings in Kenya.
He then imposed a ban on flights to Somalia which mainly transport miraa to Mogadishu.
However, the ban was lifted after businessmen protested that the move had hurt their trade.
Somalia has also in the past been seen by the US as a potential refuge for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The main focus of US concern has been alleged links between al-Qaeda and a group called al-Itihaad al-Islamiya - which means Islamic Unity.
This is a shadowy group founded in the late 1980s from Islamic groups opposed to Siad Barre's regime.
The US believed al-Itahaad allowed al-Qaeda to use bases and other facilities in Somalia before the August 1998 attack on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Selaam.
It claimed that al-Itahaad ran a number of military training camps including Ras Kamboni in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border and that Somalia was used as a conduit for al-Qaeda operations in other areas.
And this explains why Kenya, a terrorist victim in 1998 and in 2002 was in the forefront since the collapse of the Said Barre regime in 1991 to ensure there was order, stability and security in Somalia.
In the initial stages the peace talks were marked by struggle for power and influence among Somalia's three neighbours, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.
Djibouti got in first by helping set up the transitional authority much to Ethiopia's annoyance.
Ethiopia argued that an effective government can only be achieved through another reconciliation conference, where it can ensure it has more of an influence than in Djibouti.
On its part Kenya has always wanted a more effective government in Somalia which could stop the widespread smuggling of consumer items, as well as guns, into Kenya.
Ethiopia and Kenya appeared to disagree on who should organise the process, and without the intervention of a neutral party to host talks.
But Kenya got its way after East African leaders meeting in Khartoum agreed to hold the national reconciliation conference in Nairobi.
The sprawling Eastleigh business area flourishes because there is chaos in Somalia.
Wilson airport-based airlines mainly thrives because the demand for miraa in a tumult Somalia is insatiable.
As Somali president-elect Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed formally assumes office today, majority of Kenyans will be rejoicing while a handful will mourn the dead of their lifeline.
Kenyans of goodwill realises that with political stability, peace, national reconciliation and economic development in Somalia, they can at least have a peaceful sleep.
But the criminally-inclined and those who seeks cheap wealth will be in singing dirges.
For those not keen to have a stable and functional government, their source of weapons will dry up. Yet for the others, it might herald the end of their magendo (smuggling) business.
Ever since Somalia went to the dogs in 1991 with the ouster of dictator Said Barre, Kenyans have bear the full blunt of of the 14 wasted years of senseless clan fighting.
Fighting between rival warlords and inability to deal with famine and disease led to the death of up to one million people.
For the lack of a working political system, government institutions, a police force or genuine currency in Somalia has greatly compromised Kenyans security and stability.
Somalia's economy is highly dependent on money sent home by members of the diaspora and from livestock exports.
It also relies heavily on its 37 port duties imposed by territorial warlords who control some of the trans-shipment centres spread along the 3,000 kilometre Indian Ocean coastal line.
It is in some of these porous centres that some of the goods find their way into Kenyan market.
But the country that was created in 1960 after the a British protectorate and an Italian colony merged has always been plagued by problems.
Since the merger, its development has been hindered by territorial claims on Somali-inhabited areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
In 1970 Mr Barre proclaimed a socialist state, paving the way for close relations with the USSR.
In 1977, with the help of Soviet arms, Somalia attempted to seize the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, but was defeated thanks to Soviet and Cuban backing for Ethiopia, which had turned Marxist.
This raised the spectre of disintegration as the former British protectorate of Somaliland declared unilateral independence.
In 2000 clan elders and other senior figures appointed Abdulkassim Salat Hassan president at a conference in Djibouti. A transitional government was set up, with the aim of reconciling warring militias.
But as its mandate drew to a close, the administration had made little progress in uniting the country.
After the collapse of the Siad Barre regime the northwest part of Somalia declared itself the independent Republic of Somaliland.
The territory, whose independence is not recognised by international bodies, has enjoyed relative stability.
But lawlessness has always been rife since the collapse of military government with self-proclaimed states of Somaliland, Puntland opting to run their own affairs.
The big question. Will Somalia forget the past and rebuild their country so Kenyan can have peace?
Copyright © 2004 The Nation.
Posted on Thursday 14th October at 17:16:31 New President Takes Oath Of Office
NAIROBI, 14 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - Somalia's newly elected President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed took his oath of office on Thursday at a ceremony in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, attended by several African heads of state, diplomats and representatives from international organisations.
Yusuf, a career soldier and politician took the oath of office in the Somali language. He was sworn-in by the speaker of the transitional federal parliament, Shariff Hassan Sheikh Adan, amid cheering by thousands of Somalis who turned up for the ceremony held in the auditorium of a sports stadium.
The Kenya Army band played the Somali national anthem and the Somali flag was unfurled in the hall as a 21-gun salute boomed outside the auditorium.
Yusuf won Sunday's presidential election and vowed to re-establish stability in the Horn of Africa country, ravaged by factional warfare since 1991. Declared winner in the run-off round of the poll, has served as president of the northeastern self-declared autonomous region of Puntland since 1998.
He beat his rival, former cabinet minister and diplomat Abdullahi Ahmed Addow, by 189 to 79 votes cast by members of the transitional-federal parliament, which was constituted in August. Twenty-four candidates were either eliminated in the first round or withdrew from the race.
"What we are witnessing today is the victory of all Somali people," said Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki after Yusuf was sworn-in. "We are delighted that the people of Somalia have chosen the path of peace."
Kibaki urged the international community to help the people of Somalia in their efforts to rebuild their country.
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, who is the current chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the regional body that sponsored the peace process that culminated in the election of the president, said the organisation would ensure that the peace process succeeded.
"IGAD will not allow anyone to come in and mess up the peace process," said Museveni. "Africa must provide some of the money."
He said Somalia needed "resources and not mere words" from the international community to complement any aid coming from within the African continent.
The swearing ceremony was attended by the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is the current chairman of the Africa Union, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, his Burundian counterpart Domitien Ndayizeye, the President of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh and President Ali Abdallah Saleh of Yemen.
Sudan was represented by Vice President Ali Uthman Taha and Ethiopia was Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin. Also present was Mohammed Sahnoun and a number of other diplomats.
Somalia ceased to function as a modern state in 1991 when armed groups overthrew the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre, precipitating a ruinous civil war that saw numerous warring warlords and their militias carve the country into fiefdoms.
Many previous attempts to end anarchy in Somalia failed. A reconciliation conference in Djibouti in 2000 led to the appointment of Abdulkassim Salad Hassan as president, but his administration was only able to exert authority in some parts of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and a few pockets of territory in the south of the country.
The new president is expected to appoint a prime minister, who will form a cabinet before the new administration can relocate to Mogadishu. The president and his government have a five-year mandate, after which, general elections will be held inside Somalia.
The administration in the self-declared republic of Somaliland in the northwest, which announced its break away from the rest of Somalia following Barre's overthrow, refused to take part in the two-year reconciliation conference in Kenya.
The new president was born in 1934 and studied law in the Somali National University before going to the former Soviet Union and later to Italy for military studies. He was Somalia’s military attaché to Moscow between 1965 and 1968.
Yusuf, a member of the Darod clan, was one of a group of people who in 1978 tried to oust Barre in a failed coup. Most of the coup plotters were executed, but Abdullahi Yusuf managed to flee the country. Later that year, he formed the Somali Salvation Democratic Front, one of the first armed groups to wage a military campaign against Barre's regime.
Posted on Thursday 14th October at 17:13:43 Somaliland Postwar Reconstruction
When Dr Adan Abokor returned to Hargeisa, north-west Somalia, in 1991, he found a ghost town. Along with thousands of Somali returnees, he roamed the abandoned streets of his home city, bewildered and shocked by the extent of the destruction. Stone houses were just piles of rubble, the previously resplendent national theatre was in ruins, bomb craters had replaced roads, and bullet holes marked whatever walls were still standing. The air force of Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre had razed everything to the ground.
Adan was accompanied by an elderly German lady, who was just five years old when her home city of Dresden was blitzed. 'She broke down and wept when she saw Hargeisa,' says Adan. 'It was worse than Dresden, she told me.'
The fighting and bombing had been relentless. For three years following the start of the Somali civil war in May 1988, the government army killed 50,000 people in a fierce attack on the northern regions of Somalia. The majority of the inhabitants from Hargeisa and other urban areas fled to sprawling refugee camps in neighbouring Ethiopia, scraping a desperate living from handouts by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
When Siad Barre was forced from power in January 1991, the Somali state crumbled. On 18 May 1991, the north-west regions of Somalia declared their independence and the Republic of Somaliland was born. A new government was created and thousands of returnees embraced the hope of lasting peace.
But many issues remained unresolved from the long years of the civil war. With a weak and unrecognised government, conflict over access to power and resources broke out in 1994 and again in 1996, causing many people to renew their flight to the refugee camps in Ethiopia.
Today, after eight years of peace, Somaliland is progressing well. A drive through the bustling streets of Hargeisa shows a thriving social and economic life. Shops with brightly coloured fronts line the streets, announcing their wares: from fast internet access and groceries to locally produced beauty products and clothes.
Democracy is growing, with municipal elections in December 2002 declared a success by local and international observers, including staff from CIIR's International Cooperation for Development (ICD) programme. And presidential elections took place in May 2003, allowing men and women to vote for the first time with a choice of political parties.
At the heart of this process is an unwavering determination by local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to support post-conflict reconstruction and the development of a peaceful and just society. The Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR) had worked in Somalia in the 1980s, through its skillshare programme, ICD. But it had closed its office in Mogadishu before war started and in response to a deteriorating security climate. By 1995, as peace was being re-established in the northern regions of Somaliland, it felt it could contribute to the development of the country.
At first, ICD placed just two development workers: one, Yusuf Abdillahi, supporting the crucial re-establishment of maternal and child health services, while the other, Rhoda Ibrahim, was placed as a resource worker with local NGOs. By January 1998, when Dr Adan Abokor started as CIIR/ICD country representative in Somaliland, the programme was ready to grow fast with a range of partners. Today, the Somaliland programme supports 12 development workers focusing on four key areas: assisting the regional health office of Hargeisa to develop a primary health care system managed by the community; fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS; capacity building with local NGOs; and supporting the community-based Amoud university.
CIIR/ICD's model is based on skillshare: skilled professionals, usually from another country, work with local partner organisations for a period ranging from one to four years. They provide the skills that are sorely lacking and train partners to ensure that local staff can continue with the work once the development worker has gone.
In a place like Somaliland, where years of oppression and war have caused the country's best and most skilled workers to live abroad to earn a living, such skillshare is crucial to effective reconstruction. Says Adan, 'There's been a major brain drain from Somaliland to all over the world. Even today, many of our brightest young people are leaving to work abroad because there are not enough opportunities here.'
Janice Bowdery, a former CIIR/ICD development worker who worked with Amoud University, near Borama, agrees. She taught business administration to Somali students whose enthusiasm and thirst for learning never stopped surprising her.
She focused her course on the practical aspects of business administration, such as writing up business plans and budgeting, to ensure students had the skills if they wanted to start their own businesses and find funding.
A strong and effective education system is crucial to a nation's long-term success. Many describe Somaliland's young people, particularly those in their 20s and early 30s, as the 'lost generation': conflict robbed them of any formal education. In the refugee camps, many were too busy struggling to survive to attend classes. Since their return to Somaliland, the focus has shifted on rebuilding their homes and finding food, rather than learning to read and write.
Women and girls tend to suffer the most. Families with many children cannot afford to send all of them to school. Generally, one or two boys will attend classes, while the girls help at home. This is why many NGOs are providing free schooling to young girls and women, particularly in the afternoons, once they have finished their day's work at home and shopping.
All over the country, women are the driving force behind Somaliland's recovery. While men were fighting in the wars or biding their time in the refugee camps, refugee women emerged as the strongest survivors, finding food for the family, making clothes, tending the sick, and organising the refugee communities. On their return to Somaliland, they were usually the ones who continued caring for their families, building homes, and earning a living by sewing, weaving and selling clothes and produce at the market. Many men, traumatised by the war and jobless, retreated into the solace of chewing qaat, a local plant that acts as a mild stimulant.
Women's new role in society has meant a major shift in local norms and traditions, according to CIIR/ICD development worker Deborah Ossiya. 'Leadership in Somaliland is a man's thing. It's about being male. Yet things are changing. Last year, a woman, Edna Adan, was appointed minister of family and social affairs. Now she's minister of foreign affairs. Everyone realises that women are working particularly hard for their country. Without them, it's doubtful whether the country would be where it is today.'
Posted on Wednesday 13th October at 16:15:48 Somali Leader to Be Sworn in Tomorrow
Somali president-elect Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed will be sworn in tomorrow at Nairobi's Kasarani Sports Centre.
East African Cooperation minister John Koech, who has been in charge of the peace process, yesterday said the event would be attended by more than five heads of State.
Mr Ahmed, who won the election on Sunday, is expected to name his new Cabinet after the swearing in. He clinched the seat after garnering 189 votes against 79 of his closest opponent, Dr Abdullahi Adow.
Speaking to the Nation after flying from Kampala where he met Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Mr Koech said the priority for Somalia was to have its government sitting in Mogadishu. President Museveni is the chairman of regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad).
Among the leaders expected are Eriterian, Ethiopian, Djibouti, Sudanese, Ugandan and Kenyan heads of State, all members of Igad. President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria is also expected.
"The first thing is to have the government operating from Somalia," Mr Koech added. The other priority was security in Somalia as the militia controlling different parts of the country have to be disarmed.
Mr Koech said plans to reconstruct the country were under way but could only be quickened if the transitional government was in place.
Kenya's ambassador to Somalia, Mr Mohammed Affey, who is based in Nairobi, said he would also move to the Horn of Africa country once the new government was in place.
"That is when I can present my credentials," he said.
Mr Affey said the elections provided a ray of hope for Somalis and East Africans in general.
While congratulating Mr Ahmed, President Kibaki said Somali leaders should put aside their differences which had led the country to be embroiled in "14 wasted years of senseless clan fighting".
"What is now important is to forget the past and rebuild the country," the President said.
He said Sunday's election of Mr Ahmed marked an important milestone in the history of Somalia.
"I followed what was happening very closely. l did not sleep until the historic elections were over and the Somali people had a new president," President Kibaki said, assuring the Somali people of his Government's assistance in efforts to rebuild the country.
Mr Ahmed has called for unity, saying he bore no grudge against his opponents in the election. He also asked them to reconcile and unite for the sake of their country.
"I will always seek their support and cooperation in rebuilding the country," he said.
Mr Koech said Igad members and the International Partners Forum, mostly made of European Union nations had played an important part in the peace process.
After the inauguration of the new president, President Museveni will on Friday chair an Igad summit meeting.
Copyright © 2004 The Nation. All rights reserved.
Posted on Wednesday 13th October at 16:09:13 Puntland Refuses To Recognize President Youssef Ahmad
Puntland, which was declared independent unilaterally, refused to recognize the authority of the President of Somalia Abdullah Youssef Ahmad and warned him against the attempt of annexing it to the Somali territories.
A statement by the minister of information Abdullah Muhammad Dawali said that any step to annex the district will be considered a "flagrant violation to Puntland" calling on the neighboring states, the African Union, the European Union and the US to avert an open confrontation. The interim Somali parliament elected last Sunday Abdullah Youssef Ahmad as a president of Somalia for four years but Puntland did not take part in his election.
However, the election of Youssef Ahmad did not only revive the hopes to bringing back calm to Somalia but also opened the dialogue over the political future of the split district.
Puntland district is inhabited by 2.5 million inhabitants and it announced separation from Somalia amid a state of chaos which followed the collapse of the regime of Seyad Berri in 1991 and since then it has been enjoying relative calm.
Copyright © 1995-2003 Arabic News.com,
Posted on Wednesday 13th October at 16:08:21 A Leader For Somalia
Societies simply cannot continue tearing themselves apart in civil conflict forever. There comes a point when the seemingly interminable warring comes to a halt. This happens less often through a shining vision of the broad sunlit uplands of peace than general weariness with violence and a redefining of self-interest by the contesting groups.
This is what is taking place now in Somalia after 13 years of hugely destructive civil war. Last month the warring parties formed a Parliament that represents virtually all of them. Now that Parliament has chosen a president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a former army commander who has led the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland.
On the face of it President Ahmed faces a truly daunting task. Central government ceased to exist after President Siad Barre was ousted in 1991 after 22 years of crack-pot “scientific socialist” policies. The subsequent fighting has wrecked much of the capital Mogadishu. Almost all government records and infrastructure have been destroyed. Though rivals clan leaders have signed up to the peace deal, the gunmen on the street have become used to a life of roadblock tolls and extortion. Thugs who are reluctant to give up a way of life where the Kalashnikov has been king may yet challenge the delicate new arrangements.
With no police, no judiciary and no civil servants, the coming months will be a considerable challenge. The new president will have to seek consensus for all his changes. Progress will be slow and there are likely to be setbacks. His former opponents will be watching carefully for any sign that he is seeking to establish his own position at their expense. On the face of it, there is every reason why the new arrangements could come unraveled. Four years ago warlords chose Abdulkassim Salat Hassan as a transitional president who was greeted in Mogadishu with wild celebrations. Within a year, however, the factional fighting had resumed when Hassan sought to assert his government’s tenuous authority. That fighting led to the breakaway of the former British-ruled Somaliland in the north whose leaders have not been party to the new Parliament and the choice of President Ahmed.
There seems little danger that Washington will risk a repeat of its humiliating failed military intervention in 1992. Somalis must be left to work out their own future, though this does not mean that outside countries, including the UN and members of the Arab League which Somalia joined in 1974 should not offer every other type of assistance. One of the remarkable circumstances of the long years of chaos has been the triumph of the Somali commercial genius. From the corrupt and bungling command economy of Siad Barre the country has been plunged into a completely unregulated free market. Though many people, especially those who have fled to the shanties of the capital from rural violence live in poverty, most goods and services are readily available from private businesses, often funded from the million Somalis who have fled abroad. The basis for recovery, therefore, exists if only the peace can survive.
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
Posted on Wednesday 13th October at 10:41:02 Envoy Optimistic About a Better Somalia
SOMALIA's Ambassador to Zambia Omar Umal says priorities of the new government in his country are to restore peace and order and to rebuild infrastructure that has crumbled over the last 13 years of protracted civil strife.
Dr Umal said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the election of a new president and formation of a national government would put the country back on its feet and enable it to take its rightful place on international fora.
He said Somalia was among the richest in terms of natural resources, as it was endowed with huge oil and natural gas reserves discovered by two American oil companies under exploration agreements signed with former president Siad Barre.
Dr Umal said the exploration agreements could not be activated as they coincided with the 1991 coup in which President Barre was ousted.
He said Somalia was also endowed with minerals like iron and uranium, and that it had the longest coast line on the African continent with potential to produce a lot of fish.
The country also had potential to export huge quantities of livestock to the Arab region especially during the Islamic pilgrimage festivals.
The arable land and the two perennial rivers of Vebi Shabelli and Juba have potential to support a population of 350 million against the Somali population of only 14 million," he said.
In yesterday's elections by the 275 parliamentarians, leader of the interim government Abdukassim Salad Hassan lost to Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who had a constitutional responsibility to appoint a prime minister who would in turn form a national government.
Copyright © 2004 The Times of Zambia.
Posted on Wednesday 13th October at 10:33:00 Mogadishu Nun Speaks Of Optimism In Somalia
An Italian missionary nun in Somalia sas reported that the locals in the Somalian "capital" Mogadishu are treating this week's political negotiations in Nairobi as a "miracle".
Newly elected Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has vowed to work hard to restore peace and a government to his war-torn country. His appointment followed negotiations between warring factions in the hitherto ungovernable country.
Sr Marzia Feurra told the MISNA news agency: "Already on Sunday, walking through Mogadishu men and women could be seen in huts listening to small radios to hear what was happening in Kenya; everyone was talking about it, everyone wanted to know and were waiting for the news that then arrived".
"What occurred in Nairobi is a miracle", she said.
Sr Marzia is the superior of the small Consolata missionary community, which runs a hospital, an orphanage and a school.
"We have faced many difficult moments, in which everyone told us to leave the nation," she said. "We would always look at each other and ask which of us had the courage to leave these people.
Many fled Somalia in 1991, when the fall of the dictator Siad Barre gave way to the chaos dominated by the warlords and battles for control of the territory and wealth of the nation. Others escaped in 1994, when the Restore Hope UN military mission that was supposed to restore order, withdrew leaving the nation in the same state it found it in, causing many to define it as a failure.
Posted on Wednesday 13th October at 10:31:34 A Herculean Task Faces New President
Political observers have welcomed the election of a new president for Somalia - but warned that stiff challenges lie ahead for the war-torn East African country.
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a 72-year-old former army colonel, was voted into office by 270 of the 275 members of the recently-inaugurated Somali parliament. The poll took place at the Kasarani Sports Complex in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, as it was not considered safe to hold elections in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
An initial field of 28 candidates was whittled down in two rounds of voting, leaving Yusuf to contest the final round with Abdullahi Ahmed Addow, a former minister of finance. Yusuf won with 189 votes against the 79 cast for Addow, and will serve for a five-year term.
Other candidates who were defeated or pulled out included Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, president of a transitional government for Somalia that was set up in 2000, in Djibouti. Given a three-year mandate, Hassan's administration had little success in establishing control beyond certain areas of Mogadishu.
Asha Ahmed Abdalla, the first female presidential candidate in the history of Somalia, and Hussein Aideed, an influential faction leader in Mogadishu, also contested the poll - which was observed by regional foreign affairs ministers and members of the diplomatic corps, among others.
By the time parliamentary speaker Shariff Hassan Sheikh Aden was ready to announce the name of Somalia's president late Sunday night, the Kasarani complex was filled to capacity with a 4,000-strong crowd.
Waving Somali flags, those present burst into song and dance and cheered wildly as the president-elect walked to the front of the hall to be received by dignitaries. However, silence descended over the crowd as Somalia's national anthem was played, and a Kenyan police officer raised the Somali flag.
"I promise I will do my best to reconcile the Somalis and restore order in our country once and for all," Yusuf said in his acceptance speech.
The new president assumes leadership of a country that has not known central government since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown. In the civil war that ensued, faction leaders divided Somalia into numerous fiefdoms that they have been reluctant to relinquish control of.
A region in the north-west of the country, Somaliland, broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991 - and refused to participate in talks to re-establish central government in the country. In May 2001, residents of the territory voted in support of Somaliland's self-declared independence.
The northern Puntland region, in its turn, declared itself autonomous in 1998, under the leadership of Yusuf.
Statistics compiled by aid organisations indicate that fighting between rival faction leaders - and the disease and famine which the civil war made Somalis vulnerable to - have claimed about one million lives. About two million people have fled the country.
According to the United Nations, about five billion dollars will be needed to rebuild Somalia.
"I will not only be president by name for five years, but will seek to achieve what I was elected for, that is reconstruction of Somalia by building infrastructure. This, I am calling on the international community to help us (with) - to walk with us," Yusuf said after his victory.
Khaleef Hassan, a political commentator, told IPS Sunday that a truth and reconciliation commission should also be set up to investigate human rights abuses in Somalia during the past years of lawlessness.
"Reconciliation is necessary. People were hurt, and they need to be told why whoever committed the ills did so, for them to heal and forgive," said Hassan. "This commission must involve neighbouring countries to monitor how hearings are being conducted, to ensure transparency."
He added that the commission would need to be far-reaching in scope: "The reconciliation process must be at national level, district level and village level to ensure that every person - even the grass roots populations - participate in the process."
Perhaps even more pressing is the thorny issue of disarming militants in Somalia.
Faction members in the country are believed to be in possession of thousands of weapons which often find their way into Kenya - posing a security risk to that country.
Speaking at a conference in April this year where a protocol on small arms reduction was signed, Kenyan Former Affairs Minister Kalonzo Musyoka said that an estimated 60,000 illegal firearms had filtered into Kenya from Somalia.
Candidates in Sunday's poll were reportedly obliged to sign a declaration in which they promised to surrender arms in the possession of their followers. The importance of disarmament was also highlighted by Yusuf.
"I assure you that I will establish the remaining organs of the government, and straight away embark on a disarmament process, with the help of the international community," he told those at the Kasarani complex.
Yusuf is expected to be sworn in on Oct. 14 in Nairobi, after which he will appoint a prime minister - who will select a cabinet.
Sunday's poll is the result of a peace process that began in Kenya in 2002 under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development - a regional organisation that comprises Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Eritrea and Djibouti.
A ceasefire for Somalia was signed in October 2002, and a charter stipulating how the country's new government will function endorsed early this year. The parliament, a transitional body, was formed in August along clan lines. Tribal groupings are also expected to influence key government appointments.
Somalia's new prime minister is expected to come from the Hawiye clan, for example, as this group has traditionally controlled either the president or head of government's office. Other important clans include the Digle-Mirifle, Dir and Darod.
Copyright © 2004 Inter Press Service.
Posted on Tuesday 12th October at 16:41:47 Somaliland Warns Somalia's Leader
The breakaway republic of Somaliland has said it will use force if its borders are threatened after the election of Somalia's new president.
Abdullahi Yusuf was elected on Sunday to head Somalia's first government after 13 years of civil war.
Somaliland, which has declared its independence, is fiercely opposed to Mr Abdullahi who claims two regions within Somaliland belong to Somalia.
But Mr Abdullahi has urged reconciliation and forgiveness.
Gun prices fall
"I have no grudge against anybody, but I will seek their cooperation, they should work with me so that we help the Somali people to get out of the fiasco and quagmire that they are in," Mr Abdullahi said at a press conference with Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki.
Mr Kibaki offered his support to Somalia's new president and urged Somalis to "join hands in accomplishing the task of restoring peace", Reuters news agency reports.
The United Nations and other neighbouring states have also welcomed the election of Mr Abdullahi - including Ethiopia, a close ally of his.
"It's a very welcome step and we're happy to work with this government," Ethiopia's Information Minister Bereket Simmon told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
At home, the price of guns in the capital Mogadishu has halved as a result of Mr Abdullahi's election.
According to the BBC's Daud Aweiss in Mogadishu, an AK-47 which last week cost $700 is now available for between $300-$350, as arms dealers anticipate a ban on weapons.
They want to clear their stocks before a new government attempts to bring law and order to a city run by warlords for over a decade, our correspondent says.
Warning
But in Somaliland, independent for 13 years but without any international recognition, the election of Mr Adullahi has not been well received.
The region has refused to participate in the peace process in neighbouring Kenya and has reiterated its sovereignty.
"We remind all concerned that the government and the president elected in Kenya is for Somalia and not Somaliland," Information Minister Abdillahi Mohamed Du'ale said in a statement.
According to the BBC's Husein Ali Nuur in Hargeisa, the Somaliland government has urged the international community to find a solution to the problem of Somaliland before there is any confrontation.
"The people of Somaliland and its government are ready to confront any enemy that tries to violate its borders and territory with force," Mr Du'ale said.
Before his election, Mr Abdullahi was president of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.
Both Puntland and Somaliland claim the border regions of Sool and Sanaag and clashed over the territory last month.
Meanwhile, Puntland's former vice-president, Mohammed Abdi Haashi, has been sworn as president of the region.
He has promised to work with the proposed new Somali government.
Posted on Tuesday 12th October at 16:38:47 Long On Foes, New Somali Leader Now Needs Friends
NAIROBI, Oct 11 (Reuters) - If military muscle was the way to win real power in Somalia, the job of the failed state's new warlord-turned-president would not be nearly so tricky.
But Abdullahi Yusuf will need more than guns to extend his authority: he must also learn diplomatic deal-making skills to build alliances among Somalia's fractious clans, analysts say.
The trouble is that, Yusuf, a military strongman intolerant of diverse opinion, has never shown much flair for making friends among Somalia's argumentative militia barons, they say.
"If there is any one of my colleagues with whom I have contested the election who has anything against me, (I ask them) to forgive me," he said on Monday, a day after lawmakers elected him executive head of state at a gathering in Kenya.
"I have no grudge ... I seek their cooperation so we can help the Somali people out of the quagmire."
Yusuf now has the task of stabilising the lawless country which descended into anarchy 13 years ago and is seen by the United States as a haven for terrorists.
But his turbulent past may be a burden.
An example is his friendship and military alliance with Ethiopia, the region's top military power; another potential handicap is his staunch support for Washington's war on terror.
If he relies overtly on his relationship with Addis Ababa, he may simply antagonise Muslim Somalis, generally hostile towards what they see as attempts by their huge, nominally Christian-led neighbour to dictate events in the region, experts say.
"He must stretch out his hand to those who opposed him for a long time," said analyst Said Abdullah Saleh. "To get Mogadishu's support, he has to show he is ready to share power."
Matt Bryden, an International Crisis Group analyst, said Yusuf would fail if he projected himself as a strongman.
"If he falls back on his anti-terror credentials and his external backing, without building a consensus at home, then it's not going to work ... But if he really does start to look like a conciliator, going beyond merely appointing rivals to his cabinet, then this will have a chance."
FEUDING CLANS
Uneasiness over his election was quick to surface.
In the capital Mogadishu, a radical Islamist gave a strongly-qualified welcome to the news.
"We are ready to welcome the elected president if he stops continuing to behave in a way we have been hearing about -- such as hating some members of society," said Hassan Dahir Aweis, referring to Yusuf's dislike for militant Islamist groups.
Aweis, who recently resurfaced in Somalia after vanishing amid heightened U.S. scrutiny after the Sept. 11 attacks, once led a Somali group Yusuf suspects is an arm of al Qaeda.
Aweis is also deputy head of an administrative umbrella group supervising Mogadishu's sharia courts, institutions which Yusuf must work with, at least initially, as they are the city's only form of organised justice apart from customary clan law.
U.S. investigators suspect Somalia served as a base for al Qaeda bombers who struck at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya in 2002.
Another potential complication is Yusuf's clan affiliation -- he is a Darod, one of Somalia's four big clans.
While he is expected to choose a prime minister from the Hawiye, the dominant clan in Mogadishu, the move is unlikely to help resolve a host of old clan feuds and property disputes between the Darod and the Hawiye in Mogadishu and elsewhere.
Yusuf, long the political boss of a self-declared enclave called Puntland, also has enemies in the neighbouring territory of Somaliland. Puntland and Somaliland have fought sporadic clashes for years over several eastern areas of Somaliland that Puntland's leaders claim as their own on the basis of ethnicity. (Additional reporting by Bryson Hull and Ross Colvin)
By William Maclean
Posted on Monday 11th October at 21:10:45 Cheer and Fear In Somali Capital
There has been a mixed reaction in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to the election of a new president following 13 years of war.
Some are delighted with the election of Abdullahi Yusuf, seeing him as a strongman who can bring law and order.
But a huge rally which had been called in celebration has been cancelled due to security concerns.
Mr Yusuf was chosen by members of the interim parliament in Kenya, because Somalia was considered to be unsafe.
After he was announced the victor of the elections, his supporters in his home area of Puntland took to the streets to celebrate.
But the BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says that some residents are afraid that disappointed warlords might start fighting.
Thousands of people in Somalia watched the election live on television or listened on their radios.
'Armed militias'
Some fired their guns in the air to celebrate his victory and there were loud cheers in the Nairobi sport stadium where the election was held when the results were declared.
"This is a wonderful day for our region, a wonderful day for the people of Somalia," said the chief mediator in the talks, Bethwel Kiplagat.
But he warned that a lot of hard work was still needed to rebuild the shattered country.
"People should not see this as an end but as the beginning of a greater task ahead of us," he said.
Businesswoman Asha Alasow, who had been a staunch supporter of a Mogadishu warlord, welcomed Mr Yusuf's election.
She said that the years of division had led to "nothing but destruction".
Sixty-eight year-old Abdi Mohamed Igal said that after all the fighting, he would support whoever was elected.
But another Mogadishu resident, Abdi Awkombe, will not be happy until guns disappear from the streets.
"There are still armed militias... so it would be very difficult for the ordinary people in Mogadishu to express their feeling in public," he said.
Clear winner
After two rounds of voting and three voluntary withdrawals, the field was narrowed down from 28 to just two candidates.
Abdullahi Yusuf, a military strongman and president of the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland, went head-to-head with Abdullahi Adow, a financier and former ambassador to Washington.
After the final third round, Abdullahi Yusuf emerged the winner by securing 189 votes against 79 for his run-off rival.
Mr Adow immediately backed the victor.
"The right man had been elected to be president of Somalia," he said.
"I know him from a long long time and I am confident that he will fulfil the trust the Somalis have put in him," he said.
Decade of chaos
The 275 MPs, most of them clan leaders and warlords, had earlier queued to go through metal detectors and enter Nairobi's Kasarani Sports Centre Gymnasium.
The new president's first job will be to choose a prime minister, our correspondent says.
In faction and clan-ridden Somalia, this decision will be made after considerable horse-trading, much of which has been going on in the corridors and backrooms of the sports hall.
Abdullahi Yusuf is not expected to return to Somalia for at least two months, our correspondent says.
The stadium was packed while thousands more Somalis gathered outside where heavily armed Kenyan police were patrolling the venue.
Somalis are hoping that a new administration under a new president and prime minister will set them on the road to peace and stability.
But optimism is tempered by the knowledge that there have been numerous failed attempts to restore stability, correspondents say.
Somalia descended into chaos as rival militias tore the country apart after the military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown.
Many of the two million Somalis who fled became refugees in neighbouring countries.
Posted on Monday 11th October at 16:51:28 Annan Pledges UN's Backing for New President of Somalia
Culminating a two-year negotiation process, Abdullahi Yusuf has been elected as the transitional president of Somalia a move welcomed today by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who pledged the world body's full support for efforts to promote stability in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
In a statement released by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said he considers Mr. Yusuf's election by the Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia during a meeting on Sunday in Kenya to be "another important step toward the re-establishment of peace and stability in Somalia."
He also looked forward to "the formation, in the near future, of a Transitional Federal Government capable of beginning reconciliation and reconstruction in a spirit of consensus and dialogue."
Through his spokesman, the Secretary-General reiterated the UN's readiness "to do its utmost to support the return of normalcy and good governance in Somalia" and urged all Somalis to "be part of the effort to restore peace and security in their country."
The statement also commended the efforts of those involved in the negotiation process, particularly Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, his Government as well as other members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Posted on Monday 11th October at 16:43:11 "Door Is Closed" On Somalia Somaliland Talks
afrol News, 11 October - Somaliland opposition leader Faisal Ali Waraabe predicts a new cycle of war and instability in Somalia and Somaliland after the election of warlord Abdullahi Yusuf as Somalia's new President. Mr Yusuf's militias are occupying parts of Somaliland and Mr Waraabe rules out talks between Somaliland and President Yusuf of Somalia.
Mr Waraabe, leader of Somaliland's opposition Justice and Welfare Party (JWP), told afrol News today that yesterday's election of Mr Yusuf spelled yet "another tragedy for Somalia." President-elect Yusuf was unfit to head Somalia out of its 13-year-old crisis and instability, said the Somalilander opposition leader.
Mr Yusuf is currently the President of autonomous Puntland in north-eastern Somalia, bordering the self-declared republic of Somaliland. From the Puntland capital, Bossaso, Mr Yusuf has led an occupation of the Somalilander town Las Aanod and tried to conquer a part of the Sanaag province in eastern Somaliland. Yesterday, a majority of Somalia's MPs gathered in Nairobi elected Mr Yusuf for a five-year-term as the country's new interim President.
- Mr Yusuf represents a minority group in Bossaso, Mr Waraabe says, "and he has a very bad reputation both in Somalia and in Somaliland." According to the Somalilander opposition leader, President Yusuf "is a clan-minded man, as illustrated by his attempt to create a so-called Hartiland." Hartiland refers to the Harti sub-clan of the Darod clan, to which Mr Yusuf belongs, and his attempts to unify the Harti in Puntland and in Somaliland's Sool and Sanaag provinces.
Mr Waraabe predicts new confrontations in Somalia and at Somaliland's border. "How can he be the President of Somalia when all he talks about is clans," the JWP leader asks, saying there will now be a "new cycle of war" in Somalia. Also Somalia's southern clan leaders are expected to oppose President Yusuf's expected attempts to create a unified Somalia.
- We will never talk with him, Mr Waraabe told afrol News, regarding the possibility of negotiating a peace between Somalia and Somaliland. "His election means the end of all talks. The door is closed," he added, saying this means that the 14th attempt of an all-Somali reconciliation already has failed.
Somaliland is a former British colony that gained independence in 1960 and united with former Italian Somalia few days after independence. After the bloody Siad Barre regime was ousted in 1991, Somaliland unilaterally dissolved the 1960 union and has since created a full-fledged state where peace, stability and rule of law is established. No country has however recognised Somaliland and authorities in Hargeisa now fear that Mr Yusuf's new government officially will represent also Somaliland's territory in the UN.
Mr Waraabe and the JWP's third leader Amina Warsame are currently on a roundtrip in Scandinavia to present a joint letter by Somaliland's parties, declaring the position of Somaliland on the Somali conference in Nairobi. In Denmark and Norway, the Somalilander delegation has sought support for its pledge not letting Somalia's upcoming government represent Somaliland in the UN.
While Mr Waraabe did not get any guarantees in Danish and Norwegian government offices, his delegation was promised that the Scandinavian countries would do nothing to jeopardise Somaliland's peace and democratisation process. "If the South [Somalia] disturbs the processes in Somaliland, they will stop the aid flow," Mr Waraabe had been told.
Norway and Denmark also supported the EU' position, which according to the JWP leader is "that the new [Somali] government will be confined to the South." European countries would not accept Somali attempts to violently seek power over Somaliland. "The Norwegian and Danish governments understand our position," Mr Waraabe said. Tomorrow, the Somalilander delegation will meet officials at the Swedish Prime Minister's and Foreign Minister's offices.
Posted on Monday 11th October at 16:42:14 President-elect Vows To Bring Stability To Somalia
NAIROBI, Oct. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, newly-elected president of Somalia vowed here Sunday that he will make all-out efforts to restore stability in his war-ravaged country.
While addressing the 275-member transitional parliament and regional foreign affairs ministers who observed the vote, Yusuf said "I am pleased to have the honor of serving Somalis again. I am informing you tonight that I will do my best to reconcile Somalia and bring peace and stability to our country."
The president-elect also calls on the international community tohelp Somalis rebuild their country.
"I promise you to construct a central government as soon as possible and urge the international community to stand by us in rebuilding Somalia," Yusuf said.
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, leader of the Barod clan, one of the four major clans of Somalia, was elected president of Somalia, on Sunday in Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The presidential race is taking place in Kenya because of insecurity in Somalia, where many militias are undisciplined and the country is divided up into fiefdoms controlled by warlords.
It is part of the final stage of a peace process that has been going on in Kenya for two years, aimed at ending a 13-year war in Somalia that has seen thousands of people killed.
This latest poll follows 13 earlier attempts to bring peace to Somalia which has had no government since 1991. That year warlordsoverthrew Mohammed Siad Barre and then turned their guns on each other, dividing the country of about 7 million people into fiefdoms.
Under the auspices of the Inter-Government Authority on Development, which groups Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia, Somali National Reconciliation Conference began in October 2002 in Kenya.
The presidential elections come after the election of the speaker of the transitional federal parliament of Somalia on Sept.15 and his two deputies on Sept. 22 and the inauguration of the transitional parliament on Aug. 29.
The president will nominate Somalia's prime minister to form a government. Enditem
Posted on Monday 11th October at 14:29:02 Somalia's New President Gets Mixed Welcome
afrol News, 11 October - Abdullahi Yusuf has been elected the new President of Somalia by the warlords' parliament in Kenya. President Yusuf, himself a warlord and leader of the autonomous Puntland region, was hailed by the Somali MPs but described as a "war criminal" and "dictator" by others. Somaliland fears renewed tension after Mr Yusuf's election.
Somalia's MPs, still united in Nairobi, yesterday elected the country's first President since the 1991 ousting of military dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. From 26 presidential candidates, the Puntland strongman after several hours emerged as the man able to gather a majority support from the 275 MPs.
The 69-year-old was given 189 votes at the Nairobi election. Somalia's President-elect used his first speech to appeal for more international aid "to reconcile Somalis to bring back peace and security and revive the country."
Mr Yusuf is expected to head a transitional federal government as soon as he and the parliament have returned to Mogadishu. Their main challenges will be the reestablishment of peace, security and nation-wide institutions. The new government, which will take up Somalia's empty seat in the UN, has five years to write a new constitution and prepare for elections, according to the current peace and reconciliation plan.
The new Somali President has been a key player in Somalia for over a decade. He participated in ousting Dictator Barre in 1991. Based in Ethiopia and receiving Ethiopian aid, Mr Yusuf already in the 1980s formed one of Somalia's first armed factions, the Somali Salvation Democratic Front. Since that, Mr Yusuf has been one of Somalia's most influential warlords.
In 1998, Mr Yusuf participated in the creation of the Puntland proto-state in north-eastern Somalia. The government set up in Bossaso assured relative peace and stability in the large territory it controlled, but pledged to reunite with Somalia when peace had come.
While being Puntland's military President, Mr Yusuf however earned a reputation of not respecting democratic ground rules. His Puntland administration is accused of poor transparency and embezzling public funds while the population currently is suffering from the worst regional drought in decades. Political conflicts in Puntland were regularly solved by turning to arms.
Mr Yusuf's Puntland is also the only Somali authority that seriously has threatened the neighbouring self-declared republic of Somaliland, a former British colony that has been independent and peaceful since 1991 but yet has to be recognised by the international community. Puntland troops are occupying a small part of eastern Somaliland; as defined by the border between former British Somaliland and Italian Somalia.
In the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, the election of Mr Yusuf as Somalia's new President therefore has come as a bad omen. Here, Mr Yusuf is denounced as a war criminal and dictator aiming at destabilising Somaliland. It is feared that President Yusuf's Somalia now will make even greater efforts to destabilise Somaliland by military operations.
Somaliland authorities so far have chosen to keep a low profile in the military conflict with Puntland, even allowing Puntland troops to maintain control of some of the villages claimed by the two parties. While Hargeisa claims to have enough troops and resources to oust President Yusuf's militia, authorities say maintaining peace and stability currently is more important. This may however change if Mr Yusuf's men are to become the Somali army.
Posted on Monday 11th October at 14:26:31 Highest Court To Rule On Somali
Win or lose, Keyse Jama may finally get out of jail.
He could walk out a relatively free man for the first time in more than five years. Or immigration officials could put him on a plane to return him to his native Somalia.
The fate of the 25-year-old refugee, awaiting deportation because of a third-degree assault conviction in Hennepin County, is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, justices will hear arguments in Jama's lawsuit challenging the government's authority to return him to Somalia while his war-torn homeland has no central government to accept him. A ruling may come in two or three months.
The closely watched case has drawn the attention of thousands of Somalis who had fled their country's civil war and fear for their safety if forced to return before a stable government is in place. The government, meanwhile, contends that the inability to deport criminal aliens to Somalia is a concern in light of reports that the chaotic nation could be a haven for terrorists.
"We are grateful for the hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court," Ahmed Muse, Jama's uncle, said during an interview at the Otanga grocery he and four partners own in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis, home to many Somalis in a metropolitan area that is believed to have the country's largest concentration. "He's a little boy coming from a Third World country, before the highest court in the country. Even if he doesn't win, that's OK for us. But we would like him to win."
So would 3,400 Somalis also awaiting deportation across the country and 4,850 others in removal proceedings, according to numbers contained in a brief the Department of Justice submitted to the Supreme Court. For now, a nationwide stay prevents the government from removing anyone to lawless Somalia. A federal judge in Seattle ordered the ban on Somali deportations on the same grounds Jama's lawyers raised in persuading U.S. District Court Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis to block his removal.
FEARS FOR HIS LIFE
Advocates fear that thousands of Somalis would be forced to return to their East African homeland if justices rule against Jama and effectively end the stay. If he prevails, Jama and others facing deportation would not have to go until the country has a stable, functioning government that can accept them. In that event, Jama and the handful of other Somalis still in detention probably would get their release relatively quickly.
A Department of Justice lawyer who has been handling Jama's case declined to comment because the matter is pending. Jama is represented by volunteer lawyers from the Minneapolis firm of Briggs and Morgan and by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, a nonprofit organization.
Jama has been in jail since his assault arrest in June 1999. The government began removal proceedings while he was serving a one-year sentence. Immigration officials have kept him in detention as he has pursued his challenge up to the Supreme Court. The time behind bars has not been easy on Jama, who was 12 when civil war broke out in Somalia in 1991. His family fled to Kenya and resettled in this country in 1996.
"I'm dying here, judge," Jama said, speaking from jail during a hearing last October that took place by conference call, according to a transcript.
Jama, who cried during the proceeding, told the judge he had considered giving up and letting the government deport him. But his chances in Somalia were not good. In the part of Somalia where the government intended to send him, a "butcher land" unfriendly to his clan, "there is no question I will be killed," he said. In the region where he asked to go if he consented to deportation, he put the odds of having his life spared at 50-50.
A HOUSEHOLD NAME
His willingness to see the case through despite his continued detention has won Jama support from Somalis throughout the country. Reports about his case in Somali newspapers and on Somali TV shows have made him a household name in refugee communities in the Twin Cities, Seattle, Atlanta and elsewhere. Some have sent money, $5 or $10 at a time, to help Jama buy items while in jail or to start a new life should he win release or to buy his safety should he end up in Somalia, said attorney Kevin Magnuson, who is representing Jama with fellow attorney Jeffrey Keyes.
"Keyse has gained some stature as he has stayed with this, that he is willing to sacrifice for himself and for others to stay in this country," said Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, a nonprofit assistance organization. "It's a really difficult thing to stay in prison, to lose their freedom for that long. Another factor is, Somalia is an unstable country. If he goes back, it's way too dangerous. He could be robbed, kidnapped or killed."
Muse, Jama's uncle, said he and other relatives have encouraged Jama to stay put. "We know the Somalia," Muse said. "Better the jail than Somalia."
His nephew's troubles began when he left his father's home after a dispute with his stepmother and moved in with some friends. Jama, who has since undergone treatment, began drinking alcohol, which is forbidden by his Muslim religion, then started abusing it. He was drunk when he got into the fight that landed him in jail.
"He tells me he is sorry about his mistakes," Muse said. "He knows now it's important to obey the law. If they release him, he told me he would educate the young Somali people, to tell them to stay away from trouble, that little crimes can get you into jail for many years."
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case to resolve a split between the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had overruled Tunheim's decision blocking Jama's deportation, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the ruling of the federal judge in Seattle who imposed the nationwide stay on Somali removals.
Jama's lawyers argue that federal immigration law requires the United States to get the acceptance of another country before it can return one of its citizens.
Lawyers for the Justice Department contend that the law authorizes the government to deport Jama to Somalia, where he was born, regardless of whether that country has a working government.
Even as justices hear arguments in the Jama case, legislation that would give the government authority to deport someone as long as it does not encounter resistance in the destination country could be in a conference committee in Congress, Magnuson said.
"They're taking a removal statute designed to balance the interests of the alien, the receiving country and the United States and really trying to turn it into an expulsion statute," Magnuson said.
BY TODD NELSON
Pioneer Press
Posted on Monday 11th October at 14:25:29 Profile: Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf
The Somali parliament has chosen a new president, in the first tentative step towards forming a government after 13 years of civil war.
He is Abdullahi Yusuf, 69, a powerful warlord and president of the Somali semi-autonomous region of Puntland.
A soldier by profession, he was once a senior officer in the Somali armed forces under Somali dictator Siad Barre in the 1970s.
He refused to co-operate with the military rulers and rejected an offer of a diplomatic posting.
His plot to overthrow President Barre in April 1978 failed and he was forced to flee the country to Ethiopia.
From there he started a jungle war and continued his bid to unseat Barre.
He is a member of the Ethiopian-backed Somali Reconstruction and Restoration Council (SRRC) - a loose coalition of opposition warlords, which was the main challenge to the TNG.
From one of the six major clans - the Darood - his approach to leadership is thought to be authoritarian and he is said to have strong support from the Ethiopian government for his presidential bid.
Posted on Sunday 10th October at 21:33:17 Abdullahi Yusuf Elected As Somali President
NAIROBI, Oct. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, leader of the Barod clan, one of the four major clans of Somalia, was elected president of Somalia, parliament speaker Shariff Hassan Shek Adan announced here Sunday.
Yusuf, also leader of the autonomous Somali region of Puntland,obtained 189 votes in the runoff of the Horn of Africa nation's presidential poll. His rival, Abdullahi Ahmed Addou, former Somaliambassador to Washington and then finance minister, gained 79 votes.
Five lawmakers of Somalia's 275-member Transitional National Assembly didn't vote in the runoff while two votes were declared vain.
According to election organizers, in the likely event of no candidate obtaining more than two-thirds of the ballot, the top six runners will go to a second round. If none of them gains a two-thirds majority, the two leading candidates will face off in a third round, on a simple majority basis.
Yusuf, 71, has been tipped by diplomats, regional analysts to win the elections. Yusuf established the regional administration of Puntland in 1998 with a presidency and a single-chamber quasi legislature known as the Council of Elders. Political parties are banned.
One analyst who observed the election held here on Sunday in Kenyan capital Nairobi, said Yusuf's winning shows that clans are still major players in Somali politics.
"There are a lot of lobbying among the major clans in Somalia --clans influence determines the outcome of the election," Abdul Rahman Osman, a Somali scholar, told Xinhua at the voting site.
Members of Somalia's Transitional National Assembly were sworn in in August in Nairobi, with each of Somalia's four major clans allocated 61 seats in the parliament, while an alliance of minority clans was awarded 31.
Maj. Gen. Muhammad Siad Barre, former leader of Somalia who wastoppled in 1991, also came from Barod clan.
Lawmaker Ahmed Bhmbil thinks Yusuf's winning also means that Mogadishu needs new face.
"There are a lot of problems currently in Mogadishu. To end them means someone from outside Mogadishu to bring new blood of leadership in the region." Bhmbil told Xinhua.
Somali lawmakers started voting for president of Somalia on Sunday in Nairobi.
A total of 28 contestants including a woman competed for the presidency in what is widely seen as the culmination of a tortuoustwo-year peace process in Kenya, mediated by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
However, two presidential aspirants withdrew from the contest at the last minute, leaving 26 candidates to take an oath binding them to abide by whatever results from the voting.
Since a first ballot failed to give any candidate the two-thirds majority required for an outright victory, six top runners were qualified to go to the second round. However, the last three have decided to withdraw from the second round.
Yusuf Ahmed gained 147 votes in the second round of the race, while Ahmed Addou gained 83 votes. The other candidate Jama Barre,half-brother of Mohammed Siad Barre, gained only 38 votes.
Since the breakdown of the Somali central government in 1991, conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people, plunging the country into anarchy.
Under the auspices of IGAD, which groups Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia, Somali National Reconciliation Conference began in October 2002 in Kenya.
The presidential elections come after the election of the speaker of the transitional federal parliament of Somalia on Sept.15 and his two deputies on Sept. 22 and the inauguration of the transitional parliament on Aug. 29. Enditem
Posted on Sunday 10th October at 21:27:27 Aideed Man Leads In Somalia Polls
Abdillahi Yusuf Ahmed was last night ahead in the Somalia Presidential elections held in Nairobi yesterday.
Provisional results placed him first among the final three candidates but he was set to battle it out with Abdillahi Ahmed Addou’s in the final round.
Ahmed garnered 147 votes against Addou’s 83 votes and Mohammed Qanyare Afra’s 37.
The three made it to the last round of the voting after 23 other contenders were either eliminated or dropped out in the first two rounds of the elections at the Kasarani gymnasium, witnessed by about 6,000 people.
The elections are a culmination of two years of a protracted peace process brokered by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
Delegates to the Somali Reconciliation Conference formed the transitional federal parliament in August. Last month, the 275-member parliament elected a speaker.
Once the President is sworn in, he will be given time to choose members of his Cabinet, according to Kenyan officials leading the peace process.
For the last 13 years, Somalia has been without a central government, following the overthrow of President Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
Ahmed recently took power in Puntland, the autonomous state in north-eastern Somalia established in 1998. He also served in the Barre regime as ambassador to the US for 10 years.
After the first round of the voting 20 out of the 26 presidential candidates were knocked out, leaving six contenders to proceed to the next round.
Those who made it to the second round were Abdullahi Yusuf with 80 votes, Abdullahi Ahmed Ado, 35, Mohammed Qanyare Afra, 33, Abdullahaman Jamma Barre, 18, Abdikassim Salat Hassan, 16, and Mohammed Hassan Ado, 14.
The second round was necessitated by failure of any of the candidates to garner the requisite two-thirds majority from the 268 Somali MPs present.
As the poll kicked off, two contenders, Jamma Ali Jamma and Hassan Mohammed Noor, pulled out.
All the candidates had to take an oath committing themselves to support the winner, surrender arms and also disarm their militias.
Security at the Kasarani gymnasium was tight with a combined force of GSU, regular, Administration Police and others in plain clothes vetting all those entering the venue
Voting was delayed for four hours and the first round went on until around 3pm. The only woman candidate in the race, Asha Haji Abdallah, managed a paltry two votes and was eliminated.
Posted on Saturday 9th October at 21:32:03 Somalia's Parliament: A Day In The Life
There is no pomp or ceremony here at Somalia's parliament in exile. No sight of a coat of arms or a sergeant-at-arms. Everything is simple.
In fact, the Somali parliament sitting in the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, could easily pass for a noisy classroom in any part of Africa, except perhaps for the advancing age and sometimes menacing beards of some of the honourable MPs.
Here, on land sandwiched between the city of Nairobi and a national park teeming with wildlife, is where 275 MPs drawn from warring clans plan to elect a new Somali president on Sunday - from 28 candidates, after almost 14 years of anarchy and bloodshed.
'Hostile'
Forget about horse-drawn carriages or a fleet of slick cars, or Mogadishu's armed pick-ups.
Royalty or warlordism is tolerated only under sufferance here.
So loud Somali music blares from buses and taxis dropping off the members of parliament outside this 56-year-old college of higher learning, known as the Kenya School of Communication and Technology.
And on the way to the house, there is always time for a quick chew of khat, a mild narcotic plant.
Inside the conference hall, the session is a hopelessly ad hoc affair.
A quick survey reveals that the separate fiefdoms back home are here too, and the rows of seats separating them serve as a metaphor for what has happened to their country.
There is very little eye contact between warlords, certainly no handshakes as they take their seats.
"They are still hostile to one another," says Hussein Aideed, a former US marine and one of Mogadishu's main faction leaders.
"The situation in the parliament is still tense because there is no trust.
"The trust was broken when I was seven years old in 1969 after a military coup in which the then president was assassinated."
Cacophony
Presidential candidates square off in this steamy makeshift parliament.
Clapping and cheers, and then a booming laugh from one of the candidates followed by a bark of pleasure from the audience that is simultaneously hearty and ironic.
But the shrieking shout of a warlord and the speech of an angry MP brings the house down to earth - to the reality of war-torn Somalia.
Here, the old is very old, and the new, very new in the new battle between high-tech and traditions.
For example, the clash of prayers and mobile phone ring tones in the house.
Or the ring tones providing the new musical bed for the 44-year-old national anthem, which warring clans sing in unison for the first time in 13 years.
Colour and contrast is to be found in the dark suits worn by warlords and the traditional Somali robes worn by lesser mortals.
Strangely, Somali's future seems bright from here: no street fighters toting Kalashnikov assault rifles, and what might seem as an echo of the civil war in Somalia could just be a roar of a lone lion in the nearby Nairobi National Park.
Come the hour a new president is in place on Sunday, a new brighter chapter in Somali's sorry history will hopefully have begun.
By Gray Phombeah
BBC correspondent in Nairobi
Posted on Saturday 9th October at 15:30:38 3 Policemen Killed In Somaliland Road Crash
Mogadishu, Somalia, 10/08 - Three police officers were killed and four civilians sustained injuries in a road accident Thursday along the busy Berbera-Hargeisa highway in the self-declared Republic of Somaliland.
According to police sources in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland, the police officers died when their vehicle collided with a cargo truck that was leaving Hargeisa for Berbera.
The deceased were assigned to the Berbera regional police station.
Medical sources at Hargeisa General Hospital confirmed four people, including an eight-year-old girl, were seriously injured and have been admitted at the hospital.
© 1996-2003 Angop. All rights reserved.
Posted on Friday 8th October at 20:16:21 Somalia To Get New President On Sunday
After more than 10 years without an effective central government, Somalia is to get a new president on Sunday, when members of the recently inaugurated Somali parliament, which sits in the Kenyan capital, elect him in a sports stadium.
Among the 28 candidates is Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, who was elected president of the anarchic country's Transitional National Government in 2000 by a previous legislature, but who never managed to exert authority far beyond a few pockets of the battle-scarred capital, Mogadishu.
"My leadership was resisted by factions, armed by countries who don't want peace in Somalia, but if you elect me now in the presence of all factions, my government will task itself with rebuilding Somalia," Salat told the MPs on Thursday.
"I was unable to fulfill some of my duties, and apologise to the MPs, but promise an efficient political platform that will redevelop Somalia with the help of friendly countries," Salat added.
The goverment that will be formed by the prime minister, immediately appointed by the next president, will be the fourth of its kind to be set up outside Somalia by peace conferences since 1991, when the last central government the Horn of Africa country has known, led by dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, was toppled.
In 1991 warlord Ali Mahdi Mohamed, currently not active in politics, was nominated interim president by two peace parleys in Djibouti, while a lengthy conference, also held in Djibouti in 2000, produced a parliament that named Salat as an interim president for three years.
Sunday's election is the culmination of two difficult years of talks in Kenya, which differed from their predecessors in that they included most of the warlords who battled for control of various parts of Somalia since Barre's fall.
More than half of the original 60 presidential candidates dropped out of this race after a 2,000 dollar (1,600 euros) fee was demanded of potential runners.
"Gender equality would be my priority in order to promote democracy and harmony in the Somali society, where women are treated less well than they deserve, as the majority bread winners in Somalia today," the only woman runner, Asha Ahmed Abdalla, said this week.
Since under power-sharing deals the jobs of president and prime minister must be distributed between two of Somalia's four largest clans, the Hawiye and Darod, there are clear frontrunners in the race for the head of state.
As well as Salat (Hawiye), they are Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed (Darod), the current president of Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in the northeast; and former finance minister Abdullahi Mohamud Addow (Hawiye).
Several leaders of armed factions are also trying their luck: Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, Hussein Mohamed Aidid, Musa Sudi Yalahow, Mohamed Omar Habeb and Mohamed Hussein Addow. Each control pockets of Mogadishu.
Abdurahman Jama Barre, who served for many years in the ousted government of his half-brother Siad Barre, and wealthy businessman Sheikh Mohamed Yassin are also vying for the top seat.
The speaker of the new parliament, Sharif Hassan Aden, urged the presidential candidates "to campaign politely and avoid attacking each other."
The four major clans each have 61 MPs in the assembly while 31 seats are reserved for minorities.
The MPs will cast their votes by secret ballot on Sunday. In the likely event of no candidate winning more than two-thirds of the ballot, the top six runners will go to a second round and then, if none of them win a two-thirds majority, a third round will be held with just two candidates on a simple majority basis.
By Ali Musa Abdi - NAIROBI
Posted on Friday 8th October at 20:12:30 Presidential Candidates In Final Campaign Push
NAIROBI, 7 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - Somali presidential hopefuls campaigned among their fellow members of parliament on Thursday, the final opportunity for each of the candidates to drum up support in the assembly, which will vote to choose the president on Sunday.
Twenty-seven men and one woman are contesting the presidency in what is widely seen as the culmination of a tortuous two-year peace process in Kenya, mediated by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
Delegates to the Somali reconciliation conference formed the transitional federal parliament in August. The 275-member assembly last month elected a speaker, who will on Sunday preside over the election of the president at the Kasarani Sports Stadium in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The president will in turn appoint a prime minister mandated to form a government.
Once the federal government is fully constituted, it will move to Mogadishu, the Somalia capital, to embark on its challenging mandate of rehabilitation and the restoration of law and order in a country ravaged by factional warfare since 1991, when the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre was toppled.
Some of the better-known contestants include faction leaders Hussein Muhammad Aidid, Muhammad Qanyare Afrah, Musa Sudi Yalahow, Hassan Muhammad Nur, Abdullahi Yusuf, the president of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland and Abdulkassim Salad Hassan, the president of the Transitional National Government, an administration set up in 2000. The only woman candidate is Asha Ahmed Abdallah.
Posted on Thursday 7th October at 20:24:05 Somali Man Sentenced
A Ndola magistrate court yesterday sentenced a 47-year-old Somalian to five years imprisonment with hard labour, suspended for 36 months.
He was also fined K1.5 million, after he admitted to trafficking in 4.784 kg of khat, a psychotropic drug commonly known as Miraa.
Before magistrate Smart Mweene, was Ahmed Yusuf Gelle, unemployed, of Ndeke township in Ndola, who admitted the charge saying that the drugs were not for sale but for his own consumption.
Facts were that on October 2 this year, a Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) officer, Katisha Jere received information that a man commonly known as Yola was selling suspected khat, in a silver coloured VW Golf registration number AAR 705 at a restaurant in the industrial area.
Mr Jere and other officers went to the area where they saw the car passing near Zambia Sugar Company Plc and started trailing it.
They waylaid the driver of the car and introduced themselves to the man known as Ahmed Yusuf Gelle.
When they searched the car, they found in the front seat two bundles containing the said drug.
Further search revealed 12 bundles under the back seat cover and another five bundles were found in whitish containers.
The officers also confiscated K1.7 million cash which was found on him.
They later charged him with the offence and put him in custody.
In mitigation, his defence Lawyer, Kelvin Musoni of JB Sakala and Company, said he was a first offender who had not wasted any time because he admitted the charge right away.
Mr Musoni added that Gelle was a family man of six, the youngest being six months-old and that his nationality meant that there would be no one to look after his children if he were sent to jail.
He added that Gelle was unemployed and was struggling to fend for his children who solely depended on him.
The magistrate took into consideration what was said in mitigation, and said that he had noticed that the drug was commonly used among Somalians.
He sentenced him to five years imprisonment with hard labour and suspended it for 36 months on condition that he did not commit the same offense during this period.
He also fined him K1.5 million or in default face nine months imprisonment.
Meanwhile, the prosecution applied for forfeiture of the vehicle to the State because it was used in selling the drugs. The ruling was adjourned to November 15 this year.
Copyright © 2004 The Times of Zambia.
Posted on Thursday 7th October at 19:52:06 Flying The Flag For Somali Peace
When the transitional Somalia parliament chooses a new president on Sunday, Asli Hassan Abade will be there to "represent the voiceless".
Somalia's only female air force pilot has been waging a one-woman peace campaign, since the last attempt to choose a government in 2001.
She attends every major function, holding the Somalia flag aloft and wearing a dress made from the flag.
Somalia has been without a functioning national government since 1991.
"I'm a voice for the voiceless," she told the BBC's Network Africa, saying that women and children have been the main victims of the 13 years of fighting between rival warlords.
"Men love to fight, I'm sorry to say," she said.
She often stands still, holding the flag, for five hours or more while the politicians debate and make their speeches, hoping that her presence will make it more difficult for the squabbling politicians to scupper a deal.
She says with her military background, she is "a strong lady".
The BBC's Caroline Karobia, who has been attending the Somali peace talks in Kenya, says she is well respected by all the warlords, faction leaders and Somali politicians.
"Everyone greets her and some bow their heads to the Somali flag she holds," our correspondent says.
So will this peace deal succeed where more than a dozen others have failed?
"I can smell the peace," Asli says.
Posted on Thursday 7th October at 19:49:49 Journalist Acquitted Of False Publication Charges In Somaliland
Mogadishu, Somalia, A Magistrate`s court in the self-declared Republic of Somaliland Monday acquitted Hassan Said Yusuf, Editor-in-chief of private Somali-language daily, "Jamhuriya," of false publication charges.
Yusuf was arrested by Somaliland police 31 August over an article published by Jamhuriya the previous day, relating to the ongoing Somalia peace talks in Kenyan capital Nairobi, which the Somaliland government has refused to attend.
At the Hargeisa Magistrate`s court packed with Yusuf`s sympathisers, including other journalists, representatives of human rights organisations and his family members, the prosecution accused the journalist publishing "unbalanced, untrue and baseless article" aimed at causing confusion in Somaliland.
Yusuf rejected the charges.
In his ruling, Magistrate Faisal Ali Noor said the prosecution had failed to prove its case against Yusuf and therefore discharged the journalist.
Five lawyers had volunteered to represent Yusuf in the case, while the Somaliland Journalist Association (SOLJA) has taken the government to task for attempting to curb freedom of expression.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist (CJP) had also called for the immediate release of Yusuf, who has had previous brushes with the Somaliland authorities resulting in his arrest and detention several times.
Angola Press
Posted on Wednesday 6th October at 16:07:15 School-Feeding Programme to Be Expanded
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) plans to expand its school-feeding project in Somalia once a government has been re-established and security restored in all areas to facilitate the revival of the Horn of Africa country's poor education system, a senior WFP official said.
"What we definitely will do is to greatly expand our school feeding project," Robert Hauser, WFP's country director for Somalia told IRIN on Wednesday. "The education sector at the moment is the highest priority of the UN system and of most of the donor community also."
He said a pilot school-feeding programme run by WFP in 23 schools in the self-declared republic of Somaliland in northwestern Somalia, had led to a 50 percent increase in enrollment rates, with 35 percent more girls now going to school. The Somaliland school-feeding project would be extended to 37 other schools by May next year.
Hauser said educational, vocational, job and wealth creation will be some of the key elements in the efforts to rebuild Somalia.
Delegates attending the Somali reconciliation conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, formed a transitional federal parliament in August. The 275 members of the assembly are due to elect the country's new president in Nairobi on Sunday. The president will, in turn, appoint a prime minister, who will be required to form a government.
The ousting of the regime of then Somali president Muhammad Siyad Barre in January 1991 sparked more than a decade of turmoil and lawlessness in Somalia.
Turning to the drought that has ravaged the northern and central regions of Somalia, Hauser said that an estimated 700,000 livestock herders in those areas had moved from their villages and settled along the roads where they engaged in petty trade, while others had moved to the coast and to bigger towns, where they could find water and other social services.
According to Hauser, the pastoralists had lost most of their livestock and had been forced to look for alternative means of livelihood. Drought and the effects of overgrazing had turned the region into a desert.
"That drought was an exceptional event," said Hauser. "They had four years without rain, it is not just a cyclical drought as always happens," he added, saying that the drought had started in the Sanaag and Sool regions and spread further south to Mudug and Galgudud.
He said that WFP was providing food to an estimated 310,000 of the 700,000 of those displaced by the drought and working with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children to identify the most vulnerable members of the communities, mainly mothers and children.
"Fortunately, so far, in the context of this big drought, there has been no starvation," said Hauser. "There is a constant danger, but we could cut it just in time."
Drought conditions were also prevailing in Gedo and Lower Juba where WFP has not been active during the past two years because of security. He said WFP now planned to assess the humanitarian situation in the two regions.
Hauser said WFP-Somalia had received sufficient food stocks from donors to last until the middle of March.
"We have had some very good donor responses - at some point we issued an appeal for 20,000 mt," said Hauser. "We have received those 20,000 mt. We have enough food now and we expect more to come to take us into the beginning of 2005."
Copyright © 2004 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks.
Posted on Wednesday 6th October at 16:00:59 Gunmen, Militia Battle in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Gunmen sent by Islamic officials battled freelance militiamen for control of a lucrative checkpoint in the Somali capital on Tuesday, killing at least two people, including a three-year-old boy.
Fighting began when gunmen loyal to three Islamic courts seized the checkpoint from militiamen operating near the main business district in Mogadishu, witnesses said.
The illegal checkpoint, at a key road junction, was a lucrative source of revenue for gunmen who extorted money from drivers using the road.
Nearly 100 gunmen using anti-aircraft guns, machine guns and assault rifles were involved in the battle, witnesses said.
Gunmen loyal to the courts would remain at the junction to keep the militiamen away and guarantee the security of civilians, said Hersi Lugey, a court spokesman.
"We came here at the request of the local population and we will remain until we secure it," Lugey said.
Somalia has had no effective central government since a rebellion ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, transforming the nation of 7 million people into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms.
A transitional federal parliament, whose members include Somalia's main warlords and which is supported by the country's traditional leaders, was formed last month. It has a five-year term.
Members of parliament are scheduled to elect a president Oct. 10. The president would nominate a prime minister to form a government.
MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Associated Press
Posted on Wednesday 6th October at 15:58:30 Somalis Vie To Be New President
Twenty-seven candidates have been approved to contest next week's elections to be Somalia's new leader.
They have each paid the $2,000 fee and will be voted on by members of a transitional parliament set up in neighbouring Kenya.
Somalia has been without a functioning central government since 1991, since when rival warlords have battled for control of territory.
Many previous attempts to bring peace to Somalia have failed.
But some say that these talks will succeed because it is backed by all of Somalia's neighbours, and by the donor community.
Correspondents say that of the 27 candidates, three are the favourites:
- Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, who led the previous transitional national government;
- Abdullahi Yusuf, leader of the autonomous Somali region of Puntland;
- Abdullahi Adow, a former ambassador to the US and the man who came second to Mr Salat in the last presidential vote.
The 10 October election is the culmination of a 21-month process, to set up a new government in Somalia.
All the major warlords are represented at the talks in Kenya.
Seats in the parliament were distributed between the rival clans and factions.
The only major absentee is the government of the self-declared republic of Somaliland.
Posted on Tuesday 5th October at 16:17:09 Somalia Closing On Elusive Peace As Never Before
AS SOMALIA gears up for the election of a president next week, the sceptics are out in force, questioning whether peace is really possible in this unstable country in the Horn of Africa, which has been without government for the past 13 years.
There is good cause for scepticism. Two years of peace talks in Kenya, leading to the formation of a transitional government, have been beset by delays, arguments, walkouts, factionalism and even violence.
Even as the talks were being concluded and parliamentarians sworn in, factions were still arguing about whether they were in or out of the process.
Before the ink on the peace accord was dry, warlord Mohamed Said Morgan, in a show of defiance at events in Kenya, advanced on the southern port of Kismayo with more than a thousand militiamen and dozens of vehicles mounted with machine guns. Hundreds fled to Kenya to escape the fighting.
Somalia has been without a government since 1991, when warlords toppled the regime of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. This sparked more than a decade of conflict that destroyed the economy and isolated Somalia, even from its neighbours.
The country has increasingly been seen as a security risk and haven for international terrorists in the post September 11 era, particularly by the US.
Another good reason to be sceptical about the chances of peace and governance in Somalia is the fact that the talks in Kenya talks were the fourteenth such process in a decade.
As one analyst put it recently: "History is littered with dishonoured Somali peace accords."
Until late last year, a transitional government established in a previous round of talks was in place, but the clan-based cleavages in the society undermined its existence. It found itself unable to control more than a few suburbs of the capital, Mogadishu, and some areas in the southern part of the country.
The factionalism in Somalia has worsened, not improved, over the years. The number of factions running the country is said to have increased from a handful in 1993 to more than 50 currently. They have prevented any attempts at centralised control of the country and have created major security problems.
No matter how well-represented the clans might be in the transitional government, it is unlikely they will agree to disagree on how things are run.
The swearing in of parliamentarians (which took place in Kenya) is seen as a symbolic start to what everyone hopes will be a new order for the country.
But the road ahead is a long and bumpy one.
Demobilising and disarming clans that have built up strong power bases, and enforcing a major peacekeeping process, are major challenges for the new government. Raising revenue in a country where drought and endless conflict have reduced much of it to a dust bowl is another.
And yet another is the issue of independence for Somaliland, which broke away from greater Somalia nearly a decade ago after a civil war in which more than 5000 of its citizens were killed by the forces of Siad Barre.
The people in the northern region have created a peaceful democracy from the ruins of the war and have already held two successful elections. A third is to be held early next year.
However, the issue of independence was not on the table in Kenya and there are powerful regional forces against accepting partition, despite the fact that there is support for it in parts of Africa and in the international community.
But if there was ever a chance for Somalia to sort itself out, this is probably it. Not only has there been greater commitment to peace by more parties than before, there is a greater determination among Somalia's neighbours for the new government to succeed and for peace to prevail.
While the international community remains sceptical, countries such as the US have welcomed the moves towards governance and the European Union has been strongly behind the process, footing most of the bill for the two-year talks.
But, more than anything , the country needs the support of the warlords, the clan leaders and the Somali people as a whole. They need to buy into the process and put aside issues of self-interest and power struggles. Otherwise that light at the end of the tunnel may just be, as the saying goes, an approaching train.
Posted on Monday 4th October at 17:11:08 Gen Morgan And the Somali Dilemma
Kenya had a dramatic and unexpected visitor last week. Gen Mohammed Hersi alias "Morgan", one of Somalia's enduring warlords, abruptly materialised in Nairobi.
With a bald and shiny pate of a head and a long, luxuriant beard (like an Old Testament prophet), he cut a fascinating figure and his picture was splashed all over the newspapers.
During a press conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel on Monday, Gen Morgan declared he was ready to join the Somali peace process, from which he had absented himself even as it made a major breakthrough with the inauguration of a Somali Parliament at Mbagathi, Nairobi, several weeks ago.
The Igad Facilitation Committee and diplomats involved in the Somali peace process are happy with the about-turn. By roping in most of the warlords, they see better chances of a final peace.
Of course, Gen Morgan was not entirely forthright in what he wanted to tell the world. His sudden enthusiasm for the peace process came about after he suffered a crushing defeat in his South Somalia theatre of operations. Diplomats well versed in Somali politics told the Sunday Nation that he had earlier attacked and tried to capture Kismayu.
The attack did not go very well for him, and he was routed by a rival group of militias known as the Juba Valley Alliance, which is headed by the warlord Col Barre Hirale. Gen Morgan fled to Kenya, crossing the border to Garissa from where he was flown by Kenyan authorities to Nairobi.
Gen Morgan now claims he never abandoned the peace process and that he had to go back home to deal with "pressing matters" affecting his clansmen in South Somalia.
Actually, he was around at the launch of the Mbagathi talks but left early. According to diplomatic sources, one of the reasons he had to leave was a dispute over a large bill incurred at the Hilton Hotel. Unable to settle the debt, he was deprived of his passport by Kenyan authorities.
Gen Morgan would always claim he had been denied the means to rejoin the Mbagathi talks. However, the Facilitation Committee all along sought to bring him in, believing it was imperative that all the warlords be part of the process.
Somali watchers count Gen Morgan as one of the "twenty or so" most important warlords in the lawless country. In the complex web of alliances that is Somalia, he was part of the group terming itself the Somali Reconciliation and Reconstruction Committee, which includes the self-declared "autonomous" region of Puntland and its self-styled "President" Abdullahi Yusuf.
A diplomat who has been following the Somali talks acknowledged there were "rumours" of Gen Morgan enjoying the support of Ethiopia "at the political level". Whether this actually translated to covert military backing is unclear.
Upon arrival in Kenya, Gen Morgan promptly sought to link his enemies to Al-Itihad, an Islamic group which the Americans have linked to Al-Qaeda. However, many locally-based Somalis are not convinced.
Copyright © 2004 The Nation. All rights reserved.
Posted on Monday 4th October at 17:03:50 Somali Woman Kidnapped
A 20-year-old Somali woman was abducted in East London yesterday while her companion struggled and pleaded for her release, Eastern Cape police said.
Inspector Johan van Jaarsveld said two women - Sacdiyo Ahmed Mahamud and her sister-in-law, Fatumah Ali - went to make a phonecall from a 24 hour shop at a filling station in Buffalo Street at 3:15pm.
"A black Mitsubishi - the small Pajero with a sliding door - pulled up outside," said Van Jaarsveld. "We have two witnesses but they did not see the man going in. They only saw him coming out, dragging one of the women."
Van Jaarsveld said Mahamud was dragged into the car, in spite of protests and struggles from both the woman's companion and a petrol pump attendant who rushed to help. The car then drove off down Buffalo Street towards Fleet Street.
Mahamud, an asylum seeker from war-torn Somalia, travelled a "long and dangerous road" to get to South Africa, said her brother, Cape Town resident Muhyadin Ahmed Mahamud, who arrived in the country via a similar route seven years ago.
He said Mahamud had been staying with their brother Moqtar Ahmed Mahamud and his wife Ali in East London since July, when she arrived. "The guys that took her are known around here. They are also Somali. I am afraid their intention is to rape her," Muhyadin said.
Muhyadin, who arrived early this morning to help out in the family crisis, said he thinks one of the men lives near the Victory Cinema in College Street. Van Jaarsveld said Moqtar alleged in his statement that the man wanted to marry Mahamud, but both he and his sister were against the proposal. - Sapa
Posted on Sunday 3rd October at 17:09:46 Man Arrested Over Missing Somali
A man has been arrested in Bristol in connection with the disappearance of a pregnant Somali woman.
Deqa Abdi, 24, speaks little English and was thought to have no money or spare clothes when she was last seen in Barton Hill on 8 September.
Police said three search warrants were executed at Bristol addresses and the man was arrested.
Ms Abdi is 5ft 5in tall, of medium build with black hair. She is about five months' pregnant.
Police are asking anyone who sees a woman matching Ms Abdi's description, or Ms Abdi herself, to contact them.
Posted on Sunday 3rd October at 16:24:01 Somali FA Officials Want FIFA Resume Funding
Mogadishu, Somalia, 10/02 - A seven-man delegation from the Somalia Football Federation (SFF) left here Friday for Zurich, Switzerland to hold talks with officials of the world governing football body, FIFA, on resuming support to the SFF.
Federation chairman Salad Maalim Gaab, who heads the delegation, told journalists shortly before departure that the SFF would be pleading with FIFA to resume financial assistance to the local FA it suspended after former SFF official Farah Ado allegedly mismanaged FIFA funds.
Gaab said a few Mogadishu businessmen were funding the SFF mission to Zurich.
He said withholding of fund by FIFA had crippled football activities throughout Somalia in the absence of a central government.
Farah Ado was banned from football activities for ten years after FIFA found him guilty of misappropriating financial assistance intended for the SFF.
Somalia was crushed 0-5 in their last tie in the combined 2006 World Cup/African Cup of Nations qualifier against the Black Stars of Ghana last month.
Posted on Sunday 3rd October at 16:21:51 Somaliland Minister Denies Visiting Nairobi Talks
Awdal News Network / afrol News, 1 October - Somaliland's Finance Minister Hussein Ali Dualeh today denied a report carried by the UAE Arabic daily 'Al Khaleej', saying that he recently visited Nairobi and held talks with Somali delegates preparing Somalia's new government there. Officials fron the self-declared Somaliland republic have turned down invitations to participate in the Nairobi talks, calling the "internal affairs" of Somalia.
In a telephone call to 'Awdalnews Network', Somaliland Minister Dualeh said that he was busy preparing the national budget over the last 20 days and had hardly any time to do anything else let alone go on a foreign trip.
Describing the report as "wishful thinking" disseminated by the "enemies of Somaliland," he said that he neither had visited Nairobi in the recent past nor had the intention to visit it while the Somali peace talks were in session there.
When asked why the press published such a baseless report, Mr Dualeh said "leaders of the Somali factions fear me so much because I worked in Nairobi as Somaliland's Representative for some time and I have many friends in the Kenyan and East African diplomatic communities."
Minister Dualeh, however, said that he was flabbergasted why a reputable paper like 'Al Khaleej' would publish such baseless and unfounded report, "they should have been a little more careful and little more professional" the Somalilander Minister added.
In its Friday edition (1 October), 'Al Khaleej' reported that Somaliland Finance Minister had made a surprise visit to Nairobi ahead of the Somali presidential elections on 10 October and urged deputies hailing from Somaliland to form a unified front and establish alliances in order to claim the Prime Minister's post and not the Presidency.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of President Dahir Riyale Kahin of Somaliland, Abdi Idris Dualeh, earlier today issued a statement in which he denied the Finance Minister's visit to Nairobi.
He described the report as "baseless and totally unfounded" innuendoes spread by "Somaliland's enemies".
By Awdalnews Network Staff Reporter
Posted on Friday 1st October at 16:21:02 Back
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