Rape victims will stay silent, warns Lul Ali Osman Barake in first major interview since acquittal, as her attackers remain at large
Lul Ali Osman Barake says she has been raped twice: first by a gang of men in military fatigues, then by the judicial system in what is meant to be liberated Somalia.
There was astonishment and revulsion around the world when, having told the police and journalists about the rape, the 27-year-old was arrested and sentenced to a year in jail. The verdict was quashed on appeal earlier this week. But Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, a journalist whose “crime” was to interview Barake, remains in prison. Relatives are increasingly worried that his fragile health will not survive a Mogadishu jail that is so overcrowded he has to sleep standing up.
The case has shone an unflattering light on the Horn of Africa country and the fledgling institutions put in place with western support after two decades of civil war.
“The victim was arrested instead of the rapists, so the rapists have been rewarded,” Barake told the Guardian in her first major interview since her acquittal. “I was a victim and I was given a one-year jail term. No female victim in Somalia will feel able to talk about this. Rape victims will stay silent in their home and not tell anyone.”
Wearing a black jilbab and cradling her 15-month-old son, Shaafi, she agreed to share her experience through a local interpreter in Mogadishu and asked that her real name be used in the hope that it will aid her fight for justice. She has been supported by her husband and uncle; there is no independent corroboration of their allegations.
It was on 14 August, she said, that she woke up feeling unwell at her home constructed from sticks, plastic and metal sheets in one of the camps for internally displaced persons (IDP) that still scar the Somali capital. She went to a food distribution point and was approached by five men in uniform.
“They stopped me, slapped me and blindfolded me,” Barake said.
“One took my hand and I had to follow them inside an empty school. I said I’m an IDP, I’m getting food to eat, what do you want with me?
“They said nothing. They were angry and they took me.
“They raped me, one after another, with four standing guard. When all five had finished, I said please allow me to leave, I’m breastfeeding a baby and need to get home. They allowed me to go. After I left the area I fell three or four times. Whenever I walked for 10 metres, I had to sit and rest.”
When Barake got back to the IDP camp, a local leader took her to a police station, where she was given a letter and sent to a hospital to verify her allegations. She waited from around 6am until 2pm for a doctor to appear. Eventually Barake was subjected to a humiliating “finger test” and handed $20 in what she thinks may have been an attempt to buy her silence.
Months passed with no sign of progress in the case. A neighbour introduced Barake to Ibrahim, a freelance journalist investigating sexual violence, and on 6 January he interviewed her outside her home.
Four days later, two police cars arrived and Barake was taken into custody. Officers quizzed her about a separate interview that she had given to al-Jazeera, which published her comments under a pseudonym.
“They said, ‘Who is the woman who was raped?’ I said, ‘I am.’”
Barake was taken to police headquarters where, she said, the most powerful officers in the country demanded to know why she had changed her name for the media. They extracted Ibrahim’s number from her phone by force. Barake was released at around midnight and had to report to a station every morning for the next 17 days.
“The interrogations were very horrible and sometimes threatening,” she said. “The last one was with the police chief. He had a pistol in his hand and he said, ‘You are a criminal, you tell lies about the government and police. I want to ask the government to forgive you. To do that you must say the right thing and withdraw these allegations. If you don’t, you will be arrested and put in jail.’
“The next time they gave me a statement withdrawing the allegations, even though I am illiterate, and told me to sign it with my thumb. I did it out of fear. The police were standing there with pistols; sometimes I thought they would kill me.”
During this last incident her husband, Muhyidin Sheikh Mohamed Jimale, 58, was arguing with police officers in a separate room. “They ordered me to get out of the office and I saw my wife crying outside,” the market porter said. “She said they brought her a letter and forced her to sign it. An officer said, ‘This case insults the police in Somalia and if you don’t throw it out, you’ll be in trouble.’ I replied, ‘I want to get justice, I will not keep silent, I will continue to protect my wife.’”
His punishment for this defiance, Jimale claimed, was to be jailed for 26 days – including nine at Mogadishu central prison, where he was among 48 people crammed into a 4 sq metre cell.
When Barake’s case came before a judge last month, she thought the nightmare would be over. “I was not afraid of the court because I thought it was better for me and justice will have its way. But that did not happen.”
As police opted not to produce her “signed” statement, Barake was convicted of making false accusations and defaming a government body and sentenced to a year in prison.
This was temporarily modified to house arrest so she could continue breastfeeding her baby. Ibrahim also received a one-year sentence.
Last Sunday, after an international outcry, an appeals court judge overturned Barake’s conviction due to insufficient evidence. Her worst fear, separation from her children, was lifted. But her alleged attackers remain at large, leaving her with a burning sense of injustice. “If I am not angry, who will assist me to catch them? No one can identify their faces now. No one will arrest them.
“I am angry with the attorney general and the police. I was a victim and they ordered my arrest. They said I told lies and denied that I had children. Even if I’m dying, I will not forgive them. I’m an IDP, I can’t read or write and they were making use of my ignorance. They were trying to protect the reputation of the government and police.
“Journalists in Somalia will see it as a message. They will run from any victim because they know what happened to me.”
Her husband shares her grievance. “It is the worst injustice I have ever seen in the world,” he said. “I am a Somali citizen, I am innocent, my wife is a victim.
“When I complained to the police and law enforcement of Somalia, they arrested me and defamed me. They said, ‘You are liars.’ They claimed we took $400 for creating a false report. They did everything bad to us they could.”
Both condemn the treatment of Ibrahim, whose supposed offence appears to have shifted over time, from fabricating a defamatory story to entering a home without permission to misleading an interviewee for an article that was never published. The appeals court halved his sentence to six months, dismaying Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Somali prime minister, all of whom expected him to be freed.
Shocked relatives and radio station colleagues speak of a gentle, studious man whose parents died when he was a child and who grew up in an orphanage. For the past five years he has lived with his uncle but this year he was planning to marry and study in Uganda towards a doctorate.
“He likes reading and writing, to follow the news and be connected to the world,” said his uncle, Mohamed Ali Abdullah, a lecturer at Mogadishu University. “He’s a good listener; he likes to hear your voice. At the start of his career we tried to persuade him not to be a journalist because of the risk. But he rejected the advice.”
Abdullah, 43, fears for his nephew’s future behind bars. “I visited him in prison yesterday and he was so depressed. The cell is very narrow and more than 40 people are inside. He was complaining about a stomach ulcer and a skin allergy because of poor sanitation. He can’t stand six months of that; it’s possible he will die there.”
He is mystified by Ibrahim’s conviction. “Abdiaziz is a journalist and was doing his job interviewing the lady. I’m afraid in the future journalists will not dare to interview victims because of the consequences of this case.
“This will destroy the future of news. This is not what we expect from the new government of Somalia.”
The National Union of Somali Journalists has announced it will write to the president in protest and launch a campaign for freedom of expression, which in theory is protected under the Somali constitution. Mohamed Ibrahim, its secretary general, said: “The government is trying to criminalise the media profession. That is the common worry of all journalists.
“If he was imprisoned for a story that wasn’t published, what is going to happen the next time if you don’t publish an interview? Will the person complain? They are still doing wrong after wrong. Every step they are taking is a threat to freedom of the press.”
The union believes Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim is the victim of a spiteful judiciary that feels threatened by imminent reforms. The defeat of Islamist militant group al-Shabaab and the election of a president and parliament last year were intended to usher in a new era in Somalia.
A new human rights taskforce is studying Ibrahim’s case.
Mahamoud Abdulle, permanent secretary in the prime minister’s office, said the government is committed to free speech. “The government has made its position clear: we are not happy that a journalist is in jail,” he said. “But it’s not our decision and we can’t do a lot about it. We have an independent judiciary that is in its infancy and we cannot interfere with that.”
Outside observers should appreciate the context of how far the country has come in a short time, he added. “A year ago nobody was talking about human rights violations in Somalia. People were talking about how many suicide bombers were there and the fighting on the streets of Mogadishu. There is real progress.”
A senior police officer declined to comment while attempts to contact a police spokesman were unsuccessful. Abdulle said: “It’s important to be careful about making allegations against the police. They have done a very good job in large areas of society. Of course there might be a few bad apples in the barrel.”
Source: The Guardian
SOMALIA: My rapists were rewarded, says Somali woman cleared of making false claims
U.N. lifts Somalia government arms embargo for one year
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council agreed on Wednesday to partially lift a decades-old arms embargo on Somalia for one year, allowing the government in Mogadishu to buy light weapons to strengthen its security forces to fight al Qaeda-linked Islamists.
The 15-member council unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution that also renewed a 17,600-strong African Union peacekeeping force for a year and reconfigured the U.N. mission in the Horn of Africa country.
Somalia’s government had asked for the arms embargo to be removed and the United States supported that, but other Security Council members were wary about completely lifting the embargo on a country that is already awash with weapons, diplomats said.
“What we have tried to do is draw a balance between those who wanted an unrestricted lifting of the arms embargo and those who felt it was premature to lift the arms embargo,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters after the vote. “It is a good and strong compromise.”
The Security Council imposed the embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, who a year earlier had ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil war. Somalia held its first vote since 1991 last year to elect a president and prime minister.
“Yes there are major challenges, but we are now … moving away from international trusteeship of the situation in Somalia towards supporting the government’s efforts to address its own problems,” Lyall Grant said.
The Security Council resolution would allow sales of such weapons as automatic assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, but leaves in place a ban on surface-to-air missiles, large-caliber guns, howitzers, cannons and mortars as well as anti-tank guided weapons, mines and night vision weapon sights.
It also requires that the Somalia government or the country delivering assistance notify the Security Council “at least five days in advance of any deliveries of weapons and military equipment … providing details of such deliveries and assistance and the specific place of delivery in Somalia.”
“The progress achieved (in Somalia) does not justify so far the lifting of the arms embargo,” Guatemala’s U.N. Ambassador Gert Rosenthal told the council after the vote.
“We believe that the Security Council should have adopted a phased approach to prevent the possible repercussions of an abrupt suspension of the embargo which could subsequently compromise the stabilization efforts in Somalia.”
ARMS TO EXTREMISTS
The Somali government believes lifting the embargo will help it strengthen its poorly equipped, ill-disciplined military, which is more a collection of rival militias than a cohesive fighting force loyal to a single president.
“The support is a vote of confidence for the government of Somalia given the improvement of the security situation in that country,” Argentina’s U.N. Ambassador Maria Cristina Perceval told the Security Council.
The AU peacekeeping force – made up of troops from Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia – is battling al Shabaab militants on several fronts in Somalia and has forced them to abandon significant territory in southern and central areas.
The militants, who affiliated themselves with al Qaeda in February last year, launched their campaign against the government in early 2007, seeking to impose sharia, or strict Islamic law, on the entire country.
The Security Council’s Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, an independent panel that reports on compliance with U.N. sanctions, has warned that the Islamist militants in Somalia are receiving weapons from distribution networks linked to Yemen and Iran, diplomats have told Reuters.
A diplomat also said U.N. monitors had reported that some al Shabaab militants had infiltrated units of the Somali security forces.
“Clearly over the coming year if the suspension of the arms embargo is being abused, then we will take action accordingly in the Security Council,” said Britain’s Lyall Grant.
The resolution says that weapons and equipment “may not be resold to, transferred to, or made available for use by, any individual or entity not in the service of the security forces of the federal government of Somalia.”
It asks the Somalia government to report regularly on the structure of the security forces and the infrastructure and procedures in place to ensure safe storage, maintenance and distribution of military equipment.
Human rights group Amnesty International called one the U.N. Security Council on Monday not to lift arms embargo on Somalia, describing the idea as premature and warning that it could “expose Somali civilians to even greater risk and worsen the humanitarian situation.
Source: Reuters
Amnesty: UN arms embargo on Somalia must stay in place
It is premature for the UN Security Council to consider lifting an arms embargo on Somalia later this week, Amnesty International said as it
It is premature for the UN Security Council to consider lifting an arms embargo on Somalia later this week, Amnesty International said as it warned such a move could see armed groups such as al-Shabab getting its hands on even more weapons, while removing existing mechanisms of transparency and accountability.
Despite improvements in security in some areas of the country, including in Mogadishu, civilians still face a high risk of being killed or injured during outbreaks of fighting, in air strikes, mortar shelling or through the use of suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices.
Without adequate safeguards, arms transfers may expose Somali civilians to even greater risk and worsen the humanitarian situation, said Gemma Davies, Amnesty International’s Somalia researcher.
For several years, the arms embargo on Somalia has been continuously violated with arms supplied to armed groups on all sides of the conflict. The flow of arms to Somalia has fuelled serious human rights abuses committed during the conflict.
The widespread availability of arms in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia continues to lead to greater insecurity for civilians.
During a recent Security Council debate on Somalia, Fowsiyo Yusuf Haji Adan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Government urged both financial and military support to consolidate peace and to help hold areas recovered from the control of armed groups.
Adan also requested the lifting of the arms embargo, stating her governments intention of putting in place the necessary mechanisms to ensure that armaments do not fall into the wrong hands?.
Although this intention is welcome, Amnesty International believes that such mechanisms should be implemented first and that the Security Council should only proceed with the lifting of the arms embargo once they prove effective.
Instead of lifting the embargo, it should be strengthened by incorporating strict rules granting exemptions to prevent arms from getting into the wrong hands and being used to commit human rights and humanitarian abuses.
Amnesty International
Somalia’s al Shabaab urges Kenyan Muslims to boycott vote
NAIROBI- Somali militants linked to al Qaeda urged Muslims to boycott Kenya’s presidential election on Monday and wage jihad against the Kenyan military which sent troops into neighboring Somalia in late 2011 to help crush the rebels.
The Islamist al Shabaab rebel group told Kenyan Muslims, who account for about 11 percent of the population, that the Nairobi government treated them as foreigners and second-class citizens.
“Your regions are the least developed in Kenya and have the least facilities. You have been misled by the false promises of the presidential candidates and the same empty promises are repeated on every election campaign,” al Shabaab said in a statement cited by the U.S.-based SITE service on Monday.
“What is incumbent upon you now is to … boycott the Kenyan elections and wage jihad against the Kenyan military for they cannot afford to continue fighting an invasion abroad as well as an internal conflict at home,” it said.
Kenya, voting for a new president on Monday, has suffered a wave of violent attacks since it sent soldiers into its anarchic neighbour in October, 2011, which Nairobi has typically blamed on al Shabaab and local sympathisers.
Most of the attacks have occurred in the capital and close to the Somali border
In Garissa, a largely Muslim town with a significant ethnic Somali population, two civilians were shot dead late on Sunday, local officials said. Earlier, the head of Kenyan police said the incident had been a grenade attack. A bomb also exploded in the Mandera area, near the border, wounding four people.
Under pressure from an African Union-led military offensive, al Shabaab has steadily lost territory and influence in Somalia over the past 18 months, but remains the biggest threat to regional stability. It has, however, failed to deliver on threats to carry out a spectacular attack in Kenya.
Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia earned widespread popular backing at home and has barely registered in election campaigning.
Source : Reuters
Somalia: Court clears woman convicted in rape case
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A Somali appeals court on Sunday dropped charges against a woman who alleged she was raped by government security forces and had been convicted of defaming the government.
Mogadishu appeals court Judge Mohamed Hassan Ali said there wasn’t enough evidence to substantiate the prosecutor’s charge. A court in February had sentenced the woman to one year in prison after medical evidence entered into the record showed that the woman was not raped. Some experts questioned whether Somalia has the medical expertise to make the kind of judgment.
A journalist who interviewed the rape victim and was tried alongside her had his sentence reduced from one year to six months. The judge said the interview was not conducted according to journalism ethics or Somali law.
The February verdict against the two provoked international outcry by human rights groups, and Human Rights Watch on Sunday said it wasn’t satisfied with the appeals court’s decision.
“The court of appeals missed a chance to right a terrible wrong, both for the journalist and for press freedom in Somalia,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government has argued that justice should run its course in this case, but each step has been justice denied.”
Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon welcomed the decision concerning the rape victim and said “we are a step closer to justice being done.”
“However, I was hoping for a different outcome on the journalist. I note his sentence has been reduced from 12 months to six, but I do not believe journalists should be sent to prison for doing their job. We must have freedom of expression, which is guaranteed in our constitution,” Shirdon said.
The Somali capital has moved past the violence that engulfed Mogadishu for much of the last two decades. In a sign of its progress, the United States earlier this year officially recognized the country’s government for the first time in two decades.
Despite the progress, Somali government institutions remain weak and corrupt, and the government relies heavily on the security provided by 17,000 African Union troops in the country. Allegations of rape against government security forces are common, especially around the sprawling camps for internally displaced people in Mogadishu.
Rights groups decried the case against the woman and the reporter — freelance journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur — as politically motivated because the woman had accused security forces of the assault. Abdinur was convicted despite never having published any story based on the interview with the woman.
On Jan. 6, Universal TV, a Somali television station, reported that armed men in police uniform had raped a young woman. The same day Al Jazeera published an article which described rape by security forces in camps for internally displaced people in Mogadishu.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had expressed deep disappointment over the sentences and urged the Somali government “to ensure that all allegations of sexual violence are investigated fully and perpetrators are brought to justice,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Experts in confronting violence against women said the original verdict would discourage Somali women from reporting rape even more than they are already in the conservative Muslim society.
Source: AP
U.N. Security Council sets stage for lifting Somalia arms embargo
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council is considering lifting an arms embargo on Somalia’s government for one year so it can beef up its army to combat Islamist fighters, according to a draft resolution that is due to be voted on by the divided council on Wednesday.
The Somalia government has asked for the arms embargo to be lifted and the United States has been pushing the council to agree, but Britain and France have been wary of removing the ban in a country already awash with weapons, diplomats say.
The draft resolution, drawn up by Britain and obtained by Reuters, appears to propose a compromise: lifting the arms embargo for one year but keeping restrictions in place on heavy weapons such as surface to air missiles, howitzers and cannons.
The draft resolution says the arms embargo shall not apply to the deliveries of other “weapons or military equipment or the provision of advice, assistance or training, intended solely for the development of the security forces of the federal government of Somalia and to provide security for the Somali people.”
It says that these weapons and equipment “may not be resold to, transferred to, or made available for use by, any individual or entity not in the service of the security forces of the federal government of Somalia.”
The 15-member council imposed the arms embargo in 1992 to cut the flow of arms to feuding warlords, who a year earlier ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged Somalia into civil war. Somalia held its first national vote since 1991 last year to elect a president and prime minister.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this month suggested the Security Council consider lifting the arms embargo to help rebuild Somalia’s forces and consolidate military gains against al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants.
But some council members are concerned about the security risks involved with removing the arms embargo and one council diplomats said the proposed move “sends shivers down the spine.”
MILITANT INFILTRATION
The Security Council’s Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, an independent panel that reports on compliance with U.N. sanctions, have warned that the Islamist militants in Somalia are receiving weapons from distribution networks linked to Yemen and Iran, diplomats have told Reuters.
A U.N. diplomat also said the U.N. monitors had reported that some al Shabaab militants had infiltrated units of the Somali security forces.
The council is scheduled to vote on the draft resolution on Wednesday before the mandate of the 17,600-strong AU peacekeeping force, known as AMISOM, expires on Thursday. The resolution would renew AU peacekeeping force for one year and reconfigure the U.N. mission in the Horn of Africa country.
AU troops from Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia are battling al Shabaab militants on several fronts in Somalia and have forced them to abandon significant territory in southern and central areas of the country.
The militants, who affiliated themselves with al Qaeda in February last year, launched their campaign against the government in early 2007, seeking to impose sharia, or strict Islamic law, on the entire country.
The Somali government believes lifting the embargo will help it strengthen its poorly equipped, ill-disciplined military – more a group of rival militias than a cohesive fighting force loyal to a single president.
The draft resolution requires that the Somalia government or the country delivering assistance notify the Security Council “at least five days in advance of any deliveries of weapons and military equipment … providing details of such deliveries and assistance and the specific place of delivery in Somalia.”
It also asks the government to report regularly on the structure of the security forces and the infrastructure and procedures in place to ensure safe storage, maintenance and distribution of military equipment.
The removal of the arms embargo would be reviewed in one year, according to the draft resolution.
Source: Reuters
Africa:Kenya's police are key for peaceful vote on Monday
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — One of Kenya’s most vilified institutions — its police force — will be in the spotlight next week during its efforts to prevent the same type of post-election bloodbath that Kenya suffered during its last presidential election.
Kenya on Monday holds its first presidential vote since the 2007 election devolved into tribal violence that killed more than 1,000 people. At least 405 of those people were killed by police when citizens took to the streets to protest a flawed election because they did not trust the judiciary to fairly resolve problems. Kenya has since revamped its judiciary, and in December a new inspector general of police was appointed — David Kimaiyo.
Kimaiyo acknowledged, in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, that he has not had enough time to carry out all the needed police reforms ahead of the election. But he said the police are ready to tackle any election security challenges. One way to do that is to get people to leave polling areas after voting, he said.
“They should vote and go straight home and wait for results from the television and radios and celebrate the next day. We have noticed before the people waiting around the polling station cause problems when results are announced that they do not like,” Kimaiyosaid.
Kimaiyo said his role as inspector general is to redeem the police force’s name. Kenya’s police force has long been accused of abuses. A United Nations expert, a government-funded human rights group and other rights groups accuse the police of extrajudicial killings. The groups have said the police ran death squads, which killed suspects they are unable to build cases against. The latest killings last year, attributed to the police, were the disappearances and executions of five terrorism suspects.
The police have been ranked as Kenya’s most corrupt institution for more than a decade, according to the local chapter of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.
A culture of shake-downs is endemic in the force, former police spokesman Eric Kiraithe admitted last year. This culture has made enforcement of traffic rules difficult because the public choses to give police bribes instead of paying hefty court fines.
But the police have not been given the resources to succeed. Police are under-equipped, poorly paid and live in deplorable conditions, a combination of factors which have led to low morale. The country’s emergency number — 999 — does not work because its telephone bills have not been paid.
And experts say the years of political interference have led to breakdown of professional standards. This was exposed in January when a man was arrested because he had pretended to be a senior police officer for at least five years and allegedly robbed residents.
Unlike previous police chiefs, the office of inspector general has been given autonomy that shields it against political interference. But for now the immediate challenge for Kimaiyo is to ensure peaceful elections.
A government report on what caused the post-election violence of 2007-2008 said that police were not only overwhelmed but were also seen to have taken sides of the dispute on who won the election between Raila Odinga, then the leading opposition figure, and President Mwai Kibaki.
The police have several election-related security threats to deal with this year. One is tribal violence, especially between the tribes of the two top presidential candidates. Other threats include the possibility of attacks by Somali militants and by a secessionist group on Kenya’s coast known as the Mombasa Republican Council.
Another threat is intimidation: Kimaiyo said leaflets are being circulated across the country warning people of consequences if they vote for certain candidates. Two people were killed on Thursday following fighting between ethnic Somali clans due to politics in Kenya’s north, he said.
Kimaiyo said enough manpower had been allocated to monitor and quash the threats; 99,000 police will be helping to secure the vote.
Kimaiyo has given orders that might appear to infringe on a person’s rights. No one will be allowed to hold public demonstrations for the election period, he said.
“We must realize that there will be another election … and life must continue as normal. If you feel aggrieved, the courts have assured the public of a speedy hearing of those cases,” Kimaiyo said.
As for police reforms, Kimaiyo said although progress has been made on response times, human rights trainings and an improvement in police attitudes, fighting corruption, other major reforms will have to wait until three months after the new government takes power.
Source: Associated Press
Somaliland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs proves critics emphatically wrong
1. An inspiring, impressive and influential foreign policy:
No doubt that the Somaliland’s current foreign policy is absolutely determined and committed to serving and securing the interests and reputation of our country as the Beacon of peace, stability and democracy in the Horn of African Region. It is a policy that never assumes a retreating and hesitant posture but rather remains proactive on all diplomatic fronts. It is a policy that gives a different turn and twist on how the contemporary foreign policy of the Somaliland Republic should be waged. It is an inspiring, impressive and influential foreign and international cooperation policy that has put our country on the right track. Somaliland’s current foreign policy is a policy with audacity and confidence that breaks the barriers of self-imposed exclusion and limitation of the last two decades.
To keep pace with transnational security, economic and diplomatic relevant matters in the Horn of African region and beyond, a kind of thoughtful foreign policy with courage and daring instinct is of a paramount importance. This is the only way to serve and safeguard the ever more shifting geopolitical interests of our country and people. Before President Ahmed Silaanyo came to power, Somaliland was a completely out of sight, remote and anonymous country that no one missed or noticed of its presence at regional and international policy levels. Years and years of self-imposed exclusion rendered to our country neither player nor spectator in relation to an active involvement and participation in the regional and international political, economic and diplomatic platforms.
Within a short period, the government of President Silaanyo has formulated a different but smart foreign policy approach which undoubtedly will contribute to the long-awaited recognition of our country. The current Foreign Policy of Somaliland’s approach is a promising and an encouraging sign for all peace and development loving Somaliland citizens, which is already resulted that our country makes overtures to the right direction. With the mind into the historical facts of our country and the errors and misjudgements made in the past by Somaliland’s political elites, the current Somaliland’s foreign policy focuses on the future and the way forward.
2. A competent and talented Minister:
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Somaliland Republic has beyond every doubt demonstrated throughout his diplomatic vision and skills and sustained achievements a belief in a constructive policy of engagement in international issues for peace, democracy and security relevant developments. He highlighted Somaliland’s democratic achievements and experiences that will serve as an example and provide useful lessons for all other African countries to learn and would certainly serve as a model in enhancing stability, democracy and development in the Horn of Africa. The Minister has succeeded in to export the best product of our country to abroad. He convinced to everyone the benefits and the need why the rest of the world should cooperate with our country.
With full of confidence and conviction, I should clearly underline that the integrity, sense of duty and determination of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Dr. M.A.Omar) towards his country has never been under discussion. He is someone with a far-reaching diplomatic understanding, a competent and talented top diplomat who is equipped with common sense of doing diplomatic business. By right decision at the right time, by convenient approach and pre-emptive performance he avoids in advance any surprise or diplomatic failures. As a result, to all intents and purposes the Minister of Foreign Affairs proved his critics emphatically wrong.
3. Scurrilous and Biased Media Outlets:
It is deplorable to see the almost permanent and unfounded hostility of some biased media outlets towards the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International cooperation. They are continuously spreading false and damaging stories; they lie or twist the truth about the Minister and his national duties, with the sole intention to hurt him. They miss every sense of nationhood and patriotic responsibilities towards their own country and people. They (some media outlets) adopt the same state of mind and strategies as the enemies of Somaliland Republic who seriously want to destabilize the hard won peace and stability of our great nation.
Nevertheless, those unsubstantiated negative noises will never be able to stop the Foreign Minister doing his job. They will never succeed to discourage or distract him from realizing his ambition and goals. In fact, he is determined and committed more than ever before. He is adamantly eager to follow the courage of his conviction so that he will be able to serve and safeguard the geo-political interest of our country and people. No matter how much hatred and enviously are written and published on some scurrilous and biased media outlets (TVs, websites and newspapers), Somaliland’s cause, democracy process and its efforts for self-determination as a sovereign State will prevail.
May ALLAH (SXWT) protect the true and genuine patriot!
By |Architectural-Eng. Hussein Adan Igeh |Hussein Deyr |UK|
Djibouti: the saga continues after disputed parliamentary elections
The aftermath of the allegedly rigged parliamentary elections, which took place last Friday, 21 February 2013, have encountered unprecedented public response that go unabated.
The Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) declared victory saying to have won 49 seats out of the possible 65 National Assembly seats, which is rejected by USN, the united front of the opposition.
Following three days of unrest and arrests of senior Imams the situation seems to get out control and there appears to be no sight of stability.
Mr Abdouraham Boreh, an influential businessman and a member of the opposition who fell out with Djibouti authority and was forced into exile said: “I am disappointed and deeply concerned about the wellbeing of the politicians and senior Imams who have been arrested, beaten and tortured”. Mr Boreh advice the Djibouti government to release these respected moderate Imams with immediate effect
“Freedom loving Djiboutian’s have demonstrated courage and a great willingness to observe peace and stability. For the first time we witness votes being counted till the early hours of the following day, which is great testament of the peoples’ willingness for change”.
Further, Mr Boreh advices the authorities including the police and the military to restrain and abstain from using force to silence the peace people of Djibouti. Change is inevitable and after 36 years of one party rule it is time the Mr Ismail Omar Guelle goes”.
Finally, Mr Boreh encourages peace-loving Djiboutian to join the Djibouti National Demonstration Day, which will take place Friday, 1 March after Salaatul Jumah.
By Justice for Djibouti
Somalia: Humanitarian aid must not be co-opted into stabilization campaign
Integrating aid into UN, AU political and military strategy will threaten humanitarian effort New York/Paris/Nairobi, 28 February 2013 – Efforts underway at the United Nations to integrate humanitarian assistance into the international military campaign against opponents of Somalia’s government will further threaten the safe delivery of independent and impartial aid to Somalis struggling to survive ongoing war, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today. The United Nations Security Council is currently deliberating the future structure of the UN’s mission in Somalia. Under discussion is the possible inclusion of humanitarian assistance within the broader political and military agenda for Somalia. Such an approach, in a country where the ability to provide relief is already severely compromised, could generate distrust of aid groups. “As many Somalis continue to struggle to obtain the basic necessities for survival, such as food, healthcare, and protection from violence, humanitarian assistance must remain a priority and it must remain completely independent of any political agenda,” said Jerome Oberreit, MSF Secretary General. “The humanitarian aid system must not be co-opted as an implementing partner of counter-insurgency or stabilisation efforts in Somalia.” Ensuring the safety of patients and medical staff remains a major challenge. Aid must therefore remain independent and impartial so that humanitarian organisations can try to negotiate access to populations in need with all parties to the conflict and mitigate security risks as much as possible. Attempts to further politicise humanitarian aid will put patients and aid workers in even greater danger, MSF said. “As we’ve seen previously in Somalia, and in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone, and Angola, when military stabilisation or peacekeeping efforts integrate humanitarian aid as a tool to advance political and security objectives, aid actors, including health workers, are invariably delegitimised and prevented from reaching populations trapped in conflict,” said Oberreit. “In extreme cases, aid has even been denied to populations to serve political interests of stabilisation efforts. Humanitarian assistance must be driven purely by the actual needs of a population, and not predicated upon any other agenda.” Large segments of the Somali population throughout the country require basic assistance, many in active conflict areas and in zones controlled by armed groups, such as in south-central Somalia, underscoring the need for independent and impartial humanitarian aid. Access to food and adequate medical care is severely limited. More than 730,000 Somalis have sought refuge in camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. Overall levels of assistance in Dadaab, Kenya, home to hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees, itself remain insufficient. Calls by Kenya for the return of refugees are premature as long as the security situation remains perilous in Somalia. More than one hundred Somalis cross each day into Ethiopia to escape the deprivation, stating food shortages and insecurity as the main drivers for fleeing. In a recent survey of MSF patients, more than half (424 out of 820) reported being displaced within Somalia or to Liben, Ethiopia. More than 187,000 Somali refugees are living in Liben, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees. Direct or feared violence were the main reasons for displacement (46 per cent) followed by food shortages due to drought and limited access to assistance (32 per cent). “I have been displaced more than 10 times in my life,” a 25-year-old woman from Lower Juba region told MSF. “My husband died in an attack, and two of my children died because I was not able to give them food. I try to stay strong but this situation that our county has been facing for too long is killing us.” MSF has already had to curtail its activities in Somalia due to security risks. In October 2011, two MSF aid workers, Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut, were abducted in the Dadaab refugee camp and taken to Somalia, where MSF believes they are still being held. Following the abduction and until the safe release of the two aid workers, MSF has limited its operations in Somalia to strictly lifesaving emergency work. ________________________________________
MSF has worked continuously in Somalia since 1991, and continues to provide lifesaving medical care to hundreds of thousands of Somalis in ten regions of the country, as well as in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia. Over 1,400 staff, supported by approximately 100 people in Nairobi, provide a range of services, including free primary healthcare, malnutrition treatment, maternal health, surgery, response to epidemics like cholera or measles, immunisation campaigns, water and relief supplies. During the first half of 2012, MSF treated nearly 30,000 severely malnourished children and vaccinated 75,000 against infectious diseases. MSF teams also assisted in over 7,300 deliveries and provided close to half a million medical consultations within its health facilities.