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SOMALILAND: A Walk Through International Women's Day

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HARGEISA, 9 March 2010 (Somalilandpress) – The news and events of the last two months have been harsh, with earthquakes ravaging whole cities, and families and children suffering. SOS Children’s Villages continues to respond to these situations in force, while also taking a moment too reflect on women, mothers and girls around the world. Please join SOS on a brief walk through International Women’s Day.

Our first stop is the history of this day. Each year, around the world, International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8. Hundreds of events occur to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. International Women’s Day has been observed since the early 1900’s and began in the United States.

In 1908, Women’s oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. That year, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1909, the first National Woman’s Day was observed across the United States on February 28. On the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day. In 1913, International Women’s Day was transferred to March 8 and this day has remained the global date for International Women’s Day ever since.

On March 8 every year, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements, ranging from political rallies, business conferences, and networking events to local women’s craft markets, theater performances, and fashion parades. it is also a day for discussing more somber topics, such as traditional practices that are harmful to women and girls, and how to move forward.

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Our next stop is Somaliland, where SOS Mothers, women and girls come together to celebrate. Last year, a rally themed, “Women and men united to end violence against women and girls,” was held at the Liberty Garden, popularly known as “Beerta Xurriada” in Hargeisa. Addressing the well-attended gathering, Fadumo Sudi, the Minister for Family Affairs and Social Development, thanked Somaliland women for their continued commitment, support and advocacy for peace and development in the country. In addition, she urged women to discard harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation (FGM), a common practice in Somaliland. The minister reiterated the government’s commitment to protecting women against gender violence.

“When you educate a boy, you educate an individual. But when you educate a girl you educate the whole community,” said Ahmed Hassan Ali, the Minister for Justice. SOS Children’s Villages ensures that boys and girls get the same opportunities to develop their talents inside the Villages, schools, education centers and family strengthening programs.

Our next stop is Sudan. Women often carry the main burden of bringing up their children, looking after their house and managing family life in Sudan. If they are single and have no financial stability, they are often consigned to poverty.

Consider Mariam in Sudan.

Mariam’s husband was killed and she was left to raise their seven children alone. For many women in her position, a day’s work could mean looking for firewood to sell outside the camp where women are easy prey for murderers, rapists and thieves. “I have to work. Life here is very harsh,” she says. But Mariam is lucky, as she does not have to leave the camp.

To create opportunities for women like Mariam, an SOS Family Center directed by SOS Children’s Villages in Abu Shouk now offers craft courses for single mothers. These women learn how to weave baskets and how to produce other commodities that they can sell in the camp. Some work as baby sitters at the SOS nursery, while others cook for the children. Mariam is in a safe place today.

And finally, our next stop is you. We want you to be with us on this special day. Whether you are a woman or a man, we can all recognize the achievements of women and mothers in our lives. SOS is uniquely positioned to draw from a large world Village Mothers, who are the real backbone of our work. Without these Mothers, who care for up to ten children at a time, SOS children would not grow up in a real family environment.


Source: SOS Children’s Villages

Foreign officials suspected of rights abuses should be deported

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WASHINGTON (Somalilandpress) — IN THE SUMMER of 1988, Aziz Deria had left Somalia and was living in the United States when he heard the horrible news: His father, Mohamed, and brother, Mustafa, had apparently been dragged from their home and murdered by Somali soldiers intent on killing members of the Isaaq clan.

Mr. Deria, now a U.S. citizen, and four others who say they were tortured or lost loved ones to alleged abuses by Somali forces took their grievances to a U.S. court. Relying on the Torture Victim Protection Act, they filed a civil suit against Mohamed Ali Samantar, former Somali defense and prime minister and the man they believe is responsible for the bloodshed.

Mr. Samantar is a permanent legal resident who now lives in Northern Virginia. He argues that the case should be dismissed and points to a U.S. law that, with a few exceptions, shields foreign governments from such lawsuits. The Supreme Court heard the case on Wednesday.

Mr. Deria and the other plaintiffs share heartbreaking stories, but they should not be allowed to go forward with their suit. As a matter of policy, such suits risk intrusions on foreign relations prerogatives of the executive; they also undermine the U.S. ability to protect its officials from litigation overseas.
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As a matter of law, the U.S. government has long argued — and courts have recognized — that foreign officials, as well as foreign states, could not be subject to civil suits in the United States. Filing suit against an individual acting in his official capacity, courts reasoned, was the equivalent of filing suit against the state itself. The 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which protects a “foreign state,” including any state “agency or instrumentality,” should be read as incorporating these principles.

The Torture Victim Protection Act — passed years after the foreign immunities law — makes no mention of stripping accused officials of protection against suit. This omission is telling: When Congress decided that victims should be able to sue state-sponsors of terrorism, by contrast, it amended the FSIA and explicitly stripped alleged perpetrators of immunity.

Mr. Deria and the other plaintiffs argue that because Mr. Samantar is no longer in office, he should not benefit from FSIA’s protections. But it would be meaningless to protect an individual for official acts while he is in office only to make him legally vulnerable once he returns to the private sector.

Officials who engage in these abuses must be held accountable, but allowing victims to sue individuals for damages is not the answer. The Somali plaintiffs say it is deeply distressing to know that Mr. Samantar is living comfortably in the United States. The Obama administration should determine whether Mr. Samantar had a hand in the alleged abuses; if he did, his legal right to live in the United States should be rescinded and he should be deported.

Source: The Washington Post, 8 March 2010

US Firm Urges Affordable Internet Access for East Africa

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NAIROBI (Somalilandpress) — A U.S.-based organization that promotes the use of the Internet is urging leaders in east Africa to make the Internet accessible and affordable to all of their citizens. The leaders are gathering in Nairobi for a regional summit due to begin Tuesday.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) says by expanding the reach and affordability of the Internet, African countries can vastly help improve the economic future of the people on the continent.

Speaking at an ICANN-hosted Internet conference in Nairobi Monday, CEO Rod Beckstrom noted that Africa, which has 15 percent of the world’s population, is home to less than seven percent of Internet users worldwide.

“If you look at our vision of ‘One world, one Internet, everyone connected,’ it finishes with everyone connected,” said Beckstrom. “Well, there are a billion people in Africa that need to be on-line for everyone to be connected.”

According to the figures provided by African Internet providers, Internet usage in east Africa is wildly uneven. For example, more than 10 percent of the 41 million people living in Sudan use the Internet on a regular basis. But less than one-half of one percent of Ethiopia’s 85 million people has access.

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Sudan and Ethiopia, along with Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda, make up the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Heads of IGAD are due to meet on Tuesday at Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Conference Center, where the ICANN conference is also being hosted.

Beckstrom urged IGAD countries to take the lead in ending state-run telecommunications monopolies, which he says help keep Internet services unaffordable for many people. He says not having access to the Internet denies citizens the chance to engage in online commerce, a field that is growing in importance as the world becomes increasingly connected through the Internet.

“We hope the African heads of state of IGAD will walk across the hallway and join our meeting because that is a few small steps for them, but a huge leap for Africa – for more visibility and leadership of the heads of state in the Internet policy area – because the Internet is truly the developmental platform for the future,” he added.

Last July, a fiber optic cable went live off the Kenyan coast, putting the countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda on the global information superhighway for the first time.

East Africa had been the only region in the world not connected through fiber optic cables. For years, businesses suffered because they had to rely on expensive satellites to connect to the Internet. Many passed down those costs to consumers, hurting the poor in the region.

Source: VOA, 9 March 2010

University of Virginia Law Students Back Victim's Right to Sue Former Somali Leader

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WASHINGTON (Somalilandpress) — Law students in the University of Virginia’s International Human Rights Clinic have contributed to a Supreme Court amicus brief submitted by several congressional leaders that supports the right to sue former government officials for acts of torture.

“The clinic is integrally involved in important cases that are going all the way to the Supreme Court,” clinic director Deena Hurwitz said. “We’ve been involved in this case since it was first appealed to the Fourth Circuit.”

Hurwitz and Alexa Taylor, a second-year law student who worked on the case, traveled to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to hear oral arguments in the case, Yousef v. Samantar, the first lawsuit to address atrocities in Somalia under the Said Barre regime. The clinic consulted on the Supreme Court brief authored by Sen. Arlen Specter and joined by Sen. Russell Feingold and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

The clinic first became involved in the case at the federal appellate level, when the students and Hurwitz drafted an amicus brief on behalf of the plaintiffs for the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which was signed by Jackson Lee and international law professors.

The plaintiffs, including torture victims and relatives of victims, sued former Somali Minister of Defense and Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991. The act allows plaintiffs to file civil suits in the United States against those who, acting in an official capacity for any foreign nation, were responsible for torture or extrajudicial killing.

The plaintiffs argued that Samantar, now living in Fairfax, was responsible for the human rights abuses perpetrated by his subordinates during the Barre Regime in the 1980s.
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“The clinic wrote the Fourth Circuit amicus brief on congressional intent – what Congress intended when they drafted the Torture Victim Protection Act,” Hurwitz said. “The Fourth Circuit upheld the plaintiffs’ claim that Samantar was not entitled to statutory immunity.”

Samantar argued that he was immune under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and appealed his case to the Supreme Court.

“This is a defense that has been raised pretty consistently,” Hurwitz said. “It’s unclear what happens when a person leaves office. Are they protected for any act that they took while they were in office? Torture is categorically illegal, so it’s one of those conundrums – if it’s an illegal act, how can it be condoned as an official act? It’s really been an issue that’s been begging for legal clarity.”

The courts have disagreed on the answer.

“There was a circuit split on this issue as to whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act meant that individuals who had been in government at the time of committing torture or at the time of suit are therefore immune from prosecution,” said Taylor, who worked on revising a version of the brief for the Supreme Court, along with third-year law student Joelle Perry and second-year law student John White.

Taylor said Samantar could argue that he was subject to common law immunities or immunities codified by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, but his case was based on the latter.

Through their research, the students concluded that the Torture Victim Protection Act was not designed to conflict with the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The brief argues that to extend FSIA immunity to foreign government officials responsible for torture would effectively nullify the TVPA.

“The correct interpretation of the text itself, based on both the structure of the text and the legislative history, is that sovereign immunity applies to states and their agents and instrumentalities, but is not meant to reach individuals. So individuals can still be held liable under the Torture Victim Protection Act,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s first trip to see the Supreme Court allowed her to see her own research in action.

“Clinical education is such a wonderful thing – being able to go and see the tangible outcome of how the issues we researched are actually argued, how court proceedings actually work, how you enter in arguments and prepare briefs for cases is so valuable,” Taylor said. “I’m really excited to watch the argument and see how this background information we spent so much time accumulating is used in practice.”

Source: the University of Virginia, 9 March 2010

DANGEROUS FRONTIERS: Campaigning in Somaliland and Oman

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In Part 1 of his book the author describes his life as a young officer in the Somaliland Scouts in the (then) British Protectorate of Somaliland. At that time tribal quarrels, generally over water, were taking place in the troubled strip of country between the Protectorate and Ethiopia; the Ogaden. It was the Scouts’ difficult task to keep the warring clansmen apart. It gives a vivid account of a nineteen-year-old in command of Somali troops in a fascinating and unpredictable country.

The second part of the book deals with the Author’s second period of service with Muslims, a quarter of a century later. This time in the Southern Province of Oman – Dhofar. Here he commanded the Northern Frontier Regiment of the Sultan’s Armed Force in a limited but fierce war against Communist Insurgents. It shows how the tide was turned against a brave enemy fighting on their home ground – the savage wadis and cliffs of the jebel.

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Dangerous Frontiers will appeal to a wide audience, including those interesting in military and world history and in those two little known areas – the Horn of Africa and Southern Oman. In both campaigns it reflects the mutual liking and respect that the handful of British officers had for their Muslim soldiers and the soldiers for their leaders. It is written with humor and an understanding of other cultures.

To buy the book you can go to Amazon.com in this link: Order the Book

Source: Omantraders

SOMALIA: Poverty Pushes Bosasso Children On To Streets

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BOSASSO, (Somalilandpress) — A long civil war, frequent droughts, unemployment and high food prices have led to an increase in the number of street children in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia’s self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, with NGOs and government officials calling for urgent steps to resolve the problem.

“In the past, most of the children on the streets of Bosasso were from south-central Somalia,” said Muse Ghele, governor of Bari region. “Now we are noticing more and more locals both from urban and rural areas.”

Between 4,500 and 5,500 children are on Bosasso’s streets, according to the governor.

Abdulaziz Mohamed Hamud, child protection consultant with OxfamNovib, told IRIN: “You have to understand that numbers of street children are estimates and could be even higher… There are no exact figures but the numbers seem to be increasing daily.”

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Young providers

The children, according to Abdihakim Farah Arush, chairman of the Bari Child Protection Network (BCPN), fall into two categories: those who work to help their families, mostly local and internally displaced (IDPs) who go home at night; as well as those who sleep on the street, mostly substance abusers.

The reasons for the children being on the street vary, he said. Many of those from south-central Somalia were separated from their families on their way north while others end up on the streets to help their families, or fend for themselves.

Shoe-shining and car-washing, serving as porters or washing sacks in the market are the jobs of most of the street boys in Bosasso.

Arush said while most street children were boys, more and more girls were joining them, cleaning business premises or people’s homes. Some children as young as two or three were put on the streets to beg by desperate families.


Photo: Abdi Hassan/IRIN
Abdullahi Said, 12, says he is trying to help his family

Hamud of OxfamNovib said most of the children suffered abuse and physical violence. “Many of them have the scars as proof. On the street at night they are easy prey with no one to protect them.”

Risks

Many have been infected with “all sort of diseases, such as TB, skin diseases; while many others suffer from malnutrition. Most don’t know what they suffer from,” Hamud added.

Abdullahi Said, 12, is on the street because he has to help his mother with his three younger siblings. He collects garabo (leftover khat) and sells it to those who cannot afford the good khat or he shines shoes. On average, he takes home 30,000 Somali shillings (about US$1) a day.

“What I make from garabo and shining shoes is what I take home to help my mother feed us,” he told IRIN. Said’s father died in 2009 so the responsibility of helping his mother care for the family fell on him.

“My mother used to go to the market and do any job she could find but now she cannot even do that. She just had the baby,” he said.

There are no agencies that help the street children directly, said Hamud.

Arush’s agency is part of a child protection network in Puntland. “Unfortunately we cannot provide material support but we advocate for them and when we get information that they are in trouble we try to intervene,” Arush said.

Hamud said a lot more was needed to help the children. “First, serious assessments need to be carried out to determine the extent of the problem,” he said. Many of the older children were turning to crime. “They not only pose a security, but also a social, risk. We need to address their needs as a matter of great urgency.”

Legal intervention needed

He said Puntland should have a separate juvenile justice system to deal with child offenders. “Now, children arrested by the police end up in the same cells as adults, where they are vulnerable to abuse.”

He said those involved in child protection were trying to lobby the legislature for a Juvenile Justice Law, aimed at guaranteeing children’s rights, so that children would no longer be kept in jail with adults or tried in adult courts.

“Agencies and local authorities should do everything possible to provide them with an alternative to the streets.”

Governor Ghele said the authorities had identified a site to build a home for the children but did not have the financial resources to build and operate it. “We need a lot of support if we are going to put them in safe homes,” he said.

Source: IRIN, 9 March 2010

CANADA: Islamic School Is On ‘A Mission’

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OTTAWA (Somalilandpress) — It’s 10 a.m., and the bell for morning recess rings at Abraar School.

Students don their winter coats and boots before heading out onto the sunny playground at the Bayshore-area elementary school.

As they pass principal Moussa Ouarou in the hall, they call him “Brother Moussa” and offer a polite Arabic greeting: Salaam alaikum — Peace be upon you.

Ouarou greets the students in return, smiles and sends them on their way.

“That sense of brotherhood creates the atmosphere that makes everyone comfortable for performing,” he says.

It seems to be working.

The Abraar School, an Islamic private school celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, placed fourth among Ottawa-area schools on the Fraser Institute’s annual ranking of Ontario elementary schools.

The top three schools are Nepean’s Laurier-Carrière, Stephen Leacock in Kanata and Osgoode public school.

The 2010 report is based on the results of standardized reading, writing and math testing in Grades 3 and 6, conducted in the 2008/09 school year.

Abraar School offers what it calls an “Islamic education for a new generation.” High academic achievement is combined with developing and preserving the Islamic identity and instilling a deep sense of citizenship in its 245 students from junior kindergarten to Grade 8.

Prospective students entering Grades 2 or higher must pass math and language tests and submit a recent report card before being accepted to the school. The school can’t take all children whose parents want to send them: it can’t accommodate students with learning disabilities and doesn’t have proper facilities for students with physical disabilities. Annual tuition ranges from $3,150 to $4,050 per year depending on the division.

The school day lasts from 8:20 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. to accommodate extra classes — Arabic language, Islamic studies and Koran classes — without taking away from the basics.

“We take learning very seriously,” the principal says.

The school is owned by the Muslim Association of Canada and run by a volunteer board. Because the association operates a number of schools in across the country, the board can lean on the expertise of others when developing school policies.

“Having a national view of things helps us share experiences, learn from others and allows others to learn from our experiences — what works, what doesn’t work,” says board member Ahmad Ammar.

Islam calls on followers to make a positive contribution to their societies, but Ammar says it can be difficult for

people from different cultural backgrounds to feel as though they are making a contribution to Canada, often because of language barriers.

For children born and raised in Canada, the school is trying to overcome some of the integration challenges their parents might have faced, while at the same time maintaining the core values and identity of Ottawa’s Muslim community.

That can be a challenge in modern North American society, but Ouarou says it’s one other religious schools share.

“Kids need guidance. When you go to the outside world, everything is accessible and everything is permittable, so they need some guidelines.”

At Abraar, teachers and support staff are committed to providing that guidance in a warm, nurturing way.

“This is not just a job, this is not just a way to pay the bills, this is a mission,” Ammar says.

Ouarou agrees, adding the school has come this far because the belief in its mission — held by staff, parents and students alike — is firm.
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In September 2000, Abraar School began offering full-time classes in a rented community centre off Rideau Street. There were 90 students.

Volunteers went in early every morning to set up the classroom and returned in the afternoon to take it all down in order to accommodate other activities at the centre.

The school moved to its own building on Navan Road in 2002, but that location put it on the opposite side of the city from where much of the Muslim community lives in the west end.

The next year, the school moved to its current location on Grenon Avenue, which it purchased from the region’s French Catholic school board.

In 2005, the school made headlines after an essay glorifying martyrdom and violence against Jews was made public. Two investigators from the province’s Ministry of Education said the essay, and the approving comments from two teachers, did not represent a systemic problem at the school.

Abraar’s administration has since closely monitored teachers to ensure the school’s policies are being followed, Ammar says.

During the school day, winter boots are lined up neatly in the main hall, which is painted canary yellow and features bulletin boards brimming with stories, poems and art projects created by students. On one board, colourful pipecleaners are bent in every direction to create the forms of Olympic athletes in motion.

In the gym, people are setting up for a Koran competition, in which top students from each class will be asked to recite specific passages from memory.

If there is a challenge facing administrators at Abraar, it’s space. The school is currently at full capacity except for Grades 6, 7 and 8. Ammar says it’s a question the board will continue to wrestle with — how to grow and serve more people in the community.

A few years from now, the first Abraarians — kids who went to the school all the way from kindergarten to Grade 8 — will graduate from high school. Raisa Lokman is one of them.

Now 14 and a Grade 9 student at Bell High School, Raisa went to Abraar from senior kindergarten to Grade 8. Her older sister also graduated from the school, her younger sister is currently in Grade 5 and her youngest sister starts in September.

The teachers, she says, helped create a family environment, challenged students with material that went beyond their years and instilled a mix of professional and study skills.

Raisa was nervous about the transition to high school, but soon realized she had nothing to worry about. She could handle it.

“(The teachers) helped us every step of the way,” she says. “It was really hard to let go. I wish they had an Abraar high school.”

Photograph:Yahya Mohamed listens intently to his teacher in his grade three class at the Muslim Association of Canada’s Abraar school (Julie Oliver/The Ottawa Citizen).

Source: The Ottawa Citizen, 8 March 2010

Iran Calls for Regular Multilateral Meetings on Somali Crisis

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Nairobi, 8 March 2010 (Somalilandpress) – Somalia, Kenya and members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) welcomed Iran’s proposal for attending regular meetings to solve the crisis in Somalia.

According to the proposal, raised by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, was endorsed at a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Iran, Kenya and Somali and IGAD Secretary-General Mahmoud Ma’alemin in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday.

During the meeting, Mottaki referred to Iran’s humanitarian aids to Somalia, and said the Islamic Republic has made extensive efforts to restore peace and stability in the country.

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IGAD’s secretary-general, for his part, appreciated Iran’s efforts in this regard, and said, “These efforts are approved and supported by IGAD and we hope that IGAD’s efforts along with Iran’s supports would yield positive results.”

Also, Somali foreign minister urged IGAD member states to continue their consultations with Iran and utilize Iran’s views, positions and potentials in international bodies to soothe the crisis.

“Assistance of countries like Iran, given their rich and valuable experiences, is effective and useful for resolving this conflict,” he added.


Source: Fars News Agency

SOMALILAND: Edna at Women in the World Summit

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Edna Adan will visit New York City next weekend to participate in the Daily Beast’s Women in the World Summit and she will appear on one of the panels.

The following is from Tina Brown, editor of The Daily Beast

Now, I’m thrilled to announce The Daily Beast will be producing a compelling live event that focuses in depth on powerful human stories about women. We will showcase leaders on the frontlines working on innovative solutions to challenges ranging from sex slavery to girls’ education in the developing world to women caught in the violence of war zones.

Our first annual Women in the World summit will take place at The Hudson Theatre at Millennium Broadway in New York City March 12-14. The gathering will include women pioneers in government, media, social activism, business, and the arts.

It’s shaping up to be an incredibly exciting three days of provocative political discussion, dramatic presentations, and fiery debate, featuring such terrific participants as Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan; former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright; Thomas L. Friedman; Katie Couric; Meryl Streep; Prajwala founder and anti-trafficking activist Sunitha KrishNan; Chouchou Namegabe, the Congolese anti-rape activist and journalist; Kakenya Ntaiya, the founder of girls’ schools in Kenya; Afghan women’s activist Suraya Pakzad; Barbara Walters; Christiane Amanpour; French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde; former British first lady and human-rights lawyer Cherie Blair; Ann Livermore, HP’s executive vice president of enterprise business; former foreign affairs minister of Somaliland and maternal and child health activist Edna Adan Ismail; Ching Eikenberry, wife of the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan; U.S. Ambassador for Counter-Trafficking Luis CdeBaca; Pamela Darwin, vice president of geoscience for ExxonMobil; U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer; Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush; Zambian economist and aid expert Dambisa Moyo; Kathy Bushkin Calvin, CEO of the U.N. Foundation; the Acumen Fund’s Jacqueline Novogratz; Women for Women International founder Zainab Salbi; Tostan founder Molly Melching; Daily Beast Pakistan correspondent Fatima Bhutto; Sallie Krawcheck, Bank of America’s president of global wealth and investment management; Dina Habib Powell, Goldman Sachs’ director of global corporate engagement; philanthropist Jill Iscol; and many, many more.


Source: The Daily Beast

'Somaliland Can Not Be Recognized As an Independent State' – TFG

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Mogadishu, 7 March 2010 (Somalilandpress) – The authorities of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia have said that the breakaway republic of Somaliland can not be recognized as an independent state, just as Israel said recently it gave identification to Somaliland administration, officials told Shabelle radio on Thursday.

Abdiwahid Abdi Gonjeh, the deputy prime minister of the transitional government of Somalia told reporters in Mogadishu that Somaliland is one of the Somali administrations in the horn of African state saying that they can not break from the other Somalis.

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Mr. Gonjeh said that there is no government or group that Somaliland or the other administrations in country could identify as a self-governing state disproving statement from a spokesman of foreign ministry of Israel who said that the Jews recognizes Somaliland.

“The news form Israel is baseless propaganda. It is not also clear that news from the foreign minister of Israel. I do not know where the journalists had quoted that news,” said Abdiwahid Gonjeh.

Lastly the deputy prime minister of the transitional government Mr. Abdiwahid Abdi Gonjeh said that there was difference between the Somali government and administrations saying that a mediating process was continuing to end the divergences.

Somaliland, a breakaway republic of Somaliland had announced a self-governing state in 1991 as the former Somali president Mohamed Siad Barre’s government collapsed and since then Somaliland was seeking a recognition which was not achieved yet.


Source: Shabelle radio

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