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Remembrance Day for those who lost their lives for the sake of SL Independence.

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Ottawa, 19 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) Remembrance Day for those who lost their lives for the sake of SL Independence Somaliland is remembering the brave men and women who lost their lives in the struggle for independence and for the freedom and peace we are enjoying today. October 17th is worth remembering for many reasons.
Somaliland and its people have been in dark ages for so many years. But we have never been terrorized before Barre’s regime. We remember the draconian measures imposed on us after the SNM increased its pressure on the regime. We remember the indiscriminate raids and bombing campaigns which killed so many innocent people and destroyed Hargeisa to the ground and made it to like a deserted city.

After the collapse of the Government in Somalia, the SNM has declared independence with the presidency of Abdirahman Tuur (God bless him). There was a period of instability when the SNM unfortunately over stepped its success and put pressure on some communities they suspected as collaborators of Barre’s regime. Many innocent people who deserve to be remembered died from the SNM guns. However, after two ineffective years, clan elders gathered in Borama to diffuse the distrust and uncertainty created by SNM. They changed Abdirahman Tuur with Egal( God bless both men).

Peace has started with Egal. He put the country on the road to independence, reconciled grievances among the disillusioned groups and made Somaliland to recover from the dark events in the past. He started the process by which democracy rules over the elders and democratically elected leaders take control but he passed away before he implemented the process.

After Egal’s death, his vice president and the current President, Mr. Rayaale, has put forward the agenda for elections to take place at local, legislative and Presidential levels. The present three political parties have been competing for the presidency since then.

There are many challenges ahead. All other challenges can be reached locally if our leaders are working for our interest by being patient for the political process to take its course peacefully and democratically in Somaliland. But the most important of all is the process for recognition. We can get the long sought recognition if we are united and respect each other. It is a long process to achieve but at end we can win that price if the hardcore SNM groups swallow their pride and we-died-for-it mentality and let the process of democracy to be completed peacefully and with less mistrust among people.
Remembrance Day for veterans is not a day for politics but a day of prayers for those who died for our independence. Whether they died from the bullet of the regime and/or from SNM, they deserve to have a special place in history. It is also a day for advocating for those who lost their loved ones in the struggle. Among those are the disabled Veterans, widows, and the orphans.

It is clear from their speeches of politicians who spoken in the occasion that our politicians cannot resist politicizing every event. Those who spoke in the memorial ceremony were all trying to gain political points on the expenses of those who died for our freedom. Shame on them! It is time to reflect our suffering in general and in particular to pray for those who lost their lives for our independence. Those politicians who wanted to gain a point are indifferent to our cause and do not deserve to be in that ceremony. The remnants from the Hardcore of SNM must also be reminded to not waste time in indulgence of their previous bravery and sacrifices but focus on the many local, regional, and international issues facing us at this moment and in future.

God Bless those who died in our struggle for independence

Mohamed Mousa
Canada.
mmousa@rogers.com

Eritrea fanning conflict in region.

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One of the frustrations with which Africa’s friends have had to repeatedly cope over the years has been the seemingly utter incapacity of the African leaders to deal with their more problematic peers: witness the annual African Union (AU) summit’s literal embrace of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe last year on the very morrow of a farcical “re-election” criticised the pan-African organisation’s own monitors or, with a few honourable exceptions, its circling of the wagons around Sudanese despot Umar Hassan al-Bashir earlier this year after the International Criminal Court indicted him for crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the humanitarian disaster in Darfur.

Thus it is even more bitterly disappointing when, on the few rare occasions the continent’s leaders do manage to get their act together and turn against one of their own, as they did this year with Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki—whose regime has not only supported a terrorist-led Islamist insurgency in Somalia, but been implicated in numerous efforts to destabilise countries throughout the Horn of Africa—that their efforts have been largely ignored, to the detriment of both the African states immediately bearing the brunt of the assaults from Asmara and the broader security interests of the international community.

While, for the moment, the ongoing conflict in southern and central Somalia is perhaps the most urgent crisis in which Eritrea’s meddling has worsened the situation, it is by no means the only one in the subregion being stoked by Isaias Afewerki.

In April 2008, Eritrean troops crossed the border into Djibouti and fortified positions near Ras Doumeira on the Red Sea.

Two months later, Djiboutian forces came under fire from the Eritreans, sparking a brief conflict during which Djibouti received logistical support and intelligence from its former colonial power, France, which maintains a not insignificant military presence in the country as does the US Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), based at Camp Lemonier.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that Isaias Afewerki was willing to pick a fight with Djibouti, a tiny statelet the size of Massachusetts with a population of barely half a million.

Just a decade ago, he was just as prepared to commence hostilities with Ethiopia, a country whose population of 85 million is fifteen times the size of Eritrea’s and with a GDP is at least twenty times larger.

The resulting two-year war—which an international panel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled in a 2005 decision to have been due to Eritrea’s violation of international law “by resorting to armed force on May 12, 1998 and the immediately following days to attack and occupy the town of Badme, then under peaceful administration” by Ethiopia—left at least 100,000 dead and cost untold billions of dollars in damages.

Regrettably, it is not only that repeated appeals from African regional organisations have not only fallen on deaf ears, but there seems to be evidence that of a wilful refusal to face the reality of the situation.

Two weeks ago, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon submitted to the Security Council the semi-annual report on Somalia that he has been tasked with preparing.

Astoundingly, in a twenty-page document that is supposed to access the Somalia’s political and security situation, Eritrea is mentioned only once and then only to report without comment US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s August 6 admonishment that “with respect to Eritrea we are making it very clear that their actions are unacceptable their interference with the rights of the Somali people to determine their own future are the height of misplaced efforts and funding and we intend to take action if they do not cease.”

The UN chief devoted more space in the document to expressing concern about illegal exports of livestock and charcoal from Somalia and bemoaning human and drug smuggling.

No wonder on astute observer, Jacob Heilbrunn, in a hard-hitting analysis in the July/August issue of Foreign Policy, characterised Ban as “nowhere man,” “the world’s most dangerous Korean,” and “a dilettante on the international stage,” noting that, even in the undistinguished company of his immediately predecessors, Ban “appears to have set the standard for failure.”

Pham is senior fellow and director of the Africa Project at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York City.

Did The US Ambassador Agree To A Quid Pro Quo With Puntland?

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HARGEISA, 19 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Nairobi, Kenya, October 17, 2009 (SL Times) – Puntland administration recently announced that it allowed Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts in its territory. Under normal circumstances this should be considered good news, until one reads the news release by the Puntland regional administration in which it states that the reason it gave permission to the VOA was because US Ambassador to Kenya has agreed to attend a conference of the Puntland diaspora in the US.

In other words, according to the Puntland authorities, there was a quid pro quo in which the US ambassador was supposed to attend the conference of the Puntlanders in exchange for Puntland allowing voa broadcasts in its territory. If this is not blackmail, we don’t what is.

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Anyone who has closely followed the behavior of Puntland’s successive administrations, would not be surprised that the current Puntland administration has engaged in pure blackmail. But what is surprising is that neither the organizers of the diaspora conference nor the American ambassador have repudiated the Puntland administration’s statement.
Just to dispel any doubts, here is the relevant part of the press release by the Puntland government:

“His Excellency, the President of Puntland State, granted the VOA Somali Service to resume its news broadcasting operations in Puntland today as a good gesture to US Ambassador to Kenya HE Michael E. Renneberger’s participation at the Puntland Diaspora Forum Conference to be held in the US State of Minnesota, 10 – 12 October 2009.”


Source: Somaliland Times

Change in Somaliland is bound to happen

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South Africa 19 October 2009 (Somalilandpress)-I’ve read many interesting articles encouraging socio-political change in Somaliland written by eminent academics and opinion leaders Below is my humble input on change in the socio-political system of Somaliland.

Somaliland needs hope and not hope for bread and butter but hope for real change, change that will transform the lives of all individuals. Our democracy has failed in the hands of chain of politicians. Our democracy is not democratic. People are falling in despair and the young are devoid of hope. Somaliland is not what it is today. What we see is blatant incompetence of the current government and its power hungry constituency.

Somaliland needs change in economic policies and social policies.

We have a reputable record of failure in governance and probably a leading traveling president fruits of which are unseen and unavailable. We funded as a poor malfunctioning state the life of a man who is doing nothing about the primary concern of a starving nation. Somalilanders have a dream too…a dream that one hopes will see us through life in Somaliland, a dream that will answer the questions the poor have about their own lives, and the life of their own country.

Elections are nearing and the current president because of his power hungry horse will contest and probably win because we have an imagined democracy. In a democratic country with a right thinking president we see real change, a change that resonates the living ideals of the nation. More Somalilanders think of themselves as a leadless nation and I’m certain that I may be thought of as negative and despondent and if correctly assumed I am, it is because of the current government. We do need change and the sort of change that will answer our economic questions. I believe a way to a functional democracy will be paved if we vote the current incompetence out and we vote competence and real change in. On that note, be mindful that I have a dream and but not dark as the current constituency.

In Africa to change a president required couple of heads and villages being burned, people being chased all over, but recently South Africa democracy has established a firm principle that we don’t need to do that to change the president. All we need is a democratic vote to change the current leadership and enforce governance with a new constituency. We have clearly suffered as a nation from the current president and we can equally do a Mbeki on the current president. Mbeki was distinguished globally as the versatile statesman but internal policy on AIDS was a blatant failure and as such ignored primary responsibility which was leading South Africa into greater prosperity. We can speak in one democratic voice and bring change that Americans are hoping for and which South Africans are seeing as we speak.

A national dialogue about change needs to be effected. In the light of those factors, I once again say: change is possible; it begins with compassion for Somaliland.

Thank you for your deligence

Regards
Saeed Furaa.
South Africa

Illegal Immigration (Tahriib); a Journey through Hell without Hope!!!

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HARGEISA, 18 October 2009 (Somalilandpress)-During the last two decades, thousands of Somali modern generation walks have lost their priceless lives in the dark wavy oceans between Africa and the other world! The question is__ how many more are ready yet to spend their money on the same death ticket?
In the Somali history, immigration to an expatriate country was informal among the Somali male community and extremely social taboo for their female counterparts. Only few men were known to had been immigrants to a foreign country not because for seeking a better life, but a knowledge, job or business. During the early 1970s when the prolonged droughts hit had in the Somaliland regions immigration to the gulf countries started under the incentives of the then kings and Emirs of the gulf at large. Many families we see today in these countries are of the immigrants of the said era. However, this modern and deadly fashion of life-disposal is the outcome of the unstoppable merciless civil wars in Somalia and of course, the meagre job opportunities in Somaliland albeit it is relatively stable and peaceful country.
Tahriib history.
In 1991, when the central government of Somalia collapsed, a huge number of refugees had crossed the seas between Somalia and Yemen for seeking refuge from the erupted hostilities between the major clans, many of which had lost their lives within their fleeing vessels in the seas. On the other hand, as the problems in Somalia unfolds one after another and peace and reconciliation level of expectations narrows; disappointment and hopelessness overshadows the younger generations by waving the bath for illegal exodus by what so ever means! In the mid 1990s, illegal immigrations had opened its doors flooding into many countries in Africa and the other world out. Immigration to Europe by way of Ethiopia, Sudan and finally Libya has became the zigzag root to the hell for many; left their traces unknown, but their images still nocks in the hearts and minds of their beloved parents.
The impact of sorrow and imbitterment of this disastrous but unprecedented way of journey (tahriib) lies under the houses of many families that literally changed the shape of their lives, the solution of which is so long conundrum. Notwithstanding, as many immigrants with their boats including the last two of Togdheer brothers and sisters are unaccounted for__ Tahriib-bound transports (sea and land) are still jam-packed with hundreds of young illegal immigrants right from Somaliland major cities, where as the border to border human traffickers in the region are busy like the bees to get their malignant jobs accomplished. One of the most heart-racketing Tahriib shames has recently happened in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where 16 female immigrants all from Somaliland have been arrested from their trafficker’s vehicle by Saudi police patrol officers and still are in their custody. Unlike Somalia, Somaliland’s younger generations are dying from several reasons including that of their parents’ apart from the other superfluous facts. It is unacceptable to hear that parents usually have hands-in-glove with their youngsters’ Tahriib__ like supplying money and other facilities to have won them sent to Europe through such a horrible and foolish adventures. Many fixed properties including houses and shops have been auctioned by many parents in the best interest of sending their children to the abroad, the return of which could never be capitalized as it underlies erroneous perceptions.

The question is; in whose hands are all these problems happening? People have different views on this issue__ some are of the view that all these are happening in the hands of the weak and powerless government__ where as others would argue that the hidden agenda is the lackadaisical livelihood in the country. Perhaps, both views of the people are the two faces of the same coin, as weak government yields only a poor standard of life and vice versa. One should be boldly addressed__ that people are the government and the government is the people; that the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow and leaders of today are the veterans of tomorrow__ without them we would not have been where we are today. According to my point of evaluation, we must actively confront with this satanic way of committing to suicide, as every one of us is responsible to a certain level, individual or group; we have to bring it to an end by the help of our collective force including the watchful media (Newspapers, tv’s, radios, websites and blogospheres). We must join and strengthen the campaign of Tahriib awareness that started by the schools of Burao to let the youngsters know about the horror repercussions of Tahriib and install the values and richness of their country’s wealth and future endeavours.

Before I conclude inking this piece of writing, I would like to advice the youth with the suspension of spending their money on silent-death-prescription (Tahriib). The president (Mr. Reyale) and the hopefuls (Mr. Faiysal and Silanyo) expressed that their tension of it has reached far beyond the boiling point and hence pressing an ultimatum strategy. Let us help with their abrogative strategy; Let us join hands to fight with Tahriib; let us fight for the future of our home and people.
It’s said that picture worth thousand words__ to grasp more about what we’ve said on Tahriib, please do watch this video clip in these links below to let yourself be convinced with the level of destitution, risk and result it underlies!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=megtSzU0Ayg&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ78e-nGH4s&feature=relatedMay ALLAAH (SWT) bless our people and country all…………. aamiin

By: Khadar Hanan
E-mail: khadarhanan@gmail.com
Doha, Qatar
Posted on Sunday-18-Oct-09

Somali week Festival 2009

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HARGEISA, 18 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Kayd Somali Arts and Culture Presents:

Somali Week Festival 2009

Friday 23 October to 31 October 2009Oxford House

Derbyshire Street, London, E2 6HG

Kayd Somali Arts and culture in partnership with REDSEA-ONLINE.COM, and a range of national, international and local community organisations is pleased to present the Somali Week Festival as part of Black History Month. Somali Week offers the best of Somali culture both old and new, through an eclectic mix of events including, poetry, literature and music. This year’s Somali Week Festivalwill focus on Censorship.

The SWF is an established festival within the Somali communities in London, nationally and internationally. It celebrates and explores the uniqueness of Somali art and culture. The festival will showcase this year mix of poetry, prose literature, Plays and music.


The festival will be launched by the Deputy Mayor of London, Richard Barnes and Ahmed Saleebaan Bidde

We are proudly expecting a range of guests including renowned Somali and non-Somali artists, academics and commentators: Amina Abdilahi, Boon hirsi, Ali Banfaz, Mahamed Jama Kayd, Ahmed Saleebaan Bidde. Said Salah Ahmed, Rashid Sheekh Abdullahi, Sheikh Mahamoud Sheikh Dalmar, Maxamed Hasan “Alto”, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Cllr Ahmed A. Omer, Hudaydi, Dararamle, Abdirahman Yusuf Arten, Warsan Cismaan Saalax, Sa’id Jamac, Suad Armiye, Shukri Sha’ni, Jaango, Ali Seenyo, Beeldaaje, Suldaan, Keyse Mohamed Yusuf, Maryan Mursal, Nimo Degan, Gaadaco, Farhaan Xidig, Abdifitaah yare, Prince Abdi, Ismail Aw-adan Ahmed Abdillahi , Abdalah Shafey, Aisha Lul , Warsan Shire., Abdi Bahdoon, Michael Newman, Global Citizenship Schools Project Worker from Tower Hamlets council, Lynn Fredriksson from Amnesty International, Abdiraxman Abees, Mustafe TIT, Beeldaaje, Aar Band, Kaltun Bacado, Yusuf Dheere Jookhle, Abdi-aziiz Ali Ibrahim Xildhibaan, Abdurrahman “Abees” Durta, Faysal Aw Abdi Anbalash, Abdilahi Awed Igeh, Ahmed Abdilahi , Awale, Abdalle Ismaan Shafey, Abdirahmaan Mahamed Abtidoon, Umar haaji-Bile Aadan, Jama Musse Jama, Mahamed Baashe H Hassan, Martin Orwin, Said Ali Shire,

The international aspect of the festival is an important continued development and partnership work with artists and organisations in Somali speaking territories.


For more information about the festival programme visit www.kayd.org or call 07903 712 949, please email ; ayan_mahamoud@kayd.org

Click Here to Download the Schedule: Somali Week festival 2009 – Schedule

Somalia: Alshabaab—“If Your Breasts Ain’t Bouncing, You Must Get Whipped”

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HARGEISA, 17 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Ridiculous! You would think. Welcome to Alshabaab’s world. Imagine strolling along the road with your mother, sisters, and wife. And as if you have violated some kind of a pedestrian rule (not a traffic law) Alshabaab zealots pull you to the side. And then just as police officers inspect vehicles, the Alshabaab zealots scrutinize your beloved family female members. Worse yet, just as the law enforcement officers focus on the licenses plates, Alshabaab inspects your mother, sisters, and wife’s breasts. To add insult to injury, the ignorant Western Media not only reports the barbaric events but also states that Alshabaab is enforcing Islamic Sharia Law. What an insult! What a disinformation!

Somali women have been suffering in the hands of rapists, gangs, and warlords for two decades. Today, many of the criminals who have in the past brutally raped Somali girls as young as seven-years old have miraculously found a “religion” that exonerates them from their crimes and permits them to humiliate Somali women. No! No! This religion is not Islam. It is a new cult introduced by Alshabaab.

Just like David Koresh’s cult of Waco, Texas, U.S.A have commanded diehard zealots in the name of upholding “Christian” values and managed to massacre innocent people, similarly Alshabaab in the name of protecting “Islam” has its zealots and continues to slaughter the Somali people and humiliate Somali women.

But the indignation caused by Alshabaab respects no bounds. Alshabaab now stops Somali women and girls on the streets and forces them to shake their boobs. And if the breasts don’t bounce, these women receive public whipping. How dare their breasts defy gravity? Worse yet, Alshabaab forces them to remove their bras because according to the Alshabaab cult bras are against the Islamic dress code.

That is, any woman whose breasts look firm or defy the laws gravity must be stopped and forced to shake her boobs just like a Western stripper does. Ooh lord have mercy on the Somali people!

Alshabaab’s war against not Ethiopia but Somali women’s breasts reminds me a humours story about bras in Mogadishu. A nomadic man once visited his older brother in Mogadishu. The older brother then took his nomadic brother to the busiest shopping center in Mogadishu. As they were strolling along, the newcomer spotted a pair of bras. He was intrigued by their shape. After inspecting them, the nomadic man asked his brother: “Areey waxaan maxaa waaye…what are these, pointing his finger at the bras?” The brother, the city resident: “Areey rujubeeto waaye…they are bras”. The bewildered nomadic man asks: “Areey rujubeeto xay tartaa…what is the purpose of bras?” The city resident: “Areey walax raaracay roojisaa…they hold in place something that hangs.”

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Now, the story of the brothers and the bras may be funny and innocent, but Alshabaab’s conduct is offensive and un-Islamic. The two brothers because of their enormous respect towards women, they could not even say the word: breast. Yet today, Alshabaab removes bras from women and forces them to shake their breasts in the middle of the road. Baffling!

Also, through the eyes of Alshabaab, the Somali women’s traditional headdress that they have been wearing for hundreds of years all of a sudden is perceived as un-Islamic dress. Again, women as old as 65 years have been flogged in public and humiliated by Alshabaab. Some of them have been hospitalised. What is their crime? These women refused to replace their Somali and African traditional headdress with an imported dress code. http://tinyurl.com/yzhh6a3Truly, Alshabaab remains offensive and destructive.

Equally offensive and ignorant, the Western Media reinforces Alshabaab cult’s evil ideologies by stating, “Alshabaab seeks to impose a strict form of Sharia Islamic law throughout Somalia.” That is, some Western captive audiences, as gullible as ever, are convinced Alshabaab is just practising Islam, nothing more, nothing less. It is just Sharia!

These Media reports are pure lies, the most shameful disinformation—a condoned Islamophobia and racism. What Alshabaab does is not according to Sharia and has nothing to do with Islam. As I have stated in on of my articles, despite the obnoxious shrills from the Western nations that Alshabaab is a threat to them, in fact Alshabaab is a blessing in disguise for the West but a curse upon the Somali people.

For one thing, to continue the Western imperial expansion in East Africa, an enemy is needed—Alshabaab. For another, to continue the relentless insults and racists attitudes towards Islam and Muslims a barbaric group that claims to be Muslim yet undertakes the most un-Islamic acts would be a double bones; Alshabaab—the latest toy for the Western Intelligence agencies—fits the description perfectly. See some of my articles: Is Irish Independent News Outlets Spreading IslamPhobia and Racism?

Just as the Nazis relentlessly spread disinformation about Judaism and Jews in the 30s and 40s, today the Western Media tireless insults Islam and Muslims—“the enemy within”. The Nazis too labelled the Jews as terrorists and as the enemy within. History repeats itself with odd twists, doesn’t it?

To sum up, Alshabaab’s latest un-Islamic and barbaric acts towards Somali women have proved one thing: the Somali people must form a united front against this new enemy bent to destroy Islam and Somali culture.

Alshabaab is like a pest and we must eradicate it by any means necessary.

The brave and hardworking Somali women—the breadwinners of our society—should not be imposed on foreign ideologies disguised as Islam.

As for the ignorant Western Media, don’t reinvent the wheel. That is, the Media should refrain from repeating the same regurgitated racist Nazi propaganda and hurling it at Islam and Muslims. Before spitting out nonsensical reports about Islam—the Media should speak to Muslim scholars and get the facts.

Dalmar Kaahin
dalmar_k@yahoo.com
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Views expressed in the opinion articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the editorial

Somali Islamists whip women for wearing bras

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MOGADISHU, 17 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Somalia’s hardline Islamist group al Shabaab has publicly whipped women for wearing bras they say violate Islam by constituting a deception, north Mogadishu residents said Friday.

The insurgent group, which seeks to impose a strict form of sharia Islamic law throughout Somalia, amputated a foot and a hand each from two young men accused of robbery earlier this month. They have also banned movies, musical ringtones, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching soccer.

Residents said gunmen had been rounding up any woman seen with a firm bust and then had them publicly whipped by masked men. The women were then told to remove their bras and shake their breasts.

“Al shabaab forced us to wear their type of veil and now they order us to shake our breasts,” a resident, Halima, told Reuters, adding that her daughters had been whipped Thursday.

“They first banned the former veil and introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women’s chests. They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat.”

Officials of Al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda’s proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, declined to comment.

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The group’s hardline interpretation of Islamic law has shocked many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims. Some residents, however, give the insurgents credit for restoring order to the regions under their control.

Al Shabaab, which means “youth” in Arabic, control large swathes of south and central Somalia.

Abdullahi Hussein, a student in north Mogadishu, said his elder brother was thrown behind bars when he fought back a man who humiliated their sister by asking her to remove her bra.

“My brother was jailed after he wrestled with a man that had beaten my sister and forced her to remove her bra. He could not stand it,” Hussein said.

Men were not spared the’ moral cleansing’. Any man caught without a beard was been publicly whipped.

“I was beaten and my hair was cut off with a pair of scissors in the street,” Hussein said.

“My trouser was also cut up to the knee. They accused me of shaving my beard but I am only 18. They have arrested dozens of men and women. You just find yourself being whipped by a masked man as soon as leave your house.”


Source: Reuters

Rival clans "re-arming" over Somaliland farm.

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HARGEISA (SomalilandPress) – Officials are warning renewed fighting is likely between two rival clans in breakaway Somaliland, where they are reported to have amassed a large number of weapons and positioned hundreds of militiamen near disputed farmland in Gabiley region.

“We are afraid new conflict could break out any time,” a police officer, who requested anonymity, told IRIN, adding that the clans had at least 1,000 militiamen, armed with automatic rifles such as AK47 rifles and BKM handguns, in or near the Elberdale farmland area.

The dispute over the farmland dates back to the 1950s with the two clans – the Reer Nour and Reer Hared – each claiming ownership.

Since the beginning of 2009, they have fought at least four times: in April, May, July and September, resulting in 19 deaths and several hundred families displaced.

Dahir Muhumed Eggeh, one of the Reer Hared militiamen, said a farming project, established in the late 1950s, was at the centre of the conflict, which came to a head in 1988. The clans fought on opposite sides of the 1981-1991 war between the Somali National Movement (Somaliland’s liberation organization) and the army, which was loyal to then Somali president, the late Mohamed Siad Barre. The Reer Nour supported Barre while Reer Hared supported the SNM.

Aw Hassan Diiriye Elmi, a former chairman of Gabiley District, said: “This conflict is linked to the repercussions of [actions by] Siad Barre, who tried to remove one of the clans from their land… we came back to the country from refugee camps to find new signs put up by our neighbours, who have since tried to take away our lands.”

With the two clans arming militiamen, the price of handguns and other light weapons has gone up.

“Before [in 2008], light weapons, such as a Kalashnikov, cost US$370-400, but now it goes for between $650 and $700,” one of the militia leaders in Elberdale said.

Weapons smuggling

The militia leader, who requested anonymity, said: “There are two routes for weapons to enter Somaliland – crossing from Bosasso [in Puntland] to the eastern regions of Somaliland, and from the west, especially the area between Zaila and Lughaya at a place called Sanka Doonyaha, where fast boats load weapons at night.”

Abdillahi Omar Qawdhan, a Somaliland coast guard consultant and marine expert, told IRIN: “We have information that illegal small arms are smuggled to parts of the Somaliland coast but what we know is that small-calibre ammunition is imported to the west coast in sacks by the Yemeni boats that import fuel and other items to the west coast ports such as Cel-Sheik, Bula-Har, Bulo-Addo and Zaila.

“We have information that even small arms such as the BKM and bullets are being imported by local businessmen. Weapons destined for Ethiopia as well as Somalia have been smuggled to these places.

“Since the beginning of 2009, we have recovered more than 300 pistols [smuggled in] from Yemen in the eastern Berbera [Sahil region],” he said.

However, Mohamed Osman Hudhun, Somaliland’s western coast army chief, disputed this, saying: “There are no weapons imported into the western coast because I am from this area and every single incident is reported to me.”

Source: IRIN, Oct 16, 2009

Rayaale accused of undermining the electoral process. "A statement from Kulmiye Party".

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HARGEISA, 15 October 2009 (Somalilandpress) – We are concerned about President Rayaale’s commitment to the implementation of the recent three-party agreement aimed at overhauling the delayed election. If the president continues to undermine the electoral process including the formation of a new National Electoral Commission (NEC), the agreement may unfortunately fall into pieces.

Although the recent internationally brokered agreement offers a workable framework for bringing the stakeholders together to achieve a fair and free election, the president’s consistent refusal to pass the NEC members nominated by the opposition and the Upper House on to the House of Representatives for approval casts doubts on his commitment to the agreement.

We believe the president’s reaction is unlawful and against the spirit of good cooperation and therefore we call on the president to reframe from undermining the election and to handle the process swiftly in accordance with the law.

The delay will only serve sliding the country into the political chaos it had been in recently and denying the nation the potential for staging a democratic election.

We hope the president will honour the memorandum of understanding aimed to achieve a way out of the political impasse and will stop politicising the process.

Kulmiye urges the president to undertake his duties responsibly and to work closely with the other main political stakeholders in establishing confidence among the citizens in the electoral process.

Dr. Mohamed A Omar, Foreign Affairs Secretary
Kulmiye Party

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