Washington is worried about Somalia. After 18 years of civil war, a insurgent group loosely aligned with Al Qaeda has threatened to conquer the country. In a March audio recording, Osama Bin Laden encouraged the hardline group Al Shabab to overthrow Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the leader of the U.S.- and U.N.-backed “transitional government.” This summer, Al Shabab surrounded the government’s Mogadishu headquarters, forcing African Union peacekeepers (pictured) to deploy tanks to help repel the attackers. And in July, the Obama Administration sent the defenders millions of dollars worth of small arms and ammunition, with more promised.
But the current strategy of propping up the weak transitional government will never work, according to one retired Somali freedom fighter.
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In the 1980s, Ahmed Egal helped found the Somali National Movement, which successfully fought back the forces of Somali dictator Siad Barre, in the country’s north. The freedom fighters then stepped aside, to allow clan leaders to organize a new government. Today, “Somaliland,” with 3.5 million people, is a rare bright spot on the Horn of Africa’s bloody landscape. It has its own laws, currency and army, and has remained peaceful, and growing, as the rest of Somalia has fallen apart. Still, no other country officially recognizes Somaliland, instead preferring to back the TFG.
“It is necessary to embrace the only peaceful, functioning, Muslim, representative government in the Horn of Africa, namely Somaliland,” Egal told me, for my latest piece in World Politics Review. Rather than sinking more cash into a doomed effort to save the transitional government, he said, the U.S. should ally with Somaliland and use it as a base for fighting Al Shabab. Egal envisions a new African Union peacekeeping force operating out of Somalia, alongside Somaliland forces trained and equipped by the U.S., Russia and the E.U.
It’s a controversial proposal, to be sure. Washington is steadfast in its support for the transitional government, and politely declines to recognize any new state that would shatter Somalia’s existing borders. But there is precedent for the U.S. backing a breakaway region of a troubled country. Washington is the major sponsor for South Sudan, a fully autonomous region of Sudan that is quietly arming itself with modern weaponry, in anticipation of a 2011 vote that could see South Sudan formally secede.
HARGEISA, 6 August 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Reports coming from Berbera say members from the opposition party, KULMIYE have been injured in a car accident an hour ago.
Ali Marshal, the campaign manager of Kulmiye in the Western regions instantly died in the accident. The Second Vice Chairman of the party Mr. Abdirahman Abdiqadir and Mohamed Hashi Elmi have have also been injured and admitted to Berbera hospital. One of them is reported to be in a very serious condition.
The officials were on their way to Berbera airport to welcome the opposition leader who is expected to arrive from Nairobi today.
Somalilandpress reporter, Mr. Abdiqani Baynah was also among the injured and rushed to Berbera hospital. Efforts are ongoing to transfer the wounded to Hargeisa hospital for treatment.
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This is the first of its kind the political parties witness prior to the presidential election scheduled on the 27th of September.
The leader of Kulmiye party was slightly injured about two weeks ago while he slipped in his house. He was taken to Nairobi for treatment and said he is ready to resume his duty. He was coming back to the country today after reports say he had a meeting with Mr. Donald Payne, the chairman of the US congress sub-committee for Africa in Nairobi.
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There is no official statement from the party as per now but this will be a painful moment for the opposition as the elections are coming nearer.
GAROWE, 6 August 2009 (Somalilandpress) – The chief of Police in Puntland who was appointed to the post few months ago died last night in what is believed to be a mysterious incident in his house in Garowe. After hearing a gunshot, his family members rushed to the house only to find him shot on the head.
Mr. Muse Ahmed Salah was then rushed to the hospital where he died on the way due to the serious injury on his head.
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Unconfirmed reports suggest that Mr. Salah was assassinated by one of his bodyguards for reasons not specified. Police are questioning his bodyguards after they were arrested in the scene.
Other sources believe that Mr. Salah was not mentally fit for the last few months and he recently went to Kenya for medical check. He came back a week ago to resume his work but some family members said he was not feeling very well. Sources told Somalilandpress that Mr. Salah committed suicide for unknown reasons.
This is the second Puntland official dies in 24 hours as the Minister of Information was assassinated in Galkayo the same day by unknown gunmen.
(SomalilandPress)-Somaliland political landscape is now filled with accusations and counter-accusations about Somaliland government’s decision to expel Interpeace from the country. The Somaliland president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, has questioned the role of Interpeace in the voter registration process. In a Press Statement, Interpeace challenged the Somaliland government’s allegations that the “international peacebuilding organization” was in the country illegally, but acknowledged that the voter registration system was “seriously abused during its implementation”. The two main Somaliland opposition parties, Kulmiye and UCID, banded together to challenge what they see as an attempt by the Somaliland president, “ to remain in power illegally”. A somewhat similar accusation can be leveled against the two opposition parties: that they want to grab the power by the endorsing the flawed registration system. President Dahir Riyale Kahin told the Somali Universal TV that “major flaws have surfaced in the registration system. We are investigating the matter.” Translation: if the registration system is used for the forthcoming Somaliland elections, opposition parties will stand better chance to win.
The issue of voter registration was hotly debated in pro-Somaliland websites more than six months ago. “The results are absurd” argued one writer. Some commentators have alleged that multiple registrations had taken place in several districts.
Neither the two opposition parties nor the ruling party, UDUB, have sought to address the voter registration issue. The National Electoral Commission of Somaliland stated that elections will take place without the voter registration system. The opposition parties said they had withdrawn confidence in NEC. Where does this crisis leave the fledgling Somaliland democracy? Is the opposition parties’ allegation that NEC is not an independent body true? The opposition parties have not shown evidence for government meddling in the work of NEC but would like to have Somalilanders believe that NEC is a partisan body, just as Somaliland government wants Somalilanders to look upon the opposition parties as a group of power-hungry men for whom the voter registration system is a reliable ticket to the Somaliland presidency.
Liban Ahmad
libahm@gmail.com
Liban Ahmad is the authof A Map of Confusion: Somaliland, Puntland and People of Sool Region in Somalia
An anthem sung by fans of the German football club FC Schalke 04 has drawn protests from Muslims because of its reference to the Prophet Muhammad.
The Gelsenkirchen club, which plays in Germany’s top league, the Bundesliga, has asked an Islam expert to consider whether the song might be insulting.
The third verse contains the words: “Muhammad was a prophet who understood nothing about football”.
“But of all the lovely colours he chose [Schalke’s] blue and white,” it goes.
The club has received hundreds of e-mails from angry Muslims recently, since Turkish media carried reports about the song.
Police in Gelsenkirchen, in the industrial Ruhr region of western Germany, say they are taking the Muslim complaints very seriously.
The head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek, said his council would not call for a ban on the anthem, but would like “an explanation of its background”.
The song is called “Blue and White, how I love you” and in German the lyrics about Muhammad read: Mohammed war ein Prophet, der vom Fussballspielen nichts versteht. Doch aus all der schoenen Farbenpracht hat er sich das Blau und Weisse ausgedacht.
The German news website Deutsche Welle says the song was written in 1924 and it is not clear when the Muhammad reference made its way in.
HARGEISA, 5 August 2009 (Somalilandpress) – The people and Government of Somaliland spend time, energy and money to the biometric voter registration to have free and fair election. The process continued for two years across Somaliland from Sool to Awdal regions. The world witnessed millions of Somalilanders in long queues for hours under blazing sun to redefine their identity as Somalilanders, after premature unity with Italian Somalia on 1st July 1960. The women and youth played very important role in voter registration process. Thousands of Somalilanders volunteered in helping the government to complete the registration.
The Somaliland flag was flying on the roof of very house across the country. The international community including USA, EU and African Union praised Somaliland for becoming the first African Nation to carry out electronic biometric voter registration, in the heart of a region dominated by dictators and kings.
Somaliland registration started after thousands of unarmed civilians were killed and displaced in Kenya over disputed election result. Also, democracy and human rights record in the region is not cheering.
However, the recent election dispute in Somaliland, between the political parties, government and National Election Commission, has triggered political confusion, particularly after President of Somaliland Dahir Riyale Kahn canceled the result of biometric registration, and called for traditional finger-painting style of election. This is a fallback to Somaliland democracy and after two years of hard work of enrolling the millions of citizens; also, it is disappointment to international community that helped Somaliland to achieve it.
Today, it is not right to accuse each other over the election because the country needs somebody to save from political collapse. The result of the Server – Biometric Registration – is very essential for the people, though it contains minor errors but yet better than finger-painting.
Biometric system will, at least, identify Somalilanders from the others in neighboring countries. We all know that Somali speaking people in the Horn of Africa lookalike each other and difficult to distinguish between them; but the biometric system will filter out the non-Somalilanders.
Interpeace is part of the failure in Somaliland Voter Registration, because it failed to generate accurate result from the Server, which is under its direct management.
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Interpeace disappointed the people of Somaliland, who strongly turned out for voter registration. Somaliland Government and Opposition Parties cooperated with Interpeace very effectively. However, it is below par to hear the announcement of Interpeace of the failure of the server to produce correct and reliable statistics that can help the country to vote for its 4th President in less than 20 years. Such announcement angered the government and people equally, so Interpeace needs to apologize to the people of Somaliland and solve the errors in the server.
Riyale´s decision of sending police to eject Interpeace from the country was very unwise and undiplomatic and it is a slap in the face of those who wanted to help and with good intentions towards Somaliland democracy progress. Interpeace left for now, and Somaliland is biggest looser because it cannot avoid financial needs to run the process of voter registration and expertise to reboot the server.
The New Technology:
Over the past year and specially the last six months much has been said about the Server and right now it has taken its own. The technology used in Somaliland Voter Registration is latest in the world, and this was very excellent step towards building free and fair democracy in Somaliland. The World and Donor Nations welcomed the initiative of registering the voters. However, Interpeace´s silly minor mistakes screw the registration process.It seems that Interpeace supplied this bad/old/low configuration server to reduce the cost.
After consulting highly skilled IT Professionals particularly ´System Administration area´ and after study on errors announced by Interpeace and National Election Commission, they described the errors very minor and result of bad study before the installation of the system. They underscored that hardware capacity of the server is too small to handle database of the voters.
The frequent statements from Interpeace and National Election Commission are: the server is filtering out the duplications; the server has errors and rebooting; the server accepted all duplications at the registration time and doing double job to clear it; the server is unable to have reliable output; and finally, Interpeace announces failure of the biometric registration server!!! The professionals finalized that current problem is result of bad pre-installation survey.
IT Professionals advised the hardware of the server should be upgraded and software to be reexamined to be fit to handle database of 4 million voters in Somaliland. The testing phase must include plan for next 20 years according to population growth rate.
They called for upgrade of both hardware and Software including the operation system, which should have latest security and performance tuning patches. The hardware upgrade should include Hard Disk, RAM and the Processor. They highlighted that majority of the data captured in the server are not in text or binary format like picture and fingerprint, which needs massive storage area. RAM and Processor helps the server to boot and run quickly particularly during filtering the duplicates.
The people and government of Somaliland accepted the offer of Interpeace to install the Server at the initial stage, and it should take all the responsibility. Both government and people of Somaliland done their part of job, but Interpeace failed!!!!
People of Somaliland & Government:
The world witnessed your powerful desire to establish fair and free democracy in your part of the world, after many recognized governments failed to do so. The world appreciated your commitments towards quality democracy with little outside support. It was amazing to see the people of Somaliland standing for long queues for many hours waiting to register for the election. These were unforgettable moments in the history of democracy.
However, today your democracy is under threat by Interpeace and its weak relation with government, National Election Commission and Opposition Parts in Somaliland. However, this does not demoralize you because you are people of democratic principles. Yet, you can do free and fair election using the current result from the server. There are minor errors in the result and must be corrected in the upcoming Parliamentary Election. The current Server result is better than traditional finger-painting election system, and will, at least, stop Non-Somalilanders from voting.
The security and stability is the backbone of your struggle to democratic and independent Somaliland, and shall be protected with every possible tool. The government and Opposition parties are politicians, and we know politician is full of lies. A politician is your servant and you appoint him to run your affairs for a period of time.
The decision of Riyale administration to expel the representative of Interpeace was wrong and politically motivated; because Riyale believes that he can be reelected using the old finger-painting system, but this wrong!!! Riyale deported the representative of Interpeace knowing that his administration cannot repair or fix the Server, and that Interpeace are the only one who can do it. So, Riyale minimized the chances of free election in the country.
Riyale administration arrested the representative like thief, after police arrested him from his hotel room escorted him to the airport, where he was put into waiting aircraft. It was not a wise and civilized step.
Riyale should accept Interpeace back to Somaliland because it is the only organization that can run the Server again, unless Riyale is planning another voter registration in the country, which may need another millions of dollars and two more years!!!
By Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi
Email: az.almutairi@yahoo.com
HARGEISA, 5 August 2009 (Somalilandpress) – To the Electoral commission, to the Government, to the Political parties, to the Parliament…………..and, of course, to the mesmerized Citizens!
I have dared to take the pen after I was perplexed by the inhumane, shameful, uncivilized and endless political turmoil in our country, Somaliland. I don’t want to say much but only to highlight a straightforward solution which we can take ourselves out of the horrible situation we are in, according my logic.
I hope that the concerned stakeholders will reconsider their respective interests and put the national interest on the top of the agenda.
It is easy to point fingers, but it is not my intension to do so, I preferred to catalyze the potentials of the stakeholders if they happen to love their country or continue the ‘dirty game’ if they don’t mind.
My advice is as follows:
Electoral Commission
It is the decision that you make today which will either destroy what we have been building for the past two decades or take us forward. You are small in number, only 7, and we have been proud of you to held free and fair election and still we believe in you but you are running out of time. Please act before it is too late. It is you who are supposed to pull the parties together and find common ground; it is you who are supposed to convince and persuade others…..it is shameful to see you taking sides, dividing yourselves into 3 to 4! Hey if you can’t win the battle just give up. But I am sure you can win but only missing one thing, the unity.
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Let personal interests fade away, let party interests die and let the national interest took the lead! Today we see how bad things seem but in the face of despair you can create hope, in the face of doubt you can clear the air. Come together, discuss the issue and decide the best way forward. Call the parties before you talk to the media about what you have discussed, consult with them and convince them with openness, sacrifice extra hours if needed. But if you say we have decided so and so and sit aside……….guess what? The “game” continues and the time slips away. Then we find ourselves deep in a trouble which we have deliberately let to get worse and worse!
All eyes are on you! And time will tell what you have done to a nation which you had the chance to lead. But we the people will promise only one thing, to remember what you have done……….good or bad? The ball is in your court!!!!
May Allah take us to the right path…. The other parts are coming soon.
Jama Ismail Noor,
jaamacyare11@hotmail.com
________________________________________________________________________________________ Views expressed in the opinion articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the editorial
GAROWE, 5 August 2009 (Somalilandpress) – The minister of information of the Somalia’s region of Puntland has been killed in Galkayo. The minister who was there for official work has been shot by two men wearing military uniform in the town’s downtown.
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Reports from Galkayo say the Minister went to Galkayo for a clan conflict in the area and was going to solve some insecurity problems in the region.
There is no further information about the incident but the the murderers managed to escape.
This is the first time that a Minister is killed in the city but assassination of officials, businessmen and others are common in the region especially Galkayo.
Puntland is a relatively peaceful state in the north east Somalia.
To: President, Mr. Rayale
Head of electoral commission, Mr. Sweden
August 3, 2009
Dear Sirs,
August 3, 2009 (SomalilandPress)-As a Somaliland –Canadian, I am urgently writing this letter and kindly requesting you to reverse current decision of discarding voter registration list. I believe that, list can be utilized and it has potential benefits to the election process. Secondly, electoral commission and current government have the primary responsibility of safeguarding collected data and continuation of further developing the registration system.
Using my cumulative experience on information technology, I am hereby presenting steps that are required to be implemented as soon as possible in order to correct electoral commission’s errors and their unscrupulous skills on managing registration process.
Current produced voter registration list must be utilized.
Independent Business Analyst and computer experts must be hired and they must come from Somaliland people, not India or interpeace vicinity. Their primary assignments include:
To assess current software (graphic user interface) , backend database, reliability ,speeds and its robustness.
To ensure current software is genuine and able to meet its anticipated expectations.
To draft a report on the system and present their findings to the public.
Somaliland IT experts will be in place and continue to maintain the system even after the election ends.
Somaliland registration system is intended to register Somalilanders and later use for numerous reasons including voting and so forth. Thus, it is an imperative to understand that, political parties and electoral commission do not own registration system and it is a public usage, national issue and its final fate has to come from the public.
Hoping that, political parties and electoral commission are going to accept voter registration list with mutual respect regardless of their political differences and goals.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Mohammed abdi awciise bahdoon, Bsc.
IT consultant, IBM, Canada
Email: m_bahdoon@yahoo.ca
HARGEISA, 5 August 2009 (SomalilandPress) – On 1 August 2009, the Transitional Parliament has thrown out the ‘maritime misunderstanding’ between the TUG and the Kibaki Government in Kenya. Out of 347 Members of Parliament who were sitting at the time ¬¬¬334 have rejected the ‘misunderstanding.’ This is an astounding victory for the Somali people. It is also a victory for President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the Speaker Aden Mohamed Nur. However, there is the making of new heroes. Our Parliamentarians who voted on their feet to flush ‘the misunderstanding’ out are without doubt heroes.
No government can expect support if it betrays the nation. We are very pleased finally the TUG had come to its senses to stop the ‘maritime memorandum of misunderstanding’ which has caused a lot of consternation to many Somalis. This means, we will support the government when it is doing something right. We will oppose them when they betray the nation and we will tell them when they are wrong.
One fact which did not receive the publicity it deserved is the involvement of Norway in this treachery against our nation. The ambassador of Norway was present at the Kenyan Foreign Ministry where the TUG ministers were enticed. The involvement of Norway can only signal one thing alone. Everybody knows Norway is the leading nation on offshore drilling. For that reason, the presence of Norway ambassador alone should have made the ministers run for the exit.
The ‘maritime misunderstanding’ is a testament of our nation’s loss of respect in the eyes of other nations. When a nation has remained stateless for long it loses respect and becomes fair game to all. Our nation has been on a long leave of absence from tending its interests. A broken door invites intruders also amoral individuals can take advantage of a nation stateless for long.
Nonetheless, our nation is indebted to Norway for other reasons. Like many nations which took in our people fleeing from conflict, Norway is home to a large number of Somalis. Our nation is grateful for that. However, we did not anticipate Norway to take part in a treachery to hand our coast to our neighbour. It was wrong of Norway to move behind the back of our nation to drill our coast for Kenya.
Ould Abdalla, the UN representative who is acting as the unelected President of Somalia was one of the participants. He should be ashamed of taking part in this treachery against Somalia. He is wrong to act as though Somalia is a no-man’s land which belongs to no-one.
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It is no wonder a corrupt person always believes everybody is corrupt. We know in the civil war climate, sometimes we are dealing with strange breed of individual Somalis but nothing can prepare you to see persons whose belief in clannism has been stretched beyond belief. Nothing you say may help the correction of such individuals but one must never give up on people. The following mundane points may help inform such persons that the world is not the dark dungeon they live in.
• It is individuals who serve in government not their clans.
• It is individuals who commit corruption not clans.
• Every individual has a unique experience of life and different upbringing.
• A nation consists of individuals from different cities, towns and cities.
• Every Somali has the right to be employed by the government of his country.
• Criticism comes with holding public office.
• The public have every right to criticise their government or their officials.
• Criticism of individuals in government is not criticism of their clan.
The build up of a corrupt culture
In Somalia, a corrupt culture has built up which gives the wrong message that to serve in government is to enrich oneself and amassing ill-gotten wealth. Corruption is a deadly malady which eats away the fibre of any society and reduces the quality of life in any nation. The question is how to tackle corruption? There are two types of corruption which we must root out from our governance if our nation is to succeed and regain the respect of other nations. One type of corruption arises from human need. A responsible government should address this type of graft by paying its employees (politicians and civil servants) decent wages to live on.
The second strand which arises from greed is the worst virus of corruption. This deadlier type of corruption can only be kept away by the establishment of mechanisms. When we have a government fit for purpose only one tightly audited office should be allowed to handle all money matters to pay for wages, fund for projects and pay for all other government expenditure.
The ploy to loot Somalia
We know attempts are afoot to create an unholy alliance to create a society where the wealth of our nation is robbed at will in cahoots with foreign individuals. We shall neither tolerate nor accept the creation of a society similar to the corrupt culture which has denied the people of oil rich nation Nigeria, basic necessities such as running tap water, electricity, free education, health care and other tasks of a responsible government.
It is worth mentioning that after spending $16.5 billion on electricity alone by the former Obasanjo government, Lagos, the capital of Nigeria has at best, a few hours of power every day. $16.5 billion can provide electricity not only for one nation but the whole African continent. This is not the future we envisage for our nation. We need to remind certain individuals that our society is different. Because of our nomadic roots ours is an open society where nothing is hidden and everything is on the open.
Only together we can fight greed
No matter how wealthy they grow, there are individuals who are born with inextinguishable greed. The suggestion to establish a ‘Green Line Zone’ in our capital similar to the one in Baghdad is a well-known ploy to siphon wealth donated to Somalia into the deep pockets of individuals and foreign experts.
Enrichment comes from engaging in enterprise
The Somalis are by nature gifted with entrepreneurial skills. The Kenyans and the Ethiopians would tell you the entrepreneurial skills of our people and the benefits (mainly of entrepreneurial skills) they had from the influx of our refugees to those countries. Our people have no shortage of ideas, motivation or initiatives to better their lives. Nonetheless, it was ignorance which gave birth to the malfeasance which encouraged corruption to take root in our society. This must have sent the wrong message that enrichment comes from serving in government. The best way to enrichment is through the activities of the private sector. A capable Somali government will also allow public servants to engage in activities outside government which can generate income provided there is no conflict of interest.
We seek a better future for Somalia
When we argue for a better future, why does anyone argue about the mistakes of the past committed by less educated generation and long gone leaders? Shouldn’t we be drawing a line under this past or is it the past what we want? What we seek ¬¬is a clean government which on one hand pays its civil servants well and where probity is not the exception but the norm. Without accountability, Somalia shall remain the basket case it has become.
Look no further! We need to be on the guard of our nation. Somalia needs our vigil. The sharks who thrive on endemic corruption are circling. It is incumbent on us to fight against the attempts to establish a corrupt system which eats away the fabric of our society, the quality of life in our country and the standing of our nation. I urge all Somalis to join in the fight for Somalia against greedy individuals who are acting as though Somalia is a broken camel in the middle of nowhere which belongs to no-one. Our people who have gone through unimaginable suffering deserve better!
