HARGEISA, 24 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today expressed its concern over the continuous degradation of freedom of expression in Somaliland, following the publication of a new report by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), an IFJ affiliate, on the state of freedom of expression and cases of violations of media freedom in Somaliland.
”We are deeply concerned by what is happening in Somaliland, where journalists face enormous difficulties to do their job safely,” declared Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office. “We urge the Somaliland authorities to be more tolerant in their relationships with the media”
The report, which is titled “Media Freedom Kept within Bounds”, unearths evidence-based information from journalists and media managers who recounted unrestrained and vituperative attacks on journalists and media houses.
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The media professionals hold Somaliland authorities responsible for outrageous and systematic suppression of independent reporting. The report further blames the judiciary which it says lacks independence and is used to legitimize denial of freedom of expression.
According to the report, the failure on the part of tribal elders to properly appraise the meaning of press freedom has resulted in journalists being detained on allegations of law breaking, criminality, misconduct or malpractice.
“The report reveals the situation of the press in Somaliland. It depicts ferocious attacks on the media. Somaliland authorities are exerting control over the print media and are impeding efforts to establish independent broadcast media to disseminate independent news to the people,” said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General.
IFJ calls for Somaliland authorities to put an end to press freedom violations and to create a more democratic environment for safe working conditions for media in general and private media in particular.
Source: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
HARGEISA, 24 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – In last week’s column, I noted that the United States military and intelligence communities deserve to be applauded for successfully ferreting out and terminating the short, but bloody, career of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. In his 28 years, the Kenyan national had been the ringleader of the cell of al Qaeda in East Africa responsible for the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and the simultaneous attempt to down an Israeli commercial airliner in addition to being implicated in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. More recently, he had been bringing in foreign trainers and fighters to the terrorist training camps he was running in support of al-Shabaab and other Islamist extremists trying to take control of Somalia. As important as this victory was in the context of the fight against terrorism, however, it would be disingenuous to claim that it will significantly advance either security within Somalia or stability in the Horn of Africa subregion.
If anything, the precarious nature of situation in Mogadishu was underscored last Thursday, September 17th, when al-Shabaab suicide bombers, driving United Nations vehicles, carried out a coordinated assault on the headquarters of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), leaving 21 peacekeepers dead, including the deputy force commander, Major General Juvenal Niyonguruza of Burundi, and dozens wounded, including the newly-arrived force commander, Major General Nathan Mugisha. While al-Shabaab claimed that the attack was retaliation for the killing of Nabhan, the attack seems to have been prepared long before the September 14th operation by U.S. Special Operations Forces personnel. In fact, the UN was investigating whether or not the explosives-laden trucks might have been left behind in Eritrea after the truce-monitoring UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) had to be abandoned last year after the Isaias Afewerki regime in Asmara drove it away from the border zone (as I reported earlier this year, the Eritrean government has been accused by both the subregional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Council of Ministers and the African Union Peace and Security Council of financing and otherwise supporting the Somali insurgents). In any event, the attack on the peacekeepers may just be the beginning of a campaign that increasingly targets the nearly 5,000 Ugandan and Burundian AMISOM troops: on Sunday, Sheikh Hassan Dahir ‘Aweys, head of Hisbul Islam, called for more suicide bombings: “I also call upon the people to carry out more attacks against the African forces; they came to Somalia to assist our enemy, kill them…in any way possible and use suicide attacks to kill them.” While no new suicide bombings have taken place, insurgents did launch additional conventional assaults on the AU troops this week. The ensuing gun battles in the middle of Mogadishu left at least eight people dead and dozens injured.
In sharp contrast to the highly-motivated multitudes which a video released by al-Shabaab over the weekend showed pledging their allegiance to Osama bin Laden, the dwindling band around the nominal “Transitional Federal Government” of Somalia and its head, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is largely dispirited. And it is highly unlikely that anything the United States or the international community can do to shore up the beleaguered regime’s operational capabilities in time to head off its inevitable denouement, much less to endow it with popular support and legitimacy. After long being in denial, as Geoffrey York reported in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail, Somali politicians – at least the ones who are being frank – are finally admitting the truth of what I told the U.S. Congress in my June testimony to the House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health: the approximately 40 tons of weapons that the United States has supplied to the TFG as well as the regime’s remaining troops are increasingly ending up with the Islamist insurgents. Awad Ahmed Ashareh, a TFG parliamentarian, told York that “the weapons have ended up mainly in the hands of al-Shabaab.” He was echoed by his parliamentary colleague, former TFG prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who conceded that “all those weapons will end up in the hands of the terrorists,” adding that most of the regime’s trained forces have disintegrated and “some of them may even have joined the terrorists.”
Given all of this, it came as no surprise either when it was announced this week that Kenya had sealed off its common border with Somalia or when it came out that Sheikh Sharif is again absent from the country he pretends to lead (this time to attend some ceremony at a Saudi university and then onward to New York for his turn at the podium at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly). And while the AU’s special representative for Somalia, Burundian diplomat Nicolas Bwakira, has offered brave words about a more robust mandate for the peacekeepers at the burial of his compatriots who lost their lives to the terrorist attack last week, there is no indication that any African countries, including those who have yet to honor their previous promises to join the Burundian and Ugandan forces in Mogadishu, are in any rush to send their soldiers into what should be increasingly clear is a near-hopeless mission.
So what is one to do if one seeks a minimum level of security in Somalia and stability in the subregion? Robert Rotberg of HarvardUniversity’s Kennedy School of Government offered some helpful pointers in a Boston Globe op-ed last Saturday:
Diminishing Islamist and Al Qaeda franchise influence in Somalia will only come by growing the influence of secular, non-governmental (if Muslim) Somalis, by finding a way to restart a state school and health care system, and by assisting the drought-prone Somalis with their water (and agricultural and grazing) requirements.
The Obama administration would do well to begin thinking about Somalia as a post-conflict arena, needing reconstruction and new incentives, rather than an Al Qaeda outpost run from Pakistan by Osama bin Laden. It is not such as outpost, even though a handful of persons like Saleh Nabhan will continue to agitate in or pass through the badlands of Somalia and work closely with al-Shabaab.
Dr. Rotberg goes on to specifically advocate the recognition of the Republic of Somaliland:
One other bold diplomatic initiative would make a difference. To the north of the warlord- and al-Shabaab-run zones of Somalia is Somaliland, which has run itself sensibly and mostly democratically since 1991. Its leadership is having problems, but for many years it delivered positive political goods to its citizens in a manner that has never occurred in the rest of Somalia. No nation recognizes Somaliland even though its neighbors do business there and the United States has long kept an official eye on it.
The United States, the West, and Africa should recognize Somaliland officially. Doing so would provide an incentive for the rest of Somalia to begin moving toward good rather than bad governance. The Somaliland example provides a path that could now entice Somalis to forsake their battles in favor of a peaceful future.
Having myself penned a commentary two months ago entitled “Somaliland: What Somalia Could Be” and despite the disappointing postponement sine die of the presidential and legislative elections which were supposed to have taken place this weekend, I cannot but strongly reiterate my argument:
The people of Somaliland have demonstrated over the course of nearly two decades a dogged commitment to peacefully resolving their internal conflicts, rebuilding their society, and forging a democratic constitutional order. Their achievements to date are nothing short of remarkable in subregion as challenging as the Horn of Africa, especially when one considers the lack of international recognition under which they labor. It is not only prejudicial to our interests, but also antithetical to our ideals, to keep this oasis of stability hostage to the vicissitudes of the conflict which the rest of the Somali territories are embroiled rather than to hold it up as an example of what the others might aspire to—and could readily achieve if they weren’t so busy fighting over the decayed carcass of a dead state and the resources which the international community stubbornly continues to throw at it in hopes of reanimating the corpse
However, it is a time to take this logic one step further. While one cannot claim for it the unique historical, juridical, and political status that Somaliland has by reason of the British Somaliland Protectorate, the internationally recognized sovereign statehood achieved a week before the former Italian colony of Somalia received its independence and subsequent the tragic union of the two polities, and the continuous de facto separation from the rest of the onetime Somali Democratic Republic and its troubles after the 1991 collapse of the Siyad Barre dictatorship – a status sanctioned by clan consensus, constitutional referendum, and democratic elections that hitherto have been the envy of the subregion – there is a pragmatic case to be made that the United States and the international community need to find ways to engage with the Puntland State of Somalia.
In May 1998, tired of being held back by the constant violence and overall lack of social and political progress in southern and central Somalia, a major conference of traditional clan elders of the Darood clan-family’s Harti clan – a group that includes the Dhulbahante, Majeerteen, and Warsangeli sub-clans – meet in the town of Garowe and established an autonomous administration for a region in northeastern Somalia which they dubbed “Puntland,” which they envisioned encompassing the regions of Ayn, Bari, Karkaar, Mudug, and Nugaal, as well as the Sanaag and Sool regions which, while inhabited by many Darood/Harti, are within the borders which Somaliland inherited from the British Protectorate.
After extensive consultations within the Darood/Harti clans and sub-clans, an interim charter was adopted which provided for a parliament whose members were chosen on a clan basis and who, in turn, elected a regional president, the first being Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who, in October 2004, went on to get himself appointed president of the TFG. Following the departure of the region’s first president for what was to be his disastrous tenure at the head of the TFG, Puntland legislators chose General Mohamud Muse Hersi, a.k.a. Muse Adde, as the new head of the regional administration in January 2005. After serving one four-year term of office, Muse Adde lost a bid for reelection to Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud Farole, who was elected on January 8th of this year from a field of over a dozen candidates.
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Unlike Somaliland, which has opted to reassert its independence, Puntland’s constitution both supports the notion of a federal Somalia and upholds its own claims to be able to negotiate the terms of union with any eventual national government. A report last month by the International Crisis Group, while expressing concern that the revised constitution unveiled in June would “put Puntland firmly on the path towards secession” from Somalia – as if anyone could be blamed for wanting to flee a burning building – praised the attempt to transform the government into a parliamentary democracy and noted that the document “is mostly strong on human rights, with a good mix of checks and balances to prevent executive abuses and make government more accountable.”
While Puntlanders have their share of difficulties, many of which could be said fairly to be of their own making, engaging the region is nonetheless the condition sine qua non for achieving what should be the international community’s two primary strategic objectives in Somalia: containing (and, eventually, defeating) the radical Islamist threat to regional security and minimizing (and, likewise, gradually suppressing) the menace posed to merchant shipping by Somali pirates.
The authorities in Puntland have, if nothing else, been vigilant in trying to root out religious extremism in their midst, fully aware that the precursor of today’s Islamist insurgents in southern and central Somalia, al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (“the Islamic Union”), had put down strong roots in the region in the 1990s, even seizing the port of Boosaaso at one point. On October 29, 2008, the same day that suicide bombers from al-Shabaab hit the presidential palace, the UN Development Programme office, and the Ethiopian mission in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa, one of their colleagues, Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Minneapolis, Minnesota, blew himself up in an attack on the headquarters of the Puntland Intelligence Service in Boosaaso, an act of terrorism that left at half a dozen dead. From the military point of view, the region is a bulwark against the resurgent extremists of al-Shabaab, Hisbul Islam, and other groups in southern Somalia.
There is no denying that Puntland is the center of the Somali piracy problem. The International Crisis Group reports that while state complicity with piracy may have decreased in the last year, “it is an open secret that elements in the police, the security services and government have benefited financially from the practice or felt compelled to turn a blind eye out of filial and clan loyalty,” noting that “without some form of official protection and collusion, [pirate] gangs would find it difficult to operate as efficiently as they do, given the complex logistics involved in planning and executing raids and negotiating ransoms.” The flip side of this is that it is unlikely that, short of military invasion and occupation, there is no way to deny the pirate syndicates the havens they currently enjoy in places like Eyl and Xarardheere without the cooperation of the authorities in Puntland.
So, what are some of the elements which should be part of any engagement of Puntland?
First, the international community must require a firm commitment from President Farole and the Puntland government to rein in piracy in exchange for political and economic engagement. While the Puntland leader’s statement on the subject at a Congressional hearing in June sounded all the right notes, more than verbal assurances are required. Fortunately, there have been several promising signs in recent months, including a wa’yigelin (“sensitization”) campaign against piracy launched by the Farole administration that has combined raids on some pirate hideouts and lengthy prison terms for piracy offenses with amnesty for those marauders who renounce their predatory activities. Last weekend, at the public celebration in Garowe’s Mire Aware Stadium of Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, repentant pirates figured in both in the sermon of Sheikh Abdulkadir Nur Farah, one of the most respected Islamic scholars in Puntland, and the remarks of the region’s president, who added that “the Government will ensure that [the former pirates] are not involved in piracy before offering any job opportunities” and other benefits to them.
Second, it must be made clear to the Puntland government that, given the international community’s interest in regional stability, irredentist claims to areas like Sool and Sanaag, which were within the borders of Republic of Somaliland at its independence in 1960 and continue to be claimed by it, will not be tolerated. Any changes in the frontiers must be negotiated peacefully with the government in Hargeisa and, absent such an agreement, the presumption of the international law principle of uti possidetis juris favors Somaliland in this matter.
Third, given the reality that the fabulous ransoms paid in recent years have become one of Puntland’s most important sources of revenue, the international community must be willing to assist the regional government with creating alternative economic opportunities as well as helping to strengthen it politically so that it might be able to tackle the entrenched pirate interests. While piracy may bring in a welcome infusion of cash, the livestock trade remains the area’s most important economic activity and the one most consonant with the traditional Somali culture. Thus agricultural assistance and infrastructure development are just two items which would go a long way.
Fourth, once trust has been built up on both sides and, from the point of view of the United States and other international donors, there is a good degree of confidence about Puntland’s commitment to combating piracy, one can begin exploring the possibility of assisting in the establishment of a coast guard capability of some kind for the region. The idea is one which has been commended by no less a figure than United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who advised the Security Council in March that:
In the interests of a durable solution to piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia, it is important that local coast guards in the region, where possible, are assisted in ways that will enable them to constructively play a role in anti-piracy efforts conducted off the coast of Somalia and the surrounding region. As part of a long-term strategy to promote the closure of pirates’ shore bases and effectively monitor the coastline, I therefore recommend that Member States consider strengthening the capacity of the coast guards both in Somalia and the region.
Coastal patrol forces would not only be more sustainable from the fiscal point of view than maintaining the more than thirty warships from nearly a dozen-and-a-half countries currently deployed all over the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean chasing after pirates in open skiffs, but, precisely because they would concentrate on the littorals, have a more manageable area of responsibility than the naval forces, as I argued in this column earlier this year, will be more likely to achieve maximum local support because they would not be a purely anti-piracy measure, but would also have responsibility for some classic coast guard functions like protecting natural resources and maritime rescue. In fact, in an interview with the BBC Somali Service last week as reported by Radio Garowe, President Farole called for the establishment of a 600-strong marine force and eight coastal stations along Puntland’s long coastline to help detect and prevent pirate attacks.
Fifth, the key, as Martin Murphy of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments noted in a paper earlier this year, is to not get hung up on questions of the end state of what was once the Somali Democratic Republic since “a more attractive course of action would find the United States assembling an effective international coalition that is willing to deal with Somali sub-state entities in order to reach a more immediate solution even though this might mean deferring agreement on a unitary state to a later date.” And as President Farole noted in his remarks to the House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, “friendly nations [ought] to conform to this new approach” which would allow “all stakeholders with constituencies to participate at international conferences for Somalia and to ensure fair resource sharing for all administrations.”
In fighting the two scourges emerging from the chaos of the former Somali state, Islamist extremism and criminal piracy, the United States and the international community need to avail themselves of every advantage possible. To this end, the potential strengths of Puntland – including, not least of all, the local legitimacy its government derives from the traditional clan structures of the region and its record thus far for maintaining relative stability in contrast to the general chaos of southern and central Somalia – ought to be leveraged to good effect.
MOGADISHU, 24 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Al Shabaab extremists shoot 69-year-old after finding Bibles on him at checkpoint.
The faith journey of a long-time underground Christian in Somalia ended in tragedy this week when Islamic militants controlling a security checkpoint killed him after finding Bibles in his possession.
Militants from the Muslim extremist al Shabaab killed 69-year-old Omar Khalafe on Tuesday (Sept. 15) at a checkpoint they controlled 10 kilometers from Merca, a Christian source told Compass. A port city on the Indian Ocean 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Mogadishu, Merca is the main city of the Lower Shabele region.
Leaving Mogadishu by bus at 7:30 a.m., Khalafe was carrying 25 Somali Bibles he hoped to deliver to an underground fellowship in Somalia. By 10:30 a.m. he had arrived at the checkpoint controlled by al Shabaab, a rebel group linked with al Qaeda that has taken over large parts of the war-torn country.
A source in Somalia who spoke on condition of anonymity told Compass that the passengers were ordered to disembark from the bus for inspection. The Islamic militants found 25 Somali Bibles in one of the passengers’ bags; when they asked to whom the Bibles belonged, the passengers responded with a chilled silence.
As the search continued, the militants found several photos in the bag. The source told Compass that the militants began trying to match the photos with the faces of the passengers, who were all seized by fear as they knew the inevitable fate of the owner.
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The Islamic extremists saw that the elderly Khalafe resembled a face in one of the photos, the source said. They asked Khalafe if he was the owner of the Bibles; he kept quiet. They shot him to death.
Khalafe had been a Christian for 45 years, sources said.
The body was taken to Merca, according to the source, and there the al Shabaab militants placed the 25 Somali Bibles on top of Khalafe’s body as a warning to others.
Christian sources said that at 4 p.m. an al shabaab militant was heard saying on Radio Shabele, “Today we caught Omar, a Somali Christian, with 25 Bibles at Merca checkpoint. He has been converting Somalis to Christianity, and today he has been shot dead at 12:30 p.m.”
Khalafe’s family in Mogadishu learned of his death through the radio report, the source said. The family members then contacted a leader of an underground church in Somalia and informed him of the murder.
“The news of the death of Omar shocked me,” the underground church leader in Somalia told Compass by telephone. “We have long served Christians in Somalia. It is unfortunate that the Bibles did not reach the intended audience. I am sure if they had not got the picture, our brother would be still alive.”
Khalafe was a Somali Bantu who had served with various Christian agencies. Underground church members said he was instrumental in the spread of Christianity and had baptized many converts from Islam in Somalia.
He left behind a widow and seven children. His family was unable to participate in his burial due to the risk of being killed, according to the source, who said one of Khalafe’s sons said, “It is unfortunate that we were not there to give our dad a decent burial. God knows how He will reward him.”
Already enforcing sharia (Islamic law) in large parts of southern Somalia that they control, al Shabaab rebels have mounted an armed effort to topple President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s Transitional Federal Government.
Last month al Shabaab extremists seeking evidence that a Somali man had converted from Islam to Christianity shot him dead near the Somali border with Kenya, according to underground Christians in the war-torn nation. The rebels killed 41-year-old Ahmed Matan in Bulahawa, Somalia on Aug. 18, said Abdikadir Abdi Ismael, a former leader of a secret Christian fellowship in Somalia to which Matan belonged. Matan had been a member of the underground church since 2001.
In Mahadday Weyne, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, al Shabaab Islamists on July 20 shot to death another convert from Islam, Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman, at 7 a.m., eyewitnesses told Compass. They said the Islamic extremists appeared to have been hunting the convert from Islam.
The sources told Compass that Abdiraman was the leader of an underground “cell group” of Christians in Somalia. He is survived by two children, ages 15 and 10; his wife died three years ago due to illness.
Intent on “cleansingR 21; Somalia of all Christians, al Shabaab militia are monitoring converts from Islam especially where Christian workers had provided medical aid, such as Johar, Jamame, Kismayo and Beledweyne, sources said. Mahadday Weyne, 22 kilometers (14 miles) north of Johar, is the site of a former Christian-run hospital.
The militants reportedly beheaded seven Christians on July 10. Reuters reported that they were killed in Baidoa for being Christians and “spies.”
On Feb. 21 al shabaab militants beheaded two young boys in Somalia because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader, according to Musa Mohammed Yusuf, the 55-year-old father who was living in a Kenya refugee camp when he spoke with Compass. He had been the leader of an underground church in Yonday village, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Kismayo in Somalia.
Militants from al Shabaab entered Yonday village on Feb. 20, went to Yusuf’s house and interrogated him on his relationship with Salat Mberwa, leader of a fellowship of 66 Somali Christians who meet at his home at an undisclosed city. Yusuf told them he knew nothing of Mberwa and had no connection with him. The Islamic extremists left but said they would return the next day.
Yusuf fled for Kismayo, and at noon the next day, as his wife was making lunch for their children in Yonday, the al Shabaab militants showed up. Batula Ali Arbow, Yusuf’s wife, said the Islamic extremists took hold of three of her sons – 11-year-old Abdi Rahaman Musa Yusuf, 12-year-old Hussein Musa Yusuf and Abdulahi Musa Yusuf, 7.
They killed the two older boys as the youngest one returned crying to his mother.
NAIROBI, 23 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Stakeholders in Somaliland need to reach a consensus on the role the media can play before, during and after elections to avoid election violence, a report says.
The report, entitled The Role of the Media in the Upcoming Somaliland Elections: Lessons from Kenya, discusses potential scenarios and interventions in the run-up to Somaliland’s elections and compares them with the post-election violence experienced in Kenya in 2008.
It is published by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford, Center for Global Communication Studies at University of Pennsylvania and Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research, London.
Both countries have polarized electorates with significant political and economic grievances, political parties accused of manipulating the system, weak institutions and politically influential media. “The challenge… is how the media can be harnessed for nation-building rather than partisan politics and violence,” the report notes.
Somaliland’s elections were planned for 27 September, but were postponed.
MOGADISHU, 23 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Faced with such phenomenon, the UN special envoy to Somalia, Ahmadou Ould Abdallah, has recommended the creation of a high security green zone in Mogadishu just like the one in Baghdad. It is aimed at repatriating all organizations who work on Somalia from Nairobi, Kenya.
However, the setting up of such mechanism is giving rise to problems.
Islamist insurgents continue to be very active. Fighting against government forces in southwest of the country killed at least 17 people on Monday.
On Sunday [20 September], Al-Shabab called for more suicide against AMISOM [African Union Mission in Somalia] just like the one that occurred on Thursday in Mogadishu killing 21 including 17 African Union soldiers.
Obstacles facing setting up of green security zone in Mogadishu is very limited.
While a good number of opposition parties were loudly calling for the return of Burundian soldiers in the African Union peace force – Amisom [African Union Mission in Somalia] – the day before yesterday, during the funereal service for 12 Burundian soldiers killed in Somalia yesterday, First Vice-President Yves Sahinguvu announced that the Burundian government can only withdraw its troops after the latter will have completed their mission. On behalf of the government, he said the soldiers’ death has not caused any discouragement.
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In a speech at the burial of the soldiers, the African Union (UA) representative to Somalia, Mr Nicolas Bwakira, suggested a review of the mandate of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (Amisom). According to him, the time has come to review Amisom’s mandate, meaning give the force the power to act when necessary because to this day, the Amisom forces have only had the right to defend themselves. He also suggested that the soldiers be given sufficient equipment to best undertake their mission.
It is finally worth recalling that the Amisom contingent is only composed of Burundian and Ugandan soldiers who add up to 5,000 men against the 8,000 anticipated at beginning of the mission in 2007 according to officials.
For two years, the Shebab and its allies such as Hezb al-Islam focused their war effort against Ethiopian troops. But after the Ethiopians pulled out of Somalia in January, the militias have made the African peacekeeping force AMISOM their target, accusing them of being the foreguard of a Christian crusade.
AMISOM has found itself drawn into the conflict, often exchanging heavy mortar fire with rebel militias targeting its bases from densely populated urban areas.
While the Shebab is believed to enjoy only limited support in the Somali population, the civilian casualties caused by AMISOM fire have all but dashed that force’s own hopes of building local credibility.
By Abdinasir Mohamed
Somalilandpress
Mogadishu, Somalia
Email: abdinasir4@gmail.com
Mogadishu-Somalia
MOGADISHU, 23 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – In an interview with Australian radio a religious scholar says young Somali-Australians who have gone to Somalia to fight with the terrorist group Al-Shabab have returned and are living in Australia. The terrorism raids in Melbourne last month focused attention on the issue of radicalization in the Somali community.
Islamic scholar Dr Hersi Hilole says Somali community leaders are worried about the situation and their children. National security correspondent Matt Brown reports.
[Brown] When the federal government added the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab to its list of banned terrorist organizations last month, it cited a string of bombings in East Africa and alleged links to Al-Qa’idah. Usamah Bin-Ladin has even called on Muslims from around the world to join Al-Shabab’s fight against Somalia’s Western-backed government.
[Hilole] Al-Shabab is well known terrorist organization. Anyone who joins them can’t get out from them and whoever tries to get out from them will be killed.
[Brown] Somali-born Islamic scholar Hersi Hilole has been monitoring perceptions of Al-Shabab in the Australian Somali community. He says he has spoken to the parents of young men who have gone to fight in Somalia and who have come home to live in Australia.
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[Hilole] Some of the parents told me that some young people came back from Somalia.
[Brown] Dr Hilole says these parents don’t know what to do about their ongoing concerns about their own offspring.
[Hilole] Some of them are worried because they think if the government knows this they will be persecuted, maybe. And some others think well they may also still be associated with these extremist groups.
[Brown] So even their parents aren’t sure?
[Hilole] Yes, even their parents aren’t sure the future of these young people.
[Brown] Hersi Hilole first raised the alarm about the radicalization of young Somali Australians back in 2007 when he was head of the Somali Community Council of Australia.
[Hilole] Because these young people dropped from the school, they are not working, so these religious people or religious teachers encourage them to go to war, rather than spending their time here.
[Brown] There are even suspicions these preachers are actually facilitators who smooth the path to jihad.
[Hilole] Sometimes they encourage them and provide them money and some other facilities that helps them to travel from here and there and so on.
[Brown] The claims against the alleged Melbourne terror cell are yet to be tested in court, but the episode has focused attention on broader concern in the Somali community that a small number of young men, brought up in families fractured by conflict, have lost their way.
[Hilole] They are worried about their sons because these young people are free now. Parents, especially mothers, do not have any control on them. Australian law provides freedom [for] these young people.
[Brown] Federal Police agents have had background contacts with the community and ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organization] has a close eye on several mosques. But the government didn’t comment about concerns that young men who may still be allied to Al-Shabab have returned from Somalia to Australia.
By Abdinasir Mohamed
Somalilandpress
Mogadishu-Somalia
HARGEISA, 22 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – Somaliland Parliament had finally managed to hold its session today at around noon after it was delayed because of lack of the required number of the MPs for the session.
Upon the opening of the session MPs discussed the latest motion which calls the government’s impeachment. The Parliament finally approved the motion and said they will discuss the issue during tomorrow’s session.
HARGEISA, 22 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – A report examining the role of the media in the upcoming Somaliland elections in the light of lessons learned from Kenya, has been published in September 2009.
The report explores issues of media policy during post-election violence. We examine the case of Kenya, where 1,133 people were killed after the 2007 elections, to distill lessons for Somaliland’s upcoming elections. There are indications the elections in Somaliland will be highly contentious and that the media will have an important role in either exacerbating or alleviating political violence.
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The intended audience for this report is journalists and policymakers in Somaliland as well as concerned international observers. We also expect that the issues drawn out here will be relevant for other countries in the region that are grappling with upcoming elections that have the potential of being highly contentious.
HARGEISA, 22 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – In today’s session, the House of Eleders of Somaliland discusses the issue of saving the nation and a possible extension for the current government.
The chairman of the house, Mr. Sulaiman Mohamoud Aden said in a long opening speech that the members of the house should discuss the current issues of Somaliland but should not fight over different opinions from different members. He said a clean and constructive debate is all what is needed but he warned against any insults, abuse and breaking the laws.
He called the Somaliland leaders not to badmouth the members of the house and they should adhere to the country’s bylaws as well as that of their own parties. Mr. Suleiman said a common agreement is needed among the parties before the Guurti announces a decision to save the nation from a possible chaos and destruction.
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The session was quiet today compared to the last one which some members fought over argument concerning the current crisis in the country. The press was also present as usual.
At the end of the session, the Guurti agreed to postpone the discussion of a possible extension for the current government. The members said they will start the discussion tomorrow.
On the other hand, the parliament fails to hold its today’s session due to lack of the number required for the session to start. Most of UDUB members did not show up at the house although they are seen in the compound. The Somalilandpress reporter at the parliament houses said he has seen the members loyal to the government available at the compound not attending the session.
The parliament was supposed to discuss a possible impeachment of the current government today. It seems that it is not happening today as the session did not take place as planned.
Somalilandpress will bring you more into the current Somaliland issues as it happens.
HARGEISA, 20 September 2009 (Somalilandpress) – A short while ago, I came across a recent open letter, by Mr. Bashir Goth, to your Excellency, urging you to resign. Mr. Goth is an accomplished journalist with a commendable and venerable record of being a stalwart proponent of Somaliland’s cause. His arguments in the letter were characteristically powerful and articulately presented. But I beg to disagree with his advice your to your Excellency.
Unlike Mr. Goth, I am not your cousin, though to me, that does not matter one way or another. Like Mr. Goth, I would also like to congratulate you for maintaining peace and stability in the country amid a dangerous neighborhood and at treacherous times. I would as well refrain from cataloging neither your successes nor your shortfalls. However, I can say with certainty that, in the least, you have been true to the medical doctor’s motto: Do No Harm.
For the record, I am not one of “your inner-circle … kitchen cabinet”; not even one in government, past or present. Usually, there is nothing wrong with kitchen cabinets – all leaders, good or bad, have them. The danger is when their leader allows them, by design or by default, to build “fortified walls around” him and then they proceed to tell him only what they think he wants to hear. Mr. Goth suggests that you might have succumbed to just a trap.
However, as one who, like Mr. Goth, had the “vantage point of being an outside observer”, and additionally, from my frequent and mostly extended visits to our homeland, the privilege of being a first hand witness of Somaliland’s political dynamics, I have learned that it is nearly impossible for anyone, even the President, despite the best efforts of architects of “fortified walls”, not “to see the cracks on the wall.”
For Somalilanders Khat and politics are their pastimes. They are too thunderous in expressing their opinions. Only the deaf and dumb could fail to hear them. The mushrooming press, especially the print section, could be counted on to sensationalize and exaggerate problems, both real and imagined. Moreover, they more often than not level a fair amount of breathtaking, farfetched, intriguing (and sometimes, admittedly, fair and accurate) allegations of every hue and type against those in power, their inner-circle entourages and occasionally even family members.
When crowds, whether rowdy or civil, gather outside the presidential palace, I do not see how anyone inside could not hear their utterances. At any rate, it is not a big palace and it is located at the capital’s main artery. And the two legislative houses, the Guurti and the parliament, many of whose members are known for their not entirely constructive criticisms and polite discretions when in disagreement, operate directly just across the street.
During the most recent presidential tour of some regions, I had the opportunity to attend one or two of your town-street meetings and rallies; not as a supporter or as a detractor, but as an ordinary and impartial citizen who was just curious to see his country’s democracy at work. It was easy to notice that these were not henchmen-orchestrated gatherings with only dotting supporters as your audience.
I observed with amazement and not without certain amusement, as some prominent members of the public not only openly and without mincing their words, chastised you for your policies, but also pointed fingers and named name at various members of your government (mostly those considered to be in your “inner-circle”) as fellow culprits. If, as Mr. Goth asserts, “all you hear and see is what happens in the four walls of your palace when all the reports and stories that reach your desk tell you that everything is fine and that people still glorify you” then these rallies must have been shocking and inexplicable aberrations to you. In real dictatorships, such aberrations would have called for some heads to roll.
Notwithstanding, my reluctance to either defend or accuse (for lack of hard evidence to justify either choice) “your kitchen cabinet”, it would seem to me as formidable feat if they have succeeded, as Mr. Goth fears, in plugging your ears.
Mr. Goth thinks that seven years is too long to be the holder of the nation’s highest office. I propose to differ. To start with, our constitution allows two elected presidential terms totaling ten years and you are short of that number. Besides, two force majeure events contributed to these seven years: First, the death of late President Egal, upon which the constitution obligated you, as the sitting vice president at the time, to assume the presidency; and, second, the postponement of the presidential elections scheduled at the end of your first term. Neither of these events occurred through a fault of yours.
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Assuming that you will win a second term when the elections eventually take place, you will have been legally in power for 12 or 13 years. What is the big deal about this? No provision of the constitution was violated.
If, on the other hand, you attempted to hold on to the presidency after the end of a potential second term, or failed to transfer power in the event that you had lost a second term in an election, that would be, God forbid, an entirely different matter. Let us hope, friend or foe alike, that you would not have the inanity to attempt committing such a horrendous folly.
At any rate, the leaders of the two opposition parties can not claim to have any better sense of proportion with regards to the appropriate tenure at the helm. Both parties’ chairmen held their top posts since their parties’ inceptions more than seven years ago and have abundantly shown unnerving tendencies to thwart any challenges from within their respective parties to their leadership; not exactly a reassuring democratic spirit.
Then, there is Mr. Goth’s point about the national treasury. I detect here an inadvertent insinuation that it is acceptable for the government leaders use the treasury as their personal piggy bank. I must concede that misuse of public funds is a universal and timeless scourge and, as distasteful as it is, Somaliland had and inevitably will have its share of this curse. Even if we can not totally eliminate this corruption, we should exert all efforts to at least reduce it. Certainly, we must not encourage it.
Now, changing our leaders at short and regular intervals solely to feed “hungry opposition leaders” sets a dangerous precedent that will lead us into an abyss. It would formalize and encourage corruption. Being or rather pleading to be “hungry” would be one of the prerequisites of being an aspiring national leader, perhaps the main qualification! He would need to be very hungry and much hungrier than other also hungry politicians to have the first and quickest shot at the presidency.
Even if we, against all sagacity, were to legitimize public sleaze and nosh “hungry leaders” with power, lest they incite “hungry public” to violence, we must in the least employ some common sense in managing the beast. We must require long intermissions between the nourishment of one hungry leader and the next. This is because it takes more food to fill an empty stomach than one already reasonably satisfied needing just dessert. This will, with a bit of luck, free some crumbs of the treasury to be used for what was its original purpose. As an added advantage, it will, due to the imposed long waiting period, discourage many politicians from easily deciding to go hungry and thereby resulting in less incitement of the hungry public.
I am convinced, however, that legitimization and regularization of plundering of national treasury and rewarding politicians with being hungry as their only qualifications were not the intentional embodiment of Mr. Goth’s advice.
On the other hand Mr. President, if anyone (and I trust Mr. Goth is no such one) is accusing you or members of your government with misapprobation of public funds, one must come forward with the necessary evidence. If proven, that would be sufficient grounds for your resignation or failing that, your impeachment. Infamy, not dignity, will be the essence of either outcome.
However, my main contentions with Mr. Goth’s advice are with the assumptions cited by him to support his counsel. Some of these suppositions are, in my humble opinion, unfounded and therefore Mr. Goth might have fallen a victim of unscrupulous doomsday mongers. And while I would go along with some of his other assumptions, I would not agree that your resignation, Mr. President, is the best remedy.
I have an issue with the characterization of Somaliland as “tribal house of cards” which is facing “imminent collapse”. Sure, Somaliland is a multi-tribal country and admittedly its politics is mired to an undesirably significant extent in tribal affiliations. True, some politicians “use the conventional explosive tools of tribalism, poverty and ignorance” to their political ends. Tribalism, both its good and bad facets, has been with us since time immemorial. We can not wish it away.
But after having – during my frequent and extended stays in the country ¬- a hard, extensive and critical look at its tribal dynamics, I am sufficiently convinced that Somaliland is mercifully past the time when serious and destructive tribal conflict can erupt to an extent that will threaten the existence of the country or its general peace and stability or even democratic devolopment. If “hungry politicians” are entertaining (without just cause – and selfish personal ambition is not a just cause) any illusion that “the hungry public can be easily incited to rise against” their current or a future government, they will be unpleasantly disappointed.
Many a comment have I heard on self-proclaimed leaders with foreign passports and families tucked away in safety and comfort in foreign lands, who do not possess any qualms about inciting unsuspecting brethren to violence to advance their political careers.
People know that if the worse comes to worst, these politicians will not waste a moment to exercise their personal exit strategies. They will turn their tails in no time to share their families’ safety and comfort abroad. People realize that they will be the ones left to face the music.
Those who are in doubt of this wide-spread public sentiment need not do more than just walk the streets of towns across the country and talk to cross-section of citizens of varying social status, clan allegiances or political preferences. One will find out that the electorate is, on whole, smarter than what many greed-blinded politicians are willing to give credit for.
No, Mr. Goth, with all due respect, your fear of the “imminent collapse of the impoverished, unrecognized and tribal house”, whether made of “cards” or granite has no credible basis. I even perceive a steady diminishment of tribalism in our national psychology.
Those who wish Somaliland ill have dreams to the contrary and they cite the current election crisis and recent unfamiliar government-parliament dispute as indicative. I would say to them: Hold your breath and do not celebrate just as yet. These are the inevitable pains of teething of our democracy. Worse things happen to more mature democracies with limitless resources. Somaliland will overcome this hump as it did many before it.
I am inclined to be more in agreement where the modus opparandi of the two main opposition leaders is concerned. One seems to me rather too advanced in age and too fragile in health to persevere in his quest of the presidency. Perhaps this is the source of his apparent impatience. Like everyone who is in haste, he often stumbles and not only in physical terms. A person of his of age, stature and past contributions to the nation would have been well advised to forgo politics, a course of action that would have deservedly assured him the mantle of a national statesman – an icon of sorts.
The other is notable to me as one who tends to shoot from the hip; as one who, in the traditions of Wild West, shoots first and asks questions later; at least in as far as his public utterances are concerned. This is, in my opinion, a cardinal liability to any politician, especially one aspiring to be president, for utterances and appearances are decisive for achieving such a goal.
As national leaders, both appear to be oblivious to the consequences of their public remarks. At times they have appealed to the darker instincts of their supporters to advance their agendas. In more developed countries, that would have been called sedition. Their positions on policies and public issues are not always consistent and occasionally contradictions emerge between the beginning and the end of the same single policy statement or the same single interview with a journalist.
Though it is their duty as opposition to monitor and bring the government to book if at fault, they tend to give little or no credence to what the qualifying “at fault” means. To them all and everything the government does is “at fault”. Unfortunately this is not a responsible attitude and rather a miscarriage of the indispensable roles and duties of opposition as practiced in democracies.
What, however, caused me unexpected disappointment and dismay, is both leaders’ habitual penchant to enlist the international community to their side whatever issue disagreements with the government crop up. Sometimes they are not beneath going as far as urging donors and sympathetic governments or organizations to withhold aid to Somaliland until a new government is formed, presumably under the leadership of the one or the other who is making the appeal at time. This, in my view, gets too close to treachery for comfort.
Whenever I hear this, the successive phony and puppet presidents who are installed in foreign capitals at regular intervals and then transplanted in Mogadishu come to mind. As if it were a divine call, they one after another placed (as continues the incumbent) more, perhaps all, importance and efforts at earning the good graces and acceptance of foreigners, rather than winning the minds and hearts of their own countrymen. The result was their countrymen consistently rejected them and none of them lasted long. It is not a major problem for the foreigners; they could always install a new president and there is no shortage of eager candidates. But the amazing thing is none of these presidents learned the obvious lessons from the experiences of his predecessors.
I am afraid that our two opposition leaders are likewise oblivious to these lessons.
The electorate is free to elect one or the other as president in the coming election. That is indisputably the electorate’s prerogative. What would be unfortunate, however, is if you, Mr. President, yield — by abdicating your duty to the nation — to their misguided pressures and unbecoming tactics only to gratify their egos and antics.
Mr. Goth quotes the saying, “Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to.” On the contrary, Somaliland is worthwhile holding on to, Mr. President. Furthermore, these are not times to engage in social and political experimentations; the kind of “do-this-and-see-how-it-plays-out actions whose consequences are not well considered. You assumed the presidency through legitimate and constitutional process. It is your duty to vacate it through the same legitimacy and constitutional process. If you tire of government, you can always choose retire on your own free will. In such an event, the constitution automatically comes into play through its succession provisions. Any other unconstitutional departure from your duties as President, especially where “hungry politicians” are involved, runs the risk of weakening the constitutional process and an important national institution namely: The Office of the Presidency.
In the meantime, continue to serve the country and uphold the constitution to the best of your ability as per your solemn oath. Remember this vow is registered with God, to Whom you will eventually face to answer for any deviation from (or betrayal of) it.
This in the least means good, accountable and transparent governance. It means an administration run by capable hands and minds as well as honest advisors. It means building and consolidating effective and independent national institutions. Leaders come and go, but institutions stay.
As a human being, you may err, but when and if you do, do not sweep it under the rug. Instead face up to it and rectify it. If the identification of an error comes from the opposition, thank them for bring it to your attention and rectify it nonetheless.
If you have no problems with above, STAY THE COURSE MR. PRESIDENT, until and unless the electorate tells you to go in the ballot box or the constitution bars you from staying.
