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Amnesty Urges
Africans To End Female Circumcision
NAIROBI, February 6, 2004 (Reuters) – Human rights group Amnesty
International has appealed to African countries to outlaw female
genital mutilation, to protect two million girls it says are at risk
each year.
Amnesty said the practice -- also known as female circumcision --
continued in 28 African states as well as in Indonesia and Yemen, and
was becoming more common in Europe, Australia, and North America,
mainly among immigrants from those countries.
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Research May Lead
To Ban On Qat In Britain
Alok Jha, science correspondent
London, February 5, 2004 (The Guardian) – The Home Office is
considering whether qat, a psychoactive plant outlawed in many
countries but legal in the UK, should be banned. The study comes as
new research, seen exclusively by the Guardian, points to its
potential long-term effects on the brain.
The Home Office's drugs and alcohol research unit began its work into
qat late last year and aims to report its findings to the government's
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) in the autumn. If the
research unit shows that there is a sufficient level of potential harm
for users of qat, the ACMD is likely to recommend that the plant
should be banned and classified along with other illegal drugs. The
ACMD deemed qat to be safe more than 15 years ago.
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Rescue Heroine Dies In
Blaze
Sheffield, UK, Feb 03, 2004 (Sheffield today) – A Grandma’s final act was to
save her two grandchildren from a suspected arson blaze which then claimed
her life.
The entrance to their top storey maisonette was blocked by a raging fire and
Amina Ali tried to get the children to safety from a window 50 feet above
the ground at the flats in Mount Street, Sharrow.
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| Headlines |
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Invitation For
President Rayale To Visit UK
London, Feb 07, 2004 (SL Times) – A member of a British
Parliamentarian delegation that recently returned from a visit to
Somaliland has disclosed, that he and a number of his colleagues were
seriously considering sending an official invitation to Somaliland's
President, Mr. Dahir Rayale, to come to London and address the House of
Commons.
Mr. Tony Worthington, a member of the ruling Labour party, who secured
a 2 hour-long debate on Somaliland in the UK House of Commons last
Wednesday, said the invitation was intended to enable Somaliland's
president to present his country’s case before British legislators and
government officials.
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Hargeisa Urban
Household Economy Assessment, Pt. VIII
The main Hargeisa livestock market is the
second most important livestock market in Somaliland/Somalia after
Burao. Sheep and goats (shoats) and camels are traded for both
domestic use and export, and cattle are sold for domestic use (meat).
The marketing of each species functions independently and each species
occupies a specific location within the marketplace. The analysis of
this sector was conducted according to
livestock species and purpose of marketing separately for each sub
sector. There have been a number of major changes in the sector since
the first livestock ban was introduced in 1998:
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Interior
Minister: Illegal Immigrants Must Leave By Feb 14
Hargeisa, Feb 07, 2004 (SL Times) – Mr. Ismail Adan Osman,
Somaliland’s minister of interior disclosed Thursday that all illegal
immigrants in the country will be required to leave by the 14th of
this month. Mr. Osman said the measure will not affect individuals who
come to the country for business, particularly people from Ethiopia’s
Somali regional state (Zone 5).
The Minister who was speaking at a press conference also disclosed
that a new office has been established within the Migration Department
to deal with immigrants affairs in conjunction with the ministry of
interior. He said all illegal immigrants shall register themselves
with the new office.
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UN Freezes
Support For Printing School Text Books
Nairobi, Feb 07, 2004 (SL Times) – The UN organization for Education,
Science and Culture (UNESCO) has frozen its support for the printing
of textbooks for intermediate schools in Somaliland.
UNESCO made no official explanation as to the reason behind its
decision so far, but it was revealed that the organization had
received pressure from the chief of the Nairobi-based United Nations
Political Office for Somalia to dissuade it from printing school
textbooks for Somaliland’s ministry of Education.
Mr. Winston Tubman, Kofi Annan’s representative for Somalia and head
of the UNPOS, wrote on Oct 21, 2003 to UNESCO’S PEER, M. Devados,
instructing him not to go ahead with the printing of social studies
text book for grade 5 students in Somaliland. Mr. Tubman complained
that the textbook advocated for “Somaliland’s secessionist policy”. He
had called on UNESCO to print a “unified social studies textbook for
all Somali students in grade 5”. Mr. Tubman’s objections with regard
to the social studies textbook were all politically motivated and had
nothing to do with the academic content of the syllabus.
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Getting Out The
Muslim Vote
By Kari Huus, Reporter
"There is a sense of crisis in the Muslim
community," says Jamal Gabobe, a U.S. citizen born in Somaliland.
Gabobe, who teaches comparative literature at the University of
Washington, has been in the country for decades but says he is
registering to vote for the first time in 2004. "There are a lot of
issues coalescing, with the Iraq war and the war on terrorism. Being a
Muslim, even if you are not interested in politics, you have to react,
to be heard."
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Debate Of The Select
Committee For International Development On Somaliland, At The UK House
Of Commons, Feb 4, 2004
Tony Worthington (Clydebank and Milngavie)
(Lab): The Select Committee on International Development has just
returned from a visit to Somaliland. Our visit prompted questions in
us all about British policy there and, indeed, in the whole of
Somalia—questions about the Government's aid policy and about
international recognition, which deeply affects the assistance that we
give to Somaliland. Our foreign service hang-ups about recognition are
getting in the way of us fulfilling our duty to pursue the millennium
development goals for the poor people of Somaliland, and we are
failing to build adequately on the efforts of the Government of
Somaliland to create a modern, democratic state. In effect, we are
putting the interests of the warmongers in the south ahead of those of
the peace-builders in the north.
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International
News |
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UN Rights Expert Call
For The Release Of UN Worker
NAIROBI, 4 Feb 2004 (IRIN) - The United Nations independent human rights
expert for Somalia has called for the immediate and unconditional release of
the UN staff member, Rolf Helmrich, who was abducted by militias in the
Lower Juba region of southern Somalia last week.
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Slain Taxi Driver
Honored At Burial Services
Seattle, February 4, 2004 (AP) – An immigrant taxi driver who helped
schoolchildren in his Somali community was honored by friends and
co-workers as he was buried in his adopted homeland.
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Calls For US
Military Command For Africa
Nairobi, Kenya, February 4, 2004 (CNSNews.com) - U.S. scholars have
called for the establishment of a U.S. military command responsible
for Africa, although a regional security analyst here says that the
existing, comprehensive intelligence and security network in Africa
may be adequate.
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| Editorial
& Opinions |
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It’s Our
Curriculum
Though Mr. Winston Tubman was appointed more than 2 years ago as the
UN Secretary-General’s representative and head of the UN Political
Office for Somalia, we will be surprised if the number of
Somalilanders who could recognize his name or know about his job
exceeded a dozen individuals. It is not only that Somalilanders don't
know him, he too does not know Somalilanders or their country for he
has never set foot here. That is why it is amazing that someone
so removed from our reality would have a say on what our children
study.
Somalilanders who are used to unreasonable demands and claims by
overpaid and underachieving UN bureaucrats, were shocked by the extent
of mean-spiritedness and hostility shown by Mr. Tubman toward them, as
evidenced by his letter of Oct 21, 2003 which called for the removal
from the Somaliland curriculum of:
- All topics related to the historical background of how Somaliland
regained its independence on May 1991
- All the maps showing international boundaries between Somaliland and
its neighboring countries as well as such purely physical features as
hills and mountains.
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Reflections On
Somaliland & Africa’s Territorial Order, Part II
Ian S. Spears
This article examines the arguments for
and against reforming the African state system in order to create more
viable and peaceful states. It argues that while such a process has
the potential to be enormously disruptive, selective recognition of
some ‘states-within-states’, such as Somaliland, does offer promising
approaches to more effective governance and more viable and coherent
states.
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The City of
Dire Dawa: An Ethnic Melting Pot
By: Adan Adar
The city of Dire Dawa (commonly known as Dirri Daba by the Somalis),
which translated means “the real & true land”, is the capital of the
Dire Dawa Administrative Council, a semi-autonomous city
administration. It is an enclave surrounded mainly by the Shinile zone
of the Somali National Regional State (SNRS). It is also the seat of
the Shinile zonal administration; one of the nine zones the SNRS is
composed of. Until recently (or prior to 1991), the City of Dire Dawa
has been under the jurisdiction of the Gurgura district of the then
Issa and Gurgura province. Geographically, it is located within the
Great Rift Valley region. It has an excellent climate with no
extremes. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 30 degrees Celsius.
The site in which the present city of
Dire Dawa sit perched has been a vast camel grazing plains, much
favored by the nomads, and cohabited by two pastoralist Somali clans:
the Issa and Gurgura. The population of the Shinile zone is divided
between the Issa and Gurgura clans. The majority of the Issa pursue a
nomadic life, while the majority of the Gurgura are agro-pastoralists.
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| Peace Talks |
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Somalia's Fragile
Peace Process Shaken by Disputes Over Formal Agreement
Nairobi, February 5, 2004 (VOA News) – Many Somali factional leaders
say they now reject a landmark agreement on the formation of a new
parliament they signed a few days ago.
Factional leader Mohammed Sa'id Hersi, known as General Morgan, says
the agreement that 30 warlords, politicians, and civil representatives
signed in front of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on January 29 is not
the same as the document they had agreed to just three days earlier.
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Maintain Peace,
Kalonzo Urges Somali Leaders
Nairobi, February 5, 2004 (The Nation) – Action will be taken against
Somali factional leaders who breach a peace deal signed last week.
Kenya's Foreign minister Kalonzo Musyoka said individuals "who cannot
live with peace" in Somalia would face sanctions from the
international community.
The minister was reacting to a claim by 18 out of the 24 leaders that
they had rejected the accord whose signing was witnessed by President
Kibaki.
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