Issue 52 January 18, 2003
| FEATURE |
Over 100 People Feared Dead After Boat Capsizes
Aden (SL Times): Up to 100 Somalis and Ethiopians are believed to have died off the coast of Bossasso after a boat carrying them capsized in sea water. The incident took place on Jan. 4 and its only 23 survivors, which included 2 women, 5 crewmembers, and 8 Ethiopians, were taken to the Yemeni port of Aden several days later on another boat coming from Somalia.
Opening Of Sheikh Secondary School Delayed
MOE Blamed For Mishandling The SOS Introduced And Supported Secondary Education Program
Sheikh (SL Times): The opening of Sheikh’s old Secondary School has been delayed indefinitely. The school, which has been rehabilitated, furnished and equipped by
SOS Kinderdorf International was scheduled to start with two classes of 25 students each as from Jan 15, 2003. The students were reportedly selected among the top 80 mark scorers in the intermediate school leaving examination held last year by Somaliland’s Ministry of Education.
Review 2002: Somaliland Confounded All The Skeptics
Nairobi, January 17, 2003 (IRIN): The year 2002 ended as it began, with Somalia still mired in conflict, insecurity and instability. Even areas, which were hitherto relatively peaceful and stable, such as Baidoa in the south and Puntland in the northeast, became caught up in the violence. This created an acute humanitarian situation in some parts of the country.
One Woman's Fight to Rescue the Environment
Akwe Amosu
Johannesburg, January 13, 2003 (allAfrica.com): Somalia lost many things as a result of having no government for over a decade during the 90s, but one of the least obvious was an ability to protect its environment.
Relief Organizations Assists 1 Million In Somali Zone 5
Jigjiga, 12th January, 2003 (JNA)- The Ethiopian Emergency Authority says it has provided urgent relief assistance supported by the World food programm, Non Govermantal Organizations and UNDP to about 250,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who settled in Raaso, Salaxaad, Hargeysa-yare and also hamaro woredas of Fiiq zone of Somali National Regional State in Ethiopia.
UNDP Helps Keep Remittance Lifeline To Open
PRESS RELEASE
New York, January 17, 2003 (UNDP): UNDP Somalia is helping to keep open a crucial financial lifeline - remittance companies (hawala) - that transfer US$750 million to $1 billion a year from Somalis abroad to families and businesses in their home country.
Somali Children Smuggled To U.S.
NAIROBI, Kenya, January 17, 2003 (AP) - Somali parents are hiring smugglers to bring their
children to Europe and the United States, to protect them from the poverty and violence sweeping
the African nation, a U.N. agency said on Friday.
Now Somali Delegates Face Eviction
William Faria and Vincent Bartoo
Nairobi, January 17, 2003 (The East African Standard): The controversy-ridden Somalia peace have been hit by several other hiccups which are now likely to cripple the conference.
Ethnic Clashes In Ethiopia Somali Zone 5
Jigjiga, January 15, 2003 (JNA)- A number of people have reportedly been killed and wounded in violent clashes involving two ethnic groups in Somali national regional State. The Minister of Federal Affairs, HE, Abay Tsehaye, told ENA that six people have been killed and seven others wounded in armed clashes between the Ogaden and Shekashs adding that casualty could be much higher as the sporadic killings have been raging for the last three weeks, in Hammaro and Fiik towns.
Eldoret, (Daily Nation) - Hotels in Eldoret have resolved to stop providing services to delegates attending the Somalia National Peace and Reconciliation Conference and the Igad technical committee team from today over a Sh30 million debt.
"Peace In Somalia Will Take Years" - Mediator
Katy Salmon, IPS
NAIROBI, 1/16/2003 (The Black World Today) - The chief mediator in peace talks aimed at ending more than a decade of anarchy in Somalia says progress is being made, but warns that it will take years to restore order to the country.
| PEOPLE |
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"It Is A Wonderful Place" |
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Exclusive Interview with International Actor/Comedian Billy Connolly |
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click for larger image |
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| ARTS & CULTURE |
"I am Swinging This Flower To You" III
Essays on Somaliland Music by Abdiraxman Ahmed Shunuuf
The King Of Oud, Mohamoud SH. Ismail "Xodeydeh"
[Continued from our last issue]
| NEWS IN BRIEF |
Rayale Describes his West African Tour as Successful
Hargeisa (SL Times): Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin returned to Hargeisa on Wednesday from a diplomatic tour that took him to Senegal and Mali in western Africa.
The President described his visit to that region as highly successful. Before returning to Hargeisa, President Rayale spent 3 days in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where he met with a number of foreign diplomats accredited to Ethiopia such as ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Britain, USA, France, Mozambique and others.
Somali Boy Passes Away
DOHA, 1/16/2003 (THE PENINSULA): Abdalla, a Somali boy and a Class VII student of the MES Indian School, died in Doha yesterday following illness.
Abdalla was admitted to Hamad General Hospital on December 2 following pneumonia.
Four years ago, he had undergone a kidney transplantation surgery, school sources said yesterday.
Abdalla’s father Mohammed Haji Hussain works as a civil engineer with the Doha Municipality.
His mother Zahra and a brother and two sisters are also residing in Qatar, the sources said.
Nine Bus Passengers Killed By Gunmen In Somalia
Baidoa, January 16, 2003 ((Albawaba.com): At least nine people were killed and 15 injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus on the main road linking the Somali capital with the south-central town of, according to witnesses Wednesday.
The incident occurred late Tuesday at Jiro-Kulow, some 110 kilometers west of Mogadishu, according to Ahmed Yakub, who said one of his relatives was among those hurt and hospitalized in Mogadishu.
"The attackers opened fire on the bus indiscriminately killing nine and wounding more than 15," said Yakub, adding that that the motive of the attack was still unclear, accordingB to AFP.
The dead included two women and seven men, five of them Islamic clergymen, another survivor said. A doctor in one of the hospitals treating the wounded said two of his patients were in critical condition.
| INTERNATIONAL NEWS |
Globalization & Self-Determination Movements: International Conference to Be Held at Pomona College in January
CLAREMONT, Calif., Jan 13, 2003 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- Since the 1990s, there has been a huge global increase in local violent conflicts and civil wars, for reasons from issues of ethnic and religion identity to groups trying to escape state domination. Among current conflicts are the civil war in Algeria, the recent succession of Somaliland from rest of Somalia, the war in Congo, and the conflict in Sri Lanka.
Joint Communiqué of the 2nd Tripartite Meeting of Foreign Ministers Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen
Washington, DC, Jan 16, 2003 (Embassy of Ethiopia/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) - The following is a press release from the Embassy of Ethiopia regarding the Joint Communiqué of the 2nd Tripartite Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen.
The UN condemns killings of children in Somalia
The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Maxwell Gaylard, expressed his deep concern at the recent killings, kidnappings and attacks targeting children as a result of the escalation of the ongoing conflict in Somalia.
Eritrea Joins Arab League As Observer
Addis Ababa, January 17, 2003 (Addis Tribune): Eritrea has joined the Arab League as an observer and is to send an ambassador to the pan-Arab body later this month, the Cairo-based organisation said Friday.
| EDITORIAL & OPINION |
Another Human Tragedy at Sea
The death of over 100 people after their boat reportedly capsized in the Gulf of Aden on Jan. 14, is the latest incident of its kind in which desperate Somalis and Ethiopians lose their lives at sea in the most tragic way imaginable. We are already aware that since 1991, thousands of Somalis and a lesser number of Ethiopians have either drowned or died from dehydration and hunger as the boats carrying them sank or allegedly developed engine failure.
Kulmiye Party’s irresponsible Policy
The Kulmiye party shows no sense of national responsibility and political decency It is playing a dangerous policy which can be an inclination to resort more to violence rather than try to win the support of the people of Somaliland through persuasion by relying on the merit their party’s principles about how the society should better be managed.
Praying For A Miracle
Mohamed Abdi Hassan (Diridhaba), Karachi, Pakistan
Have the Americans given sufficient thought to the calendar they propose for their war against Iraq? According to serious analysts, the date for the invasion is juggling between 15 and 21 February. Washington is expected to wait till the end of January for United Nations inspectors to deliver their full report (which, so far, has not discovered a 'smoking gun' in Iraq, leave alone a smoking weapon of mass destruction).
Justice For the Atrocities of the 1980s: The Responsibility of Politicians and Political Parties
Rakiya A. Omaar
Like so many other Somalis, my life in the 1980s was marked profoundly by the terrible human right situation under the regime of Mohamed Siad Barre. I was one of the very lucky ones. I did not live in Somalia at the time, and no-one in my family was killed or maimed when the government unleashed a genocidal frenzy in Somaliland, then the Northwest region of Somalia. Being lucky implied a responsibility: to let the world know what was happening, so it could exert pressure to halt the atrocities. Fortunately, I had just begun my career in human rights as director of the US-based group, Africa Watch. This position gave me a platform from which I could speak and make my contribution.
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