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4 Steps That Can Help To Improve Security In Somaliland
By Hirsi Jama
1. Create Identification Cards (ID cards)
A. For Citizens
All citizens of Somaliland should be issued an ID card, this ID card should show the persons last name and first name and other personal data such as, their date of birth, place of birth, photograph, height and weight, eye color, address in Somaliland, and finally the ID card should have a unique ID number. Foreigners who are in the country legally should also be issued a special ID. There should be a small issuance fee in order to obtain this ID card.
B. For Foreigners
Since Somaliland has many immigrants, they should all be required to register themselves so that they can be issued a special immigrant ID or they can even file for citizenship if they have lived in the country for a long time or if they have done a good service to Somaliland. There should be a small issuance fee in order to obtain this ID card.
C. Issues Related to the ID Card
In order to make sure that everybody purchases or obtains the ID during the required time the Somaliland government should make it mandatory for restaurants, money transfer businesses, hotels, busses and all other public places to require ID before doing that person a service. In this way it will be hard to live in Somaliland without an Identification Card (ID). Furthermore during a month’s time the police should randomly stop people and ask for their ID, it will not make people happy but we have to secure Somaliland and it is not easy to do that, we have to work together. The cost of the cards should not be that expensive for the government to issue because the issuance fee the person pays when picking up the card could cover some 70% of the cost of making the card. The card should be of a modern type that is not so easy to copy; after all it is better to do things well in the beginning rather than have to do them over again later.
2. Start an “Independent Investigation Council” to Count how many Police and Military personnel there Really is in Somaliland
Is Somaliland really spending 85% of its budget on the military and police forces or is this a BIG LIE? I think it is a BIG BIG LIE. There are many independent reports that have proven that the number of Somaliland police and military men/women in uniform are not as many as the government claims. Some individuals in the government and the military claim that there are more personnel in the military and the police force so they can allocate money to themselves. In other words these officials have created fake names or used names of people who are not really police officers or military personnel so that they can collect extra money. This is a carefully planned corruption scheme and it needs to be seriously investigated by the media and others. One report I read in either Haatuf or Jamhuuriya newspaper talked about how widespread this practice was. There also needs to be a special investigative Council put in place which should consist of figures from the opposition parties, UDUB party, the government, and the current parliament. This council should consist of people with accounting and analyzing skills, and they should find out how many soldiers and police officers there really is in Somaliland.
When the real number is established, more money will be available to give to real police staff and real military staff, as things stand now much of the current money allocated to the military and the police is going into the pockets of corrupt officials while in reality their is a lack of poclie staff in most major cities of Somaliland. This cannot be accepted.
3. Start a Government “Gun buy back program”
The fact of the matter is that as long as every Somalilander has an Ak-47 in his house then there is bound to be murders and vendettas and other violent crimes. It was only yesterday that the newspaper wrote that a man put a gun to Qaybe’s head (Speaker of the house). Has this man been arrested yet? The government should start a gun buy back program and store all the weapons in special military barracks. Anyone who wishes to obtain a rifle or firearm of any kind and for whatever reason should first have to apply for a “Gun license”. Convicted criminals of violent crimes should not be allowed to apply for a Gun license. Furthermore the police should have a well kept and functioning system of files on who has a gun and who has applied etc. At any given time it should be possible to know how many people have guns in their homes, and under what numbers these guns are registered. So in a case of murder, it would be easy to find the killer, if one found the weapon on the crime scene. A simple check in the registry would show who the owner of the weapon was.
4. The law must be followed at all times and Apply Equally to All Citizens
During Rayaale’s time in office we are seeing a nasty culture coming back to life. People close to government figures are being let off the hook for crimes they have committed. This will in the long run do real serious damage to our justice system and nobody will have trust in the system and a system that the citizens don’t trust cannot work.
Everybody must be equal before the law. Nepotism has no place in the new Somaliland, whether you are related to the president, interior minister or the president’s advisor. The law should apply equally to all of us. If people have trust in the equality and fairness of the justice system then they are also likely to help the police in solving crimes.
Last but not least, all citizens should keep an eye out for suspicious behavior and notify the police if they see or hear something out of the ordinary!
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