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FRONT PAGE
Controversy Surrounds NDC/GTZ Demobilizing Project
Promotion of Economic Recovery Project by ILO Launched
Warring Somalia Factions Move to Restore Peace
Sixth Camp in Ethiopia Set to Close as Somali Refugees Go Home
Omer Arteh Ghalib To Run For President
Continued from the previous
issue:
Maxamed Ibraahim Warsame 'Hadraawi'
Notes on Mr. Omer Arteh Ghalib
Reintegration Should Be For All
Stratfor Strategic Forecasting
Hostage-Taking Leaves Putin in No-Win Situation
Qatar Coup Plot May Thwart U.S. War Plans
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Inserting ex-combatants back into productive civilian life has been long overdue.
Both the former SNM fighters and ex-members of the clan militia are entitled to reintegration assistance. These ex-combatants who said farewell to arms many years ago, are the true heroes of both war and peace.
It is sad and unfair that ex-combatants cannot have access to the reintegration resources that the on-going NDC/GTZ project provides. It is also terribly wrong to reward the men and women currently enlisted on the combined security forces at the expense of those who, by deciding to leave military life for good at a much earlier time, risked the only way they have known for earning a livelihood security. Despite their deprivation, ex-combatants continued to live as law-abiding citizens, looking forward to the day when the promised reintegration assistance would materialize. But in the face of their exclusion from benefiting of the NDC/GTZ project, such optimism is already giving way to despair and frustration.
The Somaliland government should correct its mistake by including ex-combatants and war-widows as one of the project’s groups. Obviously, the NDC should also reassert playing its full role as the authority mandated by the Somaliland government to supervise and coordinate the DPR SOOYAAL, the war-veterans association needs to be brought in as the counterpart implementing agency. Because it controls the flow of EC Funds, the GTZ should not be allowed to define the project’s priorities.
Finally, it is important not to treat the DPR as an issue separate from the over-all development needs of the country. On the contrary, the DPR should become an integral part of the development process
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