Haatuf Saga Shows The Urgent Need For Reform

EDITORIAL

The Haatuf saga has revealed serious weaknesses within Somaliland’s government system. We can see this from the casual ease in which citizens are being arrested and charged with bogus crimes. First came the illegal detention of the Chairman of Haatuf Media Network, Yusuf Gabobe, and the editor of Haatuf, Ali Dini. After that Somaliland’s CID jailed Mr. Kayse Ahmed Osman a friend of the journalists who came to visit them in jail. When citizens and youth protested the unlawful incarceration of the journalists, they too were detained, and five under-aged children were quickly sentenced to imprisonment by Hargeysa’s Security Committee. A few days later, Haatuf Newspaper’s correspondent in Borama, Mr. Mohammed Omar Sheikh was arrested. Last week, two war veterans Mohamed Ahmed Gahnug (Ba'ood) and Ahmed Omar Abdillahi (Hamarji) were seized only a few hours after they had attended a veterans meeting that called on Somaliland President Dahir Rayale to immediately and unconditionally release from prison the three Haatuf journalists. Also last week, a human rights activist, Ali Dool Ahmed (Ali Qoryooley) was detained for distributing leaflets which said “Free Haatuf Journalists”. The only crime that these people committed is that they expressed opinions that the government did not like.

The government’s modus operandi is pretty clear. First detain citizens whose views you don’t like, then go to the court and ask for extension of detention, then concoct a case against them. The idea is that once someone is seized by the government it would mean holding him for months before the justice system reaches a decision, and if the court does not impose additional punishment by then he would have suffered enough that he would think twice before doing anything the government does not like. This system had worked for the government in the past. But this time, they seem to have finally run out of luck and the tide is beginning to turn. Too many people both inside and outside the country, are in a state of rage about the government’s naked abuse of power. People are asking: is the president above the law, and who gave him the right to engage in corruption with impunity. If the president was wronged by Haatuf, why didn’t he file a civil case against the journalists instead of illegally arresting them? They are asking: do the heads of the CID, the commander of police and the minister of interior work for the taxpayer or to carry out the illegal wishes of the president?

People are not only angry with the executive branch. They are also furious at the justice system for catering to the president’s wishes and not upholding the law. The justice system failed on three counts: (1) not only did the court say nothing about the fact that the journalists were arrested without a warrant, it even extended for the CID the length of time they could hold the journalists without trial; (2) the court refused bail for the journalists although the possibility they would flee is almost non-existent; (3) the court gave in to the government’s demand to try the journalists according to Somalia’s penal code and not according to Somaliland’s press law.

Abroad, anger at the government is no less intense. Somalilanders and friends of Somaliland are blaming President Rayale for having damaged Somaliland’s reputation as a democratic and law-abiding country. As one foreign supporter of Somaliland put it: “Does Rayale want us to say to our government please recognize Somaliland because it has a corrupt and dictatorial regime?”

Anger, however, will not solve anything. Therefore, the challenge for Somalilanders and friends of Somaliland both inside and outside the country, is to go beyond their fury and start working for a fundamental reform of Somaliland’s system of government. At minimum such a reform program should include:

(1) The President, his wife and corrupt ministers should be held accountable for breaking the law and violating the rights of citizens.

(2) The head of the CID, the commander of police and the minister of interior should be fired for trampling on the rights of citizens and carrying out the president’s illegal instructions.

(3) Cases that have to do with the press should be tried only according to the Press Law that was passed by Somaliland’s parliament and signed by the president.

(4) Judges who have failed to uphold the law and have colluded with the president or any other politician in circumventing the law should be stripped of their posts and an autonomous impartial justice system should be installed.

Parliament also has to decide whether it is part of the problem or the solution. As representatives of the people, they should not just sit and watch as the president and his ministers sink deeper and deeper into corruption, and as the government and the courts work hand-in-hand in depriving citizens of their constitutional rights. Parliament should act quickly and call the president to come in front of parliament and account for his corruption and persistent violations of the law. The people have run out of patience. They want reform and they want it now.

Source: Somaliland Times

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