February 10th, 2007
Somaliland Forum is reiterating to the President of Somaliland H.E. Mr. Dahir Rayale Kahin and his administration to immediately release the Haatuf journalists and all other citizens held against their will. The Constitution does not authorize the arbitrary power to seize any citizen without due process of law. Mr. President, this organization and many others had called upon you and your administration to do your due diligence and respect the rights of the citizens of Somaliland.
Attack against Spanish aid workers in Somalia
The two medics that were attacked are in good condition, but the motive behind the attack is unclear
Nairobi, February 16, 2007 – Unknown men attacked staff from the Spanish unit of Medicines sans Frontieres (MSF) in Bardhere, capital of Gedo province, near Kenya according to local sources.
The two medics that were attacked are in good condition, but the motive behind the attack is unclear.
Cape Town, Feb 14, 2007- With its forces stretched in other parts of the continent, South Africa is not considering sending peacekeeping troops to troubled Somalia, Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota reiterated today.
Speaking at a briefing of government's programme of action within the International Relations, Peace and Security cluster, the Defense Minister said, however, that South Africa "is in full and unwavering support for all efforts to rehabilitate Somalia".
JIGJIGA, Ethiopia Feb 15 – Heavy clan fighting erupted in the Daroor area of eastern Ethiopia on Wednesday killing scores of people and wounding others, according to the Thursday edition of the Hargeisa-based Jamhuuriya newspaper.
Press Release
Paris, Feb 10, 2007 – Reporters Without Borders today called on the authorities to abandon a libel prosecution against the opposition weekly Le Renouveau after a court ruled on 11 February that the prosecution case was incomplete.
Houssein Ahmed Farah, the brother of Le Renouveau managing editor Daher Ahmed Farah, was released provisionally on 10 February after three days in detention and appeared in court the next day on the charge of libeling the national bank governor, President Ismaël Omar Guelleh’s brother-in-law, in an editorial.
Khartoum, February 12, 2007 - The Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Darfur and his African Union (AU) counterpart have arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on their joint five-day mission to try to re-energize the stalled peace process in the war-torn region.
Jan Eliasson and the AU's Salim Ahmed Salim are scheduled to hold meetings in Khartoum -- and then later in Darfur itself -- with both signatories and non-signatories to last year's Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA),
Addis Ababa, Feb 13, 2007 – Ethiopia would start exporting electric power to neighboring Djibouti and Sudan beginning next year, according to a statement by the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), issued yesterday. Within short, Ethiopia will further become a hub in an electricity network that connects the grids of North Africa with those of East and Southern Africa.
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PARIS, Feb 14, 2007 – A French investigating judge summoned Djiboutian President Ismael Omar Guelleh for questioning about the 1995 death of a French judge in the east African country, a judicial official said Wednesday.
Investigating judge Sophie Clement summoned Guelleh for Friday, when he is expected in France for a summit of African leaders, the judicial official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Heads of State cannot be required to testify in a French court
Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh |
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Paris, February 15, 2007 – A French investigating judge, Sophie Clement, has summoned the Djiboutian President, Ismael Omar Guelleh, for questioning over the mysterious 1995 death of a French Judge in the African Horn country. President Guelleh, who is in France to attend the Franco-African summit, snubbed a similar request in 2005 and is expected to do the same again.
MOGADISHU, Somalia, February 14, 2007 – Somalia's warlords are re-emerging and pose a threat to humanitarian aid deliveries to the needy, the United Nations warned Wednesday, as the government struggles to quell growing unrest.
Rising violence and a power vacuum caused by the ousting of Islamic forces by the transitional government could lead to a return of the chaos that plagued Somalia for 16 years, the U.N. said in a monthly report.
Sana'a, February 16, 2007 – A boat loaded with more than 200 Somali and Ethiopian migrants capsized in the Gulf of Aden during a treacherous night crossing and at least 112 people drowned, a Yemeni official said Friday.
The boat was among a group of four vessels carrying migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, a UN official and a Yemeni human rights activist said.
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Bashir Makhtal's family say he is a business man, not an Islamic Courts fighter
Nairobi, February 16, 2007 – More than 50 people have been arrested in Kenya, near the Somali border and deported without court hearings, Mohammed Adow, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Nairobi, has reported.
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MOGADISHU, February 10, 2007 – The Uganda flag was among those burned by protesters in Mogadishu on Friday as they threatened to attack African peace keepers expected to be deployed in Somalia.
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Geneva, February 12, 2007 – An independent United Nations human rights expert today called for the unconditional release of three journalists arrested in Somalia and voiced “deep concern” at the temporary closing of radio and television stations, stressing the vital importance of free media in bringing peace to the war-torn country.
After a year as Mogadishu's mayor, a Twin Cities man is still fighting to right war-torn city
Mogadishu, Feb. 11, 2007 – As mayor of Mogadishu, Mahamud Hassan Ali has a lot of cleaning up to do.
The Somali immigrant left Columbia Heights for his native country a year ago, assuming the unenviable position of top dog in the Somali capital. One of his biggest challenges? Trash.
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Headlines |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 17, 2007 (SL Times) - Mediators hailing from Buroa and Hargeysa reached Daror (in the eastern Ethiopian autonomous region of Zone Five) last Thursday. Daror is the area where heavy fighting escalated last Wednesday between the two major clans living in this part of Somali populated eastern Ethiopia.
The fighting took place on early Wednesday morning and lasted throughout much of the night. By Thursday the fighting had waned. Both sides sustained heavy causalities and loss of lives. The injured (over 40) were taken to hospitals in Buroa (Somaliland), Hargeysa (Somaliland) and Gashamo (Zone Five of Ethiopia).
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 17, 2007 (SL Times) - The Somaliland Supreme Court issued a court injunction last Wednesday against the Hargeysa Regional Court from continuing Haatuf journalist's trial proceedings until the Supreme Court reaches a verdict on the appeal submitted by the defense lawyers of the Haatuf journalists.
Haatuf journalists, Yusuf Gabobe, Ali Dini and Muhammad Omar are at present being detained in Mandera prison, Sahil Region, and have been in police custody since January 2, 20007. The defense lawyer of the journalists filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the Hargeysa Regional Court's use of the 1962 Penal Code of Somalia instead of the Somaliland Press Law in the court trial of Haatuf journalists.
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Mayor of Hargeysa, Hussein Mohamud Ji'ir |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 17, 2007 (SL Times) - Hargeysa Mayor Hussein Mohamud Ji'ir has authorized the doubling of the fees charged by the Capital's only Abattoir which is run by Mandeq, a private company.
The Mayor said in a press conference held in his office last Thursday that the fees charged by Mandeq Company on behalf of Hargeysa local authority is going to be increased twofold.
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Somaliland Times Commentary
In his first comments on the case of Haatuf journalists that are being held in jail by his government, President Rayale has put forward new charges that are different from the ones which his government originally leveled against Haatuf reporters. President Rayale’s first comment was in response to a question from the Somali Service of the Voice of America which asked him about the UN’s criticism of his government’s detention of Haatuf journalists for more than a month and half without trial, and if that doesn’t mean his government is against the freedom of expression. President Rayale answered that he is not against the freedom of expression, but if a reporter has committed a crime then being a reporter will not absolve him from his crime.
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By Scott A. Morgan
Feb 16, 2007
There is an underlying problem within Somalia. Most pundits don’t refer to it when they discuss the issue on TV. Nor do the African Specialists when they brief their home Governments. The question is easy to ask but the answer has everyone scratching their heads. The question is what will be the status of Somaliland?
First of all what exactly is Somaliland? Somaliland is the area of Somalia that was known as British Somaliland before the Second World War. It was the base of the Allied Effort to restore the previous Government in Ethiopia after it was invaded by Fascist Italy.
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Somaliland Foreign Minister Abdillahi M Duale |
Addis Ababa, February 10, 2007 – Republic of Somaliland Foreign Minister Abdillahi Duale was in Addis Ababa for the recent AU heads of state summit and the meeting of the executive council.
The republic became virtually independent when former Somalia President Siyad Barre left Mogadishu as rebel forces took control of the city.
Despite its attempt at getting international recognition, no country, so far, has extended that official recognition, although many countries maintain consulates there.
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Fessehaye "Joshua" Yohannes: «Succumbed to extremely harsh prison conditions
Asmara, February 14, 2007 – Prominent Eritrean journalist, playwright and poet Fessehaye "Joshua" Yohannes reported died as consequence of harsh prison conditions one month ago. He is the fourth journalist to die in the inhumane secret prisons of Eritrea since a group of around 12 reporters and editors were arrested in September 2001. None of them have ever been charged or seen a lawyer, and the ones that have not died remain in jail.
Playing Fire Alarm: AU Vs Somalia/Somaliland
30/01/2007
An event which was improperly given less attention last week is the popular rally in Hargeysa, Somaliland. Organized by the big three political forces in the self-styled state, Somalilanders en masse called for immediate recognition by the international community of their nascent state. The rally, beyond the call, is of paramount importance since it sends a clear message to the TFG and the international community that conflict-this time protracted and on wider scale-is imminent unless the TFG changes its position and comes to terms with the realities on the ground.
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NAIROBI, February 15, 2007 – Uganda is reportedly preparing to send its first group of peacekeeping troops to Somalia as early as Saturday. The deployment comes amid U.N. warnings that rising chaos and violence in that country could undermine the African Union's peacekeeping mission even before it gets under way. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has the story from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
The chief spokesman for Uganda's ministry of defense tells VOA that Ugandan army Major General Levi Karuhanga has been tapped to command forces from at least five African Union member states contributing troops to help stabilize Somalia.
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New York, February 14, 2007 – The National Union of Somali Journalists is deeply concerned the situation of detained Haatuf journalists following the resignation of a member of the two lawyers of the imprisoned media people, who are behind the bars in the 6 th week. The three personnel of the Haatuf Media Network, Yusuf Abdi Gabobe (Managing Editor), Ali Abdi Dini (Editor in chief) and Mohammed Omar (Borama reporter) were transferred to Mandhera detention centre, near port town of Barbara. Another Haatuf journalist is also charged in absentia.
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U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer (L) talks to U.N. special envoy to Somalia Francois Lonseny Fall during International Contact Group on Somalia meeting in Tanzania's capital Dar es Salaam, February 9, 2007. Western and African diplomats met in Tanzania on Friday to discuss reconciliation in post-war Somalia and a plan to send peacekeepers to bolster government efforts to tame the anarchic nation.
Dar es Salam, February 10, 2007 – Western and African diplomats held talks Friday regarding reconciliation initiatives and the sending of African peace support mission in post war Somalia.
The International Contact Group (ICG) on Somalia, is stressing the need for the quick deployment of an African peace mission into the country, to support the interim government there.
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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter |
Addis Ababa, February 10, 2007 – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, last Tuesday started leading a delegation of senior-level Carter Center officials on an 11-day tour of Africa to call international attention to health needs among impoverished communities in Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, it was learnt.
In Ethiopia, President Carter will attend the opening meeting of the Ethiopian Public Health Training Initiative's Replication Conference in Addis Ababa. The conference, the first of its kind, will illustrate the success that the Carter Center-assisted public health training has had in helping Ethiopia meet the growing need for trained health care workers in the country.
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International News
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Washington, D.C. , 17 Febuary 2007 - George Bush has suffered a symbolic defeat over plans to send more than 20,000 extra US troops to Iraq.
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives rejected the proposals in a non-binding vote following days of fierce debate.
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London, Feb 13, 2007 – Four British men who had been detained on the Somalian border have been released after landing back in the UK and being briefly held under the Terrorism Act.
After their flight touched down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire this morning, the four were held for nine hours by the Metropolitan Police before being freed.
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BUJUMBURA, Burundi, 17 Febuary 2007 - Burundi has 1,700 troops available to deploy to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping force, but they need more equipment, the defense minister said Saturday.
Lt. Gen. Germain Niyoyankana said an additional 100 officers were also ready to serve as observers and that an advance team would visit Mogadishu on Feb. 23.
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17 Febuary 2007 - The powers that be who rule the United States and other Western countries are currently trying to kill three birds with one stone in Somalia.
Their first objective was to topple the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) government and ensure that the Islamist movement never returns to power. This was the reason for the U.S. air strikes and the invasion by the Ethiopian Army that drove the UIC government out of Mogadishu in late December 2006 after the movement had ruled much of the southern part of the country for about six months.
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17 February 2007
Feb 16, 2007 — The US funded proxy Ethiopian invasion of Somalia has yielded meager results for the US but substantial misery for the people of Somalia. The only gainer from the misadventure has been Meles Zenawi’ Ethiopia. It has achieved its primary mission of scuttling any chance of a stable and cohesive Somalia; it has destroyed camps used by the Oromo and Ogaden Liberation Fronts. The US went in thinking that there were al-Queda camps to be destroyed and high value terrorists to be captured based on information the Ethiopians had provided. None were found. Thanks to the misadventure, the warlords, Somalia’s curse, are back.
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Editorial
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Despite all the injustice that accompanied the arrest of Haatuf journalists yet there could be one positive benefit from it: reform. The Haatuf case has shown how badly Somaliland needs reform. First, Haatuf was able to show through print and photographs how deep and widespread is President Rayale’s corruption. Second, the government’s reaction of rounding up Haatuf journalists and throwing them in jail, without any regard to legal procedures, has unmasked the president and shown his true colors as someone who thinks the law applies only to others and that he is free to commit any crime. The president’s behavior, and the fact that many of those in charge of important institutions that are supposed to protect the public have colluded with him in taking revenge on Haatuf reporters, has convinced even the most gullible that Somaliland is ruled by a lawless bunch who will not stop at any thing in order to protect their ill gotten gains.
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Special Report |
In November 2005, the Centre for Human Rights began investigating the possibility of a third destination for the LLM field trip. The reasons for increasing the number of field trip destinations to include Somaliland include the following:
Somaliland is a state in the making; it would be ideal for students on the programme to have a first hand experience of this. |
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Opinions
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By Abdillahi Dool
We care about our nation and are thus naturally concerned about how it is governed. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has so far very little to be proud of but it has the opportunity to rebuild Somalia. It has also the opportunity to re-establish its credibility. Since the TFG is currently in the capital presiding over the day-to-day affairs of our nation, let us explore together where we are now as a nation and what could or should happen after the war, which brought Ethiopia to fight on the side of the TFG to topple the Islamic Courts.
The Islamic Courts held a number of appeals for the Somali people, such as: (1) They chased out the warlords who were responsible for the mayhem and statelessness for 16 years that were effectively lost to our nation.
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Apology; Not In The Name Of Democracy
Yusuf Gabobe, editor of Somaliland Times |
By Geleh Ali Gulaid, Columbus, Ohio
All peace loving Somalilanders should be enraged by this President and sycophant leaders of his administration and Party. Like the so-called leaders that initiated the infamous apology to the president. They are nothing more than puppets, who are orchestrated by Rayaale, because they fit in with his system of secrecy and corruption. All Somalilanders must show them that Their Apology nor their system of nepotism has a place in this democratically aspiring Nation. |
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A Letter To The Editor
By Charles Roffey
Dear Somaliland Times,
I would just like to register my support for your stand on the issue of the unlawful arrest and detention of the Haatuf journalists and the ones who followed.
I was born in Somaliland myself in 1961 and returning back to Somaliland again after 43 years in November 2005 was one of the highlights of my life, so proud was I of the efforts made by the people of Somaliland to create their own peace, stability and independence, crucially with democracy and the rule of law.
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By Saeed Osman, Berbera, Somaliland
Somaliland has not made any progress, and whoever is claiming progress today, they better advised to look around to come up with single shredded evidence. I believe we should be asking ourselves as to what constitute progress in our definition unless we using the Malpractice Academia of Rayaale. Progress normally means freedom, justice, law and order, equality, sense of economic development and prosperity, sense of security, confidence and also citizen’s confidence in their statehood. Now where on earth Somaliland falls in those criteria? I guess that is true if you read numbers the other way around and that is to regress and not progression Mr. President.
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By Mohamed Yabarag
The continuing incarceration of Haatuf Newspaper journalists by Somaliland government, now in jail for more than a month without having a day in a court of law, is reminiscent to the dreaded dark days of old Somalia under the late dictator Siyad Barre. Welcome to Somaliland under Rayaale and his cronies.
What is even more alarming and disgusting about the whole saga is that the journalists and their chairman, Mr. Gabobe, a decent man who spent most of his life to serve and enhance the image of his country by putting his money where his mouth is, are now in the notorious Mandheera jail with common criminals, thieves and murderers. Moreover, we are now on the news for all the wrong reasons for the first time in as many years since the infamous case of Zamzam Duale.
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If the three journalists cannot even be bailed out, I believe there is a constitutional crisis in Somaliland.
By Mohamed J. Dhinbil, Connecticut / USA.
It has been said or written a lot against the president, Mr. Dahir Rayale, however, what has been missing from the arena is where have been the other two branches of government (the parliament and the judiciary) plus the council of elders. Either all the allegations and accusations that have been made against the executive branch, particularly the president in person, are phony and non existent with the exception of the jailed journalists, or the other three bodies of government are as much to blame for and have failed the nation miserably.
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By Ahmed H. Ismail
In a press release dated 2nd February 2007, the spokesman of the president Mr. Abdi Dualeh referred the name of Samaroon clan directly 3 times and more than this on indirect way. I repeat reading the release number of times and couldn't believe it until I found the paper were officially distributed to all the country news channels including the BBC Somali service. What is that ; an official statement from the country white house is picking up a clan name just to clear its position and deny a news article appeared in local newspaper on campaign lead by the President to down the chairman of the elder house Mr. Suleiman Mohamoud.
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By Ali Aden Awale, London UK
It is a normal practice for dictators to hate the free press which is always committed to update the public with the truth. Such leaders are in power in many countries of Africa and Asia. One of the main reasons they hate the free press is it discloses information about matters like corruption and abuse of power which they love to conceal form their ordinary people.
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| FEATURES & COMMENTARY |
The New Old "Humanitarian" Warfare in Africa
February 7, 2007
Part One
No matter how you look at it, people are dying in Sudan. The questions of who is dying and how many, of who is doing the killing, and why, all fly around. For most everyone associated with the "Save Darfur!" or "Stop Ge 1 nocide!" movement for Sudan, the questions do not matter. Act now—to stop the killing—argue later: we are talking about genocide.
But there have been many remarkable and contradictory claims made about the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, and many remarkable positions taken.
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February 12, 2007
There are two very interesting yet different sides in your writing. In one, it is an internal struggle, where you become the voice of the worsening situation in Somalia and other parts of Africa/Middle East and use your writing to fight against the government. The other seems to be to fight the portrayal of a stereotypical view of the Middle East/Islam/Africa globally (and especially in the West). Comment and explain this dual role.
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By Jawahir Mohamed Ali Sheikh Madar
PRELUDE:
The observations made herein are not meant to be a political discourse but more to view the current status quo between the two neighboring countries. Nothing in this text is stated in a manner of criticism of others' opinions, but aimed hopefully at finding a pragmatic note that could be mutually beneficial for the two countries with the ultimate objective being Somaliland's International Recognition. There is nothing more important than that or more sacred to a Somalilander
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Ibrahim Hashi Jama
20/01/2007
The raid of Haatuf newspaper premises
The Republic of Somaliland has a free and thriving press, but this is often marred by the occasional detention of journalists on the orders of the government or its regional representatives. As nothing happens to the public officials who order these, often short, detentions, the impression has been given that the freedoms of the press guaranteed under the Somaliland Constitution are some what circumscribed by the whims of public officials. The latest detention, this time of the veteran journalist and Chairman of Haatuf Media Network, Mr Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, and, the editor of the Somali language Hargeisa daily, Haatuf, Mr Ali Abdi Dini, on 2 January 2007 raises considerable constitutional and legal issues, which are explored in this article.
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Suleiman Hassan, 11, lost his mother when their boat capsized crossing the Gulf of Aden |
SANAA, 14 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - Suleiman Hassan Al Haj Mohammad is an 11-year-old Somali refugee. He and his mother fled conflict in Somalia and traveled by sea to Yemen. However, their boat capsized on 27 December, 2006. Suleiman's mother, Noura Abdi Bashir, and up to 140 others died in the incident. Suleiman has been in a state of shock since then and had remained silent until now.
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February 10 2007
"The Western response was telling. After years of ignoring the plight of the Somalis, they suddenly discovered that they needed to be ‘liberated’ from the forces of “Islamo-fascism”, and immediately launched political war on the new government. When all else failed, they encouraged Ethiopia to invade in support of “president” Abdillahi Yusuf, another warlord. They supported the Ethiopians from behind the scenes, and then came into the open once Mogadishu had been captured and success was assured. Today Mogadishu is in fear and chaos again."
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By Ahmed Kheyre, London, UK
Somaliland will not answer the call of the desperate and discredited factions currently seeking shelter in Baydhabo.
Why would Somaliland hold talks with people who are not democratically elected and politically bankrupt? What could Somaliland possibly gain from such talks? The answer is nothing.
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