MOGADISHU, March 05, 2007 – An African Union delegation visiting Somalia ahead of the first deployment of Ugandan peacekeepers said Monday that the bloc did not intend to meddle in the country's internal affairs.
"The AU mission ... will not interfere in the internal affairs of the Somali people but support the transitional federal government to train enough security forces to handle Somalia," said Geofrey Mugunya, head of the AU Peace and Security Council.
The eight-member delegation, which arrived in Mogadishu late Sunday, was holding talks with Somali officials ahead of the arrival of some 1,500 Ugandan troops, part of an 8,000-strong AU force planned for Somalia.
Somaliland celebrates International Women Day
Hargeysa, March 10, 2007 – (SL. Times) The International Women’s Day was celebrated throughout Somaliland on March 8.
Hargeysa celebrated this big event by holding a large public rally at the Independence Garden grounds. Leading women’s organizations, local women’s organizations and public took part in the government funded Woman’s Day commemoration. Government officials and public figures made speeches. and entertainment was provided by folkdancers and live popular music bands.
London, March 8, 2007 – Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, the Haatuf (Messenger) publisher, was sentenced on 4 March to two years' imprisonment for obstruction of a police officer. The newspaper's editor, Ali Abdi Dini, and journalist Mohamed Omar Sheikh Ibrahim, were each sentenced to 29 months’ imprisonment for “reporting false information about the government, discrediting the president and his family and creating inter-communal tension.” Amnesty International considers them prisoners of conscience, detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
ADDIS ABABA Mar 6, 2007 (Reuters) - Two U.S. servicemen were killed after the vehicle they were in plunged into a ravine in eastern Ethiopia, the Ethiopian and U.S. governments said on Tuesday.
Another soldier and the Ethiopian driver of the vehicle were also injured in the crash on Monday, the U.S. Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa said in a statement from its base in Djibouti.
MOGADISHU Mar 6, 2007 – Insurgents unleashed two attacks against the Somali government and its foreign allies in Mogadishu on Tuesday, just hours after Ugandan peacekeepers assigned to tame the anarchic city landed.
The concerted assaults, some of the heaviest in weeks, appeared timed to coincide with the arrival of some 350 Ugandans in the vanguard of an African Union mission to help restore law to a country mired in chaos since central rule crumbled in 1991.
Dahir Rayale Kahin (2005 file photo) |
Nairobi, March 07, 2007 – Press-freedom watchdogs are alarmed over the recent prison sentences of four journalists in the self-declared Somaliland republic. Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi. Publisher Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, of Somaliland's leading independent daily newspaper, Haatuf, was handed a two-year prison sentence Sunday.
Press release RSF
Paris, March 5, 2007 – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) voiced concern today about growing political censorship of the Internet in Yemen after the authorities blocked access to the opposition website www.al-shora.net on 24 February. The site regularly carries articles about corruption, human rights and the need for political and cultural reforms. Several websites and chat forums were temporarily blocked during last September’s presidential elections.
MOGADISHU, March 09, 2007 – A Ugandan cargo plane carrying equipment and six soldiers for an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia caught fire as it landed in Mogadishu on Friday, an army spokesman and witnesses said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear and there no casualties reported.
"The plane carried military equipment and some six soldiers and everything is safe now. We highly believe that the fire was due to some technical problems" Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda told AFP.
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MOGADISHU, March 08, 2007 – A firebrand Somali Islamist commander called on Wednesday for an uprising against Ethiopian and African Union troops deployed in Somalia just as fresh reinforcements arrived from Uganda.
"It is time for the Somali youth to fight the occupation of Ethiopia and others," Aden Hashi Ayro said in an audio tape broadcast by a local radio station.
"The Muslims shall not surrender to non-believers," he said, describing himself as the commander of the Islamic Courts movement in the audio tape sent to Mogadishu-based Koran Radio.
Mogadishu, March 08, 2007 – The vice president of the Somalia’s semiautonomous regional government of Puntland, representing his state has had business deal with Djibouti on Friday.
Hassan Dahir Afqura, told the press Friday that Puntland and Djibouti signed a trade deal. “Puntland and Djibouti will have different trade relations as I officially announce before you , the press, today the two states have signed a business deal,” he said.
London/Addis Ababa, March 9, 2007 – Reports that UK embassy staff kidnapped in Ethiopia are in the hands of Afar separatist rebels are being investigated, the Foreign Office says.
The group, comprising of four Britons, one French citizen and eight Ethiopians, disappeared eight days ago.
The Ethiopian Foreign Minister says the staff are being held in the area of the Danakil Depression.
But the Foreign Office said it could not to confirm this and the kidnappers had not made contact.
NAIROBI, KENYA, 9 March 2007 - Somali’s Transitional Government will move its headquarters to Mogadishu once the African Union peacekeeping force is deployed into the lawless country.
The AU force whose first contingent from Uganda started arriving in Somali this week, will guard government officials, buildings and train the Somali army.
Yesterday the Somali Ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Mohamed Ali Nor, said the TFG, under the leadership of President Abdillahi Yusuf based in Baidoa, was consolidating its hold on all parts of the Horn of Africa country.
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New York, March 5, 2007 --Four journalists of a leading independent daily in the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland were sentenced to prison on Sunday, and their paper's publication license indefinitely revoked over stories critical of President Dahir Rayale Kahin, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and news reports.
Haatuf publisher Yusuf Abdi Gabobe was sentenced to two years in prison, while editor Ali Abdi Dini, investigative reporter Muhammad-Rashid Farah and correspondent Muhammad Omar Sheekh were sentenced to two years and five months by a regional court in Mandhera, north of the capital Hargeysa, according to NUSOJ and local journalists.
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Dubai, March 9, 2007 – The family of a mother-of-three left stranded in a Somali prison are still anxiously awaiting news of her safe return. Kamilya Mohammed Toweni, 42, was deported to Somalia after being arrested by anti-terror police on a business trip to Kenya.
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Accra, Ghana, 9 March 2007 - A security researcher at the Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Center, Dr. Emmanuel Ennin is cautioning government of moves to deploy Ghanaian soldiers in Somalia as part of an African Union peace mission.
Dr. Ennin says the stability of Somalia goes beyond merely putting troops on the ground.
A Somali Islamic group is claiming to have shot at an aircraft transporting Ugandan soldiers on a peace keeping mission.
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Headlines |
The defendants argued that the entire court set up was neither fair nor impartial, that the court was unconstitutional because it abrogated the ‘Press Law’,
Mandera, Somaliland, March 10, 2007 (SL Times) – Somaliland Times editor Yusuf Abdi Gabobe along with three other Haatuf journalists, Ali Abdi Dini, Muhammad Omar Sheekh and Muhammad-Rashid M Farah were sentenced last Sunday by the Hargeysa Regional Court judge Faisal A Ismail to prison terms ranging from 2 to 2 ½ years. In addition, the court ordered Haatuf Media Network (HMN), the publisher of Somaliland Times and its sister Somali language paper Haatuf Daily, to pay a court fine of $850, and called for the indefinite suspension of HMN license.
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Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin -3 March 2007 |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 10, 2007 (SL Times) – In a press conference held last Saturday in his office, President Dahir Rayale Kahin denied that National Election Commission (NEC) is an entity independent of the government.
Just before flying to Ghana, President Rayale invited the local media to his office and said that he wanted to inform the public about the purpose of his trip to Ghana.
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Analysis
23 Feb 2007
It is evident that Ethiopia and Somaliland have been enjoying progressive and positive relations for more than 15 years. For many Somalilanders, Ethiopia has been seen as the 'big sister.' However, the 'big sister' mentality is now in serious trouble; Somalilanders are finding it difficult reconciling their attitude towards Ethiopia and the inconsiderate and unbalancing act of the Ethiopian government.
Ethiopia's position in regards to the recognition of Somaliland continues to be on hold now for some years, at times, giving away the' issue to what could evolve with the peace talks in the south. At one time, PM Meles Zenawi was quoted as saying in a press conference that the case of Somaliland recognition should be done through dialogue among Somalis only.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 10, 2007 (SL Times) – On a Friday evening BBC Somali section live debate broadcast, Somaliland Minister of Information, Ahmed H. Dahir, said that his government recognizes the press law as being the only valid law concerning the media.
“There is no other law exercised in the country for the press, even the president himself has acknowledged this in public most recently, and as far as I am concerned, Somaliland press law is the current law, and will continue to be so, unless the country’s institutions decide to change it in the future,” said the minister.
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Some of the first AU peacekeepers from Uganda in Mogadishu |
Mogadishu, Somalia, March 8, 2007 – At least nine Somalis were killed when a rocket fired at African Union (AU) troops hit a restaurant in an ambush that inflicted the first casualties on the peacekeepers, officials said on Thursday.
The attacks late on Wednesday were the second straight day of assaults against the Ugandan troops, the vanguard of an AU force that was targeted from the moment it landed in the coastal capital on Tuesday.
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The chairman of the state owned publishing subsidary, Maandeeq Media Group, Musa Adan Yusuf, passed away last Monday at Hargeysa General Hospital, after being struck by a severe brain hemorrhage at his home on the 3rd March.
He was admitted to the Hargeysa General Hospital emergency ward in an unconscious state immediately after the stroke and died the following day.
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Commentary
Demo against President Rayale sitting on heaps of cash, placards read: No jobs, No to corruption, No water. Courtsey: Amin Amir Arts |
Can a newly born democracy flourish in a small country that is facing several internal threats, such as corruption, clan-based interests and lack of international recognition? Somaliland's future holds great promise and can serve as a model for a New Africa where tradition and modernity walk hand in hand towards freedom, peace and economic security for all. But it is now in the midst of an internal strife that can wreck this promised future.
President Ismail Omar Guelleh |
DJIBOUTI, March 05, 2007 – The Horn of Africa is not safer now that a radical Islamic militia accused of having ties to al-Qaida has been driven from power in Somalia, the president of neighboring Djibouti said Monday.
"As far as we are concerned, we think it (security in the Horn of Africa) is as it was before because of the misery and lack of basic needs of the population," President Ismael Omar Guelleh told The Associated Press in a rare interview. He spoke at the presidential palace in this tiny Red Sea state.
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Somaliland Foreign Minister Abdillahi M Duale |
Accra, Ghana, March 7, 2007 – The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Somaliland, Hon Abdillahi Mohammed Duale, has appealed to the Chairman of the African Union Commission (AU), President John Agyekum Kufuor, of Ghana, to consider the country’s legitimate case to get international recognition and membership to the Commission.
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Eritrea says Ugandan peacekeepers could spark war in Somalia
Asmara, March 9, 2007 – Eritrea has warned of dire consequences unless Uganda pulls its peacekeeping troops out of war-torn Somalia.
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu said that unless Uganda withdrew the situation would be increasingly dangerous for the entire region.
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President Abdullahi Yusuf |
BAIDOA, Somalia Mar 9 - Somalia’s transitional president returned to the temporary government capital at Baidoa on Thursday after making a two-day stopover in the northern enclave of Puntland.
President Abdullahi Yusuf and his federal government delegation left Galkayo after meetings with the Puntland leadership and were welcomed at the Baidoa airport by government officials.
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Mogadishu, 8 March, 2007 - More than 25 persons, including government soldiers, who were wounded by the skirmishes in the capital, were admitted to Median Hospital in Mogadishu in the past 24 hours.
Dr. Sheik Doon Salad Elmi, the general director of Median Hospital, told Shabelle journalists who visited the hospital that most patients were hurt in last night's gun battle between Somalia's insurgents and Ugandan peacekeepers, patrolling Mogadishu's most hostile area (KM4 Junction) for the foreign troops.
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Journalists working for Haatuf Media Network, among them Mr. Muhamad Rashid Farha (2nd left upper row) with Mr. Hassan Shire Sheikh, head of the EHAHRD-Net delegation (3rd left, upper row) |
Objectives of the mission
It is the denial of a fair trial to Yusuf Gabobe and his fellow accused that has made this mission necessary. It was believed that a direct assessment of the situation on spot as well as proactive cooperation with the civil society in Somaliland was necessary to actively reinforce local and international efforts to lobby the authorities for affording a fair trial to the detained journalists. The objectives of the mission therefore were:
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International News
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Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Somalia : Official Visits
Michael Moore (Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions the Minister for Africa had on the independence of Somaliland from Somalia when she met the President of the Transitional Federal Republic of Somalia on 22 February; what the outcome was of the discussions; and if she will make a statement.
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Provision of key services would help improve lives
Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday 8 March 2007 – Communities in Somalia should be empowered to access to knowledge and social services to ensure better livelihoods for women in Somalia, UNICEF Somalia Representative, Christian Balslev-Olesen said on the occasion of International Women’s Day today.
“Sustained efforts to provide knowledge and economic benefits in communities are the best way to guarantee women a better future in Somalia and to protect girls and women from abuse, exploitation and discrimination,” Balslev-Olesen said citing the fact that Somalia has one of the highest prevalence rates of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in the world. More than 98% of Somali girls between the ages of 7 to 12 being cut.
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Dublin, March 08, 2007 – Irish aid workers are pioneering a new programme to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia.
Marking International Women’s Day, World Vision Ireland revealed that 98% of girls in the Gabiley District of Somaliland undergo the horrific procedure.
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February 27, 2007
The major national newspapers and most broadcast outlets failed even to report Thursday’s stunning testimony by former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, is among the most prominent figures within the US foreign policy establishment. He delivered a scathing critique of the war in Iraq and warned that the policy of the Bush administration was leading inevitably to a military confrontation with Iran which would have disastrous consequences for US imperialism.
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Washington, DC, 10 March 2007 - Recently announced aid increases and a de-emphasis on corruption in Kenya indicate that the United States is "now basically supporting" President Mwai Kibaki's bid for re-election, ODM-K presidential aspirant Raila Odinga has told the Sunday Nation.
The administration of President George W Bush is providing these forms of political assistance in exchange for President Kibaki's "support for the American project in Somalia," Mr Odinga said in an interview.
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Firm with Irving hub will help equip, support peacekeepers
March 8, 2007
NAIROBI, Kenya – The State Department has hired DynCorp International, a major military contractor with an operational hub in Irving, to help equip and provide logistical support to international peacekeepers in Somalia, giving the U.S. a significant role there without assigning combat forces.
DynCorp, which also has U.S. contracts in Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, will be paid $10 million to help the first peacekeeping mission in Somalia in more than 10 years. |
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Editorial
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With the Hargeisa regional court’s ruling, the Haatuf saga has come full circle. What this case has exposed is the damage that corrupt political leaders can inflict on a country. One institution after another made it plain that they are not there to serve the public, but to carry out the wishes of the president and his corrupt ministers. It started with the CID and the police’s combined armed assault on the office of Haatuf newspaper and the kidnapping of its reporters.
The total disregard for the law by Somaliland’s government officials was exemplified by the attitude of the commander of the police, Col. Mohamed Saqadi Dubad. When he was asked how come he seized the reporters without an arrest warrant, his answer was, “I have what they wrote in front of me.” His message was clear: the newspaper published something critical of the president and that was all the evidence he needed to kidnap them.
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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 Mohamud Tani
The President got afraid of a story. He wanted to take the journalist to prison. The Editor of the paper said NO WAY. The president got very frightened. He sent both the reporter and the editor to jail. Another reporter took pictures linked to the story. The president got out of his wits with fear. He sent two other reporters to the CID. The president could not trust the press law. He could not trust the CID detention centre. He could not trust the lieu of the court. He opted for a remote prison, out of the public site. There, in the middle of the jailers and prison guards the court had to listen to the case and sentence the journalists. The president was even so afraid of what he did that he timed the sentence on a date that he was away from the country on an important mission.
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Mr. President, Back Off From Your Self-Defeating Mission: And Reform Your Leadership and Administration
By Farah Ali Jama, Ottawa. Canada .
Mr. President, the National Election Commission (NEC) is an autonomous and important national institution, which cannot be allow to become your latest victim and vehicle for concoction of another unnecessary constitutional crisis or for some mere partisan gains or for some other ulterior motives and agenda or to be undermined and relegated to a mere rubber stamp status as the other key national institutions particularly the previous un elected House of Representative, the current Guurti (House of Elders) whose tenure in office has long expired, the Judiciary Branch, the parastatal or Crown Corporations such as the Ports Authority, Water Authority, etc.
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Somaliland Need Regime Change By Any Means Necessary
By ANIIS A. ESSA
Regime change allows a state to solve its problems, by removing the offensive regime there and replacing it with a less offensive one…..In the case of Somaliland.
“ If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem”, so said the old Adage. Experience from Siyad Barre Regime has taught us not to be passive if we want to change our conditions. The gnawing question remains unanswered: how long are we going to remain indifferent while Rayale, Awil and In-dhoola yare, are consuming our people and land.
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By Abdirahman Maxamed (Haadka)
As I write this article, many news makers are copy pasting from Somaliland's media that four journalists have been sentenced for "insulting" the first lady. Despite this unhappy ending, I congratulate Somaliland's media for reaching this high level of controversy and I thank everyone helping Somaliland to finally reach the paramount of freedom of speech. Having said that, I like to focus on the most ironic scene of this sad catastrophe which no one has noticed.
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By Adan H Iman, Los Angeles
Last week the Somaliland Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that members of the media engaging in activities that relate to their journalistic activities can be charged under a Penal Code that can subject them to jail time. The High Court rejected an Appeals Court ruling that the Press Law enacted during the existence of Somaliland be applied. This Press law states that the media activities should be regulated through civil procedures.
The High Court sent the case, Rayale Vs Haatuf news, back to the lower court for trial under the penal code. The Rayale Administration, of all places, selected Mandhera Prison as the venue of the trial. The defense team protested the venue and boycotted participating in the trial. In a swift trail, which the defendants had no legal representation, the court sentenced four journalist-one in absentia and three already in jail for two months- a jail time of 2 to 3 years, a cruel and unusual punishment for writing an article or series of articles. The administration has handled this case anomalously, to say the least.
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By Ahmed Doob-baje
It is time to stop the indoor games (The political in-fighting derailing Somaliland’s Recognition) and start playing outdoor games in the international arena. It is time that Somaliland leadership at all levels should concentrate on things that the People of Somaliland elected them for: The games of outward, outbound politics and diplomacy
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By Abdillahi M. Ali - Freelance Journalist- London, UK
“... We Born in Freedom, Live in Freedom And Any Leader Who Denies Freedom For Us Shall Be Aware That Without Our Liberty His Leadership Will Be Doomed …”
Late Hassan Abdi Omar-poet- (better known Dhirbaaxo Jin with his poems in latest 70s)
The news of Haatuf journalists were sentenced to jail terms to ‘two and two-and a half years’ for defaming the “good name” of president Rayale and his family and the shut down of the Haatuf media outlet by the order of Hargeisa district court make me paused and question about the real motives of this kind of ‘court’ judgment based on no democratic principles and the law of the land. Then I thought this must be unfolding a new era for Somaliland.
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By Bashir Goth
A body of 2500 scientists had recently gathered in Paris and made a clarion call about an impending climate disaster, noting the likelihood of human activities led by burning fossil fuels causing most of the warming over the past 50 years.
Among other things, the report warns of a new ice age engulfing the earth, while hurricanes, droughts and other apocalyptic disasters may play havoc with our planet.
Good talk. We have nothing but praise for the eminent men and women of science and conscience who want to save our planet for future generations. One thing, however, that bothers us is why these scientists failed to invite their skeptic counterparts.
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| FEATURES & COMMENTARY |
The New Old "Humanitarian" Warfare in Africa
February 7, 2007
Part Four
To top it off, the war in DRC did not begin in August of 1998, as the IRC likes to put forth, and the humanitarian crisis in DRC was far more underreported than that of Sudan for several reasons. The IRC, in their report, acknowledges the actual start of the war in DRC (Zaire), even though they routinely cites mortality statistics in the context of a war whose beginnings they place in 1998:
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Somaliland is often marketed as the darling of Africa; an oasis of peace and stability in a volatile region; a unique example of a homegrown democracy; and a country of resilient people crying for international justice. As true and uncontestable as this may be, it represents only one side of the coin.
The other side of the coin, often hidden from the outside world and often denied by Somalilanders themselves is an ugly one; a bitter reality that any visitor will notice at the first glance. The government is a lifeless scarecrow.
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An animal market in Hargeysa, where people buy and sell livestock. Somaliland has its own money, its own flag, its own national anthem and even its own passport.
The New York Times
HARGEYSA, Somalia, March 7, 2007— When the sun rises over the craggy hills of Hargeysa, it sheds light on a different kind of Somalia.
Ice cream trucks selling bona fide soft serve hit the streets.
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As the world prepares to celebrate International Women’s Day for the 30th time on 8 March, Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about an increase in violence against women journalists worldwide.
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Press release: 9 March 2007
With the number of days since Eritrea’s “Black Tuesday” of 18 September 2001 about to reach 2,000, Reporters Without Borders today urged the Eritrean diaspora to demand an explanation from the government in Asmara for the disappearance of at least 14 journalists in the country’s prisons, four of whom are feared dead.
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Press Release - UN News Center
Mar 7 2007
Although the challenges ahead are enormous, Somalia may now have the best chance in years to find a long-term solution to the conflicts that have left it without a functioning government since 1991, provided its warring factions engage in dialogue, according to a United Nations report on the country released today.
"At the same time, the risks of renewed and prolonged insecurity will increase unless the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is able to rapidly consolidate its authority and ensure stability and the rule of law" through such dialogue, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the report to the Security Council, pledging continued UN support to the Government and civil society to meet the challenges.
"An inclusive dialogue and a genuine political process are the only ways to achieve a sustainable peace that denies dissatisfied groups a rallying point for conflict," he adds
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Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis |
A series of discoveries, revolutionary interpretations and reconstructions of history are bringing us remarkable revelations and asking new questions while at the same time offering new perspectives on the plan for the unification of Europe. Are all the peoples living to the north of the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Carpathian and Caucasus mountains, and descendants of the Assyrians and the Ten Lost tribes of Israel?
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By Cabdale Faarah sigad
Freedom of speech is not a living thing, so it doesn’t have an emotions or feelings nor can it see or hear or feel pain. But in relation to the Haatuf News affairs, President Rayaale and his family are humans like us and they can feel everything freedom of speech can’t. So who deserves protection’ the president and his family or freedom of speech?
As an outside observer I think people who run Somaliland media use freedom of speech for their own purposes and if anybody is abusing freedom of speech in Somaliland, it must be those who run the media.
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