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.

The illegal arrest of Haatuf journalists and the shocking verdict of the adjudicator of the case against Haatuf all confirm that before Somaliland has yet to join the free world stage, as a diplomatically recognized state, it has inconspicuously joined a different club, the kind of club where countries ruled by dictators are found, the club of the countries where justice does not prevail, but injustice and tyranny rule. The club that presidential degrees are more powerful than the law of the land. The club where governments practice corruption and accountability has no meaning to them. Somaliland is about to bury its young democracy by drifting towards the path president Rayale is leading it to its failure, and it is about to drawback from its new found freedom that its people won hard and took it for granted. We are witnessing a dictatorship in the making and Haatuf journalists’ so-called ‘court sentences’ are the obvious reasons that anyone with right mind would say without reservation; this is not the kind of Somaliland we wanted to build.

When the three Haatuf journalists were illegally arrested, most us thought it was something will only last few days and then they will have their freedom back, we better had a moment of acute doubt. This time what is happening is what already happened to many other Somalilanders rotting in Somaliland’s prisons and that never got the coverage the arrest and the continued unlawful detention of the Haatuf journalists enjoy. Despite of what the law of the land says in cases like that of Haatuf journalists, this time courts and Rayale loyal judges are even ready to go on mobile and to go around like that of Siyad Barre’s courts and put behind the bars anyone who dares to challenge or talk about president Rayale and his misconducts. The place the sentencing of these innocent journalists took place says all that this is just the beginning of a wider crack down on anyone who speaks out the corruption that the ruling UDUB government wants no one to reveal and the state machinery is ready to use against the free media reporting about corruption and illegal activities.

The outrageous arrest of Haatuf journalists unfolds how Somaliland court judges lined up to support president Rayale’s attempt to rule Somaliland under presidential degrees and NSS-like intimidations and arrests. Evidents are there when both Hargeisa regional court, the court of appeals and now the supreme court threw the Somaliland’s press law out off the window, the very same law that the president and the current parliament have both approved and signed, the law that protects both the rights of journalists and none journalists, the law that could sort out the predicament of president Rayale and Haatuf Newspaper.

The proclamation of suppressing the press law by all courts that heard the case against Haatuf journalists is also the evident that Somaliland’s judicial system is no longer independent, but merely reflecting the increasingly intolerant leadership of president Rayale on the media reports on the alleged corruption and mismanagements on public assets. And now, anyone who is not with president Rayale and his henchmen will be considered as a detractor and will be cowardly targeted just as Haatuf is targeted for its courageous act of reporting for the interest of the public. But the intimidations and the arrests used by UDUB government against the very people it claims it protects surely embolden them to take up the cudgels.

The reintroduction of the so-called Criminal Penal Code is also test to the patience of the peace and freedom lovers of Somaliland people, wherever they are, and the arrest of the Haatuf Journalists is not just limited to them, but it is part of malicious acts Rayale’s government is attempting to quell Somaliland’s free press, it is what Jamhuuriya Newspaper and its editor, Hassan Saed had faced on numerous occasions in the past, and Haatuf journalists are not the first victims, but the latest prey for president Rayale and his henchmen who can not stand with the truth and transparenting people are calling for.

If any one thought Somaliland is part of the free world, then it should take a quick look at what is happening in the justice system. The dark days we all thought we put behind us are about to revisit us-the kind of justice our people had suffered under, the Barre’s justice system has been reinstalled and it is already serving president Rayale.

Testimonies of injustice are no longer ambiguously questioned, the Haatuf in prison trial and denial of their rights have all confirmed us what many of us feared most –despotism and totalitarianism. We should all stand up and demand for justice for Haatuf journalists and many other innocent people locked up simply because they were exercising their rights. It is Haatuf journalists today, but tomorrow it could be anyone of us-be it whether you are journalist or ordinary citizen, your rights are about to be taken away just as these journalists’ rights of fair trial, the right to trail with their lawyers at their side and the rights of having free and independent justice system are all denied.

President Rayale needs to be told that ‘where there is no justice there is no ( peace) presidency’ and travesty of justice will not elude us from the true justice we all strive for, and in that case, Rayale’s presidency will be doomed just as those denied justice for us in the past their presidency was doomed, as one time great poet-late Dhirbaaxo Jin (May Allah rest his soul) has beautifully versed in his poem when he warned Barre’s regime against the repudiation of justice for the “People of the North” in late 70s. Travesty of justice and judiciary interventions have no room in Somaliland and its people will not allow their country is ruled by intrigue and corruption.

abdillahima@hotmail.com

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