Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 11, 2009 (SL Times) – Somaliland Vice President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin showed up early morning on July 2nd at Rayaan Hotel wearing casual sports clothes and without bodyguards. This came as a pleasant surprise to many of the restaurant’s customers who flocked to the spot where he was sitting to greet him. When asked about what prompted him to do so, he said, “there is nothing unusual about this, it is normal for leaders to mix with their people so that they would be aware of what is going on and not just wait for information to come to them, and I am happy to do it and will continue to do it.”
Members of the press who were present took advantage of the opportunity and asked the Vice President a number of questions. Here is one of the exchanges:
Q: Lately, you are often seen without any bodyguards, do you feel any difference between now and previously when you had a lot of bodyguards?
A: It seems that African governments continue in the old communist approach where they are guarded by technicals and a lot of troops, but the world has progressed, especially in western countries; also our people are leery about uniformed troops, so I hope that African governments will establish guards without uniforms, naturally the guard who is wearing uniform cannot defend you because he becomes a target himself for the enemy, but a plain clothes man can defend you.









 

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