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London, UK,
July 25, 2009 – President Rayale has been left isolated as domestic and
international condemnation and pressure mounts on his regime over the
continued detention without trial of two Radio Horyaal reporters and the
closure of local television station, Horn Cable TV (HCTV).
The two radio journalists, director of Radio Horyaal, Mohamed Osman Mire
and news editor Ahmed Saleban Dhuhul have been refused bail and are
still being held in a cell at the headquarters of the Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) for the second week running. The two were
arrested on the direct order of Somaliland president, Dahir Rayale Kahin,
for allegedly broadcasting ‘false information’ inciting violence between
the president’s clan and another clan that led to the death of four
people.
In the meantime, the Attorney General shut down HCTV for airing footage
of the same news.
“It is a shameless regime manned by shameless individuals who have no
moral compass. The detention of these journalists simply suggests that
Rayale is a law unto himself and no longer needs a court’s permission to
throw journalists into jail,” said Mohammed Yonis Awale, the chairman of
the independent Radio Horyaal Committee.
According to a statement issued by the US Embassy in Nairobi, the US
government condemned the recent arrests and called for the immediate
release of the journalists while urging at the same time that Horn Cable
TV be allowed to resume broadcasting without impediment during this
important, pre-election period.
In a July 17 statement, the Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters
Without Borders was outraged by the arrest of the two journalists and
the closure of HCTV station in Somaliland and called for “the
international community should help Somali journalists, who are exposed
to enormous risks.”
The Vienna-based International Press Institute and The National Union of
Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) also condemned the arrests not to mention the
tidal wave of condemnations from the Somaliland Diaspora.
Radio Horyaal had an interview on Wednesday with one of the elders who
attended a meeting with president Rayale on the El-Bardaleh issue,
featuring even more embarrassing revelations about the president’s
failure to act upon the ruling of the House of Elders’ subcommittee.
President Rayale dismissed the subcommittee’s ruling as outrageous and
branded members of House of Elders “enemies”, according to Mohamoud
Jibril Kahin who was one of the elders who attended the meeting with the
President.
President Rayale received various peace envoys and delegation of
heavyweight elders from the other clan that hail from Gabiley, alerting
him to the gravity of the situation and the urgent need to find a
solution to the simmering confrontation over the disputed territory and
properties.
The elders of Gabiley were reportedly angry that a June ruling made by
the Upper House of the Parliament, giving their clan certain land and
property rights, had not yet been implemented by the President.
It also emerged that long before the deadly plot was hatched from the
shadows of El-Baradaleh the president was receiving a constant stream of
information and intelligence reports from area and knew pretty well in
advance that the situation became a tinderbox waiting to explode any
moment. However, the president who found the ruling of the Upper House
of the Parliament unfavorable to his clan chose to bury his head in the
sand, hoping somehow that the problem will disappear and evaporate.
Some analysts believe that Radio Horyaal and HCTV have been convenient
scapegoat for the president’s failure to take the bull by the horns.
Disseminating of propaganda against the state, incitement of violence
and confusing the public opinion are routine accusations by the
authorities of Somaliland to justify the closure of newspapers and TVs
and detention of journalists who are not toeing the line regarding the
government’s policies.
Source: The Somaliland Globe
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