Nairobi, Kenya, September 18, 2010 – The UN's Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, returned to Nairobi on Wednesday after spending three days visiting to Somaliland and parts of Somalia, including Puntland.

Speaking to the press in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, after a three-day visit to Somaliland and Somalia, Ms Kyung-wha noted that she had extensive discussions with Somali authorities, civil society groups, UN colleagues and the members of the international community in Somaliland, Puntland and Kenya.

"I come away from the past three days with a better understanding of both the despair and the hopes of the Somali people," she wrote in a press statement issued by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

During her short visit, she noted in a press release that "the impressive progress made towards ability and development by Somalilanders and Puntlanders over the past years should remind us of what is possible and inspire us to do more," adding: "I greatly appreciate the commitment to the protection of human rights made to me by senior Puntland authorities in Garowe as well as those made by the president of Somaliland and the new Somaliland government."

The OHCHR press statement said: "I am much encouraged by the commitment of the UNPOS SRSG to deploy United Nations staff – including human rights officers – to Somaliland and Puntland in the near future. This reflects the commitment of the United Nations to work shoulder-to-shoulder with Somalis in their country and provide assistance to the maximum extent possible."

The UN's Somalia political office (UNPOS) announced recently plans to relocate some staff from Nairobi to peaceful and stable regions in Somalia's north: Somaliland and Puntland.

Ms. Kyung-wha met with Internal Displaced People (IDP) settlement in Somaliland capital of Hargeysa, most of them from southern Somalia where wars rage between Western-backed TFG forces and anti-government Al Shabaab insurgents.

"Everywhere bullets and heavy missiles were firing between the Al-Shabaab, the TFG, and AMISOM. Even if you' re not targeted, bullets have no direction," said a woman who lost her husband, according to a press release from OHCHR. "There is no safe place."

Ms. Kyung-wha's press statement condemned a "culture of impunity" that has been evident in Somalia since the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, saying: "Addressing the continuing cycle of impunity and violence should be a cornerstone in the foundation of building peace in Somalia. And it should serve as a deterrent to would-be violators that they will be held to account."

It is the first time that such a senior U.N. official has called for collecting data on crimes and other human rights violations in Somalia, where violence has raged for nearly 20 years.

Somalia's weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is backed by AU peacekeepers (AMISOM) but deeply unpopular in Mogadishu due to endless infighting and widespread corruption. The weak TFG, which has long promised to launch a major offensive against insurgents, controls only a few streets of Mogadishu.

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