Somaliland : President Silanyo signs into law the Controversial National Intelligence Bill

Somaliland President H.E Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud (Silanyo) has today issued a Presidential decree in which he signed the national Intelligence bill #Lr. 59/2012 into law.

President Silanyo signed the National Intelligence Bill into a law after the national assembly decision # Lr. GW/G/KF-19/581/2012 voted in favor of the national Intelligence act #Lr. 59/2012 Bill on the 27/12/2012,this in accordance with Act #90 and Act #70 of the national constitution.

The adaptation National Intelligence Bill heard earlier faced stiff opposition from a wide section of the society mainly because of a controversial clause which infringes on the freedom of speech.

In another development today President Silanyo issued another Presidential Decree in which he signed into a law, the health workers bill # Lr. 19/2001 which reforms the workings of health workers board this in accordance with the national assembly decision # Lr. GW/G/KF-19/582/2012 voted in favor of the Health workers board reform bill.

A year in Somaliland : What I’ve learned about water in Hargeisa

Water Deliveries by Donkeys 

I remember in Belfast the Christmas before last, when pipes froze and burst, water poured into streets, and many of us were without water for days, relying on bottled water that we had to collect from water stations.  Many people said at the time, and I was one, how it made them appreciate water was not to be taken for granted.   But it has taken living here and observing how people live in a country that experiences serious droughts for it to be brought home to me what a precious resource water is.

 For a start, the Horn of Africa is semi-arid, i.e. there is very little rain anyway. Most of Somaliland receives as little as 50 to 150 millimeters of rain annually.  Ireland’s annual rainfall is nearer 1000 mm a year (and more in Connemara!).  Adan (the driver with Nagaad and the source of much of my information) thinks it has got drier over the past few decades, and Somaliland is slowly becoming more like a desert.  When the rain does come, in April and May, its torrential, but I haven’t experienced any yet and wonder about driving on these now dusty dirt roads after torrential rain! On the way to and from work every day, we cross a bridge over what looks like a dried up riverbed, between 50 and 100 yards wide.  In fact it’s a flood runoff for the rains when they do come. The rain has been known to sweep away the temporary shelters that internally displaced people (IDPs) live in, and the downpours can be extremely dangerous.  They say this area after a rainfall will be a raging torrent of water and then, within hours, the water has disappeared.

The main sources of water in rural areas of Somaliland are the privately owned Barkeds (cemented water catchments), manually dug shallow wells and communal stock watering ponds.  All of these sources of water depend on a harvest of seasonal rainfall, which has been worsening year by year.  While in urban areas, groundwater is the main source of water for human and livestock consumption (the ubiquitous goats, and not forgetting the urban cattle that roam the streets).  I suppose no one worries about the camels!

Because of recurrent drought, there has been a huge population shift to Hargeisa and other urban areas from rural areas, and from areas where people have been internally displaced by the upheavals of war.  The steady increase in settlements of internally displaced people on the outskirts of the city makes it hard to keep track of population numbers, and the situation is growing beyond control.  Tensions between the IDP communities and the host communities have increased, particularly because of the water shortage.

The water infrastructure in Hargeisa was designed and built in the 1940s for a population of 150,000 people, relying on deep bore wells as major sources of water.  A survey of 127 government owned deep bore wells and other sources of water (not just in Hargeisa) were completed recently, and only about 40 percent of all existing wells are operational.  Adan complained that 60% of the national budget goes on security and maintaining the military, with no development strategy to address the water infrastructure, although I have read in the papers that there are plans to dig more wells in Hargeisa, funded by the EU.

But the fact is at least 45% of Hargeisa’s population of 1.2 million has no direct access to water at all.  So how do they manage?

Tankers fetch water daily from wells in two villages 30 or 40 kilometres outside Hargeisa and deliver it to houses and hotels (including the Ambassador) in the city and it is pumped into tanks. Alanye, a board member of Nagaad, explained to me that he and his family are dependent on a truck delivering water every week.  He pays $7 for five barrels of water, which last his family one week.  But his family is small, him and his wife, and two or three relatives.  In Somaliland, extended families are the norm, so it would be usual, he told me, for 12 people to share a household.  For most households then five barrels would only last 3-4 days.  Then there are sanitation issues because the water comes untreated from the wells.  The problem with water quality is pertinent.  Most of these families use this water for drinking, cooking and washing as well.  No water purification and treatment of water takes place here. Well owners wait for the wells to become full and once water comes to the surface they dip long tubes that take water to the trucks.

The water used for tea and coffee in Nagaad is the colour of weak tea; I have gone without a mid-morning drink since my first taste.

Many people cannot buy water from truck owners as they don’t have tanks. They rely on the donkey deliveries, pulling small tanks of water and delivering to people’s houses and small shops.

People bring their yellow plastic cans to be filled.  It’s women and children who fetch the water, including at night when it’s cooler and I’ve frequently seen teenage girls struggling to carry large yellow plastic canisters, women pushing wheelbarrows with several containers, and small children pulling containers along the road with string, making a game of it.

Note. Most of the photos here, are from Afrikan Sarvi online, a Horn of Africa Journal, plus some of the info.

Source: Joanna McMinn Blogspot

Abwaan Hadraawi oo ka Waramay Shaqsiyadii Marxuum Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd Eebe Naxariistiisa Jano Haka Waraabiyee.

Abwaan Maxamed Ibraahim Hadraawi

"waxaanu ummadda u ahaa iftiin iyo cadceed oo waxa uu ahaa nin aragti fog oo aqoonyahan ah, isla markaana bulshada noocwal oo ay tahay u jajaban oo hadii Ilaahay ka dhigo gacan leh"

Abwaan Maxamed Ibraahim Hadraawi oo waraysi uu siiyay Wargayska Haatuf waxa uu kaga hadlay Shaqsiyadii iyo Sifooyinkii uu lahaa Guddoomiyihii Baanka dhexe ee Djibouti Marxuum Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd oo maalintii Jimcihii ku geeriyooday Magaalada Nairobi ee xarunta dalka Kenya, isla markaana tacsi u diraya Shucuubta labada dal ee Djibouti iyo Somaliland, waxa uu hadalkiisa ku bilaabay “Alle ha u naxariistii Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd saaxiib ayaanu ahayn oo waxa uu ahaa nin lagu soo hirto oo raganimadiisa iyo waxtarkiisa aan la malayn karin, waxaanu ummadda u ahaa iftiin iyo cadceed oo waxa uu ahaa nin aragti fog oo aqoonyahan ah, isla markaana bulshada noocwal oo ay tahay u jajaban oo hadii Ilaahay ka dhigo gacan leh. Aniga oo aan caawa halkan ku dhamaynkaraynin raganimada iyo shaqsiyadii fiicnayd ee Alle ha u naxariistee Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd”

Isagoo hadalkiisa sii wata Hadraawi waxa uu intaa ku daray “waxaan leeyahay geeridu waa xaq ee Ilaahay ha u naxariista oo Janooyinkiisa ha ka waraabiyo isagaa awood lehe. Shaqsiyadiisa iyo miisaanka uu ummada ku lahaa Marxuum Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd waxa aad ka garankartaa sidii markii geeridiisa la soo sheegay looga dareemay gayiga Soomaalida oo dhan laga oogsaday, isla markaan dadku ay aad uga naxeen oo ay bulshadu cadaysay shaqsiyadiisa dhabta  ah iyo qofkii uu ahaa Alle ha u naxariistee.

Abwaan Hadraawi waxa uu hadalkiisa ku soo gabogabeeyay “Mida kale Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd waxa uu ka tagay reer oo ummad dhan ayuu ka baxay Alle qabriga ha u nuuriyee, waxaanan jeclahay inaad tacsi iga gaadhsiisaan oo aad kaw ka dhigtaan qoyskii uu ka baxay, laba waxaan Ilaahay ka baryayaa inuu ina siiyo badelkii Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd. Mida kale geeridu waa xaq oo xaqii ayaa helay Marxuum Jaamac laakiin waxa inala gudboon inaynu u ducayno oo aynu xusno sidaan filayo-na aaskiisii xalay ayuu dhacay oo waanan ka xumahay inaan goobtaas ka maqnaado, waxaanan hadalkayga ku soo koobayaa Alle ha u naxariistee Jaamac Maxamuud Xayd waxaynu ku xasuusan doonaa raganimadii iyo sifooyinkii wanaagsanaa ee uu lahaa”.

U.S. supported France's failed hostage rescue in Somalia

By CNN Staff

January 14, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• President Obama details U.S. military involvement in a hostage rescue in Somalia;
• French forces failed to free an intelligence agent held by an al Qaeda-linked group;
• French officials say 1 soldier died, 1 is missing, and the hostage is believed dead;
• U.S. aircraft were in Somali airspace but didn't fire, Obama told Congressional leaders.

An undated TV grab shows Denis Allex, a French hostage allegedly held -- and possibly killed -- by Somali militants.

(CNN) -- U.S. troops lent "limited technical support" in France's bloody and unsuccessful bid in Somalia to rescue an intelligence agent who'd been held hostage for years, President Barack Obama said Sunday.

Obama detailed the U.S. military involvement in the Friday night mission in a letter sent to the leaders of the nation's two legislative chambers. The letter was released publicly as well.

Are you there? Send your photo, videos, but please stay safe.

While U.S. forces "provided limited technical support," they "took no direct part in the assault on the compound where it was believed the French citizen was being held hostage," the president explained.

In addition, U.S. military aircraft were available but were not used.

"United States combat aircraft briefly entered Somali airspace to support the rescue operation, if needed," the president wrote. "These aircraft did not employ weapons during the operation."

French militant operations in Africa

Obama said he directed the U.S. troops' involvement in the operation "in furtherance of U.S. national security interests, and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as commander in chief and chief executive."

By 8 p.m., all U.S. forces were out of Somalia.

The moves came after French forces engaged in a fierce gunbattle with militants in their attempt to rescue hostage Denis Allex, who was a member of the DGSE, France's equivalent of the CIA and a part of its defense ministry.

The skirmish in Bulo Marer, about 75 miles northwest of the capital Mogadishu, ended with a French soldier and 17 Islamist fighters dead, according to the French Defense Ministry. Another French soldier is missing.

French bid to rescue hostage fails

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Paris on Saturday that "everything leads us to believe that Denis Allex was gunned down by his captors." French President Francois Hollande, meanwhile, lamented the "sacrifice" of the two French soldiers and "maybe the assassination" of the hostage.

But the al-Shabaab militia, which is affiliated with al Qaeda, claimed Allex is unharmed and being held in a new location. The group said in a statement that they'll decide the hostage's fate in the next two days.

Allex was abducted on July 14, 2009, while on a mission in Mogadishu in support of the transitional Somali government, the French Defense Ministry said. French media reports suggest that Denis Allex is a pseudonym for the military serviceman.

French officials said they launched the rescue attempt after the terror group failed to negotiate for the hostage's release for years while holding him in inhumane conditions.

The U.S. military has been involved in Somalia before, notably in the ill-fated 1993 Battle of Mogadishu that ended with 18 American soldiers killed.

U.S. forces were in Somalia to try to capture powerful Somali warlord Mohammed Aidid from his stronghold in the war-torn capital and take him to a ship anchored off the nearby coast. But by the end of the 16-hour battle in which commandos tried to seize several of Aidid's top lieutenants, 18 elite Army Rangers and hundreds of Somalis lay dead in the streets of Mogadishu.

The movie inspired the best-selling book "Black Hawk Down" by Mark Bowden and an eponymous, Oscar Award-winning movie directed by Ridley Scott.

Fourteen years later, the U.S. military re-emerged in Somalia by conducting airstrikes targeting al Qaeda-linked operatives in southern Somalia. Other strikes followed, including one in 2008 that killed an al-Shabaab leader and several other senior leaders of his group, according to local officials.

BOGA TACSIDA MARXUUN JAMA MOHAMOUD HAID

TACSI KU SOCOTA MADAXWAYNAHA JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI, MUD. ISMAIL OMAR GAULLEH, MARWADIISA MARWO KHADRA MOHAMOUD HAID IYO GUUD AHAAN SHACABKA JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI. 

Anigoo ku hadlaya magaca dhamaan Maamulka iyo xubnaha Gudiga Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika ee HORN WATCH guud ahaan Shacabka Jamhuuriyada Jabuuti waxanu la qaybsanaynaa tiiraanyada geerida naxdinta leh ee ku timid Gudoomiyihii Baanka Dhexe ee Dalka Djibouti Jama Mohamoud Haid.

EEBE KOREEYE WAXANU KA BARYAYNAA IN UU NAXARIISTIISA JANO KA WARAABIYO MARXUUNKA ADOON WANAAGSAN OO QARANKIISA U ADEEGA OO DADKA BAAHAN WAX SIIYA AYUU AHAA EE EEBOW SADAQADII UU ADOOMAHAAGA SIINAYAY UGU NAXARIISO.

MADAXWAYNAHA JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI MUDANE ISMAIL OMAR GEELEH IYO MARWADIISA KHADRA MOHAMOUD HAID IYO GUUD AHAAN SHACABKA JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI WAXANU LEENAHAY SAMIR IYO IIMAAN EEBE HA IDINKA SIIYO

TACSIDAN MID LA MID AH WAXANU U DIRAYNAA OORADII UU KA TAGAY MARXUUNKU, CARUURTIISII WALAALADII, QARAABADIISII IYO DHAMAAN SHAQAALIHII BANIGAGA DHEXE EE JAMHUURIYADA JABUUTI

WAXANU ILAAHAY KA TUUGAYNAA IN UU JANADII KA WARAABIYO MARXUUNKA

INAA LILAAHI WA INAA ILAAHU RAAJUCUUN

AAAMIIN AAAMIN AAAAMIN AAAMIN AAAAMIN AAAMIN

Suleiman Ismail Bolalah
Gud. Gudida Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika (HORN-WATCH)

Coca-Cola Recipe Leaked: Alcohol and Anti-Muslim messages

BOSTON — Coca-Cola’s tightly guarded 125-year-old recipe was revealed last week by This American Life, a public radio show based in New York city.

“We think we may have found the original recipe for Coca Cola…and I am not kidding!” host Ira Glass says with excitement. He continues “I am not kidding. One of the most famously guarded trade secrets on the planet– I have it right here and I am going to read it to you. I am going to read it to the world.”

To find the recipe, Ira Glass turned to Charles Salter, a columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Mr Salter originally discovered the Coke ingredients deep deep within the archives of the journal in 1979. Edition 18 of the Atlanta based journal contained a photo depicting a hand-written copy of John Pemberton’s original recipe in a leather-bound recipe book.

John Pemberton, an American pharmacist from Atlanta invented the Coca-Cola recipe in 1886 and has since stayed with family members and close friends. According to the This American Life, only two people know the recipe and they never travel on the same airliner. The radio also claims the recipe is “locked in a vault in Atlanta.”

Here are the recipe ingredients and we know it will definitely shock a lot of Muslims. For a long time, a large number of Muslims considered Coca Cola “Haram”; an Arabic word meaning forbidden. They claim if you hold a mirror next to the famous Coca-Cola trademark, it will reveals “La Mohammad. La Makkah” in Arabic, which literally means “No Mohammad. No Mecca.” This is considered anti-Islamic and a slander.

The Coca Cola company responded through their website: “This claim is not true. The Coca-Cola trademark was created in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, at a time and place where there was little knowledge of Arabic.

“The allegation has been brought before a number of senior Muslim clerics in the Middle East who researched it in detail and refuted the rumor outright.

“During the late 1990s, a special committee of authorities in Saudi Arabia, with representatives from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Trade, was formed to review the rumors against the Coca-Cola logo. The committee determined that there is no basis to these false allegations and that the Coca-Cola trademark does not connote anything defamatory to Islam.

“More recently, in May 2000, the Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar (the Islamic world’s foremost institute) Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel, said that “the trademark does not injure Islam or Muslims directly or indirectly.” Moreover, he stated that Islam is against ‘the propagation of empty rumors and intended lies that affect either public or private interests.’”

The ingredient includes alcohol and coca (plant that contains the cocaine), which are forbidden by Islamic law. Let’s see how they (Coca Cola Company) explain this one this time. According to Globes, a Muslim-Israeli has already filed a US$330 million class action suit against The Central Bottling Company Group Ltd. – Coca Cola’s Israel franchisee (see Israeli sues Coca Cola for containing alcohol).

Recipe:

1. Fluid extract of coca
2. Citric acid
3. Caffeine
4. Sugar
5. Water
6. Lime juice
7. Vanilla
8. Caramel
9. Alcohol
10. Orange oil
11. Lemon oil
12. Nutmeg oil
13. Coriander oil
14. Neroli oil
15. Cinnamon oil

Mali - from regional role model to crisis zone

France is backing Mali in the fight against Islamist rebels. The Malian government has lost control over large parts of the country, and the outcome for the French intervention is uncertain.

The Sahel covers a vast area. From Senegal in West Africa to the Horn of Africa in the East, it extends over 7,500 kilometers (4,600 miles). At its narrowest point it measures 150 kilometers, at the widest over 800. The poorest, drought and famine-stricken region of the world is a lawless vacuum. National legal systems are non-existent. The people have their own laws.

This is now true of northern Mali, which extends far into the Sahel. But the republic was once a model for democracy in West Africa. With a constitution, numerous political parties, and a national assembly, the country has changed over the past decade from a one-party state into a more or less functional democracy. There is not much left from former times.

"The coup against the president certainly triggered this development," says Peter Heine, a professor emeritus of Islamic studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Mali is one of the poorest nations on earth

Signs of a failed state

 In March 2012, the Malian Army forced President Amadou Toumani Toure from office, seizing power for themselves. The soldiers argued Toure was unable to control the situation in the country and compete against the rebel Tuareg insurgents in the country's north. Toure's term in office lasted only a few weeks. A new presidential election was imminent.

 Initially, the coup played nicely into the hands of the Tuareg. In the power vacuum left by Toure's removal, the Tuaregs - a group that had long felt ignored by the government in Bamako - banded together with the terror network Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). But shortly thereafter, the Islamists broke with the Tuareg militias, who lost their influence.

Islamist allies

The AQIM and other Islamist groups like Asar Dine are powerful in the Sahel because of government weakness. With this knowledge, terror cells are able to earn a lot of money through drug trafficking and kidnapping.

 "Governments pay large amounts of money for the return of captured nationals," says Peter Pham, an expert on Africa at the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, adding, "The group has made literally millions over the years in ransom. That enables it to have resources."

 Islamist fighters took advantage of the recent coup in Mali

The downfall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi strengthened the terrorist network. Mercenaries from the Sahel, who worked for many years under Gaddafi, are returning to their homelands heavily armed. Islamic scholar Peter Heine fears the influence of AQIM in neighboring countries is on the rise.

 "It may come to a point where we have a completely authoritarian-free structure," he said in an interview with DW, noting, "Hostage-taking and an incredible amount of drugs - this will only increase."

Country without a state

 There is nothing in northern Mali, deposed Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure told the French newspaper "Le Monde Diplomatique."

 There are no roads, hospitals, schools or wells, no infrastructure for daily living.

 "A young man in the area has no chance to get married, or have a good life, unless he steals a car and joins the smugglers," the president added.

 And if that wasn't already enough of a challenge, the Islamist groups, led by AQIM, have chosen the remote region as their base.

 Fighters from the Islamic rebel group Ansar Dine

 The deployment of peacekeeping troops, which was unanimously approved by the US Security Council at the end of 2012.

 "One must define the goal of such an operation very carefully," says Hans-Ulrich Klose, deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German parliament. "Is it about driving Al-Qaeda out of the Maghreb? And if so, where should we move them?"

 The prospects for France's involvement in such a large and poverty-stricken country are limited. Experience in Afghanistan has shown how difficult it is to intervene in a region where opponents have numerous possibilities to withdraw and regroup.

Error! Filename not specified.

Reservations about its own army

 Many Malians, says Charlotte Heyl from the GIGA Institute, hope for as much European participation as possible.

 "This is because they simply do not see how their own army is able to solve the problem. They point out that the Malian army is currently divided and is dealing with many internal conflicts. And they are skeptical about the level of training for the army," Heyl explained.

Somali witnesses to failed rescue describe mayhem

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The night of mayhem and death started with the sound of helicopters above pitch-black fields. When it was over, the French intelligence agent who had been held hostage for more than three years was almost certainly dead, as was at least one French commando, and the home that served as the agent’s final jail was destroyed. And now the Somalis living in the muddy farm town had new cause to fear the militants controlling their street.

 

It was too dark to see beyond the brief glow of flashlights, but noise was everywhere, said Ali Bulhan, who woke up when the earth started vibrating to the beat of the helicopter rotors. And the flashlights were abruptly extinguished when the French soldiers shot the Somalis who had turned them on to see what was happening in their town in the dead of night, said town elder Hussein Yasin.

The commandos were there to free a French intelligence agent captured on Bastille Day in 2009. The man, known by his code-name Denis Allex, was chained up, abused and moved from one safe house to another, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday. Le Drian said the government decided to stage the rescue a month ago, when Allex’s location seemed to have settled down “in a spot accessible by the sea.”

Helicopters were dispatched from a French ship that had been on an enforced news blackout for weeks, according to the French newspaper Le Point. When the commandos arrived in Bulomarer late Friday, children began screaming in confusion and fighters from the Islamist al-Shabab, which has controlled the town for years, began racing along the streets, their cell phones pressed to their ears.

“They had a terrible night as well,” said Ali Bulhan, who refused to give his last name for fear of reprisal.

The local accounts, along with that of a Somali intelligence official and the French defense minister, offer a glimpse into a chaotic rescue attempt in which nothing seemed to go as planned.

“Extracting a hostage is extremely difficult,” Le Drian said.

Yasin said the gunbattle started on the ground when the French commandos encountered an Islamist checkpoint. Al Bulhan said only a few hours could have passed between that moment and the time when the French helicopters stopped firing on homes and instead ferried the surviving French troops to safety “but it felt like an entire day.”

French officials, including the president, and a Somali intelligence official said Allex was almost certainly killed by his captors. The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press, said Sunday that the home where the agent was held was destroyed in the attack Saturday, and that intelligence networks “do not have any information indicating he is still alive.”

Al-Shabab has offered no proof for its claims that Allex was still alive and that a wounded French soldier was in its custody as well. French officials acknowledge a missing soldier, but say they believe he is dead.

“Bullets rattled every corner,” Ali Bulhan said. “Helicopters were firing at nearby homes.”
The fighting took an even steeper toll on the Islamists, according to French officials and locals. Ali Bulhan said he thought the fighters had already taken away the bodies of their comrades. French officials said they counted 17 dead among the Islamists.

After the sounds of battle faded and the helicopters were gone, frightened al-Shabab fighters locked down the town, added checkpoints, arrested junior commanders for fear someone had tipped off the French foces, and seized cell phones of residents, Ali Bulhan said.

“I was told that the dead French soldier was hiding and was shot after he turned on a flashlight,” he said. He did not know when, but later saw the body of a European being dragged into a car.

Businesses shut down for the day Sunday.

“It was a burial day for the fighters,” Ali Bulhan said, “and a deadly day for the French as well.”

Source: AP

Somaliland: SPORTING NEEDS CONDUCIVE ATMOSPHERE AND GOOD TIMING

Education, culture and technology are aspects in all societies which weld a high degree of sacrosancy.

They are universally untouchables as far as politics and politicking are concerned.

Within the cultural aspect is, in modern times, the subject of sports embeds.

Of course it is abominable to mix, intermingle, or at worse, tie sporting to politicking; other than for a positive reason of harnessing harmony, unity, friendship, stability etcetera, given the right timing.

Now that Hon. Raygal whose portfolio is charged with sports has reiterated that the national sporting events would go on as scheduled hence kick off three days away (15^th January 2013), we expect and hope that it would be conducted against a background of harmonious setting. In other words a good timing with conducive atmosphere that is devoid of any hung-ups of political tensions.

Whereas the minister has all the rights in expediting his duties given that sports MUST NOT and SHOULD NOT be tied to politics, the conflicting tentative observations have some cause of concern.

Our socio-politics background and scenario depicts quite a different tradition as far as sports and politics is concerned contrary to those of the rest of the world, both developed and developing ones. Ours is one with a history so much unbecoming, one that connot be envied and one that whose cases were handled with kid-gloves.

We are of course categorically against each and every act that is tailored to undermine the authority of the state and day to day administrative governance.

No individual, group of persons, institution(s) or, in this context, a section of the community should be let to demean, undermine or subvert national structures or our nationhood itself at any given time.

We support the government in every way that endeavours to achieve the smooth running of public services provision.
Anything that can dent our image, values, aspirations or progressive steps within the country or abroad should be avoided at all costs.

We call upon members of the public wherever they are not to take laws into their hands, not to be chaotic, not to mobilize ill-motivations, or better still, and not to be inclined to cause any upheavals in the name of bad sporting or anything else.
The leaders, both contemporary traditional, political or executive should collectively join hands and spread words of wisdom to counter any intended insurgencies or conspiracies.
On the other hand, the state should be able to weigh the stakes soberly and take appropriate decisions.

As the minister reserves all the rights to stamp down his powers in executing his duties, he also holds a political responsibility of national level and just as he can postpone the schedule if necessity demands.

Ministers are the only government officials who wave the wands of both executive and political powers. With collaboration of and consultancy with the Presidency, they ought to handle aptly the latter powers.

We advice that the timing be given serious consideration and the right decision for the goodness of the nation, we remind the need of responsibility and wisdom to take precedence and prevail upon any undertaking that may be deemed as fragile.
We stand for the maintenance of peace and stability hence deal with political issues as political, technical ones as technical etcetera.

Somaliland deserves to be nurtured to full maturity as aspired.
M.A EGGE

Djibouti: The Security Forces Fire Live Bullets On a Peaceful Demonstration - Killing a Demonstrator and Wounding Others

press release

Ismail Omar Guelleh President of Djibouti

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), strongly, denounces killing a peaceful demonstrator in the city of "Obock" on the background of using the live bullets, by the security forces, to disperse the peaceful demonstration of latest December 2012.

Djibouti Security Forces fired live bullets on number of young demonstrators of primary and middle-school students who demonstrated peacefully on December 30, 2012. They peacefully demonstrated on the lack of the infrastructure in the residential areas they live in, especially, related to sport clubs foundations and other sports' infrastructure, during the meeting organized by the Sports Secretary of State. The use of the live bullets resulted in killing of a demonstrator, 14 year old, and wounding many others.

ANHRI said "the use of the security forces to the excessive violence to disperse a peaceful demonstration to a number of students, is a serious violation to the freedom of expression and a clear violation to the international charters related to the rights of the child".

ANHRI said that "the Djibouti policemen in adopting such way is a clear violation to the constitution issued on 1992, which states in Article no. 10 on "the person is infallible and the state shall guarantee his safety and freedom, and all humans are equal before the law". In the same article, the constitution stated that "everyone enjoys the right to live, freedom, security and his personal safety". In addition to Article no. 15 provides that everyone enjoys the right to free expression by word, pen and picture. The security forces have clearly violated the provisions of the Djibouti constitution.

ANHRI asserted also on that the security forces have violated the articles of The Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child, as Article no. 12 of it, states that the country shall guarantee the right of the child to express his opinion freely in all his matters and the child has to the right to be heard in the matters related to him.

In addition Article no. 13 of the said declaration provided the right of the child to select the appropriate way to express his opinions.

ANHRI highlighted that the demonstration of the primary and middle schools students were freed from all the restrictions on this right , in accordance with the said declaration, as the students didn't violate the others' right or reputation and they didn't, jointly or severally, prejudice the public security, public order, public health or the public ethics.

ANHRI calls on the conducting an immediate investigation related to the assault on the students and held the police elements who were involved in killing and wounding into accountable and bring them before the court.

ANHRI calls the relevant bodies in Djibouti to include the state's respect to The Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child in the constitution and reform the constitution in respect of the freedom of the child and its basic rights.