Somaliland: Abdi – a serious boy | ReliefWeb

Save the Children - by Mark Kaye - 09 Oct 2012

Abdi is one of the most serious boys I’ve ever met. In fact, in the hour we spend together talking, I only see him smile once – when I take his picture.

Abdi is 14 years old and lives near the village of Boodhlay; a small pastoral community we’re supporting in the eastern regions of Somaliland.

Like most people in this village his family are dependent on their livestock to provide them with food, milk and income.

He is one of ten children and the only of his brothers and sisters to go to school. All the rest stay at home and help to look after the family’s animals.

Every day he walks for an hour and a half to get to school and then the same again to come home. He has an appreciation of the power of education that would have shamed my 14-year-old self.

“My education is very important to me,” he tells me. “I don’t think that anything else would matter to me so much that I would make this journey over and over. Nothing is more important. I need to be able to help my family. When I grow up and finish my education I can do this.”

Struggling to recover

Abdi’s village is currently suffering the effects of poor seasonal April to June rains. Pasture for animals to graze on is extremely limited and water for both livestock and human consumption is scarce.

Already vulnerable as a result of last year’s drought, villages like this all over eastern Somaliland are struggling to recover and return to normal life.

“When there is no rain we move a lot,” Abdi says. “We move to different places in search of food for our animals. I worry a lot about having to drop out of school. If my family moves again we might not come back and I will have no chance of finishing my studies.

“One day I hope to be a teacher myself. But if the rains do not come again my family will move and I will have to follow them.

“Things are hard now. It is difficult to get food and sometimes our water is dirty. I never have any food during break time at school and so concentrating in class is hard. Sometimes when I get home there is nothing to eat either so I try to go to sleep so that breakfast comes sooner.

“There is no one else to look after me if my family has to leave. I would have to go with them and drop out of school. I wish we had a school where I could eat and stay. That way no one could ever take me away.”

Little to smile about

Abdi is one of the most serious boys I have ever met, and not without good reason. A 14-year-old shouldn’t have to worry about being able to complete his primary education. This is his right.

We’re already on the ground, working in a total of 21 villages across eastern Somaliland where we currently support schools.

We’re trucking in water and rehabilitating local water sources so that families, like Abdi’s, have immediate access to safe water in these difficult times.

Somaliland: Abdi – a serious boy | ReliefWeb

Somaliland: Freedom in the World Report 2012

Freedom in the World Report 2012 

Somalia’s Government Transition Maintains the Status Quo

By Morgan Lorraine Roach
August 20, 2012

Today, the mandate for Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) expired, and parliament met for the first time to begin the selection process for the country’s new president and speaker of parliament.

Though the process to create a new government has been flawed, the Obama Administration and the international community have hailed this development as momentous progress. In reality, there is little reason to celebrate, as the new government will likely mirror the ineffective and corrupt TFG.

A Transition to a Transition

For more than 20 years, Somalia was without a legitimate representative government. The TFG, appointed by the United Nations in a process conducted in neighboring Kenya, lacked democratic legitimacy, was notoriously corrupt, and achieved little in the way of peace and stability.

The TFG was the 14th attempt to establish a permanent government since 1991. This “transitional” government was charged with paving the way toward a permanent government. The U.N. and a handful of TFG actors created a “Roadmap” in September 2011, which mandated the formation of an 885-member National Constituent Assembly (NCA), which then voted on a draft constitution. Afterwards, a technical selection committee was charged with choosing 275 members of the NCA to serve in the parliament. The parliament was supposed to vote for a new president on the same day the TFG’s mandate expires—today.

The process is undemocratic and a poor standard for future governance. Neither the NCA, the parliament, nor the president are elected by the Somali people. Somalia’s draft constitution was supposed to be achieved through public consultations and a popular referendum as mandated by the Transitional National Charter. Instead, it was voted on by the NCA, not the Somali people. The NCA then had a week to review it before approving it on August 1. Despite 96 percent of NCA members voting in favor of the constitution, the process fell short of upholding the openness and transparency called for in the national charter.

So far, the technical committee has selected only 225 members of the parliament. This has not stopped the parliament from holding its first session and starting the selection process for the president and speaker. As a result, not only are members not selected by the Somali people, but the members that will occupy the remaining seats will not be able to vote for the next president and speaker.

Even when the parliamentary selection is complete, its membership is likely to be similar to the former TFG’s representation, as the process is being manipulated through corruption and intimidation. Approximately 70 parliamentary nominees were automatically rejected by the technical committee for past criminal activity. Last week, James Swan, the Obama Administration’s representative for Somalia, reported concerns of “inadequate representation of women and in some cases reports of former warlords…being nominated by their communities.”[1]

Flawed from the Start

The TFG’s inability to establish peace and stability stemmed from its mismanagement, corruption, and outright criminality. According to a recent U.N. report by the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, TFG leaders were “reluctant to fulfill their transitional responsibilities under the national charter and some have proven actively obstructive, calling for a further extension of their term of office.”[2] TFG President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed reneged on his promise to not seek re-election.

Furthermore, the report recognizes that the “prospects for stabilization and effective governance have fallen to political and commercial ‘elites’ who appropriate, privatize and criminalize the core function of the Somali state.”[3] According to a World Bank report in May 2012, nearly 68 percent of TFG revenues in 2009–2010 were unaccounted for.[4] Additionally, Sharif used his authority to facilitate piracy, furnishing well-known criminals with diplomatic passports.

Although it is easy to blame this corruption on Somalia’s lack of development and governance, the U.N. and other countries are complicit in these problems. The international community believes that Somalia’s chaotic state (e.g., terrorism) does not present the conditions that are necessary to establish representative democracy, which would at least have to account to the electorate for its deficiencies. Instead, the U.N. and others hope to ease Somalia into a more democratic process in the years ahead.

U.S. Interests

The Somali people have lost faith in transitional institutions, they are fatigued by the desperate conditions they constantly suffer, and they want their country run by Somalis rather than dictated by international entities. The U.S. shares these concerns.

Somalia’s lack of governance has allowed terrorism and piracy to proliferate. The U.S. and international partners have sought to combat the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab and pirate gangs by supporting the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Somalia’s National Security Force (NSF), and an international coalition of navies. While AMISOM has pushed al-Shabaab from some of its strongholds and piracy has decreased this year, these problems cannot be solved by military means alone. A commitment to good governance and the rule of law is crucial to future stability.

The U.S. is also one of the largest donors in humanitarian assistance to the region. When famine struck the Horn of Africa last summer, the U.S. was the single largest donor, committing over a billion dollars to the relief process. However, the TFG blocked relief groups and deliveries from starving populations, and the NSF often stole food supplies and committed atrocities against the most vulnerable.

What the U.S. Should Do

Supporting the undemocratic TFG model merely prolongs the status quo in Somalia. Somalia’s leadership should be responsible to the Somali people, not the international community. Until the Somali government has demonstrated a commitment to democracy, the Obama Administration should do the following:

• Withhold bilateral assistance to the new government. The U.S. should not do anything that rewards Somalia’s poor governance. Bilateral aid to Somalia’s next government, which will likely be populated by the same professional criminals that dominated the TFG, should be withheld. This includes aid to the NSF, whose soldiers are infamous for their dubious loyalties and widespread abuse of the civilian population. However, exceptions should be made in humanitarian emergencies—but only when non-government entities are able to provide the necessary services.

• Continue to support AMISOM. U.S. support to AMISOM is provided directly to the African governments participating in the mission and should be continued. AMISOM is not the solution to the crisis in Somalia, but it does stabilize territory that would otherwise be in the hands of terrorists.

• Recognize Somaliland’s provisional independence. Having declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, Somaliland proves that democratic governance in Somalia is possible. Hargeisa’s connections to Mogadishu are limited to the extent that the Somaliland government is forced to deal with the effects of the TFG’s failures. Somaliland should be rewarded for its commitment to democracy and not be held back by Somalia’s incompetency.

Status Quo Under Another Name

Somalia’s new system of governance is set up for failure. The process by which the government is created is inherently undemocratic, yet the U.N. and other members of the international community expect the system to evolve to representative democracy as conditions on the ground improve. Additionally, one should never underestimate the ability of Somali politicians to undermine democracy. Rather than achieving a significant milestone for governance, Somalia is maintaining the status quo under another name.

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Morgan Lorraine Roach is a Research Associate in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.

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References in this report

[1]Jason Straziuso, “U.S., U.N. Concerned over Corrupt Somali Transition,” The Washington Times, August 14, 2012, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/14/us-un-concerned-over-corrupt-somali-transition/ (accessed August 20, 2012).

[2]U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, June 27, 2012, p. 11, http://www.somaliareport.com/downloads/UN_REPORT_2012.pdf (accessed August 20, 2012).

[3]Ibid., p. 12.

[4]Bronwyn Bruton and J. Peter Pham at the Atlantic Council report that the TFG was unable to account for 96 percent of bilateral aid. See Bronwyn Bruton and J. Peter Pham, “How to End the Stalemate in Somalia,” Foreign Affairs, September 30, 2011, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/68315/bronwyn-bruton-and-j-peter-pham/how-to-end-the-stalemate-in-somalia (accessed August 20, 2012).

Somalia’s Government Transition Maintains the Status Quo

In Somaliland, what’s the text message everyone waits for?

Imagine tightening your belt so you can set aside a few extra dollars for your kin threatened by famine and conflict, while knowing in the back of your mind that a bank can shut down the transfer service at a moment’s notice.

October 4th, 2012 | by Guest Blogger

In August, Oxfam America’s Scott Paul traveled to Somaliland to research a money transfer system that helps support countless families in the region. A senior humanitarian policy advisor, Paul discusses how remittances provide a lifeline to Somalilanders and people all across the Somali region. 

This is the second in a series of three blogs on the topic.

People wait in crowded lines to receive money transfers in Somaliland. Photo by Scott Paul

On my first day in Somaliland, I traveled to the operations center of Dahabshiil. In case I didn’t drive the point home strongly enough yesterday, Dahabshiil is a significant presence in Somaliland. The operations center now occupies two older buildings, but it’s scheduled to relocate to a new building, which, when completed, will be the biggest in all of Somaliland.

I asked Abdirashid Duale, Dahabshiil’s chief executive officer, what most threatened the free flow of remittances from the US to Somalia. Without hesitation, he replied, “Banks, banks, banks.”
Traditional Islamic money service businesses like Dahabshiil have agents to collect and distribute money transfers, but they can’t actually send money from the US to Somalia themselves – they need banks to do that. But US law requires banks to devote a ton of resources to monitoring the transactions and to subject themselves to additional government scrutiny.

As a result, only a few small banks still work with the Somali money transfer companies. And those banks could decide at any moment to discontinue service – even if the companies go above and beyond their legal obligations.

Many Somali-Americans are scared and frustrated, and I can understand why. Imagine tightening your belt so you can set aside a few extra dollars for your kin threatened by famine and conflict, while knowing in the back of your mind that a bank can shut down the transfer service at a moment’s notice.

It’s no wonder the Somali-American community in the Twin Cities in Minnesota has organized town hall meetings, protests, and boycotts this year in order to force banks and government officials to find a way to keep remittances flowing.

All of this trouble is not necessarily the fault of the banks, though. US law asks them to monitor and regulate systems they may not fully understand and which are widely believed in the industry, rightly or wrongly, to be insecure and risky. For my part, I didn’t fully understand them either. So I decided to see for myself how Somalis receive money from abroad – and how Somali money transfer companies guard against money laundering and fraud.

My good friend Kate, always up for an adventure, agreed to send me $60 from Minneapolis . She presented her driver’s license and phone number, together with my passport number and Somaliland cell phone number, and paid $63 (including $3 commission). Fifteen minutes later and nearly 8,000 miles away, I received a text message on my cell phone: “You have a message from Dahabshiil.”

To millions of Somali families, messages from money transfer companies like this one means the support they need to survive has finally arrived. To me, it meant a window into a poorly understood facet of Somali life was beginning to open.

CJA and EPAF Launch New Blog - Unearthing Evidence of Barre-era War Crimes in Somaliland.docx

This week the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, in partnership with the government of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, opened an international forensic training program in Hargeisa, Somaliland.  

Participants in this historic effort will share their experience with updates that will inform and reflect on the search for the missing and disappeared.  This will give readers a window into the process of fact-finding and forensic investigation of human rights violations in Somaliland, a process that will allow access to truth and justice for the families of the victims. 

Click here to read the blog.

From 1969 to 1991, president and military dictator Siad Barre oversaw a campaign of widespread atrocities that decimated Somali civil society.  To quash separatist movements in the 1980s, the Somali Armed Forces targeted civilians in the northwest, modern-day Somaliland, culminating in the bloody 1988 siege of the regional capital Hargeisa, which claimed at least 5,000 civilian lives. 

Just last month, U.S. Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema awarded $21 million in compensatory and punitive damages against former Somali General Mohamed Ali Samantar for his role in the slaughter. This judgment marks the first time that any Somali government official has been held accountable for the atrocities perpetrated under that regime.

The forensic training program will help to determine the universe of missing people through a systematic approach, ante mortem data collection and research of mass and clandestine graves. CJA is sponsoring the project, which runs from September 24 through October 21, 2012.

For more information, please visit CJA’s website: cja.org

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About Center for Justice and Accountability

The Center for Justice and Accountability is an international human rights organization dedicated to deterring torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world and advancing the rights of survivors to seek truth, justice and redress. CJA uses litigation to hold perpetrators individually accountable for human rights abuses, develop human rights law, and advance the rule of law in countries in transition from periods of abuse.

About the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team

The Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) is a non-profit organization that promotes the right to truth, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition in cases of forced disappearance and extrajudicial execution. EPAF seeks to contribute to the consolidation of peace and democracy where grave human rights violations have taken place by working alongside the families of the disappeared to find their loved ones, gain access to justice, and improve the conditions affecting their political and economic development.

Milatariga Itoobiya Oo La Wareegay Amaanka Deegaanadii Shacabka Lagu Xasuuqay Iyo Liyuu Booliiska Oo Lagu Amray In Aanay Cagaha Soo Dhigin

Milatariga Itoobiya Oo La Wareegay Amaanka Deegaanadii Shacabka Lagu Xasuuqay Iyo Liyuu Booliiska Oo Lagu Amray In Aanay Cagaha Soo Dhigin

President of SomCable Mr. Mohamed Aw-Said Donates $10,000 to Hargeisa-Burco Road Rehabilitation

HARGEISA (SomalilandPress)—The president of SOMCABLE Mr. Mohamed Aw-Said today said that his firm has donated $10,000 for the rehabilitation of Hargeisa-Burco road that has been neglected by both the government and business sector for years. Mr. Aw-Said informed the press at a ceremony held in at Shiraaqle hotel Hargeisa that his contribution to rebuild the Hargeisa-Burco road will encourage others to donate towards this worthy cause. The Hargeisa-Burco road is in dreadful condition that trips between the two cities takes a minimum 5 hours due to the bad situation of the road. The management of the Hargeisa-Burco rehabilitation foundation thanked Mr. Mohamed Aw-Said Geddie for his benevolence contribution.


About SomCable
Somcable is a Somaliland registered Fiber Optic firm that is constructing the Berbera landing station that will enable Somaliland to interconnect with submarine cable networks which currently are deployed in the Red Sea. Once the cable landing is completed it is expected to improve the lives of the citizens through job creations and cheaper telecommunication services.

U.S. judge awards $21M to Somalis who sued ex-PM for torturing and killing his own people

(AP) ARLINGTON, Virginia - A U.S. judge has awarded $21 million to seven people who sued a former prime minister of Somalia now living in Virginia, claiming he had tortured and killed his own people.

The judgment against Mohamed Ali Samantar comes at the end of an eight-year legal battle that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

High court refines miranda, OKs Somali suit

Seven Somali natives filed the lawsuit in 2004 in federal court in Alexandria against Samantar, now 76. He served as vice president, defense minister and prime minister throughout the 1980s under dictator Siad Barre, until the months before the regime collapsed in 1991.


The suit claimed that Samantar personally ordered the killings and torture of members of a minority clan in Somalia.


Samantar denied the accusations and claimed immunity from the lawsuit. On the day the trial was to begin, he entered a default judgment. That means he accepted legal liability for the killings, but he denied wrongdoing and said he never approved any slayings.


He is currently in bankruptcy.


Samantar told The Associated Press in February that he could no longer afford the costly litigation, and that his failing health made it difficult for him to defend himself. He also said the case was politically motivated and served only to further divide Somalia as officials worked to reunite the country.

"I worked 40 years for my country," he said after entering the default judgment, speaking to the AP through a translator. "I was faithful to my country and abided by the law."
His lawyers made similar arguments, but the Obama administration said the case would not harm international relations.

U.S Africa Command Denies Plans of Establishing in Bases in ...

STUTTGART, Germany, Aug 21, 2012 — In response to a recent newspaper article in Botswana, U.S. Africa Command's commanding officer, General Carter Ham, once again denied reports that the United States is seeking to establish a base or move the command’s headquarters to Botswana or anywhere else on the continent.

"No, there is no American base in Botswana. There are no plans whatsoever to have a base in Botswana," said Ham. "I see these reports where people talk about an American base, but there is no base and there are no plans for an American base. I cannot be clearer than that."

The United States has only one base on the African continent, Camp Lemonnier, located in Djibouti, Africa. Currently, there are approximately 5,000 U.S. service members in Africa, the majority at Camp Lemonnier, with the remainder serving on a temporary basis ranging from a few days to a few weeks across the continent.

U.S. service members working in Africa are there at their host nation's invitation.

U.S Africa Command Denies Plans of Establishing in Bases in ...

Denmark opens a Project Office in Somaliland

10.08.2012 

 

On August 6th Danida opened a project office in Somaliland stepping up the Danish contribution towards a more stable Somalia. The office is the first Western bilateral office in Somaliland. The initiative makes Denmark one of the first donors to support locally-defined development needs in the region. 
 
On the the opening of the project office in Hargeisa the Danish Minister for Development Corporation, Christian Friis Bach, states:

”With the opening of the project office in Somaliland we are taking an important step in supporting fragile states.  The development coorporation in fragile states is risky; however, the willingness to take risks is crucial in order to kick start the development in these countries, where the need is also the gravest.”
Denmark is contributing with 112 million Danish kroner over the next four years to Somaliland with an objective to contribute to a more stable Somalia capable of handling its own security and promoting a stable economic and social development. The fund will among others be used to set up a Somaliland fund, which will support development priorities defined in the national development plan for Somaliland. Focus will be on the continuous development of public institutions, the democratic process, strengthening of the private sector as well as supporting locally based development initiatives.

The Minister for Development Corporation further explains:

”The administration in Hargeisa has shown the willingness to lead the people of Somaliland towards reconstruction. Denmark is acknowledging this effort by enhancing the development support to Somaliland. Placing a Danish programme coordinator in Hargeisa, enables Denmark to have a daily dialogue with the people and the authorities of Somaliland, which will improve support to and monitoring of Danish supported activities.”

Background

Monday 6th August a Danish Programme Coordinator started setting up a Danish development programme in Somaliland in close cooperation with the local authorities. Thereby, Denmark is the first western country to open a project office in the regional capital, Hargeisa.

Since the collapse of Somalia in 1991 that left the country in a devastating economic, social and humanitarian crisis for more than twenty years, Somaliland, in North-western Somalia, has made great progress in terms of creating stability and development. A locally based peace-and democratisation process has created increased stability and state-like structures including a constitution and government institutions are being developed.

Besides development aid, Denmark is implementing a range of projects targeting Somalia under the Peace and Stabilisation Fund, which the Government set up for the purpose of working in fragile states. 

Further Information
Marie Haug Pedersen: marhou@um.dk