SomalilandTimes Editorial: By Defending War Criminal Somalia’s Government Exposes Its Ugly Face And Embarrasses Its Western Supporters

Western powers, especially the US and the UK have been going out of their way to convince the world that Somalia’s current government is different from its predecessors, that it was elected democratically and that it deserves support.

Somalis and those who are knowledgeable about Somali affairs of course know that much of this is exaggeration, that the current president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, used money he received from the Qatari government to buy votes from Somalia’s parliamentarians-for-sale, that most Somalis are opposed to this government, and the only thing that really changed is that western powers seem to have decided to upgrade their support for the dysfunctional government in Mogadishu in order to thwart the security threat that al-Shabaab poses for the west.


Somalia’s government of course welcomed this embrace by the west and the free public relations bonanza that came with it, especially from the US and the UK. Somalia’s government probably could not even believe that the Obama administration would go all the way and try to convince the international community to lift the ban on weapons and allow its rag-tag militias many of whom were until recently members of al-Shabaab terrorists, and some of whom still maintain allegiance to al-Shabaab, as evidenced by the recent suicide bombing at the entrance to the presidential palace which was attributed to one of these al-Shabaab members who had said he left the organization but it was found later, after he blew himself up, that he was still a member of al-Shabaab. Now with the temporary lifting of the weapons ban on Somalia as a result of efforts by the Obama administration at the Security Council, weapons that are supposedly destined for Somalia’s government are likely to fall in the hands of al-Shabaab and a Benghazi type of situation might develop in Somalia.

And just to dispel any doubts about what kind of government it is, Somalia’s government decided to take off its mask and showed to all and sundry that, indeed, it is not much interested in democracy or governing or the thousands of tasks awaiting it, and instead made it its top priority to help war criminals escape justice, and toward that end, Somalia’s prime minister, Abdi Farah Shirdon, wrote a letter to the newly-appointed US foreign minister, John Kerry , in which he asked the US government to grant immunity to Gen. Mohammed Ali Samatar who was tried in the US and found liable for atrocities he committed when he was in charge of Somalia’s military.

So now we have a situation where: 

1. by allowing the flow of weapons to Somalia, the Obama administration has laid the seeds of possible future Benghazi type of scenario where Somali militants attack Americans or westerners with weapons that fell into their hands as a result of US policy; and,

1. while the Obama administration is trying to convince the world that Somalia’s government is serious about governing and will respect human rights, the words and actions of Somalia’s government prove otherwise and show that it is neither interested in governing nor in human rights but in making a quick buck off the back of suffering Somalis and protecting convicted war criminals. 

What makes Abdi Farah Shirdon’s letter even more outrageous is that he shamelessly pimps the issue of Somali reconciliation by claiming that the granting of immunity to the war criminal Mohammed Ali Samatar would help in achieving peace and reconciliation among Somalis when, in fact, nothing could be farther from the truth; and on the contrary, it is his interference in the course of justice that has added to the hurt and anger of the families and relatives of the victims of Mohammed Ali Samatar’s atrocities.

To its credit, the Obama administration did take an honorable position in the trial of Mohammed Ali Samatar by making a “statement of interest” saying that he is not entitled to immunity.

Let us see whether it will stick with its original position, or whether it will flip-flop and erase one of the rare bright spots in its stands toward Somali-related issues.

Experts wonder if military remembers lessons from Somalia affair

Two Somali men sit on the runway at Belet Huen, Somalia, on Dec. 19, 1992, as they wait for a Canadian Forces transport plane to be unloaded. (CP Photo/Andrew Vaughan)

Jane Gerster / The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - The death of Shidane Arone at the hands of Canadian soldiers 20 years ago is often remembered as one of the darkest moments in Canadian military history.

But as the tragic, shocking story of Arone, a Somali teen who was tortured and killed after he was caught sneaking into a Canadian compound, fades further into the past, military historians fear Canada runs the risk of forgetting the lessons of a catalytic event in the history of the Canadian Forces.

Arone was just 16 years old when he was captured by Canadian troops outside the town of Belet Huen. What followed — his torture and death, the widely circulated images of soldiers smiling and posing alongside his bloodied body, and the attempted cover-up — proved a transformative event in the course of Canadian military history.

Stuart Hendin, an expert in the law of war who represented now-retired Brig.-Gen. Serge Labbe, one of the senior officers who became caught up in what came to be known as the Somalia Affair, currently teaches a course on morality, ethics and leadership at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont.

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of Arone's death, "a senseless, brutal act" that Hendin said "reflected a failure of discipline ... and a failure of command responsibility" within the Canadian Forces.

Although much has been done to overhaul the Forces in the two decades since the disgraced 1993 Somalia peacekeeping mission, Hendin said remembering the tragedy is key to ensuring it never happens again.

"When we forget the lessons of history," he said, "we're bound to repeat them."

The now-defunct Canadian Airborne Regiment was sent to Somalia in December 1992 as part of a UN peacekeeping force to help address famine and political instability in the country.

Months later, news broke of Arone's death. That, along with news of an earlier, execution-style killing of another Somali intruder, touched off a national debate on whether it was just a few "bad apples" or a bigger, systemic problem within the Canadian military.

The fallout served a purpose by forcing the military to look inward and change, Hendin said. Today's military is markedly different from the Canadian military in the post-Cold War era, largely due to the decade of scrutiny and introspection that followed the Somalia affair.

Two men were charged in the death. Pte. Kyle Brown served one-third of his five-year sentence for manslaughter and torture. Master Cpl. Clayton Matchee, who suffered brain damage after attempting suicide in 1993, was found unfit to stand trial. Charges against him were stayed in 2008.

The federal government commissioned a public inquiry in 1995 as more details emerged. The inquiry was shut down in 1996 before finishing its work, releasing its final report a year later.

Walter Dorn, a professor at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, said he agrees some of the progress made after Somalia is being allowed to languish, particularly since Canada no longer seems to embrace its traditional role as a peacekeeper.

"It means that Canadian soldiers are less experienced and less knowledgeable and less well-prepared for peacekeeping and our peace operations in general," said Dorn, noting that he doesn't think Canada suffers from the same institutional failings that enabled Arone's torture and death.

The federal government's forthcoming Bill C-15, which proposes changes to the military justice system, could pose just such a risk, warned Peter Tinsley, the chief prosecutor for the Somalia cases in the 1990s.

The bill — which seeks to balance military police independence against the ability of commanders to hold them to account — files in the face of two decades of effort spent making military police more independent, Tinsley said.

"None of (the prosecutors) were proud of the events that took place," he said. "But we did our jobs."

Last month, Glenn Stannard, chairman of the Military Police Complaints Commission,told a Commons committee the bill would curtail guidelines that have been in place "since the period following the troubled Somalia deployment,which specifically sought to safeguard MP investigations from interference by the chain of command."

The bill "doesn't bode well and doesn't recognize the lessons that should have been learned in Somalia," Tinsley said.

The Canadian government remodelled the Canadian Forces by completely revamping education and professional standards. Officers must now have a university degree, military education offerings were expanded to emphasize arts and culture, an ombudsman was appointed, an independent military journal was created and the way in which CF trained and prepared for missions was updated.

At Canadian military colleges, the lessons of Somalia have not been forgotten. "It was a national shame that should be acknowledged and the lessons continually remembered," said Dorn, who uses the Somalia affair as a case study in his classes.

Members of the modern-day Canadian military who remember the Somalia affair also hope it's never repeated, said David Bercuson, the director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.

"Anyone in the military with a long memory will know that has happened at least once, and will also know that that can happen again, and they don't like it one bit," he said. "People will think twice before trying to pull the sorts of stuff that was pulled."

While there have been instances of torture and abuse since 1993, both Dorn and Hendin agreed Arone's death and the Somalia affair are unique.

"Arone is different," Hendin said. "What is frightening about the Arone matter is that there were, within earshot, individuals who could and should have stopped what was happening, and they didn't — and that represents an absolute failure of command responsibility at several levels."

Canadian soldiers have a responsibility to humanity, their country and their chain of command, he said, and if "they lose that perspective, then things can happen."

Somaliland oo xabsiga dhigtay Wasiir ka tirsan Xukuumada Soomaaliya

C/shakuur Cali MireWasiir ku Xigeenka Warfaafinta Xukuumada Federaalka Soomaaliya

Xukuumadda Somaliland ayaa xabsiga u taxaabtay Wasiir ka tirsan Xukuumada Soomaaliya oo lagu magacaabo C/shakuur Cali Mire ahna wasiir ku xigeenka wasaarada warfaafinta Soomaaliya, waxana ciidanka nabadgalyada xukuumada Somaliland ka qabteen isagoo ku sugan gudaha madaarka caalamiga ah ee Berbera International Airport, waxana ay u gudbiyeen xabsiga Dhexe ee magaalada Berbera.

Sarkaal ka tirsan laanta socdaalka Somaliland ayaa xalay Waaheen u xaqiijiyay inay sarkaalkaas ka qabteen madaarka Berbera, kadib markii ay amar ka heleen madaxda sare ee qaranka kuwaas oo uu ka gaabsaday inuu faahfaahin ka bixiyo.

C/shakuur Cali Mire waxa qorshaha diyaaradda siday ahayd in uu saaka ka duulo magaaladda berbera, hase yeeshee markii la fadhiisiiyay Qolka VIP-da ayay madaxda Maamulka Gobolku amreen in loo dhaadhiciyo dhinaca magaaladda, halkaas oo lagu hayo saldhig Booliis.

Xukuumadda Somaliland ayaa dhawaan xidhay Xildhibaan ka tirsan Baarlamaanka Somaliya oo Gabilay u yimi Hooyadii uu xanuunsanysa, hase yeeshee Maxkamadda Gobolka Hargeysa ayaa ku riday Xukun ah in Dalka laga mastaafuriyo, isla markaana uu bixiyo ganaax dhan Hal Milyan.

Ilaa hada kama ay hadal Xukuumadda Somaliland xadhiga wasiirkan.

$4 million cost to police over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at Ecuadoran embassy

British police have been watching in case Wikileaks founder Julian Assange leaves the Ecuadorian embassy in London. AFP PHOTO/Leon Neal

THE cost of keeping police round the clock outside the Ecuadoran embassy in London in case Julian Assange emerges has hit $4.37 million, British police said. 

Officers have been stationed outside ever since the Australian-born WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange jumped bail and fled there on June 19 after losing his battle in the British courts against extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault. Ecuador has granted Julian Assange political asylum.

Scotland Yard police headquarters estimated the total cost to the end of January in salary and for the officers stationed on duty and the rest in overtime payments.

Julian Assange's Australian electoral roll application for Senate bid

The embassy is a flat in a mansion block in west London's plush Knightsbridge district. It is across the street from the back of Harrods department store.

Assange, a 41-year-old Australian former computer hacker, founded the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website which enraged Washington by releasing cables and war logs relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the biggest security breach in American history.

A spokesman at the Ecuadoran embassy said: ``The Ecuadoran government is concerned by the significant cost to the taxpayers of London of policing the embassy.

"However, we believe this expenditure could be avoided if the UK government would provide the undertakings that the Ecuadoran government has sought that there will be no onward extradition of Julian Assange to the United States.

"The Home Office (Britain's interior ministry) has the power to offer such an assurance but has so far declined to do so.

Wikileaks to be made into a movie

Dreamworks has begun filming in Iceland to produce a movie about WikiLeaks and the website's controversial founder, Julian Assange

Imprisoned Eritreans complain of being forced to leave Israel

African refugees at an Israeli camp Photo: Tamar Dressler/IRIN

TEL AVIV, 11 March 2013 (IRIN) - Testimonies of jailed Eritrean migrants and asylum seekers (collected by a local NGO) say officials at Saharonim prison in Israel’s Southern Negev desert are coercing them to sign “voluntary repatriation” forms.

In one of the many testimonies a 28-year-old Eritrean detainee reported being repeatedly visited by a translator telling her to accept deportation to a third country (Uganda).

“He said we would not be free from the prison and we can only go to Uganda or Eritrea. I was frustrated and depressed. I do not want to go to Uganda. Today they called me and gave me a handwritten form in Tigrinya which said: `I came from Eritrea to Israel illegally and now I want to go to Uganda voluntarily. To do this I would like the Eritrean embassy to issue me a passport and all the necessary documents.’ They asked me to sign it and wanted to take my picture on video. I refused.”

Israel is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention but does not recognize Eritreans as refugees, although it does not officially deport Eritreans and allows them to stay in Israel under a group defence (temporary group protection).

Staff at the Hotline for Migrant Workers, who collected the testimonies, say the government is forcibly trying to repatriate Eritreans: “These people have no access to a refugee status determination process, they are detained under the new amendment to the infiltration law that came into effect in June 2012, which allows detention of `infiltrators’ for an unlimited amount of time; now they are told they will never be allowed to leave the prison and their only option is to go back to Uganda/Eritrea. How can this be considered voluntary?” one staff member told IRIN.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative in Israel, William Tall, told IRIN the Ministry of Interior made an attempt to offer relocation to some 23 Eritreans to Uganda but without any result so far.

At the end of February he told Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz there was nothing voluntary about this process.

One Eritrean, Tesfamihret Habtemariam, was reportedly deported from Israel earlier this month and is now in detention at Cairo airport after five years in Israel, and may be returned to Eritrea.

UNHCR advises against repatriating Eritrean nationals because of the likelihood of their being punished on return to their country.

Israel’s stance

Under an updated Anti-Infiltration law passed in January 2012, all illegal border crossers are labelled “infiltrators” and can be detained for up to three years.

The Eritreans being held in detention camps in the south are generally not notified about their right to claim asylum or given the application forms needed to do this, report NGOs.

On 18 February, official documents from the Israeli assembly, the Knesset, quote Interior Minister Eli Yishai saying deportations (by definition forced) were not yet taking place.

He said more than a 1,000 nationals of northern Sudan and Eritrea had already left voluntarily and said he hoped a lot more would decide to leave.

“And if it won't be voluntary leave, it will be involuntary - to their country or to a different third country, and there is still no third country to sign an agreement with, but I hope we do find other third countries that we'll have an agreement with, and we can transfer the infiltrators from here, from the Land of Israel, to their country or to another country, whether it is done willingly or not.”

Last week the Israel’s Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein sent a letter widely reported in the local press to the director of the Interior Ministry’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority, Amnon Ben Ami, saying that under no circumstances should Eritrean nationals in Israeli custody be sent “to any destination outside Israel’s borders” until he (Weinstein) further clarifies these legal issues.

td/jj/cb

“At the Heart of the UN’s Work”: An Interview with Ambassador Susan Rice

By ZP Heller

Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, speaking to journalists following the Security Council's unanimous adoption of resolution 2094, which condemned the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea's recent nuclear test and imposed new sanctions. (UN Photo/Mark Garten)

During International Women’s Day, the United Nations focuses on fulfilling promises regarding the maternal health, equality, empowerment, education, and safety of women worldwide. There is perhaps no one better suited to help the UN sharpen this focus than U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.

A Rhodes Scholar with a doctorate from Oxford University, Rice was a foreign policy wunderkind. Before age 30, she joined President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council in 1993, eventually serving as one of the youngest assistant secretaries of state under her mentor Madeleine Albright. She is the first African American woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and one of President Obama’s most experienced and revered foreign-policy advisers.

With a reputation for being charming, witty and funny in person, Rice is known for being candid and persuasive at the United Nations. In the Security Council, her unique blend of direct but effective diplomacy has successfully facilitated resolutions, delivering harsh sanctions against North Korea and Iran and military intervention in Libya. Her outspokenness even extends to Twitter, where she has been known to call out leaders and raise humanitarian concerns.

She responded by email to interview questions posed by The InterDependent.

1) How do you view the reelection of President Obama in terms of U.S.-UN relations? What messages did it send to the international community? 

From the President’s very first day in office, he made clear that we would pursue a new era of engagement abroad that would enable us to more effectively tackle global challenges that require U.S. leadership but cannot be solved alone. Here at the UN, we’ve worked hard over the past four years to rebuild the U.S.-UN relationship and put it on solid footing. This has meant taking concrete steps to improve the way the United States conducts business at the UN in both substance and style. 

On issues ranging from women’s rights to climate change, non-proliferation to development, we’ve proven ourselves to be a reliable partner for the international community. We’ve repaid hundreds of millions in dues that accrued during the past decade. We’ve invested in relationships in New York with a diverse group of countries, big and small, rich and poor, North and South. Where the United States was in the past, often isolated on the outside, we are at the heart of the UN’s work, demonstrating leadership, collaborating with others, and fighting for America’s interests.

Our approach has led to real results: the stiffest UN sanctions ever against Iran and North Korea; an unprecedented mandate and action to save lives in Libya; the historic and peaceful independence of South Sudan; effective backing for a democratically elected government in Cote d’Ivoire; the long overdue completion of a political transition in Somalia, to name a few.

Taken together, I think the international community appreciates this renewed U.S. commitment to multilateral diplomacy and leadership at the United Nations, and the American people can see that our engagement has yielded real results for them.

2) What have been your greatest challenges thus far as ambassador to the United Nations?  What do hope your legacy will be from this post?

The “Arab Spring” has posed both great challenges and unprecedented opportunities. Each country is unique, but the United States as a government has made clear that it stands on the side of people demanding the right to choose their own leaders and chart their own destinies. We have worked hard to steer the Security Council and other UN agencies to support democracy, security and respect for human rights across the region.

In Syria, the situation is grim. Russia and China continue to block meaningful action in the Security Council to pressure the Assad regime to end the violence and launch a credible political transition. Despite this deadlock, the United States is continuing our efforts to unify and strengthen the opposition and to help them prepare for the inevitable fall of the regime as well as to address the deepening humanitarian crisis.

Ambassador Rice addressing the Security Council open debate in January, regarding a comprehensive approach to counter-terrorism. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

Like President Obama, I believe principled and strong American leadership can and has made a real difference at the United Nations. The results speak for themselves and include all that I mentioned above—tough sanctions on Iran and North Korea and meaningful steps on non-proliferation, life-saving action in Libya and support for political transitions throughout the Middle East, a new independent South Sudan—plus groundbreaking advances on LGBT rights, significant progress on UN reform, renewed U.S. commitment to promoting the Millennium Development Goals and increased pressure on human rights abusers like Iran, Sudan and North Korea.

And I hope that when people look back at all that we’ve achieved, they will agree that strong and principled American leadership can and has made a real difference.

3) Since International Women's Day was last week, do you sense the international community is doing enough to achieve Millennium Development Goals regarding the health and rights of women and children? What do you think should drive the post-2015 global development agenda in general?

The MDGs that we have made the least amount of progress on are related to women and children. Specifically, we need lower maternal mortality rates, which remain one of the leading—but preventable—causes of death among women in the developing world. Hundreds of women die each day from birth complications that trained health workers could have helped to anticipate or prevent. There are millions of young girls worldwide without access to education. When women and children are denied the right to reach their full potential, we all miss out on the amazing gifts they bring to the world, not to mention the tremendous economic power they can wield to make communities more stable and prosperous.

Looking ahead, the post-2015 development framework will need to retain not only a focus on poverty alleviation and the eradication of extreme poverty, but go beyond traditional development metrics and tackle tough and critical issues such as governance, the rule of law, human rights, conflict prevention and sustainability. Women’s empowerment is a major driver in all of this, and we must redouble our efforts to ensure women have a central role in decision-making and policy implementation. This is absolutely critical for advancing the development agenda.

4) Which humanitarian crises require the most attention from the international community right now? 

Syria is a humanitarian crisis of a growing and tragic scale: an estimated 70,000 dead and four million in need of humanitarian assistance. The United States has provided more than $384 million to date to help meet the acute needs of people inside Syria and refugees across the region. In addition to being the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, we are taking a leadership role in marshaling international support to do more, including through contributing to the UN’s most recent humanitarian appeal.

We continue to increase international pressure on the government of Sudan to grant unimpeded humanitarian access to those desperately in need of assistance in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile. In Darfur alone, more than 3.5 million need humanitarian assistance, and there have been renewed clashes between heavily armed tribal militias in the north, displacing over 100,000 since January. Despite these urgent needs, Sudanese authorities continue to restrict the access of UN agencies and humanitarian workers to these vulnerable populations.

We also remain very concerned by the crisis in the Sahel, where nine million are estimated to be in need of food, as well as continuing needs in the Horn of Africa, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere. Together with our international partners, including UN agencies like UNICEF, UNHCR and WFP, we are committed to meeting the immediate needs of the vulnerable, as well as to finding durable solutions that will allow them to lead their lives in freedom and dignity.

5) At last fall's Social Good Summit, you spoke with Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore about your own use of social media. How do you view social media as a chance to engage, educate and empower youth regarding international affairs?

Social media has tremendous potential for raising awareness of critical issues and reaching new audiences around the world. Twitter, for instance, is not only a valuable tool to engage with young people, but a way to reach people of all ages, with unprecedented immediacy. It also gives us new ways to lift up key issues. I use it, for example, to draw attention to human rights abuses, spotlight brewing crises and appeal for humanitarian donations. I’ve also used Facebook and YouTube to encourage Libyans, particularly women, to register to vote in their first elections.

And while I was not among the earliest adopters of Twitter, I was the first one in the UN Security Council to join. Now more than half of the Security Council members have a Twitter account. So, social media also provides opportunities to inject some oxygen into the work of the UN.  By discussing what happens in real time and sharing it with the entire world, Twitter contributes to a more open and transparent United Nations—something of value to us all.

Unearthing Evidence of General Mohamed Ali Samantar & late General Mohamed Siyaad Barre-era War Crimes in Somaliland

Unforgettable Genocide Crimes, Crimes against humanity targeted to the unarmed civilian in Somaliland during 1980s

Forensic Archaeologist working hard to discover the war crimes perpetrated by General Mohamed Ali Samantar and other senior Siad Barre brutal military government officials committed against Somaliland civilian during 1980s

After two weeks of continuous hard work we finally finished with mass grave 1. We recovered a total of 12 bodies, and now we are working in the lab. We want to try to establish not only the most probable cause of death, but also try to identify someone. This would contribute to the right to know of their relatives and so close their cycle of mourning after more than 20 years.

Hargeisa Badhka Area

One Grave in Hargeisa Badhka