What David Shin said to the Istanbul Conference Communique on Somalia

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Second Istanbul Conference on Somalia took place on 31 May - 1 June 2012. Click here to read the final communique.

The conference did not provide any surprises and followed in the footsteps of the London Conference earlier this year. It did demonstrate Turkey's willingness to remain engaged in Somalia. It emphasized the need to implement a smooth transition as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia comes to an end in August. On Somaliland, it supported dialogue between Hargeisa and the TFG. It also noted "the need to adjust international support to the political structures in Somaliland" whatever that means.

On security in Somalia, the Conference agreed to revitalize funding arrangements and took note of the proposal for the establishment of a new "Rebuilding and Restructuring Fund for the Somali Security Sector" initiated by Turkey to offer additional support to the Somali security forces. Again, it is not clear what Turkey plans to offer.

Assange's day in Supreme Court is last stand in Britain against extradition

Assange's day in Supreme Court is last stand in Britain against extradition

Cumar Muuse Mire oo ah ninka kaliya ee ka badbaaday xasuuqii xeebta Jaze...

Western justice and transparency

Western justice and transparency

Monday, Jan 23, 2012 4:05 PM 19:43:40 GMT+0200

By Glenn Greenwald

Anwar Awlaki and Barack Obama (Credit: AP)

On Saturday in Somalia, the U.S. fired missiles from a drone and killed the 27-year-old Lebanon-born, ex-British citizen Bilal el-Berjawi. His wife had given birth 24 hours earlier and the speculation is that the U.S. located him when his wife called to give him the news. Roughly one year ago, El-Berjawi was stripped of his British citizenship, obtained when his family moved to that country when he was an infant, through the use of a 2006 British anti-Terrorism law — passed after the London subway bombing — that the current government is using with increasing frequency to strip alleged Terrorists with dual nationality of their British citizenship (while providing no explanation for that act). El-Berjawi’s family vehemently denies that he is involved with Terrorism, but he was never able to appeal the decree against him for this reason:

Berjawi is understood to have sought to appeal against the order, but lawyers representing his family were unable to take instructions from him amid concerns that any telephone contact could precipitate a drone attack.

Obviously, those concerns were valid. So first the U.S. tries to assassinate people, then it causes legal rulings against them to be issued because the individuals, fearing for their life, are unable to defend themselves. Meanwhile, no explanation or evidence is provided for either the adverse government act or the assassination: it is simply secretly decreed and thus shall it be.

Exactly the same thing happened with U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki. When the ACLU and CCR, representing Awlaki’s father, sued President Obama asking a federal court to enjoin the President from killing his American son without a trial, the Obama DOJ insisted (and the court ultimately accepted) that Awlaki himself must sue on his own behalf. Obviously, that was impossible given that the Obama administration was admittedly trying to kill him and surely would have done so the minute he stuck his head up to contact lawyers (indeed, the U.S. tried to kill him each time they thought they had located him, and then finally succeeded). So again in the Awlaki case: the U.S. targets someone for death, and then their inability to defend themselves is used as a weapon to deny their legal rights.

The refusal to provide transparency is also the same. Ever since Awlaki was assassinated, the Obama administration has steadfastly refused to disclose not only any evidence to justify the accusations of Terrorism against him, but also the legal theories it is using to assert the power to target U.S. citizens for death with no charges. A secret legal memo authorizing the Awlaki assassination, authored by Obama lawyers David Baron and Marty Lederman, remains secret. During the Bush years, Democratic lawyers vehemently decried the Bush DOJ’s refusal to release even OLC legal memoranda as tyrannical “secret law.” One of the lawyers most vocal during the Bush years about the evils of “secret law,” Dawn Johnsen (the never-confirmed Obama appointee to be chief of the OLC) told me back in October: “I absolutely do not support the concealment of OLC’s Awlaki memo . . . .The Obama administration should release either any existing OLC memo explaining why it believes it has the authority for the targeted killings or a comparably detailed legal analysis of its claimed authorities.”

A Daily Beast report today says that the Obama administration “is finally going to break its silence” on the Awlaki killing, but here’s what they will and will not disclose:

In the coming weeks, according to four participants in the debate, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. is planning to make a major address on the administration’s national-security record. Embedded in the speech will be a carefully worded but firm defense of its right to target U.S. citizens. . . .

An early draft of Holder’s speech identified Awlaki by name, but in a concession to concerns from the intelligence community, all references to the al Qaeda leader were removed. As currently written, the speech makes no overt mention of the Awlaki operation, and reveals none of the intelligence the administration relied on in carrying out his killing.

In other words, they’re going to dispatch Eric Holder to assert that the U.S. Government has the power to target U.S. citizens for assassination by-CIA-drone, but will not even describe a single piece of evidence to justify the claim that Awlaki was guilty of anything. In fact, they will not even mention his name. As Marcy Wheeler said today:

This is simply an asinine compromise. We all know the Administration killed Awlaki. We all know the Administration used a drone strike to do so. . . .

The problem–the problem that strikes at the very heart of democratic accountability–is that the Administration plans to keep secret the details that would prove (or not) that Awlaki was what the Administration happily claims he is under the veil of anonymity, all while claiming that precisely that information is a state secret.

The Administration seems to be planning on making a big speech on counterterrorism–hey! it’s another opportunity to brag again about offing Osama bin Laden!–without revealing precisely those details necessary to distinguish this killing, and this country, from that of an unaccountable dictator.

The CIA seems to have dictated to our democratically elected President that he can’t provide the kind of transparency necessary to remain a democracy. We can kill you–they appear to be planning to say–and we’ll never have to prove that doing so was just. You’ll just have to trust us!

That, of course, is the heart and soul of this administration’s mentality when it comes to such matters, and why not? Between Republicans who always cheer on the killing of Muslims with or without any explanation or transparency, and Democrats who do so when their leader is the assassin, there is little political pressure to explain themselves. If anything, this planned “disclosure” makes the problem worse, since we will now have the spectacle of Eric Holder, wallowing in pomp and legal self-righteousness, finally defending the power that Obama already has seized — to assassinate U.S. citizens in secret and with no checks — but concealing what is most needed: evidence that Awlaki was what the U.S. Government claims he is. That simply serves to reinforce the message this Government repeatedly sends: as Marcy puts it, “We can kill you and we’ll never have to prove that doing so was just. You’ll just have to trust us!” The Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen added: “The US legal opinion on Awlaki is one thing, but it rests on assumptions made by the intelligence community, which won’t be revealed.”

This no longer seems radical to many — it has become normalized — because it’s been going on for so long now and, more important, it is now fully bipartisan consensus. But to see how extreme this all really is, to understand what a radical departure it is, just consider what George Bush’s neocon Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, told the Israelis in 2001, as flagged by this Guardian Op-Ed by Mary Ellen O’Connell comparing Obama’s assassinations to Bush’s torture program:

The United States government is very clearly on the record as against targeted assassinations. They are extrajudicial killings, and we do not support that.

What George Bush’s Ambassador condemned to the Israelis’ face just a decade ago as something the nation was steadfastly against has now become a staple of government policy: aimed even at its own citizens, and carried out with complete secrecy. And those who spent years mocking the notion that “9/11 Changed Everything” will have no choice but to invoke that propagandistic mantra in order to defend this: what else is there to say?

John Kiriakou and Jose Padilla (Credit: ABC/AP)

Tuesday, Jan 24, 2012 11:23 AM 19:43:40 GMT+0200


By Glenn Greenwald


Developments in three legal cases, just from the last 24 hours, potently illuminate the Rules of American Justice. First, the Justice Department yesterday charged a former CIA agent, John Kiriakou, with four felony counts for having allegedly disclosed classified information to reporters about the CIA’s interrogation program. Included among those charges are two counts under the Espionage Act of 1917, based on the allegation that he disclosed information which he “had reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of any foreign nation.” Kiriakou made news in 2007 when he told ABC News that he led the team that captured accused Terrorist Abu Zubaydah and that the techniques to which Zubaydah was subjected, including waterboarding, clearly constituted “torture,” though he claimed they were effective and arguably justifiable. He’s also accused of being the source for a 2008 New York Times article that disclosed the name of one of Zubaydah’s CIA interrogators.

What’s most notable here is that this is now the sixth prosecution by the Obama administration of an accused leaker, and all six have been charged under the draconian, World-War-I era Espionage Act. As EFF’s Trevor Timm put it yesterday: this is the “6th time under Obama someone is charged with Espionage for leaking to a journalist. Before Obama: only 3 cases in history.” This is all accomplished by characterizing disclosures in American newspapers about America’s wrongdoing as “aiding the enemy” (the alleged enemy being informed is Al Qaeda, but the actual concern is that the American people learn what their government is doing). As The New York Times‘ Charlie Savage wrote this morning, Obama has brought “more such cases than all previous presidents combined,” and by doing so, has won the admiration of the CIA and other intelligence agencies which, above all else, loathe transparency (which happens to be the value that Obama vowed to provide more of than any President in history).

Also yesterday in American justice, a three-judge panel of a federal appellate court in Virginia upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush officials by Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen who was imprisoned for almost three years without charges or even a lawyer and was systematically tortured to the point of permanent mental incapacitation. Padilla sued the former Defense Secretary on the ground that he had authorized Padilla’s illegal imprisonment and torture. The Obama DOJ vigorously defended Rumsfeld, arguing (a) that Rumsfeld is entitled to immunity on the ground that he had reason to believe his acts were legal and (b) an American citizen has no right to sue a government official for the treatment he receives as a designated “enemy combatant” — even if the treatment in question is torture and prolonged imprisonment without charges.

The three-judge panel accepted those arguments and held Padilla cannot sue those responsible for his torture and lawless imprisonment (Padilla, by stark contrast, recently had his sentence increased when the Bush and Obama DOJs argued that his 17-year prison term was inadequate even in light of the abuse he has suffered). Thus continues the perfect streak of every single War on Terror victim — literally — being denied a day in America’s courts. That does not mean that every War on Terror victim has had their cases heard and lost. It means that each and every one has been denied the right even to have their claims heard in an American court; their cases have been, without exception, dismissed on the grounds of secrecy and/or immunity before the merits of their claims are examined. Even as they have been able to pursue claims against foreign officials in countries around the world, often successfully, the Bush and Obama DOJs have insisted, and courts have agreed, that they have no right even to be heard in an American court against the country and its officials most responsible for their (often savage) mistreatment — even if everyone acknowledges that they were completely innocent.

Finally in American justice yesterday, the conclusion came to the criminal process arising from a horrific 2005 incident in which 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians were slaughtered in the town of Haditha during American raids conducted in the aftermath of an explosion of a roadside bomb. The Marine Staff Sgt. who ordered his soldiers to “shoot first, ask questions later,” Frank Wuterich, was in the midst of a manslaughter trial that could have sent him to prison for life (first-degree murder charges were previously withdrawn by the Government). Instead, prosecutors “offered Wuterich a deal that stopped the proceedings and could mean little to no jail time.” Instead, he “pleaded guilty Monday to negligent dereliction of duty” and “now faces no more than three months in confinement.” Lest you think that’s too lenient: “he could also lose two-thirds of his pay and see his rank demoted to private when he’s sentenced.” The facts underlying this development are as unsurprising as they are familiar:

Wuterich was seen as taking the fall for senior leaders and more seasoned combat veterans, analysts say. . . .

It still fuels anger in Iraq today.

Kamil al-Dulaimi, a Sunni lawmaker from the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, called the plea agreement proof that “Americans still deal with Iraqis without any respect.”

“It’s just another barbaric act of Americans against Iraqis,” al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. “They spill the blood of Iraqis and get this worthless sentence for the savage crime against innocent civilians.”

The Rules of American Justice are quite clear:

(1) If you are a high-ranking government official who commits war crimes, you will receive full-scale immunity, both civil and criminal, and will have the American President demand that all citizens Look Forward, Not Backward.

(2) If you are a low-ranking member of the military, you will receive relatively trivial punishments in order to protect higher-ranking officials and cast the appearance of accountability.

(3) If you are a victim of American war crimes, you are a non-person with no legal rights or even any entitlement to see the inside of a courtroom.

(4) If you talk publicly about any of these war crimes, you have committed the Gravest Crime — you are guilty of espionage – and will have the full weight of the American criminal justice system come crashing down upon you.

So warped but clear are these Rules of American Justice that they produced darkly sardonic applications yesterday. Mazahir Hussain said: “Bradley Manning should’ve really considered committing some war crimes instead of exposing them.” Regarding this heinous story about a campaign manager of a Democratic House candidate in Arkansas coming home to find his child’s cat murdered with the word “LIBERAL” scrawled on the cat’s corpse, a picture of which made its way to the Internet to highlight how horrible a crime it was, one commenter applied the Obama mentality as follows: “We should look forward, not back on this cat killing. But perhaps whoever released that photo should be prosecuted.” And about the Kiriakou case, John Cole sarcastically celebrated: “At Long Last, Someone Will Face a Waterboarding Related Prosecution, and then added: “He’s being prosecuted for blabbing about what happened- not the actual crime itself.”

It’s long past time to rip those blindfolds off of the Lady Justice statues. When the purpose of American justice is to shield those with the greatest power who commit the most egregious crimes, while severely punishing those who talk publicly about those crimes, it’s hard to imagine how it can get much more degraded or corrupted than that.

* * * * *

Part of the DOJ’s criminal investigation in the Kiriakou matter included investigating whether criminal defense lawyers representing GITMO detainees, from the ACLU and elsewhere, committed crimes by attempting to learn of the identity of the CIA agents who tortured their clients (so that they could sue or otherwise hold those torturers accountable: exactly what any competent lawyer should do). Although the DOJ ultimately decided yesterday against indictments of those lawyers, the very fact that the DOJ criminally investigated them at all is self-evidently dangerous. About that investigation, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero told Savage that “it — and the Obama-era leak investigations more broadly — had had a ‘chilling effect on defense counsel, government whistle-blowers, and journalists’.” That, of course, is exactly its purpose.

UPDATE: White House spokesman Jay Carney previewed President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight as follows: “The State of the Union will be . . . about the central mission that we have as a country and his focus as president: Building a country and an economy where we reward hard work and responsibility, where everyone does their fair share, and where everyone is held accountable for what they do.” I find it hard to believe that they don’t cynically cackle in private when they come up with these things (h/t profmarcus).

BBC SOMALI STAFF LIVE BROADCASTING ( Abdinuur Sheik Mahamed Isahaq)

Raid In Somalia: U.S. Navy SEALs Free Hostages Held Since October

http://avideos.5min.com/16/549/5172549/517254819.webm

Raid In Somalia: U.S. Navy SEALs Free Hostages Held Since October

Navy SEALs Take Out Somali Pirates To Rescue Hostages

Somaliland Oo Sheegtay In Arinka Taleex Ay Kala Hadleen QM.

Published on January 17, 2012 
 
 

Wasiirka arrimaha gudaha Somaliland Dr. Maxamed Cabdillaahi Cumar, ayaa daboolka ka qaaday inuu kulammo kala duwan magaalada Nairobi ee Caasimadda Kenya kula yeeshay  Ergayga gaarka ah ee Xoghayaha guud ee Qaramada Midoobay u qaabbilsan arrimaha Soomaaliya Augustine Mahiga.
Wasiirka arrimaha dibeddda maamulka Somaliland Maxamed Cabdillaahi, waxa uu sheegay inay Danjire Mahiga ka wadahadleen mawqifka ay Jimciyadda quruumaha ka dhaxaysaa ka taagan tahay maamul-gobleedka Somaliland laga falliidhayo ee toddobaadkan lagaga dhawaaqay shir ka socday degmada Taleex oo ka tirsan gobolka Sool.
Mar uu Wasiir Maxamed Cabdillaahi Cumar kulankaa uu Mahiiga kula yeeshay Noirobi faahfaahin ka bixinayey waxa uu yidhi

“Shir aanu shalay wadda yeelanay ergayga guud ee u qaabilsan Qaramada midoobay arimaha Soomaaliya iyo arimaha Somalilandb Amsaddor Mahiga, oo aanu ka wadda hadlaynay arimo dalka iminka ka socda iyo mawaaqiifta ay ka qaadanayaan Qaramada Midoobay. Waxaanu Ergaygu noo sheegay inay danaynayaan inaan la wiiqin wada-jirka iyo nabadgelyada Somaliland.”

Wasiirka arrimaha dibedda Somaliland oo maanta dib ugu soolaabtay Caasimadda Somaliland ee Hargeysa, ka dib markii uu saaka ka soo duulay magaalada Nairobi ee xarunta Kenya, ayaa qolka nasashada ee garoonka diyaaraha Hargeysa Warbaahinta kula hadlay, ayaa waxa kale oo uu ka warramay ujeeddada safarka uu dalka Kenya kaga soo laabtay, waxaanu sheegay inuu madax badan oo ay halkaa ku kulmeen uu warbixin ka siiyey heerka ay maanta Somaliland marayso marka laga eego dhinacyada nabadgelyada, horumarka dhaqaalaha, arrimaha bulshada, siyaasadda, dimuquraaddiyadda, qorshaha doorashooyin la qaban doono 2012, iyo qodobbo kale oo uu xusay inay ka mid yihiin sidii caalamku Somaliland taageerooyin kala duwan ugu fidin lahaa.

Gudoomiye Xigeenka Baarlamaanka Kenya Faarax Macalin Oo Booqasho Ku Yimi Somaliland Iyo Ujeedada safarkiisa

Jan 17, 2011

Gudoomiye Ku xigeenka Baarlamaanka Dalka Kenya Faarax Macalin, oo booqasho ku yimi Somaliland maanta, ayaa ku baaqay in wada hadal lagu xaliyo muranka iyo gacan ka hadlaka deegaamada Sool iyo Buuhoodle ee ka tirsan Somaliland.Guddoomiye Ku xigeenka Baarlamaanka Kenya oo maanta kasoo degay madaarka Hargeysa, waxa halkaa ku soo dhaweeyay masuuliyiin ka tirsan xukuumadda Somaliland waxaanu ka hadlay socdaalkiisa xiligan ee Somaliland waxaanu yidhi “Anigu waxaan u socdaa sidii wixii Soomaali oo dhan horumarkeedii iyo nabadeedii sidii xal aan ahayn gacan qaad loogu heli lahaa sidaasi ayaan anigu aaminsan yahay.”



“Anigu ma doonayo in Soomaaliyi ay isku gacan qaado meel ay joogtaba wixii dhibaato ah ee jiraba wakhtigii wada hadal lagu dhamayn lahaa ayaa la joogaa,hadda dhibaatooyinka ka jira Somaliland gudaheeda iyo gobolada gacan qaadku ka dhaco. Waxaan ku boorinayaa inay isticmaasho deganaansho,”ayuu yidhi Dr. Faarax Macalin.


Faarax Macalin mar la weydiiyay aragtidiisa ku wajahan shirka degmada Taleex ayaa ka gaabsaday inuu wax tafaasiil ah ka bixiyo, isagoo tilmaamay inaanu xog badan ka haynin oo ay maqaalo ku tahay. “
Dawlada iyo dadka Somaliland waa dad aan ku kalsoonahay waan ogahay deganaansho iyo culays isticmaalayaan waxaan idinkula talinayaa inaan dhiig dambe oo soomaliya la daadin. Anigu markaan sidaasi leeyahay waxaan ahay Nin Soomaaliya oo qaran kale ka yimid oo Soomaalidu tiro yar ka tahay,”ayuu yidhi Guddoomiye ku xigeenku.



Faarax Macalin oo wax laga weydiiyay farogelinta milatari ee dalkiisu ku qaaday deegaano ka mid ah dalka qalalaasuhu hadheeyay ee Soomaaliya, waxaanu yidhi “Kuma farxayo ninka Soomaaliga ah ee Kenyan-ka ahi inuu arko ciidamo Kenyan ah oo gelaya Soomaaliya laakiin waxay noqotay wax daruuri noqotay oo dhibkii ayaa sii fara batay. Qaxoontigii ayaa boqolaal kun oo qof ku soo galay Kenya. Dhibta nimanka xagirka ah oo inay ummada baabiyaan ku tallo-galay waxaasi oo dhan ayaa nagu khasbay in la galo Soomaaliya, laakiin haddana lagu galo si tartiibsan.” Ayuu yidhi.

Gudoomiye xigeenka Baarlamaanka Kenya oo booqashadiisani noqonay tii sadexaad ee uu ku yimaado Somaliland ayaa mudada uu joodo kulamo la yeelanaya madaxweynaha Somalialnd iyo masuuliyiinta kale ee xukuumadda iyo sidoo kale baarlamaanka. Waxaana la filayaa inuu kala hadlo sidii xal loogu heli lahaa khilaafka kooha doonaya inay qallaalase ka abuuraan Somaliland ee dhowaan ku qabtay shirka guuldaraystay ee Taleex, kuwaas oo markii ay Ciidamada Somaliland galeen magaalada Buuhoodle u firxaday dhinaca Garoowe ee maamulka gobolka Majeerteeniya, iyadoo qaar kale oo ka mid ahaa kooxahaasi dhuumasho ku joogaan magaalooyinka hargeysa iyo Berbera oo ay doonayaan inay ka dhoofaan.

Innovation Democracy visits Somaliland

A delegation from California-based Innovation Democracy arrived in Somaliland Yesterday to attend a locally organized leadership conference in the capital. The team from the not-for-profit organization consisted of Liisa Välikangas, President of Innovation Democracy Inc. and an attorney by the name of Jaak Treiman, General Counsel of Innovation Democracy.

The delegates were greeted at Berbera airport by head of Institute of Strategic and Initiatives (ISI) Mr. Abdikariim Osman Jama and who is also the chairman of ICT commission in Somaliland. Mr. Abdikariim briefed the press in the VIP room of Berbera airport about the delegate’s visit to Somaliland as he said “Today we are receiving at Berbera airport and we extended an invitation to Prof. Liisa Valikanges who is the head of International Institute of Innovation Democracy and teaches at AAITO University which are located in Helsinki, Finland capital and is accompanied by Mr. Jaak Treiman who is general counsel at Innovation Democracy.

He added that they departed from California where they have got their main office and came to Somaliland in order to attend huge conference that is scheduled to be held on 17th Jan and the venue is at Ambassador hotel in Hargeisa, Somaliland capital.

He commented that the two Institutes have close working relations and that is Institute of Strategic Innovative and International Institute of Innovation Democracy.

Prof. Liisa made short speech to the press and told that it is the second time she visited the country. She added that they came to Somaliland in order to attend the conference where book written about leadership is about to be exhibited and the slogan for the book is “Lead Like Lions”. She further disclosed that there will be discussions on modern strategic leadership. Finally, Mr. Jaak Treiman said that he is excited in visiting Somaliland and he is due to attend many events regarding strategic leadership.

Rights Groups Welcome Release of Journalists in Somaliland

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Mohammed Yusuf | Nairobi|VOA|-International and local media rights groups have welcomed the release of 21 journalists in Somaliland and have called for authorities to release another four who are still detained.  But some journalists in Somaliland are concerned for their safety and job effectiveness following the arrests. 

The autonomous region of Somaliland is facing intense criticism after the detention of 25 journalists last weekend. On Sunday, local journalists organized a peaceful protest in front of the state house, a day after police stormed and closed a local TV station.

 

National Union of Somali Journalists Secretary General Mohammed Ibrahim says the group is convinced Somaliland authorities were angered by the independent media reporting on a tribal conference in the Taleeh district of the Sool region.

 

“Somaliland authorities have systematically cracked down on journalists and media," said Ibrahim. "They are doing this because Somaliland authorities believe that the outcome of this conference will cause insecurity to the Somaliland administration that are currently in control most of the region in Somaliland.”

Following the January 5 conference, elders in the Dhulbahante clan announced the Sool, Sanaag and Aeyn regions are forming a independent state. The three regions are claimed by both Somaliland and Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region. 

 

A Somali political analyst with Southlink Consultants in Nairobi, Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdi Samed, says Somaliland's reaction is clear it will not tolerate political interference from outside.

 

“They are saying the unity of Somaliland is untouchable," said Samed. "Somaliland, they want to secure her border and they have a very clear border between Somalia and Somaliland. So any one who is going to tempt that border they mark as enemy number one.”

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

Submitted Fri, 10/14/2011 - 04:07

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.

Crisis in the Horn of Africa: A Somaliland Perspective

Somalia - A Case-Study: Humiliation and Coping in War, 1998

Somaliland deports Ethiopian refugees including children

HARGEISA — Despite drawing public condemnation, Somaliland deported more than 20 Ethiopians back to their native country this week after they had been denied asylum.

Photograph: Ethiopian refugees gather in Hargeisa to protest deportations (November 2011, Somalilandpress)

It is understood the asylum-seekers were rounded-up by police two weeks ago when the group gathered outside the office of Interior Ministry to protest. Said to be led by self-appointed committee, the group of asylum-seekers tried to express their grave concerns before police took them into custody. They were locked up in Hargeisa’s central prison for two weeks.

The group said to be 22 in total, 15 men, 5 women and 2 children under the age of two, were handed over to Ethiopian authorities in the border town of Tog-Wajale.The refugees blamed their deportation on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) saying Somaliland authorities acted in consultation with the Rights UN agency. They added it was the UNHCR’s responsibility to guarantee refugee safety in the first place and suggested that the UN agency had abandoned them.

The government in Somaliland recently said it was cracking down on illegal economic migrants because it did not have the capacity to host them. It stated that there were more than 80,000, mainly Ethiopians, illegal migrants in the country and further revealed it only recognized 1,772 Ethiopians as genuine refugees. In 2006 Somaliland informed UNHCR that it was no longer open to refugees or asylum seekers.

Ethiopian refugees in the country deny that they are economic migrants. They argue that they are instead fleeing starvation,forced labor, torture and political persecution in their native land.

Since the government announced its crack down on “illegal economic migrants” in early September, many Ethiopian refugees complained of discrimination, social isolation and living conditions. There have been widespread reports that many were been fired from their jobs and were forced on the streets.

Somaliland authorities say they plan to repatriate some 570 Ethiopians with the help of International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2012. Ethiopian officials are believed to be on the ground screening these deportees to determine whether or not they are Ethiopians.

Somaliland is also struggling with huge number of refugees from neighboring war-ravaged Somalia. Hargeisa claims it’s hosting over 90,000 refugees from mainly southern Somalia where TFG and AU troops are battling insurgents.

Guantanamo by the Numbers

January 9, 2012

Jonathan Starr helps prepare Somaliland students for top-tier schools in the U.S. and U.K

Friday, January 6, 2012

Starr, here meeting parents of his students in Hargeissa, Somaliland, says generating revenue helps donors measure the NGO's success Frederic Courbet for Bloomberg Businessweek

Jonathan Starr's Somali Good Deed

 

The founder of Flagg Street Capital now runs Abaarso Tech, a nonprofit that helps prepare Somaliland students for top-tier schools in the U.S. and U.K. - By Patrick Adams

 

By the time he was 27, Jonathan Starr had written a book about value investing, made his first million, and founded his own hedge fund, Flagg Street Capital, in Cambridge, Mass., not far from his hometown of Worcester. He had a fat Rolodex and a bright future in finance—only he was burning himself out. “I’m obsessive by nature, but I wanted to be obsessed with something else,” he recalls.

In 2008, Starr took a trip to Somaliland, his uncle’s home country, which had been devastated by civil war and was struggling to rebuild. (Although it declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, Somaliland is still internationally recognized as an autonomous region of the state.) A year later, with some $500,000 in savings, Starr founded Abaarso Tech, a nonprofit organization that helps prepare the country’s brightest boys and girls for top-tier institutions in the U.S. and U.K. (Abaarso, the school’s location, means “drought.”) The institution is also designed, he says, to run like a business: Students pay what they can, while several revenue-generating programs—English courses, a school of finance, and an executive MBA track—make up for the shortfall in tuition.

Starr, 35, works at Abaarso all but three weeks of the year, along with two dozen teachers. “He was fanatical about investment philosophy, and he’s fanatical about what he’s doing now,” says Anand Desai, a former colleague at SAB Capital Management. Next year, Starr will administer the first official SAT exam in Somaliland history. “We’re making great progress,” he says. “And soon we’ll have some test scores to prove it.”

STARR’S BEST ADVICE

 

1. Burn your ships

You aren’t going to make progress in the developing world without running into a lot of roadblocks and uncomfortable situations. To succeed, you can’t even consider packing up and going home.

 

2. Manage on the ground

You have to be able to see what works and what doesn’t and to adapt quickly. Otherwise you’ll spend years running plays that have no chance of succeeding.Bloomberg Business.

Minnesota : Zeynab Omar wins Young Pathfinder Award of 2012

Friday, January 6, 2012

From left, Julie Hawker, representing Lloyd Management, Wilburn Neuschwander-Frink and Zeynab Omar were announced as Pathfinder Award winners Thursday.

The Free Press, Mankato, MN

January 5, 2012

Pathfinder Awards announced

The Free Press

MANKATO — The Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Board of Mankato announced the winners this morning of the 2012 Pathfinder Awards.

 

Winner of the Pathfinder Award is Wilbur Neushwander-Frink, who has spent 17 years working with and advocating for the developmentally disabled.

 

Winner of the Young Pathfinder Award is Zeynab Omar, a senior at Mankato East High School who works with the elderly suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

 

Winner of the Business Pathfinder Award is Lloyd Management Inc., a company that established a transition program for immigrants to help them adjust to life in a new country.

The awards will be presented to the recipients at the 28th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration Jan. 16 at Minnesota State University.

Minneapolis Bank Resumes Transfers to Somalia

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Tawakal Money Express allows $500 in emergencies

MINNEAPOLIS - After protests by Twin Cities Somalis, one Minneapolis has decided it will resume allowing money transfers to the African country.

Tawakal Money Express says it will allow people to send money to Somalia for family emergencies, but has limited the amount to $500.

Protestors argued they need the transfers to help their family members recover from a severe drought and famine that hit Somalia last year.

Tawakal was one of several Twin Cities banks that stopped offering the service last week, fearing some of the money was being transferred to terrorist organizations.

Somali Nationalism: A Dead Concept?

Monday, January 9, 2012

Grand Mosque in Garadag district, Somaliland

What are the prospects for urgently needed national unity?
ARTICLE  BY PETER LOCKWOOD

 

 
Nairobi , Kenya: Since 1991, Somalia has undergone a tumultuous process of geopolitical reconfiguration. Some have termed this the ‘balkanisation’ of Somalia, where regions and states have sought varying degrees of autonomy from central government in Mogadishu. After Somaliland’s unilateral declaration of independence in 1991, other regions followed, such as the Puntland State of Somalia, which declared its autonomy as part of a federal State of Somalia in 1998.

At first glance, these moves have been vindicated. By fencing themselves off from the wider environment of political instability, Somaliland and Puntland have been able to create internal environments of relative peace. Without the spectre of Al Shabaab that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has had to compete with in South and Central Somalia, the Somaliland authorities have successfully expanded their capacity, and developed their economy, largely due to the healthy state of livestock exports from the northern port of Berbera. Next door, in Puntland, post-conflict reconstruction has likewise benefited from internal stability, and the more effective state apparatus which that has allowed.

Social mechanisms for ending conflicts within these societies have remained strong. Elders, religious leaders and politicians notably came together towards the end of last year to end conflict in Galkacyo, Puntland. That is not to say that the regions are without serious problems. As security concerns related to armed conflict fade away, other more social and cultural concerns have arisen in these areas, such as gender inequalities, urban poverty, and the plight of the large numbers of internally displaced persons who have fled the south.

However, as Puntland and Somaliland move towards reconstruction and development, South and Central Somalia has been left behind. Caught in the mire of insurgency, famine, and now foreign invasion, many Somalis in the region can only dream of the peace that their northern brothers and sisters have been able to secure.

Echoes of nationalism

For many Somalis, the concept of reunification is out of the question. The inter-clan warfare that precipitated the fall of the Siyad Barre regime, and continued long afterwards, remains embedded in the country’s social memory.

Despite this, for some intellectuals national identity, and some kind of nation-state remain the most logical and practical ways for the betterment of the Somali people. In his 2010 book Understanding the Somalia Conflagration, Afyare Abdi Elmi argued for a national federal system, but which would be flexible enough to accommodate regional autonomy and clan differences.

Such a prospect looks extremely unlikely when one looks at the current situation, and yet more than ever Somalia requires the strength that a national identity, and national political structures could bring. In his book, Abdi Elmi continues to advocate for the unity of Somalia, and its need to defend itself against neighboring powers such as Ethiopia and Kenya.

There is no doubt that the state has failed in Somalia, and that the Somali people are divided by clan, and ethnic identity. However, these divisions see some Somalis prosper, whilst others must live under foreign occupation.

The Kenyan invasion of 2011 saw the international media abound with talk of the creation of a buffer zone, a move that would further divide Somalia, and render it a pawn of other regional and international powers. A fundamental way of reversing this process would be the realisation that Somalis from all regions and states have a common identity and a related duty to protect one another. The politicisation of clan identity at national level has thus far hindered this, but a change needs to occur. Northern regions cannot sit by whilst the South is torn up according to the interests of other regional powers.

The need for national identity, national politics

Islam will always provide a unifying identity for Somalis, and it is in this spirit that a national identity ought to be resurrected. Prior to the collapse of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) government in 2006, its chairman, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, stated that: "We will leave no stone unturned to integrate our Somali brothers in Kenya and Ethiopia and restore their freedom to live with their ancestors in Somalia."

When faced with foreign occupation, and incursion, the need for Somalis from the north to assist their brothers and sisters in the south has become more important than ever. Whilst clan identity remains potent, Islam can provide the blueprint for a wider concept of Somali identity that can include the protection of all Somalis, especially those living in the South.  

Somaliland Police arrest Television Journalist in the town of Boorama

Monday, January 9, 2012

January 9, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemns the arrest of the Television journalist by the Somaliland Police in the town of Boorama on Sunday around 11:30 local time.

Journalist Yuusuf Ali better known as Indho-Qurux, who is the correspondent of the Royal Television in the town Boorama, was arrested on Sunday without warrant by Somaliland police in Boorama, according to local journalists.

 

The Arrest of the journalist has been confirmed by a colleague journalist, Mohamed Abdi Boosh, who also reports for the for the Royal Television by phone from Hargeysa.

 

"It is really disappointing, Yusuf Ali was arrested without a warrant and he staying in custody tonight." Journalist Mohamed Abdi Boosh told NUSOJ by phone from Hargeysa.

It is not yet clear the reasons behind his arrest. However, journalists believe Ali's arrest is related to an article he wrote about alleged corruption on regional projects in Awdal region.

"The Arrest of is an absolute voilation and we condemn it in the strongest terms possible." Mohamed Ibrahim, NUSOJ Secretary General said, "We call for the Somaliland authorities to immediately release the journalist and respect the freedom of the press."

 

Secretary General of Somaliland Journalists Association (SOLJA), Mohamed Rashiid also condemned the arrest of the journalist and demanded from Somaliland authorities to release the journalist from custody without condition.

 

Journalists in Somaliland have been subject to police brutalities - arrests, intimidations and harassment, among others.