Somaliland: The Suspect UNSC Technical Assistance Mission Arrives

By: Yusuf M Hasan

HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – The anticipated Technical Assessment Mission-TAM from the united Nations Security Council-UNSC has arrived and rearing to start its yet to be known mission.

The six member TAM team which is led by a female Chinese delegate is made of two representatives from the UNPOS office of Amb Mahiga in Mogadishu (one Briton and one Zambian) and the remaining four members are directly from the UNSC in New York.

The itinerary of the not yet clear assessment mission by TAM will see it meet and hold discussions with

• UN agencies operating in the country-UNHT ,

• foreign and interior ministries,

• Civil Society organizations and

• The vice president respectively

According to reliable sources the TAM team whose mission objectives remains a secret that has not been divulged even to highest levels of authorities in Hargeisa will not meet with the president H.E Ahmed Mahmud Silanyo due to other more important national commitments pertaining to a working visit to the UAE.

While discussions between TAM and the Civil society organizations is expected to be stormy, the encounter during a yet to be arranged press conference is highly anticipated by journalists who are anxious to ensure that the hidden agenda of the suspect UNSC appointed technical mission are divulged

It is believed that after the secretive TAM clears up its mission in the country, it shall then be split into two teams to be dispatched to both Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and the Kenyan capital Nairobi for consultations with numerous Somaliland stakeholders and more specifically donor organizations based there.

The final technical assessment report shall then be utilized as part and parcel of the Somalia conference slated for the 7th May in London.

Following a plea of support to the UN for the six pillars base of his government by Somalia president Hasan Sheikh in January this year The UNSC hastily formulated and assembled the TAM with the mandate to ensure that the Mogadishu government's six-pillar policy plan is fully backed by the republic of Somaliland.

While the UNSC is reported to have been planning this mission for sometimes next week the recent announcement by president Silanyo that the country is boycotting the forthcoming Somalia conference to be held in London is thought to have hastened the TAM arrival thus try to cajole the Hargeisa administration to recant the boycott plans.

After all is said and done and in view of the last of the six- pillar policy plan (Uphold the unity and integrity of Somalia) of the Hasan-Shirdon government with its consequences for Somaliland's oft stated irrevocability and non-negotiability of its sovereignty , it remains to be seen in which side the TAM dice shall fall.

source: somalilandsun.com