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An Open
Discussion Held On The Country’s Deteriorating Judiciary System
Citizens Voice Their Grievances Against The Judiciary; Ministers,
Judges And Police Officers Took Note
Hargeisa, Feb 28, 2004 (SL Times) – At least 300 ordinary people
filled the meeting hall in the Somaliland Ministry of Interior’s
headquarters in Hargeisa last Sunday to express strong grievances
against what they termed “injustice inflicted on citizens by the
country’s courts of law”.
As about 10 men and women spoke one after another to tell stories
about their personal experience with courts of the land, the Minister
of Justice Ahmed Hassan Ali (Asowe), the Minister of Interior Ismail
Adan Osman and several judges and senior police officers listened
patiently and sympathetically.
Almost all the speakers complained of
systematic miscarriage of Justice by the courts, particularly the high
court.
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SCF/USA Provides Emergency Assistance To
Drought Victims In Togdheer
Buroa, Feb 28, 2004 (SL Times) – SCF/USA office in Hargeisa,
Somaliland, launched last week a relief assistance operation in the
Togdheer region where thousands of people face extreme shortages of
water, food and pasture due to a prolonged drought.
The SCF/USA is already trucking water to many villages in the region,
and cooperating with UNICEF in vaccination of children in drought-
affected areas against diseases such as measles.
More than 80 villages in Togdheer are expected to benefit from this
relief and vaccination operation.
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Press Report Alleging Danish Government
Responded Harshly To Interior Minister Denied
Hargeisa, Feb 28, 2004 (SL Times) – Somaliland Minister of Interior,
Mr. Ismail Adan Osman, described as baseless and pure fabrication a
report published by Jamhuuriya (Feb 22) alleging that the Danish
government reacted angrily to a recent letter he wrote to the Danish
Refugee Council’s office in Hargeisa.
The letter written on Feb 4, 2004 informed the DRC and other
international agencies operating in Somaliland that only the minister
of interior is authorized to sign requests for assistance originating
from the ministry.
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Hargeisa Urban Household Economy
Assessment, Part XI
WHAT SHOCKS ARE HOUSEHOLDS VULNERABLE TO?
Apart from the seasonal changes noted above, households are vulnerable
to a number of potential shocks. Civil strife and insecurity are
obvious potential shocks, given the history of Hargeisa, and this has
the potential to affect all households in all wealth groups. However,
due to the political progress that has been made in recent years, this
shock is not currently regarded as likely, at least in the short to
medium term. Exchange rate depreciations that lead to increased
shilling costs of imported food and non-food items are a particular
problem for poor households, if their wages and profits do not keep
pace with the changes. In the two-week period after this assessment
was conducted, the exchange rate rose from SlSh 6,700 per US dollar to
SlSh 7,300 per US dollar.
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International
News |
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Blair Backs New Drive
To Transform Africa's Dire Outlook
London, February 27, 2004 (The Independent) – Tony Blair launched a
Commission for Africa yesterday in an attempt to rethink the problems facing
the continent which is the only major region in the world to have grown
poorer in the past 25 years.
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Egypt Worried
Over New Proposals For Sharing Nile Waters
CAIRO, Feb 21, 2004 (AFP) - A week ahead of the African Union summit
in Libya, Egypt is increasingly worried about proposals for
renegotiating arrangements for sharing the waters of the River Nile,
which provides the country with 95 percent of its water resources.
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Sharp Fall In Number Of Asylum Seekers
By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent,
London, February 24, 2004 (PA News) – Asylum applications fell 41 per
cent last year to 49,370 compared with the previous 12 months,
according to Home Office figures published today.
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Tanzania Camp
Plan For Refugees Refused UK Home
Ewen MacAskill and Alan Travis
London, February 25, 2004 (The Guardian) – The Home Office is in
negotiation with Tanzania over a £4m aid deal to take failed Somali
asylum seekers from Britain and house them in a camp, the Guardian has
learned.
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UN Appeals For $111
Million To Assist Somalia
Money will be used to fund humanitarian, development projects that will
provide much needed assistance to Somalis.
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Emotional
Farewell To Refugee Schoolboy
KEITH SINCLAIR
Glasgow, February 27 2004 (The Herald) – A SOMALIAN refugee schoolboy
who died after collapsing at his school was laid to rest yesterday
following an emotional funeral service.
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Death Toll Rises
To 15 In Immigrant Shipwreck Off Turkey
ANKARA, 26 Feb 2004 (AFP) - The number of people known to have died
when a ship carrying illegal immigrants sank off Turkey's western
coast rose to 15 on Wednesday, when coastguards found two more bodies,
a local official said.
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Somali Gunmen
Release Egyptian Fishing Crew Held Hostage For A Month
MOGADISHU, Somalia, 24 Feb 2004 (AP) _ Somali gunmen have released 23
Egyptian crew members of a fishing vessel which was seized a month ago
following a financial dispute between the ship's owners and a Somali
company, a spokesman for the firm said.
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Rebuilding
Somalia Could Aid War On Terror, Say Residents
MOGADISHU, Feb 23, 2004 (VOA News) – U.S. officials have been
concerned that some members of the al-Qaida terrorist network, seeking
a new refuge after being chased out of Afghanistan, are hiding in
Somalia and planning new attacks from there.
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| Editorial
& Opinions |
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No Justice, No
Peace
The ability of every citizen to get a fair trial under the law is
supposed to be the legal foundation of our country. But considering
how ineffective and corrupt our judicial system has become,
Somalilanders no longer take it for granted that their legal right for
a fair hearing in a court of law will be observed. Despite the fact that
most Somalilanders have lost confidence in the country’s judicial system, the majority of the
citizens of this country (with the exception of a minority of the
cases in which settlement is sought through customary laws) are still
compelled to go through it for justice, due to lack of another
alternative. As a result, more and more people are likely to
experience injustice by the country’s courts.
Unless steps are taken now with the view of addressing the present
crisis in the judiciary system and finding short and long- term
solutions, a situation may arise where people take the law into their
own hands. There are two main reasons why many Somalilanders who had
experienced judicial injustice still go through the system:
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Somalis & The Future
By David H. Shinn
Adjunct Professor, Elliott School of
International Affairs
The George Washington University
There remains the issue of Somaliland,
which declared its independence from Somalia. The authorities in
Somaliland clearly need to resolve their territorial differences with
Puntland. In the meantime, persons living in Somaliland have no
incentive to negotiate with the failed state of Somalia. They rightly
ask: with whom are they expected to negotiate? Until Somalia achieves
some form of viable national government, federal or otherwise,
Somalilanders find it pointless to consider such discussions.
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A Statesman In
Our Midst
An interview with Abdulkadir Ismail Jirde
Peace Times, December 2003
He always has a pertinent point to make. Soft-spoken, he reminds
lecturers and students alike that there are other ways of life, other
systems of governance; that there is life after state failure.
Abdulkadir Ismail Jirde has experienced, firsthand, the terrifying
ordeal of living in a collapsed state. Deputy Speaker of the House of
Representatives in Somaliland since 1997, the 53-year-old remembers
the fighting that broke in December 1990 in Mogadishu. He recalls
running for miles with a gunshot wound in his arm-shot at in spite of
the fact that he wasn’t involved in the fighting – until he ran into
someone he knew would help him.
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Reflections On
Somaliland & Africa’s Territorial Order, Part 1V
Ian S. Spears
State-like entities such as Somaliland are
often more viable in terms of their ability to manage their own
territory, to provide basic services, and in terms of their internal
cohesiveness. In any other era, when the juridical nature of statehood
did not have the prominence it has today, it would have been these
more logical and viable sub-units which formed the community of
states. In light of the Western desire to re-establish political
authority in previously collapsed states such as Somalia as a hedge
against terrorism, a viable government in Hargeisa is particularly
attractive. The argument here is not that all states-within-states
need to be formally recognized. Even without recognition, these
emerging political units can still serve as important foundations to
help build peace and sustain development beyond the short run.
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Secret Documents
From The Cold War
At the same time Siad Barre did not deny
that there were progressive developments in Ethiopia. He distanced
himself from reactionary leaders of Arab countries: Sudan, Egypt, and
Saudi Arabia, who sought to liquidate the progressive regime in
Ethiopia. Siad called the President of the UAR [Anwar] Sadat a
convinced adherent of capitalism, a reactionary, anti-Soviet schemer.
In the opinion of Siad, Nimeiry is a man without principles who fell
under the influence of Sadat [and] the leadership of Saudi Arabia, as
well as the Americans and the British.
Siad declared that Somalia, now as before, seeks to expand cooperation
with the USSR. He said that he deems it advisable to hold a meeting
with Mengistu with the mediation of the USSR and underscored that only
the Soviet Union which possesses great authority and experience could
help Somalia and Ethiopia to work out "a formula of honor" that would
allow both countries to find a road to reconciliation without losing
face…
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| Peace Talks |
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Plenary Endorses
Agreement As Talks Move to Final Phase
Nairobi, February 24, 2004 (IRIN) – The Somali national reconciliation
conference has entered its third and final phase, during which the
selection of future parliamentarians and the formation of an interim
government will begin, according to a source from the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), under whose
auspices the talks are being held.
Last night the plenary "endorsed the 29 January agreement by a large
majority", the source told IRIN on Tuesday.
The leaders of the Somali groups meeting in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, on 29 January signed what has been described as "a landmark
breakthrough" agreement on a number of contentious issues that had
earlier been plaguing the peace talks.
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Factions Accuse
Talks Organizers of Mismanagement
Nairobi, February 25, 2004 (IRIN) – Some Somali factions participating
in the Somali peace talks in Kenya have accused the conference
organizers of mismanaging the proceedings and disregarding the
conference rules during the latest plenary session, said a press
statement issued on Tuesday.
On Monday night, the plenary endorsed "by a large majority" an
agreement concluded in January, according to a source at the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), under whose
auspices the talks are being held. The leaders of the Somali groups
meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 29 January signed what has
been described as "a landmark breakthrough" agreement on a number of
contentious issues that had earlier been plaguing the peace talks.
Awad Ashara, the spokesman for the self-declared region of Puntland in
northeastern Somalia, told IRIN that the way the plenary had been
conducted was wrong, because the organizers had "violated the rules of
procedure".
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Security Council
Warns Obstructionist Leaders
Nairobi, February 26, 2004 (IRIN) – The UN Security Council has called
on Somali parties taking part in peace talks in Kenya to "reach a
peaceful settlement", and warned those blocking progress that it will
keep a close watch.
In a statement to the press following consultations on Wednesday, the
current Council president, Ambassador Wang Guangya of China, warned
that "the Security Council condemns those who obstruct the peace
process, and stresses that those who persist on the path of
confrontation and conflict will be held accountable".
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