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First Peace Cup Football Tournament
Launched
Best Player To be Sent For Training With Real Madrid
Hargeisa, April 24, 2004 (SL Times) – A football tournament involving
16 second division clubs from Somaliland was launched on April 6, 2004
in Hargeisa.
The teams were divided into 4 groups each made up of 4 clubs. The two
winning teams from each group will play in a quarterfinal. Four teams
will meet in the semifinal, and the final match is scheduled to take
place on the 9th of May.
The month-long competition, dubbed as the First Peace Cup Football
Tournament was organized by the Somaliland Football Association and
funded by the UNDP.
The best tournament player will be sent for a 3-month training with
the well-known Spanish club of Real Madrid.
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President Kagame Speaks In Seattle
By Jamal Gabobe
Here is some of what President Kagame
said:
Genocide is a crime against humanity, so
humanity should take action against those who commit it. The signs
were there, no one paid attention. There was a lack of the will to
act. The inaction was due to serious imperfections in the
international system. Rwanda was not strategic in geopolitics. So they
could sacrifice a million people. Blame also has to go to our fellow
Africans. The lesson here is that the international community will not
come to our rescue if we don't work on our problems. For us Rwandans,
blaming the world will not take us anywhere. We have to own our
problems, then the world will support us.
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Somaliland Observers Describe South
Africa’s Elections As Free And Fair
Hargeisa, April 24, 2004 (SL Times) – A Somaliland observer team has
described the South African elections of April 14, 2004 as “free and
fair”.
The team consisting of 16 members returned to Somaliland last Monday,
after spending 11 days in South Africa to observe and study the April
14 poll which the ruling African National Congress won by a landslide
victory.
The Somaliland delegation was made up of members representing the
National Electoral Commission, the 3 political parties, women's groups
and the press.
A full text of an interim statement issued on the South African
elections by the observer team is reproduced below:
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Faisal Ali
Waraabe: Somaliland’s Recognition Will Bring Peace And Stability To
The Horn Region
ABU DHABI, 16 April 2004 (Awdalnews Network) —A Somaliland political
leader said that Somaliland’s recognition would usher in a period of
peace and stability to all Horn of African countries.
Speaking at a luncheon hosted in his honor by his supporters on
Thursday and attended by other members of Somaliland community here,
Faisal Ali Waraabe, Chairman of the Justice and Welfare Party, known
by its Somali acronym UCID, said “Somaliland’s independence will play
a pivotal role in the peace and stability of the Horn of African
countries as it will eliminate the traditional Somali irredentism of
claiming territories in Ethiopia and Kenya.”
“There will be no more ILA JIID WAA HAWDE,” he said, referring to
patriotic Somali lyrics that mobilized people in the heydays of the
Somali nationalistic fervor.
Faisal, who arrived in Abu Dhabi from the UK, will embark on a
three-week tour of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Ruwanda in
a bid to gain friends for Somaliland from African countries.
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Better Deal For
Somalilanders
By
Julie Harding
The first conference to discuss the plight
of Somalilanders living in Bristol is being held in Easton today.
Bristol's Lord Mayor, Councillor Bill Martin, and key decision makers
in the city were invited to the event to discuss an action plan aimed
at removing the barriers faced by Somalilanders to health care,
housing, training and jobs. Research last year showed that England's
Somalilanders population, which includes 8,000 people in the West, was
"a hidden society" where "extreme levels of deprivation and
disadvantage are commonplace". Bristol is a major centre for
Somalilanders people with most living in Easton, Lawrence Hill, St
Paul's and Barton Hill. Nine out of 10 Somalilanders in the region are
unemployed and many are living in cramped conditions. The community
also suffers from a high level of TB. Racism is a particular problem
with clashes reported between groups of Somali and Jamaican young men
in Bristol.
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International
News |
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U.S. Military
Official Praises African Anti-Terror Efforts
WAshington, April 19, 2004 – (US Embassy, Tokyo) – U.S. Major General
John Sattler, the director of operations for the U.S. Central Command,
says a number of nations in the Horn of Africa have brought terrorists
to justice or shut down communications lines as part of the global war
on terrorism.
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Djibouti Anger
Over French Judge Murder Claim
DJIBOUTI, April 17 (AFP) - The east African state of Djibouti on
Saturday accused France of attempting to destabilise it via a
television programme suggesting a French judge found dead there nine
years ago was murdered by figures close to Djibouti's president.
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South African MPs
Re-Elect Mbeki
Cape Town, April 23, 2004 (BBC) – In a unanimous vote, MPs in Cape
Town have elected Thabo Mbeki as president for a second five-year
term.
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Somali Woman
Murdered In London
JEDDAH, 19 April 2004 (Arab News) — A Somali woman’s body has been
discovered in a suitcase in north London, press reports said.
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Man Killed In London
Shooting
London, April 21, 2004 (The Guardian) – Detectives were yesterday
investigating the execution-style shooting of a man who was murdered as he
walked home from a nightclub in Kensington, west London.
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Security Forces
Capture 20 Somalians In Mugla
MUGLA, April 19, 2004 (Turkishpress.com)- Security forces captured on
Monday 20 Somalians in Meselik village of Milas town of Aegean Mugla
province.
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Eastern, Central
African Countries Tackle Issue Of Arms At Nairobi Conference
Nairobi, Apr 20, 2004 (VOANews) – In Kenya, senior officials from 11
countries in Eastern and Central Africa began a two-day conference
Tuesday on ending the illegal in trade small arms and light weapons.
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The Siege Of Fallujah:
Another Page In The West’s Long Running War With Islam
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From Hope To
Helplessness
The United Nations force that landed in Somalia
in 1992 was meant to bring peace and stability to a country plunged into
civil war. Millions within the west African country were suffering from
starvation amid the anarchy, so when former army commando "Peter" was posted
to the small Australian contingent in the capital, Mogadishu, in July 1993,
he believed he could do some good. He returned a changed man.
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| Editorial
& Opinions |
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South Africa’s
Democracy & Its Implications for Somaliland
The successful general elections that South Africa witnessed on April
14, 2004, the third of its type to be held there since the fall of
apartheid in 1994, have put an end to any uncertainty about the future
of democracy in that country. The election process which a Somaliland
team of 16 observers (the largest group from any single African
country) had the chance to attend for the first time, was conducted
smoothly all over the country including such hot spots as the Kuwazulu
Natal province. As expected, President Thabo Mbeki’s party, the
African National Congress, won the elections by a landslide. The
opposition parties accepted the results graciously.
The factors as to why South Africa’s general elections for 2004 passed
without problems are many. One main reason was that that country’s
Independent Electoral Commission was actually independent in the true
sense of the word. Secondly, the IEC had put a lot of organizational
effort into the process, leaving nothing to chance. The IEC’s
integrity was even further enhanced in the eyes of the contesting parties
by the presence of Party Liaison Committee members at its headquarters
in Pretoria as well as in each of the 9 provincial offices across the
country.
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Open Letter To
Abdi I. Samatar
By: A Mohamed Ali Hashi ‘Dhimbiil’
Many Somali Landers have written and debated with you on the internet
and most recently on the BBC program where Muj.Silanyo, Chairman of
the leading opposition party in Somaliland as well as Dr. Ibrahim laid
out the case for Somaliland. I feel your characterization of Somali
Landers as a people who do not want to debate is misleading and
unfair. Somali Landers by nature love to debate, they believe in their
cause and that is why Somaliland is by far a pathfinder with regards
to democracy and the rule of law in a neighbourhood characterized by
guns, violence and warlords.
As well, your suggestion that you were drowned out of the meeting in
London is actually quite normal, decisive historical questions are
being drawn up and answered by stakeholders on the Somali question,
that the drowning out of your views does not augur well for ‘dissent’
in the political economy of Somaliland, with regards to those
entrusted through the recent elections in Somaliland to govern stuns
the imagination.
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Response To Mr.
Ali Gulaid
By: Jamal Gabobe, Seattle
In an article entitled "KULMIYE Isn’t The Enemy" Mr Ali Gulaid raised
several issues about the Somaliland Times and myself that I would like
to address. In his article, Ali Gulaid accused the Somaliland Times of
having been co-opted. Apparently, the basis of his charge is that he
was not used to seeing criticism of Kulmiye by the weekly magazine;
therefore, he concluded the paper must have been co-opted. This is a
feeble basis on which to base such serious charges.
Ali Gulaid also referred to the "editors" of the Somaliland Times and
insinuated that I am one of those editors (although he does not
mention me by name the context of the article points in that
direction). The editor of the Somaliland Times is Yusuf Abdi Gabobe. I
am a representative of Haatuf Media Network (which includes the
Somaliland Times) in North America.
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WHAT WE DID NOT
DO RIGHT
By Abubakr Karolia, South Africa (April 2004)
Part II
[Continued from our previous issue]
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Towards an enlightened and transformative re-education:
A major problem arose when Muslims scholars and jurist
compartmentalized knowledge to what is religious and secular. When
this occurred, the order that Allah had instituted in the Caliphate-ul-Ard
(the responsibility accepted by Adam (AS) as vicegerent of the earth)
could not be fulfilled as our knowledge became more ritualistic and
narrow. The responsibility of a vicegerent of the Creator is to take
charge of the ecosystems, sustainable development and an equitable
socio-economic and a just political system for the happiness of
mankind and His Worship.
Therefore in the light of this huge responsibility, all knowledge that
pleases Allah (S) must be pursued and practiced and all knowledge that
did not please Allah (S) one should at least have knowledge of them so
as to understand the difference.
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Peace Talks |
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Rising
Frustrations Could End Mbagathi Peace Process
Nairobi, Apr 21 2004 (VOA News) – There are signs that rising
frustrations may prematurely end the Somali peace process that began
in Kenya more than a year-and-a-half ago.
Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Kalonzo Musyoka says mediators from
the regional body coordinating the long-running Somali peace talks
will decide May 6 whether to continue with the talks or hand the peace
process over to the United Nations Security Council.
He said the Security Council has the power to impose sanctions on the
factional leaders if the talks do not continue.
Mr. Musyoka said he and many mediators and international donors are
fed up with the twists and turns of a process in which Somalia's
factional leaders, civil society representatives and other delegates
have become engaged in. "Patience is running out on the part of
everybody, all the people of good will for the people of Somalia," he
said.
The talks are aimed at ending more than a decade of lawlessness, and
selecting a new government. Some 23 Somali factional leaders control
different parts of the country through their militias. Negotiators say
the most troublesome part of the peace process has been the trend
where these factional leaders sign agreements, only to erupt in
squabbling that has tested everyone's patience.
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