Hargeysa, Somaliland, April 15, 2006 – President Dahir Rayale has rescinded on a gentleman’s agreement that he had reached earlier this month with the leaders of the House of Representatives for resolving the issue of Amino-Weris whose appointment in February to the post of team leader at the Hargeysa office of Care International was withdrawn by Care following pressure from the Somaliland government.

According to an understanding reached at a meeting held on April 1, 2006 between president Rayale and acting speaker Abdul Aziz Samale and deputy speaker Basha M. Farah, the president’s office was to notify Care that the government harbored no reservations against the recruitment of Amino-Weris and would be pleased if her appointment materialized.

At the meeting, president Rayale had also expressed his apology on the way his government reacted to the resolution passed by the house on March 29 that called on the government to take the necessary steps to ensure that Care reconsiders its decision in favor of Amino-Weris’s re-appointment. The resolution also declared Mr. Tim Muia, a Kenyan who was appointed as team leader of Care Hargeysa following Care’s cancellation of Amino-Weris’s appointment, as persona-non-grata.

But the minister of Information Abdillahi Dualle blasted the house for passing such a resolution. Stating that the government was not bound to comply with the resolution, he accused the house of allowing itself to be used by a small self-interest group.

At that April 1 st meeting, president Rayale also promised the house leaders that he would make a public apology for Dualle’s statement before leaving for Sana’a, Yemen, the next morning. Actually when the issue of Amino-Weris and the house’s resolution was raised at a press conference held shortly before his departure for Sana’a on the following day, Mr. Rayale seemed both apologetic and conciliatory towards the house.

However he made no effort later on to address the issue of Amino-Weris. Nor he had shown any inclination to heed the house’s repeated calls for the downsizing of the cabinet and formation of a new government that was more efficient and responsive to public needs and issues.

On last Wednesday evening, when house leaders Samale and Farah met with Mr. Rayale to discuss with him a number of topics including Amino-Weris and a concept for cementing a new spirit of collaboration between the legislature and the executive, the president responded to all the issues raised by the parliamentarians in an entirely negative manner.

Meanwhile, the Somaliland Times has learned that the chairman of the Guurti (upper house of parliament), Sulaiman Mahmud Adan and Haji Abdi Warabe, the two most prominent members of the house of elders, met with president Rayale last month with the aim of seeking clarification from him on press reports that the government was behind Care’s decision withdrawing the appointment.

According to reliable sources, president Rayale not only denied any wrongdoing but also took issue with the two elders for bringing up and being concerned about the Amino-Weris case.

Source: Somaliland Times