Hargeysa, October 27, 2007 (SL Times) – The Somaliland minister of Planning & Coordination, Ali Ibrahim Mohamed has described recent reports in segments of the Somaliland press regarding the purported "expulsion" of a UNDP worker as "malicious and pure fabrication".

Speaking to the press at his office in the ministry of Planning, Ali Ibrahim sought to clarify the question of a temporary worker with the UNDP’s head of human rights desk in Somaliland. The minister stated that the worker in question was not a regular staff member of any United Nations organization or for that matter a person with a diplomatic status but a voluntary staff member of the UN body.   

Ali Ibrahim stressed that the Somaliland government is not in the habit of "expelling or kidnapping UN staff, either local or diplomatic". The minister described the inaccurate and totally uncorroborated stories in some of the nations press as wholly unproductive.

According to local press reports, UNDP's Somaliland respresentative for human rights, Livia Heron who left the country on Monday was said to have been "expelled by the government after a dispute erupted between Mrs Silvia and the state national human rights commission agency".

Ahmed Kheyre contributed to this report.

Source: Somaliland Times