Somaliland The Gateway to Art and Culture in Africa - (جمهورية صوماليلاند (أرض الصومال - Somaliland the Shining Sun of the Horn of Africa has operated as an Independent state for the last 21 years and has met international legal standards for “statehood”. What Somaliland lacks is formal recognition of its statehood and support possibly from Friendly States who believe in the spirit of progress for Africa.
Dec 5, 2012
Somaliland:International election observers congratulate Somaliland on a largely peaceful and transparent expression of democratic will in local elections—but concerned at weaknesses in safeguards against multiple voting
For immediate release
congratulate Somaliland on a largely peaceful and transparent expression of democratic will in local elections—but concerned at weaknesses in safeguards against multiple voting
The team of 50 observers from 17 countries was assembled by Progressio, DPU and Somaliland Focus (UK) to observe Somaliland’s local council elections on November 28th, 2012. It follows similar missions to previous local and national level elections in 2002, 2005 and 2010.
The mission congratulates the people of Somaliland and the National Electoral Commission (NEC) for efforts to conduct and participate in the elections, which saw 2,368 candidates contest 379 positions across Somaliland’s six regions.
With the tabulation of final results still underway, it is not yet appropriate to provide an overall assessment of the election. A small team will remain in Somaliland to observe post-poll processes, including the declaration of results and the work of the Registration and Approval Committee (RAC) in determining which three political parties go forward to contest national elections for the next decade. A further statement will follow the declaration of results, and our final report will be published in mid-2013.
At this stage, we can cautiously report many positives. Election campaigning appears to have been competitive and pluralistic, with seven different parties and associations fielding candidates. Parties and associations generally respected the requirement to campaign on a specific day in the week, and to desist from public campaigning in the second and third weeks of the campaign.
With the lowering of the age of candidacy we welcome the unprecedented numbers of youth and women candidates. While in 2002 only five women contested local elections, approximately 140 did so in 2012. As for election day, most polling station procedures and staff were evaluated positively by observers. Where problems occurred, the NEC usually addressed them quickly and effectively.
However, we must also report some concerns. The most serious problems stemmed from the absence of a voter registry and weaknesses in related safeguards–primarily the inadequacy of the indelible ink used on fingers of voters–made polling vulnerable to multiple voting. In advance of the next elections, we recommend that Somaliland adopt a robust system for voter/citizen registration, in order to deter fraud and improve confidence in the electoral process.
We are also concerned about the understanding of the parties and the electorate of the implementation of the formula in Law 14, Article 6, which will determine which of the contesting parties and associations become registered parties. While we welcome the agreement prior to the election to adopt a code of conduct in the interpretation of the law, we encourage both the NEC and the RAC to continue to work transparently in the district and regional tabulation process and declare results in a timely fashion.
Dr. Steve Kibble, the mission’s joint co-ordinator, said: “We will be putting forward to the NEC our proposals to address the concerns we have highlighted and look forward to continued fruitful cooperation with them. We will continue to track the electoral process and trust it reaches a speedy resolution that reflects the will of the Somaliland people.”
Somaliland: Construction of UK Funded Justice Ministry Offices Commenced
"The Judiciary is the main foundation of a nation-President Silanyo
By: Liban Haji Rabi
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – The Ministry of Justice is set to shift to a new and posh building soon.
The President of Somaliland H.E Ahmed Mohamed Mahmud Silanyo has laid the foundation stone of a new two storey building which is to be occupied by the Ministry of Justice in Hargeisa.
During the ceremony held at the site of the new building which is between the high court and the Egyptian Cultural Centre in Hargeisa, Dr Silanyo thanked both the UK government for providing the construction funds and the UN office of drugs and crime for implementation.
"I am very pleased in laying the foundation stone to this building, which I hope, Inshallah, will be of great use and service to the people and country" said the President.
While terming Justice as the main foundation of a nation, the head of state revealed that his administration is determined to ensure that Somaliland citizens are availed free and impartial judicial services nationwide.
Said he, "any physical or human resource developments within the judiciary is very essential to the nation, and as promised during the 2010 presidential campaign I shall do my level best".
While thanking the President for his participation the Minister of Justice Mr Hussein Ahmed Aideed, pointed out that the new building will facilitate the ease of service provision by Ministry Personnel
According to the Justice Minister, Ministerial staff are currently sharing offices with the custodial corps headquarter staff thus low performance due to lack of space.
The large number of participants at the ground breaking ceremony including diplomats from UK Embassy in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, Ministers, Lawmakers, Commanders of the Police force and Custodial Corps as well as hundreds of citizens.
Source: Somaliland Sun
Nov 22, 2012
Somaliland: Unearthing Evidence of War Crimes
Sunday, 07 October 2012 23:24: Somaliland Sun
With CJA's sponsorship, the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team and the government of the Republic of Somaliland have opened an international forensic training program in Hargeisa, Somaliland. The project runs from September 24 through October 21, 2012. Participants in this historic effort will share their experience with the rest of the world throughout that time. Their posts will inform and reflect on the search for the missing and disappeared, giving readers a window into the process of fact-finding and forensic investigation of human rights violations in Somaliland that will allow access to truth and justice for the families of the victims.
Forensic Anthropology and Human Rights
Organized collection of forensic evidence of human rights violations is an important step toward discovering the truth, achieving justice, and ensuring that such crimes are not repeated. Incontrovertible physical evidence of such abuses is important both for the judicial process and for the survivors, as it provides the world with an objective account and acknowledgement of the abuses suffered.
The Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team in Somaliland
Encouraged by a second historic peaceful election and transfer of power in Somaliland in 2010, CJA invited partner Jose Pablo Baraybar, Director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) and Recipient of the 2011 Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award, to travel with us to Somaliland in July 2011. In collaboration with CJA, victims' families, and local government officials, including Somaliland's War Crimes Investigation Committee (WCIC), Mr. Baraybar began a preliminary assessment of the mass grave sites to determine the possibilities of providing relief to the families and preserving evidence for any future transitional justice efforts.
The field school will assist in training the staff of the WCIC to conduct forensic investigations of
human rights violations, as well as providing foreign graduate students with meaningful fieldwork experience. The curriculum includes a module on international human rights and humanitarian law as it applies to the recent history of violence in Somalia and Somaliland, as well as field training in the examination, recovery, and analysis of mass graves.
In addition to their coursework, the students are posting to a CJA-hosted online blog. Their posts inform and reflect on the search for the missing and disappeared that allows access to truth and justice for the families of the victims, giving readers a window into the process of fact-finding and forensic investigation of human rights violations in Somaliland.
CJA client Aziz Deria underscores the project's importance:
I believe both my late father Mohamed Iid and my younger brother Mustafa are among those remains in Malko Durduro and thus, for me, this initiative in Somaliland is personal.
EPAF has previously trained local investigators in Peru, Nepal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Read more about EPAF.
Mass Graves: Unearthing Evidence of Barre-era War Crimes
In 1997, heavy rains and flooding exposed evidence of mass graves in and around Somaliland's capital city of Hargeisa. [1] The bones were found in the vicinity of the former headquarters of the 26th division of the Somali National Army and the notorious execution site known as Malko Durduro.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) independent expert on Somalia, Mona Rishwami, formally requested an independent forensic examination of the sites. [2] On April 11, 1997 Physicians for Human Rights, under the auspices of UNHCHR, conducted an on-site forensic assessment of the mass graves. The forensic team examined over 100 known and alleged mass gravesites. Two sites were identified definitively as mass graves: the Malko Durduro Elementary School site and the Badhka site. At both locations the team found skeletal remains of victims apparently bound together by ropes or cloth ligatures.
In response to cries for redress, the Somaliland government established a War Crimes Investigation
Commission (WCIC) to investigate human rights abuses committed by the Barre regime and to support the prosecution of alleged war criminals. For these purposes, the WCIC began to identify victims and witnesses; collect testimony and other evidence; and locate, mark, register, and preserve the sites of mass graves.
In 2001 a report by a UN Special Rapporteur for Somalia indicated that many former military personnel suspected of war crimes and human rights violations had found safe haven in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. To date, only one such perpetrator, General Mohamed Ali Samantar, has been held accountable for his role in the abuses of that regime.
http://www.cja.org
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| CJA client Aziz Deria at Badkha 2 gravesite with relatives of missing persons in the 1984 massacre. |
With CJA's sponsorship, the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team and the government of the Republic of Somaliland have opened an international forensic training program in Hargeisa, Somaliland. The project runs from September 24 through October 21, 2012. Participants in this historic effort will share their experience with the rest of the world throughout that time. Their posts will inform and reflect on the search for the missing and disappeared, giving readers a window into the process of fact-finding and forensic investigation of human rights violations in Somaliland that will allow access to truth and justice for the families of the victims.
Forensic Anthropology and Human Rights
Organized collection of forensic evidence of human rights violations is an important step toward discovering the truth, achieving justice, and ensuring that such crimes are not repeated. Incontrovertible physical evidence of such abuses is important both for the judicial process and for the survivors, as it provides the world with an objective account and acknowledgement of the abuses suffered.
The Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team in Somaliland
Encouraged by a second historic peaceful election and transfer of power in Somaliland in 2010, CJA invited partner Jose Pablo Baraybar, Director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) and Recipient of the 2011 Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award, to travel with us to Somaliland in July 2011. In collaboration with CJA, victims' families, and local government officials, including Somaliland's War Crimes Investigation Committee (WCIC), Mr. Baraybar began a preliminary assessment of the mass grave sites to determine the possibilities of providing relief to the families and preserving evidence for any future transitional justice efforts.
The field school will assist in training the staff of the WCIC to conduct forensic investigations of
 |
| Arabsiyo Execution Site Optimal |
In addition to their coursework, the students are posting to a CJA-hosted online blog. Their posts inform and reflect on the search for the missing and disappeared that allows access to truth and justice for the families of the victims, giving readers a window into the process of fact-finding and forensic investigation of human rights violations in Somaliland.
CJA client Aziz Deria underscores the project's importance:
I believe both my late father Mohamed Iid and my younger brother Mustafa are among those remains in Malko Durduro and thus, for me, this initiative in Somaliland is personal.
EPAF has previously trained local investigators in Peru, Nepal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Read more about EPAF.
Mass Graves: Unearthing Evidence of Barre-era War Crimes
In 1997, heavy rains and flooding exposed evidence of mass graves in and around Somaliland's capital city of Hargeisa. [1] The bones were found in the vicinity of the former headquarters of the 26th division of the Somali National Army and the notorious execution site known as Malko Durduro.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) independent expert on Somalia, Mona Rishwami, formally requested an independent forensic examination of the sites. [2] On April 11, 1997 Physicians for Human Rights, under the auspices of UNHCHR, conducted an on-site forensic assessment of the mass graves. The forensic team examined over 100 known and alleged mass gravesites. Two sites were identified definitively as mass graves: the Malko Durduro Elementary School site and the Badhka site. At both locations the team found skeletal remains of victims apparently bound together by ropes or cloth ligatures.
In response to cries for redress, the Somaliland government established a War Crimes Investigation
Commission (WCIC) to investigate human rights abuses committed by the Barre regime and to support the prosecution of alleged war criminals. For these purposes, the WCIC began to identify victims and witnesses; collect testimony and other evidence; and locate, mark, register, and preserve the sites of mass graves.In 2001 a report by a UN Special Rapporteur for Somalia indicated that many former military personnel suspected of war crimes and human rights violations had found safe haven in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. To date, only one such perpetrator, General Mohamed Ali Samantar, has been held accountable for his role in the abuses of that regime.
http://www.cja.org
Oct 26, 2012
Oct 20, 2012
Genocide on the Isaq People by Said Barre - The Combat Genocide Association
GENOCIDE OF THE ISAAQ IN SOMALIA
Somalia is comprised of four main tribes. Throughout the reign of Ziad Bare the Isaaq tribe has been suppressed and segregated from Somalia. In 1988 Bare gave orders to annihilate the tribe, and his army began to bomb their cities and murder tribe members.
Location: Somaliland, Northern Somalia
Year: 1988-1989
The Perpetrators: Somali Government and Ogaden Tribe
The Victims: Isaaq Tribe
Number of People Murdered: 100,000 – 400,000 (estimates vary)
Background:
In 1960 Somalia declared independence as a union between provinces which until then had been colonies of Britain and Italy. In 1969 a military coup was led by the Chief of Staff Siad Barre. Barre abolished Somali democracy and led an Islamic communist regime in close partnership with the USSR, which sold him weapons to use against internal and external enemies. In 1977 Somalia declared war against Ethiopia in an attempt to conquer the Ogaden Desert where Somali nomads from the Ogaden clan (to which Barre’s mother belonged) lived.
Somalia was defeated. The defeat led to a massive economic crisis and one million refugees from the Ogaden Desert fled to Somali territory, mostly to northern Somalia where the Isaaq tribe dwelt. The relative stability of the Barre regime was undermined. In 1979, after two difficult years of crisis, Barre turned to the West and turned his back on the USSR which had supported him until then. The Barre regime began to crumble: members of his party began to plot against him, members of his tribe and other tribes which had been subject to discrimination began to oppose his regime, the opposition parties (from other tribes) established military forces, and a civil war began.
During the years of his rule, Barre promoted members of different tribes in order to stabilize his power. He would initially promote the interests of a certain tribe and oppress another tribe, but then afterwards promote the tribe he had previously oppressed and oppress the tribe he had promoted. Only the Isaaq, a large tribe which lived in the nation’s north, were never promoted in any way or involved in the mechanisms of government whatsoever.
Barre’s efforts to control Isaaq merchants’ trade in cattle and khat, and settle Ogaden refugees on Isaaq lands, worsened the conflict between the Isaaq tribe and the ruling southern tribes. A number of tribes, led by the Isaaq, established an armed underground called the Somali National Movement. In response, the Somali government armed the Ogaden refugees in order to use them as soldiers against the Isaaq tribesmen. In addition, the government encouraged the refugees to claim ownership of land and to expel Isaaq. The barely-equipped guerillas from the SNM attacked a number of Ogaden refugee camps and government facilities in northern Somalia in 1988. Barre responded with great brutality.
The Extermination:
On May 27, 1988 Siad Barre gave instructions to exterminate all members of the Isaaq tribe. Military forces under the command of Mohammed Said Hersi began aerial and artillery bombardment of the three cities in which the Isaaq lived: Hargeisa, Berbera and Bur’o. They also attacked villages and nomadic encampments where tribe members lived. Infantry forces exterminated those fleeing from cities, and after the cities were completely destroyed, went in on foot to complete the killing work directly. Many bodies were buried in mass graves.
General Said Hersi reported to Barre that he could not wipe out all of the Isaaq, as they were too numerous. It was then that his troops began forced marches of Isaaq tribesmen across the desert towards the Ethiopian border. Many perished of hunger and thirst along the way. The city of Hargeisa, which held some 350,000 inhabitants before the attack, was completely abandoned. The whole area was laid waste – animal herds were confiscated, agriculture destroyed, and mines laid everywhere. Various estimates give the number killed in less than one year at between 100,000 and 400,000 Isaaq. More than half a million Isaaq fled to Ethiopia; some half a million more lost their homes and became internally displaced persons in the northern region.
After the Slaughter:
After the three main cities of northern Somalia were destroyed and abandoned, they were resettled by members of the Ogaden tribe and other tribes close to the government. 300,000 Isaaq remained in refugee camps in Ethiopia and thousands more fled Africa entirely. In 1989, in response to significant pressure from Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, the US government reduced its support and arming of the Somali government. In 1990 as a result Siad Barre’s government fell and he fled to Nigeria. Since that time there has been no stable government in Somalia; hundreds of thousands of Isaaq returned to northern Somalia and declared the independence of Somaliland, a piece of land about one-third of the size of Somalia. Somaliland functions as a distinct state with democratic elections, its own currency and governing institutions located in the capital city of Hargeisa, but it has not gained official recognition by any country.
The United States and the Genocide of the Isaaq:
In 1998 the US Department of Defense made an official statement regarding the Somali government’s policy towards the Isaaq tribe. The statement opens with the question of whether the Somali government is carrying out genocide against the Isaaq tribe. It explains the balance of forces in the Somali civil war, presents the reasons for war between the Ogaden and Isaaq tribes, and reports on the artillery attacks and aerial bombings of the cities of Hargeisa, Berbera and Bur’o, including a description of the total destruction of Hargeisa and Bur’o. It reports that between May 27, 1988 and December 1988, 5,000 Isaaq people were killed. In the statement, the concept of genocide is never mentioned apart from the opening question and it explicitly spells out that Somalis, including those of the Isaaq tribe, are not eligible for refugee status.
http://www.cga.org.il/english/?page_id=150
Related Images:
Related Reports:
SOMALIA A Government at War - Human Rights Watch
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/somalia_1990.pdf
SOMALIA. A Government at War. With Its Own People. Testimonies About the Killings and the Conflict in the North. AN AFRICA WATCH REPORTBritish parliament's debate on Somaliland - war crimes against
http://finalsolutiontoisaqproblem.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/british-parliaments-debate-on.htmlhttp://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmordbk1/40209w01.htm
Victims of war crimes unearthed by heavy spring rains
http://finalsolutiontoisaqproblem.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/victims-of-war-crimes-unearthed-by.html
Morgan's Death Letter-The Final Solution to Somalia's Isaq problem
http://finalsolutiontoisaqproblem.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/morgans-death-letter-last-solution-to.html
Wejiga 1-aad Ee Baadhitaanka Xasuuqii Taliskii Siyaad Barre Oo La Soo Gabogabeeyay Iyo Khubaradda Oo Soo Bandhigay Wixii Ay Heleen (Sawiro)
Hargeysa: Wejiga 1-aad Ee Baadhitaanka Xasuuqii Taliskii Siyaad Barre Oo La Soo Gabogabeeyay Iyo Khubaradda Oo Soo Bandhigay Wixii Ay Heleen (Sawiro).
Hargeysa (Ramaas) Okt.18, 2012 – Khuburadda caalamiga ah ee mudooyinkii u dambeeyay baadhitaanka ku samaynayey xabaallo Wadareedyada ay ku aasan yihiin dadkii shacabka ahaa ee ay Magaaladda Hargeysa ku xasuuqeen Ciidamadda Taliskii Siyaad Barre, ayaa maanta soo gabogabeeyay wejigii koowaad ee baadhitaankaasi oo muddo socday, iyagga oo soo bandhigay wixii cadaymo ah ee ay u heleen xasuuqaasi.
Khuburadan oo baadhayey xabaal-wadareedyada ku yaala Malko Durduro iyo deegaanka Badhka ee Koonfurta Galbeed ee Magaaladda Hargeysa ayaa waxay soo bandhigeen Qalfoofka 38 ruux oo xabaal kaliya ku wada aasnaa, kuwaasi oo ay sheegeen inay baadhitaan dheer ku sameeyeen si ay u xaqiijiyaan nooca dilkooda, iyagga oo tilmaamay inay xaqqiiqsadeen in dadkan la xasuuqay, isla-markaana si raabbo-raabbo ah xabad loogu laayey.
Khuburadan caalamiga ah oo ka socda Hay’adda baadhitaanka xasuuqyada caalamka ka dhaca ee loo yaqaano EPAF, ayaa sidoo kal e baadhitaan ku sameeyay dharkii ay dadkaasi la xasuuqay xidhnaayeen wakhtigii la laynayey, waxayna bandhigooda tusaale ugu soo qaateen hal qof oo 25 xabadood lagaga dhuftay inta u dhaxaysa lugaha iyo ilaa caloosha, taasi oo tusaale u noqonaysa sida dadkaasi loo xasuuqay.
Mid ka mid ah Qalfoofka ay khuburadu baadheen
Khuburadan ayaa qalfoofka ay ka soo saareen xabaallaha qof walba isku habeeyay xubnihiisa, si loo garan karo ehelkiisa, iyadda Franco Mora oo ka mid ah khuburada baadhayey xabaallo-wadareedyada oo halkaasi ka hadlay ayaa sharaxay baadhitaankooda iyo dadka lafahooda soo saareen “Halkan waxaad ku aragta qalfoofkii dadkii la laayey, waanad aragta qof waliba inaanu isku gaynay lafihiisii oo dhan, taas oo la garan karo qof waliba dhererkiisa, baadhitaan badan oo aanu samaynay, waxaanu ku ogaanay qaabka naxariis daradda ahayd ee dadkan loo laayey”ayuu yidhi waxaanu intaa ku daray “Waxaanu soo ururinay qofkasta xubnihii lafahiisa oo aanu isku keenay si loo aqoonsado qof kasta oo dhintay eheladoodii”
Gudoomiyaha guddida baadhitaanka Xasuuqa ee Somaliland Mr Khadar Like, oo isaguna bandhigan oo ka dhacay Magaaladda Hargeysa ka hadlay ayaa yidhi “Xabaashan (Xabaal-wadareedka Maydadka laga soo saaray) waxa laga soo helay 38 qof, waxayna cadeeyeen sidii loo dilay inay ahayd xasuuq, si naxariis daro ahna rasaas loogu furay loona wada aasay”
Muuqaalka Dharkii uu xidhnaa Marxuum Xasuuqa Ku Jiray oo Muujinaya Tiradda Rasaasta Lagu dhuftay iyo halka ay Kaga dhacday
Baadhitaanka lagu sameeyay lafahan la soo saaray ayaa waxa baadhitaankooda qayb ka ahaa arday cadaan ah oo wax ka barta Jaamacadaha dalka Maraykanka iyo ardayda jaamacada Hargeysa qaarkood, kuwaasi wax ku baranayey lafahan.
Ramaasnews Desk
Hargeisa.
Sep 18, 2012
Condolence: U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens
What Was Said to the Rose: Tribute to a well loved Ambassador J. Christoper Stevens
Ambassador J. Christoper Stevens
U.S. Ambassador to Libya from June 2012 to September 2012
J. Christopher Stevens Guest Book: sign their guest book, share your condolences, or read their obituary at Charlotte Observer
Sep 2, 2012
Vote for Edna Hospital to get an ambulance for the Hospital
Edna Hospital is trying to get an ambulance for the hospital. The hospital's old one is dying of old age.
The Ranger company is offering one to the project with the most votes.
Here is the link :
Edna Hospital Friends is asking friends, all friends with Facebook, and their friends to vote for Hospital.
Sep 1, 2012
Somalia’s Government Transition Maintains the Status Quo
Somalia’s Government Transition Maintains the Status Quo
Today, the mandate for Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) expired, and parliament met for the first time to begin the selection process for the country’s new president and speaker of parliament.
Though the process to create a new government has been flawed, the Obama Administration and the international community have hailed this development as momentous progress. In reality, there is little reason to celebrate, as the new government will likely mirror the ineffective and corrupt TFG.
A Transition to a Transition
For more than 20 years, Somalia was without a legitimate representative government. The TFG, appointed by the United Nations in a process conducted in neighboring Kenya, lacked democratic legitimacy, was notoriously corrupt, and achieved little in the way of peace and stability.
The TFG was the 14th attempt to establish a permanent government since 1991. This “transitional” government was charged with paving the way toward a permanent government. The U.N. and a handful of TFG actors created a “Roadmap” in September 2011, which mandated the formation of an 885-member National Constituent Assembly (NCA), which then voted on a draft constitution. Afterwards, a technical selection committee was charged with choosing 275 members of the NCA to serve in the parliament. The parliament was supposed to vote for a new president on the same day the TFG’s mandate expires—today.
The process is undemocratic and a poor standard for future governance. Neither the NCA, the parliament, nor the president are elected by the Somali people. Somalia’s draft constitution was supposed to be achieved through public consultations and a popular referendum as mandated by the Transitional National Charter. Instead, it was voted on by the NCA, not the Somali people. The NCA then had a week to review it before approving it on August 1. Despite 96 percent of NCA members voting in favor of the constitution, the process fell short of upholding the openness and transparency called for in the national charter.
So far, the technical committee has selected only 225 members of the parliament. This has not stopped the parliament from holding its first session and starting the selection process for the president and speaker. As a result, not only are members not selected by the Somali people, but the members that will occupy the remaining seats will not be able to vote for the next president and speaker.
Even when the parliamentary selection is complete, its membership is likely to be similar to the former TFG’s representation, as the process is being manipulated through corruption and intimidation. Approximately 70 parliamentary nominees were automatically rejected by the technical committee for past criminal activity. Last week, James Swan, the Obama Administration’s representative for Somalia, reported concerns of “inadequate representation of women and in some cases reports of former warlords…being nominated by their communities.”[1]
Flawed from the Start
The TFG’s inability to establish peace and stability stemmed from its mismanagement, corruption, and outright criminality. According to a recent U.N. report by the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, TFG leaders were “reluctant to fulfill their transitional responsibilities under the national charter and some have proven actively obstructive, calling for a further extension of their term of office.”[2] TFG President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed reneged on his promise to not seek re-election.
Furthermore, the report recognizes that the “prospects for stabilization and effective governance have fallen to political and commercial ‘elites’ who appropriate, privatize and criminalize the core function of the Somali state.”[3] According to a World Bank report in May 2012, nearly 68 percent of TFG revenues in 2009–2010 were unaccounted for.[4] Additionally, Sharif used his authority to facilitate piracy, furnishing well-known criminals with diplomatic passports.
Although it is easy to blame this corruption on Somalia’s lack of development and governance, the U.N. and other countries are complicit in these problems. The international community believes that Somalia’s chaotic state (e.g., terrorism) does not present the conditions that are necessary to establish representative democracy, which would at least have to account to the electorate for its deficiencies. Instead, the U.N. and others hope to ease Somalia into a more democratic process in the years ahead.
U.S. Interests
The Somali people have lost faith in transitional institutions, they are fatigued by the desperate conditions they constantly suffer, and they want their country run by Somalis rather than dictated by international entities. The U.S. shares these concerns.
Somalia’s lack of governance has allowed terrorism and piracy to proliferate. The U.S. and international partners have sought to combat the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab and pirate gangs by supporting the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Somalia’s National Security Force (NSF), and an international coalition of navies. While AMISOM has pushed al-Shabaab from some of its strongholds and piracy has decreased this year, these problems cannot be solved by military means alone. A commitment to good governance and the rule of law is crucial to future stability.
The U.S. is also one of the largest donors in humanitarian assistance to the region. When famine struck the Horn of Africa last summer, the U.S. was the single largest donor, committing over a billion dollars to the relief process. However, the TFG blocked relief groups and deliveries from starving populations, and the NSF often stole food supplies and committed atrocities against the most vulnerable.
What the U.S. Should Do
Supporting the undemocratic TFG model merely prolongs the status quo in Somalia. Somalia’s leadership should be responsible to the Somali people, not the international community. Until the Somali government has demonstrated a commitment to democracy, the Obama Administration should do the following:
- Withhold bilateral assistance to the new government. The U.S. should not do anything that rewards Somalia’s poor governance. Bilateral aid to Somalia’s next government, which will likely be populated by the same professional criminals that dominated the TFG, should be withheld. This includes aid to the NSF, whose soldiers are infamous for their dubious loyalties and widespread abuse of the civilian population. However, exceptions should be made in humanitarian emergencies—but only when non-government entities are able to provide the necessary services.
- Continue to support AMISOM. U.S. support to AMISOM is provided directly to the African governments participating in the mission and should be continued. AMISOM is not the solution to the crisis in Somalia, but it does stabilize territory that would otherwise be in the hands of terrorists.
- Recognize Somaliland’s provisional independence. Having declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, Somaliland proves that democratic governance in Somalia is possible. Hargeisa’s connections to Mogadishu are limited to the extent that the Somaliland government is forced to deal with the effects of the TFG’s failures. Somaliland should be rewarded for its commitment to democracy and not be held back by Somalia’s incompetency.
Somalia’s new system of governance is set up for failure. The process by which the government is created is inherently undemocratic, yet the U.N. and other members of the international community expect the system to evolve to representative democracy as conditions on the ground improve. Additionally, one should never underestimate the ability of Somali politicians to undermine democracy. Rather than achieving a significant milestone for governance, Somalia is maintaining the status quo under another name.
Morgan Lorraine Roach is a Research Associate in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.
[1]Jason Straziuso, “U.S., U.N. Concerned over Corrupt Somali Transition,” The Washington Times, August 14, 2012, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/14/us-un-concerned-over-corrupt-somali-transition/ (accessed August 20, 2012).
[2]U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, June 27, 2012, p. 11, http://www.somaliareport.com/downloads/UN_REPORT_2012.pdf (accessed August 20, 2012).
[3]Ibid., p. 12.
[4]Bronwyn
Bruton and J. Peter Pham at the Atlantic Council report that the TFG
was unable to account for 96 percent of bilateral aid. See Bronwyn
Bruton and J. Peter Pham, “How to End the Stalemate in Somalia,” Foreign Affairs, September 30, 2011, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/68315/bronwyn-bruton-and-j-peter-pham/how-to-end-the-stalemate-in-somalia (accessed August 20, 2012).
Source: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/08/somalia-s-government-transition-maintains-the-status-quo
Aug 31, 2012
SOMALILAND DIASPORA GROUPS PRESS RELEASE AND AUGUST 2012 STATEMENT By UDDAA
Somaliland Diaspora Groups PR and August 2012 Statement:
26 August 2012: Somaliland Diaspora Groups issue a Press Release and an “August 2012 Statement” about Somaliland and Somalia’s new constitution and gov’t. The gist of the message is: “We
are ..., yet again saddened by the fact that Somalians are still busy
crafting constitutions and governments that claim to include Somaliland,
when it is clear to everyone that since 1991, Somalilanders have not
only established peace, but have adopted, a long time ago, their own
Constitution and have their own democratically elected president and
parliament. Whilst we hope that Somalians achieve the peace and
stability that has evaded them so far, we urge them and the
international community to accept and respect the irreversible decision
of the Somaliland people to re-gain their sovereignty in May 1991. We
state unequivocally once again, ‘We have our own constitution and
elected representatives, good luck with yours’.”
The Press Release: [English-pdf] [Somali-pdf]
The August 2012 Statement: [English-pdf] [Somali-pdf]
Aug 19, 2012
Somaliland: President Silanyo Congratulations Somalilanders on EID Ul-Fitr
By: Yusuf M Hasan HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – Somalilanders have been wished a happy Eid Ul-Fitr that is commemorated after the holy month of Ramadan.
In a press statement released from the presidency, H.E Ahmed Mahmoud Silanyo, the president extended his personal wishes of good tidings and those of the government to all Somaliland national both in the country and in the diaspora.
"I wish you happiness during celebrations for the Auspicious EID Ul-Fitr and pray to Allah that we all see a similar commemoration next year" Said the president.President Silanyo further who prayed that Allah will grant Somalilanders and entire Muslim fraternity peace and happiness also prayed for the health of those suffering illnesses.
During EID Ul-Fitr celebrations I urge all to forgive those who have transgressed them as well as join hands in maintaining peaceful co-existence and nationalism The president informed that he will address the nation after EID prayers in which he will join them in Hargeisa.
CIID MUBAARAK ... CIID MUBAARAK ..... CIID MUBAARAK "KULLU CAAM WA-ANTUM BIL KHAYR"
Aug 5, 2012
Jul 31, 2012
Somalilanders zoeken erkenning voor onafhankelijkheid
Somalilanders zoeken erkenning voor onafhankelijkheid
Media files 1054415093.jpg (JPEG Picture)
193611909ONL1205255448653.urlFLVLong.flv (com.adobe.flv)
0050.jpg
Media files 1054415093.jpg (JPEG Picture)
193611909ONL1205255448653.urlFLVLong.flv (com.adobe.flv)
0050.jpg
Jun 26, 2012
SOMALILAND: President sends Independence Day greetings 52 years after British rule
HARGEISA — President Ahmed M. Silanyo has greeted Somaliland and its people on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of the Independence of the Republic.
This occasion, which brings together the past, the present and the future generations, commemorates Somaliland receiving their independence from Great Britain on 26th June in 1960.
According to the presidential press office, in his message of greetings, Mr Silanyo said “on this day of great historical significance, I want to convey my good wishes to Somaliland and its citizens both in the country and abroad. I pray for prosperity and full statehood.”
The president called on the international community to fulfill their international obligations and accept the aspirations of Somaliland people. He said the international community needs to accept the voice of Somaliland and its people who deeply value the independence of their nation.
“At the will of the people chaos yielded to order and progress replaced despair while totalitarianism was thrown out for democracy. This is their voice, the will of the people. Somaliland has fulfilled all its requirements and now its time the international community did their part,” he said.
The president finally urged the citizens to be vigilant of anything that might harm or danger Somaliland’s stability and national unity.
Somaliland ended a British rule 52 years ago from today and temporarily unified with its southern neighbour Somalia. The union collapsed after differences erupted between the sides leading to a decade-long war that left more than 50,000 killed in Somaliland. Somaliland reclaimed its independence in 1991 but it has failed to gain diplomatic recognition from any country.
Some of the people that spoke to Somalilandpress urged the government to cancel any planned activities due to the fact that some parts of the country are plagued in severe drought. They said they feel guilty to celebrate while some will be suffering with their basic survival.
Somalilandpress
June 26, 2012
Jun 13, 2012
The SomaliLand Birth By Christopher Claxton
The original photograph of Sheikh Issaq’s tomb at Mait taken by the author and the issued stamp
By Christopher Claxton
Christopher Claxton recalls a vacation in Somaliland in 1957, when he took a photograph subsequently used for the 1s.30 stamp in the then current definitive set—and the work of his father, H W Claxton, in designing the King George VI definitives. Anyone who has traveled through desert wilderness, whether it be Somaliland's hot Guban or the icy glaciers of, say, Mont Blanc, will know just how beautifully awe inspiring they can be.
It can indeed be true of the whole of living. Likewise, if you drive down that seriously steep escarpment from the forests of Erigavo to the barren heat below, and then press on to the sea at Maid, there you will find a most important sight. It is the remote white dome of Sheikh Ishaaq's tomb.
Our memories are but signposts through the past. At the Secretariat offices in Hargeysa and then a maverick 19-year old 2nd Lieutenant in the Somaliland Scouts, I had in 1957 visited an official named Coghill to borrow some maps. ‘Is it true that you are planning an expedition to Erigavo', he had asked, ‘Please could you do us a favor. We need a photograph of Sheikh Ishaaq's tomb at Maid', then spelt and pronounced Mait, ‘for the next Somaliland stamp'. He drew a sketch of the scene that he thought best. There was only one answer to give.
It was the custom for young officers for their vacations sometimes to take two trucks, a section of Somali soldiers, various tents and several drums of petrol to explore the barren country. I had earlier ventured westwards from the high plateau at Borama and traversed down through the scrubland and across the dried river watercourse taking the long route to Zeila, and thence on to French Djibouti.
The expedition
Living can be so transitory. My co-subaltern explorer companion on the next expedition, Jeffrey Jewell, would become a tea planter and later worked in the drinks trade. But then as co-warriors in uniform, he and I set out, not westwards as before but eastwards. From Hargeysa our small convoy reached along the dirt road to Burao, next south and eastwards along the border, then rougher still to Las Anod, onwards again to the Mullah's high walled ruined fortifications at Taleh, and finally northwards up to an altitude of 2400 meters (7920 feet) where we found the deep green forests of Erigavo. It took only a few days and the journey was without mishap.
The pass down the 7920 feet to Maid is precipitous. John Harper Nelson, a major, who would some years on become a radio announcer, author and publisher in Australia, had engineered much of the 40-mile route. It had required large amounts of explosive to break rock, and large amounts of initiative to carve its winding route out of the escarpment.
But then Harper Nelson was an exceptional man. He had fought and importantly survived three serious wounds in the 1943–1944 battles, including the desperate battle at Monte Cassino, from the southern end of Italy to the north. In this politically correct age it is an easy mistake to forget the courageous and creative daring of those small numbers of Britons who, with dedication and care, managed such exploits with the minimum of supportive engineering expertise. It was of course for them also a rare privilege. And so it would be for Jeff and I to add in this modest way to the world's precious stamp collections.
Further, a little further', I called to my companion as he inched the truck forwards. ‘Fire!' The camera snapped its target. A new stamp was born that would have the value of 1 shilling 30 cents with Sheikh Ishaaq's white desert tomb encapsulated on 35mm celluloid in color. The tomb stood apart from the sleepy village, aloof as though upon its dignity.
‘As seen from our vantage point', I subsequently wrote, ‘a purple mountain formed a royal backcloth to the tomb's simple whiteness.
A mullah attended its splendid interior and ministered to pilgrims who came from far and wide. According to legend, as we were told, the Sheikh had come from the Yemen and landed at Maid somewhere between the tenth and 15th centuries, made alliances with the local tribes, and through his sons became ancestor of the chief tribes.
Pilgrims would give alms. You had to wait your turn to enter. Our ten-pound supply of sugar was never seen again'. Shortly afterwards Jeff went swimming in the shimmering blue ocean, until the dorsal fin of a shark catalyzed his hurried exit. Then we drove on, traversing through the torrid heat the length of the Guban to Berbera.
Not so many months later, Gibbons Stamp Monthly ran my piece in October 1958 on this minor drama. It was entitled ‘The Sheikh's Last Tribe'. If the Sheikh had been responsible for the four tribes of Somaliland, he had now posthumously given birth to a fifth, but this new tribe ‘two dimensional, rectangular and with perforated edges'. And to those who say they understand destiny, please read on. Its powerful forces seemed to have been at work.
My previous visit
This was not part of my first visit to the Horn of Africa but of my second. Those 19 years before, in 1937, I had been brought as a screaming recent born to the hot humid Gulf side port and administrative centre of Berbera. There my father, H W Claxton, had been promoted from Head of Customs to Treasurer and his beautiful young wife Isabel was his consort. The comforts of air-conditioning still lay many years ahead. Somaliland existed economically thanks to its sheep. The major export of this essential commodity passed through Berbera. The country's income came largely from export duties levied on sheep and their skins before they were carried in sailing Arab dhows across the Gulf for consumption in Aden and upon which Aden depended.
As Treasurer, Claxton Snr was therefore a most important official. He and his family inhabited a generous bungalow located not so many yards from the haven of colonial officialdom, the bar and tennis courts of the Club. For additional recreation it was customary for them to drive some weekends across the sands and up another several thousand foot escarpment, the precipitous Sheikh Pass, to the cool and dewy plateau village of Sheikh. There a second bungalow, which went with the job, gave welcome relief from the heat of the plains far below.
This is where the destiny comes in. There were only a tiny handful of British officials, officers and their wives in the country. Each had to use their multiple skills. The serving Governor, Sir Arthur Lawrence, was of the view that Somaliland should have pictorial stamps. He also considered that they should not go outside for their design but rely upon their own resources. Just as Coghill subsequently asked me, the Governor loftily asked Claxton Snr, ‘Can you not do something about this?'.
Original sketches by H W Claxton, the author’s father, for the three designs used
on Somaliland’s King George VI definitives
He answered that he was no artist. He was too modest by far, for what followed was the real start of Somaliland's own postage stamps.
As Treasurer, Claxton Snr was therefore a most important official. He and his family inhabited a generous bungalow located not so many yards from the haven of colonial officialdom, the bar and tennis courts of the Club. For additional recreation it was customary for them to drive some weekends across the sands and up another several thousand foot escarpment, the precipitous Sheikh Pass, to the cool and dewy plateau village of Sheikh. There a second bungalow, which went with the job, gave welcome relief from the heat of the plains far below.
This is where the destiny comes in. There were only a tiny handful of British officials, officers and their wives in the country. Each had to use their multiple skills. The serving Governor, Sir Arthur Lawrence, was of the view that Somaliland should have pictorial stamps. He also considered that they should not go outside for their design but rely upon their own resources. Just as Coghill subsequently asked me, the Governor loftily asked Claxton Snr, ‘Can you not do something about this?'. He answered that he was no artist. He was too modest by far, for what followed was the real start of Somaliland's own postage stamps.
What to choose as subjects?
The first question that arose was, what to choose as subjects? ‘One obvious answer', my father wrote in the December 1954 edition of Gibbons Stamp Monthly, published four years before my contribution, ‘was the Berbera Blackhead sheep. No other country had, as far as (they) were aware, a sheep on its stamps', indeed which one would? Alternatives were the ubiquitous camel, or the Greater Kudu. Having no works of reference or even a stamp catalogue, Claxton Snr set to work. He drew in pencil a sheep and a Kudu, the borders on each side illustrated with spears, the sheep being, you will understand, no mere commonplace but the basis of the country's economic subsistence. He also drew a design for the rupee values that showed a map of the territory in order to tell the world where Somaliland was, for, apart from those who lived there, few then knew. These sketches were then turned by more expert draftsmen elsewhere into stamps in denominations from 1.2a. to 5r.
The issue came out in May 1938 and lasted a mere 34 months. The reason for this short time span was that in 1940 the Italians invaded in overwhelming strength. The heavily outnumbered British troops retreated and Berbera was occupied. The invaders blew the Treasury strong room open and its stock of ‘loose stamps and of sheets of them were scattered by the wind far and wide', ending up as far away as the street market in Addis Ababa. And when the British military reoccupied the territory in 1941 the military Government declared the issue demonetized. So ended that particular tribe. As all philatelists know, of course, the replacement issue, which appeared in April 1942, retained the same designs but the angle of the King's head was altered and he now looked straight at you. To this unimportant footnote to a world now long gone, I have to add this.
It grew as everyone knows out of the then economics, strategy and ethos of empire. All that has done its job and has rightly passed on. Today its former officers and their wives are either in heaven or in gardening retirement picking roses, many of the Somali governed correspondingly likewise. The peoples of Somaliland, of course, these many years later have their own Constitution, their own processes. They hold referendums, they organize their own affairs as does the rest of the world, struggling with the vicissitudes of living and enjoying the easy parts, well and mercifully without us.
A lovely sentiment
So what remains to say? Only this. A safe life creates little. An adventurous one brings turmoil as well as achievement and fulfillment. It was United States President Theodore Roosevelt who had observed that ‘it is not the critic who counts … the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again; who at the best knows … high achievement … and if he fails at the worst, … whilst daring greatly, … shall never be with those who (knew) neither defeat nor victory', a lovely sentiment. Somaliland has done all that and more.
I too am able to look back on these signposts through the past that are now but memories of where it all began. As for the stamps, they hold proper place only in reminiscence, in stamp albums and in the dusty folios of Gibbons Stamp Monthly. Christopher Claxton is an author and international businessman, who has traveled round the world nine times, worked in more than 40 countries, the first of them Somaliland, set up businesses in 109 countries and written six books. His father, H W Claxton OBE, died in 2002 at the age of 102.
Below: Collection of former British Somaliland stamps
Source: Somaliland Times
Jun 12, 2012
May 25, 2012
Happy Africa Day from Somaliland
25th May Happy Africa Day
Somaliland Regional Football
Tournament
Click here for more Photos: For Your Eyes Only, Somaliland
May 18, 2012
Happy 21st Somaliland Anniversary Celebration
Happy 21st Anniversary
Somaliland Independence Celebration Day
18th May 2012
18th May 2012
Hello Somaliland, مرحبا أرض الصومال, Bonjour Somaliland,
Hallå Somaliland, Hola Somaliland, Hallo Somaliland
Hees Cusub oo loogu talagalay xuska 18May 2012 - Xaawa Kiin - Oodweynnews
 |
| Visit Somaliland Conference |
Apr 8, 2012
The Other Africa Project awaiting funding to exhibit in Somaliland
Ever so close and yet so far from finalising the budget for the Hargeisa exhibition. It is time to pull all the strings.
The work needs to be exhibited soon to keep the project sustainable and I am looking at opportunities in all African countries.
If you know companies/organisations/
The work needs to be exhibited soon to keep the project sustainable and I am looking at opportunities in all African countries.
If you know companies/organisations/
Apr 5, 2012
Apr 4, 2012
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Oprah Winfrey, Oprah's Interest in Sufism
| LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE | |||||
 | NEW: Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Oprah Winfrey: Oprah's Interest in Sufism Watch: Oprah's Interest in Sufism (estimated 2-3 min.) | ||||
Mar 31, 2012
Mar 30, 2012
African democracy - A glass half-full
African democracy
A glass half-full
Representative government is still on the march in Africa, despite recent hiccups
Mar 31st 2012 | FREETOWN AND JOHANNESBURG
WHICH way will African politics go? The way of Senegal, where the president conceded electoral defeat on March 25th to a younger rival, extending a democratic tradition unbroken since independence in 1960? Or is nearby Mali a more troubling bellwether? A few days before Senegal’s vote, junior army officers stormed and looted the presidential palace in the Malian capital, Bamako, abruptly ending a 20-year stretch of democracy that had raised hopes for the wider region (see article).
Sad tales like Mali’s dominate news from Africa, yet in the longer term its political norms have evolved more towards politicians in suits than mutineers in battle fatigues. Democracy south of the Sahara may be sloppy and haphazard, but electoral contests and term limits are increasingly accepted as fixed rules, to be flouted at a would-be ruler’s peril, rather than distant ideals. Today only one African state, Eritrea, holds no elections. Even Mali’s coup-plotters have sworn to hold them soon. Tellingly, the country’s neighbours united in a storm of protest. “We cannot allow this country endowed with such precious democratic instruments, dating back at least two decades, to leave history by regressing,” said Alassane Ouattara, the president of Côte d’Ivoire.
Yet many Africa-watchers perceive a gradual erosion of democratic standards. In last year’s Liberian election, the former warlord Prince Yormie Johnson cruised the countryside wearing a red fez. Winding down a window of his Ford Expedition, he would toss banknotes at assembled voters and then speed off to the next village. At one campaign event he lambasted the sitting president for corruption, while an aide fretted about running out of cash to pay off journalists for good coverage.
African elections do not necessarily produce representative governments. In oil-rich but poverty-ridden Equatorial Guinea, President Teodoro Obiang was “elected” with 95% of the vote. His party “won” 99% of seats in parliament. Many opposition parties in Gambia planned to boycott elections on March 29th, assuming they would be rigged. In Zambia, another democratic standard-bearer, the government has tried to shoo the opposition out of parliament for failing to pay a party fee.
Academic studies also paint a gloomy picture. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual democracy index ranks only one African country, Mauritius, as a “full” democracy, though it uses tough criteria that count countries like much-praised Botswana as “flawed” democracies. The Mo Ibrahim Index, a quantitative measure of good governance, shows a decline of 5% since 2007 in African political participation. Freedom House, an American think-tank, says the number of full “electoral democracies” among the 49 sub-Saharan countries has fallen from 24 in 2005 to 19 today.
Southern Africa, historically the best-performing region, is now a problem child. Nepotism and corruption increasingly mar politics in the regional giant, South Africa. The president of Madagascar, André Rajoelina, has remained in power for three years after a bloodless coup. President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi is behaving ever more despotically, provoking Western donors to suspend aid. But even here the news is not all bad. Madagascar may have elections later this year. Angola, where President José Eduardo Dos Santos has ruled since 1979, making him Africa’s longest-serving leader, will soon run parliamentary polls, and its ruling party may push Mr Dos Santos into retirement.
Still, Africa has come a long way. In 1990 Freedom House recorded just three African countries with multiparty political systems, universal suffrage, regular fraud-free elections and secret ballots. “Progress comes in waves,” says Alex Vines, head of the Africa programme at Chatham House, a London-based think-tank. Mali aside, the rest of West Africa has enjoyed a democratic boom. Sierra Leone and Liberia, both violent basket-cases not long ago, have set up respectable if imperfect political systems. Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire overcame spasms of strife and returned to democratic rule. Coup-prone Guinea-Bissau held a calm election on March 18th. Nigeria and Niger ran their best polls in recent memory last year. Ghanaian democracy has been praised by President Barack Obama.
Yet the poor, illiterate electorates of many African countries are obviously keen on handouts, and thus easy to manipulate. Election violence has also become more common. Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe saw serious clashes after their most recent polls, driven by longstanding ethnic and sectarian rifts.
All these came to a more or less swift end, unlike Africa’s civil wars of previous decades. Political progress during the next decade may be slower than in the past one. The easy post-cold-war advances have been made. Reformers must now set their sights higher. Ensuring better governance by building firm institutions is harder than putting ballots in a box.
Reformers have plenty of reasons to be hopeful, among them the growing sophistication of opposition groups. These used to be a mess—divided, undemocratic and starved of resources. One observer called them “the skunks at the democratic zoo”. Many are still hopeless, but some have learnt that discipline can put them within striking distance of power. Zambia and Senegal are recent examples.
Opposition parties also benefit from the general absence of ideological fault-lines in African politics since the demise of Marxism. More than in the West, voters there are swayed by evidence of individual competence, not party affiliation. This is useful for hungry opposition members competing with complacent governments. Africa’s high birth rates produce a pool of young voters who are more likely to take a chance on political newcomers. In many countries a president or party can win office even where all the supporters are under 30, so long as polls are fair.
At the same time, impressively high economic growth rates in many African countries have fuelled a communications explosion. Political campaigns need no longer depend on government-owned media or the ability to travel to far-flung places. They can reach voters directly and remotely via the internet and, especially, the ubiquitous mobile telephone. They can expose political skulduggery and also tabulate poll results instantaneously, making fraud easier to detect. In Nigeria’s 2011 election, tens of thousands of monitors recorded local results and fed them by text message into a central system run by volunteers. Devious governments have to invent ever more complicated and hence less effective ways of manipulating results.
The lack of voter data is a costly obstacle everywhere. Most Africans have no identity documents, so electoral rolls often need to be drafted from scratch for every poll. In Congo the government spent more than $500m on elections last year, making them the world’s most costly after America’s. High rates of illiteracy and a lack of capable institutions do not help. In Sierra Leone’s border regions, officials judge who should get a voting card by listening to people’s accents.
But setting aside the quality of African democracy, all but a few of the continent’s 1 billion people now expect to vote in regular national polls. That is something which 1.5 billion Asians, for all their impressive economic performance, cannot do.
From the print edition | Middle East and Africa
Sourcs: http://www.economist.com
A glass half-full
Representative government is still on the march in Africa, despite recent hiccups
Mar 31st 2012 | FREETOWN AND JOHANNESBURG
WHICH way will African politics go? The way of Senegal, where the president conceded electoral defeat on March 25th to a younger rival, extending a democratic tradition unbroken since independence in 1960? Or is nearby Mali a more troubling bellwether? A few days before Senegal’s vote, junior army officers stormed and looted the presidential palace in the Malian capital, Bamako, abruptly ending a 20-year stretch of democracy that had raised hopes for the wider region (see article).
Sad tales like Mali’s dominate news from Africa, yet in the longer term its political norms have evolved more towards politicians in suits than mutineers in battle fatigues. Democracy south of the Sahara may be sloppy and haphazard, but electoral contests and term limits are increasingly accepted as fixed rules, to be flouted at a would-be ruler’s peril, rather than distant ideals. Today only one African state, Eritrea, holds no elections. Even Mali’s coup-plotters have sworn to hold them soon. Tellingly, the country’s neighbours united in a storm of protest. “We cannot allow this country endowed with such precious democratic instruments, dating back at least two decades, to leave history by regressing,” said Alassane Ouattara, the president of Côte d’Ivoire.
Yet many Africa-watchers perceive a gradual erosion of democratic standards. In last year’s Liberian election, the former warlord Prince Yormie Johnson cruised the countryside wearing a red fez. Winding down a window of his Ford Expedition, he would toss banknotes at assembled voters and then speed off to the next village. At one campaign event he lambasted the sitting president for corruption, while an aide fretted about running out of cash to pay off journalists for good coverage.
African elections do not necessarily produce representative governments. In oil-rich but poverty-ridden Equatorial Guinea, President Teodoro Obiang was “elected” with 95% of the vote. His party “won” 99% of seats in parliament. Many opposition parties in Gambia planned to boycott elections on March 29th, assuming they would be rigged. In Zambia, another democratic standard-bearer, the government has tried to shoo the opposition out of parliament for failing to pay a party fee.
Academic studies also paint a gloomy picture. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual democracy index ranks only one African country, Mauritius, as a “full” democracy, though it uses tough criteria that count countries like much-praised Botswana as “flawed” democracies. The Mo Ibrahim Index, a quantitative measure of good governance, shows a decline of 5% since 2007 in African political participation. Freedom House, an American think-tank, says the number of full “electoral democracies” among the 49 sub-Saharan countries has fallen from 24 in 2005 to 19 today.
Southern Africa, historically the best-performing region, is now a problem child. Nepotism and corruption increasingly mar politics in the regional giant, South Africa. The president of Madagascar, André Rajoelina, has remained in power for three years after a bloodless coup. President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi is behaving ever more despotically, provoking Western donors to suspend aid. But even here the news is not all bad. Madagascar may have elections later this year. Angola, where President José Eduardo Dos Santos has ruled since 1979, making him Africa’s longest-serving leader, will soon run parliamentary polls, and its ruling party may push Mr Dos Santos into retirement.
Still, Africa has come a long way. In 1990 Freedom House recorded just three African countries with multiparty political systems, universal suffrage, regular fraud-free elections and secret ballots. “Progress comes in waves,” says Alex Vines, head of the Africa programme at Chatham House, a London-based think-tank. Mali aside, the rest of West Africa has enjoyed a democratic boom. Sierra Leone and Liberia, both violent basket-cases not long ago, have set up respectable if imperfect political systems. Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire overcame spasms of strife and returned to democratic rule. Coup-prone Guinea-Bissau held a calm election on March 18th. Nigeria and Niger ran their best polls in recent memory last year. Ghanaian democracy has been praised by President Barack Obama.
Yet the poor, illiterate electorates of many African countries are obviously keen on handouts, and thus easy to manipulate. Election violence has also become more common. Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe saw serious clashes after their most recent polls, driven by longstanding ethnic and sectarian rifts.
All these came to a more or less swift end, unlike Africa’s civil wars of previous decades. Political progress during the next decade may be slower than in the past one. The easy post-cold-war advances have been made. Reformers must now set their sights higher. Ensuring better governance by building firm institutions is harder than putting ballots in a box.
Reformers have plenty of reasons to be hopeful, among them the growing sophistication of opposition groups. These used to be a mess—divided, undemocratic and starved of resources. One observer called them “the skunks at the democratic zoo”. Many are still hopeless, but some have learnt that discipline can put them within striking distance of power. Zambia and Senegal are recent examples.
Opposition parties also benefit from the general absence of ideological fault-lines in African politics since the demise of Marxism. More than in the West, voters there are swayed by evidence of individual competence, not party affiliation. This is useful for hungry opposition members competing with complacent governments. Africa’s high birth rates produce a pool of young voters who are more likely to take a chance on political newcomers. In many countries a president or party can win office even where all the supporters are under 30, so long as polls are fair.
At the same time, impressively high economic growth rates in many African countries have fuelled a communications explosion. Political campaigns need no longer depend on government-owned media or the ability to travel to far-flung places. They can reach voters directly and remotely via the internet and, especially, the ubiquitous mobile telephone. They can expose political skulduggery and also tabulate poll results instantaneously, making fraud easier to detect. In Nigeria’s 2011 election, tens of thousands of monitors recorded local results and fed them by text message into a central system run by volunteers. Devious governments have to invent ever more complicated and hence less effective ways of manipulating results.
The lack of voter data is a costly obstacle everywhere. Most Africans have no identity documents, so electoral rolls often need to be drafted from scratch for every poll. In Congo the government spent more than $500m on elections last year, making them the world’s most costly after America’s. High rates of illiteracy and a lack of capable institutions do not help. In Sierra Leone’s border regions, officials judge who should get a voting card by listening to people’s accents.
But setting aside the quality of African democracy, all but a few of the continent’s 1 billion people now expect to vote in regular national polls. That is something which 1.5 billion Asians, for all their impressive economic performance, cannot do.
From the print edition | Middle East and Africa
Sourcs: http://www.economist.com
Mar 19, 2012
The Rep of Somaliland Minister of Development and Planning, Dr Saad Ali Shire, attendance at an African Business Event in London
27th February 2012, the Rep of Somaliland Development and Planning Minister, Dr Saad Ali Shire was invited as a special guest to an event titled ‘Pitching Africa in London: Business Opportunities in Africa ‘ and which was organised by Ms Sylvie Aboa-Bradwell, Executive Director of African Peoples Advocacy. The event, which members of the Somaliland-UK Diaspora attended alongside the Minister, was presented by one of African-British renowned journalists, Henry Bonsu.
The Event was attended by some African Commissioners; H.E Mr Abhimanu Kundasamy of Mauritius and H.E. Mr Carlos dos Santos of Mozambique, prominent African Business leaders, Entrepreneurs, students, and a delegation from the National Olympic Committee.
The Event was opened with a video presentation of ‘Pitching Africa’ documentary, which promotes the business opportunities and investments in Africa. The organiser of the Event, Ms Sylvia, spoke of Somaliland during her speech and stated the much brilliance of Somaliland’s potential investments and business opportunities, where she, confidently, stated the ‘virgin’ country’s unexploited natural resources and exemplary democracy. The honoured guests of the Event were, evidently, in agreement with Ms Sylvia’s descriptions of the Rep of Somaliland, and they were, likewise, impressed with Minister Saad Ali Shire’s humbled attendance at the Event.
Both Commissioners, Mr Kundasamy of Maurius and Mr Santos of Mozambique spoke, extensively and proudly, about the remarkable achievements have made, so far, the progresses their countries are making, now, and the future aspirations of their countries. This was, by no means, the Africa they, often, show us on Western Televisions or depict in other media communications. The achievements and the aspirations of the continent’s aspiring states were not new revelations to the many Africans and, even non African participants, who have extensive knowledge of the real Africa. The Rep of Somaliland’s contributions seemed pleasant addition, though. Soon after Dr Saad Ali Shire made his brief speech, you could hear the murmurs of the many participants, whom were so eager to learn more about the continent’s young and democratic independence. Dr Saad was not on the panel, but an honoured guest, whom was handed a beautiful flower bouquet by the organisers for appreciation of his country’s admirable contributions.
The bemused participants, soon, wanted to speak with Minister Saad, with some directing their comments and questions at him while the panel was taking questions from the participants. This was, understandably, amusing to the panellists, whom seemed comfortable with the Minister’s popularity with the participants.
Minister Saad was quite submissive with the Somaliland Diaspora’s efforts to get involved in events like this, and applaud the efforts of, particularly, the members, whom have instigate the possibility of the Minister’s participation. The Minister commented how important it is for Somaliland Commissioner and many hardworking Somaliland independence campaigners to engage in events like this one.
The Event was attended by some African Commissioners; H.E Mr Abhimanu Kundasamy of Mauritius and H.E. Mr Carlos dos Santos of Mozambique, prominent African Business leaders, Entrepreneurs, students, and a delegation from the National Olympic Committee.
The Event was opened with a video presentation of ‘Pitching Africa’ documentary, which promotes the business opportunities and investments in Africa. The organiser of the Event, Ms Sylvia, spoke of Somaliland during her speech and stated the much brilliance of Somaliland’s potential investments and business opportunities, where she, confidently, stated the ‘virgin’ country’s unexploited natural resources and exemplary democracy. The honoured guests of the Event were, evidently, in agreement with Ms Sylvia’s descriptions of the Rep of Somaliland, and they were, likewise, impressed with Minister Saad Ali Shire’s humbled attendance at the Event.
Both Commissioners, Mr Kundasamy of Maurius and Mr Santos of Mozambique spoke, extensively and proudly, about the remarkable achievements have made, so far, the progresses their countries are making, now, and the future aspirations of their countries. This was, by no means, the Africa they, often, show us on Western Televisions or depict in other media communications. The achievements and the aspirations of the continent’s aspiring states were not new revelations to the many Africans and, even non African participants, who have extensive knowledge of the real Africa. The Rep of Somaliland’s contributions seemed pleasant addition, though. Soon after Dr Saad Ali Shire made his brief speech, you could hear the murmurs of the many participants, whom were so eager to learn more about the continent’s young and democratic independence. Dr Saad was not on the panel, but an honoured guest, whom was handed a beautiful flower bouquet by the organisers for appreciation of his country’s admirable contributions.
The bemused participants, soon, wanted to speak with Minister Saad, with some directing their comments and questions at him while the panel was taking questions from the participants. This was, understandably, amusing to the panellists, whom seemed comfortable with the Minister’s popularity with the participants.
Minister Saad was quite submissive with the Somaliland Diaspora’s efforts to get involved in events like this, and applaud the efforts of, particularly, the members, whom have instigate the possibility of the Minister’s participation. The Minister commented how important it is for Somaliland Commissioner and many hardworking Somaliland independence campaigners to engage in events like this one.
Somaliland Mourns The Loss Of Donald Payne
By Geleh Gulaid Somaliland has lost a dear friend, with the passing of Donald Payne from the great state of New Jersey. Donald Payne’s unending diplomatic support and solidarity with the Somaliland people transcended many things will never be forgotten. Donald M. Payne has been a well-respected congressman and a highly admired individual. He proudly served his constituency for 12 terms in the House of Representatives. He has been involved in the betterment of all Americans in every facet of their lives be it in education, health, housing or labor. Donald Payne he was a teacher in his early years and when he later served on the education and labor committee, he did not disappoint, and he selflessly and tirelessly pursued to make higher education affordable for the masses by a way of attainable student loans. Donald Payne simple put was a champion of the middleclass in America. Internationally Donald Payne was as affective in his illustrious career, he has been a member of the house foreign relations committee and Africa and global health subcommittee. Donald Payne cofounded the congressional black caucus that was instrumental in creating the global awareness of the heinous Apartheid system in South African. With his determination American businesses began to divest in South Africa and the US congress later the passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. We the Somaliland community at large do not only mourn the death of Donald Payne but also celebrate his remarkable and fulfilled live. Geleh@hotmail.com |
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