Somaliland Diaspora

The Diaspora of Somaliland are united in one common objective and that is to rebuild Somaliland from the ashes. Since 1991 Somaliland has reinstated her independence gained from Great Britain on 26th June 1960. Somaliland Diaspora wants the International Community to honour their International Legal Obligation and stop shackling Somaliland to the failed state of Somalia. This is immoral and unjust. Somaliland is an Independent and African Sovereign State. Somaliland is not Somalia!!

Jan 1, 2013

Happy New Year 2013

Dec 5, 2012

Coldplay - Paradise (Peponi) African Style (Piano/Cello Cover) - ThePianoGuys

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.”

Source: Somaliland Press

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

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

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

Oct 26, 2012

President Silanyo Extended Eid-ul-Adha Greetings to Somalilanders and the whole Muslim World | Somalilandpress.com | Somali News Online from Somaliland – Somalia and Horn of Africa

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

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