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Somaliland - Gebilay town &Nomadic Culture - pt1
Somaliland - City girl vs. Nomadic girl - Part 2
The Retriever Weekly, Volume 42, Issue 15 · Tuesday January 29, 2008
Rethinking Somalia's plight
By Matt Mainen
An article appearing in The Washington Post ("US Debating Shift of Support in Somali Conflict") mentions that the United States is considering granting diplomatic recognition to the autonomous region of Somaliland in northwestern Somalia. Although establishing diplomatic ties with breakaway states arguably sets a bad precedent, there are clearly special circumstances in which adherence to the international norm of respecting a regime’s full and complete territorial sovereignty over the land within its official borders must be bypassed. The case of Somaliland is a strong example.
To set the context, Somalia is shaped like the number seven and is divided into roughly three main regions. The first and most often discussed area falls on the diagonal portion of the seven and is legally ruled, in name only, by the recognized official transitional government of Somalia. This region is home to Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, the site of the infamous incident of 1993 portrayed in Black Hawk Down, and has experienced the bulk of Somalia’s civil war. In the corner of the seven is the semi-state of Puntland, comparable to Iraqi Kurdistan, which desires to remain part of Somalia as a whole while wielding a significant degree of autonomy. This also holds true for Somalia’s lesser known autonomous regions. Finally, on the majority of the horizontal portion of the seven is Somaliland.
Unlike Somalia’s other major regions, Somaliland does not recognize the authority of the Transitional Federal Government and sees itself as a fully independent state. Despite receiving limited foreign aid, as breakaway states rarely receive money from governments with whom they do not share diplomatic ties, Somaliland has done surprisingly well. In his February 27 article for the New York Times entitled "A Land of Camel Milk and Honey," renowned scholar Nicholas Kristof described Somaliland as a tranquil and democratic state with a fully functional and freely elected democratic government and a reliable public service sector including schools, hospitals and even a library. In contrast to Mogadishu, where one might feel naked without full body armor and an automatic rifle, Somaliland’s capital of Hargeisa is home to a “thriving jewelry and financial market [where] scores of vendors, most of them women, are hawking millions of dollars worth of gold, precious stones and foreign currency out in open air.”
So if Somaliland is a bastion of freedom in the middle of hell, why would the United States think twice about establishing diplomatic ties with the unrecognized state? Well, it’s not that easy, and the process would be mired by red tape and technicalities. Furthermore, there is disagreement within the U.S. government as to what direction to take. Whereas the Pentagon wants to push through with establishing ties with Somaliland, which is seen as a step in the right direction in the fight against al-Qaeda and Islamic extremism, the State Department wants to continue its full support of the transitional government and its claim over the whole of Somalia. Doing otherwise may embolden other potential breakaway states in Somalia and beyond, threatening the stability and territorial integrity of various parts of Africa.
Although the State Department’s reasoning is not without merit and works as a generally good rule of thumb in most situations, it runs counter to the interests of the United States and the democratic world as a whole. While a good number of African countries continue to fail miserably despite being on the receiving end of heavy foreign aid packages, Somaliland has thrived with little funds, and as a result, should be rewarded for its efforts and established as a model of independence. After all, the West wants nothing more than to shatter Africa’s dependency on its money and resources, and if it takes a breakaway state to set an example, then so be it. The more states in Africa that are like Somaliland, the less other African countries will be able to use the excuse “we are failing because we aren’t getting enough resources from the West.”
More importantly, however, is Somaliland’s location and the context in which it finds itself. The horn of Africa is an often overlooked yet critical front in the war on terror and Islamic extremism. It is one thing to continue to defeat the terrorists and insurgents on the battlefield, and the allies of the United States, particularly Ethiopia, have done a tremendous job of defeating Somalia’s former Islamist regime, but military victories are not enough to win this war. This is a war of ideology, a war between democracy and Islamism, and nothing will unsettle the Islamists more than establishing free governments in the territories that they wish to control. The future of Somalia is uncertain compared to Somaliland, and as they say, “A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.”
Certainly, if Somalia were a stable democratic state whose government freely and fairly governed the whole of its territory, Somaliland’s independence from Somalia would be unnecessary. There is no reason to break apart an already functioning democratic state. Far from this, however, Somalia is a collapsed state, and there is little utility for the State Department’s passing up a significant opportunity for the growth of democracy in order to protect the “legitimacy” of a government who rules in name only. Instead, the United States should focus its efforts on ensuring a complete military victory of our allies in Somalia and encourage the transitional government to be realistic by cutting its losses and counting its blessings.
Ioan Lewis , May 2008, 176pp, PB , 216x138mm. Availability: NYP Price: AUD$52.50 (AUD$47.72 ex-tax). Booksellers Discount Code: Frontlist This book highlights the salient aspects of the history and culture of the Somali people, distilling for the non-specialist in a readily accessible form Ioan Lewis’s vast erudition on all things Somali. He also addresses developments in the Somali political region since the collapse of the Republic in 1991. Anita Adam contributes chapters on the urban culture of Benadiri Somalis that illustrate the complexity of what constitutes ‘Somaliness’. This book provides the essential historical and political background to a little-understood culture and people whose predicament continues to hold the world’s attention.
Dubai, 29 January 2008: The meeting organized by the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) in Dubai (UAE) brought together business people from Africa and the Middle East, personalities from Europe and the United States and members of the Somali business community. The meeting, entitled: “The Private Sector: a Tool for Peace in Somalia” was aimed at assessing the economic situation in Somalia and the opportunities that could allow the country to move from a war to a peace economy.
The meeting identified a wide range of economic sectors that could boost the Somali economy including livestock and livestock products, agriculture, money transfer, telecommunications, infrastructure, oil and gas, mining, transport and tourism.
Businessmen and women from Africa and the Middle East came to the conclusion that despite the 17 years of crisis, the Somali economy is still stronger than that of many countries in Africa in terms of Gross Domestic Product and imports and exports. They also agreed that current business opportunities could be increased with stability in the country.
The Somali participants witnessed the expression of will, the interest and commitment of their counterparts from Africa and the Middle East to join with the efforts by the Somalis to move from crisis and stagnation to economic growth.
The non-Somali participants called on the Somalis to help create an environment conducive to investment including political, security and social stability. They expressed their readiness to consider ways and means to encourage the Somalis to follow a ‘critical path’ that will lead to the stability necessary for political, economic and social development.
The meeting requested UNPOS to impress upon the parties in Somalia to put the interests of the country before other interests, and work towards the return of peace and security.http://www.un-somalia.org/
Somalia Journalist Fight for Press Freedom Despite Murders
By Cathy Majtenyi
Nairobi, Kenya. 30 January 2008
With Somalia plagued by conflict and almost daily violence, all sides are increasingly threatening, attacking, and even killing journalists who file critical reports. In the past year alone, eight journalists were murdered and dozens fled to Kenya and other neighboring countries. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders says that Somalia is the second-most dangerous place in the world for journalists after Iraq. Cathy Majtenyi files this report for VOA from Kenya.
Ali Sharmarke was slain in a roadside bomb attack on 11 August
Fighting and hostility make Somali streets a dangerous place. As video from HornAfrik TV shows, journalism here can be deadly.
Ali Sharmarke was the director HornAfrik Media Inc. based in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. A roadside bomb destroyed his car on August 11, killing him instantly.
In an interview shortly before his death, Sharmarke explained why he faced the danger. He said, "We are considering the needs of the society [to have impartial information] and we decided to take the risk. The founders [of our organization] and the people who are working here, we all decided to work under that risk."
Sharmarke was one of eight journalists killed in Somalia in 2007.
Gathering in a Nairobi hotel on Human Rights Day last month, exiled Somali journalists, activists and others discussed the deteriorating press situation in their war-torn country.
"I would like to quote here one journalist who fled from Mogadishu who told me, 'I wrote a story about two insurgents that were killed. I was called on my mobile and the caller said, 'Why did you write that?' It is the truth, I said, I had to write it. He said, 'You are going to be on the list of the people which we are going to kill'," said Dave Copeman, who is the East Africa campaigner for the global human rights group Amnesty International.
Fighting has intensified as Ethiopian troops supporting Somalia's transitional federal government battle with remnants of the force they ousted in 2006, the Islamic Courts Union.
The United Nations estimates more than a million Somali refugees are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
As they report on the conflict, journalists are increasingly coming under fire from the government, insurgents, and others involved in the fighting.
Omar Faruk Osman is secretary general of the National Union of Somali Journalists. He says simply reporting on the conflict is dangerous. "If you want to present the problems the public is facing, if you want to interview different opposition groups, then all of these issues are very sensitive issues and if you try to report, then the journalists are ready to face risks."
Somali ambassador to Kenya Mohamed Ali Nur denies that his government has threatened, arrested and beaten journalists who file critical reports. "The government is doing its best to safeguard the journalists. We believe in freedom, we believe in free journalism," he said.
He says his government passed legislation aimed at protecting journalists but also requiring what he called responsible reporting.
The international community has strongly criticized the Somali government and others for the repression meted out to journalists.
In mid-December, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Eric Laroche said his complaints in letters and personal visits to Somali government officials were met with stony silence. "So, I think it is a subject which is covered (up) deliberately. People do not want to talk about that, yet it is a major issue."
Despite the odds, journalists continue to advocate for press freedom and cover a story that puts them in the line of fire.
Maxaa kala gaadhay caaqil Guhaad iyo Gaasira!
Sheekadan oo magaceeda la yidhaa maxaa kala gaadhay caaqil guhaad iyo gaasira,ayaa ah sheeko xambaarsan murti siyaasadeed,dhaqan,iyo mid bulshoba.waxay sheekadani daaha ka fureysaa in dhibka manta haysta ummadda somaaliyeed meel kasta oo ay joogtaba uu salka ku hayo cadaalad darro,xalkuna uu ku jiro cadaalad in ummada lagu...
An African Union peacekeeper guards Mogadishu port. REUTERS/Ismael Abdi
Somalia is the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis - worse even than Darfur, a senior U.N. refugee official said this week.
More than 1 million people have been uprooted from their homes in Somalia, which is convulsed in fighting between Islamist insurgents, assorted warlords and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops.
The violence makes it very difficult to provide aid, as underlined by a bomb attack on Monday that killed three aid workers.
"I've never seen anything like Somalia before," said Guillermo Bettocchi, country representative for the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR.
"The situation is very severe. It is the most pressing humanitarian emergency in the world today - even worse than Darfur."
Although fighting in western Sudan's Darfur region has uprooted an estimated 2.5 million people, levels of malnutrition in Somalia are higher and access to aid more difficult, Bettocchi said.
Fifteen percent of the population suffers acute malnutrition and the rate has been constant for years. Health services are very limited and sanitation, water and shelters are poor.
Delivering aid to people in Somalia is three times more expensive than in other crises, said Bettocchi, who has spent 19 years working on refugee emergencies throughout the world.
Poor security means supplies have to be flown in to Mogadishu and transported to other parts of the country in armoured vehicles with armed escorts.
TRAPPED
The aid workers who died this week were with Medecins Sans Frontieres. They were killed by a roadside bomb in the southern port town of Kismayu, 500 km (300 miles) south of Mogadishu.
"This is just another example of the way the insurgents are trying to destabilise the whole country," Bettocchi said. "Those who will suffer the consequences are the people."
He said Kismayu was already a no-go area for U.N. and many other international agencies and the attack meant the U.N. security department would be even more reluctant now to allow missions in the area.
UNHCR says 700,000 people fled fighting in Mogadishu last year, but Bettocchi said those still in the city had not remained out of choice.
"Those who have stayed are those who cannot move. They are the most vulnerable - the handicapped, the elderly or those who cannot afford to pay a donkey cart," said Bettocchi, who experienced the violence first-hand when he was caught up in a rocket and mortar attack on Mogadishu airport in 2006.
Mogadishu is so dangerous that Bettocchi runs UNHCR projects "by remote control" from neighbouring Kenya.
But the political and ethnic violence that erupted there last month has made operations more difficult. Flights have been cancelled, transportation of goods from the Kenyan port Mombasa has been affected and the price of fuel has gone up.
TIRED OF CONFLICT
Bettocchi called on the international community to put more pressure on all the parties behind the fighting in Somalia to find a political solution.
He said the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy to Somalia had called on Saudi Arabia to play an active role in mediating in the conflict on the grounds it might have some clout with the insurgents.
Islamist militia calling themselves the Islamic Courts Council temporarily wrested control of the capital and other parts of Somalia in 2006.
When they first emerged, Bettocchi said they attracted sympathy from Somali people who thought they would provide a way out of the anarchy and violence created by the warlords.
But Bettocchi said they has lost support, not least when they banned TV broadcasts of the World Cup - a move that left many Somalis wondering what they were getting themselves into.
"Somali people are tired of conflict, are tired of suffering and would like to see peace and security established," he said.
Bettocchi said any political dialogue would require the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops but that security needed to be improved before they could pull out.
The African Union wants to boost its peacekeeping presence to 8,000 but has struggled to get African nations to contribute soldiers.
The United Nations Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia today condemned the recent killing of three aid workers there and called for justice in the case.
Three staff members of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-Holland were killed in Somalia earlier this week. Victor Okunnu, a Kenyan doctor, Damien Lehalle, a French logistician and their Somali driver Billan were killed when their car was hit by a roadside bomb outside the town of Kismayo. A Somali journalist, Hassan Kafi Hared, as well as a Somali boy were also reportedly killed in the blast.
Calling the deaths "a great loss" Ghanim Alnajjar condemned all attacks on aid workers, journalists and human rights defenders in Somalia.
"The international aid community must be allowed to carry out their humanitarian and human rights work in safety and without fear of retaliation," he said. "These brave people work under extremely difficult and dangerous circumstances and their senseless deaths are an affront to all Somalis and the humanitarian and international communities.
Mr. Alnajjar said those responsible must be held accountable for their crimes. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, but he urged "the Somali authorities to investigate this case and all cases in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.
All "authorities and groups concerned" must ensure safe and secure conditions for humanitarian and human rights activities, he said.
afrol News, 23 January - A report issued by the outgoing AU Commission Chairman, Alpha Oumar Konare, said anti-government militias in the country had spread their tentacles to less violent places - Middle and Lower Juba.
The militias are taking advantage of the transitional government's inability to deploy troops to all the regions. Its actions are calculated to destabilize the country and in the process weaken the government.
Militias that are believed to be remnants of the ousted Islamic Courts Union are reportedly recruiting and planning attacks on the Ethiopian-backed Somali troops.
Somali conflict is expected to be an important agenda of the scheduled African Union Summit in Ethiopian.
A delegation of African union officials on Wednesday arrived in the Somalian capital Mogadishu for a one day visit.
According to the AU Peace and Security Council Commissioner, Said Djinnit, the purpose of the visit is to demonstrate the continental body's support for the Somali government.
"On the other hand, we want to see welfare and the work of our troops, who are doing wonderful job here on our behalf," Commissioner Djinnit said.
The UN sent a delegation to Mogadishu to study the possibility of sending peacekeepers to replace the 1,600 AU forces mainly from Uganda and Burundi.
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991. The country's conflict has killed so many people and displaced over a million others.
Beyond the kitchen: advancing women’s political decision-making in Somaliland and Timor-Leste
Although there are differences between Somaliland and Timor-Leste - Somalilanders are Muslims, whereas most of us Timorese are Catholics - there are also many similarities, writes Ivete de Oliveira. Both our countries are poor and have seen conflict in recent years. In both, grass roots organisations supported by Progressio have been playing a strong role in helping to rebuild our countries from scratch. And for me, a crucial similarity is that Somaliland's culture, like that of Timor-Leste, has historically been deeply patriarchal and resistant to letting women's voices be heard anywhere but in the kitchen.
In 1998 I became a founding member of a new women's network in Timor-Leste called REDE FETO. At this time our country was in transition to independence from illegal occupation by Indonesia, and we wanted to organise ourselves to make sure that women were involved in our new nation's political life. REDE FETO was incredibly active in promoting women's participation in decision-making during Timor Leste's first years as an independent nation and by 2001, 27 per cent of the members of our first independent parliament were women. I continued to support REDE FETO and Progressio's development worker with the organisation when I went on to work in Progressio's Timor-Leste office to promote women's rights and participation.
I have now left Progressio, but this July I met women working with Nagaad, a similar network of women's organisations supported by Progressio in Somaliland. Like REDE FETO, the Somaliland women's organisation promotes women's rights and participation.
Nagaad was founded in 1997 in the wake of a national peace conference in Hargeisa to end the 1994 civil conflict and elect a president and parliament. Women were excluded from the conference: their lobbying to be included was rejected because they did not represent clans, or ethnic groups. Eventually, after increased lobbying, six women were allowed to participate, followed by a further seven, as observers in the peace-making meetings.
On my visit I met two inspiring and feisty women, the executive director of Nagaad and the minister for family affairs, and discovered that Somaliland women's experience of post-conflict reconstruction was similar to ours in Timor-Leste. In both, some women stayed and promoted women's rights from within, often in very difficult and repressive circumstances, while others left and benefited from education, particularly on gender justice issues, and then returned to found new organisations, movements and NGOs. In both countries, women had to grapple with the resulting tensions, common in grass-roots movements during reconstruction after war, when the approach of those who have lived abroad during the conflict clash with the strategies of those who stayed.
I was frequently asked by the women in Somaliland about the role of religion. There were a lot of misconceptions about why we Catholic East Timorese rejected Indonesian rule. I was asked whether it was because Indonesia is a majority Muslim country. It was clear to me that the people of Somaliland are more suspicious of Christians following world events since 9/11. While I'm aware of the Christian-Muslim tensions which sometimes arose in Timor-Leste, we know our conflicts were at root never about religion. Timorese people rejected Indonesian rule because of the brutality and illegality of their occupation and because of our desire to rule ourselves - that's all. But the influx of Indonesian Muslims into Timor, and indeed the conversion of some Timorese to Islam, are things which we now are learning to respect and to learn from in Timor-Leste. Progressio and its partner, the East Timorese Muslim organisation Unicet, helped organise an interfaith conference last year, as part of Progressio's interfaith peace-building programme. This examined how the different faiths practised in Timor-Leste can co-exist peacefully and relate constructively to the state.
I was asked many questions about how my country's women organised themselves to participate and influence the decision-making process. I explained how the Timor-Leste women's movement organised a national women's congress to lobby for a 30 per cent quota of women candidates in the 2001 parliamentary elections and the empowerment of women. We discussed how get involved in political parties and become elected, and how to use a women's caucus to influence women MPs to push for women's issues to be addressed.
It was an intensive week, but an amazing opportunity to meet with a group of truly strong and inspiring women. I will be reporting my visit to REDE FETO on my return, and we'll be looking at how we can deepen our mutual knowledge, distilled from two continents, to further women's fight for justice and representation.
Following the collapse of the military regime of Siad Barre and of the Somali state, the 3 million people of the north-west region of Somaliland declared independence in 1991, but Somaliland remains unrecognised as a sovereign nation. However, in the eyes of at least some international observers, over the last decade and a half, the predominantly Muslim nation has made the transition from an autocratic clan-based society, notorious for its poor governance, conflict and human rights abuses, to a relatively peaceful and progressive democracy.
Somaliland is not yet a fully-fledged democracy and its unwavering observance of human rights is still a long way off. It has a multi-party system but only three political parties are allowed under the constitution. Islam is the state religion and, while non-Islamic faiths are tolerated, their promotion is prohibited. Muslims are not permitted to renounce Islam and the legal system is based on Sharia law which places substantial restrictions on the rights of women.
Political Rights Score: 5
Civil Liberties Score: 4
Status: Partly Free
Overview
Somaliland, which had enjoyed de facto independence and relative stability since 1991, sought to define the role of Islam in public life in 2006 as Islamist forces took control of anarchic southern and central Somalia. Journalists faced official and unofficial pressure when covering the sensitive topic, and Somaliland's president in October endorsed the application of Islamic law. Separately, the upper house of parliament voted in May to extend its term by four years rather than hold scheduled elections in September.
The modern state of Somalia was formed in 1960 when the newly independent protectorates of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland agreed to unite. In 1969, General Siad Barre took power in Somalia, ushering in a violent era fraught with clan rivalries and political repression. As flood, drought, and famine racked the nation, the struggle to topple Barre resulted in varying degrees of civil war and banditry that lasted until January 1991, when he was finally deposed. Heavily armed militias, divided along traditional clan lines, then fought for power. The current Somaliland, largely conforming with the borders of the former British Somaliland in the northwestern corner of the country, seized the opportunity of Somalia's political collapse to declare independence.
In a series of clan conferences following the 1991 independence declaration, Somaliland's leaders agreed to form a government system that combined elements of an electoral democracy (a directly elected lower house) with traditional political structures (an upper House of Elders). Political parties did not operate freely until 2003. Since then, the three main political parties have roughly represented Somaliland's three most powerful clans. While the presidential election of 2003 and parliamentary elections of 2005 did not meet international standards, they were conducted without reports of widespread intimidation or misappropriation. Nevertheless, the government is relatively weak; clan-based conflicts still threaten stability; and women have very little role in the decision-making process. There are also fears that the conflict in southern and central Somalia could spill over into Somaliland. Such concerns grew more acute in 2006, as Islamist forces gained control of much of Somalia, and the Ethiopian military responded with an invasion late in the year.
About half of Somaliland's people are pastoral livestock herders. Since the region is not recognized as independent, it does not receive the kind of direct aid that many developing states do. However, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) provide some social services.
Political Rights and Civil Liberties
According to Somaliland's current constitution, the president is directly elected for five-year terms and appoints the cabinet. The lower house of the bicameral Parliament, the 82-seat House of Representatives, is directly elected for five-year terms, while the 82-seat House of Elders is indirectly elected by local communities for six-year terms. In April 2003, nearly half a million voters took part in the presidential election, which Dahir Riyale Kahin won by a margin of less than 100 votes. Some powerful supporters of Kahin's opponent, Ahmed Mahmoud Silanyo, urged him to form a rival government, but he chose to respect the electoral process, thus averting bloodshed. The last elections for the lower house of Parliament took place in September 2005, but the upper house has repeatedly postponed elections since its formal six-year term expired in 2003. In May 2006, the House of Elders voted to extend its term another four years rather than hold elections in September. Three main parties dominate Somaliland politics: the For Justice and Development Party; the United Peoples' Democratic Party, which is the president's party loosely affiliated with Somaliland's second largest clan, the Dir clan; and the Peace, Unity, and Development Party, affiliated with Kahin's challenger Ahmed M. Mahamoud Silanyo and loosely affiliated with the country's largest clan, the Isaaq clan.
Transparency International did not rank Somaliland separately in its 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index. However, local journalists have reported widely on the corruption problem. In May 2006, the president fired the interior minister and the police commissioner over rumors of their corruption and abuse of power.
While Somaliland journalists continue to fare much better than their colleagues in the rest of Somalia, they have faced problems at the hands of government as well as nongovernmental actors. In June 2006, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Mohamed Abdi Urad, editor of the daily Jamhuuriya, was detained overnight by police in the capital, Hargeisa, on orders of the high court after the paper published an article that criticized the decision by the upper house of Parliament to extend its term. Other press freedom incidents in 2006 involved the rise to power in southern and central Somalia of an Islamist group known as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). A reporter for the independent daily Haatuf, which was critical of the ICU, was detained in September after he wrote that the Islamists were infiltrating Somaliland. In October, demonstrators burned over a thousand copies of the paper. The Somaliland minister of information in November 2006 allegedly ordered two female journalists working for state-owned Radio Hargeisa to be fired for wearing hijab (headscarves).
Somaliland's population is almost entirely Sunni Muslim, and according to the constitution, Islam is the state religion. Throughout 2006, there was a great deal of public debate about the role of religion in political and judicial life.
Many international NGOs operate in Somaliland with limited government interference. However, there has been a backlash against their work in the local media. Newspaper editorials have accused NGOs of acting without regard for Somaliland's culture and operating without transparency.
Somaliland has a functioning judiciary, but there are questions about its independence. In 2006, Kahin was pressured to articulate a position on the role of Sharia (Islamic law) in determining law as Somaliland reacted to the rise of the ICU. Authorities do not want Somaliland to be dominated by ICU sympathizers, which could result in a destabilizing military response from Ethiopia. However, local Islamists are also agitating for Islam to play a more prominent role in public life. In October, Kahin said Sharia would be applied in Somaliland, but it is unclear how such a policy would be implemented in the context of existing laws"
The police and other government agencies have been accused of committing some human rights abuses, but the situation is not comparable to that of Somalia generally, where there is little respect for the rule of law. In September 2006, protesters demonstrated against alleged police torture of detained terrorism suspects.
Almost all Somalilanders share the same ethnicity and religion. The discrimination that exists is based on clan exclusion. The larger clans are more powerful and more politically connected, while some of the smaller clans are not prominently represented in public life.
Somaliland public life is dominated by men. Women are present in the workplace and do hold some government positions, but real power is in the hands of male clan leaders. There is still a great deal of social and legal discrimination against women, and female genital mutilation is widely practiced.
When Heather Akou sees Somali women working behind the counters at area Target stores, she can’t help but smile. Wearing red hijab—headcoverings—clearly designed to go with the standard Target uniform, the women are for Akou proof positive of the emergence of a more globalized Minnesota, and of the creativity of at least one local employer in responding to emerging cultural needs.
Akou, a newly minted Ph.D. graduate in design, housing, and apparel, is the world’s leading—actually, the only—expert on the subject of Somali dress. That’s a big deal in a state some Somalis have dubbed Somaliland for its large and growing Somali population. With as many as 60,000 Somalis coming here since 1995 (the year U.S. immigration officials picked Minnesota as a Somali resettlement center), Minnesota has what is far and away the largest Somali community in the country.
In many parts of the state, and especially in the Twin Cities and Rochester, the presence of Somali women in colorful headwraps and flowing skirts has become part of the fabric of everyday Minnesota life. But Akou says that in a state more familiar with Norwegian lefse than Somali sambosa, employers and policymakers have often been slow to roll out a broad welcome mat to this culturally distinct group of Minnesotans, particularly since September 11.
The cultural divide has perhaps loomed largest in employment interviews and on the job, according to Akou. The issue: dress—or more precisely, how the clothing worn by Somalis for cultural and religious reasons can and should be accommodated in offices, commercial establishments, factories, and other workplaces.
To this debate Akou brings much-needed perspective, and lots of it. Working with CHE Regents Professor Joanne B. Eicher, a renowned authority on crosscultural dress (whose work has included pioneering research on the Nigerian Kalabari), Akou has spent the last five years investigating in exhaustive detail the history and politics of Somali dress. Her Ph.D. dissertation on the subject was so pathbreaking that it propelled her into a tenure-track faculty position at Indiana University (she’s starting this fall).
Somali dress makes for truly fascinating study, Akou says. Contrary to popular understanding, there’s no one style that can be called “traditional Somali attire, but a number of styles rooted in Somali history and culture that are presented as ‘traditional’ for various social, political, and religious reasons.” That’s hardly surprising given the history of Somalia, a semidesert country the size of Texas that’s located on the northeast tip of Africa but that’s culturally aligned more with the nearby Middle East—and that has a centuries long history of involvement in global trade.
“Over the centuries, Somali dress has reflected the evolving dynamics of fashion and trade, politics and religion,” Akou says. The country was originally settled by Arabs, Persians, and Indians, but colonized over the years by the French, British, Italians, and Ethiopians. Arabic, Swahili, Italian and English are spoken along with Somali. In recent decades, the country has been a hotbed of political unrest and warfare, waged along geographic, class, and political lines; the central government collapsed entirely in 1991 (after the failure of U.S. and United Nations peacekeeping interventions) and has yet to be restored.
As a result, the story of Somali dress has been one not of immutable tradition—like, say, the dress of Hasidic Jews or the American Amish—but of endless fluidity. In her research, which has taken her to the Smithsonian to pore over 19th- and 20th-century explorers’ narratives, photos, and artifacts, Akou has found that Somalis over the years have worn leather garments, cotton robes made of “Merikani cloth” imported from early America, “wrappers” modeled after the dress of Islamic pilgrims, Arab-style turbans and tunics from India, and garments made of colorful sheer fabrics from Japan and India. After World War II, men in urban areas wore business suits; in the 1960s, women donned miniskirts (a style also condemned as un-Islamic and too revealing).
Not until the late 1970s, says Akou, did some women in Somalia begin wearing hijab, the elaborate shawls or veils most often associated with Somali women today. She explains that this form of dress, which was modeled after Arab-style dress (particularly the Iranian chador), was most often adopted as a form of political and religious expression under Somalia’s increasingly repressive military dictatorship.
Flash forward to 2004 in Minnesota, when nearly every Somali girl and women wears a headcovering, whether the encompassing three-piece jelaabib worn by the most devoutly Islamic women (perhaps a third of all Somali women in Minnesota, Akou estimates) or the simple headwrap called masar referred by many teenagers. As Akou explains it, “The widespread embrace of these styles as ‘traditional Somali dress’ is just as rooted in historical circumstance as Somali dress always has been. For people now without a country, there’s enormous concern about preserving culture, religious identity, and language. Claiming a ‘traditional Somali dress’ is a way to do that. The fact that it isn’t necessarily a tradition of long standing doesn’t make it any less real, or less important.”
Akou’s research will no doubt be useful to community leaders and Somalis as they work out reasonable, culturally sensitive policies on workplace attire and other issues. Akou has heard over and over from Somali women in the Twin Cities that many employers balk when they see headcoverings. “It’s a question of two different cultures colliding, workplace culture and Somali culture,” Akou observes. “Obviously, as Minnesota becomes more diverse, education and dialogue are going to be key.” She points to Target’s approach—working with Somali women to combine Somali cultural needs with company dress codes—as a sign that “employers and Somalis can and will find ways to bridge differences of culture.”
Statement by the President of the Security Council
At the 5812th meeting of the Security Council, held on 19 December 2007, in connection with the Council’s consideration of the item entitled “The situation in Somalia”, the President of the Security Council made the following statement on behalf of the Council: “The Security Council welcomes the briefing it received on 17 December 2007 from the Secretary-General’s Special Representative (SRSG) for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, in which he made proposals on the
political and security fronts and called on the international community to commit itself to a clear course of action. The Security Council looks forward to hearing more details on the SRSG’s proposals. The Security Council strongly supports the efforts of the SRSG to work towards lasting peace and stability in Somalia.
“The Security Council reaffirms its respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and unity of Somalia. “The Security Council welcomes the appointment of the new Prime
Minister of Somalia, and looks forward to the early establishment of an effective government. The appointment of Nur Hassan Hussein offers a renewed opportunity to make further progress on dialogue and political reconciliation, on addressing the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, and on
implementing the outcomes of the National Reconciliation Congress, leading to a roadmap for the remainder of the Transitional Period and democratic elections in Somalia, as set out in the Transitional Federal Charter. The Security Council urges all Somali parties to reject violence and, with the support of the SRSG, to enter into a substantial dialogue aimed at achieving a
full and all-inclusive national reconciliation.
“The Security Council also welcomes the briefing on 6 December 2007 by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, John Holmes, which included an account of his visit to Somalia. The Security Council expresses its deep concern at the deteriorating
humanitarian situation, aggravated by the prevailing security conditions in Somalia, and emphasizes again the need for strengthened efforts to provide humanitarian relief assistance to Somalia. The Security Council demands that all parties in Somalia ensure unfettered access for all humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations, fulfil their responsibilities and obligations under international humanitarian law, and take the necessary measures to protect civilians.
“The Security Council reiterates its strong support for the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), calls on all Somali parties to co-operate fully with it, urges again the international community to provide financial resources, personnel, equipment and services for the full deployment of AMISOM, and repeats its request that the Secretary-General consult with the African Union Commission on what further support might be provided to AMISOM.“The Security Council also reiterates its request that the Secretary-General develop the existing contingency plans for the possible deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation to succeed AMISOM, as set out in
resolution 1772 (2007). The Security Council requests the Secretary-General to report by 8 February 2008 on progress made in this regard.”
A Joint-Press Statement issued by Somaliland’s leading independent newspapers: Jamhuuriya, Ogaal, Haatuf, Geeska Africa and Saxansaxo
Somaliland government recently submitted a new ‘Press Law’ for the lower house of parliament to legislate into law. The new ‘Press Law’ contains desperate measures by the government to get rid of the independent media, in particular, the independent and privately owned newspapers in circulation.
We, having read the government’s new ‘Press Law’, compiled of 120 articles, and studied the implications in the objectives it underlines in determining the affairs of the country’s media, and in particular, the independent and privately owned newspapers, we see this new ‘press law’ as detrimental to the country’s independent media and the civil liberties that come with exercising the rights to free speech. We find that;
1. The new ‘press law’ was devised and intended solely for the privately owned independent print media and their commercial printers. The new ‘press law’ gives the government the power and authority to shutdown the privately owned independent newspapers and the business operations of the commercial printers who provide them [newspapers] printing services. It is evident that these articles specifically relate to the independent media and not to the government-run, opposition, and NGO media.
2. The new ‘press law’ does not mention in any place or make reference to the current functioning Somaliland press law which for years has been the sole legal source for the country’s governing media laws which was endorsed by parliament and the president.
3. This new ‘press law’ without doubt contravenes ‘article 32’ of the constitution which explicitly describes the sanctity of the freedom of the independent media and the citizen’s rights to freedom of expression. As result, this new ‘press law’ is in blatant breach of ‘article 32’ of the constitution.
4. This new ‘press law’ establishes that the minister of information has the authority and power to temporarily suspend, shut down, confiscate and appropriate the assets of the independent newspapers and the printing facilities and operations of their commercial printers. Moreover, this new ‘press law’ gives the minister of information the power to intervene in a newspaper’s financial operations, internal management and control output material of its production/operations [censorship]. For instance, the new ‘press law’ dictates that paper boys/girls cannot sell newspapers without a valid permit issued from the ministry of information and only then, can they, sell newspapers to the general public. Elsewhere, the new ‘press law’ goes on to state that newspaper reader’s opinion and ‘letters to the editor’ cannot be published without the prior consent and acknowledgement of the ministry of information [censorship]. The same goes for newspaper advertisements; in that the ministry must be informed of all advertisements placed with newspapers and cannot be published without its consent.
5. The new ‘press law’ delegates authority to the ministry of finance to control, investigate and closedown the business operations of the independent newspapers.
6. The new ‘press law’ categorically prohibits independent newspapers from receiving private funds, public contributions and NGO fund-grants from inside and outside the country. It even goes to the extent of forbidding newspapers from receiving public contributions to pay off legal court fines. This goes against the constitutional article which declares that ‘the independent media should have access to funds and resources that enables it to acquire necessary measures and competence in generating income.
7. The new ‘press law’ declares that journalists working for local and international news agencies cannot travel to another region in the country to cover a story without applying for a travel permit from the minister of information, and that the minister has the right to withhold such permit requested by local or foreign journalists in the country.
8. The new ‘press law’ states that all journalists, local and international, must have a registration card ‘journalist permit’ issued by the ministry of information to work in Somaliland as a journalist, and that the ministry has the right to cancel the permit without giving any reason/advance notice to local or foreign journalists working in the country.
9. The new ‘press law’ violates the country’s established ‘judicial statutory laws of the land’ and has classified the legal code of law and rules governing the media as under the provisions of the criminal “penal” courts of the country. This is in blatant disregard to the current press law which stipulates that the media is answerable for its actions in the civil law suit courts of the country.
10. The new ‘press law’ dictates that commercial printers who print newspapers for the independent media will be held responsible for the content material published by newspapers which contravene the articles in this press law. This is intended to scare commercial printers from printing independent newspapers.
11. The new ‘press law’, furthermore, prohibits the media from publishing general public social and economic hardships or issues, like inflation, corruption, unemployment, bad governance, injustice, oppression, usurpation of government office for private interests.
Pre-conclusion
We, the independent and privately owned newspapers of Somaliland and the independent media outlets of Somaliland agree that the government’s new ‘press law’ is devised to silence the independent media and intended to annihilate the independence of the free media and do away with the opportunities and articles enshrined in the constitution which gives the citizens of this country the rights to express their opinions and freewill.
We strongly believe that this new ‘press law’ developed by the government is the ‘final nail in the coffin’ for the independent media, in particular, the free press (newspapers) which we will never see again in the country, if this new ‘press law’ gets the go ahead. As it is, the free press operating in the country have to constantly face and endure daily persistent threats, intimidation, imprisonment and violations to their freedom of expression and human rights when carrying out their duty and profession.
We see the government’s new ‘press law’ as having a direct link to past government actions which blatantly violated the lawful and constitutional rights of the citizens. This law reminds us of previous incidents in which citizens rights were violated by the government, incidents such as:
- when the government broke into the offices of Haatuf newspaper and arrested its journalists without a legal court warrant early in the year and imprisoned the journalists according to criminal charges brought under the old Somali Republic’s 1960’s ‘Criminal Penal Code’ and replaced the current and valid ‘press law’ which stipulates all media legal matters be settled in ‘civil courts’;
- when, the government unlawfully broke into the compound and offices of the election commission and took charge of the commission, forcing the commissioners out of office;.
- when the government illegally installed its own appointees over the legitimate board of directors of the human rights umbrella group, Shuronet;
- and also, the government’s recent unlawful detention and imprisonment of the Qaran leaders.
The implications of the government’s new ‘press law’ is not limited to just the independent media in the country, but is the first, of worse things to come, which the government of Dahir Rayale Kahin has in store for the people of this nation, that is, paving the road to an authoritarian dictatorship. This will be the end of the democratic and multiparty system of Somaliland which so many have died and sacrificed their loved ones, wealth and wellbeing for.
Conclusion
For these and many more reasons, we urge the lower house of parliament to out-rightly reject the government’s new ‘press law’ and preserve their self-respect by even not entertaining its debate and house deliberation.
We urge the general public in Somaliland, the opposition political parties, human rights groups and media (NGO) organisations, whether local or international, to oppose and campaign against this ‘self-defeating’ and ‘self-destructing’ new ‘press law’ of the government which will be a catastrophic blow to the independent media of the country and the freedom of expression enshrined in Somaliland’s democratic system of government and institutions.
Strengthening educational collaboration Between Somaliland and South Africa
School Girls in Hargeisa, Somaliland
Hargeisa University's Faculty of Law and Legal Clinic is a Success Academic Development in the Horn of Africa. The Faculty Was Established in 2002 As There Was Great Need For Justice and Application of Law in Somaliland" Mr.Mahamoud Faarah, Dean of the Faculty.
Hargeisa University's Faculty of Law and Legal Clinic is a Success Academic Development in the Horn of Africa. The Faculty Was Established in 2002 As There Was Great Need For Justice and Application of Law in Somaliland" Mr.Mahamoud Faarah, Dean of the Faculty.
Pretoria, The centre for human rights is an academic department in the faculty of law at the University of Pretoria, the master's degree programme (LLM) in Human Right and democratization in Africa presented in partnership with other universities in Africa including university of Hargiesa.
Every academic year, Pretoria University sends 10 students with experienced lecturers in LLM programme to Somaliland to learn more about state building, recognition and socio-political and economic developments of Somaliland.
24th March 2007, 10 LLM students accompanied by American Dr.David Padilla Adv Fritz Gaerdes and Adv Jacob van Garderen (Lawyers for Human Rights), Susan Precious (Programme manager) and Martin Nsibirwa (LLM Programme Manager), went for a field trip to various ministries (justice & education) and some academic institutions in Somaliland including university of Hargeisa.
"Mr. Mohamoud Hussein Faarah, the dean of the faculty of Law at the University of Hargeisa has played a pivotal role to ensure the success of our study visits to Somaliland, the centre of Human Rights is therefore very keen to develop the existing relationship between the University of Pretoria and University of Hargeisa" says Martin Nsbirwa, LLM Programme Manager of Pretoria ‘Varsity.
The strengthening collaboration and relationship between the two institutions (Pretoria & Hargeisa), creates to propose new initiative of staff development, therefore the Dean of the faculty of Law and Legal Clinic, Mr.Mohamoud Faarah accompanied by graduate student from Hargeisa ‘Varsity, have been invited to attend a short course on good governance which took place 2-13 July 2007. Among the main issues the Good Governance Course has covered are (just to mention view);
General Good Governance & Human Rights Issues
1. HIV/AIDS & Good Governance
2. Macro-Economic Perspective and Results in SADC\
3. Good Governance and the Financial Services Sector
4. Ethical Governance
5. Economic Globalisation and its impact on Good Governance
6. Administrative Justice
7. Constitutional Law
8. International Law and Socio-Economic Rights
9. Environmental Law and Good Governance
10. Anti-Corruption Measures in Both Public and Private Sector
Accountability and Good Governance
After the short course has ended on 13th July, the Centre for Human Rights extended Mr.Mohamoud's stay in Pretoria for an extra week during which Mr. Faarah has received welcoming invitations from various academic people, business people, the Community of Somaliland in Southern Africa (COSSA),he also met some ambassadors in Pretoria including the new ambassador of Ethiopia to South Africa to discuss the Somaliland educational developments & stability.
Compiled by Saeed Furaa, Freelance Journalist,
Pretoria, South Africa
E-mail: somalilandjournalist@yahoo.com
As Ghana celebrates its 50th anniversary of Independence, countries across the continent are looking back on their own post-colonial history. For Somaliland in the Horn of Africa, the Independence dream lasted for just five days.
Somaliland? You may well not have heard of it, embedded as it is within the internationally recognised boundaries of the troubled Somalia, and lumped together by African and world opinion as part of that hot-spot of volatility. But with a population of some 3.5 million and a land area of 68,000 square miles, it is larger than many African nations - more than twice the size of Togo, for example. It issues its own passports, has its own currency, and has a growing economy and tourism industry.
After seceding from Somalia in 1991, Somaliland has seen three democratic exchanges of power and now holds itself up as an example of democracy at work in Africa. It is, according to Abdillahi Mohamed Duale, the Somaliland Foreign Minister, the hope of the Horn of Africa.
The irony is that for most of the world, Somaliland does not exist.
History
The background to Somaliland's status is a complicated one. On July 26, 1960 British Somaliland, a British protectorate, announced its Independence. When the former Italian Somaliland became independent on July 1, 1960 the two new countries declared a merger, in the name of a Greater Somalia, which would encompass all Somali-speaking people.
This conglomerate state would include former Italian Somaliland, the former French trusteeship, Region Five of Ethiopia (then called Ogaden) and the Somali region of Kenya. Somalia"s five star flag represents this idea of a unity of Somali peoples, and the constitution of the new country even enshrined the dream, stating its intention to use "all available means,” even force, to realise Somali-unity ambition.
But: “That dream was never materialised; and in fact it became an affirmer to the instability of the entire region,” as Mr Duale explains. “The idea of uniting all the Somalis laid the foundation for destruction and destabilisation;” a destruction which included two major wars with Ethiopia, in 1964 and 1977, and low intensity wars with Kenya for a number of years.
When French Somaliland gained its independence from France in 1977 to become Djibouti, the idea of Somalian unity had already been destroyed. Subsequent civil strife saw Somaliland “completely destroyed by the former regime” according to Mr Duale – including the bombing of its capital, Hargeisa, in 1988. “People were tortured, people were raped – all the evil things that could have happened,” he says. “It was genocide – e very day there were new mass-graves – and after the bombing I thought, 'how could you do this to your own people?’” 60,000 are thought to have died, whilst over one million were exiled from the country. Somaliland now has one of the biggest Diasporas, proportional to its internal population, of any African country, and remittances exceed $700,000 a year.
Peace and nation-building
Thus in 1991, after the defeat of Mohamed Said Barre, Somalia’s long-standing dictator, Somaliland reclaimed its earlier sovereignty and determined to go its own separate way – the “union” had not worked out.
“We had been underdeveloped for quite a long time,” says the Foreign Minister. The country had no universities, no television, and no development projects. “On top of that, our people had been killed, our cities had been destroyed.”
Remarkably in a region so troubled elsewhere, the process of nation-building in Somaliland has been a successful one. In 1991, a conference of elders was held, representing all the clans in Somaliland, and in which, “the whole fabric of the society came together, including those who were fighting,” says Mr Duale. He talks of a “healing process through inclusiveness. Through bringing everyone into the forum and saying, ‘Let us go forward and – period. Forget about the past and let us think about the future generations’.”
“There was nothing like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa – we just forgave and moved on.” Civil society, political, military and traditional leaders reached consensus on the way forward, and the unity has continued – something the Foreign Minister ascribes in part to the legacy of British colonial rule in the area.
The British policy of indirect rule in its protectorates, working through existing chiefs, sultans and religious leaders, meant that Somaliland survived its colonial era with these structures virtually intact. Its Italian-governed cousins across the border, however, have been struggling with a society now devoid of these networks – the result has been constant conflict, bloodshed and a reversion to the “culture of warlordism”.
The Somaliland Foreign Minister spoke frankly about the situation in Somalia, and his frustration with peace and reconciliation efforts. “Billions of dollars have been spent on Somalia, but all to no avail,” he said. “I’m afraid it is a waste and that sooner or later, the international community will simply get fatigue and give up,” on the apparently interminable conflict.
For Somaliland, meanwhile, the immediate focus post-1991 has been to establish systems of government and make up for several decades of unrest and neglect. In 2001, a referendum was held, in which 97 percent of voters reaffirmed the country’s sovereignty. Now, Government is “the caretaker of the will of the people,” as Mr Duale puts it. The first local government elections were held in December 2002, with presidential elections in April 2003 and parliamentary elections in September 2003. All were witnessed by international observers, and declared free and fair.
Recognise us!
“Once we had put our house in order, it became of paramount importance that we seek and push the issue of recognition,” the Foreign Minister continued. As well as visiting Ghana to celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence in this nation, Mr Duale and President Dahir Rayale Kahin will also take the opportunity to meet with President John Agyekum Kufuor and others, to discuss this issue of nationhood. Somaliland already has offices in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa, and is looking into making Ghana its base for West Africa.
Within the Horn of Africa, Somaliland has already established a “fantastic” relationship, in Mr Duale’s words, with Ethiopia and strong links with Kenya and Djibouti. Although instability in its neighbouring Somalia has a knock-on effect across the region, with Somaliland receiving many more refugees from the latest Mogadishu fall-out, and issues of illegal arms, contraband and bandits constantly plaguing the borders, Somaliland is trying to redress that balance by setting an example of peaceful reconciliation. Mr Duale hopes Somaliland and Somalia may be able to foster friendly ties and cooperation in the future, and hopes for a lasting solution to the ongoing problems.
The wider African community is also taking an interest in the Somaliland cause. Following repeated invitations from the government of Somaliland, the African Union is also now taking an interest in the ‘nation’s’ cause. In 2005, an AU fact-finding mission was sent to Somaliland: “The AU could not hide the progress we were making, and the conclusion was that our case cannot be ignored,” says Mr Duale. As the AU report notes, “The message was the same at every place: ‘The irreversible independence of Somaliland; the irreversible sovereignty of Somaliland; no return to the Union with Somalia; the quest for recognition form the AI and the international community’.”
The Mission found that, “Since its declaration of independence in 1991, Somaliland has been steadfastedly laying the foundations of a democratic state.” It noted the plethora of problems facing the country, including the damaging legacy of its union with Somalia, and “the lack of recognition ties the hands of the authorities and people of Somaliland as they cannot effectively and sustainably transact with the outside to pursue the reconstruction and development goals.”
At the last African Union summit held in Addis Ababa, the issue of recognition was raised at the conference of foreign ministers, by the Rwandan representative. Although the issue was not on the agenda, it was discussed for some 15 minutes, says Mr Duale – who was encouraged by the sympathy of his colleagues. A further fact-finding mission is now to be carried out on the issue of Somaliland’s application for recognition, to the next AU summit held in Accra this July.
Africa (and Ghana) at 50
For Somaliland, the journey since its independence has been a rocky one – almost half a century since its five days of freedom, it is once again making a case for its sovereignty in the eyes of the world. How has it faired compared to the rest of the continent?
Interestingly, many Africans use Ghana as a benchmark of their own fates and achievements, says Mr Duale, because of its status as the continent’s first independent nation.
“Ghana played a very significant role. The ideas that were coming out of Ghana in those days from the late (God bless his soul) Kwame Nkrumah, were a sense of hope, of liberation, in the African context, and also in the African American context,” he said – pointing to the civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s visit to Ghana and the inspiration he drew from it.
Mr Duale compared the dream of a united, Greater Somalia to Nkrumah’s dream of a united Africa: both, during the intervening years, have fallen to dust. “What has happened from 1957 until today is a completely different experience… We have had our ups and downs as a continent as a state – but there is a great deal of lessons to be learnt, and we must envision the way forward. What will happen in another 50 years?”
For Somaliland as for countries across Africa, the half-century anniversary of the first wave of independence is a time of sombre reflection. 50 years ago, parts of Africa were more advanced than countries in South-East Asia; today the so-called ‘Asian Tigers’ of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the rest have left the continent behind.
But there is hope and progressiveness, says Mr Duale, pointing to the South African experience as an inspiration to the rest of the continent, and the opportunity nations now have to look back on their history – and learn from their mistakes.
Of course, many of Africa’s problems have not been internally-generated, and Mr Duale pointed in particular to the Cold War as a key source of continental instability – with the East and the West fighting out their decades-long stand-off on African soil, with little regard for the people over whom they haggled. “The competition of these two ideologies had a very negative impact. Both super powers sought only their own interest. At the end of the day, both of them cared less with regard to the future of the countries. “Unfortunately, a lot of our dictators stayed in power too long, simply because they were what someone was keeping there.”
Today, there are trouble spots, but there are also bright ones, he says. “What I see in Ghana is very promising. Over the years, Ghana has learnt to learn.” Mr Duale praised President Kufuor for his adherence to the country’s constitution – relinquishing power at the end of his second term in 2008, as competition for his succession continues to heat up. “Respect for institutions of democracy is so important, and I think that others will follow suit.”
Like many others, Somaliland sees Ghana as a symbol of liberation and progress: let us work so that in another 50 years, we have not let them down.
The desert is small relative to the growth of population, leading to endemic warfare over territory and to the expulsion of weaker groups. However, camels have relatively low fertility rates in the face of recurrent drought, so that maintenance of balanced ratios of camels requires the raiding of camels by those who are militarily strong and the expulsion of the weak from the desert.
Given the inadequacy of natural increase to preserve the sufficiency of herds, the sizes of herds are determined by the actions of men as raiders and as defenders of herds. Men, however, are the products of the fertility of women, and hence the fertility of women acts as the critical wealth-asset underlying possession of herds and the survival of agnatic groups. Like marriage practices almost everywhere, marriages among the Somali carry the ethos of the successful and the powerful, the powerful being those whose sons are so successful in raiding that a sufficiency in camels is assured. In the context of such sufficiency additional camels are reduced to the level of consumption goods, into which they are transformed, rather than becoming part of the herd as wealth. ...
Somalia The Warrior Tradition and Development of a Modern Army
Historically, Somali society accorded prestige to the warrior ( waranle--see Glossary) and rewarded military prowess. Except for a man of religion (wadaddo) (wadad; pl., wadaddo--see Glossary), and they were few in number, all Somali males were considered potential warriors. As a result, a culture of military readiness flourished throughout a long history of foreign invasion, colonial occupation, domestic conflict, and wars with neighboring countries. ... http://www.photius.com/countries/somalia/national_security/somalia_national_security_the_warrior_traditio~1631.html
The Somali Bantu: Their History and Culture. Culture Profile.
Abstract: This booklet is a basic introduction to the people, history, and cultures of the Somali Bantu. It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting Somali Bantu refugees in their new communities in the United States. It focuses on: "Introduction"; "Land"; "People" (place in society and social structures); "History" (colonial period, slavery, social impact of slavery, after slavery, 20th century, civil war, in refugee camps, and post-civil war); "Religious Life"; "Daily Life and Values" (family life, marriage and children, community life, festivities and ceremonies, diet, dress, and art, literature and music); "Language and Literacy" (Af Maay dialect and literacy); "Education"; "Resettlement Challenges" (housing, work and finances, health care, mental health, education, learning English, style of communication, special needs of women, and relations between Bantu and other Somalis); and "Af Maay Glossary." (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education.)
Baidoa, Central/Southern Somalia, November, 2007 – It was almost a year ago that Ahado Hassan lost her three year old daughter Hawa to malaria. She says she still dreams of her, laughing and playing in the water, and asks the doctor if it is normal for the mind to dream of those things which are lost forever. The doctor is busy examining Ahado’s other daughter, Fatima. She is sick with stomach pain and constant diarrhea; she’s losing weight and suffers from fevers. The doctor will test her for malaria.
At least one out of every seven children born today in Somalia will not live to see their fifth birthday. Most will die from easily preventable or treatable illnesses such as diarrhea and malaria.
Malaria is one of the leading killers of children under age five accounting for almost 1 death in 10 worldwide and nearly 1 in 5 in sub-Saharan Africa.
“This is why our mosquito net programme is so important,” said Dr. Abdinor Mohamed, a UNICEF staff member and coordinator for the Global Fund for Malaria programme. “It doesn’t get any worse than having your child die in your arms.”
At the time of her daughter’s death, Ahado did not have a mosquito net. In fact, she had no idea what malaria was, what the symptoms were, how to treat it or where to go for help. In a country where the residents can suffer from several malaria attacks in any given year, she made do the only way she knew how.
“I was confused by the different symptoms and thought it was a fever sickness of some type and I gave my daughter the herbal remedies that I learned from my mother,” said Ahado. “But they didn’t work to stop the terrible fevers and chills. Then my husband and I called the religious leader from our neighborhood. He performed many prayers and rituals for her but nothing seemed to help. Finally, my family forced me to take her here, even though I did not want to. I was afraid.”
But it was too late. Her daughter died in her arms at the clinic.
To prevent cases such as these, a malaria reduction programme has been established that aims to decrease malaria by distributing free mosquito nets to the vulnerable and poor population in high-risk areas. To help those already infected, UNICEF supports the provision of WHO-recommended Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy.
UNICEF and its partners hope to reduce adult and child malaria deaths by more than 50% by the year 2010. Achieving this would not be possible without the support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, who has been supporting malaria control efforts in Somalia since 2004.
Preventive programmes such as this one are particularly essential in Somalia due to the limited number of health facilities and trained medical staff in the country. Somalia’s health care indicators rank among the worst in the world and are due in a large part to the chronic conflict that has affected the country for the last 16 years.
“I have learned a lot from my Hawa’s death,” said Ahado. “About health, nutrition and hygiene and I’ve learned how to take better care of my family and protect them from diseases, especially malaria. And most importantly I have learned to use a mosquito net.”
In 2006, 390,000 insecticide treated bednets were procured through UNICEF’s supply system and distributed to families throughout Somalia. The impact of this mass distribution, targeting young children and pregnant women, is already evident. Records from Jowhar Hospital in Central and Southern Somalia show a huge decrease in malaria admissions, down from 1849 patients in 2005 to just 49 patients in the first half of 2007. By the middle of 2007, an additional 207,817 nets were in the hands of mothers and children like Ahado and Fatima.
1. The present report is submitted pursuant to the statement of the President of the Security Council of 31 October 2001 (S/PRST/2001/30), in which the Councilrequested me to submit quarterly reports on the situation in Somalia. The report covers developments since my previous report, of 25 June (S/2007/381), including the progress and outcome of the National Reconciliation Congress, as well as efforts to promote an all-inclusive political process in Somalia pursuant to the request of the Security Council in its resolution 1772 (2007). It also includes an update on the
security and human rights situation and on the humanitarian and development activities of the United Nations agencies and programmes for Somalia....
Too much of the news we hear about Africa is negative: famine, civil war, HIV, corruption and dictatorship. The latest horror stories from Darfur, Zimbabwe and the Congo grab the headlines, but quiet success stories like Somaliland rarely make the news.
I am talking about Somaliland, not Somalia. The contrast between the two states could not be greater. In the chaos and brutality of war-torn Somalia, more than 1,000 people have been killed or wounded in the last two weeks. Since February, nearly 100,000 refugees have fled the fighting in Mogadishu, bringing the total of displaced persons to more than 400,000.
Contrast this chaos and violence in Somalia with the tranquillity and stability of the north-west breakaway region of the republic of Somaliland. Imperfect, but moving in the right direction, next month the country will celebrate its 16th anniversary of independence. Against all odds, and with little international aid, the three million people of Somaliland have, by their own efforts, begun to establish a secure, functioning democratic state and a reasonable degree of economic stability and growth. This is a truly remarkable achievement in a region of Africa that has long been a byword for chaos, repression and war.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared independence from the defunct republic of Somalia on 18 May 1991. The new state is based on the colonial borders that were recognised in 1960, when Somaliland briefly gained independence from Britain and became the first independent Somali nation to join the United Nations.
Over the last decade-and-a-half, the predominantly Muslim country has made the transition from an autocratic clan-run region, notorious for war and human rights abuses. It has emerged from the ruins of decades of misgovernance and conflict as a peaceful multi-party democracy. A referendum in 2001 led to the adoption of a new democratic constitution. Since then, Somalilanders have held successful elections for president, parliament and local government. While Somalia has not had a free election since the 1960s, each of these three votes in Somaliland has been largely peaceful and declared free and fair by international election observers.
In contrast to the clan conflicts that bedevil Somalia and many other African nations, Somaliland has found a way to negotiate and resolve them peacefully. It has bought previously often hostile clans together in a democratic system that minimises rivalries by incorporating the clan elders into the advisory upper house.
Somalilanders have achieved an enviable peace; progressively disarming and demobilising thousands of gunmen; whereas in Somalia to the south soldiers still run amok, looting, extorting and terrorising local populations. Many of Somaliland's former clan fighters have been successfully incorporated into the mostly well disciplined national army. Unlike many other African states, the armed forces stay out of politics.
Moreover, Somaliland is committed to the rule of law, which is upheld by a largely independent judiciary. Discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, gender or opinion is prohibited. Human rights abuses, such as torture, are criminal offences. The right to protest is protected by law.
The country's transition to democracy and the full observance of human rights still has a way to go. It has a multi-party system but only three political parties are allowed under the constitution. Islam is the state religion. While non-Islamic faiths are allowed, their promotion is prohibited. Muslims are not permitted to renounce Islam.
The legal system is based on Sharia law. Although rarely enforced with harshness, this does place inherent restrictions of the rights of women. The female sex is poorly represented in public life and state institutions. The constitution does, however, give women the right to employment training and property ownership. Although government corruption and inefficiency are not as bad as in many other African nations, they remain a problem according to critics of the regime.
Somaliland's significantly improved record on human rights suffered a setback earlier this year with the arrest of four journalists from the independent newspaper, Haatuf. They were only released at the end of March, after being detained for 86 days on charges of allegedly spreading false information and offending the president. This worrying abuse of press freedom was, however, an exceptional curtailment of what is nowadays a fairly open and free media.
Despite a few flaws, Somaliland is mostly a success story - especially compared to the violence and chaos of Somalia. The Somalilanders have shown, without any pressure from the west, that a Muslim country can build a peaceful, democratic state that, for the most part, upholds human rights. It is a model for Africa and the Middle East.
Yet Somaliland remains unrecognised as a sovereign nation. While the United Nations and the international community focus on the civil war in Somalia, Somaliland's achievement in building a stable, harmonious democracy is unrecognised and unrewarded. Betrayed by the Arab League and the African Union, it stands alone.
Instead of one-sidedly condemning Africa's failures, isn't it time the west did more to acknowledge and support its successes? For a start, Britain, the Commonwealth and the European Union should recognise Somaliland as an independent, sovereign state; and lobby the African Union, the Arab League and the United Nations to do likewise. A modest increase in British and EU aid and trade would go a long way to strengthen Somaliland's economic base. Tackling poverty and unemployment, and improving health, education and housing, will help underpin and enhance Somaliland's transition to a war-free, democratic future.
SOMALI PROVERB: Adoo nabad u balawaara, beloy kaala lama yari. Do not call for trouble when in peace.
An Appeal for Peace Coalition for Justice and Peace in Somaliland
Taking note of the climate of war which prevails in the eastern part of Somaliland and the difficult times which these regions are currently going through;
Guided by the views of the people of Somaliland and our collective experience of the legacy of war;
Conscious of the fact that peace is the foundation of the very existence of Somaliland;
Aware, especially at this particular juncture in time, that anything which jeopardises peace, law and order and the establishment of a democratic system of governance, will damage the prospects of international recognition and the decision of Somaliland to exist as an independent State;
Taking note of the climate of war which prevails in the eastern part of Somaliland and the difficult times which these regions are currently going through;
Guided by the views of the people of Somaliland and our collective experience of the legacy of war;
Conscious of the fact that peace is the foundation of the very existence of Somaliland;
Aware, especially at this particular juncture in time, that anything which jeopardises peace, law and order and the establishment of a democratic system of governance, will damage the prospects of international recognition and the decision of Somaliland to exist as an independent State;
Mindful that the only outcome of war is the loss of life and property for the people of Somaliland and for the country itself;
Confident that dialogue offers the only viable political strategy, given the absence of other alternatives to a peaceful resolution, we are putting forward the following suggestions:
Recommendations:
A: We are appealing to the government of Somaliland and to the Administration of Puntland:
1. To put an immediate end to hostilities and the spread of hostility by word and deed;
2. To forbid the movement of armies and any form of military action, whatever the nature of it;
3. To make a concerted effort to search for a political solution that will terminate the conflict;
4. To stop the propaganda and the dissemination of hatred based on clan affiliation and clan animosity.
*In addition, the Coalition for Justice and Peace is asking the community elders, intellectuals, civic organizations, religious leaders and business people of Somaliland and Puntland to contribute to the establishment of peace and order in the region of Sool.
The organizations which signed this appeal include:
*Samotalis; Heegan; FOBAG; HAVAYOCO; SOLJA; SWJA; African Rights;
*Civic Forum; Golaha Cuqaasha Togdheer; CCS; COPA; War Crimes committee; Capacity Building Network; Share.
Candlelight Health, Education and Environment (CLHE)
Based in Hargeisa, Candlelight was established in 1995 to respond to the needs of the marginalized and vulnerable people in Somaliland. Today, they have interventions in four of the regions of Somaliland in the sectors of health, education, environmental protection and income generation. Candlelight aims to contribute to the creation of a community that is literate, skilled, healthy and economically self-reliant. Candlelight’s mission is to contribute to the development of sustainable structures that can provide adequate and good quality services to the needy communities.
Candlelight assures that the role and benefit of women is a priority in all their interventions and in the education sector, they focus on non-formal education and place emphasis on the promotion of female education, vocational education on marketable skills and teacher training. The main objectives of Candlelight’s programme in education are to support the rehabilitation of existing schools and the construction of new schools where there is a need. They also aim to improve the status of non-formal education with particular emphasis on girl’s education.
The Burao Vocational Training Centre, run by Candlelight was set up in 1998 and provides education and training to more than 480 students. Skills taught at the Centre include plumbing, computer literacy, secretarial skills and accounting and management. Academic subjects are also taught, among them literacy and numeracy, higher mathematics, secondary education, English, Somali and Arabic. Extra curricular subjects such as environmental education and peace building are also taught. Approximately 45% of the students are females.
Candlelight has several educational interventions supported by Novib. Firstly the non-formal or ‘second chance’ education program provides scholarship support to more than 1200 girls in more than 20 learning centres around Somaliland. This project is intended for teenage girls who missed out on early schooling or dropped out of school at an early age. Secondly, they run a primary teacher training programme and this project provides support to 35 women for their transport, allowance, books for school and their school uniforms. Thirdly, they run teacher-training workshops and in the past three years over 200 non-formal, private and religious teachers have benefited from this component of the programme. Thirdly, they support the construction and rehabilitation of schools and provide the necessary furniture. Finally, Candlelight provides vocational training in marketable skills such as tailoring, knitting, computer literacy and nursing.
The income generation aspect of Candlelight’s project is aimed at improving the conditions of low-income women and pastoralists to empower these communities so that they can afford to meet their economic and social needs. In the health sector, Candlelight’s interventions focus on disease prevention, as well as raising awareness on various health related issues such as reproductive health and the eradication of FGM practices. Attention to environment is a part of Candlelight’s long-term development approach as environmental protection is a pre-conditional to sustainable development.
Candlelight aims to ensure that all their interventions ensure a development that is cultural and ecologically acceptable, socially just and economically viable.
Nagaad Umbrella Organisation is a non-governmental, non-political and humanitarian organisation. Nagaad, established in 1997, embraces 32 women organisation.
Why is Nagaad
In the aftermath of the prolonged civil wars in Somaliland that led to the total destruction and devastation of the country and the unravelling of its society, women organisations emerged to meet the basic needs of their families and community.
Their main goal was to assist in rebuilding society and restoring shattered economies. However, this important role of women NGOs needed a united effort to effectively address the socio-economic issues and problems and to overcome several constraints they had faced, since the concept of and hence the experience with NGOs was relatively new to them.
The birth of women’s umbrella organisation was a felt need and inevitable to address the multitude of problems facing the country.
Vision
Nagaad umbrella organisation strives for a world based on gender equality and equity, which ensures equal treatment, participation of women, equitable access to control of benefits and resources at all levels. The focus of Nagaad is to make one voice for women.
Mission Statement
Nagaad is women’s umbrella organisation with thirty-two members, which is operational in Hargeisa, Somaliland. It works for empowering women to realise sustainable development.
In realizing its vision, Nagaad strives to address two key goals that are of concern to its members:
a) Advancing the economic, social and political status of women in Somaliland.
b) Strengthening the capacity of its member organizations to implement effective projects that facilitate the realization of the first goal.
In its effort to advance the position of women, Nagaad utilized its members and seeks the co-operation of other women umbrella organizations (from other regions in Somaliland). Public campaigns and lobbying to decision-making bodies (government, parliament and the Gourti) enable Nagaad to challenge the public’s traditional attitude towards women and to influence policy decisions in favor of women.
Taking advantage of united front of women (Made possible by the birth of Nagaad), women’s voices will be carried forward and their interests rose through networking with local organizations as well as international organizations working in and outside the country. Nagaad aims at building alliances with local organizations and influencing the programs of international organizations for the benefit of women’s advancement.
Goal
Nagaad’s overall goal is to: - Advocate for women rights in Somaliland
* To empower women of Somaliland
* To establish good communication and networking both internally and externally with other women groups
In order to achieve its goals of developing women Nagaad’s main areas of concern are:
a) Promoting and upgrading the education of girls and women.
b) Reducing violence against women.
c) Discouraging the practice of FGM.
d) Advocacy and lobbing for women to take part in decision-making.
e) To alleviate women’s poverty.
f) Improvement of women’s health in rural areas.
g) Politically empowering women.
In pursuing these objectives, Nagaad has the support and commitment of 32-member organization.
Structure
Nagaad has an organizational structure, which consists of the following:-
* General Assembly
* Board of Directors
* Hired Staff composed of Executive Director, Program Officer, Women in Decision making Officer, Coordinator of Environment Network, Administrator/Accountant, Cashier, Driver and Subordinates staff.
Major Activities
* Managerial Courses for Nagaad Member chairpersons
* Nagaad members Organizational Management
* Financial Training for Nagaad members Organization
* Nagaad Office Institutional building
Capacity Building
In order to improve their capacity to carry out effective implementation projects:
*Organizational development composed organizational structure, Vision, Mission, Board of Directors and leadership policies.
* English Courses Primary, Intermediate and advance English for Nagaad Members
* Program Project Management
* Organizational management
* Assessment and Researches for Nagaad Members Need assessments
* Financial management
* PRA Tools Workshop for 25 members
Advocacy and Political Empowerment
Women’s political empowerment
Women’s human rights
- Training on Human Rights
- Reviewing Nagaad’s Progress in implementing the Beijing plat form for action.
- Violence Against Women (Yearly 16days Activisms of VAW
- 8th March Celebrations
- Nagaad is a member of the National Committee of Eradication of FGM.
Training workshop on political issues for women politicians.
- Networking conferences for the women politicians.
- Media articles on monthly basis.
- Organizing and conducting a political participation workshop for 3 days, with 50 participants.
- Organizing and conducting 4-day workshop on election procedures and democratic principles for 50 participants.
- Organizing and conducting a press conference on women’s participation in decision making of Somaliland country, in this press conference will be invited Parliamentary members, Gourti, Government ministries and the trained women.
- Women’s political campaigns
- Advocacy techniques workshop
- Negotiation and lobbying workshop
- Organized 4 meetings for National forum for women in decision-making of Somaliland.
Networking
- Local Networking
- Regions Umbrellas (Kulmis Togdher Region, Kulmiye Awdal Region, Hooyo Sanaag region, PPP Sahil Region, AAIN Awdal Region, COSONGO Galbed Region, and Deeqa Galbed Region)
External
Nagaad is a member of SIHA (Strategic Initiative for the Horn of Africa) composed of seven countries including Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Somaliland.
Somaliland attempting to silence human rights network
Michael Walls, Chair, Somaliland Focus (UK) (2007-10-25)
Somaliland Focus (UK), an organisation set up by returned election observers and members of the diaspora, is concerned about reports that the government in Hargeisa is attempting to silence or subvert the independent human rights network SHURO Net. Reports are that the Somaliland government, particularly the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, and the Human Rights Commission, organised an extraordinary AGM inviting some Shuro-Net members from the regions.
The meeting was held on 24th October and a new Board of Directors were elected by the participants. We are not yet sure how many member organisations participated but according to Zamzam Abdi, the SHURO Net chairperson, the government is trying to get rid of the current BOD and administration and put in their place one selected by the government. The chairperson also informed us that the SHURO Net members in the regions were threatened by the Mayors of their regions that if they did not participate in the extraordinary meeting in Hargeisa, they would not be allowed to work in their regions. Those who refused made their way to Hargeisa and reported the case to SHURO Net office.
The chairperson elected by yesterday's meeting is the head of the programmes at the government-controlled Radio Hargeisa, a civil servant, who is not a member of SHURO Net. The Somaliland Journalist Association (SOLJA) declared that he did not represent them.
It is believed that SHURO Net was targeted by the government because of their calls to abolish the Emeregency Law, and for appealing for the release of prisoners including political prisoners and journalists. The heads of the 30 member organisations of SHURO Net have signed a letter declaring yesterday's meeting illegal.
Somaliland Focus (UK) is concerned that these reports mirror other recent occasions where the government has shown authoritarian tendencies contrary to its push for democratisation which we and others have been so keen to highlight. It does not make the work of organisations such as ourselves who pride ourselves on being international friends of Somaliland an easy one.
Comment
The outcomes of Extra-Ordinary General Assembly Meeting for member organization of Somaliland Human rights Organizations network (SHURO-NET). Held on 24th October 2007 at Ambassador Hotel, Hargeisa Somaliland.
The Extra ordinary General Assembly meeting for 37-member organization of Somaliland Human rights Organizations network (SHURO-NET) whose names are attached herewith conducted on 24th October 2007 at the Ambassador Hotel Hargeisa.
The Extra-Ordinary General Assembly meeting was officially opened by the Deputy Minister of Justice Mr.Yussuf Isse Talabo, after the participants self introduction and chairing committee and ground rules set up the participants discussed about the wrongly use of the value and name of SHURO-NET.
The founding members of the Somaliland Human Rights Organisations Network (SHURO-NETwork), stated:
When we realised that the current Board of Directors of SHURO-NET have failed to implement strategic objectives and aims as per the constitution;
Having acknowledged that SHURO-NET turned into political affairs – which was prohibited the organisation’s day to day activities instead to being non political institution and impartial;
Having same vision, that the current SHURO-NET is working to implement the political interest of one political part, while the character of SHURO-NET is a private, voluntary, non-governmental, non-partisan and non-profit making organization, which strives to empower the public, promote, reinforce and safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms in Somaliland, and be neutral at among political parts;
When we realized that the current BODs of SHURO-NET are deliberately violate against network’s internal rules and regulations (constitution), while they automatically abused the General Assembly power authority of firing (withdrawal) and the approval of the new membership, so far, we learned 13 new members illegally approved by the current BODs SHURO-NET while they debarred other two founding members of network (please see the details of fired and recruited members in the attachment 1)
After having witnessed that the current BODs of SHURO-NET failed to organise the annual membership meeting in due its schedule period (which was dated in December 2006) at the same time, we noted they failed to conduct the regional membership coordination meetings during the last two years, in accordance the SHURO-NET’S mission, which is to strengthen and ensure coordinated efforts, share resources, information and collective action among human rights defenders and organizations to fully fulfil its role in protecting and defending victims of all human rights violations and promotion of fundamental freedoms without prejudice based on clans, race, language, religion and opinions through human rights awareness and education, advocacy, lobbying, victim support mechanisms and systematic monitoring and documentation of human rights violations.
Furthermore, we realized that the current BODs of SHURO-NET is unlawfully mismanaged the overseas trainings and seminars donated to the SHURO-NET, because they secretly send to Sudan one member which they select on the basis of hidden political agenda;
For that reason, till known, the current BODs and the management team of SHURO-NET weren’t distributed the copies of constitution of network, which was amended and approved during the 3rd GA meeting of network held on 28-29 December 2005, according to this, without the amended and approved and singed constitution by the lawful member organisation of SHURO-NET presented at 3rd GA meeting then the legitimacy of both the BODs and the SHURO-NET is under question mark;
Furthermore, the participants contracted on the recently human right violation cases raised by our network are inequitable and unjust by the current leadership and agreed that they are unhappy about the current situation of the network , participants from the regions as well as other member organizations in Hargeisa affirmed that they have never receive any communication messages from the SHURO-NET leadership since when elected them in December 2005 General Assembly, so they have shown that they are not in high spirits with and the way the current leadership members perform in accordance with international and regional human right standard, therefore the participated 37 member organization of Somaliland Human Rights Organizations Network (SHURO-NET) in our Extra-Ordinary GA Meeting are jointly settled the importance of reaction and intervention for the promotion of human rights and organizational mandate of human rights protection and promotion for all Somaliland citizens without discrimination and just manner.
The representatives from the 37 founding member organizations of Somaliland Human Rights Organizations Network (SHURO-NET) who have participated this extraordinary General Assembly meeting have discussed, reviewed and approved all the articles of the new constitution for SHURO-NET
The outcome from the meeting can be summarized as follows
*Approved all the articles of the new constitution for SHURO-NET
*Approved the new applicant NGOs for the membership of SHURO-NET
*Nominated new leadership of SHURO-NET (Board of Directors) voted and democratically elected by the members for the coming two years 2008/09
Board of directors composed of 16 persons. 12 persons where 2 persons from each region for the 6 regions of Somaliland
2 persons representing minority people
2 persons representing the people with disabilities
1. The chairperson – Mr. Abdilahi Aden Omer ‘Wayab’ from Somaliland Journalists Association (SOLJA) – National;
2. The Vice Chairperson – Hoodo Mohamed Hassan from Moonlight girls’ NGO – Awdal region
3. The Secretary-General – Mr. Sulaiman Ismail Bulaleh - HORNWATCH – Hargeisa region
Suleiman Ismail Bolaleh, Secretary-General, SHURO-NETWORK
Abdillahi Adan Omar the newly elected chairman of SHURO-NET
According to hospital reports, on 17/18 January, over 150 people were treated for injuries and an unconfirmed number, including children, killed. There were several mortar and rocket attacks which mainly targeted Villa Somalia, the airport and Hodan district. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that over 1,700 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) were forced to leave Hodan and Daynile districts during the week. An unknown number of IDPs also left Wardiigley, Hawl Wadaag, Haliwaa, and Yaaqshiid districts of Mogadishu. Since 1 January an additional 26,000 people have been displaced due to the ongoing fighting in the city. The security situation in the rest of the country is relatively calm.
Humanitarian agencies continue to provide assistance to displaced people in the Afgooye/Mogadishu stretch. Water and Sanitation Cluster reports that about 3 million liters of water is being delivered to the population along the Mogadishu/Afgooye road. Despite this quantity, challenges still remain, especially concerning geographic repartition, meaning people close to the road receive much more than those in more remote places, and storage of the water.
Some 53,000 people a day in Mogadishu are now receiving cooked meals through NGO SAACID supported by World Food Programme (WFP). The 'wet feeding' programme started in November and now operates at 10 sites across the city. It is the first time since the 1992-93 humanitarian emergencies that prepared meals are distributed in Somalia.
On 18 and 19 January, more than 130 people died (most of them Somalis), when their boats capsized off Yemen coast, bringing the total number of deaths or missing in 2008 at 157. It is anticipated that with the ongoing insecurity in Southern Somalia and deteriorating economy, crossings in 2008 will rise to record-high compared to previous years.
According to a Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) report issued this week, the Deyr rains (October-December) have been below normal in most parts of central Somalia, resulting in limited grassing for animals and reduced water availability. Reports from the field in the past two weeks have indicated severe water shortage for both humans and animals in central regions of Hiraan and Galgaduud and pockets of Bay and Bakool. Population movements due to the drought were also reported this week in Belet Amin (Afgooye), were over 480 people moved to an IDP settlement due to shortage of water in their areas of origin. The Food Security Analysis Unit will release a comprehensive Post-Deyr report next week.
In the light of the expected continued deterioration of the food security situation in Somalia, WFP needs an additional 40,000 metric tons of food to feed some 1.4 million people in Somalia between January and July 2008. For the whole year, WFP plans to feed a total of 1.8 million people in Somalia including 590,000 displaced people in South Central, 905,000 vulnerable people for general food distribution in the South and 305,000 others in the North.
The French Navy will escort the last vessel loaded with food back to Mombasa once it finishes unloading at the southern Somali port of Marka. The Danish government is at a final stage in considering to take-over the French naval protection to ensure safe passage against pirates to ships carrying WFP food.
Somaliland
On 24 January, UNHABITAT handed over 86 newly constructed low-cost shelters for IDP families in one of the major IDP settlement in Hargeysa. Altogether a total of 173 low-lost houses have been constructed.
Strengthening Somali Civil Society programme,
Phase III: August 2005 - August 2008
Oxfam Novib successfully completed implementation of the first two phases of the Strengthening Somali Civil Society programme. The first phase focused on broadening Oxfam Novib’s partnership base with Somali civil society and researched into the status and priorities of Somali civil society. The second phase took a thematic approach and continued activities initiated in phase 1 with the core interventions of information and public awareness, capacity building and direct funding. An innovative new approach to capacity building was successfully piloted in the second phase and substantial progress was made in developing institutional capacity in the sectors of human rights, gender and peace building.
The planning for this third phase of the programme, which began by September at the latest, took place in early February, through a consultative process with Somali representatives, selected by their constituencies to represent their views and suggestions on the direction of the programme. This third phase of the programme continues to address civil society as a whole, while focusing on those sectors of intervention identified as priorities by Somali civil society and where Oxfam Novib has an identified added value to offer as well as the capacity to provide adequate support. In the next three years, Oxfam Novib is concentrating on consolidating and strengthening past interventions while gradually increasing Somali ownership of the programme.
This phase constitutes a number of programmes namely: Capacity Building (Strengthening of Civil Society Involving Systems [SOCSIS]) as well as training of traditional leaders to enhance their leadership capacities, Public awareness on Human Rights including Civic Education, Child Protection, Global Fund Programme for HIV/AIDS, Lobby and advocacy and Emergency Preparedness and Awareness Response Action (EPARA).
The capacity building started since the inception of the Nairobi office in 1995, has continued into this phase. Capacity building for human rights organizations was extended from only Investigation, Documentation, Monitoring and Advocacy (IDMA) support to a more holistic engagement with human rights issues. The new areas introduced in this phase are paralegal assistance, advocacy, community mobiliztion and organization to complement the onerous focus on IDMA. Support to partners under the Child Protection programme covered both SOCSIS and thematic capacity building. The programme under the Global Fund initiative also covered both operational and instrumental capacity building apsects as is the EPARA Programme.
Interventions during phase three focusses on five different sectors and intervention strategies and methodologies will be applied cross-sector.
Civil Society - Oxfam Novib and the partners believe that strengthening Somali civil society as a whole continues to be a priority. The understanding of the definition, concept, roles and responsibilities of civil society is still at an embryonic stage. Support needs to be devoted not only to empowering civil society groups and organizations, but also to increasing awareness and understanding of the issues at stake, both at national and international levels. As part of this intervention, Oxfam Novib intends to continue with its lobby and advocacy activities targeting the international community in order not only to increase its understanding of the current civil society situation and potential but also to develop a common and more coherent approach for its support.
Community based peace building - Peace, security and stability are the ultimate priorities of Somali civil society across geographical, clan and sector borders and the foundations upon which all other development efforts will rest.
Oxfam Novib has been supporting civil society engagement and participation at the peace conference since October 2001. Oxfam Novib plans to continue supporting civil society engagement with both the implementation of the peace agreement and with broader peace-building issues with an emphasis on increasing the ownership of the agreement through critical engagement and debate and to work using a bottom-up approach utilising links with grassroots, community-based and civil society organisations, in order to better address wider peace issues that go beyond the boundaries of the formal agreement. The results of this work would be to strengthen, link (at all levels) and empower local peace initiatives, with a special focus on women. Another result, would be to encourage and support a strong and capable community participation in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration initiatives or processes.
Civil Society engagement with governance – there is no question that Somali civil society wants to actively and positively contribute to the development and establishment of democratic and transparent governance structures and to take on the traditional role of civil society in holding governance structures to account.
With the formation of those structures, Oxfam Novib considers it key to support civil society so as to ensure its capacity and space for participation in, and contribution to, the process as well as to sensitise government and administrations about the need for good governance and the role of civil society. Civil society can play a crucial role in increasing communities’ understanding and awareness of basic principles of governance, democracy and civic rights.
Human Rights - Somali people are subject to a range of gross human rights violations and the majority of the people do not enjoy economic or political rights. It is in this context that the emergence of dedicated human rights organizations has been so important in the protection and promotion of human rights. Oxfam Novib considers it key to continue supporting the emerging capacity and understanding in this sector to address the culture of impunity prevalent in Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Zone. This priority becomes even higher with the formation of new governance structures and administrations as a result of the peace process.
Despite the rhetoric of human rights, there is actually very little support for human rights work in Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Zone from the international community and in particular no support for the development of local capacity. Oxfam Novib support will continue to address this gap with the aim of addressing the existing culture of impunity and replacing it by one of respect for human rights. Oxfam Novib places particular emphasis on the promotion of women’s rights and addressing rights violations specific to women, including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Role and status of Women - Support to women continues to be a sector that deserves special and specific attention. Despite their strength and capacity to organize themselves, Somali women still play a secondary role in most aspects of Somali life and society but they are still discriminated upon and have very limited space in decision-making. Oxfam Novib wants to continue their support to women’s groups and activists in order to strengthen their capacity to participate in civic life and decision-making.
As mentioned above, intervention strategies will be applied cross-sector. Oxfam Novib has identified five methodologies through which it will carry out its work:
*Capacity building for both civil society in general, institutions, groups and organizations will be carried out within the above-identified sectors. Oxfam Novib has developed and implemented creative approaches to capacity building in order to guarantee its success and sustainability in the Somali context. These have involved a combination of theoretical (training) and practical learning (direct funding for implementation), with a very close monitoring system.
*Public awareness will continue to be raised about civil society concepts and roles, as well as civil society-related issues within each of the sectors at both local and international levels.
*Lobby and advocacy - much civil society work is hampered by entrenched attitudes, both within Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Zone and among the international community. Locally, there are particular barriers in each individual sector that are best addressed through lobby and advocacy strategies aimed at bringing about a change in attitudes and beliefs, or changing particular policy barriers. Within the international community there are also barriers to change, in particular the lack of protection mechanisms and the low priority given to Somalia/land in general, and to civil society in particular.
*Direct funding will continue to be a pillar of the programme. Oxfam Novib believes that capacity building alone, without the opportunity to use the skills gained and implement their own projects and priorities, does not truly strengthen Somali civil society.
*Promotion of strong civil society leadership/role models will be carried out in general, as well as in each of the sectors of intervention.
In response to developments at the Somali National Reconciliation Conference, and building on projects funded to date, the European Commission decided to further support the Somali civil society as a sustainable force for positive change in enabling Somali people access to basic rights through Oxfam Novib. The project run from October 2004 to July 2005 covering some of the activities Oxfam Novib was planning as part of the Phase III of the Strengthening Somali Civil Society programme.
This project aimed at increasing the awareness and respect for human rights in Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Zone as well as increasing Somali civil society participation in governance and democracy building. Activities included training and support to human rights organizations (including investigation and documentation of human rights abuses and the establishment of a civil society Human Rights commission) and civic education initiatives targeting children, women and elders.
Origins: Ancient Somali history is uncertain, but the Somalis and Cushitic groups from whom the Somalis descended have lived in the Horn region at least as far back as 1000 AD. In those days, this area was known as the Land of Punt, the source of much of the myrrh and frankincense mentioned in the Bible. The Somali population began converting to Islam sometime after its introduction to the region in the 7th century. During this time the Somali also moved into what is now eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, and set up trade routes that would last for centuries. The southern part of the country developed a farming economy; northerner clans developed trade centers and watering-hole routes that enabled them to keep their families and herds alive in dry seasons. Coastal trading cities like Berbera and Zayla controlled Indian Ocean trade through the Red Sea. Colonialism changed these patterns. In the 19th century, Somalia was colonized by France, Italy and Britain. Because the Somalis refused to respect their new rulers, colonizers encouraged clan rivalries and gave political power to various tribes. Increasing anger against Barré’s government led to the formation of opposition movements, and a brutal civil war erupted that devastated communities, fractured power into territories controlled by warlords and left millions homeless. In 1992 a coalition government accepted UN assistance for relief efforts and in 1993 signed a peace agreement. In the north, clans reconciled and in 1991 formed a state
government called Somaliland, with Muhammed Ibrahim Egal as president; however, Somaliland is not yet recognized by the international community. Southern Somalia still has no formal national government.
When Heather Akou sees Somali women working behind the counters at area Target stores, she can’t help but smile. Wearing red hijab—headcoverings—clearly designed to go with the standard Target uniform, the women are for Akou proof positive of the emergence of a more globalized Minnesota, and of the creativity of at least one local employer in responding to emerging cultural needs. 
© UNICEF/2007/CKMinihane 
Too much of the news we hear about Africa is negative: famine, civil war, HIV, corruption and dictatorship. The latest horror stories from Darfur, Zimbabwe and the Congo grab the headlines, but quiet success stories like Somaliland rarely make the news.