Nov 25 2001 Press Release:Washington DC – Somali Support Committee and the Somali intellectuals around the world are deeply dismayed and outraged by the barbaric coward and the uncivilized act of the former president of Puntland. He attacked the Free world and the democratic people of Puntland
Abdullahi Yusuf, ignored all legible charters of the UN and the world by using force to rewrite the will of the Puntland people which they caste to vote freely and elected a new leader. Abdullahi. Yusuf became a lunatic and a warlod whose only abition is to divide and rule by using the barrel of the gun.
Mr. Yusuf is trying to insult our intelligence when any time he opens his mouth re repeating that he is fighting with the international terrorism, where indeed he is massacring his own people. It became obvious that all the warlords and the ruthless dictators are cashing the idea of fighting terrorism. Mr. Yusuf, since when the Somali traditional dress and being a Muslim became a terrorist? Or maybe trying to satisfy your greed and selfishness of power hungry is making you blind.
The 2nd Constitutional Conference of the State of Puntland of Somalia ended (Wednesday) November 14,2001 in Garowe with the election of a new President and a Vice-President for a period of three years. The results of the two-and-half-month long Conference mean a continuation of Puntland’s administration established here in 1998 due to the prolonged absence of a national government in Somalia since the downfall of the military regime under General Mohammed Siyad Barre in 1991.
The President-elect is Mr. Jama Ali Jama, a 61-year-old politician educated at Moscow State University and former political detainee for eleven years. Of ten contenders for the post of the President, Jama won an outright victory in the first round obtaining 283 votes among the present 452 voters. The interim Charter of Puntland stipulates that a winner in the first round has to achieve above 50% of the total votes cast. His nearest rival, Musse Haji Saeed Mumin, got 103 votes.
The new Vice-President is Ahmed Mohamoud Goala from Sool region, Governor of the Bank of Puntland State, a 60-year-old professional banker, educated in Britain in the 1960s. Prior to his last job in Puntland, he had served the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, for twenty years. He defeated his closest challenger, Farah Warsame Osman, a former Puntland Minister of Social affairs, by a wide margin of 97 votes by winning 328 votes.
Apart from having the traditional feel of sorting things out, the marathon Conference had to solve a series of clan and sub-clan complaints from most of the regions regarding the sharing of vote-carrying delegates. Despite the inherent sluggishness, a healthy electioneering campaign kept the city simmering.
The conclusion was a free and fair election openly contested in the Conference Hall by both show of hands and count of cards of each of the number of vote-carrying delegates representing the five regions of Bari, Nugal, Soul, Mudug and the district of Buhodleh which established the State of Puntland of Somalia three years ago.
The fundamental intention was and is to be part of a future federal Somalia only after comprehensive, all-inclusive and satisfactory reconciliation was done and this has not been yet realized.
The election process under the watchful eye of the titled traditional leaders, the Issims, of the people is expected to be completed with the selection of 66 members of parliament by the regions within 45 days. The legislative body shall be required to approve council of ministers to be appointed by the President within the next couple of weeks.
But in contrary the former President Mr. Yusuf views it differently, he believes only the power of the barrel should rule the land.
Mr. Yusuf, the former president coordinated a deliberate and a well-calculated attack to the capital of Puntland and its people. He repeated his August 5th massacre in Bossaso, which more than 120 people died in his attack, and now in Garoe on 11/20/2001 more than 20 died and 80 wounded so far.
The new leadership show determination to strengthen the security and stability of the State, maintain close friendly relations with Ethiopia and co-operate with the Governments of the United States of America and Great Britain to ensure that there are no hideouts of terrorist suspects in the territory of Puntland. It seems, however, that the new administration will have to concentrate some issues of internal concern of its own before taking part in any serious Somali national reconciliation.
The first such internal priority is how to deal with Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Puntland’s first President who is now 15 Km away from Garoe city, claiming that he is still the President. He holds grudges because his wish to breach the law by withholding the planned elections in the Charter has been denied. He has indeed already declared his position to reject the reality in the land.
The new leaders’ worry is that the Colonel may be a man consumed by indifference of the situation who could sow hatred and confrontation among his supporters and majority non-supporters of the community in Galkayo. And his recent violent attack and actions in Garoe and Bossaso cities proved that. If these aggressions continue, the situation could lead to wider implications.
Somali Support Committee, SDC and the rest of the Somali Communities are asking the UN, US, and national security council to condemn this act of terrorism and watch those warlords who want to cash the idea of the international community for fighting terrorism but indeed acting ruthlessness and kidnapping the free will of their countrymen.
Somali Support Committee Washington DC
E-mail: ssc_sdc@hotmail.com
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