“We call on the Galmudug administration and FGS to open dialogue with Puntland to resolve the dispute on boundaries” . Nick Kay said.
There’s no need to open discussion with Gulmudug Mr. Kay, because Puntland has nothing to discuss with Gulmudug. So please we urge you to stop creating the smokescreen to cover this illegitimate process that you have been presiding and you shouldn't have done it.
This is incomplete state and isn’t in accordance with the Somali constitutional terms. The requirements of statehood are very clear. There is no ambiguity the language in the constitution, before you initiate the process there must be a minimum of two state inhabitants that are willing to come together without undue influence from all other entities.
The process should be organic and the federal government role is an observer, not the conductors. Therefore, things were going quit smoothly until you showed up and muddied the water by design. I don’t know why you are doing this but you are not fooling anyone. This is your mess and you must clean it.
The most notorious European colonizers of the Africans were the British
and the French, followed by the Portuguese and the Spanish. Of course,
we know the Germans and the Americans were also part of it, as in
Kinshasa, Dar es Salaam, Monrovia, and Bujumbura. To make it short, for
80 years, more than 80% of Somalis’ wealth was invested in Mogadishu.
But what happened in 1991 must have made Mogadishu turn wild. In 1991
Ali Mahdi Aideed led a massacre,
leveling the city, killing thousands of innocent people. In January 1991
the evacuation of 400,000 Somalis from Mogadishu and the deaths of
30,000 there in 2 weeks was likely the largest blood bath ever seen in
Somali history, arguably in the world. Somalis are the oldest people
group in Africa. Excuse me, but who the hell cares which tribe they
belong to? They are Somalis, and we have to feel their pain.
The aftermath was that the killings in Mogadishu have continued up to
today. Although the world sees Mogadishu as the center of Somalia,
Mogadishu took internationally donated money and guns against their own
people from both Shabelles to Kismayo; that has been going on now for 24
years. The man we recently elected, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has started
attacks there against his own Somali people. It is coming up day after
day.
I would suggest that Mogadishu cannot be the Somali
capital. Mogadishu has been from 1991 to 2014 a city of bloodshed. The
blood flows like streets and rivers. It is a city where people’s rights
have been forcefully denied. Mogadishu became a city unlawfully occupied
by a group of Somalis claiming legitimacy above those who originally
built the city. All the original owners fled the city, or are sitting
aside due to the oppression. The people who came in through the
bloodshed are claiming to be Mogadishans, and now have been elected as
mayors and other government officials for the 16 towns of Mogadishu.
These “guests” are there enjoying respect and power, never being
challenged by the system. In this city all the bad politics of Somalia
have been created- divide and rule, etc.
This is my
conclusion, with all I said above. For the sake of saving Somalia, our
country, our people- Mogadishu cannot be the capital of Somalia. I may
be bringing this discussion here tonight, but please read about it in
the books. History tells us the truth. In 1991 400,000 Somalis were
forced to evacuate and 30,000 were killed- Somali against Somali. That
cannot happen. The distrust and agony between Somalis must never come
back. We know who the perpetrators are, and the crimes they committed
against the Somali people. They must be brought to justice in order for
genuine reconciliation based on solid political principals.
Anyone
who has been following how America handles Somalia will know why the
Somalia condition is getting worse progressively. Following is my
argumentation on how American policy towards Somalia had constantly
failed badly, and ended up building a false hope. Beginning
with the Djibouti peace process, America has fashioned a faulty process
based on what was termed “dividing Islamist Groups” in Somalia without
knowing who the actual fighters were and what the end result would be.
In the end, they created a 550-member Parliament, and allowed half of
the parliament to be drawn from the ranks of the supporters of
Ex-President Sheikh Sharif formerly based in the rogue state of
Eritrea. That group was collectively called the Union of Islamic Courts
(UIC).
The UIC was a punch of individuals who did not have full
control of their ground soldiers. The group was funded by US allies in
the Gulf States – United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Except his close
alliance with the Gulf leaders, Sheikh Sharif was a man with no
understanding or credentials to lead a nation; on top of that he was
corrupt, and had possessed no discernible vision or plan to lead the
nation, specially a nation like Somalia that was dubbed a “failed
state” and was facing tremendous problems.
After 4 years of a sham
administration, the International Community led by the USA created a
process in Somalia called “Transitional Government of Somalia.” To bring
the transition period to a closure, the West, with the leadership of
the US government, raised and spent about 60 million dollars to write a
constitution that has less than 200 articles. In the end, the product
turned out to be a standard “cut-and-paste” document-a document so
similar to other constitutions produced for other similarly failed
states.
In August, 2013, based on the draft of said constitution, a
hand-picked house of traditional leaders elected the current ailing
President. To elect President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, the government of
Qatar, with its Wahabi ideology, spent a hefty $10 million dollars to
buy the votes of largely cash hungry tribal elders.
Too late and
too little, but Somalis posthumously learned that President Hassan
Sheikh Mohamud had a dark history and contested values in that he was
affiliated with the notorious warlord Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid, a leader
that led the United Somali Congress (USC) and was accused to have been
responsible for the massacre of thousands of innocent Somali people who
were mainly from the Darod clan.
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is a man
who was charged for the UIC and for Alshabab to recruite young boys from
Mogadishu schools and surrounding areas to fight against Ethiopian
forces that used to support the Federal Government of Somalia. Of
Course, that past was well-known to US intelligence elites. And Hassan
Sheikh Mohamud becomes Somalia’s President with the help of Americans
and their rich Arabian Gulf states such as Qatar is incomprehensible.
Hillary
Clinton invited Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to Washington right before she
left office, and she took him straight to the White House, and gave him
“high five” salute with her famous press conference and declaring
America will stand by Somalia with the new Leadership, Hassan said few
good words that he memorized addressing the press conference.
Suddenly,
the American government was campaigning in the Security Council to lift
arms embargo on Somalia, knowing there is no Somali National Army in
Somalia, that Al-shabaab controls every young man in Mogadishu directly
or indirectly, all the Militia in Mogadishu are from one clan. Everybody
that knows Somalia well is baffled how America put intentionally a
blind eye, and pumped up a radically religious leader in this volatile
region.
Now that the UN is once again reconsidering the lifting of
arms embargo on Somalia in the face of reliable information that
weapons are diverted to Al-shabab, the West must not err gain.
Otherwise, arms given to the government in Mogadishu would end up
strengthening Al-shabab.
To help Somalia and its people, America and the West will have to consider the following steps:
-
America and the West must help limit the Gulf States involvement in
Somalia and curtail the hidden hands of radical religious groups
reinstituting pro-Al-shabab groups consolidate power.
- The US
government must seriously consider working with stable and peaceful
regional governments such as Puntland state, Somaliland and Jubland to
rebuild Somalia from these entities. Also, international aid and
development should be given directly to these groups for Mogadishu is
proven to be corrupt and inept.
- The security sector of Puntland,
Somaliland and Jubaland should be strengthened so that local and
indigenous forces can fight and defeat Al-shabab.
-And finally it
is time to reevaluate the AMISOM military involvement in Somalia, and
change the operation to a United Nation mission (UNISOM).
Somalia and International Community: Why pretend to care? When need is so clear Momentarily obtainable You look for answers That no longer suits The yearning predicament And knowing the outcome Will not gonna solve.
Why create a hope? With a false promise That buys nothing But temporary convenience And on the due day You skilfully claim Sympathy you did it And the rest was to follow
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014 | Posted by Puntlandi President Hassan Sheikh Losing US and UK Confidence
Not long ago I read a personal letter wrote by a Somali who works for
U.S. security and intelligence apparatus who claimed that the internal
discussions about President Hassan’s government hasn’t been a positive
one. This President Hassanadds weight to what the Director of National
Intelligence of U.S., James Clapper, report, recently said about President Hassan’s government:
“In Somalia al-shabaab is conducting asymmetric attacks against
government facilities and western targets in and around Mogadishu. The
credibility and effectiveness of the young Somali government will be
further threatened by persistent political infighting, weak leadership
from President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Il-equipped government
institution, and pervasive technical, political, and administrative
shortfalls.”
As we all know, perception is more powerful than
the reality that’s not obvious. What I am saying is that if the
perception among some of the U.S. Think-tanks, Intelligence groups, and
the UK parliament is becoming negatively critical in very diplomatic way
about President Hassan, he should be worried and start shaking things.
The Council on Foreign Relations, one of the most read and influential
foreign affairs Think-tanks in the U.S., has this to say about the
appointment of the new prime minister in Somalia while giving a
background opinion on why the president made his PM choice: “Why did
the president appoint another expatriate technocrat seemingly destined
to repeat the same mistakes of his predecessor? Perhaps by this
appointment the president is trying to consolidate his power in the
parliament, honor his clan commitments, appease international
spectators, and maintain Hawiye clan dominance in government. Such an
agenda would be credible for a president with little control over his
country’s territory and with little ability to control political and
clan bickering.” The UK parliament’s Briefing note that is shared
with the members of the parliament to give them a general understanding
of how things are moving around the world, which shapes their
perception, has this to say about the progress President Hassan has made
since he came to office: “International donors, including the UK,
continue to give President Mohamud strong public support. He has a
virtually impossible job to do. However, during his administration has
barely begun to address many of the crucial tasks it inherited from its
discredited predecessor, the Transitional Federal Government, such as
completing a final Constitution or securing agreement on how a federal
Somalia would operate. Nor does it seem to have made a great deal of
progress in combating official corruption. A July 2013 UN Monitoring
Group on Somalia and Eritrea report argued that not much has changed,
alleging that: a large percentage of withdrawals from the Central Bank
had been for private purposes: a significant proportion of Mogadishu
port revenues was going missing every month; and that the immigration
service was heavily implicated in fraud in connection with the issuing
of passports and visas. The Somali Federal Government has repudiated the
report, with the Governor of the Central Bank, Abdusalam Omer, accusing
it of being “completely unfounded, unsubstantiated, defamatory and
reckless.” International support to AMISOM also continues.”
As
anyone who understands deeply about world politics and how
diplomatically negative notes are written, these three different
opinions coming from three very influential groups from policy makers to
opinion shapers, should not be taken very lightly–I am sure this is the
tip of the iceberg. Remember, this is almost equivalent if not worse,
in blunt speaking, of saying the president has not being a president and
he’s acting like his predecessors, which we know how their legacy will
be remembered: ineffective, unintelligent, and corrupt leaders who
promoted their own personal interests before the nation.
Unfortunately, it’s known that the president of Somalia has surrounded
himself people (advisers) who only tell him what he wants to hear or
see, and not the reality and the facts he should be getting as a public
leader whose job is to lead and make very tough decisions. Unless this
changes, probably the president will not know fully or get the full
picture of what’s happening outside the walls of Villa-Somalia, and his
legacy will be like those who came before him.
