Reshaping of US Foreign Policy towards Africa

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US Assistant State appreciates UNISA academics' engagement with African countries such as Somaliland

 

Awdalnews Network, 21 Oct. 2005-- Newly appointed US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr Jendayi Frazer, addressed a select audience at University of South Africa (UNISA) on the “Reshaping of US Foreign Policy towards Africaâ€.

 

Many senior policy makers from the South African Department of Foreign Affairs, including Deputy Foreign Minister Sue van de Merwe, leaders of think-tanks, media and select scholars attended the breakfast round table.

 

By all accounts the event was hailed a brilliant inaugural of the College of Human Sciences’ new programme on African Intellectuals, which is coordinated by Professor Tandeka Nkiwane.

 

In his concluding remarks, Professor Barney Pityana called for more dialogues of this calibre for a more nuanced understanding and development of African foreign policy issues.

 

The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs called also on intellectuals to be more involved on the ground in shaping African foreign policy issues, and expressed her appreciation for the excellent questions posed to her and the involvement of UNISA academics as organic intellectuals in a number of African countries, such as Somaliland.

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A Great Step for Somaliland

 

 

Danish Refugee Council, 5 Oct. 2005= Posted on Awdalnews Network on 21 Oct. 2005=

 

Peaceful parliamentary elections.

 

Travel article by Gunnar Kraft and Sandra Jensen

 

The old woman walked slowly into the little hut built of a mixture of wooden sticks and old plastic sacs from UNHCR. Her hands were carefully examined by the young man in the doorway, holding a small ultra violet lamp. Satisfied with the lack of invisible ink, he allowed her to dip her left little finger into the small bowl with ink.

 

She obeyed his directions and continued to the table in the middle of the room, where the chairman greeted her. She stated her name, age and place of origin and proudly continued with "I would like to vote for Tuke from Kulmiye". The chairman patiently explained that she had to take the stamped ballot paper and go behind the bright green curtain placed in the corner of the hut to vote in secrecy.

 

But the old woman did not care about the confidentiality and felt too uncertain to place the vote on the ballot paper herself. Instead, the chairman marked the requested candidate and showed the ballot paper to the three party agents who were meticulously observing the procedure. They all nodded to confirm that the vote was marked as the woman wished.

 

The ballot paper was then carefully folded and handed to the woman. Three calm steps to the ballot box that was hanging in four strings from the roof. With shaky hands, the woman slid the paper into the box. She looked up and smiled. She had cast her vote in the first parliamentary election in Somaliland in 35 years.

 

International observers

 

Thursday 29 September was a big day for Somaliland. The first parliamentary elections since 1969 crowned the row of recent elections: A referendum in 2001, Local elections in 2002 and the Presidential election in 2003.

 

Although the parliamentary elections have not been perfect, there has reportedly been much less problems and tensions than in the former elections. The 76 international observers have publicly congratulated Somaliland with its peaceful and reasonably free and fair elections.

 

In order to support the democratic development of Somaliland, we volunteered to take up the task as international observers in the district of Garadag in the East of the country, one of DRC’s programme areas.

 

Ballot box in the field

 

We started one of two polling stations in Garadag town before 6 am to watch the opening of the show. Nothing was ready on time apart from the people waiting in long queues outside. But with care and attention, the chairman managed to get everything in place to open 6.30 and the first votes were cast without problems.

 

Confident with the procedure in this polling station, we continued our 300 km tour around the district. Ten very different stations later – ranging from a blanket and a ballot box in the middle of the great, grassy fields to concrete community centres – with only a short list of negative comments in our book, we ended in the other polling station in Garadag to watch the closing at 6 pm.

 

The long queues had been digested and the station could close its doors in peace. The 667 votes were carefully distributed among the parties and counted and recounted and recounted again.

 

The final results were noted, heavily stamped and signed and ready to be sent to next level of the chain at 1 pm. The chairman sighed and noted that it was time to go to bed after three days without sleep. Indeed a well-deserved rest.

 

Women eager to vote

 

The tasks of this election were indeed enormous for a country with such a bad infrastructure as Somaliland. Since no official registration of the inhabitants of Somaliland exists, the voters were registrated when turning up in the polling station.

 

The only requirements for voting were more than 16 years of age and an ability to speak Somali.

 

The lack of preliminary registration makes it difficult to assess voter turnout, but it seems to have been high – in our own small survey in Garadag district, we never met any potential voter who had not cast his or her opinion.

 

Women seemed particularly eager to cast their votes, although only seven had taken up the challenge of running for election.

 

Upcoming democracy experts

 

In a country were up to 80% are illiterate and election experience is so limited, substantial voters’ education have been necessary. The National Election Committee (NEC) has tried its best to instruct the voters about the process.

 

In order to make it easier for the illiterates, each candidate was given a symbol which could be found next to their name on the ballot paper. However, these symbols do not seem to have been promoted heavily enough in the campaigns, and several symbols were also too much alike to serve the purpose.

 

We cross our fingers that the peaceful atmosphere and the good spirit will continue when the results will be known in a couple of weeks and the 82 seats will be distributed. So far, it seems that the ruling party is up for a major defeat, but since clan affiliations are much more important than the vaguely defined party lines this might not cause any problems as long as all the clans are represented.

 

Democracy is all about learning-by-doing. If the people of Somaliland continue in this way, they will all be experts in democratic elections in few years time.

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Seminar on Somaliland between yesterday and tomorrow

 

 

Awdalnews Network=

 

TSHWANE (PRETORIA), 20 Oct. 2005-- The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) will organize a seminar here under the title “Between yesterday and tomorrow : The implications of Somaliland's venture into multi-party democracy†on Tuesday, 25 Oct. 2005, according to a statement by the organizers obtained by Awdalnews Network..

 

Speakers include Dr. Mahomed Iqbal Jhazbhay, University of South Africa, who will deliver a paper on "South Africa -Somaliland Relations: Overview and Prospects." and Dr.Matt Bryden, International Crisis Group (ICG), who will speak on the "Implications of the parliamentary elections for Somaliland." . The details of the seminar are as follows:

 

The Date: Tuesday 25 October 2005

 

Time: 09h30 (tea and coffee)

 

10h00 (seminar starts)

 

12h00 (seminar ends)

 

Venue: ISS Conference Room,

 

Block C, Brooklyn Court,

 

Veale Street, Pretoria

 

(Parking available at the Brooklyn Mall or ABSA Bank)

 

RSVP: Charlene Harry

 

Tel: 012 346 9500

 

Email: Charlene@iss.org.za

 

Special notice: Discussions will occur under Chatham House rules , i.e. no attribution without specific permission.

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Somaliland challenges the world

 

 

By M.A. Egge, THT, 16 Oct. 2005=

 

A senior intellectual Somalilander perceives the just concluded parliamentary elections would do well in empowering the country in its quest for recognition. Dr. Mohammed Rashid Sh. Hassan told the THT in an exclusive interview that despite its success, the elections were indeed quite remarkable in the country's history. "It is for Somaliland a historical moment", he told Editor M.A Gaas, and added; "Every body ought to be really happy of the results". The" not so tall and grey haired bespectacled anthropologist cum political scientist is the founder and head of Arecsmed. He was quite categorical that,

 

"This great success is only the manifestation of Somaliland's further journey to greater heights". He was of the opinion that the impact would reach the world and force them to focus on SL. A frequent traveler to Europe, Dr. Rashid was emphatic that this time round "... it was a challenge to the US, European Union, African Union and the whole world at large". In a momentary emotional surge, he declared, "It is our natural right; we demand recognition; we are no longer begging".

 

He revisited the past presidential and local elections hence said that they were all pointers of how far SL has come.

 

When asked about the impact of the results, Dr. Rashid said ttiat it only underscored the unique characteristics of democratic electioneering processes. Said he, "The interesting picture (results), all the more, showed the high levels of maturity, fairness and transparency". He explained that the participants in the exercise on the part of voters and election officials, co-ordinations, general responsibilities, security and • stability levels were a testimony to good administrative structure in place.

 

Dr. Rashid said that real credit goes to the leadership of H.E. Rayaale. He reminded the interviewer how the President was imperative that the election take place. He said "Inspire of all the pessimism the president ordered for the elections to proceed as scheduled".

 

The pessimists, he explained, were of the view that the socio-economical problems'that prevailed was not conducive to hold elections. H.E. Rayaale ruled them off, and indeed, against all odds, all the three national elections have been successfully wrapped up.

 

The media giving limelight to aspirants hence their biographies becoming known to the public were aspects that were a milestone to the country's history, according to the anthropologist. At one point in the interview, Dr. Rashid was overcautious when asked to comment on the trends of tribal voting. He gleamly said. "Here we should be very careful, and I repeat, very careful, the modern democratic governance and traditional clan systems are interrelated".

 

Though the correlation veered off the question, he however attested to the fact that the basic SL traditional means and systems of socio-political crisis management, is in it own entirety, have democratic attributes. Indeed, past participation of traditional leaders in pacification processes of SL, gave rise to the prevalent liberal democracy cherished.

 

Asked to compare and contrast between our democracy and those ot the western world, the political scientist was quick to point and that,. "Ours is a new, young and poor state (hence remarkable) whereas theirs are industrialized ones with hundreds of years of history." In effect he meant that SL was doing this for the first time and it is doing wonders, (on 'third world' basis); SL was also achieving this wonders without sound financial means.