An Open Letter to Sheikh Shariif Sheikh Ahmed, the Chairman of Islamic Courts Union (

[Biixi]

The following is the full text of an open letter to the Chairman of the "Islamic Courts Union", Sheikh Shariif Sheikh Ahmed from the desk of the Secretary General of the Southern Somali Union, Eng. Abdulkadir Khalif.

 

Dear Mr. Chairman, Assalaam Caleikum.

 

We thank Allah who granted us this opportunity to write this open letter to you as the Southern Somalia Union (SSU), and hope that you also get the opportunity to read it and understand our point of view.

 

We write this letter with a mixed feeling of hope, anxiety and some degree of frustration and apprehension. Hope because we heard that the roadblocks in Mogadishu are gone and that the prizes of arms and ammunition have taken a nosedive. Hope again because the warlords who have terrorized the people of Mogadishu for more than 15 years have now been humiliated, disarmed and dispersed. Hope too because they (the warlords) have finally realized that they do not belong to Banaadir but to Hiiraan, Galguduud, Shabeelaha Dhaxe, Gedo, Mudug and other places and have actually gone back to their home areas. We are anxious to see the second tier warlords, the likes of Indha Cadde and his lieutenants (Cirfo, Dhuxulow, Shaaruub etc.), in Shabeelaha Hoose and the Jubbas, take the one-way trip to their home areas as soon as possible.

 

But we were crushed with frustration when we read that contrary to your recent pronouncements in Jowhar that “the days of suffering of the Somali people are overâ€, the people of Jowhar are actually enduring systematic looting of their recently acquired infrastructure and that those amongst them who are weak and unarmed are taking the brunt of a new wave of rape and torture. We are further dismayed by the fact that those incidents occurred in that city when you were reportedly in town, promising the people happier days to come. We hasten to add here that you and the “Islamic Courts Union†will be personally and collectively held responsible for any atrocities that have or will visit the people of Somalia in general and those of Southern Somalia in particular after the exit of the warlords and the entry of the “Islamic Courtsâ€.

 

You and the other leaders of the ICU have been quick to set up courts in areas you have recently conquered but have been visibly slow in doing the same in areas under the brutal occupation and enslavement by some senior members of your organization. We are talking about Shabeelaha Hoose and both Jubbas. The Somali people are aware that while Yussuf Mohamed Siyad (Indha Cadde) is busy helping you conquer more territories and then letting his militiamen help themselves to the spoils of war, he is funding your war effort by the illegal taxation of peasant farmers, fishermen, schools and mosques of Southern Somalia. He is funding your war effort by imposing curfews on the towns and villages under his occupation and filling his dingy prison houses with women and children who he then exchanges for extorted money. He is funding your war effort with money from the exports of charcoal obtained from the indiscriminate feeling of trees. He is bankrolling your war effort by planting, harvesting, packaging and exporting Hashish on forcibly acquired lands in Southern Somalia. If these funding sources do not contaminate your “purist†ideologies, then those ideologies were not pure in the first place.

 

We would like to believe your pronouncements and wish you success if your intentions are genuine. We are prepared to even give you a chance to put your acts together as soon as possible. But the Somali people are not going to wait for you forever. As a confidence building process, we would challenge you to immediately take certain minimum actions which we hereunder stipulate:

 

• You must make a quick trip through Afgooye, Qoryooley, Wanlaweyn, Awdhiigle, Marka, Baraawe, Sablaale, Jilib, Jammaame, Kismanyu, Bu’aale, Ceelwaaq, Luuq and Baardheere and listen to what the indigenous peoples of those districts have to say about what trials and tribulations your friends and allies have subjected them to for the last 15 years. You should then be prepared to give them back their freedom and liberty and allow them to set up their own administrations completely independent from those of Indha Cadde, Seeraar and Hiiraale. You have so far been visiting ****** areas and promising them better times. Time to look elsewhere Mr. Chairman if we are to take you seriously.

• You must declare the administration of Yuusuf Indha Cadde illegal and therefore null and void and put in place the process of healing for the people so traumatized by his brutal occupation.

• You must put a definite stop to all logging and the export of charcoal through ports under your control.

• You must destroy all Hashish farms and related processing facilities and equipment in areas under the control of your alliance.

• You must declare the appropriation of public institutions such as buildings and schools for private use as illegal and un-Islamic and take corrective measures for returning them to their originally intended uses.

• You must issue a “fatwa†declaring that all property seizures during the war years are illegal and un-Islamic and that all of them must be returned to their rightful owners.

• You must recognize that there is a government in existence, albeit a weak one, and that that government has been put in place through the collective will of the Somali people, and that, parliament is the legislative branch of that government. The ICU could play a vital role in the formulation of better laws that will protect our sovereignty, religion, culture and tradition.

• You must enter into an unconditional dialogue with the TFG with the purpose of transforming your ICU into the Judicial Branch of the government and to turn over your militiamen and arms to the executive branch.

• And finally, you must never create the opportunity for foreigners to meddle in the internal affairs of Somalia. You can do this by steering clear of belligerency and avoid the involvement of foreigners in your organization and operations.

 

These are minimum conditions that would likely start a confidence building process between your team and the rest of the Somali society, especially those in the South who have been so abused by some members of your inner circle for so long. Up to now, we are not encouraged by your silence on many of these salient issues and we are not sure how to interpret this silence. It could be that you are unwilling to rock the boat for fear of destabilizing your alliance. Or it could be that being a ****** , you are unwilling to acknowledge that your cousins in your organization’s inner circle are capable of such atrocities. Either way the onus is on you or your ICU and the Somali people will closely watch you every step of the way.

 

Your militia found success by tapping into popular discontent just as the USC did when it ran Siyad Barre out of Mogadishu in 1991. What the Indha Cadde Branch of your Alliance is doing in Jowhar and other places right now are reminiscent of what the USC did after taking over Mogadishu in 1991. We hope you still remember the conflict between the ****** clans that engulfed and finally destroyed Mogadishu and Somalia. The lessons of that conflict should be a telling lesson for your inexperienced and overzealous lieutenants today. The crowds that swept you into power last week may have realized their latent capacity to change things and they may not have the patience of the last few years if you do not deliver on your promises soon.

 

Last but not least we want to bring to your attention and to the attention of anybody else who might read this letter that in the last 15 years, Somalia has set several “records†that the rest of the world will have to study for generations to come. Some of those “records†are as follows:

 

• That it is the only country in the last two centuries that has had no government for more than 15 years.

• That we are the only people in the world today who do not know how to form and run a government and who are unwilling or unable to ask for help.

• That we are the only people in the world who despite our unique homogeneity are nevertheless the most divided.

• That ours is the only country in the world where anybody can print his/her own paper money, put it into circulation, convert it into any hard currency and then invest it into any business anywhere-no questions asked.

• That ours is the only country in the world where piracy at sea is still rampant and fashionable.

• That ours is the only country in the world where government members have their own private armies which they can use against the same government and where government leaders can not take action against them.

• That ours is the only country in the world where enemies can talk to each other without outside mediation, disagree, fight and still remain friends and steal together.

• That ours is the only country in the world where the three branches of government (the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary) are separately armed and mutually incompetent.

• Finally, ours is the only country in the world where there are dozens of independent family based “court†systems that are ideologically in agreement but nevertheless mutually exclusive. It is the only country in the world where the courts have a “union†(like a trade union) and where any group of people can form their own and declare it part of this “union†or contrary to that “union†as the case may be.

 

Come on folks. The world is laughing at us. Political scientists and historians are using our conditions as case studies of failed states. We hope and pray that this letter gets the attention of its intended audience and that it will be viewed not as an act of condemnation but rather as an act of challenge.

 

Wabillaahi Towfiiq.

Eng. Abdulkadir Khalif

Secreatry General, Southern Somali Union (SSU)

www.ssunion.net

Khalif8888@hotmail.com

[Juje]

^^Widayo fundiga warqada so qorey hadalkiisa wa fican yahey, o mela badan in la tabto u bahan ayu ka hadla. Lakin a mesha ku jirta, fundiga magacisa waxa la yirah A/qadir Khalif wuxuna u hadla urur Soomaali ah ninka u warqada kusotana waa nin Soomaali ah. Waxa is weydin leh mugo muxu af an aheyn ki la isla wada yiqiin ugu so qorey. Ma dhici karta in usan Sheikh Sharif iyo asxabtisa o kuli wada 'Abu' la wada baxeen ay isku ficneyn Ingrisiga.

Mise warqadan mid dacaad mahiino ee waa mid logu tala galey in Internet laga akhristo, bal kala cadey saxiibo.

[Biixi]

Labo luqadood Af-Soomali iyo Af-Ingiriis waa lagu qoray waraaqda.