Scotland Yard to investigate Somaliland murders

[Gabbal]

Wed 12 November, 2003 10:32

 

By Hussein Ali Nur

 

HARGEISA, Somalia (Reuters) - Scotland Yard detectives are to help investigate the recent murder of international aid workers in the breakaway enclave of Somaliland.

 

The detectives will train police officers in Somaliland and help them investigate the murders, including those of a British couple teaching at a school in the self-declared republic, British ambassador to Ethiopia Miles Wickstead said on Tuesday.

 

"Somaliland has got a reputation for peace and people were shocked at the recent incidents. We have asked Scotland Yard to take part in the investigation of these crimes. There is a team working on that in London," Wickstead said during a Remembrance Day function in Somaliland.

 

Troops from Somaliland, then a British protectorate, fought alongside British soldiers in World War Two, especially in Burma.

 

In 1960, Somaliland joined the former Italian colony of Somalia to form the Somali Republic.

 

Somaliland, which makes up the northwest of Somalia, declared independence from the rest of the Horn of Africa country in 1991 but is not internationally recognised.

 

The shootings of the British couple on October 20 followed the murder of an award-winning Italian aid worker, Annalena Tonelli, 60, earlier in October in another part of Somaliland, shattering the enclave's hard-won reputation as a haven for peace in anarchic Somalia.

 

"It is important to get to the bottom of these cases, see if they were related and if so who was behind that," Wickstead said.

 

Anxious to restore its reputation as a relatively safe place for expatriates, Somaliland has pledged new security measures to protect foreign aid workers, including providing guards, and has asked them to inform authorities of their travel plans.

 

Britain gives Somaliland one million pounds a year to support education, health and good governance and combat HIV/AIDS.

 

Wickstead said Britain would consider financial support for World War Two veterans. "We would look at the issue on an individual basis," he said. "There will be no official support from the government, but we will see if something can be done for them from military charitable funds."

[Ibtilo]

its about darn time.

[N.O.R.F]

i hope they teach us a thing or two about investigative work!