UN Security Council NYTimes Unmask TFG Puntland

[Peace Action]

I am not sure if this kind of report will have any effect on Somalia. The Int'l community want to prevent Somalia from falling into shabaab and alqaacida rule and are helping the TFG defeat them. As Che said the UNDP office in Nairobi is the one that needs to be investigated and you can be sure that most of the money intended for Somalia is spent outside the country.

 

The case of piracy also is a part of the mayhem and the solution lies in helping Puntland and the TFG overcome this criminla activity and should be linked to the prevention of illegal fishing off the cost of Somalia.

 

The UN which operates extensively in Puntland can not afford to antagonize the administration and needs their help in carryning out their mission.

[Mintid Farayar]

Originally posted by Nassir:

Check this post.

http://www.somaliaonline.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/9/14934

 

 

Mintid, you have an ax to grind here as it is evident with your obsession of Puntland.

 

Faroole is a personality but Puntland stands for a governing system alternative to the anarchy that has plagued the south. Both TFG and Puntland as well as Somaliland should outlast the personnel within them, from transitional perspective, of course, into a permenant government of national union.

I don't write for the NYTimes nor am I a member of the the UN Security Council, saaxiib Make your point with them...

[Che -Guevara]

Peace Action-Do you know their staff gets hardship allowance even though they spend few days of the year in Somalia and mostly in peaceful areas and the usaul one day visit to Xamar by the UN Team Coordinator.

[Mintid Farayar]

Che,

 

This is the UN system. It's the same in Darfur, East Timor during the troubles, etc. This is how the UN always functioned. Plus hardship differential in pay, they also get a daily per diem.

 

Nothing new, my friend. And it's not going to change, not for you, and not for me.

 

But we're digressing from the main point! What impact do you think this Security Council report will have on the entities mentioned and their relations with multilateral/bilateral organizations and governments?

[Peace Action]

Rawanda and New York? Bring your lying asses to Bossasso.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

He is back again!

[Jacaylbaro]

U.N. reports diversion of Somalia aid

 

 

United Nations - Much of the food aid intended for Somalia's poor is diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local U.N. workers, according to a Security Council report.

 

The findings, not yet made public, were first reported Tuesday by the New York Times.

 

A United Nations diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the report has not been released, confirmed that "a significant diversion" of food delivered by the U.N. food program ends up in the hands of cartels, which then sell it illegally.

 

The report blames the problem on improper food distribution, the diplomat said.

 

The Times said the report recommends that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon open an independent investigation into the World Food Program's Somalia operations.

 

The report also finds that regional Somali authorities are collaborating with pirates, and says that government ministers have auctioned off diplomatic visas, the newspaper reported. According to the paper, Somali officials deny that the visa problem is widespread.

 

Somalia's government, with U.S. military aid, is readying an offensive to combat an Islamist insurgency linked to Al Qaeda and retake Mogadishu, the largely lawless capital.

[Mintid Farayar]

The repercussions of this report are easy to predict. For the TFG, it will damage their already weak reputation, but Western donors are still reluctant to cut off life support due to fear of an Al Shabaab-led administration in Somalia.

 

As for Puntland, the elusive quest for direct international financial assistance for the last year (such ideas as funding a Puntland-based Coast Guard Corps were floated, along with a Constitution-drafting institute in Garowe) is officially dead with the drafting of this report. Humanitarian assistance will continue as usual for Puntland, but until the next change of leadership(or a drastic change in the current geopolitics of the region), it will find itself increasingly sidelined by Western governments. You'll see Faroole increasing his trips to the Arab states in order to cultivate new outlets for Puntland's ambitions.

[Mintid Farayar]

Somalia: Puntland Government Continues Anti-Piracy Campaign, Rejects Monitoring Group Accusations

11 Mar 11, 2010 - 5:58:32 AM

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ministry of Information, Communication, Culture and Heritage

Government of Puntland

Tel : +252 90 794315/ +252 90 397794

E-mail : info@puntland-gov.net

Web: www.Puntland-Gov.net

 

Reference is made to a New York Times article (“Somalia Food Aid Bypasses Needy, UN Study Finds”) published on 9 March 2010, whereby the renowned U.S.-based newspaper cited a still-secret report drafted by the U.N. Monitoring Group regarding a number of

issues in Somalia.

 

According to the Times article, the U.N. report alleges that the President of Puntland had “extensive ties to pirates in the area, who then funneled some of the money they made from hijacking ships to authorities’’.

 

The above is a huge nonsensical accusation; a feeble attempt to defame the president that requires to be proven.

 

The Government of Puntland has not received a copy of this U.N. report yet, but the Government’s position on piracy has remained consistently clear since the election of the current government.

 

To highlight our commitment to combat and eradicate the scourge of piracy, the President of Puntland H.E. Abdirahman M. Farole declared a campaign against all forms of piracy throughout Puntland territory. The President underscored this state policy in a U.S. Congressional hearing in June 2009.

 

The incumbent Puntland Government has arrested a large number of pirates; so far, 154 have been convicted and are serving long sentences in correctional facilities across Puntland, while 50 more are waiting for trial. Furthermore, Puntland police units continuously raid suspected pirate hideouts in major towns often leading to more arrests and the confiscation of weapons, ladders and communications gear used by pirate gangs.

 

The incumbent administration ensures the coverage of the above-mentioned anti-piracy efforts in both local and international media; the last such coverage was as recent as the 9 th day of March 2010.

 

The Government also sponsors a social campaign designed to discredit piracy and the proceeds of the loot of the pirates also forbidden by Islamic law. Puntland’s Islamic scholars and community activists are leading this social campaign to prove that pirates have brought nothing except cultural, social and religious degradation to the Somali society.

 

These efforts to combat pirate gangs on land have yielded success. Puntland can proudly claim that the culture of piracy is universally rejected throughout Puntland and that caused many of the pirates to move away from Puntland territory.

 

Our anti-piracy partnerships cooperation with NATO alliance (EURONAVFOR) is well known among leading nations such us USA, France, Spain and Britain, as well as the international media. Therefore, we strongly condemn the piracy activity, not only in Somalia but also all over the world. At the same time, we strongly condemn this baseless allegation, which is a politically motivated slander and defamation of Puntland and its leadership. We believe that these derogatory remarks are made by certain elements in the IMG who have accustomed to do these shameful allegations in other organizations in the past but now have infiltrated this UN mission (International Monitoring Group).

 

We finally request that the President of the Security Council, in the event that the accusations contained in the leaked report is authentic, to send a fact finding mission to conduct an independent and thorough investigation of these unprecedented accusations.

 

We demand that the Security Council hold the authors of these fallacious accusations accountable for their actions. We expect from the international body (UN) not to tolerate impunity within their own organizations.

Garowe Online

[Suldaanka]

The recent hijacking/kidnapping of the UN/WFP trucks in Puntland couldn't have come at a worse time. It vindicates the authors that the Pirateland administration has a clear hand in encouraging these acts by not doing anything about it at all. And the open secret, as the report alleges, is that the authorities themselves have earn kickbacks from the ransom money that are begotten from these criminal activities.

[Che -Guevara]

WFP to Assist Puntland in Expanding Bossasso Port

 

The government of Somalia's Puntland state has signed agreement with the United Nations World Food Programme to expand the capacity of the port in commercial city of Bossasso.

 

In a meeting held in Garowe Presidentail Palace and attended by officials from both sides, parties inked mutual aid accord where the world food agency would provide assistance in the expansion of Bossasso port.

Source

[Che -Guevara]

Apparently, the reward for bad behavior is to expand the Bosaso port

[Suldaanka]

^WFP doesn't build ports neither does it expand. It only builds Warehouses.

 

As for the GarooweOnline report. I remember G.O. was the one which was tooting its honks after Faroole met Mr. Donald Payne in Kenya late last year. It was described as a successful meeting but the truth of the matter was different. It only became apparently clear as to what the discussions were about after Mr. Donald Payne released his own press brief about the meeting.

 

Similarly, if there was a meeting of any kind between WFP and Puntland, I think any sane person would guess as to what WFP was after and what Punltnad was after. In that report by G.O., it only has what PL wanted to tell... but what is missing is the important stuff... what the WFP demanded from Faroole.

[Mintid Farayar]

Che, I will make a little fun bet with you that the project will not commence (expansion of the port by WFP). The U.S. has put a hold on most WFP projects for Somalia. That's what the spat between the UN spokesman and Susan Rice(U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.) was about two weeks ago. Google it and get informed

 

The U.N. doesn't have its own independent funds, it has to be provided by donor states and Uncle Sam is breathing fire over the WFP and Somalia situation. If I was Puntland, I would not associate myself with WFP till this blows away. Just a word to the wise...

[Thankful]

Seem's the WFP realizes that the crime that took place wasn't Puntland Governments fault!!

 

Those criminals were protesting the arrest of family members that were sentenced to 15 year jail sentences after a 1 week trial! What they did was wrong and they should be punished, It's hard for Puntland to stop these kinds of acts when the NW SOmalia enclave is conducting kangaroo courts.