I'm going home, says exiled leader

[SOO MAAL]

I'm going home, says exiled leader

By Benjamin Joffe-Walt

(Filed: 13/02/2005)

 

Abdullahi Yusuf, the President of Somalia in exile, said he will not fear for his safety when he attempts to lead the country's government back into the lawless capital of Mogadishu, in eight days' time.

 

Despite warnings that Somalia's battling warlords will refuse to yield to the man elected president by a newly appointed parliament last year, President Yusuf, 70, said: "I am sure that nothing will happen to me. I am an old man now, a veteran military man. I have fought forever, I've given my life to my country, and I am not afraid."

 

Many Somalis believe that Mr Yusuf has an unrealistic vision of his return to Mogadishu, a city marred by factional violence for almost two decades. Last week a BBC journalist, Kate Peyton, was shot dead outside her Mogadishu hotel after an Islamic leader reportedly threatened any Westerner entering the city.

 

President Yusuf, a tall, grave figure, spoke to The Telegraph at his mansion in the leafy diplomatic district of Nairobi where he has lived since he was named as Somalia's leader.

 

So far his presidency has been unlike that of any other. His home is on loan from a foreign government, his bodyguards are borrowed from a foreign leader and he is assisted by staff who cannot afford to use their telephones. Yet he is widely seen as the only hope for Somalia.

 

It was 14 years ago when Somali militias joined forces to remove the socialist dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre. Since then the country has descended into violence and been dominated by feuding warlords.

 

President Yusuf claims that he will return to govern his country within two weeks, despite little sign of any foreign military aid and every sign that the warlords are preparing for battle. "We don't have proper police, military or security forces," Mr Yusuf said. "Without international support our job will be difficult, everyone knows that."

 

Five East African nations have agreed in principle to support his return but only Uganda has actually pledged troops. "We will prepare our own security forces," Mr Yusuf said, and added that the foreign troops were needed only to train Somali forces and secure the ports.

 

"The forces we are requesting from other African nations are not meant to fight against Somali militias and Somali people," he said. One warlord has called on Somalis to rise against foreign peacekeeping forces, saying: "I urge all Somali people to prepare to fight against our enemies." The last foreign intervention ended in an embarrassing withdrawal of United Nations troops in the mid-1990s.

 

Some fear that Mr Yusuf, a former warlord himself, will not bring peace. Known even among his advisers as "a dangerous man", he has a reputation as a brutal leader.

 

The President is confident that he will find support, however. "Over 90 per cent of the population wants peace. Those who refuse are bad people, and we don't listen to them,'' he said.

 

Source

web page

[CHE]

about time............

[SOO MAAL]

'There are no laws. We are in a country where no one can control anyone else'

 

(Filed: 13/02/2005)

 

Benjamin Joffe-Walt took about 10 minutes to become a `citizen' of lawless Somalia. He reports from Bosaso.

 

A Sign painted on a weatherbeaten building near the port of Bosaso declares it to be Baaba and Maama Children's Toyshop. Inside are toy guns, grenades and plastic machetes - and, at the back, a man selling Somali passports.

 

Not just passports, but the whole panoply of official documents can be obtained here: birth certificates, work permits and visas for neighbouring Kenya, Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates. Somalia is a country without an operational government, and one of the state's functions - the issuing of "official" documents - has been usurped by a flourishing private sector. Even senior dignitaries and local worthies use the vendors, who will sell to anyone.

 

"You are Somali?" asks the passport-maker, a tall, scrawny figure, with amused scepticism. Not yet, he is told, but with his help, soon. "OK," he answers with a long chuckle, and produces an array of stamps. About 10 minutes, $35 (£19) and a lot of stamping later, an apparently flawless rendition of a passport is produced for Somalia's newest "citizen".

 

The ease with which Somali documents can be obtained by people with no right to them is a real problem for the rest of the world. Last year a group of Kenyan migrants bought Somali passports and went to Denmark to claim asylum. They were detected and sent back, but the incident drew renewed attention to the danger of a country with nobody in charge.

 

Somalia's last effective central government fell 14 years ago, since when the land has been fought over by warlords. The country is leaderless, a machine-gun the only respected authority, and the capital, Mogadishu, is in complete disorder.

 

The international airport is a fiasco with five makeshift airstrips, one for each of the warring clans that control the capital. The control tower is the second storey of a tiny office building, empty apart from spare aircraft tyres and dozens of barrels of fuel. One match would be enough to blow the place up.

 

Last year the main warlords and politicians agreed to set up a new parliament. That in turn elected a president, Abdullahi Yusuf, but instability and fighting have made it too dangerous for him to come home. Now he promises to return from exile later this month, and has requested up to 20,000 African Union troops to help him.

 

While most Somalis, especially outside the capital, say that they want a central government again, few expect it to work. "Mogadishu people think that they don't need a government," said one fruit-seller in Bosasu, 600 miles to the north. "The President can never return, never."

 

Weapons are freely available. Each town has its own gun market where anyone with $200 (£110) can buy an AK47. "There are no laws," says Abdi Nasser, a driver. "We are in a country where no one can control anyone else. People here fight every hour, it's a regular thing."

 

President Yusuf says that, with help from the African Union, he will develop police and military forces. Few believe, however, that any force will be able to control the estimated 50,000 militiamen around the country, led by warlords with no interest in disarmament.

 

The memory of the American troops killed in 1993, as depicted in the film, Black Hawk Down, is strong.

 

"If the government return they'll completely lose control," said Asha Gelle, a regional parliamentarian. "The leaders are already organising their militias against foreign soldiers. They say they'll receive African Union troops in the same way as they received the Americans."

 

Because of the fighting, most of the country is insecure. There are no good hospitals, no social services, no system of property. The currency is so devalued that it is a struggle to hold the 1,000-shilling notes equivalent to £10 - 25,000 shillings.

 

"No one owns anything," says Abda Azziz, a port worker. "Your land is your land until someone takes it from you, your car your car until it is stolen - that is the law in this country."

 

In almost the only attempt at law enforcement, Mohammed Said Farrah and his colleagues carry stubby steel batons and red "stop" signs as they try to control the traffic.

 

Does he use his baton to hit the cars? "No," he replies. "It's to protect me from the drivers. They could kill me, and we have no government - so who would stop them?"

 

Joffe-Walt has been short-listed for Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards. He was recently named Foreign Press Association Young Journalist of the Year

10 February 2005: BBC producer shot dead in Somalia after fatwa issued

28 December 2004: Hundreds of Somalis die 3,000 miles away

[Mohamed nuur]

You can say that again..... it about time.

[Jumatatu]

[Mohamed nuur]

Originally posted by Jumatatu:

you are always using those simileys, cant you post one message without using them?

[BN]

I must hand it to amin amiir, the man does capture moments very well. No words are needed in this last piece as it speak volumes in and of its self.

[Mohamed nuur]

Originally posted by BN:

I must hand it to amin amiir, the man does capture moments very well. No words are needed in this last piece as it speak volumes in and of its self.

I surely dont have any proplem with the picture..... its just that those similyes and I dont get along together, I have seen them too much

[BN]

He does seem to enjoy using them doesn't he. But don't you think he will use them more often, now that he knows it annoys you so?

[SOO MAAL]

Africa Union mission to fly to Somalia on Monday

 

Sun February 13, 2005 4:30 PM GMT+02:00

By David Mageria

 

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The African Union will go ahead with a fact-finding mission to Somalia on Monday to size up security before a bigger African peace mission, officials said on Sunday.

 

The trip was to begin on Friday but was delayed amid concerns over security, a senior AU official said. BBC producer Kate Peyton was shot dead on Wednesday in one of the capital's less risky neighbourhoods.

 

"The mission is likely to go tomorrow," a team leader of the AU fact-finding mission told Reuters. "We have assembled enough information regarding security and we are now convinced we can fly to Somalia."

 

The leader said the AU was concerned no one would protect the mission on its arrival in Somalia, where militias have carved the country into a patchwork of fiefdoms, forcing the AU to arrange security with the different groups.

 

Somalia's federation of Islamic groups held demonstrations on Friday and called for "holy war" if non-Muslim African troops were deployed in Somalia.

 

16 PEOPLE

 

The mission to assess security is made up of 16 people -- military experts and politicians -- from the African Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Arab League.

 

Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan -- all members of IGAD -- will initially provide troops and equipment pending the deployment of a continent-wide African Union peace support mission, an AU official said.

 

Somalia's government was formed at peace talks in the safety of Kenya last year to end the lawless rule of local militias which banded together to depose military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

 

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has said he wants a combined AU-Arab League force of 7,500 troops to facilitate the government's return. But others in his administration have argued that the militias are all the military muscle required.

 

Somalis traditionally resist outside interference. The last peacekeeping mission in Somalia ended in a bloody and humiliating withdrawal by U.S. and United Nations troops in the mid 1990s.

 

The Somali government plans to return to Somalia from Nairobi on February 21. Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi told Reuters on Friday that the new government would not be deterred from returning to Somalia despite the murder of the BBC producer.

[AYOUB]

No smileys from me :cool:

 

Can anyone answer me why did AY remove military boots and replace them with... military boots? (oops did I smile? sorry) What's in his top drawers if qabiil and the national flags are in the second? :confused:

 

 

Well, you know I just found out my troubles just begun - Muddy Waters

[SOO MAAL]

Col. C/llaahi Yuusuf oo sheegay in Muqdisho uusan uga baqeyn maleeshiyo beeleedyo uuna imaanayo waqti dhow

Nairobi

 

 

Madaxweynaha dowladda federaalka Soomaaliya C/llaahi Yuusuf Axmed ayaa sheegay in Muqdisho uusan uga baqeyn maleeshiyo beeleedyo uuna imaanayo waqti dhow, isagoo xusay n ciidamadda IGAD in ay ilaalin doonaan xarumaha dowladda iyo amniga gudaha Soomaaliya, wuxuuna ugu baaqay shacabka Soomaaliyeed inay soo dhoweeyaan maadaama ciidamadda Qaranka Soomaaliya aysan ku filnaan karin sugidda guud ee amniga iyo hub ururinta isagoo tilmaamay in magaaladda Muqdisho iyo Soomaaliya uu qabiir ku yahay ayna jirin cid uu uga baqayo.

 

“Maalmaha soo socda ayaan soo gaari doonaa Muqisho†ayuu yiri madaxweyne C/llaahi Yuusuf oo sheegay inay ka go’an tahay Soomaaliya inay yimaadaan ciidamo ka socda wadamada safka hore ee IGAD.

 

Dhinaca kale Baarlamaanka federaalka KMG ee Soomaaliya ayaa lagu wadaa maalinimada berri ah inuu warbixin ka siiyo waxyaabihii uu ku soo arkay magaalada Muqdisho guddoomiyaha golaha baarlamaanka Shariif Xasan Sh. Aadan oo isagu dhowaan gaaray Nairobi, waxaana lagu wargeliyay xubnaha baarlamaanka inay kulankaasi ka soo qeyb galaan.

[Gabbal]

LOL Ayoub

 

Abdulahi Yusuf was at first doing everything in his power NOT to go to Xamar and now this..? I wonder what brought about the change?

[Garyaqaan2]

Despite warnings that Somalia's battling warlords will refuse to yield to the man elected president by a newly appointed parliament last year, President Yusuf, 70, said:

"I am sure that nothing will happen to me. I am an old man now, a veteran military man. I have fought forever, I've given my life to my country, and I am not afraid."

 

 

let me just say this, Madaxweeyn c/ yusuf axmed is Making fine display and impressive histroy.

[SOO MAAL]

UPDF to send 2,000 to Somalia

 

KAMPALA, Sunday, Uganda plans to send 2,200 troops to a peace mission to help the new Somalia government relocate from Kenya, officials said on Friday.

 

The mission is organised by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

“Uganda (plans) to send a battalion of about 2,200 soldiers to Somalia,†Ugandan foreign affairs permanent secretary Julius Onen told AFP in Kampala.

“Kenya will not send troops but only observers because it acted as a mediator in two years of peace talks that resulted in the creation of the country’s transitional government and parliament last year,†a foreign ministry spokeswoman told AFP in Nairobi.

The AU has authorised the IGAD to deploy a peace support mission in Somalia to assist the government, which has been exiled in Kenya for more than three months, to gain a foothold in bullet-charred Mogadishu.

Forces from some IGAD nations, which groups Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Djibouti and Sudan, will initially provide troops and equipment for the mission.

The Somali government approved last week the decision to deploy a regional force but the decision will have to be approved by the country’s parliament.

Somalia plunged into chaos after the fall of President Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.

Since last October, Somalia has adopted political institutions, a president, government, parliament, but the latter remain in Nairobi for security reasons.

Ends

 

Published on: Monday, 14th February, 2005

www.newvision.co.ug