Area Somalis talk with homeland leaders

[NASSIR]

Area Somalis talk with homeland leaders

By Christina Killion Valdez

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

December 03, 2007

 

Faced with the daunting task of rebuilding the war-torn nation of Somalia, Awad Ahmed Ashareh, a member of the Somali parliament found support from Somali Americans living in Rochester.

 

Awad Ahmed Cashara - Visiting Somali Parliament Member Awad Ahmed Cashara smiles as he listens to a speaker during a meeting with local Somalis on Friday at the Holiday Inn South in Rochester.

Brian Kilen/Post-Bulletin

 

About 100 people gathered Saturday night at the Holiday Inn South for a meeting with Ashareh, who traveled to Rochester after attending a hearing at the United Nations in New York. In addition to meeting with Ashareh, members of the Somali community here also spoke by phone with Somalia's Prime Minister-elect Nur Hassan Hussein and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

 

"We want to show sympathy and support for the people who can make the country better," said Abdifatah Abdimur, one of the organizers of the meeting.

 

Ashareh said the government also wants to show support for its refugees and reverse the brain drain that's happened during the civil war. The government is in the process of creating a plan that would provide land and tax exemptions for those who return, he said.

 

However that is just one thing this government hopes to accomplish. The government must also establish rule of law and disarm terrorists, as well as create a government infrastructure, including a federal constitution and election and economic policies. Adding to the immediacy of the charge is that the current government is three years into its five-year term, he said. The support of Somalis living abroad helps.

 

"The overwhelming majority are supportive," Ashareh said of the people in Rochester. "They want Somalia to have a government."

 

The Somali Americans also called for unity.

 

"Unity is sacred for us," said Aisha Kassim, who spoke at the meeting.

 

Recalling a time when Somalia was the powerful "Horn of Africa," she said it was a unified people that defeated British and Italian rule to gain independence in 1960. That unity has since fractured.

 

"I grew up in a Somalia where there was a government, rules and order, not tribes. I learned about tribes now," she said. "My children, I feel sorry for them, they don't know the way Somalia was."

 

Ali Egal, one of several members of the Somali Unity Alliance of Minnesota in Minneapolis, said that unity among Somalis can be found in Rochester.

 

"Rochester is the model of this organization," he said, noting that although more Somalis live in Minneapolis, the group looks to the cultural leaders and professionals in Rochester for guidance.

 

"We want to unite the Somali people in the United States and support democracy in Somalia and contribute to rebuilding the nation," said Omar Ali of Rochester. "We want to be the bridge as a community."

 

Source:Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN