Somalis Are Told to Stop Bickering or Lose Financing

[Che -Guevara]

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Published: May 25, 2011

 

NAIROBI, Kenya — Members of the United Nations Security Council sent an unusually blunt message to Somalia’s leaders on Wednesday to stop fighting among themselves or risk losing millions of dollars a year from Western donors.

 

Somalia’s leaders survive solely on international support, but instead of using that money to fight the Islamist militants who rule much of the country, or the innumerable pirates who cruise Somalia’s seas, they have recently paralyzed the government with bitter infighting, disappointing Western donors and most Somalis with their passivity and lack of progress.

 

Representatives of the Security Council met with Somali officials here in the Kenyan capital, after visiting Sudan earlier this week. They held a news conference here Wednesday, during which they offered stark warnings, as they tried to push Somalia’s leaders to work together.

 

“The bickering has to stop,” said Mark Lyall Grant, Britain’s representative on the Security Council.

 

Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador to the United Nations, was on the trip and was even more direct in a Twitter post. “Get your act together, resolve your differences or lose intl support,” she wrote.

 

The current political crisis pits the speaker of Somalia’s Parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, a wily, illiterate livestock trader, against the president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a religious teacher who came into office two years ago amid great expectations. The two used to be close, but the speaker is now trying to persuade fellow members of Parliament to oust the president and elect him as the new president.

 

Many Somali officials said the speaker was more popular than the president and that he had tapped into his vast wealth to buy allegiance from the Parliament. The president seems to know this, which is why he has been opposing elections anytime soon.

 

Somalia’s military forces are embarrassingly weak, analysts say, and if not for the 8,000 African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, the government would fall in hours. The European Union pays the salaries of Parliament members.

 

“And that money could be spent elsewhere,” Mr. Grant warned.

 

The United States has shipped in weapons. Still, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia controls only a small patch of the capital. Much of the rest of country, which is nearly the size of Texas, is ruled by militants.

 

In August, the mandate for the transitional government expires. The United Nations officials said they were calling on Somalia’s politicians to agree on a plan and to focus more on stemming extremism and piracy.

 

Earlier this week, six foreigners, including one American, were arrested at the airport in Mogadishu with around $4 million in cash. Somali government officials said the money was ransom for a pirate gang — paying ransoms is the most common way of resolving pirate hijackings. The Somali government has yet to say what it is going to do with the foreigners or the money.

 

NYT

[The Zack]

^Sad at the same time the right thing to do, huh?

 

In summary, these are the points the UN and the IC have made in this meeting:

 

1. Stop bickering and get your *&^% together.

 

2. No term extensions what so ever, elections shall be held on time.

 

3. The June conference (the one the TFG has anounced in April) shall be held in Mogadishu but Mahiga is going to facilitate it, not the TFG.

[Jacpher]

Did the Security Council wake up to Somalia's bickering just now? After twenty or so years?

 

A little disingenuous and a two decades late.

[The Zack]

^Apparently, yes. They claim that accountability will start now lol.

[General Duke]

The Mogadishu meeting is a good idea.

I think there needs to be a way of baring the two Sharif's from running.

The UN is still playing games with Somali lives.

[Ibtisam]

"illiterate livestock trader" I wonder if this is true? Is there no criteria for who can stand as a candidate, a basic standard of some sort?

 

The UN should stop the flow of funds coming into Somalia, it does not reach the poor people anyway, so really wont make a difference to them. Maybe they donate the money into a savings pot for when Somalia is functioning or put it as repayment for the debt.

 

Giving them money, weapons and military has not work, maybe we should try internal Somali civilians led conferences, making ends meet and see how that works out. The current system allows individuals to get rich, and then those close to them get jealous and want their time in power so they too can get rich. The UN is keeping this facade of system alive.

[Som@li]

Very tragic, As much as these illiterates with no morals are profiteering on Somali misery, the UN agencies are too profiteering. Waa meel walan, and this has to end!

[Somalina]

GETTLEMAN at it again as expected.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

But Somalis or should i say koonfurians will not listen,

[oba hiloowlow]

The Zack;723447 wrote:

^Sad at the same time the right thing to do, huh?

 

In summary, these are the points the UN and the IC have made in this meeting:

 

1. Stop bickering and get your *&^% together.

 

2. No term extensions what so ever, elections shall be held on time.

 

3. The June conference (the one the TFG has anounced in April) shall be held in Mogadishu but Mahiga is going to facilitate it, not the TFG.

dont forget Barlamaanka waala kala diraa ;);)

[The Zack]

^Not sure where the big grins came from, it is a good step that the elections are going to be held on time. If that was a shot on Shariif Hassan that you were trying to make, the man was always ready for the elections of the presidency and the speaker....as long as the presidential elections are held first

[oba hiloowlow]

^^ looooool u funny walahi, intee ku aragtay meel madaxweynaha la hor dooranayo guddomiyahana gadaal laga dooranayo,, sharciga wuxuu qoraaya in guddomiyaha kow la doorto madaxweynahana kedib la doorto,,

 

Ps. Barlamaankaas dhan waa baadil, wakhtigoodu wuxuu dhamanaaya wakhtiga madaxweynaha, laakin iska indha tira

[The Zack]

The transitional charter states... The sitting speaker facilitates the presidential election, once the president is elected, the elections of the new speaker and his deputies starts and the eldest member of the parliament leads that.

[bilan]

Zack

I do not really understand why you support this Sakiin person, it is really sad that inuu wadan dhan uu hostage u haysto, Shariif Axmed seems someone who can be reasoned with, I think his only problem is he is weak leader and does not have strong personality, but other than that, he seems nice person…. laakiin this guy oo 2nd grade level sidiisii af somaliga u akhrinaayo needs to go before anyone. As Prof Togane said cilmi aduun iyo mid aakhiro midna malaha.

[oba hiloowlow]

^^ well Said.

 

Zack can u prove ur statement?

 

Tan kale Cabdulluhi Yusuf markii la dooranaaye Shariif xasan ayaa kow la doortey oo dhaariyey madexweynaha.

 

Abdiqasim sidoo kale.