Somali Prime Minister Rejects Deal Calling for Resignation

[Che -Guevara]

Bloomberg

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

 

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed rejected an agreement between the country’s president and speaker of parliament that calls for him to step down and said he would seek a vote of confidence from lawmakers.

 

“I would resign only after the Somali parliament and Somali people decide to take my post,” Mohamed told reporters today in Mogadishu, the capital. “I will ask the parliament for a confidence vote.”

 

On June 9, Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan deferred elections in the war- torn country for 12 months to allow more time for a political transition. The accord called for the appointment of a new prime minister within 30 days. The deal followed months of disputes between Somalia’s executive and legislative branches over when their terms should end and the date for elections.

 

The United Nations Security Council threatened cuts in donor aid unless the squabbling stopped. Somalia has been mired in a civil war for two decades and hasn’t had a functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Most of the southern and central parts of the Horn of African nation have been seized by the Islamic insurgency movement, al-Shabaab.

 

The government, backed by African Union troops, has claimed recent victories against the rebels in Mogadishu, the capital, and along the border with Kenya.

 

Supporters of Mohamed have protested in the streets of Mogadishu since the agreement was announced, leading to arrests by the country’s security forces of civilians and journalists, Abwan Osman Guure, director of Kulmiye Radio, a broadcaster based in the city, said in an interview today.

 

Source: Bloomberg

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Shariifka and his Co. started arresting those accused leading the protesters now, thinking in uu saas u awood badanyahay. Such arrogance. Ileen kursiga dad badan iyagoo isogeyn badalaa. Eesh yaa caleeg. Yaa markii horeba madaxweyne ka dhigan jiray.

 

And yes, Farmaajo, been beentaas haku tagin.

[Baashi]

I am not as informed about these matters as I used to be. That said, If I were to make an educated guess I would say that Sakiin has the votes, the money, and the will to finish off his nemessis. Will see.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

[Che -Guevara]

Press Conference

[Somalina]

UN to sack Ambassador Mahiga, but who will replace him?

 

The United Nations Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia Ambassador Augustine Mahiga will be sacked by the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, after the collapse of public confidence in his policy to Somalia.

 

Ban Ki-moon had learnt a quick lesson from the diplomatic failure and the growing public anger against his envoy, as he had made no progress on his work for the past 12 months in United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS).

 

UN sources say that the secretary-general will also to dismiss half of the senior officials from UN agencies including UNPOS, OCHA, UNDP, WHO, and UNICEF after the widespread political and financial corruption allegations.

 

Mahiga will probably be replaced by the Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the Nigerian veteran diplomat, who is currently the Special Adviser on the International Compact with Iraq and other issues for the Secretary-General of the United Nations as the sources indicate.

 

Former Nigerian Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gambari is a Muslim, who can fully understand the Muslim communities as he is now in Sudan, as Joint Special Representative of the African Union - United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

 

Angry protesters burn Mahiga’s poster during protest demonstrations in Mogadishu, Nairobi, J’burg, Cairo, Sydney, London, Rome, Stockhlom, MN and Toronto on Friday and on Sunday loudly shouting “The Somali people are against the so-called envoy. We call the secretary general of United Nations to fire him. We completely don’t recognize him”

 

The reason why people of Somalia are frustrated and angry with - is that Mahiga’s apparent intervention in Somalia policy as he signed illegitimate “Kampala Accord” which says “Within 30-days of the signing of the agreement, the Prime Minister (Mohamed Abdullaahi Farmajo), will resign from his position; and the president will appoint a new Prime Minister” which is utterly unacceptable.

 

This is a clear intervention – diplomatic mistake from UN envoy and it is humiliation and disgrace of Somali sovereignty which is an independent nation in the horn of African continent.

 

But suffering Somali people in Mogadishu and the entire nation have answered this - saying “Farmajo is our Prime Minister, not the UN Prime Minister which Mahiga can dismiss, he is our healing hero and we are with him”

 

Various political analysts believe that Mahiga and Ethiopia are the greatest obstacle to attaining and sustaining peace in Somalia.

 

No doubt that the man “Mahiga” who sits in the wooden office in the UN Compound at Nairobi-Kenya doesn’t want peace in Somalia, because his country of Tanzania and Somalia had no real diplomatic relations as it was deteriorated in 1972 and since that time the diplomacy between these African countries remains the same.

 

By Warfa Garad Jama

Political Analyst

Mogadishu-Somalia.

Email: garaad1996@hotmail.com

[Gabbal]

It was expected he would seek a Parliamentary vote just when the Parliamentarians realized the Kampala Accord not only removes the Premier from office but sidelines the Parliament from implementation on.