Saturday, March 01, 2003

Somaliland Presidential Election Chronicles – PART II
By Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar
ADDIS ABABA, 28 FEB 2003 (ADDIS TRIBUNE)--In last week’s article we posed that the survival of the Somaliland State, in its fatal confrontation with the clearly disorganizing and destructive clan principle, will depend upon the acceptance of the absurd position of adopting two dialectically opposed principles at the same time. I will call this specific need of accepting opposites the Tribal Dialectic.

· Absolute acceptance of the clan system

· Absolute rejection of the clan system.

Why do I consider this issue as a cultural shock of critical importance, why do I pose the absurdity of marrying the opposites above? I have promised to answer these questions. I will do so today. But first a primer on clan psychology:

Tribe (Clan) Psychology
A child is born in an incomplete state. He cannot walk, talk or fend for himself in any meaningful way. He has to learn all these as his development progresses. But that is not all. At birth the child does not know that he is an entity that is separate from his mother in whose body he grew from a single cell into a viable infant with head, eyes, heart etc. At birth the child does not have a formed an identity.

Somaliland Presidential Election Chronicles- Part I -
By Dr. Abdishakur Sh. Ali Jowhar
ADDIS ABABA, 21 FEB 2003 (ADDIS TRIBUNE)--Presidential elections are scheduled in Somaliland for April 14, this year. This series of articles will provide an in-depth analysis of the election. Two diaspora- based Somalilanders- a political scientist (Dhimbiil) and Psychiatrist (Jowhar)- will provide the analysis on alternate weeks. A Primer on an Embryonic Democracy

Somaliland gained its independence from the British Empire in late June of 1960 and lost it 4 days later, in a fit of postcolonial delirium, by merging with its southern neighbor to form the Republic of Somalia on July 1st of the same year. The union was driven by a chauvinistic ideology of “Greater Somalia”, a scheme of “freeing and uniting” all Somali-speaking people in the Horn of Africa. The Somali Republic, formulated on this basis, disintegrated and failed - the first modern state to simply disappear and vanish. The Somali Republic no longer exists as a state.




Somaliland Presidential Election Chronicles- Part I -By Dr. Abdishakur Sh. Ali Jowhar
ADDIS ABABA, 21 FEB 2003 (ADDIS TRIBUNE)--Presidential elections are scheduled in Somaliland for April 14, this year. This series of articles will provide an in-depth analysis of the election. Two diaspora- based Somalilanders- a political scientist (Dhimbiil) and Psychiatrist (Jowhar)- will provide the analysis on alternate weeks. A Primer on an Embryonic Democracy

Somaliland gained its independence from the British Empire in late June of 1960 and lost it 4 days later, in a fit of postcolonial delirium, by merging with its southern neighbor to form the Republic of Somalia on July 1st of the same year. The union was driven by a chauvinistic ideology of “Greater Somalia”, a scheme of “freeing and uniting” all Somali-speaking people in the Horn of Africa. The Somali Republic, formulated on this basis, disintegrated and failed - the first modern state to simply disappear and vanish. The Somali Republic no longer exists as a state.




Annan Calls On Somali Factions to End Hostilities, Recommit to Peace
NEW YORK, 28 FEB 2003--United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a report issued today, calls on Somalia's faction-ridden leaders to cease "serious hostilities" and urges international donors to contribute generously and speedily to humanitarian and peace-building programmes there.

"It is those that have the weapons of war who continue to hold the people of Somalia hostage to the cycle of violence," the Secretary-General says in a <"http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=S/2003/231">report to the UN Security Council, noting that individual faction rivalries and criminal activity rather than wider issues are behind the violence. "The Somali people and the international community will no doubt hold them accountable for their actions if they persist on the path of confrontation and conflict."



SOMALIA: Monitoring committee meets after heavy fighting in Mogadishu
NAIROBI, 28 FEB 2003 (IRIN) - A newly-formed committee, set up to monitor a shaky ceasefire accord between the warring sides in Somalia, met on Thursday following clashes between rival warlords in Mogadishu.

The monitoring committee - made up of the US, EU, AU, Arab League and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) - met at the venue of the Somali peace talks in Mbagathi near the Kenyan capital Nairobi, sources close to the talks told IRIN on Friday.
Some 12 persons killed in fighting between warring militias in Somalia
MOGADISHU, 28 FEB 2003--Seven persons were killed in fighting between warring militias in the south west of the Somali capital Makadishu raising the number of killing to 12 persons who were killed within two days of confrontations.

Chiefs of tribes said that seven persons were killed yesterday with the renewed confrontations following a calm night, but did not explain if the murdered persons are civilians or fighters.

Thursday, February 27, 2003

Somali clashes claim 12
MOGADISHU, 27 FEB 2003-- At least 12 people have been killed and 18 wounded in two days of clashes in the Medina enclave of the Somali capital on Wednesday, residents said on Thursday.

"Three civilians and two gunmen were killed and seven other people wounded on Wednesday, while seven more were killed and 11 wounded after violence resumed on Thursday," elders said.

SOMALIA: Civil society warns against disrupting peace talks
NAIROBI, 27 FEB 2003--NAIROBI (IRIN)-- Civil society delegates at the Somali peace talks near Nairobi, Kenya, said on Thursday they would resist any attempts to disrupt the conference.

They expressed support for the regional IGAD leadership, which includes Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, and said they saw no reason to raise doubts and conditions at this stage of the talks.

"We know, of course, that governments have interests but we believe they all want to see a friendly government in Somalia," civil society chairman Dr. Sharif Salah Mohamed Ali told a press conference. And he said people should not sit around criticising. He appealed to all groups, including the Transitional National Government (TNG), to participate.
Cubic Will Deliver Ticketing Machines That Include Somali Language to Minneapolis
SAN DIEGO, FEB 27, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) --In a decision that reflects the changing demographics of its newest customers, San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems, a subsidiary of Cubic Corp. (AMEX:CUB), will program the 88 ticketing machines of Metro Transit of Minneapolis to communicate in the Somali language.


Somaliland’s Minister of Family and Social Affairs will visit NorwayOslo, Norway, 26 FEB 2003 - Marwo Edna Aden Ismail, Somaliland’s Minister of Family and Social Affairs, is expected here on 3rd of March to start a 3 days official visit to Norway.

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Ethiopia admits Somali forays
ADDIS ABABA, 25 FEB 2003(BBC)--Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has admitted to the BBC he has occasionally sent troops into neighbouring Somalia to attack members of a militant Islamist group, al-Ittihad. Mr Meles said al-Ittihad was linked to al-Qaeda and they had tonnes of captured documents that proved the link to al-Qaeda.

"They have engaged in terrorist activities in our country," he told the Focus on Africa programme. He also said that several Afghan Arabs had been killed during an Ethiopian attack on an al-Ittihad training camp.

Mr Meles insisted that he wanted to see a stable and united Somalia and said "in the end it is for Somalis to decide".
But he said they had lists of members of al-Ittihad inside Somalia's parliament and the Transitional National Government (TNG).

TNG President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan has consistently denied Ethiopian claims that his government has linked to Islamic extremist groups.


New Somali talks crisis
NAIROBI, 25 FEB 2003(BBC)--The Transitional National Government delegation from Mogadishu has decided not to participate in the second phase of the Somali peace talks which have opened in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The delegation says it will however remain at the deliberations.


Monday, February 24, 2003

SOMALIA: Faction leaders want Kenya to run peace talks alone
NAIROBI, 24 FEB 2003 (IRIN) - Faction leaders attending the Somali peace talks in Kenya have condemned the slow pace of the conference and accused Somalia's neighbours - the so-called frontline states - of working for their own interests.

A statement, signed by 11 faction leaders, blamed "continuous contradictions, differences and misunderstandings" between the three frontline states - Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia - for the "very slow progress
SOMALIA: No government of "warring faction leaders", rights activists say
NAIROBI, 24 FEB 2003 (IRIN) - Somali human rights activists have stressed that the outcome of the ongoing Somali peace conference in Kenya should not be a "government of warring faction leaders".

In a declaration, issued by the London-based Amnesty International organisation, activists from 23 organisations who met in Hargeysa earlier this month, said they would increase their struggle against human rights abuses in Somalia.
Somali mayoral candidate takes job with Coleman
MENEAPOLIS, 24 FEB 2003--U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) has tapped Lyndale resident and former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Mahamoud Wardere to work as a caseworker in his St. Paul office.

Wardere, 35, will help with immigration issues and Somali community outreach, said Erich Mische, Coleman's state director. Wardere is one of 10 staff members in the fledgling office, 2550 University Ave. West, Suite #100.

Sunday, February 23, 2003

Anger over Somali talks moveLONDON, 21 FEB 2003 (BBC)--The controversial relocation of the National Reconciliation Conference for Somalia from the Kenyan town of Eldoret to Nairobi led this week to the airing of many grievances and complaints in various African media outlets.

Strange world awaits Bantus in metro area
ATLANTA, 23 FEB 2003--Sometime this spring, in cities around the United States, the first of nearly 12,000 African refugees will step off airplanes and into a modern world as alien and strange as the bottom of the ocean. They will come with hopes of work, education and safety, at last, from a legacy of persecution.