Our brother in Guantánamo

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By Tommi Nieminen

Ismail Mahmoud Muhammad was taken away in June 2007 - in handcuffs.
His life as a free man ended at Djibouti Airport on the Horn of Africa. The local police arrested Ismail. He was taken to a US naval base in Djibouti, and from there to the Guantánamo detention centre in Cuba.
He had the very bad luck to be the fifth-last of the 775 people taken to Guantánamo between 2002 and 2007.
Now Ismail is in Guantánamo for a third year running. Nobody is accusing him of anything. It is apparent that he never was part of the East African faction of al-Qaeda, as the Americans claimed when he was arrested, but he is still behind bars.

Ismail is to be released in the coming months, since Guantánamo is to be shut down by January 2010, and the United States will probably not charge him with anything. Now he needs a country that he would dare come back to.
At least in Helsinki there are people waiting for him.

Ismail’s younger sister Amina Muumin gets off the Arabic style sofa in the living room and gets a few old photographs from the bedroom. One of them shows a young man dressed in black standing on a roof terrace in Hargeisa in Somaliland in the early 1990s. There is also a school picture taken in the 1980s and a passport photo from either 2004 or 2005 when the man in the picture studied in the Pakistani city of Islamabad.
The man in the pictures is Ismail, the 39-year-old elder brother of Amina and Ayan. They have the same mother, but different fathers. All three parents have passed away.

“Peaceful, honest” says Ayan describing Ismail. “He has always liked peace, because there has always been war in Somalia. He hated war above all else.

Ayan is 21 years old now. She arrived in Finland as a refugee in 1999. Somalia had collapsed as a state, Ayan’s mother was ill and died of an asthma attack in 2001. Her father had died in the civil war in the early 1990s. “I have no idea how he died”, Ayan says.
Now she works as a cleaner. In the future she plans to resume her studies to become a nurse.
her little sister, 19-year-old Amina came to Finland in 2006. Before that she lived in Pakistan with Ismail, where their older brother studied at University. When Ismail returned to Somalia with his wife and children, Amina came to Finland to be with her sister.

Now Amina is studying in Kerava to be a laboratory worker. Three months ago the sisters moved into a comfortable two-room apartment in a Helsinki suburb.
They do not get much money, but still they manage. They seem to be quite ordinary young women.

So is Ismail a terrorist of the East African al-Qaeda? That is quite a serious charge.
To understand the suspicions of the United States, one needs to revisit Djibouti Airport in June 2007. Ismail was on his way to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, to attend a conference of Somalia’s Islamist ARS opposition movement. The movement is gathering up its ranks, as six months earlier there had been a coup in Somalia, where a coup had taken place, in which the country’s governing Islamic Courts Union (ICU) had been overthrown with the help of the Ethiopian military.
Ismail is a friend and advisor to Sheikh Sarif, the leader of the ICU. The union, which governed Somalia in 2006 is no group of choir boys. It also includes extremists, such as Head of Security Yusuf Mohammed Siad Inda'ade, who declared holy war against Ethiopia in December 2006, and invited foreign Muslim fighters to join the ICU.

Ismail never manages to get on the plane to Asmara. Police in Djibouti hand him over to the Americans. He is transported to Camp Lemonier, the US naval base in Djibouti, north of Somalia. He is interrogated, and is kept inside a freight container.
On June 6th, the US Department of Defence reported on the transfer of a “dangerous suspected terrorist” Abdullahi Sudi Arale to Guantánamo. Abduhalli Sudi Arale was, in fact, the same man as Ismail Mahmoud Muhammad. Not even Ismail’s lawyer Cori Crider knows where the USA came up with the name Abdullahi Sudi Arale. Only Arale has an explanation - it was Ismail’s nickname.

The Pentagon claims that Ismail had acted as a courier between the Somali terrorist group Al Shabaab and the Afghani al-Qaeda and helped terrorists in the acquisition of weapons and explosives. “We believe that he is a member of the extremely dangerous al-Qaeda network”, says Bryan Whitman, assistant head of public relations at the Department of Defence. “The arrest of Abdullahi Sudi Arale is an example of the genuine threat that these dangerous terrorists pose to the United States and other countries around the world.”

Ismail is flown to Guantánamo, but there are no big headlines. The media is more interested in the suicide of a Saudi Arabian in Guantánamo exactly a week earlier.
Ismail becomes prisoner number 10027.
In June of 2007 Auan and Amina get a telephone call from their brothers in Somalia. Ismail had been arrested two weeks earlier at Djibouti Airport, and taken to Guantánamo. How did the brothers know that right away?
“If something happens in Somalia, everyone hears about it”, Ayan says.

It is hard to believe the news. What in the world would Ismail do in Guantánamo? There are suspected terrorists there, who are interrogated in handcuffs by soldiers.
Ayan looks for confirmation to the rumours on the Internet, and finds it. At first she does not do anything for several months. What could she do with the United States Department of Defence against them?
In 2008 Ayan contacts the Finnish Red Cross, which sends a letter from the sisters to Ismail. It is a short letter - asking Ismail how he is. The sisters say that everything is good with them.
“Not much else, we signed our names. I still don’t know if it ever reached him. I have not had contact with Ismail, not even a letter.”

This is baffling. It is hard for native-born Finns to even to imagine what it would be like to have a brother imprisoned in Guantánamo. Did Ayan and Amina tell their friends in Helsinki about it?
“If a friend would ask me about my brother, I would speak openly about him”, Amina says.
Amina has no native-born Finnish friends - all of her friends are immigrants. They were not terribly surprised by the information.
“They are quite aware of what can happen in the world.”

What if Ismail really is a dangerous man - a terrorist of the al-Qaeda network? What if the United States simply doesn’t have sufficient evidence against him?
Only fragments of information can be found about Ismail’s past. He was born in Mogadishu in 1970. His family lived in the district of Hodan. He went to primary school and secondary school. In 1990 he began university studies in Mogadishu.

Civil war broke out in Somalia when dictator Siad Barre was deposed in 1991. Ismail and his family fled Mogadishu to Burco and Hargeisa in the north of Somalia. He became a political activist.
He wrote for the Voice of Hargeisa newspaper, took part in the activities of a voluntary organisation, and taught English. It is said that he also took part in peace talks which were held in Burco and Hargeisa to end the civil war.

All the way through 1999 Ayan, Ismail and the rest of the family lived under the same roof in a rental apartment in Hargeisa. They managed reasonably well economically.
“There were quite a few wars in Hargeisa as well. We had to flee two or three times. We went to Burco, which we had to leave when the war reached there.
In 1999 Ismail moved to the Pakistani capital Islamabad with his wife, children, and Amina. He had been given a spot as a graduate stuident of English literature at the International Islamic University. Amina says that he also studied business and information technology.

It is hard to tell what all Ismail did in Islamabad. According to Amina, he did not take part in political activities while in Pakistan. Nevertheless, he was a person of some influence. There is a video on the Internet showing Ismail in a checkered shirt, speaking to a room full of Somali university students. He speaks in a moderate tone about matters affecting Pakistan’s Somali community - not so much about politics.
“Life in Pakistan was expensive. We had money problems”, Amina says. “Ismail had no job, although he did work for a short time as a ticket agent for Somali Airlines in Islamabad.”

At the time, Ayan already lived in Finland with her uncle.
“We called four or five times a month. We would talk about quite ordinary things. Ismail said that it is more peaceful in Pakistan than in Somalia. He was my only elder brother, and he took care of me after mother. He cared for me even though I was in Finland”, Ayan says.
In 2006 Ismail moved back to Mogadishu, when the Islamists had taken control of the capital. Ismail joined the Islamic Courts Union, which led the country. Its leaders also included Somalia’s current President, Sheikh Sharif.

It is certain that he was politically active. He was Sharif’s friend and advisor.
“How can my brother be accused on the basis of being with Sheikh Sharif?” Ayan asks. “Even the United States approved of Sharif.”
Ayan has little information of what Ismail was doing in the last years. She has received fragments of information from acquaintances in Somalia. Ismail’s friend Ismaan Abokori, who now lives in London, wrote in an e-mail that when the Somali opposition, supported by the Ethiopian army, attacked Mogadishu, Ismail “refused to flee Mogadishu, and fought valiantly against the attackers.

So apparently he fought in 2006, even though the same e-mail lists Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Ghana’s independence fighter and President Kwame Nkrumah as his role models.
Ismail’s British lawyer Cori Crider met Ismail in February 2009 in Guantánamo. According to Crider, it is almost 100 per cent certain that the United States will never indict Ismail for anything. Ismail has been under suspicion of smuggling weapons from Afghanistan to Somalia, for instance, but he has apparently never been in Afghanistan. According to some Somalis, Ismail is nevertheless a militant.
“That is extremely hard to believe”, Crider said in February. “He is a teacher and a journalist, who established the first English Language school in Hargeisa. He has no military training. He is quiet and peace loving.”
According to Crider, Ismail is one of the moderates, who organised the Asmara Conference aimed at peace. The peace treaty was reached last year, and in January 2009 Sheikh Sharif was chosen as president - the same man whose advisor Ismail had served as. In August Sharif met Ismail’s lawyer Cori Crider, to whom he said that Ismail’s “moderate views” would be useful in his administration.

So Ismail could join the staff of the Somali President. However, for some reason he will not return to his home country.
Three weeks before the United States had Ismail arrested, he had a telephone conversation with Ayan and Amina. Since then the sisters have not heard a word from him.
“It was a normal phone call. He was always calm”, Ayan says.
The next time that the sisters heard about Ismail, he was already in Guantánamo. Now they are wondering what kinds of conditions Ismail is being kept in. Could he have changed?
“Only when I have heard his voice and spoken to him can I say if Guantánamo has had any effect on him. But I have not spoken to him, and I haven’t even had a letter.”

Ayan hopes that Finland would grant Ismail asylum.
It is hard to predict if that will happen. In August, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs said that Finland supports the plans of the United States to close Guantánamo by January 2010. The roundabout statement would seem to indicate that if the United States asks, Finland could be willing to receive a few harmless individuals who are not being charged with anything by the United States.
Anu Laamanen of the political section of the Foreign Ministry will say nothing about discussions between Finland and the United States on Guantánamo.
“Channels of communication are open”, is all that Laamanen will say.

There is room for Ismail in his sisters’ apartment, Ayan says. However, it is not that simple. Ismail has a wife and four children in Somaliland. The oldest of the children is eight years old and the youngest is three.
“I am in contact with the family”, Ayan says. “Every day before they go to school, the children ask where their father is, and why he does not even call.”
Caring for the family are the two younger brothers of Ismail and Ayan, who live in Burco.
“And I send money from Finland”, Ayan says.
But isn’t Ismail needed at home in Burco, where his four children are without their father?
“In Somalia he would be killed. There is no functioning state there”, Ayan says.
“We know with 100 per cent certainty that he is innocent. He is no al-Qaeda man. But it will not sink in when we say that his arrest was a misunderstanding, and that the United States is not accusing him of anything.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 27.9.2009

Somaliland is rescued by foreign friends and a watchfull media

by Bashir Goth
Sunday, September 27, 2009

With its latest decision to extend or should I say reject the extension, depending on where one stands on Somaliland’s slippery political landscape, of the President’s term of office; the Somaliland Guurti (Upper House of Elders) have loosened the noose on all parties.

As the political crisis tightened, the President placed himself into a foxhole, thinking that this will protect him from the many snipers that demanded his head. Equally ineffective, the opposition leaders also ended up making empty howls and toothless snarls when responsible action was needed.

Bereft of any leadership capacity, the House of Representatives (The Lower House) ridiculed themselves for their rowdy escapades and street behavior while the Election Commission sheltered itself in house of straws, waiting for the winds to come and blow off the roof or even their heads at anytime.

As the major stakeholders and the greatest losers if the explosive situation was allowed to develop into a civil war, it was only the people of Somaliland led by the business community, the Sultans, traditional elders and other notables that showed wisdom and tried to rein in all the political players before the situation deteriorated into chaos and the tribal genie was out of the bottle. However, it seemed that this time Somaliland’s famed bottom up remedy was not working and that the situation was in need of the top-down foreign concocted potion that had been tested with varying degrees of success and failure in other regions of Africa.

It was therefore the six-point proposal put forward by Somaliland’s foreign friends that the Guurti House endorsed as the ultimate remedy for the Somaliland problem and all the stakeholders including the people upheld them as Somaliland’s Six Pillars of Survival.

Congratulatory cables poured as the Guurti and Somaliland people at home and abroad had breathed a sigh of relief. But the question still hanging on everyone’s head is whether the problem is over? Did each and every one of the political players achieve their goals? The answer is NO and YES. It is NO because neither the President nor the opposition leaders achieved what they wanted. It is also YES because the self-imposed nooses have been temporarily loosened from their necks and they have been given a new chance to either make a real progress and work for the country’s interest or start another episode of their farcical game. We shall see if they seize the opportunity or they become like the fool who was lost and when he was found and he saw the people celebrating said: “Maxaa la igaga farxi berriba wan lumiye”( Why do they celebrate because for sure I will lose my way again tomorrow).

One party, however, that has emerged as the biggest winner is the Somaliland media which have regardless of their political inclinations stayed focused, held their torch on the issue and refused to let the politicians off the hook. It was through their vigil and constant reporting on the developments as they unfolded that kept Somaliland’s friends updated and enabled them to make a timely action. I applaud Somaliland’s media, both print and online, both conventional press and blogosphere, regardless of being pro or against the government for keeping us informed and enlightened. My congratulations specially go to those reporters who worked against the odds, who patiently waited in vain for hours and days before closed doors, who were selectively segregated and denied the opportunity to cover major events in government houses. I say to them keep up the vigil and know that as the Americans say it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings.

---

Bashir Goth
Email: bsogoth@yahoo.com

Gross failure' in mother's care

A mother-of-11 who died shortly after delivering twins suffered a "gross" failure in basic medical care, an inquest in Cardiff has been told.

Ifrah Hureh, 38, died of an intracranial haemorrhage after pre-eclampsia symptoms were not acted upon by University Hospital of Wales staff.

Mrs Hureh, who had moved from Somalia to Adamsdown in Cardiff, died hours after her twins' births in March 2008.

A senior midwife acknowledged there was "gross failure" in the mother's care.

Bernadette Moss was asked by city coroner Mary Hassell: "Was the care of Ifrah Hureh appropriate?" The midwife replied: "No."

The coroner asked: "Did she receive the basic medical attention you would expect?" Again the midwife replied: "No."

Pre-eclampsia

The coroner finished by asking: "In your view, do you think that the failure in basic medical attention Ifrah received was gross?"

Ms Moss replied: "Yes, I would."

The midwife earlier said it was the first maternal death she had experienced in her 30-year career and that procedures had since been tightened.

The pregnancy had been deemed to be a high risk one because Mrs Hureh had given birth nine times.

The inquest heard Mrs Hureh was found to have elevated blood pressure and high levels of protein in her urine - both symptoms of pre-eclampsia - while on the maternity ward.

Not concentrating

Had the high blood pressure been acknowledged appropriately, Mrs Hureh would also not have been administered Syntometrine in order to stimulate the womb to contract and help the delivery of the placenta.

This drug is not to be used when high blood pressure is detected.

Evidence was heard from midwife Sylvia Castello who failed to recognise Mrs Hureh's blood pressure was higher than it should have been.

Ms Castello said she had not been feeling too well during her shift and was not concentrating properly.

She apologised to the family of Mrs Hureh at the inquest, including her husband Ibrahim Yassin.

Urgent attention

Midwife Louise Protheroe Davies said she forgot to send Mrs Hureh's urine sample for tests and failed to take hourly blood pressure tests after she had given birth by 0430 BST on 28 March, 2008.

About three hours later Mrs Hureh deteriorated and urgent medical attention was called for, the inquest heard.

Audrey Long, a consultant obstetrician at the hospital at the time, admitted that Mrs Hureh did not receive "appropriate care."

She said she had been on duty until the evening of 27 March and was back in work the next day at 0830 BST when efforts were being made to resuscitate the mother.

She said she would have expected the high blood pressure readings to be brought to her attention on 27 March by the midwives monitoring Mrs Hureh, but it was not done.

Ms Hassell asked Ms Long: "Was it that you were so taken up with a woman who was high risk with her babies that you took your eye off the ball regarding her?"

The consultant, who now works in Stoke-on-Trent, replied: "I think so."

Midwife Ms Moss had been on duty overnight on 27 March and said she had not been told of Mrs Hureh's symptoms at any stage.

If she had been, she said, she would have acted immediately.

She said she could not find a reason why the high blood pressure readings were not passed on.

The inquest was adjourned until Thursday

Mac prof leads new Global Citizenship institute

As students return to Macalester College this fall, it is unlikely that any of them will have to write an essay entitled, “How I spent my summer vacation.” Professors don’t often lecture about such subjects, either. If they did, however, Professor Ahmed I. Samatar could at least fill up one semester with fascinating lectures at the forefront of the most critical political issues facing our world today.

Over the past three months, Samatar traveled throughout China and East Africa meeting with scholars from every corner of the globe, writing academic articles on such topics as the rise of Islamism, and producing television programs to be distributed in Somalia, the country of Samatar’s birth. If that wasn’t enough, now Samatar will lead Macalester’s Institute for Global Citizenship in the first year of its existence.

“It is a major innovation,” said Samatar of the program he heads as dean. “The institute will service the whole campus, and it will bring together the global mentality of Macalester, civic life, and the community. It is about creating a dialogue.”

Late last spring, at the institute’s inauguration, Samatar welcomed the event’s guest speaker, none other than Kofi Annan, Macalester alumnus and the United Nations’ secretary general. Samatar, who has taught at Macalester for 13 years and is also dean of the international studies department, said that the institute will offer courses and certificates for students and develop multidisciplinary faculty seminars on pressing global issues.

“Kofi might come back and teach a course,” Samatar mentioned casually. He also added that students will engage in community projects via the institute. After all, whether it is University Ave., Lake St., Brooklyn Park, or even Eden Prairie, international communities are always a part of our society at a large.

Samatar first came to America from Somalia over 30 years ago, giving him a sweeping view of how immigrant communities have developed and evolved here. With a bald head, full beard, and round spectacles, Samatar has the classic look of an accomplished professor. (His brother, Abdi Samatar, is a professor of geography at the University of Minnesota.) He often speaks fast and to the point.

In the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder’s recent phone interview with Samatar, he spoke at length about the current state of Somalia, which has gone without a government for 15 years and long suffered violence and conflicts between innumerable warlords and militias. Peace talks between the Transitional Government, which has never been effective or held power since it was formed two years ago, and the Union of Islamic Courts have continued in Somalia’s neighboring country, Sudan.

Peace in Somalia
Over the past three months, the Union of Islamic Courts and their militia have pushed out the remaining warlords from Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and they now control a large portion of the country. This development has worried many Western governments as the courts seek to establish a government and nation based on their interpretation of Islamic law.

Some U.S. officials have accused the courts of being linked with al-Qaeda. Denying this charge, the courts have been able to do something that no other group has done in Somalia: They have brought relative peace and a renewed optimism to a people who have suffered for too long.

Debates and discussions about these issues have heated up in Somali communities in the Twin Cities and across Minnesota.

“It is important that the West gives these courts a chance,” said Samatar. “But we must be suspicious. There are two immediate and legitimate concerns against the rise of an Islamic movement. If they move to a government like the Taliban, there is the danger of both violence and terrorism that can grow from that. There is a historical basis for this.”

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in the 1990s, they were welcomed with cheers and open arms by many people, who had long since grown weary of the fighting between various political factions. Those cheers soon fell silent, however, under the Taliban’s repressive regime.

While in Nairobi, Kenya, last month, Samatar met with Somali businesspersons, leaders, and fellow academics who meet annually to develop essays and dialogues on nation-building in Somalia, among other issues. The group publishes their work in the academic publication Bildhaan: Journal of Somali Studies, and also develops television programs and materials about education, health, security and business for wide distribution in Somalia.

In an essay that will be published later this year, Samatar has developed three scenarios for how the Islamic courts and a potential government could develop. He calls the first “repressive Islamism” and again gives the Taliban as an example. He said that this type of government is a “political dead end,” severely destructive, and often turns into a breeding ground for terrorists.

The second is “conservative Islamism,” for which Samatar gives Iran as a leading example. He said that while this kind of government recognizes the importance of science, education, and economic development, it still has a “minimum tolerance for diversity” and understanding of human rights.

The third, “cosmopolitan Islamism,” recognizes the importance of human rights, diversity, economic development, women’s rights, and, most importantly, the supremacy of law and the constitution even if the government and courts are inspired by Islam. Samatar said that no country has truly realized cosmopolitan Islamism, but some, like Turkey and Malaysia, have approached it.

“If Somalia wants to be a pioneer in Africa and in the world as a whole, they should move into the third one [Cosmopolitan Islamism],” Samatar said. He added that, at the moment, proponents of the repressive and conservative movements have the upper hand in Somalia. Ultimately, as the transitional government and the Islamic courts struggle for power and negotiate in the peace talks, Somalia’s fate remains uncertain after all these years.

“There has always been a relationship between religion and politics,” Samatar said. “But the important thing is how that relationship is created.”

Image:

Image Caption:

Macalester College Professor Ahmed I. Samatar

Guurtida oo Muddo Asaxaabtu iyo Madaxweynu ogolyihiin Kordhiyey.

Somaliland elders extend President Kahin's rule

Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:20am GMT

By Hussein Ali Noor

HARGEISA (Reuters) - Clan elders in northern Somalia's breakaway enclave of Somaliland voted on Friday to extend President Dahir Riyale Kahin's term on condition that a voter list be finalised and a date set for a presidential election.

It was the third time since April 2008 that Somaliland's upper House of Elders has extended Kahin's term, which was due to expire on October 29. Opposition politicians in the lower House of Representatives have demanded the president be impeached.

Somaliland has enjoyed relative peace compared with the rest of Somalia since the Horn of Africa nation descended into chaos in 1991. But repeated delays to the presidential poll have worried rights groups and donors, as well as angered the opposition.

Suleiman Mohamoud Aden, chairman of the House of Elders, called for a vote after an all-night discussion of what he called the "delicate situation" and potential power vacuum.

"We want you to vote for the extension of the president's term based on the completion of the voter list by the international technical committee and the fixing of the election date with the national electoral commission," Aden said.

All of the 77 other members then present voted to extend Kahin's term to last for one month after the ballot, whenever that might be. A poll set for July was put back to September 27, but the electoral commission postponed it again earlier this month.

The commission said it had ordered the latest delay because of rising concerns about whether a fair vote could be held in a political climate inflamed by disputes over the voter register.

Somaliland -- which has long sought international recognition as sovereign state -- is governed by the opposition-led House of Representatives, which is elected by the people, and an upper house comprised of senior clan elders.

Members of the lower house traded blows in the chamber and one politician pulled out a pistol earlier this month when the proposal to impeach Kahin came up for debate. The African Union says it is concerned and has appealed for calm.

On Wednesday, a senior minister in the Mogadishu government said southern Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents were also seeking to exploit the growing tensions in Somaliland.

For the first time ever, an AIDS vaccine protected people from infection

Plenary Session: Investing in Girls and Women Edna Adan

http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/ourmeetings/meeting_2009_annual_webcasts.asp?Section=OurMeetings&PageTitle=Webcast&Video=Archive&Day=2

DAGAAL-OOGE SHEEKH SIIRO DHAGEYSAT!!

WAXA U YIDHI "DALKAN WAXA KU NOOL
KUWO HALGENKII(SNM)IDINKA BADSADEY"
HADALKII ISAGOO SII WADA WAXA
KALE OO U YIDHI,KA GUURA CEELBERDAALE,
TAAS OO U BERYAHANBA MARKASTA OO
U DIINTA KA HADLAAYO KU DHEX DARAA
WAA DAGAAL-OOGE(WARLORD)

One in six NHS patients 'misdiagnosed'

As many as one in six patients treated in NHS hospitals and GPs’ surgeries is being misdiagnosed, experts have warn.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6216559/One-in-six-NHS-patients-misdiagnosed.html

CIID WANAAGSAN KADLEEYE ARMY (DILLA ARMY).JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW HOW PROUD WE ARE OF YOU

JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW HOW PROUD WE ARE OF YOU
KADLEEYE ARM(DIILA ARMY)

Geesiyiintii Dilla oo Cadowigii khasaare culus u geystey

Xigasho-(Awdalpress)– Dagaal culus ayaa maanta ka dhexdhacay beelaha Dilla iyo Gabilay, dagaalkaas oo ka dhacay xuduuda labada degmo ee Baki iyo Gabilay gaar ahaan Aagaga Buqdhada iyo Boodhka, wararka ka imanaya jiidahaas ayaa sheegaya in ay weerarka soo qaadeen maleeshiyada dhanka gabilay ilaa sadex weerar oo isdaba jooga, ilaa hadase khasaaraha la soo sheegayo ayaa ah 5 qof oo dhaawac ah dhinaca Dilla iyo hal qof oo dhimasho ah, dhinaca Gabilayna wararka aan ka helayno ee aan la xaqiijin ayaa sheegaya 6 dhimasho ah iyo dhaawac aan tiradooda la hayn. Dagaalkani wuxuu noqonayaa midkii ugu cuslaa ee ka dhaca jiidaas, isla markaana waa dagaalkii ay ku dhintaan ama ku dhaawacmaan dad intaas le’eg labada dhinac, weli waxa lagu soo waramayaa in dagaalku qaboobay, balse sida ay ku soo waramayaan dadka degen jiidaha ay wax ka dhacayaan waxaa jira is urursi ay wadaan beelaha gabilay oo ka socda deeganadooda, hadii dagaalku mar kale dhacana waxaa iman karta khasaare kan ka badan. Si kastaba ha ahaatee waxa isweydiin leh sababta keentay wakhtigan loo diyaar garoobayo Ciida barakaysan ee Ciidal-Fidriga, waxa kale oo jirta in dhawaan khasaare ka dhacay dhanka Hargaysa oo weli shacabku la hafeefanayo khasaarihii halkaas ka dhacay, habase ahaatee xaalku wuxuu u muuqdaa waagibaryaaba waayo leh.

Mujaahiddinta oo Weerar kaga yimid Dagaal oogaha Maxamuud Raage iska difaacay khasaare culusna u geystey

Saaka ayuu soo qaadey Dagaal ooge Muxumed Raage jiida hore ee ceelberdaale.
Halkaas oo Mujaahiddintu u geysteen khasaare culus, isla markaana Firxadkii ciidanka somaliland dhabarka ka marey.
Waxa halkaas lagaga Diley ciidanka cadowga ina-Raage Afar iyo Saddex Dhaawac ah.
Halka ciidanak mujaahiddinta ahna ay ka dhaawacmeen sadex Mujaahid.
Warkaas waxan ka heleney ilo xogogaal ah.

War Kulul: Dagaal cusub oo Degaanka Dilla ee Ceelbardaale dib uga qarxay

Ceelbardaale(TheEye)Warar lagu kasoon yahay oo naga soo gaadhaya Deegaanka Dilla ee Ceelbardaale ayaaa xaqiijinaaya in saaka aroorti hore halkaasi uu ka dhacay dagaal. Dagaalkan oo kadanbeeyey kadib markii maleeshiyada dad qalatada Gabiley ay sahankoodu hore u soo galay jiida hore ee Degaanka Reer Dillaad. halkaasina xabad shafka loo galiyay maleeshida dad qalatada ah. waxa warku inta ku daraya in ay firxad isqaadeen ila iyo gabiley markii mudo labo saac kabadan ay u jilib dhigi kari wayeen Difaaca adag ee Kadleeye Army oo isagu Buuraha deegaanka Dilla iyo Baki ee Ceelbardaale Gafwareega habeen iyo maalinba.hadaba maaha markii ugu horaysay ee Maleeshida dad-qalatada gabiley ay ramadaan dagaal soo qaadaan amba sahankoodu hore ugu soo silbado gudaha deegaanka Baki Iyo Dila waxay ahayd uun ramadaantan bilawgeedi markii ay dagaal gaadmo ah dad-qalatadu ku dileen nin aan hubaysnayn laakin inta kadib ayaa waxa jirtay in Kadleeye Army ka nadiifiyay dad-qalatada Deegaanka Dillaad ee Ceelbardaale iyagoo gacanta ku dhigay dhammaan meelihi ay ku dhuumalaysanayeen dad-qalatadu.dagaalkan maanta qarxay ayaa wuxu ku soo beegmaya iyadoo meel xun ay marayso dagenaanshaha siyaasadeed ee somaliland iyo iyadoo aad looga aaminbaxay ciidan beeleedka huwanta ah ee la soo dhoobay guda Deegaanka Dilla iyo Baki taas oo maalinna ayna suurtoobin in ay joogin dad-qalatada ka imanaya dhankooda.dagaalkan cusub ayaa waxa uu sare u sii qaadaya in dagaalada ka soconaya deegaanka Dilla iyo Baki ee ceerbardaale Sinama u joogsanay ila iyo la soo qaqabto dad-qalatada reer gabiley iyo in ay damacooda waalan inta uuna bohol ku ridin ku ee kaadaan gabiley.Wararka ka soo kordha dagaalkan kal soco Shabakada Caalimaga ee THE EYES. Rooble
Somalilandeye.com

Stabilizing the Horn

By Charles TannockSTRASBOURG ― After almost two decades as a failed state torn by civil war, perhaps the world should begin to admit that Somalia ―as it is currently constructed ― is beyond repair.Some of the country, however, can meet at least a basic standard of governance. The northernmost region, Somaliland, situated strategically at the opening to the Red Sea and home to roughly 3.5 million of Somalia's 10 million people, is more or less autonomous and stable. But this stability fuels fears that Somaliland's people will activate the declaration of independence they adopted in 1991.At the end of September, Somaliland will hold its third presidential election, the previous two having been open and competitive. Unlike many developing countries, it will welcome foreign observers to oversee the elections, though, unfortunately, most Western countries and agencies will stay away, lest their presence be seen as legitimizing Somaliland's de facto government.But Somaliland's strategic position near the world's major oil-transport routes, now plagued by piracy, and chaos in the country's south, mean that independence should no longer be dismissed out of hand. Indeed, following a fact-finding mission in 2007, a consensus is emerging within the EU that an African Union country should be the first to recognize Somaliland's independence. A 2005 report by Patrick Mazimhaka, a former AU deputy chairman, provides some leeway for this, as Mazimhaka pointed out that the union in 1960 between Somaliland and Somalia, following the withdrawal of the colonial powers (Britain and Italy), was never formally ratified.Ethiopia is the obvious candidate to spearhead recognition, given its worries about jihadi unrest within Somalia. Moreover, landlocked Ethiopia uses Somaliland's port of Berbera extensively. Yet Ethiopia may hesitate, owing to its fears that formally recognizing Somaliland's independence could undermine Somalia's fragile Western-backed Transitional Federal Government. But, as Somalia's new president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is a former head of the Islamic Courts, Ethiopia may choose the current status quo in Somaliland over the dream of stabilizing Somalia.The key regional obstacle to recognition is Saudi Arabia, which not only objects to the secular, democratic model promoted by Somaliland, but is a strong ally of Somalia, which is a member of the Arab League (despite not being Arab) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Saudi Arabia supports the TFG financially and politically. Saudi pressure on Somaliland has ranged from banning livestock imports between 1996-2006, to threatening to reject the Somaliland passports of Hajj pilgrims.When Somaliland's people vote at the end of September, they will not be deciding explicitly on secession, but their steady effort at state building does amplify their claims to independence. So, two years after Kosovo's independence, and a year after Russian troops wrenched Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia, it is high time for diplomats and statesmen to provide some guidelines as to when and in what circumstances secession is likely to be acceptable.Does any self-selected group anywhere have the right to declare independence? If so, the richest parts of any country could decide to go it alone, thus impoverishing their fellow citizens. Even if greed is ruled out as an acceptable motive, in favor of traditional ethno-cultural nationalism, a profusion of tiny tribal states might make the world far more unstable. Moreover, does anyone, for example, want to see China return to the years of bloody warlordism of the early twentieth century? Not likely. Thus clear principles are needed, as neither self-determination nor the inviolability of national borders can be treated as sacrosanct in every case.So let me attempt to outline some basic principles:"No outside forces should either encourage or discourage secession, and the barriers for recognizing secession should be set high. Secession is in itself neither good nor bad: like divorce, it may make people more or less content. "A declaration of independence should be recognized only if a clear majority (well over 50%-plus-one of the voters) have freely chosen it, ideally in an unbiased referendum."The new state must guarantee that any minorities it drags along - say, Russians in the Baltic states, or Serbs in Kosovo - will be decently treated."Secessionists should have a reasonable claim to being a national group that, preferably, enjoyed stable self-government in the past on the territory they claim. Nations need not be ethnically based; few are entirely. But most nations are unified by language, a shared history of oppression, or some other force of history.On this, admittedly subjective, measure, Somaliland qualifies as a nation. It was briefly independent (for five days) in 1960 after the British withdrawal, before throwing in its lot with the formerly Italian south, a decision which its people have regretted ever since. In this brief period, 35 countries, including Egypt, Israel, and the five Permanent Members of the Security Council, recognized Somaliland diplomatically (interestingly, Israel was the first to do so).If Somaliland's imminent multi-party elections are reasonably fair and open, the outside world, including the AU and the United Nations, will need to reconsider its status, which has been fudged since the collapse of Siad Barre's regime in 1991. All three of Somaliland's parties contesting the forthcoming election are adamant about wanting recognition of the region's independence, which was confirmed overwhelmingly by a referendum in 2001. So there is no question of one clan or faction imposing independence on the others.Given the interests of all the world's great powers in stabilizing the Horn of Africa, there does seem to be movement toward accepting Somaliland's claims. An independent Somaliland could be a force for stability and good governance in an otherwise hopeless region. So the world may soon need to test whether the controversial principles it brought to bear in Kosovo have the same meaning in Africa.Charles Tannock is Spokesman on the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee for the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.

Tooth Implant in Woman's Eye Helps Her See Again

Nine Somalia peacekeers killed in suicide attack

AFP) – 4 hours ago
MOGADISHU — Two powerful explosions ripped through the headquarters of African Union peacekeepers in Somalia Thursday, killing nine soldiers including the deputy commander, the Ugandan army said.
The army said the force commander, Ugandan General Nathan Mugisha, was among the wounded in the twin suicide attack, which was claimed by hardline Somali rebels.
"At least two bombs" exploded at the force headquarters in a fortified compound at Mogadishu airport, the AU said in a statement which condemned what it called a "barbaric attack" that injured several soldiers.
"The force commander General Mugisha was hurt and I think the intelligence officer," Uganda's military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye said by telephone from Kampala.
The circumstances surrounding the attack were unclear Thursday but witnesses said the bombers entered the compound using two vehicles with United Nations markings.
Kulayigye, who said Mugisha was about to host negotiations with a rebel group, said the bombers had got in "with a group that was coming for talks". He did not elaborate.
The army spokesman gave no details on the seriousness of the injuries to Mugisha, who took up his post only last month.
The Islamist Shebab rebels, who have vowed to avenge a US raid that killed one of their leaders this week, said they carried out the attacks on the AU headquarters.
"We have carried out two holy attacks against the enemy and both missions were successful," a senior Shebab official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The enemy suffered badly and we are very happy."
A witness, Ali Mohamed, said he had seen two bodies brought from the area, adding that they appeared to be Somalis.
Mohamed said one blast hit an area of the base where the peacekeeping force was providing medical services to locals.
Soldiers took up positions near the entrance to the base after the explosions and fired into the air to prevent people approaching the base, according to another witness, Irbahim Aden.
Clashes erupted elsewhere in southern Mogadishu between insurgents and AU forces backing Somali government troops, witnesses said.
Hardline Islamist militants seeking to overthrow the weak transitional government have repeatedly targeted the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force, made up of troops from Uganda and Burundi.
Since being deployed in the war-riven Somali capital in 2007 the AU force has lost 34 troops.
In the worst attack, a suicide bomber killed 11 Burundian soldiers in February as they unloaded supplies at their base.
The Shebab have vowed to overthrow the weak transitional government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a Western-backed moderate Islamist.
The Al-Qaeda-inspired militants earlier Thursday demanded the French government meet several conditions for the release of a French security agent taken hostage two months ago, including the immediate ending of its support for the "apostate government" and the withdrawal of AU peacekeepers.
Thursday's attack follows a pledge by the Shebab to avenge the killing of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a top regional Al-Qaeda leader reported killed in an apparent targeted assassination by US forces on Monday.
Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen wanted by the FBI over the 2002 anti-Israeli attacks in Mombasa, was killed when his vehicle was targeted by US helicopters in southern Somalia, according to US officials and Western security sources.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved

Personally shipped other waste so Somalia

Italian ministers and officials were today holding urgent consultations following the discovery of an unmarked wreck that prosecutors believe was used by the mafia to sink radioactive waste.
As a ship carrying equipment for detecting marine pollution headed for the site of the sunken vessel, an investigator said up to 41 others may have been used to dump toxic and nuclear material on the seabed.
A former top mobster said he had personally shipped other waste to Somalia and that the traffic could have led to the death of a well-known Italian reporter.
On Saturday a robot operating 480 metres below sea level sent back murky images of a wreck detected several months earlier by environmental officials.
Among other things, they showed two crushed drums protruding from the bows, which appeared to have been blown out in an explosion.
The image and the position of the ship – 11 miles off the coast at Cetraro in south-western Italy – coincided exactly with an account given to prosecutors three years ago by Francesco Fonti, a former boss of the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia of Calabria. Fonti said he and others had used explosives acquired in Holland to sink three vessels in the Mediterranean.
The one off Cetraro was carrying nuclear waste from Norway, he said. His clan had received the equivalent of almost £100,000 for disposing of it.
A prosecutor involved in two investigations in the 1990s said last weekend's discovery had "all the appearances of being a confirmation" that organised criminals had dumped waste at sea.
Nicola Pace, now chief prosecutor at Brescia, near Milan, said the inquiries had unearthed evidence of the "deliberate sinking of 42 ships with cargoes of waste, including radioactive waste", but were frustrated by an absence of tangible proof.
Bruno Giordano, the prosecutor who ordered the robot search, said: "No one can any longer maintain the ships aren't there."
But he added that he would await proof that the wreck was that of the MV Kunski, the vessel identified by Fonti.
Marine experts said the sunken ship was about 330 feet long and appeared to have been constructed 40 or 50 years ago.
Fonti told the daily Il Manifesto he believed that Ilaria Alpi, a TV journalist, and her cameraman were shot dead in 1994 because they had seen toxic waste unloaded in the Somalian port of Bosaso.

Beware somaliland ! there are an emerging warlords

Beware somaliland ! there are an emerging warlords

Beware somaliland ! there are an emerging warlords

Beware somaliland ! there are an emerging warlords

Carter: Racism plays major role in opposition to Obama

Macaarid isku sheega oo Somaliland la Degey

Waxqabadka Cadowga somaliland

Qudbadii ugu Fiicneyd ee madaxweyne Riyaale

Minneapolis struggles with rise of Somali gangs

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Ahmednur Ali's family fled the chaos and violence of their West African homeland Somalia in the 1990s, eventually making their way to Minnesota like thousands of their compatriots.

While many of the estimated 32,000 Somalis who settled in the state have struggled to adapt, Ali flourished, blazing a path to Minneapolis' Augsburg College on a soccer scholarship by age 20. He studied political science and aspired to a political career modeled on President Barack Obama's.

He was shot and killed last September outside a busy community center where he worked part-time as a youth counselor, and prosecutors said the 16-year-old accused of killing him was part of a gang.

Ali was one of seven Minneapolis-area Somali men killed over a 10-month period, and authorities believe all were killed by fellow Somalis. Police say it's too simple to tie all the killings to Somali gangs, which have lured hundreds of young community members to their ranks in recent years
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090720/D99I2H380.html