Open Letter - Keeping Somalia in conflict: Somaliland secessionists, Al Shabaab and Matt Bryden

The Rt. Hon. William Hague PM
Foreign Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London

CC: Prime Minister Recep T Erdogan, Istanbul

CC: Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, the US State Department

CC: Ambassador Matt Baugh, British Embassy, Somalia

Dear Mr William Hague MP,

Re – the UN Monitoring Group’s Report on Somalia

Over the past couple of decades, every Somalia analysts had nightmares whenever they tried to find solutions for the Somalia conflict. A unique nation, no text books were ever written on situations similar to that of Somalia. As one of the only two countries named after its people in the giant continent of Africa, the frustrated experts often conveniently conclude that Somalis are just hot-headed and turbo-charged people who argue with each other rather than sit around the table and debate when considering matters of national interest.

But as a concerned Somali, it’s unacceptable to me that such energetic and highly enterprising people would be in conflict with each other for that long without the interference of other governments or groups of people or powerful individuals, so I went my separate way to find my own solutions for what’s wrong with the country and its people.

In my researches in the early years of the conflict and occasionally at present, I blamed the Ethiopians for having their own national interest in the Somalia conflict. And increasingly recently I suspected the Saudis and their teachings of Wahabi Islam. Often I would debate with friends and even with myself about the reasons for the Ethiopians or the Saudis wanting to sustain the conflict in Somalia. Both are close to us; one being our immediate neighbour and the other, our favourite destination for Hajj, shopping and work.

This past fortnight however, I took far too closer look at Somalia, Ethiopia and the nearby Saudi Arabian peninsula. And when the bell did not ring in any of these places, I suddenly, like Albert Einstein discovering Matter and Energy, found a single Canadian culprit who strategically positioned himself in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya. I made a substantial discovery towards the conflict resolution programmes for Somalia.

I zeroed in my investigation to small group of mainly Western expats in Nairobi. But the person who is partly responsible for much of the chaos and the unrest in Somalia over the past 21 years is none other than Mr Matt Bryden from Toronto, Canada. He worked for the Brussels-based the International Crisis Group before joining the United Nations, and he is married to Ubah (her exact Somali family name unknown at the time of writing) who originally came from North-Western Somalia (Somaliland).

An investigation into the criteria used to process his original application for employment at the UN is currently underway to establish how Mr Bryden was able to secure employment at the United Nations Political Office for Somalia. My initial findings, however, is that the ‘conflict of interest’ procedure was not properly followed. At this point in time, I can’t confirm whether the mistake was an oversight or deliberate disregard of the UN’s recruitment policy.

In fact I have been wondering over the past ten years about what interest Mr Matt Bryden has in Somalia. I knew all along from his various reports on Somalia that he has some kind of business in trying to keep Somalia in conflict. I have not, however, discovered up until this week exactly what that interest may be. Perhaps I overlooked some crucial but remote details about the man and his activities, just like the United Nations Human Resources Department in New York, if they were ever made aware of the fact that they have outsourced an important contract to a person who has private interests in Somalia.

With his latest report on Somalia, Mr Bryden attracted the undivided attention of the entire Somali nation and this time, the knives are out to him. His dirty laundry is there for everyone to see hanging on the ropes outside his house in Nairobi.

Mr Bryden’s leaked report on Somalia which is doctored several times over offended every Somali person and the Somalis have him cornered as his back is against the wall. He made very serious error of judgement by underestimating the Somali people, their intelligence and their patience.

The incomplete report which is surprisingly sanctioned by the United Nations has laid bare to Mr Bryden’s ulterior motives. It’s obvious to everyone that his high school style essay has been designed to disrupt and derail the final days of the Somali peace process once again and to tarnish the reputation of the entire Somali nation as corrupt society, unable to produce credible people who can take responsibility for their own country. Please note that I am not, by any means, defending any Somali official who may have been involved in corruption activities.

In the report, while Mr Bryden pointed the finger at individuals in the transitional Somali government and underlined the amounts of cash they allegedly misappropriated, he deliberately omitted the vital data of who actually handed the money over to whom and with which bank or banks handled these monies, making the entire report unworthy of the papers it was written on.

What also baffled the Somali people and the observers of the Somalia conflict is the deliberate exclusion from the poorly written report of a widespread corruption that is taking place in Somaliland. The United Nations Development Programme confirmed in the winter of 2011 (news wire) that 1000 metric-tonne of food aid that was donated by the government of Oman were emptied by Somaliland officials on daylight from warehouses in Hargeisa.

Moreover, a fourth grader knows that when corruption takes place anywhere in the world the facilitators of that corruption would consist of two people or more. And in the case of Somalia, since almost all the monies came from foreign donors and mainly changed hands on the watch of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia in Nairobi where Mr Bryden lives and works, there were no people named in the report other than the Somali officials, shamefully insulting the intelligence of everyone who read his so called the Somalia Report.

According to Mr Bryden’s sources, there are the Arab Sheikhs who Mr Bryden claims paid substantial amounts of cash to the Somali government officials. But if an Arab Sheikh hands over a suitcase full of cash to a Somali official and asks him or her no questions later, would you consider it as a gift to that particular individual or would you call it a corruption – a corruption by who? And surprisingly enough, as the weak Somali government officials are junior partners to UNPOS when it comes to foreign donations, the report has been selective and does not contain the names of the people who I believe initiated the alleged corruption and who pocketed the most of the misappropriated funds. The world needs to know who these people are.

The UN must appoint a new and credible person immediately and commission fresh investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr Bryden’s activities in Somalia and all the monies that are unaccounted for, no matter whether the funds were paid through the United Nations Political Office for Somalia or was given to individuals as cash in hand. Until then Matt Bryden’s so called Monitoring report is implausible and should be considered null and void.

In fact the Monitoring Group’s report falls far too short of international standards as it lacks substance, professionalism, legitimacy and credibility, and should be dismissed by the United Nations. In the light of the facts available so far, the United Nations should demand the tax payer’s money back from Matt Bryden and his organisation. And Mr Bryden must be relieved from his post, and not reappointed in public service capacity to any activity within the Somali Republic. The international community can no longer afford to tolerate any government or lone wolves who represent other privately established institutions to prolong the conflict by working against the efforts to find peace and security in Somalia.

The Somali people are also strongly urging the UN - after the report is reconsidered - to open the way for comprehensive and independent investigation into the suspected Nairobi-based protection racket which is possibly headed by Mr Matt Bryden. And a good starting point would be Mr Bryden’s interest in Somalia and his relationships with the secessionists group in Somaliland. Only then can the fragile Somali peoples’ relationship with the UN be put back on the right truck.

As politically literate society, the Somali people are well aware of who meets who and when in Nairobi’s expatriate circles. When Mr Augustine P Mahiga, the UN Special Rep. for Somalia, for example, called for the diplomatic recognition of Somaliland, my follow up investigation confirmed that he had dinner table conversation in Nairobi with Matt Bryden the week proceeding to his departure for Hargeisa where his statements were made. But the irresponsible remarks put the colonial mission school educated Mahiga in hot waters after the Security Council promptly reprimanded him.

I must underline that the Somali people have the resources - financial and professional personnel - to conduct their own world class investigations, and if Mr Mahiga elects not to recommend the termination of Mr Bryden’s role in Somalia, other people would be implicated. I should also make it clear to everyone, friend or foe, that the Somali people are fully awake in 2012.

Big or small, there is corruption everywhere including Somalia. But we must be on the lookout for the parasitic individuals who are lurking in the dark periphery of the Somalia conflict, and who are actively involved in the attempts to keep Somalia in conflict.  We won’t be able to put to good use the recent gains made by the African Union without removing the remaining obstacles to peace and stability in Somalia: Somaliland secessionists, Al Shabaab and people like Matt Bryden.

It’s an open secret, albeit published in some intelligence reports on Somalia, that Somaliland politicians believe that it’s in their best interest to help sustain the anarchy in the rest of Somalia. So when Mr Bryden’s strong relationship with Somaliland is on the public domain, I wonder how an oversight could have taken place in the UN’s recruitment policy on international staffing.

Urgent review of the UN’s hiring procedures should also be made before another ‘white collar warlord’ and international ‘conflict fat cat’ cooks their own books and makes further embarrassment for the world body. It’s time to find out who else, apart from Matt Bryden, is fuelling the conflict in Somalia and giving Al Shabaab the lifeline they badly need. The Somali people need answers as they are running out of time - and patience.

Abdul Ghelleh, former UKLG civil servant
E-Mail: abdulghelleh@gmail.com

Remembering Kinsi Xaaji Aadan

Our crib was a very traditional Somali household. These days, I’m not sure how you’d define that, because most Somali folks I know have hyphenated identities, but when I was growing up in the '90s and early 2000s in Toronto, my grandmother, who raised me and gracefully stood in for my young divorced parents, had in her house all the artifacts and ointments, sounds and smells of a Somali immigrant’s crib.

Our house phone seemed to ring forever in a long-distance tone heralding emergencies of family members in Xamar; Persian carpets were stretched across the living-room floor strewed with embroidered Turkish divans and silk tasseled bolsters; a florid velour prayer rug awaited the pious in a corner facing East; framed verses of Quran were hoisted on the walls; an orange air-freshener called al-Rehab Bakhoor stood next to a silver electric incense burner atop our olivewood television armoire emitting twirling wisps of uunsi; and in the kitchen—Lord have mercy!—boiling pots and simmering saucepans were always on all four burners, going at the same time, cooking canjeero, dalac-bilaash, bariis, and hilib ari, the aroma of burnt cumin and coriander drifting out into the apartment’s hallway and staying like stale cigarette smoke in the fabric of my clothes for ages.

Me and my grandmother were like Nastenka and her grandmother in Dostoevsky’s White Nights, and even though my grandmother wasn’t strict with me, she’d have bouts of fiercely hollering out my name as if she was in the midst of a natural catastrophe to simply reassure herself of my presence in the house, my exact physical location in the house, and also to signal when she needed me to get her something from somewhere in the house, and at times, I swear to God, this something would, in fact, be nearer to her than to me. And although the idiosyncrasies of my grandmother’s generation are slowly receding, we still have one fundamental thing in common: the gabayo and qaraami songs unspooling from old cassettes in a radio on our granite kitchen counter from my childhood.

I recently completed reading the memoirs of my favourite living writer—Gabriel García Márquez’s Living to Tell the Tale. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 from the Swedish Academy to a backdrop of Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and he wrote, “I would have preferred one of Francisco el Hombre’s spontaneous romanzas from the fiestas of my childhood.”

A year ago today, my favourite singer, Kinsi Xaaji Aadan, died in Hargeysa, Somaliland. Kinsi’s music was the backdrop of my childhood, and if I ever win any major award, I’d second Mr. Márquez’s motion, and request one of Kinsi’s qaraami songs.

Kinsi Xaaji Aadan Aw Xuseen began her musical aspirations in the city of Burco, her hometown, in 1973. Her voice seemed to come from the spine, someplace deep and powerful, and at times it was hoarse and almost masculine like Toni Braxton’s, and within a few short years of success in Burco, she relocated to Xamar, and joined a troupe called Kooxdii Onkod. The head of Onkod was the multi-talented poet Axmed Saleebaan Bidde, and obviously he penned most of her eminent songs: “Xareeda Laguma Wacnaado,” “Wajiyaal is Xasuusta, is Xasuuta,” “Soo Noqo,” “Caashaqa Ma Baran Weli.”

Her first song was written by the patriot of a poet, Cabdi Bashiir Indhabuur, and was a duet with the late molasses-voiced singer, Siciid Mire Xaydar of Kooxdii Heegan, “Dhabta Miyaan Ku Saaraa.” It must be one of the most beautiful, stunning love songs out there.

But there is one song out there in her sea of gorgeous songs written by the poet Aadan Tarabi Jaamac called “Yuuflaha Qabow.” The peculiarity of this song, and it’s probably because I used to listen to it when I was a child, is I really slip into it: I feel it, and it feels as if I’ve lived in this place called Yuuflaha Qabow and I’m looking back with longing. I guess that’s what a good song is supposed to do: it takes you away!

Through her iconic music, Kinsi Xaaji Aadan has touched millions of lives and has shaped the Somali musical landscape. The renditions are innumerable, and before she died she gave an interview to Cali Xareere of VOA Somali, stating in Somali, “Renditions are for competitions, and after auditions an artist needs to find their own style.” I think an era of fierce creativity, stage presence, and genuine style died when she died.

Ugaaso A. Boocow
Email: ugaaso.filsan@gmail.com

Ethiopia attacks Somali airports

Ethiopian jets have bombed two airports in Somalia in a widening operation against an Islamic militia group.
Jets hit the international airport in the capital, Mogadishu, and another at Balidogle, in the south of the country.
The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has been fighting Somalia's weak interim government and its Ethiopian backers.
Ethiopia's prime minister has said his country is "at war" with the Islamists, and the Red Cross has urged all parties to protect civilians from harm.
Thousands of Somalis have fled the escalating violence, and the Red Cross says the fighting is straining an already weak support system in the country.
Red Cross official Pedram Yazdi told the BBC that the organisation was treating 445 people injured during the fighting, including combatants and civilians.
Aircraft are taking some two tonnes of supplies into Somalia from Kenya each day in an effort to keep hospitals adequately supplied, he said.
Town captured
Two senior leaders of the UIC, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, landed at Mogadishu shortly after the Ethiopian air strike, a clear sign that the attack did not disable the runway.
The airport was recently reopened by the UIC - which holds most of central and southern Somalia.

We will overcome the Ethiopian troops in our land. Our forces are alert and ready [to] defend our country
Abdirahman JanaqowIslamic Courts spokesman
Ethiopia's Somali test
Q&A: Islamist advance
Send us your comments The Ethiopian government said it hit the two airports to stop "unauthorised flights", the AFP news agency reported.
The BBC's Adam Mynott, in the region, says Ethiopia is carrying through its threat to hit Islamist positions in pursuit of what it claims is self-defence.
A spokesman for the UIC, Abdirahman Janaqow, told the Associated Press that the Islamists would stand firm against Ethiopia.
"We will overcome the Ethiopian troops in our land. Our forces are alert and ready [to] defend our country," he said at Mogadishu airport.
As Ethiopia struck, Somali and Ethiopian troops captured a checkpoint outside the flashpoint town of Beledweyne.
UIC forces then left the town, the scene of sustained fighting on Sunday.
"Many, many people - children and women - have evacuated last night, and they are in the bush, while others chose to stay in the town," Abdullahi Warsame, Somalia programme manager for the aid charity Save the Children, told the BBC.
Mr Warsame was in Beledweyne as the town changed hands.
"Those who have hidden in some places in the bush... they started to come back with donkey carts, and others who have gone very far towards the town of Bulo Burto - still they have not come back."
There were also reports of heavy fighting at the central flashpoint of Burhakaba, close to the seat of Somalia's transitional government in Baidoa.
Fresh fighting between Somali government forces and the UIC erupted last week.
'No meddling'
On Sunday Ethiopia admitted for the first time its troops were fighting in Somalia and began attacking the UIC across a 400km (250 mile) front line along the border.
PM Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia was forced to defend its sovereignty against "terrorists" and anti-Ethiopians.

Aid agencies have warned of the civilian cost of fighting"We are not trying to set up a government for Somalia, nor do we have an intention to meddle in Somalia internal affairs. We have only been forced by the circumstances," Mr Meles said.
"We want to end this war urgently and we hope that Ethiopian people stand by the defence forces."
The UIC, which has seized control of much of southern and central Somalia, says Ethiopian troops have been fighting alongside government forces for months.
The Islamist group - which controls most of the south, including the capital, Mogadishu - on Saturday appealed for foreign fighters to join its troops in a "holy war" against Ethiopia.
The UN estimates that at least 8,000 Ethiopian troops may be in the country, while rival Eritrea is said to have deployed some 2,000 troops in support of the Islamic group.

Sool-joogto

20 cisho ka hore waxaan socdaal gaaban ku maray tuulo la yidhaahdo Sool joogto oo 22Km ka xigta woqooyi bari magaalada Buhodle. Waxaan aad uga helay dhirta la yidhaahdo gobka oo aad halkaa ugu baxda iyo quruxdooda. Waxaan ka soo qaaday sawiro aad u qurux badan. Iyada oo ay dhirtaasi bixisay modho aad u faro badan hadana nasiib daro midhahaa waxba kama cunun iyada oo ay subab ahayd bislaan la'aan aanay weli bislaan midhahaasi.
Waxaan kale oo Sool Joogto uga helay dhirta ku taal ama ka soo baxaysa iyo sida ay ugu duwanyahiin degaanada kale ee ku xeegaaran.

All out war between TFG & UIC in Somalia

Maanta waxaa batay goobo badan oo ay isku hayaan dowlada ku meel gaadhka ah iyo maxaakiibta. Dagaadaas oo ka socda gobolada Bay, Hiiran, iyo Galgaduud.
Dadka Somalidu waxay intooda badani kala raaceen oo la kala safteen labada kooxood ee isku haya xukunka. Anigu waxaan raacsanahay dadka rayidka ah ee u badan dumarka iyo caruurta ee ay arintani samayan doonto. Waxaanan kula talinayaan qof kasta oo Somaliyeed in ay ka taliyaan wanaaga iyo nabada deriskooda. Sababta oo ah waxay Soomalidu ku maah maahdaa balaayadu ina ay kaa maqantahay waxay ku maqan tahay khayrkaa. Markaa yaan xumaanta la isku raacin hana laga fekero dadka rayidka ah ee aan codka lahayn maalin walbana qaxootiga ku jira. Ninkii xabada ridayow ka feker reerkiina iyo caruurta aad masuulka ka tahay.
Ilahay waxaan ka baryayaa in ilahay labada kooxood ii isdilaya in ilahay kala bad badiyo . Markaa Somaliyey qofka kaa dhintaa maanta waa qof somali ka maqan ee sidaa ula soco. Nin kaa dhintayna waxba kuuma ah somalina waxba uma tarayo markaa ku dadaala inaan is waansano oo aan dadkeena dhibaatada iyo dagaalka ka saaro. Inkasta oo ay adagtahay si nabadaaa lagu helayo inta odayada dagaalamay inta ay nool yahiin ama talinayaan.

famous quotes

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? By Robert Kenedy.

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Somali Government Claims Victory

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: December 22, 2006
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania, Dec. 21 —
The transitional government of Somalia, which for several months had been rapidly losing territory to Somalia’s growing Islamist movement, claimed victory on Thursday in the first major confrontation between the sides.
“We have overrun their troops,” said Abdirizak Adam Hassan, chief of staff for the transitional president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
United Nations officials confirmed heavy Islamist casualties in the fighting, which began Wednesday and continued Thursday.
The Islamist fighters — many of them lightly armed teenage boys, the officials said — were mowed down by transitional government soldiers backed by the Ethiopian Army, the most powerful military in the region.
“The Islamists attacked, they retreated and then they made the mistake of running into an open field,” a United Nations official said on the condition of anonymity. “After that, it was one shot, one kill.”
United Nations officials estimated that dozens of Islamists had died. The Islamists denied suffering humiliating defeats. On Thursday, the Islamist clerics who rule Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, ordered schools closed so more children could be sent to the front lines.
After initially playing down the fighting, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the Islamist forces, announced Thursday over national radio that Somalia was at war and said, “All Somalis should take part in this struggle against Ethiopia.”
Ethiopia still denies that many of its soldiers are in Somalia, but has acknowledged sending military advisers. Ethiopia has cause to fear a strong Islamist movement next door. Christians have led Ethiopia for centuries, but about half of its population is Muslim, as are the vast majority of Somalis, and the Muslim areas have become more restive.
The fighting started early Wednesday as hundreds of Islamist fighters attacked the transitional government’s forces from two sides.
Witnesses said the transitional government, with help from Ethiopia, had repelled the Islamist advance in Daynunay, a town outside the government’s base in Baidoa. But in Diinsoor, near Baidoa, the battles were closely contested, and on Thursday, witnesses said each side continued to pound away with artillery, mortars and antiaircraft guns on pickup trucks.
Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since 1991, when the government collapsed in clan warfare. Backing the transitional government was an attempt by donor nations to help bring order, but more Somalis support the Islamists.
The two sides have talked of sharing power. European Union diplomats shuttled between Baidoa and Mogadishu on Wednesday. “The leaders on both sides want dialogue, but we’re not necessarily dealing with homogenous groups that always obey their leaders,” a European official said Thursday.