Duke, I do know which region he hails from but he is from minority clans "quursigu qiil ma leeyahay". Regards of which subclan he hails from, he is fully resposible for what he did. Even if Said Barre gave the order, he should not have obeyed an illegal order which was to bomb un armed civilian population. I think it is better to advocate the idea of bringing to justice those individuals who are accused of gross human rights violations. It is better to catch some if you can not get them all. May be we need reconciliation South Africa style conference were the accused and accuser can tell their story and the accused at least admits his mistake and begs forgiveness from the accuser. This way our next generation will have a written record of what happened to Somalia and may be they will be able to avoid the calamity we went through.

ZamZam has suffered enough for life unjustly at the hands of fooxle Ahmed Yassin the V.P of Somaliland. Who ordered the 16 years old orphan child to be put in jail for attempted assassination. With no evidence and her lawyers jailed, the kangaroo court led by the dishonorable dwarf judge sentenced the underage girl 10 years but immediately commuted it down to 4 years because she was only 17 years old and added one year jail time for claiming to be of the clan of Ahmed Yassin. Who are the heroes and who are the losers. Heroes: Her brother who first exposed the jailing and rape of Zamzam. First by contacting Hargaysa media Jamhuuriya, Haatuf etc and Ahmed Said Cige of the BBC. They all refused to touch this story. Next he contacted Human rights organizations in Hargaysa especially Raqia Oomar. Her mother who came to Hargaysa and got jailed for three days and kept fighting for her little girl Raqia Oomar who advocated for the right of ZamZam and got four courageous lawyers who defended her until they themselves got 3 years jail time from judge. The four lawyers: Yusuf Ismail Ali, Fawzi Sheikh Yunis Hassan, Abdirahman Ibrahim Alin and Mohamed Said Hirsi Internet websites who kept the story alive until Amnesty internationalized it. Puntlandpost.com, Somalitak.com and Somaliland.org who especially showed courage to defend the indefensible. Losers: Fooxle Ahmed Yusuf Yassin who was ultimately responsible for this tragedy. Sack him and send him back to USA to collect his welfare checks. He can't be representative of the great people of Hargaysa. Maxamed Cige Cilmi, Taliyaha Booliiska Somaliland. Sack him and you will see him begging on the streets of Hargaysa The six CID officers accused of raping Zamzam. Sack them and bring them to justice. Today it is Bosaso, then Erigavo, them Burco, then eventually Hargaysa. The dishonorable judge Abdirahman Jama Hayaan. Sack him. He is not fit to wear the robe. He knows nothing about law or justice or even the appearance of the law. Axmed Said Cige & independent media in Hargaysa who first refused to air the story and then blindly reported the lies of the government officials. Her uncle: No shooting please. He is already dead with shame and remorse. Doesn't he know your income is already decided for you by the Almighty Allah and if you do the right thing Allah will not forsaken you. The biggest looser of all is Zamzam. All she wanted was to visit her uncle for the summer break and instead was put into a nightmare by cruel men who have no regard for justice or fairness or decency. Let us collect funds for her and show her that there are people who do not know her and yet feel her pain and want to extend a helping hand.

Any body has the right to raise an issue or a compliant against the administration of SOL in PRIVATE. But it is an abuse of this privelage to acuse them of clanish bias in the open forum and without any evidance. To add insult to injury, posting the private information of anyone in this forum is prohibited let alone SOL. The ownership of any web site is availabe for anyone to view if they choose and it is part of the open internet philiosophy. Sometimes the registered person may be a representative of an organization or an assciation and therefore may not be the real owner of the site. I think the administration should not waste their time on whiners, you have enough of an unpaid job to maintain one of the few decent remianing discussion forums for Somalis. Keep your eyes on the prize.

Juma, Muad & Wiilo thanks for the welcome. I know it is tough to stay neutral and still have an effective opinion. If I can be fair to all then I will be happy. Certaily joining one of the factions or creating a new faction (SOL fadhi kudirir) as the Somalis are famous for is out of the question for me. Even though there appears a lot of animosity in the forum, yet it is refreshing to see Somalis exchanging ideas peacefully. As long as we are talking at least there is a chance we can hear each other. This is one of the advanages of this forum.

This is my first post after becoming a regular reader about a year ago. I have to admit that SOL is one of the last debate forums that is not yet closed become of irrational, emotional qabiilist outbursts of some of it's members. I hope everyone keeps that in mind. I will certainly do that. What is my mission on SOL? To educate members about peace and the rejuction of violience to resolve disputes in Somalia. Do you think our people are ready to throw the gun and its smoke (Qori iyo qiiqiisa isla tuur). Does any one benefit from mindless killing. Of course we need opposition to keep those in power in check and to protect our rights. Can it be done peacefully? _____________________________________ Allahu ma anta Salaam wa minka salaam