Move to impeach Somali president

[Gabbal]

Move to impeach Somali president

 

Nearly 120 Somali MPs have voted to start impeachment proceedings against President Abdullahi Yusuf, accusing him of being a "stumbling block to peace".

 

He must now appear before parliament to defend himself. The motion would need a two-thirds majority to succeed.

 

The move in Baidoa comes a day after the president named a new prime minister in defiance of parliament.

 

MPs also supported a UN-backed peace deal between the transitional government and Islamist rivals.

 

But the Islamist al-Shabab insurgent group that controls much of southern Somalia has not signed up to the agreement.

 

'Propaganda'

 

President Yusuf told AP news agency from the seat of parliament in Baidoa: "It cannot be true that I'm an obstacle to peace. It is propaganda."

 

The resolution to impeach him - which alleged he had violated 14 articles of the Western-backed transitional government's constitution - had the support of 117 legislators in the 275-member parliament.

 

President Yusuf is accused of illegally printing money, nepotism, behaving like a dictator and failing to push the peace process forward after four years as president.

 

He is also charged with side-lining some of the communities.

 

Correspondents say this is coded language referring to the increasingly bitter clan rivalries that have deepened under his leadership.

 

President Yusuf's biggest miscalculation appears to have been a decision to sack Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and his cabinet on Sunday, they say.

 

Lawmakers soundly rejected President Yusuf's unilateral decision - saying it needed parliament's approval - and voted to keep Mr Nur as prime minister.

 

President Yusuf and Mr Nur had clashed in recent months over attempts to deal with the Islamist-led armed opposition.

 

Mr Nur was chairman of Somalia's Red Crescent Society during many years of conflict before being named prime minister.

 

On Tuesday, Kenya announced it would impose sanctions on Mr Yusuf and his family because it also said he was an obstacle to peace.

 

The BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan in the capital, Mogadishu, says it is not clear if the impeachment move will work as Somali lawmakers can be very unreliable in their voting.

 

'Only option left'

 

Mustafa Duhulow, an agriculture minister who topped the list of MPs behind the impeachment motion, said a number of lawmakers were in Mogadishu, or even out of the country.

 

"He's the president. He should be the one who's working very hard to bring the unity to Somalia, reconciliation to Somalia. Now he doesn't want to do that," he told the BBC World Service's Focus on Africa programme.

 

"The president is the problem of the country. We've tried everything… the only option left for us is to impeach him."

 

Correspondents say Somalia's government badly needs a unified front if it is to find peace with hardline Islamist insurgents who now control almost all of southern Somalia.

 

In parliament on Wednesday, MPs also endorsed with a show of hands a reconciliation deal between the more moderate Islamist Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) and the transitional government, sponsored by the UN in neighbouring Djibouti.

 

That agreement requires Ethiopian forces - which helped government forces drive Islamist forces from Mogadishu two years ago - to pull out in just over two weeks.

 

A small African Union peacekeeping force has indicated it may leave with the Ethiopians unless it gets reinforcements.

 

About one million people have fled their homes - many after fierce fighting in Mogadishu between Islamists and the Ethiopia-backed government forces.

 

Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991 when warlords overthrew the regime of President Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

 

Source

[Gabbal]

More then anything the benefit of this move is that it shows Somalis the power of democracy. Hopefully they can appreciate this type of warfare and lose interest in guns.

[xiinfaniin]

No surprises indeed!

 

Bal ii sheekee xoogaa adeer:-

 

Horn, are you now with Sharif's caravan?

 

Do you think TFG, as corrupt and incompetent as it may be, is useful political construct that Somalis must salvage to transition the country? Have you abandoned your earlier pronounced commitment to al shabaabs approach?

 

Those are half rhetorical, part serious questions as your last few days's passionate posts hinted some shifts from your part!

[Gabbal]

Xiinfaniin, I already said before I am an objective viewer. I have no opinion on what is going on whatsoever.

 

I think Abdullahi Yusuf's broad daylight attempt to sabotage the very charter that keeps him in power was a rather very ****** move.

 

I also think the Djibouti farce is just that; a farce. The whole notion of an extended parliament is ridiculous and many of the people running on its tails have not realized the real headache that awaits them. What should be the clan composition f the added positions? How will the TFG's own 4.5 going to be appeased, etc?

 

I think at this point, the West is ONLY interested in just having a TFG to provide a legitimate balance they can use against the rise of an Islamist control in Somalia. I do not see a great interest in actually bring back peace and security to Somalia nor do I see them banking on the TFG to provide it.

 

The TFG as it has existed thus far serves a purpose, and as long as it serves that purpose the world can continue to ignore Somalia.

 

Abdullahi Yusuf has attempted to rock the boat and the West is putting him position.

 

*EDIT*

 

As for my support to Al Shabaab, one can say the majority of my reason for supporting them has to do with the fact that without them Somalia would be an Ethiopian colony at this present time. I have said it before and I will say it again, I do not believe for a second (save some miracle from up high) that Al Shabaab shall ever see itself as the echelon of power in Somalia nor am I completely comfortable with the excessive nature of their ways. Still, in this present time, they are clearly more worthy of support than the zoo circus called TFG, at least in its present form.

[xiinfaniin]

It's not believable that Horn has no position on the political goings of Somalia. But hearing from the horse’s mouth, I will have no choice but to take it at face value!

 

TFG is a known commodity and we all know who brought it to being. Some, including me, saw it as a part of Somali conflict, and a significant variable in the larger Somali equation. The Jabbuuti Peace is partly contingent upon TFG’s survival as an entity. Who leads it is irrelevant to the larger approach embraced by those who put time and efforts to usher a new era in Somali politics and transition the country from this messy civil war!

 

There is a competing strategy to change things in Somalia however. Alshabaabs and others who, for the lack of tasty political formulation, still hide under the appeal of resistance, has adopted that strategy. Their approach clearly entails to destroy not only Ethiopia’s army but the TFG as well! The anomalies with such gamble are numerous. It lacks clear exist strategy from the perpetual wars that Somalis have sadly become accustomed to. Last time I checked you were on board with such nonsense. That’s why I asked the question. At the moment you’ve swung back to the middle of things it seems.

 

Adeer Jabbuuti Deal is not a farce! It’s real. The increased parliament size is unworkable proposition that will have to be eventually amended. It’s not the mainstay of this deal however. Forming a unity government IS! And that’s the key adeer!

 

Carraabay…

[Gabbal]

Ridiculous; Djbouti is farce and time will show it to be. The only purpose it serves now, to both the Somalis who support it as well as the West, is that it is a smokescreen that attempts to show "constructive engagement" when there is absolutely nothing to engage. For the Somali supporters especially, it is also a form of peaceful protest against the true resistance without wanting to give proper support to the anti-resistance, or what we call the amalgamation of Ethiopia/TFG/clan forces.

 

It is the easy way out Xiin.

[Fabregas]

Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

No surprises indeed!

 

 

Do you think TFG, as corrupt and incompetent as it may be, is useful political construct that Somalis must salvage to transition the country? Have you abandoned your earlier pronounced commitment to al shabaabs approach?

 

#

Xiin, bro, TFG warlords will be consigned to the dirty pages of history. I am just trying to work out why someone of your stature is busy these days trying to save it on SOL? :confused:

[Liqaye]

For the Somali supporters especially, it is also a form of peaceful protest against the true resistance without wanting to give proper support to the anti-resistance, or what we call the amalgamation of Ethiopia/TFG/clan forces.

 

Hornow you hit the nail right on the head, I think this is the case particuarly in Baashis mind.

Sometimes some one else articulates so well the apprehensions of another.

 

Kudos.

 

The elephant in the room as castro would say is and always has been the ethiopians.

Even in providing a face saver to the ethiopians the caravan has failed.

 

Consequently who else but the al-shabaab.

[Jacaylbaro]

Drama finals ??? ,,, haye xagee la isla marayaa ?

[Abtigiis]

I think we should also start proceedings to impeach Duke and et al from their nomad status here.

[Ibtisam]

Originally posted by Abu_Diaby:

quote:Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

No surprises indeed!

 

 

Do you think TFG, as corrupt and incompetent as it may be, is useful political construct that Somalis must salvage to transition the country? Have you abandoned your earlier pronounced commitment to al shabaabs approach?

 

#

Xiin, bro, TFG warlords will be consigned to the dirty pages of history. I am just trying to work out why someone of your stature is busy these days trying

to save it

on SOL? :confused:

Xiin has been moving closer and closer to sitting and having lunch with Yey for a while. Something to do with some Caravan that he told me was coming before Ramadan to Free Somalia and mediate. (In the body of shike Sharif, who has also shifted 360 degrees to join (at least in body if not ideology the TFG)

[NGONGE]

^^ Yet it was the damn Caravan that looks to have loosned Yey's grip on proceedings! You're mixing things up there, Ibti.

[N.O.R.F]

^So the Caravan has had some success? Probably not what it set out to do though

[NGONGE]

^^ If the goal was to get rid of Yey then I suppose we could say it had a resounding success. Everything else remains to be seen.

[Ibtisam]

Ngonge that was the unintended results, now they are trying to fix the default results dee