A_Khadar Posted February 6, 2011 Opinion:- As the president of Somaliland, as a former opposition leader, as a former chairman of the SNM, as a guerilla war veteran, and as a former finance minister of Somalia, one thought you were about to embellish the last phases of your glaring career with new starts in peacemaking efforts. Sadly, your last month’s move to create new bases in Kalshaale area for your chauvinistic army revealed the flaws of your judgments. Within a month of their deployment, your forces flexed their muscles on *********** civilians from Kalshaale area. That you have praised your army for shedding the blood of your fellow *********** countrymen has also showed your hostility to civilians. You were well aware of the partiality of your armed forces and how easy it’s for them to put the healing wounds of Kalshaale stakeholders—Dhulbahante and Habarjeclo—in recurrence. You looked at the Kalshaale issue with a blinking eye by underestimating the further instability your armed forces could bring to this disputed grassland. Last Sunday (January 31th, 2011,) your so-called peacekeeping forces at Kalshaale sided to your Habarjeclo tribe and crashed the unequally armed *********** men; four were killed, five were wounded and eighteen were taken to Burao as war prisoners. I am sure you have been informed about the generosity of your army in saving some bullets for you by running their armored vehicles over the *********** men. Internal organs were purged out of these men whose bodies were pressed on the ground by the wheels of your tanks. Amazingly, such tactics are akin to those used by the Somali military against your SNM men in 1980s. I was an elementary student in Burao and used to hear chilling stories from the battlefields in which you faced then mighty military of Somalia. I witnessed the systemic killings in Burao and elsewhere in northern Somalia at that time. Sometimes, the military used to humiliate the public by showing off with their SNM captives or with other allegedly incriminated innocent men. I was counting on you to say “never again” and to avoid the repetition of such atrocities. But what your armed forces did at Hagoogane last Sunday showed how oblivious you are about the history. After your victory in last year’s presidential election, you gave a rhetoric in which you mentioned you willingness to extend a hand of peace to ***********. Nevertheless, your latest erratic turns for deepening your army into the *********** land gave an insight into the danger of your equivocation. You have forgotten the complexity of the situation at hand. If you wanted to conquer a new *********** territory for your quest to secede from the rest of Somalia, you should have made it clear. Sending your army to Kalshaale area as peacekeepers between *********** and Habarjeclo should not have been the pretext of your mission. Perhaps, you seem to have killed two birds with one stone. Firstly, because of the **** dominated army, your Habarjeclo tribe gained a limitless access to the disputed grassland of Kalshaale and even intensified their resettlements. Secondly, your forces followed your orders to remain in this new-found-land from which they have launched fresh attacks on the indigenous *********** people. How could you condone the fact that the majority of your men- in-uniform are ****, and thus are not neutral in disputes between *********** and Habarjeclo? Make no mistake, Mr. President. Do not stain your boots with the blood of your countrymen. Capturing eighteen *********** men from their villages and taking them to your hometown, Burao, poses psychological damage to both victims and to their families. This can also spark unnecessary clashes between the tribes. You could exculpate yourself, to some degree, by reassessing the Kalshaale issue, by withdrawing your army from the area, by letting fair mediators solve the issue, and by releasing these allegedly incriminated *********** men without conditions. Without doing so, you would fail in your attempts, if any, to ease the tension between the Kalshaale stakeholders. Today, the crescendo of the scent of the war has a grip on your army in the frontline as determent *********** men are gathered to fight back. I urge you to exhibit prudence and give some meanings to your leadership. Mohamed Abdi rashiidh@yahoo.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacaylbaro Posted February 6, 2011 Suggestion taken and will be considered accordingly ............................... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
