Aqoonyahano reer Puntland ah oo Hay’adda Inter peace u diray warqad muhiim ah

(This letter is written by and signed with the approval of the signatories of the Open Letter that we submitted to you last week plus Puntland Intellectual Forum)

Mr. Jerry McCann

Deputy Director General –

Operations Division

Interpeace Regional Office

Eastern and Central Africa

PO Box 14520 – 00800

Nairobi, Kenya.

30 September 2012

Dear Mr. McCann,

Re:      Follow-up on the letter we submitted to you last week

Before we get to our objective in writing to you again to specifically make our stand clear, perhaps it is necessary to provide you a little background. We also realise that you might be already aware with most of the concerns being brought to your attention from your own or other sources.

The Puntland State of Somalia has since its formation in August 1998 had three changes of peaceful political leadership. The three administration changes were made on the basis of the participation of the stakeholders, of which the Traditional Leaders and Clan Chiefs played the most prominent role as it was their responsibility to select representatives of the constituent clans in Puntland. We fully accept that that the selection process was never perfect or democratic and was never intended to last that long in the first place given that Puntland Charter was transitional. The objective of the stakeholders in the formation of the administration of Puntland was to move forward to a democratic system, with free and fair elections. Despite its imperfections, however, it worked as indicated by:

• The peace and harmony that existed before Mr. Farole assumed power in Garowe, bar a few and far between isolated cases of trouble which were easily resolved;
• The number of non-Puntlanders who as Internally Displaced People (IDPs) got resettled and thrived in Puntland without anybody bothering them and
• The honourable and courageous way that former President, General M M Herzi (Adde) accepted defeat and handed over power to Mr. Farole as the newly elected president.

With this background, most of which we are confident you are familiar with, in hindsight, the question that one would pose is “Why did Puntland go from there to the lawless and dangerous place, which is on the brink of becoming a war zone between rival clans, who, despite living side by side in peace for as long as any anybody could remember, have gradually turned into sworn enemies armed with stockpiles of both heavy and light arms?”

• Marginalising – actually declaring war on – the traditional leaders and clan elders who were central to the imperfect but nevertheless functioning and economically really booming Puntland.

• By making his intentions of consigning the influence and the role of the Traditional Leaders and Clan Elders to history from day one of his administration, Mr Farole attempted to “Run before learning how to walk”. He destroyed what was a functioning tradition of social fabric without replacing it with anything. In doing so, he removed the glue that held the different communities together, started a process of seriously weakening the common ownership of the state by all the clans to the current situation, where everyone is for himself/herself.

• In its current state, Puntland:

• Ø  does not have law enforcement agencies and systems worthy of mention, as we explained in our previous letter;
• does not have an independent judiciary as set out by the present constitution of Puntland;
• is, as a direct result of the above factors, in a state of lawlessness and lacks security. Hence, each citizen has armed himself/herself as everyone knows that there is no recourse to law;
• Ø  has descended in the past four years into unprecedented economic, political corruption, nepotism and unashamed arrogance of the administration of the current President;
• Ø  does not have basic human rights or independent media. This makes anyone who believes in civil liberties and the democratic right of people angry as explained in our previous letter. It is one of the reasons why no Punlander will never believe a word he says when Mr. Farole speaks of democracy, freedom and fairness in respect of liberties. To most of us, nothing is sacred, including human life, as far as this Administration is concerned.

In the state of affairs, without law enforcement; without constitutional court to interpret the law, without any confidence in the current President and his notorious incompetent yes-man ministers and without any trust between the different clans who constitute the State of Puntland, it’s evident to even the most optimistic person in the world that multi-party system, democracy and respect to the rule of law cannot exist under the leadership of President Farole.

Therefore, a rethink of how to get to a fully-fledged democratic system based on free and fair elections, the endeavour of all citizens, is absolutely necessary. We firmly believe that moving to a constitutionally enshrined democracy is going to be the right process rather than a snap decision of drawing up constitution with the constant meddling from the President himself; approving it in an illegal manner, as per the Charter on the basis of which he was elected, completing the requirements and systems of establishing political parties within 4 months after the signing of the illegal governing document and aspiring to elect a new administration and parliament is an impossible pipe-dream and a deceitful ploy to extend the dead political life of the tyrannical dictator in power in Garowe. If that is not the plan, where was he and what was he doing in the first 41 months of his term, instead of rushing around like headless chicken just 7 months before his mandate ends, especially knowing that a better written Constitution completed and approved by the previous government cabinet and parliament was gathering dust right on his desk. Worse still, the time he set himself on the day of signing is already late for 4 months.

With that process in mind, we submit to you the following recommendations, which we believe are necessary and essential if we are to achieve the goal of avoiding that our homeland does end up as a war zone as planned by our current dictator and start to move towards a democratically elected government:

• The immediate release of all political prisoners including the widely known veteran journalist, Mr. Bile Qabowsade in Bosaso;

• Funding in support of genuine independent consultations for the elders and community leaders prior to the end of the term of the current administration;

• Setting up an independent Judiciary System;

•  Demarcation of District and Regional boundaries to steer clear of further community conflict in several districts and regions;

•  Disarmament / not light weapons – we understand that you cannot get directly involved in this, but we appreciate ant support we can get from you towards attaining this very essential factor, as democracy cannot function and thrive where people – particularly those whose cultural background is alien to the principles of Democracy and tolerance like today’s Somalia – are armed.

We hope that we have submitted to a clear, consensus based way out of the difficult place that Mr. Faroole and his gang has planned for Puntland. For any further queries you might, have please get in touch with me as the official voice of the group.

(This letter is written by and signed with the approval of the signatories of the Open Letter that we submitted to you last week plus Puntland Intellectual Forum)