U.S. Highlights Bloggers at the UN, While Keeping Them from Amb. Khalilzad
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, May
3, updated 5:45 p.m. -- While the U.S. Mission to the UN holds a forum
celebrating the "citizen journalists," the UN has no policy for granting
bloggers and other online media access to it meetings and briefings.
Then
again, the U.S. Mission on World Press Freedom Day itself held a
by-invitation-only briefing by new Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and did not
invite or even alert any bloggers. Rather, Inner City Press received from the
U.S. Mission an invitation to the "Citizen Journalist: The Internet as a Tool
for Freedom of Speech" panel, along with an invitation to "blog live" from the
event. Fine. We're here. But to respect bloggers and freedom of speech is not to
create a second tier, where as on the invitation other countries' press
crack-downs can be panned. It is to treat fact-collecting bloggers as reporters,
and grant them access.
Wednesday
at the UN, the Committee to Protect Journalists listed 10 press freedom
backsliders, including a number of countries currently supported by the U.S.. In
the top three backsliders is Ethiopia, to which the U.S. provided military
support in its drive on Mogadishu. Then, the U.S. allowed Ethiopia to import
tank parts from North Korea. Ah, freedom of speech.
Mr.
Ban and Condi Rice: press access, anyone?
But on to
the panel. The introduction was by a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State,
Jeffrey Krilla, who thanked the UN for "accommodating this event." Some wondered
why, on the other hand, the U.S. had made Amb. Khalilzad available at its
Mission, and not in the UN's press briefing room. Bridget Johnson a/k/a
GOP Vixen then cited the CPJ finding that one-third of imprisoned reporters are
online journalists. She turned it back to Krilla, who as it turns out beyond
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor also has corporate social responsibility in
his portfolio at the State Department. Has he raised press freedom to Yahoo,
which turned over to China information about cyber-dissidents, subsequently
arrested? Was Ethiopia's press freedom record considered in connection with the
U.S. support, in connection with the crack-down on Somalia and otherwise? We'll
see, if and when a Q&A session is allowed.
Reporters
without Borders spoke of new Predators of Press Freedom report, naming Mexico,
Cuba and hostage-takers in Iraq. RwB cites 65 imprisoned cyber-dissidents, 50 of
them in China. (Another panelist, with PointPoint presentation, were Frank Xie,
a practitioner of Falun Gong and Watson Meng of
Boxun News, who also detailed
Yahoo's craven crack-down on dissidents in China.) RwB's Tala Dowlatshahi
mentioned the case in San Francisco of the video blogger imprisoned for months
for not given prosecutors the footage he had shot. Could that have been the Bush
administration's Department of Justice? Even doing research on-the-fly, blogging
from the event itself, it would seem so: the blogger Josh Wolf spent 226 days in
Federal
lock-up. Perhaps Mr. Krilla -- or even Amb. Khalilzad or Secretary of State
Condoleeza Rice -- will address these inconsistencies. Developing.
Update of 2:15 p.m.
-- Frank Xie showed his three web sites, two of which his mother in China does
not have access to. China, he says, is exporting its web-blocking technology to
North Korea, Cuba and Sudan.
Nora Younis of Egypt
details Egypt's crackdown on bloggers who cover violence between Muslims and
Copts and, as she did, the beating of Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Meanwhile, Ban
Ki-moon and Condi Rice are in Egypt. Will they mention this? We'll be
watching.
Update of 2:35 p.m.
-- Inner City Press asked Nora Younis if the UN is doing enough -- or anything
-- to raise the issue of press and blogger freedom in Egypt. No, she said. The
UN is not doing enough.
Inner City Press
asked Mr. Krilla what the U.S. is doing about Ethiopia's CJP-exposed crackdown
on reporters. "Good question," he said, mentioning that he'd been in Ethiopia a
few weeks ago and that other countries should also apply pressure. But what is
the U.S. doing?
A speaker
raised the point that Tunisia, which
uses
censor-ware from U.S.-based Secure Computing, blocked full Internet access
even at a UN event -- something on which we hope to have more to report soon.
Update of 2:47 p.m.
-- Mr. Krilla, asked what the U.S. will do about "bloggers" rights, at the UN
and elsewhere, responded that there had been UN "heartburn" about this panel.
From Egypt? From China? If the past holds, neither will even say...
Update of 5:45 p.m.
-- At the exit from the event, the U.S. Department of State distributed a flier,
dated April 30, entitled "U.S. Supports Press Freedom Worldwide." It had lists
of "Countries with Continually Poor Records on Press Freedom" and "Countries
with Deteriorating Conditions for Press Freedom." Ethiopia is not on either U.S.
State Department list, despite being named the worst backslider by
the Committee to Protect Journalists....
On the other
hand, it's to the U.S. Mission's credit that it pushed to hold this panel
discussion, and inside the UN building. Who else would have done it? The UK, for
example, even when it got a briefing on Zimbabwe, consented that it be limited
to humanitarian issues, and has yet to follow up on it. That said, not only is
the U.S. for example trying to have it two ways with Ethiopia, it's own Mission
to the UN falls short of Republic of Congo, Peru, Russia and China in that U.S.
Ambassador Khalilzad has to date refused to hold a press conference on his plan
of work as Security Council president for the month of May. Every other recent
Council presidency has held such a press conference, allowing the press --
blogger(s) included -- to ask about what's on the agenda, and what's not. But
the U.S. falls short, and has yet to provide any explanation. Developing (it is
hoped).
Feedback: Editorial
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Online
and other Journalists Under Attack by Governments and even the UN, on Press
Freedom Day
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, May 2
-- One third of the reporters currently imprisoned by governments worldwide are
online journalists, according to the U.S.-based Committee to Protect
Journalists. In a briefing to the UN press corps on Wednesday, CPJ deputy
director Robert Mohoney said his organization is calling high-tech companies to
task, specifically in light of Yahoo's decision to give the Chinese government
email records of a
subsequently-arrested cyber-dissident.
Since CPJ
was speaking at the UN, Inner City Press asked Mr. Mahoney if the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations, which has for years had a 20,000 person presence in the
press-benighted Democratic Republic of the Congo, could be doing more to promote
the principles of press freedom. Inner City Press asked, What should the UN
system be doing? Video
here,
from Minute 17:40.
"The UN
should abide by its own principles," CPJ's Maloney said, praising the press
releases and expressions of concern issued by UN affiliate UNESCO. Inner City
Press pointed out that, for example, UNESCO might criticize Uzbekistan for
blocking access to news sites, but the UN Development Program is working with
that country's Karimov government on an "open source software" program that does
not address -- and, some surmise, allow for -- the censorship.
Mr.
Mahoney did not directly answer this question. Rather he pointed out that he had
met on Friday with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who "expressed support for the
work we do and solidarity with journalists in conflict zones." Mr. Mahoney
advised Inner City Press to "ask his spokesperson's department." Perhaps on
Thursday, which is World Press Freedom Day and on which a rally will be held
across from UN Headquarters for the BBC's Alan Johnston, kidnapped since March
12, some new press release is slated for issuance. Mr. Ban is in Sharm
El-Sheikh in Egypt, a country which has recently for the first time imprisoned a
blogger, according to Joel Campagna, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa
coordinator.
In the
openly nationalistic UN press corps, Mr. Campagna was called on to justify the
inclusion in the list of Morocco in CPJ's
list of press freedom backsliders.
Video
here,
from minute 27:08. Mr. Campagna rattled off the names of three imprisoned
Moroccan journalists. The Moroccan correspondent challenged him, "Only three?"
Last
year at the UN: plus ca change
Mr.
Mahoney emphasized that the list excludes the war zones of Iraq and Somalia, and
is based on seven categories: "government censorship, judicial harassment,
criminal libel prosecutions, journalist deaths, physical attacks on the press,
journalist imprisonments, and threats against the press." This gave rise to
questions about the more subtle repression "in the West," with reference to
media conglomerates firing outspoken commentators. Mr. Mahoney noted that CPJ
closely followed the case in San Francisco of the video blog imprisoned for
months for refusing to give the police the footage he shot of a protest march.
It is
worth noting that the UN has engagements with three of the
four
worst press freedom backsliders, according to CJP: The Gambia (where
UNDP acceded to the throwing out of its
representative by President Jammeh,
for questioning his
dubious AIDS cure,
and sent a more compliant officer in charge),
Ethiopia (whose
invasion of Somalia the UN has supported) and the DR Congo, the site of the UN's
biggest investment in its history. Mr. Mahoney on Wednesday acknowledged that in
compiling its report, CPJ did not visit the DRC, much less talk to the UN
mission's head, the American William Lacy Swing. Despite CPJ's seemingly
limited focus on the UN, as a venue from which to garner a press release of
support from the Secretary General, it seems fair to ask if the UN is doing
enough for press freedom. This would include ensuring that employees of the UN
and its funds and program are not
told not to speak
to the press.
Recent
events at UN Headquarters reflect a less than cutting edge approach by the UN
bureaucracy to online media. Here's hoping, among other things, that CPJ's
presentation and the ongoing work of UNESCO and others help bring UN
Headquarters into the ballpark on press freedom, and into the 21st century.
UN
Refugee Czar Guterres Praises Sudan and Mozambique, Questions U.S.-Australia
Asylum Swap
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, May 1
-- The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, on Tuesday praised
the policies of Sudan and Mozambique, while expressing reservations about the
reported
plan to swap asylum-seekers between Australia and the United States. That
plan would only pass legal muster if the people switched from central Australia
-- or Nauru -- to Guantanamo Bay wanted to make that move. "It depends on the
will of the people," Mr. Guterres told Inner City Press in the hallway of the
UN.
Fielding
questions from reporter, Mr. Guterres described his recent visit to Eastern
Sudan, where over 100,000 Eritrean refugees live in "arid and difficult
conditions." Inner City Press asked about
reports that several thousand have not be
accorded refugee status. Mr.
Guterres indicated that Sudan has been generous, and that even those whose
claims are rejected receive assistance from the Sudanese government. This is not
a message heard in many other places.
Malaria
hospital for refugees in east Sudan, per UNHCR
Mr.
Guterres seemed to go out of his way to praise member states. Asked about
reports that Mozambique refuses to afford
refugee status to those fleeing Zimbabwe,
Guterres responded that legal status may not matter, as long as people are not
sent back. At the same time, he spoke of the difficulties for those who have
fled Iraq, only to find that the type of passport they have had is no longer
valid. So legal status does matter.
Inner
City Press asked about North Korean refugees, both those recently
hunger-striking in Thailand,
and those who arrive in China. Mr. Guterres said that the hunger strike has been
resolved,
and the "flow" to South Korea restored. Regarding China, Guterres went out of
his way to say that he agrees that many who leave North Korea do so "because
they are hungry," and for "economic reasons." Nevertheless, he acknowledged,
once they leave, they would be persecuted if returned.
Under North Korea law, it is a crime to leave or attempt to leave the country
without permission. Therefore, Mr. Guterres said, the moment China moves to
return them to North Korea, they become refugees. It was an interesting
answer, but pointedly did not criticize China for its actual policy of
refoulement -- sending asylum seekers back to face torture. Mr. Gutteres
said, he was a politician for 30 years, but now that he's at UNHCR, he won't
answer political questions about who's to blame for the displacement. But what
about when it is the UN itself that is supporter the displacer? We'll have more
on this.
UN's
Holmes "Condemns" Reported Somali TFG Statements, While Withholding Documents
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, April
24 -- The Somali Transitional Federal Government, which relies for its
legitimacy on the UN, yesterday told the UN that aid workers will have
"unimpeded access" to serve those people fleeing the TFG's shelling of
Mogadishu.
In New
York, Inner City Press asked UN humanitarian chief John Holmes what the UN's
response has been to two sample statements, by TFG president Yusuf that civilian
neighborhoods can be shelled, and by TFG defense official Salad Ali Jeele, that
certain clans and sub-clans in Mogadishu need to be exterminated (click
here for
that).
Mr.
Holmes responded that "the statements you've quoted, I would condemn them
utterly." Video
here,
from minute 35:13.
Inner
City Press asked about the
letter
which it obtained and
reported on April 20
in which TFG Minister for Interior Mohamed Mohamoud
Guled wrote to the UN World Food Program that
"It's TFG
decision that there will be no food distribution can take place anywhere in
Somalia without being inspected and approved by the government. Hence UN
agencies and any other organization that is planning to bring any relief to
Somalia should submit the documents for the goods before shipment for checkup."
This
letter from the Transitional Federal Government to the WFP was cc-ed to the
Somali National Refugee Commission, through which Inner City Press is told the
TFG had been saying all aid must flow. Asked about this on Tuesday, Mr. Holmes
said, "I have no information on that particular organization." That might be a
problem.
Mr.
Ban and Mr. Yusuf
Prior to
Mr. Holmes' briefing, WFP told Inner City Press the following:
Subject: Somalia
From: [WFP Spokesperson]
To: Matthew Russell Lee
Sent: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 6:09 PM
Hi Matthew, there were talks between the
UN and TFG today. Here's a short update, from Peter Goossens, WFP Country
director Somalia:
"The talk between the UN and a TFG
commission led by the Heath Minister were positive. The TFG will issue a
statement on the outcome. We hope that we will from now on be allowed to use any
airstrip in Somalia to bring in humanitarian assistance. We also need to see on
the ground that we are now allowed to bring that assistance urgently to those
most in need, particularly those displaced by the fighting in Mogadishu."
Tuesday
Mr. Holmes said essentially the same thing. However, when asked if any documents
could be provided -- the letter from UN Humanitarian Coordinator Eric Laroche,
or the above-referenced TFG statement -- Mr. Holmes said only that "I'll look
into that, if we can provide you chapter and verse." Ten hours later, no
documents had been provided. It's not "chapter and verse" -- it's basic
documents about what Mr. Holmes is calling the world's most dangerous for aid
workers. Silence doesn't help; silence is consent. Developing...
In Somalia, Understaffed Government Demands to
Inspect All UN Aid, At "Anti-Terror" Checkpoints
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, April 20 -- The UN-supported
Transitional Federal Government in Somalia is now hindering the UN's attempts to
deliver humanitarian aid. Beyond the shelling of civilian areas, the TFG has
blocked UN agencies and the private groups they work with from using air strips,
and has demanded to inspect all food and medicine that comes into the country,
even though the TFG has nowhere near the manpower for this. This results in a
slow-down or stoppage of aid to Somalis.
In a sample April 9 letter
sent to the UN World Food Program, of which Inner City Press has obtained a
copy, click
here to
view, TFG Minister for Interior Mohamed Mohamoud Guled
writes that:
"It's TFG
decision that there will be no food distribution can take place anywhere in
Somalia without being inspected and approved by the government. Hence UN
agencies and any other organization that is planning to bring any relief to
Somalia should submit the documents for the goods before shipment for checkup."
Given the resources and focus of the TFG,
this threatens to slow or cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Somalis. Inner
City Press is informed that the UN's Eric Laroche, who previously said that the
UN should cast its lot with the TFG as the only game in town, has now written to
Mr. Guled that the TFG lacks the
physical and human capacity to carry out the inspections and that this directive
may jeopardize the UN's capacity to deliver assistance. Intimidation, including
death threats, that have become routine at TFG militia checkpoints directed at
UN and partners particularly from a military group based at the Afgoye junction
calling itself the "Anti-Terror Unit."
Somalia
today
The TFG
has now denied access to the K50 airstrip and has re-designated Mogadishu
airport as the entry point for Benadir, and Middle and Lower Shabelle. Also
slowing and stopping humanitarian aid, it has proved impossible for the UN to
fly a company that will fly to Mogadishu International Airport.
The TFG
has also issued a directive that all implementation and data-gathering be
carried out exclusively through the National Refugee Commission (NRC), which
will further put into question the independence and impartiality of humanitarian
response. That is an issue that Inner City Press raised to Mr. Laroche when he
was in New York, click
here
that story. Mr. Laroche said the time had come to gamble on the TFG, and to
judge him if it went wrong. Has that time arrived? And what is the response of
belatedly present WFP executive director Josette Sheeran Shiner to the letter
from Mohamed Mohamoud Guled hindering food
distribution in Somalia?
UN
staffers have said they will meet with the TFG on April 23. The UN Security
Council will meet April 24 to discuss Somalia. As the UN's postponed and
re-written
Rwanda genocide exhibition is slated to go
on display, the UN's as well as
other parties' roles in what's occurring in Somalia will need to be closely
considered. Developing.
As
Somali Defense Official Speaks of Extermination, UN and U.S. Dodge War Crimes
Questions
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April
11 -- As civilian neighborhoods in Somalia are bombed by the Transitional
Federal Government, TFG-supporters from the United States to the UN increasingly
decline to comment on what's wrought in Mogadishu. Wednesday at UN Headquarters,
Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe to confirm
over one thousand deaths and to respond to a quote from TFG defense official
Salad Ali Jeele about "exterminating" a rival clan. [Video
here,
from Minute 6:50 through 8:56, and see below.]
Ms. Okabe
declined comment on the extermination threat, and said that "death toll
statistics are provided by the local authorities." But what if it is the
local authorities who are doing much of the killing?
Already
officials in Europe have expressed concerns about their possible
complicity in war crimes in
Mogadishu. These concerns must be sharpened by the following remarks by the EU-supported
TFG's Salad Ali Jeele:
"We have succeed in
winning the political aspect, what remains now is the force implication... Very
soon people will flee from this town , but I wonder where they will flee to.
Whether it is here to the north side or to Galgaduud. Since people cannot
reconcile and come to terms with each other it is best to forcefully expel
[them] from the city... We are now in the final stages. You have seen what
happened in the last four days' onslaught, without doubt who ever has survived
that onslaught will be exterminated in the one to follow soon."
In terms
of the UN system's continuing engagement, only earlier this week, the UN World
Food Program issued a press release calling on the TFG to, at least with
pirates, become tougher. The UN's humanitarian chief for Somalia, Eric Laroche,
was last heard to
urge unequivocal support for the TFG. Now the planned reconciliation
conference has been delayed for at least a full month. Much can happen in thirty
days. Salad Ali Jeele was
previously quoted, by a UN-affiliated
service, as denying the UN's
own experts' report that the TFG was violating the arms embargo then in place.
Somalia
'07 -- shades of RTML?
Tuesday
at the UN, Inner City Press got a chance to ask U.S. Ambassador Wolff a question
about the weapons in Somalia, video
here,
from Minute 6:49:
Inner City Press: On
this report, that the U.S. allowed Ethiopia to buy weapons from North Korea in
January '07, I think your predecessor has said if it's true, this -- you know,
he disfavored that, that it would have violated previous sanctions. Do you have
any views on whether that took place? And if so, why it would not violate the
sanctions?
Ambassador Wolff:
Well, I've seen the reports on this. I don't have any additional information to
offer. We believe that the resolution should be adhered to. And from my
reading of the accounts, it's the responsibility of the Ethiopian government to
adhere by that resolution.
But the
underlying reporting indicates that the U.S. was aware of the ship heading to
Ethiopia, in violation of the U.S.-sponsored sanctions on North Korea's arms
sales, and that the U.S. did nothing. State Department spokesman Scott
McCormack on Monday
answered similarly,
"I'm not going to have any particular comment on the details of that story."
Earlier on Monday, he had
said
that "my objective here isn't to criticize the Transitional Federal Government."
Maybe it should be...
Bombing of Civilians Justified by UN-Supported Somali
President, War Crimes Questions Raised
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, April 9 -- When are war crimes
accepted, and who gets to decide? In Mogadishu last week, hundreds of civilians
were killed when Ethiopian troops and the Transitional Federal Government fired
into built-up sections of the city. In seeming violation of the laws of war, TFG
president Abdullahi Yusuf has said "any place from which a bullet is fired (at
us) we will bombard it regardless of whoever is there."
Monday at UN Headquarters, Inner City
Press asked the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon to respond to the quote, and to the
bombing by the TFG and others of civilian areas in Mogadishu. The spokesman,
Farhan Haq, pointed out that "a number of bodies, including the Security
Council, have recognized the TFG."
In response to Inner City Press' follow-up
question, Mr. Haq said that "the UN is against bombing of civilian areas...
across the board." What have the UN's Francois Lonseny Fall, or perhaps more
pertinently, Political Affairs chief Lynn Pascoe, said on the topic? "I can
check," Mr. Haq said. Video
here,
from Minute 20:53. Also needing update is the UN's humanitarian chief on Somalia
Eric Laroche's statement that the TFG is
"the only way to go."
The inquiry takes place in the
wake of
reporting
on a European Union expert's April 2 e-mail warning to Eric van der Linden, the
chief EU official for Kenya and Somalia, that:
"there are
strong grounds to believe that the Ethiopian government and the transitional
federal government of Somalia and the African Union (peacekeeping) Force
Commander, possibly also including the African Union Head of Mission and other
African Union officials have through commission or omission violated the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court."
While the UN has yet to send
its own blue helmeted peacekeepers to support or replace the African Union
force, the UN has supported the TFG even as its
compliance with the Transitional Federal
Charter has come into question, concerning the exclusion (and now bombing) of
certain clans and sub-clans.
Even following the EU warning, the UN continues to call on the TFG to take more
aggressive action.
Responding by press release to
the freeing of two ships and their crews, UN World Food Program Somalia Country
Director Peter Goossens called, blithely some say, for a more aggressive stance
by the Transitional Federal Government. On WFP's web site, Mr. Goossens is
quoted that
"the threat of piracy however is still very much alive in Somali waters and WFP
urges the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and the Puntland
authorities to curb this menace."
Somalia:
tsunami or TFG?
Others are making excuses for the intentional bombing
of civilians areas.
Voice of America found an expert, former
US ambassador to Ethiopia David Shinn, to
say that
"
“I think that in this part of the world
war tends to be particularly brutal. And I think it’s going to be extremely
difficult to prove that there were war crimes taking place as such. I think this
tends to be more the way things are done." Particularly on the 13th
anniversary of the beginning of the
genocide in Rwanda, this type
of relativism is troubling.
Compliance with Security
Council resolutions, even by their sponsors, has become relative as well. The
U.S., it
emerges, allowed Ethiopia to buy weapons
and tank parts from North Korea months after the U.S.-sponsored sanctions on
North Korea. Asked for Ban Ki-moon's
reaction, spokesman Farhan Haq declined to comment, saying that since these are
Security Council sanctions, the Council members should be asked. When it was
pointed out that Mr. Ban has chosen to comment on compliance with the Security
Council resolution barring arms imports into Lebanon, Mr. Haq shrugged. It is
apparently a matter of discretion.
U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Jendayi
Frazer
was in Baidoa over the weekend. She met with Abdullayi Yusuf and was quoted by
Reuters that "'I think that everybody used excessive force when you hear
the number killed,' Frazer said, but blamed insurgents for starting the fight
with mortar attacks from populated areas."
News analysis: the
allowance for war crimes and other bending and breaking of laws in Somalia
appears based on the equation of the Union of Islamic Court with the Taliban, or
more explosively, Al Qaeda. In late December when Ethiopian troops crossed the
border and drove on Mogadishu,
the Security Council did nothing.
When in January the U.S. fired missiles at supposed Al Qaeda hide-outs in
southern Somalia, little was said. Now the UN-supposed Transitional Federal
Government, through its president, says openly they will fire into civilians
areas if the residents don't themselves expel the Courts or insurgents.
Meanwhile the
UN counts and decries those fleeing
Mogadishu. The World Food
Program, in one of its first communications under new executive director Josette
Sheeran Shiner, fresh in from the U.S. State Department, blithely issues a
press release calling on the TFG to crack
down on pirates, click
here
to view. What if the pirates move into residential neighborhoods? Bombs away,
apparently...
Transcript of
TFG President Yusuf Q&A, March 21, 2007, see esp. Q&A 5 and 6
1. Q. It is
been reported that the government instigated the current fighting.
A. The man who
made that accusation who claims he is speaking on behalf of a clan and that his
house was attacked is well known and he works directly with the Islamic Courts.
Since he collaborates with the courts and the courts are the ones who are
killing the people and conducting terrorism amongst the people and who are
destructive, it does not matter how educated he is, it doesn't matter how famous
he is, it does not matter from what clan he is: Society should be protected from
that kind of man (arrested/eliminated?) because he will not contribute anything
to the community except trouble and destruction.
2. Q. But Mr.
President he is saying we were a clan that was meeting just like the other clans
meet?
A: Son, he is
lying! We know the names of the guys he was meeting with at that time. They are
one family (sub-clan). They cannot even speak on behalf of a sub-clan. They
are individuals and we know the one he is having the meeting with. The name
Hawiye is being used as a cover but it does not exist. I believe you have asked
the Prime Minister about this ( i.e. Hawiye) and you know from which clan the
Prime Minister comes from (i.e. he is Hawiye).
3. Q: One can
ask, can the president draw people closer to each other now that there is on
going fighting everywhere and the people are fleeing, many are wounded so how
will they come (to Mogadishu for the peace conference)?
A: The facts
are well known. It is the guys I have named who are causing the instability and
we are working to ensure they can never again cause instability (threat?). This
city should be secure when the conference (reconciliation conference scheduled
for April 16 in Mogadishu) is to be held. That is the transitional government's
responsibility.
4. Q: So have
you been overpowered? Reports say that it is the government troops and the
peacekeepers that are being dragged. Were you overpowered?
A: First of all
have you ever fought in a war?
5. Q: Then who
is fighting? Isn't it reported that two sides are fighting?
A: First, I
have asked you a question. If there is a battle there will be casualties
(deaths), It is possible that every now and then one or the other side looses
ground, but we have not been defeated, we will not be defeated God willing and
we will eliminate these guys.
6. Q: The
government is using artillery to shell civilian areas according to reports,
therefore why are you using these artillery?
A: Why
shouldn't we use it? They are within the civilian areas. The public should make
them (rebels) leave the civilian areas. When those guys leave the civilian areas
no harm will come to the civilians. We want the civilians to remove them
(rebels) telling them to go away from our midst. It is you (rebels) that are
causing us all these troubles. It is the rebels who are the cause of all the
troubles and not the government because any place from which a bullet is fired
(at us) we will bombard it regardless of whoever is there.
7. Q: Even if
civilians are there you are going to bombard it?
A: Yes we will
bombard it! Because the civilians should not be used as Human shields. The
civilians should get out of there and we have warned the civilians. We said
there is fighting going on in those neighborhoods get out of there while the
fighting is going on because one of the sides will be made to give up. The
civilians have that warning.
8. Q: Mr.
President since you have announced that yours is a government of peace, and that
you will save the public, if you now say we are going to burn everyone (who
opposes us) what do you think of that?
A: It is one
side that is initiating the fighting. The instigators will be confronted with
fighting. If they hide amongst the civilians there will be collateral damage to
the civilians. You need to ask them (rebels) those kinds of questions like why
don't you leave the civilian areas and fight the government somewhere else? It
is they that you should ask such questions and goodbye!
But the questions are proliferating.
Developing...
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Copyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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