Press release on behalf of the Department of Political Affairs and Regional Administrations regarding the status of the various NGOs and foreign agencies operating in Somalia.
This is the official announcement of the establishment of The Office for Supervising the Affairs of Foreign Agencies. This office has been set up to coordinate all dealings with NGOs and foreign agencies and to fully monitor them.
It is mandatory upon all NGOs and foreign agencies operating in Somalia to immediately contact The Office for Supervising the Affairs of Foreign Agencies in their area. They must contact the Administration of the area that they are currently operating in and they will give out the address for the new office. The NGOs and foreign agencies will be informed of the conditions and restrictions on their work and on how their work may continue. Any NGO or foreign agency found to be working with an agenda against the Somali Muslim population and/or against the establishment of an Islamic State will be immediately closed and dealt with according to the evidence found.
As of (20/7/2009), a number of NGOs and foreign agencies currently operating in Somalia will be completely closed down and considered enemies of Islam and Muslims. The current list is as follows:
UNDP
UNDSS
UNPOS
This decision was finally concluded after thorough research and due to an ongoing investigation into the actions and motives of many of the NGOs and foreign agencies currently in operation. The above foreign agencies have been found to be working against the benefits of the Somali Muslim population and against the establishment of an Islamic State in Somalia. Some of the findings include evidence of training and support for the apostate goverment and the training of its troops. The research also found material support being given to the apostate militias in the border regions in hopes of destabilizing the regions and disrupting the safety and security that the Islamic administrations of those regions have accomplished by the permission of Allah. On top of that, it has not been hidden that over $250 million dollars have been gathered in Brussels on April 23, 2009 from various infidel countries and donors for the crusader AMISOM troops to continue their mission of oppression and massacre of the Somali Muslim people.
Previously, CARE and IMC, two American agencies, were closed down as evidence was found of participation in activities against Islam. Proof was uncovered of spying for and aiding the intelligence agencies of the enemies of Islam. In addition, as it is well known, those agencies assisted in the assassination of Sheikh Maalim Adam ‘Aayro.
Allah is our Protector and our Sustainer.
Department of Political Affairs and Regional Administrations
Islamist rebels raid UN offices in south Somalia
Somalia’s hardline Shebaab militia yesterday raided the offices of three UN organisations hours after they banned their operations on accusation that they were “enemies of Islam and Muslims.”
The armed group stormed the UN Development Programme, UN Department of Safety and Security and the UN Political Office for Somalia in two southern Somalia towns and impounded office equipment.
“The above foreign agencies have been found to be working against the benefit of the Somali Muslim population and against the establishment of an Islamic state in Somalia,” the Shebaab said in a statement.
The raid in Wajid and Baidoa towns which came hours after the statement was issued only singled out the three organisations, with other UN offices in the same compounds spared, a UN official said in Baidoa.
“They confiscated the property in the offices and told the staff members not to worry and nobody will harm them,” said the official who asked not to be named.
“They said the raid was only limited to the offices of the UN agencies whose activities they banned,” he added.
...
In March, Shebaab welcomed international aid groups to regions under their control to assist thousands of hunger-stricken people.
Their statement yesterday also announced the setting up of an office to oversee the activities of NGOs and foreign agencies to which they must report to be “informed of conditions and restrictions on their work.”
the talking point for the u.n. et al shifts from "raided" to "looting"
UN chief slams looting of UN offices in Somalia
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN boss Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condemned the looting of UN offices by hardline Shebab militiamen in two Somali towns and but said the world body would continue helping the lawless Horn of Africa country.
"The secretary general condemns the looting yesterday of UN offices in Somalia," Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement. "Such acts target the whole gamut of UN peace and humanitarian operations in Somalia.
...
..the UN said it was temporarily suspending its humanitarian work in one of the two towns where the Islamists struck.
Tuesday, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes also made it clear that the United Nations was not backing away from Somalia, saying the suspension of its humanitarian work in Baidoa was only temporary.
"We simply cannot continue there until we replace that equipment," he noted. "We're not backing away from Somalia more widely and we hope to continue operations there despite these difficulties."
UN suspends operations in Baidoa, compounds looted
NAIROBI, 21 July 2009 (IRIN) - The UN has suspended humanitarian operations in Somalia's southwestern town of Baidoa following the looting of its compound there, an official told IRIN on 21 July.
"We are still assessing the longer-term implications of the [militia] statements and actions and we are trying to re-engage but we have temporarily suspended humanitarian operations in Baidoa as our radio equipment was looted," Rozanne Chorlston, the acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said.
...
After the looting of the UN compounds, Al-Shabab broadcast a message on local Somali radio, calling for the closure of the offices of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Political Office in Somalia (UNPOS) and the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), which it said supported the TFG and the African Union Mission in the country (AMISOM).
IRIN, "a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs," either ignores the press release preceding the confiscations ("looting") or purposely changes the sequence to fit its narrative.
on the other raid, IRIN notes
"Al-Shabab members visited the WFP [World Food Programme] compound in Wajid for a meeting. They took away two cars and some furniture that were not WFP property," the statement read.
on secgen ban's statement, inner city press picks up that effort to spin
In Somalia, As UNDP Is Expelled by Shabaab, UN's Ban Claims Target is All UN
UNITED NATIONS, July 21 -- The day after Al Shabaab in Somalia attacked and targeted for expulsion three UN system agencies, specifically excluding other UN agencies from the ban, the UN put out a statement on July 21 that 'the Secretary General condemns the looting yesterday of UN offices in Somalia [which] target the whole gamut of UN peace and humanitarian operations in Somalia."
While the UN and Ban Ki-moon might wish the statement were true, it is dubious. Al Shabaab, as they did in earlier attacks on the UN Development Program, picked a particular part and approach of the UN system. UNDP was the middle man for unnamed, largely European and former colonialist funders of the armed forces, with questionable human rights records, which defended the Transitional Federal Government.
By contrast, as Inner City Press asked and wrote about last week, the UN World Food Program recently met with Al Shabaab, seemingly connected to WFP staying in the country.
UNDP will say, as its paid defenders have, that it takes sides in this civil war and chooses the TFG because it is entity the UN helped set up. But with so many of its parliamentarians not even living in Somalia, the TFG's credibility is questionable. And UNDP insiders tell Inner City Press that UNDP's reason for siding with the TFG is not unrelated to the fact that UNDP had make fees as middleman on funding to the TFG, while Al Shabaab is not getting, or even asking, for international aid.
Perhaps there are legitimate reasons why one part of the UN system -- in this case, UNDP, the UN Office of Project Services and Department of Safety and Security -- takes sides in a civil war and get thrown out of the country, while another part (WFP, UNICEF and others) speaks with both sides and stays in. A debate on these two approaches might be helpful. Instead, the UN rushes out a blurry statement which is inaccurate on its face, and expects that nothing will be said.
ranneberger's office also sent out a quick pr piece
U.S. Condemns Obstruction of Humanitarian Work
The United States government condemns al-Shabaab’s July 20 decision to ban three United Nations organizations and its looting of UN compounds in Wajid and Baidoa.
While the Transitional Federal Government pursues broad-based peace and reconciliation efforts, al-Shabaab chooses violence, including amputations and suicide bombings.
We condemn al-Shabaab’s crimes, which only further worsen the already dire situation of Somalis, who seek peace and stability after nearly two decades of suffering.
flashback to condie rice's 17 december 2008 remarks on the situation in somalia. sure, the particular context is piracy, but this remark certainly applies more broadly
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, I wonder if we could get you to look more philosophically at diplomacy at the end of 2008 going into 2009 after your eight years in the government, and to see in a new world that is not unipolar, not multipolar, what we can – what lessons we can draw out of especially today’s discussion about Somalia and a piracy issue... At the dusk, what do you reflect on?
SECRETARY RICE: ..I think that the United States, under President Bush, has actually used the mechanisms and the councils of the United Nations more than they've been used maybe ever...
1 comments:
b real
thank you
Post a Comment