This shady but armed organization formed with an outside assistance still slithers with its poisonous tongue; the number of civilian casualties in “Puntland” has tallied up exponentially due to its activities. Its aim is to safeguard the security of “Puntland” though it contributed more to its internal instability. Clan rivalry has also complicated further any objectives this organization could have accomplished in its fight against what is widely known as “home-grown insurgency”. However, the current political situation point to another fact of soaring public discontent that has now reached its critical mass.
On October 6, three men from the town of Qardho were murdered inside a café restaurant in Dhahar, the capital of Haylan region. Their deaths were concluded by regional experts and elders from the region as tribally motivated or what the conflict theorists refer to as “spillover conflict”. This incident had almost triggered full clan warfare between the subclans of Dubeiss (Warsangeli) and Majerten in the regions of Karkaar and Haylaan as it is now raging in Galgala district of Western Bari.
A high-level delegation of elders from Puntland and Sanaag region of Northern Somalia immediately visited Dhahar in order to defuse the tension and to hold a communal dialogue under an acacia tree, using the Somali customary laws as precedents or to either compensate the families of the deceased and convince the rival clan to accept monetary damages for their murdered tribesmen .
On October 30, a lily-livered, cowardly act was again carried out under the direct, arbitrary order of Puntland president, Farole. Two men from the region of Dhahar were snatched from their captivity, according to local sources. They were blindfolded, dragged, and brought before a Kangaroo court in Bosaso. This was again another disappointment, yet hardly a surprise, for the chapfallen and long-suffering masses of Somalia. The P.I.S, a shady but weak organization borrows straight from the techniques and tactics of the manual book of the war on terror. A Bosaso elder was quoted to have said that the men were sentenced and immediately executed as a direct retaliation for the three men killed in Dhahar on Oct 30. The judge and the top leaders of the P.I.S who carried out this latest violation of the Geneva Convention are of the Mohamoud Saleeban sub-clans of Majerteen.
In retrospect, a similar hasty trial and punishment was prevented by a fortune act of intervention from the elders of Sanaag Region. On Jan 2009, 20 prisoners from the Majerten and other non-Somali groups were once captured and held in the main jail of Dhahar (Audio and pictures). The Central committee of the Environmental Protection Corps, an organization that was formed to combat desertification in the Sool Plateau, set up conditions for the release of these prisoners following the visit of a tribal delegation composed of 15 members of the Majerten clan in Dhahar. The Environmental Protection Corps could have sentenced these men to 20 or more years in prison or they could have adopted other arbitrary means of punishment that veers from the Geneva Conventions. Instead, human dignity and respect for human rights prevailed over an arbitrary execution and prolonged captivity for these men although they were caught in violation of the local laws against deforestation and the destruction of the environment.
Somalia observers have previously issued their warnings against the political uncertainty of the Galgala wars around Bosaaso environs.
The late Somali author, Abdalla Hirad, once sent his critical warning to Ade Muse, the former governor of Puntland on this same issue of Majihan and Galgala conflict as a result of the exploration rights that “Puntland” gave to Range Resources, Inc. on this territory of Warsangeli.
“Letting people die as a result of greed and the pursuit of self-interested schemes is inhuman; hiring public and media relations companies, not only to promote an unjust action, but to discourage reporting on the matter, is criminal in my opinion. In this spirit, I urge and plead with the Somali media to seriously pursue this issue with a view to silencing the voice of those vicious forces trying to stifle the cries for justice and to discourage the pursuit of the truth.”
By Ahmed Dirie Osman
October 31, 2010
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