Somalia: Puntland Diaspora Forum Supports Position of Puntland State on Djibouti Conference
29 Jan 29, 2009 - 3:01:22 PM
The executive council of the Golaha Qurbajoogta Puntland Puntland Diaspora Forum (PDF) convened an unscheduled extraordinary teleconference meeting on January 27, 2009, to discuss the political situation in Puntland and Somalia. The council devoted the entire session to discuss issues related to or emanating from the newly elected government in Puntland, the ongoing Djibouti conference and the position of Puntland State regarding this conference as expressed in the diplomatic note written by the President of Puntland State to the head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia H.E. Ambassador Amadou Ould-Abdallah and a subsequent press conference held by the Puntland Minister of Information Warsame Shirwac in Garowe today.
First, the council welcomes the peaceful, democratic and transparent election of H.E. Abdurrahman Mohamed Mohamud (Farole) to the position of President by the State Parliament. It expresses full confidence in the newly elected President’s capacity to lead Puntland at this critical juncture and usher in an era of good governance leading to the subordination of all else to the advancement of the common good. To this end, PDF also calls upon all Puntlanders including the traditional leaders, intellectuals, diasporic communities, businessmen and women, and politicians old and new to stand shoulder to shoulder with the new administration in a new spirit of unity through renewal and reconstruction.
On Somalia, the council, having fully deliberated on the prevailing political situation, decides to express its full support to the position taken by the Government of Puntland towards the Djibouti conference. PDF takes exception to the suggestion made by the Minister of Information in a press Conference he held in Garowe today alluding that the participation in the Djibouti process of three of the Puntland MPs is somehow more amenable to the interests and aspirations of the people and government of Puntland than that of the rest. PDF finds this approach to be a potentially divisive and ultimately counterproductive slippery slope.
The council further notes with utter dismay the naked tribalization of the so-called Djibouti process and the attempted usurpation of state power by a single clan. It holds the view that Puntland State and the Darod clan has since time immemorial played a pivotal role in the establishment and unity of Somalia. It further believes that the rest of Somalia has yet to appreciate the durable contributions that the people and government of Puntland State has made towards the promotion of the common good of all Somalis and the innumerable sacrifices they incurred on behalf of Somalia for centuries.
Both the current conference in Djibouti and the process that produced it have all the hallmarks of this sense of ingratitude. Revisionist clanists seem to have resolved to thwart the process of reconciliation that led to the creation of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia in Nairobi, Kenya under the auspices of IGAD and now seem to be, as a result of sheer greed, on the verge of reversing completely the political gains made by the TFG to reestablish the Somali Republic from the ashes of state failure. PDF warns the so-called ARS, the UNPOS and the Government of Djibouti from hastily embarking on a unilateral course of action that reminisce us of the failures of Cairo and more recently of Arta. The full participation and blessing of Puntland State in the Djibouti process is sine qua non for the future success of its outcome.
As such the council warns the participants of the Djibouti gathering from entertaining, let alone adopting, anything that will contradict however slightly the Federal Transitional Charter. It further cautions the head of UNPOS from persisting to sponsor in the name of the international community partisan agenda that are deliberately designed to serve the narrow interests of a single clan at the expense of all others’ and are without doubt destined to fail. Finally, the PDF calls upon the leadership and the State of Puntland to reject anything that infringes on its hard won autonomy and its inherent right to select its delegates to the federal parliament. Such must remain an inviolable minimum for our commitment to stay within a very loosely defined federal system. Puntland State and the rest of Somalia must understand the inalterable fact that Somalia was and remains a negotiated political contract and any attempts to violate the terms of that contract in its most recent form as agreed in the Charter of the TFG by any group may result in the irreversible dismantlement of that already badly wounded project.
Finally, PDF calls upon the President of Puntland H.E. Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud not to attend this one-sided jamboree as that will bestow undeserving legitimacy to a most fraudulent process.
For comments contact:
president@puntlanddiaspora.org ., or mediarelations@puntlanddiaspora.org
