MOGADISHU – Somali lawmakers havecondemned in the strongest terms Tuesday’s mortar attack on the main United Nations compound in Mogadishu, leaving two UN staff members wounded.
In a statement by some of the lawmakers also seplored he unproportionate reaction to the Special Representative of the Secretary General’s letter dated on December 30, 2018, understandably reminding the Somali government of its responsibility to respect the rule of law and human rights.
As the SRGS is required to apply human rights due diligence policy on UN support to non UN security forces.
The legislators called on the Security Council to send an independent commission of inquiry to fully investigate the blatant human rights violations under the federal government led by President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo.
The motive behind the erratic, impulsive and irrational issuance of persona non grata to Nicholas Haysom is to distract the attention of the international community from the legitimate questions raised in the letter.
The expulsion of diplomats, researchers and staff of INGOs in Somalia reveals
the suicidal character of our leaders and their tendency of visiting a wrath on whoever differs with them.
“As we have for a long warned, the modus operandi of the current government is based on coercion and intimation. For instance, the government seeks to force local political actors who differ with them into submission. A living example of this is the fact that it continuously intimidates opposition leaders to succumb to its whims, corners parliamentary oversight into oblivion, and deliberately disregards regional autonomy by interfering and shedding blood in local elections for merely imposing unpopular candidates on the local people”, the lawmakers said
The members of the parliament said “Equally, it bullies diplomats and researchers who dare to hold the government accountable to respect international treaties and conventions. Other than the cases reported, there are many other instances in which diplomats and staff of the INGOs/UN are silently intimidated to quit their jobs for no crime other than advising the government to avoid killing, injuring and arresting its own people without due process. If anything, the latest issuance of persona non grata reveals the immaturity and isolationist nature of our diplomacy and it reflects the autocratic nature of the current leadership”.
As responsible members of the below signed political parties, we are warn that coercion and intimidation will undermine the fragile state building process and result in the loss of moral authority and political legitimacy to govern. Similarly, this will dent our international image and
throw our young nation into political obscurity.
“We therefore condemn the state of our diplomacy and tendency to alienate those whocontributed to the gains we have in the recent past made on peace and stability in the country”.
