MOGADISHU – Somali opposition lawmakers have deplored the latest decision to expel UN Special Representative of the Secretary General, Nechlos Haysom after he questioned about the arrest of an extremist group defector-turned-political candidate.
Haysom is required to apply human rights due diligence policy on UN support to non UN security forces last month in Baidoa town, some 250km southwest of the capital of Mogadishu.
The lawmakers called on the Security Council to send an independent commission of inquiry to fully investigate the blatant human rights violations under the government led by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, according to a statement by some of the country’s legislators seen by Mareeg online.
The calls come after announced it was expelling a U.N. envoy who raised questions about if UN-sponsored were involved in deadly violence in Baidoa town after the arrest of an extremist group defector-turned-political candidate.
They added that the expulsion of diplomats, researchers and staff of INGOs in Somalia revealed the suicidal character of their leaders and their tendency of visiting a wrath on whoever differs with them.
Somali members of parliament said “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”.
They (lawmakers) accused the Federal government of continuously intimidating opposition leaders to succumb to its whims, corners parliamentary oversight into oblivion, and deliberately disregarding regional autonomy by interfering and shedding blood in local elections for merely imposing unpopular candidates on the local people.
The government was also accused of bullying diplomats and researchers who dare to hold the government accountable to respect international treaties and conventions.
The 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, according to the lawmakers.
However, as responsible members of the below signed political parties, and warned that coercion and intimidation will undermine the fragile state building process and result in the loss of moral authority and political legitimacy to govern.
