From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Jun 24 2009 - 16:05:14 EDT
Somali legislators flee abroad, parliament paralysed
Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:22pm GMT
* Parliamentarians seek safety abroad
* Rebel leader Aweys opposes foreign intervention
(adds salary block)
By Abdiaziz Hassan
NAIROBI, June 24 (Reuters) - Scores of Somali legislators have fled violence
at home to the safety of other countries in Africa, Europe and the United
States, leaving the nation's parliament without a quorum to meet.
Violence from an Islamist-led insurgency has worsened this month, with a
minister, the Mogadishu police chief, and a legislator all killed. The
government, which controls little but a few parts of the capital, has
declared a state of emergency.
With reports of foreign jihadists streaming into Somalia, Western security
services are frightened Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network may get a grip on
the failed Horn of Africa state that has been without central government for
18 years.
Needing two-thirds of legislators present to meet, Somalia's 550-seat
parliament has not convened since April 25.
Officials said on Wednesday that 288 members of parliament (MPs) were
abroad, with only about 50 on official visits.
The rest were in neighbours Kenya and Djibouti, European nations such as
Sweden, Britain, the Netherlands and Norway, and the United States, the
officials said.
"I cannot be a member of a government that cannot protect me," Abdalla Haji
Ali, an MP who left for Kenya last week, told Reuters. "In Somalia, nobody
is safe."
Parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Madobe has urged the MPs to return,
and Somalia's Finance Ministry has blocked the salaries of 144 legislators
abroad, officials said.
In Nairobi on Wednesday, plenty of Somali MPs could be seen sipping tea and
talking politics in various hotels and cafes.
"As legislators, we have responsibility and every one of us should perform
his duty in Mogadishu," one legislator who has stayed in Mogadishu, Sheikh
Ahmed Moalim, told Reuters.
"Before you decide to flee, you have to resign officially if you realise
that you cannot work in this environment."
"GOVERNMENT FIDDLES, SOMALIA BURNS"
Islamist rebel leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys held a news conference in
Mogadishu to denounce the government's call at the weekend for foreign
forces to come to its aid.
The African Union has a 4,300-strong force guarding government and other
installations in Mogadishu, but has been unable to stem violence and has
been targeted by the rebels.
Kenya has said it supports international efforts to get more troops into
Somalia, but Aweys thanked Nairobi for declining to send its soldiers across
the border. "If they deal with us well, we will deal with them well as a
good neighbour," he said.
Nairobi expatriate circles have been awash with rumours of planned attacks
by Somali militants.
"The fighting will stop when the foreign enemy forces leave the country and
Somalis come together for talks," Aweys added.
"Nothing remains of the puppet Somali government."
The United Nations and Western powers back President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's
government, but are increasingly frustrated over how to help him stabilise
Somalia.
Ahmed, himself a moderate Islamists, was elected by parliament at a
U.N.-sponsored process in Djibouti in January.
"The situation has gone from bad to worse to worst, presenting the entire
Horn of Africa with a security crisis of the first order," U.S. analyst
Peter Pham said in a paper.
"If the TFG (government) is 'fiddling' while Somalia burns, it is doing so
with a full orchestral accompaniment provided by an international community
that apparently lacks either the will or the imagination (or both) to do
anything else."
Gus Selassie, an analyst for IHS Global Insight think-tank, was equally
pessimistic.
"There appears to be an extreme reluctance on the part of the international
community, including neighbouring countries and friendly governments such as
Ethiopia, to heed the TFG's desperate calls," he wrote in another analysis.
"Both the security and humanitarian situation will have to worsen
considerably before anyone will aid the TFG." (Additional reporting by
Ibrahim Mohamed and Abdi Guled in Mogadishu; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne in
Nairobi)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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