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****** Somalia: Overcoming Those Threats to Progress ******
10 August 2009
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editorial
The cold-blooded assassination of Puntland's Minister of Information, Mr.
Warsame Abdi Shirwa, on August 5, 2009, in the city of Galkayo was a cowardly
and callous act of murder. The culprits behind the killing of an innocent and
unarmed government official must be arrested, brought to court and punished for
their crime.
While it was an isolated incident, the act itself shocked and saddened the
people of Puntland, a self-governing federal state in northeastern Somalia.
This is a region that has promoted itself as the moderate formula for
stabilizing and re-institutionalizing a future Somalia. The killing of a senior
government official has ramifications in matters of internal security and
public confidence.
Puntland has come a long way to its presence state of relative stability that
has attracted masses fleeing war in south-central Somalia and potential
investors seeking new adventures. As such, acts of insecurity cannot be
tolerated and must be punished immediately.
President Farole's seven-month-old government has achieved some degree of
success in terms of improving security, promoting a transparent and effective
revenue management mechanism, and fomenting new relations with outside powers.
In Somali politics, the Puntland delegation that visited Washington, D.C. in
June, scored major political points in promoting Puntland's federalism agenda
as the "only viable option" to restore national order in Somalia.
It is unfortunate that a government minister gets assassinated - the first-ever
such high-profile killing in Puntland's 11-year history. But the threats to
progress cannot be allowed to trap the people again. As a society, we cannot
return to the tit-for-tat reactions of yesteryear when clan revenge was the
norm.
Puntland security forces and court system is enough to arrest and enact justice
upon the minister's assassins. Any person or group that threatens the security
and order of Puntland is a threat to progress and such a person is therefore a
threat to society.
Copyright © 2009 Garowe Online. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica
Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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