Al-Shabab Militants’ Tape Warns of Attacks on Somaliland
HARGEISA, Somaliland (Somaliland Globe)- The leader of the Al-Shabab insurgent group, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, has issued a pointed warning to Somaliland in a recorded statement aired on Mogadishu radio stations on Wednesday evening, according to one of the leading Somali language paper, The Horn of Africa.
The ultra-militant Islamist outfit, which is considered by the US as “a violent and brutal extremist group affiliated with al-Qaeda” and remains on US terror list, threatened to target President Dahir Rayale and his rival presidential contestants.
In the audio message, Abu Zubeyr-nom de Guerra of Ahmed Abdi Godane- has warned the Somaliland people not to rent out their properties to “Ethiopians” and stay away from their planes [Ethiopian Airlines] as well as places frequented by them. He added that the people of Somaliland had been misled with the quest for recognition which is like a mirage that you can never quite reach and as a result the country has become a globally isolated pariah state.
“The incumbent administration has recruited a ring of spies and informants from every level and sector of society because espionage is the only skill that the president has excelled. As a result innocent people are handed over to the Ethiopians [as part of the extraordinary US rendition] and many other people are left to languish in jails without being brought to trial by this apostate government,” said Abu Zubeyr.
Abu Zubeyr said the Somaliland people need some soul-searching as to what they have achieved as a state after 18 years of independence from Mogadishu’s rule. The country’s main source of economy has been destroyed; the livestock exports and other natural resources had been handed over to foreigners, he added.
He said the prevalent and debilitating corrupt practices and irresponsible governance that has plagued the country [Somaliland] made it impossible for the government to provide basic essential services such as adequate supply of drinking water in the capital city of Hargeisa.
He attacked the western democracy promotion agenda, which he said, strives to “lead people astray” and is central to all the problems prevailing in the country today.
Al-Shabaab, an extremist splinter faction of Somalia’s ousted Islamic Courts Union (ICU) movement, has emerged as the most violent group of the Islamist resistance in Somalia.
The government of as-yet-to-be-recognised Somaliland has accused the group of carrying out a wave of synchronized attacks on Presidential Palace, UNDP and Ethiopian Consulate in October 2008 in Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland. More than 30 people lost their lives including the president’s personal secretary, Dahir Ali Idd.
There is no doubt that Abu Zubayr’s message will resonate with many impressionable young people whose national consciousness and self esteem was gradually destroyed by the feeling of rejection by the international community to recognize Somaliland, which is a functioning constitutional democracy that has the all the necessary ingredients of governance to justify the grant of sovereign independence.
There is a growing fear among the populace that the current political impasse between the government and opposition camps might give the militants an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
Somaliland’s peace and stability stands in stark contrast to much of southern Somalia, especially the anarchic capital, Mogadishu, where frequent clashes between the besieged Transitional Federal Government and Islamists have recently claimed scores of lives.
Somaliland Globe
One Response to “Al-Shabab Militants’ Tape Warns of Attacks on Somaliland”
September 5th, 2009 saat: 8:25 pm
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