The UN Monitoring group's hostility towards Somalia is part of a greater agenda

 From Mareeg:

The UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG)’s latest 14-pages report said, “Arms for Somalia were diverted to militias and systematic abuse by officials happened after loosening of embargo has allowed diversion of weapons to armed groups including Al-Shabaab”. The report also recommended the reinstating of the arms embargo on Somali. I wonder if that was aimed at making sure that the current Somali government not to be able to build its army and remain weak, so that they will always need the AMISOM’s stay in their country indefinitely.

To start with I am not actually surprised with the latest report of the UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG), because they just have done what they were doing for the past couple of years in a consist manner. 

They were publishing, and mostly leaking to the media “on purpose” reports that were aimed at the destruction of the image, reputation, integrity and trustworthiness of the Somali Central Government, so that the International community will be shocked, and disgusted with it, will not take them seriously, will not pledge any financial support and will not trust them with any Military support to help them build their country. Somalis who love to see their country stand on its feet know this fact very well. But the sad reality is the immense effect of the UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG) reports. 

They normally leak to the biggest International main stream media, so that there will be around clock news coverage, analysis and discussions of the matter & its shock-waves while it’s broadcasted live around the world. It is also read in the UN sessions. This is an immense damage seriously to the Somali people.

These SEMG reports come periodically, and they only get worse. The man who masterminded the biased style and content of those reports with clear vision and mission of destroying the Image, reputation, integrity and trustworthiness of the Somali government is called Matthew Bryden. He is “Married” to a Somali woman from the Isaq clan of the unrecognized but self-declared state of Somaliland in the northern part of Somalia. 

They have three kids together. He is a Canadian citizen and a former military officer in the Canadian army, but is also a citizen of a [country] he recognizes called: Somaliland. He proudly says that he has “The Somaliland passport”-That for sure makes his [girlfriend] of three kids happy, but I am not sure if he uses that passport for his international travels-. He is member of “The International Recognition of Somaliland Group”. He is the man who has written The “Banana Test”: is Somaliland ready for recognition? and Rebuilding Somaliland: Issues and possibilities. He also co-authored a book called: Disarming Somalia: lessons in stabilization from a collapsed state and many more biases materials campaigning for the dismantling of Somalia in support of Somaliland International recognition. In order to know more about the man kindly read Nomination of Somalia’s Secessionist’s Poster Boy, Matt Bryden by Said A. Saryan.

He has publicly said, “The more the south-central regions of Somalia remain in a bad shape, the more that will give great chance to the International Recognition of Somaliand”. 

In 2012 a report by the UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG) was leaked accusing the former President of Somalia Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of corruption and Ahmed responded in July by saying Bryden was “Against peace in Somalia” That summer Bryden was no longer with the UN. He was fired from his post as the Coordinator for the UN’s Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (SEMG) which he served four years from 2008-2012. 

He is now a Director at a Somaliland think tank, Sahan Research, but his old teammates are still running the UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG) with the same Philosophy of fighting against any Somali strong viable central Government. To show you the Witch-hunt behavior of the SEMG, there was a huge scandal relating to the construction of the Hargeisa airport and how the millions of Dollars from the Gulf countries intended for its construction were pocketed by the most senior politicians of the Somaliland administration. But things like that didn’t come in the group’s report and it won’t come in it at all. You ask yourself, why? Because there is something called: “Conspiracy of Silence”.

The group’s key officially job is to monitor and inform the UN about the Arms Embargo, but the unofficial one is to destroy the Image, reputation, Integrity and trustworthiness of any Somali Central Government Internationally through these periodic baseless, highly fabricated and mostly leaked to the media reports, giving no evidences whatsoever, and not even allowing the people accused of all these horrible alleged crimes a chance, so that how they defended themselves against those unproven accusations will not appear in the report. 

We learned an International law that says, “Innocent unless proven guilty”, the SEMG literally changed it upside down and made it “Guilty without proven Guilty”. But the worst of all is the weak response that they are always met with by the Somali Central Government. The Central government doesn’t attack the group itself, the way they constantly attack it. They don’t hold well publicized International Press Conferences about those alleged accusations. 

They don’t respond with an aggressive campaign against the SEMG, its leaders and their aims, the report itself and at last the unprofessional way it’s done, so that they will be exposed internationally and the world will know them. Instead the government talks strongly to the local Somali Media mostly websites, few radio stations and fewer local TVs, and when asked by the international media about these reports their response is often very weak.

The people who contribute to these baseless reports are the enemies of the Somali State and its nationhood in general. Some of these people are locals; they include the infamous “Nairobi Group” who call themselves undeservedly [KOOXDA SAMATABIXINTA], but Somalis branded them with a better name [KOOXDA QASWADAYAASHA!] known for their highly biased critic and relentless daily attacks on the current central Government of Somalia led by H. E. President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud. 

These elements are hungry for power, money and positions, and since they were not given by the current government, they give any willing party whatever possible that can tarnish the image of the current government, or can even bring an international revolution against it and its leaders. Their objective is very clear. If they are not getting what they want, they are more-than happy to see the whole government collapse catastrophically.

The forefront leaders of this Group include: Former PM Prof. Ali Mohamed Gedi, Former PM & Current [President] of the local administration of Puntland: Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gas, Former PM Prof. Ali Khalif Galeyr, former PM Omer Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, former Presidential candidate Dr. Abdirahman Badio, former Defense minister Prof. Gandi, former journalist turned politician: Yusuf Garaad Omer, and so on. They are the main source of this kind of reports done by the UN’s SEMG year after a year.

 

There are other groups who are campaigning against the current central government on the bases of tribal politics and its philosophy. The forefront of this group are: The Puntland Administration Led by Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gas who believes if the President does go to them [Majerten], the premiership must, and since the two Prime ministers of the current government came from Gedo region [Marehan], President Hassan must go to hell for doing so. The other group is the new Kenyan formed-As its buffer zone- administration of Jubba, known internationaly as the Kenyan initiative, formerly known as Azania and led by Ahmed Madobe who is a former Al-Shabaab Millia Commander. 

There is tribal alliance between the two administrations, united to brand the whole central government as a tribal one [Hawiye], although the later one is used by the first. They call the central Somali government tribal names such as: The Mogadisho/Hamar government brainwashing the poor and mostly uneducated people of Somalia, that the Somali Federal Government is a Hawiye government and not a government for all Somalis, although the Prime minster, the speaker of the Parliament, the minsters, the deputy minsters, the leaders of the Somali Armed Forces such as: The Police, the army and Intelligence, the Somali ambassadors abroad and their Embassy staff, as well as all the people in the government services are from all Somali tribes, even the Somali Parliament is shared among all Somali tribes, but most of our people are sadly very Poor, illiterate. It is all about what the leader from their tribe tells them orally, supported by the emotional trauma of the long civil war that damaged the unity, trust and cohesiveness of our people. 

The politicians know this very well and fully take advantage of it for their personal, political and financial gains. They all believe “In order to achieve their aims and objectives, they just have to turn everything tribal”, and they will get people who are ready to spent all they got, and are even ready to die for it, without asking anything personal in return.
 

The other group that contributes to these types of reports done by The UN’s SEMG are the International Organizations that eat mercilessly over a $1Billion/year in the five star hotels of Nairobi-Kenya. They destroy on their lavish life style money that was supposed to go to the poor and suffering people of Somalia. 

Money that was intended to significantly change the infrastructure of the country, and the humanitarian situation of our Somali people who have gone through 23-years of civil war, and its devastating consequences. Money that could make a huge difference in the lives of millions of our people for good, but never reached and will never reach as long as these organizations are spending in lavish parties in Nairobi clubs and five star hotels, holidaying in the best parts of the world, and making millions out of it. 

Let alone the high ranking officers of these so-called International Organizations, the lower ranking Somali officers who are used for the purpose of sending them to the field, especially the most dangerous Al-Shabab controlled parts of the country, marry four wives, drive the best cars in town, and have got multiple huge houses of their own in different towns and parties of the country, although their formal salary might be less than one thousand Dollars. You ask yourself how?
 

The only Somali leader who knew what these corrupt so-called International organizations in Nairobi were/are doing to his country & people, and was brave enough to at least try to challenge these thugs was our patriotic former prime minister H. E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo”, but sadly suffered a heavy defeat when these organizations who actually felt threatened collaborated with both local and international enemies of Somalia, and successfully got rid of him. 

To this day it remains a harsh lesson to all Somali leaders to never try to challenge them; otherwise they will automatically be thrown from the window disgraced. That is why our leaders don’t even talk about them; let alone challenging them practically in a significant way.
 

You don’t have to forget the neighboring countries especially “Ethiopia and Kenya respectively” that are old enemies of Somalia and its Nationhood, that are now highly threatened by the positive and progressive changes that are happening in Somalia with the help of the Turkish government, its humanitarian organizations, The AMISOM forces, and the International Community at large. 

Ethiopia and Kenya will be more than happy to contribute anything small or big that might help blackmail, set up, frame, and ultimately destroy the image, integrity, reputation, trustworthiness, and even existence of any Somali Central government. They are determined at all cost to make sure that Somalia remains in ashes for the next 100 years and even more. They want Somalia to remain divided in to a “Mini-Tribal-States” with the justification and excuse of the so-called federal system concocted in Mbagathi-Kenya were Ethiopia put in to Power their longtime puppet, former president Col. Abdullahyu Yusuf Ahmed, their plan [the so-called federal system] was aggressively pursued by Former Prime minister and current [President] of Puntland: Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gas and is still fighting its proxy war.

In order to achieve the vision of these two neighboring countries, Ethiopia and Kenya have to be the ones that will successfully be playing the Chess on the destiny and honorable existence of the Somali State at all cost. Ethiopia has now two local administrations that it helped build and are more loyal to it than to the interests of the Somali Nation. These are: Somaliland and Puntand. Mbagathi-Kenya. Speaking before the Ethiopian parliament on 18 May 2013, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said “We will spare no expense to defend and protect Somaliland.” Ethiopia is also in the process of making its third one in Baidoa, while Kenya has built one for itself called Jubba. Who knows when they will succeed doing the same in the entire country?

Although it is a fact that all these evil forces are all working against the Current Central Government for those above mentioned different reasons and objectives, but the Somali Central government’s actions are also not helping either. 

The most damaging at all are the political in fights and the way the current President and his team of Damjadid dealt with the former Prime minster H.E. Abdi Farah Shirdon Sa’id, the $11-million from Qatar that was used in the corruption and dirty game of getting rid of him, as well as the illegal and unlawful mechanism followed such as denying his right of defense in the parliament, in addition of allowing some of his cabinet members to campaign against him just to oust him, the resignation of the former governor of the Somali central bank. Yusur A.F Abraar and her letter of resignation with its damaging contents which was widely published. 

Not to mention the deteriorating security situation of the capital and the lack of action against Al-Shabaab in the areas of the country where they control, with their relentless campaigns of bombing and targeted assassinations of the Somali Intellectuals who are the eyes and ears of the Ummah, with uncountable innocent bystanders in the south-central regions of the country. 

In addition to that all are the crisis that resulted from the replacement of both senior military and intelligence figures that were actually performing well, but were sucked for whatever reasons, and are now very upset with the current administration such as: Dhagabadan, Sheekhuna, Ahmed Fiqi and likes. 

All of that will help the frustration of the people; will increase the enemies and people that will say all sorts of things about the current central government. THAT is what the UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG) are good at targeting, collecting and reporting their lies, without sharing any reliable documents as evidence authenticating their accusations and allegations against individuals in the central government and the government itself in general, not to mention their biased way of reporting and denying any chance to those accused in order to defend or at least clarify claims and accusations against them.
 

IN CONCLUSION

Unless the current Somali central government takes this relentless campaign of the UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG) against it seriously, it will continue devastating its trustworthiness, image, reputation, and any chance of support and collaboration from the International Community. Allahuma Ballagtu!

By: Abdulkadir Mohamed Osman, “Abdiboqor”
Deputy Dean & Fulltime Lecturer
Faculty of Finance and Administrative Sciences (FFAS)
Al-Madinah International University, Malaysia

Comments: The parts were the author is mentioning clan names is just over simplifying the situation in my opinion. However the article is generally correct in regards to the foreign and domestic groups conspiring against Mogadishu.