Presidential elections - Government changes - Budget Foreign relations - Activities of opposition movements

Transcription

1 Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives), Volume 33, April, 1987 Somalia, Page Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved. Presidential elections - Government changes - Budget Foreign relations - Activities of opposition movements Party congress (Nov , 1986). Presidential elections (Dec. 23, 1986). Cabinet changes (Feb. 1, 1987). Introduction of foreign exchange auction (Sept. 1, 1986). Approval of 1987 budget (Dec. 29, 1986). Unrest in Hargeisa (January-February 1987). Capture of French humanitarian workers by rebels (Jan. 24, 1987). Ethiopian attack on Somali positions (Feb. 12, 1987). Relations with Soviet Union, Italy, and Brazil (October 1986-February 1987). Maj. -Gen. Mohammed Siyad Barre, Somalia's head of state since 1969, was re-elected secretarygeneral of the ruling and sole legal party, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP), at the party's congress held in Mogadishu (the capital) on Nov , On Aug. 1, 1986, he had formally resumed his official duties after recovering from serious injuries sustained in a motor accident in May [see A], although his workload had reportedly been considerably reduced. The party congress also nominated President Siyad Barre as the sole candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections [see below], and elected a new central committee, reduced in size from 55 to 47 members. [See below for composition of party political bureau.] President Siyad Barre was re-elected for a further seven-year presidential term in elections held on Dec. 23, The previous system of indirect presidential elections [see A for Barre's election by People's Assembly in 1980] had been replaced by a system of direct universal suffrage, under a constitutional amendment of December 1984 [see A], and the official results as reported on Mogadishu radio on Dec. 28 recorded that Maj. -Gen. Siyad Barre had obtained per cent of the 4,869,120 votes cast. He was sworn in on Jan. 5, A Cabinet reshuffle was carried out on Feb. 1, 1987, involving the appointment of Lt. -Gen. Mohamed Ali Samater to the newly-created post of Prime Minister. Following the President's accident in May 1986, and during his period of hospitalization and convalescence, Lt. -Gen. Samater, as First Vice-President and Minister of Defence, had assumed the role of acting President, and had succeeded in maintaining control despite evidence of a power struggle between members of Maj. -Gen. Siyad Barre's own clan, the Marehan, and their rivals for the succession during his absence. The structure of the new Cabinet was seen as a consolidation of the President's power, with senior members of the government being appointed to positions which would enable them to take control in the event of the President's further incapacity. The changes were as follows, with previous responsibilities held shown in parentheses [for full Cabinet list as of February 1985, see A.]: Lt. -Gen. Mohammed Ali Samater Maj. -Gen. Hussein Kulmiye Afrah First Vice-President, Prime Minister Second Vice-President, First Deputy Prime Minister, Planning 1 of 5 9/7/10 1:33 PM

2 Brig. -Gen. Ahmed Suleman Abdulla Col. Ahmed Mahmoud Farah Mr Hussein Abdullahi (Alasow) Mr Mahmud Said Muhammad (Tourism) Mr Mussa Rabile Ghod (Livestock and Forestry Development) Mr Abd al-rashid Shaikh Ahmad Mr Abdullahi Mohammed Mireh Mr Mohammed Shaikh Ali Munasar Mr Abd al-razaq Mahmud Abubakr Col. Mohammed Umar Jes (Information and National Guidance) Mr Yusuf Hassan Dakhareh (Health) Brig. -Gen. Bileh Rafleh Guled (Agriculture) Second Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Third Deputy Prime Minister, Mineral and Water Resources Industry Commerce Public Works and Housing Information and National Guidance Education Health Agriculture Tourism Posts and Telecommunications Livestock Development and Forestry Ministers of State Maj. -Gen. Abdullah Mohammed Fahdil (Minister of Industry and Commerce) Mr Abdel-Qasim Salad (Minister of Public Works) Mr Mohammad Ali Hamud Mr Muhammad Mahmud Warsame Mr Yusuf Ali Usman Political Affairs Economic Affairs Foreign Affairs Internal Affairs National Planning * New or restructured portfolio. New appointment. The post of Minister of Defence, hitherto held by Lt. -Gen. Samater, was not filled, although Maj. -Gen. Ahmed Saleh Ali, Maj. -Gen. Adnan Abdullahi Nuur and Maj. -Gen. Mohamed Hashi Gani (who was also Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces) were named as Deputy Ministers of Defence. Mr Said Muhammad was previously given as Mr Ahmed Shire Mahmud. Mr Dakhareh was also known as Mr Yusuf Hassan Elmi. On Jan. 30 membership of an (unchanged) five-member political bureau of the SRSP was given as follows: President Siyad Barre, Lt. -Gen. Samater, Maj. -Gen. Kulmiye Afrah, Brig. -Gen. Abdullah and Col. Farah. 2 of 5 9/7/10 1:33 PM

3 Foreign exchange auctions were introduced as of Sept. 1, 1986, in an attempt to regulate exchange rates for the Somali shilling. The establishment of the fortnightly auctions was also a precondition of a World Bank loan for the agricultural sector. By mid-january 1987, when the auctions were temporarily suspended due to a shortage of funds, the value of the shilling had fallen from a commercial rate of US$ 1.00=Sh (Sept. 3, 1986), to the auction rate of $ 1.00=Sh (as at Jan. 14, 1987). The auctions resumed on Feb. 1, The People's Assembly approved the 1987 budget on Dec. 29, Mr Mohammed Shaikh Usman (the Minister of Finance) stated that the 1987 budget amounted to Sh 17,919 million ($ 1.00=Sh as at Dec. 31, 1986), of which Sh 10,200 million would come from internal sources, and the remainder from external funding. The 1986 budget had amounted to Sh 15,685 million. Increased government revenue available for 1987 was attributed to an increase in productivity and a serious attempt by the government to achieve a trade balance. At the same time it was announced that civil service salaries were to be increased by between 15 per cent and 45 per cent. Rebel activity continued sporadically during 1986, but there was an increase in attacks by the principal rebel groups, the Ethiopian-backed Somali National Movement (SNM) and the Democratic Front for the Salvation of Somalia (DFSS), in December, coinciding with the presidential elections see above. Meanwhile, there were reports of increasing popular unrest, particularly in the north-west, caused mainly by food shortages and by government reprisals against civilians in the areas where the rebel movements were known to operate. Index on Censorship of August 1986 reported the arrest, in April, of some 300 members of Islamic organizations, in particular the Somali Islamic Youth Union, in what was seen as an attempt by the government to crack down on radical Moslems, whose activities were considered to be anti-government. These arrests took place in the region of Burao in the north of the country; other Moslem leaders were arrested in Mogadishu and Merca. Somalia's preventive detention laws permitted indefinite detention without trial. Subsequent reports indicated that some of those arrested, including a number of secondary school students sentenced to death in May 1986 for belonging to the United Somali Students Union, were tortured while in detention. By early 1987 many of the religious leaders held had been released. The rebel station Radio Halgan reported the imposition of a curfew in northern areas in mid-january 1987, following the arrest of very many people in Hargeisa, Burao and Berbera on Jan. 13. The government action was, according to the rebels, in response to rebel activity, including the assassination in December of Col. Ahmed Adan, the government's security chief in Hargeisa. Later in January mass demonstrations, described by the rebels as a popular uprising were held in Hargeisa. The authorities responded by carrying out a further wave of arrests. Troops reportedly opened fire on a student demonstration, an action which served to intensify the protests. Transport links with the town were cut, holding up food supplies, while public services and telephone links were also suspended. Reports from travellers in the area suggested that a number of government troops had mutinied in sympathy with the rebels. Ten members of the French medical organization Médecins sans frontiéres and a local interpreter were kidnapped by the SNM on Jan. 24, 1987, in what was seen as an attempt to earn publicity for the rebel 3 of 5 9/7/10 1:33 PM

4 movement. The workers were based at the Tug Wajale refugee camp, situated 8 km from the Ethiopian border. They were released unharmed on Feb. 7. The Somali government had agreed in July 1986 to allow the transfer, to a more permanent site with better facilities, of the 32,000 Ethiopian refugees who lived in the camp under the auspices of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [see page 34410]. The second meeting of the ad hoc committee charged with negotiating an end to the dispute between Ethiopia and Somalia was held on Aug , 1986, in Mogadishu [for first meeting, in May 1986, and earlier meeting between the two heads of state in January, see page 34409]. The Ethiopian delegation was led by the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lt. -Col. Goshu Wolde. Somalia continued to claim jurisdiction over ethnic Somalis living in the Ogaden region of south-eastern Ethiopia, while Ethiopia maintained that existing territorial boundaries should be respected. President Siyad Barre, in a speech on Oct. 20, 1986, stated that prospects for the success of the talks were good, although he referred to the suspicion and lack of confidence caused by the age-old problems existing between the two countries. The situation deteriorated in early 1987, and on Feb. 12 Ethiopian troops launched an air and ground attack on Somali positions. Both sides suffered considerable casualties in the fighting, the Ethiopians reportedly sustaining the heaviest losses. The attack took place on six settlements in Somalia's north-west Todghere province, some 20 km from the border. Since late 1986 this area had been the scene of intensified activities on the part of the SNM. According to Somali sources, the attack had been repulsed after six hours of fighting and 300 Ethiopians had been killed, with 40 taken prisoner. Maj. -Gen. Mohamed Sayid Morgan, Somalia's northern military commander, declared that his own forces had lost only 20 men, with 25 wounded. Witnesses reported that the battle-ground was strewn with corpses and with the remains of burnt-out tanks and lorries. The SNM subsequently claimed that it was responsible for the attacks against the Somali settlements. Maj. -Gen. Morgan stated in a briefing to journalists that the Ethiopian ground forces had been supported by a unit of MiG-23 jet fighters. According to the testimony of a captured Ethiopian tank division officer, Ethiopian forces operated jointly with rebels of the SNM, who co-operated in acting as guides and interpreters during the attack. The Ethiopian government announced on Feb. 17 that an official enquiry would be held to determine the cause of the incident, while expressing the wish that it should not prejudice the peace process. There were subsequent reports of both sides digging earth ramparts on either side of the border, apparently in preparation for further offensives. Dr Jama Barre nonetheless travelled to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to attend the third meeting of the joint ministerial committee, held on April 1 3. The two sides failed however to agree on an agenda for the meeting, and communiques issued at its conclusion indicated that accusations and counter-accusations regarding numerous violations of territorial integrity were made. Agreement was nonetheless reached on the holding of a fourth session of the committee, in Mogadishu. Following a meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Abderrahman Jama Barre, and his Soviet counterpart, Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, it was announced a few days later on Oct. 8, 1986, that relations between the two countries were to be normalized. President Siyad Barre reported at the 4 of 5 9/7/10 1:33 PM

5 party congress in November [see above] that bilateral discussions were under way with the aim of improving relations. Somalia had in 1977 abrogated a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, and had subsequently expelled between 5,000 and 6,000 Soviet citizens, in retaliation for the Soviet Union's support for Ethiopia in the Ogaden war [see A], but diplomatic relations had not been severed. [For normalization of relations in December 1986 between South Yemen and Somalia, see A.] Relations with Italy (the previous colonial and administrative power in part of the territory now forming Somalia), which supplied military and economic assistance to Somalia, remained close. Signor Giovanni Spadolini, the Italian Minister of Defence, visited Somalia on Jan. 5 8, 1987; later in February President Siyad Barre paid a private visit to Italy (his first foreign visit since the motor accident), when he met President Cossiga, the then Prime Minister Signor Bettino Craxi and Signor Spadolini. Reports indicated that Somalia wished to see a continuation of Italian diplomatic efforts to bring about a peaceful settlement to conflicts in the region [see below]. Somalia and Brazil established diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level on Feb. 2, Brig. -Gen. Abdulla (the Minister of the Interior), announced in early February 1987 that emergency aid was urgently required to relieve the effects of a prolonged drought which was currently affecting the central areas of the country, particularly the Hiran and Mudugh regions (north and north-east of the capital) where shortages of water, food and medical supplies had already caused loss of life. (BBC Summary of World Broadcasts Africa Economic Digest Le Monde Guardian Independent International Herald Tribune Africa Research Bulletin Africa Confidential UNHCR) (Previous report A) Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved. 5 of 5 9/7/10 1:33 PM