NOVIB SOMALIA

SOMALIA NATIONAL RECONCILIATIONCONFERENCE

MBAGATHI, KENYA

Supported by:

EC Somalia Unitn (o) vib

Oxfam Netherlands

Special report(28^th May 2004)

Interview with Puntland President, Col. Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmed

By: Khalif Hassan Ahmed, Information and Documentation Officer, Novib Somalia, Nairobi.

The Novib Discussion Platform met with Puntland’s president, Col. Abdullahi Yusuf

Ahmed and discussed several issues.

Question:Your Excellency, what was the purpose of your recent trip to

Europe, Africa and Asia?

Col Abdullahi: The visit involved personal, business and political matters. Except

London, which was exclusively for medical reasons, the rest had either political orbusiness purposes and were in response to official invitations from those ends.After London, I went to Italy and stayed for a day at the invitation of the Italian

Foreign Minister. The consultative meeting with the Italian officials was centeredon the Somali peace conference and the desire of the Italian government torealize a successful conclusion to the process. I then proceeded to Malaysia fordiscussions on trade investment into Puntland. Malaysia is industrialized and hasmuch to offer while we have the peaceful environment for investment. On thebasis of that, the mission in Malaysia culminated in the signing of an agreementbetween both sides. Finally, I flew to Libya where I met with my friend andcolleague, H.E Muammar Al-Gadafi who supported us in the fight against theregime of Siad Barre. However, in the last five years, I have not had a chance tovisit Libya because of differences in opinion over cooperation with the TNG. Wedid not condemn them for their line of thinking and remained silent on thatbusiness. In light of that, I found it necessary to break the silence and seek theirsupport for the ongoing reconciliation conference. My argument in all the areasvisited rested on an appeal for support to the current peace conference and its outcome.

Question: You also went to Djibouti and met President Ghelle and it is publicknowledge that tension existed between Puntland and Djibouti. What was thepurpose of the visit: mending the differences or the reported power sharingwhere you met Abdiqassim Salad of TNG?

NOVIB SOMALIA

SOMALIA NATIONAL RECONCILIATION CONFERENCE

MBAGATHI, KENYA

EC Somalia Unitn (o) vib

Oxfam Netherlands

Special report(10^th October, 2004)

Somalia Transitional Parliament elects President

By Khalif Hassan Ahmed, Information and Documentation Officer, Novib Somalia.

Nairobi.

The Somali Transitional Federal Parliament elected Hon. Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmedas president of the Somali Transitional Federal Government with 189 votes againstthe 79 votes of his runner-up, Amb. Abdullahi Ahmed Adow in a function held inNairobi on October 10th. The election process was witnessed by ministers from

Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia and Djibouti. Representatives from the internationalpartners’ forum and about 2000 Somalis gathered to witness the fully chargedceremony.

The house sub-committee on presidential elections chaired by the speaker ledthe exercise. The process began midday and lasted for over 10 hours. Present toparticipate in the exercise were 270 members of the 275-member house. Theabsentees included a hospitalised member, two death cases, Col. Barre AdanShire and Gen. Ahmed Warsame Isaq reportedly in Kismayo followingconfrontations with militias led by Gen. Morgan in September 2004. Theceremony opened with the signing of a declaration by all the 26 presidentialcandidates committing to the election results as well as to disarmament and thehand-over weapons in their disposal.

The first round brought together 26 candidates, including Col. Abdullahi Yussuf

Ahmed, Amb. Abdullahi Ahmed Adow, Abdikassim Salad Hassan, Abdirahman

Jama Barre — Former foreign minister in Siyad Barre regime, Eng. Hussein

Mohamed Farah Aidid, Farah Adow Sindiko, Jeylani Ali Kediye, Muse Suddi

Yalahow, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah and Eng. Adow among others.Col.

Abdullahi Yussuf won the round with 80 votes while Amb. Abdullahi Ahmed

Adow got 35, Mohamed Qanyare — 33, Abdirahman Jama Barre — 18,

Abdikassim Salad Hassan — 16 and Eng. Adow garnered 14 votes.The last threecandidates dropped their candidature to leave way for the three topcandidates to run for the second round.