A Somali Muddle (Ogaden News)
A SOMALI MUDDLE
Oct 18, 1997
Following serious differences of opinion between the president of Somali
regional state Id Tahir Farah and his deputy Mahdi Ayub Gouled, a
reshuffle of the regional council has been carried out in some
confusion. In a first move at the end of September, the regional state's
vice president tried to oust the president, at a meeting of sixteen of
the thirty-one members of the executive committee. The procedure was
roundly condemned by Abdulmejid Hussein, chairman of Ethiopian Somali
Democratic League (ESDL, which has a majority on the regional council)
and also a minister in the central government in Addis Ababa. Another
meeting of the regional executive committee was held on October 10 with
a representative of prime minister Meles Zenawi present, who also
condemned anti-constitutional procedures on the committee. The regional
president (who had already dismissed the region's secretary general) and
his vice president were then both dismissed, and a reshuffled regional
executive was decided. A new regional president was designated in the
person of Mohamed Maalim, a representative of Ogaden National Liberation
Front (ONLF), whilst the vice president named was an Issa of ESDL,
Rayaleh Ahmoud. Other members of the regional executive were named,
apparently in a spirit of finding better ethnic equilibrium, and a
committee was set up to look into a list of six complaints against the
ex-president, who was accused of anti-constitutional actions, bad
management, and corruption.
I.O.N. - In fact, beyond the immediate problems, it was the
marginalization of Ogaden and Issa representatives on the regional
executive by the ex-president (an Issak, like Abdulmejid Hussein), which
was contested for months by some ESDL members. Criticism of Id Tahir
Farah several months ago had caused Bouh Hussein Omar, an Issa who is
general manager of Chemin de Fer Djibouto-Ethiopien, to be briefly
expelled from the ESDL NEC.
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The Indian Ocean Newsletter
Salahdin Maow
Last modified: Thu Mar 25 15:18:37 MET