An
Interview with Ambassador Marika Fahlen, Sweden’s Special Envoy
for the Horn of Africa
The 8th annual conference of the Horn of Africa was held in Lund,
Sweden this month. And like all previous years, the conference was
filled with good speeche s, great presentations and umpteen academic
discussions. This year, the theme was the environment, but the
timeless and placeless subject of politics somehow creeped into the
conversation.
Among the distinguished attendees was H. E. Ambassador Marika Fahlen,
Sweden’s Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Swedish Ministry
for Foreign Affairs. She sat down with Ahmed Gure, the founder and
managing director of Hiiraan Online.
HOL: Sweden being the president of European Union, What can Somalia
expect from Sweden?
Ambassador Marika Fahlen: Sweden Starts the presidency of the EU on
1st of July and runs to the end of this year and in July there was a
focus on Somalia so on the 27th of July the foreign ministers of EU,
the 27 countries agreed on a policy for Somalia to expand its
engagement as it was possible to do that given the difficult Somalia
particularly in south and central and we will now follow this
political commitment to further exploratory work and to have
dialogue between Somalis and also the region to see what is the best
way for EU to support Somalia.
HOL: Given commitments US is taking in helping Somali government,
what is the role of the EU and particularly Sweden in rebuilding
Somalia National Forces?
Ambassador Marika Fahlen: In this political commitment, support to
security and stabilization is an important part, and on the 23rd of
April, EU hosted a donor conference for the security and
stabilization in Somalia. It was two objectives one was to look at
how to build the capacity of AMISOM to support dialogue and
reconciliation and to check the institutions and to enlarge the safe
areas for the people that was one thing. AMISOM is funded for
contributions. The other thing was to support reconstruction, the
security sector for the TFG, national security service including
rule of law and this regard there must be several things in place
one is transparent security policy developed in a process that as
you say possible, but is transparent, clear criteria for how
security forces will be recruited, composed and what type of chain
of command will be there be for this force, and what accountability
criteria will be applied so whenever there is misconduct of members
of the security force there will be consequences, disciplinary
consequences, how to respect human rights and protection of the
people as a primary task of the security force. This will be there
and it was also include as it may turn feasible training members of
such security forces.
HOL: As you know Somali journalists are under a serious threat
because of their activities inside Somalia. They have been
threatened and some of them have even been killed this year. They
are under constant danger. Is there any way that the international
community and Sweden in particular can help Somali journalists
inside Somalia?
Ambassador Marika Fahlen: First of all, we condemn the attacks on
media workers and journalists and I think 14 media workers have been
killed in this past year in Somalia. It is a serious crime and it is
also a violation of the right of people to have access to free
information. We want as a matter of principle to protect the free
flow of information and for this we need several outlets for
journalists. The journalism should be correct information on the
situation and one should not confuse media work with propaganda. We
see media work as a professional task and we see that the public
have the right to get this information.
We condemn the restriction of media work in Somaliland, in Puntland
and in south and central. The situation in south and central is that
we have death threats on journalists. In other parts of Somalia
there have been other restrictions of free media. We support the
National Union of Somali Journalists. They do courageous work and we
will continue to see what can be done. Whether it’s an issue of
training, but primarily it’s an issue of security and it’s an
issue of disrespect of free flow of information. So to protect the
media workers you need a respect of that media work should be
allowed wherever it is. We just want to say that the media workers
are doing a fantastic and courageous job in Somalia.
HOL: On the issue of Human Rights in Somalia, both the government
and the insurgence are accused of committing crimes against the
public at large. Does Swedish government support the indictment to
those who have been found that they committed crimes against
humanity. ?
Ambassador Marika Fahlen: It is no doubt that there has been serious
crimes committed to civilian population in Somalia in the last 20
years and particularly in the last 3 years, and more recently since
May of this year there have been many atrocities taking place. There
are three things on the issue of human rights. One is to monitor and
the other is to report on the abuses and violations and the third is
to make those who are committing such crimes are brought to justice.
That is to address the impunity that has been prevailing in Somalia
in the absence of the justice system. There is also an issue that
Somalia needs to take greater ownership on Human rights. Which is
why we suggest a human rights commission in Somalia which is
inclusive of government, civil society, opposition? That could first
identify which atrocities have been committed and then how to
address those crimes and if it’s possible we are ready to support
technically the TFG and local administration.
HOL: On the upcoming election in Somaliland, there is a problem
relating to voter registration which may once again delay the
election. Somaliland is a peaceful place and now that stability is
being threatened by this election. Do you think this election will
proceed as planned?
Ambassador Marika Fahlen: First we support the election through
voter registration. What is essential in this election that it takes
a step further of the last election where there was no voter
registration? What is important that the three political parties
including the government party in working on a consensus. What is
important is the government political party does not have any
privileges when it comes to access to resources, information, media
for the campaign. It must be completely equal for all three parties.
We think that the president has taken an unwise decision and we hope
he will reverse his decision and return to what is international
standards for the elections. We think that the elections should take
place on the 27 of September but what is happening is making it
increasingly difficult. We hope that if this is allowed to continue,
there is a risk that Somaliland’s reputation to democratize itself
and hold elections will fall over the cliff and that will not be
good for Somaliland.
HOL: Thank you very much for your time Ambassador Marika Fahlen
Source:Hiiraan.com
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