Canada Can and Must Intervene In Somalia

LETTERS
Embassy, November 1st, 2006
By Wali Farah

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I appreciate your efforts to bring Somalia's story to your readers (Re: "Somalia Could Turn into Proxy War," Oct. 25). Yes, Canada should get involved positively. Canadians of Somali descent believe that the Canadian government can play a neutral role to facilitate mediation between factions in Somalia. Canadians are already involved in Somalia both positively and negatively. There are Canadians who are engaged in building schools, hospitals, orphanages, bridges, ports and airports.

But then there are those Canadians of Somali descent who are contributing to the perpetuation of the Somali civil war, terrorism and assistance to the Ethiopian aggression against Somalia. These individuals are part of the so-called Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. For example, the minister responsible for information of that weak government–who is from Canada–ordered the arrest of three independent journalists last week. It is reported that these journalists have been tortured in prison. There is another Canadian from Ottawa who is heading a group that brutalizes the north east region of Somalia known as "Puntland." This warlord has recently ordered the killing of villagers in that region when they refused to accept illegal exploitation of their land. He also forcefully shipped thousands of Ethiopian refugees back to Ethiopia. As has been reported in various media outlets, many of these refugees, who were political asylum seekers, were killed by the Ethiopian regime as soon as they arrived in Ethiopia.

Canada can and must intervene in Somalia positively and in a neutral way. At least, Canada must deal with those Canadians that are perpetuating the Somali civil war and must bring them to justice.

There are thousands of Somali Canadians in this country and the majority of them are in support of a popular uprising in Somalia to overthrow tyranny, terrorism, warlords and the constant Ethiopian government aggression against Somalia because they see this popular uprising as the single ray of hope for all Somalis wherever they are.

—WALI FARAH
Ottawa, ON
E-mail: [email protected]

This article was originally published at Embassy on Nov 1, 2006

The opinions contained in this article are solely those of the writer, and in no way, form or shape represent the editorial opinions of "Hiiraan Online"