Hiiraan Online Staff
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Mogadishu, Somalia (HOL) - The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia has announced that it had banned some United Nations officials from coming to and working in Somalia for failing to carry out their official responsibilities.
In a communiqué issued late yesterday afternoon, the Somali Ministry of Home Affairs said that it had prohibited Mr. Scot Campbell, the head of the United Nations Human Rights Office for Eastern and Southern Africa (OHCHR) and Mrs. Sandara Beidas, the United Nations Envoy on Human Rights in charge of the United Nations Human Rights Directorate in the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), from coming to work in the country.
The Somali Ministry of Home Affairs told reporters in the Capital, Mogadishu, that it had ordered the Immigration Department not to allow the concerned UN officials to set foot on Somali soil.
In addition, the Somali Foreign Affairs Ministry has also written to the United Nations Political Office for Somalia concerning the same issue.
Further, The Somali government has called on the United Nations Office for Somalia to reflect on the rationale behind sending individuals of such caliber to safeguard the human rights of the Somali people.
Somali Minister of State in the office of the Prime Minister in charge of Human Rights, Sahro Mohamed Ali Samatar, said the government ban on the UN staff concerned was needed so as to protect the human rights of the Somali people.
This is the first time the Somali Government has banned members of the United Nations Staff from working in the country since it was formed in a UN organized Reconciliation Conference in Neighboring Kenya seven years ago.