The 1961 Presidential elections of the Somali Republic: A test of Democracy

On July 1^st 1960, The United Nations Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian Administration and the British Protectorate of Somaliland joined to form a new nation called the Somali Republic. On that day the only biding element of the two territories was a “brotherly love of two Somali lands separated by European powers” without regard for the peoples concerned; and a document known as the Act of Union. The act was not a charter or a constitution defining the form and type of Government. It was simply a list of declarations uniting the institutions of the two territories, such as the armed forces, the civil services, etc.

The most important action was the unification of the Legislative Assembly (south) with 90 members; and the Legislative council (North) with 33 members into a unicameral National Assembly with a total of 123 deputies. At the time, the joy of having a united independent Somali nation was bigger than anything else. Everything else was shelved for future considerations. That included the ratification of the country’s constitution.

The first business of the National Assembly was to “select” a Provisional President of the new Republic. The deputies unanimously agreed the Speaker of the Parliament, fifty-two year old deputy from Belet-weyn, Honourable Aden Abdullah Osman popularly known as Adan Cadde, to lead the nation for one year. Adan Cadde was a veteran politician and an early member of the Somali Youth League - the majority party in the National Assembly.

Under a year later, the new constitution was completed by a Somali committee with the help of UN experts. A date was set on June 20, 1961 to put the constitution on a referendum throughout the country. An absolute majority of 1,952,662 or over 90 percent of the electors voted in favour of the new constitution. The referendum had another important significance: It exposed the long-held doubt of the colonial population census of the Somali people estimated at only 2.5 million.

The Somali Republic’s constitution is modelled on the Italian pattern of Parliamentary Democracy, which gives central role to the Prime Minister. According to article 1 of the new constitution, the Somali Republic is a “representative, democratic, and unitary state … indivisible” for which the Islamic sharia is the main source of the laws. Under the Parliamentary system, the government is headed by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, subject to the confidence of the parliament.

As a republic, Somalia has an elected President as Head of State. In article 75 of the constitution, symbolic power is vested in the President of the Republic, who is elected by the National Assembly for a six-year term. He is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and authorizes “the presentation to the Legislative Assembly of bills originated by the Government.” The President’s most important task is to select the Prime Minister. Since the Prime Minister is answerable to the parliament, the President is bound to select someone he believes can command the majority support of parliament.

On election the President takes residence in Villa Somalia, an uphill beautiful mansion overlooking the Indian Ocean. It was formerly the residences of the British Military Administrator of Somaliland in the forties, and in the fifties, the Italian Administrator of the United Nations Trust Territory of Somaliland.

The constitution approved, it remained for Parliament to convert the Provisional Government into a permanent legal form. The most urgent aspect of the business of Parliament was to elect the President of the Somali Republic. The date for the election of the President was fixed by Parliament on July 6, 1961 – nearly a week after the July 1^st Independence celebrations. A notice for the interested candidates was published in both Government and independent newspapers.

The constitution clearly states the qualifications and the way the President of the Republic is to be elected. Any Somali citizen who has attained the age of forty years with original Somali parents can run for the office of the President of the Somali Republic. The National Assembly shall elect the President by a secret ballot. A two-thirds majority is required on the first or the second ballot, but a simple majority is needed on the third ballot.

In an extraordinary session, the ruling Somali Youth League party Central Committee, officially nominated Adan Cadde as their candidate. The next day a deputy also from Belet-weyn, Honourable Sheikh Ali Jiumale Barale declared his interest in the office of the President of the Somali Republic and submitted the nomination papers to the National Assembly.  Sheikh Ali Juimale was also an SYL party old establishment. He also held ministerial portfolios in both 1956 and 1959 under the Government of Prime Minister Abdullahi Issa.

It was the first ever Presidential election in Somali history and the local media played with fanfare the Adan Cadde – Sheikh Ali Juimale rivalry. The media also fairly covered the programme and the biography of both candidates. Actually there was no conflict over ideological or political issues, domestic or international as both men were from the SYL party; there was no clan rivalry involved as both candidates were from the same clan-family. It seemed there was bitter personal rivalry between the two men.

Both men vied for the voter-rich constituencies of Banadir with 18 members, Upper Jubba 22 members and the two Northern Regions with 33 members. The SYL party establishment and the Central Committee supported the elder Adan Cadde. But he was not without a weakness.

The Northern Issaq clan-family with 22 members in the National Assembly, had grievances towards Adan Cadde for not selecting Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal as Prime Minister. That decision left a scar and had had a long term effect in his political career. It had become a vulnerable area where future rivals could easily point out.

A shrewd politician, Sheikh Ali Jiumale immediately manipulated the Achilles’ heal of Adan Cadde. Convinced that he could not muster enough support in the south, he reached out  to the Northern voters. If elected President, he promised to select Egal as the next Prime Minister.

Thursday July 6, 1961 was a rainy day in the coastal capital Mogadishu. The Legislative members presented themselves in the Parliament building earlier than usual. National and traditional music was playing over the loud speakers in the building corners. Supporters of both candidates crowded on either side of the Piazza with slogans and chanting “Long Live” to their candidate. Smart dressed officers lined around the Parliament grounds to keep the peace.

The capital has seen little sleep the night before. Coffee shops and other gathering places were filled with political agitators spreading the latest rumours. Who got what and how much money is involved. Even one story had it that the Defence chief of staff, General Daud, will stage a coup and take over the Government.

Eight o’clock sharp the loudspeakers announced that the Speaker of the Parliament is seated. The two candidates are present and the time has come to start the election. The whole Piazza fell into dead silence. As was the custom, the opening ceremony started with the reciting of the Qur’an. The speaker shouted the roll call to find out who was present. Of the 123 members, there were 121 members present. To the disappointment of Sheikh Ali Juimale, two Northern members were absent. The Speaker cautioned the house and reminded all members the importance of respecting the voting rules and the regulations.

The members set out to cast their ballots:

1^st ballot:  60-60 a draw. The speaker withheld his vote.

2^nd ballot: 60-61 in favour of Sheikh Ali Jiumale. The speaker casted his vote in the second ballot. 

Since no candidate accumulated the required two-thirds majority a third ballot is needed.

3^rd ballot: 62-59 in favour of Adan Cadde!

Two voters changed sides and tipped off the balance. Since the vote was secret and personal, no body knew who these members were. There were a lot of rumours about the identity of these two members but the real story will never be known. The most important thing is that Somali Democracy has been tested for the first time. An American journalist likened the 1961 Somali Presidential election to that of the 1960 U.S. Presidential election between Kennedy and Nixon in terms of the small victory margin.

Source;

http://www.hiiraan.com/op2/2010/sept/the_somali_republic_1961_presidential_election_a_test_of_democracy.aspx

Case Study; The progress of the Clinton Administration 1993-2000

• Longest economic expansion in American history
  The President’s strategy of fiscal discipline, open foreign markets and investments in the American people helped create the conditions for a record 115 months of economic expansion. Our economy has grown at an average of 4 percent per year since 1993.

• More than 22 million new jobs
  More than 22 million jobs were created in less than eight years -- the most ever under a single administration, and more than were created in the previous twelve years.

• Highest homeownership in American history
  A strong economy and fiscal discipline kept interest rates low, making it possible for more families to buy homes. The homeownership rate increased from 64.2 percent in 1992 to 67. 7 percent, the highest rate ever.

• Lowest unemployment in 30 years
  Unemployment dropped from more than 7 percent in 1993 to just 4.0 percent in November 2000. Unemployment for African Americans and Hispanics fell to the lowest rates on record, and the rate for women is the lowest in more than 40 years.

• Raised education standards, increased school choice, and doubled education and training investment
  Since 1992, reading and math scores have increased for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders, math SAT scores are at a 30-year high, the number of charter schools has grown from 1 to more than 2,000, forty-nine states have put in place standards in core subjects and federal investment in education and training has doubled.

• Largest expansion of college opportunity since the GI Bill
  President Clinton and Vice President Gore have nearly doubled financial aid for students by increasing Pell Grants to the largest award ever, expanding Federal Work-Study to allow 1 million students to work their way through college, and by creating new tax credits and scholarships such as Lifetime Learning tax credits and the HOPE scholarship. At the same time, taxpayers have saved $18 billion due to the decline in student loan defaults, increased collections and savings from the direct student loan program.

• Connected 95 percent of schools to the Internet
  President Clinton and Vice President Gore’s new commitment to education technology, including the E-Rate and a 3,000 percent increase in educational technology funding, increased the percentage of schools connected to the Internet from 35 percent in 1994 to 95 percent in 1999.

• Lowest crime rate in 26 years
  Because of President Clinton’s comprehensive anti-crime strategy of tough penalties, more police, and smart prevention, as well as common sense gun safety laws, the overall crime rate declined for 8 consecutive years, the longest continuous drop on record, and is at the lowest level since 1973.

• 100,000 more police for our streets
  As part of the 1994 Crime Bill, President Clinton enacted a new initiative to fund 100,000 community police officers. To date more than 11,000 law enforcement agencies have received COPS funding.

• Enacted most sweeping gun safety legislation in a generation
  Since the President signed the Brady bill in 1993, more than 600,000 felons, fugitives, and other prohibited persons have been stopped from buying guns. Gun crime has declined 40 percent since 1992.

• Family and Medical Leave Act for 20 million Americans
  To help parents succeed at work and at home, President Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. Over 20 million Americans have taken unpaid leave to care for a newborn child or sick family member.

• Smallest welfare rolls in 32 years
  The President pledged to end welfare as we know it and signed landmark bipartisan welfare reform legislation in 1996. Since then, caseloads have been cut in half, to the lowest level since 1968, and millions of parents have joined the workforce. People on welfare today are five times more likely to be working than in 1992.

• Higher incomes at all levels
  After falling by nearly $2,000 between 1988 and 1992, the median family’s income rose by $6,338, after adjusting for inflation, since 1993. African American family income increased even more, rising by nearly $7,000 since 1993. After years of stagnant income growth among average and lower income families, all income brackets experienced double-digit growth since 1993. The bottom 20 percent saw the largest income growth at 16.3 percent.

• Lowest poverty rate in 20 years
  Since Congress passed President Clinton’s Economic Plan in 1993, the poverty rate declined from 15.1 percent to 11.8 percent last year — the largest six-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years. There are now 7 million fewer people in poverty than in 1993. The child poverty rate declined more than 25 percent, the poverty rates for single mothers, African Americans and the elderly have dropped to their lowest levels on record, and Hispanic poverty dropped to its lowest level since 1979.

• Lowest teen birth rate in 60 years
  In his 1995 State of the Union Address, President Clinton challenged Americans to join together in a national campaign against teen pregnancy. The birth rate for teens aged 15-19 declined every year of the Clinton Presidency, from 60.7 per 1,000 teens in 1992 to a record low of 49.6 in 1999.

• Lowest infant mortality rate in American history
  The Clinton Administration expanded efforts to provide mothers and newborn children with health care. Today, a record high 82 percent of all mothers receive prenatal care. The infant mortality rate has dropped from 8.5 deaths per 1,000 in 1992 to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 in 1998, the lowest rate ever recorded.

• Deactivated more than 1,700 nuclear warheads from the former Soviet Union
  Efforts of the Clinton-Gore Administration led to the dismantling of more than 1,700 nuclear warheads, 300 launchers and 425 land and submarine based missiles from the former Soviet Union.

• Protected millions of acres of American land
  President Clinton has protected more land in the lower 48 states than any other president. He has protected 5 new national parks, designated 11 new national monuments and expanded two others and proposed protections for 60 million acres of roadless areas in America’s national forests.

• Paid off $360 billion of the national debt
  Between 1998-2000, the national debt was reduced by $363 billion — the largest three-year debt pay-down in American history. We are now on track to pay off the entire debt by 2009.

• Converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the largest surplus
  Thanks in large part to the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, and President Clinton’s call to save the surplus for debt reduction, Social Security, and Medicare solvency, America has put its fiscal house in order. The deficit was $290 billion in 1993 and expected to grow to $455 billion by this year. Instead, we have a projected surplus of $237 billion.

• Lowest government spending in three decades
  Under President Clinton federal government spending as a share of the economy has decreased from 22.2 percent in 1992 to a projected 18.5 percent in 2000, the lowest since 1966.

• Lowest federal income tax burden in 35 years
  President Clinton enacted targeted tax cuts such as the Earned Income Tax Credit expansion, $500 child tax credit, and the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits. Federal income taxes as a percentage of income for the typical American family have dropped to their lowest level in 35 years.

• By January 2001, more families owned stock than ever before
  The number of families owning stock in the United States increased by 40 percent since 1992.

• Most diverse cabinet in American history
  President Clinton appointed more African Americans, women and Hispanics to the Cabinet than any other President in history. He appointed the first female Attorney General, the first female Secretary of State and the first Asian American cabinet secretary ever.

Source; http://hubpages.com/hub/Bill-Clinton

The international "Burn a Qur'an day" event cancelled permanently

At the Pentagon, President Barack Obama said the US was not at war with Islam.

Earlier, the pastor behind the threat to burn Korans in Florida said the event has been cancelled permanently.

"We will definitely not burn the Koran, no," the Reverend Terry Jones told NBC's Today show.  "Not today, not ever," he said when pressed about whether his planned demonstration might happen at a later date.

Speaking at a memorial event at the Pentagon - which was also hit by an airliner on 11 September 2001 - President Obama paid tribute to those who died in the attacks, saying America's greatest weapon was to stay true to itself.

"It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was Al-Qaeda," he said. "We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust," he said.

Saturday saw new protests in mainly Muslim countries over the Koran-burning proposal, with rallies reported in Somalia and Afghanistan. Pastor Terry Jones had said he hoped to meet a leading imam to discuss the proposal for the Islamic centre, to be located a short distance from Ground Zero, the WTC site.
He said he had suspended the book-burning only because he had received a guarantee, from an imam in Florida, that the centre would be moved. But the planners of the Islamic centre have said they did not speak to the Florida imam, and would not be moving their project.

Mr Abdul Rauf said on Friday that he was "prepared to consider meeting with anyone who is seriously committed to pursuing peace" but added that he had no current plans to meet Mr Jones. Mr Jones is the pastor of the tiny and previously little-known Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, and author of a book entitled Islam is of the Devil. He had planned to stage an International Burn a Koran Day on Saturday, saying the book was "evil". But pressure was put on the pastor to cancel the burning. The FBI visited Mr Jones to urge him to reconsider his plans and he was telephoned by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

In his remarks on Friday, Mr Obama denied that his administration's intervention in the affair had elevated it to greater prominence. He appealed to Americans to respect the "inalienable" right of religious freedom and said he hoped the preacher would abandon his plan to burn the Koran, as it could add to the dangers facing US soldiers serving abroad. "This is a way of endangering our troops, our sons and daughters... you don't play games with that," he told reporters.


Source; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11269681

A tangible outcome from Middle Eastern 'peace' talks?

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have held their first direct negotiations in nearly two years, in Washington.

The US Middle East envoy said the talks, between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had been "constructive".

Both sides have agreed to meet again in the Middle East in two weeks. As the talks opened, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu they had the "opportunity to end this conflict."

Mr Netanyahu said painful concessions from both sides would be needed. Mr Abbas called on Israel to end all settlement construction and lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip. The talks at the US state department, the first such negotiations in 20 months, began with a pledge of "full and active support" from the US.

They had been initiated by US President Barack Obama, who gave them a one-year deadline. He has said the goal is a permanent settlement that ends the Israeli occupation of territory captured in 1967, and an independent, democratic Palestinian state existing peacefully beside Israel.

'Hurdles'

Opening the negotiations, Mrs Clinton said the US had "pledged its full support to these talks and we will be an active and sustained partner", but said Washington would not impose a solution.

"Mr Prime Minister, Mr President, you have the opportunity to end this conflict and the decades of enmity between your peoples once and for all," she said.

"The core issues at the centre of these negotiations - territory, security, Jerusalem, refugees, settlements and others - will get no easier if we wait, nor will they resolve themselves."

Speaking after Mrs Clinton, both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas acknowledged the difficulty of the task ahead."This will not be easy," Mr Netanyahu said. "True peace, a lasting peace, will be achieved only with mutual and painful concessions from both sides."

Mr Abbas said: "We do know how hard are the hurdles and obstacles we face during these negotiations - negotiations that within a year should result in an agreement that will bring peace." The leaders also raised two of the issues that are central to the talks: security for the Israelis, and Jewish settlement construction on Palestinian territories.

"We call on the Israeli government to move forward with its commitment to end all settlement activities and completely lift the embargo over the Gaza Strip," Mr Abbas said.

Mr Netanyahu said "a genuine peace must take into account the security needs of Israel". He also repeated the demand that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state. After their statements, Mrs Clinton, Mr Abbas, Mr Netanyahu and the US envoy to the Middle East talks, George Mitchell, broke off for talks away from the media.

Mr Mitchell emerged to say that Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu were talking alone. He said relations between the two men were "cordial" and there was a "constructive and positive mood". He said the two leaders had agreed to hold further talks in the Middle East on 14-15 September, then about every two weeks after that.

It had already been agreed, Mr Mitchell said, that the two sides would work to reach a framework agreement on all the issues dividing them that would pave the way for a comprehensive treaty.

Source; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11162585

Former 'Child soldier' at Camp Delta on trial

In the second of his dispatches from the US prison camp, Robert Verkaik witnesses Guantanamo's legal process in action

The full-bearded man, tall and well-built, who shuffled into a military court in Guantanamo Bay yesterday hardly lived up to the description of "child soldier".

Omar Khadr was just 15 when he was captured by US forces on the battlefields of Afghanistan in July 2002.

He has matured from a vulnerable adolescent to a grown man while serving a third of his life at the US naval base in Cuba, in conditions which have been universally condemned by the outside world.

Yesterday Mr Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was taken from his cell at Guantanamo's Camp 4 and driven across the peninsula to a converted Second World War control tower which is being used for his trial – the first Guantanamo trial under President Barack Obama.

The case is being seen as a test of Mr Obama's commitment to ending the injustices and abuses carried out in the name of America's "war on terror", but the very fact that the discredited military commissions are still in business is prima facie evidence that Mr Obama lacks the political will to honour his post- election human rights pledge. Escorted by US navy guards, Mr Khadr was taken past the barbed wire fences and watch towers of Camp Justice. Shortly after 9am local time he emerged, arm-in-arm with two soldiers, from a side door of the court chamber. The steel chain fixtures poking through the red carpet were the only physical clue that this was not an ordinary American civil courtroom.

Mr Khadr, unshackled, and wearing a baggy white T-shirt and billowing white trousers, lumbered down the far side of the court until he was placed in his seat by three guards, next to his family lawyer, the Scottish-Canadian barrister Dennis Edney, and two seats down from his military commission- appointed advocate, Lieutenant-Colonel Jon Jackson. Mr Khadr's white US-issue uniform conferred a status of "highly compliant" detainee. He sat quietly crouched over his paperwork carefully following all the arguments and developments in the case. Guards were posted throughout the courtroom, including the spectators' gallery. Lt-Col Jackson told the court that, eight years ago, shortly after his capture in Afghanistan, it was men in American uniforms who tortured a confession out of Mr Khadr.

Mr Khadr alleges that he was hung up on a door frame, threatened with rape, urinated on and used by one soldier as a human mop to clean the floor. Yesterday Lt-Col Jackson told the judge, Colonel Pat Parish, that any confession Mr Khadr may have made cannot be relied upon.

At a press conference before the start of the trial, Lt-Col Jackson said the whole process was tainted with unfairness. "When Barak Obama became President we thought he was going to close the book on Guantanamo... but President Obama has decided to write the next sad, pathetic chapter of the military commissions," he told a group of journalists gathered in a former Guantanamo airfield hanger.

This view is supported by the US government's decision to press ahead with a second "war on terror" case, a few hundred yards from the Khadr courtroom, another military commission was hearing the case against Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, a Sudanese detainee who pleaded guilty last month to one count each of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. Qosi, who appeared unshackled in the courtroom built to try the 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was accused of acting as accountant, paymaster, supply chief and cook for al-Qai'da during the 1990s, when the terror network was centred in Sudan and Afghanistan. He allegedly worked later as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.

The 50-year-old from Sudan faced a potential life sentence if convicted at trial. Terms of the plea deal, including any limits on his sentence, have not been disclosed. The judge ruled yesterday that any sentence will be served in the more relaxed communal environment of Camp 4.

But it is the case of the child soldier Omar Khadr that has grabbed the attention of the world. He is youngest detainee in Guantanamo Bay, where he is charged with terrorist acts for al-Qai'da and the killing of a US Special Forces soldier. If he is convicted he will be only the fifth of nearly 800 suspects held at the infamous detention centre to be successfully prosecuted under the controversial US military commission system begun under former president George Bush six years ago. Mr Khadr, now 23, is accused of throwing a grenade that killed the US army Sergeant Christopher Speer of Albuquerque, New Mexico, during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted of charges including murder and terrorist conspiracy.

Navy Captain David Iglesias, a former federal prosecutor and also part of the Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps, told journalists that, if Mr Khadr is convicted of serious charges, "the government will ask for [a] life" term in prison.

But the Canadian's lawyers deny that he threw the grenade and argue that Mr Khadr should be treated as a victim rather than a combatant, as all child soldiers from the numerous conflicts in Africa are treated under international law today. Mr Khadr was badly injured after his capture, sustaining bullet wounds in his back and further injuries from an exploding grenade.

And it was while he was still fully recovering from his wounds at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan that he claims he was subjected to torture. Mr Jackson told the judge yesterday: "Without question Omar Khadr was subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment... By the time he left Bagram he was broken... Broken because of the actions of people wearing uniform, like you or me." He added: "This case goes to who we are as soldiers – [what] we have learned about what is right and wrong."

Mr Jackson then pleaded with the judge to "stand up for the rule of law". Whatever the outcome of the case, Mr Khadr feels he has been deserted by his own country. The Canadian government has steadfastly refused to intervene in his detention and bring him home, leaving him to face the full weight of the US military law.
In May Omar Khadr wrote a letter to one of his Canadian lawyers, Dennis Edney, to say he was resigned to a harsh sentence from a system that he sees as unfair. Mr Khadr wrote: "It might work if the world sees the US sentencing a child to life in prison, it might show the world how unfair and sham this process is."

Guantanamo trials: Obama's reforms still leave concerns

The controversial system for trying Guantanamo detainees was first devised under the presidency of George W Bush. It was set up in 2006 to try terror suspects under separate rules from established civilian or military courts. Originally, they comprised between five and 12 US serving military officers. A conviction required agreement between two-thirds of the commission. For a death sentence there had to be the unanimity all 12 commission members. Hearsay evidence and evidence obtained under coercion was allowed if it were deemed to have "probative value". At this time "waterboarding" or simulated drowning was not classified as torture by the Bush administration.

The most famous defendant to face the tribunal is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man who admitted being the architect of the September 11 attacks. But his case has been suspended.

The courts were finally struck down by the US Supreme Court, which found them to be unconstitutional. When Barack Obama was elected President in 2009 he suspended all military commissions as part of his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay. But in a shock move last year the US Government decided to resume hearings under a modified format.

Under the new Obama tribunals, statements that have been obtained from detainees using "cruel, inhuman and degrading interrogation methods" will no longer be admitted as evidence at trial. The use of hearsay evidence is limited and the accused will have "greater latitude" in selecting his counsel.

But despite these changes, Mr Obama's reforms have failed to satisfy human rights groups that they can be relied upon to secure safe and reliable convictions. The federal courts are seen as the best way to proceed to justice in the few remaining cases ready for trial.

Source; http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/on-trial-child-soldier-who-grew-up-in-camp-delta-2048115.html?action=Popup

Barack Obama's policy on Somalia

Should more foreign troops be sent to Somalia?

The African Union (AU) will add 4,000 troops to its peacekeepers in Somalia.

AU officials at the group's summit on Tuesday said a cap of 8,100 on troop levels for the force, known as AMISOM, had been lifted and they were mulling whether to give it powers to combat fighters, despite misgivings of some AU members.

Leaders at the meeting, convened in Kampala close to where the suicide bombers struck, sanctioned reinforcements for the currently deployed 6,200 AU peacekeepers who are barely managing to keep Somalia's besieged government in office.

"We are committed to deliver an additional four thousand troops ... From Guinea, we will have one battalion, from IGAD we will have 2,000 troops and Djibouti will send troops immediately," said AU commission chairman Jean Ping.

IGAD is a bloc of East African nations.

"There was a request to move the ceiling of (8,100 troops) up and many other countries are now ready to send troops. Changing the mandate (to allow AMISOM to attack al Shabaab) is still under consideration," Ping said at the summit's close.

Summit diplomats earlier told Reuters the meeting of more than 30 African heads of state might ask the United Nations, which oversees AU peacekeeping missions, to allow AMISOM to chase down al Shabaab after the Uganda attacks tha killed 76 people.

Troops from Uganda and Burundi make up AMISOM. Al Shabaab blamed what it called AMISOM attacks on civilians for its suicide bomb attacks on two Kampala bars packed with hundreds of people watching the World Cup final on July 11.

Source; http://worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=61896