The International Contact Group (ICG), a loose network of countries trying to affect the situation in Somalia meets in Oslo tomorrow to discuss the political process, the security situation and the humanitarian conditions in the country. To address ICG´s disputable role, representatives of many of the different Somali organisations in Norway will demonstrate outside the meeting. (29-APR-08)
Based on material received from Somali organisations in Norway, supplemented by information from the Norwegian MFA´s website, this article is written by HRH F / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
The Somali organisations behind the demonstration accuses the ICG, through some of its member countries and international bodies, of being guilty of the recent atrocities in Mogadishu, in which large numers of civilians have been killed in the most bestial ways. The Norwegian Somali diaspora will be joined at he demonstration by members of the Swedish, Danish, Finnish and English diasporas. The purpose of the demonstration is to criticise what the supporting organisations consider the flawed politics of the ICG. The members of ICG are. Italy, Sweden, Great Britain, Tanzania, USA, EU and Norway. The Arab League, the African Union, United Nations, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) also take part. The meeting will, among other things, discuss the modalities for handing over the Norwegian co-leadership role with the US to the UN´ and its special representative for Somalia, Ambassador Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah.
The demonstration will hold ICG responsible for having motivated Ethiopia to occupy Somalia and for having helped the current Somali government, despite its lack of legitimacy and popularity in the Somali people, to power. The press release distributed (in Norwegian) today, in advance of the demonstration, lends support to Amnesty International´s intepretation of the current crisis in Somalia.
See also www.amnesty.org´s article:
Somalia-Ethiopia: Release children held in raid on Al Hidya mosque
