/ 14 December 2008

Somali prime minister stands firm after sacking

Somalia’s president announced Sunday he was sacking the Cabinet but the premier challenged the move, in a fresh clash between the two rivals that further threatened fragile peace efforts.

”As of now, I have sacked the prime minister and his current government and I will nominate a new prime minister within days,” President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told reporters.

”The government of Nur Hassan Hussein was unable to perform its duties and I am obliged to save the country,” he added. But Nur Hassan Hussein said tthat the president alone did not have the power to sack him.

”The president was speaking in his usual personal capacity, contrary to the rules and regulations, as he is not mandated to sack the prime minister of the transitional federal government,” Nur Hassan Hussein said.

”I will have my own press conference later in the day to explain my position at this critical juncture,” he added.

Yusuf expressed confidence that Parliament would validate his decision.

”Most of the parliamentarians will endorse my decision to dismiss the prime minister,” Yusuf said.

”Should Parliament reject my desire to look for a new prime minister, I will comply with their decision and the current government will continue its tenure,” he added.

According to the transitional federal charter, the president alone does not have the power to sack the prime minister, but needs the Parliament’s approval.

Nur Hassan Hussein was sworn in in November 2007 but has been at loggerheads with Yusuf in recent months, notably over ongoing efforts to strike a reconciliation agreement with the Islamist-led opposition.

Hussein replaced Ali Mohamed Gedi who was forced to resign after months of a bruising power struggle with Yusuf, a veteran warlord who has headed Somalia’s transitional administration since its inception in 2004.

Somalia’s transitional Parliament is based in the town of Baidoa.

In September 2008, Hussein survived a vote of no confidence after being accused by some lawmakers of embezzling state funds.

Yusuf said the United Nations-sponsored Djibouti peace process, which aims at bringing the country’s more moderate Islamists back into the fold, would not be harmed by Hussein’s dismissal.

”The national reconciliation will continue as it is without the current government,” Yusuf said.

But many observers argue that Nur Hassan Hussein, whose performance is generally seen as a major improvement on his predecessor’s, was a crucial partner in the reconciliation talks.

”My government will continue to operate as mandated by parliament and the transitional federal charter,” the prime minister said.

”I’m urging the Somali people and the wider international community not to panic and not to assume that there is a power vacuum. My government will simply continue the search for peace,” he said.

Nur Hassan Hussein (70) is a former army officer who studied in Mogadishu and trained in Italy, specialising in criminal investigation and international law.

Hussein is from Somalia’s largest Hawiye clan, while Yusuf is from the rival Darod clan, the country’s second largest.

Somalia’s transitional charter stipulates that the president, premier and speaker of Parliament should come from three different clans. – AFP

 

AFP