Top UN official in Somalia under fire for controversial statements

Top UN official in Somalia under fire for controversial statements
Jimma Times
Some human rights and journalist groups have condemned statements by UN's top envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah for comparing Somali media outlets with the radio station in Rwanda that was convicted for inciting genocidal hatred in 1994. Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked Ould-Abdallah to apologize for his comments but a Somali media group Somali Press Review (SPR) says the UN envoy "has not offended Somali journalists."
Ould-Abdallah's controversial statements came after a violent clash between al Shabaab insurgents and Ugandan soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) on February 2, in which dozens of civilians were reportedly killed by the AMISOM troops. The AU peacekeeping mission's spokesmen angrily denied the accusations coming from the local Somali media and al Shabaab militants, claiming that the insurgents and suicide bombers killed the civilians instead. The same reaction came from the UN envoy Ould-Abdallah, who said the local Somali media was trying "to divert attention" from the Djibouti peace talks and "as usual to use the media to repeat Radio Mille Colline, to repeat the genocide in Rwanda."
In response, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Ould-Abdallah to "immediately retract" his controversial statements. HRW's Africa director Georgette Gagnon said "the U.N. should be making every effort to support independent Somali media and civil society at this critical time, not comparing journalists to war criminals."
But according to Abdurahman Warsame of the Somali group calling itself "Terror Free Somalia Foundation," most southern Somalia media outlets like Horn Afrik and Shabelle Media Network are owned by Habar Gidir sub-clan personals which al Shabaab depended on to "spread disinformation." Shabelle Media Network is also the main Somali media that international human rights groups and western news agencies depend on for details about the violence in Somalia. Another major local Somali media, SOMALIWEYN, literally translates in English to the phrase "Greater Somalia" which is the cen..tral expansionist ideology of radical islamists who indicated their goal to annex eastern Ethiopian and Kenyan territories of Ogaden and NFD, respectively...more..http://www.jimmatimes.com/article.cfm?articleID=31915