SOMALIA WRITES TO KIBAKI ON 'SOLDIERS'

SOMALI President Shariff Ahmed has written to President Kibaki asking Kenya not to deploy to Somalia's Juba Region an estimated 2,500 Somali youth soldiers now stranded at Archer's Post in Isiolo.
While Kenya wants the men -to form a buffer between Kenya and the Al Shabaab-controlled regions around Mogadishu, the Somalia Transitional Government wants them sent to Mogadishu to fight Islamist militia. President Shariff is worried that the youth, if deployed in the Juba region, would help. fonner Somali Defence Minister Mohamed Ghandi whom Mogadishu suspects wants to create a separate state for himself between Kenya and the Juba River.
Ethiopia has objected to the planned deployment to the area mainly inhabited by the Ogaden and Merehan clans with Addis Ababa feeling' that would encourage sep;tratist passion in the Ogaden Region of Ethiopia. Addis wants the young men sent to Mogadishu to be deployed in an offensive against the Al Shabaab. In a letter obtained exclusively by the Star, ,dated March, 21 and addressed to President Kibaki, the Somali President acknowledges the role Kenya has played in training and equipping the army of youths.
"Excellency we are particularly indebted for the training and equipping our forces in Kenya. We pray that a peaceful Somali and region will enjoy strengthened friendship and prosperity," states President Shariff. Multiple sources told the Star that the letter was late last week handed to President Kibaki in Nairobi. by Somali Prime Minister Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke. Two weeks ago, The Star exclusively published a UN report that exposed the illegal training camps in Kenya.
We followed up with another expose of the stalemate surrounding the deployment which sucked in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia in the dispute. Kenya argues that the situation in Ethiopia has nothing to do with it. Kenya is more concerned about creating a buffer zone in the Juba Region to secure its porous 680km border with Somalia. Due to suspicions against his former Defence minister Ghandi, President Shariff in the letter to President Kibaki transferred the responsibility of the coordination of the youth recruits from Ghandi to the current Defense Minister Abdullah Boss.
"I write to you this letter to inform -you that the bilateral security responsibilities including the coordination and follow up of Somali force training in Kenya that we previously assigned to our former Minister of Defense and current Minister for Air and Land Transportation HE Mohamed Abdi Gandi is hereby transferred to our current Ministry of Defense," the letter says. The Somali President further transferred the responsibility of regional administrators trained in Kenya to the current Interior minister of Somalia, Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig.
"There are people who are unhappy of the training that you have provided for our forces and the regional administration and wish to deny this region and Somalia any peace and stability. We wish to correct this situation administratively by bringing the military force under the department of Defense and the regional administration under the ministry of interior," states the Somali President. Last week, Gandi hosted elders from the Marehaan and Ogaden who are the main clans in Gedo and Juba regions of Somalia at Chester House in Nairobi to discuss the stalemate in the deployment process. In the meeting Gandi discussed with the clan elders a possible withdrawal of support to the government.
However, according to the UN report: "In December 2009, internal security Minister George Saitoti reportedly confirmed to foreign diplomats the existence of Jubaland policy which is intended to establish a 'buffer zone' bordering Kenya in the Juba Valley." The UN report recommends that the' UN Security Council should send a warning letter to Kenya reminding it that it was in breach of UN resolutions for "substantive or technical violations of the arms embargo". The report warns that the "international dimensions of the Somali conflict are expanding at an accelerated pace. All of Somalia's neighbours -Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya - are militarily involved in the conflict or plan to become involved in the coming months". The training programme was initiated early in 2009 at the request of President Shariff.
Kenya hosted the programme, and Ethiopia has been closely involved. About 2,500 youth were recruited by clan elders and commissioned agents both iTom within Somalia (exclusively the Juba valley) and North-Eastern Kenya, including the Daadab refugee camp. Daadab refugee camp is home to nearly 400,000 Somali refugees. Two training centres were established, one at the Kenya Wildlife Service training camp at Manyani, the other near Archer's Post in Isiolo.
Some 36 Somali officers were recruited to assist in the training under the command of General Abdi Mahdi and Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail "Fartaag". The officers completed a one-month training course in September 2009, says the UN report. Most of those recruited were from the Ogaden clan with the Marehan in second place.
The decision by the Kenya government to recruit mainly from the Ogaden resulted in complaints from other clans. The Ogaden clan primarily lives in the Central Ogaden plateau of Ethiopia, the North-Eastern Province of Kenya, and the Jubaland region of Southern Somalia.