Somalia
Contests
Sanctions on
Hormuud in
Empty UN Room,
World Bank
Echo
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 1 -- When
Somalia's charge
d'affaires
at the UN
Omar Jamal
scheduled a
press
conference
Friday at 2
pm, even with
Somalia in the
news due to
the donors'
conference in
Istanbul, only
three
correspondents
showed up.
Was
there no news
about Somalia?
Was there
something else
taking place?
At the UN even
newsless
meetings or
events about
Syria or North
Korea draw
dozens of
reporters.
Somalia,
apparently, is
not
interesting.
Inner
City Press
asked Omar
Jamal about a
telecommunications
company which
has been
put on the UN
Security
Council's
sanctions
list: Hormuud.
Inner City
Press heard
about
opposition to
the listing
some time ago,
with
analogies
being made to
the Barakat
conglomerate
which was
closed
down after the
September 11,
2001 attacks
on the United
States.
In
that case,
many low
income Somalis
lost their
money.
Here,
Jamal
responded, the
closure of
Hormuud would
wreck economic
chaos in the
country. He
said on the
record, as
Inner City
Press had
thought he
would, that it
should NOT be
on the
sanctions
list, and it
should be
taken off. But
will the
Security
Council,
Sanctions
Committee and
Panel of
Experts
listen?
Inner
City Press
also asked
about a World
Bank report
alleging $130
million gone
missing in aid
to Somalia,
first reported
by the BBC and
Voice of
America (both
of which Inner
City Press
credited in
its question
to
Omar Jamal).
Jamal said the
report just
came out, and
called it or
tried to call
it into doubt.
The timing of
the report's
leak, of
course, is
noteworthy.
But that's how
the news
industry works
-- or
at the UN, at
least on and
for Somalia,
DOESN'T work.
Watch this
site.
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