Somalia - Response Letter from Yusuf

C O N F I D E N T I A L NAIROBI 002614 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/E AND A/S FRAZER E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER SO SUBJECT: Somalia - Response Letter from Yusuf REF: Nairobi 2578 Classified by PolOff Hodan Hassan. Reasons 1.4 (d) ¶1. Following on the transmission of a letter to TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf, the Ambassador received a response on June 22. ¶2. The text of the letter from Yusuf reads as follows: Dear Mr. Ambassador: Your letter of June 21, 2007, is clearly in line with other previous letters that showed similar concerns of excesses, brutalities, violations of human rights and heavy handedness on Somali civilians in Mogadishu. I fundamentally value your genuine and ever present concerns for the betterment of Somalia and the people of Somalia. These concerns can be a source of wake up calls and they can potentially give us some corrective direction and better policy choices. However these alarming reports and allegations can be best understood within their own context without which they would become empty and cruel deceptions that are meant to mislead. The basic conflict and the nature of the problem here in Somalia is combating insecurity and terror. The situation on the ground is fluid and steady acts of terror are taking place daily. Official reactions and investigations to these acts of terror may, on occasion, lead the TFG authorities to certain houses, premises and properties. When that happens somebody somewhere cries wolf and the international community falls for that. Hence, the source(s) of the allegations and reports of government brutalities are very much correlated with the perpetrators of terror acts in Mogadishu and Somalia. Like every criminal at lose, they would very much want to evade the long arm of the law. Mr. Ambassador, I want to officially reassure you that there are no hundreds of people arrested, let alone thousands and there are no private compounds turned into makeshift detention centers. These are exaggerations and those behind them have their own reasons to exaggerate, circulate and recycle them. In principle though, even the unlawful detention of a few Somalis, scanty violations of rights and low scale brutalities should not be tolerated. So the argument here is not about quantity but quality. Violations of rights at any scale are not acceptable and no one in the TFG is immune of subsequent indictment and the legal due process of the land. To my mind the best way to get to the bottom of this and recourse out of this, is to send a team and investigate these allegations. In my judgment, the whole thing will boil down to snowy nothingness. In the event, credible violation are found, I assure you to match it with indictments to whoever is found to be involved. Under my watch, Somalia would never deviate from the road to liberty, rights and freedoms and good governance. END RANNEBERGER