SOMALIA - INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE CANDIDATE

UNCLAS NAIROBI 002468 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE PASS TO L/UNA TODD BUCHWALD AND HEATHER SCHILDGE STATE ALSO FOR AF/E/GAREY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: UNSC UNGA SO SUBJECT: SOMALIA - INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE CANDIDATE REF: SECSTATE 112227 ¶1. As requested reftel, we asked our contacts about Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, candidate for the International Court of Justice. Yusuf, a lawyer, left Somalia in the 1960s. He joined the UN and reportedly worked for many years in the United States. He is now retired, but has continued to work as a legal advisor to several African governments and international organizations, including UNESCO, we are told. Abdulqawi Yusuf has wanted a position on the international court at least since 2007, when he asked Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) President Abdullahi Yusuf and current Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein for their support. Yusuf, though reportedly not a direct relative of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, is from the president's same clan, and may be related to the president by marriage. ¶2. A former member of President Yusuf's staff told us Somali government leaders hold Abdulqawi Yusuf in high regard and have lobbied for Abdulqawi Yusuf's various international postings in the past. TFG leaders generally support the United States' regional and even international policy positions. However, we don't have specific information about Abdulqawi Yusuf's views on reftel's positions important to the United States. Our contacts speculate his reportedly pan-Somali bent, clan affiliation (Daarood/Warsengeli),and roots in northern Somalia, where regional clashes have occurred and Somali secessionist movements exist, may make Abdulqawi Yusuf sympathetic to sovereignty claims and less likely to support autonomy movements. RANNEBERGER