(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has written to Somalia’s new prime minister, Ali Mohammed Geedi, asking him to ensure that radio reporter Abdiqani Sheik Mohamed be allowed to return and work in the Middle Shabelle region, where local authorities physically attacked him and banned him from working in September 2004. The organisation explained in the letter that […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has written to Somalia’s new prime minister, Ali Mohammed Geedi, asking him to ensure that radio reporter Abdiqani Sheik Mohamed be allowed to return and work in the Middle Shabelle region, where local authorities physically attacked him and banned him from working in September 2004.
The organisation explained in the letter that it had already written to the leading clan chief in Middle Shabelle, Mohamed Omar Habeb (also known as “Mohamed Dhere”), but had received no reply. Prime Minister Geedi heads a transitional government that is temporarily based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
“Aware of the authority you enjoy with Mr. Habeb, Reporters Without Borders would like to ask you to do everything in your power to ensure that Mohamed be allowed to return to Jowhar and resume working safely, and do so unconditionally,” the letter to Geedi said.
According to sources in Mogadishu, Mohamed recently received a conciliatory offer from the Jowhar authorities under which he would be allowed to return and work in the region, but only if he signed an official request for amnesty. “However, in our view, Mohamed has not committed any wrong requiring an amnesty,” RSF said in its letter to Geedi.
Mohamed’s problems began on 26 September, when he reported on Radio Banadir, one of the radio stations he works for, that the elders of the Jowhar community had asked the committee running one of the city’s mosques to resign in favour of a new committee that had their approval and that of the local authorities.
After the report was broadcast, Mohamed was stopped and assaulted by Dhere’s militiamen on the main road in Jowhar. The next day, Dhere’s spokesman issued a decree saying that Mohamed was “no longer recognised,” that he was henceforth “forbidden” to practice his profession and that the Middle Shabelle authorities would consider themselves “under attack” if he failed to comply. Since then, Mohamed has taken refuge in Mogadishu.
Dhere is reportedly very close to the new prime minister. Both men belong to the same sub-clan and Dhere allegedly agreed to resign as a member of parliament so that Geedi could take his place and be elected prime minister.
