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[HCDX] two news items for Somalia



 Somali mayor orders human rights group to shut down

The Associated Press
Monday, November 19, 2007
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=8389208

MOGADISHU, Somalia: The mayor of Somalia's capital has ordered the 
country's oldest human rights group to shut down, the group's chairman said 
Monday.

Sudan Ali Ahmed said his group was accused of spreading "exaggerated 
and false information" about the country's fragile government.

Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Dheere ordered Elman Human Rights, an 
independent Somali group, to close its offices on Oct. 8, Ahmed said, adding 
he had waited more than a month to go public as he tried and failed to reach 
senior government officials.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of a letter from Dheere in which he 
orders Elman officials "to stop your ongoing business ... for security 
reasons."

Dheere could not immediately be reached for comment as his cell phone 
want unanswered. Others government officials were also not immediately 
available for comment.

"I'm a wanted person," Ahmed said by phone from an undisclosed location in 
Mogadishu. "Government soldiers are searching for me everywhere. I stay in 
different places in the capital. The world should stand up and intervene to 
save Somali people from their own government that abuses the basic rights 
of its citizens."

Elman Human Rights has 116 staffers who work across the country. The 
group has tracked the killings of civilians during Mogadishu's near daily 
violence this year and has also reported on violations in recent years.

Several human rights groups have accused the government, insurgents and 
Ethiopian troops of committing abuses.

Ethiopia came to the aid of Somalia's fragile government in December to 
rout an Islamic group called the Council of Islamic Courts. The Islamic 
group's fighters then threatened an Iraq-style insurgency, and thousands of 
Mogadishu residents have been killed this year in the capital's near daily 
round of gunbattles, grenade and mortar attacks.

In a separate development, the four local radio stations left broadcasting in 
Mogadishu said on Monday that they would go off the air for 24 hours in 
solidarity with other radio stations closed by the government, to "pressure 
the government to allow them back on air," they said in a statement. The 
broadcasters are Voice of the Democracy, Voice of the Quran, Somaliweyn 
and HornAfrik.

Last week, the government shut three private radio stations for allegedly 
airing inflammatory broadcasts and ordered all media houses in the country 
to seek registration or face closure.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since a group of warlords 
overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned their heavily 
armed supporters on each other.

__

Associated Press writer Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu contributed to 
this report.


==============
Mogadishu Broadcasters Go Silent to Protest Government Crackdown
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-19-voa27.cfm
19 November 2007
	

Broadcasters in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have gone off the air for 24 
hours to protest a government crackdown on independent media.

The four local radio stations still operating went silent Monday. Their 
directors say they want to show solidarity with three other stations the 
government shut down last week.

Authorities have accused Radio Simba, Radio Banadir and Radio Shabelle 
of making inflammatory and anti-government broadcasts. The government 
has also ordered all Somali media houses to register with the government or 
face closure.

Media advocacy groups like Reporters Without Borders have strongly 
criticized the moves, saying the government is trying to censor unwelcome 
news.

The closed stations have reported regularly on the violence in Mogadishu 
between insurgents and Ethiopian troops backing the Somali interim 
government.

The fighting over the past 11 months has killed thousands, and prompted 
hundreds of thousands more to flee the Somali capital.


---
Somalia: Mogadishu radio stations begin off-air strike
Mon. November 19, 2007 01:09 pm.- By Mohamed Abdi Farah. - Send this 
news article
http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/13710

(SomaliNet) The independent privately owned radio FM stations operating in 
the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Monday announced to stop broadcasting 
for 24 hours in protest of the media purge after three of the main 
broadcasters were shut down by the transitional government.

The off air strike started on later today at about 3:00 pm local time, 
according to the mangers of the FM stations who had meeting in Radio 
Banadir headquarter north of Mogadishu.


The media officials said they had media the decision after the government 
troops shut down Shabelle, Simba and Banadir radio stations for their 
journalist work.

The move came as the government officials in Banadir province demanded 
the off air radios to make apologize for their wrong doings against the 
national security as the government claimed.

More than ten FM broadcasters operate in Mogadishu, the most volatile city 
in Somalia as the most popular stations seen by the current government as 
giving propaganda to the insurgent groups. ________________________
http://zlgr.multiply.com (raidio monitoring site plus audio clips )
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/302315/ (Litohoro) 321199/Tinos 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachgr    pictures upload 
.
on my main : www.geocities.com/zliangas 
-tty-px.html : test of various TTY programs
-ethics.htm    : greek ethics , days and institutions 
-frape.htm: the greek way of cofee !!! 
Zacharias Liangas , Thessaloniki Greece 
greekdx @ otenet dot gr  ---  
Pesawat penerima: ICOM R75 , Lowe HF150 , Degen 1102,1103,108,
Tecsun PL200/550, Chibo c300/c979, Yupi 7000 
Antenna: 16m hor, 2x16 m V invert, 1m australian loop 

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