Hassan Abshir Farah

Hasan Abshir Farah ( _so. "Xasan Abshir Faarax", _ar. حسن ابشير فرح) (born 1945) is a notable politician in Somalia.

Career synopsis

Service in the Barré government

Hassan Abshir's political career begain in 1969, when he was a junior member of the military junta that took control of Somalia in 1969 under Siad Barre. His first official role was working as vice district commissioner of Mogadishu; in the 1970s, Hassan was appointed the Mogadishu mayor. During this period, he worked with the NSS to have many opponents to the government arrested.cite news
title=Hassan Abshir: Master of Political Treachery
url=http://www.garoweonline.com/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=1&num=2494
date=2005-12-31
publisher=Garowe Online
accessdate=2007-02-02 ] He also served as governor of Shabeellaha Dhexe and Bakool, and as the Somali ambassador to Japan and Germany. While governor, he opposed the rising force of the SSDF movement which opposed Siad Barre's rule.

Interior Minister of Puntland

In December 1999, acting as the Interior Minister of the self-declared autonomous state of Puntland serving under then-Puntland President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, he issued an order for evicting three NGO workers for performing "unsatisfactory services": Eddie Johns of UNDP/UNCTAD, Remmelt Hummeyn of UNDP and Said Al-Naimari of UNICEF.cite news
title=HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs [19991210]
url=http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Hornet/irin-121099.html
publisher=IRIN
date=1999-12-10
accessdate=2007-02-03 ]

Prime Minister of Transitional National Government (TNG)

He was Prime Minister in the Transitional National Government (TNG) of Somalia from 12 November 2001 until 8 December 2003 when TNG President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan held a session of parliament which cast a no-confidence vote in the Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Speaker at the time, Abdallah Derow Isaak.cite news
title=HORN OF AFRICA IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 153
url=http://iys.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/hafrica/03b/ixl5.html
date=2003-08-15
publisher=IRIN
accessdate=2007-02-23 ]

During his first month in office, which was a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he said the United States would be welcome to deploy troops to Somalia for the first time since the withdrawal of US forces from the UN missions of the 1990s, and to help monitor terrorist activities in the country.cite news
title=Somalia welcomes US troops
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1678586.stm
date=2001-11-27
publisher=BBC
accessdate=2007-02-03 ] He was referring to Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI), which the US did name as a terrorist organization.cite news
title=Terrorism in Somalia
url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/archive/international/somalia_terrorists.shtml
date=2002-11-30
publisher=BBC
accessdate=2007-02-03 ] On December 15, 2001, he stated there were no members of Al-Qaeda in Somalia, though a rival warlord claimed there were 50 armed fighters of the terrorist organization who had entered the country.cite news
title=Inside Africa
url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0112/15/i_if.00.html
date=2001-12-15
publisher=CNN
accessdate=2007-02-03 ] In any regard, the United States did not deploy any troops to Somalia at the time.

He was the primary representative of the TNG at the October 2002 Somali Reconciliation Conference held in Eldoret, Kenya. However, those efforts failed to produce a lasting settlement, since the TNG was heavily contested by the rival Somalia Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC). The Somali National Reconciliation Conference meetings of July 2003 finally settled problems between the TNG and the SRRC, but by then the TNG had lost most of its momentum and funding.cite web
title=Weekly Sitrep no. 20 (Covering from 05th to 11th July, 2003)] NOVIB SOMALIA Somali National Reconciliation Conference
url=http://www.banadir.com/sitrep_mbagathi_20.shtml
date=2003-07-11
accessdate=2007-02-03] The three-year mandate for the TNG officially ended in August 2003, but the organization continued to carry on between the formal date and the creation of the successor Transitional Federal Government of 2004. President Abdiqassim Salad removed the Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Speaker in August 2003; the no-confidence vote of the Parliament in December 2003 was undertaken to formalize the decision. Writing from Nairobi, Hassan Abshir and Abdallah Derow Isaak both said any attempts to extend the terms of the TNG were "unconstitutional."cite news
title=SOMALIA: TNG hangs in the balance as mandate ends
url=http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35939&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=SOMALIA
date=2003-08-13
publisher=IRIN
accessdate=2007-02-03 ]

Also during his tenure in the TNG, he was reported to have assisted shipping weapons from the TNG to the Puntland faction led by Abdullahi Yusuf fighting against Jama Ali Jama, who had been elected to the office of President. Abdullahi Yusuf succeeded in his bid to forcefully retake the Presidency of Puntland and eventually became (through Parliamentary elections) President of the TFG. cite web
title=Puntland on the Verge of Civil War
url=http://www.somalilandtimes.net/Archive/Archive/00001500.htm
publisher=Somaliland Times
accessdate=2007-02-03 ]

Transitional Federal Government (TFG)

In 2004 Hassan Abshir Farah became the Fisheries Minister of the new Transitional Federal Government (TFG) which replaced the TNG. He is mostly active in National Peace Process in the country. In late 2006 he secured a $55 million pirate-fighting contract with New York-based Top Cat Marine Security.cite web
title=Somalian TFG Cabinet minister Hassan Abshir insists Top Cat Marine Security, with which his government signed a two-year $55 million deal, is not only real, but also that TC is ready for combat
url=http://www.kathryncramer.com/kathryn_cramer/2006/02/top_cat_marine_.html
date=2006-02-08
accessdate=2007-02-02 ]

On August 1, 2006, he resigned along with seven other ministers, in protest at Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi's postponement of talks with the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). He said "We had no option but to resign because we believe if the talks are postponed again it will affect the reconciliation efforts" [ [http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0128680.htm Eight more ministers resign from Somali government] , "Reuters", 1 August, 2006.]

References