Somalia: President Sharif Ahmed and Frozen assets

Hanad Askar

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Editorial
Few weeks ago Asharq Al-Awsat, the Arabic language daily newspaper, published story about a document it obtained. The document links Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government with a campaign to reclaim frozen Somali assets held in Swiss Banks since the collapse of the rule of the deposed President of Somalia Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.” Asharq Al-Awsat alleges the document was obtained from the Somali president.
A member of the office of Somali president’s staff who is unhappy with the president Sharif Ahmed’s bid to get access to Somali’s frozen assets may have leaked the document to the newspaper.
The president appointed his financial adviser, Mr Ali A Amalow, former head of Somalia central bank, to be the contact person who will liaise with Shulman Rogers, the American law firm tasked with recovering Somalia’s frozen assets on behalf of the Transitional Federal Government for a fee—“ 50,000 plus 3.5% of the proceeds it manages to recover from the foreign banks.”
Neither the BBC Somali Service nor the VOA Somali Service has taken interest in a major story that has left many Somalis in outside Somalia wondering why a president many people think to be a “decent and trustworthy’ allowed to authorise people with shady past to recover Somalia’s frozen assets., in the interest of transparency Horseed Media urges the TFG leadership to comment on the story linking the TFG president with a campaign to reclaim frozen assets without the knowledge of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Parliament. If the TFG leadership remains silent on this issue, the International community MUST intervene.
© Horseed Media 2010