Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

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Sharmarke, 48, has worked with the United Nations in Sudan and Sierra Leone, holds Canadian citizenship and obtained degrees in political science and political economy from Carleton University in Ottawa. He is a member of the same Darod subclan -- the Majarteen -- as former president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned late last year. According to Somalia's transitional charter, the president, the prime minister and the parliament speaker have to belong to three different major clans. Sheikh Sharif, a young Islamist cleric who was elected as president by parliament late last month, is a member of the Hawiye clan. The incoming prime minister's father, Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, was the last democratically-elected president of the Horn of Africa country. He was assassinated in October 1969. Days later, Mohamed Siad Barre took power in a bloodless coup and remained there until his overthrow in 1991 plunged the country into anarchy. Sharmarke replaces Nur Hassan Hussein, who had led Somalia's transitional federal government since November 2007 and lost in the presidential election held last month in Djibouti. According to the charter, Sharmarke will have a month from the moment of his official appointment to pick a cabinet, which will in turn have to be approved by parliament. Mohamed Abdi Yusuf, a human rights activist in Mogadishu, said: "This is an opportunity that Somali people should benefit from because the nominated prime minister comes from a well-known political dynasty and I hope he won't miss chances to succeed peace." "The nomination is the right choice because his father was a fair president so that I hope the son will follow him and will lead the country in the path of peace and prosperity," a resident of the capital, Amina Mohamed Issa, added. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose forces backed the government in driving an Islamic regime out of Mogadishu at the end of 2006, has greeted the the appointment of Sharif and Sharmarke with caution. "The new Somalia president has assured as that his intention is to promote peace within Somalia and with its neighbors," he told journalists late Friday in Addis Ababa.
"We are happy with that," he said, "but it will be foolhardy to base state policy on some statement at some particular time by some individual (...) I don't think that anything Sheikh Sharif said can be taken as a final guarantee". Learn about PILPG’s work in Somalia Return to Table of Contents Sri Lanka Sri Lanka elections back govt offensive on rebels Agence France Presse, 2/15/09 Sri Lanka's ruling party has won widespread public support for its war against the Tamil Tigers, local election results showed on Sunday, as the military braced for a final assault on the rebels. President Mahinda Rajapakse's Freedom Alliance easily won two provincial councils which went to the polls Saturday, according to provisional counting. Rajapakse had turned the vote into a referendum on his military campaign to crush separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas who are cornered in the north-east of the island. "The results showed that the people supported the government's war effort," defeated main opposition candidate S. B. Dissanayake said. The president has said he hoped to defeat the Tamil Tigers within days, ending the island's decades-long ethnic conflict. Officials said the air force on Sunday destroyed at least three boats of the Tamil Tigers off the coast of Mullaittivu district, where the fighting is concentrated. The state-run Sunday Observer reported that the elusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was still in Sri Lanka and has been preparing his fighters to launch a last-ditch counter attack. Prabhakaran, 54, and his eldest son Charles Anthony have blended in with about 100,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone, it said. The report said two guerrillas arrested last month disclosed that their leader had not fled despite widespread speculation he had escaped by sea. "Tiger leader and his son are still living among the civilians in Puthukkudiriruppu and are engaged in making more and more terror plans to reverse the military victories," the Observer quoted the two rebels as saying.
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Page 3 and 4: Kosovo marks 1 year of independence
Page 5 and 6: Whitman said he could not discuss p
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Page 9 and 10: "However, the aforesaid statements
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Page 15 and 16: Former US President George W. Bush'
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Page 21 and 22: EU enlargement commissioner Olli Re
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Page 25 and 26: The first victim of the operation h
Page 27 and 28: The five-day war and Russia's subse
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Page 45 and 46: Moro Islamic Liberation Front which
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Page 57 and 58: The New York Times reported on Wedn
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Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

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