From Lord Avebury P0726124
020-7274 4617
Saturday, December 29, 2007
To Lord Malloch Brown
Minister Foreign & Commonwealth Office,
London SW1A 2AH
Dear Lord Malloch-Brown,
Further to my letter of November 2 about the situation in Somaliland, ref P0721112, copy attached, (to which I don’t appear to have had a reply), you will have been advised of the conditional release of the three leaders. I attach an article by Mahdi A. Abdi of the East Africa Policy Institute on the questions that arise from this decree by the President, and an article from the Somaliland Times of December 22 on this subject.
I understand that the Somaliland Minister of Finance is in Nairobi, where he was expecting to finalise details of the EU’s funding of the elections, as well as other aid projects. Whilst any humanitarian aid should continue, it would be wrong for the EU to subsidise elections which can’t be free and fair, since important players are still to be excluded from participation. I do hope we shall use our influence in Brussels to ensure that aid for the elections is suspended until the right to campaign and put up candidates, who may include the three leaders who were imprisoned for 144 days, is extended to the Qaran Political Assocation.
Yours sincerely,
Eric Avebury
Source: Qaransomaliland.com
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