Somali govt puts 'diplomatic visas' on auction!
Thursday, 11 March 2010
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, March 10: The ministers in the Somali government put on auction "diplomatic visas" for allowing those who are refused visas to make foreign trips. The visas are sold to the highest bidders, pirates included. Somalia is riven with corruption. Food aid to Somalia is diverted from the needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, Islamic Jihadists and local UN staff.
A report by diplomats outlines a host of problems so grave that it recommends the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to open an independent investigation into the World Food Programme's Somali operation, the New York Times (NYT) reported today.
Meanwhile, Washington suffered an embarrassing diplomatic rebuff with lawmakers from Pakistan refusing to submit themselves to extra airport screening. This was supposed to be a high profile visit. Pakistan lawmakers were scheduled to have a meeting with Richard Halbrooke, US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, visit Pentagon and the National Security Council. The team was selected by the political wing of the US embassy. The congress has given the US embassy in Pakistan an additional allocation of $37 million to spend on exchange programme intended to show skeptical Pakistanis that the US is a real ally, a country that wants to help not hinder Pakistan. About 2000 Pakistanis are expected to take part in this exchange programme. The selected participants are paid $200 per diem.
In another development, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary made a trip to Helmand in Afghanistan which wasonce a powerful sanctuary of Talebans but recently cleared. It was a government arranged trip with local people asked to remain indoors, the NYT reported.
In South East Asia, Myanmar's ruling military junta has passed a law preventing country's democratic leader Aung San from joining a political party and running in a national election. She has spent 14 of last 20 years in jail.
NEW YORK, March 10: The ministers in the Somali government put on auction "diplomatic visas" for allowing those who are refused visas to make foreign trips. The visas are sold to the highest bidders, pirates included. Somalia is riven with corruption. Food aid to Somalia is diverted from the needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, Islamic Jihadists and local UN staff.
A report by diplomats outlines a host of problems so grave that it recommends the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to open an independent investigation into the World Food Programme's Somali operation, the New York Times (NYT) reported today.
Meanwhile, Washington suffered an embarrassing diplomatic rebuff with lawmakers from Pakistan refusing to submit themselves to extra airport screening. This was supposed to be a high profile visit. Pakistan lawmakers were scheduled to have a meeting with Richard Halbrooke, US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, visit Pentagon and the National Security Council. The team was selected by the political wing of the US embassy. The congress has given the US embassy in Pakistan an additional allocation of $37 million to spend on exchange programme intended to show skeptical Pakistanis that the US is a real ally, a country that wants to help not hinder Pakistan. About 2000 Pakistanis are expected to take part in this exchange programme. The selected participants are paid $200 per diem.
In another development, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary made a trip to Helmand in Afghanistan which wasonce a powerful sanctuary of Talebans but recently cleared. It was a government arranged trip with local people asked to remain indoors, the NYT reported.
In South East Asia, Myanmar's ruling military junta has passed a law preventing country's democratic leader Aung San from joining a political party and running in a national election. She has spent 14 of last 20 years in jail.