New UN representative presents credentials

Somalia’s new permanent representative to United Nations, Ambassador Ahmad Abdi Hashi Hasharo, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday, a senior official of the Transitional National Government (TNG) confirmed to IRIN. Abdirahman Dinari, the TNG director of information, told IRIN on Thursday that it was “the first time in 10 years that Somalia has had a permanent representative at the UN.” Hasharo, who is a lawyer by profession, served in senior positions in the administration of former President of Muhammad Siyad Barre, under whom he was an ambassador and Permanent Secretary of the higher education and justice ministries, a former colleague told IRIN. He comes from the Sool Region, which is part of the self-declared independent state of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia. In his early sixties, Hasharo “is a highly intelligent and sober individual”, Ahmad Abdisalam, a former colleague, said. Hasharo has since 1992 lived in Toronto Canada where he was involved in immigrant and refugees rights issues, said Abdisalam. Hasharo was nominated to the post by the interim president, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, last month. The appointment was, however, opposed by Fatun Muhammad Hasan, Somalia’s longstanding charge d’affaires at the UN, who, in a letter on 4 September, asked the Secretary-General to reject the nomination. Fatun said in her letter that that TNG was insufficiently representative, and that the nomination would only serve the interests of one political group. The nomination was also opposed by opposition supporters and activists, as well as by the administration in Somaliland, diplomatic sources said.