Former minister deported from Somaliland

A former interior minister and police chief of Somalia, who was detained by the authorities of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, was "deported" to Djibouti on Monday afternoon. Somaliland Information Minister Abdullahi Muhammad Du'ale told IRIN on Tuesday the ex-minister, Gen Jama Muhammad Ghalib, had not been charged because he was in transit. "It was decided that since he was claiming to be in transit not to prosecute him, but to deport him," Du'ale said. Ghalib, who hails from Somaliland, is a delegate to the Somali peace talks currently under way in Kenya, and a vocal supporter of Somali unity within a federal system of government. He opposes Somaliland's unilateral declaration of independence from the rest of Somalia. He was detained on Saturday at Hargeysa airport, where his aircraft landed in transit to Mogadishu. Du'ale said a group of eight young men protesting against Ghalib's arrest attacked Hargeysa airport on Monday. One of them died of wounds sustained during the attack, and the rest were arrested. Also wounded in the attack were two airport security officers. Du'ale added that "airport operations were back to normal within one hour". On Monday, the minister told IRIN that any Somalilander who called for reunification with Somalia "calls into question the existence of the country and will therefore face the law".