Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
11 May 2011
Mogadishu — Members of Somali parliament’s election committee on Wednesday are to trip to neighboring Kenya to attend election workshop one after Somali government stopped from departing from Mogadishu’s international airport.
The spokesman of election committee of the parliament, Hared Hassan Ali, said in an interview with Shabelle that they didn’t get any permission from the transitional government, adding that they are free to their trip.
The United States government voiced a deep concern about TFG’s security personnel move to prevent MPs, who someone were American citizens, from flying out of Mogadishu.
“According to accounts, several parliamentarians were threatened with weapons and at least three were physically assaulted by security personnel” US embassy in Kenya said in a statement.
The majority of the parliamentarians were en route to an elections workshop in Nairobi. Some parliamentarians were en route to a separate event in Ethiopia. Several others were departing on personal travel, the statement added.
The US government also said the TFG reportedly blocked the parliamentarian’s travel because it opposed their participation in the workshop, which had been organized to discuss modalities for holding elections for the Parliamentary Speaker and TFG President later this year.
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