UNITED NATIONS Distr. L!M.ITED TR U S T E E S H 1--p·~l .. :, r~ -~ • ·, ,• • , , • 'J/FET.11/L.37 . ~ ·•· C . ,,, 23 February i959 C O U-'-'N· C· I· L- :'.ENGLISH ·-; ; .-._ :· · ,t' · . , QRIGUJAL: .ITALIAN . . . . ;_ ... , ,. ,,,
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,, .PETITION FROM Tiir(soMALI YOUTH tEAGtre .. CdNdERNfua·' .. '· · · · -SOMALILAND UlIDER IT.ALI.AN· ADMINISTRATION,..: . ··fo·1tcui~t~a in accorda~c·e \.dth'rule 85. ~i th~ rul~s 'o:e: -~ •: • procedure of ;tlie Trusteeship Council) · ,.:·.
SOMALILAND YOUTH LEAGUE, ·: _. __, -Mcrgadiscio · ·.... ·. · ··· ,:Moga:disdio, 15 Janua.ry· 1959~ ·•· J .. ,'; To : 'the U~i ted. N~ti~~s. Aa.~~ory cio'Jn~u J. • •• , ;., " . ;-: __ ·:_ ' : and, for i.nt'o~~tion,_ t~: H~E, t'.p.~ 11,dminis.tr~tor .of Somalia·. ,) i:,..,: •• • • - -~ • • J the Hon. Pxime Minis~er of the pomali Government
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. '. ~e _c~~~:.~l. ~-~~ ttee of the So~li .Yo~th te~g~e .( suJ, . con~id~~i~gth~ decision taken ·by. the four. so-called opposition Parties not to·· participate in the next p~litiGreater Somalia League too; but the Government directly .. ·.. ·.~ --~-~ -"-_-; -·\,;.:·· ·.: :---. -.•.·:·.~· •·. , .. ·:: ·. ~ ,·;··•;,:·. :·. ·.::··.--'·.·~.· intervened to have these two lists accepted. In Uegit, the H.D.M. local committee < • • •• • ' ; 0 • ._.' • '.'" • • •, •,. ::. j •• ;_ • ,! • • : . • • . •• ' T • •. I ,', •1 •.- • •;' • • •,•: : • submitted an incomplete list and did not take any timely steps to complete it; , .. ' . : . . . ' . . . : . ,• . . , .~. ' . - . . and, wben the L~cal Authorities rejected th:ls list, the Prime Minister.intetvened . . -. •· ~ . . - ' personally to have it accepted.; in Tigeglo, as·a result of the ·ao,;ernme'nt 1 s intervention, ag~in.st the -will of 'th~ L~cal:·.lmth~rities~ the a~i~is~rat:i.V~ ~rea was modified to include two villages that the n'. D~M. claimed ~e~~- -pa~{ o-t· i ~/· · altp.oJ.igh both these villages a.re sit11a,ted outside the municipal. area as fixed by 59-04580 / •••
T/FET.11/L.37 English Page 2 the I.a.w. In Baidoa and Mgoi, the H.D.:M. mayors were unable to explain the disappearance of 2,400 and 900 electoral certificates, respectively; since they were the only persons to have access to the offices of the Municipality, it was legitimate to suspect that they had surreptitiously distributed the certificates to electors of their own Party who alteady had been given their own certificates; and, despite this, the Government Author~ties did not put the responsible persons under accusation nor did they annul the ~lectione. In Dinsor, Bardera, Lugh and Bur Acaba, all centres in which the Municipaii ty was in the hands of the Hizbia, large numbers of' citizens domd.ciled outside the municipal area and, therefore, prevented by the law from voting, were entered in the municipal registers and, although our local branches complained to the supervising Authorities (Prefects and Commissioners) and requested them to exe~cise some control, the Government did not intervene for the sole purpose of not displeasing the opposition parties. In spite of all this, the Somali Youth League did not deem it necessary to . . make a tragedy out of these obvious infringements to the Law, all. in favour of our opponents, whereas it was our interest, and our right, to insist on a strict application of the provisions of. the Law. If the Government had exercised the necessary control, these Parties would certainly have gained much fewer. seats.than they actually obtained. Our Party recalls all this f_or the sole purpose of proving. that it had many reasons to be dissatisfied with the Government's generosity and if it did not cotnJ?lain to the Advisory Council and A)l'IS it was bec~use it was fully conscious of the fact that the Government had tried to a.et for the best and because it knew that the strict- enforcement of the Law would have been interpreted, even if unjustly, as an attetnJ?t on the part of the Government to favour _the majority Party. As the recent events have shown, th~ opposit~on Parties have interpreted the Government's liberality and the Somali Youth League's silence as a sign of the Government's weakness and of the SYL's ~ontentment with this state of affairs. Therefore these Parties became more exigent in asserting their claims to act as they please, even if, in some occasions, their attitude waa on the verge of illegality: violent deeds and words, instigation to violence in clandestine publications, as well as slandering the highest constitutional Authorities of Somali in uncensored public shows. /.~. . T/PET;ii./L~37 English' ·,., .. Page 3
;'. ;'Agaln-st ·•s~h,: a ··flood: 6f illegal:ity, , Which (came very. -n_ear: .to· .anarchy~ -:th.er~..... was'· .. ·a ;:Eierierar;~rotl'est lof '-public: opinion- 'ir.( Somalia.,:•.public: opinion:.Which. :could;•· ·rio1tbut ,·b'e ii"tfare .idf the Governm:e\'nt ,r s total.. 1ack :of power, or: lack. ·of ;:will,, to,;-, . take measurJs·:1:n ~order :;to prevent the··illegal, acts con:t±nuously.·committed by tne said Parties. • _i~ {· < '· ...: • __ •• : •• , ,.
'-t·; . ,. •, ·. ,.. . •. '. t - - ' ... · Tbe_·,somali ·Youth !League, 'then ·was certain :tha:t.·it c0uJ.:.d. e~pect that- tl:!,e Trtisteesnfp .%:imfrtistrat±ori arid -the. ·Uni tea· Nations Advisory. :council, :,,:Wbich. were, . ·
1 present ::OU'. the spdt; and :had .every .'opportunity of directly' ascertaining Wi;l.t,.c W,,a~ '. c'ons'tatitiy 'takinl·· p1ace;' would advise the Governnient.>to. prepare the neR p-rovtsipns indisf>e1foable/ for·, the.:·maintenance: · of public · order1 in s_omalia or, at;:least·,,;. to: ,: :· applf tH.e p·rbvisiotis·' bf· i:tal:i.ah··1a:'IV: in force in this•: .field~ .. ·.Hovrever,: the Lea.g~e .h ·1ow ~mirei'"tiia.t' AFIS and· the Unite·d Nations Ad.visory, Councd:l, · lending a.· vci.ll.i1;1g ear to' 'the'-'•un:ju:sti cbmplalnts·::anci prcrt'estel'--of- the -Very Parties· which:' wiere•. disturbing public order, di scour.aged the Soma.1i Government by disapproving: the~_;_ •' titnei:/ iawi,: voted' tb:rough .. parliainertta:ry 'initiative, which were .meant to .prevent . . • ' • • • t .• ' . . • ' f ...... ,~ .. . ,· , •' • •, •. ' . ' ' ·internal· ·subversion-' ·and ··a.na·rch';Y·.' We refei' here to the: measure ... granting- the ·· :. . · Governill.t:~t '.domplenieirta.i-y pov1ers f'or a p'eriod 'of ·twelve .months~, which ,was .approved by the' iegfslat±v'et'Assembly and· 'which; it 'Seems, wa.s, cli'Sa)?prciv:ed:·;tj;y: this. Cow:ic;;tl. , ·:' ,_, iJ!h.e Somai'i· 1oi.rth >League, ha;v-i-ng full ,conf!idence :tn· tlie Advisory- ..Ce>\l,Ilc:U ,and H.E'/the' 'Adinirifstra~'cfr;·. cannot feel offended by 'the •.va-rioUS'·"advice 'and sugge~,ttons w'hfcl! fu~/•ofcasionally :be given to 'its leaders,· -but ·1t notes with bittern~ss that' '·' soni.~·t'ini.es ;s'uch :ad.\i'i;ce' and s\1ggestions may ·appear as meant to ·correct er.ror!:i .which :, ,;atiif!h:·wliefi':s~eri ;iri the pure light of reason. )Fo:r instance; 'With regard ,tq-th(;.! preparatory pheae of the next political elections,. it was said.·by the Advispry
•'-"'- .-.":·-• ,•:,, r •.• • ,, • • Council that·neither the single list nor the penal procedures against Party ·Lead~rs .• c6ui'd. be· considered as' democratic; the · last point,. incidentally; ~y ·'.:' .: app·~~r as me~ning that ev.eryori.e is' entitled to commit all poss:i.ble illegal ac-t1;1 vtltb.6ut ·suffering· the consequences thereof.,. ·: Concerning. the single list, it is difficult to understand what'is undemocratic in the fact that, of neces~ity, there would be no election where there·are-no·competing lists, sinceno obst!3,cles ha.vebeen opposed to the free presentation.of list$, according to the Law, on the part.of anybody. It is also difficult to unde~stand why, in a country which, more
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than any other, is in need of public order, anybody should be free to transgress the Law, whether in a period of election or not. In the Trusteeship Agreement itself and the annexed Declaration of Constitutional Principles, the individual freedoms are subject to the requirements of public order and security (art. 20 of the Trusteeship Agreement and art. 9 of the Declaration of Constitutional Principles) • .For the next political elections, a Sl)ecial law was prepared and since the Laws are made to be observed by all and to be enforced by the Government, the extension of three days granted by Decree-Law - extension which results in a modification of all the dates.fixed in the law as approved by the Assembly - is clearly unjustified because all the Parties concerned had all the time that they needed to present their lists and, if they did not do it, it is either that they did not want to present them or because they were faced with internal difficulties of a disciplinary and organizational nature which cannot be imputed to the Government Authorities. In many districts, the Somali Youth League was faced with similar difficulties but it was able to overcome them thanks to the self-discipline of its members who knew how to restrain their personal ambitions and, also and above all, because the Central Direction left to the local committees f'Ull responsibility for compiling the lists of candidates. As a matter of fact, the members of the Central Committee did not leave Mogadiscio except when certain branches requested their presence on the spot, whereas the.Central Committees of the other Parties insisted on interfering, without being asked to, in the choice of candidates of each branch; in order to impose their ow will, and, this, in spite of the fact that lists are presented on a district basis and not a national one. . ,If whole local .branches of' opposition Parties went over to the League ~ masse, as a result of which the Parties concerned were unable to present any list because there were none of their members left, this cannot be imputed to the Government or the Somali Youth League itself which, exactly as other parties have tried and are trying to unroot it, is perfectly entitled to endeavour to weaken its adversaries. And this is what happened in Dinsor, Bardera and Brava, with respect to the Hizbia; in Bender Cassim and Garde, with respect to the Great Somalia League, while a similar occurrence took place in•Itala, at the e:xl)ense of the Liberal Party. / ... T/PET.11/1.37 English Page 5
In its magnanimity, magnanimity that the SYL considers as being nothing but stupid ingenuousness, the Somali Government went as· fa-r .· as '~ending some of its ovm off_ic:i.als in treny centres ·(in _Bur Aca:b~, .the Minist~r 6f th:e Interio; hi~elf). ,• ~ in the aft,ernoon of 13. January 'so as. to enable the said Parties '.to p;esent their lists eve·n after· 6 p.m., and· this after having ·granted.. an 'unjusti~ied extension of the time-limit, extension that; furthermore/these Parties dia not even care to take ad.vanta:ge 6f, convinced as they were that, without thei·r -full. participation, the elections would not take place.
0 ·What is rather strange in all this iS that none of those who. support the unjust and unwarranted claims of the oppos1tion Parties wondered whether their ill-timed :patronage mght not result.in the So~li Youth League's Withdra;al from the elections! As_ a matter of fact, after the granting of the three days 1' extension of the 'ti~e-limit, numerous branches of our Party threatened to Withdraw the' lists that they'had airead.y presented. · The victories and _defeats of each political party in Somalia, as everywhere else in the world, afe closely linked With the historical past, the political programmes and the 'seriousness.of the intentions of :the individual Parties. The Somali _Youth League. was the first of the· present Parties to be established in Somali (1943) and is striving, aG it always did, for the complete amalgamation of the Somalis and the Somali'Territ / ... T/PET.ll/L.37 English Page 6 For these' reasons, and apart f.rom. ·some movements 'of' followers from one· party to the othe'r due to the opportunism of certain influential :pe:r'sons in search of secure positions, the mass of the people follows closely the·evolution of the various Parties and, often, leaves the Party which it had :previously supported in order to join another one whicli better.serves its ideals; no wonder, therefore, if whole branches of certain Parties recently passed over to tbe Somali Youth League. Actually, if the facts are these, and none other (and whoever has any doubts is invited to verify by himself), it is natural and legitimate for our Party to be perplexed, as it has been perplexed,by the fact that the United Nations Advisory Council and the Trusteeship Administration, lending a willing ear to groundless complaints, make suggestions to and put pressure on the Somali Government in order to support the rather unorthodox game of certain opposition Parties. Forecasts regarding the respective strength of the various Parties during the- - next elections show that no great changes are to be expected arid if, as it is probable, the Somali Youth Leagµ.e obtains a tremendous majority, -iet us not forget that it obtained a similar majority in the three last elections (two administrative elections and a political one) two of .which took place when ·all internal affairs of Somalia were still in the hands of the Italian Authorities. Therefore, in the pure light of reason, it is impossible to uphold the thesis according to which this Party took advantage of its position as Government Party ,- . to :p::rei,,~r-t ~~.1c other Parties from freely pa.rtici:pating in tb.e elections. Most respectfully yours,· ADEN AB:CDI.iLA OSMAN ( Signed)