By Hon. Fawzia Y. H. Adam
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Somalia Regarding Allegations by The UN Monitoring Group Report
Allow me at the outset to thank you all for attending this critical press Conference to respond to the UN Monitoring Report False Allegations.
It has come to my attention once more that Mr. Jarat Chopra of the United Nations Monitoring Group has yet again leaked to the Media another UN Monitoring Report which is full of defamatory, vilifying and false allegations and is engaged in smear campaign against me and the government I was part of.
Without checking the rudiments of this baseless allegations with me, and without finding the facts, Mr. Chopra and his collaborators engineered this slanderous and libelous report which is recycled and has no value for the purpose the Security Council Monitoring strategy.
Furthermore, Mr. Chopra refused to respond to my emails repeatedly. In those emails, I was requesting him to meet me to discuss any matter concerning myself in this report.
This is a clear indication of his sinister aim. One wonders though what is the motive for this mission.
By continuing this false accusations, defamatory and disparaging reporting, Mr. Chopra and his team are clearly destroying the credibility and the image of the United Nations, which we all are grateful to and particularly the Security Council of the United Nations.
Someone should be responsible and punished for this irresponsible act.
Let me once more answer to the questions some Media houses are asking me to clarify and reply to, which are based on the unsubstantiated and defamatory information put into this report to tarnish my reputation.
I was asked what my response to the following allegation is ;
The UN Monitoring Group report alleges that I conspired with President Hassan Sheikh Mahmud and other people to “divert the recovery of frozen overseas assets in an irregular manner
Here is my answer; This is the most bizarre and baseless allegations ever against me. Defaming personalities and attacking the credibility of honest and hardworking people is a serious violation of human dignity and social humiliation. Someone should be punished for this atrocious crime.
As Reuter’s reported on 16 July, 2014, they have reviewed Shulman Rogers contract and did not find names of any individuals who would be paid from the 6 percent clause Ms Abrar the Former Central Bank Governor stated..
To gain credibility, why didn’t Mr. Chopra examine Shulman Roger’s contract just like Reuters did, to find out if her story is true before he defamed the characters of decent and key people in the Somali Government?
What evidence has Mr. Chopra when he reports what Ms. Abrar thought about the undefined costs and expense? To make his report reliable, ethical and honest, why didn’t he ask Ms. Abrar for any evidence of the information she provided him during her many meetings with him before and after she took-over her position in the Bank?
All the information that Mr. Chopra claims were given to him by Ms. Abrar which were based on her assumptions, thus totally unsubstantiated? His report contains nothing but fabricated information and what Ms. Abrar, thought, assumed and feared of. Not a shred of evidence anywhere in her allegations which makes Mr. Chopra’s report poor, unworthy and totally irresponsible.
Where is the evidence of the so called planned scheme for the recovery of Somalia’s assets? Why couldn’t Ms. Abrar discover and document the hidden fees that she assumed existed in her head, when she had the chance? That would have been evidence of her story
I demand to know who is responsible for this fabrication and who will take the blame for it.
As a Foreign Minister, my role was to build the image of Somalia not to conspire and defame my name and that of my government. I was neither the Central Bank Governor nor the Finance Ministry to deal with the Financial issues of the State.
With regard to the recycled Dubai Account information, The report alleges that I put pressure on ex Central bank Governor Yussur Abrar to open an account in Dubai with the aim to divert funds.
In my 22nd February Statement, I declared that that MS Abrar was never asked by me or anyone to open an account. The former Prime Minister ordered the Former Minister of Finance to open an account for the government and asked the Central Bank to co-sign for transparency purpose. This took place before Ms. Abrar came to take over her job.
The letter sent by the Prime Minister asking the Chair of the Abu Dhabi Bank to help in this matter dated on 6/10/2013, which is in Arabic is attached.
To put it on record, this account was already opened by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. Mohamed Hassan. while MS Abrar was in the USA ( See Mr. Hassan’s interview with BBC). It is therefore another blatant lie and fabrication.
Let me once more state here that , as Reuters stated correctly Ms. Abrar resigned only seven weeks after she was appointed, however, out of that seven weeks MS Abrar spent only four days in the Central Bank of which 2days were allocated for staff introduction and for handing-over purposes. She spent six days only in Somalia (evidence can be obtained from the Central Bank and in the immigration Department in Mogadishu).
On their email dated 14 July,2014 Reuters asked me and I quote “The report alleges that you asked UN Security Council to terminate Jarat Chopra’s contract as the head of the UN Monitoring Group for Somalia. Is this correct?
This is again another falls accusation and fraud . The Somali Foreign Affairs headed letter written in Somali language for another internal Foreign Ministry affair was forged and my signature was scanned and sed. Fortunately they forgot to remove the last line which was written in the first Somali version and that proved that it was forgery . There is suspicion that , this forgery was designed to create tension between myself and the UN New York based team. Evidence of the letter is available.
Mr. Chopra told one of his close friends and I quote: “My job is to destroy people” Well, if that was his mission in the case of Somalia, then he has miserably failed in this report, for no one will take him and his investigative reports seriously
I hereby, state that I have all the evidence to disprove the allegations the UN Monitoring Group reported. It is about time we stand tall to protect our dignity and that of our nation.
Tarnishing my reputation and causing shock and social humiliation is planned to repeal my devotion to my country. Let me tell those who are with these sinister motives, I will NEVER NEVER stop working for my country and people, I will continue fighting for my nation. Somali needs reconciliation and cohesion, peace, security. Somalia needs to heels it’s past wounds and to envision it’s bright future for its future generations.
Thank you for your attention.