Somali Prime Minister Optimistic Kidnapped Journalists will be released Soon

The Canadian citizen who is now Prime Minister of Somalia says he is "very optimistic," kidnapped Alberta journalist Amanda Lindhout will be released soon.

Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke refused to explain his optimism because of the delicate situation the Sylvan Lake-native, and Australian photo-journalist Nigel Brennan are in. "I'm very optimistic that in the very near future we will have freed those two journalists," Sharmarke told the CBC this week.

The Somali Prime Minister already had stated that Lindhout and Brennan were very close to being released a month-and-a-half ago. Sharmarke holds joint Canadian-Somalian citizenship, and has degrees from Carleton University in Ottawa, CBC reports.

Meanwhile the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has cited Somalia as one of 14 countries where violence against the press often goes unsolved and unpunished. Others on the list are Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Pakistan, Iraq, Brazil, Colombia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Russia, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and India. But now local Somali elders, who expressed concern that two foreign journalists, Canadian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brennan, are still held for over 10 months as hostages in Mogadishu while the civil war rages on, stood up. The leaders stated that all of the warring factions must be held responsible if anything would happen to the visitors due to the ongoing fights involving the use of heavy weapons.

Since obviously the governments of these two media people are doing and can do little to secure a release, specifically the very group, which claims to be in charge of the area, where the two journalists are held hostage, would face serious consequences from the Somali side, if the two would be harmed, the senior Somalis stated. "If these criminals harm their hostages or risk that they can get harmed and thereby bring shame to Somalia - they as well as the group, who controls the sector will suffer", Sheikh Obo announced. "If the Governments will not catch those responsible for the case and thereby also for the security of the hostages later - we will!", he added. He called upon the group holding the journalists to have mercy, to realize that their attempt to press for money can not succeed, since the freelance journalists have no rich families or insurances, and he urged them to let the young media people go free. "They only came to Somalia to help and to highlight our suffering."

Source: Ecoterra, June 20, 2009

~	Conference, Oct. 16, 2024. The War Against the Past: Fighting for our History

~	SLAV - Robert Lepage's Reaction

~	Author and Tolerance.ca Editor, Victor Teboul, Ph.D., to speak at the Arab World Festival of Montreal

~	Iran : Hey Ayatollah, Leave those kids alone! and Pink Floyd's remake

~	UN-backed group supports Somali Government’s peace overtures to rivals

~	Cargo vessel captured near Seychelles is commandeered to Somalia

~	U.S. and Oman Navy Rescue Indian Dhow from Somali Pirates - One Sailor Dead

~	Canada. 50% of tax filers participate in a private retirement savings plan

~	Somali Pirates capture second merchant vessel in 24h

~	Canada. 41% of adults have a high cholesterol level