Puntland,Accupation, Treason &fish.......

[Wiil_Soomaali]

BOSSASO, Somalia Apr 2 (Garowe Online) - The president of Somalia’s semiautonomous Puntland regional state, Gen. Mohamud “Adde” Muse, spoke to reporters in Bossaso on Monday after returning yesterday from a weeks-long trip to neighboring Ethiopia.



President Adde Muse said he was officially invited to Addis Ababa by the Ethiopian government last month. While in Addis Ababa, the Puntland president met with various Ethiopian government officials and had the chance to visit select foreign embassies there.



The Puntland leader said he signed a deal with the Ethiopian government to strengthen relations in the trade and security sectors.



According to President Adde, the Puntland region would export fish products to land-locked Ethiopia, while Puntland students would be granted access to institutions of higher education in Ethiopia.



Ethiopia would also assist the Puntland region in the telecommunications sector.



“They [Ethiopia] will help us with security,” said President Adde while addressing last week’s arrival of a fresh contingent of Ethiopian troops in Galkayo, Puntland’s southernmost city.



The President said there were “active” members of the ousted Islamic Courts movement inside Puntland, and that the newly arrived Ethiopian troops will help the secure the region from such threats.



In addressing a reporter’s question, President Adde Muse said that Puntland is part of federal Somalia but that the region has the legal right to sign agreements in its interest.



In mid-2005, Somalia’s weak transitional federal government disagreed with President Muse’s unilateral decision to sign a natural resources exploration deal with a foreign company.



The Puntland leader also said that the regional state would attend the upcoming National Reconciliation Conference, to open in Mogadishu on April 16, as a regional government.



He dismissed claims by some Mogadishu-based politicians and elders that Puntland troops were fighting a clan war against Mogadishu locals.



Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, the former leader of Puntland, has repeatedly said that the NRC would be a conference of clans, not regional governments or government officials.



Source: Garowe Online