The Speaker of Somaliland’s Upper House of Parliament, Suleiman Mohamud Adan on Monday has called on Somaliland gov’t to release the prisoners of war hailing from Lasanod and who are in detention in Somaliland without a condition and will be exchanged with prisoners of war who are in captivity in Lasanod.
He said that the release of prisoners of war hailing from Lasanod and who are in captivity in Somaliland is not an easy one while the administration in Lasanod dubbed SSC-Khaatumo wants Somaliland to recognize as a regional authority that is independent from Somaliland. He said that SSC-Khaatumo authority will release Somaliland prisoners of war if Somaliland accepts SSC-Khatumo as an administration.
He said: “I like to release the prisoners of war without a condition and to hand over to the Int’l Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) and hand over to their authorities. Whether they release them or keep them captivity. The Somaliland gov’t is negotiating the release of prisoners with a community in Somaliland and that is wrong.”
He told that there are traditional leaders who voluntarily working on pacification efforts. Therefore, they have to represent us on peace efforts and the release of prisoners of war but Somaliland to negotiate with SSC_Khaatumo is unacceptable.
He accused the Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of causing problems to peace in Somaliland and Lasanod.
He said that recently Somalia recognized SSC-Khaatumo as a regional administration poses a security threat. Lasanod authority recently released 25 prisoners of war who are among the hundreds of prisoners of war who are in detention in Lasanod.
The authority in Lasanod said that they released the prisoners who were not in good health. Puntland and Somaliland exchanged 26 prisoners that were captured in Lasanod fighting after the two sides reached a common understanding the swap of prisoners.
