An artikel in the VERDI trade Union magazine M.Menschn Machen Medien nr 3/2012
about two somalian Journalists, now in Germany who also report on the trial.
Medien + International
Senden über London nach Mogadischu
Somalische Journalisten wollen in Deutschland für ihr Land arbeiten
In Mogadischu herrscht seit 20 Jahren Krieg. Journalisten können nur unter Lebensgefahr über die Probleme ihres Landes berichten. Zwei somalische Journalisten haben in Deutschland Zuflucht gefunden. Zurzeit sind sie dabei, den Verein SEJOG – Somali Exiled Journalist Organisation Germany, zu gründen. Unterstützung haben sie bei Reporter ohne Grenzen (ROG) gefunden. Autorin Marily Stroux kam mit ihnen ins Gespräch und hilft ihnen, Fuß zu fassen.Mustafa im Blog
www.wariyaha.com„Ich habe viele Länder durchquert von Somalia nach Europa und das Mittelmeer überquert. Dabei habe ich viel Schlimmes, aber auch Gutes erlebt.
Ich habe den längsten Weg genommen durch die Sahara. Wir sahen Tausende Menschen, die Tausende Kilometer zu Fuß gingen. Du kannst nichts für sie tun. Wenn du sie in deinem Auto mitnehmen würdest, würde es schwerer werden und könnte kaputt gehen. Du kannst nichts für sie tun, nur sagen: Gott soll euch helfen. Wenn du Wasser bei dir hast oder Essen, musst du ihnen das geben.
Wir waren 43 in dem Auto: 10 aus dem Sudan, der Rest Somalis“ …
Nurediin Sheikh Ahmed und Mustafa Adem Harun erfuhren von dem derzeit in Hamburg laufenden sogenannten „Piraten-Prozess“ gegen 10 somalische Männer. Darüber muss man auch in Somalia berichten, sagten sie. Marily sammelte daraufhin vor Ort die Informationen und drehte Videos. Per Internet entstanden daraus gemeinsam gestaltete Berichte für Horn Cabel TV, ein somalischer Sender, der weltweit im Netz und in Somalia im Fernsehen zum empfangen ist. Horn Cabel TV, das seit einiger Zeit aus London sendet, weil es in Somalia geschlossen wurde, war der Arbeitgeber des 38-jährigen Abdisalan Sheikh Hassan, der am 18. Dezember 2011 in Mogadischu auf dem Weg zu einer Pressekonferenz erschossen wurde. Seinem Schicksal und dem von 17 anderen ermordeten Journalisten konnten Nurediin und Mustafa entgehen.
Nurediin Sheikh Ahmed arbeitete in Somalia für Shabelle Radio. „Der Sender steht unter Druck der Regierung, aber auch der Al Shabab (islamistische militante Gruppe, die die Übergangsregierung bekämpft /Red.) Manchmal darf er senden, manchmal nicht“, sagte er.
Mustafa Adem Harun war Nachrichtensprecher in Mogadischu beim Horn Afrika media, das 2009 von Islamisten geschlossen wurde. Viele Leute kannten sein Gesicht und seine Stimme. „Ein Kollege und ich sind auf den größten Markt in Mogadishu Bakaara gegangen, um zu dokumentieren, wie die islamistischen Milizen die Menschen drangsalieren. Als wir das im Fernsehen gezeigt haben, hat mein Problem angefangen. Ich musste Somalia verlassen und bin 2010 in Deutschland angekommen.“ Auf dem Blog www.wariyaha.com (Wariyaha heißt auf somalisch: Journalist) berichtet Mustafa über seine zweijährige Flucht (siehe Kasten). Etwa 100 somalische Journalisten arbeiten in dem Blog mit. Sie sind verstreut in der ganzen Welt: Südafrika, Kenia, Uganda, Kanada, Großbritannien, Deutschland. Sie schreiben vor allem Artikel über soziale Themen unter ihrem Namen. Der Blog wird von 400 Menschen pro Tag gelesen.
„Ich berichte darin aus Deutschland“, so Mustafa. „Einen Tag war ich mit meiner Frau an einem Fluss in der Nähe von Gießen spazieren. Dann sahen wir Menschen, die hatten Schlösser dabei. Sie riefen uns, gaben uns ein Schloss und sagten: „Schreibt eure Namen drauf, dann kannst du das Schloss auf der Brücke zuschließen! Dann würde die Liebe bleiben. Und es waren tatsächlich ganz viele Schlösser da. Ich kenne diese Kultur nicht, habe ein Foto gemacht und es im Blog veröffentlicht mit der Geschichte.“
Mustafa geht die ganze Woche zur Schule, um Deutsch zu lernen und am Wochenende beschäftigt er sich mit dem Blog. „Aber ich liebe mein Land. Jetzt wünsche ich mir mit Arbeitserlaubnis in Deutschland bleiben zu können , um weiter als Journalist zu arbeiten. Wenn ich deutsch gelernt habe, will ich zurück nach Afrika und die Nachrichten über Somalia her schicken. In Somalia waren wir lokale Journalisten, aber hier sind wir internationale Journalisten geworden.“
Marily Stroux
welcome to europe netzwerk: http://w2eu.net
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Longer Interviews with the two Journalists:
We document two interviews with Somali journalists who had to flee from Mogadishu and are now living in Germany, hoping to find the security they need until they can return to their country and continue working without putting their lives in danger with every report they write.
We met the two during the second “No border lasts forever” conference in Frankfurt in December 2011 and talked about our work. We decided to stay in contact and to try to work together.
Now they are becoming members of the German Journalists Union VERDI-DJU and are learning the language to be able to continue their journalistic work here – as soon as their refugee status allows them to work.
Journalist 1:
I come from Somalia. I was working as a journalist in Somalia. I came here to Germany, I arrived in Hamburg. I stayed 5 months in Hungary then I came to Germany 2010. Now I am living 1 year 4 months in a small town called Germersheim. I was living in the capital of Somalia, in Mogadishu and was working for a local radio station called Shabelle.
Does the radio still exist?
The radio is still working but what happened is that they get pressure from the new government of Somalia, pressure from Al Shabaab groups, so sometimes it's closed, sometimes it's opened. I heard that it is open now.
You are still interested in journalistic work?
I would like to keep on my journalistic work here in Germany. If I will be accepted to stay here. I hope to be accepted, I will keep going on with journalism. I get help also in Berlin from Reporters Without Borders.
Journalist 2:
I came from Somalia to Germany, 16 June 2010. I live with my wife and my son here. I am journalist from Somalia. I left somalia 22 February 2008.
It's a long way from Somalia to Europe: from Somalia to Djibouti, from Djibouti to Eritrea, from Eritrea to Sudan, from Sudan to Libya, from Libya to …..I don't know how many countries are there. I used to work as journalist in Somalia, Horn Africa media, the largest local media in Somalia until 2009, but now it's closed by Islamists. You can not imagine how I love Somalia.
But we had to flee. I was presenter in TV: I was reading news in the studio, a lot people know your face and know your voice. Me and my friend, we go to the biggest market in Somalia, called Bakara and we made a movie about what Islamic militias where doing. I released the movie on TV, that was the first beginning of my problem.
I had to flee to save my life and my family's life. Now I am in Germany. I am really happy to get contacts to journalists here. We are also in contact with Journalists Without Borders in Berlin. They give us encouragement, they give us help, and I am very happy to become a member of your group.
You know, I would like to continue being a journalist here. Before in Somalia, we are local journalists, but now I like to be international journalist. So when I will speak the German language well I will go back to Africa and just send news from there .
I am learning German now, by myself. [He continues in German] I have internet in my house, I go to a web site and then I write lots and lots of German, 3 to 4 pages per day. I want to make a Somali-German dictionary. There is only one Somali-German dictionary, but it was written in 1989. I made myself a German-English-Somali phrase book with sentences. I have contacted Langenscheid [German publisher] and first I learn German then we do it. [Switches back to English] That's my dream: to be writer and journalist both.
There is Somali TV located in the United Kingdom, Universal TV, then there is one royal TV and Horn Cable TV is also Somali network TV all are there now. So we are now in Germany for the Somali TV.
You said you write your story?
Yes, from Somalia to European countries, I passed many countries in Africa and in Europe . I go the longest way through the Sahara from Somalia to get here and I passed many different countries and each country we faced many also good ways. Crossing the sahara we have seen a lot of people crossing thousands kilometres without a car.
You can do nothing for them because if you take one of them your lorry or your small car will be so heavy and there is danger that your car gets damaged, and you can do nothing for them you can only say: god help you! Only that word.
If you got water or a box of food you must just give them. They are trying to come to your car by force to go with you. But the driver of the car that we were in, was really very hard man, with a gun and he kept us safe
.
We where 43 like group with cruiser, 10 Sudanese the rest Somalians. The car was going so fast, 100 kilometres in the sahara with no road. Sometimes your are just falling from the car but it's not stones in the sahara it is sand. Your muscles will hurt but you are not broken. Now I write down this things because I really would like to encourage the other Somalians who keep in mind to come on that way, not to do it. Because I have seen it.
Not to do the same mistake I did. But there is misunderstanding about my people. When I go online I know a lot of journalists also, when I say please don't come this way, they say hey you are in Europe and you want to make us hate it. But I don't want to make them hate here, but I don't want them to take the dangerous way that I passed. I passed it by gods luck. I am lucky. But how many lost there beautiful life. Dozens, dozens...
Then I write it down from the beginning, I write how long I was in Djibouti, how many days I was in Eritrea, how we passed from Eritrea to Sudan and how we where escaping ourselves when we were in Sudan to come to Libya. And when we come to Libya how we have been in jail, and I don't know if the situation in Libya has changed or not, but really Libyan people behave to other Africans bad behaviour and how our life was in Libya. After that too we were managing our next trip from Libya to the Mediterranean.
If you go there, you will see but you can not imagine how bad it was. For this reason, I write down that things on www.wariyaha.com.
Wariyaha means journalist in Somali, its a network some hundred journalists from somalia who are now all around: in south Africa, in Kenya, in Uganda, Canada, UK, we write all articles about social themes, not about politics. We all write with our names. A lot of people visit the site, more than 400 a day visit. You can see the different countries. My friend with whom we worked together in Mogadishu, he lives now in Canada.
If I see something dangerous in Germany like EHEC bacteria, I put it on the blog. One day I was with my wife, we saw German people with padlocks by a small river near Giessen. Then they call us, we go to them and they said: here, you write the name of your wife, then you take the lock and put it here. There where thousands of locks more more and they said you keep your lock for ever.
I said: I don't know this culture! Then I take a picture and publish it. So always when I see funny things I do it. Now I write about my way to Europe, but I write on the weekends because I go to school. I don't have time to lose writing. I do my best for German learning and on weekends I write the articles for the web site. And when I get a working permission I will start working again as a journalist here.
Now we are 4 Somali journalists who came to Germany, we are preparing an organisation we will call it SEJOG for Somali Exiled Journalist Organisation.
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On why Malta authorities refuse asylum to some young Somalis asking wrong questions.
The Somali Jung people are refused as asylum seeker , if they can not answer the question.
For example: what is the colour of Somali flag?
If you answer this questions maybe Somali young people don't answer because they haven't seen the flag in somalia.
Everybody knows what is going on in Somalia : war ! since 20 years!
In Somalia is no peace, since 20 years.
Somalia is no education, since 20 years
So that the young people of Somalia are not educated .
They can not answer more questions that are requested for asylum seekers.
This issue is a very important one, because the Somali refugee maybe he wants to defend his rights as asylum seeker . So i request the international community especially the refugee commissioner : respect the situation in somalia and learn more about what is going on in somalia.
That would be a good way.
So the people who ask the questions should be better informed about the situation in somalia?
Sometimes the commission asks Somalians: tell me the names of the rivers.
Also they ask: how many rivers you have in your country?
This questions are not answered because if you are in Mogadishu there is no river maybe the sea.
So somebody will say : i don't know.
Sometimes they are asking : how many regions exist in somalia?
It is not answered because nobody learned in somalia the regions
so he says : i don't know.
Then the refugee commissioner says: you are not Somali!
You are rejected for asylum.
That's not good.
Before they ask questions, they should learn the situation in Somalia, Eritrea.
If you ask first the question without knowing the situation, maybe you go the wrong direction.
I have no idea what is going on in Germany right now, so if i interview someone then i ask wrong questions about Germany.
Are they many young Somalis rejected in Malta?
Yes some Somali people have been rejected !
Sometimes they say you come from another region in somalia this region is peace.
But in somalia is not peace.
Every house in somalia has guns, every person in somalia has guns.
If you want you take the gun and kill,you kill, no one is safe in somalia.
Somalia is a war nation. Somalia is one country. One language.
So i request international community respect the refugees of somalia.
Somali people want assistance for peace.
If peace in my country i stay in my country , i like my country.
I don't want another country.
You see my age now, i stay in my country 43 years, i never went anywhere , now i go because i worry about my life,
Always i say i hope i hope this war is finishing tomorrow, my feeling my feeling. But it doesn't stop the war in somalia.
If you see the warlords in somalia they change only the names, but they are killing the people.
Always killing the people including women and children.Especially in southern somalia.
If you look what is going on now in Mogadishu , the government is fighting and Islamic groups.
All this fractions they are killing the people because they use the attacks in the community the villages. The people are running in town and outside of Mogadishu, you know what is going on now i somalia, famine no peace people are hungry, no education. I wrote an article: “the short man can see the sky” but why does the international community not see what is happening in somalia?
My article is in the amnesty international report.
What would be the solution for Somalia?
The warlords in somalia are using the fighting like business, they support the fighting in somalia.
For example the government in somalia supported money counters on the other side the oppositions leaders especially the Islamic groups they support the military assistance like guns, supported the medical support . Also the moral support , when the international talked they defend the opposition leader he says good guys i don't know .. the government controls only a small area in Mogadishu
everybody knows, other Islamic groups control more , why?
Somalia wants a government! somalia wants peace!
The internationals only listen like a story, that's not good.
The people need assistance, urgent assistance, we want peace peace.
Interview made in Malta 15. September 2011 with a somali humanrights activist and refugee.
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Mr Abdulahi Asis Mahamud Qalimow, Political scientist from Somalia , leaving in Switzerland, attended yesterday the Trial and could get an own impression of the situation of the Somali people acused in Germany.
The security control, entering the Court building, decided that the traditional Shell he caries with him, is dangerous for the justice, so he had to let it wait for him coming out.
Then nobody could keep back his wish to greet the people form Somalia in this traditional way:In front of the Court building where the Trial takes place.
Calls of Somali Pirates to the international community, taken from interviews in the media.
Collected and read in front of the court on the first day of the Trial.
From "Freundeskreis der Substistenz-Piraterie"
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Somali refugees in Germany say their thoughts about the Somali
accused of piracy:
interview1 Its is a big problem existing in Somalia,
because in the country there is no stability .
This young guys grow up in a war or with fights,
so they only learn how to fight.
They dont learn any other thing. When they miss their daily food, they try to get it in the sea.
They all search how to get ransom. When they catch a ship they say give us the amount of that money. I think what made them
to do that step is only to get their life to get food.
Most of them were fishermen before. If you ask them why do you do something like this? They say to you: before we were fishermen
and these ships came to our sea
and they took all the fish in the sea, thats why. When they take our fish we have to take our defence!
Good things can come you know, all over the world.
intreview2
Most people think somalis are bad people
but most of them they are not bad ..
As god makes your own finger not the same,
one is shorter one is longer, people are also like that.
One is good, one is bad. You know, maybe they can apologize
for what they did and maybe they can feell sorry.
but most of them they are not bad ..
As god makes your own finger not the same,
one is shorter one is longer, people are also like that.
One is good, one is bad. You know, maybe they can apologize
for what they did and maybe they can feell sorry.
Some say somalian people are thieves, some say we are burglers,
some say we are terorists. But we are not what they say.
some say we are terorists. But we are not what they say.
We dont have any goverment and that is our problem,
But there are some people who are good: those who understand ,
you know, some people who help.
you know, some people who help.
Good things can come you know, all over the world.
They are human, our somalian brothers.
interview3
I want to see them and visit them because as somalis
they feel lonely,only one man speaks english
so if they see us, they might be happy.
They are human like us,
they can have done some crime
but we would like to see them.
they feel lonely,only one man speaks english
so if they see us, they might be happy.
They are human like us,
they can have done some crime
but we would like to see them.
Most of them you know
they are getting food from the sea
they are getting food from the sea
interview4
They say most of the pirates
were getting their life stuff in the sea.
were getting their life stuff in the sea.
So their lifes when they tried to go back to the sea
or tried to fish they meet a lot of big ships
those who take all of the fish
they left for somalis only the small fish that brings no money.
or tried to fish they meet a lot of big ships
those who take all of the fish
they left for somalis only the small fish that brings no money.
So all fell sory and when they talk to each other
and get the idea to be prirates.
Thats why they become pirates .
and get the idea to be prirates.
Thats why they become pirates .
Most of them you know they are getting food from the sea,
everything and then this ships a lot of ships pass by.
Its a route like highway somalis live in a highway .
So they see it like : it is another money from the sea!
everything and then this ships a lot of ships pass by.
Its a route like highway somalis live in a highway .
So they see it like : it is another money from the sea!
Because their is no more fish.
When they try to get fisch they meet a lot of problems
like when they take the small boats in the sea,
maybe they can not go close to the ship you know.
When they try to get fisch they meet a lot of problems
like when they take the small boats in the sea,
maybe they can not go close to the ship you know.
I remember when i was in somalia in the beach
you see dead fisch ,some bad things they through on our sea,
so some times you see a lots of dead fish,
so they get angry and they talk to each other
and they say we become pirates.
you see dead fisch ,some bad things they through on our sea,
so some times you see a lots of dead fish,
so they get angry and they talk to each other
and they say we become pirates.
Thats why they are pirates but not me , i am a refugee.
If i would be pirate i would have money
and i would be alive in somalia.
if you have money you dont care about job.
and i would be alive in somalia.
if you have money you dont care about job.
The money they get from ship
is a lot of money 4oo dollar each person.
much money.
is a lot of money 4oo dollar each person.
much money.
Greetings to the prisonners:
To our brother somali guys in prison in Hamburg:
we hope you to get free
we are greeting you
we are in camp
we can do nothing
we cant suport anything
but we hope
you are succesfull
with your cause
you are succesfull
with your cause
Somalis in Germany
hamburg 02.11.2010
Greetings to the Somali men in prison in Hamburg form Somali refugees in Germany
1.first we are greeting you somali brothers we are in camp...we are somali guys refugees near hamburg we are greeting you. We can not do something, but we hope you will be succesfull in your case and we greet you and we hope good things for you.bye bye.
2.first of all we say hi! We are somali guys ,brothers those that are in a refugee camp we would like to visit you but we can not afford at the moment.
We hoppe you are good succesfull in your case.we dont know you we dont know if you are fishermann but we hope you are good and inshallah that your case will be good for you.thank you bye bye.
3.we are 10 people somali guys we hope you are good we talk about your case and hope you will be succesfull and greeting you and we hope you are in good place inshalah.
4.first of all we say that we are in refugee camp and we can not do anything about your case but we like to come and to say something the day you have your court or they take your decision we would like to strike,you know do what we can. there is someone who come here and tells us about your case and that you are in prison and you dont speak english , well we can not do nothing but maybe what we can do for our somalian brothers and we wish you good luck about your case.thanks.
