SOMALI AUTHORITIES DEPLORE DENIAL OF ENTRY TO UN RIGHTS EXPERT, INVITE HIM BACK IN

SOMALI AUTHORITIES DEPLORE DENIAL OF ENTRY TO UN RIGHTS EXPERT, INVITE HIM BACK IN
New York, Sep 21 2007 2:00PM
An independent United Nations expert on human rights in Somalia who was denied entry to the town of Baidoa earlier this week and asked to travel back to Nairobi, Kenya, has been invited back in.

"The UN Political office for Somalia (UNPOS) says that the Somali authorities have deplored the incident and have since invited Mr. [Ghanim] El Najar to return to complete his mission, saying that his expulsion had been the result of a misunderstanding," UN spokesperson Michele Montas told a news briefing in New York.

Given the poor security situation inside the strife-torn Horn of Africa country, UNPOS, which was set up in 1995, has been working from Nairobi, with officials making visits to Somalia.

Somalia has been riven by factional fighting and has had no functioning central government since Muhammad Siad Barre's regime was toppled in 1991.
2007-09-21 00:00:00.000

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