Garowe — He drove for a long distance in northern Somalia without trouble – and without soldiers. For police officers in Puntland, a regional autonomy in northeastern Somalia, his story was a unique and surprising journey to a land long forgotten by the rest of the world.

His name is Kenji Goto, a Japanese national whose business card identifies him as a journalist working for Independent Press. He arrived in the Puntland capital Garowe on Monday evening and was arrested by authorities at the police checkpoint.

“He [Kenji] was the only passenger and the driver said he picked him up in Las Anod,” said Mr. Ahmed Jama Salah, the Garowe central police station commander.

The police officers at the Garowe checkpoint, who could not speak English or Japanese, took both Kenji and his Somali driver to the central police station.

Evidently, the driver did not speak a word of either language and the two men were reduced to hand signals for the 120km stretch of road between Las Anod and Garowe.

Kenji’s story

I visited Kenji at the central police station in Garowe, finding him and his driver resting atop a mattress and their vehicle parked in the impound lot.

Mr. Farah Aden Dhala, the Planning and International Cooperation Minister in Puntland, was at the police station speaking with Kenji.

“I took a flight from Tokyo on Apr. 30 and spent a layover in Djibouti. I arrived in Berbera on Sunday,” Kenji explained.

From Berbera, he hired a vehicle that transported him to Las Anod. Both towns are under the control of authorities in Somaliland, a peaceful region in northwestern Somalia that seeks complete independence from the rest of the country.

“Do you understand that this land [Puntland] has laws and security forces?” Planning Minister Dhala asked.

Kenji’s answer was as surprising as his trip: “Yes, Mr. Minister. But I wanted to go to the pirates place.”

Apparently, Somaliland authorities had misinformed him that Puntland is the “pirates place.”

Lessons

The ‘pirate story’ is an easy sell for major news organizations around the world. For good or worse, it seems pirate gangs off the Somali coast have attacked or hijacked ships from too many countries, and have kidnapped hundreds of innocent civilians and thereby indirectly touched the lives of thousands of people worldwide.

This is what drove Kenji to Somalia – alone.

“I want the people of Japan to know the truth about this [piracy],” Kenji told me. “The world is sending warships…but I believe the world should send medicines and food to Somalia.”

He was especially grateful to the Puntland Planning Minister, who signed off on papers to release Kenji and the Somali driver after being held for a few hours at the police station. He received an entry visa from the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation to finish his journalism work in Puntland.

Kenji rented a room at Hotel Maka al-Mukarrama in Garowe, located near the Puntland presidential compound, and three Special Protection Unit (SPU) officers were especially assigned at his service.

Later that night, Kenji shared his story with two American journalists working for the New York Times, who were visiting Puntland to do a story on piracy.

Men from different corners of the globe found common ground in humanity and the foreign traveler found comfort in a Muslim land where helping travelers remains a religious duty and tradition.

For Kenji, it was the spirit of informing the people of Japan about the realities of piracy, and the true situation in Somalia, that drove him thousands of kilometers away from his home in Japan.

For Planning Minister Dhala, it was an opportunity to assist a lost traveler and to welcome a foreign visitor to Puntland.

And for me, as a journalist, it was the understanding that the world can forget Somalia – but that not everyone will forget Somalia

Comments

comments