Harrow Council proposes twinning with Somaliland capital Hargeisa
By Jack Royston
HARROW Council is considering twinning with a Somali city despite Foreign Office warnings not to travel to the country.
The authority will consider the feasibility of a relationship with ten towns and cities around the world, including Hargeisa capital of the country's autonomous area Somaliland.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website states: "We advise against all travel to Somalia, including Somaliland.
"In the Southern and Central regions, there is ongoing serious violence, dangerous levels of criminal activity and general internal insecurity. We advise any British citizens in Somalia to leave."
It adds: "There is no British representation in any part of Somalia and we are unable to provide consular assistance there."
Council representatives and school children have made many visits to Douai, the region of France that the authority is currently partnered with.
But Councillor Nana Asante (Lab/Edgware), who proposed the motion, said the borough could forge a relationship with the new twin cities without anyone visiting, using internet sites like Skype which allow video calls.
She said: "With technology now we don't need to physically visit a place to be having exchanges with it. We need to be valuing the countries of origin that our residents come from.
"Instead of looking at what can't be done let's look at what can be done."
Cllr Asante said she believes the FCO advice will change as time goes on and said twinning was a long term objective.
Councillor Susan Hall, leader of the Tory group, said she was apoplectic and her group would have voted down the motion had they not been outnumbered on the council.
She said: "Why are we even thinking of linking with places that the Government are telling us not to go to.
"These loony left councillors, all they want to do is start going on freebies and going abroad. Conservatives are 100 per cent against this and would have voted it out completely."
Councillor Bill Stephenson, leader of the council, said: "To clarify what happened at the council meeting, there was a discussion about the possibility of expanding town twinning as part of a much larger motion.
"This is merely a recommendation to cabinet and not a formal decision by the council.
"We think it's important our residents can maintain links with their homelands and use them to boost trade, support local business and promote Harrow's culture.
"These links aren't about staging fancy visits. We will build friendships online or using modern technology. Our role as a council is to facilitate links, not run them.
"We hope our links with these places, some of them in the poorest or most deprived parts of the world, can bring benefits to the people who live there."
Cllr Asante said: "The Conservatives always think about money. They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
"We are not thinking of spending money right now, we are thinking about doing it using technology. The Conservatives don't understand community. I don't think we can take lessons from them."
Somaliland is considered separate to the rest of the country, lying by itself in the north while the most serious violence takes place in the southern and central regions.
But there is still tension on its border with the Puntland region and there was a terrorist attack near a mosque in Laas Caanood which killed four policemen and severely injured two others on January 25, this year.
Three blasts in Hargeisa tore through the United Nations Development Programme office, the Ethiopian Trade Office and the President's villa on October 29, 2008, killing an unknown number of people.
The other nine towns and cities proposed are: Balakot, Bhuj, Broken Hill, Pattan, Port au Prince, Kingston, La, Tilburg and Tel Aviv.
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