Free Malaysia Today
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Somalia’s interior and national security ministry has pledged to investigate the cause of the incident here on Friday where a BernamaTV cameraman was killed by a stray bullet.
Minister Abdisamad Maallin Mohamud said the suspects would be traced and prosecuted.
Cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Nor, 39, was killed by a stray bullet when shots were fired at a government army truck accompanying a vehicle carrying Malaysian media personnel covering the Putera 1Malaysia Club humanitarian aid mission here.
Abdisamad expressed his apologies over the tragedy and extended condolences to the family of Noramfaizul and all Malaysians.
“This (shooting) didn’t come from the government… didn’t come from Al-Shabaab (Islamist group). It came from another force and we’ll find out exactly why this happened and why you (Malaysians) were attacked,” Abdisamad said.
The shooting occurred at 5.40pm local time (10.40pm in Malaysia) when the four-wheel-drive vehicle carrying six mission members, including Noramfaizul, was returning to their place of accommodation escorted by government soldiers in another vehicle.
Meanwhile, the head of the aid mission, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, said he had asked for a thorough investigation into the incident and an explanation from the Somali government.
“Why did the armed forces do this to us? This is what we can’t accept. There should be a thorough investigation. The Somalis owe an apology to Malaysians,” Abdul Azeez told Abdisamad.
He also said that Noramfaizul’s body had been bathed and preparations had been made to fly the remains to Malaysia in a C-130 aircraft of the Royal Malaysian Air Force.
“We are all very sad. Yesterday’s was supposed to be our last trip but we were hit by a stray bullet. We do not know where it came from,” Abdul Azeez said.
Abdul Azeez said the medical personnel of the club tried in vain to revive Noramfaizul.
The mission had left Kuala Lumpur on Aug 28 to help the victims of the Somali drought and famine.
It was originally scheduled to return to Kuala Lumpur on Sept 5.