Matthew Bryden

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Matthew Bryden
File:Matthew Bryden.jpg
Bryden at a GPP-COPE Seminar on 12 May 2010.
Born1967
Canada
NationalityCanadian
Other namesMatt Bryden
Alma materUpper Canada College
OccupationDirector at Sahan Research
Known forHorn of Africa political analysis
SpouseUbax (?-present)
Children3

Matthew Bryden is a Canadian political analyst. From 2004 to 2006, he served as the Horn of Africa Director for the International Crisis Group (ICG). He was later appointed coordinator of the UN's Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (UNSEMG) in 2008, where he oversaw monitoring of a 2002 arms embargo in Somalia. Bryden was dismissed from the post in August 2012. As of 2013, he is serving as a Director at Sahan Research, a Nairobi-based think tank.

Bryden has been a supporter of the secessionist movement in the northwestern Somaliland region of Somalia. Critics have argued that he misused his positions within the SEMG and the earlier ICG in order to advance the secessionist cause in Somaliland.

Early life and education

Bryden attended Upper Canada College in Toronto, where he graduated in 1985.[1] As of 2010, he was enrolled in the doctoral program at King's College London researching modern jihadist movements in Somalia.[2]

Career

Bryden was an infantry officer in the Canadian Forces Reserve before taking a position with the United Nations in 1990. He was later appointed Canadian Ambassador's Special Advisor in 1992 and led the War-torn Societies Project (WSP) from 1996 to 2003.[2] In 1999, Bryden published a paper called "New Hope for Somalia? Building Block Approach," in Review of African Political Economy.[3]

From 2004 to 2006, Bryden was the Horn of Africa Director for the International Crisis Group (ICG).[2] He also served as a Senior Advisor to the WSP International Somali Program. In July 2004, Bryden chaired and led a conference in London organized by the Somaliland International Recognition Action Group (SIRAG), an advocacy group seeking international recognition for the secessionist Somaliland region in northwestern Somalia.[4]

From 2007 to 2008, Bryden served as an adviser on Somali affairs for the United States' USAID bureau and the US embassy.[2]

Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (SEMG)

In 2008, Bryden was appointed Coordinator of the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia (SEG), a body created in 2002 with a mandate to monitor violations of the 1992 arms embargo on Somalia.[5][6] The SEG's mission was later renamed the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (SEMG), with its mission extended in March 2010 to include Eritrea. Bryden and two other officials were retained on the panel despite objections from some parties.[5]

According to Foreign Policy magazine, under Bryden's tenure the SEMG went from "a dry accounting of militias and weapons," to reports that "took on a bizarre and voluminous tone accusing both friend and foe of serious violations."[6] In 2008, the SEMG accused the United States of violating the arms embargo for launching missiles against terrorists. Bryden's group also asserted that it regarded all weapons transported to Somalia as a breach of the embargo, regardless of the manner in which those arms were delivered.[6]

In December 2011, the SEMG tipped off officials in the Somaliland region that an aircraft headed for the neighbouring Puntland region contained weapons and mercenaries. Bryden and other SEMG officials later traveled to Hargeisa to interview the crewmen, who had been arrested by the Somaliland regional authorities, with their plane also impounded. Eyewitnesses at the local Ambassador Hotel subsequently reported seeing Bryden threaten two of the detained passengers, both South African nationals, with "serious consequences" if they did not cooperate with him.[6][7] According to the Somalia Report, the men were established South African reporters, who were traveling to Puntland to document an anti-piracy program in the region. The alleged bomb material also turned out to be "24 boxes of work uniforms, construction materials and a few mirrors to check for bombs under cars", with "no weapons on board, no mercenaries hidden inside, and no legal reason to detain the aircraft and its passengers." Bryden and the Somaliland authorities were reportedly concerned that the Puntland Maritime Police Force would be used to attack the disputed Sool, Sanaag and Cayn regions, which both Puntland and Somaliland lay claim to. The report added that while Bryden had "one of the toughest jobs in the UN", the incident and his overheard conversations at the Ambassador Hotel demonstrated "a clear bias" for protecting the interests of Somaliland over those of Puntland and interviews with key players showed that the SEMG had "deliberately sabotaged" anti-piracy measures in Puntland.[7]

Following the release of SEMG's 2011 report, Robert Young Pelton of the Somalia Report accused Bryden of "tak[ing] an unsual interest in endorsing the success of Somaliland" while ignoring that of Somalia's other regions, despite the fact that the UN's offices in Somaliland had been bombed only a few years earlier. It also questioned why Somaliland's own military forces were not also made a focal point of the Bryden-led SEMG report, and concluded overall that the group's "methodology [was] deeply questionable considering his close ties to Somaliland."[8]

After another report by the SEMG was leaked accusing Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of corruption, Ahmed spent 30 minutes of a July 2012 speech criticizing Bryden directly. Sharif rebuked the criticisms in the paper, asserting that Bryden was "against peace in Somalia" and that the report was "timed to coincide with the end of [the] transition period in order to discredit the TFG". He also commended the UN Security Council's efforts, but expressed reservations that the "Monitoring Group and Matt Bryden is [the] wrong approach for Somalia's peace and development."[9]

In August 2012, Inner City Press reported that the UN had dismissed Bryden from his position on the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group after the UN had received "detailed complaints" about him.[10][11][12]

Sahan Research

As of 2013, Bryden was serving as a Director at Sahan Research, an independent Nairobi-based think tank.[13][14]

Personal life

As of 2011, Bryden, his Somali wife and three kids live in Nairobi, Kenya.[15][16] They previously resided in Hargeisa, Somaliland, Somalia.[1] He speaks Somali and reportedly holds a Somaliland passport, a document not recognized by any country.[8]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ a b Upper Canada College (2000). Old Times (Summer) http://archive.org/stream/oldtimessum2000ucco/oldtimessum2000ucco_djvu.txt. Retrieved 17 September 2013. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d "Speakers' Biographies" (PDF). Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  3. ^ Bryden, Matt (1999). "New hope for Somalia? The building block approach". Review of African Political Economy. 26 (79). Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  4. ^ "Conference on Peace, Security and Development in the Horn of Africa". Somaliland Times. 2 July 2004. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Eritrea: A Long Way from Getting Sanctions Lifted". Ethiopian Journal. 2 September 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  6. ^ a b c d Pelton, Robert (September 20, 2012). "Hijacked". Foreign Policy. Retrieved September 2, 2013. Cite error: The named reference "one" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b "Did the UN Shut Down the Anti-Piracy Program?". Somalia report. February 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  8. ^ a b Young, Robert (July 28, 2011), "Latest UN Monitoring Report Released", Somalia Report, retrieved September 2, 2013
  9. ^ "UN Monitoring Group is against peace in Somalia, says President Sharif". Garowe Online. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  10. ^ Lee, Matthew Russell (6 December 2013). "As Sudan Blocks UN Sanctions Expert Schbley, Bryden Echo, Juba Parallel". Inner City Press. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  11. ^ Ki-Moon. "Security Council" (PDF). United Nations.
  12. ^ "On Eritrea, Bryden & Schbley Are Gone, When Might Hege Follow On DRC?". Inner City Press.
  13. ^ Analysis: Africa defense force never more needed but still a paper tiger
  14. ^ "Somali president names political newcomer as PM, urges unity". Reuters. October 6, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  15. ^ Upper Canada College (2011). Old Times. Summer/Fall http://archive.org/stream/oldtimessum2011ucco/oldtimessum2011ucco_djvu.txt. Retrieved 17 September 2013. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ^ "War-torn societies project in practice" (PDF). War-torn Societies Project. Retrieved 17 September 2013.

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