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The
International Community and The Crises In Somalia
Posted by Dr.
Ali Said Faqi Alifaqi@yahoo.com
The
international community and the non profit organizations
working inside
Somalia
seem usually reluctant about the positive changes in the
country. Their reaction to any new developments is always
cynical unless it serves their interest. When the TNG was
formed in
Arta
,
Djibouti
, members of the community and the NGO’s began immediately
echoing displeasure to the government alleging that it does
not have the blessing of warlords, and would not succeed. Even
though the international community was right to demand a
broader government, it was wrong to assume that without
warlords
Somalia
will not be pacified. The
public uprising in
Mogadishu
of last year that led the ICU to power has proved that concept
wrong. As a
matter of fact it was demonstrated that the warlords had no
loyal supporters who would sacrifice their lives for them.
Mogadishu
was safe again for the first time after sixteen years of hell.
I must
reiterate, however, that the TNG wouldn’t have succeeded by
any means even without the meddling of neighboring countries
and the definitive no-go resolute imposed by the international
interest groups as it lacked public support. A
combination of various factors including the notion that
Somali warlords are crucial to the success of any peace
process has led the UN to convene the 14th
reconciliation conference in Mgabathi, Kenya aiming to form a
broad based government of warlords.
At the time
the countries providing the conference funding and the UN
preferred to ignore the public demand to include the civil
society in the reconciliation conference and in the process of
forming a government. And after almost two years of wrestling
and maneuvering, the TFG was modeled in
Nairobi
,
Kenya
. Immediately,
after its inauguration, however, the international community
was divided again, and some of them embarked creating factions
within the government. A
year has passed before the parliament could convene its first
assembly inside
Somalia
.
International
NGO’s have never been impartial on the Somali issues; as a
matter of fact some of them are considered factions in the
conflicts. The international crises group (ICG) is one of
them. The reason
is that there is a tremendous concern that the organization
will lose its political influence if peace prevails in
Somalia
. The irony is
however, that ICG employees identify themselves as experts
without grasping profoundly the Somali conflicts. It
is like someone writing an expert opinion about the Italian
mafia after only gathering information from streets, coffee
shops and bars. This is a deeply rooted social ailment that
has a history almost as old as the country. Likewise,
clan conflicts in
Somalia
are much older than the history of the nation.
The recent
press release by ICG entitled, “
Somalia
: The
tough part is ahead”, looks like some of the wording
were chosen to create hatred and deepen the animosities among
the Somali clans. Creating
controversy would not help a society that is struggling to
come together and reconcile.
In their
press release the ICG also criticized the state of emergency
ratified by the Somali parliament. I
consider this as an intellectual dishonesty; any government
willing to bring peace and stability in a ruined country like
Somalia will have no choice, but to declare a state of
emergency. Let us
not ignore the fact that there was anarchy and human rights
violation for the last 16 years and the ICG who was active all
the time would not condemn the vicious rule of the warlords. We
all understand that a state of emergency is declared when a
country is at war. During
the state of emergency the constitution is temporarily
suspended and this is due to the fact that war may require
certain actions be taken by the government which would
ordinarily be considered beyond their scope. However, it
will be very unfortunate if the TFG uses the state of
emergency as a ruse to crack down legitimate opposition
groups.
The ICG also
expressed concerns about the sacking of the speaker of the
parliament saying “Deposing the speaker of the parliament,
who had been prominent in efforts to engage the Courts in
dialogue and compromise, have not been promising”.
The ICG might be right on this, but I doubt that his
motives were far-sighted as the ICG has described it. The ex.
Speaker was a man who gambled on his political career to
promote his personal agenda; most members of his constituency
wouldn’t mind to see him removed from the office as he did nothing
to secure their support.
The current
proposal of the international community to make the TFG a
broad based government is a good thing, but it seems that the
meaning of the broad based government is different from what
most people expect. It
is my understanding that the international community is
honoring only the armed clans and those who have committed
human right abuses in
Somalia
. What about the
hitherto occupied and victimized southern Somali indigenous
communities? Instead
of rewarding only the warmongers, the international community
should consider inviting these indigenous communities to the
table for a genuine and inclusive reconciliation process?
The EU has made very clear that any aid for Somalia
will depend on the TFG government willing to negotiate with
ICU and other armed clans. It
is fine and well that the international community demands a
broad based government to tackle the conflict, but the details
need to be worked out. Who
should be invited to the table? The victims or the victimizers
only or both! If
the pre-condition; however, for the invitation to the peace
negotiating table is to slaughter, then let us arm them so
they would not be considered underdogs in the peace process
anymore. My
point here is that the international community should avoid
empowering individuals who abused the country and the society
for over decades. This
will only lead to a wider marginalization of the silent
majority in this long conflict and will be a recipe for
disaster.
Most analysts
believe this is the best opportunity that
Somalia
has ever had since the collapse of the military regime in
early 1991 if the TFG leaders wouldn’t indulge it. I
must re-iterate, however, that without the help of the
international community
Somalia
will have difficulties to exist. It
is in the interest of the world community to ameliorate the
current conditions of
Somalia
. The help
Somalia
needs is not the distribution of the food aid that the West
and the UN like to rush for after airing humiliated images of
Africans dying for hunger. Instead the country needs badly
financial support to rebuild the government institutions that
could bring back law and order. The
international community should have every right to demand
transparency from the TFG, but has to empathize that the lives
of millions of people are at stake, therefore should avoid
entertaining only special groups. It will send bad signals and
promote violence as means to achieve political goals. Reconciliation
is a long process that requires time, funding, commitment and
it has to promote justice and peaceful coexistent.
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