Somali Reconciliation Conferences

By Dr. Abdishakur Sh. Ali jowhar

Somali Reconciliation?

I make the daring proposition that the infinite Somali Reconciliation Conferences are about anything but reconciling Somalis at all and that a better title could be the Somalia Conflict Promotion Conferences. I admit right from the start that this proposition appears controversial. What with all those dignitaries involved, with all that money pledged! I hasten to point out - my hypothesis appears contentious only at a superficial level. Any objective, unbiased reader would come to the same conclusion if he examines, not the rosy intent of these conferences, but the harsh reality of the events that follows them.

Those who are old enough will remember that the first conference in Djibouti in 1991 unleashed the initial rounds of clan-cleansing in Muqdisho, and led to the birth of the phenomenon of warlords as embodied by its original prototypes: Aideed and Ali Mahdi. The innocent blood spilt inside the houses and in the streets of Muqdisho then, placed on this city a curse of perpetual doom and suffering that remains in effect to this day.

The 13th conference held in the village of Arta in Djibouti has the infamy of holding the record in the magnitude of suffering and death it caused directly. The Arta Conference achieved this most unfortunate distinction by causing an explosion in the number and ruthlessness of Warlords and by enhancing their penchant for power and blood, murder and mayhem. Fortunately, most of the country is now at peace, while the factions responsible for the strife no longer hold sway in the minds of the people as they once did the official preamble to Arta declares with pretentious gravity. Today, exactly two years later, tribal blood letting and warlord wars have spread like wild fire from Kismayo to Bossaso as the Arta and contra-Arta warlords multiply vying for power and territorial domination, locking the innocent populace in a Darwinian death-march very much reminiscent of Year Zero and the killing fields of Cambodia.

I must make it clear that there was in Arta a lot of goodwill and honest effort to resolve the Somali crisis. The intention was laudable. The conference was however hijacked early in its course by a trio of wannabes: A Richard Burton wannabe born a century too late (David Stephen, then the head of UN operations in Somalia). A statesman wannabe limited by the tiny size, deepening poverty and the dismal human rights record of his realm. And the only man who achieved his goal, a Warlord wannabe best known for his forged doctorate and his proven record of servicing as a butcher and clown for Somalia’s late tyrant (Siyad Barre); Dr (Forged Doctorate) Abdiqaasim Salaad.

Somaliland’s Bitter Experience

Somaliland having re-asserted its independence and having built its own institutions of statehood has been spared to a large degree from the extreme after effects of Arta, but it did not escape it altogether either.

In the heyday of the Arta conference delegates roamed around in search of Somalilander recruits for the Arta process. The necessary funds were provided by a well meaning yet misdirected United Nations bureaucracy and oil rich Arab states. The recruiters invoked clan rivalry, promised lofty positions and offered direct bribes. Their efforts were bound to succeed to some degree in a land where dollars are in short supply and where tribal loyalty poses an ever present threat to modernity and statehood. And they did recruit Somaliland individuals who represented no one and who were, for the most part, driven by poverty, personal greed, the promised power and the associated booty. There were also of course a handful of Somalilanders who joined the Arta process for a higher principle of devotion to the dying philosophy of Greater Somalia and Somali nationalism.

This was a direct challenge to Somaliland’s authority and its legitimacy. It was the stuff that is traditionally the fodder for civil wars. A pretender group financed, organized and orchestrated by outside forces was challenging a legitimate state. The threat of chaos, break-down of law and order, massive exodus of refugees and the commencement of senseless tribal blood letting was an imminent danger that Somalilanders had to face. These were ominous times of fear and real concern in Somaliland.

The indefatigable late president of Somaliland, Egal, mobilized the different and some times fractious social forces of Somaliland and succeeded in averting a gathering danger. The price tag of mobilization, influence and persuasion, resources and time that were necessary for the defense of stability nearly bankrupted the Somaliland state. And this was not the first time that Somaliland had to fend for itself or the second or the third but the thirteenth time and because of the levels of money involved and the sophistication of the organizers, the Arta Conference posed the greatest risk to Somaliland’s stability.

It is because of this bitter and long experiences with Somali Reconciliation Conferences that Somalilanders all around the world welcomed and felt a good measure of relief that EU and US authorities made it clear their understanding that Somalilanders do have a legitimate authority that speaks on their behalf and their objection to funding any groups that could pose as fake destabilizing alternate authority.

And it was this same bitter experience that led to the spontaneous demonstration of thousands of Somalilanders of all political stripes protesting against the Egyptian Ambassador’s call to come and join the chaos.

The lack of awareness of an outsider about recent Somali history and its political landscape is understandable. The ambassador of a great nation to this region is expected to know better. And for the esteemed Ambassador to have the audacity of promoting this absence of awareness as an Egyptian solution to the Somali crisis brings shame to the regional image of the great nation of Egypt. More pertinent for us it poses an unnecessary threat to the stability of Somaliland and the lives of its citizens. We hope the Ambassador and his government heard the loud voices of our people’s protest and that the politics of The Nile could be conducted in ways that does not threaten our peace and stability.

Somaliland And The Prime Directive

In their suffering our brothers in Somalia hail for us to help resolve their problems. Many well-intentioned Somalis fed up with the politics of death and tribal chaos call for Somaliland to take the lead make Hargaysa the capital, you take the leadership they plead. We assure our brothers in Somalia that we, Somalilanders, feel their pain and mourn their death. We encourage them to lose not hope for these painful days will end. Success will be your reward however only when you gain the courage of breaking out of fossilized patterns of thought. Stop the search for elusive peace in foreign capitals, and in seminars and workshops held by Aid Groups, and in the flowery words yarned by well-meaning yet intellectually bankrupt UN bureaucrats. We share with you our experiences born of blood and tears in the hope that it will help illuminate your path. Read them carefully. Consider them with gravity and dignity.

We in Somaliland have rediscovered the prime directive of the OAU (The1964 Cairo Resolution) that accepted colonial-fixed boundaries as permanent and a defining feature of post-colonial African states systems. We recognized the warning of this first generation of African leaders that the alternative course of re-division of Africa along ethnically and linguistically homogeneous lines would throw the whole continent into a century of perpetual warfare.

We remember with clarity the Somali speaking people in the Horn of Africa (of whom we Somalilanders are an integral part) rejected this OAU prime directive and instead opted for a concept of a Great Somalia State that would bring together all Somali speaking people under one blue flag with a five-pointed star. A Great Somalia nation that will reconfigure the borders of its neighbors such that Somaliland, Somalia, Northern part of Kenya (NFD), Eastern Ethiopia (Ogaden) and Djibouti will unite by any means necessary to form an ethnically, linguistically and religiously homogeneous nation of Somalis.

It is a long story but it is this concept of Great Somalia that led to 30 years of wars between Somalia and Ethiopia over the Ogaden, a decade-long proxy war between Somalia and Kenya over NFD and 15 years of overt and covert support for the struggle of the liberation movements of Djibouti which was then a French colony.

The union of Somalia and Somaliland to form the Republic of Somalia in July 1 of 1960 was the first act in the realization of this ethnocentric, unworkable, warlike and quasi-racist Super Clan Concept of Greater Somalia. It was a dangerous anomaly in the African political landscape, dangerous to Somalis, to their neighbors and to Africa at large. Followed to its logical conclusion this search for ethnic purity in a state threatens the fragmentation of each and every African country. The union was the original sin! This realization saved Somaliland. Its practical consequences of reasserting Somaliland sovereignty, statehood and institutions insured the safety. We now know we can actually participate in an African Union of increasingly closer ties between nation states only if the prime directive of the OAU remains sacred. When states feel secure and free within their borders, when peace reigns supreme, then and only then, could there be open borders, free trade, freedom of movement and the march toward African Union.

Our rejection of the Great Somalia proposition based on Somali ethnicity, which is nothing but an extension of the Somali Clan structure, has also forced us to question and discard the capacity of the clan to function as the basis of a modern nation state. This is the rationale for our choice to reconstruct Somaliland state on the basis of the individual citizen and on citizenship in place of the clan and kinship. We were pleasantly surprised, I must add, to find that even our staunchest adherents to Clanism found the principle of One-Man One-vote not only acceptable but also a fair and just alternative to perpetual clan warfare.

Time of Choices and Decisions

We in Somaliland know it very well It will take thoughtfulness, courage and imagination on the part of our brothers in Somalia to absorb this lesson. It is never easy to let go of the past. It is never easy to bury assumptions under which three to four generations of Somalis grew up. But these are not ordinary times in Somalia. And they call for extraordinary intellectual honesty and agility. You can choose to follow our path and we assure you will reach safety just like we did.

You can also choose ethnic purity, Great Somalia and the blue flag with the five-pointed star thus remaining stuck in the past. Your rhetoric in this case will be one of indignation, of wrapping yourselves in the flag, rallying the mob and claiming nationalism through persistent attacks on Somaliland. But that will be only the rhetoric. In actual practice you will remain mired in clan-cleansing, mushrooming warlords and misery for that is the true face of ethnic purity. May the suffering end!