SOMALILAND FORUM
www.somalilandforum.com
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The
Somaliland Times
Editorial
Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
E-mail: haatufnews@hotmail.com
Nairobi Should Learn From The Failed Arta Process
With barely two years gone since hundreds of
Somalis converged on Arta, Djibouti, to attend a “peace conference on Somalia,”
preparations are now under way to convene another Somalia peace conference next
month, to be hosted this time in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Of course the so-called Arta peace process didn’t
work and the conflict in Somalia still needs to be resolved. Despite being
called by its sponsors as the most viable peace alternative, the fact remains
however that the whole Arta process was nothing more than a disguised plan whose
real authors were political forces brought together by one common interest :
the installation of a puppet regime in the former Somalia.
From day one, it wasn’t hard to notice the
over-whelming influence that religious fanatics in partnership with money launderers
and drug dealers, exercised over the Arta conference. It was these forces that
passed themselves as the true representatives of the whole Somali people (the
Somali civil society, women, minority groups and the rest of the so many other
catch phrases).
The United Nations was used to confer international
respectability on the “process,” a role it unfortunately plays till now. Small
countries like Qatar that have for sometime been seeking a place under the international
spot light, also joined in. Seen as a potential stumbling-block for the success
of the conference, Somaliland became victim of a destabilization campaign waged
by the sponsors of Arta. But this anti-Somaliland exercise failed to produce
the desired results as Somalilanders, in an impressive display of unity and
patriotic feelings, rallied behind their government.
In this respect, it is worth recalling how the
international community dismissed the suspicions felt by Somalilanders about
Arta as vague propaganda to disrupt the conference.
The outcome of Arta had been the stooges of
international terrorism such as Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, Sheikh Hassan Awais and
Dr. Dusuqi, being bestowed with internationally awarded legitimacy to an extent
that must have driven the Taliban jealous. It is therefore necessary that the
sponsors and participants of the forthcoming conference in Nairobi, bear in
mind the lessons learnt from Arta, so as to ensure that this dreadful
experience is not repeated again.
As a first priority, it must not be missed to correctly
identify parties to the conflict to be addressed by the conference.
Since the Republic of Somaliland (Formerly the
British protectorate of Somaliland) is not a party to this conflict, the
conferees will do themselves a great favor if they would focus their meeting
agenda on the imperative task of arriving at an acceptable solution for the
daunting problems of the former Italian colony of Somalia.
Resorting to such rhetoric as the need to preserve
and respect the national unity and territorial integrity of the former Somali
Republic will not be a helpful argument. And to safeguard the conference from
becoming bogged down by a conflict over the type of status to be accorded to
participating groups, the so-called TNG should be treated as the faction that
it really is.
We know that it will be unreasonable to expect the
next reconciliation conference to resolve all the problems of Somalia once and
for all. However, by capitalizing on the lessons learnt from the previously
unsuccessful reconciliation conference, the IGAD sponsors and Somali
participants at the next Nairobi meeting, could at least achieve a progress
that is sufficient enough to keep the momentum going towards a peaceful, just
and comprehensive settlement of Somalia’s conflict in the future.
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
E-mail: haatufnews@hotmail.com
Psychosocial Survey To Be Conducted In
Somaliland
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argeisa (SL Times): The UNDP in association with the Academy for
Peace and Development will conduct a psychosocial survey in Somaliland during
this month. The survey is to establish the extent of the psychosocial problems
in Somaliland.
About 500 people, mostly ex-combatants war-widows
and delinquent youth, are expected to be surveyed. The tools to be used for
this survey include a questionnaire. The survey will be conducted by 4 teams of
enumerators and supervisors at Hargeisa, Borama, Berbera and Burao.
The purpose of the survey is to design an
appropriate community – based approach to deal with mental health. It is
believed that majority of Somalilanders suffer in one way or another from war
related trauma. The psychosocial program is expected to focus ex-combatants who
had gone through intensive combat experiences.
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
E-mail: haatufnews@hotmail.com
Asad’s Congratulatory
Message to Somaliland Women
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argeisa (SL Times): The International Women Day of 8 March, which
was widely celebrated Friday in most countries of the world, was also
commemorated in many parts of Somaliland including the capital city of Hargeisa.
A large ceremony was held during the day to
commemorate the significance of the women’s day at the Khayriyah plaza in
Hargeisa. High-ranking government Officials, representatives from the UN
Agencies and INGOs, and members of various women Organizations and huge crowd
from the general public attended the ceremony to mark the occasion.
Some leaders of women organizations delivered
speeches to the crowds, while traditional dances were presented.
Meanwhile, the ASAD Political Party has conveyed a
congratulatory message on Friday to all Somaliland women for the commemoration
of the day.
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
E-mail: haatufnews@hotmail.com
Nairobi Talks May Be Jeopardized By Horn Rivalries
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ddis Ababa (SL Times): A conference aimed to reconcile warring faction
in Somalia is due to be held next month in Nairobi, Kenya.
Preparation for holding the conference is underway,
while some countries from the IGAD are jointly entrusted with its realization.
And in particular Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti seem to be the most involved and
interested stakeholders.
Some reports concerning the conference predict that
a new government will be formed there for Somalia, although unfavorable
political conditions surround its successful implementation.
There is also some fear that the Conference might
be engulfed by rivalries between some countries of the region that are working
behind the scene to influence its course, so as to result in a favorable
outcome to safeguard their individual and differing interests. However, these
maneuvers might instead jeopardize the whole process, some political analysts
reported.
In his report the UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi
Annan also expressed concern by saying that “Reconciliation was stymied” and
there was also a divergence of views among members of the regional grouping,
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is trying to promote
peace and reconciliation in Somalia.
Our special reporter Mr. Mohamed Rashid, who
visited Ethiopia during last month says that some misunderstanding has occurred
between Ethiopia and members of the SRRC Council that consist of several armed
factions opposing the Arta transitional government to Somalia.
The report revealed that members of the SRRC
council, who was backed by Ethiopia in the past, and are led by their current
chairman, Mr. Hussein Aided, seemed worried by the meeting held in Paris
recently between Mr. Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister and President
Arab Moi of Kenya.
“The SRRC also believe that the two leaders were
reconciled reaching a joint agreement to work together for the success of the
scheduled conference in Kenya, something unacceptable to Ethiopia in the past,”
the report added,.
Reliable sources also said that Ethiopia has
confiscated the passports of Mr. Hussein Aided and General Gabyow, who were put
in isolation in Addis Ababa Hotel Gion where they only receive their meals.
It was learned that both warlords are confronted
with difficulties and are experiencing financial problems at present in Addis
Ababa, where they lost favors from the Ethiopian government. They fear that
Ethiopia might back the Somali Transitional Government, installed on 2000 by
the Arta conference because of change in its policy due to the Paris meeting,
the reports said.
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
E-mail:
haatufnews@hotmail.com
Mohamed Siyad Barre’s Ghost Dance in Somalia
I.M.Lewis
-London School of Economics
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Seek to highlight the realities of current Somali politics and to expose the myths which have been created and promoted by different interest-groups to obscure and mis-represent what is really happening in the Somali vortex today. The motives of the various myth-making agencies are an interesting issue but in the present context of secondary interest.
The Myth of the “Transitional National Government”
Somalia’s so-called transitional national
government in Mogadishu is certainly ‘transitional’ (in the sense of
transient). But it is neither national, nor a ‘government’ in the normal
understanding of he term, as a political enterprise, which governs through
exercising legitimate sovereignty. It is rather a loose assemblage of mainly
ex-Siyad era politicians and hangers on, whose hired militia forces fitfully
exert influence in those parts of southern Somalia which were invaded by the
Habar Ghidir clan (the clan of the ‘interim President’ Abdiqasim) in, and
following the overthrow of the wily dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre in Mogadishu a
decade ago.
The Habar Ghidir colonizers who have implanted
themselves in parts of this region do not constitute a single force. They are
split into mutually hostile segments of the clan associated with the various
warlords who hold sway in Mogadishu (Husseyn Aideed, Osman Atto. [‘Thin
Osman’], and other less internationally familiar figures). Split internally,
the Habar Ghidir also confronts warlords of other Hawiye clans (such as Muse
Sudi Yalahow) who control different sectors of the ruins that are Mogadishu.
Within the town, militias employed by the TNG erratically try to control three
or four streets in the south of the capital. Further a field, the TNG exerts a
fitful influence at Merka, and Kismayu and in parts of the Juba valley through
their powerful but far from dependable current allies amongst the Marehan
(Siyad’s clansmen). Their influence in this southern corner of Somalia is
routinely challenged by the notorious Majerteyn warlord ‘Morgan’ (Mohamed Said
Hersi Morgan), and currently menaced by the ‘Rahanweyn Resistance Army’ led by
the colorful Hassan Mohamed Nur (Shatigudud). Thus the vast inter-reverie area
is a nogo area for the TNG. The most powerful of these figures (and various
others) have banded together against the TNG as the ‘Somali Reconstruction and
Restoration Council.’ This is a loose political aggregate based, in typical
Somali fashion, on alliance against a common foe.
To the northeast leadership of the embryonic state
of Puntland, based primarily on the Majerteyn clan and the militia with which
it fought Siyad, is currently the subject of vicious fighting between those who
support the redoubtable Abdullahi Yusuf and his opponents. Although all the
Puntland leaders appear to be united in the fierce assertion of their desire
for local autonomy, so far this has not led them to seek to detach themselves
completely from Somalia. There are good reasons for this. There are many
Majerteyn clansmen in the port of Kismaye, which they regard as their property
Kismayu, thus, is a kind of Achilles Heel for the Puntlanders.
While the people of this northeastern region were
until a few months ago making impressive progress in restoring civil society,
recently they have descended into explosive acrimony. This is partly a
reflection of the obdurate determination of Abdullahi Yusuf to hold onto power,
in defiance of constitutional procedures he had himself helped to establish. It
also appears to reflect the machinations of the TNG (whose present prime
minister is of course Majerteyn) both through clan channels, and through
fundamentalist religious connexions. Abdullahi, who successfully defeated an
earlier fundamentalist incursion, has played an important role in the formation
of the anti-TNG Restoration Council (SRRC), and like that alliance is supported
by Ethiopia.
To the northwest, we have of course the Somaliland
Republic, which paradoxically, while lacking official international
recognition, is actually the only functional state in Somalia today. It has
also the only genuinely representative government, and although there is still
ample room for further development, presides over the normal organs of civil
society – social services, police and military. The myth vigorously promoted by
the UN and some EC countries (and naturally the TNG), that Somaliland does not
exist flies in the face of political realities in he contemporary Horn of Africa
– as the Ethiopians have long recognized.
Representative Legitimacy
A major element in the mythology of the TNG,
promoted by its adherents and UN apologist, is that the six months long Arta
conference in Djibouti, which produced the TNG, brought together actual
representatives of the component clans and sub-clans of Somalia. It was
supposed to be a meeting of the accredited Somali Traditional Leaders (the
Elders) and to exclude warlords with evil reputations. In reality it included a
number of such unsavory figures as well former generals in Siyad’s forces, some
of whom are regarded by Somalis as war criminals. There were naturally some
respectable and genuinely representative personages, but the majority lacked
this status. Most of the most active figures, really only represented
themselves, as with the aid of financial inducements provided by Arab and
fundamentalist sources, they fought for leading positions. The choice of
Abdulqasim (supported by business cronies including the Djibouti President and
Islamicist merchants) may have been inspired by the idea that, as an ex-Siyad
minister who was also Habar Ghidir-dominated politics of Mogadishu. Following
the traditional rubric of clan distribution, in setting up the TNG, he in turn
appointed as his ministers a number of his business associates and colleagues
from the ancien regime. US Ambassador Oakley’s when he visited the Arta
conference, about the brooding presence of Siyad’s ghost there, could not have
been more apposite. This also applies to most of the major warlords and
contemporary political leaders with exception of Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal in
Hargeisa.
Although the TNG does contain individuals from most
of the Somali clans, the crucial fact is that these are not regarded by their
clansmen as their own representatives. Hence, the Arta faction as it is now
designated, lacks representative legitimacy. This obviously hampers any efforts
it might make to extend its appeal. Even in Mogadishu, where Abdulqasim is
amongst his own clansmen, his support now appears less widely based than it was
at the establishment of his ‘government’ over a year ago.
In fact, far from widening its power base, the very
establishment of such an unrepresentative body has encouraged the Digil
Mirifleh (Rahanweyn) to pursue their autonomist aims and generated the wider
anti-Arta alliance of the SRRC. This continuing lack of popular legitimacy has
obviously undermined recent attempts in Nairobi and elsewhere to attract
warlords from the SRRC to change side. (So far as I know, the only recent
possible recruit of some weight is the maverick figure of Isman Atto).
The TNG at bay
Lacking as persuasively representative core of
political heavyweights with popular reputations, the efforts of the TNG to
expand its ranks have also been handicapped by the adoption, from its
inception, of an inflexible centralist state model directly replicating that of
Siyad’s ill-fated regime. (It would obviously have been more intelligent if the
UN and other parties involved in Arta had emphasized the political expediency
of a loose federal structure.) At the same time it is clear that the TNG has
expended more effort into seeking to expand external rather than internal
recognition.
This policy has been coupled with pursuing arms
procurement, contrary to the official UN arms embargo and TNG propaganda
proclaiming its ‘peaceful mission’. The UN has turned a blind-eye to these
violations. With these weapons, such militia units as the TNG has been able to
recruit, have been sent to maintain the Habar Ghidir hegemony of farms, seized
from Rahanweyn owners along the lower Shebelle, and to assist clan allies in
Merca and Kismayu.
It is not surprising that the TNG is now know
generally simply as the ‘Arta faction’ and has lost further legitimacy in the
south as well as in the north. It is now literally fighting for its survival.
Meanwhile, misinterpreting the TNG’s real lack of power, external players in
the Somali drama (Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan), have tried to encourage significant
negotiations between TNG and southern warlords.
To be continued next week…
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
E-mail: haatufnews@hotmail.com
Meanwhile. Some Officials from the Barakat Exchange
Company that was closed on January, for allegations of dealing with
Al-Qaida terrorist network, had disclosed their
intention to sue Mr. Hussein Aided, for failing to repay an outstanding loan of
US $ 168,000.
Somaliland Cabinet RESHUFFLE
Home brief
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argeisa, (SL Times): Mohamed
Said Gees has become Somaliland’s new Foreign Minister.
In a cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, President Egal
transferred Mr. Gees from the Ministry of Planning. He will be replaced by Mr. Ahmed Hassan Aafi, formerly Minister
of Justice.
Mr. Abdul-Hamid Garad Jama, until recently
Somaliland’s Foreign Minister is to replace Mr. Aafi as Minister of Justice.
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
E-mail: haatufnews@hotmail.com
Ethiopia Opens A Trade Office in Somaliland
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argeisa (SL Times): The government of Ethiopia has established a
trade office in Hargeisa, the Capital of Somaliland.
The representative of the trade office, Mr. Abdila
Dribssa and his deputy, arrived in Hargeisa on last Wednesday. The Ethiopian
Trade Office is aimed to strengthen relations and the development of commercial
ties between the two countries, according to reports from the Somaliland
Foreign Ministry.
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
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argeisa, (SL Times): The Italian Envoy responsible for the affairs of
Somalia/Somaliland, Mr. Carlo Ungaro arrived on last Monday for an official
visit to Somaliland.
Mr. Ungaro was accompanied on his visit by another
official, and was welcomed in the Hargeisa International Airport by the
Somaliland Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Kassim Sheikh Yusuf and
other high-ranking officials.
Mr. Ungaro told reporters at the airport that the
reason for his visit is to view the current situation in the country, adding
that he will hold meetings with Somaliland government officials on bilateral
relations and collaborations between the two countries. But according to
reliable sources, the visit of Mr. Ungaro is concerning some other matters
related to the reconciliation efforts in Somalia. The source added, that he is
campaigning for a new initiative made by the Italian Government on that matter.
Meanwhile, it was also learnt by the Somaliland
Times that there were many promises made in the past by the Italian Government
for development assistance to Somaliland in different fields, but nevertheless,
nothing has been materialized so far.
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
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argeisa (SL Times): Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, who is still busy on
the mediation efforts between the government and oppositions parties, left for
Burao last Saturday as part of his initiative.
Mr. Silanyo was expected to meet there with the
sultans opposing Mr. Egal’s government, who called earlier for the convention
of a general congress of clan elders, but later on accepted an unconditional
conference with the government.
Mr. Silanyo is expected to relay to them the result
of his meeting with the Somaliland government.
During his visit he is also expected to confer with
Mr. Saleiman Mohamoud Aden, the Chairman of ASAD Political Party and other
opposition leaders for the same purpose.
Meanwhile, reports coming from Burao stated that
some consultative meetings to reach a joint action on the government stand was
going on between the Sultans in Burao during the last few days.
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Somaliland Times Issue 9 March 9, 2002
Telephone 252-225-3783, 252-828-3783
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argeisa (SL Times): The five political parties of d SAHAN, BIRSOL,
HORMOOD, ILAYS and UCID have declared their support for Silanyo’s initiative to
mediate differences between the Somaliland government and the opposition.
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n a joint statement on Wednesday the five parties
called for dialogue to solve the current political disputes, so as to avoid the
occurrence of a political crisis. The parties have also recommended that the
dialogue be conducted within the framework of the constitution, proposing a
timetable to be earmarked for the duration of these talks.
But, the UMMAD political party has issued a
separate press statement, declining to support these proposals.