The International community inflames the situation in Mogadishu

EDITORIAL

On Wednesday, July 11, 2007 a delegation mostly from the European countries, led by the EU’s Special Envoy to Somalia Georges-Marc Andre, arrived in Mogadishu. The purpose of their visit was ostensibly to check on the progress of preparations for yet another one of Somalia’s interminable and fruitless reconciliation conferences.

After spending a few hours in Mogadishu and conferring mostly with members of the so-called Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG), the European delegation expressed satisfaction with the level of preparations for the meeting that was to take place in four days. When asked about the strong opposition to the conference among the Hawiye clan, Mr Georges-Marc Andre replied, "They have arguments but these arguments are not definite arguments.”

Italy’s Special Envoy to Somalia, Mario Raffaelli, was even more upbeat in his assessment of the prospects of the conference and said, "We received good answers and we are going back happy".

Of course, anyone who is the least bit familiar with the situation in Mogadishu knows how mistaken the two Europeans were in their appraisal of conditions there.

As if to show the Europeans just how wrong they were, and that contrary to what Andre said, the Hawiye had “definite” arguments against the conference, the level of violence immediately jumped up as soon as the Europeans showed up and the date of the rendezvous in Mogadishu got closer.

It was also odd that the most effusive among the delegation in his praise of the preparations for the conference was the Italian ambassador, Mr Rafaelli. What makes this odd is that Italy’s relations with the so-called Transitional Federal Government (TFG) are poor at best. One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that the Italian ambassador was deliberately making matters worse for the TFG by praising them and dismissing the Hawiye in their own turf.

Whatever the intentions of Rafaelli and the rest of the European delegations, the inescapable truth is that the situation in Mogadishu is getting from bad to worse and no amount of distortions will change that stark reality.

Source: Somaliland Times

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