From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue May 12 2009 - 21:38:07 EDT
Somalia's deceitfully structured government near collapse [Editorial]
10 May 10, 2009 - 1:29:16 PM
SUNDAY EDITORIAL | Despite all its international dimensions, the
conflict in Somalia is still fundamentally a civil war among Somali
clans.
The 'international community' has been duped yet again. The Garowe
Online Editorial Board has long reiterated its opposition to a bloated
550-seat Somali Parliament composed of clan warlords, war profiteers and
so-called Islamist moderates who lack grassroots support within
Somalia's powerful Islamist community. And the so-called Government of
National Unity that controlled very little territory ceded whatever
little areas they controlled to the armed opposition on Sunday, May 10,
after four days of heavy fighting not seen in Mogadishu since the
withdrawal of Ethiopian troops in Jan. 2009.
Who is to blame for this new round of violence and mass displacement of
Mogadishu civilians? Certainly, Col. Abdullahi Yusuf is not around
anymore and the finger-pointing cannot reach his exiled home in Yemen.
Yusuf's Ethiopian army allies have retreated back to Ethiopia and
continue to watch from the border as Islamist militia battle for
whatever is left in Mogadishu. The African Union Mission in Somalia
(AMISOM), a 4,000-strong peacekeeping force with bases at the airport
and port facility, is under-manned and ill-equipped to face off against
Mogadishu's militants without immediate and sustained international
support.
And Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the U.N.-recognized President of Somalia, has
very little recognition inside the country as violently demonstrated by
the bullets and mortar barrages that have made him and his weak
government no different than that of Ethiopian-backed former President
Abdullahi Yusuf. As they say in Mogadishu, Sheikh Sharif has "lost
touch" with the Islamists' grassroots community - a gap that has been
quickly filled by former ally-turned-rival Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys,
whose return to Mogadishu last month has inspired a new round of warfare
unseen among Islamists in Somalia's contemporary history.
A deceitful project
U.N. Special Representative Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah might be excellent at
producing promising statements about developments in Somalia, but he is
detached from the realities and complexities of Somali politics as he
has been the leading campaigner for President Sheikh Sharif and the
so-called Government of National Unity whose parliament is under mortar
attack and whose President hides behind AMISOM tanks. The international
community has long been criticized for repeatedly recognizing, funding
and supporting the "top-down approach" for the re-institutionalization
of a national government in Somalia. But Mr. Ahmedou has taken that
historic precedent to a new level by empowering a single faction,
virtually with no constituents and no territorial control, and dressing
up the faction leaders in shiny suits to pose for pictures with U.N.
officials and world diplomats.
The U.N.-sponsored round of peace talks between the Transitional Federal
Government (TFG), then under the leadership of President Abdullahi
Yusuf, and the weaker wing of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of
Somalia (ARS), led by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, ultimately ended in
catastrophic failure. Ex-President Yusuf rejected the outcome of the
peace process, held in Djibouti between May 2008 and Jan. 2009 when
Sheikh Sharif was "elected" the President of Somalia.
In large part, the peace process transformed into a money-making venture
with Mr. Ahmedou becoming entangled in the intricate web of Somali clan
politics and allowing a single clan-led faction to appoint 50% of an
expanded 550-seat Parliament. Naturally, this created a clan misbalance
and regional authorities, most notably the self-governing State of
Puntland that considers itself part of Federal Somalia, rejected the
outcome of the U.N.-backed peace process as tilting unfavorably to
empower certain clan groups at the expense of all Somalis.
A recent report published by U.S.-backed think-tank ENOUGH! Project
wrote: "Direct external aid to TFG security forces is seen by many as
unavoidable if the TFG is to defeat the hardliners and expand its
authority in south and central Somalia, and the United Nations has asked
donors to provide training, equipment, and stipends to the emerging TFG
security forces. However, this places the United Nations and other
external actors again in the position of a direct backer of one party in
an ongoing civil war, a fact which contributes significantly to the
targeting of international humanitarian aid workers by insurgents.
External donors must be very clear about what they are doing if
providing direct support to national security forces: They are choosing
sides in a war." REPORT: Somalia: Beyond Piracy - Next Steps to
Stabilize the Country
Ending the civil war
Despite all its international dimensions, the conflict in Somalia is
still fundamentally a civil war among Somali clans that erupted with
atrocious violence in 1991, when Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown
and the Horn of Africa country was plunged into the current state of
darkness. The object of all Somalis, and secondarily the international
community, should be clearly aimed at ending the civil war by
identifying its root causes, cataloguing the war atrocities and lost
properties, and creating a platform for a genuinely Somali-owned
national reconciliation process to be held in Somalia and inclusive of
all political stakeholders.
The 'Ahmedou Project,' with the creation of a 550-seat Parliament facing
logistical and security problems in Somalia, and the installation of an
'Islamist President' with minimal support within the Islamist community,
is near collapse in the face of a fast-changing political landscape in
Somalia. The millions of dollars that funded the 'Ahmedou Project' and
the Djibouti-based peace process have thus far led to the outbreak of an
Islamist civil war in Mogadishu. That money could have been better spent
feeding the Somali masses facing war, displacement, drought, disease,
and all-around desperation, mostly in the south-central regions ravaged
by nearly 20 years of instability.
The international community should not shower President Sheikh Sharif's
government with funding without at first promoting and guaranteeing a
lasting political settlement to end the country's civil war - currently
the longest-running conflict in Africa. For starters, the "top-down
approach" to national governance in Somalia will never work and the
international community must come to terms with a reality where regional
administrations, i.e. Somaliland and Puntland, have governments that are
representative, functional and orderly.
And these governments were created with virtually no outside
interference or funding support. If the world is genuine about peace in
Somalia, and ending piracy at sea, then supporting existing governance
structures built on censensus, rather than deceit, will be paramount to
ensuring the eventual creation of a national government agreed upon by
all political stakeholders in Somalia.
Garowe Online Editorial, editorial@garoweonline.com
http://www.garowe.com/
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