12 - 18 April 2001
Issue No.529
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 12 - 18 April 2001 Issue No.529 |
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Somalia's new guessing game
Somali faction leaders opposed to the country's transitional government have joined together to form a rival administration. They have also made much political capital out of a hostage crisis, writes Gamal Nkrumah
Last week, after meeting in Awasa, 275km south of Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, 17 Somali factional leaders opposed to Somali President Abdul-Qassem Salad Hassan's Transitional National Government (TNG) announced the formation of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC). The new formation is intended to be a united front calling for an all-inclusive reconciliation conference that would lead to a "legitimate transitional representative government of national unity." The faction leaders set up a national reconciliation commission, a joint chief of staff and a commission to draft a new national charter.
"We are looking for a national constitutional government," said SRRC chairman Hussein Aidid. "We want to lay the groundwork for setting up a new government with popular support at the grassroots level," he explained. Aidid, based in late Somali dictator Siad Barre's presidential mansion before the formation of the TNG, is now persona non grata in Mogadishu. Following in the footsteps of his father Mohamed Farah Aidid, killed a year after he engineered the UN peacekeepers' unceremonious exit from Somalia, Aidid took over the leadership of the Somali National Alliance (SNA), the country's most powerful militia. But Aidid and the SRRC stress their newfound belief in using peaceful political means to gain power. "We blocked any avenue that can cause a war," Aidid asserted. But it is not clear that this will convince a government whose ranks he has adamantly refused to join.
President Salad insists that Aidid work within the framework of the Arta National Reconciliation Conference, which convened last year in Djibouti and created and legitimised the TNG. The SRRC invited the Somali president to join it, but only as a leader of one faction among many. Naturally, he declined.
The SRRC did convince Abdallah Yusuf, president of the self-declared independent state of Puntland, in northeastern Somalia, to join. But Mohamed Egal, the president of neighbouring Somaliland, another breakaway republic, refused to join the fray. The SRRC already has to contend with the personal ambitions and enmities of Somalia's traditionally warring faction leaders.
The announcement lifts the curtain on the TNG's perplexing security challenge. The Somali government's suspicions of Ethiopia's agenda has been heightened by this development. Aidid flatly denies the existence of a deal with Ethiopia, but the country has long meddled in Somali affairs and maintained relations with various Somali warlords. Part of Ethiopia's leverage over the disgruntled warlords comes from its ability to attract foreign financial assistance.
To celebrate UNICEF's 50th anniversary, 80 Somali children were given disposable cameras to capture on film their perception of war and peace. The photos were exhibited under the banner, "All we are saying, is give kids a chance."
(Photos courtesy of UNICEF)
This poses a problem for the TNG. Warlords such as Aidid and Yalahow were previously viewed as mavericks, loners that the TNG could deal with individually without worrying about their ties to big neighbouring states. But disarming powerful Somali faction leaders who have the backing of Ethiopia, the regional power, is another story altogether.
"Ethiopia is resorting to the old practice of employing proxy politicians to fight its own battles inside Somalia," Somali Ambassador to Egypt Abdallah Hassan Mahmoud told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The TNG enjoys international recognition and the support of the Arab League and the Organisation of African Unity. The government is transitional and we invite the faction leaders to join for the sake of peace and stability," Ambassador Mahmoud explained. But what are the TNG's options? "Whatever the course of action, it must be sustained beyond the propaganda-driven, photo-opportunity approach so characteristic of Somali warlords," Ambassador Mahmoud told the Weekly.
First and foremost, the TNG must reorganise its policies to take account of changing realities. With the TNG desperately short of funds, Somali Foreign Minister Mohamed Hurrah asked the Arab League to grant Somalia $450 million in aid at the Arab Summit in Amman. Arab largesse might ease the financial squeeze, but more funds and humanitarian assistance are needed to combat the growing environmental and humanitarian crisis engulfing Somalia. Desertification and soil erosion are wreaking havoc in the countryside and the dumping of hazardous waste by multinational corporations has became a real menace. Swiss and Italian firms have recently been implicated in this ruinous business, having signed dumping deals with warlords and breakaway regions in the absence of central government control.
The SRRC announcement came in the midst of the latest Somali hostage crisis. Aidid confirmed reports that the humanitarian aid workers were abducted by Musa Sudi Yalahow, one of Mogadishu's most notorious warlords. Yalahow, who boycotted the Arta conference, said that he wanted to prove that the transitional government was not in charge. Aidid said that the SRRC was making the necessary "logistical arrangements to ensure the hostages' safe exit out of Somalia." Aidid told reporters in the Ethiopian capital that he wanted to hand the hostages over to the international community directly and release them the same way the previous five hostages were released. And he did. The remaining two hostages were discharged amid much fanfare. Mogadishu warlord Omar Mohamed "Finish" -- closely associated with the SRRC -- "facilitated" the release of the hostages last Wednesday, having performed a similar service two weeks ago. The SRRC has used the hostage crisis to criticise the TNG for its incompetence.
Aidid is also eager to press the right economic buttons, pointing to the need for greater economic stability. The TNG's penchant for printing money has destroyed whatever remained of the Somali economy, says Aidid. The value of the Somali shilling plummeted from 7,000 to $1 before the TNG's inauguration last year to 18,000 today.
Others in Somalia warn of the growing danger of tribalism. "Despite the abysmal failure of tribal-based governments in the past, the newly formed Somali government is entirely based and built on tribalism and is driven by the incessant notion of 'what is in it for me,'" warns Nadjmudin Elmi, editor of US-based Somali newspaper Wargeyska Hayaan. "A Somali can change his name, his nationality and even his religion. What he cannot do, however, is change his tribe. This explains why so many nasty people found shelter in their respective tribes," Elmi explained.
Disarming the warlords remains the most pressing priority. The Somali hostage crisis highlights their still considerable power and influence in Somalia. The TNG will need to redouble its diplomatic efforts to halt the warlords' growing clout if it is to gain international credibility -- or even survive. A peaceful resolution of the ongoing crisis which includes all Somalis is imperative. But as the latest crisis demonstrates, it is difficult to see how the diehards among the anti-Arta warlords will be made to lay down their arms.
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