Somali Reconciliation processes: A perpetual failure

Eng. Mohamed Hashi Elmi

The international community has conferred legitimacy on Somalia's warlords by hosting them, in Five-Star hotels, at the expense of the donor countries while shaking hands with Heads of States. Now these Warlords were declared by the international community as being the sole representatives of the people in Somalia. This appeasement however does not change the fact that the majority of the people in Somalia see these warlords as pure criminals who have been responsible for perpetrating their suffering for over a decade.

Eng. Moh'ed Hashi

Among this lot of suspected mass murderers are individuals wanted in Somaliland for war crimes and crimes against humanity that had been committed here back in the 1980s. The mass graves found in the outskirts of every major town and city, and in particularly around the capital Hargeisa, stand testimony to the large-scale human rights violation and colossal destruction and pillage of property that took place.                     

Since 1991, when SNM, SPM and USC forces defeated the army of Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia plunged into civil wars, internal displacements, genocide, destruction etc. To stop bloodshed and destruction, outside intervention was inevitable. The UN, IGAD countries, AU, EU, US and the Arab League were all eager to find solution to the Somalia problem.

Conferences were, held with the desired objectives of making peace and National Reconciliation among the Somalia's Warring factions. Equally important was to return properties taken by force to their rightful owners, to bring the perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice and then to establish a central authority for Somalia.

The question, which comes to mind now is: will the Mbagathi Crowned president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, achieve some degree of success where his predecessor failed? Why Reconciliation conferences for Somalia always create more warlords, conflicts and end up in disasters?  These and many more questions need to be addressed in order to understand Somalia's chronic problems and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development's (IGAD) lack of genuine intentions for dealing with the crisis in Somalia.

Unlike Somalia, for example, Somaliland (The Former British Protectorate) convened its conferences inside the country. No foreign governments or International Organisations were invited or involved. The first reconciliation conference of all clan leaders held in Burao in 1991. It was under trees on mats and in partially demolished buildings. The total expense of the conference was less than ten thousand ($10,000) US Dollars, all paid by the citizens. The follow-up conferences, one in Borama 1993 and in Hargeisa 1997, were convened in similar circumstances.

Then, Somaliland demobilized its militia in 1993, formed a National army, a police force, custodial corps and established all governmental institutions. It began its democratization in May 2001 with plebiscite on a new Constitution (97% yes vote), with the introduction of multiparty electoral system and in December 2002 with municipal elections that were open and transparent. Following in 2003 was the Presidential election. All these were achieved with great success and with insignificant financial assistance from outside. The final stage is the legislative elections scheduled on March 2005. Determination to move forward was the key to all these successes. Today, Somaliland enjoys peace and stability accompanied by experimental multi party democracy.

Reconciliation Conferences for Somalia took totally different approach. The fourteen conferences, which were held on Somalia since 1991, were initiated, organized and financed by foreign Governments and International organizations. They were, convened outside Somalia and erratically managed by IGAD countries.

The first two conferences were hosted in and by Djibouti Government in 1991 to form Government of National Unity, in which Ali Mahdi was nominated the President of Somalia. Somehow the armed-wing of United Somali Congress (USC), lead by General Mohamed Farah Aideed, was ignored. That initial mistake was the cause of the split of the USC into two factions and triggered the ensuing civil war for the control of the capital Mogadishu and the neighboring regions.

Since 1993, subsequent Conferences on Somalia sponsored by the UN were held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. General Mohamed Farah Aideed was dissatisfied and felt antagonized. As a result, fighting broke out between Aideed's forces and those of the UN. Despite these failures, lack of commitment to peace by the Somalia warlords and without improvement to the methodology, Somalia's major events and Peace Conferences still continued; In Sodere, Ethiopia (1996), Cairo, Egypt (1997) and Khartoum in January 2002 and so on.

In the year 2000, the government of Djibouti again convened a conference at Arta in which the Transitional National Government (TNG) was formed and Abdi-Qasim Salad Hassan was elected President. The TNG failed because of incompetence, corruption, and the lack of a working program. It could not even control more than few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu, and it gradually melted into non-existence.

These failures could rightly be attributed to the derailing of the concept of peacemaking and reconciliation for the election campaign just to Crown a criminal warlord. Hence, to save the Conference itself for that purpose outweighed the desired objectives of a meaningful peace settlement among warring parties and antagonists. Peacemaking and reconciliation was inescapable prerequisite for the establishment of Central Authority for Somalia.

Secondly, IGAD States, unfortunately could not overcome their political differences, internal divisions, and rivalry to gain fame and recognition of regional power. Djibouti Government and some Arab League States openly supported the TNG and Ethiopia the SRRC.
The Role of Senior Somali Professionals and Scholars, chaired by Mr Abdirazaq H. Hussein (former Somalia Prime minister) was neither helpful, healthy nor realistic, by recommending to IGAD members the following:

"Adopting the South African Truth and Reconciliation model is not viable, under the present circumstances in Somalia, for the following reasons:
I.    Most of the warring parties, and all antagonists have jointed the peace process and are active in the formation of the transitional federal government.
II.    Repercussions of a televised voluntary public confession of crimes committed, in a Somali context, needs further careful study.
Adopting the Rwandan and Bosnian Models of setting-up an International Criminal Court to try people who have joined the peace process and are part of the transitional federal government is also not practical.      
The massacres, crimes against humanity, and human rights violations that took place in Somalia are very grave and will be deferred to the elected Somali parliamentary government as soon as the transitional period (five years) is over. This elected body will decide what model is appropriate to bring those who committed these crimes to justice".

Work of two years and an expenditure of millions of US Dollars have again produced corrupt criminal leaders to decide the destiny of the people they have destroyed.               
Mbagathi President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, admitted in his recent State visit to Sana'a Yemen that he was the first man to fire the first shot that triggered the civil war in Somalia.

He spent four million U. S. Dollars to be elected while his people are suffering from the worst drought in recent history of the region. Why do the warlords spend such huge sums of money just to be elected? There are two main reasons for that, first they fear of revenge of the crimes they committed and power is a source of protection for them. Secondly, it is investment to get much more from the State. Peace and development for Somalia are not viable propositions with the warlords.

The words peace reconciliation and development are used in Somalia's externally driven processes because they are attractive and appealing to the donor countries but they are excluded in any IGAD agenda and in the minds of the warlords. The exclusion of peace and reconciliation from the agendas is a signal of encouragement to the warlords. It enhances their political position by expanding their territories of control and forming alliance with other groups.

As usual, whenever a warlord is elected, the game continues; State visits to Arab countries and the EU for financial support, acquisition of ammunition and to occupy the seats of the AU, The Arab League and the UN, and like his predecessors, to wage fresh civil wars. As soon as the Mbagathi initiative was over, the newly elected President has started a fresh civil war between Puntland militia and Somaliland forces.

To complete the cycle, the beneficiaries of Somalia crisis, United Nations Political Office (UNPOS), Kenya and Djibouti, will be on the drawing board soon, only to plan the venue for Somalia's next Reconciliation Conference. So the tragic events of violence will continue. Like the Great Lake regions, wars could spread from country to another.

It is not surprising that the President, Prime minister and the entire 275 members of parliament are in exile in Nairobi, Kenya and probably will be there until their tenure of office expires.

There are no simple solutions to Somalia crisis but to curb the expansion of violence from Somaliland and the region as whole and the International Community must recognize Somaliland, which was a separate State that got its independence in 1960, from Great Britain and voluntarily united with Somalia. A marriage that was not successful.

Ethnicity as claimed by the Mbagathi president cannot alter the Recognized International Borders. The claim of territories by ethnicity will not be confined to Somaliland alone, it could also spill over across the border to Ethiopia for the same reason. The border between Somaliland and Somalia is not different from that passing between other countries, through out Africa, Europe and Asia clans sharing ethnicity or lineage inhabit, at least, in two or more different countries, and good examples are, Mr. Ibrahim Hassan Gagale's list in his open letter on Somaliland / Somalia Border Conflict, 04 November 2004:
·    Fulani: inhabits in Mali, Niger, Chad etc
·    Hausa: inhabits in Nigeria and North-western Niger.
·    Yoruba: inhabits in South-west Nigeria and Benin.
·    Bobo: inhabits in Western Burkina Faso and Mali.
·    Massai: inhabits in North-central Kenya and Southern Tanzania.
·    Issaq: inhabits in Somaliland, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya.
·    Samaron: inhabits in Somaliland, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
·    Hawiye: inhabits in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
·    Darod: inhabits in Somaliland, Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. So are many others throughout the African continent and even other continents".

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The author is a former Minister of Industry and Commerce and a winner of the prestigious award of the United Nations Habitat for Humanity in 1996.

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