By Abdirizak Haji
A while ago I came across a YouTube video by Universal TV, in which the Somali president was interviewed. The President was asked questions related to his government’s failure to sustain peace in the capital and in the Southern region. The president stated in his reply, that the Somali situation should be compared to those states that went through similar crises to identify whether Somalia is re-failing or re-establishing its dignity.
In this paper, my intention is to analyse in accordance with the President’s response, whether Somalia is re-establishing unity and justice among its people by abolishing injustice and by appreciating the rule of law; and how well Somalia is transformed in comparison to those states that went through similar crises.
Transitional Justice Measures are perhaps the precise method in which to be able to provide an accurate answer for the question. The objectives of transitional justice are to re-establish trust among the society, to end impunity and to prevent future abuses.
These objectives are achieved mainly by four judicial and non-judicial measures which include criminal prosecutions, which aims to establish individual criminal responsibility for the international core crimes, truth commissions, reparations programs, and institutional reforms.
Violations during civil crises affect not just the direct victims, but the society as a whole. Successful implementation of these measures are vital to guarantee that the violations will not reoccur, to achieve accountability as well to redress the victims.
Rwanda and Somalia went through similar crises. Both the Somalian and the Rwandan Conflicts were motivated by tribalism, distrust, and fear of the unknown. Significant part of the population were brutally killed. Both states are located in Africa and both conflicts took place in the 1990s.
Arguably, one may state that the Rwandan crises were more severe, as it fulfilled all internationally agreed elements of ‘genocide crimes’. Approximately close to a million individuals were slaughtered in less than 100 days, mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
While in Somalia the number of victims are estimated to be between 450 000 -500,000 (half a million) victims. The killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus were systematic and wide spread, while in Somalia significant number of the victims were victims of collateral damages of two or more militia groups fighting over power. In Rwanda the key players were the Tutsis, Hutus and moderate Hutus, while in Somalia apparently every clan and sub clan were in arms struggle with another clan or clans – which can be likened to “the war all against all”.
In November 1994, the Rwandan Tribunal was established by United Nations Security Council resolution 955. The aim was to end impunity by establishing individual criminal responsibility and to re-establish trust between the society itself and between the society and authorities by providing a judicial and non-judicial methods for reconciliation.
The Gacaca court was established by the Rwandan government. The court is based on the local traditions and the legal customs of the region, which is more or less like the “Customary Courts” in Nigeria. Gacaca court played significant role to re-establish trust and sense of belonging within the society. The Court can be loosely translated to “justice in the grass”.
The Gacaca system served to promote reconciliation by providing a means for victims to learn the truth about the death of their family members and relatives in order to establish some form of healing process and forgiveness. The system as well gave perpetrators the opportunity to confess their crimes, show remorse and ask for forgiveness in front of their community and the victims. The Gacaca courts officially closed on May 2012.
Today, Rwanda after 20 years, has perhaps achieved the most significant man-made progress in the last two decades. More than a million people have been lifted out of poverty, women are the majority of legislators, 95 percent of the population has health insurance, and the country is ranked as one of the safest places in the world to live in Gallup’s Global States of Mind poll. This is the same Rwanda in which close to a million people were slaughtered within 100 days – just 20 years ago.
I remember our International Criminal Law lecturer saying “with all due respect to other African capitals, Kigali is the only place where I can freely walk in late night without a fear…” This is the same capital in which tens of thousands were slaughtered while the sun was shinning.
Somalia never managed to properly adopt any of the Transitional Justice mechanisms. No UN resolution was issued to establish accountability for the conducts in Somalia. Understandably, nor did the Somalian government manage to gain resources needed to end impunity.
The approach to end the Somali conflict was in many ways the reason why the conflict still exists. Somalia with the support of the international community adopted a concept of power sharing which is based on tribalism. The idea was to share the power among the four major clans and the so called “0.5 clans” which consists of the “smaller clans in numbers”.
The 4.5 concept compared to the Gacaca system of Rwanda was not effective enough to end impunity and promote the rule of law. One could argue that the concept gave more power to clan elders and to those self-appointed clan representatives – mainly politicians. This created a new political crises in which the number of stakeholders grew.
The larger the stakeholders number got the more difficult they seemed to agree on important decisions. A power sharing crises began within the clans, each sub-clan willing to gain the significant power at the negotiating table.
A “gentleman agreement” was established in which the cabinet of ministers and power was shared as simple as if the President is from Darood clan, the Prime Minister must be from Hawiye clan.
The new face of political crises, violence, continuous fights, lack of formal institutions and insecurity gave room to groups such Al-Shabaab to grow and find support for their political campaign. This, of course, created new crises, continuous abuse of human rights, violence, and insecurity. In reality, every time Somalia takes a step towards peace and justice it takes two steps back to insecurity, violence and endless injustice.
A new approach was introduced, in which Somalia developed into a Federal form of governing. The aim was to localise the government and create close relationship between the authorities and the local society. However, the system did not work well as was expected. The same crises was once again confronted – the usual power sharing crises.
It is perhaps easy to understand the ongoing political struggles. Somalians never had a chance to a pure reconciliation. Starting from the first recovery attempt, the key players were the self-appointed leaders and the International Community. A regular Somali was not given opportunity to address the conflict, victims were not given the opportunity to share their sufferings as well as perpetrators who were never given the opportunity to confess their crimes, show remorse and ask for forgiveness in front of their community and the victims.
Somalia needs to adopt the Xeer concept-a dispute settlement mechanism based on clan customary law and elements of Sharia law. The Xeer is bilateral or multilateral agreement between the Somali clans. The agreement was meant to determine the relationship between the clans-with regard disputes related to family matters-crimes and other disputes mainly recourse disputes. Over time, the agreements became precedents and thus formed part of local customary law.
After 24 years of the Somalian conflict, the nation still faces famine, insecurity and hopeless future. The leaders are fighting over selfish power-grab instead of being creative to leave behind memorable legacies.
The society is excluded from the decision making and significant number of Somalian youths die each year in the Mediterranean Sea aiming to enter Europe-seeking a better future.
Regarding the question put to President Hassan Sheikh Mahamud, it’s clear that Somalia has failed to adopt successfully any of the four transitional justice mechanisms. However, the helping hand of Turkey and the growing will of Somalis to be part of re-establishing peace indicates that Somalia will overcome its political struggles and one day sing together the famous “Kanna Siib Kanna Saar” song.
Abdirizak Haji
Email:[email protected]
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