Mistrust fuels fighting in Somalia

[Camel Mlik]

Double post:

 

you know what how come we can delete posts on somaliaonline?

[Haddad]

Originally posted by M.I.L.K:

you know what how come we can delete posts on somaliaonline?

There's the Delete Topic button, but it doesn't work for users. Just change the title and content of your double post for a future topic.

[Camel Mlik]

INTERVIEW - Mistrust fuels fighting in Somalia - minister

- Saturday, August 13, 2005 at 21:45

 

By Guled Mohamed

 

NAIROBI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Somalia's faction fighting will grind on until effective government is restored to the broken country and militia leaders in the administration learn to trust each other, a senior minister said on Saturday.

 

Interior Minister Hussein Aideed said that after the recent formation of the new government in Kenya, the next step is to push for "real reconciliation" at the grassroots within Somalia, bringing on board leaders, elders, women and the young.

 

"There has not been trust between the leaders, within the elite, within the Transitional Federal Government there is mistrust," said Aideed, speaking in the Kenyan capital Nairobi before his planned return to Mogadishu on Sunday after three years' absence.

 

"I believe all of us have made peace and must do what we have signed ... all of us said we will disarm, we will participate peacefully and democratically."

 

Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, the 14th attempt to reinstate government in lawless Somalia, has the task of ending fighting between rival clan warlords but is sharply divided on where the new administration should be based.

 

President Abdullahi Yusuf and his supporters say Mogadishu is too dangerous and have chosen Jowhar, 90 km (55 miles) north of Mogadishu, as the temporary seat of government.

 

But some powerful ministers and Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan insist the capital must be Mogadishu as stipulated in Somalia's interim charter.

 

Aideed said he was going to Mogadishu to represent Yusuf's government as had been agreed in Nairobi on June 12, and to ease concerns that there is no government presence in the capital.

 

"I am going to Mogadishu. I will be the caretaker of the State House (president's residence) and office until the government relocates completely from Jowhar and from other areas," Aideed said.

 

He said he would push for reconciliation among the leaders while in Mogadishu. "I play a neutral (role), although I am leaning towards the president's side," he said. "I will continue to mediate between the two groups."

 

GOOD GOVERNANCE

 

Aideed, the son of the former warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed who eluded and embarrassed U.S. forces a decade ago, said the way to end fighting in Somalia was to promote good governance and respect human rights.

 

"All the five governments the Somali republic has had since independence, they couldn't stop the factional and tribal wars. All this can stop once we have a good, transparent way of using the resources, rebuilding and protecting human rights, which were violated throughout our history," Aideed said.

 

Another source of conflict in Somalia's politics is that many among the overwhelmingly Muslim population of 10 million are hostile to what they see as interference by their big, nominally Christian neighbour Ethiopia, historically an enemy.

 

But Aideed said Ethiopia was not the problem and Somalis should look within their own country.

 

"I believe that there is a trend in Somalia to create Ethiopia as the evil empire," he said. "Ethiopia has no interest in invading Somalia. The problem is coming from us not them."

 

Somalia collapsed into chaos after the overthrow of military ruler Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people since then.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

 

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