Somalia: Hollow quest for peace

[rudy-Diiriye]

Somalia: Hollow quest for peace

July 24th, 2007 As the interim government seeks to ignore its main rivals and the main issues at what will prove a less than historic reconciliation conference, violence is on the rise again in Mogadishu and patience is wearing thin.

 

With the Somali National Reconciliation Conference in session for the fifth day despite delays, boycotts and mortar attacks, no one seems to agree on what the conference is actually supposed to addressed, let alone who is supposed to participate.

 

In the end, aside from the fact that it is the first of 15 such conferences to be held in Somalia itself, failure seems imminent.

 

Since 1991, when warlords ousted dictator Siad Barre, violence and anarchy have been the rule of the day. The UN-recognized interim government has been weak from the onset, losing power to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) for a six-month period this year and fleeing the capital. With the help of US-backed warlords and Ethiopian troops, the interim government regained control late last year, but that control is not solidified and some of the worst violence has taken place since.

 

The Somali transitional government called the talks under pressure from the international community, particularly the US and the EU, after senior government officials repeatedly refused to acknowledge any need for further reconciliation in the country.

 

The interim government maintains that the on-going conference in the restive Somali capital of Mogadishu will resolve clan differences among Somalis who it says have been fighting clan wars for the past decade and a half.

 

However, while clan rivalries do pose a problem, peace will depend on a power-sharing agreement among all parties, and with the interim government’s plan to ignore its main rivals, the ICU and the Independent Parliamentarians now in exile in Eritrea, Ethiopia’s main nemesis, no progress can be forthcoming.

 

The interim government’s intentions are clear. When it invited clan elders to the conference, it was under the name of the “Somali Clans Reconciliation Conference,” rather than a National Reconciliation Conference, as the media and the outside world refer to the peace talks.

 

“We know how we fought one another,” said Ali Mahdi Mohamed, the government-appointed chairman of the reconciliation committee and a former warlord, in a recent interview with local radio, “we need to let Somali clans forgive and forget.”

 

Mahdi ruled out any discussion of politics or power sharing among the government and its rivals. The latter group includes the Islamists and other opposition groups such as the leading ****** clan and the deposed Somali Parliamentarians, the so-called Independent Parliamentarians who are now based in the Eritrean capital of Asmara, along with the ICU.

 

The ****** clan is the largest and most dominant of the Somali clans. Their elders’ prominence as a political voice for their community came when they rejected Ethiopia’s invasion into their country and its backing of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, who is from the ****** clan.

 

The elders claim that the current government does not represent them, even though the prime minister and more than sixty members of the interim parliament hail from ******. The elders say that these members have been rendered into political figureheads by the presence of Ethiopian troops who, they allege, are friendly with Yusuf.

 

These major stakeholders have boycotted the conference from the start claiming the talks are designed to give legitimacy to what they called the “Ethiopian occupation” of Somalia. As a precondition for their participation, they have unanimously demanded that Ethiopian troops currently operating in the country be withdrawn. However, they have not been able to reach a consensus on whether African Union (AU) peacekeepers now deployed under UN mandate should remain.

 

The Islamists and the Independent Parliamentarians together with ****** clan elders say the conference should be held in a neutral venue and participants should discuss all issues including politics and power sharing. The groups say the Somali problem is political rather than clan-related, despite what the interim government would have others believe.

 

The US, the EU and the UN for their part seem to be working at cross purposes with the interim government, which they all back.

 

They have called for the Somali government to make the conference as inclusive as possible, urging it to allow broader discussion of all kinds of national issues.

 

In a 20 July statement, US Department of State deputy spokesman Tom Casey said: “We are encouraged by the remarks from [interim] President Abdullahi Yusuf stating that the Congress will address key political issues, such as power sharing and transitional tasks mandated by the Transitional Federal Charter, and that the Transitional Federal Government will implement the outcomes of the Congress.”

 

“The United States calls on the National Governance and Reconciliation Committee and the Transitional Federal Government to create an environment in which all relevant stakeholders can participate in the Congress and contribute to a lasting political solution in Somalia,” the statement continued.

 

The statement also “urges all Somali stakeholders to participate constructively in the Congress and use this opportunity to establish a roadmap for the remainder of the transitional process leading to elections in 2009.”

 

But the statement does not reflect the reality.

 

What all parties need to understand is that the current conference is making no progress - indeed, no progress seems to be the intention - and violence in the capital is on the rise.

 

After decades of anarchy and bloody chaos, the Somali people are running out of patience and losing faith in the process, which is heading toward yet another failure, with political maturity and a willingness to compromise absent on all sides.

 

source: http://free-somalia.org/?p=184#more-184