From New York to Minnesota, Somali leaders rally support

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From New York to Minnesota, Somali leaders rally support

Greg Gordon, Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent

September 15, 2005 SOMA0915

 

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Somalia's new president mingled with U.N. figures in New York on Wednesday, while his country's new parliament speaker huddled with State Department officials in Washington.

 

But President Abdullahi Yusuf and Speaker Sharif Hassan didn't talk with each other, and haven't for weeks.

 

They head groups locked in a power struggle that Somali experts fear will derail the strife-torn, East African nation's most auspicious attempt at forming a government in the past 14 years and possibly set off a new civil war.

 

"Another outbreak of violence would be disastrous," said Ali Galaydh, a University of Minnesota public policy professor who was picked to be prime minister in an earlier, failed attempt to create a Somali government.

 

"I think it's fair to say the situation is delicate," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who joined Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., in meeting late Tuesday with Hassan and several other parliament members.

 

Hoping to return

 

The outcome carries high stakes for thousands of Somalis in the Twin Cities, home to the nation's largest population of refugees from the African nation. Many of them are hoping that their country will at last be stabilized so they can return home.

 

Omar Jamal, director of the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said he traveled to New York along with about 400 Twin Cities Somalis to seek Yusuf's support Wednesday. Jamal said Yusuf met briefly with the Minnesota Somalis and plans a more extensive meeting with them tonight in New York.

 

Meantime, five parliament members siding with Hassan plan to fly to Minnesota today to seek support from the Somali community, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and state legislative leaders. A deputy prime minister, Mohamud Jama, plans to join them Friday.

 

The potentially incendiary impasse developed when it came time to set into motion the transitional government created during two years of exhaustive talks in Kenya -- negotiations that involved everyone from statesmen to warlords. After hundreds of officials were elected and appointed, Hassan and the 275 members of parliament traveled to Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and began setting up offices.

 

But Yusuf, a former military commander who led a failed coup attempt in 1978 against then-Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre, felt that Mogadishu wasn't yet safe enough to be the seat of government. The city for years has been a haven for armed militias and, in recent months, the scene of bombings and the murder of a peace activist.

 

Tensions rose several months ago when Yusuf instead set up operations in the outlying city of Jowhar. The situation turned volatile when reports circulated that he had accepted military assistance from neighboring Ethiopia, which has fought a series of border wars with Somalia.

 

Use of Ethiopian troops in an attempt to control Mogadishu "would inflame the situation, not only in Somalia, but also would have regional implications," said Galaydh, a Hassan backer. "Mogadishu is a city of about 1.5 million to 2 million people. Everybody is armed. This is going to be house-to-house fighting ... really bloody."

 

Watching closely

 

The Bush administration weighed in this summer, urging Somalia's neighbors to stay out of any conflict. And the U.N. Security Council issued a statement in July warning that any party persisting "on the path of confrontation and conflict, including military action, would be held accountable."

 

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has assigned a special representative to try to mediate the dispute. Jamal said Yusuf met Wednesday evening with new U.N. General Assembly President Jan Eliasson of Sweden.

 

Jama, the deputy prime minister and a former University of Wisconsin student, said Hassan's group has spent months improving the climate in Mogadishu by persuading about 2,500 young men from rival militias to move into camps miles from the city, where they are being trained by police officers. He blamed the distrust between Yusuf and parliament figures partly on the "series of competitions" in deciding on a government, each of which "left a legacy of conflict."

 

Coleman said he is urging the State Department to do what it can to keep both sides talking. If Somalia can't be stabilized, he said, "then you run the risk of it being a haven for terrorism. That's the real concern."

 

Greg Gordon is at ggordon@startribune.com.

 

Somalia: A recent history review

 

Somalia gained independence from Britain in 1960, and Mohamed Siad Barre became president in 1969. Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991, sending the country into 14 years of civil strife. Many attempts were made during those years to form a national government, but all failed because of clan warfare. Various regions are dominated by warlords and militias.

 

In June 2003, the Somali National Reconciliation Conference started meeting in Kenya. In 2004, an agreement was reached by warlords and politicians to create a transitional parliament. Abdullahi Yusuf was elected president. This was seen as the best chance for the formation of a lasting centralized government, but it is now in danger of falling apart.

 

The parliament is based in the capital of Mogadishu, but the president has set up in the small city of Jowhar and says he does not feel safe going to Mogadishu.

 

The United Nations is working with various factions trying to save the government.