In Somalia, a Government on Life Support

[xiinfaniin]

March 29, 2008

In Somalia, a Government on Life Support

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The trouble started when government soldiers went to the market and, at gunpoint, began to help themselves to sacks of grain.

 

Islamist insurgents poured into the streets to defend the merchants. The government troops got hammered, taking heavy casualties and retreating all the way back to the presidential palace, supposedly the most secure place in the city. It too came under fire.

 

Mohamed Abdirizak, a top government official, crouched on a balcony at the palace, with bullets whizzing over his head. He had just given up a cushy life as a development consultant in Springfield, Virginia. His wife thought he was crazy. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

 

“I feel this slipping away,” he said.

 

By its own admission, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia is on life support. When it came here to the capital 15 months ago, backed by thousands of Ethiopian troops, it was widely hailed as the best chance in years to end Somalia’s ceaseless cycles of war, chaos and suffering.

 

But now its leaders say that unless they get more help — international peacekeepers, weapons, training and money to pay their soldiers, among other things — this transitional government will fall just like the 13 governments that came before it.

 

Less than a third of the promised African Union soldiers have shown up, the United Nations has shied away from sending peacekeepers any time soon and even the Ethiopians are taking a back seat, often leaving the government’s defense to teenage Somali troops with clackety guns who are clearly overwhelmed.

 

The Islamists have been gaining recruits, overrunning towns and getting increasingly bold. The new prime minister, credited as the government’s best — and possibly last — hope, is reaching out to them, and some are receptive. But it is unclear whether he has the power within his own divided government to strike a meaningful peace deal before it is too late.

 

The looming failure is making many people here and abroad question the strategy of installing the transitional government by force. In December 2006, Ethiopians troops, aided by American intelligence, ousted the Islamist administration that briefly controlled Mogadishu, bringing the transitional government to the city for the first time.

 

The Bush Administration said it was concerned about terrorists using Somalia as a sanctuary. The hunt for them continues with a recent American cruise missile strike aimed at a terrorist suspect in southern Somalia, but it missed, wounded several civilians and promptly incited protests.

 

Many Somalis, European diplomats and critics in Congress also question the State Department’s decision this month to label a Somali resistance group a terrorist organization, which many fear will only boost its profile among the increasingly disillusioned populace.

 

“The policy has failed,” said Representative Donald M. Payne, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa and global health. “Were Baghdad-izing Mogadishu and Somalia. Were making people feel wrongly treated and pushing them toward more radical positions.”

 

In recent weeks, the Islamists have routed warlords and militiamen who have been absorbed into the government forces but are undermining what little progress transitional leaders have made with their predatory tactics, like looting food. After 17 years of civil war, Somalia’s violence seems to be driven not so much by clan hatred, ideology or religiosity but by something much simpler: survival.

 

“We haven’t been paid in eight months,” said one government soldier named Hassan. “We rob people so we can eat.”

 

Nur Hassan Hussein, the prime minister, did not deny government troops were robbing civilians. “This is the biggest problem we have,” he said in an interview in late March.

 

But, he said, he does not have the money to pay them. Each month, more than half of government’s revenue, mostly from port taxes, disappears — stolen by “our people,” the prime minister said.

 

That leaves Mr. Nur with about $18 million a year in government money to run a failed state of 9 million of some of the world’s neediest, most collectively traumatized people.

 

And failed state may be a generous term. In many ways, Somalia is not a state at all, but an ungoverned space between its neighbors and the sea. Sometimes it seems that if anything binds this country together, it is scar tissue.

 

Take Hassan Ali Elmi, who was blinded by a bullet in 1992 and has been living ever since in a cell-like room in the gutted former ministry of public works. His son tugs him into town to beg for the equivalent of a few pennies a day, which buy less and less. At night, he lies on a thin foam mattress and waits for the shooting to stop. It doesn’t.

 

“All Somalia, all gun,” he says.

 

His neighbors are recently displaced people living in cardboard huts that crumble in the rain. Aid organizations say that more than half of Mogadishu’s estimated one million people is on the run.

 

Many of the same elements that lined up in the early 1990s to create a famine are lining up again — war, drought, displacement, skyrocketing food prices and aid workers pulling out. The United Nations World Food Program said on Thursday, in a warning titled “Somalia Sinking Deeper into Abyss of Suffering,” that the country was the most dangerous in the world for aid workers.

 

Most Somalis don’t argue with that. They say Mogadishu is more capriciously violent than it has ever been, with roadside bombs, militias shelling each other across neighborhoods, doctors getting shot in the head and 10-year-olds hurling grenades. Police officials say that many insurgents are actually hungry children paid a few dollars for their work.

 

In the shrinking zone that the government controls in southern Mogadishu, a couple of buildings have been splashed with a fresh coat of paint and new immigration forms at the airport ask travelers for their name, purpose of journey and caliber of weapon. Girls wearing bandanas dribble basketballs in a gym. Men sell fish by the seaside. A beat of life goes on. But north Mogadishu is another story.

 

“It’s like `Mad Max’ out there,” said Abdi Awaleh Jama, an ambassador at large, pointing from the presidential palace north toward the expanse of huts and ruins stretching into the distance.

 

In the rat-tat-tat of nightly machine gunfire, people are beginning to hear the government’s death knell. Many residents have mixed feelings about this. They contend that the government has enabled warlords. They say, almost without exception, that things were better under the Islamists. But they fear what lies ahead.

 

“We’re getting addicted to anarchy,” said Dahabo Abdulleh, a fuel seller.

 

Mr. Nur, a former Red Crescent official who became prime minister in November, is trying to peel away moderate Islamists from militant ones and get them to negotiate. He is making concessions to business leaders, who are widely suspected of financing the Islamists out of clan allegiances, and allowing them to form their own protection force. United Nation officials are trying to boost Mr. Nur’s prospects by providing $14 million to pay key government salaries and fix up ministries.

 

“This is urgent,” said William Paton, the acting United Nations coordinator for Somalia. “They are on thin ice.”

 

Government officials say much of the resistance is simply spoilers who are deeply invested in the status quo of chaos, like gun runners, counterfeiters and importers of expired baby formula.

 

But some of the men believed to be the biggest spoilers are part of the government. To get clan support — and just as crucially — more militiamen, transitional leaders have cut deals with warlords like Mohammed Dheere, now Mogadishu’s mayor, and Abdi Qeybdid, now police chief. These are the same men that the C.I.A. paid in 2006 to fight the Islamists, which backfired because the population turned against them, mostly because of their legacy of terrorizing civilians.

 

Hassan, the government soldier, says he has been in one of these warlord militias since he was 8. He toted his first Kalashnikov at age 10. He cannot read or write. He has thin wrists, a delicate face, empty eyes and a wife and two children to feed, which is why he said he routinely sticks people up.

 

“We are losing,” he said.

 

He said many of his friends were defecting to the Islamists because that was the only way to survive.

 

The Islamists have briefly captured several towns in recent weeks, freeing prisoners, snatching weapons and then melting back into the bush. Gone are the beards and the checkered scarves they used to wear. Many, like a young man named Elmi, are clean shaven and favor crisply pressed suits.

 

Elmi, who like Hassan said he could not reveal his last name, said business owners have sold gold, real estate and sheep to raise money for the Islamists. Elmi said he was part of the battle at the market on March 20 that began with the looting, and that the government lost three trucks, which was corroborated by government soldiers.

 

“We were there because we are everywhere,” Elmi said.

 

Mr. Abdirizak, the government official, buried some of the victims of that battle, young government troops who were slipped into graves behind the presidential palace in the moonlight.

 

One soldier was named Abdi Rashid. He had been wounded in another firefight about a month ago, and according to Mr. Abdirizak, “he shouldn’t even have been out there that day. It’s just that we don’t have enough guys.”

 

Abdi Rashid was shot in the heart at the market as the Islamists surrounded government troops. His last words to his friends, who wanted to carry him to safety, were, “Get out of here, get out of here.”

 

Mr. Abdirizak fell silent.

 

“I’m not sure how long I’ll stay,” he finally said. “ I want to help. But I didn’t come here to get killed.”

 

Source: NY Times.

[General Duke]

Mohamed Abdirizak, a top government official, crouched on a balcony at the palace, with bullets whizzing over his head. He had just given up a cushy life as a development consultant in Springfield, Virginia. His wife thought he was crazy. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

Thats the western fantasy. But who is this Mohamed Abdirizaq?

 

Any how this government was never given a chance, it will never be given a chance. But will that make or break this project? no

[Geel_jire]

:mad: Naclatulaa calayk dheh !

 

Their most shameful, cowardly act of the dabo dhilifs was to cheer the Ethiopians massacring their brothers but now they have sunk to even lower depths by partaking in the murdering,robing of innocent civilians 'we have not been paid in eight months ' the mercenaries are showing their true color.

 

the TFG filth keep heaping cowardly and shameful acts upon even more cowardly shameful acts .. .. first they invited this filth into our country and stood by and watched while our enemies killed,raped and wreaked havoc on innocent somalis ... now they are imitating there masters.

 

when confronted with this the dabo dhilif will make excuses like 'they deserved it' never will you hear them attempt to critize or condemn what is ha penning here........ lets give the devil his due........ the xabash have pistol whipped and left the dabo dhilif lacking all sense of 'raganimo' at least they are good at that......... a Pimp and his badly beaten cowering prostitute that keeps coming back for more ... is the closest thing that can describe their relationship.

 

EDIT: I only saw the above post after i posted my comment.. this was not a prediction but what i have come to expect. thank you for making my point for me.

[General Duke]

LOOL. The west and our opponents have always underestimated us.

 

How many times has been on its death bed? When the warlords and Sharif Xasan went to Mogadishu?

 

When the clan courts started their self destructive war?

 

When Geedi was being removed?

 

Every instance and every time, lazy western journalistas and "experts" have said the TFG will fail, it will not survive and so on.

 

The TFG will succeed because it has a long term strategy, it takes its time, it does not try to grab headlines or make false promises, "Liberate this and that", "Jihad this and that".

 

What about that PNR Dr that many on SOL were posting as some sort of soothsayer ?

[Malika]

“We’re getting addicted to anarchy,” said Dahabo Abdulleh, a fuel seller.

 

 

^Indeed we are, even us in the comfort of our world far away from reality on the ground seem to be high with the addiction of anarchy.

 

Duke,its obvious you dont have empathy nor sympathy for the suffering of the people but only interested in promoting TFG,but as a human being am sure you can refrain from LOL at times yaa Duke.

[General Duke]

^^^The TFG is the best hope to get us out of the anarchy and who will inherit this foundation? Not just Duke but all the Somali people. Forget Abdullahi, Geedi, and all these old men they will be history like Aydeed, Siyad Barre and those before them.

 

What I am interested in and support with all my energy is what the Somali people need, a national governemnt, a weak one, one on life support but we will build upon it. We the Somali's in the diaspora and in the homeland will make it better.

 

Factions and crazy clan militias using the faith are nothing, institutions can be perfected. The TFG will be perfected by its future leaders.

 

Our enemies are those who want no national governemnt for what ever reason, those inside and outside the country who have a vested interest in keeping the status quo. The fat warlords, the fake religious groups and their foreign sponsors, and the the powerful NGO's who sit in Nairobi and raise millions every year for the "Somali people".

 

Only a governemnt can make trade deals, secure borders and build lasting national institutions. Every nation on Earth has a governemnt why not the Somali's?

 

As for the emotive arguments, it does not wash my dear

[Xoogsade]

It would be another mistake to pour money and invest in a useless, unwanted, warlord infested dying TFG. At least, western donors should fire Warlord A/Y, Warlord Maxamed Dheere, Warlord Qaybdiid and bring real changes they know are necessary for the survival of their pet project in Somalia. Short of that people won't put up with these warlords and the result will be the same, violence, displacement, hunger, pain and endless suffering.

[Jacpher]

^Support the government by removing the feeding tubes young man.

 

p.s. It's a joke. Geeljire don't go Al-mansuur on me now.

[General Duke]

Those who declared war, chose to hide behind civilaisn and set of bombs, and mortars are to blame for the displacement, tragedy.

 

Those who used murder as their main calling card, used the religion, used the children and theor clan name. Are to blame.

 

The sooner they get defeated thebetter for the Somali people, nation and governemnt.

[Armchair Politician]

Duke, unlike most of the fellows here I knew that, with the Ethiopian army there, the resistance would not win in a week, or a month, or a year, or even several years.

 

However, things are moving fast now. I didn't anticipate that the MYM would be bold enough, and well equipped enough, or that the TFG would be so feeble that they could just seize control of Jowhar, just like that. Take control as though they were visiting for the weekend.

 

This was a test of the TFG's strength, and it was found wanting.

[Fabregas]

quote:often leaving the government’s defense to teenage Somali troops with clackety guns who are clearly overwhelmed.

 

 

THat is sad, Walahi!

[N.O.R.F]

The difference in the tone of the TFG/Ethio/West over the last 3 months is a far cry away from a year ago.

 

The upper hand is currently with the Shabaab hence the 'lets negotiate' coming out of the TFG.

[Armchair Politician]

Originally posted by General Duke:

quote: Mohamed Abdirizak, a top government official, crouched on a balcony at the palace, with bullets whizzing over his head. He had just given up a cushy life as a development consultant in Springfield, Virginia. His wife thought he was crazy. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

Thats the western fantasy. But who is this Mohamed Abdirizaq?

 

Any how this government was never given a chance, it will never be given a chance. But will that make or break this project? no

Mohamed Abdirizak is a corporate bigshot at GDS

http://www.gdsgroup.org/aboutus_staff.html

 

He was the Somali ambassador to the USA in 2007.

 

He was put in charge of some major ministry a few months ago. He's not a warlord, so I suppose you've never heard of him.

[Jacaylbaro]

He's not a warlord, so I suppose you've never heard of him.

[Fabregas]

A warlord doesn't have to guns! Today there is a new professional class of intellectuals, bank officials, econometricians and "humanitarian workers" and others who work to execute the foreign imperial policies of wealthy states. A couple of rich Europeans were funding large currency in order to execute a coup in Guinea. You would never think or describe these people are warlords! Yet, these are the faces of the new empire!

 

quote:Mohamed has also worked as a consultant for US defense contractors that provide information technology, homeland security, foreign language training, engineering, and scientific services.