Bargain: A war-ravaged African country for just £2.6m

[Valenteenah.]

What a bargain! a war-ravaged African country for just £2.6m

 

By Adrian Blomfield in Narobi

14/02/2004

Telegraph

 

 

For sale: One African country, war-damaged, extremely lawless and very poor. Former owners include An Italian fascist dictator and a host of unbalanced brigand leaders. Requires serious renovation and considerable maintenance but a snip at just £2.6 million ONO. Would suit: Arms dealers, international criminals and, apparently, the Telegraph.

 

 

This week I received an email from a delegate - let's call him Abdi - attending peace talks trying to end Somalia's 14-year civil war.

 

Last month there was a breakthrough in the talks as rival warlords agreed to form a 275-member parliament, which would choose a president to head the country's first proper government since 1990.

 

Abdi, who says he is an exile forced out of Somalia by al-Qa'eda terrorists, quite fancies the job. The only snag is he doesn't have any money, which is where I came in.

 

"What I need is about $5 million to buy the votes of the MPs," he wrote in the e-mail. Should the Telegraph choose to dabble in Somali politics by funding his campaign, Abdi is prepared to be very generous.

 

"I promise to make Somalia under the rule of Queen Elizabeth of the British just like Australia, Canada and New Zealand," he wrote, adding that he would give British companies a monopoly on all reconstruction projects. And the Navy could have a Red Sea base, too.

 

There were also sweeteners for me: a seat in the cabinet and senior government posts for my friends. In the back of Abdi's mind there appears to have been a niggling doubt that the Telegraph might just decline his offer. "If this is not possible, could you help me to get political asylum in Britain instead?" he asked.

 

I have known Abdi for three years and he does not have a hope of winning the presidency. He will be up against 51 other candidates.

 

Were he to pull off a miracle and win, the odds against him assuming office do not look good either. There have been at least a dozen attempts to end the war, all of them unsuccessful.

 

The closest any administration has come to taking charge of the world's most chaotic country was a transitional government created by a peace accord in Djibouti in August 2000. It ruled from heavily guarded hotel rooms, controlled barely a fifth of the capital, Mogadishu, and no territory at all outside the city. Somalia today is a patchwork of rival fiefdoms controlled by Mafia-style capos.

 

But analysts say there is greater cause for hope in the latest peace talks in Kenya - primarily because of American pressure on the delegates. Washington had washed its hands of Somalia after a disastrous intervention in the early 1990s when 18 US rangers died as militiamen shot down their helicopters.

 

The September 11 attacks prompted a shift in policy as the White House realised that Somalia had become a haven for Islamic terrorists. But in the business centre of the Nairobi hotel where many delegates are staying I discovered that peace was not necessarily the main priority of some.

 

Two documents were open on the desktop of the computer I sat down to use. One appeared to be a plot to oust Bethuel Kiplagat, the Kenyan mediator of the talks. The other was a shopping list for an array of weaponry.

 

"We are interested in purchasing the following," the unsigned order read, detailing various kinds of anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades that some capo was presumably running short of.

 

The proliferation of weapons has fuelled the former Italian colony's volatility, but even the peace talks in Kenya are not a safe place if you are Somali.

 

Abdi says his life is in constant danger. Little wonder that he feels his only options are either to run the country himself or flee to Britain.

[Valenteenah.]

I'ld laugh, but my sense of humour seems to have deserted me.

[Baashi]

I find the reporter and his take on the whole issue misleading. Both the title and the content of this piece are troubling to say the least.

 

The Telegraphs editors shouldn't let this pass without asking the obvious. He might have played "my sources are anonymous and I won't reveal them" card. But I won't buy this guy's garbage. Think about it this would have been a breaking news had he revealed his confidant.

 

Granted we don't approve the warlords and their never-ending disputes but this reporter's motives are quesionable. I'm not mad at Abdi, he can not affect any change and he is just another low-life hustler. I'm disgussed with this Telegraph reporter and his Newspaper. Dissing Somalis is not what we need. What we are interested in is if he has any verifiable report that can shed light on the issues that are at stake and players themselves. I've talked to Habar-Kuuleeey and she saud we are going to moon is not a news that benefits to anyone.

 

Save me the warlords are bad and all of that crap cuz I concur that in advance.

[Paragon]

lolol Ah! I admire the purity of the satire. Telegraph had succeeded in making me laugh. Thats all. Nothing more to it.

 

"If this is not possible, could you help me to get political asylum in Britain instead?"

 

Hehehe I suppose that can be arranged..

[Valenteenah.]

The Telegraph is a right-wing paper. Such crap is only to be expected I suppse.

[India]

Best Article on SL by far.

 

 

And the other 51 "presidnet" wannabes or no better than Abdi.

 

Least he has a plan B that does not involve causing havoc if he doesn't win.

[Samafal]

"Some people really know how to waste their time writing crap....May Allah help them and take them out of their misery"

[Saxardiid]

i'm not surprised by this artical at all. the people who are in kenya right now are very similar or worse then abdi. my brother just come from kenya for business visit here and i asked enthusiastically about the peace talk in kenya. the discription he gave me is very similar to what telegaraph man discoverd. the people who are in the peace talk especially so called deligates are human waste they do anything for a few dolars. instead of insulting and blaming the auther why don't you go and see who these people are. what hell are they doing in kenya for 15 months.

[Baashi]

Mr. Oodweyne,

 

My friend the issue is not whether Somalis are in difficult and desperate political quagmire – they are in an unfortunate situation. Nor is it about what Britons care or please them when they read this sipping their tea in their high chairs. Nor is it about whether we stand in high regard in the eyes of other folks around the world - that I don't give rats' behind. This is about fourth grade reporter whose dispatch amounts an insult, unsubstantiated lie, disguised as a newsworthy material that would supposedly inform its readers about far away events in that blessed corner of ours.

 

It is high opportune for your likes Mr. Oodweyne to get up and tell the gaaloos who are in position of influence about this…this will surely advance your agenda. Our misery is the key of your political success so it seems. Enjoy the article! it proves your hypothesis.

[AYOUB]

Baashi; we all know there are 'Abdiis' in Nairobi capable of saying and doing far worse than whats in that article. And is Somalia not one African country, war-damaged, extremely lawless and very poor. Former owners include An Italian fascist dictator and a host of unbalanced brigand leaders. Requires serious renovation and considerable maintenance ??

 

If the Telegraph piece was not true what do you say about this one?

 

The Nation (Nairobi)

 

July 21, 2003

Posted to the web July 21, 2003

 

Ken Opala

Nairobi

 

Somali delegate Hawa Kheri protests after being thrown out of the talks at the Kenya College of Communications Technology, Mbagathi, Nairobi. She was one of the 170 delegates ejected for allegedly using fake cards to register.

 

It is about 11am on Friday. Somali delegates are clustered in groups. The ambience is relaxed yet the voices are mere murmurs.

 

 

Four groups are in the tea room on the second floor of the Kenya College of Communication Technology (KCCT) hotel while outside at the entrance, on the tarmac parking bay, are perhaps half a dozen people.

 

About four diplomatic cars are parked outside the hotel. The "observers" are from Egypt, Italy, Djibouti, United Nations, Arab League, Ethiopia, the UK, and the US. In low tones, these diplomats coach the delegates on how to influence the deliberations.

 

This is characteristic of the Somali peace and reconciliation talks at the KCCT, Mbagathi, in Nairobi's outskirts, nine months after former President Daniel arap Moi assembled protagonists around a ceasefire table.

 

But who are are these "observers"?

 

"People are here to pursue own interests. In fact, one would say that Somalia is up for grabs," says a delegate from Somaliland, the renegade region whose "head of State" has snubbed the Nairobi talks.

 

Mr Awad Ashara, spokesperson for Puntland region, talks of vested interests at play "outside the meeting rather than inside".

 

Kenya is impartial, he told this writer earlier in the week. "Kiplagat is a very, very compassionate and respectable, conciliatory person, he is an all-inclusive," he says of the Kenya Government's appointed mediator, Mr Bethuel Kiplagat.

 

As the Somaliland delegate talks, an Italian envoy in Kenya emerges from the building sandwiched between five elderly Somalis, all chatting away in Italian.

 

This writer tries to stop him for a question or two but he says he is in a hurry. "Call me in the office and let's see whether we can set up an appointment."

 

A representative of the Arab League gestures, saying: "The talks are going ahead all right but there are little things here and there we feel strongly about."

 

He abruptly pauses, stealing a glance at an approaching delegate. Then his voice drops, and he momentarily stops mid-sentence until the passer-by disappears. "We are not comfortable with the federal system and we want Arabic language to be retained in Somalia. These two issues are top on our agenda".

 

He adds: "The unity of the Somali people has to be highlighted. This is very important".

 

The observer has made it known to the delegation that Somalia's continuity in the Arab League depended on whether or not the country retained Arabic as the official language.

 

According to a British envoy, the Somalia negotiations "show a bit of a way to go". But there was hope, he said.

 

Interestingly, the presence of the US at KCCT has been erratic. However, an American of Somali origin has been constantly monitoring the discussions.

 

The ghosts of foreign interference have refused to leave the backyard. Last Tuesday, a number of delegates accused the Egyptian ambassador to Somalia of backing the current President of the Transition National Government, Mr Abdikassim Salat.

 

Mr Salat has been the lone voice against federalism, a stance that has infuriated his critics. In a letter to the just-concluded African Union summit in Maputo, Mozambique, dated July 9, 2003, a number of delegates asked the Union to banish Mr Salat for "being against" Nairobi negotiations.

 

About 21 signatories said since the Nairobi talks had made breakthrough in adopting a charter and laid the structure for a transition government that would guide them for the next four years, Mr Salat should not speak as president. His mandate, they said, had been cancelled by the new charter.

 

"The TNG president failed to implement the charter (that asked for federalism) for the two years he has been in power. In fact, that is why he is opposed to the charter," says Mr Ashara, who is also Puntland's minister for Justice.

 

But Mr Salat blames his predicament on neighbouring Ethiopia which, he says, has sponsored Somali rebels to frustrate his reconstruction efforts. "In short, Ethiopia's strategy is to undermine the re-emergence of a strong, united and vibrant Somalia," he says.

 

Some people call the negotiations "the scramble for Somalia", the Horn of Africa country reduced by militia to a clutter of regions.

 

The ousting of strongman Siad Barre on January 26, 1991, opened a pitched struggle of sorts. His adversaries went for the spoils on failing to agree on power-sharing. They grabbed regions populated by their own clans.

 

Unlike other African countries strewn by multi-lingual and ethnic loyalties, Somali is of one tribe: Somali. Islam is the only religion while the culture is distinctly homogeneous. Yet its own survival is in the hands of a social order knit together by clan loyalties and political disorientation, all wrapped up by decades of dictatorship since independence in 1960.

 

Soldier Barre seized power on October 21, 1969, following the assassination of then President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke a week earlier.

 

According to From Barre to Aideed, a book by former Somali ambassador to Kenya Hussein Ali Dualeh, Somalia's political order is based on kinship clans, namely: ****** , **** , D*r, ***** , D***l and ********* . And, the clanship is a weave of sub-clans.

 

Thus conflicts in the population is traced to the multiplicity of political parties, each of them drawing support and loyalty from specific clans or alliances. Currently, 60 clan-based political factions straddle the country.

 

So obvious have been fears that the clan loyalties threaten to balkanise the country, and historically, some of the big groups, such as the ****** , have insisted on cessation. Now without a central administration, Somalia is balkanised into 16 regions, each led by a warlord.

 

Mr Asmara estimates the militia force at 100,000 soldiers.

 

The peace talks enter a crucial phase tomorrow. The 400 delegates will nominate 351 MPs who will in turn elect a transitional president and Speaker of the House and two vice-Speakers.

 

These officials will have four years to oversee the disarmament of the militias, pursue reconciliation and lay the ground for a popular government.

 

Somali leaders expect the international community to fund the transition. Yet to be worked out is the amount of finances required to bring order in the country, but if the apparent involvement of foreign nations in the mediation indicates their interest, the assistance should be readily available.

 

Puntland President Abdullahi Yusuf wants the federal forces to be blended with an international force with the mandate to mop up illegal guns.

 

"If we do not do that, we will fall in the way of Salat. He has been holed up in Mogadishu and he cannot administer because he is unable to implement the charter," he says.

 

"Well, we want to immediately establish a government here and immediately disarm people and pacify the country".

 

The President of Somaliland snubbed the talks. Mr Kiplagat says Somaliland leaders declined reconciliation overtures.

 

His predecessor, Mr Elijah Mwangale, travelled to Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital to convince the leadership to take part in the negotiations but they declined. Mr Kiplagat himself sent a letter to the Somaliland administration but he received no reply.

 

Yet the talks are riven with fears that some delegates and non-governmental organisations are uncomfortable with the likely end of hostilities because that would threaten their easy money.

 

However, Kenyan scholar, Prof Ali Mazrui, says Somaliland should be let to go its way, for it has resources to sustain itself. "The situation in Somalia now is a culture of rules without rulers, a stateless society," he said last week.

 

"There is order there, they have the potential to survive". One day, he says, Somaliland will organise and get back to the larger Somalia.