Who are these foes of peace and reconciliation in Somalia?

[Baashi]

In answering this question, Mr Abdulqawi A. Yusuf thinks there are four groups whose interest is to see themselves as the gaurdians of future Somali state or else...!

 

• 1.The warlords. We all know who they are.

   

  2.The Warmongers, the financiers, and business allies of the warlords. These lot "run the plantations and manage the ports and airports; they organize the drug-trafficking and arms trade; they establish contacts with foreign companies for banana exports and fishing licenses. They promote the image of the warlords to the outside world as "faction leaders" or "clan elders," and generally put their racketeering activities in a positive light. Every year or two, they print new banknotes which are exchanged against the dollars or euros received by the impoverished population as remittances from relatives abroad."

   

  3. Legions of wannabe presidents.

   

  4. Perpetual candidates for leadership.

The author asserts that if we are to break free from the hold of these self-promoting groups Somalis "will have to find a solution to their sorrowful predicament" and shoul "overthrow the yoke of their homegrown oppressors."

 

He recommends for foreign involvement such as the West and neighboring countries. If they want to help Somalis, he said, actions such as "freezing of the warlords' ill-gotten assets, travel bans on them and their families, sanctions on foreign corporations doing business with them and the establishment of an international commission of inquiry on massacres and mass murders committed by them and their armed thugs " will be one-step closer to a lasting peace in Somalia.

 

He also calls for "targeted assistance to those regions and areas where peace and stability have been secured through civilian-based governance" Such assitance on the "basis of such self-governing units" lays the foundation of a future Somali state "federal structure".

 

Finally he warns others to engage a futile attempt to "find a magic formula for a rotating presidency among Somalia's warlords, warmongers and wannabe presidents"

 

This opinion appeared on IHT as a commentary. You can read it here