N.O.R.F Posted March 4, 2005 Q&A: The state of Somalia Sarah Left explains why the government of Somalia is based in Kenya Wednesday March 2, 2005 Why is the government of Somalia on a 'visit' to its own country? Somalia is an anarchy, with a shifting network of warlords and clans vying for control in their areas. Militias are heavily armed and fighting has been frequent. Militias block roads to police those entering their area and demand money. The capital, Mogadishu, in particular is a nest of competing and well-armed interests. With this is mind, the newly formed transitional federal government has not considered it safe to relocate from its base in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, to Somalia. Even now, with the Somali government packing its boxes for a move back home, it remains unclear if they will be able to move into Mogadishu. How much of the country does the government control? Technically, none of it. This first six-day visit marks the start of a long process of establishing legitimacy. Somalia's transitional federal government was cobbled together in Kenya by the Somali National Reconciliation Conference, with the process beginning in October 2002. It took two years to create a national parliament out of the various clans and sub-clans and the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Even then, the self-declared independent state of Somaliland in the north-west refuses to participate. If the government isn't in charge, who is? No one person or government has controlled Somalia for the last 14 years, and no one is anywhere near to controlling the whole country. Clans in the north-west declared themselves the independent Republic of Somalia in May 1991. In the north-east, clans in the administrative regions of Bari, Nugall and northern Mudug formed the autonomous state of Puntland in 1998, though they stopped short of declaring independence. Somaliland and Puntland both claim portions of the Sanaag and Sool regions, leading to an ongoing armed border dispute. "South of Puntland, the complete wild west starts," says Leo van der Velden, deputy country director for the World Food Programme in Somalia. Clans or militias are in charge of specific areas, with shifting allegiances that can break down to units as small as an extended family. He describes the country's central region as "a hotbed of villages that are fighting each other". How dangerous is Somalia? That depends where you are. Somaliland and Puntland are relatively safe, with police and a functioning justice system. But even those areas are awash with guns and a dispute can easily escalate into a shooting, Van der Velden warns. The border dispute has caused frequent skirmishes between the two regions, though that has cooled recently as heavy rains following four years of drought have resulted in devastating mudslides. The clans, he says, simply have more important matters of immediate survival on their hands at the moment. Mogadishu is considered too dangerous for UN international staff, who are generally are not allowed to travel there. Recently BBC producer Kate Peyton was shot dead in Mogadishu while there to film a documentary. How did the country sink into chaos? The former dictator, Siad Barre, ruled Somalia from 1969 to 1991 and attempted to cultivate a personality cult around himself. The country had begun to fracture before Barre's repressive regime was deposed. The UN sent in a taskforce in 1992 to monitor a ceasefire in Mogadishu, provide security for UN staff and to aid the delivery of humanitarian supplies. The UN coordinated its work with the US effort, intially called Operation Restore Hope. Despite successes in improving humanitarian aid reaching drought-starved Somalis, factional fighting continued. During the Battle of Mogadishu in October 1993, 18 US soldiers were killed and 84 wounded. The UN mission pulled out in March 1995. What are the new government's chances of success? A previous transitional government has already failed, but the current president, Abdullahi Yusuf, and prime minister, Mohamed Ali Gedi, have been greeted by crowds of supporters eager for order to be reimposed. However the new government's call for 7,500 African Union and Arab League peacekeepers has been met by mass protests in Mogadishu and rather more threatening noises from some warlords opposed to outside interference. Earlier this month, warlord Osman Ali Ato urged Somalis to attack any foreign peacekeeping troops being sent to support the Somali government. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1428526,00.html Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Haddad Posted March 4, 2005 Originally posted by Dinho: What are the new government's chances of success? Before anyone knows, few years will elapse, and people will look back and say "This was a government doomed to fail from its inception." The reason why it will fail is; it's not based on Islamic ideology, plus other systems have been exhausted and people are no longer in mood for a recurrence of failed and incompatible systems (democratic, socialist, dictatorship, anarchy and etc). Ultimately, people will go back to a system that has worked for hundreds of years before the colonialists set foot on Somalia's shores. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
