The fundamentals of TFG is based on three pillars

[General Duke]

The fundamentals of TFG is based on three pillars

 

Mogadishu, Tuesday , August 28 2007 SMC

 

Horn of Africa Conference Lund, Sweden August 24-26, 2007

 

H. E. Hussien Elabe Fahiye, Minister for Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation Somali Transitional Federal Government: Statement on Somalia

 

 

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates

 

 

The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia was the outcome of two and half year’s reconciliation conference held in Kenya, participated by various stakeholders of the Somali conflict. The fundamentals of TFG is based on three pillars: a) the sharing of the political power on clan basis (the 4.5 formula), (b)

 

Transitional federal charter, and © federal administrations.

 

 

On the basis of these agreements parliament was established, the president was elected and cabinet was nominated.

 

 

Excellencies, Distinguished Representatives.

 

 

It is obvious, that the absence of an effective government in Somalia for nearly two decades created an atmosphere of absolute lawlessness where the gun was the master. For some, the violence became a wealth-generating business enterprise. The categorization of all acts of violence in Somalia as having political foundation gave the beneficiaries from these acts power, and made them “faction leaders”. It was imperative to deal with this widespread lawlessness in the country.

 

 

For the first two years of its existence, the TFG has taken a conciliatory approach to dealing with the political and security situation they inherited and tried to accommodate all the leaders of the armed factions.

 

 

Today, some of those who have lost the monopoly of violence are trying their best to intimidate the government and people of Mogadishu by carrying out acts of terrorism by planting explosives in the streets of the capital or targeting prominent individuals for assassination. This small criminal class must be dealt with in a manner that effectively puts an end to the kind of lawlessness that rendered our country to become a potential haven for international terrorism.

 

 

The government is resolved to root out terrorism from Somalia, restore law and order; rehabilitate state institutions, and last but not least, establish good governance. Together with our friends we made substantial gains in some of these important areas.

[General Duke]

1. Security Sitaution

 

Since the fateful error of the ICU forces in attacking the temporary seat of the Somali government, the TFG forces assisted by our Ethiopian allies are fully in control of most of Southern Somalia. The TFG is following a two-pronged approach to pacify these areas.

 

First, we intend to vigorously fight lawlessness and eliminate extremism.

 

Second, we want to quickly rehabilitate the administrative and legal apparatuses of the government including the police stations, regional and local courts, and other security and legal institutions.

We have thus far succeeded to complete the reestablishment of regional and local transitional administrations in most of the southern regions of the country including Mogadishu.

 

Today, with the exception of some pockets of Mogadishu, Somalia is indeed peaceful and the people are going about their daily life without fear for their lives. The government is determined to restore peace to Mogadishu too.

[General Duke]

2. Political Process:

 

As you are all aware, the political spectrum of Somalia changed radically with the defeat of the Mogadishu warlords at the hands of the Union of Islamic Courts. The government tried to engage with Islamic Courts in order to find a way out for Somalia. Unfortunately the Courts had no plan to negotiate and used the Khartoum meetings as a delaying tactic until they took control over the rest of the country by force and created new realities in the ground. Their true intension became apparent in December 2006 when their forces attacked Baidoa, the seat of the TFG. The rest is history.

 

Despite this change of circumstance, the TFG extended a conciliatory hand to the moderate elements of the UIC to join the political process. Instead they preferred to seek sanctuary in Eritrea and mastermind the terrorist activities that were seen in some parts of Mogadishu. That will not succeed.

 

 

The National Reconciliation Congress

 

 

In order to complete the reconciliation process and draw the curtain on the darkest period of the Somali history, President Abdullahi Yusuf called for a national reconciliation congress. It is not, as some cynics have it, a window dressing meant to get financial support from the international community. This is a genuine all-inclusive Congress to which the government is commitment to ensuring its success with or without external help.

 

 

The Congress is supervised and administered by an independent group of distinguished citizens led by the former president Ali Mahdi Mohamed.

 

The attendance is based on the clan representation (4.5 formula) and is open to whoever is nominated by their clan leaders with respect of guidelines set by the National Governance and Reconciliation Committee.

 

The participants will include clan leaders, religious leaders, business community, women and youth groups, representatives from regional and local administrations, and Somali professional organizations including local non-governmental organizations and the Diaspora communities.

 

TFG will respect the outcome of the Congress and will give the outmost consideration to the recommendations outlined by its participants. The aim of the congress is to facilitate genuine national dialogue and resolve outstanding issues between the various clans.

The success and sustainability of Somali peace process depends not only the agreements among Somali Clans and the efforts of our Government but also on the commitment and assistance of international community. Both the regional and the international involvement are needed. The challenges that await my government however continue to remain daunting and the TFG now more than ever needs your sustained support.

[General Duke]

International Support

 

The vast majority of the Somali people inside and outside of the country support the Government and the government is trying its best to restore law and order and good governance to Somalia. We know it is not easy and we are not complaisant.

 

But Somalia needs political and economic support from the international community. The many pledges of support we were given in the past three years were not translated into reality. We don’t think the international community would want to see Somalia slip back to the bad old days of instability and bloodshed. There is a real opportunity for Somalia to rise once again and that opportunity is with the TFG. The alternative is chaos and instability in Somalia and beyond. A peaceful Somalia is in the interest of world peace.

 

The Somali government has almost no indigenous economic capacity to effect and sustain quick change on the ground on its own and this makes the need for the international community to fulfill its pledges all the more urgent.

 

As Somali President recently said that the outside world promised a reconstruction plan with a full package to develop the lives of Somalis in war-torn Somalia but efforts of the international community are confined to meager humanitarian work.

As of today, the financial support the TFG received is at best negligible and miraculously we are still holding pretty firm. The alternative simply is not acceptable. Unfortunately, the only thing we hear from some members of the international community is a growling protest against the security operations undertaken by the TFG with the help of our Ethiopian and AMISOM friends. We simply refuse to go back to hell again, but we may be forced by circumstance to remain in purgatory a bit longer than we must if the international community fails to fulfill its promise.

 

With no means to put boots or uniforms on our forces, nor the means to arm, feed, or pay their salaries, the TFG might not be able to forever contain the forces of doom and gloom who have nothing to lose and everything to gain from the perpetuation of anarchy in Somalia. In the meantime, external material and moral support continues to replenish the coffers of the terrorist groups in Somalia through Eritrea among other places.

 

The Transitional Federal Government would like to reiterate its commitment to cooperate with and support relief agencies and would like International Community to contribute more urgent needed humanitarian assistance. The whole country needs immediate intervention to rebuild and redevelop what was destroyed.

 

Support for AMISOM in Somalia: Ladies and Gentlemen, let me clearly state our heartfelt and sincere appreciation of our friend and neighbor, Ethiopia, who came to our rescue and sacrificed both blood and treasure to safe us from global terror network. We are also equally grateful to the people and government of Uganda for their generous and tangible support to the TFG.

 

The Ugandan AMISOM contingent continues to make real difference in the streets of Mogadishu everyday. We are eternally indebted to both of these sister countries. Hopefully one day we will be able to return the favor.

 

We understand the desire of our Ethiopian friends to go home and Somalia is forever grateful for their sacrifice, but without the arrival of the complete AMISOM forces the departure of the Ethiopian forces will create a potentially catastrophic security vacuum, which only services the dark forces of terror and destruction. Therefore, We will like them to remain in the country and help maintain the peace and stability until the African peacekeeping forces arrive in reasonable strength or until the Somali forces reach a level of strength in number, equipment and training that gives them the capability to do the job themselves.

 

Finally, as some of your Excellencies will surely understand, democracies may be able to militarily easily defeat terrorists and other elements of organized crime; but it is not nowadays nearly as easy to defeat these criminal forces in the political realm. This is especially true when criminals master the language of democratic discourse and cynically and maliciously exploit it by appealing to the sensibilities of civilized society; when in fact, they are, on the other hand ceaselessly working to bring that which nourishes these very sensibilities to an abrupt end.

 

The supporters of the so-called UIC in Somalia fall squarely into this category. On the one hand, they want to commit horrendous, indiscriminate acts of terrorism including assassinations, planting of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) for the sole purpose of murdering and maiming not only the TFG’s security forces but also those of AMISOM and civilians. On the other hand, they expect to be exempted from the due process. A great danger looms in the view espoused by some organizations and states that protecting the rights of the terrorists must take precedence over that of their victims.

 

These groups have enough surface-to-air missiles, suicide vests and explosives to sustain their war against the internationally backed Somali government, largely due to secret shipments from Eritrea. According to the United Nations, Eritrea has shipped a "huge quantity of arms" to these groups. The shipments continued despite U.N. efforts to bring peace to Somalia and the deployment of African Union peacekeepers

I hope that this distinguished panel will help the larger community get a fuller appreciation of what is at stake in Somalia and how critical it is for the TFG to succeed in resuscitating this long comatose state. To this end, I once again appeal to you individually to convey to your respective governments the difficulty that we face in bringing peace and stability to Somalia.

 

We are, on our side, ready to engage, embrace and even incorporate into every sector of the government those who genuinely foreswear violence and make a commitment to a true peace and reconciliation before it is too late.

[General Duke]

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, Somalia is back on track and moving on. The future is bright for Somalia and the fruits of the reconciliation process will be seen soon. We will no longer allow the nation to be held to ransom through violence and intimidation.

 

The international community should not stand on the sideline and give lip service to Somalia. A genuine political and financial support from the international community will speedup the reconciliation process and make sure that Somalia will never be a haven for international terrorism.

 

 

There is no going back for Somalia.

 

 

Thank You,

[RedSea]

1.Ethiopian military support+

+

2.International finances( they need this to for their belies).

+

3. Body of governance(warlords, thugs, former militia men etc).

 

No backing from the people=lack of success.

[General Duke]

lol. Ethiopian, Kenyan, Ugandan, Yemen, and the rest of the worlds support is important.

However the people even in the SANAAG and SOOL, CAYN which you claim support the TFG. Dont look far adeer.

 

As for success if you mean the bombers. the poverty and the criminals. They are being dealt with slowly.