Maxamed Saxnuuni: Halyeygii isku daye inuu Soomaaliya badbaadiyo 1992

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Long before Winston Tubman, François Fall, before Mahiiga, before Walad Cabdalle, before Nicholas Kay -- there was Maxamed Saxnuuni.

 

Maxamed Saxnuuni waa ergeygii Qaramada Midoobay u qaabilsanaa arrimaha Soomaaliya sanadkii 1992, waa xiligii Soomaaliya iyo Soomaalidaba marxalad adag ku jireen.

 

Wuxuuna ahaa ergeygii ugu wanaagsanaa, ugu daacadsanaa ergooyinkii Qaramada Midoobay u soo magacoowday Soomaaliya ilaa iyo hadda. Boqolaal kun oo kale Soomaali ayaa macaluul u dhiman lahaa Eebbe ka sakoow haddeenan jirin dadaalkiisa ergeygaan.

 

A profile of his tireless efforts in 1992 from New York Times.

__________________________

 

Mohammed Sahnoun; A Diplomat Matches Wits With Chaos in Somalia

 

Trying to achieve humanitarian, military and political goals in the chaos of Somalia, with its deep clan fissures, lawlessness, horrifying famine and hostile desert environment, might seem an impossible task for a diplomat from the outside. But Mohammed Sahnoun, the senior representative of the United Nations there, is perhaps better suited for the job than most: As an Algerian with an empathy for Africa and as a former ambassador in Bonn, Paris and Washington, he seems to bring to his job a sense both of the desperation in Somalia and of how the wealthier nations of the world might better respond.

 

"The greatest difficulty is we did not try to cope with the situation earlier," said Mr. Sahnoun in a recent interview here, during a pause in his shuttling between Somalia, Kenya and Europe. "The divisions and antagonisms have deepened and have taken on dimensions that are almost inextricable. When you go into a situation where the same family is torn by blood, it's not easy to find a leader to talk to because no leader is totally in control of his troops. When the civil war started there was no attempt from the outside to have reconciliation and now we are left with the law of the jungle."

 

Mr. Sahnoun is the personal representative of the United Nations Secretary General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a former Egyptian Foreign Minister who is an old friend from Arab intellectual and political circles. Incensed at the lack of interest in Somalia since civil war broke out in January 1991, the Secretary General lambasted the West over the summer for its fixation on the "rich man's war" in Yugoslavia, a remark that Mr. Sahnoun believes nettled people into paying attention.

 

But now that some of the spotlight is on Somalia -- with foreign ministers and development ministers and heads of humanitarian agencies in safari suits and flak jackets making their requisite visits to show the audiences back home -- Mr. Sahnoun finds himself arguing against outside efforts to force a solution in a place where politics, and emotions, can be extraordinarily parochial.

 

A Need to Talk and Talk

 

"If you try to force something on the Somalis, they think it is humiliation. Like all pastoral people they have had to deal with a hostile environment. They are very tough and they suspect very much. They don't like to be humiliated. But if you talk, negotiate -- it may take days and weeks -- they will go with you."

 

It took weeks, in fact, for Mr. Sahnoun to convince the most implacable warlord, Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, that it would be a good idea to allow 500 United Nations troops to protect the Mogadishu port and airport, and to allow humanitarian deliveries within the city.

 

"In the beginning, most Somali movements were against the United Nations," Mr. Sahnoun said. "They saw it as a way of supporting Ali Mahdi." Mr. Ali Mahdi is the so-called interim President of Somalia, and Mr. Sahnoun said his opponents are "still suspicious of the United Nations because Mahdi's Government is seated at the Organization of African Unity, the United Nations and the Arab League but he doesn't control one quarter of the country."

 

Of course, Mr. Ali Mahdi was all in favor of the troops, so much so that he called for 10,000. "I went over to him one morning and said if you want 500, shut up about 10,000," said Mr. Sahnoun. One result is that the first 60 of the 500 arrived in Mogadishu last week, with 2,100 American marines in ships offshore to support the airlift of the troops. The rest of the 500 are to arrive later this month.

 

A slight, rather frail-looking man of 60 with black hair and an air of informality, Mr. Sahnoun is a relentless worker. He often races across the "green line" that divides Mogadishu to sort out a problem with Mr. Ali Mahdi, and he has spent hours sitting on the floor in a house in the bush town of Bardera in central west Somalia with General Aidid, discussing that warlord's ideas of "pastoral democracy" for the country's future. He also ducked into the American Ambassador's house in Nairobi late one night to have a word with a visiting Senator, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, a Kansas Republican, whose itinerary also included Somalia.

 

After serving in Algeria's National Liberation Front in the days of its fight against French colonialism, Mr. Sahnoun started his diplomatic career as deputy secretary general of the Organization for African Unity at its headquarters in Addis Ababa, a post he held for most of the 1960's and into the early 1970's. Then, as Algeria's ambassador to France, he was on the Algerian team that helped negotiate for the release of American hostages from Teheran.

 

In his current job, he must navigate between what he calls the "ivory tower" demands of United Nations officials in New York and the anarchic and violent complexities of Somali politics. And since he is not a career civil servant with the United Nations, he finds himself able to publicly jab the United Nations humanitarian agencies for their slow start in Somalia.

 

"It's important that the United Nations learn lessons from Somalia," he said with some passion. "We may have other Somalias in Africa. I keep telling the United Nations people you don't need a new agency for cooperation.

 

"Many people think before you act you must have two or three secretaries and the public relations person. I've been working for these months and I don't have a secretary and I'm using support staff where I find it."

 

A New Chore

 

Mr. Sahnoun's current chore is to try to persuade the Somalis that the Security Council's resolution last month approving the dispatch of 3,000 more United Nations troops to patrol humanitarian supplies in the rural areas is in Somalia's interest.

 

In a not untypical fashion, Mr. Sahnoun suggests wryly, the Security Council made its announcement without consulting anyone in Somalia. And predictably, General Aidid has expressed opposition.

 

"People in Somalia see it as a threat because they feel they are going to lose jobs and work for their trucks," Mr. Sahnoun said.

 

Currently, humanitarian aid is protected from looters by hired gunmen in souped-up jeeps, and often these gunmen themselves turn out to be looters.

 

"If we force in troops without necessary preparation we will have renewed fighting," Mr. Sahnoun said. "Instead of peace we may be bringing in fighting, which would be terrible. I am going to explain that these are only projections, which is true because we don't have their consent. I prefer the homeopathic method -- to get people to accept naturally."

 

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

I made this thread some four and half years ago honouring Maxamed Saxnuuni.

I learned the passing of this great man a few days ago. Eebbe janadiisa fardowso haka waraabiyo Maxamed Saxnuuni, who passed away in Faransiiska 11 days ago.

He is unacknowledged hero to Soomaalis, though jiilkaan cusub ma oga how this Aljeeriyaan brother really tried to save Soomaaliya from a complete catastrophe in early '90s. Unfortunately, his worries came to pass.

I remember his tireless efforts in 1992, trying hard by shuttling between Caydiid and Cali Mahdi to come to the table and make a permanent peace in Muqdisho. Unfortunately, they didn't listen and, as they say, the rest is history.

He wrote books about his efforts in Soomaaliya.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

The boosaneero-living, sewage-dwelling creature's stench stains a thread honouring a great man.