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Somalia, or southern Somalia to be precise, is a graveyard for international peacemaking or peace building initiatives. Given this off-putting reputation, it makes you wonder whether Interpeace, an international peace building organisation and lately busy on the Somali stage, will succeed where others have failed. As it is, such qualms rarely ever dawn on or deter these peace peddling organisations. For almost all such organisations, their job on contracting specific projects is to deliver their dubious message. And if it does not work, and it rarely ever does, the blame does not lie with them but with the irredeemable Somalis.
And so this brings us back to Interpeace. As some of you may be aware of, it organised on December 10 a five-day conference in Mombassa for 150 representatives from the Somali civil society. According to Interpeace, the participants included traditional leaders, representatives of the business community, women’s groups, youth groups, religious leaders, professional associations, Diaspora intellectuals and opinion makers, and the media. It claims that the aim of the five day conference “is to bring to the forefront the voice of civil society in the quest for peace in Somalia”. It is also “to support the roles of the Somali civil society and Diaspora as catalysts for positive social and economic change”. Though the objectives set for the conference may strike a deep chord among its dispirited and desperate Somali participants, it is nonetheless a pipe dream in the present day realities in southern Somalia. For dispassionate observers, though, there is that familiar and haunting air of a deja-vue about this conference. This is the second conference of its type that Interpeace organised this year for similar Somali participants outside Somalia. The previous one was held in Entebbe in March 2008. To see Interpeace and its conference in Mombassa in its right perspective, a little bit of digression into the record of the UN in Somalia is in order. The UN political, development and humanitarian organisations dealing with Somalia have had, with few exceptions, a dismal track record in the country since the collapse of the Somali State in 1991. Under the pretext of “security exigencies”, they have since then retreated with unbecoming haste to Nairobi where, as you can imagine, they lead a cosy life at Somalia’s expense and claim to be still serving the wretched nation from a safe and comfortable distance. Unaccountable to no government in all these years in a stateless country, they have become a law unto themselves. Somalia has for all practical purposes become a de facto trusteeship under Ould Abdalla’s tutelage. To add insult to injury, they dread Somalis, in particular competent ones, lest they upset their apple carts. A good chance of meeting any of these reclusive international expatriates - for those Somalis who are well-connected or lucky enough - is at barbecues and cocktail parties doing the rounds in Nairobi’s fashionable quarters, or even further afield at the sand beaches on the coast if you happen to bump into them. Thriving on our misfortunes, their nightmare is peace ever coming to Somalia. It is against this background that Interpeace and other NGOs have carved out a niche for themselves in Somalia’s intractable problems. Interpeace has been preaching the peace gospel in Somalia for a while even if converts are hard to come by despite enviable budget outlays. In judging its Mombassa Somali Conference, a number of questions immediately come to mind: the first is whether this conference about peacemaking is truly national in terms of equitable regional participation. The second question is whether they undermine Somali unity; and the thirdly, whether this types of conference held outside Somalia and organised for selected elites will contribute much to bringing peace to the turbulent south and in particular to conflict-ridden and war-torn Mogadishu. The answers to these questions unfortunately are in the negative. Starting with the first question, the Mombassa conference was jointly organised with the Mogadishu-based Centre for Research and Dialogue (CRD). Interpeace claims that the participants have come from the “Somali region, the Horn of Africa, and beyond”. For me, though the mere presence of Yusuf Garaad at the conference -an accomplished clan crusader-and the coverage of the deliberations by his clan -infested BBC Somali Service, is a litmus test of the true colours of the conference and a guide to what it is all about. What is far more telling though are the feedbacks filtering from the conference, all pointing to a highly skewed participation in which particular regions/clan were predominant while others have been given a token representation if not left out altogether. While the principle of equitable participation in peacemaking conferences is very important, yet most Somalis did not mind in the past to forgo their share in the hope that it could contribute to peace in the capital and the Hawiya homeland, which, if it happened, could have revived the Somali State and ushered a functioning national government to the benefit of all Somalis, irrespective of their clan or region. Unfortunately, peace is still as far away as ever despite all the years of international efforts. The result is that most Somalis in every region are now increasingly questioning the wisdom of pouring so much money into a bottomless pit in which there is no visible peace dividend to the nation. No need then to be hooked to such grand sterile conferences held outside the country by outsiders and it is much more productive to empower local stakeholders to engage actively in peacemaking. As to whether the conference has undermined or upheld Somalia’a unity, one can only judge by the importance (or lack of it) it has been given at the conference. Needless to say, peace and Somali unity are indivisible. Hence, any peace conference, like the one Interpeace held in Mombassa, that addressed one aspect but ignored the other can only be one-sided and therefore self-defeating. For reasons best known to Interpeace, Somalia is not mentioned in the pre-conference publicity. And unless there are sinister motives at play, that is a strange omission for a conference which calls itself “Somali Peace Conference” In place of Somalia, what Interpeace has presented is “Somali region”. When this name is invoked, most Somalis will immediately think of the “Somali Region” of Ethiopia. Clearly, that is not what Interpeace had in mind, for the conference could not be about peacemaking in Ethiopia. Furthermore, they could not have been referring to the “Somali-inhabited territories” for these are subsumed under the “Horn of Africa”. We can correctly conclude that they are alluding to Somalia itself without explicitly saying so. But what is the rationale for evading Somalia’s name, you may ask? For those who are not familiar with the origin of this name, the “Somali Region” was coined in the BBC Somali Service by sympathizers of Somaliland’s secession. The aim is to avoid lumping Somaliland with the rest of Somalia. Normally, they would present Somalia and Somaliland as two different countries, with Yusuf Garad’s acquiescence, but otherwise resort to using the “Somali Region” when circumstances dictate. It is not by accident that Interpeace has adopted this pro-Somaliland and hence anti- unity stance. It is not by its own free volition that Interpeace has been converted to sympathise with the secessionist cause. Somaliland stops at nothing in showering hospitalities on resident or visiting internationals and those who fall under its spell have became more Somalilandists than the local ones. A good example is the International Crisis Group (ICG) whose support for Somaliland had been openly championed by its former Director, Matt Bryden. The same is also true of Interpeace which had been in Somaliland to organise voter registration. Somaliland may not have won recognition but, thanks to its relentless public relations, its achievements in winning support and sympathies among the UN organisations and foreign NGOs speak for themselves. Apart from Yusuf Garaad, another prominent participant at the conference was Dr Mohamoud Abdullahi (Sifir), a former SNM cadre, a one time deputy Prime Minister and for a while a coach for the warlord ministers in the first TFG government under Prof. Gedi. Deep down a secessionist, his brief dabbling with the union cause has never been convincing and some saw it as a mission to wreck from within the nascent TFG government he briefly served. What Dr Sifir said about the conference speaks volumes about Interpeace’s stance on Somalia’s unity and peace. Prodded by Yusuf Garaad, Dr Sifir was very sanguine about the conference to the extent that it avoided raising the issues of union and secession but instead focused on Somaliland’s (and Puntland’s) positive achievements which, he said, merited to be copied as models of peacemaking and stability. If only the situations in these two Ethiopian satellites were as rosy as Dr. Sifir would have us believe. In reality, both are undermining Somalia’s unity and territorial integrity at Meles Zenewi’s behest. Both are run by unprincipled corrupt leaders whose administrations have no scruples to kidnapping innocent Ogadenis and handing them over to their arch enemy. What peace can Dr. Sifir be talking about when the opposite is the case in both regions? Taking Puntland first, it is increasingly sliding into a spiralling anarchy. Its capricious president, Farole, is now running amok like a headless chicken, leading Puntland into the abyss. Lately, he has been venting his own failures and blunders on innocent other Somalis living in Puntland and branding them as illegal aliens in their own country. What Farole and his cohorts do not seem to realise or care is that his irresponsible actions could easily get out of hand and spark reprisals against his own people in Mogadishu or elsewhere in southern Somalia. He is playing with fire and unless stopped could drag Somalia once again to a repeat of those killing fields and ethnic-cleansing days of Mogadishu in the early 1990s. Somaliland, like Puntland, is also a one-clan entity. It might deceptively appear peaceful on the surface but it is a ticking time bomb which if triggered could explode into open armed clashes among the clans. One such trigger could be another delay of the oft-postponed election or it’s rigging a la Kenya, both of which are very possible. And that is not all. Somaliland has invaded and occupied the regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) only because they refused to join their secession. No one expects the SSC people to put up with this occupation any longer. The looming clash between the occupiers and the occupied is on the horizon and when it erupts it could easily draw in other clans. What is quite clear is that both Somaliland and Puntland have unmistakably all the hallmarks of erupting into open civil disorder. And these are the realities and prospects about these two regions that Dr Sifir wants to put under the carpet and Interpeace apparently concurred. As to the success of the Mombassa conference in terms of its contribution to the quest for peace in the south, one can only be pessimistic. Peace can not be transplanted by outsiders on an unreceptive hostile environment. They have been doing that for over two decades with little or nothing to show for it. Somalis do not need lecturing from Interpeace or anyone else on how to make peace among themselves. As much as they are warlike and conflict prone, they also value peace and have time-honoured way and means of making it. What is required is to foster the necessary institutional arrangements for peace which is essential for sustainable governance. Mission-oriented civil society organisations, empowered traditional and religious leaders, active and engaged elite, and responsible political leaders, just to mention some key players, are what are needed. This is what has worked in the north but unfortunately lacking in the south. As it is, most of the civil society organisations in southern Somalia are self-serving outfits. Worse, political leaders, the likes of Abdulqasim Salaad Hassan, Prof Gedi, Nur Adde, et al, have only feathered their own nests while in office and once out of power have withdrawn to their respective comfortable residencies abroad enjoying their ill-gotten money and oblivious or indifferent to the suffering of their people. Unlike other regions in the north, most so-called Hawiye traditional leaders are either self-appointed or else lack legitimacy or authority or both. The Darwinian culture of the survival of the fittest, entailing personal aggrandisement and self-enrichment at the cost of the community or wider society have become the accepted conventional wisdom and deeply rooted. These are some of the problems that have thwarted or bedevilled peace efforts for all these years. God helps those who help themselves and until a new redeeming awakening emerges in which community and national interest trump atavistic anti social pursuits, the south will continue to stew in its own soup. Mohsin Mahad ________________________________________________________________ We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com
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