EDITOR'S NOTE : This analysis is part two of a four  part series from Dr. Kapchits’s visit to Somalia, where he served as a translator and consultant for a Russian Television team which has done an in depth report on Somali piracy. WardheerNews is pleased to share Dr. Kapchits’s thorough analysis of the situation with its readers. Dr. Kapchits's understanding of Somali culture and language has given him an unparalleled edge on Somali affairs.

2. Mogadishu: Twenty years later

NARRATOR: The Voice of Russia observer Georgi Kapchits has just returned from Somalia where he served as an interpreter and consultant for a Russian television crew. He visited numerous parts of this formerly integrated country, met with political leaders and cabinet members, as well as fishermen, pirates, city residents and rural villagers. His second report is entitled “Mogadishu: Twenty Years Later.”

Mogadishu of Yester Years

KAPCHITS: Before this trip I had visited Mogadishu once before, in 1989, when the Somali Academy of Sciences invited me to the 4th International Congress of Somali Studies.  On board the direct flight from Moscow to Mogadishu (with brief stops in Cairo and Dar-Es-Salaam) were two familiar Africanists. They told me they were supposed to accompany the Director of the Institute of African Studies Anatoly Gromiko (son of the former minister of foreign affairs), but at the last moment he had changed his mind and decided not to go.

Since this news had not reached Somalia, all members of the Soviet Embassy in Mogadishu came to the airport prepared to greet the plane. Although Somali-Soviet diplomatic relations had practically broken off in 1978, they had since been re-established; hence several important Somali leaders were also there to welcome their prominent guest. Upon learning that Gromiko was not coming, they immediately departed, but left in tact the schedule of events for their eminent guest. Still considered part of his “group,” therefore, we were given accommodations at the best metropolitan hotel, the Al-Uruba, and driven to conference sessions in a governmental limousine.

Al Uruba Hotel before (above) and After the civil war (below)

In 2009, upon arrival at Mogadishu airport, the reception for our television team was strikingly less impressive. Exhausted by the 24 hour flight, as we deplaned and shielded our eyes from the tropical sun, we found ourselves immediately surrounded by a dozen Ugandan soldiers from the African Union peacekeeping force who led us to armored cars waiting nearby. Bristling with machine-guns and awfully nervous they took us to the “best” hotel available. This time it was not the once luxurious “al-Uruba” (its ruins we saw the next day), but a modest building of the former Chinese Embassy in which some members of the Transitional Federal Government formed three months ago had taken residence. The Somali leadership was unable to render more honor to its guests from Moscow.  The modest conditions of life – an air conditioner that worked only in the daytime, cold water available only at night, and hot water non-existent - were compensated for by a reliable security and easy access to prominent Somali newsmakers. For instance, it was relatively easy for us to arrange an interview with any minister by simply meeting him in the corridor, or at the canteen, or in the yard. Nor was it considered improper or impolite simply to knock at his door.  

Within a few days, we met the current President of Somalia, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a 45-year-old ex-teacher. Before he was elected president he was Commander in Chief of the Islamic Courts Union, (ICU) which enjoyed support among the majority of Somalis in the Mogadishu region a few years ago. After Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed took office, the ICU split as its most radical members joined the Islamic Al Shabab movement (“the youth”), which now controls many southern parts of the country.

Somalia is the only state on the territory of the former Democratic Republic that is recognized by the international community, according to its President.  “I’m happy you’ve come,” he explained. “It’s a good sign and I hope Somali-Russian relations will be restored soon. We’ve sent the Russian president a message requesting a meeting and we count on a positive answer. As soon as we get the answer we’ll head for Moscow to discuss our problems. Eighteen years of civil war left no statehood and caused the country to fall apart. In addition, there are pirates who threaten navigation off Somalia and inflict a lot of damage on their own country, in the first place.”
It took us one hour to travel just a few miles from our hotel to the presidential residence.

President Sh. Shariif Sh. Ahmed

We were obliged to poke along slowly, halting at frequent checkpoints and maneuvering around barbed wire tapes. The guards – eight sloppily dressed soldiers and a colonel in military uniform – ordered us to keep the windows closed and to remain inside at all times. It was morning but the city looked deserted with many houses gaping at us through the eye-slits of their broken windows.  A Somali proverb asks:  “Which place is better – one which is bare but serene or one which is green but dangerous?” I do not know which place is better, but the one that is worse is bare and dangerous as, for example, the city of Mogadishu. 

After the 1989 Congress of Somali Studies was completed, Somali President Mohammed Siyaad Barre hosted a reception to honor its participants. Already visibly aged and paunchy, he stood near his palace on the ocean shore. Close by was General Hersi Morgan, the Minister of Safety, his notoriously brutal son-in-law, who had mercilessly exterminated members of the Somali opposition movements and inspired horror and hatred throughout the country. Many said that he was the only person whom Barre trusted. The scholars would approach the military dignitaries, greet them briefly, and then hurry away for food at the reception tables. When it was my turn, I addressed Siyaad in Somali; he smiled and shook my hand. I also greeted Morgan but received no reply, as the General was looking elsewhere with vacant eyes.

A year and a half later in January 1991, Mohammed Siyaad Barre was overthrown and eventually fled the country. He sought to settle in neighboring Kenya, but the opposition protested so he moved on. He died in Lagos, Nigeria on the 2nd of January 1995. General Morgan became a warlord who controlled the southern port city of Kismayo and most of the Lower Jubba region in the 90s until he was ousted from those territories by another warlord, Colonel Barre Hiiraale, of the Jubba Valey Alliance. That region is now under the administration of the radical Al Shabab group.
After we completed our production work in Mogadishu this year, the film crew headed to the far northeast of Somalia, to the semi-autonomous mini-state known as “Puntland.” On the highway in a remote region between Qardho and Bosasso, our guide, also named “Siyaad” suddenly handed me a mobile phone. Upon pressing it to my ear, I was astonished to hear a voice say, “Hi Georgi. It is Morgan. Do you want to talk?”

George Kapchits
WardheerNews Contributor
E-mail:geedka@aha.ru
Website: www.kapchits.narod.ru

Related articles

* Georgi Kapchits REPORTS ON SOMALIA (Part I): The Country of Poets and Pirates
* Georgi Kapchits REPORTS ON SOMALIA (Part III):Pirates of the 21st century
* Georgi Kapchits REPORTS ON SOMALIA (Part IV): Meetings

_____________________________________________________________________

We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com
So please email your article today Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the views of WardheerNews
Maqaalkani wuxuu ka turjumayaa aragtida Qoraaga loomana fasiran karo tan WardheerNews 

Copyright © 2010 WardheerNews.com