Somalia: Outside involvement risks perpetuating the Somali conflict
The UN intervention and successive reconciliation attempts have done little to fill the civil vacuum in Somalia. Ali A. Jama argues that the international community should now let Somalia resolve its own problems

BIO

Ali A. Jama is a Somali-Canadian chemical engineer who works for a fertilizer company. He is also founder and manager of the website www.somaliawatch.org, which addresses Somali issues.

Somalia has experienced the longest period of statelessness in the contemporary world. It is also one of the world's least developed countries, as measured by the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index.

The international community has attempted to assist Somalia through a series of conferences, reports and intervention by the UN. None of these initiatives have succeeded, mainly because there is a widespread lack of understanding of the roots of the problems in this country. It is essential to see the recent civil war and the breakdown of the state in the context of Somalia's turbulent history and its nomadic culture.

Nomadic culture

Although the Somali people have a common language and religion, a defined geographical territory and a common culture, history, tradition and racial origin, Somalia is living proof that these characteristics alone are not enough to build a nation.

The Somalis are largely nomadic, roaming throughout the Horn of Africa. They live in small, temporary hamlets that are dismantled and loaded on to camels for quick and easy migration. Because of this nomadic way of life, social units tend to be small and self-sufficient. This style of life has created a people that have been described as "independent in nature, temperamental and strikingly intelligent."

Roughly 80% of the Somali population is "pastoral nomadic" and only 20% can be described as urban agricultural. The social and economic life of Somalia is therefore defined by a nomadic, rural style of life with trade consisting mainly of agricultural products. Over many years there has been a continuous movement of the population from the rural areas to the big urban centres in the south like Mogadishu, where there is a now large permanent urban population, mostly dependant on agriculture.

4,000 years of history

The recorded history of life in the Horn of Africa goes back almost 4000 years when the ancient Egyptians imported frankincense from Somalia, which they called the "Land of Punt". It was later a centre for trade by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Indians and other East Asians, but went into decline with the Christian era.

At the end of nineteenth century, the area was partitioned between the European colonial powers and Ethiopia. The Somali peninsula, one of the most culturally homogeneous regions of Africa, was divided into British Somaliland, French Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, Ethiopian Somaliland (the Ogaden), and what came to be called the Northern Frontier District (NFD) of Kenya.

The modern Somali state was eventually formed by the union of the former British and Italian parts in 1960. The issue that dominated post-independence politics was the unification of all areas populated by Somalis into one country--a concept identified as Greater Somalia.

The character of the country's newly formed institutions was shaped by this preoccupation with Greater Somalia which eventually led to the build-up of the military forces and ultimately to the war with Ethiopia in 1964 and the fighting in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya.

Under the military junta

The turning point in Somali fortunes occurred in 1969 when the civil government was overthrown by a military junta. The coup was followed by the brutal and authoritarian regime of Mohamed Siyad Barre that continued for 21 years. During this time the fabric of the society was slowly and meticulously dismantled.

The regime used Somalia's geographically strategic location in the Horn of Africa to attract funds from the superpowers during the cold war and is said to have attracted one of the highest amounts of per capita foreign aid in the world between 1960 and 1990. By the mid-1970s, Somalia had also one of Africa's largest standing armies, and spent from 40% to 50% of its budget on defence and security.

Détente between the East and the West removed the strategic importance of military bases in the Horn, and in turn soon led to a decline in military aid. The regime was weakened, with the result that Somalia was plagued by a series of local and armed insurrections during the 1980s.

Disintegration

In 1988, aid from the West was frozen following a series of reports of genocide and human rights violations. Within two years the regime collapsed, marking the end of the Somali state. This was followed by a seven-year period of violent warfare and banditry throughout the country. Siyad Barre's manipulation of clans had created an atmosphere of mistrust and hostility that gradually weakened both the traditional and the national institutions. So when the government collapsed in Jan 1991, the institutions were not solid enough to prevent the whole country from disintegrating.

Mogadishu, the nation's capital, was specially affected by the collapse of law and order. The problem was that the nation's assets were overwhelmingly concentrated in the city. It was estimated that over 90% of the national assets, the only functioning government departments, 50-60% of the nation's population, and dozens or even hundreds of well-stocked army barracks with huge ammunition depots were concentrated in Mogadishu alone. In other words, Somalia was a nation with one vital element and when Mogadishu collapsed, Somalia immediately ceased to be a nation.

A 'black hole of anarchy'

During the civil war. Mogadishu experienced irreparable physical damages The city was destroyed beyond recognition, and much of its physical beauty is lost forever. All the official records it once housed were also destroyed or lost. The city became a graveyard for thousands of Somalis killed and home to other thousands maimed by the violent civil war that raged in the city for 10 years. Mogadishu is also the hub of an area once described by UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan, as "a black hole" of anarchy where gangs call the shots.

After the defeat of the government forces in Jan 1991, the victorious militias turned their guns on the innocent civilian population of Mogadishu and its environs, specifically targeting the non-Hawiye clans. Rampaging militias indiscriminately massacred innocent civilians. An unprecedented level of humanitarian abuse including mass rape, torture and killing was also reported. Thousands lost their lives and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes. Many former residents of Mogadishu have now lost hope of ever returning to their homes and have opted to go back to their 'clan home bases' to rebuild their lives.

The beginning of a new order

What does the future hold for Somalia? In the best case scenario, the country will be de-centralised into smaller manageable units. Each unit will need to develop its own economic base and modern institutions, including all levels of education, to allow it to exist as viable entity. For instance, it should not be necessary to travel hundreds of kilometres to Mogadishu to have access to an international telephone call or to renew a passport. If Somalia evolves in this way it will also be able to tap the potential resources of the country more efficiently. The sum of the decentralised units will make up a strong nation with many functioning elements.

A study group commissioned by EU with the assistance of the UN Development Office also concluded in its study - A study of Decentralised Political Structure for Somalia 1995 - that the country should be de-centralised into "a federal or confederate or even into decentralised unitary state." The study also concluded that the "bottom up approach," which essentially means the building of political structures in which full participation of the civil society is ensured, was the only viable option to reconstitute Somalia as a nation. It also explicitly acknowledged the failure of big centralised structures to bring peace. The so-called Northern Recovery Area, which is made up of two 'states' - Somaliland and Puntland is leading in the implementation of the "bottom up approach."

Tribal republics

It is also possible that Somalia could break up into a number of tribal republics following the example of Somaliland, which seceded in 1991. Somaliland's justification for secession was based on the historical fact that it was a British colony while the rest of the former Somali state was an Italian colony. Many Somalis question the validity of this argument.

The breakaway of Somaliland will undoubtedly encourage some other groups to do likewise. This could be a devastating option to choose because of the potential for disputes over land jurisdiction. Puntland is already involved in such a dispute with Somaliland and because of the Somali nomadic way of life the tribal habitats are areas of land with constantly changing frontiers. There are no tribal designated areas, and usually no clear tribal frontiers in the Somali territories. The notion of breaking up the country into tribal republics could well prove unworkable.

The Puntland model

The regional state of Puntland may, however, be laying the foundations for the reconstitution of the Somali nation. Puntland was established in 1998 and was a major political development. It consists of five of the 18 regions that made up the Somali Republic. Unlike Somaliland, which had declared its intention to secede from the rest of the country, Puntland has the stated policy that it "does not believe in any form of secession or break-up of the Somali nation" and that the "unity, integrity and sovereignty of Somalia is inviolable". The majority of the Somali people support this fundamental principle of unity of the Somali territories. The Bay Zone in the south of the country has recently established another 'state' in the Bay and Bakol areas.

The role of the international community

The international community should try to put the Somali issue in its proper historical perspective to understand the under-lying root causes of the Somali crises. Somalia is now experiencing a process of re-birth, constructing a new nation from scratch. This natural process will take time to crystallise and to become established. The actions of the international community have so far been directed at stopping or slowing down this evolutionary process by proposing unworkable political solutions to the successive crises.

Many efforts have been devoted to the application of the wrong medicine, and very little to understanding the real problems. This is why a dozen reconciliation conferences have failed in the last 8 years. The 1992 UN intervention also failed. Djibouti is now calling for another one very soon, but this is not the answer.

The international community can only help if it will accept that the Somali crises have to be solved by the Somalis themselves. An evolutionary process should be left to take its natural course. A new Somalia has been taking shape for some years now, but interference by some of the regional powers in the country's internal civil conflicts, together with the confused actions of the international community, are only serving to perpetuate the civil conflict.

It should be stressed that Somali clan politics are treacherous and can be extremely frustrating for those who do not understand the country's political structures and the way that the delicate balance of power is maintained.

Meanwhile, there is no shortage of humanitarian emergencies elsewhere in the Horn of Africa. There are emergency situations in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya. The international community should focus on dealing with these and leave Somali politics alone.

Somalia is one of the least developed countries, according to the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index

The international community can only help if it will accept that the Somali crises have to be solved by the Somalis themselves

Interference by some of the regional powers in the country's internal civil conflicts, together with the confused actions of the international community, are only serving to perpetuate the civil conflict.

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