Agencies "Not Optimistic" About Security Situation

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UN Integrated Regional Information Network (Nairobi)

April 10, 2001
Posted to the web April 10, 2001

 

A proposed peace-building mission in Somalia by the UN Security Council has received a mixed response from international agencies, with opinion divided on the security situation in the country.

Humanitarian sources said that some UN agencies did not feel optimistic about the situation in Somalia since the establishment of the Transitional National Government (TNG), particularly after the recent hostage-taking incident in Mogadishu.

While some agencies advocated a focus on the new government, others said they would prefer to engage all political players. The security situation in Somalia demonstrated the need to have member states provide greater support for security requirements, a UN source said.

International agencies had stressed that humanitarian operations were being conducted throughout Somalia, and that the immediate humanitarian situation was not threatening, the source said.

An agreement for the peace-building mission has been reached in principle, but establishing it is contingent on the security situation. UN representatives advocating that the mission should go ahead said that the recent security incident in Mogadishu should not lead to the conclusion that the overall security situation was deteriorating.

In an attack on the Medicins Sans Frontieres-Spain compound on 27 March, aid workers came under fire for two hours, and two British nationals from the UN were held hostage by opposition militia for eight days.

Copyright © 2001 UN Integrated Regional Information Network. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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Warring Somali groups accept IGAD states decisions Somalia, Politics, 4/10/2001 The special envoy of the Sudanese President concerning Somalia has announced that the armed Somali groups have accepted the decisions of IGAD's states providing for establishing peace in Somalia, but with having reservations on the provisional government led by the Somali President Muhammad Salad Qasem, under the pretext that this government does not represent all groups in the country. The special Sudanese envoy Ali Abdul Rahman al-Numeiri, who met with the representatives of the Somali groups in Ethiopia, described the Somali question as complicated. He added this case ( of Somalia) is in need of great efforts, time and coordination with all countries that have joint borders with Somalia, with the European states and organizations concerned with the establishment of peace in this country. Al-Numeiri, who is currently in Ethiopia, added in a statement to the Sudanese daily al-Ayam ( the days) issued on Monday that he had listened to the warring Somali groups and to the representatives of the Organization of African Unity and the European Union and that he will convey their view points to the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir when he returns back to Khartoum today ( Tuesday) where the Sudanese President currently presides over the IGAD's presidency. He explained that the states which mediate now to establish peace in Somalia work for crystallizing a united position to debate it to the provisional Somali government chaired by Salad Qasem.

Previous Stories:
  Somali president to ensure safety of humanitarian workers in Makadishu   (4/7/2001)
  AL, European troika supports Somalia   (4/5/2001)
  Makadishu: two of the four hostages freed   (3/31/2001)

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AL-HAYAT POLITICAL ARTICLE

While the Arab leaders were busy formulating their final communiqué of the Amman Summit, they went quickly over the article relating to Somalia and they agreed to it unanimously, perhaps because they considered it an uncomplicated matter, especially since there was now a President of Somalia after 10 years of civil war….and there was no doubt on this because he was sitting there beside them  representing his country. The communiqué was issued and in it were the following: “ (The leaders) welcome the efforts of the Transitional Government of Somalia in bringing about comprehensive reconciliation and realization of national unity, and the return of security and stability in the country, and they resolve to provide support for security  and stability and the re-establishment of governmental structures.”

At nearly the same time, Ethiopia hosted in Awasa Resort (300 km south of Addis Ababa) a group of armed faction leaders opposed to the Transitional Somali President Abdi Qasim Salad Hasan. And they , in reality, control the most essential sectors in the country, especially Mogadishu airport from which Abdi Qasim could not fly from to travel to the Amman Summit, and before that to the Special Cairo Summit or to the United Nations where he represented his country for the first time in 10 years (last September); not to mention the sea port, and  also the presidential abode known as “Villa Somalia” which is currently under the control of Hussen Aideed, one of the faction leaders taking part in the Awasa meeting.  In contradistinction to the article relating to Somalia issued by the Amman Summit supporting the Mogadishu government, the 17 faction leaders in the Awasa meeting formed the “Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council” which comprises 70 members who chose a Presidential Council of five including the prominent factions which took part in toppling the Siad Barre regime (Salad Hasan was a minister in his government during most of his rule up to his downfall). Hussein Aideed is the President of the current Council which issued an charter containing 13 articles that constitute a foundation for reconciliation and paving the way for the formation of a new government. At the same time it appointed temporarily 23 secretaries who are like ministers responsible for foreign and internal affairs, defense, education, agriculture etc.

Now there is a Somali President supported by the Arab Summit and the United Nations and he in reality does not control anything other than a portion of the capital and some towns beyond the capital. Against this, there are faction leaders who control most of Somalia and essential sectors of the capital who are meeting in Ethiopia, and they are deliberating on the creation of a new government. In addition to this, there are five regions in the north of the country overlooking the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean which declared their independence under the name of “Somaliland”, and Ethiopia has relations with it justifying this on being fait accompli.

It is clear that there is contradiction between the International, Arab and Regional diagnosis of the Somali crisis. It is therefore natural to ask: How do the International and Arab communities give legitimacy to an appointed president who was in power for nine months to-date and who is unable to travel abroad from the airport of the capital, and he does not reside in the presidential Palace, but lives on one of its neighborhoods? How does Ethiopia invite his opponents to form a rival government, and at the same time have relations with the secessionist “Republic” in the North?

Before searching for the reasons for the contradiction, it should be pointed out that Ethiopia was given the mandate of managing on their behalf the Somali crisis on unambiguous instructions by the Organization of African Unity and the “Intergovernmental Authority against Desertification “ (IGAD). Ethiopia had blessed and supported Djibouti President Omer Ismail Ghelle when he invited to the Arta Resort the Somali Conference which ended with the appointment of Salad Hasan as President. However, it had conditioned its continued support on his achievement of broad based acceptance of his authority by the country at large and he did not achieve that. So from its (Ethiopia) point of view, the Arta Conference did not resolve the crisis and it is now continuing its African mandate of resolving the matter and for that reason it has invited the opponents of Salad Hasan to Awasa. Another point of view says that Ethiopia has covetous interests in Somalia and so it is hamstringing the Mogadishu Government. Salad Hasan indeed dwelt at great length on the Ethiopian menace to his country while in Amman. However, reconciliation efforts during the last 10 years in Somalia show that within the African Regional governments and outside Africa, including Egypt, Italy, America and France, all have vested interests in how the crisis is resolved, and the composition of the government that will lead the country after reconciliation. And when any one of these countries supports a resolution of the crisis which does not take into account the interests of the other countries, the resolution cannot succeed. That is what happened in all the previous conferences and we mention from them the last in Arta (Djibouti) in 1999, and Cairo 1997 and Sodere (Ethiopia) 1997. For this reason ordinary Somalis doubt Arab countries' understanding of the degree of danger of what happens in Somalia, and they have started moving toward Israel, saying in a loud voice :If the Arabs don't understand what is happening to us, and they don't give us a helping hand, then they don't have a right to question us concerning our relations with the Israelis”.

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