- Title: [SW Country] (WSP) New Volume on Puntland
- Posted by/on:[AMJ][Thursday, Sept. 21, 2000]
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER FOR WSP PUNTLAND
VOLUME
(It is a book under publication on
Puntland by War-torn
Society Project International)
Decentralised Post-war Environment in Northeast Somalia.
The decomposition of the Somali Democratic Republic has led to the
emergence of different political entities delineated chiefly by
kinship ties. Northeast Somalia (in Somali Woqooyi Bari Soomaaliya),
since mid 1998 part of the Puntland state, constitutes one of the
newly emerged entities produced by the Somali civil war. Between
1997 and 1999, the War-torn Societies Project (WSP) carried out a
pilot study in Participatory Action Research (PAR) in the regions
of Northeast Somalia: Bari, Nugaal and North Mudug.
Culturally, Northeast Somalia is clearly defined by clan
exclusiveness and the traditional territorial control of the large
Majeerteen clan and allied Daarood groups (lelkase, Awrtable and
others). Woqooyi Bari Soomaaliya encompasses a large semi-arid
territory stretching from the shores of the Red Sea and Indian
Ocean littoral in the northeast to North Mudug in the south-at the
border with the rival Hawiya in central Somalia.
Cultural and political harmony resulting from clan exclusiveness
as well as peace and stability which have prevailed in Northeast
since 1991 (outside the war-ravaged frontier town of Gaalkayo and
its surroundings) have created rare conditions favouring
political, economic and social development.
These stabilising socio-political factors were further reinforced
by economic viability that primarily depends on livestock
dominated trade with the Arabian Gulf countries via the regional
port of Boosaaso, which was constructed at the end of Siyaad
Barre's totalitarian regime.
Livestock exports generate the bulk of the hard currency exchanged
for food imports and manufactured goods that are traded in
Northeast Somalia or trans-shipped to neighbouring regions in
Somalia and the culturally and economically linked region in
eastern Ethiopia populated by ethnic Somalis. Earnings from
livestock exports are supplemented by additional income from
remittance and local exports of frankincense and fish. Woqooy Bari
Somaaliya (Puntland) has managed to feed its non-food-producing
population with food imports financed by local exports in the
post-military period. In addition, remittances and earnings from
local exports also generate the bulk of the capital investment in
the emerging new private enterprises that have achieved modest
progress and are expected to stimulate economic growth and
facilitate overall development in the future.
In the past, however, the regions that now form Northeast Somalia
and later on Puntland did not form an economic zone. For example,
North Mudug region, together with its southern flank, was more
closely associated with the central regions and was economically
linked to Muqdisho. In Nugaal region, the vital nomadic economy
was linked to the other important national port, Berbera, in
Somaliland. Since the outbreak of civil war in 1991, these
historically neglected, underdeveloped and isolated regions have
been obliged to depend increasingly upon one another for their
survival.
During the period Woqooyi Bari Soomaaliya (Puntland) has
existed as an independent entity it has been faced with two major
security events: the 1991-1993 military campaign in Gaalkayo town
and its surrounding area; and the violent suppression of the
revolt by Al Itixaad to take over power in the Northeast in 1992.
Both threats were successfully neutralised by mass mobilisation
under the leadership of SSDF organisation and the traditional
lineage leaders. Factional fighting over the control of this
frontier region continued sporadically from the beginning of 1991
until the signing of 1993 peace accord. Eventual realisation by
the warring parties that they are militarily balanced and
therefore no party could win an outright and convincing victory,
mutual desire to respect follow of beneficial regional trade
network through the strategically located town of Gaalkayo, among
others, explains the uneasy survival of the accord.
This partial peace accord was not pursued to its logical
conclusion - sealing a lasting settlement and increasing
interaction and cooperation across clan boundaries separating
neighboring rival factions. In addition to traditional land
dispute which has been aggravated by the property rights resulting
from the frontier war, the contending parties continue to be
divided by political differences, notwithstanding further
fragmentation experienced by the USC/SNA faction since the signing
of the accord. In spite of its shortcomings, the accord could be
described as the most important achievement of Somalias' faction
leaders (outside Somaliland) who have a dismal record with respect
to reconcilation at local and national levels as well as building
widespread functioning administrations. Late General Ceydiid of
USC/SNA and Colonel Cabdillahi Yuusuf of SSDF and their supporters
brokered the accord.
One of the most consequential legacy of the civil war has been a
large influx of returnees from refugee camps in Kenya and from
war-affected areas in Somalia, who have dramatically swelled the
population of the Northeast Regions of Puntland, possibly doubling
the urban population and considerably increasing the numbers in
the rural areas - radically reshaping the pre-war demographic
structure. The quiet integration of such a large exodus into a
previously underdeveloped part of Somalia, with very little
international assistance, represents a remarkable achievement in
the post conflict period in the study Puntland, with profound
implications for the rebuilding process.
The massive influx has reversed the debilitating historic
out-migration and brain drain from the regions of the Northeast
created by underdevelopment and the harsh conditions that used to
prevail there in the past. Nonetheless, the new comers included
merchants, professionals and technocrats of the failed Somali
State. These dynamic groups among the returnees act as the driving
engine for the reconstruction that has transpired in region in the
post-war period.
The tragic, collective experience of war and the loss of personal
fortunes in the former capital city and other areas in the south
further reinforced social solidarity in Woqooyi Bari Soomaaliya (Puntland)
by encouraging the returned wealthier classes to invest in their
own previously abandoned and neglected home regions.
It is difficult to speculate the final reaction of the returnees
in Woqooyi Bari Soomaaliya to long-anticipated successful
resurrection of the united Somali state sometime in the future.
Some of the returnees may stay permanently presumably because they
have successfully integrated and therefore think their interest is
best served there, while others may return depending upon factors
ranging from possession of property in the capital Mogadishu and
other areas in the south, better employment and trade
opportunities created by expanded frontiers, etc.
However, even those who abandon the region for better
opportunities elsewhere may not move altogether by keeping a
foothold in the home region in the near future and until such time
prevailing political uncertainty at the national level is
satisfactorily resolved. The challenge for the region is to retain
as much as possible the dynamic returnee population to prevent the
region from relapsing to the stagnation that characterised the
homeland prior to 1991.
The civil war and the large human influx has also brought with it
negative developments that will take a long time to resolve. An
underclass of widowed, divorced and abandoned women, with children
and without a dependable income, has begun to emerge at the
margins of the society in the sprawling urban and rural
settlements. The difficulty of maintaining law and order under
conditions of limited economic opportunities and uncertain
political climate at the national level has been exacerbated by
the presence of thousands of ex-combatants and informal militia,
who from 1991-1993 were committed to the defence of the Northeast
regions. Relieved of their military duties following the signature
of the 1993 Mudug peace accord, they have been blamed for violent
and criminal acts. The Puntland administration has drafted active
militias and ex-combatants engaged in criminal activities into the
newly formed security forces, nonetheless, the better integration
of all of these dislocated groups within the society of the
Northeast, and the reduction of their vulnerability to poverty and
crime is one of the major challenges facing the region.
As could be deciphered from the brief introduction presented in
the above, social solidarity and political action in Woqooyi Bari
Soomaaliya (Puntland) in the post-war period is defined by a
number of factors -kinship ties and clan-based territorial
integrity, the emergence of the region as an economic zone, as
well common experience of the local population during and after
the civil war. At this point in time, due to these unifying
collective interests, local inhabitants tend to give allegiance
and identify themselves first and foremost with Woqooyi Bari
Soomaaliya and Puntland since July 1998, irrespective the shape
Somali polity assumes in the future. And whenever the interest of
the Northeast (which broadly coincides with the interest of the
Harti/Daaroodi) overrides loyalty towards Somalia and the revival
of the Somali State.
National Reconciliation.
The violent downfall of Mohammed Siyaad Barre's regime at
the beginning of 1991 did not bring about the expected end of the
decade-long social upheaval in the Democratic Republic of Somalia.
The sudden and total collapse of centralised institutions of
government precipitated the country to be fragmented into fiefdoms
controlled by clan-based warring factions competing for control
over the ruins of the fallen state. Areas lying outside the
relatively peaceful and stable entities of Northeast Somalia and
Somaliland continue to be troubled by sporadic low-intensity
fighting between clan-based rival factions. Efforts seeking
national reconciliation and remaking the Somali state have not yet
progressed beyond externally sponsored futile conferences held
outside the country and dominated by opportunistic and unreliable
faction leaders (warlords).
Although its humanitarian relief assistance had saved thousands of
lives threatened by the combined impact of drought and war in the
more unstable areas in the south, UNOSOM's heavy handed military
intervention, 1992-1995, failed to restore stability and resurrect
the fractured Somali state. While the Somali case presented a new
opportunity that could provide the international community first
hand experience in remaking fallen states in the post-cold period,
reconciliation conferences sponsored by the UN failed to restore
peace and impose a centralised unitary state.
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