//REPEATING// POLITICS-SOMALIA: A Bumpy Road To Peace

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Nov 25 1997 (IPS) - The close-door meeting in Cairo, Egypt, by Somalia’s belligerents marks the latest attempt to end the six- year civil war in that country.

The parley, brokered by the Egyptian government, has brought together Somalia’s main factions of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) and the Somali Salvation Alliance (SSA). Both SNA leader Hussein Aideed and SSA’s Ali Mahdi had shunned direct talks in the past.

This meeting, which began about one month ago, has prompted speculations here that the war-weary warlords may be inching towards a peaceful solution to their country’s woes.

“We hope that the involvement of Aideed and Mahdi in the talks will speed up the progress towards a peaceful solution to Somalia’s conflict,” said a pro-Aideed official here.

He told IPS in a telephone interview on Monday that the participants had agreed on the form of a future government, to be called the Council of Presidency. It will comprise 13 members, including the President and the Prime Minister. But the method of selecting the Prime Minister has run into problems.

“There has been a deadlock over the appointment of the Prime Minister. Aideed prefers the Prime Minister to be appointed by the proposed national reconciliation conference. He argues that the two main factions should share the two top posts of the Prime Minister and that of the President,” the SNA official said. But his arch rival, Mahdi, disagreed.

“Mahdi prefers the Prime Minister to be appointed by the Council of Presidency, based on clan groupings … Following the deadlock, the participants have formed a technical committee to resolve the problem,” according to the SNA source.

The current round of talks comes at a time when the majority of Somalis struggle to survive. With the withdrawal of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in 1995 and the sharp drop in the number of foreign aid agencies willing to risk operating in Somalia, jobs are scare.

On top of the job scarcity, Somalia has been hit by the worst floods in living memory. More than 1,300 people have been killed and tens of thousands living along the Juba and Shabelle rivers in southern Somalia, have been made homeless by heavy rains which have caused rivers and streams to burst their banks in the past six weeks.

The aid agency Cooperative for American Relief to Everywhere, better known as CARE, said in a statement last week that more than 14,000 livestock had been killed in the deluge so far, and more than 60,000 hectares of crops and farmland destroyed.

This is not the first time that a spate of natural catastrophes has hit the Horn of African country.

Between 1991 and 1992, some 300,000 people died of starvation and famine-related diseases as a result of the civil strife, prompting the ill-fated four billion-dollars United States and United Nations intervention.

The late Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aideed, whose armed opposition to the mission led to its demise, in June 1995, declared himself president of Somalia. He appointed a government, announced a budget, tried to collect taxes and enforced his authority from his south Mogadishu headquarters. Only Libya recognised him.

He was resisted by the other warlords, not least Mahdi and his Agbal clan, which retains control of the northern half of a divided Mogadishu. In other parts of the country, clan-based fiefdoms have emerged and, since 1991, the north-western region has proclaimed itself independent as Somaliland.

Following his death in August 1996, Aideed’s son Hussein, a former U.S. Marine soldier, took over the mantle of power, declaring himself president of Somalia. But the animosity between Aideed and Mahdi has been less compared to that between his father and Mahdi.

The Cairo talks follow similar efforts organised by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia in Sodere, Ethiopia, and later in Bossaso in Somalia in the past six months.

A similar conference was held here in October 1996 under the aegis of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi. Following this week- long meeting, the participants agreed on a cease-fire and to further talks. But nothing happened.

Critics say all the three talks failed, because they excluded the emerging civil society and Islamist groups.

“The conflict in Somalia can only be resolved when Somalis from all walks of life come together to find a solution to their common problems. They should hold such meeting inside Somalia whether under a tree, or in a school, mosque and deliberate for days, weeks, months on end until they come out with a solution,” said Ali Dualleh, a former Somalia ambassador to Kenya.

He told IPS recently that foreign-imposed solutions would only prolong Somalia’s conflict.

Somalia collapsed into the anarchy of clan-based warlord politics, following the overthrow of former dictator Siad Barre in 1991.

//REPEATING// POLITICS-SOMALIA: A Bumpy Road To Peace

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Nov 25 1997 (IPS) - The close-door meeting in Cairo, Egypt, by Somalia’s belligerents marks the latest attempt to end the six- year civil war in that country.
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