Source: Humanitarian
Affairs Review
Date: 13 Dec 2000
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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