the Cover of International Legitimacy and the Potential Danger of the 'Arta Faction' in Mogadisho.

Editorial

Title: [SW Editorial][ SW - Ali A. Jama] the Cover of International Legitimacy and the Potential Danger of the 'Arta Faction' in Mogadisho.
Posted by/on:[AAJ][3 Jan 2001]

The Cover of International Legitimacy and the Potential Danger of the 'Arta Faction' in Mogadisho.

( Is Mr. Kofi Anan (UN) offering the Cover of International Legitimacy to the 'Arta Faction' in Mogadisho?Will the Arta Faction use this Cover to Suffocate the Emerging Democratic Regional Authorities in Somalia?)

"The General Secretary is impatient with the lack of central administrative structures in Somalia for so long, a situation he and many others see as out of line with the present World Order, an anomaly that should be stopped. In this rush 'to produce a government for Somalia at any cost' the General Secretary threw out of the window his stated 1999 position and embraced the Arta(Djibouti) process.....The confused actions of the international community, are only serving to perpetuate the civil conflict of Somalia.......The international community can only help if it will accept that the Somali Crises have to be solved by the Somalis themselves - AAJ"

By Ali A.Jama - jama@somaliawatch.org

The General-Secretary of the United Nations Mr. Kofi Anan issued a comprehensive 16-page Report ( S/1999/882 ) on 16th of Aug 1999. In the Report, the General secretary described, in detail, the political and the security situations in different parts of the country. He acknowledged that peace and governance is returning, albeit slowly, to many parts of the country (Para 67,"....approximately half of the Somali territory is peaceful."). He also acknowledged the significance of some parts of the country as potential constituent elements of any future Somalia (Para 17," ..with Puntland joining hands with Somaliland the first step could be taken towards the resuscitation of Somalia".) The General Secretary went on to acknowledge the fact that the building block approach was the way to reconstitute Somalia (paragraph 39,".......supportive of the IGAD "building Block" approach as the way forward in Somalia".)

In summary the thrust of Mr.. Kofi Anan's 1999 Report was to establish that :

there are still crisis areas in the country

there are peaceful areas represented by Puntland, Somaliland, Bay and Hiran areas.

Puntland and Somaliland have established local civil administrations that are functioning.

together Puntland and Somaliland make up more than half of the Somali territories

the World Body should use these functioning civil administrations as a model to lead others by example, by reinforcing their fledgling capacities - the so-called "peace dividend" approach. (it has been predicted that there will be 4-6 blocks (states) forming any future Somali State, of which 3 are functioning now)

The General Secretary of the United Nations Mr.Kofi Anan issued another 5-page Report ( Assistance for humanitarian relief and the economic and social rehabilitation of Somalia, dated 7 December 2000) which, in essence, is a contradiction of sorts to his 1999 Report. Instead of building on the achievements he so eloquently described in 1999, he goes haywire and makes a passionate plea for the new UN/Djibouti-created Arta Faction in Mogadishu. There is no logical link between what the Honorable General Secretary told the World in 1999 and what he is telling the World in 2000.

In summary the General Secretary, in his 2000 Report:

makes a passionate plea for the new UN/Djibouti-created Arta Faction now holed up in hotels in Mogadishu.
conveniently ignores, even mentioning by name, Somaliland and Puntland States.
asks the subordination of the democratically elected administrations to this new Arta Faction in Mogadishu. He even goes as far as suggesting that the only way the Northern Recovery Zones can preserve ," economic and administrative progress achieved" is to recognize the "new transitional Government". In this context the General Secretary states we ,"....Strongly urges all political groups in Somalia, in particular those which have remained outside the Arta peace process, to participate in the ongoing peace process and to establish a constructive dialogue with the new transitional Government, in order to achieve national reconciliation that allows for transition from relief to reconstruction and development and preserves economic and administrative progress achieved in many regions..."

These statements by the General Secretary are read by many analysts as an implicit threat of offering international legitimacy and cover to the Arta Faction to stifle out and suffocate the peaceful areas of the country that have democratically elected governments. If so, it is a serious misjudgment on the part of the chief administrator of the World Body.

Mr Anan's Report is also contains many conflicting signals, indicative of the typically confused stand the World Body has on the Somali Issues. How do these apparently threatening statement fit in with the earlier statements made in the document, "...the Somali people have the primary responsibility for their own development and for the sustainability of rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance programs...", ....".... and the importance it (United Nations) attaches to the creation of workable arrangements for collaboration between the United Nations system and its partner organizations and their Somali counterparts for the effective execution of rehabilitation and development activities in those parts of the country in which peace and security prevail...."

What is the Honorable General Secretary want the Puntland, Somaliland and South West states to do? Does the General Secretary know that the civil society in these "states" have executed their 'primary responsibilities' to establish law and order and governance. How does the Honorable Gen Secretary define a grassroots civil movement that collectively establishes governance structures for the common good of the concerned citizens in their particular areas? And all this without the involvement of the UN machinery and Aid organizations!! A lot of people would recognize these collective endeavors as the basis of good Governance. These were how the Somaliland and Puntland administrations were created in 1991 and 1998 respectively. The General Secretary refuses to make any direct reference to these great democratic exercises. On the contrary he makes a passionate plea for the new UN/Djibouti-created Arta Faction in Mogadishu, and asks the subordination of the democratically elected administrations to this new faction!

The General Secretary is impatient with the lack of central administrative structures in Somalia for so long, a situation he and many others see as out of line with the present World Order, an anomaly that should be stopped. In this rush 'to produce a government for Somalia at any cost' the General Secretary threw out of the window his stated 1999 position and embraced the Arta(Djibouti) process. What came out of Arta (the Arta Faction) is, however, a throwback to the failed,repressive, centralized governance structure that led to the failure of the Somali State in 1991. The Conference outcome is also reversal of the positions and intentions of the World Community as articulated by the General Secretary himself in his 1999 Report. Many have hoped to see the reinforcement of the "building Block" and peace dividend approach where clearly the Recovery Zones in the North and other peaceful areas would be the corner blocks on which the rest of the country would be pulled up to reconstitute the nation again.

The General Secretary and 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. A new Somalia has been taking shape for some years now. The country has been experiencing a process of re-birth, constructing a new nation from scratch, and from the bottom up. This evolutionary process should be left to take its natural course. The communities in the Northern Recovery Zones, where governance structures based on the participation of the local people at the grassroots level have been set up, are spearheading the changes. Normal government institutions are slowly , but surely taking hold in these communities. The confused actions of the international community have so far been directed at stopping or slowing down this evolutionary processes by proposing all sorts of unworkable solutions to the Somali Crises.

The much-hailed UN-sponsored Arta (Djibouti) Process may not be any different from the 12 previous attempts that failed. It is possible, indeed probable, that the Arta Faction in Mogadishu would destabilize the Recovery Zones in the North without really achieving peace and governance in the troubled areas of the country.

The confused actions of the international community, are only serving to perpetuate the civil conflict of Somalia. The international community can only help if it will accept that the Somali crises have to be solved by the Somalis themselves.

[Editorial]