MW/DPS/PLPP-9/2000
PUNTLAND
POSITION ON PEACE
AND
NATIONAL RECONCILIATION IN SOMALIA - Update
1
29
September 2000
INTRODUCTION
Puntland
State of Somalia (PSS) has always
played a leading role in the Somali National Reconciliation Process
and in all efforts to reestablish a National Government that
restores unity, integrity and respect to the Somali nation. The
people of Puntland made great deal of sacrifice
for nearly 8 years of waiting for a national resolution before they
had to come to terms with post-Siad Barre
and civil war political realities that required massive
confidence-building and thorough review of the system of government
in Somalia.
In
spite of its strong commitment to national reconciliation, Puntland
State has not taken part in the Djibouti sponsored "Somali
peace and reconciliation process"
as it disagreed with the Djibouti Government on all the approach,
principles, participation, agenda and procedure of the whole
process. Similarly, many Somali regions, political organizations and
leaders declined to participate the "Arta
Conference" mainly for the same
reasons.
Specifically,
agreements were reached in writing with President Guelleh
himself and his Foreign Minister on the terms and conditions
Puntland would partake in the Djibouti Process. This followed the
arrival of a Djibouti delegation in Garowe
in May, 2000. It was on the basis of these agreements that Puntland
sent a delegation consisting of 21 senior Elders and a government
delegation led by the Puntland State vice-president. The agreed
single objective of the Puntland delegation was CONSULTATION on
timing of the proposed conference and modalities of selecting
conference delegates from the regions and districts. Djibouti
changed course, decided to select delegates in Djibouti and broke
the agreement with Puntland. The Puntland delegation of Elders and
government returned deeply offended and disappointed. The
differences between the sponsoring Djibouti government and Puntland
State Government proved irreconcilable.
We
hasten to state clearly that Puntland State has no personal
complaint against the brotherly people and the nation of Djibouti.
Any differences, criticisms and complaints refer only to the
partiality, mismanagement and fraudulent outcome of the "Arta
Process" stage managed by the present Djibouti Government.
FACTS
ABOUT PUNTLAND STATE OF SOMALIA
Puntland
is stable, peaceful, self-governing regional State with a well
functioning public administration firmly in place. It consists of 5
of the 18 Somalia regions and contains
over one-third of the land surface
and one-fourth of the population of the Republic of Somalia.
The 2-year Old State has democratic constitution, elected State
President, Legislative Council and independent Judiciary. Within its
limited resources, it undertakes to promote justice, good
governance, and to protect human rights and the environment in
Puntland.
PSS
was the outcome of 8 painful years of quiet deliberations on the
failures of all efforts on national reconciliation and the need for
local political and administrative structures in Puntland. A series
of Consultative and Constitutional Conferences attended by 600
representatives of these 5 regions of Puntland took place over a
period of 12 months from October 1997 to August 1998. These
representatives from all sectors of Puntland society came together
and jointly established, on their free will, the Puntland State of
Somalia on 1st August 1998.
PSS
is an integral part of the Somali Republic and strongly stands for
the preservation of the unity, integrity and sovereignty of Somalia.
It urges and appeals to the national and international communities
to respect and uphold these fundamental principles. Our regional
State has been ready to be one of the first pillars of a National
Federal government, which should be all-inclusive, equitable and
democratic that is untainted by involvement and influence of former
dictatorial regime or by religious extremists.
In Puntland we have succeeded in establishing
the basic government institutions, and enacted laws that guarantee
the basic human rights and protect the environment. We
have succeeded in banning the burning of wood for charcoal
production for export, which was widely practiced before my
government came to office. We have also banned the export of wild
life from areas in my government's jurisdiction. We have removed
from Puntland Territorial Waters an estimated 3000 foreign vessels
that illegally fished in our waters, or engaged in illegal
activities like toxic waste dumping. In the 2 years my
government has been in office, we have created a civil service and
law enforcement force of nearly seven thousand (7,000) men and women
that oversee the smooth functioning of our institutions. We have
scheduled an election in mid 2001 when the term of 3-year interim
period will end.
THE
TRUTH ABOUT THE DJIBOUTI/ARTA PROCESS
The
Djibouti/Arta Process sponsoring government of Djibouti, organizers
of the event and the Office of the UN Secretary General, which was
acting as advisor to President Guelleh on the process, made frequent
claims that participants were from the civil society; that clan
elders from all regions of Somalia supported the proceedings, that
the process was democratic, that both "parliament and
President" were chosen legally and that the Arta outcome was
legitimate. The truth is vastly different:
1.
The "Arta Conference" participants were not elected by the
civil society and administrations in the districts and regions of
the country - a pledge first made by the sponsoring Djibouti
President but later disregarded. Therefore, they were not legitimate
representatives of the Somali people.
2.
Clan elders were invited before the actual conference started and
they were specifically to advise President Guelleh on (a) the timing
of the start of the conference and (b) methods of selection of
participants from the districts and regions. The majority of elders
advised to delay the opening of the conference to allow sufficient
time for delegate distribution and their election by their
respective constituencies in the regions. Djibouti government
refused to consider these proposals of the elders.
3.
The election of the so-called "Parliament" and
"President" in Djibouti can neither be democratic nor
legal when the participants of the "Arta Conference" are
not democratically or legally elected from their respective
constituencies. In fact, many of the “participants”, especially
those supposedly from Puntland, rejected the “Arta Charter”
which they said ignored the agreed principle of agreement by
consensus.
4.
The people who gathered in Djibouti for the "Conference",
mostly consisting of religious fundamentalists and remnants of the
butchers of the discredited Siyad Barre regime and who are directly
responsible for the Somali tragedy itself, were largely
self-appointed, hand-picked by Djibouti and without any official
mandate by the Somali communities who were not given the chance to
choose them. Such impostors were the participants of the "Arta
Peace and Reconciliation Conference "!
5.
To further complicate the subject, the Djibouti government rejected
all advice from Puntland, Somaliland and other political and
traditional leaders and from the international community on ways and
means to make the process more practical, democratic and equitable.
It is a common knowledge that the Djibouti government excluded
important Somali, regional and international actors from the process
for reasons only known to itself.
6.
The "Arta Peace and Reconciliation Process" was, thus,
undemocratic, unrepresentative and illegal. It was neither
transparent nor all-inclusive and its outcome is unacceptable.
BARRIERS
TO NATIONAL RECONCILIATION:
Puntland
State government maintains that the main obstacles to national
reconciliation agreement and its effective implementation has been
largely due to fear and distrust among the Somali communities as the
bared nerves of the brutal civil war are still raw and festering.
This deep-rooted fear and distrust needs to be overcome first.
Indeed, the UN Secretary General, in his August 16, 1999 Report to
the Security Council, pointed out that the present Somali conflict
was not over religious and ethnic divide or dispute over natural
resources. "Rather ...it is divided on clan lines with each
clan fearful of the incursions of others" he wrote. The UN
Secretary General continued that "the crucial missing
ingredient is trust. Without trust, there can be no peace or
security in Somalia and no central government can be
re-established".
These
sensitivities, the discrediting failures of the past, public
distrust of endless political processes that embrace the
participation of criminals, extremists, warlordism, clanism and
unqualified and illegitimate participants must take into
consideration in any new pragmatic approach for national peace and
reconciliation process. We believe that the most feasible
proposition to finding a lasting solution is, thus, through the
"building blocks" approach from "bottom-up"
process leading to a highly decentralized system of government in
Somalia.
The
Djibouti government ignored this vital approach. It rather embarked
on a series of contradictory and conflicting actions: while Somalis
and foreign observers agree that clanism, which should be
de-institutionalized, is a divisive curse to be shunned, Djibouti
insists it is a uniting cure for the Somalis and helped spread its
infection even farther. As the vast majority of Somalis agree to
adopt a Federal system of government for trust-building and regional
development, Djibouti opted for a highly "centralized system of
government through top-down process". It also denies the
existence and status of the established self-governing regional
States of Puntland and Somaliland which they and the "Arta
Group” want dismantled and destabilized rather than at least
considering them to be the foundation of a decentralized national
state.
Another
weird anomaly is the over-optimistic confidence that Djibouti
government reposes in leaders who have abjectly failed to promote
local conflict resolution and build local administrations in their
own constituencies for the past 10 years. Can such personalities be
expected to resolve more complex and intractable national strife?
The
PSS government is deeply concerned of what the unholy alliance of
fundamentalists, Siad Barre renegades, and warlords and society
misfits at Arta portend for Somalia. This new Djibouti/Arta Group is
aggressive. Both its pronouncements and its actions on the ground
are cause for anxiety. The attacks and provocative statements of the
“Arta Group” leader, Abdiqasim Salaad Boy, made in Mogadishu and
Cairo, among others, that he did "not recognize Puntland or
Somaliland or any 'land' ...with a new colonialism behind them that
aims to break Somalia into mini states" are clear indication of
the aggressive intentions of the new “Arta Group”. Such
statements and the fact that a large one-clan militia force being
formed in Mogadishu are realities that risk to plunge Somalia into
renewed civil war. Fightings causing nearly 100 deaths in the
Benadir region and Mogadishu since the Arta outcome are alleged to
be direct result of the Arta outcome itself.
CONCLUSIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
International
mediation efforts at Somali national reconciliation failed 12 times
in the past. The 13th attempt at Djibouti/Arta
is also destined to fail, as it is presently constituted. Many less
publicized and less costly local regional endeavors over the years
have produced more successful results in peace-making among many
communities and in the establishment of regional administrations. We
believe that there are very few people, if at all, who have the
will, trust and commitment to organize or fund a 14th
National Reconciliation Conference. A more realistic and creative
approach is required. A new process must be fully Somali owned and
address the real and priority concerns of the Somali people. It
should be well planned and based on certain fundamental principles.
The
right approach, in our view, is to start institution-building from
the grass roots’ level where the local and regional
administrations could more realistically cope with the vital and
complex questions of peace, stability, self-reliance and
development.
In
the light of the past discouraging experiences, in view of the
sensitivities and the need for greater confidence building discussed
above, the Puntland State government proposes a new initiative with
different approach and composed of 4-phases:
PHASE-1:
A
local peace-making and conflict resolution process would be
undertaken by Somalis with contributions of logistical assistance by
the international organizations working in Somalia as they have some
form of presence in most regions of the country. The local process
would target areas and regions in crisis to resolve clan conflicts,
religious extremist threats and forceful and illegal occupation of
other communities' territories. During this phase, a political,
legal and traditional Action Plan would be put in place for the
unconditional return of illegally seized, looted or occupied public
and private property and assets to their rightful owners. A joint
Somali and international community severe sanctions would be taken
against aggressors, detractors and violators obstructing these
activities.
PHASE-2:
To
support the completion of the continuing process of Building Blocks
and the establishment of regional self-governing States which is in
line with the principle of decentralization and inter-community
trust-building. It would also lay a solid foundation for a Federal
System of Government in Somalia on which system the majority of
Somalis agree. This process could, in part, develop in parallel with
PHASE-1. The relatively simple, effective, unique, legitimate and
unionist process that Puntland went through in establishing its
State serves as a practical example.
PHASE-3:
On
the realization of PHASES 1 and 2, the elected legitimate leaders of
all the regional self-governing States would meet in a National
Conference to discuss modalities of forming a National Federal
Government at the earliest convenient time, possibly within a period
of 6 to 12 months.
PHASE-4:
During
the transitional 6 to12 months period, the leaders of the
self-governing States of the day and one interim representative from
other zones, chosen on certain creditable criteria, would form a
National Care-taker Council to act as the custodians of national
unity and sovereignty and for the coordination of regional and
national policies as well as to represent Somalia at international
forums. As new zonal States are established, their leaders would
automatically join the Council replacing the interim representatives
of their respective zones.
The
Puntland State Government would be ready to elaborate all these
ideas and submit more detailed proposals on necessary mechanisms to
organize and implement these processes. It is our considered opinion
that this proposition for a durable solution to the Somali national
crisis in a consistent and gradual steps deserves serious
consideration.
We
have learnt a bitter, unforgettable and useful lesson from the
experience of our barbarous civil war: to concentrate our energies
and resources on the creation and maintenance of efficient local
institutions rather than blind dependence on a centralized state and
government.
It
should, perhaps, be added that, under the prevailing difficult
political and security conditions in the country, the most the
“Arta Group” could contribute is to reign/control their
untenable national ambitions and, instead, limit themselves in
assisting community and political leaders in the Benadir region with
conflict resolution and regional institution building. Surely,
personalities who failed to make peace and reconciliation in their
own constituencies cannot be expected to the more complex and
intractable national strife.
Abdullahi
Yusuf Ahmed
Puntland
State President,
Garowe,
Puntland State of Somalia