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The Sept. 25 Associated Press article "Far from home, Somalis press U.S. to aid emerging government" created concern among the Somali community in this state. Somalis in Minnesota are not divided, and therefore support the reinstitution of the Somali government after 15 years of brutal civil war.

The collapse of the Somali government in 1991 was followed by vicious civil war that led to the complete dissolution of the state and the institutions. During the 15 years without a functioning government, there were many peace conferences, all of which not only failed but also dragged an already impoverished Somali people into more misery and suffering.

Any leader would be wise to consider why the preceding peace conferences in Somalia were unsuccessful.

The last failed attempt was held in the small town of Arte 30 kilometers south of Djibouti capital in 2000. On Aug. 26, 2000, 245 Transitional National Assembly elected Abdiqasim Salad Hasan as president, and in October 2000, President Hasan appointed Ali Khalif Galaydh as prime minister.

This government, better known among the Somalis as the Arte government, simply evaporated after a short time without returning any stability to the country, creating more political obscurity than before. The daily business of the Arte government become a policy of diversion: shifting the political ailments of the country to neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and occupying itself with corruption and embezzlement.

Besides the incompetence and lack of practical vision from the Arte group, Somalia is still awash with weapons and has become a breeding ground for terrorism.

After this miserable failure of the Arte group, the IGAD countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan) initiated another peace conference on October 2002 in Kenya that lasted for almost two years. This conference brought about the current federal government, led by President Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf.

The Somali people everywhere will not let this chance slip away and therefore once again get caught in the web of hopelessness and misery. It was the outcry from Somali women and children to which lawmakers such as Sen. Norm Coleman responded. The community is divided over two issues, according to the AP article:

� Military support from neighboring nations to bring the rule of law back to Somalia.

� Whether the United Nations should lift the arms embargo on Somalia.

Recent history shows that Somalia failed to disarm itself without support from outside. Actually the international community, led by the United States, disappointingly failed to undertake that task under the operation of restore hope to Somalia. The United Nations ought to respect the integrity and sovereignty of the recent Somali government by exempting it from the arms embargo so that it can rebuild the national army to ensure good governance and the safety of its citizens.

Ali Khalif Galaydh apparently has not given up his ill-considered policy toward Somalis, and I wonder what he would suggest to remedy the political crisis in a country as fragmented as Somalia. The practice of democracy is a fairy tale without the rule of law. I do not see how anyone can pull the Somali country back together democratically within our lifetimes without some use of force.

The Somali people are not divided about having a government back in Somalia whatever the cost it might be. The concern expressed by the Prof. Galaydh that military support from a country like Ethiopia to disarm the militias would reignite civil war is politically impetuous.

It is time that Galaydh stop trying to evade the real issue, and accept the need to bury enmity against neighboring counties and start a new page of collaboration and peaceful coexistence.


Omar Jamal is executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul