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 Interview: After Mogadishu, the Int'l community no longer affords a "wait and see" policy
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On the eve of the meeting of IGAD chiefs of staff to facilitate the deployment of an IGAD peace support mission in Somalia, Fiseha Shawel, Head of Somalia desk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs speaks with The Reporter on the developments in Somalia and Ethiopia's position in that regard. Excerpts:
In recent times the international community has been expressing its concern about the developments in Somalia. Ethiopia in particular has been expressing its worries that the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) is a threat to the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and to itself. Despite such expressions of concern however, practical measures of support have not been forthcoming from the international community, why in your opinion is the reason for this?
The developments in Somalia are not that bad. Because when we talk of Somalia we are talking of the country in its entirety. We are talking of Somaliland where you have peace and tranquility and economic activity and everything. Then you have Puntland where you have one-third of Somalia, and the administration there is doing fine, except for some tensions in the southern tip of Puntland, particularly in Galkayo-a town shared both by the Hawie and Daro clans in Somalia. So, more or less Puntland is ok.
And when you come to Baidowa where you have the TFG, the whole region which is called Bai and Bokol it is quite peaceful,. They have their administration.
And when you go down to Kismago and Geddo, the border with Kenya and also with Ethiopia they are more or less ok, they are part of the federal government structure, although there is not a full-fledged structure reaching every district and every village.
Then you come to Mogadishu and its environs where the Islamic Courts Union control. We are now sure that they want to establish a strict version of the Sharia whose version is somehow new to Somalis.
It is not of the Sufi tradition. The Sufi is more familiar to Ethiopia and the Somali Muslims.
While the general situation is such as I have said, the latest development there is that the UIC want to capture peaceful administrations particularly Galkayo but I doubt they can do that because the Puntland administration is in a better position to defend itself.
In addition some days ago, local UIC supporters, extremists ejected the governor in the town Beletweyne and took over his office. I do not think people would like the UIC to take over, or they do not want any escalation of the conflict in that region. So this is the situation.
As to the international community, it unanimously considers the TFG as legitimate. It considers it as the only legitimate government of Somalia.
This is because the international community has helped to establish this government in Nairobi since 2002 until it was formed in 2004.
The United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, IGAD and its entire member states, the Arab League and in addition the International Partners Forum where you have all the big powers participating in the meeting.
From the bignning to the end the conference was open to everybody to comment and constructively engage with the Somalis.
Yes, however accepted as legitimate, the international community has not -except express its concerns- taken any practical measures to protect this government. For example Eritrea despite all this continues to arm and support a group that undermines the TFG�
The position of Eritrea is always very difficult to understand for everybody. They are part of the IGAD system and they have observed and contributed to the establishment of the TFG, they were fully part of the facilitation committee of the IGAD when the peace process was ongoing in Nairobi. They however were also waiting for an opportune moment to spoil what was achieved. Eritrea has now become a problem to the Somalis nation and to the international community.
There is a way that has been agreed upon and that is the TFG is legitimate. And if there is any party in Somalia which wants to negotiate we should help dialogue among the Somalis while strengthening the TFG. But what Eritrea did is that it took side with the UIC believing that this force is against Ethiopia. They also believe that the UIC is against the international community that it is especially against the Americans. Eritrea I think is not happy with the United States.
American diplomats are not allowed to move around freely outside Asmara. The same is true to Eritrean diplomats in the US and in Europe.
The problem, as I see it, between Eritrea and the US is that the Eritreans think that the US is supporting Ethiopia better than them.
So, they are now lumping everybody. The problem is now Eritrea against the international community.
And its involvement in Somalia is a clear testimony to this fact. It is Eritrea against the will of the international community.
What Eritrea is doing now is it is helping the Al-Itihad Al-Islami group.
So what I would say is that Eritrea is moving against the will of the international community. It is moving against the will of IGAD and the United Nations.
Eritrea is arming, this extremist and irredentist group.
In answering your question of why the international community has not been supporting Somalia. I think now the situation is different.
Of course, since the establishment of the TFG in 2004, the international community did not come in full force, be it financially or in stabilizing Somalia and strengthening the TFG. The international community did not do well.
But since the crises in Mogadishu, everyone is alert. The situation is worrying the international community.
So position of Ethiopia is in line with the IGAD, AU and the International community that the Transitional Government must be supported to defend itself, to stabilize Somalia and to have its security structures in place.
For this what is needed is to lift the arms embargo that has been imposed on Somalia since January 1992.
And now the IGAD is working on a detailed mission plan in Nairobi of the deployment of IGAD. This is being worked on by the chiefs of staff of IGAD.
And next week we are having the IGAD ambassadors committee which will see the management side of the force to be deployed.
After this mission plan has been finalized it will be taken over to the UN Security Council which will be expected to waive the arms embargo imposed on Somalia in favor of the TFG.
Then the international community will have a framework with which to support the TFG in any feasible way.
The basic thing is that the lifting of the embargo would enable the deployment of IGASOM. After IGAD, the African Union will take over the whole peace support mission in Somalia.
This is the schedule of activities in Somalia.
So, the international community for the past year and a half had been following the policy of "wait and see" when it came to Somalia.
But after the crises in Mogadishu, the attitude of the international community has changed and seems to read from the same book.
What happened in Mogadishu is indication of an African-style Taliban government.
Even the Somalis are worried a bit of what is happening in Somalia. The ideology is worrisome.
In addition to extremism, they have an irredentist idea claiming territories in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti�
But do they have any grounds to make these claims?
They have no grounds at all. This is just a discredited agenda. Ask any Somali and they will tell you that the problems in Somalia are because of irredentism which was aimed at Ethiopia, Northern Kenya and Djibouti.
This in view of many Somalis is an idea which has no support at all. But the UIC is using it maybe to mobilize people around it.
They are just bringing back this idea which has died and was buried long time ago.
Secondly, they are promoting extremism which they are forcing people to comply with and which is very difficult for many Somalis to accept.
They do not have any ground for such claims but they are trying.
The UIC has recently been supplied with large consignments of arms from Eritrea. We are told that the major financers of the UIC and providers of arms are a few rich Somalis in Mogadishu and Eritrea. However, considering the amount of arms that is flown into Mogadishu do you think these two groups can solely be able to manage it?
You see, Somalia is in problem. A force of four to five thousand militias is enough to cause a lot of problem. Because there is no national army, national police and security forces which will deal with this kind of situation.
Through out the fifteen year the weapons they have been using are Kalashnikovs, pistols and light technicals.
Now we hear that Eritrea has given them much better weapons and that has shifted the balance in favor of the UIC. So in Somalia given the weapons they are using the small arms and technicals any consignment is likely to change the balance of force and that is exactly what has happened in Mogadishu.
Secondly, the issue is not only weapons. They are also using extreme ideological application of Sharia to bring people behind them.
Thirdly, they are trying to take advantage of what the warlords were doing for the past fifteen years.
Warlordism is the worst kind of administration for any society. Warlords benefit from crises than from stability.
The warlords in Somalia were doing every negative thing for the last fifteen years.
When people in Somalia said that they could not take any more of the warlords then the UIC dominated by AlItihad took advantage of the situation and took over the course. Now the Al-Itihad Al-Islami has prevailed over the UIC's role and organization.
As you have said, the businessmen of the Ayre-Hawiye clan are there participating in the UIC and these business men on average earn 1-2 million dollars a year and that is sufficient amount. But that is not all, around the Muslim and from the Arab world, there are some individuals who are misled by the UIC leadership which tell them that Somalia is this and that and that America and the Christian world is doing this and that against Muslims.
They point to Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and say "look at what is happening to Somalia now, so help us." So, this rich and ideologically oriented- indivuals give them millions of dollars.
And if you have seen the BBC's Focus on Africa magazine of July- September 2006 you can see how an individual from Yemen recruited by Al-Qaeda fought first in Afghanistan then in Somalia and the money transfer network.
What got things worse in Somalia is the slow pace of support from the international community to the TFG, which created a huge gap in Somalia which could be filled by anyone.
First, people in Somalia were tired of warlords and said: "No, enough is enough" and this feeling has been taken advantage by the UIC.
Second, the TFG did not get enough support from the international community. We blame ourselves and we blame everybody that enough had not been done to strengthen the transitional government. The TFG because of that could not reach every district and every village in Somalia and Mogadishu.
The TFG also had been faced with the problem of disagreement between the top three leaders, where Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin went to Baidowa to broker a negotiation.
Can you give us details of that?
What happened is that, within the TFG there is the general desire that things should be done better than what has been achieved so far. What is happening is not bad because the parliament is in session always; they have established fourteen or fifteen parliamentary committees and they are engaged in their activities.
But the president especially is complaining that much has to be done in Somalia in mobilizing the people and engaging the international community so that the TFG will have its structure reaching every district and every village in Somalia. And this includes Mogadishu.
The Prime Minister on the other hand is saying that there is no sufficient support from the international community and as long as there is interference such that by Eritrea, then it is impossible for the TFG to do much of what is expected.
Then there was a vote of no confidence against the prime minister and his government in the parliament in 30 July 2006. But they were short of the votes required to remove the prime minister. 139 votes were required of the 275-member parliament and they could only come up with 129.
As you have been informed by the media, ministers then resigned-some 30 of them.
So as friends of the legitimate government and neighbor we talked to them and offered our services. The result of the negotiation was to limit the number of ministers to 31 and to select ministers based on their merits, their capability and professionalism. And of course their clan representation.
It was a minor disagreement but it was a disagreement on how to push the peace process in Somalia forward. It is on how to bring reconciliation, how really to reach out to every body.
When according to Ethiopia will the UIC become "clear and present danger" to it?
When they become a direct threat to Ethiopia's national security. Secondly, if they try to remove the TFG by force that will be a clear and present danger. If they encroach onto the borders of Ethiopia that will also be a clear and present danger.
But so far they are just operating in the Hawie clan areas-Mogadishu and its environs and central Somalia which is Galgudud.
So we are carefully watching what they are doing and what their intentions are.
The situation is still fluid. We do not know where they want to end and what they want to achieve.
First they were against warlords in Mogadishu and they removed the warlords.
Then they captured Balaat, then they came to Jowhar and then the Galgudud area, they are now at the gate of Galkayo. I deologically they preach extremism and irridentism by claiming territories of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. Their role model is Osama bin Laden. And through their friends in Beletweyne- a minority group- they are also trying to establish an Islamic court there.
So we are just following the developments. The evolution is not yet complete and we cannot yet figure it out. We are just following what is happening.
Eritrea has recently been lobbying around the region in support of the UIC. What does its administration hope to achieve through such efforts?
I cannot quite say what it plans to achieve.
However, who ever knows the Eritrean administration is bound to worry by its support for the UIC. And they have seen it during the last council of ministers' meeting.
And probably the effort is aimed at convincing neighbors who are worried of Eritrea's support to the UIC its support for the UIC is justified. But I do not think they will achieve much by what they are doing now.
The practice of Eritrea speaks louder than what they are trying to lobby around. |
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