SOMALIA : A Nation Driven to Despair Qaran La Jah-Wareeriyay MOHAMED OSMAN OMAR SOMALIASOMALIA A NATION DRIVEN TO DESPAIR A Case of Leadership Failure SOMALI PUBLICATIONS Mogadishu 2002 SOMALIA: A NATION DRIVEN TO DESPAIR Published in 1996 Reprint 2002 SOMALI PUBLICATIONS e-mail: [email protected] mosman [email protected] © Mohamed Osman Omar, 1996 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy or any information storage and retrieval system, with- out permission in writing from the publishers. Typeset by Digigrafics, D-69 Gulmohar Park, New Delhi, 110049 Printed in India by Somali Publications at Everest Press, New Delhi Sources which have been consulted in the preparation of this book are referenced in footnotes on the appropriate text pages. Cover design: Nirmal Singh, Graphic Designer, New Delhi. Cover photo: Somalis on boat by UNHCR/P. Moumtzis-July 1992 Dedicated To The Somali People Contents Acknowledgement viii Foreword ix Preface xiii Prologue xvii After the Fall of Siad Chapter 1 Djibouti Conferences One & Two 1 Chapter 2 The Destructive War 9 Chapter 3 The World is Horror-Struck 19 Chapter 4 Attempts to End the Crisis 56 Chapter 5 Reconciliation Steps 67 Chapter 6 Addis Ababa Conference 81 Chapter 7 To Say Good-bye 109 Chapter 8 The Aftermath 142 Chapter 9 From Cairo to Nairobi 163 Chapter 10 Leadership Failure in Africa 168 Chapter 11 The African Initiative! 210 Chapter 12 Addis Ababa and Mogadishu: A Comparison 223 Chapter 13 Caught in the Fire 238 Chapter 14 Deepening the Crisis 257 Chapter 15 The Confrontation 278 Chapter 16 Conclusion 294 Songs of a Nomad Son 297 Appendices 299 Addis Ababa Agreements Interview UN Resolutions Index 379 ACKNOWLEDGMENT First and foremost I would like to express my profound gratitude to my mother, Sitey Sharif, my wife Mana Moallim, my children, my brothers and my sister for their moral support, although we are scattered, due to the difficult circumstances, in many places. Without their understanding and blessing I would not have been able to work on this book. My beloved father Osman Omar known by many as Iman Omar passed away in 1990. He was a great man. Allah Bless his soul. My sincere thanks are due to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs for its valuable support to the Somali nationals who live in this great country and particularly to the Somali Embassy in India. To the many African and Arab brothers who help the Somali Embassy in Delhi I tender my heartfelt appreciation. The office which was always ready to provide me with United Nations documents relating to Somalia is UNIC in New Delhi, and I am very grateful to it. My gratitude to Hari Sharan Chhabra for his academic advice.I extend my thanks to Hussein M. Nur Haraco who allowed me to read his collection of personal press cuttings and documents and for reading the proof of my manuscript. Many African colleagues, Ambassadors and High Commissioners in New Delhi with whom I exchanged views on African issues and developments in different African countries deserve my gratitude. I owe special thanks to my colleagues in the Embassy for their cooperation. I thank my My driver, I. Edward, who has always helped me to solve my various problems, particularly my transport problem. Finally, to all my friends, wherever they may be, who keep in touch with me during this hardship period of our life, I say ‘thank you for your friendship and God bless you all’. M.O.O. FOREWORD “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”. The tragic situation in Somalia in the past half decade is reflected in the above lines. The state in Somalia has collapsed as a result of intense civil war and power struggle without restraint. It is an irony of fate that this country which became independent over three and a half decades ago with an unenviable advantage over other African countries, having an ethnically homogeneous population, has now become a mere geographical expression. For the past half decade Somalia has had no internationally recognised polity, no national administration exercising real authority, no formal legal system, no civil administration and no public health institutions. All its infrastructure has been destroyed during the civil war. Normal meaningful economic activities have been brought to a standstill, a tragic situation graphically described in Ambassador Mohamed Osman Omar’s earlier book, The Road To Zero: Somalia’s Self-Destruction (1992) and in his present book aptly entitled: Somalia: A Nation Driven To Despair. In the present book the author has presented a panoramic view of developments in Somalia from the fall of Siad Barre in January 1991 to the x Foreword withdrawal of the UN from Somalia in March 1995. As the author rightly points out, the Somali nation, artificially divided by colonialism into five parts (British Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, French Somaliland (now Djibouti), the Ogaden region in Ethiopia and the Northern Frontier District of Kenya), has suffered for over 30 years in one form or another. The corrupt regimes that came to power during the years after independence only created division, malpractices and nepotism which facilitated the military coup led by Mohamed Siad Barre in 1969. The military regime aggravated the problems and deepened the divisions among the people. The people became disgusted with the regime of Siad Barre and thought that any change would be better. Everyone had suffered under Siad Barre’s 21 year old tyrannical rule. Opposition movements promising justice, equality and democracy took over the country and Siad Barre was overthrown in January 1991. But the leaders who came to power in Mogadishu without prior consultation with the different groups who had fought against Siad Barre unilaterally appointed a President, thus paving the way for widespread violence and bloodshed, degenerating into total anarchy. The country has been at war with itself ever since the overthrow of Siad Barre in January 1991. In one year alone (1992) war and drought have taken 350,000 innocent human lives in Somalia. According to reports, as many as 2,000 people, mostly children and women died daily in Somalia in addition to many more thousands who were made hapless refugees in neighbouring countries. The tragedy in Somalia posed one of the greatest humanitarian and political challenges to the international community. Somalia, once known as the Foreword xi problem child of Africa, became the problem child of the international community. No wonder, the otherwise proud people of Somalia widely welcomed the US ‘mercy mission’ code named “Operation Restore Hope” and successive United Nations Operations. Beyond humanitarianism, what the country needs is unity, democracy and development. By tradition and history, the Somalis are a democratic people and semi-direct democracy has marked their normal way of political, social and economic life in the past. Even though the Somalis had suffered grievously under 75 years of colonialism and 35 years of neo-colonialism, they have shown robust resilience repairing and rebuilding their collapsed polity and economy. Following the US intervention in December 1992, many Somalis felt that through “Operation Restore Hope” by facilitating the empowerment of a civil society and pursuing creative diplomatic efforts, they could have enabled the US to play mid-wife in the process of state reconstruction in Somalia. The United Nations had an excellent opportunity in Somalia. It could have built on the solid base created by ORH, initiated soon after the UN took over. It is unfortunate that the UN could not deliver the goods through UNOSOM-I and UNOSOM-II. At any rate Somalia, a part of which (Italian Somaliland) was under the UN Trusteeship System during the 1950s, would still need UN humanitarian and development assistance, including support for local NGOs. The democratic option for Somalia cannot be forgotten. Democracy can find indigenous roots. Historically, Somalis have lived in societies with rules but without rulers as depicted in I.M. Lewis’s study on “Pastoral Democracy” (1969). The democratic xii Foreword state renewal option would have several advantages for Somalia: it is compatible with the traditional consociational structure and mechanisms: it offers a real antithesis to the detested Siad military dictatorship and it situates Somali struggles within the ongoing global democratic movement, also making the country more amenable to international assistance necessary for rapid reconstruction and development. Consociational democracy recognises and acknowledges ethnic, clan and religious cleavages in constituting membership of governments and national commissions. Ambassador Mohamed Osman Omar while succinctly describing the causes and characteristics of the crisis in Somalia rightly points out that the pursuit of narrow self-interests without restraint has brought total anarchy in the country. A handful of the leaders want to rule over the rest. The relentless and unprincipled struggle for power by any means has set the entire nation aflame. The author has lucidly provided a description of developments in Somalia from the vantage point of a participant- observer. The author deserves lavish praise for his enthusiasm, scholarship and emotional involvement which have enabled him to provide the reader with an excellent account of the tragic developments in Somalia in recent years. This well documented and carefully made survey deserves and should receive widest readership and appreciation. Professor K. Mathews, Head of the Department of African Studies, University of Delhi. PREFACE Ever since the early days of our independence, the Somali people have hardly enjoyed the fruits of freedom, peace and development, and scarcely realised the dreams of the freedom fighters against colonialism. From 1960 to 1969 our rulers failed to lay the foundation of the stable democratic system which we tried to adopt.