Office of the Somali Prime Minister (OPM)
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Mogadishu (OPM) - Today, the Somali government has concluded a National Steering Committee Consultative workshop regarding the reconciliation and stabilization plan for newly liberated areas. The two-day workshop was hosted by H.E. Abdiwahab Ugaas Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce and Industry; H.E. Abdullahi Godah Barre, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation; H.E. Abdurahman Hosh Jibril, Minister of Constitution, Federalism and Reconciliation; and H.E. Abdihakim Egeh Guled, Deputy Minister of Interior and National Security. Participants included members of civil society and traditional leaders from Mogadishu, Baidoa, Beledweyn, and Juba region.
As TFG forces liberate different parts of the country from Al-Shabaab, the government will be rolling out a process for establishing peace, fostering reconciliation and setting up local administrations, and participants reviewed and discussed this process.
The key priorities of the TFG are:
(1) Promoting social reconciliation and setting up civil administrations and peace committees
(2) Restoring law and order and justice
(3) Containment of heavy weapons, followed by comprehensive DDR
(4) Restoring humanitarian relief distribution; and repatriation of IDPs and refugees
(5) Providing basic services
The TFG process will be inclusive, democratic and participatory, resulting in genuine reconciliation. The process will be based on the traditional Somali culture of reconciliation and dialogue, and will be tailored to fit the local context in each different area of Somalia. In each area that gets freed of Al-Shabaab tyranny, the TFG will facilitate reconciliation meetings in which the communities will discuss topics including social reconciliation and restitution, interim security arrangements and disarmament, humanitarian issues including the resettlement of IDPs, and conclude with the election of a local administration (or reinstallation of an existing one).
Participants acknowledged that security operations are proceeding at different paces and in different ways across the country; accordingly, the dialogue and reconciliation strategies will need to be flexible enough to take the different situations into account. For example, in some areas, the dialogue will take place at the regional level from a regional capital (such as Beledweyn), whereas in others, it will proceed differently in a region where the regional capital has not yet been liberated (e.g., Kismayo). Whatever the exact format, the overall aim will be to build an inclusive peace.
Participants discussed in detail the lessons learned from the recent National Steering Committee efforts in Hiiraan, and considered how they could be applied in Bay and Bakool, and in the Jubbas. They prepared specific plans of action for each newly liberated area.
Members of the Steering Committee have been in talks for the past few weeks with IGAD, AU, Kenya, Ethiopia and the UN on the need to coordinate stabilization efforts, so all efforts at restoring peace in the newly liberated areas are harmonized with this TFG plan.
The National Steering Committee
The Prime Minister has appointed a National Steering Committee on Reconciliation and Stabilization as follows:
- H.E. Abdiwahab Ugaas Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce (Chair)
- H.E. Abdullahi Haji Hassan, Minister of Foreign Affairs
- H.E. Abdullahi Godah Barre, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation
- H.E. Abdisamad Mo’allim Mohamud, Minister of Interior and National Security
- H.E. Avv. Abdurahman Hoosh Jibril, Minister of Constitution, Federalism and Reconciliation
The National Steering Committee will convene zonal teams to travel to newly liberated areas and play a leading role in convening the community meetings and will ensure that the process of selecting the district commissioners or regional governors is an inclusive and consultative process.