by Avv. Abdurahman Hosh Jibril
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Asmara Gathering: "If the TFG negotiates with this rebel group, it would set a uniquely immoral precedent by rewarding bad behavior"

For any political agenda to advance beyond its conceptual state, the agenda setters must be united to move the agenda beyond the concept and coalesce into a concretized platform that becomes a basis for implementation. Not so in Asmara and there is no chance that the motley crew that has met in Asmara would ever see eye to eye on many fundamental issues. The Asmara group are in a big tent, and in that tent, you will find radical fundamentalists Muslims who will never settle for anything less than Sharia Law as the basis for a governance model; you will also find in the tent, remnants of the criminal business enterprises of Somalia that hankers back for the good old days of the cannibalistic monopoly of the illegal businesses of Mogadishu and elsewhere, and this group is not interested in governance; rather it is interested in the restoration of the Frontier capitalism under which they flourished and the attendant anarchy of that era. The tent also includes professional peace conference attendees who have been ubiquitously present

A further complication that makes any closing of the gap of the divergent personal, emotional, business, political, and religious interests of these rebels is the fact that a significant number of the leading personalities of the Asmara group are notoriously deficient in the trust department in that they have in the past been known to betray their political colleagues, and also renege on their promises: At least two leading personalities in this group betrayed friends and colleagues both in Arta and also in the TFG; Another is a notorious back stabber even if one does not take his emotional instability into account; The former Speaker, Sharif Hassan does not need any elaboration as he is remembered for betraying the TFG and the Somali public in favor of his criminal business partners in Mogadishu as well as his personal pecuniary interests; Yusuf Dheeg was the Ethiopian spy master inside the cabinet of  the Arta regime in  2001 and his handler was the late Ethiopian Ambassador Abdulmajid; The good Shiekh, Shiekh Sharif Ahmed was on the phone with the Americans and plausibly the Ethiopians in December 2006 while his brainwashed, forcefully conscripted child-soldier Mujahiddiin were being annihilated by the Ethiopian killing machine, a machine he personally provoked to engage in combat. Would one buy a used car from any member of this lot, let alone negotiate with? Not likely!

But even if the Asmara rebels suddenly found a meeting of the mind and converged their disparate interests, they will not advance beyond their Asmara hotels as their project was stillborn from the beginning because Almighty History is not on their side. The Asmara group is operating in a geopolitical barren landscape, if you will, in that it does not have the fortune and benefit of the Cold War which could have easily guaranteed it political and military benefactors to help it fulfill its agendas, if at all it has any discernible agenda. But even if it could find powerful benefactors, the fact remains that the world has changed and this group does not appreciate that fact. The era of liberation movements with legitimate discernable values and causes and with moral clarity is part of history in so far as Africa is concerned and therefore no longer relevant. The last great legitimate African liberation struggle was the anti-apartheid struggle of South Africa which gracefully ended with the vindication of Nelson Mandela as an alleged terrorist and his coronation as the first democratically elected leader of that great country. That struggle was genuine, had an unambiguous moral clarity and had also a certain gravitas.

After that great struggle, numerous armed charlatan groups began falsely and perhaps ignorantly using the lingo and rhetoric of liberation while they carried out their brutal fratricidal campaigns and the human and political implications of the mayhem and suffering caused by these wannabe Mandela/Che’ should be a required history course for future African children. Where does one begin?. Charles Taylor of Liberia, Foday Sonkah of Sierra Leone, Laurent Kablia, of Congo, the Warlords of Somalia, The Lords Resistance Army of Uganda etc. Sadly, the most salient feature of the “struggle” of these wannabe revolutionaries was that they all engaged in killing thousands of their country men, women, and children and irresponsibly destroyed the public infrastructure and private properties of their countries and held the populace hostage to the extent that the African victims in these man-made conflicts have since become inured to suffering and accepted it as the “new Normal” in life. They also helped destabilize the respective regions in which they waged their delusional “struggle”.

Against this background, The Asmara group is “clutching sand” (bacaad eey ku dhagganyihiin), to use a Somali idiom. That backdrop should raise a red flag because they have not articulated why it is that they want Power, what would they do with this Power, and how are they different from the cannibalistic African Guerrillas movements mentioned above. Their shrill assertion that Ethiopia is an occupying force in Somalia is not enough as it has fallen on deaf ears since the world community views Ethiopia as engaged in essentially what Nigeria has done in Sierra Leone and Liberia, that is, to contribute to the regional security of the Horn Africa by helping reconstitute a strong Somali state that can secure its borders from international terrorism, piracy, civil wars etc. This pragmatic policy has been a corner stone of IGAD member states ( with the exception perhaps of the rogue state of Eritrea which has recently recused itself from any IGAD deliberations on Somalia) since January 2007. Additionally, the USA Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Madam Jendayi Frazer underscored this point last week when she stated in unequivocal terms that the International community will not let Ethiopia withdraw its support unless replacement peace keeping forces are ready to take over this essential responsibility. Add to this, the fact that the Saudi Kingdom has on September 18, 2007, on principle accepted the Somali Reconciliation Conference held in Mogadishu between July 15 to August 30, 2007 to be a legitimate peace making conference among the Somali clans that warrants diplomatic backing. It also chastised the Asmara rebels as being bereft of any political solution to the Somali conundrum and for being part of the radical Islamist agendas now wreaking social havoc in Muslim and Arabic countries.

President Issias Afeworki: Reduced the Eritrean nation into a police state.

All this do not augur well for the Asmara rebels and that is why they are an abysmal failure and will remain Qurbojoog (exiles) for quite sometime. For that reason, the TFGistas should not negotiate with this group. A die hard Canadian TFGista, Mr. Ismail Gaafow put it succinctly to me the other day when he said, “ If the TFG negotiates with this rebel group, it would set a uniquely immoral precedent by rewarding bad behavior”. I concur with him. Why negotiate with a non-entity that cannot deliver the goods that the TFG wants to trade with, namely, Peace and stability.

Arraweelo10 @ 10/1/2007 11:23 AM EST  "On the hand MAXAAKIIMTII have managed to restore law & order.". It is about time that some of us wake up and forget about the doomed UIC or the loosers that got together in Asmara.

Kacey_kacey @ 9/27/2007 7:52 PM EST  Mr. Hosh. Reading your article I must say i am very  impressed in the way you have expressed your views. However, I am disappointed in your blind support for this doomed TFG gangs. Since coming to power these warlords (TFG) have done absolutely nothing positive for our citizens, in fact they have done the apposite. On the hand MAXAAKIIMTII have managed to restore law & order. Leaving the international community to aside. You & I and all Somalis know  Muqdisha gathering was simply fake. I do share with some of your points with respect to the Asmara group, However, they more likely to  govern Somalia than this doomed TFG.. Simply put TFG  don’t have the support, of the people. Asmara group don’t have the International support . So, we are as Somalis doomed for another couple of years till another peace process is arranged. Then maybe just  Maybe that elected government will avoid same mistakes.

salbalaar @ 9/26/2007 5:48 AM EST  It is beyond comprehention why HOl is blocking the genuine comments from Somalis while allowing the likes of Arraweelo to support the warlords. The only explanation I can think of is either these usernames belong to one of the staff of HOl or your support for the TFG and the occupation has got the upper hand. Either way you are loosing credibility if you do not correct this mistake.

kucadaye @ 9/22/2007 2:25 PM EST  Sool State says: "Asmara conference ...will bring these people into one ideology which is to "liberate the nation" from the occupying enemy first and foremost." First "liberating a nation" is not an ideology. It could be an operational action to achieve ideological goals. But the reality is the Asmara Gang have no ideology. Imagine Aideed Jr and Sharif Ahmed sharing an ideology! They only agree on one thing: force the Ethiopian to leave Somalia by the force of arms, which by the way, they lack the means and the capacity to do so.  The Shabaab are no longer with them. So these are empty words. The Asmara Gang remind me of those who, in 1991, united in overthrowing the Siad Regime and, because they did not agree on anything else, they immediately turned on each other and led the nation to a path of destruction and mayhem. At least The TFG with all their shortcomings have a blue print to revive the Somali State: peacefully replace the Ethiopian with AU and Arab League Peace Keepers and start rebuilding from the ruins of the past 16 years. KuCaday'ye

shanta @ 9/22/2007 10:02 AM EST  If given a chance, a Somali would opt for violence let alone seek a peaceful end to this persistent conflict, and this is what took place in Asmara. The revolving door of Somali politics generates yet another group whose sole motivation is unseat the TFG deterring from it’s previous mission to pacify the nation and consolidate the clans under the banner of Islam.  Instead of calling for truce and seeking a peaceful resolution for our nation, they’re demand is clear, and make no mistake their intend is to use force in obtaining power. Furthermore, this is a clear indication that this group failed to learn our modern history for the past 17 years that no group can sustain longevity and implement its vision on the Somali people.