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E D I T O R I A L
HIIRAAN ONLINE
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
After many elusive peace efforts and disappointed envoys, the Secretary General of the United Nations finally appointed for Somalia a robust diplomat. Ambassador Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah has recently engineered an extraordinary breakthrough between Somalia’s warring factions. The former Mauritanian foreign minister has also reinvigorated the international community to reengage Somalia after prolonged neglect.
A veteran diplomat with organic approach to Somalia’s protracted conflict, Ambassador Ould-Abdallah, has put an end to the competing international “reconciliation” efforts and parachute diplomacy that his predecessors exercised, which typically involved in high profile fly-ins to Mogadishu and other cities under tight security.
Uncharacteristically, Ambassador Ould-Abdallah is proposing the relocation of the UN Political Office from its comfortable Nairobi headquarters to the extremely dangerous Somalia. Moreover, he sounded the alarms on the illegal fishing and the toxic waste dumping off the coast of Somalia, regularly perpetrated by powerful interests from far-flung countries.
Hiiraan Online dedicates this editorial to thank Ambassador Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah for these bold accomplishments, and to urge him to do even more.
Unlike his predecessors, who gave undue attention / reward to warlords who long wrecked havoc in Somalia, it became apparent to him that the TFG, the business community, the Islamist movements, the Diaspora, the civil society, and neighboring and international players are all part of the conflict, and thereby must be part of the solution.
In May and June, Ambassador Abadallah led the efforts to bring the main Somalia players to Djibouti to help them hash out their differences, all the while convincing a skeptical global community that peace is possible in Somalia and that the overwhelming majority of the Somali people are genuinely fed-up with violence.
Not everyone has embraced the Djibouti peace deal. It is our opinion however, that this is a promising peace initiative, if augmented by serious commitment from all parties.
Ambassador Ould-Abdallah is even calling for those who at first rejected the Djibouti peace deal to join the process and register their grievances at the negotiating table. He also asked the UN Security Council to consider removing Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys from the list of the people associated with terrorists, should he chose to rejoin the peace efforts spearheaded by his colleagues in Djibouti. This is another profound and pragmatic step, incidentally concurred by Jendayi Frazer, the top American official for Africa in a recent interview with the BBC.
One of Ambassador Abdallah’s accomplishments is that he identified the Diaspora community as a vital part for any peace in Somalia. To this end, Ambassador Ould-Abdallah is currently on a whirlwind tour across North America and Europe, to seek the support of the Diaspora community for the Djibouti peace process and at the same time to keep them abreast of the latest development in Somalia.
Our only reservation about Ambassador Ould-Abdallah is that he often blames Somalis for all that went wrong in the country. True, most of the damage was done by Somalis, but not entirely. Foreign hands have long been stained in the internal affairs of Somalia. Had it not been, for instance, the deadly weapons supplied by some neighboring countries, and had it not been the constant undermining of peace efforts by certain quarters, Somalia may well have been on a better trajectory.
That said we recognize Ambassdor Abdallah’s enormous task of tackling serious challenges all the while maneuvering around tricky Somali, regional and international politics. We thank him again for his sincere efforts to find a lasting solution for Somalia.
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