Hiiraan Online

by Dr. Mahamud M. Yahye
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

In a study recently conducted by the American think-tank, Foreign Policy, it was demonstrated that our country, Somalia, has earned this year the unenviable title of being the worst “failed state” in the world.[1]  Foreign Policy studied 177 countries in the world and produced this interesting ranking in a scientific manner, using 12 major political, economic, social and military indicators, such as: De-legitimization of the State, Factionalized Elites, Security Apparatus, Economy, Uneven Development, Public Services, Human Rights, Group Grievance, Refugees and Displaced Persons, Human Flight, Demographic Pressures and External Intervention.  On these 12 major indicators, each having a maximum of 10 points, Somalia scored total marks of 114.2 points (or an average of 9.5 points on each indicator). It was followed by Sudan: 113 points, Zimbabwe: 112.5 points, Chad: 110.9 points and Iraq 110.6 points. It is interesting to note here that 12 out of the 20 top ranking countries in this index were from the African continent (Somalia’s neighbors, Ethiopia and Kenya, ranked 16^th and 26^th, respectively).

Furthermore, in a more recent report, the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International, has ranked Somalia as the most corrupt country in the entire world.[2] (Their report also showed that developing countries lose around US $5 billion per year due to this terrible practice, i.e., corruption).

There is no doubt that Somalia, a country that has seen no peace, socio-economic development and a properly functioning national government in almost two decades, and all whose institutions of nation-state were totally destroyed, deserves these highly negative distinctions. Another factor which has sullied Somalia’s reputation among the nations of the world is the terrible pirate activities which have been increasing in an alarming rate on our country’s coastal areas – particularly in the Puntland semi-autonomous region. Some of those criminals who have recently hijacked a Ukrainian ship - and are presently reported to be stationed near Hobio port (Mudug region of Somalia) - are now asking for a ransom of $20 million. What a shameful, criminal demand! Add to this the horrendous fighting that is going on in our national capital, Mogadishu, on a daily basis in which mostly innocent, ordinary people bear the brunt of this mayhem and usually pay the highest price with their lives.

As one of the periodicals on Somali affairs put it: “… the recent violations of human beings, in Somalia and Ogaden, are the stuff of the worst nightmares. Men, it is always men, who once innocently suckled their mothers’ milk, have been treating other men and women with an abandon, ferocity and wantonness not paralleled in an animals’ slaughter house.” It continues saying: “If only small fraction of what they [Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch] have published is ‘true’ then those of us who lead such comfortable lives owe it, to those who have suffered at and beyond the limits of human endurance, to acknowledge and commemorate the fate of both victims and perpetrators. Behaviour of the kind described has been said to be sub-human, or animal-like.” [3] Every news item that emanates nowadays from Somalia is so bad, appalling and saddening that I stopped listening to or watching Somali language radios and TVs, especially the highly biased, less objective and excessively partisan BBC Somali Service that has been fanning the fuel of Somalia’s civil war in the past two decades or so.

This tragic situation begs the question: how did our country reach that abysmal stage, and why its “uncivil” war could not be ended after almost 18 years of continuous strife and anarchy? To address this question, let’s briefly review the country’s events in the past few years. The current Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was set up in late 2004, after a national reconciliation conference held in neighboring Kenya, which lasted for about two years (this was the 14th attempt for peace and national reconciliation). All Somalia’s significant clans participated in that conference whose main aim was a proper and equitable power sharing. And the resulting TFG, which is the only authority recognized by the international community, was the best that Somalis could come up with. But it has been challenged from the onset by a self-appointed, power hungry, Muslim/Somali extremist group known as “Al-Shabab” or the Youth in Arabic. (The US Government has designated it as a terrorist organization). One may ask himself/herself: Who gave this fundamentalist organ the mandate to wage a relentless, very destructive war in Somalia? The simple answer is none. Nonetheless, some people give them an excuse and praise them by saying that Al-Shabab or its parent organization, i.e., the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) has restored peace and tranquility to Mogadishu and its environs for about six months in the year 2006 when they took control of that city in particular and South Central Somalia in general. Fine. That assertion may be true. They had done a very good job at that time and we, Somalis, are grateful for that. But the fact remains that today it is Al-Shabab that is perpetuating civil war in that unlucky country and causing a large scale of death and destruction, simply because they want to take over power and privilege in Somalia at any cost. Apart from the areas where they operate, the rest of the country is relatively peaceful; and if they lay down their arms, and come to the negotiating table, Mogadishu and its environs could be peaceful once again. 

Another person may argue that Al-Shabab continue waging a war of attrition because they want to kick the Ethiopian forces out of Somalia. But as every observer of Somali affairs knows it was this extremist group that had given the Ethiopian army the excuse to invade Mogadishu due to the terrible diplomatic blunders that these fundamentalists had committed in the past several years as well as their foolish threats against the Ethiopians. I still vividly remember the boastful threats that one of their radical leaders, Mr. Yusuf Siad “Indha-adde”, and others had made over the radio a couple of years ago to the effect that they would take the armed jihad all the way to Addis Ababa! That is what had so much scared the Ethiopian Government and gave it the pretext to invade the Somali capital. However, we were all surprised to see how easily the Islamic Courts Union was crushed in a just few days. We also wondered why ICU was making such empty threats if they are so weak and under-armed! Today, they hide among innocent individuals in Mogadishu and engage in futile “hit and run tactics”, as the African Union’s Representative to Somalia has put it recently. If Al-Shabab are serious about fighting the Somali Government’s forces and their allied Ethiopian army, they should get out of populated areas of the Somali capital and engage like real men in fighting in the open, instead of hiding behind poor civilians – women, children and the elderly.    

To be fair to ICU, they had one positive aspect: They could unite Somalis, because they are not, theoretically, based on tribal affiliation and could be open to all Somalis of different clans (though some have been arguing all along that ICU is but another clan grouping disguised as an Islamic benevolent organization that has taken up arms for the good of the hapless Somali people; and religious extremism combined with tribal fanaticism have proved to be a deadly weapon indeed, they say). For this reason, I would like to offer Al-Shabab and their parent organization, ICU, a simple suggestion: If you desire to gain political power in Somalia and rule it, why don’t you establish your own political party (let’s call it the Islamic Union Party) and try to come to the helm of Somalia’s leadership in a peaceful, democratic manner, instead of unnecessarily shedding so much blood and displacing hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent civilians - inside and outside Somalia? (Incidentally, I was told that tens of thousands of  ordinary Somalis have moved to neighboring Ethiopia, particularly its capital, Addis Ababa, because they can at least find peace and security in that country. Fortunately, Ethiopia did not chase them away).

 

Mohamed Qanyare Afrah.

May Allah almighty save Somalia and protect her from her own sons.

Dr. Mahmud M. Yahye

e-mail: [email protected]