ISRIA
Sunday, August 08, 2010
“The participants became convinced that the fighters can be persuaded to make peace,” Arshe Said, co-chairman of the seminar and representative of the Somali League in Finland said at the press conference on Thursday. The seminar, organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA) group of the Finnish Parliament, Finn Church Aid and Somali NGOs, sought means to untangle Somalia’s knotty peace process. Later, a report on the participants’ recommendations will be published and distributed, among others, to UN actors in Somalia.
The participants were satisfied with the discussions, as the event succeeded in bringing together people who don’t even talk with one another otherwise: The 40 people present included, among others, representatives of various Somali groups from different parts of the world, researchers, former politicians and members of the international community, e.g. delegates representing the UN and the EU.
“The event was truly unique. Usually conferences are, for example, purely academic, but now people from different sectors had the chance to enter into dialogue,” Said said, commending the seminar.
Somalis to leading positions
Somalia has been torn by civil war for 20 years now, and the country lacks a functional central administration. The mandate of the transitional government ends next year.
“We must consider how to proceed forward; what the diaspora, for instance, can do to promote peace, what can be done with the help of culture, civil society and women”, said MP (Green League) Pekka Haavisto, the Foreign Minister’s Special Representative to African crisis areas, who was the other co-chair of the seminar.
According to Haavisto, one of the seminar’s most important initiatives is the proposal to set up a technical committee to facilitate the peace process, which would be led by Somalis themselves on site.
The seminar also proposes, among other things, that a group of academic advisers be appointed and that a human rights body be established in order to stabilize the situation in the country.
“All of the participants were convinced that Somalia’s own peace process is the most important. Somalis themselves must lead it – with the international community’s support,” Said stated.
A catastrophe, not a crisis
Activation of Somalis living elsewhere in the world, the diaspora, is one important way to strengthen the peace process. Seminar participant Fowsia Abdulkadir, who lives in Canada, pointed out that the majority of Somalia’s most talented citizens live outside Somalia. During the past 20 years, everyone who could flee has left the country.
The role of the diaspora in the peace process is pivotal, as its members are often in contact with the grassroots level in Somalia. The diaspora could use its networks to narrow the gap between different interest groups.
Abdulkadir also pointed out that the humanitarian crisis in Somalia must remain the focus of discussions. The humanitarian situation is thought to be worse now than ever before during the history of the conflict.
“Twenty years of killing and unrest is not a crisis, it’s a catastrophe.”
Soldiers don’t solve a crisis
Aside from the rebels’ terror, the Somali army and the AMISOM African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia heighten civilians’ suffering. They have reportedly fired on civilians in Mogadishu.
Despite this, at their meeting in July the Member States of the African Union decided to increase the number of peacekeepers. The background for this decision may be the Somali rebels’ strike in Uganda in July, which claimed the lives of more than 70 people; it is feared that the violence is spreading from Somalia to the area more widely.
The Helsinki seminar participants, however, were of the opinion that increasing the number of soldiers does not solve the problems.
“Attempts to keep peace have been made for 20 years, but militarization does not bring peace. An honest mediator is needed, one who would make peace negotiations possible. There should be peace first, and peacekeepers only thereafter,” Abdulkadir stated.
Pekka Haavisto also remarked that Somalia should not be seen only from the angle of security risks and the fight against terrorism.
“Often there is talk only of Mogadishu, the strikes against Uganda or piracy at sea. It is also important, however, to work at state-building. Somalia is not a lost case.”
Source: ISRIA