As Its Lawmakers Squabble Abroad, Somalia Suffers

The Somali government is not to be found in the chaotic, gun- infested streets of the capital city, Mogadishu, but in the marbled lobbies and plush hotel rooms of this foreign capital.

Somalia has survived the 14 years since it plunged into civil war without any central government. Successive efforts to create one have failed. Somalis now are trying once more, and the effort is again being plagued by internal feuding.

Several deadlines to relocate the government from Kenya to Somalia have come and gone. On Thursday, two years into the latest effort, Somali parliament members based in Kenya punched and smashed chairs and walking sticks into one another during a row over whether foreign peacekeepers should be deployed in their country.

The divisions deepened Monday when 10 government ministers walked out before a Cabinet vote that called for another city to become the capital temporarily because Mogadishu was too unsafe.

Somalia erupted into civil war in the early 1990s, and in 1993, 18 U.S. Army Rangers, part of a mission to enable humanitarian aid, were killed in a battle with the militia of warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. His son, Hussein Mohammed Aidid, is one of the leading figures in the new government.

In the years of war and chaos, the country has been torn into small fiefdoms controlled by rival warlords, all with armed militias.

In October, a parliament meeting in Nairobi elected a president, who in turn appointed a prime minister. In January, the prime minister named a Cabinet consisting mainly of warlords. But despite international support for this latest peace process, there are increasing doubts as to whether the government can hold together. Many fear that if the effort collapses, it will be a long time before the international community is willing to invest in another push for peace.

Pessimism has grown because of the government’s slowness to relocate to Somalia, the failure of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi to visit Mogadishu during a recent trip to the country and bitter disagreements over whether to allow peacekeepers from neighboring countries.

There are four big clans in Somalia and various smaller clans and sub-clans. The fighting and rivalries run along clan lines, and loyalties run deep. A person’s clan is the basis of his identity and defines his home territory.

Osman Harare, 30, from the Mareehaan clan, was brought up to believe that his main duty was to defend his clan, even if it meant dying. In 1992, his family fled Mogadishu to the interior of the country to escape clan fighting. But gunmen found them and killed his two older brothers.

“They said, ‘Which clan are you?’ As soon as we said Mareehaan they started shooting,” recalled Harare, who along with thousands of other Somalis now lives in Kenya. The family fled to the Somali border town of Belet Hawo, where his father declared they must stop running and fight. But Harare refused and crossed the border. Soon afterward, his father died fighting.

Harare returned several months later to work for various humanitarian agencies, and set up a business in 1998. Two years ago, his town came under attack again, and to survive, Harare disowned his clan. He eventually left again.

“I was really feeling marginalized and humiliated. When I thought how badly I had suffered and even took another clan’s name, I decided to leave. I didn’t want that ever to happen to me again,” he said. “The clan is the only identity that everybody in Somalia has got.”

Harare said he believed that strong clan identification had hurt the cause of peace.

“The only way you can destroy clan identity is to make the younger generation believe that clan identity was the reason their forefathers were killed, and they are going to die for it in the future,” he said.

The new government includes members of all the main clans, a fact widely regarded as a necessary evil. The last government, formed in 2000, was snubbed by the powerful Mogadishu warlords and never controlled more than a few blocks of the capital. The new government is more inclusive, but deeply divided.

Analyst Matt Bryden of the International Crisis Group said that while many people in Mogadishu were willing to give the president and new government a chance, Abdullahi was a divisive figure.

“He represents for many the winning side in the civil war. People will tell you he’s seeking revenge against their clan,” Bryden said.

Divisions over the peacekeepers and the question of an interim capital are worsening sharply, he said.

“If these issues are resolved without consensus and compromise, then you really do risk destroying the unity of the government and the Cabinet,” Bryden said. “Then you’ll have two armed camps and no peace process.”

Abdullahi initially demanded a force of 20,000 international peacekeepers, leading to speculation that he was so concerned about the government’s credibility that he wanted a massive protection force, or that he wanted to use it to protect himself from his rivals.

He also called for neighboring countries’ troops to be part of the force despite deep opposition, especially to troops from Ethiopia, which is accused of arming some of the Somali factions. The issue has sparked demonstrations in Mogadishu on three occasions.

The United States and the International Crisis Group have opposed the inclusion of troops from neighboring countries as too divisive. Nations promoting the peace process are urging a force of 6,800 that would exclude troops from neighboring countries.

The failure to resolve these issues without walkouts and fistfights bodes ill for tougher issues in the future, such as forcing warlords to disarm and surrender control of roads, ports, airports and other lucrative infrastructure.

“It’s going to require a level of leadership that we haven’t seen from the leaders so far,” Bryden said.

Harare was no more optimistic: “President Yusuf is a destroyer. He wants all the decisions to be made by him, and the warlords want to keep their names as being warlords and strongmen. I don’t believe this peace process will work.”