The
West Now Takes Keen Interest in Peace for Somalia
By Ambassador
Bethwel Kiplagat
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Transitional Federal
Government has been making great efforts towards establishing
lasting peace in Somalia, despite serious challenges in recent
months, especially in and around Mogadishu.
The terrible situation
in Mogadishu has overshadowed the relatively peaceful areas
notably Somaliland, Puntland and the south. Remnant hardliners
of the Islamic Courts Union have largely been responsible for
the recent upsurge of violence in Mogadishu.
After their
disintegration in December 2006, they vowed to launch an
insurgency against Ethiopian and any foreign troops stationed in
the country.
The upsurge of violence
in Mogadishu has triggered a major exodus of thousands of
civilians to flee towards the Kenyan border.
More than one hundred
people have been killed in the violence including Ethiopian
soldiers and peace keeping troops from Uganda. This has prompted
Ethiopia to send reinforcement. Simultaneously, there has been
contact between Ethiopian military officers and the dominant
hawiye clan to find a solution to the problem of escalating
insecurity.
It seems that this
initiative and the use of force are bearing fruit with the
recently agreed truce. As a result of this effort, calm is
slowly returning to Mogadishu.
Despite these major
setbacks in the stabilisation of Somalia, there is some dim
light at the end of the tunnel. There are internal and external
efforts which, if sustained, would bear fruit and stabilise the
country.
The TFG is committed to
the holding of a National Reconciliation Conference starting
this month till mid-June bringing together all the key
stakeholders. These include traditional elders, women, religious
leaders and those in Diaspora. It is hoped that the outstanding
issues will be ironed out at the conference.
The fact that the league
of Arab States at its recent meeting in Riyadh discussed the
situation in Somalia is a very positive sign. Somalia is a
member of both the Arab league and IGAD.
The presence of the IGAD
chairman, President Mwai Kibaki, at the meeting was significant
in forging stronger cooperation between IGAD and the Arab League
in their efforts to bring peace. The conference made an appeal
to its member States to hasten its steps to assist the
Government of Somalia in its efforts of reconciling the people.
It is also encouraging
that the International Contact Group held a meeting in Cairo to
discuss the situation in Somalia. The meeting called upon the
international community to accelerate support to ANISOM mission.
They did recognise the
necessity of the Ethiopian forces to remain in Somalia awaiting
the full strengthening of the AU force.
The inter-faith meeting
held recently in Dar-es-Salaam which was attended by religious
leaders from the Horn of Africa, with the exception of Djibouti,
jointly came out with a strong support for the efforts being
made to bring peace to Somalia. These leaders committed
themselves to becoming agents of peace, first and foremost in
Somalia and other troubled areas of the region.
As can be seen from the
above, there is an impetus for international community and the
region to focus on Somalia. It is absolutely crucial that these
efforts are focused, sustained and coordinated over the long
haul. No efforts should be spared in terms of time and
resources. The consequences of allowing the country to revert to
chaos will be far, far costly than the efforts that could be put
in place now for peace. There should never be any temptation to
disengage Somalia.
Ambassador
Bethuel A. Kiplagat
is a former
Kenya's Special Envoy to Somalia and Executive Director, Africa
Peace Forum
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