Somali peace talks entered a second and decisive phase amid the eruption of intense fighting between rival clans and US military designs in the Horn of Africa, writes Gamal Nkrumah The drumbeat of Somali national reconciliation is getting louder by the day. Somalis are showing signs of impatience with irresolute, often unwieldy national reconciliation conferences. The consensus is that no more Somali blood should be shed. The Somali Transitional National Government (TNG), the warlords and armed factions opposed to the TNG and grouped together under the banner of the Somali Reconstruction and Restoration Council (SRRC), and representatives of civic and non-governmental organisations are currently meeting in the Kenyan city of Eldoret to decide the political future of the war-torn east African country. More than 500 delegates attended representing the TNG, armed opposition groups and representatives of civil society. "A cease-fire agreement has already been reached, and delegates also agreed to form a federal Somali government, to fight terrorism and guarantee human rights," the Somali Ambassador to Egypt Abdallah Hassan Mahmoud told Al-Ahram Weekly. "However, the most difficult phase of this second round of talks now focuses on the apportionment of positions in the proposed new federal government of national unity." Ambassador Mahmoud, like many of his compatriots, are hopeful of a successful outcome to the Eldoret talks. Peace, however, cannot be built just on hopes. The breakaway Somaliland in the northwest of the country stayed away. But TNG representatives of people from Somaliland's northern clans are participating at the Eldoret talks. Somalia's Foreign Minister Yusuf Hassan Ibrahim an Ishaq from Hargeisa, Somaliland's regional capital, participated and so did the TNG Vice-Prime Minister Othman Jama, also a native of Somaliland. Among the thorny issues the Somali delegates are grappling with are land and property rights, institutional building, foreign aid and funding for the economic development and infrastructural reconstruction of war-torn Somalia. Participants also aimed at creating a new federal constitution for Somalia. Eldoret was off to a shaky start. To begin with, delegates failed to agree on the number of participants each group would be allocated in the various committees that organise the discussions of the peace talks. There is the charge that some clans have been allocated more seats in key committees than others. For the first few days, delegates discussed the selection of the participants of the various committees. And, it is still not precisely clear how committee members would be selected and whether the selection process will be on a clan or faction basis. The TNG, set up in 2000, is represented at Eldoret by Somali Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah. The conspicuous absence of Somalia's President Abdul-Kassem Salad Hassan incensed the warlords who at first insisted that the Somali president attend in person. They considered it a deliberate snub to their peace overtures. Originally, the warlords wanted the TNG to participate in Eldoret as just another Somali faction since the Somali government's authority is restricted to parts of the capital and most of the country is effectively under the control of rival warlords. Delegates plastered over this issue, and it is not entirely clear how it was resolved. The one hopeful piece of news, however, is that the TNG and 21 rival factions signed a cease-fire deal and pledged to end hostilities. Many of Somalia's most powerful warlords are participating in the Eldoret peace talks. The SRRC currently poses the main challenge to the TNG. Hussein Aidid, a former US marine and son of the late General Mohamed Farah Aidid who defiantly humiliated US forces in Mogadishu in 1993, urged the Somali delegates, neighbouring countries and the international community to enforce a ban on landmines in Somalia. Aidid heads the SRRC which is headquartered in Baidoa and is leader of the United Somali Congress-Somali National Alliance (USC-SNA), not to be confused with the United Somali Congress- Somali Salvation Alliance (USC-SSA) headed by Musa Sudi Yalahow. Both warlords are taking part in the Eldoret talks. Also participating is Mohamed Said Hirsi Morgan, son-in-law of the late Somali military ruler Said Barre and former Somali army commander, loathed by the inhabitants of Somaliland because of his notoriety as a vengeful warlord and for his brutal repression of secessionists in Somaliland. He was known as the Butcher of Hargeisa, the regional capital of Somaliland. Morgan is now based in Baidoa, central Somalia, and is said to be supported by Ethiopia, even though the Ethiopians deny this. A few warlords still contend that they cannot sign a permanent cease-fire until the political differences are first ironed out and agreement is reached on a lasting political settlement in Somalia. The breakaway Somaliland, a well- run political entity not recognised by the international community, declined to participate in the Eldoret peace talks. The Eldoret peace talks are taking place under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority of Development (IGAD) -- a seven nation regional grouping of East African countries, of which Somalia is a member. Observers from the United States, the European Union, the African Union, the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Conference are also taking part. The United Nations, which is represented at Eldoret by several of its affiliate organisations such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), issued a warning last Friday that it has received threats by an unidentified group of Somali militant Islamists to attack UN agencies. A majority of Somali warlords are at last acknowledging that democratic transformation goes hand in hand with peacemaking. Still, the sporadic fighting in different parts of the country, including the Somali capital Mogadishu, and which has devastated the country, has intensified in the past few weeks. Observers believe that the upsurge in the fighting is designed to strengthen the rival groups' respective positions at the negotiations table. Fighting broke out between rival clans -- one allied to the TNG and the other to the SRRC. The fighting was especially severe in the strategic central city of Baidoa and Gedo region bordering Ethiopia. For his part, Salad warned that interference by some of Somalia's neighbours in the country's domestic affairs is the main cause of friction and violence. "Some neighbouring countries diverted the whole course of the conference to dividing Somalia instead of pacifying it," the Somali president told reporters in Mogadishu in a barely-veiled reference to Ethiopia -- IGAD's most populous and politically influential member state. Ethiopia's rather strained relationship with the TNG is a complicating factor in the Somali peace process. Ethiopia's Zone Five region is inhabited mainly by ethnic Somalis. Ethiopia is concerned about the activities of groups such as Al-Itihad Al-Islami founded in the late 1980s and now widely seen as a spent force. Western intelligence sources say that the organisation had until recently a strong presence in the breakaway Puntland in northeastern Somalia and in the southern Geddo region near the Ethiopian border. The militant Islamist organisation is reputed to have strong ties to Al-Qa'eda and is also believed to have military bases in Al-Wak at the crossroads of the Ethiopian, Kenyan and Somali borders and in Ras Kamboni near the Kenyan border in the far south of Somalia. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, leader of breakaway Puntland doesn't recognise the TNG either. He has close ties with Ethiopia which helped him retake Puntland in May 2002 after a bitter power struggle to control the relatively prosperous enclave that juts into the Arabian Sea and sits astride vitally important shipping lanes from across the Arabian Peninsula. IGAD member states recognise the TNG and acknowledge its legitimacy, but several IGAD member states say that the TNG must incorporate all the major political forces in the country, including the SRRC. All, also urged by Somalia's main Western donors, want to see a greater involvement of NGOs in the running of the country. Indeed, the West is anxious to cement Somalia into the newly emerging club of budding African democracies. Washington, in particular, is stepping up its defences against terrorism in the Horn of Africa. More than 2,000 US Marines are aboard amphibious assault ships in the vicinity of Somalia. And the amphibious USS Mount Whitney left its home port of Norfolk Virginia on 12 November for the Gulf of Aden. Some 800 are permanently stationed in Djibouti. and an extra 400 marines are on their way to strategic port city-state bordering the breakaway Somaliland, northwestern Somalia. The strategic importance of Somalia to the Americans is obviously not altogether unrelated to the US-Iraqi stand-off and Washington's international anti-terrorism campaign. General Richard Meyers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke recently about US concerns that Al-Qa'eda members are seeking refuge in Somalia. Top US commander General Tommy Franks emphasised the "security relationships and engagement opportunities", between Washington and Somalia's neighbours. US Special Operations Forces have organised training missions and stage attacks on Al- Qa'eda suspects in Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen. The 30kms wide Bab Al- Mandab Strait which separates Yemen and Djibouti is a vital shipping lane that has been identified by Western intelligence sources as a probable escape route for Al-Qa'eda members. The uncontrolled influx of assault weapons in Yemen and the entire Horn of Africa region exacerbates matters. Gun-trafficking and the illicit trade in small weapons have prolonged the Somali civil war. The US is the largest producer and exporter of small arms. According to a recently released UN report, the proliferation of small weapons in conflicts in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world is, "increasing the lethality and duration of violence, encouraging a violent rather than a peaceful resolution of differences, and generating a viscous circle of a greater sense of insecurity, which in turn leads to a greater demand and use of these weapons." The question that now comes to mind is how Washington is expected to keep the peace and police the region while it remains the biggest small weapons manufacturer and exporter of such weapons to the region. Perhaps it is time for more peaceable and trustworthy powers -- if they exist -- to stand up and be counted.
