Platform for hope

In August, Mogadishu experienced the worst wave of violence for months. According to the Somalian Elman Human Rights Group, attacks left more than 200 dead and 400 injured. Yet August was supposed to bring new hope for the war-torn country because the oft-postponed National Reconciliation Conference finally took place in Mogadishu that month. The event was supposed to gather all the major Somali clans and political forces around one table and make them commit to a shared course of action in order to bring peace to the country.

Opinion is divided on what the conference achieved. In the end, the participants agreed only on a vague declaration of intent to end the conflict, lay down arms and cooperate vis-à-vis peace-breakers. Michael Weinstein, an expert on Somalia with the Power and Interest News Report, a Chicago-based organisation, considers the clan conference a failure, as it merely resulted in “abstract, unenforceable agreements”. In his view, the second phase of the conference – a debate on political issues forced upon the transitional government by the donors – “fell apart into acrimony entirely”.

On the other hand, Georges-Marc André, European Commission’s special envoy to Somalia, described the conference as “an important step forward in a search for peace”. The UN’s top envoy to Somalia, François L. Fall, spoke in similar terms. The US State Department was more reticent, saying that the conference unfortunately failed to achieve all its objectives, because important opposition groups had not participated. The EU Commission, the UN and the US administration appealed to the transitional government to continue dialogue with the clans. Moreover, they expressed themselves in favour of the government reaching out to all groups that are interested in peace but did not attend the summit. The event was boycotted by both the Union of Islamic Courts, which held power in the country up to its expulsion by Ethiopian troops at the end of last year, and the powerful Hawiye clan in Mogadishu. Early last month, major Somali opposition groups, including the Islamists, assembled for a conference of their own in Asmara, the Eritrean capital, and formed an “Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia”.

The government of Uganda has meanwhile appealed to the UN to send blue helmets to Somalia. Uganda currently has 1,800 soldiers stationed in Mogadishu and, according to African media reports, wants to withdraw them as soon as possible. At the beginning of the year, the African Union resolved to put together an 8,000-strong peacekeeping force for Somalia, but, with the Ugandan exception, no member government was prepared to contribute any troops. Europe’s envoy André also called for an international peacekeeping force to enable the Ethiopian army to retreat from Somalia. (ell)