New Delhi The Asian Age (in English) — [Mohamed Osman Omar, Somali Ambassador to India: “Somalia Is Not an Al-Qa’ida Haven”]

Somalia is in the news once again because of something unexpected. For the first time since the collapse of the military administration in 1991, a single group has taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, from powerful warlords.

In 1991, after successfully defeating the government which was in control of Somalia for over two decades, the so-called liberators, composed of various factions, turned their guns on the same people they were claiming to represent in their struggle against the “dictatorship.”

After that, for 15 years, let alone deliver the promised heaven, the factions embarked on killing, raping, looting and indiscriminately destroying public and private properties. They denied the country and its people any kind of administration, as a result of which Somalia had to remain without a Central government for 15 years.

The warlords used force against each other, and against the people, causing tremendous hardship. They built for themselves ports and airports and collected taxes, enriching themselves at the expense of the government.

For them, an organised system of government meant a threat to their personal interests. They even made it difficult for the Transitional Government formed in neighboring Djibouti in 2000 — after a 10-year absence of government — to function. In the end, in 2004, the warlords themselves became ministers in the “present” government, but showed no interest in working with it.

Amid the chaotic situation created by the lawlessness and the blackmail by the warlords — as well as the widespread hooliganism and assassinations of intellectuals and the kidnapping of innocent people for ransom — the Islamic courts emerged. They started catching the killers and thieves and sentencing them according to the Islamic Sharia. They did what a government should have done.

For Somalia, Islamic law or Sharia, was not a new phenomenon. Paragraph 3 of Article 1 of the first Constitution of the Somali Republic stated:

“Islam e’ la religione dello Stato (Islam is the religion of the state).”

Since the birth of the republic in 1960, Sharia had been followed by the courts, alongside civil laws. There was never a conflict between the two.

A sense of deep despair and hopelessness led to the emergence of these Islamic courts. When both the United Nations and the African Union ignored their plight, some Somalis established these courts with help from local businessmen for the purpose of punishing those who committed crimes against the people. The Islamic courts did manage to establish a degree of law and order.

No one knows what the CIA thought it was doing when it allied with these dying horses called the “secular warlords.” The thousands who recently demonstrated in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, were not against the United States. But they were rejecting the resuscitation by the US of those who have been strangulating the country and its people for the last 15 years. The Somalis in general should not be faulted for what happened in the Nineties, when some US soldiers were killed in a conflict in Mogadishu. But when one targets Islam in Somalia, one targets the whole nation.

Ten years after the collapse of the military government in Somalia, a Transitional National Government was formed in August 2000 in the neighbouring country of Djibouti. But neither the US nor the EU tried to strengthen its position. The African Union offered half-hearted support to it. At the end of its three-year term, a new Transitional Federal Government was established in Nairobi, Kenya, in October 2004 with full support from everyone, including the US. However, instead of collaborating or coordinating with it on what role it could play, the US preferred to join hands with the warlords or the rebel ministers. For the Somalis, this meant a declaration of war against them.

It is not clear whether it was sheer coincidence or a deliberate attempt not to allow Somalia to have a government. Since the establishment of the first government in Djibouti in 2000, certain quarters have been carrying out a consistent campaign to convince the US that Somalia is a base for Al-Qa’ida terrorists. However, until now, no one has been able to prove the veracity of this claim.

The fact that the US has now decided to cooperate with what it calls “secular warlords” in Somalia, is an indication that all the previous accusations were baseless. This is also confirmed by the fact that President George W. Bush, in his statement on the recent events in Somalia, speaks in the future tense:

“Obviously when there’s instability anywhere in the world we’re concerned. There is instability in Somalia.”

He added,:

“First concern of course would be to make sure that Somalia does not become a safe haven for Al-Qa’ida…does not become a place from which terrorists plot and plan.”

To make sure that Somalia does not become a safe haven for Al-Qa’ida, there must be a government capable enough to control its land and sea borders and maintain internal security. After being without a Central government for 15 years, the Somali people had hoped to see support pouring into their reconstruction activities. But that did not happen. This is the only country in the world whose warlords are valued in the international market. They enjoy the respect of the United Nations and the African Union. In Sierra Leone, in Ivory Coast, in Liberia etc., the warlords and usurpers were condemned and taken to the International Court of Justice.

First and foremost, one has to understand the history of Somalia. It is a country with a 100 per cent Muslim population. The people of Somalia have been the most tolerant and secular in the Islamic world, except for the time during the “revolutionary era” when the government tried to dictate the sort of clothes schoolgirls should wear.

In spite of so many intelligent officers in its intelligence services, the US fails to understand the Somalis. Earlier, it used regional agents to act against the Somalis, agents who failed to produce any proof against the Somalis. Despite that, the Somali people have been consistently abused. There have been allegations depicting the whole Somali nation as fundamentalist and terrorist.

But all these attempts have failed, because these allegations are all lies.

In conclusion it is worth mentioning an interesting letter about which I read at the National Archives of India, Foreign Department, New Delhi, dated March 4, 1870. It is a letter by Major General Sir E.K. Russell, the British Political Resident at Aden, to the secretary to government in Bombay:

“He heard from Berbera through a local person that the Bey of the Egyptian government had re-embarked the guns, soldiers, and tents, and landed them at Berbera and that it was his intention to hold on to the sea coast territory of Berbera and Boolhar for his government.”

“The General informed: ‘The (ship) Sind has just returned from taking the relief to Perim, and will be sent again to Berbera on Monday to watch affairs, and to prevent, if possible, the tribes from committing their country to Moslem rule’.”

Is this what is going on in Somalia now?