The guardians of Somalia misery

By Said Saryan

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmond Burke, (1729-1797)

June 15, 2005 — For the past fourteen years, while the world watched, thousands of Somalis died of starvation, mal-nutrition, diseases, and thousands others were forced to seek asylum in foreign countries or languished in Refugee Camps in neighbouring Kenya, Ethiopia, and Yemen. Hundreds more lost their lives in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea as a result of aborted human trafficking operations.

Imbedded in these tragedies are the stories of mothers who lost their children, pregnant mothers who died due to lack of health care, women raped during their arduous journey out of the country or while staying in Refugee Camps, and farmers who either lost their farms or were forced to work under master-slave relationship, not dissimilar to the 18 th century Southern United States plantations.

Also under reported is the catastrophic environmental devastation brought about by the Warlords-sponsored dumping of toxic waste from industrialised countries on the unguarded coast of the country, the continued cutting of trees for the purpose of exporting charcoal to the Gulf Emirates and beyond, thus turning the country, specially in the fertile southern regions, into a desert waste. http://www.wardheernews.com/news/March/03_03_waste.htm

An indicator of how miserable life is for the average Somali, the UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) released last year found Somalia to rank below Haiti, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan in terms of mortality rate for children under 5 years (225 per thousand), average life expectancy (48 years), adult literacy (36 % for men; 14% for women), and Gross National Income per Capita (US$130). http://hdr.undp.org/

Then the earnest question that begs an answer is why this rotten Status Quo continues to exist for more than 14 years? Why the absence of will to help the Somali people to move from this decadent and depressing situation? Why the absence of forceful intervention by the international community? Why the Somali elites who are mostly in the diasporas did not form a unified front and help liberate the brothers and sisters they left behind, from a fourteen years of miserable lives in this ‘cesspool of injustice and deprivation’?

The answer to the above perplexing questions lies in the fact that this human tragedy, which perhaps is unprecedented in modern states’ history in terms of its ferocity, its longevity, and its tragic short-term and long-term consequences is protected by well-organized well-armed gangs who benefits from this rotten Status Quo and who are always on guard against any change to it.

These are unholy alliances of criminal Warlords, unscrupulous War Profiteers pausing as legitimate businessmen, terrorists masquerading as Islamist Movements, international toxin dumping Mafia-affiliated Syndicates, petty thieves who occupy private and public property, and roaming pastoral Nomads, who invaded and occupied the agricultural heartland of the country on the banks of the Shabbelle and the Juba rivers. As a result of this invasion and illegal occupation thousands of peaceful farmers were driven from their farms to a life of destitution and a forced exile in refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.

Also seen as beneficiaries of this sad situation as well as saboteurs of national reconciliation are the Somalilander’s clan-based Secessionists in the Northwestern regions of the country. For them the establishment of a central government and the restoration of peace in the South is a threat to their blind pursuit for international recognition as a separate state. Therefore, regional analysts see them as allies of the Mogadishu-based Warlords and their criminal allies in the South. They share the same agenda.

Also on the sidelines and buried in piles of reports in Nairobi are the coalition of Lords of Poverty who on publicized occasions venture to the country and dole out servings of ‘humanitarian and relief aid’ to the poor souls of Somalia. Their bureaucracy grows as anarchy and misery continues and grows in Somalia.

Last but not least, these sadist conglomerate also includes Ethiopia which, for malicious strategic objectives and historical reasons, is taking advantage of this Somali-made mess and continuously saws seeds of division and mistrust among them.

In Conclusion , these unholy alliance who maintain the rotten Status Quo pause a formidable challenge to Somali citizens who are sincerely working and striving to liberate their people from 14 years of killing, displacement, man-made famine, and lawlessness. The Guardians and Beneficiaries of this predatory paradigm will fight tooth and nail to protect and prolong the Status Quo, and by extension our misery. Depending on the burning issue at hand they will promote themselves as protectors of clan interests or religious values. This is in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of their clan’s members are actually their victims and all tenets of the Islamic religion, which propagate justice and compassion, are trampled upon daily in the decay of this “cesspool of injustice”.

This is the reality on the ground in Somalia today and these are the Guardians and Custodians of the Status Quo. The linchpins of these sentinels of the “cesspool of misery and deprivation” are the Mogadishu Warlords and the War Profiteers. The containment of these two segments of the alliance is the key to a positive change from the prevailing Status Quo. The rest of the beneficiaries will, by default or otherwise, easily go out of business.

Therefore, it is incumbent on all Somalis with conscience and who sincerely care about their people and their country to combat, without delay, these evil elements in our society by any means necessary; lest our beloved country will sooner than later disappear from the map of the nations. The least we can do is to think out of the clan box, defend the outcome of the two years long Imbaghetti peace conference and give the new government a chance so that, after the end of their five years’ mandate, we will at least have the bare bones of governance infra-structure that we can build upon in the future. Parallel to this we should promote reconciliation on the local level, converge on principle-based political parties and peacefully compete for public office after the end of the transition period. Enough of 14 years of destruction!

At the same time, reflecting the dire needs of the average Somali person, I urgently call on the United Nations and the international community at large to help the nascent Somali Government establish governance and restore law and order in the country, thus forestalling the real threat of Somalia becoming the Head Quarters of international terror, safe corridor for drug trafficking, source of regional destabilization and a tragic theatre for a repeat of the 1992-93 famine, which killed thousands of innocent Somalis. Somebody must care.

– Said Saryan, Dubai , UAE, An Analyst and Commentator on Somali current affairs. E-mail: [email protected]