Somalia Left to Hang itself by UN, AU.

07/01/07
    

Somalia has been let down by the African Union and the United Nations for failing to provide sufficent funds to fund large peace keeping force and re-constructing the country after decades of clan feuds and neglect. Somalia's Prime Minister traveled to Washington to urge the world body, the United Nation, which has been considering if the small AU peacekeeping force, mainly from Uganda, could be expanded by authorizing a hybrid of UN-AU force, was met with a mute response and indifference by the World body.

Declaring that Somalia is at "a critical crossroads," Gedi on Thursday urged the world body to start deploying U.N. peacekeepers to take over from the small African Union force in the country's capital to help restore security and help reconstruct the country. The response he got from the world body must have been very discouraging and disheartening. I'm sure the prime minister and many Somalis who have felt abandoned by the international community long time ago, must be feeling a mix of anger, hopelessness or a renewed focus and determination, to solve their differences, and find solution to their two decade long conflict.

The international community's demand that there be peace first before they can send peacekeepers are outrageous and stupid to say the least. Why will Somalia need UN-AU peacekeepers if they Somalis can establish peace in their country? Why are UN peacekeepers needed in a peaceful country? What is the definition of peacekeeping force? The idea that the world body will only deploy peacekeepers in a country of relative peace then makes the world body irrelevant. Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, whose country takes the lead on Somalia in the council, said the UN must see "sufficient stability" and a political agreement resulting from national reconciliation talks starting July 15, then a U.N. peacekeeping force is possible. He added this.” It’s got to be done by the Somalis themselves to create the conditions for that force," he said. "You can't put peacekeeping troops in if there's no peace whatever to keep. That's the reality."

I don't get it. The world body has completely shunned the Somalia people for the past 15 years since its infamous intervention and unceremonious exit from that country, behaving un-worldly body. The current interim government is weak and on the verge of collapse for lack of funds for reconstruction and can't even pay for it's own employees, including daily targeted police officers and has been unable to rehabilitate government buildings and ministries. The current interim government is failing for lack of human expertise and know-how on administration, and reconstruction, which the world body is supposed capable off and spends billions of dollars for it's so-called expert expatriates, but, even that, there must be peace in the country before Somalia can access it.

The World body's attitude toward Somalia is a joke and disheartening to say the least frankly. Somalia's prime minister who is partly to blame his country's predicament is right is his response to the world body’s attitude to his country. Gedi said after meeting the UN and listening to their outrageous demands "Somalia needs peace and if we could do it alone, I wouldn't be here" He also right when he says this "it's not fair to say 'make peace and I will come and keep it".

I agree with you Mr. Prime Minister, it is outrageous, it is stupid, and it is racist. The United Nations is biased to the Somalia people and racist to blacks in Africa. It spends billions of dollars and a big chunk of its budget on so-called white expatriates who spend a bulk of their time fuelling more conflicts while sipping expensive coffee, champagne and dinning in the most expensive restaurants in New York and the big cities of the world.

Given the United Nations attitude and the African Unions ineptitude and inability to send the remaining AU peacekeepers, Somalis are left to hang up themselves. They have to do what they have been incapable of doing so long. The have to put country first before their clannish agenda. They have seen and proven that clan and country are incompatible. They have two choice in my view; allow their country to disintegrate further into small subtitles and continue the embarrassment they are now in the world or come together and safe their citizens of the suffering they have endured for so long, by coming together in a reconciliation of their own, say goodbye to goodbyes any hard feelings between themselves and genuinely construct a constitution that will be the foundation for a new State, a constitution that will be the foundation of a new Somalia society based on fairness, justice and fair play, a new constitution that will allow a fair power-sharing by all Somalis, a constitution that will allow a fair re-distribution of the country's scarce resources and a fair representation in its government by all clans, a constitution that will make it happen a clear separation of the three branches of government (Judiciary, executive, and parliament), so that previous abuse of the executive and crime against the civilian population doesn't happen again.

The United Nation and the African Union have declared that Somalia is not in their minds, in their agent agenda. The choice is clear for the Somalis; hang yourselves, perish in your own hands, and decide your fate. The two world bodies will have little to do with it.

Farhan Mohamud
Kilil5 Assistant Editor.