Feature - Peace talks: the alternative voice

As warlords, faction leaders, members of the Transitional National Government and others gather in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret for "make-or-break" peace talks, a small group of "alternative" invitees is slowly making its voice heard. The Somali national reconciliation conference opened on 15 October after months of wrangling and delays. Confused mediation by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and disagreements between Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya - the technical committee members set up to pave the way for the meeting - led to the repeated postponement of the talks, originally slated for April this year. But warnings by the IGAD organisers that this was the last chance and there would be no further postponements finally brought many of the opposing sides together. As the talks progressed, more faction leaders who originally said they would not attend, started arriving in the Kenyan highland town. Hopes were raised that the conference might achieve something where numerous prior attempts had failed. Leading the chorus of voices for peace and change are representatives of civil society organisations invited to attend the talks. They comprise women’s groups, human rights groups, traditional elders and religious leaders – many of whom stress their non-partisan characteristics. Hirsi Hurre Du'ale, better known as Calanside (flag bearer), is described by many Somalis as the "only true patriot left in Somalia". Originally from Burao in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, he dismisses the notion of separate states within Somalia, and advocates a federal administration with a strong central government. Calanside - who was an active member of the independence movement, the Somali Youth League (SYL) - was invited to the talks as a respected Somali elder, an independent thinker. "I am one of the few Somali people who has left his clan behind," he says, alluding to the clan-based nature of Somali society. "I am a Somali nationalist. This clan mentality must be crushed." He strongly believes that the way to bring Somalis together is to instil nationalist values into them, and this, he says, can be achieved by reminding them of their traditional culture. "I want to show them the Somali nationalist is still alive, so I always carry the Somali flag and the SYL uniform, and always I sing Somali national songs," he says. "I want Somalis to remember themselves as they were before, not what they are now." He thinks the nationalist mentality is in the heart of many of his countrymen, but they are too afraid of their clans to expose it. Calanside notes that Somalia was always a clan-based society, with fights over water and land. But the problem of clans spiralled out of control after independence in 1960. The Italian colonialists favoured ‘pro-Italians’ over nationalists when it came to handing over the administration at independence, and this started creating deep divisions. The problem worsened after Muhammad Siyad Barre came to power in a 1969 coup, and injustice and nepotism became the order of the day, says Calanside. "The civil war [triggered by Barre’s ouster in 1991] came when everyone was ready to explode, and they did," he adds. Calanside advocates inculcating a true sense of ‘Somali-ism’ into his countrymen through national songs and culture. "We should use traditional Somali ways to bring Somalis together," he says. But he does acknowledge that this will take time. "People are so far gone," he notes sadly. Human rights activist Maryam Husayn Muhammad also longs for more radical ways of bringing about peace in her country. She is the co-director of the Mogadishu-based Isma'il Jimale human rights organisation – the oldest and most-established rights group in the country.

Maryam Hussein Muhammad

Maryam is weary of peace conferences. "I have seen many such conferences and nothing substantial has come out of them," she says. The only difference this time is that more faction leaders have come. There may be some change of attitude." But, she says, the faction leaders should not form part of any government. "They all have blood on their hands. They are worse than [former Yugoslav leader Slobodan] Milosevic, and he is on trial." "I am confident that if the warlords and faction leaders were out of the picture, there would be peace and unity," Maryam stresses. She believes that if the warlords were threatened with punitive measures such as sanctions, they would "compromise more". "After 12 years of war, people are just fed up," she points out. Maryam is angry over what she describes as the "marginalisation" of women at the Eldoret conference. "Only 13 women were invited [out of some 300 delegates] and not all of them have managed to come," she says. "We [women] are always the largest group to be victimised, but the smallest group to be invited to reconciliation conferences. This is a mistake. Men respond more to pressure from women than from men." She underscores the human rights abuses committed against women and children in war-torn Somali society. "Children are the first victims of fighting," she says. "And for the women, we register so many rapes." She says, however, that the number of rapes appears to be decreasing, and that the biggest human-rights problem now is a rise in kidnappings and abductions. "This has been created by the economic situation," she explains. "There are so many freelance militiamen, with no job. They need money. So they abduct prominent people, or people who work for international organisations." Maryam stresses that unless the current pervasive gun culture is abandoned, there will never be peace in Somalia. "The biggest single obstacle to peace is the number of guns," she says. "Before any action can be taken, before even a government can be formed, everyone should be disarmed, and the issue of the proliferation of weapons addressed."