Pretty old article but still an interesting read
When It's Diplomatic to Do Nothing
There's No Somali Government Anymore, So Its Ambassador Lives on Charity
in Beijing
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 17 1996; Page A15
The Washington Post
BEIJING -- If Mohamed Hassan Said is not China's saddest
foreign resident, he almost certainly is the most bored -- because
he has absolutely nothing to do. Since 1988, Said has served as
the ambassador of Somalia, but for the last few years he has
presided over an embassy that doesn't function, representing the
defunct government of a state that no longer exists.
He has not received a salary since the Somali government
collapsed in January 1991, and he survives on occasional handouts
from friendly Islamic embassies.
He has not been out of China in more than five years because he
has no money to go anywhere and no place to go.
The Chinese government keeps the electricity, heat and telephone
turned on, but withdrew all his local staff. He has closed the
embassy building, and stays in the ambassador's residence in the
back, where he and his wife cook and clean for themselves.
And most days, he fills his time doing, well, nothing.
"I consider myself to be on a long holiday," he said, entertaining a
rare visitor with coffee and samosas in the once posh, now slightly
dingy room he uses for receiving guests. He adds wryly, "I don't
feel pushed."
"I came here to serve my nation, but I'm not doing much of that
because there is no government as far as I can see," said the
56-year-old lawyer and veteran diplomat, whose five children also
live in China. "I've been marooned here for eight years."
Two other Somali diplomats assigned to the embassy are stranded
with him here, mainly for lack of any other place to go. Before
chaos and anarchy gripped their homeland, the Somali staff
numbered nine, but the others have moved on, emigrating to other
countries.
"The office is more or less closed, because of the lack of work and
also the lack of staff," Said said. "As far as our existence goes, we
are at, well, subsistence level. But we are doing better than the
Somalis left back in the country, so we can't complain."
With Mogadishu carved up among warring factions and no side
strong enough to claim control or form a government, this might be
one of the last lonely outposts of Somali sovereignty left on earth.
But the Somali flag doesn't even fly here -- a few years ago, a
strong wind snapped the line on the flagpole, and Said never got it
repaired. Besides, with no staff, raising the flag in the mornings and
pulling it down at night seemed more trouble than that residual
display of national pride was worth.
"It's a bother," he said.
Said still has his official embassy car. But without his chauffeur, he
has to drive himself around town -- and he doesn't bother raising
the Somali flag on the vehicle to signify his diplomatic status.
"Nowadays, with me behind the wheel, I just don't bother," he
said. "It doesn't signify much."
Most of the time, though, that poignant symbolism passes
unnoticed, since with no work to do and no government to
represent, Said has few places to go.
The Chinese government and the rest of the diplomatic community
still treat him as a full ambassador, so he gets invitations to all
official diplomatic functions. He goes to the airport to help greet
foreign dignitaries and makes the rounds of embassy cocktail
parties and dinners for countries' national day celebrations.
But he worries about showing up at too many functions, since he
has no funds to throw any parties himself and doesn't want to be
seen as a freeloader. "There is a feeling of lack of reciprocation on
our part," he said.
There are still about 35 Somali students studying in China, and they
occasionally need the ambassador's help in getting their passports
updated or having documents authenticated.
But besides those infrequent chores, Said has done basically
nothing for the last 5 1/2 years, except bide his time reading and
waiting -- and wondering if he will ever go home.
"A lot of time I spend worrying, seeking news, listening a lot to the
national media, trying to find out what is happening," he said. "The
rest is reading."
He said he reads any books and magazines he can get his hands
on, and has been using the time to brush up on his Arabic. He has
little time for books about war or military affairs. "We don't have to
read books to know about war," he said.
All that reading "gets boring," he said, adding that his wife,
especially, longs for family and friends back home.
He never got around to learning Chinese. He said he began taking
courses when he first arrived here, but "I dropped it. There was no
incentive really."
Said's five children speak Chinese and have moved through the
Chinese education system. The four oldest are grown now and
studying in colleges elsewhere in China, on scholarships from the
Chinese government, and the youngest, 16, studies here on a grant
from Pakistan.
Said pins the blame for Somalia's predicament -- and his own --
on tribalism, and the power-hungry faction leaders who continue
fighting over the rubble of what was once their country.
"So far, that has been the main factor -- individual interests, and
playing on tribal interests, tribal mistrusts," he said. "The people
who have the guns don't want to let go."
"I have no crystal ball, but we are hoping the factional leaders
would realize there is no gain in perpetuating this situation," Said
said.
But he also has strong criticism for the international community --
especially the United Nations and the United States -- which he
says helped perpetuate the problem, first by refusing to recognize
the interim administration of warlord Ali Mahdi Mohamed, and
then by staging a large-scale military intervention but withdrawing
before the warlords' factions were disarmed.
After dictator Mohamed Siad Barre fled the capital in 1991, clan
leaders meeting in Djibouti named Ali Mahdi as interim president,
but he was soon challenged by his own powerful general,
Mohamed Farah Aideed. The Djibouti conference, Said said, "was
the closest we came to having a government after Siad Barre fell.
But it was the U.N. and the U.S. that drew a red line through it and
said Somalia has no government."
Said is just hoping that some solution can be found soon, so he can
end his long exile and eventually get a plane ticket out of China, to
go home.
"I'm here, waiting for the situation to stabilize," he said. "We cannot
but hope."
