President Faroole @ Chatham House in London

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Puntland is a Reconciliation Model for a New Somalia
15 Jul 15, 2009 - 3:09:40 AM

Keynote Speech Delivered by
H.E. Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud (Farole)
President of Puntland, Somalia

Chatham House
London, United Kingdom

Good morning, Honored Guests and Ladies and Gentlemen. It is my pleasure to be with you today here at the esteemed Chatham House in London.
Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people and Government of the United Kingdom for the hospitality and generosity they extended to Somali refugees fleeing civil war since the late 1980s.

I would like to make remarks about the situation in Somalia from a historical perspective with a realistic analysis of today’s quagmire.

I was elected the President of Puntland on January 8, 2009, in an orderly election held in Garowe, the capital of Puntland State in northeastern Somalia. This was a peaceful and transparent election held inside Somalia. The smooth transition of power from one President to the next President was a genuine practice of democratic principles in a part of the world where elections are often uncommon and at times violent.

Puntland is a stable part of Somalia. Since its establishment in 1998, Puntland has strived to help Somalia recover the collapsed nation-state by investing massively in terms of manpower, property and financial resources. Puntland opted for a federal government structure in 1998, followed by the 2004 signing of the Transitional Federal Charter, where Somalia officially adopted federalism as a national government system. Somalia has undergone periods of political upheaval in part due to the lack of a cohesive political system that respects and upholds local customs and Islamic principles and values, while conforming to international standards.

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The Somali Collapse (post-1991)

The complete disintegration and political collapse of the Somali nation-state in 1991 was preceded by growing symptoms of social hardship, political confusion and blunders, and catastrophic policy failures in almost every sector of governance, as well as overall economic and security breakdown. The impact of the Somali political collapse reverberated beyond the borders of this East African country.
Somalis have fled to virtually every corner of the globe. Somalia’s immediate neighbors, including Kenya and Ethiopia, have struggled to cope with the hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees seeking safety and shelter from conflict and drought. The relative stability in Puntland State has attracted displaced peoples fleeing violence in the south-central regions since 1991.

The political collapse of Somalia has had ramifications for Somalia, the Horn of Africa region and the world as a whole. By definition, Somalia is a “failed state” because the country has not had a functioning national government since Gen. Barre’s departure in 1991. The ensuing national disorder and displacement dramatically shifted the social and political landscape of Somalia as a whole. Some regions became self-declared independent republics, like Somaliland in northwest Somalia. Other regions opted for self-rule and self-determination, but chose to remain part of a new model for Somalia. While some communities preserved their territory and properties, other communities were overpowered and subjected to clan-based militia rule – at times cruel and unreasonable.

Social relations among Somalis have been deteriorating during the years leading up to the eruption of the civil war. Clan tensions and hostilities were at first rare and nonpolitical, but as time progressed and the military dictatorship tightened its grip on power, clan militias were formed to fight against Gen. Barre’s military regime. The following cycle of violence pitted Somalis against Somalis, strictly divided along clan lines as tensions erupted into violent hostilities and relatives and neighbors transformed into enemies. The ensuing violence of 1991 to 1992 was undocumented, but without a question the worst round of violence during the ongoing Somali civil war, when entire communities were uprooted from their homes and subjected to clan-based cleansing. Somali clans lost trust and confidence in both the government and each other. However, despite this difficult history, it is critical that Somalis forgive each other for past grievances and look forward to creating a new and brighter future.

The impact on the Somali economy has been devastating to say the least. Global markets where Somalia exported its products became disconnected due to the civil war. Public funds and property were looted beyond recognition. Somali entrepreneurs were forced to find new sources of import and formulate a new export paradigm, given that the country no longer had a functioning central government with ability to regulate the market. In short, the civil war led to complete political and economic chaos. But I believe it is fair to say that the economy generally did better than the politics, mainly because the Somali business community developed inter-related networks and partnerships that transcended regional and clan affiliations.

Somalia cannot be reinstituted or re-imagined in the old way. This is a country whose citizens have brutalized each other for the past 20 years. The wounds of war are still fresh in the hearts and minds of many, including the young generation that has grown up in a chaotic and violent way of life. Our duty is not only to rebuild the Somali nation-state, but it is to re-stitch together the fabric of Somali society and restore trust. Perhaps, this is the most daunting of all challenges.

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Federalism: Antidote to Civil War

Somalia is a single country inhabited by a single ethnic group. However, there are clan distinctions and the different clans inhabit traditional lands in different regions of Somalia, where the land is owned by the community and therefore each clan has claims to a particular piece of land in the country. This land distribution has shifted at times, but was in place long before the arrival of European colonizers.

Since Somalis are a decentralized society, self-rule is a key factor in the restoration of the nation-state in a new political paradigm. The clan-based society with its unique chiefs and customs cannot all be placed together under a single order imposed from above. Such a formula is a recipe for failure and will ultimately lead to disaster. The new political paradigm must show respect for the distinctive qualities of Somali socio-political culture. As such, centralism cannot work.

The alternative is a federal government structure for Somalia. Federalism protects the unique characteristics of the culture, while upholding the powers of a national government that can direct Somalia towards a new, stable future.

Puntland is a role model state for a future Federal Republic of Somalia. The political system in Puntland blends modern-day democratic principles with cultural customs and Islamic values to ensure that the rights of communities are well-protected. Puntland wishes to remain part of a future Federal Somalia and has fully endorsed Somali peace conferences since 1991. However, Puntland is not willing to compromise its hard-won stability and progress for any political system short of federalism. Puntland is committed to federalism as the only viable solution to the Somali civil war.

In Puntland State, social re-integration has achieved a measure of success unmatched in the rest of Somalia. Puntland society has overcome much adversity and animosity – whether among each other or with outside clans. In the early 1990s, Puntland people faced an Islamist uprising led by local youth, which caused much bloodshed and havoc throughout the State. At the end, however, the State’s religious leaders, traditional elders, politicians and intellectuals, collectively spearheaded a grassroots community reconciliation process that resulted with a peaceful resolution to the conflict. That process led to success because all actors were included and the interests of the State and the common good superseded the interests of select individuals who could have benefited from continuation of conflict.

Today, Puntland is stronger for its experience in Somalia’s post-collapse era. The lessons learned from war for the people of Puntland is that violence will only bring destruction. The 2009 election in Puntland was an exercise of the people’s democratic ambitions and yearning for progress. The peace-loving people of Puntland have rights to live in a safe world, find jobs to take care of their families, and enjoy a life of peace and prosperity. Remarkable advances have been made in the fields of peace and governance, but much more needs to be accomplished to keep Puntland the role model state for a New Somalia.

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Symptoms of a Greater Tragedy

Somalia today is renowned as a place of political violence and crimes, such as terrorism and piracy. It must be underscored that such crimes are products of state collapse. When Somalia had an effective national government, the country was a responsible member of the international community. There were no crimes on the scale of today where public safety has hit an all-time low, especially in the south-central regions, including Mogadishu.

We believe that four key factors have contributed to the continuation of this tragedy: 1) the lack of a legitimate unifying authority; 2) the excessive availability of guns across Somalia; 3) the lack of educational and employment opportunities for youth; and 4) the international community’s inability to properly address the Somali crisis by empowering genuine stakeholders.

The insurgent groups causing turmoil in parts of south-central Somalia, with concentration in Mogadishu, pose serious security risks to Puntland and beyond. It would be a foolish miscalculation for the international community to stand idle as the insurgents overrun Mogadishu.

Puntland has played a pro-active role in ensuring internal security in order to defend against the spread of extremism emerging from the bloodbath in the south-central Somalia. In this regard, Puntland is a buffer zone against the spread of political violence towards its neighbors – namely, the Somaliland region in northwest Somalia, the Somali Regional State of eastern Ethiopia, and the Republic of Yemen across the Gulf of Aden.

But containing political violence cannot be limited to military means. Puntland has achieved a degree of self-government and relative stability because of the close connection between the government and the public. The people of Puntland are aware of the serious threats and consequences emanating from the south-central regions. Therefore, Puntland people are committed to helping their own elected government defend itself against insurgent groups who wish to spread the mayhem and self-destruction in south-central Somalia towards the stable region of Puntland and beyond.

A combination of democratic reforms and development projects is the best way to fight against extremists. Their war is not limited only to the use of violent force. The extremists have infiltrated the minds of the young and vulnerable and have injected a heavy dose of false visions without national or regional political agenda.

The problem of piracy is a product of the Somali civil war. Pirate attacks off the Somali coast have contributed to the overall insecurity in Somalia and aggravated economic hardship, including the livelihoods of coastal communities. Pirate attacks are not limited to the hijacking of foreign-owned vessels alone. For example, pirates hijacked a merchant ship last week moments after it left the Port of Bossaso, in Puntland State. Such attacks are a threat to Puntland’s lifeline trade link to the outside world. The piracy problem is mainly concentrated in Puntland due to its strategic location along the shores of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, a vital international maritime trade route where an estimated 20,000 vessels pass through each year. The policy of the Government of Puntland is strictly not to pay ransom money to pirates, because ransom payments help fuel future pirate attacks and attract new recruits.

The Puntland Government is committed to fighting and defeating pirates. Currently, the piracy problem is being addressed in two different ways simultaneously: 1) by empowering the Puntland police and courts to apprehend and sentence active pirates; 2) and by directly engaging community leaders such as traditional elders and Islamic scholars to conduct an educational and spiritual campaign to discourage new recruits, convince active pirates to quit and help rehabilitate former pirates.

Foreign warships off the Somali coast cannot fight the pirates alone. It is a fact that pirate attacks are organized on land and therefore targeting pirates on the ground will be a crucial part of the anti-piracy effort, for which Puntland requires assistance. Furthermore, strengthening cooperation between international naval warships (including NATO) and local authorities (especially Puntland) in order to gather and share intelligence, isolate pirate targets and prevent future piracy attacks is instrumental in defeating piracy.

We believe that finding a permanent solution to the piracy problem is linked in part to finding a political settlement for Somalia.
Lastly, it must be emphasized that Puntland has been developing socially, economically and politically since the outbreak of the Somali civil war in 1991, when hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced from Mogadishu and originally from the Puntland regions returned home to begin reconstructing new lives. These families brought skills and expertise to their new home in Puntland, for example, helping transform Bossaso from a coastal town in 1991 to today’s bustling port city that supplies not only Puntland, but as far as parts of Somaliland, south-central Somalia and the Somali Regional State of eastern Ethiopia. There is great cooperation between the Puntland Government, the public and the business community. For instance, a public-private partnership is now building a general hospital in Bossaso and improving road safety by establishing traffic signs along the 800km-long stretch of paved road.

However, much needs to be done to help Puntland reach its full potential. There is a very high unemployment rate, recurrent droughts and overall infrastructural under-development. But there are plenty of investment opportunities in Puntland, including developing the livestock and fisheries sectors, light industries and exploitation of natural resources.

I thank you for your time and look forward to your questions and open discussion.


Thank you.

[usman-84]

Yes this good move by the president, get more and more exposure for the federal policy.