World 'Must Share Blame For Somalia's Problems'

World 'Must Share Blame For Somalia's Problems'

Somalia's president has all the trappings. An entourage that speaks in whispers, bodyguards who speak into their sleeves, a soldier in a red beret guarding his office, creaking leather furniture and an official residence called Villa Somalia.

He has some prestige too. He will lead talks at an international conference which will open in London on Thursday on the future of his country.

Twenty years of civil war and crime-fuelled anarchy has meant that Somalia has the distinction of being the world's most failed state.

The only relatively peaceful part of the former nation is the autonomous region of Somaliland, a reluctant participant in the London conference.

Puntland, semi-stable but blighted as the headquarters of the Somali pirate industry, is going along. 

So are warlords and leaders from self-styled regions like Azania, on the Kenyan border, Jubaland in the south, and various other clan-based groups.

President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the head of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and a leading local Islamic theologian, has power over none of them. 

In fact, his writ runs only to the limits of Mogadishu. He may enjoy the trapping of a head of state, but he rules only a city state.

And he depends for his physical survival on the protection he receives from 9,000 troops from Ugandaand Burundi, who have fought a bloody five-year campaign against al Shabab's Islamic movement.

Al Shabab has joined al Qaeda's franchised global jihad movement and is now seen as the fastest-growing threat to the West, and Britain in particular.

Recent advances by the Africa Union (AU) troops and the TFG's army, combined with invasions against al Shabab by Kenya and Ethiopia, mean that President Ahmed's regime represents the best hope for stability in years.

"We are hoping the London conference will support the progress that we have achieved in terms of political and security in Somalia at the moment," he told Sky News during an interview in the Villa Somalia.

How, I asked him, could this be achieved against growing international complaints over corruption in his government?

"To carve [out] corruption you have to have the proper mechanism and that's what we have put in place and that's what we hope to strengthen," he said.

"But a lot of times when we get reports from the international community with regards to corruption, they get their reports from elsewhere - from organisations that are not on the ground and individuals that don't have the facts.

"The resources that we get are very limited and we are quite happy to be open and transparent about it any time."

Last week European Union Special Representative to the Horn of Africa Alexander Rondos was unusually frank in briefing reporters after meeting the Somali president.

The EU has given 1bn euros (£830m) to Somalia since 2008.

"We're not going to sit and benignly give money," Mr Rondos said.

"If people through deliberate inaction choose to stall the process we will take note, which is a polite way of saying we will take action."

The TFG's mandate expires in August. London's conference is supposed to forge a plan to ease transition to democracy and end the violence, which has resulted in periods of mass man-made starvation.

A key to its success is whether Somaliland, a former British protectorate which has been campaigning for recognition as an independent state since the early 1990s, will co-operate with being bolted on to the fractious south of the country.

"Of course we are happy for Somaliland to be part of this conference and congratulate them for the peace and the system they have put in place in terms of democracy. We hope to build on that unity in this conference," President Ahmed said.

Is this the last chance for Somalia, I asked, a nation that has proved at the very least to be frustrating?

There have been 16 international conferences on Somalia in the past, though none hosted by a member of the UN Security Council such as the UK.

President Ahmed said: "At every conference it has been said it is the last chance for Somalia.

"But the Somali people are strong and courageous and have gone through a lot of problems. The international community should not always put the blame on Somalia, they should look at what they have contributed and what they have done for Somalia," he added, apparently suggesting that the international community was responsible for some of the mess in his country.

Surely he cannot blame anyone but the Somalis for the last 20 years?

"That's not an easy question to answer," he said.

"Of course, the Somali people have to have ownership of their own issues. But if you look at any country where there has been a failure in the system, there has been the international community that has come to their aid. Perhaps you look at other examples in other countries. The Somali people are the same as any people in the world.

"We want to live in peace and prosperity in the world. It sometimes needs the help of the international community but the end result is the Somali people [have] to take ownership."

This week the UN Security Council is expected to increase the number of AU troops for Somalia to 17,000. 

Britain is then likely to offer staff officers to boost the mission's planning capacities.

In 1992, a US-led UN peacekeeping effort ended a famine but collapsed into violence caused by warlords.

Was there not a danger that an AU expansion would be met with a similar violent reaction as its grows beyond Mogadishu?

"It will be very different," President Ahmed said.

"The AU working alongside the Somali forces are here to bring what the Somali people aspire to; peace, unity and government. That's what the Somalia people want and that's what they see these troops contributing [to]."

Perhaps. But for the last 20 years Somalia's clan warlords have amassed personal fortunes from manipulating food aid, smuggling, extortion, piracy and unfettered capitalism. 

It is hard to see what investment in peace they would be prepared to make.