Instanbul: Advice to Western Diplomats on Somali

Published on 17th May 2010

On the heels of the Istanbul Conference this week, there are two important developments which have necessitated this major international conference on Somalia. The first is the self-evident and spectacular two years of  failure in Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as political leader and the TFG project as a whole. Secondly, is the current end game of Ambassador Ahmedou Ould Abdullah’s mercenary leadership as head of UNPOS.

Indeed, it is quite pitiable to see that Amb. Ould-Abdallah is trying desperately to now paint himself as a “born again diplomat” and someone ready to work impartially with any Somali stakeholder.  However, the consistent history of Ould-Abdallah has seen him act as nothing but serving the opportunistic  Ethiopian regime; as well as personally acquiring an insatiable appetite to embezzle Somali aid money.

In fact, the Obama administration  at the behest of Amb. Ould Abdallah continues to push the failed Bush era Ethiopian-centred TFG policy of foreign AMISOM occupation and war crimes on Somalis. Ould-Abdallah also bamboozled the US government to provide unprecedented military, political, and financial support to Sharif’s useless TFG militias without providing any rationale how this would help negotiations. 

Two years on, the result has been colossal failure for the US and even to use Ould-Abdallah’s delusionary language “ a military stalemate still persists.”

Yet, has anyone at the US State Department or UN cared to ask how why “a military stalemate “persists when the world was told by the same Amb. Ould-Abdallah at the UN Security Council meeting in 2009 that the newly minted TFG President Sharif would divide the resistance, maximize upon previous ICU credentials, all with an aim of bringing the whole of Southern and Central Somalia into the Ethiopian orbit?

Why Sharif  Chose to Become An  Ethiopia- AMISOM Stooge!

Today, the undeniable reality turned out that Sharif is a very weak, isolated and dismal lackey; a true foreign warlord stooge whose basic survival is solely dependent on the bloody Ugandan-Burundi AMISOM killing. The same AMISOM butchers who get paid for committing mass murderers under the bogus pretext of “protecting the TFG.”

Even as the figure head of  the non-existent TFG  ( itself a warlord-stooge entity), Sharif persistently and arrogantly dismissed the advice of  the respected clan elders and community leaders such as Hajji Aboukar Adani in 2009  to engage with Somali Resistance and not turn into another bloody cover for the Uganda-Burundi and Ethiopian mass murder of Mogadishu civilians ( which continues unabated!)

Sharif, similar to the previous TFG clannish war criminal Abdallahi Yusuf Ahmed, also roundly rejected EU proposals to establish peace talks with Somali Resistance leader Sheikh Hasan Dahir Aweys in 2008 while preparing for the Djibouti charade. The reason for failure is Sharif very much believes that foreign powers, namely Ethiopian dictator Meles Zinawi and the allied war criminal Ugandan-Burundi AMISOM occupiers will somehow subdue the Somali people for him!

Sadly, Sharif has only self- deluded himself on Amb. Ould Abdullah’s earlier promises of grandeur in Djibouti by selling out. This, all the while Amb. Ould-Abdallah has kept up looting the paltry Somali economy and remittance companies (Xawaalada ) for every single cent!

Presently, Somalia is a stateless nation that is broken and in need of genuine leadership by committed professionals. The days of warlords and foreign stooges are long done.

For Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, his fate was sealed when he chose to run and hide inside the Ugandan-Burundi bunker at Villa Somalia for 2 years so that he can have Abdullahi Yusuf’s privilege of directing the daily mass murder and genocide unfolding below. If he didn’t know before, someone should tell him this is not stately grandeur by any definition!

 What state grandeur can there even be for a self-respecting Somali person calling himself “president” to serve only as a cover for the heinous foreign crimes against humanity inflicted upon innocent Somali civilians daily in Mogadishu and throughout Southern Somalia?

Advice to Western Diplomats on new Somali leadership

Sincere advice to the US and EU diplomats who are currently debating on the next  replacement of Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as President of any new Unity Government which comes out of  the Istanbul Conference process:  Look beyond mercenary personalities!

What the Somali people and the West truly need is well educated, credible and pragmatic Somali leadership that will work to better this nation and deal with current emergencies of security, reconstruction, and communal reconciliation.

If the spectacular failure of the current TFG head Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is any indication, the US relying on Ambassador Ould-Abdallah’s failed logic— whereby he picks those loyal only to himself, even if they happen to be incompetent and mercenary individuals— in order to “sell” the Western agenda, then we shall see in Istanbul only a recipe for further disaster as in Nairobi (TFG 1) and Djibouti (TFG II).

Instead, what the Western diplomats in Istanbul should be concern with in regards to establishing a potential Post-TFG National Unity Government for Somalia in 2010 is drawing up a basic criteria of Somali leadership (similar to  those that currently are used for post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Lebanon, Nepal.)

In other words, what specific qualifications and skills does an individual Somali have  (to contribute individually or as member of clan collectively) in making a unity government successful in Somalia? Of course, this is exactly what Western policymakers have long avoided doing (solving the Somalia conflict by taking out the unqualified and uneducated Ethiopian stooge-warlords). However, the task of finding effective  Somali leadership is confronting the Western powers nevertheless. One thing is for sure, continuing to rely on Amb.Ould-Abdallah and his lackey Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s desperate attempts to re-invent themselves to save their jobs won’t make the leadership selection process any more easy or fruitful!

Dr. M. Omar Hashi

[email protected]

Courtesy Hiraan

 

 

 

 


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