The Indifferent Security Council and The Agony of the Somali People

A/Rasaq H. Nuurre

July 15, 2007

Much of the Somalia’s ongoing agonies and human suffering had been existing for so many years, not only for what many of us poked their fingers to blame the situation for the ignorance, tribalism, and the abject poverty among the Somali population. Or the destructive failure of the previous governments to come up with preventive plans to educate the people, in particular, the youth and the young generation, the value of their country and its long-awaited sovereignty and independence. But because of the well-kept blessing from the International Community, specially, the UN Security Council to the cruel Somali warlords backed by the oppressive Ethiopian regime which intrudes in to any chance of peace and prosperity that the Somali people would ever have to achieve since the fall of the country’s central government in 1991.

Leaving millions of Somali civilians permanently and presumably forever, as hostages and hopeless in an intolerable, and in a blood-curdling situation and under the rule of thuggish warlords for seventeen years, the UN Security Council had been belying and denying to show the true face of the Somali civil war; making no attempt; not even a single day to investigate how and why these war crimes occur, and the widespread human suffering committed by these repressive warlords against the helpless and the impoverished people of Somalia. Having said that, the international body had been rewarding these warlords for many years continuously and unconditionally with enormous generosity for their atrocities against humanity. Finally, without hesitation, The International Community, enthusiastically handed over to them , as a trophy, the golden key to the power and to the beanbag seats, to rest in the wrecked palaces of Mogadishu after years of making genocide against their own people, enabling them to demonstrate this time more openly and aggressively their rampage under the pretext of the rule of law, calling themselves legitimate government and parroting to their opponents as “terrorists.”

In addition to that, these warlords are in a position now to believe in that they can continue their brutality, extrajudicial killings, and arbitrary detentions against anyone they see him as a threat to their personal interest with the presence and the supervision of the international community; since the Council remains indifferent for the situation. Nonetheless, it is astonishing for many of us, that no one had ever been held responsible for what happened in the country, and the loss of thousands of lives in Somalia, and many other thousands who became refugees in different parts of the world, including children, and many elderly men and women who died in the process, before reaching their destination.  

On the other hand, this is the same Security Council which is deliberately disregarding the longstanding enmity between Somalia and Ethiopia. The two nations had been hostile to each other for nearly six hundred years. From the legendary episode of Imam Ahmed Gurey and his Awdal Emirate in the 16^th century, following the subsequently succumbed Abyssinian king of Lebne Dengel after 15 years of the Ethiopian Conquest, to the aftermath of the bloody war of Ogaden in 1977-78, the two countries had been experiencing unfriendly relationship and ongoing wars.

In Subsequent years, and after the fall of the Somali Government in 1991, The Ethiopian regime had been well-known as the major source of instability to the Somali Republic. It had been sending thousands of weapons and ammunition supplies to the Somali warlords, hoping from them to punish their own people, to prolong the anarchy, chaos, and mayhem amongst one of the poorest nation on Earth, Somalia. Condemning the significant increase in the flow of weapons and ammunition supplies to and through Somalia which constitutes a violation of arms embargo and a serious threat to the Somali peace process, the Security Council, in different meetings, adopted many Resolutions including Resolution 1725 on Dec 6, 2006. Almost in every Resolution, The Council reaffirmed its respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence, and unity of Somalia. It is clear, however, that the opposite was true. The Ethiopian Diplomats, heading by its foreign Minister, Seyoum Mesfin and their Military officers are now tightening their grips on Somalia.  

Former UN envoy to Somalia, Mohamed Sahnoun, noted with respect in his book, ‘The Missed Opportunity’, “It should be a duty of the United Nations to look back and seriously investigate the reason for our failure to act promptly. Because the important question is how we can in the future avert similar tragedies and improve the United Nations’ preventative action, both political and humanitarian.”  

Unfortunately, after fifteen years of Mr. Sahnoun’s forgotten recommendations, the UN Security Council is still missing the opportunity to save what is left in our home land.

A.H. Nuurre, E-mail: alldalka@alldalka.com