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Somalia Could Turn into Proxy War |
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Published:
29 June, 2007 10:02
Source:
embassymag.ca |
The window of
opportunity for Canada to engage both the Somali
government and the Union of Islamic Courts is
closing, say two Liberal MPs
As Islamists in Somalia
continue to grow in strength, two Liberal MPs
and the president of a Somali organization in
Canada are calling for the government to get
involved in order to avert a potential disaster
in the Horn of Africa country.
Four months ago, fighters from the Union of
Islamic Courts forced warlords controlling the
Somali capital of Mogadishu to flee. After
gaining control of the city, the Islamic Courts
rapidly expanded their hold on southern Somalia.
They brought law and order to a country that has
not seen a central government for 16 years. But
they also imposed a strict adherence to Sharia
law. They have closed down cinema halls, forced
women to wear the hijab and executed criminals
in public.
"We should be worried," says Liberal foreign
affairs critic Keith Martin.
"Ignoring them could produce a situation that
could be much worse for the West," he says,
elaborating that he fears extremist elements
within the Islamic Courts will one day take
over. If that happens, Mr. Martin says nothing
will prevent Somalia from becoming a training
ground for terrorists.
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, a Liberal MP who visited
Somalia last year, says Canada and the West
should engage the Islamic Courts while there's
still a window of opportunity, which he fears is
rapidly closing. He notes that there are
extremist elements within the Islamic Courts,
but adds that the protagonists in Somalia see
Canada as a neutral country, and this factor
should be used to engage in dialogue.
Initial contact could be established through
Canadian citizens in the transitional government
of Somalia and the lslamic Courts. Mr.
Wrzesnewskyj says there are two cabinet
ministers in the transitional government who
hold Canadian citizenship. Last week, the
Toronto Star reported that Canadian citizen
Abdullahi Afrah, a former Toronto resident, is
one of the leaders of the Islamic Courts.
Creation of a Greater Somalia
Farah Aw-Osman, president and co-founder of the
Canadian Friends of Somalia, says that without
help from the international community, the
quagmire in Somalia will continue. Mr. Aw-Osman
says the creation of a fundamentalist government
in Somalia has serious implications for
stability in the Horn of Africa.
He says the Islamic Courts have expressed a
desire of creating a greater Somalia. Ethiopia,
Djibouti and Kenya all have ethnic Somali
populations. Grant Dawson, a professor of
political science at Carleton University, says
that Somali politicians have entertained the
idea of a greater Somalia since the country
gained independence in 1960.
In a couple of weeks, the transitional
government of Somalia, which was created in
2004, is set to meet the Union of Islamic Courts
in Sudan for talks. Mr. Wrzesnewskyj says Canada
should send an observer team to the talks and
organize an international donors conference to
help Somalia.
While it is important that talks be initiated
between the Islamic Courts and the transitional
government, it is crucial to involve Ethiopia
and Eritrea as well to scale down the chances of
a proxy war in Somalia, says Mr. Martin.
The Islamic Courts accuse Ethiopia of meddling
in the internal affairs of Somalia after the
government in Addis Ababa sent troops to prop up
the transitional Somali government, currently
holed up in Baidoa, the only city it controls in
the whole country.
For its part, the transitional government
accuses Eritrea of supporting the Islamic
Courts. But while this scenario has all the
makings of a proxy war, Robert Rotberg, director
of the Program on Instrastate Conflict and
Conflict Resolution at Harvard University, says
there's no full-scale proxy war in Somalia, "but
it is one developing between Ethiopia and
Eritrea."
Canada and the international community should
also take steps to ensure that the next
government in Somalia should be representative
of all the clans in the country, says Mr. Aw-Osman.
He says the Islamic Courts draw their support
from the Hawiya clan.
"Other clans like the Darod, the Rahawein and
Issab are not accepting the Islamists," he says.
"The Islamists are not going to succeed because
there will be another civil war."
Mr. Dawson says the reach of the Islamic Courts
goes beyond clan loyalties because of religion.
"My impression is that they have connections
with other clans but Islam is the unifying
factor," he says.
brian@embassymag.ca |
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