Saylicipress.net

Dear Sir,

In the aftermath of the Djibouti Agreement, converging information bears on your opposition to the agreement and your reaction to Sheikh Sharif´s efforts.

Information is abundant in the portals and the newspapers, concerning your activity in this regard; you are not alone in this, as equally profuse reports make state of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys´ impossibility to accept the fact.

The recent meeting of Sheikh Sharif and Sheikh Hassan Aden with the American Ambassador in Nairobi may have only exacerbated the situation, and mistrust seems to run high.

As in the aforementioned meeting the two sides allegedly focused on the cessation of hostilities, and ways to prevent the violation of the truce deal signed between the unrepresentative government (TFG) and the opposition (ARS) (http://www.qaranimo.com/2008/june/us_envoy_sh_shariif_meets_kenya_june_19_08.htm), it is certainly difficult, if not totally impossible, to realistically understand why “the aim of the meeting was to derail the holy war in the country” (http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=6395&tirsan=3), as surmised by Sheikh Aweys.

For all Somalis and for every bona fide person, it is only good that “Sheikh Sharif has appealed the United States government to deliver humanitarian assistance to thousands of internally displaced people”.

As consultations take currently place, and as Sheikh Hassan Aden said, there is a hope that “those who rejected the truce…. will join” this great effort, there is good reason to believe truly that “the ´Ethiopian´ troops will withdraw from the country at the given period of 120 days”, as Abdirahman Haji Adan Ibbi said to Radio Shabelle (http://saylicipress.net/2008/06/22/somali-opposition-urges-hardliners-to-accept-truce/).

It may sound odd that, as Abdirahman Haji Adan Ibbi said, “if UN forces were not deployed within that period, then the Ethiopian troops would leave the country just the way they entered at first, that is by the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia [TFG] requesting them to leave the country”, but a brief focus on the ailing situation of Somalia´s venomous enemy would suffice to persuade the most unconvinced observer.

The Abyssinian Army´s Retreat: A Defeat

In fact, what happened in December 2006, with the Abyssinian invasion of the Somali South, was an aberration. For different purposes and reasons, the American and the Abyssinian administrations agreed on the operation; it would rather be wrong to attribute to the Bush administration a complete agreement with the racist, anti-Somali, ulcerous plans of the evil Abyssinian dictatorial leadership. To interpret the current administration´s Horn of Africa policy as due purely to misperceptions and evil lobbying seems more realistic.

On the other hand, the decision was disastrous on the Abyssinian side whatsoever; the effort was utterly impossible for a dictatorial country most loathed by the outright majority of its inhabitants, the subjugated and tyrannized nations of the Oromos, the Ogadenis, the Afars, the Sidamas, the Gedeos, the Hadiyas, the Kaffas, the Shekachos, the Kambaatas, the Anuak, the Berta, the Gumuz, as well as the equally oppressed Amhara and the Tigray Muslims. The long lasted tyranny cannot hold itself together. Its future is obscure, and within shortly it will disintegrate. Under this viewpoint, tyrant Zenawi´s expedition to Somalia was almost a suicide.

Last year´s atrocities in Ogaden, as recently unveiled through the shocking Human Rights Watch Report on Ogaden, are the beginning of the end. In fact, Somali resistance defeated already the Abyssinian army. They want to leave Somalia, and they will leave Somalia in order to put an end to their hemorrhage and to supposedly preserve their prestige, which was turned to trash under the heroic resistance of the Mogadishu fighters and the other nationalist Somali rebels.

In the light of these facts, Sheikh Hassan Aden´s words “by signing the accord, we neither betrayed anybody nor abandoned the call for liberation of Somalia, but rather took a drastic decision to peacefully resolve the crisis” seem realistic and true.

In fact, the theoretical danger exists that the Abyssinians will go away, and the Somalis will continue their fratricide fights; I would not use Sheikh Hassan Aden´s words “if we continue with violence, the name of Somalia might be erased from the map”, but the point deserves consideration.

At this moment, and pending the July 3 meeting at the Asmara ARS headquarters (http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=6393&tirsan=3), you are in front of some critical options, and your decision will have an impact on Somali politics over the years ahead.

Urgent Concerns for Somalia

Point 1. The ongoing meetings between ARS and the TFG in Nairobi will predestine the shape of many issues.

Point 2. Shortage of food and humanitarian disaster has become top priority in the daily life throughout Somalia.

Point 3. The deployment of UN peacekeepers should now be the focus of the efforts of all Somali political leaders.

These three points are reasons for ARS to remain united so that you be able to influence the Somali political life in a way that will better guarantee the interests of the Somali people.

By staying apart from the Nairobi meetings, you achieve only two – least desired – objectives, namely you strengthen the role of TFG and you weaken the position of Sheikh Sharif. If you, as a politically and ideologically separate formation within the Alliance, participate, the Somali political game will be fully developed – with the TFG at the right end, Sheikh Sharif at the center, and you at the left. You will make concessions, but concessions will be also made by the TFG – for you. You will get something. Something is always more than nothing.

Your anti-Abyssinian intransigence has made of you a popular current in the Somali politics. But the legend of popular revolutionary parties that turned marginal and unloved is without end; if you demonstrate indifference for, or pay only lip service to, the disparaging humanitarian disaster that has befallen on all the Somalis, you will certainly lose, helping others increase their popularity. If Sheikh Sharif manages to offer US humanitarian help to the homeless, the starving and the needy, you know that they will not reject it. With the needy Somalis accepting US humanitarian help, all the anti-American rhetoric of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys will fall to a vacuum.

Who is the Somali who would dare say to his long suffering compatriots “No, don´t take this humanitarian help because Isaias Afeworki and Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys say that America is evil.”?

More importantly, the deployment of UN peacekeeping force will either propel Somalia to the first phase of rehabilitation or plunge it to another period of confusion and strife. It would be naïve to imagine that UN peacekeeping force is something obligatorily positive; experience shows that it can also be negative. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, not without reason, warned again against deploying international peacekeeping forces in Somalia, pointing out that Operation Restore Hope led by the United States and the United Nations in the early 1990s did not accomplish its objectives and failed to impose security and stability in Somalia (http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=6393&tirsan=3).

This means that all those, who want to make sure that the UN peacekeeping force will be to Somalia´s benefit, must be resolutely involved in, and contribute to, the related decision making.

If Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys says that “the operation turned into Annihilate Hope. The Americans killed most notables, intellectuals, and elders, and they put us through excruciating suffering”, the only chance to prevent a remaking of the ominous story is for all the interested parts to participate in the developments and deploy the necessary efforts, which would make the likelihood of this possibility nil.

Sir,

I am sure you will agree with me that politics has nothing to do with eventual expectations that the UN envoy would act as a benevolent father, and that the art of the real consists precisely in exploiting an opportunity that at a certain moment may be (or has already been) offered by the UN envoy. Ambassador Ould Abdallah does not make a conspiracy by talking with those willing to talk; he would have talked with you and all the other ARS representatives, had you offered him the chance. Would that have been another conspiracy?

Sir,

As politics is the art of the real, I am convinced that you have the possibility to contribute greatly to the materialization of Somalia´a best future perspectives, by outmaneuvering efforts to remove Sheikh Sharif from ARS chairmanship and to disavow his signature on the Djibouti Agreement.

By this I don´t mean that either you have to agree with Sheikh Sharif´s choices or even to let him pursue his policy. I simply want to clarify two things:

First, by overthrowing the only person who gave to the Alliance an international status and direct diplomatic recognition, you both isolate yourself, your part in ARS, and your anti-Sheikh Sharif colleagues from the international community, and at the same time, you perpetuate Abyssinian soldiers´ presence on Somali territory. I am sure these are not your featured political targets.

Second, by cutting all contacts with Sheikh Sharif and Sheikh Hassan Aden, you get disconnected from the people whose decisions you should be trying to modify, readjust and/or change. Yet, there are plenty of issues that you could certainly and greatly influence, if you decided to disagree with some options of Sheikh Sharif but avoid further confrontation, cooperate and ´cohabitate´.

Consider how much the Djibouti Agreement has displeased the Abyssinian terrorist, racist and totalitarian administration; a website usually fed by the ´ethio´-fascist secret services of the Abyssinian terrorist state, GEESKA, published (http://www.geeskaafrika.com/somalia_30may08.htm) an article on the purpose of discrediting Sheikh Sharif as being the interlocutor of Abyssinian diplomats during his recent trip to Sanaa! Why these lies? Probably because the Abyssinians feel they fail when two opposite Somalis talk to one another.

Sir,

I feel it is high time that you, supported by all those who around Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys disapprove of the recent initiatives of Sheikh Sharif and Sheikh Hassan Aden,

1. make your disagreement clear to all, but keep it conditioned by your commitment to Somalia´s Unity, Peace and Rehabilitation

2. meet, talk and negotiate with Sheikh Sharif, promising at the same time dedication and criticism, engagement at his side and opposition when need be

3. identify realistic targets for Somalia´s international position and foreign policy that would oppose those set up by Somalia´s enemies

4. develop a plan for the country´s reunification, pacification and reconstruction

5. make your commitment to a free, independent, united, and democratic Somalia known to all, by describing your vision of a future Somalia where all have their place and place exists for all

6. clarify your position as regards war criminals who should be taken to the International Court of Justice, preparing in this regard a list of military and security TFG officials and Abyssinian army officers, and getting aligned with US positions (Ambassador´s Yates interview: “The United States supports justice and humanity and does not support impunity for crimes committed”. / http://www.hiiraan.com/news2/2008/Jun/interview_with_us_special_envoy_for_somalia_ambassador_john_yates.aspx)

7. undertake a great effort for humanitarian fund raising, visiting various capitals, addressing meetings, and thus identifying Somalia´s true friends, and

8. pursue a resolute policy against the interests of the foreign powers that are held responsible for Somalia´s misadventures over the past two decades. I don´t want to expand on issues of foreign policy here, but the best way for an effective presence of a UN peacekeeping force in Somalia is the earlier identification of the plausible friends and the hidden – though existing – enemies of Somalia.

Instead of fruitlessly isolating your group from the current developments and ineffectively opposing the role of US, UK, France and Abyssinia (all pursuing various, definitely anti-Somali, policies), step in and develop the necessary contacts with the countries that can truly help Somalia today, namely Italy, Vatican, Turkey, Qatar, Poland, Malaysia, Norway, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela.

Sir,

I am sure you will take these few words of mine as an expression of cordial recommendation. Politics is not different from traditional Somali poetry. I am sure you know the following proverbial verse and you understand its wisdom – only too well.

Geelow daaq, daaq, daaq, laakiin maalintaad ´ciin´ daaqdo ayaa

laguu yaabaa!

In the few next days, weeks and months, your plant ciin will be your isolation and negation. Still, I believe that you will avoid that plant!

Best Regards,

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Source: American Chronicle