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How Somali-led peace processes work (2)
Posted on October 30, 2010 at 07:42:58 PM by mb4

Substance

The aim of Somali peace meetings is to restore social relations between communities and reinstitute a system of law and order. Reconciliation is considered central to success and is achieved through restitution and restorative justice rather than retribution.

The declaration of responsibility by the aggressor is seen as representing more than a third of the path to a solution. Both Malaq Isaaq and Sultan Said stress the importance of ‘telling truth’ or ‘confessing wrongdoing’ as an essential precursor to a settlement.

Many local peace processes reach agreements on re-establishing institutions for governance. Ibrahim Ali Amber ‘Oker’ discusses the many different forms that such institutions take in the still fragmented south central area of the country.

Abdurahman Shuke explains the need to restore the social contract between clans after it has broken down and rules have been broken. Compensation (diya) payments are agreed and one of the jobs of an elder is to collect the agreed amount from the clan members, as Malaq Isaaq describes. A key factor in the recurrence of conflict can be delayed payment of diya and some accords therefore include a timeframe for payments to address this. Ibrahim Ali Oker suggests some of the factors that have worked against instituting a more stable framework of governance in south central Somalia.

Agreements usually institute sanctions for those violating the accord, as highlighted below by both Abdurahman Shuke and Malaq Isaaq. Often there is an agreement on mechanisms for monitoring implementation and managing future conflicts.

Restorative justice supports social reconciliation through collective responsibility but militates against individual responsibility. Some local accords tackle this by specifying that violations will be addressed through application of Shari’a (Islamic law), rather than payment of diya. Ibrahim Ali Oker observes that one of the weaknesses of locally negotiated agreements in south central Somalia is the absence of a central (or local) authority or administration to uphold or enforce them.

In terms of the agenda for peace conferences, a clear and pressing objective of virtually every Somali led peace process studied was that of ending violence and re-establishing public security.

The cessation of hostilities that preceded many initiatives was reaffirmed and translated into a ceasefire at the conference, and measures were instituted to maintain security and build confidence.

In places where disarmament has taken place, like Somaliland and Puntland, consensus is reached to put weapons at the service of the local authorities. But there is an implicit understanding that communities may withdraw these commitments should the agreements be violated, thereby generating sufficient confidence for the peace accord to be sustained. The Somali commitment to consensus in peacemaking processes is reflected in commitments to joint responsibility and management of ceasefires and social control of the means of violence.

Outside the formal Somali framework of dispute settlement and peace conferences, Somali men and women in many walks of life have had to find innovative ways of dealing with the security challenges they face. Women have played a particularly important role as civil society activists seeking to broker new arrangements for public security, as Faiza Jama’s article describes.

The extraordinary efforts that have been made by the public in Mogadishu to contain violence and establish local systems of law and order is also the covered in Jama Mohamed’s contribution on neighbourhood watch (see p. 66). The remarkable survival of Mogadishu’s Bakaaro market is also described below (see p. 68). These are important examples of the innovation that has take place to achieve security in urban settings.

Different kinds of outcomes The large, region-wide conferences in Borama in Somaliland in 1993 and Garowe in Puntland in 1998 were political processes that produced lasting agreements on power sharing. The important role that traditional elders played in these peace processes is noted in the article by Abdurahman Shuke and in the interviews with elders from Puntland and Somaliland.

These conferences formulated a political vision of a future state, articulated in charters that defined the structure and responsibilities of public administrations and the establishment of public security services. Such structures are still lacking in south central Somalia where, as Ibrahim Ali Oker points out, there are occupied territories and serious imbalances of power, and where a capable administration is needed to uphold and sustain agreements.

Finally, local processes are not divorced from national or regional level politics. They can be heavily influenced by factors beyond the control of the local communities, whether political manoeuvring by their elite, external sponsors of local conflict (including the diaspora), or dynamics emerging from national level peace conferences.

Both Sultan Said and Malaq Isaak in conversations that took place hundreds of miles apart each observe how difficult it is to make or keep the peace when ‘politicians’ are involved, people who are generally perceived as self interested, unrepresentative and unaccountable. And as the articles by both Jama Mohamed and Faiza Jama show, the neighbourhood security arrangements that had flourished in Mogadishu foundered largely as a result of national and international politics.

Interpeace’s peace mapping study was carried out from January 2007 by Somali researchers from the Academy for Peace and Development in Somaliland, the Puntland Development Research Center and the Center for Research and Dialogue in south central Somalia. Using Interpeace’s participatory action research methodology to interview over four hundred people.

The CRD also undertook research on internationally sponsored national peace conferences in collaboration with Professor Ken Menkhaus. Five films were also produced as part of the research.

Dr Pat Johnson has been Senior Program Officer with the Interpeace Somali program since 2005, having previously worked with Oxfam-GB and the UN in Puntland, and the EC Delegation in Nairobi. She has played a major role in Interpeace's peace-mapping study, undertaken by the three Somali partner institutions, which reviews Somali-led peace initiatives and lessons learned from national-level peace processes.

Abdirahman Osman Raghe was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Interior until 1989, later working for the UNDP. He returned from Canada to the Somali region/ Nairobi in 1998 as one of the co-founders and deputy director of the Somali program for WSP (later re-named Interpeace) and plays a lead role in supporting reconciliation and peacebuilding throughout the Somali region and democratization with the local communities in both Somaliland and Puntland.

http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/somalia/somali-led-peace.php

Replies:

Diaspora Crucial To Somali Economy - By mb4 October 30, 2010 at 07:41:28 PM
Gender Strategy of the Somalia Agriculture and Livelihoods Cluster - By mb4 October 30, 2010 at 07:40:22 PM

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