06 February 2002

U.S. Official Says Somalis Must Want Peace for Help to Be Lasting

Washington -- Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner told Congress February 6 that the U.S. government is prepared to do all it can to help Somalia with "its long-term governance challenges." But for U.S. programs to be sustainable, he said, the Somalis themselves must take ownership of them.

Kansteiner told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, looking into U.S. policy options for Somalia, that "assuming that the Somali people themselves want peace and reconciliation," the United States will help. However, "if the United States and the international community want good governance for Somalia more than the Somalis do themselves, the effort is doomed to fail."

Africa Subcommittee Chairman Russell Feingold (Democrat of Wisconsin), who was chairing the foreign relations hearing, said a prime goal of U.S. policy should be to "strengthen state capacity and curtail opportunities for terrorists and other international criminals within Somalia's borders" to strike at America.

This means, he said, that the United States must find ways "to strengthen the law enforcement capacity of weak states [like Somalia] and avoid the mistake of the Cold War, when, in the name of resisting and containing communism, this country assisted some truly appalling regimes in Africa -- governments that pursued policies antithetical to our national values -- leading to disastrous results that ultimately did not serve our national interest."

Kansteiner said the U.S. government "has begun the process of marshalling ideas and resources" to confront political instability in the Horn of Africa nation, which has gone without a central government since civil war and a devastating famine occurred in the early 1990s.

The official pointed out that "a subgroup of the Policy Coordinating Committee for Africa" -- created specifically to examine this question of a lack of a central governing authority in Somalia -- had met for the first time just the day before, on February 5. The subgroup, he said, discussed such topics as:

• working with Gulf States to lift the ban on importing livestock from Somalia; -- developing alternatives to schools financed by Al-Ittihad (identified as a terrorist organization by the White House); -- creating new financial institutions to replace those, such as Al-Barakaat, that are tainted with connections to terrorism; and -- increasing support for Somali civil society.

Direct U.S. aid has been slim, the official noted, in part because there is no central government with which to work. However, the United States did provide close to $22 million in food aid to the Horn of Africa nation in fiscal year 2001, he added.

Kansteiner emphasized: "Somalia did not become a failed state in a day, and solving the governance problems that make it a potential home for terrorists will not happen overnight. We've made a start and I'm cautiously optimistic that the U.S. and Somalia's neighbors and the international community can make a significant contribution to help steer Somalia" toward peace and prosperity.

Senator Bill Frist (Republican of Tennessee), the heart surgeon who formerly headed the Africa Subcommittee, mentioned that he recently returned from Africa after having made what has become an annual medical humanitarian mission to the continent. He said, "I think we are all concerned that Somalia's chaos has the potential to destabilize other parts of Africa."

Somalia, Frist explained, "has not had a national government since January 1991 and in many ways remains a fractured society, governed in large part by armed clans that exist in an environment of shifting loyalties."

Referring to the October 3, 1993, battle in Mogadishu between U.S. Army Rangers (commandos), who were in Somalia providing security for much needed food deliveries to famine-stricken areas of the country, and the gunmen of a prominent local warlord, Frist said, "Of course, we must never forget those 18 American Rangers who lost their lives there in what began as a mission to save Somalis from starvation."

Asked by Senator Feingold what Somalia's neighbors, Kenya and Ethiopia, were doing to help it, Kansteiner said, "There's going to be a meeting shortly under the auspices of the Kenya chair [of the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD)] that will hopefully pick a date and try to convene some kind of all-parties conference to bring the Somali factions together. And we in fact fully support that effort."

As for Ethiopia, the official, who visited the region in mid-December, said, "I think President Meles [Zenawi] has clearly signaled to President [Daniel arap] Moi that he is willing and eager to assist him in sharing this [peace] process, and I think there is some pretty good coordination there."

Commenting on help from outside Africa, Kansteiner told the senators: "Probably the most aggressive [enthusiastic] have been the Italians. They have gone around quietly saying: 'Should we not build a Friends of Somalia group?' or something like that. We [the U.S. government] practically are all ears and are willing to listen to anything" along those lines.

Senator Feingold also brought up the question of the self-styled Republic of Somaliland, a section of the country that has achieved a degree of peace but has yet to be recognized diplomatically by the United States. He asked: "Given the relative stability of Somaliland ... doesn't it make sense for the United States to build some relationship with its authorities?"

Kansteiner responded: "It's probably dangerous to make judgments on the effectiveness of governing institutions in a place like Somalia, but Somaliland seems to have a pretty good grasp of some of the local, traditional government services. They probably come closer to providing those services than any of the others [faction-dominated regions]. And their economy is probably the healthiest. So there is not only a temptation, but I think a necessity to at least recognize the successes that they have had and to try to build on them."

In that regard, former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia and former Special Coordinator for Somalia David Shinn, a career diplomat, told the panel, "It is time to think about placing a few Department of State people in Hargeysa" in Somaliland because "there is a very low-level American involvement there."

Senator Bill Nelson (Democrat of Florida), a former astronaut, concluded the hearing by rhapsodizing on the beauty of Somalia, which he first saw from his space capsule as it orbited the earth. "It was so rich in its tones of lor seen from outer space," he told the panel.