December 2012, once again the traditional leaders of the Southwestern regions of Somalia started conference at the former Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) compound in Baidoa to form a regional government for the six regions of Gedo, Bay, Bakool, Lower Shabelle, Middle Jubba and Lower Jubba. People refer this conference as the “ADC conference” or the one with the “six regions”. Sometime later, mid 2013 another parallel conference started in the same city led by former speaker of the Somali parliament in Hotel Bakiin to establish regional government for the three regions of Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle. This one is known as the “Hotel Bakiin” or the “3 regions” conference. Who is/was behind these conferences? What do their locations mean? What should the international community and Somali Federal Government do about them?
There were previous attempts to form some sort of administration for the six regions by the Digil/Mirifle community elders and politicians who form the majority of these regions including the one aborted by Aideed’s militia in 1994. This time the invitation was extended to all communities in the six regions and the participation was as inclusive as it could have been under the circumstance. They sat in the ADC compound, day in and day out, for more than a year to establish South West State of Somalia. One could say that the daily meetings while eating together, sometimes sleeping in the same areas, and basically knowing each other and their challenges and opportunities, completed the reconciliation efforts needed to come to terms of what happened in those regions during the civil strife. They followed traditional local reconciliation methods and they succeeded to find a way to solve their problems by themselves without any support from outside. On the other hand, the Hotel Bakiin conference seemed to have the déjà vu dowlad Goboleed type of conferences, where one man curves his own territory and calls himself the president, claiming he has the support of the international community, the neighbouring countries etc.
As far as locations of the conferences are concerned, there are very important distinctions that cannot be ignored which will go to the legitimacy of the reconciliation process.
ADC compound was the warehouses where the notorious Agricultural Development Corporation collected the grains they bought by force from the farmers on low prices and then marketed it. Majority of inhabitants of these six regions are farmers and those who remember it, will tell you, ADC was one of the state policies that devastated the farmers. Apparently, the ADC compound was the only building structure government of Somalia built for Baidoa. When the elders of the clans of the former regime who built the ADC to take away the grains of the farmers and those of the farmers reconciled themselves inside that building, there is a hope! On the other hand, Hotel Bakiin is partly or fully owned by a businessman from the central Somalia. That itself is not a problem. But it tells you how the organizers of this particular conference were not able to get other hotels belonging to the locals who saw the aim of this parallel conference is to derail the legitimate process going on in ADC compound.
International community and Federal Government of Somalia must see this as an opportunity. What happened in the ADC conference could be a case study for future reconciliation efforts around the world. It will be unfortunate if we dismiss this and lose this opportunity for whatever reason. We must do the right thing which is to support this initiative and find a way to reconcile it with previous efforts like Jubbaland.
Traditional elders are the once who saved Somaliland and Puntland from catastrophic civil war in the south. And now they proved that they are capable of doing the same thing in South West Somalia. Genuine clan elders are the hope for the rest of the country and one should support them and empower them if we want to repeat the success of Somaliland, Punt land and South West.
Abdulkadir M. Abow
abow@idirect.com
Good example and remarkable indications, but only for who has an open heart!
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