PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REPRESENTATIVE FOR SOMALIA

After nearly 10 years of chaos and fragmentation, progress had been made in Somalia, David Stephen, Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the United Nations office for Somalia, told correspondents this afternoon during a briefing at Headquarters.

Referring to the Secretary-General’s report of December 2000 to the Security Council (document S/2000/1211), he said the Arta process in Djibouti had led to the adoption of a Transitional National Charter, the election of a Transitional National Assembly, and the appointment of a Transitional National Government.

[Arta is a town in Djibouti.]

It was a new method of taking forward the peace process, he explained, undertaken after the 12 previous peace efforts, since January 1991, had failed. The process was based on the clan elders, who were the essential bulwark of the society.  The problem was how to integrate, into this clan structure, some leaders who had developed their own different structures, as had happened in the regions of Somaliland and Puntland.

The international community had accepted the fact that there was a government, and the war lords had not managed to prevent that government from going to Mogadishu, he said.  But the government must now be supported in its efforts to reach out to those leaders whose support it did not have, in order to complete the process.  The consensus was that the Arta process had provided a political framework for the successful completion of peace efforts and for the massive tasks of reconstruction and development.

Somalia had no infrastructure or administration, he said.  There were no government buildings in Mogadishu, no archives, no records, “not even paperclips”.  The task was both to pursue peace and to reconstruct the country. There were thousands of young militiamen in the country.  According to a survey by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), there were 20,000 of them in Mogadishu alone.  That sounded terrifying, but the majority of them were working for private sector companies or for Islamic courts, which were sectors supporting the Transitional National Government.  The problem was not armed elements facing each other down.  Rather the challenge now was youths with guns who had no training and only a doubtful future.  Rehabilitation, demobilization and reintegration must, therefore, be high on the agenda.

Other problems included the lack of land writs, Mr. Stephen continued.  There was need for a system to determine to whom land belonged.  There was also a total lack of environmental protection.  Intensive fishing and dumping of toxic waste in the seas of Somalia could, at the moment, not be stopped.  The seaport and airport of Mogadishu were inoperable.  “It is no longer a case of armed factions and the need for mediation.  It is a case of a destroyed State and a traumatized society, which has stopped using violence and warlords to settle disputes, and now wishes to move in a new direction,” he said.

As to the role of the international community and the United Nations, he said that the Security Council consultations that were pending might ask the Secretary-General to put together a proposal for a peace-building mission in Somalia.  The possibility of the United Nations returning to Somalia might therefore be back on the table, he said.  It already worked in peaceful parts of Somalia, including Somaliland, but had no presence in Mogadishu because of security concerns.  However, he urged correspondents to consult the forthcoming Presidential Statement before reporting on this possibility.

Responding to a correspondent’s question about the role of the larger countries around Somalia, he said the role of the region was important.  Djibouti had acted on a mandate of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Horn of Africa’s subregional organization.  That organization’s efforts in the next stage of the process would be handled by a small committee, consisting of Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya, and its chair, Sudan.

In an answer to another question, he explained that restructuring the present fighting forces and militia should be a priority.  But, contrary to

1995 when warlords were challenging the United Nations, one had now more to deal with the chewing of qat [a narcotic leaf] and gun-bearing youths who were angry and alienated.  The UNDP survey he mentioned had found that over 90 per cent of the young men would undertake skills training if it were available.  Demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation ought to be tackled at the same time.

Answering another correspondent’s question, he said that there were elements in the south west who would like to form another “block”, but he had no information that Ethiopia was behind that.  On the other hand, there were also elements in that region that strongly supported the Transitional National Government.  He hoped that the international community would urge all parties to talk in a constructive spirit and not resort to crude language or violence.  Somalia was once a nation, and psychologically it still was.  The Prime Minister was committed to a process of dialogue.

Asked what proportions of Somalia were outside the Arta process, he said that it was impossible to know, but that there was an impression that the Transitional National Government had considerable support.  The challenge was to maintain that support and to build on it.

Answering another question, he explained that the leader of the Puntland region, Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf, had told him that federalism was very important, and that what had been achieved in Puntland should not be touched by the national administration.  The Transitional National Charter defined the future of Somalia as federalist, so there should be room for negotiation between Puntland and the Transitional National Government on that point.  He was not aware of specific conditions the administration of the Somaliland region might wish to make.

The rehabilitation of collapsed States, their reintegration and reconstruction, and assistance with political progress towards the establishment of functioning political institutions was, in his opinion, the function of

peace-building.  Peace-building meant assisting in processes that promote peace. It had to be shown that re-establishing the State was to the advantage to the population.  The infrastructure must, therefore, be improved to show the population what could be done.

He said prospect of the United Nations running the country was not considered.  There was a government in Somalia which should undertake that task, possibly with some assistance from the United Nations.  Any United Nations presence would probably be limited and small-scale.  He referred correspondents to the impending Security Council Presidential Statement on that matter.

Islamic courts had been one of the features of life during the last two to three years in Mogadishu, he said, in answer to a correspondent’s question.  They had arisen because of people’s impatience with chaos.  Islam was an important element in the life of Somalis, and the people had turned to its institutions to establish some order and to help remove criminals from the streets.  He understood that the courts had pledged their support to the Transitional National Government.  Governments in the Arab world had promised it assistance as well.

Somali people lived in different States, he noted.  Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya had large Somali populations, as well as refugees.  If those governments used their contacts to persuade Somalis to enter into peaceful dialogue, they could have considerable influence.  All those with contacts with Somalis should be urged to ask their Somali friends to keep the temperature down, to avoid personal criticism, and to stop predicting a return to the civil war.

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