Friday,Mar 22,2013
Putin Welcomes China's Xi for Landmark Talks
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and China's new leader Xi Jinping are to hold landmark talks on Friday in the hop.... By AFP
Tuesday,Mar 19,2013
30 Killed in Blast at Motor Park in Kano
Over 30 people were killed following a bomb blast in a motor park in the Sabon Gari area of Kano State at about 4.0.... By Jakky Bankong-obi
Since 1991 there has been 15 major national and an uncountable number of regional and clan reconciliation conferences, most of which took place outside of Somalia. Ethiopia hosted four, three in Addis Ababa in 1992-93 and one in Sodere - a hot spring resort about 100 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa - in January, 1997. Djibouti hosted three, two in June-July, 1991, and in May 2000 in Arta, a summer resort near Djibouti.
What strikes one the most are the similarities in the way these peace and reconciliation conferences were conducted. Each conference attempted to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive peace, and each supposedly represented the entire nation. Most were hosted by a friendly neighboring country, supported by the Somali public, the United Nations, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations or NGOs. Key participants included representatives of armed factions, collaborators of faction ‘leaders,’ and former civilian politicians and army officers who clearly helped put the country in the position where it is today. At the start of each meeting, there were great expectations and hopes that there would be no more missed opportunities for peace. But these conferences were all doomed to fail leaving Somalia without a functioning government.
The time has come to reconsider the basic ingredients of peace and reconciliation. According to Somali tradition, “Ol nebeda ku dombooyty,” every war gives way to peace. “Dagaal wiilbaa ku dhinta ee kuma dhasho,” war results in the death of a son, but not in the birth of one. “Nebeda naas la nuughy leh,” it is only peace that can give you milk. I will argue that for durable peace, the following conditions are necessary:[1]
The Rwandan massacre trials of 1994 in Arusha, Tanzania, in December 2003, almost a decade after the massacre, convicted many Rwandans of genocide and crimes against humanity.[2] The prosecutors called the verdicts an historic victory of good against evil, and Rwandans started to pursue their life regularly, and to forgive and forget. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of 1995 is another good example of positive recovery of a society from a horrific past, deeply divided community to a future founded on a peaceful coexistence for all South Africans irrespective of color, race, class, belief or gender.[3] Imagine World War II without the Nuremburg trials, what would have been the fate of Europe?
Somalia has not conducted its own tribunals of reconciliation, but the door is still open. Such a procedure has the added advantage of identifying or “short listing” the number of potential participants in any future peace negotiations and gives the public a clear conscience as they choose future leaders. The United Nations and friendly nations should assist Somalia to implement this process.
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