Somalia’s Critical Condition
Posted by jonathanfryer on Tuesday, 10th April, 2007
Lunch today in Exmouth Market, Islington, with a former BBC World Service colleague, Tom Porteous, who is now London Director of Human Rights Watch. He’d just come from a meeting of NGO staff in Hackney to discuss the critical situation in Somalia, which has received nothing like the attention it deserves in the British media. There have been terrible civilian casualties in the capital, Mogadishu, during fighting in recent days and refugees have been flooding out of the country once more, with the Red Cross warning of a humanitarian disaster. Kenya has been accused of expelling Somali refugees, and Ethiopia of making some ‘disappear’.
An added twist to the story is the fate of detainees round up by the Ethiopians who have intervened on behalf of their Somali interim government allies. Earlier today, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at last admitted that 41 ‘terror suspects’ were indeed detained during recent operations, many of these people subsequently being held incommunicado. The detainees have included citizens of the USA, Canada and Sweden. Several have been released but there is deep concern amongst human rights agencies about the fate of others, some of whom might be subject to extraordinary rendition. All this is done in the name of the War against Terror, of course — a catch-all let-out that has escalated human rights abuses, both by so-called pro-Western forces and by Islamist militant groups.
Maybe because most of Somalia (with the exception of the north, which is now the self-declared independent Somaliland) was under Italian, rather than British colonial rule, Somalia has been off the radar screen as far as most Britons are concerned. Yet there is a sizeable community of Somali refugees in this country — maybe as many as a quarter of a million. Apparently there are 14,000 in Tower Hamlets alone, though they form a tight-knit community that keeps very much to itself. Many of them have suffered both physical and psychological traumas and have been propelled by conflict from a traditionally nomadic, clan-based existence into a totally alien environment. Often they don’t speak English and unless they adopt British nationality, they can’t vote in elections (unlike Commonwealth citizens living here), so they are politically marginalied.
Liberal International British Group will be holding a forum on Somalia/Somaliland and related issues in the Lloyd George room at the National Liberal Club on June 12. While I hope that the security on the ground improves considerably before then, as well as the situation of the refugees, I don’t hold out too much hope — which is why it is important that politicians in this country sit up and take notice.
