Hiiraan Online

Canadian-educated PM being hailed as best chance for peace after 18 years of anarchy

Michelle Shephard
NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER
Sunday, March 22, 2009

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke - Photo DayLife

It was 1969, and Sharmarke was 9 years old and living in Mogadishu with his family. He had just returned from school and watched his uncle walk silently past him and his brother, Ali, to go to his mother.

That's when he heard her cry – a deep and sudden sob and he knew, before the adults told him, that his father had been killed and life was about to change.

The assassination of Sharmarke's father, president Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, was followed by a military coup in Somalia and the two-decade rule of Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre. Somalia descended into anarchy after warlords overthrew Siad Barre's government in 1991.

The Horn of Africa country is today one of the world's most ungovernable, dangerous and impoverished, with clan rivalries, an Islamic insurgency and a history of disastrous international intervention.

Now 48-year-old Sharmarke, a Canadian citizen, Carleton University graduate and well-respected diplomat, has returned to the city where his father died to attempt to mend his broken birthplace.

But he has come with the reputation of his popular father and the backing of the West. And in the past few weeks, he has also brought optimism. Or rather, since Sharmarke's government is the 15th since 1991 that will attempt to stabilize Somalia, perhaps it's more of a cautious optimism.

"We have a country that has almost no economic life and we have a country where so many weapons are in the hands of citizens," Sharmarke told the Toronto Star during his first in-depth interview since taking power five weeks ago.

"It's a country where there's not a proper military structure or forces. The challenges are huge, but I think there's light at the end of the tunnel."

His challenge may have gotten harder last Thursday – or easier, depending on the analysis – with the release of a audiotape by Osama bin Laden urging war on Sharmarke's government.

The elusive Al Qaeda leader mentions by name Somalia's new president – the moderate Islamist schoolteacher-turned-politician Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who hand-picked Sharmarke.

"The war which has been taking place on your soil these past years is a war between Islam and the international crusade," bin Laden said, according a translation of the Arabic tape. "These sorts of presidents are the surrogates of our enemies and their authority is null and void in the first place, and as Sheikh Sharif is one of them, he must be dethroned and fought."

U.S. military intelligence chief Lt.-Gen. Michael Maples warned the Senate Armed Services Committee this month that Al Qaeda was gaining a stronghold in the Horn of Africa through Somalia's insurgent group, al Shabaab ("the Youth"), and a merger was "forthcoming."

"I think we cannot be a government from the outside," Sharmarke said during the telephone interview from his Mogadishu home. "We have to come back to our own people. We have to sit with them, and all those who oppose us."

President Ahmed has vowed to implement a form of sharia law in Somalia, which some believe should appease the insurgent groups. However, the form of Islamic law that's adopted will undoubtedly cause further division.

Sharmarke cautioned against any comparisons to sharia law associated with Afghanistan's Taliban.

"It's really kind of a long discussion and a dialogue amongst scholars on how this could actually be implemented," Sharmarke said, noting the important role of having female cabinet members, a role banned by the Taliban.

"Women in Somalia, believe me, in these 18 years of chaos they were the backbone of the economy. They were the ones who helped more than anyone. To deny them their rights? That's impossible."

Sharmarke says he's confident al Shabaab's popularity in Somalia has already waned due to the recent withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. Ethiopia's presence in Somalia – stemming from a December 2006 U.S.-backed invasion that was intended to quell a rising Islamic insurgency and prop up an unpopular transitional government – infuriated Somalis and helped bolster al Shabaab's ranks.

"I think the population is sick and tired of conflict," he said. "There's no argument any longer for (al Shabaab) to continue to fight. The population is on our side and that's what counts."

Sharmarke says his education in Canada has helped shape the type of leader he hopes to be and the ties between the two countries – with Canada home to the largest diaspora of Somalis outside Africa – are strong.

"To this day I am very grateful what Canada has done for us, and all Somalis. When you have a biological father that dies you have an adopted one. That's exactly Canada for me," he said.

His loyalty to Canada has driven his personal interest in the case of kidnapped Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout, who was seized in the country in August with Australian photographer Nigel Brenan and Somali Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi.

"It is in my heart every day. I really want to see her free. I don't want to say anything now, but we are following it very closely and we hope to come to a successful conclusion to the situation," he said.

And Sharmarke won't be the only Canadian citizen in the new government as dozens of the appointees once lived here, including Toronto's Buri Hamza, now Somalia's environment minister.

Hamza left Somalia on a scholarship to California State University in the mid-1960s and studied and worked abroad for years before joining his family and settling in Canada in 1999. Hoping to one day be a part of rebuilding his country he recently completed a Masters at York University in environmental governance and peace building.

Like Sharmarke, he believes establishing security and working toward overcoming traditional clan divisions are the priorities.

"Once this is attained, the country will be prepared for elections whereby the people in the entire nation will be able to choose their representatives ... through democratic processes," Hamza said.

Source: Toronto Star, Mar 22, 2009