Hiiraan Online

The meaning

It is an undeniable fact that a disagreement may arise at places where people or animals or groups of people or animals meet. The disagreement itself is not a strange phenomenon because people can have different views, religions, political beliefs and cultures. Today (year 2010) is in many Western countries respectively the Netherlands, England and the U.S., people are very well aware of the value of "reconciliation". This can be deduced from the fact that more and more universities,  knowledge and competencies regarding the reconciliation process are taught to students. And the fact that more multinational enterprises are employing experts in this field of reconciliation / mediation. The multinationals cannot (anymore) afford unnecessary loss suffered due to disagreement and / or lack of reconciliation. The Business Case for employing an expert is easily delivered. The process leading to reconciliation is not static. The process can vary greatly at each situation. Factors which play an roll are: the culture of the people / companies, traditions regarding reconciliation and the custom and manners of the country. To my knowledge there is no generic method which is applicable in every situation. For example, it is common in the Somali culture  to quickly ‘justify’ the conflict and to keep the reconciliation process as short. Unlike Somali culture, in the Netherlands mediators take the time to understand the conflict and the 'talk things out'. So no quick handshake in the Netherlands, and certainly no kissing on the cheek, unless the reconciliation process is fully completed.

Somalia

For more than 20 years, Somalia is ravaged by a conflict that has escalated into a war. A conflict that not only damaged the country financial, but also cost many lives. One could argue that the conflict in Somalia is due to: foreign interference, lack of confidence among the Somalis, domestic politics, tribal politics and the like. One could also argue that foreign intervention from: Ethiopia, Kenya, EU, U.S. or UN, is on the request of one or more tribes in Somalia. The lack of trust however, is entirely due to the tribal politic that politicians in the past have exercised in order to favor the own tribe. Many Somalis agree that the current conflict is tribal related.

To resolve t his conflict, it is important that the cause of the conflict is jointly determined.

In recent years Somalia has had a number of transitional governments that have tried to initiate a reconciliation process. Unfortunately, none of them managed to actually initiate, let alone to go through the entire process. The Ministry of Reconciliation failed to justify its existence. This failure can be blamed for the laxity on the part of the ministry, to its attempt to formally and jointly determine the cause of the conflict. This failure is also due to lack of knowledge regarding the reconciliation process. For example, officials from the Ministry of Reconciliation have confused the reconciliation process and the trial of war criminals. The officials were occupied with determining which tribe should be considered perpetrator or victim and got lost from the reconciliation track.

Each tribe seem to know for sure that it has suffered and therefore a victim of the conflict. None of the tribes consider itself as perpetrator. The Somali government have the obligation and must prosecute the suspects of war criminals. But a court is not where the Somali conflict can be solved.

In order to solve the conflict, it is essential that for the Ministry of Reconciliation, a minister is appointed who has the support of the Somali tribes and don’t practice tribal politics to favor the own tribe. He or she must be a minister with knowledge and competent enough to manage the reconciliation process in accordance with Somali tradition.

Example

The Minister may visit the Somali tribes from f Raaskamboni to Raasasayr. Because of the absence of perpetrator, he should speak on behalf of all the Somali tribes in case he is apologizing. This must be done according to the Somali tradition, such as transferring a number of dromedaries, digging wells and planting trees. Perhaps this may be considered cheap by some, but traditionally this ‘symbols’ have much value. This "peace trees" could serve as a peace agreement between neighboring tribes who use the same wells.

no doubt the conflict will not be resolved by ‘symbolic actions’. But this is a good start. It is conceivable that the Australian government would assist the Minister, as the country currently have not found a good solution for the growing number of feral camels in Australia.

Requirements

The minister must have sufficient confidence of the Somalis and the Somali tribes. The minister should avoid any appearance of tribal politics and should not get involved in the trial of suspects of war crimes. It’s not a secret that many of these suspects are praised by their tribes. In recent years they were the only ones holding up the shield when their tribe got involved battles.

In addition, the minister must have extensive knowledge of the reconciliation process and of conflict dynamics, so that he can choose a method to solve the conflict:

·         Win-lose

·         Lose-lose

·         Win-win strategy

No doubt the new minster will find it difficult to earn the trust of the Somalis and the tribes, who have not seen justice and objectivity in years. But if the minister comes with an attitude and approach that are consistent with the Somali tradition, this may make it easy to earn their trust.