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| Last Updated: Nov 3, 2008 - 11:09:50 PM |
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Somalia: Election in Mogadishu will be neither fair nor free
3 Sep 3, 2008 - 11:52:56 AM
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By
Abdi Mohamed Al-
Where are now the true residents of Mogadishu? Sometimes, we Somalis, act as if there was no yesterday and there is no tomorrow. How do you conduct elections in a city where all its citizens were ethnically cleansed? In 1991, I was one of millions of Mogadishu residents. I and my family are one of those cleansed from their homes. My family had properties (a home and store). Our beautiful home was in Bondheere. My late father who did not survive beyond 1991 had a thriving business in Xamar Weyne.
Like any capital city, since 1991 Mogadishu was home to millions of hard working Somalis. Inhabitants of Mogadishu, there were always those whose ancestors had lived there for hundreds of years. Many also came from all the regions of Somalia. In the 60s and 70s, tens of thousands of Somalis who settled in Mogadishu also came from Djibouti, Somaliland, Kenya and Ethiopia. In Mogadishu were also thriving communities from Yemen, India, Pakistan, Italy, Egypt and others.
Since 1969 when the Revolutionary Socialist government came to power in Somalia, one of the communist doctrines implemented was to make the capital the most important place in the country. This was being done at the expense of all the regions. Little was left in regions for the people to hand on. All development and projects were implemented in the capital. Most of the factories were erected in the capital. This communist model was to deliberately draw urban population to settle in the capital. In early 1970, the revolutionary government in Somalia was advised by the Soviets to promote this policy. Even simple things such as placing international phone calls and catching flights to travel abroad you had to go to Mogadishu. Even Hajji or Ummra you needed to go to the capital. The best hospitals were only built in Mogadishu. Higher education and university education was only to be found in Mogadishu. This was a clear message to families in the regions who did not want to stick in abandoned and deadend regions to sell out assets and settle in the capital.
This was the case in all Communist and Socialist countries. In the Soviet Union, everything was established Moscow. In communist South Yemen, everything was made available in the capital Aden. In Revolutionary Somalia too people were encouraged to flow to Mogadishu. Anybody who had businesses and properties took their money and went to the capital. The aim of this communist policy was to make the control and management of population easy for the government.
In early 1970s there was the popular song “Mogadishu” which made the capital Mogadishu like a rocket which was going to another planet. Everyone in the regions thought they should not miss the bus. That bus was Mogadishu. Because of this property in Mogadishu became one of the most expensive in Africa. In 1989 some properties would change hands for hundreds of dollars.
Where are now the original resudents of Mogadishu? The original residents who did not die on the high seas or by malaria in the bushes are scattered all over the world. We have to ask ourselves who are the current residents of Mogadishu? This is one of the unresolved injustices of the war in Somalia. Since 1991, tens of thousand houses and businesses owned by Somalis are illegally held. They are squatted by a newcomer population from the countryside. The real residents of Mogadishu are suffering in Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen and other parts of Africa, Europe, America and Australia.. Many have died on the high seas and in the bushes.
Truth must be told. To hold elections in Mogadishu now at this stage is to add insult to injury. The issue of Mogadishu is like the Jerusalem issue. It is yet to be resolved. The Somali nation is waiting for a national government to solve this and many issues. For that reason, holding elections in Mogadishu will be far from fair and free. To conduct elections in Mogadishu is to commit crime against humanity. The Transitional Federal Government should not allow the conduct of this injustice. We cannot build Somalia on a mountain of injustice.
By
Abdi Mohamed Ali
Abdimoali2008@yahoo.ca
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