In this issue: * THE HIRAAB TREATY * OAKLEY ON AIDEED'S LINKS TO TEHERAN, KHARTOUM AND BAGHDAD * EGYPT AND SOMALILAND ____________________________________________________________________ S O M A L I A N E W S U P D A T E ____________________________________________________________________ Vol 3, No 3 January 19, 1994. ISSN 1103-1999 ____________________________________________________________________ Somalia News Update is published irregularly via electronic mail and fax. Questions can be directed to Bernhard.Helander@antro.uu.se or to fax number +46-18-151160. All SNU marked material is free to quote as long as the source is clearly stated. ____________________________________________________________________ THE HIRAAB TREATY (SNU, Uppsala, January 19) - 310 delegates from five Hawiye clans on Sunday reached an eight-point peace agreement. The conference had been convened by the Imam of Hiraab, Imam Mohamed Imam Omar and was held a the Kaah Hotel in northern Mogadishu January 13-16. The delegates were primarily traditional leaders but some prominent politicians were also seen attending the conference. The agreement calls upon the clans to resolve differences by peaceful means and prohibits further fighting among them. It says that damages and already caused by the war should be forgiven and forgotten. Forcefully appropriated property should be returned to its owners in keeping with the Muslim Shar'iya. The treaty also orders that all roads should be opened and their security be guaranteed. Significantly the text calls upon the signatories to jointly prevent acts of violence by armed bandits and gangs and that gangs should be punished according to the Shar'iya. The Hiraab conference appeals to all Hawiye clans and all Somalis to live in brotherhood and peace. The meeting also set up a committee consisting of 19 members from the different Hiraab clans who are also made responsible for the implementation of the treaty as a whole. The Hiraab subsection of the Gurgate division of the Hawiye comprises four major branches: the Martile to which the Sheekhaal clan belongs; the Mahamud which is composed of the Duduble clan; the Madar Ki'is to which the Habar Gedir clan belongs; and the Mudulod branch of the Abgaal and Darandole clans. The Imam of Hiraab is a hereditary position that traditionally is held by a person of the first-born branch, the Mudulod. The current Imam is also the Imam of Abgaal. After the meeting elders from various clans marched from the Kaah hotel to the Towfiiq hotel in southern Mogadishu to demonstrate their support for the agreement. Although neither the SNA faction to which many Habar Gedir belong, nor the USC of the Abgaal clan have endorsed the agreement, observers at the meeting believed that this direct treaty between the respective clans rather than their politicians and militaries could be of great significance in the endeavours to establish peace. If the treaty is implemented it would also serve to demonstrate the peace-making significance of the Somali indigenous social system. However, some Hawiye clans are conspicuously left out of the agreement. The Murosadde clan are not among the known signatories although they have affinal links with the Hiraab. Similarly, the Hawaadle who have had recent clashes with the Habar Gedir over the control of the Baraawe port, did not take part in the conference. There is also a notable absence of leaders from Aideed's own Sa'ad branch of the Habar Gedir clan. OAKLEY ON AIDEED'S LINKS TO TEHERAN, KHARTOUM AND BAGHDAD (SNU, Uppsala, January 16) - In an interview in the Lebanese magazine Al-Watan Al-Arabi, January 7, Ambassador Robert Oakley told the magazine's Washington reporter Muffid Abdirahim that he suspects the Iranians may have forwarded support for Aideed. Questioned on whether he thought the American attempts to seek a dialogue with Aideed's Somali National Alliance could help improve the situation in the region, Oakley pointed to the heroization of Aideed; "our mistakes have made him a Robin Hood". Oakley said the American strategy after March 31 when the majority of American soldiers are to be with-drawn from Somalia will be along the lines indicated at the humanitarian conference held in Addis in December last year. "We will seek to provide economic support for the reconstruction of the country", Oakley said but went on to point out the problem posed by the demonstrated support for Aideed provided by Sudan, Libya and Iran. "According to the CIA", Oakley told Al-Watan's reporter, "Aideed has sent thousands of Somalis for military training in camps in the Sudan and Iran". Asked on whether there were any reports indicating Iraqi involvement Oakley repeated that there were firm evidence for the Iranian and Sudanese support but that he personally suspected that Iraqi officers had visited Somalia during the civil war. Oakley reminded of the massive Iraqi training extended to the Eritreans and Siyad Barre's army up to 1990 and that many Somalis have retained close links with the Iraqis. The Al-Watan article mentions that "a very close relative of Aideed" recently visited Teheran and "was given modern arms". SNU has been informed that at least one SNA visit to Teheran took place after the humanitarian conference in Addis. It may also turn out to be of some significance that the Ethiopian Ambassador to Teheran is a Somali of the Ogadeen-clan, a sub-section of which is allied with Aideed in the SNA. EGYPT AND SOMALILAND (SNU, Uppsala, January 19) - The director for the department for Somalia and Djibouti at the Egyptian ministry for foreign affairs, Mr. Ibrahim Sahaaban, on Tuesday gave a speech at a conference about Somalia hosted by the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies in Uppsala. Mr. Sahaaban spoke broadly on the Egyptian policy towards Somalia as one of general support and "brotherly and Muslim concerns". Mr. Sahaaban - who made it clear that while he spoke as a private person his views did not differ from those of his government - said that he could not see any benefit coming to the Somali people from the secession of the north. He was referring to the foundation of the independent Somaliland Republic who broke away from the conflict-ridden south on May 18, 1991, and who has since been able to establish a relative stability and engaged in a broadly supported reconciliation process unaided by the UN. Somaliland's minister of interior, Muse Bihi Abdi, who was also attending the meeting replied by giving a detailed account for Egypt's support to the former dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre. He explained that nearly half of the mines that the Barre regime dug down in the north and that still constitutes a major threat for normal life, are of Egyptian origin. Mr. Sahaaban denied that this was true and also pointed out that if mines had been supplied by Egypt it was because of the "close relations between the two countries" but that all arms supplies had been stopped before the SNM had been founded. SNM was founded in London in 1981. Egypt maintained a military presence in Somalia until two weeks before Siyad Barre was toppled in January 1991. ____________________________________________________________________ SNU is an entirely independent newsletter devoted to critical analysis of the political and humanitarian developments in Somalia and Somaliland. SNU is edited and published by Dr. Bernhard Helander, Uppsala University, Sweden. SNU is produced with support from the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. ____________________________________________________________________