The news is shocking. Most people in Mogadishu are not delighted this news "the capture of Saddam Hussein" and they consider it as bad news.

Some say this is unbelievable and beyond their imagination, while others like me in Mogadishu think it is possible to capture Saddam Hussein but the question is if the capture of Saddam Hussein was so relatively easy and simple why not before? They said he has been hiding in a spider hole in his ancestral farmhouse in Tikrit for months. What the childish and cheap news this is!

I believe his capture came after long hours of negotiations. This might be between Saddam loyalists and the Coalition Authority though external nations might take part the truce, possibly like France, Germany,Russia and some arab countries.

If this is true, the negotiations were significant to both the Iraqi Governing Council as well as the Coalition led by Bush and Blair governments. It will give a new chance to both of them, for Coalition they want to stay longer in Iraq and exploit its natural resources where also the Iraqi Governing Council would like to have new opportunities to run peace, democratic and stable Iraqi administration in the very near future.

However and whenever time it took Saddam Hussein has been captured without resistance. The great man is at the end in his enemy's prison.

Something that is very interesting to know is that this will send a warning signal to Osama Bin Ladin and he would at leat know he is the second main fugitive at large and American administration will add up all its personnel and money to enable his capture or murder.

I hope Americans anywhere in the planet are aware that this is only a moral support and will last for only few more days. the Iraqi insurgents and resistance will continue regardless of Saddam Hussin's capture and I believe if it is true Saddam Hussein has been hiding in a spider hole in his farmhouse in Tikrit the last months then the man who has been in charge of organizing and launching such brutal and bravery attacks to the Coalition troops is still alive and active.

According to what I believe it is possible the insurgents will increase with fragmented leadership where any loyalist would take his/her own responsibility to launch attacks against the Coalition and this may worsen the situation. May this come to existence, it will be very difficult to the Coalition to get a solution, they will not have something to entertain to the occupying troops to resist to the Iraqi insurgents nor they will have a single figure to chase like Saddam Hussein. They will not also have at least some one to negotiate about the situation.

This is my personal views and any positive or negative comments against it should be directly forwarded to me.
Thank you very much.

Yours Sincerely

Ali-Said Omar

SOMALI PEACE FOUNDATION

TERRORISM AND FAILED STATE (SOMALIA)

Introduction

After the 11th September terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the world has faced new challenges and unanimously agreed to fight and punish terror through means of diplomacy, socioeconomic and military intervention issues.

In our believes, the terrorists who assaulted the United States on September 11, 2001 intended for one nation but harmed the entire world in social, business and political manners.

The speeches of the world leaders regarding the issue of counter terrorism were almost similar and encouraging.

Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan said on his 21 September Speech on fighting terrorism on global front “The international community is defined not only by what it is for, but by what and whom it is against”.

After hearing the speeches of President Bush of the United States of America, the Secretary of State of the United States Collin Powel, the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield and the Attorney General John Ashkrof, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other world leaders, a group of Somali intellectuals come together and discussed the threats of terrorism and the necessary strategies needed to fight against terror.

They emphasized the need to fight against terror and were to meet and discuss the security situation in the world and Somalia in particular, the absence of an effective administration body in the country and the need for them to come out of isolation and seek ways and solutions for the critical current problems of terrorism facing the world communities in general.

As soon as the discussions and meetings continued, the intellectuals agreed at last to create and organization that stands for protection of Human Rights in Somalia and participate the global effort to tackle terrorism.

This and many more reasons caused the intellectuals to emerge through Foundation for Peace and Justice in Somalia by their hope to bring social reformation and changes by protecting Human Rights and joining the global mission against terror.

Terrorism in International Definition

In the context of the Policy Working Group of the United Nations and Counter terrorism Committee, terrorism has been defined as follows:

The notion of terrorism is applied to a great diversity of groups with different origins and goals. Terrorism occurs in wealthy countries as well as in poor countries, in democracies as well as in authoritarian states and weak or failed states.

Thus, there exists no single root cause of terrorism, or even a common set of causes. There are, however, a number of prerequisites and precipitants for the emergence of various forms of terrorism.

One limitation of the “root cause” approach is the underlying idea that terrorists are just passive pawns of the social, economic and psychological forces around them, doing what these “causes” compel them to do.

It is more useful to see terrorists as rational and intentional actors who develop deliberate strategies to achieve political objectives.

They make their choices between different options and tactics, on the basis of the limitations and possibilities of the situation.

With these reservations in mind, it is nevertheless useful to try to identify some conditions and circumstances that give rise to terrorism, or that at least provide a fertile ground for radical groups wanting to use terrorist methods to achieve their objectives.

Preconditions set the stage for terrorism in the long run. They are of a relatively general and structural nature, producing a wide range of social outcomes of which terrorism is only one.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the international community, from every corner of the sphere to act on its own and come with new strategies.

Terrorism and Failed State

The overthrow of the former Somali military government of president “Siad Barre” was aimed to form and introduce social and political changes and restore democracy, but unfortunately, it caused internal conflicts between races, ethnic groups, and political factions.

Subsequent fighting among rival faction leaders resulted in the massacre, displacement, and starvation of thousands of persons and led the United Nations military intervention in 1992.

Violence and social turbulences following its wake propelled the communities to live disastrous lives, the continuation of the abuses of the rights of Somali people and failure to compromise.

A lot of efforts carried out by the international community aimed to reconcile Somali people almost ended in failure, the mentionable are the Cairo Conference in December 1997, which failed, in its final stage.

It was September 1999 when Djibouti president Ismail Omar Guelleh announced an initiative on Somalia to facilitate reconciliation under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development IGAD, which resulted the Transitional National Government with a National Assembly in the year of 2000.

Also the Transitional National Government failed to complete the reconciliation process, to invite warlords who did not participate the Arta reconciliation conference and also failed to take over the control of the country – even the full control of Mogadishu city alone.

Serious human rights abuses continued through out the 13 years of anarchy and disorder in the country. There are numerous reports of human rights abuses in different parts of Somalia year after a year and failure to compromise.

Without an effective central government it is not possible to maintain right judicial system, full protection of human rights and preserve the rights of innocent Somali people.

However, the civil wars continued and political factions challenged the leadership and control of the country, the country has changed to be where there is no control and anyone with any plan from any corner of the planet may easily come into it without the necessary needed clearances.

Since the last UN peacekeeping forces pulled out in early 1995, Somalia has been largely forgotten – relegated to being one of the world’s chief examples of a “failed state” – and assumed to a be a land of lawlessness and chronic, criminally opportunistic, conflict.

With regard to, significant sources this negligence encouraged some foreigners to come to Somalia in 1995 and secretly or even some places publicly made their bases and terrorist networks inside Somalia.

These terrorists might have been able to plan and carry out terrorist attacks inside and outside Somalia through some Somali individuals who have been members of their network organizations.

Now that, the international community has renewed its interest in Somalia because of the threat of terrorism from terrorist groups using the environment of the Somali collapsed state as a safe haven to operate with impunity.

Lack of democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law is a precondition for many forms of domestic terrorism.

Such terrorism has been a threat to Somalia for over a decade and remains so today. Confronting it however, requires a detailed assessment of the country’s history and recent suspected activities as well as making direct relations with Somali community through concerned organizations.

Somalia is not only a failed state but where there is no rule of law and stability as well; the possibility and suspicion of terrorist activities in Somalia were alarming after September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

According to significant intelligent sources there has once been suspected terrorist bases in some parts of Somalia, although a research related to this operation conducted by Foundation for Peace and Justice in Somalia has not yet been completed for technical and financial reasons.

Somalia is a completely failed state lacking the capacity of the will to exercise territorial control and maintain a domination of violence.

This leaves a power space that terrorist organizations may take advantage of to maintain safe shelter, training facilities and bases for launching terrorist operations.

Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world, which has been unsuccessful to form effective and powerful central government in the last 13 years, and this is one of the highest possibilities that might have encouraged terrorist organizations to make their bases and safe havens in Somalia.


Vulnerability of Terrorist Membership

Foundation for Peace and Justice in Somalia acknowledges that the radical ideologies of secular or religious nature are at least an immediate cause of terrorism, although people usually adopt such extremist ideologies as a consequence of more fundamental political or personal reasons.

When these worldviews are adopted and applied in order to interpret situations and guide action, they tend to take on a dynamics of their own, and many serve to dehumanize the enemy and justify atrocities.

However, individuals may join extremist groups for different reasons, some are true believers who are motivated by ideology and political goals whereas others get involved for selfish interests or because belonging to strong groups which is important to their identity.

In this case, our organization judges the most important strategy to fight against terror is to block and stop new and prospective members who are willing to join terrorist groups and networks.

Foundation for Peace and Justice in Somalia had already accomplished to put new strategies, which could facilitate fighting against terror through human rights education programs.

Human Rights and Terrorism:

According to the United Nations position, the protection of human rights under the rule of law is essential in the prevention of terrorism.

It was clear for the international community that terrorism often grows in environments in which human rights are heavily violated and therefore, terrorists may take advantage of human rights violations to gain support for their cause.

Foundation for Peace and Justice in Somalia believes that terrorism itself is a violation of human rights and should be prevented using the best possible strategies.

Since Somalia is a failed state, which has no effective and powerful central government, it is therefore suffering from widespread violations of human rights and possible terrorist threats.

Foundation for Peace and Justice in Somalia acknowledges that protecting human rights and improving its status will on the other hand, support fighting against terror.

Our Position towards Counter Terrorism

The terrorist attacks on the United States of America on 11 September 2001 caused international community to focus on the issue of terrorism with renewed concentration.

Within the span of few weeks, the Security Council unanimously passed resolution 1368 (2001) and 1373 (2001), the general assembly adopted resolution 56/1 by consensus, and convened a special session.

Each of these steps served to underline, the dept of shared international commitment to affective, sustained and multilateral response to the problems of terrorism.

Foundation for Peace and Justice in Somalia determined to take its responsibility from its part of the planet to facilitate the participation of antiterrorism activities, which are to be carried out globally through bilateral and multilateral cooperation not only among national agencies devoted to law enforcement, intelligence and security but also nongovernmental organizations as well.

We believe that terrorist acts have been carried out by specific groups with limited list of items, using small weapons, other explosives and within the boundaries of individual states and could be prevented from harming the international regulations.

Overtime, groups based in one country may take on a transnational character, carrying out attacks across one border, receiving funding from private parties or a government across another, and gaining arms from multiple sources.

Terrorism in a single country can readily become a threat to regional peace and security owing to spoil over effects, such as cross border violence and the creation of refugee populations.

Recommendations:

Foundation for Peace and Justice would be very glad to release recommendations on human rights and counter terrorism issues:

1. The world should give special promotion to the protection of human rights in Somalia through concerned organizations.

2. Democracy and good governance programs should be implemented and enhanced through seminars.

3. The international community should give special attention to the suspicions and possibilities of terrorist activities in east Africa by contacting the right organizations.

4. Somali warlords should be accounted for their actions against human rights and should be brought to justice on the right time.

5. The ongoing Mbgathi reconciliation conference should be assisted with all possible ways and means and failure of it should be avoided.

6. Violations of human rights in Somalia should be assured and accounted for the responsible authorities.

7. A direct framework should be established to easy the contact between Somali human rights organizations and the international community.

8. The pressure from the international community on Somali warlords should be improved and forced them to make compromises and bring immediate durable solution to end the longstanding instability and disorder in Somalia.

9. Counter terrorism and human rights advocates groups should be supported with technical and financial assistances.

Conclusion:

Since the formation of the Foundation for Peace and Justice in Somalia, the organization has been carrying out its operations with great consideration.

The organization released oral and written statements against violations of human rights in Somalia, including kidnapping of minority people and asking for ransom, killing of innocent people like children, women, doctors and business people.

From the beginning, the organization wished to take survey around its target area by taking closer look on the standards of human rights, suspicions towards possible terrorist acts but those plans are not yet been converted to practical means because of technical and financial reasons.

Most of Somali people consider that the Somali Reconciliation Conference in Mbgathi is the last effort from the international community and that if it fails the future of Somali people will remain abandoned, so that the conference should be enforced and guaranteed to be fruitful.

Therefore, we are asking the international community to assist us in our struggle towards protection of human rights and counter terrorism mission.

May the international community assist us, we would be ready to take active role in the global mission against terror and improve human rights education in Somalia.

The hand of assistance from the international community is highly significant for overcoming terror and enhancing human rights in Somalia.