Guilty conscious or just business

November 14, 2004

Anyone who closely watches Somali affairs is bound to notice how the government of Yemen has embarked on frantic diplomacy after the newly Somali parliament was constituted, which subsequently elected a former army officer Abdullahi Yusuf as interim president.

At the swearing in ceremony of the newly elected Somali president, Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was the only Arab leader who was present at the inauguration in Nairobi. President Saleh said to the crowd in the ceremony "We are profoundly concerned about the stability and recovery of this country. On this occasion, we assert our solid stand in supporting it and consolidating with the Somali people in every aspect related to security".

Soon after the ceremony, the Yemen government invited people who are very close to the interim president such as his son and his legal adviser. Mr Yusuf paid state visit to Yemen less than a month after he came to power. Ministers of Foreign affairs in Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia met in Ethiopia at the end of October to discuss the idea of sending peacekeeping force to Somali. The government of Saleh urged the Arab League to set up an Arab fund that would assist Somalia to rebuild the country

Ahmed Al-Basha, Head of the African Department at Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said “In the past, Yemen has repeatedly asked the Arab League to help a government in Somalia establish peace, create a democratic government and rebuild the country”. It seems that Yemen has the interests of Somalia at heart. However, when one looks back at how Yemen behaved in the past the evidence could not be in more contrast to what Al-Basha said. The facts show how Yemen has contributed to the destruction of Somalia, especially how it has exported arms to Somalia despite the UN arms embargo and how it has ill-treated refugees from Somalia. Therefore, one cannot fail to wonder whether Yemen is supporting this government to load off of its guilty conscious or for just business, so it can supply more army hardware to Somalia, but this time legally.

Yemen like many countries in the region has been consistently accused of violating arms embargo on Somalia since 1992. According to the BBC, Hussien Aideed visited Yemen in February 1999 and left with three planeloads of weapons. A small vessel from Yemen arrived on 19 August 2001 at the port of Marero Jetty, Somalia, approximately 10 km east of Boosaaso. It was alleged that it was carrying weapons for Jama Ali Jama, one of the Puntland leaders.

A letter dated 25 March 2003 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee to the President of the Security Council says “Yemen provided a small amount of military assistance to the Transitional National Government, soon after it was established at the Arta Conference in Djibouti. More importantly Yemen also appears to be a significant private source of weapons through two conduits. First, there are reportedly high-level officials within the Government of Yemen who are willing to

provide Yemeni end-user certificates and facilitate the sale and delivery of weapons to officials of the Transitional National Government (Yemeni officials deny this). Second, businessmen in Yemen obtain weapons and ammunition from the general population in Yemen that are then shipped to Somalia, where demand and prices are much higher.”

Sadly, failing to respect the UN arms embargo by the Yemen meant weapons sold by the Yemen were used to slaughter Somali civilians, violate basic human rights and destroy many lives. The policy of Yemen caused many Somalis to flee from their country and seek refuge in Yemen. Unfortunately, many of them did not make the journey. A report produced by the U.S. Committee for Refugees states “Those (Somalis) who reached Yemen during the year (2002) crossed the Gulf of Aden in often-perilous journeys that reportedly cost several hundred refugees their lives when their makeshift boats sank.”

Even those who were fortune enough to reach the shores of Yemen alive were deported forcefully. Kathy Gay, a member of Amnesty International, writes “in August 1995, the government of Yemen began a campaign of deportation against so-called "illegal" residents. Thousands of foreign nationals, particularly Somalis, were arrested and forcibly deported as a result of this campaign. Even people recognized as refugees by the UNHCR were deported. According to Yemen's Minister of the Interior, by January 1997 18,000 individuals had been deported since the campaign began.”

A statement issued by the UNHCR on 29 August 1995 went further by saying “According to some reports, police involved in the operation beat refugees, destroyed property, forcibly separated adults from their children and confiscated documents proving refugee status.” Yemen took extreme measures against these refugees although it is the first and only country in the Arabian Peninsula to have signed the 1951Convention and its 1967 Protocol. Furthermore, Yemen has open door policy but the door revolves and many refugees never reach refugee camps.

Those refugees who manage to remain in Yemen face constant challenges. For instance, it is estimated that there are around 80,000 Somali refugees in Yemen and refugees are allowed to work in accordance with Article 17 of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Government of the Republic of Yemen permits refugees the right to work. But a Report on the Situation of Refugees in Yemen produced by the American University of Cairo in 2002 says “not one refugee interviewed had been granted a work permit by the Ministry of Labour nor had they heard of any others being granted such a permit, even with the required UNHCR letter.”

Although there is no permit requirement to access education and healthcare in Yemen but both services are not easily available to refugees. It is reported that refugee children encounter daily discrimination from both students and teachers alike in Yemeni schools. Refugee women who have gynaecological problems are not given any medical support if their husbands are not there and this puts Somali women in a very difficult position since most of them do not have their husbands with them in Yemen.

Husayn Haji Ahmad, the acting Somali Consul-General in Aden, once said “There is no paradise here. They (refugees) will not find a better life, only death at sea and broken dreams. They will be better off staying put.” I could not agree more with what Mr Ahmad said but these people are not seeking a paradise, sorry to say, they cannot stay put in their country because of countries like Yemen, which are inflaming the crises in Somalia by delivering arms and ammunition to a war-ravaged country while pretending to be championing the restoration of the Somali nation.

If Yemen is serious about Somalia, its words must match its actions. Or the words of Saleh “We are profoundly concerned about the stability and recovery of this country. On this occasion, we assert our solid stand in supporting it and consolidating with the Somali people in every aspect related to security” will always be considered a great line to deliver more arms and ammunitions to Somalia. I have underlined ‘on this occasion’ to remind Yemen officials that they are promising to act differently than they use to.