Local Somalis fearful about future

Somali refugee Farhan Idan has spent much of the last week worrying about the safety of his mother and other relatives in his war-weary homeland.

The 44-year-old is angered by what he calls an invasion of Somalia by troops from neighboring Ethiopia — an archenemy with a large Christian population and massive army that last week vanquished an Islamic movement that had largely run Somalia since June.

Political developments from home have been the topic du jour among many of the Puget Sound's estimated 17,000 Somali immigrants and refugees who have gathered together in recent days.

Last week, the Ethiopians, with tacit U.S. support, cleared the way for Somalia's internationally recognized secular government — two years after it was formed and 16 years after the last government collapsed — to finally take control of the East African nation.

With some Somalis protesting the Ethiopian presence and the retreating Islamists warning that they won't simply go away, Idan fears that his country is about to slide back into the kind of anarchy that forced him and thousands of others to flee during the violent 1990s.

Abdurahman Jama, executive director of East African Community Services, has no such dire predictions. He sees recent political developments as the start of a new era for Somalia. After nearly 16 years, he says hopefully, Somalia can finally have a government.

"Our people need institutions: We have no schools, no running water, no health institutions," said Jama, who has lived in the U.S. for seven years. "Somalis can't travel outside the country because their existence is not recognized. We can't have any of those things without a government.

"I believe with the new year we'll have a new Somalia."

On this, local Somali immigrants are divided: Where a few see hope, most see despair.

Somalia has been without a government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and pushed the country into a bloody civil war when they turned on one another.

Two years ago, the United Nations brought together a mix of clan leaders and former warlords to form a new government. Bullied by warlords, who controlled towns and villages throughout the country, it never took control.

In June, a clan-based Islamic movement, which many Western nations accused of having terrorist connections, moved in to fill the power void. The group's strict interpretation of Islam raised fears of Taliban-style rule. They banned women from swimming at the main beach in Mogadishu, banned movie viewing, and introduced public executions.

But many local Somali refugees credited the Islamists with positives, too. They expelled the warlords, cleaned up the streets and dispensed with clan and tribal preferences.

Many refugees, who have not returned to their country, had begun entertaining the idea of visiting relatives there, said Idan, who has been in the U.S. for 10 years. He had hoped he might be able finally to visit his aging mother.

"We've talked about taking the children back to visit," he said. "We're not going to get back there now."

Inside a Somali-owned restaurant in Columbia City on Friday, Yusuf Ali said under the Islamists, Somalia experienced a few months of rare stability. "A lot of people in Somalia were grateful to them. Now the warlords are back and there will be revenge killings."

On top of that, Ali said, the Somali people's strong dislike for Ethiopia means that a Somali government backed by the Ethiopians is unlikely to win the full trust of the Somali people. "Things will only get worse," he said.

But Jama, of the East African Community Services, points out that Ethiopia's presence in Somalia is at the request of the Somali government. "It's not an invasion. Ethiopia has no intentions of occupying Somalia ... and will leave as soon as Somalia is able to reach peace."

Mahdy Maaweel, a Somali documentary filmmaker, said he has problems with both the Islamists and the Ethiopians, and trusts neither.

Given the animosity between the two countries — they went to war in 1977 — Ethiopia has no place in his homeland, he said.

He calls it a puppet of the U.S. government. "Somebody's fueling the fire here," he said. "Ethiopia happens to be a Christian rather than an Islamic nation."

And, he added, "We also have to question the intentions of the Islamists. They did a good job of clearing out the warlords. But we can't forget one of the leaders happens to be on the terrorist watch list."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420