The solution for Somalia must come out of Africa - Column

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 15, 1993 | by Kweisi Mfume

When the United States went into Somalia to help the starving people there, hardly anyone could dispute the humanitarian motives behind the effort. The United States was not going in to prop up a government, as in Vietnam, or remove a military drug lord, as in Panama, or serve as a wall between adversaries, as in Lebanon. For the first time in a long while, we were to be the so-called good guys.

For the most part, in the beginning, the mission was a success. Literally hundreds of thousands of lives were saved. But the mission changed in June when the United Nations, and then the United States, changed the focus from helping a nation recover its footing to chasing and catching a clan warlord who is blamed for an ambush that killed 24 Pakistani U.N. peacekeepers.

That is where the United States made its mistake. The U.S. should have left the policing of the area to the United Nations and continued feeding people and saving lives. When the focus shifted, we left the sure footing and bipartisan support we enjoyed last December for an unsteady course and a politically unwise policy. We must attempt to find a way to depersonalize our approach in Somalia while still holding responsible those parties who threaten the well-being of our troops.

President Clinton has at last moved us back in the right direction by narrowing and refocusing the policy in Somalia. The Congressional Black Caucus believes that we must follow through with the original goal of our mission, while making sure we do not get mired in internecine local conflicts.

One thing the United States cannot afford to do is cut and run. If the forces were withdrawn tomorrow, we would, as the president has stated, make American soldiers around the world sitting ducks. Any terrorist, strongman or dictator would think he could pick them off and face no penalty for his actions. We owe it to the men and women of our armed services both in Somalia and elsewhere to stand behind them and support our programs with proper policy.

If this is done, it will be possible for the United States to withdraw its forces come March with dignity and a true sense of fulfillment. We owe it to ourselves and our troops to give them that sense of mission achieved.

The other goal we should keep in mind is that x#e must allow for an African solution to an African problem. A true solution to this crisis would be one worked out regionally by the powers in the area. For the United States to impose a solution would be heavy-handed and paternalistic, and history has shown us to be poor kingmakers. For the United Nations to attempt the same would be folly as well. It is ill-equipped for the task, and such U.N. action would imply that the nations of Africa cannot be the masters of their own affairs.

We must also be honest with ourselves and admit there are truly no post-cold War experts. We live in a new world now, where there are new rules to be learned, new alliances to be forged and new commitments to be made. It is still an era fraught with uncertainty and risk, and one where friendships formed now may be the basis for true partnerships in the future.

The United States has an unprecedented opportunity to do this in Africa now and should not waste the chance. Both the Ethiopians and the Eritreans have come forward and expressed a willingness to mediate a solution to Somalia's troubles, and this is the best beginning to a lasting peace in the region. The fact that little attention has been paid to the desire of these nations to have a hand in the area's future is troubling, but it is something we have a historic opportunity to correct.

Allowing the voices of other African nations into the dialogue will quell any cries of U.S. "imperialism" and also help Somalia regain self-government and participation in the global arena of trade and diplomacy With the diplomatic support of the United States, the start toward a lasting peace and a democratic future for Somalia may be a nearby reality.

Kweisi Mfume is a Democratic congressman from Maryland and leader of the Congressional Black Caucus.