CAPE TO CAIRO - 15

Two million people live in the bombed-out Somalian capital of Mogadishu, but surely only one of them has a valid German health insurance card in his pocket (AOK Baden Württemberg: date of expiry 2010) He also has the familiar pink German driver's licence. Both documents are kept sandwiched in the passport which identifies the bearer, Abdullfattah Ibrahim Rashid, as a German citizen. But that's not all - "I've been a Social Democrat, a supporter of the SPD, for the last thirty years" says Rashid in German with a slight Swabian accent. He raises a banner of the SPD Somalia, recently founded by himself, showing the German eagle with the stars of Somalia.

"...felt sorry for the thieves"
There are any number of crazy people in Somalia, some more likeable than others, but Rashid must top the list. At the age of twenty one he was a city councillor in Somalia, but fled to Germany in 1971 to escape from the socialist dictator Siad Barre. Germany gave him political asylum. He did a German language course at the Goethe Insitute in Murnau ("Lake Constance is wonderful!") and then won a scholarship from the Otto Benecker Foundation to study electrical engineering in Coburg. Then he went to work as a store detective in Nuremberg ("I always felt sorry for the thieves!"). Between 1978 and 1982, he was employed by Daimler in Karlsruhe as a clerk, then retrained as a salesman ("I wanted to become a dental technician, but the job centre turned me down") Then he joined Germany's industrial inspection board and later managed his own emplyoment agency, "Tough Staff". From those days, he still has some debts, but also his wife, Brigitte and four children. It's not hard to see why Somalis are Africa's most diligent entrepreneurs.

Elected minister for justice and religious affairs
Rashid returned home in April 2000 after spending almost thirty years in Germany to prepare the historic Arta conference. It was a well-meaning but abortive attempt to unite Somalia which had been torn apart by nine years of civil war. Rashid became an MP, later he was elected minister for justice and religious affairs -- two highly responsible posts. In view of the anarchy that pervades the country -- Somalia is ruled by warlords -- the transitional government is more or less powerless. The establishment of a functioning judiciary is therefore a task that needs urgent attention.

"All Somalis love Germany"
As minister for religious affairs, Rashid works closely with the sheiks, the country's influential religious leaders. It is his job to convince foreign governments that Somalia is not a hotbed of fundamentalist extremism as often claimed by the United States and Somlia's arch enemy, Ethiopia. "Yet it could turn into that, if the rest of the world continues to ignore Somalia", he warns. He tried to organise an interdenominational conference in Germany. "All Somalis love Germany", he said. "The Germans have done nothing wrong here, unlike the Americans and the Italians, the bastards!" (the former colonial power dumped nuclear waste off the Somalian coast.)

"Landshut" - hijacked to Mogadishu by the Red Army Faction
Then there were the events of 1977 when Germans and Somalis worked together to secure the release of the hostages on board the Lufthansa "Landshut" plane. "Since that time we have been brother nations" say the Somalis. Both German states the helped the country train its police and armed forces and build a drinking water plant. It is still intact, but is blocked by two rival gangs which is why the two million inhabitants of Mogadishu are still drinking dirty water.

Petersberg conference for Somalia?
With such close ties, the disappointment at the lack of interest shown by the country's friends in its reconstruction is all the more intense. "Where are the Germans ?" asks one of the MPs, when I visit parliament (photo right) together with Rashid. During an interview the speaker of the parliament says what is needed is a Petersberg Conference for Somalia, similar to the one staged for Afghanistan.

Need grass roots initiative
"There would be no point to it" says Jürgen Prieske, who heads Nairobi office of the Stuttgart aid organisation Diakonie/Brot für die Welt, one of the few NGOs still maintaining a presence in Somalia. "We need a grass roots inititiative, that involves the clan chiefs. The meeting must also be held in Somalia itself and not in some foreign country." Prieske was referring to marathon negotiations, which have been taking place in Kenya for the last twelve months at a cost of some seven million euros. "It is a circus", say the Somalis, "all they do there is drink whisky and chase women" (and drive the Kenyan hoteliers into bankruptcy. In spite of the enormous budget, a number of the conference hotels have been forced to declare themselves insolvent because of unpaid bills.)

"...wants to turn us into Germans"
"They should stop chattering and come to some sort of an agreement" says Rashid, his Swabian accent growing broader in anger. But his words fall on deaf ears. "He wants to turn us into Germans" say his fellow ministers. Rashid's opportunities to change things are indeed limited. He has no proper office (photo left), no telephone and no salary. "If my children knew I was doing all this voluntarily, they would say I was mad", says the minister shaking his head.

No taxes, no inland revenue
Somalia remains trapped in a state which somebody here described as "not war, but not peace either". The warlords with their gangs of gun-toting thirteen year olds have staked out their claims and the spoils have been evenly distributed (photo: warlord Musse Suudi). Somalia's business community also profits from the absence of central authority. One crafty entrepreneur simply privatised the port. All imports (rice, sugar, and probably weapons) and exports (bananas, charcoal and meat) pass through his hands. He makes lots of money. There are no taxes in Somalia, because there is no inland revenue and the finance minister has song since departed for Dubai.

Warlords wanted money
"Our people are crazy" says Rashid. He is probably right. A Karlsruhe firm gave him two garbage trucks so that he could start clearing up the mountains of rubbish in his country. A nice idea, but not practicable. The Mogadishu warlords wanted money from Rashid before they would give him permission to clear away the refuse.

Environment and animal rights!
Abdullahfattah Ibrahim Rashid (photo: with German passport). A wanderer between worlds who can't forget Germany. When speaking of a Somali candidate for president struck down by ill-health, he tells me. "it is as if Helmut Schmidt with his heart condition were to have run for the German chancellorship in 1998".

Rashid wants to found an environmental and animal rights party, an idea that Somalians greet with peals of laughter. After all, trees are felled for charcoal exports and thrashing underfed mules is a national pastime.

But the greening of the minister is clearly just a cover for other ambitions. The militia that will initially protect trees from being cut down, will eventually become the vanguard of larger force that Abdulfattah Ibrahim Rashid will lead as he marches into Mogadishu as a warlord who will subjugate all other warlords and the declare himself president. Just wait until the Social Democrats in Germany hear about that!

Mogadishu, 23rd December 2003