Reports Leo Odera Omolo
REPORTS emerging from Dar Es Salaam says that Tanzania has stepped up its border security in the wake of the Kampala twin terrorist bomb attacks that claimed the lives of 76 people.
The Tanzania Peoples Defense Force {TPDF} says in a press statement that fending the country’s border is a daily activity, but now that the soldiers are more alert than ever before.
The Defense and National Service Minister Dr. Ali Mwinyi was early this week quoted by press as saying East African armies are currently holding joint security meetings regarding the security of the regional economic bloc.
The Minister said that the situation in Mogadishu needs a joint effort to restore peace and political stability before the terrorist spreads to the rest of East Africa –the immediate neighbors of the conflict prone country in the Horn of Africa.
Asked as to when Tanzanian troops will be send to reinforce the peacekeeping forces in Somalia, the Minister said,” we are yet to reach a conclusion” without indicating when the government will decide over the issue.”
East African countries have all voted to increase the peacekeeping troops in Somalia from 6,100 to 8,100.
Dr Mwinyi also said that the TPDF is not training soldiers for the Somali Transitional Government, which the Al-Shabab militia, widely seen as being responsible for the Kampala attacks is hell-bent to overthrow.
Al-Shabaab, it has bee noted, has never before attacked any targets outside Somalia. The July 11 attack in Kampala was the first one, but it came after the Mogadish based terrorists had warned both Uganda and Burundi governments about its planned vengeance actions. The two Eastern African nations which are members of the enlarged East African Community are the sole contributors of troops to the AMISOM.
At the same time Tanzania’s opposition politicians have appealed to the EAC and the au to pursue a diplomatic approach to restore sanity and peace in Somalia.
The opposition groups have also severely criticized the government of Tanzania for being indecisive on whether to send peace keeping troops to join the AMISOM -the African Union Mission in Somalia.
NCCR-Mageuzi secretary general Sam Rubuza has been widely quoted I the local media as saying that the situation in Mogadishu cannot continue being handled with “kid gloves, adding “The EAC stands to suffer more if Somaia unrest continue. We need to take a keener interest in the situation there.” Said opposition chief.
But Chadema national chairman Freeman Mbowe made t categorically clear that the military solution will not work in Somalia. He warned that countries sending troops to serve with the AMISOM peace keeping forces in Somalia are only opening up themselves to terrorist attacks. “Military action is not the solution. The violence breeds violence and more misery.”
The solution in the Somalia conflict turned religious war requires a full scale international diplomacy, which should work as a process and not an event to end the civil strife there once and for all.
‘We need a serous social engines to intervene [ in the Mogadishu strife}after studying its root cause and using diplomacy to attack the situation without causing more pains to the people in that troubled country”, said Mr Mbowe.
The Chadema boss cited military actions which have failed to solve political conflicts in other countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq and which have since degenerated to religious conflicts and wars.
Ends
East African Economy flops to doldrums and heading to recession if meltdown in Somalia is not subdued. Disorder in the horn of Africa should swiftly-jointly be pursued with long lasting objectivity. Forging an economic block is never a cure for underdevelopment if security is not prioritized. Sooner or later the world will be informed of the tough painful u-turn decision by the shippers and land-locked to divert to Southern Africa for safer anchoring and it will be to the detriment of EAC. The jealous anti-EAC’s economic growth elements may capitalize in the insecurity to reach decisions whose eventuality will be to overthrow EAC progress. Keen serious leadership is needed to zero-in the situation with strong socio-economic and political will. The renaissance of EAC should not be mistaken for attainment of individual political excellence whilst the status-quo of the citizenry suffers the most. A joint military reconnaissance along with heavy-duty diplomatic surveillance must be deployed to denounce longstanding global insurgency. Apathy about Somalia ambiguity was first given room by the late ex president Gen. Siad Barre who declared in an OAU meeting when he chaired the body that Somalia will never go off-course [astray] because it is a unique symbol of oneness that has ever existed in the globe and went as far as highlighting religion, culture, language and tribe to be standard for all Somalis in one Somalia including the Diaspora, he did not know it was a serious oversight for him as today what used to be known as Somalia is almost not there including himself [buried in a foreign land].Strong agendas that need be addressed to rescue Somalia from wiping out of world geo-political atlas are: Appraise the country profile by doing the following: writing an interim constitution, forming national military and security forces which are heavily armed, preaching the positive side [not tit for tat] of religion that emphasizes love for one another as a priority pillar for seeing God, establishing comprehensive judiciary system, arraigning all perpetrators to International Court of Criminology ICC and after proven guilty be given amnesty instead of jail terms “a Mandela’s peace and reconciliation initiative that cured all scars of Apartheid”, transforming all ethnic parties into legally registered political parties, aligning all war lords to form a government of national unity, assisting the government to beef up marine security and declare Somali waters a buffer zone controlled by international community, re-vitalizing government coffers by drawing an economic marshal plan, disarmament, reviving a fully fledged diplomatic links including economic diplomacy [naturally Somalis are the Indians of Africa as they are talented in commerce] to make Somalia not look segregated from rest of the world. It is childish philosophy to leave Somalis alone solve Somali predicament; it will result in regional holocaust beyond control, hence international community, neighboring countries and individual country support should top the priority list for finding a panacea to Somali unrest.
Douglas O. Majwala,
Rorya,
Tanzania.