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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Somalia: Sovereign Disguise for a Mogadishu Mafia |
Author: | Sage, Andre Le |
Year: | 2002 |
Periodical: | Review of African Political Economy |
Volume: | 29 |
Issue: | 91 |
Period: | March |
Pages: | 132-138 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Somalia |
Subjects: | political conditions civil service nationalism Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government |
External links: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240208704593 http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=48BAA2A5BE8EBF84AD7E |
Abstract: | On 22 August 2000, the Somali National Peace Conference drew to a close in Arta, Djibouti, with the election of the president of a Transitional National Government (TNG). This paper examines how the TNG functions in practice after eighteen months in office. The TNG comprises two separate structures. First, it has established an intricate bureaucracy that resembles the structure of a formal State institution. That bureaucracy does not function and no investments are being made to increase its capacity. Second, the TNG rests on a unique and powerful relationship between key Mogadishu businessmen and senior government officials, nearly all of whom are drawn from the Hawiye clan. They use their private sector connections to wield power by controlling the flow of trade in Mogadishu and financing large standing militias under the guise of business protection. Until the TNG's financiers begin to invest in the functional capacity of the TNG's bureaucracy to provide security and essential services for the Mogadishu public, it makes little sense for the international community to support what amounts to little more than a business cartel. Bibliogr. |