Posted on ThRally seeks backing for their homeland
BY TODD NELSON
Pioneer Press
More than 50 Minnesota Somalis on Wednesday jammed Sen. Norm Coleman's St. Paul office seeking support for their war-torn homeland's fledgling government.
With U.S. and Somali flags raised, the group filed into the office suite, quickly filling the reception area to overflowing, as community members quietly but firmly demanded a meeting with the Minnesota Republican. The Twin Cities metro area has one of the country's largest concentrations of refugees from the East African nation, last year reaching more than 25,000, according to a state estimate.
"We need peace in Somalia," community activist Fardousa Yossuf, 48, of Minneapolis, told Coleman staffers in the senator's office in the Court International building on University Avenue. "We want the American government to help us establish peace in Somalia. Whether we are here or at home, when you don't have peace, you don't have peace."
Pointing to a wall-mounted TV airing coverage of Senate budget hearings, Tom Steward, Coleman's communications director, said his boss was in Washington, possibly in the Senate chamber at that moment.
"He very much shares your concerns and will pass them along to the State Department," Steward told the group, composed mostly of women.
The Somalis initially said they would not leave the office without a phone call from Coleman but relented after Steward said Coleman would meet them when he returns to the state. Mahamoud Wardere, a Somali native and community outreach member of Coleman's staff, interpreted comments from both sides.
"The participants are understandably concerned about the situation in their homeland," Steward said later in an interview. "We certainly assured them that the senator takes those concerns seriously and shares them and shares their goal of greater stability in Somalia."
Somalis here hope Coleman, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, can help build U.S. support for a transitional national government established in October after two years of talks in neighboring Kenya, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization in St. Paul.
Security concerns have prevented the new government from entering Somalia, which plunged into civil war and lawlessness after the fall of President Siad Barre in 1991. Much of the country is under the control of heavily armed warlords.
"We are appealing to Sen. Norm Coleman and the United States government to help the African countries bring Somalia back," Jamal said. "These women are victims of 14 years of civil war, rape and torture and are grateful to be brought here. The failure of the new government will prolong the suffering. They have been victimized enough."
Greater stability in Somalia would help resolve tribal differences that have followed many Minnesota Somalis from their homeland, Jamal said.
Mustafa Adam, 25, of Minneapolis, said local Somalis sometimes feel the stress of the disorder in Somalia personally.
"People here collect money to pay warlords for the release of their relatives," Adam said. "In places where they rule, they have militias and they kidnap for ransom. They're like gangs."
SOMALIA
• East African nation has been without a functioning central government since civil war broke out in 1991.
• Somali had an estimated population last year of more than 8 million.
• Minnesota's Somali population was estimated at more than 25,000 last year, rising 124 percent from 2000.
• Somalis, most of them Muslims, came under scrutiny in the Twin Cities after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Federal agents shut down Somali-run money-transfer agencies, some of which were cleared of suspicion and reopened.
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Todd Nelson can be reached at toddnelson@pioneerpress.com. or 651-228-5575. u, Mar. 17, 2005
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