Sept 13 2001 Earlier this month, news reports appeared that the Arta Faction had sent a contingent of 59 young Somali entertainers to Libya to participate in celebrations of the 32nd anniversary of Muammar al-Qaddafi's coup. By J.Gabobe, Sept.12, 2001 Translate (for Somali articles no translation available, sorry!)
One of the people who accompanied these young Somali entertainers to the Cisaley airport was the Libyan representative in Mogadishu, Mr. Ciisa Rabiic Canshuur. Another person who was also present at the send-off was the Arta Faction’s “Minister of Information” Mr. Zakariya Maxamuud Xaaji Cabdi.
Up to this point, things seem normal. Then came the shocking news from Senegal, that what the Libyan officials were billing as a "cultural show" to celebrate the “revolution” was nothing but a ruse to lure young African girls into prostitution, which led to a serious row between Senegal and Libya. The BBC (Sept.4, 2001) wrote: “Senegal has recalled its ambassador to Tripoli following an alleged attempt to smuggle 100 young women to Libya. Dakar also says it will limit transit visas for Libyan nationals and has reduced the staff in its Tripoli embassy to a minimum. Last Tuesday, the 100 so-called "models" were apprehended at Dakar airport as they attempted to board a charter plane, saying they were going to take part in a cultural show in Libya."
The charges against the Libyans did not just come out of nowhere, and fit into a pattern of trafficking in African women for prostitution in Europe, in which North African networks play a crucial part. The same above article confirmed this when it went on to say, " Two French nationals of Senegalese origin, Nancy and Leila Campbell Badiane, have been charged with organising `the international prostitution racket’. Some Senegalese officials have suggested that the Libyan diplomats in Dakar might have been involved in getting Libyan visas for the women... The BBC's Mark Doyle says the trafficking of young West African women to Europe is very common. He says that they are first taken to north Africa from where they continue a journey which they hope will take them out of poverty. Instead they often end up as sex workers on the streets of Paris or Milan.”
For those wondering why the disparity between the reactions of Senegalese officials and Somali ones, there is nothing new here. Somalis in position of authority have been known for colluding with foreigners about prostitution. For instance, it was a widely-known fact among Somalis living in Arab countries during the Siyad Barre era, that Somali diplomats in some Arab countries, used to invite Arab officials, especially lower-level ones in the security services, to Mogadishu, where they would wine and dine them, and even procure Somali prostitutes for them. The reason Somali diplomats engaged in such despicable activities was so that the Arab officials would return the favor by harassing, detaining, and deporting Somali expatriates opposed to Barre's regime.
Although the fact that Somali diplomats engaged in such activities may not be widely known among Somalis who did not live in Arab countries, there is even a more famous case known by almost all Somalis, the case of a country where the majority of the population are Somalis, and where one of the country's major source of income is derived from catering to the sexual needs of French troops and the geostrategic needs of France. The country is, of course, Djibouti.
The connection between Djibouti and the sex trade is not new either. On their first visit to Djibouti in the early fifties, Margaret Laurence, her engineer husband and some Somalilanders noticed how ubiquitous and open was the skin trade in Djbouti. Margaret Laurence wrote (New Wind in a Dry Land, p.140), "In Djbouti there was a belief that it pays to advertise. Outside doorways were large signs-Club Des Jeunes Femmes Somalis et Danakali and Club Des Jeunes Femmes Arabiques. One place, especially anxious to impress, said "Established 1935," but failed to state whether or not the same jeunes femmes had frequented the establishment since that date. Collections of postcards sold in the shops were entitled "Views of Djibouti," but the title was not entirely accurate, as the views were mainly concerned with unclad Somali womanhood."
Some might say prostitution exists everywhere. True, but there is a difference between isolated cases, and when it is a large component of the economy, as is the case in Djibouti. Others might say that Laurence described the situation under colonial administration. But this objection does not hold either, because once Djibouti became "independent", instead of prostitution being reduced, it even became a bigger business, with Djibouti's new ruling elite as major beneficiaries. Rosie DiManno wrote (Toronto Star, August 5, 2000): "There were doubts that Djibouti, which has no industry and no manufacturing, could survive without the $100 million a year the French had been pouring into it. But, while maintaining a position of strict regional neutrality - refusing to support armed groups opposing the regimes in neighbouring Ethiopia and Somalia - the tiny nation-state, a free-trade zone, dug in its high heels as an oasis of pleasure: gambling, booze, broads. At independence in 1977, there were 15,000 Frenchmen in Djibouti. Most of them moved on, bugged-out. But there are still some 2,500 Foreign Legionnaires and regular French troops in barracks here and a constant flow of sailor visitors from military ships dropping anchor and the merchant marines. Djibouti is, fortunately for its economy, strategically situated near the world's busiest shipping lanes and close to the Arabian oil fields. From there come the fleets of tattooed customers, hungry to satisfy all their desires at once, slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am, glug-glug-glug. The spectre of AIDS has barely impacted on business. Armed forces personnel are lectured about the disease on base, of course, and provided with condoms. But no one seems unduly concerned that Djibouti has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world among young adults. The United Nations has estimated that 13.9 per cent of Djiboutian females between the ages of 15 and 24 are infected. The percentage is higher among prostitutes."
Prostitution in Djibouti has expanded so much, that it now has developed networks that recruit girls from as far as the Ethiopian highlands and Mogadishu. The last time I was in Djibouti in 1993, a southern Somali woman staying in the same hotel as myself, used to send a dozen Somali girls from Mogadishu to Italy, via Djibouti, every other week. Many of the people in the hotel suspected her of being part of a ring that exported Somali girls to Italy for prostitution.
Although Djibouti's rulers and Arta Faction officials are blinded by financial gain, the long-term damage to the women involved and society are immense, especially in the age of AIDS. It is interesting to note in this regard that in his speech to the Security Council, Djibouti's president, Mr. Omar Guelleh, devoted only a few lines to AIDS which is a major killer in his country, and only addressed it in general terms, but talked at length about the Middle East conflict and his efforts to put together the Arta Faction.
With the gradual rise in people's awareness about the exploitation of women, there are indications that more and more people are becoming aware of the true nature of Guelleh's regime, his fake humanitarian pose, and how his regime is literally based on the bodies of Somali and Afar women. The recent international focus on racism such as the Durban conference, has also brought to the fore issues such as the international trafficking in women for prostitution. The Seattle Times (Sep.17, 2001) reported, "The U.N. International Labor Organization says slavery is still rife in a number of African and Asian countries. Human trafficking, mainly for prostitution, has exploded in Europe with the collapse of the Soviet Union."
And with the recent whistle-blowing of the Senegalese government on Libyan officials, the activities of Libyan representatives such as the one in Mogadishu, Mr. Canshur, has become increasingly under the microscope of Somali public opinion. Also, many Somalis have not forgotten the callous treatment of Somali refugees by the Libyan regime. One such case of inhuman treatment was reported by the EIU Country Report 3rd quarter 1995: "The Libyan authorities expelled a group of 350 Somalis, driving them to the Tunisian border on June 20. Libyan diplomatic sources quoted in Agence France-Presse (AFP) said that the Somali men women and children were without any travel documents and were camping near the Libyan frontier post. They are thought to have entered Libya across the remote southern border."
Since Libyan officials operate under the assumption that they can buy their way through anything, especially if it has to do with Africans, as they have done in Lusaka (The economsit (July 21, 2001) wrote: "In Lusaka the cash flowed freely-even foreign journalists were offered bundles by Libyan officials.") they will probably try to buy their way out of the current sex scandal. It is also unlikely that the Arta Faction will show any remorse about this scandal, given the fact that many of them were members of Siyad Barre's regime, a regime that had no qualms about using Somali women for its own ends.
Arta Faction's shamelessness is even beginning to put Siyad Barre's record to shame. For instance, a member of the Arta Faction implicitly admitted that they control the flow of drugs to Kenya. This was done in the context of an appeal by Abdirahman Adan Ibbi, chairman of the government committee on foreign affairs and Somalis in the diaspora, to the Kenyan government, begging them to open their border with south Somalia and promising in return that "the TNG was ready to help Kenyan security personnel stop the inflow of guns and drugs into the country."
Although the Somalilanders who accompanied Margaret Laurence to Djibiouti reacted negatively to it, Arabetto, the half-Majertein, half-Arab, transplanted southerner, liked what he saw, "`Just like Mogadisciou,' he said with a grin. `Plenty of girls.'" The Libyan officials in Mogadishu may have been as ecstatic as Arabetto, but they should watch out, for many Somalis are aware of what they are up to, and will blow the whistle on them. And if Somalis don't, the Senegalese will.
