Somalis need international support

When we think of Somalia, images of starving children, massive famine and men touting rifles come to mind. But during the past few weeks the country has been celebrating. \nMen, women and children were singing and dancing in the streets and the nation took a spontaneous national holiday. Citizens were celebrating the election of their first president in almost a decade. Somalis hope former interior minister Abdi Qassem Salad Hassan will help turn the country around and bring peace to their war-torn nation. \n This time around, their dreams might be realized. Somalia has a history of political problems that resulted in the nation's downfall. After dictator Muhammad Siyad Barre was ousted from power in 1991, Somalia has had no central government. Faction groups have torn the country apart and Somalia became synonymous with chaos.\nHassan promises to end the violence and bring some sort of economic stability to the country of 7 million. His campaign took off in May following a conference that was the 13th attempt at finding peaceful resolutions to Somalia's woes. Though the international community was skeptical of the conference, it involved 2,000 Somali elders, religious leaders and business leaders. It was the first of its kind to include non-faction leaders, bolstering the country's efforts to bring peace to the nation.\nIn August, a 225-member assembly was inaugurated with representation from each of Somalia's four main clans. An alliance of smaller clans was given the right to name 29 members, and the body was later expanded to 245 members to placate subclans who felt unrepresented. In another pivotal move, representatives of Mogadishu's business community pledged their full backing to the new assembly.\nSo far, support for the parliament has been unanimous. \nAfter the announcement of Hassan's victory, the sound of heavy machine gun and anti-aircraft fire immediately reverberated around Mogadishu. \nOnce the new government moves into the country, it will face incredible challenges. The assembly faces the daunting task of persuading faction leaders opposed to the peace process to respect it, recruit the militiamen who cruise the streets into a new national security force and then begin collecting taxes. \nYet it's encouraging to see Somalia rebuild. The country -- once plagued with problems -- has a bright future, but it can't do it alone. International support will be vital for the country. The United States should offer additional aid to Somalia and neighboring countries should offer aid to Somali businesses.\nPerhaps then Somalia can return to some sort of normalcy.