Imtiaz Sooliman – SABC Robinson Somalia Interview Sooliman Gift of the Givers

Somalia doctor, welcomes. Nice speaking to you. Good evening.

Thank you very much. I've asked the question in the first part of

this program, but how did this particular operation differ from

others that you've done in other parts of the world, in Haiti and

Pakistan and Iran and so forth. Every operation is different, but

this has been the biggest one, the most tragic, the greatest loss of

life, the greatest support from South Africa, and our biggest

project in our 19 year history. It's very challenging in terms of

going to a country that has no proper functioning government that

is under war that has only five or six kilometers of the city under

its control, that has au forces in sight, that has people who don't

know who they are, who the enemy is, in inverted commas, they could

be very ordinary people who target foreigners, specifically,

especially media and people from different countries. Social

bombers take you out. You need your own security, your own

compound. You need to get food in. Beside the famine and the volume

of people, the sheer numbers of people require attention, the

areas to get to, the shortage of water, no functioning streets, no

proper roads. There's potholes between roads. I mean, it's so

badly destroyed. And besides that, you have a 21 year history of war,

those people require surgical intervention. And besides that,

you have normal people for the last 21 years with very normal

diseases who require attention also. So you have to factor all

these things in, and the fact that Mogadishu and Somalia has such

negative publicity over the last few years that nobody wants to go

in. How do you learn? What do you do? How do you get in? The sea is

closed because of answer some of those questions. How do you get

in? For instance, if there's no functional government, how do you

arrange to get in? Well, I went in on the 20th of July. My luck is I

met the president, the prime minister, and those people who

went control at that time, and just to explain how things change,

48 hours later, the entire government was replaced. You know,

no cabinet was changed, but it gave me enough time to see the

camps on the ground, to meet South Africans who were working the

airport in Mogadishu, who were involved in the clearance of cargo

and in also inside the stone forces, there were South Africans

were involved in the EU forces. And they said, Look, you can land

here. Basically the civil servants, wherever they are, are

running the country. So he said, let's take a chance. And we flew

the first plane in, and it went in very smoothly. We arranged through

I had a Somali on the ground who lives in South Africa, who's

working with me for the last six years, because we were involved in

puntaland, in the tsunami, you know, in 2004 Yeah. So I know him

from then, and the key factor here is, how do you negotiate your

attitude towards people, building relationships, strengthening ties

with all people, knowing the different clans, knowing the

mentality, the mindset. And you need somebody who understands all

that. This man, Dr Hashi, understood all that, and letting

that link, we open up all the doors together. You told us

earlier about the bad publicity of Somalia. What kind of a people are

they? Because we, we hear about the pirates at sea and the Al

Shabaab and how terrible it is and so on, but they are the people.

Not all of them can be like that. No, the first relationship with

Somalis was in harfun. And then, of course, in South Africa,

there's a huge Somali community. In South Africa, it's not

consistent to see the Somali community and then walking with

guns. It just doesn't match. Because they are such a docile

people, so calm, so hospitable, so loving, they won't harm a fly. So

it doesn't make sense to see them with guns. You know, yes, they are

clans. There are people because now for survival of fittest, but

deep down, wonderful people. The main I'm gonna explain to you how

the lady in the front of the queue went to the back of the queue. The

other phenomenon about Somalis is they, if there's a program like

this, they'll bring all the kids first. Even the doctors witnessed

it in the hospital that we set up the first few days, only the

children were brought, then the pregnant women came, then the

normal women and last men. So they are very giving, very patient and

a very, you know, resilient people who won't harm a fly. They want to

invite you into their homes. They want to share with you what they

don't have. So they are a warm, wonderful people. You fall in love

with them. Every member of the team I took in 9794 people, all of

them fell in love with the Somalis. And then you spoke about

relationships earlier. But obviously he was also work with

the with the African Union. He was work with the UN and with other

organizations. Tell us a little bit about that, the interaction

that you would have, that you had for those organizations. Well,

when we went in, you know, the AU forces, we met the Ugandan

component, I couldn't low check. Low, look, sorry, low catch. He

was very humble guy. We met him. Then, from the civilian sector,

there was a lady called Jackie amamo. We met her. We immediately

bonded, because Colonel low catch has trained in South Africa. He

was, you know, it was common ground for him. So already the

link was made. And I think the biggest asset we had is that we

were from South Africa. South Africa is a big name.

Mean Africa, it's a big name in the world, and we African, the

fact that we came from Africa, as an African organization, everybody

embraced us. The mayor and the governor received us at the

airport. And just today, just today, before I came on to the

program, I got a call from my man on the ground to say, the

president of the country, what six ministers from cabinet visited the

hospital that we took over and said, send a special message to

South Africa that we thank our African brothers for coming to our

aid. And that has you know that link with the May and the May and

the governor brought them to the hospital, because when we got

there the first day, the governor was cheering and the mayor was

steering, and all the commissioners of the 16 districts

met us, and they said, please come to my district. Please come to my

district. My need is bigger than their need. But wherever you go,

you are most welcome. So actually, the foot soldiers, the

commissioners, the mayor and the governor, open the government for

us. And then you mentioned earlier that you also have support from

the South African government here, but also generally about the

public here, because you need a lot of money for this kind of

thing, isn't it? Give us a picture of that kind of logistical side of

it, dealing with the South African government, the public and

institutions here, the country, has been absolutely phenomenal. A

special thank you to all South Africans watching this

parliamentary you guys made it happen. The government came to our

site. I was invited to Parliament to speak to the International

Relations Committee, and I said very clearly how we need to

respond greatly. Government has given us 4 million grand already.

We have been given two Defense Force planes. But besides that,

the different structures of government, the civil servants,

the hospitals, the police force on Friday, the police services in

pubalanga gave us whole lot of aid. SARS has given us aid, you

know, in cash, which they don't normally do, different

departments, ministers, MPs speak of the legislatures all have

gotten from province three house and trailers of stuff came the

government took me over to the EU conference. So in every sector of

government, day with us. Tomorrow, we meet in the treasury. They've

asked us to brief them on how they can put bigger input into Somalia.

So the government has been phenomenal. The media, your group,

I mean, they've carried the picture home, and people have

responded to this picture. Corporates have come like never

before to the party. I mean, corporates normally to be planned,

like to take the register. We gave something this time. It wasn't

taking the register. It was a really, genuinely felt ordinary

people said, I can give only one breath. That's all I have. And

they gave the one that school, kids, churches, mosques, temples,

everybody got together and said, we want to do collecting cans,

collecting toys. The country has been moving. 50 million people

have been mobilized in South Africa. When Jerry Rollins came,

you know, three or four weeks ago to South Africa, he said, I've

never seen anything like this in the history of the African

continent, where entire nation is mobilized to Africa. Tell us just

lastly, if you reflect now of what you've done in Somalia and some of

the other missions, what do you think about humanity and how we

interact with each other? I think I can speak specifically for South

Africa. South Africa, the Somali said, South Africans are an Ubuntu

nation. They will not leave us alone. They said, we've been we

are a forgotten people for 21 years. But if anybody comes to our

aid, it will be South Africans. They said, black, white, Indian,

colored. They are a compassionate people. They will respond to us.

We're afraid they will come. And when we came, they said, You see,

we told you they will come because we know they have compassionate

hearts. There are people that stand out for Africa and for the

world. Doctor, thank you and good luck. Thank you well that the

state of the fruit and as a evil command tower leaves great

Harrison horse by Robinson.