Somali residents fight pirate stereotypes

By Kirsti Marohn • kmarohn@stcloudtimes.com • April 23, 2009

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It happened half a world away, but a recent pirate attack on an American ship hit close to home for natives of Somalia living in St. Cloud.



Along with the rest of the country, they watched the drama unfold in the news as the Somali pirates held the captain hostage until U.S. Navy snipers shot and killed three pirates.

Like most Americans, they were horrified by the attack and pleased to hear of the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips.

But they worry that not everyone understands the difference between law-abiding natives of Somalia living in the United States and outlaws causing terror on the high seas. They fear the incident might cause a backlash against all Somalis.

"Not all Somali people are bad people," Lul Hersi said. "We have bad people in every country ... They don't represent us at all. They're the minority."

Hersi and several other Somali elders gathered this week to discuss the event with the hope of educating other St. Cloud residents to recognize the distinction.

"We ran from those thugs. We ran from those pirates. We ran from that war," Hersi said.

"We want the American people to know we ran away from that. That's why we are here. We don't support anything that goes wrong in Somalia. That's not what we stand for. We stand for safety. We stand for peace."

No hope

It's been difficult for Somalis living in St. Cloud to watch the destruction of their native country of 8 million people, which disintegrated in 1991 when warlords toppled the president. Since then, Somalia has been ruled by heavily armed rival clans and has struggled with famine and violence.

Somalia's instability and poverty are the root causes of the piracy evidenced last week, St. Cloud Somali residents said.

"Until they have stability in that area, nothing will ever change," said Hani Jacobson, a student at St. Cloud Technical College. "Those people are hungry. They are tired of war. They are poor. The whole country's just pretty much to the ground. And until the world gets together and helps those people, these things are not going to change."