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Quest For Legitimacy Atlantans, lobby for recognition of native lands
By CAMERON McWHIRTER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Oct 1, 2003
Every Friday evening, taxicabs, limos and other cars crowd the parking lot of the Madina, a modest restaurant in a strip mall in unincorporated DeKalb County that has become the de facto cultural center for Somalis in metro Atlanta.
The patrons -- mostly men -- gather to eat goat meat and bean dishes that the menu describes as "Somali and East African food." Many of those dining, however, describe themselves not as Somalis, but "Somalilanders."
The distinction may be lost on most Atlantans, but it's the cause of numerous frustrations for immigrants and refugees who come from a region that people know -- if they know it at all -- as the northern part of Somalia.
"We've got our own money, our own judicial system, our own military and police. We've got a democratically elected president and parliament. We have our own flag," said Abdirazak Abubaker, 37, a U.S. citizen who runs one of the world's busiest Republic of Somaliland news Web sites from his house in northeast Atlanta. "We have all the attributes of a nation. Only we do not have the world to come to the conclusion yet that we are a nation. . . . We want recognition."
"Somalilanders" aren't the only ones in metro Atlanta who come from regions whose governments are not recognized by the international community. Combined, these governments have tens of millions of citizens. They run their own bureaucracies, fly their own flags and equip their own armies and police. They issue their own visas and some have their own passports. Some have their own money and stamps.
But the governments, for a host of diplomatic reasons, face the international cold shoulder.
These "para-states" or "statelets," as some academics have labeled them, range across the globe, from Taiwan -- which has an unofficial consulate in Atlanta -- to Somaliland to Iraqi Kurdistan to breakaway states of the former Soviet Union.
Taiwan has just begun a campaign in the United Nations to seek recognition as a sovereign nation and membership in the world body -- a goal strongly opposed by China, which considers Taiwan part of Chinese territory.
Somaliland's foreign minister, Edna Adan Ismail, is touring Somali communities in the United States to drum up support for her nation's bid for international recognition. (She is set to visit Atlanta on Oct. 8). Iraqi Kurdish leaders are pressing the new governing authority in Iraq for a federation-style union, while many Kurds are calling for complete independence.
Michael Beck, assistant director of the University of Georgia's Center for International Trade and Security, called these quasi-states "the gray zone problem" in a world concerned about terrorism.
The lack of international recognition also poses problems for the people who come from these places. They have to negotiate diplomatic, financial and practical problems never faced by people from legitimate countries. In addition to mundane problems such as sending mail, remitting money to family and friends, travel and immigration, they constantly have to explain where they come from.
Mehdy Jabari, who grew up in Kirkuk, Iraq, and now lives in Clarkston, has two flags in his home, the U.S. flag and the red, white and green flag of Kurdistan, a government that no nation in the world recognizes. Jabari, a U.S. citizen, said he is offended when people call him an Iraqi and he hates to hear about Kurds using Iraqi passports to travel.
"I consider it an insult," he said. "I am from a beautiful country. It's like saying are you Chinese and you are Scottish. They two have nothing in common."
The problem of para-states is not a new one, of course. Americans had a similar experience in the 19th century, when the Confederate States of America sought to set itself up as an independent entity, complete with its own flag, government and currency. It failed to gain any international recognition of its claims in its four years of existence.
Taiwan lost status
But in the 20th century, after the end of World War II and especially since the fall of Soviet communism, para-states have mushroomed around the globe, particularly in regions suffering from political instability. Apart from Somaliland, some of the larger para-states are Taiwan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Abkhazia and the Transnistria Republic.
Taiwan, in fact, went from being the U.S-recognized government for all of China to its quasi-diplomatic status after Washington's rapprochement with Beijing in 1972. The United States officially recognized Beijing as the legitimate government for all of China in 1979 and agreed to Beijing's characterization of Taiwan as a province.
Taiwanese officials have since pressed U.S. state legislatures to pass resolutions urging Washington to recognize an independent Taiwan. Georgia has already approved such a resolution. "We so much want to join this international family but we are rejected," said Alice Wang, director of information for the Atlanta office of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. "They should not pretend that a country of our magnitude does not exist."
'Completely separate'
Kurds have been demanding similar recognition for years. Two main Kurdish rebel groups control the region in northern Iraq and Kurds joined U.S. forces in fighting Saddam Hussein's regime in the recent war.
Thousands of Iraqi Kurds who escaped Saddam's regime were resettled in the United States in the last decade. Many were relocated to metro Atlanta with the help of the International Refugee Committee.
Adeeba Sulaiman, a resettlement specialist for
the IRC's local office and a Kurd herself, said Iraqi Kurds "never say, 'I
am Iraqi.' They say, 'I am Kurdish.' They want to be considered completely
separate from Iraq." Matthew Hodes, director of the Carter Center's Conflict
Resolution Program and a former U.N. official who served in Bosnia and
Somalia among other war-torn regions, said figuring out legitimate from
illegitimate states can be murky business.
"Under international law there are no hard and fast rules," he said. "These
types of issues are not going to go away. There is a real world implication
to the people stuck in these situations that you simply cannot ignore."
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