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Since the organizers of the Taleeh meeting claim that the main
motivation behind it and the declarations that issued from it were
designed to help the Dhulbahante clan, now that the parley has ended, it
is only fair to ask if it was a positive or negative development for the
said clan. Contrary to what the individuals behind the meeting are
claiming, we think its results hurt the Dhulbahante community more than
it helps it, and here is why.
1-Before the meeting, the Dhulbahante clan was divided in its political
orientation, and the purpose of the meeting was supposed to be the
healing of those divisions and bringing the clan together. What actually
happened was the opposite. Neither the intra-clan problems were
resolved, nor political differences were narrowed. The only thing that
took place is that a new faction calling itself the Khatumo state of
Somalia was introduced into an existing volatile mix, further dividing
an already divided clan (taqsim al-muqassam wa-tjzi’ al-mujazza’ as they
say in Arabic). The condemnation of the results of the meeting by
Xaglatoosiye’s SSC and other Dhulbahante organizations is a sign of this
further polarization of that community.
2-Before the Taleh meeting, the individuals behind it used to claim that
they are Pan-Somali nationalists who are opposed to Somaliland because
it is a “one-clan enclave” as they were fond of saying. Now the same
people have declared that they have set up a state for their own clan.
Not only that, they are urging other clans, specifically, the Samaroon
clan to follow suit, thus exposing their true political colors as clan
militants rather than true unionists. This obvious falling of the
unionist fig-leaf combined with the use of crude high octane clan
rhetoric has resulted in their rejection by other unionists including
Professor Ahmed Samatar.
These are some of the main factors why we think the meeting only
succeeded in creating further divisions among the Dhulbahante community.
The meeting also exposed the hypocrisy of its leaders such as Ali Khalif
Galaydh who used to revel in bad-mouthing Ethiopia during his stint as
prime minister in Abdiqasim Salad Hasan’s government (before these two
fell-out and started accusing each other of stealing public money), but
now has been reduced to begging Ethiopia to give him safe passage
through its territory.
As a measure of how the Khatumo meeting exacerbated the situation, one
has to look at the armed attacks on the organizers of the meeting when
they went to Widhwidh and Buhoodle which resulted in deaths in both
instances. Plus there is already talk of organizing a new, more
inclusive conference for the Dhulbahante.
We will see what happens in the long-term, but for now, it is clear that
Khatumo has worsened the situation of the Dhulbahante clan rather than
improved it.
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