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By Mohamoud H Arrale
On the onset of the article, I would like to highlight briefly, to my
best recall, the melt down of the Somalia dignity and an unprecedented
events that unfolded after the late Siyad Barre’s regime has got ousted
by the rebel forces in 27 January 1991.
The collapse of the Somali Government in 1991, regardless of the past,
was the eventual upshot of the country’s disintegration into several,
mostly clan based, administrations with conflicting political aspiration
- the footprint of a failed state: first Somaliland (former British
Protectorate) broke away from the rest of Somalia (former Italian
colony) – not without a reason.
Just after the late president, Mohamed. S. Barre, was thrown out of
Mogadishu, Mr Ali Mahdi took the opportunity to grab the vacant
presidential seat - a preset operation - without being elected by the
general public or the leaders of armed rebel forces of SNM (April 1981),
USC (1989) and SPM (March 1989) who literally forced Siyad Barre to flee
and toppled his regime after their meeting at Balliguble, the SNM base,
on Aug 7, 1990.
Mr. Ali Mahdi’s inapt and hustled action has enraged the people in the
North (Somaliland) and the leaders of the rebel forces, notably General
Aideed, and thus further contributed to the escalation of the war in
Mogadishu, after said Barre’s flee. It has also prompted Somaliland to
disaffiliate from the South without waiting further development of the
situation in Mogadishu. At this point the country took two different and
opposite directions.
On November 17, 1991, The south which was relatively stable prior to
1991, (Somalia - as it was called before 1960) begun to follow to a
turbulence path which displaced millions and claimed the lives of
thousands of people as well material damages and resulted in famines and
diseases that could be blamed to all actors that involved in the
confrontations in Somalia, whether their intentions were sinister or
sound act.
The military operations by the UN, the AU and neighboring countries
until present and the numerous reconciliations held for Somalia as well
as the lavish financial aid by the west and the other international
community including the Arab countries to Somalia (the South) proved
ineffectual and have achieved little to change the course of Somalia.
Those efforts, despite proven ineffective, still are being continued in
Somalia with the same strategy that based with external influence to
nurture the same mayhem that always takes a different shape and breeds a
different and new adversary to fight with. - A rolling program of the
initial problem.
In fact, the direct involvement of the Somalia’s affairs by the
International Community or by any stakeholder only extends the problem
within the Somali Society. If the problem in Somalia is left to the
Somali people without interference, they could decide their way out in a
reasonable time may be with less human cost than we experienced now. The
UN and the African countries intervention to Somalia is a project with
many beneficiaries which has no specific completion date, because of the
financial gains for those involved outweighs the real solution.
The people in the North (Somaliland) took different approach than the
Southern Somalia by a) reconciling the clans in the North-west of
Somalia, after years of civil war prior to 1991, and b) declaring on 18
May 1991 their withdrawal from the Union of Somalia that had
unconditionally happen in 1 July 1960, after Ali Mahdi has announced his
government in Mogadishu. The people of Somaliland, now around 3 million,
formed a government with a constitution, parliament, house of elders,
new currency (Somaliland Shilling) and flew its own flag - satisfies all
the requirements of a sovereign country.
The successive Somaliland administrations systematically started,
despite some hindrance, the process of stabilizing the country by
demobilizing all armed militias and forming a national army and a police
force as well as fostering the democratization process that the country
is going through now. Since then four presidents were replaced of which
the last two were democratically elected by the people and the power was
transferred smoothly by the incumbent presidents to their successors.
As Somaliland is not yet recognized by the international community and
it cannot secure proper economical and political relation with the other
nations, It has been reliant on its limited resource with the minimal
external assistance for the past two decades of its being, unlike
Somalia, by achieving its physical development that has fascinated the
international media and given the commendation of being a model of hope
in Africa.
In contrast to that positive image of Somaliland, the Southern Somalia
has plunged into troubled water as further divisions of the country
surfaced in the form of fiefdoms based on tribal influence or warlords.
One of the first tribal based administrations that split from the south
in 1998 is the semi-autonomous administration of Puntland (Majeerteenia
in territory wise). Puntland is a stable area, to a certain extent,
although it has infested by pirate operations, a major financial source
to that area in terms of the scale of ransom received by the pirates for
their catches, or the financial aid to the authority in Puntland by the
donor community for fighting the piracy in their coasts. Besides that,
Puntland is far better than the rest of southern regions in the
development aspect.
The maritime piracy hosted by this enclave costs nearly 7 billion
dollars to the international trade according to a report by One Earth
Future in 2011. This cost is footed by consumers of the commodities
(including the Somali people) that transported via on this risky route
as the price of commodities, transport charges and insurance of sea
transport on the high risk waters went sky-high not because of the
current financial crisis in the world market but mainly of the piracy in
the Horn of Africa. As reports cited, the Somali pirates operate in the
Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and off
the coast of Oman.
Puntland suffers the consequence of the pirate presence in their areas
as calculated assassinations to government officials and to prominent
community elders and spiritual leaders and foreigners by armed gang oven
took place for reasons connected to piracy associated with some
political and tribal retaliation in Puntland towns. However, if this
practice continues it will invalidate the fair stability that exists in
Puntland.
As a rival economical and political region to Somaliland, the Puntland
administration devised a destabilizing strategy for Somaliland by
claiming Sool and some parts of Sanaag regions, an area that Puntland is
much interested in to get hold of it simply because of an ancestral link
rather border connection as of colonial borders in Africa.
In addition, Puntland has a potential interest in drilling nugaal valley
well located inside the border of Somaliland which first drilled by
ConocoPhillips in 1989 by giving a concession to Red Emperor Resources
along with Dharoor well in Puntland.This is the root cause of the
dispute between Somaliland and Puntland.
The Abdullahi’s federal governments of Somalia (October 10, 1984 -
December 29, 2008) put into effect that strategy of detaching Sool and
Sanaag districts from Somaliland for reasons that can be associated with
mineral and petroleum interest for Puntland benefit as Abdullahi
him-self was the founder of Puntland administration in 1998.
However, this border dispute tact was a tool for Puntland and Somalia
TFG, though with different aims but analogous to have a case in
suspension for a possible recognition of Somaliland or by creating
insecure environment within Somaliland for political reasons. A similar
tactic was adopted by some close regional governments, as in the case of
Ethiopia, to disturb the new government of Somaliland lead by Mr M A
Mohamoud Silaanyo for a minor rift or temporary misunderstanding between
the two the administrations In Hargeysa and Addis which is now restored.
The Ethiopian government through the Somali Self Governing
administration in Jigjiga supported and offered a facilitation and
security arrangements to some high profile diasporas members who hailed
from Sool region and Buhoodle district of Togdheer region to convene at
Taleh village of Somaliland in January 2012 and announced an
administration named Khaatumo state of Somalia which the Somalia’s TFG
also had a hand on the establishment of this group as this group opposes
both Puntland and Somaliland claims of Sool and Buhoodle.
At the time the TFG and had some issue with Puntland regarding with
Somalia’s political roadmap. However, this group who mainly consists of
diasporas individuals is now seems withered by the Somalia-Somaliland
dialogue as Somaliland government has now changed its previous strategy
of segregating itself from interacting with Somalia’s political
discourse.
Nevertheless, the international community was also less generous to the
case of Somaliland, they have only offered a cold shoulder and left the
Somaliland’s bid for recognition to decide by the African Union who have
their own internal problems and some of them even have an interest on
Somali people’s untidy political affair or may not even like seeing an
internationally recognized Somaliland next door as it might be a threat
to their economical position in the Horn as in the case of Djibouti,
though it has shown now some leniency to Somaliland case and some
co-operation begun between the two governments.
On the other hand, the world has kept Somaliland in a corner until
recently in terms of the magnitude of financial assistance that the
donor countries and the UN organizations spent to Somalia for the past
twenty years with little improvement on ground. Somehow, Somaliland has
strived with this financial negligence by the international community
and, with little in the budget; the people of Somaliland did mind their
business and built their own country both in the public and the private
sector inferstructures.
The people of Somaliland not only helped their country but participated
in the assistance and the reconciliation of the conflicts in Somalia. It
is worth to mention the efforts that Somaliland made when the power
clash erupted in Puntland between Jama Ali Jama the late President
Abdullahi Yusuf of Somalia TFG - then the president of Puntland who
completed his term in November 2001 and recaptured the power from Jama
Ali Jama in May 2002.
The forces of Jama Ali Jama and Gen. Ade Muse Boqor who came from Canada
to support Jama were defeated and Gen, Ade and his men fled to
Somaliland.
With hospitable treatment, the then president of Somaliland, Mr Daahir
Riyaale gave the Gen Ade and his men a refuge before they returned to
Puntland with the help of Somaliland arbitration by sorting out the
difference between the general and Abdullahi Yusuf who finally agreed to
form a power sharing government in Puntland in May 2003.
Somaliland only did this charitable decision Just to uphold the
stability in the Horn. Mr Ade later became the President of Puntland
after Abdullahi won the presidency seat in the transitional government
of Somalia in Nairobi in October 1984. However, neither Gen. Ade nor
Col. Abdullahi returned the due favour to Somaliland people; instead
they did the opposite to Somaliland: Armed the Sool and Buhoodle
community against Somaliland.
Similarly, Somaliland gave a home to a large internally displaced people
from the South of Somalia who fled from the surging wars in their
regions. Moreover, it donated nearly one million dollar to the drought
and famine stricken people in Mogadishu and Dhadhaab (Kenya) refugee
camp in September 2011. A Somaliland delegation consisting of government
ministers and civilians has taken that assistance to Mogadishu and
Dhadhaab for distribution.
In fact, many Somaliland poor families were in need of that assistance
but justly those in Mogadishu were lacking of security and shelter more
than those in Somaliland and that is why the people of Somaliland and
their government took that timely decision. It was a wise decision which
has captured the attention of the world which usually reports a help
from external donor to Somalia but not ever reported a help from Somali
people to Somali people of that magnitude as in this case.
After 21 years, Somalia and Somaliland sit together, face to face, at a
technical level and discussed to clarity their future relations without
the presence of a third party during the course of the discussion in
Chevening House, UK, on 21 June 2012. Within two hours of the meeting
the two sides reached an agreement that the facilitating committee were
not expecting, in fact the notion that was in place was an expectation
of confrontation by the two sides and that was proven wrong. The outcome
of that meeting was again ratified by the two presidents of Somalia and
Somaliland in a similar setting in Dubai on 28 June 2012. A new lesson
that the international community learned from the Somali people: With
their own affairs they can agree if the platform and the opportunity are
given to them.
However, everything has a secret ingredient that makes the taste and the
texture of the matter in question; the secret ingredient that restores
Somalia’s existence is with Somaliland. Now, it seems that Somaliland is
ready to participate in all the political discussions that could rightly
shape the future of the Horn of Africa.
Therefore, can the international community empower Somaliland to help
Somalia? Somaliland has the experience, the venue, the security and it
can commit itself to find out a lasting solution to Somali problems.
Mohamoud H Arrale
Arrale3@yahoo.com
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