Full article http://www.topix.com/forum/world/som...KLR7NSQ1EBQFI0
International recognition hit dead-end
This is how the Secessionist tribal chiefs are feeling....In a recent interview with Somalilandpress.com, Dr. Mohamed Abdillahi Omar, the foreign minister and the former lecturer of Brunel University in London, admitted rather diplomatically that the secessionist’s endeavor to gain the much-sought after international recognition had hit difficulties. In other words, it is dead in the water. Without exactly saying the word dead, he mentioned his initially hyped trip to China alongside with Ahmed Silanyo in which tripartite trade deals between China, Ethiopia and “Somaliland” were supposed to be signed had ended in failure for reasons Dr. Omar deliberately avoided to explain but believed to be related to the enclave’s status in the international community. The painful fact is that “Somaliland” cannot enter deals with the outside world because, as far as international community is concerned, they don’t exist. The international community, including regional bodies such as IGAD and Arab league, doesn’t recognize “Somaliland” as a legitimate state. They recognize the TFG of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed as the sole and legitimate government of Somalia.
In addition to Dr. Omar’s candid admission, anyone who observed Ahmed Silanyo’s statements during his recent trip to London, Addis Ababa and Djibouti, together with his body language will tell that the most veteran politician in the enclave, who had seen better days in Somalia during a spell of eight years as being a prominent economics minister, may finally be giving up this unattainable dream that exhausted the enclave’s meager resources. Unlike Riyaale, who used to promise the earth as far as international recognition is concerned every time he returned home from personal trips to abroad, often hyped as official trips by “Somaliland” officials, the incumbent Ahmed Silanyo is at least honest enough to show his frustration and share his lack of progress with the public in the attainment of international recognition.
His recent after-midnight interview with the “Somaliland” press in which he talked, among other things, the lack of progress in the hunt of international acceptance is another indication that things are not getting better for the secessionists. In fact, things are getting from bad to worse. Despite privately endorsing “Somaliland”, it is an open secret that Ethiopia had never wanted to see another Somali state, albeit “Somaliland”, breathing on its neck, although politicians in Addis are happy to see the continuation of the status quo in the Somali peninsula as it suits them pretty well. Worst of all, Ethiopia has smelled a rat in Ahmed Silanyo’s cabinet and this made things even more complicated than they were under Rayaale’s regime. Zenawi, who was in good terms with Rayaale’s government, sees certain prominent ministers of Ahmed Silanyo’s government, among them Mohamed Hashi Elmi and the departed Dr. Gaboose, as staunch supporters of Somaliweyn (greater Somalia), hence a threat to the Ethiopian sovereignty. Ethiopia, believed to be an honest friend of “Somaliland” rather mistakenly, may have finally pulled the brakes on the secessionist’s runaway train.
