: If Somalia is divisible so is Somaliland

[malakumod]

A message from the SSC regions: If Somalia is divisible so is Somaliland


Somaliland is a beacon of stability, a peaceful and democratic state in Africa. It is Africa’s best-kept secret and therefore it deserves to be recognised internationally. Or so frequently spread the proponents of Somaliland. These misleading persons are either some hired pen-mercenaries who for pecuniary reasons propagate loads of baloney or others who take a secessionist’s propaganda at face value. But certainly much of the mantra comes from people who hail from a pretend and clannish enclave that calls itself Somaliland. A case in point is Mr Adan Ismail (Liban) whose article has recently appeared in the Somali websites. Mr Adan has attempted to rebut an open letter, stirring hornets nest in Somaliland, written by Mr Osman Hassan to the USA assistant undersecretary for African Affairs, Jonnie Carson. In this open letter Mr Osman has brilliantly highlighted the fallacy of Somaliland and further put forward how best the USA policy would help the Somalis. Unfortunately, the letter must have been pretty galling for Mr Adan and obviously it prompted him to respond with a familiar rehash of hackneyed collection of claims and distorted historical facts. Additionally he has also tried to disparage the existence of Sool, Sanaag and Ayn(SSC) regions and depict these regions as parts that identify themselves with a so-called Somaliland.
Before discussing the issue of SSC regions and where its people stand in today’s prevalent situation of Somalia, I prefer to debunk some points, raised in the aforesaid article which are either baseless or of wishful thinking.

The undeniable entity of Somaliland
Mr Adan has passionately tried to make us believe that there had been a country, called Somaliland from 1884 and up to 1960, the date the British had left what was once known as British Somaliland Protectorate.

Well, to be fair enough to some of his points, it was Europe’s scramble for Africa in 1884, which resulted in Britain, France and Italy to curve up Somali populated regions or a common Somali homeland in the Horn of Africa. It is also true that Britain took control of the territories of northern part of this Somali homeland and named the occupied territories as British Somaliland Protectorate. It is clear that, to Mr Adan and like-minded secessionists the term “Somaliland Protectorate” connotes a special closeness and consanguinity to the British occupiers and in fact it is for this reason the name “Somaliland” has been picked for their cause.

A historical fact, though ignored in the article, is before the British government took the control of the Somali territories, the British had signed a treaty with all the traditional elders except those who were the forefathers of the SSC people. The SSC forefathers did not only reject the British colonisation but they also fought the British forces. It is in the record that Major Frederick Mercer Hunter, Assistant Political Resident at Aden and the elders of the respective” territories” signed on treaties between 11 December 1884 and 27 January 1886. The essence of these treaties was that the British government would provide protection to the tribes whose elders had entered into an agreement with the British government. Hence, traditional elders of the present SSC regions had never recognised a British Somaliland Protectorate or any treaty nor accepted and certainly the same applies to today’s SSC people.

On the question of boundaries and the relevant provision of the OAU (AU) charter of 1964, which is mentioned in the article, it is true that “Somaliland” inherited colonial boundaries in 26 June 1960 but it is equally true that these artificial boundaries had disappeared in 1st July 1960 when the Somali republic was declared as the inheritor of the colonised territories. It is a pity that a sane person is legitimising colonial boundaries while de-legitimising the boundaries recognised by the OAU (AU) and other international bodies. It is also a self-defeating act to misinterpret the OAU charter and twist the provision of the charter as it is applicable to Somaliland’s colonial borders, while in fact, and as per the available record the relevant provision of the Charter applies to the borders of independent states that are members of the OAU, and not to borders of a breakaway region, that is still in a member state like Somalia.

In addition to the above facts, if anyone thinks that Somaliland had been independent recognised state during the four days between 26 June 1960 and the date of its union with Southern Somalia, or that “Somaliland” is different from Somalia or somewhat a sui generis as often claimed by the secessionists then one must be reminded what the British Government secretary of State for colonies, Ian Macleod had stated in front of the then visiting Somaliland delegation in London. For the record, in a conference(1) held in London on 24th of May 1960, the secretary had confirmed to the visiting Somaliland delegation, that once the “territory” was united with the southern territory the protection treaty and all its attributes would be abrogated.

Putting these historical facts into objective judgement surely there had been neither an internationally recognised state called “Somaliland” nor distinct people known as” Somalilanders” from 1984 up to 1960. There had been solely an occupied territory, which was British Somaliland Protectorate, which ceased to exist from on 1 July 1960 when two colonised territories of the common Somali homeland were united to become an independent state of the Somali republic.

Unequal union and its failure
The secessionists very often say the union was disaster or failure and heap all the blames to the south. But what they do not realise is that there had not been anything wrong with the union itself as this had been a desirous aspiration of all Somalis. It is true that initially and in particular during the first years of the first Somali government, there were administrative problems as anticipated given the two territories were under colonial powers with two different administrative systems for a century or so. Also mendacious claims that the south had inequitably all the main ministerial posts after the union of north and south is nothing more than one of the propaganda tactics the secessionists had to stir their clan to rebellion and put the hoi polloi in a high dudgeon. The fact of the matter is that the northerners had almost, all the time in all the successive civilian Somali governments, the premiership and significant numbers of ministerial portfolios. One can recall the government of Mr Abdirazak Haji Hussein, a southern prime minister of the second civilian government of Somalia during 1964 – 1967 where half of the cabinet were from the north including the key portfolios of foreign; defence, information and finance. Similarly almost half of senior civil service and most of the ambassadorial posts were given to the northerners. Northerner’s wishing to have had more than that with a population of one-third of that of the south simply unmasks politically corrupt leaders who always wanted to be the top dog and who had finally masterminded Somalia’s present quagmire.

Just for the sake of the argument and in order to expose the travesty of the facts, often spread by some let us hark back the government that succeeded Mr Abdirazak Haji Hussein´s government.
Mr Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, a northerner held the post of premiership of the first government and became for the second time the prime minister during 1967-1969. Deplorably an axiomatic fact is that Mr. Egal´s government was marred by rampant corruption, which ultimately wrecked Somalia’s 9 years of civilian rule. The ill governance, injustices and corruption brought by this last civilian government had finally culminated in a military coup d’état headed by Mohamed Siyad Bare who presided over a brutal regime for twenty one years.

So if anything went wrong, it was not the union itself, but the blame squarely rested on the shoulders of all political leaders who were from north and South.

Repression and Alienation
We all know that the military takeover that followed the civilian government of Somalia and headed by Mohamed Siyad Bare was very repressive and brutal. No honest Somali would deny or dispute that atrocities were committed against the northerners by the dictatorial regime. But what is morally wrong is to assume that only northerners were alienated, oppressed and killed. It seems the secessionists disregard the crimes inflicted on other Somalis and consider them unworthy. It is a known fact that the first victims of the dictatorial regime were those from the central/Mudug regions. In these regions hundreds of civilians were killed. Water wells and entire villages were also raised to the ground and all these were carried out by the regime’s soldiers, belonged not only to the south but also to all regions of Somalia including from Hargeisa and Buroa. Of course the secessionists like to keep under wraps these crimes in which northerners took part as well as atrocities committed by the SNM against the innocent civilians of SSC and Awdal regions.

Fabrications such as that oppression and other crimes were committed only against the northerners or Siyad Bare killed more than 80 000 northerners, a figure exceedingly goes over the top, are some of the flimsy justifications, which the secessionists often publicise to win the foreign hearts and minds to sell their invented cause.

In fact if one had to secede from Somalia because of atrocities; SSC regions would have had every right to reject the union with southern Somalia or British Somaliland in 1960. Thousands of men, women and children were killed during Dervish struggle by the British forces with collaborators whose forefathers were the so-called Somalilanders.

SNM and its Armed Struggle
How or when SNM became into being is no longer a relevant issue. A more crucial question is why SNM was formed and its ultimate achievements. It is the right of every individual, group or movement to fight against injustices and oppression provided that would not contravene the nation’s interest. Unfortunately SNM like SSDF, USC and SPM was a clan-based militia driven by disgruntled men without any viable political vision except a myopic one of seizing the power. Additionally if all the movements had common denominators, the SNM had one hidden agenda that differed it from others. The leaders of SNM dreamed of having their own entity where they would be the masters and at present we witness the true colours or to where such clan-motivated policy heads. The power is now concentrated in the hands of these SNM leaders and their clan members from the central regions of “Somaliland”.

Reconciliation between Clans and Declaration of Independence
The secessionists and their cohorts keenly talk about a declaration which claims all traditional leaders of northern Somalia endorsed the secession at a conference, held in Buroa in 1991. In reality this was far from a genuine endorsement. If anything what happened was, during the collapse of the central government, the traditional leaders of different clans from the north of Somalia as well as the political wing of the SNM came together in Buroa in 1991. The objective of the gathering was to have a conference where the attendees would discuss ways of restoring peace and stability in their respective regions. Unfortunately on the last day of the conference, and in contrary to the good faith of the participants of the conference, an armed clannish mob of the SNM who was in a state of rage surrounded the conference venue and demanded that SNM politicians and the clan elders in attendance, declare the northern regions as a separate and independent state. Having had the top echelon of the political wing of SNM frightened to their supporter’s perturbations due to the lack of any viable political vision, the armed mob at the conference compelled the conference to adopt this unilateral declaration. So, one can verily conclude that this unilateral declaration had no legal basis and had nothing to do with all other clans. As nothing is further from the truth, all the SSC traditional leaders had more than once and without any duress unequivocally declared that SSC regions would not accept secession but would join their kith and kin to form the regional state of Puntland, which is part and parcel of united Somalia. (See also: Declaration from the SSC Regions Conference).

Peace and Stability in Somaliland
Another catchword wildly spread by the secessionists’ camp is that Somaliland is peaceful, stable and democratic entity. This is again another ploy to mislead the international community and get a recognition that has been as elusive as a moose in a hunting season.

There is no doubt that there is a realtive peace in Somaliland when one compares with the south of Somalia but stability and peace have been shaky all along and are not standing on solid base. As long as the factor of clan dominanace is what drives the Somaliland leaders, the beginning of a civil war is only a matter of time and the signs of this are already visible in SSC and Awdal regions.

Again, the international community is very much privy to the “democracy” of Somaliland as it is confined to one clan and naturally that won´t give the secessionists a ticket for recognition The so-called refrundum or elections had never been democratic and never been monitored or approved by any credible world organisations. It is naïve to assume that some hired foreigners and retired Europeans that have been entertained few days in Hargeisa during the so-called elections would render the results of these elections fair and transparent. Moreover, it is well documented that these elections or refrendum had never taken place in the SSC regions.

Coming now to the question of SSC people and how Mr Adan is trying in his article to belittle condescendingly and portray them as insignificant or terrorists supported by the TFG, I suggest Adan and his followers to realise the following.

The SSC people will not succumb to be dominated by one clan and become a minority exactly as Somaliland clan rejected to be a minority in Somalia and certainly if one thinks that Somalia is divisible so is “Somaliland”. No matter how one taints the will and struggle of the SSC people or its leaders, SSC forces are already becoming ants in the secessionist´s pants by the hour and juggernaut to liberate all SSC regions from the clannish militia of Somaliland.

Finally, it is very regrettable to see a learned brother who lives with delusions, such as Somaliland shall be recognised because it had democratic elections or it is stable and peaceful as these alone are perquisites for an international recognition. Or Somaliland’s case can be equated with that of Eritrea, South Sudan, former countries of Yugoslavia and USSR, (analogies, which are totally false) and therefore it has the right to be recognised.

It is high time for our brothers and sisters from NW of Somalia to understand that the international community can not recognise a clannish enclave and if it does, and that is with big if, it would definitely let the genie out of the bottle. The whole region and even “Somaliland” will not be saved from an apocalyptic situation.

Therefore, the only indespensible and inescapeable solution for us as Somalis is very clear.We have to come to our senses, abandon secession and chauvnistic tendencies and instead work for the delivery of a peaceful demeocratic federal state of Somalia.

[malakumod]

The Secessionist Camp: How long the futile campaign for secession will continue in “Somaliland”?
By Mohamed F. Yabarag
Jan. 02, 2011

Mohamed obsiye has come up with yet another pro-secessionist array of attacks against Somaliweyn and its supporters in the form of another repackaged and recycled article (The Brief history of the Somali Union) in favor of “Somaliland” secession without providing any new shred of evidence to support his mendacious claims. This time the author, the PhD candidate, was so desperate in his attempt to get new coverts for his secessionist idea that he rubbished of what Somalis of all generations stood for centuries: Somali nationalism. To add insult to injury, he was unmoved by Ethiopia’s old age expansionist strategy and found massive fault lines in Somalis’ pursuit of their own rightful territories. What is wrong with uniting all Somalis under one roof i.e. under one-nation-state? After all, did not Ethiopia bring different people with different ethnicity, culture and religion under one-nation-state, not by choice but by coercion? How is this different to the aspirations of Somalis to bring all Somalis under one-nation-state? Does he not know Ethiopia was/is behind the suffering and misery of Somali people for generations? How is it sound and reasonable for the founders of current Ethiopia to come all the way from Gondor and Gambella, among other places, and occupy a Somali-populated territory, namely Ogden and claim as their own while Somalis are denied to claim their own land of thousands of years? What a shame! The fact that there was unfortunate cruel civil war and that the hapless Somalis did not reconcile themselves quickly enough does not mean that we should part company and leave everything we shared for generations behind us.

If only one or two of the so-called facts Mohamed cited in his article have any legal sound basis or validity, his beloved “Somaliland” would have had a better chance of getting recognition from the international community ages ago. The fact that the pursuit of “Somaliland” fantasy is still going on after a wasteful and fruitless two long decades, and still continuing with no sight of meaningful conclusion, is a complete lunacy on the part of secessionist proponents. “Somaliland” has no defined borders, nor does the international community regard it as a legal entity. It only lives in the minds of clannish and chauvinist politicians who, after taking a significant part of the destruction of Somalia, now want to establish their own clan-based entity in the midst of lands shared by many different clans who are not prepared to buy this nonsensical secessionist agenda from Hargeisa. They don’t want to live in an open prison called “Somaliland”, open prison in a sense that if a country is not recognized internationally, it is no more than a glorified oversized refugee camp like Dhadhaab, in Kenya. This is the reality that the secessionist are either oblivious to or deliberately ignoring despite the international community declaring its intentions over again and over again that there is no such thing as “Somaliland state” and that Somalia is not divisible. It will be a travesty if the international community allows every perceivable clan in Somalia to set up their own country and declare it an independent state.

As I said elsewhere, twenty more years of chasing wild goose is a futile exercise that will bring about nothing but shame and derision on the current politicians of “Somaliland”, not to mention underdevelopment in all areas of the economy. The next generations of this land will look back at the current crop of so-called politicians in disgust once they read the history books and realized how much time and effort were wasted in a futile exercise called “Somaliland” project. There will be no inward foreign investment so long as the country is in this self-imposed legal limbo. And in this globalized world in which too many countries with full international and diplomatic status are vying for much needed foreign investment, “Somaliland” stand no chance of competing against any country in this regard. It will be left behind in all areas of development, with the only employers being Dahabshiil, Telesom and a few more remittance outlets (Xawalas). “Somaliland” people need their hungry tummies to be filled.

The “Somaliland” theory, according to its pushers, is based on the false illusion that this territory was once under the British protectorate with some sort of defined borders, although many will tell you that the people of Sool and some parts of Sanaag had never singed any accord with the European colonialist, namely the British. In fact under the leadership of charismatic and great Somali poet, Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, the Dervish movement repulsed four British expeditions in this area during their long struggle against colonial occupation. As a result, this part of Somalia was never officially under the British protectorate.

In fact, the notion of “British Protectorate” flies the face of reality when you look back at the treacherous acts committed by the British. Despite the British signing an accord with some elders of “Somaliland” that their lands will be safe under the terms stipulated in the said agreement, the grazing land of Hawd and Reserved area, was ceded to Ethiopia’s Haille Salassie as a gift in 1954 much to the indignation of Somalis, which brought thousands of demonstrators to the streets of Hargeisa, the current day secessionist stronghold, and in all other Somali-inhabited territories in what many historians described as the betrayal of Somalis. If Mohamed Ismail aka Barkhad Cas, who uttered this stomach-churning famous line with regard to the British sellout of Somali territory: “aan ooyee albaabka ii xidha (let me cry behind closed door) and many more northerners who vehemently opposed to the British occupation were to turn up in their graves, they would have been ashamed of and disgusted at what is happening to their beloved country that they had invested so much in their lifetime. They will even be more ashamed of Mohamed Obsiye and his likeminded in the secessionist camp who degraded everything their predecessors believed in and fought for.

Only in “Somaliland” will you see politicians swinging like pendulum on every issue. I will not be surprised if there is a change of heart on the issue of Somali nationalism in Hargeisa pretty soon. To see further how secessionists are ill-informed and hopeless in their chase of futile dreams, look no further than their recent desperate plethora of articles in the media, including this author’s. Unfortunately all have one thing in common: hypocrisy. They want to establish a state called “Somaliland” with total disregard to the wishes and wants of other clans living in regions such as Sool, Sanaag, Canyn in the east and Awdal regions in the west.

In conclusion, “Somaliland” has no sound and legal basis to claim sovereignty/independence. A country aspiring to become a sovereign state should have, inter alia, internationally recognized borders at minimum. According to encyclopedia a sovereign state is state with a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states.

One or two elements in this list, mainly a defined territory and the capacity to enter relations with other sovereign states, are not available in the case of “Somaliland”, and in the absence of such legal backing, people who live under this self-imposed isolation will suffer in perpetuity as long as the wild goose chase is on. Holding a few orchestrated elections and changing leadership peacefully in what is purely a clan-based democracy will not earn an international recognition for “Somaliland”. There are much more legal requirements than this.

It is worthwhile reading Mohamed Mirre’s brilliant article on Wardheernews entitled ‘the message from SSC: If Somalia is divisible so is Somaliland’. Mohamed Mirre has bared all to see the fallacy of secessionist’s hackneyed claims and how baseless they are, and I have to concur with him. It will be wise for “Somaliland” politicians if they abandon this fanthom dream and work constructively with their fellow Somalis toward the reconstitution of Somali state and a government that is all-inclusive. History will look them back favorably if they do this noble action.

[Cali_Gaab]

LoL

SSC is as real as maakhir saaxib, Sanaagtani meel alaa aad ka keenteen maba garano horta, inta kalle na hal tuulo ayaad ku dhex wareegtaan.

The day you control a capital of atleast 1 Gobol, SSC rubbish should not be discussed on this forum.

[malakumod]

Soomaalidu waxay ku maahmaahda habar dhaliweyday aleelo ku waalatay
when these people cannot refute the facts nacnac iyo cantarabaqash bey ku washaan

[Cali_Gaab]

What is the fact here son?

That SSC can seperate?

[malakumod]

What is the fact here son?

That SSC can seperate?

like told you before your short stature is not only limited to you high. perhaps you should go and re-read the article then we may (and it is a long may) be able to have a fruit full conversation

[Cali_Gaab]

Can you post this in the SSC section?

[haxxor]

What's up with Somalis? STOP DIVIDING!

[SahanGalbeed]

Haddeynu dayaxa u guurno , dhulbahante inaga soo dhex toosa oo yidha " waa la ina xasuuqaya , halkan aynu joogno baynu qayb ku leenahay , dhiidhihdi ..dhadhadha laga ma waayo .
Somalila inaga wasna , waxna inaga ma gelin !!

[malakumod]

^^^
war sahan abti xagee baad ka dhacday

[The_Emperior5]

if Somaliland is divisible so is ssc if ssc is divisible so is jamac siyaad

[malakumod]

so is emperior and if he is divisible so is khalid cali.

[The_Emperior5]

so is emperior and if he is divisible is khalid cali.

u want to separate my gacanyare from me no foking way