Long, but hilarious read. Here are some funny quotes
Exploitation, repression and daily humiliations and widespread human rights abuses became the whole mark of the enclave’s occupation of the SSC people. Harsh taxes are levied on the occupied whose proceeds goes to top up Hargeisa’s coffers and used to fund their occupation!; hundreds died in their doomed invasion of Buuhoodle and Kalshaale in 2010 for resisting to be conquered and incorporated into the enclave; the right to assembly is routinely denied without prior permission from Hargeisa.
Remember their chasing Dr Galaydh (before his defection to them) from one improvised Khatumo conference venue after another in 2014, and when they failed to catch him dubbed him Ali Bile (after Abdi Bile, the famous runner)? And not long ago, they imperiously dared the SSC traditional leaders of all people to hold a conference in Buuhoodle as they wished- imagine in their own town! Even the former colonial power would have balked at such crude excesses.
To top it all, they attacked and occupied on 11 January the village of Tukaraq, a Puntland customs outpost on the periphery of Puntland but just inside Sool. One has to ask why now when they could have taken it from Puntland anytime before, knowing it would walk away as it did everywhere else in Sool?. Clearly, this was timed to cock a snook at President Farmaajo, who was on a visit close to the area, and publicly humiliate and expose him as a powerless paper tiger in this part of the world where they rule supreme.
Thirdly, their machismo was bloated by their spectacular feat of chasing Puntland forces from the SSC regions with hardly any resistance; and far from meeting any comeback from Puntland to liberate the occupied regions are instead having it in cahoots with them to deny the SSC people their inalienable right to be free from their hegemony. Their latest unchallenged occupation of the Tukaraq outpost from Puntland further reaffirms and reinforces their perceived supremacy.
Fifthly, their arrogance is nourished by the special treatment they receive from some members of the international community and international organizations. Though these affirm the unity and territorial integrity of Somalia, perhaps to be politically correct, yet this is belied by the disproportionate aid given to the enclave and the special attention it gets from the representatives of the UN, EU and some of their leading member countries who regularly pay visits to the enclave but rarely ever treat other regions similarly. This disparity of treatment is tantamount to rewarding the secession rather than censuring it, and all it does is to reinforce their intransigence rather than return them to the fold. They take advantage of the weakness of the federal government which is more preoccupied with its own survival rather than challenge their financial benefactors.
Last but not least, the military arsenal the enclave laid its hands on, after the disintegration of the Somali national army, had overnight made it the strongest clan/enclave in post-Siyad Barre Somalia and accounts for much of its machismo. Having put their relative military might to the test by occupying all the unionist regions in the north – except for Buuhoodle district – and wrested Sool from Puntland, they feel unstoppable and are now at the gates of Garawe, no doubt a nightmare for its residents who hitherto had basked in false security.
It is sad that while Ethiopia is intervening, and for better or worth interceding with all sides in the conflict as if they were part of its dominion, the federal government for its part can only come up with a mealy-mouthed statement, as if trying to be neutral and not offend any of what they see as two warring parties. This would only serve as a bonus wetting the arrogance and intransigence of the enclave.
