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Will the Arabs dare to listen to Somaliland?

By Bashir Goth - posted Wednesday, 19 April 2006


It also portrayed Somalia as a “sore thumb” in Africa, particularly as the African people were emerging from European colonialism and the prevailing mood was to foster brotherhood among African peoples, removing the colonial demarcation borders and creating the Unites States of Africa.

Although the dream of a Greater Somalia was dealt a serious blow when Djibouti decided to stay away from the union after gaining its independence on July 27, 1977, Somalia’s military dictator Siyad Barre still launched a lightning attach on Ethiopia in 1977 in an attempt to liberate the Somali region of Ethiopia and force Djibouti back to the fold.

The initial gains of the Somali military were soon reversed when the Soviet Union, the main supplier of military hardware to Somalia, switched sides and backed the Marxist Ethiopian regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam with heavy military equipment, logistical support and thousands of Cuban forces deployed to the battle ground. Somalia was defeated and tens of thousands of Somali-Ethiopian refugees crossed the border.

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Somaliland suffered the most from this continued hostility to its neighbouring Ethiopia as all military operations were carried out from its territory and Somaliland’s historical trade and economic links with Ethiopia were severed.

In addition to this, the government established refugee camps in the north and resettled tens of thousands of them in major towns and farming areas. The people of the north resisted the government’s resettlement program and saw it as a calculated policy aimed at replacing the native population with new arrivals, the majority of them belonging to the president’s clans in Ethiopia.

The government deployed heavily equipped military units to major towns in the north. Angered by the daily humiliation of their people, the northern-born military leaders took arms against what they saw as southern domination of their country and a calculated policy of emptying their area of its original population.

Seeing his rule on the brink, Siyad Barre started playing a tribal card and appointed ruthless cronies of his clan as governors and military commanders in the north with the clear objective of bringing the northern insurgency to a crushing defeat. The military used all its might to subdue the northern opposition. They bombarded the civilian population, burned villages and farms and levelled major towns to the ground. Thousands of innocent civilians were killed and buried in mass graves, and almost two-third of the country’s 3.5 million population crossed the border to Ethiopia as refugees.

When Siyad Barre’s government collapsed in 1991, Somaliland people convened a conference on May 18, 1991 and made a unanimous decision to reclaim their sovereignty and declare their union with the south back in 1960 as null and void.

Somaliland embarked on a grass roots reconciliation and reconstruction process. The refugees returned in the thousands to rebuild their homes and their lives and government institutions were put in place. Somaliland today can boast having successfully held three democratic and internationally observed elections: municipal, presidential and parliamentary. It has a flag, a national currency, a bicameral parliament, an executive and judicial system, a vibrant and fast growing mercantile sector and unprecedented free press.

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Unlike Somalia, the former Italian colony, where people remain hostage to the warlords and to ongoing fratricide, mayhem and chaos, Somaliland has remained an oasis of peace and stability where people abide by the rule of law. All this has been achieved without foreign intervention or international financial assistance.

Somaliland today has become the focus of interest for its home-grown model based on modern democracy and traditional laws, consequently prompting experts on African affairs to describe it as Africa’s “best kept secret” and “the little country that could”.

A report compiled by an African Union fact-finding mission to Somaliland, and presented to the latest African summit in Khartoum early this year, strongly recommended the country’s recognition, saying "since its declaration of independence in 1991, Somaliland has been steadily laying the foundations of a democratic state, clothed with the relevant attributes of ‘modern state’”.

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Article edited by Hudson Birden.
If you'd like to be a volunteer editor too, click here.

First published in the Sudan Tribune on March 31, 2006.



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About the Author

Bashir Goth is a Somali poet, journalist, professional translator, freelance writer and the first Somali blogger. Bashir is the author of numerous cultural, religious and political articles and advocate of community-development projects, particularly in the fields of education and culture. He is also a social activist and staunch supporter of women’s rights. He is currently working as an editor in a reputable corporation in the UAE. You can find his blog here.

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