Open letter to the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union
By Mohsin Mahad , February 16, 2006
To: His Excellency Prof. Alpha Oumar Your Excellency We, the undersigned, speaking on behalf of many like-minded Somalis in Somalia and throughout the world, have been deeply shocked to learn that the Commission of the African Union (AU) that has been established to promote African unity and preserve the territorial integrity of its member states has instead embarked on a misguided action whose implications could lead to the break up of one of its member countries, namely Somalia. This dire consequence is inherent in the report and recommendations given by a mission that the AU Commission sent last year to the secessionist enclaves in the North West region of Somalia, otherwise known by the secessionists as Somaliland. Far from contributing to peace-building and reconciliation in our strive-torn country, as one would have expected, the AU mission report and its contents had instead given the secessionists a badly needed shot in the arm that would immeasurably boost their delusion. According to the Mail and Guardian newspaper, the AU mission has recommended that due consideration be given to Somaliland’s future, including its possible recognition as an independent country separate from Somalia. This is the best news that the secessionists had been eagerly waiting to hear for the last 16 years of their secession having been hitherto ignored by the totality of the international community. As you are aware, your Excellency, any recommendation entailing the recognition of a secession masteminded by one clan in Somalia is simply a dead duck under article 29 of the AU Charter. Given this clear- cut provision of the Charter, it is all the more incomprehensible why the Commission should have wasted its meagre resources and deemed it necessary to send this mission in the first place. Equally reprehensible, in our view, was the Commission’s decision to give this report its seal of approval for its publication even when it was obvious that the mission’s field programme in the North West region was only limited to the secessionist enclave and when it was all too clear that the draft report was calling for actions contrary to the AU Charter. Even if this report and its recommendations go no further than the dusty shelves of the AU archives, as we hope, it has nonetheless done a lot of damage to the integrity of the AU and to the recovery of Somalia. The secessionists will see this report as a major breakthrough in which their recognition by the AU is henceforth only a question of time rather than never. To the best of our knowledge, this must be first time in the history of the Organization of African Unity and the African Union that one of its bodies had sanctioned actions that could precipitate disastrous consequences for a member country. What is of particular concern to us is the unilateral, paternalistic approach of the mission and the ill-informed ways it has meddled in the destiny of a region in Somalia over the head of its government and in total disregard for the overwhelming wishes of its people, both in the North and South, for whom the unity of the country is sacrosanct. By needlessly emboldening the separatists, the AU Commission report and recommendations have deliberately or inadvertently set the secessionists and the rest of Somalia on a collision course and we only have the to thank the AU for that. Few can doubt that the mission’s findings and recommendations are not based on any objective observation and assessment of the wishes of the Somali people, in particular their aspirations for peace and unity. The mission’s bias is clear from the partial, one-sided manner it had conducted it’s visit to the territory. This was a mission which was supposedly independent but in reality was in hog to the secessionist administration in Hargeisa throughout its visit. This was a mission that was taken only to secessionist strongholds and therefore heard no other views except those from the secessionists. This was also a mission that chose not to visit other regions in Somalia, least of all Sool, Eastern Sanaag and Cayn, whose geographical size constitutes almost half of the North West region and whose inhabitants have no intention to secede from Somalia. We can only assume that the mission, in conducting its field programme in the biased way it did, may have persuaded itself that the views conveyed to it in the secessionist heartland were mirroring those elsewhere in the territory; or it may have simply deferred to the wishes or advice of its hosts. Whatever the reasons, and no matter how one looks at it, this was a mission that should never have been sent in the first place. All it achieved is to echo the mantra of the secessionists, give them false hopes and inflame the conflict in Somalia. Far from helping Somalia recover from its conflict, the AU mission’s report and recommendation could stoke up the civil war all over again at the very time when Somalia might at last have a functioning national government that could pave the way for peace, reconciliation, democracy and development.
If the Commission were to give further attention to this report in disregard to the AU Charter, and encourage the one-clan based secession, this will give no choice to the other clans in the North West region, namely in Sool, Sanaag and Cayn ,but to equally secede and ask for recognition from the AU in their own right as the state of “True Somaliland”. Unless the AU change direction before it is too late, it would be seen by Somalis everywhere and the international community as if it had joined the wreckers of Somalia, notably the warlords and secessionists, in dismembering Somalia into various fiefdoms and secessionist enclaves. We would like to believe that the decision to send this mission was an isolated abberation on the part of the AU Commission and trust your wisdom to discard its report before it does any more harm to Somalia, other African countries and no less to the credibility of the AU itself. CC: Somali Ambassador to the UN, New York Somali Ambassador to the African Union, Addis Ababa Somali Ambassador to the UN, Geneva Somali Ambassador to the League of Arab States. Cairo Somali Ambassador to the Organization of Islamic Conference |
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