NSPU

On September 29, 2005 Jean Daudelin (an academic at Carleton University) and Lee Seymour (a PhD candidate at Northwestern University) published in the Globe and Mail newspaper a “Memo to Paul Martin” calling on him to recognize “Somaliland” - a breakaway region of Somalia – as an independent country.

The Memo, written under the cloak of scholarship, obviously promotes the agenda of the secessionists in my country, Somalia, and since I am a native of what the authors call ‘Somaliland' I take exception to the many distortions of the facts of the situation. I think it is also intellectually dishonest to write about a country or a situation just from one's own head or by relying solely on information provided by a group with an agenda to break up a country.

Only a cursory look at the history of the merger between the two parts of the Somalia (the ex-British and the ex-Italian) would have informed the authors that there was no federation in Somalia at all. Yet the authors state that Somaliland “hastily entered into federation with the former Italian Somaliland ”. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They also state equally erroneously that the merger was “an unhappy union”. If by that they mean, as the secessionists always claim, that the North (formerly Somaliland ) did not benefit by the union or that the union was a net loss to it, one should simply and objectively compare how the British left Somaliland with and how it became thirty years later. We, the Northerners, were in the course of those thirty years Speakers of Parliament, ministers, ambassadors, permanent secretaries, high ranking military officers, etc. and the last Prime Minister in the civilian government in Somalia , was none other than the last President of the separatist region that calls itself ‘ Somaliland '. It is true that the cruelty of the regime of Siad Barre to our Issaq brothers and sisters was unparalleled in the annals of Somali history. But that regime was repressive to many other clans as well and that was why the resurgence of clanism swept away the State itself, not in Hargeisa but in Mogadishu, the national capital.

The authors claim that “ Somaliland has also constructed the political foundations of a functioning democracy”. Again, the facts point to the contrary. A parliament, hitherto unelected, arbitrary detentions of journalists, imprisonment of dissidents, long-term imprisonment, torture and rape of a 16 year-old girl from Puntland accused of spying, the President's summary dismissal of the Chief Justice, a bogus referendum (called for and conducted by the separatists themselves) which the people of Sool, Sanaag and Boohodle boycotted (because it did not concern them since they were, as they are, part and parcel of neighbouring Puntland), the prohibition of open debates to precede the referendum, and the detention of those who openly advocated against secession, are all the elements of the “functioning democracy” the authors are talking about. The authors deliberately chose to downplay these serious violations of rights by saying, “All is not perfect in Somaliland ”. This is a serious understatement which smacks of dishonesty.

The authors display yet again their ignorance about the “ Somaliland ” they are defending by advising the Prime Minister, Paul Martin, to travel to Hargeisa for the “inauguration of the country's government that will emerge from today's elections...”   The system obtaining in that breakaway region of ours is a presidential one and ministers are not chosen from parliament. Therefore, there is no government that will emerge from this or any other election and hence no inauguration.

As regards the elections the authors state: “Outside observers have deemed these elections to have been largely free and fair.” There is an obvious and revealing discrepancy between the fact that the article was published on the Election Day itself and the time the statement of the observers was made.   Did the authors anticipate that the observers would say that the elections were free and fair or did the observers tell them in advance that they would declare the elections as free and fair? Now, where is the honesty in this?

Unfortunately, Africa has seen many foreign ideologies that bring their destructive missions to the continent and on its people - from slavery, colonization and cold war to the current neo-colonial economic domination fronted by the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and scholars with hidden agendas, all with disastrous effects.   One of the most effective forms of domination tactics used by these groups in Africa and indeed to the rest of the world was the concept of “divide, weaken and rule”. The authors reminded me the application of that policy by the late Apartheid regimes in South Africa who created Bantustans (tribal homelands) such as the Transkei and KwaZulu headed by Matanzima and Buthelezi respectively. The purpose of these tribal homelands was to weaken the unity of the majority of South Africans and their struggle against the apartheid system. History was on the side of the people of South Africa as they defeated the apartheid regime and established a free and democratic society. Equally, if a fair and UN-observed plebiscite is held today in ‘ Somaliland ', the overwhelming majority of the people of ‘ Somaliland ' will vote against secession and creation of Bantustans in Somalia .

It is evident that the entire purpose of the authors' misinformation is to get the Canadian Government to recognize “ Somaliland ”. But the Canadian Government is not as gullible as the authors might think, and it will certainly not base its decision on so tendentious a report or letter. Let me repeat, however, for the benefit of the authors what Mr. Chris Mullen told the Legislative Assembly in Hargeisa a year ago. He told them in clear and unmistakable terms that recognition would cause war.   He could not be more right. Somaliland and Puntland have been at war and are, after a modus vivendi , still on the brink of war because of Sool, Sanaag, and Buhodle all of which were part of British Somaliland but are now part and parcel of Puntland which effectively controls them. Somaliland and Puntland, unlike the Southern regions, enjoy at present relative peace and quiet. Recognition will simply turn that on its head and export the war in the South to these quiet northern areas.

There is no valid reason to complicate matters further and cause bloodshed when Somalia has just adopted a federal system in order to provide the maximum autonomy possible to areas like the breakaway region of “ Somaliland ”. There have been contacts already between the Federal Government and ministers from Hargeisa.   And the clans in the North as a whole are represented in the Federal Parliament and Federal Government.  

Recognition of ‘ Somaliland ' will also be a flagrant violation of the numerous Security Council resolutions on Somalia which affirmed, and reaffirmed time and again, the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia . As a Canadian, I trust that the policies of our government will not be influenced by individuals who pronounce themselves so carelessly on matters for which they have no expertise.

It is, however, necessary for the secessionists and their ‘friends' to understand that if Somalia is divisible, Somaliland is also divisible .

Gamal Hassan
Ottawa, Canada
Email: ceelaayo@yahoo.com