We, the Diaspora from the Sool, Sanaag and Cayn regions (SSC) of Somalia;

Having participated in an extra-ordinary teleconference organised by the Forum for the defence and Development of SSC and in which participants from Europe, North America and elsewhere in the world had participated have adopted the following declaration:

The Forum for the Defence and Development of SSC would like to convey to the Secretary General of the United Nations and his Special Representative for Somalia, the Secretary General of the Arab league and his Representative for Somalia, the Chairperson of the African Union, The Representative of the European Union for Somalia and the Somali people everywhere :

• Our outrage and opposition to the naked and unprovoked aggression that the militia from the Isaaq clan have launched last week on the SSC regions inhabited by the Dhulbahante clan in which they captured the regional capital Lascanod by force. The occupiers had unleashed widespread looting, rape, death and destruction and forced thousands of residents to flee the capital and seek refuge in the country side with no access to food, shelter and medicine;

• In line within their inalienable rights, the people of SSC consider themselves as part and parcel of Somalia and are recognised as such by the international community. In this regard, they consider as preposterous the claim by the secessionist Isaaq clan that our SSC regions belong to them on the ground of defunct colonial boundaries that ceased to exist and have any relevance or legality following the independence and subsequent union of former British and Italian Somalilands on 1 July 1960;

• Since the collapse of the Somali State, the Somali people had organised themselves along traditional clan basis. While in the North West Region of Somalia, the Isaaq clan have established their self-declared independent Somaliland, the Dolbahante for their part, being part of the Harti and wider Darood clan, have joined Puntland Regional Administration which remains part of Somalia;

• The Isaaq invasion of SSC regions are motivated by two related objectives: First, they attribute the absence of recognition of their self-declared independence since 1991 as due to the fact that the SSC capital was until last week outside their control and as such considered its capture as prerequisite for their recognition. Secondly, the invasion of SSC and their continuing threats against the rest of Puntland is aimed to de-stabilise Puntland which could in t urn accelerate the demise or collapse of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), a prospect which, if it materialises, is seen by them to be

favourable to their recognition as the only remaining functioning entity in what they call former Somalia.

• The Isaaq invasion, contrary to their misguided blinkered calculations, would rekindle the clan war in Somalia on a wider scale as other Darood/Harti clans join the defence of the Darood patrimony and the unity of Somalia against the invading secessionist Isaaq clan.

In the light of the above, we:
• Call on the invading Isaaq militia to unconditionally and immediately withdraw from the totality of the Dhulbahante-inhabited SSC regions;

• Call on the international community and neighbouring IGAD countries to put all necessary pressures, economically and diplomatically, on the self-declared government of the secessionist enclave in Somaliland to withdraw their forces immediately from SSC regions and compensate the SSC people for all the loss of life and property they had inflicted on them.

• Call on the United Nations that those who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and other human rights violations on the SSC people be tried for their crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague similar to its actions in Darfur.

• Call on the United Nations agencies and other international aid organisations to withhold aid from Somaliland so long as it is engaged in aggression. If it was not for such international aid, it would not have been possible for Somaliland to divert resources to its invasion of SSC regions.

• Appeal to international humanitarian organisations to come to the aid of the suffering displaced SSC people whose conditions are worsening by the day in particular the vulnerable groups such as children, women and the elderly.

Forum for the defence and Development of SSC
Contact Person: Mohamed Ali Mirreh
mmirreh@hotmail.com

CC: Secretary General of the United Nations
UN Special Representative for Somalia,
Secretary General of the league of Arab States
Arab league Representative for Somalia,
Chairperson of the African Union,
The Representative of the European Union for Somalia