Somalia Shedding Crocodile Tears For Unity

[Jacaylbaro]

To weep crocodile tears is to pretend a sorrow that

one does not in fact feel to create a hypocritical

show of emotion. Crocodiles weep while luring or

devouring their prey. Similar are Somalia`s voices

advocating for the revival of the doomed union knowing

that the destruction of the unity was unshared

responsibility of Somalia.

 

 

For the last fifteen years, these voices have been

obsessively resorting to a common misguided

expression: “The unity is sacred” believing that

rhetorical, misplaced speeches and writings could

bring back the union that Somalia buried in a deep

grave without mark. So far, the politicians,

intellectuals, and writers of Somalia have failed to

admit in their writings, interviews, conferences, and

meetings that the relentless injustices and

atrocities of the South (Somalia) against the North

(Somaliland) during the thirty years of the doomed

union (1960-1990) were the undeniable root causes of

Somaliland`s withdrawal from the union to reclaim its

independence after an almost decade-long devastating

civil war between the two sides (1982-1990). Instead,

they unwisely use Somaliland for scapegoat and blame

it for the destruction of the unity.

 

This dishonest approach of denial and cover up is completely

irresponsible, hypocritical, and unintellectual for

sidestepping the truth. Such attitude will only make

any chances for future talks for mutual, bilateral

relations between the two sisterly states even remote.

 

 

It is undeniable historical fact that Somaliland was

the first of the five Somali- speaking territories to

become independent on June 26, 1960 and, as well, the

first pioneering founder of the Union to make the

‘Greate Somalia’ dream come true when it willingly

initiated the unification with Somalia on July 1st

1960 creating the first Republic of Somalia. But,

unfortunately, Somaliland became the first victim of

that Union too after the South-led civilian and

military governments turned the history of the Union

into history of conspiracies, injustices, and

atrocities plotted and committed against the North.

 

The political blunders that drove wedge between the

North and the South began with the formation of the

first government in 1960. When honorable Aden Abdulle

Osman (From the South) was elected the first

president of the former Republic of Somalia

(1960-1967), which was created from the unification of

the two newly independent states emerging from former

British Somaliland Protectorate and Italian Somalia,

every one expected the premiership belonged to the

North without challenge and that the top cabinet and

armed forces posts would be shared fairly too.

 

 

Unfortunately, president Aden failed to understand

the fact that fair and balanced power-sharing was

essential to sustain that newly born unity. He

treated the North as an ordinary region like Mudug or

Banadir and treated Northern People as second class

citizens depriving them of the legitimate share in the

new government thus hijacking it for the South by

granting premiership and other top civilian and armed

forces positions to the South. He appointed Mr.

Abdirasheed Ali Sharma`arke (From the South) as the

first prime minister of Somalia (1960-1964), Abdirizaq

Haji Hussein (From the South) for minister of

interior, Mr. Abdullahi Issa Mohamoud (From the South)

for minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Osman Ahmed Roble

(From the South) for minister of Finance, General

Da`ud Hirsi (From the South) for Commander of the

Armed Forces, General Mohammed Abshir (From the South)

for Commander of National Police Force etc. The

North, which was the pioneering founder of the Union,

was betrayed and faced embarrassment and humiliation

in the hands of the South.

 

 

The betrayal angered furiously the Northern people in

general and politicians, traditional leaders,

intellectuals, military officers and youth in

particular. This deep resentment of the North against

the South, influenced young military officers of the

North, at the command of Hassan Kayd, to lead the

unsuccessful military coup in Hargeisa on December 10,

1961 to reclaim Northern sovereignty and independence

from the South. Instead of addressing the grievances

of the North and the root causes of the failed

military coup through national dialogue for

reconciliation, president Aden Abdulle Osman made the

second political blunder by transferring South-born

military service men to the North while transferring

those of the North to the South in order to punish

Northern people for the abortive coup thus turning

North into a semi-colony occupied by the South forcing

its people to travel to Mogadisho for all necessary

documents of life that they were supposed to have in

their homeland including commercial licenses, middle

and high school diplomas etc.

 

Appointments and nominations for regional and local officials were alsomade in Mogadisho as everything was centralized.

President Aden Abdulle Osman repeated the same

polarizing mistakes for the third time when he

appointed Mr. Abdirizaq Haji Hussein (From the South)

as the second prime minister of Somalia from

1964-1967. He betrayed the North for two reasons.

 

 

First, he was a South-oriented man without vision and

who could not understand the importance of unity.

Secondly, he bowed to the pressure and demand of his

wife`s tribe to have premiership and that is why the

first two prime ministers of former Republic of Somalia were appointed from that tribe. President

Aden masterminded the first hostility and deep

political divide between North and South inflicting

the first irreversible political damage on the newly

born union. Again, Mr. Abdirasheed Ali Sharma`arke

(From the South) was elected president (1967-1969).

 

 

He saw that the country was heading in the wrong

direction and appointed Mr. Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal

( North-born politician) as the third prime minister

of former Republic of Somalia but Siad`s military

takeover on October 21, 1969 shortcut his tenure and

prevented him from addressing the grievances of the

North to narrow the gap between the two sides.

 

 

Late Somali Dictator, General Siad Barre (From the

South too), taking advantage of the unexpected

assassination of president Abdirasheed Ali Sharma`arke

on October 15, 1969 in Las Anod, over threw the

civilian government and led the country into vicious,

bloody military dictatorship for 21 years (1969-1990).

 

 

Knowing that his unconstitutional power takeover was

not welcomed by the Northern People who were already

oppressed by the South and fearing that they might

revolt against him, General Siad Barre could not hide

his harsh attitude and treatment towards the North to

subdue it for his dictatorship. In his first ten

years of power (1970-1980), he gradually purged most

of Northern high civil Servants from his government.

 

 

This exacerbated the deep political disagreement that

already existed between North and South.

 

After all talks and negotiations between the two sides

failed, the Northern People had no choice but to

challenge the unabated injustices of the South with

armed resistance and founded the famous armed front,

SNM, in April 1981 to oust Siad`s dictatorship. SNM

forces waged relentless armed struggle against the

Southern forces of oppression, suppression and

repression in the North between 1982-1990. As

revengeful response to SNM armed struggle, General

Siad Barre detained indefinitely prominent leaders

hailing from the North, notably Mohammed Hagi Ibrahim

Egal, Ismael Ali Aboker and Omer Arteh Galib, and a

group of military officers and intellectuals at

Labaatan Jirow Prison.

Many others were jailed in secret prisons in Mogadisho without charges. He also stripped most of the northern military commanders and officers of their positions in the armed forces in

1980s to wage unchecked brutal military campaign of

death and destruction against North in order to subdue

SNM fighters and its supporters. The civil war

escalated in May 1988 when heroic forces of SNM

invaded major cities of the North, Hargeisa and Burao

in May 1988 to liberate the people and the country

from Siad`s tyranny. In this invasion, SNM forces

almost decimated the regular forces of Siad`s Regime

in the North and brought his repressive administration

in the North to its knees.

 

 

Being humiliated by the defeat and trying to expel

entrenched SNM forces from the cities, Siad Barre`s

government bombarded Hargeisa and Burao heavily and

indiscriminately with warplanes, tanks and artillery

causing massive death to civilians in both cities.

 

The regime also armed refugee camps in the North and

drafted tens of thousands in the South to fight in the

North. Nearly 50,000 civilians were brutally killed

or massacred by the regime and over 500,000 people

were forced to flee in 1988 into neighboring Ethiopia

and Djibouti. Many of the civilian victims were

killed in execution style and their bodies were dumped

in mass graves. More than 100 mass graves, including

Malko Durduro where skeletons of more than 700 people

were unearthed, were marked in Somaliland by UN

Forensic Team in December 1991. The bodies of the

mass graves belonged to victims of massacres carried

out by Southern troops loyal to then-president Siad

Barre who was ousted in 1991. Most of the mass

executions took place in the years 1988 and 1989.

 

Jazeera Beach near Mogadisho was another mass grave of

46 civilians from the North massacred on the night of

July 17, 1989. The heroic armed struggle of SNM

(1982-1980) supported by its courageous people finally

liberated Somaliland from the cruel tyranny of the

South in January 1991. The war waged against the

North was a criminal plot intended deliberately to

eliminate an entire nation. In the Pan-Somaliland

conference held in Burao in May 1991, Somaliland

people officially declared their withdrawal from the

disastrous Union with the South and reaffirmed their

sovereignty and independence.

 

 

The above historical facts are irrefutable evidence of

how the South (Somalia) continuously and deliberately

destroyed the unity with Somaliland. It was a painful

history that clearly reflects twenty two years

(1960-1982) of injustices, oppression and dereliction,

and eight years (1982-1990) of repressions,

persecutions and atrocities. Many of the voices that

call for unity today held high positions in the

civilian and military governments of the former

Republic of Somalia and participated in the injustices

and atrocities committed against the North and

rejoiced the suffering of its people for tribal or for

envious reasons. Unity is great and promising if both

sides are ripe for it and respect it equally, but if

it brings oppression, repressions, injustices and

atrocities upon one side, it is not unity, it is

disaster and that is why Somaliland adamantly rejects

to return to the union with Somalia to avoid repeating

the same painful history and waste of time.

 

 

Somalilanders who are members of Somalia`s

Transitional Parliament and Government do not

represent Somaliland Republic and its people but speak

for and represent only the Somaliland Community

residing in Somalia.

 

 

Another mistake constantly made by the politicians,

intellectuals and elders of Somalia is that they abuse

the word: “Sacred Unity”. The unity between

Somaliland, Djibouti and Somalia is never sacred, it

is of choice, but the national and territorial unity

within each country of the three is sacred and

inviolable. Somaliland has legitimacy for

independence because it is one of the African

countries that achieved independence in 1960. It has

also legitimacy for international recognition because

it has internationally recognized borders with

Somalila and with Djibouti. The border passing

between Somaliland and Somalia is not different from

that between Kenya and Tanzania or between Sudan and

Chad. All African borders, including that of

Somaliland, had been drawn by colonial European

Powers. The independence and international

recognition of each of the 54 African countries are

based on the colonial borders and Somaliland is not

different from them. There are no tribal borders but

there are only territorial borders, and each nation

comprises different tribes or ethnic groups.

 

 

Another point to make, speaking same language and

sharing same religion and color are not the absolute

factors to determine unity. The 18 Arab countries

would be united today if language, religion, and color

determine unity. Respect for justice and human

rights are the determining pillars for the unity

between two or more countries to sustain and that is

what Somalia failed to understand in the thirty years

of the union.

 

 

The reason why Somalia remains failed state for the

last 15 years is because tribal and local allegiance

are stronger in the hearts of many than allegiance to

patriotism and nationalism. Such situation shows

irreconcilable differences between the two and makes

any unity between Somalia and Somaliland inconceivable

and elusive. Then, the voices that failed to unite

their people and their country to end the endless

anarchy and violence, the voices that failed to admit

the injustices and atrocities committed against

Somaliland are simply misleading and deceptive.

 

 

Somalia must help itself first. Destroying unity and

then weeping for it is like shedding crocodile tears

and that is what Somalia does for unity it never

respected. Somaliland must reject Somalia crocodile

tears luring Somaliland people into another disastrous

union. Somaliland people can not change the past but

can change the future.

 

 

Written by: Ibrahim Hassan Gagale

somalilandcenter.com