Let Somaliland be an independent country, Int’l Think Tanks Say

[Jacaylbaro]

Two influential international think tanks are recommending independence and diplomatic recognition of Somaliland "sooner rather than later". In its latest report, the Senlis Council underlines the need for quick and official recognition of Somaliland. This is echoed by the International Crisis Group, which also supports international recognition of Somaliland’s right to statehood.

 

HARGEISA (Tiraspol Times) - The Republic of Somaliland needs to be officially recognized as an independent country says a prominent global think-tank in its latest report on security and development. The Senlis Council, which was established in 2002 as a European-based organization, reveals its policy recommendations in a report entitled Chronic Failures of the War on Terror: From Afghanistan to Somalia which was published in London on Wednesday.

 

In its report, the think-tank emphasises the need for official recognition of Somaliland.

 

" - Official recognition for Somaliland would send a clear message to all Somalis that peaceful transitions from stability are possible without the need to use overpowering military force, and will be rewarded," said Norine MacDonald, a Canadian lawyer who is president and lead field researcher of The Senlis Council.

 

" - Up to now, Somaliland has toiled in relative anonymity without any recognition of its extraordinary success in creating the conditions for a viable, stand-alone state, and resisting the spread of extremism found in Somalia."

 

The Senlis Council is an international policy think-tank with offices in Brussels, Kabul, Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, London, Ottawa, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. It works in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), as co-organizer of an international conference held in February with the attendance of General David J. Richards, until last year the overall commander of NATO-ISAF.

 

ICG recommends independence

 

The International Crisis Group also recommends independence as the best way to build a future for the people of Somaliland. The ICG advocates that the African Union leads the way on international recognition of Somaliland’s right to statehood.

 

In a special report, the research and advocacy group makes a clear political and legal case for recognition. ICG’s research suggests that an independent Somaliland would add to regional stability, rather than representing a further cause of instability in the Horn of Africa. The International Crisis Group argues that Somaliland’s case is unique, and would not - as some AU members fear - set a precedent for African secessionist movement.

 

The current internationally recognized state of Somalia is a state in name only. Aside from the briefest of intervals, the last 17 years has been characterised by varying degrees of chaos.

 

In Somalia, elections have not been held since 1969. Whereas in Somaliland, the 2005 Parliamentary elections were regarded as free and fair, and a test of independence.

 

But if Somalia is a state in name only, Somaliland is a state-in-waiting without formal recognition.

 

Of all of the states in the Horn of Africa, it is the self-declared yet internationally unrecognised aspirant state of Somaliland that offers President Bush with his most viable opportunity to claim an African success story. By all rational indicators of a state’s post-conflict development, Somaliland represents impressive progress, and consolidating an area of stability and governance in the Horn of Africa will reduce the vacant space for instability, conflict and extremism to fill.

 

 

Somaliland case not creating new precedent

 

Somaliland has achieved an extraordinary level of political and physical stability after being raised during the bitter civil war of the early 1990s. An embattled population found the resolve to reconstitute itself, establishing functioning organs of government without little upheaval – a rarity in post-conflict reconstruction. Its drive to create multi-party democracy upon a backdrop of relative peace and security has been impressive, if not without flaw.

 

Somaliland’s considerable achievements must not continue to go unheralded, and the only substantial way to reward it is through full statehood, argues the Senlis Council in its report.

 

Somaliland’s claim for full state independence is distinct from the majority of similar requests of other separatist enclaves/exclaves. Rather than seeking to secede from Somalia, Somaliland is looking to be re-constituted as an independent state. It held this status for five days between 26 June and 1 July 1960 - being recognized by 35 states in the process - before voluntarily uniting with Italian Somalia within the Somali Republic.

 

For most of its time inside Somalia, the territory was ruled by dictator Siad Barre’s regime. Barre fell in 1991, along with the country’s political, economic and administrative institutions and any semblance of central government. On 18 May 1991, Somaliland revoked the 1960 Act of Union, and declared Somaliland independent. No country has officially recognised its statehood yet.

 

According to the report from the Senlis Council, the current policy vacuum needs to be filled by constructive engagement on the issue of Somaliland’s status at every diplomatic level, most notably within the African Union and United Nations. While this dialogue should necessarily be framed by the need for regional stability, the aim of some parties to establish a Somali Federation need not be an immediate focus of such discussions.

 

Somaliland declared independence in 1991, one year after the independence declaration of Pridnestrovie (Transdniestria). Both have been ‘de facto’ independent states for the better part of the past two decades, but neither one of them has yet obtained international diplomatic recognition. A first step towards broader international recognition will be for the two countries’ Foreign Ministries to establish bilateral ties and recognize each other on a mutual basis.

 

 

By Jason Cooper

 

 

Published 2006 - 2008 by TIRASPOL TIMES & WEEKLY REVIEW (News Services), a.f.s.

[Fabregas]

I think Ayaan dhow I will call myself a think tank......bal eega nimanka le Italian is a major language in Somalia! And Somalia has a " small Christian minority".

[Thankful]

They recommended a lot more that you typically always leave out!!!

 

Think Tank Link

 

Somaliland's 'path to recognition'

 

Amid the chaos that has afflicted the Horn of Africa over recent decades, there is an oasis of relative calm that is ignored by the rest of the world.

 

The self-declared Republic of Somaliland announced its independence from the rest of Somalia in May 1991 and has been searching for recognition in vain since then.

 

Now, it has received support from a think-tank active in development and security issues, the Senlis Council.

 

"A fast-track to recognition is urgently needed for Somaliland," a report from the council states.

 

"State-in-waiting"

 

It supports Somaliland's claim that it is not another enclave seeking separation. Such a separation would be against the principles of the African Union.

 

The Senlis Council argues that since Somaliland is basically the old British Somaliland, which was independent for five days in 1960 before uniting with Italian Somaliland, it should be regarded again as a state-in-waiting.

 

 

 

 

The report calls for a "path to recognition" - including a referendum on independence, full transition to multi-party democracy and the rule of law, resolution of its territorial dispute with another region of Somalia, Puntland, and aid from the United States.

 

"Given the turmoil that characterises the bulk of Somalia, the international community needs to be reawakened from its torpor on Somaliland while relative calm exists," the report says.

 

Norine MacDonald, the Canadian lawyer who is the Senlis Council's president, said: "This is an untold story of remarkable endeavour.

 

"Somalia is not a functioning state. Somaliland is a functioning state. It is asking for recognition and we call on President George Bush to lead that recognition."

 

She remarked that while she could not move around Mogadishu on a recent visit, which she stressed was worse than Afghanistan and desperate for international aid, she was able to walk freely around the capital of Somaliland, Hargeisa.

 

The report places Somaliland in the context of what it calls the "chronic failures of the US-led war on terror" in Afghanistan, where Ms MacDonald is based, and Somalia.

 

This war, it claims, is "bolstering the legitimacy of Somali and Afghan extremists. The recognition of Somaliland is a political necessity in the fight against extremism."

 

Long struggle

 

Despite these calls, it is unlikely that the United States will move quickly towards formal recognition.

 

The position of the Bush administration was spelled out in a statement by the State Department on 17 January this year: "While the United States does not recognize Somaliland as an independent state, and we continue to believe that the question of Somaliland's independence should be resolved by the African Union, we continue regularly to engage with Somaliland as a regional administration."

 

The US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer met Somaliland's foreign minister last year.

 

So there is a kind of de facto acceptance of the split, but the US probably cannot afford to upset Somali President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed, who opposes independence for Somaliland.

 

He is an ally in the US fight against Islamic militants in the region, notably the Council of Islamic Courts and the al-Shabab movement.

 

The US is also seeking four suspects in Somalia it says were part of the al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

[General Duke]

lol. So there is no path to recognition? After 17 years they have yet to even chart a path, how long will it take to travel it then?

 

We have time on our side. Somalia gets better there will be no paths needed for any province.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Gen duke Somaliland is off limit no one can touch it

 

in 2009 there will be elected a new govt for Somalia this hol abdilahi yusuf coaltion with the nur cadde is not working there will be a new peace conference Somaliland with our with our recognition is off limit Yusuf and his gang knows that

[AfricaOwn]

Originally posted by General Duke:

lol. So there is no path to recognition? After 17 years they have yet to even chart a path, how long will it take to travel it then?

 

I don't care if it takes us another 100 years...So as long as we continue to push it.

[Baashi]

And the French NGO -- an advocacy group for poppy legalization -- said so. And that qualifies a posting on this forum in order to show how close the golden cup is. Closer than close indeed.

 

Adduunyo!

[xiinfaniin]

That's what happens when Oodweyne, their hired pen, takes sabbatical from SOL. He would have at least put it in the context of western history...