United Nations Must Recognise Somaliland

[Jacaylbaro]

THERE has been some quite interesting reaction arising from the piece in this

column last week on Somaliland titled: Somaliland: A Viable state but

unrecognised. IN an SMS text message to me one reader wrote: “Rarely do I agree

with what you write but today I do.

 

The African Union as well as the United Nations must recognise Somaliland to prove

that they are not rubber stamps of George W. Bush. If America has recognised Kosovo,

the AU should recognise Somaliland. Otherwise, Somaliland should seek Iran and

Russian support!”

 

I did allow myself a little grin having read the unsigned telephone text message

from a reader of this column. I have since been consulting the super information

highway, the Internet and have come to discover that among frequent visitors to

Somaliland of recently has been Gendayi Fraser, the US Assistant Secretary of State

for African Affairs.

 

I really do not know what this African American lady has been up to in Somaliland.

But if these visits to the little country in the Horn of Africa has been aimed at

striking a quid pro quo -- “become our small outpost here - and we will prop you up

to gain international recognition” - fine. What matters for me as a bottom line is

how leaders of Somaliland will want to play their cards with the Americans.

 

The Americans have their interests as a nation and Somaliland leaders must know

their interests as a small country! And frankly, it is not true that practically

everything the Americans do is wrong: No. I was among the first who applauded the

American led NATO initiative to reverse ethnic cleansing in the Balkans during the

presidency of President Bill Clinton. The recognition of Kosovo is therefore a

logical and appropriate response to that initiative.

 

But what is of remarkable misnomer here is when the international community looks

away at a toddler nation born out of impossible circumstances - the disappearance of

an erstwhile unitary state of Somalia into anarchy and chaos. As we saw last week,

Somaliland was a British Protectorate for over 80 years while Somalia was

Italian-ruled.

 

At Somaliland independence in 1960, it went into a hasty Union with Italian ruled

Somalia in the south to create a unified Somali Republic. But the eras of coups in

the mid-sixties brought catastrophe to this unified Somali Republic when General

Mohamed Siad Barre pulled his coup. As a result of Siad Barre’s undemocratic move,

there was resistance in Somaliland aimed at reasserting itself as in the days at

independence in 1960.

 

But the overthrow of Siad Barre himself in 1991 plunged Somalia deeper into further

chaos, which is yet to recover. But Somaliland has since the mid-nineties reasserted

itself as a separate country from the erstwhile military government of Siad Barre.

The other day, I allowed myself a little research on what Somaliland government

looks like.

 

I have since discovered Somaliland is a constitutional multi-party state, comprising

the president, vice-president, and the legislature - parliament. Legislative power

is vested into the House of Representatives and House of Elders (senate). With a

population of 3.5 million people, Somaliland runs competitive politics with three

major political parties. The last vote was taken in 2003 and the next vote is due

July and August of this year.

 

In the last vote, Mr Dahir Riyale Kahin of the Unity, Democracy and Independence

Party won the presidential vote over two competitors. He presides over a 27-man

cabinet. What is most instructive about Somaliland’s form of democracy is its

capability to fuse western-style institutions of government with its own traditional

forms of social and political organization.

 

Its bicameral parliament reflects this fusion of traditional and modern, with the

Senate consisting of traditional elders and the House of Representatives consisting

of elected representatives. But how has Somaliland survived without international

recognition and therefore without “international donor support” most African

countries enjoy?

 

Hard information coming my way reveals that Somaliland, an essentially livestock

economy, is doing very well in its bilateral trade with countries such as Saudi

Arabia. It has managed to make its capital Hargeisa function normally like any other

city of a modern country, with working traffic lights and has put up even two

universities of international standards.

 

Today, according to hard information, Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland is among

the safest towns in Africa. But the irony here is that while there is no government

worth its name in Mogadishu (Somalia) but it is the “government” of the Ethiopian

occupied capital that is recognised by the United Nations, keeping a blind eye on a

Somaliland government that is democratically elected and doing wonders without donor

support except the efforts of the people themselves.

 

So Somaliland is soldiering on with virtually no external help. Whilst Somalilanders

in the diaspora have heavily supported economic development, lack of international

recognition has meant that Somaliland does not qualify for bilateral aid or support

from international financial institutions. But according to observers, this

isolation has not however resulted in isolationism.

 

Lack of access to external aid has forced this country of 3.5 million people to

become more self-reliant than many African states. Along with self-reliance,

Somaliland is succeeding to unite its people above clannish divides, which have seen

its southern flanks in the name of the former Italy-ruled Somalia disintegrate and

disappear as a cohesive state.

 

As I argued in the last perspective, the very reason that Somaliland has managed to

evolve as a sustainable state is an adequate reason to reward it with immediate

international recognition to serve as a spur and catalysts to its southern brethren

now at each other’s throats. The same reasons that may have spurred the United

States and its western allies to offer recognition to the newly born state of Kosovo

cannot be contradictory to what Somaliland deserves today.

 

 

Tanzania Standard Newspaper