Editorial: With Marchal's uncalled expulsion, Somaliland chooses to be a rogue state

[SOO MAAL]

Editorial: With Roland Marchal's uncalled expulsion, Somaliland chooses to be a rogue state

 

 

On 31st August 2005, Somaliland's strong Minister of Interior Mr. Ismail Adan Osman, alias Ismail Yare, ordered his forces to evict Roland Marchal, a reputable French academic and an expert researcher on Somali affairs, from his hotel in Hargeisa and forcefully take him to the airport. In a statement to the local press later the Minister accused the academic of being an anti-Somaliland activist.

 

Mr. Marchal's pleas to allow him to spend the night in the Mansoor Hotel where he had stayed the previous six-days and leave the country with his scheduled flight the following day were ignored by the Minister who according to Mr. Marchal had simply watched from a short distance as he was roughed up, pushed and shoved into the car like a criminal.

 

It is worth mentioning here that Mr. Roland Marchal who obtained his first degrees both in Mathematics and Social Sciences from the University of Strasbourg and the higher from the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHEES/School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences) and University Paris VI, is a Senior Research Fellow Affiliated to National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, and the Editor-In-Chief of the main French academic journal on African politics, Politique Africaine.

 

He has published a number of books on Somalia/Somaliland and dozens of articles and research papers on Africa, war torn societies and the Middle East. And as Mr. Marchal mentioned in a letter he sent to the Somaliland local media, he was a frequent visitor to Somaliland since 1993, sometimes as a guest of the Somaliland government and sometimes as a consultant for various companies and organizations including the World Bank, UNDP, EC and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

However, this familiarity with the country and people couldn't buy him the Minister's sympathy to allow him to stay overnight in Mansoor hotel or to be allowed to spend the night in the custody of Dr. Ahmed Hussein Esa, a friend and former fellow-researcher at the Institute Pasteur in Paris.

 

Mr. Marchal cited in his letter that over the last 27 years he had seen Somali/Somaliland asylum seekers go to his country and knew that none of them had been deported or asked to leave France without legal process. The irony is that the Minister himself was a former asylum seeker in the UK and still clings dearly to his British passport, while he chose to shamefully and illegally kick out Mr. Marchal, a fellow European, who came to Somalialnd legally as a visitor and researcher and was spending his own money in the country.

 

This is not the first time that Somaliland's strong Interior Minister acts in a way that is reminiscent of the notorious NSS forces of the dictatorial military regime of Siyad Barre and the intelligence services of the old communist countries.

 

This is not the first time as well that the Strong Minister displays his dictatorial tendencies and acts outside the precincts of the country's constitution and carelessly tramples on human rights regardless of any consequences of his actions to the reputation and cause of Somaliland.

 

From the cruel and inhuman deportation of hundreds of fellow Ethiopian-Somalis, to the arrest, torture and imprisonment of the teenage girl Zamzam Ahmed Dualeh in 2004, the arbitrary killing of Khadar Adan Osman Dhabbar of the minority Gabooye clan on 13 May 2005 and the collective detaining of the people who came to demand justice for his killing, to the raid of his police force on the headquarters of the main opposition party, Kulmiye, in early April this year and the frequent imprisonment and gagging of media personnel, the Strong Minister of Interior has done more harm than good to Somaliland's international standing and has portrayed his administration as rogue state. It is unfortunate that the Minister turns a blind eye to the hordes of foreign Islamists that come to the country for their annual conferences in Hargeisa at the detriment of Somaliland's cause and reputation and instead chooses to use his power to abuse respected international academics and Somaliland's civil society. One may wonder to what calling the Strong Minister answers.

 

This last episode of manhandling a peaceful foreign academic and expelling him on the grounds o f being anti-Somaliland activist is an insult to the intelligence of the international community and a disservice to Somaliland which is seen by many regional observers as a shinning example of Africa's growing democracies and free speech. This is also a slap in the face to the few goodwill ambassadors of academics, diplomats and pressure groups who relentlessly advocate Somaliland's cause worldwide as well as to the Somaliland people who are eagerly and enthusiastically preparing to go to the polls on September 29 to vote for the country's first elected lower house and the dozens of foreign observers and international press who are expected to arrive in the country.

 

It is time that President Dahir Riyale has to choose between his Strong Minister and the demise of Somaliland as a country governed by the rule of law and a tolerant state where dissent voices can feel free to express their opinions without any fear of harassment or abuse of their human rights.

 

Meanwhile, Awdalnews Network would like to apologize to the respected French academic on behalf of the Somaliland people whose traditional hospitality and cultural values he knows and respects better than the Strong Minister.

 

 

© 2005 Awdalnews Network

[Suldaanka]

^^Mr SOO MAAL welcome back.

 

Wonder what brought you back to life?

 

Care to share?