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This essay argues that recognition of Somaliland enhances the security of the United States, Europe and that of the Horn of Africa. Non-recognition, however, will have disastrous consequences and will renew civil strife and induce terrorism to thrive and spread beyond the Horn of Africa region. The central argument is that as long as Somaliland is denied recognition and its rightful place among peace loving nations of the world community, the Horn of Africa will never see the light of peace. People can not be denied their freedom – A freedom that was restored by a bloody rebellion that brought down the military might of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest armored and mechanized force. In other words, there will never be peace, as long as the E.U and the United States are dwelling in the fiction of preserving a United Somali State. To Somalilanders this fiction of invoking the sanctity of the non-ratified union creates the same uneasy feeling of Germans demanding the return of the Jewish survivors from the holocaust to live in Germany again.

E.U’s Support for Italy’s Imperial hegemony

To achieve peace, justice and stability in the horn of Africa, the E.U must support the recognition of Somaliland and it must stop favoring Italy’s imperial hegemony which is so abhorrent to the will of every Somalilander. Italy, because of its colonial history with Italian Somaliland, has vested interest in preserving Somali Unity. For one, Italy has an economic motivation to spread its cultural and economic influence in the region as Somalia constitutes the only three states besides Libya and Eriteria where Italian is spoken. Also the prevalent culture of corruption, immoral and obscene self-enrichment schemes is an Italian product and legacy of its fascist policies that eliminated native legal (xeer) system which it perceived as a threat to its colonial power[1].

It is obvious that the deteriorating feelings of Somalilanders towards the E.U is accelerated by the E.U’s blindness to the reality – in many respects willful blindness – to the facts of Somaliland’s reclamation of its sovereignty. This can only produce ill will against the E.U and induces the speculation that the E.U like the United Nations wants to prolong the civil strife even though it is clear there is no foundation to this claim. Ironically, however, the United Nations has vested interest in prolonging civil strife[2] by surreptitiously creating a quagmire. The UNISOM intervention, The TNG (Transitional National Government), and lately the TFG (Transitional Federal Government, lead by criminal warlords) are cases in point.

The extraordinary anti-Americanism that developed in Mogadishu now is a product of indoctrination that has been brewing since the beginning of the civil war and husbanded by non other than the leader of the defunct TNG, Mr. Abdiqasim Salad Hassan which was formed in Djibouti by Kofi Annan and company. The first country to extend recognition and support to his brief regime was Sudan who trained his original Islamic courts militia officers. Further more on 3rd February, 2000 Mr Hassan telephoned Mu’amar Al-Qadhafi of Libya and expressed solidarity with him in facing up against US quarrelsomeness and arrogance. He also called for an immediate end to the sanctions imposed on Libya, calling it unjust measures. Mr. Hassan frequently visits Libya, Sudan and Egypt to support the training of ONLF and OLF rebels against Ethiopia whom he holds responsible for collapsing his regime.

Wither away United Nations

The U.N is in the business of misery. If misery is its core business then husbanding misery and pumping the bad news of helplessness and hopelessness is its marketing tool.

The secretary general has an ominous tendency to diminish or deny good news and achievements in Somaliland. As a matter of fact the U.N has funded[3] minority groups against Somaliland’s reclamation of its sovereignty to disrupt the peace and stability achieved in Somaliland. The objectives of such distortions of reality is to create tension and civil strife between Somaliland and Somalia to justify U.N intervention and to keep the bad news of helplessness and hopelessness pumping in order to maintain the U.N bureaucracies relevant in the preservation and promulgation of their core business – the business of misery. The U.N was and still is engaged in undermining the sovereignty of Somaliland and continues to play a partisan role in its dealings with Somaliland. The U.N is in such a precarious position a call for its reorganization and resignation of its Secretary General (Kofi Annan ) is justified.

E.U’s Misguided Focus on Preserving Somali Unity

The continued focus by the E.U to preserve the unity of the failed Somali Republic is a recipe that will open a new chapter in the Somali civil war and would result in a new cycle of endless war. The Europeans ought to heed that it was the SNM (Somali National Movement) who defeated and brought about the disintegration of Siad Barre’s regime and his 65,000 strong military that had the largest armored and mechanized force in sub-Saharan Africa. Henry Kissinger once said, “When problems are easiest to handle, the need to act is usually less obvious; by the time the urgency is clear, the range of options available is much narrower.” Today the issue of recognition of Somaliland is demonstrably straight forward and easy to handle since it unequivocally and clearly meets every requirement under international laws that govern sovereign states including the OAU charter on the inviolability of colonial borders, however, failure to act and comply with the will of the people of Somaliland will have disastrous consequences and will lead to civil war and revenge killing that will put Rwanda’s genocide to shame with no end in sight. This is exactly the kind of disaster the ICG (International Crisis Group) want you to confront and heed.

While there is no inclination to radicalism any suggestion of preserving the failed Somali union will have dangerous consequences. Besides husbanding extremism, it will instantly rekindle memories of the horrors of the late 1980’s which were courageously documented by Robert Gersony of the U.S State Department, Amnesty International and other humanitarian organizations.

To those who advance that Somaliland shall discuss its reclamation of its sovereignty with Somalia it must be clear that such a discussion is moot and non-issue. The only two issues that Somaliland will discuss with a democratically elected government that represents the will of the people of Somalia are: 

1.             The international obligations owed, if there are any that were specifically invested within the borders of Somaliland proper and

2.             Reparations for the destruction of properties and loss of lives by Siad Barre’s regime.

Somaliland stands for “mental and spiritual consolation”

It is high time Europeans realize that the issue of Somaliland’s recognition is an existential issue in which they will shed every drop of blood in their vein to remain sovereign. Their freedom blossomed from the rivers of blood their sons shed and the shameless genocide of its citizens whose bones protrude from the earth every time it rains in Hargeisa or elsewhere in the country.

Every Somalilander knows an immediate relative or a neighbor who died in the struggle to defeat Siadism and the Southern domination. This is a sentiment so deep in the collective psyche of Somalilanders it is best illustrated in the words of a 70 year old mother who lost three of her sons and two grandchildren in the war against Siadism in which she proudly states how Somaliland’s reclamation of its sovereignty gives her, “ A mental and spiritual consolation.”

Somaliland’s achievements are impressive

For far too long Somaliland is being penalized for achieving democratic and economic progress. Somaliland which produced half a million refugees during the late eighties successfully integrated them into society upon repatriation by paving the way with peace,  stability, transparent institutions of governance and civil society backbone with little or no help from the outside world.

Ethiopia duped to engage in a perpetual war

Ethiopia is unwittingly been hoodwinked to engage in a perpetual war with its neighbors, Somalia and Eriteria. Egypt has vested interest to make enemies for Ethiopia and to engage her in a perpetual war in order to diminish Ethiopia’s resources to develop the Blue Nile hydro electric dam. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are now supplying the Wahabbists in Mogadishu with weapons by having Eriteria, as a sovereign state, do the procuring in its name. Egypt and Eriteria have taken a page from Hezbollah’s tactics and are now in the process of training ONLF and OLF turning them into the Hezbollah of the horn of Africa and will soon equip them with Katyusha and anti-tank rockets. The Ethiopian army garrisons in the Somali inhabited region of Ogaden and Oromia will be the primary target of these katyushas eventually taking the war to Addis Ababa effecting Egypt’s objective of turning Ethiopia into a weak state.

Now that the Horn of Africa regional war on the horizon is made clear the United States must understand the clear and present danger this represents for its interest. Somaliland’s recognition is no longer a peripheral issue for the United States. It is a core issue that must be supported and quickly dealt with. The interest of the U.S shall at no time be delineated to the new realist multilateralism with the E.U. Mr. Bush must stay the course with his pragmatism in fighting evil and realize recognition of Somaliland compliments the war on terror and the bigger picture of attaining peace and stability in this troubled horn of Africa region.

The Wahabbists are coming to Somaliland

It is obvious the TFG is failing and no amount of resuscitation would save it, no matter how hard the E.U and the United States try. The freedom hating Wahabbists are about to conquer Puntland soon and they are a sworn enemy of Somaliland for pursuing democracy and adopting a republican constitution as a way forward. It is an illusion and a dangerous one at that for the E.U to think and dream of reconstituting the non-ratified union between Somaliland and Somalia. The E.U, U.S, Kenya and Ethiopia must wake up and smell the smoke of the Wahabbist fire brush spreading in the grasslands of the Horn of Africa.

What has happened to the Stimsonian Gravitas

The United States must revert to Colonel Henry Stimson’s doctrine of unilateral intervention and international sanctions to exert its influence and advance liberty, freedom and democracy (the terrorism antidote). The nascent democracy in Somaliland needs support against those who hate freedom. It is time the United States exert pressure and lobby the African Union to recognize Somaliland before the Wahabbists supported by Egypt and Saudi Arabia come to ruin the peace and stability Somaliland has achieved.

Failure by the U.S to recognize and defend the sovereignty of Somaliland only proves to the world that the Bush Administration is weakened by Iraq and is now impotent and the vision of spreading liberty and freedom through out the Islamic world was just that – humbug and the zenith of hypocrisy. Now is the time Mr. Bush employed the advice of men with gravitas like Robert Kagan, J. Peter Pham and William Kristol to mention a few.

Ethiopia’s Interest is paramount

If a lasting peace is to be achieved in the region then it should be realized that Ethiopia‘s security should also be part and a parcel of the region’s equation. The only way Ethiopia‘s security concerns can be achieved is by recognizing Somaliland’s reclamation of its sovereignty and affirming its right to revert to its original statehood preceding the non-ratified union of July 1st, 1960 between Somaliland and Somalia.

Besides bringing a lasting peace and stability to the region, recognition of Somaliland achieves three things for Ethiopia. 

1. It weakens Ethiopia‘s archenemy by splitting it into two states.

2. It will give Ethiopia access to competing Somali ports including Berbera, Bossaso,  

    Mogadishu and Kismayo. 

3. Ethiopia will feel a lot securer knowing it has access to the competing regional ports of 

    Assab, Mossawa, Jibouti, Berbera, Bossaso, Mogadishu and Kismayo.

To achieve this goal the opportunities afforded to us by the peace, stability and entrepreneurial opportunities in Somaliland must be seized upon. The facts of Somaliland‘s statehood should no longer be denied or delayed but must be supported and recognized today. 

Benefits for Horn Africa region

1. Free Market

The stability enjoyed in Somaliland today enabled many Somalis from Somalia to move to Somaliland and enroll their children both in the local schools and the three universities and a community college which have been established since 1993.

Recognition of Somaliland will encourage its business entrepreneurs and visionary leaders to envisage peace in terms of markets, economic development and an opportunity to eventually form an East African free trade market where the free follow of people and capital is unrestricted. For instance, privately held, Daalo Airlines which was started in Hargeisa after the collapse of Barre regime is already an influential regional transport airline and is enjoying unprecedented growth with flights throughout East Africa, the Arabian gulf, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Europe. Ethiopia itself, on the other hand, has benefited tremendously from utilization of Berbera port both from a security vantage and competitive advantage for the import and export of its products and services. 

2. Military Bases

Somalilanders Perceptions and views on military bases

If a survey was conducted today and Somalilanders were asked, “What benefits a naval base in Berbera can bring to Somaliland?” 99% of respondents will say jobs.  This is because Somalilanders are predisposed to the benefits of military bases. Perceptions, it must be understood, are important, specifically those closely held by the indigenous culture. History attests Somalilanders as world travelers and adventurers. As British subjects they could live and work in any British colony. The British colony of Aden, because of its proximity to Somaliland, was their favorite Eden offering them employment opportunities, business enterprising and a market for their livestock. The sweet memories they have of the Colony of Aden are not forgotten and are still ingrained in their psyche. Old men, who still yield considerable influence in the local affairs, reminisce about their experiences working as laborers, carpenters, pipe fitters and welders making good money from giants like Bechtel and Brown and Root during the construction of the Aden refinery in the 1950’s and later working directly for the refinery. I have met retired pipe fitters who still remember the names of some of the engineers like Bob Davies, a Mechanical Engineer, who helped build the refinery. They also talk about the good wages they earned as cooks, tailors, handy men, drivers etc at the British military base in Aden. This enabled them to purchase a lot of sheep, water wells, cows and some camels back home. In Aden, their children attended St. Joseph’s high, an elite Catholic School and other public schools. That reflection surely cultivates good will and enthusiasm that a U.S military base in Somaliland would spawn employment opportunities and thrust the local economies. What the colony of Aden offered them was experience and exposure to interact and live harmoniously with British expatriates. That experience still lives in Somaliland today.

Conclusion

Somaliland has demonstrated to the world it has reached new heights in practicing democracy and the rule of law. Somaliland’s sovereignty has gone beyond the stage where you can ignore or wish it away. It is time the world realizes that stability in the horn of Africa can only be achieved by recognizing Somaliland’s reclamation of its sovereignty. The ill conceived focus by the E.U and the United States to preserve the non-ratified union between Somaliland and Somalia will perpetuate new civil war in the region. 
It must be clear that Somaliland has spoken and that it has no interest to renegotiate a reunion with Somalia. Somaliland’s sovereignty is irreversible and any attempts to coerce preservation of the failed union will be violent and bloody. Under no circumstances will it surrender its sovereignty. Under no circumstances will it let the very evils it rebelled against visit her again.

Saeed Mohamed Timir

August 17, 2006