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The Somali National Movement, the armed front that spearheaded the struggle in the north against the military dictatorship of Siyad Barre, is once again the topic of discussion. The Awdal News editorial on the issue of facing SNM's role in heart rending atrocities that we currently assume to have been solely from the oppressive forces that toppled military dictaroship triggered a timely debate. The editorial has been distinctive in its treatment of the SNM and its role in the declaration of Somaliland a separate state that is no longer in union with the rest of Somalia, and the rationale behind the formation of SNM. Why is the SNM again moot point more than eight years after the late Somaliland president Mohamed Ibrahin Egal demobilised the SNM fighters and persuaded their leaders to play a new role in Somaliland without a romantic attachment to the rebel days. The late president ha faced antagonism for his pragmatic approach to instilling civil society values in battle hardened SNM fighters. Few People debate moral basis for SNM resistance but what most people agree on is the fact that SNM forces committed atrocities that the triumphant SNM whitewashed after assuming power in what was known in the North West region of Somalia. Egal's genius lay in his early recognition of the over-rated saintliness of the SNM and the SNM leaders' lack of spine to face up to actions of their fighters and their future role in a liberated Somaliland. The late president did a service for the SNM but its leaders have never acknowledged it. Their starting point was tribal; his was national. As a politician he knew that political projects depend on coalitions of people from different parties or social groups. What the late president did was to start of process of genuine reconciliation that the subsequent leaders would refine and expand. Under massive pressure to pander to people's selective reading of our recent turbulent history, the late president gave Awil Elmi Abdalla, former mayor of Hargeisa, the green-light to “put up the hulk of a soviet-manufactured MiG-17 that… participated in bomb-and-strafe missions against civilians in the same city whose runways it took off from.” The late president also led the campaign to exhume graves of people who—we had been told—were the victims of a sate genocide. It is so far a mystery how the late president managed he emotions of people who might have vented their anger at non-Isaaq members of the Somaliland government whose clans are wrongly associated with evil deeds of a dictatorship regime. A recent article in which Ahmed Arwo, a prominent Somalilander in Cardiff, gave perspective into assiduous beginning of the SNM but lamented the fate of SNM “people” whom, he thinks, have been pitted against one another! One has not to look for further evidence to determine how clannish SNM was in theory and practice. Another well written piece in reaction to Awdal News editorial appeared in Soomaliland.org website. Entitled Who forgave Who? Samad Sheikh writes in response to the editorial's suggestion to set a Truth and Reconciliation Committee in Somaliland: “… the mission of the Committee would not be what you might think. The mission of the Committee would be to determine if the SNM needs to be forgiven by the Faqash!!!” It is not clear whom Samad Sheikh regards as the Faqash but if one tries to have a modest go at trying to figure out who the Faqash is, it turns out to be the soldiers and bureaucrats of the former regime who are no longer in power in Somaliland. Samad goes on to pose a shamelessly provocative question: “Can you imagine the subordinates of Hitler miraculously coming back to power in Germany in 1950 and asking their victims 'who should forgive who'?!!” The urge to compare the victims of despicable dictator with the intention to turn his people into unquestioning sheep and victims of personification of evil- Hitler- is frantic search for a place in the hall of exaggerated victimhood. For many years the SNM's chapter in atrocities in our land has been ignored by top human rights people like Raqiya Omaar. The 1992 intra SNM fighting in Somaliland is enough to warrant a disinterred investigation into human rights violations of the organisation, let alone the 1980s actions of the front when so many of its armed members committed crimes against people who were not members of the dictator's army. The task ahead of the past SNM leaders is to complete the reaming chapter of reconciliation in a spirit devoid of victimhood and popular cowardice. Putting people on an emotional roller coaster on past issues should be the last thing they opt for doing. Ahmed Keyse Ali
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