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Since Sool is part and parcel of both Puntland and Somalia, Puntlanders, no matter from what area they hail from, or for that matter any other Somali from the rest of Somalia, including our brothers in the North West region, whether secessionists or otherwise, have all the right to be in Sool since it is as much their land as it is our own as Sool people. Only the secessionist political leaders and their SNM - dominated army are forbidden to set foot on Sool so long as they remain traitors to Somalia and its unity. In this regard, if Puntland forces from the East are in Sool, it is because they are there in response to the request of the people of Sool for help in the face of combined forces from allied Northern secessionist clans. But above all they are there in Sool because they are doing their national duty to defend it against the enemies of Somali unity. If any body is occupying some parts of Sool territory, it is the secessionist’s ramshackle SNM army who are presently holed up at Adhe Cadeeye. If they were not stopped there by the gallant forces of Puntland, the secessionist forces would have wrought havoc on people and property in Lasanod, Buuhoodle and on the rest of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn as they had once done to Borama. No one is denying that a minority of the forces defending Lasanod are coming from our partners in Puntland. Those soldiers have voluntarily left their families to sacrifice their life for the defence of Lasanood, Sool and Somali unity - something appreciated by the totality of the people in Sool. To call them occupiers is a travesty of the truth that can only come from rabid secessionist fanatics. If Faysal’s argument and logic were to be applied to Somaliland, then soldiers originally from the Hargeysa region and presently based outside it, say in Burcao or Erigavo, would also be considered occupiers of these towns and their regions. Finger pointing at others is a trademark of the secessionist but to do the same against them is to incur their wrath and calumny. They think it is their God- given right to have one rule for themselves and a different one for the rest of the Somalis. What an arrogance!! If Faysal had any knowledge of history, he would have known that the people of Sool had the rare history among Somali clans to have fought alien occupation of former British Somaliland and hence they are the last people to tolerate any occupation of their land from any source including the secessionists. If Puntland forces from the East were occupying Sool, as Faysal alleges, that would have led to an instant war that would have engulfed the whole region. As it is, not even a single shot has been fired in anger. I am repeating all this factual statements not because it is not already known to normal Somalis but in order to ram it through the thick skull of secessionists like Faysal -not that it will ever sink in. Faysal’s message to the secessionists and their so-called cabinet is that the people of Sool are at last rising against their occupation by alien forces from Puntland and are eagerly looking to Hargeisa for their liberation. Day dreaming? When someone talks like this, as Faysal does, and chooses to close his eyes and mind to the realities on the ground in Sool, he must either be talking to a bunch of kindergarten children who love to hear fairy tales, or else he must have gone out of his mind, in which case he should urgently consult a psychiatrist to examine his head. For any one familiar with the fantasies entertained by the secessionists and their mentors, Faysal’s infantile remarks are not an isolated trivia from a lone secessionist whose mind has been befuddled by blinding insidious hate for our cousins in Puntland. Sadly, it reflects a wider self-deluding xenophobia and siege mentality which is endemic among his folk in his secessionist heartland and outside. It is also true that the people of Sool have been on occasions unhappy with certain aspects of the actions or inactions of Cadde Musa, the President of Puntland. . But this is no more than other regions in Puntland or elsewhere where people have sometimes griped about the inadequacies of their leaders’ policies and actions. Indeed, if the numerous complaints disseminated by angry writers in Somali websites are any guide, there is more disenchantment with Somaliland leaders and politicians whether at the regional or individual level than there exist among the Sool people towards Garawe. Whatever grievances might arise, Puntland has the institutional mechanisms to deal with it and often are solved. The same cannot be said for the secessionist enclave. From the presidencies of Abdirahmaan Tuur to Egal to Riyale, there has been endless regional or clan dissatisfaction on the allocation of power and resources which had at one time led to civil war. Erigavo and Burco (forget about Sool, Sanaag and Cayn), have been neglected by successive governments of Somaliland and treated no more than outposts that are useful to the extent they contribute to the treasury. It is now part of the accepted conventional wisdom among the ruling mafia in Hargeisa that those who are out of sight like Erigavo are out of mind when Somaliland’s puny national cake is shared among Riyale’s pack with hardly any crumbs left for distant forgotten places in Togdheer and Western Sanaag. Since the secessionist had miserably failed in their misguided assault on Lascannod, their strategy has changed. As Faysal is now advocating, the strategic shift is towards driving a wedge between Sool and its partners in Puntland. This strategy has been going on for some while now. You only have to serve the Somali websites and see the number of articles agitating the Sool people to break with their follow partners in Puntland, or, as Faysal would put it, to rise against their detested occupiers. Needless to say, they are barking on the wrong tree and this strategy is as certain to fail as the military one. The unbreakable blood ties between the people of Puntland is too deep to be shaken by any conspiracies cooked up by the secessionist clique.
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