Ethiopia and Somaliland's unholy alliance against SSC regions

Northern Somali Unionist Movement
(NSUM)

Press Release
2010-05-24

Ethiopia and Somaliland's unholy alliance
against SSC regions

Since the fall of Siyad Barre's government in 1991, Ethiopian invasions, incursions, occupations and massacres in Somalia have become something of a pastime, almost a daily occurrence, to the extent that any new aggression passes away as something of a deja vue, stirring no reaction as much from the foreign-imposed dysfunctional puppet Somali governments as from the international community. Such is the context of Ethiopia's latest unprovoked incursion across the border into the town of Buuhoodle on May 21, visiting death and destruction on defenceless innocent civilians. As usual, wild undisciplined Ethiopian forces indiscriminately fired into unarmed civilians, mostly women and teenagers. Their crime was to protest against the actions of these soldiers who confiscated trade trucks and asked ransom money for their release.

Once again, Ethiopian forces have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Nearly ten civilians were killed, dozens injured and most of the population forced to flee from the town, seeking refuge in the bush where many of them are without shelter or food. These much-detested soldiers consist of Tigrians and some Somali mercenaries that the Ethiopian regime recruited, armed and empowered in its fight against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Their remit is to also terrorise the local population in its occupied Somali region, particularly those suspected of harbouring sympathies towards the liberation movement. This time, the Ethiopians carried their heinous crimes across the border into Somalia proper.

The Ethiopian soldiers were brought to the border area at a time when the one-clan based secessionist enclave calling itself Somaliland is desperately trying to expand its occupation to everywhere in the unionist regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC), parts of which it occupied in October 2007, including the regional capital, Lascanod. Its goal this time is to show the world during its forthcoming election in June that it is in full control of the whole of former British Somaliland and that the elections have been held peacefully everywhere - something it hopes might usher recognition. Unfortunately for them, the people in the SSC regions have been equally determined to ensure that no such bogus elections take place in their regions and that they liberate themselves once and for all from the secessionist's yoke and remain part and parcel of Somalia.

Somaliland has allowed itself to become a virtual Ethiopian satellite, a price it willingly paid as a down payment, expecting Ethiopia to return the favour and grant recognition as a quid pro quo. While withholding such recognition, Ethiopia has been helpful to Somaliland in every other respect. Above all, it has given overt and covert support to Somaliland's occupation of the SSC regions. Presently, Ethiopia and the secessionists are working hand in hand in order to stymie the ongoing mobilisation of the SSC regions to liberate themselves from Somaliland's occupation.

The absence of a Somali government worth it salt since the ousting of Siyad Barre has turned Ethiopia into an imperialist interventionist power. Arrogant powers are prone to miscalculations and over-confidence and Ethiopia is the archetypal. The bloody nose it was given following its misadventure in Buuhoodle should serve it as a salutary lesson to keep away from this area and the struggle with the secessionists. It needs no reminding that the SSC and the Ogaden peoples do not only share territory in the Ogaden but are also bound by close blood ties. It has therefore itself to blame if it forces the SSC people to throw their lot with the ONLF and together face their common enemy. That struggle will be one whose supporters extend from the extreme end of the SSC regions in the Red Sea all the way to the Ogaden and Harar. If that were to happen, it will be the beginning of the end of the Ethiopian empire.

It is high time western governments stopped practicing double standards, condemning the actions of those they demonise like the head of Sudan for his government's actions in Darfuur, while turning a blind eye to, if not condoning, the far more heinous crimes of Meles Zenewi's Ethiopia in the Ogaden and Somalia proper. The International community would be well advised to tell Ethiopia in no uncertain terms that their continued intervention and interference in Somalia's affairs, as they are now doing in the SSC regions, will only deepen the conflict in these regions, radicalise the population, and suck in Al Shabab and other Islamist Jihadists. None of these outcomes is in the long term interest of the West nor Ethiopia itself. As the ones who funded the forthcoming elections, they should also tell Somaliland that occupying the SSC regions and forcing its population to vote is contrary to all the international norms of free and fair elections and the inalienable right of the SSC people to be free and remain part of Somalia.

NSUM Executive Committee
Web: www.n-sum.org
Email:admin@n-sum.org

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Northern Somali Unionist Movement (NSUM) is a grass roots Somali organization whose members and supporters hail from Sool, Sanaag and Cayn regions in the Northern regions of Somalia(formerly British Somaliland) and whose clan in these regions do not identify with the one -clan-driven secession calling themselves” Somaliland”. NSUM stands for the promotion of peace and unity among the long-suffering people of Somalia.

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Northern Somali Unionist Movement (NSUM)