An anomalous Behaviour from Hargeisa

By Eng. Mohamed Ali Mirreh

Jan 23, 2005

In the summer of 2003, a secessionist group, lobbying for the self-declared republic of Somaliland surreptitiously invited some British parliamentarians to visit “ Somaliland ”. The parliamentarians were tenaciously confined in Hargeisa, the capital city, to be fed with a great deal of misinformation, designed to secure a sympathy of the MP:s and then nudge the British Government to recognise a clan-based administration, in northwest of Somalia as a sovereign state. Counting on this and having on their side the old British mercenaries like I. M. Lewis who are obviously on Somaliland's payroll and as well as an ostensible propagandistic material riddled with absurd and falsified historical events, intended to boost the secessionist's spurious claims, a very high profile delegation headed by the president visited London in March 2004.

But, in contrast to the high expectations of the secessionist group and its followers, the visit was eventually doomed to a failure and the delegation had returned empty-handed without even meeting a British Government minister let alone presenting their claim, as naively envisaged by them, in front of the full house of the British parliament.

Following this fruitless outcome of the visit, a prevalent situation of no-recognition-no-cry has been generally reconciled with by many, but unfortunately there has been a minority group in the Somaliland administration who desperately undertakes all options for having “ Somaliland ” recognised even if these options include aberrant approaches vilifying and ridiculing the very people who call themselves “Somalilanders”.

For one thing, marauding militias of the Somaliland administration had started some time ago, to round up Somalis of non-Isaaq origin from Hargeisa. These innocent people who happened to be from the southern part of Somalia and Ogaden regions of Ethiopia and have been residing in Hargeisa for many decades were either thrown in a jail or handed over to the Ethiopian authorities, labelling them as “terrorists” and “foreigners”. This has outraged all Somalis including most of the people in “ Somaliland ”, for Somalis have been intertwined and related to each other from a time immemorial. More so, this is by far an unprecedented event, in the sense that it is perhaps the first time a Somali has ever handed over, an akin to a foreign enemy.

Again, in last August, a 16-year old girl from Bosasso of Puntland region, Zamzam Ahmed Dualeh, arrived for the first time in Hargeisa to spend her vacation with a relative working in the Somaliland administration. A taxi driver had mistakenly dropped her near the house of the vice-president of this so-called Somaliland . The lost and disoriented girl was arrested and charged with bogus criminal acts of being a “foreign spy” and conspiracy to assassinate the Somaliland Vice President. Worse and tant pis, while in solitary detention, the girl had been tortured, allegedly raped by “the police” and denied the right to legal defence. In addition to that a kangaroo court there, recently sentenced her to five years imprisonment.

This inhumane act has generated local and an international outcry, as well as statements from human rights organisations condemning the treatment of this innocent girl. As strange as it may sound, those who committed this horrendous and affronting act and do not care any trifles of good traditional bonds and inter-relationship between Somalis were not punished but, instead praise and bounty were given to them by the Hargeisa authority.

The anomalous behaviour of Somaliland 's clique did not stop there.

Only three months ago and in the holy month of Ramadan , the Somaliland administration ordered a military attack on Puntland region with an excuse of securing the now- defunct colonial borders. This badly calculated military and political blunder was an utter failure. It nearly plunged the region in conflict and brought the people in the regions in the brink of an all-out war.

Furthermore, the attack came deliberately at a time when all Somalis, with the support of the international community were impatiently preoccupied with a historic peace process in Nairobi for the re-establishment of government and restoration of statehood in Somalia .

The catalogue of such ill-timed and ill-intentioned ventures by Hargeisa secessionists can be a long one and may even include the most unthinkable. Hence, it is no wonder that a British historian, well conversant with the Somali history and being baffled by the sheer irrationalities and inventions of these element's claims has recently commented, “ the only thing, remains to be done now, by these guys for gaining an international recognition is to engrave and cut the land of their claim, tug it all the way through the oceans and anchor it somewhere, far away from Somalia then and only then the international community may realise that these people have nothing in common with Somalia ”.

This comment adequately portrays the mind-map of those who are dominating the policies in the above-mentioned administration and if such behaviour continues unabated, the hard-won situation of relative stability and peace in the northwest of Somalia will unavoidably become chaotic and cacophonous. Hopefully, resilience and political courage will be adopted, instead of pretentiously behaving like a de facto state or being intent on secession which is neither viable nor a one of fait accompli .

It is also noteworthy to mention that the speaker of “Somaliland's” parliament, Mr Ahmed Mohamed Aden ”Qaybe”, has recently outlined an exemplary political courage in which he had stated the inevitability of unity of Somalia. Such outspokenness is not tantamount to a “national treason” as one of the “seasoned martyrs” wickedly put it but it is rather a noble reasoning, which is in a very short supply in the thoughts of the Somaliland authority.

Email: mmirreh@hotmail.com

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