By Osman Hassan
Spare a thought for Lascanod. Another anniversary has passed since its occupation without a murmur among its people let alone a shot fired in anger at the occupier. No one talks about its liberation these days but only parroting Professor Galaydh’s sponsored pointless talks with Somaliland that are meant to distract and occupy its natives and the wider Khatumo people. Since he came to office, his mission was not liberation but to foil it by destroying the unity of Khatumo at every level. The result is that the occupier was able to extend the occupation to territories beyond their wildest dreams and enjoy their laurels undisturbed – and, to add insult to injury, even getting services from their supposed victims. What occupation are we talking about when in reality can see right in front of our eyes our people voluntarily succumbing to Somaliland under Galaydh’s leadership? These realities are the backdrop to the so-called talks with Somaliland. Sadly, not everyone can see through Galaydh’s deceptive and defeatist discourse advocating these pointless talks. Anyone who can believe that these treacherous talks will liberate Lascanod can believe anything. On the contrary, they are meant to accelerate Somaliland’s creeping conquest and assimilation of Darwishland.
Lest forgotten,15 October 2007 was the date when the capital of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) regions fell into the hands of the militia hailing from the one-clan secessionist enclave calling itself Somaliland. That gift was like manna from heaven, handed to them thanks to the perfidy of the Puntland forces who were supposed to defend it but felt it was not worth shedding a drop of their blood for it. Most people in Lascanod, and indeed in the rest of the SSC regions, expected Somaliland’s profane presence in their sacred soil to be short-lived.
For a people whose ancestors defied the might of the British Empire for decades and steeped in the Darwish heritage, it was unthinkable to capitulate to a fellow Somali clan whom they historically put them in their place. And not all hope was lost that Puntland, despite its egoistic and duplicitous nature, could still redeem itself and join the battle for the liberation of the city. All together, the prevailing conventional wisdom at the time was that the days of Somaliland’s presence in Lascanod were numbered, perhaps a matter of days; to suggest otherwise would have been considered a bad offensive joke. What they did not reckon with was the unthinkable that their leaders would be their worst enemies that would sacrifice them to their enemies on both sides.
The failures of the hopes and assumptions for the liberation of Lascanod to materialise explain its continued occupation nine years after Somaliland’s militia took control. For this, Somaliland can only thank the failures or treachery of leadership within the SSC regions to unite and mobilise their people against the occupier, and not for any perceived military invincibility on their part. That would be typically falling for their ingrained vainglorious ego. For the record, whenever the SSC people were locally united against the secessionist expansionist invader as in the Buhoodle/Cayn region, they were roundly defeated ignominiously, never to return again.
Where on the other hand people are not united against the occupier as in Lascanod and Sool region, as would happen in the absence of true honest leadership at every level – the President, ministers, the Isimo, etc – the consequences are predictable. Clans fend for themselves. Some rush and collaborate with the invader as a matter of prudence and choice to be at the head of the queue to win favourable treatment at the cost of other clans; and these disadvantaged others follow suit in their turn lest they be left out as losers in the cold; while for others discretion and the reality dictate to succumb to the enemy if Khatumo has no will to liberate them. It is not surprising that after all these years of betrayal, the result is the pervasive disarray now prevailing in the Sool region and creeping to other parts. It is dreams come true for any coloniser wishing to thrive on divide and rule among fractured societies and Somaliland is no exception.
If the SSC people used to be envied for particular qualities in their heyday, now they hold the unenviable unsavoury reputation among Somalis for leaders, ministers, politicians, etc. who ended up as failures, traitors, turncoats, collaborators or simply “Horgolayaal” as they are better known. The history of the SSC struggle against its predatory neighbours is one where its people have been defeated not so much by its enemies as betrayed by its own leaders who deserted them to join their enemies as collaborators. That was the case with the leaders of the administrations established at the Boocame Conferences 1 and 2 in the early 1990s who in no time defected to Hargeisa.
Xagle Toosiye, the leader of the SSC Hogaan Movement, was another turncoat who joined Hargeisa. The biggest bombshell from the SSC perspective were the defection of the two Presidents of Khatumo State, Biindhe and Ahmed Karaash, to Puntland in 2013, and all for a second-rate Puntland ministerial one. At least, these traitors packed their suit cases and left the SSC in peace except for Xagle Toosiye who has been regularly sent to Buhoodle at the behest of his masters to set one clan against another in order to facilitate its capture. But after so many failures, he seems to have given up an impossible mission.
Who would follow them, for the SSC betrayal pathology is now deeply rooted in our society?. All eyes are now on Professor Galaydh who has always been suspect on account of his soft spot for Hargeisa and his past association with the secession. If that was to happen, he would not quit quietly and hit the road to Hargeisa leaving us to pick up the pieces and revive Khatumo. No, that would not happen until his mission to hand the SSC regions, lock and barrel, to Hargeisa is accomplished, a mission already well-advanced bearing in mind that Khatumo only exists on paper and controls nowhere, not even Buhoodle, the last refuge for the vagabonds.
The Professor is following three-pronged initiatives at present that separately and collectively would accelerate the demise of Khatumo and the liberation struggle. The first initiative is aimed at thwarting the recent conference called by the traditional leaders (Isimo) to be held in Buhoodle in mid-November. Their aim is to revive the unity of the people if Khatumo is to be saved and the liberation struggle revived. In this regard, concerted efforts were mobilised to discredit these Isimo as nothing more than a proxy for Puntland whose goal is purportedly to foil Galaydh’s dialogue with Somaliland.
The bogy of Puntland is being cynically exploited as a blunt instrument to the extent that any thing associated with it, even if false, is presented as treason while overtures to Somaliland with far worse existential consequences for the SSC are being orchestrated as statesmanship and in our interest. True, Puntland has spared no effort to consistently damage and exploit the SSC regions for its own selfish benefits. But Puntland, unlike Somaliland, is not occupying the SSC regions and has no boots on the ground. It is also part of Somalia and not as though it has seceded like the one-clan secessionist enclave.
Granted that the Puntland administration is an enemy, but it is also one we can defeat much easier than Somaliland without firing a shot. Those handful of SSC collaborators (Horgolayaal) in its pay in Garawe is what gives oxygen and legitimacy to Puntland’s claim on the SSC regions in the eyes of the international community. It only takes us to withdraw them by any means, including buying them off, to pull the plug from Puntland and demolish at a stroke its bogus claim on the SSC regions. It is as simple as that. It is time therefore we stopped using Puntland as a scapegoat for our own failures.
As such, the slanderous smear campaign against the Isimo is demeaning, divisive and self-defeating. Even if one or two may be pro Puntland, or ill-disposed to Professor Galaydh, not without good reasons, that does not mean they sold out their own people. In reality, most SSC people would rather place their trust in them than Galaydh or some of his notorious cohorts whose treacherous track record as frequent turncoats for our enemies should have barred them from holding any Khatumo office. That they still do only reflects badly on Galaydh’s tarnished credentials.
A second prong of action by Professor Galaydh, which is underway, is to dismantle the unity of Buhoodle by dividing the people along clans and within each clan. This is to achieve two aims: first, to foil the forthcoming Buhoodle conference under the auspices of the Isimo; secondly, to facilitate the town’s capture by Somaliland a la Lascanod once its people are rendered divided. Whether he will succeed where Xagle Toosiye failed is a moot point. But he is more focused and calculating than the wayward Xagle and nothing should be excluded.
The third and most controversial initiative undertaken by the Professor is his offer of unconditional talks with Somaliland, justifying it on dubious clause in the so-called Khatumo constitution he himself largely manufactured. All kinds of half truths and downright lies have been made to ram this pointless talks down the throats of the SSC people. First, the claim is made that the talks would be between two equal parties, namely Khatumo and Somaliland. Secondly, representatives of the international community would be present at these talks. Thirdly, if we do not get our way (whatever that is), we could have lost nothing and simply go back to re-ignite the armed struggle.
The first two claims are not based on facts. When did members of the international community made any such pledges, individually or collectively, to be present at the talks? Not even IGAD, though nothing stops ambassador Mohamed Afey to attend in his personal capacity time permitting. As for the position of Somaliland, it depends which voice or source on chooses. The discordant voices are deliberate so that the enclave could not be pinned down to any position. The often repeated position from various heavyweight speakers is that the SSC regions and people are part and parcel of Somaliland and under its control, barring Buhoodle, and in this regard the equality between the “central government” and some of its regions (SSC) at any meeting does not arise. Some sources went further and said the purpose of the talks is to throw a lifeline to Ali Khalif and his faction marooned in Buhoodle. The Minister for livestock, Mr Cukuse, in a speech in Hargeisa on 18 October referring to the forthcoming talks at Burco did not mince his words. Not a word about Khatumo, never mid equality – just representatives from the eastern regions. This all makes sense from their perspective for why give away ground on equality when the reality is a meeting between the victor and the vanquished, and when they have all the cards in their hands and Khatumo none?
But even if Somaliland accepts Khatumo as an equal party at the conference to sooth its humbling suing for peace, such phoney treatment will change nothing about the outcome of the talks which is a foregone conclusion. The answer will simply be no!! So, why do we have to go through all this rigmarole when we know Somaliland’s fixed position?. We never give up. How often since they occupied Lascanod have the Isimo and every SSC and Khatumo conference called on them to withdraw their militia for the sake of peace and brotherly relations among our peoples and all they did was to repeatedly turn deaf ears and extend the occupation. Unless we are asking for charity, why should we expect a different answer this time when they control most of the territory and people and facing no resistance?
The response of Dr Galaydh’s so-called committee for the talks (“Gudida Wadaxaajood”) is that there is nothing to lose in trying, and in the event of a negative response from Somaliland, our fallback position is to resume the liberation struggle. Resume what liberation struggle? That has been moribund, dead, since Galaydh came to office and is unlikely to be revived while he is around. Moreover, the diaspora who hold the purse strings have long given up on Galaydh and have no wish to pour their money into a bottomless pit with no returns. All that could change given a different credible leader.
Khatumo’s loss from these talks is Somaliland’s gains. Khatumo acceptance of unconditional talks is Somaliland’s first gain which downgrades our principal demand for the withdrawal of Somaliland’s militia which should have been non-negotiable and conditional on the talks. Secondly, Somaliland is playing into the international gallery and presents itself as being reasonable and conciliatory in magnanimously addressing the “grievances” of its “eastern regions”. They will get receptive ears. One should not forget that Puntland and Somaliland’s rival preposterous claims on the SSC regions have designated them as “disputed territory” in the eyes of the international community. That perception persists and can only change when the SSC people have liberated themselves. In the meantime, the international community can only pat Somaliland on the back. In realpolitik, it has no interest to unravel the enclave’s much-vaunted “peace” and “stability” in a turbulent region for the sake of the submissive SSC people who show no signs of resisting to Somaliland’s occupation. So, all this talks from Galaydh and his followers about the International community being present at the talks as if they would act as honest brokers is pure hogwash meant to give false unrealistic hopes to our people. The third gain for Somaliland is that these talks would accelerate the sense of defeatism disarray among our people for the benefit of Somaliland.
The final concluding word is to ring the alarm bells about these pointless talks. The struggle for freedom could only be revived and resumed under another credible leader. Those who still subscribe to the cause for freedom should support the forthcoming Buhoodle conference, or any other with the same objective. But a conference is essential. On the other hand, those who trust Captain Galaydh and his crew, should, prepare themselves for a welcoming landing in Hargeisa. East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet. We part ways.
Osman Hassan
Spokesperson
The Voice of Occupied SSC regions
email: osman.hassan2 @gmail.com
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Osman Hassan is a seasoned journalist and a former UN staff member. Mr Hassan is also a regular contributor to WardheerNews.
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